ARTJ 301 CHP: Manga, Anime, and the Margins of Culture,
Prof. Lindsey Stirek
75868 | Tuesday, Thursday | 11:00 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. | 212 Honors House | 3 Hours
Course Description: This course offers an immersive exploration of manga (Japanese comics) and anime, delving into their significance within both Japanese and global contexts. Throughout this class, you will trace the evolution of these art forms and examine their relationship with Japan’s cultural heritage, while also observing their departures from traditional norms and how they represent the concept of “Otherness.” By collaborating with fellow classmates to collectively craft your own manga magazine, you will delve into the fundamental aspects of manga as an artistic medium and experience how manga and anime mutually influence and are influenced by individual and societal perceptions. This course will not only introduce you to the captivating realms of manga and anime but also prompt thoughtful exploration of their cultural, societal, and artistic dimensions and their profound impact on the broader global landscape.
This course has campus approval for General Education credit for Non-Western Cultures and for Literature and the Arts.
Instructor: Lindsey Stirek is Teaching Assistant Professor in the School of Art and Design and is the Visiting Assistant Director of Academic Programming at Japan House. She began studying chadō (the Way of Tea) in 2009 and has spent several years in Japan studying Japanese language and culture. She teaches courses on manga, anime, and Japanese tea ceremony and is currently focusing her research on the convergence of traditional Japanese arts and contemporary and localized modalities ranging from performance to media to three-dimensional art. Professor Stirek received her B.A. in East Asian Languages and Culture from the University of Illinois and her M.A. and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.
ASTR 350 CHP: The Big Bang, Black Holes, and the End of the Universe,
Prof. Brian Fields
48250 | Monday, Wednesday, Friday | 10:00 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. | 134 Astronomy Bldg | 3 Hours
Course Description: Cosmology is science on the grandest of scales. It is one of the hottest areas of research today, weaving together a wide range of disciplines, including observational astronomy, astrophysics, relativity, and the physics of elementary particles, and quantum gravity. We will study the origin, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe, and the scientific tools used to study these issues. Topics include aspects of special and general relativity; curved spacetime; the Big Bang; inflation; primordial element synthesis; the cosmic microwave background; dark matter and the formation of galaxies; observational evidence for dark matter, dark energy, and black holes–including supermassive black holes that lurk at the hearts of most galaxies including our own. Credit is not given for ASTR 350 if credit in ASTR 406 has been earned.
This course has been approved for General Education credit for Physical Science.
Instructor: Brian Fields is a Professor of Astronomy and of Physics at the University of Illinois, and a member of the Illinois Center for the Advanced Study of the Universe. He is fascinated by the “inner space/outer space” connections that link the science at the smallest and largest scales. His research studies the highest-energy sites in nature–the big bang, exploding stars (supernovae), and high-energy particles in space (cosmic rays)–where nuclear physics and elementary particle physics play a central role. Professor Fields enjoys using the universe as the “poor person’s accelerator” to probe high-energy physics that is far beyond the reach of terrestrial experiments.
BADM 199 CHP: The Good Life Lab: Practicing Wellbeing Through Coaching,
Prof. Elizabeth Luckman
54976 | Tuesday, Thursday | 9:30 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. | 212 Honors | 3 Hours
Course Description: What makes a life well-lived? In this interactive seminar, students will learn and practice foundational coaching skills by supporting each other in the knowledge and development of well-being and human flourishing. Drawing on research from positive psychology, neuroscience, and behavior change, students will engage in structured peer coaching conversations designed to enhance self-awareness, clarify values, and support intentional growth. Through reflection, practice, and conversation, students not only will develop tools to support others—they’ll also take meaningful steps toward designing a more fulfilling, purpose-driven life of their own.
This course has been approved for General Education credit for Behavioral Science.
Instructor: Professor Luckman’s teaching model combines a dynamic classroom with mentorship. In addition to content mastery, she emphasizes broader themes: problem-solving for complexity, continuous learning and improvement, how ethical, adaptive leaders cultivate higher performing organizations, the vital roles of communication and social interaction, and the paramount goal of creating value for stakeholders, especially the end customer. She is specifically interested in leadership, ethics, negotiation, management, organizational development and change.
Her significant experience with a major corporation, including five years in management, adds valuable insight to her teaching. Her experience leading teams that successfully battled to achieve demanding performance objectives amplifies her ability to prepare students to lead with impact.
CHP 395A: U of I History,
Prof. Matt Ehrlich
31307 | Monday, Wednesday | 3:00 p.m. – 4:20 p.m. | 212 Honors House | 3 Hours
Course Description: This course invites students to reflect on their own undergraduate experiences and on higher education generally by surveying key historical moments and trends at the University of Illinois. The class examines the competing and complementary roles of teaching, research, and service; debates over diversity, free speech, and intercollegiate athletics; and questions of higher education being a public or private good. Students should emerge from the course with a better understanding of the history and responsibilities of higher education as well as a better understanding of how their personal experiences connect to the broader history of the university and the state.
This course has been approved for General Education credit for Historical and Philosophical Perspectives and for Social Science.
Instructor: Matthew Ehrlich is Professor Emeritus of Journalism and the Institute of Communications Research. He has won the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and has appeared on the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students more than 40 different semesters. Professor Ehrlich has written six books, two of which focus on U of I history (Dangerous Ideas on Campus and The Krebiozen Hoax). Before becoming a professor, he worked for several years as a public radio journalist, including at Illinois Public Media.
CHP 395C: Gender Communication,
Prof. Grace Giorgio
31308 | Tuesday, Thursday | 12:30 – 1:50 p.m. | 1064 Lincoln Hall | 3 Hours
Course Description: This course investigates how gender and sexuality are communicated. Language – our statements as well as our demeanors – both explains and defines us. It sends covert as well as overt messages about us and our culture. In a complicated and not generally symmetrical fashion, our gender and sexuality inform our language and our language informs our gender and sexuality. This course focuses on the ways in which we discuss and enact – verbally and physically – gender and sexuality. This course interrogates social and cultural notions of gender and sexuality and examines the way in which language serves to both reinforce and challenge these notions.
Students will have the opportunity to develop a fundamental understanding of how gender and language interface in contemporary social and political contexts; analyze and critique how gendered language shapes individual subjectivity in social, cultural, and political spheres; increase skillfulness in analysis, theory, and praxis; and apply qualitative research methods to the study of gendered communication.
This course has been approved for General Education credit for Social Science.
Instructor: Grace Giorgio has been teaching in the Department of Communication since she arrived on campus as a graduate student in 1995. In 2001, she began teaching full-time for the University of Illinois, developing and teaching courses in popular media, gender communication, public policy and sustainability, and the geography of culture. In Fall 2012, Professor Giorgio began teaching for the CHP, launching a course on place-making entitled Communicating Public Policy: Our Cities/Ourselves (CMN 220). Professor Giorgio’s research, writing and teaching examine communication practices in interpersonal and public domains with the intention of bridging the personal and the political. She studies the experimental use of qualitative research methods to investigate the intersection of self, culture and the public sphere. Dr. Giorgio’s research interests branch into two directions: using writing as a method of inquiry to creatively and critically explore the cultural expectations and tensions in interpersonal and family communication contexts as well as writing, public speaking and debate as modes of civic engagement.
CLCV 220 CHP: Nightmares of Nero,
Prof. Brian Walters
63846 | Tuesday, Thursday | 11:00 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. | 301 Architecture Bldg | 3 Hours
Course Description: Few Roman emperors have been so constantly reviled in history and popular culture as Nero. Ancient sources depict him as a larger-than-life monster, a tyrant, a megalomaniac, an arsonist, a murderer. Early Christians demonized him as their greatest persecutor. Apocalyptic prophecies identified him with the Antichrist.
Setting its sights on the various myths and exaggerations that have come down to us about Nero, this course explores what we can know of the infamous emperor and the age that bears his name. What accounts for Nero’s negative reputation in our histories? How much of what survives is simply rival propaganda? What was life for people living in Neronian Rome like? How can we know any of this at all? And what can the answers to these questions help us to understand about our own lives and the present world? This course will provide students with the opportunity to explore these and other questions while engaging with an array of exciting ancient sources. Emphasis is placed on developing familiarity with the social, political, and intellectual life of Rome in the first century CE and on cementing analytic skills that have application well beyond the boundaries of this course.
This course has campus approval for General Education credit for Western/Comparative Cultures and for Literature and the Arts.
Instructor: Brian Walters has been an Assistant Professor of the Classics and Translation Studies at Illinois since 2013. He specializes in Latin literature of the late Republican period, especially Cicero, and the translation of Roman poetry. His recent book, The Deaths of the Republic: Imagery of the Body Politic in Ciceronian Rome (Oxford, 2020), examined depictions of the state as a body in republican political discourse of the first century BCE, exploring their resonances and the ways they were implicated in the politics of the period. He has also written on Ciceronian oratory and authorship, Latin metaphor (especially disintegration and disease), and poetics, and has translated Lucan’s Civil War (Hackett, 2015) and a variety of other poetic works (see, e.g. Arion 25.1 and 25.3) for publication. Professor Walters is currently working on a book on Cicero’s poetry and trying to complete translations of Virgil’s Georgics and Lucretius’ The Nature of Things. When not teaching Latin, he frequently offers courses on Neronian Life and Literature, Roman Civilization, and Roman Material Culture.
CLCV 231 CHP: Development of Ancient Cities,
Prof. Brett Kaufman
73596 | Tuesday, Thursday | 3:30 – 4:50 p.m. (POT-A) | 212 Honors | 3 Hours
Note: this course meets only during the first eight weeks of the Spring semester (POT-A).
Course Description: Explore the monuments, archaeological remains, and histories illustrating the development of the earliest states and urban centers of the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East, including Uruk, Jerusalem, Carthage, Athens, and Rome. The class moves from the birth of the earliest agriculture, villages, and cities, and eventually the very concept of “the state” in Mesopotamia and tracks these as they spread westward and beyond to Greece and Rome.
This course has campus approval for General Education credit for Historical and Philosophical Perspectives and for Western/Comparative Cultures.
Instructor: Brett Kaufman is Associate Professor in the Department of the Classics and joined the faculty in 2018. He is an archaeologist specializing in the Mediterranean and Near East, ancient engineering and design, the formation and maintenance of sociopolitical hierarchy, and reconstructing ecological management strategies of ancient and historical societies. He has directed or supervised archaeological excavations in Tunisia, China, Italy, Israel, and New York. He received a B.A. from Brandeis University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining the Classics department, Professor Kaufman held a postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University and a faculty appointment at the University of Science and Technology Beijing, where he still maintains a visiting affiliation. His research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
CMN 199 CHP: Civic Discourse and Democracy,
Prof. Emily van Duyn
CRN 52205 | Tuesday, Thursday | 2:00 – 3:20 p.m. | 4051 Lincoln Hall | 3 Hours
Course Description: Americans today live in a time of great political and social polarization, making dialogue across lines of difference both unlikely and difficult. Drawing on research and commentary from a variety of disciplines, this class investigates the idea and practice of ‘civic discourse.’ We will explore and question the mechanisms behind what makes discussion across lines of difference so challenging, what makes it productive, and the potential for this type of discourse to alleviate political divides.
This course has been approved for General Education credit for Historical and Philosophical Perspectives and for Social Science.
Instructor: Emily Van Duyn is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Before coming to Illinois, Van Duyn earned her PhD in Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University with the Program on Democracy and the Internet.
Professor Van Duyn’s research explores why people talk (or do not talk) about politics and the role of digital media in facilitating a space for community and political discourse. She tackles these questions using diverse methodologies, including surveys, experiments, interviews, and ethnography. Her recent book with Oxford University Press, Democracy Lives in Darkness: How and Why People Keep Their Politics a Secret, focuses on the reasons why individuals do not express their political opinions in public and how they express those opinions and organize in secret. Across several years, she follows a secret group of progressives in rural Texas who, out of fear of their conservative community, meet in secret to talk about politics and take political action. Her work is concerned with the effects of social, geographic, and political polarization and how these phenomena threaten liberal democratic norms.
EPSY 199 CHP: How to Live a Good Life,
Prof. Christopher Napolitano
46232 | Tuesday, Thursday | 12:30 p.m. – 1:50 p.m. | 212 Honors | 3 Hours
Course Description: In this class, students will explore one of life’s most ancient and pressing questions: How should we live? The course will navigate this question through a dialogue between two ways of knowing: psychological research and timeless literature. Psychology offers the science of the good life through empirical frameworks for understanding resilience, motivation, and well-being. Literature provides the “case studies” of the human heart, exploring the complex, lived reality of searching for meaning.
The course is structured as a journey from self-understanding to practical application and, finally, to broader wisdom. Students will encounter the highly influential work on Self-Determination Theory, the idea that all human action, and thus our purpose, is motivated by attempts to fulfill three basic needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Just when students start feeling comfortable perfectly mapping their own goals and stories to this (extremely well supported) framework, we will introduce Dillard’s classic “Living Like Weasels” essay, which takes a very different, visceral, immediate approach to finding meaning and purpose in life. Throughout the semester, students will navigate these tensions, linking their own experiences to the scholarly and literary texts.
This course has been approved for General Education credit for Behavioral Science.
Instructor: Chris Napolitano is Associate Professor and Developmental Sciences Division Chair in Educational Psychology (Developmental and Counseling divisions) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also Research Assistant Professor at the University of Zurich in the Developmental Psychology: Adulthood lab. Professor Napolitano is a life-span developmental psychologist. His primary research interest is in the development of adaptive self-regulatory action across the life span, and how to best translate this research into programs that promote positive development. His work explores how people produce their development through striving for dynamic, unpredictable goals, and is now particularly focused on self-regulatory actions that maximize gains from unexpected, positive events and the actions that often minimize losses from expected shortcomings. He was trained at Tufts University’s Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development. At Tufts, he worked on the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development and Project GPS, a mentoring-based intervention to promote adolescent self-regulation.
FAA 110 CHP: Exploring Arts and Creativity,
Profs. Bradley Mehrtens and J. W. Morrissette
69421 | Thursday | 1:30-2:50 p.m. | 113 Davenport | 3 Hours
Course Description: High and street art, tradition and experimentation, the familiar and unfamiliar, and international and American creativity provide this course’s foundation. Students will attend performances and exhibitions, interact with artists, and examine core issues associated with the creative process in our increasingly complex global society. Faculty from the arts, sciences, humanities, and other domains will lead students through visual arts, music, dance, and theatre experiences at Krannert Center, Krannert Art Museum and other locations to spark investigation and dialogue.
This course has campus approval for General Education credit for Literature and the Arts.
Instructor: J.W. Morrissette is currently Associate Head of the Department of Theatre and has served in that Department for 21 years. He has been Chair of the BFA Theatre Studies Program, as well as the assistant program coordinator for Inner Voices Social Issues Theatre. He earned his BFA in Acting at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, and both his MFA in Acting and MA in Theatre History at the University of Illinois. Professor Morrissette has taught and directed for the past 17 years with the summer Theatre Department at Interlochen Center for the Arts, has directed and taught at Parkland College, and teaches acting, directing, and Introduction to Theatre Arts at Illinois. He has been integral in developing components for the online course offerings in the department, as well as supervising all senior Theatre Studies Thesis Projects.
Instructor: Brad Mehrtens is an instructor and advisor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. Brad earned his B.A. in Biology from Truman State University and his M.S. in Microbiology from the University of Illinois. His research interests include educational pedagogy, course design and assessment. His advising interests include transitions for first year and transfer students, preparing for professional or graduate programs, understanding the undergraduate research experience, and acknowledging and addressing academic or personal issues. In his spare time, Brad enjoys acting, theatre, movies, music, and sports.
GWS 199 CHP: Complicity and Resistance
in Apartheid-Era South African Universities,
Prof. Teresa Barnes
34977 | Tuesday, Thursday | 1:00 – 2:20 p.m. | 135 English Building | 3 Hours
Course Description: Apartheid did not spring fully formed from the minds of the leaders of the Nationalist Party who won a surprise victory in the 1948 whites-only election in South Africa. With a general view of and commitment to a white supremacist society, the Nationalists set about to transform the educational opportunities offered to white and black students. This course will look critically at the changes and continuities that developed in South African higher education over the next 50 years. While all institutions either enthusiastically embraced or reluctantly bowed to the government’s will after the passage of overtly racist legislation in 1959, there were clear pockets of both complicity and resistance in the universities. We will look at the separate institutions, and the staff, students and faculty, male and female, who stood out either for their support for apartheid or their resistance to it.
The overall aim of this course is for students to gain familiarity with the currents of historical developments in South Africa in the second half of the 20th century, focusing less on political events, and more on the ramifications of those events on educational structures and opportunities – which impacted every South African community.
This course has been approved for General Education credit for Historical and Philosophical Perspectives and for Non-Western Cultures.
Instructor: Prof. Teresa Barnes holds a joint appointment at UIUC in Gender & Women’s Studies, and History. She has been on the UIUC faculty since 2008. She spent the better part of 25 years living, going to grad school and teaching in Zimbabwe and South Africa before coming to Illinois. She has published books and journal articles on women’s urban history in Zimbabwe, and on political and higher education history in South Africa. Her current research projects are in African-American history, specifically experiences of marginalized people in what used to be called “lunatic asylums” in the middle of the 20th century.
IS 390 CHP: All in the Gutter: Race, Gender, Sexuality in Comics,
Prof. Carol Tilley
72304 | Tuesday, Thursday | 2:00 – 3:20 p.m. | 212 Honors House | 3 Hours
Course Description: This course is a critical, historical, and scholarly exploration of US comics’ engagement with race, gender, and sexuality. Reading comics from a range of genres and formats from the past 150 years, we will consider 1) how comics have affirmed and challenged social and cultural norms, 2) changing visual, textual, authorial, and publishing conventions for comics engaging with race, gender, and sexuality, and 3) the ways visual culture problematizes the representation and circulation of complex identities. Through reading, lecture, discussion, and written/creative activities, we will investigate the unique ways in which comics help us understand who we are individually and collectively.
This course has been approved for General Education credit for Historical and Philosophical Perspectives and for U.S. Minority Cultures.
Instructor: Carol Tilley is Associate Professor in the School of Information Sciences. She is also an affiliate faculty member in Gender and Women’s Studies and the Center for Writing Studies. Professor Tilley’s research focuses on U.S. comics, libraries, and readership in the mid-20th century. She has been a judge for two important comics awards, the Eisner and the Ringo Awards, and served as President of the Comics Studies Society. A long time ago, she was a student in the Honors program at Indiana University. Professor Tilley received her B.A. in English in 1992, her M.L.S. in 1993, and her Ph.D. in Information Science in 2007 from Indiana University.
LING 199 CH2: Hittite Language and Culture,
Prof. Ryan Shosted
52895 | Monday, Wednesday, Friday | 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. | 321 Gregory | 3 Hours
Course Description: In this course, students will explore the grammatical structure of the oldest‐attested Indo‐European language. They will use clay and reeds to master the art of composing texts in cuneiform, one of the world’s oldest writing systems. They will read and comment on primary texts relating to the decipherment of the language, as well as cuneiform ‘autographs’ of Hittite inscriptions. They will investigate how nineteenth‐century orientalists with a thirst for empire used the re‐discovery of Hittite to promote themes of racial supremacy. They will observe how the earliest predictions of modern linguistics were borne out once Hittite was deciphered and fully understood. They will reflect on the truly ancient nature of multilingualism and multiculturalism by better understanding how Mesopotamian cultures strongly influenced the language, religion, and culture of the Hittite world.
This course has been approved for General Education credit for Social Science and for Non-Western Cultures.
Instructor: Ryan Shosted studied Czech language and literature at the College of Wooster and Beloit College before transferring to Brigham Young University and graduating in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in Linguistics. He was a Student Fulbright Fellow at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique, where he studied Changana. Professor Shosted then began his post-doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007. He was a Visiting Professor at the State University of Campinas, Brazil in 2015 and was promoted to the rank of Professor at Illinois in 2020. Professor Shosted is interested in phonetics, phonology, and the development of sound-symbol correspondences, particularly in cuneiform.
PSYCH 144 CHP: Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination,
Prof. Chadly Stern
70435 | Monday, Wednesday, Friday | 9:00 – 9:50 a.m. | 11 Psychology Bldg | 3 Hours
Course Description: This course will introduce students to the basics of utilizing behavioral science methods, and how those methods can be applied to understand factors that shape societal inequality.
Throughout this course, students will have opportunities to experience the inner workings of the behavioral science research process through gaining information about UIUC behavioral science laboratories, discussing measures of stereotyping and bias employed in the behavioral sciences, and proposing how behavioral science can be used to address questions related to inequality.
A particular focus will be on research methods that span multiple areas of inquiry in the behavioral sciences (e.g., social psychology, organizational behavior). Additionally, students will learn how to read, analyze, and critique behavioral science research, as well as how to convey their ideas in written and oral formats and provide critical feedback on others’ ideas. In doing so, students will build critical thinking skills and gain competence in communicating their ideas to others.
Campus has granted General Education credit for this course for Behavioral Science and for U.S. Minority Cultures.
Instructor: Chadly Stern is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology. Professor Stern’s research broadly examines how belief systems and motivations guide the way that people perceive and interact with the world. One central line of work concerns how political belief systems (e.g., whether a person is liberal or conservative) shape the way in which people evaluate and categorize others based on group membership (e.g., race, sex, and sexual orientation). Another line of work examines consensus in political groups, and the implications of both perceived and actual attitude consensus for individual behavior (e.g., voting) and large-scale societal outcomes (e.g., levels of societal stability).
PSYCH 296 CHP: Stress Management and Resilience,
Prof. Sepideh Sadaghiani
78070 | Tuesday, Thursday | 3:30 – 4:50 PM | 142 Psychology | 3 Hours
Course Description: This course provides students with both theoretical foundations and practical applications of self-knowledge and self-awareness. Students will explore multiple dimensions of self-knowledge—including physical, social, psychological, and spiritual perspectives—through an integration of scholarly study and experiential practice.
Each week, one class session will focus on didactic learning, introducing key psychological theories, research, and principles. The other session will center on guided experiential practices, including mind relaxation, deep breathing, slow meditative movements, visualization, and heart concentration. Together, these approaches support both intellectual understanding and personal development, with an emphasis on building resilience, cultivating awareness, and fostering holistic growth.
This course has been approved for General Education credit for Behavioral Science.
Instructor: Sepideh Sadaghiani is Associate Professor of Psychology (Cognitive Neuroscience program area) and Bioengineering, and faculty of the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She directs the CONNECTlab at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology where she is full-time faculty. Professor Sadaghiani received a Ph.D. in Neural and Behavioral Sciences from the Max Planck Graduate School and postdoctoral training at Berkeley and Stanford. She investigates the role of neural connectivity and spontaneous brain activity in cognitive control and behavior through a multi-modal lens. Professor Sadaghiani serves as handling editor at Imaging Neuroscience (formerly NeuroImage) and Network Neuroscience. She has been recognized as National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Awardee, Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors (LEAP) Scholar and Helen Corley Petit Scholar. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and the NSF.
SOCW 240 CHP: Death and Dying,
Prof. Flavia Andrade
78034 | Monday, Wednesday | 2:00- 3:15 p.m.| 212 DKH | 3 Hours
Course Description: This course examines various aspects of death and dying. Course content includes types of death, the impact of death throughout the lifespan, cultural beliefs and practices regarding death and dying, grief and loss, legal and ethical issues related to death, and the role of professionals at the end of life.
Campus has granted General Education credit for this course for Social Science.
Instructor: Flavia Andrade is Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois, where she has been teaching the popular Death and Dying course since 2019. A Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, she studies how demographic and social changes shape health and aging across the Americas, with a particular focus on Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. Originally from Brazil, Dr. Andrade earned degrees in Economics and Demography before completing a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has published over 100 articles and book chapters on health and aging. In her teaching, she invites students to think critically—and personally—about mortality, loss, and resilience, encouraging in-depth conversations that connect research to real-life experiences.
THEA 110 CHP: Broadway Musicals,
Prof. J.W. Morrissette
74646 | Tuesday, Thursday | 3:00 – 4:20 p.m. | 3601 KCPA | 3 Hours
Course Description: In this course, students will learn about a cultural context of the uniquely “American” Broadway musical through an introduction to the art form, an analysis of the pertinent time period, and historical and critical placement of the work as a reflection (and development) of the identity of the United States. This course will introduce the collaborative artistry of the musical, survey specific iconic works, and explore the socio-economic impacts of the Broadway musical.
Campus has granted General Education credit for this course for Western/Comparative Cultures and for Literature and the Arts.
Instructor: J.W. Morrissette is currently Associate Head of the Department of Theatre and has served in the Department of Theatre for 21 years. He has also served as the chair of the BFA Theatre Studies Program as well as the assistant program coordinator for Inner Voices Social Issues Theatre. He earned his BFA in Acting at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, and both his MFA in Acting and MA in Theatre History at the University of Illinois. Professor Morrissette has taught and directed for the past 17 years with the summer Theatre Department at Interlochen Center for the Arts, has directed and taught at Parkland College, and teaches acting, directing, and Introduction to Theatre Arts at Illinois. He has been integral in developing components for the online course offerings in the department, as well as supervising all senior Theatre Studies Thesis Projects.