Courses

Section A: TR 8:40-9:55 a.m., Professor Samuel Graber
Section B: TR 1:45-3:00 p.m., Professor Samuel Graber
Fulfills humanities: fine arts general education requirement.

What is representation, and how do words and images communicate?
What makes a representation “true”?
Can words claim legitimacy that images may not, or vice-versa?
What do makers of representations owe their viewers/readers?

Word and Image introduces students to problems and questions associated with the nature, form, and circulation of images from Plato to the present. The course is divided into four sections. The first questions the ability of images and text to convey truth and justice, with a special focus on what we call “documentary” images. The second considers historical and contemporary problems in the representation of the sacred and the use of images and objects in worship and devotion. The third section explores the rise of modern ways of subjective seeing and representing, with a particular emphasis on the traveler. Finally, we will turn our attention to comics and film, considering contemporary representation in light of course questions about truth-telling and subjectivity.

Section A: TR 8:40-9:55 a.m., Professor Thomas Albert Howard
Section B: TR 10:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Professor Thomas Albert Howard
Fulfills REL 100 general education requirement.

This course introduces students to central developments in the history of Christianity and to diverse forms of Christianity today. It also explores the nature and purpose of Christian theology and encourages students to reflect more deeply on their own religious convictions and questions. The course focuses on the close reading and discussion of primary texts in the Christian intellectual and spiritual tradition. Readings include selections from the Bible and the writings of various classical theologians, such as St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as contemporary theologians from a variety of Christian traditions and perspectives.

MWF 11:50 a.m.-12:40 p.m.
Professor Gretchen Buggeln and Professor Edward Upton

The early 20th century witnessed the rise of a series of radical, avant-garde creative impulses, generally labelled “Modernism,” a movement that took root in virtually all areas of cultural production and continues to resonate deeply in our contemporary world. In this course, we will investigate the beginnings and development of various Modernisms in European and American literature, architecture, and art from the 1920s to 1970. The motto of poet Ezra Pound, “Make it new!”, encapsulated a Modernist drive to take sources from the past and give them new, daring artistic form in the present that would challenge middle class sensibilities and shock audiences into different ways of seeing and inhabiting the world. In architecture, too, modernism brought a reconsideration of the relationship between past and present. In architecture and design, modernism would reject historicism, strip objects and buildings down to their essential elements, and embrace new materials and technologies.

The 20th century city provides the perfect context to explore the intertwined branches of modernist culture. We will begin by reading the work of four Modernist writers of the early 20th century: Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway,” T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” James Joyce’s “Ulysses” (excerpts), and Hope Mirrlees’ “Paris.” All of these writers were fascinated with the modern cityscape, and their works explore how the modern urban context shaped thought and subjectivity, while holding open the possibility that the new material environment might give rise to surreal or uncanny experiences, as well as new possibilities of community and ethical regard. Modernist architecture and design both picks up and challenges these themes as it gains ground in the German Bauhaus, experiments and theorizes in the 1930s, and takes off in the post WWII building boom.

The course will include additional field study in trips to Chicago and Columbus, IN.

M 6:30-9:00 p.m.
Professor Amanda Ruud

In “The Empty Space,” Shakespeare director Peter Brook warns audiences and would-be practitioners about the dangers of theatre that he calls “deadly.” Deadly theatre, Brook writes, approaches “the classics” as if “someone has found out and defined how the play should be done.” Lively theatre, on the other hand, approaches each reading and each rehearsal as a new opportunity for discovery and encounter.

In this course, we will aim to bring Shakespeare’s works to life both in the classroom and onstage. Our semester will begin in the classroom with lively, exploratory discussion of Shakespearean genres and a few selected works of performance theory. The course will culminate in a full production of a Shakespeare play designed, produced, and performed by you.

Students should expect some additional meetings for ensemble building and role auditions early in the semester and a brief intensive period of rehearsal and performance in the last weeks of the semester. Our performances will take place May 1-3 in the Valparaiso University Black Box Theatre.

TR 3:15-4:30 p.m.
Professor Ann Marie Jakubowski

How does gender shape and inflect ideas about God? What kind of authority do we expect from writers who attempt to represent the divine to their readers? How do women writers claim this authority or develop alternatives to it? This course will take up these questions and more as we explore modern and contemporary literary texts by women writers that address spiritual themes. Literary works approach such questions differently than theological texts do, and our seminar conversations will explore the imaginative possibilities they open up for readers. Over the course of the semester, we will consider perspectives from a variety of religious traditions, in a wide array of genres, contemplating how women transform their religious traditions and how the experience of the sacred transforms women’s lives. Readings may include fiction by Marilynne Robinson, Anita Diamant, and Louise Erdrich; poetry by Mina Loy, Sarah Ghazal Ali, and Denise Levertov; and memoir by Alison Pick and Mary Karr.

TR 12:15-1:30 p.m.
Professor Jenna Van Sickle
Cross-listed with MATH-312-AX

Did you know that negative numbers weren’t fully accepted until the 19th century? And most mathematical symbols weren’t invented until the 16th century or later? Some mathematical developments, such as the discovery of the irrational number, were so controversial that they ended in death! We often think of mathematics as a fixed body of information to learn, but it developed beginning in every ancient civilization and now continues to advance. In this course, we will study the development of mathematics, through a survey of mathematics from earliest times to the present. This course will take a problem-solving approach, giving students the opportunity to delve in and experience mathematics through the ages. Students will conclude the course by researching a topic in the history of mathematics of their own choosing.

Prerequisite: MATH-110

MW 4:10-5:25 p.m.
Professor Ian Walling

What does it mean to be free? What does it mean to be a slave, a servant, or a subject to oppressive rule? In this class we will explore questions about the nature of freedom and its opposites. We will begin by examining the various threats to freedom that have preoccupied philosophers and political theorists, including slavery, discrimination, poverty, and oppression. We will then turn to ask what it would mean to truly be free, given these threats. Can I be free if I am left entirely alone, or does freedom require the cooperation of others? Is freedom a state of mind, or does it require control of my external circumstances? Does freedom require some kind of democratic control over the authorities that rule me, or is it incompatible with any kind of restraint or rule? Beyond that, we will ask why we care about freedom in the first place, and whether it could ever be worth the trouble it inevitably brings. Readings will include texts by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mary Wollstonecraft, Frederick Douglass, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, and Isaiah Berlin.

MW 2:40-3:55 p.m.
Associate Dean Zachary King

“Comics, moral when they wish, immoral when they wanted–that was the only way to do anything head-on nowadays.” – Jay Cantor, “Great Neck”

In the first chapter of an Oxford Handbook (2020) on the subject, Benjamin Woo asks the question, “What kind of studies is comics studies?” Throughout this course, we will begin to trace some of the answers to that question by acknowledging the interdisciplinary breadth of the field. We’ll begin with formal analysis, considering the possibilities of the medium through two seminal texts – Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” (1993) and “Watchmen” (1986), from Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons. After Chris Ware’s “Building Stories” (2012), which destabilizes the very concept of a comic book, we’ll undertake a case study on Jack Kirby, who has been described as “one of the chief architects of the contemporary American imagination,” with particular attention to his “Fantastic Four” (1961-1966). We will then explore the world of memoir/autobiographical comics with Zoe Thorogood’s “It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth” (2022) before turning to consumer/fan culture and ultimately concluding with Emil Ferris’s “My Favorite Thing Is Monsters” (2017). And all along the way, we’ll look at some of the most important critical work in the field, demonstrating both what has been done and what is possible under the umbrella of comics studies.

As a research seminar, students will be required to develop and generate a 15-page research paper on a topic of their choosing. Along with a formal analysis paper, students will need to craft a topic proposal and an annotated bibliography before sharing the final project with our seminar group.

T 6:30-9:00 p.m.
Professor Agnes Howard
Fulfills cultural diversity general education requirement.

What is health? What is sickness? Who can best help a patient get well? This course will examine alternative cultures of health in the United States to understand how people have embraced or contested professional medicine in pursuit of health. We will investigate diverse traditions and experience with medicine, especially among Black, indigenous, and immigrant groups adjusting treatments to fit cultural expectations. Minority cultures have shaped their own views of the body, institutions devoted to its care, and ideals of health. Approaches offered by these communities have helped to shape and reshape mainstream medicine. Considering premodern and diverse views of the body can help clarify and articulate our understandings of pain, relief, care (and even flourishing!).

MWF 9:05-9:55 a.m.
Professor Julien Smith
Fulfills upper-level theology/religion general education requirement.

All of us live on earth, but there are alarming signs that we are not living well. People and land alike bear the scars of a long history of violence. We are in the midst of a crisis that is not merely environmental, as though the problems existed solely within the environment in which humans happen to live. Rather the problem is ecological, since everything on earth exists in a complex web of interdependence. This means that the crisis is also one of human culture. Today, the vast majority of urban and suburban dwellers not only contribute to the ill health of the planet, but we lack a coherent and compelling vision for how we might live differently. Some have argued that a Christian anthropocentric worldview is to blame for this catastrophe, while others insist that the Christian tradition possesses a wealth of theological resources that can in fact help us better care for the earth. This course engages with a variety of approaches and traditions—some of which stand in tension with each other—to better help us understand and respond to the present ecological crisis. Our efforts at understanding will focus on the ways in which the legacy of racism has divided communities from each other and from the land. Our efforts to respond will include: the recovery of Native American traditions of caring for the earth; appreciation of the beauty and complexity of ecological relationships; the philosophical question of a land ethic; an agrarian reading of the Bible; and agrarian spiritual exercises. Assignments include an interdisciplinary research paper (12-18 pages).

Time TBD
Professor Amanda Ruud

This internship is designed to provide credit for upper-level students who would like to coach a debate team for CC-115L Debate Lab. Students enrolled in CC-487 will work with the Debate Coordinator to gain experience organizing debate teams, shepherding research, and speech writing. S/U Grade Only.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of the Debate Coordinator and Dean

Section A: Online Asynchronous (1-credit)
Associate Dean Zachary King

Christ College Senior Colloquium provides a capstone, integrative experience for Christ College Scholars. Through conversations, readings, and written work, students will be led to give shape to the substance of their lives through autobiographical narrative, and they will be led to reflect upon the character and meaning of their future work. The practical dimensions of these reflections will include attention to the transition from college. [For seniors who were unable to take this colloquium in the fall.]

Prerequisite(s): Senior standing and membership in Christ College.

Credits 3
Section A: MW 2:40-3:55 p.m. – Professor Ian Walling
Section B: MW 4:10-5:25 p.m. – Professor Ian Walling
Fulfills 3 cr of social sciences requirement.

Continuing the important questions addressed in the First-Year Program–what it means to be human–this course examines the ways that human beings are deeply social creatures that both make and are made by their communities. The class points to the questions of good life and good society–questions that people share regardless of their cultural background and context–but also looks at various ways in which specific cultures answer those questions. The course will draw its theoretical emphases from major figures in the human sciences, including Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Max Weber, Clifford Geertz, and Michel Foucault. The social thinkers that we study in this course each posit theories and methods for examining the relationship between individuals and their society. We start with the assumption that we are not isolated individuals; our opportunities and even our very identities are shaped by a social environment that we help create.  Thus, we shape our society and in turn our society shapes us.   We end the course by being social theorists ourselves, applying the tools of social analysis that we have honed all semester to contemporary issues of importance in the 21st century. Thus, this class helps students learn how to move from the kinds of big ideas we discuss in our CC classes to critical analysis of the contemporary social events they read about in the news; it is a process of translation for engagement in the contemporary world. 

In addition to weekly discussion and small preparatory assignments, major assignments will include short (5 page) paper and one longer (10 page) paper.

Credits 3
MWF 12:55-1:45 p.m. – Professor Reva Johnson

What are the origins, purposes, and limits of science and technology? Together, science and technology have shaped modern society such that we live at a time unprecedented in its potential for human flourishing and its vulnerability to violence and suffering. Today, human society harnesses atomic and solar energy, edits the human genome, engineers new species, impacts the global climate, and reflexively shapes itself through social media. As Martin Luther King, Jr., witnessed the rapid acceleration of society’s scientific and technological capacities half a century ago he observed that moral and social progress were not keeping pace: “We have guided missiles and misguided men.” The interdisciplinary field of Science, Technology, & Society emerged in response to such challenges for the sake of present and future generations.

This course familiarizes students with historical challenges, influential interdisciplinary studies, and complex ethical considerations that inform the field of Science, Technology, & Society. Throughout, we will examine cases from diverse STEM fields in order to develop ethically-informed approaches to scientific research and cross-disciplinary applied projects. Readings, discussions, and assignments will invite students to broaden their understandings of vocation and professional responsibilities beyond the merely descriptive and technical to normative and theoretical domains encompassing multiple disciplinary perspectives, diverse values, and a range of views about what makes for a good and just society.

*This course satisfies the College of Engineering GE 312 (Ethical Decisions in Engineering) requirement.

Credits 3
TR 1:45-3:00 p.m. – Professor Samuel Graber
Fulfills cultural diversity requirement.

America has always had a love/hate relationship to crime stories. After all, the United States arose through a violent revolution that surely would have been condemned as criminal if it had not succeeded. Two hundred and fifty years later, the same citizens who list “crime” as their top social concern in surveys will spend hours online surreptitiously spiraling down true crime rabbit holes on their laptops, will reward con artists’ tall tales at the box office (and sometimes at the voting booth), and will fall asleep binge-watching old episodes of The Sopranos in their beds. So why does this country fixate on crime? This class assumes that the reasons are neither merely personal nor universal. Rather, it will ask students to examine the crime stories that Americans love, and the practices through which they love them, as indicators of patterns, shifts, and movements within the broader culture. With a primary focus on cinematic and literary forms and feature films in particular, we’ll also consider novels, journalism, memoirs, graphic novels, songs, poems, and essays that highlight the histories and issues shaping America’s relationship to crime stories. The course fulfills Valparaiso University’s humanities-literature and cultural diversity requirements, and students will draw on what they learned in previous CC coursework to analyze the crime stories that embody and engage some of our common passions, anxieties, and beliefs.

Credits 3
T 6:30-9:00 p.m. – Professor Thomas Albert Howard

Dante’s Divine Comedy is not only one of the greatest works of world literature; it is also a profound meditation on justice, love, grace, and the soul’s journey toward God. In this course, we will read and discuss all three parts of Dante’s epic trilogy: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, engaging deeply with its moral and religious content.

Through close reading and discussions, we will explore Dante’s portrayal of sin and redemption, vice and virtue, the medieval Christian cosmos, and the poem’s enduring significance for moral reflection today. What can our jaded, late-modern world learn from Dante’s world?  Students will be encouraged to respond both scholarly and creatively, considering Dante’s work in light of their own intellectual and artistic interests. Whether you are drawn to the poem’s theological depth, its political and historical themes, or its breathtaking poetic brilliance, this course offers a rich opportunity to journey alongside Dante toward the “love that moves the sun and the other stars.”

Credits 3
TR 12:15-1:30 p.m. – Professor Sara Danger
Cross-listed with ENGL-365-AX

This course uncovers the vital and often overlooked contributions of youth in shaping American thought and culture. Between the American Revolution and the aftermath of the Civil War, an astonishing number of young people—aged 8 to 18—emerged as prolific writers, storytellers, and published authors. Youth writers, including Phillis Wheatley, Louisa May Alcott, Indigenous writers, child journalists, and precocious fantasy authors, harnessed the power of print media, which was the revolutionary “new media” of their time, to share their experiences and challenge societal norms.

Their stories, written during a period of dramatic social change, reveal insights into their worldviews and offer fresh perspectives on age, race, gender, class, and civic participation.

Through archival research, digital publishing, and scholarly collaboration, this course will challenge us to rethink the history of childhood and its critical role in shaping American literature and culture.

By the end of the course, students will possess a deeper understanding of the role of youth in American literature and history and will have the opportunity to contribute to a digital publishing project of newly discovered manuscript magazines. In addition, there will be an opportunity to present at the international conference Amplifying Children’s Voices, hosted by Valparaiso University in Spring 2026.

Credits 3
TR 1:45-3:00 p.m. – Professor Ryan Cole
Cross-listed with GS-220-A

This course examines current trends and challenges in the fields of philanthropy, service, and non-profit leadership. Topics may include the rise in social enterprises, venture philanthropy, micro-lending, and the influence of technology on giving patterns. The course will also emphasize the shifting roles and relationships of the private, public, and non-profit sectors in meeting social needs and leading social change.

Credits 3
TR 8:40-9:55 a.m. – Professor Julien Smith
Fulfills upper-level theology/religion requirement.

David French, an opinion columnist for the New York Times, describes having been miraculously healed from chronic ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disorder for which there is no known cure (“I Believe in Miracles. Just Not All of them.” Nov 14, 2024). Perhaps your reaction to accounts such as this goes something like: “Miracles don’t happen. He was probably just misdiagnosed.” Or perhaps, “I pray for miracles all the time!” Or perhaps, “Do miracles even happen? What a curious thought.” Within Christianity, miracles occupy a prominent, yet fraught, place. Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, God’s power and presence are frequently described in miraculous terms. Moreover, Christian faith itself is founded upon two absolute whoppers of miracles—the Incarnation and Resurrection. Some argue that Christianity should abandon its primitive belief in miracles if it wants to be taken seriously within societies committed to the scientific worldview. But others insist that to do so would render the core tenets of Christian faith meaningless. This course will explore: philosophical issues related to the possibility and probability of miracles; biblical accounts of miracles; and the role of the miraculous in contemporary Christian faith. Prior knowledge of the Bible or Christian Tradition is not required; this course is for the skeptical, the convinced, and the curious.

Credits 3
TR 3:15-4:30 p.m. – Professor George Pati

Cross-listed with REL-231-A
Fulfills upper-level theology/religion requirement.

This survey course introduces students to the complexity and diversity of Hinduism. The course primarily discusses Hinduism’s principal themes, theologies, and philosophies, giving special attention to the historical development of the traditions and religious expressions and their relation to social and cultural life in India and the diaspora contexts. The course will engage in reading classical texts significant in the Hindu traditions as well as contemporary religious expressions through texts, rituals, performances, images, and architecture that display various beliefs and practices of the different traditions of Hinduism.

Credits 3
MW 2:40-3:55 p.m. – Professor Gretchen Buggeln

One of the defining features of American culture is that we buy and consume a LOT of stuff. Consumer goods shape our social interactions, our identities, and our hopes and dreams. How did America come to be this way? To address this question, we will study the historical development of American consumerism, from the eighteenth-century “consumer revolution” to the rise of internet shopping. What have been the social, economic, and cultural factors fueling and shaping the consumption habits of Americans? What institutions and ideas have determined where Americans shop, what they buy, and how they pay for it? Perhaps the more knotty and difficult questions about consumerism, however, are ethical and spiritual. Who wins and who loses? Is it good for our souls? Readings by both boosters and critics will inform our discussions. Major texts will likely include Peitra Rivoli, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy; Bryant Simon, Everything but the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks; and S. Margot Finn, Discriminating Taste: How Class Anxiety Created the American Food Revolution.

Credits 3
Professor Edward Upton
R 6:30-9:00 p.m.

The “TA Course” provides selected CC seniors a unique opportunity for both teaching and learning. As more advanced and mature students, the Tutorial Assistants are well-equipped to introduce first year students to foundational liberal arts texts as well as to the general atmosphere and expectations of Christ College. As students about to complete their undergraduate careers, seniors have an opportunity to return to some texts they read as first-year students, as well as some new texts, and reconsider them in light of their acquired skills and knowledge.  Through the preparation for teaching FYP course materials, TAs engage more deeply with these fundamental liberal arts texts and think more deeply about the overall CC experience.

Each TA works with a small group of first-year students on Monday mornings, introducing them to the text under consideration. The TAs meet with Professor Upton as a group for discussion of the texts and pedagogical strategies the previous Thursday.  Each TA is responsible for weekly written assignments (discussion paragraphs, lesson plans, etc.) and for a self-evaluation of the semester.  TAs also comment on and grade first-year paragraphs each week.  TAs will receive evaluations from their first-year students at mid-term and at the end of the semester.

Texts will include all First-Year Program Fall Semester texts.

Senior standing required.  Consent of the Dean and Instructor are required; Professor Upton will interview prospective seniors.  (For approved seniors, this course may count as a CC 300 level seminar toward Scholar designation or the major/minor in the humanities.)

Credit 1
Professor Amanda Ruud
Time TBD

This internship is designed to provide credit for upper-level students who take on a leadership role in the CC-110L Drama Lab. Students enrolled in CC-486 will work alongside the production coordinator to gain experience in various aspects of creating a drama production depending on their areas of interest, including: scripting, music composition and direction, casting, set design, and overall management of a production. S/U grade only.

Credit 1
Associate Dean Zachary King

Christ College Senior Colloquium provides a capstone, integrative experience for Christ College Scholars.  CC students will gather to reflect upon their college years; integrate academic, practical, social, and spiritual experiences; consider their transition from college; and plan for closure on their undergraduate careers.

This course is required for all CC Scholars, and it is recommended that seniors take it in the fall semester before they graduate. For Fall 2025, Senior Colloquium will meet in person on Friday, August 22, and Saturday, August 23, before shifting to an asynchronous mode.

3 Credits 

Section A: TR 8:40-9:55 am    Professor Edward Upton
Section B: TR 10:45 am-12:00 pm    Professor Edward Upton
Fulfills humanities fine arts requirement.

What is representation and how do words and images communicate?
What makes a representation “true”?
Can words claim legitimacy that images may not, or vice-versa?
What do makers of representations owe their viewers/readers?

Word & Image introduces students to problems and questions associated with the nature, form, and circulation of images from Plato to the present. The course is divided into four sections. The first questions the ability of images and text to convey truth and justice, with a special focus on what we call “documentary” images. The second considers historical and contemporary problems in the representation of the sacred and the use of images and objects in worship and devotion. The third section explores the rise of modern ways of subjective seeing and representing, with a particular emphasis on the traveler. Finally, we will turn our attention to comics and film, considering contemporary representation in light of course questions about truth telling and subjectivity.

Credits 3
Section A: TR 1:45-3:00 pm – Professor Ludwig Noya
Section B: TR 3:15-4:30 pm – Professor Ludwig Noya
Fulfills theology 100 requirement.

This course introduces students to central developments in the history of Christianity and to diverse forms of Christianity today. It also explores the nature and purpose of Christian theology and encourages students to reflect more deeply on their own religious convictions and questions. The course focuses on the close reading and discussion of primary texts in the Christian intellectual and spiritual tradition. Readings include selections from the Bible and the writings of various classical theologians, such as St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as contemporary theologians from a variety of Christian traditions and perspectives.

3 Credits 
M  6:30-9:00 pm     Professor Amanda Ruud

In The Empty Space, Shakespeare director Peter Brook warns audiences and would-be practitioners about the dangers of theatre that he calls “deadly.” Deadly theatre, Brook writes, approaches “the classics” as if “someone has found out and defined how the play should be done.” Lively theatre, on the other hand, approaches each reading and each rehearsal as a new opportunity for discovery and encounter.

In this course, we will aim to bring Shakespeare’s works to life both in the classroom and onstage. Our semester will begin in the classroom with lively, exploratory discussion of Shakespearean genres and a few selected works of performance theory. The course will culminate in a full production of a Shakespeare play, chosen, designed, and performed by you.

Students should expect some additional meetings for ensemble building and role auditions early in the semester and a brief intensive period of rehearsal and performance in the last weeks of the semester. Our performances will take place April 24-27 in the Valparaiso University Black Box Theatre.

3 Credits 
MWF   11:50 am-12:40 pm     Professor Catrina De Rivera
Cross-listed with GER 300 AX
Fulfills cultural diversity requirement.

Why study horror? In the modern world, we no longer need monsters or the supernatural to make sense of our surroundings (or so we tell ourselves). Yet vampires, the walking dead, and even internet trolls are everywhere. To help explain our continued fascination with all things horrifying, this course begins by looking backwards to nineteenth century English gothic literature and German “dark romanticism,” as well as the horror cinema that took up its mantle. Our goal is to study not only the politics but also the aesthetics of horror. The experiments with point of view and handling of narrative time that inform earlier fictions as well as the montage, stop-motion, and parallel editing strategies we find in early film teach us about the creation of uncanny effects. We will conclude the semester with more recent recapitulations and transformations of these modern narratives that give the dead a new lease on life. The premise of this course is that by taking the staying power of horror seriously, we can learn about the way the horror tradition has informed our own cultural identity as well as cultural identity in Germany. Monster stories address the failures built into our systems of categorization and notions of normality, and they make vivid the potential for violence in the notions of cultural purity and cultural inheritance used to organize accounts of identity and community.

3 Credits 
TR     3:15-4:30 pm     Professor Ann Marie Jakubowski

Pain is at once a universal human phenomenon and also a highly alienating experience: if you are in pain, how can you convey what it’s like to others, and how do you expect them to respond? In the medical field, since there is no objective way to directly measure pain, health professionals rely on subjective reports. Patients are typically asked to rank their pain on a scale of 1-10, and children are asked to choose from a set of faces the expression that best reflects their current experience of pain. But the idea and the experience of pain is far more complex than these necessarily simplified scales can reflect. In this course, we will explore a variety of literary and film works alongside scientific discussions of pain, anesthesia, and clinical practice. What strategies do literary writers use to depict the supposedly incommunicable experience of pain? How have modern medical technologies like anesthesia changed cultural attitudes about pain and suffering? How does the experience of pain create and disrupt interpersonal relationships? How does pain shape our ideas about God, suffering, and redemption? We will explore these questions and more through the lens of the medical humanities, putting matters of pharmacology and medical technology in conversation with ideas of gender, class, and society. Over the course of the semester, our readings will include an array of historical, literary, and philosophical texts, including work by Susan Sontag, William James, Leslie Jamison, Amitav Ghosh, Barbara Kingsolver, and C. S. Lewis, among others. 

3 Credits
Cross-listed with SPAN 300 AX
MWF   12:55-1:45 pm     Professor Alberto Lopez Martin
Fulfills cultural diversity requirement.

How does the cultural production of the Hispanic world represent the effects of climate change and recent environmental crises? What solutions or alternatives to our unsustainable ways of life are explored in the literature and art of Latin America, Spain, and Equatorial Guinea? In this course, students will analyze and discuss short stories and narratives from the so-called climate fiction (or cli-fi), as well as films, comics, and graphic novels that address present and future ecosocial challenges such as the phenomenon of climate refugees. Although the class will cover some dystopian works, we will not give in to pessimism and eco-anxiety! There will also be room for utopias, and we will ask ourselves what specific cultural aspects of Hispanic countries, like the Quechua notion of ‘buen vivir’ or ‘sumak kawsay,’ shape literary and artistic responses to the aforementioned crises. To examine the representation of possible and desirable worlds, we will use conceptual tools from ecocriticism, such as the concept of post-growth imaginaries, coined by Spanish scholar Luis I. Prádanos, where economic growth as an end in itself or unlimited productive expansion are called into question. The class will be taught in English and does not require any prior knowledge of the history and cultures of the global Spanish-speaking world.

3 Credits
Off Campus Study, December 2024       Professor Thomas Albert Howard

This course takes as its theme moral inquiry or “ethics” in the classical and Christian traditions, with a focus on their co-mingling in late medieval and early modern Europe (ca. 1200-1600). Participants will have an opportunity to read various classical authors, such as Aristotle and Cicero, and then later medieval/Renaissance authors such as Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, and Dante.  Some key questions that will be explored include (but are not limited to): What is a good life? What is a good society? What is virtue and how does one acquire it? What is vice and how can one avoid it? What is the relationship between the pursuit of virtue and the pursuit of salvation? What is the relationship between individual virtue and public/social responsibility? We shall also ask to what extent medieval and early modern moral philosophy might still be relevant to church, society, and government today? In addition to readings and discussions, field trips will be taken within the city of Orvieto and to Rome, Siena, and Florence. Throughout, we shall attempt to make connections between the past and the present as well as between the writings discussed and on-site art and architecture.

3 Credits
MW  2:40-3:55 pm     Professor Ludwig Noya

Both for positive and also negative reasons, the Christian Bible (the so-called “Old” and “New” Testaments) is undoubtedly among the most influential works ever written and has been interpreted in different contexts and different ways for millennia. Unfortunately, certain communities’ interpretations have dominated the center stage, while others have been sidelined and marginalized—sometimes literally written into the margins of the paper—sidenotes/footnotes)—and others have even been deemed heretical. “Readers on the Margins” will explore these marginalized and underrepresented interpretative communities in North America and beyond. This seminar will delve into how these communities have interpreted (and challenged) biblical texts as they engage and cope with their various struggles. The communities considered in this seminar include but are not limited to African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Islanders, Feminists, Womanists, LGBTQIA+ individuals, Persons with Disabilities, Environmentalists/Posthumanists, as well as various formerly and currently colonized persons in the Global South (Africa, Asia, Australia, Central and South America). In addition to discussing their interpretations, this seminar will also learn the particular struggles experienced by each of these communities. Students will learn how the texts have been meaningful for these communities amidst their life’s struggles or how the texts themselves become a site of struggle—with the hope of inspiring students to participate in future efforts to help these communities thrive.

In line with the diversity of voices covered in the seminar, students will have the chance to choose from a range of projects to work on—from the traditional research paper to other comprehensive/innovative projects pertaining to students’ self-expressions and learning approaches upon consultation with the instructor.

3 Credits
MWF 11:50 am-12:40 pm        Professor Gretchen Buggeln

Museums reveal what cultures value most. In their architecture, collections, and public programs, museums demonstrate how people organize knowledge, think about the past, and see themselves in relation to others. This seminar will examine the history of museums in Europe and America from the Renaissance to the present, tracing the development of a wide variety of institutions including art museums, natural history museums, history museums, and science and technology museums. Topics will include the nature of collecting as a human activity, history and memory, museums and nationalism, culture as entertainment, and the politics of taste. We will pay close attention to challenges facing museums today, such as Native Americans’ demand for the return of human remains and artifacts, the politics of the representation of racial, ethnic, and religious difference, and the proper response to tragedies such as the Holocaust or 9/11.

Students will take a midterm exam and complete a term project analyzing one museum of their choice, requiring both a fifteen-page paper and a final PowerPoint presentation. They will attend three Saturday field trips to Chicago and Indianapolis. Major texts include Edward P. Alexander, Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Function of Museums; James Cuno, Museums Matter: In Praise of the Encyclopedic Museum; and Lawrence Weschler, Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology.

3 Credits
TR   1:45-3:00 pm     Professor Edward Upton
Fulfills humanities-literature requirement.

Virginia Woolf was no stranger to tragedy: sexually abused as a girl, denied a formal university education, afflicted with mental illness for much of her life, witnessing two catastrophic world wars, and as a writer oppressed by a culture that by and large believed that women either could not or ought not write. Her novels unsurprisingly reflect on tragic alienation, of human beings separated from one another by sexism, individualism, illness, violence, and the vicissitudes of nature. Nevertheless, in a career of stunning courage and innovation, Woolf gradually made the case for the genre of the novel as a potential path out of this alienation. The novel for Woolf not only grappled with the complex web of human relationships and perspectives, it also became a possible site for the emergence of “moments of being,” moments when reality suddenly erupts for a reader, revealing great truth, goodness, or beauty. These moments contained the potential of revealing new types of community that could ameliorate the tragic alienation of one human being from another. These new visions of community could be radical, but they promised greater degrees of healing and solidarity in the midst of an ever-present threat of tragic disruption.

This class will examine five classic texts by Woolf: The Waves, To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway, Between the Acts, and Three Guineas. Even if you’ve read one of these before, why wouldn’t you want to read it again? Don’t you want to flourish? All of these books are amazing. See you in class.

3 Credits
T   6:30-9:00 pm     Professor Matthew Puffer
Fulfills upper-level theology requirement.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was delivering lectures on the Genesis creation account and theological anthropology at the University of Berlin when on January 30, 1933, he witnessed large crowds gathering to celebrate the dawn of the Third Reich and the appointment of the Nazi Führer [leader] Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. On February 1, Bonhoeffer delivered a radio address criticizing the populist fascination with leadership and their Führerprinzip (leader principle). He had by that time disavowed views he previously held as a student which resembled many of Hitler’s apologists, and he had instead become an avowed pacifist through his studies, experiences, and conversations abroad in Rome, Spain, and America. In 1940 however, after a decade of advocating a variety of forms of nonviolent resistance—academic, ecclesial, and political—Bonhoeffer once again entertained the possibility of embracing violent resistance. Bonhoeffer was arrested on April 5, 1943, after ten years of resistance to Hitler—through teaching in the academy and an illegal seminary, pastoring in Germany and in London, and finally participating in a conspiracy and failed assassination attempt as part of the military intelligence. He was killed on Hitler’s orders on April 9, 1945.

In this seminar, we’ll examine Bonhoeffer’s biography, theology, and ethics of peace and resistance, as his thought and practice develop from his years as a university student, to a theology lecturer, and then as a young pastor during the Third Reich, including works on Christian life and community (The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together), Christian ethics and public life (Ethics), and other occasional writings.

1 Credits
TBD             Professor Amanda Ruud

This internship is designed to provide credit for upper-level students who would like to coach a debate team for CC-115L Debate Lab. Students enrolled in CC-487 will work with the Debate Coordinator to gain experience organizing debate teams, shepherding research, and speech writing. S/U Grade Only.

Prerequisite(s): consent of the dean.

1 Credit
Section A: Online Asynchronous        Associate Dean Zachary King

Christ College Senior Colloquium provides a capstone, integrative experience for Christ College Scholars. Through conversations, readings, and written work, students will be led to give shape to the substance of their lives through autobiographical narrative, and they will be led to reflect upon the character and meaning of their future work. The practical dimensions of these reflections will include attention to the transition from college.  [For seniors who were unable to take this in the fall.]