CSPL115F Diffusion of Innovation (FYS)

Most inventions never make it out of the laboratory. Few reach the public. Why? Innovations and great ideas are not self-evident. Rather, inventors must persuade their fellow citizens that their ideas have merit and are worth adopting. This course will survey the broad field of "Diffusion of Innovations." Through case studies from around the globe and discussions of diffusion theory, students will learn how innovations ranging from vaccines to the world's largest particle accelerator gained acceptance through analog and digital communication. Students will also learn about diffusion failures ranging from water boiling to the DVORAK keyboard. They will then design a strategy for disseminating an existing but underappreciated scientific or technological innovation to United States adopters. The strategy will demonstrate a keen appreciation of scientific merit, diffusion of innovation theory, and the nuances of U.S. culture. This first year seminar course will also familiarize students with the methods used to collect, interpret, analyze, and present evidence in the social sciences, particularly in the field of communication.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: WRCT115F
Prereq: None

CSPL116F Good Books on Bad Wars (FYS)

This course explores war through some of the best books of theory, fiction, and nonfiction. The purpose of war is to achieve a policy that leads to a better peace after the war's end than the peace that existed before the war began. But the nature of war is to serve itself if policy does not guide and constrain war. This course begins with discussion of the best foundational works of theory to build an understanding of the epistemology of war. The students will subsequently read, analyze, and discuss some of the best works of nonfiction and fiction on bad wars when judged by quality of strategy, magnitude of losses, or duration of fighting. The book subjects range from the American Civil War to the post-9/11 wars. The readings and seminar discussions vary from the reasons why the wars began to the conduct and outcomes of the wars. This course lies at the intersection of international relations, history, and conflict studies. It will increase the students' understanding of how policy, strategy, and war interact. A central aim of this seminar is to improve critical thinking and writing.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: GOVT116F
Prereq: None

CSPL120 Civic and Community Engagement Practice

Wesleyan has a long tradition of supporting student civic engagement. CSPL 120 plays a critical role in helping continue this tradition. This quarter credit experience provides space for students to build community with peers, faculty, staff, and community partners while bolstering their civic and content knowledge (around issues related to education, mass incarceration, sustainability, and the arts), and skill development. (more about the course's learning objectives here: https://engageduniversity.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2023/02/06/cspl-120-quarter-credit-course/). All student interested in enrolling in CSPL 120 must request permission of instruction to and complete the CSPL 120 Enrollment form found here: https://forms.gle/PdJHmh3sFV45owvK8 This course may be repeated for credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL123 Organizations in Society: Case Studies

Organizations in Society (OIS) examines organizational forms designed to produce and deliver goods and services, commonly called "businesses." OIS will examine all types of such institutions including for-profits, nonprofits, civic associations, membership organizations, and others, and examine their relationship to the world at large.



This case study course aims to introduce students to how alumni practitioners, in a range of industries, deal with common business issues revolving around the current semester's theme. The fall 2023 theme is expected to be "Beauty," and the spring 2024 theme will likely be "Transformation." Future semester themes will be chosen and announced later.



The objective is to eliminate the artificial divide between academic and professional practices, and enable students to better understand how liberal arts is the foundation of all business careers. Students will have weekly readings that draw on multiple divisions spanning all three academic divisions. Note: this course may be repeated for credit one time (i.e., total of two enrollments).
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL127 Introduction to Financial Accounting

In this course, no prior accounting knowledge is required or assumed. Students learn how accountants define assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses and where those items appear in firms' balance sheets and income statements. The purposes and limitations of these two financial statements as well as the statement of cash flows are considered. Students gain an understanding of the accounting choices allowed to firms for reporting to stockholders and creditors and learn how the use of different accounting methods for similar economic events creates challenges for analysts. Instances of questionable financial reporting and strategies that can aid in their discovery are addressed. Later assignments focus on ratio analysis of actual firms' financial statements, including techniques to identify firms in financial trouble.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ECON
Identical With: ECON127
Prereq: ECON101 OR ECON110

CSPL127Z Introduction to Financial Accounting

In this course, no prior accounting knowledge is required or assumed. Students learn how accountants define assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses and where those items appear in firms' balance sheets and income statements. The purposes and limitations of these two financial statements as well as the statement of cash flows are considered. Students gain an understanding of the accounting choices allowed to firms for reporting to stockholders and creditors and learn how the use of different accounting methods for similar economic events creates challenges for analysts. Instances of questionable financial reporting and strategies that can aid in their discovery are addressed. Later assignments focus on ratio analysis of actual firms' financial statements, including techniques to identify firms in financial trouble.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ECON
Identical With: ECON127Z
Prereq: ECON101 OR ECON110

CSPL128 Introduction to Human Rights Standards

The course provides an introduction to the philosophical, legal and practice bases of human rights. Sessions will consider the norms, treaties, and other international instruments, oversight institutions, and political dimensions of human rights. This course serves as a mandatory pre-requisite for both the Human Rights Advocacy Seminar and the Human Rights Advocacy Minor, and is open to all Wesleyan students.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL130 Frontiers of Leadership

Frontiers of Leadership will focus on the basic principles of personal and interpersonal leadership that can be used in any life arena. The course will explore variables that affect productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency, and a variety of interpersonal skill sets. Emphasis will be placed on vision, decision-making, time management, career development, team building, conflict, ethics, identity, communication skills, and diversity issues. In addition, we will explore a variety of other topics including developing students' personal leadership styles. Classroom teaching methods will include class discussion, group exercises, videos, oral presentations, written assignments, and a group project. By the end of the course, students will have increased their personal and interpersonal awareness, sharpened their analytical skills, and gained a greater understanding of the complex issues facing today's leaders. This quarter-credit course will take place over eight weeks and will meet on a weekly basis.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL135 Mindfulness

During this course, students will be introduced to various techniques of mindfulness practice and awareness, including sitting meditation and yoga. These modalities are designed to aid in stress and anxiety reduction and, when practiced diligently, may also offer opportunities for greater self-awareness and personal development. The goal is to give students not only a peer community but also a contemplative and metacognative toolbox that is portable, replicable, and sustainable. Students will gain an understanding of the roles these practices can play in leading a happier, healthier, and more fulfilling life.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CIS
Identical With: CIS135
Prereq: None

CSPL135Z Introduction to Mindfulness

In this retreat-style, experiential course, students delve into a set of practices meant to cultivate self-awareness, alleviate the impact of the stress response, and move attention to the present moment. During this 10-day class on contemplative practices, students will be introduced to various individual and relational techniques developed to cultivate non-judgemental attention and self-awareness in the present moment, as well as metacognitve learning strategies.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CIS
Identical With: CIS135Z
Prereq: None

CSPL140F Thinking with Things (FYS)

This course explores the ways in which we think and act in relation to things. At times provocations for thought, at times emotional companions or functional collaborators, things are not only symbolic carriers of the values and meanings that we assign, but are also actors with agency and subjectivity. We critically consider the implications of this and the role of things in a variety of contexts from the historical to the emotional to the sociocultural to the sacred. The course considers how we make, use, and consume things and how, in turn, things make, use, and consume us. Transdisciplinary in its orientation, this course draws insight from anthropology, cultural studies, philosophy, material studies, art, and design. We will examine a number of projects dealing with objects and these will serve as inspirational, theoretical, and methodological models for the projects students will develop over the course of the semester.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL150 Demystifying Finance

Finance is a widely spoken language, be it in newspapers, nonprofit boardrooms, investment banking, or personal finance. It sounds complicated, but many of the concepts are easily graspable. In this class, we will be exploring the following questions: What is finance? How do companies make money? What do "equity" and "debt" mean, and how do companies use them? What do investment banks actually do? What makes companies increase or decrease in value, and what determines the price of stocks? This course is designed to be a basic introductory course, and no prior knowledge of financial concepts is required. Guest lecturers will help bring financial concepts to life. Please submit a short (max two paragraphs) email to amartin@wesleyan.edu describing any background you may have (none required) in finance and stating your reasons for wanting to take the course. Please note that priority is given to first years and sophomores.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL184 Let's Talk: Civil Disagreement and Dialogue

This class is designed to help students improve their communication and dialogue skills through character development. We will consider ways to build community and trust in order to productively engage in and facilitate difficult conversations across political and social differences. Rooted in a philosophical framework for the study of values and virtue, we will reflect upon and incorporate the moral and intellectual features of good dialogues into our everyday lives. Our goal is to become the sort of people who can communicate effectively across differences in careful, constructive, open dialogues aimed at truth and justice.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: PHIL185, RELI184, SOC276
Prereq: None

CSPL184Z Let's Talk: Civil Disagreement and Dialogue

This class is designed as a deep-dive into helping improve communication and dialogue skills through character development. We will consider ways to build community and trust in order to productively engage in and facilitate difficult conversations across political and social differences. Rooted in a philosophical framework for the study of values and virtue, we will reflect upon and incorporate the moral and intellectual features of good dialogues into our everyday lives while exploring some of the fundamental philosophical origins of many moral, religious, political, and interpersonal disagreements. Our goal is to become the sort of people who can communicate effectively across differences in careful, constructive, open dialogues aimed at truth and justice.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL185F Reasonable Disagreements: Science, Philosophy, Magic, & Society (FYS)

Much of contemporary social and political discourse revolves around science--with many assuming that science is rational, objective, true, and the ultimate source of knowledge. As a result, it would seem unreasonable to believe in things like astrology, magic, alchemy, and other non-scientific ideals, or even to suggest that science might not be as objective, rational, or true as we might think. In this class we will explore different historical and philosophical approaches to distinguishing "legitimate" forms of inquiry and knowledge, considering the ways that our contemporary perspectives on science have been shaped by a long history of philosophy, "natural" philosophy, magic, theology, and "pseudosciences." We will investigate issues and concepts within and about science, including topics such as the nature of theories, the nature of scientific progress, and the relations among science, values, and society.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: RELI185F, PHIL185F, STS185F
Prereq: None

CSPL187 From Shirtwaists to Hoodies: Fashion and Public Life

Pictured prevalently and worn close to the body, fashion is a powerful and personal means of expression and documenting public life. With a focus on the United States, this course presents a loose chronology of fashion, from the late nineteenth century to today, through a selection of themes that will allow students to consider it in terms of its social, political, economic and aesthetic impact. Through the interplay of image, clothing, and text, each week, we will explore the fashion industry from various perspectives, examining the key role makers and consumers play in constructing fashion both historically and today. Guest speakers and museum visits will enhance these perspectives. Specifically, we will question the ways we deploy dress and style to document public life, from the personal to the political, and how it informs our material and visual relationships with the world. In addition to lectures and readings discussion, class time will be allotted to students' fashion documentation projects. Fashion theory will also be introduced to ground our explorations of fashion, variously as a pictured and cultural entity, embodied practice, site of technological innovation, and tool for shaping one's identity.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Identical With: FGSS187, IDEA187, SOC265
Prereq: None

CSPL200 Integrative Learning Project 1: Crafting Your Digital Identity

Wondering about how you will explain your Wesleyan experience to someone who doesn't get what it is like to attend an eclectic liberal arts institution? Worried about how your experiences at Wesleyan will translate to your post-graduate life? Want to practice talking about yourself so you are ready to enter the job market or apply for graduate school? This course is for you! Throughout the semester, you will practice writing about yourself and will ultimately place what you write in WordPress, the world's most popular platform for website design. Along the way, you will learn about user experience (UX) design principles and research methodologies, so that the website you create draws in your audience and makes them want to learn more about you. Throughout the semester, we will meet once a week to do all of these things in a relaxed, collaborative environment. Join us and bring along some friends!
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: None
Identical With: WRCT200, RL&L250, AFAM250, IDEA200
Prereq: None

CSPL201 Community Care in Action: Peer Helping, Prevention, and Public Life

This course introduces students to practical helping, prevention, and response skills that strengthen community well-being and public life both on and off campus. Through a series of interactive trainings led by WesWell staff, students will develop foundational skills in bystander intervention, survivor support, suicide prevention, overdose response, recovery allyship, and emotional fitness. In addition, students will engage in reflection, discussion, and applied scenario practice to consider broader questions of leadership, ethical responsibility, and community care. The course asks students to think about how ordinary people shape the quality of public life through the ways they respond to distress, harm, risk, and one another.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: None

CSPL202 Introduction to Design Thinking: Liberal Arts to Epic Challenges

Human-centered design or design thinking taps the creativity and diversity of a team to develop solutions to complex problems, following careful observation to gain the human perspective of a problem. Increasingly, this methodology is at the center of innovative practices in business, nonprofits, and governments. It can be particularly effective in addressing the human needs that are the focus of social enterprise and policy. Many of the disciplines that comprise the liberal arts education are valued sources of perspective and ideas contributing to solutions.



The most progressive and effective solutions to many problems are those that emerge from closely observing human patterns and then encouraging diverse imaginations to create rapid prototypes of solutions that can be tested and refined. The result is human-centered, rather than high-level policy influences for social change. Although the methodology is called "design thinking," the approach is used in designing experiences, services, and organizations, as well as objects. No design background is required.



The class sessions will consist of (1) the presentation of methods and theories, (2) case studies to be worked on in teams either in the session or between sessions, and (3) discussions with faculty members from other disciplines and designers who have worked on significant engagements for social change. Design thinking can be a purposeful link to the application of other disciplines to real-world problems, including anthropology, and behavioral economics.



An optional field trip is planned to work through a problem in the IBM Design Studio in New York City.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL205F Success and Failure (FYS)

Students who get into colleges like Wesleyan are typically high achievers who are planning for successful futures. But success and failure are highly subjective concepts and often reflect unconscious beliefs about personal identities, what is expected of us by families, peers, and cultures, and our perceptions, right or wrong, of different occupations. Some of our most firmly rooted concepts of success and failure are based on where we come from, what our parents do, their level of education, and what our peers choose to pursue. Society also sends us strong messages about our identities, including gender, race, religion, and socioeconomic status. What is particularly tricky is understanding what identities and cultural influences may motivate us at any given time. While rooted in developmental psychology, this course will take an interdisciplinary approach to help students define success and failure for themselves, drawing from organizational behavior, sociology, American studies, education studies, film and more. We will ask: What does American culture tell us about the definitions of success and failure? Are those definitions changing in today's dynamic economic environment? Is it inevitable to feel anxious and overwhelmed? What is the role of luck and merit in success and failure? How important is it to find meaning and purpose in work? Can you flourish in life if you don't? What is the role of work in a life worth living?
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL206 Group Psychology in Politics: Local, State, and National Perspectives

This course is an introduction to the use of group dynamics to understand the deep personal and systems-level issues at play in the body politic. This framework is applicable at the local, state, national, and international levels. Often, if not most of the time, these issues play an outsized role in any public policy initiative, debate, vote, action, deliberation, and discourse--though they are rarely acknowledged. This class will examine group dynamics as it is practiced in the field of organizational development (OD), a branch of organizational psychology used to implement cultural changes across social systems. The application of OD to politics is not widespread, but its tools are useful in understanding the dynamics in political situations and in the understanding of how power is exercised. The course will introduce concepts in open systems theory and will introduce three models to "hold the data" in our case studies: the Burke-Litwin Model, BART, and GRPI.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL207 Spiritual Autobiography: Building Community Through Interfaith Literacy

This course will invite students to learn about the art of spiritual autobiography (SAB) and consider the impact of one's spiritual, religious, and cultural identities and beliefs, and how they are influenced by, and influence, their context, communities, and experiences. This course carefully blends intellectual curiosity and learning with self-reflection, self-integration, and civic engagement.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RELI
Identical With: ENGL268, RELI207
Prereq: None

CSPL208 Experiments in Public Life: Creating and Presenting Socially Conscious Music

This course will revolve around examining and participating in this realm of music-making through different lenses. We will examine varied relationships a creator can have to the issue/stance to which the art relates, varied ways the art can be presented, varied ways of identifying and reaching different target audiences, and varied potential outcomes. Students will create work in response to a diverse set of prompts designed both to refine their individual goals of artistic and community engagement and to challenge them to create outside of those zones. In addition to individual and collaborative creative work, there will be readings and listening assignments encompassing a genre-diverse array of music (ranging from Olivier Messiaen to Charles Mingus to Nina Simone to Public Enemy, to name just a few) accompanied by some brief reflective writing assignments. Work created in the course will be shared with the community (defined multifacetedly) in a variety of ways online and in person, with the students bearing much of that organizational and curatorial responsibility.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CSPL
Identical With: SOC328
Prereq: None

CSPL209 Experiments in Public Life: Introduction to Effective Local Political Action

This course serves as an introduction to local political engagement. With a focus on the City of Middletown as a key case study, students will learn how they can "think global, act local" on political issues that they care about. The course will begin by studying theories about how political power is organized and exercised, and we will learn how well these theories explain how policy is made and implemented in local communities. We will study how local government works and how non-governmental actors, such as grassroots organizations and the business community, are involved in making change.



Members of this class will not just study how politics works in theory, we will learn how it operates in real life in our city. We will participate in city meetings, meet with local officials and advocates, and learn how regular citizens -- even university students -- can become effective political actors in their communities. Throughout the semester each student will research a local political issue that they care about, and by the end of the semester they will contribute a positive case study to a public-facing "Positive Local Action" website that we will be developing as a class.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Identical With: GOVT209
Prereq: None

CSPL210 Money and Social Change: Innovative Paradigms and Strategies

How do people make decisions about using their money for social change? Where will it have the most impact? When do shifts in the rules or the use of capital create systemic change and address structural inequities? This course will explore the role of capital in social change. If we rethink how social change happens--analyzing the nonprofit and public sectors, but also new sector-blending approaches and concepts like collective impact--how does our perspective on capital shift? As a part of this unique course, students will work through an active process of selecting a set of nonprofits in and around Middletown to which, as a class, they will actually grant a total of $10,000.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL211 Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing: Legal Advocacy for Disabled Veterans

The public rarely understands what it takes to fight for one's legal rights or benefits. Good writers can translate those battles in ways that teach, empower, and (re)build community support for struggling individuals. This course is a study in the translation of legal challenges into civic advocacy.



In this course, students will write about real plaintiffs and legal cases for public audiences. As part of their journey, students will delve into the military and medical files of a disabled veteran applying for a discharge upgrade from the military. Most discharge upgrade applicants suffer from addiction and/or mental health issues, the same issues that cut short the veterans' military careers. Using academic legal writing, news sources, and confidential personnel and medical files, students will describe issues facing veterans in general, and our veteran client specifically. Students will write for a disability blog, a legal services organization (LSO) website, a middle school social studies magazine, a podcast, and a newspaper. Students' writings will inform the instructor's writing--as the veteran's pro bono legal counsel--of a discharge upgrade brief.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: WRCT211
Prereq: None

CSPL212 Language and Politics: Making and Unmaking of Nations

This course explores the key topics at the intersection of language and politics, including language choice; linguistic correctness; (self-)censorship and hate speech; the performance of ethnic and national identity in language; gender politics and "powerful" language; rhetoric and propaganda; and changing conceptions of written language, driven in part by technological advances. One of the examples of such topics is Tweet politics or incivility on the web around the globe. This course consists of three modules. In the first two modules the above-mentioned topics will be discussed in general, while in the last module we will see how preferences in language policies and politics played a significant role in making and unmaking of nations in different parts of the world, from South Asia to East Asia to North America.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-GSAS
Identical With: GSAS210, CGST229
Prereq: None

CSPL215 Human-Centered Design for Social Change

Design thinking is the way the creative mind approaches complex problem solving. Increasingly, it is at the center of innovative practices in business. Yet it can be particularly effective in addressing the human needs that are the focus of social enterprise and policy. This course will introduce a number of ways to understand how to use this method and will apply it to a number of real-world examples as team work in class. Invited designers who have worked in the field in the United States and in other countries will lead several sessions. An individual project will require fieldwork and will constitute the demonstration of mastery.



This course explores the techniques of human-centered design and design thinking for approaching social challenges ranging from election processes to subsistence challenges in impoverished rural populations. The most progressive and effective solutions to many problems are those that emerge from closely observing human patterns and then using creativity to make rapid prototypes of solutions that can be tested and refined. The result is human-centered, rather than high-level policy influences for social change. The class session will consist of (1) the presentation of methods and theories, (2) case studies to be worked on in teams either in the session or between sessions, and (3) discussions with designers who have worked on significant engagements for social change.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL217 Civil Rights Litigation Since 1978: A Practitioner's Perspective

This course will examine major themes in modern civil rights litigation in the United States between 1978 and 2020. The course will review major cases challenging police misconduct, school segregation and housing segregation, including exclusionary land use policies, sexual harassment, and bullying, as well as cases supporting voting and gay rights.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL218 Accessible Writing: Disability, Language, and Media

Journalists (and indeed most writers who want a wide readership) must take the messy, complicated situations and systems the world presents us with -- an economic downturn, a yearslong war, a rapper's career, a new field of science -- and explain them in terms that are faithful to the facts of the situation, rendered in language that remains understandable to a reader who may not have considered the subject before. Writers from Aristotle to the editors of Wesleyan's new website (where all text is now required to be written at a seventh-grade reading level) have worked to apprehend the mechanisms that make a text understandable. But there is one group of thinkers that is perhaps more invested in the problem of "accessibility" than any other: people with disabilities. We tend to think of disability access -- such as captions on a film, or image descriptions for the blind -- in terms of legal compliance: you'd better make your project accessible or you'll get sued. But in recent years, a range of disabled artists, thinkers, and activists have expanded the field of accessibility beyond compliance into the realm of imagination and interpretation. This course adopts these emerging practices as creative-writing prompts, exploring them with a view toward sharpening our own practice as writers (and journalists, screenwriters, artists, and poets). Course materials will include work by writers engaged in the problem of literary accessibility (Strunk & White, Dr. Seuss, Garielle Lutz), disability-studies scholars (Mara Mills, Mel Y. Chen), activists (Alice Wong, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha), artists (Christine Sun Kim, Finnegan Shannon, Joseph Grigley), poets (Jjjjjerome Ellis, Latif Askia Ba), and institutions (ProPublica, the New York Times, Harvard's Digital Accessibility initiative). The course will encourage students to pull their writing out of the classroom, with an emphasis on publication, from newspapers and magazines to collaborative projects with Wesleyan's College of Film and Moving Image, Digital Design Commons, Davidson Art Center, and elsewhere.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-WRCT
Identical With: WRCT218, SOC274, STS218, COL208
Prereq: None

CSPL220 Participatory Design: From Helping to Solidarity

As artists and designers increasingly turn their efforts to altering conditions for the vulnerable and oppressed, stubborn questions arise around the ethics of engagement. Socially engaged projects seek meaningful change, yet often discourage dissent, reify privilege, remain agnostic about outcomes, and do little to alter larger, structural inequalities. Artists and designers can easily exit projects deemed failures and write these off as learning experiences. Moving from one social injustice to the next, crises and suffering become "sites" from which to develop serialized projects. Armed with empathy and expertise, but with little local knowledge, these practitioners struggle to form equitable relationships with partners and collaborators. This course will examine a range of projects initiated by artists and designers and will challenge the idea that helping is beyond reproach. The course asks how artists and designers might better situate themselves as allies through developing practices that foster solidarity, exercise humility, and distribute agency.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL221 Managing Differences: Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Consensus Building for Activists

Human rights and social justice activists are often accused of being "partisan" or "biased" or "unreasonable," just by virtue of their intense commitment to a particular cause, community, or social justice issue. For most of us, being labelled as "biased" is not an insult, but rather something we might feel proud of. That said, there are times when we (as committed social activists) must also build bridges to bystanders or potential "allies," or even learn to work constructively with those who may not share our social justice agenda at all. Can we do more than simply "preach to the choir" about human rights and social justice? Can we learn to find common ground in an increasingly polarizing world? Should we? Must we? This course places students in the middle of the tension between passionate advocacy and the equally strong need to promote healing, reconciliation, dialogue, and societal harmony. The course recognizes that this tension can, at times, be irreconcilable. But it also challenges us to build bridges where possible, and when doing so to be both strategic and principled about those efforts. It will introduce students to basic negotiation, conflict resolution, and consensus building skills, and challenge them to expand their own toolbox of skills as passionate social justice activists.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL222 Disability Advocacy: Communicating the Legal Challenges of Disabled Plaintiffs to the Public

The public rarely understands what it takes to fight for one's legal rights or benefits. Good writers can translate those battles in ways that teach, empower, and (re)build community support for struggling individuals. This course is a study in the translation of legal challenges into civic advocacy.



In this course, students will write about real plaintiffs and legal cases for public audiences. In the first half of the course, students will read the military and medical files of a disabled veteran applying for a discharge upgrade from the military. Most discharge upgrade applicants suffer from addiction and/or mental health issues, the same issues that cut short the veterans' military careers. Using academic legal writing, news sources, and confidential personnel and medical files, students will describe issues facing veterans in general, and our veteran client, specifically. Students will write for a nonprofit website, a print newspaper, and a podcast, which the class will produce. These writings will inform the instructor's writing--as the veteran's pro bono legal counsel--of our client's discharge upgrade brief.



In the second half of the course, students will digest and synthesize legal pleadings from transgender disability suits (e.g., employment/Title VII, prison abuse). From these case files, students will write short pieces that educate the public about the lives and legal issues of transgender plaintiffs. Students will write for a nonprofit website, the six o'clock news, and a local online news or social media outlet.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL224 Public Health, Migration, and Human Rights

How do human rights principles apply to the public health challenges faced by migrant populations? What is the situation of migrants arriving at the southern border of the United States? Crossing the Mediterranean Sea or the Darien Gap? What does human rights as a frame have to say about immigrants who are fleeing extreme poverty or are forcibly displaced by the climate crisis? This course seeks to address these and other related questions by examining the intersection of public health, migration policy, and human rights standards. We do so by examining a series of case studies that consider the underlying issues from a variety of disciplines including economics, sociology, law, policy analysis, public health, and political science. Through this course, students will develop a critical understanding of the contemporary landscape and potential policy responses to promote public health and human rights in the international migration space.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL225 Critical Design Fictions

Design fiction involves the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change. Through practices of estrangement and defamiliarization, and through the use of carefully chosen design methods, this course experiments with the creation of provocative scenarios and imaginative artifacts that can help us envision different ways of inhabiting the world. The choices made by designers are ultimately choices about the kind of world in which we want to live--expressions of our dreams, fantasies, desires, and fears. As an integrated mode of thought and action, design is intrinsically social and deeply political. In conversation with science fiction, queer and feminist theories, indigenous discourses, drag and other performative interventions, this course explores speculative and critical approaches to design as catalysts for imagining alternate presents and possible futures. We examine a number of environmental and social issues related to climate change, incarceration, gender and reproductive rights, surveillance, emerging technologies, and labor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: STS224
Prereq: None

CSPL228 Human Rights Standards

The course is replacing CSPL128 (Intro to HR Standards) as the prerequisite within the Human Rights Advocacy Minor. It provides an overview of the philosophical, legal, and institutional architecture in the field of human rights. Sessions will consider the norms, treaties, and other international instruments, oversight mechanisms, and political dimensions of human rights. This course serves as a mandatory pre-requisite for both the Human Rights Advocacy Seminar and the Human Rights Advocacy Minor, and is open to all Wesleyan students.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL230 State and Local Government

This course will cover the history of state and local government in America, the roles and functions of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches in state government, the interaction between federal, state, and local government institutions, state and local taxation and budget policies, the legislative process and how a bill becomes law in a state legislature, participation of the public in state and local government, as well as pertinent issues arising in state and local governments, with a focus on the Connecticut General Assembly.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL235 Activism and Theories of Change

In this course we will explore strategies and theories of change that shape social justice movements, with particular reference to recent movements in the United States. We will discuss the benefits and risks of the many available strategies including direct action, grassroots mobilization, impact litigation, legislative campaigns, electoral campaigns, artistic protest, and public education. We will apply concepts and lessons from past movements to explore organized actions intended to protect communities and resist authoritarianism in our current climate. What strategic, ethical, or moral questions are raised by various types of protest and communications? What do history, research, and current events teach us about what causes social change? How do we measure whether various strategies and tactics work? The instructors will draw on their own experiences as activists for women's rights, queer rights, and social and economic justice. The course will be co-taught by Distinguished Visiting Professor of Public Policy Leslie Gabel-Brett and guest instructor Beverly Tillery, former Executive Director of the Anti-Violence project in New York City, who will focus on the ways BIPOC and Queer BIPOC communities are reshaping the social justice landscape by addressing the safety of trans people, challenging the gender binary, and rethinking accountability and the carceral legal system. We will allow time to apply the course concepts to events occurring in real time during the semester. The instructors are deeply committed to maintaining a safe space for inquiry and learning where divergent opinions are welcome and respected. This course will be relevant to students interested in public policy, feminism, racial justice, gender and sexuality studies, and other social sciences, and will provide useful insight for current and future organizers and activists, lawyers, and public policy advocates.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: FGSS236, AFAM235, IDEA235
Prereq: None

CSPL237 Communicate for Good: Public Speaking and Persuasion for Social Mobilization and Change

The world needs more...democracy, justice, equality, civility, love. Diagnosing that need is only the first step in changing society. To achieve social good, you must persuade your fellow citizens that the change is worthwhile and the path to change is worth it. In this public speaking and persuasion seminar, you will learn how to communicate for good. In the first half of the seminar, you will adopt the persona of a public organizer and develop mass media messages and public speeches to promote your public good. In the second half of the seminar, you will assume the mantel of leadership and produce a short speech and video storyboard for the leader of a nonprofit organization closely associated with your public good. In both halves of the course, you will be graded on your speech preparation and implementation (i.e., writing and speech).
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: WRCT237
Prereq: None

CSPL239 Startup Incubator: The Art and Science of Launching Your Idea

The Startup Incubator is a one-semester, experiential learning program designed to teach and enable student entrepreneurs to develop sustainable business models from their ideas.



The program will bring together an ambitious, committed, and diverse group of individuals from all classes and majors who are passionate about developing successful solutions to challenges; identify as entrepreneurs, disruptors, and thought leaders; and have the tenacity, work ethic, and ability to succeed. All participating students should have a promising business idea and take the course with the intention of launching or running their own venture.



Student Incubator students actively participate in one cohort meeting a week: most are "classes" that take the form of lectures or workshops, and some are "practice days" that provide time to practice theories and methods necessary for success. Students also dedicate at least 10 additional hours per week to assignments, self-directed work, customer discovery, networking, and mentoring sessions.



This course will feel like a combination of a college class and a rigorous startup incubator program. Success is a student using theories learned in class to validate their ideas by developing and accurately testing business assumptions, identifying and researching their target market, and pivoting to develop a sustainable business model.



By enrolling, students make a commitment to themselves, the instructor, and the other members of the class.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: ENVS230
Prereq: None

CSPL240 Nonprofits and Social Change

This course explores the world of nonprofits and how they help (or don't help) the process of social change. As nonprofits increasingly address issues and concerns that governments have previously addressed, a critical analysis of how and why they carry out their work is central to the Allbritton Center's concern with public life. Each class session will include (1) background on a particular social issue (including global health, inner-city education, clean water, hunger, refugees, and national borders); (2) a case study of a nonprofit addressing that issue; and (3) discussion with leaders of that nonprofit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: None

CSPL241 What is Justice? From Philosophy to Practice

What is it that we care about when we say we care about justice? We talk about justice in a number of important areas of contemporary life: criminal justice, environmental justice, social justice, etc. Does justice mean the same thing in each of these settings? Is justice a quality of individuals, a group, or a state? This course puts the approaches of ancient philosophers (Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, etc.) into conversation with contemporary philosophers (Rawls, Sen). From this background, we will try to put these theoretical notions of justice into action in thinking through how we ought to bring about justice in a variety of different areas of life. This course can be applied towards the History, Politics, and Social Justice Track of the Classical Studies Major.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CLST
Identical With: CLST236, PHIL254
Prereq: None

CSPL242 The Sociological Imagination: Poverty, Inequality, and Ethnography

In this course, we will examine the history of poverty, incarceration, racial and economic inequality, and other issues in the United States through critical works of ethnography and narrative journalism. Drawing on readings from Charles Wright Mills, Alex Kotlowitz, Katherine Boo, Alice Goffman, Matthew Desmond, Victor Rios, and other scholars and journalists, we will examine sociological concepts, public policies, and ethnographic methodologies and understand how social structure shapes agency and the dramas of everyday life.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: WRCT242
Prereq: None

CSPL244 From Litigation to Restorative Justice: Conflict Resolution in Practice

Litigation, mediation, reconciliation, and consciousness-raising. These and other techniques can help us solve seemingly intractable conflicts. But how does a litigator, mediator, reconciler, or consciousness-raiser select an appropriate strategy for a given conflict? And once a strategy is selected, how does a conflict resolution specialist lead the parties to resolution? This course will show you the way...



In the first part of this course, we will study and practice traditional dispute resolution techniques. Each student will participate in two-person and multi-party quasi-judicial role-playing exercises and arbitrations. In the second part of the course, we will study and practice mediation, reconciliation, feminist consciousness-raising, and community-building.



We will then draw upon theory and practice readings, and our experiences, to answer questions such as: Should we match dispute resolution strategies to parties' personalities or desired outcomes? Whose conception of fairness and social good should guide our negotiation practices? Are dispute resolution techniques gendered, raced, aged, abled, etc.? We will answer some of these questions with the help of other Wesleyan students at a conflict resolution teach-in led by members of the class.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL245 Ethnography and Design

Exercising humility and developing methods of meaningful engagement are essential to becoming an effective ethnographer and designer. Collaboration with users provides knowledge that allows designers to imagine artifacts, places, and systems that are thoughtfully enhanced or radically new. This course rethinks power dynamics to better understand how to design both for and with other people. With successful completion of this course students will be able to demonstrate competence in developing, refining, and communicating research interests in a committed, reflexive manner. They will gain an understanding of the strategic and tactical value of design and a sense of the practical problems involved in realizing design solutions and responses that are attuned to the needs of both an institution and individual users. Students will gain experience not only in theoretically framing social and political issues as these are expressed through design, but also in understanding the methodological tools needed to translate problems into creative interventions that are user-centered and compassionate.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-SISP
Identical With: SISP245
Prereq: None

CSPL246 Organizations in Society: Capitalism & Its Criticisms

In this course we will explore the concept of capitalism and how it carries variegated meanings, which spans a wide range of societies and differing relationships between economic, political, and civic institutions within them. Students will have the opportunity to examine various forms and perspectives of capitalism which include contraband capitalism, racial capitalism, gendered capitalism, and scientific capitalism. We will also track how conceptions of capitalism have changed over time and globally. Primary and secondary works from the field of history, law, economics, philosophy, religion, and sociology will be incorporated to carry out the goal of the course which is to provide tools and perspectives that help students engage thoughtfully in these debates and to extend them into application in their own roles as engaged citizen, corporate, nonprofit, public, and entrepreneurial leaders.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL247 Organizations in Society: Big Business, Big Data, & Big Obligations

In this course we will examine the cultural, economic, ethical, and legal implications of analytics, big data, and computation. Drawing on various disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences, students will read works relating to the science of data collection, aggregation, and analysis. Students will learn that with opportunities for both financial gain and social good (which big data brings) come various perils, including privacy violations, disability/gender/racial discrimination, economic disruption, negative environmental spillovers, and political destabilization.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: ECON147
Prereq: None

CSPL248 Organizations in Society: Business Ethics

Capitalism and competitive markets are often considered the most efficient system of simultaneously maximizing private wealth and public good. In the real world, however, truly competitive markets do not exist. Imperfect markets have been made to work efficiently while protecting public good through systems of public intervention, i.e., laws and regulations, and voluntary self-restraint by business organizations in response to societal expectations. In this class we will consider the role of ethics in business, with students analyzing the process by which ethical norms and strongly held moral beliefs guide the conduct of economically driven business organizations. Students will reflect on business managers' responsibility to their owners, i.e., shareholders, other stakeholders, and society at large.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: ECON148
Prereq: None

CSPL249 Startup Accelerator: The Art and Science of Growing Your Idea

The Startup Accelerator is a one-semester, experiential learning program designed to build upon the foundation of CSPL 239 Startup Incubator. The program will bring together an ambitious, committed, and diverse group of individuals who are passionate about growing their social venture. The group will explore core topics such as: 1) developing a product or service beyond an MVP, 2) marketing, and 3) pitching an idea. Each founder will create and work towards specific goals for their own social venture.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: ENVS241
Prereq: CSPL239

CSPL250 An Introduction to Data Journalism

This course is designed to familiarize students with the basic principles and tools of data journalism and to provide a wider understanding of the role of basic data analysis in society. To that end, the course will focus on developing a solid familiarity with basic data analysis and visualization software. It will also focus on developing the tools of journalism: retrieving public data, interviewing people and databases, and the basic principles of journalistic writing. By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze data, identify stories within the data, and create a news story complete with data visualizations of publishable quality--a skill transferable to many fields and disciplines. Both online and traditional print platforms will be covered.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-QAC
Identical With: QAC250, WRCT250
Prereq: None

CSPL250M Science Journalism: Why Animals Matter

This is a writing intensive course on journalistic and nonfiction writing about animals. The reading will cover the importance of animals in the study of climate change, disease and environmental degradation, and the evolution of human nature. It will also consider animals as independent beings worth attention as subjects in their own right. Writing projects will emphasize basic journalistic skills and the techniques needed to translate technical material on science and public health to make it accessible and appealing to the public.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-WRCT
Identical With: WRCT250M
Prereq: None

CSPL250N Writing Reality: Journalism in an Era of Polarization and "Fake News"

How should the news media cover Donald Trump? How did the Internet, the 24-hour news cycle, and rising polarization help change the nature of journalism itself, but also lead to an era of "Fake News" accusations in which Americans exposed to different sources of information come away with completely different sets of facts? This class will explore our new digital and highly partisan media landscape, grounded in a close study of current events. We will study the impact and consequences of today's media -- both how to consume it, and how to write for it.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-WRCT
Identical With: WRCT250N
Prereq: None

CSPL250P "It's a Mess": An Academic and Practical Look at Digital Media in the Late 2010s

Hot mess. Dumpster fire. Steaming turd pile. Commentators, journalists, and the public have all used these terms to describe the state of American digital media in 2018. While the profession of journalism is more noble in this era than in previous decades, the world of media creation and consumption is far more complicated than ever before. For young people hoping to get their start in the world of digital media in the late 2010s, catching a break is even harder.



The purpose of this class is twofold: It will introduce students to the larger issues spanning digital media--from a lack of diversity and inclusion to problems with monetization and "Fake News"--while also giving them the chance to walk through what it's actually like to pitch, write, and edit for an internet publication. Students will have the opportunity to write for a class blog using strategies that the digital media world uses today, and they'll spend time giving and receiving feedback on writing.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: WRCT250P
Prereq: None

CSPL250R First Person Singular

This course will examine the techniques and skills of first person reportage, where the writer is present and part of the story. We will find and hone your own voices and points of view. We will examine the myth of objectivity; issues of fairness, accuracy, and moral relativity; the perils of cultural appropriation; the savior complex; and exoticism.



The course will include several short essays and one longer final project. It will draw on readings from The London Review of Books, The New York Times magazine, National Geographic magazine, Granta, Paris Review, The New Yorker, and the following authors: Lyn Freed, Rian Malan, Jonny Steinberg, Doris Lessing, Ryszard Kapuscinski, W.G. Sebold, Bruce Chatwin, VS Naipaul, Justice Malala, George Orwell, Zawe Ashton, Julian Sayararer, Cathy Renzenbrink, Sisonke Msimang, Thomas Paige McBee, Ahmet Altan, and Peter Godwin.



This course is offered by 2019 Koeppel Journalism Fellow, Peter Godwin. He is the author of five nonfiction books and is an award-winning journalist, war correspondent, and documentary filmmaker. Godwin's bio can be found here: https://petergodwin.com/about/
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: None
Identical With: WRCT250R
Prereq: None

CSPL250W Topics in Journalism: The Art and Craft of Journalistic Nonfiction

Journalistic nonfiction uses the tools of the newsroom to create long-form stories that read like novels. Students will learn the skills to ensnare readers in any medium of narrative nonfiction writing, from articles and books to screenplays and teleplays. Journalists excel in conducting interviews and marshaling facts. But few journos ever master the art of narrative storytelling. Nonfiction book writers can wield a narrative arc to tell a story. But many book writers are weak on basic reporting. We will read the work of newspaper reporters who learned to write long-form narratives, and magazine writers who learned the skills of the newsroom. By semester's end, students will know tools of both trades. We will hear from some of the writers about their work. To keep the focus on journalism, we will mostly skirt the genres of history and memoir. Students will write mostly in the third person, and primarily about events in living memory.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-WRCT
Identical With: WRCT250W
Prereq: None

CSPL252 Leadership & Social Innovation: Patricelli Center Impact Fellowship

In this cohort-style class, student Fellows will be introduced to a select, intergenerational group of global leaders working at various levels of government, academia, media, and the arts--and across subject areas like storytelling, climate action, social justice, youth representation, museums, and more. Fellows will engage with leading CEOs, journalists, diplomats, and artists, and directly explore their work and lived experiences across scales of impact, personal growth, and institutional transformation. Course content will be delivered via the case-method and will feature facilitated conversations, live simulations, and direct engagement between global leaders and student Fellows. Assessment will be via discussion/case preparation (reviewing background content and drafting 3-5 questions per week), in-class contribution (engaging with guests and peers), attendance (all sessions are mandatory), weekly reflections (350 words, or audio/video recording), and a final 10-15-page Personal Social Impact Plan.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL255 Culture, Commerce, and Context

In this course, students will learn the importance of "culture" in a commercial and economic context. More precisely, students will have the opportunity to examine the nexus between individual interactions and broader structure, market, and particularly business. Students will read business and organizational ethnographic works only to be reinforced with empirical research from the field of business economics. Moreover, given the study of business organizations is inherently multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, we will leverage the principles and wisdom of anthropology (i.e., business anthropology, business archaeology, design anthropology). Principles of futurity, precarity, "studying up," and "financescapes" and "economicscapes" will be explored. Students will also learn the craft of business and organizational ethnography, which is critical to the fields of entrepreneurship, engineering, marketing, and design studies -- covering the entire research process which includes designing a project, ethical considerations, and fieldwork (e.g., participant observation and interviews). In the end, students will learn why it is fundamental for current and rising leaders to understand culture and the material impacts different cultural values and preferences have on the success or failure of business.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ECON
Identical With: ECON145
Prereq: ECON101 OR ECON110

CSPL257 System Mapping for Social and Environmental Impact

In recent years, growing interest in social entrepreneurship has pushed students to "solve" complex social and environmental problems with new ventures of their own design. Unfortunately, this approach often overlooks a critical foundation of social change: understanding the root causes of problems and the contexts that surround them before seeking solutions.



In this six-week, half-credit class, students will study a problem and the systems that surround it. By the end of the course, students will create a "systems map" that documents the economic, political, and cultural factors behind their problem, as well as the current "solutions landscape."
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: AFAM257, ENVS208
Prereq: None

CSPL260 Civic Dialogue: The Art of Successful Arguments

In an era of polarization, being able to communicate, empathize, and argue effectively is more important than ever. This seminar will introduce topics and approaches to the question of how we can learn with one another from antiquity to today. Starting from analysis of the ancient practice of dialectic, we will discuss the role of debate in our lives as knowers and citizens, drawing upon thinkers from the world's first democracy. As knowers, we want to understand how we can help or harm one another in our pursuit of knowledge. As citizens, we want to understand how to communicate in the face of polarization. Both roles require us to think about what constitutes good argument and how we can effectively address deep disagreements. In this seminar, students will also be asked to put these theories behind dialectic, debate, and disagreement into practice in conversations both within the course and with the broader community within and beyond Wesleyan. This course can be applied towards the History, Politics, and Social Justice Track of the Classical Studies Major.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CLST
Identical With: CLST281, PHIL253
Prereq: None

CSPL262 Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship

In this project-based, cohort-style class, students will learn strategies for understanding social and environmental problems, and they will design interventions to create impact. Each student will select a topic to work on individually or as part of a team throughout the semester. Course material will include root cause analysis, ecosystem mapping, theory of change, human-centered design, business models, leadership and teamwork, impact metrics, storytelling, and more. Some students will develop entrepreneurial projects and ventures while others will find pathways to impact as activists, community organizers, coalition builders, artists, policy-makers, or researchers.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL262Z Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship

In this project-based class, students will learn strategies for understanding social and environmental problems, and they will design interventions to create impact. Each student will select a topic to work on individually or as part of a team. Course content will include root cause analysis, ecosystem mapping, theory of change, human-centered design, business models, metrics and evaluation, philanthropy, pitching, and more. Some students will develop real or hypothetical entrepreneurial projects and ventures while others will design pathways to impact as activists, community organizers, strategists, coalition builders, artists, researchers, or other roles. Guest speakers will be invited in to share their own work as social entrepreneurs and changemakers.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL263 Refugees in World Politics

The primary objective of this course is to provide students with i) an introductory overview of the political, economic, social, and security determinants of refugee flows; and ii) the political and social responses of receiving governments and societies to them. Using both historical and contemporary case studies, this course will highlight security concerns engendered by internal displacement and transnational migration. These include armed conflict, smuggling, trafficking, and terrorism. This course will also highlight the concepts of citizenship in receiving states, and the roles played by the international institutions in influencing state policies towards refugees.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: GOVT323
Prereq: None

CSPL264 Patricelli Center Fellowship I

The Patricelli Center Fellowship is a one-year, project-based, cohort-style learning experience. Fellows are a self-selected, committed, and diverse cohort of individuals or teams from all classes and majors who are passionate about innovation, creativity, and problem-solving; identify as entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, changemakers, activists, disruptors, designers, inventors, and/or thought leaders; and have tenacity, empathy, interdisciplinary thinking, strong work ethic, and the ability to work independently. Some Fellows will launch or run their own project or venture, while others will not.



Patricelli Center Fellows actively participate in two cohort meetings per week: some are "classes" that take the form of lectures or workshops, and some are "labs" that serve as working or discussion sessions. Fellows also dedicate 10+ additional hours per week to assignments, self-directed work, portfolio-building, and engaging other members of the Wesleyan community.



This course will feel like a combination of a Wesleyan class, a C-level position on a startup team, and an extra-curricular leadership activity. By enrolling, Fellows make a commitment to themselves, the instructor, and the other members of their cohort.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL265 Patricelli Center Fellowship II

The Patricelli Center Fellowship is a one-year, project-based, cohort-style learning experience. Fellows are a self-selected, committed, and diverse cohort of individuals or teams from all classes and majors who are passionate about innovation, creativity, and problem-solving; identify as entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, changemakers, activists, disruptors, designers, inventors, and/or thought leaders; and have tenacity, empathy, interdisciplinary thinking, strong work ethic, and the ability to work independently. Some Fellows will launch or run their own project or venture, while others will not.



Patricelli Center Fellows actively participate in two cohort meetings per week: some are "classes" that take the form of lectures or workshops, and some are "labs" that serve as working or discussion sessions. Fellows also dedicate 10+ additional hours per week to assignments, self-directed work, portfolio-building, and engaging other members of the Wesleyan community.



This course will feel like a combination of a Wesleyan class, a C-level position on a startup team, and an extra-curricular leadership activity. By enrolling, Fellows make a commitment to themselves, the instructor, and the other members of their cohort.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: CSPL264

CSPL266 Youth, Power, and Social Change

While young people have been at the helm of movements for social and racial justice throughout history, the 1990s saw the rise of youth organizing as an intentional strategy for transforming youth, communities, and the broader social and political structures and institutions that shape their lives. This course will examine the evolution of youth organizing and the ways in which it has disrupted the dominant narratives and traditional methods of youth learning and engagement at play in schools and youth service organizations. The course will explore the politics of power and identity in youth work, and the role and impact of current youth-led social change movements - from #blacklivesmatter to the work of Dreamers - in today's political climate. Please note that this course will require students to reflect on and contextualize readings and class discussion with their own lived experience and is therefore especially relevant for students that are engaged in community service, organizing and/or youth work.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL267 Project-Based Learning Lab

In this course, students will bring ideas to life through project-based learning, translating theory to practice and developing a more sophisticated understanding of subjects they are studying in their other courses.



Students will enroll in the Project-Based Learning Lab with a problem they want to address or an idea they want to build. Throughout the semester, we will build a toolbox for studying problems and designing solutions. Themes will include systems thinking, root cause analysis, ethical community research, human-centered design, lean prototyping, and data-driven evaluation. There will be an emphasis on humility, teamwork, oral communication, responsible partnership, and lean experimentation. Most students will complete the semester having launched a basic MVP (minimum viable product) and a road map for continuing to pursue their idea after the conclusion of the semester.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL268 Reporting on Global Issues: International Journalism in Action

This course is designed to introduce students to various mediums of international reporting beyond the traditional print format, like video and podcasting. Visual and auditory formats have gained widespread prominence, making journalism more accessible to diverse audiences. After delving into sourcing, research, and reporting techniques, students will engage in discussions with accomplished innovative journalists, hosts, and reporters who possess extensive experience in covering international issues. Throughout the semester, students will gain valuable insights from these conversations and collaborate in teams to produce a podcast episode for a class series focused on migration.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: CGST261, WRCT267
Prereq: None

CSPL275 Action: Art, Politics, Counterpublics

In this interdisciplinary studio course, we explore action as a category of art practice. What does it mean to take action, either individually or collectively? What does it mean to refuse to take action? Through a series of projects, assignments, and discussions, we work through various possibilities, drawing on methods from public interventions, performance, institutional critique, social practice, experimental film, and work by non-art practitioners. The course is organized around the production of student projects and research, culminating in a self-directed capstone work. In the initial stages, students will be asked to work through three distinct modalities (performance, site-specific intervention, and collaborative practice) while developing their ideas. Time will be devoted to discussion of historic and contemporary examples, including European avant-gardes (Dada, Productivism), feminist film and performance, Happenings, Indigenous performance art, and work connected to political organizing, such as the Black Panther Party, United Farm Workers, Young Lords, ACT-UP, Art Workers' Coalition, and EZLN, among others. Students will be exposed to a variety of techniques and will gain access a range of facilities, including the woodshop, digital technologies through the Digital Design Studio, etc. Depending on Covid restrictions, trips to contemporary exhibitions will provide a theoretical framework. Work in this class can be created individually or collaboratively. Depending on interest, we may also organize an end-of-semester exhibit.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: ARST265
Prereq: None

CSPL277 Community Impact: Building Capacity to Support Educational Enrichment and Socioemotional Development

In this half-credit course, students will build an intellectual and practical framework to guide their work in volunteer settings in the local community. What does it mean to "help?" How do we assess the needs of community partners and build the knowledge and skills that will allow us to address those needs? What do we need to know and understand about the people with whom we work? What does research have to say about effective tutoring techniques and practices? How can we design meaningful learning experiences? How can we maximize not only our impact in the community, but our own growth and learning?



Note: students taking this course must be engaged in at least 80 minutes per week of community service in an educational setting throughout the semester and must complete this questionnaire ( https://forms.gle/ay9xaXGn1wbxriHJ7) before enrolling
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL285 The Sociology of Reality TV: Race, Colorism, and Xenophobia

The course will explore the ways in which reality television can help us reflect on how different social identifiers such as race, skin complexion, and ethnicity operate within American culture. For many, reality TV can be easily dismissed as a guilty pleasure, escapism, or "trashy" (e.g., Dehnart, n.d.). While reality television can be labeled as an innocuous pastime, its importance and impact in American culture cannot be overlooked or denied. Moreover, the way this form of entertainment reflects American behaviors and shapes or reaffirms thinking within our society around sociological descriptors like race and culture should be studied. Through a critical lens, we will delve into the ways this genre of television portrays women of color, the audiences who watch reality TV, and whether responsibility exists on the networks who help create these shows.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-SOC
Identical With: SOC285, AFAM284
Prereq: None

CSPL286 Ukraine at War

This course will survey Ukraine's contentious history with its Russian neighbors and then track the origins and course of the current war. Each week we will have one meeting devoted to discussion of assigned readings and one meeting led by a Ukrainian lecturer speaking on Zoom. Topics to be covered include history and politics but also economics, social impacts, the plight of refugees, and cultural life.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: None
Identical With: GOVT286, REES286
Prereq: None

CSPL288 Introduction to Journalism: Constructing the News

Champions of journalism are fond of talking about bedrock values: fairness, objectivity, transparency. But like any idea -- or ideology -- these keywords have their own genealogies, and their own constructed natures; in other words, they came from somewhere. This course aims to pull apart our received notions of facticity, objectivity, and transparency in news/journalism/nonfiction, tracing their roots, understanding their historical context, and considering how we deploy them in our own work.



Students will learn the fundamentals of reporting in hands-on assignments that pull them out into the world to gather stories. This journalistic work will occur alongside class discussions of canonical (and neglected) strands of journalism history, drawn in part from Bruce Shapiro's anthology Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America. These include readings from early Black press pioneers (Ida B. Wells; Marvel Cooke); muckrakers and investigative journalists (Lincoln Steffens; Vera Connolly); and pathbreaking science journalism (Rachel Carson's Silent Spring). Readings will also include criticism that examines our present media situation, including selections from Raven Lewis Wallace's The View from Somewhere: Undoing the Myth of Journalistic Objectivity and Ben Smith's, Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-WRCT
Identical With: WRCT288, COL288, SOC206
Prereq: None

CSPL289 Displaying Clothes: Fashion in the Museum 

What are clothes doing in the museum and why do they attract so much public attention? This course explores fashion exhibitions in history and the practice of fashion curation today, a key component of critical cultural analysis. Part curatorial workshop, part seminar, in this class students consider issues that influence professional curatorial practices through readings, discussions, and site visits. Topics include the origins of museums, museum architecture, the ethics and cultural impact of collecting and display practices, the role of dress and textile objects in art, history, and science museums, visitor experience research, and the challenges facing museums in the twenty-first century. As a group the students will work on an exhibition project, developing its organization and design, object selection and research, and accompanying texts and label writing.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Identical With: IDEA289, FGSS284, SOC279
Prereq: None

CSPL290 Community Impact Residency I

The Community Impact Residency brings together Wesleyan students interested in the practice of civic engagement and a cross-section of community stakeholders -- local leaders, resident-led groups, nonprofits, and municipal government -- committed to creating just, equitable, and sustainable communities. Student participants of this program enroll in two 1.0 credit courses (CSPL290 and CSPL291) and are assigned a project which they support for the duration of the academic year. Students must commit to the entire year. Interested students must complete an application to be considered for the course which can be found here: https://forms.gle/T26LkbDQKeFtb9TG7
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL291 Community Impact Residency II

The Community Impact Residency brings together Wesleyan students interested in the practice of civic and community engagement. Enrollees engage a cross-section of community stakeholders -- local and nonprofit leaders, resident-led groups, and municipal governments -- as they support work that engages communities around the Jewett Center's focus areas and enlist student volunteers on behalf of this work. Enrollees must be hosted by a preapproved community partner, attend bi-weekly check-in with a JCCP advisory, attend monthly resident meetings, and submit reporting data at the end of the semester.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: CSPL290

CSPL297 Environmental Art: Research through Art/Art through Research

How can communities understand the conditions wrought by fossil fuel infrastructure and anthropogenic climate change? How should they confront environmental crisis and imagine ecological futures? What can we know about our environment, and what eludes us? Co-taught with visiting artist-composer Ari Benjamin Meyers, this class is a practical experiment in "Research through Art," and "Art through Research" (Dombois, 2009) focusing on the site of coal and oil-fired power plant shuttered amid heavy flooding during Hurricane Sandy. The landscapes of Manresa Island (South Norwalk, CT) include an abandoned turbine hall, a birch forest on a coal ash dump, and an array of wetland and coastal habitats. Participants will use practice-based research methods to develop works of art engaging with the site in its past, present, and future conditions. The course models artistic research methods with reference to a specific site and set of environmental conditions, bringing together students from arts/performance, sciences, humanities, and social sciences to produce site-specific works in a coastal ecosystem transformed by fossil fuel infrastructure.



At the heart of this course is a concern with what it means to be uncertain. The sciences provide tools to address problems of uncertainty. Practices of research, within and beyond the sciences, gather varied approaches to not knowing. Artists employ methods drawn from multiple academic disciplines (ethnography, sociology, history, the sciences), media (technoscience, video, audio, installation, multimedia), and sites of research (archive, laboratory, biome, habitat). While artists may engage many of the same practices as academic researchers, their works break the analytic frame. Art may be prescriptive or descriptive, didactic or agnostic, pointed or indeterminate; it may delight, frustrate, provoke, agitate, or inspire. Art may be curious or inquire; it may also make space for the experience of uncertainty. How does uncertainty make us feel? How should we respond?



Students across disciplines -- performance, visual arts, music, ecology, biology, geochemistry, history, religion, sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, government, etc. -- are encouraged to submit a statement of interest for permission of instructor (POI). The purpose of the POI is to secure a collaborative balance of students across disciplines, toward the production of environmental art that engages a broad public.



This course will require 4-6 scheduled site visits to Manresa Island in South Norwalk, CT, requiring students to leave campus by 12 p.m. Friday and return by 5 p.m. Transportation will be provided.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-HIST
Identical With: HIST297, ENVS296, STS297
Prereq: None

CSPL299 The Rest of the Story: Techniques for Investigative Reporting

Students will learn how to find out what public records exist on various topics, how to get their hands on those records, and how to use those records while reporting. Students will also learn key techniques to source development and how to engage communities that you are reporting about. Students will be teamed up to investigate a topic themselves during this semester. Students will also learn the fundamentals of journalism and the legal history of key cases. Each class will focus on a specific area of investigative journalism, including the history, the law, accessing public documents, research, narrative writing, and more.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL300 Integrative Learning Project 2: Website Incubator

Have you developed knowledge or expertise about a topic through an internship, engagement in a student organization, time studying abroad, or through some other experience that you would now like to share with the world? This is the class for you! Throughout out the semester, you will work to translate your experience into a website. I will help you do this by asking you to think about the content you would like to share, the audience with whom you would like to share it, and the goal you have for that audience. Ultimately, you will share your experience through WordPress, the world's most popular platform for website design. Along the way, you will learn about user experience (UX) design principles and research methodologies, so that the website you create draws in your audience and makes them want to learn more about your chosen topic. Throughout the semester, we will meet once a week to do all of these things in a relaxed, collaborative environment. Join us and bring along some friends!
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: None
Identical With: WRCT300, RL&L350, AFAM320, IDEA300
Prereq: None

CSPL302 Senior Seminar for Civic Engagement Minor

In this partial-credit seminar, the candidates for the Civic Engagement Minor will acquaint each other with their particular interests in and commitments to civic engagement. Under close faculty supervision, the participants will organize the course as a collaborative undertaking. Meeting biweekly, they will revisit the readings from their Practice of Democracy course, discussing them in light of their subsequent course work and practical experiences in engagement. At the end of the semester, each student will make a capstone presentation to the group.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL305 Teaching Fellowship for National Education Leaders

This course is for students to serve as Teaching Fellows for a course with the National Education Opportunity Network (neonopportunity.org), which provides college courses to Title I and Title I-eligible high schools nationwide. Please inquire with the instructor for information on course topics available this semester. Students will: -Host weekly 45-minute synchronous discussion sessions with 15-25 high school scholars via Zoom to enhance their engagement with course content, expose them to college-level seminar-style discussions, and help improve their analytical and metacognitive skills. -Evaluate and provide feedback on student work. Specific time assignments for sessions with high school students and required Teaching Fellow group meetings will be scheduled at the same time every week based on availability. This course counts for 10 hours toward the 20-hour practicum requirement in the EDST major or minor. The other 10 hours can be completed by repeating this class or through an independent practicum.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-EDST
Identical With: EDST405, QAC302, PHIL208
Prereq: None

CSPL306 Community-Engaged Qualitative Research: Teacher Voices

This course will focus on context-specific community based participatory research methods. The research project undertaken in fall 2025 will be investigating the experiences of local public school teachers. The goal of the project is to elevate the voices of public school teachers as they navigate the changing educational landscape and to explore the space between public perceptions/depictions of teachers and the reality of their work by creating textured portraits of individual teachers and their classrooms. Students will learn theories and methods of community-engaged research through scholarly study and hands-on experience gathering and analyzing qualitative and ethnographic data, primarily interviews and observations, with a focus on Lightfoot's methods of Portraiture in social science research. Students should be prepared to engage deeply with community members. Some travel within Connecticut will be required. Previous coursework in Education Studies preferred.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL307 Religious Subjects to Ethnic Minorities: Armenians in Turkey Between Empire and Republic

After World War I, Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points articulated a new vision for an international order based not on imperial ambition but on the self-determination of nations. Though empire persisted as a viable political form through the Second World War, the interwar years saw the breakup of some of the world's oldest dynastic empires into the much newer nation-state: the Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and Imperial Russia all gave way to new political entities. At the same time, a transformation in the idea of political belonging occurred: citizenship now dominated the older concept of imperial subjects, and an idea of a national minority protected by an international regime of minority rights emerged. These ideas profoundly reshaped national and international politics.



This course focuses on the Armenians of Turkey across the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey, established in 1923. It uses the Armenians of Turkey as a case study in the emergence of secular nationalism as the dominant political ideal of the 20th century. Students will not only learn the history of the late Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey, and the history of the Armenian minority in the Middle East, but will explore the transition from empire to republic at the end of the 19th century through the twin lenses of secularism and nationalism. Drawing on Ottoman and Turkish history, Armenian history, political science, and anthropology, the course introduces debates about nationalism, secularism, minority rights, and political belonging through the emphasis on Armenians in Turkey.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL308 Mayflower to Trump: Evangelicals and Fundamentalists in America

This course examines the history of American evangelicalism and fundamentalism, beginning with a brief overview of Protestantism in the colonial and revolutionary eras. Then, the course examines revivalism, slavery, and the emergence of fundamentalism during the 19th century. Special attention is paid to the re-emergence of evangelicalism after World War II, the establishment of the religious right, global evangelicalism, and subcultures (such as Christian music). The course concludes by investigating the core evangelical support for the candidacy and presidency of Donald Trump. Students will be challenged to consider the ways issues of gender, race, and economics have shaped fundamentalism and evangelicalism, and reflect on how these movements' views of American history contribute to their own sense of identity and purpose.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-HIST
Identical With: HIST308, RELI308
Prereq: None

CSPL309Z Environmental Justice Advocacy: Assessing Law, Community-Based Engagement, and More

ONLINE COURSE: Synchronous class meetings via Zoom,10am-noon and 2-5pm. Classes held Jan 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18. (Please note: Students should expect some readings and assignments to be due during winter break, prior to the beginning of Winter Session class meetings.) The concept of "environmental justice" focuses on the equitable distribution of pollution and health burdens--such as the siting of fossil fuel infrastructure and pollution-emitting facilities--as well as benefits such as clean air and clean water. Procedural justice and restorative justice are also key demands of the environmental justice movement. In addition, as communities of color and low-income communities disproportionately bear the burdens of climate change and resulting "climate gentrification," the overlap between environmental injustice and climate change is becoming increasingly apparent. After a brief introduction to the concept of environmental justice, this course will focus on advocacy efforts to promote environmental justice and, in particular, the benefits and limitations of various tools including the law, grassroots organizing, and policy work. For their final project, students will use what they learn in the course to design and propose their own environmental justice intervention. By the end of the course, students will understand the history, foundational theory, and key case studies of environmental justice as well as the tools and strategies that environmental justice advocates use. Syllabi for Winter Session courses will be posted to https://www.wesleyan.edu/wintersession/courses.html as soon as they are available.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: ENVS268Z
Prereq: None

CSPL310 Community-Engaged Philosophy: Teaching the Search for a Good Life

In this half-credit course, students who have successfully served as discussion facilitators for PHIL210: Living a Good Life will learn how to teach an abbreviated version of the course to local high school students in a nine-week voluntary after-school program. Having been trained in this special approach to discussion facilitation for their fall semester work in PHIL210, students will be able to deepen their knowledge of both course content (philosophy) and their facilitation skills through guided experiential learning. Course topics will focus on the skills of learning through close observation and reflection on one's teaching (reflective practice), understanding one's students (adolescent development, cultural consciousness), and pedagogical knowledge regarding lesson planning, student engagement, developing productive classroom climate, promoting self-directed learning, and authentic assessment. Students must have served as discussion facilitators/leaders for PHIL210.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: PHIL206
Prereq: None

CSPL311 Community Impact Practicum: Building Capacity to Support Educational Enrichment

In this practicum course, students will build an intellectual and practical framework to guide their volunteer work in educational settings in the local community. What does it mean to "help"? How do we assess the needs of community partners and build the knowledge and skills that will allow us to address those needs? What do we need to know and understand about the people with whom we work? What does research have to say about effective tutoring techniques and practices? How can we design meaningful learning experiences? How can we maximize not only our impact in the community, but also our own growth and learning? Through reflection on experiential learning and the study of scholarship addressing these questions, students will develop knowledge and skills to improve their effectiveness in supporting educational enrichment. Students taking this course must be engaged in at least 90 minutes per week of community service in an educational setting throughout the semester. Please note: If you are looking for a practicum that is more focused on the K-12 classroom experience, please see EDST310: Practicum in Education Studies. In that practicum seminar, students carry out their own independent study related to their classroom placement.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-EDST
Identical With: EDST311
Prereq: None

CSPL312 The United Nations and Human Rights: Advocacy, Institutional Reforms, and Change in Turbulent Times

Human rights advocacy efforts frequently involve the United Nations in some capacity. Human rights activists frequently seek to raise awareness about a human rights issue before one of several UN institutions, or they might draw on norms or concepts that emerged from the United Nations. They might also wish to contribute to ongoing discussions at the international level, harnessing the perspectives of their constituencies and their field experience to influence the shape of normative development at the global level. Despite the importance of the UN for human rights as a field, only a small circle of UN-specialists, insiders, and scholars understand and know to maneuver the institutional human rights machinery of the UN. This "black box" phenomenon is even more daunting for many of the communities and social activists meant to benefit most from the UN's human rights mechanisms. This course is an attempt to pierce that "black box," and to allow at least the graduates of this course to serve as effective "interpreters" of the UN human rights institutional landscape for the benefit of vulnerable individuals and communities. Students will contribute directly to human rights initiatives targeting the UN (or UN-adjacent institutions) as part of their human rights as part of their advocacy agenda. These projects will focus on a range of human rights issues (ex: climate change & migration, transitional justice, and the development of a human rights based governance approach to new and emerging technologies). Students will be active participants in the design of the course curriculum, directing their (our) collective learning around those issues most relevant to our advocacy projects.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: CSPL128

CSPL314 The Health of Communities

Our focus will be on understanding the role of social factors (e.g., income, work environment, social cohesion, food, transportation systems) in determining the health risks of individuals; considering the efficacy, appropriateness, and ethical ramifications of various public health interventions; and learning about the contemporary community health center model of care in response to the needs of vulnerable populations. In this overview, we explore the history of social medicine, the importance of language in public health efforts to conceptualize and frame health concerns, the complexity of any categorization of persons in discussions of health and illness, ethical issues related to the generation and utilization of community-based research, the role of place and the importance of administrative and cultural boundaries in the variability of health risk, and the idea of just health care. Enrolled students serve as research assistants to preceptors at Middletown's Community Health Center (CHC) & Moses Weitzman Research Institute.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.25
Gen Ed Area: SBS-SOC
Identical With: STS315, SOC315
Prereq: None

CSPL315 Policy and War through Film

This course explores how America's policies and wars interact with culture and identity. It combines films and readings to gain a deeper understanding of film as an artifact of culture, war, and identity. The course begins with a discussion of key foundational works to frame a common understanding about strategy, war, and American strategic culture. It then combines film viewings and critical scholarship to discover how the interpretations of America's wars through film shape American citizens' perceptions of war and their military. The films, readings, and seminar discussions will help students develop a better understanding of the differences between the realities and the perceptions of policy and war. This course lies at the intersection of international relations, history, and conflict studies. Participation in this course will increase the students' understanding of how U.S. policy, war, culture, and identity interact. It will also sharpen critical thinking and writing.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: GOVT315
Prereq: None

CSPL316 Intro to Human Rights Advocacy Seminar

This course is limited to students already admitted into the Human Rights Advocacy Minor (HRAD-MN).



Fresh from having completed the Human Rights Standards Course (CSPL-228), you will already have a good understanding of how global and domestic human rights institutions should (in principle) function to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights norms. In this 1.5 credit seminar we turn our attention towards the specific methods of human rights activism. The seminar is structured as an intensive workshop where we practice and refine skills, challenge ourselves and our classmates to reflect deeply about our emerging identities as aspiring human rights activists, eat lunch together, and prepare actively for our human rights fact-finding practicum (which will take place during the summer break).



The course continues some of the themes raised during the Human Rights Standards course. We will discuss what others have written about the ethics of "doing" human rights, but we will also develop our own personal ethical framework in anticipation of our own field research. Likewise, we will read what others have written about the process of effectuating attitudinal change about human rights, but we will also refine our own theories of change in the real-world contexts in which we will soon be working. Much of our learning will come about experientially and through thoughtful discussion, so please come to class prepared to engage.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: GOVT396
Prereq: CSPL128 OR CSPL228

CSPL317 Social and Political Perspectives on Digital Media

This course examines the intersection between social media, politics, and society, analyzing platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram to understand their role in our lives, in our political discourse and in shaping our culture. We examine the positives of social media including social activism, the democratization of news, and heightened capacities for community, communication, and connectivity. We also delve into the darker side of these platforms, exploring the proliferation of fake news, hate speech, terrorist networks, and gendered issues including trolling and cyber harassment. This is an interdisciplinary course and in it we will draw upon a broad range of social theories including science and technology studies, communication theory, linguistics, cultural studies, and media studies to understand the complex role of digital media in contemporary society.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL317Z Social and Political Perspectives on Social and Digital Media

This course examines the intersection between social media, politics, and society, analyzing platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram to understand their role in our lives, in our political discourse and in shaping our culture. We examine the positives of social media including social activism, the democratization of news, and heightened capacities for community, communication, and connectivity. We also delve into the darker side of these platforms, exploring the proliferation of fake news, hate speech, terrorist networks, and gendered issues including trolling and cyber harassment. This is an interdisciplinary course and in it we will draw upon a broad range of social theories including science and technology studies, communication theory, linguistics, cultural studies, and media studies to understand the complex role of digital media in contemporary society.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL318 Global Populism and the US Election. Are we witnessing a populism uprising?

In this course, we will unpack the factors pushing communities worldwide toward these political ideologies as well as the impact it has on global politics and international relations. We'll take a deep dive into the 2020 campaign cycle in the age of digital campaigning and online voting and analyze how Donald Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders are shaping our political discourse and how they fit into the global trend of populism. We'll study the defeat of democratic movements like the Arab Spring and the rise of authoritarian regimes in the region. Additionally, we'll break down how the failure of democratic movements in the MENA region led to the refugee crisis, which in turn inspired right-wing radicalization within Europe and the United States. This course provides an overview of the political landscape of the populism movements in the U.S. and around the world, focusing on the collapse of democratic movements and the rise of populist leaders like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro, and Marine Le Pen, among others. We'll begin with a brief overview of the history of populism and the theory behind it, before breaking down modern applications.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL318Z Global Populism and the U.S. Election

In this course we will unpack the factors pushing communities worldwide toward these political ideologies, as well as the impact they have on global politics and international relations. We'll take a deep dive into the 2020 campaign cycle in the age of digital campaigning and online voting and analyze how Donald Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders are shaping our political discourse and how they fit into the global trend of populism. We'll study the defeat of democratic movements like the Arab Spring and the rise of authoritarian regimes in the region. Additionally, we'll break down how the failure of democratic movements in the MENA region led to the refugee crisis, which in turn inspired right-wing radicalization within Europe and the United States. This course provides an overview of the political landscape of the populism movements in the U.S. and around the world, focusing on the collapse of democratic movements and the rise of populist leaders like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro, and Marine Le Pen, among others. We'll begin with a brief overview of the history of populism and the theory behind it, before breaking down modern applications.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL319 The Voice(s) of Expertise: How Podcasting Is Changing the Way We Listen and Learn

In this course, students will examine the changing nature of audio news and storytelling, and the extent to which traditional understanding of the voice of expertise is being disrupted by the rise of podcasting and other on-demand audio forms. The evolving digital media landscape has brought about an historic shift in the delivery of news and information. The shift has been celebrated--"the media has been democratized"--and reviled--"the media is too fractured and people are living in information bubbles." The shift is, at the very least, unsettling, in particular for journalists who find themselves working in an environment where the old rules and training seem outdated. But it also presents significant opportunities, especially in audio and broadcast journalism. The rise of podcasting, in particular, may challenge norms on how journalists explore and explain complex issues, and on who we hear as voices of expertise. This course will be a combination of media criticism, a study of best practices in journalism, and design thinking. As students examine the impact of new media on news and journalism, they will also develop their own ideas for on-demand audio (including podcast design) throughout the semester, working on an individual project, and in collaboration with other students.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: WRCT250V
Prereq: None

CSPL320 Collaborative Cluster Initiative Research Seminar I

This course will supplement the seminars providing historical and cultural background of the prison system in the United States. The emphasis will be on the practical application of topics engaged in the other seminars and contemporary concerns related to the prison system in the United States. We will follow current debates at both the national and state level, including legislation, media, and university initiatives. Students will also visit local sites. Speakers will visit the class to share their experiences and expertise. Students will conduct individual research projects and present them in workshop fashion.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL321 Collaborative Cluster Initiative Research Seminar II

Students participating in the Collaborative Cluster Initiative will take this course in the spring semester. They will continue with projects started in the fall semester. This is a continuation of CSPL320.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL322 Methods and Frameworks for Understanding and Overcoming Health Disparities

In recent years especially, the need for both interdisciplinary and mixed approaches to inquiries in public health research has become apparent in health promotion, policy formation and evaluation, service needs assessment, the social determinants of health, and program evaluation and outcomes measurement more generally. This course is intended to provide an overview of methodologies and frameworks used to examine and overcome disparities in health through research. A range of quantitative and qualitative research designs and methods will be introduced, and strategies to address challenges in real world program settings will be emphasized. This course will discuss approaches commonly used in public health and health services research, such as mixed methods, implementation science, community-based participatory research, and their strengths and limitations. Additionally, this course will examine how critical race theory and intersectionality, and additional theories and frameworks from ethnic studies, psychology, and sociology, can further advance public health's capacity and effectiveness in promoting health equity. The course will incorporate examples of applied research and opportunities to learn from the direct experiences of the instructor. There will be a mixture of discussion and lecture depending on the topic, with student participation and questions strongly encouraged. Preference will be given to students who have taken SOC/SISP 315 Health of Communities or SISP 262/SOC 259 Cultural Studies of Health.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: STS322
Prereq: None

CSPL323 Human Rights: Contemporary Challenges

This course will examine various pressing challenges to human rights in the US and around the world, based around a series of talks by visitors who are practitioners in the field. Topics covered range from refugees and war crimes to housing and educational access.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: GOVT283
Prereq: None

CSPL328 Advanced Human Rights Advocacy

This course will enable students admitted into the Human Rights Advocacy Minor (HRAM) to engage in critical assessment of human rights advocacy after having participated in field work. To be eligible for this course, students must already have taken CSPL 316 (Intro Human Rights Advocacy). The course will involve seminar discussions and readings that assess the strengths, weaknesses, and challenges facing the human rights movement domestically and internationally. In addition, students will be responsible for project-based work guided by Professor Sonnenberg.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: CSPL316

CSPL329 Wars of Resistance in Scholarship and Film

This course explores the theory, practice, and interpretation of wars that see ostensibly stronger powers wage wars against relatively weaker resistance movements. It combines scholarly readings and interpretive films to gain a deeper understanding of how and why resistance and insurgency can prevail when confronting adversaries who are numerically superior. Students will analyze the inescapable paradoxes that can make wars of asymmetry difficult for stronger states. The seminar discussions will develop a keener grasp of the logic that permeates wars where the weak resist invasion and occupation. This course intersects international security studies, history, and conflict studies. This course will improve knowledge about asymmetric wars and for critical analysis. Though there are no prerequisites, it is desirable that students have previously taken a course in conflict studies or war.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: GOVT316
Prereq: None

CSPL330 Policy and Strategy in War and Peace

This course explores how the relations, relationships, and discourse between senior national civilian and military leaders influence the development and execution of policy and strategy in war and peace. In theory, the purpose of war is to achieve a political end that sees a better peace. In practice, the nature of war is to serve itself if it is not influenced and constrained by continuous discourse and analysis associated with good civil-military relations between senior leaders. This course begins with discussion of the key foundational works to build a common understanding. It then explores how civil-military interaction influenced strategy in war and peace for each decade from the Vietnam War to the present. The readings and seminar discussions also examine how the outcomes of wars influenced civil-military relations and the subsequent peace or wars. This course lies at the intersection of international relations, history, and conflict studies. Students will gain greater understanding of how U.S. policy makers, strategy, and war interact, while honing their critical thinking and writing skills.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Identical With: GOVT330
Prereq: None

CSPL332 Just Cities: Architectures of Public Encounter

What is "the public," and how has it been conceived, relative to notions of the urban--to the web of ideas, forms, and fantasies constituting "the city"? Can art and architecture play a role in defining the public, or does the public's political and social construction place it outside the scope of specifically aesthetic concerns? This course addresses these and other related questions, positioning art and architecture in their broader cultural and historical contexts. It explores a range of socially charged, experiential, and participatory aesthetic and political practices, characterized by their distinctly public character and decidedly architectural and urban settings. At its core, it is concerned with issues of social justice as they relate to the material spaces of the modern city, and the manner in which those spaces are identified, codified, and made operative in the service of aesthetic, social, and political experience.



This course will be taught by M. Surry Schlabs, Yale School of Architecture.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: ARHA257
Prereq: None

CSPL333 Music Movements in a Capitalist Democracy

This course will focus on music movements that have used the presentation, expression, and production of music and music events to facilitate sociopolitico transitions. The vital context of these movements is the United States in particular, where the speed and power of commerce, as well as the concentration of capital, present unique opportunities for progressive values and goals in music.



We will look at huge events such as the Newport festivals, Woodstock, Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, Lillith Fair, and Bonaroo, and examine how these movements have both evolved and spread their tendrils into the world (if they have). We will also spend some time on smaller, grassroots venues and music series in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, and New York and see how blues, folk, punk, and "Americana" venues have affected and interacted with their communities. We will look at how music scenes evolved and grew and sometimes became institutions, like the Chicago Old Town School of Music.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL337 Practicing Democracy

Organizing can make a difference in addressing major public challenges that require civic action, especially by those whose voices will lead, by identifying, recruiting, and developing more leadership; building community around that leadership; and building power from the resources of that community. In this course, each student accepts responsibility for organizing constituents to achieve an outcome by the end of the semester. As reflective practitioners, students learn from critical analysis of their leadership of this campaign. We focus on five key practices: turning values into motivated action through narrative; building relationships committed to common purpose; structuring leadership collaboratively; strategizing to turn resources into the power to achieve outcomes; and turning commitments into measurable action enabling learning, accountability, and adaption.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL338 Writing for Advocacy

This course will provide practical and conceptual training in writing that advances human rights. Students will read and create advocacy in a variety of forms, including op-eds and investigative journalism, legal briefs, historical essays, public letters, screenplays, poems, and social-media campaigns. They will examine the role writing can play in advancing human rights as well as its unintended consequences; debate the ethics of bearing witness, especially in the Global South; and analyze what makes written advocacy successful, or not, and why. Students will also consider advocacy strategies in an age of social media, disinformation, and the rise of AI. The course includes a two-week case study on Haiti-related advocacy. Throughout, students will practice elements of written advocacy, including citation, analysis, and evidence-based argument. Once students receive their UNHR project assignments, they will apply the skills learned in the class to create project-based advocacy packages.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: CSPL128 OR CSPL228

CSPL341 Topics in Education, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship: Transformative Practices in School Reforms

This seminar provides students the opportunity to explore critical topics within the school reform movement; be introduced to perspectives from a diverse group of stakeholders (e.g., CEOs, administrators, lawyers, parents, students, authors, scholars); work closely with the professor to further investigate one of the course topics in-depth, and present/disseminate their own conclusions and recommendations to an external audience.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL341B Topics in Education, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship: Social Entreprenurship in Education

This seminar focuses upon educational innovation and entrepreneurship as a form of social entrepreneurship, some of society's greatest challenges in education. Students will survey critical issues in contemporary education and explore innovative and entrepreneurial efforts to address these issues. Learners will explore how diverse education startups, non-profit organizations, and non-governmental organizations, individuals and grassroots groups, K-12 schools, universities, foundations, professional associations and others are responding to these issues in innovative ways. As the course progresses, students will explore the roles of foundations, corporations, and government policies and regulations upon educational innovation and entrepreneurship. As part of this course, learners will work individually or in groups to research solutions to a pressing contemporary educational challenge and propose or pitch a means of addressing that challenge through social entrepreneurship.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL341C Entrepreneurship in Education: Past, Present, and Future

Entrepreneurship plays an increasingly important role in the American public education system. This course examines the historic roots of entrepreneurship in education, looking at both the business side of entrepreneurism and the more recent emergence of social entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the course examines the current debates in the United States about the engagement of business with education, addressing such concerns as the proper role of risk, profit motives, privatization, and neoliberalism. The New Orleans public school system will serve as a case study for investigation in this discussion. Students will better understand the entrepreneurial personality, the sources of innovation, and the promise and pitfalls of entrepreneurism in public K-12 schooling.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL341D Topics in Education, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship: A Law and Policy Perspective

Entrepreneurial ideas in education invariably raise rich questions of policy and law. Innovations in the public schools, such as charter schools, the use of student test scores (e.g., value added modeling) to evaluate teachers, and alternative pathways to the profession (e.g., Teach for America) engender deep debate and discussion in policy and legal circles. This course will explore (from both a law and policy lens) the various education reform ideas that have been instituted or debated and characterized as innovative or entrepreneurial. The course material will be framed in a way to be accessible to those with a general interest in the area of education but without a background in law and policy per se. The course will draw heavily from guest lecturers and entrepreneurs working in the field.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CSPL
Prereq: None

CSPL341E Topics in Education: Introduction to Educational Law, Policy, and Educational Reform

This seminar examines how constitutions, statutes, and court cases impact the rights of students and faculty in K-12 education. It also examines how parents and students have used the law to advocate for equal educational opportunity. Finally, this seminar discusses the legal dimension of education reform measures, such as charter schools and school vouchers.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL341G Applied Entrepreneurship: From Idea to Exit

Applied Entrepreneurship: From Idea to Exit provides students with a practical, hands-on introduction to the entrepreneurial journey. Drawing on the perspective of a female founder and CEO with experience building and leading a digital health company through to acquisition, students will explore the full venture lifecycle -- from identifying opportunities and shaping ideas, to launching, scaling, and ultimately exiting a business. The course emphasizes entrepreneurial thinking, problem-solving, and resilience while equipping students with real-world tools such as customer discovery, business model design, fundraising, growth strategies, and exit planning. Combining interactive discussions, case studies, and experiential projects, this course offers students both the mindset and skillset not only to build ventures, but also to bring entrepreneurial approaches to established businesses, nonprofits, and beyond.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL357 Saving the Republic: Lessons from Plato for our Time

More than two thousand years ago, Plato addressed the pressing issues of the day: the rise of the oligarchy, dwindling of public deliberation, increasing political factionalism, and erosion of credible information. Some argue that the lessons of his Socratic exchanges, captured in The Republic, are valuable to this day. In this course, students will immerse themselves in 403 B.C.E., a crucial moment in Athenian democracy. Following a close reading of The Republic, the classroom will become the Athenian state. Each member of the class will assume a particular place in Athenian society and in the factions of the day using highly-developed roles from the Reacting to the Past curriculum. As members of the gathered assembly, students will debate divisive issues such as citizenship, elections, re-militarization, and the political process. Then, students will develop, rehearse, and publicly perform a one-act play at the Russell Library in Middletown. The play will be set in ancient Athens and will demonstrate factionalism, information asymmetry, political brokering, and other political issues of that era. Following the performance, the students will engage the audience in a Q&A about the relevance of the play's themes for today. Students will be assessed in five ways: 1. Content quizzes on The Republic, 2. Written preparation for debates/assemblies, 3. Oral presentations in debates/assemblies, 4. Contribution to the class public performance, and 5. A short paper analyzing The Republic's relevance for contemporary United States.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-WRCT
Identical With: WRCT357, GOVT357
Prereq: None

CSPL357Z Saving the Republic: Lessons from Plato for our Time

More than two thousand years ago, Plato addressed the pressing issues of the day: the rise of the oligarchy, dwindling of public deliberation, increasing political factionalism, and erosion of credible information. Some argue that the lessons of his Socratic exchanges, captured in The Republic, are valuable to this day. In this course, students will immerse themselves in 403 B.C.E., a crucial moment in Athenian democracy. Following a close reading of The Republic, the classroom will become the Athenian state. Each member of the class will assume a particular place in Athenian society and in the factions of the day using highly-developed roles from the Reacting to the Past curriculum. As members of the gathered assembly, students will debate divisive issues such as citizenship, elections, re-militarization, and the political process. Then, students will develop, rehearse, and publicly perform a one-act play at the Russell Library in Middletown. The play will be set in ancient Athens and will demonstrate factionalism, information asymmetry, political brokering, and other political issues of that era. Following the performance, the students will engage the audience in a Q&A about the relevance of the play's themes for today. Students will be assessed in five ways: 1. Content quizzes on The Republic, 2. Written preparation for debates/assemblies, 3. Oral presentations in debates/assemblies, 4. Contribution to the class public performance, and 5. A short paper analyzing The Republic's relevance for contemporary United States.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: WRCT357Z, GOVT357Z
Prereq: None

CSPL360 Community-Engaged Qualitative Research: Teacher Voices

This course will focus on context-specific community based participatory research methods. The research project undertaken in fall 2025 will be investigating the experiences of local public school teachers. The goal of the project is to elevate the voices of public school teachers as they navigate the changing educational landscape and to explore the space between public perceptions/depictions of teachers and the reality of their work by creating textured portraits of individual teachers and their classrooms. Students will learn theories and methods of community-engaged research through scholarly study and hands-on experience gathering and analyzing qualitative and ethnographic data, primarily interviews and observations, with a focus on Lightfoot's methods of Portraiture in social science research. Students should be prepared to engage deeply with community members. Some travel within Connecticut will be required. Previous coursework in Education Studies preferred.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL366 A History of Incarceration in the United States

This course examines the history of incarceration in the United States from the 18th century to the late 20th century. It begins with history of indentured servitude in the colonial era and then considers the intensification of the enslavement of blacks in the 19th century as well as the expansion of prisons in the 20th century. The course seeks to engage how systems of confinement accompanied the development of a political system based on the languages of liberty.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-HIST
Identical With: HIST366
Prereq: None

CSPL374 Censorship, Culture Wars, and Controversy in Art

Art history is marked by various forms of state, community, or institutional censorship. Such events can be flash points in culture wars, as in the United States in 1989, when four artists--most of them queer--were denied funding from the National Endowment for the Arts after their work was deemed "obscene." Sometimes art that unearths sensitive cultural histories can lead to calls for destruction, as in Sam Durant's 2012 work Scaffold, which referenced state violence against the Dakota people, leading tribe members to protest what they felt was Durant's insensitive handling of the subject. Events like these raise key questions within art and broader society: Who should have the authority to decide which art should be exhibited, and to what audiences? What constitutes censorship? When might censorship, or the curtailing of speech, be justified?

This course will examine these questions focusing on the 20th and 21st centuries in the United States, but also global contemporary art. We will consider such issues in the wake of a recent spate of museum exhibitions canceled due to controversial content, the dismantling of monuments to colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade, as well as today's culture wars as conservative book bans make headlines and hate speech abounds. We will also explore new channels for arts funding, exhibition, and publishing that emerge in response to censorship. In addition to important texts by art historians including Sarah Parsons, Aruna D'Souza, and Rosalyn Deutsche, among others, we will also read interdisciplinary legal scholars like Sonya Katyal and Amy Adler who write from the perspective of law and policy. We will also read the landmark Supreme Court case NEA v. Finley. Assignments include an in-depth case study of a canceled exhibition.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CHUM
Identical With: CHUM375, ARHA262
Prereq: None

CSPL375 Veteran Scholars Introduction to Student Life and Community: First-Year I

The purpose of this seminar is to help integrate Veteran Scholars into Wesleyan student life and to familiarize students with the range of academic programs, resources and community engagement opportunities at Wesleyan. It will include topics presented by students, faculty and staff to stimulate discourse and improve veteran student knowledge of the opportunities, services, and resources available.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: None

CSPL376 Veteran Scholars Introduction to Student Life and Community: First-Year II

Purpose of this seminar is to develop presentation and group discussion skills: to integrate students into Wesleyan student life; and to familiarize students with the range of study programs and community programs at Wesleyan. It will introduce a host of topics and staff to stimulate discourse and improve veteran student knowledge of the full gamut of opportunities, service, and resources available at Wesleyan. It meets one/week for an hour.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: None

CSPL377 Posse Veterans Introduction to Student Life and Community: Sophomore I

Purpose of this seminar is to develop presentation and group discussion skills: to integrate students into Wesleyan student life; and to familiarize students with the range of study programs and community programs at Wesleyan. It will introduce a host of topics and staff to stimulate discourse and improve veteran student knowledge of the full gamut of opportunities, service, and resources available at Wesleyan. It meets one/week for an hour.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: None

CSPL378 Posse Veterans Introduction to Student Life and Community: Sophomore II

Purpose of this seminar is to develop presentation and group discussion skills: to integrate students into Wesleyan student life; and to familiarize students with the range of study programs and community programs at Wesleyan. It will introduce a host of topics and staff to stimulate discourse and improve veteran student knowledge of the full gamut of opportunities, service, and resources available at Wesleyan. It meets one/week for an hour.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: None

CSPL381 Intermediate Public Practice

What are the possibilities and challenges of making work in the public domain? This intermediate studio course provides students with the framework, conceptual language, and technical means to develop ambitious projects in public space. Over the course of the semester, students will be introduced to a range of working methods, including new genre public art, research-based practices, site-specific projects, and collaborative practices. While the course focuses on contemporary issues and debates, it situates these topics within a set of broader global and historical traditions. Through group discussions, critiques, site visits, and presentations, the course will assist students in developing a series of works that build towards a self-directed final project. We look thematically at a range of sites as spaces of memory and belonging, sociality and resistance. We explore the manifold ways in which people have engaged with place through a range of forms, including roadside monuments, site-specific sculptures, landscape films, community-based performances, architectural interventions, collective rituals, and political protests. Attention will be placed on sites around Middletown in order to situate our research and practice. These may include Harbor Park, Middlesex Historical Society, Beman Triangle, Connecticut Valley Hospital, Colt Armory, Portland Brownstone Quarries, among others. Support will be provided to students along the way in negotiating relationships with local institutions and stakeholders. Supplementary readings will introduce students to questions related to spatial theory and practice, agonism and democracy, monuments and counter-monuments. Successful completion of the course will prepare students for advanced work in the public domain. Course is open to all students. Preference given to students who have taken ARST131 and ARST235 or ARST238 or ARST239 or ARST245 or ARST 251 or ARST286 or other course in a related discipline.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: ARST381
Prereq: None

CSPL390Z Connecticut's Industrial Heritage

The aim of this course is to give students a better understanding of the historical industrial merits and legacy of Connecticut while considering the value and challenges of its physical and interpretive remains. While focusing on New Haven, students will be challenged to discover and synthesize Middletown's historically chief industries, industrialists, inventions, workforce, and remaining factory sites. Professor Caplan brings his experience as a historical architect, historian, genealogist, author, National Register consultant, and tour operator to provide students with a well-rounded understanding of how history, preservation, architecture, social science, and environmental justice come together in actual projects.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL397 Human Rights and the 2020 Elections

This seminar will examine the principal candidates for the presidency (and selected candidates for other major electoral positions) from the perspective of human rights. To begin, we will spend the first several weeks studying basic human rights standards, as well as the challenges to the promotion of international human rights standards in the United States. We will then turn to particular rights and clusters of rights, considering the policies proposed by various candidates and their implications for human rights. After review of the particular right or cluster of rights, students will work in small groups to research and present the proposals of the various candidates to the class. In addition, representatives of the candidates will be invited to engage with the class (as well as in broader fora on campus).
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL399 Understanding the 2020 Presidential Election

In understanding the 2020 Presidential Election, students will learn how to read skeptically the political press and how to write critically about presidential campaign politics. Along the way, the course will touch on electoral history, political and social thought, public policy, media criticism, and much more. Students will read past examples of thought-provoking and influential commentary. They will read current coverage in the legacy press of the 2020 presidential election and come to class prepared to discuss the most important stories and issues of the week. Students will have the opportunity to learn about electoral politics and political writing alongside a veteran journalist. Students who have experience working for political campaigns will have a chance to share their knowledge and help the class incorporate their experience in a larger historical framework. They will have a chance to see their work published in the Editorial Board, the lecturer's daily politics newsletter. Students will attempt to do what political writers do in real-time: explain what's happening from a unique, particular, and informed point of view for the benefit of like-minded citizens seeking to achieve the ideal of self-government. In the end, the hope is that students see that campaign politics is simpler and more complex than it appears, but that neither is obvious without study, focus, and understanding.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL399Z Understanding the 2020 Presidential Election

In understanding the 2020 Presidential Election, students will learn how to read skeptically the political press and how to write critically about presidential campaign politics. Along the way, the course will touch on electoral history, political and social thought, public policy, media criticism, and much more. Students will read past examples of thought-provoking and influential commentary. They will read current coverage in the legacy press of the 2020 presidential election and come to class prepared to discuss the most important stories and issues of the week. Students will have the opportunity to learn about electoral politics and political writing alongside a veteran journalist. Students who have experience working for political campaigns will have a chance to share their knowledge and help the class incorporate their experience in a larger historical framework. They will have a chance to see their work published in the Editorial Board, the lecturer's daily politics newsletter. Students will attempt to do what political writers do in real-time: explain what's happening from a unique, particular, and informed point of view for the benefit of like-minded citizens seeking to achieve the ideal of self-government. In the end, the hope is that students see that campaign politics is simpler and more complex than it appears, but that neither is obvious without study, focus, and understanding.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL401 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CSPL402 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CSPL404 Department/Program Project or Essay

Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

CSPL405 Ideals into Practice

Through this course, students gain access to an e-portfolio to make connections between their academic curriculum and the practical experience they gain through campus employment, off-campus internships, community service, and extracurricular activities. By engaging in deep reflection about the skills they are gaining throughout their time at Wesleyan, students will be able to understand and explain to others how their liberal education prepares them for life after college. Permission of the instructor is required. Students must also obtain permission from their campus employer; when enrolling, students should register for the course and ask their supervisors to e-mail the instructor with their permission. Information for supervisors may be found on the Ideals into Practice website (idealsintopractice.site.wesleyan.edu). This course may be repeated for credit, but you may only count one full credit toward your degree.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL411 Group Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CSPL412 Group Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CSPL419 Student Forum

Student-run group tutorial, sponsored by a faculty member and approved by the chair of a department or program.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U

CSPL420 Student Forum

Student-run group tutorial, sponsored by a faculty member and approved by the chair of a department or program.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U

CSPL470 Independent Study, Undergraduate

Credit may be earned for an independent study during a summer or authorized leave of absence provided that (1) plans have been approved in advance, and (2) all specified requirements have been satisfied.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: None

CSPL480 Engaged Projects

Engaged Projects (EPs) are rigorous, self-designed endeavors in which a student studies a topic of their choice and completes a final project intended for a non-academic audience. Students are encouraged but not required to select a topic that is connected to another class or their major. Final projects can take the form of blogs, videos, a website, or other media; a work of art, an event, a workshop, a presentation, or panel; a policy proposal or analysis; a white paper or op-ed series; a business plan; and/or any other piece(s) thoughtfully designed for the public.



EP students will develop a self-directed research and project plan. They must enlist an EP Sponsor who will serve in an advisory/mentor role; Sponsors can be Wesleyan faculty, staff, alumni, or community partners; family members or friends; or other experts or professionals willing to play this role. Seeking and enlisting an appropriate Sponsor is a component of the EP learning experience.



In addition to conducting their own extensive research and producing a summative project by the end of the semester, students will write a series of reflections to document their progress and their learning.



For more information, visit https://www.wesleyan.edu/patricelli/engaged-projects.html.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: None
Identical With: CGST480
Prereq: None

CSPL491 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CSPL492 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CSPL493 Internship

This course may be taken up to two times for credit. Wesleyan has established a credit/uncredit internship course, CSPL 493, for students to receive 0.25 credits upon successful completion of an internship (paid or unpaid) and reflective coursework and documentation. The internship must include at least 40 total hours of work during the semester in which the student is taking this course. Credit cannot be awarded for past internships. Students must apply for enrollment via Handshake. Access the CSPL 493 information page on the Gordon Career Center website for application instructions and comprehensive course details: https://careercenter.wesleyan.edu/channels/internship-for-credit/ Please feel free to email internship_credit@wesleyan.edu if you have questions.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: None

CSPL494 Internship: Elections

This course may be repeated for credit.



Through this course, students can earn academic credit for an internship, whether paid or unpaid, that involves learning about or participating in the electoral process. This course is part of Wesleyan's E2020 initiative. Students must apply through the instructor; if approved, they will need to register the internship through the Gordon Career Center. The internship must include at least 40 hours of work. In addition to completing the internship satisfactorily, students must comply with the learning requirements and deadlines laid out by the instructor.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None

CSPL494Z Internship: Elections

This course may be repeated for credit.



Through this course, students can earn academic credit for an internship, whether paid or unpaid, that involves learning about or participating in the electoral process. This course is part of Wesleyan's E2020 initiative. Students must apply through the instructor; if approved, they will need to register the internship through the Gordon Career Center. The internship must include at least 40 hours of work. In addition to completing the internship satisfactorily, students must comply with the learning requirements and deadlines laid out by the instructor.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Prereq: None