Fall 2026
Religion, Animals & Being “Human” LO2/LO10 (Proctor – RELI)
- This course provides an in-depth exploration of the complex interactions between religious traditions, ideas and practices surrounding animals and understandings of “human” identities and natures. Course will treat topics including animal rights activism, vegetarianism, animal sacrifice, ritual practice among animals, religious debates over human evolution, the animal “roots” of religious belief and practice and recent theorizations of the “posthuman.”
Christian Existentialism: Faith, Freedom, and Meaning LO2/LO10 (Bailey - PHIL)
- This course explores the intersection of existentialist philosophy and Christian thought, examining how thinkers across history have wrestled with questions of meaning, despair, freedom, and hope. We will engage classical existentialist texts, such as Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Gabriel Marcel, and Paul Tillich, while also bringing in contemporary voices like Cornel West, Howard Thurman and even your own professor, Julius Bailey who extends Christian existentialism into the realms of race, justice, and prophetic witness.
- Key questions include: What does it mean to live authentically before God? How does Christian existentialism differ from atheistic existentialism? How do sin, despair, and redemption shape human existence? How do faith and freedom remain relevant in a world scarred by injustice and suffering?
- As both a philosopher and a Christian Existentialist, I will guide students in exploring these ideas as living questions, not abstract doctrines, and encourage students to integrate philosophy, theology, and personal reflection.
Spring 2026
- Renewal of the Demoralized Schoolhouse LO2/LO9 - Yontz (Syllabus)
- Contemporary research suggests that American educators have moved from a feeling of deprofessionalization to being demoralized. The course provides an exploration of, and an opportunity to, analyze the professional dissatisfaction in our nation's schoolhouses. Readings will be focused on contemporary educational policy, teacher career trajectory, science of teacher selection, and how teachers' moral centers intersect with life in the schoolhouse. Recognizing a relationship between education and social progress, students will examine the influences policy, economics, and history have on opportunities for renewal of our demoralized schoolhouses.
Fall 2025
- Chronic Illness & the Healthcare System – Pederson, C. (Syllabus)
- Take Me Out to the Ball Game – Hill, E. (Syllabus)
2023/24
- Monstrous Mirrors – Richards, C. (Syllabus)
- Relationships & Technology – Warber, K. (Syllabus)
- When Bad Words Happen to Good People – Mattison, M. (Syllabus)
- Chronic Illness and the Healthcare System – Pederson, C. (Syllabus)
2022/23
- Religion, Animals & Being “Human” – Proctor, T. (FA) (Syllabus)
- Art of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica – Gimenez-Berger, A. (FA) (Syllabus)
- International Business – Jeong, S. (SP) (Syllabus)
- Orphans! Adoption & Foster Care in US History, Literature & Public Policy – Askeland, L. (SP) (Syllabus)
2021/22
- Language & Gender – Moskowitz, N. (SP) (Syllabus)
- Mobilizing Public Memory: Race in the U.S. – Waggoner, C. (SP) (Syllabus)
- 9/11 in History and Memory: Twenty Years Later – Wood, M. (FA) (Syllabus)
- Take Me Out to the Ballgame: The Narrative of Sport – Hill, E. (FA) (Syllabus)
2020/21
- The Psychology of Happiness – Davis, W. (FA) (Syllabus)
- Chronic Illness & the Healthcare System – Pederson, C. (FA) (Syllabus)
- Hitchcock's Cinema - Inboden, R. (SP) (Syllabus)
- The Psychology of Happiness - Davis, W. (SP) (Syllabus)
2019/20
- American Democracy: Problems & Prospects – Baker, J. R. (SP) (Syllabus)
- Orphans! Adoption & Foster Care in US History, Literature, Law & Public Policy – Askeland, L. (SP) (Syllabus)
- International Business - Jeong, S. (FA) (Syllabus)
- American Art - Gimenez-Berger, A. (FA) (Syllabus)
2018/19
- Renewal of the Demoralized Schoolhouse - Yontz, B. (FA) (Syllabus)
- Kings, Power, and Medieval Empire - Raffensberger, C. (FA) (Syllabus)
- Apocalyptic Vision in Ancient & Modern Literature - Kaiser, B. (FA) (Syllabus)
- From Birth to Conception - McWhorter, M. (SP) (Syllabus)
- Monstrous Mirrors (formerly "The Darkness Within") - Richards, C. (SP) (Syllabus)