By Izabela Zaluska and Emily Delgado
From reading page-turning Nordic crime novels to analyzing the cultural impact of American sports, there are many unique general education courses offered by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences that you can choose from each semester.
General education courses go beyond academics and allow you to get out of your comfort zone. It’s a way for you to explore different areas of study and uncover interests outside of your major.
The CLAS Core curriculum is designed to give you the skills needed to succeed after graduation, including thinking in new ways, interpreting information, communicating ideas, problem-solving, and working with all types of people to generate ideas.
As you prepare for registration, explore courses that fit your interests or consider trying something new. As you think about what to take, learn about these four general education courses offered in the college and find out what students thought about their experience.
Learn about the American Deaf community
The general education course ASL 1500: Exploring the Deaf World is the only course at the University of Iowa co-taught by Deaf and hearing instructors, assistant professor of instruction James McGilvery and associate professor of instruction Rebecca Clark, respectively.
The course, which is offered this semester for the first time, is intentionally co-taught to demonstrate cross-cultural interactions and allyship in every class period, Clark said.
Exploring the Deaf World introduces students to a different perspective of deafness and Deaf people, Clark said. The American Deaf community is explored as a cultural and linguistic minority rather than from a medical or disability perspective.
“The course discusses and confronts many misconceptions and misunderstandings about Deaf people and helps students understand this alternative view of the Deaf community,” Clark said.
Clark added how the class prepares students to interact with Deaf and diverse people, which is applicable to any field or occupation.
McGilvery and Clark encourage students to reflect on what they’ve learned each week and ask questions in a weekly journal assignment. Students’ reflections have led to interesting discussions and have helped foster classroom community, McGilvery and Clark said.
In their reflection after the first week of class, one student wrote, “I loved learning about the pride there is in the Deaf community and what it truly means to be a part of it. I also appreciate how I feel comfortable asking questions and growing my knowledge without fear of judgment or looking dumb.”
Uncover the history of oil
Tyler Priest, associate professor in the Department of History, asks his students to contemplate the big questions surrounding the origins, development, and meaning of the “Age of Petroleum” in his course HIST:1115 The History of Oil.
Some of the questions central to the course are:
How and why did oil become the most powerful international business of the last 160 years?
How and why did struggles over oil become central to world politics and shape the rise and fall of nations?
How do we wrestle with the trade-offs between the unprecedented wealth and prosperity generated by oil development and the social, economic, and environmental costs that have come with it?
"My favorite part about teaching this course is seeing students surprise themselves by developing an interest in history and becoming excited as they begin to understand their own place in it,” Priest said.
Students who have previously taken this course say they enjoyed the course and how relevant it was to today. A student focusing on environmental policy commented about how glad they were to be taking the class because of how important the information was to their focus.
“I was nervous about taking this course as I knew nothing about oil, but I appreciated the knowledge of how oil affects everything in our world and society,” another student said. “I never would’ve thought that oil is at the center of almost everything.”
Analyze the inequalities of American sports
Jen Sterling, director of undergraduate studies and professor of the Department of American Studies, looks forward to seeing how students analyze their social and cultural perspectives in her general education course AMST:1074 Inequality in American Sport.
“I really enjoy the various ways students use opportunities offered in the course to connect what we are talking about in class to their own lives and sporting experiences,” Sterling said.
The course explores and discusses how American sports interact with and shape understandings of class, gender, ability, race, ethnicity, and religion.
“These skills, along with Understanding Cultural Perspectives outcomes that promote critical thinking skills and cultural competency, transfer to the workplace and life after college more generally,” Sterling said.
Students who have taken the course said they enjoyed learning about the complexities of sport culture and taking the time to reflect on their understanding of it in America.
“This class bettered my understanding of inequalities in sports and different privileges some people have and some people don't,” one student said. “I've never really thought much about sports and inequalities, so it was very eye-opening.”
Uncover crime fiction from Nordic countries
In GRMN:2275 Scandinavian Crime Fiction, students interact with and discuss novels, films, and television from Nordic countries. Every year, associate professor of instruction Bruce Nottingham-Spencer looks forward to teaching the course as every group of students interacts with the material differently.
“It's also really exciting when a student notices something in a novel that I had missed,” Nottingham-Spencer said. “I've read some of the novels in this course a dozen times, but every year someone will notice a small detail I had overlooked or have a really great insight.”
On top of analyzing texts, Nottingham-Spencer and his students discuss important topics, such as racism, xenophobia, and poverty, that show up in the novels but also in the real world.
Nottingham-Spencer said general education courses allow students to “step out” of their world and learn something new they wouldn't learn in their area of study.
“I think general education courses provide a great opportunity for students to explore topics that they might not have encountered elsewhere in their education, to make connections between different areas, and to discover new interests,” Nottingham-Spencer said.
