Foundation Seminars

• Instructor: Professor Meenakshi Ponnuswami, English: Facts & Fictions in the News

  Tired of feeling uninformed, of not knowing enough about what's going on in the world? Frustrated when you feel strongly about an issue of social injustice but you're out-argued by someone who knows more about current events?

  Learn to better understand what's happening in the world every day. Our news-reading practice will focus equally on social justice issues relevant to the 2020 national election and on issues of fake news, disinformation and propaganda.

  We will also learn to evaluate the integrity and reliability of the information and opinions we read. How should readers distinguish fact from fiction? How do we know when a news source or editorial is biased? Indeed, is it possible for anyone to write without bias of some sort? Can readers recognize the bias and still obtain the information they need?

  What does it mean to be an educated reader? How should readers trust and verify?

   

• Instructor: Professor Roger Rothman, Art History: Art of Protest

  In response to a world plagued by war, oppression and inequality, artists of all stripes rise up in protest.

  Some do so aggressively, assaulting us with words and images that tear at our souls. Others provoke us less violently, by guiding us with images of a better world imagined but not yet realized.

  Some artists make their art for museums, where only an elite minority can experience them, but others — and more and more each day — make artworks that live on billboards, city streets and public buildings.

  Still others create art that exists only in the virtual world of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. This course will dig deeply into the ways that contemporary artists are using art to make the world more just, more kind, more equal.

   

• Instructor: Professor Deepak Iyer, Physics and Astronomy: Climate Justice

  The climate crisis is arguably the most significant and all-encumbering existential crisis that humanity and the rest of the natural world face today.

  Significant changes to long-term climate trends are already impacting several communities around the world. These changes stand to exacerbate other crises like homelessness, poverty, lack of healthcare and sanitation, xenophobia and racism. They foment an environment of exclusion, fear, and hatred.

  Students will apply approaches that have been shown to help develop skills to evaluate their own work, be able to step outside their own framework and consider alternative points of view, be able to respond effectively to critical feedback, and develop intellectual humility.

   

• Instructor: Professor Bill Flack, Psychology: Questioning for Common Good

  Critical thinking, writing and action are required to move the status quo toward social justice.

  We will examine critically basic social justice concepts, the usually hidden sources of direct and structural violence, the ongoing epidemic of sexual violence on college campuses, and how to build collective power for the common good.

  Collaborative projects will be conducted in offices/programs at Bucknell and provide experiences of working toward social justice in our campus community.