Integrative Learning (ILS) Courses

ILS2010 Modern Identities: 20th Century Literature and Beyond

This integrative learning course explores the relationship between modern world literature and its historical, social and/or political contexts through the study of the 20th century literary works. Fiction, poetry, drama and/or the essay are used as vehicles for exploring major movements, trends and events of the 20th century. Themes of racial, ethnic and gender identity, political oppression and/or war are explored. Emphases vary.
Prerequisite(s): ENG0001 or placement, ENG1020 or ENG1024, sophomore status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS2015 Honors Seminar: Postcolonial Literature

Colonization of Africa and Asia and ensuing post-colonial reconstruction, two world wars, the spread and fall of communism, human rights movements and immigration profoundly changed the face of the world. This discussion-and-writing-intensive Integrative Learning Honors Seminar focuses on literary responses to and representations of select movements and events of the 20th century (emphasis varies). By reading texts through the lenses of postcolonial literary theory, history, philosophy and ethics, students examine the variety of human responses to the moral questions posed by colonialism, imperialism, and the social and political movements that arose in their wake.
Prerequisite(s): ENG0001 or placement, ENG1024, honors or SHARP status, sophomore status.
Offered at Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS2090 The Working Life

This course focuses on the important and complicated role of work for individuals and societies. One of the most common everyday questions is, "What do you do for a living?" That question, when thoroughly examined, reveals a great deal about how people view themselves and each other, and how much work shapes the human experience. Through the lenses of history, sociology and literature, students examine how working lives have changed over time, the experience of the worker in various contexts and how work shapes identity.
Prerequisite(s): ENG0001 or placement, ENG1020 or ENG1024, sophomore status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS2135 Health, Healing and the Humanities

This course acquaints students with the medical humanities. Students learn how studying the humanities contributes to an understanding of issues related to health and illness. In this course students are introduced to the study of disease, disability, healthcare and wellness through the lenses of history, religion, philosophy and the arts.
Prerequisite(s): ENG0001 or placement, ENG1020 or ENG1024, sophomore status.
Offered at Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS2140 History of Science

This course explores human thought about the natural world from the earliest civilizations to the present. Students investigate a central question: From where did our ideas about the scientific process arise? At the heart of this course is the idea that science and technology are not isolated from the rest of society. Rather, they are shaped by historical and societal forces even as they influence civilization. In this course, students discuss the evolution of great scientific ideas of the past and the effects of religious, political, economic and social contexts on the development of scientific principles. Through close reading, analysis, discussion and integration of primary and secondary source materials, students make connections among the disciplines of history, theology, philosophy and science.
Prerequisite(s): ENG0001 or placement, ENG1020 or ENG1024, sophomore status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS2180 Sexuality: Science/Culture/Law

Sex. It is a seemingly simple term. Whether your birth certificate reads “F” or “M” conjures up a host of assumptions and expectations: acceptable sexual partners, appropriate physical presentation, acceptance of societal norms attached to your designation, and generally how you “fit” in society. One's designated sex at birth was also synonymous with one's gender. Are we beginning to understand, however, that this binary construct, and all its implications, is wrongly limited? Historically, there have been multiple revolutions in the way sex is conceptualized. In biology, evidence has mounted that biological sex and sexual orientation are not synonymous, nor is the notion of a binary gender construct. There is genetic and physiological support for the existence of multiple biological sexes, and that sexual orientation is hardwired rather than a choice or preference. Literature and popular culture have moved from portraying members of the LGBTQI community as a joke to treating it as a serious topic of personal liberation. The law has moved from criminalizing homosexual acts to granting same-sex marriage licenses to extending Civil Rights protection to the transgender community under Title VII. This course explores the links, or lack thereof, between these different developments. Is law more open to sexual variety because of the findings of brain science? Is popular culture more inclusive because of the increased economic clout of the LGBTQIA community? Or did these things occur independently? How do we relate these developments to the post-structural analysis of sexuality, gender and identity?.
Prerequisite(s): ENG0001 or placement, ENG1020 or ENG1024, sophomore status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS2205 All Creatures Great and Small: Animals and Society

Our relationship with animals is complex: We cry when animals die in movies but eat them for dinner; we treat our pets as family members while at the same time place bets on them at the racetrack. This course is designed to allow students to explore our complex relationship with animals in human society by examining the varied meanings assigned to them: food, emotional support, pets, research subjects, symbols and entertainment. Students engage in discipline-specific research related to animals in society, while also expanding their overall interdisciplinary knowledge.
Prerequisite(s): ENG0001 or placement, ENG1020 or ENG1024, sophomore status.
Offered at Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS2305 Honors Seminar: Behavioral Economics

Behavioral Economics is a field of research in the social sciences that brings together the disciplines of economics and psychology. This Honors-level integrated learning seminar utilizes this approach to better understand human behavior. By drawing on both disciplines, students better understand why people frequently make irrational economic decisions and how certain choice contexts can lead to predictably irrational behavior. Students analyze through systematic investigation and experimentation a variety of biases and shortcomings people regularly display in making rational economic choices.
Prerequisite(s): ECON1001 or ECON1002, ENG0001 or placement, ENG1024, honors or SHARP status, sophomore status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS2325 Economics of Sin

This course integrates economic, sociological and psychological principles to examine price gouging, cheating, illegal drugs, sex and gambling. Emphasis is on examining these "sinful" behaviors in the context of moral development and theories of motivation. Students also examine how government seeks to change and penalize such behavior and the consequences of these interventions.
Prerequisite(s): ENG0001 or placement, ENG1020 or ENG1024, sophomore status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS2330 The Good Life

This course challenges students to create personal and professional lives of meaning and purpose. The course explores the underlying values and structure of a life well-led, and proactive dispositions and strategies to create such a life. Emphasis is placed on social science and humanity's ways of thinking, specifically aspects of agency, the human condition and literary criticism. The course examines how the American Dream influences perceptions of success, particularly the ethos of prosperity and social mobility. Students read excerpts from fiction and biography that examine convention, invention and achievement. This course concludes with an exploration of change and chance, and strategies for leading a good life.
Prerequisite(s): ENG0001 or placement, ENG1020 or ENG1024, sophomore status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online
3 Semester Credits

ILS2370 Obesity

This course considers the now global problem of obesity from biological, psychological and sociological perspectives. Since the 1970s there has been a rapid increase in the incidence of overweight and obese individuals in the United States with 65 percent of adults now overweight. Childhood obesity rates have tripled in the last 20 years, producing the first generation of Americans who are predicted to have a shorter life span than their parents. The obesity epidemic is widely acknowledged in the United States, but in the past two decades, this problem has also spread to developing countries as they accelerate their nutrition transition to more mass-produced and processed foods. The roles of government and business are explored, in influencing access to foods and in defining obesity vs. health. The study of this now global problem is relevant from a personal health perspective as well as a political and economic perspective. Individuals empowered with knowledge can modify their own food environments and that of their children. A well-educated populace may wish to support initiatives to make progress on this societal problem to avoid economic losses in productivity and healthcare costs that will compromise America’s competitiveness.
Prerequisite(s): ENG0001 or placement, ENG1020 or ENG1024, sophomore status.
Offered at Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS2385 Visual Literacy and the Sociology of Perception

This course studies human perception of the social world from both a communications and sociological perspective. Elements of picture-based media as a means of molding cultural perceptions, social biases and personal views of reality are studied. Through a series of exercises, students critically examine images in art, still photographs, television, advertising, film and documentaries to determine their sociological messages. Using the language of visual literacy and an understanding of perception, students test assumptions about their world.
Prerequisite(s): ENG0001 or placement, ENG1020 or ENG1024, sophomore status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS2435 Leonardo da Vinci: Culture, Art and Math

This course covers a portion of the movement in Europe known as the Renaissance. It explores the works of one particular man, Leonardo da Vinci, and how his insatiable hunger for understanding impacted the culture of Florence and Milan, Italy. The course begins by examining da Vinci himself and his place in society, then moves on to examine some of his works of art and writings on architectural design and war machines culturally, historically and mathematically.
Prerequisite(s): ENG0001 or placement, ENG1020 or ENG1024, MATH1002 (or higher), sophomore status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS2460 Science of Superheroes

This course is designed to give students a unique look at applications of scientific topics as they appear in the worlds of popular culture superheroes. The goal of the course is to promote scientific literacy and research by using popular culture as a scaffold for scientific topics. Students have the opportunity to both question and test the realism of scientific properties that exist in these popular culture worlds. These properties come from the integrated areas of physics and psychology.
Prerequisite(s): ENG0001 or placement, ENG1020 or ENG1024, MATH1002 (or higher), sophomore status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS4110 Capital Punishment in America

From the colonization of America to the present, over 18,000 individuals have been executed under lawful and/or territorial authority. This course examines the historical, social, ethical, judicial, legislative and political events that have led to the present patchwork approach to executions in the United States. With an eye toward evaluating the continued efficacy of capital punishment in a 21st-century criminal justice system, attention is given to the rationale and justification for executions from legal, social, political and economic points of view.
Prerequisite(s): ENG1021 or ENG1027, LAW2001 or LAW2005 or LAW3015 or LAW3025, any ILS 2000-level course, senior status.
Offered at Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS4115 Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Mythology

This course introduces students to classical and world mythology in order to understand the eternal, timeless nature of universal archetypes and themes while also exploring how they acquire new, contemporary meanings. Students learn to interpret myth using elements of literature as well as through the theories of myth interpretation. From Homer to Harry Potter, emphasis is placed upon analysis of primary readings as well as their interpretations within the context of a variety of disciplines. Class discussions and student writing encourage critical thinking, synthesis and application of the terminology of the study of mythology.
Prerequisite(s): ENG1021 or ENG1027, any ILS 2000-level course, senior status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS4120 Disease and Culture

This course addresses the question of what constitutes a disease from the perspectives of science and the humanities. Topics include the origins of disease and the effect that disease has had on political events, art and culture, warfare, and the economy of societies both historically and in today's world, and how societies throughout time have attempted, either successfully or unsuccessfully, to address the problem of disease. Students explore the cultural interpretations given to various diseases. Through the examination and analysis of various medical case studies, historical readings and literary pieces, students learn to think critically about how disease has helped to shape the world that we live in and what disease means to them.
Prerequisite(s): ENG1021 or ENG1027, any ILS 2000-level course, senior status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS4130 History of Digital Art

This course surveys the emerging world of digitally originated and exhibited artwork. A wide range of digital art formats are examined, including (but not limited to) 2-D, 3-D, motion, interactive, immersive, sensor-based, internet-based and "gamification." Key art historical influences in the technology of art creation from the Renaissance to the 21st century are explored. Major art periods such as Fluxus, Conceptual, Dada and Post-Modernism are reviewed as they relate to the development and growth of the late 20th-century digital art movement. Students investigate the history and growth of international public art paradigms and practices and their connections to digital art through civic, public and private institutions. Students also examine the relationship between digital art and the industry of creative design and media. Through active visual research of curated digital art pieces students discover a wide array of critically noted digital artists and their work. Finally, students consider the new aesthetics of digital art, comparing and contrasting them to more conventional art formats and exhibition models.
Prerequisite(s): ENG1021 or ENG1027, any ILS 2000-level course, senior status.
Offered at Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS4176 Sports in Film and Literature

This interdisciplinary course focuses on the significant inspiration of athletic endeavors upon the literary and cinematic imagination. Writers of fiction and nonfiction, prose writers and poets have discovered in the athletic experience a useful metaphor to express the purpose and meaning of life. Modern film explores both the realism and romanticism of sports in popular culture. This course is designed to acquaint the student with the essence of games as myth and metaphor and develop an appreciation of the historical context in which the stories are constructed and heard. The interdisciplinary considerations of history and culture allow for a richer understanding and appreciation of sports and sports literature.
Prerequisite(s): ENG1021 or ENG1027, any ILS 2000-level course, senior status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS4180 Things That Go Bump In the Night: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Supernatural

This course explores the deeper meanings of supernatural creatures in works of film and literature from the perspectives of history, science, philosophy, literature and film. The course addresses the question of why certain supernatural creatures (e.g., vampires, zombies, werewolves, ghosts, the demonically possessed, Frankenstein's monster and extraterrestrial creatures) have featured so prominently in human thought, human fears and works of literature and film from antiquity to the present day. In doing so, the course addresses the historical context in which such beliefs have arisen and how they have changed. Students are encouraged to apply interpretive skills to an analysis of supernatural creatures with which they are familiar and to draw connections between the monsters of the 21st century and societal changes and hidden conflicts in the contemporary world.
Prerequisite(s): ENG1021 or ENG1027, any ILS2000-level course, senior status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS4190 The Problem With Evil

This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to the examination of evil as a concept that has fascinated and horrified humans throughout history. Through religions, social norms, philosophies and literatures, people have attempted to define evil in order to explain, and make meaningful, aspects of life that seem otherwise incomprehensible or unbearably senseless. The course explores the construction and uses of evil as a defining term, and its impact on nations, communities and individuals. Students read a wide range of texts across broad historical and cultural spectrums, looking for the answers to this question that continues to perplex and captivate us.
Prerequisite(s): ENG1021 or ENG1027, any ILS 2000-level course, senior status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

ILS4302 Abuse of Power: Corruption in Contemporary Society

This course examines how (in the hands of certain individuals and groups and under "favorable" social, political, historical and economic conditions) the abuse of power and corruption impacts lives in all social strata. Students analyze this question and propose research-based recommendations for transforming dysfunctional systems into sustainable and productive models.
Prerequisite(s): ENG1021 or ENG1027, any ILS2000-level course, senior status.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits