China, The Emerging Superpower: A Model for Development? (4 credit hours)

The course will assess whether China will likely remain a friend or become a foe for the U.S., argue whether China's road to modernization is an apt model for other developing nations, analyze China's past to discover patterns and traditions that still exist, and study the interaction between China and the world community to determine its future role as a world leader.

Economic Principles of Employment and Unemployment (4 credit hours)
An exploration into economic structures of society and the workforce.

Exploring Identity and Work through Literature and Film (4 credit hours)
A look at the nature of work and the identity of workers and their place in American society.

Law and Society (4 credit hours)
This course examines the dynamic, interactive, and continuous relationship between law as the governing institution, and society as the governed body. By examining the role of law in shaping individual and group identities, social practices, and society as a whole — while also remaining subordinate to what is socially desirable, politically feasible, and legally legitimate — this course considers law as both a producer of culture and an object of culture. Learners will gain an understanding of how the law is inseparable from the intellectual, social, economic, and political climate of present day society. Learners will cover the fundamental dynamics of the interrelationship between law and society: functions of the law; structure, organization, and access to the law; perspectives on law and society; law and social control; law and social change; and society’s legitimating of law and legal regimes. Finally, learners will examine both the similarities and differences in the interactions between law and society in diverse and different (European and Asian) cultures.

Psychology and Spirituality (4 credit hours)
An exploration of selected topics in psychology and their relation to contemporary
societal issues. Topics will be drawn from the major scholarly areas of psychology including: developmental, personality theory, learning theory, and abnormal psychology.

The Meaning of America: People, Identity, and Conflict that Built a Nation
(4 credit hours)
The course examines the philosophical underpinnings of what it means to be an American and the experiences of ordinary men and women in the making of modern America. It will look closely at the ideas of those who founded the nation and how this affected the idealism that became the American identity. The role of immigration, the change from agrarian to urban industrialized society, the growth and influence of labor unions, the shift of the US from maker to buyer of goods and services, and how the ideological notion of what it means to be American evolved will be examined. How events shaped lives and national identity will be discussed. The course will look at ordinary workers and their communities and how they adjusted to changing events and forces around them.