DLA Fall 2026 Class Summaries

The course uses design thinking to address the “wicked problem” of designing your life and career. Offering a framework, tools, space and a community of peers and mentor. The course employs a design thinking approach including empathizing, defining challenges, ideating, prototyping, discussion, reflection, revising to help students from any major develop a constructive and effective approach to finding and designing their lives and vocations during and after their time at UNCSA. Topics include the integration of work and worldviews, ideation & prototyping techniques, designing work/life balance, and methods of critique.
Prerequisites: ENG 1200 or FYS 1200

An introduction to the language of art, visual analysis, and art history, providing the foundation for the study of visual art and visual culture. The class will begin with an overview of visual art language, including the elements, principles, and techniques of visual art and design. Next, the course covers the basics of art theory and methods of art history through close looking at and analysis of art in different media. Third, the course offers a brief survey of the history of art from prehistory to the present. Lectures, discussions, readings, writings and projects introduce a framework of the historical, cultural and environmental forces that affect art, artists and audience. Designed for students who have not had introductory classes in visual art or art history.

This course will acquaint the student with art history, the critical process, and the production of art in order to achieve a well-balanced appreciation for art and how it relates to the development of culture.  *If taken in conjunction with ARH 1101*: A two-semester historical and analytical introduction to representative monuments in their context that offers myriad ways of understanding visual information.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the business of the arts. We will examine the administrative aspects of arts organizations in order to understand how they are structured, and how they operate - that is, what makes cultural institutions run. There are many things that have to happen on the administrative side of the business in order for an artistic production to make it to the stage. We will examine the different types of arts organizations, their purpose and mission, how they are structured and managed, where the money comes from, and how we actually get audiences to come and see our produtions. We will also look at the human and financial systems that support the operation.

This course will help prepare students that are entering the workforce to better understand the importance of sound personal financial management. Topics to be covered include an introduction to basic business and economic principles, fundamentals of investing (including risk vs. return)., personal budgeting, preparation of an artist's personal income tax return, understanding employee benefits, insurance basics, independent contractor status, and retirement planning. This course is geared toward all student artists; therefore, no prior background in business is required.
Pre-requisite(s): ENG 1200 or FYS 1200

This course will introduce students to some of the major themes in modern socio-cultural anthropological thinking: power and human agency; sex and gender; kinship and family; race and ethnicity; economic relations and livelihood; visual and performance cultures; cosmology and belief systems; and other topics. In addition to introducing students to highlights in the history of anthropological thought, the course will cover on anthropological approaches to a changing group of urgent contemporary problems. Students will have the opportunity to conduct practical ethnographic research. Prerequisites: NONE

This course explores the rich relationship between anthropology and film. Drawing on several subfields of Anthropology (Visual Anthropology, Critical Media Practice, Sensory Ethnography, and the Anthropology of Cinema) this course will introduce students study of film as a cultural artifact; the influence of popular film on the construction of culture, including the way popular film both reflects and shapes policy; and the use of film as an ethnographic medium. Prerequisites: None

The aim of this course is to develop speaking and listening skills appropriate to the demands of modern life. The one-semester course is an exercise in forms of communication, voice, and diction based on the student's experience. Using rhetorical principles, the focus will be on the practice of techniques of speech construction and delivery through readings, lectures and class exercises aimed at aiding student's abilities to understand and critique arguments. Additionally, students will develop their own arguments in speeches, presentations, workshops, debates and mock interviews.

An introduction to the French language with the goal of oral proficiency. The major emphasis is on spoken French, basic grammar and vocabulary building, which will provide the student with the necessary language skills to function on a basic level in a French-speaking country. The student will also learn about cultural elements of the country and its people. Prerequisites: Passing FRE 1101 required for FRE 1102.

This course introduces students to a range of intellectual creative practices and processes. This is a collaborative, interdisciplinary, project-based seminar designed for students to engage in an exploration of art, life, and contemporary culture through experiencing, thinking, talking, making, reflecting, and writing. In this class, students practice articulating their creative choices and reflecting on others' creative choices. Only one FYS course can be counted toward the General Education core requirements.

An introduction to the German language with emphasis on reading, writing, and above all listening and speaking German. Basic grammar and vocabulary building and the basic aspects of German-language culture will provide the student with necessary skills to function on a basic level in a German-speaking country. Prerequisite(s): GER 1102 requires passing GER 1101.

In this course, students will receive further experience/practice communicating and expressing themselves in German by engaging a variety of "modern voices/perspectives" from the "modern" German-speaking world (post WW II). In support of the UNCSA's commitment to Diversity, these 
"modern voices and perspectives" offer students a sampling of some of the diversity to be found in the self-representations of modern German-language culture. Examples will come from a variety of media, including interviews, film, literature, etc. This course will be taught entirely in German. Prerequisites: A minimum of two years of college-level German or permission of the instructor. 

Prerequisite(s): Completion of both GER 2101 & 2102 with a C- or better in each, equivalent transfer or AP credits, or instructor permission/placement.

This course treats failure not just as a subject of study but as a mode of inquiry. Using failure as an interpretive lens, we will examine how failure operates in literature, history, science, art, and popular culture. Closely engaging individual examples, we will ask: Can failure be productive—or even pleasurable? When is failure a refusal rather than a mistake? How do cultural norms and social factors shape our understanding of success and failure? What can failure reveal that success conceals? Readings and case studies from across the humanities will guide our exploration, as we theorize and practice the art of failing well—and rethink what it means to fail in the first place.

In this core humanities course, students encounter exemplary texts from antiquity to the present and from multiple continents and diverse cultures. How do we make meaning from this expansive record of storytelling, inquiry, and creative expression? How can today's artist-citizens respond as active conversation partners across time and space? Specific content and thematic emphases will vary across course sections, reflecting the diverse specializations and perspectives of Division of Liberal Arts faculty. In all sections, however, students will wrestle both with texts long privileged as 'canonical' and, of equal importance, others that speak from the margins and compel us to think critically about how we assign value and importance to different voices and traditions. All sections also share one significant contemporary text (selected annually). “Critical Dialogues” students will cultivate their skills of research, writing, and verbal expression, and in doing so, situate their artistic and professional practice in specific contexts and as woven into a larger world of ideas. This course fulfills the Foundations of American Democracy requirement.
Prerequisites: ENG 1200 or FYS 1200

When theatre critic Bonnie Marranca popularized the phrase “Theatre of Images” she was focused on a particular style that “exclude[s] dialogue or use[s] words minimally in favor of aural visual and verbal image[s] that calls for alternative modes of perception on the part of the audience.” Occupying the middle evolutionary ground between the avant-garde and postdramatic theatre this course focuses on work that offers a multiplicity of images rather than relying on traditional, text-driven, or linear narratives. Included in this discussion will be the work of Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, Meredith Monk, Tadeusz Kantor, Mabou Mines, Tadashi Suzuki, and Pina Bausch.

Prerequisites: ENG 1200 or FYS 1200

Paths to the Present courses use a single topical focus as an analytical lens to provide students with a historical perspective on the contemporary world. Topics vary across course sections, reflecting the diverse specializations and perspectives of DLA faculty. Paths to the Present students will continue to cultivate the skills developed in Critical Dialogues and, in doing so, situate their creative and scholarly practice in historical contexts and a larger world of ideas.
*SEE TITLE

FOR TOPIC BY SECTION OF THIS COURSE*

In this course, we will look at the “variations” of a particular work or narrative or variations on a theme. For example, one term might be devoted to “Hamlet Variations,” such as John Updike's novel, Gertrude and Claudius and Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Or, we might consider the multiple retellings of the Faust myth and the selling of one's soul. Or, we might consider either The Odyssey or “Ulysses in America.” We will look at a variety of materials including novels, plays, music, visual art, and movies.

Pre-requisites: ENG 1200 OR FYS 1200

An introduction to the Italian language with emphasis on reading, writing, and above all listening and speaking Italian. Basic grammar and vocabulary building, and the basic aspects of Italian-language culture will provide the student with necessary skills to function on a basic level in an Italian-speaking country. Prerequisites: Passing ITA 1101 required for enrollment in ITA 1102.

Prerequisites: Passing ITA 1101 required for ITA 1102.

Course taught in English – no foreign language knowledge required.  This course focuses on how the concepts of translation, adaptation and interpretation inform contemporary creative practice.  What boundaries, if any, exist between these concepts, and what role do they play in artistic creation(s), production(s) and/or performance(s)?  We will address these and related questions by examining some foundational theories of translation and representation on the one hand, and some famous English-language “case studies” on the other (possibilities include, for example, works by Walt Disney, Wes Anderson, Steve Martin, David Hare, etc.).  Students can then choose either to experiment with and/or demonstrate aspects of translation, adaptation and/or interpretation in creative projects of their own, or to analyze their centrality in existing works, be they UNCSA arts school productions or other artistic work(s).

Prerequisite(s): ENG 1200 OR FYS 1200

SUMMARY TBA 

Prerequisite(s): ENG 1200 OR FYS 1200

Prerequisite(s): ENG 1200 OR FYS 1200

Tracing its development from expressionism through docudrama this course, is designed to explore the creation and affects of “Epic Theatre” on contemporary drama. Using the work of Bertolt Brecht and Erwin Piscator, we will examine the theory and practice of Epic theatre in a variety of texts. Prerequisites: ENG 1200 or FYS 1200

This course is a study of linear, rational, absolute value, quadratic, exponential, and radical equations. It will include formulas and applications, related functions, algebra of functions, and the two-dimensional coordinate system.

This course offers a survey of scientific theories and research findings in human psychological development, including its biological, behavioral, cognitive, social, and emotional aspects.

As part of human cognition, our perception, production, and understanding of music have elicited many questions: What is music in relation to "sound"? What is the relationship of music and emotions, or memory? Can music influence perception in other modalities? What is the meaning of music? Can music make us smarter? Is music a language? What is biological and what is cultural in the aesthetics of music? What are the origins of music? Is music an evolutionary adaptation? This course will reframe many of these questions from the interdisciplinary standpoint of cognitive science, acoustics, music theory, and semiotics to explore music as a cognitive process. Topics will include the perception of pitch, timbre, rhythm, and localization; music and the brain, cognitive aspects of the aesthetics of music; the relationship between music and language; music and memory; music and emotions; music and meaning. We will also discuss the role music plays in cross-model interactions, either in the real world, or in cinema, theater, dance, and multimedia art works. Prerequisites: ENG 1200 or FYS 1200

This survey course covers fundamental concepts in physics. Broad topics include kinematics, mechanics, fluids, and thermodynamics. This course is geared toward beginning students in physics.

This course focuses on the science of energy and energy supplies, fossil fuels, alternative energy sources, and energy utilization.

Drugs that act on the central nervous system (CNS) are the most widely used group of pharmacologic agents. In addition, drugs are one of the most important tools for studying all aspects of CNS physiology from the mechanisms that control movement to the consolidation of memories. The field of neuropharmacology requires understanding of disease mechanisms as well as the effects of drugs and other compounds on neuronal function. This course will focus on the pharmacodynamics (the actions of the drug on the body) and pharmacokinetics (the actions of the body on the drug) of various drugs in the central nervous system and the communication of this subject to a non-science audience.

This course will explore a variety of creative practices. These will range from the use of prompts to collaborations to Oulipo contraints (such as n+7 substitutions or lipograms) to found work and erasures and blackouts. Although we will explore multiple genres, the focus will be on overall experimentation and discovery and on processes rather than products. In addition to writing and engaging in conversation, students will be expected to give presentations and lead class lessons. This course will be rewarding to those with a sense of play who want to stretch themselves as artists.

Prerequisite(s): ENG 1200 or FYS 1200

This writing workshop builds nonfictional texts such as the personal essay, historical or current reportage, and science writing, by means of fictional and dramatic strategies. Students must have proficiency in expository writing and are required to have had success in English Composition or its equivalent. Subject matter may come from areas of students' interest, and exploration of new material is welcome. We conduct this workshop by providing one another with weekly texts and weekly critiques and revisions. Mandatory conferences.

Prerequisites: ENG 1200 or FYS 1200; HUM 2100; and have taken at least one 2000 level Writing Course, or received permission of instructor.