Center for Interdisciplinary Studies

The Business Fundamentals Lab aims to help students develop a clear, basic understanding of the central unit of the institution of business: a company. Led by a practitioner, students will learn the components and functions common to companies, and explore the internal workings by which companies assess their ability to achieve multiple goals while generating profit. Acting as the managerial and executive staff of a hypothetical company named "Helios," students will experiment with making complex decisions while addressing competing demands, not only concerns about immediate, short-term profit but also broader concerns about shareholders, stakeholders, ethical impact, and company culture. The Lab is designed to fulfill the Fundamentals requirement for the minor in Business, Ethics, and Society, but is open to any student interested in understanding how businesses function and the decision making processes they follow. Students should have Microsoft Office on their computers.

It is recognized that poverty plays a central role in many preventable diseases. With the development of nations have come improvements in health. The linkages between health and development can only be understood within the broader context of socio-political and economic factors. In the landscape of globalization and international development there has emerged a vast international health regime. This course focuses on these linkages in the context of this international political economy of health. Key aspects are critically examined including the concepts and architecture of global health, the global burden and epidemiology of disease, health and development of nations, and political-economic determinants of health and development. This foundational course in global health will use a variety of analytical perspectives including political, legal, economic and epidemiological. The course focuses on developing countries. One unit.

The course focuses on the final glory days of Austria. After dominating Europe as imperial city and court of the Holy Roman Empire for centuries until 1806, Austria steadily diminished in geographical size and as a political powerhouse. However, at the turn-of-the-century, intellectual and aesthetic achievements secure Vienna's fame apart form the house of Habsburg. The course strives to convey the awe-inspiring diversity of innovations in art, architecture, design, music, journalism, criticism, literature, philosophy, and science through texts, slides and recordings. At the same time, the course addresses the cultural phenomena in the historical, political, and social context of events leading up to and following WWI.

The course focuses on the final glory days of Austria. After dominating Europe as imperial city and court of the Holy Roman Empire for centuries until 1806, Austria steadily diminished in geographical size and as a political powerhouse. However, at the turn-of-the-century, intellectual and aesthetic achievements secure Vienna's fame apart form the house of Habsburg. The course strives to convey the awe-inspiring diversity of innovations in art, architecture, design, music, journalism, criticism, literature, philosophy, and science through texts, slides and recordings. At the same time, the course addresses the cultural phenomena in the historical, political, and social context of events leading up to and following WWI.

Counting, symmetry, pattern, and position are foundational concepts that appear in both dance and mathematics. This interdisciplinary course will engage students in observing, creating, analyzing, and identifying the shared principles between these two fields. Through movement exercises, choreographic projects, mathematical analysis, and reflective discussions, students will explore how mathematical thinking informs dance composition and how embodied movement can deepen the understanding of mathematical concepts.

Worcester and Its People is a study of the history of Worcester and the people who have lived here from the time of European settlement in the late 17th Century to the present. The course's principal focus is on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a period in which Worcester became one of America's leading industrial centers and the magnet for thousands of immigrants. Worcester's history reflects most of the major concerns and issues in the history of the nation, providing a microcosm for their study. One unit.

A course in reading, writing, and presentation of case law material. Students apply American Trial Association rules of argument and evidence in preparing for mock trial competitions. Working in small groups and working alone on detailed arguments are both required. One unit.

Consistent with the mission of Holy Cross and the vision of Jesuit higher education outlined by Fr. General Kolvenbach, this course offers CBL scholars and SPUD interns the opportunity to engage in the "gritty reality of the world" in order to reflect meaningfully upon the question of what responsibility each of us has towards creating a more just society and how each of us can use our individual gifts and talents to contribute toward this aim. In order to address these questions effectively, the course will utilize texts, articles, websites, movie excerpts, and community engagement experiences to enable a deeper understanding of social problems; to analyze how social problems directly impact individuals within our society; to consider questions of equity and social justice; and to reflect upon what influence our personal choices have on social problems. One unit.

Entrepreneurship begins with a vision. This course focuses on the foundations of entrepreneurship and is appropriate for students from any major. It is designed to introduce students to the entrepreneurial process so that they may begin to shape their own entrepreneurial vision. Course objectives include an introduction to the challenges of entrepreneurship, an understanding of the ethical environment in which entrepreneurs operate, the skills to think critically and work toward the ability to evaluate opportunities in the business. This is a course that includes project-based entrepreneurial activities where students work to test and validate ideas.Due to the project-based nature of the class, the beginning of the week we will focus on learning the concepts, whereas the lab will be time to do fieldwork, peer-to-peer feedback, and building of venture. In addition to classes, faculty will hold periodic mentor meetings with teams. One unit.

This course will investigate the scientific and political factors that have shaped responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. We begin by establishing the biological, historical, and national institutional context for pandemic response, tracing the development of epidemiology and public health mechanisms through cases including the Great Plague, cholera, and the 1918 influenza pandemic. We then move to address the evolution, and sources of authority, of international cooperative mechanisms like the World Health Organization, nongovernmental organizations, and epistemic communities by analyzing the response to recent public health crises, including the outbreaks of H1N1 influenza and Ebola. Thus prepared, we turn to COVID-19. We will first discuss the biology of the virus, the research that underpins our understanding of its transmission, epidemiological models of disease spread, and the biological bases of the treatments currently under development. This scientific understanding will allow us to make recommendations about ideal public health guidelines. We will then compare these ideal responses to those actually taken by national and international actors, while analyzing the reasons - social, political, and scientific - for the diverse policies pursued and the implications for future pandemic response.

Capitalism in Context will introduce students to the intellectual foundations and principles of capitalism, detailing how these intersect with ideas about individual liberty, social responsibility and human flourishing. Capitalism itself is a contested term, and we will explore some of the many 'capitalisms' that have arisen, always with an eye to normative questions about which accord best with the demands of morality and justice. Additional topics to be addressed may include, but are not limited to: debates about regulation and the proper relationship between the state and the market; theories of corporate social responsibility and the evolution of corporate governance; the challenges posed by the increasing focus on finance rather than industrial production as the main source of profit making; and the social, political and technological changes that have accompanied this shift.

Eloquentia Perfecta: Writing and Speaking for the Common Good invites students to build effective and ethical communication skills both within and beyond the classroom. Students will draw upon the theory and practice of rhetoric as a means to share their ideas and make change in the world. As students compose written, spoken, and multimodal texts, they will consider questions of intercultural communication, social justice, and the dignity of both the rhetor and the communities with which they engage.

Students will become confident in their own abilities to coherently and concisely relay data driven information. Drawing from their own disciplinary interests, students will conduct research and create policy statements and researched proposals in multiple formats and modes, including digital media. Emphasis is placed on the development and control of the writing process so that students can adapt their writing for a variety of audiences and writing circumstances.

This course helps students define digital literacy and provides practical instruction in some key skills associated with digital literacy. Topics include digital reading and writing practices, multimodal composition, managing an online identity, content ranking algorithms, generative artificial intelligence, and the politics and ethics of using digital technologies.

This course will critically evaluate global health theory and practice. Through the use of detailed case studies, students will discuss actual global health interventions and examine how and why some interventions work and others fail. We will interrogate the notion of global health: what it is exactly, who the main players are and who benefits from global health interventions and how. We will also examine health systems in the Global South and how they can be strengthened. Through exploration of these issues, students will become familiar with the doing of global health and with the notions of social determinants of health and health systems strengthening. An interdisciplinary perspective that draws on anthropological, feminist and public health concepts will be used throughout the course.

Each of us searches to make meaning of experience and to pursue meaningful lives. But what exactly constitutes meaning? Does it imply having a story, or are there kinds of understanding that lie beyond narrative?In this course we will use movement and words as creative tools to explore these questions and how they shape us - both as individuals and in community.No previous dance or creative writing experience required. This will be a multidisciplinary, collaborative course that will include movement, writing, performance, and art making.

This course will use an interdisciplinary perspective that draws from anthropology, development studies, human rights, gender studies and public health to examine how economic and social "development policies and initiatives influence human health and wellbeing around the world. We will discuss how notions of development and progress have been imagined and implemented at four key moments in history: during colonization, industrialization, the age of science and mass production, and the current digital/technological age. We will explore how human health and wellbeing have both been positively and negatively affected by the economic and social policies of each era. This course will broaden students understanding of the factors that influence health and wellbeing beyond the narrow biological and behavioral categories that are commonly used in publichealth. This will be accomplished by focusing on the political-economy as a key structural determinant of health. Case studies will be drawn from around the world and will include, among others, working conditions in multinational factories in Asia, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, privatization of water in Bolivia, racism and income inequality in the US and colonial policies in Africa. We will conclude the course with a discussion of the potential rise of the cyborg, which is typically imagined in science fiction movies as representing the culmination of human economic development and, ostensibly, the end of disease and perhaps even the end of death. By the end of the course, students will:a. Have developed a nuanced understanding of the complex relationship between notions and practices of development and health outcomes in different parts of the worldb. Be able to apply theories of development to explain both positive and negative health outcomes within and between countriesc. Be able to use a gender lens to examine the differential impact of economic and social policies on the health of men, women and non-gender conforming personsd. Develop and refine their critical reading, thinking and writing skills

CreateLab: CommunityLiberate yourself from traditional assumptions about course structure; in this non-hierarchical environment students will play an active role in identifying learning goals, choosing paths of inquiry, and determining the creative research methods we ultimately engage. This class will help you develop strengths transferable to any other kind of work, academic or professional. One unit.

In his seminal essay "Rhetoric of the Image," Roland Barthes asked 'how does meaning get into the image?' Not only will this course seek to answer Barthe's question, but also explore how images and visuality affect how we see the world around us. What does it mean when trust is lost in digital images due to Photoshop and deep fakes? How are societal expectations of the body set in our culture through advertisements? Is standard Hollywood lighting racist? These, and many more questions will be asked, but also attempted to be answered through hands-on exercises where students will create their own visual texts.

Using writing for inquiry, students develop a self-designed project over the semester. Through studio sessions, peer review, and reflection, students develop a deeper understanding of audience, information literacy, genre awareness, argument, process, and revision.

The Holy Cross mission statement concludes with the hope that all members of the Holy Cross community will seek justice within and beyond the Holy Cross community. What does it mean to seek justice? How does this ideal connect to the broader mission of Jesuit higher education? How can one discover a personal path to seeking justice that utilizes one's unique gifts and talents? How has Holy Cross provided a foundation for a lifelong pursuit of justice? This course will provide seniors the opportunity to integrate the wide variety of experiences they have had at Holy Cross and reflect upon how these experiences have informed their answers to these questions.

Building on reflections documented in memos written during the work experience and texts read and debated during the Capstone, students in the Capstone Seminar complete three tasks: 1) They will draw individual conclusions about the proper role of business in a just, flourishing, and sustainable society. Students will choose among corporate sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and corporate political responsibility, and learn how to explain their choice to others who disagree. 2) They will develop a sense of their own preferences, strengths, and weaknesses as ethical agents, and develop strategies for acting effectively on their beliefs in the workplace. 3) They will prepare a pitch. After thoroughly researching an existing organization likely to confront one of the issue researched during their work experience, they will make an ethical, financial, and legal argument in favor of some action that organization should take to properly address the issue.

Of the 1.8 million new HIV infections recorded worldwide in 2017, 1.2 million were in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) alone. Why has this region been hardest hit by the HIV epidemic and why are prevention efforts seemingly not making much of a difference? Furthermore, who is at risk of HIV infection and why are some individuals more at risk than others? Why, for instance, do women in SSA account for 59% of HIV infections in the sub-region, while men account for 63% of HIV infections in the rest of the world. We will use an interdisciplinary approach to examine these questions in depth. We will also explore how notions of risk and vulnerability have changed over time as the epidemic increasingly evolves from a death sentence to being a treatable condition. Throughout the course we will critically evaluate the dominant public health and biomedical approaches that have been used to tackle the epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. For comparative purposes, we will draw frequently on examples from other parts of the world, such as Cuba, Thailand, the US, Europe and China. Because HIV has not been all doom and gloom, we will also discuss some surprisingly positive effects of the epidemic (e.g., improved health care systems, employment creation etc).

Pop Culture, Race, and Sexuality is an interdisciplinary course that asks students to evaluate and create content that deals with pop culture and intersectional identities. Students will immerse themselves in several prominent genres including drama, the musical, and music videos, and engage a variety of critical lenses on different aspects of popular culture. They will also develop a familiarity with pertinent theoretical approaches including feminist studies, critical race studies, reception theory, queer theory, and camp studies. Students will engage with both traditional scholarly production as well as metacritical commentary distributed online.

The Writer's Workshop Practicum helps new writing consultants to apply composition and writing center theory to their praxis. The purpose of this course is to begin to prepare consultants to tutor various forms of writing and to work with students with differing abilities, identities, and literacies. This practicum gives consultants the opportunity to think through some of the critical issues in tutoring as they come up in a writing center setting. Students have multiple opportunities to learn through experience, engage with scholarship, and critically reflect on their developing tutoring practices.

An investigation of how people learn to write, and how they can be helped to write better. Topics include individual composing processes, academic discourse constraints, and cultural influences on writing. This by-permission course is required for all students who wish to become peer tutors in the Holy Cross Writer's Workshop.

This seminar deals with the historical, social, political and cultural forces, ideas and events leading up to the Holocaust, the attempted annihilation of all Jews and the almost complete destruction of the European Jewish communities. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the course offers a detailed study of this genocide across victims, perpetrators, bystanders and rescuers drawing upon historical documentation, first-person testimonies, photography, visual arts and music. One unit.

This course explores the intersection of gender, indigeneity, and environmental issues, emphasizing the roles of Indigenous women in shaping and caring their lands and ecosystems. Through case studies from the Andes in Latin America (Abiayala) and beyond, students will engage with Indigenous Knowledge Systems to examine the vital contributions of Native and Indigenous women to ecological stewardship, organic sustainability in relation to Environmental Justice (EJ) and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Topics covered include, but are not limited to, Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies, feminismos comunitarios (community feminisms), environmental racism, settler colonialism, land rights, and the impacts of global development programs and projects implemented in Indigenous territories. The course places particular emphasis on how Indigenous women navigate, negotiate, and resist environmental policies that paradoxically perpetuate environmental (in)justices. Students will critically analyze how patriarchal structures intersect with colonial environmentalism by engaging with a variety of readings, media sources, and films, and classes conducted both indoors and outdoors in contact with nature. The course incorporates significant contributions from interdisciplinary thinkers and transnational perspectives. Additionally, it aims to support students professional development by encouraging reflection on their intellectual projects and academic aspirations through in-class exercises and final project.

What does it mean to think of land as our main mentor? This course focuses on how relational approaches to land shape Indigenous ways of knowing, as well as how Indigenous peoples navigate, negotiate, and resist global environmental policies that paradoxically perpetuate environmental (in)justices. The course explores the intersections of indigeneity, gender, and race, and highlights how Indigenous peoples, especially women, care for/live in, and sustain their territories and ecosystems. Through interdisciplinary and transhemispheric case studies from North America (Turtle Island), Latin America (Abiayala), and India, students will engage with Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies to examine their contributions to ecological stewardship and sustainable practices, with particular attention to Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Environmental Justice (EJ). Topics covered include: body-land relations, feminismos comunitarios [community-based feminisms]; environmental racism; and the impacts of global development programs implemented in Indigenous territories. Students will critically analyze how power structures intersect with green development by engaging with a variety of readings, films, guest speakers, and classes conducted both indoors and outdoors in contact with nature. The course supports critical thinking by engaging students in reflection on issues and possibilities related to land and Indigenous knowledge systems. Students will develop their ideas through in-class discussions, land-as-pedagogy practices, presentations, and a final project.

For students who may not be associated with CISS programs, but who choose to do independent interdisciplinary study that might not be permitted under their major department's tutorial option. One unit.

Selected students take a seminar at the world-renowned American Antiquarian Society taught by visiting scholars. Seminar topics vary with the fields of the scholars. One unit.

For third and fourth year students who wish to do unique independent work that falls outside of disciplinary offerings. One unit.

Interdisciplinary introduction to the study, research, and interpretation of historical, cultural, social and political knowledge of African American, African, and Caribbean peoples examining contemporary black identities, politics, and culture, particularly focusing on the role and place of blacks in modern American cities through exploration of international migrations, race relations, and 20th-century cultural movements, including civil rights, social protest music, art and literature. Addresses the cultural, historical, political, economic, and psychological consequences of the dispersal of Africans from their ancestral continent to the United States and the Caribbean and the impact of the cultures of West and central Africa in the United States and the Caribbean, through oral narratives, music, art, festivals, foodways, clothing, hairstyles, dance, and religious belief systems. Introduces literary and political movements including Pan-Africanism, black feminism, Negritude, Harlem Renaissance, and other activities reflecting shared theories, ideologies and political movements of Africans, African Americans and Caribbean blacks.

Although often considered homogenously white, Europe's population is and always has been racially diverse. This diversity is the culmination of centuries of colonialist interventions around the globe, particularly in Africa and the West Indies. This course will explore the history and contemporary reality of this population diversity, with a particular focus on the African diaspora in Europe. Beginning with Europe's simultaneous expulsion of Jews and Muslims and "discovery" of Caribbean islands in 1492, the students will trace Europe's colonial history in Africa and the West Indies that ultimately resulted in return migration of current and former African colonial subjects to multiple metropoles in Europe. Students will then focus on the experiences of the African Diaspora in Europe, broadly, and in five countries (Britain, France, The Netherlands, Germany, and Italy) before addressing contemporary debates (the racialization of Muslims as the "new Blacks" in Europe, citizenship laws within and across the EU, and anti-racist movements) and concluding with discussion of the future of race and Africans in Europe.

American scholar and activist W.E.B. Du Bois famously wrote, the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line. This course will examine the struggle to break down the color line, from the nadir of the early 1900s through the peak of activism in the 1950s and 60s and up to today. We will analyze the leaders who were out in front, learn about those at the grassroots who worked tirelessly behind the scenes, and consider the thoughts and tactics of the Black Americans and their allies who organized to create a more democratic civil society. We will read secondary and primary sources, speeches, memoirs, and court cases, and work to understand the intersection of people and politics. Perhaps most importantly, looking at the struggle in its many contexts will provide a framework to discuss its legacy and how we see the color line today.

The period between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement (roughly 1954-1965) is often known as the jim crow era, or the age in which racial segregation meant that the promises of slaverys abolition went only partially fulfilled. Often overlooked, the ongoing activism against the persistence of the color line was crucial in laying the foundation for the later successes of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the 1960s. The struggle for Black freedom never stopped, and has never stopped; understanding Black Americans fight against the American apartheid in these critical years draws a direct line from the abolitionist movement to the civil rights activism of the 20th century, and right through today. We will analyze the leaders who were out in front, learn about those at the grassroots who worked tirelessly behind the scenes, and consider the thoughts and tactics of the Black Americans and their allies who organized to create a more democratic civil society. We will read secondary and primary sources, speeches, literature, and consequential contemporary works to understand the intersection of people and politics. Perhaps most importantly, looking at the struggle in its many contexts will provide a framework to discuss its legacy and how we see the color line today.

Introduces students to the basic expressive and receptive skills in ASL, including conversation strategies, spatial referencing and facial expressions. Questions, commands, and simple sentences are covered, leading to basic conversational skills in ASL. Awareness of Deaf culture is included. Attendance in ASL lab practicum is required in addition to the class time. One and one-quarter units.

Continues to develop the basics of the ASL language and the building of both expressive and receptive vocabulary. Further develops the communicative competencies in the language focusing on skills including use of classifiers, temporal sequencing, spatial agreement and object identification through description. Study of Deaf culture is continued. Attendance in ASL lab practicum is required in addition to the class time. One and one-quarter units.

This course covers issues relating to deafness, deaf people and the Deaf community, focusing on the cultural and linguistic aspects of deafness rather than the medical condition. It explores such questions as whether deafness is something to be fixed or celebrated, and it considers alternative ways of looking at members of society who are different in some way. It considers policy making, and explores the way that the hearing community influences opinions, decisions, and policies that affect the Deaf community. This course is a requirement for students proposing a CIS Student-Designed major or minor which includes Deaf Studies as one of its disciplines. Taught in English. One unit.

This course reviews and expands on the fundamentals of ASL, continues the acquisition of speaking and listening skills through a visual-gestural modality, and develops conversational skills.

This course reviews and expands on the fundamentals of ASL, continues the acquisition of speaking and listening skills through a visual-gestural modality, and develops conversational skills.

With the goal of increased fluency and comfort, topics revolve around sharing information about our environment and us. Students continue to learn conversational strategies. All lab work, social events, videotapes, learning stimulating activities (in and outside of class) and assignments are intended to develop advanced competency in receptive and expressive use of ASL. In addition to the class time, students are required to participate in a Community-Based Learning partnership program where ASL is used. Students are evaluated using the target language in videotape format, in-class presentations and at public forum presentations using ASL. One unit.

This course examines how culture and language intersect in 20th-century ASL literature. It explores the origins of deaf literature, its relationship with written literature, especially its effect on the development of aesthetic expression of ASL literature. It considers works about deafness and works written by deaf authors and the various attitudes toward deafness revealed in these works. Emphasis is placed on historical background, meaning of the content discussion of grammatical features and styles revealed in the study of selected video materials.

Offers students a unique learning experience, a full immersion internship opportunity for the semester with concurrent weekly seminar. Students integrate the hands-on experience of their internship sites with related readings, classroom discussions and student presentations of specific topics. Students make a formal presentation. Students are involved with a unique collaborate signed History project. Using ASL as a means of communication, students conduct interviews with deaf individuals in the community. One unit.

Introduces students to the discipline of Women's and Gender Studies by analyzing women's roles and women's contributions to society and culture from the perspective of recent scholarship on women. Special attention focused on the complex interactions between gender and other social divisions such as race, class, and sexual orientation. The following issues are among those considered: the politics of women's work, the representation of women's bodies in the media, violence against women, healthcare and reproductive rights, global feminism, and the history of feminist movements in the U.S. Deliberately includes in its scope broader constructions of gender, such as concepts of masculinity.

Interdisciplinary course examines the intersecting regimes of gender, race, and class as they occur in different historical periods and varying cultures. Students learn to analyze international power relations at the level of everyday politics. Encourages students to find evidence for the ways in which varying local conditions interact with women's agency in order to promote their own (personal and collective) well-being and broader social changes.

Independent Study (tutorial) completed under the guidance of a selected Women's and Gender Studies faculty member. One unit.

Serves as a general interdisciplinary introduction to Latin America.

This course introduces students to the economic history of Latin America. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we will examine the impact that commodities such as cacao, sugar and coffee have had on Latin American economies, global food culture and globalization. We begin with pre-Columbian Americas, continuing with an analysis of colonial Latin America, followed by post-independence / post-colonial Latin America. We end with a review of contemporary Latin America, touching on such themes as fair trade, direct trade, organic production.

This course examines Latinx migration and mobility across North, Central, and South America as well as the Caribbean. It explores why Latinx migrants move to new places, what happens to them along the way, and their experiences in new destinations, such as the U.S. We will consider how race, class, age, gender, and nationality, among other things, influence and shape the migration process. We will reflect on how the act of migration transforms migrants, those left behind, and those encountered along the way. We will discuss topics such as borders, citizenship, diaspora, globalization, and immigration enforcement. We will analyze migration as a social, cultural, political, and economic phenomenon and study the mobility of people, ideas, and capital. Above all, we will investigate the role of Latinx migration in producing and transforming our contemporary world.