J-Term 2024 Courses
BIO 109 - Nutrition (Lecture Only) (4 CR)
(GCR Biological and Physical Science area)
Introduction to the chemical and biological aspects of nutrition, the basic nutrients and their effects on our health and on the environment. Topics such as the energy needs of athletes, weight control, diet fads, supplements and herbs, food safety, and food and drug interactions will be discussed in class. Four hours classroom. Variable semesters.
Format and Time: In Person, Monday - Friday, 10 AM-12 PM and 12:50 PM - 2:10 PM
Instructor: van Breukelen
BUS 160 - Personal Financial Planning (4 CR)
The purpose of this introductory course is to develop knowledge of the financial planning process and learn how to apply this process to your everyday life. An integral part of the study of personal finance includes employee benefits, financial planning, house-buying, credit borrowing, personal finance applications of time-value-of-money, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, taxes, and retirement planning. Variable semesters.
Format and Time: Synchronous Online, Monday – Friday, 10 AM-12 PM and 12:50 PM - 2:10 PM
Instructor: Shadaei
COM 238 - PUBLIC RELATIONS (4 CR)
(GCR Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies area)
An introduction to the history, role, and function of public relations. Course assignments focus on analyzing the responsibilities, strategies, tactics, and ethics of public relations practitioners. Students will also apply the basic principles of strategic public relations to managing campaigns, producing a variety of materials such as press releases and social media outreach, and evaluating the effectiveness of specific PR tactics.
Format and Time: Synchronous Online, Monday – Friday, 10 AM-12 PM and 12:50 PM - 2:10 PM
Instructor: Stiles
CPEA 211 – To Walk with Nature: Environment and the Artist (4 CR)
(GCR-ENV) (GCR-Arts Area)
This course will examine the multiple relationships that exist between art and environment. We will look at ways in which the natural environment has inspired artists and arts movements, and we will look at the Environmental Art Movement that uses art to advocate for environmental change. We will also explore ways in which specific environments (galleries, place-based installations, outdoor exhibitions, for example) have on the perception of art, we will examine environmental art movements, and study art exhibits that are related to specific environments. We will learn about artists who work in sculpture, music, dance, theater, photography and architecture to address environmental issues. Students will engage in making environmental art projects based on their individual interests and art backgrounds, and they will work on collaborative art projects in media that may be new to them.
Format and Time: Synchronous Online, Monday – Friday, 10 AM-12 PM and 12:50 PM - 2:10 PM
Instructor: Curry
CPEB 210 – Work: From Theory to Practice (4 CR)
Work: by many accounts, you’ll dedicate between a quarter and a third of your entire life to it. Whatever you choose to do with all of that time at work will position you in some way in relation to economic systems and structures of power that operate simultaneously at the global, national, and local levels. At the same time, your work will likely have a bearing on your sense of who you are and on the people and communities with which you identify. Work is, in short, a high-stakes affair, for you and for human society. This course will introduce you to some of the key concepts and methods that scholars in the social sciences and humanities have employed to make sense of work. You’ll use these concepts and methods to gather data among real workers in real workplaces. You’ll then interpret your fieldwork data to develop a deeper and more complex understanding of work as a social phenomenon, and also – critically – to explore how you’ll navigate the world of work and clarify what the idea of a career means to you.
Format and Time: In Person, Monday - Friday, 10 AM-12 PM and 12:50 PM - 2:10 PM
Instructor: Van Hoose
CPED 207 – The Addicted Brain: Understanding America’s Drug Crisis (4 CR)
(GCR Biological and Physical Science area)
The opioid crisis is one of the deadliest drug epidemics in U.S. history. “Opioids” include illegal recreational drugs (such as heroin), but also powerful pain relievers often prescribed for patients with chronic medical conditions. In this course, we will dive into the neurobiology of opioid drugs, the effects they have on the brain, and how this contributes to the development of an addiction. We will also examine the many intersecting factors (education, class, race, cultural background, genetic predisposition, psychological health, and others) that influence who becomes addicted to opioids, and what help they receive. Students will then conduct collaborative investigations of a drug of their choice in a specific local or national setting (for example, methamphetamine abuse in the rural Midwest, or Ritalin abuse by urban teens), working to understand the factors influencing the abuse of this drug from social and biological perspectives. Students are limited to one CPE course per semester.
Format and Time: Synchronous Online, Monday – Friday, 10 AM – 12 PM and 12:50 PM - 2:10 PM
Instructor: Starkey
CPED 215 – Nature or Nurture? The Determinants of Human Disease (4 CR)
(GCR Biological and Physical Science area)
This course will provide students with an opportunity to examine and discuss the scientific principles that help us understand human disease, its development, treatment, and prevention. Emphasis will be given to introducing students to scientific inquiry through hands-on experiences that highlight human health and disease at different levels—from the molecular level to organ systems in the body, as well as the body’s interaction with the environment.
Format and Time: In person, Monday – Friday, 10 AM – 12 PM and 12:50 PM - 2:10 PM
Instructor: Segarra
PLS 204: Law and Society
An introductory, interdisciplinary examination of law as a social institution. Focus is on the origin, history, and philosophy of legal systems from an international perspective, as well as the relationship in the United States between common law and statutory law, federal and state law, the courts and legislative bodies, and the courts and the executive branch of government. Exploration of the legal profession, its history, practice, goals, and place in American society.
Format and time: Asynchronous Online.
Instructor: Lippe
PSC 249: Presidential Primary Politics in South Carolina (4 CR)
South Carolina has been chosen by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to host the first Democratic presidential primary of the 2024 election. Prior to 2024, New Hampshire was the first primary election and because of this, was the most frequently visited state by candidates vying to receive the party’s nomination. Historically, South Carolina was the second primary election and within the state, Columbia was the most visited city in 2020. Because of the changes implemented by the DNC for 2024, we anticipate South Carolina will be the site of the most campaign activity by the Democrats.
South Carolina will be the second presidential primary for the Republican Party and two of the candidates vying for the Republican nomination are from South Carolina: Former SC Governor Nikki Haley and Senator Tim Scott.
In the ultimate experiential learning opportunity, we are hitting the road and going to Columbia, SC for two weeks. Over the course of two weeks, you will work 30-40 hours with a campaign of your choosing (candidate, party or issue-based), you will spend 10 hours in a seminar setting to discuss course readings, and you will have the opportunity to attend campaign events with your professor and classmates. We depart from campus on Tuesday, January 2, 2024 and return to campus on Wednesday, January 17, 2024.
Format and time: Experiential travel course from Tuesday, January 2 – Wednesday, January 17.
Instructor: Kasniunas
SP 120 - Elements of Spanish II (4 CR)
Continued development of the four basic language skills-listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing-within the context of Hispanic cultures. Four contact hours. Prerequisite: SP 110 or SP 110V with a minimum grade of C- or placement exam.
Format and Time: Synchronous Online, Monday - Friday, 10 AM-12 PM and 12:50 PM - 2:10 PM
Instructor: Gomis Quinto
SP 130 - Intermediate Spanish (4 CR)
(LER-FL) (GCR FL - Platforms 1 & 2)
This course is designed to expand knowledge of the Spanish language and explore the cultural diversity in the Spanish-speaking world through the development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. This is the third and final course of the lower-division language sequence. Satisfactory completion of the course fulfills the foreign language requirement. Four contact hours. Prerequisite: SP 120 or SP 120S or SP 120V, with a minimum grade of C- or placement exam. Fall and Spring semesters.
Format and Time: Synchronous Online, Monday - Friday, 10 AM-12 PM and 12:50 PM - 2:10 PM
Instructor: Ramos-Fontán
WRT 206 - Professional Communication (4 CR)
(GCR- WEC)
Open to students from any major, this course will develop and enhance students’ skills in a range of written and verbal communications in organizational settings. Students will work on a variety of projects, including standard business correspondence and career development documents in multiple platforms. Students will also craft persuasive arguments in the form of longer researched articles and grant proposals. Students will learn to write for a range of audiences. There will be an emphasis on presentations as well. Prerequisites: WRT 181 or WRT 181H or FYS 100W or CWP. Fulfills WEC requirement.
Format and Time: Asynchronous Online.
Instructor: Oweidat
WRT 285 – Analyzing Linguistic Data (4 CR)
(GCR DA-AC AND GCR WEC)
This course has four main goals: to introduce students to some areas of linguistic study such as dialect variation, register analysis, and sociolinguistics; to explore some of the ways that linguists use data to learn more about language and how people use language; to examine how linguists, academics in general, and students themselves use written language; and to introduce students to the genre of scholarly linguistic writing (and academic writing more generally). Students will read scholarly and popular works in the field of linguistics; collect, analyze, present, and write about linguistic data; conduct group and individual research; and share their findings with the class. Students will learn to work with several corpora including the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the Dictionary of American Regional English and will also create and analyze data from their own corpus. The class will culminate with students developing their own research question, conducting their own research, and presenting it to the class as both an oral presentation and a paper written in the style of published linguistic research. This final paper will be a multi-draft paper, and we will conduct peer review and one-on-one conferences to help students revised their work. Prerequisites: WRT 181 - Writing Studies (4 Cr.) or WRT 181H - Writing Studies - Honors (4 Cr.) or FYS 100W - First Year Seminar Writing (4 Cr.), and GCR Data Analytics Foundational Level completion. This class fulfills both the WEC and DA-AC requirements.
Format and time: Synchronous Online, Monday - Friday, 10 AM-12 PM and 12:50 PM - 2:10 PM
Instructor: Garrett