Spring 2026 Colloquia

DWC 202 C01: M 10:30-12:20 S01 & S02: R 10:30-12:20
Voices of Empire: from Publius to Putin
Jessica Blum-Sorensen, Francesca Silano

Empire. Demagogue. Autocracy. Fascism. In the sliding scale of regimes, dramatic political change is the only constant. But what does it mean to build, maintain, and lose a world power? This course looks at the historical mechanisms of empire through a comparison of two of its most famous examples: the Empires of Ancient Rome and Russia (and the Soviet Union).

Our class is shaped by the following questions: What is an empire? What makes for a “successful” empire? Why do people accept or reject being part of an empire? What kinds of practices help to maintain empires? What kinds of cultural products are formed in empires? What kinds of people and events weaken empires? Do empires inevitably collapse? All of these questions are meant to help students make sense not only of the history of the world —which has been deeply shaped by empire — but of their contemporary world. Using a multifaceted and interdisciplinary approach to the topic of empire, students will not only learn about the Russian and Roman empires from a variety of angles but will understand the political mechanisms of power and empire in any age, and thus, in the world today.

Our investigation will consider both the practice and the propaganda of imperial rule, from the role of military and religious institutions in forging and maintaining empires, to the experiences of enslaved and enserfed people, to the performance of imperial power through fashion, sport, ceremony, art, literature, and music. We will rely heavily on primary sources in a wide range of materials and from a diversity of positions as we try to immerse ourselves in the cultural, social, and political experiences of the rulers and the ruled in an empire.

DWC 202 C02: F 8:30-10:20, S03 & S04: T 8:30-10:20 Environmental Health
Rachel Lyons, Peter Rogers

This interdisciplinary course explores the evolving concepts of health and the environment, examining their interconnectedness across time and cultures. Students will engage with perspectives from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities to understand how definitions of health and environment have developed globally. Topics include the physical, emotional, and holistic dimensions of health; the historical and current impacts of natural and human-made environments; and the complex relationship between climate change, healthcare, and ecological well-being. The course will critically examine frameworks like One Health to explore the interdependence of human and environmental health.

DWC 202 C03: W 1:30-3:20, S05 & S06: M 1:30-3:20
Oz in American Culture: A Wicked Good Colloquium
R. Alexander Orquiza, Kelly Warmuth

Baum & Maguire & Schwartz, oh my! This colloquium explores the L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) as the quintessential American fairytale. Beyond its deep and persistent relations to American history and politics, its sequels, revisions, and adaptations have defined the cultural landscape for over a century. From an interdisciplinary perspective drawing on contemporary history and psychology, we will dissect the significance of Baum’s Oz within American culture, examine how the story has changed throughout its adaptations, investigate the psychological underpinnings of the characters and environment, and dive into the historical and cultural contexts informing these transitions from page, to stage, to screen, and back again by its creators. Primary sources may include classic and modern literature, adaptations for film and Broadway, and supplementary articles.

Class sessions will consist of a combination of lecture, discussion, active learning, and group activities to help you engage deeply with course content and think critically about the deeper meaning of Oz in American culture.

DWC 202 C04: T 8:30-10:20, S07 & S08: F 8:30-10:20
Apocalypse!
Vance Morgan, Robert Stretter

This colloquium asks students who have spent three semesters considering the development of civilization to think about how civilization – and even humanity itself – might end. With a bang? A whimper? A rapture? A flu? Zombies? Visions of the destruction of civilization are experiencing a renaissance, from literature (e.g., Emily St. John Mandel’s award- winning 2014 post-pandemic novel Station Eleven) to television (the hit series The Walking Dead) to film (the Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road) to video games (the popular Fallout series). Our “Apocalypse” colloquium is designed to connect this contemporary moment with the long tradition of apocalyptic writing and thinking. We will study Biblical apocalyptic texts such as Daniel and Revelation; the theology of “the Rapture” in evangelical Christianity; apocalyptic cults; novels, films and comics about nuclear war and natural disaster; and dark fantasies about the ruin of civilization by monsters. By asking ourselves to think about the end of civilization and its aftermaths, we come to reconsider some of the fundamental questions that form the intellectual core of DWC: what is civilization? what are the limits of its “development”? what responsibilities do human beings have to each other? what role does the divine play in promoting moral behavior? what is virtue, and does it apply in all circumstances, including post-apocalyptic wastelands? what things are essential in life? At a time when a lost internet connection or missed flight or speeding ticket can seem like a minor catastrophe, it can be instructive to imagine life in a world without electricity, planes, cars, police, or laws.

 This colloquium asks students who have spent three semesters considering the development of civilization to think about how civilization – and even humanity itself – might end. With a bang? A whimper? A rapture? A flu? Zombies? Visions of the destruction of civilization are experiencing a renaissance, from literature (e.g., Emily St. John Mandel’s award- winning 2014 post-pandemic novel Station Eleven) to television (the hit series The Walking Dead) to film (the Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road) to video games (the popular Fallout series). Our “Apocalypse” colloquium is designed to connect this contemporary moment with the long tradition of apocalyptic writing and thinking. We will study Biblical apocalyptic texts such as Daniel and Revelation; the theology of “the Rapture” in evangelical Christianity; apocalyptic cults; novels, films and comics about nuclear war and natural disaster; and dark fantasies about the ruin of civilization by monsters. By asking ourselves to think about the end of civilization and its aftermaths, we come to reconsider some of the fundamental questions that form the intellectual core of DWC: what is civilization? what are the limits of its “development”? what responsibilities do human beings have to each other? what role does the divine play in promoting moral behavior? what is virtue, and does it apply in all circumstances, including post-apocalyptic wastelands? what things are essential in life? At a time when a lost internet connection or missed flight or speeding ticket can seem like a minor catastrophe, it can be instructive to imagine life in a world without electricity, planes, cars, police, or laws.

DWC 202 C05: T 10:30-12:20, S9 & S10: W 10:30-12:20
On the Same Page? The Literary and Historical Contexts of Jewish and Christian Biblical Interpretation
Arthur Urbano, Thomas Bolin

For twenty centuries, Judaism and Christianity have shared custody of biblical texts. While each tradition has developed its interpretive strategies, they have often done so with an eye to how the other community reads those Scriptures. This course explores the rich history of Jewish and Christian biblical interpretation and the various ways that texts were read as prayers, sources of theological beliefs, moral formation, and maintenance of community identity.

DWC 202 C06: T 12:30-2:20, S11 & S12: R 12:30-2:20
Gaming Civ
Alyssa Lopez, Elyse Oakley

Games have long been a part of how humans interact with each other: to problem solve, to seek love, or to expand friendships. This course will trace a bit of that history, while also using video games to literally play our way through some of western civilization’s most contested questions. Video games, themselves a modern development and art form, offer us a singular opportunity to take on the role of a moral, social agent in a context outside of our own to test out ethical questions, walk through history, or even throw our own personal ethics to the wind and be the “bad guy.” Regardless of the choice made, the choice matters because it serves as one possible answer to some of our world’s most important, still unsettled, questions. Questions like: is violent resistance ever justifiable? Are there really any “parasites” in a perfectly capitalist society? What is it that makes us human? What does history offer the present? Some of our “texts” will include video games, such as Detroit: Become Human, Bioshock, and Little Hope.

This course requires access to a device (like a laptop capable of running CPU and/or GPU intensive programs) where you can regularly access Steam, our gaming platform. While some gaming experience may be helpful, it is not required.

DWC 202 C07: T 2:30-4:20, S13 & S14: R 2:30-4:20
Our Monsters, Ourselves
Elizabeth Bridgham, Sharon Murphy

The Caribbean is a complex region that has been historically affected by the impact of Western colonization, slavery, revolutions, migration, and neocolonial policies, whose consequences shape the economic, political, and social realities of its various islands. Through examining how the region has been impacted by diseases, epidemics, environmental disasters, and catastrophic natural events that have put infrastructure and health systems at risk and in precarious situations, students will understand concepts such as biopolitics, necropolitics, pneumo-politics, humanitarian coloniality, compound crisis, decolonization, environmental justice, social displacements, etc.er Antilles by European explorers in the 15^th century, disease, disaster, and political and social transformation have been inextricably linked in the Caribbean.  Using literature, art, theology, and philosophy, we will explore key moments in the history of the region where catastrophe and disease catalyzed political and social transformation. More than just a source of suffering and destruction, encounters with disease and disaster have also sparked new artistic movements, changes in political regime, and literary and social movements.  

This seminar will enhance and foster the skills of bilingual students (English and Spanish) currently enrolled in DWC courses. We welcome Heritage Speakers, Native Spanish Speakers, as well as intermediate and advanced level Spanish students.

DWC 202 C08: M 8:30-10:20, S15 & S16: W 8:30-10:20
Studying the Middle Ages Through Medieval and Modern Games
Christopher Berard, Aaron Colaiacomo

Keeping alive the Middle Ages in popular consciousness is a wide array of digital and physical games. Our course takes the long view of gaming as a tool for learning about medieval European civilization. We will proceed diachronically from medieval board games to tabletop role-playing games to digital gaming.

Our first unit is devoted to chess, an abstract strategy board game played on both sides of the medieval-modern divide. We will study its origins in sixth-century Persia, its transmission across medieval Asia and Europe, and its changing rules and cultural significance. As part of this unit, we will read The Book of Chess (ca. 1275), an extended sermon by the Dominican friar Jacobus de Cessolis (fl. 1288–1322), which uses the history of the game, its players, and their moves as the basis for a moral discourse on life comprised of tales and anecdotes of ancient and medieval literary sources. At the end of this unit, students will assess the benefits and limitations of the game metaphor for medieval society.

Our second unit is devoted to Arthurian role-playing games past and present. We will familiarize ourselves with the main characters, plots, and conflicts of King Arthur’s court, and, after that, study the rules, structures, and cultural functions of Arthurian sports and spectacles. Our exploration will include the medieval martial game known as the Round Table as well as the various elite, courtly, and socially exclusive Courts of King Arthur that sprang up all across Europe in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. With these contexts in mind, we will also be delving deeply into the cooperative storytelling, tabletop, roleplaying game that is Dungeons & Dragons. At the end of this unit, students will construct a character profile for an Arthurian personage of their choice using the latest Dungeons & Dragons character design instructions as a template.

Our third unit is devoted to the agonistic and ludic components of chivalry and violence during the First Phase of the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1360) and also the educational value of battle simulation board games and the Eurogame revolution that lead to the creation of such popular games as Settlers of Catan (1995) and Agricola (2007). We will begin by exploring the rules and disputed questions of chivalry as discussed in Geoffroi de Charny’s Book of Chivalry (1350). Next, we will consider how advances in military technology, including Edward III’s combined arms tactics, impacted the norms of war, military culture, and aristocratic and plebeian society. As part of this unit, students will be using the Men of Iron battle simulation board game to explore the Battle of Crécy (1346) and the Battle of Poitier (1356).

Our fourth unit is devoted to medieval-themed digital games and esports tournaments. We will consider critically how the “Digital Turn” (and its accompanying rise of digital games and technologies) has created a new momentum, leading to an entirely different level of innovation and prominence for studying games. In this unit, we will assess the historical authenticity and educational value of specific medieval-themed digital games. Games under consideration include Assassin’s Creed, Dragon Age, and Skyrim. We will also compare modern competitive esports tournaments to medieval tournaments. As their capstone project, students will describe, critically assess, and present on a medieval-themed modern game of their choice.

DWC 202 C09: W 10:30-12:20, S17 & S18: F 10:30-12:20
Ancients and Moderns
Christopher Parrott, Bill Hogan

The literature of the Classical Greek and Roman world forms one of the foundations of Western culture, and it features many powerful myths and stories—stories of the Trojan War, of gods and monsters, of heroes and of ordinary human life. Why have these works been so influential through the centuries, and why do they still endure so powerfully in the imagination of the modern world? Why do writers and artists of our own time—from poets to graphic novelists to Hollywood filmmakers—continue to retell and reimagine these ancient stories? In this colloquium, we will read several ancient works that have proven especially fertile ground for modern rethinking and retelling, including the adventures of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey; Virgil’s tale of Orpheus and Eurydice; and the myths of Daedalus & Icarus, the Minotaur, and the Labyrinth. Then we will study modern adaptations of these works and tales, and consider how artists, storytellers, and thinkers react to, reuse, and reinterpret these Classical sources in a variety of different cultural and historical contexts and from diverse perspectives—including those of women, of authors and artists of color, and of non-“Western” figures. In reading varying adaptations of these foundational stories, we will reflect on the way they help to illuminate both the radical differences and the surprising continuities between the ancient and modern world.

DWC 202 C10: W 12:30-2:20, S19 & S20: M 12:30-2:20
Guardians of the Galaxy: The Christian Call to Care for Creation
Dana Dillon, William Patenaude

This course draws from theological, historical, literary and philosophical sources to offer an exploration of the evolving and complicated attitudes toward creation throughout the history and theology of Western civilization. We will consider ways that various dynamics such as capitalism and colonialism impacted these attitudes. We will also engage in two games that will allow students to play roles in European negotiations regarding international law concerning acid rain (1980s) and climate change (2009) and reflect on the ways that history and theology impacted (and continue to impact) the collective will (or lack thereof) to make the changes necessary to save our planet.

DWC 202 C11: M 8:30-10:20, S21 & S22: R 8:30-10:20
Consciousness, Conviction, and Contemplation
Peter Costello, Fr. John Allard, O.P.

This course will explore and analyze religious beliefs and practices in the settings of Europe, Asia, and the Americas. We will consider human religious consciousness as it finds expression in artistic, literary, religious, and philosophical frameworks. Our approach takes its cue from the philosophical perspective known as phenomenology, for which the person’s involvement in noticing and being present to the data of human experience is paramount. Readings and class discussions will therefore probe accounts and artefacts that relate to such religious meanings as transcendence, the perceptions of God as present and God as absent, and the transformational process known as conversion. The course is designed to encourage students to participate in conversations attuned to the human person reflecting upon the meaning of her or his own religious experience.

DWC 202 C14: R 2:30-4:20, S23 & S24: T 2:30-4:20
Civic Engagement in the U.S.A.: Constitutional Principles, History, and Turning Points
Christopher Arroyo, Darra Mulderry

This course will invite students to formulate answers to two questions: 1) What is the nature of the U.S.’s democratic system? 2) How should we, its citizens, act to sustain its best features and remedy its flaws, especially at a time of deep divisions in U.S. society?

By engaging with primary sources that educate students about hotly debated issues in American history from colonial times to our current moment, students will gain civic knowledge of U.S. history and government and civic capacity for collaborative inquiry and action, as well as articulate what they believe are the most constructive norms for constructive civic discourse. Moreover, they shall have opportunity to draw on some of their learning from their first 3 semesters in the DWC program to reflect on these issues in the course, particularly with respect to the ways in which the first three semesters introduced students to key theorists about democracy. NOTE: the core ideas for this course were inspired by a curricular project entitled “Third Way Civics” developed at the Minnesota Humanities Center that aims to nurture civil discourse in this time of relative discord. We are modeling parts of this course on parts the Third Way Civics Project, which was started at Minnesota State University by Trygve Throntveit.

DWC 202 C16: F 11:30-1:20, S25 & S26: W 11:30-1:20
The Message: Legacies of Colonialism and It’s Modern Manifestations: Africa, America, and the Occupied Territories
Luz Colpa, Ruth Ben-Artzi

This course examines the history, literature and political economy of the contemporary era through the three “intertwining essays” which make up the body of Ta-Nehisi Coates bestselling book The Message. Exploring conceptions of diasporic citizenship, academic and artistic freedom, and social belonging within contested histories this, work will guide our exploration of modern history, literature and ethics, starting with the Reconquista in 1491 and ending with the present.

Relevant authors we will explore include but are not limited to: Edward Said, Rachid Khalidi, Nathan Thrall, Mahmood Mamdani, Mamadou Diouf, Stuart Hall. Readings will delve into issues of Asymmetric balances of power, Occupation and Oppression, International Law, Histories of Race, Settler colonialism, Citizenship and Intermarriage among others. Throughout this course, we will pay particular attention to the construction of social categories, history and narrative. We will ask and continue to ask: What is the nation? What is a citizen? How does narrative shape national and social identity? What implications do these concepts have for our present situation.

DWC 202 C18: M 9:30-11:20, S27 & S28: R 9:30-11:20
Re-Enchanting the World
Columcille Dever, Christopher Sauder

Science tells us that all reality is physical and that if you cannot measure it it is not real. Such a world view leaves no room for anything sacred, transcendent or magical – no Athena, no Yahweh, but also no wood spirits, no divine stars, no angels or demons. The modern world has become “disenchanted”. And yet, the poets, the artists and composers of the modern period have never been satisfied with this world devoid of mystery. In this class we will look at Romantic and Post-Romantic attempts to reestablish a connection with the sacred dimension of the world, from Hölderlin’s conjuring of the exiled Greek gods, to Wordsworth and Friedrich connecting us with the forest and the sea, to Wagner’s reinvention of mythology, to Baudelaire’s “Flowers of Evil”, Klimt’s magic kaleidoscope and T.S. Eliot’s journey through and beyond “The Wasteland”. Our guide for the semester will be Charles Taylor, North America’s greatest living philosopher. We will look at passages from The Secular Age along with his 2024 book, Cosmic Connections. This is a colloquium for writers, artists, explorers of the soul, psychology majors, pagan transcendentalists and dark Catholics.

DWC 202 C19: M 11:30-1:20, S29 & S30: F 11:30-1:20
Dark Psychology and Literature
Greg Charpentier, Olga Limnios

 “Don’t get too close, it’s dark inside; it’s where my demons hide.” This line speaks to all of us. No wonder the song it comes from—“Demons” by Imagine Dragons—was such a huge hit. However, shining a light on the dark corners of human psyche is not an exclusive purview of rock musicians. Centuries before Imagine Dragons, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, John Milton, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, and Nikolai Gogol devoted their art and skill to examining the human condition in all its manifestations, including such problematic human traits as manipulation, coercion, and hubris. After them, came Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller, Paulo Coehlo, and Chuck Palahniuk (among others) and continued shining the light on the shadowy aspects of our behavior. In turn, Freud, Frankel, Adler, and Jung offered professional psychological insight into these darker manifestations of human nature.

In this class, we will examine both the literary representations of human darkness and attempt to uncover their psychological roots. We will center on the theme of self-deceit and trace it to all the unsavory behaviors exhibited by Othello, Satan, Dr. Frankenstein and numerous other literary personages. In the process, we will also look inside ourselves. In a sense, using the lens of psychology, we want to answer the question “Why do people do what they do?” Attempting to answer this question this will give us more depth and a better framework for understanding of ourselves. Carl Jung told us that “A tree, it is said, cannot grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.”

Dark Psychology is not a macabre interpretation or a perversion of the science, but instead an opportunity to face things that otherwise would be left unseen or in the shadows, controlling behavior unchecked. When children fear the darkness under their bed and in the closet, how do their parents banish the fear? They simply shine a light on it, exposing it, weakening it, and dispelling its power. If we do not face the darkness, we give it undue power. Along our journey this semester, we will pay special attention to the Roman Catholic tradition in the pieces we read and will make sure to represent all cultures respectfully with sensitivity to the immense diversity within the College community.

DWC 202 C20: M 1:30-3:20, S31& S32: W 1:30-3:20
A National Artistic Experiment: FDR and the Federal Theatre Project
Sharon Murphy, Erin Schmidt

“A National Artistic Experiment” will study the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt through the lens of his administration’s implementation of The Federal Theatre Project, the largest and most wide-reaching effort mounted by the Federal government to produce theatre in American history. This course will study the period from the pre-depression era to the Federal Theatre Project’s closure at the end of the 1930’s. Students will read a variety of texts that will give context to the political, social and economic complexities of the time, and Roosevelt’s agenda to address them. After laying a historical foundation, we will turn to the Federal Theatre Project to read and analyze some of the important artistic texts that were born out of the FTP and discuss the themes and commentary the plays offer about human nature and society.

DWC 202 C21: T 8:30-10:20, S33 & S34: T 8:30-10:20
Race and Identity in Contemporary America
Iain Bernhoft, Jiyoon Im

Americans are obsessed with identity. We define ourselves and our politics in terms of race, sexual orientation, chosen pronouns . . . down to the things we buy and the “lifestyle” choices we make. But we also recognize that certain identities are marginalized or endangered, so we frame fundamental questions of freedom, justice, and representation in terms of “identity.” This course asks you to question the way we talk about identity (specifically race and gender) in America today. You will consider how free people are to choose their own identity, what unspoken assumptions we hold concerning identity, what role nature plays, and how Catholicism responds to the moral claims of identity. Our readings will include contemporary American and British fiction, essays, and films, as we seek to better understand what’s surprising and strange about the identity categories we take for granted.

DWC 202 C22: T 10:30-12:20, S35 & S36: F 10:30-12:20
Persuasion, Judgement, and Rhetoric in Liberal Democracies
Iain Bernhoft, Jiyoon Im

Have Americans lost the ability to discuss the issues that divide us? Our country seems increasingly divided and angry, with “cancel culture” and shaming replacing open conversation and efforts to persuade. This colloquium invites you to consider what role persuasion should play (and does play) in liberal democracies. We’ll investigate how humans reason and make moral judgments, how rhetoric works, and in what ways persuasion is particularly necessary in liberal democracies. This study of democratic persuasion will take us from ancient Athens to contemporary America, as we consider readings, speeches, and plays from Thucydides to Shakespeare to Abraham Lincoln. You will also analyze contemporary political speeches and messaging on today’s hot-button issues, and even cultivate the art of persuasion for yourself in short speeches and debates

DWC 202 C23: T 12:30-2:20, S37 & S38: R 12:30-2:20
Sound of Painting
Sang Woo Kang, Bing Huang

Sound of Painting is an interdisciplinary capstone that explores the intertwined histories of Western art and music across three pivotal epochs: Baroque spectacle and devotion, Classical order and civic reason, and Romantic imagination and inner life. Each week, we place a painting in dialogue with contemporaneous musical works, asking how image and sound together shaped evolving ideas of human dignity, freedom, and modernity. Large-group lectures introduce students to shared questions, historical contexts, and analytical methods, while small-group seminars—sometimes held in the painting studio or piano studio lab—develop skills of close looking and listening, creative practice, and critical debate. Through comparative analysis, hands-on studio sessions, field trips, and research-based writing, students learn to interpret art and music not as isolated traditions, but as mutually reinforcing cultural languages that continue to shape our understanding of the human experience.

DWC 202 C24: T 2:30-4:20, S39 & S40: R 2:30-4:20
Islam, Reason, and Reform
Emann Allebban, Bilal Ibrahim

What is the status of reason in Islam? What is the relationship between philosophy, theology, and science? What is the role of reason in interpreting scriptural sources? What role did mystical traditions play in the intellectual history of the Islamic world? Does Islam need reform? This colloquium explores the complex interplay between reason and revelation in Islamic traditions. More broadly, what were the different ways of “knowing” about the self and the world? How was Islamic thought and science influenced by Western traditions, and vice versa? We will examine central topics and problems in Islamic intellectual history, including knowledge and its foundations, God’s existence and attributes, science and cosmology, and mysticism. In addition to the major ideas and works of Islamic thought, we will explore social and cultural aspects of the intellectual tradition, including the translation movement, institutions of learning, and patronage. Finally, we will consider the Islamic world’s encounter with imperialism and modernity. How did the Islamic world respond to Westernization? Can Islamic thought provide solutions to modern problems in the Muslim world, from politics to social issues of the day?

DWC 202 C25: W 9:30-11:20, S41 & S42: F 9:30-11:20
Caught Between Hope an Despair: Questioning Existence
Robert Miner, Fr. Bruno Shah, O.P.

“Why am I alive? What lesson am I to learn from life? How did I become what I am, and why do I suffer from being what I am?” These questions, raised by Friedrich Nietzsche in 1874, will be the basis of our course. We will engage with Nietzsche and other authors, particularly the 19th-century Christian thinker Søren Kierkegaard, who have the courage to look head-on at love, anxiety, dread, despair, social conformism, loss of meaning, fear of death, familial dysfunction, and other topics that bear directly on what it means to exist.

Both Kierkegaard and Nietzsche are formed by the post-Reformation Christian tradition. We will also read thinkers from the Roman Catholic tradition (Blaise Pascal), along with others from Jewish traditions (Joseph Soloveitchik and Abraham Heschel). We will also read a thinker who does not straightforwardly identify with a religious tradition (Simone Weil) and another who declines to identify with any religious tradition (Zadie Smith). Our texts represent a variety of genres. In addition to argumentative works of philosophy and theology, we will read essays, aphorisms, poems, and journal entries. Though our main focus will be on texts, there will also be a place in the course for film and music, without which contemporary existence is unimaginable—and perhaps unendurable. There will be an in-class screening (two days before Good Friday) of John Michael McDonagh’s 2014 film Calvary (2014). It is also possible that we will screen some films outside of class. Possibilities include Wings of Desire (1987), Manchester by the Sea (2016), The Great Gatsby (2022), and Perfect Days (2023). This course grapples with basic questions about what it means to exist. It does not aspire to a comprehensive treatment; it does not cover every author from that might be read with profit. This is nothing to worry about, since the inevitable results of trying to read every such writer are frustration and superficiality. It’s far more productive to read a small number of texts closely and deeply, always keeping a close eye on their questions for the sake of helping us to formulate our questions.

DWC 202 C27: W 1:30-3:20, S43 & S44: F 1:30-3:20
Ancients and Moderns
Christopher Parrott, Bill Hogan

The literature of the Classical Greek and Roman world forms one of the foundations of Western culture, and it features many powerful myths and stories—stories of the Trojan War, of gods and monsters, of heroes and of ordinary human life. Why have these works been so influential through the centuries, and why do they still endure so powerfully in the imagination of the modern world? Why do writers and artists of our own time—from poets to graphic novelists to Hollywood filmmakers—continue to retell and reimagine these ancient stories? In this colloquium, we will read several ancient works that have proven especially fertile ground for modern rethinking and retelling, including the adventures of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey; Virgil’s tale of Orpheus and Eurydice; and the myths of Daedalus & Icarus, the Minotaur, and the Labyrinth. Then we will study modern adaptations of these works and tales, and consider how artists, storytellers, and thinkers react to, reuse, and reinterpret these Classical sources in a variety of different cultural and historical contexts and from diverse perspectives—including those of women, of authors and artists of color, and of non-“Western” figures. In reading varying adaptations of these foundational stories, we will reflect on the way they help to illuminate both the radical differences and the surprising continuities between the ancient and modern world.

DWC 202 C28: R 8:30-10:20, S45 & S46: M 8:30-10:20
War and Peace
Elizabeth Palazzolo, John Lawless

Few topics are as important in the study of Western Civilization as consideration of our recurring pursuit of warfare and our dogged attempts to achieve and to preserve peace. This colloquium looks at both theoretical reflections (Is war inevitable? in our genes? Are we psychologically uneasy with lasting peace? Is there an identifiable “western” way of war and peace?) and practical matters of waging war (such as conduct of sieges, tactics, weapons, etc.) as well as at the challenges of maintaining lasting peace in the ancient, medieval, early modern, and modern periods. We will have opportunities to observe how history, literature, art, film and music reflect the glory and horror of war or poignantly express the deep human longing for peace.

DWC 202 C29: R 12:30-2:20, S47 & S48: T 12:30-2:20
Philosophy and Poetry in the East and West
Colin Guthrie King, Chun Ye

Before writing, poetic form was the proper vessel for philosophical content. Literacy created a relativization of oral forms of literature, even where it copied it, as for example in Plato’s dialogues. Unlike writing, metrically bound verse made the content recordable and transmittable in oral form. In this seminar we explore some central philosophical works from both the West (ancient Greek and Latin literature) and the East (ancient Chinese literature) in poetic form which reflect early forms of writing, and also certain kinds of pre-literary, oral culture. We are looking primarily at a stage of cultural production when poetry was philosophy’s form. It is intriguing that we find this phenomenon in two ancient cultures which produced both great poetry and great philosophy: the Classical tradition of Greek and Latin literature in the West, and the Chinese tradition in the East. We wish to consider these works in comparative perspective both as philosophical texts and as poetry. Our readings will include: Empedocles, Parmenides, Lucretius, Laozi’s Dao De Jing, Zhuangzi, poetry from the Tang Dynasty, and selected texts from the Zen Buddhist tradition. We will also compare how philosophy’s history developed in the early stages of each literary culture. The course aims at providing students deepened understanding of ancient Chinese and Greek poetry and philosophy, and to explore the implications of a prospect now remote for most philosophers: the possibility of philosophy as literature.

DWC 202 C30: R 12:30-2:20, S49 & S50: T 12:30-2:20
The Problem of Evil from Antiquity to Auschwitz
Jacqueline Satlow, Christopher Sauder

Evil: What is it, how do we understand its place in the universe, and how should righteous human beings respond to it? Does it come about by accident or by the arbitrary actions of a few malign individuals? Do all examples of evil have a common root? Do deadly diseases, natural disasters, war, conquest, slavery and genocide all meet the definition of evil? If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why does God allow evil to exist in the universe? These questions were first posed in the ancient world and have lost none of their relevance for us. As the capstone of the DWC sequence this colloquium will look at the shadow side of Western Civ: the existence of evil and suffering in the universe. We will begin with the time of the ancient Greeks and Hebrews and continue through the Holocaust of the European Jews (and others) in the 20th century. We will frame our class by zooming in on the beginnings of Western Civilization in Athens and Jerusalem and the downfall of that civilization in the second World War.

DWC 202 C31: R 2:30-4:20, S50 & S51: T 2:30-4:20
The Problem of Evil from Antiquity to Auschwitz
Jacqueline Satlow, Christopher Sauder

Evil: What is it, how do we understand its place in the universe, and how should righteous human beings respond to it? Does it come about by accident or by the arbitrary actions of a few malign individuals? Do all examples of evil have a common root? Do deadly diseases, natural disasters, war, conquest, slavery and genocide all meet the definition of evil? If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why does God allow evil to exist in the universe? These questions were first posed in the ancient world and have lost none of their relevance for us. As the capstone of the DWC sequence this colloquium will look at the shadow side of Western Civ: the existence of evil and suffering in the universe. We will begin with the time of the ancient Greeks and Hebrews and continue through the Holocaust of the European Jews (and others) in the 20th century. We will frame our class by zooming in on the beginnings of Western Civilization in Athens and Jerusalem and the downfall of that civilization in the second World War.

DWC 202 C33: F 11:30-1:20, S52 & S53: W 11:30-1:20
Islam and the West: A History Conflict and Coexistence from Muhammad to the War on Terror
Sandra Keating, Vefa Erginbas

This interdisciplinary course examines a particular aspect of the civilization of the West in depth through literature, philosophy, theology, history, and art. The relationship of Islam to Western Civilization has been at the center of heated debates for centuries. In 1978, Edward Said published Orientalism, in which he argued that the western view of Islam and Muslim societies had become critically flawed. In this class, a history of the uneasy relationship between the Muslim societies and cultures and the Western world will be examined beginning with early Islamic expansion, continuing through the period of the Crusades, the age of the Ottoman Empire, and finally through the periods of imperialism, colonialism, and the American century. During the final weeks, Islam in America, the growth of the Nation of Islam and figures such as Malcolm X, war on terror, and anti-Americanism in the Muslim world will be also examined. Utilizing primary sources, artifacts from arts and architecture, movies, and documentaries, this class offers students an eye-opening journey to the relationship of two great civilizations and cultures through the lenses of history, literature, art, and cinema.

This interdisciplinary course examines a particular aspect of the civilization of the West in depth through literature, philosophy, theology, history, and art. The relationship of Islam to Western Civilization has been at the center of heated debates for centuries. In 1978, Edward Said published Orientalism, in which he argued that the western view of Islam and Muslim societies had become critically flawed. In this class, a history of the uneasy relationship between the Muslim societies and cultures and the Western world will be examined beginning with early Islamic expansion, continuing through the period of the Crusades, the age of the Ottoman Empire, and finally through the periods of imperialism, colonialism, and the American century. During the final weeks, Islam in America, the growth of the Nation of Islam and figures such as Malcolm X, war on terror, and anti-Americanism in the Muslim world will be also examined. Utilizing primary sources, artifacts from arts and architecture, movies, and documentaries, this class offers students an eye-opening journey to the relationship of two great civilizations and cultures through the lenses of history, literature, art, and cinema.

DWC 202 C34: F 1:30-3:20, S54 & S55: W 1:30-3:20
Dark Psychology and Literature
Greg Charpentier, Olga Limnios

 “Don’t get too close, it’s dark inside; it’s where my demons hide.” This line speaks to all of us. No wonder the song it comes from—“Demons” by Imagine Dragons—was such a huge hit. However, shining a light on the dark corners of human psyche is not an exclusive purview of rock musicians. Centuries before Imagine Dragons, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, John Milton, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, and Nikolai Gogol devoted their art and skill to examining the human condition in all its manifestations, including such problematic human traits as manipulation, coercion, and hubris. After them, came Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller, Paulo Coehlo, and Chuck Palahniuk (among others) and continued shining the light on the shadowy aspects of our behavior. In turn, Freud, Frankel, Adler, and Jung offered professional psychological insight into these darker manifestations of human nature.

In this class, we will examine both the literary representations of human darkness and attempt to uncover their psychological roots. We will center on the theme of self-deceit and trace it to all the unsavory behaviors exhibited by Othello, Satan, Dr. Frankenstein and numerous other literary personages. In the process, we will also look inside ourselves. In a sense, using the lens of psychology, we want to answer the question “Why do people do what they do?” Attempting to answer this question this will give us more depth and a better framework for understanding of ourselves. Carl Jung told us that “A tree, it is said, cannot grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.”

Dark Psychology is not a macabre interpretation or a perversion of the science, but instead an opportunity to face things that otherwise would be left unseen or in the shadows, controlling behavior unchecked. When children fear the darkness under their bed and in the closet, how do their parents banish the fear? They simply shine a light on it, exposing it, weakening it, and dispelling its power. If we do not face the darkness, we give it undue power. Along our journey this semester, we will pay special attention to the Roman Catholic tradition in the pieces we read and will make sure to represent all cultures respectfully with sensitivity to the immense diversity within the College community.

DWC 202 C35: M 2:30-4:20, S56 & S57: R 3:30-4:20
Art in the Flesh: Making Ourselves, Imagining Others
Amy Foley, Licia Carlson

This course will explore the experience of art and embodiment. Some questions we will consider include: How do we experience art in the everyday? How do gender, race, and disability shape the experience of art? How can art complicate identity formations around supposedly “western” space and culture? What assumptions about the “normal” body inform how certain art forms are defined, practiced, and experienced? How can different arts (including literature, the visual arts, film, architecture, and music) express the human experience? How can art challenge normative thinking about the body, help us to imaginatively inhabit other embodiments as well as build empathy and community?

DWC 202 C36: M 3:30-5:20, S58 & S59: R 3:30-5:20
We Can…But Should We?
Vance Morgan, Robert Camp

“In the space of around a hundred years, successive technological waves took humanity from an era of candles and horse carts to one of power stations and space stations. Something similar is going to occur in the next thirty years. In the coming decades, a new wave of technology will force us to confront the most foundational questions our species has ever face. Do we want to edit our genomes so that some of us can have children with immunity to certain diseases, or with more intelligence, or with the potential to live longer? Are we committed to holding on to our place at the top of the evolutionary pyramid, or will we allow the emergence of AI systems that are smarter and more capable than we can ever be? What are the unintended consequences of exploring questions like these?” Mustafa Suleyman, The Coming Wave (2023) In this colloquium we will explore the ethical implications of cutting edge and emerging technologies. Should there be moral guardrails on such technologies, or should the development of such technologies be free of such limitations? How can the moral implications of technology that has not yet been created be explored?

DWC 202 C38: M 4:30-6:20, S60 & S61: R 4:30-6:20
The Bricks & Mortar of Civilization: The Comparative History of Retail from Ancient Merchants
Guolin Yi, Courtney Bozigian

While we are living through the shift from brick & mortar shopping to e-commerce, we are also witnessing a reimagination of the shopping experience. Students will create plans for modern retail experiences that can co-exist in today’s online world, by learning about and discussing the evolution of retail models within time periods and cultures.

This colloquium not only traces the history of retail from early marketplaces through the rise of department stores and e-commerce, but also compares the retail and commercial models in the West (Netherlands, England, and the U.S.) and the East (China, Japan, and Korea).

We will explore modern global retail brands through multiple lenses including history, economics, sociology, religion, art & architecture, as well as branding & marketing. Questions and topics will include:

What is the role of philosophy in shaping a market structure within civilizations? How is it different between the East and West? How is it the same?

How do retail models emerge and evolve?

How do retail models reflect the societies in which they exist?

Are they a function of wants/needs, political forces, geographical necessity, cultural or religious views? Does it vary between East and West?

What factors impact the development of retail beyond economic or financial models?

What are the possible factors that would contribute to the success/failure of Western retail models and brands in East Asia?

How can we leverage historical retail models to reinvent or reimagine the modern retail experience?

How has the concept of economic opportunity been experienced by different groups through the development of retail models in different civilizations (class, race, gender, etc.)?

DWC 202 C39: W 3:30-5:20, S62 & S63: M 3:30-5:20
History of Sports
Fr. John Vidmar O.P., Sean Holley

This course is designed to familiarize the student with the cultural history and development of sports in the West. The course will attempt to integrate not only the history of actual sports (such as the beginnings of golf) and current issues in sports, but also philosophical, theological, social, medical, and economic issues throughout the history of the West. Guest speakers drawn from the various athletic disciplines both on and off-campus will augment the lecture material.

DWC 202 C40: R 4:30-6:20, S64 & S65: M 4:30-6:20
American Conservative Thought
James Keating, Patrick Macfarlane

American Conservative Thought begins with the current mood of political stalemate in the US that prevails between progressives and conservatives. Following Thomas Sowell, we seek to articulate clearly what Sowell calls this “conflict of visions” in order to better understand the fundamental philosophical differences between progressives and conservatives. The course then traces the development of American Conservatism in its modern form, beginning in the mid-twentieth century, up to the present day. We will situate the origin of American conservative thought in the larger global context of the aftermath of WWII with the subsequent rise of the Soviet Union, global communism, and the Cold War.

Modern conservatism was forged primarily in the anti-communism of the Cold War period, but developed its mature form thanks to the influence of two related strands of thought: classical liberalism in economics, and traditionalism in political philosophy.

Contemporary conservative camps – paleoconservatives, neoconservatives, and libertarians – all share a common heritage despite a difference of emphasis from one group to another. The course finishes by considering current political issues from a conservative perspective.

DWC 202 C41: M 1:30-3:20, S66 & S67: W 1:30-3:20
Clinical Bioethics
Amy Delaney, Gina Maria Noia

This course provides an in-depth study of topics in clinical bioethics. Topics may include decision-making capacity, informed consent, proxy decision makers, pediatric ethics, confidentiality, allocating and rationing care, health care disparities, social determinants of health, public health, futility, global health, and moral distress. The course will begin with an overview of the development of bioethics. Against this backdrop, students will learn the view of the human person and health care that grounds Catholic teaching on the professional-patient relationship, established secular bioethical and legal norms for each topic, and perspectives on controversial topics. In light of these norms and perspectives, students will consider real-life cases and participate in simulation-based learning.

DWC 202 C42: Civ in London
Jeffery Johnson, Alex Moffett

For many immigrants who came to America from the 17th century onward, one of the most appealing elements of their new country was a seeming lack of a restrictive social class system. Most of the European countries from which these immigrants traveled retained a vestige of the social stratification that had dominated the West in the medieval period. This was especially the case in Britain, where aristocratic institutions such as the House of Lords retained a certain degree of political and social power well into the 20th century. The United States prided itself on eschewing such anti-democratic institutions; however, it was certainly not a classless society. The racial caste system of the postbellum South was the most apparent manifestation of social class, but many other ethnic and religious groups also experienced discrimination. Today, the markers of class are far more apparent to British people than they are to Americans; however, that doesn’t mean that those markers don’t exist.

In this course, we will be analyzing the concept of social class, in all of its various permutations. One of our primary focal points will be a comparison of the class systems in Britain and America. We’ll be thinking about ways in which the British upper classes defined themselves against the middle and working classes. We’ll also be closely scrutinizing the claim that America is a “classless” society. As we consider these issues, we’ll be charting the rise of the labor movement in both Britain and America in the twentieth centuries. We will explore the intersections between social class and a variety of other topics, including race, language, economics, and what the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu called habitus: the set of practices that constitute people’s response to the social world in which they move. And finally, we will be reading and discussing works of literature that explore these class tensions.

We will be taking advantage of our position in London to visit museums and other sites relevant to our scholarly inquiries. These sites include the Docklands Museum in London and The People’s History Museum in Manchester.