Courses
The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.
View courses in
-
KHC UC 104: The Ethics of Food
Choices about what food to eat pervade our everyday lives. This course explores the ethics of such choices. We'll examine arguments for vegetarian and vegan diets, for eating organic, for eating local, and for restricting oneself to only humanely raised and slaughtered meat. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking. -
KHC UC 105: Liberty, Fanaticism & Censorship
From Socrates's execution for speech that 'corrupted the youth' and Jesus's crucifixion for claims that threatened empire to today's debates about cancel culture, disinformation, and social media censorship, questions about free speech and its political, ethical, and religious consequences have been central to western history. This course examines some of the enduring issues animating these questions with an eye to their ongoing significance. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking. -
KHC UC 106: Biomedical Enhancement and the Future of Human Nature
Biomedical technologies are increasingly being used to enhance the biological, cognitive, and psychological capacities of otherwise healthy human beings. Although the enhancement enterprise aims to increase levels of human wellbeing, it also raises a host of ethical concerns, such as worries that it will exacerbate inequality, undermine authenticity, devalue diversity, or even pose an existential threat to the human species. This course will survey the ethics of biomedical enhancements carried out through the administration of drugs, genetic modifications, and human-machine interfaces. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking. -
KHC UC 107: Sexual Ethics
Sexual activity has attracted a bewildering range of preoccupations. These shifting concerns raise questions about what ¿sex¿ means, how it becomes ethically problematic, and how it might still matter to our lives. We will pursue these questions through current debates around sexual identity, monogamy, polyamory, sexual violence, sex work, pornography, and erotic desires across the stages of a human life. You will be encouraged to use the course material to clarify and refine your own ethical reasoning about sex. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Critical Thinking, Ethical Reasoning, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings. -
KHC VA 104: More than a Face: What Masks Reveal
Other faces, frames, transformations and disguises, masks speak to what it is to be human among other humans, unifying the body and the psyche in ways few objects do. Participants study the complexity of masks as a cross- disciplinary nexus. Effective Spring 2021 this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation. -
KHC XL 101: Global Shakespeares: Text, Culture, Appropriation
Why do contemporary writers parrot and parody "Shakespeare," and how much of this activity is about Shakespeare at all' This seminar provides an introduction to reading and writing about Shakespeare's plays. But it also takes a step back to consider Shakespeare as a phenomenon. Among others we'll look at feminist Shakespeare, postcolonial and nationalist Shakespeare, and sci-fi Shakespeare. Beyond learning about particular offshoots and adaptations, the deeper point is to make sure you never read a "Great Book" the same way again. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Creativity/Innovation. -
KHC XL 103: Problems in Propaganda and Persuasion
How does propaganda move people to action by appealing not to reason but to emotions' Theories and material from Germany, Russia, Poland, Italy, China, Japan, USA, the Middle East; totalitarian ruler-cult & mobilization for war; propagandistic use of media technologies. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
