First-Year Seminars
During the first year, students take two seminars—one in the fall semester, one in the spring semester—that introduce them to empirical and scholarly research, creative work, and discovery through an intensive look at current work in various disciplines. Seminars give students the chance to explore important contemporary themes and problems in different fields.
This is a historical inventory of Kilachand first-year seminars. Current students should refer to MyBU Student for semester offerings.
KHC AH 101: (Mis)representing History in Art
Hiba Aleem, Kilachand Honors College
An examination of the ways that historical events have been depicted by artists from antiquity to the present, with an emphasis on the intentional misrepresentation of events (“fake news”) to serve the needs of the artists’ patrons, usually ruling elites.
BU Hub: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness
KHC AH 103: Experimental Art
This seminar investigates how visual and performance artists have wildly expanded our definition of what art is, including an exploration of new techniques, theories, markets, and political implications of art in the 20th and 21st centuries. How Does Art Happen? Who Is Art For? How Do You Make Art History? We will consider artists that challenged viewers’ and philosophers’ ideas about what makes something a work of art. These experimental artworks brought new people into the story of art history, expanding our understanding of who can be an artist (all of us).
BU Hub: Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity & Innovation
KHC AM 101: Whose Schools: Power, Equality, and Public Education
Mary Battenfeld, CAS American & New England Studies
How can we fulfill Thomas Jefferson’s promise for public schools, “which shall reach every description of our citizens?” The course examines significant eras, debates, and struggles for equality in U.S. education, with a particular focus on current policies in Boston.
BU Hub: Social Inquiry II, The Individual in Community, Research and Information Literacy.
KHC AN 102: The Lives of Others: The Power, Politics, and Ethics of Storytelling
Carroll Beauvais, Kilachand Honors College
This course delves into the ethical and political dimensions of storytelling, explores various cultural and historical forms of storytelling, and examines the deployment of storytelling in applied contexts such as narrative medicine.
BU Hub: Social Inquiry I, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Teamwork and Collaboration
KHC AN 103: Animals among Humans
Parker Shipton, CAS Anthropology
By comparing and contrasting humans and (other) animals, this course explores the relations between them, with emphasis on the experiences of the nonhuman animals themselves.
Bu Hub: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking
KHC AN 104: Wildlife Conservation
Cheryl Knott, CAS Anthropology
Through team-based approaches, students learn about threats to wildlife and natural habitats, identifying community-based root causes. They apply their own disciplinary expertise and passions to develop creative solutions to these problems, culminating in the production of a final conservation video.
BU Hub: Digital/Multimedia Expression, The Individual in Community, Creativity/Innovation.
KHC AN 105: Conflict: The Human Condition
What can we learn about the human condition when we think through conflict? Unlike premodern forms of political authority and social organization, modern sociopolitical forms sanction specific forms of adversarial interaction as positive, regulative forces while banning forms of conflict as unwanted, corrosive influences on sociopolitical order. Students will engage with a rich array of multidisciplinary writings on human conflict as well as theatrical, literary, and cinematic takes on the primacy of adversarial relations for understanding the human condition.
BU Hub: The Individual in Community, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking
KHC AN 106: Scientists in Society
Jean Morrison, CAS Earth and Environment; Faculty of Computing & Data Science
Understanding the nature of science and the role of the scientist in society is critically important in an increasingly technologically driven and interconnected world. Through an examination of the work of 5 impactful scientists and their interactions with prevailing institutions and societal norms, we will explore the fundamental nature of science and how individual scientists have navigated unique challenges created by their work. We will examine the work and controversies that surrounded:
- Galileo Galilei and Church authorities in the 1600’s
- Alan Turing and the British Government post WWII
- Percy Lavon Julian and higher education in the US in the 1900’s
- Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier and the battles over credit and patent rights for CRISPR-9 technology
- Antony Fauci and his leadership role in the nation’s public health during COVID-19
Through a combination of assigned readings, lectures and interactive classroom discussions, students will explore the scientific achievements of each person(s) and then explore their broader circumstances and interactions with society. Using this knowledge students will consider and reflect on the nature of scientific contributions and important societal institutions and norms.
Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Critical Thinking
KHC BI 105: The Dynamics of Society in Nature
Les Kaufman, CAS Biology
In this course we explore the dynamic relationship between human society and the natural ecosystems in which they are embedded, and of which they are today an integral part. This is the science of sustainability. We cover the theory, the gathering of empirical data from peoples and ecosystems, and types of dynamic modeling and scenario-forecasting, both heuristic and computational, that aid in good decision making.
BU Hub: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy, Scientific Inquiry I
KHC EC 103: Housing Policy: An Economic Perspective
Adam Guren, CAS Economics
An introduction to economic analysis through the study of housing policy. The course covers both microeconomic issues related to housing affordability and macroeconomic issues related to the stabilization of the housing market and the Great Recession. Throughout, the course will teach students economic principles and how use data to assess economic arguments.
BU Hub: Social Inquiry II, Quantitative Reasoning II, Research and Information Literacy
KHC EH 103: Race in America: Understanding the Present by Exploring the Past
Luther Young, CAS School of Theology
Course explores how contemporary racial dynamics in the US have deep roots in the country’s cultural imagination. Using books, music, film, art, and journalism, we will examine topics including slavery and higher education, #BlackLivesMatter, Christian nationalism, and more.
Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy
KHC EK 104: Appreciation of Music in a STEM Context
Robert Kotiuga, ENG Electrical and Computer Engineering
This course leverages the relationship that students, who are not averse to STEM fields, have with music in order to turn them into GEEKS! It uses the electric guitar as a gateway to musical acoustics, electroacoustics, psychoacoustics and hands-on projects. No formal music training is required; the only prerequisites are the ability to appreciate music in some vaguely defined sense, and to try understand this appreciation with precise terms. The course will be supported by field trips, demos and projects.
BU Hub: Aesthetic Exploration, Quantitative Reasoning II, Creativity & Innovation
Pre-Requisites: High school calculus and physics
KHC EN 103: Poetry as Activism / Writing as Resistance
Jessica Bozek, CAS Writing Program
Do artists have a responsibility to bear witness to their times? This course explores the work of contemporary poets who directly engage the current moment, who show us that art can function as political action. Among the controversial topics that these authors draw attention to and comment on are racial injustice, mass incarceration, war, LGBTQ rights, immigration policy, and environmental devastation. Through our course texts and students’ own poems, we will consider the ethics of appropriation and representation, as well as the use of personal experience and found documents in poetry.
BU Hub: Aesthetic Exploration, The Individual in Community, Creativity/Innovation
KHC EN 104: Writing Lives: The Craft and Forms of Literary Biography
Talia Shalev, Kilachand Honors College
Literary writers craft characters. Many were characters as well–in their own lifetime and after their deaths. In this course, we explore the character of the writer as portrayed in multiple genres including fiction, essay, biography, autobiography, obituaries, and docudramas. We ask how does our perception of an artist change over time? How might literary biography serve as a lens to discuss changing conceptions of creativity, trends in historiography, and the development of literary canons? Our case studies will focus on 20th-century American writers (including Carl Sandburg, Langston Hughes, and Adrienne Rich, among others) whose lives and work have been important to American education and social movements.
BU Hub: Aesthetic Exploration, Research and Information Literacy, Creativity/Innovation.
KHC EN 105: The Romance Novel
Amy Fish, Kilachand Honors College
Romance novels have been scorned, adored, and most of all, widely read. This course examines the history, artistry, and social significance of the genre, with attention to the ways in which romance novels have variously reinforced and disrupted norms of race, gender, class, and sexuality. What do debates over the value of love stories tell us about our society? What can we learn by focusing our academic studies not only on the world’s problems but also on the world’s pleasures?
BU Hub: Aesthetic Exploration, The Individual in Community, Research and Information Literacy
KHC FT 102: Global Cinema
Hiba Aleem, Kilachand Honors College
Our course will examine cinema as an art form, engaging with diverse film traditions, movements, and voices from around the world, especially from beyond Hollywood. Through films from diverse regions, including but not limited to Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, we will explore how cinema reflects, distorts, shapes, and challenges historical, social, and political contexts. We will consider together as a class questions about the transnational production, circulation, reception, and consumption of films, as also the ways in which local storytelling traditions, aesthetics, politics, and audience demands interact with the medium. We will also go over key concepts in film theory and cultural studies, analyze narratives, visual rhetoric, genres, and representation across national and cultural boundaries, and learn to situate and appreciate films within their cultural and historical contexts. By the end of the semester, we will be able to value cinema both as an artistic medium, and as a form of cultural expression that is both a reflection and a distortion of our material realities.
BU Hub: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy
KHC HI 104: Urban Youth in the Middle East
Betty Anderson, CAS History
Examines social, economic, political, religious, and gender issues urban youth in the Middle East face in the 21st century given the escalation of violence and the stark economic inequalities impinging upon them, but also the many new opportunities available.
BU Hub: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking
KHC HI 105: The Zapatista Rebellion
Jeffrey Rubin, CAS History
This course will study the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico, 1994–2010. Out of what processes and conditions did it grow, with what actions and imaginaries on the part of indigenous activists and communities, as well as their allies and opponents? Studying one major historical event in depth will enable us to consider different ways of seeing and interpreting the event and to consider what it means to undertake wide-ranging social inquiry.
BU Hub: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking
KHC HI 106: Solving the Problem of Cornerville: Street Corner Society
James Pasto, CAS Writing Program
This seminar will examine “The Problem of Cornerville” (Boston’s North End) as formulated by William Foote Whyte in his 1943 ethnography Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum. In the process we will explore a variety of topics including immigration policy and history, the early Progressive movement, “slumming,” urban sociology, theories of crime and deviance, racial formation, and gentrification.
BU Hub: Ethical Reasoning, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy
KHC HI 107: Global History of a Movement
Andrew David, CAS History
It is difficult for us in our historical moment to discern the degree to which the social, political, economic, and intellectual life of the world was riven by conflicts between competing ideologies/movements as they imagined the future of the global system. Through careful attention to our shared archives of art, fiction, and primary-source texts, this course will explore movements like communism, feminism, and decolonization across time and space in order to understand these movements as global phenomena that continue to structure the unfolding of history in our present.
BU Hub: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy
KHC HI 109: Conspiracy Theories in the Modern World
Matthew Schratz, Kilachand Honors College and CAS Writing Program
Students will explore a conceptual history of the modern world through the lens of infamous conspiracies and conspiracy theories. Destructive and manipulative, conspiracy theories also reveal a kernel of truth about ordinary people’s sense of political powerlessness. But how and why do these theories emerge? Who benefits most from them? How do we distinguish fabrications from hidden truths? And what can they tell us about conflicts over class, race, and gender? Through readings, discussions, writing, and creative projects, we will explore how power, institutions, and information operate.
BU Hub: Historical Consciousness, The Individual in Community, Research and Information Literacy
KHC IR 102: Spies and Terrorists of Boston
John Woodward, Pardee School of Global Studies
Using an interdisciplinary approach, this course will examine various important, impactful, and, in some ways, underappreciated espionage activities and terrorist events that germinated, received support, or otherwise occurred in the Boston metropolitan area.
Please note: This course requires students to (1) take a mandatory four-hour field trip of Boston spy sites with the professor on a weekend and (2) participate in three one-hour oral briefing practice sessions with the professor to be scheduled in the evenings outside of class.
BU Hub: Ethical Reasoning, Oral/Signed Communication, Teamwork/Collaboration.
KHC IR 104: The Ethics of War and Political Violence
Alexander de la Paz, Pardee School of Global Studies
This course surveys key debates in the ethics of war and political violence. When, if ever, is resorting to war justifiable? How should wars be fought? Are these two questions at all interrelated? Does it even make sense to speak of the ethics of war and political violence? Are arguments for pacifism or nonviolence, for example, more compelling? Are these hopelessly political questions, unsuitable for ethical consideration? Throughout this course, we will study a range of perspectives on these issues—many of which have informed international law, including the Charter of the United Nations and the Geneva Conventions. In the process, we will also address topical debates in international ethics, including the ethics of self-defense and preemptive war; humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect; combatant liability and noncombatant immunity; “proportionality” in collateral damage; guerrilla warfare and terrorism; and more. Course materials draw widely from political philosophy, international law, literature, and film.
BU Hub: Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Critical Thinking, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
KHC MU 105: Displacement and Arts
Kinh Vu, CFA Music in Music Education
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that more than 122.6 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2024. This figure represents refugees, asylum seekers, people in need of international protection, and internally displaced people (UNHCR, 2025). Vũ and de Quadros (2020) defined displacement generously, situating the term both inside, near, and perhaps farther afield and beyond the purview of the UN definition of displacements. Examples of this expanded definition include domestic violence, LGBTQIA+ discrimination, and climate change as potential antecedents to displacement (de Quadros, 2020).
Artists’ roles in attending to, addressing, ameliorating, and/or disrupting the effects of displacement have scarcely been explored due in part to necessary, emerging, and ongoing life-saving undertakings (e.g., evacuation, health and human services, housing) for victims of various kinds of emergency cross-country and/or cross-border movements. Community arts organizers, university arts professionals, as well as refugee camp and asylum center aid workers are beginning to enter displacement frontiers to offer an assortment of arts-based initiatives (e.g., theatre, music, visual arts) for displaced and dispossessed peoples to process displacement experiences.
BU Hub: Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Teamwork/Collaboration
KHC NE 104: Vision and Art
Lucia Vaina, ENG Biomedical Engineering
The course will guide students to learn about the neuroscience and neurology of eye and brain functions and dysfunction, and will discuss their relationship to paintings. We will discuss the effect of eye and retinal diseases on the painting of Degas, Monet, El Greco, Georgia O’Keefe, and the blind Turkish painter (E. Armagan) who sees by touch. Impairments of cortical visual functions will be associated with discussion of the paintings of great masters such as Rembrandt, Bacon, and Van Gogh. Virtual and real visits to art museums included.
BU Hub: Aesthetic Exploration, Scientific Inquiry I, Teamwork/Collaboration
KHC PH 103: Seeing Poverty: Understanding and Addressing Poverty in America
Sophie Godley, SPH Community Health
Images of poverty might lead us to believe poverty is exclusively a problem of urban people of color, but what do historic and modern depictions of poverty in popular culture tell us? How is data on poverty calculated and understood? This course will explore the ever-changing and ever-political sociological and public health issues of measuring poverty in America today.
BU Hub: Social Inquiry I, Individual in Community, Critical Thinking
KHC PH 105: Speech and Freedom
Why have we come to understand freedom through the ability to speak without restraints? What does speech have in common with freedom? Taking the phrase ‘free speech’ as a starting point, this course investigates the significance of these two concepts for our modern and contemporary ideas of democracy, globalization, cultural difference, and public ethics. In doing this, the course will cultivate students’ knowledge of notable works in philosophy, literary theory and political science, bringing this proficiency to bear on their analysis of real-world debates and philosophical questions.
BU Hub: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Critical Thinking
KHC PO 100: Democracy & the Climate Crisis: Politics on a Changing Planet
This course explores how democratic societies can respond to and survive the unprecedented disruptions of the climate crisis. Students will trace the global history of government by consent, the evolution of the climate crisis, and weigh possible reforms to protect democratic norms and institutions on a changing planet.
BU Hub: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry I.
KHC PO 102: How to Change the World
Jeremy Menchik, Pardee School of International Studies
Under what conditions do groups of individuals come together to effect political and social change in global politics? How do digital technologies alter the strategies that people use to effect political change? What strategies remain the same, even in our digital age? Drawing on classic works of political anthropology, as well as more recent examples of transnational and digital activism, this course seeks to understand the deployment of power by everyday people.
BU Hub: Historical Consciousness, Oral/Signed Communication, Research and Information Literacy
KHC PO 104: War and Memory in the American Experience
Rosella Cappella Zielinski, CAS Political Science
This seminar examines three questions: How do we remember (and forget) war? Who does the remembering? What is the relationship between war memory and war making? The relationship between war and memory is explored via the American experience.
BU Hub: Historical Consciousness, Individual in the Community, Creativity & Innovation
KHC PO 105: Controversies in Youth Politics
Seth Blumenthal, CAS Writing Program
Youth in the 20th century created new ways to consider how young people thought of their generational identity but also developed a more potent social and cultural agency that shaped an evolving political influence. This emergence provoked compelling questions about this bloc. Why don’t young voters turn out as much as older voters? What familial, cultural and social factors shape youth’s politics? Do they always lean left? To what extent is youth a valuable category for a generation? And finally, what is the best way to compel young people to engage in civic or political activism? This class invites students of all backgrounds and academic disciplines to examine the controversial field of youth politics and investigate the ways in which this topic can be best understood to explain current attention and conceptualization of young people’s activism in America and internationally.
BU Hub: Historical Consciousness, The Individual in Community, Writing-Intensive
KHC PS 103: Performance Psychology
Carly Block, Wheelock College of Education and Human Development
This course is designed for students interested in the psychological and social factors related to performance across domains such as sports, performing arts, medicine, military, and business. Students will explore core theories and evidence-based practices in performance psychology while learning strategies to address mental performance challenges (e.g., performing under pressure) within these domains. They will also engage with diverse performer experiences and develop skills to critically analyze research and apply concepts in real-world contexts.
BU Hub: The Individual in Community, Teamwork/Collaboration, Creativity/Innovation
KHC PY 102: Chance, Fluctuations, and Their Relevance to Our Daily Lives
William Klein, CAS Physics
Randomness is ubiquitous in our lives, from attending an outdoor concert when there is a 40% chance of rain to understanding the role of chance in income inequality. The purpose of this course is to introduce concepts and methods that will foster an understanding of chance and to provide the tools to draw informed conclusions from incomplete information.
BU Hub: Scientific Inquiry I, Quantitative Reasoning II, Critical Thinking
KHC PY 104: Energy & Society
David Campbell, ENG Electrical & Computer Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering
“Energy powers the world.” This seminar explores that pithy statement, beginning with basic concepts and definitions. Students examine the history of human uses of energy, how energy arises in different realms (physical, chemical, biological), the primary sources of energy, how to transmit and store energy, and the politics of energy, seeking to answer the ultimate question: “What should be the path forward to a sustainable, environmentally sound, equitable energy future?” Students will demonstrate their understanding through problem sets/short essays, a mid-term exam, and a final project.
BU Hub: Scientific Inquiry II, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking
Prerequisites: Familiarity with high-school algebra is recommended, as is experience with any combination of high-school physics, chemistry, and/or biology. Previous college-level course knowledge is not required and is not expected.
KHC RH 103: A Reexamination of Childhood through Children's Literature and Community-Based Learning
Shelia Cordner, CGS Rhetoric
How have authors of classic works of children’s literature addressed the liminal space between childhood and adulthood? How might this study give us insight into our own experiences?
By studying childhood at the intersection of children’s literature and community-based learning, students will deepen their understanding of how individuals are shaped by the stories that define their childhood. The course traces the development of children’s literature in Western culture from classic fairy tales to the development of the novel and short story to today’s picture books.
BU Hub: Aesthetic Interpretation, Individual in Community, Critical Thinking
KHC RH 104: The Pursuit of Happiness
Matthew Parfitt, CGS Rhetoric
What is happiness? Can we hope to achieve it and how should we pursue it? We will study how happiness has been understood by different cultures over time, and students will engage with diverse authors and genres from scripture, philosophy, and social science. Students will write three essays, and keep a reading journal.
BU Hub: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Critical Thinking
KHC RH 105: The Lived City
Stephanie Byttebier, CGS Rhetoric
What makes cities thrive? How do cities foster community or how do they fail to do so? How does the way a city is built and designed inform these questions? Readings by some of the great urban thinkers and planners of the 20th century (Baudelaire, Benjamin, Wirth, Gehl, Whyte, Chakrabarti), case studies of urban activists and innovators (Riis, Olmsted, Jacobs), guided group walks of the city, and lessons in close observation, culminating in a creative map making project.
BU Hub: Digital/Multimedia Expression, The Individual in Community, Creativity/Innovation
KHC RN 103: Islam in the Eyes of the West
Teena Purohit, CAS Religion
An introduction to how and why Islam came to be viewed as a static, essentialized tradition opposed to the West. Covers Orientalist and neo-Orientalist debates about Islam and provides a historical survey of the texts, practices, and beliefs of the Islamic tradition, from the 7th century to the present, in the Middle East, South Asia, North Africa, and the U.S. through a study of the Quran, poetry, philosophy, and political treatises.
Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
KHC SO 102: Health Justice
Joseph Harris, CAS Sociology
This course puts five pressing social problems related to human, animal, and planetary health under a microscope, examining the dynamics that led to these problems and innovative policies and practices that are being developed to address them.
BU Hub: Social Inquiry II, Digital/Multimedia Expression, Research and Information Literacy
KHC UC 105: Liberty, Fanaticism, & Censorship
David DeCosimo, School of Theology
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.
BU Hub: Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking
KHC UC 106: Biomedical Enhancement and the Future of Human Nature
Rachell Powell, CAS Philosophy
This course will survey the ethics of biomedical enhancements carried out through the administration of drugs, genetic modifications, and human-machine interfaces.
BU Hub: 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.
BU Hub: Critical Thinking, Ethical Reasoning, Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings.
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, making sure one never reads a “Great Book” the same way again.
BU Hub: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Creativity/Innovation
KHC XL 103: Problems in Propaganda and Persuasion
Peter Schwartz, CAS World Languages and Literatures
Beginning with theoretical accounts and case studies of mass propaganda and aspects of its psychology this course inspects the dynamics and iconography of totalitarian ruler-cult, compare strategies of mobilization for total war, and look at the ways in which changing media technologies inform propaganda techniques.
BU Hub: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking