Six spring classes to consider, from Chicago history to the supernatural

As undergraduate registration approaches, whether you’re looking to satisfy a Core Curriculum credit or major requirement, or just want to try something new, there is a wide variety of classes offered at Loyola this spring. From the supernatural, to ceramics and learning more about Chicago, here are a few classes to explore:

COMM 379: Digital Sustainability

Instructor: Urooj Raja, assistant professor

Learn about the environmental issues stemming from digital media infrastructure. Students will explore digital sustainability problems and work toward creative solutions. Urooj Raja teaches this course because “environmental issues are one of the most pressing and defining issues of our time. They also amplify other issues, and this course equips students to understand evidence-based environmental communication and advocacy.” Raja likes teaching this course because “it brings together students from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives for a meaningful meeting of minds on environmental problems and what to do about them.”

FNAR 120: Ceramics Handbuilding

Instructor: Kate Biderbost, teaching professor

Interested in discovering a new creative outlet? Kate Biderbost’s Ceramics: Handbuilding course explores various handbuilding and surface design techniques, as well as firing ranges available to the contemporary ceramist. This course counts toward Artistic Knowledge. “My hope is that students leave my class having made things they are proud of, as well as exceed their own expectations of what they can make with their hands” Biderbost expressed. “An appreciation for handmade objects and the role they play in society is also important to me. Lastly, but equally as important, is to provide a screen-free space to be creative.”

Kate Biderbost is also the instructor for FNAR 121: Ceramics Wheelthrowing this spring.

HIST 280A: Pirates and Sailors in the Revolutionary Atlantic

Instructor: John Donoghue, associate professor

Explore how organized conquests and trading ventures led to the formation of the first British empire and the expansion of commercial networks around the Atlantic and beyond. Donoghue enjoys teaching this course because “students, who are drawn to the strange, incredible, and true stories of pirates and sailors, can learn so much about the way power has worked—and continues to work—on the basis of dehumanization.” “Students also learn how working-class people have lived through these experiences of dehumanization, and how their legacy of resistance has left us with profound ideas about the nature of human freedom and how we can act and organize to protect and advance it,” said Donoghue.

CLST 271G: Classical Mythology – Women/Gender Focus

Instructor: Leanna Boychenko, associate professor

Students examine Greek and Roman literature involving myth and how traditional narratives and characters are used to explain and experiment with ideas about themselves and their surroundings. This course counts toward Tier 2 Literary Knowledge. “The stories of gods, heroes, and monsters from Ancient Greece and Rome are magical—not just because they have supernatural elements, but there is something about them that keeps drawing us back and compelling us to revisit them and find new ways to tell them (think of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Odyssey movie and the woman-centered novels of Madeline Miller and Natalie Haynes)” Leanna Boychenko said. “My students think about why we tell stories and what they can tell us about societies of the past as well as society today.”

HIST 310G: Supernatural in the Middle Ages

Instructor: Theresa Gross-Diaz, associate professor 

Learn how “natural” and “supernatural” are defined across time and space, popular and elite cultures, and how ideas about the “supernatural” are shaped by daily life. This course excites Theresa Gross-Diaz because “I mean, how often do you get to seriously study medieval werewolves, vampires, elves and ghosts!?” Gross-Diaz explained that she loves to teach this class because “throughout the course we explore the ways humans confront the “big” ideas: what happens to us after we die? What makes us humans as opposed to just being animals? Where do we fit into creation? It’s not only theologians and philosophers who asked (and answered) these questions.”

SOCL 125: Chicago: Urban Metropolis

Instructor: Peter Rosenblatt, associate professor and department chair 

Interested in learning more about Chicago? The sociology course Chicago: Urban Metropolis explores the geography, history, and people of the city. This course counts toward Tier 2 Societal Knowledge. “This is one of my favorite classes to teach because we have a range of experiences in the classroom. Some students are new to the city and others have lived here their whole lives. Everyone brings a different lens to how they interpret the things we discuss,” Rosenblatt said. “I hope students get a deeper appreciation of the city we call home.”

Explore the course catalog to find more classes available at Loyola and review the registration schedule.