Academic Catalog

IDEA Course Requirement

The IDEA course requirement provides undergraduate students the opportunity to explore concepts in social justice, broadly defined. The IDEA acronym encapsulates the core concepts of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility. These concepts are integral to models of social justice, and through their examination students can learn about important values, voices, and lives that have been marginalized and erased, along with strategies to create stronger and more just communities.

IDEA courses may be taught in any of the schools and colleges at the university. They vary greatly in topic area and content, but they all incorporate the following learning objectives:

  • Students will be able to identify ways by which they are shaped by socialization.
  • Students will learn about structures, systems and impacts of oppression, as well as cultures and practices of resistance.
  • Students will learn about historical and ideological perspectives, using theoretical framework(s), and incorporating US and/or global contexts.
  • Students will explore and analyze strategies and tools for developing inclusive, equitable and accessible communities.

In addition to satisfying the IDEA requirement in the student’s program of study, IDEA courses may also satisfy other distributional, major or minor requirements. The IDEA requirement may be completed at any time, but students are encouraged to do so early in their curriculum if possible.

*Crosslisted courses - Students can take any one course within a crosslisted set of courses and it will fulfill the IDEA requirement.

Architecture

ARC 500Selected Topics (Borders: Politics, Space and Identities )1-6
ARC 500Selected Topics (Art and Architecture as Evidence)1-6
ARC 569Postcolonial Spaces3

Arts & Sciences/Maxwell

AAS/ANT 112Introduction to African American Studies3
AAS 232African American Literature: 20th and 21st Centuries3
AAS/WGS 303Black Women Writers3
AAS/HST 332African American History: Through the 19th Century3
AAS/SOC 353Sociology of the African American Experience3
ANT 121Peoples and Cultures of the World3
ANT 131Introduction to Biological Anthropology3
ANT 145Archaeology of and in the Modern World3
ANT 185Global Encounters:Comparing World Views & Values Cross-Culturally3
ANT 325Anthropology of American Life in Film3
ANT 367/GEO 367/WGS 367Gender in a Globalizing World3
ANT 373Magic and Religion3
ANT 374/LIN 374/SOC 372Topics in Sociolinguistics3
ANT 476Women, War and Peace3
ANT 378/LIN 373Language Variation and Change3
BIO 479Mind the Gap: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility in STEM3
CSD 426Sociocultural Bases for Communication3
DSP/WGS 443Intersectional Feminist Disability Studies3
ECN 304The Economics of Social Issues3
ENG 145Reading Popular Culture3
ENG 171World Cinema, Beginnings to Present3
ENG 174World Literature, Beginnings to 10003
ENG 181Class and Literary Texts3
ENG 182Race and Literary Texts3
ENG 184Ethnicity and Literary Texts (Introduction to Latino Literature)3
ENG 184Ethnicity and Literary Texts (Great Jewish Writers)3
ENG 184Ethnicity and Literary Texts (Arab American Literature and Culture)3
ENG/WGS 192Gender and Literary Texts3
ENG 193Introduction to Asian American Literature3
ENG 194Introduction to Latina/o/x Literature3
ENG 195Arab American Literature and Culture3
ENG 315/JSP 300Topics in Ethnic Literatures and Cultures3
ENG 352Race, Nation, and Empire3
ENG 353Race, Nation, and Empire before 19003
ENG 360/WGS 300/WGS 360Topics in Reading Gender and Sexualities (Queering Documentary)3
GEO 272World Cultures3
GEO 273Geography of Capitalism: The Political Economy of Global Inequality3
GEO 321Latin American Development: Spatial Aspects3
GEO 353Geographies of Environmental Justice3
GEO 440Race and Space3
HNR 360Topics in the Social Sciences Honors (The “Born-Free” Generation in the Rainbow Nation)3
HOA 176The Visual Arts of the Americas3
HOA 377Nineteenth-Century American Art3
HOA 378Twentieth-Century American Art3
HOA 387Native North American Art3
HOA 585Topics in Native North American Art3
HOM 372Music in Multicultural America3
HOM 376Hip-Hop Studies3
HOM/WGS 473Women, Rap and Hip-Hop Feminism3
HOM 482Global Popular Music3
HOM/WGS 494Music and Gender3
HST 222History of American Sexuality3
HST/MES 317The Arab Revolutions3
HST 323/LAS 313Modern Latin America3
HST/LAS 324Recent Latin American History3
HST 347Modern American Politics Through Fiction3
HST/QSX 348Queering the Middle Ages?3
HST/WGS 349Women in America: Civil War to Present3
HST 362Nazi Germany and the Holocaust3-4
HST/SAS 372Caste and Inequality in Modern India3
HST/MES 374Popular Culture in the Middle East3
HST/WGS 379Gender, Race, and Colonialism3
HST 407Iraq: Modern Nation to US Occupation3
LAS 343/LIT 343/WGS 343Latina Feminist Theories3
LAS/SPA 463Contemporary Latin American Theater3
LAS/SPA 465Literature and Popular Culture3
LAS 475/SPA 475/WGS 475Women, Myth and Nation in Latin American Literature3
LAS/SPA 481The Literature of Latinos in the United States3
MAX 123Critical Issues for the United States3
PAI 400/SOC 400/PSC 400Selected Topics (Poverty Policy)1-6
PHI 100Selected Topics (Race and Racial Justice)1-6
PHI/WGS 297Philosophy of Feminism3
PHI 397/PSC 375Philosophy of Law3
PHI 411Philosophies of Race and Identity3
PHI 417/PSC 382Contemporary Political Philosophy3
PSC 310Refugees in International Politics3
PSC/WGS 319Gender and Politics3
PSC 354Human Rights and Global Affairs3
PSC 374Law and Society3
PSC 377/REL 300Religion and Politics3
PSC 381/MES 381/REL 361Islamic Law & Society3
PSC 386/SOC 354/WGS 354Gender, Militarism, and War3
PSY 379The Social Psychology of Stigma3
QSX 101Queer Lives3
QSX 111Queer Histories, Communities, and Politics3
QSX 112Sexualities, Genders, Bodies3
QSX/REL 357Queerly Religious3
REL/JSP 114The Bible in History, Culture and Religion3
REL 125Religion and Sexuality3
SOC 102Social Problems3
SOC/WGS 248Racial and Ethnic Inequalities3
SOC/WGS 281Sociology of Families3
SOC 301Contemporary Asian Americans3
SOC 305Sociology of Sex and Gender3
SOC/WGS 364Aging and Society3
SOC/WGS 433Race, Class, and Gender3
WGS 101Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies3
WGS 201Global Feminisms3
WGS 395Gender and Popular Culture3
WRT 301Advanced Writing Studio: Civic Writing3
WRT 413Rhetoric and Ethics3
WRT 423African American Rhetoric3
WRT 424Studies in Writing, Rhetoric, Identity3
WRT 440Studies in the Politics of Language and Writing3

Education

CFE 400Selected Topics (Indigenous Knowledge, Identity, & Learning)1-6
DSP 101Introduction to Disability Studies3
DSP 424Representations of Ability & Disability3
EDU 103Introduction to Inclusive Schooling3

Falk College

FST 204Food, Identity, and Power3
FST 310Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain3
FST 312Emergency Food Systems3
FST 402Feeding the City: Urban Food Systems3
HFS 300Selected Topics (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion)1-6
HFS 452Mindfulness in Children and Youth3
HFS 467Child and Family in Cross-Cultural Perspectives3
HFS 479Power, Conflict, Violence, and the Family3
HFS 487Critical Incidents in Family Development3
PHP 309Health Disparities and Underserved Populations3
PHP 333Disability and Public Health3
SPM 245Race, Gender, and Diversity in Sport Organizations3
SWK 328Human Diversity in Social Contexts3

Information Studies

IST 343Data in Society3
IST 426Information Justice & Community Engagement3

Newhouse School

COM 346Race, Gender, and the Media3
COM 348Beauty and Diversity in Fashion Media3
COM 350Topics in Media, Diversity and Inclusion3

Visual and Performing Arts

AIC 321Art, Activism, Modernity3
ARI 393Introduction to Art & Society3
CRS 323Communication and Gender3
CRS 337Race, Ethnicity and Communication3
CRS 360Communication and Rhetorical Studies in Perspective (Communication & Cosmopolitanism)3
CRS 475/QSX 400Epidemic Rhetorics3
CRS 423Contemporary Rhetorics of Gender and Sexuality3
CRS 439Critical Whiteness Studies3
FAS 419Contemporary Issues in Fashion3
MUE 215Foundations of Music Education3
FMA 151Conversations in Film and Media Arts I3
FMA 152Conversations in Film and Media Arts II3
FMA 310Literacy, Community and Media3

Whitman School

EEE 446Diversity and Entrepreneurial Opportunity3