FALL 2026
Visual Rhetoric: Space, Place and Human Rights
ENC 4218
Professor: Tarez Graban
Course Section: 1
College of Arts & Sciences
Generally speaking, visual rhetoric involves learning to analyze and critique the rhetorical function of imagery, using images to respond to and organize arguments, and creating images that operate across diverse media, are shaped by multiple genres, and are designed to achieve different goals for different audiences—learning how visual symbols act on us, on others, and on our thinking.
This semester, we extend that work into the spatial, investigating genres and sites where the visual and the spatial intersect. Taking our cues from rhetorical ecologists, political geographers, postcolonial scholars, and spatial theorists, we will consider what we might call the “socio-spatial dialectics” of monuments, memorials, archives, maps, and other situated performances related to human rights. We will also examine the many ways in which these spaces can influence people’s attitudes, opinions, emotions, and beliefs.
In sum, our study of visual rhetoric is a study of how images, objects, spaces, and places communicate certain ideas and raise important questions about human rights.
German Society Through Film: The Legacy of Nazi Crimes Against Humanity
IDS3188
Professor: Birgit Maier-Katkin
Course Section: Section 1: general students, Section 2: honors students
College of Arts & Sciences
This course explores cinematic responses to the legacy, remembrance, and aftermath of Nazi crimes against humanity from a postwar German perspective. It surveys films that engage with the Holocaust and, more broadly, with Nazi crimes against humanity.
The primary aim is to examine the ways in which traumatic historical events are represented, remembered, and reckoned with from the perspectives of survivors as well as members of subsequent generations. We will analyze the techniques through which filmmakers bear witness to these events and consider the extent to which they challenge foundational narratives within discourses of remembrance.
Drawing on the perspectives of victims, perpetrators, bystanders, helpers, resisters, and members of later generations, the course investigates how cultural memory is constructed in the aftermath of these horrific events. It also considers how filmmakers reveal a multiplicity of voices and reflect on the enduring imprint of the Nazi past in Germany.
Gender, Law and Religion
REL 3936
Professor: John Cole
Course Section: 1
College of Arts & Sciences
This course examines legal issues and religious narratives that have shaped women’s rights and gender identity in American jurisprudence. Particular attention is paid to the philosophical concepts of freedom, citizenship, equality, and neutrality. This is a seminar-style course, capped at 20 students.
Foundations of Human Rights
REL 3498
Professor: Rosemary Kellison
Course Section: 1
College of Arts & Sciences
The language of human rights has become ubiquitous in contemporary discourse and the modern legal regime. In this course, we will examine the historical events that prompted the rise of human rights discourse and law. We will then turn to questions concerning the philosophical and religious foundations of human rights. Finally, we will focus on a particular issue—human migration—to explore ongoing debates about the universality of human rights.
SPRING 2027
Race, Law and Religion
REL 3936
Professor: John Cole
Course Section: 3
College of Arts & Sciences
This course engages with the laws, cases, and religious narratives in American jurisprudence that have shaped the role of race in American society. While particular attention is paid to the African American experience, landmark cases and policies related to other racial groups are also considered, alongside key concepts such as social justice, equality, and the significance of intent versus lived experience in systems and structures that produce racial hierarchy and caste. This is a seminar-style course, capped at 20 students.