Information Overload
We are bombarded by information constantly, some of which we seek and some of which we seek to avoid. In order to live full and healthy lives, we need and search for information about our work, classes, health, social lives, […]
Economics
Education: Problem or Solution
While there is agreement that education is key to individual and community well-being, much controversy exists over education’s goals and how to achieve them. Issues include identifying education challenges and effective solutions, recognizing how social or economic status interacts with […]
Poverty in a Rich Country
Do some Americans choose to be takers rather than makers? Or is the economy rigged to ensure that money and power flow continually from the poor to the rich? Through multi-media sources drawn from economics, history, philosophy, sociology, public policy, […]
Organizations and World Change
Complex problems challenge your generation. Some persist from prior generations, and others have recently emerged or intensified from rapid social, environmental, technological, economic, and geopolitical changes. The exact solutions to these problems may be uncertain, but they will certainly require […]
Poverty: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions
This course addresses one of the most pressing challenges of our time: poverty and inequality. The course is an interdisciplinary critical analysis of the causes and consequences of, as well as solutions for, poverty from politically and philosophically diverse perspectives. […]
Un-complicating healthcare
This course covers an issue central to modern day life health care and the policy and politics around it. The course provides an introduction to the arcane but important terms and ideas surrounding healthcare provision and policy in the U.S. […]
Social Justice or Libertarianism?
Social justice activists and libertarians are two of the most familiar social types in our polarized political climate. But how can such different perspectives speak to each other in a productive and respectful way? Is it possible for us to […]
You expect me to pay for that?
As consumers, we generally only purchase the things we want: PC or Mac; private or public college; pizza or salad. The concept of choice is a powerful motivator for many Americans, whether it means the right to spend our money […]
Inequality in the U.S.
Topics & readings. This interdisciplinary course focuses on economic inequality in the United States and its relationship to social and political inequality. Readings will be drawn primarily from the fields of political science, sociology, and economics. Readings will describe socioeconomic […]
Judging Atrocity
Our practices of holding one another responsible for wrongdoing depend on the attribution of moral agency, and the view that, as human beings, we are not simply causes in the world, but authors of our actions. Contemporary psychological research increasingly […]
Creating social entrepreneurs
This Complex Problems course will introduce students to the complex problem: How we can create and support social entrepreneurs? Social entrepreneurs are individuals who create businesses to address social problems or needs that are unmet by governments and current markets. […]
Cultures of Corruption
Political and social leaders accuse each other of it, and are accused by a media that itself is then condemned for it. It is tweeted, re-tweeted, articles are written, journals published, and blogs devoted to it but what is […]
The Persistence of Pirates
This course would bring together AU students across a diverse set of disciplinary foci and from a diverse set of educational and cultural backgrounds in the study of a truly complex problem for all of humanity: piracy. Piracy, in this […]
Tactical Urbanism
For a problem of intriguing complexity, look no further than the contemporary city. Home to two-thirds of the worlds population, modern cities — gloriously diverse cultural, innovation, and artistic hubs, and often refuges for those who seek opportunity or escape from […]
Economic Globalization: Pros & Cons
Economic globalization refers to the increasing integration of national economies across the world through intensified cross-border movement of goods, services, technology and capital. Some view it with trepidation, as a juggernaut of untrammeled capitalism marked by such economic interdependence that […]
Who is DC
Outsiders often miss the vibrant neighborhoods of DC, which have deep histories and distinctive cultures. Today, DC neighborhoods face intense pressure to change. Through 3-5 field trips, interviews with residents and local politicians, and our own picture-based maps, students in […]
The Big Short: Money and Power
This course is on how the public understood and understands the Great Recession and specifically, the financial collapse of 2007-2009 will expose students to different choices in storytelling about major and complex events, and also to different disciplinary approaches to […]
The Highs and Lows of Drugs
Drugs remain a complex problem, despite the investment of billions of dollars and many years into potential solutions. After over 50 years of scientific research, we have extensive knowledge of how drugs work on the brain, but little progress has […]
Who’s Watching you Now?
Surveillance has become a commonplace term, yet it is often dismissed as only the concern of those who have something to hide. This suggests that only criminals/criminal activity is watched and having a public persona online means we agree to […]
Legally Speaking
Although it might seem that the law provides rules for personal and business conduct that are definitive and clear, in reality the law more often balances complex interests that involve many shades of gray. This course examines a series of […]
Competitive Advantage in Business
This course provides students with an opportunity to develop their existing critical thinking skills through a specific focus on the concept and empirical phenomenon of competitive advantage in business ((i.e., superior stakeholder value creation). The course addresses a variety of […]
21st Century Silk Road
How will the revival of the Silk Road via the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative increase the connectivity between nations and facilitate trade to the benefit of all parties when each country has their own political, cultural and economic […]
The Art of the Decision
Decision making is one of our most important activities in both our professional and personal lives. In this course, decision-making processes will be unpacked and thoroughly analyzed. They will be viewed through the lenses of psychology, business, economics as well as […]
Entrepreneurship and Sustainability
Thoughtful understanding of the complexity of the relationship between business and sustainability requires an elementary understanding of critical technical concepts and trends at the intersection of both. Business is the engine that drives global economic growth and innovation. However, business, […]
How to Sustain an Ocean World
The ocean gave rise to life on earth, holds much of its biological diversity, and to this day, sustains it. However, for much of human history, the ocean has been thought of as vast, unmanageable, and its resources inexhaustible. Thus, […]
Welcome to the Anthropocene
What is the role of nature in human life? How do our attitudes, understanding and assessment of nature shape our environmental impacts on earth? During the past 10,000 years, humans have become the primary driver of changes to the Earths […]
The Material World
This course explores the matter that has mattered to humans, from stone and bronze through semiconductors and nanostructures. Cultures, economies, and nation-states flourish and decline based in part on the material resources and technology they can access and control. This […]
No Child Left Behind, Really?
Societies expect students to shape the future by initiating change and transforming the world. But educators and policymakers relegate students to schools that structure inequalities and restrict learning opportunities. Students struggle to assert agency under social constructs that influence their […]
Inventing Queer Lives
This course examines how dominant understandings of LGBT identity came into being in the Western world at the turn of the twentieth century and alternative paradigms for sexual and gender difference that have been offered by racial minorities, transgender communities, […]
AIDS in America
Since the first diagnosed case in June 1981, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has impacted millions of Americans. As one of the most harmful epidemic in recent history, the HIV/AIDS crisis provides critical insight into US history, politics and society. What is […]
Imagining Europe
This course examines the emergence, expansion, and erosion of support for the European Union over the course of the twentieth century, and asks: Whats next for Europe? Topics for investigation will include the relationship between nationalism and Europeanism; support for […]