CHA offers a wide range of courses focusing on topics from AI to the nature of celebrity. Read the descriptions and watch the videos to learn more about what's in store.
Instructor: Kait Steward
Have you ever walked into a museum and asked “how is that art?” This course will help you answer that question! “Intentions in the Dimensions” is a studio-based arts course that covers foundational skill building and conceptual development. We’ll work through the “why” behind making, break down the structures and technical skill behind composing works, and get creative along the way! Get ready for a studio speed-run, as we cover a wide variety of content! Projects for the course include discussions, visual analyses of contemporary art, group sculptures, micro-portraits, and tape murals. Bring your studio clothes, because we’ll be working with a range of messy materials. From cyanotypes to papier-mâche, you’ll get the chance to work hands-on as we explore 2-D, 3-D, and 4-D formats.
Instructor: Miguel Gomez
This dynamic course dives into the profound impact of AI on society and our lives. It sparks critical discussions on AI's role in reshaping creativity, ethics, and privacy, while exploring its integration in fields like healthcare, law, and the arts. Through interdisciplinary projects, students will examine AI's innovative potential and ethical challenges, preparing them to be informed leaders in this transformative era. Join us to navigate the future of AI and its societal implications!
Instructor: Chris Trzepacz
Carcinos (cancer) is Greek for crab, and the disease is named as such because the ancient Greeks that treated this disease thought the cancerous tumors were shaped like these crabs. Cancer sucked then, and it still sucks now. While cancer may seem to surround us, it is not inevitable - some individuals have a higher risk than others. What are these risks? Are they outside of your control (some), or can you influence them (yes!)? In our class we’ll explore the biology of cancer and how it develops. We will investigate the risks that contribute to cancer development, and more importantly, how you can directly affect these risks. You have a choice – leave your fate up to the whims of Atropos, or educate, train, and equip yourself as a Spartan warrior in your battle to live a cancer free life!
Instructor: Jessi Randall
Authors of dystopian literature have, historically, reflected the issues they perceived within their communities in an effort to create change. This summer, students will delve deeply into dystopias: to look into how authors are addressing the issues they care about and to analyze the elements of author's craft that allow these works to successfully create that commentary. Afterwards, students will create collaborative dystopias themselves: from choose the social problems they're most invested in to world-building an imagined future without change, students will be fully immersed in a world of sensory details, word choice and futuristic thinking. In the last week, students will craft their own creative work from the dystopian world they'e created.
Instructor: Emily Johnson
Are you ready to uncover the secrets of Earth's most thrilling phenomena? Join us for 'Dangerous Planet' this summer and prepare for an adrenaline-pumping journey like no other. From the ground-shaking of earthquakes to the swirling chaos of hurricanes, we'll delve into the science behind these awe-inspiring events. Through exciting experiments and captivating videos, you'll become a true expert on natural disasters. But it's not just about the excitement - it's about understanding our world and our place in it. With 'Dangerous Planet,' you'll not only learn about the power of nature but also the critical role of climate change in exacerbating these events. So, grab your sense of adventure, and join us for 'Dangerous Planet.' It's time to explore, discover, and maybe even change the world!
Instructor: Todd Terry
Zoom around the world with music as our vehicle! We will voyage to South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America to explore music and folk dance of a variety of cultures, broaden our cultural awareness, and expand our creativity. Songs, instruments, and folk dances will navigate us through the cultures that we examine. We will learn songs through group singing and playing instruments, including drums, barred percussion, and handheld percussion. Whether you are an experienced musician or a novice, you can experience this trip on your level! Along the trek, we will bring home musical literacy, composition skills, improvisation techniques, and certainly music appreciation - souvenirs for a lifetime!
Instructor: Marcie Hinton
The premise of this media literacy and culture course is to “think global, act local” when it comes to understanding media and using it for good. By media we mean social media, radio, podcasting, streaming, books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and websites. Our project will be blanketing the region, nay the world, with happy thoughts for a worthy cause both online and in real time.
Instructor: Andrew Black
This class is a feminist project in exploring the gestures for inclusion that women must make to be recognized as artists, and the way women challenge and subvert these expectations. From Queen Elizabeth I in the Renaissance to Taylor Swift in her own ERAS and on Kesha’s High Road, from poets to seventeenth-century actresses to movie stars, from the first published African-American writer Phillis Wheatley to 1930s international icon Josephine Baker, we’ll think through what’s at stake for women who want to control their work and the identity, and a world of fans that idolize them as well as skeptical observers who antagonize them. In the words of Kesha, this place about to blow.
Instructor: Ray Horton
A century ago, sociologist Max Weber described modernity as “disenchanted.” While our world remains full of mystery, he argued, we no longer presume that anything is unknowable. According to Weber, scientific progress leaves yesterday’s gods with little to do. This vision of a “disenchanted” world, especially when it appears in literary and philosophical writing, often goes by the name “Naturalism.” Surprisingly, however, much of modernity’s most naturalistic writing has managed to keep the gods in business. In our class, we will study literary and philosophical works by writers as varied as William James, Mark Twain, Richard Wright, and Yaa Gyasi, all of whom advance a secular vision of the world even as they draw upon sacred traditions that seem incompatible with a “disenchanted” age.
Instructor: Ryan Goke
Everyone knows how to argue, but not everyone knows how to argue well. This course will explore argumentation, persuasion, and advocacy in both the oral and written form. We will learn how to research a topic, how to critically examine sources, how to spot logical fallacies, and how to debate in a respectful and articulate manner. You will construct, attack, and defend arguments for a wide array of topics: both serious and fun. We will explore the role argumentation plays in the conflicts and negotiations of our everyday relationships, and we will dissect the covert persuasive messages in advertisements. The final project will require students to construct a persuasive campaign for a nonprofit group. Come learn how to win every argument and still keep your friends!
If you have questions about courses, please contact Dr. Laura Sullivan-Beckers at lbeckers@murraystate.edu