Humanities Center Seminar (HUMC 294)
Together, we will ask what happens when people lose faith in institutions such as elections, journalism, schools, businesses, and even one another, as well as what roles corporations, media, artists, and ordinary citizens play in sustaining democratic life. Democracy, Power and the Struggle for Civic Agency is a one-unit tuition free course that brings together artists, scientists, humanities scholars, engineers, social scientists and other distinguished faculty across USD's curriculum to discuss civic agency: how people understand their own power and how everyday acts of participation, dialogue, and responsibility help shape public life.
In this summer class, faculty members introduce incoming first-year students to the different ways that academic disciplines help us develop critical intellectual skills so that we can make a sustained positive impact in the world. Taught remotely, this course will be highly participatory and introduce students to the interdisciplinary nature of a USD liberal arts education.
Week 1
Demanding Democracy: Power, Truth and Unfreedom
- Speakers
- Readings
- Olutoyosi Aboderin, PhD | History
"I’m Not Falling for That Propaganda:" Does Social Media Encourage or Erode Civility? - TJ Tallie, PhD | History
Unfreedom From the Start: The Selective Promise of Democracy - David Miller, PhD | History
The Struggle is Real: What the Many Faces of Frederick Douglass Teach us About Civic Inclusion and Meaningful Change
Week 2
Free Press, Media and Ordinary People in a Healthy Democracy
- Speakers
- Readings
- Susannah Stern, PhD | Communication
Can Democracy Survive Without Journalism? - Mike Kelly, PhD | Philosophy
Recalling the Artifice of Artificial Intelligence and Social Media: Appearance, Reality, Bullsh*t - Marni LaFleur, PhD | Anthropology
Whose Stories Matter? True Crime, Democracy and the Politics of Visibility
Week 3
Faith, Place and Intellectual Freedom in Democracy
- Speakers
- Readings
- Amanda Makula, MA | Copley Library
The Last Third Place: Libraries as Radical Champions of Democracy - Emily Cilli-Turner, PhD | Mathematics
Quantifying Gerrymandering: Using Mathematics to Understand Districting - Michael Lovette-Colyer | PhD, Mission Integration
Catholic Perspectives on Democracy, Power and Civic Life
Week 4
How and Why Institutions Matter in a Democracy
- Speakers
- Readings
- Catherine Paolillo, MS | Copley Library
Banned Books, Intellectual Freedom and Civic Engagement - Abigail Stepnitz, PhD | Political Science and International Relations
The Supreme Court Did What? Law, Institutions and the Balance of Power in a Democracy - Matt Zwolinski, PhD | Philosophy
Why People Lose Faith: The Hidden Logic of Democratic Disillusionment
Week 5
How do the Arts, Humanities and Sciences Speak Back to Power?
- Speakers
- Readings
- Jason Crum, PhD | English
- The Authoritarian Vein in American Dystopian Fiction
- Laura Getz, PhD | Neuroscience
- How Expectations Shape Perception, Cognition and Memory
- Derrick Cartwright PhD | Art, Architecture + Art History
- Wake Up!:’ Street Art and Calls for Democratic Action
- Sara Hasselbach, PhD | English
- Authority and Power in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream