Discover interdisciplinary seminars and pop-up courses
The Humanities Center features short courses on topics of current interest that align with the center's mission and goals. Interdisciplinary courses that connect the humanities to other areas of study are especially encouraged. Faculty typically offer these courses in a seminar format to small groups of 12 to 20 students.
Most Humanities Center courses are scheduled at least six months in advance and are offered for 1 unit on a pass/fail-only basis, but other options are possible as outlined in the guidelines. Pop-up courses on especially timely topics may be offered with much shorter lead times.
Summer 2026
1st@USD Summer Seminar for First-Year Students:
TBA
Fall 2026
The Rise of the Manosphere: How Political Polarization, a Changing Economy and Social Media Have Redefined the Idea of American Manhood 2000-2025- M. Gonzalez, History
Heroes, Villains, Strangers: The Measure of Will
- J.Seraile, Theatre
Spring 2027
TBASummer 2025
1st@USD Summer Seminar for First-Year Students:
The Environment and Action
- A. Tirrell, Political Science and International Relations
- E. Smith, Languages, Cultures and Literatures
Fall 2025
Cowboy as Superhero? Hollywood, The "Western" and the Making of Modern America 1900-1980
- M. Gonzalez, History
Spring 2026
JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: Contemplative Action, the Natural World and the First Silence in Middle-Earth- J. Crum, English
- M. Kelly, Philosophy
Deep Wells and Missing Cats: Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
- L. Smith, English
Summer 2024
1st@USD Summer Seminar for First-Year Students:
A.I. and the Future of Identities
- A. Tirrell, Political Science and International Relations
- E. Smith, Languages, Cultures and Literatures
Fall 2024
- M. Gonzalez, History
The Tragedy of Democracy and the Politics of Compromise: Sophocles' Philoctetes
- T. Wyman McCarty, Political Science and International Relations
- J. Seraile, Theatre
Spring 2025
"Your Cities Do Not Exist": The City and the Imagination in Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities
- L. Smith, English
- R. Abrecht, History
- T. Wyman McCarty, Political Science and International Relations
- D. Vickers, Philosophy
Summer 2023
1st@USD Summer Seminar for First-Year Students:
The Changing Face of Humanity: AI and Identities of the Future
- A. Tirrell, Political Science and International Relations
- E. Smith, Languages, Cultures and Literatures
Fall 2023
Coming to Anytown USA: Movies, Lonely Men and Mass Shootings, 1826-2022
- M. Gonzalez, History
Warriors, Athletes and Scholars: Sports and Thought in the Twenty-First Century
- J. Hall, English
Spring 2024
"Iceolation" : The Greenland of Gretel Ehrlich
- F. Robinson, English
Stay or Stray: Into the Woods and Down the Path with Little Red Riding Hood
- L. Smith, English
Toxic Rage & Tragic Fate: The Iliad through the Female Gaze
- T. McCarty, Political Science and International Relations
- D. Vickers, Philosophy
- H. Holtzman | Center for Digital Civil Society
- S. Babka, Theology and Religious Studies
Summer 2022
1st@USD Summer Seminar for First-Year Students:
Speaking Truth to Power: Citizenship and Community
- A. Tirrell, Political Science and International Relations
- E. Smith, Languages, Cultures and Literatures
Fall 2022
Artificial Intelligence 2022
- H. Holtzman, Film Studies
Black Lives Matter: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
- F. Karapetian, Art, Architecture + Art History
- J. Calloway, Theology and Relgious Studies
Seascapes and the Literary Imagination
- B. Clack, Philosophy
- J. Crum, English
Postmodernism in the Trump Era
- M. Gonzalez, History
Spring 2023
Atoms, Pleasure and Death
- R. Abrecht, History
- T. McCarty, Political Science and International Relations
ChatGPT and AI Ethics
- D. Tigard, Philosophy
- D. Vickers, Philosophy
The Video Essay
- H. Holtzman, Film Studies
Summer 2021
1st@USD Summer Seminar for First-Year Students:
The Story of Now: Why Knowledge Matters
- C. Dominguez, Political Science and International Relations
- A. Petersen, Languages, Cultures and Literatures
Fall 2021
Artificial Intelligence 2021
- H. Holtzman, postdoctoral fellow in Critical Technology Studies for the Humanities Center
- M. Johnson, Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering
Black Lives Matter: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
- C. Floyd, English
- F. Karapetian, Art, Architecture + Art History
Homelessness in the U.S.: Intersections with Race and Policing
- K. DeConinck, Theology and Religious Studies
- M. Williams, Political Science and International Relations
Spring 2022
Edmund Burke and the Problem of Revolution
- B. Clack, Philosophy
Frontiers in Frontiers
- F. Karapetian, Art, Architecture + Art History
Summer 2020
Free Summer Seminar for First-Year Students:
Pandemic Times: Human Experiences and Responses
- C. Dominguez, Political Science and International Relations
- A. Petersen, Languages, Cultures and Literatures
Fall 2020
Anti-Racism as Spiritual Praxis
- C. Carter, Theology and Religious Studies
- S. Schoen, Theology and Religious Studies
At Home with the Classics: Plato's Republic
- R. Abrecht, History
- T. McCarty, Political Science and International Relations
Black Lives Matter: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
- M. Fu, Ethnic Studies
- J. Tullis, Communication Studies
Populism, Paupers and Pandemics: Everything Old is New Again
- M. McKenzie, Political Science and International Relations
Spring 2021
At Home with the Classics: Virgil's The Aeneid
- R. Abrecht, History
- T. McCarty, Political Science and International Relations
Black Lives Matter: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
- M. Fu, Ethnic Studies
- J. Tullis, Communication Studies
The Social Dilemma, Deconstructed
- S. Stern, Communication Studies
- H. Holtzman, postdoctoral fellow in Critical Technology Studies for the Humanities Center
Welcome to the Anthropocene: Life in the "Human Era"
- M. McKenzie, Political Science and International Relations
Fall 2019
Homelessness in the United States
- K. DeConinck, Theology & Religious Studies
- M. Williams, Political Science & International Relations
I Am The Lizard King, I Can Do Anything: Jim Morrison, Mark Edmundson, and Twenty-First Century Self-Reliance
- J. Hall, English
Global Ecocinema: Theory and Practice
- H. Holtzman, postdoctoral fellow in Critical Technology Studies for the Humanities Center
International Art Law Introduction
- H. Lazerow, School of Law
Spring 2020
The Wicked and the Divine
- B. Clack, Humanities Center
- R. Lindsay, Humanities Center
Mathematics and Knitting
- J. Friedman, Mathematics
The Human Side of Medicine
- L. Savett, Humanities Center
Death Valley and the Natural Sublime
- B. O'Shea, Environmental and Ocean Sciences
- B. Clack, Philosophy
Fall 2018
Water Now and Then: Cape Town's Crisis, California, Modern Israel and the Biblical World
- F. Gillman, Theology and Religious Studies
- F. Jacobitz, Mechanical Engineering
How Worried Should We Be about Democracy?
- T. McCarty, Political Science and International Relations
Gerrymandering: Race and Representation in American Politics
- A. Tirrell, Political Science and International Relations
King Lear: Past, Present, and Future
- S. Hasselbach, English
Spring 2019
The Human Side of Medicine
- L. Savett, Humanities Center
John Ruskin and Nineteenth-Century Art
- J. Patterson, Art, Architecture + Art History
- J. Murphy, University Galleries
Aliveness, Consciousness, Presence: Seminar on Contemplative Inquiry
- L. Komjathy, Theology and Religious Studies
Fall 2017
Dangerous Music and Radical Politics
- T. McCarty, Political Science and International Relations
- J. Malecki, Music
Spring 2018
The Human Side of Medicine
- L. Savett, Humanities Center
The Environment in Popular Media
- A. Tirrell, Political Science and International Relations
Nevertheless, She Persisted
- S. Hasselbach, English
How to Get Yourself Killed in Antiquity
- T. McCarty, Political Science and International Relations
- R. Abrecht, History
Questions? Contact
Ron Kaufmann, PhD
kaufmann@sandiego.edu
(619) 260-5904