Instructor: Anthony Pirrotti

Course Number: UNXD-409

Georgetown’s Core Curriculum asks all students to wrestle with important existential questions: How did we come into being? Do our lives have purpose? What happens to us when we die? How do we create an ethical framework for decision-making? How do we create a life imbued with meaning and purpose?

Regardless of our personal religious affiliations, how we respond to these questions shapes the contours of our lives – our sense of purpose, our identity, our personal relationships, and our individual ethos. This course offers an opportunity to reflect upon these questions in ways that both draws upon and challenges the Jesuit education under which it is taught. Students of all faiths (and no faith) are invited to participate in this conversation about whether it's possible to create a good life without believing in an afterlife.

Instructor: Prof. Paul Roepe

Course Number: UNXD-407

Demystify some of life's biggest questions - are GMO foods really bad for you? do vaccines really cause autism? -  using a working scientist's approach to critical thinking. In this 1-credit seminar, you will use current headlines that have biotechnology or biomedical themes to apply critical thinking to problems outside your comfort zone.

Instructor: Prof. Chandra Manning

Course Number: UNXD-408

This class offers graduating seniors the time and space to reflect upon the purpose of their education just as they are preparing to take their education out into the world. We will focus on three key texts, each of which takes seriously the drive to use one’s intellectual passions to serve human need in the world and also speaks honestly to the ways in which the world tries to mock or blunt such desires, especially in young, educated people whose energy and brains just might upset the status quo in some way. This course provides a place for students to have necessary and sustaining conversations as they prepare to leave a place that has fostered the life of the mind in young people—including women—and encouraged the view that such a life should be lived in service to humanity, to enter a world ambivalent about the notion of educated women and cynical about the desire to serve. This course will help students to cultivate inner resources that tell them that both “intellectual” and “passion” matter, and that they can and will find ways to live lives true to both.

Instructor: Prof. Al Pierce

Course Number: UNXD-357

This is a course in applied ethics or practical ethics, one that does not fall into one of the traditional academic disciplines, but rather should appeal to students with various academic majors. It will help prepare you to deal more successfully with some of the kinds of ethical challenges you might face in your career. It will do so by using case studies of real people who have been confronted with ethical challenges, and by introducing you to various concepts and frameworks for moral reasoning and ethical decision-making.

Instructor: Prof. Carrie von Bose

Course Number: UNXD-361

The college years are known as a time for experimentation – trying on new identities, new habits, new friendships, and new areas of study. This course will focus on developing a life-long “experimental mindset” and will explore frameworks and tools for designing, conducting, and evaluating the results of experiments.  Students will learn the basic concepts of experiments that apply across many disciplines throughout the sciences and social sciences and how to interpret data-driven results. They will also learn about major experimental results in the social sciences, particularly in the area of behavioral economics, and will design their own experiments that have direct relevance to life and career decisions students may be facing in their lives beyond Georgetown.

Instructor: Dean Erin Force

Course Number: UNXD-363

The experiences undertaken in the undergraduate years echo into adulthood: many of the types of challenges confronted in the college years will present themselves again. Within this course, students will deeply reflect upon the person they were when they entered college, grapple with their growth and development during the college years, and prepare to meet future challenges mindfully.

Each week, through readings, written reflections, discussions, and activities, students will be prompted to recognize their tremendous personal and intellectual growth over the past four years and will be encouraged to consider, in advance, the personal and professional challenges they might encounter as independent adults. What tools and strategies do they now have to confront these challenges? What lessons have they learned, and what wisdom have they gained? And how can they ensure that they remember they possess these strategies, that they’ve learned these lessons, and that they’ve gained this wisdom?

Instructor: John Wright

Course Number: UNXD-365

College is often thought of as crucial years when a person experiences heightened awareness of self and develops enduring relationships which transform the manner in which they engage their social contexts. This transformative experience coincides with the developmental period of emerging adulthood in which the person is cognitively, affectively, and behaviorally primed to capitalize on the diverse experiences afforded by most residential colleges and universities. This expectation is woven into Georgetown University’s mission and character as a Jesuit institution which emphasizes critical reflection, caring for and educating the whole person, and sustained dialogue within a diverse campus community. Yet, individual student experiences can differ significantly from each other depending on their unique identity statuses and social affiliations. This course takes a social and developmental psychology perspective, encouraging students to reflect, explore, and discuss how key aspects of their identity have evolved during their time at Georgetown. Various identity theories will be utilized to explore and stimulate discussion regarding race, ethnicity, class, socio-economic status, religion, spirituality, gender and sexual identity. There will be a particular focus on fostering insight in how these aspects of identity have influenced the selection and quality of interpersonal relationships in college. Students will use salient identity statuses as a lens to enhance understanding of themselves in relation to others and their experiences at Georgetown. Finally, students will project into the immediate future potential opportunities and challenges for intra- and interpersonal growth within and between various identity statuses, as they transition into the next phase of their lives.