Revisiting the Core

Reflect on core life questions

UNXD 400 - Freud and the Good Life Revisited with Prof. Terrence Reynolds, Theology

Wednesdays 6:30 - 8:30 PM, February 8 - March 29

UNXD 401 - Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation with Prof. Kate Withy, Philosophy

Mondays 7 - 9 PM, March 13 - May 1

.

UNXD 350 - Life Negotiations

Negotiation affects all of our lives. We constantly strive in so many daily situations to secure agreements or cooperation or coordinated conduct with others that benefit our own interests. This course introduces students to the structural theories and the practical applications of negotiation, and, with a series of realistic simulations, explores the behavior of individuals and organizations in competing situations.

Through a series of negotiation exercises, lectures, videos and class discussions, students will come to understand negotiation theory, and will practice negotiation skills that will be useful for a lifetime. Simulation exercises employ hypothetical situations in which students agree on the various terms of a new job, negotiate the terms of an apartment lease, and buy/sell a house, among others. Simulations give students an opportunity to develop and try their negotiating skills in a safe environment with continuing feedback from the professor and their classmates.

Course meets on Mondays from 6:30 - 8:30 PM, February 13 - April 10. Last day to add/drop (must visit Registrar's office): February 16.

.

UNXD 351 - Story-knowing and Storytelling
“By the time they graduate from college, most students still have not achieved the kind of self-authorship that would allow them to think independently, make choices, and pursue their dreams.” - Marcia B. Baxter Magolda

This course will offer space and structure for seniors in their final semester to develop, integrate, and express a personal narrative that helps them move forward into the world.

Through a critical examination of constructs such as Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett), Chaos Theory of Careers (Pryor & Bright), and Self-Authorship (Baxter Magolda), students will identify a framework to guide their reflection process. Readings, written assignments, group discussion among students, and conversations with participating alumni will facilitate the development of stories related to beliefs about life and work, values, strengths, and relationships with others. Students will create and present a living digital, oral, or written project that can be refined in the years to come.

Exercises will be drawn from Stanford University’s Life Design Lab, Florida State University’s Center for the Study of Technology in Counseling and Career Development, and other sources. There are no course prerequisites for this course, and it is only open to seniors during their final semester.

Course meets on Tuesdays from 5 - 7 PM, January 31 - February 28, and 5 - 7:30 PM on March 14. Last day to add/drop (must visit Registrar's office): February 3.

.

UNXD 352 - Data Visualization

This course introduces students to the tools, concepts, and skills necessary for making compelling quantitative graphics. Students will learn about the fundamental concepts of graphical design and visual perception such as to inform making charts and maps that are intuitive, effective, and memorable. The course will cover making powerful data-driven graphics with R, aesthetic visual design using Adobe Illustrator, and an introduction to Tableau. Each student will create an aesthetically compelling and analytically sound visualization portfolio. No prior programming or computer science skills are necessary.

Course meets on Thursdays from 6:30 - 8:30 PM, January 26 - March 30. Last day to add/drop (must visit Registrar's office): January 30.

.

UNXD 353 - Vocation and Purpose

In its 2010 reflection on the distinctive nature of a Georgetown education, the Jesuit community underscored the centrality of vocational discernment to the pedagogical charge of this university. Georgetown bears a duty to both person and polis, its authors observe, as “the growth into human excellence is rooted in the discovery of a personal vocation within the human community,” and that vocation, “the work for a world more just and gentle,” serves as the medium through which one exercises his or her civic responsibility. It is in this very spirit that Georgetown aims to guide its students in their pursuit of personal and professional fulfillment, equipping them with the capacity to lead lives of meaning by working for a better world. In accordance with that mission, this course provides a new context for graduating seniors to reinforce the knowledge, skills, and dispositions they have developed during their undergraduate careers with a sense of vocational purpose.

Course meets on Wednesdays from 5:00 - 7:30 PM, February 15 - March 29. Last day to add/drop (must visit Registrar's office): February 17.

.

UNXD 400 - Freud and the Good Life Revisited
Sigmund Freud's "Civilization and Its Discontents" painted a darkly pessimistic vision of current and future prospects for human happiness. He explained that as civilization grows it will gain an increasingly repressive upper hand with the result that coming generations can look forward to diminished freedom for self, family, pleasure, and love. Even worse, cultural expectations will be internalized through socialization, making it virtually impossible for individuals to know what life could be like if they were truly free and able to choose authentic lives. Through an examination of Ernest Becker's "Denial of Death" and Soren Kierkegaard's "The Concept of Dread" and "The Sickness Unto Death," this brief course will consider alternative pathways beyond inauthenticity to a life marked by freely chosen purpose and authentic selfhood.

Course meets on Wednesdays, 6:30 - 8:30 PM, February 8 - March 29. Last day to add/drop (must visit Registrar's office): February 10.

.

UNXD 401 - Radical Hope
Major life changes can be difficult to navigate, especially when one’s sense of self is at stake. How do I confront a radically new world in which my old ways of making sense of things no longer apply? How can I remain ‘me’ throughout this transition, given that I will in some sense have to become someone new? These questions are at their most profound and most pressing in a situation of cultural collapse, such as that faced by the Crow people when the U.S. government forbade their way of life and forced them onto a reservation. In Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation, philosopher Jonathan Lear considers the experience of the Crow and explores how their chief, Plenty Coups, was able to lead himself and his people through the experience of cultural collapse. In this course, we will discuss Lear’s analysis of Plenty Coups’s courage, hope, and imagination, and determine what lessons we can draw from it about navigating major changes in our own lives.

Course meets on Mondays, 7 - 9 PM, March 13 - May 1. Last day to add/drop (must visit Registrar's office): March 16.