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Courses - Spring 2026
HNUH
University Honors
HNUH100
(Perm Req)
Credits: 1
Grad Meth: Reg
First-semester orientation and exploration seminar required of all UH students.
First-semester orientation and exploration seminar required of all UH students.
HNUH218C
Globalizing the American Revolution
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSHS, SCIS
Cross-listed with: HIST223.
Credit only granted for: HNUH218C or HIST223.
How is the American Revolution a creation story in the making of our multi-cultural and interconnected modern world? Consider the Declaration of Independence. When first published on July 5, 1776, it was printed by an immigrant Irishman on Dutch paper that had been brought over from England. This was the first such declaration of independence ever issued, but its ideas and forms traveled far and wide. More than 100 other declarations of independence have been issued since then. The people that declaration mobilized are similarly diverse: the American Revolution is as much the story of Creek farmers, Spanish soldiers, French slaves, Canadian fugitives, Indian tea-growers, and African statesmen as it is of the Minutemen and Sons of Liberty. In this globe-trotting class, students will be positioned to debate how the familiar story of the American Revolution changes when we place it in transnational context.
HNUH218C is the required Big Question course in the Butterfly Effects thematic cluster. Butterfly Effects courses will be offered through Spring 2026.
HNUH218R
Stealing from the Poor, Giving to the Rich: The Political Economy of Global Capitalism
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSHS, DVUP
Street names and museum exhibits are being renamed in Europe to erase the ghosts of their colonial history. Yet, this speaks of the colonial "era" as the past, when in fact it is very much our present. The economic principle driving colonialism--capitalism--encouraged an insatiable appetite for territorial acquisition, human bondage, and destruction that stole wealth, life, and joy from racialized "others" to fuel European development. We maintain and further these thefts, oppressions, and exploitations through our purchasing habits and justify them through cultural ideas and ignorance. What would it mean to undo these oppressions? What must we understand to begin this process? This course surveys colonial capitalism and its legacies in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa to explore how history informs the present robbing of the Global South for the Global North's development, as well as pathways towards resistance and reconciliation.
HNUH218R is part of the Butterfly Effects thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH218C to complete the cluster. Butterfly Effects courses will be offered through Spring 2026.
HNUH228C
The Fiction of Fact: Race, Science and Storytelling
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSHU, DVUP, SCIS
What is a fact? Science is often viewed as an unbiased, fact-based, analytical discipline. However, throughout history, science has sometimes been the most potent weapon for creating and supporting political fictions and social hierarchies. Not unlike the discipline of the humanities, the sciences practice interpretation: scientists observe behaviors, of subject or objects, and necessarily provide an interpretation of the data. But it is the recourse to the "real" that has made science so powerful in underwriting cultural constructs. Whether we observe how science is manipulated in the public sphere, or how it is practiced for good or ill, it has been used to naturalize hierarchies of race, class or gender. Through a range of materials--fiction, film, visual arts, scientific articles, public humanities and political theses - this course will explore one of the most potent cases of this phenomenon of "scientific" storytelling: the case of race.
HNUH218C is the required Big Question course in the Science & Fiction thematic cluster. Surveillance courses will be offered through Spring 2026.
HNUH228Q
Science, Fiction, and our Environmental Future
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
What will the world look like in 2070? Bladerunner imagined the Earth's environment as desolate and inhumane. Black Panther shows us a country where technology and the natural world are in balance. Such scientifically charged fictions have long helped us face our fears about the future. If we hope to find 'greener' alternatives to our present courses of climate change and biodiversity loss, we must again look to the creative flights of fiction, as well as science. This course explores how science fiction can inform future visioning by expressing and challenging ideas about nature, culture, society, and politics. We will read and watch science fiction sub-genres of future scenarios to understand how science fiction thinking is applied in environmental science, design, and planning. The course challenges students to think about how 'smart', 'just', 'green' and 'resilient' visions can be integrated into sustainability transitions informed by collaborations between science and fiction.
HNUH228Q is part of the Science and Fiction thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH228C to complete the cluster. Science and Fiction courses will be offered through Spring 2026.
HNUH228R
The Picture of Health and Illness: Modern Medicine in Illustration
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSHU, DVUP
From prehistoric carvings, through King Tut's burial mask and Michelangelo's David, to the Lincoln Memorial and Body Worlds, images have long been used to communicate what people can and should be. After the "Scientific Revolution" in Europe, when identity was increasingly tied to biology, medical illustrations communicated theories of the ideal body and how it should, and should not, look. Doctors working in the midst of scientific revolution unequivocally tied health to race, gender, and sexuality by enlisting engravers, photographers, and printers to depict the healthy body as a European man and all others as weak, flawed, or ill. This course takes up questions about science, illustration, and identity. Can science tell us who we really are? Do pictures reveal the truth about our bodies? In this class, students will develop their own theory of how science continues to shape who we think we can be and how we might resist those limitations.
HNUH228R is part of the Science & Fiction thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH228C to complete the cluster. Science & Fiction courses will be offered through Spring 2026.
HNUH229P
Climate in Crisis: Strategy and Advocacy
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSSP
This theory and practice track examines theoretical frameworks for understanding climate change and concrete cases that shed light on the complexity of managing it. In this, the practical component of the Climate in Crisis track, we explore several domestic energy and climate policy case studies, examining the competing roles played by various interest groups that influence legislative and regulatory outcomes, with a focus on differing organizational advocacy strategies. Once we have mastered organizational advocacy strategies, students bring those tools to bear on the most recent US Federal policy mandates and legislation. In 229T, students will complement this work with a deep dive into the nature of public goods and climate change policy, among other crucial considerations.
HNUH229P pairs with HNUH229T to complete the Climate in Crisis Theory/Practice track. This pair of courses can be taken in any order.
HNUH238C
Surveillant Society, Surveillant Selves
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSHS, SCIS
Do the social and individual benefits of surveillance outweigh its risks? Surveillance is a ubiquitous practice in contemporary society. Governments surveil populations; corporations surveil customers and users; and individuals surveil themselves and others. From red light cameras and doorbell security cameras to geo-tracking apps and smart appliances, surveillant practices shape 21st-century lifestyles. Many take these practices for granted as acceptable trade-offs for individual and collective benefits. Others sound the alarm on the dangers of being tracked and monitored, with concerns over individual liberty, social inequalities, and more. In this course we will debate how surveillance shapes social practices and selves. Students will draw their own conclusions about the role of surveillance in society, and what, if anything, should be done to change it.
HNUH238C is the required Big Question course in the Surveillance thematic cluster. Surveillance courses will be offered through Spring 2026.
HNUH238O
Surveillance, Technology, and the "Death" of Privacy
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
In 1949, when George Orwell published "1984," few imagined how much the future would resemble the fictional surveillance state he depicted in his novel. Yet, 75 years later, surveillance technologies have not ceased to expand thanks to advances in computing and big data. We are at a point where many decry the "end of privacy," a world sketched with frightening detail in the popular Netflix series "Black Mirror." Are we destined to live in a dystopia like those described in popular science fiction books and films, or can we take steps now to ensure that privacy does not fall into oblivion? This course traces the rise of surveillance technologies used in homes, schools, workplaces, and everywhere in between to understand how we got here and where we are headed. Students will explore various framings of surveillance in Western culture, critically assess the challenges surveillance technology raises for vulnerable populations, and explore ways to stop the seemingly inevitable push toward a society without privacy.
HNUH238O is part of the Surveillance thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH238C to complete the cluster. Surveillance courses will be offered through Spring 2026.
HNUH238Q
Surveilled Bodies: Eugenics, Genetics, and Disability in Science Fiction and Society
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Body-based technologies of surveillance-from fingerprinting to genetic testing to facial recognition to biometric scans-are rooted in the "science" of eugenics. In the early twentieth century, eugenicists identified certain bodies as inherently suspect: they were deemed deviants, that is, they were said to deviate from desired physical, social, and political norms. One legacy of this movement is the surveillance and control of disabled bodies, which have been confined, cured, and erased, often in the name of technological and social progress. And we see the influence of eugenic surveillance in concerns over who is and who isn't, or shouldn't be, reproducing. Science fiction as a genre has always been deeply concerned with technologies and social structures of surveillance. In this class, students will analyze science fiction through a disability studies lens to consider what kinds of embodiments, and life experiences, society chooses to monitor.
HNUH238Q is part of the Surveillance thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH238C to complete the cluster. Surveillance courses will be offered through Spring 2026.

Credit only granted for HNUH 238Q or HNUH 258I.
HNUH239I
Globalization & Sustainability; How Does the Transformation of Global Value Chains Drive Equity and Sustainability?
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSSP, SCIS
Cross-listed with: BMGT271.
Credit only granted for: BMGT271 or HNUH239I.
We live in an increasingly interconnected world. This course explores the fundamentals of international trade that form the basis for the complex modern network of global value chains and how these relationships can be adapted to address their vulnerability while also transformed to build a more equitable and sustainable future.
HNUH239I pairs with HNUH239P to complete the Strategic Cross-Cultural Change Theory/Practice track. This pair of courses can be taken in any order.
HNUH248C
The Societal Impact of Artificial Intelligence
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSHS, SCIS
How will AI change society? AI is changing not only business, but the nature of society itself. This course investigates the nature of those changes and forecasts their future development. With a focus on the implications to business, including the nature of human jobs as AI does an increasing amount of work, students will debate the implications of AI through a variety of lenses. From definitions of consciousness and the potential for robots to claim rights to the gender implications of AI, we will explore its philosophical and political implications. As AI is also capital, we will interrogate what the advance of AI means to capitalists and for labor. Finally, we will enter the debate around whether AI will require more than machine learning to approximate general intelligence and whether it can truly be creative. Through the exploration of the unprecedented pitfalls and opportunities that AI represents, students will learn how best to cope with a world that is dependent on AI.
HNUH248C is the required Big Question course in the Artificial? Intelligence? thematic cluster. Artificial? Intelligence? courses will be offered through Spring 2026.
HNUH248R
Artificial Intelligence: Critical Examinations through Science Fiction and Technology
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSHU
AI permeates our world, but science fiction (SF) told stories about it centuries before AI became a reality in the 1950s, shaping our understanding and expectations through words and images. In this course, students will trace AI's evolution through SF to critically examine how key SF works have shaped how we think about AI and intelligence. Through an exploration of existing AI, like autonomous weapon systems, generative AI, and AI assistants, as well as a visit to UMD's AI department, students will learn to be critical viewers, readers, and developers as they grapple with AI's moral and social implications. Using the context of SF and technological developments, we will explore what the creation, existence, and evolution of fictional and real AI means for technology and humanity.
HNUH248R is part of the Artificial? Intelligence? thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH248C to complete the cluster. Artificial? Intelligence? courses will be offered through Spring 2026.
HNUH249T
National Security: Domestic Dilemmas
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg
GenEd: DSHS
Credit only granted for: HNUH249T or HONR278D.
Formerly: HONR278D.
The police detain a man thought to be plotting a terrorist attack the next day in a U.S. city that would kill or injure thousands. They want to subject him to "enhanced interrogation," which some consider to be torture. Should the police be permitted to use enhanced interrogation techniques? Who decides? This course will ask key questions raised during the efforts of our national security apparatus to protect the nation. Given the tension between the powers of the government to protect citizens, and the necessary limits on that power, what are the fundamental principles that should govern our efforts to protect the nation while preserving our values? Students will try their hand at finding the delicate balance of these principles in difficult national security dilemmas. This course is self-contained but paired with HNUH249P in the National Security track, which explores post-9/11 policy decisions around the U.S. effort to create a sustainable democracy in Afghanistan.
HNUH249T pairs with HNUH249P to complete the National Security Theory/Practice track. This pair of courses can be taken in any order.
HNUH258C
Nature at Risk: Extinction, Consequences, and Strategies
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSNS, SCIS
How should we prioritize among all the species at risk of extinction? This course will grapple with the complex and consequential process of extinction from biological, geographical, and mathematical perspectives. Core themes will include the 1) nature(s) of extinction risks, 2) potential consequences of different kinds of extinction, and 3) considerations involved in setting priorities. Students will explore, handle, and analyze relevant data (e.g., evolutionary trees, species occurrence records, population censuses) to better understand extinction processes. With the aid of AI-generated hypothetical species, we will investigate hidden biases, debate the consequences of our choices, and explore possible prioritization strategies.
HNUH 258C is the required Big Question course in the Conserving Biodiversity thematic cluster. Conserving Biodiversity courses will be offered through Spring 2026.
HNUH258O
Supporting Our Watershed: Indigenous Perspectives on Biodiversity and Conservation in the Chesapeake Region
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Eastern oysters, Yellow Eels, and Diamondback Terrapins...these are a few species native to the Chesapeake Region at risk due to impacts of climate change. In this project-based course, students will explore the Chesapeake Region's biodiversity while identifying threats and conservation solutions to vulnerable and endangered species. Readings and place-based learning experiences will provide a deeper understanding of how Indigenous Knowledges support a more inclusive and accurate understanding of ecological science. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to apply these insights in educational and environmental contexts, promoting a more holistic and socially just approach to science and conservation efforts.
HNUH258O is part of the Conserving Biodiversity thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH258C to complete the cluster. Conserving Biodiversity courses will be offered through Spring 2027.
HNUH258R
Cultivating conservation: exploring connections between biodiversity and livelihoods
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSHS
There are a lot of ways food is harvested from land and sea before it reaches your dinner plate - not all of them are savory. In this course, we'll explore how the many livelihoods that provide us with food can also work to incorporate and rely on biodiversity conservation. What does biodiversity conservation look like in a working landscape or seascape? How do social movements align or contrast with different food production and conservation practices? And finally, how are these environments - and the people and cultures embedded in them - increasingly under threat? Through complementary aspects of social science and conservation practice, this course emphasizes not only the threats posed to unique localities and livelihoods, but also the hope of a just and sustainable dinner table. Students will leave with knowledge of the practices and skills needed to participate in transforming our food system for improved environmental and community outcomes.
HNUH258R is part of the Conserving Biodiversity thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH258C to complete the cluster. Conserving Biodiversity courses will be offered through Spring 2027.
HNUH259T
Drawn to D.C.: Reading the City
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg
GenEd: DSHU
A movement known as the Metropolitan Revolution has recognized cities as sites of concentrated economic growth and political power. What does that movement have to do with you? Not only does the city change who you are, but the ambitions and fears that you bring to it also alter what is already there. With Washington, D.C. as a case study, this course considers cities in the context of the ambitious plans that developed them and the unbuilt spaces that open us to imagining them anew. From the ideological tensions and competing policies that politicize urban space, to the construction challenges and social implications of choices made, why we build is as important as what we build. We will experience Washington through its history of spaces, stories, music, art; and learn to see ourselves as co-designers of its present. This course is self-contained but paired with HNUH259P in the Drawn to D.C. track, which explores the created spaces we inhabit, and how they inhabit us.
HNUH259T pairs with HNUH259P to complete the Drawn to DC Theory/Practice track. This pair of courses can be taken in any order.
HNUH268C
Inclusion and Exclusion: Deportation in American Life
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSHU, SCIS
What is the "American Dream" under threat of deportation? The United States proclaims to be welcoming but ideas about sovereignty, the nation, the border, good and bad immigrants, and crime in the United States coalesce to support the retention of some people and the displacement of others from its territory. Who the US deports is related to why it deports and on whose behalf such policies are made. This course acquaints students with current theories, methodologies, and debates in the field of the Humanities to grapple with the most pressing domestic questions about immigration and deportation. A variety of frameworks and approaches including critical ethnic studies, history, social movements, and geography, will challenge students to take a position on immigration law and deportation, and their effects on different communities - on all of us.
HNUH268C is the required Big Question course in the Homeland Insecurity thematic cluster. Homeland Insecurity courses will be offered through Spring 2027.
HNUH268Q
Displaced Lives and Stolen Identities in Asian American Literature and Culture
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
Refugee, undocumented, alien, enemy, criminal... These words have been used in American political and popular discourses to conjure images of difference, foreignness, and danger for those who identify as citizens. Using the Asian American context as a case study, this course examines narratives of displacement, forced migration, cultural erasure, and the struggles for visibility and belonging. We will explore how political conflicts, globalization, imperialism, and war have shaped Asian American experiences and identities, considering how traumatic dispersal, interconnectedness, and diasporic citizenship have transformed in fundamental ways our national identity. Students will analyze how immigrants are transformed from ordinary human beings to trespassers and how, through literatures of resistance, they reclaim humanity and agency. Students will also consider their own roles and responsibilities in current debates on immigration, citizenship, and belonging in the U.S.
HNUH268Q is part of the Homeland Insecurity thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH268C to complete the cluster. Homeland Insecurity courses will be offered through Spring 2027.
HNUH268R
What Makes Land a Homeland?
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSHS
We live in a world of contested lands. The University of Maryland itself stands on the ancestral land of the Piscataway People. Around the globe, we witness conflicts over land, such as the ongoing war in the Middle East over Israel-Palestine. We hear daily about the refugee crises in Syria and the complex debates surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border. These situations raise important questions: What does it mean to truly belong to a place? How does a migrant come to see their new country as home? This course explores the histories, cultures, memories, and stories of lands left behind to understand how places become homelands. Students will examine the politics behind the making of territories and the deep connections people form with land. Through this exploration, we will center the experiences of migration and displacement, questioning how these journeys reshape our understanding of belonging and the places we call home.
HNUH268R is part of the Homeland Insecurity thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH268C to complete the cluster. Homeland Insecurity courses will be offered through Spring 2027.
HNUH269T
Building Community: Showing up for Social Change
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSSP
A neighbor in an area without a supermarket plants a public vegetable garden at their curb. A group of activists comes together to support each other's mental health. What do these initiatives have in common? They are instances of showing up for change and helping yourself in the process. In this course, you will delve into a social issue you care about and be empowered to make change. We will take up thorny questions - When individuals work to restore social ties, how do we know our efforts are welcome? How does helping ourselves actually help others, and vice versa? - to understand why individuals must forge community to catalyze real change. Through discussions and hands-on activities, you will learn the social value of showing up, for the world and for yourself. This course is self-contained but paired with HNUH269P in the Building Community track, where you will learn the science of connection and apply these skills to build more meaningful relationships in your life.
HNUH269T pairs with HNUH269P to complete the Building Community Theory/Practice track. This pair of courses can be taken in any order.
HNUH278C
Riding the Korean Wave: Kdrama, Race, and Global Culture
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSHS, SCIS
How does culture construct our knowledge of the world and ourselves? Using Korean dramas, aka Kdramas, as a case study, this course will explore how various media negotiate blackness for global audiences. As a viral, billion-dollar art form, Kdramas provide an ideal window through which to explore recent trends in our global culture, including colorism, "Black as cool," travel as consumption, and immigration. They illuminate the politics of culture. We will examine how moral panics and social dilemmas are presented in the fictitious world of "Kdramaland," and how they inform our understandings of South Korean society, our own societies, and the world. Drawing on social science research by Koreans and non-Koreans alike, students will debate the ways the culture of the Korean wave reflects, reproduces, and challenges social inequities of marginalized and minoritized groups, as well as how those groups respond, to illuminate the larger global forces at work in intercultural exchange.
HNUH278C is the required Big Question course in the Change the Narrative thematic cluster. Change the Narrative courses will be offered through Spring 2027.
HNUH278I
Bonded: Loneliness, Health, and Quality of Life
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Society has become more and more disconnected, with 61% of American reporting being lonely. The U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community reports that "The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity." Disconnection is devastating for health and for society. Particularly in a democracy predicated on the health of civic life, which requires interpersonal and community relationships, where does this predicament leave us as a society? This course illuminates the potential root causes of disconnection: early familial relationships, attachment styles, and broader technological trends. Students will leave the course with a toolkit of evidence-based strategies they can use - and share - to help heal these divides and repair our core social connections.
HNUH278I is part of the Butterfly Effects thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH218C to complete the cluster. Butterfly Effects courses will beoffered through Spring 2026.
HNUH278Q
What's art got to do with it?: How Community Art Projects Change the World
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSSP, DVCC
Climate change, poverty, natural disasters, racism... Luckily for humanity, no topic is too intense for the artworld to tackle. When artists direct their energies not simply at rendering problems but also toward working with communities, the arts have the power to heal, unite, and transform. This class invites students to think about how art, particularly public visual arts like murals and street art, can help us collectively discuss and even solve our most pressing issues. Students will collaborate with local artists, contemporary and diverse art collections at UMD, other local galleries, and recent community-based art projects to understand the real-world impact the arts can have on social transformation. The main engagement of this course will be to co-design and implement a community-based art project together with the community it will impact. Students will emerge from this collaborative practice empowered to use the arts to connect communities and make lasting social change.
HNUH278Q is part of the Change the Narrative thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH278C to complete the cluster. Change the Narrative courses will be offered through Spring 2027.
HNUH278R
Getting Graphic: Comics as Resistance
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSSP, DVUP
In 2023, Maia Kobabe's graphic memoir, Gender Queer, was the most challenged book in the U.S. Often restricted due to spurious claims about corrupting children, comics have a long history of upsetting the status quo with their unique use of words and pictures. Artists from historically marginalized communities continue to shape this medium. This class examines comics, from glossy horror comics to grungy punk zines, that reject the conventional and subvert suppression. Learning experientially through DMV resources like the D.C. Punk and Indie Fanzine Archive and local comics fests, students will generate their own comics and investigate censorship and resistance.
HNUH278R is part of the Change the Narrative thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH278C to complete the cluster. Change the Narrative courses will be offered through Spring 2027.
HNUH288C
Abortion in U.S. Society
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSHS, SCIS
How do and can we talk about abortion in contemporary society? Civil discussion around the topic of abortion is almost non-existent between people with extremely different views in the U.S. It is such a taboo topic that an exchange of ideas can even be difficult for those with slightly different views--i.e., those who believe abortion should not be regulated by the government (more than any other health care is) and those who believe abortion should be legal and regulated by governments. Although it is an issue about which Americans care deeply, the very people who need most to talk about it seem unable to find any common ground upon which to begin. This course provides students with a solid base of knowledge needed to form opinions and engage in civil debate. Through an exploration of the different ways we talk about abortion in the U.S. and the sources of those strategies, students will learn to find their voice in the controversial topic.
HNUH 288C is the required Big Question course in the Health Check thematic cluster. Health Check courses will be offered through Spring 2027.
HNUH288O
"Normal Led to This": Health, Global Crisis, and Social Transformation
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSHU
From the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920 to the Covid-19 pandemic, and from the appearance of HIV/AIDS in queer communities to its spread in Africa, the world's disease crises have been inflamed by colonialism, imperialism, and other structural forms of exploitation and dispossession. This course asks: What is the connection between seemingly interruptive global health crises and our everyday normal? By engaging with novels, long-form journalism, and other stories of global crises, we will grapple with the possibility that, far from averting disaster, capitalism and the legal structures that support it create the conditions for crises to thrive. We will investigate the failures of public response but also the heroic actions of individuals fighting for life. Students will learn to connect individual experience to broad structural explanations and to analyze historical moments to better understand our present and the shared forces that shape our lives.
HNUH288O is part of the Health Check thematic cluster and pairs with HNUH2288C to complete the cluster. Health Check courses will be offered through Spring 2027.
HNUH288R
Is Black Bad for Your Health? Examining Race as a Risk Factor in Public Health
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DVUP
Cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, asthma... Not only are Black Americans at higher risk for developing these life-threatening conditions, but they are also at higher risk of dying from them. In fact, Black race, unlike other racial identities, has been so consistently associated with poor health outcomes that "Black" is considered a risk factor--a characteristic that increases the likelihood of developing a disease--for many diseases. Can one's race alone determine their health trajectory? If race is socially constructed, how can race be a risk factor for health outcomes? This class will take up the tensions, contradictions, and seemingly illogical public health practices related to health outcomes for Black Americans and the impact of these practices on the broader community. Students will make sense of our present by examining our past--race science, eugenics, medical apartheid--and learn to disrupt the social reproduction of inequities to create a healthier society for the future.
HNUH300
Vantage Point Seminar
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
Goal-setting and project-design seminar required of all UH students and taken in the second semester of the sophomore year or the first semester of the junior year.
HNUH398P
(Perm Req)
Federal and Global Experiential Learning
Credits: 3 - 9
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSSP
Restriction: Permission of instructor. Repeatable to 9 credits if content differs.
Cross-listed with: FGSM398.
Credit only granted for: FGSM398 or HNUH398P.
This is the experiential course component of the Federal Fellows Program and Global Fellows Program.
Cross-listed with FGSM398. Credit only granted for FGSM398 or HNUH398P.