Other Opportunities
Learn about other educational opportunities available to Dietrich College students.
Spring 2026 Courses with Open Seats
LCAL Courses
82-188 A: Global Science Fiction
M/W from 11 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
This innovative, team-taught course introduces students to Science Fiction as a global mode of storytelling that reflects and reimagines human experiences across diverse cultural, historical and political contexts. Through comparative case studies from The Americas, Asia and Europe, students will explore how different societies use speculative fiction to question colonial legacies, technological transformations, conceptions of human body and intelligence, environmental crises and visions of the future. By examining science fiction through literature, film, comics and media, the course situates the genre within its local and transnational frameworks — highlighting how histories of empire, migration and modernization shape global imaginaries of progress, identity and survival. Students will engage with key debates in cultural and literary studies while developing tools to interpret science fiction as a critical lens on real-world challenges, from artificial intelligence and climate change to inequality and posthuman ethics. Through active, collaborative learning, students will develop contextual thinking skills by analyzing how each work emerges from and responds to its specific cultural moment. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify how global science fiction both mirrors and critiques contemporary societies, and how their own ways of imagining the future are shaped by context. Course taught in English. No prior knowledge of science fiction required.
82-209 A: Contemporary French Cinema
M/W from 11 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
This course series analyzes contemporary mutations in France as they are seen through the lenses of a new generation of filmmakers. Since the 2000s, these filmmakers — who originated from France's former colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean — have breathed new life into national cinema and highlighted alternative narratives of French society. This semester's course will focus on Alice Diop, currently one of the most successful French filmmakers. Diop is a young Black woman of Muslim culture, born in the urban peripheries, from an immigrant family of modest means. Each of these seven identities alone make her an outsider in a traditionally Parisian, white, bourgeois and heavily male French cinema environment. Taken together, these characteristics form the main thread of this class: the aesthetics, intersectional identities and universalist aspirations of a new cinema that interrogates well-known visions, myths of and stereotypes about France. This course is taught in English.
82-482 A: Introduction to Translation
M/W from 12:30 to 1:50 p.m.
This course provides an engaging introduction to the theory and practice of translation, emphasizing that effective translation requires far more than just language substitution. It explores the interplay between language, culture and technology, and equips students with a holistic understanding of this dynamic field. Among the topics students will explore are the cultural dimensions of language, the frameworks available for analyzing and translating texts, the role of humans and technology in the process and the growing role of localization — adapting a translated product or content to a specific target audiences, cultural, linguistic and technical needs, as well as its images, colors, layouts and date, currency and address formats — in global business. This course has no formal language prerequisite. Prior knowledge of a second language is advantageous for certain case studies but is not necessary for successful completion of the course
Experiential Learning Course
99-461/761 - Tutoring, Teaching and Leading through Education
9 unit experiential learning course
T/Th from 10 to 11:50 a.m.
Instructor: Mimi Wertheimer, Director @ The Leonard Gelfand Center
This course focuses on learning about secondary educational services in a digital landscape and tutoring in math with high school students on the schoolhouse.world platform.
The course will cover the US educational system and its intersection with secondary educational services and the digital landscape. We will be focusing on the impact of these systems and the equity of open source opportunities, including offerings developed and led by CMU such as OLI and PLUS, with guest lectures from their faculty developers.
The course includes an emphasis on self-reflection of our lived experiences as students and on our roles in this ecosystem. The course is offered through the central course offerings and is open to undergraduate and graduate students in every college.
CMU Prison Education Project Course
79-252: A Global History of Crime and Punishment
Fridays, 12:30 to 6:45 p.m. (this includes travel time to and from SCI Somerset)
Instructor: Wendy Goldman
This course covers the history of crime and punishment, beginning in the Middle Ages and ending in the present. We will examine numerous cases, from justice as practiced in African villages to the workhouses created by the British Poor Laws to the Gulag labor camp system in the Soviet Union to the rise of the penitentiary in Europe and the United States. We will read about crime and punishment in the United States, looking at various models from the work gang to solitary confinement. We end by examining the era of mass incarceration to understand how it became a solution to larger problems in American society.
The course will be taught as part of the CMU Prison Education project and will take place inside Somerset State Correctional Institution. CMU students will learn alongside incarcerated students. All receive full credit for the course.
This course meets both the Dietrich Gen Ed "Perspectives on Justice and Injustice" requirement and the experiential learning requirement.
We travel on the bus to and from Somerset prison. The bus leaves CMU on Fridays at 12:30 and returns at 6:45. Class time inside the prison runs from 2:30 to 5:10.
An application for admission to the course is required. Please fill out this brief questionnaire in advance.
Spring 2026 CMIST Courses
CMIST has a number of exciting graduate and undergraduate level courses available for spring 2026. Explore the options and watch videos by professors.
Arts Greenhouse Course
76-254: Community Engagement with Middle Schoolers
T/TH, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Instructor: Emma Fries, Arts Greenhouse Director
This course is designed to provide students with hands-on, in-person experience in designing and implementing a community engagement project in partnership with Arts Greenhouse. CMU students will analyze their student audience and create a humanities-based project with a final product to share locally with 6th through 8th grade Arts Greenhouse students. Students in this course will also explore key skills of teaching and methodology to prepare them with the necessary tools to reach their educational audience. As a culmination of the course, college students will implement these projects in Arts Greenhouse partner schools. Additionally, CMU students will put into practice the leadership skills necessary to build working relationships with community partners.
To learn more, join an info session on Friday, Nov. 7 from 2 to 2:30 p.m.
- Zoom meeting ID: 974 7270 1266
- Passcode: 636038
English Courses
We invite you to check out the Department of English Spring 2026 Course Highlights booklet that features some of our new, unique, and/or one-time-only undergraduate courses we'll be offering next semester (S26). And many of them fulfill various Gen Ed requirements for CFA, CIT, MCS and Tepper. Yay! 🥳
Spring 2026 Academic Writing Minis for Graduate Students
Mini-3: 76-745: Graduate Student Writing for International Students
Mini-4: 76-748: Graduate Writing for Publication
M/W, 2 to 3:20 p.m.
Instructor: Jungwan Yoon
Want to make an impact in your academic community? These half-semester courses give you a practical toolkit for writing and communicating with clarity and confidence in your academic community. Through hands-on practice, you'll develop useful strategies to share your work effectively and participate as a confident, visible scholar in your field.
Academic Opportunities
Study Abroad During Summer 2026 with LCAL
Applications are open for summer 2026 study abroad opportunities through the Department of Languages, Cultures & Applied Linguistics! Explore options in Doah, Freiburg, Madrid, Monteverde, Nantes, Seoul and Shanghai.
Learn more about study abroad through LCAL
Applications Open for New Information Systems Minor
Deadline: Dec. 5, 2025
The Information Systems minor will provide an opportunity for undergraduate students in any major at Carnegie Mellon to develop a unique set of skills to enhance their education. Students will learn the role of IS in the enterprise and the means by which information systems are created, utilized and maintained. They will learn to manage, analyze and draw insights from data, work effectively in teams, and practice human-centered design and team management. By equipping students with these skills, we prepare them to thrive in a technology-driven world and enhance their readiness for future career opportunities.
Learn more about the IS minor and apply
Applications Open for the Photography Minor
Spring Application Deadline: March 27
The CFA Photography Minor exposes students to the breadth of photography, offering experiences from traditional photography (i.e. film exposure and silver printing) to digital shooting and output. Students pursuing the minor will become familiar with a variety of photograpy techniques, its history and significant practitioners, and develop thier own distinct engagement with themedium.
Learn more about the photograhy minor and apply
Apply to the McGuinness Venture Competition
Registration opens Oct. 28
Compete in the 2026 McGinnis Venture Competition & Social Enterprise Prize!
Three-round business competition: the first two rounds are virtual and the final round is live.
Compete to:
- Win $60K in investment
- Gain exposure
- Interact with investors and alumni entrepreneurs