Current Grand Challenge Seminars
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66-118 Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: Reasoning with Evidence: Using Data to Inform Scientific Discovery and Public Policy
In a time of big data and widespread skepticism of science, it is crucial to understand how data and facts can be turned into conclusions, and then into public policy. Using topics from medicine, epidemiology, and public health, this course provides students an…
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66-131 Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: Culture, Sports, and Conflict in/and VR
Sports have been celebrated for bringing people together; yet, sports have also been a locus of tensions and conflict that most of us only experience from the sidelines. We understand sports, the people, and their cultural impact through the stories that we tell about them…
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66-133 Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: We're Not Beyond Race: Race and Identity in America
Race matters. How have social institutions and historical factors led to the belief systems and stereotypes that shape how race is experienced in American society, and how do these belief systems affect the way individuals come to view and define themselves and others?…
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66-136 Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: Becoming Resilient in Challenging Times
What does it mean to be resilient—emotionally, personally, and collectively—in the face of disruption, uncertainty, or change? In this course, we define resilience as an intersectional capacity of individuals, communities, and systems to adapt, recover,…
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66-143 Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: Realizing Human Rights: The Challenge of Achieving Justice, Equity, and Freedom in a Complex World
This course will introduce first year students to the challenge of protecting and promoting human rights in a world fraught with conflict, political strife, economic exploitation, and environmental hazards. We will focus on how human rights frameworks can be used to make…
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66-145 Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: Appalachia: Development, Decline, and Identity in American Culture
The Appalachian region, which stretches from Georgia to New York's southern tier, has a particular place in American history and memory. This course will examine the political, literary, economic, and historical narratives that surround the region, as well as examining the…
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66-146 Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: From Pandemics to Politics: Modeling Complex Social Systems
Most of the major issues confronting humanity–such as injustice, discrimination, climate change, financial collapse, ecosystem survival, and disease epidemics–are the result of complex social systems. Such systems have multiple interacting parts that…
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66-151 Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: Equity and the Environment: Exploring Global Challenges and Local Solutions
How does air quality in one city differ from air quality in another? Do citizens have a right to clean air, regardless of where they live? How does global climate change impact the discussion of environmental and human health? The answer to these and other questions about…
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66-152 Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: Gender: Contemporary Issues
In recognition of the ubiquity of gender in politics, this course fosters a constructive dialogue on several contemporary debates on issues of gender. These issues will be addressed from a multi-disciplinary perspective, in particular humanistic and social psychological…
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66-153 Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: TL;DR: Cultures and Challenges of Reading
Recent headlines (and data) suggest we have a growing reading problem. How much and well we read is increasingly a question, in and out of the classroom, from concerns about whether students have ever read a novel to shifting understandings of literacy in the age of AI. At…
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66-154 Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: AI, Humanity, and the Future of Knowledge and Creativity
This course addresses the complex challenge of understanding the interplay between artificial intelligence (AI), humanity, and the humanities. It examines how AI transforms humanity’s understanding of intelligence, creativity, and knowledge at both individual and…
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66-155 Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: Sports Betting, Highs and Lows; Your Brain on Stats
The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association struck down the federal ban on sports betting. Since then, the United States sports betting industry has rapidly grown into a $10 billion industry. By 2023, 67% of all college…
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