118 courses with the subject LIBS, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
LIBS 100Global Understanding3
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course allows students to learn about other cultures in a face-to-face environment without having to leave their classroom. It is designed to employ interactive technologies giving students the opportunity to communicate with students in different countries in “real time”. The cultural exchange is based on both written and oral communication between classrooms of students in two different nations using videoconferencing and other digital communication tools within the classroom environment and beyond. Cross-listed with GSCP 100.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course allows students to learn about other cultures in a face-to-face environment without having to leave their classroom. It is d
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This is a course that provides students with broad knowledge and a strong comprehensive understanding of ethics and civil engagement; that exposes the interconnected relationships among the disciplines, society and humanity. This course surveys each concentration offered in the Liberal Studies Department.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is designed to provide freshmen and sophomores with a critical understanding of the field of African-American studies. The course will be taught from an interdisciplinary perspective, emphasizing critical thinking and communication skills.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is designed to provide Women’s Studies concentrators with a critical understanding of the role of women in the U.S. and global economy, society and politics. It will emphasize critical thinking and communication skills through reading, writing and oral presentations.
LIBS 209History, Literary Connections and Social Relevance of Hip-Hop3
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course expands the course offerings of two existing LIBS Concentrations: African-American Studies and Race, Class and Culture. It draws from several disciplines within the Social Sciences and Humanities and contributes to students’ ability to critically analyze the interrelationships between popular culture and the large society.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines the relationships between race, class and environmental quality within the context of a global economy that seeks to maximize profits while minimizing responsibility. It also examines the concept of environmental justice as a means to restore positive connections within communities between environmental use and environmental quality.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines the historical development of theories of “race” in the Western world. It provides the student with a basic understanding of the principles of evolutionary/population biology, genetics, and taxonomy as they relate to biological and social conceptions of race.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines how sports have historically formed and currently shape the contours of African-American culture. Particular attention is given to such questions as the ethical dimension of segregation, the locus of gender equity, cultural images, and their potential effects for African-American athletes and the African-American community.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines how social structure impacts the race-crime relationship in terms of theory, policy and practice. It explores the phenomenon from multiple perspectives, including those involved in the criminal justice process. Students are encouraged to think critically about the social construction of race and social class in crime and crime control.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course acquaints students with the economic, social, political and cultural forces that have shaped contemporary South Africa. It explores the role of race, class, gender and culture during the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines the economic, social, political and cultural forces that shape the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. It explores the reasons for Africa’s high prevalence rates, the gendered nature of the pandemic, and the impact of the disease on development and on children.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course addresses African-American political interventions and debates against European and U.S. colonialism and imperialism during the first three-quarters of the twentieth century. It also examines the parallel development of the U.S. civil rights movement and African-American support for African independence movements.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines in depth a broad range of Black thought of scholars/activists, from W.E.B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey to Leopold Senghor and Frantz Fanon.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course will provide students with the skills to critically analyze black situation comedies, from the 1950s to the present. The course will be taught from an interdisciplinary perspective (literature, history, political science, sociology, law) and emphasize critical thinking and communication skills.
LIBS 242The Political Economy of African Americans3
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is an analytical examination of how political and economic forces interact to influence African American wealth. The course examines traditional African American products (i.e. music as a commodity) possessing a user or a value and an objective of production (possessing an exchange-value). Current political and economic trends will be juxtaposed with historical expropriations and exploitations.
LIBS 242The Political Economy of African Americans3
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is an analytical examination of how political and economic forces interact to influence African Am Prerequisite(s): LIBS 202 .
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course will explore the complex issues of education for African Americans within a 21st century context as a manifestation of The Mis-Education of the Negro, as scribed by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in 1933. Students will learn the role of American schooling and compare public education, private education, and the privatization of education.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course explores the social, cultural, and political dynamics that impact the experience of the African American male in the United States. The course will focus on a variety of Black male issues from post-slavery to the 21st century that include role identification, the criminal justice system, media representations, and the educational system. Students will learn the social construction of masculinity as defined by dominant culture and the effect on the African American male.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course explores the social, cultural, and political dynamics that impact the experience of the African American male in
LIBS 245Global Views: Black Press in the Americas3
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This interdisciplinary course will review issues that appeared throughout the last century in the press of Black communities in the non-English speaking countries of the Americas. It will examine articles in countries where Afro-descendants constitute a large number such as Brazil and the Dominican Republic, as well as those countries where Blacks are a small minority such as Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia. Students will compare conditions in Latin America to those described in the Black press of the United States.
LIBS 245Global Views: Black Press in the Americas3
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This interdisciplinary course will review issues that appeared throughout the last century in the press of Black communities in the Prerequisite(s): LIBS 200 .
LIBS 301Ethno-Nationalism and the Reconstruction of Nations3
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines how the breakup of the USSR led to the rise of ethno-nationalism in the process of national reconstruction. Exploring the myths, symbols and histories of those competing populations within the Soviet Union or its power, we discover a paradigm that applies to the wider postcolonial world as well.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines the shaping of information in popular media, with special emphasis on the creation of news. Examining institutional configurations and conglomeration, it focuses on the role of news media within national discourses, on the shaping of ideological consensus and the marginalization of dissent. It asks questions about the limitations of political discourse, about bias and objectivity, about how news is defined, presented, and disseminated.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines the shaping of information in popular media, with special emphasis on the creation of news. Examini
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines the creation of consumer culture during the last two centuries. It looks at the development of advertising, public relations, mass marketing, and the construction of consumer consciousness. It also considers the consequences of global consumerism on the environment, cultural tradition, human social relations and economic conditions.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines mythologies and realities of the American South: the antebellum period, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights era, and the New South. It looks at how these historical moments have been written and rewritten, in academic and popular discourses, in response to racial beliefs and ideological needs. It considers the South as a geographical, social, and cultural entity and as an important element within the shaping of an American national mythos.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines mythologies and realities of the American South: the antebellum period, the Civil War, Reconstruction,
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course will examine the ethnic, racial and cultural diversity of the Caribbean, including the impact of foreign cultures on the area, and the export of its unique cultural forms to the global society.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course will explore technology’s interaction with the concept of gender and how gender is embodied in technologies, and conversely, how technologies shape societal notions of gender. Students will critically assess the gender relations produced in areas such as entertainment and games, work, identity, education, culture, globalism, race and ethnicity.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course uses multidisciplinary perspectives to examine the connections between food and human life ways. Focusing on varied ethnic food traditions and people around the world, this course will explore 1) the interplay of class and gender in the preparation of food, 2) the role of political and economic power in the accessibility and distribution of food, and 3) the religious and cultural symbolism of eating.
LIBS 308Historical, Social, and Cultural Perspectives of Technology3
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course explores the interrelationships between the human race and technology, the range of determinism between the two, and the possible paths for technology and humans in the global world. Global perspectives
LIBS 309Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Extraordinary Violence3
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course composes a critical study of the notion of “evil” by considering how the term has been employed historically to explain and sometimes justify radical violence such as genocide. It will consider the multi-disciplinary spectrum of theories that seek to explain how ordinary people come to participate in extraordinary acts of brutality and mass murder of their fellow human beings.
LIBS 309Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Extraordinary Violence3
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course composes a critical study of the notion of “evil” by considering how the term has been employed historic
LIBS 310The Historical Origins of Environmental Crisis3
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course will deal with man’s changing philosophical and technological relationship with his natural environment since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Cross-listed with HIST 307.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course will provide students with the skills to critically analyze the way Africa has been portrayed historically in the West, in fiction, the academy, books, magazines, film, television and other popular media. The development of critical thinking skills in written and oral communication is at the core of this course which asks students to rethink common assumptions, perceptions and stereotypes.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines women’s roles in African economies, the gendered nature of legal rights under customary law, political participation, female genital mutilation, and the impact of conflict, war, genocide, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic on African women.
LIBS 313Human Rights: An Interdisciplinary and Global Approach3
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) What are “human rights”? Who defines this concept and sets its standards? Has the concept changed over time? This course takes an interdisciplinary and global approach to the study of human rights. It looks at specific “human rights” violations of our time, including honor killing, bride burning, genital mutilation, death by stoning, torture, and child labor. Students will learn about the social, cultural, economic, political, and legal contexts within which certain practices deemed human rights violations take place and be confronted with the ultimate question of “Can I judge the practices of people living in other cultures”?
LIBS 313Human Rights: An Interdisciplinary and Global Approach3
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) What are “human rights”? Who defines this concept and sets its standards? Has the concept changed over time? This course takes an interdisciplinary and global
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course represents a “workshop” or “think tank” style exploration that considers a spectrum of definitions of human being, challenging each for its strengths and weaknesses for promoting the full morally-rich human life, designated by the ancients as “human flourishing”. Passages from ancient Greek, Roman, existentialist, and postmodern Jewish philosophy, Christian, Hebrew, Muslim and Buddhist scriptures, and modern rationalist/scientific definitions will be considered and compared, with the objective of determining which definitions have the potential to be most morally edifying. The course will address such questions as whether gender and race are essential or secondary qualities of human beings, and how ideologies of individualism and communalism affect human modes of being-in-the-world.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course represents a “workshop” or “think tank” style exploration that considers a spectrum of definitions of human being, challenging each for its strengths and weaknesses for promoting the full m
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines issues and concepts involved in death and dying across societies and cultures from the perspectives of the social, natural and physical sciences, and the humanities. Issues such as rituals, artificial life-support, euthanasia, hospice care, and suicide are examined in Western and non-Western cultures.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines issues and concepts involved in death and dying across societies and cu Prerequisite(s): LIBS 200 .
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course will analyze, critique, and discuss the literature and critical discourses of the most current theoretical, political, and social dialogue/texts that provide a framework for class discussion and writing assignments. Some of the major areas of focus are as follows: the major movements and themes of hip-hop; the relationship between the predominant culture and hip-hop; the new Black Renaissance
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course takes a critical analysis approach to the study of the work of Spike Lee. It examines the representations of race, class, gender, and sexuality in Lee’s “joints” from an interdisciplinary perspective. The course looks critically at Lee’s work within the broad historical framework of African American cultural history and explores Lee’s engagement with numerous controversial social, political, and economic issues in American society.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course takes a critical analysis approach to the study of the work of Spike Lee. It examines the representations
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course educates students in Conflict Theory, a range of strategies for navigating diverse differences, and it offers an approach for negotiating peaceful solutions to business, economic, social, and political problems in both our local communities and global societies.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) Students in this course will critically study language as a social practice using a multidisciplinary approach. Critical Discourse Analysis is taught as a research methodology for language structures, and it explores the relationship among these structures within cultural and situational contexts.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) Students in this course will critically study language as a social practice using a mult Prerequisite(s): LIBS 200 .
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines the significance of culture in human societies. It assumes that culture is more than the objects of cultural production. The course explores how culture is the continual construction and reconstruction of social, economic and political institutions.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines the concept of one world culture from an interdisciplinary viewpoint. The key questions the course will address include: Is one culture world emerging? If so, what are its advantages and disadvantages for individuals, communities, and nation states? How will human identities change with the emergence of one world culture? Students will learn how one world culture is changing the social, economic, legal and political contexts of our lives.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines the concept of one world culture from an interdisciplinary viewpoint. The key questions the course
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines interactions between religion and societies as factors influencing the formation of community, the breakdown of community, and reconciliation within and between communities. Contemporary, historical, and nonwestern examples will be explored. Interrelations between religion and societies will be explored from different disciplinary perspectives, including those of psychology, history, sociology, philosophy, and evolutionary biology.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines interactions between religion and societies as factors influencing the formation of community, the
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is an interdisciplinary topical course in legal concepts and issues and the ways in which these have been depicted in the humanities: literature, film, the arts, music, and popular culture. Some of the topics that will be examined are: Freedom and the Law, Justice and Equality, Freedom and Responsibility, and Justice, Rights, and the Body. Students will explore the impact the many ways of depicting the law and legal concepts have on our understanding of ourselves, our communities, and the nation state.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is an interdisciplinary topical course in legal concepts and issues and the ways in which these have been depicted in th
LIBS 335Disparities in Public Health Care: The Effects of Race, Gender and Class3
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is designed to examine the disparities that exist among the categories of race, gender, and class in relationship to health care. The course focuses on six areas of major health inequities, including infant mortality, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and immunizations.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is the introductory level of understanding diverse cultures from a global perspective and learning what “globalization” means in various contexts to include explorations of the arts (literature, music, and entertainment industry), social sciences, and ethical reasoning.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is the introductory level of understanding diverse cultures from a globa Prerequisite(s): LIBS 200 or consent of instructor.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is the intermediate level of cultural foundations from a global perspective: through literature, music, the entertainment industry, the social sciences, and ethical reasoning. Students will compare worldview/perceptions and critically analyze depictions of Americans.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is the intermediate level of cultural foundations from a global perspective: Prerequisite(s): LIBS 200 , LIBS 398 , or consent of instructor.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) Passionate Politics: Beyond bell hooks is a course that centers on feminist theory, its reinterpretation, and its application. It allows students to differentiate feminist perspectives to better understand the diversity of feminist thought.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course investigates the nature of war, its causes and consequences, its depiction in news accounts, memoirs, literary texts, and popular media. This course asks questions about the function of war economically and ideologically. It considers the intersection of war with race and gender. It also considers the ways war is commonly represented within national discourses.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines the nature of historical truth within a mass-mediated culture and against a prevailing postmodern skepticism. It also looks at the processes by which historical events are defined and represented. It asks questions about the intersections of nationalism and history, about the determining power of school curricula, textbooks, museums, academic experts, and popular media.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) Black Feminist Thought is a course about the determination for women’s empowerment and social justice in America from slavery to the 21st century. It examines feminism and its multiple meanings and controversies and identifies cross- generational themes and tensions.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 1 Lab Hour(s) This multi-institutional, interdisciplinary course examines and models democracy by bringing together students and faculty from local colleges and universities for experiential learning projects within the greater Greensboro community. Students will explore public policy, governance, citizen engagement, economic justice and other issues at the microcosm level.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 1 Lab Hour(s) This multi-institutional, interdisciplinary course examines and models democracy by bringing togethe Prerequisite(s): Junior or senior standing.
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is the advanced level of cultural foundations from a global perspective. This course will identify political, social, legal, and economic impact(s) of transnational corporations; examine concepts of industrialization/urbanization along with concepts of colonialism/de-colonialism/and neocolonialism; and present an epistemology of mind, language, gender, and sexual identity.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is the advanced level of cultural foundations from a global perspective. This course will ide Prerequisite(s): LIBS 399 .
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines Socratic reason and cosmopolitanism grounded in the classical origins of the Western tradition. Through cross-cultural study and application, students will construct a “world-citizen” value set derived from the philosophy of Martha Nussbaum and apply geography, world religion, world history, and the humanities to examine creative solutions to alleviate social ills.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course examines Socratic reason and cosmopolitanism grounded in the classical origins of the Western Prerequisite(s): LIBS 200 .
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This interdisciplinary topical course examines legal concepts and issues as depicted in the humanities and the social sciences. Topics include freedom and the law, justice and equality, and freedom and responsibility.
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This interdisciplinary topical course examines legal concepts and issues as depicted Prerequisite(s): Junior or senior standing. Cross listed with PHIL 408 .
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course explores the relationship between science and religion from an interdisciplinary perspective through readings, films, and case studies. Are scientific and religious ways of knowing compatible, conflicting, or how might these disciplines coexist and influence each other?
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course explores the relationship between science and religion from an interdisciplinary p Prerequisite(s): Junior or senior standing. Cross listed with PHIL 409 .
Credit(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is a seminar for seniors to engage with critical theory and apply it to contemporary issues and problems. Concrete evidence of multidimensional and integrated student knowledge, skills, and abilities are documented as students are taught electronic portfolio preparation for career prospects and postgraduate education.
LIBS 200 , LIBS 300, Liberal Studies major w/senior standing.
LIBS 475Senior Seminar/Capstone3
(s) 3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course is a seminar for seniors to engage with critical theory and apply it to contemporary issues and Prerequisite(s): LIBS 200 , LIBS 300, Liberal Studies major w/senior standing.
