What is the global economy? What are nation states? And what is the relationship between the global economy and the nation state? This seminar first examines the historical formation of nation states and then reflects on their performance and integrity since the end of the cold war, keeping in mind the rise of neoliberalism, globalization, regional trade blocs such as the European Union and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and Covid-19. Special attention is given to issues of sovereignty and democracy, the role of international financial organizations, international industry associations, institutions, and the way nation states are likely to evolve in the coming decades.

In this seminar, stories, once the primary way knowledge passed from one generation to another, are the basis for examining educational topics and issues. Students read fictional, biographical, autobiographical, and other narratives to learn more about some aspect of education and/or schooling. Topics may include students' experiences in school; teachers and teaching; public and private education; and how race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or other markers of identity shape educational opportunity. Students conduct fieldwork.

Are we truly free to chart our own lives, or are our fates predestined by our social locations? This seminar tackles sociology’s ultimate debate: individual agency versus social structure. We will explore how personal autonomy is both shaped and constrained by systems of inequality such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, while bridging the gap between academic theory and individual lived experiences. The course invites students to examine their roles as agents of change capable of actively reshaping foundational institutions like family, education, and the workplace.

This interdisciplinary seminar examines the role tobacco has played in shaping global political economies, cultures, and health. Students pay particular attention to how gender, race, class, and nationalism influence and have been influenced by tobacco. From the use of slave labor in seventeenth-century Chesapeake Bay colony to wooden Indians flanking the entrance of tobacco shops, to feminist slogans invoked to sell cigarettes, tobacco has functioned as a signifier and shaper of social norms and divides. Topics include labor and tobacco production, ethics of corporate power, the visual culture of tobacco, health and human rights, smoking and stigma, the global epidemiology of tobacco related illness, and tobacco regulation.

Doing philosophy involves putting your beliefs up to rational scrutiny and examining your reasons for holding them. But our mental lives involve not just thinking and reasoning, but also feelings. These feelings can influence how we think, sometimes without us realizing that they do. In this course students ask what good reasoning is, examine when and how feelings impact our reasoning, and what we ought to think about this influence.

What do people mean when they claim to be "spiritual but not religious"? Why do rivers and sunsets, trees and mountaintops so often come to be associated with spiritual power and connection to a greater reality? This course invites students to explore such questions and phenomena through shared reading of a variety of scriptures, naturalist writers, and mystics; through producing their own formal essays, reviews, and creative reflections; and through experiential learning in a more-than-human world.

Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994 after more than three centuries of white dominance. Today, he is considered the greatest African leader of the twentieth century. This popular perception, born of Mandela's charisma after walking out of jail and becoming president, cuts out many actors and events in the history of South Africa. This course introduces students to these obscured actors and events. It begins by exploring the encounter between Europeans and Africans, then examines the institutionalization of the apartheid state, and concludes by studying the reactions to, and defeat of, the apartheid state.

Can you ever really “know” anything for sure? When is skepticism smart, and when is it not? Do some people’s claims to know something count more than others’? How are ethical principles related to knowledge? And when do knowledge claims turn into a loyalty test? We explore crucial questions about how best to create and improve knowledge of different kinds.

This multidisciplinary course explores the origins and iterations of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in the United States from 1866 to the present. In so doing, the course makes larger claims about the core relationship between the white power movement and the making of "America." Drawing on the concepts, paradigms, and intellectual traditions of American cultural studies and Black studies, students consider the shifting narratives, contested ideologies, and the regional and temporal convergences and divergences of the KKK from its violent founding to our contemporary moment. Students learn how to theorize the KKK through frameworks that prioritize the concepts of racialization, patriarchy, cultural hegemony, resistance, citizenship, and counterrevolution.

What does it mean to become a scientist or mathematician and how do we build STEM identity? What habits of mind and practice are particularly effective in developing expertise in STEM knowledge and skills? What is the role of a supportive community of scholars? This seminar explores these questions and strategies for creating student success through reflective writing and collaborative engagement in learning. Corequisite(s): one of the following: any 100-level biology or earth and climate sciences course; CHEM 107; MATH 105, 106, 205, or 206; NRSC 160; NRSC/PHYS 117; or PHYS 107.

The natural sciences and computing have long been intertwined disciplines. This connection is deeply established although not always readily apparent: first, in that computing is a fundamentally physical process, something in and of nature and not merely abstract; second, in that the evolution of our universe according to the laws of physics is itself a kind of computation; and third, in that much of scientific progress now is wholly dependent on computing infrastructure. In this course students learn about the history of computing machines, and how this has culminated in our ubiquitous networked devices and the recent development of rudimentary quantum computers. Students read historical nonfiction on the history of computing, and explore new ideas in recent computing research. Computational work of their own as well as written work help students clarify and communicate their ideas on the subjects, including their own relationship to technology.

Animals respond to environmental change across multiple time domains, from acute responses to phenotypic plasticity to evolutionary adaptation. How do these diverse responses stack up against the rate and magnitude of anthropogenic climate change? This course evaluates evidence that animals are already responding to climate change and considers their capacity for future responses. Which species are likely to be successful, which species may not, and how confident are we in these predictions? Along the way, students discuss the implications of climate change for human health.

Revolution is a defining characteristic of Latin American politics and history. This course introduces students to writings about revolution and revolutionary movements in Latin America, from the Haitian revolution in 1791 through the Sandinista movement in the 1980s. By interpreting novels, poetry, essays, and documentary and fiction film, students gain a critical appreciation of the intricacies of revolutionary thought. The course fosters a critical appreciation of the points of contact between texts and sociohistorical contexts.

From the ubiquitous paper crane to hyperbolic surfaces to space telescopes, origami has exploded in the last fifty years. Origami continues to inspire artists who have moved well beyond birds into fantastically complex creations involving hundreds of folds. It has brought together scientists, mathematicians, artists, teachers, and engineers. In this course, students learn basic paper folding techniques to create simple origami designs. Then they use these designs to delve into the world of mathematics, from using origami to trisect an angle to exploring the Cut and Fold Theorem. Students also look at some of the folds that have led to applications in design and engineering. Students are encouraged to be creative, dream and imagine, and recognize that innovation arises out of questioning and exploration.

Why are some people willing to sacrifice to improve the well-being of strangers? How can we motivate others to engage in prosocial behavior? Is cooperation always a good thing? In this course, students engage in both the study and the practice of prosocial behavior through lectures, multidisciplinary reading selections, class discussion, service to others, and a range of assignments designed to explore different ways of knowing and communicating. Students examine prosocial behavior through research questions, methodologies, and findings from economics, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, environmental studies, and political science.

We all have a story. What motivates us? What excites us? Where do we come from? Where are we going? At what cost? In this course, students mine their individual experiences to develop power and precision in writing. They read and discuss examples of effective storytelling, with particular emphasis on identifying audience and intent. They analyze how different authors present personal stories and community concerns, as they refine composition techniques and grammar fundamentals to more effectively express their own. As critical thinking skills evolve, writing skills improve.

What is our Why? How does a sense of purpose relate to our work and studies, our wellbeing, and our plan for a meaningful life? How does the purpose of education relate to our sense of purpose as a student? This introduction to Purposeful Work at Bates centers on students’ exploration of their own purpose[fulness] as they begin their college career and the purpose(s) of education at selected moments in history. Students read and reflect on texts that are foundational to the philosophy of Purposeful Work at Bates, liberal education, and grading practices. They practice reflective writing to learn and argue their own views of purpose[fulness], college, grading, and work. In the practice of Purposeful Work at Bates, they explore the importance of alignment between values, interests, strengths, skills, identity, and their past, present, and future work.

This course examines the transformational impact of digital technologies on society. We will explore how the rise of digital technology disrupts traditional industries, how firms adapt, and how consumers interact with businesses and share information. Through readings, lectures, and discussions, students will critically analyze case studies, develop their own questions and arguments, and hone data analysis and evidence-based writing skills. Assessment will include presentations and writings in the forms of research reports, strategy memos, policy position papers, and academic research papers on a topic related to digitization and its impacts. The course aims to equip students to navigate the digital economy responsibly and purposefully.

How do sex hormones alter behavior? Does behavior influence hormones? To what extent to hormones determine and control who we are and what we do? This course will examine these issues by studying a variety of topics in the field of behavioral neuroendocrinology including: sexual determination and differentiation, sexuality, reproductive behavior, stress, and learning & memory. We will critically evaluate both human and animal research in each of these areas as well as discuss the clinical and societal implications of the findings. While the underlying neuroscientific perspective will be the focus of the course, we will also use an array of perspectives including queer and trans theory, cultural and critical studies, policy, etc, with the goal of fostering multidisciplinary approaches to understanding brain and sex hormone interactions.

At a time when some people are doubling down on gender segregation in sport, others are working to challenge the interconnected binaries that affect how people understand and practice sports: binaries like female/male, artistic/athletic, human/nonhuman, mind/muscle, and serious/fluffy. In this course, we will engage with analytic, creative, and activist approaches to binarism in sport. Using tools from queer and trans sports studies, with attention to matters such as race, sexuality, gender, ability, nationality, colonialism, and economic status, we will consider sporting activities ranging from figure skating to basketball and from recreational sports to the quest for international medals.

As time-based visual media, dance and film have an intertwined history. Both the Lumière brothers and Thomas Edison chose dance to illustrate their newly developed technology of motion pictures. Buster Keaton and the Nicholas Brothers used film and the athletic dancer to create new physical bodies, and Katherine Dunham’s dance anthropology relied on film as an archive, not to mention Michael Jackson and TikTok redefining dance on film and in entertainment! This course provides an introduction to the various forms of dance on screen, from the video recording and editing of dance, to the creation of dances made specifically for the screen and social media, and the larger implications this relationship has. It provides a brief overview of historic and cultural representations of the dancing body through image and media, and offers a context in which to explore cultural context and implications through the filmic dancing body.

The Middle Ages (c. 400–c. 1500) is often associated with disasters and the idea that famine, flood, plague, and other natural calamities stalked through the period. While such events were, in truth, the exception rather than the norm, this seminar introduces students to a range of natural disasters, from localized tornadoes to pandemics that devastated continents. We explore different types of written and visual sources that record natural disasters, focusing on close reading and analysis. Most importantly, we consider how medieval individuals and communities responded to forces beyond their control. Some turned to religious and supernatural relief, others visited their fear and anxieties on vulnerable groups, while others were inspired to create great works of art or institute effective disaster management policies. Throughout, students will experiment with writing in a variety of historical and contemporary genres.

What can suspense reveal about social orders and cultural norms across the world? This seminar explores thrillers from Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia as mirrors of class inequality, gendered power, political corruption, colonial legacies, and historical trauma. From haunted domestic spaces to postcolonial crossings, from state surveillance to class consciousness, we examine how filmmakers use tension and mystery to expose systems of power and moral complicity. Students learn to “read” film as a visual and cultural text through close analysis of image, sound, and narrative. As a Writing-Intensive [W1] course, Killer Thrillers emphasizes writing as discovery: through short analyses, group work, and revision, students develop critical vocabulary, interpretive precision, and confidence in crafting arguments about cinema and society. Recommended background: a love of cinema and suspense.

How do people come together to create—and to create change? This first-year seminar explores the politics and poetics of collaboration through movement, media, and performance. Drawing from discussion, reading, and dance practices such as ensemble improvisation, students investigate how collective artmaking can model coalition, resistance, and care. Alongside embodied and creative practices, we study the histories and contemporary movements of protest, direct action, and collective organizing—including social movements, performance art, mutual aid, and experimental collaboration. This course takes place in the classroom, dance studios, and the Immersive Media Studio (IMStudio), experimenting with movement, sound, and projection. The seminar culminates in an informal showing integrating movement, media, and design. Open to all first-year students. No prior dance or art-making experience required, but a willingness to move, collaborate, and take creative risks is essential.

In 2025, the NFL announced musician Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny, as that year’s Super Bowl Halftime Performer. A vocal minority criticized Bad Bunny as not an “American” and claimed he was not a US citizen. Earlier that year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) detained Kilmar Ábrego García and illegally rendered him to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, and claimed he was a dangerous gang member. Building on the events of 2025, this course interrogates how Latinx communities have been criminalized, surveilled, and stereotyped across US history and juxtaposes it with lived experiences through music as forms of resistance and identity creation. Focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, students will examine how media, music, state violence, and myth have shaped perceptions of Latinidad, and what it means to be Latinx through popular culture today, and ultimately ask who gets labeled a “bad hombre,” and why?

Who lives in that creepy house on the hill? What is the story behind that abandoned mansion? What happened to the people who used to live here? All houses have stories – of major political and social movements, of quiet and meaningful lives, and of everything in between. Together, we will use historical methods, data analytics, and interviews with our Lewiston neighbors to explore these stories. Along the way, we will learn to empathize with the past in order to better understand our own experiences in the present.

China has been looking to the stars for thousands of years. Now the science fiction world is looking to China. Chinese writers have recently won international science fiction awards, and a consistent flow of science fiction stories and novel translations into English has followed. This course considers stories and films that represent major periods in the history of Chinese science fiction with a strong focus on the 21st century. What is “Chinese” about science fiction from China? How does popular fiction reflect the history and politics of a nation? And on the other hand, how can pop culture appeal and "mean differently" to international audiences? How "universal" is any literature, and what role does translation play in the process?

Humans are surrounded by complex and interconnected systems, visible and invisible, created intentionally and emerging incidentally as byproducts of the ways we think, organize, and construct our societies. These systems include governments, schools, economies, organizations, built infrastructure, the natural world, and more. In this seminar, students will explore Systems Thinking, a critical approach that can help us to understand systems and the vexing challenges they pose. Students will apply concepts like feedback loops, networks, holism, emergence, and the influence of mental models by deconstructing and analyzing historical and contemporary board games. Through play and critical analysis of game systems, students will build a foundation in Systems Thinking approaches, which they will then apply to real-world systems, asking and answering the questions: How do systems arise? Who do they benefit? How do they become entrenched? And how can we fix them?

Psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes. In this course, students will examine the role of context in behavior and mental processes. In this course, context refers to variables that have impacts on mental processes and behavior, even if the people being influenced are unaware of the impact of those variables. Specific examples of contextual influences include the angle of a police interrogation camera on perceptions of guilt, the impact of the timing of a request on compliance, and the power of reciprocity in influencing behavior. Psychology offers tools for studying these questions and provides empirically derived solutions for reducing unjust outcomes that certain patterns of human decision-making produce.

What did life look like for young people in communist Eastern Europe? How did their lives change when communist regimes collapsed? What kinds of hopes and fears were young people expressing through all of these changes? This course explores youth culture in Eastern Europe from the early twentieth century to the present. Working with primary documents, students examine the ways youth use their voices to engage with political and social pressures and changes through revolutions, dictatorships, wars, and regime changes. Students build their understanding of how writing and other forms of expression serve as tools to understand, navigate, and disrupt challenging political and social environments. In response, students develop skills in using their own voices to critically engage with sources ranging from state-sponsored ideology to personal narratives.

Philosophical ideas and scientific experiments in the nineteenth century intrude into the literary imagination of Gothic fiction and its newly emerging theme of the double. These narratives challenge and test the integrity of identity; they deny or question the positing of a singular self, often destabilizing gender, consciousness, certainty, and even mental health. This seminar begins by examining the haunting textual and cinematic worlds of Hoffmann, Poe, Wilde, Dostoevsky, Conrad, Larsen, Borges, Hitchcock (Vertigo), Kurosawa (Kagemusha), Lynch (Mulholland Drive), Cronenberg (Dead Ringers), and Wachowski (The Matrix). It then ponders the brain as understood by psychiatric theories about the double, which may cause terrifying split identities, and Putnam’s analytical thought experiment that imagines a twin Earth where meanings are external and not in the head. The seminar traces how the Gothic double, which originated in literature to express repressed impulses, evolves into modern understandings of fractured, simulated, or externalized selves.

This course examines the public discourse around addiction and recovery. Drawing from a wide variety of political and popular culture texts (song lyrics, television shows, news reporting, non-fiction, and obituaries), this course uses an intersectional approach to examine the way substance use is described and depicted, who/what is blamed, and how recovery is defined. The course culminates in a public facing or community engaged project where students intervene in contemporary discourses about substance use and recovery.

Food and food systems are at the center of some of today’s most important climate, land, and social justice struggles. In this course, students will gain a basic knowledge of major ideas and struggles defining food justice movements—locally, nationally, and internationally—through the discussion of film, case studies, field trips to local food and land justice centers, and working with local food and land justice advocates in the Lewiston/Auburn community. As a first-year seminar, this course introduces students to college-level reading, writing, and research skills, as well as community-engaged learning in the Lewiston/Auburn community. As a community-engaged-learning (CEL) course, students will be required to work for at least two additional hours a week with community partners, and can expect to engage in hands-on work in local community gardens, food pantries, and/or farmers’ markets. Students may not earn credit for this course and ENVR S24.

Muhammad Ali in New York. James Baldwin in Paris. Josephine Baker in Berlin. This course explores how iconic Black American athletes, writers, and performers have shaped cultures, challenged norms, and inspired audiences at home and abroad. Students will study letters, diaries, speeches, performances, and films—from the 20th century to the present—to see how these figures used their talents and public presence to drive diasporic social change. Through hands-on exercises, creative projects, and small-group discussions, students will examine how these trailblazers engaged societies and pushed boundaries, and in doing so, will develop their own skills in communication, critical thinking, and leadership. This course combines history and migration with opportunities to build cross-cultural awareness and public engagement.