Student Seminars & Essays
Find your seminar below!
Please Note: You will be assigned one of these seminars and will be asked to read preparatory materials before attending. Be sure to follow the timeline for seminar placements and only attend the seminar to which you are assigned.
Seminar assignments and required readings are available below.
Dr. Cassandra Copeland, Economics
Trade flows, capital flows, people flows, and price convergence across economies have developed rapidly from the 1950s but particularly since the early 1970s. While globalization has been a driving force in business and economics for more than 70 years, there were signs that it was slowing even prior to 2020. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, how will the global health crisis reshape world trade and economic globalization? What other forces, like current global conflicts, are acting to slow globalization? Most importantly, can we say whether this emerging trend is likely to have positive or negative impacts on our world?
Dr. Brian Patterson, Mathematics and Computer Science
In Johann Hari’s new book, Stolen Focus, he discusses how social media applications are designed to attract our attention without any concern for longer term effects. With a philosophy of “move fast and break things,” these apps have been successful in making billions of dollars while charging the user no money to use. So what is the cost to users if it is not money? Our readings will discuss some specific strategies these apps use to get our attention and possible solutions to the issue of stolen focus.
Pete Stobie, Chief Financial Officer
Innovation is a key component to an institution’s success. Creative thinking is a key component to innovation. Without innovation, businesses can struggle to stay relevant, for example, Blockbuster, Eastman Kodak, and Borders Books. Leonardo da Vinci, best known as a painter, had a major impact in architecture, science, music, math, engineering, and was ultimately a master of innovation. Using some of the principals of da Vinci, this seminar will explore ways to become a creative thinker specifically as it relates to innovation and business.
Dr. Meredith Raimondo, Sociology
If bacteria and viruses do not discriminate, why are there so many inequalities related to health in the United States? We will explore several historical and contemporary case studies, from yellow fever to HIV/AIDS, to understand how health has become a major site of inequality and what can be done to create greater health justice. Through these examples, we will explore the relationship between the promise of health as a human right and a robust and thriving democracy.
Eli Arnold ’06, University Librarian
Within the past few years, there has been a growing focus on uncovering hard truths about our nation–especially when it comes to its history and how we remember. In this seminar, we will discuss times when we learned that history as told to us wasn’t necessarily accurate or the whole story. When did you realize that you weren’t told the complete truth about a situation? What harm is done when history is changed? Who benefits? How do we agree on what historical truth is? While our discussion will begin with Yamacraw leader Tomochichi and the narratives around his relationship with General James Edward Oglethorpe in the early Georgia colony, we will also put this discussion in conversation with other local, national, and personal histories. This conversation will go beyond getting certain facts straight and move toward discussions about bias, unheard voices, and how history is told and remembered.
Dr. Lejla Marijam, Core Studies
We will look at different iterations of this classic fairy tale to discuss how shifting sociocultural paradigms change the take-away. We will touch on the issues of gender and morality, and will discuss the role of fairy tales in modern life.
Dr. Nick Maher, History
In this session we will look at how the Roosevelt administration adopted Mexico’s approach to Nation Building through public art, particularly Murals painted on public buildings.
Lance Wallace, Vice President for Marketing & Communications
Gone are the days when brands relied on a single approach to conveying their value proposition to their target markets. In the business world where marketing decisions begin and end with digital strategy, its vitally important to understand the core concepts of “marketing” and “communications” and how integrating them unleashes the power of story in the marketplace. This interactive session will appeal to both business majors and communications majors as it challenges them to draw on both sets of skills to tell a brand story and convert sales.
Dr. Christine McCulloch, English and Core Studies
This seminar will offer a multimedia exploration of Nikki Giovanni’s poem, “On Hearing the Girl With the Flaxen Hair” (1996) and French composer Claude Debussy’s piano Prélude “La fille aux cheveux de lin” (1909) which, in turn, was inspired by Leconte de Lisle’s similarly–and progeneratively–named poem, “La fille aux cheveux de lin” (1859). In all its forms, the flaxen image poses questions to the audience regarding silenced women and the men that speak for them, privilege and privation, sexuality and frustration, disaffection and affection. Our discussion of these works, while underpinned by metrical analysis, compositional analysis and memetic synthesis, won’t require participants to speak French or play music, but only to have an interest in or appreciation of both.
Dr. Jeffrey Collins, Art History & Anthropology
This seminar will discuss the meaning of the 21st century as a transitional period in human civilization. Students will discuss topics such as new energy sources, AI, the genomic revolution, space exploration, nanotechnology, fusion of humans and machines, singularity, and transhumanism. The reading will assume basic scientific literacy but no level of expertise in these fields, and an anthropological interest in such questions as: What is a human, really? Where do we wish to go? What will be our future values? How do we move beyond our present problems? Who will benefit from what technologies?
Dr. Emily Bailey, Psychology
How has societal change contributed to the increase in mental illness over the years? In what way does the current culture impact children, teenagers, and adults’ ability to develop resilience? How do we strike a balance between being supportive in therapeutic settings and fostering resilience and antifragility in the face of challenges? In this seminar, we will explore the idea that adversity can benefit us. We will investigate how reframing challenges as chances to evolve can transform us and be a catalyst for strength and self-improvement. In doing so, we will examine implications of exposure therapy in relation to promotion of resiliency, antifragility, and ultimately effective management of negative emotions, with an emphasis on anxiety.
Dr. Karen Schmeichel, Biology
The term “Public Health” immediately evokes thoughts of infectious outbreaks of COVID, Smallpox, Ebola, HIV, tuberculosis and other infectious agents that can yield rampant global morbidity and mortality. But what about the ill-health effects of gun violence? Aren’t they a part of this equation as well? In this seminar, we will focus on emerging discussions about how the science of infectious disease prevention, epitomized by the recent Covid pandemic is being used to address our country’s policy on gun violence.
Instructions:
Watch the video and read the three short readings below:
Watch: How the public health approach can solve gun violence | Megan Ranney | TEDxProvidence
Dr. Hunter Jonakin, Assistant Art Professor
Exploring how images and words can construct or distort meaning, highlighting the gap between what we see and how we interpret it. How do cultural norms and ideologies influence our interpretation of art and visual culture?
Professor Christina Price Washington, Studio Art & Photography
This seminar will consider Art in The Space of The Internet. A new adaptation of John Berger’s 1972 Ways of Seeing represents aesthetically diverse interpretations of Berger’s ideas on looking at art after the introduction of digital media and the internet.
In addition to reading Chapter 1 of Ways of Seeing by John Berger, please watch the first episode of the BBC drama Ways of Seeing based on the book.
Dr. Courtney Mullis, Director of the Writing Center and Assistant Professor of English
Through a discussion of Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s acclaimed TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” students will explore what it means to engage with multiple stories about culture, identity, and difference. Our discussion will consider how stereotypes and other common narratives influence communication, listening, and cross-cultural understanding. Additionally, we will reconsider common narratives about who university students are and explore new ways of thinking about the diverse, multifaceted individuals who pursue higher education in the United States. Activities will include written reflection, small group conversations, and large group discussions about how students can apply their learning to their personal and academic lives as incoming university students.
Dr. Roarke Donnelly, Environmental Studies & Biology
Invasive species have contributed to many extinctions and are among the most common threat to extant species in developed countries. Yet, debate continues over whether and how we should control invasive species and past control efforts have had mixed success. In this seminar, we will use the Hawaiian Islands and—to a lesser extent—the forest on Oglethorpe’s campus as platforms from which to examine the aforementioned debate, learn from past control efforts, and inspire a new generation of professionals to protect and restore that which evolved in paradise and beyond.
Professor Elizabeth H. Peterson Jennings, Museum Director, OUMA, Adjunct Professor, HSB and Core Program
Art in public spaces is meant to serve the purpose of memorializing or honoring people and events which shaped a community. Its placement is often in a public park or town square which is open to all. Because of this centrality, free access, and placement at the heart of a community, public art becomes a very powerful and constant reminder of the people and events that it memorializes or those whose histories are untold depending upon a viewer’s perspective. It may tell an incomplete story or serve as a painful reminder for some. Should these monuments remain and be recontextualized? Should they be removed or destroyed?
Dr. Stephen H. Craft, Dean and Professor Hammack School of Business
Common stock, preferred stock, ETF’s, derivatives, longs, shorts, bulls and bears – demystifying equity market investing. Nearly everyone has a stake in the stock market but many people have a limited understanding of how it works. This seminar will help participants be smarter investors and more savvy consumers of financial news.