Sustainability Courses

This seminar is a focused study of a prominent question of social concern (inequality, representation, provision of healthcare, environmental degradation) and how society has responded to this concern. The topic as well as the perspective of this class will vary with and reflect the disciplinary background of the faculty member leading the course. Analysis of the particular social issue will be both theoretical and empirical. The explicit aim of this course is to envision a policy response that ...

Read more about HONR-2580 : Crafting Social Policy

This course examines the ways that social constructions such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability, among others, contribute to minoritization and social inequalities. It introduces students to major theories of structural exclusion and applies these theories to specific examples drawn from students' everyday lives and contemporary culture.

Read more about HUMT-1315 : Difference Power Change

Read more about HUMT-1325 : Introduction to Peace and Justice

This course introduces students to the theory and practice of Ignatian discernment and of community engagement. Through 18 hours of involvement with a community partner, students will analyze models of community engagement and the ways the community partner addresses a social issue. This course is the third in a series and will provide an opportunity to apply concepts from previous courses including (a) power and privilege in community engagement and (b) examples of social justice within communi...

Read more about HUMT-1330 : Introduction to Discernment and Community Engagement

Who decides where students go to school? How and where have the benefits of American education been distributed and why? How has the past shaped the present? The story of American public education is, among other things, a story about place: you can't talk about schools without talking about neighborhoods, and you can't talk about neighborhoods without talking about schools. In this class, we will begin to contextualize your work in local schools by looking at the history of Seattle and Seattle ...

Read more about HUMT-1460 : Teaching in the City

If the land beneath Seattle University could speak, what would it tell us? What account would it offer of its first inhabitants and their legacies? This course introduces students to the culture, art, stories, and experiences of the Indigenous Peoples living in the areas now known as Oregon, Washington, Montana, British Columbia, and Alaska. It reveals excluded stories and brings students into contact with present-day representatives of these cultures. It seeks both to cultivate a more careful a...

Read more about HUMT-1830 : Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Northwest

Is religion a force for peace or violence? Is religion a pretext used to justify political agendas? Is some violence uniquely religious? Is peace possible without the sacred? How can believers find justification in the same tradition for both peace and violence? This course considers these questions in a variety of contexts and eras. It assumes no prior background with religion and introduces students to concepts important for the study of conflict and peace. By examining material that has influ...

Read more about HUMT-1860 : Religion, Conflict, and Peace

Does natural science occupy a privileged position when it addresses perennial questions about human nature? Are religious beliefs compatible with a scientific worldview? What are social identities and in what sense can we describe gender and race as social constructs? How do social identities inform our understanding of the world? Given all that we know about the way that our lives are shaped by biology and culture, can we still describe human beings as free? The aim of this course is to introdu...

Read more about HUMT-2000 : Philosophy of Human Person and Social Identity

Are some wars morally justifiable? How should states respond to terrorism? How should governments respond to social injustice within their own borders? Do states owe reparations or compensation to the descendants of victims of state-sponsored violence and discrimination? This course begins by examining the principal theories of contemporary ethics (consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics), a debate over moral and cultural relativism, and three competing views on the nature of justice in ...

Read more about HUMT-2010 : Ethics for Peace and Justice

The world is experiencing historically unprecedented levels of economic inequality. This course discusses the meaning and measurement of economic inequality, providing you a historical and cross-national perspective on current levels of inequality. It uses macroeconomic concepts to measure and explain economic inequality across nations. It then turns to microeconomic theory, using it as a framework for the exploration of competing explanations of economic inequality within nations. The course ev...

Read more about HUMT-2110 : Economics of Wealth and Inequality