Course Number:  INQR 1180

Descriptions: Listening to each other, ourselves, and our surroundings can be a transformative experience that enhances well-being. In this course, a heightened awareness to sound will be developed through experiential exercises, creative projects, collaborations, readings, lectures, and discussion. The course introduces “Deep Listening,” a practice developed by pioneer composer and humanitarian Pauline Oliveros to enhance and expand listening abilities and to encourage creative work. 

Associated Pathways: 

• Extent & Limits of Rationality
• Ethics, Integrity, and Social Practice
• Music and Sound
• Well-being: Body & Mind
• Video, Performance & Social Practice
• Visual and Media Arts

Course Number:  INQR 1030

Description: Television is considered a defining social, political and cultural feature of consumer culture. Television is morphing into something more expansive and diverse. In this course, we will study the impact of television and learn to make it. Through hands-on experience, students produce and direct their own multi-camera projects. Students work on technical and creative aspects of production. Students learn to operate studio gear including green screen, live switcher, cameras, audio, teleprompter, lights, etc.

Associated Pathways:

• Electronic Arts
• Media & Culture
• Video, Performance, and Social Practice
• Visual and Media Arts

Course Number: INQR 196x

Description: The history of epidemics illustrates quite dramatically the effect social forces have in the distribution of medical risk. The disproportionate and continuing rise in rates of HIV infection among African Americans, gay men, women, and adolescents, as well as the persistent stigma of HIV, and the devastating impact of the epidemic on the Global South have made the social dimensions of this disease more apparent. Likewise, those who are exposed to structural violence and debilitated due to their race, class, and ethnic background, such as homeless people, native populations, African-Americans, and immigrants suffered not only higher numbers of Coronavirus infection but also more severe syndromes of COVID-19 and higher numbers of death. In this course, you will examine the HIV/AIDS, Covid-19, MPox, and other pandemics and epidemics from a sociological and anthropological perspective. You will study the multiple ways in which the conditions of health and illness are determined by the categories of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, citizenship, immigration etc. In other words, you will learn how the effects of pandemics and epidemics follow the societal fault lines created by structural inequalities and violence.

Are epidemics and pandemics bio-medical or socio-political phenomena? Which countries and communities bear the burden of diseases and why? What role does neoliberal capitalism have in the emergence of epidemics and pandemics? What conditions put vulnerable communities at risk of communicable infections? These are some of the questions you will address throughout this course. By the end of this course, you will be able to discuss the historical, political, economic, social, cultural, and biological factors that contribute to public health outbreaks across the globe. In addition, you will learn about the interdisciplinary fields of social epidemiology and social public health, as well as how they define vulnerability and risk contextually. 

Associated pathways: 

• Public Health
• STS
• Ethics, Integrity, and Social Responsibility

Course Number:  INQR 1610

Description: The first design studio in the Design, Innovation, and Society studio series introduces DIS majors to general design through a series of short projects. We learn the basic steps of design processes, from problem definition to concept ideation and selection, to quick low-resolution prototyping. The projects stress creative thinking and critical analysis, partnered with close discussions of how design and society intersect. This is a communication-intensive course.

Associated Pathways:

• Design, Innovation & Society
• Science, Technology, and Society Pathway

Course Number: INQR 1060

Description: In First Year Studio, students engage in collaborative, interdisciplinary, practice-based art projects that help to define the connection between research, discussion, critiques, ideation, and making in the visual arts. This introductory seminar exposes students to the purposes and methodologies of a studio practice, and to the social, cultural, environmental, and economic issues addressed throughout the historical trajectory of art-making.  Recommended for first-year Electronic Arts majors and students considering an Electronic Arts dual major or minor.

Associated Pathways: 

• None. 

Course Number:  INQR 1562

Description: Color is used every day to help us decode information, inform communications, influence our buying decisions, distinguish scientific properties, and impact our emotions and health. In this course, we’ll study the impact of color and learn how to use it effectively. Through a series of creative hands-on graphic design projects, we will investigate color memory, relativity, and subjectivity, communicating with color, physiological and psychological responses to color, and color across cultures.

Associated Pathways: (depending on your Catalog year)

• Creative Design & Innovation
• Graphic Design

Course Number: INQR 1560

Description: A survey of the historical origins and cultural impact of several mass media, including television, film, radio, the Internet, and print media.

The course aims to increase media literacy through analysis of specific media products, as well as discussion of broad topics such as: advertising and commercialization; politics and censorship; gender, race, and social identity.

Associated Pathways:

• Fact and Fiction
• Gender, Race, Sexuality, Ethnicity, and Social Change
• Graphic Design
• Interactive Media/Data Design
• Strategic Communication
• Media and Culture
• Well-Being: Body and Mind

Course Number:  INQR 1140

Descrption: This course is an introduction to the philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Students meet in small sections to have class discussions and debates about questions like: What are minds? Are minds physical or non-physical? Do humans have free will? Does reliance on technology turn humans into cyborgs? How close are humans to building an intelligent robot or machine? Do we want this to be a goal? Students will learn how make a philosophical argument, and how to express them in writing or through an oral presentation.

Associated Pathways:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Cognitive Science
• Ethics, Integrity, and Social Responsibility
• Extent & Limits of Rationality
• Living in a World of Data
• Logical Thinking; Mind, Brain & Intelligence
• Philosophy and Logic
• Psychological Science
• Well-being: Body & Mind

Course Number:  INQR 1110

Note: This course is limited to first-year students enrolled in the Vasudha Living and Learning Community

Description: This course focuses on the social and ecological aspects of humans in the natural world. It emphasizes critical thinking about where humans come from and where they are going as a species. The course draws on historical perspectives and addresses contemporary issues such as climate change, national energy resources, and the local foods movement. The course includes readings as well as student projects, field trips, guest lectures, and “ethnographic” assignments about this consumer society.

Associated Pathways: 

• Environmental Futures
• Public Health
• Science, Technology, and Society
• Sustainability
• Sustainability Studies
• Well-being: Body & Mind

Course Number: INQR 1964

Description: This is a contemporary culture course focusing on current political and social issues and their representation in the news media in the United States (which will be set within a historical and global framework) and in contemporary culture, such as films, exhibitions, and works of art.

Associated Pathways: 

• Fact & Fiction
• Media & Culture
• Video Performance and Social Practice

Course Number: INQR 1200

Note: The transfer course ECON 1200 does not satisfy the HASS Inquiry (HI) requirement, as HI-designated courses cannot be transferred to RPI.

Description: Economics is the study of our choices. Traditionally, these choices have been framed as how to best employ scarce resources to produce goods and services and distribute them for consumption. To describe these choices, we will introduce you to the concepts of opportunity cost, demand and supply theory, and market structures and consider the role of government in making resource allocation choices.

A foremost objective will be to identify and evaluate multiple diverse perspectives on contemporary and complex global issues and address their implications for social equity and welfare. We strive to take a critical look at these perspectives while practicing and applying the subject matter of economics.

Associated Pathways: 

• Economics
• Economics of Banking and Finance
• Economics of Decision-Making
• Economics of Healthcare Markets
• Economics of Policy and Regulations
• Economics of Quantitative Modeling
• Economics of Technology and Innovation

Course Number:  INQR 1300

Descriptions: This course will investigate the emergence and transformations of the concept of race in the history and culture of the United States by analyzing films. Hollywood classics will be featured, and will also be contrasted with documentary and independent films. The course will focus on social and political contexts, as well as the film’s critical reception and film form.

Associated Pathways: 

• Art History
• Fact & Fiction
• Gender, Race, Ethnicity & Social Change
• History
• Theory & Criticism
• Video, Performance & Social Practice
• Visual and Media Arts 

Course Number: INQR 1580

Description: This course compares and contrasts various revolutions and revolutionary movements throughout history. The revolutions we will discuss range in nature from political and military revolutions, to technological revolutions, to cultural and intellectual revolutions. The core goals of the course include understanding what defines a revolution, why revolutions start, which factors shape their course and how they end (or fail to end, as the case may be).

Associated Pathways:

• History

Course Number:  INQR 1100
Previously INQR 1110

Description: An introduction to the social, historical, and ethical influences on modern science and technology. Cases include development of the atomic bomb, mechanization of the workplace, Apollo space program, and others. Readings are drawn from history, fiction, and social sciences; films and documentary videos highlight questions about the application of scientific knowledge to human affairs. The class is designed to give students freedom to develop and express their own ideas. This is a communication-intensive course.

Associated Pathways:

• Ethics, Integrity & Social Responsibility
• Extent and Limits of Rationality
• Information Technology and Web Sciences
• Law & Policy
• Public Health
• Science, Technology & Society
• Sustainability
• Sustainability Studies
• Thinking with Science

Course Number: INQR 1700

Description: A communication-intensive course designed for students to develop their own voice as a songwriter. The course surveys the methods of successful songwriters, highlighting aspects of melody, lyrics, harmonic progression, story-telling, audience, and social context. Students develop a portfolio of their own original songs and lyrics, presented weekly and performed in a studio or live setting at the end of the term.

Associated Pathways: 

• Art History, Theory & Criticism
• Creative Design & Innovation
• Music & Culture
• Music & Sound
• Music Composition & Production
• Well-being: Body & Mind

Course Number:  INQR 1240

Description: Students in this course participate in a series of class debates, presenting and cross-examining the arguments of those who have a stake in various environmental controversies (about energy, toxic chemicals, consumption, etc.). Students also work in groups to design a proposal for a project to help solve an environmental problem. Throughout the course, students are encouraged to develop their own environmental values and ideas. This is a communication-intensive course.

Associated Pathways: 

• Environmental Futures
• Public Health
• Science, Technology, and Society
• Sustainability
• Sustainability Studies

Course Number: INQR 1175

Description: How do people maintain a sense of well-being in their lives? Each person’s path to well-being in body and mind is unique—arising from an awareness of our needs, goals and what each finds fulfilling. The theme of curiosity will be used to explore what makes people tick, what makes them feel balanced, stressed, or calm. This interdisciplinary course uses practice-based learning, in-class writing, lectures, creative play, and reading.

Associated Pathways:

• Thinking with Science
• Well-being: Body & Mind