Course Number: INQR 1040

Description: Documentary in the 21st Century: Identity Production is a production course investigating the course of documentary history leading to a focus on digital media representations today. This course will incorporate critical thinking with production.  With focus on aesthetic and formal considerations, students will be asked to produce a series of multimedia projects investigating their vision of themselves in the world.

Associated Pathways: 

• Creative Design & Innovation
• Electronic Arts
• Environmental Futures
• Fact & Fiction
• Media & Culture
• Video, Performance, and Social Practice
• Visual and Media Arts

Great Ideas in Philosophy | INQR 1165

Description: This course invites you into the world of philosophical ideas and reasoning -- to join a great conversation that has unfolded since Socrates exhorted people to lead an examined life 2,400 years ago in Ancient Greece. We will explore such issues as whether some ways of acting and living are morally better than others, the relationship that exists between mind and body, and whether philosophy has anything to contribute to ongoing discussions about the existence and nature of God. This course will include both frequent discussion and written assignments, and will aim to help you develop your skills in each of these modes of communication. This course is communication intensive.

Associated Pathways: 
Philosophy and Logic 
Ethics, Integrity, and Social Responsibility 

Communication Intensive

Media and Society | 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

Communication Intensive

Philosophy, Technology, & the Human Future | INQR 1130

Description: This course explores the philosophical and ethical implications of technological developments that promise to shape ‒ and perhaps to jeopardize ‒ human life and society in the 21st Century: Artificial Intelligence. Robots as social companions.  Robots in military and medical settings. Cloning. Genetic modification and technological implants for superhuman abilities. Students will improve their insight as well as their critical reasoning skills as we examine, analyze, and evaluate such controversial topics through the lens of philosophical reasoning. Throughout the course we will ask what sort of beings do we want to be and what sort of society do we want to have. 

Associated Pathways:
Ethics, Integrity, and Social Responsibility 
Extent and Limits of Rationality 
Philosophy and Logic 

Communication Intensive

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 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