Spring 2027 | HASS Inquiry Course Descriptions and Associated Pathways
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
Course Number: GSAS 1600
Description: This course surveys 5000 years of game history, from ancient Sumer/Sumerian to the latest next-generation consoles and MMOGs. In parallel with this historical tour, several major theories will be examined about the nature of play and the nature of games. Along the way, it will also look at how games and play influence the cultures they are found in, and how culture in turn influences how people structure their leisure time will also be considered.
Attributes: Communication Intensive, HASS Inquiry
Associated Pathways:
- Game Studies
IT & Society | INQR 1220
This course investigates the relationship between Information Technology (IT) and the individuals and groups who use it – which is to say, virtually everyone. The course has two main goals. First, it seeks to define and explain core concepts in the field of IT in a fashion that is not overly technical. Second, it examines the historical, social, cultural, political and economic factors that have helped to shape, and have been shaped by, the dimensions of IT that we will study.
Attributes: Communication Intensive, HASS Inquiry
Associated Pathways:
- Information Technology and Web Sciences
- Science, Technology, and Society
Course Number: INQR 1492
Description: Language is one of the most powerful forces in the human experience and shapes the production of social identities and cultural assumptions about the world. This course examines the role that language plays in articulating, maintaining, and subverting power relations in society. Topics include language ideology, politics, gender, race/ethnicity, linguistic engineering, language death and revitalization, and disinformation.
Attributes: HASS Inquiry
Associated Pathways:
- Global Languages
- Media & Culture
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.
Attributes: Communication Intensive, HASS Inquiry
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
Please note: the course list for Spring 2027 is subject to change.