Courses

Wild things happen when we place one foot in front of the other. Strangers meet, kingdoms fall, and lives are changed. The history of humankind is a history of wanderlust, that particularly human propensity to wonder what’s on the other side of the horizon and determine to find out, come what may. It’s the basic stuff of everything from Biblical adventures to horror movies. In this course we will consider the world-changing power of the simple act of walking, of hopping on a bike, taking a road trip, or traversing a border. We will follow the footpaths of epic heroes, medieval pilgrims, and shipwrecked conquistadors, and march in metaphorical step with political revolutionaries, bereft mothers, and desperate immigrants. We will read, we will write, and, yes, we too will walk. And we will reflect on the art and the politics of those walks, on the apparently endless capacity of human movement across space to change lives and change the world. Building on weekly communication exercises (writing, speaking, etc.), this “workshop” seminar will culminate in a significant project in wandering via writing and/or media.

Anime is a great resource to introduce the Japanese people's way of living, cultural products, customs, and perspectives. Students will learn the Japanese culture and expand their knowledge about Japanese society, for instance, education system, business culture, family values, food culture, communication style, history, geography, mythology, that are depicted in their favorite Anime. In the first half of the semester, students engage in cross-cultural analysis, group discussion, and reflection to expand their knowledge about Japanese culture. In the second half of the semester, students work collaboratively with a group to host a series of Anime movie nights to showcase their knowledge to the UTSA audience and develop their digital literacy.

Recently, the movie Parasite won 5 Academy Awards including Best Film as well as, the Palme D’Or, which is the highest film award in the Cannes film festival. Also, Squid Game was the number one series on Netflix for several weeks, covering the topic of social issues in Korea. Korea’s film and TV series industry has been thriving, and through this, students can learn Korean culture depicted from Korean films and TV series. They can be a great tool to understand a country’s culture and the people’s lives including their outfits, language, food, relationship, architectures, social issues, politics, and so on. This course is designed to strengthen students’ understanding and knowledge of Korea, Koreans, and Korean culture through Korean films. Specifically, students will learn and understand Korean culture through group projects, engaging activities such as cooking Korean cuisine together, immersing themselves in culture through authentic Korean architecture and traditional Korean instruments, and having in-class group discussions.

Have you ever thought how many situations in real life have to do with language? From chatting with friends to writing legal documents, from learning to say our first word as babies to improving voice recognition technology for a tech company, from diagnosing a patient during a visit to the doctor’s to examining linguistic evidence while solving crime, the list is endless... A lot of what people do in their private and professional lives has to do with language. Addressing language-related problems/issues in the real world is a complex and dynamic task that requires not only knowledge about what language is and how it works, but also the use of interdisciplinary knowledge and resources. This course will introduce students to the study of language and will explore language problems that arise in different areas of society, including professional and institutional settings where students currently participate or will take part in one day through the exercise of their profession. The course will end with a project where students will be able to investigate a language-related problem of their interest, explore what the latest research says in relation to that problem, and come up with possible ways of addressing it.

Reforesting Ideas departs from the consideration of plants as compelling living beings to open-up philosophical explorations. We will tackle the work of contemporary thinkers who are trying to foreground the importance of plants in the sustenance of our planet. In an age of rapid environmental degradation and the loss of natural environments, the readings, materials, and explorations of this class seek to reframe long standing understandings of plants as passive and silent beings. Together, we will try to reimagine our entanglements with the vegetal world and the cultural approach to our green co-habitants. The class will integrate contemporary theoretical readings on Plant Studies with digital resources from various libraries and collections, rare and unique materials from the UTSA Library special collections, and other primary and secondary literary and visual sources to engage in interactive vegetal explorations.

What’s real science? How do you know it when you read it? How can we identify when someone is misusing the language of science? This course focuses on the rhetoric of science and pseudoscience in the United States. Students will explore how the purveyors of pseudoscience consciously and unconsciously employ the power of rhetoric to make their pseudoscience sound scientific. During the course, students learn how research is translated to different audiences through writing.

In today’s argument culture, rife with partisan sound bites, how do we make our own voices heard? How can we move beyond “us-versus-them” language and build real common ground? This persuasive writing course invites you to research social and environmental issues (think climate change, environmental injustice, zoonotic disease, and others) through a rhetorical lens. It asks you to take a position on the issues you care about, and to consider how your audience’s values and beliefs—as well as your own—shape your stance. Perhaps most importantly, it calls you to consider how the best arguments involve both persuasion and truth-seeking. You will compose both written and oral arguments in the course, including an op-ed/commentary, a TED talk-style video presentation, and two researched academic essays. Prerequisite: WRC 1013.

In today’s argument culture, rife with partisan sound bites, how do we make our own voices heard? How can we move beyond “us-versus-them” language and build real common ground? This persuasive writing course invites you to research social and environmental issues (think climate change, environmental injustice, zoonotic disease, and others) through a rhetorical lens. It asks you to take a position on the issues you care about, and to consider how your audience’s values and beliefs—as well as your own—shape your stance. Perhaps most importantly, it calls you to consider how the best arguments involve both persuasion and truth-seeking. You will compose both written and oral arguments in the course, including an op-ed/commentary, a TED talk-style video presentation, and two researched academic essays. Prerequisite: WRC 1013.

The ads we see every day have powerful suggestive properties, and it’s important as consumers to know what it is advertisers know about us, or what think they know about us, as they build a strategy toward selling us their products. Freshman Composition II focuses on rhetoric and persuasion in a classical sense, but this section emphasizes the rhetoric of advertising. This course also seeks to sharpen public speaking skills and helps students build the production quality of video presentations to make them more dynamic and thought-provoking.

The lived experience of all people is shaped by power in various forms and in different ways. Through books, articles, documentaries, music, and internet resources; this course critically examines the impact of power on American society as a whole and us as individuals. Using an array of disciplinary approaches, students will explore how formal institutions of power, such as law enforcement and the courts; and informal institutions of power, such as social and cultural norms, impact people differently. Students will conclude the course by developing an online museum exhibit that explores the history and impact of those institutions on society.

In the The Second Sex (1949), renowned philosopher Simone de Beauvoir boldly states, “If I want to define myself, I first have to say, ‘I am a woman’; all other assertions will arise from this basic truth.” Despite impressive advances, de Beauvoir’s words hold true today. Data shows that gender has a profound impact on how leaders are perceived, evaluated, and heard. In this course, we will examine the relationship between leadership and gender from the national and international perspective to understand why American women continue to make less and hold fewer leadership positions than their male colleagues. We will evaluate the gains that have been made, identify what needs to change, and discover how we can focus our individual and collective efforts to realize that change. In addition to providing students with the theoretical frameworks and vocabulary to productively engage key themes related to gender and leadership, each session includes a hands-on workshop in which students will learn practical leadership skills to advance their personal goals. If this sounds like a course that is only for women, think again. This course is essential for students of all gender expressions to learn the historical and cultural context of modern American ideas of leadership and reflect on the ever-evolving relationship between gender and leadership.

Mapping allows for social and environmental issues to be better understood, and for better solutions to be proposed. This is especially true when the mapping is interactive and on-line, so that stakeholders (which in some cases may be every person living in a region) can add observed data, propose solutions, and can see all information and proposals in real-time. Case studies include the homelessness crisis in Modesto, California; barriers to hate crime and hate incident reporting in urban areas of the United States; child well-being in various parts of the world; air pollution due to local combustion processes; urban noise pollution, and more. The student will learn the science behind on-line mapping, the capabilities of relevant open source software, and how to use ESRI proprietary software for developing maps on-line. The student will have the opportunity to develop a collaborative on-line mapping website for a region and issue they have identified, or that they select from a list provided by the instructor. The student must obtain consent of the instructor to register. The student is to consult with their degree program regarding the possibility of counting the course as credit towards an elective.

The famous American philosopher, Chomsky assumes that human brains contain a specialized ‘module’ or ‘faculty’ dedicated to the task of learning and mastering a language. Of course, language skills take years to develop. If I tell you that today, we can make use of artificial modules that can learn and master many aspects of languages very fast, would you think in a question or application of this easy-to-use technology. Examples of questions that can be ask with this technology include: Can I train this “module” to identify the authorship of a text? Can I identify the sentiment of a customer about a set of products? Does the DNA code inside our cells have a morphology and syntax? Is it possible to find insights that mice brains contain also this specialized module? This course take advantage of simple but powerful Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies. Lectures cover the practical aspects of the use of NLP algorithms to understand language. This technology is one of the most applied areas of artificial intelligence (AI) with high demand for professionals skilled at building models that analyze speech and language, uncover contextual patterns, and produce insights from text and audio. By the end of this course, you will design your own NLP application and answer your question(s). Also, during this course, you will have access to state-of-the art servers at UTSA. Today NLP applications are at the forefront of the coming transformation to an AI-based world. The course is designed and flexible enough for students of any area like Management, Biology, Medicine, Science, Engineering, etc.

Maps are an integral part of our modern world, satellites, data science, and GPS tracking have made the art of map making an essential tool for industries and governments. Any organization that needs to understand spatial and temporal patterns in an ever-changing world utilizes Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for location, navigation, data management, and spatial (geographic) analysis. GIS is a computer-based tool that uses spatial data to analyze and solve real-world problems that can be shared in the cloud and available almost anywhere on Earth. This is a beginner to intermediate level course for students who want to learn how large amounts of data are managed, used, and analyzed by the government, business, arts, and sciences. You will have hands-on experience using the industry’s leading GIS technology to create and edit maps, collect data, and analyze spatial data. We will review how maps are utilized to understand Green Infrastructure Planning, which affects our communities, watersheds, wildlife habitats, and parks. Information learned during this course will be utilized in a capstone project based on a topic of your interest suitable for spatial analysis. Prerequisites: CS 1173 is recommended.

What is culture? Who "belongs" in U.S. culture? Who does not? How do you know? In No Shame, students will examine how cultural attitudes toward sex, gender and race are made visible through advertisement, comic books, television and film, and other mediums. We will also investigate how those manifestations create and affirm social expectations of behavior and identity and how groups outside of those expectations historically create cultures of their own. Topics include, but are not limited to consent, Hip-Hop, ideas of God, the "Cult of Domesticity", Drag, and intersections in between.

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is not Halloween. It’s a lavish multi-day celebration of remembrance to honor loved ones who have passed. This course will use the study of Dia de Los Muertos to explore cultural and psychological themes of grieving and remembrance customs, as well as it’s sharp rise in modern popularity, and the commodification and commercialization of tradition. Interactive course materials include videos, movies, online courses and readings, site visits, guest speakers, and a class creation of an ofrenda display for the university and San Antonio community. Students will have the opportunity to gain skills in project management, cultural preservation, research, program development, and creative innovation. This course does not have prerequisites, and is open to all majors.

Meet a red-eyed tree frog, a blue morpho butterfly, and a blooming a bird of paradise. Learn and practice sustainable farming and yoga in the tropical rainforest! Our ten-day international experience (August 11-20) gives students the opportunity to learn and practice intentional and sustainable living on a working agro-ecological ranch on Lake Arenal, Costa Rica. Our destination is Rancho Margot: www.ranchomargot.com, where students will be hands-on with the biodiversity of the rainforest, renewable energy systems in practice, and mind-body experiential learning. The goal of the course is to immerse students in different approaches of what it means to live intentionally and sustainably in local and global communities. We will return to San Antonio just in time for the start of Fall classes, reconvening for the first Saturday afternoon each month of the semester to explore sustainability, mindfulness, and other kinds of intentional living in San Antonio. These afternoons have taken us to events, organizations, and places like Siclovia, Compassionate San Antonio, Confluence park, Gardopia Gardens, and Yoga in the Park. Subsidy by Honors College and the Alvarez International Study Fund means that the program cost of just $500 is inclusive of air fare, in-country travel, lodging, and meals.

Why spend time watching cooking shows when you can create your own cooking experiences? "Cook. Eat. Write. Repeat." (WRC 4123) provides the setting for you and your fellow chefs (read: classmates) to plan the menu, kitchen-test the recipes in the UTSA Rec Center Demo Kitchen, and then write, design, and produce a customized cookbook. And then there's the 15 minutes of fame as you star in your own cooking segment hosted by The Paisano's YouTube channel. You may not be able to create culinary masterpieces, but you'll create a semester of memorable cooking and writing experiences. Bon appetit! This course counts as a Skill Development Experience.

The Fourier transform is a ubiquitous tool used in most areas of engineering and physical sciences. It is particularly useful in the analysis of “bid data”, like digital recording, images, sampling, etc. The purpose of this course is two-fold: (1) to introduce the student to the properties of Fourier transforms and their uses, and (2) to introduce the student to the program Mathematica® and demonstrate its use in Fourier analysis. The course will focus on both one-dimensional and two-dimensional transforms, the latter of which play an important role in optics and digital image processing, as well as in many other applications. It will provide different majors with both theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience. It is expected that by the time students have completed this course, they will have a basic understanding of Fourier analysis and Mathematica.

Does literature live on the page? Does it spend out its days bound between the front and back cover, or is it alive in our voices, our faces, and our bodies? In this class, we will bring literature off the page and into performance. Words were spoken before they were written, so this class will explore various forms of literature that began and continue to interact with the spoken word. “Orature” is a combination of the words “oral” and “literature.” In this course, students will learn to read and perform a wide variety of orature in the traditions of medieval troubadours, sonneteers, abolitionist orators, famous novelists, the beat poets, rappers, and more. Literary devices such as rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, and repetition come to life with oral performance. With attention to these literary elements and others, students will learn to perform short stories and poems aloud in order to discover different possibilities of meaning. Students will hone their speaking and performance skills through multiple workshops with professional actors, including the Actors from the London Stage, who will be performing Shakespeare’s Macbeth on the UTSA campus. No prior experience with performance is necessary. Using Adobe Spark, students will create multimedia recordings that will enhance our appreciation of different forms of orature, and our class will culminate in a classic 1960’s-style coffee shop poetry reading.

Writers, artists, and filmmakers have always been fascinated with the theme of the supernatural in human affairs. From William Blake to Gloria Anzaldúa, painter Marc Chagall to contemporary artists like Tony Oursler, along with film directors like Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro, cultural creatives have explored narratives populated with ghosts, spectres, supernatural and extraterrestrial beings, often in transforming dialogue with ordinary humans. Using literary and artistic sources, along with historic films and recent popular culture, this seminar will examine the cultural meanings of these stories of the paranormal. For all of their references to high strangeness and the superhuman, what do these texts reveal about our humanity, about our struggles to understand ourselves and create a more just world in a mysterious cosmos?

Imagine caressing a human femur in your hand and examining the delicate bony prominences where human flesh once anchored a human being’s movements. Gross Anatomy examines the form and function of the human body at a macroscopic level. This course offers a uniquely immersive opportunity for students to appreciate the human body, replete with state-of-the-art technologies, including virtual reality that offers a fascinating 3D perspective of the human body’s anatomical architecture. The gross anatomy lessons will be buttressed with guest practicing physicians who will assess the anatomical skill level of the students, nephrology nurses, who will humanize the growing chronic kidney disease epidemic, which will reinforce the lessons in renal anatomy, mortuary science professionals, that will present a unique embalming perspective that will highlight the different tissues of the human body, and medical ethicists that will discuss the timeless value of the altruistic acts of those who have donated their bodies for the furtherance of medical knowledge to truly appreciate the meaning of the words Mortui Vivos Docent.

A growing number of people believe that all of science and society has been duped into believing that the Earth is a sphere when it is actually flat. Others adamantly believe that there is a global conspiracy to poison the human population by ‘geoengineering’ the planet through the spraying of poisons disguised as airplane exhaust a.k.a. chem trails. A first response to such conspiracy theories may be a head shake, a chuckle, and “What is up with that??” Afterall, the beliefs are pretty out there, but are relatively harmless. However, a growing trend in public attraction toward conspiracy theories in recent years has combined with a global health crisis that has not been seen in over 100 years. The combination has been anything but harmless. This course examines the phenomenon of the conspiracy theory, how it takes root, and why. Is anyone subject to the pull of a conspiracy theory? Or is there a general psychology associated with those who are embrace them? What is the role of the internet in general, and social media in particular, in the rising trend? While we will explore a range of the most bizarre conspiracy theories, we will focus on the most recent ones to emerge from the covid-19 pandemic and attempt to understand, for example, how and why a person becomes convinced that a campaign of vaccination is really a covert operation to implant a microchip in all humans for the purpose of mass control of the human race. Here we will all ask, “What IS up that??”

How can peace and justice be most effectively pursued both personally and communally? Is peace primarily the absence of conflict or something more? To what extent is justice a process, an outcome, or an objective standard? By studying approaches to conflict transformation, restorative justice, and transformative justice, students will explore models for pursuing peace and justice in situations of conflict and in the aftermath of severe harms. Students will participate in a learning exchange with students at Dominguez State Jail as part of the UTSA Philosophy and Literature Circle. This course counts as an Interdisciplinary Seminar Experience in the Honors College curriculum.

There are periods of time in humanity when a true inflection point in advancement occurs. Consider the industrial revolution, the (first) space race, or the dawn of the information age. It is not an exaggeration to argue that we are entering another such period, that of the rapid exploration of both nearby and outer space. NASA is planning a return to the Moon (~2024) and then Mars and the $10B James Webb Space Telescope has recently been launched. New telescopes or probes could find evidence of life on distant exoplanets (planets around other stars) or solar system bodies (i.e., Mars, Europa, etc.) respectively in the coming decades. SpaceX has already revolutionized the launch industry, with the global industry expected to be a $1.1 trillion market by 2040 (or much sooner). Mining of asteroids, harvesting Moon resources, and militarization of space is planned. But what are the ethical implications of these activities? How can the problems of past “frontier” exploitations be avoided? How can we protect even microbial life from terrestrial contamination (or annihilation), or should we care? What is the definition of life (there is no accepted definition), and what rights does it have? What are the ethics of billionaire joy-rides to space given their climate footprint? The course will explore answers to these questions from philosophical and scientific perspectives.

People grow up in a consumer world where process is a single 1:1 transaction of trading money for things, where ‘wanting’ has more significance than ‘having.’ The concept of process is lost or there is an oversimplified view of process lessons that has never been further developed. How do things happen? Were do things come from? What processes bring them into the world? This course will investigate ‘process’ on the notion that awareness of process is a foundational concept, and a greater awareness of process is life-changing, especially in early education. Students will be introduced to the idea of process, how it happens, and how it takes place, first through understanding the forces and factors that create buildings and cities. Photography exercises will transform uninvestigated ways of seeing toward realization that the experiential world is a consciousness of possibilities. After we gain a comprehension of process we will apply it in a real-world scenario as fundamental to the idea of ecology the enactment of principles of sustainability, first in architectural design, and then in an analysis of a fast food enterprise (of student’s choosing) in a proposal to make it a more sustainable practice. This course has no prerequisites and is open to any Honors Student but specifically addresses issues better suited to freshman sophomore level students. THIS COURSE IS DOWNTOWN

Truth. Power. Madness. These are the kinds of social, political and intellectual categories that the influential French philosopher Michel Foucault explored throughout his body of work. Using his work as our lens, we will explore the UTSA Special Collections' archives and each student will design their own unique project, diving into how Foucault's work can change the way we think about the world. Join an intellectually invigorating and unique exploration of a highly influential scholar.

What can we learn from local, national, and international leaders making a difference in today’s world? This course focuses on a systematic study of creativity and giftedness. We will explore the various theories and scholarship to identify characteristics of individuals whose life and actions align with established definitions of creativity and giftedness. Students will conduct case studies to explore diverse manifestations of complex thinking of these individuals.

Going & experiencing public spaces in San Antonio firsthand, we explore, examine, and evaluate the fundamental elements that bring sustainable public places to life. We begin by questioning whether the concern for the social sustainability of cities is anything new. Through a critical historical and contemporary review of the ways in which the concept of social sustainability has been developed and practiced in international contexts, we identify and appreciate various relations to making socially-sustainable cities and community-powered public spaces. We experience public spaces first hand – in San Antonio, San Marcos, and Austin. Relying on our own lived-experiences and the theoretical framework learned in this class, together, we explore, examine, and evaluate the fundamental elements that bring such places to life and equip people to fuel lasting change. The experiential learning component in this course is two-folded: 1) Lived-experiences: students will take field trips to several public spaces in and around San Antonio metropolitan area. Selected public spaces are urban places publicly owned, accessible, and enjoyable by all citizens for free. We not only explore how the geography and design of a public spaces relates to its usage throughout a year, but we also examine how gender, race, age, class, and dis/ability affect people’s access to those places. 2) Participatory mapping: students will engage in a hands-on, team-project in which they digitally visualize and map the selected public spaces, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). No prior knowledge of GIS is required as we use the online version of the software. NOTE: Classes take place off campus in the community.

What is your responsibility as a future health professional? As the global and national needs of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continue to impact our lives, public health remains at the forefront of championing for the public’s health and well-being. This course is a survey of the profession of public health and the competencies required of health educators, including examination of philosophies, ethics and current trends. Students will explore the scope of community and public health as we cover the five major content areas of public health. Through class discussions (both virtually and in-person), students will engage with one another to examine critical issues in community and public health, such as current trends, case studies, and/or research topics related to health disparities. As a final project, students will produce a public health campaign around a public health issue/population.

See Undergraduate Catalog

See Undergraduate Catalog

See Undergraduate Catalog

See Undergraduate Catalog

Students in the United States hold a total of over $1 trillion in student loan debt. Learning how to manage debt, personal finances, and individual investments is more critical now than ever. In this course, in addition to covering the necessary algebra concepts to prepare for a degree in business, you will have the opportunity to impact the lives of students across the campus by researching and providing valuable feedback on financial wellbeing resources offered at UTSA. Your research findings will be used as a student perspective to inform and enhance campus services aimed at improving the financial literacy of all Roadrunners.

Students in the United States hold a total of over $1 trillion in student loan debt. Learning how to manage debt, personal finances, and individual investments is more critical now than ever. In this course, in addition to covering the necessary algebra concepts to prepare for a degree in business, you will have the opportunity to impact the lives of students across the campus by researching and providing valuable feedback on financial wellbeing resources offered at UTSA. Your research findings will be used as a student perspective to inform and enhance campus services aimed at improving the financial literacy of all Roadrunners.