Fall 2025

Dancing Through Walls

This course provides students with an opportunity to create dance and performance based on what is happening in the world around them through collaboration while focusing on the issues that affect the communities that they live in. Emphasis will be on the creative processes that are employed in generating dance and performance, while engaging in contemporary issues from the news. Taught inside the California Rehabilitation Center, Norco, CA, this course is an unusual opportunity for Claremont College students to understand society through creating dance/storytelling collaborations together with incarcerated students. Participants will study history(s) of dance and performance as a catalyst for social change and performances that comes from social movements. The course culminates in a showing/performance and interactive dialogue with the audience, made up of both non-participating incarcerated men and outside invited guests. The course concludes with written reflections. (No prior dance experience required.) This course is an Inside-Out course. Inside-Out courses are regular college courses that are part of the international Inside-Out Prison Exchange Center model that “bring together campus-based college students with incarcerated students for a semester-long course held in a prison.” The Claremont Colleges Inside-Out program takes place at California Rehabilitation Center, a level II men’s prison in Norco, CA. These courses are slated as “Permission of Instructor Required” so that the faculty members can fully explain the nature of the course and request students to complete an application or interview prior to enrollment.

African American Literature

Organizational Theory & Participatory Research

Communities of Practice

Strategic Planning (0.5 class)

Psychology of Peer Counseling

Prisons, Punishment and Redemption Time

Spring 2025

IGLAS 180 – The Carceral State in Comparative Perspective

The US system of mass incarceration will be examined in comparative perspective. With a special focus on the California prison system (men’s and women’s), other prison systems to be examined include those in Ireland, Uganda, Italy and the UK. The US system of mass incarceration will be examined as an example of “American exceptionalism”. At a macro-comparative level, the relationship between the “carceral state” and the “welfare state” will be examined. The micro-politics of individual prisons will also be examined comparatively, including how education, including higher education, functions in prisons. The course will be conducted in tandem with an Inside Out course being taught at University College Cork, Ireland, with joint group projects.

LIT 99 – African American Literature

Through reading, writing, and discussion this course will introduce students to some of the most influential literary and vernacular texts emerging from the African American cultural context. For the most part, these literary and vernacular works will be considered in relation to the historical moments in which they were produced. This historicized approach will enable class discussions to focus on the way in which black literary production chronicled, reflected and contributed to African America’s varied, vexed relation to the American “project.” Attention to history will also lead students into considerations of the intimate connection between the aesthetic choices of African American writers and the evolving legal and social statuses of black people in America

CS181AQ – Internet and Society

This course will introduce students to the technical components and societal considerations of the Internet. We’ll learn about the different layers that interact to make the Internet work, from the physical infrastructure to how data moves to the correct location. Along with each module, we’ll read about related societal effects, such as the digital divide and censorship. Assignments will include problem-solving, reading, and writing.

LEAD 151 – Leadership: Interpersonal Dynamics

Participating in a T-Group is an exceptionally unique experience. The group is a space to take risks, travel out of the comfort zone, develop personal feedback styles, discover how to support others, and much more. Its unique structure—indeed, its lack thereof—proved to be an invaluable influence in learning more about myself and about others. Now, I approach my relationships in and out of T-Group with more respect, intrigue, and compassion. This class has allowed me to process so many events and emotions and aside from changes to my communication styles and interpersonal relationships, I have also come out of this class a healthier and more self-confident person.

MLLC 99 – LatinX Identity, Language & Power

This will be the first Spanish language Inside Out class taught in the US. It is geared towards heritage Spanish speakers. The course will explore the complex relations between language, race/ethnicity, and power in the construction of identity, in particular Latinx identity in the U.S. We will examine the historical, cultural, and political processes, immigration and demographic trends, and linguistic changes that have impacted Latinx identity. We will pay special attention to the role of language in these processes.

PHILL 44 – Philosophy of Emotion

Are emotions obstacles to good judgment? Are emotions themselves judgments? What can the emotions reveal about what it is to be human, and what role do the emotions play in relation to social justice? In this course we explore what emotions are and what they do, paying attention to how they shape both our inner lives and our shared social world. We will compare different theories of emotion, drawing upon philosophy and moral psychology. We will also consider the ethical and political implications of particular emotions (such as grief, anger, love, shame), alongside their intersections with race, class, and gender.

AFR101A – Introduction to Africana Studies

This class will serve as a general introduction to Africana Studies. Africana studies, while still relatively young, has a vibrant history that traces the lives and scholarship of people from African descent. Its complex and latent development in academia follows from the socio-political marginalization of people belonging to the African diaspora. Nevertheless, resilience and perseverance will be repeated themes as we study how—through different techniques and modes of understanding—people of the African diaspora have continually challenged the western hegemony of academic study and claims to knowledge.

Summer 2025 (5/27/25 – 7/3/25)

ORST135 – Organizational Behavior (Inside)

This course will provide an overview of the major topic areas associated with the study of organizational behavior. Over the course of the semester, we will study human behavior in organizations at the individual and group level, and also investigate important macro influences within organizational contexts. Personal exploration of important concepts through in-class exercises and demonstrations during the semester will also be part of this course.

OS198R – Foundations of Management (Inside)

This course provides an in-depth exploration of foundational management principles based on the work of Peter Drucker, often regarded as the father of modern management. Students will develop a deep understanding of effective leadership, strategic decision-making, and organizational effectiveness through a combination of theory, case studies, and practical application.

Key topics include Drucker’s principles of management by objectives (MBO), innovation and entrepreneurship, the role of the knowledge worker, and ethical leadership. Students will learn how to apply Drucker’s insights to contemporary challenges in business, nonprofit organizations, and social enterprises. Special emphasis will be placed on adaptive leadership, management, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and development.

In addition, we will review Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach to solving personal and professional problems.

SOC 99 – The Social Construction of Morality

How do we decide what is good or bad, wrong or right, moral or immoral? For many, God is necessary in order to answer such questions. However, this class will approach morality and ethics as social constructions, created by humans over time. We will look at how people — as social beings embedded in history, culture, and society — construct morality and fight for justice. Part sociology, part psychology, part secular studies, and part philosophy, this class will explore the on-going process whereby humans come to determine what is wrong or right, just or unjust, ethical or unethical, and we will become familiar with various theories of morality and ethics and apply those theories to real-world problems.