1.    Course Description  

Explorations introduces students to the joy of studying the liberal arts while cultivating the skills needed for future academic success. Each course investigates a subject of faculty choosing from beyond a single disciplinary approach, incorporating multiple ways of understanding that subject and working with evidence from different academic and popular sources. Students will engage in scholarly practices foundational to inquiry and future academic success, including reading, annotating, and taking notes on texts; analyzing and evaluating sources; drafting, revising, and editing writing; and working with peers. Assignments and activities will cultivate students’ abilities to think analytically.

2.    Student Learning Outcomes

Upon successfully completing the course, students will be able to

Section Descriptions

Adams, Sarah:

Interesting People Are Interested People 

Alan Watts, extremely funky English philosopher and counterculture guru, wrote “It is obvious that the only interesting people are interested people.” In other words, Watts suggests that the people you want to be around, who you can’t wait to talk to, who challenge, engage, and excite you, are usually folks who are deeply curious about the world around them. In this course, we will try our best to become those kinds of interesting and interested people.

To cultivate interest, we’ll explore a variety of different “texts,” including Crystal Wilkinson’s The Bird’s of Opulence, articles from the New Yorker magazine, and a Convocation presentation or performance. Along the way, we’ll ask ourselves questions about getting interested: What does it feel like to be curious? Why can it be difficult to stay interested in a subject, text, or event? How can we get interested when we might not automatically feel interested? How might we think of curiosity as a practice not a personality trait?

To work through these texts and questions, as well as to spur on our curiosity, we will write—a lot. We’ll write for various purposes: to question, to wonder, to observe, to reflect, to analyze, to evaluate, and to argue. And we’ll write in various forms: notes, lists, poems, paragraphs, and essays. Moreover, we’ll write for various readers: ourselves, our classmates, and people we’ve never met. We’ll be so curious, and we’ll write so much that by December, we’ll all be more interesting and more interested people.

Brown, Jarrod:

Appalachian Cultural Landscapes

This course delves into the rich and complex cultural landscapes of Appalachian Kentucky, employing inquiry-based learning to explore the dynamic interplay between people and place. We will move beyond stereotypes, examining how history, ecology, cultural values, and social forces have shaped the region’s unique character. Through engagement with landscapes, archival research, use of geographic information systems, community engagement, fieldwork, and exploratory readings on culture, Appalachia, nature, and environmental philosophy, students will investigate and reflect upon diverse terrains as they attempt to imagine a landscape that reflects the values and hopes of Appalachian people. This course encourages students to consider their own relationship to place and to engage with the complexities of cultural heritage and environmental change. No prior experience is required, only a willingness to inquire and explore.  This course will require two Saturday engagements for off-campus travel and will include some non-strenuous hiking.

Bouma, Jill:

Walking: Pilgrimage of the Personal and Political

Tell me who you walk with, and I’ll tell you who you are,” a quote by Esmeralda Santiago, provides an invitation to discover who we are and understand the experiences that shape us.  In this course, we’ll write about and engage in various walks as we explore a history of walking and its myriad benefits. We’ll begin by discussing how walking and other forms of exercise can help us deal with stress. Next, we’ll explore paths to personal pilgrimage, from walking our way through problems to discovering new passions. As we engage in our own walks, we’ll share the various health benefits we’re discovering, bolstered by research and informal presentations.  And finally, we’ll end by exploring the power of mass movement for political solidarity, from Civil Rights marches to recent social movements important to you.  Throughout the course, we’ll examine the physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of walking to inspire our writing and the ways we engage the world.

Butler, Jim

Words are Lying to You

Given the abundance of disinformation and misinformation in the world right now, one might ask: How in the world do people fall for all this nonsense? Do people really think that: The world is flat? Vaccines contain 5G microchips? President Kennedy is still alive and returning to Dallas (where he was shot)???

Part of the problem is that people do not focus on how these memes are communicated: through language using words. “But hey”, one might respond, “words and language are easy; We have all been using them since we were infants.” But to those who pay attention, sentences (and the words within them) are incredibly complex. For instance, words can have multiple meanings; be vague or precise; sentences can communicate truth, falsity, feelings, quotes, sarcasm, jokes, and even make promises.

This class will take a careful look at language and how it functions as part of a liberal arts education, in communication, reasoning, interpretation, and rational discourse. As part of this investigation, we will read essays from various academic disciplines, including Kurt Vonnegut, and Harry Frankfurt’s essay, “On Bullshit”. We will also focus on some non-academic sources like Monty Python and the Daily Show.

Christopher, Karina:

Cookbooks: An Expression of Who We Are and Where We Have Been

Description: The oldest cookbooks can be traced back to Mesopotamia around 1700 BC. Since that time, cookbooks have been a means of communicating history, politics, identity, nationhood, diet trends, ethnicity, food memories, culinary science, and food systems. This class will examine a variety of cookbooks and recipes to determine the messages and stories they are meant to deliver. Students will explore their own food memories or interpretations of food through reflection and writing. Writing will include narrative and descriptive writing.

Crum, John

Reading, Writing, and Thinking with Homer’s Odyssey
Faced with political turmoil, climate change, and the rise of artificial intelligence, our society faces
an urgent question: what does it mean to be human in a changing world? Fortunately for us, we
aren’t the first humans to confront this uncertainty. Since our earliest days as a species, humans
have used stories to communicate ideas about who we are, and what we owe to one another. This
course uses Homer’s Odyssey, in the acclaimed translation by Emily Wilson, as a guide to reading,
writing, and thinking through these questions—skills foundational to a liberal arts education.

Feagan, Beth:

Freedom to Read

America is a contradictory place. We say we believe in freedom of speech, but every year thousands of books are challenged, censored, and banned. And Tango Makes Three, Captain Underpants, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Looking for Alaska, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower: from picture books to novels, these books have been banned right here in the USA. What does that mean? Why does that happen? What can we learn from these books? We will read a variety of banned books and wrestle with these questions. It’s a complicated conversation, and it’s been going on for a long time. Censorship is nothing new. Freedom of expression has been under attack since the founding of our country. We’ll learn how to unpack arguments, do thoughtful research, and make smart arguments of our own. We’ll also work on overcoming procrastination. Does writing freak you out? It’s actually just thinking on the page. That sounds abstract until you put it like this: I think something, I go find out what others think about it (reading and research) and then I let them know what I think (writing). Good writing is always in conversation with others. The conversation we will explore and join is about freedom of expression and the power of your voice.

Gift, Wes:

The Business of Storytelling:

Storytelling is more than entertainment—it's strategy, persuasion, and power. This course explores how narrative functions as a dynamic tool across diverse industries including creative writing, marketing, politics, tech, and beyond. Students will examine how stories shape perception, influence behavior, and drive outcomes in real-world contexts. Through academic readings, multimedia analysis, writing challenges and more, we’ll uncover the mechanics of compelling narratives and the ways they're adapted to meet the goals of different fields.

Mack, Felicia:

In this section of L & I 100 we will read The Skinny House: A Memoir of Family that shares the story of Nathan Seely, an African American man, whose drive and determination led to him becoming a prominent homebuilder in New York. At the height of his fame and fortune he loses everything in the Great Depression; however, he is determined to avoid joining the growing ranks of the unhoused-- so he uses resources available to him to build a home.  

We can all relate to needing resources to help us reach our goals  which is why you decided to further your education at Berea College.  Throughout the course we will engage in numerous writing activities designed to help develop skill sets needed to write for an academic audience. Coupled with reading and writing activities you will be introduced to many resources available at the college, so like Nathan Seely, you can achieve your academic and professional aspirations.

McDonald, Verlaine

How to Win Friends and Influence People (Circa 2025)

This course shares part of its title with one of the best-selling books of all time, written by Dale Carnegie, a teacher and motivational speaker.  Although the book is nearly 90 years old, it concerns a question that is timeless: how can we build better interpersonal relationships and have an impact on those around us? In this course, we’ll consider and critique Dale Carnegie’s advice; we’ll make connections to contemporary research from the disciplines of communication, business/marketing, psychology, and sociology; and together, we’ll create a 21^st century reboot of the principles in the book.

Meadows, Richard

Fighting Poverty in Appalachia & Inner Cities

Initially, rural Appalachia and nearby inner cities seem very different.  Yet people from both areas—including most Berea students and their families and friends—confront many of the same obstacles, such as poverty, unemployment, poorly-funded schools, inadequate healthcare, substance abuse, and negative stereotypes.  Fortunately, many people in Appalachia and nearby inner cities are seeking and finding ways to overcome or help eliminate these obstacles so that their families, friends, and communities can prosper.  We will analyze and debate competing attempts to explain these obstacles as well as competing plans to overcome or eliminate them.  We will evaluate ideas from the U.S.’s political left, right, and center as well as ideas from other countries and from fields as diverse as economics, education studies, health studies, psychology, sociology, communication, biology, religion, and philosophy.  Thus, the course will give you a taste of many different fields to help you choose a major, minor, and/or other areas you want to explore.

Norris, Ian:

Designing a Life Worth Living. 

Where do you want to go, and how will get there? But, more importantly, why there? What is worth wanting, and how do you know? Our culture is obsessed with efficiency, effectiveness, and achievement. But we often don't stop to ask what we value and why. This class will help you determine how to maximize the potential of your Berea College education: How to design the life you want for yourself. But it will continually force you to ask what philosophers have called "The Big Questions." Why are we here, and for what purpose? What is your purpose, and how can your education enable you to fulfill it? Prepare yourself for an interdisciplinary experience integrating lessons from psychology, design thinking, entrepreneurship, philosophy, and religion.

Norton, Colby:

American Popular Music: Sound, Society, and the Cultural Pulse of a Nation

This course on American popular music offers students an exploration of music from a liberal arts perspective, cultivating skills that are foundational for academic success. Through this survey of diverse musical genres, including rock, jazz, funk, country, hip hop, and death metal, students will engage with the music itself, as well as its cultural and societal impact. The course encourages an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating evidence from both academic and popular sources, allowing students to analyze the evolution of music in the United States from multiple perspectives.

Students will engage in scholarly practices such as reading and annotating texts, evaluating and analyzing various sources, and applying critical thinking skills to understand the sociocultural influences on music. The assignments and activities will help students develop their abilities to think analytically, draft, revise, and edit their writing, while also fostering collaboration through peer interaction. This course provides a rich foundation for understanding how popular music reflects and shapes American society, while building skills essential for future academic success.

Warren, Wendy Zagray

Safety, Belonging, Dignity: Cultivating Connection

“Safety, belonging, and dignity. These are the inherent needs in human beings…We are at our best when we have, and can offer, all three.”

      --Stacei Haines, The Politics of Trauma

Throughout this course, we will be thinking together, carefully and collaboratively, about what conditions allow people to thrive. We will use writing and inquiry as a way to process both complex information and our own thinking. Our voice is our power, so we will strive to write and communicate clearly as a way to share our ideas, our learning, and our values. We will learn about writing by reading and studying various styles and genres and especially What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World, by podcaster, writer, and somatic practitioner Prentis Hemphill. 

Organizing questions include:

*What does it mean to experience safety, belonging, and dignity?

*How are these needs sometimes targeted to oppress people?

* How do beings adapt when these needs are lacking?

*What can we learn from studying how people have healed from situations where these needs have been stripped away?

*How can we create these conditions for ourselves and in the groups and organizations to which we belong, including Berea College?

We will draw from many disciplines and cultural ways of knowing as we explore some of life’s biggest questions about what it means to be human.