Spring 2026 Courses
THESE COURSES ARE TENTATIVE, PENDING C-START COMMITTEE APPROVAL AT THE END OF THE FALL SEMESTER.
C-START COURSES DO NOT FULFILL HONORS CAROLINA PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS.
ALL STUDENTS ARE ELIGIBLE TO ENROLL FOR ONE (1) HOUR OF PASS/FAIL CREDIT.
SPCL 400.301 | Roots to Remedy: The Intersection of Holistic Healing and Modern Medicine
Student Instructors: Roshni Arun & Sai Srihitha Dommata
Faculty Mentor: Amanda Corbett
T, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
210 Graham Memorial
Holistic health practices have been integral to healing traditions across the world for centuries. However, many of these practices, particularly those of marginalized communities, are erased due to stigmatization, lack of formal documentation, and limited scientific validation. Roots to Remedy: The Intersection of Holistic Healing and Modern Medicine explores the cultural, historical, and medical significance of these healing traditions, examining their role in both historical and contemporary healthcare.
This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying holistic health by focusing on three major global traditions: Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, and Indigenous healing practices. Through case studies, guest lectures, hands-on workshops, and interactive discussions, students will engage with the foundational principles of these healing systems while critically analyzing the challenges they face in modern healthcare.
SPCL 400.302 | The Mind’s Eye: Foundations of Brain Imaging and Clinical Applications
Student Instructors: Suhan Asaigoli & Aryan Kodali
Faculty Mentor: Eric Hastie
W, 4;00 pm – 6:00 pm
212 Graham Memorial
This course offers an introduction to the field of neuroradiology, focusing on brain and spine imaging techniques, neuroanatomy, and translating neuroradiology in clinical contexts. Through interactive learning, experiential engagement, and research, students will gain a basic understanding of imaging modalities, engage with researchers and physicians in the field of neuroradiology, explore real-world applications, and complete a creative capstone project integrating course concepts.
SPCL 400.304 | After Smith and Marx: The Making of Global Economic Thought
Student Instructor: Conner Cafero
Faculty Mentor: Michael O’Sullivan
T, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
212 Graham Memorial
How should we think about the economy? Most economics courses globally teach one perspective, neoclassical economics. This is not a natural phenomenon, however. Instead, this is a historically contingent product of Western hegemony. Such homogenization of economic theory obscures the diversity within and without the European tradition of economics.
Therefore, this course traces the global history of economic ideas from the Enlightenment through the present, examining how thinkers such as Smith, Ricardo, and Marx emerged within a specific Western intellectual and material context, and how their ideas became universalized.
However, this is not a course exclusively examining European economic history. We will study how intellectuals in the Global South have engaged, adapted, and resisted dominant Western economic ideas.
Students will explore continuity and change, from age-old debates about mercantilism or Malthusianism to modern debates about tariffs or AI. By the end, students will be able to connect economic ideas to their historical conditions, compare global intellectual traditions, and critically question the assumptions that underpin today’s debates on growth, inequality, and development.
SPCL 400.305 | Medical Ethics in an Age of Political Uncertainty
Student Instructor: Katherine Guittari
Faculty Mentor: Bradley Hammer
M, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
210 Graham Memorial
Does assisting in a patient’s death conflict with the Hippocratic Oath to “do no harm”? What are the ethical limits of editing embryos to prevent disease or enhance certain traits? Can AI be trusted in clinical decision-making, and who is liable when a mistake is made? The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) includes “adherence to ethical principles” among the competencies required of medical school graduates. However, undergraduate pre-health requirements rarely equip students to critically engage with ethical dilemmas, instead prioritizing coursework in the sciences. This knowledge gap poses an issue; in an era when medical topics—from reproductive rights to vaccine mandates—are deeply politicized, the ability to reason through complex ethical issues without succumbing to personal biases is essential for aspiring healthcare professionals.
In the course, Medical Ethics in an Age of Political Uncertainty, students will first acquire the bases of argumentative techniques in order to then apply them in unbiased medical ethics discourse. Additionally, this discussion-based course will equip pre-health students to thoughtfully engage with contentious topics that will arise in their future fields of work.
SPCL 400.306 | Female Rage in the Media: Empowering or Oppressive?
Student Instructor: Olivia Iessi
Faculty Mentor: Mary Floyd-Wilson
M, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
405 Dey Hall
From damsels in distress to fiery superheroes, women have many roles in modern film, books, and songs. With the rise of feminism, female empowerment has taken many forms in the media. Internet movements like #MeToo have gained momentum in a world that has historically demonized and silenced female emotion. This gives rise to, “Female rage,” an explosive representation of feminine anger that has been gaining traction in film, music, and literature more than ever before. The New York Times writes, “Over the last few years, TV has offered similar portraits of female rage — striking scenes within a culture that still mostly prefers women either to carry their anger calmly and silently or to express it within a misogynistic framing.” On screen, female rage has become a captivating and controversial theme in blockbuster movies. But are these scenes cathartic and empowering? Or do they reinforce dangerous stereotypes?
In this class we will explore the implications of these “female rage” works and engage with films, songs, and readings. We will examine how women’s anger is portrayed in modern media. We will compare and contrast the distinctive trends of female rage in the 2020’s to the representation of female rage in the past. We will consider the ways in which female rage is legitimized in the form of empowerment or conversely, used to reinforce the idea that women’s anger is irrational, dramatic, and dangerous.
SPCL 400.307 | Creation to Collection: The Business of Art
Student Instructor: Flavia Nunez Ludeiro
Faculty Mentor: Shimul Melwani
M, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
038 Graham Memorial
In 2024, $10.2 billion worth of fine art was sold at auction. Despite this financial success, the art business world remains unknown to many. This course will analyze the art market’s impact at the institutional (museums, governments), commercial (galleries, auction houses, and collectors), and ethical (provenance and restitution) level.
Students will follow the journey of an artwork from creation to sale, uncovering the mechanisms behind its valuation and the fiduciary roles of collectors, dealers, and auction houses. They will also develop the ability to evaluate artworks through both an investment and decorative lens. By the end of the semester, students will have an exceptional grasp on the forces and systems that set today’s art market apart from other business structures while also gaining insight into art business careers.
SPCL 400.308 | Emulating Frankenstein: Constructing the Body Through Literature and Language
Student Instructor: Catherine Pabalate
Faculty Mentor: Jane Thrailkill
TBD
TBD
Through research in biology, we understand our bodies through our genes, cells, and organ systems. However, how do we craft our bodies through the humanities, specifically literature and language? This course will observe how our bodies are ingrained in social, political, and cultural contexts, and, by observing these systems, we will begin to understand the ways our bodies are viewed, distinguished, measured, compared, and even rejected. This course is an interdisciplinary research avenue that draws upon scholarship in literature, rhetoric, Medical Anthropology, History, and Women’s and Gender Studies, and it will look at a variety of mediums, from memoir and poetry to film and video games, to view our bodies under intersectional lenses.
SPCL 400.309 | Resistance to Authoritarianism
Student Instructor: Shiva Rajbhandari
Faculty Mentor: Gabrielle Calvocoressi
W, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
210 Graham Memorial
As democracy backslides, people are organizing their communities to protect human rights and popular sovereignty. This student-taught pass/fail course explores current and historical social movements that resist democratic backsliding and/or overcome authoritarian regimes around the world. Through primary source texts, documentary film, and conversations with activists, each week we’ll study a variety of anti-authoritarian social movements and identify their strategies. We’ll then consider how these strategies can be used in a contemporary context within the United States. Throughout the course, students will develop organizing skills and sociological knowledge that can be applied in both academic and civic settings.
SPCL 400.310 | The Future of Pain Theraputics
Student Instructor: Taanvii Verma
Faculty Mentor: Sarah Linnsteadt
W, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
104 Greenlaw Hall
Chronic pain is a silent epidemic, affecting millions of individuals worldwide, posing significant challenges for both patients and healthcare providers. It is associated with severe health consequences that can disrupt everyday tasks and diminish quality of life. Despite its prevalence, current treatments often have limitations of partial relief and carry risks such as addiction, limited efficacy for certain pain conditions, and a primary focus on symptom management rather than addressing underlying neurobiological mechanisms. The Future of Pain Therapeutics explores the groundbreaking innovations reshaping how we understand and treat chronic pain, from regenerative stem cell therapies and deep brain stimulation to ancient Eastern practices like acupuncture and mindfulness. Through journal clubs, patient case studies, and immersive media, we will examine the science, ethics, and broader relevance behind each therapeutic approach. This course will challenge students to rethink how pain is understood and treated, equipping them with the knowledge to bridge innovation and compassion in the pursuit of more effective, transformative care.
SPCL 400.311 | Religious Thinking and Thinking Religiously: The Psychology and Philosophy of Religion
Student Instructors: Satchel Walton & Isaac Watkins
Faculty Mentor: Molly Worthen
M, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
035 Graham Memorial
What do a philosophical treatise, a mystic’s vision, and a randomized control trial have in common? They can all tell us something about religion, one of the most important aspects of human culture, history, and – for many – life. Unfortunately, the academics who study religion from different departments often talk past each other, rarely pausing to consider the insights from those in other fields. We will consider findings from both sides on a series of topics: morality, personal religious experience, the supernatural, the self and soul, and the afterlife. Primarily, we hope to have some really interesting discussions together!
On the one hand, psychologists, anthropologists, and cognitive scientists have filled many volumes over the last forty years trying to elucidate the evolutionary origins and social uses of religion. They write books and hold conferences together to discuss their field notes, p-values, and meta-analyses. On the other hand, philosophers, theologians, and religious theorists have maintained very different disciplinary traditions, some millennia-old and some much more recent, in which they understand religion from more analytical or experiential perspectives. This class will put both sides in conversation.
Constrained by the predominance of Western perspectives in these fields of study, Christianity will receive outsized focus in the course. Still, we will discuss other contexts enough that we will learn a great deal about religion in general with lively, stimulating, and wide-ranging conversation.
