HMN 385: How to Bridge Difference: Principled Pluralism in a Polarized World
Instructor: Dr. Bradley Burroughs
When: Wednesday/Friday 2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
In a time marked by deep political, religious, and cultural divides, learning to engage differences constructively is a pressing need. Drawing insights from a variety of disciplines—including political science, psychology, religious studies, sociology, and more—this course aims to enhance students’ understanding of such divides. At the same time, it also seeks to help students develop the skills, virtues, and perspectives to be both principled and pluralistic, appreciating others’ views without abandoning one’s own principles. Through readings, discussions, and practical exercises, students will reflect on the real-world challenges that society currently confronts and explore what it means to live with integrity, empathy, and curiosity in the midst of deep disagreement.
FYS 100: AI & Humanity: Foundations for Our Future
Instructor: Dr. William B. Cochran
When: Monday/Wednesday/Friday 10:00 a.m. – 10:50 a.m.
This first-year seminar explores the nature of artificial intelligence and its implications for the future of humanity. How should we live and work with AI? Can we contain its risks while harnessing its opportunities? Does AI augment or degrade human capabilities? What kind of society are we creating with AI, and what will it take to thrive in an AI-infused world? In this seminar, participants will practice carefully engaging with multiple perspectives on AI—from the technologists building it, the entrepreneurs deploying it, the philosophers analyzing it, the users interacting with it, and even from the AI systems themselves. By the end, participants should have a strong foundation for navigating our current AI moment and the changes that lie ahead. No coding experience is required—just curiosity, skepticism, and the courage to rethink the future.
CSC 391: Ethical Computer Science
Instructor: Dr. William B. Cochran
When: Monday/Wednesday 2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
In an era where AI and other emerging technologies increasingly shape human experience, what can be done to ensure that computing technologies preserve and promote human flourishing? This course contends that the answer begins with cultivating computer scientists’ moral skill set. Through personal reflection, Socratic dialogue, and engagement with real-world case studies, this course aims to empower students to navigate complex ethical issues in the development and deployment of computing technologies. By interweaving theory and practice, the course prompts students to develop greater awareness of the wider impacts of their work, cultivate virtues of character that are both personally and professionally relevant, and become skillful communicators. As they progress, students will be encouraged to envision themselves not just as competent technicians, but as ethical leaders in a rapidly evolving technosocial landscape.
HMN 374: Humanities and Law
Instructor: Dr. Bryan Ellrod
When: Monday/Wednesday/Friday 10:00 a.m. – 10:50 a.m.
A system of law is more than a tool for providing civil remedies and criminal penalties. It is one of the languages by which we articulate our identities and grapple with our shared humanity. However, legal language does not exist in isolation. It intersects with the diversity of languages that circulate in religious scriptures, philosophical texts, and works of literature. In this interdisciplinary seminar, we will attend to these points of intersection. As we attend to questions of justice, meaning, and the law’s impact on lived experience, we will also examine the relationship between the shape of our legal systems and the shape of our moral character. More than this, we will seek to cultivate the excellences of character that would make this connection a cause for individual and collective flourishing rather than alienation.
ENT 314 A&B : Leadership and Character in Entrepreneurship
Instructor: Dr. Fatima Hamdulay
When: Wednesday/Friday 11:00 – 12:15 p.m. & 2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Leadership and character challenges go hand-in-hand with the entrepreneurial journey. In this course, we ask three questions as we traverse the entrepreneur’s path: What are the ways I see the world? How do they shape my views on character, opportunity and value creation? How will I lead the way?
ENT 304 A&B : Building Entrepreneurial Teams
Instructor: Dr. Fatima Hamdulay
When: Tuesday/Thursday 11:00 – 12:15 p.m. & 2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Behind every bold idea lies a team that makes it real. Building Entrepreneurial Teams explores how self-awareness, open-mindedness, and honesty can foster collaboration that develops into innovation. We combine hands-on experiences and reflection to engage the dynamics that make or break entrepreneurial ventures – balancing urgency with purpose, collaboration with assertiveness, and harmony with productive conflict. Grounded in a learn-by-doing live venture and character-centered approach, the course challenges you to design, lead, and participate in a high-performing team that learns quickly, adapts wisely, and creates lasting, values-driven impact.
AAS 100: Introduction to African American Studies
Instructor: Dr. Dan Henry
When: Monday/Wednesday/Friday 1:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m.
This course offers a broad introduction to the history, methods, and guiding concepts of Black Studies. More than an “interdisciplinary” field, Black Studies is shaped both by a critical engagement with traditional disciplines as well as concerns and approaches that exceed their purview. Students will gain an understanding of the relationship of Black Studies to the university, here at Wake Forest and elsewhere; the field’s orientation to Black communities; and the distinctive meanings of Black “study.” It will also offer an overview of central subjects in the field, from aesthetics to politics to history, guided by important voices across traditions of Black thought and politics. Students in this course will learn the fundamentals of research and writing in Black Studies, culminating in an original project. Finally, the course is an introduction to the community of AAS at Wake Forest.
AAS 210: African American Intellectual Tradition
Instructor: Dr. Dan Henry
When: Wednesday/Friday 9:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
This course offers a broad overview of key historical questions and currents in African American politics and philosophy, and their relevance for contemporary Black Studies. The class offers a wide-ranging survey of multiple African American intellectual traditions–as well as a close study of select thinkers from each tradition–including Black feminism, Black radical thought, political, cultural, and economic nationalisms, and Black liberation theology. We will consider the tools and overarching ethos each of these traditions offers students today, and how they might shape the meaning of “study” here at Wake Forest.
AAS 320: Philosophy and Race
Instructor: Dr. Dan Henry
When: Wednesday/Friday 2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
This course centers on themes of African American moral thought, with a focus on the expansive efforts of Black prophetic intellectuals and social movements to engage, in Stephen Marshall’s words, the City on the Hill “from below.” These thinkers, past and present, have at once indicted the warped morality and corrupted ideals of a racist society and sought to rethink the ethical bases of collective life (of the Black public and of multiracial democracy) and the political, moral, and aesthetic ideals that could animate its future. Students in this class will gain an introduction to some of the important currents and figures of African American moral philosophy, including discussions of David Walker, Maria Stewart, Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, and James Baldwin. Study of these traditions offers students critical resources for interrogating contemporary dilemmas of American democratic life and its horizons.
HMN 211 A & B Dialogues with Antiquity-The Good Life in Eastern and Western Perspectives
Instructor: Dr. Eunice Jianping Hu
When: Wednesday/Friday 2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. (A) & 3:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. (B)
What does it mean for human beings to be “good”? How can we live a “good” life? This course considers some of the most influential answers to such questions, beginning with the thought of Confucius and Aristotle, towering figures in Eastern and Western traditions, respectively. In addition to studying the writings of these major figures in comparative perspective, our course will examine visual art, short stories, and other forms to trace the influence of Confucius and Aristotle in contemporary societies, to analyze our own presuppositions, and to reflect upon how we might live well in our current age.
FYS 100: Harming and Harmonizing: Considering Human Relations to Nature Through Everyday Ecology
Instructor: Dr. Eunice Jianping Hu
When: Wednesday/Friday 12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
What is our role as human beings in the world? How can we live more harmoniously with animals, plants, and the environment? In this course, we will explore these big questions through literature, film, art, history, and philosophy. Together, we will examine how our values and beliefs shape our relationship with nature and how these ideas influence our everyday choices and actions. Focusing on four fundamental human practices, i.e., eating, clothing, housing, and traveling, we will explore how these daily activities reflect our relationship with the environment and reveal deeper cultural, social, and philosophical values. As we study environmental issues and movements, you will encounter powerful stories, artworks, and ideas from poems and novels to documentaries and philosophical writings, which are drawn from a wide range of cultural and intellectual traditions. This course also invites you to cultivate personal virtues: wonder at the natural world, temperance in how you consume resources, empathy for all living beings, and gratitude for the environment that sustains us, as you grow into a thoughtful and responsible leader in today’s complex world.
Plus a Special Short-Term Study Abroad Opportunity!
PSY 270 / POL 242 / REL 291 / HMN 385(opens in a new tab) (1.5 credit hours)
Instructor: Dr. Eranda Jayawickreme
When: Once weekly 75-minute from March 15 onward and May 16–29 trip to Sri Lanka
This course will explore the nature of pluralism from an interdisciplinary perspective—the ability to engage constructively across differences. We’ll examine what character traits, thinking patterns, and social conditions help people develop tolerance and build meaningful relationships with those from different backgrounds. We’ll read material from political & moral philosophy, social/personality & political psychology, political science (with a focus on recent work examining transitional justice in the post-war context) and religious studies. The study abroad portion will begin in Colombo, the vibrant capital city whose metropolitan area population exceeds 5 million, where students will have opportunities to meet with leaders working toward inter-group tolerance and fostering pluralism. The group will then travel to the northern and eastern regions of the country—the center of the long-running civil war from 1983 to 2009 between the Sri Lankan Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam—to visit with more civil society leaders and academics. The trip will culminate with two days traveling to and climbing Adam’s Peak, a 7359-ft. mountain that serves as the source of three major rivers and the site of a wildlife reserve. The peak of the mountain is a religious site of significance to Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and some Christians as it arguably exhibits the footprint of Buddha, Shiva, Adam, or St. Thomas respectively. Adam’s Peak is a site of pilgrimage and devotion, and the climb, often undertaken at night to witness the sunrise, is seen as both a physical and spiritual challenge.