Learning Colectiva

Join us in COMM 141 Small Group Communication and unlock the power of collaboration!

Through hands-on, embodied learning, you'll discover the impact of your voice in group dynamics, strengthen teamwork skills, and turn ideas into action. Get ready to lead, connect, and inspire!     

This course disrupts English class norms, diversifying and deepening how we deliver words, read literature, and, through them, inhabit the world. As a community of scholars, we empower each other by elevating texts from multilingual, multiracial, and multigenerational heritages and examining them through diverse critical lenses.

We dig into our cultural wealth through varied and vibrant stories, poems, and dramas, enriching our sense of what it means to read, think, or write "well” and questioning norms that devalue ways of knowing that do not fit standard “Western” molds. Writing projects offer an ample choice of topics, options for alternate formats and collaboration, and the chance to revise. Accented by music, mindfulness, and meaningful texts, we cultivate a relaxed, engaging space for self-examination, social inquiry, and academic growth.

In this class, students apply mathematical methods and critical thinking to solve problems and understand the world with real data.

We learn about the role of randomness and why the data we collect should represent the population we have questions about; we learn to describe the data we collect with both numbers and visualizations; we learn about uncertainty and how to make conclusions about the larger population we are curious about based on the data we have and we learn specific techniques to that are used widely in research beyond this class.   

This is an ethics class so values matter. I take seriously Angela Davis’ view: “My idea of philosophy is that if it is not relevant to human problems, if it does not tell us how we can go about eradicating some of the misery of this world, then it is not worth the name of philosophy” (Lectures on Liberation).

The readings for the class will be predominantly from African, African American, Indigenous, Mexican, and South American philosophers and their reflections on the problems in life that matter to them, to us, and to everyone. This is a unique class in that it is informed by both Umoja and Raíces. These practices and values overlap well with my particular understanding of a philosophical attitude: one that is open, collaborative, playful, even humorous, yet critical and deeply reflective about very serious matters that affect each of us, in many cases directly. I hope we can live out that attitude this semester.

Have you ever wondered how psychologists come to conclusions about the mind and behavior? How they measure personality traits among different people? Why individuals behave differently as part of a group? In this course you will learn about general ways in which humans and other animals think, feel and act.

We will answer these and other questions about the biology of behavior; sleep & dreaming; drugs & addiction; memory & learning; mental disorders and more. Here, you will also reflect on yourself, and apply what you’ve learned to your daily activities as a budding scholar, consumer of information, and human being. Enjoy the journey!