What's New This Summer

Fresh additions. Fresh thinking.

Make the most of your summer by trying something new. For 2012, we have several exciting and stimulating additions to Summer Session. Be the first to attend one of our new FIRST program or featured courses or participate in one of the 28 online classes.

FIRST

Check out the courses offered by visiting world-class scholars. The Faculty-in-Residence Summer Term (FIRST) program brings faculty from around the world to teach in Boulder.

Special Topics in Psychology: Internet Research (PSYC 4541/5541)
With Professor Ulf-Dietrich Reips, Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao, Spain
Introduces the methodology of Internet-based research. Students will be provided with an up-to-date overview of basics, methods, techniques, tricks, and tools for Internet research. Students will learn how to conduct online experiments, use psychological tests on the Internet, and data mine search engines like Google.

Topics: Communication and Sustainability: Saving our Home, Community, and Planet (COMM 4000/4300)
With Professor Tarla Rai Peterson, Texas A&M University
Communication about home can refer to the entire Earth, a single household, or spatial scales in between these extremes. Today's most acute sustainability challenges (e.g., economic instability, warfare, natural disasters, energy and natural resource shortages, biodiversity loss, climate change) have both causes and potential solutions in household dynamics. We will explore how household dynamics contribute to and obstruct possibilities for sustainability, especially as they impact energy use, biodiversity loss, and perceived isolation of humans from nature.

Topics in Religious Studies: Buddhism in North America (RLST 3820)
With Professor David McMahan, Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania
Investigates some of the distinctive forms that Buddhism has taken in North America. It addresses the transformations of various Buddhist traditions to accommodate, as well as challenge, American society and its institutions, mythologies, and social practices. It also addresses a number of issues pertinent to Buddhism in America and the West, such as Buddhist identity, ethnicity, gender, authority, and social activism.

Topics in Business: Business Analytics (MGMT 4820)
With Professor Rafael Martí, University of Valencia, Spain
The problems faced by decision makers in today’s competitive business environment are often extremely complex and can be addressed by numerous possible courses of action. Evaluating these alternatives and gaining insight from past performance is the essence of business analytics. This course is designed as an introduction to Business Analytics, an area of business administration that considers the extensive use of data, methods, and fact-based management to support and improve decision making.

Special Topics: Game Theory (LAWS 6708)
With Professor Adi Ayal, Bar-Ilan University Law School, Israel
Game theory is a mathematical approach for analyzing games and a wide range of other situations where a person’s success depends upon the choices of others. Although game theory is often used in economics, political science, and psychology, Professor Ayal’s course explores its application to law and economics. No prior knowledge of game theory or economics is presumed, and all technical know-how necessary for understanding, presenting, and solving game structures will be included in the course itself. The focus of this course is on understanding and being able to apply game theory's insights to everyday and legal decision making, rather than theoretical knowledge alone.

FEATURED COURSES

Check out the featured courses with outstanding CU-Boulder faculty.

From Wops and Dons to Movers and Shakers: The Italian-American Experience (ITAL 4350)
With Valerio Ferme
Exposes students to these complex negotiations and provides a general historical and cultural history of Italian-Americans in the United States and locally in Colorado. In the process, we will see how Italians gradually transformed themselves from cultural and political outsiders into integral performers in the development and growth of the U.S. throughout the 20th century. Additionally, by studying the manner in which Americans and Italians negotiated their different ideas concerning identity, traditional and community, we hope to draw attention to contemporary parallels pertaining to the immigration of groups that have threatened or threaten ideas of what it means to be an American citizen in the 21st century. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: United States context.

Social Inequalities in Health (SOCY 4052)
With Stefanie Mollborn
Introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of social inequalities in health, with a particular focus on sociological contributions to the area. This course focuses on social inequalities in health in both U.S. and international contexts. Reviews the link between health status and various types of social statuses, including but not limited to socioeconomic status, gender, race, and ethnicity. Explanations for the relationships between these factors and various health outcomes are discussed. The class focuses on multiple levels of analysis, from the physician-patient interactions to healthcare systems and social policies. Students have the opportunity to develop their own specific research interests in this field.

Music Appreciation with the Colorado Music Festival (MUEL 1832)
With Thomas Riis
Addresses the broad history of Western music. Students will learn to listen critically and develop a vocabulary for understanding and discussing the music they hear. Because the course allows for a variety of approaches, the students will also have the chance to compare symphonic repertoire with chamber music and the variety of world music offerings through the Colorado Music Festival programs this summer. The class will meet on campus most days, but on Wednesdays, it will meet at Chautauqua to observe rehearsals and interact with the conductor and orchestral musicians, who will meet with the students after rehearsal. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: literature and the arts.

NEW PROGRAM

Avoid the Fall Rush with the Early Start Program
College of Engineering and Applied Science

The College of Engineering and Applied Science offers entering freshmen the opportunity to start their course work in the summer. If you live in the Denver/Boulder metro area and have been admitted to the college for fall 2012, you are eligible to apply to the program. Students will enroll in two Summer Session courses. Early Start students meet with faculty and industry representatives at weekly lunches. Advising, tutoring, and study strategy assistance will be provided. Students will receive a scholarship of $500.00 to use toward their summer tuition and may also be eligible for the College Opportunity Fund (COF).

ONLINE COURSES

Explore the opportunities to take courses online with CU-Boulder faculty. New classes include Children’s Literature with Shelby Wolf, Philosophy and Religion with Wes Morriston, and Japanese History with Marcia Yonemoto.