Social Studies

Human Crossroads: Confronting Global Challenges through Time, Identity, and Place

Human Crossroads asks students to respond to some of the world’s greatest challenges using an interdisciplinary approach that draws from the intersection of geography, history, anthropology, and sociology. The curriculum is composed of units dedicated to central thematic questions ranging from the meaning of human identity to the value of borders, the possibility of religious pluralism, and vexing problems of global inequities. Each unit starts by asking, “What is where, why there, why care?” using maps. Course material and projects include current events, academic texts, online resources, and data visualizations. Students learn to read actively, analyze maps, interpret data, write thesis-driven essays, and synthesize information, with according skill-based assessments. This class is not only intended to develop academic skills, but to foster curiosity, self-reflection, global citizenship, and a renewed commitment to the pursuit of truth, love, and justice in the world. (Full year course)

The Modern World

First, the good news: many people alive today are better off than all other humans who have preceded them. That may not surprise you. But, the bad news will: many others alive today are actually worse off than their predecessors. That includes medieval serfs, African tribesmen, and even prehistoric cavemen! How can this be? The modern world, loosely defined as the last two centuries of human life, has witnessed some of the most dramatic transformations in our history. Yet, those transformations have often functioned as a double-edged sword, bringing great reward to some and devastation to others. Why did these changes occur in the first place? Why did certain countries and people benefit while others suffered? And what does this say about the world we live in now, and where we’re headed in the future? This course endeavors to answer those questions through a wide-ranging study of the last 200+ years, from the Industrial Revolution through to the present. (Full year course)

United States History

While chronological, this course focuses on several themes that have reverberated throughout the American experience. The central theme is the epochal tug-of-war between Jefferson’s credo of equality and its paradoxical partners: conquest, slavery, and racism amidst a diversity of historic proportions; gender discrimination; and the class inequalities generated within a dynamic economy. Accordingly, we will pay significant attention to the history of movements that challenge the dominant meaning of equality, such as labor unions, suffragists, and the multitude of civil rights movements across time. The nation’s history is also traced through the tensions between a deep-rooted fear of centralized power and the drive for an efficient and powerful federal government. Lastly, significant time is given to U.S. involvement in global affairs, with a particular stress on presidential decision-making, and its impact both abroad and at home. While classic political issues are at the core of the course, there are times—such as the era between Reconstruction and World War I—when the magnitude of cultural and economic changes are at the heart of an era. We will use a very wide range of primary and college-level secondary sources. (Full year course)

American Studies

American Studies is a field of study that integrates many traditional disciplines into a single search for the answer to the question, “What is an American?” In our American Studies course, we will look at American lives. What richness, spirit, creativity, and heartbreak do we see in the Dreamers, the Builders, the Rulebreakers, and the Seekers? How do these individuals reinforce or challenge our ideas about who is an American? How have experiences of colonialism, immigration, enslavement, westward expansion, urbanization, and war impacted Americans,, and how can we better understand these experiences through studying the past and present in dialogue with one another? Where do we see ourselves in this tapestry of American experience? To answer these questions, students will be simultaneously enrolled in English and Social Studies classes with common units and work will be coordinated by the instructors, creating a cultural studies approach to both historical and literary content. We will cross disciplines, examining primary and secondary historical texts, literature, film, visual art, and music. We will seek to understand not only what happened and what was written, but what it meant to diverse groups of Americans and how it connects to American culture today. Writing assignments continue the development of narrative and analytical skills and will offer the opportunity for some creative writing as well. Over the course of the year, students will also continue to develop their collaboration, research, presentation, and project-based learning skills, and will be responsible for planning and teaching class sessions. This course is worth two credits and satisfies both U.S. History and English 11 requirements. Prerequisite: English 10. (Full year course)

Honors Economics: The Language of Choices

The aim of this honors elective course is the study of economics through the choices humans make at both the micro and macro level; applied to real-world examples.  Since economics incorporates elements of history, geography, psychology, sociology, political theory and many other related fields of study, students will be expected to approach this course with a wide array of interests in the social sciences.  Alongside the empirical observations of economic choice and outcome, students will be asked to formulate questions around how they, as economics participants, can apply the principals of this course to the world around them. Encouraging students to explore such questions forms the central focus of the economics course.This course is open to Juniors enrolled in US History or American Studies (with Instructor permission) and Seniors. Seniors will have priority in scheduling. (Fall semester course)

Honors Globalization: Debates & Controversies

Students in this elective will have the opportunity to discuss and debate the issues that define their generation—technological change, climate change, mass migration, political instability, —with students in other nations. Such interaction is key because controversies, such as how to care for the warming, polluted, overfished oceans, cannot be solved locally. The key to finding solutions begins with study and dialogue. Work in this semester-long elective will be group-based and experiential. We will focus on “learning by doing,” understanding the debates around global issues by taking part in them. This course is open to Juniors enrolled in US History or American Studies (with Instructor permission) and Seniors. Seniors will have priority in scheduling. (Fall semester course)

Honors Modern Middle East

Where did ISIS come from? What tools do experts use to predict the fate of Syria? What hopes are there for improving Palestinian-Israeli relations? How is the world’s greatest refugee crisis (from Syria) transforming neighboring states? What the heck is going on with the price of gasoline? What happened to the bright lights of the Arab Spring, and how will the struggle for supremacy between Saudi Arabia and Iran play out, particularly in the shadow of U.S. efforts to challenge Iran’s nuclear policy? These and other questions will be engaged in this course, which starts in the late 19th century, with the spread of Western imperialism in the region, examines the rise of secular nationalism in the age of decolonization, and lands squarely in today’s cauldron of religious ferment, ethnic conflict, and revolutionary hopes for a better tomorrow. Student research and oral presentations will be the major form of assessment in the class, which will adapt to the events as they are unfolding. This course is open to Juniors enrolled in US History or American Studies (with Instructor permission) and Seniors. Seniors will have priority in scheduling. (Fall semester course)

Honors American Environmentalism: Past, Present, and Future

In this interdisciplinary course we will consider the many ways in which Americans of all backgrounds have engaged in environmentalism, looking at the many different ways people relate to, and value, the earth, water, and atmosphere. Students will consider historical relationships to the natural environment and will encounter some foundational texts, such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. At the same time, students will learn about the need, as Carolyn Finney has written, to “fashion new narratives that are inclusive and reflective of our past and offer new possibilities by expressing and acknowledging the complexity of our stories and the meanings we attach to them.” This means looking at the work of Finney and others who point out how history has written some groups out of the narrative of environmentalism. Students will examine in depth the work of indigenous activists past and present who have sought to preserve revered spaces from expropriation and privatization. The course will look at groups such as the Water Protectors and the Gen Z activists who sued the federal government for its failure to act on climate change. Students will practice skills in public speaking and persuasive writing; they will also engage in project-based learning around environmental action. This course is open to Juniors enrolled in US History or American Studies (with Instructor permission) and Seniors. Seniors will have priority in scheduling. (Spring semester course)

Honors Philosophy: Practices in Thought and Action

The purpose of this honors elective course is to have students wrestle with the specific areas of philosophical problems and issues, and to gain experience in practicing the act of being a ‘philosopher’. Questions revolving around ethics, determinism, and theories of the self and the collective will be the focal points as students navigate the dynamics of their own thinking. This course is open to Juniors enrolled in US History or American Studies (with Instructor permission) and Seniors. Seniors will have priority in scheduling. (Spring semester course)

Honors The Rise of the Authoritarians

At the Cold War sputtered out at the end of the 1990s, it seemed to many that peace was at hand and democratic institutions were implanting themselves more deeply in much of the world.  From the vantage point of 2019, such sentiment looks terribly naïve.  This course examines the rise of authoritarianism in the 21st century, with a quick glance back to fascism in interwar Europe, and then proceeding to the transformation of Russia from a budding democracy to an autocratic state under Vladimir Putin.  Other key states (Turkey, China, the Philippines, and Brazil, among others) will serve as case studies of authoritarian rule, and finally, we will examine the United States through this lens.  Students interested in global politics, economics, social psychology, and social/traditional media, as well as the surveillance state, are encouraged to consider the course. This course is open to Juniors enrolled in US History or American Studies (with Instructor permission) and Seniors. Seniors will have priority in scheduling. (Spring semester course)

Honors Dialogue for Democracy

What role does journalism play in creating and maintaining a healthy democracy? How might we learn to be more critical media consumers and, in turn, more deeply engaged democratic citizens? In this interdisciplinary course, students will consider these questions as they learn about the history and role of journalism as foundational to democracy. Over the course of the semester, students will study journalistic ethics, media and rhetorical analysis, the history of print media, news in the divided digital age, and core journalistic writing and multimedia production skills. In addition, students will spend time in the community in and outside of school learning from both experienced journalists and local citizens. As part of the CatlinSpeak staff, students will practice writing and publishing for an audience by producing weekly content and one print edition per semester of CatlinSpeak, an award-winning, student-created online news magazine and print newspaper. This is an honors-level year-long class offering .5 Social Studies credit and .5 English credit (which can count toward a senior’s spring-semester English course). This course is open to all grade levels and may be taken more than once for credit. Students who take more than one year of the course will be eligible for editorial and other leadership positions. Open to all Upper School students. (Full year course)

Revolutionaries (Honors Palma Seminar)

What makes a person, an idea, or an event revolutionary? History’s first great “revolutionary,” Copernicus, coined the term in a quite literal manner, by proving that the earth revolved around the sun. Over time, the term extended to our more common association, focusing on individuals armed with weapons and provocative ideas. However, revolutionaries cut across all places, times, and fields, profoundly transforming our understanding of the world through their work in everything from art to mathematics, from political science to astrophysics. This interdisciplinary seminar will examine, problematize, and critique revolutions and revolutionaries, exploring questions like: what makes for a successful revolutionary, what allows for a revolution to be genuinely transformative, and what are the common qualities of revolutions across different fields and disciplines? It culminates in a long-term focus on students developing Social Impact Projects of their own. This is an honors-level year-long class offering 0.5 Social Studies credit and 0.5 English credit (which can count toward a senior’s spring-semester English course). This course is open to all students. (Full year course) 

Please Note: Global Online Academy (GOA) electives do not count toward the 3-year Social Studies Requirement.

9/11 in a Global Context

September 11, 2001 was a tragic day that changed the world in profound ways. In this political science course, students explore the causes of 9/11, the events of the day itself, and its aftermath locally, nationally, and around the world. In place of a standard chronological framework, students instead view these events through a series of separate lenses. (Spring semester course)

Applying Philosophy to Global Issues

This is an applied philosophy course that connects pressing contemporary issues with broad-range philosophical ideas and controversies, drawn from multiple traditions and many centuries. Students use ideas from influential philosophers to examine how thinkers have applied reason successfully, and unsuccessfully, to many social and political issues across the world. In addition to introducing students to the work of philosophers as diverse as Socrates, Confucius, and Immanuel Kant, this course also aims to be richly interdisciplinary, incorporating models and methods from diverse fields including history, journalism, literary criticism, and media studies. Students learn to develop their own philosophy and then apply it to the ideological debates that surround efforts to improve their local and global communities. (Fall semester course)

Business Problem Solving

How could climate change disrupt your production and supply chains or impact your consumer markets? Will tariffs help or hurt your business? How embedded is social media in your marketing plan? Is your company vulnerable to cybercrime? What 21st century skills are you cultivating in your leadership team? Students in this course will tackle real-world problems facing businesses large and small in today’s fast changing global marketplace where radical reinvention is on the minds of many business leaders. Students will work collaboratively and independently on case studies, exploring business issues through varied lenses including operations, marketing, human capital, finance and risk management as well as sustainability. As they are introduced to the concepts and practices of business, students will identify, analyze and propose solutions to business problems, engaging in research of traditional and emerging industries, from established multinationals to startups. (Fall semester course)

Climate Change and Global Inequity

Nowhere is the face of global inequality more obvious than in climate change, where stories of climate-driven tragedies and the populations hit hardest by these disasters surface in every news cycle. In this course students will interrogate the causes and effects of climate change, and the public policy debates surrounding it. (Fall or spring semester course)

Entrepreneurship in a Global Context

How does an entrepreneur think? What skills must entrepreneurs possess to remain competitive and relevant? What are some of the strategies that entrepreneurs apply to solve problems? In this experiential course students develop an understanding of entrepreneurship in today’s global market; employ innovation, design, and creative solutions for building a viable business model; and learn to develop, refine, and pitch a new start-up. Units include Business Model Canvas, Customer Development vs. Design Thinking, Value Proposition, Customer Segments, Iterations & Pivots, Brand Strategy & Channels, and Funding Sources. Students will use the Business Model Canvas as a roadmap to building and developing their own team start-up, a process that will require hypothesis testing, customer research conducted in hometown markets, product design, product iterations, and entrepreneur interviews. An online start-up pitch by the student team to an entrepreneurial advisory committee will be the culminating assessment. Additional student work will include research, journaling, interviews, peer collaboration, and a case study involving real world consulting work for a current business. (Fall or spring semester course)

Gender & Society

This course uses the concept of gender to examine a range of topics and disciplines that might include: feminism, gay and lesbian studies, women’s studies, popular culture, and politics. (Spring semester course)

Genocide and Human Rights

Students in this course study several of the major genocides of the 20th century (Armenian, the Holocaust, Cambodian, and Rwandan), analyze the role of the international community in responding to and preventing further genocides (with particular attention to the Nuremberg tribunals), and examine current human rights crises around the world. Students read primary and secondary sources, participate in both synchronous and asynchronous discussions with classmates, write brief papers, read short novels, watch documentaries, and develop a human rights report card website about a nation in the world of their choice. (Fall semester course)

International Relations

Are China and the U.S. on a collision course for war? Can the Israelis and Palestinians find a two-state solution in holy land? Will North Korea launch a nuclear weapon? Can India and Pakistan share the subcontinent in peace? These questions dominate global headlines and our daily news feeds. In this course, you will go beyond the soundbites and menacing headlines to explore the context, causes, and consequences of the most pressing global issues of our time. Through case studies, you will explore the dynamics of international relations and the complex interplay of war and peace, conflict and cooperation, and security and human rights. Working with classmates from around the world, you will also identify and model ways to prevent, mediate, and resolve some of the most pressing global conflicts. (Fall or spring semester course)

Introduction to Investments

Simulate the work of investors & employ the tools, theories & decision-making that define smart investment in this Online High School Investments Class. (Fall or spring semester course)

Introduction to Legal Thinking

Inspired by GOA’s popular Medical Problem Solving series, this course uses a case-based approach to give students a practical look into the professional lives of lawyers and legal thinking. By studying and debating a series of real legal cases, students will sharpen their ability to think like lawyers who research, write and speak persuasively. The course will focus on problems that lawyers encounter in daily practice, and on the rules of professional conduct case law. In addition to practicing writing legal briefs, advising fictional clients and preparing opening and closing statements for trial, students will approach such questions as the law and equity, the concept of justice, jurisprudence and legal ethics. (Fall or spring semester course)

Macroeconomics

Macroeconomics is the study of economic units as a whole rather than of their individual components. The aggregate unit is usually a national economy and that will be our focus in this course. Students will learn to better understand how to measure national economic activity with concepts like gross domestic product, unemployment and inflation and the strengths and weaknesses of these statistics. Students will then study theoretical methods of influencing national economic activity with monetary and fiscal policy and will learn about some of the controversy surrounding these policy tools. The advantages and disadvantages of international trade and of methods of setting exchange rates will also be introduced. The course will include an individual student investigation of a national economy other than their home country. Students will identify their economic findings and present resolutions in their final report. (Spring semester course)

Microeconomics

In this introduction to microeconomics course, students learn about how consumers and producers interact to form a market and then how and why the government may intervene in that market. Students deepen their understanding of basic microeconomic theory through such methods as class discussion and debate, problem solving, written reflection, and hands-on experience. Students visit a local production site and write a report using the market principles they have learned. Economic ways of thinking about the world will help them better understand their roles as consumers and workers, and someday, as voters and producers. (Fall semester course)

Personal Finance

In this course, students learn financial responsibility and social consciousness. We will examine a wide array of topics including personal budgeting, credit cards and credit scores, career and earning potential, insurance, real estate, financial investment, retirement savings, charitable giving, taxes, and other items related to personal finance. Students will apply their understanding of these topics by simulating real life financial circumstances and weighing the costs and benefits of their decisions. Throughout the course, students will have the opportunity to learn from individuals with varying perspectives and expertise in numerous fields. By reflecting on their roles in the broader economy as both producers and consumers, students will begin to consider how they can positively impact the world around them through their financial decisions. (Fall or spring semester course)

Prisons and the Criminal Law

Criminal courts in the United States have engaged in an extraordinary social experiment over the last 40 years: they have more than quintupled America’s use of prisons and jails. Has this experiment with “mass incarceration” produced more bad effects than good? Is it possible at this point to reverse the experiment without doing even more harm? In this 14-week course, students become familiar with the legal rules and institutions that determine who goes to prison and for how long. Along the way, students gain a concrete, practical understanding of legal communication and reasoning while grappling with mass incarceration as a legal, ethical, and practical issue. In an effort to understand our current scheme of criminal punishments and to imagine potential changes in the system, we immerse ourselves in the different forms of rhetoric and persuasion that brought us to this place: we read and analyze the jury arguments, courtroom motions, news op-eds, and other forms of public persuasion that lawyers and judges create in real-world criminal cases. Topics include the history and social functions of prisons; the definition of conduct that society will punish as a crime; the work of prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges in criminal courts to resolve criminal charges through trials and plea bargains; the sentencing rules that determine what happens to people after a conviction; the alternatives to prison when selecting criminal punishments; and the advocacy strategies of groups hoping to change mass incarceration. The reading focuses on criminal justice in the United States, but the course materials also compare the levels of imprisonment used in justice systems around the world. Assignments will ask students to practice with legal reasoning and communication styles, focused on specialized audiences such as juries, trial judges, appellate judges, sentencing commissions, and legislatures. The work will involve legal research, written legal argumentation, peer collaboration, and oral advocacy. Note: This course is offered through Wake Forest University School of Law and is taught by Ronald Wright, the Needham Y. Gulley Professor of Criminal Law. Students who take this course should expect a college-level workload (8-10 hours a week). (Fall or Spring semester course)

Race & Society

What is race? Is it something we’re born with? Is it an idea that society imposes on us? An identity we perform? A privilege we benefit from? Does our own culture’s conception of race mirror those found in other parts of the world? These are just a few of the questions that students in this course will explore together as they approach the concept of race as a social construct that shapes and is shaped by societies and cultures in very real ways. Throughout the course students will learn about the changing relationship between race and society across time and across cultures. Engaging with readings, films, and speakers from a variety of academic fields (history, sociology, anthropology, literature) students will explore, research, reflect on and discuss the complex set of relationships governing race and society. (Fall or spring semester course)

Religion & Society

Religion is one of the most salient forces in contemporary society but is also one of the most misunderstood. What exactly is religion? How does religious identity inform the ways humans understand themselves and the world around them? How can increased levels of religious literacy help us become more effective civic agents in the world today? Students in this course will conduct several deep dives into specific case studies in order to understand how religious identity intersects with various systems of power, including race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. By engaging with material from a variety of academic fields (history, sociology, anthropology, psychology), students will grapple with the complex ways in which society and religious identity relate to one another. (Spring semester course)