Navigating the course catalog: A look at fun classes for fall term.

An empty lab room in Olin Science Center on the Salem campus, on April 1, 2025. Photo by Sofie Szigeti

Course selection is coming up! While this means that some are locked into required courses, others might be looking for a class or two to fill in the gaps. There are so many fun and interesting classes being offered next term, it can be hard to choose. Here are a few that professors and students on campus find interesting:

INTST-199 Top: Negotiation and Diplomacy with professor Greg Felker

Instead of focusing on the subject matter of international or comparative politics, this class is focused on the more practical aspects and skills that are involved in negotiation and diplomacy. Professor Greg Felker describes the class as “learning by doing.” Students in this class will take part in a two-credit course teaching the material and a one-credit lab in which they are given the opportunity to exhibit what they have learned. This lab consists of a model United Nations, where students simulate the United Nations structure, each representing a different country and using negotiation and diplomatic skills learned in class to properly navigate the situations. This well-rounded class is the perfect way for students to further their understanding of international studies and comparative politics through application in modeled to real-life situations and examples. 

ENGL-101W Multi Ethnic Adolescents with professor Janet Cho

English 101W classes come in a multitude of formats, but they all share the goal of providing students with the critical thinking and writing skills necessary to navigate their college journeys. In this particular iteration of the class, professor Janet Cho’s goal is to provide students with these tools while also giving them unique opportunities to express themselves and relate to the characters that they read about. Cho said this course was best served as a 100-level class because “most of the students [in 101W] are first- and second-year students. Their memories and experiences as high schoolers or teenagers are very much alive in comparison to juniors or seniors, so they can make connections between the characters’ experiences with their own experiences.” Through better connection to the source material and engaging projects such as zine or podcast assignments, this class is designed to provide a memorable English 101 experience. This writing-centered class is a great opportunity for students to accomplish both their Writing Program and Arts and Humanities requirements.

HIST-131W Demand Democracy 17th c. with professor Sammy Basu

This course covers the English Revolution spanning from 1640-1651, ending with the beheading of King Charles the first. Professor Sammy Basu, who teaches the course, describes this time as “a fun period — it's surprisingly modern; it’s surprisingly radical.” What makes this revolution so particularly interesting is the new form of media that was erupting during this time: print. Through this medium and expanding literacy rates, the people living under the monarchy were given a voice for mass communication. This explosion of literature served to educate the lower classes at the time and today serves as a useful tool for students, providing them with a plethora of primary sources to learn from. Basu commented on this unique course, sharing that “even though this is a 100-level class, this is a chance for students to actually work with primary source documents … and try to make sense of this stuff themselves.” With this class, students can chip away at their Social Science requirement. 

BIOL-246 Human Anatomy with professor Lucas Ettinger

In Human Anatomy, students will be given the tools to learn the human musculoskeletal, neural and organ systems. While this course might seem daunting based on the title alone, students like Sage Julia Miller (’27) are excited for the opportunity to take the class. Miller said, “I guess [that this class is] not what typically draws people, but I think it's really cool,” adding, “You get to look [and learn] about bones! So cool!” Human Anatomy is a great course for students interested in going into the medical field; it also fulfills the Natural Science distribution credits.

SOC-199-01 Top: Sociology of Gender with professor Sarah Chivers

Open to students of all disciplines, this intro course takes a deep dive into the sociology of gender. Starting first with how gender is a part of our identities as something that we express, the course then moves on to focus on how gender is an aspect of our everyday interactions that is contextually and relationally specific before then moving on to talk about how these gender identities and expressions structure our institutions and shape structures of power. Professor Sarah Chivers, who will be teaching this class in the fall, said that “through this process, we try to build connections with each other around both our personal experiences and the larger structural force in society that can strain a lot of choices that we think that we have in society.”

These examples are only a small sample of the incredible courses being offered for the fall term of 2025; the remaining classes are available for viewing on the course catalog. With class registration dates rapidly approaching, there is not much to say other than, “May the odds be ever in your favor.”