This course explores a wide range of literature for young adults, along with social and literary criticism that help to illuminate the impact of this literature. Through readings and discussion of both current and classic literature, students identify why literature is a powerful tool and how it can help young adults shape their lives. Learners respond to young adult literature through written analyses and critiques.

This course provides students with an in-depth study of how the portrayal of people with disabilities of many kinds - physical, emotional, social, and mental - in literature is reflective of the social and historical context in which it was written. Students apply close textual analysis of the imagery used to describe people with disabilities and evaluate the cultural attitudes this use of language reveals. Students read literature written by both disabled and non-disabled authors and analyze the ways that many stereotypical portrayals of disability undermine the disability community. Questions of how a culture decides what is "normal," how portrayals of the disability experience in literature differ between adults and children, and how the advocacy role is portrayed in literature are also examined. The goal of this course is to discover how literature can challenge our own assumptions about the experience of the disabled by contemplating what ultimately makes us human.

A successful financial manager focuses on maximizing shareholder wealth, while also considering other stakeholders such as employees and communities. This course utilizes financial formulas, tables, and spreadsheets to focus on the financial functions of analysis, planning and decision-making, and control. Topics may include financial statement analysis and forecasting, working capital policy, cost of capital and capital budgeting techniques, interaction with financial markets, and time value of money techniques. NOTE: MTH 504 Statistics is recommended.

This course addresses the characteristics of contemporary American society as a product of major developments, policies, conflicts, and legislation that occurred from 1865 to the present. Major topics include: reconstruction after the Civil War, industrialization and its consequences, themes and patterns of American foreign policy, the Progressive era and the New Deal, World War II, the Cold War, America's role in the era of globalism, and domestic and foreign policy developments since World War II. Students will have the opportunity to use primary and secondary sources to explore multiple perspectives and interpretations of this period in history.