Online Courses

A range of disciplinary perspective on key topics in contemporary African Studies: nationalism and pan-Africanism, imperialism and colonialism, genocide and famine, development and democratization, art and music, age and gender. 

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 12:30PM – 2:35PM (ET)

Prerequisite: AP Biology 

CELLBIO 451 is taught by a faculty member from Duke's medical school and is targeted to students interested in entering health professions, although all students with a basic biology background are welcome. Previous students have found this course useful in preparation for the MCAT. Learn basic concepts and principles underlying the physiologic function of each organ system and their integration to maintain homeostasis.  We use the application of physiologic principles to clinical scenarios to reinforce the content. 

This is an online course. Instead of lectures, students watch videos from the Coursera course, Introductory Human Physiology on their own time. Powerpoint slides, lecture notes, and practice problems are also provided via Coursera.

Students work on weekly cases with team members. Every week there is a Q&A session via Zoom to discuss the cases and answer any student questions. The timing of the Q&A session during the week is based on student availability.

There are 3 multiple choice exams and no comprehensive final. The three exams and class participation from the Zoom sessions determine the grade for this course.

Asynchronous Online 

High school seats are limited. Apply early. 

This course is a critical examination of Apple’s development from a Silicon Valley garage operation to a company with unprecedented global reach, the richest and arguably most powerful company in the world today. We begin with a brief history of Apple in Silicon Valley, focusing on the making of the infamous “1984” MacIntosh Super Bowl video, and how this creates a discourse of digital utopianism and the belief that tech companies like Apple will create a new kind of computer user, one imaginatively anti-totalitarian. We set this against an alternative reading of “a people’s history” of Silicon Valley.

From here we do a deep dive into a series of case studies about the Apple supply chain and its production processes, focusing first on the mining for the many minerals that make Apple (and other) products and devices fire. We then turn to Foxconn factories in China. It was only when Apple moved its production to China in the 2000s, which coincided with the largest rural-urban human migration in history and the creation of “special economic zones,” that Apple began to dominate the global market share of computers and digital devices. Apple continually celebrates the genius of its design, its marketing, and its commitment to sustainability and yet, at the same time, because of the labor practices along its supply chain, it has ignited protest. We will study migrant work in factories, debate who is responsible for highly toxic working conditions and brutal labor conditions. We examine activist research groups, led by students and scholars, mostly based in Hong Kong and China, who challenged Apple through highly visible media campaigns and direct-action protest. We end with a consideration of the role of migrant worker poetry in writing and speaking against companies like Foxconn, Apple, and others.

This course is also interested in political, ethical, and philosophical issues related to how people around the world relate to digital devices that organize everyday life. Do we own them, or do they own us? What new forms of sociality, intimacy, power, voyeurism, and surveillance are they creating? What about privacy, data storage, and the massive energy consuming cloud storage facilities now being constructed around the world, including in North Carolina? Are we complicit in global systems of “digital slavery,” and, if so, what can be done about it? We will weigh these questions against the indisputable fact that companies like Apple, at the forefront of our global digital revolution, have transformed the way we communicate, share information, love, date, dream, and desire.

Is it still possible to think different?
 

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 2:00PM – 4:05PM (ET)

Prerequisite: AP Literature 

We often ask about the meaning of a story, but stories are not explanations. The whole story is the meaning. There is no plot. Similarly, a poem is a two-way mirror that evokes a reaction in the reader—a poem does not exist to be understood. In this class we will investigate how the choices we make as writers do more than propel a narrative forward. We will write short stories, personal narratives and poems, and we will workshop original work in groups and as a class. This course will explore the craft of the three forms but will also pay close attention to dynamic work that lies between or beyond these structures. Students will read and respond in class to a range of literary and creative texts. Students will also submit a final portfolio of creative work. Grades will be based on class participation, discussion, weekly writing prompts, workshop submissions and participation, and a revised final portfolio.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 12:30PM – 2:35PM (ET)

Basic ethical concepts involved in political organization and in a variety of periods, such as equality, human dignity and rights, source of political obligation, political education. Discussion of contemporary problems. Examination of contemporary viewpoints such as liberalism and feminism. 

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 2:00PM – 4:05PM (ET) 

This course provides the opportunity to tackle life’s toughest questions – How do I develop a meaningful life in an uncertain world? How am I going to make a place for myself? How can I add value? Where am I going? Why does everyone else have it figured out (spoiler – they don’t)? Develop Your Life leverages small group learning, self-reflection, exploration, and discussion to address these questions in a supportive and encouraging environment. This seminar is unique in that not knowing the answers is the point, and is encouraged. In an engaging environment, we step off the assembly line to intentionally think about our lives, where we want to go and how we get there.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 2:00PM – 4:05PM (ET)

Climate change is in the forefront of political concerns worldwide, with natural resources increasingly threatened and life becoming difficult or unsustainable. But climate change is not something new in American public policy. From the time Europeans landed and began a relentless expansion West, the land and its vast resources changed, leaving Americans today with ravishing fires, water shortages, foul air and a desperate need to find renewable ways to sustain a burgeoning population’s essentials. Disregard for indigenous populations, willful destruction of land, justifying capitalistic expansion in the name of God, and trying to control nature with human engineering are not new actions.  Take a deep dive into history and reach your own conclusions about what climate change is and whether solutions are possible.

Assignments: 

• Four short (2 pages) response papers, each chosen from a number of offerings.  10% each, 40% final grade
• Analysis of any two books and three videos in syllabus, 5 pages, 20% final grade
• Project of choice -- a long research paper (20 pages), a visual project, design of a community project.  Must include a 1 page explanation of choice and relevance.  May work with another student if willing to get same grade.  40%

Asynchronous Online 

In this course, we will explore the intersections between hip hop, black futurity, science-fiction, and visions of the end of the world. We will focus on hip hop artists who draw themes from fantasy and speculative fiction to both re-make sense of the present and to imagine a radically different future. We will explore how these artists invent personas, identify with the alien, invoke space ships from other planets, and blur the line between human and non-human. While the course underscores themes of futurity and possibility, we will also examine how these themes respond to enduring conditions of racial, gender, and sexual oppression. Artists we will focus on include: Outkast, Janelle Monae, Erykah Badu, and MF Doom.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 12:30PM – 2:35PM (ET)