Georgia State’s most creative and thought-provoking course offerings span a wide range of topics, but they all explore intersections—between the environment and the lab, biotechnology and ethics, the academic world and pop culture. Here’s a sampling of the unique classes faculty are teaching this spring and what students have to say about them.
Photo: Meg Buscema
Genetically Modifying Life | Honors College
TAUGHT BY » Eric Gilbert, Associate Professor of Biology
WHAT IT'S ABOUT » We are in the midst of a living, breathing biotechnology revolution. New tools developed by scientists for modifying cells and organisms have the ability to change our lives and our environment for better and for worse. Imagine, for instance, a world where parents can select the traits their children will have, rather than leaving them up to chance.
In Genetically Modifying Life, students learn about the basics of biotechnology and current developments in the field, including gene therapy, genetically modified foods, reproductive cloning, stem cell biotechnology and gene editing. The course also addresses the social impact and moral considerations of using biotechnology.
WHY IT'S UNIQUE » “The field of biotechnology progresses so rapidly. I love that while the class is going on, new discoveries relevant to the course take place,” Gilbert said. “This year, a scientist in the U.K. was given permission to use new gene editing technology on human cells. Now, whether or not this is a good direction for humans to go is a topic worthy of our consideration, but I love the connections that can be made between subjects we discuss in class and events that are actually occurring in our world. Many of the students who enroll are science majors and typically don’t have a lot of opportunities to share their thoughts about the social relevance or moral aspects of the material they learn. In this class, they do.”
WHAT STUDENTS SAY » “Each class has fostered discussions of biotechnology and the ethics relative to each topic covered,” said Cara Jones, a sophomore biology major. “Unquestionably, the classroom dynamics facilitated an up-close and less intimidating atmosphere, which increased my confidence discussing complex material.”
— LaTina Emerson
Photo: Steven Thackston
Kanye vs. Everybody | College of Arts & Sciences
TAUGHT BY » Scott Heath, Assistant Professor of English
WHAT IT'S ABOUT » Two years ago, in the midst of an ongoing debate about the value of the humanities, Heath had the audacity to turn a generic American poetry seminar into a course about Kanye West. He wanted his students to think about poetry in a way that included hip-hop artists, and he saw Kanye as the perfect connective character to tie modern media technology to poetics, the popular to the academic. The syllabus begins with W.E.B. Du Bois’ concept of “double-consciousness”—the psychological labor of filtering one’s true identity through the lens of a dominant white society—and traces an arc from the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s to the Black Arts Movement of the ’60s and ’70s, to today’s hip-hop culture.
In a recent class discussion about memes and sampling, Heath showed students a dozen painters’ interpretations of “Leda and the Swan,” then shifted to an analysis of Kanye’s Twitter feed, where the rapper has been engaged in a public revision of his most recent album. Both phenomena involve artists taking a piece of cultural information from another time and place, he said, and putting it into a different context as a way of commenting on the original and using it to create something new.
WHY IT'S UNIQUE » “In a certain way, I want to make my students better texters,” Heath said. “You can see the push toward certain types of brevity that aren’t necessarily successful in terms of communicating tone or getting the full idea across, but poetry is a study of the economy of language. In practical terms, isn’t that what we’re working toward, training a generation of students to go into the workforce understanding how media and information technology work, how culture works? I think that’s what the humanities are about, to understand what our histories have been, what our futures could be. So I like to put the poems on the projector and think about how we can occupy our screens and shift the discourse, and make it useful for our humanities—and for our humanity.”
WHAT STUDENTS SAY » “Dr. Heath makes the past relevant, which is what I love in professors,” said Christian Bowman, an English major who will graduate in December. “It's one thing to learn about art and writings of the past, but sometimes it becomes disconnected. If we learn about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) of the ’60s as it relates to civil rights, it can seem a bit trite and beaten. This, of course, does not undermine the importance of learning about these things, but if you were to learn about SNCC and apply that to the Black Lives Matter movement of today, it becomes a bit more relevant.”
— Erin Crews
Photo: Carolyn Richardson
Exposure Assessment | School of Public Health
TAUGHT BY » Christina Fuller, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health
WHAT IT'S ABOUT » Every day, we come in contact with toxic and sometimes carcinogenic pollutants in numerous ways: inhalation, absorption through our skin, ingestion in food and drink. Not to mention kids who put all sorts of things in their mouths, including soil that could be contaminated.
In this course, students learn the theory behind assessing human exposure to chemicals and the practical skills to test for such exposures. They use techniques that prepare them to take samples of air, water, food and soil, and then test the samples for contaminants. Each semester, teams of students go into the community to conduct a research project they have designed themselves.
This semester, those projects include taking water samples from the North Fork of Peachtree Creek to check for dangerous bacteria, taking soil samples from playgrounds to test for lead and visiting several eateries to find out if there is bacteria in the hand-held soda guns common in restaurants and bars. Students collect samples, then bring them back to Georgia State’s labs to run tests.
WHY IT'S UNIQUE » “It brings research on environmental health from the abstract into the real world,” Fuller said. “Students select a research question, test it, examine the results and draw conclusions. They get a taste of the practical challenges involved in research.”
WHAT STUDENTS SAY » “I'm interested in drinking water quality in developing countries, where they use a lot of surface water sources, so this course is a great start,” said Master of Public Health student Diana Orquiola, who plans to pursue a career in water quality. “It's different than most classes because of the required fieldwork and lab work for the project we’re completing. It's been great getting out of the classroom and applying what we have learned in the field.”
— Anna Varela
Photo: Bill Roa
Perspectives on Global Migration | Perimeter College
TAUGHT BY » Mary Helen O'Connor, Assistant Professor of English
WHAT IT'S ABOUT » As Europe struggles to cope with an influx of more than a million migrants and refugees since the beginning of 2015, students in this class use social science research methods to explore issues of migration, immigration, asylum and refugee identity. The course examines the political, cultural and psychological consequences of forced migration since the 1951 United Nations’ Refugee Convention, offering perspectives beyond the news headlines to acknowledge the complexity of global migration issues, with a focus on the impact of forced migration on local communities. Students interview local refugees and immigrants to learn firsthand about the experiences of individuals navigating everything from grocery stores, schools, churches, mosques and community centers to new jobs, languages and new freedoms.
WHY IT'S UNIQUE » “The Clarkston Campus is in the heart of one of the 13 refugee resettlement areas designated by the U.S. federal government, which means my students are uniquely able to evaluate the impact of forced migration on our community,” O’Connor said. “Clarkston is an example of a vibrant community welcoming thousands of refugees each year, and this class enables students to explore how migration and immigration issues play out here, as well as throughout the world.”
WHAT STUDENTS SAY » “I decided to take this class because it is a real issue that’s been happening for decades and currently taking place around the globe,” said Mohamud “Kaka” Haji, a Somalian refugee. “We do a lot of hands-on experimentation, and Dr. O’Connor requires us to go out and participate in community service projects, which I’m more than happy to do.”
— Kysa Anderson Daniels
Photo: Steven Thackston
Products Liability and Safety | College of Law
TAUGHT BY » Timothy D. Lytton, Distinguished University Professor, College of Law
Martin Grace, Regents Professor of Risk Management & Insurance, Robinson College of Business
Terry Pechacek, Professor of Health Management & Policy, School of Public Health
WHAT IT'S ABOUT » Lytton holds up a seemingly nondescript grill brush and then photos of surgical scars. “The company that produces these brushes has received three complaints from consumers who were seriously injured after ingesting wire bristles. The bristles detached while being used to clean grills, and then stuck to food that was cooked on the grill. All three victims required surgery to extract the bristles. Your client, the manufacturer, has sold 10,000 of these brushes. What advice do you have about a corrective action plan? Should a recall be issued?”
It’s the topic of the day in Products Liability and Safety, which has also examined exploding cars, “gluten-free” Cheerios contaminated with wheat dust, shampoo that causes hair loss, window blind cords that strangle small children and more. The course provides an interdisciplinary regulatory science approach to products liability litigation and introduces students to the larger context of product safety, which includes regulation by government agencies, business supply-chain management, private standard setting by trade associations and insurance underwriting.
In one class, students simulated pretrial settlement negotiations related to a foodborne illness outbreak traced to Salmonella contamination of raw chicken parts. Students representing injured plaintiffs, the chicken processor, a major retailer and an insurance company negotiated a multi-party settlement. Such exercises teach students how to advise clients, engage in motion practice, argue in front of juries, conduct settlement negotiations and lobby legislatures and policymakers.
WHY IT'S UNIQUE » The course teaches students to apply careful legal analysis to “contexts where you are missing information and people have made prior mistakes that you need to clean up,” Lytton said. “Typical law classes tend to deal with issues that have solutions, and you have to figure out what the solution is. In the real world, lawyers tend to deal with issues that have solutions but someone missed the opportunity to solve the problem, and now there is a bigger problem.”
Having three professors is also unique. Grace and Pechacek offer an added dimension of business and public health concerns and implications of legal decisions that isn’t available in many classes, Lytton said.
WHAT STUDENTS SAY » “Professor Lytton’s method of teaching—where lessons are done at home and homework is done in class—makes for much more interesting class time,” said student Jessica Leach. “He has said, ‘If you come to class and feel like you’re in the hot seat for an hour and 15 minutes, good. It should feel that way.’”
“The class is also unique because he has arranged for several attorneys involved in ongoing products liability cases to talk to our class via Skype. In the lesson in food safety litigation, we Skyped with Bill Marler in Seattle, who is representing victims in the Chipotle outbreaks. In the lesson on gun industry litigation, we Skyped with Joshua Koskoff, who is representing the victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.”
— Stacey Evans