This course supports artists and designers as they learn to construct critical and alternative scenarios in response to historical experiences and events, building concrete connections between the real and the imagined. Each unit includes assigned theory, student selected historic and social research, creation of new scenarios and artifacts, and writing about our own work. For example, after reading about homespun cloth in the American Revolution, Gandhi’s promotion of Khadi, and contemporary trade wars, we imagine structures of trade in imagined worlds and the everyday artifacts that tell the stories of these models. We will explore storytelling as a key design skill, fictional dialogs, butterfly-effect imaginings, and social models of kinship and pluriversality; translating human experience into design decisions. Students will develop key skills in research, collaboration, and presentation, as well as data, cultural, and visual literacy skills.Social Science and History (SSHIS) courses develop students' critical thinking skills through the study of history and the social sciences (e.g. sociology, psychology, economics, political science, anthropology, geography), as well as through contemporary interdisciplines that draw heavily on these fields (e.g. feminist and queer studies, media studies, urban studies, ethnic studies). Subject matter in these courses contributes to students' cultural literacy while instructional materials and classroom assignments introduce basic research problems and techniques.

Visit Workday to view this information.