Course Schedules
2025 - 2026 Course Schedules
- Spring 2026 Class Schedule
- Fall 2025 Class Schedule
- Fall 2025 Selected Topics Course Descriptions
- Summer 2025 Class Schedule
- Summer 2025 Selected Topics Course Descriptions
- Spring 2025 Class Schedule
Note: Albion College students enroll in summer courses using their my.albion.edu portal. No separate application is necessary.
Spring 2026 Special Topics Course Descriptions
| Course Number | Course Title | Units | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
| ART 289 | Beginning Ceramics for Majors/Minors | 1 | Shauna Merriman |
| Description: | A beginning ceramic studio course with clay mixing, more glazes, and additional firing options for students who want more than the MAC, Artistic Category Mode (which is Art 261: Ceramics I). It still serves as a prerequisite to Ceramics II. Like Print or Painting, this course is stacked with all the upper-level Ceramics courses. It is ideal for students who have already taken a studio art course, so they know the Elements and Principles and have been in a Critique. Open to non-majors/minors in Studio Art/Art History with permission. | ||
| BIOL 289 | Neuroscience of Disease | 1 | Roger Albertson |
| Description: | This course examines the nervous system across a spectrum from health to disease, exploring the mechanisms that sustain healthy function, natural variation in brain structure and chemistry across individuals, and how disruptions in these processes lead to neurological disorders. Topics include neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric conditions, the gut-brain connection, and how diet impacts neural function. We examine underlying processes such as protein misfolding, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neuroinflammation. The course explores how understanding these mechanisms informs current research and therapeutic approaches. Prerequisites: BIOL 242 or BIOL 210 |
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| CHEM 389 | Materials Chemistry | 1 | Kevin Metz |
| Description: | Prerequisites: A 200-level chemistry course (CHEM 206, 212 or 214) OR Permission of the Instructor A systematic introduction to the study of the structure and function of inorganic solids. Topics include the fabrication, characterization, and application of metals, semiconductors and insulators on the nano- to macro-scale; with emphasis on energy and environmental applications. Readings will be drawn from the primary literature and numerous textbooks. Laboratory experiences will provide experience in synthesis and spectroscopic analysis of materials. |
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| COMM 389 | Applied Sports Marketing A & B | 2 | Karen Erlandson |
| Description: | Applied Sports Marketing is a DUAL Enrollment course. This means if you register for one course, you are automatically enrolled in the other course. The courses will work together on a Sports Marketing project. More specifically: Description of Applied Sports Marketing Part A: This course will explore the intersection of marketing theory and real-world application within the sports industry. Students will examine foundational marketing concepts, such as consumer behavior, brand management, sponsorship, fan engagement, and Integrated Marketing Communications through the lens of sport. The course will focus on understanding how marketing theories are adapted to meet the unique dynamics of athletes, sports audiences, teams, events, and organizations. In coordination with Applied Sports Marketing B, students will then apply this understanding by developing campaign materials for a real-world client. Students will then test their campaign materials using the iMotions platform, combining all relevant campaign materials and data into a polished report they will present to the client (more details below). Description of Applied Sports Marketing Part B: This lab-based course will introduce students to marketing-specific biosensor research methods. More and more sports marketing firms are using biosensor research as part of their Integrated Marketing approach. Biosensors can provide deep insights into human behavior by providing objective data to help predict campaign success, quantify attention, quantify emotional reactions, and much more. Using the iMotions platform, students will learn how to determine a customer's preferences through hands on experience with eye tracking and facial expression analysis software. These approaches determine the appealing aspects of a product that a consumer looks at, the length of time they stare at these aspects, and other reactions to the product. Students will also learn about other bioresearch techniques available through the iMotions platform, as well as basic survey creation and distribution. In coordination with Applied Sports Marketing A, students will use both iMotions and Survey Design Software to design a study analyzing different marketing stimuli as well as analyzing the data and preparing a report for a real-world client. This is a software heavy course with much of the work involving learning software systems to solve problems, create studies, run participants, and interpret and report results of data. This 2 unit dual enrolled course will count as the following, depending on a student's Communication Studies Major/Minor and degree progress: - A 300-level elective toward the Communication Studies General Major and/or Minor; - A COMM 300 Substitute for the Communication Studies General Major and/or Minor, as well as for the Sport Communication Major; - A COMM 309 Substitute for the Sport Communication Major and/or Minor; - An elective towards the IMC and/or Marketing Major - IMC Emphasis. |
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| E&M 389 | Integrated Financial Standards | 1 | Connie O'Brien |
| Description: | This course revisits topics covered in multiple accounting courses and explores some advanced accounting topics to help students consolidate their knowledge and develop reliable intuitions based on underlying accounting principles. Prerequisites: E&M 212 and E&M 311 or permission of instructor. E&M 312 |
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| ENGL 289 | All Power to the People! Why the Black Panther Party Still Matters | 1 | Nels Christensen |
| Description: | This class will explore literary representations of the Black Panther Party—the most radical and revolutionary anti-racist organization ever. We’ll dig deep into the BPP’s leadership and rank and file membership, its political beliefs, and its militant and loving strategies for defending and lifting up Black folks in a white-supremacist society. | ||
| ETHN 189 | Introduction to Black Studies | 1 | Ari McCaskill |
| Description: | A thematic examination of what has come to be recognized as the discipline of Black Studies. We will identify the historical and political origins and objectives of what was originally Black Studies, the connection between Black Studies and the 1960s Black Liberation struggles, the early academic and social concerns of Black Studies advocates, the theoretical and critical approaches to Black Studies as a discipline, and the early objectives of Black Studies concerning the contemporary goals of multiculturalism. These goals include plurality, democracy, and social and economic justice. We will explore Black literature, history, politics, popular media, and culture (music, magazines, newspapers, and film) to fulfill our objectives. We will spend a good portion of each class exploring the Black American experience through a corrective lens when looking at the past, and connecting the past to more contemporary issues in Black Studies. | ||
| HIST 289 | Greece and Rome from Alexander to Augustus | 1 | Christopher Riedel |
| Description: | This course investigates the pivotal era from Alexander the Great's conquests of the Middle East down to the first emperor Augustus. Explore how Greek culture came to dominate a vast area of the ancient world and how it was then absorbed by the Roman Empire. Examine the complex politics of diplomacy and war through some of the most famous biographies in history, including Alexander and Augustus, but also (in)famous figures like Caesar and Cleopatra as well as a host of other fascinating actors in one of the most dynamic historical eras of all time: the Hellenistic age that built the Great Library of Alexandria and the civil wars that brought down the Roman Republic. | ||
| HIST 389 | History of Medicine in East Asia | 1 | Erica Holt |
| Description: | An in-depth study of indigenous and modern medical practices in China, Korea, and Japan. Spanning the 1800s to the present, it explores medicine as a plural practice, rooted in personal experience, and the transformation of medicine alongside the development of modern biomedical science. A special focus on women's medicine and public health programs. | ||
| KIN 289 | Fundamentals of Athletic Coaching | 1 | Michael Worley |
| Description: | This course introduces the disciplines and subdisciplines central to athletic coaching and coaching aimed at sport performance. The curriculum is divided into four comprehensive learning modules: The Fundamentals of Coaching: This module introduces students to the essential philosophies, ethics, values, and pedagogy required for athletic coaching. Coaching for Performance: This section provides a foundational understanding of the physiology, psychology, and nutrition that are associated with optimal sport performance. The Business of Coaching: Students will focus on management requirements related to student/athletes and staff, including associated requirements, human resources, law and media. Coaching Across Levels: The final module provides students with the fundamentals of coaching throughout the entire coaching profession. This instruction covers coaching at the youth and high school sports levels, as well as collegiate, amateur, and professional sports. | ||
| KIN 389 | Motor Learning and Development | 1 | Collin Garner |
| Description: | This course involves the study of the foundations of motor functions, the development of motor functions across the lifespan, and the refinement of motor skill performance by exploring prominent theories and practices of motor development, learning, and skill assessment. | ||
| MATH 288 | Mathematics of the Gaming Industry | 0.5 | |
| Description: | A detailed study of probability as applied to games of chance. Students will have the opportunity to compare theory and practice through classroom experiments and travel to casinos. Prerequisites: Permission of the Instructor. Open to department majors and minors only. |
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| MATH 389 | Topology with Applications | 1 | Timothy Clark |
| Description: | A modern introduction to point-set topology with applications drawn from topological data analysis. Topics include open and closed sets, limits, continuity, connectedness, compactness, subspaces, product spaces, and quotient spaces. Additional topics include a study of common spaces found in applications along with implementation of persistent homology and Mapper algorithms. Further topics from algebraic topology, homotopy theory, and classical results from point-set topology to be covered as time permits. Prerequisites: MATH 239 and MATH 245, OR permission of the instructor |
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| MUS 189 | Women in Country Music | 1 | Lia Jensen-Abbott |
| Description: | This class is open to students from all academic majors, and will explore the roles of women in country music. The genre of country music has roots in several different cultural frameworks including folk, blues, gospel, rockabilly, Pentecostal, etc. These genres will be explored along with the cultural, socio-political, and historical frameworks which placed women in subjective, oppressive, and repressive roles. The music which emerged by women in the country music field empowers women of all social constructs and tells their rich stories. In fact, this music empowered women through generations of economic, marital, sexual, and professional oppression. Furthermore, the class will also explore current country music trends and how some of the greatest super-stars have used their immense success to create powerful political, social, and cultural change. Critical engagement of women’s issues such as representation of women in musical works, sexualization of body and voice, feminist aesthetics, and the roles of gender in the entertainment industry will focus all class discussions/listening activities. An historical overview of country music and its musical forerunners, combined with the limitations/opportunities for women will give rise to global roles of women in music, as well as current popular/entertainment roles for women in the country music industry will trace the development of the narrative of women’s empowerment and stardom in country music. | ||
| PHIL 289 | Philosophy of Love | 1 | Claudia Hogg-Blake |
| Description: | Love is one of the most important, profound things in life; and yet, it is notoriously hard to articulate just what love is. In this course, we will inquire about the nature of love, addressing some of the central questions that have occupied philosophers of love. In the first part of the course, we will consider various philosophical accounts of the nature of love. We will seek an understanding of love that can account, in particular, for the central role that love plays in human life – the sense in which it is “what makes the world go ‘round.” In the second part of the course, we will consider love’s reasons, asking “why do we love what we love?”, “what does love demand of us?” and “do love’s demands ever conflict with the demands of morality?” In the final part of the course, we will consider love’s objects, asking “Who and what can we love, and what does this teach us about the nature of love?” In the course of our inquiry, we will consider the ways that philosophical reflection – with its focus on conceptual clarity, rational argumentation, and communicative precision – can be enriched by literature and film while, in turn, helping us to better understand themes from literature, film, and life. | ||
| SPAN 287 | Language Acquisition through Games | 0.25 | Kalen Oswald |
| Description: | This course focuses on the examination and application of some of Stephen Krashen’s most salient theories of second language acquisition: namely the comprehensible input hypothesis and the affective filter hypothesis. The student will study the theories and put them into practice by directing weekly small-group activities centered on playing games (“juegos”) while speaking entirely in Spanish. | ||
Previous Course Schedules:
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
Revised Fall 2020 Class Schedule with Instructional Method
New Fall 2020 Registration Instructions
2019
2018
Changes in E&M course numbers, effective Fall 2018
Fall 2018 Selected Topics Course Descriptions
Fall 2018 Honors Program (HSP) Course Descriptions