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The Good Life Course Pairing

Encountering the Past (HS 100) 

Why does history matter? This course explores why the study of the past is essential for understanding our present. Through the lens of a single historical topic that varies by instructor, students are introduced to what it means to think like a historian and weave compelling stories. Along the way, students learn to ask critical questions, to evaluate evidence, to make persuasive arguments, and to write clearly and cogently. The course introduces students to how and why histories are produced, but more than that, it sets out to provide new ways of thinking about the human experience and about our place in the world today.

Faculty biography

Coming Soon!

Philosophical Perspectives: Gender and Nature (PL 232)

This course examines the concept of nature with particular attention to how ideas about hierarchy, gender, and violence have affected our relationship to the natural world. We will particularly focus on the links of oppression between humans and nature, and humans and animals. Some of the issues we will discuss include gender and animals; gender and race aspects of environmentalism in popular culture; women and climate change; women and environmental disasters; gender and urban environment; and global economy, nature, and gender.

Faculty biography

Dr. Selin Gursozlu grew up in Istanbul and received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from State University of New York at Binghamton. She held a three year post-doctoral teaching position at Villanova University before coming to Loyola in 2014. Her main areas of philosophical interest are Ethics, Feminist Philosophy, and Social and Political Philosophy.!

Mentor biography

Andrea Hoffman is the Assistant Director for Student-Athlete Support Services, responsible for advising, mentoring, and supporting student-athletes at Loyola. Originally from Missouri, she received her B.S. in Finance at the University of Missouri, and her M.Ed. in Sport Administration at Xavier University, and has worked in universities in Missouri, Michigan, and Washington, DC. In her spare time she finds herself reading, hiking, and traveling (she's been to over 45 states in the U.S.)!

Mentor biography

Tom Patterson has worked at Loyola since 1994 and is currently an Associate Director in the Office of Financial Aid. He graduated from Loyola in 1993 with a B.A. in Sociology. He was raised in Towson, MD and now lives in Severna Park, MD with his wife Suzi. They have two daughters who graduated from Saint Joseph's University in Philly.

Virtual Advisor

HS 100 satisfies the History core requirement for all students. Students who choose this pairing will be pre-registered for PL 201 in the fall semester as a pre-requisite to PL 232.