Course Descriptions

•  Gen Ed. Attribute: Quantitative Literacy
• Instructor: Dr. Sarah Greenwald
• Whether it is counting the number of stars, understanding why the Benjamin Franklin fund never earned its intended money, or managing the uncertainty inherent in polling and medical testing, many real-life situations require the critical and creative analysis of a variety of mathematical interpretations in order to fully consider the implications. This course focuses on local to global connections related to the application of geometry, algebra, probability, and statistics as you develop creative inquiry skills, research techniques, and communication skills. You’ll also explore what mathematics is, what it has to offer, and the diverse ways that people can be successful in mathematics and impact the world (including you!), as we study:
• Personal Finance: How we apply algebra to interest formulas and decisions we make about our own lives.
• Geometry of our Earth and Universe: How we measure and view the world around us and decide what is the nature of reality.
• Consumer Statistics and Probability: How probability and statistical techniques allow us to recognize the misrepresentations of studies and make public and private policy decisions.
• What is Mathematics? To reflect more broadly about the course themes as we tie the segments together, you can choose a topic you are interested in and research how mathematics relates to it or you can design a creative review of what we covered in class. You will communicate your expertise in a video project session. 

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 1010.410

• Gen Ed. Attribute: UCO 1200 and RC 1000
• Instructor: Professor Jess Martell
• Time: TR 11:00 am-1:45 pm & TR 2:00 pm-3:15 pm

What is the impact of everyday food choices on the health of the planet? In this course, students will learn about the US food system and discuss its benefits and shortcomings, from public health and food access to environmental ethics and sustainability challenges. Students will be assessed through research and writing assignments and an active learning portfolio that includes a presentation, cooking activities, and working with a local nonprofit organization. 

This course requires a commitment to working at a local nonprofit for part of the semester.

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 1103.410

• Gen Ed. Attribute: UCO 1200 and RC 1000
• Instructor: Professor Joe Gonzalez
• Time: TR 2:00 pm-3:15 pm & TR 11:00 am-1:45 pm

Democracy is under attack. Both in the United States and Western Europe, substantial numbers of citizens express disillusion with or contempt for democratic governance. Tens of millions believe that the presidential election of 2020 was "stolen" from their candidate, absent compelling evidence. And young people (by some measures) express the greatest degree of indifference, refusing to participate in important democratic and civic rituals, such as voting.

This semester we will consider how we came to this point--and what we can do about it. In the best traditions of the Watauga Residential College, we will explore the foundations upon which our republic was created, some of the crises it has endured, and its current state. Just as important, we will investigate democratic institutions locally, nationally, and globally, all the while critically interrogating the U.S. Constitution and local organizations, such as schools, newspapers, and service clubs, that contribute to our civic life. We will also meet with local leaders, the people who make democracy "work" on a daily basis. Students will conclude the semester by redesigning the U.S. Constitution for the 21st Century.

*Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 1103.412

This course will meet the Foundations of American Democracy requirement

• Gen Ed. Attribute: UCO 1200 and RC 1000
• Instructor: Professor Michael Dale
• Time: MW 2:00 pm-3:15 pm & TR 11:00 am-1:45 pm

Love and death are oftentimes experienced as seismic upheavals in our lives; we are changed in puzzling, perhaps even mysterious ways by these two forces, sometimes delightfully and sometimes terrifyingly or painfully. In love, suddenly someone or something that perhaps we did not even know existed comes into our life and now is seen and felt as a presence we cannot imagine living without. In death, as the poet Gerald Manley Hopkins puts it, "I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day." How should we see and understand the experiences and transformations wrought by love and death? The question is especially important in a society that frequently trivializes love, and at times and in some circumstances, makes death something to either be avoided, not spoken of, or a spectacle of entertainment.

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 1103.413

• Gen Ed. Attribute: UCO 1200 and RC 1000
• Instructor: Professor Audrey Fessler
• Time: TR 11:00 am-1:45 pm & TR 2:00 pm-3:15 pm

Historian David Shi identifies the “process of forging an American identity” as one of the “overarching themes of the early American republic [that] continues to resonate today.” Late-18th-century political writings such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution grounded this unitary (and therefore exclusionary) effort. In the early 1800s, Irving, Cooper, Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, and others began to establish a canon of “American” literature; in 1828, Webster published the first American Dictionary of the English Language, which sought to identify and consolidate a specifically “American” language. How did subsequent writers and artists in other media appropriate, challenge, expand, redefine, and otherwise respond to foundational conceptions of “an American identity”? In answering this question, we will explore a wide range of 19th-century short stories, novels, poems, slave narratives, dream narratives, speeches, paintings, cartoons, songs, and folk art productions, and will visit local museums and attend local artistic performances together.

Students will also research little-known paintings by important American artists and write label texts that may be permanently displayed with those paintings in an area museum. We will travel to the museum three times to work with the curators there. Through this project, each classmate’s research and writing can reach and benefit thousands of museum-goers over time!

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 1103.414

• Instructor: Professor Laura Ammon

A senior capstone experience on Watauga Residential College, with an emphasis on demonstrated understanding of the College in relation to the history of residential colleges and on the development of projects or procedures to improve the residential college experience for future students. This course is the culminating course of the Minor in Experiential, Integrative Learning.

• This course will explore some of the ways in which American literature intersects with historical and scientific concerns of climate change and the environment. We will consider how narrative as a way of making meaning of our experience informs, questions, and constructs our stories about our own sense of place and the natural world in which we live. This course uses long and well-established traditions of American Studies to cross disciplinary boundaries and think about how America becomes America in relation to its environment, landscape, and climate.  Throughout the semester, we will examine how our relationship to a geographic space is as much about our lived experience, as it is about ideas of governance or beliefs in liberty and equality. From the 17th century to the present, who we are is almost always where we are in America, and where we are is affected, always radically, by consequences of our cognition, as well as our mere presence.  Students will be required to purchase hard copies of the following texts:
• John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
• Octavia Butler, The Parable of the Sower
• Richard Powers, Bewilderment

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 2201.411

• Gen Ed Designation:  Historical Studies designation and Intercultural Literacy
• Instructor: Professor Jess Martell

  “Transatlantic Ireland" explores the interconnected histories of Ireland, the US South, and Appalachia. Students will watch Derry Girls, research items in Belk Library's Special Collections, and learn how to create their own oral history. 

Also, in Summer 1 2027, Dr. Martell will lead a 2-week study abroad program in Ireland and Northern Ireland. The application process will begin in October 2026. Interested students are strongly encouraged to enroll in WRC 2202.

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 2202.411

• Gen Ed Attribute: SS Designation and Humanity and Its Systems
• Instructor: Professor Mark Nunes

 Whether you are an avid gamer or a dabbler in Wordle, games occupy an important role in popular culture and in everyday life. This course will focus (almost) exclusively on video games--that is, games that are designed for and played on computers, consoles, phones, and other digital devices. We will start off by considering what a game is, and what it means to play. How do games build (story)worlds, and how do we inhabit and engage with these worlds? We will explore how rules, game mechanics, design elements, and digital affordances shape our experience of gaming and gameplay. We will also discuss the social, economic, psychological, and cultural elements of gamers and gaming — the myths and moral panics, as well as the pleasures of gaming and the joy of play.

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 3000.410.

• Gen Ed Designation: Fine Arts designation and Sustainability and Climate Literacy
• Instructor: Professor Aaren Grant

As a group, we will explore the production, function, and consumption of art.  Methodologies and processes from artists across disciplines will be examined while we cultivate our own interdisciplinary creative practices.  We will reflect on the ways art reflects, impacts and captures its moment in time in the world. No artistic talent is required, but students should arrive with an open curiosity about how, when, where, and why art happens.

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 3203.410.

• Gen Ed Attribute: Humanity & Its Systems, Literary Studies Designation
• Instructor: Professor Laura Ammon

Myths are the stories we tell about the world, exploring and explaining humanity's place in the past, the present, and the future, offering insights into what it means to be human. This course will explore various expressions of myth, from the Aztecs to Black Panther, and how these myths construct meaningful imaginative worlds within specific historical, cultural, and literary contexts. We will cover an assortment of myths, rituals, and symbols that shape the worldviews of various communities, investigating conflict, syncretism, and hybridity in different global encounters, and how that conflict affects the stories humans tell about their place in the world. This investigation is necessarily an interpretive journey involving theoretical approaches to the role of mythology in human cultures and religions.

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 3401.410.

• Instructor: Professor Laura Ammon

A senior capstone experience on Watauga Residential College, with an emphasis on demonstrated understanding of the College in relation to the history of residential colleges and on the development of projects or procedures to improve the residential college experience for future students. This course is the culminating course of the Minor in Experiential, Integrative Learning.

• Gen Ed Designation: Intercultural Literacy and Literary Studies Designation
• Instructor: Dr. Jessica Martell

SELF VS. SOCIETY. That is the primary conflict of the bildungsroman, a German term for “novel of education” that is sometimes called a “coming-of-age” story. Our course explores this famous literary genre as it modernizes, circulates the globe, and is translated into visual media like graphic novels and film. Course texts feature feminist, queer, Jewish, and indigenous coming-of-age stories. Sometimes our narrators’ plights will feel familiar, and sometimes they won’t. But their stories reveal tragedy, enlightenment, suffering, love, and truths about the world that mainstream stories can’t. This is because the young heroes struggle to conform to social expectations created by colonialism, patriarchy, and political oppression: their stories expose the flaws of these ideologies and challenge the status quo. Students will be introduced to basic concepts from critical theories like LGBTQ+/queer studies, feminism, and postcolonialism. In addition to weekly quizzes and in-class writing, classwork includes active class participation, a research-based assignment, a group presentation, and an active learning portfolio.

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 1104.410.

• Gen Ed Designation: Intercultural Literacy and Literary Studies Designation
• Instructor: Dr. Michael Dale
• Time:  TR 11:00 am to 1:45 pm  & MW 2:00 pm -3:15 pm

In 1952, Rachel Carson received the National Book Award for The Sea Around Us. In her acceptance speech, she explained: The aim of science is to discover and illuminate the truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography, history or fiction. It seems to me, then, that there can be no separate literature of science … If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.

Living in relationships with the natural world (land, oceans, and the larger universe of galaxies and star systems) and reaching for an understanding of nature provides fertile ground for novelists, short-story writers, and writers of narrative non-fiction. In this seminar, we will explore and examine the intellectual and emotional landscape of fictional and non-fiction beings as they are immersed in and navigate the world of science and nature. What happens when the sciences and humanities meet? What do we learn about science and the all-too-human human beings who pursue scientific knowledge and understanding when both are brought together on the landscapes of novels, short stories, poems, and essays? What do we hear from the voices of science and scientists in narrative literature and poetry?

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 1104.411.

• Gen Ed Designation: Liberal Studies Experience and Literary Studies Designation
• Instructor: Dr. Audrey Fessler
• Time: TR 11:00 am - 1:45 pm & MW 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm

This course will range across many eras and cultures to explore diverse monsters and their psychological and social functions. Andrew J. Hoffman, in his anthology Monsters, posits that "Monsters are not merely entertainment. The study of monsters is the study of what it means to be human in a world that provides much to fear and avoid. Since time immemorial, people have had to deal with fear: fear of the wild, fear of the unknown, even fear of each other. Monsters may be a repository for much that is negative in human experience. In this way, monsters provide us with the opportunity to connect to important issues of society, psychology, science, medicine, art, and religion" (3). Analyses by scholars from many fields—including classical studies, critical studies, cultural anthropology, history, monster theory (yes!), sociology, philosophy, psychology, religion, and urban theory—will inform our responses to primary sources of monster lore. Coursework will include weekly reading reflections, frequent quizzes, occasional leadership of portions of class discussion, and two research projects with accompanying research presentations.

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 1104.412.

• Gen Ed Designation: Intercultural Literacy and Literary Studies Designation
• Instructor: Dr. Maria Pramaggiore
• Time: TR 11:00 am - 1:45 pm & TR 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm

The central focus of this course is the way that using the humanities offer us ways of paying attention to the world. We will use humanities methods of reading, writing, looking, listening, interviewing, documenting, interpreting, and collaborating, to creatively encounter, interpret, and respond to our world.

Primary Question: How can creativity help us see, hear, and understand the world differently? What can we make to ethically express, digest and reflect on these experiences?

Our Pathway: What is Creativity? Seeing (Attention), Walking (Place), Making (Place), Listening (Community), Representing (Curation)

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 1104.413.

• Gen Ed Attribute: Sophomore Writing, Fills ENG/RC 2001 requirements
• Instructor: Professor Cary Curlee
• Time: MW 2:00 pm-3:15 pm 

Days in the Life: Mountain Messages will introduce students to writing across the curriculum using poems, essays, short stories, and scientific texts. Readings in the course will touch on spiritual, cultural, and environmental aspects of living in Appalachia and beyond. Our exercises will hone research and analytical skills learned in WRC 1103 while introducing you to writing and reading across academic disciplines. We will take a rhetorical approach to reading and writing across the curriculum and students will engage in more independent work and more involved research. We will read texts from a variety of academic disciplines, including analyses of disciplinary writing in order to identify other writers’ rhetorical choices and discipline-specific writing strategies and conventions. Our writing projects, some of which will entail independent research, will provide you opportunities to make effective choices in your own writing for specific purposes and academic communities, and using various digital methods. Learning to assess different writing situations and make effective context-specific rhetorical choices should prepare you to meet writing challenges in the future, whether it be for another college course, on the job, or for civic or personal reasons.

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 2001.410.

• Gen Ed Attribute: Sophomore Writing, Fills ENG/RC 2001 requirements
• Instructor: Aaren Grant

Think locally, write purposefully, and build community.

Behind every social movement, grassroots organization, and fight for meaningful change are people who use language to tell stories that matter and convince others to join. While writing remains an academic exercise, today it serves an even greater purpose as a tool for resistance, advocacy, and connecting strong communities.

Boone is more than just a college town. It is a community of activists, artists, farmers, organizers, and neighbors who work together to make the High Country a better place to live.

With over 100 nonprofit organizations, Boone is a community organizing hub. Throughout the semester, we will use this to our advantage. Students will go beyond the classroom to see real organizations in action and explore how writing can shape public perception, influence policy, mobilize volunteers, and secure resources for the people who need them.

Throughout the semester, we will explore writing's role in the nonprofit world, from mutual aid efforts to larger organizations, and discuss issues facing Appalachia, such as poverty, homelessness, food insecurity, and environmental justice. Students will turn their ideas into action through grant proposals, fundraising campaigns, community outreach, social media, and storytelling as they create their own fictional nonprofit organizations and present them to real nonprofit professionals at the end of the semester via a community resource showcase.

• Gen Ed Designation: Lit Studies and Humanity and its Systems
• Instructor: Carey Curlee

Coming Soon

• Gen Ed Designation: Fine Arts and Sustainability and Climate Literacy
• Instructor: Dr. Joy James

This course examines the role of art as a response to personal, social, cultural, and environmental issues. Using craftivism as a primary framework, students will explore how creative maker practices can communicate ideas, strengthen community, encourage reflection, and promote positive change. Through readings, discussions, and maker-based projects, students will create a portfolio that demonstrates how making art can serve as both personal expression and meaningful civic engagement.

• Gen Ed Designation: Humanity and its Systems
• Instructor: Dr. Jeffrey Bortz

This course introduces students to the theories and history of poverty, with an emphasis on learning the historical and social contexts of poverty, in part through experiential or service-learning.

Honors students interested in this course should register for WRC 3210.410 cross-listed with HIS 3210 101.

• Instructor: Dr. Mark Nunes

WRC 4001 What does it mean to create and sustain a residential college such as Watauga? This class will explore WRC's past, present, and future, working on creative ways to take integrative, experiential education into the future through appreciation of its past. We will talk with former directors, faculty and alumni as well as connect with other residential colleges.