Fall 2025 HUMA 122
WHO SHOULD VOTE?

W. CALEB MCDANIEL
Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Humanities and Professor of History

Questions surrounding the ballot box are as contested today as they have ever been in the history of our democracy. Here are just a few that recent thinkers have considered: Should voting be required? Should the voting age be changed? Should felons forfeit their ability to vote, or do even prisoners have a right to participate in elections? Should voting be easier to do, or do more requirements protect the integrity of the ballot? Should non-citizens also be able to vote, at least some of the time? Should the Electoral College even exist at all? These are questions about what democracy itself means, as well as ethical questions about rights, responsibility and power. Philosophy and political theory can help us develop some answers. But questions about who should vote also have a history. Can the study of the past help us think about big questions in the present? 

Fall 2025 HUMA 138
WHERE IS ASIA?

SIDNEY LU
Annette and Hugh Gragg Associate Professor, Department of Transnational Asian Studies

PAULA PARK
Associate Professor of Latin American Studies, Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures

Who and what should be considered Asian? This course examines past and present migratory movements within Asia and Asian diasporas in other parts of the world, with a focus on Hawaii, the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. It also explores the diverse ways Asian food and cultural productions have circulated and blended with those in the Americas. The course helps students understand the meaning of Asia and Asian cultures in the globalized world.