MCI 100. Negotiation for Success.1 Credit.
This is a one credit course that has been developed based on the premise that everyone is involved in some form of negotiation every day. Negotiation is indeed an essential skill that is called upon frequently in our private as well as professional life. From the shop floor to the boardroom, negotiation is something that one cannot avoid. Knowing how to negotiate, and more importantly, how to manage it well, is the key to increasing sales effectiveness, developing sound working relationships with co-workers, building better customer relations, achieving career goals, and obtaining a higher salary. The course is open to everyone but is designed especially for first-generation college student.
MCI 101. Health, Aging and Intersectionality.1 Credit.
This course explores the intersections between illness, aging and identity. Students will have the opportunity to find new ways to approach, reflect on and talk about topics ranging from aging and disability to issues limiting the health and wellness of underrepresented and marginalized groups through language, poetry and other mediums.
MCI 102. Octavia Butler: Black Feminist Sci Fi Pioneer.1 Credit.
This one-credit course focuses on the best author you've (probably) never heard of. Winner of the MacArthur "Genius Grant" and Hugo and Nebula awards for science fiction, Octavia Butler's short stories and novels focus on blood and biology, power and subjugation. She writes about slavery and time travel, love and space travel, an epidemic cured only by art, and a women captured by aliens who births a new hybrid species. We will discuss the intersection of race and gender in fictional worlds and real ones. We will also consider the purpose of reading literature, as well as what "counts" as literary. This course has no prerequisites and welcomes anyone and everyone who wants to join us.
MCI 103. Higher Education in Prison: Past, Present and Future.1 Credit.
This course focuses on the longstanding, but only recently attended to, field of higher education in prison. Since the late 19th century, higher education institutions and religious institutions have provided myriad educational opportunities for incarcerated people; recently, with justice and education advocates figuring prominently in getting the 1994 Pell ban repealed and movies like "College Behind Bars" being such a success, the spotlight has increased on higher education in prison programs. This course will explore the history of these programs, the current landscape of the field, as well as hear from experts currently building the field into a comprehensive discipline with impacted persons co-leading the charge. This course is open to anyone interested in learning more about higher education in prison.
MCI 104. Women and Body Image in the Age of Social Media.1 Credit.
Throughout this one-credit course, we will learn about the history of mass media and how it has both reflected and reshaped women's body image, with a focus on the rise of social media and how it continues to play a role in women's conceptions of their own body image. We will be reading a number of scholarly articles and books that look specifically at issues of embodiment and the intersection of gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, and social class. We will also be investigating and developing a more positive and sustainable relationship between our own social media usage and our bodies. Please note that this course is not appropriate for anyone who has any form of eating disorder/disordered eating/body dysmorphia. Due to its content, this course may trigger previous or current conditions. Please use discretion when considering if this course is appropriate for you.
MCI 105. Intro to Judaism.1 Credit.
The intention of this one-credit program is to explore and explain basic Judaism with its binding principles. This program is geared towards students of every faith.
MCI 106. Questioning Mother Culture.1 Credit.
Drawing from Daniel Quinn's Ishmael, this course will challenge us to first notice how Western industrialization's Mother Culture impacts our daily lives. Next, the course will offer opportunities for rethinking new narratives for creating a more just, equitable, sustainable cultural landscape.
MCI 107. The Case for Race:The Role of the Courts in American Racial History.1 Credit.
Since the adoption of the US Constitution, lawmakers have proclaimed equality and freedom for all. Why have the courts not enforced this basic premise? This one-credit course will explore this question by the lenses of salient race-based legal decisions - including Dred Scott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas - that guide how our society, its institutions, and individuals regard, think about, and even act towards others every day.
MCI 108. Why No HBCUs in Connecticut.1 Credit.
Despite the obvious geographic concentration of Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) in the southeastern part of the United States, Connecticut was - or was supposed to be - a pioneer in this educational revolution. One of the first HBCUs, the Negro College, was actually planned and proposed in New Haven, in the shadow of Yale University and several years before the founding of any HBCU still in existence; so what happened? Flashback through time to find out in this one-credit course.
MCI 110. Race: A Dangerous Symbol.1 Credit.
This one-credit course is intended to explore how the racial symbolic system plays itself out in the everyday world, and the ease and advantages that White-Americans have in navigating the everyday world. The course will directly address the difficulties, disadvantages, micro-aggressions and violence that people of color face in their everyday worlds, as a result of the American symbolic system surrounding race. The course is designed to provide a cultural theory of symbolic self in a pervasive racialized system.
MCI 111. Banned Book Club.1 Credit.
This one-credit, seven-week course will take a book club format and explore classic and contemporary novels that have been removed from school curricula and library shelves around the United States. Students will choose the books to be read and discussed during the semester. This course will explore the social, political, and cultural rationale for, and implications of, limiting exposure to these literary works. This on-ground, discussion-based course is open to anyone interested in reading and discussing great literature.
MCI 112. Human Rights & Genital Cutting.1 Credit.
In this course, we will consider the history and types of genital cutting and the many reasons why variations of it are practiced throughout the world. We will consider the human rights implications of genital cutting, how such a framework is potentially problematic, and what nuances and conflicts exist when we continue to treat gender-specific cutting differently under state, federal, and international law. We will read anthropological, sociological, philosophical, legal, medical, and psychological perspectives on topics including female genital mutilation/cutting, male circumcision, and surgeries performed on intersex individuals.
MCI 113. Abortion: Activism and Ethics.1 Credit.
This micro-course examines abortion in the United States in light of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision. Through weekly reading/viewing assignments and discussion, students learn more about the medical processes, socioeconomic and political valences, strategic communication efforts, and ethical debate surrounding abortion. In particular, the course will study abortion stories by BIPOC and trans people to better understand the intersections of identity and experience with abortion access. The course will conclude with an examination of current activism and the future of reproductive justice
MCI 114. Inside-Out Prison Exchange: Weekend Semi.1 Credit.
The "Inside-Out" Prison Exchange seminar is part of a national movement giving undergraduate students (outside students) and currently incarcerated individuals (inside students) an opportunity to learn together. This one-credit course, being offered to Quinnipiac students and male students at a Connecticut state prison, asks students to examine the impact of status upon American life by considering issues of personal and collective voice in communities, variation in access to conventional success opportunities, and the effect of status upon ability to effectively engage in local and national communities. By bringing "inside" and "outside" students together to learn through various programming activities, students are exposed to a diversity of material that allows them to more fully examine and understand the complex impact of social status upon American life. Note: this course takes place inside a Connecticut state prison. Students must apply to be accepted into this course.
MCI 115. Science, Society, and DEI.1 Credit.
In this discussion-based course students will consider topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in science education, careers, and medicine. Topics will include the impact of DEI in science, research, and health/medical disparities. Students will reflect on how stereotypes and biases impact advancement in science education, government and private initiatives to promote an inclusive workplace in the STEM field, and ways to acknowledge and alleviate inequities in science and medicine.
MCI 120. HIV/AIDs in America.1 Credit.
This is a discussion based, one credit course on HIV/AIDS. It is a short primer that will introduce you to the basics of HIV/AIDs, sketches the historical narrative of the disease, surveys the current state of the pandemic with an emphasis on treatment, trends, and disparities.
MCI 121. Listening Competencies for Life, Work and Beyond.1 Credit.
This course will introduce students to the definitions, skills, and approaches to listening for life and work. Upon completion of the course, students will have gained a broad range of listening skills and applications, learned about listening amidst myriad cultural and professional contexts, and developed listening plans and tools for themselves and relevant organizations.
MCI 122. The Power of Pardons.1 Credit.
The Power of Pardons explores the positive impacts community when legally available pardons are accessed by those who qualify. With instruction given on how the CT pardon process works, who qualifies, and how one applies, successful competition of this course qualifies studies to earn additional credits toward graduation by assisting local CT residents in completing pardon applications. This course is part of a collaboration with 'The Work Place,' a Bridgeport organization that provides services to people returning to their communities after incarceration.
MCI 123. Policing, Race and America.1 Credit.
In exploring policing in the racial context of America, the course covers the beginning of policing in the US and its evolution to present, with emphasis paid to the role that race has played throughout policing's history. The course will also emphasize the importance of the court system in this history through examination of importance cases that shaped the racial landscape.
MCI 124. Inside Policing.1 Credit.
In partnership with the Hamden Police Department students learn first-hand about important challenges and issues police deal with daily. A range of timely topics is examined including challenges of recruiting a diverse department,?policing?in the aftermath of negative publicity, and mental health challenges for police. The course considers contemporary issues and provides a closer look at the everyday realities of?policing?than can be gained in a more traditional classroom setting.
MCI 125. Periods: Spotting Fact & Fictions.1 Credit.
This micro-course focuses on menstruation and its menstrual cycle but will focus our attention on the social construction of periods and those who have them. Topics range from the association of periods with cisgender women/womanhood, cross-cultural perceptions of menstrual blood, the cost of menstrual products and period poverty, the marketing of menstrual products, and representations of menstruation in media.
MCI 150. Queering the Screen: LGBTQ Representation in Movies.1 Credit.
This one-credit, seven-week course will explore lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) characters in movies over the last 100 years and how these films reflect our understanding of sexuality and gender expression. Representations of LGBTQ characters on film date back to early silent movies; however, political and religious agendas have often suppressed these representations and perpetuated negative societal views and intolerance. Even so, these films have also contributed to the positive development of LGBTQ identity and the LGBTQ rights movement. This on-ground, discussion-based course is open to anyone interested in LGBTQ history and/or film.
MCI 190. Special Topics.1 Credit.
MCI 200. Victim Advocacy in Action.1 Credit.
This is a co-curricular experience offered in partnership with the Women and Families Center (WFC), offering qualifying students credited opportunities to work as a victim advocate through the WFC. CJ 275 and Instructor approval required for course registration.
MCI 201. Community Action.1 Credit.
Community Action credits are co-curricular credits for supervised work and experiences dealing with DEI issues and skills. Students must reach out to the instructor to determine if they qualify to be placed into the course. Instructor approval required for course registration.
