Courses

2027

Time Period I

ANTH 1020 Fads and Fallacies in Human Origins

Pseudoscientific and fringe theories on supposed mysteries in the ancient and modern worlds have found increased audiences through the Internet and other forms of mass media. This course examines information literacy, epistemology, and critical thinking through an interdisciplinary approach, with perspectives from anthropology providing a narrative structure to the course.

ANTH 3750 Food and Culture

This course brings an anthropological perspective to the study of contemporary food cultures and systems. Students will examine how the definition of food, along with the ways in which it is produced and distributed, shapes and is shaped by society and culture. We will use the resources available to us in Innsbruck and the surrounding regions to explore what distinguishes European food thinking and practices from those in the United States.

ECON 2221.1 Money and Banking *

This course offers a survey of money, commercial banking, financial institutions, the Federal Reserve System, and the formulation and execution of monetary and economic stabilization policy.

FTA 1800 Theater Appreciation

This class introduces students to the art of theatre by exploring three major types of performance: Cultural (religious and ritual), Court (royal and aristocratic performance), and Commercial (public entertainment). Students will start with a broad global perspective, then zoom into Europe, Austria, and Tyrol and, for each type of performance, students will look at style (music, dance, storytelling), design (costume, set, spectacle), and space (environment and architecture). Students will not only study theatre’s history and practice but also experience how performance traditions live on in Austria today.

GEOG 2151 Physical Geography

This course is designed to present physical geography to students with no previous experience in earth sciences. Physical geography is the study of the spatial aspects of the Earth's systems -- climate, weather, wind, water, landforms, biomes, etc.—and this course will pursue that study in the context of the Alps.

HIST 2991 Dreams of America: Myth, Reality, and the World

The American Dream has been a central aspect of U.S. cultural and intellectual life from the founding of the country. This course explores the idea of the American Dream from both domestic and global perspectives, especially European perspectives. What does the American Dream mean to Americans? To people in Europe? How have those ideas changed over time? Students will answer these questions by examining a variety of primary sources stretching from the colonial period to the present.

MUS 1000.1 Music Appreciation

Our culture has been visually oriented for the last few centuries. We trust our eyes in a way we would never trust our ears. This class helps students learn how to hear more and how to hear better through different musical traditions, with a strong focus on Western European and United States music. Just as importantly, students will explore the connections between sound and society. This course is an entry-level music course designed for students with no previous knowledge or experience with music.

MUS 2001.1 Austrian Music Then and Now

Throughout history and to this day, Vienna, Austria remains unsurpassed as a center of classical music. Whether or not you listen much to classical music, you will recognize the soundbites of most of the Austrian music we’ll discuss in this course. This is an Austrian-focused music appreciation course in which we’ll go beyond the soundbites to discuss past and present contexts for famous and beloved melodies and musical works.

PADM 4224 Leadership for Impact in the Global Setting ^

This course introduces students to the principles and practice of purpose-driven leadership, with a particular emphasis on leading in service to others. Rooted in the belief that effective leadership begins with a deep sense of purpose and commitment to the common good, the course invites students to explore how leadership can be a catalyst for meaningful social, civic, and community impact.

POLI 2993 Introduction to International Relations

Based on an International Relations approach (i.e., social sciences), the course presents and examines legal, empirical, and theoretical approaches to understanding international organizations.

PSYC 2091 History of EEG

Exploring the history of EEG and the evolution of scientific thought regarding bioelectricity, how to measure it, and its ultimate translation to a clinical setting through the lives and theories of influential figures who lived and worked in Austria, Germany and Italy. Class discussions will be paired with site visits that contextualize historical figures, the rationale for creating neuroimaging that evaluates bioelectricity, and the influence of animal research models.

Time Period Ii

ANTH 3340 Peoples and Cultures of Europe

Europe is not a place. It is a problem shrouded in myth and ideology. In this course, students will draw on anthropological research in Europe to learn how to explain the ways in which European societies have managed to preserve much that is unique even as they adapt to new circumstances.

ECON 3999 Work, Wages, and the European Model *

This course examines how labor-market institutions shape wages, employment, inequality, worker mobility, and economic security, using Austria and Europe as the primary comparative setting. Students will use economic theory and current labor-market evidence to compare Austrian and European institutions with U.S. approaches and to evaluate how different institutional systems affect the adjustment of workers and firms to technological, demographic, and macroeconomic change.

ENGL 2151 Introduction to Non-Fictional Writing *

With this nonfiction writing course, students learn to become better, more expressive writers by composing essays about their observations and experiences as travelers in and around Innsbruck, Austria.

FA 1551 Digital Photo Fundamentals

This course introduces the fundamental techniques of photography, including the basics of exposure (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO), as well as white balance, focal length, compositional skills, and photography history. Students will gain mastery of this tool as they use it to record their travels and create expressive images.

FTA 2093 Smartphone Filmmaking

This is a production-oriented class where students will learn documentary and narrative/fictional storytelling through hands-on projects that use video recorded with a Smartphone (or a small DSLR still/video camera). By the end of the semester, each student will make four short documentary or narrative/fictional projects while learning about the basics of all the major aspects of the cinematic medium, from the idea and development to production and postproduction. Students will also watch and discuss clips from documentary and narrative/fiction films to understand the range of possibilities in style and techniques in contemporary documentary film and narrative cinema.

FTA 4150 Development of Fashion

This class explores the development of fashion throughout human history. Students will consider the earliest coverings made by human beings and the tools and reasons behind them, touch on traditional costume from around the world, and take a closer look at European fashion from antiquity to the present. Austria’s Alpine region will serve as our case study, helping us trace humanity’s evolution, understand the rulers and cultures that shaped Europe, and appreciate the unique cultural and fashion identity of Innsbruck itself.

GEOG 3190 Cultural Ecology of Austria

Cultural ecology in Austria provides us with the opportunity to use its distinct physical geography (Alps, forests, river systems) and examine how Austrian cultural practices (including technology, and social institutions) have shaped their physical geography. Students will consider how people understand and manage their surroundings and how environmental conditions, in turn, influence cultural life. Particular attention is given to questions of land use, tourism, conservation, climate change, rural transformation, and the cultural meanings attached to landscape.

GER 1001.1 Basic German I

This course is designed for students who do not have any knowledge of German, who have not had any prior exposure to the language, and who wish to acquire basic reading knowledge, comprehension and conversational skills. The course places students at the center of the learning experience, aiming to equip them with practical language skills and real communication strategies, with special emphasis on pronunciation.

HIST 4346 Postwar Europe, 1945-Present *

This course covers events and themes in European history from WWII to the present. The readings and film viewings will cover a wide range of primary and secondary sources. During class discussions, students will cover various issues related to this material, repeatedly returning to the questions of what events of post-1945 Europe tell us about modernity, how interpretations of these events inform the construction of historical memory, and what we can say about what it means to be “European.”

HUMS 2090.1 Modernism in Austria

This course will focus on the advent and evolution of Austrian modernism, from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries. This course is interdisciplinary in nature, and will address the synergies between music, visual art and literature in Austria, as well as the influence of other intellectual and socio-historical developments.

MUS 2001.2 Brass Bands in Global Context

The brass band is an ensemble that exists globally in a wide range of social contexts. From Balkan brass bands to New Orleans-style brass bands, Haitian rara bands to Austrian marching bands, brass bands are technologies for circulating music through public space. This course examines how local practices adapt global forms to regional sensibilities, highlighting the interplay of tradition, innovation, and global circulation.

Time Period Iii

ANTH 2232 World Archaeology

This course offers a survey of world archaeology, from evidence for the earliest humans to the civilizations of the ancient Near East and Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The methods and tools used by archaeologists will be introduced, as will major themes in archaeological theory and in the history of the discipline. Central Europe and local archaeology will serve as windows onto developments in other parts of the world.

ECON 2221.2 Money and Banking *

This course offers a survey of money, commercial banking, financial institutions, the Federal Reserve System, and the formulation and execution of monetary and economic stabilization policy.

ECON 4261 International Trade Theory *

This course introduces classical and modern theories of international trade, international payments, and adjustment to international disequilibrium, with Austria and the European Union as the principal applied setting. Students will apply trade theory to current European cases and data, with particular attention to the EU Single Market, Austria's integration with neighboring economies, and the role of transportation infrastructure and geography in shaping trade costs and regional specialization.

ENGL 2090 Literature of the Jazz Age

Students will enter the world of expatriate writers who lived abroad in the Roaring Twenties, examining important aspects of their experimental literature. Students also will examine the work of writers who listened at home to the changing sound of a changing society, writers whom we might say were inspired by Jazz. The course also allows students to understand how the European settings of England, France, Italy, Spain, and Austria became the backdrop for influential American writing during the period after World War One before the stock market crash in 1929, which brought many expats home.

FA 1001 Core Studio I - Surface, Process, Practice

This is a studio course designed to introduce to the student various methods and materials traditionally used in drawing and early painting. Emphasis is placed on the learning of correct observation and on the translation of that observation accurately on to a flat surface by means of the non-verbal language of line and value (lightness and darkness). Because correct observation requires so much contact with actual objects, the course addresses a rich variety of actual objects and environments for utilization in drawings, paintings and mixed-media work. The class also focuses heavily on color theory and the application of it during creative exploration. Each drawing session may be followed by brief discussion of the work.

FTA 3090 World War II in Central European Cinema

In this class, students will explore the theme of World War II in the cinema of Central Europe. Through specific films and documentaries, students will learn about some of the major directors, cinematic trends, and political and social developments of Central Europe during the war.

GER 1001.2 Basic German I

This course is designed for students who do not have any knowledge of German, who have not had any prior exposure to the language, and who wish to acquire basic reading knowledge, comprehension and conversational skills. The course places students at the center of the learning experience, aiming to equip them with practical language skills and real communication strategies, with special emphasis on pronunciation.

HUMS 2090.2 Popular Culture and Identity in Central Europe

This course will survey popular culture and identity in Central Europe. The historical span of the course will be from the postwar era to the present and will focus on Austria but will also include influences from other regions of the former Habsburg territories, including Poland, Czechia, Hungary, and the Balkans.

MUS 1000.2 Music Appreciation

The main purpose of a course in music appreciation is to broaden and deepen a listener’s musical experiences. This course will begin with discussions on the familiar sounds of today’s music and the emotions and experiences that result. These songs will provide opportunities for exploring the basic “elements” of music: melody, rhythm, harmony, dynamics, and the uses of voices and instruments.

PPEL 3200 Entrepreneurship for Good ^

Entrepreneurship for Good is designed to help students understand and harness the power of social entrepreneurship as both a mindset and a practice—within Austria, across Europe, and in a globally connected world. The course is structured into four key phases: Awakening, Exploring, Planning, and Sharing. Each phase invites you to engage deeply through hands-on activities, reflective exercises, and interactive discussions that extend beyond the classroom and into the community.

PSYC 2520 Drugs and Behavior: From Alpine Apothecaries to Modern Neuroscience

This course is an introduction to the principles of psychopharmacology and the relationship between psychoactive substances, brain function, and behavior. Students will examine the historical development of psychopharmacology through the lives and scientific contributions influential European scientists, from early understandings of medicines and poisons to the discovery of chemical neurotransmission and modern research on addiction, psychiatric medications, and altered states of consciousness.

Please Note:

Courses marked with a * have prerequisite requirements.

Courses marked with a ^ are Sullivan Foundation courses. Students who pass both of these courses will earn a Sullivan Certificate in Leadership and Entrepreneurship. More Information can be found here.

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