'The Walking Dead,' killer clowns and Bill Belichick: Unusual course topics in Central Mass. colleges

One Central Massachusetts college is offering a course that will take students to Iceland to learn more about its geological and mythological history.

Two others are offering courses that will examine the AMC television show “The Walking Dead.”

With students making their way back to campus this fall, some colleges in the region shared a few examples of unusual and interesting courses they're offering this academic year.

Anna Maria College

Building Resiliency

This course creates an environment that helps students who are “first responders-in-training” to recognize the challenges, and in some cases possible trauma, that constitute part of the work upon which they will embark in their profession.

Assumption University

Senior Seminar in Literature: Cultural Angst and 'The Walking Dead'

This course will examine why "The Walking Dead," at one time one of the most popular television series, resonated so deeply with Americans despite being a dystopian vision of a zombie apocalypse. Students will watch and discuss all nine seasons of the series, as well as consume other dystopian fiction like "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy and "World War Z" by Max Brooks.

Clark University

The Witchcraze: Witch Hunts in Early Modern Europe

Students will examine the witch hunt craze in Europe and North America from 1450 to 1750. Despite scholars doubting that many people practiced witchcraft during that period, tens of thousands of them, mainly women, were executed. Students will explore the history of the witch hunt and, among other things, the reasons it happened, why women were so often accused and why they began and ended.

Decriminalizing of Drugs — This is Your Brain on Drugs 

Students in this first-year intensive psychology class will look at drugs, how they work on the brain and how they were used — such as valium being nicknamed "mother's little helper" in the 1960s — or banned and stigmatized.

College of the Holy Cross 

Worcester and Its People

This class will cover the history of Worcester and the people who have lived here, from the time of European settlement in the late 17th century to the present. The class mainly focuses on the 19th and 20th centuries, the period during which Worcester became an industrial center and the magnet for thousands of immigrants.

Balinese Dance 

A dance performance class in which students survey the classical, contemporary and folk traditions of music, mask, dance and theater from Bali, Indonesia. Students rehearse and perform with Gamelan Gita Sari, the Holy Cross gamelan orchestra.

How Medical Clinicians Reason

Students will look into the constructs and processes involved in critical thinking including an assessment of the strengths and limitations of methods that clinicians utilize when exercising diagnostic reasoning. Students will learn to defend and employ a practical approach to hypothesis-driven diagnostic reasoning grounded in a self-validating epistemology.

Fitchburg State University

Podcasting the Past 

History and communication students will collaborate to integrate historical research and story development with audio production. In learning documentary podcast producing, students will also gain skills in audio recording and editing, scripting, researching, interviewing and sound design. Episodes will be released through Perseverantia: the Fitchburg State Podcast Network.

Virtual Reality Development

This course, the first at a public institution in Massachusetts, introduces students to virtual reality development, the principles and history of VR and VR systems, and how the medium can be used for things like entertainment, education and training, film and other content areas. Students will play test and critique a variety of VR games and apps, and work individually and in groups to create VR projects.

The Art of Puppetry

Students will learn how to construct masks, shadow puppets, hand and rod puppets, and marionettes and will work in groups to put on performances of folk tales from various parts of the world. The course also involves learning the history of puppetry through images, videos and readings.

Mount Wachusett Community College

Beyond Vikings and Volcanoes: Iceland and the Challenge of Co-existence

In this study abroad opportunity, students learn about the geological, historical and mythological history of Iceland. Classes will cover everything from volcanoes to Thor and Loki, and take students from Central Massachusetts all the way to the small island nation found between North America and Europe.

Nichols College

'The Walking Dead' & Global Values

A humanities class that will look at the television series “The Walking Dead,” and its spinoff, “Fear the Walking Dead” to compare and contrast Eastern and Western thought, and test those thoughts against the worldview and ethical systems of the characters in the shows. The class will answer questions, such as: What makes us human? What keeps us civilized? How do we address the problem of suffering? And, what happens to these worldviews when they are tested in a postapocalyptic backdrop?

Disney to Belichick - Culture of Excellence

A leadership class that looks into the organizational frameworks of companies like Disney, in order to learn how to create a culture of excellence that results in higher employee engagement and better performance results and higher impact.

Profiles of Serial Killers and Mass Murderers

This psychology course will look from psychological and sociological perspectives into the characteristics of men and women who commit multiple murders. Students will learn what is serial killing, how a serial killer is different from a mass murderer, what factors explain serial killing; how prevalent it is and what are the recent trends in understanding their behavior.

Quinsigamond Community College

Trawl to Table

A culinary course that explores the theory and practice of fisheries' sustainability through lectures, readings and laboratory exercises and by interacting with local fishermen. This course focuses primarily on species harvested in the Gulf of Maine, with an emphasis on sustainable seafood options for local chefs.

Composition I and Composition II

Composition I will look at gaming to help students reimagine essay components and generate topics. The course will incorporate playing games, such as “Apple to Apples” and “Dungeons and Dragons.” From the satanic panic of the 1980s to killer clowns, the class also infuses classic and contemporary urban legends into the course to hone students’ critical thinking and reading skills by having students read articles from multiple disciplines. Students will be asked to use the readings from the course to analyze a local urban legend.

Composition II is themed around the Marvel Cinematic Universe and has students find essay topics in the films. Students will explore things such as heroic archetypes, examine gendered treatments of the characters and actors, reflect on race and colonialism, consider climate activism and fascism, interrogate the role of AI and ChatGPT, and generally reflect on the role of pop culture in our world.

Worcester State University

Antislavery Literature

This course traces the literary history of the antislavery movement in the Atlantic World. Students will read a range of genres, looking at how the writers helped contribute to the campaign to end slave trade and slavery. The course will also cover modern-day, illegal slavery, has students consider the work of contemporary antislavery writers and what they might learn from their predecessors.

Worcester and Its Discontents

A course in which students learn about the City of Worcester from a sociological perspective, with a focus on settler colonialism, industrial capitalism and neoliberal gentrification. Students will learn about the formation of the city after the systematic erasure of indigenous knowledge, as well as examine the contemporary displacement of working-class communities of color in the city.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute 

Research Methods In Writing 

This project-based course will look at the impact of artificial intelligence on academic writing. Students will develop research questions on issues related to writing and technology, design a research project to answer those questions and carry out that study. The students in this year’s class will join an ongoing research project that explores the impact of generative AI tools on academic research and writing.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Courses on The Walking Dead offered at two Central Mass. colleges