Picking your courses at a liberal arts institution like Connecticut College is one of the most exciting parts of the semester. While our catalog boasts the usual like “Gen Chem” and “Intro Psych,” most titles are built to be intriguing and unique, like “How Plants Feed the World” and “Sir Gawain & the Green Knight.” Here are some of our favorite “unique” courses at Conn:
I like to say that Conn’s First Year Seminar Course titles are like clickbait: they try to be unique to draw students in and often cover niche subjects. My FYS “Conceptions of Home and Place” has stood out in my four years at Conn because of the wide array of course materials we used including films, the graphic novel Fun Home, and a book all about New York and maps. All of our writing assignments were so different from each other.
Similarly, the English and GSIS course “Literature of Passing” used films, novels, television episodes, poems, and essays to cover the themes of identity passing in society. Reading The Scarlet Letter and The Vanishing Half and analyzing episodes of Mad Men and the film Philadelphia in one class was one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had.
- Maria Sell ‘23
The most unique class I have taken at Conn is probably “Theater of the AIDS Epidemic.” I do not have much experience or interest in theater, but have been pleasantly surprised with the information I have learned! Since Conn is a liberal arts college, we are required to take classes outside of our major. This may be frustrating at first, but I almost always end up being intrigued by them!
- Katie Madow ‘25