In this class student will learn to describe, analyze, and create aesthetic phenomena, think critically about the nature of art and artistry, become aware of how aesthetic experience underlies social life and can frame our politics, reflect on the historical, geographical, and cultural differences that shape aesthetic expressions and hierarchies, and respond to and take stock of the moral and ethical capacities of the arts.

In this class students will learn to analyze claims about the material and social worlds through formulation and testing of new questions and hypotheses based on observation and experience.

The course is designed to not only teach students tools necessary to visualize data but also effective techniques for explaining data driven results with an emphasis on communicating statistical output in a manner that best represents the findings. Examples might include tailoring messages based on the audience or shaping visualizations to follow a story-line. Content on the development of interactive plots and dashboards will also be included.

Students will survey the main currents of US & international sustainability policy (air & water quality, endangered species protection, public land management, private land conservation), consider their origins in conservation thought, and learn to evaluate these policies via examples and assignments from current natural resource and environmental challenges. Students will learn about the actors and processes by which policy decisions are made.

Course builds students' skills in "the art of getting things done". Students will establish the critical leadership & team-building competencies that distinguish highly effective leaders. We will introduce frameworks that will enhance student's: resilience; team leadership skills; capacity for thriving in times of adversity; emotional intelligence; interpersonal skills (including conflict resolution & negotiation skills) & decision making.

This class examines how citizens, leaders, interest groups and activists work to reshape our understanding of problems over time and investigates why some problems gain policy attention while others languish. The class emphasizes the complexity of understanding, designing, and implementing large scale policies that attempt to address problems that are ultimately experienced by people in specific contexts and communities.

Courses examine special topics in public policy and/or leadership.

In this class, students will learn to critically reflect on one's own situation and perspective in relations to one's expanding knowledge of other human experiences, seeking to cultivate a framework for informed reflection on human diversity and social complexity while developing empathy as a foundation for democratic citizenship.

An introduction to the craft of writing fiction, with relevant readings in the genre. For more details on creative writing courses, see our program website at creativewriting.virginia.edu.

This course will center on exposing students to contemporary pipelines for data analysis through a series of steadily escalating use cases. The course will begin with simple local database construction such as SQLite and evolve to cloud base systems such as AWS or Google Cloud. This progression will include topics such as data lakes and other non-SQL applications as appropriate.