Hello everyone!
Happy 2020! I hope everyone’s year (and semester) has been off to a good start. I am back at Wellesley for the spring after spending fall abroad in England. As per tradition, for the first post of the semester, I wanted to share with you all the courses I’ll be taking this semester, and what I’m looking forward to over the next 13ish weeks!
A bit of context, if you’re new here: I’m a junior, currently studying Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences (an interdisciplinary major consisting of philosophy, psychology, linguistics, and computer science) as well as Health and Society. This semester, my focus is finishing my major requirements – After this spring, I’ll be done (!!) with my major, with a few minor classes remaining. This allows me greater flexibility for my senior year classes.
This semester I am taking the following:
- Biological Psychology (PSYC 219)
- The name pretty much sums it up! This class looks at how physical properties within the brain can translate into behavior. Some questions we’re going to be looking at include: What actually changes in your brain when you learn something new? Can we use brain-based measures to study prejudice? Essentially, it’s like an introduction to neuroscience course without the lab and a focus on psychology.
- Seminar: Topics in Cognitive Sciences, How We Choose (CLSC 300)
- Ah yes! My first ever seminar at Wellesley! Seminars tend to meet once a week for about 3 hours. They are heavily discussion-based and mostly filled with juniors/seniors. This particular class is all about how we make choices, because no matter how small or large those choices are, they affect our lives. CLSC 300 is interdisciplinary (just like the major!), and we’ve already drawn upon economics and psychology to investigate how individuals make decisions. It’s also a relatively small class, at around 15 people, so I’m excited for our group discussions. Our professor also gave us all (huge) chocolate bars on the first day of class, so I’m not complaining.
- Human-Computer Interaction (CS 220)
- This class is probably one of my most applicable, and if I had to choose, the one I’m most excited for. It’s my first 200 level CS course (I took intro CS long ago, during my first year), and also counts towards my major. Human-Computer interaction is also interdisciplinary (surprise surprise), integrating aspects of cognitive science, psychology, and computer science together. HCI is about studying “the design and use of computer technology, focused on interfaces between people and computers”. Some things I’m looking forward to this semester: designing and testing user interfaces, programming a prototype, and testing the results for usability.
- Global Health and the Environmental Crisis (WGST 302)
- This class is also a seminar, and counts towards my Health and Society minor. We’ll be examining historical debates about the relationship between health, bodies, and the material world. Additionally, we’ll be discussing how environmental crises (and responses) have shaped ideas/practices of public health. Just from the first class, I have a feeling this will be extremely relevant in terms of global events.
Aside from that, I’m continuing my on campus jobs as a student assistant in the Political Science Department, as well as student blogger! I’m also a TA for a statistics class this semester, so things are already getting busy.
All of my professors have been lovely. I’m looking forward to facilitating connections across my classes, even though they are in seemingly different disciplines. I’m also looking to remind myself why I chose my major, and analyze what gets me excited. Finally, I’m in the process of settling back into Wellesley: reconnecting with friends I haven’t seen in a while and adjusting back to campus life. I can’t wait to get into the swing of things again.
Cheers to a wonderful semester,
Shreya