5 Interesting Courses to Consider Before the Drop/Add Ends

If you’re scouring DukeHub for the perfect course before the adds/drops close on September 6, The Chronicle is here to help. Here are five unique courses to add a little fun to your workload.

Human skills for software engineering

Taught by Eric Noel Fouh Mbindi, LSRC A247, LW 4:40 p.m. – 5:55 p.m.

Course credits: COMPSCI 290

Prerequisites: Computer Science 201 or equivalent

“In today’s fast-paced world of software development, technical prowess alone is not enough to succeed,” the course website states.

COMPSCI 290 provides students with essential interpersonal skills “to excel in the field” of software engineering by “bridging the gap between software engineering and personal development.”

In the rapidly evolving field of software development, this course will teach students how to think ethically and collaborate effectively, while “managing stress and maintaining emotional well-being.” Students will also learn how to leverage AI tools and prioritize the quality and readability of their code.

It proposes a “different and deeper way” of analyzing the configurations of heterosexuality, considering it “from the outside in.” Drawing on texts from psychoanalysis and philosophy, the course will show how “the notions of heterosexual desire, identification, and socialization are conceived from the inside out.”

The course includes written assignments of less than five pages and a creative project.

Representing Breast Cancer: Feminist Literature, Art, and Cinema

Taught by Kimberly Lamm, Perkins LINK 059 (Seminar 1), LW 4:40pm-5:55pm

Course credits: AAAS 265S, ARTSVIS 263S, GSF 263S, LIT260S (CCI, W, ALP, CZ)

This course aims to analyze the influence of breast cancer on literature, art and cinema through the prism of feminism, feminist medical ethics and disability studies.

According to the course description, it “contrasts artistic representations of breast cancer to the hypersexualization of breasts in the visual cultures of capitalism and the spectacles of breast cancer activism.”

The course also shows how literature, art and film can speak to the material conditions of health care and the “psychic complexities of breast cancer.”

Ecology and adaptation of hunter-gatherers

Taught by Steven Churchill, Biological Sciences 041, LW 3:05pm-4:20pm

Course credits: EVANTH 257 (CCI, NS)

Prerequisites: Evolutionary Anthropology 101 or Biology 202L

In this course exploring hunter-gatherer societies, both extinct and still existing, you will learn about the “distribution of edible resources” across environments and its connection to “mobility and subsistence strategies.”

The course also examines the “archaeological and fossil evidence for the evolution of human subsistence behavior,” providing a comprehensive picture of foraging societies.

Stage management

Taught by Thomas Quintas, page 106, Tuesday Thursday from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Course credits: DANCE 229, THEATER 229 (CCI, ALP)

Curious about what goes on behind the scenes of big shows? This course introduces students to the skills needed to become a “smart, effective, and efficient” stage manager for theater productions.

According to the course description, the course will “deepen the principles and processes of stage management” by exploring key responsibilities “throughout the production process.”

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