Spring 2023
LDR-101H – Women Writers as Leaders (Honors)
Instructor: Valerie Geary
T/TH 2:00 – 3:20
In this literature-based course we will explore the power of the pen as it pertains to some of the earliest leaders in the feminist movement: the courageous writers who tossed aside societal and conventional norms, often at great personal cost, in order to have their voices heard. We will span generations and geography in order to survey a vast array of writing themes, styles, and genres particular to the experiences of women in the world around them as they strive to inspire, cultivate, and lead social change. We will discuss several different genres, including fiction, poetry, essays, and memoir, among others.
LDR-101H-02 – Empathetic Listeners (Honors)
Instructor: Erica Moura
T/TH 2:00 – 3:20
More so than ever, we are distracted, multitasking, and perhaps listening to get the facts rather than seeking to understand. Effective and empathetic listening is a cornerstone of leadership, but it’s a skill that doesn’t always come naturally. In this course we’ll examine the adage “talk less, listen more.” What happens when we ask more questions? When we leave our assumptions at the door? When we seek more perspectives? When we listen to differing opinions?
LDR-101 – Civil Discourse: Difficult Conversations in Healthcare (2 sections available)
Instructor: Chaluza Kapaale
T/TH 2:00 – 3:20 (section -01)
T/TH 3:30 – 4:50 (section -02)
This Leadership Course explores the everyday leadership competencies necessary for engaging in difficult conversations that generate the momentum for building consensus, defining shared outcomes, and fostering mutually respectful relationships. Students will enhance their knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward civil discourse by engaging in meaningful personal reflection, case analysis, simulation, and discussion of topics that include but are not limited to diversity, equity, inclusion, ethics, social identity, patient’s rights, health disparities, and leadership in healthcare. By the end of the course, students will develop an appreciation for engaging in controversy with civility as one of the essential leadership strategies for transcending complex issues in healthcare.
LDR-101-03 – Strengths-Based Conflict Resolution
Instructor: Renique Kersh
T/TH 3:30 – 4:50
Effective leaders must leverage their strengths to manage conflict. Understanding and applying your skills in conflict situations will impact how you engage with peers and team members. Whether you are on the executive board of a student organization, a Resident Assistant or a peer leader, your ability to manage conflict directly impacts your ability to positively influence others. This course will be highly engaging incorporating multiple scenarios and case studies that require students to put themselves in the role of leader and team member. Scenarios will be based on topics such as roommate conflicts, leading difficult and disjointed teams and navigating conflicts that occur based on competing priorities. Students who take this course may also have an opportunity to become part of a future peer mediator program.
LDR-101-04 – Health Care Leaders
Instructor: Todd Herrmann
T/TH 2:00 – 3:20
Students exploring a career in some aspect of the healthcare system — whether in the delivery of services, public health, research, advocacy, or management — are encouraged to consider this course section. We will study a variety of contemporary health care leaders and the principles that have guided their career paths. Students will have the opportunity to examine and discuss issues of interest facing the health care sector. Students will assess their leadership readiness using a health career competency model along multiple dimensions that address teamwork, self-confidence, and achievement orientation.
LDR-101 – Boston Women Leaders (2 sections available)
Instructor: Erin DeCurtis
T/TH 2:00 – 3:20 (section -05)
T/TH 3:30 – 4:50 (section -06)
This course will explore women leaders in Boston. The course will identify trends common to these women leaders as well as the unique leadership practices that successful women leaders in Boston enacted that contributed to the social, economic, political and personal successes they achieved. Students will use lessons learned to develop their own leadership philosophy. The course will include interviews with current women leaders in Boston from business, nonprofit and government sectors.
LDR-101-07 – Environmental Leadership in the 21st Century
Instructor: Zinnia Mukherjee
T/TH 2:00 – 3:20
Rising global temperature, marine pollution, depletion of freshwater sources and extinction of endangered species will be some of the major global challenges of the 21st century. Yet, appropriate actions toward environmental protection are often delayed because of lack of effective environmental leadership. This course will explore the role of environmental leadership at various levels in tackling major environmental challenges of the 21st century. Specifically, we will ask: what role can individuals and families play in providing community leadership to generate better environmental outcomes? Can students provide leadership in turning their college campuses greener? Can countries lead each other to adopt greener practices?
LDR-101-08 – Feminist Leadership
Instructor: Christy Lusiak
T/TH 2:00 – 3:20
Using feminist leaders/leadership in the US from the first wave through present day, students will be given the opportunity to examine different leadership theories and styles, consider their connection to some of the movements’ leaders and social justice goals, and begin to carve out a leadership identity for themselves, gaining experience with leadership practices inside the classroom along the way.
LDR-101 – Leadership Through Storytelling
Instructor: Farooz Rather
T/TH 2:00 – 3:20 (section -09)
T/TH 12:30 – 1:50 (section -17)
This course is designed to help students sharpen their writing and reading skills in a way so that they could be used as effective tools for leadership. We’ll read a diverse selection of literary texts that stir significant social debate. Our focus is the writing strategies that the authors of these texts use to persuade their audiences into believing their (and often suppressed) side of the story. We’ll also probe the personal lives of these authors. And having learnt how they employ personal narratives to reflect on their social identity, and to state their position about a public debate, we’ll pen our own opinion pieces. Our goal is to use our voice and storytelling skills to lead our audience into thoughtful reflection and, hopefully, action. Throughout the course—and especially in the team project—we will reflect on our own leadership skills and capabilities, including how our leadership is framed by social projections and conditions related to our identities. One of the many questions we’ll raise and attempt to answer is: Is writing a particularly effective tool of leadership/representation for those belonging to groups that have been silenced by the society and whose voices have not been heard?
LDR-101-10 – Youth Leadership for Social Justice
Instructor: Meghan Doran
T/TH 3:30 – 4:50
Young people in schools and communities are often viewed at best as empty vessels to be filled and at worst as problems to be dealt with. And yet, time and again young people are at the forefront of movements for social justice, bringing new perspectives and energy to social problems. Drawing on insights from critical youth studies and youth development, this course will explore the promises and challenges of youth leadership, encouraging students to situate themselves as young change-makers.
LDR-101-11 – Breaking the Status Quo
Instructor: Julia Hvoslef
T/TH 2:00 – 3:20
This course examines leadership development through the Leadership for Liberation framework. Utilizing the lived experiences of historical and contemporary intersectional feminist figures, such as Roxane Gay, Angela Davis, Shirin Ebadi, and more, we will explore and come to understand how we can use our varying identities to become agents of social change in our communities, and redefine how we perceive and experience leadership. We will analyze how race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and other identities impact leadership and the spaces through which we navigate on a daily basis.
LDR-101-12 – Civic Engagement and Mobile Activism
Instructor: Kris Erickson
T/TH 2:00 – 3:20
This course explores how ordinary citizens are increasingly turning to social media to become engaged leaders in civic society. We will investigate, specifically, the relationship between mobile media and activism, and how mobile users are increasingly using their technological knowledge to affect significant societal changes. While mobile technology offers new opportunities for activism and civic engagement, it also presents new challenges. This course will explore both the successes and challenges of contemporary social and political movements, locally and internationally, such as #blacklivesmatter and anti-globalization, and strategies for successful civic engagement.
LDR-101-13 – Women Leaders and the Rise of Human Rights
Instructor: Chantal Krcmar
T 2:00 – 4:50
This course examines leadership by studying the unique historical role played by women in advancing human rights in international politics during the 20th century. Students will examine a range of leadership models employed by women in diverse roles: from Eleanor Roosevelt’s role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to Cecile Richards and the global dimensions of the fight for reproductive rights, and to Madeline Albright and Condoleezza Rice as the first female secretaries of state. How did these women envision rights beyond those guaranteed by the state? What leadership attributes were most effective in protecting the rights of those facing injustice, persecution, and violence elsewhere on the globe? Answers to these questions will prepare students to engage with human rights ideas as leaders in their own political moment.
LDR-101-14 – Leading with Letters
Instructor: Patrick Sylvain
T/TH 2:00 – 3:20
Leaders use and have used writing to change the world. This course will focus on texts that created significant social change and the authors who wrote them. Possible texts include works by Jane Jacobs (a pioneer of urbanism), Rachel Carson (mother of the modern environmental movement), Judith Butler (philosopher of gender as a performance), Barack Obama (the first African-American US President), and Malala Yousafzai (global advocate of girls’ education). Students in this course will think about how and why books and speeches make us think, feel, and act, and how remarkable leaders have harnessed their power to improve the world.
LDR 101-15 – Leadership and Wellness
Instructor: Jacqueline Beatty, Julie Wilcox
T 2:00 – 4:50
Studies show that leaders who engage in wellness practices boost relational qualities, effectiveness, and performance, while team members feel valued, appreciated, and committed to individual and collective goals. Wellness-centered leadership yields important outcomes for all. In this class, you will learn about various models of leadership, characteristics of successful leaders, social identity in leadership and how to cultivate and implement individual and organizational wellness programs. Wellness-centered leadership is a novel model – one of the most important foundations of the future of life and work.
LDR 101-16 – Happiness and Leadership
Instructor: Naresh Agarwal
T/TH 2 – 3:20
This course will help you take proactive steps to maintain your happiness, and examine how leaders create such environments. It will include practical strategies centered around creativity, learning, health, being useful, and connecting with people. You will also demonstrate personal leadership by undertaking a challenging semester-long project of your choice.