OS Special Topics Courses: Faculty and Student Perspectives
Special Topics courses in Organizational Studies continue to
provide students and faculty with the opportunity to explore
new specialties. During the past year, OS offered four new
special topics classes. During the fall, Arnold Ho and a
group of students explored The Psychology of Prejudice and
Inequality in Organizations and Elizabeth Armstrong taught
Law, Organizations, Movements, and the Media: Investigating
University Responses to Sexual Assault on Campus. During
the winter, Adjunct Lecturer David Sweetman examined
Strategic Change through Managing Human Resources and
Steve Garcia introduced Organizations and Marketing. These
courses are sought after by our students for different reasons.
They provide an opportunity to learn about a more specialized
organizational topic and allow our OS students to connect
with one another as a community of scholars in a more intimate class setting. They also allow our faculty a chance to get
to know the current students better and to inspire them more directly in their academic (and sometimes post-academic!)
pursuits.
See what our students and faculty are saying about a couple of these courses!
Law, Organizations, Movements, and the Media:
Investigating University Responses to Sexual Assault on
Campus
I taught OS 495 “ Law, Organizations, Movements, and the
Media: Investigating University Responses to Sexual Assault
on Campus” for the first time Fall 2015. While some of the
subject matter is difficult, teaching the course was enormously
gratifying. This subject integrates my interests in institutional
change, social movements, higher education, gender, and
sexuality in the context of a social problem that I care deeply
about. I think I learned as much as the students in the class.
We had guest speakers from all over campus come to class
to talk about various aspects of the way that the University
responds to sexual violence. Students worked together in groups to delve deeply into various aspects of the problem -from Greek life to the University police. I hope to have some students next fall who haven’t thought much about sexual
violence or education, as the course offers tools to think about institutional change broadly. I appreciate a diversity of
perspectives. - Professor Elizabeth Armstrong
Investigating Sexual Assault on Campus was, hands-down, one of the most interesting courses I have taken at the
University of Michigan. Whether the issue of sexual assault is personal to you or not, it is fascinating to study from
an organizational lens. Because of its urgency and relevance in society as a whole, we were able to take theoretical
conversations and apply them to real-world examples that were surfacing in real-time on college campuses across
the country. The class discussions were dynamic, challenging, and eye-opening so it made for an excellent seminar. I
learned so much from this course and discovered the depth of my passion for advocating for women’s issues and consent
education; the lessons will stick with me forever! - Alyssa Setting (OS ‘16)
OS 495 was enlightening on a number of fronts and I am very appreciative that I had the opportunity to take this class.
Professor Armstrong’s class was a well-timed answer to many current discussions surrounding sexual
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