POP-UP COURSES

Not every topic fit into the regular semester within the offered courses. Faculty often have to stop a fascinating discussion on a tangent or a current event that could continue for hours. That is precisely where the pop-up courses come in. Designed as short-term courses for two or three credits (​around 15 contact hours), pop-up courses take on academic matters in the current social or political context or specific topics that span several disciplines, often in a practical workshop format. The courses are flexible in scheduling and can be spread over half of the regular semester or in an intensive form over two weeks during the summer school programming or the five- week-long January Term. They stem from discussions and interests identified by students and are a popular and interesting enrichment of the curriculum.

It can be offered by internal faculty or adjunct professor and can thus spread in several weeks. These involve current topics, unexpected crises or events. However, it is an ideal format for a visiting scholar who come only for a short stay and the pop-up can take place in one or two weeks.

The format of the pop-up course is a seminar-type discussion with intensive reading and some writing throughout the course. It should not be a series of lectures, however, some topic require at least partially a lecture form of the course. Students should be supplied with a reading list before the course and they should read some texts or do a research prior to the first seminar meeting. There should be a few short written assignments, the last one to be assigned at the end of the pop-up course and sent afterwards to the instructor. It should be a very informal discussion, however, always based on the assigned reading or the research task related to the topic.