10 unique CWRU classes to add to your spring 2027 shortlist

With a month left to go before fall finals begin at Case Western Reserve University, spring semester may seem like a faraway thought. However, as spring semester course registration opens soon for undergraduate students, many are hard at work plotting the perfect schedule. 

Spring course registration opens for undergraduate students Monday, Nov. 9, for spring 2027 graduates. Registration slots will progressively open throughout the week—check your appointment time.

Still thinking through their options? We have a few ideas in mind that could help round out your schedule, whether you’re a first-year student broadening your perspectives or a soon-to-be graduate looking to complete elective credits.

Consider one of these 10 classes for your spring semester course load.

BETH 443/LAWS 5231/BETH 302-Section 110—“Child and Adolescent Health: Law, Ethics and Society”

Instructor: Eileen Anderson
Wednesdays from 12:35 to 2:55 p.m.

This course will examine the intersection between health and the legal system in child welfare cases. Students will learn about:

• Health issues faced by minors managed by courts; 
• The types of courts minors interact with in the U.S.;
• The professional roles that facilitate these interactions;
• Ethical dilemmas common in the health management of children in the courts; and
• Tools for improving best practices.

Students will be introduced to experts in the field, both academic and practicing, and engage with both reading and multimedia materials. 

Critically, students will help curate materials on child and adolescent health and wellbeing and distill research into accessible formats for court-related professionals, including podcasts, written information sheets, social media posts and other modalities.

DESN 322—“Designing the User Experience”

Instructor: Sara Misconish Edwards
Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:10 to 4:25 p.m.
Prerequisite: MIDS 301

Ever deleted an app out of frustration? Or loved a product because it just works? That's user experience (UX) design in action. In this course, students will dive into how design, psychology and technology come together to shape user experiences. 

Students will work through the research and prototype stages to create intuitive, engaging designs with special consideration for the complex relationship between technology and society through ethical lenses. They will gain insights into how to create accessible, inclusive, trauma-informed, and diversity-focused designs. 

Hands-on practice and critique will be major components of students’ coursework. 

ENGL 386/486—“Studies in Literature and Culture: Women Writers and the Archives”

Instructor: Kate Ozment, PhD
Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:40 to 5:55 p.m. 

Dive into the archives in a course that covers remarkable women writers: Phillis Wheatley, the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry; Jane Austen, whose novels have created an entire multiverse; and George Eliot, the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans, who set out to reimagine the English novel and succeeded. 

Students will immerse themselves in an analog classroom, which will include making their own commonplace books for notetaking and class assignments, printing on 19th century presses in the Gutenberg Annex, and engaging with KSL Special Collections materials to trace how women became writers in the long 19th century. 

It is recommended that students have completed an Academic Inquiry Seminar (AIQS) or SAGES First Seminar before enrolling in this course.

GREK 101—“Elementary Greek I”

Instructor: Joshua Fincher
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10:25 to 11:15 a.m.

This course introduces students to the grammar and syntax of ancient Greek, progressively developing their ability to read and interpret short selections from original Greek texts. In addition to learning a new language, this class will allow students to interact with the psychology and culture of an ancient people. Through their studies, students will encounter nuances and meaning that translation is incapable of expressing. 

Students will also explore the history of language and discover another culture's unique method of organizing information, interpreting experience, and expressing thought and emotion through the metaphor of language. By studying ancient Greek, students will not only develop the foundational skills in a new language, but also develop a deeper understanding of language, linguistics, culture and the relationship between language and cognition.

MGMT 395— “Advanced Seminar: Center Stage and Off Script”

Instructor: Elizabeth Falco
Mondays from 10:25 to 11:15 a.m.
Prerequisite: At least junior standing

As professionals, people often find themselves in situations they couldn’t have expected or even prepared for. Whether it’s a conversation that shifts directions or an unexpected question, professionals must be ready to respond quickly without a script. 

This course helps students develop the skills needed to do just that. Using the practices of improvisational theater, students will learn to make decisions openly and flexibly, without a script, and to communicate with confidence when things around them are uncertain and changing. Students will practice active listening, paying attention to what's actually happening instead of what they expect to happen or what they plan to say next. Students also practice getting lost on purpose and letting go of the need to get it right the first time. 

Students who complete this course will build confidence in themselves and better equip themselves to handle discomfort. As a result, they will become better listeners, collaborators  and compelling communicators.

MGMT 395—“Advanced Seminar: Creativity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”

Instructor: Lisa Camp
Mondays from 2:05 to 2:55 p.m.
Prerequisite: At least junior standing

As artificial intelligence increasingly generates automated answers and standardized solutions, what is the unique value of human imagination? This course will examine the critical role of human creativity in society and organizational problem-solving. Grounded in the premise that active human ingenuity can outpace algorithmic uniformity, students will explore methods to unlock dormant creative impulses, master divergent and convergent thinking, and analyze how organizational structures either nurture or stifle creative ideation. 

Through hands-on challenges and case analyses, students will learn how individuals and enterprises can cultivate and sustain human innovation alongside advancing AI technologies.

NTRN (Nutrition) 260–“Nutrition in Space”

Instructor: James Swain, PhD
Mondays and Wednesdays from 12:35 to 1:50 p.m.

This course will begin with an overview of the history of food and nutrition in human space exploration. From there, students will examine how limited resources, microgravity, radiation, and confinement affect basic nutrient needs, food systems, and human health in space.

Students will engage in lectures, case studies, writing assignments and project-based learning to understand and apply new knowledge of nutrition and food systems solutions for future human space missions.

Topics covered will include considerations of food selection, preservation, and distribution during long-duration space missions. The course also will help students examine how different cultural assumptions, traditions, and experiences surrounding nutrition and foods may influence human group interactions, types of foods and food systems.

SYBB 464—“Artificial Intelligence for Biomedical Research”

Instructor: Gurkan Bebek, PhD
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 2:15 p.m.

As AI and machine learning tools are becoming more prominent in modern biomedical investigations, knowledge of AI methods and their use will become essential for students. This course is designed to use problem-based and active-learning strategies to explore a diverse range of AI topics. 

Students will gain foundational skills needed to work with complex, high-dimensional biological data and to apply AI techniques to uncover new insights into biological processes. Furthermore, the course prepares students for advanced subjects in bioinformatics, such as data integration, translational methods, and specialized programming. Those who complete this course will walk away with an understanding of core machine learning concepts and an improved ability to critically assess the performance of machine learning models using key metrics like accuracy, precision, recall, and the F1 score.

This course will equip students with both the theoretical and practical experience to leverage AI to solve real-world medical problems. Consideration to ethics, data privacy, and the impact on patients will be explored.

UNIV 200—“Career Exploration and Professional Connections”

Instructor: Krittika Grau, PhD
Thursdays from 2:45 to 3:35 p.m. 

This course is designed to help students explore career possibilities, connect their academic experiences to future opportunities, and build confidence in navigating an evolving world of work. Through conversations with alumni, employers, graduate and professional school representatives, and professionals from a wide range of industries, students will gain firsthand insights into career paths while developing skills in networking, self-assessment, career decision-making, and professional communication. 

The course emphasizes career exploration as an ongoing process and helps students make meaningful connections between their interests, strengths, values and professional goals.

This course fulfills the Wellness Skill requirement.

WLIT 377—“Modernizing the Epic: Caribbean Poets on History”

Instructor: Hugh O'Neill
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

O'Neill, the Virginia and Walter Nord Postdoctoral Fellow, designed this special topics course for the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. In this course, students will explore how writers from the multilingual Caribbean use epic poetry to create histories of the region that help us understand modernity. This reading- and writing-intensive course will focus primarily on epic poems composed between 1950 and today. Readings may include selections from work by Horatio Nelson Huggins, Aimé Césaire, Lorna Goodison, Derek Walcott, Andrew Salkey, Kamau Brathwaite, Grace Nichols, Anthony Kellman, Giannina Braschi and Roque Raquel Salas Rivera.

For students enrolled in French or Spanish programs, the course can be used to complete program requirements by reading course materials in their original languages rather than the translations. Students also can use this course to satisfy one of three of the Undergraduate General Education Requirements (communication-intensive course, understanding global perspectives, or human diversity and commonality). It also counts toward the World Literature program requirements.