From Percy Jackson to college presidents, five fun classes to take in spring 2025

With advance course registration around the corner, you might be looking for one last class that won't put you to sleep. The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with five professors who are teaching new or interesting courses in spring 2025, exploring topics that range from city soundscapes to "Percy Jackson."

1. CIMS 2000: Virtual Reality Lab

This class, taught by Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Professor in the Humanities Peter Decherney, gives students the opportunity to learn about the history of virtual reality and develop their own VR projects. Every year, the class partners with a different organization to create a project that relates to the organization's work.

In previous years, the course has partnered with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the oncology department of a local hospital. This year, students in the course will team up with a local radio station that features artists in Friday afternoon live concerts. Students’ projects will help tell the story of these musicians’ journeys.

“VR is a new way to tell stories,” Decherney said. “What’s really exciting is that as we’re telling the stories, we’re also making up the language of VR. At any point we could discover something new.”

The class meets from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Fridays, and is open to upperclassmen, regardless of their experience level.

2. ANTH 1530: Gifts, Commodities, and the Market: The Anthropology of the Economy

While Penn students have a variety of course offerings related to economics, this course is an option for students looking for a more qualitative approach to the field. 

Visiting assistant professor and Penn anthropology Ph.D. Kevin Burke teaches the class, which looks at the diversity of economic systems across time and space. Students will study markets around the world and discuss different types of currencies, from shells to cryptocurrency.

To help contextualize the course, which is held on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, Burke said that he has included field trips within the scope of the class. 

“The field trips are meant to demonstrate the importance of going places as an anthropologist,” Burke said. “I hope the trips will ground these broader, more abstract discussions of the economy.”

3. URBS 4290: Listening to the City: Soundscapes, Music, and Place

This new class, which has space for ten students, is an exploration into what can be learned from a place’s soundscape.

In addition to readings and discussions, the class will include fieldwork in Philadelphia and incorporate students' lived experiences. Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow Stanley Collins, who teaches the class, said that one of the first projects is for students to bring in a sound that they feel represents their origins.

“One student from Ala. brought in the sound of field bumps, while another from N.J. brought in the sound of trains,” Collins said. “My favorite part is learning about and incorporating these lived experiences into the class.”

4. CLST 0021: Percy Jackson and Friends: Ancient Greece and Rome in Children's and Young Adult Culture

Whether you fell in love with "Percy Jackson" through its original books or through last year's show, taking this course might be the perfect way to learn more about mythology.

The classics class, taught by Alfred Reginald Allen Memorial Professor of Greek Sheila Murnaghan, looks at how mythological stories have been presented in children and young adult literature. Other aspects of the class include studying the importance of illustrations in the retelling of myths as well as looking at how darker or historical themes have been reworked in modern renditions.

“My favorite part of the class is the last third, where students present about any piece of literature or work in some medium that explores the classical world,” Murnaghan said.

For those interested in leaving behind textbook readings for legends and myths, the class will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

5. EDUC 5981: The College and University Presidency

This course offers an in-depth focus into the understanding the role and responsibilities of a university president. The class is taught by Julie Wollman, an associate dean and professor of practice in the Graduate School of Education, who previously served as president of two universities.

“I hope that students take away a better understanding of how higher education institutions work,” Wollman said, “I don’t think people understand the breadth of our institutions and the different expectations and responsibilities presidents have to deliver.”

The class is being taught within GSE, but undergraduate students will be able to enroll with permission.