Fall 2026 [Un]classes

BIRDING TO SAVE THE WORLD 

BIOL 495-010 Special Topics
T/TH | 3:30 - 4:45 PM

Lara Roketenetz, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
Tony Gosmer
Leggett CLC Science Teacher, Boss Park Advocate
Megan Delong-Borick
The EX[L Center for Community Engaged Learning

Calling all birders or wannabe birders! This class uses Trish O’Kane’s Birding to Change to World as a guiding framework for exploring birds, plants, and community. During the semester you will use this framework to reflect on activism and joy as you bird watch. We will take what we learn and work with elementary school students at Leggett CLC in Akron as our ‘bird buddies’.

UA students must be able to pass a background check.

Expect half of classes to be off campus at Boss Park or Leggett CLC (15 min walk/5 min drive).

No experience with birding necessary!

A COMMUNITY OF VOICES
Inside-Out

COMM 450-001 Special Topics
T/TH | 2:00 - 3:30 PM
Kolbe 210 | Most classes at Cliff Skeen Facility

Mary Triece, Ph.D.
School of Communication
Juan Contreras
School of Communication
Bonnie Keiper
School of Communication

A Community of Voices: Inside-Out is a course connecting UA students with peers at Akron’s Cliff Skeen Community Based Correctional Facility. It helps students find their voice within a broader community that values well-being and thriving. By course end, students will be able to: explain the role of voice and advocacy locally and nationally, research community issues they care about, and craft messages for various contexts—interpersonal, family, community, media—focused on key issues.

PORTRAITS OF A COMMUNITY
Re-membering the Stewart Collection

ENGL 489-001/589-001 Special Topics
M/W | 3:30 - 4:45 PM

Hillary Nunn, Ph.D.
Department of English
Jodi Kearns, Ph.D.
Institute for Human Science and Culture
CJ Jacobs
UA Archives and Special Collections

For almost 40 years, Horace and Evelyn Stewart ran a thriving photography studio that served Akron’s Black community. The memories they captured ​to mark birthdays, weddings, military deployments, and other family occasions offer a valuable glimpse of Akron in the 1930s-1970s, showing the events and people Black families wanted to remember. While over 40,000 of these photographs are visible online via the University of Akron Archives and Special Collections, the names of people and places in them have not always been recorded. This [Un]Class aims to remedy that. We will be working to identify the people and locations in these photographs, collecting oral histories from members of the Akron community and reconnecting their stories to the memories the Stewarts preserved on film.

HOUSE RULES
A Look at Collegiate Gambling

EXLC 490-001 Special Topics
T/Th | 2:00 - 3:45 PM

Christin Seher, Ph.D.
The EX[L] Center for Community Engaged Learning

In this [Un]class, students will take the lead in investigating the landscape of collegiate gambling, focusing predominantly on online betting. Students will hear from guest speakers with a variety of perspectives on the topic including communication, law, public/behavioral health, student support services, athletics, and counseling. The class will discuss their findings with peers to brainstorm what resources students need to successfully manage gambling behavior. A final project will take learning off campus to reach the Akron community. No experience with gambling is necessary; this class is a scholarly exploration into the topic and is not focused on teaching students how to gamble.