Find Your Next Favorite Class

HD 1034: The Connection Project

Build meaningful connections with other students through guided conversations and small-group activities. Explore what shapes belonging, relationships, and community at Virginia Tech.
📍 In-person
💬 No prerequisites 
🎓 Open to all majors | Great for students interested in connection and student life

HD 2314: Human Sexuality

Explore the diversity of human sexuality through biological, psychological, and social perspectives. Examine how identity and experience are shaped by factors like culture, gender, and relationships.
📍 In-person
💬 No prerequisites
🎓 Open to all majors | Pathways: 3 

HD 3984: Media Representations of Aging

Media sources, like television shows and movies, often portray stereotypes of aging that are inaccurate and harmful. Explore, analyze, and evaluate representations of aging, older adults, and the aging process in popular culture.
📍 In-person
💬  No prerequisites
🎓  Open to all undergraduate students from any major interested in aging, media, and media criticism.

LAHS 2104: Introduction to Hip Hop Studies

Explore Hip Hop as a cultural movement, art form, and global force. Examine how Hip Hop engages questions of identity, place, power, and inequality while analyzing and creating multimedia texts and connecting with campus and community resources.

📍 Online, asynchronous
💬  No prerequisites
🎓 Pathways: 2

ARBC 1105: Elementary Arabic

Start learning Arabic from the very beginning! Learn the Arabic alphabet, everyday words and greetings, and explore cultural practices while building a valuable new language skill.
📍 Online, synchronous | Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9:30–10:45 a.m.
💬 No prior knowledge of Arabic – no prerequisites

CHN 3474: Chinese Martial Arts Film

From Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan, explore the films and stars that made Chinese martial arts cinema a global phenomenon. Discover how the genre developed, captivated audiences, and influenced film around the world.
📍 Online, asynchronous
💬 No prerequisites
🎓 Open to all majors | Pathways: 2

CLA 2454: The Odyssey Then and Now

From ancient Greece to Hollywood, discover how Homer’s Odyssey continues to inspire new stories. Explore the original epic alongside modern reimaginings like O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, and even Tank Girl: The Odyssey.
📍 Hybrid | In-person Wednesdays at 10:10 a.m.
💬 No prerequisites
🎓 Open to all majors | Pathways: 2

GER 3474: Outsiders in German Cinema

What can society’s outsiders reveal about a culture? Explore iconic German films while examining major historical and cultural transformations and building your media literacy and critical-thinking skills.
📍 Online, asynchronous
💬 Taught in English – no German required | No prerequisites
🎓 Open to all majors | Pathways: 2, 6A, and 11

ITAL 3474: Italian Film Through the Decades, 1940s–Present

Travel through more than 80 years of Italian cinema! Explore films from the 1940s to today and discover how Italian history, culture, and art have shaped the stories seen on screen.
📍 Online, asynchronous
💬 Taught in English – no prerequisites
🎓 Open to all majors | Pathways: 1A, 2, and 11

JPN 3474: Ghosts, Monsters, and the Supernatural in Japanese Cinema

Ghosts, monsters, curses, and creatures—explore the supernatural side of Japanese cinema! Discover the cultural ideas behind Japanese horror and monster films and their influence on movies and popular culture around the world.
📍 Online, asynchronous
💬 Taught in English – no prerequisites
🎓 Open to all majors | Pathways: 2 and 11

RUS/ENGL 3424: Russian Literature Through Animation

Experience Russian literature in an unexpected way—through animation! Explore classic and contemporary Russian animation while discovering the literature, stories, and cultural ideas that inspired it.
📍 Online, asynchronous
💬 No knowledge of Russian required

SPAN 2784: Sports Films in the U.S. & Latin America

From baseball and soccer to boxing and basketball, explore what sports films reveal about culture, identity, and society. Discover how sports stories reflect the experiences of U.S. Latinx and Latin American communities and challenge the way we think about history and culture.
📍 Online, asynchronous
💬 Taught in English – no prerequisites
🎓 Open to all majors | Pathways: 2, 7, and 11 | Counts toward Sports Culture and Management

PPE 2894: The PPE Gateway Course

Explore how philosophy, political science, and economics intersect to shape the world around us. Learn to make decisions that are economically sound, ethically defensible, and politically feasible while engaging big ideas about justice, cooperation, and democracy.
📍 In-person
💬 Sophomore standing required – open to all majors
🎓 Pathways: 2 or 3 

PSCI 3044: The Politics of Internet Governance

Explore who shapes the internet and why it matters. Examine issues like free speech, cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, and global digital policy while considering the future of online governance.
📍 In-person
💬 No prerequisites 
🎓 Great for students interested in technology, policy, law, or international affairs

PSCI 3434: Urban Politics

How do cities tackle housing, transportation, public safety, and economic growth? Examine the political challenges facing urban communities and the leaders shaping their future.
📍 In-person
💬 Prerequisites: PSCI 1014
🎓 Great for students interested in cities, planning, policy, or local government

UAP 1024: Leadership, Service, and Public Problem Solving

Are you the next leader who will help solve today’s biggest challenges? Explore how leadership, service, and public policy shape real-world decisions—and discover whether a career in public service is right for you.
📍 In-person
💬 No prerequisites
🎓 Open to all majors | Great for students interested in public service, policy, or leadership | Pathways 3

UAP 3264: Artificial Intelligence for Policymakers

Explore how artificial intelligence is shaping policy, law, and society. Learn how AI systems work, examine issues like bias and ethics, and consider how technology impacts areas like the economy, education, and democracy—no technical background required.
📍 In-person
💬 No prerequisites – no coding or technical experience required
🎓 Open to all majors | Especially relevant for students interested in policy, law, communication, or global issues

STS 2664: Technology Ethics

How should we think about the role of technology in our lives? Explore ethical questions around innovation, use, and impact while examining how technology shapes—and is shaped by—society, culture, and history.
📍 In-person
💬 No prerequisites
🎓 Open to all majors | Pathways 2 

WGS 1824: Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies

Explore how gender shapes our lives, communities, and world. Examine gender, power, inequality, and social movements across historical and global contexts while discovering the key ideas and questions that shape the field of women’s and gender studies.
📍 Multiple formats: in-person, hybrid, and asynchronous options
💬 No prerequisites
🎓 Open to all majors | Pathways 2 or 3

WGS 2284: LGBTQ+ Issues

Explore LGBTQ+ studies through the lenses of history, culture, politics, and society. Learn how sexuality and gender have been understood across different contexts, engage with feminist and queer theories, and connect personal experiences to broader social, political, legal, and cultural issues.
📍 In-person
💬 No prerequisites
🎓 Open to all majors

WGS 2224: Creativity, Power, & Politics

What is the relationship between art and politics? Explore creativity and the arts through the lenses of gender, sexuality, race, and class, and discover how creative expression can reflect, challenge, and reshape society.
📍 In-person
💬 No prerequisites
🎓 Open to all majors | Pathways 2 and 11

WGS 4224: Women’s Studies Seminar: Reproduction and Society

How does society shape some of our most personal human experiences? Explore reproduction as both a biological and social process while examining how social structures influence experiences of life, death, family, identity, and everything in between.
📍 In-person
💬 No prerequisites; prior completion of WGS 1824 or WGS 1114 is encouraged
🎓 Open to all majors

WGS 4334: Sexual Medicine

Who gets to define what is considered “normal” when it comes to sexuality? Explore the relationship between sex and medicine in contemporary U.S. society and examine how medicine and other cultural institutions have shaped ideas about sexual behavior, deviance, and marginality.
📍 In-person
💬 No prerequisites; junior standing required
🎓 Open to all majors