Courses

In puzzles, we find pleasure in mental challenges. This course explores the kinds of thinking involved in different varieties of puzzles and how puzzle thinking relates to other kinds of intellectual inquiry. We will develop a vocabulary to describe the mental operations through which we interact with puzzles and explore theoretical paradigms that describe traditional objects of scholarly research as puzzles to be solved or decoded. We will engage with artworks that invite the audience to treat them as puzzles. Finally, we will use puzzle-thinking to formulate and refine research questions in traditional academic fields. 

This course is eligible for honors credit through Hutton Honors College. 

Catalog Information: COLL-S 103  FRESHMAN SEMINAR IN A&H

Instructor:

Jacob Emery

Email:

jacemery@indiana.edu

Department:

Comparative Literature

I study artworks in themselves and as a class of objects that we experience as distinct from other products of human labor. My scholarly work largely examines the intersection between the artistic imagination and economic life—for example, how artworks are allied with processes like generational or monetary exchange—and I am currently working on a book about science fiction and transcription technologies. I write fantasy novels in collaboration with my sister, and, needless to say, I love puzzles and games of all kinds.

GenEd Information: Approved for the Arts & Humanities requirement of the IU Bloomington General Education program.