Stories We Tell Course Pairing

Computer Science Through Programming (CS 151)

Introduces students to problem solving with the fundamentals of programming, enabling them to decompose complex problems into elementary steps for effective implementation in a modern programming language. Students work with numeric and textual data, procedural programming with conditionals and loops, basic linear data structures, and on testing their solutions. Problems may draw on topics in computer security, data encoding, graphics, games, financial analysis, physical models, and others. Provides a general survey of some of the major areas of computer science, such as digital logic, software engineering, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, theory of computation, object-oriented programming, and ethical and societal issues in computing.

Faculty Biographies

Mr. John Nweke is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department. Mr. John has a BS from Morgan State University and an MSc from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Before coming to Loyola, Mr. John was an educator at Morgan State University (2010-2012), Johns Hopkins University (2017-2019) and at UMBC (2019-2021). He has taught  undergraduate and graduate courses in different institutions across Maryland, and is excited to teach Programming to our undergraduate computer science majors. You can find Mr. John at DS 122.

Dr. Sibren Isaacman is an Associate professor and chair of the computer science department. He has as passion for teaching students to explore their world with the help of computer science. He is interested in finding the connections between computer science and nearly anything else from human mobility patterns to weather forecasting, using computers to look outward to find patterns in complex chemical reactions and inward to analyzing the code itself.

Encountering the Past: Legacies of Modern Empire (HS 100)

Far from being a relic of the ancient world, empires existed across the world well into the twentieth century, and some people would argue they still exist today. This course will explore the legacies of modern empire with a focus on two questions. How did colonial empires leave their mark on the contemporary world? And what were the consequences of the fall of modern empires and the rise of independent nation-states—a process sometimes called decolonization? Rather than taking a survey approach, we will investigate these questions through two case studies: Ghana, which gained its independence from the British Empire in 1957; and Puerto Rico, which remains an unincorporated territory of the United States. These very different cases are useful lenses for looking at how historians interpret the past, because they shed light on historical debates about what defines an empire, how (and whether) empires should be compared, and what happens when empires end. As we examine these debates, we will also discuss how the legacy of empire has influenced contemporary ideas about democracy, citizenship, migration, race, gender, and capitalism. 

Faculty Biography

Dr. Sam Klug is an Assistant Teaching Professor in History. He received his Ph.D. in History from Harvard University in 2020. His first book, The Internal Colony: Race and the American Politics of Global Decolonization, is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press. His work has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the LBJ Presidential Library, the Rockefeller Archive Center, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. His writing has appeared in Diplomatic History, the Journal of the History of International Law, Politico Magazine, and Dissent, among other places.

Mentor biography

Sarah Lewis - Originally and proudly from Baltimore, Sarah moved to Japan after completing her undergraduate degree in visual art, working as a JET Programme English teacher in the port city of Kobe from 2009 to 2014. After returning to the US, she came to Loyola as a program assistant supporting the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Messina, Pre-Health Programs, and National Fellowships, and also held the role of assistant director of Messina before becoming associate director in 2022. In spring 2023, she also completed an M.S. in Loyola's data science program. Outside of work, Sarah's hobbies include oil painting, playing chamber music, traveling, and being the personal paparazza of her rescue pups, Opal and Luna.

Virtual Advisor

This course pairing is recommended for students who are considering a major in Computer Science or Data Science. HS 100 satisfies the History core requirement for all students.