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Overall Course Comments

Reflecting on this semester filled with moments of truth and certainly many lies, I cannot help but think about the impact a course like this will have on my life. I registered for this course because I loved having Dr. Williams as a professor in the previous semester. I would be lying if I said I knew what the class was about before walking in on the first day. Dr. Williams: I have appreciated your insight and comments about life. I can tell that you truly care for each of your students, Dr. Williams: I have appreciated your insight and comments about life. I can tell that you truly care for each of your students, not just as learners but as humans navigating a complicated world. Your willingness to be honest with your own stories, your doubts, your humor, and even your firm reminders created a space where we could actually wrestle with the idea of truth instead of just defining it. That is something I don’t think many classes ever achieve. What surprised me most this semester was how...
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Charles Ponzi and Frank Abagnale Jr.

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Watching the stories and listening to the presentation about Charles Ponzi and Frank Abagnale Jr. really made me rethink what actually allows major fraud to happen. Before this, I assumed con artists were technical geniuses, but what stood out most was how much their schemes depended on confidence/charm and people’s willingness to trust something that looks impressive or authoritative on the surface. Charles Ponzi’s life was far more complex than I expected. I didn’t realize how much of his behavior was tied to insecurity and pressure to rebuild his family’s lost reputation. His history of gambling, jumping between jobs, and getting involved with questionable banks made him seem less like some criminal mastermind and more like someone constantly chasing an unrealistic vision of success. The part about him donating skin to save a stranger really surprised me; it’s hard to connect that level of selflessness with the fact that he later lied to thousands of people without hesitation. It re...
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Conspiracy of Cancer Cure

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When I was in high school I wrote a paper about Big Pharma hiding a cure for cancer, and I genuinely believed it. A big part of that came from the idea that there is just way too much money in cancer treatment for companies to ever let a cure come out. I remember thinking, “If cancer suddenly had a cheap natural cure, think about all the money drug companies, hospitals, insurance companies, and research institutions would lose.” To me back then, it felt almost obvious. Cancer treatment is a multi-billion-dollar industry, and I assumed the system cared more about profit than people. Conspiratorial thinking about health is widespread. A 2014 research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that 37% of Americans believe that the Food and Drug Administration is suppressing natural cures for cancer because of drug company pressure. Honestly, I still get where that suspicion comes from. The financial side of healthcare can be frustrating and even jaw-dropping at times. We see sky-hi...
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Catch Me if You Can

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Watching Catch Me If You Can for the first time, I expected a clever crime movie. I thought it would just be Leonardo DiCaprio charming his way across countries in fancy suits, flying planes and cashing checks like it was a game. And yes, the movie has this exciting aspect, but what surprised me most was how sad it felt underneath all of that. Instead of watching a confident con artist, I felt like I was watching a kid try desperately to keep his heart from breaking. The thing that stayed with me was not the schemes or the travel or even the fear of getting caught. It was the loneliness. Frank runs because he cannot sit still long enough to feel what is happening in his real life. Every identity he tries on seems less about fooling the world and more about protecting himself from feeling abandoned and powerless. The Christmas scenes made that really clear. No matter how much money he has or what persona he puts on, he ends up alone in a quiet room, calling the one person who might see ...
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Waco

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A few weeks ago in class, we had a guest speaker who I still cannot stop thinking about. Jeff Guin came to talk about the Waco Siege, and before this presentation I thought I already knew a good amount about what happened. I grew up hearing bits about it, and I have always been fascinated by it. But hearing someone who has really lived in that history, studied it, and written about it talk in person felt completely different. He did not just tell the story. He made it feel alive and complicated and human. One thing I really appreciated was how balanced his perspective was. So many conversations about Waco turn into either “the government was right” or “the government was the bad guy.” Guin did not do that. He broke down the motivations and beliefs of the Branch Davidians, but he also explained the pressures and mistakes made by the government. He talked about how fear and certainty on both sides fueled the situation and how everything snowballed into tragedy. It really showed how messy...
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Why Do We Laugh?

I really enjoyed the handout Dr. Williams provided describing the three main theories of why people laugh. One of the questions included on the handout was “What makes something funny?” Although this sounds like a simple question, I was stumped by it. The three theories (relief theory, superiority theory, and incongruity theory) adequately describe most of the reasons I laugh. I had never heard of these before, but each one made me think more deeply about how and why I find things funny. The Superiority Theory of Humor especially stood out to me, when I laugh at something like someone slipping on a banana peel, it never crossed my mind that part of the reason might be because I feel “above” the person or situation. It was interesting to realize how humor can sometimes come from a sense of triumph or relief that it wasn’t me. I realized that many times when I laugh, I am laughing at someone. It kind of made me sad to realize that this is due to “The Superiority Theory of Humor.” I think...
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The White Slave Hysteria and Galveston, Texas

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In the early twentieth century, American society became fixated on an idea known as “white slavery” hysteria. Reformers, politicians, and newspapers spread the idea that young, innocent white women were being kidnapped and forced into prostitution by powerful underground networks. This fear fueled sensational headlines and led to laws like the 1910 Mann Act, which criminalized transporting women across state lines for “immoral purposes.” But, as I learned in class, much of this panic was based on exaggeration and misunderstanding. While cases of trafficking did occur, many women entered prostitution by choice or necessity, often as a means of financial independence in a world that offered them few other options. I was shocked to realize how society framed these women as helpless victims rather than acknowledging their agency or the structural inequalities that shaped their decisions. I chose to focus on Galveston, Texas, because I was born there and have always been fascinated by its c...
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