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2017-2018 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Search
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Variable Topics- Spring |
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ANT 104-01 - Anthropological Inquiries 4 credits (Spring)
What Makes Us Human? We can all classify “human” vs. “nonhuman” when we see one. However, what are our criteria? Is it our physiology (e.g., bipedalism), our DNA (e.g., 26 chromosomes), our stuff (e.g., tools), our language (e.g., “mama”), our culture (e.g., religion)? We will examine how anthropology addresses this issue and where the different anthropological approaches over-lap. Students will conduct selected hands-on research addressing various aspects of the “what makes us human” question.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Bentley-Condit
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ANT 104-02 & 03 - Anthropological Inquiries 4 credits (Spring)
Family. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to anthropology through a specific thematic lens: families. What is family? Who is family? How is family life similar and/or different in different societies and cultures? In this course, we will attempt to answer these questions through anthropology’s holistic, cross-cultural perspective. Among the specific topics we will look at are the social institutions of family, love, gender roles, childhood, migration, etc.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Kulstad
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BIO 150-01 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Spring)
“Sexy Beast” Why do animals have sex? and in such incredible variety? This course will consider the ways biologists study the causes and consequences of sex in animals at all levels – from the cellular process of meiosis, to the organismal concept of gender, to mating interactions between individuals and their evolutionary consequences. Students will learn to read and evaluate the primary literature, formulate hypotheses, and carry out independent research projects using a model organism, the bean beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. Students will communicate their results in scientific papers, posters, and oral presentations. Finally, as sexy beasts ourselves, we will consider how our human biases and social assumptions influence the questions asked and their accepted answers.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Villarreal
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BIO 150-02 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Spring)
Symmetry Breaking: Cells are not disorderly bags of molecules. On the contrary, all cells carefully distribute their contents asymmetrically in order to make certain parts of themselves distinct from other parts. Symmetry breaking is particularly evident during embryonic development when an embryo morphs from a sphere of cells into something with multiple axes (e.g. front-back). How do cells do this? Why do they spend so much energy breaking symmetry? It turns out that symmetry breaking is essential for many biological processes. In this course students will learn to use frog oocytes, eggs, and/or embryos in order to observe and explore symmetry breaking processes in living cells. Moreover, students will perform novel research related to this topic, which will involve developing a specific hypothesis, designing and performing experiments, and analyzing and sharing results.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Sandquist
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BIO 150-03 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Spring)
Genes and Toxins. The ways in which an organism responds to different drugs or toxins can be heavily influenced by its genetics. In other words, genotypes determine phenotypes. In this course, we will conduct research exploring the interplay between genes and chemicals using the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s yeast) . We will investigate how well different yeast mutants are able to survive exposure to a variety of chemicals . In the course of designing our experiments and analyzing our results, we will discuss the molecular biology behind the relationship between genes and drugs. We will also explore how the knowledge about genetic and chemical interaction can be exploited to understand human diseases and to design therapeutic strategies
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Thu
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BIO 150-04 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Spring)
Genes and Toxins. The ways in which an organism responds to different drugs or toxins can be heavily influenced by its genetics. In other words, genotypes determine phenotypes. In this course, we will conduct research exploring the interplay between genes and chemicals using the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s yeast) . We will investigate how well different yeast mutants are able to survive exposure to a variety of chemicals . In the course of designing our experiments and analyzing our results, we will discuss the molecular biology behind the relationship between genes and drugs. We will also explore how the knowledge on genetic and chemical interaction can be exploited to understand human diseases and to design therapeutic strategies.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Bailey
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BIO 390-01 - Readings in Biology 2 credits (Spring)
Cellular division. Eukaryotic organisms exhibit two types of cellular division: mitosis and meiosis. Meiosis is a specialized form of division that occurs only in the sex cells and is essential for the formation of the gametes. Somatic cells, by contrast, duplicate via mitotic divisions. Cells have in place a variety of structures and regulatory systems that work to ensure faithful division. In this course, we will read a mix of classic and current research that has advanced our understanding of these dynamic and vital cellular events. In particular, we will focus on the cytoskeletal elements that provide the force necessary to drive both nuclear and cytoplasmic division, as well as the signaling pathways governing M phase entry and exit. We will also place cell division into a broader context by exploring the biological consequences of division gone awry.
Prerequisite: BIO 252 .
Instructor: Sandquist
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ENG 120-01 - Literary Analysis 4 credits (Spring)
In this course we’ll perform close readings of poems, stories, a novel, and a film, paying particular attention to the structural and stylistic conventions that constitute the texts we consume, the characters who inhabit them, and the pleasures that arise from them. This course will also provide a basic introduction to some of the more important concepts and methodologies of literary theory.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Andrews
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ENG 120-02 - Literary Analysis 4.00 credits (Spring)
This course will introduce students to a variety of theoretical approaches to reading poetry, short stories, drama, and novels. Students will develop their analytic skills through classroom discussion and by writing critical essays. Readings will include a selection of lyric and narrative poetry, drama, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Don DeLillo’s White Noise, and a graphic novel.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Arner
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ENG 120-03 - Literary Analysis 4 credits (Spring)
This course focuses on analytical writing and close reading of fiction, drama, poetry, and literary criticism, with an emphasis on further development of critical writing and research skills. We will read the work of authors and poets like Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, and William Shakespeare. Through this investigation, students will gain more extensive experience with academic writing, a keener insight into literature, and an understanding of the way arts and culture can help us to understand change and social difference.
Prerequisite: None
Instructor: Moriah
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ENG 120-04 - Literary Analysis 4 credits (Spring)
This section of literary analysis will introduce students to critical reading, thinking, and writing in the context of literary works from a number of genres. We will begin by looking at critical and theoretical approaches to a single novel (E. Brontë’s Wuthering Heights) and then turn to short fiction, poetry, and drama (Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night), building on what we have learned while focusing on genre-specific vocabulary and strategies of interpretation. Graded assignments will include short writing assignments and three papers.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: C. Jacobson
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ENG 121-01 - Introduction to Shakespeare 4 credits (Spring)
This course will examine a selection of Shakespeare’s work that spans his career. Applying key terms and concepts for the study of literature, we will read representative plays and consider some of the most important poems. Part of our focus will be on understanding the plays in their performative contexts, reading the texts very closely and imagining performance possibilities. Together, we will explore how original audiences may have responded to Shakespeare’s work, as well as how the poems and plays have taken hold of our contemporary imagination.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Garrison
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ENG 224-01 - The Tradition of English Lit II 4 credits (Spring)
This course will offer a grounding in both major and representative British works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some of the threads that we will track throughout the semester will include sexuality, national identity, and the writers’ relationship to the natural world. Texts may include poetry by Swift, Wordsworth, and Robert Browning as well works of fiction such as Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 or any course in the study of literature in another language department.
Instructor: C. Jacobson
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ENG 228-01 - American Literary Traditions II 4 credits (Spring)
Reconstructing Nature’s Nation: The “Salve” of Race. This course will explore the interplay of literature, law, environment and identity during the period of 1865-1925, as the United States reconstructs itself out of and around the trauma of the Civil War and the massive influx of immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We will start by reading the Civil War poetry of Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson, and we will then proceed to explore the ways in which the Civil War Amendments, Supreme Court cases including Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), and legislative enactments such as the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act (1924), helped shape the plots and inform the characterizations in novels by Albion Tourgee (A Fool’s Errand, 1879), Henry James (The Bostonians, 1886), Mark Twain (Pudd’nhead Wilson, 1894), Pauline Hopkins (Of One Blood: Or, the Hidden Self, 1903), and Willa Cather (The Professor’s House, 1925). Early 20th century magazine pieces by writers such as John Muir, Sui Sin Far, Zitkala-Sa, Harriet Monroe, Madison Grant, and Franklin Lane will enable us to discuss the poetics of “Americanization” in relation to the discourses of environmental preservation and eugenics. Grades will be based on class discussion, collaborative presentations, several short responses and two medium-length papers.
Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 120 for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 , or any course in the study of literature in another language department.
Instructor: Andrews
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ENG 232-01 - Traditions of Ethnic American Literature 4 credits (Spring)
This survey course examines how contemporary ethnic American writing negotiates the contradictions, ambiguities and anxieties embedded in questions of national identity at the intersection of race and citizenship. We will examine works by Maxine Hong Kingston, Edwidge Danticat, Louise Erdrich, Anna Deavere Smith, Claudia Rankine, and Eduardo C. Corral, amongst others. Reading a wide selection of fiction, poetry, essays, and a graphic memoir within and against their specific cultural and historical contexts, we will explore how these works use literary form and language as a way to articulate alternative histories of the nation, national identity, and belonging, and to envision new democratic futures. As a survey, the objectives of this course are to give students an introduction to an array of literature engaged with issues of race and ethnicity in the U.S. and beyond; to help students develop a deeper understanding of the evolving issues involved in defining the American canon and in the national discourses on race and ethnicity; and to encourage the reading of literature with a fine critical understanding and aesthetic appreciation.
Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 or any course in the study of literature in another language.
Instructor: Phan
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ENG 314-01 - Milton 4 credits (Spring)
In this course, we will study the poetry and prose of John Milton, with particular focus on one of the most famous works in the English language: Paradise Lost. We will trace how Milton’s epic poem mixes elements of classical Greco-Roman mythology and the Christian tradition to tell the story of Satan’s rebellion and the Fall. Examining the wider array of the poet’s writing, we will also discuss how Milton envisioned his career from his earliest days in college.
Prerequisite: ENG 223 or ENG 273 .
Instructor: Garrison
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ENG 325-01 - Studies in Ethnic American Literatures 4 credits (Spring)
“It is normally supposed that something always gets lost in translation; I cling, obstinately, to the notion that something can always be gained,” writes the novelist Salman Rushdie. Starting with Rushdie’s assertion, this seminar examines the focus on translation in so many English-language literary works by contemporary ethnic American writers and asks why translation between cultures, languages, and dialects matters for understanding the heritage of the United States. Engaging in contemporary debates over language diversity, immigration, and globalization, we will attempt to put critical race theory into conversation with translation theory, as both offer a rich critical vocabulary for thinking about questions of difference, origins, authenticity, betrayal, and subversion. We will read novels, autobiographies, essays, and poetry by writers such as Jhumpa Lahiri, Maxine Hong Kingston, Richard Rodriguez, Gloria Anzuldua, Aleksandr Hemon, Leslie Marmon Silko, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Eduardo C. Corral, amongst others. For the final project, students will have the option of writing a longer research paper related to the course theme or producing their own translation of a literary work, accompanied by a critical introduction.
Prerequisite: ENG 227 , ENG 228 , ENG 229 , ENG 231 , ENG 232 , or ENG 273 .
Instructor: Phan
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ENG 329-01 - Studies in African American Literature 4 credits (Spring)
Sound Studies & African American Literature. This course focuses on the relationship between Sound Studies and African American literature. Sound Studies methodologies provide a way to chip away at privileged discourses of knowledge. Indeed, Josh Kun argues that “studying sound helps us put an ear to ‘the audio-racial imagination,’ which refers to the aurality of racial meanings, and to sound’s role in systems and institutions of racialization and racial formation within and across the borders of the United States.” Following Kun, we will investigate various recourses to sound throughout the African American literary tradition. We will read the work of literary figures like Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston and Ann Petry alongside critics like Amiri Baraka, Daphne Brooks, Fred Moten, and Alexander Weheliye. Traversing the sonic color line, we will develop new understandings of black aesthetics, literature, and politics.
Prerequisite: ENG 225 , ENG 227 , ENG 228 , ENG 229 , ENG 231 , ENG 232 , or ENG 273 .
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Moriah
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ENG 331-01 - Studies in American Prose II 4 credits (Spring)
Neuroliterature. In a recent article in N+1, the critic Marco Roth describes the emergence of a new kind of literary work, the “neuronovel,” in which the protagonist sports an atypical brain. Whether Tourette syndrome or autism or Capgras syndrome or facial agnosia or paranoid schizophrenia, this difference, says Roth, offers the novelist an opportunity to reflect on the impact of scientific knowledge on the culture at large. Roth detects a shift from mind to brain in the province least likely to accede to a mechanistic understanding of human existence: namely fiction. In this course we will expand Roth’s term to include both memoir and poetry, and we will bring a disability studies perspective to the questions at hand. Possible literary texts include The Echo Maker; Motherless Brooklyn; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime; Lowboy; Twitch and Shout; Songs of a Gorilla Nation; and How Can I Talk If My Lips Don’t Move?
Prerequisite: ENG 227 , ENG 228 , ENG 229 , ENG 231 , ENG 232 , or ENG 273 .
Instructor: Savarese
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ENG 360-01 - Seminar in Postcolonial Literature 4 credits (Spring)
Globalization and the Novel: This course explores the transformation in the English novel in the era of globalization, that is, post-1990.The English domestic novel gave us a vocabulary of private and public, inside/outside, home and abroad. How do these concepts change as economic and political events bring different parts of the world closer? What new subjects, themes, plots, and ideologies does fiction create in a world preoccupied by migrants, global cities, fears of terrorism, and impending eco-disasters? Writers we will read include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Monica Ali, Amitav Ghosh, Mohsin Hamid, Salman Rushdie, and Zadie Smith.
Prerequisite: ENG 224 , ENG 225 , ENG 226 , or ENG 229 .
Instructor: Kapila
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FRN 350-01 - Advanced Topics in Literature & Civilization 4 credits (Spring)
Representing the Body in Contemporary Literature and Film. Conducted in French. Examines representations of the body in novels and films from diverse areas of the French-speaking world. Explores topics such as sexuality, gender roles, inter-generational relations, migration, illness, aging, love, war, masculinity and femininity, and cultural constructions of the body. Works studied may include Vénus noire, Une affaire de femmes, Amour, Chaos, Moolaadé, Les intouchables, Satin rouge, Ce pays dont je meurs, Les muscles, and La femme sans tête.
Prerequisite: FRN 312 or FRN 313 .
Instructor: Ireland
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GLS 251-01 - Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature 4 credits (Spring)
See HUM 251-01 .
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GLS 304-01 - Studies in Drama II: Ibsen/Strindberg/Chekhov 4 credits (Spring)
See THD 304-01 .
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GWS 495-01 - Senior Seminar: Bad Feminists, Bad Critics 4 credits (Spring)
This course examines the work of second wave feminist critics in the 1960s and 1970s whose work was either dismissed when it was first published or is out of critical favor in the present. By looking at why some feminists’ work has been left out of the field’s accepted history, we will learn as much (if not more) than we would by repeating the narratives of political progress that are often told about the development of feminism. Throughout the course, we will read texts that have always been “difficult” for feminism such as Mary Daly’s Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism, which sparked a public debate about the role of race and racism in radical feminism. We will also examine authors who were labeled “bad” critics by the broader public, such as Kate Millett whose Sexual Politics was the subject of much derision in literary circles. As well, we will look at figures who have been bad for feminism, including Valerie Solanas and her little-known play Up Your Ass. Finally, we will close the semester with a unit on recent feminist interest in the 1960s and 1970s, and look at contemporary works that offer new ways of thinking about old histories.
Prerequisite: GWS 111 , GWS 249 , senior status, and Senior Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies major.
Instructor: Allen
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HIS 100-01 - Introduction to Historical Inquiry: The Spanish Conquest of America 4 credits (Spring)
This course provides an introduction to issues of historical causation, argumentation, and evidence through the lens of the first major episode of European colonization. In tandem with discussions of historical methods we will examine accounts of Spanish experiences in the Caribbean, in Mexico, and in the Andes. Using primary and secondary sources, students will learn the skills necessary to analyze historical scholarship and be introduced to the various means by which historians conduct research and write about the past.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Silva
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HIS 100-02 - Introduction to Historical Inquiry: The Rise and Fall of New World Slavery 4 credits (Spring)
This course provides an introduction to issues of historical causation, argumentation, and evidence, through the lens of the foundings and practices of New World slavery, as well as the social movements that abolished the institution. After an introductory unit on historical methods, we will use our exploration of slavery as it developed in Brazil, the Caribbean, and mainland North America as a window on issues of power and exploitation, outsiders and insiders, the construction of race, the connections between freedom and slavery, the early stages of consumer-driven economics, and the promise and limitations of social reform. A central theme in the course will be the way in which “progress” and freedom depended on the enslavement of Africans.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Lacson
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HIS 309-01 - Latin America and the U.S. 4 credits (Spring)
As the saying goes, Latin America lies too far from God and too close to the United States. This proximity has affected Latin American economics, demographics, culture, and politics. The seminar will begin with common readings. This year those common readings will focus on US attempts–both official and unofficial–to democratize and modernize the region. Students will then write a research paper using primary documents. These papers could focus on any one of a number of issues that were central to US-Latin American relations such as hemispheric security, economic affairs, democracy, and socialism. A reading knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese is helpful but not required.
Prerequisite: HIS 100 and HIS 201 or HIS 202 .
Instructor: Silva
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HIS 325-01 - American Indian Reservations 4 credits (Spring)
This course examines the history of American Indian reservations from the late-nineteenth century to the present. The common readings will introduce students to the origins and major historical problems of reservation history, especially the tricky task of defining the relationship between American Indian reservations and the United States. Specifically, we will examine the end of treaty-making between the United States and Indian tribes, allotment of Indian land, federal assimilation programs, boarding schools, the meaning of U.S. citizenship for Native peoples, and the opportunities and challenges of casinos.
Prerequisite: HIS 100 and any 200-level history course.
Instructor: Lacson
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HIS 330-01 - Politics of Food in Early-Modern England 4 credits (Spring)
Through an examination of the conflicts surrounding the purchase, consumption, and production of food, as well as the processes by which food became politicized, classed, and gendered, this class offers a chronological and thematic look at the ‘century of revolutions’ in England beginning with Elizabeth I’s ‘second reign’ in 1590 and ending with the Act of Union in 1707. We will utilize case studies about food to explore how an early modern ‘moral economy’ and an ideology of governance centered on the person of the monarch gave way to a modern, commercialized economy and parliamentary politics. Students will develop a substantial research project over the course of the semester.
Prerequisite: HIS 100 and HIS 232 , HIS 233 , HIS 234 , or HIS-295 Global Cultural Encounters.
Instructor: Chou
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HIS 334-01 - Decolonization 4 credits (Spring)
In the decades following the Second World War, the political status of more than a quarter of the world’s land mass and population was transformed from colonies into nation states with surprising speed and far-reaching ramifications. In this seminar we will explore some of the debates surrounding the timing, causality, character, and consequences of this phenomenon and consider how historical actors impacted and were impacted by the changing relationship of metropolitan centers and colonial peripheries. Themes will include anti-colonial nationalism; labor militancy; agrarian change; settler colonialism; migration and displacement; post-colonial identities; and the roots of global development. Common texts and student research projects will focus on the political, social, intellectual, and cultural dimensions of the end of empire in British Africa and South Asia, as well as in Britain itself; students with relevant background may also pursue a topic related to another national/geographic context.
Prerequisite: HIS 100 and HIS 235 , HIS 236 , HIS 261 , HIS 262 , or HIS 266 .
Instructor: Prevost
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HIS 382-01 - Advanced Tutorial: Modern Classics of Historical Writing 4 credits (Spring)
This course surveys of some great works of historical scholarship. It will be useful to students who are considering graduate studies, but it is intended for all students who would like to improve their ability to write analytically and argue persuasively. The course will be taught in Oxford tutorial style, in small group meetings with the instructor, and will involve frequent short writing assignments. It will also serve as useful preparation to all advanced seminars in history.
Prerequisite: Two 200-level History courses.
Instructor: Cohn
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HUM 251-01 - Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature 4 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: GLS 251-01 . In 2018, “Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature” will focus on American fantasy literature for children and teens, from A Wrinkle in Time and The Phantom Tollbooth to 21st-century successors. Particular attention will be paid to the hero’s journey and its relation to identity formation in these popular novels for young readers. Does the quest change when gender, ethnic, cultural, and sexual identities complicate the hero’s “call to adventure” and, if so, to what effect—for the child reader, society, and the genre?
Prerequisite: A course in English or another course in literature.
Instructor: Herold
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MAT 218-01 - Discrete Bridges to Adv Mathematics: Graph Theory 4 credits (Spring)
A graph consists of a set of vertices and a set of edges - you can draw a graph simply by placing some dots on a page to represent vertices, and then connecting certain pairs of dots with lines to represent the edges. Graphs are useful for understanding any kind of networks - the internet itself could be viewed as a graph, with links between pages representing edges; in fact Google’s PageRank algorithm makes heavy use of ideas from graph theory. In this course, we will use graphs as a means to develop problem solving skills and to improve our ability to construct logical mathematical arguments. After beginning with basic topics including the chromatic number, planarity, trees, Euler circuits, and Hamiltonian cycles.
Prerequisite: MAT 215 .
Instructor: Uzzell
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MAT 222-01 - Bridges to Advanced Mathematics: Differential Geometry 4 credits (Spring)
Einstein showed that gravity may be viewed as curvature of space-time. Curvature makes sense when we view a surface from outside, but how can we understand or study curvature from within a space? This course will introduce the tools mathematicians use for such study, and will thus serve as the mathematical background needed for understanding General Relativity. Topics will include tangent spaces and vector fields, differential forms, tensors, Lie Derivatives, geodesics, and the Riemannian connection.
Prerequisite: MAT 215 .
Instructor: French
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MAT 322-01 - Advanced Topics in Algebra: Field Theory 4 credits (Spring)
The study of fields, algebraic extensions, finite and cyclotomic fields, geometric constructions and Galois Theory.
Prerequisite: MAT 321 .
Instructor: Wolf
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MAT 444-01 - Senior Seminar: Bayesian Statistical Analysis 4 credits (Spring)
The debate between classical (or “frequentist”) statisticians and “Bayesian” statisticians has produced controversy, and sometimes surprising levels of animosity, for decades. Recent advances in computing have revolutionized statistical practice by making it easier to obtain Bayesian solutions to complicated problems, which in turn has helped unify the statistical community. This course will introduce the differences and underlying similarities between classical and Bayesian methods. Students will learn the basics of Bayesian analysis using R and JAGS software, and see how Bayesian methods have revolutionized the use of statistics in fields such as medicine, environmental studies, political science, and genetics. We will also explore advanced topics, such as hierarchical models and meta-analysis, which are particularly well suited to a Bayesian approach.
Prerequisite: MAT 335 . MAT 309 or MAT 310 with permission of instructor.
Instructor: Jonkman
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MUS 322-01 - Advanced Studies in Music: Race & Musical Taste 4 credits (Spring)
Taste is a judgment, of what is beautiful, what is ugly, what is disgusting. Expressions of taste can thus be personal, meaningful, and political. Musical taste also reveals how people classify themselves and others. In this class, we ask how the judgments that define musical taste are shaped by ideas of race and the ongoing social construction of race and racism. In turn, we ask how these judgments of taste shape the communities in which they are made. With a foundation in aesthetic philosophy and its critical alternatives, we explore how seemingly benign preferences for certain styles, genres, composers, or performers over others may contribute to processes of social classification and identity construction. Beginning with the antecedents to Rousseau and the Enlightenment, we cover everything from Cavalli and the portrayal of the exotic in Mozart’s operas, to hillbilly music and early blues, Zimbabwean Chimurenga, Beyonce, the Rolling Stones, punk, Györgi Ligeti, and the Aka of Central Africa. Race and musical beauty each meant something quite different before the Enlightenment than they do now. Ensuing centuries defined by colonial expansion, imperialism, and slavery redrew the world’s map, categorized people in unexpected ways, and redefined how identity is understood. Like all aesthetic practices, music participated in these historical processes and was influenced by them. When Europeans confronted the world, how did music’s engagement with the other, with the exotic, and the “Orient” inform people’s attitudes about themselves and others? How has the relationship between race and matters of musical taste shifted in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? We connect these historical threads to contemporary confrontations during the Civil Rights era, decolonization efforts in Africa and the Caribbean, legacies of cultural appropriation, and address the here and now as multiple movements informed by race (Black Lives Matter, the alt-right) become culturally, musically, and politically resonant. Students will explore the intersections between race and musical taste through classroom discussion, debate, presentations, and research projects.
Prerequisite: MUS 112 and MUS 261 or MUS 262 .
Instructor: Perman
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PHI 392-01 - Advanced Studies in Anglo-American Philosophy: Sellars and his Legacy 4 credits (Spring)
A philosopher’s philosopher, Wilfred Sellars is among the most influential (and difficult) figures of twentieth century philosophy. Works such as Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind signaled a sea change in the analytic tradition, pushing it beyond its initial commitment to logical positivism. Sellars’ legacy is his powerful synoptic vision of philosophy, sometimes called Inferentialism, which juggles metaphysical naturalism with a commitment to normativity. His ideas have been taken up by other leading figures such as John McDowell, Robert Brandom and Richard Rorty. In this seminar we will investigate Sellars’ views, both in their original context and in their continuing relevance today.
Prerequisite: PHI 253 , PHI 254 , PHI 256 , PHI 257 , or PHI 258 .
Instructor: Neisser
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REL 394-01 - Advanced Topics in Religious Studies 4 credits (Spring)
This seminar serves as the culmination of the religious studies major. Working closely with department faculty, students build on previous work, drawing especially on Theory and Method, to plan and execute a capstone research project that reflects their specific interests in the field. Class sessions alternate between group discussion of select common readings, mentored project meetings, class presentations, and research/writing/production time. The seminar concludes with public presentation of projects.
Prerequisite: REL 311 .
Instructor: Elfenbein
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RUS 389-01 - Advanced Russian Seminar 4 credits (Spring)
This course will focus on an in-depth study of Russian in the context of translation. In the first part of the course, students will work on a series of common texts drawn from Russian culture, with the goal of creating collaborative translations. In the second part of the course, students will choose texts relevant to their own interests, and create an individual, annotated translation. Of particular interest will be creative works or primary sources that students can use to support or further their research in other courses. Theoretical approaches to translation will form an important aspect of the seminar, as will the study of advanced syntax and grammar. Throughout the course, students will work to develop their skills in speaking, reading, writing, and aural comprehension. Conducted in Russian.
Prerequisite: RUS 313 .
Instructor: Herold
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SOC 390-01 - Advanced Studies in Sociology: Global Feminism 4 credits (Spring)
This course explores a range of contemporary women’s issues from the perspective of transnational feminism. Through the lens of sociology, we will examine women’s human rights, gendered law, women’s cultural and religious differences, the impact of global popular culture, economic globalization and women’s lives at home, in schools, in the military, and in the global economy. Moreover, we will explore the roots of their global activism against the legacies of colonialism, western imperialism, and the post-modern feminist agenda against world-wide institutional patriarchy. Questions to be addressed include: How have new feminisms emerged? What are the issues that have galvanized women across national and regional borders to challenge exploitation and oppression? What ways has feminism been related historically to nationalism, ethnocentrism, and imperialism? What are the successes and challenges of feminist transnational movements? And, how do women “save their own lives?” The course materials are drawn from five socio-political regions of feminist experience: America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Students will be challenged to analyze extensive scholarly and applied readings in the fields of Gender and Women’s Studies. Additionally, they will expand their critical thinking and writing skills about global current events, women’s transnational cultural and intellectual spaces, and formulate new approaches to feminist identity and activism.
Prerequisite: any 200-level Sociology course and third-year standing
Instructor: Scott
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SPN 320-01 - Cultures of Spanish Speaking World 4 credits (Spring)
Latin American Food and Cultural Identities. This interdisciplinary course focuses on the role of food and drink in the self-conception and construction of Latin American identities and uniqueness. In our discussions of Latin American “national” foods, we’ll also consider nationalism, nostalgia, and longing. Class materials will include fiction, poetry, academic and non-academic essays, film, and music.
Prerequisite: SPN 285 .
Instructor: Aparicio
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SPN 386-01 - Studies in Medieval & Early Modern Spanish Literature 4 credits (Spring)
This advanced seminar focuses on the literature produced in Spain and the Spanish American colonies between 1492 and 1700. The course will address issues of race, class, identity, and gender in early modern poetry, theater, prose, and visual texts. Close attention will be paid to the cultural and historical context of the era. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite: SPN 311 , SPN 312 , SPN 314 , SPN 315 , SPN 317 or SPN 295 on literature.
Instructor: Pérez
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THD 304-01 - Studies in Drama II: Ibsen/Strindberg/Chekhov 4 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: GLS 304-01 . Ibsen/Strindberg/Chekhov. Modern drama begins with the late nineteenth-century Scandinavian playwrights Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg and the Russian Anton Chekhov. Like their contemporaries Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud, the three “classical modern” dramatists explore the construction of personal identity and relations with others, the structure of reality, the phenomena of time and change, the ethics of freedom and responsibility. We will study representative plays from the major stages in each playwright’s development, including Ibsen’s early epic poetic dramas (Brand and Peer Gynt), the realistic so-called “well-made plays” of modern life (Doll House, Ghosts, Rosmersholm, Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler), and the final experiments with ironic “Romantic” myth and Expressionism (Masterbuilder, When We Dead Awaken); Strindberg’s Greater Naturalism in the “battle of the sexes” plays (Miss Julie and The Father), the Inferno spiritual crisis, and the expressionistic late plays, To Damascus, Dance of Death, Dream Play and Ghost Sonata; Chekhov’s farces and the great ironic dramas Sea Gull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and Cherry Orchard.
Prerequisite: Previous coursework in literature or permission of the instructor (courses in philosophy, history, religious studies, art, anthropology, English and European cultures and literatures would also be appropriate).
Instructor: Mease
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Variable Topics - Fall and Spring |
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CSC 151-01, 02 & 03 - Functional Problem Solving (Data Science) 4 credits (Fall and Spring)
In these sections of CSC 151, we will ground our study of functional problem solving in approaches related to the practice of data science. In particular, we will explore and develop algorithms and programs that gather, reorganize, filter, combine, analyze, and visualize both structured and unstructured data. The course employs a workshop format: In most class sessions, students will collaboratively explore a variety of problems and collections of data. Includes formal laboratory work.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Klinge, Rebelsky
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CSC 161-01 & 02 - Imperative Problem Solving & Data Structures (Robots) 4 credits (Fall and Spring)
This section of CSC 161 will utilize robotics as an application domain in studying imperative problem solving, data representation, and memory management. Additional topics will include assertions and invariants, data abstraction, linked data structures, an introduction to the GNU/Linux operating system, and programming the low-level, imperative language C. The course will utilize a workshop style, in which students will frequently work collaboratively on a series of problems. Includes formal laboratory work.
Prerequisite: CSC 151 .
Instructor: Walker, Weinman
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Writing Laboratory |
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WRT 101 - Basic Principles of College Writing 1 credits (Fall and Spring)
In this course students attend a series of weekly workshops on the basics of academic composition as well as individual appointments in the Writing Lab to apply those basic principles to their assigned writing in other courses.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Half-semester deadlines apply. S/D/F only
Instructor: Staff
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WRT 102 - Advanced Principles of College Writing 2 credits (Fall and Spring)
Using both small group sessions and individual Writing Lab appointments, this course focuses on writing as a tool of analysis and critical thinking. Some required writing and revision.
Prerequisite: WRT 101
Note: Half-semester deadlines apply. S/D/F only
Instructor: Staff
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WRT 120 - Oral Communication Skills 2 credits (Spring)
Students will present a series of persuasive and informational speeches to a variety of audiences, receiving feedback from both instructor and classmates. Some reading and class preparation required.
Prerequisite: None.
S/D/F only
Instructor: Staff
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WRT 150 - Teaching Writing 2 credits (Fall or Spring)
Cross-listed as: EDU 150 . Students in Writing 150 will gain both theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience as they serve as writing mentors for college courses or teach writing as volunteers in other contexts (e.g., prison programs, schools, peer tutoring). They will read about theories of teaching writing, practice skills of tutoring, running workshops and facilitating peer review, observe the teaching of writing in several contexts, and engage in discourse (both oral and written) about the teaching and learning of writing skills.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
S/D/F only
Instructor: Carl
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