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2018-2019 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Search
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Special Topics-Spring |
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REL 295-03 - Special Topic: Religion and Food 4 credits (Spring)
The course will introduce students to (1) food in major religious traditions, and (2) the food symbolism in sacred and secular contexts. By analyzing sources ranging from ancient texts to modern films and fictional accounts, students will explore food-related myths, beliefs, taboos, and practices of fasting and mindful eating from religious, sociological, and anthropological perspectives.
Prerequisite: REL 101 , REL 102 , REL 103 , REL 104 , REL 105 , or second-year standing.
Instructor: Y. Chen
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REL 295-04 - Special Topic: Zen Buddhism 4 credits (Spring)
Zen is one of the most popular modes of Buddhist traditions. The course explores the history, doctrine, literature, institution, and art of Chan and Zen Buddhism in Asia and in the United States. It includes reading and discussion of religious, cultural, and political issues related to the development and transmission of this renowned tradition. Topics include (1) Chinese Chan, (2) Japanese Zen, (3) American Zen, and (4) Zen arts.
Prerequisite: REL 101 , REL 102 , REL 103 , REL 104 , REL 105 , or second-year standing.
Instructor: Y. Chen
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REL 295-06 - Special Topic: The Crusades in the Middle East 4 credits (Fall)
See HIS 295-04 .
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RES 295-01 - Special Topic: The Language of Media in Contemporary Russia 2 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: RUS 295-01 . This Russian-language course, taught by a visiting journalist from Russia, will focus on the language of Russian media in a broad range of formats, including print and television. The course will address the question of how the media landscape has evolved in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union and provide students with language tools for assessing information from a range of media providers, including nongovernmental and state-run media outlets.
Prerequisite: RUS 313 or equivalent.
Note: Dates April 1 to May 8. 1/2 semester deadlines apply.
Instructor: Staff
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RES 295-02 - Special Topic: The Politics of Ideas and Symbols in Putin’s Russia 2 credits (Spring)
Today’s Russia is no longer Soviet, but what does it stand for? Though in recent years the Russian regime has become more ideological, the Kremlin’s stance is often evasive and inconsistent. In this course we will discuss Russia’s nation-building project, its new and old national holidays and heroes. We will look into why WWII is at the center of Russian national mythology and how the perception of the West has changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Dates: April 2 to May 9. 1/2 semester deadlines apply.
Instructor: Staff
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RUS 295-01 - Special Topic: The Language of Media in Contemporary Russia 2 credits (Spring)
See RES 295-01 .
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SOC 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Global Disabilities: Art, Architecture, and Activism 4 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: GWS 195-01 and THD 195-01 . How are understandings of disability socially constructed? What does it mean to perform disability? Why do people use their bodies to protest? How do we use art and architecture to create social change? Is the experience of disability global or is it locally defined? While many countries maintain disability activist communities, rhetoric in the United States often discusses legal protections for people with disabilities as though it is the world’s best. However, our cultural understandings of disability and our political system often undermine the very rights of people with disabilities in the United States that we seek to protect. We will develop a comparison with Japan to highlight the ways in which understandings of disability are distinct, and is some ways more robust elsewhere. First-year students interested in this course will need to complete an application in addition to doing the normal registration process. The application materials are available at http://travel.global.grinnell.edu/ early in the fall semester. Students selected to participate in the Global Learning Program are required to pay a $400 participation fee (most other required travel expenses will be covered). This fee will be added to the student tuition bill and will be due by the first day of classes. If payment of this fee causes you financial concern, please contact Gretchen Zimmermann in the Financial Aid Office to discuss loan options to cover this additional cost of attendance.
Prerequisite: TUT-100 and application. Open to first-year students only.
Instructor: Oberin, Thomas, Wilke
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SOC 295-01 - Special Topic: Sociology of Asian America 4 credits (Spring)
The course examines the experience of Asian immigrants and their children from a sociological perspective. Emphasis is on how the changing global capitalist and geopolitical landscapes have shaped the economic processes, political institutions, and social norms in U.S. society that, in turn, govern the interactions, roles, and expectations of Asian Americans. Students cover many key ideas in sociology, including the relationship between assimilation and transnationalism; intersection of race/ethnicity, gender, and class; discursive construction of social groups; emergence and development of oppositional consciousness; and place as abstract and physical sites, as they answer the question: What accounts for the paradox of being both a model and invisible minority at the same time?
Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
Instructor: Quinsaat
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SOC 295-02 - Special Topic: Afrofuturist Sociology: Race and Technology 4 credits (Spring)
In this course we will use Afrofuturism as a conceptual framework for investigating the social construction of race and technology through a wide range of topics, including: freedom, slavery and emancipation, Civil Rights, pan-Africanism, theories of modernity, postmodernity, and technoculture, the Cold War and postcolonialism, cyborgs and posthumanism, as well as connections to speculative thought in literature, music, and film, sociology, and philosophy. Although race is the primary lens through which we will study technology and socio-technological change, we will also consider the impact of gender, sexuality, social class, and ability as they relate to communities of color and the deep technological embeddedness of everyday life.
Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
Instructor: Crombez
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SOC 295-03 - Special Topic: Global Health 4 credits (Spring)
This course investigates global health from interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives. Using a comparatives global focus, we examine the global distribution of disease and illness, the patients’ perspective of illness in different cultural contexts, and the social organization of medicine in various countries. This course interrogates the nexus of global health care systems in terms of actual health outcomes, economic policy, and the state. Faculty from different disciplinary frames will guest lecture in the class. In addition, students will have the opportunity to research specific countries and study health care policy makers at the government level, the organization of health care providers including hospitals and clinics, and the global burden of disease. These observations will inform their final projects of the class.
Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Ferguson
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SOC 295-04 - Special Topic: Sociology of Emotions 4 credits (Spring)
What are emotions? How do they shape social life? And, how have social forces shaped our emotions? This 200-level sociology course will consider the various sociological approaches to the study of emotions. Some special areas of the course will include the emotions of politics and protest; intersections of identity and emotion; and the emotions of place and the environment.
Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Bacon
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SOC 395-01 - Advanced Special Topic: Decolonizing Sociology: Indigenous and Anti-Colonial Approaches to Sociology 4 credits (Spring)
How has colonialism shaped sociology as a field and what work has been done by Indigenous and anti-colonial scholars to confront and transform colonial legacies within sociology? This class focuses primarily on work being done in the United States and Canada but draws from anti-colonial and Indigenous sociology worldwide.
Prerequisite: SOC 111 and two 200-level Sociology courses. SOC 285 is recommended.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Bacon
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SPN 395-01 - Advanced Special Topic: Designing Empire: Plazas, Power, and Urban Planning in Habsburg Spain and its Colonies. 4 credits (Spring)
Spanish Habsburg Monarchs employed the founding cities as a tool of imperial legitimacy in ways other emerging colonial powers did not, creating an “empire of cities” (Kagan). In Europe, established urban centers underwent political change and spatial redesign, often at the expense of older commitments, while a new court capital, Madrid, was dramatically transformed. In the Americas, Mexico City was reshaped out of the violent demise of Tenochtitlan, while Lima was founded as a new viceregal capital and strategic alternative to the old Inca capital of Cuzco. This course will approach the comparative issue of the city in the Habsburg world, focusing in particular in Spain, the Viceroyalty of Peru and New Spain, and the Spanish colonies in Asia. The common denominator is the political construction and alteration of urban public space—how old communal spaces were remade into Baroque showcases of monarchical power and how, in overseas territories, urbanism was the cornerstone of monarchical legitimacy. Our end point will be the Baroque city of the seventeenth century and its transformed look, from grand public plazas to royal citadels and new fortifications. We will explore the political motives and economic implications of such spatial redesign. Our analysis of colonial cities in America and Asia will address indigenous representations of urban spaces in Mesoamerican códices and how these artistic forms were adopted and adapted in colonial documents. Students will understand how sacred indigenous spaces were repurposed and redesigned to enforce religious and political conversion in the recently conquered communities. The assignments in this class will introduce students to digital humanities software programs that will allow them to analyze text, map, visualize and exhibit the early modern world.
Prerequisite: SPN 311 , SPN 312 , SPN 314 , SPN 315 , or SPN 317 .
Instructor: Pérez
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SST 195-02 - Introductory Special Topic: Ethical Leadership in an Interconnected World 1 credits (Spring)
Ethical Leadership in an Interconnected World. This course addresses ethical issues from the perspective of disparate stakeholders related to the growing use of big data and the internet. Students will frequently discuss case studies, engage in group work, and prepare memos. Taught by Steve Weiss ‘77, retired general counsel and senior VP of MidAmerican Energy Company, and retired administrative law judge at Illinois Commerce Commission. Sponsored by the Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Note: Dates: April 1 to April 29. Short course deadlines apply.
Instructor: Staff
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SST 195-03 - Introductory Special Topic: Entrepreneurship: How to Build a Business 1 credits (Spring)
Students will gain insights into business realities and pitfalls. They will learn the how to establiish a company as an entrepreneur, and how to improve a business segment within an existing company as an intrapreneur. Through examination of real-life scenarios, students will become familiar with common sense approaches to business, with thinking-outside-the-box, and with the lowest-common-denominator method of thinking. This is a Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership sponsored alumni short course; taught by Sanjay Khanna ‘85.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Note: Dates: April 8 to April 24
Instructor: Khana
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SST 295-01 - Special Topic: Journal Publishing: Building Community in the Prairie Region 4 credits (Spring)
See HUM 295-01 .
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SST 295-02 - Special Topic: Multi-Media Workshop through a Virtual Global Grinnell 1 credits (Spring)
This online course uses multi-media methods to foster engagement with peoples and places where students are studying, especially off-campus. Drawing inspiration from the tradition of ethnographic film and its concerns with styles and forms of representation, as well as with current scholarship about cross-cultural engagement through technology, the course pursues three objectives. First, students will develop skills with tools of representation including still images, audio, and short videos. Second, students will use their multi-media assignments and comparative discussion with Grinnellians in other locations to deepen ties with different peoples and places. Third, the course provides an online workshop space that experiments with a new form of global Grinnell learning community.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Dates: April 1 to May 17. 1/2 semester deadlines apply.
Instructor: Larson
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SST 295-03 - Special Topic: Radical Activism, Effective Leadership 2 credits (Spring)
How do you translate your passion for making change in the world into concrete actions? This course is a how-to on college campus activism for students, situated in a historical context and grounded in the social change model of student leadership. Consistent with a course on taking action, the main assignment for the semester will require developing and executing a specific project of campus change. In this way, we aim to explore through discussion and practice Grinnell’s social justice mission.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Levandoski, Smith-Benanti
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THD 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Global Disabilities: Art, Architecture, and Activism 4 credits (Spring)
See SOC 195-01 or GWS 195-01 .
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THD 195-02 - Introductory Special Topic: Ngoma Dance, Drumming, and Singing from Zimbabwe 1 credits (Spring)
See MUS 195-01 .
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THD 195-03 - Introductory Special Topic: Music and Dance in Bollywood: Critical Transformations 1 credits (Spring)
This three week course will introduce the students to dance, music and performance registers in Bollywood films, focusing on the critical transformations since the 1990s, a period marked by India’s economic liberalization and globalization. The course will cover a range of topics such as the deployment of playback voice in Hindi films songs; the vexed relationship between songs and film narrative; tensions between indigenous asethetics and global forms in Bollywood dance; the aesthetics of ‘remix’ and item numbers; and music and dance in Bollywood films as productive sites of desire, identity formation and moral anxieties.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Dates: February 11 to February 27. Short course deadlines apply.
Instructor: Staff
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THD 395-01 - Advanced Special Topic: Studies in Performance Art 4 credits (Spring)
In this course, we will investigate the theory and practice of Performance Art, exploring the dynamic intersections between theatre, photography, sculpture, painting, music, film, and new media. Studies will generate a series of solo and group performances that explore duration, ritual, space, light, and sound. Course readings will focus on 20th and 21st century artistic movements including Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, happenings, action planning, butoh, body art, and immersive theatre.
Prerequisite: THD 217 , THD 225 , THD 235 , THD 240 , ART 236 , ART 238 , ART 242 , or ART 246 .
Instructor: Quintero
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Special Topic - Fall and Spring |
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HUM 295-02 & 03 - Special Topic: Dis/Unity and Difference 2 credits (Fall and Spring)
Difference is a reality of community life-as is disagreement about how to respond. Does focusing on unity paper over difference? Does focusing on disunity undermine the possibility of solidarity? We will explore such questions through Center for the Humanities programming, including the work of visiting scholars, film screenings, and select performances. Topics may include (but will likely not be limited to) race, religion, public health, and national identity.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Section -02 in the fall. Section - 03 in the spring. S/D/F only
Instructor: Roberts
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SST 195-01 & 03 - Introductory Special Topic: SPARK Social Innovation Challenge 1 credits (Fall and Spring)
This course provides a series of workshops to support participants in the SPARK Community-Based Social Innovation Challenge and others who are looking to build their skills in researching and effectively presenting solutions to social problems. Fall and spring versions have distinct content. The SPARK challenge pairs Grinnell organizations and students to address poverty related challenges faced by the larger Grinnell community. The challenge concludes in the spring with a pitch contest in which one proposal can earn up to $15,000 in implementation funding. SPARK is sponsored by the Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership and the CLS.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Section -03 Fall Dates: October 1 to December 10.
Section - 01 Spring Dates: January 28 to April 22 S/D/F only.
Instructor: Roper
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Statistics |
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STA 209 - Applied Statistics 4 credits (Fall and Spring)
The course covers the application of basic statistical methods such as univariate graphics and summary statistics, basic statistical inference for one and two samples, linear regression (simple and multiple), one- and two-way ANOVA, and categorical data analysis. Students use statistical software to analyze data and conduct simulations. A student who takes Statistics 209 cannot receive credit for MAT 115 or SST 115 .
Prerequisite: MAT 124 or MAT 131 .
Note: Plus-2 option available. Previously offered as MAT-209.
Instructor: Staff
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STA 309 - Design and Analysis of Experiments 4 credits (Spring)
In addition to a short review of hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, and 1-way ANOVA, this course incorporates experiments from several disciplines to explore design and analysis techniques. Topics include factorial designs, block designs (including latin square and split plot designs), random, fixed, and mixed effects models, crossed and nested factors, contrasts, checking assumptions, and proper analysis when assumptions are not met.
Prerequisite: STA 209 (previously offered as MAT-209), MAT 336 , or STA 336 .
Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year. Offered in alternate years.
Instructor: Staff
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STA 310 - Statistical Modeling 4 credits (Fall)
This course will focus on investigative statistics labs emphasizing the process of data collection and data analysis relevant for science, social science, and mathematics students. This course incorporates case studies from current events and interdisciplinary research, taking a problem-based approach to learn how to determine which statistical techniques are appropriate. Topics will typically include nonparametric tests, designing an experiment, and generalized linear models.
Prerequisite: STA 209 (previously offered as MAT 209), MAT 336 , or STA 336 .
Instructor: Staff
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STA 335 - Probability and Statistics I 4 credits (Fall)
See MAT 335 .
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STA 336 - Probability and Statistics II 4 credits (Spring)
See MAT 336 .
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Technology Studies |
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TEC 154 - Evolution of Technology 4 credits (Spring)
To make wise decisions about future technologies, we must understand the past and the present: what drives and influences technological change? How do technologies affect individuals and society? How do we make decisions about technology? Who decides? Although individual section offerings will consider different technologies and issues, all offerings will explore such questions through readings and case studies from a variety of disciplines, along with writing and discussion.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Staff
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TEC 215 - Solar Energy Technologies 4 credits (Spring)
An investigation of the technology related to the utilization and storage of solar energy, including consideration of scientific, technical, economic, and social concerns. Study of the broad energy resource and use picture, including calculations, followed by an in-depth study of solar thermal conversion, photovoltaic devices, photochemical conversion, biomass, and wind power. Underlying principles and quantitative reasoning stressed.
Prerequisite: CHM 129 or PHY 131 .
Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
Instructor: Swartz
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TEC 232 - Human-Computer Interaction 2 credits (Fall or Spring)
See CSC 232 .
Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
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Theatre and Dance |
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THD 100 - Performance Laboratory 1 or 2 credits (Fall and Spring)
Guided participation, for major theatre and dance productions, in theatrical performance, choreography, assistant directing, stage managing, dramaturgy, or design and crew work on sets, lights, props, costumes, or makeup. Qualified students examine problems of production in the theatre while solving these problems in rehearsal and performance. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
Note: (A maximum of 8 practica credits may count toward graduation.) S/D/F only.
Instructor: Staff
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THD 104 - Dance Technique I 2 credits (Fall and Spring)
Beginning dance technique; the principles, terminology, basic history, developing a physical and kinesthetic understanding of concert dance techniques. Areas of emphasis include but are not limited to ballet or modern dance. Consult the Schedule of Courses for the specific area of emphasis each semester. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Hurley
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THD 111 - Introduction to Performance Studies 4 credits (Fall or Spring)
An examination of dramatic performance in its broadest cultural contexts. This foundational course is designed to encourage critical thinking about the inclusive field of performance and how it is created, including orality, festivals, living history museums, trials, political conventions, and sporting events. Students explore both texts and performance events to analyze “What makes an event performance?” and “How is performance made and understood?” Because knowledge is embodied as well as textualized, students will both write and perform components of their final class projects.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Not offered every year.
Instructor: Delmenico
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THD 113 - Movement for the Performer 4 credits (Fall)
Practical exploration of movement and bodily-based trainings based on Nikolais and Laban techniques as an alternative means to theorize the integration of mind and body. Students develop greater physical awareness and articulation for stage, athletics and other applications. Studio-based exercises and activities investigate daily movement practices, improvisation and an introduction to composing in movement.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Miller
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THD 115 - Theatrical Design and Technology 4 credits (Fall and Spring)
A hands-on, experiential introduction to the design elements of theatre and dance production. Topics include a history of Western theatre architecture and stage forms, scene painting, properties, lighting, sound, drafting, makeup, and costuming. Emphasis is placed upon the design and implementation of theatrical scenes from a variety of historic eras and the analysis of the ways in which the design elements influence performance style.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Thomas
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THD 117 - Introduction to Acting 4 credits (Fall and Spring)
A practice-based exploration of the theories and techniques of acting. Using Stanislavksi’s seminal text An Actor Prepares as the foundation, students develop their skills at transforming dramatic texts from the page to the stage. The course culminates in publicly staged scenes.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Delmenico, Quintero
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THD 201 - Dramatic Literature I 4 credits (Fall)
Cross-listed as: GLS 201 . Study of major works in Western dramatic literature to 1850, with reference to cultural contexts, interpretive problems, and dramatic theory, beginning with Aristotle’s Poetics. Includes plays and performances (in translation) of Greek tragedy and Aristophanic comedy, English medieval cycle plays, Machiavelli, Marlowe, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Tempest, Webster’s White Devil, Ben Jonson, Spanish Golden Age, Racine and Moliere, a Restoration comedy, the Brook Mahabharata, and Goethe’s Faust.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Mease, Delmenico
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THD 202 - Dramatic Literature II 4 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: GLS 202 . Study of major works in Western dramatic literature from 1850 to the present, with reference to cultural contexts, interpretive problems, and dramatic theory. From the “classic moderns” of realism and naturalism through the Symbolists, Expressionists, Surrealists and Absurdists; dramatists and theorists include Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg, Yeats, Synge, Shaw, Buechner, Kaiser, Artaud, Pirandello, Lorca, Brecht, Sartre, Genet, Beckett, Grotowski, Weiss, Pinter, Cixous, and Stoppard.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Mease
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THD 203 - American Theatre 4 credits (Fall or Spring)
Cross-listed as: GLS 203 . A study of American theatre from the early 20th century to the present. Students examine a variety of different theatrical styles, ranging from plays by canonical authors (including O’Neill, Williams, Miller, Albee, Wilson, Mamet, and Shepard) to experimental works by artists who challenged the conventions of mainstream theatre (including Cage, Kaprow, Beck, Finley, and Wilson).
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
Instructor: Quintero
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THD 204 - Dance Technique II 2 credits (Fall and Spring)
Intermediate and advanced dance technique; physical and kinesthetic study involving more complex movement patterns and sequences, phrasing, musicality, and stylistic considerations. Areas of emphasis include but are not limited to ballet or modern dance. Consult the Schedule of Courses for the specific area of emphasis each semester. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisite: THD 104 or equivalent experience.
Instructor: Hurley
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THD 205 - Dance Ensemble 2 credits (Fall and Spring)
Dance Ensemble is a performing ensemble engaged in the development, rehearsal and production of contemporary dance works choreographed by faculty and guest artists. Exposure to diverse choreographic approaches provides the opportunity to expand technical, stylistic and interpretive range. Students gain collaborative skills through improvisation and the contribution of movement material to certain choreographic projects. Dance ensemble is open to students with previous dance and theatre background, and students interested in applying themselves as invested movers.
Prerequisite: Entry into Dance Ensemble takes place at an Audition/Informational Workshop held at the beginning of each semester. Course registration closes at end of Add/Drop period.
Note: (A maximum of 8 practica credits may count toward graduation.) S/D/F only.
Instructor: Miller
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THD 210 - Contemporary Dance in a Global Context 4 credits (Fall)
Contemporary dance practices have been challenging deeply held beliefs on art and life since the early 19th century. This hard to define genre has roots in modern and post-modern dance theory, and draws from dance disciplines as diverse as Ballet, Modern, Bharantanatyam, Butoh, Hip-Hop; as well as other disciplines. This course explores origins, styles, icons, purpose, myths and key concepts of the form from a survey of work produced by contemporary choreographers across the globe.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Note: Not offered every year.
Instructor: Miller
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THD 211 - Performance Studies Survey 4 credits (Fall or Spring)
Course content may include a range of topics in Performance Studies, focusing on verbatim/ethnographic plays, post-colonial and global performances, community-based theatre, or avant-garde performance practices. This survey course explores the theories and methodologies of contemporary non-traditional theatrical forms and culminates in student-created performances.
Prerequisite: Any 100-level Theatre and Dance course.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Delmenico
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THD 217 - Intermediate Acting 4 credits (Fall or Spring)
An intensive performance laboratory for students to explore different modes of performance and further develop and refine their acting skills. With an emphasis on psychological realism, students stage a series of individual and group performances designed to enhance their critical engagement of performance as both the subject and method of their study.
Prerequisite: THD 117 .
Note: Not offered every year.
Instructor: Quintero
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THD 225 - Choreography: Developing Physical Ideas 4 credits (Spring)
This course focuses on the fundamentals and theories of choreographic processes explored through formal and experimental models and their socio-historical contexts. Improvisation and composition are used to explore the structural elements and movement vocabularies that are used to devise physical ideas for the stage that emerge as choreography and staged direction for theatrical works. Students will present their work in an end of the semester showing.
Prerequisite: THD 104 , THD 113 , or any 200-level Theatre and Dance course.
Instructor: Miller
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THD 235 - Directing 4 credits (Fall)
A theoretical and practical investigation of the responsibilities and techniques of the director in the theatre. Classroom exercises are supplemented by readings addressing different theories of directing. The final project is the directing of a one-act play.
Prerequisite: THD 117 .
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Quintero
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THD 240 - Design for Performance I 4 credits (Fall)
An exploration of the design fundamentals common to each facet of theatrical design: scenery, lighting, costumes, and makeup. Such elements as design procedure from conception to realization, research techniques and materials, period style, and design history are emphasized.
Prerequisite: THD 115 or ART 111 .
Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
Instructor: Thomas
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THD 245 - Lighting for the Stage 4 credits (Fall)
Introduces the student to the art of lighting design, process, and the practice of lighting the stage for the theatre, opera, dance, industrials, television, and video. Students develop the knowledge, vocabulary, and skills necessary to become a master electrician, assistant lighting designer, and beginning lighting designer.
Prerequisite: THD 115 or THD 240 , or ART 111 .
Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
Instructor: Thomas
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THD 303 - Studies in Drama I 4 credits (Fall or Spring)
Cross-listed as: GLS 303 . A seminar-style course in dramaturgy, focusing on a central topic in the history and theory prior to 1850. The course will emphasize the development of methodologies and research strategies useful for the theatre practitioner and the researcher. Past topics for this variable-content course have included Greek Drama, Theory of Comedy (Aristophanes to Stoppard), English Medieval and Renaissance Drama; Hamlet and Revenge Tragedy, Shakespeare’s Comedies and Tragedies. May be repeated once for credit when content changes. For current course content please see the variable topic course listing below or search the online live schedule of courses.
Prerequisite: May vary depending on topic but can include 200-level coursework in English, foreign languages, Classics, History, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Anthropology, Art, Theatre or dramatic literature/criticism/theatre history.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Mease, Delmenico
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THD 304 - Studies in Drama II 4 credits (Fall or Spring)
Cross-listed as: GLS 304 . A seminar-style course in dramaturgy, focusing on a central topic in the history and theory of theatre and performance. Studies in Drama II covers topics after 1850. The course will emphasize the development of methodologies and research strategies useful for the theatre practitioner and the researcher. Past topics for this variable-content course have included Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov; Beckett’s Prose and Plays; Beckett and the Theatre of the Absurd; British Drama since World War II; and Postcolonial Theatre. May be repeated once for credit when content changes. For current course content please see the variable topic course listing below or search the online live schedule of courses.
Prerequisite: May vary depending on topic but can include 200-level coursework in English, foreign languages, Classics, History, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Anthropology, Art, Theatre or dramatic literature/criticism/theatre history.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Mease, Delmenico
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THD 310 - Studies in Dance 4 credits (Fall or Spring)
A combined seminar and practice course for advanced study of a selected topic in dance or contemporary performance that will be detailed each time the course is offered (topics are announced in the Schedule of Courses). The course will employ a variety of materials and methods for advanced research in dance as a cultural, social, historical, and artistic phenomenon. Topics could include: Dance and Technology, Community and Performance; Dancing Gender and Sexuality; and The Choreography of Political Protest. May be repeated once for credit. For current course content please see the variable topic course listing below or search the online live schedule of courses.
Prerequisite: Any 200-level Theatre and Dance course.
Note: Not offered every year.
Instructor: Staff
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THD 311 - Studies in Performance 4 credits (Fall or Spring)
An advanced-level, variable-topic course that combines theoretical and historical study with practical investigation. Possible topics include adaptation and performance of literature or nonfiction and devised or community-based performance. Students will work as individuals or within groups to research, create, and present a final performance project.
Prerequisite: THD 201 , THD 202 , THD 203 , THD 210 , or THD 211 .
Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
Instructor: Staff
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THD 317 - Advanced Performance 4 credits (Spring)
This variable topic course focuses on classical and contemporary modes of performance. Possible areas of emphasis include Greek, Elizabethan, French neoclassic, contemporary docudrama theatre, Asian theatre, and performance art. Course emphasis is on scene study, performance, and directing. May be repeated when content changes.
Prerequisite: THD 210 , THD 211 , THD 217 , or THD 235 .
Note: Not offered every year.
Instructor: Quintero
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THD 340 - Design for Performance II 4 credits (Fall)
An in-depth exploration of designing for the stage, with the specific area of design (scenery, lighting, costumes) announced each time the course is offered. Emphasis is on script or dance “text” analysis and the evolution of design from first reading to first performance.
Prerequisite: THD 240 .
Note: Plus-2 option available. Not offered every year.
Instructor: Thomas
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Variable Topics - Fall |
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AMS 275-01 - Topics in American Culture: American Journey 4 credits (Fall)
What do an Ex-radical Black Panther member (Kesho Scott) and an Ex-International athlete (Will Freeman) have in common and how did a chance luncheon change them? This course will answer that question. It is a sharing of journeys as well as a survey of the power of the American Journey to the American experience and identity. Come join us! Why do we explore what is out there? What is your story, your journey thus far? How have previous road trips shaped you? How do our journeys help us answer the larger questions of meaning and purpose in our lives? This course is an interdisciplinary examination of journey and road trips through deep introspection, self-discovery, and transformation narratives. American journeys and road trips find themselves in history, literature, psychology, film, and popular culture. Through these disciplinary lenses, students will compare and contrast, and critically examine the journeys and road trips of both groups and individuals like J.B. Grinnell, Joseph Campbell, Lewis and Clarke, Daniel Boone, Thoreau, Lindbergh, Heat-Moon, Kerouac, Strayed, Mills, Steinbeck, and the larger journeys of women and slaves in this country’s history. Even the journeys of YOUR professor will be examined. The themes of the course include: Defining the Journey-The Hero’s Journey and Learning about ourselves through our journeys; Tourist Vs Traveller; Individual and Collective Journeys and how they have shaped us; Gender Dynamics and the Road Trip; The Intersection of Risk, Transformation, and National Identity; Self-Development through the Road Trips-How our journeys define us; Building Community through journeys across generations.
Prerequisite: AMS 130 and second-year standing.
Instructor: Scott, W. Freeman
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ANT 104-01 - Anthropological Inquiries 4 credits (Fall)
Community. This course considers the origin, development, and transformation of human social groups over time and space. It begins with attention to early human ancestors and evolving relationships among social organization, subsistence strategies, and environmental conditions. It then considers variation in forms and functions of social communities and the multiplicity of meanings communities have for kin, local, linguistic, ethnic, religious, national, and transnational groups and institutions.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: B. French
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BIO 150-01 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Fall)
Prairie Restoration. As a way to explore how biologists ask questions and develop answers to them, this class will focus on the biological problems involved in the restoration of tallgrass prairies. It will be taught in “workshop” format at Grinnell College’s Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA), where we will use the college’s prairie and savanna restorations as our laboratory. Students will be required to formulate research questions based on readings of the scientific literature, design experimental or observational studies to test these hypotheses, and communicate the results of these studies after the conventions of professional biologists. Papers resulting from a substantial independent project will be published in the class journal, Tillers.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Brown
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BIO 150-02 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Fall)
The Language of Neurons. In this course students will actively learn how biologists study the nervous system. Specifically, students will work as neuroscientists for a semester and will attempt to learn something novel about how nerve cells communicate with one another at chemical synapses. Students will present their findings at the end of the semester via both oral and written presentations. Papers resulting from a substantial independent project will be published in the class journal, Pioneering Neuroscience: The Grinnell Journal of Neurophysiology. Students with a strong background in high school physics will benefit most from this section of Biological Inquiry.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Rempel-Clower
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BIO 150-03 - Intro to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Fall)
The Effects of Climate Change on Organisms. We will examine the effects of predicted changes in temperature, moisture and carbon dioxide levels on organismal and ecosystem function through experimental investigation. We will focus on the effects of such changes on the physiology and metabolic functioning of organisms, as well as on biogeochemical processes of ecosystems. This course will be taught in a workshop format, meeting twice a week for three hours. Class time will be devoted primarily to discussions and lab work, examining theoretical aspects of organismal and ecosystem functioning, design and implementation of lab-based experiments, and the interpretation of our results in the context of extensive ongoing climate change research.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Jacobson
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BIO 150-04 - Intro to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Fall)
Plant Genetics and the Environment. The physical and behavioral characteristics of living organisms are largely determined by their genetic makeup and their environment. This course is designed to allow us to ask questions about the relationship between genetics and the environment and to explore the mechanisms plants use to acclimate and adapt to changes in their environment. Using the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana, we will examine the influence of different environmental factors on the growth and development of ‘wild-type’ and mutant individuals. Students will design and perform experiments to address questions about the effect of genetic mutation on plant responses to the environment. After careful analysis of experimental results, students will communicate their findings in various scientific forms.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: DeRidder
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BIO 390-01 - Readings in Biology 2 credits (Fall)
The Ubiquitin System: Protein Degradation and Beyond. The abundance of most proteins in the cell is tightly regulated by the rate of protein synthesis (translation) and the rate of protein degradation. In eukaryotic cells, proteins that are damaged, misfolded, aggregated, or unwanted are degraded by two distinct pathways, the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and the autophagy-lysosome pathway (ALP). The small polypeptide ubiquitin plays a central role in controlling both of these degradative pathways. In this course, we will learn about the enzymes that are responsible for the ubiquitin conjugation and deconjugation reactions, and we will explore the different mechanisms through which ubiquitin controls the protein degradation process. We will also examine non-degradative functions of ubiquitin, and we will link defects in ubiquitin-dependent pathways to human health and disease. A combination of classical and current research papers from the primary literature will be used to introduce established principles and explore current challenges within the field.
Prerequisite: BIO 252 .
Instructor: M. French
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CSC 151-01 & 02 - Functional Problem Solving (Data Science) 4 credits (Fall)
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: Curtsinger, Hamid
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ENG 120-01 & 05 - Literary Analysis 4 credits (Fall)
In the Library of Fun Home. In his essay “Literature as Equipment for Living,” Kenneth Burke proposes that works of literature can help guide us through everyday life by providing readers with “strategies for dealing with situations.” In the spirit of Burke’s approach, we will explore the literary strategies and genres writers have adopted, invented, and deployed to confront personal, social, and political conflicts. The course readings are structured intertextually around Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home; that is, we will begin and end with Bechdel’s book, filling out the middle by reading many of the writers and works alluded to in the graphic memoir-including Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Camus’ The Stranger, Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, and Wilde’s The Important of Being Earnest -and by examining the critical issues and theories these writers invite us to engage.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Phan
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ENG 120-02 & 03 - Literary Analysis 4 credits (Fall)
This section will explore texts in which a main character or group of characters is dead from the beginning of the narration. Our primary texts will span a multitude of historical eras and literary forms, from drama to film, from the novel to poetry both contemporary and medieval. We will read how various theorists and critics have grappled with the ways in which death, loss, and nostalgia function in literature and in cultural life. Along the way, we will encounter questions of how art, religion, and social groups seek language for representing what no one has seen. Students will develop analytical skills through discussion and through writing their own critical essays.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Lorden
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ENG 120-04 - Literary Analysis 4 credits (Fall)
Global Modernism and its Legacies. What, exactly, is literature? What determines if it is good? How can we engage its richness with rigor and joy? Through our study of post-1900 prose, poetry, plays, radio programs, and film, this course will introduce you to techniques for literary analysis and master the tools needed to craft well-argued written critiques. In turn, we will work with supplemental materials such as book reviews, critical essays, interviews, newspapers, and digital sources to situate literary texts in their cultural, economic, and socio-historical context. Part of this exploration will involve a foray into the field of literary theory which examines how currents in political, social, and philosophical thought alter the way writers perceive their worlds and in turn affect the style of writing they use to represent it. We will consider work by E. M. Forster, Langston Hughes, Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Woolf, Sergei Eisenstein, Mulk Raj Anand, Una Marson, Wole Soyinka, Catherine Mansfield, Lu Xun, Bertolt Brecht, and Naguib Mahfouz.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Sutaria
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ENG 121-01 - Introduction to Shakespeare 4 credits (Fall)
This course will pay particular attention to how Shakespeare’s global imagination expands his plays and poems far beyond the space of London. Applying key terms and concepts for the study of literature, we will read representative works that help us see how his vision was informed by England’s sense of the larger world and how, in turn, his work has later been adapted in international communities. Together, we will build skills in close-reading and will consider questions of performance – both in Renaissance theater and in contemporary film.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Garrison
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ENG 224-01 - The Tradition of English Lit II 4 credits (Fall)
This course will offer a grounding in both major and representative British works of literature from the Restoration through the nineteenth century and may include works by Aphra Behn, Jonathan Swift, William Wordsworth, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Christina Rossetti, Bram Stoker, among others. We will discuss these texts in the context of the social changes occurring during this period, paying particular attention to gender and sexuality, the rise of the British Empire, the writers’ relationship to the natural world, and changes in literary style. There will be three points at which students will choose to take an exam or write a paper. Students must take at least one exam and write at least one paper during the course of the semester. There will also be regular written responses.
Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 or third-year standing.
Instructor: C. Jacobson
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ENG 227-01 - American Literary Traditions I 4 credits (Fall)
A City, a House, and the Overlook Hotel: American Gothic. The city is Philadelphia. The house has seven gables and a secret past. The hotel? Why, that’s our shining city on a hill. Here’s Jack, to show us around the grounds. Welcome to Eng. 227! In this course we foreground the impact that slavery and the settlement of the frontier has had on our national literary culture, with particular attention focused on what is called “American gothic.” Being mindful of the intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality, we will explore the personifications and demonizations-literary, legal and political-that haunt the clearings in which violence and slave labor were so often instrumental. In addition to focusing on novels by Charles Brockden Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Stephen King, we will also read works by Anne Bradstreet, Mary Rowlandson, Harriet Jacobs, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. The course concludes with a viewing of Stanley Kubrick’s cinematic version of The Shining. Grades will be based on class discussion, collaborative presentations, several short responses and two medium-length papers.
Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 , or third-year standing.
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 third-year standing.
Instructor: Phan
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ENG 310-01 - Studies in Shakespeare 4 credits (Fall)
Mapping the Absent in Shakespeare’s Plays. This course will intensively study four of Shakespeare’s plays: Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, Coriolanus, and A Winter’s Tale. In order to understand the resonances of these texts in Shakespeare’s time and in their afterlives, we will trace their sources, contemporaneous influences, and their adaptations in recent film and televison. Our particular focus will be on what is absent on the Renaissance stage and in later adaptations. In turn, mapping these unseen elements will help us better understand how Shakespeare meditates on an increasingly globalizing world. Students without the prerequisites may enroll in the class with the permission of the instructor.
Prerequisite: ENG 121 . ENG 223 and ENG 224 strongly recommended.
Instructor: Garrison
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ENG 332-01 - The Victorians 4 credits (Fall)
Going to Town: Urbanization and Victorian Literature. Massive and rapid migration to still-developing urban centers during the Victorian period led to decaying rural areas and catastrophically congested cities. Industrialization affected all facets of nineteenth-century life, and we’ll explore a number of them, focusing on class and gender dynamics during this period. We will read a variety of works of fiction and nonfiction including Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, and Henry Mayhew’s London Labour and the London Poor. Students will submit two papers over the course of the semester, along with an annotated bibliography and regular short written responses.
Prerequisite: ENG 223 , ENG 224 , ENG 225 , ENG 227 , or ENG 228 .
Instructor: Jacobson
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ENG 360-01 - Seminar in Postcolonial Literature 4 credits (Fall)
The Ethics of Humanitarianism in the Aftermath of Empire. Critics reading literature through a postcolonial lens tend to examine how texts represent human rights violations caused by colonial domination or resistance and humanitarian efforts to stop these abuses of power. While some activists have successfully employed Human rights discourses when vying for the dignity and security of many formerly colonized communities, others, particularly those from the global South and indigenous communities, have critiqued this perspective, claiming it is rooted in Western Enlightenment notions of individualism. In this course, we will investigate how texts read through postcolonial frameworks illuminate the successes and failures of human rights discourses to help us generate more inclusive, ethical models that promote equity while honoring the socio-cultural, religious, or intellectual outlooks of diverse communities. We will begin by reading various Declarations of independence and political manifestos to provide a context for reading post 1900 literary, radio, filmic, and online texts about the aftermath of colonization. Our case studies will come from East Africa, Australia, India, Britain, Burma, Guatemala, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Palestine, and the United States.
Prerequisite: ENG 224 , ENG 225 , ENG 226 , or ENG 229 .
Instructor: Sutaria
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ENG 390-01 - Literary Theory 4 credits (Fall)
Identity/Politics/Poetics: The Culture Wars and the Ends of Theory, 1966-1996. In this course, we will trace out the connections and disjunctions between a lecture delivered at Johns Hopkins in 1966, Native Americans’ attempts to regain tribal status in the 1970s and 80s, a Nazi-tinged scandal in 1988, the obscenity trial of 2 Live Crew in 1990, and a hoax perpetrated by a scientist in 1996. Each implicates in significant ways aspects of literary or cultural theory in the hotly contested contact zone of politics, identity, and poetics that came to be known as “the culture wars.” We will take a historicist approach to exploring the impact of post-structural theories on American culture and the academy in the 1980s and 90s. By way of discussing the particulars of these and other cases, and in order to better tease out the cultural issues that animate them, we will explore essays or excerpts by various critics and theorists including Houston Baker, Allan Bloom, Judith Butler, James Clifford, Kimberle Crenshaw, Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, Stanley Fish, Henry Louis Gates Jr., David Hirsch, Steven Knapp and Walter Michaels, Catharine MacKinnon, and Alan Sokol. Grades will be based on class discussion, two collaborative presentations, a critical reading journal, and a short paper (6 pages) at mid-semester and a final research paper of approximately 15 pages.
Prerequisite: Any 200-level English course.
Instructor: Andrews
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GWS 331-01 - Studies in American Prose II 4 credits (Fall)
See ENG 331-01 .
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HIS 100-01 - Introduction to Historical Inquiry: The Spanish Conquest of America 4 credits (Fall)
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 100-03 - Introduction to Historical Inquiry: Europe under the Great Dictators 4 credits (Fall)
This course provides an introduction to issues of historical causation, argumentation, and evidence by examining European history under two of the most repressive dictators in all of world history–Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. After an introductory unit on historical methods, we will use a variety of primary and secondary texts to investigate the workings of the Nazi and Stalinist dictatorships, examining subjects like everyday life under totalitarianism, the personal role of Hitler and Stalin in determining state policy, the use of state terror and the secret police, the rise of the leader cult, the origins of the Holocaust, and the nature of Stalin’s Great Purges.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Cohn
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HIS 314-01 - US Civil War: History and Memory 4 credits (Fall)
Students in this seminar will complete major research projects about the U.S. Civil War and/or its presence in public memory. The Civil War was a major watershed event, and students will study a number of important recent trends and debates in its historiography before defining their own topics of research. We will consider new approaches to analyzing the military, economic, social, gender, and racial dimensions of the war as well as topics such as popular culture, geography, immigration, and transnational history. In addition to studying the war itself, students will also consider how Civil War commemorations continued to shape U.S. history and culture during Reconstruction and beyond.
Prerequisite: HIS 100 and HIS 214 .
Instructor: Purcell
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HIS 336-01 - The European Metropolis 4 credits (Fall)
This seminar takes as its starting point the explosion of large cities in Europe from the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries. As the narrative goes, parallel political and economic revolutions made possible-–even inevitable-–the blossoming of entirely new spaces characterized by unprecedented population density and diversity, radical shifts in architecture and infrastructure, and vertiginous social and cultural developments. We examine this phenomenon by concentrating upon the ways in which artists and intellectuals in London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin (and occasionally elsewhere) grappled with the idea and the experience of the metropolis. Our investigations include political developments, social theory, the visual arts, film, literature, architecture, consumer culture, and music. Among the myriad of qualities and tensions inherent in the modern urban experience, we consider community and alienation, the fluidity of the self, spectacle and entertainment, disease and criminality, gender, and class.
Prerequisite: HIS 100 and HIS 236 , HIS 237 , HIS 238 , HIS 239 , or HIS 241 .
Instructor: Maynard
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HIS 342-01 - Stalinism 4 credits (Fall)
This seminar will examine the political, social, and cultural history of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, with a particular focus on the 1930s. The first half of the course will feature a series of common readings on topics such as the rise of Stalin’s dictatorship, the Great Terror of the 1930s, and the drive to collectivize Soviet agriculture and industrialize the economy; we’ll discuss the nature of everyday life and social identity under Stalin, look at the impact of propaganda and revolutionary ideology on the values and mindset of the population, and debate whether Stalinism represented the continuation of the revolution or a divergence from its ideals. After looking at a set of representative primary sources (such as oral histories, memoirs, and diaries), students will then produce a research paper in the second half of the semester, delving into some aspect of Soviet society and politics under Stalin.
Prerequisite: HIS 100 and HIS 242 or HIS 244 .
Instructor: Cohn
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MAT 317-01 - Advanced Topics in Analysis: Experimental Analysis 4 credits (Fall)
The pure mathematician has traditionally solved problems by “paper and pencil.” While the use of computers has changed our world in many respects, this has not (with few exceptions) come back to help mathematicians in their research. This course will show how computers can be used to study problems connected to analysis, including problems with integrals, infinite series, difference equations, chaos theory, and root finding. The common thread is using the computer for discovery; symbolic, numerical and visual. Students will master a computer algebra system, learn some recently developed algorithmic tools, and work on a research project. Previous experience with a computer algebra system is not required.
Prerequisite: MAT 316 .
Instructor: Chamberland
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MUS 201-01 - Intermediate Music Studies: Music, Mind and Brain 4 credits (Fall)
This course explores the rapidly growing field of the psychology of music. What would the evolutionary origins of music be? How does music evoke emotions in listeners? How do musical behaviors emerge and mature? What are the neural underpinnings of human musicality? What underlies our perceptual and cognitive response to music structure? What are the psychological and neurological processes involved in composition, improvisation, and performance? In an attempt to answer such questions, we will examine scientific foundations of how humans perceive, understand, and create music in light of the advances in psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, philosophy, and music theory.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Cha
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PHI 392-01 - Advanced Studies in Anglo-American Philosophy: Davidson 4 credits (Fall)
In this seminar we will investigate the views of the contemporary American philosopher, Donald Davidson, on meaning, interpretation, knowledge, action and mind. The course will divide into three sections: the first will fill in Davidson’s philosophical background in Quine and Tarski and examine his theory of meaning paying particular attention to the following questions: whether a Tarski-style theory of truth can do service as a theory of meaning, how such a theory can be empirically tested, and whether it can provide an adequate semantic representation of natural language. The second considers the supposed anti-sceptical epistemological consequences of his theory of meaning. The third will be concerned with his conception of the relation between reasons and causes for action and his theory of ‘anomalous monism’ in the philosophy of mind.
Prerequisite: PHI 253 , PHI 256 , PHI 257 , or PHI 258 .
Instructor: Fennell
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PST 320-01 - Applied Policy Analysis 4 credits (Fall)
Cross-listed as: GDS 320-01 or POL 320-01 . Food Insecurity. This course will serve as a joint policy studies and global development studies seminar. It will take an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to considering relevant food security concerns and possible solutions in the US and low income countries. Each student will engage in a major case study and employ methods common to policy studies and international development work to identify, weigh, and propose a policy to enhance food security.
Prerequisite: Third-year standing and either PST 220 , POL 220 , ECN 220 OR GDS 111 and one course from the GDS Macro requirement.
Instructor: Hess, Roper
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RUS 389-01 - Advanced Russian Seminar 4 credits (Fall)
Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita will be the focus of this seminar. Each class will be devoted to discussion of several chapters: their literary and political themes, as well as intertextual connections and cultural allusions. Towards the end of semester students will also read critical works about the novel in Russian. Conducted in Russian.
Prerequisite: RUS 313 .
Instructor: Vishevsky
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SOC 390-01 - Advanced Studies in Sociology: Intersectionality and Identity: Race, Gender, & Social Class Revisited 4 credits (Fall)
In this advanced sociology seminar, we will examine the interconnections among gender, social class, race-ethnicity, and other social categories at both the micro-level of identity and social interaction as well as at the macro-level of larger social structures, using the theoretical framework of intersectionality. Intersectionality, based on feminist theory and critical race theory, examines the multiple, fluid, and dynamic identities each person holds. Race, social class, and gender also structure our social world along various hierarchies of power and privilege that can reinforce or contradict each other, creating in turn both opportunities and oppression, as they shape identities and experiences of individuals. This seminar will address these issues and other dimensions of social inequality.
Prerequisite: At least one 200-level sociology course and third-year standing.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Ferguson
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SPN 320-01 - Cultures of the Spanish-Speaking World 4 credits (Fall)
Power and Negotiation in the Visual Culture of Spain and the Spanish-American Colonies (15-17th Century). This course provides an interdisciplinary and transatlantic approach in the analysis of the vast production of images in Spain and its colonies from the 15th to the 17th century. It is a course on images in their cultural context, their uses to increase the power and influence of social and political institutions, the various ways in which they were thought, and the kinds of responses that they raised in their society. Students will become acquainted with the works of El Greco, Velázquez, Zurbarán, Ribera and Murillo, as well as painters working actively in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and Peru. Special attention will be paid to the colonial pictorial manuscripts produced by native Mesoamerican artists. Some of the key issues we are going to address are: the role of portraiture in the construction and reproduction of the power of the Spanish monarchy of the Habsburgs, the nature and uses of religious imagery, the intersections between painting and material culture, the image as text in indigenous codices, and gender relations involved in visual practice.
Prerequisite: SPN 285 .
Instructor: M. Pérez
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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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BIO 150-01 - 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: Bailey
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BIO 150-02 - 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 150-03 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Spring)
Sex Life of Plants. This course will explore the evolution and ecology of reproduction in flowering plants to develop your understanding of how and why plants reproduce as they do. You’ll experience biology as it is practiced, as you learn principles of adaptation, practice the scientific method, and communicate your research findings in the style of professional biologists. Activities will include reading and discussing classic and contemporary scientific literature, completing exercises on the structure and function of plant reproductive features, and conducting and reporting on research projects done in the lab, the greenhouse, and the field.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Eckhart
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BIO 150-04 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Spring)
The vast majority of functions and reactions in a cell are carried out by proteins. Proteins can adopt a variety of different shapes and sizes, and they often act as regulatory switches to turn a particular pathway or process “on” or “off.” In this course, we will examine the nature of one such important switch, which occurs when two enzymes bind to each other to change the three-dimensional shape and stability of a protein that is critical for cell division. Using an in vitro system with proteins purified from bacteria, we will set out to understand how this regulatory switch works. Students will learn to carefully design and perform their own experiments, and they will learn to effectively analyze and communicate scientific results in a variety of different formats.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: M. French
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BIO 390-01 - Readings in Biology 4 credits (Spring)
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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BIO 390-02 - Readings in Biology 2 credits (Spring)
Conservation Biology. The science of sustaining biological diversity is fundamentally associated with ecology and population biology, but it also applies concepts and approaches from other biological disciplines (such as genetics, reproductive physiology, and epidemiology) and grapples with ethical, legal, political, social, and economic issues. In this course, we will explore the diversity of theory and practice in conservation biology, via a seminar format that emphasizes reading, discussion, and writing about primary literature.
Prerequisite: BIO 252 .
Instructor: Jackie Brown
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CSC 151-01 & 02 - Functional Problem Solving (Digital Humanities) 4 credits (Spring)
In this section of CSC 151, we will ground our study of functional problem solving in approaches related to the digital humanities, investigating ways in which computing changes the ways in which people write and analyze texts. In particular, we will examine models of documents, develop dynamic narratives, and design algorithms and visualizations that help us explore and analyze corpora and individual texts. The course employs a workshop format: In most class sessions, students will collaborate on a variety of problems. Includes formal laboratory work.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Rebelsky, Hamid
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ENG 120-01 & 02 - Literary Analysis 4 credits (Spring)
Global Modernism and its Legacies. What, exactly, is literature? What determines if it is good? How can we engage its richness with rigor and joy? Through our study of post-1900 prose, poetry, plays, radio programs, and film, this course will introduce you to techniques for literary analysis and master the tools needed to craft well-argued written critiques. In turn, we will work with supplemental materials such as book reviews, critical essays, interviews, newspapers, and digital sources to situate literary texts in their cultural, economic, and socio-historical context. Part of this exploration will involve a foray into the field of literary theory which examines how currents in political, social, and philosophical thought alter the way writers perceive their worlds and in turn affect the style of writing they use to represent it. We will consider work by E. M. Forster, Langston Hughes, Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Woolf, Sergei Eisenstein, Mulk Raj Anand, Una Marson, Wole Soyinka, Catherine Mansfield, Lu Xun, Bertolt Brecht, and Naguib Mahfouz.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Sutaria
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