|
|
2020-2021 Interim Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Search
|
|
|
|
| |
Variable Topics - Fall |
| |
-
HIS 100-03 - Introduction to Historical Inquiry: Global Reformations: Christianity, Capitalism, and Colonialism 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
This course provides an introduction to issues of historical causation, argumentation, and evidence by examining the consequences of the global spread of religious conflict that began with the European Reformation in the sixteenth century. After an introductory unit on historical methods, we will use a variety of primary and secondary sources to investigate why a set of obscure theological debates between European Christians set Christianity on a course to become a truly global religion, adapted to new local contexts and implicated in the growth of both capitalism and colonialism. Topics include the impact of the ‘New World’ conquests on European understandings of Christian conflict in the West; Protestant attempts to establish anti-Catholic alliances with Jews and Muslims; Japanese Catholic convert rebellions against the Tokugawa Shogunate; Ethiopian Orthodox resistance to Portuguese Catholicism; and the intellectual activities of Jesuit Catholics in the Chinese Qing court.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Chou
|
| |
-
HIS 100-04 - Introduction to Historical Inquiry: Guns, Germs, Steel and the Spanish Conquest 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
Guns, Germs, Steel, and the Spanish Conquest. This course provides an introduction to issues of historical causation, argumentation, and evidence through the lens of the first major episode of European colonization. The course will begin with with the explanation of the Conquest offered by the book Guns, Germs, and Steel. Using primary and secondary sources, students will then learn why many historians question this explanation. In the process, students will be introduced to the various means by which historians conduct research and write about the past.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Silva
|
| |
-
HIS 314-01 - US Civil War: History and Memory 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
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
|
| |
-
HIS 330-01 - Politics of Food in Early-Modern England 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
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 233 , HIS 234 , HIS 283 , or HIS-295 Global Cultural Encounters.
Instructor: Chou
|
| |
-
HIS 342-01 - Stalinism 4 credits (Fall Term 2)
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
|
| |
-
HUM 251-01 - Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
Cross-listed as: GLS 251-01 . This course takes a theoretical approach to canonical and contemporary children’s literature. This section will focus primarily on the history of constructions of race and sexuality in American children’s literature, primarily picture books.
Prerequisite: A course in English or another course in literature.
Instructor: Greene
|
| |
-
MAT 218-01 - Discrete Bridges to Advanced Mathematics: Elementary Number Theory 4 credits (Fall )
Elementary Number theory is one of the oldest branches of mathematics, far older than Calculus. The subject, at its most basic, asks questions about the integers. For instance, how are the prime numbers distributed among the integers? What are integer solutions to a particular polynomial equation? Which integers can be expressed as the sum of two squares? We will learn about topics such as divisibility, congruences, and quadratic reciprocity, which will help us answer questions like these. Along the way, we will discuss counting techniques and related discrete topics. Proof writing and creative problem solving will be heavily emphasized.
Prerequisite: MAT 215 .
Instructor: Staff
|
| |
-
MAT 218-02 - Discrete Bridges to Advanced Mathematics: Graph Theory 4 credits (Fall Term 2)
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 paths, we will move on to more advanced topics in which we apply techniques from Linear Algebra, such as eigenvalues and inner products, to obtain deeper and less intuitive results about graphs.
Prerequisite: MAT 215 .
Instructor: C. French
|
| |
-
MAT 444-01 - Senior Seminar: Reimann Surfaces 4 credits (Fall Term 2)
Riemann surfaces are beautiful mathematical objects which lie at the intersection of complex analysis, algebra, topology, and number theory. Fundamentally they are objects which locally look like the complex plane, and we use tools from both analysis and algebra to study them. In this course we will explore the core content of this field, touch on graduate level work, and talk about open research problems. Along the way we will learn about several other topics such as manifolds, complex analysis, and curves.
Prerequisite: MAT 316 and MAT 321 .
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Paulhus
|
| |
-
MUS 201-01 - Intermediate Music Studies: Digital Music-Making 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
This course is intended to provide students with the skills and understanding to compose and perform music in a variety of styles using technology. Students will use the equipment available in the Electronic Music Studio, and the Ableton Live and Max for Live programs to create original musical works that combine live performance with digital materials. Exercises that explore the basic techniques used in a variety of popular musical styles (Hip-Hop, Trap Music, House Music, Dubstep, video game music, Rock Music) will serve to develop and expand the toolset available to the student. In addition to examining a wide range of interactive strategies, the course will include techniques for mastering and polishing tracks, and it will culminate in a concert of the students’ work.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Rommereim
|
| |
-
MUS 201-02 - Intermediate Music Studies: Music, Mind and Brain 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
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.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Cha
|
| |
-
PHI 392-01 & 02 - Advanced Studies in Anglo-American Philosophy: Wittgenstein 4 credits (Fall Term 1 & Term 2)
In this seminar we will engage in a careful study of the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein’s thought is typically divided into three periods–the early (Tractatus), middle (The Blue and Brown Books) and late (Philosophical Investigations and On Certainty)–and we will examine his views in the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mind, metaphysics and epistemology in each of them. Particular attention will be paid to the continuities and discontinuities in his views across these periods as well as the broader philosophical motivations for and consequences of them. Majors themes and topics that will be focused on include: From the early period: The notion of logical form and the picture theory of meaning, the nature of the proposition and the analysis of generality, the limits of sense and the saying/showing distinction; From the middle period: The color-exclusion problem and the idea of language as a calculus of rules or conventions; From the late period: the notion of language games and the use ‘theory’ of meaning, the rule-following considerations, the argument against the possibility of a private language, philosophy-as-therapy and the dissolution of skepticism.
Prerequisite: PHI 253 , PHI 254 , PHI 256 , PHI 257 , or PHI 258 .
Note: For the 2020-21 academic year, this 4 credit course will be offered in both Fall 1 and Fall 2 terms for 2 credits each term.
Instructor: Fennell
|
| |
-
POL 320-01 - Applied Policy Analysis 4 credits (Fall Term 2)
Cross-listed as: PST 320-01 . COVID-19 Policy. This course will apply theories and methods of policy analysis to the COVID-19 pandemic, with attention to global and domestic US developments It will offer an interdisciplinary and evidence-based approach to evaluating disease transmission, economic and political consequences, and potential policy remedies. Each student will engage in a major case study and employ methods of policy analysis to identify, evaluate, and recommend a policy approach to address certain negative consequences of the pandemic in a specific area. This course can count towards the seminar requirement for the Political Science major.
Prerequisite: Third-year standing and ECN 220 , POL 220 , or PST 220 .
Instructor: Ferguson
|
| |
-
PST 320-01 - Applied Policy Analysis 4 credits (Fall Term 2)
See POL 320-01 .
|
| |
-
RUS 389-01 - Advanced Russian Seminar 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
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
|
| |
-
SOC 390-01 - Advanced Studies: Men and Masculinities 4 credits (Fall Term 2)
This course is an opportunity to critically explore the various meanings of manhood in contemporary societies. As societies have changed, men find themselves struggling with the meanings of masculinity. In this course, we will examine the history of this struggle alongside many topics relevant to changes in men’s lives: sexuality, family, sport, violence, health, work, relationships, and social change. We will critically examine patriarchy, male privilege, and, especially, men and masculinities as constructions based upon male domination.
Prerequisite: At least one 200-level sociology course and third-year standing.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Haenfler
|
| |
-
SPN 320-01 - Cultures of the Spanish-Speaking World 4 credits (Fall Term 2)
Historical Memory and Cultural Production in 20th Century Spain. In this class, we will examine the influence that contemporary cultural products such as television programs, film, music and other visual texts have on the historical memory of the early 20th century. Using these texts, we will critique these representations alongside historical events such as the Spanish Civil War, the Franco dictatorship, and the transition to democracy. We will also examine how memories can be created, manipulated, and destroyed through the production and consumption of genres such as cinema and television. A Netflix subscription will be required for this course.
Prerequisite: SPN 285 .
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Phillips
|
Variable Topics- Spring |
| |
-
ANT 104-01 - Anthropological Inquiries 4 credits (Spring)
Human Natures. What does it mean to be human? Through hands-on investigation within the four sub-fields of anthropology–biological, cultural, linguistic, and archeology–you will seek answers to this and related questions. In doing so, you will learn the basics of each field. Together, we will investigate human cultural diversity across time and geographic space, as well as the evolution, physiology, and ecology of both Homo sapiens and the non-human primates. We will explore how views of the natural world, human nature, and who is human have varied and changed, as well as the endless feedback loops between society, the environment, and our own biology. We will address topics such as: what the kinship systems of the world can tell us in the age of 23andMe; the origin of war and the future of peace; feast and famine in the Anthropocene; and whether, and if so which, animals other than us have culture or language. The format of this course will be mostly lecture, discussion, in-class labs, and out-of-class activities.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Marshack
|
| |
-
ANT 104-01 & 04 - Anthropological Inquiries 4 credits (Spring Term 1 and Term 2)
Health and Body. Description not yet available.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Section 01 - Spring term 1
Section 02 - Spring term 2
Instructor: Tapias
|
| |
-
BIO 150-01 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Spring Term 1)
Regeneration. In this course we will investigate regeneration using studies from phanaria, fish and axolotl. Based on critical reading of the literature, students will design and carry out independent research projects, analyze and report the results in scientific papers, posters and oral presentation. The class will combine lecture, lab, and discussion.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Staff
|
| |
-
BIO 150-03 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Spring Term 2)
Exploring the brain. We will learn how scientists study the nervous system, focusing on the tools that past and current neuroscientists use to figure out how the brain works. We will explore the cellular physiology of neurons, the various sensory systems, motor systems, and “higher” brain functions such as sleep, learning, and memory. We will discuss how the brain manages to coordinate all these various functions, as well as examine examples of what happens when the brain fails” at its job (illusions, diseases, etc). As part of biological inquiry students will be taking an investigative approach to develop hypotheses, test the hypothesis through reading research articles, data analysis, and writing a research paper.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Ranjan
|
| |
-
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
|
| |
-
ENG 120-03 & 04 - Literary Analysis 4 credits (Spring
Students in this section will explore methods of analyzing novels, short fiction, films, and poetry. We will begin by reading short stories of modern cities-the Dublin of James Joyce and the Washington, D.C. of Edward P. Jones-using a range of critical and theoretical approaches. The course will then examine literature that embodies traditionally formal as well as experimental strategies in poetry, film, and other modes. We will discuss the ways authors craft their works, and we will develop strategies for analyzing those choices in academic papers. Graded assignments will include frequent short writing assignments and longer papers.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Simpson
|
| |
-
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
|
| |
-
ENG 210-01 - Studies in Genre 4 credits (Spring)
The Graphic Novel. This course combines literary and historical approaches to investigate one of the most rapidly growing and increasingly influential forms of literature: the graphic novel. Popular yet understudied, graphic novels are now critically recognized as a major form of communication and contemporary creative arts. The course represents an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge mirrored by the graphic novel’s joint ancestry in fine arts and literature. It will include a historical overview of the form’s development across the twentieth century, complete with analysis of relevant broader institutional and cultural factors illuminating the growth of American media culture more generally. Providing students with the critical skills necessary to read and understand this deceptively complex medium-and visual storytelling in general-the course exposes students to a series of works that define and redefine the genre while illustrating a variety of artistic & storytelling approaches to central themes of the American experience: politics, sexuality, class, censorship, violence, cultural and ethnic diversity. Students will be expected to collaborate on a graphic series throughout the second half of the semester.
Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; or for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 or third-year standing.
Instructor: Lavan
|
| |
-
ENG 223-01 - The Tradition of English Literature I 4 credits (Spring)
In this discussion-heavy lecture, we sample the “greatest hits” of English literature between the 7th and 17th centuries, including the oldest English poems, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and sonnets galore, from Spenser’s to Donne’s to those of Lady Wroth. We’ll treat these timeless texts to close and distant readings both in order to identify and articulate those features that have led to their rude survival over centuries, and to gauge their value in and relevance to our present world.
Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 or third-year standing.
Instructor: Abdelkarim
|
| |
-
ENG 224-01 - The Tradition of English Literature II 4 credits (Spring)
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
|
| |
-
ENG 231-01 - American Literary Traditions III 4 credits (Spring)
This course will attempt a survey of queer literature in the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries. We’ll consider the changing representation of queer subjectivity from the pre-Stonewall era, through the early AIDS crisis, to the Obergefell decision legalizing same-sex marriage and continuing battles for fundamental rights. Prose writers we are likely to consider include James, Larsen, Cather, Baldwin, Holleran, Chee, Okparanta, Machado, Yuknavitch, Lawlor, Emezi. Among poets: Crane, Merrill, Ginsberg, Bishop, Lorde, Rich, Bidart, Phillips, Cole, Diaz, Smith, Charles, Skeets.
Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 or third-year standing.
Instructor: Staff
|
| |
-
ENG 329-01 - Studies in African American Literature 4 credits (Spring)
“Bodyminds Reimagined” in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction. In an interview in the African-American Review, speculative fiction writer Nalo Hopkinson asserts that “science fiction has always been a subversive literature” because it forces the reader to “think twice and thrice about a whole bunch of things in relation to each other: sexuality, race, class, color, history.” In her new book Bodyminds Reimagined, Sami Schalk “traces how black women’s speculative fiction complicates the understanding of bodyminds-the intertwinement of the mental and the physical-in the context of race, gender, and (dis)ability.” Using these frameworks as entry points, we will explore the following questions: Is there a distinct tradition of black speculative fiction? How might a culture that has, in Hopkinson’s words, “been on the receiving end of the colonization glorified in some science fiction” negotiate and politicize the genre? Does black speculative fiction (defined here to encompass science fiction, fantasy, cyberpunk, Afro-futurism etc.) cause one, in fact, “to think twice and thrice” about race, class, and sexuality? Finally, does the tradition challenge our basic assumptions of identity, or does it ultimately work to normalize them? Using supplementary materials from crip, queer, critical race theory and feminist theory, as well as a consideration of the traditions of travel writing and utopian/dystopian thought, we will examine how black writers, filmmakers and musicians have used speculative methods to de-familiarize our assumptions regarding “familiar” social issues such as race, class, gender and disability.
Prerequisite: ENG 225 , ENG 227 , ENG 228 , ENG 229 , ENG 231 , ENG 232 , or ENG 273 .
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Lavan
|
| |
-
ENV 495-01 - Senior Seminar: New and Emerging Infectious Diseases 4 credits (Spring)
The gravest environmental danger facing humanity today is not war, not political upheaval, but pandemic disease. We have come close to having globe-girdling pandemics in recent decades: witness HIV, Marburg Virus, Lassa Fever, Ebola Virus, Zika Virus and three species of Corona viruses (to name a few). Throughout history, pandemic diseases, vectored by arthropods, have killed more than half of all people - approximately 54 billion people - who have ever lived. Witness smallpox, the black death, yellow fever and malaria. The Seminar will examine the interfaces – ecological, cultural, agricultural and epidemiologic - between zoonoses and humans in the ecotones - urban and rural, terrestrial and marine - where these saltations have taken, and are, taking place.
Prerequisite: Open to Junior and Senior Environmental Studies Concentrators.
Instructor: Campbell
|
| |
-
GLS 251-01 - Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature 4 credits (Spring)
See HUM 251-01 .
|
| |
-
GRM 380-01 - A Critical Approach to German Canon 4 credits (Spring)
Oldies but Goodies? In this course we study selections of canonical texts from the German speaking worlds starting with the Enlightenment. This course introduces literary epochs, authors and genres representing important literary currents and historical developments from a critical perspective. By the end of this course, students will deepen their knowledge of different text types and genres, text analysis, literary theory and history. Readings and discussions in German.
Prerequisite: GRM 222 .
Instructor: Poetzl
|
| |
-
HIS 100-01 - Introduction to Historical Inquiry: European Revolutions 4 credits (Spring)
This course provides an introduction to issues of historical causation, argumentation, and evidence through the lens of European revolutions between the late eighteenth century and the early twentieth. After introductory units on historical methods and the phenomenon of revolution itself, we examine the French Revolution, the Revolutions of 1848-49, and the Russian Revolution as both profoundly local and decidedly transnational events. We work closely with primary sources and consider the political, social, cultural, intellectual, and psychological ramifications of these dramatic ruptures for their participants and subsequent generations.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Maynard
|
| |
-
HIS 100-02 - Introduction to Historical Inquiry: Digital History: Local and Global 4 credits (Spring)
This course will introduce students to methods used in the digital humanities, with a special emphasis on applications to historical studies. Students will create projects and study existing digital projects, with a special focus on U.S. History in a global context. Readings will include primary sources as well as recent contributions to theory in digital humanities. We will learn general principles of working with humanistic data as well as techniques such as building on-line exhibitions, digital mapping, and computational analysis of text. No technical skills or experience in digital humanities work are required, but willingness to gain both are fundamental to the class.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Purcell
|
| |
-
HUM 251-01 - Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature 4 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: GLS 251-01 . This course will take a theoretical approach to canonical and contemporary children’s literature. In 2020, “Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature” will focus on the “problem novel” for teens (ages 13-18), its evolution in the United States, and its manifestations in other cultures and nations. This year we will consider translated teen fiction from Scandinavia after reading and discussing the American problem novel and its development in the twentieth century. Are the concerns of teenagers presented universally to readers of different cultures? Or do national or cultural mores take precedence when writing for teens?
Prerequisite: A course in English or another course in literature.
Instructor: Herold
|
| |
-
MUS 201-01 - Intermediate Music Studies: Opera, Death, Drama, Desire 4 credits (Spring)
Intermediate Music Studies: Opera, Death, Drama, Desire. Derided by some as a type of elitist torture, worshipped by others as Western culture’s greatest art form, opera has been the focus of controversy since its inception over 400 years ago. Opera has responded to these controversies in remarkable ways, proving over and again its tremendous power to express the full range of human passions and experiences. This course will view opera through the double lens of music and theatre. We will analyze what the earliest creators of opera sought to achieve through music, drama, dance, and visual spectacle, how their ideas were received and transformed by later generations, and what role opera has in society today. We will read selected dramas as literature, and develop strategies for listening that illuminate how the music expresses the drama. We will also examine aspects of opera production, including the frankly operatic interactions between composers, poets, designers, choreographers, producers, patrons, listeners, and-last but not least-singers. We will focus on works available on video, including the Metropolitan Live in HD broadcasts, and will take a field trip to hear a live opera performance, including backstage interviews with singers and directors. No musical experience necessary.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Brown
|
| |
-
MUS 202-01 - Topics in American Music: Hip Hop 4 credits (Spring)
Hip-hop is one of the critically vital and commercially visible cultural phenomena in the world today. This class will consider the historical sweep of hip-hop culture - from the burnt-out projects of the South Bronx to the steel-and-glass office towers of Manhattan and L.A., from D.J. Kool Herc to Kendrick Lamar, from the U.S. to all points around the world - while also focusing on key issues related to race, gender, sexuality, and capitalism.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Laver
|
| |
-
MUS 322-01 - Advanced Studies in Music: Meaning and Social Value 4 credits (Spring)
The premise of this class is that music is meaningful and thus matters to the ways in which people connect with and relate to one another socially, politically, and spiritually. But how can this meaning be understood and explained? This course will introduce students to multiple theoretical tools that have been employed to analyze musical meaning in music studies broadly speaking. We pay particular attention to the need for different tools to explain musical meaning rather than linguistic meaning, as well as the balance between prioritizing sound or social context. Students will learn to connect the minutiae of musical sound to broader social practices and ideals. Special attention will be paid to the semiotic tools of Charles Peirce.
Prerequisite: Fourth-year music major.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Perman
|
| |
-
REL 394-01 & 02 - Advanced Topics: Applying Religious Studies 4 credits (Spring Term 1 and Term 2)
A central goal of the religious studies major is to provide you, our students, with structured opportunities to consider how to carry what you learn in our courses into the rest of your lives. The senior seminar, in which we will read and discuss scholarly work together and you will complete a research project of your own, is built around this goal. This year, we will explore how to apply religious studies to anti-racist efforts.
Prerequisite: REL 311 .
Instructor: Elfenbein
|
| |
-
RUS 389-01 - Advanced Russian Seminar 4 credits (Spring)
This seminar examines contemporary Russian journalism and social media. We will pay particular attention to specialized vocabulary, syntax, and stylistics in both official and unofficial sources. Texts may come from magazines, newspapers, television news, websites, and social media platforms (Facebook, V kontakte, among others). Conducted in Russian.
Prerequisite: RUS 313 .
Instructor: Greene
|
| |
-
SOC 295-03 - Special Topic: Animals and Society 4 credits (Spring Term 2)
Examines the role of non-human animals in human society. Investigates the social construction of the human/animal boundary. Challenges ideas that animals are neither thinking nor feeling. Examines the many ways humans rely on animals. Considers the link between animal cruelty and other violence. Explores the moral status of animals.
Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
Instructor: Snook
|
| |
-
SOC 390-01 - Advanced Studies: Ethnographic Methods 4 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: In this advanced methods seminar, we’ll consider how sociologists use first-hand observations to make sense of social phenomena and the larger social world. Alongside readings of older and more contemporary ethnographies, students will delve into debates that center on epistemology, positionality, and ethics. The course will also give students the opportunity to develop and share their own ethnographies throughout the semester. Not yet available.
Prerequisite: At least one 200-level sociology course and third-year standing.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Inglis
|
| |
-
SPN 320-01 - Cultures of the Spanish-Speaking World 4 credits (Spring)
Gender and Latinidad are social constructs in)formed by models, patterns, and ideals that we observe and imitate. Film has been of particular influence with respect to the transmission of gender ideals and expectations–as well as the coding of latinx bodies. In this course, using cultural studies methodologies, we will concentrate on representations of latinxs in the United States and the cultural messages that accompany these representations from the 40s to the present day. In particular, we will analyze the relation between representations and self-perceptions of latinx subjects through stereotypes and gender models.
Prerequisite: SPN 285 .
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Petrus
|
| |
-
SPN 386-01 - Studies in Medieval and 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
|
| |
-
THD 295-02 - Special Topic: Playwriting 4 credits (Spring Term 1)
Playwriting seeks to develop and hone playwriting craft through a writing workshop environment that will guide the writer’s exploration of their individual voice as an emerging playwright. The course will concentrate on developing fundamental components of dramatic writing including: storytelling for the stage, character formation, shaping narrative, developing the language of visual imagery, crafting dialogue, and fostering a theatrical imagination and artistic voice for both live state and digital platforms. Students are expected to complete weekly writing assignments.
Prerequisite: Any 100-level THD course.
Instructor: Mayorga
|
Variable Topics - Fall and Spring |
| |
-
ANT 104-01 & 05 - Anthropological Inquires 4 credits (Fall Term 1 and Spring Term 2)
Beyond nature and culture. Are there more than five senses? Does language structure the way we perceive the world? Is there such thing as a natural catastrophe? Nature-culture distinctions are made every day by humans as we categorize others, structure our environment, and come to terms with our place among other beings. This course introduces students to anthropology and what it means to be human by critically tracking nature-culture divides across contemporary and historical human societies. Through the study of genes and epigenetics, kinship, climate change, language, and laughter, students will have an opportunity to examine what we share in common, or what might be distinct. In so doing, students will be introduced to four sub-fields of anthropology: linguistic, sociocultural, biological, and archaeology.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Section 01 - Fall Term 1
Section 05 - Spring Term 2
Instructor: Sweet
|
| |
-
ANT 104-03 - Anthropological Inquiries 4 credits (Fall Term 2 and Spring Term 1)
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
|
| |
-
CSC 151-01, 02 & 03 - Functional Problem Solving (Digital Humanities) 4 credits (Fall and 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: Johnson, Osera, Rebelsky
|
| |
-
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: Curtsinger, Eliott, Weinman
|
| |
-
ENG 121-01 & 02 - Introduction to Shakespeare 4 credits (Fall Term 1, Term 2 and 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.
Note: Section 01 - Fall Term 1 and Spring
Section 02 - Fall Term 2
Instructor: Abdelkarim, Garrison
|
Writing Laboratory |
| |
-
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
|
| |
-
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
|
| |
-
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
|
| |
-
WRT 301 - Teaching and Tutoring Writing 4 credits (Fall and Spring)
Cross-listed as: EDU 301 . In this course, we will study and discuss theories of writing, revising, teaching, and tutoring; learn practical strategies for effective commenting on drafts and conferencing with writers from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds; identify and investigate intriguing questions and scholarly debates related to writing, teaching, and tutoring; present the results of that research both orally and in writing; examine and reflect on our own experiences as writers, tutors, and learners.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing or completion of 200-level writing intensive course.
Instructor: Turk
|
Science, Medicine, and Society |
| |
-
SMS 154 - Evolution of Technology 4 credits (Fall or 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.
Note: Not offered every year.
Instructor: Staff
|
| |
Page: 1
| 2
| 3
| 4
| 5
| 6
| 7
| 8
| 9
| 10
|
|
|
Print this Page