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2020-2021 Interim Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Search
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Special Topics-Spring |
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CLS 395-02 - Advanced Special Topic: Indo-European Poetry and Myth 4 credits (Spring)
Reconstruction of aspects of Indo-European literature and culture through readings in English translation of Anatolian, Indic, Greek, Roman, Irish, Norse, and other related ancient mythology and poetry.
Prerequisite: HUM 101 required. CLS 242 , CLS 270 , LIN 270 recommended.
Instructor: Mercado
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ENG 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Shakespeare Behind Bars 4 credits (Spring)
This course will examine Shakespeare’s relationship to prisons, both in his own time and in our own. We will begin by considering the playwright’s depictions of imprisonment before exploring the role of his work in contemporary prison literacy and performance programs. Looking at case studies from around the globe, we will explore complex questions about how literature might play a role in enriching the lives of incarcerated individuals and other vulnerable communities.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Garrison
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ENG 195-03 - Introductory Special Topic: Just Following Up: An Introduction to Freelance Journalism 2 credits (Spring Term 2)
Journalism isn’t dying, but the newsroom might be. Employment at U.S. newspapers has dropped by nearly half since 2008; luckily, that isn’t the only career path available to journalists. Freelance journalists find their own stories, set their own hours and work from wherever they want. Of course, they also have to file quarterly taxes, chase down late payments, and be their own best (and sometimes only) advocate. This course will cover the practicalities of freelancing, from how to identify stories to building a platform on social media, as well as how to use those tools to build a more ethical, diverse and sustainable future for the profession. It’s an overview of everything you’ll need to start out as a freelance journalist–other than the writing part. This course is sponsored by the Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Staff
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ENG 295-01 - Special Topic: Studies in Neuro-humanities: Science, Subjectivity, Critique 4 credits Spring Term 1)
Cross-listed as: PHI 295-01 Supported by an Innovation Fund grant, this course seeks to expose Grinnell students to a range of developments in the emergent, multidisciplinary field we call neurohumanities. What can cognitive science tell us about literary and philosophical issues? What can the later tell us about the brain? Unlike typical courses at Grinnell, this one will be team-taught, and that team will extend beyond Professors Neisser and Savarese. We will have regular, prominent guests who Zoom in to talk about their own research. These guests include a MacArthur winner, a college president, a college dean, a leading feminist critic-all of them deeply committed to a rapprochement between the sciences and humanities. We will read these scholars’ work, ask questions, and pursue projects related to the subjects they explore. The course, in short, will be built around these lucky visits. Meeting at least three times a week for seven weeks, it will bring a liberal arts perspective to what one scholar has deemed the “Era of the Brain.”
Prerequisite: Third-year standing and consent of the instructor.
Instructor: Savarese, Neisser
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ENV 295-01 - Special Topic: African Livlihoods 4 credits (Spring)
GDS 295-01 .
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FRN 395-01 - Advanced Special Topic: Fictions of Francophone African Cities 4 credits (Spring)
This literature seminar will take us to several Francophone Sub-Saharan African cities to consider the complex ways in which writers and filmmakers have portrayed urban Africa. Through texts and films, we will ask what it means to re-imagine the daily lives of ordinary urban dwellers in fiction. We will focus on the challenges and possibilities that African cities create or deepen. In doing so, we will strive to understand the intersections of and interstices occupied by different forms of vulnerability, including gender-based, linguistic and economic vulnerabilities, and the role of fiction in giving them a voice. (Taught entirely in French)
Prerequisite: FRN 312 or FRN 313 .
Instructor: Tricoire
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GDS 295-01 - Special Topic: African Livelihoods 4 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: ENV 295-01 . Sub-Saharan Africa is the most important world region in terms of development efforts and experts have long recognized the need to understand the complex livelihood strategies of Africans in order to intervene effectively. This course will engage critically with the livelihood-development nexus as a way to understand the limitations of development logics and how livelihood strategies so often defy them.
Prerequisite: GDS 111 and second-year standing.
Instructor: Brottem
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GWS 295-01 - Special Topic: Feminist Literatures from the German-speaking World 4 credits (Spring)
See GRM 295-01 .
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GWS 295-02 - Special Topic: Trans Film and Media 4 credits (Spring)
This course provides a critical perspective on our current conjuncture of mainstream trans visibility and representation via a focus on film and other media since the 1990s. The course surveys both popular depictions as well as alternative cultural production by and for trans communities. Central attention will be paid to how trans representations intersect with race, capital, immigration, and disability; the class will also critically unpack the fraught relationship between cultural representation and political “progress.”
Prerequisite: GWS 111 .
Instructor: Lewis
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GWS 395-01 - Advanced Special Topic: Mutual Aid 4 credits (Spring)
“Mutual aid” refers to traditions of progressive caretaking and political participation, wherein communities take responsibility for providing basic needs, recognizing that dominant institutions do not meaningfully support marginalized groups. We’ll survey mutual aid historically and today: progenitors like the Black Panthers; queer and feminist initiatives like the women’s health movement, HIV/AIDS services; and COVID-19-driven networks. This class also has a practical component: alongside scholarship, students will also participate in mutual aid work throughout the term.
Prerequisite: GWS 111 and one 200 or 300-level GWS course.
Instructor: Lewis
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HIS 295-01 - Special Topic: Foundations of US Popular Culture 4 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: AMS 295-01 . Examines the creation and expansion of American and transnational popular culture in the nineteenth century, focusing on diverse cultural forms: dime novels, newspapers, music, sports, cartoons, material culture, theater, minstrel shows, magazines, etc. Focuses particularly on how ideas and structures of race, class, and gender were changed and reinforced by American popular culture and how popular culture created or changed power dynamics in society. Students study historical and interdisciplinary methods and theories of popular culture.
Prerequisite: HIS 100 or second-year standing.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Purcell
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HIS 295-02 - Special Topic: Cold War Latin America 4 credits (Spring)
During the Cold War, Latin America was seen as an important site of both ideological and military conflict. As a result, the region was profoundly shaped by the the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. This course will examine some of the political, social, and cultural effects of the Cold War on Latin America by studying various important episodes including the Cuban Revolution, Anti-communist dictatorships, and US interventions.
Prerequisite: HIS 100 or second-year standing.
Note: Plus-2 option available. Foreign Language option available.
Instructor: Silva
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HIS 295-03 - Special Topic: From the KGB to the Elf on the Shelf: Surveillance in Modern History 4 credits (Spring)
This course examines the political, social, and cultural history of mass surveillance in America, Britain, the USSR, China, and several modern European states, looking at the use of informers and secret agents in authoritarian regimes, the efforts of governments across the industrialized world to shape their citizens through mass information-gathering, modern cultures of state secrecy and surveillance, and technology’s growing role in the monitoring of everyday citizens by governments and corporations alike.
Prerequisite: HIS 100 or second-year standing.
Instructor: Cohn
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HUM 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Digital Humanities: Ethics, Theory, and Practice 1 credits (Fall Term 1)
This course introduces students to the Vivero Digital Humanities program. It addresses foundational ethical considerations, core theories, and best practices in digital humanities. Learning outcomes include recognizing the necessary connections between digital humanities and social justice, anti-racist practice, and feminist practice; developing basic understanding of methods and tools in the field; and learning basic project management skills.
Prerequisite: None. Instructor permission required.
Instructor: Lewis, Rodrigues
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HUM 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: I/Robot 2 credits (Spring Term 1)
Cross-listed as: SST 195-01 . How will/have our relationships to machines changed our relationships to other humans? Students in I/Robot, an interdisciplinary course sponsored by the Center for the Humanities, will explore this question by learning about early androids and artificial intelligence, studying representations of machines, exploring human-machine relationships, and choosing one device/machine to study. The course is participation intensive, will be a fair amount of work, and will typically meet synchronously two days a week. All students are welcome.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Dates: February 22 to March 19.
Instructor: Erickson
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HUM 195-02 - Introductory Special Topic: Inscriptions for the Future 2 credits (Spring Term 2)
Who do communities honor with monuments, statues, and inscriptions in public space-and why? Grinnell is in the midst of inscribing names in an academic building for the first time since 1905. We will explore the work of those whose names will be carved into the Humanities and Social Studies Center, analyze what these names say about who we are and who we aspire to be, and identify possible inscriptions for our future.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Dates: April 5 to May 20. S/D/F only.
Instructor: Elfenbein
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HUM 295-01 - Special Topic: Digital Journal Publishing 4 credits (Spring Term 1)
Cross-listed as: SST 295-01 . This course involves students in all phases of production for the Spring 2021 issue of Rootstalk: A Prairie Journal of Culture, Science, and the Arts. Students will expand their horizons concerning what constitutes a journal, shaping content in traditional forms (text and images) but also learning methods for preparing digital content pieces including podcasts, video essays, short films, and audio files. Students who have taken other publishing courses taught by Andelson and Baechtel may also take this course.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Andelson, Baechtel
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JPN 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Beginning Japanese Conversation 1 credits (Spring Term 1)
This course is offered for the students who took JPN 101 in the fall semester to prepare for JPN 102 in the second term of the spring semester (S2). Students who were placed in JPN 102 during the language placement may also take it. This course aims to maintain and strengthen the skills acquired in JPN 101 through conversation practices.
Prerequisite: JPN 101 .
S/D/F only.
Instructor: Shiomi
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JPN 295-01 - Special Topic: Conversational Japanese 2 credits (Spring Term 2)
This course is for those students who have finished Intermediate Japanese I (JPN 221) or an equivalent course. This course will focus on practicing conversational skills on different aspects such as in business, casual and polite situations.
Prerequisite: JPN 221 .
Instructor: Shiomi
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LAT 395-01 - Advanced Special Topic: Plautus 4 credits (Spring)
Reading of comedies in Latin by Plautus, with attention to literary form, precedents and parallels, and social, historical, and political contexts.
Prerequisite: LAT 222 or equivalent.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Mercado
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LIN 295-01 - Special Topic: Phonetics and Phonology 4 credits (Spring)
What are the possible sounds of the world’s languages and how are they produced? How do speakers know which sounds to produce in which contexts in their language? In this course, we explore the articulatory and acoustic properties of speech sounds and learn to transcribe speech phonetically. We then find systematic patterns in the organization of sounds in different languages and consider how speakers represent and derive such patterns in their mental grammars.
Prerequisite: LIN 114 .
Instructor: Glewwe
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PCS 195-02 - Introductory Special Topic: Literature of Peace 2 credits (Fall Term 2)
See ENG 195-04 .
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PHE 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Historical and Contemporary Issues of Women’s Sports in America 2 credits (Spring Term 2)
A discussion based short-course exploring women’s sports from long before Billy Jean King up to Serena Williams. This course will take a closer look at the start of women’s collegiate sports and the post-Title IX women’s sport experience. We will also examine the role of women in the greater sports industry.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Dates: April 28 to May 25.
Instructor: Koester
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PHI 295-01 - Special Topic: Studies in Neuro-humanities: Science, Subjectivity, Critique 4 credits (Spring Term 1)
See ENG 295-01
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PHI 395-01 - Advanced Special Topic: Greek Ethical Thought 4 credits (Spring)
See CLS 395-01 .
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PHY 395-01 - Advanced Special Topic: Introduction to Particle Physics 4 credits (Spring Term 2)
An introduction to advanced quantum theory applied to the standard model of particle physics. The course will begin with a short survey of the particles in the standard model, their inteactions based on the four fundamental forces and how to classify their respective interactions. The course will then proceed with an introduction to relativistic collisions, symmetries and conservation laws, quantum mechanical bound-states, addition of angular momentum and perturbation theory.
Prerequisite: PHY 456 .
Instructor: L. Rodriguez
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POL 295-01 - Special Topic: Electoral Systems 4 credits (Spring Term 2)
The American electoral system is but one way to translate votes into seats; other countries have designed their democracies quite differently. This course explores such comparative diversity, in particular its effects on outputs about which scholars normatively care (e.g., voter turnout, party viability, representation, government durability, satisfaction with democracy). The course also attends to the origins of national systems and explores the circumstances under which they change.
Prerequisite: POL 101 .
Instructor: Virgin
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REL 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Studying African American Religions 4 credits (Spring Term 2)
This course is an introduction to the study of religion through an examination of the institutions, histories, theologies and communities of African-Americans. Using texts, films, and music, we will focus on the development of the Black Churches - sites of struggle, resistance, resilience and creativity and conservativism. Major themes will include ”Africanisms” in American religion, slavery and religion, black liberation and womanist theology, religion and civil rights movement, Black
Judaisms, Islams, and urban movements.
Prerequisite: Open to first and second-year students only.
Instructor: Ratzman
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REL 295-02 - Special Topic: Jewish Saints and Jewish Utopias 4 credits (Spring Term 2)
What is the relationship between ethical behavior and a just society? Does political justice require moral saints? Does love of neighbor scale up for socialism? This course is a critical examination of moral perfectionism and political utopianism in the Jewish tradition. We examine traditions of the Biblical prophets and rabbinic ideas about the messiah; holy men and heretics; spiritual disciplines and ethical austerities; Jewish Communists and messianic Zionism. Readings from Maimonides, Levinas, Arendt, and others.
Prerequisite: REL 101 , REL 102 , REL 103 , REL 104 , REL 105 , or second-year standing.
Instructor: Ratzman
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RES 295-01 - Special Topic: The Politics of Ideas and Symbols in Putin’s Russia 2 credits (Spring Term2)
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 12 to May 20.
Instructor: Staff
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SOC 295-01 - Special Topic: Environmental Sociology 4 credits (Spring Term 1)
This course provides an overview of environmental sociology as a sub-discipline: introduces students to the essential concepts, theories, and methods used in environmental sociology, enabling students to identify and examine the way sociological concepts can be applied to environmental concerns academically, creatively, and practically.
Prerequisite: SOC 111 .
Instructor: Bacon
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SOC 295-02 - Special Topic: Introduction to Critical Race Theory 4 credits (Spring Term 1)
Critical Race Theory is an approach to studying race and racism that arose in 1989 out of fruitful synergies between critical legal studies and other disciplinary traditions that include but are not limited to Sociology, Ethnic Studies, and History. Kimberle Crenshaw and Patricia Williams are credited with founding the approach. Crenshaw, Williams and a host of scholars at the time were tired of analytical tools that seemed to have contributed to the incredibly slow progress toward racial equity. In contrast to other theoretical approaches, CRT takes the view that the notion of race and racism shape the American experience and are embedded in all institutions. CRT identifies the underlying beliefs, practices, laws, and policies that contribute to racism and develops tools of liberation from systemic racism.
Prerequisite: SOC 111
Instructor: Erickson
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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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SOC 395-01 - Advanced Special Topic: Regimes, Resistance, and Repression 4 credits (Spring Term 2)
This sociology seminar will investigate how and why resistance emerges, develops, and succeeds or fails in different types of governments. Using a global and comparative lens, it will explain the structural and cultural factors that influence various forms of contention, from reformist social movements to insurrections as well as everyday forms of resistance. The empirical topics include the Arab Spring, social revolutions in Iran and Nicaragua, reactionary movements, and comparative case studies of nonviolent uprisings among others.
Prerequisite: Two 200-level sociology courses.
Instructor: Quinsaat
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SST 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: I/Robot 2 credits (Spring Term 1)
See HUM 195-01 .
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SST 295-01 - Special Topic: Digital Journal Publishing 4 credits (Spring Term 1)
See HUM 295-01 .
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SST 295-02 - Special Topic: Data Wrangling 2 credits (Spring Term 1)
Previously unimaginable amounts of data are available online, but before you can use the data you need to wrangle it. In this course you’ll learn to access data via APIs, bring data in JSON and XML formats into Excel, combine it with data from other sources, and reshape it and aggregate it to produce exactly the data files you need to do your research. Course uses Excel; no programming required.
Prerequisite: SST 115 , SST 125 , STA 209 , POL 237 , or POL 258 .
Instructor: Bauder
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THD 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: New Directions in Performance 4 credits (Spring Term 1)
In this online course, students will explore the intersections of theatre and digital media, experimenting with a variety of performance genres including digital sound postcards, puppet/object theatre, site-specific performance, and acting for the camera. This 4-credit class will culminate with students creating their own devised performance for a ticketed live-streamed event. Acting experience is not necessary.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Ameh
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THD 195-04 - Introductory Special Topic: Costumes on the World Stage: Non-Western History of Dress in Performance 4 credits (Spring Term 2)
This course will focus on the collective imagination and the common roots of theatre history, as well as the materials and methods used in uncommon forms of performance. The theatrical beginnings in ancient India, Chinese opera and puppetry, Japanese Noh and Kabuki, and African storytelling traditions and the use of masks and shadow play will be the focus, as well as the fibers, fabrics, makeup and other materials specific to these cultural foundations of theatrical art.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Howell-Gritsch
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Special Topic - Fall and Spring |
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ART 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Introduction to Film Studies 4 credits (Fall Term 2 and Spring Term 1)
This course introduces students to select issues in film studies. Students will learn key vocabulary and concepts of film forms, techniques, and history and develop critical analysis skills necessary to become informed viewers of a wide variety of historical and contemporary films. Class time will be used for screenings and critical study of major films. Students will produce written critical responses to film, production exercises using consumer tools (smartphones, basic editing software), and a research presentation.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Tavares
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ECN 295-01 - Special Topic: Health Economics 4 credits (Fall Term 1 and Spring)
An introduction to health economics using basic economic theory to understand the implications of health-related markets and policies in the United States and abroad. This course will cover topics including health insurance, behavioral responses to health-related incentives, and determinants of access to health care services.
Prerequisite: ECN 111 .
Instructor: Kelly
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ECN 295-02 - Special Topic: Money and Banking 4 credits (Fall Term 2 and Spring)
An examination of the role of money, banking, and financial institutions in the economy. Topics include interest rate determination, money creation in the banking system, the role of Central Banks and monetary policy. Case studies on banking and financial crisis and policy responses will also be analyzed.
Prerequisite: ECN 111 .
Instructor: Mao
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HIS 195-01 & 02 - Introductory Special Topic: Comparative Herbal Medicine 2 credits (Fall Term 1 and Spring)
Comparative Herbal Medicine explores the historical and current use of plant-based healing practices across the globe, highlighting how and why various cultures have incorporated plants into their healing traditions. Multi-disciplinary in both structure and content, students will participate in makers’ labs, write short essays, and create a digital story that narrates either the use of a particular plant or the treatment of a particular condition across herbal cultures in history and the present.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Fall Term 1 - sections 01 and 02
Instructor: Lewis
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PHI 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Philosophy for Life 4 credits (Fall Term 1 and Spring Term 2)
The central question will be “what is the good life?” This is a basic issue for any philosophical tradition and every vision of humanity. Students will begin to search for their own answers by engaging with a range of humanistic responses to questions such as: How ought I live? What am I looking for? What is a good community? What is justice? What is the human being? What are the relations between e.g. beauty, wisdom, love, nature, and power?
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: J. Dobe
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SPN 295-01 & 03 - Special Topic: Keeping Up With Your Spanish I 1 credits (Fall Term 1 & 2; Spring Term 1 & 2)
This discussion-based course is designed for students to continue developing grammar, listening, reading and speaking skills in a conversational format. This course is intended for first- and second-year students seeking to maintain linguistic progress who are unable to take SPN 106 or SPN 217 this term and intend to continue studying Spanish. Priority will be given to first- and second-year students. This class does not fulfill other programs’ language requirements.
Prerequisite: SPN 106 or placement in SPN 106 or SPN 217 .
Note: Fall Term 1 - Section 01
Fall Term 2 - Section 03
Spring Term 1 - Section 01
Spring Term 2 - Section 03 - S/D/F only.
Instructor: Benoist
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SPN 295-02 & 04 - Special Topic: Keeping Up With Your Spanish II 1 credits (Fall Term 1 & 2; Spring Term 1 & 2)
This discussion-based course is designed for students to continue developing grammar, listening, textual analysis and speaking skills in a conversational format. This course is intended for first- and second-year students seeking to maintain linguistic progress who are unable to take SPN 285 this term and intend to continue studying Spanish. Priority will be given to first- and second-year students. This class does not fulfill other programs’ language requirements.
Co-requisite: SPN 217 or placement in SPN 285 .
Note: Fall Term 1 - section 02
Fall Term 2 - section 04
Spring Term 1 - section 02
Spring Term 2 - section 04 S/D/F only.
Instructor: Phillips
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THD 195-01, 02, & 03 - Introductory Special Topic: Online Theatre: New Directions in Design and Stagecraft 2 credits (Fall Term 1 & 2 and Spring Term 1 & 2)
In this online course, students will explore the intersections of theatre and digital media, experimenting with a variety of design and stagecraft methods for the camera, including lighting, scenery, digital projection, and audio. This 2-credit class will culminate in a devised and ticketed performance for a live-streamed event. Instruction method will be synchronous with additional asynchronous opportunities. Prior design, technology, and stagecraft experience is not necessary.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Fall Term 1 - section 01
Fall Term 2 - section 03
Spring Term 1 - section 02
Spring Term 2 - section 03
Instructor: Thomas
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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 230 - Introduction to Data Science 4 credits (Fall and Spring)
This course introduces core topics in data science using R programming. This includes introductions to getting and cleaning data, data management, exploratory data analysis, reproducible research, and data visualization. This course incorporates case studies from multiple disciplines and emphasizes the importance of properly communicating statistical ideas.
Prerequisite: STA 209 (previously offered as MAT 209). Suggested: CSC 151 or computer programming experience.
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 students conducting data-driven research in any field. These labs will incorporate 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 . Prior experience with a programming language is recommended.
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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Studies in Africa, Middle East, and South Asia |
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SAM 401 - Research Colloquium 2 credits (Fall or Spring)
This research colloquium gives students doing advanced work in African Studies, Middle East Studies, and/or South Asian Studies an opportunity to revise, expand, and workshop a research product in a peer community and to present their findings in a public forum. Collective outcomes may include panel presentations at campus symposia or off-campus conference, special issues of undergraduate journals, or digital exhibitions.
Prerequisite or co-requisite: ENG 360 , ENG 390 , FRN 305 , FRN 342 , HIS 334, HIS 371, MUS 322 , POL 356 , REL 394 , THD 304 , 395, 397, 495, or 499 with permission.
Instructor: Staff
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Technology Studies |
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TEC 232 - Human-Computer Interaction 2 credits (Fall or Spring)
See CSC 232 .
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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, and developing a physical/kinesthetic understanding of concert dance techniques. Areas of emphasis include but are not limited to ballet or modern dance. Within both choreography and improvisation, dancers use their bodies as instruments for personal expression in individual and group explorations. 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)
This class helps students develop a strong foundation in the theories and techniques of acting while also embracing new opportunities presented by the use of online mediums. Using Stanislavksi’s seminal text An Actor Prepares as the foundation, students develop their skills in dramatic analysis, character development, movement, voice, acting for the camera, and improvisation. Assignments include a monologue puppet theatre performance, podcast, and a short video-based production. This class is open to all students. No acting experience is necessary.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Quintero
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THD 201 - Dramatic Literature I 4 credits (Fall)
Cross-listed as: GLS 201 . Through lecture, discussion, and practicum this course investigates leading examples of world performance from the classical and medieval periods in Western Europe and Asia, the Americas, Renaissance Europe, and 17th & 18th-century Europe. Through engagements with literary, historical, and critical texts, we will situate landmark performance texts within their sociopolitical and artistic contexts. Our study will also engage in explorations of dramaturgy (how the theatrical past comes alive on contemporary stages), historiography (debates in the writing of theater history), and dramatic and performance theory.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Mayorga
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THD 202 - Dramatic Literature II 4 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: GLS 202 . Through lecture, discussion, and practicum this course investigates leading examples of world performance from 1800 to the 21st century. Our examinations will engage Melodrama, Modernism, twentieth-century avant-garde movements, and postmodernism. Through engagements with literary, historical, and critical texts, we will situate landmark performance texts within their sociopolitical and artistic contexts. Our study will also engage in explorations of dramaturgy (how the theatrical past comes alive on contemporary stages), historiography (debates in the writing of theater history), and dramatic and performance theory.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Mayorga
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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. Within both choreography and improvisation, dancers use their bodies as instruments for personal expression in individual movement as well as partnering with others. 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)
In this class, you will explore a variety of directing theories and practices as you develop your own distinctive directorial voice, vision and style. We will address the work of renowned stage directors and theoreticians as well as recent trends in live-streaming, interactive media, and video-sharing networking services. Designed as an experimental laboratory, this class will investigate new approaches to online rehearsals, performer/audience relations, and the development of original performance content. Whereas theatre generally emphasizes the liveness of the staged event, this class explores the unique possibilities presented by online performances. You will learn the fundamentals of directing traditional text-based plays including conducting pre-production dramaturgical research, identifying the “spine” (main through-line) of the text, scoring the dramatic actions and beats of the script, developing a ground plan, exploring different rehearsal techniques, blocking, and producing a final online performance. This course equally emphasizes process and product, stressing the importance of developing an organized approach to directing at this early stage in your artistic career. Permission from the professor or THD 117 are pre-requisites.
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: 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: 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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ANT 104-02 - Anthropological Inquiries 4 credits (Fall Term 2)
Human Adaptation and Diversity. This course takes four-field anthropological approach to explore the relationship between human diversity and adaptation to natural environments. Questions we will address include how have environments influenced human biological and social evolution, and what are some of the diverse ways that humans have developed to confront environmental challenges? How and why is that diversity under threat today, and what implications might this have for human’s ability to adapt to the world’s most pressing environmental challenges?
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Roper
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BIO 150-01 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
Symmetry Breaking: Cells are not disorderly bags of molecules. On the contrary, all cells carefully distribute their contents asymmetrically in order to make certain parts of themselves distinct from other parts. Symmetry breaking is particularly evident during embryonic development when an embryo morphs from a sphere of cells into something with multiple axes (e.g. front-back). How do cells do this? Why do they spend so much energy breaking symmetry? It turns out that symmetry breaking is essential for many biological processes. In this course students will learn to use frog oocytes, eggs, and/or embryos in order to observe and explore symmetry breaking processes in living cells. Moreover, students will perform novel research related to this topic, which will involve developing a specific hypothesis, designing and performing experiments, and analyzing and sharing results.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Sandquist
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BIO 150-02 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
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 150-03 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
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 (Fall Term 2)
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: P. Jacobson
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BIO 150-05 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry 4 credits (Fall Term 2)
Microbial Pathogenesis. In this course we will investigate strategic pathogenetic microorganisms use to colonize our food and thrive inside the human body. Topics addressed will include: the biology of bacteria and viruses, factors important for biofilm formation, how microorganisms become resistant to antibiotics, and how we protect our food and ourselves from microorganisms. Students will isolate and characterize microorganisms attached to vegetables by using standard microbial and basic molecular biology techniques. 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 have two, three hour meetings per week, which combine lecture, lab, and discussion.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Hinsa-Leasure
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ENG 120-01 - Literary Analysis 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
Classic Fairy Tales and Their Remixes. Mulan, Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel - who created these fairy tales, and to whom were they told? What are they about, and why have they survived to the present day? What are their hidden, secret meanings? To answer these questions, we will read and interpret several well-known tales from the collection of the Brothers Grimm, but we will also look at how they have evolved over time and media including art, theatre and film. To deepen our understanding of this evolving heritage, we will familiarize ourselves with the various interpretive approaches of historians, folklorists, psychologists, and anthropologists. Some questions we’ll discuss are: Where do the fairy tales come from and how have they been shaped by their history? How are fairy tales composed or structured? What do they seek to tell us, or what ideas and values do they represent and convey? How have they been used to entertain young and old, socialize children, unify cultures, encourage and console the needy?
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Lavan
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ENG 225-01 - Introduction to Postcolonial Literature 4 credits (Fall Term 2)
Postcolonial Literature: Where Aesthetics Meets Politics. Literary critics have often employed the term postcolonial to describe the consequences of occupation during and after colonization. The rise and fall of the British Empire contributed significantly to cultural hybridity, migration, political tension, national sovereignty, and socio-economic inequity that shapes the world as we know it today. Through short lectures, extensive discussion, and intensive writing assignments, we will cover the key concepts and categories used in postcolonial theory to help us investigate the relationship between colonial experience and the content, form, and style of the literature written to understand and comment upon it. Our course will begin by examining texts such as Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Daniel Defeau’s Robinson Crusoe, as a spring board to talk about how modernist and contemporary literature emerged as a product of and response to colonization. We will draw from a range of literary genres, covering work by English, Irish, Caribbean, South Asian, African, Australian, Maori, and Middle Eastern writers.
Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120 , ENG 121 , or third-year standing.
Instructor: Sutaria
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ENG 226-01 - Tradition of English Literature III 4 credits (Fall Term 2)
Ends of Empire: The Literature of Britain and Ireland from 1900 to Present. This course takes its readings mainly from three areas: the major authors of British and Irish Modernism (Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, and James Joyce); the tradition of Irish drama in writers such as Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, and Martin McDonagh; and contemporary British writers such Zadie Smith and Hanif Kureishi. Class discussions will engage a wide range of topics, from matters of literary technique and style to issues of race, sexuality, and postcolonial studies.
Prerequisite: ENG 120 orENG 121 for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 or third-year standing.
Instructor: Simpson
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ENG 227-01 - American Literary Traditions I 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
American Gothic: From a City on a Hill to the Sunken Place. This course foregrounds the impact that slavery and the violence directed against Native Americans in 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, religion, 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, Phillis Wheatley, Harriet Jacobs, Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. The course concludes with the viewing of two films: Stanley Kubrick’s cinematic version of The Shining (1980), and Jordan Peele’s more recent exploration of race in Get Out (2017). Grades will be based on class discussion, collaborative presentations, several short responses and three 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 229-01 - The Tradition of African American Literature 4 credits (Fall Term 2)
Slavery and its Afterlives. In her book Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (2007), Saidiya Hartman introduces the idea of slavery and its afterlives: If slavery persists as an issue in the political life of black America, it is not because of an antiquarian obsession with bygone days or the burden of a too-long memory, but because black lives are still imperiled and devalued by a racial calculus and a political arithmetic that were entrenched centuries ago. This is the afterlife of slavery–skewed life chances, limited access to health and education, premature death, incarceration, and impoverishment (6). It is these afterlives upon which we will focus in the course: The United States’ persistent clinging to inequality and the African American literary and cultural responses. We will begin in our current contemporary moment and stretch back to the foundation of the United States and transatlantic slavery. In the wake of a burgeoning output of Books, TV shows and films about slavery, we’ll ask why it seems that America is more obsessed with depictions of enslavement now than ever before. Along the way, we’ll scrutinize social media campaigns such as #NotAnotherSlaveMovie, analyze essays from Toni Morrison, Christina Sharpe, Saidiya Hartman and more, and read novels from James Baldwin, Gayl Jones and Octavia Butler in order gain insight regarding genre, canon and culture that will carry us through the course. In all readings we will discuss the ways in which African/Negro/Black/African American writers use the written word as activism in the fight for full enfranchisement.
Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 or third-year standing.
Instructor: Lavan
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ENG 314-01 - Milton 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
In this course, we will study the poetry and prose of John Milton, with particular focus on one of the most famous works in the English language: Paradise Lost. We will trace how Milton’s epic poem mixes elements of classical Greco-Roman mythology and the Christian tradition to tell the story of Satan’s rebellion and the Fall. Examining the wider array of the poet’s writing, we will also discuss how Milton envisioned his career from his earliest days in college.
Prerequisite: ENG 223 or ENG 273 .
Instructor: Garrison
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ENG 330-01 & 02 - Studies in American Prose 4 credits (Fall Term 1 & Term 2)
When Karen and Barbara Fields connect racecraft to witchcraft, they do so on the assumption that we can understand the “processes of meaning that make both plausible.” This course will take seriously the notion that these “processes of meaning” shift over time, and yet, as we shall see, there are some rather tenacious sticking points. We will trace out some of the changes and sticking points as they arise in the following six novels and two films: Maryse Condé’s I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem (1986); Lydia Maria Child’s A Romance of the Republic (1867); William Dean Howells’ An Imperative Duty (1891); Charles Chesnutt’s The House Behind the Cedars (1901); Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929); and Philip Roth’s The Human Stain (2000); also the film Imitation of Life (1934), dir. John M. Stahl; and, if released in time, Passing (2020), dir. Rebecca Hall. We will supplement deep engagement with the Fields sisters’ Racecraft with theoretical essays on fetishism by Emily Apter and William Pietz; canonical explorations of scapegoating by Kenneth Burke and René Girard; and several legal essays informed by Critical Race Theory. Grades to be determined by class discussion, group collaborations, a reading journal, a mid-semester paper (6 pages), and a final 15-page research paper.
Prerequisite: ENG 227 , ENG 228 , ENG 229 , ENG 231 , ENG 232 , or ENG 273 .
Note: This 4 credit course is being conducted for the 20-21 academic year across the Fall 1 and Fall 2 terms at 2 credits each term.
Instructor: Andrews
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ENG 346-01 - Studies in Modern Prose 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
This seminar will undertake an intensive examination of James Joyce’s Ulysses. In addition to Joyce’s text, we will read a wide range of literary and critical responses to Joyce’s work, with an emphasis on those addressing gender, sexuality, and race. Assignments will include blog posts, a mid-semester paper, bibliographic work, and a final project.
Prerequisite: ENG 224 , ENG 225 , ENG 226 , ENG 227 , ENG 228 , ENG 229 , ENG 231 , ENG 232 , or ENG 273 .
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Simpson
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ENG 390-01 - Literary Theory 4 credits (Spring Term 1 & Term 2)
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 separate obscenity trials of 2 Live Crew and Robert Mapplethorpe in 1990, and a literary hoax perpetrated by a physicist in 1996. Each implicates aspects of literary or cultural theory in the hotly contested contact zone of politics, identity, and poetics that we call “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. The course concludes with an exploration of what seems an intensification of culture wars rhetoric in today’s politics. To that end, we will explore the 2011 publication of the Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American and the subsequent debate over who was and wasn’t included, and we will conclude with two memoirs, J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy (2016) and Jeanine Cummins’ American Dirt (2020). In order to tease out the cultural issues and theories that animate these encounters, we will utilize essays or chapters by Allan Bloom, Judith Butler, James Clifford, Rey Chow, Kimberle Crenshaw, Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, Stanley Fish, Henry Louis Gates Jr., bell hooks, Steven Knapp and Walter Michaels, Catharine MacKinnon, and Alan Sokol. Please note: this is a 15-week course divided up into two 7 ½- week 2-credit terms. For Spring 1, grades determined by class discussion, collaborative presentations, several short response papers and a 6-page final paper. For Spring 2, grade determined by collaborative group work, class discussion and a 4 ½ -week research phase to be devoted to a project or paper equivalent to 15 pages.
Prerequisite: Any 200-level English course.
Instructor: Andrews
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GLS 251 - Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature 4 credits (Fall or Spring)
See HUM 251 .
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GLS 251-01 - Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature 4 credits (Fall)
See HUM 251-01 .
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HIS 100-01 - Introduction to Historical Inquiry: After the Great War 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
After the Great War. This course provides an introduction to issues of historical causation, argumentation, and evidence, by exploring the impact of the First World War (1914-18) on the political, social, and cultural institutions of Europe and the wider world. After introductory units on historical methods and the experience of the war, we will investigate how citizens and subjects attempted to reconstruct, reinvent, and reinterpret “a world undone.” Topics will include cultural memory and modernism; gender and the “New Woman”; the rise of Nazism; internationalism and the League of Nations; colonialism and nationalism; and the global flu pandemic.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Prevost
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HIS 100-02 - Introduction to Historical Inquiry: The Rise and Fall of New World Slavery 4 credits (Fall Term 1)
This course provides an introduction to issues of historical causation, argumentation, and evidence, through the lens of the foundings and practices of New World slavery, as well as the social movements that abolished the institution. After an introductory unit on historical methods, we will use our exploration of slavery as it developed in Brazil, the Caribbean, and mainland North America as a window on issues of power and exploitation, outsiders and insiders, the construction of race, the connections between freedom and slavery, the early stages of consumer-driven economics, and the promise and limitations of social reform. A central theme in the course will be the way in which “progress” and freedom depended on the enslavement of Africans.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Lacson
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