Afr & AfrAmerican Studies |
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Hour: 10A Instructor: Ayo Coly |
Requirements Met: WCult: CI; Distrib: INTL or LIT |
Course Title: Colonial and Postcolonial Dialogues |
Description: |
This course examines the implication of literature in the colonial encounter and the literary representations of this event. We will read classical texts of European colonialism in dialogue with postcolonial texts from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia. We will begin with an exploration of the literature of empire and look at the ways in which colonialism shaped some canonical European texts. We will then study the range of literary responses emerging from French and British colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Our study will be organized around the themes of representation, identity, power, race, gender, and resistance. Readings include Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson, Aime Cesaire's A Tempest, William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Maryse Conde's Windward Heights, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and Zadie Smith's White Teeth. |
Anthropology |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Kenneth Korey |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: SCI |
Course Title: Genes and Race: A Scientific Journey |
Description: |
The use of race to characterize human biological variation has pervaded scientific and popular thinking for well over a century. Following the establishment of genetic models of inheritance in 1900, the coupling of genes and race to portray human variation quickly became commonplace in science. Nevertheless, for a variety of historical reasons the relationship between these dual conceptions of variation has been an uneasy one, and the utility of racial classification to depict human genetic diversity has been much contested.
The central theme of this seminar concerns the scientific framing of race in light of extra-scientific attitudes and commitments, primarily ideological. Why did race become conflated with programs to improve the human gene pool? Why was the Second World War a pivotal watershed for shifting scientific attitudes on race? How have modern molecular and genomic studies led to a revival of the racial paradigm? We will consider these issues in both historical and contemporary perspectives, with our discussion and writings proceeding from a survey of primary and secondary resources.
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Chemistry |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Dean Wilcox, Nancy Serrell |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Course Title: Explaining Scientific Research for the Public |
Description: |
The knowledge obtained from scientific research can have a significant impact on our lives but who, besides other scientists working in the same field, understands and appreciates scientific accomplishments and their implications? Since tax dollars support the research funded by NIH, NSF, DOE, etc., citizens should be better informed about their investment. Thus, there is a need for clear accessible writing about the achievements of scientists to facilitate public understanding of science. This seminar will focus on the process and skills for explaining modern scientific research in a form that is clear, accurate and compelling to a public audience. Class discussion will benefit from the perspectives of both a scientist and a science reporter. We will consider recent examples from the scientific literature, and how scientific breakthroughs can be distilled into sound bites, news stories and feature articles. Local science journalists will speak with the class. A key writing component will be a piece about scientific research currently being done at Dartmouth. Students will learn to be critical readers of science writing in traditional and web-based media (Do you trust Wikipedia? Scientist bloggers?!). Finally, we will consider the portrayal of modern science in literature (novels, plays, short stories) as a subversive way to educate the public about the nature of scientific research. Readings will include selections from science journals (e.g., Science, Nature) and science periodicals (e.g., Science News, Scientific American), Science in Public: Communication, Culture and Credibility by Jane Gregory and Steve Miller, short pieces by effective scientist communicators (e.g., Stephen Jay Gould, Freeman Dyson, Carl Sagan), articles from annual editions of "The Best American Science and Nature Writing," and novels or plays by scientists such as Carl Djerassi (father of The Pill) and Roald Hoffman (fall 2009 Montgomery Fellow). |
Comparative Literature |
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Hour: 3B Instructor: Klaus Milich |
Requirements Met: WCult: W; Distrib: LIT |
Course Title: From Modernism to Postmodernism |
Description: |
Fredric Jameson once described postmodernity as "the effort to take the temperature of the age without instruments and in a situation in which we are not even sure there is so coherent a thing as an 'age,' or 'zeitgeist' any longer." Taking the temperature of the age through a close, comparative reading of modern and postmodern American literature, we will try to seize the change from one era and movement to the other by way of elucidating a number of postmodern concepts, such as "the end of literature," "the death of author," "the world as text," "the end of meta-narratives," "compression of time and space," "entropy" and the like. The literary readings will be enhanced by movies, art works, and some theoretical texts.
Course readings will include texts by modern and postmodern writers such as Dos Passos, Ellison, Faulkner, Larsen, Stein, Abish, Auster, Barth, Doctorow, Morrison, and Pynchon. Students will write three short assignments (3 pages), accumulating into a final paper (15 pages including the revised versions of the previous papers).
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Computer Science |
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Hour: 11 Instructor: Carey Heckman |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: TMV |
Course Title: Ideas, Ideals, and Computer Science |
Description: |
Based on the view that the foundation of computer science is not computer science but the problems computer science seeks to solve and how computer science can help solve them, this seminar explores the ideas, values, and visions of computer science. Algorithms, programming languages, automata theory, computation, database and information systems, distributed systems, networks, and open source software development and distribution will be among the areas studied.
Our primary objective will be better understanding "computer science" in the context of a Dartmouth liberal arts education, and thus what computer science can teach us about truth, beauty, our universe, ourselves as humans, and our place in our universe. Our intellectual journey will also provide constant opportunities to hone critical thinking, analytic, and writing skills.
No technical knowledge will be required or assumed. An interest in the connection between the human condition and computer science is essential, however.
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Earth Sciences |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Jill Mikucki |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: SCI |
Course Title: The Search for Life Beyond Earth |
Description: |
"There are two possibilities. Maybe we're alone. Maybe we're not. Both are equally frightening. " —Bertrand Russell. The possibility that life may exist beyond planet Earth has captured the imagination for decades. However, it was not until the mid-90s that the 'search' became a legitimate scientific debate; around that time the field of Astrobiology emerged. This course will explore the idea of life beyond Earth from a variety of perspectives including fictional depictions of space travel, 'ground-truthing' efforts in the research of extreme environments on Earth, and a look at the lives of the scientists who legitimized the search for extraterrestrial life. Readings will be drawn from Astrobiology textbooks, non-fiction accounts of space exploration, current scientific literature and science fiction stories including Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, Carl Sagan's The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, Bruce Jakosky's The Search for Life on other Planets, and Jonathan Lunine's Astrobiology: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach. |
Education |
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Hour: 10A Instructor: Elise Temple |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: SOC |
Course Title: Education and the Brain |
Description: |
What does the brain have to do with education? One could argue that understanding the brain is crucial for understanding how we learn. However, traditionally the fields of education and brain science have not been closely linked. There is a current movement in both education and neuroscience to link these previously disparate fields. This course will explore the potential promise and challenge of this integration. We will explore these issues through reading, discussing, and writing about current topics in neuroscience, psychology and education research. We will discuss not only the implications of neuroscience on education, but also how to evaluate, summarize, and critically evaluate scientific research. |
Engineering Sciences |
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Hour: 3B Instructor: Jay Buckey |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: TAS |
Course Title: The Science, Politics, and Economics of Energy |
Description: |
This course will guide students in evaluating energy technologies, proposing energy solutions, and formulating energy policy.
How energy is produced and used is a critical economic, national security, and environmental issue for the 21st century. Currently, energy production is the second largest business in the world, and reliable access to energy is a major national security concern. But the most widely used energy resources — fossil fuels — create greenhouse gases that lead to global warming. In addition, accessing and using these fuels presents a wide variety of political, national security, and environmental issues beyond global climate change. This course will address how we can balance the scientific, political, and economic issues to create an energy plan for the future.
The course will have two components. One will be writing essays on various aspects of energy technology and energy policy. The second will be lectures and class discussions that put our energy problem in perspective. Readings will be drawn from sources such as: Energy Systems and Sustainability by G. Boyle, B. Everett, and J. Ramage; The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power by D. Yergin; A Policy of Discontent: The Making of A National Energy Strategy by V.A. Stagliano; Alternative Energy Resources: The Quest for Sustainable Energy by P. Kruger; and Renewable Energy by G. Boyle.
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English |
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Hour: 12 Instructor: Michael Chaney |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: LIT |
Course Title: Vox Clamantis: Wilderness in American Literature |
Description: |
Inspired by the motto of Dartmouth College, this course examines American literature for motifs of wilderness and the types of voices that cry out within it. From early narratives of contact and settlement to Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield, imagery of untamed land and social or psychological frontiers have been a shaping force in the way Americans imagine national destiny, social change, and individual identity. Readings will be drawn from William Byrd's Secret History of the Line, Thoreau's Walden, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, Louise Erdrich's Tracks, and several short stories from the nineteenth- and twentieth-century. |
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Hour: 10 Instructor: J Martin Favor |
Requirements Met: WCult: W; Distrib: LIT |
Course Title: 1925 |
Description: |
In the middle of the "Roaring Twenties" a diverse group of American authors published a variety of books that still stand as some of the most important American texts of the twentieth century. The class will focus on books published in the year 1925 and investigate what they might tell us about the United States' image of itself in that period, the social, intellectual and artistic mood of the time, and the ways in which the kinds of questions these books raised over 80 years ago still remain relevant for us today.
Among the texts published in 1925 that we may consider for this class are: Willa Cather's The Professor's House, John Dos Passos' Manhattan Transfer, Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time, Alain Locke's The New Negro, and Anita Loos' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. In addition to carefully reading and writing about these texts, students can expect to research and give short class presentations on issues and contexts that will add another layer to our understanding of this time and these books. Topics might include: modernism, prohibition, the Red Scare, women's suffrage, immigration and movements for racial justice.
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Hour: 12 Instructor: Melissa Zeiger |
Requirements Met: WCult: CI; Distrib: LIT |
Course Title: Immigrant Women Writing in America |
Description: |
In responding to the obstacles facing America's immigrants — problems of dislocation, split identity, family disunity and claustrophobia, culture shock, language barriers, xenophobia, economic marginality, and racial and national oppression — women often assume special burdens and find themselves having to invent new roles. They often bring powerful bicultural perspectives to their tasks of survival and opportunity seeking, however, and are increasingly active in struggles for cultural expression and social and economic justice. At the same time they are vitally involved with the literatures of their sending countries, America, and the world. We will read such works as Akemi Kikimura's Through Harsh Winters: The Life of a Japanese Immigrant Woman; Mei Mei Berssenbrugge's Nest; Bharati Mukerjee's Darkness; Julia Alvarez's The Other Side/El Otro Lado; Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy; and Kim Chernin's In My Mother's House. |
Environmental Studies |
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Hour: 10A Instructor: D.G. Webster |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: INTL or SOC |
Course Title: Cows Eat People and Other Inconvenient Tradeoffs |
Description: |
In every decision there are tradeoffs; things that we give up, or forgo, in favor of something else. Economists have long focused on individual tradeoffs, which they refer to as opportunity costs. (For example, if you go to that party Thursday night, you won't have those hours to study and rest up for that exam on Friday, thus the opportunity cost of a good time might be a bad grade.) However, when there are many individuals making decisions, the tradeoffs of their behaviors can extend well beyond such simple cause-and-effect reasoning. This class is an introduction to the study of emergence, or the way that individual decisions combine in surprising and sometimes sudden ways, creating tradeoffs that we often don't even realize exist. Theoretical concepts will be illustrated using real world phenomena, such as the current global food crisis, climate change, and ethnic conflict. Students will be asked to examine the broader impacts and unintended consequences of their own decisions as well as those of modern society generally. Readings will be drawn from academic publications but will also include fictional thought experiments that take current events to hypothetical extremes. |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Sarah Smith |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: SOC |
Course Title: Eating: An Agricultural Act |
Description: |
Wendell Berry in What are People For? states "eating ... is inescapably an agricultural act, and that how we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used." This seminar will explore the environmental and social impacts of our food choices. We will discuss conventional and alternative agricultural systems, genetically modified crops, the vegetarian diet, the local food movement, the effects of globalization and other contemporary issues relating to food production and consumption. Readings will be drawn from popular texts and the scientific literature and will feature The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. |
French |
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Hour: 12 Instructor: J Kathleen Wine |
Requirements Met: WCult: W; Distrib: LIT |
Course Title: Louis XIV, Then and Now |
Description: |
France's Sun King, the builder of Versailles, was also one of its greatest actors. Born to be king, the young Louis XIV nevertheless had to seize power, exerting his grip over a turbulent France by projecting a public image so dazzling that it has almost entirely eclipsed the man behind it. Was he a monster or gift from God? Pleasure-loving libertine or secretive workaholic? Architect of modern France or of the monarchy's demise? In this course, we will discover contradictory answers to these questions as we explore representations of France's most famous monarch by his contemporaries and by Louis himself. Each section will conclude with a modern take on Louis in film, fiction, or history, enabling us to reflect on the diverse meanings that have been attributed to the monarch's memory in more recent times. Throughout the course, we will be asking questions about the power of images, the nature of power, individual and national identity, and the shifting boundaries between the public and private realms. Readings will include Saint-Simon, Molière, Racine, Sévigné, La Fontaine, Louis XIV, Voltaire, and Dumas and films by Rossellini, Tavernier, Roland Joffé, and Randall Wallace. |
Geography |
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Hour: 2 Instructor: Laura Conkey |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: SOC |
Course Title: Women, Gender, and Science |
Description: |
Women have played a small role in western science, and their gradual inclusion influences what we know and how we know it. We explore what science is, and how "what we know" has been affected by societal ideas, past and present. Evaluating scientific critiques ranging from Kuhn and Berry to feminists such as Fox, Keller and Haraway, we ask: how many women are in science, what are the obstacles, and has feminist critique changed science? Our work will include evaluation of data concerning women's participation in science, visits with feminists and scientists, and discussion of at least one film. |
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Hour: 2 Instructor: Coleen Fox |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: SOC |
Course Title: Consuming Places: Tourism and Sustainability in a Globalized World |
Description: |
This class uses tourism as a lens through which to investigate the cultural and environmental impacts of globalization. Tourism is one of the largest global economic sectors, and it plays a key role in development plans and discourses around the world. While the problematic impacts of mass tourism are widely recognized, alternatives to this model such as eco- and geo-tourism are often held up as having the potential to be pro-poor and environmentally sustainable while enhancing cross-cultural understanding. In fact, evidence suggests that tourism, from eco-tourism in the Galapagos to 'first contact' tourism in West Papua, often undermines the cultures and ecosystems upon which it depends. A key goal of the seminar is to investigate the claim that tourism is an opportunity for environmentally and culturally sustainable development. We will look at the implications of marketing places and cultures and of creating competition between places. We will touch on issues ranging from inequitable power relations and the representation of 'others' to how climate change and rising oil prices might affect tourism and tourist destinations. We will also focus on the cultural and personal transformations of travellers themselves. To address these issues, the course draws on popular publications, personal narratives, book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, and film. |
Government |
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Hour: 10A Instructor: Lisa Baldez |
Requirements Met: WCult: NW; Distrib: SOC |
Course Title: Politics and Culture of Cuba |
Description: |
What does the future hold for Cuba? In order to answer this question, this class plumbs the past for clues. We evaluate the creation and persistence of myths about Cuban history, focusing on the War of 1898, the First and Second Republican periods, and the many phases of the Revolution. As one of the world's few remaining socialist regimes and the only surviving socialist regime in Latin America, Cuba is unique. But Cuba is also subject to many of the forces that have shaped other countries in Latin America and the third world: a heritage of Spanish colonialism and slavery, a geography that contains a limited array of natural resources and a system of government that has evolved under the constant shadow of the United States. To that extent we can learn something about Latin American politics — and politics more generally — by studying Cuba. We will read recent books from some of the best social scientists writing about Cuba, including Mark Sawyer's Racial Politics in Cuba, Louis Pérez's The War of 1898, and Susan Eckstein's Back from the Future. |
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Hour: 12 Instructor: Linda Fowler |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: SOC |
Course Title: Invitation to Struggle: Congress, the President and National Security |
Description: |
The U.S. Constitution set up "an invitation to struggle" in the realm of foreign affairs in which the legislative and executive branches share power. The course examines the prerogatives of each institution, the historical evolution of contemporary executive dominance and the political and security consequences of the current state of imbalance. Readings draw widely from political theory, constitutional law, history, and contemporary political science scholarship on political institutions. |
History |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Tanalis Padilla |
Requirements Met: WCult: NW; Distrib: INTL or SOC |
Course Title: Latin America through Film |
Description: |
This course will trace Latin American history through film. More than entertainment, Latin American films have been a unique way to analyze recent and distant history and collectively reflect on certain, often traumatic, events. Weekly movies will provide a window through which to analyze key themes such as identity, national formation, revolution, gender dynamics, race relations and popular mobilizations. A persistent theme will be comparing written and visual representations of Latin America's history. Films will be accompanied by texts that provide historical background, analyze individual films and offer frameworks for understanding particular events. Films include "The Official Story," "Innocent Voices," "Maria Full of Grace," and "Machuca." We will be reading several articles as well as the following texts: Born of Blood and Fire, Based on a True Story and Magical Reels. |
Humanities |
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Hour: 12 Instructor: Jonathan Crewe, Katherine Kretler, Andrea Tarnowski |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Course Title: The Classical Tradition |
Description: |
If taken after Humanities 1, Humanities 2 satisfies the First-Year Seminar requirement.
A continuation of Humanities 1. Readings will include: The Iliad, Aethiopica, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, essays by Montaigne, Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, Austen's Emma, Eliot's "The Waste Land, " and Coetzee's Disgrace.
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Jewish Studies |
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Hour: 10A Instructor: Steven Kangas |
Requirements Met: WCult: W; Distrib: ART |
Course Title: Archaeologists, Artists, and Adventurers: The Rediscovery of the Holy Land |
Description: |
Until the early 19th century Israel was terra incognita to both Europeans and Americans. The "Holy Land" was virtually an unknown territory wrapped in a thick fog of myth, legend, and mystery. Through the exploits of missionaries, soldiers, explorers, and eventually archaeologists, the remains of the lost civilizations previously known only from the Bible were brought to light. These were exciting and dangerous undertakings which eventually laid the foundations for the modern discipline of Near Eastern archaeology.
This course will study the exploits of early adventurers, travellers, and archaeologists, as well as try to understand their various motivations in coming to this distant and forgotten land in the eastern Mediterranean. It will also explore the tension between their expectations and the realities they encountered — a tension captured in various paintings and sketches — and try to assess how their work has shaped and informed contemporary ideas about the Near East.
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Latin Am/Caribbean Studies |
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Hour: 10 Instructor: Julie Lirot |
Requirements Met: WCult: CI; Distrib: INTL or LIT |
Course Title: Latin American Narratives of Revolution |
Description: |
Are you a revolutionary? What does it mean to be a revolutionary? What is revolution? Revolution may first bring to mind visions of soldiers and tanks, but its effects are more far-reaching than we might first think. This course will focus on Latin American narratives of revolution and how writers from Chile, Colombia, Cuba and the Dominican Republic/U.S. represent participants in difficult times and the strategies that they use to survive (or not!). Through various contemporary works and their cinematic versions, students will actively analyze what it means to participate in and/or be revolutionary. |
Psychological & Brain Sciences |
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Hour: 3A Instructor: Mark Detzer |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: SOC |
Course Title: Optimism, Hope and Self-Efficacy: A Scientific Investigation of "Positive Psychology" |
Description: |
This course will provide an overview of the emerging field of "Positive Psychology." Students will be provided with opportunities to understand theory and research pertaining to the psychology of human strengths, assets, abilities and talents. Recent empirical research will be reviewed, and students will be asked to apply the information in written assignments and class discussion. While the main goal of this course is to extend their understanding of empirical research in this area, it is also my hope that students will be able to apply some of the research findings to their own life. Topics will include: subjective well being and positive emotions; optimal performance; personal fulfillment; optimal medical health; resilience; emotional intelligence; creativity; optimism; hope; self-efficacy; goals and life commitments; wisdom; humility/compassion/altruism; forgiveness; gratitude; love; moral motivation and the virtues (strengths of character); intrinsic motivation and flow; social support; positive coping; spirituality, meaning and purpose in life; the civic virtues (altruism, volunteerism, "prosocial" behavior). |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: John Pfister |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: SOC |
Course Title: Science, Pseudoscience, and Thinking Critically About Human Behavior |
Description: |
Despite little, no, or even contrary evidence, a large number of pseudoscientific and otherwise dubious psychological practices and areas of study have caught the public's attention during the last two decades (Lilienfeld, Lohr, & Morier, 2001). Claims of such things as recovered memories, facilitated communication, extrasensory perception, alien abduction, communication with the deceased, homeopathic remedies, and New Age psychotherapies have gained increasing popularity in the mass media and among the general public. Why do such beliefs persist, and how do we evaluate new claims in science? This course will give students the tools to make their own decisions regarding what would constitute sufficient evidence for belief. Statistical and methodological arguments will be emphasized. Readings will include selections from Michael Shermer's Why People Believe in Weird Things, Terrence Hines's Pseudoscience and the Paranormal, Rupert Sheldrake's The Sense of Being Stared At, Keith Stanovich's How To Think Straight about Psychology, and, Flim-Flam, by James Randi. In addition, students will draw from original journal articles and the popular press to build their own library for skeptical analysis. |
Religion |
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Hour: 10A Instructor: Gil Raz |
Requirements Met: WCult: NW; Distrib: TMV |
Course Title: Enter the Dragon: A Study in Chinese Mythology |
Description: |
What is mythology? Why did people tell such stories? What was the role of myths in culture? How can we possibly understand them?
Mythology answers basic human questions such as where we came from, how we became who we are, and why the world is the way it is. But these answers, and the questions, are often hidden in strange stories. Not only do different cultures have distinct answers, even the questions are different. How are we to understand these stories? This course examines traditional Chinese mythology, as it is found in ancient narratives and poems, selections from Daoist and Buddhist scriptures, ghost stories, as well as artifacts and images found in tombs and caves. We will also survey various theoretical and methodological approaches for interpreting mythology to help us understand the Chinese sources.
This course provides analytical, interpretive, and methodological skills drawn from religious studies, anthropology, history, archaeology and cultural studies. This interdisciplinary approach is coupled with a specific cultural focus, traditional Chinese religion and mythology. The purpose of the course is to simultaneously gain insight into Chinese culture, while acquainting the students with a variety of analytical approaches. The course satisfies the TMV and Non-Western Distributives.
Readings will include Anne Birrell's Chinese Mythology, An Introduction, Robert Segal's Myth, A Very Short Introduction , and selections from various other primary and secondary sources.
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Sociology |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Kathryn Lively |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: SOC |
Course Title: Emotions and Culture |
Description: |
Most people think of emotions as purely internal experiences, composed solely of psychological elements. Recently, however, sociologists have begun to emphasize and explore the social side of emotion — for example, how emotions are socially and culturally shaped, how emotions are socially controlled, and the consequences of emotion for social life.
We will examine the portrayal of emotion in popular literature as well as to better understand how emotion operates in our own lives.
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Spanish |
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Hour: 10 Instructor: Douglas Moody |
Requirements Met: WCult: W; Distrib: ART |
Course Title: Transforming Public Space: Mural Art in Mexico and the United States |
Description: |
Since the early twentieth century, mural art in urban landscapes and institutional spaces in Mexico and the United States have been the sites of extraordinary creativity and intense controversy. These are the concrete canvases where stories are told, identities are asserted, and communities are imagined. This course begins with a focus on the work of Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, who began their careers in Mexico, but who also produced significant and highly politicized art in the US. We will analyze many reproductions of Rivera's and Orozco's art and view videos and films that illustrate their lives. We will study how their work has influenced later generations of Latino/a mural and graffiti artists in the United States. We will draw upon a variety of interdisciplinary readings from the areas of Cultural Studies, the social sciences, history, art, and literature, including: Pierre Bourdieu, Leonard Folgarait, Howard Gardner, Guillermo Gómez Peña, Stuart Hall, and Laurance Hurlburt. |
Theater |
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Hour: 11 Instructor: Mara Sabinson |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: ART |
Course Title: Theater for Social Change |
Description: |
This course will trace particular developments in American and Western European Theater from the First World War through the present. Artists and theater groups under consideration will be those whose work has focused on contemporary social conditions and the potential of performance to effect social change. In addition, students will experiment with developing scripts and performances based on current events. Readings will include selections from the writings of Erwin Piscator, Bertolt Brecht, The Federal Theatre Project, Harold Pinter, Augusto Boal, August Wilson, etc. as well as newspapers, news magazines, and other media sources. In addition to creative and critical writing, students will be assigned one major research project. Emphasis will be on class participation. |
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Hour: 2 Instructor: Mara Sabinson |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: ART |
Course Title: Theater for Social Change |
Description: |
This course will trace particular developments in American and Western European Theater from the First World War through the present. Artists and theater groups under consideration will be those whose work has focused on contemporary social conditions and the potential of performance to effect social change. In addition, students will experiment with developing scripts and performances based on current events. Readings will include selections from the writings of Erwin Piscator, Bertolt Brecht, The Federal Theatre Project, Harold Pinter, Augusto Boal, August Wilson, etc. as well as newspapers, news magazines, and other media sources. In addition to creative and critical writing, students will be assigned one major research project. Emphasis will be on class participation. |
Women's and Gender Studies |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Michael Bronski |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: ART |
Course Title: "I Will Survive": Women's Political Resistance Through Song |
Description: |
There is a large body of work on women's political resistance to oppressions based on gender, sex, class, race, and economic disparity. Much of this work focuses on women's literature (especially novels, poetry, autobiography, and plays) and political organizing. This course will examine how women, through the medium of popular music, have articulated clear political commentary and analysis that has reached large audiences and has become foundational to American popular culture. Beginning with artists at the advent of the popularization of African-American blues in the early 20th century, and moving through the genres of regional folk (especially Appalachian traditions), jazz, torch songs, contemporary folk, early rock, girl groups, disco, and more contemporary song the course will cover the lives, careers, and political thought of a wide range of writers and performers such as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Libby Holman, Ella Mae Morse, the Boswell Sisters, Billie Holiday, Marian Anderson, Peggy Lee, Mahalia Jackson, Rosalie Sorrels, Lotte Lenya, Joan Baez, Nina Simone, Tammy Wynette, Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Gloria Gaynor, Ani DiFranco, and Amy Winehouse. The course will be structured around the music as well as biographical, historical, cultural, and critical readings that will place each of these women in their artistic and political contexts. |
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