Afr & AfrAmerican Studies |
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Hour: 12 Instructor: Clifford Campbell |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Sankɔfa?: The Caribbean’s Influence on Africa
Course Description:
This writing course explores the influence of the Caribbean on Africa, from the late eighteenth century to the end of apartheid in 1994. Utilizing an array of resources including archival material, music, and film, we will engage issues such as the early ‘reconnections’ of Africans to the continent, Christian missionary activities by Caribbean people; efforts against apartheid; cultural influences through music, and Pan-Africanism. This course has two main writing assignments which include a final research paper.
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No required textbooks available |
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Hour: Instructor: Clifford Campbell |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
Art History |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Ada Cohen |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and Some Modern Successors
Course Description:
The word wonder, the dictionary tells us, may refer to “a monumental human creation regarded with awe.” As early as the fifth century BCE the Greek historian Herodotus identified certain monuments in the wider Mediterranean world that inspired such a response. Over time other creations were acknowledged for their unsurpassed level of technological achievement, great size, creativity, and/or beauty, resulting in a list of “seven ancient wonders.” Membership in the list was somewhat changeable, but in the Renaissance there emerged the canon familiar to us today, which includes monuments in the Near East, Egypt, and Greece, ranging in date from ca. 2600 to ca. 200 BCE: The Great Pyramids at Giza (the only wonder still in existence); The Hanging Gardens of Babylon; The Statue of Zeus at Olympia; The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus; The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus; The Colossus of Rhodes; and The Lighthouse of Alexandria. This seminar will focus on the canonical “seven wonders” of the ancient world and explore, via their reconstructions, the features that made them special in their time. We will consider their artistic and cultural contexts but also reflect on the concept of monument and the process of canon formation more broadly. We will also consider some modern “wonders” in a comparative perspective. In addition to reading relevant texts and engaging in discussion and oral presentations, the students will learn to conduct library research, undertake visual analysis, and translate visual observations into written text in a sequence of three papers as well as a few smaller assignments. Furthermore, they will be introduced to the discipline of art history and to ways of thinking historically and cross-culturally.
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No required textbooks available |
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Hour: Instructor: Ada Cohen |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
Chemistry |
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Hour: 9L Instructor: David Glueck |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
How to Win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Course Description:
What does it take to win a Nobel Prize in chemistry? This seminar will examine case studies of Nobel winners and wannabes with analysis of primary and secondary sources. We will investigate who did the research, how and where they were trained, where they got funding, and what was Nobel-worthy (or not) and why. Assignments include one short review paper and a final paper and presentation, along with in-class writing, editing, and peer review activities.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
None |
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Hour: Instructor: David Glueck |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
None |
Classical Studies |
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Hour: 10 Instructor: Maria Gaki |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Metamorphosis in Ancient literature: From Gods to Beasts, from Humans to Trees
Course Description:
This course will explore the theme of metamorphosis in ancient literature, from Homer to Ovid and other Greek and Roman authors, read in translation. Throughout the term we will examine how examples of transformation—gods shifting their forms and humans transforming into beasts and plants—were used across different literary genres to express gender dynamics and transformative human experiences, such as identity change and trauma. We will end the term with a study of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis as a modern re-imagining of transformation. Throughout this seminar we will progressively build on our analytical, research and writing skills through close readings, discussion and a sequence of scaffolded writing assignments. The assignments include an essay and a final project, accompanied by a proposal.
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No required textbooks available |
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Hour: Instructor: Maria Gaki |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
Comparative Literature |
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Hour: 3B Instructor: Eman Morsi |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Utopia
Course Description:
"Utopia" is a neologism first used by Thomas More in 1516 in a book by the same name that depicted an imaginary island enjoying a perfect social, legal, and political system. The need to imagine and strive for a radically better society is a persistent feature of human psychology and history that is found across all cultures and eras. Since its coinage, “utopia” has become a code word for any attempt to deliberately construct a world that was better than the existing world out of which it was produced. In this class, you will study the main defining elements of utopia in literature and film. Some questions we will ask during the term include: What makes a utopia? How are utopian projects informed and influenced by real life socioeconomic and political concerns? Can utopias be universal or are they always culturally and temporally specific? You will learn how to approach utopian narratives as literary critics through two main assignments: a full-length research paper and a short literary analysis.
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No required textbooks available |
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Hour: Instructor: Eman Morsi |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
Engineering Sciences |
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Hour: 10 Instructor: Klaus Keller |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Climate Change
Course Description:
Climate change has occurred naturally and frequently over the course of many time scales in the past. America today is engaged in a discussion of current climate change and its cause, ranging from calls for immediate action to denial. This course explores the published scientific literature on the nature and cause of climate change, potential impacts on us, and the implications for our nation's energy issues. Through readings, class discussion, and individual research, we will explore this complex problem; student writing will synthesize results from the literature to clarify the factual basis for their own understanding. Reading will include a number of published papers and selections from textbooks. Students will be required to actively participate in class by leading class discussions and actively engaging in small group activities. In addition, students will develop an annotated bibliography, write a research paper based on the research completed for the annotated bibliography, as well as write and present a pitch where they argue for a specific action relevant to the topic of their research paper.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
Introduction to Modern Climate Change, Andrew Dessler, 2021, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-793872 |
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Hour: Instructor: Klaus Keller |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
Introduction to Modern Climate Change, Andrew Dessler, 2021, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-793872 |
English |
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Hour: 10A Instructor: Alexander Chee |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
The Art of The Essay
Course Description:
The personal essay is a literary form we turn to in order to both express and experience a diverse and imaginative sense of everything from our past, present, and future, our politics, our aesthetics, our sciences and ourselves. While fiction and poetry acknowledge the personal record as among the sources they draw upon, the personal essay makes this more explicit, directing the reader’s attention to the use of memory, archives, interviews and research. For the personal essay, the writer is treating themselves the way they might treat any other subject they’d write about, sometimes even researching their own background the way a stranger might. Students will learn to treat themselves as an instrument for the recording of experiences, and to look for material in everything from their email draft archives and text messages to old social media posts, papers written for high school or middle school, family photos, family archives. We will look at the records we keep deliberately and the ones we make accidentally as we ask ourselves how well we know ourselves and how we can create ourselves as a character on the page.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
All texts will be provided by instructor |
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Hour: Instructor: Alexander Chee |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
All texts will be provided by instructor |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Anjuli Raza Kolb |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Public Writing, Public Performance, and Public Health
Course Description:
After decades of privatization and foundering, American healthcare has been in a near constant state of emergency and scandalous revelation since the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020. From the racial and economic disparities revealed by the pandemic to the framing of violent policing in the United States as a “public health crisis” to the Dobbs decision and the December 2024 assassination of the United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the public has rarely had a more acute need for informed activist writing in the public sphere. How do we understand and talk about systems that are simultaneously vast and intimate? How do we translate technical knowledge in persuasive and feeling ways? What is the role of the doctor writer? Of the patient-writer? Of the advocate? How are material health outcomes shaped by what we know, how we think, and what stories we tell?
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No required textbooks available |
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Hour: Instructor: Anjuli Raza Kolb |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
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Hour: 10A Instructor: Michael Chaney |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Literary Adaptations
Course Description:
What if the literary text were a series of images? What kind of images would work best given the literary text in question? This writing seminar invites students to consider and write about the implications involved in adapting literature to another medium. Across writing assignments and literary readings, this seminar asks students to re-imagine the literature they read as well as their reading experiences of that literature as visual media as well as audio renditions and pedagogical materials, combining words and images. Writing and reading will be based on visual representations of English and American poetry, nineteenth-century African American autobiography, and student-created adaptations.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
TBA |
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Hour: Instructor: Michael Chaney |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
TBA |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Matthew Ritger |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
The Tragedy of Hamlet
Course Description:
This course offers an immersive study of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as well as an introduction to the scholarly methods that have shaped the play’s reception over more than four centuries. Particular attention is devoted to the relationship between Hamlet and its antecedent source materials; between the Q1, Q2, and F variants of Shakespeare’s play; and between Hamlet and the history and philosophy of tragedy. Two essays will focus on comparing Hamlet with its sources and analyzing its complex textual history. In a final independent research paper, students will take up one of the many controversies generated by the play as a topic for sustained inquiry, tracing how that debate has evolved over the centuries, whether through performance, critical discourse, or adaptation.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
TBA by instrcutor |
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Hour: Instructor: Matthew Ritger |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
TBA by instrcutor |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Sandhya Dirks |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Writing into the Blue: Grief, Mourning, Loss and the Power of Words to Heal
Course Description:
"Grief" is the word we use to describe the deeply human process of living with and processing loss. It’s not just something we experience around the loss of a loved one. Grief can come from the loss of a relationship, the loss of something we believed in, or even a reckoning with something greater, like the loss of humanity on a large scale. Many of us were shaped by the COVID pandemic, a mass death event, which caused so many ripples and waves of losses, so many kinds of grief. This class will look at the way grief and writing are twinned together. We will examine how grief is both part of a literary tradition and how writing into grief can become its own ritual of mourning. What does it mean to exist in a time of great grief, and how can we write about our own grief, as we also explore the way in which larger griefs connect and impact us all? We will learn how to write about grief using the tools of literary journalism and essay writing.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
TBA by instructor |
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Hour: Instructor: Sandhya Dirks |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
TBA by instructor |
Environmental Studies |
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Hour: 11 Instructor: Sarah Smith |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Future of Food
Course Description:
Modern agriculture causes extensive environmental damage and is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. These environmental changes – depleted soil, extreme temperature and precipitation patterns, and increased pressure from crop pests – are in turn putting a strain on the ability of this modern agricultural system to provide nutritious food for our growing world population. While there is no one solution to this massive problem, there are many proposed technological innovations, ecologically based solutions, and consumer choices that can help mitigate some of the problems we have with our current system. In this course, we will explore these solutions as we try to envision what the Future of Food might look like. Students will read current opinion and research from the popular press and scientific literature. Assignments include a self reflection, a journalistic piece on the results of an agriculture-related scientific study, a research paper delving deeper into a potential solution to the problems with our agricultural system, an oral presentation, and a final essay synthesizing our course material into a vision for the future of food. We will spend ample course time discussing all aspects of writing, including revising student writing and finding and evaluating source material.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
No textbook required.
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Hour: Instructor: Sarah Smith |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
No textbook required.
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Hour: 9L Instructor: Morgan Peach |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Nature-based Solutions
Course Description:
Nature-based solutions (NbS) utilize ecosystem processes to help humans adapt to global change, conserve biodiversity, mitigate climate change, and promote sustainability. Viewing NbS through an interdisciplinary lens and from interrelated social, ecological, and technological perspectives, we will ask: (1) What ethics and theory support NbS? (2) What is key to NbS adoption today? (3) How can NbS contribute to just, resilient trajectory for society? In each of the three course units we will engage with diverse environmental literature, including philosophy, creative nonfiction, and scientific articles. The course will position you to propose plausible, equitable NbS for a specific place. The intent of this seminar is to develop your knowledge and skills as a student of the liberal arts. We will work to become more informed as global citizens who can assimilate knowledge, reflect, connect, synthesize, innovate, and communicate understanding in multiple modes. We will exercise our liberal arts skills in an iterative learning process. This will involve routine reading, writing, design thinking, and discussion. I will give short lectures as necessary. Throughout this process, we will imagine and explore solutions-oriented environmental actions that can result in just, sustainable futures.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
No textbook required. |
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Hour: Instructor: Morgan Peach |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
No textbook required. |
Film Studies |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: John Bell |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Zombie Media
Course Description:
This course develops research and writing techniques enabling students to craft essays for the public sphere. As our starting point, we will examine what it means to live in a media culture suffused with noise that claims to be signal and develop well-supported theses investigating the implications of online digital media. More than a decade ago, the New York Times declared that “the Web means the end of forgetting.” The headline mirrors a common belief that the information era has made media immortal so music, videos, and games put online will always be perfectly stored and instantly findable. If media has been made immortal, though, it is only in the same way a zombie is immortal: falling to pieces and haphazardly lurching forward forever with no sense of direction, unthinkingly causing arbitrary damage to everything around it. Through a scaffolded series of writing experiments we will look at the claim that the internet never forgets and explore how and when it does; learn how and why societies form collective memories around media artifacts; and discuss the ways the weight of over a century of recorded media culture can be both oppressive and liberating to today’s creators. Our classroom discussions will bring together threads of ideas from many different disciplines that students will be expected to merge into persuasive writing targeting specific audiences. This course will provide the flexibility for students to pursue topics of their own interest while building on a scaffolding helping students understand the nature of researching, describing, and writing for public audiences.
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No required textbooks available |
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Hour: Instructor: John Bell |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
French |
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Hour: 9L Instructor: Scott Sanders |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Colonial Encounters
Course Description:
This course investigates how colonial encounters generated literary and scientific descriptions that outlined the effects of colonialism. The texts we will study, however, depict these effects as part of the natural world. During the term, we will read literary and scientific works from European writers who imagine nature through colonial encounters. In theorizing nature outside of Europe, they construct a version of nature which is intimately connected to the process of colonization. Through engagement with primary and secondary sources, students will identify how literary and scientific rhetoric represent nature within colonial spaces. Students will then interpret and analyze the consequences of this cultural heritage: nature as a space from which to extract resources, as an object of knowledge from which scientists objectively unlock the mysteries of life, or as an Edenic sphere whose beauty is destroyed through colonization.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
Scientific Representations of Nature
Garcilosa de Vega, excerpts from History of the Incans
Bougainville, excerpts from Voyage around the World
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, excerpts from Study of Nature
Literary Representations of Nature
Fran\u00E7oise Graffigny Letters from a Peruvian Woman
Voltaire The Huron, or the Pupil of Nature
Denis Diderot Addendum to the Journey of Bougainville
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inequality among Men. |
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Hour: Instructor: Scott Sanders |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
Scientific Representations of Nature
Garcilosa de Vega, excerpts from History of the Incans
Bougainville, excerpts from Voyage around the World
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, excerpts from Study of Nature
Literary Representations of Nature
Fran\u00E7oise Graffigny Letters from a Peruvian Woman
Voltaire The Huron, or the Pupil of Nature
Denis Diderot Addendum to the Journey of Bougainville
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inequality among Men. |
Geography |
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Hour: 12 Instructor: Coleen Fox |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Into The Wild
Course Description:
The US Wilderness Act of 1964 states that wilderness exists “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor and does not remain.” This straightforward definition obscures the ambiguity and controversy surrounding both the idea of wilderness and its expression on the landscape. In this class, we will draw on personal narratives, scientific research, literature, and policy documents to explore the historical context and contemporary debates concerning wilderness in the US and around the world. We will investigate the idea of wilderness at a variety of scales, from the personal to the global. At the personal scale, we will focus on the transformative power of journeys into the wilderness. At the national and global scales, we will analyze the science, discourse, and politics of wilderness protection.
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No required textbooks available |
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Hour: Instructor: Coleen Fox |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
German |
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Hour: 3B Instructor: Eric Miller |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Franz Kafka: Parable and Paradox
Course Description:
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) wrote parables of the paradoxes, of the absurdity, of modern existence and consciousness. His stories and novels both depict and enact our most urgent questions, our deepest fears, our inchoate hopes. Kafka is arguably the greatest writer of the 20th century, and he is certainly its most influential, but was almost completely unknown to the general public until a good quarter century after his death, and first became widely known, not in his native German, but in English translations. In this course we will read two of Kafka's three novels, as well as a broad selection of his shorter works. All the readings will be accompanied by handouts, mainly in the form of "Questions for Further Thought", whose purpose is to stimulate analysis and discussion, and to help students become active participants in the process of interpreting texts. The fundamental format for the class meetings is that of seminar discussions. Important material concerning historical and biographical background, as well as particular schools of interpretation, will be introduced in the handouts and woven into the class discussion in the form of mini-lectures, as and when the need arises. The aim of the readings, of the supporting materials, and especially of the seminar discussions is for students to hone their abilities to think clearly, critically, creatively, and bravely about the goals we have, the assumptions we make or fail to make, the traps we fall into, the lessons we can learn, when we engage with and try to make sense of very difficult literary works.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
Franz Kafka, The Complete Stories, edited by Nahum Glatzer, foreword by John Updike (Schocken 1995). ISBN 978-0805210552
Franz Kafka, The Trial, a new translation based on the restored text, translated by Breon Mitchell (Schocken 1999). ISBN 978-0805209990
Franz Kafka, Amerika, translated by Willa and Edwin Muir (Schocken 1946), reprinted in 1996 with a foreword by E. L. Doctorow. ISBN 978-0805210644
Guides to interpretation will be made available in class.
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Hour: Instructor: Eric Miller |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
Franz Kafka, The Complete Stories, edited by Nahum Glatzer, foreword by John Updike (Schocken 1995). ISBN 978-0805210552
Franz Kafka, The Trial, a new translation based on the restored text, translated by Breon Mitchell (Schocken 1999). ISBN 978-0805209990
Franz Kafka, Amerika, translated by Willa and Edwin Muir (Schocken 1946), reprinted in 1996 with a foreword by E. L. Doctorow. ISBN 978-0805210644
Guides to interpretation will be made available in class.
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History |
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Hour: 2 Instructor: Ernesto Mercado-Montero |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Caribbean Pirates and Buccaneers in Atlantic History
Course Description:
This course introduces students to the history of piracy and sea marauding in the colonial Caribbean. This seminar uses a transnational lens to explore the rise and fall of piracy and maritime violence. Through their writing, students will examine the role of piracy in European exploration, how piracy galvanized colonial settlements, and the significance of privateering and sea marauding for imperial competition in the Americas.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
No required textbooks. |
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Hour: Instructor: Ernesto Mercado-Montero |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
No required textbooks. |
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Hour: 2 Instructor: Robert Zeinstra III |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Writing History With Non-Human Animals
Course Description:
In 1962, anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss wrote that animals are “bon à penser” or “good to think with.” Since then, generations of social scientists have followed Levi-Strauss’ guidance to better understand interspecies societies and ecologies. While not entirely evading the humanities, “animal studies” remains in its infancy in the field of history. This course introduces students to history writing which takes seriously the role of non-humans in human lives. With no regional or temporal specificity, this seminar will examine the role of non-human actors in human history. Students will learn to think with animals, and therefore effectively write with animals. Through animals, this seminar repositions humans and their history in an interspecies world. As a writing course, this is not effectively a “history of animals,” but rather aims to develop students’ historical writing and understanding by expanding actor categories and thinking critically about what is and isn’t considered historical evidence, as well as exploring the potentials and limits of interspecies humanities writing. Students are expected to evaluate an interdisciplinary range of animal studies literature, gather and analyze primary and secondary sources, think and write historically, and engage collectively in the production of historical knowledge.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
No required textbooks. |
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Hour: Instructor: Robert Zeinstra III |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
No required textbooks. |
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Hour: 3A Instructor: Robert Bonner |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Slavery and Public History
Course Description:
American slavery continues to roil public life more than a century and a half after emancipation. This seminar explores initiatives in portraying bondage in historic sites, monuments, classrooms, and mass media, while considering resulting disputes about these efforts. In a series of writing exercises, students will compose descriptive, immersive, analytical, and reportorial prose; the term culminates with a substantial research project/paper.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
No required textbooks. |
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Hour: Instructor: Robert Bonner |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
No required textbooks. |
Linguistics |
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Hour: 3A Instructor: Christiane Donahue |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
The World's Englishes
Course Description:
Why are writing courses most often assumed to be "English class"? In our networked globalized world, what language abilities do we need, and how do these abilities connect to college writing? We will study the nature of language and the demands globalization is placing on our speaking and writing abilities. We will consider the value of translation, "translingual" strategies for composing, and the ways in which multilingual capabilities are a resource and a challenge in communication. You will explore your own language resources (no advanced language ability required, though it is welcome), the place of languages in globalized communication, the linguistic rules of language activities such as codeswitching, and the importance of linguistic and rhetorical adaptability in successful writing today. We will read essays by authors such as sociolinguists Edgar Schneider, Rajen Mesthrie, and M.M. Bakhtin, applied linguists such as Ilona Leki and Braj Kachru, and writing studies scholars such as Suresh Canagarajah, Bruce Horner, or Maria Jerskey. From these readings we will develop linguistic and critical literacy methods for studying the ways in which Englishes are evolving and what this means for 21st century communication. We will work on your writing every day, in class and on your own, in relation to reading and speaking and in interaction with questions of language. Coursework will include many short informal writing pieces and discussion presentations, two more formal essay projects with several revisions, frequent peer review and conferencing, and a final project that will focus on an issue of your choice from the various subjects we cover. You will have the option to produce a multimodal project in place of one essay.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
No required textbooks to purchase. |
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Hour: Instructor: Christiane Donahue |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
No required textbooks to purchase. |
Psychological & Brain Sciences |
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Hour: 3B Instructor: Mark Detzer |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Exploring the Science of Wellbeing
Course Description:
This course explores the principles of strengths-based psychology. Rather than the traditional psychology focus on psychopathology, this course examines how individuals can thrive by cultivating mindfulness, the importance of love and relationships, gratitude, happiness and success at work, self-compassion, and meaning, transcendence, and spirituality. Students will learn about the science of wellbeing, reviewing textbooks, peer-reviewed scientific literature and doing their own practical exercises. Writing assignments will be assigned for each class, and student drafts will be reviewed by classmates and the instructor across the term. By the end of the term, students will have developed a deeper understanding of the scientific research on wellbeing. They will also have refined their writing skills through research, writing assignments, and reflective journals, while grappling with key questions surrounding positive psychology, human potential, and happiness.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
1. The Science and Application of Positive Psychology
by Jennifer S. Cheavens (Author)
Publisher : Cambridge University Press (December 21, 2021)
\u00B7 Language \u200F : \u200E English
\u00B7 Paperback \u200F : \u200E 480 pages
\u00B7 ISBN-10 \u200F : \u200E 1108460836
\u00B7 ISBN-13 \u200F : \u200E 978-1108460835
\u00B7 Item Weight \u200F : \u200E 2.25 pounds
\u00B7 Dimensions \u200F : \u200E 7.44 x 1.14 x 9.69 inches
Approximate cost via Amazon: $53 (paperback)
2. Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Program; Paperback \u2013 2nd Edition 2019; by Sharon Salzberg (Author); Paperback: 240 pages
\u2022 ISBN-10: 1523510129
\u2022 ISBN-13: 978-1523510122
\u2022 Product Dimensions : 6.1 x 0.7 x 8 inches
\u2022 Publisher : Workman Publishing Company; Second Edition, Revised (December 24, 2019)
\u2022 Language: : English
Approximate Cost via Amazon: $11.69 (paperback)
3. The Science of Happiness Workbook: 10 Practices for a Meaningful Life Paperback \u2013
by Greater Good Science Center (Author), Kira M. Newman (Author), Jill Suttie (Author), & 1 more
\u2022 Publisher \u200F : \u200E W. W. Norton & Company
\u2022 Publication date \u200F : \u200E September 16, 2025
\u2022 Edition \u200F : \u200E Workbook
\u2022 Language \u200F : \u200E English
\u2022 Print length \u200F : \u200E 240 pages
\u2022 ISBN-10 \u200F : \u200E 1324019204
\u2022 ISBN-13 \u200F : \u200E 978-1324019206
\u2022 Item Weight \u200F : \u200E 14.5 ounces
\u2022 Dimensions \u200F : \u200E 7 x 0.5 x 9.9 inches
Amazon: $21.99 (paperback)
|
|
Hour: Instructor: Mark Detzer |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
1. The Science and Application of Positive Psychology
by Jennifer S. Cheavens (Author)
Publisher : Cambridge University Press (December 21, 2021)
\u00B7 Language \u200F : \u200E English
\u00B7 Paperback \u200F : \u200E 480 pages
\u00B7 ISBN-10 \u200F : \u200E 1108460836
\u00B7 ISBN-13 \u200F : \u200E 978-1108460835
\u00B7 Item Weight \u200F : \u200E 2.25 pounds
\u00B7 Dimensions \u200F : \u200E 7.44 x 1.14 x 9.69 inches
Approximate cost via Amazon: $53 (paperback)
2. Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Program; Paperback \u2013 2nd Edition 2019; by Sharon Salzberg (Author); Paperback: 240 pages
\u2022 ISBN-10: 1523510129
\u2022 ISBN-13: 978-1523510122
\u2022 Product Dimensions : 6.1 x 0.7 x 8 inches
\u2022 Publisher : Workman Publishing Company; Second Edition, Revised (December 24, 2019)
\u2022 Language: : English
Approximate Cost via Amazon: $11.69 (paperback)
3. The Science of Happiness Workbook: 10 Practices for a Meaningful Life Paperback \u2013
by Greater Good Science Center (Author), Kira M. Newman (Author), Jill Suttie (Author), & 1 more
\u2022 Publisher \u200F : \u200E W. W. Norton & Company
\u2022 Publication date \u200F : \u200E September 16, 2025
\u2022 Edition \u200F : \u200E Workbook
\u2022 Language \u200F : \u200E English
\u2022 Print length \u200F : \u200E 240 pages
\u2022 ISBN-10 \u200F : \u200E 1324019204
\u2022 ISBN-13 \u200F : \u200E 978-1324019206
\u2022 Item Weight \u200F : \u200E 14.5 ounces
\u2022 Dimensions \u200F : \u200E 7 x 0.5 x 9.9 inches
Amazon: $21.99 (paperback)
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Religion |
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Hour: 12 Instructor: Devin Singh |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Anger as Virtue
Course Description:
Often portrayed as dangerous or irrational, anger is commonly treated as something to suppress or avoid. Yet across religious and philosophical traditions, anger has also been understood as a powerful force for justice, self-preservation, and social change. This course challenges that assumption by asking: What if anger is a virtue? We will examine anger as an ethical, philosophical, and religious response to harm, injustice, and violated boundaries—one that can foster courage, clarity, and transformation. Drawing on classical texts and contemporary perspectives, students will engage these questions through close readings, discussion, and written reflection. Topics include righteous anger; wrath and forgiveness; anger as resistance; and practices for discerning when anger serves us—and when it does not.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
This course will be laptop free. Students are expected to print out PDFs for reading and highlighting, and to bring them to class for discussion. Students should also bring a notebook and writing implement for note taking.
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Hour: Instructor: Devin Singh |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
This course will be laptop free. Students are expected to print out PDFs for reading and highlighting, and to bring them to class for discussion. Students should also bring a notebook and writing implement for note taking.
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Sociology |
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Hour: 12 Instructor: Kathryn Lively |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Managing Emotions
Course Description:
Drawing on insights from sociology to psychotherapy, this is an interdisciplinary course on managing one’s emotions. The purpose will be to 1) examine how social norms and cultural expectations tell us what we should feel and how to express those feelings, 2) investigate the intrapersonal and societal consequences of adhering to these norms, and 3) better understand why particular strategies related to mindfulness help us to navigate these social demands. We will work to develop a stronger appreciation of how emotion operates in both the external and internal worlds, and to what consequence. We will approach the sociological content of the course through a number of writing components. Students respond to course readings through informal writing in reading journals and short reflection papers (1-2 pages) throughout the term. Students learn about formal writing through two papers, one of which is a quasi-research paper based on your original data collection (e.g., observations, content analysis, or short interviews with friends) that will draw on sociological resources (read in class) to explore the cultural and structural constraints surrounding a particular emotion. The other is a more significant library research paper on a related topic of your choice and will require additional library research, although you may also draw on assigned readings.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
None
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Hour: Instructor: Kathryn Lively |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
None
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Spanish |
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Hour: 3A Instructor: Joseph Aguado |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Unforgettable Memories: Spaniards in Nazi Concentration Camps
Course Description:
In this writing course, expressing your ideas coherently and thoughfully is as important as discussing the topic of the Spaniards in Nazi concentration camps. How have writers and filmmakers dealt with painful memories from Nazi concentration camps? Is it possible to remember extreme experiences—like those coming from survivors of concentration camps—without being engulfed by their horrors? We will be dealing with these questions in four major writing assignments.
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No required textbooks available |
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Hour: Instructor: Joseph Aguado |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
Theater |
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Hour: 11 Instructor: Mara Sabinson |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Theater for Social Change
Course 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 affect 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, 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 and a power point presentation. Emphasis will be on class participation.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
none |
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Hour: 2 Instructor: Mara Sabinson |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Theater for Social Change
Course 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 affect 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, 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 and a power point presentation. Emphasis will be on class participation.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
None |
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Hour: Instructor: Mara Sabinson |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
none |
|
Hour: Instructor: Mara Sabinson |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality |
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Hour: 11 Instructor: Yiren Zheng |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Listening Intersectionally: Considering Gender and Power in East Asia through Sound
Course Description:
In this seminar, students will read and analyze a selection of philosophical, scholarly, and literary texts that explore the interconnection of sex and gender, sexuality, citizenship, power, language, and media in a wide range of historical periods in East Asia. In particular, we will focus on how such an interconnection manifests through sound, including music, accent, tone, and other sonic aspects of a linguistic communication. By combining analytical approaches from sound studies and intersectional analysis, students will see that sound and listening are not neutral, universal, and technologically determined. For example, we will explore the gender politics latent in foundational texts in theory of music and poetics from ancient China and medieval Japan; we will explore both the asymmetry and connections between the ideas of early twentieth-century Chinese feminist anarchist thinker He-Yin Zhen and those of American feminist theorist bell hooks; we will also read contemporary Korean writer Han Kang’s novel Greek Lessons in light of recent discussions of accent and class politics in post-colonial India. Through preparatory and formal writing assignments, discussions, peer-review workshops, students will learn how to produce an original and insightful analysis of both literary and theoretical texts and develop skills in conceptual thinking.
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No required textbooks available |
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Hour: 12 Instructor: Yiren Zheng |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Listening Intersectionally: Considering Gender and Power in East Asia through Sound
Course Description:
In this seminar, students will read and analyze a selection of philosophical, scholarly, and literary texts that explore the interconnection of sex and gender, sexuality, citizenship, power, language, and media in a wide range of historical periods in East Asia. In particular, we will focus on how such an interconnection manifests through sound, including music, accent, tone, and other sonic aspects of a linguistic communication. By combining analytical approaches from sound studies and intersectional analysis, students will see that sound and listening are not neutral, universal, and technologically determined. For example, we will explore the gender politics latent in foundational texts in theory of music and poetics from ancient China and medieval Japan; we will explore both the asymmetry and connections between the ideas of early twentieth-century Chinese feminist anarchist thinker He-Yin Zhen and those of American feminist theorist bell hooks; we will also read contemporary Korean writer Han Kang’s novel Greek Lessons in light of recent discussions of accent and class politics in post-colonial India. Through preparatory and formal writing assignments, discussions, peer-review workshops, students will learn how to produce an original and insightful analysis of both literary and theoretical texts and develop skills in conceptual thinking.
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No required textbooks available |
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Hour: Instructor: Yiren Zheng |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
|
Hour: Instructor: Yiren Zheng |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
Writing Program |
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Hour: 10A Instructor: Rachel Obbard |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Sport, Technology, and Ethics: Technology and Sport at the Crossroads
Course Description:
"Technology and Sports at the Crossroads" is a First-Year Seminar that engages students in in-depth study of this complex, interdisciplinary topic through reading, research, discussion, and composition. In this course, we will examine why some innovations in science and technology create controversy, try to answer some of the important questions about the use of technology in sport that transcend individual sports, and examine who is contributing to and shaping the public discourse about these topics. We will read and discuss scientific (peer-reviewed) papers and scholarly essays on engineering, ethics and the philosophy of sport and each student will do extensive research and writing on a specific topic. Coursework will include short informal writing pieces, an annotated bibliography, a presentation on their topic, and two major essays: a literature review paper on the applied science or engineering behind a specific sports technology, and a scholarly essay that examines the intersection of that technology with sport and society.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
None |
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Hour: Instructor: Rachel Obbard |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
None |
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Hour: 10 Instructor: Colleen Lannon |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
The Female Detective: Gender-Bending in the Mystery Genre
Course Description:
Detective fiction is generally considered a conservative genre. It addresses doubt and uncertainty (Who committed the crime? Why? Will she or he strike again?) and once the crime is solved, it replaces that doubt with certainty and assurance; the status quo is reinstated. What happens, then, when the historically male sleuth is replaced by a female detective? What possibilities are opened by it? Is the status quo reinforced or challenged? This course will examine the female detective alongside her masculine counterpart, starting with the early days of Sherlock Holmes and his detective “sisters” and then proceeding through the golden age of British crime fiction and selections from American hard-boiled fiction. Finally, we will examine the new wave of female detective fiction that began in the 1980s, as well as the emergence of the sub-genre of queer/lesbian detection in the 1990s. Readings will include selections from authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, Sue Grafton, and Katherine V. Forrest.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
Grafton, Sue. A is for Alibi. St. Martin's Griffin, 2005. ISBN: 978- 0312353810.
Forrest, Katherine V. Murder at the Nightwood Bar. Spinsters Ink, 2011. ISBN: 978-1935226673.
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|
Hour: 11 Instructor: Colleen Lannon |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
The Female Detective: Gender-Bending in the Mystery Genre
Course Description:
Detective fiction is generally considered a conservative genre. It addresses doubt and uncertainty (Who committed the crime? Why? Will she or he strike again?) and once the crime is solved, it replaces that doubt with certainty and assurance; the status quo is reinstated. What happens, then, when the historically male sleuth is replaced by a female detective? What possibilities are opened by it? Is the status quo reinforced or challenged? This course will examine the female detective alongside her masculine counterpart, starting with the early days of Sherlock Holmes and his detective “sisters” and then proceeding through the golden age of British crime fiction and selections from American hard-boiled fiction. Finally, we will examine the new wave of female detective fiction that began in the 1980s, as well as the emergence of the sub-genre of queer/lesbian detection in the 1990s. Readings will include selections from authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, Sue Grafton, and Katherine V. Forrest.
|
Textbook(s)Required: |
Grafton, Sue. A is for Alibi. St. Martin's Griffin, 2005. ISBN: 978- 0312353810.
Forrest, Katherine V. Murder at the Nightwood Bar. Spinsters Ink, 2011. ISBN: 978-1935226673.
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|
Hour: Instructor: Colleen Lannon |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
|
Hour: Instructor: Colleen Lannon |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
Grafton, Sue. A is for Alibi. St. Martin's Griffin, 2005. ISBN: 978- 0312353810.
Forrest, Katherine V. Murder at the Nightwood Bar. Spinsters Ink, 2011. ISBN: 978-1935226673.
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|
Hour: 11 Instructor: Christopher Drain |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Anthropogenesis:
Course Description:
In this seminar we will deal with the question of human origins (i.e., "anthropogenesis"). In staking out this investigation, we follow late philosopher Bernard Stiegler and Soviet psychologist L.S. Vygotsky in positing the following proposition: Homo sapiens is interesting only insofar as it leaves the bounds of purely biological determination. In other words, we are cultural-historical animals, and our specific development relies on the mediating role of cultural devices and cognitive scaffolds. But what exactly are these devices and scaffolds? And how do they function not only in relation to the quantitative amplification of prehuman capacities but also their qualitative transformation? In formulating answers to these questions, we will look to work from philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and cognitive science, while also considering insights from literary theory and psychoanalysis. As a writing seminar, we will critically examine the rhetorical structure of our texts and workshop analytic and argumentative compositions to learn the contours of academic prose in an interdisciplinary context. Shorter written assignments will scaffold the development of a research paper. Students should expect to draw on peer and instructor feedback throughout the term.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
All readings are available online. |
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Hour: Instructor: Christopher Drain |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
All readings are available online. |
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Hour: 10A Instructor: Clara Lewis |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Reading and Writing True Crime
Course Description:
The genre of true crime is wildly popular. Enjoying its sensational narratives for entertainment purposes, however, raises difficult questions. What are the implications for justice when podcasters, documentarians, and tabloids weigh in on high profile cases? How do new visual and social technologies impact the genre? What does our cultural fascination with violence reveal about our society? This seminar offers a critical introduction to the practice of reading and writing true crime. We aim to extend the boundaries of the genre by considering underrepresented harms and unconventional stories. We begin with theory from harm studies and critical criminology that contextualizes the state’s role in defining what constitutes crime. Then we embark on an extended period of self-directed research complemented by shared readings that illustrate the potential of the true crime genre to reveal social harms. Readings include, Slavoj Žižek’s Violence, Jess Walter’s Ruby Ridge, Dave Cullen’s Columbine, and Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. By the end of the term, you will complete a significant independent study that culminates in either an original true crime narrative or a critique of an existing true crime story. Ahead of your final project, you’ll practice a number of real-world short forms, including pitches, proposals, and reviews. You will also experiment with ways of writing-without-writing and pre-writing designed to level-up your skills, build confidence, and cut the stress and procrastination out of your process.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
Cullen, Dave Columbine . Twelve, 2010. ISBN: 978-0446546928.
Walker, Jess Ruby Ridge: The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Weaver Family. Harper Perennial, 2002. ISBN: 006000794X.
Capote, Truman In Cold Blood. Vintage, 1994. ISBN: 0679745580.
Daly, Martin & Wilson, Margo The Truth About Cinderella Yale University Press, 1999. ISBN: 978-0300080292.
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Hour: Instructor: Clara Lewis |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
Cullen, Dave Columbine . Twelve, 2010. ISBN: 978-0446546928.
Walker, Jess Ruby Ridge: The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Weaver Family. Harper Perennial, 2002. ISBN: 006000794X.
Capote, Truman In Cold Blood. Vintage, 1994. ISBN: 0679745580.
Daly, Martin & Wilson, Margo The Truth About Cinderella Yale University Press, 1999. ISBN: 978-0300080292.
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Hour: 10A Instructor: Leigh York |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Seriality in Popular Culture
Course Description:
The popularity and ubiquity of serial storytelling are evident today in the proliferation of television programs, web series, film sequels, podcasts, comic books, multimedia franchises, and transmedia programming. This course traces the development of serial storytelling from the serialized novel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to television and digital storytelling in the twenty-first. We will examine the ways that stories unfold over time in different serial media, including visual, textual, video, and digital forms; in the process, we will explore the shifting roles of author and audience, the ways changes in technology and media have shaped narrative content, and the ways that serial forms have influenced our historical consciousness and cultural discourse. This course will focus on how literary and cultural scholars write about popular texts. You will learn how to write formal research papers in literary and cultural studies by analyzing popular texts and researching the scholarly, critical, and audience reception of those texts. In this course, you will write a research paper on a serialized text of your choosing. To prepare for the research paper you will complete two shorter papers and additional informal writing assignments. In consultation with the instructor, you will choose a television show, comic book, serialized novel or novel series, media franchise, web series, series of magazine or news articles, etc., and will write about different aspects of the text throughout the term. In addition to these popular texts, readings will include texts from major figures in cultural studies, including Walter Benjamin, Antonio Gramsci, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, Henry Jenkins, Lisa Nakamura, Michele Wallace, and others.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
None |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Leigh York |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Seriality in Popular Culture
Course Description:
The popularity and ubiquity of serial storytelling are evident today in the proliferation of television programs, web series, film sequels, podcasts, comic books, multimedia franchises, and transmedia programming. This course traces the development of serial storytelling from the serialized novel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to television and digital storytelling in the twenty-first. We will examine the ways that stories unfold over time in different serial media, including visual, textual, video, and digital forms; in the process, we will explore the shifting roles of author and audience, the ways changes in technology and media have shaped narrative content, and the ways that serial forms have influenced our historical consciousness and cultural discourse. This course will focus on how literary and cultural scholars write about popular texts. You will learn how to write formal research papers in literary and cultural studies by analyzing popular texts and researching the scholarly, critical, and audience reception of those texts. In this course, you will write a research paper on a serialized text of your choosing. To prepare for the research paper you will complete two shorter papers and additional informal writing assignments. In consultation with the instructor, you will choose a television show, comic book, serialized novel or novel series, media franchise, web series, series of magazine or news articles, etc., and will write about different aspects of the text throughout the term. In addition to these popular texts, readings will include texts from major figures in cultural studies, including Walter Benjamin, Antonio Gramsci, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, Henry Jenkins, Lisa Nakamura, Michele Wallace, and others.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
None |
|
Hour: Instructor: Leigh York |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
|
Hour: Instructor: Leigh York |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
Textbook(s)Required: |
None |
|
Hour: 9L Instructor: Erkki Mackey |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Questioning Physicalism
Course Description:
The belief that reality is fundamentally physical has dominated western thought for at least four centuries. While the success of that belief, combined with scientific reductionism, has been undeniable—in curing disease, developing technology, and dramatically improving the quality of life on Earth for humans—we have long had legitimate philosophical reasons to question its plausibility and utility as a worldview. What’s more, it has, paradoxically, motivated profound discoveries that cast doubt on its own validity and, arguably, imperiled life on Earth. We will examine some of those discoveries and philosophical concerns to try and decide if it’s time to abandon physicalism—and we’ll consider possible alternatives and contemplate their implications. In addition to numerous informal writing assignments, students can expect to write multiple drafts of three short exploratory essays and one substantial research paper, and will receive considerable feedback from both peers and the instructor on those four assignments. Readings will include Mind and Cosmos by Thomas Nagel, The Mysterious Universe by James Jeans, Why Materialism is Baloney by Bernardo Kastrup, and The Case Against Reality by Donald Hoffman.
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No required textbooks available |
|
Hour: 10 Instructor: Erkki Mackey |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Questioning Physicalism
Course Description:
The belief that reality is fundamentally physical has dominated western thought for at least four centuries. While the success of that belief, combined with scientific reductionism, has been undeniable—in curing disease, developing technology, and dramatically improving the quality of life on Earth for humans—we have long had legitimate philosophical reasons to question its plausibility and utility as a worldview. What’s more, it has, paradoxically, motivated profound discoveries that cast doubt on its own validity and, arguably, imperiled life on Earth. We will examine some of those discoveries and philosophical concerns to try and decide if it’s time to abandon physicalism—and we’ll consider possible alternatives and contemplate their implications. In addition to numerous informal writing assignments, students can expect to write multiple drafts of three short exploratory essays and one substantial research paper, and will receive considerable feedback from both peers and the instructor on those four assignments. Readings will include Mind and Cosmos by Thomas Nagel, The Mysterious Universe by James Jeans, Why Materialism is Baloney by Bernardo Kastrup, and The Case Against Reality by Donald Hoffman.
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No required textbooks available |
|
Hour: Instructor: Erkki Mackey |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
|
Hour: Instructor: Erkki Mackey |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
|
Hour: 10 Instructor: Samuel Carter |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Screening Voices: Cinema and Vocality Across the Americas
Course Description:
How can film serve as a site for understanding the voice and the complex relationships it embodies between self and society? What beliefs does the voice project, and which ones do we tend to project onto the voice itself? Where might visual elements affect how we hear? And if cinema offers a frame for understanding vocality, could this medium direct us toward conceptualizing the voice differently? This course explores these questions and others by examining films from across the Americas, with particular attention paid to intersections of voice and race as well as voice and gender. Approaching vocality not as exclusively innate but also thoroughly entrained, we will consider concerns regarding vocal practice that resonate with our methods for refining how we write in an academic setting. As a First-Year Seminar, the course will encourage students to continue developing their writing and research skills through a series of essays that require drafts with different voicings of central ideas and emphasize the careful analysis of scenes in order to assemble an engaging argument. Readings will come from fields including philosophy, media studies, and musicology, and films will include Julie Dash’s Illusions, Spike Jonze’s Her, Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman, and Natalia Meta’s The Intruder.
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No required textbooks available |
|
Hour: Instructor: Samuel Carter |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
|
Hour: 10A Instructor: Sara Chaney |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Arguing ADHD
Course Description:
This seminar is not about the science of ADHD but rather about its cultural and rhetorical representation. What else are people arguing about when they argue about ADHD? Energizing debates about education, medical ethics, racial health disparities, college dropout rates, and much more, ADHD has become a loaded term in public discourse as well as a contagious metaphor to describe the predicaments of a distracted generation, their use and misuse of technology, and their labor potential in the digital economy. In this first-year seminar, students will learn how to investigate the multiple rhetorical meanings of ADHD as they have evolved over time. How was a “defect of moral control” reclassified as a “hyperkinetic reaction” and finally as “attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder”? How did controversies about ADHD medication prompt several federal investigations (in the 1970s and 1990s)? What does ADHD have to do with contested politics of gender, family, and governance? In this course, students will learn how to interpret historical newspapers and other primary sources as examples of popular medical rhetoric. They will construct researched case studies about ADHD and present them in various forms for academic and popular audiences.
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No required textbooks available |
|
Hour: Instructor: Sara Chaney |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: None |
No description available |
No required textbooks available |
|
