Featured Courses Fall 2013

New courses and ones you may have missed that are recommended by major departments and programs.

Fulfills a College Requirement

American Art
Gwendolyn Shaw

This course will survey the most important and interesting art produced in the United States (or by American artists living abroad) up through the 1950s. This period encompasses the history of both early and modern art in the U.S., from its first appearances to its rise to prominence and institutionalization. While tracking this history, the course will examine art's relation to historical processes of modernization (industrialization, the development of transportation and communications, the spread of corporate organization in business, urbanization, technological development, the rise of mass media and mass markets, etc.) and to the economic polarization, social fragmentation, political conflict, and myriad cultural changes these developments entailed. In these circumstances, art is drawn simultaneously toward truth and fraud, realism and artifice, science and spirituality, commodification and ephemerality, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, individualism and collectivity, the past and the future, professionalization and popularity, celebrating modern life and criticizing it. Fulfills College foundational requirement in Cultural Diversity in the U.S.
ARTH 278.401 | TR |10:30 AM-12:00 PM

South Asians in the US
Fariha Khan

This course investigates the everyday practices and customs of South Asians in America and addresses questions that constitute the folklore of South Asia such as: why do brides wear henna at their weddings or why are desis interested in Hip Hop? While every immigrant group has its own history, customs, beliefs and values, people define themselves and their ethnicities living in a diasporic context in unique ways. By taking into account the burgeoning South Asian American population as our model, this course will explore the basic themes surrounding the lives that immigrants are living in America, and more specifically the identity which the second generation, born and/or raised in America, is developing. South Asians in the U.S. will be divided thematically covering the topics of ethnicity, marriage, gender, religion, and pop-culture. Readings and assignments will discuss a variety of issues and viewpoints that are a part of the fabric of South Asia, but will focus on the interpretation of such expressive culture in the United States. Through seminar discussions, we will consider topics such as marriage, religion, generational conflicts, and gender as each issue is affected or transformed by migration. We will also probe into representations of ethnicity in film, the media, and short fiction. Fulfills College foundational requirement in Cultural Diversity in the U.S.
ASAM 160.401 | TR | 12:00 PM-1:30 PM

American Expansion in the Pacific
Eiichiro Azuma

This course will delve into the continuing process of westward American expansion into the Pacific after the 1890s. Such questions as immigration, race relations, and diplomacy will be discussed in the class. Students who are interested in U.S.-Asia relations, Asian immigration, and histories of Hawaii and the Philippines as part of the American Empire are especially encouraged to take this course. Fulfills College Foundational requirement in Cross Cultural Analysis.
ASAM 354.401 | TR | 3:00 PM-4:30 PM

The Solar System, Exoplanets, and Life
Cullen Blake

A survey course on planets and life covering our own Solar System and exoplanets orbiting other stars. Topics include the latest results and theories about: the origin and evolution of planetary systems around our Sun and other stars; the detection of exoplanets; the implications of planetary atmospheres for life; and the search for life on other planets in our Solar System. This course is designed for the non-major and elementary algebra and geometry will be used. Fulfills College requirement in Natural Science and Mathematics. Fulfills College Foundational requirement in Quantitative Data Analysis.
ASTR 006.001 | TR | 1:30 PM-3:00 PM

History as Culture
Kevin Platt

The object of the course is to investigate what happens when historical events and personages are represented in cultural life. We will study plays, novels, paintings, film and television—as well as a bit of history—taking us from Shakespeare to Downton Abbey. Auxillary readings in theory and method will allow us to grapple with the deeper questions of our readings: How and why do modern societies care about the past? What is the difference between a historical novel and a work of historiography? Do different kinds of writing offer different forms of truth about human events? As we will learn, the representation of history has a history of its own, which we can trace from the renaissance up to the present day. Readings will include works by: Shakespeare, Scott, Tolstoy, Hughes, Eisenstein, Márquez, Eco and others. In the course of the semester, students will gain competence in the interpretation of literary texts from a variety of cultures and periods, and also improve their analytical writing skills. Fulfills College requirement in Arts and Letters.
COML 100.401 | TR | 12:00 PM-1:30 PM

Introduction to Environmental Earth Science
Alain Plante

Introduction to Environmental Science will expose students to the principles that underlie our understanding of how the Earth works. The goal of Earth System Science is to obtain a scientific understanding of the entire Earth system by describing its component parts (lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere) and their interactions, and describe how they have evolved, how they function, and how they may be expected to respond to human activity. The challenge to Earth System Science is to develop the capability to predict those changes that will occur in the next decade to century, both naturally and in response to human activity. Energy, both natural and human generated, will be used as a unifying principle. Knowledge gained through this course will help you make informed decisions in all spheres of human activity: science, policy, economics, etc. Fulfills College requirement in Physical World. Fulfills College foundational requirement in Quantitative Data Analysis.
ENVS 200.001 | TR | 10:30 AM-12:00 PM

Introduction to Geology
Gomaa Omar

An introduction to processes and forces that form the surface and the interior of the Earth. Changes in climate and the history of life. Earth resources and their uses. Fulfills College requirement in Physical World. Fulfills College foundational requirement in Quantitative Data Analysis.
GEOL 100.001 | MWF | 10:00 AM-11:00 AM

Deciphering America
Kathleen Brown and Walter Licht

This course examines American history from the first contacts of the indigenous peoples of North America with European settlers to our own times by focusing on a few telling moments in this history. The course treats twelve of these moments and each unit begins with a specific primary document, historical figure, image or cultural artifact to commence the delving into the American past. Some of these icons are familiar, but the ensuing deciphering will render them as more complicated; some are unfamiliar, but they will emerge as absolutely telling. The course meets each week for two fifty-minute team-taught lectures and one recitation session. Course requirements include: twelve “before” journal and twelve “after” journal entries (instructions for the journal entry exercise are posted on the course’s Blackboard website); a take home mid-term exam to be submitted in class on October 26; a final in-class exam during the final exams period; and punctual attendance and full participation in recitations. Fulfills College requirement in History and Tradition. Fulfills College foundational requirement in Cross Cultural Analysis.
HIST 011.001 | MWF | 12:00 PM-1:00 PM

Colonial Latin America
Tamara Walker

This course provides an introduction to the broad literature on Latin America’s rich colonial history. We will begin by tracing some of the early origins of - and points of contact between - the Indian, Iberian, and African men and women who formed the basis of colonial society. As the course progresses, we will explore the variety of ways in which colonial subjects lived, worked, ate, worshipped and socialized. Lectures and reading assignments will draw upon a variety of sources, including court cases, artistic renderings, city maps and street plans, travel accounts of visits to the region, and the material, cultural, and intellectual products made possible by the wealth and dynamism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The course will conclude with an analysis of the Age of Revolutions, a period of dramatic upheaval that remains at the center of lively scholarly debates. By the end of the semester, students will be able to engage the key questions driving these debates, the most important of which, perhaps, is: what is Latin America’s colonial legacy? Fulfills College requirement in History and Tradition. Fulfills College foundational requirement in Cross Cultural Analysis.
HIST 070.401 | MWF | 10:00 AM-11:00 AM

Modern Korea
Eugene Y. Park

An examination of modern Korean society and culture in tumultuous transition, focusing on challenges for the Chosŏn Dynasty and its reform effort, pressures of imperialism, impact of Japanese colonial rule, conflict between two rival regimes, South Korea’s emergence as a major player in the international political economy, some salient features of the totalitarian North Korean regime, triumph of democracy, and Korea’s place in the world. Fulfills College foundational requirement in Cross Cultural Analysis.
HIST 121.401 | TR | 3:00 PM-4:30 PM

Medieval and Early Modern Jewry
Talya Fishman

Exploration of intellectual, social, and cultural developments in Jewish civilization from the dawn of rabbinic culture in the Near East through the assault on established conceptions of faith and religious authority in 17th century Europe. Particular attention will be paid to the impact of Christian and Muslim "host societies" on expressions of Jewish culture. Fulfills College requirement in History and Tradition. Fulfills College foundational requirement in Cross Cultural Analysis.
JWST 157.401 | TR | 1:30 PM-3:00 PM

Symphony
Lawrence Bernstein

This course will focus on a specific repertoire of representative symphonies by such composers as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikowsky, and Mahler. Historical developments will be considered, along with the effects upon symphonic literature of such major sociological changes as the emergence of the public concert hall. But the emphasis will be on the music itself--particularly on the ways we can sharpen our abilities to engage and comprehend the composers' musical rhetoric. Fulfills College foundational requirement in Cross Cultural Analysis.
MUSC 031.001 | MW | 3:30 PM-5:00 PM

Introduction to Modern India
Chaudry Faisal

This introductory course will provide an outline of major events and themes in Indian history, from the Mughal Empire in the 16th century to the re-emergence of India as a global player in the 21st century. The course will discuss the following themes: society and economy in Mughal India; global trade between India and the West in the 17th century; the rise of the English East India Company's control over Indian subcontinent in the 18th century; its emergence and transformation of India into a colonial economy; social and religious reform movements in the 19th century; the emergence of elite and popular anti-colonial nationalisms; independence and the partition of the subcontinent; the emergence of the world's largest democracy; the making of an Indian middle class; and the nuclearization of South Asia. Fulfills College requirement in History and Tradition. Fulfills College foundational requirement in Cross Cultural Analysis.
SAST 001.401 | MW | 2:00 PM-3:30 PM

India: Culture and Society
Ramya Sreenivasan

"What makes India INDIA? Religion and Philosophy? Architectural splendor?
Kingdoms? Caste? The position of women? This course will introduce students to India by studying a range of social and cultural institutions that have historically assumed to be definitive India. Through primary texts, novels and historical sociological analysis, we will ask how these institutions have been reproduced and transformed, and assess their significance for contemporary Indian society." Fulfills College requirement in Humanities and Social Science. Fulfills College foundational requirement in Cross Cultural Analysis.
SAST 008.401 | TR | 3:00 PM-4:30 PM

Freshman Seminar

August Wilson
H. Beavers
August Wilson built his entire career as a playwright around plays set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District.  In so doing, he created an entire universe of traumas and triumphs through characters that are both resonant and eloquent. In this freshman seminar, students will read August Wilson’s 20th Century Cycle along with the works of current playwrights who have been influenced by Wilson (such as Tarell Alvin McCraney and Suzan Lori-Parks), plus supporting material on African American theatre, theatre-based community partnerships, and West Philadelphia history. The readings will form the basis of conversations with West Philadelphia residents about their experiences living in the neighborhood.  Working collaboratively, students will set out to create a new play inspired by the readings and these conversations. The class will present a draft of the piece at an end-of-semester gathering with community members. Students do not need to have a theatre background prior to this course to register. (x-listed with ENGL 016)
Freshmen Seminar; Arts Scholars Program; Level: Introductory
AFRC 017.402 | M | 2:00 PM-5:00 PM   

Leonardo Da Vinci
Marina Johnston

Leonardo is one of the most prominent artists of the Italian Renaissance but art was not his primary interest. This freshman seminar will explore the figure of Leonardo da Vinci as the author of innumerable notebooks on a great variety of subjects, from fiction to painting, from hydraulic and mechanical engineering, to ballistics, to anatomy, and so on. It is through his writings that we can truly learn to know him. We will learn what he ate and what he read; about the many jobs he held, particularly at the Sforza court in Milan; but especially how art and science are inextricably linked in his thought.
ITAL 100.401 | MWF | 1:00 PM-2:00 PM

Benjamin Franklin Seminar

Ancient Interpretation of the Bible
David Stern

Christianity and Judaism are often called "Biblical religions" because they are believed to be founded upon the Bible. But the truth of the matter is that it was less the Bible itself than the particular ways in which the Bible was read and interpreted by Christians and Jews that shaped the development of these two religions and that also marked the difference between them. So, too, ancient Biblical interpretation—Jewish and Christian—laid the groundwork for and developed virtually all the techniques and methods that have dominated literary criticism and hermeneutics (the science of interpretation) since then. Fulfills College requirement in Arts and Letters.
JWST 356.401 | TR | 10:30 AM-12:00 PM

Various Audiences

The Prehistoric World
Harold Dibble

This course is a critical review of the archaeological and fossil evidence for human evolution over the past 3 million years. The primary focus is on the question of what characteristics - either biological or behavioral - truly make us human and distinct from our prehistoric ancestors. At the same time, and drawing on the instructor's 30+ years of active archaeological fieldwork, this course will also emphasize both the potential and pitfalls of reconstructing ancient behavior on the basis of the evidence available to paleoanthropologists.
ANTH 006.001 | MW | 1:00 PM-2:00 PM

Performing Culture, Native American Arts
Marge Bruchac

This course analyzes cultural performances as sites for the formation, expression, and transmission of social identity. Students will read ethnographies, critiques, and reports of performance genres including ritual, theater, music, dance, art, and spoken word, with a particular focus on Native American and Indigenous arts and expressions. Topics include: expressive culture as survivance; debates around authenticity and invented traditions; public identity and sexuality; political resistance; the effects of globalization; transnationalism and hybridity; cultural appropriation; and the transformation of folk performances in the wake of modern media.
ANTH 328.001 | TR | 1:30 PM-3:00 PM

Visual Arts of the Italian Renaissance
David Kim

This course explores the painting, sculpture, architecture, and other media (textiles, prints, and even armor) from the historical eras conventionally known as the Early and High Renaissance, Mannerism, and Counter Reformation. We will consider the work of such artists as Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto, and Mantegna as well as the careers, personalities and reception of Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian. With emphasis placed upon artists’ cultivation of particular styles, we will look closely at works originating in various contexts: political (city-states, princely courts, and the Papal States); spatial / topographic (inner chambers of private palaces, family chapels, church facades, and public squares); and geographic (Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples, Venice and Milan). Topics include artistic creativity and license, religious devotion, the revival of antiquity, observation of nature, art as problem-solving, the public reception and function of artworks, debates about style, artistic rivalry, and traveling artists. Rather than taking the form of a survey, this course selects works as paradigmatic case studies, and will analyze contemporary attitudes toward art of this period through study of primary sources.
ARTH 250.401 | MWF | 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

Gold Fever: Money and the American Novel
Laura Finch

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, The Dark Knight Rises, and David Cronenburg’s Cosmopolis: all Hollywood films made in the last three years, and all about money. America’s love affair with telling stories about money has a long and fascinating tradition. Looking at a number of novels, but also films, short stories, and economic theory, we will examine how the American tradition engages with economics and creates fictions about finance. We will cover historical topics such as the roaring 20s, the Great Depression, the dot.com bubble, and the recent financial crisis. Authors may include Don DeLillo, Theodore Dreiser, Bret Easton Ellis, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jonathan Franzen, James Weldon Johnson, and Nathanael West.
COML 105.601 | T | 6:00 PM-9:10 PM

Buddhist Art of East Asia
Frank Chance

The art produced by one of the world’s great religions, and trace its development across China, Korea, and Japan. Develop analytical skills to understand Buddhist icons and other works.
We will start with a brief overview of the origins and ideas behind Buddhism, while looking at early monuments in India. Further study will follow the image of the Buddha as it traveled from India to Afghanistan to China, and finally to Korea and Japan. After dazzling our senses with the myriad of forms created to express Buddhist ideas across Asia, we will settle into the serene severity of Zen and seek the essential elements of Buddhism, and indeed of all religious expression.
EALC 115.401 | MW | 3:30 PM-5:00 PM

Shamans to Samurai
David Spafford

Goal: Discover the art produced by one of the world’s great religions, and trace its development across China, Korea, and Japan. Develop analytical skills to understand Buddhist icons and other works.
We will start with a brief overview of the origins and ideas behind Buddhism, while looking at early monuments in India. Further study will follow the image of the Buddha as it traveled from India to Afghanistan to China, and finally to Korea and Japan. After dazzling our senses with the myriad of forms created to express Buddhist ideas across Asia, we will settle into the serene severity of Zen and seek the essential elements of Buddhism, and indeed of all religious expression."
EALC 270.401 | MW | 2:00 PM-3:30 PM

Advanced Nonfiction Writing
Stephen Fried

Too often, what passes for “creative non-fiction” is neither as creative as it could be, nor truly non-fictional. The goal of this class is to explore many different forms of creative non-fiction writing and, through your individual work and intense group workshopping, broaden and deepen your knowledge of both the form and yourself as a writer and a reader. The course will use a different magazine or periodical each week, along with your own writing, as its primary reading material. And it will feature some of the intense peer editing and support my students have helped me develop at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where I’ve taught the magazine writing workshop for the past eight years.
It is not, necessarily, a class only for those interested in non-fiction writing or journalism as a career, and students will be selected based on the quality and ambition of their writing samples, not whether the pieces were ever published. That said, I do expect that some students will produce work in the class that is publishable—or, at the very least, would open doors for you at publications. But, everyone will learn how to write, report, think and communicate more concisely, emotionally and entertainingly; how to draw out characters and narratives; and how to share your knowledge and enthusiasm for a subject, and your deepening understanding of it, with readers. You’ll also learn how to constructively criticize the work of others, and to accept and embrace critiques of your own work.
You will be writing pretty much every week in this class. We’ll begin with short pieces (500+ words) that will be tied to what we’re reading that week, and a theme: first-person memoir, reported memoir (amazing how memoir changes when you ask someone else how they remember it), observed scene, scene recreated from reporting, extended dialogue, historical recreation, procedural how-to, profile of a person and biography of an idea. For the final assignment you’ll expand your favorite piece (with my approval) into a full-length story.
If it sounds like a lot of work, I suspect it will be. (For me, too.) This isn’t a class for tourists. It’s an immersion experience in non-fiction writing, reporting, thinking and editing for students who think they might want to do this for a living—or, at the very least, expect to be superior communicators.
Please send one or two samples of your best work and a cover letter expressing your interest in the course to sf@stephenfried.com. Also include your full name, last four digits of SS#, undergraduate class, and telephone number where you can be reached. *Permit is required by the instructor*
ENGL 145.302 | M | 2:00 PM-5:00 PM

Literature of the 20th Century
Michele Richman

The purpose of this course is to understand why some of the most innovative works of the twentieth century appeared under the dual signs of violence and the sacred. Drawing from sociology and anthropology, they contend that from the foundations of social life to the appearance of art and religion, humans have instituted rituals in order to transgress their limits and confront the violence of death and desire. Outside the norms of everyday life, most rituals fall under the purview of the sacred without implying belief in a transcendent deity. Refusing to relegate this “left” sacred to exotic otherness, writers, intellectuals, and artists explored manifestations of trance, possession, the festival and sacrifice in their own experiences of art, writing, music, and sexuality. Ultimately, they tested the boundaries of modern individualism by seeking collective alternatives to warfare or politics.
Women figure prominently in the conjunction between violence and the sacred, both as authors and as heroines for modernity. Often derived from Biblical stories (Judith), antiquity (Lucretia, Antigone) and even prehistory (“Venus” statuettes), they defy conventional assumptions regarding female victimization. Among them we have included the famous Histoire d’ O, written by a woman, whose ritualized depiction of erotic violence is considered the predecessor to today’s Fifty Shades of Grey.
Topics include “Violence and the Foundations of the Social;” Violence and the Birth of Art; Violence, Women and Tragedy; Violence and Eroticism; Ritualized Violence of the Bullfight; Violence and the Sacred in Everyday life.
Readings will span the considerable literature on this subject by means of accessible essays or short works of fiction. Authors include Antonin Artaud, Emile Durkheim, Georges Bataille, Roger Caillois, Michel Leiris, Colette Peignot “Laure,” “Pauline Réage” [Colette Aubry], René Girard, Giorgio Agamben.
Given the convergence of this course with the Humanities Forum focus on “Violence,” we may replace a class session with an outside speaker.
Requirements: at least one course above 202; 212 or 214 or equivalent. Conducted entirely in French; several short response papers, and one longer essay [7-10 pages] on a chosen topic.
FREN 380.301 | TR | 1:30 PM-3:00 PM

Modern French Theater
Gerald Prince

A study of major movements and major dramatists from Giraudoux and Sartre to the theater of the absurd (Ionesco, Beckett, Genet) and its aftermath.
FREN 385.301 | MWF | 12:00 PM-1:00 PM

Making Space and Public Art: Examining Spatial Production through Public Art and Markers
Ken Lum

This course is open to all students.
The French social philosopher Michel de Certeau upset the common understanding of the relationship between space and place by elevating space as practice place. By this, he meant that place is but a set of geo-physical particularities that has no dynamic meaning unless activated through social engagement so that space is produced. Spatial practice is a key concept in the modern understanding of the city as a society of abstract space, one in which the problem of human alienation is riven with the logic of spatial spectacularization. Public Art is often employed to address or mollify such urban problems through concepts of historical reconstruction or institutional critique, including possibly testing the limits of public expression.
Historical markers play a somewhat different role by calling attention to lost or negative histories, albeit most often vetted through the language of tourism factoids. This course will examine the discursive issues at play in respect to art and markers, particularly for Philadelphia. Additionally, important public art works from around the world will be examined. The course will also include the occasional visit of several key works downtown in which the question of what can and cannot said will be pondered.
FNAR 330.401 | T | 9:30 AM-12:30 PM

Transnational Issues in Global Politics
James G. McGann

The processes of globalization, interdependence, and regional integration have made cooperation on transnational issues an imperative. This course is designed to provide students who want to know more about the world they live in with an introduction to world politics and to acquaint them with some of the leading issues, theories, concepts and processes that shape and define international relations and world events. The course focuses on transnational issues such as: climate change; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; international crime syndicates; cyber terrorism pandemics; and what state and non-state actors are doing to address them. It is expected that students taking the course will also gain an ability to analyze, understand, objectively evaluate, and appreciate the complex dynamic that is global politics. In order to better understand other nations, their leaders, and their motivations, the readings and lectures in the first segment of this course will examine the traditional, critical and contemporary approaches to studying world politics. Next, we will focus on the instruments of conflict and cooperation and the forces of integration and fragmentation in the world today. Finally, we will assess some of the major international issues of our time and assess the prospects for bringing peace and prosperity to a complex and chaotic world. The overriding challenge in this introductory course is to appreciate international relations from different perspectives and to be open and adaptive as you develop this appreciation. There is rarely just one way of stating a problem, examining it, or working for its resolution. For this reason, we will use case studies to examine a series of international issues from a number of different vantage points: the international system, sovereign states and non-state actors. Gateway Course for the IR Major but not restricted to IR majors.
INTR 101.001 | TR | 10:30 AM-12:00 PM

Masterpieces Italian Cinema
Stefania Benini

Italian cinema represents a foundational experience in Western cinema, and contemporary directors all over the world have built upon its legacy. In this course we will explore masterpieces of Italian cinema, from the silent era to the most recent wave of new directors who have won international reputation, such as Sorrentino and Garrone. We will investigate how Italian cinema has developed throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, focusing particularly on masters such as Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti, Fellini, Antonioni, Pasolini, Cavani, Bertolucci, Germi, Giordana e Benigni. The style of these most famous auteurs will be studied in detail in their masterpieces, analyzing different genres and movements, from the epic to neorealism, from comedy Italian style to political cinema. A history of Italian cinema will be traced in relation to its cultural and socio-political context. The course will be taught in English.
ITAL 322.401 | R | 1:30 PM-4:30 PM

Chopin
Jeffrey Kallberg

Permanently exiled from his native Poland for half his short life, and debilitated by illness for much the same time, Fryderyk Chopin nonetheless produced a profoundly important repertory of music for the piano, music at times transcendentally beautiful and at times viscerally exciting. Through close listening to recordings, viewing of recorded live performances, and selected readings, this course will explore Chopin’s music and the cultures within which and for whom he composed. The course is intended for non-majors, but music majors and performers are more than welcome as well. Fulfills College foundational requirement in Cross Cultural Analysis.
MUSC 032.001 | TR | 3:00 PM-4:30 PM

Global Digital Activism
Yang Guobin

This seminar examines the forms, causes, and consequences of global digital activism, defined broadly as activism associated with the use of digital media technologies (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, mobile phones, and the Chinese Weibo). The goal is to provide students with a theoretical tool-kit for analyzing digital activism and to develop a critical understanding of the nature of contemporary activism and its implications for global social change. Major cases to be examined include the “Occupy Wall Street” movement in the US, the Arab Spring, the “indignados” protests in Spain, and internet activism in China. Students are required to conduct primary, hands-on research on a contemporary case (or form) of digital activism and produce a final research paper. This research project may be done individually or in small groups.
SOCI 230.401 | MW | 2:00 PM-5:00 PM

Latinos in United States
Emilio Parrado

This course presents a broad overview of the Latino population in the United States that focuses on the economic and sociological aspects of Latino immigration and assimilation. Topics to be covered include: construction of Latino identity, the history of US Latino immigration, Latino family patterns and household structure, Latino educational attainment, Latino incorporation into the US labor force, earnings and economic well-being among Latino-origin groups, assimilation and the second generation. The course will stress the importance of understanding Latinos within the overall system of race and ethnic relations in the US, as well as in comparison with previous immigration flows, particularly from Europe. We will pay particular attention to the economic impact of Latino immigration on both the US receiving and Latin American sending communities, and the efficacy and future possibilities of US immigration policy. Within all of these diverse topics, we will stress the heterogeneity of the Latino population according to national origin groups (i.e. Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Latinos), as well as generational differences between immigrants and the native born.
SOCI 266.401 | TR | 1:30 PM-3:00 PM

Engineering Planet Earth
Etienne Benson

Can we make the Earth into the planet we want? Would we if we could? Are we already living on a human-made planet, whether we want it or not? Visions of engineering the Earth to suit human desires have a long and varied history. These visions have had consequences for the ways technologies have been developed, natural resources have been exploited, societies have been organized, and cultures have understood themselves. This course places current discussions about climate change, geoengineering, and other environmental problems and solutions in the context of several hundred years’ worth of debates over the place of humanity on the Earth.
STSC 169.401 | TR | 3:00 PM-4:30 PM

Science and the Senses: Visual Culture, Material Objects
Carin Berkowitz

This course examines the relationships between seeing, sensing, and knowing in science. What roles do the senses, and the material objects they observe, play in the production of science, and how has that changed historically? Are the senses reliable and standardize-able, and if so, how can we talk about them with a common vocabulary? Are some more important than others? We will begin to answer those questions by reading works from the early modern period up to the present about the role of the senses in science. We will look at ways in which vision was constructed as the primary sense during the Enlightenment and at ways in which it was made objective and instrumentalized in the modern period. We will also look at objects themselves. How do museum displays, illustrations, jarred specimens, photographs, and movies make and convey knowledge of the natural world and/or of the objects on display? What can historians learn by paying attention to objects and illustrations, rather than just texts?
STSC 443.301 | MW | 2:00 PM-3:30 PM

What Is an Image?
Staff

The course will explore various concepts of images. It will consider natural images (as in optics), images as artifacts, virtual images, images as representations, and works of art as images. Themes to include: the image controversy in cognitive science, which asks whether some cognitive representations are irreducibly imagistic; the question of whether some images resemble what they represent; the development of the concept of virtual image and three-dimensional images; the notions of pictorial representation and non-representational images in art. Readings from C. S. Peirce, Nelson Goodman, Robert Hopkins, Dominic Lopes, W. J. T. Mitchell, and Mark Rollins, among others.
VLST 305.301 | M | 3:30 PM-6:30 PM

Principally for Majors

Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Superlab
John Wagner

Intensive laboratory class where open-ended, interesting biological problems are explored using modern lab techniques. Topics may include protein structure/function studies; genetic screens, genomics and gene expression studies; proteomics and protein purification techniques; and molecular cloning and DNA manipulation. The course emphasizes developing scientific communication and independent research skills. Course topics reflect the interests of individual Biology faculty members. This course is recommended for students considering independent research.
BIOL 425.101 | TR | 1:00 PM-4:00 PM

Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton
Tatyana Svitkina

Cytoskeleton and cell motility plays a crucial role in many aspects of normal and pathological physiology of individual cells, tissues, and whole organisms, including morphogenesis, immune response, wound healing, oncogenesis, and infection. This course will cover current topics in cell biology with emphasis on cytoskeleton and cell motility and their roles in these processes. Lectures, student presentations, and discussions in the class will be based on primary scientific literature.
BIOL 484.301 | MW | 3:30 PM-5:00 PM

Photography Practices
Brent Wahl

This course is open to all students, and fulfills a major requirement for Fine Arts Majors.
This course is an introduction to the basic principles, strategies and processes of photographic practice. It is designed to broaden the student's aesthetic explorations and to help the student develop a visual language based on cross-disciplinary artistic practice. Through a series of projects and exercises students will be exposed to a range of camera formats, techniques and encouraged to experiment with the multiple modes and roles of photography - both analogue and digital. Attention will also be given to developing an understanding of critical aesthetic and historical issues in photography. Students will examine a range of historical and contemporary photowork as an essential part of understanding the possibilities of image making.
FNAR 150.001 | M | 1:00 PM-4:00 PM