This special offering is a five-day writing workshop especially for students who plan to write the large part of their senior projects during the spring 2000 semester. Seniors who have completed - or are near completing - research for their projects will find this brief course most valuable for beginning to write or for shaping and editing what they have already written. This is an interdisciplinary writing conference - students from all divisions are invited to participate. The Senior Writing conference will focus on:

CRN	20001	Distribution: F
Course No.	ART W100
Title	Foundations of Art: Drawing on your Journal
Professor	Bernard Greenwald

Artists have used personal journal keeping as a means for recording images and ideas and ruminating over them as a process for greater self-understanding for centuries. The notebooks of Dürer, Da Vinci, Delacroix, Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso give us special insight into their times, thoughts, and emotions. This course will consist of the keeping of a journal of drawings and writings outside of class. Meetings in the studio will consist of instruction in drawing, and discussion and sharing of the work among class members. There will also be several field trips to evocative sites in or near the Hudson Valley, weather permitting (Olana, Clermont, the Rondout, Kings Mall, Rhinecliff Railway Station, Stevenson Gymnasium) where students will fill their journals with drawn and written essays on their experiences. The journal will comprise the final portfolio for the course.

CRN	20002	Distribution: F
Course No.	ART W200
Title	Objects of Awe, Contemplation, and Desire
Professor	Eric Holzman

This course will combine painting and drawing, and will focus on the artistic portrayal of a subject, and the pursuit of its essential qualities. All work will be perceptual. The model or the still life will not be used simply as a means for making a picture, or as a jumping off point for stylization or abstraction. The object will be studied objectively and empathetically, and through an artistic process hopefully honored. The path is simple--study weight, scale, texture, volume, color, and interrelationship with surroundings. Impromptu and scheduled crits with class participation will be offered.

CRN	20003	Distribution: F
Course No.	PHOT
Title	Darkroom Technique
Professor	Peter Mauney

This class is meant to explore the technical and aesthetic concerns of photographic printing, its theory, history, and practice. We will spend time in the darkroom every day, exploring the possibilities of expressive printmaking, as well as such topics as film selection/manipulation and making emulsions from scratch. We will also devote a great deal of time to looking at actual prints culled from various sources and collections, as well as discussions of different printing philosophies and practices. The lab work in class will be in black and white, but will be relevant to color printing as well. Students are expected to bring negatives but we will also make negatives in class.

CRN	20004	Distribution: D
Course No.	ARAB W101
Title	Introductory Arabic
Professor	Hezi Brosh

This course is an introduction to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) as it is used in Arab countries today. It presents Arabic script and pronunciation, and essentials of basic Arabic structures, syntax and vocabulary. All these are reinforced by reading graded texts. Differences between MSA and educated spoken Arabic as well as significant aspects of Arab culture will be highlighted. Open to students with no previous knowledge in Arabic and to others in consultation with the instructor.

CRN	20005	Distribution: A/B
Course No.	LIT W270
Title	Wagner: The Ring of the Nibelung
Professor	Fred Grab

An interdisciplinary approach to Wagner's great operatic tetralogy, a mythological account of the beginning and the end of the world (along with much in between). We will approach the work from a number of different perspectives--musical, historical, literary, philosophical, visual--in an attempt to come to terms with a work which Wagner felt could only be fully realized by a total integration of all the arts. We will consider such topics as: the sources of the Ring in Norse mythology; Wagner's debt to the literary and philosophical currents of his time (including his complicated relationship to Nietzsche); the musical and dramatic structure of the Ring; differing scenic solutions to the problems of putting a mythological epic on stage; and the role of "Wagnerism" as a cultural phenomenon in both the 19th and 20th centuries. The course will make considerable use of audio/visual material. Students from all disciplines are encouraged to enroll (technical knowledge of music is neither required nor supplied).

CRN	20006	Distribution: E/G/Q
Course No.	CMSC W191 A
Title	Introduction to Computer Science
Professor	Robert McGrail

This course will introduce the notion of a computational process as well as the idea of a program as a director of such processes. The study of problem-solving techniques and algorithm development will prepare students to apply the syntax and structure of a programming language to a variety of problem statements. The course will include regular programming assignments and a project that relates to the individual student's discipline. This course will meet Mon Tue Wed Th, 8:30AM - 11AM in the Henderson Computer Center lab (room 101).

CRN	20007	Distribution: E/G/Q
Course No.	CMSC W191 B
Title	Introduction to Computer Science
Professor	Robert Cutler

This course will introduce the notion of a computational process as well as the idea of a program as a director of such processes. The study of problem-solving techniques and algorithm development will prepare students to apply the syntax and structure of a programming language to a variety of problem statements. The course will include regular programming assignments and a project that relates to the individual student's discipline. This course will meet Mon Tue Wed Th, 1:30PM - 4:00 PM in the Henderson Computer Center lab (room 101).

CRN	20008	Distribution: E/Q
Course No.	MATH W106
Title	Mathematics and Politics
Professor	Mark Halsey

This course considers mathematical thinking about political science. Much of this thinking will be centered around discrete mathematical models of escalatory behavior, political conflict, yes-no voting systems, political power, and social choice systems. In addition we will study enough probability to discuss the mathematics behind polls and predictions. Along the way we will encounter such fundamental mathematical activities as calculation, analysis through modeling, abstraction, symbolic manipulation, deductive reasoning and proof. Prerequisite: eligibility for Q courses.

CRN	20009	Distribution: A
Course No.	PHIL W205
Title	The Art of Jazz
Professor	Garry Hagberg

An intensive study of this distinctive art form, including: (1) close and analytical listening to a number of the recorded masterpieces of jazz; (2) a review of the stylistic progression of the major periods of jazz (e.g. bebop, cool, hard bop, free, neoclassicism, etc.); (3) a study of selected writings of the major jazz critics; (4) a reading of selected works in the history of jazz in relation to close listening; (5) a consideration, and viewing, of some of the major jazz films and documentaries; (6) a reading of selected works of fiction, biography, and autobiography depicting jazz music and the jazz life; (7) an inquiry into some of the linkages and affinities between jazz and modern art; and (8) most fundamentally, an investigation into the aesthetics of improvisational music. Throughout the course we will focus on the development and progressive evolution of the improvisational "language" within this artform, with an emphasis on the ensembles of Parker, Davis, Coltrane, and Monk (among many others). An ability to read music is welcome but not required.