BARD COLLEGE

Spring 2020 COURSE LIST ADDENDUM

NEW COURSES:

 

 

 

13000

EUS 333  Urban Abandonment: A Housing Justice Lab

Kwame Holmes

F        1:30 pm-3:50 pm

HEG 300

SA

SSCI

2 credits

Cross-listed: Human Rights

This practicum will involve students in a pilot study of housing vacancy and real estate speculation in Kingston, NY. Across the country—most recently dramatized in Oakland California’s Moms4Housing movement—real estate speculators maximize investments by withholding potential housing from real estate and rental markets. By manipulating the vacancy rate, speculators can drive housing costs up while avoiding rent stabilization rules. These issues are manifest in nearby Kingston, one of many mid-sized cities around the country experiencing rapid demographic change as Americans abandon major cities in search of “tranquil, small town life.” Our project, in collaboration with the Real Kingston Tenant’s Union and the Kingston Community Land Trust will investigate the vacancy rate in Kingston’s “Midtown,” a working class community sandwiched between Uptown and the Rondout, two rapidly gentrifying commercial districts. Through a GIS practice called “Countermapping,” we will document and visualize the hidden transcript of housing inequality in this rapidly changing city. Students will learn about the economics and politics of land valuation, and strategize--in partnership with housing justice activists--against systematic rent increases, evictions and other tactics endemic to speculative land investment.

Class size: 15

 

12946

SST 308      Social Studies Colloquium on Law, Justice, & Society

Laura Ford

M         5:00 pm-7:00 pm

Arendt Center

1 credit

 What is law?  How does law connect with local, national, and global institutions of social and political life?  Is law about rights or power, or both?  Does law work primarily in the realm of culture and meaning, or in the realm of material structures and interests?  Is the rule of law a good thing or a bad thing?  How can we work together to make our legal system better, and more just?  These are the types of questions that we will consider in this 1-credit Social Studies colloquium. We will consider answers rooted in comparative history, legal philosophy, political and social theory, empirical social studies, and in the practical experience of judges, lawyers, and political activists.

 

12925

LIT 2433      The Coming of Age Novel in the 19th Century

Daniel Williams

T Th  4:40 pm-6:00 pm

OLIN 301

LA

ELIT

 The Bildungsroman (novel of education or formation) was a dominant genre of nineteenth-century literature. Tracing the lives of characters through familiar coming-of-age plots, it showcases the novel’s ability to express both individual hopes and social constraints, youthful ideals and mature realizations. This seminar is an in-depth study of several classics of the genre by Goethe, Austen, Flaubert, Hardy, and Wharton. Along the way we will touch on the topics and essential tensions of the Bildungsroman: love, desire, and courtship; the family and its substitutes; class, money, and social mobility; the shaping role of gender and the limited social choices afforded to women; and the vocation of art or writing. We will read a selection of critical materials on the Bildungsroman, on style and genre, and on social and moral development

Class size: 18

 

12496

LIT 348      Black Skin, White Masks: Decolonization through Fanon

Alys Moody

T         1:30 pm-3:50 pm

RKC 200

LA D+J

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; French Studies; Human Rights

Contemporary political activism often calls on us to “decolonize” our lives, our curricula, and our minds. Where does the concept of decolonization come from? What can we learn by reading the history of decolonial thought as a simultaneously literary, political, and philosophical project? This course approaches these questions through a sustained reading of the work of Frantz Fanon, a Martinican writer, intellectual, psychiatrist, and anti-colonial revolutionary, who became one of the leading thinkers of decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s. We will read Fanon’s key texts—including Black Skin, White Masks, his analysis of the psychopathologies produced by colonial racism, and The Wretched of the Earth, his controversial defense of anticolonial violence—in their larger literary, philosophical, political, and psychoanalytic contexts. Our goal is to see how Fanon’s distinctively literary writing allows him to make important advances in thought, and to see how he draws on literary and other sources to develop his account of racism and colonization—as well as to see a way beyond them. Placing Fanon into dialogue with poets and novelists like Aimé Césaire, Richard Wright, and Léopold Senghor, philosophers like Hegel and Sartre, psychologists such as Freud and Alfred Adler, and the political discourse and debates of his day, we will ask: how does colonization produce the colonized and the colonizers? What are the psychological and social results of this process? And what would true decolonization require? This course is a junior seminar and will train students in the reading of theory in its historical, literary, and philosophical contexts. Students will work towards a sustained research essay as part of the course. This course is part of the World Literature offering course.

Class size: 15

 

Additional section of First-Year Seminar

 

	CRN	SCHEDULE							ROOM		PROFESSOR
FSEM II KM	12863		T		Th		1:30 pm	2:50 pm	OLINLC	118	Miller, Kassandra

 

 

12865

CMSC 141   B  Object Oriented Programming

Kerri-Ann Norton

M  W   1:30 pm-2:50 pm     Th   1:15 pm-3:15 pm

RKC 107 RKC 107

MC

MATC

Cross-listed: Experimental Humanities; Mind, Brain, Behavior

This course introduces students to the methodologies of object-oriented design and programming, which are used throughout the Computer Science curriculum. Students will learn how to move from informal problem statement, through increasingly precise problem specifications, to design and implementation of a solution for problems drawn from areas such as graphics, animation, and simulation. Good programming and documentation habits are emphasized. 

Class size: 18

 

12867

LIT 123      Introduction to the Study of Poetry

Elizabeth Frank

W Th  1:30 pm-2:50 pm

ASP 302

LA

ELIT

 This course explores the infinite richness of poetry in English: the dazzling variety of forms and voices available to us across nearly a thousand years of poetic “making.”  Working both chronologically and thematically, we will be looking at lyric modes (songs and sonnets), narrative forms (ballads and other kinds of storytelling), occasional poems (birth and death and marriage), epigrams, and dramatic monologues. We will consider Golden (Sweet) style poems and “plain style” poems, devotional poems and love poems, poems for children, pastoral poems, political poems, poems about “everything under the sun.” We will read anonymous medieval lyrics, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth, Keats, Yeats, Eliot, Auden, Stevens, Langston Hughes and poets of the Harlem Renaissance, Black Arts movement, Anne Bradstreet, Emily Dickinson and Marianne Moore.  We will look at blues lyrics, rap and hip-hop lyrics and lyrics to “The Great American Songbook.” Weekly reading responses, two short papers and one longer term paper. 

Class size: 18

 

12868

MATH 361  B   Real Analysis

John Cullinan

T  Th 10:10 am-11:30 am

HEG 204

MC

MATC

 The fundamental ideas of analysis in one-dimensional Euclidean space are studied. Topics covered include the completeness of the real numbers, sequences, Cauchy sequences, continuity, uniform continuity, the derivative, and the Riemann integral. As time permits other topics may be considered, such as infinite series of functions or metric spaces.  Prerequisite: MATH 261 (Proofs and Fundamentals) and a course in multivariable calculus (such as MATH 241, MATH 245, or PHYS 221), or permission of the instructor.  At least one other 300-level mathematics course is recommended.

Class size: 15

 

12827

PHIL 237      Symbolic Logic

James Brudvig

W F   11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 303

MC

MATC

 A course in symbolic logic, despite its imposing name, is really just a course in good reasoning (the logic part) using some formal definitions and systems (the symbolic part) to evaluate the reasoning.  You will learn the power of using formal systems to clarify ordinary language arguments, and acquire the ability to detect poor reasoning in the arguments of others, as well as how to avoid it in your own case. We will also connect logical thinking with mathematical thinking using Jordan Ellenberg’s How Not To Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking.  In this highly entertaining and non-technical work, “Ellenberg … shows that mathematical thinking should be in the tool kit of every thoughtful person---of everyone who wants to avoid fallacies, superstitions, and other ways of being wrong.” (Steven Pinker). 

Class size: 20

 

12613

PHIL 393      Philosophy and the Arts

Garry Hagberg

M       4:40 pm-7:00 pm

OLIN 101

MBV

HUM

 This advanced seminar on aesthetics will work through three of the great masterpieces in the field. Beginning with Aristotle's Poetics, we will look closely into questions of representation in the arts, the role and experience of the spectator, the connections between ethics and aesthetics, and the relation between art and knowledge. From there we will move to Hume's essay on taste, looking into the distinction between subjective and objective judgement and the nature of aesthetic perception. We will then progress to a close reading of Kant's Critique of Judgement, in which we will explore questions of aesthetic perception, judgement, ethics and aesthetics, the beautiful, and the sublime. We will end with an examination of the transition to the aesthetics of romanticism and nineteenth-century aesthetic thought.  This course satisfies the Junior Seminar requirement.

Class size: 15

 

CHANGE IN CREDITS

 

12083

BLC 185      Placemaking:Mission-Center Design

Joshua Livingston

F      8:00 am-10:00 am

HDR 106

 (2 credits in spring; yearlong course for 6 credits: semester 1, 4 credits; semester 2, 2 credits.)  Design that is visually intriguing and highly functional is extremely important in developing spaces that are ultimately turned into places by their users. A space, in this context, is understood to be more of the framework or meeting spot for people; while place is defined by what is made by the people based on the life and meaning they put into it. The goal of this course will be not only to think, but to create. Through peer inquiry, human-centered design activities, and research, a need for students on campus will be examined and additional pain points unearthed. This course incorporates physical, human, and operational design iterations to create space that revolves around the wants of the people it intends to serve. Theoretical perspectives and practical approaches of design thinking will be used. Social enterprise and social innovation will be explored through a wide range of literature, audio and video. The deliverable for students in this course will be a new and innovative space to take root on Bard College’s campus. This class is team oriented. Students will conceptualize, and if interested, create physical design within the space to be developed. No prior experience with design or mission-based work is required. The course welcomes and thrives on inclusivity, as it draws upon the unique perspective from all students. Interested students should send an email to Joshua Livingston (livingstonjosh@gmail.com), that includes your academic focus and a brief description of your interest in the course. Keep in mind that this is a year-long course. You will be required to complete both parts to participate.

Class size: 10

 

CORRECTED DESCRIPTION

 

12364

HIST 337      Public History in the U. S.

Myra Armstead

M         10:10 am-12:30 pm

OLIN 301

HA D+J

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; American Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies

Since events in Charlottesville during the summer of 2017, controversies over public commemoration of the national past have captured media attention.  But engagement in interpretations of history by those who self-consciously seek to shape understandings of national identity and ideas of national belonging/inclusion through multiple means other than scholarly monographs have a long, influential genealogy in the U.S., and many publics (e.g., elites, labor activists, women, blacks, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, and sexual minorities) have participated in this enterprise which may be called “public history.”   This seminar will begin with a survey of the evolution of public history from the early national period to the present, with special attention to the Progressive Era and the late twentieth century onset of the so-called culture wars.  This course is a major conference or research seminar in history, so that the latter weeks will be devoted to workshopping student papers on the subject.  Students will be expected to produce a long paper (roughly 25 pages), requiring use of primary sources and a substantive review of pertinent secondary literature.

Class size: 15

 

 

SCHEDULE / FACULTY CHANGES:

 

12260

ART 102 KF2  Painting I

Katy Fischer

Th  1:30 am-4:30 pm

FISHER 140

PA

PART

 This course is an introduction to painting with an emphasis on working from life. Students will work with oil paint on canvas and thus should be aware of the cost of supplies. We will cover the fundamentals of working 2 dimensionally including line, shape, value, gesture, perspective, volume, composition, and space with an emphasis on color as the primary force in creating an image. Subjects will include still life, landscape and the figure. Towards the end of the class, students will be asked to explore more personal and expressive avenues in their work. *The Fund for Visual Learning provides material support to students on financial aid to help them with art supplies. Students taking a Level 1 Studio Art class may be eligible for this support for the supply "kit" for the class. Students are only eligible to receive one grant in this category. Interested students should contact the professor during Spring course registration. After the course registration period closes, late requests are not eligible for consideration. http://bardfvl.com

Class size: 14

 

12492

ART 108 LA  Drawing I

Lauren Anderson

M      10:10 am- 1:10 pm

FISHER 149

PA

PART

 The goal of this introductory course is to give students confidence and facility with basic technical and perceptual drawing skills and to further develop visual awareness. Focus will be on learning how to “see” in order to translate 3D objects into 2D media. Regular critiques will be held, in which the students develop a useful vocabulary aiding them to further discuss and think about their art practices. This class is reserved for First-year and Transfer students.   *The Fund for Visual Learning provides material support to students on financial aid to help them with art supplies. Students taking a Level 1 Studio Art class may be eligible for this support for the supply "kit" for the class for up to $150. Students are only eligible to receive one grant in this category. Interested students should contact the professor during spring course registration. After the course registration period closes, late applications are not eligible for consideration. http://bardfvl.com  

Class size: 14

 

12059

CHI 302      Advanced Chinese II

TBD

M  W    11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLINLC 206

FL

FLLC

Cross-listed: Asian Studies

This course is a continuation of Chinese 301 offered in the fall. It is designed for students who have taken at least two and half years of basic Chinese at Bard or elsewhere, and who want to expand their reading and speaking capacity and to enrich their cultural experiences. Texts are mostly selected from Chinese newspapers. 

Class size: 15

 

12122

CMSC 226      Principles:Computing Systems

Keith O'Hara

M  W 3:10 pm- 4:30 pm

RKC 107

MC

MATC

Cross-listed: Experimental Humanities

This course takes a systems perspective to the study of computers.  As our programs scale up from a single author, user, and computer to programs designed, written, maintained, and used by multiple people that run on many computers (sometimes at the same time), considerations beyond algorithms alone are magnified. Design principles and engineering practices help us cope with this complexity: version control for multiple authors, input validation for multiple (adversarial) users, build automation tools for multiple platforms, process and thread models for parallelism.  From how numbers are represented in hardware to how instruction-level parallelism and speculation can lead to bugs: the design, implementation, evaluation, safety and security of computing systems will be stressed. Students will explore computers from the ground up, using a variety of programming languages (including assembly) and tools like the command line, debuggers, and version control.  Pre-requisites: Object-Oriented Programming or permission of instructor. 

Class size: 18

 

12125

CMSC 320      Bioinformatics & Beyond

Kerri-Ann Norton

M  W 1:30 pm- 2:50 pm

RKC 107

MC

MATC

 This course introduces students with prior object-oriented programming experience to the basics of bioinformatics and biological statistical analysis. The students will develop the necessary tools for analyzing and aligning biological sequences, building phylogenetic trees, and using statistical tests. By the end of this course they will learn how to develop a hypothesis, test their hypothesis, and statistically analyze their data. Prerequisite: CMSC275 (Stats for Computing), BIO 244 (BioStats), or permission of the instructor.

Class size: 18

 

12583

EUS 216  GIS and Community Engagement: Preparing a Natural Resource Inventory

Susan Winchell-Sweeney

T        11:50 am-1:10 pm     F     4:40 pm-6:00 pm

HDR 101A HDR 101A

SA

SSCI

Cross-listed: American Studies

Students will receive formal instruction in the fundamentals of using spatial information, conducting spatial analysis, and producing high-quality cartographic products. Creating a Natural Resources Inventory (NRI): A guide for Communities in the Hudson River Estuary Watershed will also be supplied to each student. The development of an NRI for the Town of Esopus will serve as the team-based research project. Students will participate in work group meetings scheduled with community stakeholders throughout the semester. 

Class size: 8

 

12420

HR 303      Research in Human Rights

Thomas Keenan

M         1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLIN 305

MBV

HUM

 What is it to do research, academic or otherwise, in the field of human rights? What are the relevant methods and tools? How do the political and ethical considerations central to the discourse of human rights enter into the actual conduct of research? The seminar will explore a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to the field, reading a variety of examples across an interdisciplinary landscape. The seminar is required for juniors majoring in Human Rights, and is strongly oriented toward the formulation of Senior Project topics and methods. Readings may include texts in political and social theory, literary and cultural studies, international law, media and visual culture, gender and identity research, documentary and testimony, quantitative analysis including GIS and statistical data, and oral and archival history, among others, and case studies in actual human rights reporting. 

Class size: 15

 

12418

HR 367      Geontologies and Rights

Pelin Tan

Th     4:40 pm-7:00 pm

CCS SEMINAR

SA D+J

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies

The seminar will address an emerging question: what are the rights of non-human elements? Justice in and for the future will inevitably involve entanglements between the human and non-human. This seminar will focus on research and analysis of the relation between geology, the hinterland, food production networks, logistics infrastructures, and alternative cultivation practices, considered from the perspective of critical spatial practices. Readings and topics include work by Kathyrin Yusoff and Elizabeth Povinelli on geopower and geontology; theories of the anthropocene; struggles of indegenous communities against infrastructures of colonialism (for example, Standing Rock) and extractive industries (mining and quarrying in particular); and the potentialities of swamps and other neglected geographies.  We will also explore -- which means, read and analyze -- the processed interventions on the landscape we inhabit in upstate New York and areas of the Hudson River.  (Pelin Tan is the 2019-2020 Keith Haring Fellow in Arts and Activism.)

Class size: 15

 

12419

HR 368      Alternative Alliances

Pelin Tan

W      2:00 pm – 4:30 pm

CCS SEMINAR

SA D+J

 Alternative collectively-initiated pedagogical platforms and assemblies are emancipative forms of solidarity, care, resistance, and knowledge production. This seminar will focus on several examples from the realm of art and design practices, with a focus on the methods they employ in the project of decolonization. The seminar is divided into two parts: (1) revisiting pedagogical initiatives with an emphasis on the difference that geography (esp. rural and urban) makes; and (2) extensive research in pedagogical methods and decolonization.  We will ask: What are the urgencies of design and architecture pedagogies in contested territories?  How can pedagogies reveal and bring about ways of unlearning and undoing?  Can alternative approaches in education and research reach beyond established institutional structures and through transversal and collective approaches? Do they make a difference in transforming knowledge, and how do they shape art and design practices of the present?  (Pelin Tan is the 2019-2020 Keith Haring Fellow in Art and Activism.)

Class size: 15

 

12130

MATH 110      Precalculus Mathematics

Daniel Newsome

M  W    1:30 pm-2:50 pm

HEG 308

MC

MATC

 A course for students who intend to take calculus and need to acquire the necessary skills in algebra and trigonometry. The concept of function is stressed, with particular attention given to linear, quadratic, general polynomial, trigonometric, exponential, and logarithmic functions. Graphing in the Cartesian plane and developing the trigonometric functions as circular functions are included.  Prerequisite: passing score on Part I of the Mathematics Diagnostic.

Class size: 22

 

12287

THTR 107 A  Introduction to Playwriting

TBA

Th      1:30 pm-4:30 pm

FISH CONFERENCE

PA

PART

 Cross-listed: Written Arts 

 An introductory course that focuses on discovering the writer’s voice. Through writing exercises based on dreams, visual images, poetry, social issues, found text, and music, each writer is encouraged to find his or her unique language, style, and vision.  A group project will explore the nature of collaborative works.  Students learn elements of playwriting through writing a one-act play, reading assignments, and class discussions. All students welcome, preference to Theater majors.  (No writing sample required.)

Class size: 12

 

CHANGE OF COURSE NUMBER

 

12847

PSY 232      Social Neuroscience

Richard Lopez

T  Th  1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 203

SA

SSCI

 The field of social neuroscience aims to elucidate links between the mind, brain, and social behaviors. In this class we will focus on recent theorizing and methodologies from neuroscience that have identified the psychological processes at play as we go about our dynamic and complex social lives. Specifically, we will examine the brain bases of social judgments, the experience and regulation of emotions, embodied cognition, empathy, attachment, theory of mind, sexual attraction, romantic love, and neuroeconomics, among other topics. Along the way we will learn about a variety of methodological approaches used by social neuroscientists, including social psychology paradigms, lesion studies, patient research, and functional neuroimaging (e.g., fMRI). Prerequisite: Introduction to Psychological Science, an Introductory Biology course, or permission of Instructor. This course fulfills the Psychology "Cluster C" requirement.

Class size: 22

 

UPDATED COURSE DESCRIPTION:

 

12176

MUS 315      Interaction: Music & Film

James Bagwell

T  Th 11:50 am-1:10 pm

BLM N211

AA

AART

This course will trace the use of music in film beginning with silent films in the early twentieth century through the present.  We will examine how music was incorporated into such films as Citizen Kane (Welles), Rapsodia Satanica (Oxilia), King Kong (Cooper), Black Orpheus (Camus) Singing in the Rain (Donen), On the Waterfront (Kazan), Forbidden Planet (Wilcox), A Woman is a Woman (Godard), 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick), Easy Rider (Hopper), and Pulp Fiction (Tarantino), among others.  While the main focus of the course will be historical, we will analyze specific techniques that composers and directors use to heighten storytelling through music.  Course projects will include three short scene analysis papers and one research paper due at the end of the term.  This course is open to both upper level music majors and non-majors and will satisfy a music history requirement for music majors.

Class size: 15

 

CHANGE OF DISTIBUTION AREA:

 

12482

LIT 338      Literature, Politics, and the Middle East

Ziad Dallal

T      1:30 pm- 3:50 pm

OLIN 305

LA

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; Human Rights; Middle Eastern Studies

 How can we read literature politically and how does literature affect, relate to, and change our understanding of politics? This course will investigate these questions by reading how Arabic literature has engaged with and pushed the limits of political discourse from the 19th century to the present. Our aim will be to read literature not as a repository or index of political discourse, but as formative of this discourse. We will be reading both Arabic novels and plays by authors such as Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, Muhammad al-Muwaylihi, Sonallah Ibrahim, Elias Khoury, May Ziade, and Sulayman al-Bassam, among others. We will read how the literary output of these novelists pushed the envelope of political discourse by virtue of their literary experimentation. Supplementing these readings will be selections from the work of Samah Selim, Jacques Rancière, Gayatri Spivak, Emily Apter, among others. Conducted in English. This course is part of the World Literature offering.

Class size: 15

 

 

CANCELLED CLASSES:

 

12079

CLAS 224      Science/Technology: Ancient Greece/Rome

Kassandra Miller

T  Th  1:30 pm-2:50 pm

HDR 106

HA

Cross-listed: Experimental Humanities; Science, Technology, Society

How did ancient Greeks and Romans learn about and make sense of the world around them? And how did they use technology to change and exert control over that world? This course offers an introduction to the scientific and technological developments that took place in the ancient Mediterranean between the 6th century BCE and the 4th century CE. We will also consider the afterlives of these developments in Islamic, Enlightenment, and modern-day science. In the first half of the course, we will explore ancient scientific theories and practices in areas we would now call astronomy, physics, biology, medicine, geography, and mathematics. In the second half of the course, we will shift our focus to the technologies that ancient Greeks and Romans used to harness nature, and students will participate in a collaborative project with hands-on components. Ultimately, students in this course will deepen their understanding of how scientific theories, practical experiences, and social incentives can interact to produce different scientific and technological trends. NOTE: All readings will be in English translation, and no prior knowledge of the ancient world is required.

Class size: 22

 

12125

CMSC 320      Bioinformatics & Beyond

Kerri-Ann Norton

M  W    1:30 pm-2:50 pm

RKC 107

MC

MATC

 This course introduces students with prior object-oriented programming experience to the basics of bioinformatics and biological statistical analysis. The students will develop the necessary tools for analyzing and aligning biological sequences, building phylogenetic trees, and using statistical tests. By the end of this course they will learn how to develop a hypothesis, test their hypothesis, and statistically analyze their data. Prerequisite: CMSC275 (Stats for Computing), BIO 244 (BioStats), or permission of the instructor.

Class size: 18

 

12253

ART 108 JG  Drawing I

Jeffrey Gibson

T      10:10 am- 1:10 pm

FISHER 149

PA

PART

 The goal of this introductory course is to give students confidence and facility with basic technical and perceptual drawing skills and to further develop visual awareness. Focus will be on learning how to “see” in order to translate 3D objects into 2D media. Regular critiques will be held, in which the students develop a useful vocabulary aiding them to further discuss and think about their art practices. This class is reserved for First-year and Transfer students.   *The Fund for Visual Learning provides material support to students on financial aid to help them with art supplies. Students taking a Level 1 Studio Art class may be eligible for this support for the supply "kit" for the class for up to $150. Students are only eligible to receive one grant in this category. Interested students should contact the professor during spring course registration. After the course registration period closes, late applications are not eligible for consideration. http://bardfvl.com  

Class size: 14

 

12332

EUS 125    Environmental Physics/Modeling

Gidon Eshel

M W    11:50 am-1:10 pm

HEG 308

MC

MATC

Cross-listed: Physics

Application of basic physics to understanding and modeling environmental phenomena. Physical topics covered include Newton's laws of motion and linear and angular momentum conservation applied to oceanic and atmospheric flows; thermodynamic conservation laws, heat transfer, phase transition, and heat engines applied to hurricanes and midlatitude storms; and turbulence and turbulent transfer of environmentally important attributes. Requires some math, and willingness to learn some more. The course definitely includes calculations of the above ideas applied to idealized settings.

Class size: 20

 

12415

HR 222      Migration and Media

Emma Briant

Th F 10:10 am-11:30 am

RKC 200

SA D+J

Cross-listed: Experimental Humanities

This course explores in depth the role of media in the global refugee and migration crisis. We will begin by examining the causes of migration and recent trends, and then turn to theories of media and  representation and how they can help us understand the role of political rhetoric and mainstream media reporting. Students will examine media representation and political rhetoric in relation to a number of international examples including: citizenship by investment programs used by wealthy elites, economic migration to America, and the refugee crisis. The course will consider theories of political communication, rhetoric, audience understanding and the impact of media representations of migration on migrants and their communities.We will examine how new media forms and developments in algorithmic propaganda are being used to advance false narratives. Students will also consider the practical and ethical implications of new technologies, including how they can both enable integration and allow for the social control of migrant flows and the suppression of human rights.

Class size: 18

 

12495

LIT 343      The Bildungsroman in the 19th Century

Daniel Williams

Th     4:40 pm-7:00 pm

OLIN 301

LA

ELIT

 The Bildungsroman (novel of education or formation) was a dominant genre of nineteenth-century literature. Tracing the lives of characters through familiar coming-of-age plots, it showcases the novel’s ability to express both individual hopes and social constraints, youthful ideals and mature realizations. This seminar is an in-depth study of several classics of the genre by Goethe, Austen, Flaubert, Hardy, and Wharton. Along the way we will touch on the topics and essential tensions of the Bildungsroman: love, desire, and courtship; the family and its substitutes; class, money, and social mobility; the shaping role of gender and the limited social choices afforded to women; and the vocation of art or writing. We will read a selection of critical materials on the Bildungsroman, on style and genre, and on social and moral development

Class size: 15

 

12076

LIT 3521      Mark Twain

Elizabeth Frank

W Th      1:30 pm-2:50 pm

ASP 302

LA

ELIT

 Cross-listed:  American Studies  In this course on one of America’s wittiest and most renowned literary figures, students will read Mark Twain’s major works, including, but not restricted to Roughing It, Life on the Mississippi, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, Letters from the Earth and The Mysterious Stranger. Individual research and class presentations will result in two 8-10 pp. papers, one at midterm and one at the end of the semester. Open to moderated students, preferably those who have taken at least one sequence course in American literature. Course work in American Studies is also encouraged. This course is cross-listed with the MAT program for 3+2 students in literature.

Class size: 18

 

12140

MATH 332      Abstract Algebra

John Cullinan

T  Th 10:10 am-11:30 am

HEG 204

MC

MATC

 An introduction to modern abstract algebraic systems. The structures of groups, rings, and fields are studied together with the homomorphisms of these objects. Topics include equivalence relations, finite groups, group actions, integral domains, polynomial rings, and finite fields. Prerequisites: MATH 261 (Proofs and Fundamentals) or permission of the instructor

Class size: 15

 

12425

PHIL 240      Rhetoric and Reasoning

Robert Tully

T  Th  1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 101

MBV

 This course navigates the choppy waters between ordinary language (written and spoken) and the formal analysis of language known as symbolic logic.  In the domain of arguments, rhetoric and reason coexist in eternal tension.  In terms of logic, an argument aims to prove that its conclusion is true, but in terms of rhetoric, the person who makes an argument aims to persuade people to accept the conclusion.  Yet some arguments are logically valid but fall flat, while others are highly convincing but logically worthless.  The fault lies not in language but in our use of it.  The course encourages an appreciation of the richness of meaning but also seeks to inculcate an analytical understanding of the working parts of an argument on which its logical strength depends. Since this is a Philosophy course, it has an arguable bias towards reason.

Class size: 20

 

12511

PHIL 350      Pragmatism

Garry Hagberg

M      4:40 pm-7:00 pm

OLIN 101

MBV

HUM

 A detailed examination of the content and methods of a number of classic works of American philosophy, emphasizing issues in epistemology. Authors include Peirce, William James, Royce, Dewey, Santayana, Mead, and more recent writers. The philosophical movements discussed include transcendentalism, pragmatism, empiricism, and realism. The investigation of these works will involve problems in the philosophy of religion, ethics, aesthetics, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of education, and social and political philosophy.

Class size: 15

 

12444

PS 354      American Grand Strategy

Malia Du Mont Walter Mead

Th     1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLIN 305

SA

SSCI

 The American world system that exists today can be seen as version 2.0 of the liberal capitalist world system first built by Great Britain. Both the British and the American builders of these systems developed a distinct style of strategic thought around the needs of a maritime, global and commercial system. This grand strategy involved domestic social organization as well as foreign policy and war. Students will study the grand strategies of these powers from the time of the Spanish Armada through the Cold War and analyze contemporary American policy in the light of the three centuries of Anglophone world power. The course will end by examining the contemporary debates over American strategy in the run up to 2020.

Class size: 15

 

12462

REL 359      Subversive Rabbinic Stories

Reuven Namdar

Th     1:30 pm-3:50 pm

HEG 200

MBV

Cross-listed: Jewish Studies; Literature; Middle Eastern Studies

Mercurial, creative, irreverent and romantic – the Talmudic tale never ceases to amaze, baffle and inspire modern readers. In this class we will study some of the major anthems of Aggadah (Talmudic narrative) as well as a few lesser-known ones. We will savor the unique artistry of Talmudic narrative and will use it as a trigger to explore our own notions of narrative, and as a source of inspiration for our own writing. No previous knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic or Jewish text is necessary.

Class size: 15