The following courses are available for Spring 2013 registration.
Find a complete list of courses offered in other years here.
Literature & Cultural Studies
The Animal in Literature
This course investigates the power and the limitations of depictions of nonhuman animals in literature, addressing timeless questions about nonhuman perspective, humanity, and art: What does it mean to be human? What do humans gain from attempting to understand nonhuman perception, however difficult that may be? How might we best represent human and nonhuman experience? more
taught by Jill Gatlin
Essentials in African American Literature I: Beloved
Toni Morrison’s Beloved is one of the rare modern classics in American Literature: highly praised, widely read and debated, the novel draws together the most traditional literary heritage of the past and our own modernist sensibilities. To better understand this complex and rewarding novel, we will analyze Beloved within the context of both 19th century American slave narratives (including the classic Uncle Tom’s Cabin), and 20th century literary innovations in fiction. more
taught by James Klein
Essentials in African American Literature II: Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is not only one of the great works of American Literature, but one of the most powerful considerations of race, identity and culture in our modern age. more
taught by James Klein
Contemporary American Poetry
This course will examine various styles, methods of writing, and groups of poets that have made contemporary poetry ‘contemporary,’ including the ways in which contemporary poetry records the workings of the mind and the ways it breaks down the hierarchies of language. more
taught by Ruth Lepson
History & Cultural Studies
China and Japan in the 20th Century
Students will explore the political, social, and cultural transformation of China and Japan in the 20th century, tracing their rise from insular, traditional societies threatened by Western nations to great powers with imperial ambitions of their own. more
taught by James Klein
Wilderness to Wasteland: American Landscape and Identity
Terrifying, awe-inspiring, inviting, soothing, threatening,
infinite, confining: however perceived, U.S. landscapes have loomed
large in the American imagination. Focusing on literature, painting,
photography, and music, this course explores how narratives and images
of American landscapes have shaped ideas about national identity. more
taught by Jill Gatlin
Postmodernism
This interdisciplinary course will focus on the styles and
statements of postmodernist writers, architects, artists, and musicians,
considering how this era presents us simultaneously with dark,
inescapable labyrinths—“modernism with the optimism taken out”—and
outlets for formless, reckless joy—“the sheer pleasure of . . .
invention.” more
taught by Jill Gatlin
Advanced Seminar: Freud: The Personal and Social Theories of Freudian Psychoanalysis in the Modern Age
In a sense, we are all Freudians now, and this seminar offers students the opportunity to investigate the fundamental ideas of Sigmund Freud. Together, we will read, discuss, and analyze representative works from Freud’s long and diverse career as the leading voice – the conquistador – of 20th century psycho-analytic thought. more
taught by James Klein
Science and Mathematics
Natural Disasters and Catastrophes
During the 2011 tsunami in Japan, people were standing on top of their “indestructible” sea walls as the tsunami waves came in, only to be washed out to sea along with the rubble from ruined cities. In this course students will learn about how humans react to the natural world and about the geology of disasters, but it’s the interplay between the two that will be of greatest concern. more
taught by Jennifer Cole
Philosophy & Religion
Philosophy of Mind
This course will look at the development of the philosophy of mind in the modern era beginning with mind/body dualism, then moving to current issues within the field, such as the implications of recent brain research and claims that computers actually think. more
taught by Gretchen Breese
Metaphysics
This course will ask about the nature of reality and whether we are able to know what is real. Is the material world as it appears to us all that there is? more
taught by Gretchen Breese
The Buddha
This course explores the life and teachings of the Buddha through the study, primarily, of significant parts of two major and very early Buddhist writings (composed in the 1st century A.D.), Ashvagosha’s Buddhacarita and the Sanskrit Dharmapada, as presented in English translation by Edward Conze in his Buddhist Scriptures. more
taught by Peter Row
Creative Arts
Creative Writing
In the Creative Writing workshop, students will explore the various ways to create a successful short memoir, story, or ten-minute play by understanding how to use point of view, concrete details, figurative language, plot, character, motivations, conflict, and dialogue. more
taught by Patrick Keppel
Sculpture Studio
This course will provide the opportunity to study, experiment with and create three-dimensional forms both large and small. We will also examine modern and contemporary sculpture and installations, as well as some basic architectural elements. more
taught by Gretchen Breese
Visual Arts Studio
In this course we will examine what enables us to be artists, creating an environment that encourages us to take pleasure in intellectual risk-taking. The Museum of Fine Arts provides an unexpected, informal setting—a playful arena for considering particular elements of composition and improvisation or for grappling with pressing issues in the world today. more
taught by Robin Dash
Languages
Italian II
The second part of the year-long introductory course. more
taught by Francesca Santovetti
French II
The second part of the year-long introductory course. more
taught by Anne Squire
German II
The second part of the year-long introductory course. more
taught by Sia Liss Stovall
2012-10-23
SARAH VAUGHAN