 |
Anthropology 268.01 (Also Music) "Regional Studies in World Music--Sub-Saharan Africa." See Music 268.01.
Anthropology 295.01 "Special Topic: Human Variation." In this course, we will examine human differentiation and genetic
variation between and within human groups. Possible topics of discussion include: simple and complex inheritance, population
genetics, gene frequencies, genetics and disease, genetics and IQ, race, gene therapy, designer babies, cloning, and the Human
Genome Project. Prerequisites: Anthropology 104. 4 credits.
Anthropology 295.02 "Special Topic: The Life Course in Cross Cultural Perspective." This course will examine the
spectacular diversity in how the life-course is experienced, interpreted and lived across diverse cultures of the world and between
genders. We will tackle questions such as: When does life begin and end? Is childhood a "natural" or "cultural" category? Do
women everywhere experience "hot flashes" during menopause? Is there a male menopause? How is aging experienced in
different societies? What role do rites of passage serve in different societies? Prerequisites: Anthropology 104. 4 credits.
Anthropology 295.03 "Special Topic: Introduction to Medical Anthropology." Medical anthropology is the fascinating field
of anthropology that examines health, illness and healing across cultures. In this course we will examine selected aspects of the
study of health beliefs and behaviors in their social and cultural contexts. Our bodies are often taken for granted as universal
entities, but our readings will show that how we experience and interpret our bodies, health and illness is profoundly shaped by
culture. Prerequisites: Anthropology 104. 4 credits.
Anthropology 395.01 "Advanced Special Topic: Spatial Analysis in Archaeology." Students will explore prehistoric social,
political, economic and ecological relationships through the analysis of spatial patterns, using concepts such as carrying capacity,
optimal foraging theory, site catchment analysis, and central place theory. The course will include instruction in Geographic
Information Systems Analysis and students will conduct a major project applying G.I.S. to the interpretation of a prehistoric
social system. Prerequisites: Anthropology 280. 4 credits.
Anthropology 395.02 "Advanced Special Topic: Theorizing After Postmodernism." This course will explore the impact of
postmodernism on theoretical orientations, fieldwork and methodologies in anthropology. The syllabus incorporates readings by
cultural anthropologists and scholars situated in cultural studies who interrogate the relationships between power and knowledge,
representations and ethnographic authority, the question of subjectivity and objectification and the consequences of globalization
on dominant concepts which ground the discipline of anthropology. Significant attention will be given to the ways analytical
constructs, as constructed objects of study, prescribe the direction and conclusions of research projects. Prerequisites:
Anthropology 104, 280, a 200-level course in Social Studies or Humanities or permission of the instructor. 4 credits.
Art 253.01 "Exhibition Seminar: "I saw this" (Yo lo vi): Goya's Disasters of War." This is a "hands-on" collaborative
course in which students work with faculty and museum staff to organize an exhibition in the Faulconer Gallery and write the
accompanying exhibition catalogue. The topic for the Fall 2003 is Francisco Goya's Disasters of War. Grinnell College owns a
set of these prints. Goya is one of the most compelling and complex artists in the history of art, a court artist to the Spanish
monarchy who nevertheless produced highly individual and brutally critical works, from the Caprichos and Disasters of War to
the "black paintings." The Disasters of War is one of the most powerful series of war images ever made. Considered to be the
first "modern" war imagery, it has been incredibly influential on subsequent artists, up to the present. We will examine these
etchings in terms of the historical context of Goya's art and in relation to Goya's response to the political turmoil of his time. We
will also consider contemporary art historical questions such as the problematic relationship between art and "bearing witness" to
human atrocities and suffering. In addition to art history students, studio majors interested in printmaking processes and students
with backgrounds in history and Spanish are welcome. Art 103 or permission of the instructor. 4 credits.
Biology 150.01 "Introduction to Biological Inquiry: Prairie Restoration." As a way to explore how biologists ask questions
and develop answers to them, this class will focus on the biological problems involved in the restoration of tallgrass prairies. It
will be taught in "workshop" format at Grinnell College's Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA), where we will use the
college's prairie and savanna restorations as our laboratory. Students will be required to formulate research questions based on
readings of the scientific literature, design experimental or observational studies to test these hypotheses, and communicate the
results of these studies after the conventions of professional biologists. Papers resulting from a substantial independent project
will be published in the class journal, Tillers. Prerequisites: none. 4 credits
Biology 150.02 "Introduction to Biological Inquiry: What Does It Mean to Be a Plant?." Many people regard plants simply
as 'green animals'. While there are many important similarities between plants and animals at the cellular and sub-cellular levels,
there are profound differences as well, differences shaped by the migration of plants from the oceans onto dry land. This
migration required a variety of evolutionary adaptations, anatomical, physiological and developmental, in order to survive in this
new, harsher environment. Students will explore these adaptations by asking questions about the structures, physiological
functions and developmental strategies plants have evolved to meet this challenge. They will design experiments, analyze data
and communicate their results in the form of scientific papers, posters and oral presentations as they endeavor to understand what
it means to be a plant. Prerequisites: none. 4 credits
Biology 150.03 "Introduction to Biological Inquiry: No description available.
Biology 150.04 "Introduction to Biological Inquiry: Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens." Students will consider
questions such as: (1) why and how do organisms cause disease, (2) how does the body fight off a pathogen, (3) how do
infectious diseases spread, (4) how does a new infectious disease arise, (5) how do antibiotics work and how do resistant
organisms arise. In lab students will isolate and characterize antibiotic-resistant bacteria from local water sources and then
conduct research projects on those organisms. Prerequisites: none. 4 credits
Biology 305.01 "Evolution of the Iowa Flora." Investigations of the history of Iowa's plant diversity from three perspectives:
(1) taxonomy and systematics; (2) paleoecology and community assembly; and (3) population structure, biogeography, and
conservation. Three lectures and one laboratory each week. Prerequisites: Biology 252 or permission of instructor. 4 credits.
Biology 365.01 "Biology of Prokaryotes." Note title and description change. The Structure, physiology and genetics of the
prokaryotes. Lecture includes discussion of papers from the current literature. Laboratory features multi week investigations.
Two lectures and one laboratory each week. Prerequisites: Biology 251. (Biological Chemistry 262 recommended.) 4 credits.
Chinese 277.01 (Also General Literary Studies) "Modern China Through Literature and Film." Note title change. This
course examines literature and society in China starting from the turn of the twentieth century through the critical study of
selected samples of the literary and cinematic products of this tumultuous historical period. Attention is particularly focused on
the political, cultural, and aesthetic messages that the literary and cinematic forms convey and disseminate. All reading and
discussion are in English. Prerequisites: None. 4 credits.
English 120.01 "Literary Analysis." In this section we will read and analyze a selection of short stories, poems, and drama.
Literary terms necessary for thinking and writing about literature will be discussed. We will also focus on a number of
interpretive strategies that will provide us with the critical means to arrive at informed conclusions about literature.
Prerequisites: none. 4 credits.
English 120.02 "Literary Analysis." No description available.
English 120.03 "Literary Analysis." An introduction to the lyric poem: to the pleasure of words and sounds and the problems
of determining meaning. Prerequisite: none. 4 credits.
English 120.04 "Literary Analysis." This section will explore methods of analyzing novels, short fiction, films, and poetry.
We will begin with a unit that involves reading a novel to use as a touchstone while exploring a range of critical and theoretical
approaches. The course will then examine the technique of short fiction, film, and poetry in turn. We will discuss the choices
writers and directors make as they craft their works, and we will develop strategies for analyzing those choices in academic
papers. Graded assignments will include frequent short writing assignments, group projects, and papers on fiction, film, and
poetry.
English 204.01 "The Craft of Argument." This course is theoretical and practical. We will examine the features of argument,
largely through Edward Corbett and Robert Connors' discussion of classical rhetoric; the grounds for argument, through Chaim
Perelman's theory of argumentation in his "new rhetoric"; and the relations of rhetoric to both grammar and logic, these being
the three "arts of discourse" in the trivium. But we also practice the craft of written argument and, at the end of the semester,
work on style. The course will make you more aware of the range of what you do in constructing a persuasive argument and will
increase your creativity and mastery in practicing this craft. For more information, see the provisional syllabus connected to my
web page. Prerequisite: second-year standing. Because I am currently absent from campus, the second prerequisite, "permission
of the instructor" is waived, but please be advised that for the first class, you should have in hand an argument you've written for
another course. You should also be concurrently enrolled in courses that provide you with material about which you can
construct an argument. 4 credits.
English 314.01 "Milton." An intensive study of the poetry and selected prose of John Milton, with a special emphasis on
Paradise Lost. Prerequisite: English 223. 4 +2 credits.
English 331.01 "Studies in American Prose II: Contemporary Life-Writing and the Politics of Self-Representation."
Looking at the work of such memoirists and autobiographers as Maxine Hong Kingston, Lucy Grealy, Mary Karr, Dorothy
Allison, Michelle Cliff, Jamaica Kincaid, Susan Kaysen, Gloria Anzaldua, Audre Lorde, Temple Grandin, Lyn Hejinian, Richard
Rodriguez, Kenny Fries, Geoffrey Woolfe, Mikal Gilmore, Dave Eggers, Jack Abbot, and Eldridge Cleaver, we will explore the
American fascination-even obsession-with life-writing. (One critic has referred to the moment in which we live as the "age of
memoir.") We will ask questions about generic hierarchies, identity politics, traumatic injury, truth-telling, constructions of the
self, postmodernism's de-realization of the real (and nostalgic turn toward "factual" representation). We will also pay close
attention to aesthetic considerations, especially the possibilities of formal experimentation. Prerequisite: English 227 or 228, or
permission of the instructor. 4 credits
English 332.01 "The Victorians: The Performing Heroine and the Victorian Novel." In the nineteenth century, as more and
more women began to make a living by writing, men and women writers alike began to write about the rewards and dangers of
women's creativity. This course will begin with a brief overview of the early nineteenth-century myths of "the performing
heroine," in the words of Ellen Moers. Then we will read a number of Victorian adaptations and revisions of those myths,
placing those readings in the context of Victorian historical and critical theory. Readings will include works by Germaine de
Stal, Walter Scott, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and George Eliot. Grades will be based on frequent
short writing assignments, a shorter paper, an annotated bibliography, and a final research paper.
English 337.01 "The Novel: Re-defining Public and Private Spaces." This course will be devoted to reading and discussing
major novelists from the eighteenth century. As we examine these novels, we will pay particular attention to the culture in which
they emerged and consider critical debates concerning the possible origins and definitions of "the novel." We will concern
ourselves with the problem of the very category "novel" in an eighteenth-century context. We will also consider the part these
novels played in the historic re-definitions of privacy, individuality, and of the public sphere. For as the workplace was
increasingly separated from the home, and as a man's sphere was increasingly separated from woman's sphere, Europeans were
more likely to think of their lives as being divided up between categories of public experience and private experience. Readings
will include Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey, Daniel Defoe's Roxana, Eliza Haywood's The British Recluse, Aphra
Behn's Oroonoko, and a selection of other texts from writers such as Samuel Richardson, William Godwin, Mary Shelley, and
Edmund Burke. Prerequisite: 223. 4+2 credits
Environmental Studies 295.01 "Special Topic: Environmental Protection and the Human Economy" Professor Guy
McPherson from the University of Arizona will offer this 2 week short course. The course will consider environmental
protection as the basis for a sustainable human economy. We will begin by exploring how we can link science, policy, and
management to protect the natural environment and thus conserve biological diversity; examples for these and other topics will
be derived primarily from North American grasslands and savannas. Discussions will address environmental ethics as a basis for
personal and professional action, and we will briefly review the history of major environmental legislation. These topics will
provide the foundation for our articulation of the explicit links between environmental protection, social justice, and economics.
Dates: September 22 to October 3. Short course deadlines apply. Prerequisites: A 200-level course in at least one of the
following departments - Anthropology, Biology, Economics, Political Science, or Sociology. 1 credit.
General Literary Studies 247.01 (Also Russian) "The Russian Short Story." See Russian 247.01.
General Literary Studies 277.01 (Also Chinese) "Modern China Through Literature and Film." Note title change. See
Chinese 277.01.
General Literary Studies 295.01 (Also Global Development Studies and Humanities) "Special Topic: Modern Arabic
Literature." See Humanities 295.01.
General Literary Studies 295.02 (Also Japanese) "Special Topic: Japanese Culture in Translation: Modern Japanese
Fiction & Film." See Japanese 295.01.
General Literary Studies 353.01 (Also Russian) "Major Russian Writers: Nabokov." See Russian 353.01.
German 395.01 "Advanced Special Topic: Slave, Servant, Savage, Moor: Slavery, Colonialism, and the Black in 18th and
19th Century German Literature and Culture." This course deals with the portrayal of the Black in various genres during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This course provides an historical background: the history of Blacks in eighteenth- and early
nineteenth-century Germany and Germany's connection to the Dutch and Danish slave trade. We will pay particular attention to
the role in Brandenburg-Prussian attempts and colonialism on the West Coast of Africa, the role of court painting as a means of
including the Black, and the meaning of such terms as "Kultur" and "Bildung" within the context of slavery and colonialism. We
will read texts by authors such as Kant, Herder, Rathelf, Lessing, Kleist, Krner, Chamisso, Claudius and others. Prerequisites:
German 302.
4 + 2 credits.
Global Development Studies 295.01 (Also General Literary Studies and Humanities) "Special Topic: Modern Arabic
Literature." See Humanities 295.01.
History 315.01 "The United States and Vietnam." This course examines the historical context of United States intervention in
Vietnam from 1945 to 1975, with an emphasis on the social, economic, and political turmoil within Southeast Asia as well as the
Cold War concerns that led American leaders to wage a full-scale war against an elusive and ill-defined "enemy" during the
Johnson and Nixon administrations. The course will also consider the ongoing legacy of the United States loss in Vietnam and its
impact upon recent American history. Sources utilized in the seminar present a wide array of perspectives and experiences,
including policy documents from leaders in Vietnam and the United States, memoirs by soldiers, reminiscences by reporters, and
accounts by others who witnessed the war. Students will be expected to initiate and carry the class discussions, define a major
(HIS-315 continued).research project, produce an original paper, and present an oral report on their topic. The class will first
focus on common readings and discussions, then shift to individual research and class reports. Prerequisites: History 112 and
additional course work in history at the 200-level. 4 credits.
History 334.01 "The Great War and Social Change." To some historians, the First World War marked the most important
turning point in modem European history and unleashed the most powerful forces to bedevil and inspire the world for the next
century. Other historians argue that it did no more than mildly accelerate a number of long-term historical trends. In this seminar
students will be asked to explore together some of the most noteworthy efforts to analyze the impact of the First World War on
European diplomatic, social, economic, military, and cultural history, and then to undertake a substantial individual research
project. Topics will include the causes of the First World War, the reasons why prewar military planning proved unrealistic, the
psychological impact of the combat experience, the changing role of women on the "home front," the transformation of the
economic role of government, the radicalization of the labor movement, the impact of the war on literature and the arts, and the
achievements and failures of the peacemakers of 1919. Prerequisite: History 236, 237, 238, or 239. 4 credits.
History 337.01 "The Religious Experience of Medieval Women" Although women were for the most part excluded from
positions of ecclesiastical authority in Medieval Europe, surviving texts by and about female saints, mystics and heretics reveal a
dynamic and diverse religious life. This seminar will look broadly at the range of female religious experience and consider what
this it teaches us about both power and the very conception of religiosity in pre-modern Europe. We will pay special attention to
the prominence of mysticism and affective spirituality in women's religious writings as well as the search for alternatives to
gendered clerical, sacramental, and textual authority. Among the figures to be discussed are Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of
Norwich, Catherine of Siena, Marguerite Porete and Margery Kempe. Secondary readings will provide background and insight
into how historians recently have been using these sources to enhance our understanding of medieval life in general. In the
second half of the course students will work independently, under supervision of the instructor, to produce a sizeable research
paper based on primary sources. There will be opportunities for interested students to conduct research in Latin, French, German
or Middle English. Prerequisites: History 233 or Religious Studies 223. In addition, students who have taken GWS 111 or
Humanities 140 will be admitted with consent of the instructor.
History 341.01 "Remembering Russia's Past: The Memoir in Russian History." This seminar will begin with a careful
reading and analysis of a handful of memoirs from imperial and Soviet Russia, from women and men, from noble and worker. In
reading these personal histories, we will consider the virtues and limitations of memoirs, and the extent to which they conform to
a "genre," and thereby either illumine or obstruct our sense of the past. The major project for each seminar participant will be a
detailed analysis of one important memoir of the student's choosing, drawing upon our common readings and discussions in
order to appraise the usefulness to the historian of that particular account. Students who have completed either HIS 241 or 242
will find that background beneficial, but any upper-division history student may enroll with the instructor's permission. 4 credits.
Humanities 295.01 (Also General Literary Studies and Global Development Studies) "Special Topic: Modern Arabic
Literature." Modern Arabic Literature. Modern Arabic Literature is a survey of modern Arabic fiction, poetry, plays, and
essays. The course will cover major writers from Egypt, Iraq, the Sudan, Palestine, Morocco, Lebanon, and Syria. The focus of
the course will be primarily on modernism and modernity, colonial- and post-colonialism, feminism, and other cultural issues
such as subjectivity and tyranny. This course will also consider the ethnic and religious diversity in the Arab world by including
writings by Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Mendaian writers. Students are expected to read at least 8 novels, several short
stories, one play, two personal essays and several poems. In addition, students will write several short papers. Prerequisites:
English 120, Humanities 101, Humanities 102 or permission of instructor. 4+2 credits.
Humanities 395.01 "Advanced Special Topic: Language and Cultural Studies." This seminar is being offered by Jeffrey T.
Nealon, Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities. Professor Nealon is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in
the English department at The Pennsylvania State University. This course will selectively retrace the linguistic turn in
humanities theory (Saussure, Heidegger, J. L. Austin, Derrida, Lacan, de Man, Judith Butler, Henry Louis Gates) and its critics
(Fredric Jameson, Foucault, Zizek, Antonio Negri, and especially Deleuze), hoping to restage or reframe the contemporary
encounter between cultural studies and language (Adorno, Bourdieu, Larry Grossberg, Tony Bennett, Meagan Morris).
Throughout, we will focus on the following questions: Has the role of language in everyday life changed over the past half-
century? Is the study of language inexorably tied to questions of meaning or signification? Might language do something other
than "mean"? If so, what? Might we be, in other words, done with language and meaning? If the linguistic turn is yesterday's
news, what's the next big thing? How do language's functions need to be reconsidered and rethematized in the super-fast world
of global capital? Prerequisites: Anthropology 260; Art 232; Economics 225, 284, or 285; English 227, 228, 273, 330, 331, or
390; Gender and Women's Studies 249; Philosophy 234, 235, or 268; or Religious Studies/Philosophy 313. 4 credits.
Japanese 295.01 (Also General Literary Studies) "Special Topic: Japanese Culture in Translation: Modern Japanese
Fiction & Film." This course is open to all students who are interested in Japanese culture. The course introduces some of the
major Japanese novels and films that have been produced since the Meiji Restoration in 1868, when Japan opened itself to the
rest of the world. Through the analysis of these novels and films, the students will become familiar with issues that characterize
various aspects of modern Japanese society and culture as well as the unique way Japanese novels and films are constructed in
terms of plot. Emphasis will be placed on discussion so that the students can learn from sharing their thoughts and ideas with
their classmates and the instructor. Conducted in English. Prerequisites: None. 4 credits.
Japanese 395.01 "Advanced Special Topic: Advanced Japanese I." This course is a continuation of Japanese 222, further
developing the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Upon completing the course, students will have been
introduced to all the major structural patterns of contemporary Japanese expanded their base of kanji, and will have begun
emphasis on vocabulary building through the study of situationally oriented materials stressing communicative competence. The
reading of expository prose of intermediate difficulty will also receive some attention. Prerequisites: Japanese 222 or permission
of instructor. 4 credits.
Music 111.01 & 02 "Aural Skills I." Development of aural understanding through singing, dictation, conducting, and
improvisation. Topics include identification and singing of diatonic intervals and triads, singing of diatonic melodies using
'moveable do' solfege, notation of diatonic melodies and chord progressions by dictation, improvisation of short melodic
patterns, and basic conducting patterns. Normally taken in conjunction with Music 112 (Harmony), this course may also be taken
separately. Prerequisites: Music 109 or placement by Aural Skills Test I. 1 credit.
Music 112.01 "Harmony." The study of how individual chords are combined to create a piece of tonal music. Focuses on
developing the ear and analytical/creative skills to enhance appreciation, performance, and compositional imitation of Western
music of the 18th and 19th centuries. Required keyboard lab meets outside regular class time. Concurrent registration in Music
111 is required. 4 credits
Music 268.01 (Also Anthropology) "Regional Studies in World Music--Sub-Saharan Africa." The vibrant place of music in
the lives of Africans will be explored on a continent-wide level through topics and on a localized level through detailed musical
ethnographies focusing on individual rural and urban traditions. 4 credits.
Music 295.01 "Special Topic: Jazz Arranging and Composition for Small Ensemble." The purpose of this course is to teach
the fundamentals of arranging and composing for small jazz ensemble. Students will first arrange blues and jazz and pop
standards, for example "Blue Train," "Bouncing with Bud," and "Django" and subsequently compose their own pieces.
Arranging and compositional techniques will be acquired through careful study of form, melody, harmony and general jazz
performance practices, and the analysis of the works of such composers and arrangers as Gil Evans, Dizzy Gillespie, Oliver
Nelson and Wayne Shorter. Prerequisite: Music112. 4 credits
Philosophy 215.01 "Existentialism." No longer cross listed with Religious Studies. A study of the major existentialist thinkers
of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, and others. Readings will include
philosophical and literary texts that explore issues including the nature of the self and its relations with others, freedom and
responsibility, anxiety, transcendence, ambiguity, and the absurd. Prerequisites: Philosophy 111 or permission of instructor. 4
credits.
Philosophy 295.01 "Special Topic: Encounters with the Other." As a challenge to the primacy of the subject or the self, the
notion of the Other has occupied a central place in 20th-Century French Thought. Following a brief examination of the role of
the Other in the philosophies of Hegel and Husserl, this course will explore the different conceptions of the Other in the writings
of major contemporary French thinkers, including Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, Lacan, Irigaray, Blanchot, and Derrida. The
course will include discussions of alterity, responsibility, hospitality, recognition, persecution, shame, among various other
themes. Prerequisites: Philosophy 111 or permission of instructor. 4 + 2 credits.
Philosophy 295.02 "Special Topic: French Feminism and Psychoanalysis" This course takes as its starting point the theories
of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, and of his infamous French successor, Jacques Lacan. Beginning with an
examination of Freud and Lacan's notions of feminine sexuality, the main part of the course is devoted to exploring several
critiques of psychoanalysis by noted French feminists Simone de Beauvoir, Catherine Clment, Hlne Cixous, Luce Irigaray,
Sarah Kofman, and Julia Kristeva. Among the themes treated are pleasure, hysteria, nature of femininity, and sexual difference.
Prerequisites: Philosophy 111 or permission of instructor.
4 + 2 credits.
Philosophy 391.01 "Advanced Studies in Continental Philosophy: Nietzsche." An intensive examination of the entirety of
Nietzsche's writings. Texts will include The Birth of Tragedy, On the Use and Abuse of History, Daybreak, The Gay Science,
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals, Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, and Ecce
Homo. In addition, students will be given the opportunity to confront the works of Nietzsche's important interpreters, including,
among others, Heidegger, Lwith, Mller-Lauter, Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault, Irigaray, Blondel, and Nehamas. Prerequisites:
Philosophy 234, 235, 267, 268, 295, 336, or permission of the instructor. 4 credits.
Physics 340.01 "Astrophysics" This course meets the first eight weeks of the semester. An introduction to topics in theoretical
and observational astrophysics including stellar structure and evolution, the physics of interstellar material, galactic structure and
dynamics, cosmology, and observational technology and techniques. The course also includes a very brief survey of other topics
including the solar system and areas of current research interest. Dates: August 28 to October 31. Short course deadlines
apply. Prerequisites: Physics 232. 2 credits
Physics 360.01 "Solid State Physics." This course meets the first seven weeks of the semester. An introduction to the physics
of crystalline solids, such as metals, semiconductors, and insulators. This course presents models of the crystal lattice, lattice
vibrations, and electronic band structure, as well as a brief survey of selected topics of current research interest. Dates: October
30 to December 19. Short course deadlines apply. Prerequisites: Physics 232. 2 credits.
Religious Studies 111.01 "Mapping the Realm of Religion." This course introduces Religious studies through a series of case
studies, from a study of Nepalese sacred geography, to Japanese memorial rites, to the interior geographies attested to by
Christian mystics. We will also consider cases of contested religious spaces and identities in the Middle East and the U.S.
Together the examples illustrate how diverse religious ideas and practices can be interpreted as ways that people "map" or bring
order, meaning, and purpose to their personal and social lives. In considering these religious mappings, we will also be attentive
to the ways that students of religion themselves map the religious worlds of other cultures as well as of our own. Prerequisites:
None. 4 credits.
Religious Studies 216.01 "Modern Religious Thought." A study of the way 19th and 20th century philosophers and
theologians have criticized and reconceptualized religion in light of the intellectual currents, social changes, and historical events
that continue to shape western culture. Prerequisite: second-year standing. 4 credits.
Religious Studies 295.01 "Special Topic: Apocalyptic 'Sectuality'." What is the meaning of this age? Are we standing at the
dawn of a golden age in history? Or are we at the brink of global destruction and the end of history? In this class we will take an
interdisciplinary approach to examine selected apocalyptic movements and texts in an attempt to understand how meaning is
constructed. We will discuss several early Jewish and Christian apocalyptic texts and communities as modern apocalyptic
communities. Prerequisites: Second-year standing and above. 4 credits.
Religious Studies 295.02 "Special Topic: An Introduction to the Study of Ancient Indian Traditions." This course is
intended as "two-pronged". On the one hand, its purpose is to acquaint the students with the concrete textual material most
representative of main Indian religious-philosophical traditions, such as Vedic tradition, Brahmanical tradition, Epic tradition,
Darshanic tradition, etc. This would include some acquaintance with specific terminology used in descriptions and self-
descriptions of various traditions. On the other hand, the purpose of the course is to broaden the student's understanding of the
phenomenon of tradition in general on the basis of peculiar and specific character of this phenomenon in ancient and early
medieval India: because a tradition in Indian context is very different from what we call "tradition" in any European, mid-
eastern, central Asiatic, or Chinese cultural context (so hopelessly outdated dichotomy "East-West" dose not apply here at all).
The three main distinctive features of an Indian religious-philosophical are: 1) Its primarily ritualistic character; 2) Its primarily
oral (and auditory) technique of transmission; 3) The central role of "teacher-pupil" relationship. Prerequisites: Second year
standing. 4 credits.
Religious Studies 295.03 "Special Topic: An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy." The scope of the course is threefold: 1)
To explain the main concepts and categories (and respectively, special terms denoting them) used in the Buddhist philosophical
schools, such as "phenomenal universe" (sansara), dharma, path (patha), "Nescience" (avidya), nirvana, "suffering" (duhkha),
Buddha, and "consciousness" (vijnana); 2) To expose and interpret the fundamental postulates of Buddhist philosophy and
analyze them in the process of their change and development in various schools from the 5th c. BC onwards; The formation of so
called "Three Vehicles" (together with their divisions and subdivisions) - this includes a special theme, "Buddhist philosophy as
unity and diversity"; 3) To describe Indian religious-philosophical background in the context of which the Buddhist philosophy,
as we know it, came into being and assumed the form of an independent, full-fledged textual tradition (sometimes called "the
tradition of abhidharma"). This will include a discussion on the theme, "Buddhism - philosophy or religion?" Prerequisites:
none. 4 credits.
Russian 247.01 (Also General Literary Studies) "The Russian Short Story." The development of the genre from its
beginning in 18th century Sentimentalism to the present. Authors could include Karamzin, Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Tolstoy,
Chekhov, Bulgakov, Babel, Olesha, Makanin, Tolstaya, and Sorokin. Conducted in English. Prerequisites: none. 4 + 2 credits.
Russian 353.01 (Also General Literary Studies) "Major Russian Writers: Nabokov." This course examines the artistic
oeuvre of a single major Russian writer within the context of his cultural and literary milieu. The following writers could be
offered in alternating years: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Gogol, Chekhov, Nabokov. Conducted in English. Prerequisites: none. May be
repeated once for credit. 4 + 2 credits.
Sociology 295.01 "Special Topic: The Asian American Experience" This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to
comparatively examine the histories and experiences of Asian Americans through readings, class discussions, film/video
screenings, and student-designed projects. The course explores the common themes and specific issues related to immigration to
the United States and demographic trends, historical formations of community, participation in American institutions, anti-Asian
discrimination, socioeconomic mobility, interracial group interactions, gender dynamics, and ethnic identity. The experiences of
different Asian ethnic groups will be incorporated within this context to highlight the commonalities and diversity with Asian
American experience. Prerequisites: Sociology 111 or permission of the instructor. 4 + 2 credits.
Sociology 395.01 "Advanced Special Topic: Sociology of Emotions." While feelings are often considered to be intensely
private and personal experiences, the sociological study of emotions has documented the strong social foundations of human
emotional life. This course will examine how social roles and relations evoke, validate, define, challenge and situate emotional
experiences, and how emotions play a key role in shaping the self, the family, work, politics, and culture. Prerequisites:
Sociology 111 and a 200-level sociology course or permission or the instructor.
4 + 2 credits.
Sociology 395.02 "Advanced Special Topic: Women's Transnational Movements in Africa." This seminar will explore the
nature of women's transnational movements in Africa past and present. The course will review social movement theory as it
relates to themes in African feminism and the politics of globalization in contemporary Africa. We will identify past African
women's social movements such as those against slavery, colonialism, and postcolonial struggles and those forfeminism,
democracy, and socialism in Africa. We will connect these African women's
movements to current transnational issues, and to problems of identity, culture, and activism by exploring new communities of
women's resistance as they shape political dialogue and praxis in the 21st century. Finally, we will individually and collectively
produce a Sociological Reader in African Women's Movements. The Reader will highlight the events, formal organizations,
grassroots and spontaneous uprisings these movements take in order to establish a new order of things in the private and public
lives of African and possibly all women. Prerequisite: Sociology 111 and one 200-level sociology course, or permission of
instructor. 4 + 2 credits.
Spanish 295.01 "Special Topic: Dramatic Vision of Buero Vallejo and Paloma Pedrero." Examination of representative
texts by Spain's foremost dramatist of the postwar period (Antonio Buero Vallejo), and by one of Spain's leading playwrights of
the post-Franco era (Paloma Pedrero). Focus on how these artists represent the relationship between the individual and society
and on topics such as history, memory, power, freedom, gender, and art. Emphasis on detailed discussion of individual works.
Conducted in Spanish. Prerequisite: Spanish 285 or equivalent.
4 + 2 credits.
|
|
