University Bulletin (2021-2022)

The oral communication requirement recognizes that students need to be prepared for a variety of ways to communicate effectively in various fields of study including oral presentations, interviews, active debate, critique, and performances.

For students entering Brandeis beginning fall 2019, the oral communication requirement will be fulfilled for most students through coursework taken in the completion of their major, or through other options described in the requirements for the major. Please see the Requirements to Complete a Major for information on fulfilling oral communication for a specific major.

For students entering Brandeis prior to fall 2019, courses that satisfy the requirement in a particular semester are designated "oc" in the Schedule of Classes for that semester. Students must satisfactorily complete one writing-intensive course, and either a second writing-intensive course or an oral communication course.

AAAS 104a Colorism in Paradise
[ djw dl oc ss ]
Introduces the concept of colorism, its relationship to racism, and consider the prevalence of color over race as a preferred identity and socio-political category across Latin America and the Caribbean. The course requires students to read interdisciplinary academic texts and utilize critical race and social praxeology theory to interrogate specific, national contexts within the Latin American and Caribbean region. Special one-time offering, Fall 2021.
Rachel Cantave

AAAS 120a African History in Real Time
[ djw nw oc ss ]
This information literacy-driven course equips students with the skills to place current events in Africa in their historical context. Collectively the class builds 5-6 distinct course modules which entail sourcing and evaluating current news stories from a range of media outlets, selecting those that merit in-depth historical analysis, and developing a syllabus for each one. Usually offered every second year.
Carina Ray

AAAS 124a After the Dance: Performing Sovereignty in the Caribbean
[ hum oc ss ]
Utilizing short fiction, essays, plays, poetry, and the visual arts, this class theorizes movement and/as freedom in the spectacular or mundane movements of the region, including annual Carnival and Hosay celebrations. Usually offered every third year.
Faith Smith

AAAS 135a Race, Sex, and Colonialism
[ djw oc ss ]
Explores the histories of interracial sexual relations as they have unfolded in a range of colonial contexts and examines the relationships between race and sex, on one hand, and the exercise of colonial power, on the other. Usually offered every year.
Carina Ray

AAAS 146b African Icons
[ djw nw oc ss wi ]
From Walatta Petros, a seventeenth century Ethiopian nun turned anticolonial agitator to Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, this course introduces a broad range of iconic figures in Africa's history to students who also acquire the investigative and analytical skills associated with sound historical research and writing. Usually offered every year.
Carina Ray

AAAS 151b Africa: A Reggae Anthology
[ djw nw oc ss ]
Draws on the genre of reggae music as a course of understanding how Africa, its people, its history, and its contemporary circumstances are imagined, understood, represented, and engaged by African descended people in Jamaica and in the broader African diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Carina Ray

AAAS 162a Assassination: A History of 20th Century Africa
[ djw nw oc ss ]
Examines the assassinations of a range of different political, cultural, and activist figures, such as Patric Lumumba, Steve Biko, and Ken Saro-Wiwa, and assesses the social, political, economic, and cultural implications and legacies this particular form of murder has had on twentieth-century Africa. Usually offered every second year.
Carina Ray

AAAS/WGS 136a Black Feminist Thought
[ deis-us oc ss ]
Formerly offered as AAAS 136a.
Critical examination of the historical, political, economic, and ideological factors that have shaped the lives of African-American women in the United States. Analyzing foundation theoretical texts, fiction, and film over two centuries, this class seeks to understand black women's writing and political activism in the U.S. Usually offered every second year.
Shoniqua Roach

AMST 140b The Asian American Experience
[ oc ss ]
Examines the political, economic, social, and contemporary issues related to Asians in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Topics include patterns of immigration and settlement, and individual, family, and community formation explored through history, literature, personal essays, films, and other popular media sources. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

AMST/ENG 47a Frontier Visions: The West in American Literature and Culture
[ hum oc ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took ENG 47a in prior years.
Explores more than two centuries of literary and visual culture about the American West, including the frontier myth, Indian captivity narratives, frontier humor, dime novel and Hollywood westerns, the Native American Renaissance, and western regionalism. Authors include Black Hawk, Cather, Doig, Silko, Turner, and Twain. Usually offered every third year.
Jerome Tharaud

AMST/MUS 35a History of Rock: Rock and Roll in American Culture
[ ca oc ]
Formerly offered as MUS 35a.
Examines the historical context, stylistic development, and cultural significance of rock and roll and other closely related genres, spanning the 1950s through the present. Close attention is paid to how political and social changes have interacted with technological innovations through commercial music to challenge, affirm and shape ideas of race, gender, class and sexuality in the United States. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

AMST/MUS 38a American Music: From Psalms to Hip Hop
[ ca oc ss ]
Open to music majors and non-majors. Formerly offered as MUS 38a.
Explores the many varieties of folk, popular, and art music in American culture. We will focus on the stylistic development of select repertoires beginning with 18thcentury New England Psalm singing and African American traditions and continuing on through folk, jazz, art, pop, rock, and hip hop music. Throughout the course, music serves as a lens to examine diverse aspects of American culture and history with an emphasis on America’s shifting definition of identity. No musical background is required. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

AMST/MUS 39b Protest Through Song: Music that Shaped America
[ ca oc ss ]
Open to music majors and non-majors. Does not fulfill the Main Currents in American Studies requirement for the major.
Examines 20th and 21st century protest music to better understand the complex relationships between music and social movements. Through class discussions, reading, writing, and listening assignments, and a final performance students will discover how social, cultural, and economic protest songs helped shape American culture. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

AMST/MUS 41a Leonard Bernstein: Composer, Conductor, Educator, and Humanitarian
[ ca oc ss ]
Explores the life and career of Leonard Bernstein. As a composer, conductor, educator, and humanitarian, Bernstein played an important role in shaping American music and culture. Through class discussions, group projects, and reading, writing, and listening assignments, this course will help students better understand the musical, cultural, political, and educational influence of Leonard Bernstein both then and now. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

AMST/MUS 55a Music in Film: Hearing American Cinema
[ ca oc ]
Formerly offered as MUS 55a.
Examines the aesthetics and the history of music in film. Through lecture, class discussions, screenings, and readings, the course teaches students how to critically read image, script, and music as an integrated cultural text, ultimately helping one understand and appreciate the progression of film and sound technology from the 1890s to the present. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

ANTH 42a Sages and Seekers: A Fieldwork Practicum in the Life Course across Generations
[ oc ]
Corequisite: ANTH 1a, ANTH 111a, ANTH 127a, ANTH 144a, ANTH 165b, ANTH 182b, or PSYC 37a. Course may be taken as a prerequisite within the past year with permission of the instructor. Yields half-course credit. Formerly offered as EL 42a.
Students participate in a 9-week Sages and Seekers program designed to bridge the generational gap between seniors and youth in order to foster the exchange of wisdom and dissolve age-related segregation. Each student also designs and carries out an individual fieldwork and/or community service project. Hands-on experiences complement concepts and questions explored through the base classes, regarding aging, gender, and generational change in socio-cultural context. Usually offered every second year.
Sarah Lamb

ANTH 61b Language in American Life
[ oc ss ]
Examines the relations between language and some major dimensions of American social life: social groupings (the structures of ethnic, regional, class, and gender relations); social settings (such as courtrooms, workplaces, and homes); and social interaction. Usually offered every second year.
Janet McIntosh

ANTH 62a Archaeology in Politics, Film and Public Culture
[ oc ss ]
Examines the use of archaeology in national politics, popular culture, and continued international debates revolving around issues of cultural patrimony. After a brief look at the history of the field and its inception within colonialism, this course centers on the contemporary uses of archaeology, including archaeology in totalitarian Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, nationalist projects and the establishment of nation-building narratives (such as in Israel, Egypt, China and Mexico), and portrayals of archaeology in popular films and modern hoaxes. Importantly, this course also focuses on national and international laws concerning cultural objects and sites, and the ethical dilemmas of stewardship, repatriation, and looting. Usually offered every third year.
Javier Urcid

ANTH 81a Conducting Ethnographic Fieldwork: Methods and Practice of Anthropological Research
[ oc ss wi ]
Formerly offered as ANTH 181aj.
Examines principal issues in ethnographic fieldwork and analysis, including research design, data collection, and ethnographic representation. Students will develop a focused research question, design field research, and conduct supervised fieldwork in a variety of local settings. Usually offered every second year.
Patricia Alvarez Astacio, Jonathan Anjaria, Elizabeth Ferry, or Pascal Menoret

ANTH 114a Anthropology of Military and Policing
[ oc ss ]
Explores the cultural dimensions of policing, militarization, and surveillance by drawing on diverse cases across the world, and by analyzing how policing ideologies and technologies flow beyond nation-states.Topics include social and cultural dynamics in military and policing organizations, police reform movements, and how policing intersects with the questions of race, class, gender and LGBTQ issues. Usually offered every third year.
Janet McIntosh

ANTH 142b Global Pandemics: History, Society, and Policy
[ nw oc ss ]
Takes a biosocial approach to pandemics like HIV/AIDS, SARS, and Ebola as shaped not simply by biology, but also by culture, economics, politics, and history. Discussion focuses on how gender, sexuality, religion, and folk practices shape pandemic situations. Usually offered every fourth year.
Elanah Uretsky

ANTH 158a Urban Worlds
[ dl oc ss ]
Explores some of the essential concepts of urban theory and conducts an in-depth study of urban experiences around the world. Topics include the city and marginality, urban modernity, gender and public space, gentrification, suburbanization, transgression, and urban nature. Case studies may be from cities such as Mumbai, Lagos, New York, Paris, Dubai, and Rio de Janeiro. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Anjaria

ANTH 159a Museums and Public Memory
[ oc ss ]
Explores the social and political organization of public memory, including museums, cultural villages, and memorial sites. Who has the right to determine the content and form of such institutions? Working with local community members, students will develop a collaborative exhibition project. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 164b Cancer and Community
[ djw oc ss ]
Addresses the biophysical and sociocultural dimensions of cancer: how can this dreaded disease be both alienating and associated with new forms of solidarity and social connection? We also consider how vulnerability to cancer is mediated by structures of social inequality. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 167a Sports, Society and the Body
[ dl oc ss ]
Examines sports from an anthropological perspective. Students will study sports cultures globally and historically. Topics include: sports and colonialism, doping controversies, gender, nationalism, spectacle, pain and ideas of the body. This course also emphasizes hands-on research and documentation of diverse sports cultures through writing and film. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Anjaria

ANTH 182b Engaged Anthropology
[ oc ss ]
Explores the challenges faced when anthropologists collaborate with the communities they seek to study and interpret. When should ethnographers move beyond “witnessing” to active alliance, solidarity, or activism with partner communities? We consider models for collaboration in research in which indigenous or community representatives enter into equal, respectful partnerships with anthropologists, and reflect on strategies for decolonizing the production of knowledge in the discipline. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Schattschneider

BCHM 103b Advanced Biochemistry: Cellular Information Transfer Mechanisms
[ oc sn ]
Prerequisites: One year of organic chemistry with laboratory and BCHM 100a or equivalents. BIOL 14a or the equivalent is recommended.
Molecular mechanisms of information transfer in biological systems. Topics include nucleic acid biochemistry, processing of genetic information, and signal transduction. Each section will focus on the chemistry and regulation of a selected example from these fundamental processes. Lectures will be complemented by reading assignments and student presentations on articles from the original research literature. Usually offered every year.
Niels Bradshaw

BIOL 18a General Biology Laboratory
[ oc sn ]
Prerequisite: BIOL 14a, BIOL 18b and sophomore standing. Yields full-course credit. Laboratory fee: $150 per semester. This lab is time-intensive and students will be expected to come in to lab between regular scheduled lab sessions. In order to accommodate students with time conflicts it may be necessary to re-assign students without conflicts to another section of the course. Students' section choice will be honored if possible.
Provides firsthand experience with a wide array of organisms and illustrates basic approaches to experimental design and problem solving in genetics and genomics. Usually offered every year.
Melissa Kosinski-Collins

BIOL 39b Biology of Global Climate Change
[ dl oc sn ]
Prerequisites: ENVS 2a, BIOL 16a or BIOL 17b.
Examines the biology of global climate change from how biology informs understanding climate change to the evolutionary and ecological responses to climate change. This course includes an exploration of the primary literature. Usually offered every year.
Colleen Hitchcock

BIOL 78b The Pipeline of Drug Development
[ oc sn ]
Prerequisites: BIOL 14a and BIOL 15b.
Explores the drug development pipeline from basic research to drug accessibility. The course will focus on biological pathways targeted by chemotherapeutic and antiviral drugs, drug specificity, and ethical concerns. Students will develop oral communications and writing skills through writing assignments, article discussions, and presentations of scientific topics within the field of the drug development. Special one-time offering, fall 2018.
Laura Laranjo

BIOL 101a Molecular Biotechnology
[ oc sn ]
Prerequisite: BIOL 14a.
Develops knowledge and skills to research, choose and interpret the bext experimental approaches for answering research questions in molecular biology. Studies molecular biology techniques such as PCR, DNA sequencing, genomics, cloning, microarrays, and CRISPR, and their research applications. Usually offered every year.
Rachel Woodruff

BIOL 134b Topics in Ecology
[ oc sn ]
Prerequisites: BIOL 23a, or permission of the instructor. Topics may vary from year to year. Please consult the Course Schedule for topic and description. Course may be repeated once for credit with permission of the instructor.
Annually, a different aspect of the global biosphere is selected for analysis. In any year the focus may be on specific ecosystems (e.g., terrestrial, aquatic, tropical, arctic), populations, system modeling, restoration ecology, or other aspects of ecology. Usually offered every year.
Dan Perlman

BIOL 153aj Project Lab in Biomimetics / Bioinspiration
[ oc sn ]
Prerequisites: BIOL 15b and BIOL 16a or BIOL 23a.
Explores how the natural world has been used to inspire designs solving real-world problems, identify a problem themselves, learn techniques to plan and build their own bio-inspired designs and present their products in a clear and accessible manner. Offered as part of JBS program.
Maria Miara

BUS 47a Business Communication
[ oc ss wi ]
Prerequisite: BUS 10a. Enrollment limited to Business Majors.
Success in today’s competitive corporate world stems from an individual’s strong communication skills. As a future professional, you will be asked to organize, develop, and deliver concise presentations and write business specific that meet a range target audiences’ needs in a variety of business contexts. This course will help you prepare and develop your written, oral, visual, and digital communication skills, as well as your critical and analytical thinking skills. Emphasis will focus on real business cases, my personal business experiences, and communication styles and techniques represented in the business community. By the end of this class, you will understand how to communicate professionally using various business communication techniques and applications based on the audience you are communicating with and in what context through practice and feedback from both professor and peers will be an important part of this course. Usually offered every year.
Erin Vicente

CBIO 101a Chemical Biology
[ oc sn ]
Prerequisites: A satisfactory grade (C- or better) in BIOL 14a, BIOL 15b, and CHEM 25a and b, or the equivalent.
Explores how scientific work in chemistry led to fundamental understanding of and ability to manipulate biological processes. Emphasis is placed on chemical design and synthesis as well as biological evaluation and utility. Content based on scientific literature readings. Usually offered every second year.
Thomas Pochapsky

CHEM 94a Peer Assistantship in Chemistry
[ oc ]
Offered exclusively on a credit/no-credit basis.
Usually offered every year.
Staff

CHEM 99d Senior Research
[ oc ]
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor and Undergraduate Advising Head; open only to senior honors candidates. Does not meet the major requirements in chemistry. A designated library training component must be completed as soon as it is offered. At the end of the first semester, the introduction to the research thesis with extensive bibliography is due.
A year-long course focused on a research project with a member of the department. Successful completion of the course involves writing a detailed report on the project. Usually offered every year.
Staff

CHEM 199d BA/MA Research
[ oc ]
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor and Undergraduate Advising Head; open only to BA/MA candidates. Does not meet the major requirements in chemistry. A designated library training component must be completed as soon as it is offered. At the end of the first semester, the introduction to the research thesis with extensive bibliography is due.
A year-long course focused on a research project with a member of the department. Successful completion of the course involves writing a detailed report on the project. Usually offered every year.
Staff

CHIN 40b Advanced Intermediate Chinese
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: CHIN 30a or equivalent. Four class hours per week.
Continuation of CHIN 30a. Usually offered every spring.
Xiwen Lu

CHIN 100a Introduction to Chinese Literature: Desire and Form
[ hum nw oc ]
Taught in English. No Chinese language capabilities required.
Introduces Chinese literature, focusing primarily on Chinese "classical" literary traditions and their metamorphosis in modern times. Usually offered every second year.
Pu Wang

CHIN 105a Advanced Conversation and Composition I
[ fl hum oc wi ]
Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in CHIN 40b or the equivalent.
Designed for advanced students who wish to enhance and improve their skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing through listening and reading authentic or slightly modified materials, discussing and writing on various topics of Chinese society and culture. Usually offered every fall.
Staff

CHIN 105b Advanced Conversation and Composition II
[ fl hum oc wi ]
Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in CHIN 105a or the equivalent.
Designed for advanced students who wish to enhance and improve their speaking proficiency and writing skills. Speaking skills will be developed through guided conversation, discussion of texts and films, and oral presentation. Exercises and essays will be used to improve students' writing skills. Usually offered every spring.
Staff

CHIN 126a Advanced Conversational Chinese
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: CHIN 105b or equivalent.
For advanced students of Chinese, this course further develops their Chinese speaking proficiency in both information and formal styles. The course is conducted entirely in Chinese and is designed for students who want to improve their communicative ability in Chinese. Focuses on significant expansion of vocabularies, grammars, and genuine expressions used by Chinese in their daily life, as well as enhancing students' understanding of Chinese society and culture. Usually offered every year.
Jian Wei

CHIN 165a Chinese for Life Science: Study of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Herbs with Contemporary Science
[ fl oc ]
Prerequisite: CHIN 105b or equivalent. Does not meet the requirement in the school of humanities.
Helps students increase Chinese proficiency in the fields of life science such biology, biochemistry, neuroscience, and medicine, especially the skills of reading life science papers in Chinese; and widens and deepens students' knowledge of life science by learning the most important discoveries of Chinese scientists in applying contemporary western science to the studies of traditional medicinal herbs. Although this course is not just limited to biology, neuroscience, or chemistry majors, good knowledge of life science will be essential to success. Usually offered every year.
Jian Wei

CLAS 45a Practicum in Oral Communication
[ oc ]
Corequisite: One course in Classical Studies and permission of the instructor. Yields half-course credit. Fulfills the oral communication requirement for Classical Studies majors under the Brandeis Core.
Provides students with discipline appropriate training in viewing and designing oral presentations. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

COML 100a Introduction to Global Literature
[ dl hum oc ]
Core course for COML major and minor.
What is common and what is different in literatures of different cultures and times? How do literary ideas move from one culture to another? In this course students read theoretical texts, as well as literary works from around the world. Usually offered every year.
Staff

COML/ENG 191a Environmental Aesthetics
[ djw hum oc ]
Explores major schools of thought about nature, ecology, and art. Usually offered every third year.
Caren Irr

COSI 45a Effective Communication for Computer Scientists
[ oc ]
Prerequisite: One 100-level COSI elective. Yields half-course credit.
Teaches the basics of good oral communication and presentation, such as structuring a presentation, body language, eye contact, pace and appropriateness for the audience. It will cover, with practice, a range of speaking engagements majors might meet in academia and industry including: presentation of a research paper, software architecture proposal, business elevator pitch, research funding proposal, and so on. Students will present a project already created for a 100-level COSI elective. They will give the presentation in class, receive feedback based on the practices taught and then have a chance to give the presentation a second time. Usually offered every semester.

COSI 159a Computer Vision
[ oc sn wi ]
Prerequisites: COSI 12b, COSI 21a, and MATH 15a or MATH 22a.
Designed for undergraduate and graduate students majoring/minoring in computer science, the course covers core topics in image/video understanding, such as, object detection/recognition/tracking (with applications in face detection, gesture detection, pose detection), image segmentation (saliency detection, semantic segmentation, co-segmentation), image enhancement (super resolution, image recovery), visual relationship mining (spatial relationship, kinship), 3D reconstruction, image generation, optical flow, and video segmentation. It will also touch several advanced computer vision topics, such as, multi-view image clustering, image captioning, image generation from text, and visual question and answering. Usually offered every second year.
Hongfu Liu

ECON 25a Oral Communication in Economics Practicum
[ oc ]
Prerequisite: ECON 80a. Course may be taken as a corequisite. Yields half-course credit.
Introduces students to techniques of public speaking in economics using microeconomics applications. Teaches students to explain real-world economic problems to an audience using economic reasoning. Usually offered every semester.
Galit Eizman

ECS 100a European Cultural Studies Proseminar: Modernism
[ dl hum oc ]
Explores the interrelationship of literature, music, painting, philosophy, and other arts in the era of high modernism. Works by Artaud, Baudelaire, Benjamin, Mann, Mahler, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Kandinsky, Schiele, Beckett, Brecht, Adorno, Sartre, Heidegger, and others. Usually offered every fall semester.
Stephen Dowden

ED 155b Education and Social Policy
[ oc ss wi ]
Examines the various functions that schools perform in a community, with special attention to the intended and unintended consequences of contemporary policies such as special education, desegregation, charter schools, and the standards/accountability movement. Usually offered every second year.
Leah Gordon

ED 170a Race, Power, and Urban Education
[ deis-us oc ss wi ]
Examines the nature of urban schools, their links to the social and political context, and the perspectives of the people who inhabit them. Explores the historical development of urban schools; the social, economic, and personal hardships facing urban students; and challenges of urban school reform. Usually offered every year.
Derron Wallace

ENG 20b Literary Games
[ deis-us dl hum oc ]
Addresses a long durée history of the games through the lens of transmedia. This then is the start pointing to examine how transmedia theory may help unpack issues in what I call “literary games” from the medieval chess board, dice game, to digital multi-player video games now. Within a discussion of transmedia we will address the various theories about narrative and play that have animated discussions about games from the Middle Ages to contemporary media. This class will also center race, gender, sexuality, disability, class in thinking through the issues of transmedia and the gaming cultures that have most recently been in the political mainstream news in relation to far-right politics. Usually offered every third year.
Dorothy Kim

ENG 32a 21st-Century Global Fiction: A Basic Course
[ djw hum nw oc ]
Offers an introduction to 21st-century global fiction in English. What is fiction and how does it illuminate contemporary issues such as migration, terrorism, and climate change? Authors include Zadie Smith, Amitav Ghosh, Chimamanda Adichie, Mohsin Hamid, J.M. Coetzee and others. Usually offered every third year.
Ulka Anjaria

ENG 43b Medieval Play: Drama, LARP, and Video Games
[ hum oc ]
Works with a selection of medieval mystery plays, medieval-themed video games and participatory live-action role play to explore: play structures and design; alternative-world creation by way of immersion; the significance of gender, race, disability, and sexuality in performance. Usually offered every third year.
Dorothy Kim

ENG 60a Storytelling Performance
[ hum oc ]
This experiential course is a workshop for students to craft and perform stories for live audiences at Brandeis and elsewhere in the Boston area. Through a series of collaborative exercises and rehearsals, students will develop a repertoire of several kinds of stories, including autobiographies, fictions, folk tales, and local history. We will tell our individual and group stories, as a team, at youth programs, open mics, and other public spaces. Usually offered every second year.
David Sherman

ENG 60aj Storytelling Performance
[ hum oc ]
This experiential course is a workshop for students to craft and perform stories as part of the Brandeis Storytelling Brigade. Through a series of collaborative exercises and rehearsals, students will develop a repertoire of at least four stories: one fictional story for young children, one folk tale for young children, one story based on historical research for young adults or adults, and one autobiographical or fictional story for young adults or adults. We will tell our individual and group stories, as a team, at youth summer programs, libraries, teen centers, open mics, and other public spaces. Offered as part of JBS program.
David Sherman

ENG 62b Contemporary African Literature, Global Perspectives
[ djw dl hum nw oc ]
What is "African" in African literature when the majority of writers are somehow removed from the African societies they portray? How do expatriate writers represent African subjectivities and cultures at the intersection of Diaspora and globalization? Who reads the works produced by these writers? Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Diouf

ENG 64a Queer Readings: Before the Binary
[ hum oc ]
Explores vectors of desire, intimacy, and relationality prior to 1800 that do not always neatly line up with post-Enlightenment taxonomies of gender, sexuality, race, and humanness. We will read works by Austen, Behn, Marlowe, Phillips, Rochester, Shakespeare, and others, asking: What possibilities of pleasure, intimacy, love, friendship, and kinship existed alongside male-female reproductive sex and marriage before 1800? What possibilities for non-binary gender identifications and presentations? Without firm taxonomic distinctions among classes of people, between human and nonhuman animals, or even between the human and the thing, how did early moderns understand what counted as fully human? Usually offered every third year.
Tom King

ENG 109a Poetry Workshop
[ hum oc wi ]
Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
A workshop for poets willing to explore and develop their craft through intense reading in current poetry, stylistic explorations of content, and imaginative stretching of forms. Usually offered every year.
Elizabeth Bradfield or Visiting Writer

ENG 109b Fiction Workshop: Short Fiction
[ hum oc wi ]
Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
This workshop will focus on short fiction--stories ten pages and under in length. We will use writing exercises, assigned readings, and essays on craft to discuss structure, character development, point of view, and other elements of fiction. While appropriate for all levels, this workshop might be of special interest to writers who want a secure foundation in the basics. Usually offered every year.
Stephen McCauley or Visiting Writer

ENG 119a Fiction Workshop
[ hum oc wi ]
Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
An advanced fiction workshop for students primarily interested in the short story. Students are expected to compose and revise three stories, complete typed critiques of each other's work weekly, and discuss readings based on examples of various techniques. Usually offered every year.
Stephen McCauley or Visiting Writer

ENG 139a Publishing Workshop: Literary Editing and Publishing
[ dl hum oc ]
Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Students will be selected after the submission of an introductory letter including student's major, writing/editing experience, why publishing is of interest to them, any experimental literary publications/performances they've experienced. This course fulfills a workshop requirement for the Creative Writing major and minor. Please refer to the Schedule of Classes for submission formats and deadlines within the Registration periods.
Editing and publishing a literary journal -- either digital, print, or in more experimental forms -- can be an important component of a writer's creative life and sense of literary citizenship. This experiential learning course will engage students with theoretical and historical reading as well as provide practical hands-on tools for literary publishing. Broadsided Press (www.broadsidedpress.org) will be used as a case study. A group publishing project will be part of the coursework, and this can be tied into journals already being published on campus. By the end of the semester, students will have a fuller sense of the work, mindset, difficulties, strategies, and values of a literary publisher. Usually offered every second year.
Elizabeth Bradfield

ENG 139b Screenwriting Workshop: Intermediate Screenwriting
[ hum oc wi ]
Prerequisites: ENG 79a. Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
In this writing-intensive course, students build on screenwriting basics and delve more deeply into the creative process. Participants read and critique each other's work, study screenplays and view films, and submit original written material on a biweekly basis. At the conclusion of the course each student will have completed the first draft of a screenplay (100-120 pages). Usually offered every second year.
Marc Weinberg

ENG 143a The History of Mediascapes and Critical Maker Culture
[ deis-us dl hum oc ]
To decolonize book history and "maker culture," the class examines colonial erasure, colonial knowledge production, race, gender, disability, neurodiversity, sexuality in making an alternative book history that includes khipu, the girdle book, the wampum, pamphlets, zines, and wearable media technology. Usually offered every year.
Dorothy Kim

ENG 170b Contemporary Theatre and Performance: Between Rights and the Post-Human
[ hum oc ]
Students will explore two pressing questions: How do contemporary theatre artists work to rehumanize those denied humanity? During a global climate emergency, how can the theatre, which is traditionally defined by the co-presence of humans, relocate the human as only one of many lifeforms—not the center of everything but rather entwined with other organic, inorganic, and spiritual agencies? Usually offered every second year.
Thomas King

ENG 188b Capitalism and Culture
[ hum oc ]
How does capitalism influence the culture of advanced economies? How are the arts, dreams, and everyday lives of capitalist cultures organized? What traces of pre- or non-capitalist cultures survive? When, if at all, do we imagine worlds after capitalism? Usually offered every third year.
Caren Irr

FA 118a Studio Seminar
[ ca oc ]
Introduces students to crucial facets of a successful studio practice that happen concurrently, and in dialogue with art making. Writing, reading, communication, and professional practices will be explored as ways of bolstering students' understanding of their own studio practice within the wider history of art and particularly within the context of contemporary art. Usually offered every year.
lauren woods

FA 178b Seminar on Chinese Calligraphy and Practice
[ ca nw oc ]
Prerequisite: Some knowledge of reading Chinese. May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 191a in prior years.
Introduces the major scripts and canonical works of Chinese calligraphy. Besides studying historical developments, students gain hands-on experience with producing their own works. The class combines theory and practice to advance understanding of the aesthetic, critical language, and the functions of this enduring art. Usually offered every year.
Aida Wong

FA 191b Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art
[ ca oc wi ]
Preference to Fine Arts majors and minors, Italian Studies minors, and Medieval and Renaissance minors only. Topics may vary from year to year; the course may be repeated for credit as topics change.
Usually offered every third year.
Jonathan Unglaub

FA 192a Studies in Modern and Contemporary Art
[ ca oc ]
Topics may vary from year to year; the course may be repeated for credit.
Usually offered every second year.
Gannit Ankori, Peter Kalb, and Nancy Scott

FA 193a Studies in Modern and Contemporary Architecture
[ ca oc ]
Topics may vary from year to year; the course may be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor.
Usually offered every third year.
Staff

FA 197a Studies in Asian Art
[ ca nw oc ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 184a in prior years. Topics may vary from year to year; the course may be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor.
Usually offered every third year.
Aida Wong

FREN 110a Cultural Representations
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
A foundation course in French and Francophone culture, analyzing texts and other cultural phenomena such as film, painting, music, and politics. Usually offered every year.
Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche, Hollie Harder, or Michael Randall

FREN 111a The Republic
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
The "Republic" analyzes how the republican ideal of the citizen devoid of religious, ethnic, or gender identity has fared in different Francophone political milieux. Course involves understanding how political institutions such as constitutions, parliaments, and court systems interact with reality of modern societies in which religious, ethnic, and gender identities play important roles. Usually offered every year.
Michael Randall

GECS 188b Human/Nature: European Perspectives on Climate Change
[ djw hum oc wi ]
Open to all students.
Introduces European attitudes towards climate change as reflected in policy, literature, film, and art, with a focus on workable future-oriented alternatives to fossil-fueled capitalism. Usually offered every second year.
Sabine von Mering

GER 103a German Culture Through Film
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: GER 30a.
Approaches an understanding of contemporary German culture through film by focusing on one of the most fascinating and turbulent of national cinemas. Landmark films from the 1920s to the present and pertinent essays, articles and studies will provide a historical perspective on decisive social and cultural phenomena. Major themes include Vergangenheitsbewältigung, multi-ethnic societies, terrorism, life in the GDR, and cultural trends at the beginning of the 21st century. Students learn also about the technical side of filmmaking and produce their own short film under professional guidance. Usually offered every second year.
Kathrin Breuer

GER 105b Survey of German Literature from Its Beginnings to the Present
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: GER 30a.
Examines the relationship between individual and their society throughout history on the basis of fictional and nonfictional German texts (poetry, philosophical texts, short prose, and plays), films and artifacts (photographs, paintings, monuments, coins and tools). While this course focuses on the work of German-language writers, it offers also insights into German social history and the socio-political changes accompanying the transformation of a medieval God-given society into a multi-ethnic society of the 20th and 21st century. Usually offered every second year.
Kathrin Breuer

HBRW 121b Let's converse in Hebrew: Life Challenges of an Israeli Family through a TV Series
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.
An advanced-intermediate conversation course for students who wish to improve their speaking skills. Role playing, vocabulary building, and guided speaking activities develop conversational skills for various situations. Reading and discussion of contemporary texts, based on the popular Israeli TV series, "Yellow Peppers", assist in vocabulary building. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 144a Hebrew through Plays and Drama
[ ca djw fl hum oc wi ]
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.
Focuses on improving Hebrew language skills at the advanced-intermediate level through critical reading and analysis of authentic and contemporary Israeli short plays and studying the comparison between plays in Israel and those in the U.S. The course will examine theories in aspects of drama and implement drama techniques including improvisation, movement, and creative expression. The course readings cover topics such as social diversity and justice as well as human rights and awareness of world identities. The course culminates in the writing of an original scene or one-act play in Hebrew. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 152b Ethnic Minorities in the Modern State of Israel
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.
Examines the cultures and institutions of ethnic minorities in Israel. By examining and discussing the cultural characteristics and political activism of non-Jewish communities in Israel, this course exposes students to various faces of Israeli society, and to its multi-ethnic and multi-cultural identity. Special one-time offering, spring 2021.
Rima Farah

HBRW 164b Israeli Theater
[ ca djw fl hum oc wi ]
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.
An advanced-intermediate course that promotes language skills through the reading and analysis of plays. The student's creativity is developed through participation in acting and creative writing assignments. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

HIS/HSSP 142a Health Activism
[ deis-us oc ss ]
Formerly offered as HSSP 142a.
Examines the history of health activism in the U.S. over the past 125 years, from late 19th century debates over compulsory vaccination to contemporary public health campaigns around gang violence and incarceration. Usually offered every third year.
Wangui Muigai

HISP 198a Experiential Research Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies
[ dl hum oc ]
May be taught in English or Spanish.
A research seminar in which each student has the opportunity to become an “expert” in a Hispanic literary or cultural text/topic that captures her or his imagination, inspired by a study abroad experience; an earlier class in Hispanic Studies; community-engaged learning; etc. Instruction in literary/cultural theory, researching a subject, and analytical skills necessary for developing a scholarly argument. Students present research in progress and write a research paper of significant length. Usually offered every year.
Fernando Rosenberg or Jerónimo Arellano

HIST 52b Europe in the Modern World
[ oc ss ]
Explores European history from the Enlightenment to the present emphasizing how developments in Europe have shaped and been shaped by broader global contexts. Topics include: revolution, industrialization, political and social reforms, nationalism, imperialism, legacies of global wars, totalitarianism, and decolonization. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller

HIST 126a Early Modern Europe (1500-1700)
[ oc ss ]
Survey of politics, ideas, and society in Western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Focuses on the changing relationship between the emerging modern state and its subjects. Topics include the development of ideologies of resistance and conformity, regional loyalties and the problems of empire, changing technologies of war and repression, and the social foundations of order and disorder. Usually offered every third year.
Govind Sreenivasan

HIST 136b Global War and Revolutions in the Eighteenth Century
[ djw oc ss wi ]
Surveys global conflicts and revolutions and examines exchanges of idea, peoples, and goods in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World. Explores the legacies of inter-imperial rivalry and the intellectual borrowings and innovations of the American, French, and Haitian revolutions in comparative perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller

HIST 178b Britain and India: Connected Histories
[ djw oc ss wi ]
Surveys the history of Britain and India from the rise of the East India Company to the present. Explores cultural and economic exchanges; shifts in power and phases of imperial rule; resistance and collaboration; nationalism; decolonization and partition; and postcolonial legacies. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller

HIST 187b Unequal Histories: Caste, Religion, and Dissent in India
[ djw nw oc ss ]
Examines the religious, political, and social dimensions of discrimination in India. In order to study caste, power, and representation, we will look at religious texts, historical debates, film, and literature from the Vedic Age to contemporary India. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh

HSSP 110a Integrative Seminar on Health
[ oc ss ]
Prerequisite: Senior status in the HSSP major.
The capstone course is required for all HSSP seniors and is designed to integrate their academic coursework and fieldwork/laboratory experiences across a range of health-related disciplines. Section topics vary from semester to semester at the discretion of the instructing faculty member. Refer to the Schedule of Classes for specific topics. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

HSSP 118b Viewing Medicine and Health Policy Through the Lens of Literature
[ oc ss ]
Literature – fiction, memoir, poetry and drama – offers a powerful lens for studying key health policy issues. By harnessing the power of authors’ imaginations, insights and compelling stories, students can gain deeper insight into patient centered care, ethics in research, access to healthcare, obesity and hunger, role of the pharmaceutical and tobacco, aging policy, disability, and clinicians’ roles and training. Usually offered every third year.
Deborah Garnick

IGS 30a Senior Leadership Forum
[ oc ]
Prerequisite: open only to seniors in the International and Global Studies major. Yields half-course credit.
Seniors in the IGS program will reflect on all they have learned in coursework and off-campus experiences as they prepare to tell the story of their interests and discoveries. All students will build portfolios and prepare professional oral presentations to present to potential employers, graduate schools, and students in the IGS major. Usually offered every year.
Chandler Rosenberger

ITAL 105a Italian Conversation and Composition
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: ITAL 30a or the equivalent. Students enrolling for the first time in an Italian Studies course at Brandeis should refer to www.brandeis.edu/registrar/newstudent/testing.html#italtest.
This course is designed for students interested in continuing the study of the Italian language, culture, and literature beyond the intermediate level. The development of oral and written proficiency is emphasized through the expansion of vocabulary and activities aimed to improve analytical, interpretive, and presentational skills. Students will learn about different facets of contemporary Italian culture and society through different media such as music, newspaper and magazine articles, literary texts, and films. This is a course of advanced Italian and as such, is a bridge course that prepares students to upper-level courses through the practice of advanced grammatical structures and vocabulary. Usually offered every spring.
Silvia Monteleone

ITAL 106a Storia e storie d'Italia: Advanced Italian through Narrative, Film, and Other Media
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: ITAL 30a, ITAL 105a, or the equivalent. Students enrolling for the first time in an Italian Studies course at Brandeis should refer to www.brandeis.edu/registrar/newstudent/testing.html#italtest.
Aims to prepare students for upper-level courses and to advance language fluency through the practice of all language skills at different ranges of advanced proficiency, grammatical structures, and vocabulary. This course offers a close study and analysis of representative Italian literary texts and films to further improve proficiency in Italian through analytical, interpretive, and presentational activities. Each year, emphasis will be given to a specific theme, such as women writers and Italian history through short stories. Reading and listening activities followed by in-class discussions and presentations are designed to strengthen communication and reading skills. Usually offered every fall.
Silvia Monteleone

ITAL 110a Introduction to Italian Literature: Love, Intrigues and Politics from Dante to Goldoni
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: ITAL 105a or 106a or permission of the instructor.
Surveys the masterpieces of Italian literature from Dante to Goldoni’s stage. Students will explore different themes such as love, conflict, and politics in Italian early masterpieces by analyzing and comparing genres, historical periods, and schools of thought. Since Oral communication skills are the core of methodology and pedagogy for Italian 110, students will work on primary texts through dynamic and guided discussions, interpretative textual analysis, and different styles of presentations. Usually offered every second year.
Paola Servino

ITAL 128a Mapping Modern Italian Culture: Inherited Conflicts
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: ITAL 105a or 106a or permission of the instructor. Conducted in Italian with Italian texts.
Covers a broad and significant range of cultural topics that exemplify creative responses to historical events and social dilemmas that have shaped contemporary Italian culture including economic changes, the new face of immigration in Italy, and the social fight against the Mafia and Camorra through literature and cinema. Usually offered every second year.
Paola Servino

JAPN 40b Advanced Intermediate Japanese
[ fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in JAPN 30a or the equivalent. Meets four days per week for a total of four class hours per week and one half-hour tutoring session per week.
Continuation of JAPN 30a. Further refining of a student's four language skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing Japanese through various classroom activities, workbook, audio, video, and writing essays. Usually offered every spring.
Yukimi Nakano

JAPN 105a Advanced Conversation and Composition I
[ fl hum oc wi ]
Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in JAPN 40b or the equivalent. Four class hours per week.
Continuation of JAPN 40b. For advanced students of Japanese who wish to enhance and improve their speaking proficiency as well as reading and writing skills. Students will develop their proficiency in reading and speaking through texts, films, videos and discussions on current issues on Japanese society. Various forms of writing will be assigned to improve students' writing skills. Usually offered every year.
Yukimi Nakano

JAPN 105b Advanced Conversation and Composition II
[ fl hum oc wi ]
Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in JAPN 105a or the equivalent. Four class hours per week.
Continuation of JAPN 105a. For advanced students of Japanese who wish to enhance and improve their speaking proficiency as well as reading and writing skills. Students will develop their proficiency in reading and speaking through texts, films, videos and discussions on current issues on Japanese society. Various forms of writing will be assigned to improve students' writing skills. Usually offered every year.
Yukimi Nakano

JAPN 120a Topics in Contemporary Japanese Culture and Society
[ fl hum nw oc wi ]
Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in JAPN 105b or the equivalent.
Provides advanced students of Japanese an opportunity to develop reading and writing skills through class discussion, presentation, group work and writing in different genres as a preparation for further advanced studies in Japanese. Familiarizes students with different facets of contemporary Japanese culture and society. Readings are supplemented by films and related visual materials. Usually offered every fall.
Hisae Fujiwara

JAPN 120b Readings in Modern Japanese Literature
[ fl hum nw oc wi ]
Prerequisite: JAPN 120a or the equivalent.
Students read, analyze, discuss, and write about Japanese short fiction by a wide range of modern and contemporary authors. Screening of film adaptations and television programs complement class discussion, which is conducted in Japanese. Usually offered every year.
Matthew Fraleigh

JAPN 165a The Tale of Genji
[ hum nw oc ]
Often called "the world's first novel," The Tale of Genji has captivated readers with its narrative of love, rivalry, friendship, and loss for centuries. This class explores what has given the text its prominent place in Japanese and world literature. Usually offered every third year.
Matthew Fraleigh

LALS 1a Introduction to Latin American/LatinX: Cultures, Histories, and Societies
[ nw oc ss ]
Provides a broad overview of the histories, cultures, and politics that continue to shape the Americas; specifically of the vast regions and populations of what came to be labeled as "Latin America," "the Caribbean" and what we now call "Latinx " populations in the USA. The class provides an introduction to Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies. It draws from different disciplines and fields of study that compose this field, such as history, anthropology, literature, visual arts, film, political science, among other perspectives and methodologies. Usually offered every year.
Staff

LGLS 10a Introduction to Law
[ oc ss ]
Surveys the nature, process, and institutions of law: the reasoning of lawyers and judges, the interplay of cases and policies, the impact of history and culture, and the ideals of justice and responsibility in a global context. Usually offered every fall.
Daniel Breen

LGLS 89a Law and Society Internship and Seminar
[ oc wi ]
Prerequisites: LGLS 10a and one other LGLS course or permission of the instructor. To obtain an internship, students must discuss their placements with the LGLS internship director by April 15 for fall term internships or by November 15 for spring term internships. This course may not be repeated for credit.
A biweekly class, a supervised law-related internship in a public agency or nonprofit organization, and a related research paper. Internships are twice per week for not more than 15 hours per week. Examples of internship activities include investigating discrimination cases, negotiating between consumers and small business, and attending criminal and family courts. Internships must be arranged through the program administrator. Usually offered every semester.
Rosalind Kabrhel

LGLS 130a Conflict Analysis and Intervention
[ oc ss ]
Examines alternatives to litigation, including negotiation and mediation. Through simulations and court observations, students assess their own attitudes about and skills in conflict resolution. Analyzes underlying theories in criminal justice system, divorce, adoption, and international arena. Usually offered every second year.
Melissa Stimell

LGLS 130aj Conflict Analysis and Intervention
[ oc ss ]
This hands-on course invites students to address social problems in immigration policy and practice through public policy reform, community organizing and legal representation. It provides background in the theories, advocacy skills, networks, movements and measures of institutional change that comprise social change practice. Students explore conflict resolution in the context of social justice advocacy, including litigation, community organizing, political advocacy, international institutions, negotiation, peace-making and mediation. Through simulations, court and community group observations, guided representation of immigrants and work with immigration advocacy groups, students assess their own attitudes and skills in conflict resolution, as well as the processes by which conflict resolution institutions and roles help construct the communities of which they are a part. We will analyze underlying theories of conflict and advocacy in domestic immigration and international arenas, as well as the relative efficacy of various modes for social change, such as big case litigation, coordinated ground-level litigation, cultural change approaches, peacemaking, grassroots organizing, direct action, political advocacy (lobbying) and business and other institution-building strategies. Offered as part of the JBS program.
Douglas Smith

LGLS 132b Environmental Law and Policy
[ oc ss wi ]
Provides students with an understanding of complex environmental issues from a policy perspective. We begin by considering the broad origins of environmentalism in the U.S and then focus on federal and some state and international treaties and policies. We’ll survey major environmental laws, environmental justice, risk and recent cross-cutting issues. Finally, we’ll discuss current environmental issues ripped from the headlines, like fracking, lead in drinking water as in Flint, Michigan, and the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

LGLS 161b Advocacy for Policy Change
[ oc ss wi ]
This hands-on course invites students to address concrete social problems through public policy reform. It provides background in theories, advocacy skills, networks, and key players that drive the legislative process. Focusing on policy change at the statehouse level, students engage with elected officials and community organizations to advance key legislation affecting social welfare, health, education, and economic justice. Usually offered every year.
Melissa Stimell

LING 140a Architecture of Conversation: Discourse and Pragmatics
[ dl oc ss ]
Prerequisite: LING 100a or permission of the instructor.
Assuming a theory of sentence-level linguistic competence, what phenomena are still to be accounted for in the explication of language knowledge? The class explores topics in language use in context, including anaphora, deixis, implicature, speech acts, information packaging, and pragmatics of dialogue. Usually offered every second year.
Sophia Malamud

LING 197a Language Acquisition and Development
[ dl oc ss ]
Open to all students.
The central problem of first language acquisition is to explain what makes this formidable task possible. Theories of language acquisition are studied, and conclusions are based on recent research in the development of syntax, semantics, and phonology. The overall goal is to arrive at a coherent picture of the language learning process. Usually offered every second year.
Sophia Malamud or Keith Plaster

MATH 16b Applied Linear Algebra Practicum
[ dl oc ]
Prerequisite: MATH 15a or MATH 22a. Yields half-course credit.
Introduces fundamental skills for both computing and oral communication in the context of applied linear algebra problems. Includes basics of Python, numpy, and matplotlib. Usually offered every year.
Staff

MATH 40a Introduction to Applied Mathematics
[ oc sn ]
Prerequisites: MATH 15a or MATH 22a and MATH 20a or MATH 22b.
Introduces the problems and issues of applied mathematics, with emphasis on how mathematical ideas can have a major impact on diverse fields of human inquiry. Usually offered every fall.
Staff

MUS 56b Romanticism in European Music and Literature: Breakups, Breakdowns, and Beauty
[ ca oc ]
Open to Music majors and non-majors.
Romantic art abounds in depictions of hallucinators, madwomen, obsessives, and other individuals whose thoughts and behaviors deviate sharply from societal norms. This semester, we'll seek to understand the cultural and historical significance of the ways in which late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music and literature portray exceptional emotional, mental, and physiological states. We’ll investigate the connections among madness, genius, physical illness, and the supernatural in the Romantic imagination, and also think about the artistic techniques contemporary writers and composers used to represent “extreme” psychology. Our approach to this material will be comparative rather than strictly historical: we'll look at works written in different countries and different time periods within the period, grouped together by theme. Usually offered every third year.
Emily Frey

NEJS 123a Maps, Graphs and Timelines: Technology and Design in Historical Research
[ dl hum oc ]
Learn the practical skills to represent data digitally as graphs, maps, timelines and other models. Students will develop their own research projects in topics of their interest and learn to think critically about the opportunities and pitfalls that digital methods pose, for scholarship, inclusion and for social justice. The course will include extensive practical instruction. Usually offered every second year.
Alexander Kaye

NEJS 123b Crossing Boundaries and Being Human in Rabbinic Literature
[ hum oc ]
Being "human" is defined by distinguishing between and ordering different beings according to race, gender, disability and species. This privileges some in society while diminishing the value of others. This course introduces the main texts of rabbinic literature around fundamental questions of what is a legal "person" and what is not. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NPSY 174b Visual Cognition
[ oc sn ss ]
Explores complex processes of visual perception. Topics include art and visual perception, visual perception by machines, visual imagery in everyday life, visual basis of reading, visual search, perceptual learning, computational models of visual perception, and face recognition. Usually offered every second year.
Robert Sekuler

NPSY 176b Constructing Reality
[ oc ss ]
Prerequisites: NPSY 11b, NPSY 12a, NPSY 16a, NPSY 17a, NPSY 22b, or NPSY 199a and junior or senior standing.
How do our brains and minds construct our reality? For answers, the course will draw on insights from scientific psychology, neuroscience, and medicine, particularly how damage to the nervous system can disorder our sense of reality. Special consideration will be given to the nature of perception, evaluation of evidence, and decision making. Usually offered every second year.
Robert Sekuler

NPSY 180a Social Neuroscience and Culture
[ djw oc sn ss ]
Prerequisites: PSYC 10a, 51a, and 52a, or NBIO 140a, or permission of the instructor. May not be taken for credit by students who took PSYC 213a in prior years. Formerly offered as PSYC 180a.
Introduces empirical research on a breadth of social neuroscience topics-- including the self, stereotyping, and moral reasoning--with a more focused coverage of culture. Emphasis will be placed on literature comparing Eastern and Western cultures. Usually offered every second year.
Angela Gutchess

NPSY 182a Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience: Infancy through Adolescence
[ oc ss ]
Prerequisites: PSYC 10a or NPSY 11b and either PSYC 33a or NPSY 22b or permission of the instructor.
Current research and methods in developmental cognitive neuroscience are surveyed through analysis of journal articles on language, memory, attention, executive functions, and social cognition. Infancy through adolescence are covered in both typically and atypically (Autism, ADHD, etc.) developing populations. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Snyder

PHIL 134b Philosophy of Perception
[ hum oc ]
Could our sensory experiences be exactly as they are if we were brains in vats, or trapped in The Matrix? Do our senses put us into direct contact with the external world? If not, can we still come to know what the world is like on the basis of our senses? Usually offered every year.
Umrau Sethi

PHIL 168a Kant
[ hum oc ]
Prerequisite: PHIL 1a or permission from the instructor.
An attempt to understand and evaluate the main ideas of the Critique of Pure Reason, the subjectivity of space and time, the nature of consciousness, and the objectivity of the concepts of substance and causality. Usually offered every year.
Kate Moran

PHYS 39a Advanced Physics Laboratory
[ oc qr sn wi ]
Prerequisite: PHYS 20a. This course may be repeated once for credit with permission of the instructor. This course is co-taught with PHYS 169b.
Experiments in a range of topics in physics, possibly including selections from the following: wave optics, light scattering, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, numerical simulation and modeling, phase transitions, laser tweezers, chaotic dynamics, and optical microscopy. Students work in depth on three experiments during the term. Usually offered every year.
Staff (fall 2021), Guillaume Duclos (spring 2022)

POL 89a Political Science Internship
[ oc ]
Students in the course examine political issues alongside professionals in the field. Students will evaluate the applicability of political science theories and concepts to real-world politics. Seminar meetings and assignments provide perspective and a substantive basis for the internship experience. Usually offered every year.
Staff

POL 111a The American Congress
[ oc ss ]
The structure and behavior of the Congress. Emphasis on the way member incentives for reelection, power on Capitol Hill, and good public policy shape Congress. Usually offered every second year.
Jill Greenlee

POL 148b Dynamics of Dictatorship: Authoritarian Politics in the 20th and 21st Centuries
[ oc ss ]
Prerequisite: POL 11b.
Despite the world-wide advance of democratization over the past half century, authoritarian regimes continue to govern the vast majority of humanity around the world. Dynamics of Dictatorship aims to provide an analytic grounding in the logic and dynamics of authoritarian politics. What are the different flavors of authoritarian rule? How do authoritarian regimes sustain their control over society? Why do most people obey? How and when do people resist? Has technological advance enhanced the power of authoritarian regimes? What role do international forces play in authoritarian regime survival? When do authoritarian regimes collapse? This course will explore leading theoretical research on authoritarian politics and it will ground that theory in historical and contemporary cases of authoritarian rule found in Russia, Germany, Venezuela, Chile, China, Iraq, Syria, North Korea, Zaire, Zimbabwe, and beyond. Usually offered every second year.
Eva Bellin

POL 161b Good Neighbor or Imperial Power: The Contested Evolution of US-Latin American Relations
[ djw oc ss wi ]
Studies the ambivalent and complex relationship between the U.S. and Latin America, focusing on how the exploitative dimension of this relationship has shaped societies across the region, and on how Latin American development can be beneficial for the U.S. Usually offered every year.
Alejandro Trelles

POL 173a Seminar: U.S. Foreign Economic Policy
[ oc ss wi ]
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above.
Presents the history and politics of the foreign economic policy in the United States. Emphasis is on political and economic considerations that influence the domestic actors and institutions involved in the formulation of policy. Usually offered every year.
Kerry Chase

PSYC 36b Adolescence and the Transition to Maturity
[ oc ss ]
Prerequisite: PSYC 10a.
Examines the core issues (identity, intimacy, sexuality, spirituality, etc.) that define development during adolescence and the transition to young adulthood. Heavy emphasis is placed on integrating research and theory in understanding adolescence and young adulthood. Usually offered every year.
Ellen Wright

PSYC 121b Technology Use and Well-Being: Multidisciplinary Perspectives
[ dl oc sn ]
Prerequisite: PSYC 10a Introduction to Psychology. PSYC 52a recommended.
Drawing on perspectives from psychology, neuroscience, computer-human interaction, and public health, this course explores the positive and negative impact of technology usage on our well-being across the lifespan and how these technologies influence social life, adult development/aging, and health/health behavior. Special one-time offering, spring 2022.
Xin Yao Lin

PSYC 130b Life Span Development: Early and Middle Adulthood
[ dl oc ss ]
Prerequisites: PSYC 10a, PSYC 51a, and PSYC 52a, plus one of the following: PSYC 31a, PSYC 33a, PSYC 36b or PSYC 37a, or permission of the instructor.
Seminar on advanced topics in life span developmental theory and methodology. Substantive emphasis will be on cognitive, personality, social, and physical changes that occur in early adulthood and midlife. Usually offered every second year.
Margie Lachman

PSYC 160b Seminar on Sex Differences
[ oc ss wi ]
Prerequisite: PSYC 10a, 51a, 52a or permission of the instructor.
Considers research evidence bearing on sex differences in the cognitive domain and in the social domain, evaluating this evidence in light of biological, cultural, and social-cognitive theories as well as methodological issues. Usually offered every year.
Ellen Wright

RECS 135a Russian Short Fictions: Where is Justice in This World?
[ djw hum oc ]
Open to all students. Conducted in English. Students may choose to do readings either in English translation or in Russian.
Focuses on the great tradition of the short story as practiced by Russian writers and the connection and divisions among them. This genre invites extreme stylistic and narrative experimentation ranging from the comic to the tragic, as well as being a vehicle for striking expressions of complex social, philosophical, and religious themes. Usually offered every second year.
Robin Feuer Miller

RECS 144b Tolstoy and Dostoevsky: Confronting the Novel
[ hum oc wi ]
Where do Tolstoy and Dostoevsky fit in the theory and history of the novel? Students will engage in close readings of two of the greatest novels of all time: War and Peace and The Brothers Karamazov. We will explore the genesis of each work, its cultural backdrop and critical responses. Usually offered every third year.
Robin Feuer Miller

RECS/THA 148a Russian Drama: Text and Performance
[ hum oc ]
Open to all students. Conducted in English. Students may choose to do readings either in English translation or in Russian. Formerly offered as RECS 148a.
Examines the rich tradition of Russian drama and theater. Readings include masterpieces of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including those by Chekhov, Pushkin, Gogol, Ostrovsky, Mayakovsky, Erdman, and others. Usually offered every second year.
David Powelstock

RUS 106b Advanced Russian Language through Film
[ dl fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: RUS 29b or RUS 40b with a grade of C- or higher, or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. Taught in Russian.
For advanced and heritage students of Russian who wish to enhance their proficiency and accuracy in speaking, listening and writing, and learn about Russian/Soviet culture. Course activities focus on discussions of Russian and Soviet societies as portrayed in Russian/Soviet films; oral presentation assignments help students develop their public speaking skills. Usually offered every fourth year.
Irina Dubinina

RUS 150b Advanced Russian Language through 20th Century Literature
[ dl fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite (heritage speakers): RUS 29b with a grade of C- or higher, or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. Prerequisite (non-heritage speakers): RUS 40b or the equivalent. Taught in Russian. Course may be repeated for credit with instructor's permission.
A seminar for continuing students of Russian who wish to enhance their proficiency and accuracy in speaking, reading and writing. Focusing on the close study of Russian literature in the original Russian and the development of Russian oral and written language skills needed for the close reading and discussion of literature. Usually offered every second year.
Irina Dubinina

RUS 160b Russian/Soviet Jews: Dual Identities in Text, Image and Music
[ dl fl hum oc ]
Prerequisite: Advanced Russian language skills.
An undergraduate seminar introduces heritage and advanced students of Russian to a number of Russian Jewish artists and writers who created in the Russian language and who made significant contributions to 20th-century Soviet and Russian literature, cinema, theater, and music. Through analyses and discussions of texts, images and music created by Russian-speaking Jews, students will explore the role Russian Jews played in shaping the Soviet and modern Russian culture. Usually offered every fourth year.
Irina Dubinina

SOC 116b Social Inequalities in the Media
[ deis-us oc ss ]
Using sociological theories of media, students will examine how difference is constructed across race, gender, and sexuality and how those representations are connected to larger processes of inequality. Students are expected to complete a research project on media representations. Usually offered every second year.
Sarah Mayorga

SOC 127a Religion, Ethnicity, and Nationalism
[ djw nw oc ss ]
Examines three sources of identity that are influential in global affairs: religion, ethnicity and nationalism. Considers theories of the relationship among these identities, especially "secularization theory," then reviews historical examples such as Poland, Iran, India, and Pakistan. Usually offered every second year.
Chandler Rosenberger

SOC 130a Families, Kinship and Sexuality
[ oc ss ]
Counts toward the completion of the joint MA degree in Sociology & Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Investigates changes in the character of American families over the last two centuries. A central concern will be the dynamic interactions among economic, cultural, political, and social forces, and how they shape and are reshaped by families over time. Particular attention is paid to how experiences of men and women vary by class, race, and ethnicity. Usually offered every year.
Karen Hansen

SOC 138a Sociology of Race, Gender, and Class
[ deis-us oc ss ]
Examines race, class and gender as critical dimensions of social difference that organize social systems. Uses a variety of media to analyze how race, class and gender as axes of identity and inequality (re)create forms of domination and subordination in schools, labor markets, families, and the criminal justice system. Usually offered every third year. Usually offered every third year.
Derron Wallace

SOC 147a Sustainable and Resilient Cities
[ oc ss ]
Studies innovations in the U.S and around the world that enhance urban sustainability, healthy communities, environmental justice, climate resilience and adaptation. Grassroots sustainability and climate movements, as well as environmental, health, and urban planning practice are examined. May be combined with internships and action research. May be combined with internships and action research. Usually offered every year.
Staff

SOC 169b Issues in Sexuality
[ oc ss ]
Not open to first-year undergraduate students. This course counts toward the completion of the joint MA degree in Sociology & Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Explores dimensions of human sexuality. This course will take as its central tenet that humans are sexual beings and their sexuality is shaped by gender, class, race, culture, and history. It will explore the contradictory ways of understanding sexual behavior and relationships. The course intends to teach students about the social nature of sexual expression. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

THA 15b Public Speaking: The Art of Oral Communication
[ oc ]
Does not meet the requirements for the major or minor in Theater Arts. May not be used to satisfy the Creative Arts distribution requirement.
Introduces the basic concepts and techniques of making presentations to groups of people. Students explore the principles of human communication and apply them to various situations and forms of spoken discourse. Students develop a process for analyzing the audience and situation; for choosing, limiting, and researching a subject; for developing effective habits of vocal delivery; and for writing their own speeches. Usually offered every year.
Jennifer Cleary, Marya Lowry, and Robert Walsh

THA 16b Genius in Small Group Communication: Theory and Practice
[ oc ]
Does not meet the requirements for the major or minor in Theater Arts. May not be used to satisfy the Creative Arts distribution requirement.
The study of small group communication centers on placing the self as secondary and the group as primary, implementing the art of compromise and collaboration. This course develops critical skills in communicating in public and within a small group context. Course meetings introduce theoretical frameworks around small group communication and students will immediately put ideas into practice in class. Requires group work inside and outside of class. Usually offered every second year.
Jennifer Cleary

THA 138b Creative Pedagogy
[ ca oc ]
Focuses on creativity in pedagogy from a theatrical lens and is meant for anyone who wishes to teach anyone just about anything! This course will focus on the building of community and confidence that takes place within any learning environment that utilizes creative and theatrical arts as a modality. We will discuss the foundation and theories behind teaching, learning, and creative expression, allowing students to ground their own work in what has and hasn't worked in the past, as well as to expand their own creative reach and risk-taking capabilities. Usually offered every second year.
Jennifer Cleary

THA 199a Senior Seminar: The Professional Experience
[ oc ]
Prerequisite: Senior standing. Yields half-course credit. Open only to Theater Art majors.
Professional field exploration and preparation for all seniors graduating with a degree in Theater Arts, covering a variety of topics through in-depth seminars with working professionals, faculty, and staff. Students will be exposed to all of the possibilities awaiting them within the professional field and will gain skill in presenting their own work In theater. Students in the seminar will work extensively on their oral communication skills in professional and presentational settings. Usually offered every year.
Jen Cleary

WGS 5a Women, Genders, and Sexualities
[ deis-us dl oc ss ]
This interdisciplinary course introduces central concepts and topics in the field of women's, gender, and sexuality studies. Explores the position of women and other genders in diverse settings and the impact of gender as a social, cultural, and intellectual category in the United States and around the globe. Asks how gendered institutions, behaviors, and representations have been configured in the past and function in the present, and also examines the ways in which gender and sexuality intersect with many other vectors of identity and circumstance in forming human affairs. Usually offered every fall.
ChaeRan Freeze, Sarah Lamb, or Harleen Singh

WGS 105b Feminisms: History, Theory, and Practice
[ deis-us oc ss ]
Prerequisite: Students are encouraged, though not required, to take WGS 5a prior to enrolling in this course.
Examines diverse theories of sex and gender within a multicultural framework, considering historical changes in feminist thought, the theoretical underpinnings of various feminist practices, and the implications of diverse and often conflicting theories for both academic inquiry and social change. Usually offered every year.
ChaeRan Freeze, Keridwen Luis, or Faith Smith

WGS 135b Postcolonial Feminisms
[ hum oc ]
Examines feminist theories, literature, and film from formerly colonized, Anglophone countries in South Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa. It takes the shared path of decolonization and postcoloniality to discuss the development of feminist discourse and the diverse trajectories of gendered lives. Usually offered every third year.
Harleen Singh