University Bulletin (2022-2023)

The writing intensive requirement teaches writing as a mode of learning, not simply as a way to articulate what is learned. Students become familiar with the conventions and intellectual traditions of the discipline of their major and use writing to acquire knowledge in that discipline.

For students entering Brandeis beginning fall 2019, the writing intensive requirement will be fulfilled for 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 writing intensive for a specific major.

For students entering Brandeis prior to fall 2019, courses that satisfy the requirement in a particular semester are designated "wi" 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 79b African American Literature of the Twentieth Century
[ hum ss wi ]

An introduction to the essential themes, aesthetic concerns, and textual strategies that characterize African American writing of this century. Examines those influences that have shaped the poetry, fiction, and prose nonfiction of representative writers. Usually offered every second year.
Brandon Callender or Faith Smith

AAAS 80a Economy and Society in Africa
[ nw ss wi ]

Perspectives on the interaction of economic and other variables in African societies. Topics include the ethical and economic bases of distributive justice; models of social theory, efficiency, and equality in law; the role of economic variables in the theory of history; and world systems analysis. Usually offered every third year.
Wellington Nyangoni

AAAS/ENG 80a Black Looks: The Promise and Perils of Photography
[ deis-us djw hum wi ]

Formerly offered as ENG 80a.

Explores photography and Africans, African-Americans and Caribbean people, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. This course will examine fiction that refers to the photograph; various photographic archives; and theorists on photography and looking. Usually offered every third year.
Faith Smith

AMST 30b American Environmental History
[ ss wi ]

Provides an overview of the relationship between nature and culture in North America. Covers Native Americans, the European invasion, the development of a market system of resource extraction and consumption, the impact of industrialization, and environmentalist responses. Current environmental issues are placed in historical context. Usually offered every year.
Brian Donahue

ANTH 60b Archaeological Analysis
[ dl ss wi ]

Introduction to archaeological laboratory methods and analyses, emphasizing hands-on experience and research design. Students engage in materials analysis and research working with archaeological artifacts. Course participants will explore the range of theoretical approaches and methodological steps comprising the archaeological process. Topics include considering artifact recovery, analysis, conservation, and eventual publication. The class also considers the challenges of interpreting human behavior from material remains, and the ethical quandaries of debates surrounding cultural heritage that modern archaeologists must consider, including the questions of who narrates and owns the past. Usually offered every second year.

Charlie Goudge

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, Sarah Lamb, or Pascal Menoret

BIOL 18b General Biology Laboratory
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisite: BIOL 15b and sophomore standing. Yields full-course credit. This lab is time-intensive and students will be expected to come 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 modern molecular biology techniques and illustrates basic approaches to experimental design and problem solving in molecular and cellular biology including applications of biochemical techniques. Usually offered every year.

Kene Piasta

BIOL 19b General Biology Laboratory
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisite: BIOL 15b.

Provides online experience with modern molecular biology techniques and illustrates basic approaches to experimental design and problem solving in molecular and cellular biology including applications of biochemical techniques. Usually offered every year.
Melissa Kosinski-Collins

BIOL 23a Ecology
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisites: BIOL 16a, or a score of 5 on the AP Biology Exam, or permission of the instructor.

Illustrates the science of ecology, from individual, population, and community-level perspectives. Includes citizen science ecological research to contextualize theory. Usually offered every year.
Colleen Hitchcock

BIOL 26a Plant Biology
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisites: BIOL 14a and BIOL 15b.

Adopts a molecular and chemical approach as we explore various concepts in plant biology including plant metabolism, structure-function, development, genetics and taxonomy. Intended for students who are familiar with central dogma, structure-function relationship and genetic inheritance, but have not yet applied those concepts in plant systems. Usually offered every second year.
Melissa Kosinski-Collins

BISC 5b Diseases of the Mind
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisite: High school chemistry. May not be taken by students who have completed BIOL 15b. Does not meet the requirements for the major in Biology.

An exploration of biology of several protein folding diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, ALS, and mad cow disease and their effect on normal brain function. Examines the medical and ethical challenges of therapies, drug design, and clinical trials on patients afflicted with these disorders. Usually offered every second year.
Melissa Kosinski-Collins

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

CHEM 69a* Advanced Laboratory: Materials Chemistry
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisites: C- or higher in CHEM 25a and b, and CHEM 29a and b, or the equivalent. Four semester-hour credits.

Introduces the student to selected topics in materials chemistry and provides hands-on experience for making materials that find applications in the real world or are being intensively explored for a wide range of applications. By focusing on the design, control, and characterization of the atomic and molecular structures, macroscopic properties, and applications of materials, we will introduce materials chemistry as a frontier of science that aims to address important societal problems, such as energy and health. Usually offered every second year.
Bing Xu

CHEM 39b Advanced Laboratory: Inorganic Chemistry
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisites: Satisfactory grades (C- or better) in CHEM 121a or 122b, or permission of the instructor. Four semester-hour credits.

While the emphasis of this course is on synthetic inorganic chemistry, the content is interdisciplinary in nature, covering topics and techniques in the areas of analytical and organic chemistry as well as inorganic and organometallic chemistry. Compounds are synthesized and characterized by a wide range of instrumental methods of analysis (including GC-MS, IR, and NMR spectroscopies, magnetic measurements, and electrochemical methods). To better mimic a research laboratory, experiments are comprised of 3 research projects, lasting 3-5 weeks each, followed by a lab report in the style of a peer-reviewed journal article. The lectures cover the appropriate scientific and historical background for each project and the use of experimental techniques. One afternoon of lab per week and one one-hour lecture per week. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

CHEM 49a Advanced Laboratory: Organic Chemistry
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisites: C- or higher in CHEM 25a and b, and CHEM 29a and b, or the equivalent. Four semester-hour credits.

Compounds will be synthesized, purified and then characterized by NMR, IR and mass spectroscopy. Multi-week projects will be completed with a lab report in the style of a journal article with full experimental supporting information. The lectures cover the necessary background and experimental techniques for each project. Usually offered every second year.
Barry Snider

CHEM 59b Advanced Laboratory: Physical Chemistry
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisites: A satisfactory grade (C- or higher in CHEM 18b or equivalent; CHEM 141a or 142a (may be taken concurrently) or equivalent. One one-hour lecture and one afternoon of lab per week.

This course introduces the student to a number of topics of current interest in physical and analytical chemistry and provides experimental verification of physico-chemical principles in thermodynamics, kinetics, macromolecules, organic chemistry, semiconductors, nanochemistry, photochemistry, magnetic resonance imaging and electrochemistry. The properties, reactions, and structure of compounds are understood by evaluating their physiochemical responses to changes in experimental conditions. The experiments use synthesis, spectroscopy, chromatography, electrochemical and other instrumental methods employed in the modern chemical laboratory. The program includes the methodology of quantitative measurement, statistical data analysis, and report writing. One one-hour lecture and one afternoon of laboratory per week. Usually offered every second year.
Thomas Pochapsky

ECON 26b Writing in Economics Practicum
[ wi ]

Prerequisite: ECON 82b. Course may be taken as a corequisite. Yields half-course credit.

Introduces students to how economists communicate research and policy analyses to the public through writing exercises on macroeconomic policy and economic indicators. Usually offered every semester.
Kim Chase, Steve Sass

ECS 45a The Essay as Form
[ wi ]

Corequisite: ECS 100a or ECS 100b. Yields half-course credit. Fulfills the writing intensive requirement for European Cultural Studies majors under the Brandeis Core.

Usually offered every spring.
Stephen Dowden

ENG 1a Introduction to Literary Studies
[ hum wi ]

This course is designed to introduce students to basic skills and concepts needed for the study of Anglophone literature and culture. These include skills in close reading; identification and differentiation of major literary styles and periods; knowledge of basic critical terms; definition of genres. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

ENG 7a American Literature from 1900 to 2000
[ hum wi ]

Focuses on literature and cultural and historical politics of major authors. Prose and poetry. May include Eliot, Frost, Williams, Moore, Himes, Cather, and Faulkner as well as contemporary authors. Usually offered every second year.
John Burt or Caren Irr

ENG 14b Literary Encounters: Natives and Settlers in New England
[ hum wi ]

Examines life-writings, oral stories, and Massachusetts-language writings from 17th and 18th-century New England, as well as canonical poems, sermons, essays and narratives from the time. Discusses Native histories and theories of writing from Native American studies. Asks about the place of early New England works in American literary history. Special one-time offering, spring 2022.

Yi He

ENG 19a Introduction to Creative Writing Workshop
[ hum wi ]

Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis.

A workshop for beginning writers. Practice and discussion of short literary forms such as fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Other forms may also be explored. Usually offered every year.
Visiting Writer

ENG 19b The Autobiographical Imagination: Creative Nonfiction Workshop
[ hum wi ]

Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Students will be selected after the submission of a sample of writing, preferably four to seven pages. Please refer to the Schedule of Classes for submission formats and deadlines within registration periods.

Combines the study of contemporary autobiographical prose and poetry--from primarily Asian and Pacific Islander writers in the United States--with intense writing practice arising from these texts. Examines--as writers--what it means to construct the story of one's life, and ways in which lies, metaphor, and imagination transform memory to reveal and conceal the self. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

ENG 26a Novels on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: Fiction as Psychological Inquiry
[ hum wi ]

Explores novels as a mode of psychological inquiry, particularly into trauma, addiction, delusion, and depression. Our reading will help us consider the cultural complexity of mental illness and social dimensions of private suffering. How does the genre of the novel afford special attention to the intricacies of distressed mental life? And how has this art form been important for imagining psychological healing? Readings include novels from the 19th century to the present from several regions of the world, in a long lineage of narrative fiction about human psychology. Usually offered every third year.

David Sherman

ENG 40bj The Birth of the Short Story
[ hum wi ]

How did the genre of the short story emerge and what distinctive work has it performed in its long and protean history? What unique publication and reading practices have been a part of this history? And why does the short story still matter? With a focus on nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers such as Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, Twain, Chekhov, Mansfield, Hemingway, O'Connor, García Márquez, Johnson, Wallace, and Moore, we will work through the techniques and craft that have defined the short story tradition. And we will consider recent experiments in short stories, mapping where the genre is going next. Offered as part of JBS program.
David Sherman

ENG 46b American Gothic Romantic Fiction
[ hum wi ]

American Gothic and romantic fiction from Charles Brockden Brown to Cormac McCarthy. Texts by Brown, Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Faulkner, O'Connor, Warren, and McCarthy. Usually offered every third year.
John Burt

ENG 58a Literature and Medicine
[ dl hum wi ]

How has literature grappled with illness, healing, and the patient-doctor encounter? How can poetry and storytelling communicate with experience of bodily pain--and how does the body seek to communicate its suffering without language? We examine literary responses to the body's biological vulnerabilities, and seek to contextualize the vulnerable body within the cultural and political fields that shape medical knowledge and practice. Readings in fiction, poetry, essay, and drama will suggest the art, or craftsmanship, involved in the healing sciences, as well as the diagnostic nature of literary criticism. Reading for new approaches, generated by the literary imagination, to controversial issues in medical ethics. Usually offered every third year.
David Sherman

ENG 66b Contemporary Global Dystopias
[ djw hum wi ]

Explores the sources, moods, and effects of dystopian fiction from around the world. Usually offered every third year.
Caren Irr

ENG 68b Race, Colonialism, and Modernism
[ djw hum wi ]

A critical introduction to the ever-expanding field of modernist studies. We will read canonical modernists along with writers from Black America, the Caribbean, and Africa to explore the convergence of race, colonialism, and modernism. We will examine what has been silenced and left behind in the modernist compulsion to 'make it new' and highlight the contributions of writers across the black diaspora to the ongoing debates about modernism and modernity. The aim is to rethink the canon of modernism critically and explore different implications of the modern from a global perspective. Special one-time offering, spring 2021.
Chih-Chien Hsieh

ENG 79a Screenwriting Workshop: Beginning Screenplay
[ dl hum 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.

Fundamentals of screenwriting: structure, plot, conflict, character, and dialogue. Students read screenwriting theory, scripts, analyze files, and produce an outline and the first act of an original screenplay. Usually offered every third year.
Marc Weinberg

HIST 61a Cultures in Conflict since 1300
[ ss wi ]

Explores the ways in which cultures and civilizations have collided since 1300, and the ways in which cultural differences account for major wars and conflicts in world history since then. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HIST 62a Decolonization: The End of Empire
[ ss wi ]

Examines the end of the European colonial empires following the Second World War. Explores the political, social, and cultural roots of anticolonial activism, as well as the responses of colonial powers, and the emergence of a world of nation-states. Special one-time offering, fall 2018.
Staff

JOUR 15a Documentary Journalism: Reporting and Storytelling for Broadcast
[ ss wi ]

 Studies a wide range of documentary journalism, examining the genre with a critical eye. We'll assess scripts and visuals for their journalistic value, underscoring the power of rigorous reporting methods and compelling storytelling choices.  Usually offered every year.

Ann Silvio

JOUR 45a Sports Journalism and Innovation
[ ss wi ]

Innovative journalists have found new, impactful ways to cover sports. In this course, students will practice the skills needed to craft meaningful stories across platforms, examine the role of the sportswriter in modern culture, and discuss how the sports media industry has evolved to include new niches and business models. Usually offered every second year.
Jacob Feldman

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

MATH 23b Introduction to Proofs
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisites: MATH 15a, 20a, or 22a, or permission of the instructor.

Emphasizes the analysis and writing of proofs. Various techniques of proof are introduced and illustrated with topics chosen from set theory, calculus, algebra, and geometry. Usually offered every semester.
Omer Offen and Gleb Nenashev (fall), Ruth Charney and Staff (spring)

MATH 47a Introduction to Mathematical Research
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisite: MATH 23b or permission of the instructor.

Students work on research projects that involve generating data, making conjectures, and proving theorems, and present their results orally and in writing. Introduces applications of computers in mathematical research: symbolic computation, typesetting, and literature search. Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 23a The Bible and Contemporary Arts, Literature and Film
[ hum wi ]

The Bible is a foundational text for contemporary art, literature, and political discourse as well as a sacred text in some religious traditions. This course examines Biblical reflections in cultural production, in global perspective, drawing on artists and writers from Eastern and Western Europe, the US, the Middle East and Latin America. It also gives students opportunities to see their own cultural contexts anew, and to explore the Bible's possible relevance to our time. Usually offered every second year.
Lynn Kaye

PAX 89a Internship in Peace, Conflict, and Coexistence Studies
[ wi ]

Prerequisite: Students must complete an eight- to ten-week full-time internship during the summer before the semester in which the student plans to enroll in this course.

Weekly seminar for students who have undertaken a summer internship related to peace, conflict, coexistence, and related international issues. Examples of internship sites include arts organizations, international courts and tribunals, human rights organizations, and democracy organizations. Students write extensively about their internship experience in the context of previous academic work that they have done in PAX, politics, anthropology and other disciplines. Usually offered every semester.
Gordie Fellman

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

PSYC 52a Research Methods and Laboratory in Psychology
[ qr ss wi ]

Prerequisites: PSYC 10a and 51a.

The laboratory/lecture offers supervised practice in experimental design, data analysis and interpretation, and formal presentation of experimental results. Usually offered every semester.
Ellen Wright and Staff

THA 71a Playwriting
[ ca wi ]

Prerequisite: THA 10a or permission of the instructor.

Introduces students to the fundamentals of playwriting. Attention will be given to dramatic structure, the development of character, and stage dialogue. In addition to completing a number of playwriting exercises, students will write one ten-minute play and one one-act play. Work will be shared with the class and read aloud. Usually offered every year.
Ryan McKittrick

YDSH 30a Intermediate Yiddish
[ fl wi ]

Prerequisite: YDSH 20b or permission of the instructor. Meets for four class hours per week.

Third in a four-semester sequence. Students continue to develop reading skills as they sample texts from Yiddish prose fiction, folklore, and memoir literature. Grammatical instruction is more contextualized than in the previous courses. Speaking and writing skills are strongly emphasized. Usually offered every year.
Ellen Kellman

AAAS 123a Third World Ideologies
[ nw ss wi ]

Analyzes ideological concepts developed by seminal Third World political thinkers and their application to modern political analysis. Usually offered every second year.
Wellington Nyangoni

AAAS 125b Caribbean Women and Globalization: Sexuality, Citizenship, Work
[ ss wi ]

Utilizing perspectives from sociology, anthropology, fiction, and music to examine the relationship between women's sexuality and conceptions of labor, citizenship, and sovereignty. The course considers these alongside conceptions of masculinity, contending feminisms, and the global perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Faith Smith

AAAS 126b Political Economy of the Third World
[ nw ss wi ]

Development of capitalism and different roles and functions assigned to all "Third Worlds," in the periphery as well as the center. Special attention will be paid to African and African American peripheries. Usually offered every year.
Wellington Nyangoni

AAAS 133b The Literature of the Caribbean
[ hum nw ss wi ]

An exploration of the narrative strategies and themes of writers of the region who grapple with issues of colonialism, class, race, ethnicity, and gender in a context of often-conflicting allegiances to North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Usually offered every second year.
Faith Smith

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 157a African American Political Thought
[ deis-us ss wi ]

Examines the ideological and intellectual traditions that have influenced African American politics. Addresses the question of what are the best strategies for black Americans to pursue freedom and opportunity in the United States. Usually offered every second year.
Amber Spry

AAAS 158a Theories of Development and Underdevelopment
[ nw ss wi ]

Humankind has for some time now possessed the scientific and technological means to combat the scourge of poverty. The purpose of this seminar is to acquaint students with contending theories of development and underdevelopment, emphasizing the open and contested nature of the process involved and of the field of study itself. Among the topics to be studied are modernization theory, the challenge to modernization posed by dependency and world systems theories, and more recent approaches centered on the concepts of basic needs and of sustainable development. Usually offered every second year.
Wellington Nyangoni

AAAS 159a Identity Politics in the United States
[ deis-us ss wi ]

Examines the politics of identity in the United States. It brings together several disciplines: history, political science, sociology, psychology, and others. It spans several groups and social movements in order to equip students with the skills to understand identity group politics through historical contexts, theoretical underpinnings, and current manifestations. The course is organized around a central question: what is the relationship between democracy and identity politics in the United States? In addressing this question, the course will explore the complexities of intergroup relations across race, ethnicity, class, and gender, and examine when, why, and how policy and politics respond to group interests. Usually offered every year.
Amber Spry

AAAS 168b The Black Intellectual Tradition
[ ss wi ]

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.

Introduces broad historical themes, issues and debates that constitute the black intellectual tradition. Examines the works of male and female black intellectuals from slavery to present. Will explore issues of freedom, citizenship, uplift, gender, and race consciousness. Usually offered every second year.
Chad Williams

AMST 100a Foundations of American Culture
[ ss wi ]

This is the core seminar for American studies majors; a text-based course tracing the American experience from the earliest colonizations through the nineteenth century. Usually offered every fall.
Staff

AMST 105a The Eastern Forest: Paleoecology to Policy
[ ss wi ]

Yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation.

Can we make sustainable use of the Eastern Forest of North America while protecting biological diversity and ecological integrity? Explores the forest's ecological development, the impact of human cultures, attitudes toward the forest, and our mixed record of abuse and stewardship. Includes extensive fieldwork. Usually offered every second year.
Brian Donahue

AMST 106b Food and Farming in America
[ ss wi ]

Yields four semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation.

American food is abundant and cheap. Yet many eat poorly, and some argue that our agriculture may be unhealthy and unsustainable. Explores the history of American farming and diet and the prospects for a healthy food system. Includes extensive fieldwork. Usually offered every second year.
Brian Donahue

AMST/ENG 138a Race, Region, and Religion in the Twentieth-Century South
[ deis-us hum wi ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took ENG 38b in prior years.

Twentieth century fiction of the American South. Racial conflict, regional identity, religion, and modernization in fiction from both sides of the racial divide and from both sides of the gender line. Texts by Chestnutt, Faulkner, Warren, O'Connor, Gaines, McCarthy, and Ellison. Usually offered every third year.
John Burt

AMST/JOU 109b Reinventing Journalism for the 21st Century
[ dl ss wi ]

Technology has transformed journalism into a genuinely multimedia enterprise. This fast-paced course examines innovation at work, from digital storytelling to data visualization, at both start-up and legacy media outlets. It also explores the political, sociological, legal and ethical issues raised by these new technologies and the impact of business pressures on journalism's watchdog role in our democracy. Usually offered every year.
Neil Swidey

ANTH 111a Aging in Cross-Cultural Perspective
[ djw nw ss wi ]

Examines the meanings and social arrangements given to aging in a diversity of societies, including the U.S., India, Japan and China. Key themes include: the diverse ways people envision and organize the life course, scholarly and popular models of successful aging, the medicalization of aging in the U.S., cultural perspectives on dementia, and the ways national aging policies and laws are profoundly influenced by particular cultural models. Usually offered every second year.
Sarah Lamb

ANTH 112b Bison, Berries and Banquets: The Social Archaeology of Food and Drink
[ nw ss wi ]

Some of our strongest values and beliefs -- about the cosmos, the world, other people, our culture, and ourselves -- are expressed in the ways we use, consume, think about, and talk about food. In this class, we will consider the theoretical and methodological approaches that archaeologists use to study food and eating in society from a global anthropological perspective; we will identify and analyze the material processes of food production, preparation, and consumption, the cognitive models that define our food choices, and the ways power and inequality drive global feast and famine. Usually offered every third year.
Charlotte Goudge

ANTH 119a Conquests, Resistance, and Cultural Transformation in Mexico and Central America
[ djw nw ss wi ]

Examines the continuing negotiation of identity and power that were at the heart of tragedy and triumph for indigenous peoples in colonial Mexico and Central America, and which continue in the modern states of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden

ANTH 123b Lost Voices: The Historical Archaeology of Oppression and Exploitation
[ djw ss wi ]

Historical archaeology utilizes written records and oral traditions to contextualize places, things (cultural material), and issues from the past or present. This course introduces the main tools and techniques of historical archaeology to analyze past history and material culture through a social lens. Students will gain knowledge of themes such as colonialism, globalization and race relations. Usually offered every year.
Charlotte Goudge

ANTH 131b Latin America in Ethnographic Perspective
[ ss wi ]

Anthropology and LALS majors and minors have priority for enrollment.

Examines issues in contemporary Latin America and the Spanish Caribbean from the perspective of sociocultural anthropology, based primarily on books and articles drawing on long-term ethnographic research. Topics may include: the Zapatista Rebellion in Mexico; tin mining and religion in Bolivia; mortuary cannibalism in the Amazon; the role of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexican national identity; love and marriage among young migrants from Mexico and the United States; weaving, beauty pageants, and jokes in Guatemala; and daily life in revolutionary Cuba. Usually offered every second year.
Patricia Alvarez Astacio or Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 144a The Anthropology of Gender
[ djw nw ss wi ]

Anthropology majors have priority for enrollment.

Explores gender, sexuality, and cultural systems from a comparative perspective. Topics may include rituals of masculinity and femininity, the vexing question of the universality of women's subordination, culturally-specific classifications of sexual orientation and gender identity, transnational feminisms, sex work, migrant labor, reproductive rights, and much more. Usually offered every year.
Anita Hannig, Sarah Lamb, or Keridwen Luis

ANTH 165b Anthropology of Death and Dying
[ djw nw ss wi ]

Explores how different societies, including our own, conceptualize death and dying. Topics include the cultural construction of death, the effects of death on the social fabric, mourning and bereavement, and medical issues relating to the end of life. Usually offered every second year.
Anita Hannig

ANTH 168a The Maya: Past, Present and Future
[ nw ss wi ]

Explores the culture of the Maya in Mexico and Central America through nearly 3000 years of history. Using archaeology, ethnohistory, and ethnography, studies their ancient past and their modern lives. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden

ANTH 178b Culture, Gender and Power in East Asia
[ nw ss wi ]

Examines the role of culture in changing gender power relations in East Asia by exploring how the historical legacy of Confucianism in the region influences the impact of changes such as the constitutional proclamation of gender equality and rapid industrialization. Usually offered every third year.
Elanah Uretsky

ANTH/HIS 143b Sugar: Cultivation, Circulation, Power
[ deis-us djw ss wi ]

As a key element of global trade since the fifteenth century, sugar has been a lucrative and much desired stimulant with widespread political, economic, cultural, environmental and health effects. At the same time, the movement of millions of African slaves and Asian laborers to American sugar plantations transformed and continues to transform the cultural makeup and social foundation of empires and nations across the world. Through sugar, we will study a range of critical issues and topics: labor (including slavery and other forms of unfreedom) racial capitalism, colonialism, global health, monoculture, consumption, rites of passage, art, and music. Special one-time offering, spring 2022.

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 106b Business Chinese and Culture
[ fl nw wi ]

Prerequisite: CHIN 40b or equivalent. Does not meet the requirement in the school of humanities.

An advanced Chinese course where students develop their language proficiency and cultural knowledge in professional settings such as the workplace. The course is conducted entirely in Chinese and is designed for students who want to sharpen their language skills and reach a higher level of proficiency in which they are able to read newspapers, magazines, or professional documents, as well as to improve their communicative ability and enhance their self-confidence in Chinese workplaces. Usually offered every second spring.
Staff

CHIN 120a Readings in Contemporary Chinese Literature: Advanced Chinese Language
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: CHIN 105a or equivalent.

For advanced students of Chinese, an introduction to contemporary Chinese short stories from the 1990s and later. Focuses on significant expansion of vocabulary and grammar, and on providing students an opportunity to develop and polish both oral and written skills through class discussion, presentations, and writing assignments. Usually offered every fall.
Staff

CHIN 120b Readings in Contemporary Chinese Literature: Advanced Chinese Language II
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: CHIN 120a or equivalent.

Continuation of CHIN 120a. Study of contemporary Chinese short stories from the 1990s and later. These stories not only represent new literary themes and linguistic expressions, but also reflect the modernization, commercialization, and urbanization that is transforming China. The course improves students' knowledge of the language, as well as enhancing their understanding of Chinese society and culture. Usually offered every spring.
Pu Wang

CLAS 120a Age of Caesar
[ hum wi ]

The life and times of Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) viewed through primary texts in a variety of genres: from Caesar himself to contemporaries Cicero and Catullus and biographers Plutarch and Suetonius. Usually offered every third year.
Cheryl Walker

CLAS 121b Money, Markets and Society in the Ancient Mediterranean
[ hum wi ]

Examines the complex interactions between economic and social systems in the ancient Mediterranean, especially Greece and Rome, through literature, documents, and artifacts. Readings in English. Usually offered every third year.
Cheryl Walker

CLAS 140a Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Greek and Roman Art and Text
[ ca djw hum wi ]

An exploration of women, gender, and sexuality in ancient Greece and Rome as the ideological bases of Western attitudes toward sex and gender. Includes, in some fashion, Greek and Roman myth, literature, art, architecture, and archaeological artifacts. Usually offered every third year.
Ann O. Koloski-Ostrow

CLAS 155a Mummies, Myths, and Monuments of Ancient Egypt
[ hum wi ]

Surveys Egyptian archaeology and culture and provides a critical examination of the reception and (mis)use of Ancient Egypt in popular culture over time. Usually offered every second year.
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom

CLAS 165a Roman Sex, Violence, and Decadence in Translation
[ hum wi ]

Famous Roman texts (200 BCE-200 CE) are read from social, historical, psychological, literary, and religious viewpoints. The concept of "Roman decadence" is challenged both by the Roman literary accomplishment itself and by its import on subsequent periods. Usually offered every third year.
Ann O. Koloski-Ostrow

CLAS 167b Classical Myths Told and Retold
[ hum wi ]

Surveys several major literary works of the ancient Greeks and Romans in order to study their mythological content, variant myths, and the influence of mythology on later literature and modern cinema. Usually offered every third year.
Ann O. Koloski-Ostrow

CLAS/ENG 153b Race Before Race: Premodern Critical Race Studies
[ deis-us djw dl hum wi ]

Provides an introduction to ancient and medieval attitudes towards race and ethnicity through the theoretical lens of premodern critical race studies. Special one-time offering, fall 2020.
Caitlin Gillespie and Dorothy Kim

COML/ENG 148a Fiction of the Second World War
[ hum wi ]

Studies novels of the Second World War from Great Britain, France, Germany, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan (all readings in English). Usually offered every fourth year.
John Burt

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

DSCI 180b Writing Science
[ wi ]

Given the central role of science in present and future public and social policy decisions, it is imperative that science communication be persuasive and accurate. This course offers students an opportunity to improve their ability to write about science for audiences of all kinds through reading and analysis of various forms of science writing, meetings with professional science writers, and multiple writing, editing and rewriting assignments. Usually offered every second year.

ECON 173a Central Banking: Theory and Policy
[ ss wi ]

Prerequisite: ECON 82b.

Studies the purposes and functions of central banks over time and the challenges they confront. Examines central banks' roles in the recent financial crisis and explores current debates over the policies that central banks are following in its aftermath. Usually offered every year.
Staff

ED 100b Exploring Teaching (Secondary)
[ ss wi ]

Yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation. Three hours per week of field experience (participant observation in a middle or high school classroom), arranged by the education program, are required in addition to regular class time. A $10. fee is payable at the start of the semester to offset transportation costs.

Examines the relationship of teaching and learning, the purposes of secondary schooling and the knowledge requirements for middle and high school teaching. Through readings, analysis of videotapes and guided observations, students investigate classroom culture, student thinking, and curriculum standards. Usually offered every spring semester.
Staff

ED 150b Purpose and Politics of Education
[ deis-us ss wi ]

Focuses on the United States and introduces students to foundational questions in the interdisciplinary field of Education Studies. We explore competing goals Americans have held for K-12 and post-secondary education and ask how these visions have (or have not) influenced school, society, and educational policy. We pay particular attention to educational stratification; localism; segregation; privatization; and the relationship between schooling and equality. Usually offered every year.
Leah Gordon

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 105b After Jane Austen: Sex, Death, and Fiction
[ hum wi ]

Focuses on Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Joseph Conrad. Explores the relationship between the novel, the era's most popular culture, and our own popular culture. It examines desire, concealment, sex, and romance, as well as the role that literature plays in creating and upsetting communities, defining racial and ethnic categories. Film screenings. Usually offered every third year.
John Plotz

ENG 106a Representing Slavery
[ deis-us hum wi ]

Examines the culture and politics of slavery in the US. We will read some of the classic slave narratives, some diaries of enslavers, political speeches by abolitionists and defenders of slavery, letters and public papers of President Lincoln, and novels written by authors with a close engagement with slavery. Usually offered every third year.

ENG 107b Literary Witnessing and the Poetics of Memory
[ hum wi ]

Investigation of the memorial function of modern literature as a response to historical trauma. How is the present haunted by the past; how is literature haunted by the dead? Historical contexts are primarily slavery in the Americas and European genocides. Readings will include theoretical and philosophical considerations of the role of the witness, collective memory, and historical evidence. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

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 111b Postcolonial Theory
[ djw hum wi ]

Introduces students to key concepts in postcolonial theory. Traces the consequences of European colonialism for politics, culture and literature around the world, situates these within ongoing contemporary debates, and considers the usefulness of postcolonial theory for understanding the world today. Usually offered every third year.
Joshua Williams

ENG 112a The Fierce Urgency of Now: Some Poetry in English Since 1945
[ hum wi ]

An introduction to recent poetry in English, dealing with a wide range of poets, as well as striking and significant departures from the poetry of the past. Looks, where possible, at individual volumes by representative authors. Usually offered every third year.
John Burt

ENG 117b Novels of William Faulkner
[ hum wi ]

A study of the major novels and stories of William Faulkner, the most influential American novelist of the twentieth century. Usually offered every third year.
John Burt

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. Students are expected to compose and revise their fiction, 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 119b Poetry Workshop: Special Topics in Poetry
[ dl hum 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.

For those who wish to improve as poets while broadening their knowledge of poetry, through a wide spectrum of readings. Students' poems will be discussed in a "workshop" format with emphasis on revision. Remaining time will cover assigned readings and issues of craft. Usually offered every year.
Elizabeth Bradfield or Visiting Poet

ENG 126b Joyce's Ulysses
[ hum wi ]

An intensive, collaborative reading of James Joyce's Ulysses, with attention to its historical situation and cultural impact. Consideration of significant scholarly debates around the novel. How does this remarkable text work and what does it offer readers today? How is it still teaching us to read and think about the role of literature in modern societies? We will engage this novel with slow, close attention in an interdisciplinary context, in order to generate a combination of analytical and creative responses. Usually offered every third year.
David Sherman

ENG 129a Creative Nonfiction Workshop
[ hum 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.

Students will learn how to use a wide range of literary techniques to produce factual narratives drawn from their own perspectives and lives. Creative assignments and discussions will include the personal essay, the memoir essay and literary journalism. Usually offered every second year.
Visiting Writer

ENG 133a Advanced Shakespeare
[ hum wi ]

Recommended prerequisite: ENG 33a or equivalent.

An intensive analysis of a single play or a small number of Shakespeare's plays. Usually offered every third year.
William Flesch and Thomas King

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 140a American War Novels of the 20th Century
[ hum wi ]

Studies classic war novels of the 20th and 21st century, from Hemingway, Heller, and O'Brien through recent novels by Jin, Benedict and Vollman. Usually offered every third year.
John Burt

ENG 144b The Body as Text
[ hum wi ]

How are our bodies the material for our presentations of self and our interactions with others? Examines contemporary theories and histories of the body against literary, philosophical, political, and performance texts of the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Usually offered every third year.
Thomas King

ENG 149a Screenwriting Workshop: Writing for Television
[ dl hum 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.

Introduces students to the craft of writing for a variety of television programming formats, including episodic, late-night, and public service announcements. Students will read and view examples and create their own works within each genre. Usually offered every second year.
Marc Weinberg

ENG 159a Screenwriting Workshop: The Short Film and the Web Series
[ hum 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.

Introduces writing and producing of short films for independent production. In this class we will also discuss writing for formats including a YouTube or Vimeo narrative series, IGTV narrative series and other independent production platforms. Topics will include introduction to screenwriting, script format, loglines, pitch pages, beat sheets & outlines, short form structure, and the planning involved in pre-production. Usually offered every year.
Paloma Valenzuela

ENG 166b The Promise of Poetry: Whitman, Dickinson, and Others
[ hum wi ]

Poetry of Whitman, Dickinson, Emerson, and Melville, with representative poems of Whittier, Bryant, Longfellow, Poe, Sigourney, and Tuckerman. Usually offered every third year.
John Burt

ENG 169a Eco-Writing Workshop
[ hum 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.

A creative writing workshop focused on writing essays and poems that engage with environmental and eco-justice concerns. Readings, writing assignments, and class discussions will be augmented by field trips. Usually offered every second year.
Elizabeth Bradfield

ENG 171a The History of Literary Criticism: From Plato to Postmodernism
[ hum wi ]

Explores major documents in the history of criticism from Plato to the present. Texts will be read as representative moments in the history of criticism and as documents of self-sufficient literary and intellectual interest. Usually offered every third year.
Paul Morrison or Laura Quinney

ENG 176b Jane Austen and George Eliot: Novel Genius
[ hum wi ]

Explores the novels of England's most inventive and surprising worldbuilders, Jane Austen and George Eliot. Their experiments in depicting unexpected aspects of reality unsettled their era's ideas about gender and class and the hidden workings of inequality. How did their innovative ways of depicting subjectivity, the passage of time, and the relationship between the ideal and the actual shape Modernist fiction'as well as the narrative arts of our own day, from film to television and beyond? Usually offered every third year.
John Plotz

FA 119b Professional Practice in Art
[ ca wi ]

This is an introductory course to business practices of working artists and arts professionals for students who plan to pursue cultural work/production professionally. Part seminar, part laboratory, students will gain practical experience through hands-on writing exercises while contemplating the philosophical ramifications of what it means to be a contemporary practicing cultural worker through the course's curated reading material and discussion. We will explore diverse modes of professional engagement as well as various opportunities/possibilities, in and outside of traditional art world structures. Usually offered every year.
lauren woods

FA 149a The Age of Rubens, Rembrandt and Vermeer
[ ca wi ]

Explores the major figures of seventeenth-century painting in the Netherlands and Flanders: Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and Vermeer. During this time, the ideal of Renaissance painter/courtier gives way to the birth of the modern artist in an open market, revolutionizing the subjects, themes, and styles of painting. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Unglaub

FA 155a Impressionism: Avant-Garde Rebellion in Context
[ ca wi ]

Focuses on major 19th century artists in France, from the innovation of Edouard Manet to the formation of the group called the Impressionists. Study of the series of independent exhibitions, mounted between 1874 - 1886, and organized by the unlikely allies Edgar Degas and Claude Monet, including women artists Morisot and Cassatt. Also analysis of the influence of Japanese art from abroad, and the new 'objective' style, shaped in part by the invention of photography, will be a focus. The next generation - Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat, and Van Gogh - develop stylistic ideas out of Impressionism, and re-shape its aims. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

FA 156b Postimpressionism and Symbolism, 1880-1910
[ ca wi ]

Artists Vincent Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat and Cézanne, first identified with Post-Impressionism, are contextualized with Toulouse-Lautrec and others who defined the French art world before 1900. Symbolism has its roots in the art work of Redon, Van Gogh and above all Gauguin, here studied in context with poetry and art criticism of the times. The Expressionist move toward an abstract idiom in Norway, Germany and Austria will focus on Edvard Munch and Gustav Klimt. Decorative styles such as Art Nouveau and Jugendstil define the bridge to the 20th century. The course ends with early 20th century masters, Matisse and the Fauves, and finally German Expressionism. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

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 199a Methods and Approaches in the History of Art
[ ca dl wi ]

Explores various ways of analyzing works of art and provides an overview of the historical development of the discipline. Designed specifically for junior and senior art history majors. Usually offered every year.
Charles McClendon

FREN 106b Writing Workshop
[ dl fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: FREN 105a or the equivalent. Students enrolling for the first time in a French and Francophone Studies course at Brandeis should refer to http://www.brandeis.edu/registrar/newstudent/testing.html#frentest.

Innovative strategies and online tools enable students to improve their creative and analytical writing skills. Students examine different types of texts, exploring their literary style, determining their authority, and exploring how words and images may move and manipulate readers and viewers. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

FREN 122b Toads, Salamanders, and Sonnets: Art, Power, and Identity in the French Renaissance
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

This class will look at how forms of cultural expression--from architecture to sonnets and odes--were used to create a sense of national and personal identity in the French Renaissance. We will look at how the poems, novellas, and essays of authors such as Joachim Du Bellay, Pierre de Ronsard, Marguerite de Navarre, Louise Labé, and Michel de Montaigne, the paintings and sculptures of artists like François Clouet and Francesco Primaticcio, and the buildings of architects like Philibert Delorme, were used to produce new forms of national and personal identity in the 16th century. We will also refer to modern authors such as Edouard Glissant to help us understand these developments from a modern point of view. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Randall

FREN 139b Proust's Artistic Vision and the Beauty of Ordinary Life
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Key readings from Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu engage students in an interdisciplinary exploration of themes (imagination and disappointment, time and memory, jealousy and desire, everyday life and redemption through art) and the author's revolutionary writing techniques. Usually offered every third year.
Hollie Harder

FREN 142b City and the Book
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Analyzes the symbolic appearance of the city in French literature and film from the Middle Ages to the present day. The representation of the city in literature and film is contextualized in theoretical writings of urbanists and philosophers. Literary texts include medieval fabliaux, Pantagruel (Rabelais) and Nana (Zola) as well as theoretical texts by Descartes, Ledoux, Le Corbusier, Salvador Dalí, and Paul Virillo. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Randall

FREN 149b Le Livre Illustré: Word and Image in Francophone Texts from Bestiaries to Bandes Dessinées
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Explores the theories and practices of text-image interactions in illustrated francophone books of the past and present by addressing themes such as learning, travel, sentimentality, pornography, politics, and humor. This course will include archival work in the Brandeis library. Usually offered every third year.
Catherine Theobald

FREN 151b Francophone Identities in a Global World: An Introduction to Francophone Literature
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Introduces Francophone literature and film, retracing, through the works of great contemporary Francophone writers and directors, the evolution of the Francophone world, from the colonial struggles to the transcultural and transnational trajectories of our global era. Usually offered every second year.
Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche

FREN 159b Wordplay: Humor in Francophone Texts
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Students will analyze the forms and functions of humor in francophone texts (French, Canadian, and Caribbean) from the Middle Ages to the present day. Course themes will include farce, comedy of manners, wordplay, and satire. The course will include archival work. Usually offered every third year.
Catherine Theobald

FREN 161a The Enigma of Being Oneself: From Du Bellay to Laferrière
[ djw fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Explores the relationship of identity formation and modern individualism in texts by writers working in France, Francophone Africa and Canada. Authors range from modern and contemporary writers Sarah Kofman, Dany Laferrière, Achille Mbembe, Alain Mabanckou, and Edouard Glissant to early-modern writers like Joachim Du Bellay and Michel de Montaigne. Usually offered every year.
Michael Randall

FREN 162b From Les Confessions to Instagram: Self-Writing in Contemporary French and Francophone Literature
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Through the works of major writers, the main goal of the course will be to study the many variations of autobiographical writing that characterize contemporary French and Francophone literature, and to relate them to the renewed exploration of the post-modern subject. We will examine along the way how the self relates to the others, how it engages with filiation, memory and history - (especially World War II and the Franco-Algerian War) - and we will put an emphasis on the notions of self-fashioning and performance. Usually offered every second year.
Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche

FREN 186b Literature and Politics
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

We will be interested in how the literary is political and the political literary. We will organize the class around the relationship of the individual and the community. Texts include: Montaigne's Essais, Corneille's Horace, Genet's Les nègres, Arendt's What is Politics?, Dumont's Essays on Individualism, Fanon's Peau noire, masques blancs. Usually offered every third year.
Michael Randall

GECS 130b The Princess and the Golem: Fairy Tales
[ hum wi ]

Conducted in English.

Compares Walt Disney's films with German and other European fairy tales from the nineteenth and twentieth century, focusing on feminist and psychoanalytic readings. Usually offered every second year.
Sabine von Mering

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

HBRW 124a Hebrew for Business, Doing Business in Start-Up Nation
[ dl fl wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor. Does not meet the requirement in the school of humanities.

Provides students with tools and competence to deal with the Israeli business community. For advanced-intermediate Hebrew students who wish to gain cultural understanding and business language speaking skills. 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 146a The Voices of Jerusalem
[ djw fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

For advanced-intermediate students who wish to enhance their language proficiency and work toward improving fluency and communication through analysis of selected materials covering literature, poetry, history, politics, and art that depict the unique tradition and culture of Jerusalem. Usually offered every fall.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 161b What's Up?: Hebrew through Israeli News Media
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

For advanced-intermediate students who wish to enhance proficiency and work toward improving fluency and communication. In this course, Israeli media, films,clips from Israeli TV shows, and on-line resources will be used to promote language and cultural competency. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

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

HBRW 170a Take I: Hebrew through Israeli Cinema
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 40-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

An advanced culture course that focuses on strengthening all language skills by studying the various aspects of Israeli society as portrayed in Israeli films and television. In addition to viewing films, the students will be asked to read Hebrew background materials, to participate in class discussions, and to write in Hebrew about the films. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HISP 106b Spanish for Written Communication through Contemporary Culture
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: HISP 105a or the equivalent. Students enrolling for the first time in a Hispanic Studies course at Brandeis should refer to www.brandeis.edu/registrar/newstudent/testing.html#spantest.

Focuses on written communication and the improvement of writing skills, from developing ideas to outlining and editing. Literary selections will introduce the students to the principles of literary analysis and serve as topics for class discussion and writing. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

HISP 108a Spanish for Heritage Speakers
[ fl hum wi ]

Designed specifically for students who grew up speaking Spanish and who would like to enhance existing language skills while developing higher levels of academic proficiency. Assignments are geared toward developing skills in reading, writing, and critical thinking about U.S. Latino/as and the Spanish-speaking world. Students may use this course to fulfill the foreign language requirement. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HISP 160a Culture/Media and Social Change in Latin America
[ djw fl hum nw wi ]

Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.

The central topic of this class is the role of the creative arts (creative writing, visual arts, music, film, performance) in their role as fostering political change in Latin America. We will examine key eras of 20th and 21st century cultural production in relation with shifting mass-media landscapes, from the revolutionary impetus of the early 20th century avant-gardes in literature and visual arts, popular music in the 1940s, documentary film during and the 1960s guerrillas, artistic resistance to the dictatorship, to the street art accompanying human rights and grass roots identity movements of the 2000s. Usually offered every second year.
Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 170a Topics in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Spanish Literature
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. Course may be repeated for credit.

Topics will vary from year to year, but might include eighteenth- and nineteenth-century theater, fictions of the body, and realist representations of gender. Usually offered every second year.
James Mandrell

HISP 180a Topics in Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Spanish Literature and Culture
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. May be repeated for credit.

Topics will vary from year to year but may include the post-Civil War novel, modern women's writing, or detective fiction. Usually offered every third year.
James Mandrell

HISP 196a Topics in Latinx Literature and Culture
[ hum wi ]

May be repeated for credit. May be taught in English or Spanish.

Offers students the opportunity for in-depth study of a particular aspect of the diverse literary and cultural production of U.S. latinx. Topics will vary from year to year but may include autobiography, detective fiction, or historical fiction. Usually offered every third year.
James Mandrell, María Durán, or Staff

HIST 114b Histories of American Capitalism
[ deis-us ss wi ]

Explores the history of American capitalism as it developed from the colonial period to the near present. We will follow three main analytical themes through the centuries: racial capitalism; the role of the state in shaping economic development; and the function of social reproduction and other unwaged work in commercial societies. As we engage central historiographic debates about the timing and location of the transition to capitalism in the United States, we will use the concept of capitalism as a tool to better understand and differentiate the wide range of economic systems that have existed in the nation’s history. Topics include: the rise of wage labor and the expansion of markets; slavery and emancipation; territorial conquest; technological and infrastructural development; the rise of big business and organized labor; alternative labor regimes and the experience of work; the economic dimensions of gender, race, and other categories of social difference; social welfare policy; and recent developments in deindustrialization, globalization, and income inequality. Usually offered every year.

A. J. Murphy

HIST 115a Corporate Power and American Capitalism
[ ss wi ]

Examines the legal, political, and ideological forces that made space for the growth of private corporations within American capitalism. We will analyze how American corporations transformed from the small scale chartered institutions of the 18th century to the multinational conglomerates of today. During the early national period most corporations were public entities serving charitable, religious, or educational purposes. However, by end of the nineteenth century, private interests like insurance, manufacturing, and railroads dominated the corporate landscape. Corporations, over the course of the 19th and into the 20th century, amassed enormous political, economic, and social capital enabling them to challenge both American government and American labor. In this course, we will interrogate how the corporation became the dominant mode of business association in the United States as well as what role the law played in this transformation. Special one-time offering, fall 2022.

Jared Berkowitz

HIST 121a Breaking the Rules: Deviance and Nonconformity in Premodern Europe
[ djw ss wi ]

Explores the ways in which "deviant" behavior was defined and punished by some, but also justified and even celebrated by others in premodern Europe. Topics include vagrancy, popular uprisings, witchcraft, religious heresy, and the status of women. Usually offered every second year.
Govind Sreenivasan

HIST 123b Reformation Europe (1400-1600)
[ ss wi ]

Survey of Protestant and Catholic efforts to reform religion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Topics include scholastic theology, popular piety and anticlericalism, Luther's break with Rome, the rise of Calvinism, Henry VIII and the English Reformation, the Catholic resurgence, and the impact of reform efforts on the lives of common people. Usually offered every third year.
Govind Sreenivasan

HIST 131a Hitler's Europe in Film
[ ss wi ]

Takes a critical look as how Hitler's Europe has been represented and misrepresented since its time by documentary and entertainment films of different countries beginning with Germany itself. Movies, individual reports, discussions, and a littler reading. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian

HIST 133b Rights and Revolutions: History of Natural Rights
[ ss wi ]

An examination of the doctrine of national rights, its significance in the contemporary world, its historical development, and its role in revolutionary politics. The English and French Declarations of 1689, 1776, and 1789 will be compared and contrasted. Usually offered every second or third year.
Staff

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 137b World War I
[ ss wi ]

Examines the opening global conflict of the twentieth century. Topics include the destruction of the old European order, the origins of total war, the cultural and social crisis it provoked, and the long-term consequences for Europe and the world. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HIST 140a A History of Fashion in Europe
[ dl ss wi ]

Looks at costume, trade in garments, and clothing consumption in Europe from 1600 to 1950. Topics include sumptuous fashion, class and gender distinctions in wardrobe, and the rise of department stores. Usually offered every third year.
Alice Kelikian

HIST 156a U.S. Responses to Global Inequality: Recent Histories
[ ss wi ]

Examines official American responses to global economic inequality from WWII/decolonization through the Millennium Development Goals. This course explores domestic and international debates over development and explores the range of instruments and approaches taken in the name of development. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HIST 157b Marginalized Voices and the Writing of History
[ deis-us dl ss wi ]

Seeks to understand not only the system but the inner lives and cultures of slaves within that system. This course is a reading-intensive seminar examining both primary and secondary sources on American slaves. Focuses on the American South but includes sources on the larger African diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Abigail Cooper

HIST 164b The American Century: The U.S. and the World, 1945 to the Present
[ ss wi ]

America's global role expanded dramatically in the aftermath of World War II. Explores key aspects of that new role, from the militarization of conflict with the Soviets to activities in the Third World. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

HIST 170a Italian Films, Italian Histories
[ dl ss wi ]

Explores the relationship between Italian history and Italian film from unification to 1975. Topics include socialism, fascism, the deportation of Jews, the Resistance, the Mafia, and the emergence of an American-style star fixation in the 1960s. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Kelikian

HIST 174a U.S. Relations with Latin America and the Caribbean
[ nw ss wi ]

Explores United States economic, political, and cultural relations with the major Caribbean nations in the context of U.S. relations with Latin American nations. Topics include interventions, cultural understandings and misunderstandings, migration, and transnationalism. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

HIST 174b History Lab: Research and Writing in History
[ dl ss wi ]

Offers a unique opportunity to engage in real historical research. Through research into key themes in history, it introduces components of the historian's craft, opens up archives and exposes students to the exciting field of digital humanities research. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller

HIST 175b Resistance and Revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean
[ djw nw ss wi ]

Focuses on questions of race, gender and modernity in resistence movements and revolutions in Latin American and Caribbean history. The Haitian Revolution, Tupac Amaru Rebellion, and Vaccination Riots in Brazil are some topics that will be covered. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs

HIST 178a The Middle East and the West: Historical Encounters
[ djw nw ss wi ]

Examines Middle Eastern and Western encounters from nineteenth century to the present. Topics include: travel, Orientalism, modernity, spectacles and world fairs, gender and sexuality, notions of sovereignty, and the immigrant experience. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi

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 183a Empire at the Margins: Borderlands in Late Imperial China
[ djw nw ss wi ]

Explores Ming and Qing China's frontiers with Japan, Korea, Inner Asia, Vietnam, and the ocean from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries, examining the role of borderlands in forging the present-day multiethnic Chinese state and East Asian national identities. Usually offered every third year.
Xing Hang

HIST 184a Silk, Silver, and Slaves: China and the Industrial Revolution
[ djw nw ss wi ]

Examines why industrial capitalism, which underpins the current world order, first developed in Western Europe rather than China. Comparative treatment of commercialization, material culture, cities, political economies, and contingencies on both ends of Eurasia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Usually offered every second year.
Xing Hang

HIST 184b Swashbuckling Adventurers or Sea Bandits? The Chinese Pirate in Global Perspective
[ nw ss wi ]

Explores the commercial role, political economy, social structure, and national imaginations of the Chinese pirate situated in both world history and in comparison to "piracies" elsewhere. Usually offered every third year.
Xing Hang

HIST 185a The China Outside China: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Diaspora in the Making of Modern China
[ djw nw ss wi ]

Studies the history of Chinese outside Mainland China, from Hong Kong and Taiwan to Siberia and Africa, from fifteenth century to present day. Ambivalence to ancestral and adopted homelands made these communities valuable agents of transnational exchange and embodiments of Chinese modernity. Usually offered every third year.
Xing Hang

HIST 186a Europe in World War II
[ dl ss wi ]

Examines the military and diplomatic, social and economic history of the war. Topics include war origins; allied diplomacy; the neutrals; war propaganda; occupation, resistance, and collaboration; the mass murder of the Jews; "peace feelers"; the war economies; scientific warfare and the development of nuclear weapons; and the origins of the Cold War. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

HIST 187a Frenemy States: Identity and Integration in East Asia
[ ss wi ]

Examines the emergence and development of distinct national identities in East Asia. We focus upon key transformative moments and events in the histories of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam from the dawn of time to the early twentieth century. Usually offered every third year.
Xing Hang

HSSP 106a Managing Medicine
[ ss wi ]

Recommended prerequisite: HS 104b or LGLS 114a.

Overview of the principles of management within health care, and how public policy decisions can influence the choices of individual healthcare organizations. Through case studies of real hospitals, insurers, and firms, the class examines choices of clinicians and managers aimed at improving health care quality, delivering patient satisfaction, and containing costs. Usually offered every year.
Darren Zinner

HSSP 112b Perspectives on Child Health and Well-Being
[ ss wi ]

Open only to juniors and seniors.

This is a survey course on child well-being in the United States. It is divided into four sections: child development, child and family context, environment, and programs and services. We will focus on early childhood and school-age child issues ' with a complementary understanding of adolescence and family issues. The course will consider theoretical perspectives, the science of child development and outcomes, methods for understanding and tackling child public health issues and finally the services and programs available ' and needed ' for optimal child health. We will primarily use three frames: social determinants of health, social ecological model, and life course perspective. They consider race, gender, geography, socioeconomic status, sexuality, age, immigration status, education and other important issues in the larger context of child public health. Usually offered every year.
Lindsay Rosenfeld

IGS 104a Seminar in International Order
[ ss wi ]

Prerequisites: IGS 8a and IGS 10A recommended.

Critically appraises the institutions known as the “international order.” We examine threats to this order and consider how it may evolve or erode with the renewed influence of rising powers and perturbations to the balance of power. Our interaction with the scholarly debate is interspersed with sessions on research methods to enable students to conduct research on related topics. Usually offered every year.

IGS 106a Seminar in Global Health and Development
[ djw ss wi ]

Explores the fields of global health and development through the critical debates and theories that frame the field. We examine its discourses and critique its practices through critical engagement with specific areas of the field. Usually offered every year.

Elanah Uretsky

IGS 108a Seminar in Law, Justice, and Human Rights
[ ss wi ]

Explores international justice and human rights regimes along with concepts and prominent theories that inform the field. We examine specific cases carried out in different national settings and critique the utility and efficacy of international human rights institutions. Usually offered every year.

IGS 136b Contemporary Chinese Society and Culture
[ nw ss wi ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took ANTH 136b in prior years.

Introduces students to contemporary Chinese society, with a focus on the rapid transformations that have taken place during the post-Mao era with a focus on family, gender, sexuality, migration, ethnicity, and family planning. Usually offered every third year.
Elanah Uretsky

IGS 138a China in the World
[ djw ss wi ]

This course examines China's role on the world stage. Looking at the history of China's interaction with the world, both at home and abroad, we will examine how China has affected, and been affected by, other societies and cultures. Usually offered every second year.
Elanah Uretsky

ITAL 134b Nella cultura ebraica italiana: cinema e letteratura
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: ITAL 105a or 106a or permission of the instructor. Conducted in Italian. Materials fee: $20.

Analyzes Italian Jewish representations in Italian culture from medieval times to the founding of the ghetto in Venice in 1516 and leading Jewish figures of the Renaissance. Works of modern Italian Jewish writers and historians are examined as well as Italian movies that address Jewish themes within the mainstream of Italian culture. This course has an interdisciplinary approach while focusing on advanced Italian language skills. Usually offered every second year.
Paola Servino

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. May be repeated for credit.

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

JOUR 101a The Fundamentals of Journalism
[ ss wi ]

Introduces students to the practice of news reporting for print media and links theory and history to the working craft of journalism. Trains students in the fundamentals of news gathering and writing, providing an opportunity to practice those skills in conditions simulating a newsroom. A concern for ethics, balance, and accuracy is stressed in all assignments. Usually offered every year.
Eileen McNamara

JOUR 107b Media and Public Policy
[ ss wi ]

Examines the intersection of the media and politics, the ways in which each influences the other, and the consequences of that intersection for a democracy. Through analytic texts, handouts, and contemporaneous newspaper and magazine articles, explores the relationship between policy decisions and public discourse. Usually offered every year.
Eileen McNamara

JOUR 110b Ethics in Journalism
[ ss wi ]

Should reporters ever misrepresent themselves? Are there pictures that newspapers should not publish? Is it ever acceptable to break the law in pursuit of a story? Examines the media's ethics during an age dominated by scandal and sensationalism. May be combined with an experiential learning practicum (EL 94a). Usually offered every year.
Eileen McNamara

JOUR 112b Social Journalism: The Art of Engaging Audiences
[ ss wi ]

Students will learn how to use social media storytelling to develop their own voices, sharpen their reporting skills, and reach new communities and platforms. They will also learn the art of tracking and building audiences through engagement tools and will critique the work of professionals and colleagues. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

JOUR 113a Long-form Journalism: Storytelling for Magazines and Podcasts
[ dl ss wi ]

What makes for a great story? This course will examine the hallmarks of successful narrative nonfiction, in both written and audio form. Students will analyze award-winning magazine stories as well as reporting-based podcasts that have injected new energy and financial success into the journalism world. They will learn story structure and techniques to capture and hold the audience's attention. And they will learn by doing, producing their own podcasts and written pieces. his course fulfills the Reporting requirement of the Journalism minor. Usually offered every year.
Neil Swidey

JOUR 114b Arts Journalism: The Making of a Podcast
[ ss wi ]

How do audio journalists cover culture in a world of ever-expanding media options, and find stories that captivate audiences? In this course students will develop their storytelling skills as they work collectively over the semester to produce a podcast that delivers innovative arts, entertainment, and culture coverage. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

JOUR 130b Science Journalism, the Pandemic, and Disinformation
[ dl ss wi ]

What is the best way to communicate real science in the age of fake news? Students will learn the hallmarks of sound science and medical writing and the dangerous public-health consequences of disinformation and misinformation, with a particular focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics include the growth of vaccine denial and the challenges of interpreting scientific studies while avoiding spin. Usually offered every second year.
Neil Swidey

JOUR 145a Opinion Writing
[ ss wi ]

An exploration of opinion writing in all of its journalistic forms. In an era of unverified assertion, this course examines the need for well researched commentary to illuminate public policy. Students will experiment with "voice" and "tone" and learn to write with humor and/or outrage.
Eileen McNamara

LACLS 170a Sports, Games, and Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean
[ ss wi ]

Sports are one of Latin America's biggest exports and imports. This course, engaging with cultural studies theory and interdisciplinary readings, examines the politics and social forces behind sports such as soccer, cricket, baseball, wrestling, and bullfighting. Usually offered every third year.
Laura Brown

LGLS 122b Indigenous Rights, Environmental Justice, and Federal Indian Law
[ ss wi ]

Provides a look at the intersection of indigenous rights, environmental justice, and federal Indian law. You will learn essential tools of legal reasoning and argument. Through in-class discussion, cases, and reading you will learn about conflicts over land use, climate change, and sovereignty. The course will be organized into weekly case studies where we will study contemporary and historical conflicts including: the Dakota Access pipeline, relocation due to sea level rise, fishing rights and dam removal, water rights in the face of drought, uranium mining, and Native Nation regulation of oil and gas extraction on reservation lands. Usually offered every second year.

James Pollack

LGLS 132b Environmental Law and Policy
[ oc ss wi ]

Provides a basic survey of environmental law. You will learn essential tools of legal reasoning and argument. Through in-class discussion, cases, and reading on environmental history and ethics, we will cover a range of environmental issues, including: climate change, water rights, the Keystone XL pipeline, our national parks and monuments, and much more. You will reflect on the tradeoffs, contradictions, and inequities baked into our core environmental laws, and think about ways to apply those laws in more equitable ways. 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 120b Syntax I
[ ss wi ]

Prerequisite: LING 100a is recommended but not required. Four class hours per week.

An introduction to the process of syntactic analysis, to generative syntactic theory, and to many major syntactic phenomena of English and other languages, including the clausal architecture, the lexicon, and various types of syntactic movement. Usually offered every year.
Lotus Goldberg

MUS 131a Music in Western Culture: Early Medieval to the Sixteenth Century
[ ca wi ]

This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken MUS 131b in prior years.

A survey of music history from the early medieval period through the sixteenth century, considering major styles, composers, genres, and techniques of musical composition from a historical and analytical perspective. Topics include plainchant and the beginnings of western music notation--the songs of the crusades, the emergence of written polyphony in the west, the motet and madrigal, and Monteverdi and early opera.
Staff

NBIO 157a Project Laboratory in Neurobiology and Behavior
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisites: BIOL 18a and b, BIOL 14a, and BIOL 15b. A statistics class (e.g. BIOL 51a or PSYC 51a) is recommended but not required.

Focuses on neurobiology, the study of the function of the nervous system. Research conducted by students will address unanswered biological questions in this field. This course will focus on temperature sensation and regulation, using worms (C. elegans) as a model system. Students will learn: techniques for studying animal behavior in a rigorous lab setting, experimental design and analysis, and the fundamentals of reading and writing scientific research papers. Usually offered every year.

Nathalie Vladis

NEJS 183b* Global Jewish Literature
[ hum wi ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took NEJS 171a in prior years.

Introduces important works of modern Jewish literature, graphic fiction, and film. Taking a comparative approach, it addresses major themes in contemporary Jewish culture, interrogates the "Jewishness" of the works and considers issues of language, poetics, and culture significant to Jewish identity. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Kellman

NEJS 119a The Torah: Composition and Interpretation
[ hum wi ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or equivalent.

Explores Hebrew texts in the Torah or Pentateuch, examining their nature as collections of distinct documents or sources, many of which have a long prehistory, as well as the implications of this compositional model for their interpretation. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 128b Gender, Multiculturalism, and the Law
[ hum wi ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took PHIL 128a in prior years.

Can the state determine what children must learn in schools run by religious minorities? Can the state accommodate religiously-based demands to provide separate but equal public services to men and women, in prayer, on public transportation, or at universities? These are some of the issues we will explore in this class through the lens of political philosophy, law, and Jewish studies. Usually offered every second year.
Lisa Fishbayn Joffe

NEJS 129b Debating Jesus: Diverse Beliefs in the Early Church
[ hum wi ]

Examines the nature of Jesus, the Trinity, and scripture, both canonical and non-canonical, in the first four centuries of early Christianity. Students analyze material culture and written documents related to a wide array of diverse Christian voice. The course explores scandals, heresies, and dissension along with points of unity and changing alliances within the Early Church in diverse religious and political landscape. Usually offered every second year.
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom

NEJS 130b Denial and Desires: Gender and Sexuality in Early Christianity
[ hum wi ]

Formerly offered as NEJS 218a.

Investigates how Christians (1st-4th C.) contested and reshaped attitudes toward the family gender expectations (for nonbinary persons, men, and women), sexuality, and aging in cities, the countryside, and in monasteries. Readings include the New Testament, early Christian literature, and modern studies regarding the body, sexuality, and theological frameworks for defining how to maintain the Christian body. Usually offered every fourth year.
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom

NEJS 158b Yiddish Literature and the Modern Jewish Revolution
[ hum wi ]

Students with reading knowledge of Yiddish may elect to read the original texts.

Surveys and analyzes Yiddish fiction, poetry, and drama of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Readings include several works of the classic Yiddish writers, but the primary focus is on works by succeeding generations of modernist writers. Taught in English using texts in translation. Weekly additional section for students with advanced reading knowledge of Yiddish who elect to read some texts in the original. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Kellman

NEJS 162a American Judaism
[ hum ss wi ]

American Judaism from the earliest settlement to the present, with particular emphasis on the various streams of American Judaism. Judaism's place in American religion and comparisons to Judaism in other countries. Usually offered every year.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 163a Jews and American Capitalism
[ hum wi ]

Explores the central role played by capitalism and the market economy in the lives and religion of American Jews, from colonial times onward. Through a series of case studies, the course explores the occupational structure of the American Jewish community, the values that shaped occupational choices, and some of the surprising ways in which religion and capitalism have interacted. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 164a Judaism Confronts America
[ hum wi ]

Examines, through a close reading of selected primary sources, central issues and tensions in American Jewish life, paying attention to their historical background and to issues of Jewish law. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 185b The Making of the Modern Middle East
[ hum nw ss wi ]

Open to all students.

Discusses the processes that led to the emergence of the modern Middle East: disintegration of Islamic society, European colonialism, reform and reaction, and the rise of nationalism and the modern states. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

PHIL 112a Social Contract Theory and its Critics
[ hum wi ]

Prerequisite: One course in philosophy or political theory. 
 

Explores a variety of normative arguments for and against the legitimacy of the state that have been put forward by key figures in the history of western political philosophy; e.g. Hobbes, Kant, Rousseau, Hume, and Dewey. Usually offered every second year.
Marion Smiley

PHIL 113b Aesthetics
[ ca hum wi ]

Explores representation in painting, photography, and film by studying painters Rembrandt, Velázquez, and Vermeer, as well as later works by Manet, Degas, Cézanne, and Picasso; photographers Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Alfred Stieglitz, and Diane Arbus; and filmmakers Renoir and Hitchcock. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

PHIL 119a Human Rights
[ hum wi ]

Examines international human rights policies and the moral and political issues to which they give rise. Includes civilians' wartime rights, the role of human rights in foreign policy, and the responsibility of individuals and states to alleviate world hunger and famine. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

PHIL 131a Philosophy of Mind
[ hum wi ]

Covers the central issue in the philosophy of mind: the mind-body problem. This is the ongoing attempt to understand the relation between our minds -- our thoughts, perceptions, feelings, and so on -- and our bodies. Is the mind just a complex configuration of (neural) matter, or is there something about it that's irreducibly different from every physical thing? Topics include intentionality, consciousness, functionalism, reductionism, and the philosophical implications of recent work in neuroscience, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. Usually offered every year.
Jerry Samet or Umrao Sethi

POL 108a Seminar: The Police and Social Movements in American Politics
[ deis-us ss wi ]

Analyses American mass political movements, their interaction with police, and their influences on American politics. Topics include the relationship between social movements and various political institutions. Explore various theories with case studies of specific political movements. Usually offered every third year.
Daniel Kryder

POL 123a Seminar: Political Psychology
[ dl ss wi ]

Open to juniors, seniors, and graduate students.

Explores public opinion, political socialization, and political behavior through the lens of psychology. Applying psychological theory to traditional topics in political science is emphasized. Usually offered every year.
Jill Greenlee

POL 133b Politics of Russia and the Post Communist World
[ oc ss wi ]

Overview of the politics of Russia and the former Soviet world. Topics include the fall and legacy of communism, trends of democracy and dictatorship, European integration, resurgent nationalism, social and economic patterns throughout the former Soviet Bloc, and Putin's rise and influence both within Russia and abroad. Usually offered every year.
Steven Wilson

POL 134b The Global Migration Crisis
[ djw ss wi ]

Looks at immigration from the perspectives of policy-makers, migrants, and the groups affected by immigration in sender nations as well as destination countries. Introduces students to the history of migration policy, core concepts and facts about migration in the West, and to the theories and disagreements among immigrant scholars. Usually offered every second year.
Jytte Klausen

POL 139a The Radical Right: From Ballots to Bullets
[ deis-us ss wi ]

Radical right and far-right are umbrella terms used to refer to political parties and militant subcultures that differentiate themselves from mainstream conservatism. Students will be introduced to case studies of far-right groups and parties in Western Europe and the United States. We will discuss their ideologies and tactics, the different subcultures and the legal restraints that countries have used to control extremist groups linked to violence. Students will also learn about political science theories about the causes of far-right extremism. Usually offered every second year.

Jytte Klausen

POL 141a Elections and Electoral Systems in Comparative Perspective
[ djw dl ss wi ]

Introduces students to the scientific study of elections and electoral systems from a comparative standpoint. Students will be exposed to social scientific literature on elections, analyze these processes from a comparative perspective, and learn how to use digital tools, such as ArcGIS and online mapping software (GIS) to analyze electoral processes. Usually offered every year.
Alejandro Trelles

POL 144a Latin American Politics
[ djw nw ss wi ]

Examines the development and deepening of democracy in Latin America, focusing on the role of political institutions, economic development, the military, and U.S.-Latin American relations. Usually offered every year.
Alejandro Trelles

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 163a Seminar: The United Nations and the United States
[ djw dl ss wi ]

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.

Investigates the United Nations organization and charter, with an emphasis on the integral role of the United States in its founding and operation. Using archival documents and other digitized materials, explores topics such as UN enforcement actions, the Security Council veto, human rights, and the domestic politics of US commitments to the UN. Usually offered every second year.
Kerry Chase

POL 165a Dilemmas of Security Cooperation
[ dl ss wi ]

States regularly cooperate in the security domain. They can choose to band together in alliances, rely on stronger states for defense, or improve weaker actors' capacity to fight or defend themselves by providing arms and training. Security cooperation is a major feature of international relations, with powerful actors like the United States spending billions each year on efforts to arm, equip, and train partner militaries around the world. But security cooperation contains many dilemmas where states face difficult choices between alternatives without clear answers. Efforts to increase security can lead to unintended consequences, both for states and for the people who live in them. This course explores different dilemmas across a range of topics, considering both the causes and consequences of security cooperation. Topics include alliances, proxy warfare, arms transfers and military aid, peacekeeping, and security outcomes ranging from combat effectiveness to political violence and human rights. Usually offered every third year.

Renanah Joyce

POL 167b Russian Foreign Policy
[ oc ss wi ]

Prerequisite: POL 10a, POL 11b, POL 14b, or POL 15a.

Surveys Russian foreign policy in the contemporary world, with particular attention paid to the deep historical context for its attitudes and goals in international relations. Topics include relations with the larger post-communist region, the Muslim world, its ongoing antagonistic relations with America and the West, the rise of disinformation warfare on the internet, in addition to the distinct Russian perspective on geopolitics. Usually offered every year.
Steven Wilson

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

POL 179a Seminar: China's Global Rise: The Challenge to Democratic Order
[ nw ss wi ]

Explores the implications of China's global rise for the global democratic order constructed by the United States in the aftermath of World War II. Among other issues, we will ask whether China's international strategy in Asia, Africa, and Latin America poses a serious challenge to democratic nations and their support for democratization. Usually offered every second year.
Ralph Thaxton

POL 184a Seminar: Global Justice
[ djw ss wi ]

Prerequisites: One course in Political Theory or Moral, Social and Political Philosophy.

Explores the development of the topic of global justice and its contents. Issues to be covered include international distributive justice, duties owed to the global poor, humanitarian intervention, the ethics of climate change, and immigration. Usually offered every second year.
Jeffrey Lenowitz

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 130a The Great Russian Novel
[ hum wi ]

Open to all students. Conducted in English. Students may choose to do readings either in English translation or in Russian.

A comprehensive survey of the major writers and themes of the nineteenth century including Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and others. Usually offered every second year.
Robin Feuer Miller

RECS 134b Writer, Dramatist, Physician: Chekhov and The Healing Arts
[ hum wi ]

Open to all students. Conducted in English. Most students will choose to read the works in English translation, but students who know Russian may do the readings in Russian.

Explores Chekhov as a fiction writer, a dramatist, and a devoted physician. Many of his artistic works, including a number where doctors figure as primary characters, read as case studies of particular diseases, mental illnesses, and conditions induced by poverty. Chekhov practiced the healing arts in all aspects of his professional and creative life, as well as in his courageous efforts on the remote penal-colony island of Sakhalin and in his dangerous public work during a terrible cholera epidemic. This course will emphasize the skills of close looking—techniques equally valuable to the writer, the dramatist, and the physician. We will read works about children and the nature of childhood, about students, about “the woman question,” about peasants, about religion, about marriage and adultery. We will also read two plays: The Seagull and Uncle Vanya. Students will consider the ebb and flow between Chekhov’s efforts as a dramatist and a story-teller.  We will engage with some of Chekhov’s most vivid, candid, and intriguing letters about medicine and art. Usually offered every second year.
Robin 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 140a Russian Theater: Stanislavsky to Present
[ ca djw hum wi ]

Throughout its history, Russian theatre has tried to communicate truthfully in a mostly repressive society. This course introduces students to the achievements of theatre artists from Stanislavsky through Post-Modernism. We will examine the work of groundbreaking directors like Meyerhold, Vakhtangov, and Lyubimov. We will read and analyze representative works of major modern and contemporary playwrights. The course load consists of readings, discussions, papers and in-class projects. Usually offered every second year.
Dmitry Troyanovsky

SOC 113a Sociology of Love
[ deis-us ss wi ]

Examines the concept of love in sociological theory and research, through the lenses of race, economy, gender, sexuality. Usually offered every second year.
Gowri Vijayakumar

SOC 123a Countercultures and Cultural Change
[ ss wi ]

Countercultures consist of symbols and practices that are deployed to repudiate conventional ways of life. This class explores the emergence of countercultures, how they are expressed, the ways in which they decline, and when they lead to cultural change. Usually offered every second year.

Laura Miller

SOC 131b Writing Activists' Lives: Biography, Gender, and Society
[ ss wi ]

This course counts toward the completion of the joint MA degree in Sociology & Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Explores the relationship between individual lives, historical period, structures of inequality, and social change by examining the lives of activists in the U.S. It uses the biographical method to pose questions about voice, positionality, evidence, and “truth.” Usually offered every third year.
Karen Hansen

SOC 146b Nationalism and Globalization
[ ss wi ]

Prerequisite: IGS 10a or SOC 1a.

In an age of globalization, why does nationalism thrive? Are globalization and nationalism rivals, strangers or possibly partners? Students will trace the emergence of nationalism while also examining globalization's impact on societies such as the United States, Russia, China, and India. Usually offered every second year.
Chandler Rosenberger

SOC 148b The Sociology of Information: Politics, Power, and Property
[ ss wi ]

Examines the claim that information is a key political and economic resource in contemporary society. Considers who has access to information, and how it is used for economic gain, interpersonal advantage, and social control. Usually offered every third year.
Laura Miller

SOC 151b Morality and Capitalist Society
[ ss wi ]

Is the economy moral? Is it just, fair, or equitable? Is it even vulnerable to moral judgements? Living in a capitalist society, these questions become very important. This course examines them by introducing students to sociological ways of understanding the economy and morality. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Strand

SOC 179a Sociology of Drugs in America
[ ss wi ]

Explores the use, misuse, and control of drugs in the United States, both legal medications and illicit "street" drugs. Examines pressing contemporary debates and dilemmas surrounding drugs in contemporary America, including the opioid crisis. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

THA 142b Women Playwrights: Writing for the Stage by and about Women
[ ca deis-us wi ]

Introduces the world of female playwrights. This course will engage the texts through common themes explored by female playwrights: motherhood (and daughterhood), reproduction, sexuality, family relationships, etc. Students will participate in writing or performance exercises based on these themes. Usually offered every second year.
Adrianne Krstansky

THA 148b Fundamentals of Dramaturgy
[ ca wi ]

Introduces students to the art and practice of dramaturgy. Explores the role of the dramaturg in the theater-making process'from production research, new play development, and script analysis, to season planning, community outreach, and audience enrichment. Usually offered every second year.
Isaiah Matthew Wooden

THA 150a Global Theater: Voices from Asia, Africa, and the Americas
[ ca djw nw wi ]

Explores dramatic literature and performance traditions from across the globe. Examines the ways various artists have engaged theater to express, represent, and interrogate diversity and complexity of the human condition. Usually offered every second year.
Isaiah Wooden

ED 202a Learning, Identity, and Development
[ ss wi ]

Open only to MAT students.

How do children learn? Topics in this survey course include models of learning, cognitive and social development, creativity, intelligence, character education, motivation, complex reasoning, and learning disabilities. Course methods include contemporary research analyses, case studies, group projects, short lectures, and class discussions.
Sarah Lupis and Joseph Reimer