Oral Communication
Last updated: August 24, 2023 at 9:41 AM
Objectives
The oral communication requirement recognizes that students need to be prepared for a variety of ways to communicate effectively in various fields of study including oral presentations, interviews, active debate, critique, and performances.
Requirement Beginning Fall 2019
For students entering Brandeis beginning fall 2019, the oral communication requirement will be fulfilled for most students through coursework taken in the completion of their major, or through other options described in the requirements for the major. Please see the Requirements to Complete a Major for information on fulfilling oral communication for a specific major.
Requirement Prior to Fall 2019
For students entering Brandeis prior to fall 2019, courses that satisfy the requirement in a particular semester are designated "oc" in the Schedule of Classes for that semester. Students must satisfactorily complete one writing-intensive course, and either a second writing-intensive course or an oral communication course.
Courses of Instruction
(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students
AMST/ENG
47a
Frontier Visions: The West in American Literature and Culture
[
hum
oc
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took ENG 47a in prior years.
Explores more than two centuries of literary and visual culture about the American West, including the frontier myth, Indian captivity narratives, frontier humor, dime novel and Hollywood westerns, the Native American Renaissance, and western regionalism. Authors include Black Hawk, Cather, Doig, Silko, Turner, and Twain. Usually offered every third year.
Jerome Tharaud
AMST/MUS
35a
Rock, Country, and Hip-Hop: History of American Popular Music
[
ca
oc
]
Formerly offered as MUS 35a.
Examines the historical context, stylistic development, and cultural significance of rock and roll and other closely related genres, spanning the 1950s through the present. Close attention is paid to how political and social changes have interacted with technological innovations through commercial music to challenge, affirm and shape ideas of race, gender, class and sexuality in the United States. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
AMST/MUS
38a
American Music: From Psalms to Hip Hop
[
ca
oc
ss
]
Open to music majors and non-majors. Formerly offered as MUS 38a.
Explores the many varieties of folk, popular, and art music in American culture. We will focus on the stylistic development of select repertoires beginning with 18th century New England Psalm singing and African American traditions and continuing on through folk, jazz, art, pop, rock, and hip hop music. Throughout the course, music serves as a lens to examine diverse aspects of American culture and history with an emphasis on America's shifting definition of identity. No musical background is required. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
AMST/MUS
39b
Protest Through Song: Music that Shaped America
[
ca
oc
ss
]
Open to music majors and non-majors. Does not fulfill the Main Currents in American Studies requirement for the major.
Examines 20th and 21st century protest music to better understand the complex relationships between music and social movements. Through class discussions, reading, writing, and listening assignments, and a final performance students will discover how social, cultural, and economic protest songs helped shape American culture. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
AMST/MUS
55a
Music in Film: Hearing American Cinema
[
ca
oc
]
Formerly offered as MUS 55a.
Examines the aesthetics and the history of music in film. Through lecture, class discussions, screenings, and readings, the course teaches students how to critically read image, script, and music as an integrated cultural text, ultimately helping one understand and appreciate the progression of film and sound technology from the 1890s to the present. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
ANTH
42a
Sages and Seekers: A Fieldwork Practicum in the Life Course across Generations
[
oc
]
Corequisite: ANTH 1a, ANTH 111a, ANTH 127a, ANTH 144a, ANTH 165b, ANTH 182b, or PSYC 37a. Course may be taken as a prerequisite within the past year with permission of the instructor. Yields half-course credit. Formerly offered as EL 42a.
Students participate in a 9-week Sages and Seekers program designed to bridge the generational gap between seniors and youth in order to foster the exchange of wisdom and dissolve age-related segregation. Each student also designs and carries out an individual fieldwork and/or community service project. Hands-on experiences complement concepts and questions explored through the base classes, regarding aging, gender, and generational change in socio-cultural context. Usually offered every second year.
Sarah Lamb
ANTH
61b
Language in American Life
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deis-us
oc
ss
]
Examines both language-in-use and ideas about language varieties in the United States from an anthropological perspective. Explores how language-in-use emerges from and builds relationships, social hierarchies, professional authority, religious experience, dimensions of identity such as gender and race, and more. Usually offered every second year.
Janet McIntosh
ANTH
62a
Archaeology in Politics, Film and Public Culture
[
oc
ss
]
Examines the use of archaeology in national politics, popular culture, and continued international debates revolving around issues of cultural patrimony. After a brief look at the history of the field and its inception within colonialism, this course centers on the contemporary uses of archaeology, including archaeology in totalitarian Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, nationalist projects and the establishment of nation-building narratives (such as in Israel, Egypt, China and Mexico), and portrayals of archaeology in popular films and modern hoaxes. Importantly, this course also focuses on national and international laws concerning cultural objects and sites, and the ethical dilemmas of stewardship, repatriation, and looting. Usually offered every third year.
Javier Urcid
ANTH
81a
Conducting Ethnographic Fieldwork: Methods and Practice of Anthropological Research
[
oc
ss
wi
]
Formerly offered as ANTH 181aj.
Examines principal issues in ethnographic fieldwork and analysis, including research design, data collection, and ethnographic representation. Students will develop a focused research question, design field research, and conduct supervised fieldwork in a variety of local settings. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
BIOL
18b
General Biology Laboratory
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oc
sn
]
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
39b
Biology of Global Climate Change
[
dl
oc
sn
]
Prerequisites: ENVS 2a, BIOL 16a or BIOL 17b.
Examines the biology of global climate change from how biology informs understanding climate change to the evolutionary and ecological responses to climate change. This course includes an exploration of the primary literature. Usually offered every spring.
Colleen Hitchcock
BIOL
53a
Introduction to Animal Science and Nutrition
[
oc
sn
]
Prerequisites: BIOL 14a and BIOL 15b.
Designed for students interested in learning the fundamentals of animal science. The course is intended for students who are familiar with central dogma, cellular structure and genetic inheritance, but have not yet applied those concepts in animal systems. 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
88a
Communication and Career Skills in Chemistry
[
oc
]
Prerequisites: A satisfactory grade (C- or better) in CHEM 25b and 29b, or the equivalent. Does not count as one of the lecture or lab courses for the chemistry major.
A course focused on honing skills for effective scientific communication and career development in chemistry. Students will practice presenting chemical information, learn about various career paths in chemistry, and gain insight into standard safety and ethical protocols in science. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
CHIN
40b
Advanced Intermediate Chinese
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: CHIN 30a or equivalent. Four class hours per week.
Continuation of CHIN 30a. Usually offered every spring.
Xiwen Lu
CLAS
45a
Practicum in Oral Communication
[
oc
]
Corequisite: One course in Classical Studies and permission of the instructor. Yields half-course credit. Fulfills the oral communication requirement for Classical Studies majors under the Brandeis Core.
Provides students with discipline appropriate training in viewing and designing oral presentations. Usually offered every semester.
Staff
COML/ENG
21a
The Literature of Walking
[
hum
oc
]
Explores genres of pedestrianism—rambles, strolls, promenades, treks, pilgrimages, marches. Students will take and design walks as well as read major works on the subject. Usually offered every fourth year.
Caren Irr
COSI
45a
Effective Communication for Computer Scientists
[
oc
]
Prerequisite: One 100-level COSI elective. Yields half-course credit.
Teaches the basics of good oral communication and presentation, such as structuring a presentation, body language, eye contact, pace and appropriateness for the audience. It will cover, with practice, a range of speaking engagements majors might meet in academia and industry including: presentation of a research paper, software architecture proposal, business elevator pitch, research funding proposal, and so on. Students will present a project already created for a 100-level COSI elective. They will give the presentation in class, receive feedback based on the practices taught and then have a chance to give the presentation a second time. Usually offered every semester.
ECON
25a
Oral Communication in Economics Practicum
[
oc
]
Prerequisite: ECON 80a. Course may be taken as a corequisite. Yields half-course credit.
Introduces students to techniques of public speaking in economics using microeconomic applications. Teaches students to explain real-world economic problems to an audience using economic reasoning. Usually offered every semester.
Galit Eizman
ENG
20b
Literary Games
[
deis-us
dl
hum
oc
]
Addresses a long durée history of the games through the lens of transmedia. This then is the start pointing to examine how transmedia theory may help unpack issues in what I call 'literary games' from the medieval chess board, dice game, to digital multi-player video games now. Within a discussion of transmedia we will address the various theories about narrative and play that have animated discussions about games from the Middle Ages to contemporary media. This class will also center race, gender, sexuality, disability, class in thinking through the issues of transmedia and the gaming cultures that have most recently been in the political mainstream news in relation to far-right politics. Usually offered every third year.
Dorothy Kim
ENG
32a
21st-Century Global Fiction: A Basic Course
[
djw
hum
nw
oc
]
Offers an introduction to 21st-century global fiction in English. What is fiction and how does it illuminate contemporary issues such as migration, terrorism, and climate change? Authors include Zadie Smith, Amitav Ghosh, Chimamanda Adichie, Mohsin Hamid, J.M. Coetzee and others. Usually offered every third year.
Ulka Anjaria
ENG
43b
Medieval Play: Drama, LARP, and Video Games
[
djw
hum
oc
]
Works with a selection of medieval mystery plays, medieval-themed video games and participatory live-action role play to explore: play structures and design; alternative-world creation by way of immersion; the significance of gender, race, disability, and sexuality in performance. Usually offered every third year.
Dorothy Kim
ENG
52a
Refugee Stories, Refugee Lives
[
deis-us
djw
dl
hum
nw
oc
]
Examines the functions of storytelling in the refugee crisis. Its main objective is to further students' understanding of the political dimensions of storytelling. The course explores how reworking of reality enable people to question State and social structures. Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Diouf
ENG
60a
Storytelling Performance
[
hum
oc
]
This experiential course is a workshop for students to craft and perform stories for live audiences at Brandeis and elsewhere in the Boston area. Through a series of collaborative exercises and rehearsals, students will develop a repertoire of several kinds of stories, including autobiographies, fictions, folk tales, and local history. We will tell our individual and group stories, as a team, at youth programs, open mics, and other public spaces. Usually offered every second year.
David Sherman
ENG
62b
Contemporary African Literature, Global Perspectives
[
djw
dl
hum
nw
oc
]
What is "African" in African literature when the majority of writers are somehow removed from the African societies they portray? How do expatriate writers represent African subjectivities and cultures at the intersection of Diaspora and globalization? Who reads the works produced by these writers? Usually offered every third year.
Emilie Diouf
ENG
64a
Queer Readings: Before the Binary
[
hum
oc
]
Explores vectors of desire, intimacy, and relationality prior to 1800 that do not always neatly line up with post-Enlightenment taxonomies of gender, sexuality, race, and humanness. We will read works by Austen, Behn, Marlowe, Phillips, Rochester, Shakespeare, and others, asking: What possibilities of pleasure, intimacy, love, friendship, and kinship existed alongside male-female reproductive sex and marriage before 1800? What possibilities for non-binary gender identifications and presentations? Without firm taxonomic distinctions among classes of people, between human and nonhuman animals, or even between the human and the thing, how did early moderns understand what counted as fully human? Usually offered every third year.
Tom King
ENG
73a
Witchcraft and Magic in the Renaissance: From Scotland to Salem
[
hum
oc
]
Focuses on the representation of witches, wizards, devils, and magicians in texts by Shakespeare, Marlow, and others. Historical accounts of witchcraft trials in England and Scotland are read and several films dramatizing these trials are viewed. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
ENVS
42b
Climate Science
[
oc
qr
sn
]
A course in chemistry or physics in high school, plus a strong foundation in high school-level algebra is required.
Provides an overview of the physical, chemical, and biological processes governing climate change. There will be an emphasis on quantitative problem solving using real-world data and developing effective climate communication strategies. Usually offered every year.
Sally Warner
HIST
52b
Europe in the Modern World
[
oc
ss
]
Explores European history from the Enlightenment to the present emphasizing how developments in Europe have shaped and been shaped by broader global contexts. Topics include: revolution, industrialization, political and social reforms, nationalism, imperialism, legacies of global wars, totalitarianism, and decolonization. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Muller
HIST
66a
History of South Asia (2500 BCE - 1971)
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
Introduces South Asian history from the earliest civilizations to the independence of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Surveys the formation of religious traditions, the establishment of kingdoms and empires, colonialism and its consequences, and post-independence political and economic development. Usually offered every second year.
Govind Sreenivasan
JAPN
40b
Advanced Intermediate Japanese
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in JAPN 30a or the equivalent. Meets four days per week for a total of four class hours per week and one half-hour tutoring session per week.
Continuation of JAPN 30a. Further refining of a student's four language skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing Japanese through various classroom activities, workbook, audio, video, and writing essays. Usually offered every spring.
Yukimi Nakano
LACLS
1a
Introduction to Latin American/LatinX: Cultures, Histories, and Societies
[
nw
oc
ss
]
Provides a broad overview of the histories, cultures, and politics that continue to shape the Americas; specifically of the vast regions and populations of what came to be labeled as "Latin America," "the Caribbean" and what we now call "Latinx " populations in the USA. The class provides an introduction to Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies. It draws from different disciplines and fields of study that compose this field, such as history, anthropology, literature, visual arts, film, political science, among other perspectives and methodologies. Usually offered every year.
Staff
LGLS
10a
Introduction to Law
[
oc
ss
]
Surveys the nature, process, and institutions of law: the reasoning of lawyers and judges, the interplay of cases and policies, the impact of history and culture, and the ideals of justice and responsibility in a global context. Usually offered every fall.
Daniel Breen
LGLS
89a
Law and Society Internship and Seminar
[
oc
wi
]
Prerequisites: LGLS 10a and one other LGLS course or permission of the instructor. To obtain an internship, students must discuss their placements with the LGLS internship director by April 15 for fall term internships or by November 15 for spring term internships. This course may not be repeated for credit.
Course consists of regular class meetings, a supervised law-related internship in a public agency or nonprofit organization, and a related research paper. Students must work between 10 and 15 hours per week at their internship placement site. Examples of internship activities include investigating discrimination cases, negotiating between consumers and small business, and attending criminal and family courts. Internships are arranged in consultation with the Internship Director and the Program Administrator for Legal Studies. Usually offered every semester.
Staff
MATH
16b
Applied Linear Algebra Practicum
[
dl
oc
]
Prerequisite: MATH 15a or MATH 22a. Yields half-course credit.
Introduces fundamental skills for both computing and oral communication in the context of applied linear algebra problems. Includes basics of Python, numpy, and matplotlib. Usually offered every semester.
Staff
MATH
40a
Introduction to Applied Mathematics
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dl
oc
sn
]
Prerequisites: MATH 15a or MATH 22a and MATH 20a or MATH 22b.
Introduces the problems and issues of applied mathematics, with emphasis on how mathematical ideas can have a major impact on diverse fields of human inquiry. Usually offered every fall.
Tyler Maunu
MUS
56b
Romanticism in European Music and Literature: Breakups, Breakdowns, and Beauty
[
ca
oc
]
Open to Music majors and non-majors.
Romantic art abounds in depictions of hallucinators, madwomen, obsessives, and other individuals whose thoughts and behaviors deviate sharply from societal norms. This semester, we'll seek to understand the cultural and historical significance of the ways in which late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music and literature portray exceptional emotional, mental, and physiological states. We'll investigate the connections among madness, genius, physical illness, and the supernatural in the Romantic imagination, and also think about the artistic techniques contemporary writers and composers used to represent 'extreme' psychology. Our approach to this material will be comparative rather than strictly historical: we'll look at works written in different countries and different time periods within the period, grouped together by theme. Usually offered every third year.
Emily Frey
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
POL
89a
Political Science Internship
[
oc
]
Students in the course examine political issues alongside professionals in the field. Students will evaluate the applicability of political science theories and concepts to real-world politics. Seminar meetings and assignments provide perspective and a substantive basis for the internship experience. Usually offered every year.
Staff
PSYC
36b
Adolescence and the Transition to Maturity
[
oc
ss
]
Prerequisite: PSYC 10a.
Examines the core issues (identity, intimacy, sexuality, spirituality, etc.) that define development during adolescence and the transition to young adulthood. Heavy emphasis is placed on integrating research and theory in understanding adolescence and young adulthood. Usually offered every year.
Ellen Wright and Staff
THA
2a
Theater Foundations: Process, Production, and Performance
[
ca
oc
]
Intended as an entry level course for majors, minors, and interested students with little to no theater experience. May count towards the major or minor in Theater Arts.
An introduction and investigation of theater in its many aspects. This course will acquaint the student with the theatrical elements of production and performance and familiarize the student with the role of artist and audience. Usually offered every year.
Jennifer Cleary/Staff
THA
10a
Theater as Collaboration
[
ca
oc
]
Develops the student's ability to read a theatrical text through the lens of the collaborative theater artist. Reading, discussions, papers, and exercises about acting, directing, movement, design, dramaturgy, technical theater, and management will constitute the bulk of this course. Intended as the entry level course for majors, minors, and interested students with a background in theater. Usually offered every year.
Adrianne Krstansky and Ryan McKittrick
THA
15b
Public Speaking: The Art of Oral Communication
[
oc
]
Does not meet the requirements for the major or minor in Theater Arts. May not be used to satisfy the Creative Arts distribution requirement.
Introduces the basic concepts and techniques of making presentations to groups of people. Students explore the principles of human communication and apply them to various situations and forms of spoken discourse. Students develop a process for analyzing the audience and situation; for choosing, limiting, and researching a subject; for developing effective habits of vocal delivery; and for writing their own speeches. Usually offered every year.
Jennifer Cleary/Robert Walsh
THA
16b
Genius in Small Group Communication: Theory and Practice
[
oc
]
Does not meet the requirements for the major or minor in Theater Arts. May not be used to satisfy the Creative Arts distribution requirement.
The study of small group communication centers on placing the self as secondary and the group as primary, implementing the art of compromise and collaboration. This course develops critical skills in communicating in public and within a small group context. Course meetings introduce theoretical frameworks around small group communication and students will immediately put ideas into practice in class. Requires group work inside and outside of class. Usually offered every second year.
Jennifer Cleary
WGS
5a
Women, Genders, and Sexualities
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deis-us
dl
oc
ss
]
This interdisciplinary course introduces central concepts and topics in the field of women's, gender, and sexuality studies. Explores the position of women and other genders in diverse settings and the impact of gender as a social, cultural, and intellectual category in the United States and around the globe. Asks how gendered institutions, behaviors, and representations have been configured in the past and function in the present, and also examines the ways in which gender and sexuality intersect with many other vectors of identity and circumstance in forming human affairs. Usually offered every fall.
ChaeRan Freeze, Sarah Lamb, or Harleen Singh
(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students
AAAS
104a
Colorism in Paradise
[
djw
dl
oc
ss
]
Introduces the concept of colorism, its relationship to racism, and consider the prevalence of color over race as a preferred identity and socio-political category across Latin America and the Caribbean. The course requires students to read interdisciplinary academic texts and utilize critical race and social praxeology theory to interrogate specific, national contexts within the Latin American and Caribbean region. Special one-time offering, Fall 2021.
Rachel Cantave
AAAS
120a
African History in Real Time
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
This information literacy-driven course equips students with the skills to place current events in Africa in their historical context. Collectively the class builds 5-6 distinct course modules which entail sourcing and evaluating current news stories from a range of media outlets, selecting those that merit in-depth historical analysis, and developing a syllabus for each one. Usually offered every second year.
Carina Ray
AAAS
124a
After the Dance: Performing Sovereignty in the Caribbean
[
hum
oc
ss
]
Utilizing short fiction, essays, plays, poetry, and the visual arts, this class theorizes movement and/as freedom in the spectacular or mundane movements of the region, including annual Carnival and Hosay celebrations. Usually offered every third year.
Faith Smith
AAAS
151b
Africa: A Reggae Anthology
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djw
nw
oc
ss
]
Draws on the genre of reggae music as a course of understanding how Africa, its people, its history, and its contemporary circumstances are imagined, understood, represented, and engaged by African descended people in Jamaica and in the broader African diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Carina Ray
AAAS/WGS
136a
Black Feminist Thought
[
deis-us
oc
ss
]
Formerly offered as AAAS 136a.
Critical examination of the historical, political, economic, and ideological factors that have shaped the lives of African-American women in the United States. Analyzing foundation theoretical texts, fiction, and film over two centuries, this class seeks to understand black women's writing and political activism in the U.S. Usually offered every second year.
Shoniqua Roach
AMST/JOUR
113a
Long-form Journalism: Storytelling for Magazines and Podcasts
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dl
oc
ss
]
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
ANTH
114a
Anthropology of the Military and Policing
[
oc
ss
]
Explores cultural dimensions of military and policing organizations, including institutional, embodied, linguistic, and ritualistic instantiations of military and policing ideologies. Topics include experiences of military and police service, social and cultural dynamics in military and policing organizations, gender and LGBTQ issues, and the Human Terrain Team controversy. Usually offered every third year.
Staff
ANTH
122b
We Are All Ears: The Power, Politics, and Ethics of Storytelling
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deis-us
oc
ss
]
What do we learn by listening to or reading about someone else? This course digs deep into the power of stories and storytelling in four overlapping ways. First, we will explore storytelling more broadly as a cultural activity that shapes who we are and how we interact with one another on ethical, political, and social terms. Next, we will focus on the violent, volatile, and/or oppressive conditions under which stories are told—or silenced. With an emphasis on the United States, we will look at the wide-ranging ways dominant narratives have the power to create, sustain, or remake reality. Third, we will consider the underbelly of these stories – the lives, experiences, and counternarratives of those at the margins. Here, we will learn to actively listen to multiple, diverse stories often hidden from view. Finally, inspired by Hannah Arendt’s contention that stories mediate the space between private and public realms, and that by enlarging our horizons of understanding storytelling helps reconcile singular and plural worlds, we will discuss how stories not only transport us but also transform us. In conversation with storytellers – inside and outside of academia – this course culminates in designing your own creative, public-facing storytelling project (ie: podcasts, exhibitions, performances) and sharing it in a public venue. Special one-time offering, spring 2023.
Emily Ibrahim
ANTH
142b
Global Pandemics: History, Society, and Policy
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nw
oc
ss
]
Takes a biosocial approach to pandemics like HIV/AIDS, SARS, and Ebola as shaped not simply by biology, but also by culture, economics, politics, and history. Discussion focuses on how gender, sexuality, religion, and folk practices shape pandemic situations. Usually offered every fourth year.
Elanah Uretsky
ANTH
159a
Museums and Public Memory
[
oc
ss
]
Explores the social and political organization of public memory, including museums, cultural villages, and memorial sites. Who has the right to determine the content and form of such institutions? Working with local community members, students will develop a collaborative exhibition project. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Schattschneider
ANTH
164b
Cancer and Community
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djw
oc
ss
]
Addresses the biophysical and sociocultural dimensions of cancer: how can this dreaded disease be both alienating and associated with new forms of solidarity and social connection? We also consider how vulnerability to cancer is mediated by structures of social inequality. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Schattschneider
ANTH
182b
Applied Anthropology
[
oc
ss
]
This course is about using anthropology to solve real-world problems. We will explore how anthropological research and approaches are used to address practical issues related to the environment, urban planning, government services, healthcare, cultural heritage, and user experience in industry. The course gives students the skills in using anthropological concepts and theories in a variety of settings, an understanding of the ethics of applied qualitative research and hands-on experience doing ethnographic research oriented towards solving problems. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Anjaria or Ellen Schattschneider
BCHM
103b
Advanced Biochemistry: Cellular Information Transfer Mechanisms
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oc
sn
]
Prerequisites: One year of organic chemistry with laboratory and BCHM 100a or equivalents. BIOL 14a or the equivalent is recommended.
Molecular mechanisms of information transfer in biological systems. Topics include nucleic acid biochemistry, processing of genetic information, and signal transduction. Each section will focus on the chemistry and regulation of a selected example from these fundamental processes. Lectures will be complemented by reading assignments and student presentations on articles from the original research literature. Usually offered every year.
Niels Bradshaw
BIOL
134b
Topics in Ecology
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oc
sn
]
Prerequisites: BIOL 23a, or permission of the instructor. Topics may vary from year to year. Please consult the Course Schedule for topic and description. Course may be repeated once for credit with permission of the instructor.
Annually, a different aspect of the global biosphere is selected for analysis. In any year the focus may be on specific ecosystems (e.g., terrestrial, aquatic, tropical, arctic), populations, system modeling, restoration ecology, or other aspects of ecology. Usually offered every year.
Dan Perlman
CBIO
101a
Chemical Biology
[
oc
sn
]
Prerequisites: A satisfactory grade (C- or better) in BIOL 14a, BIOL 15b, and CHEM 25a and b, or the equivalent.
Explores how scientific work in chemistry led to fundamental understanding of and ability to manipulate biological processes. Emphasis is placed on chemical design and synthesis as well as biological evaluation and utility. Content based on scientific literature readings. Usually offered every second year.
Thomas Pochapsky
CHEM
199d
BA/MA Research
[
oc
]
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor and Undergraduate Advising Head; open only to BA/MA candidates. Does not meet the major requirements in chemistry. A designated library training component must be completed as soon as it is offered. At the end of the first semester, the introduction to the research thesis with extensive bibliography is due.
A year-long course focused on a research project with a member of the department. Successful completion of the course involves writing a detailed report on the project. Usually offered every year.
Staff
CHIN
100a
Introduction to Chinese Literature: Desire and Form
[
hum
nw
oc
]
Taught in English. No Chinese language capabilities required.
Introduces Chinese literature, focusing primarily on Chinese "classical" literary traditions and their metamorphosis in modern times. Usually offered every second year.
Pu Wang
CHIN
105a
Advanced Conversation and Composition I
[
fl
hum
oc
wi
]
Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in CHIN 40b or the equivalent.
Designed for advanced students who wish to enhance and improve their skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing through listening and reading authentic or slightly modified materials, discussing and writing on various topics of Chinese society and culture. Usually offered every fall.
Staff
CHIN
105b
Advanced Conversation and Composition II
[
fl
hum
oc
wi
]
Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in CHIN 105a or the equivalent.
Designed for advanced students who wish to enhance and improve their speaking proficiency and writing skills. Speaking skills will be developed through guided conversation, discussion of texts and films, and oral presentation. Exercises and essays will be used to improve students' writing skills. Usually offered every spring.
Staff
CHIN
126a
Advanced Conversational Chinese
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: CHIN 105b or equivalent.
For advanced students of Chinese, this course further develops their Chinese speaking proficiency in both information and formal styles. The course is conducted entirely in Chinese and is designed for students who want to improve their communicative ability in Chinese. Focuses on significant expansion of vocabularies, grammars, and genuine expressions used by Chinese in their daily life, as well as enhancing students' understanding of Chinese society and culture. Usually offered every year.
Jian Wei
CHIN
165a
Chinese for Life Science: Study of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Herbs with Contemporary Science
[
fl
oc
]
Prerequisite: CHIN 105b or equivalent. Does not meet the requirement in the school of humanities.
Helps students increase Chinese proficiency in the fields of life science such biology, biochemistry, neuroscience, and medicine, especially the skills of reading life science papers in Chinese; and widens and deepens students' knowledge of life science by learning the most important discoveries of Chinese scientists in applying contemporary western science to the studies of traditional medicinal herbs. Although this course is not just limited to biology, neuroscience, or chemistry majors, good knowledge of life science will be essential to success. Usually offered every year.
Jian Wei
COML
100a
Introduction to Global Literature
[
dl
hum
oc
]
Core course for COML major and minor.
What is common and what is different in literatures of different cultures and times? How do literary ideas move from one culture to another? In this course students read theoretical texts, as well as literary works from around the world. Usually offered every year.
Staff
COML/ENG
191a
Environmental Aesthetics
[
djw
hum
oc
]
Explores major schools of thought about nature, ecology, and art. Usually offered every third year.
Caren Irr
COSI
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
ECS
100a
European Cultural Studies Proseminar: Modernism
[
dl
hum
oc
]
Explores the interrelationship of literature, music, painting, philosophy, and other arts in the era of high modernism. Works by Artaud, Baudelaire, Benjamin, Mann, Mahler, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Kandinsky, Schiele, Beckett, Brecht, Adorno, Sartre, Heidegger, and others. Usually offered every fall semester.
Stephen Dowden
ED
155b
Education and Social Policy
[
oc
ss
]
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.
Staff
ED
165a
Reading (and Talking Back to) Research on Education
[
dl
oc
ss
]
Open to education studies majors only.
In this required capstone course for education studies majors, students will review quantitative and qualitative research through disciplinary lenses. Students pursue some topic of inquiry by either reviewing and synthesizing educational research, or conducting some empirical research. Usually offered every year.
Staff
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
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
113b
Performing Climate Justice
[
deis-us
hum
oc
]
Considers justice in relation to our ordinary and collective actions as these recreate or transform our social and material realities as human drivers of the Anthropocene. How can the embodied creation and transmission of knowledge and skills, by creative workers and change agents, help us imagine and create new, translocal ways of being and acting together no longer driven by fossil fuels? What happens to notions of the human, human civilization, and human history if we adopt a non-anthropocentric and biocentric approach to climate justice and climate ethics? Usually offered every fourth year.
Tom King
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
139a
Publishing Workshop: Literary Editing and Publishing
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dl
hum
oc
]
Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Students will be selected after the submission of an introductory letter including student's major, writing/editing experience, why publishing is of interest to them, any experimental literary publications/performances they've experienced. This course fulfills a workshop requirement for the Creative Writing major and minor. Please refer to the Schedule of Classes for submission formats and deadlines within the Registration periods.
Editing and publishing a literary journal -- either digital, print, or in more experimental forms -- can be an important component of a writer's creative life and sense of literary citizenship. This experiential learning course will engage students with theoretical and historical reading as well as provide practical hands-on tools for literary publishing. Broadsided Press (www.broadsidedpress.org) will be used as a case study. A group publishing project will be part of the coursework, and this can be tied into journals already being published on campus. By the end of the semester, students will have a fuller sense of the work, mindset, difficulties, strategies, and values of a literary publisher. Usually offered every second year.
Elizabeth Bradfield
ENG
139b
Screenwriting Workshop: Intermediate Screenwriting
[
hum
oc
wi
]
Prerequisites: ENG 79a. Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information. May be repeated for credit.
In this writing-intensive course, students build on screenwriting basics and delve more deeply into the creative process. Participants read and critique each other's work, study screenplays and view films, and submit original written material on a biweekly basis. At the conclusion of the course each student will have completed the first draft of a screenplay (100-120 pages). Usually offered every second year.
Marc Weinberg
ENG
143a
The History of Mediascapes and Critical Maker Culture
[
deis-us
dl
hum
oc
]
Class has a required lab component and yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation.
To consider how to decolonize book history and “maker culture,” the class examines colonial erasure, colonial knowledge production, race, gender, disability, neurodiversity, sexuality in making an alternative book history that includes khipu, girdle books, wampum, pamphlets, zines, and wearable media technology. Usually offered every third year.
Dorothy Kim
ENG
170b
Contemporary Theatre and Performance: Between Rights and the Post-Human
[
hum
oc
]
Students will explore two pressing questions: How do contemporary theatre artists work to rehumanize those denied humanity? During a global climate emergency, how can the theatre, which is traditionally defined by the co-presence of humans, relocate the human as only one of many lifeforms--not the center of everything but rather entwined with other organic, inorganic, and spiritual agencies? Usually offered every second year.
Thomas King
ENG
188b
Capitalism and Culture
[
hum
oc
]
How does capitalism influence the culture of advanced economies? How are the arts, dreams, and everyday lives of capitalist cultures organized? What traces of pre- or non-capitalist cultures survive? When, if at all, do we imagine worlds after capitalism? Usually offered every third year.
Caren Irr
FA
118a
Studio Seminar
[
ca
oc
]
Introduces students to crucial facets of a successful studio practice that happen concurrently, and in dialogue with art making. Writing, reading, communication, and professional practices will be explored as ways of bolstering students' understanding of their own studio practice within the wider history of art and particularly within the context of contemporary art. Usually offered every year.
lauren woods
FA
178b
Seminar on Chinese Calligraphy and Practice
[
ca
nw
oc
]
Prerequisite: Some knowledge of reading Chinese. May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 191a in prior years.
Introduces the major scripts and canonical works of Chinese calligraphy. Besides studying historical developments, students gain hands-on experience with producing their own works. The class combines theory and practice to advance understanding of the aesthetic, critical language, and the functions of this enduring art. Usually offered every second year.
Aida Wong
FA
191b
Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art
[
ca
oc
wi
]
Preference to Fine Arts majors and minors, Italian Studies minors, and Medieval and Renaissance minors only. Topics may vary from year to year; the course may be repeated for credit as topics change.
Usually offered every third year.
Jonathan Unglaub
FA
192a
Studies in Modern and Contemporary Art
[
ca
oc
]
Topics may vary from year to year; the course may be repeated for credit.
Usually offered every second year.
Peter Kalb or Staff
FA
193a
Studies in Modern and Contemporary Architecture
[
ca
oc
wi
]
Topics may vary from year to year; the course may be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor.
Usually offered every third year.
Staff
FA
197a
Studies in Asian Art
[
ca
nw
oc
]
Topics may vary from year to year; the course may be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor. Usually offered every third year.
Aida Wong
FILM
110a
Film Production I
[
ca
dl
oc
ss
]
Preference given to Film,Television and Interactive Media majors and minors.
An introduction to the basic principles and techniques of fictional narrative motion picture production. Each student will produce three short films. The films will emphasize dramatic development and creative storytelling through image composition, camera movement, editing, and sound. Usually offered every year.
Staff
FILM
110b
Motion Picture Editing
[
dl
oc
ss
]
Preference given to Film, Television and Interactive Media majors and minors.
Students will develop visual literacy through a study of the editor's role in cinematic storytelling. The course provides an overview of the craft's history and theory and offers practical training in editing digital video with Adobe Premiere Pro. Usually offered every year.
Staff
FILM
120a
Cinematography
[
ca
dl
oc
]
Gives students the ability learn lighting, media capture techniques, camera and subject movement choreography in both analog and digital formats. They will gain knowledge of axis and frames, dynamic editing points and creating a motion picture as an essay tapestry. Usually offered every year.
Staff
FREN
110a
Cultural Representations
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
A foundation course in French and Francophone culture, analyzing texts and other cultural phenomena such as film, painting, music, and politics. Usually offered every year.
Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche, Hollie Harder, or Michael Randall
FREN
111a
The Republic
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
The "Republic" analyzes how the republican ideal of the citizen devoid of religious, ethnic, or gender identity has fared in different Francophone political milieux. Course involves understanding how political institutions such as constitutions, parliaments, and court systems interact with reality of modern societies in which religious, ethnic, and gender identities play important roles. Usually offered every year.
Michael Randall
GECS
188b
Human/Nature: European Perspectives on the Climate Crisis and What to Do About It
[
djw
hum
oc
wi
]
Open to all students.
Introduces European attitudes towards climate change as reflected in policy, literature, film, and art, with a focus on workable future-oriented alternatives to fossil-fueled capitalism. Usually offered every second year.
Sabine von Mering
GER
103a
German Culture Through Film
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: GER 30a.
Approaches an understanding of contemporary German culture through film by focusing on one of the most fascinating and turbulent of national cinemas. Landmark films from the 1920s to the present and pertinent essays, articles and studies will provide a historical perspective on decisive social and cultural phenomena. Major themes include Vergangenheitsbewältigung, multi-ethnic societies, terrorism, life in the GDR, and cultural trends at the beginning of the 21st century. Students learn also about the technical side of filmmaking and produce their own short film under professional guidance. Usually offered every second year.
Kathrin Breuer
GER
105b
Survey of German Literature from Its Beginnings to the Present
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: GER 30a.
Examines the relationship between individual and their society throughout history on the basis of fictional and nonfictional German texts (poetry, philosophical texts, short prose, and plays), films and artifacts (photographs, paintings, monuments, coins and tools). While this course focuses on the work of German-language writers, it offers also insights into German social history and the socio-political changes accompanying the transformation of a medieval God-given society into a multi-ethnic society of the 20th and 21st century. Usually offered every second year.
Kathrin Breuer
HBRW
121a
Life Challenges and Post Trauma of an Israeli Family through a TV Series
[
fl
oc
]
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.
An advanced-intermediate conversation course for students who wish to improve their speaking skills. Role playing, vocabulary building, and guided speaking activities develop conversational skills for various situations. Reading and discussion of contemporary texts, based on popular Israeli television series, assist in vocabulary building. Usually offered every year.
Sara Hascal
HBRW
121b
Life Challenges of an Israeli Family through a TV Series
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.
An advanced-intermediate conversation course for students who wish to improve their speaking skills. Role playing, vocabulary building, and guided speaking activities develop conversational skills for various situations. Reading and discussion of contemporary texts, based on the popular Israeli TV series, "Yellow Peppers", assist in vocabulary building. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal
HBRW
144a
Plays and Drama in Israeli Society
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ca
djw
fl
hum
oc
wi
]
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.
Focuses on improving Hebrew language skills at the advanced-intermediate level through critical reading and analysis of authentic and contemporary Israeli short plays and studying the comparison between plays in Israel and those in the U.S. The course will examine theories in aspects of drama and implement drama techniques including improvisation, movement, and creative expression. The course readings cover topics such as social diversity and justice as well as human rights and awareness of world identities. The course culminates in the writing of an original scene or one-act play in Hebrew. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal
HBRW
152b
Arabic-Speaking Communities in Israel
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.
Examines the cultures and institutions of ethnic minorities in Israel. By examining and discussing the cultural characteristics and political activism of non-Jewish communities in Israel, this course exposes students to various faces of Israeli society, and to its multi-ethnic and multi-cultural identity. Special one-time offering, spring 2021.
Rima Farah
HBRW
164b
Israeli Theater
[
ca
djw
fl
hum
oc
wi
]
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.
An advanced-intermediate course that promotes language skills through the reading and analysis of plays. The student's creativity is developed through participation in acting and creative writing assignments. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal
HIS/HSSP
142a
Health Activism
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deis-us
oc
ss
]
Formerly offered as HSSP 142a.
Examines the history of health activism in the U.S. over the past 125 years, from late 19th century debates over compulsory vaccination to contemporary public health campaigns around gang violence and incarceration. Usually offered every third year.
Wangui Muigai
HISP
192b
Latin American Global Film
[
hum
nw
oc
]
May be taught in English or Spanish.
We will study the dynamic between local and global imagination and forces in the production, circulation, and reception of films from and/or about "Latin America." Local productions, traditional topics and genres are now refashioned for international audiences. Some film directors and actors have gained mainstream global visibility; U.S.-based ‘platforms’ finance local productions for international markets. How are all these new and old images and narratives mobilized? What are all these forces and projections doing? Analysis of visual representation and film techniques will be combined with an attention to socio-cultural backgrounds. Usually offered every second year.
Fernando J. Rosenberg
HISP
198a
Experiential Research Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies
[
dl
hum
oc
]
May be taught in English or Spanish.
A research seminar in which each student has the opportunity to become an 'expert' in a Hispanic literary or cultural text/topic that captures her or his imagination, inspired by a study abroad experience; an earlier class in Hispanic Studies; community-engaged learning; etc. Instruction in literary/cultural theory, researching a subject, and analytical skills necessary for developing a scholarly argument. Students present research in progress and write a research paper of significant length. Usually offered every year.
Fernando Rosenberg or Staff
HIST
109b
A Global History of Sport: Politics, Economy, Race and Culture
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deis-us
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
Examines soccer, boxing, baseball, cricket and other sports to reflect on culture, politics, race, and globalization. With a focus on empire, gender, ethnicity, this course considers sport as the battleground for ideological and group contests. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST
113b
Crazy Rich Europeans: Wealth and Inequality in Modern History
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djw
oc
ss
]
Brings together insights from modern European and Asian history, business, economics, and sociology. We will investigate the changing role, power, and composition of social elites in history and how they impacted workers, colonial populations, women, and urban landscapes in the past two centuries. We will study how actors as diverse as fashion models, Russian oligarchs, and powerful bankers gain their status and influence. We will also discuss the origins of global social inequality, including the ‘great divergence’ debate on Chinese and European modernization. How do we get from ‘Crazy Rich Europeans’ to ‘Crazy Rich Asians’? Usually offered every year.
Mate Rigo
HIST
126a
Early Modern Europe (1500-1700)
[
oc
ss
]
Survey of politics, ideas, and society in Western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Focuses on the changing relationship between the emerging modern state and its subjects. Topics include the development of ideologies of resistance and conformity, regional loyalties and the problems of empire, changing technologies of war and repression, and the social foundations of order and disorder. Usually offered every third year.
Govind Sreenivasan
HIST
135b
Get Up, Stand Up: A Century of Revolutions in the Middle East
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
An examination of the various revolutions that have shaped the modern Middle East since the late 19th century. The course focuses on four different revolutionary moments: The constitutional revolutions of the turn of the century, the anti-colonial revolutions of mid-century, the radical revolutions of the 1970's, and most recently, the Arab Spring revolutions that have affected the region since 2011. Usually offered every second year.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
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
147a
Russian Empire: Gender, Minorities, and Globalization
[
djw
dl
oc
ss
]
Examines the processes and problems of modernization--state development, economic growth, social change, cultural achievements, and emergence of revolutionary and terrorist movements. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Freeze
HIST
147b
Twentieth-Century Russia: Revolution, Nationality, Global Power
[
dl
oc
ss
]
Russian history from the 1905 revolution to the present day, with particular emphasis on the Revolution of 1917, Stalinism, culture, and the decline and fall of the USSR. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Freeze
HIST
187b
Unequal Histories: Caste, Religion, and Dissent in India
[
djw
dl
nw
oc
ss
]
Examines the religious, political, and social dimensions of discrimination in India. In order to study caste, power, and representation, we will look at religious texts, historical debates, film, and literature from the Vedic Age to contemporary India. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
HIST/WGS
120b
Queer History in the United States
[
deis-us
dl
oc
ss
]
Traces shifting concepts and practices of gender and sexual deviance in the United States from the colonial period to the present. We will treat queer identity and experience as a topic of historical inquiry as well as a theoretical problem, following the way that currently distinct concepts of sex, gender, and sexuality historically defined each other in shifting configurations. Topics include: queer life and concepts of gender and sexuality before Stonewall; the emergence of the categories of heterosexuality and homosexuality, and later transgender identity; the dependence of gender and sexual categories on class and racial categories; the mechanisms of state and informal policing of gender and sexual norms; the creation of social movements around queer an0d gender-nonconforming identities; attitudes towards gender nonconformity in the gay rights and feminist movements of the seventies; the AIDS Crisis and activist responses to it; and the politics of contemporary representations of the history of queer and transgender struggle. Usually offered every year.
AJ Murphy
HSSP
110a
Integrative Seminar on Health
[
oc
ss
]
Prerequisite: Senior status in the HSSP major.
The capstone course is required for all HSSP seniors and is designed to integrate their academic coursework and fieldwork/laboratory experiences across a range of health-related disciplines. Section topics vary from semester to semester at the discretion of the instructing faculty member. Refer to the Schedule of Classes for specific topics. Usually offered every semester.
Staff
HSSP
118b
Viewing Medicine and Health Policy Through the Lens of Literature
[
oc
ss
]
Literature–fiction, memoir, poetry, and drama–offers a powerful lens for studying key health policy issues. By harnessing the power of authors' imaginations, insights and compelling stories, students can gain deeper insight into patient centered care, ethics in research, access to healthcare, obesity and hunger, role of the pharmaceutical and tobacco, aging policy, disability, and clinicians' roles and training. Usually offered every second year.
Deborah Garnick
IGS
104a
Seminar in International Order
[
oc
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.
Lucy Goodhart
IGS
106a
Seminar in Global Health and Development
[
djw
oc
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
[
djw
oc
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.
Kristen Lucken
IGS
165a
Revolution, Religion, and Terror: Postcolonial Histories
[
djw
nw
oc
ss
]
Examines religious conflict, revolutionary violence, and civil war in modern South Asia. It looks at Jihad, Maoist militancy, rising fundamentalism, and the recent refugee crisis. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
IGS
175a
Digital Asia: Democracy in the Internet Age
[
djw
dl
nw
oc
ss
]
Analyzes the transformative potential of the internet as an agent of development and as a mechanism for disrupting social and political orders in Asia, home to the world's largest democracy and also the world's largest authoritarian regime. Usually offered every second year.
Avinash Singh
IGS
177a
Antisemitism on Social Media
[
dl
oc
ss
]
Studies show a rise in antisemitism in the US in recent years, and social media have a lot to do with it. In this course, we review the precursors of modern antisemitism, how antisemitism has evolved and adapted over the years, and how to combat antisemitism on social media today. Special one-time offering, fall 2023.
Sabine von Mering
ITAL
105a
Italian Conversation and Composition
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: ITAL 30a or the equivalent. Students enrolling for the first time in an Italian Studies course at Brandeis should refer to www.brandeis.edu/registrar/newstudent/testing.html#italtest.
This course is designed for students interested in continuing the study of the Italian language, culture, and literature beyond the intermediate level. The development of oral and written proficiency is emphasized through the expansion of vocabulary and activities aimed to improve analytical, interpretive, and presentational skills. The course uses the UN Sustainable Developments Goals to frame important aspects of contemporary Italy. Through a series of activities that practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Italian, students reflect on the social impact of our environmental behavior, the importance of art and music in translating experiences, changing opinions, and instilling values, the social impact of the internet in raising voices, creating awareness and calling for social change, how activism ensure inclusion and equality. Usually offered every spring.
Silvia Monteleone
ITAL
106a
Storia e storie d'Italia: Advanced Italian through Narrative, Film, and Other Media
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: ITAL 30a, ITAL 105a, or the equivalent. Students enrolling for the first time in an Italian Studies course at Brandeis should refer to www.brandeis.edu/registrar/newstudent/testing.html#italtest.
Aims to prepare students for upper-level courses and to advance language fluency through the practice of all language skills at different ranges of advanced proficiency, grammatical structures, and vocabulary. This course offers a close study and analysis of representative Italian literary texts and films to further improve proficiency in Italian through analytical, interpretive, and presentational activities. Each year, emphasis will be given to a specific theme, such as women writers and Italian history through short stories. Reading and listening activities followed by in-class discussions and presentations are designed to strengthen communication and reading skills. Usually offered every other fall.
Silvia Monteleone
ITAL
110a
Introduction to Italian Literature: Love, Intrigues and Politics from Dante to Goldoni
[
fl
hum
oc
]
Prerequisite: ITAL 105a or 106a or permission of the instructor.
Surveys the masterpieces of Italian literature from Dante to Goldoni's stage. Students will explore different themes such as love, conflict, and politics in Italian early masterpieces by analyzing and comparing genres, historical periods, and schools of thought. Since Oral communication skills are the core of methodology and pedagogy for Italian 110, students will work on primary texts through dynamic and guided discussions, interpretative textual analysis, and different styles of presentations. Usually offered every second year.
Paola Servino
ITAL
128a
Mapping Modern Italian Culture: Inherited Conflicts
[
fl
hum
oc
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Prerequisite: ITAL 105a or 106a or permission of the instructor. Conducted in Italian with Italian texts.
Covers a broad and significant range of cultural topics that exemplify creative responses to historical events and social dilemmas that have shaped contemporary Italian culture including economic changes, the new face of immigration in Italy, and the social fight against the Mafia and Camorra through literature and cinema. Usually offered every second year.
Paola Servino
JAPN
105a
Advanced Conversation and Composition I
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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
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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
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Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in JAPN 105b or the equivalent. May be repeated for credit.
Further enhances advanced students’ proficiency in four skills through discussion, reading, writing, presentation, and group work. Usually offered every fall.
Hisae Fujiwara
JAPN
120b
Readings in Modern Japanese Literature
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Prerequisite: JAPN 120a or the equivalent.
Students read, analyze, discuss, and write about Japanese short fiction by a wide range of modern and contemporary authors. Screening of film adaptations and television programs complement class discussion, which is conducted in Japanese. Usually offered every year.
Matthew Fraleigh
JAPN
165a
The Tale of Genji
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Often called "the world's first novel," The Tale of Genji has captivated readers with its narrative of love, rivalry, friendship, and loss for centuries. This class explores what has given the text its prominent place in Japanese and world literature. Usually offered every third year.
Matthew Fraleigh
KOR
105a
Advanced Conversation and Composition I
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A continuation of Korean 40b (Advanced Intermediate Korean). Students who did not take Korean 40b at Brandeis are required to take a placement test prior to enrollment.
Students further develop the range of communicative language skills with advanced-level reading exercises involving complicated grammar patterns and vocabulary. Majority of class conversations and discussions as well as compositions are connected with in/outside classroom readings. By the end of the semester, students will be able to read and write a variety of advanced-level Korean texts, demonstrate the ability to narrate and describe autobiographical topics, and speak and write on the topics of current events and community interest. Designed to further develop students’ Korean proficiency with the integration of aspects of culture such as films, literature (e.g., poems, novels), and formal presentations and compositions. Usually offered evert year.
Eun-Jo Lee
LGLS
126a
Forced Migration Clinic
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Prerequisite: LGLS 123b and instructor permission.
In the Forced Migration Clinic, students represent migrants who have fled persecution or torture in their home countries and seek refuge in the United States, as well as support immigrant communities in addressing human rights violations in the United States (and abroad), out of our storefront offices in Waltham. Students handle every aspect of representation in cases and causes that determine, for example, whether a client will be granted asylum or face deportation, under the close supervision of faculty. The principal learning model for this course is reflection on planning, experience, and witnessing, so students will have multiple opportunities to try out different forms of the skills, concepts, values, and attitudes required for competent legal representation and effective and accountable social change, but they will also experience how legal systems operate from the inside and so to understand the roles of law in constructing societal conditions and expectations. Students will have the opportunity, but not the obligation, to seek Department of Justice immigration representation accreditation before, during, or after this course. Usually offered every year.
Douglas Smith
LGLS
132b
Environmental Law and Policy
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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
133b
Criminal Law: Liberty and Justice For All?
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Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor.
Far from the typical lecture-based experience, this course will be conducted more like a series of hands-on workshops designed to have students learn criminal law by actively doing as opposed to passively listening. Students will have fun while building a practical understanding of how the legal system actually works. Usually offered every year.
Aaron Bray
LGLS
161b
Advocacy for Policy Change
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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. This course is supported by ENACT, the Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation. Usually offered every year.
Melissa Stimell
LING
121b
Syntax II
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Prerequisite: LING 120b.
Continues the study of modern generative syntactic analysis begun in LING 120b, focusing especially on data involving wh-movement, other types of A-bar movement, and anaphora. Usually offered every second year.
Lotus Goldberg
LING
140a
Discourse and Pragmatics
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Prerequisite: LING 100a, enrollment in the Master of Science in Computational Linguistics program, or permission of the instructor.
Assuming a theory of sentence-level linguistic competence, what phenomena are still to be accounted for in the explication of language knowledge? The class explores topics in language use in context, including anaphora, deixis, implicature, speech acts, information packaging, and pragmatics of dialogue. Usually offered every second year.
Sophia Malamud
LING
195a
Introduction to Research in Linguistics and Computational Linguistics
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Prerequisite: either (a) Two of LING 110a, LING 120b, LING 130a, or LING 140a, or (b) COSI 115b and concurrent enrollment in COSI 231a.
Introduction to researching a topic of interest from the primary literature and doing independent research in linguistics or computational linguistics. In short assignments, class presentations, and a final research paper, students gradually complete the initial stages of a research project. In the process, the course explores scholarly and scientific approaches to research in various areas of linguistics and computational linguistics, including the relevant terminology, concepts, and procedures associated with academic writing and research in these areas. Usually offered every year.
Lotus Goldberg
LING
197a
Language Acquisition and Development
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Open to all students.
The central problem of first language acquisition is to explain what makes this formidable task possible. Theories of language acquisition are studied, and conclusions are based on recent research in the development of syntax, semantics, and phonology. The overall goal is to arrive at a coherent picture of the language learning process. Usually offered every second year.
Sophia Malamud or Keith Plaster
NEJS
123a
Maps, Graphs and Timelines: Technology and Design in Historical Research
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Learn the practical skills to represent data digitally as graphs, maps, timelines and other models. Students will develop their own research projects in topics of their interest and learn to think critically about the opportunities and pitfalls that digital methods pose, for scholarship, inclusion and for social justice. The course will include extensive practical instruction. Usually offered every second year.
Alexander Kaye
NEJS
123b
Gender, Species, and Ethnicity in Early Judaism
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Being "human" is defined by distinguishing between and ordering different beings according to race, gender, disability and species. This privileges some in society while diminishing the value of others. This course introduces the main texts of rabbinic literature around fundamental questions of what is a legal "person" and what is not. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye
NEJS
153a
Between Ecstasy and Community: Hasidism in Jewish Thought and History
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Explores Hasidism, from the 18th century until today, as one of the dynamic forces in Jewish life, mixing radicalism and reaction, theology, storytelling and music, thick community and wild individualism, deep conformity and spiritual abandon. Usually offered every third year.
Yehudah Mirsky
NEJS
173a
Trauma and Violence in Israeli Literature and Film
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Taught in Hebrew.
Explores trauma and violence in Israeli Literature, film, and art. Focuses on man-made disasters, war and terrorism, sexual and family violence, and murder and suicide, and examines their relation to nationalism, Zionism, gender, and sexual identity. Usually offered every second year.
Ilana Szobel
NEJS
174b
Israeli Women Writers on War and Peace
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Taught in Hebrew.
An exploration of nationalism and gender in Modern Hebrew literature. By discussing various Hebrew texts and Israeli works of art and film, this course explores women's relationship to Zionism, war, peace, the state, politics, and processes of cultural production. Usually offered every second year.
Ilana Szobel
NEJS
184b
Disability Cultures: Art, Film and Literature of People with Disabilities
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Explores cultural representations of disability in Israel, Europe, and the US. By focusing on literature, film, dance, and visual art, it explores physical, mental, and emotional disability experiences, and their relations to gender, sexuality, nationalism, and identity politics. Usually offered every second year.
Ilana Szobel
NEJS/WGS
110a
Sexual Violence in Film and Culture
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Explores the effects of sexualized violence in society. While exploring representations of gender-based sexual violence in documentaries and features, stand-up comedy, memoirs, poetry, and visual art, this course will offer a critical discussion on Rape Culture in the 21st century, with particular attention to the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, class, and disability in the construction of sexual violence. Usually offered every second year.
Ilana Szobel
NPSY
139a
Memory and the Brain
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Prerequisite: NBIO 140b, or NPSY 11b and either NPSY 22b or 28a, or permission of the instructor.
Explores the nature and organization of memory in the brain. Readings from primary literature will give a deeper understanding of how the brain orchestrates memory, and the role of memory in learning, behavior and cognition. Usually offered every third year.
Shantanu Jadhav
NPSY
170a
Decision Neuroscience
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Prerequisites: NBIO 140b or NPSY 11b and NPSY 22b, or permission of the instructor.
This course will provide an overview of how animal and human nervous systems generate decisions, with a particular focus on decisions for rewards. We will cover a broad array of topics, including: basic methods for measuring decisions and decision-related neural activity; how predictions about rewards are learned through error-driven processes; the dual systems hypothesis of behavioral control; computation of values for simple choices; the effect of emotion on choices; social decision making; temporal discounting; and deficits in decision-making in human clinical populations. Usually offered every year.
James Howard
NPSY
174b
Visual Cognition
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Explores complex processes of visual perception. Topics include art and visual perception, visual perception by machines, visual imagery in everyday life, visual basis of reading, visual search, perceptual learning, computational models of visual perception, and face recognition. Usually offered every second year.
Robert Sekuler
NPSY
176b
Constructing Reality
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Prerequisites: NPSY 11b, NPSY 12a, NPSY 16a, NPSY 17a, NPSY 22b, or NPSY 199a and junior or senior standing.
How do our brains and minds construct our reality? For answers, the course will draw on insights from scientific psychology, neuroscience, and medicine, particularly how damage to the nervous system can disorder our sense of reality. Special consideration will be given to the nature of perception, evaluation of evidence, and decision making. Usually offered every second year.
Robert Sekuler
NPSY
180a
Social Neuroscience and Culture
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Prerequisites: PSYC 10a, 51a, and 52a, or NBIO 140a, or permission of the instructor. May not be taken for credit by students who took PSYC 213a in prior years. Formerly offered as PSYC 180a.
Introduces empirical research on a breadth of social neuroscience topics-- including the self, stereotyping, and moral reasoning--with a more focused coverage of culture. Emphasis will be placed on literature comparing Eastern and Western cultures. Usually offered every second year.
Angela Gutchess
NPSY
182a
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience: Infancy through Adolescence
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Prerequisites: NPSY 22b or PSYC 33a, or permission of the instructor.
Current research and methods in developmental cognitive neuroscience are surveyed through analysis of journal articles on language, memory, attention, executive functions, and social cognition. Infancy through adolescence are covered in both typically and atypically (Autism, ADHD, etc.) developing populations. Usually offered every second year.
Hannah Snyder
PHIL
130a
Causation and Explanation
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PHIL 6A is recommended but not required.
Examines in-depth two topics central to the philosophy of science; the nature of causation and the nature and aim of scientific explanation. Is explaining something a matter of identifying its cause? If not, what is an explanation? Usually offered every third year.
Jennifer Maru'i'
PHIL
134b
Philosophy of Perception
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Could our sensory experiences be exactly as they are if we were brains in vats, or trapped in The Matrix? Do our senses put us into direct contact with the external world? If not, can we still come to know what the world is like on the basis of our senses? Usually offered every year.
Umrao Sethi
PHIL
168a
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
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Prerequisite: PHIL 1a or permission from the instructor.
An attempt to understand and evaluate the main ideas of the Critique of Pure Reason, the subjectivity of space and time, the nature of consciousness, and the objectivity of the concepts of substance and causality. Usually offered every year.
Kate Moran
POL
111a
The American Congress
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The structure and behavior of the Congress. Emphasis on the way member incentives for reelection, power on Capitol Hill, and good public policy shape Congress. Usually offered every second year.
Jill Greenlee
POL
133b
Politics of Russia and the Post Communist World
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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
146b
Extreme Encounters with Power and Injustice: Local, National, and Global Experiences
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Introduces students to the importance of the individual in politics, and to the ways in which power is exercised on ordinary people. It focuses on rather unpleasant aspects of governance and reminds us that politics is not simply a question of who gets what, but of control, domination, and sometimes repression. Ranging across the globe, we will capture the human experience of raw politics, as described by scholars, journalists, and novelists and as seen through the experiences of people who have survived extreme encounters with authority (apartheid, brutal police interrogation, harmful false accusation, assaults on reproductive rights, incarceration, state terror, and attempted mass extermination). We will focus on how individuals suffer and yet sometimes make a difference in struggles over who gets what, when, where and how. We are interested in individuals as active and creative agents in political life locally, nationally, and globally. Usually offered every second year.
Ralph Thaxton
POL
148b
Seminar: Dynamics of Dictatorship: Authoritarian Politics in the 20th and 21st Centuries
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Prerequisite: POL 11b.
Despite the world-wide advance of democratization over the past half century, authoritarian regimes continue to govern the vast majority of humanity around the world. Dynamics of Dictatorship aims to provide an analytic grounding in the logic and dynamics of authoritarian politics. What are the different flavors of authoritarian rule? How do authoritarian regimes sustain their control over society? Why do most people obey? How and when do people resist? Has technological advance enhanced the power of authoritarian regimes? What role do international forces play in authoritarian regime survival? When do authoritarian regimes collapse? This course will explore leading theoretical research on authoritarian politics and it will ground that theory in historical and contemporary cases of authoritarian rule found in Russia, Germany, Venezuela, Chile, China, Iraq, Syria, North Korea, Zaire, Zimbabwe, and beyond. Usually offered every second year.
Eva Bellin
POL
161b
Good Neighbor or Imperial Power: The Contested Evolution of US-Latin American Relations
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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
167b
Russian Foreign Policy
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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
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Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above.
Presents the history and politics of the foreign economic policy in the United States. Emphasis is on political and economic considerations that influence the domestic actors and institutions involved in the formulation of policy. Usually offered every year.
Kerry Chase
PSYC
130b
Life Span Development: Early and Middle Adulthood
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Prerequisites: PSYC 10a, PSYC 51a, and PSYC 52a, plus one of the following: PSYC 31a, PSYC 33a, PSYC 36b or PSYC 37a, or permission of the instructor.
Seminar on advanced topics in life span developmental theory and methodology. Substantive emphasis will be on cognitive, personality, social, and physical changes that occur in early adulthood and midlife. Usually offered every second year.
Margie Lachman
PSYC
160b
Seminar on Sex Differences
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Prerequisite: PSYC 10a, 51a, 52a or permission of the instructor.
Considers research evidence bearing on sex differences in the cognitive domain and in the social domain, evaluating this evidence in light of biological, cultural, and social-cognitive theories as well as methodological issues. Usually offered every year.
Ellen Wright
RECS
135a
Russian Short Fictions: Where is Justice in This World?
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Open to all students. Conducted in English. Students may choose to do readings either in English translation or in Russian.
Focuses on the great tradition of the short story as practiced by Russian writers and the connection and divisions among them. This genre invites extreme stylistic and narrative experimentation ranging from the comic to the tragic, as well as being a vehicle for striking expressions of complex social, philosophical, and religious themes. Usually offered every second year.
Robin Feuer Miller
RECS
144b
Tolstoy and Dostoevsky: Confronting the Novel
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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
RUS
150b
Advanced Russian Language through 20th Century Literature
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Prerequisite (heritage speakers): RUS 29b with a grade of C- or higher, or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. Prerequisite (non-heritage speakers): RUS 40b or the equivalent. Taught in Russian. Course may be repeated for credit with instructor's permission.
A seminar for continuing students of Russian who wish to enhance their proficiency and accuracy in speaking, reading and writing. Focusing on the close study of Russian literature in the original Russian and the development of Russian oral and written language skills needed for the close reading and discussion of literature. Usually offered every second year.
Irina Dubinina
RUS
160b
Russian/Soviet Jews: Dual Identities in Text, Image and Music
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Prerequisite: Advanced Russian language skills.
An undergraduate seminar introduces heritage and advanced students of Russian to a number of Russian Jewish artists and writers who created in the Russian language and who made significant contributions to 20th-century Soviet and Russian literature, cinema, theater, and music. Through analyses and discussions of texts, images and music created by Russian-speaking Jews, students will explore the role Russian Jews played in shaping the Soviet and modern Russian culture. Usually offered every fourth year.
Irina Dubinina
SOC
112b
Social Class and Social Inequality
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Presents the role of social class in determining life chances, lifestyles, income, occupation, and power; theories of class, inequality, and globalization; selected aspects of social class and inequality; and connections of class, race, and gender. Usually offered every second year.
Karen Hansen
SOC
116b
Social Inequalities in the Media
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Using sociological theories of media, students will examine how difference is constructed across race, gender, and sexuality and how those representations are connected to larger processes of inequality. Students are expected to complete a research project on media representations. Usually offered every second year.
Sarah Mayorga
SOC
124a
Gender, Sexuality, and Globalization
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Introduces theories of gender, sexuality, and transnational feminism. Uses sociological research to examine labor, social movements, politics, and culture in global perspective, emphasizing Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Usually offered every second year.
Gowri Vijayakumar
SOC
127a
Religion, Ethnicity, and Nationalism
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Examines three sources of identity that are influential in global affairs: religion, ethnicity and nationalism. Considers theories of the relationship among these identities, especially "secularization theory," then reviews historical examples such as Poland, Iran, India, and Pakistan. Usually offered every second year.
Chandler Rosenberger
SOC
130a
Families, Kinship and Sexuality
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Counts toward the completion of the joint MA degree in Sociology & Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Investigates changes in the character of American families over the last two centuries. A central concern will be the dynamic interactions among economic, cultural, political, and social forces, and how they shape and are reshaped by families over time. Particular attention is paid to how experiences of men and women vary by class, race, and ethnicity. Usually offered every year.
Karen Hansen
SOC
147a
Sustainable and Resilient Cities
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Studies innovations in the U.S and around the world that enhance urban sustainability, healthy communities, environmental justice, climate resilience and adaptation. Grassroots sustainability and climate movements, as well as environmental, health, and urban planning practice are examined. May be combined with internships and action research. May be combined with internships and action research. Usually offered every year.
Staff
THA
138b
Creative Pedagogy
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Explores the individual discovery in human creativity and how this journey impacts the quality and inclusivity of teaching and learning both inside and outside of educational spaces. Students will dig into their own educational experiences and their relationship to creativity in this creativity-engaged space. Using the theoretical stages of creativity, students read research, reflect on their own experiences, try new creative endeavors, and engage in creative collaboration with others with the lens towards inspiring and supporting learning. Students are asked in the course to expand their own creative reach and risk-taking capabilities. Usually offered every second year.
Jennifer Cleary
WGS
105b
Feminisms: History, Theory, and Practice
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Prerequisite: Students are encouraged, though not required, to take WGS 5a prior to enrolling in this course.
Examines diverse theories of sex and gender within a multicultural framework, considering historical changes in feminist thought, the theoretical underpinnings of various feminist practices, and the implications of diverse and often conflicting theories for both academic inquiry and social change. Usually offered every year.
ChaeRan Freeze, Keridwen Luis, or Faith Smith
WGS
135b
Postcolonial Feminisms
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Examines feminist theories, literature, and film from formerly colonized, Anglophone countries in South Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa. It takes the shared path of decolonization and postcoloniality to discuss the development of feminist discourse and the diverse trajectories of gendered lives. Usually offered every third year.
Harleen Singh