Professor explaining concepts to two students in a classroom
Liberal Arts

Curriculum & Courses

Learning Outcomes

  • LA_SLG1) Ways of Knowing Students: Students will demonstrate awareness and appreciation of multiple ways of knowing, as reflected in the fields of study and areas of expertise within the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

    LA_SLG2) Cultural Breadth and Global Awareness: Students will demonstrate familiarity with a range of cultural, social, and intellectual traditions in the context of a changing, globalized world.

    LA_SLG3) Critical and Analytical Thinking: Students will be able to analyze, evaluate, and construct arguements, engaging with ideas, evidence, and artifacts.

    LA_SLG4) Effective Communication Skills: Students will be able to speak and write effectively, communicating with precision, clarity, and rhetorical force.

  • HUM_SLG 1) Students will study and question how crucial ideas about human and non-human nature, knowledge, experience, and value have been developed, supported, and/or expressed in major areas of the humanities, such as philosophy, religion, literature, (including poetry and the dramatic arts), and music in various cultures and time periods.

    HUM_SLO1.1) Students will demonstrate understanding of the methods used in the humanities, such as argumentation and interpretation.

    HUM_SLO1.2) Students will demonstrate understanding of the crucial ideas in the humanities as they have been explored in different cultures and times, and/or in connection to issues that currently affect individuals and societies across the globe.

    HUM_SLO1.3) Students will evaluate claims and the evidence and/or reasons given in support of these claims, as found in primary and secondary sources.

    HUM_SLO1.4) Students will construct their own claims and defend them in written and/or oral forms, and using proper methods of documentation (e.g. citation and bibliography).

  • SCI_SLG1) Students will increase their knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the natural world, science, and mathematics.

    SCI_SLO1.1) Students will demonstrate knowledge of the nature of science and/or mathematics as a knowledge making process. SCI_SLO1.2) Students will develop and evaluate claims that involve a scientific or mathematical component.

    SCI_SLO1.3) Students will display curiosity about nature, natural science, and/or mathematics.
    SCI_SLO1.4) Students will confidently attempt reasoning tasks that involve a scientific or mathematical component.

    SCI_SLO1.5) Students will demonstrate appreciation for the role of science and/or mathematics both in everyday life and in contemporary issues.

  • FYS_SLG1) Students will learn to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in upper-level course work. Students will learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique.

    FYS_SLO1.1) Students will formulate inquiries emerging from readings of texts.

    FYS_SLO1.2) Students will establish research methods.

    FYS_SLO1.3) Students will analyze and synthesize multiple texts and cite evidence. FYS_SLO1.4) Students will construct a complex claim and an argument.

    FYS_SLO1.5) Students will practice the writerly process (i.e. revision, reflection, and peer review).

  • SOSCI_SLG 1) Students will question and explore how human behavior, societal arrangements, and cultural practices vary across time and space.

    SOSCI_SLO1.1) Students will demonstrate understanding of the investigative methods used in the social sciences. SOSCI_SLO1.2) Students will evaluate and develop claims based on primary and secondary sources. SOSCI_SLO1.3) Students will communicate clearly in written and oral forms.

    SOSCI_SLO1.4) Students will write citations and bibliographies in accordance with one or more social science disciplines.

Courses

Title Catalog Instructor Schedule

Description

Reading Art is a seminar that orients students to college studies and emphasizes students' advancement of college-level critical reading and thinking skills. Students learn how to read and analyze artworks using the formal vocabulary of art and design, as well as how to read about art in art history textbooks, scholarly journals, and other sources. Students improve their ability to process, retain, and apply information by using active learning strategies and graphic organizers, including a schematic note-taking system. In addition to weekly readings and exercises, students complete an in-depth synthesis project on an artwork of their choosing. Regular museum visits complement class work.

Class Number

1556

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

In this writing course, students will consider different perspectives of art and of the artist—including the process of artistic creation, artistic standards and criteria, interpreting art, and the life of the artist—and students will also express their own perspective in discussions, written assignments, and informal presentations, too. The reading list will consist (mostly) of personal essays from a wide range of writers, including (among others) W.E.B. Dubois, T.S. Eliot, bell hooks, Jeannette Winterson, and Susan Sontag—all of whom, along with each other, will help challenge, strengthen, and refine our own perspectives about art and our artistic identities. Students will write about what it means to be an artist as well as develop their perspective about the power and purpose of art. The process of writing will be practiced throughout this course, from brainstorming, to drafting, to peer review and revising. FYS I develops college-level writing skills, prepares one for FYS II and upper level Liberal Arts courses, and allows one to improve expressing their ideas in writing.

Class Number

1474

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

At the heart of the writing project is the writing process: from sketching to planning, free writing to drafting, envisioning to revisioning. Writing requires both the creative and critical mind; it asks for patience with not knowing and provides us with the means--if we allow ourselves to follow where it may lead--to get from nowhere to somewhere, from not having the words to finding our voice. Process is primary in this writing seminar: students will explore their own and others' ways of making, read artists' writings about art, write in a variety of short forms, including the essay, and pursue a longer, multi-part writing project.

Class Number

1546

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

In this writing-intensive course, we will explore the line between originality and plagiarism in a variety of fields including art, media, technology, music, business, entertainment, and medicine. In what contexts is copying an art? A science? A crime? How much should we be allowed to borrow from the work of artists and writers who have come before us? Do we owe them anything when we do? What are the economic, social, and political implications of copying? Readings will cover a range of subtopics such as genetic cloning, music sampling, artistic forgery, cultural appropriation, film adaptations, drug patents, fan fiction, body modification, and fair use. We will also analyze the work of artists and writers whose work speaks to some of these issues, including Kenneth Goldsmith, Fred Wilson, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, DJ Dangermouse, and Jen Bervin. Writing assignments ? totaling 15-20 pages over the course of the semester ? will emphasize analysis, argument, research, revision, and other academic writing skills.

Class Number

1630

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

This seminar introduces students to the anthropological study of the senses. Through close examination of ethnographic texts and films, students will explore how cultures 'make sense' of the everyday and increasingly globalized world. With a heavy emphasis on written assignments, we approach the notion of perception as more than a purely physical act, and through structured participation and deliberate observation, students will learn how sensory experiences are deeply related to our own histories and cultural identities. Course activities center around developing analytic skills in the genre of ethnographic writing, and critically engaging with cross-cultural examples of sensual mediations of reality. Topics range from how the senses shape the aesthetics of daily life through color, odor, and flavor, to the significance of communication and information of technologies in the era of virtual reality, slime videos, and the online autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) community.

Class Number

1476

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

Writers can have the power to create space for communities that are marginalized in society, but this work is never easy. In this class, we will examine the works of writers who have attempted this and analyze the success and cost of such attempts. Our readings will include works by: Esme Weijun Wang, Rupi Kahur, Ryka Aoki, Patsy Mink, and others. We will also utilize SAIC’s amazing resources like the Service Bureau, the Art Institute, the writing center, the diversity department, and Title IX office. In this class, students will exercise their voices and embrace the writing process. They will think of writing beyond what happens on the page.Towards this end, each class begins with mindfulness and connection activities. Students will be required to write weekly reflections, multiple drafts of an essay, and do a class presentation. Students in FYS I should expect to write 15 to 20 pages of formal, revisable writing. Attendance is extremely important and heavily weighted.

Class Number

1632

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

In this class we will read a selection of magical realist narratives ranging from Gogol to Marquez to understand major forms and conventions that have distinguished this literary genre. We will examine twentieth-century magical realism in light of its reaction to nineteenth century realism and post-colonialism. While it is true that Latin American authors have contributed much of the theoretical conceptualization and fictional expression of magical realism in its present form, in this course we will we will treat this genre as a cross-cultural phenomenon by focusing on works of Russian and Latin American literature.

Class Number

1633

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

As an art form, humor is often considered menial and unrefined. In reality, the psychology of humor — exactly what it is that makes something funny — is complicated and requires careful mastery. This course will examine how writers and artists have historically used humor to reach audiences deeply, emotionally, and politically. Through works by Mark Twain, Franz Kafka, Calvin Trillin, Jade Chang, Percival Everett and others, we will get to the heart of what makes something funny, and how humor has changed over time. Students will build on foundational academics habits with weekly short writings. To complete the course, students must write 3 papers (one analytical, one argumentative, and one creative.

Prerequisites

Must complete AAP: Academic Foundations Seminar (AAP1001) and Foundations Writing Workshop (AAP 1011)

Class Number

1625

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

This writing course emphasizes close reading of texts, critical thinking, and the analysis of problems and concepts arising in works about near-death experiences through the writing of essays. We will use the writing process as a means to achieving insight, and students will be asked to employ brainstorming, freewriting, drafting, outlining, re-writing, revising, and editing. Throughout the term, students will be asked to reflect on their development as they establish their own writing process that will enable them to develop new understandings and clearly communicate them in essays for this course and beyond. Some of us have had a near-death experience in which our survival felt in doubt. Almost all of us have had nearness-to-death experiences in which we glimpse the passing of some other person or creature and must contend with death?s significance. In this course, we?ll study short works that explore what nearness to mortality reveals to us. We?ll read Virginia Woolf, Tim O?Brien, Annie Dillard, Lu Hsun, Tobias Woolf, Wole Soyinka, and Nancy Mairs, among others, as we examine how death?s presence has impacted these writers in unanticipated ways. Students should expect to write and revise 3 major essays in addition to short writing assignments, totaling 15-20 pages of formal prose.

Prerequisites

Must complete AAP: Academic Foundations Seminar (AAP1001) and Foundations Writing Workshop (AAP 1011)

Class Number

1531

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

In this writing intensive course, we will develop the skills of argument-driven writing as we examine film noir and the question of genre. What does it mean to look at a series of disparate cinematic texts as examples of the same textual category? Is “film noir” best defined by a pattern of visual motifs? Can the genre be better characterized by the repetition of various story structures, themes, and character archetypes? Or is “film noir” (and perhaps “genre” itself) a categorizing term which has outlived its usefulness as a way of understanding individual film texts? Students will explore these questions through an examination of three key films: The Big Sleep (1946), The Reckless Moment (1949), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), and The Deep End (2001). Readings will include critical works by Raymond Borde, Étienne Cahumeton, Janey Place, Megan Abbott, and Joan Copjec. These materials will inform multiple argument-driven essays students will draft and revise over the course of the semester. In composing these essays, students will study thesis formation, rhetorical modes, and ways to incorporate sources into evidence-based arguments.

Prerequisites

Must complete AAP: Academic Foundations Seminar (AAP1001) and Foundations Writing Workshop (AAP 1011)

Class Number

1626

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

FYS (EIS) are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year international students who have successfully completed their English for International Students Fluency course, with an emphasis on teaching Academic English skills to English Language Learners. Students will improve their Academic English skills by learning to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in future course work at SAIC. FYS (EIS) sections offer different topics. For example, students may investigate modern and contemporary art movements or analyze popular visual culture or media. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds. Students investigate the class topic through close readings and class discussions. They explore and develop their ideas by writing short responses and longer multi-draft papers which may include analytical, argumentative, expository, and/or evaluative essays. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing. Grammatical and organizational strategies, argumentation, and skills in thesis/claim and idea development are explored. Students should expect to write 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing and short homework exercises may be included. Through peer review and workshops, students learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. Classes are capped at 12 students and individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Prerequisites

Must complete English Fluency I (EIS 1021)

Class Number

2072

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

FYS (EIS) are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year international students who have successfully completed their English for International Students Fluency course, with an emphasis on teaching Academic English skills to English Language Learners. Students will improve their Academic English skills by learning to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in future course work at SAIC. FYS (EIS) sections offer different topics. For example, students may investigate modern and contemporary art movements or analyze popular visual culture or media. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds. Students investigate the class topic through close readings and class discussions. They explore and develop their ideas by writing short responses and longer multi-draft papers which may include analytical, argumentative, expository, and/or evaluative essays. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing. Grammatical and organizational strategies, argumentation, and skills in thesis/claim and idea development are explored. Students should expect to write 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing and short homework exercises may be included. Through peer review and workshops, students learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. Classes are capped at 12 students and individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Prerequisites

Must complete English Fluency I (EIS 1021)

Class Number

2075

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

FYS (EIS) are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year international students who have successfully completed their English for International Students Fluency course, with an emphasis on teaching Academic English skills to English Language Learners. Students will improve their Academic English skills by learning to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in future course work at SAIC. FYS (EIS) sections offer different topics. For example, students may investigate modern and contemporary art movements or analyze popular visual culture or media. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds. Students investigate the class topic through close readings and class discussions. They explore and develop their ideas by writing short responses and longer multi-draft papers which may include analytical, argumentative, expository, and/or evaluative essays. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing. Grammatical and organizational strategies, argumentation, and skills in thesis/claim and idea development are explored. Students should expect to write 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing and short homework exercises may be included. Through peer review and workshops, students learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. Classes are capped at 12 students and individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Prerequisites

Must complete English Fluency I (EIS 1021)

Class Number

2076

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

FYS (EIS) are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year international students who have successfully completed their English for International Students Fluency course, with an emphasis on teaching Academic English skills to English Language Learners. Students will improve their Academic English skills by learning to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in future course work at SAIC. FYS (EIS) sections offer different topics. For example, students may investigate modern and contemporary art movements or analyze popular visual culture or media. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds. Students investigate the class topic through close readings and class discussions. They explore and develop their ideas by writing short responses and longer multi-draft papers which may include analytical, argumentative, expository, and/or evaluative essays. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing. Grammatical and organizational strategies, argumentation, and skills in thesis/claim and idea development are explored. Students should expect to write 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing and short homework exercises may be included. Through peer review and workshops, students learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. Classes are capped at 12 students and individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Prerequisites

Must complete English Fluency I (EIS 1021)

Class Number

2077

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

“Genre” and tradition in music are nebulous terms, yet we can’t escape them. Examining these genre distinctions consistently reveals two things - the history and tradition that helped birth the genre “category,” and the web of influences between genres that make such distinctions unstable. Nowhere is this “instability” more apparent than in American music, a country whose relatively young socio-political history makes the notion of “tradition” especially complicated. “Americana” is an overarching term to describe a variety of American musics, in an attempt to smooth over some of the complicated relationship between genre and tradition. One thing we will explore in this course is the effectiveness of that endeavor. Complicated spaces, of course, are fertile ground for argument, and that is the primary skill we will practice in this course. We begin with short writing assignments that force students to make arguments about our texts. Our class discussion allows us to workshop these claims, and we write larger papers that demonstrate the ability to take greater risks with our theses. In this course we will focus on the core skills of reading and writing, preparing us for all our future coursework at SAIC. Students learn to make nuanced observations about the texts we study, observations which form the basis for the argumentative papers we write. This course will focus on artists representative of the various genres said to populate Americana music. Special attention, however, will be paid to those artists who trouble the genre definitions, such as the Staple Singers, Gillian Welch, and Sturgill Simpson. Assignments consist of informal, observational journals, short papers and a larger Final Paper at the end of the course.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1483

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

First Year Seminar I provides guided experience in college-level expository writing inspired by a topic in the liberal arts. This section will introduce the topic of gender and social movements to prompt analytical thought, reading, and writing. Specifically, we will ask how different views of gender have prompted social action. Particularly as gender intersects with other social identities, such as race, class, sexuality, nationality, and ability, we can assess the successes of gender activist groups from a diversity of viewpoints. In addition to feminism and transfeminism, we will discuss conservative activist groups, as well. Some of the scholars and artists we will study in this course include Davis, Beauvoir, Stryker, Srinivasan, and Lorde. Students should expect to write at least 15 pages over the course of the semester, with opportunities for planning and revision built into each of the longer essays. As an applied component of the course, students will have an opportunity to describe imagined or enacted participation in gender activism alongside the core component of analytical writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1561

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 203

Description

In our creative practices we take our lives into account. You determine the format to share your story. In this course we will read different forms of autobiography: graphic novels, memoirs, essays, poetry, and journals. We will look at the various creative forms writers use to convey information about their lives, discuss why we make artwork about ourselves, and study how each form connects with readers. Though we will read about individual experiences, we will consider their impact on the collective. Readings often include works by Ocean Vuong, Trevor Noah, Diana Khoi Nguyen, EJ Koh, and Kazim Ali among others. In our FYS II course, we will develop our critical reading, writing, and thinking skills. This is a studio writing class in which we will focus on writing as a process. We will freewrite, formulate conceptual questions for the readings, write responses, and compose and revise 20-25 pages in multidraft essays. FYS II develops college-level writing skills, prepares one for upper-level Liberal Arts courses, and allows one to improve expressing their ideas in writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1562

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

When Sherlock Holmes made his debut in 1887, no one, especially not his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle could have predicted the success of the first consulting detective. Sherlock Holmes has been adapted on the stage, to film, television, comic books, board games, video games, and by other authors into their own detective novels. Even today, we are surrounded by new versions of this favorite character. In this writing course, students will begin by writing essays based on canonical works, then move to writing critical analyses of contemporary interpretations, ending by imagining the future of Sherlock Holmes.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1563

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

FYS 2 provides continued guided experience in college-level writing, thereby forming the necessary foundation for upper level Liberal Arts classes. The phrase 'illegal alien' is used by various politicians and commentators, but what does it really mean? What does it literally mean? What is it assuming? What does it entail? Together we will read, write, think, and discuss the ways in which contemporary media imagines 'the Other,' in particular our enduring legacy of colonial and neocolonial attitudes and behaviors. We will also study the metaphors that extraterrestrial alien cinema present, in terms of settler colonialism and its aftermath. Readings and screenings will include science fiction and horror films, documentaries, primary autobiographical narrative, and critical scholarship on these topics. Students should expect to write 15 to 20 pages of formal, revisable writing (i.e. two essays and one in-depth revision) in addition to homework exercises and in-class writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1564

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 203

Description

When scientists conduct research involving human subjects, they are required to seek permission from Institutional Review Boards to ensure that their research is safe and ethical. Artists, however, have no such obligation. When working with human subjects – whether they be muses, models, collaborators, participants, or viewers – artists often must decide for themselves what is right or wrong. For example, should street photographers get consent from the people they photograph? Is it okay for performance artists to make their audiences physically or psychologically uncomfortable? Should some art come with a trigger warning? Is it appropriate for a painter or fashion designer to ask a model to endure pain or danger for the sake of art? What do artists owe their subjects (financially, emotionally, morally, etc.)? In this research and writing-intensive course, we’ll explore these types of questions through artworks, installations, and performance pieces by artists including Sophie Calle, Clifford Owens, Paul McCarthy, Arne Svenson, Vanessa Beecroft, Santiago Sierra, Marina Abramovic, Song Ta, and others. Writing assignments – totaling 20-25 pages over the course of the semester – will emphasize summary, analysis, argument, research, revision, and other academic writing skills.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1484

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 517

Description

Eating is a necessity, yet what and how we eat is influenced by many things. Ethnicity, religion, gender, class, and personal values all shape what ends up on our dinner plate or even if we have a plate at all. In this course, students will read well-known food writing by authors, as well as writing by lesser-known authors who write for more specific audiences. Through in-class writing, formal essays, and a final research paper and presentation, students will explore their own experience with the culture of food.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1565

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

What makes someone's belief a conspiracy theory? How do we distinguish conspiracy theory from legitimate suspicion, especially when history teaches us of many real conspiracies? Are conspiracy theories actually pernicious and if so, why? This writing-intensive course aims to deepen and expand the writing skills students gained in FYS I by examining these and related questions through readings in epistemology (the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of knowledge), political philosophy, history, and contemporary journalism. We will examine historical examples of both real conspiracies (e.g., COINTELPRO, the Iran-Contra Affair) and groundless conspiracy theories (e.g., QAnon, Flat Earth theory, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion). Students should expect to produce 20 to 25 pages of formal writing (an essay and a research paper, both of which will go through significant revision), in addition to homework exercises and in-class writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1566

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

Why are we fascinated with the end of the world? Throughout history, human beings have contemplated the apocalypse–whether as a fulfillment of religious prophecy, as the result of atomic war, or as a consequence of climate change. This class will examine apocalyptic visions in art, film, literature, and music. In their research and writing, students can expect to explore the aspect of this subject that matters most to them and/or that inspires their curiosity. FYS II will build upon the foundational writing skills students began learning in FYS I, with the introduction of more rigorous argumentation and research. Eventually, writing will be more self-directed in this FYS II class. Students should expect to write 20 to 25 pages of formal, revisable writing (i.e. one conversation essay and one research project, both with multiple drafts) as well as homework exercises and in-class writing. Much in-class writing will be included, as emphasis is on development of the intellectual skills of reading and responding critically, which forms the basis of each student's career at SAIC. Furthermore, peer review, class workshopping of student papers, and individual meetings to discuss each student's writing should be expected.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1485

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

Discretionary time is time that is not constrained by the necessities of life. It is the domain of recreation and play. This class invites students to critically engage with modes of recreation: hobbies, games, outdoor activities, media consumption, creative pursuits, and vice. Through texts and discussion, students will inquire into how society produces and is produced by its modes of recreation, and how social relations are impacted through its dynamics. They will also bring greater attention to themselves and the values undergirding their personal modes of recreation. The focus of this class is to help students develop the skills required to perform academic research. Students will learn how to propose lines of inquiry, shortlist and interrogate sources, reference sources, and synthesize material. Ultimately, the final project for the class will be a high-quality research paper. Over the course of the semester, in total, students will be expected to produce 20-25 pages of material. Texts for the class include Diane Ackerman, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Tricia Hersey, Priya Parker.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1567

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

FYS II builds upon the foundational writing skills developed in FYS I, with the introduction of more rigorous argumentation and research. Students will hone their skills and work toward greater independence in writing tasks while critically examining the act of curation. From personal wardrobes and social media accounts to the sometimes-violent legacy of museum collections, curation is all around us. If curation means to care for items in a collection, what does that care entail? As a form of cultural production, whose needs are being cared for? Whose are being neglected? Which voices are amplified, and which are silenced? In a broader context, can curation be an emancipatory practice in the struggle for social justice? As artists, what is our responsibility in selecting, grouping, and caring for our work? To investigate these questions, in the first part of the course, students will explore a variety of curatorial geographies, looking critically at how commodification, patriarchal racism, and colonial capitalism have informed and disrupted curatorial practices over time. Later, students will apply the reflections and insights from course readings and activities to research a curatorial endeavor of their choosing. Students will write 20 to 25 pages of formal, revisable writing (i.e., one essay and one research project, both with multiple drafts) as well as homework exercises and in-class writing. Writing and class activities will emphasize the development of responding critically to a variety of texts and sources to prepare students for the challenges in their coursework at SAIC. To that end, peer review, class workshopping of student papers, and individual meetings to discuss each student's writing will be required.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1568

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

Tanner, Hughes, Baker. Prophet, Bearden, Chase-Rimboud. Wright, Baldwin, Himes. African-American visual, literary, and performing artists have journeyed to Paris for a few months, a year, or a lifetime to find what they could not in the United States, a space to fully explore, develop, and execute their artistic vision. This FYSII course examines the history of African American artists in Paris, exploring the cultural, political, and artistic forces that drew them to the city of light. Through short written responses and longer formal papers, students will continue to develop their writing skills as they consider this rich history.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1486

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 203

Description

This class is an investigation of texts by well-known women writers and poets as seen through the lens of personal, social, and historical factors motivating and inspiring each. What forces sit at the root of their strongest poetry? What historical events and personal experiences moved them to write such striking stories? We’ll read pieces by a wide range of women writers across the timeline of literature. Among others, writers considered in our study will include Sappho, Anais Nin, Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, Julia Alvarez, Maxine Hong Kingston, Tracy K. Smith, Jenny Zhang, and Roxane Gay. Students will discuss and write about short pieces and excerpts written by these women as informed by research-bound information on the personal and external factors that impacted their lives and their writing. As a FYSII course, this writing-intensive class has as a core focus the continued development of intermediate/advanced writing skills and methods. Our classes will consist of discussion of particular written pieces, engaging in related research, and writing response and analytical essays, with a final project that incorporates collaboration and a creative component.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1569

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

This course explores the literary genre of fantasy, including the subgenre of science fiction. Through the lenses of Russian literature and film we will investigate fantastic’s sister genres: “the uncanny” or “the marvelous.” We will examine how classical Russian writers and cinematographers, ranging from Gogol, Nabkov, Bulgakov to Tarkovsky, engaged with the fantastic, the supernatural and developments in science and technology. We will study how political ideology and resistance helped shape Russian fantasies and fears in the 20th and 21st centuries in literature and film. Students will be expected to write 3 persuasive papers, 6-7 pages each, aimed to develop persuasive, analytical and critical thinking skills.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1487

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

Identity is a contested social field where internal notions war with external labels. In this class, we examine identity from a four-field anthropological perspective We explore the social nature of the human species, examine how the performance of language unites individuals and distinguishes groups, and discuss the problematic notion of bounded cultures and their reification in classic and contemporary ethnography and in archaeological writings.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1488

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

How can we think about a world today that exists within the long shadows of histories of colonial extraction, violence, and racism? How does history shape the languages and categories through which we feel, speak, think, and act? What is the nature of power, and what happens to power when the one who exercises it to dominate others disappears from direct view? What does it mean to be free, or to decolonize a world or a mind? These are the kinds of questions out of which 'postcolonial theory' developed. In this writing-intensive seminar, we will begin with foundational texts from Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, and Homi Bhabha. We will then draw out the resonances of these writers through anti-colonial, Black radical, Afropessimist, feminist, and Marxist traditions that challenge and extend postcolonial theory's interventions into our concepts of 'theory' and political struggle. In the process, as a group working together in a studio writing class, we will interweave discussion with writing exercises oriented around conceptual problems at the center of postcolonial theory, including the power of writing itself. From various freewriting exercises to formal essays that will go through multiple processes of revision, we will practice several different writing styles in order to consider the various meanings of freedom, domination, and the possibilities of subversion as a guiding principle for writing itself. FYS II develops college-level writing skills, prepares one for upper level Liberal Arts courses, and allows one to improve expressing their ideas in writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1570

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 203

Description

“Past, Present, and Future Chicago” examines the complex and layered histories of Chicago through the cultural lenses of literature, art, music, public space, and architecture. It actively presents the city as a place where various social groups have migrated, lived in proximity, struggled for equality and resources, as well protested, celebrated, and produced art and culture. Some events this class engages include the establishment of the city through the Chicago Treaty of 1833, the Great Migration of the early 1900s, post-industrialization, the formation of historic neighborhoods (Pilsen, Lawndale, Chinatown), and the rise of House and electronic music. We will conduct periodic field trips throughout the city to enhance our readings, research, and experience-based understanding of Chicago’s ever-present histories. Relevant artists, writers, and activists include Gwendoline Brooks (poet), Gordon Parks (photographer), Amanda Williams (architect/artist), and Frankie Knuckles (DJ), among others. FYS II builds upon the foundational writing skills students began learning in FYS I, with the introduction of more self-directed rigorous argumentation and research. Students should expect to write 20 to 25 pages of formal, revisable writing (one experiential essay and one research project, both with multiple drafts), as well as homework exercises and in-class writing. Furthermore, peer review, class workshopping of student papers, and individual meetings to discuss each student's writing should be expected.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1489

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

This course serves as an introduction to philosophy through an exploration of some of its basic questions. Specifically, through a reading of two chapters from Descartes’ Meditations the course will address questions that fall under the following headings: 1: Epistemology: What is knowledge? What are the sources of knowledge? What is philosophical skepticism about knowledge? What can be known with certainty? 2: Mind and Self: What is mind and how is it distinct from matter? What is consciousness? The course is writing intensive: students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing, including the research paper.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1490

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

FYS II is the follow-up course to FYS I, where students develop their writing skills to include research and argumentation. In this class we’ll look at how the Irish fought to overthrow colonial rule in 1916-1922 and win the Irish War for Independence. We’ll learn about the Old I.R.A. as well as the Cumann na Ban, the women’s paramilitary that aided the guerilla fighters. In the second part of the course, we’ll examine the partition of Ireland into Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. With a deep dive into The Troubles, we’ll interrogate the weapons of terrorism as well as the nonviolent resistance of hunger strikes. We’ll examine all sides of the issues by reviewing poetry (Seamus Heaney and Eavan Boland), political commentary and research (Fintan O’Toole and Patrick Radden Keefe), and contemporary short stories and creative nonfiction (Clare Keegan, Dioreen ni Grioffa). We’ll also unpack how current politics, especially Brexit and demographic changes, threaten to destabilize Northern Ireland. Through in-class writing exercises, drafting of papers, and mindful writing workshops, students will develop their writing and researching skills, with the creation of 20-25 pages of academic writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1571

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

In her films Water Lilies (2007), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) and Petite Maman (2021), French director Céline Sciamma subverts the “male gaze” of traditional Hollywood to define a revolutionary “female gaze.” Her slow rhythm of cutting, economical framing and sparse narratives, create a feminist grammar of cinema. “It’s always about the female characters,” she explains in an interview, “because they can be themselves only in a private space where they can share their loneliness, their dreams, their desires.” In FYSII, we will expand our critical reading, writing and thinking skills. We will develop a descriptive vocabulary to analyze the use of camera movements, cutting and composition of the frame that goes into the making of a film. We will write two critical essays (20 to 25 pages of formal writing), which will be workshopped in class and revised.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1491

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

FYS II are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year students, with an emphasis on further developing the foundational writing skills students learned in FYS I. Students will continue to hone the intellectual skills of reading critically, and writing responsively, which forms the basis of each student's career at the School. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds, which may include critical, analytical and argumentative essays, and must include the research paper. It is a policy of the department that at least one essay be a research paper which may involve searching for sources in a library or online, learning to make citations, and preparing an annotated bibliography. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing, and more sophisticated methods of argumentation and use of evidence and developing independent claims and ideas are explored. Students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing, short homework exercises, and workshopping of student work may be included. Individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1572

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

When the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was created in 1942 in Chicago, human society was destined to tackle with an unsolvable conundrum. How could our society possibly justify the augmentation of this enormous power that could destroy our own existence? This course investigates discourses around two major uses of nuclear power in society – nuclear weapons and nuclear energy – and examines them through social justice lenses. Key points of inquiry include: what risks are associated with nuclear weapons and energy and how they have been evaluated in contrast to their benefits, how the damages that were caused by nuclear weapons and energy have been addressed and mended, and whether the harms that were made by nuclear weapons and energy equally impact all groups of people. Building on the basic reading and writing skills introduced in FYS I, FYS II will further students’ academic skills in writing an independent research paper. Therefore, in this course, students are expected to read primary and secondary sources to collect evidence to develop their critical arguments on nuclear problems.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1492

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

Food is one of life’s great pleasures and the pursuit of flavor and nutrition has shaped the global map as we know it today. Every culture has food rituals around both its preparation and consumption, while the academic study of food intersects with almost every other topic of study, from economics and biology, to history and art. This course will focus on texts that span a variety of nations, languages, genres, and mediums, all of which explore the collective human experience of food. What do we eat–and when and why? How did our most beloved foods come to be and how do they reach us today? In response to these questions, we’ll read texts by famous food-writers such as Michael Pollan and Samir Nosrat, alongside horror and fantasy stories by Cassandra Khaw and Seanan McGuire. We’ll examine medieval recipes alongside viral TikTok recipes; view Dutch and Flemish still lifes and Warhol paintings; and watch the Hulu show The Bear and Stanley Tucci’s movie Big Night. In their research and writing students can expect to explore the topic of food that most inspires their curiosity, FYS II builds upon the foundational writing skills students began learning in FYS I, with the introduction of more rigorous argumentation and research. Eventually, writing and revision will be more self-directed in this FYS II class, which provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds. Students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing as well as homework exercises and in-class writing. This writing will take the form of two essays and a final project, an in-depth revision based on instructor and peer workshop feedback.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1493

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

How have artists in literature, theater, music, and other sound-based media represented or incorporated the human voice into their work? This FYS II course builds on the writing and thinking skills students began to develop in FYS I by introducing more advanced argumentation and research methods. To guide our inquiry, we might consider questions such as: How do we understand 'authentic' or 'common' speech, what accounts for its claim on our attention, and what are the politics around it? How does its apparent spontaneity relate to formal aspects of a work of art? Why do diverse folk traditions put human speech in the mouths of animals? How do we experience, on the one hand, divine or oracular voices understood to come from beyond humankind, and on the other, AI-generated simulacra? What does it mean to appropriate another's voice, and why is spoken language such a significant marker of individual and collective identity? How have new technologies of amplification, reproduction, and distribution changed how we hear ourselves? Sources we may consider include: Wordsworth, European opera, Brecht / Weill, Lotte Lenya, Cathy Berberian, Derek Walcott, Kamau Braithwaite, Linda Rosenkrantz, Meredith Monk, Bernadette Mayer, Pere Gimferrer, Nathaniel Mackey, American hip hop. Students can expect to produce 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing, as well as regular in- and out-of-class assignments. The course builds toward a self-directed research paper on a topic of the student's choosing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1634

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

Fernando Pessoa in Lisbon, Virginia Woolf in London, Frank O’Hara in New York City; writers, philosophers and artists of all kinds have long created, expanded, and contracted the self through the act and practice of walking. We will spend this semester reading and writing texts structured around the movement of the self in the city and country, at home and away, considering both content and representations of the body in space. We will look at authors, filmmakers and conceptual artists from a range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds to ask: What kind of literary devices does the author use? How does the tone/style contribute to the work as a whole? How does the text build, sentence by sentence or scene by scene? Are specific images repeated and/or used differently throughout the work? Students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing, including a researched essay.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1494

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This intense writing course fosters college-level writing skills at a level suitable for upper level Liberal Arts courses. Various types of essays will be executed (e.g., analysis, comparison and contrast) over a number of drafts. As for content, the course targets two aesthetic and philosophical phenomena: the critical and the fine. These phenomena can appear apart (e.g., critical thinking apart from the fine can lead to cynicism and even misology), but they can, in synthesis, produce both philosophy and art of the highest order. M. Gelven's text, The Quest for the Fine, and J. Lynch's The English Language, provide examples from philosophy, art, and language that illustrate paradigmatic syntheses of the critical and the fine. We'll consider, for example, the following distinction: The active voice lends crispness to your writing...but the passive voice works well when the action is more relevant than the person or thing doing the action. By reviewing such instances of grammatical and syntactical precision, across different topics, we will develop our internal sense of the fine. As for the critical, consider the following line by Emily Dickinson: 'Because I could not stop for death...he kindly stopped for me....' It takes the critical touch of a master poet to insert kindly; why, after all, kindly? Do not humans tend to flee death? Is not death a topic to be avoided? Do not many of us rather wish, sometimes idly and sometimes fervently, that we could live forever, or at least longer than we do? Or, has the poet revealed an ambiguity in how one might really feel, and think, about one's mortality? In this seminar, we will learn to make and appreciate such examples in writing, and indeed in writing that displays a heightened criticality and a heightened sense of the fine. Fine and critical writing is expected each week in weekly seminar reports, and over the entire semester in four essays, resulting in 20-25 pages of formal, revised writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1495

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

What is the meaning of life? How does life translate to the page and canvas? In this course, we will practice the art of writing by representing its relations to life. FYS II develops college-level writing skills, preparing students for upper-level Liberal Arts courses. We’ll focus on still lifes—among the most enduring, versatile, and overlooked art forms—which illuminate new perspectives on the lives of artists and the lives of objects we represent. Authors including Lisa Knopp and Norman Bryson will provide critical context for the course, while artists including Alice Neel, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Juan Sánchez Cotán, Jonas Wood, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso will set the table with examples of the genre. However, students will develop writing projects around still life artists of their choice. We will experiment with ekphrasis, the detailed written description of visual art. We’ll write about art that portrays the interplay of life, death, and (in)animacy, as we consider the history of ideas represented through still lifes including: the limits and possibilities of genre, vanitas, memento mori, and subject/object relations. Students will create 20-25 pages of formal, revisable, and (if they choose) publishable writing across three short essays and two in-depth revisions. Students will also learn to write a research paper, using scholarly constraints to enhance creativity.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1573

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

In this course we will work to develop our capacities as critical writers and readers by engaging the question: “what is a voice?” To do this, we will move across the domains of politics (“voice of the people”), linguistics (“spoken voice”), psychology (“individual voice”), creativity (“find your voice”), sound (“tone of voice”), the body (“vocal chords and voice box”), technology (“the recorded voice”), and the sacred (“voice of God”). Ultimately, we will cultivate through writing and discussion a semester- long call and response via the diverse meanings and identities attributed to the voice across a range of cultural and historical locations. How do these diverse formulations resonate and speak with one another, and what might their connections reveal about how we understand ourselves and our world? Our course materials will include works by linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, composer Pauline Oliveros, the poet Ovid, sociologist W.E.B Du Bois, novelist Tommy Orange, philosopher Maladan Dolar, folk tales collected by the Brothers Grim, the spiritual texts of Hazrat Inayat Kahn, the blues music of Ma Rainey, among many others. Thematically, we will frequently consider the ways that the voice transgress the borders of metaphor and material fact, shaping our sense of both the individual and the collective. Throughout this course students will develop techniques for critical reading, writing, and listening, as we discuss materials which present and theorize the identity and meaning of the voice, including examples from music, religious studies, poetry, and philosophy. Students will analyze, synthesize, and compare these multiple perspectives in weekly writing assignments and class discussions and develop strategies for mobilizing diverse forms of evidence in support of their original arguments.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1496

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

FYS II are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year students, with an emphasis on further developing the foundational writing skills students learned in FYS I. Students will continue to hone the intellectual skills of reading critically, and writing responsively, which forms the basis of each student's career at the School. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds, which may include critical, analytical and argumentative essays, and must include the research paper. It is a policy of the department that at least one essay be a research paper which may involve searching for sources in a library or online, learning to make citations, and preparing an annotated bibliography. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing, and more sophisticated methods of argumentation and use of evidence and developing independent claims and ideas are explored. Students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing, short homework exercises, and workshopping of student work may be included. Individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1574

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

In this course, we learn to inquire according to the most basic question available to us: to ask what something is. For this purpose, we'll read a handful of Platonic Dialogues, which are as comprehensive as they are artistic. Each dialogue asks a question about something fundamental to human life: What is love? What is art? What is friendship? What is power? What is god? What is courage? What is justice? Throughout the course, we'll write a couple of shorter assignments in preparation for a final paper. Building on FYS I, we now further learn how to write for specific readers. Far from merely demonstrating that you the author understand something, your writing will have to explain something to someone who doesn't understand, someone who may be resistant to understanding. In order to do so, we rely on regular, structured sessions of peer feedback, which involve specific, suggested revisions, rather than mere indications of like and dislike. And though we'll learn select principles of writing, such as those of argument, or of introductions, or of conclusions, the course utterly depends on your involvement: If we cannot be readers for one another, in all our idiosyncrasies and specific feedback, then we can't learn how to write for this or that discourse community. Students can expect to write at least two pages per week, culminating in a final research paper or project. Over the semester, students produce 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1497

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

Nearly three years into the Covid pandemic and we are still in the midst of a prolonged state of grief. As we consider the ways in which we have found - or struggled to find - help with our grief, the questions must be asked: What mechanisms were in place for communal grief? What mechanisms were in place for individual grief? Moreover, in times of tragedy and trauma, who or what can we turn towards to help us with this incredibly complex and human process? In this second semester course, each student will build off the academic writing and critical reading skills of FYS1 and work to construct a formal research essay that examines the role of art in grief. While our individual work will be specific and focused, our combined efforts will represent a broad exploration into the psychology of grief in the context of art. As a class community, we will examine the behavioral science behind grief, the various cultural practices and traditions around grief, and the ways in which both visual and written art are often our best tools for understanding grief. Sources may vary, but expect to read and analyze a diverse collection of authors and artists, including: Jhumpa Lahiri, James Joyce, Pema Chodron, Pauline Boss, Ada Limon, Roger Robinson, Carrie Mae Weems, and Chimamanda Adichie. Students will learn how to formulate a meaningful research question, vett and synthesize a variety of sources, and produce a polished academic research paper. We will utilize writing workshops, peer review, and process-oriented feedback to help us each produce 20-25 pages of formal and revisable writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1575

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

The Foundations Writing Workshop is a process-based writing course that serves as students' initiation to the foundations of academic writing in a school of art and design. Students engage in the writing process, learn strategies for exploring topics, and develop their knowledge of the concepts and terminology of art and design through the practice of various kinds of written compositions. Analysis of essays and active participation in writing-critiques are integral components of the Workshop.

Class Number

1503

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

The Foundations Writing Workshop is a process-based writing course that serves as students' initiation to the foundations of academic writing in a school of art and design. Students engage in the writing process, learn strategies for exploring topics, and develop their knowledge of the concepts and terminology of art and design through the practice of various kinds of written compositions. Analysis of essays and active participation in writing-critiques are integral components of the Workshop.

Class Number

2548

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

This is the first of two English language fluency courses for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students improve their academic English skills by reading and responding to art appreciation and art history texts. Texts are analyzed for formal as well as contextual information. Students learn how to integrate their own observations and knowledge with information gained from reading and lecture. Students also build competence and confidence in college-level writing. Topics include formal analyses and/or critical responses to works of art. Presentations and class discussions also give students practice communicating their knowledge through speaking.

Class Number

1593

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

This is the first of two English language fluency courses for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students improve their academic English skills by reading and responding to art appreciation and art history texts. Texts are analyzed for formal as well as contextual information. Students learn how to integrate their own observations and knowledge with information gained from reading and lecture. Students also build competence and confidence in college-level writing. Topics include formal analyses and/or critical responses to works of art. Presentations and class discussions also give students practice communicating their knowledge through speaking.

Class Number

2562

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 517

Description

This critique course is offered for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students build competence in giving critiques, participating in class discussions, and giving presentations. Students make artwork to present to the class. They learn and practice the vocabulary of visual and design elements and use these to analyze and critique their own and their classmates' works. Students practice a variety of critique formats by using formal, social-cultural, and expressive theories of art criticism. They discuss and critique works both verbally and in writing.

Class Number

2073

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1597

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1512

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1598

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1513

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1599

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1514

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1601

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1516

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1517

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

2097

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

2098

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

2099

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

2100

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

An introductory course in reading, writing, and conversational Spanish.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2093

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

Arabic I ???? is a fully integrated introductory course for students with no background in the language. The course is designed for beginning students whose learning objectives and needs are in any of the following categories: continued language study, business purposes, or travel. Students will learn to speak and understand Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and read and write Arabic script. Students will develop speaking and listening skills through audiovisual media, interactive fun activities, and paired dialogue practices. There will be a strong emphasis on oral proficiency needed to provide the necessary framework to communicate clearly and effectively. These objectives will be achieved through the following approaches: speaking, listening, reading, writing, and cultural studies.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1623

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

An introductory course in reading, writing and conversational French.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1589

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

Chinese I is designed for beginners who take Chinese as a foreign language. Students who speak Chinese as their native language are not allowed to attend this course. Students who have taken Chinese study in the past are required to take the evaluation test and gain approval of the instructor to enroll. Students will study the Chinese Mandarin sound system PIN YIN, the basic strokes from the Chinese Calligraphy, Chinese numbers, common Chinese Radicals and Lessons 1-5 of <<Integrated Chinese>> (Level 1 Part 1). Students can speak and write systematically more than 150 essential vocabulary words, master the key grammatical structures, build the real-life communicative skills. They will also write and tell a story about themselves and their interests on Chinese paper utilizing 150 characters.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1609

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

An introductory course in reading, writing, and conversational German.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1526

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

This is a continuing course in reading, writing, and speaking Spanish. Prerequisite: LANGUAGE 2001 Spanish I.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: LANGUAGE 2001.

Class Number

2094

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

This course is part two of a two-semester sequence. Its goal is to provide students without any knowledge of the French language a solid foundation in the basic patterns of written and spoken French and an understanding of the particular sociocultural norms necessary for everyday communication in France. These are achieved in several ways: (1) a careful study of French grammar, with a communicative approach, (2) a study of the basics of French phonetics, and (3) a variety of materials such as readings, movies, commercials, etc. French II is the sequel of French I. Prerequisite: French I or agreement of instructor.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: LANGUAGE 2005.

Class Number

1506

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

Chinese II is designed for students who take Chinese as a foreign language and have passed the Chinese I course. For the students who have not taken the Chinese I course at SAIC, an evaluation test is required and students must gain the instructor's approval in writing to enroll in this course. Students who speak Chinese as their native language are not allowed to attend this course. Students will continue to learn the Lessons 6-10 of <<Integrated Chinese>> (Level 1 Part 1) to expand vocabulary words and key grammatical structures. The course will aim to expose students to more Chinese culture, help them with Chinese oral presentations and writing about school life, study, shopping, and transportation.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: LANGUAGE 2008.

Class Number

1610

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

In “The Critic as Artist” (1888), Oscar Wilde argued that the creative and the critical faculties are equally important, acutely breaking with the Romantic notion that poetic license issues from an innate gift on the part of the individual, whose unconscious emotions and ideas provide the source of an artwork. Wilde claimed that “No poet sings because he must … [but] because he chooses to sing …There is no fine art without self-consciousness, and self-consciousness and the critical spirit are one.” This course surveys some ways the next century would prove his point, especially but not solely, among queer and American countercultural, avant garde poets. We will read poetry, fiction, and plays, as well as literary and cultural criticism by Gertrude Stein, Aimé Césaire, Jack Spicer, Audre Lorde, Pamela Lu, and others. We will also survey the generative clash between the New Narrative and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E movements, swirling with sexual, political, and theoretical frisson.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1592

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

This course guides students from the nineteenth-century to the present to consider how Black feminisms, plural, have complicated, critiqued, and re-imagined feminist and anti-racist theories of race, sexuality, gender, class, power, and pleasure and continue to innovate. Major historical interventions covered include Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham’s history of respectability politics and Brittney Cooper’s nuancing of it; The Combahee River Collective’s and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theories of interlocking oppressions and “intersectionality”; Jennifer C. Nash’s critique of the institutionalizing of intersectionality; Alice Walker’s alternative construct of “womanism”; Patricia Hill Collins’ concept of “controlling images”; and bell hooks’ “oppositional gaze.” We will then explore new theories in contemporary Black feminism that move away from what critic Jennifer C. Nash calls “protectionist” frameworks to articulate a politics of pleasure. Here, readings include selections from adrienne maree brown, Mireille Miller-Young, LaMonda Horton Stallings, Joan Morgan, and more. Students should expect to read on average 50 pages of critical scholarship per week and to write about it and discuss it in depth. Students should also expect to take turns as discussion leaders. For their final project, students will write a critical/creative Biomythography inspired by Audre Lorde’s Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, one of the core texts of the class.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1534

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality

Location

MacLean 301

Description

Gender theory is mobilized in feminist activism toward a variety of goals. This course will offer a survey of social theories of gender and will proceed to identify them as the foundations and justifications of social movements in each wave of feminism. Theories include de Beauvoir, Crenshaw, Rubin, Schilt, and Butler. Social movements will include suffragettes, NOW, the Combahee River Collective, riot grrrl, Sisters in Islam, and transgender social movements.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2329

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality

Location

MacLean 111

Description

Topics courses in gender and sexuality studies are used to provide a broad interdisciplinary introduction to and more thematically-specific knowledge of historical and contemporary topics in gender and sexuality studies. While course texts will vary depending on the instructor and topic, texts may include books, articles, book chapters, films, audio recordings and other materials used to provide insight into gender and sexuality studies. Assignments will vary depending on the instructor and topic, assignments may include quizzes, exams, standard academic papers, research papers, group projects, and other activities enhancing knowledge and understanding of gender and sexuality studies.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2459

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality

Location

MacLean 301

Description

We will study aspects of abstract mathematics as exemplified by Western Classical Music. We will look at classical music notation, notes and tonality, as well as the sounds that instruments and voices make, and at a broader scale the overall structure of pieces of music. Mathematics will be used to analyse, explain and clarify all these aspects of music. There will be a broad range of math topics from all the major branches of pure mathematics including algebra and group theory, number theory, calculus, fourier analysis and topology. These will be built up from the basics and unlike in a standard math class, the examples will all be aspects of music. The music will be western classical music including works by Bach, Schubert, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Wagner, Janacek, Shostakovich, Britten, Messiaen. Assignments will take the form of math problems, open book quizzes, application of math to analyse existing music, application of math to generate and transform original music, and reflective writing assignments. No memorisation will ever be required.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1527

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art and Science

Location

MacLean 617

Description

We will study aspects of abstract mathematics as exemplified by Western Classical Music. We will look at classical music notation, notes and tonality, as well as the sounds that instruments and voices make, and at a broader scale the overall structure of pieces of music. Mathematics will be used to analyse, explain and clarify all these aspects of music. There will be a broad range of math topics from all the major branches of pure mathematics including algebra and group theory, number theory, calculus, fourier analysis and topology. These will be built up from the basics and unlike in a standard math class, the examples will all be aspects of music. The music will be western classical music including works by Bach, Schubert, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Wagner, Janacek, Shostakovich, Britten, Messiaen. Assignments will take the form of math problems, open book quizzes, application of math to analyse existing music, application of math to generate and transform original music, and reflective writing assignments. No memorisation will ever be required.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1528

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art and Science

Location

MacLean 617

Description

This interdisciplinary studio symposium course introduces students to key principles and practices of surrealism with particular focus on theories of photography and strategies of photographic image-making. Treating surrealism not only as an art-historical moment but a living body of attitudes, theories, and possibilities for thinking, art-making, and action, students will develop their own ideas and a body of work in formulating a surrealist praxis. Students will read texts by and about surrealists/surrealism, querying into the poetics, politics, and possibilities of photographic surrealism. The class will treat ideas including: erotic desire, pleasure, gender, chance, dreams/unconscious, walking, play/games, politics, race, anticolonial thought, freedom. Students will study work by surrealist thinkers including Andre Breton, Louis Aragon, Aime Cesaire, Georges Bataille, Maya Deren, and Claude Cahun; modern surrealist potes including Juliana Huxtable and Billy-Ray Belcourt; and contemporary theorists such as Rosalind Kruass, Susan Laxton, Angela Carter, and Tina Campt. Artists of special focus will include: Hans Bellmer, Claude Cahun, Lee Miller, Dora Maar, Man Ray, Jacques-Andre Boiffard, Pierre Molinier, Maya Deren, John Akomfrah, and Aruther Jafa. Students will also engage contemporary Afrosurrealism based in photography and film, e.g. Beyonce's ?Lemonade,' Donald Glover's ?Atlanta,' Boots Riley's 'Sorry to Bother You,' and Jordan Peele's ?Get Out.? Students write two short analytic essays and a cumlinating research essay synthesizing ideas from across the semester. Students will also engage in generative photographic exercises designed to break habitual attitudes toward seeing and staging, as they build a focused body of personal work. Research, writing, and studio practice unfold in conjunction with one another, providing students with a working model for synthesizing art history and theory, political engagement, and making.

Prerequisites

Studio Symposia - Students must enroll in both PHOTO 3098 and HUMANITY 3098

Class Number

2242

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Gender and Sexuality, Class, Race, Ethnicity

Location

280 Building Rm 214

Description

This interdisciplinary studio symposium course introduces students to key principles and practices of surrealism with particular focus on theories of photography and strategies of photographic image-making. Treating surrealism not only as an art-historical moment but a living body of attitudes, theories, and possibilities for thinking, art-making, and action, students will develop their own ideas and a body of work in formulating a surrealist praxis. Students will read texts by and about surrealists/surrealism, querying into the poetics, politics, and possibilities of photographic surrealism. The class will treat ideas including: erotic desire, pleasure, gender, chance, dreams/unconscious, walking, play/games, politics, race, anticolonial thought, freedom. Students will study work by surrealist thinkers including Andre Breton, Louis Aragon, Aime Cesaire, Georges Bataille, Maya Deren, and Claude Cahun; modern surrealist potes including Juliana Huxtable and Billy-Ray Belcourt; and contemporary theorists such as Rosalind Kruass, Susan Laxton, Angela Carter, and Tina Campt. Artists of special focus will include: Hans Bellmer, Claude Cahun, Lee Miller, Dora Maar, Man Ray, Jacques-Andre Boiffard, Pierre Molinier, Maya Deren, John Akomfrah, and Aruther Jafa. Students will also engage contemporary Afrosurrealism based in photography and film, e.g. Beyonce's ?Lemonade,' Donald Glover's ?Atlanta,' Boots Riley's 'Sorry to Bother You,' and Jordan Peele's ?Get Out.? Students write two short analytic essays and a cumlinating research essay synthesizing ideas from across the semester. Students will also engage in generative photographic exercises designed to break habitual attitudes toward seeing and staging, as they build a focused body of personal work. Research, writing, and studio practice unfold in conjunction with one another, providing students with a working model for synthesizing art history and theory, political engagement, and making.

Prerequisites

Studio Symposia - Students must enroll in both PHOTO 3098 and HUMANITY 3098

Class Number

2242

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Gender and Sexuality, Class, Race, Ethnicity

Location

280 Building Rm 214

Description

How do the biographical details of an artist's life influence our attitude toward their work? Should an artist's politics?both personal and public?influence our aesthetic response to the artwork itself? Or does a work of art become its own entity, detached from its creator? Perhaps, as the deconstructionists advocate, a text or image only bears an accidental relationship to the author's conscious intentions, and thus the creator is superfluous to the work itself. In this class, we study the lives and works of such artists as Chester Himes, J.D. Salinger, Patricia Highsmith, and Sylvia Plath, to examine why we tolerate some behaviors and abhor others. By reviewing biographies, journals, films, and the primary text or artwork itself, we wrestle with the question, is it possible to love the art when you hate/disapprove of/dislike the life the artist led? Students will write shared discussion pieces, a 8-10-page research paper on an artist of their choice, and participate in team debates. CONTENT WARNING: The content and discussion in this course will necessarily sometimes engage with issues of human suffering. Much of it will be emotionally and intellectually challenging to engage with, including graphic or intense content that discusses or represents racism, mental illness, and sexual or physical violence.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1579

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 920

Description

There are fantastic books by Asian American writers but often they are not taught in school, or part of pop culture, or included in the literary canon. Who decides which writers and books are worthy of reading? In this discussion based course, we will critically read, think, and write about texts by contemporary Asian American authors. We will analyze multiple factors that have influenced the creation of the texts and that are explored within them, such as race, diaspora, memory, family, politics, community, and identifying oneself and one’s artwork. The readings will be across genre: novels, poetry, non-fiction, and graphic novels. Readings often include works by Victoria Chang, Mira Jacob, Alexander Chee, Jenny Xie, Ocean Vuong, Ted Chiang, and Cathy Park Hong among others. We will freewrite, formulate conceptual questions for the readings, write responses, and compose 2 essays based on individual inquiry and analysis.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1501

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

A detailed, intensive study of a small number of recognized masterworks that have demonstrated their power outside of their own national and historical context. Recent examples: Dante's Divine Comedy, Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1478

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

Book: Where I?m Calling From, by Raymond Carver Students will read approximately one Raymond Carver story and/or poem a day. To receive credit, you must attend at least thirteen classes on time, do all the readings and written assignments, and participate in in-class discussions. You must write at least two 150-word essays and bring 25 typed copies to class. The final project will be an analytical essay, a poem, a very short story, or a visual work. Whichever genre you choose to work in, I encourage you to channel, imitate, or otherwise creatively respond to at least one of the published works.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1553

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

A detailed, intensive study of a small number of recognized masterworks that have demonstrated their power outside of their own national and historical context. Recent examples: Dante's Divine Comedy, Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1479

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

While novels usually sell better, short stories and novellas often provide more intense reading experiences. Beginning with such masterpieces as 'The Dead' by James Joyce, the 20th and 21st centuries have been a golden age of short fiction. Students will read a selection of short stories and novellas from the last hundred years or so. Authors will include Alice Munro, Denis Johnson, Sandra Cisneros, Catherine Lacey, Raymond Carver, James Baldwin, Ernest Hemingway, ZZ Packer, Phil Klay, Annie Proulx, James Joyce, Carol Anshaw, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Lorrie Moore, and Stuart Dybek. Students will write a series of very short papers, one of more substantial length, and participate in in-class discussions.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1587

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

The 'Things of Mathematics' are its tools. The purpose of this course is to analyze and build some of the things that have built mathematics. Tools such as the abacus, astrolabe, sextant, sector, slide rule, planimeter, and others were ancestors of the earliest computers, such as the difference engine and the differential analyzer, which were special-purpose and mechanical. In this course, we rediscover how mathematics was literally 'handled' by earlier people. The course content extends across traditional divisions in mathematics (arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus). It also compares systems of notation and calculation, incorporating perspectives on mathematical cognition from psychology and anthropology. The focus of this course is making as the means to engage with mathematical concepts. Standard textbook-type excerpts will be used to convey the needed mathematical background. There will also be readings to give historical context to each tool and related mathematical topic. In order to revisit fundamental mathematics in a rigorous way, we will examine, understand, and actually build devices such as those mentioned. The sharing of student work and experience gained in the making process will be a consistent component of this course. A main component of student work is the making of math tools via given instructions. There will also be in-class problem solving activities to gain math facility, and there will be weekly readings for background accompanied by short comprehension quizzes.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1628

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

Issac Newton is credited with creating mathematical models of the laws of classical physics as well as being an inventor of infinitesimal calculus, but is less well-know as an alchemist despite almost a tenth of his writing being dedicated to the subject. Far from being an isolated example, this is a surprisingly normal occurrence when considered against what we know of the history of mathematics. In this course we will examine the shared history and similar ontological and epistemological structure of mystical and mathematical practice Babylon in the early second millennium until now. Some relevant topics that this class will investigate include: epistemology, ontology, access to knowledge, collective acceptance of new knowledge, what constitutes forbidden or obscene knowledge, the irrationality of the square root of 2, Cantor's project, occult mathematical practice in the second world war, basic algebraic geometry, the psychology of new religious movements and secret societies, recent history of mathematics and natural science, mathematical logic, what “is” truth, systems of inference, symbolic representation, combinatorics, chaos magic, aesthetics of mathematics, meditation and more. Course work may vary, but will primarily consist of weekly reading and short quizzes in addition to less frequent writing assignments.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2379

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art and Science

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

Issac Newton is credited with creating mathematical models of the laws of classical physics as well as being an inventor of infinitesimal calculus, but is less well-know as an alchemist despite almost a tenth of his writing being dedicated to the subject. Far from being an isolated example, this is a surprisingly normal occurrence when considered against what we know of the history of mathematics. In this course we will examine the shared history and similar ontological and epistemological structure of mystical and mathematical practice Babylon in the early second millennium until now. Some relevant topics that this class will investigate include: epistemology, ontology, access to knowledge, collective acceptance of new knowledge, what constitutes forbidden or obscene knowledge, the irrationality of the square root of 2, Cantor's project, occult mathematical practice in the second world war, basic algebraic geometry, the psychology of new religious movements and secret societies, recent history of mathematics and natural science, mathematical logic, what “is” truth, systems of inference, symbolic representation, combinatorics, chaos magic, aesthetics of mathematics, meditation and more. Course work may vary, but will primarily consist of weekly reading and short quizzes in addition to less frequent writing assignments.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2503

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art and Science

Location

MacLean 620

Description

Seven thunders! Seven seals! Blaring trumpets and clashing cymbals. A seven-headed hydra. A lamb on a throne of blood. Stars falling to earth. The beginning and the end. And an angel saying, “What thou seest write in a book.” The metaphors and the agitation of the Book of Revelation are intense. They draw from the deepest sources of the imagination: Awe at life, magical beasts and powerful forms, proclamations of power, and fears about life’s end. Written 1900 years ago, the Book of Revelation continues to feed the imagination. In this course, first we will read Revelation closely, looking at it in the context of the genre and meaning of apocalypse in the tradition of the Abrahamic religions. Second, we will read Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer, an uncanny novel about an ecological catastrophe that may be an alien invasion. Alongside, we will read Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’, his discussion of the moral and religious flaws that have caused climate change. Third, we will consider “The Leftovers,” a television series that concerns the aftermath of a global, apocalyptic event that happens in the near future in which 2% of the world suddenly vanishes in a Rapture-like event. And throughout this course, we will consider the question: What will a modern apocalypse look like?

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2082

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This course focuses on literature forged among Latinx diasporas and the continued effects of colonialisms. While the course uses the gender-inclusive term Latinx as its point of intersection, the writers, literary practices, and communities we will study are dynamic, distinctive, and heterogenous. We will read works by multigenerational writers of Latin American and Caribbean descent who live in the United States, including: Magdalena Gomez, Raquel Gutierrez, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Monica Huerta, Claudia Castro Luna, Cherrie Moraga, Dave Ortega, and Jose Olivarez. In addition to contextualizing terms of self-identification (such as Nuyorican, Chicano/a/x, and Afro-Latinx) within larger social conditions and political movements, we will analyze how poetry, short stories, graphic novels, personal essays, and comics explore issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Latinx literature not only unsettles conventional expectations of literary genres but also demonstrates the liberatory and decolonial potential of literature. In this discussion-based course, students can expect to complete the following assignments: three essays, a creative response to materials in the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, a research/practice journal, and a final research-based project.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1613

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Economic Inequality &amp; Class

Location

MacLean 608

Description

'Far from being a monoculture, the middle ages were shaped by cross-cultural contacts?from the monks who assimilated the mythologies of their pagan converts into Christian culture, to the merchants who carried new ideas along with their trade goods across vast stretches of central Asia. This course explores a variety of medieval texts that share the element of movement across borders: adventures in otherworldly realms, missions to distant corners of the globe, and mystical journeys that share remarkably similar experiences of the divine, though from faiths supposedly in conflict. Readings are across ethnicities, religions, and genders, including the lays of Marie de France, the travel memoirs of Arab diplomat Ibn Fadlan, and the visionary writings of English anchoress Julian of Norwich and Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar. In addition to two shorter essays on the readings, students do independent research of an in-depth paper on an aspect of medieval culture and literature reflecting the focus of the course.'

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1586

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

This course is all about ugly feelings, the uglier the better. Depictions of agony often constitute forms of protest. After all, we get the word “agony” from the Greek concept of “agon,” which means contest, debate, one-upmanship. We will use the interlocking themes of agony and political dissent to read works from widely different regions and eras. Expect to find Kim Hyesoon, Mahasweta Devi, Franz Kafka, Ana Arzoumanian, Jean Genet, Richard Wright, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Amiri Baraka, as well as: The Book of Job; blues by Robert Johnson and Billie Holiday; Miyo Vestrini's poems about death; Kathy Acker's transgressive opera; Eileen Myles and Dodie Bellamy's hymns to puking; Trisha Low's interrogation of being hated; and Dolores Dorantes's allegorical guidebook to crossing the US-Mexico border.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1504

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

Do you believe that people should have sovereignty over their imaginations? Do you believe that people should have private reading lives and the right to read under the First Amendment? Do you believe that people should have free access to information? These are the questions at the heart of one of the most pressing culture wars of our time: the sweeping increase in book banning in U.S. school districts and libraries. Reading and intellectual freedom are under siege and books that tell the stories of certain people in this country, particularly Black, queer, and trans people, are increasingly under attack. Why? In this class we will contextualize the banned books we read within these urgent political stakes to try to understand what is deemed, by some, to be so threatening as to be banished, and why that should concern every single one of us. Texts include some of the most banned and challenged books of recent years (including some that have been contested since their publication decades ago): the graphic novel adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale; Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel Maus; Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir Gender Queer; Alice Walker’s The Color Purple; Toni Morrison’s Beloved; and George M. Johnson’s memoir-manifesto All Boys Aren’t Blue. We will also push ourselves to consider recent forms of public censure, such as cancel culture, in relation to historical and contemporary literary censorship. In so doing, we will ask: what is the line between critique, moralism, and censorship? Students should expect to keep up with the reading and to write about and discuss texts and ideas in close and critical depth every week. Students should also expect to take turns as discussion leaders.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2078

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

This course investigates the process of discovery in science, and in particular in physics. The historical and contemporary physics experiments we will study have led to some of the most profound insights we have about the natural world, be it on the largest scales or the smallest. The discoveries typically studied include: the search for aether, the discovery of pulsars, the discovery of the Higgs particle, and parity violation. Contemporary topics vary but may include tests of the speed of light, the measurement of gravity waves, or the imaging of black holes. Students will learn the background physics and context necessary to understand the experiments and their results. Additionally, we investigate the process of scientific discovery, the mindset of scientists, and the difficulties and the payoffs of research. We evaluate the culture of science, how that creates and is created by scientists. Finally, we consider the influence of awards, the general public, and the media on scientists, their discoveries, and our perception of them. Assignments include weekly homework reviewing factual material, several guided-journal writings, several in-class labs, two exams, and a short final presentation on a student chosen topic.'

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1591

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

This course is a survey of Western music from Beethoven to Mahler with emphasis on musical style, form, and nationalistic tendencies in historical, cultural, and social contexts. Each lecture focuses on a particular composition, composer, or genre. The intrinsic form of the Romantic era sonata--allegro is examined through the lens of a symphony, sonata, concerto, and string quartet. This course addresses issues such as the role of the opera; connections/influences between composers, writers, poets, painters and their impact on music history; small-scale home music making; and the developments of the 19th-century symphony. Students learn how to listen analytically to 19th-century music and are encouraged to use a macro-level music vocabulary in their discourse. Composers include Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Paganini, Mussorgsky, Bizet, Berlioz, Smetana, Rimsky-Korsakov, Verdi, Wagner, Brahms, and Mahler. Prior to lectures, students will watch documentaries and read short articles. This course also places a strong emphasis on listening to music and describing it. Two exams, a midterm and a final, focus on listening skills. Two short essays (6 page each) allow students to talk about music experiences and to use their acquired music vocabulary.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1552

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

Finding alien life across cosmic distance has challenged the limits of human imagination and technology for millenia. In this course, we will look at the fundamental questions that animate the search for life beyond Earth, delve into the scientific methodologies that we use to detect and recognize life, and unpack the sticky social questions of what it means to search for life (and what happens if we succeed!). Students will emerge understanding the many technical approaches to finding alien life, the ways human social values and pressures affect the pursuit of these methods, and an appreciation for the ways in which the search for alien life is intertwined with the study of life on our own planet. Last but not least, this course aims to help students contextualize reports and announcements about discoveries related to the search for life, and ask questions that will enable them to understand the significance of those reports.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2368

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

Finding alien life across cosmic distance has challenged the limits of human imagination and technology for millenia. In this course, we will look at the fundamental questions that animate the search for life beyond Earth, delve into the scientific methodologies that we use to detect and recognize life, and unpack the sticky social questions of what it means to search for life (and what happens if we succeed!). Students will emerge understanding the many technical approaches to finding alien life, the ways human social values and pressures affect the pursuit of these methods, and an appreciation for the ways in which the search for alien life is intertwined with the study of life on our own planet. Last but not least, this course aims to help students contextualize reports and announcements about discoveries related to the search for life, and ask questions that will enable them to understand the significance of those reports.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2387

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

For millennia, people have asked questions about the nature of the universe, its origins, and its history. Yet it is only recently that we have developed the tools to answer these questions through scientific observations. This class explores the cutting edge of our understanding of cosmology and the physics of the universe. What have we learned, and what are the remaining, open questions? We discuss the Big Bang, the expansion of the universe, the mysterious phenomena called Dark Matter and Dark Energy, and the methods that scientists use to study the farthest reaches of space and time.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2381

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

For millennia, people have asked questions about the nature of the universe, its origins, and its history. Yet it is only recently that we have developed the tools to answer these questions through scientific observations. This class explores the cutting edge of our understanding of cosmology and the physics of the universe. What have we learned, and what are the remaining, open questions? We discuss the Big Bang, the expansion of the universe, the mysterious phenomena called Dark Matter and Dark Energy, and the methods that scientists use to study the farthest reaches of space and time.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2382

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

A critical survey of Western music from 1950 to the present, this course investigates the western experimental music tradition with a focus on issues of representation. Where are the women and BIPOC composers in studies on western experimental music? What are the implications of classifying certain forms of experimental music over others as ‘classical’ music and ‘fine art’ music? What do these classifications tell us about cultural values, power, and the privileging of certain musics and voices over others? As we identify the supposed ‘canonic’ figures of the period, the techniques they used, the processes they employed, and the creative motivations that drove them, we will note the collapse of tonality, and the influence of popular and ‘world’ music styles on Western ‘art music.’ We will look at the role of ‘silence’ in music, aleatoric or ‘chance’ music, total serialism, musique concrète, minimalism, jazz, emerging popular styles, and the appropriations of Black American, Pacific Islander, and Hindustani music traditions. We will study the music and thinking of composers like John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Steve Reich, while asking ourselves why so much more has been written about their work than the work of composers like Daphne Oram. We will also discuss why the works of saxophonist John Coltrane and rapper Kendrick Lamar are not typically classified as 'art' music in Western music studies. The course includes weekly reading and listening, 3 short writing assignments as well as experimental creative analysis, a term paper, and an in-class presentation.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1604

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

This is a course on contemporary art music: its history, philosophy, performance techniques, and interdisciplinary worlds. Its aim is to enjoy, explore, analyze, critique, expose, and learn about Western art music and modern composers from the turn of the twentieth century to the present day. The focus is on experimental music, composers, musicians, and conceptualists. Gender, race, class, and privilege are explored as they pertain to the career of the professional artist. Course objectives include building strong listening skills and acquiring the vocabulary to speak and write about music and its cultural contexts effectively. Screenings and viewings will vary but will typically include examples of works by musical artists such as Laurie Anderson, Cathy Berberian, John Cage, Wendy Carlos, Philip Glass, Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, and Arnold Schoenberg. Readings will also vary but will typically include works by musicologists such as Daniel Albright, Joseph Auner, Mark Katz, and Carol Oja, as well as writings by composers about their own music. Topics will include modernism, expressionism, atonality, technology, indeterminacy, minimalism, performance art, and experimental opera and theatre. Students should expect to write 15-20 double-spaced pages over the course of the term, including revisions based on instructor and peer feedback. Assignments may include a close listening essay and an original research paper. Students will present a 10-minute oral presentation on their research paper.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1551

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

Experimentalism Unbound: Hearing the Noises beyond Sun Ra and John Cage Following the recent centennial celebrations of Sun Ra and John Cage, this course takes up the music and thought of both figures as pathways to three interlocking issues central to contemporary musical practice: the roles of improvisation and performance; the affordances of technology and circuits of mediation; and the articulation of musical meaning with matters of race and gender. Moving across the borders of discipline and genre, course materials will serve to anchor and amplify our inquiry, being drawn from the fields of musicology, philosophy, film studies, and social history, among others, as well as the practices of jazz, experimental music, electronic dance music, and Jamaican popular musics. Our weekly lectures, readings, listening exercises, and writing assignments will ultimately equip students to undertake final research projects which critically extend and apply the questions and themes raised in the course.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2289

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

This course examines the roots and routes of hip hop from its emergence in New York City to its circulation across select areas of the globe. Why do people living in different parts of the world engage in hip hop? What kinds of aesthetics, ideologies, and behaviors are manifested through hip hop music? How do hip hop scenes differ, and how are they connected? We will discuss these, and other questions, through studying the lived experiences of participants involved in various hip hop music scenes throughout the globe. Through analyzing films, texts, and audio/visual recordings, we will develop our vocabulary for critically discussing the manifestation of hip hop cultural practices across temporal, spatial, and social boundaries. We will pay particular attention to the ways cross-cultural engagements with hip hop shapes intersecting identities of race, gender, sexuality, class, religion, and nation. We will also consider what hip hop artists can teach us about pressing global issues ranging from racism and sexism to economic marginalization and religious discrimination. Coursework will include reading responses, short writing assignments, and a final research paper/presentation that focuses on the social life of a hip hop performing artist(s).

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1530

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Economic Inequality &amp; Class

Location

Lakeview - 203

Description

Much of our everyday experience is mediated by electronics. From toasters to smart phones, the devices we interact with vary widely in their function and complexity, but all are composed of a set of common electronic components and function in ways determined by the connection of these components. This course provides an introduction to electronic theory as it relates to the connection of these components. Topics to be covered will include but are not limited to reading schematics, DC and AC circuits, passive and active devices, filters, amplifiers and oscillators. Students will not only learn theory, but will also learn by constructing their own circuits by hand and by using circuit simulation and analysis tools in this laboratory course. Student learning will be assessed through weekly homework and laboratory assignments as well as several exams.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1629

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art and Science

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

Standard textbooks of European music have long emphasized their commitment towards studying the Western part of the continent. When it comes to the eastern region of the mainland, no such textbook exists. The scholarly marginalization of Eastern Europe’s cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity contributes to negligence and underappreciation of the region. The purpose of this course is to examine the history and arts at several sites in this region and to listen to its music. Through this approach, we will examine cultural identities such as Greek, Byzantine, Slavic, Eastern Orthodox, Russian, Jewish, Ottoman, and Romani. We will visit historical and contemporary sites such as Kaliningrad, Kiev, Cracow, Prague, Budapest, Istanbul, Zagreb, and Ljubljana. We will also listen to “classical” music of Romanians, Poles, Russians, and Hungarians as well as to “folk” music from Transylvania, the Balkans, and the Baltic states. The music repertoire of this course spans from medieval Polish and Hungarian manuscripts to the late 20th-century Estonian (Arvo Part) and Russian (Sofia Gubaidulina) composers.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1505

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

This class provides a basic introduction to the conceptual and quantitative framework necessary to understand the physics of the dynamical world around us. Some questions we address are: What do we need to know to describe motion? How do we model the movement of objects (kinematics)? What makes an object move (interactions, dynamics)? What different ways do we have to think about motion (forces, energy)? Reviewing skills in algebra as we go, we cover Newton's laws of motion and the analysis of physical systems in terms of forces and energy. We study the motion of objects on surfaces and those moving through the air. We take an introductory look at the forces of gravity and surface forces like friction and the so-called normal force. Some time will be spent studying the lack of motion, or static equilibrium. Laboratory and problem solving explorations help us develop important physical concepts and scientific reasoning skills. Applications are drawn from everyday phenomena as well as topics in architecture and design. Assignments include weekly homework, in-class problem solving and lab activities, two to three exams, and a short final project on a topic of the student's choosing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1607

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

From fin-de-siecle decadence to pop feminism, this course explores issues and representations of sexuality in twentieth-century western music, including opera, musical theater, instrumental music, art song, and popular music. Themes include modernist thought, sonic constructions of sexuality, and gendered roles in music. Drawing from musicology and gender studies, this course will address diverse aspects of the identities of composers and artists through examining authorship, expression, and performance. Course objectives include building strong listening skills and acquiring the vocabulary to speak and write about music and its cultural contexts effectively. Screenings will vary but will typically include examples of works by musical artists such as David Bowie, Benjamin Britten, Ornette Coleman, Madonna, Cole Porter, Prince, Ma Rainey, and Rodgers & Hammerstein. Readings will include works by authors such as Jane Bernstein, Philip Brett, William Cheng, Tammy L. Kernodle, Susan McClary, Sheila Whiteley, and Stacy Wolf. Students should expect to write 15-20 double-spaced pages over the course of the term, including revisions based on instructor and peer feedback. Assignments may include a close listening essay and an original research paper. Students will present a 10-minute oral presentation on their research paper.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1529

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality

Location

Online

Description

Often called the ultimate art form, the operatic spectacles of music, storytelling, and ritual were at the core of varying European cultures during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. As such, they influenced and generated many innovations in literature, fashion, visual arts, dance, and music. In this course, we will screen operas such as Mozart?s Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute; the 'gesamtkunstwerk' operas of Wagner such as The Ring of the Nibelungen and Parsifal; examples of the French 'Opera Comique' such as Bizet's Carmen; the Italian opera of Verdi, La Traviata and Rigoletto; the 'verisimo' operas of Puccini, La Boheme, Il Trittico, and Madame Butterfly; and Strauss' radical, early 20th century operas Salome and Elektra. We will also encounter contemporary operas by Kaija Saariaho, Meredith Monk, Phillip Glass and John Adams. The primary resources for our studies are the operas themselves. We will screen operas during each class, review the social and historical contexts for the operas, and examine the compositional and scenographic techniques of the various productions. Course work will include a short paper on each of the works screened and a mid-term and final exam on selected arias from the operas.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2079

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Playwriting/Screenwriting

Location

MacLean 617

Description

This course familiarizes students with basic philosophical skills: clear reasoning, examination of the soundness and validity of arguments, and development of consistent positions on certain philosophical issues. The course may be organized historically by studying the thought of major philosophers, beginning with Plato, and ending with the modern era (examples of figures studied: Plato, Aquinas, Descartes, Locke, and Nietzsche); thematically (studying major themes in philosophy such as free will and determinism, the existence of God, and the mind-body problem); or by school of thought (studying major trends in philosophy such as pragmatism, analytical philosophy, Marxism, existentialism, and phenomenology). Readings range from historical to contemporary sources, including the pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Quine, and Rorty. Assignments vary, but they might include some or many of the following: weekly reading responses, quizzes, papers, and exams.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1557

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This is a class where we will think about games with respect to social and political life; it is not a game design course. It puts Game Studies and Critical Theory in conversation with each other in order to invite questions and thought about what the formal, aesthetic, historical, sociopolitical, and affective dimensions of games could teach us about the formal, aesthetic, historical, social, and affective dimensions of politics. We will read games across genre and type - from First-Person Shooter video games to collaborative board games to Role-Playing mobile games to drinking card games (without the drinking). We will also read theory across disciplines and fields - from theories of embodiment (like queer theory or race and ethnicity studies) to debates in game studies (like ludology v. narratology) to concepts behind design elements (like game mechanics or player interaction) to questions of contemporary sociopolitical life (like critiques of capitalism or Science and Technology Studies). Also expect to play some games and to write short, though regular, critical analyses.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1616

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

In this course, students will engage with theoretical and historical perspectives of environmental inequalities on a global and regional scale. The course examines community responses and policy solutions to environmental problems, particularly at the intersection of environmental quality and public health and race, gender, and class inequities. We also discuss environmentalism amid colonial and capitalist power structures. Southeast Chicago and Little Village, two Chicago communities with rich histories of environmental activism, serve as local case studies. The readings for this course include works from Rachel Stein, who writes on environmental activism and gender; Anna Tsing, an anthropologist concerned with human/nature interactions at the edges of global capitalism; Robert Brulle, a scholar/activist writing on current environmental movements; Kyle Whyte, who writes from an indigenous perspective on the relationships of indigenous peoples and climate activism. We will also review policy papers from the National Resource Defense Council and other advocacy groups. Course work includes weekly reading responses and a final project that brings together knowledge and action on environmental justice, either through a strategy paper or an artistic project. This course generally meets at Homan Square 5-6 times a term.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1617

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 203, Homan 1200

Description

This course will situate the sociological knowledge of the aesthetic ?good? in the corporeal techniques of hearing and listening, particularly when the artistic medium of sound crosses the boundaries of the brain, body, architectural space, and material objects. As auditory culture has moved from the concert hall and music venue into galleries, museums, and outdoor public spaces, cultural practitioners have been prompted to ask how bodies perceive, understand, and evaluate the sounds they encounter. With a rich literature on sound, space, and embodiment, this course will not only survey sonic works in art music and the gallery arts but also the ways that technological advancements have changed exhibition practices and the perceptual capabilities of bodies. In combination with sound studies, a nexus of social theory and phenomenology will draw out the connection between bodies and technologies.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2330

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 522

Description

The Latinx population currently consists of approximately 61 million people or about 18.5% of the U.S. population; by 2050, the U.S. Census estimates that the Latinx population will make up 30 percent of the total U.S. population. This course examines the diverse social, economic, political, and cultural histories of those commonly identified as Latinas/os/xs in the United States. Course work will vary but typically includes reading responses, short papers, and a final project and presentation.. This course combines the close reading of required texts with detailed classroom discussions, providing students with the tools needed to question, discuss, and examine topics, such as, the social construction of race and ethnicity, immigration, colonialism, forms of resistance and social movement activity, colorism, poverty and education. Students should expect to produce a body of work consisting of three essays during the semester, and a final presentation of a project that is shared with the class.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2458

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Economic Inequality &amp; Class

Location

MacLean 301

Description

The topics of physical, chemical, geological, and biological oceanography are discussed in this course. The ocean as a stew of nutrients (chemical oceanography) which feeds marine life (biological oceanography) and in turn is controlled by the shape and makeup of its container (geological oceanography) are considered. Additional topics include reef formation, fisheries, ocean circulation, seabed mining, coastal development and hazards, and offshore drilling.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2383

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

Welcome to Water! This is a 3-credit introductory course on the science of water, it's associated resources, the sustainable use and management of the global water supply, and a conversation and dialogue about global water conflict. Through this course you will learn about the chemistry of water, its form and function, impacts of the quality and quantity of water on human lives and the environment, aspects of human survival that depend on water and the proper disposal of wastewater, the importance of conserving water, and the impact that future policies and economic changes might have on the availability of water in the US and around the world.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1525

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

Since 1970, global temperatures have risen more than a degree Fahrenheit, yet, despite dire warnings from climate scientists, humanity continues to emit climate-warming greenhouse gases at record pace. In the past two decades we have seen the increasing effects of devastating sea level rise, stronger and more powerful storms, longer droughts, deadly heat waves, destructive wildfires, accelerating loss of the world?s rainforests, growing species extinction rates, and changing water availability. In this course, we will explore the scientific explanation of contemporary climate change as well as the economic origins of our fossil fuel addiction. We will discuss future projections of climate change, the underpinnings of modern ?climate change denial?, and whether we can avoid what scientists call ?catastrophic climate change? in this century. We will consider current news articles, and articles in the scientific literature. We will address relevant policy solutions/responses, and screen relevant documentaries/news clips. Class work will involve group work, critical thinking, quantitative practice, relevant scientific readings, qualitative homework, quizzes, an exam and a final project.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2504

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

The course is an historically structured survey of ethical theory. The aim of the course is to familiarize students with the major ethical theories developed over the history of philosophy and to apply these theories to contemporary social and political problems, such as the authority of government, the significance of consent and democratic rule, charity, friendship, war, and the distribution of wealth. Class time is focused heavily on discussion of the intuitions brought to bear to defend and explain these theories, such as our own impressions of when and why someone is morally responsible for what they do. Major texts include Plato?s Gorgias and Crito, Aristotle?s Nicomachean Ethics, Augustine?s On the Free Choice of the Will, Kant?s Groundwork, Nietzsche?s Genealogy of Morals, Mill?s Utilitarianism, Nozick?s Anarchy State and Utopia, and Rawls? Theory of Justice. Assignments vary, but they might include some or many of the following: weekly reading responses, quizzes, papers, and exams.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2092

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

Existentialism has left a profound influence on contemporary Western thought, including philosophy, literature, film, theater, and graphic arts. It is a philosophical movement oriented toward two major themes - the analysis of human existence and the centrality of human choice. Existentialist conceptions of freedom and value arise from their view of the individual. According to Existentialist thinkers we are all ultimately alone, isolated islands of subjectivity in an objective world ,who have absolute freedom over our internal nature. Existentialism traces its roots to the writings of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. As a philosophy of human existence, existentialism found its best 20th-century exponent in its foremost representative Albert Camus. Camus believed that the essence of human existence in freedom. He criticized the human tendency toward 'bad faith,' reflected in humanity's perverse attempts to deny its own responsibility and flee from the truth of its inescapable freedom. In this course, we will examine themes of subjectivity, individuality, freedom and meaning that are central to Existentialist philosophy. To arrive at these goals, we will turn to works of philosophy, literature and film. As part of the course we will practice the principles of persuasive writing by learning how to make claims, analyze and make arguments about the works we will be discussing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1482

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

A detailed philosophical investigation of a few topics of special contemporary interest. See topic description for more information.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1558

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

Non-human animals are, whether directly or indirectly, an important part of human lives, and human beings are an important part of animals’ lives. Human beings are always preoccupied with moral questions, and such questions have been recently finally brought to bear, with intense focus, on the lives of non-human animals and how human beings ought to relate to them. This course addresses some of these questions: (1) Do animals have moral standing? If yes, what does this mean and what is this moral standing? (For example, do they have rights or is it their sentience that matters?) (2) May we consume animals or their products? If no, why not? If yes, under what conditions? (3) Under what conditions may we experiment on animals? (4) What is it about animals’ nature, as opposed to plants’, that leads some to claim that it is wrong to kill or use them but not wrong to kill or use plants? (5) May we hunt animals in the wild? May we interfere in their lives to help lessen their difficult lives? (6) What are some debates surrounding the ethics of zoos and aquariums? Finally, (7) what are morally acceptable and unacceptable political activism on behalf of animals? Students will gain an understanding of important issues and theories in animal ethics; critically evaluate their own moral convictions; and learn to construct arguments and explain philosophical ideas. Among others, authors we read are Carol Adams, Carl Cohen, David DeGrazia, Rosalind Hursthouse, Alastair Norcross, Mark Rowlands, Tom Regan, Peter Singer, Roger Scruton, and Nick Zangwill. Assignments vary, but they might include some or many of the following: weekly reading responses, quizzes, papers, and exams.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2095

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

Many philosophers from a range of traditions have offered theories of memory and have recruited memory to address other philosophical questions about personal identity, knowledge and meaning. This seminar will focus on a variety of philosophical and literary works ranging from St. Augustine and Rousseau to Lock and Bergson. We will make connections to historical treatments of memory and explore memory’s connection to other areas of philosophy, such as personal identity and consciousness of time. The goal of this course is to think more carefully about how and why individuals and societies remember, the role of forgetfulness and the relationship between memory and emotion. In order to answer these questions we will bring together works in philosophy, sociology, literature and film. Assignments vary, but they might include some or many of the following: weekly reading responses, quizzes, papers, and exams.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1559

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

Philosophy of art is a crucial field in philosophy and one important for art students to take. In this second part of the course (registering for this course does not require you to have taken Part I), we explore two crucial and basic topics in contemporary philosophy of art. (1) How is art evaluated? Here, we discuss the issue of whether art evaluation is objective in some sense or whether it is ultimately subjective (whether it is a matter of taste). We also look into the interaction of art and ethics, especially whether ethical assessments of artworks affects their overall artistic value, and vice versa. In this regard, we consider artworks that traffic in unethical views and those accused of cultural appropriation. (2) What is the value of art? Here, we explore the bedrock question that should be at the forefront of every art student’s mind, which is the value of art. We distinguish between intrinsic and instrumental values of art, and we discuss whether art has any cognitive, moral, or historical value, and we discuss its relationship to providing aesthetic experience. Authors include Aristotle, Malcolm Budd, Noel Carroll, David Hume, Sherri Irvin, Eileen John, Plato, Richard Shusterman, Frank Sibley, and Jerome Stolnitz. Assignments vary, but they might include some or many of the following: weekly reading responses, quizzes, papers, and exams.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2096

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Community &amp; Social Engagement

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This class will introduce students to the core philosophical problems associated with religion, in particular the three Abrahamic religions. What is the nature of the divine as these religions understand it? What are the main arguments for and against belief in such a divinity? What are the problems associated with them? How do the religions we consider relate to other religious traditions? Authors read will include Al-Farabi, Spinoza, Aquinas, Kierkegaard, Hume, and Christopher Hitchens.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2171

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

Fungi are members of a kingdom of organisms that is distinct from plants and animals. They are exceptionally enigmatic, not just to everyday people, but to scientists as well. This course serves as a primer to the world of fungi, defining what fungi are and what they are not, and providing a conceptual understanding of these organisms. We explore the taxonomic diversity of fungi before considering their diversity from an ecological perspective. Students learn to identify different forms of fungi, grow them in the lab, and perform experiments to understand how they function. Finally, this course evaluates the importance of fungi from a practical human standpoint (food, medicine, art, spirituality), and discuss important questions to be addressed in the scientific field of mycology.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2494

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

As artists, the use of novel media often allow artists to find new means by which to express themselves and explore their message and meanings. Understanding the chemical structures and properties of the materials and components of media often allows for more sophisticated implementation and ease of use. In this course, we will focus on understanding the chemical and biological features of a number of different materials and developing a familiarity with materials as a means of further understanding common materials, identifying sustainable practices, and incorporating chemistry and biochemistry into meaningful creation. Readings and screenings will vary but typically include peer reviewed articles from science journals, writings on material science and biochemistry, and alternative such as podcasts and online video series. Special focus will be on bio-materials. Course work will vary but typically includes weekly reading responses, a mid-term, and a partnered final project focusing on the properties and production of different materials.

Class Number

1537

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Product Design, Art and Science, Sustainable Design

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

The world today may seem like it spirals further and further into chaos. But increasing disorder has always been a fundamental requirement of natural processes like chemical reactions. Balance, stability, order and chaos are as fundamental to how the world works on the microscopic level as they are in our daily lives. This class will explore our events, institutions, and art through the lens of chemical concepts such as entropy, equilibrium, catalysis, and kinetics. Class work will involve collaborative group work, critical analysis, and engagement with current concepts in the scientific literature across a range of disciplines. We will use quantitative in-class assignments, qualitative homework, quizzes, an exam, and a final project.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2370

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 920

Description

Consumption is central to our lifestyles and identities in contemporary societies. What you wear, what you eat, what you watch — in short, what you buy— seems to confirm who you are or how you want to display yourself to society. What does it mean to be a consumer, and how does that specific identity intersect with other identities, such as a citizen, a producer, and an artist? In this course, we will explore various arguments about consumption in modern society to understand the development and significance of this specific economic and cultural behavior.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1619

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

The law is the gateway to all things. It opens doors to some activities, and it closes doors to others. As citizens, our contact with the legal system usually occurs when we have gone awry of the law. But the reach of the law is much greater than our usual contact with it. In this course, we will study one such aspect of the law—its effects and influences on the environment. The course will begin with a general introduction to the legal system. Then we will examine environmental law and policy, including major cases. Throughout the course, we will ask ourselves how these laws—writing, implementing, and enforcing them—affect art and artists.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2356

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

In this course, we will take various Japanese pop culture genres including comics, anime, food, fashion, music, etc. and examine the interplay between local and global culturescapes. Students are expected to critically inquire into the reality and complexity of people's lives in Japan as reflected in cultural products and to explore cultural transformation in Japan as a part of the dynamics of globalization. Locally 'common' value and knowledge is challenged as culture traverses borders. From the expansion of Japanese fan communities to the Asia-Pacific region and Brazil, to feminist criticism of gender representation, we will employ case studies to overcome our conscious or unconscious exoticism and to deepen our understanding toward Japanese culture in global context. Key points of inquiry will include: what racial and ethnic relations/tensions underlying global popular culture; economic and political factors driving trends in Japanese popular culture; gender, sexuality, and the politics of representation.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2469

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

This course serves as a basic introduction to human anatomy. The skeletal, muscular, digestive, circulatory, nervous, and reproductive systems are covered, with special emphasis on the skeletal system in reference to other mammals (a little bit of comparative anatomy!). The physiological processes of the aforementioned systems are examined allowing students to understand the processes. Laboratories include the use of plastic human and mammal models and dissections of preserved ?recycled? sheep organs (kidney, brain, heart, and eye). Labs designed by students while observing concerts at Chicago Symphony Center will focus on the Nervous system (especially special senses) and the Endocrine system (hormones). Other labs will be conducted at our Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum of Natural History.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1585

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

This course serves as a basic introduction to human anatomy. The skeletal, muscular, digestive, circulatory, nervous, and reproductive systems are covered, with special emphasis on the skeletal system in reference to other mammals (a little bit of comparative anatomy!). The physiological processes of the aforementioned systems are examined allowing students to understand the processes. Laboratories include the use of plastic human and mammal models and dissections of preserved ?recycled? sheep organs (kidney, brain, heart, and eye). Labs designed by students while observing concerts at Chicago Symphony Center will focus on the Nervous system (especially special senses) and the Endocrine system (hormones). Other labs will be conducted at our Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum of Natural History.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2492

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

Neuroscience is a fascinating field of study in which the mechanisms of brain function are being unraveled at an incredibly fast pace. This course will focus on the foundations of neuroscience, moving from the cellular level to understanding entire systems. We will extend our knowledge of how the brain works to further understand thoughts, beliefs, emotions, personalities, and how memories and experiences are formed. This course will also explore current methods in neuroscience research and experimental design. Readings will be pulled from neuroscience textbooks, current research articles/reviews, and other texts from well-known neuroscientists. Building from a systematic approach to understanding the brain, we will also discuss how the experience and production of art impacts and shapes our minds. Course work includes weekly reading and written homework assignments. The final consists of a written paper which will focus on a topic of neuroscience that the student is particularly interested in, as well as a short oral presentation of their topic to their peers. Active participation, willingness to creatively hypothesize about brain function, and an interest in the mind are required in order for us all to learn and enjoy!

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2495

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

This course is an introduction to the principles of ecology, emphasizing detailed field investigations of natural communities. Natural History studies allow for many aspects of knowledge to be applied to the understanding of a Biological concept. Among the topics explored are the dynamics of lake ecosystems, forest succession, trophic structure in streams, dune ecology, and territorial behavior in breeding birds and mammals. Lecture/Discussions examine major themes in modern ecology, including energy flow, nutrient cycling, and species diversity. Selections from nineteenth- and twentieth-century American naturalists (Thoreau, Muir, Burroughs, and Leopold) provide perspective on the relationship of humanity to nature. Global warming and pollution dynamics are explored. Lab activities at the Field Museum of Natural History, Lincoln Park Zoo, and the Shedd Aquarium strengthen the understanding of these concepts.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1480

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

A variety of specific historical studies are offered on a rotating basis. Recent offerings have included The Limits of Reason, a study of European Enlightenment; Sex, Booze, and Baseball, the nature of leisure activities in American cultural life; Space, Heaven, and God, a study of the relationships of religion, astronomy, and cosmology; and War in American History.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1581

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

Propaganda is everywhere. From Nazi propaganda posters to Latin American street art, anti-war cartoons, Maoist communist textbooks, propaganda has defined nations and kept populations in check. Governments and nonprofit organizations have also devised compelling slogans to win support for wars or to garner community support. This course will explore the history of propaganda in the context of mass politics, public relations campaigns, imperialism, anti-colonial campaigns, and the rise of different regimes.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1582

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

A variety of specific historical studies are offered on a rotating basis. Recent offerings have included The Limits of Reason, a study of European Enlightenment; Sex, Booze, and Baseball, the nature of leisure activities in American cultural life; Space, Heaven, and God, a study of the relationships of religion, astronomy, and cosmology; and War in American History.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2468

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

Since the early twentieth century, radio technology has shaped innovations in communication, news, and entertainment. This powerful medium has driven political influences, established cultural trends, generated communal listenership, and diminished spatial boundaries for the dissemination of information. Radio served as a precursor for later forms of mass media such as television, the Internet, and podcasts. This course will address the history, theory, and aesthetics of radio transmission in Europe and North America. Through lectures, discussion, listening, reading, and writing, students will explore radio?s influence on social habits, political dynamics, and artistic expression.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1502

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

Why do birds migrate? When do whales sing? What does a bee's dance mean? Animals have fascinating behaviors that have both puzzled and amazed observers. This class will explore current theories behind these actions. The lecture/discussion aspects of this course will focus on theories and concepts while the lab component will focus on collecting (Virtual zoo camera) observational data on local fauna and coming up with hypothesis to explain the observed behaviors. Student-collected original data will then be discussed and new or additional theories proposed. This course includes VIRTUAL Zoo camera data observations from any zoo around the world that has zoo cameras!

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2378

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

This course is an experimental seminar devoted to recent discussions about disability in the US and in Europe: how is disability represented, and how are these representations constructed? Readings include the following, among many other texts: Georgina Kleege's Sight Unseen, Julia Kristeva's recent essays on disability, and several Supreme Court Opinions regarding ADA, including Alabama v. Garrett, Toyota v. Williams, and Tennessee v. Lane. In the second half of the semester, seminar participants present papers and related research on disability as a social and theoretical construction.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2326

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 707

Description

This interdisciplinary course approaches the topic of gender, race, and medicine from cultural, historical, and scientific perspectives. We consider hysteria (purported to be caused by a 'wandering uterus') and other mental afflictions associated with sex and gender, the foundation of U.S. gynecology and its dependence on enslaved bodies, the Women's Health Movement and its legacy, queer and trans health issues, and sex health education. Readings include works by Audre Lourde, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Elaine Showalter, Leslie Feinberg and Andrea Smith. We will also consider the ways in which artists have addressed issues of gender, race and medicine in their work. Assignments include an interview project, written reflections, and a final research-based project.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1605

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 920

Description

This course is designed to inspire the understanding of the significance of plants to human life. The beauty and diversity of nature is expressed most vividly in the flora of the Earth. Plants are essential for the survival of all living animals, and form a dynamic relationship with them in the environment. As well as a source of wonder, plants provide food, energy, medicine, and innumerable commercial products. The course will explore plant biology, the form and function of plant types, modes of growth and reproduction, and genetics and genetic engineering.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1578

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

This course is designed to inspire the understanding of the significance of plants to human life. The beauty and diversity of nature is expressed most vividly in the flora of the Earth. Plants are essential for the survival of all living animals, and form a dynamic relationship with them in the environment. As well as a source of wonder, plants provide food, energy, medicine, and innumerable commercial products. The course will explore plant biology, the form and function of plant types, modes of growth and reproduction, and genetics and genetic engineering.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1500

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

In this course students learn about the scientific roots and complexities of diagnosing the most pressing environmental crises of the twenty-first century, their ethical and legal impacts on society, and the potential to achieve sustainability for the future. We raise stimulating ethical and legal debates about topics such as depletion of oceanic resources, loss of biodiversity, habitat destruction, depletion of topsoil, degradation of groundwater and more. This class is about critical thinking and incorporates team projects, debate, class discussion, and independent research to investigate the current state of the global condition and potential for a sustainable future.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1520

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Sustainable Design

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

This course is an investigation of how media communicate messages and how we interpret them. From political propaganda to advertisements, television news to ?tweets?, we examine a process of critically 'reading' the many messages that we encounter on a daily basis. Through readings, class discussions, presentations and writing assignments we come to grips with what critic Stuart Ewen has called a world of 'all consuming images.' Readings include works by Plato, Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, Susan Sontag, Stuart and Elizabeth Ewen, and Henry Jenkins. Assignments include short critical essays on contemporary media, an in-depth at home exam based on class activity and readings, and a term paper or media presentation that analyses a current critical issue in media.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1611

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

Drugs are substances that can alter processes in our minds and bodies. Humans have explored the use of such substances throughout recorded history. In this course we will establish the foundations of systems biology necessary to understand how drugs act on receptors and alter neurotransmitters in the human body, and how they are metabolized and excreted. We will survey a range of drugs (legal and illegal) and discuss how they work, enabling a critical consideration of how they are used and abused in contemporary society. Students will confront real-world media and current debates about medical and recreational drugs with a focus on the role of the underlying science.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1588

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

This course introduces students to important theories of, and concepts in, the study of religion, through a focus on two important figures working at the edges of surrealism: Georges Bataille and Antonin Artaud. Bataille the ?mystic? sought to shatter his ego through an ecstatic mysticism, whereas Artaud the ?madman? sought to integrate a fragmented self through a rage against God. We examine these thinkers? distinctive approaches to religion, asking how their thoughts and lives may animate the study of religion and artistic practices. Tracing the influences of psychoanalysis and surrealism in Bataille?s mystical experiences and Artaud?s visionary travels and blasphemous writings, we inquire into the construction and dissolution of religious subjectivity, while employing key concepts including: body, affect, ecstasy, desire, the sacred, eroticism, mysticism, blasphemy, excess, taboo and transgression, ritual, totem, fetish, sacrifice, expenditure, magic, and occultism. Students read important precursors to and interpreters of Bataille and Artaud, including mystics like Angela of Foligno; theorists like Durkheim and Freud; and philosophers and critics including Deleuze, Amy Hollywood, Shannon Winnubst, and Carmen MacKendrick. We also inquire into the relations between religion and aesthetic impulses in the work of artists such as Mike Kelley, Ron Athey, Nancy Spero, and Richard Hawkins. Assignments vary, but they might include some or many of the following: weekly reading responses, quizzes, papers, and exams.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2080

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This course investigates philosophical underpinnings and motivations of surrealist thought and activity. Focusing especially on surrealism’s intersection with religion, students discern, critically evaluate, and elaborate philosophies of surrealism. Students learn about major philosophical precursors to surrealism, from ancient thinkers (Heraclitus, Plato) to modern thinkers (Kant, Hegel, Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Fourier), as well as contemporary thinkers influenced by surrealism (Hélène Cixous, Byung-Chul Han, Giorgio Agamben). In addition, the class addresses philosophical modes and movements in conversation with surrealism (existentialism, phenomenology, deconstruction, object-oriented ontology). Major theories of religion from the likes of Emile Durkheim and Mircea Eliade are brought to bear in studying theoretical, literary, and visual work from a wide range of surrealists, including André Breton, Louis Aragon, Georges Bataille, Pierre Klossowski, and Claude Cahun. Students will also encounter major contemporary interpreters of surrealism, e.g. Susan Buck-Morss, Rosalind Krauss, and Hal Foster. The class considers possibilities for a “feminist surrealism” through the work of Leonora Carrington, Unica Zurn, and Penelope Rosemont, as well as the intersection of surrealism and Black thought through the work of Suzanne and Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Robin DG Kelly, and D. Scot Miller. Among the major concepts and themes focusing conversation are: subjectivity, identity, gender, sex, erotic desire, haunting, sacred, marvelous, decolonization, utopia, reason, excess, violence, politics, community, otherness, chance, dream, convulsive beauty, work, game/play, humor, dream, unconscious, economics. Assignments include three philosophical papers, undertaken in conjunction with walking, drawing, writing, and photography exercises.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2081

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

This course examines the ways music shapes intersectional identities within broader contexts of migration. What makes music a potent means through which migrants maintain, negotiate, and transform their identities? How does music figure into broader discussions of race, gender, class, and religion in the lives of migrant communities? How is music used to reproduce and contest restrictive immigration policies? We will provide answers to these and other questions in our pursuit of understanding why music matters in the lives of people labelled as 'immigrants,? ?illegal migrants,' and 'refugees.? Readings and screenings will vary but will typically include case studies on traditional and popular music styles affiliated with Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Through a multidisciplinary approach, we will draw on theories and methods from ethnomusicology, historical musicology, media studies, gender studies, and critical race studies in our analysis of the linkages between music, migration, and identity. While coursework will vary, students should expect to complete reading responses, exams, fieldwork assignments, and a final project.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1533

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Economic Inequality &amp; Class

Location

MacLean 617

Description

The natural world is in constant flux. The function and organization of biological organisms are determined through their interactions with one another as well as their environment. This general ecology course provides a foundation in this scientific field. We will examine how biological communities are structured, study ecological processes, and explore the local habitat types found in the Chicago area. Field trips and outdoor assignments will provide hands-on experience with natural communities and scientific inquiry.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2384

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Sustainable Design

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

From viruses to vaccines, zombie-making fungi to tick bites that make you allergic to meat, fascinating, terrifying, mundane, and sometimes just outright bizarre diseases surround us every day. In Disease Dynamics, we will explore the basic science behind what causes different types of diseases, how our bodies naturally defend against them, and how medical innovations like antibiotics, vaccines, and insulin work to combat these diseases and disorders. Students will walk away from this class with an understanding of how their bodies together with science attempt to fight the ever-shifting, ever-present threats of disease they face each day. The course will survey topics including the immune system, autoimmune disorders, infectious diseases, vaccines and antibiotics, cancer, genetic disorders, and gene therapy. Coursework will include readings, quizzes, discussions, and an art-infused final project.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2385

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 920

Description

The human mind is one of the most fascinating and complex subjects of modern science. How can we possibly hope to understand it? This course will use the tools of psychological history and science to suggest answers. Recent and contemporary readings in psychological research and theory building, such as the nature of psychology & psychological research, learning theory, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, psychodynamic psychology, & group and social psychology. Students will be evaluated for receiving credit in the class based on class participation, their written work (three papers) and their performance on three in-class exams.'

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1555

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

From viruses to vaccines, zombie-making fungi to tick bites that make you allergic to meat, fascinating, terrifying, mundane, and sometimes just outright bizarre diseases surround us every day. In Disease Dynamics, we will explore the basic science behind what causes different types of diseases, how our bodies naturally defend against them, and how medical innovations like antibiotics, vaccines, and insulin work to combat these diseases and disorders. Students will walk away from this class with an understanding of how their bodies together with science attempt to fight the ever-shifting, ever-present threats of disease they face each day. The course will survey topics including the immune system, autoimmune disorders, infectious diseases, vaccines and antibiotics, cancer, genetic disorders, and gene therapy. Coursework will include readings, quizzes, discussions, and an art-infused final project.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2386

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 920

Description

The story of European philosophy in the Middle Ages is one of loss and recovery. A great deal of classical thought was lost when the Roman Empire crumbled, and those ideas were reintroduced and reconciled to European culture in a series of intellectual events spanning a thousand years. In this course, we trace the course of this process, from the monastic culture of the Early Middle Ages, to the Aristotelian world of the High Medieval universities, to the classical resurgence of the Italian renaissance. We explore a wide variety of written material. Augustine of Hippo and Boethius illustrate the period immediately after the fall of Rome, while Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd demonstrate the crucial role played by Arab philosophy after the 9th century. Hildegard of Bingen and Peter Abelard embody the energy of European thought in the 12th century, and the scholastic synthesis of Thomas Aquinas represents the culmination of that intellectual energy. Finally, the work of Christine de Pisan and Pico della Mirandola manifest the Humanist character of the Otalian Renaissance. Assignments vary, but they might include some or many of the following: weekly reading responses, quizzes, papers, and exams.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1521

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

What is it to be an autonomous agent? To what extent is our agency free? In this course, we examine the manner in which the notion of individual, autonomous freedom is criticized and undermined in various ways in 19th and 20th century philosophy. After introducing the German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s thought, with its strong conception of individual autonomy, we look at Hegel’s critique of Kant and discuss his philosophy of history as a rational force that shapes and enables freedom. We then look at Marx and the materialist twist he gives to Hegel’s idea: it is not reason but economic conditions that determine a person’s degree of freedom. We then discuss Nietzsche’s ideas to the effect that it is certain socio-psychological forces that shape what we value. We end by looking at structuralist (Michel Foucault) and feminist (Marilyn Friedman) approaches to the question of autonomy. Assignments vary, but they might include some or many of the following: weekly reading responses, quizzes, papers, and exams.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1606

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

It is the purpose of this course to examine theories of psychological development across the lifespan, from birth to death. Students will learn theories of development as they apply to each stage of life and will apply their learning in case analyses, interviews, observations and presentations. There will be an emphasis in the course on the application and integration of a fairly wide array of theories to real life persons and situations. Students will learn to apply an array of developmental theories to explain developmental phenomena as they occur in case material, will be able to compare, contrast and integrate ideas from different theories and paradigms of developmental psychology. Readings will vary but may include C. G. Jung, J. Bowlby, E. Erikson, J. Piaget, M. Ainsworth, H.S. Sullivan, D. Levinson, G. Vaillant, K. Dabrowski and others. Students can expect a required final paper, and additional quizzes and shorter writing assignments.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2307

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

It is the purpose of this course to examine the many theories that fall into the psychodynamic paradigm. This will include examining the work of Freud and those who have branched off from his basic ideas? such as Adler, Jung, Reich, Klein, Fairbairn, Kohut, Guntrip, Winnicott, Erikson, Mahler, Stern, Sullivan, Jacobson, Bion and Lacan, to name but a few. Students can expect a required final paper, and additional quizzes and shorter writing assignments.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2353

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality

Location

MacLean 301

Description

?Much madness is divinest sense,? Emily Dickinson wrote, further observing that ?much sense [is] starkest madness.? The poet insisted that the majority sets and enforces the standard by which sanity is evaluated. This course will introduce a variety of topics in the psychology of madness through lectures, discussions, and readings. In the twenty-first century, the study of the mind ?in psychiatry, psychoanalysis, clinical psychology, and especially psychopharmacology and neuroscience?claim tremendous scientific authority and exert enormous influence. This course explores varied clinical descriptions and models of madness. It also explores madness as a key cultural symbol, representing profound threats to order and rationality. There will be a mid-term paper and a final paper assignment and students will write brief essays on some of the readings and will be encouraged to do class presentations at some of our meetings.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2288

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

The course will include information related to basic conceptualizations of so-called ?abnormal behavior,? historical perspectives on psychopathology, research methods and progress, and contemporary and emerging issues in mental health. Readings will include books and articles that reference, among other sources, information from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5 (DSM 5). Students will be evaluated for receiving credit in the class based on class participation, their written work (three papers) and their performance on three in-class exams.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1481

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This course examines the psychological impact of mortality. Questions include: How does the knowledge of our eventual death affect our everyday lives? What are the psychological effects of living under the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation? Other topics are: the dynamics of human violence; survivor experience and traumatic syndrome; and healthy versus pathological grieving.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1554

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

An introduction to approaches in psychology to some of the major religions of the world, which may include spirituality in some general sense, mystical traditions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. The course may examine, for example, psychological research concerning religion and human development, mystical experience, conversion, new religious movements (cults), and mental health. At the conclusion of the semester, students will understand the major research trends regarding religious experience, conversion, personality and religion, and religious behavior, and the theories on which that research is based. A mix of papers, quizzes, class discussion and presentations will be required.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2352

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

This course aims to approach China today through its various 'cultures' and 'subcultures'--the worlds of meaning constructed along with the establishment (and imposition) of identities of the 'self' and understandings and representations of all manner of internal and external 'others.' Our primary avenues of inquiry will be the broad categories of ethnicity, class, gender, and religion in the broadest senses. We will also discuss the methods and means of acquiring anthropological knowledge of China, and attempt to devise and conduct our own independent inquiries.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1523

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

This course provides an introduction to social theories on tourism and travel activities. Drawing from anthropological and ethnographic research, students will explore the significance of tourism over the 20th century, developing alongside travel and information technologies well into present day tourism behavior and the global leisure industry. Media including travel photography, travelogue, home movies, or virtual reality - all provide sociomaterial examples of the significance of the tourist gaze and imaginary not only for personal recreation, but also influencing representation of the global south, in historically distorted and problematic ways. Course readings and films challenge students to consider these theories in the contexts of the varied sites and forms of tourism practiced around the world today. Learning content allows students to survey and examine mass tourism as well as tourism that makes an effort to get 'off the beaten track' in search of authenticity and adventure. Topics covered span from heritage, eco, and sex tourism, to “voluntourism,” dark and tragic tourism, including “staycations” and “holistays.” Students apply these insights during experiential learning activities of local tourist sites, commercialism, and cultural production of leisure settings in Chicagoland. Students engage in ethnographic exercises, submit a photo essay, and plan a dream excursion, implementing ethical considerations addressed in the course via travel design, and future tourism activities.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2084

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

Since the introduction of the German motorized wagon in 1886 and the Ford Model T in 1908, automobile transportation has dominated American roadways and speedways around the globe. From changes in vehicular design, performance, safety, and style - the sociomaterial significance of motor vehicles is integral to modern life. Whether a coming of age vessel or a technology of transportation, cars mobilize agency, often mediating feelings of nostalgia, fantasy, wonder, and even terror. This accelerated winter course examines the history, development, and diversity of 'car cultures' in the United States and in contexts abroad. Example topics range from hot rods, land yachts, and e-cars, to traffic, ride shares, and autonomous vehicles. Readings, films, and podcasts span from ethnographic research on vehicular subcultures to creative commentary on automobiles as a variety of designed objects - which have the potential to represent socioeconomic class status, race, gender, sexuality, and environmental risk. Learning and assessment activities involve engagement with academic scholarship and popular media about cars. Students will conduct short ‘autoethnographic’ field exercises involving participating and observing people and cars, and culminate with a final car advertisement analysis paper. Come take the ride!

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2085

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 920

Description

Next to breathing and eating, communication is arguably the most important activity of daily life. This course explores the world of communication and the study of culture through language. The material centers around the major theoretical and epistemological developments throughout the history of linguistic inquiry (Wittgenstein, Sapir, Pierce), specifically focusing on the contributions of linguistic anthropology (Boas and Hymes) and ethnographies of language (Basso, Carr, Fox, Mendoza-Denton). We will also explore semiotics (Agha)? the study of signs and the micro-level methods of basic social interaction and conduct independent language fieldwork projects to learn the basics of transcription and discourse analysis.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2086

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

Economics dominate migration discourse, but the experience is an embodied one with consequences for physiological, mental, and social health. Through combined lecture and seminar, as well as writing assignments, this course covers topics such as racialized identity/health status as exclusionary criteria, the consequences of family and kin networks dismantled by cultural imperalism, the culture of mental health, medicalization of culture, the socioeconomic gradient, and the ethical, efficient delivery of healthcare to increasingly pluralistic societies.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2087

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

This course explores the anthropological methods employed in ethnographic fieldwork and analysis. Students acquire a critical and historical knowledge of the range of research methods in cultural anthropology. In addition, they gain personal experience in designing an ethnographic research project, conducting fieldwork, and analyzing findings. We examine classic and contemporary ethnographic texts and films and discuss the theoretical foundations underlying ethnography, ethical issues within ethnographic research, and key debates around fieldwork as a method of knowledge production.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2088

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

This course is a continuation of Undergraduate Thesis: Research and Writing. Students continue to work on the drafts developed during the first semester and meet at times as a group and at times individually with the instructor. By the end of the semester, each student has a 20?0 paged superbly written paper, which will most likely (although it is not required) has visual content. Students also are encouraged to develop their essays for the publication Research Writing and Culture, which is released annually by the Liberal Arts Department, the Visual and Critical Studies Program, and the Office of Publications and Graphic Design Services. Students who elect to participate in the publication learn the final stages of publishing; checking sources, seeking copyright permissions, and developing the images for publication. Class meetings are used to discuss readings, share research methods and techniques, discuss research and writing problems and ideas for critique. Guest speakers and group visits to university libraries, bookstores, and writers' readings are also part of the class. Students are required to attend all meetings.

Prerequisites

LIBARTS 4800

Class Number

1725

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 518