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

1067

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

The art of life writing includes yet transcends the genres of (auto)biography, memoir, confession, diaries, journals, and social media posts. It is a way of life, a creative practice, a performative invitation of past, present, and future selves. As an essential skill of self-representation beyond the classroom, life writing is ideal for exploring the roles of memory, time, authority, and experience in creating individual and collective identities. This seminar will engage key figures across the span of life writing, including Frederick Douglass, who, regarding biographical details such as his age and parents, writes, “I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me.” As we experiment with innovative tools for writing life in the 21st century, including voice-based composition, we’ll consider the styles and effects of life writing, including its power to discover as well as create knowledge. Other texts may include St. Teresa’s Life, Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir, Tara Westover’s Educated, and Ben Franklin’s Autobiography. Authors including ­­Sidonie Smith, Julia Watson, Leigh Gilmore, and Ben Yagoda will provide critical context for our discussions. Students will create 15-20 pages of formal, revisable, and publishable writing across three short essays and two in-depth revisions. FYS I guides students through college-level writing, establishing foundations for FYS II and upper level Liberal Arts classes.

Class Number

1453

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

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

1063

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Sharp 409

Description

FYS I breaks down the critical writing process to provide a guided experience in college-level writing, thereby forming the necessary foundations for FYS II and upper level Liberal Arts classes. The class will explore whether the concept of a hyphenated identity (a dual identity divided by ethnicity, race and culture) stands for otherness, opposition, inclusion, or all of the above. Essays by hyphenated writers, such as Ronald Takaki, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Amy Tan, and Audre Lorde, will act as points of departure as well as models of writing for our exploration of the myth of the United States as a cultural melting pot and whether we can reclaim the hyphenated identity as a source of pride and empowerment in today’s political climate. Students build writing skills through 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing (i.e. three multi-draft essays) in addition to homework exercises and in-class writings. Through thoughtfully crafted writing, can we begin to give voice to ethnic populations and create an open dialogue about race, displacement, migration, post-colonialism, post-imperialism, and representation?

Class Number

1430

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

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

1068

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

280 Building Rm 120

Description

Through thoughtfully crafted writing, can we begin to identify and address how problems of class, race, and gender are intertwined in ways that maintain oppression and inequality? This course attempts to do so by breaking down the critical writing process and providing a guided experience in college-level writing, thereby forming the necessary foundations for FYS II and upper-level Liberal Arts classes. Student writing will explore the American class-based system and its connections to race and gender. Course materials include essays by bell hooks, Donna Langston, and Audre Lorde, as well as screenings, such as interviews with Isabel Wilkerson discussing her book Caste. These course materials will act as points of departure as well as models of writing for our critical examination of class in American society and its role in maintaining systems of oppression and inequality. Critical writing skills are developed through 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing (i.e. two multi-draft essays and one in-depth revision project) in addition to homework exercises and in-class writings.

Class Number

1476

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

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

1064

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

Artists continually grapple with space--how to represent it, construct it, and divide it--but what underlying messages and meanings do these spaces embody? What assumptions, prejudices, and proclivities inform our perceptions and understanding of said spaces? How are the spatial entities we describe and occupy informed and sometimes limited by social constructs? This course encourages students to assess our lived experiences in order to question how various forms of power work to structure both the real and imagined spaces we create, inhabit, and observe. Building on the philosopher Henri Lefebvre’s idea that “the lived space is a product of our social relations and interactions”, students will investigate how power structures embedded in our built and lived environments can function to define or confine us. As we reckon with our current global state, turning a critical eye to how space has been constructed by power is essential to understanding systemic injustice. Close reading of film excerpts, various artworks, and writings from Pierre Bourdieu, bell hooks, Rafia Zakaria, Mona Eltahawy, Mikki Kendall, Rebecca Solnit, Catherine McCormack, Clint Smith, and many others will serve to inspire students to pursue their own avenues of inquiry into the deconstruction of space. FYS I is an intensive writing course that prepares students for FYS II and other Liberal Arts courses. In class, we will engage deeply with course materials in productive discussions that will foster critical thinking and inform student writing. In addition to weekly homework assignments and in-class writing, students can expect to compose and revise 15-20 pages of formal writing through a process approach to hone their argumentative skills and build their confidence in expressing their ideas clearly and effectively.

Class Number

1431

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

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

2449

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

Music is sometimes called the universal language, yet writers often seek to describe it in words. Music scholars, music critics, music fans, and musicians use words to describe music and to make claims about its merits. This course will explore various styles, techniques, and vocabularies for writing about musical sound and performance. The focus will be on reviews of live concerts, album releases, and film music. Students will develop critical thinking skills by evaluating the effectiveness of an author’s argument. Students will practice making claims and presenting arguments that are successfully supported by writing style, sources, evidence, structure, and logic. Students will read various articles, essays, and chapters about music by historical and contemporary music scholars, critics, and journalists. Topics vary but may include film music, art music and modernism, music technology, and the recording industry, with a focus on music in the 20th and 21st centuries in the United States. In addition to in-class writing assignments, students will write an original research paper, broken down into several assignments/ drafts. Students should expect to write 15-20 double-spaced pages over the course of the term, including revisions based on instructor and peer feedback.

Class Number

1477

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

As citizens, our only contact with the legal system usually occurs when we have gone awry of the law. We see the legal system from the outside, and it’s not pretty. We also know that the law protects our rights—despite this knowledge, the legal system has a reputation of working for the rich while stepping on “the little guy.” And lawyers? Everybody hates lawyers. But at its heart, the law is two parties telling a story and submitting those stories to a third party who judges which one best fits the law. This course will begin with discussions and writing exercises based on stories and storytelling. Each week after that, we will read and discuss cases or stories related to the law and write about these stories, their role as “story,” and how they fit into the general standards and notions of what a story is. Papers will focus on the story’s relation to the law, and the structural and rhetorical elements used in the stories, storytelling and academic discourse as a whole. They will also focus on effective ways to present opinions. Through the legal elements of the course, students will learn critical thinking skills by evaluating the case, the story, and the relationship between the two. They will discern how the case was put together, which elements of argument were used, and why. Students will read cases that are vital to U.S. history, are entertaining, or both. These will include Marbury v. Madison, Palsgraf, and others. Among other readings will be works by Jonathan Shapiro and Franz Kafka. In addition to in-class writing, students will write 15-20 pages of formal writing over the course of the term, using a process approach, including instructor and student feedback.

Class Number

1435

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

In this first-year seminar course, we will explore a variety of contemporary short films, stories, and poetry to help us hone our ability to make meaning with complex works of art and to engage in critical, interpretive analysis of how and why each work was constructed. Using short films, short stories, and poems as our core texts gives us the unique opportunity to engage with a wide range of both storytellers and stories told. Meaning, expect to interact with a diverse landscape of authorial voice, thematic content, and narrative technique. All three of these forms are able to convey complex truths about the world we live in, and our discussions and classroom practices will give us the tools to create focused, nuanced interpretations of each piece and to make critical connections between themes and techniques. By the end of this course, students will have a more sophisticated grasp of the mechanics of film, narrative, and poetry. This is an inquiry and discussion based course, and we will learn to situate questions as the basis of our practice as readers, writers, and thinkers. In addition, FYSI guides students through college-level writing, establishing foundations for FYS II and upper level Liberal Arts classes. Students will write 15 to 20 pages of formal, revisable writing. Our writing workshops will focus on generating questions and language, collecting meaningful evidence, constructing sophisticated thesis statements, creating helpful outlines, and drafting our essays. Peer feedback; 1-1 teacher feedback; and in-class writing workshops will be key components of this course.

Class Number

1455

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

This class examines cultural and political power in relation to ideas about sound and noise. What we hear, mis-hear, do not hear, cannot hear, or choose not to hear plays an important role in social life. Those that have power have the power to decide what counts as an acceptable sound or disturbing noise. These facts make sound and noise central to issues of social justice, political activism, and public space. Sound and noise are also vital to the creation of communities of celebration and dissent – in the form of the noise strike, the protest chant, or the collective sing-along, for example. Social groups produce themselves through their listening practices and shared forms of sounding out. We will read and listen closely to scholars, artists, experimental musicians, and journalist like Jennifer Stoever (The Sonic Color Line), Kevin Beasley (A view of a landscape: A cotton gin motor), Gala Porras-Kim (Whistling and Language Transfiguration), Moor Mother (Irreversible Entanglements) and Gregory Tate (Flyboy in the Buttermilk). Additionally, we will learn from a variety of types of sources including Literature, Musicology, Art, Cultural Criticism, Music Journalism, and Poetry. Along with experimental writing assignments linking related topics, key terms, and ideas to personal and social experiences, students will produce 15-20 pages of organized writing broken into drafts and revisions.

Class Number

1436

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

FYS I are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year students, with an emphasis on teaching foundational writing skills. Students will develop 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. 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, short homework exercises, and workshopping of student work may be included. Individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Class Number

2172

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

To have curiosity is to be inquisitive, to wonder and to want to know. To be a curiosity, on the other hand, is to be a novelty or rarity, something odd or unusual or strange. In this writing intensive course, students explore curiosities, practice wonder, and pursue questioning. Readings include verbal and visual texts: essays and articles, photographs and artifacts. Students write and revise several essays of modest length, including analyses of visual texts and their own “curated collection” of curiosities.

Class Number

1437

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 518

Description

Taiwanese director Edward Yang is a poet of film. His intimate epics exhibit a mastery of form characterized by meditative narrative rhythms, long takes, medium shots over close-ups, and a detached, static camera. In this class, we will formally analyze three films—Taipei Story (1985), A Brighter Summer Day (1991) and Yi Yi (2000) to understand how cinematic techniques work together to create meaning in a film. We will also examine the films within the broader context of the Taiwanese New Wave. First Year Seminar I is an intensive writing course. In class, we will engage deeply with course materials in productive discussions that will foster critical thinking and inform student writing. In addition to weekly homework assignments and in-class writing, students can expect to compose and revise 15-20 pages of formal writing through a process approach to hone their argumentative skills and build their confidence in expressing their ideas clearly and effectively.

Class Number

1480

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

This class will examine the American short story and survey its origins and development over the past two hundred years. Our study of the American short story will begin with formal elements of fiction, including how writers use and innovate within traditional storytelling practices, and then we will widen our scope and consider historical and cultural contexts. This literature is challenging and controversial--and studying it will help refine our own thoughts and modes of expression, too. The reading list includes (among others) Nathaniel Hawthorne, Kate Chopin, Sarah Perkins Gilman, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Raymond Carver, Juhumpa Lahiri, Amy Tan, Sherman Alexie, and Z.Z. Packer. Individual interpretations will be emphasized, and a slow-and-close reading of both the literature and our own writing will be practiced. This class will also engage in the process of writing, including prewriting (inquiry and brainstorming), drafting, peer review, and revising. Written assignments will include personal reflection, analysis, and synthesis. 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

1438

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

Surrealism is among the preeminent modes of twentieth century art. It is the product of a specific moment in history, and yet it has proved remarkably adaptable through time and across cultures, languages, media, and genres. This FYS I course introduces students to college-level writing, reading, and critical thinking skills using Surrealism and its legacy as a focal point, and prepares them for FYS II and upper level Liberal Arts courses. We will consider critical and creative writing, as well as some visual art, by figures such as André Breton, Phillippe Soupault, Leonora Carrington, Alice Rahon, Aimé Cesaire, Octavio Paz, Barbara Guest, Alejandra Pizarnik, and Bei Dao. Some topics we might investigate include Surrealism's relationship to the art that came before it; its conceptions of daily life, and individual and collective personhood; its engagement with contemporaneous developments in science and technology; and its relationship to issues of race, class, gender, and to historical events. Students should expect to compose (plan, draft, critique, and revise) 15-20 double-spaced pages of formal writing, in addition to regular in-class and out-of-class writing assignments.

Class Number

1456

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

The First Year Seminar program at SAIC gives students the opportunity to develop their analytical writing skills while studying compelling subject matter. Consequently, this course plays two roles. First and foremost, it serves as a writing studio, a forum in which students can develop their prose style and their ability to construct effective written arguments. The course also explores the relationship between artistic expression and the ideologies that characterize a given culture. Artists live in a specific cultural context. Their works reflect the influence of the dominant ideas of that culture, and often serve as a conscious commentary on those ideas. In this course, we will examine the impact of ideology upon art in a variety of world cultures, with an emphasis on cultural comparison.

Class Number

1457

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

This class will read texts that explore civil disobedience, protest, the role of the individual in society; the role of government in the lives of individuals; and the intersection of community, government and individuals. We will read from different historical periods, and explore how individual participation is essential for a functioning democracy. Readings will discuss different forms that participation takes, with special attention paid to various types of civil disobedience (Thoreau, Tolstoy, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and others). Students in FYS I 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.

Class Number

1458

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

This course will approach the art of critical thinking and writing through the study of social and political philosophy. Readings will confront us with a wide range of positions for and against democracy, from Ancient Athens to current-day social movements. Our focus will be on recognizing and assessing their core arguments, discussing them critically together, and translating our conclusions into persuasive academic-level essay writing. Is genuine democracy an impossible ideal, only suited to Gods? Can the state express the will of the people through the constitution, the vote, and other procedures of public discourse, or is democracy best conceived as an anarchic force that challenges all institutional authority? Are “the people” the sum of individuals, a common power, or a potentially-criminal mob? Taking a stance on such debates will allow us to refine the skills essential to good essay-writing: summary, analysis, citation, organization and logical flow, but also suspense, effective use of stories and examples, and mystery. These skills form the necessary foundations for FYS II and upper-level Liberal Arts classes. Students can expect to produce 15-20 pages of scaffolded, revisable, formal writing that includes two essays as well as preparatory homework assignments and in-class writings. In-class workshopping of student papers should also be expected.

Class Number

1439

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

In this class, we will discuss the works written by contemporary Asian American writers. As FYS I is a writing class, we will examine these works with the lens of writers. How do these writers create space for themselves and others? Who are they making space for? What problems do they confront? What tools do they use? Our goal is to practice our critical thinking skills as well as our writing skills through studying the works of writers such as: Chin Chin, Grace Lin, Priya Parker, Esme Weijun Wang, Cathy Park Hong, 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. Students will be required to write weekly reflections, multiple drafts of an argumentative essay of their chosen topic, 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

1440

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

This writing-intensive seminar will explore what psychoanalysis and aesthetics offer us in an attempt to feel our way around a gap, a hole, that both traditions posit at the center of human experience. Psychoanalysis, regarded from its inception as ?the talking cure,? has taken its impetus from precisely that which cannot be spoken. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the first psychoanalyst, organized this new practice of managing the unconscious stifling of desire under modern life around processes beyond speech such as the dream, hysterical symptom, repetition compulsion, trauma, and the return of the repressed?-all of which testify to a certain pressure that drives our being in language even as it escapes capture in words. Aesthetic experience, like psychoanalysis, finds its power in a play of representation that brings us to the edge of what we can represent, and, in so doing, pushes us into contact with the force exerted within and between us by the unrepresentable. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the foundational theorist of modern aesthetics, conceived of aesthetic experience?-of the experience of the beautiful and the sublime?-as a momentary seizure by the feeling of ourselves as beings who cohere around something that we can feel but cannot express, that we can neither rationally explain nor communicate to one another. We will begin with a series of texts in psychoanalysis and aesthetics, and then we will conclude by turning our attention to a series of artistic forms as we use the concepts we have studied to think about painting, film, literature, music, and voice. Using in-class writing exercises and three short paper assignments with drafts and revisions, we will try to collectively develop a style of reading, of writing, and of thinking together that is attentive to feeling and affect rather than exclusively concerned with meaning, understanding, or information. Our writing together will be both an opportunity to learn and refine technical dimensions of writing and also to take seriously writing as a creative space for going beyond technique and into aesthetic invention.

Class Number

1459

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

FYS I are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year students, with an emphasis on teaching foundational writing skills. Students will develop 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. 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, short homework exercises, and workshopping of student work may be included. Individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Class Number

1441

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Sharp 409

Description

What are minds? What is it to have a mind, to have consciousness? How, if at all, are minds different from machines? In this course, by reading pieces by Shaffer, Carruthers, and Searle, we will become acquainted with these concepts and issues and learn how to think about them in a more informed and critical fashion. The course is writing intensive: students should expect to write 15 to 20 pages of formal, revisable writing (i.e. two essays and two in-depth revisions) in addition to homework exercises and in-class writing and discussion.

Class Number

1460

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

We associate colonization with large-scale consequences of violence and diaspora. But what about the less obvious impacts of colonization, those that have become everyday and have rewired the minds of a culture? In our class we will examine subtler forms of colonization on South Asians, particularly those who live in America and the UK. By turning the word anglophile in our hands, we will study how colonization continues through the English language, colorism, and the model minority myth. In addition to readings, we will watch films (such as The Reluctant Fundamentalist) and listen to albums (Riz Ahmed’s The Long Goodbye). In our FYS I class, 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/films/albums, write responses, and compose and revise 15-20 pages in multidraft essays. Students will direct the topic of the final essay based on their individual inquiry. 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

1442

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

In this course, we?ll read about witches across diverse forms of literature including folk and fairy tales, poetry, plays, and short stories. We?ll read writing by The Brothers Grimm, Octavia Butler, Arthur Miller, Joy Harjo, Rebecca Tamas, Jane Yolan, and Yumiko Kurahashi to trace the footsteps and flight patterns of witches as they appear in various roles such as mother, monster, healer, and teacher. In support of our investigations, we?ll also read selected critique essays from Donald Haase?s Fairy Tales and Feminism and from Emma Donoghue?s Kissing the Witch, a collection of deconstructed and reassembled fairy tales. As a FYSI course, the core emphasis of this class will be developing writing skills in preparation for FYSII courses and other writing assignments across SAIC?s curriculum. Students will engage in comprehensive discussion of these readings, conduct related research, and write response and analytical essays, with a final project that incorporates a creative component

Class Number

1461

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

Music reflects and informs many aspects of society and culture. This course examines the writings of scholars and critics who have argued for various philosophies, functions, and styles of music. Each week, we will feature a topic related to music’s role in society and explore issues of aesthetics, expression, and performance. Writing exercises will focus on a specific writing technique or strategy. Students will develop critical thinking skills by evaluating the effectiveness of an author’s argument through rhetoric, logic, and evidence. Students will practice making claims and presenting arguments that are successfully supported by writing style, sources, structure, and reason. Students will read a selection of music scholars, critics, and writing specialists, including but not limited to Joseph Auner, Jane Bernstein, Susan Douglas, Hua Hsu, Mark Katz, Alex Ross, and Kate Turabian. Topics vary but may include opera, film music, modernism, music technology, protest music, text setting, and musical genre. In addition to in-class writing assignments, students will write an original research paper, broken down into several assignments/drafts. Students should expect to write 15-20 double-spaced pages over the course of the term, including revisions based on instructor and peer feedback.

Class Number

1462

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

Attracted by the economic and creative freedom Paris offered, twentieth-century American writers found a place to become the writers they wanted to be and discovered a supportive community of intellectual and visual artists. We will read creative and autobiographical writings, view relevant films, and examine the historical and cultural connection between France and the United States that contributed to the development of American writers, including James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Bennett, Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, and Gertrude Stein. In this course, students will develop their critical reading and writing skills and write three short papers and one longer paper based on research.

Class Number

1443

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

In this writing intensive course, we will develop the skills of argument-driven composition as we examine the aesthetic foundation of American cinema: the classic Hollywood studio system of the 1940s. What was the studio system? How was it formed, how did it function, and how did it shape the aesthetics of modern American cinema? We will look at the ways Golden Age studios developed individual identities and how they shaped their specific “house styles.” In doing this, we’ll also track the codification of genres like the melodrama, the musical, and the film noir. Readings will include critical works by Raymond Borde and Étienne Cahumeton, Jeanine Basinger, and Ethan Mordden. These materials will inform multiple argument-driven essays which 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 outside sources into researched-based arguments. Students should expect to write 15 to 20 pages of formal, revisable writing in addition to homework exercises and in-class writing. By providing guided experience in college-level writing, this course forms the necessary foundation for FYS II and upper level Liberal Arts classes.

Class Number

1464

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

What does it mean to grieve? To perform sadness & loss? Who is the audience? Where is the stage? This first year seminar focuses on writing as self care, writing to breakthrough, and writing to/for our own collective trauma. We will read & consider a range of art & writing from Alison Bechdel, to Rachel Cusk, Sally Mann & Virginia Woolf. We will also welcome, (but not require) stories of our own losses and unimaginable pain, in turn examining, through deep concentration and discussion; something permanent and good. Students will complete 15-20 pages of writing (2 essays followed by a substantial revision) in addition to in-class writing, presentations, and peer workshopping.

Class Number

1444

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

FYS 1 provides guided experience in college-level writing, thereby forming the necessary foundation for FYS II and upper level Liberal Arts classes. This section of FYS 1 will take a deep dive into the minds of both Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein (1818) and Victor Frankenstein, the infamous scientist who reanimated body parts into his infamous Monster. We will read, write, think, watch, discuss, and critically reflect on one novel and its continuing legacies into the twenty-first century. Readings and screenings will include the Frankenstein novel by Mary Shelley, secondary scholarship on her novel, films that adapt and rework Frankensteinian themes, and one graphic novel updating of the classic myth. 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, two presentations, and in-class writing.

Class Number

2173

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

This class serves as an introduction to the basic concepts of existentialism through a study of a couple of foundational texts by one of its principal philosophical proponents: Jean-Paul Sartre. The class will focus on existentialism’s response to a newly emerging awareness of the contingency of moral values. With respect to this problem, we will explore central existentialist concepts such as freedom, and authenticity. The course is writing intensive: students should expect to write 15 to 20 pages of formal, revisable writing (i.e. two essays and two in-depth revisions) in addition to homework exercises and in-class writing and discussion.

Class Number

1445

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

In this writing-intensive course, we'll read coming-of-age novels and memoirs from influential contemporary writers. Students will engage in close readings of texts that interrogate concepts of resilience, racism, and economic and class oppression as childhood struggles. Writers will include Jeannette Walls, Allison Bechdel, and Kiese Laymon. CONTENT WARNING: The content and discussion in this course will necessarily sometimes engage with issues of human suffering, including physical and sexual abuse. Students will write 15 to 20 pages of formal, revisable writing. In-class activities include peer review, workshopping, and free writing to generate paper topics, including a formal, argument-driven paper.

Class Number

1467

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

In this writing course, students will read and write about different forms and movements of contemporary poetry, ranging from 1951 to the present, including sonnets, prose poems, Black Arts Movement, confessional poetry, and free verse. Not only will students be introduced to a wide range of poets–like Gwnedolyn Brooks, Cathy Song, Li-Young Lee, Garret Hongo, Jericho Brown, Ada Limon, Layli Long Soldier, Franny Choi, and Billy Collins–but students will also add to the curriculum by presenting poets of their own choosing. Individual interpretations will be practiced through a slow-and-close reading, and written assignments will include a sequence of shorter papers and end with a longer project where students will compose and share their own anthology–all of which will add up to at least fifteen pages of revised writing. 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

1446

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

This course will focus on texts by ancient and medieval women dating from the earliest years of recorded writings and spanning time up to the Renaissance. Who were the women writing during those mysterious periods? To whom were they speaking and what did they dare to say? For some of them, relatively few of their works have survived for us to read, so our investigation will include consideration of a combination of factors that are relevant to each such as historical perspectives, specific life circumstances, and, of course, the content of their writing. Writers we will study will include Sappho, Sei Shonagon, Hildegard of Bingen, Christine de Pizan, and Akka Mahadevi, among others. As a First Year Seminar I course, the essay writing focus of this class will be to develop and build skills in writing response and analytical essays related to assigned readings, research, and class discussion. The final project will be a research-based presentation, with a creative component.

Class Number

1468

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

This writing intensive seminar introduces the anthropological study of time and ethnographic writing about time. From Doctor Who and the Tardis, to keeping or losing track of time like Alice in Wonderland down the rabbit hole, notions of temporality vary across time zones, culture, and space. Using ethnographic writing, this course examines time as a social and historical phenomenon. From agricultural rhythms of rural life in Africa and the Pacific Islands, to astrological and archaeological accounts of time from Celtic and Greek mythology, students will explore the social lives of calendars new and old. This includes other timekeeping tools like clocks and chronological standards in modes of transportation for buses, trains, and planes, including communication and recordkeeping systems like banks, phone records, and emails. Specific emphasis will attend to the objective and subjective understandings of time and the various temporal forms of daily life, drawing from contributions of ethnographic research and social science writing to the study of time from a cross-cultural perspective. Course activities center around developing analytic skills in the genre of ethnographic writing through in-class free writing, generating observational field notes and journaling, two formal and revisable essays, and peer review.

Class Number

1469

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

FYS I are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year students, with an emphasis on teaching foundational writing skills. Students will develop 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. 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, short homework exercises, and workshopping of student work may be included. Individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Class Number

2174

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

This course emphasizes, in keeping with First Year Seminar I courses in general, student writing and rewriting. Students will achieve both content and form for their writing by a close reading of texts and critical thinking about them, and then by considered review of feedback from the other seminar members. As is normal in seminars, student presentations occupy a significant amount of class time. In particular, this course confronts death, along with related phenomena such as aging, dying, grieving, and bereavement, in both interdisciplinary and intercultural manners. The direction of study will move from death as a biomedical event thru religious, spiritual, and existential events, and conclude with postmodern possibilities such as cryonics and mind-uploading. A key concern is whether, and to what extent, one?s attitude and approach to death informs one?s attitude and approach to life. The course utilizes various classical and contemporary texts to help expand and enrich our understanding, and each week students will provide thoughtful and polished reports on the assigned readings from them. By the end of the semester students will have written 15-20 pages of formal, revised writing in the form of weekly seminar reports, a midterm paper, and a final paper.

Class Number

1434

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

Adolescents feature prominently as saviors and remakes of the world in culture stories and myths from around the globe, as well as in contemporary young adult fantasy. Anthropologically, adolescents are potentially powerful agents of change because they are imperfectly socialized and not yet tied to conservative adult roles and norms. In this course students will develop their skills in writing at the college level as well as critical reading and analysis of Young Adult Fantasy novels and scholarly works on the genre and the phenomenon of adolescence. Students will read three novels in totals by authors such as Terry Pratchett, Diana Wynne Jones, Nnedi Okorafor, and Garth Nix. They will also read a small number of scholarly work by anthropologists and scholars in the genre of Young Adult Literature as a point of deeper entry into a body of literature that is often dismissed as simplistic, and a phase of the life cycle that is underscrutinized. Through scaffolding of short writing assignments, including peer review, students will produce three essays, resulting in approximately 15?20 pages, total, of formal, revisable writing.

Class Number

1463

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

In our class we will read recently released poetry by Asian American authors. The poems and poetry collections are written by individuals who are amongst the multitude of identities known as Asian American. Readings often include works by Jenny Xie, Ocean Vuong, and Rajiv Mohabir. In our FYS I class, 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 15-20 pages in multidraft essays. Students will direct the topic of the final essay based on their individual inquiry. 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

2175

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

This course first explores the myths and folktales of pre-Christian Ireland. We read about dolmen and druids, Maeve, Queen of Connacht, Finn MacCool, Deirdre, and Cuichulain. How do battle-hungry, sexually-charged Celts compare to characters in James Joyce's Dubliners' Historical texts (including How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill) examine how the status of women changed after the arrival of Roman (vs. Celtic) Catholicism, the Book of Kells, and the long-term effects of the Great Famine on the Irish character. Contemporary fiction writers studied include, W.B. Yeats, Eavan Boland, Rosemary Mahoney, and postmodern favorite Flann O'Brien, among others, with a focus on the influence of Celtic myths on contemporary Irish life and writing.

Class Number

1482

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

This is a writing course, with the goals of helping you write excellent basic English and developing your skills in presenting arguments, using careful observations of art works and careful readings of writings on art. Reading is one way of improving your writing, and we will study essays almost entirely by artists, likely including photographers (Paul Strand and Edward Weston), painters (Gerhard Richter and Agnes Martin), sculptors (Constantin Brancusi), filmmakers (Dziga Vertov and Maya Deren), architects (Louis Sullivan), and conceptual artists (Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer). We will view art by the artists whose work we consider, and discuss both how their written statements connect with their work and the larger problem of using writing to describe and interpret visual art. There will be short assignments on the writing and work of the artists we consider, and one assignment in which you write an artist's statement, either for the work you are now making or for the work you hope to make. There will also be a research paper on an artist of your choice with the instructor's approval, in which you argue a thesis about that artist's work. Each of these assignments will also be revised based on the instructor's comments, and the minimum length of all together will be at least 7,500 words.

Class Number

1484

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 518

Description

How do different conceptions of nature and the environment affect how the planet is treated and sustained? What is the role of the human in nature? In turn, what can nature teach humans about equity, resilience, and reciprocity? Can adopting a decolonial mindset offer a pathway to both ecological and social healing? By exploring differing cultural conceptions of land and nature, students will investigate a variety of paths to sustainability led by ecologically conscious writers who have turned both to nature, Buddhist thought, and indigenous wisdom for balm and inspiration. Texts will include short selections from the naturalist Sy Montgomery, Margaret Rankl, Diane Ackerman, Edward Abbey, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Linda Hogan, Louise Erdrich, Simon Ortiz, Leslie Marman Silko, Yiwen Zhan, and Bing Song, as well as short films and artworks that address environmental issues. FYS I is a guided, college-level, intensive writing course that prepares students for FYS II and other Liberal Arts courses. In class, FYS 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 learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. In addition to weekly homework assignments and in-class writing, students can expect to compose and revise 15-20 pages of reviseable, formal writing through a process approach to hone their argumentative skills and build their confidence in expressing their ideas clearly and effectively. Peer review and one-to-one conferences with the teacher should also be expected.

Class Number

2231

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

FYS I are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year students, with an emphasis on teaching foundational writing skills. Students will develop 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. 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, short homework exercises, and workshopping of student work may be included. Individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Class Number

2232

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 518

Description

Bird talk is talk about birds, about flight and flying, migration, metamorphosis, and song; about bird-beings and human beings, who want to be birds or, at least, bird-like, and about artists whose art is avian inspired. Readings for this writing course include essays and a selection of myths, tales, and poems; visual texts include bird-art at the Art Institute. Students write and revise several essays, including a comparative textual analysis and a verbal-visual “field guide” of their own design.

Class Number

2316

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

Do you believe in wizards? Are you a wizard? Then pack up your talismans, fetishes, and gamelans into the mysterious little satchel you carry at your side and get ready for some incantatory magic. We will investigate the figure of the wizard as an archetype, a literary symbol, a vehicle for fantasy, and as a commanding reality while considering such things as A Wizard of Earthsea, the figure of Merlin, The Teachings of Don Juan, Conversations with Ogotemmeli, the figure of Harry Potter, Howl’s Moving Castle, Yeelen, the poetry of W.B. Yeats, Jay Wright, and Hoa Nguyen, the spells of Maria Sabina and Anglo-Saxon Leechcraft, as well as some other things too secret to reveal at present, including the nature of esotericism. FYS I develops college-level writing skills and prepares students for FYS II and upper-level Liberal Arts courses. This is a studio writing class in which you will focus on writing as a process. You will formulate lines of inquiry, develop arguments, and use your writing to engage meaningfully with the material you read for and discuss in class. You can expect to compose and revise 15-20 pages in a variety of formal writing assignments. All of your writing can be revised. Peer review and one-on-one writing conferences with the teacher is something you can also expect.

Class Number

2332

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

This class invites students into a conversation around the HBO series “The Wire.” Through writing, discussion, and peer review, students will think critically about television as an art form, hyperrealism, and the lived experience of people in and excluded from civic institutions. This is a writing-focused course investigating both the form (broadcast television) and the content of a commercial art form. The assignments are intended to help students master college-level writing skills namely drafting, espousing an argument, revision, and peer review. Aside from the primary material (Most of Seasons 1-4 of “The Wire” with Season 5 as optional viewing), students will read excerpts from Toni Morrison, Michel Foucault, James Baldwin, Alec Karakatsanis, Dennis Lehane; Jonathan Abrams; Felicia Pearson. Students are expected to write two essays and a substantially revised version of either one of the essays. Essay 1 will be 4-6 pages. Essay 2 will be 6-8 pages. This is in addition to the several one-page reflections and episode-breakdowns interspersed through the semester.

Class Number

1432

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

This First Year Seminar course will explore humor writing as a serious artform, and will employ analysis strategies to get at the core of the question of what makes something funny. By the end of the semester, students will be able to write analytical essays that pick apart and organize ideas around both literature and humor, and will read and explore humorous writing throughout the English canon. 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, Dorothy Parker, Langston Hughes, Nora Ephron, Susan Orlean, Jack Handey, and Trevor Noah, we will get to the heart of what makes something funny, and how humor has changed over time. We will also look at the different formats of comedy, including satire, parody, film-writing, stand-up comedy, and more. Students should expect to write 15 to 20 pages of formal, revisable writing (4 short papers and one medium-length paper). In addition, they will do regular, rigorous in-class writing, and engage in weekly analytical conversation.

Class Number

1433

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

FYS I prepares students for advanced study in the Liberal Arts by attending to the foundational skills of college-level writing and interpretation, such as close reading, critical analysis, academic argumentation, essay structure, and style. This first-year seminar focuses our attention on poetry. While it's common for students to find poems baffling or even alienating, we will practice the kinds of reading skills and receptive states of mind that open poetry up to understanding and enjoyment. By reading, discussing, and writing about a small number of short poems every week (drawn from a variety of poets, periods, and places) we will see how reading poetry well does not require elite or occult knowledge but patience, interest, attention, and curiosity. Students will practice reading slowly and closely and writing about poetry in a way that reproduces that slowness and closeness in their own prose. Students should expect to write 15 to 20 pages of formal, revisable writing.

Class Number

1478

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 517

Description

Modern European literature is often characterized by an attraction to decay, nothingness and an obsession with physical corruption and death. In L. Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilych (Cancer), T. Mann’s Death in Venice (Cholera) and A. Camus’ The Plague (Bubonic Plague) disease is both the literal subject of the novel as well as the symbol of individual and social dissolution, disintegration and despair. Modern writers have inherited from the German Romantics the idea that the artist is ill and that illness gives her knowledge and spiritual power. In this course we will examine the legend of disease associated with the German Romantics. By turning to the works by V. Woolf, Novalis and Schopenhauer we will examine why they endowed disease with positive value, crediting it with the development of spiritual values that would otherwise remain dormant. We will also consider S. Sontag's anti-Romantic argument that disease spell deterioration, physical, mental and moral rather than some indefinable precious value. Students will be expected to write 3 papers, 5-6 pages each, aimed to develop analytical, persuasive and critical thinking skills.

Class Number

1479

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

Photography can count as a forensic technology, a form of official identification, a documentary record, and a means of surveillance. Yet photographs can also be deceptive, particularly in our age of digital manipulation. In this writing-intensive course, we will examine the circumstances under which photography is treated as art and/or evidence. Readings will cover a range of subtopics from social media & selfies to political photography, from advertising & Photoshop to family albums. Writing assignments ? totaling 15-20 pages over the course of the semester ? will emphasize analysis, argument, research, revision, and other academic writing skills.

Prerequisites

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

Class Number

1452

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

How do different conceptions of nature and the environment affect how the planet is treated and sustained? What is the role of the human in nature? In turn, what can nature teach humans about equity, resilience, and reciprocity? Can adopting a decolonial mindset offer a pathway to both ecological and social healing? By exploring differing cultural conceptions of land and nature, students will investigate a variety of paths to sustainability led by ecologically conscious writers who have turned both to nature, Buddhist thought, and indigenous wisdom for balm and inspiration. Texts will include short selections from the naturalist Sy Montgomery, Margaret Rankl, Diane Ackerman, Edward Abbey, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Linda Hogan, Louise Erdrich, Simon Ortiz, Leslie Marman Silko, Yiwen Zhan, and Bing Song, as well as short films and artworks that address environmental issues.

Prerequisites

Must complete English Fluency I (EIS 1021)

Class Number

1486

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

Taiwanese director Edward Yang is a poet of film. His intimate epics exhibit a mastery of form characterized by meditative narrative rhythms, long takes, medium shots over close-ups, and a detached, static camera. In this class, we will formally analyze three films Taipei Story (1985), A Brighter Summer Day (1991) and Yi Yi (2000) to understand how cinematic techniques work together to create meaning in a film. We will also examine the films within the broader context of the Taiwanese New Wave.

Prerequisites

Must complete English Fluency I (EIS 1021)

Class Number

1487

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 1501

Description

The term 'anarchism' derives from the Greek an-archia, non-rule, and describes the idea of a society without state, classes, or other forms of oppression and exploitation. However, anarchism is not only an idea, but also a practice: it names a political struggle for emancipation, an attempt to bring the idea of self-organization and solidarity into practice. We will begin by exploring a range of classical anarchist positions concerning the state, human nature, mutual aid, the family, and revolution. Readings will be drawn from classical theorists like Kropotkin, De Cleyre, and Goldman, as well as contemporary philosophers like Chiara Bottici. Reconstructing these debates will allow us to practice analyzing, synthesizing, and situating philosophical claims and political arguments, while formulating our own understanding of a diverse range of social problems. In the second half of class, we will also explore the utopian imagination of anarchist science fiction, including work by Le Guin and others. Applying theoretical frameworks to the analysis of literature will allow us to practice more sophisticated styles of writing and argumentation incorporating multiple sources, styles, and formats. Students can expect to produce 20-25 pages of scaffolded, revisable, formal writing, including two essays and an in-depth research project. In-class workshopping of student papers should also be expected.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1471

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

FYS II further develops the skills learned in FYS I, with specific attention to writing for readers. Throughout, students will learn, practice, and analyze principles of writing such as argument, introductions, conclusions, and more. But all of this with a view to motivating and convincing particular readerships. After several introductory weeks of finding and reading pieces from your fields of interest, we begin short written assignments that focus on a certain writing principle of the week. By the third or fourth week, each student will have selected a research topic that they will focus on for the remainder of the course. Those who do not already have some notion of a topic beforehand will be supported with suggestions of artists, critics, and movements across the far-reaching areas of study at SAIC. Students can expect most class days to be divided into three parts: peer analyses of the previous week's writing, lecture and exercise on a new principle of writing, and in-class time for writing and research. The course depends on and flourishes from the peer analyses, and the samples of writing that students find in their fields of interest. From these, students experience how, as a reader, it is to read both the better and the worse, and how to improve from the latter to the former: Writing is a process, to which revising for readers is essential. The variety of topics, techniques, styles, and discourse communities provide the opportunity not only to become well-versed in your particular field of interest, but competent to discuss and critique other fields, whether adjacent or otherwise. From week to week, the written assignments become slightly longer, with students writing in total 20 pages of formal, revisable writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1447

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

We have all left our homes to venture here. Perhaps it has been a physical, mental, spiritual, or emotional journey away from home. Now what? What do we think of ourselves in our new homes? What can we understand about ourselves and our previous homes now that we have left them? In this course we will read fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, and poetry by South Asian diasporic writers. These writers have left India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka themselves or are first generation in a new country. Readings often include works by Mira Jacob, Deepak Unnikrishnan, Durga Chew Bose, Faisal Mohyuddin, Mohsin Hamid, 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

1472

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 206

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

1448

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

This seminar will use Voices of a People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove to explore how ordinary people in American history spoke out and fought for social justice. Their voices have not been included in the conventional historical narrative of the United States, and students will learn from their speeches, letters, poems and songs how they viewed and shaped the major social justice movements in American history. Additional materials will expand the scope of this historical survey as needed. Students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing in addition to homework and in-class workshops. First Year Seminar II provides students with guided experience in college-level writing, thereby forming the necessary foundation for upper-level Liberal Arts classes.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1473

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

In this writing-intensive course, students will work to improve their writing skills through an exploration of environmental ethics, the branch of thought devoted to understanding what makes the nonhuman world valuable, how we human beings should conceive of our relation to and role within that world, and what obligations we owe to the beings that populate it. After a brief introduction to philosophical ethics in general, we will study several texts outlining some of the major approaches to environmental ethics, including anthropocentrism, biocentric egalitarianism, and ecofeminism. These readings will be drawn from a range of disciplines, historical eras, and cultural sources. Students will have the opportunity to explore topics of further interest in the field of environmental ethics through their written work, which will make up the bulk of their coursework and will comprise two major essays, amounting to between 20 to 25 pages of formal, revisable writing. Students will also complete several short homework assignments and in-class writing exercises. The overarching goal of the course is to deepen students’ understanding of and facility with the standards and rigors of evidence-based argumentation and analysis.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1449

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

The First Year Seminar Program at SAIC gives students the opportunity to develop their analytical writing skills while studying compelling subject matter. Consequently, this course plays two roles. First and foremost, it serves as a writing studio, a forum in which students develop their capacity to construct effective written arguments. The course also treats the history of religion and cosmology in a global context; the analysis of this material provides the grist for student writing in the course. In this course, we will study the interrelationship of religion and cosmology in a number of different historical periods and cultural settings, from ancient Egypt to medieval Mesoamerica. We will examine different mythological, religious and philosophical traditions: examples include the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Greek poet Hesiod, or the Arab philosopher Ibn Sina. We will place these works in their cultural context, and trace their influence on the visual arts. Finally, we will look at the rise of modern secular views of the natural world and their effect on contemporary culture and views of the environment. Students should expect to write 20 pages of formal, revisable writing, including 3 short papers, one research project, and a significant amount of in-class writing, including regular journal entries.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1474

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

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

1450

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

This course will trace the development of the modern short story, focusing primarily on the 20th century. There are three goals of this course. First, we will look closely at the form of the short story - the tools an author has at his/her disposal. Second, we will examine the innovations that occurred in the 20th century. And finally - through in-class discussion and workshop - we will focus on the craft of paper-writing. Through repetition of short writing exercises, we aim to make the basic structure of academic writing second-nature. We will also learn the art of thesis-writing - translating our general observations of the short-story form into unique and penetrating arguments. 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 begins with Anton Chekhov but focuses mainly on 20th century American authors. Authors include Zora Neale Hurston, Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O?Connor, Katherine Mansfield, Sherwood Anderson and Donald Barthelme. 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

1475

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

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

1451

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

Where is the line between a work of art and 'real life,' and what happens—aesthetically, ethically, politically—when artists and writers question, blur, subvert, or conceal it? To what extent is an author part of the fiction they create? What is 'true' in a fictional or virtual world, and who decides? Though these questions—implicit in any kind of aesthetic figuration—are as old as art itself, they have taken on a particular urgency as mistrust and disinformation—and the technologies that enable them—increasingly pervade our lives. The course, then, takes these issues as a focal point as students build upon the foundational writing skills they began learning in FYS I, introducing more rigorous argumentation and research. Among the topics we might consider are the concepts of the persona, the shibboleth, and the 'fourth wall'; trompe-l'oeil painting; the poems of Ossian; Fernando Pessoa's heteronyms; Borges's Pierre Menard; Brecht's 'alienation effects'; pseudonyms (as a means of personal liberation, as a response to oppression); camp (in its emphasis on artifice over naturalism); forgeries and disputed attributions; NFTs and Artificial Intelligence. Students will produce 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing, as well as informal at-home and in-class assignments. The course involves extensive peer review and collaborative work, and culminates in a research paper on a topic of the student's choosing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1481

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

In “Becoming Human,” students will explore diverse representations of non/humanity across eras and locales, engaging humanity not as a fixed entity but a continuous process influenced by power and cultural shifts. FYS II develops college-level writing skills, preparing students for upper-level Liberal Arts courses. Students will create original research and textual art around topics including human rights, the Anthropocene, (post)humanism, anthropomorphism, (non)human exceptionalism, anthropogenesis, mimesis, and becoming. We’ll develop and refine the writing skills learned in FYS I while experimenting with generative writing and research methods. Students will leave this course with a portfolio of original, publishable writing, as well as a foundational grasp of the history and futures of humanity. Students will create 20-25 pages of formal, revisable, and publishable writing across three short essays and two in-depth revisions. Students will also learn to write a research paper, practicing scholarship to enhance creativity. We will engage with authors and artists including Ovid, Bruegel, Giorgio Agamben, Yuval Harari, Donna Haraway, Rosi Braidotti, and Franz Kafka.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

2235

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

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

1065

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

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

1069

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

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

1066

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

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

1070

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

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

2450

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

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

1405

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

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

1415

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

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

1406

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

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

1416

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

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

1407

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

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

1417

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

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

1408

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

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

1409

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

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

1418

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

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

1419

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

1420

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

1410

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

1421

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

1411

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

1422

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

1412

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

1413

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

1423

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

1414

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

1424

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

1425

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

1426

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

1427

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

1428

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

1429

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

2169

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

2170

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

2171

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

This literature survey examines a great variety of material from the period, giving students a broad sense of the history of literature in English. Readings include some combination of poems, plays, essays, prose narratives, sermons, satires, and letters, by writers ranging from anonymous ballad makers to popular novelists. We will read a range of writers, from stalwarts of the English tradition like Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Austen, and Keats to Americans Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson, to other lesser-known figures.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1632

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

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

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1671

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 203

Description

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

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1667

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 203

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

1674

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

An introductory course in reading, writing and conversational French.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1672

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

An introductory course in reading, writing and conversational French.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1673

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

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

1668

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

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

1669

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

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

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1670

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

In this studio symposium we will explore how we gain knowledge, what we do with it, how we communicate it, and the motivation to gain further knowledge. We will ground our understanding of this cycle in the works of Émilie du Châtelet in the 1700s and Mary Somerville in the 1800s. Both women’s contributions to the physical sciences, in original works and in gathering, processing, and communicating the revolutionary ideas of their time, were crucial and indispensable. Complementing their extraordinary work in science, they contributed to a wide range of human endeavors, from theater and poetry to philosophy and mathematics, all of which had to be balanced by expected societal performances. Their complex lives, built in realms that the majority of their contemporaries could not imagine intersecting, serve as an invitation for you, as an artist, to make and communicate the science of our time as a part of your interdisciplinary practice. Readings will include excerpts of works by Émilie du Châtelet, Mary Somerville, and their biographers. They will also include modern texts about climate change and the communication of climate science. Course work will include labs and activities investigating topics of 18th and 19th century experiments and scientific practices, creative responses to these ideas, weekly assignments to assess factual understanding or synthesis of ideas, and acts of doing that would have been performed by women of those times. In a final project students will translate, transmit, or communicate the modern scientific issues important to them through their own art practice.

Prerequisites

SAIC Scholars Program Students Only

Class Number

1989

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

In this studio symposium we will explore how we gain knowledge, what we do with it, how we communicate it, and the motivation to gain further knowledge. We will ground our understanding of this cycle in the works of Émilie du Châtelet in the 1700s and Mary Somerville in the 1800s. Both women’s contributions to the physical sciences, in original works and in gathering, processing, and communicating the revolutionary ideas of their time, were crucial and indispensable. Complementing their extraordinary work in science, they contributed to a wide range of human endeavors, from theater and poetry to philosophy and mathematics, all of which had to be balanced by expected societal performances. Their complex lives, built in realms that the majority of their contemporaries could not imagine intersecting, serve as an invitation for you, as an artist, to make and communicate the science of our time as a part of your interdisciplinary practice. Readings will include excerpts of works by Émilie du Châtelet, Mary Somerville, and their biographers. They will also include modern texts about climate change and the communication of climate science. Course work will include labs and activities investigating topics of 18th and 19th century experiments and scientific practices, creative responses to these ideas, weekly assignments to assess factual understanding or synthesis of ideas, and acts of doing that would have been performed by women of those times. In a final project students will translate, transmit, or communicate the modern scientific issues important to them through their own art practice.

Prerequisites

SAIC Scholars Program Students Only

Class Number

1989

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

We live in a world we didn’t create. But we innovate how to exist within it. This Scholar’s blended academic/studio symposium course explores what it might mean to “queer” space through installation strategies. Installation art is the desire to transform the perception of space to produce new experiences. What could it look like and feel like to take up space while simultaneously making room with others and for others? Together, we will explore these questions through the lens of feminist and queer historical texts that archive radical experiments, aspirations, and failures in kinship, collectivity, and utopian world building efforts. Additional readings will look at affect theory, disorientation, desire, accessibility, and community-building. Students are expected to keep up with the reading weekly and to come to class ready to write about it and discuss it in depth. Studio work, solo and group, will explore and transform space through different techniques such as the arrangement of found/rescued objects, soundscape, light manipulation, video projection, smell, activation via performance, haptic textures, and other modes of site-specific strategies. Artists in focus will include Allyson Mitchell, Nayland Blake, Tiona Nekkia Mcclodden, Jacolby Satterwhite, Chris E. Vargas, Ernesto Pujol, Kang Seung Lee, AK Burns/Katherine Hubbard, and more.

Prerequisites

SAIC Scholars Program Students Only

Class Number

2051

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 518

Description

We live in a world we didn’t create. But we innovate how to exist within it. This Scholar’s blended academic/studio symposium course explores what it might mean to “queer” space through installation strategies. Installation art is the desire to transform the perception of space to produce new experiences. What could it look like and feel like to take up space while simultaneously making room with others and for others? Together, we will explore these questions through the lens of feminist and queer historical texts that archive radical experiments, aspirations, and failures in kinship, collectivity, and utopian world building efforts. Additional readings will look at affect theory, disorientation, desire, accessibility, and community-building. Students are expected to keep up with the reading weekly and to come to class ready to write about it and discuss it in depth. Studio work, solo and group, will explore and transform space through different techniques such as the arrangement of found/rescued objects, soundscape, light manipulation, video projection, smell, activation via performance, haptic textures, and other modes of site-specific strategies. Artists in focus will include Allyson Mitchell, Nayland Blake, Tiona Nekkia Mcclodden, Jacolby Satterwhite, Chris E. Vargas, Ernesto Pujol, Kang Seung Lee, AK Burns/Katherine Hubbard, and more.

Prerequisites

SAIC Scholars Program Students Only

Class Number

2051

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 518

Description

This blended academic/studio course offers Scholars Program students an opportunity to explore and analyze art forms that incorporate text within interdisciplinary projects. Our academic investigations will serve as a base of information and inspiration to facilitate students’ processes of writing and making in creating text-inclusive interdisciplinary work. We’ll engage in viewing, listening, reading, writing responses, and discussing pieces created by artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Robert Ashley, Patti Smith, Kurt Schwitters, Idris Goodwin, Claudia Rankine, and Emil Ferris. We’ll then consider what we’ve seen, learned, and discussed as we work in the studio, moving across generative exercises, writing workshop sessions, and individual making time focused on developing and fine-tuning both words and structures for new projects. Students will experiment with their writing in combinations involving 2d and 3d image, sound, and performance ideas, with critiques as follow-up feedback. Students should expect to work loosely, but passionately, to create distinct trial projects reflecting assigned investigations, as well as meet related reading and written response deadlines along the timeline of the semester. Final projects will present further steps of revision toward a chosen finished piece.

Prerequisites

SAIC Scholars Program Students Only

Class Number

1658

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

This blended academic/studio course offers Scholars Program students an opportunity to explore and analyze art forms that incorporate text within interdisciplinary projects. Our academic investigations will serve as a base of information and inspiration to facilitate students’ processes of writing and making in creating text-inclusive interdisciplinary work. We’ll engage in viewing, listening, reading, writing responses, and discussing pieces created by artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Robert Ashley, Patti Smith, Kurt Schwitters, Idris Goodwin, Claudia Rankine, and Emil Ferris. We’ll then consider what we’ve seen, learned, and discussed as we work in the studio, moving across generative exercises, writing workshop sessions, and individual making time focused on developing and fine-tuning both words and structures for new projects. Students will experiment with their writing in combinations involving 2d and 3d image, sound, and performance ideas, with critiques as follow-up feedback. Students should expect to work loosely, but passionately, to create distinct trial projects reflecting assigned investigations, as well as meet related reading and written response deadlines along the timeline of the semester. Final projects will present further steps of revision toward a chosen finished piece.

Prerequisites

SAIC Scholars Program Students Only

Class Number

1658

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

This studio symposium joins an exploration of narrative theory (narratology) with workshops where students write and make their own narrative art across different forms and media. Narratology is concerned with big questions about storytelling: What are the fundamental concepts of narrative? How do narratives work, and how do we process and understand them? What are the key differences between alternative narrative forms? How do differences in media, genre, and cultural traditions inform how stories are designed and understood? How have narrative forms changed over time, up to our digital present? Even: what is the function of narrative and are we ever outside it? Why do we share a common drive to tell stories in and with our making? We will read foundational theoretical texts (from Plato to twentieth-century and contemporary authors) and discuss them in relation to mythic, literary, cinematic, graphic, and serial narratives. Students will bring new ideas to the studio, where they will develop and complete narrative works individually and collectively.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1659

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

This studio symposium joins an exploration of narrative theory (narratology) with workshops where students write and make their own narrative art across different forms and media. Narratology is concerned with big questions about storytelling: What are the fundamental concepts of narrative? How do narratives work, and how do we process and understand them? What are the key differences between alternative narrative forms? How do differences in media, genre, and cultural traditions inform how stories are designed and understood? How have narrative forms changed over time, up to our digital present? Even: what is the function of narrative and are we ever outside it? Why do we share a common drive to tell stories in and with our making? We will read foundational theoretical texts (from Plato to twentieth-century and contemporary authors) and discuss them in relation to mythic, literary, cinematic, graphic, and serial narratives. Students will bring new ideas to the studio, where they will develop and complete narrative works individually and collectively.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1659

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

This course draws on the analytic tools of gender and sexuality to examine the construction of power, society, and race in colonial contexts. Drawing on feminist and postcolonial theory, we will look at a broad range of case studies to explore themes in colonial history, such as ?discovery? and conquest, power and resistance, the construction of imperial and gender ideologies, the regulation of intimacy and the creation of race-based hierarchies, the disciplining, regulating, and improvement of colonial bodies, and the multiple intersections and conflicting definitions of gendered or racialized categories and identities. Readings include primary and secondary texts as well as art, images, and film. Evaluation will be based on discussion, writing assignments, and an independent presentation.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2035

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality

Location

MacLean 112

Description

This course welcomes students interested in the field broadly called “queer theory”--even if they don’t have a background in women’s, gender, or sexuality studies. It requires neither expertise nor past experience precisely because the primary question the class experiments with is: “What could queer theory look like if we begin from the premise that its model subject is not white?” The syllabus is organized around how “queer theory” is differently distributed and taken up by various fields of inquiry/analysis, methodological approaches, and traditions of activism and cultural production. We’ll use many genres and forms of queer of color theorizing as points of entry into concepts central to queer/critical thought (like intimacy, power, subjectivity, labor, sex). We’ll read legal scholars (like Kenji Yoshino, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Ian López) alongside theorists of performance/performativity (like E. Patrick Johnson, José Muñoz); we’ll put historical manifestos (like those by Radicalesbians, the Combahee River Collective) in conversation with contemporary literary manifestos (like Joshua Chambers-Letson’s); we’ll treat graphic novels (like Jaime Cortez’s Sexile) as works of philosophy and works of political philosophizing (like writing by Cathy Cohen, C. Riley Snorton, Jeff Nunokawa) as poetic/aesthetic; we’ll watch web series (like Brown Girls) and we’ll write a lot. We’ll use short, though frequent, critical reflections to frame class discussions and you’ll use longer paper and/or creative projects to consolidate/present your learning.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2036

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary field of science that focuses on the existence of life beyond Earth. It leans heavily on understanding the habitability of life on Earth as a basis for understanding the probability and physiology of extraterrestrial life in the universe. Unsurprisingly, astrobiology has inspired generations of scientists, artists, and designers to envision not only alien life, but also the future of human life on Earth in the Anthropocene and on other planets. Set in AT/SP’s Bio Art facility, this course blends concepts and methods of creative studies such as speculative design, futurism, and semiotics with fundamentals in natural science (biology, geochemistry, and astronomy) to imagine what life will look like beyond our current existence. The artistic concepts will be explored via written material by Paola Antonelli, Anthony Dunn, Fiona Ray, etc.. We will focus on discussions of speculative design, bioart, and various lenses of futurism while mantinaining a harmony with scientific understanding of key concepts about life, ecology, and environmental chemistry. At the same time, scientific readings and podcasts in this course will focus on the works of past Chicago scientists Enrico Fermi and Frank Drake who postulated the probability of extraterrestrial life, and several researchers doing active research on life in extreme Earth analog environments and other celestial bodies in our solar system (e.g., scientists at the Biosphere 2 facility and SETI Institute). Students will consider various media ranging from scientific papers to short films and artistic dialogues to show a firm grasp on astrobiology and its philosophical implications. Hands-on experiments in the Bio Art lab will provide opportunities to practice various astrobiology research techniques. The final project will challenge student teams to imagine a potential future or extraterrestrial ecology and use that to design and create a potential gallery piece.

Prerequisites

Studio Symposia - Students must enroll in both ARTTECH 3098 and SCIENCE 3098

Class Number

2188

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Art and Science, Sustainable Design

Location

Michigan B1-19, MacLean 818

Description

Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary field of science that focuses on the existence of life beyond Earth. It leans heavily on understanding the habitability of life on Earth as a basis for understanding the probability and physiology of extraterrestrial life in the universe. Unsurprisingly, astrobiology has inspired generations of scientists, artists, and designers to envision not only alien life, but also the future of human life on Earth in the Anthropocene and on other planets. Set in AT/SP’s Bio Art facility, this course blends concepts and methods of creative studies such as speculative design, futurism, and semiotics with fundamentals in natural science (biology, geochemistry, and astronomy) to imagine what life will look like beyond our current existence. The artistic concepts will be explored via written material by Paola Antonelli, Anthony Dunn, Fiona Ray, etc.. We will focus on discussions of speculative design, bioart, and various lenses of futurism while mantinaining a harmony with scientific understanding of key concepts about life, ecology, and environmental chemistry. At the same time, scientific readings and podcasts in this course will focus on the works of past Chicago scientists Enrico Fermi and Frank Drake who postulated the probability of extraterrestrial life, and several researchers doing active research on life in extreme Earth analog environments and other celestial bodies in our solar system (e.g., scientists at the Biosphere 2 facility and SETI Institute). Students will consider various media ranging from scientific papers to short films and artistic dialogues to show a firm grasp on astrobiology and its philosophical implications. Hands-on experiments in the Bio Art lab will provide opportunities to practice various astrobiology research techniques. The final project will challenge student teams to imagine a potential future or extraterrestrial ecology and use that to design and create a potential gallery piece.

Prerequisites

Studio Symposia - Students must enroll in both ARTTECH 3098 and SCIENCE 3098

Class Number

2188

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Art and Science, Sustainable Design

Location

Michigan B1-19, MacLean 818

Description

This course proposes that hip-hop is the most literary of all musical genres. We understand hip-hop best when we apply the same critical questions to these songs that we apply to short fiction, autobiography, and other literary genres. Our fundamental goal is to see the ?art? of hip-hop more clearly. Good observation leads to good argument, and at heart, this is the fundamental skill we will be practicing. Personal taste in music is an extraordinarily subjective position and often involves unconscious preferences and inclinations. Discovering why we feel the way we feel, and learning how to argue for something ?unprovable? is the fundamental goal of rhetoric; in doing so we aim to strengthen our writing skills across all subject matter.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1629

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

American and European literary tradition has long included authors that contemporary readers would recognize as queer. Yet works that openly address queer sexualities and gender are relatively new. In this course students read a variety of works starting from ?the invention of homosexuality? (1890s) to the present with particular focus on issues germane to the genre: societal constraints on content, the subtext of cloaked sexuality, and authorial responsibility to the queer community. Assignments include two 10-page literary analysis papers. Readings include works by Walt Whitman, James Baldwin, and Susan Sontag.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1630

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

This course will serve as a rigorous, systematic introduction to the concept of narrative. By analyzing a variety of narrative forms (especially short fiction, film, and comics) students will learn what virtually all narratives have in common. Students will gain an understanding of narrative as a particular mode for both creating and conveying meaning. Our primary texts will include short stories by Jumpha Lahiri and David Means, the film The Third Man, and Alison Bechdel's autobiographical comic Fun Home. In addition to our primary sources, students will read key works on narrative theory.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2253

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

Emily Dickinson wrote nearly 1800 poems, publishing only a few anonymously in her lifetime. Many know her as a recluse, “the woman in white” who rarely left her room in her family’s home in Amherst, MA, though her poems prove her radicality, edginess, and performativity. Her poems’ imagistic slants, lilting rhythms, and urgent breaks open possibilities that continue to inspire experimentation by poets and artists around the world. In this course we’ll first ground our discussions by learning about Dickinson’s life—her family, friendships, education, cultural influences, and political contexts—and we’ll lean into her fascinations by slowly and closely reading her poems together. Then we’ll spend time with some of her correspondence and see how her letters, along with her poems, enact and embody her queerness, feminism, environmentalism, and social critique. Digitized versions of her original fascicles, as well as some fragments and unbound sets, will allow us to examine her hand script and consider how her poems exist as physical art objects. Thrillingly, her poems invite and resist our knowing; they push back against easy summary and exert their own questions, satire, and sass. As we delve into her work, we’ll also enjoy a diverse group of modern and contemporary poets and artists who have been sparked by Dickinson’s poems, placing them in dialogue with Dickinson in our own expanded room.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1639

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

During the late 12th and 13th centuries, the Norse settlers of Iceland created a body of prose narratives rivaling the modern novel in psychological penetration and sheer narrative craft: the famous Sagas of the Icelanders. They also preserved a treasure trove of Nordic myths in verse and prose versions known as the Eddas; nearly all we know about Odin, Thor, and Ragnarok, the Doom of the Gods, derives from a few Icelandic manuscripts, along with the familiar tales of the death of Baldr, Sigurd the Dragon slayer, and the valkyrie Brunhild. This course engages students in an exploration of the literary, mythic, and historic world of the medieval Icelanders, including a reading of the outlaw sagas of Gisli and Grettir the Strong, and the Eddic lays that inspired the creations of Wagner, William Morris, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Coursework includes two take-home exams with a mix of short answers and essays, and a class presentation and term paper on suggested topics.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2254

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 920

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

2241

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

What does it mean to think well? In this course we will explore classical logic from a modern formal point of view as a prerequisite for investigating this question. Topics covered will include propositional logic, truth tables, validity and soundness of arguments, inductive vs. deductive logical systems. There will be significant emphasis on natural deduction as a type of game that features its own particular set of permissible moves?much like chess or checkers. This is not a course focused on rhetoric or debate, but rather on the experimental creative process of constructing logically sound arguments and the way in which abstract information can be organized visually. In our exploration of these subjects, collaborative learning techniques will be utilized extensively. This will include in-class group work, regular homework assignments, a two-stage collaborative midterm. The final will be a self-directed project. A familiarity with any kind of mathematics, such as a high-school-level understanding of algebra, would be helpful, but it is not required.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1966

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

What does it mean to think well? In this course we will explore classical logic from a modern formal point of view as a prerequisite for investigating this question. Topics covered will include propositional logic, truth tables, validity and soundness of arguments, inductive vs. deductive logical systems. There will be significant emphasis on natural deduction as a type of game that features its own particular set of permissible moves?much like chess or checkers. This is not a course focused on rhetoric or debate, but rather on the experimental creative process of constructing logically sound arguments and the way in which abstract information can be organized visually. In our exploration of these subjects, collaborative learning techniques will be utilized extensively. This will include in-class group work, regular homework assignments, a two-stage collaborative midterm. The final will be a self-directed project. A familiarity with any kind of mathematics, such as a high-school-level understanding of algebra, would be helpful, but it is not required.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2248

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

This course is both a broad introduction to Shakespeare and an opportunity to delve deeply into some of his most enchanting, disturbing, maddening, and comical works. Students should expect a good amount of reading (as well as a good amount of learning how to navigate the challenging aspects of his language and style). We will likely read at least one play from the following major genres (paying the most attention to the last): history, comedy, romance, and tragedy. We will also consider performances and adaptations and spend time on a broad selection of Shakespeare's sonnets. Students will engage in multiple formats of peer discussion, take turns presenting material, and complete regular writing assignments in response to the reading.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2355

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

Is there such a thing as 'new' mathematics? You can't just discover a new number after all. This course will give insights into contemporary mathematics, emphasizing how the partner processes of abstraction and generalization lead to new discoveries and insights. We will consider classical mathematics in this light, and then apply the same methods to thinking about shapes, surfaces, knots, maps. Crucially throughout we will apply the methods and way of thinking to questions of social justice and political arguments to show that abstract mathematics is highly relevant to our daily lives. Hands-on activities will emphasize the visual and structural aspects of mathematics, reshaping your view of what math means. No previous proficiency in mathematics is expected, only curiosity and an open mind about the subject. The textbook for the course is 'How to Bake Pi' by Eugenia Cheng. All content will have the aim of developing skills in logical reasoning, and appreciation of rigorous logical arguments. Assignments will take the form of math problems, open book quizzes, writing assignments and class participation. No memorization will ever be required.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1980

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

Is there such a thing as 'new' mathematics? You can't just discover a new number after all. This course will give insights into contemporary mathematics, emphasizing how the partner processes of abstraction and generalization lead to new discoveries and insights. We will consider classical mathematics in this light, and then apply the same methods to thinking about shapes, surfaces, knots, maps. Crucially throughout we will apply the methods and way of thinking to questions of social justice and political arguments to show that abstract mathematics is highly relevant to our daily lives. Hands-on activities will emphasize the visual and structural aspects of mathematics, reshaping your view of what math means. No previous proficiency in mathematics is expected, only curiosity and an open mind about the subject. The textbook for the course is 'How to Bake Pi' by Eugenia Cheng. All content will have the aim of developing skills in logical reasoning, and appreciation of rigorous logical arguments. Assignments will take the form of math problems, open book quizzes, writing assignments and class participation. No memorization will ever be required.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2244

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

This course surveys various ideas in math in search of an understanding of what mathematical thinking is. The aim is to consider the underlying thought patterns of a particular math topic. What is that type of math used for? Why and how did it develop? What does it help humans do? What does it tell us about how humans think abstractly? Topics typically include deductive reasoning and logic, coding, geometry and the link to algebra and music, proofs, probability and statistics, symmetries, tilings. Classes are typically run in an interactive lecture style. Students work many steps and examples along with the lecture. This allows students to use their own experience to learn of the strengths, weaknesses, and mental leaps found in the various topics. Students will look for connections between different topics and their use, and also for the use of mathematical thinking in their own lives and work.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1972

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This course explores how the environment is imagined, represented, and engaged in Native American literature from the early twentieth century to the present. We will ask questions such as: How does Indigenous storytelling frame subjects including human-nonhuman relations, natural and urban spaces, and environmental law? What might Native American literature reveal about the tensions between Indigenous epistemologies of the environment and settler environmentalism? What is the connection between environmental justice and decolonization—and how does Indigenous literature, film, and art contribute to such movements? We will analyze texts within their unique environmental, historical, and cultural contexts—and we will also consider larger frameworks including settler colonialism, capitalist industrialization, and Indigenous sovereignty. Readings will include literature such as Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms (1994) and Tommy Pico’s Nature Poem (2017) as well as scholarship by Gerald Vizenor, Nick Estes, and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2351

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

In her 2020 collection Postcolonial Love Poem, the Mojave poet Natalie Diaz writes, “I have never been true in America. America is my myth.” Since its founding, the United States has promoted a mythologized identity grounded in freedom and equality while expanding its projects of settler colonialism and imperialism. In this course, students will analyze literature that both reflects and resists U.S. myth-making from the early twentieth century to the present. As we examine both canonical and non-canonical texts, we will ask questions such as: How does literature contribute to the formation of American identity both at “home” and abroad? How do diverse cultures, ethnicities, and identities contribute to the production and reception of American literature? How might literature challenge cultural hegemony, settler colonialism, and American imperialism? Readings include novels by Leslie Marmon Silko and Julia Alvarez as well as poems by Natasha Trethewey, Ada Limón, and Joy Harjo.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2356

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

Topics in religion and literature offer students the opportunity to explore the boundaries between religion and literature, as well as the points of dynamic contact between these two fields. Courses offered in this topic are concerned with the intersection of religion, in its historical context and its thematic concerns, with literature and related cultural forms and practices. Both the religion and the genre may vary according to the topic, allowing for both broadness of reach and depth of focus in modes of religious and literary expression. Artists/Works/Screening/Reading/Content Area examples to be determined, based on the specific course being offered under this topic, but will include key texts in religious literature, both historically and culturally, as well as key texts from a variety of literary genres and perspectives. This 3000-level Humanities course, including readings, reading responses, essays, mid-terms, and finals.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1646

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

Personal essayists, according to Philip Lopate, 'are adept at interrogating their own ignorance. Just as often as they tell us what they know, they ask at the beginning of an exploration of a problem what it is they don't know--and why.' In this course, we'll read many essays, including work from 10th-century Japan (Sei Shonagon), 16th-century France (Montaigne), and 21st-century America (Kiese Laymon). We'll explore the many forms a personal essay can take--lists, letters, traditional narrative--to see how writers explore topics that range from trauma to the quotidian concerns of meal prep. We'll discuss how nonfiction functions as an artform distinct from academic scholarship, yet how research elements can be integrated into the personal essay to add depth to a topic.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1656

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) writers have used SF—which stands for speculative fiction (science fiction, horror, and fantasy)—to imagine alternative worlds for centuries. In this class we will closely consider such texts’ visions of race and ethnicity, sexuality, gender, power, and worldbuilding by situating them within the social, political, and historical contexts of their time. How do these texts—some written by writers from marginalized groups who have already survived or are daily surviving apocalypse—represent self-determined visions of resistance, decolonization, abolition, environmental justice, and interspecies solidarity? Fictional texts will include work by Larissa Lai, Octavia Butler, Nnedi Okorafor, Rebecca Roanhorse, Neon Yang, N.K. Jemisin, and more. Students should expect to read, on average, 75 pages per week and to write about and discuss texts in depth. Students should also expect to take turns as discussion leaders. For their final project, students will write an argumentative essay or develop a creative project with a written reflective component inspired by concepts central to the texts but pertaining to a topic of their choosing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2255

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

Detailed and ongoing study of thematic material related to climate crisis, including historic and present-day responses in literature. The period and works may vary. To be determined, based on the specific course being offered under this topic. Assignments will vary depending on the instructor and topic, including readings, reading responses, essays, mid-terms, and finals.

Class Number

2256

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Community &amp; Social Engagement, Economic Inequality &amp; Class, Sustainable Design

Location

Lakeview - 203

Description

Esotericism refers both to a field of knowledge hidden from common view and a moral reality suggesting secrecy, occultism, danger, conspiracy, and vast quantities of arcane lore and revelation. This course introduces students to a basic theory of esotericism in relation to the active production of art in the context of the spiritual. The spiritual has a living context in art, visible in various forms of the visionary, the sacred, and the sublime, for which the doctrines of different esoteric disciplines, such as Gnosticism, Kabbalah, Astrology, and Alchemy, can serve as keys. The catalogue 'The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting, 1890-1985' will serve as a master resource for this course, as well as selected readings from artists, scholars, and researchers, including Marsilio Ficino, Carl Jung, Antoine Faivre, Jeffrey Kripal, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Arthur Versluis, Hermes Trismegistus, Evelyn Underhill, H.P Blavatsky, and Richard Tarnas, to name a few. Students will generate visual art on the themes of the class during the studio portion of the course; for the symposium portion of the course, they will produce several short informative essays about figures from the history of Western Esotericism, as well as a final research project, in the form of a personal essay, work of creative fiction, poetry, or drama, or an advanced horoscope, to be presented to the class.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1635

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

Esotericism refers both to a field of knowledge hidden from common view and a moral reality suggesting secrecy, occultism, danger, conspiracy, and vast quantities of arcane lore and revelation. This course introduces students to a basic theory of esotericism in relation to the active production of art in the context of the spiritual. The spiritual has a living context in art, visible in various forms of the visionary, the sacred, and the sublime, for which the doctrines of different esoteric disciplines, such as Gnosticism, Kabbalah, Astrology, and Alchemy, can serve as keys. The catalogue 'The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting, 1890-1985' will serve as a master resource for this course, as well as selected readings from artists, scholars, and researchers, including Marsilio Ficino, Carl Jung, Antoine Faivre, Jeffrey Kripal, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Arthur Versluis, Hermes Trismegistus, Evelyn Underhill, H.P Blavatsky, and Richard Tarnas, to name a few. Students will generate visual art on the themes of the class during the studio portion of the course; for the symposium portion of the course, they will produce several short informative essays about figures from the history of Western Esotericism, as well as a final research project, in the form of a personal essay, work of creative fiction, poetry, or drama, or an advanced horoscope, to be presented to the class.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1635

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

This course surveys over 2,000 years of music in Western civilization. Historical, cultural, and social contexts are studied as they pertain to the music. After an introduction to the Greeks (8th century BCE), music such as medieval chants, motets, Renaissance masses, madrigals, Baroque concertos, operas, and Classical symphonies (ca. up to 1800) are studied. Lectures trace the changes from vocal to instrumental practices with closer looks at some representative period instruments. Biographies are used to demonstrate social, educational and geo-political changes, which shaped the final results of composers' creativity: music. European musical centers -- Paris, Venice, and Vienna -- and their musical establishments receive special attention. Students learn a macro-level music vocabulary and are encouraged to use it in their discourse. Each lecture is structured around a composition that exemplifies the most salient features of a particular period. Listening and reading is required before each lecture. Students are assigned two short essays (6 pages each) as well as a midterm and a final exam that focus on listening skills and understanding/usage of music vocabulary.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1644

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

1992

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 203

Description

Rising out of a relatively obscure urban youth movement in the 1970s, hip-hop would become one of the world's preeminent forms of artistic expression wielding tremendous influence in the world of music, fashion, dance, and popular culture. Created primarily by teenagers in New York’s South Bronx to amplify their creative and socio-political voices, hip-hop also served an important role in preserving the heritage and cultural identity of Black and Brown communities in the United States. This course will explore hip-hop’s musical and cultural roots examining its distinguishing characteristics, aesthetic practices, and position in the world. The course begins by exploring the African and Caribbean music and dance traditions that helped shape hip-hop practices, from drum rhythms to syncopated vocal delivery, and communal performance circles. We will explore the music production process, lyric construction, narrative storytelling, and encoded messages. We will also examine how advancements in technology have played critical roles in making hip-hop more accessible due in part to the affordability of personal computers, the shift from analog to digital music formats, and the creation of the Internet. Additionally, we will explore the associated elements of fashion, dance, language, and entrepreneurialism connected to hip-hop. Students will be assigned quizzes, music and song analysis, video feedbacks, a midterm album presentation, and a creative independent (or collaborative) final project.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1638

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

What does it mean to hear the world through ?imperial ears?? How can music and sound be used to decolonize minds, bodies, and land? What can listening to music teach us about the interwoven relationships between colonizing and decolonizing forces? This course will address these questions and others through examining the diverse roles of music in various colonial and postcolonial contexts. We will study a range of topics that include British colonialism?s impact on music and sonic practices; the role of music in resistance movements in Africa and Asia-Pacific; and the capacities of music to negotiate, oppose, and refigure colonial legacies. This course aims to strengthen our abilities to hear and critique the echoes and reverberations of coloniality across time and space. Most importantly, we will center our attention on the sounds and songs of indigeneity with an emphasis on the role of musicians and communities involved in generating freedom from oppression. Coursework may include short writing assignments, essays, presentations, and podcasts.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1654

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

Through a socio-cultural historical approach, this course provides a chronological survey of the broad repertoire of music created by people of African descent in the United States from the period of enslavement to the present day. Students will explore African American music's characteristics, techniques, styles, and aesthetics, examining secular and religious folk music, compositions in the Western classical music tradition, and contemporary and popular music forms. Beginning with its West African roots, this course traces the dynamic aspects of African American music through examining successive generation’s diverse styles, narratives, and distinctive performance practices. This course will explore the roots, aesthetics, and connections between African American musical genres like gospel, blues, jazz, soul, funk, disco, house, and hip-hop, through the works of composers, artists, and musicians like Thomas Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, Robert Johnson, Nina Simone, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, and DJ Kool Herc. Students will also examine African vocal and musical characteristics preserved in the United States and still prevalent in African American music such as call & response, polyrhythms, syncopation, guttural effects, and improvisation. Additionally, this course will highlight Chicago’s rich musical history and contributions to the African American musical landscape. Assignments will include readings, music and song analysis, video/documentary feedback, a song review, and a creative independent (or collaborative) final project/presentation.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2452

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This course examines the unique role that music has played in the cultural development of the United States, taking a critical look at the historical and geographical context for the development of American musical styles, including the role of slavery. We will critically engage the role that 19th Century blackface and minstrelsy played in providing the framework for both the foundations of the popular culture industry, and the conditions that resulted in the construction of cultural 'blackness.' We will examine the various regional styles of music that have developed in the United States, including the blues, ragtime, spirituals, country, jazz, bluegrass, and folk music, noting the manner in which style and gesture is traded back and forth. We will identify the musical characteristics of the primary styles of early American music, what distinguishes each, and trace their evolution to the music we listen to today. By spotting the way a note is bent or how the backbeat is played, we will map the route from the churches of the early frontier to the songs of Kendrick Lamar. Assignments may include weekly readings, approximately 3 short papers, one term paper, a final exam, and an in-class presentation, presented either alone or in a small group.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1633

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

This course follows migrations both forced and voluntary from Africa across trade routes to the Caribbean and Brazil as a frame for examining musics traditional and popular. In addition to examining these specific musics and musical instruments we will consider how musics from the Afro- Caribbean and Afro-Brazilian experiences influence Latin and South America and the Untied States. This course emphasizes selected ethnographic reading, seminar discussion, individual ethnographic experiences, and the chance for students to connect knowledge from the seminar to real world performances and musicians.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1628

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

This course provides an introduction to the physics of sound and how it is percieved by the ear. We produce and store sound in many different ways, using it in medicine, environmental studies and even in new methods of refrigeration. This course covers the concepts and application of acoustics, including sound wave theory, sound in music and musical instruments, recognition of musical sound qualities, auditorium acoustics and electronic reproduction of sound.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1988

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

This is a course on music and cinema in the late-20th and early-21st centuries. The focus will be on original scores for full-length films made over the last forty years, with historical, contemporary, and animated subject matter. Students will learn about the history of film scoring and evaluate uses of music by featured composers in selected films. Topics include narrative underscoring, musical motives, diegetic and extradiegetic music, and sonic signifiers of time and place. Course objectives include building strong audio-visual listening skills and acquiring the vocabulary to speak and write about film music and its historical and cultural contexts effectively. Screenings and viewings will vary but typically include examples of feature-length films with original music by composers including Terence Blanchard, Wendy Carlos, Alexandre Desplat, Patrick Doyle, Danny Elfman, Michael Giacchino, Philip Glass, Hildur Gu?nadottir, Joe Hisaishi, James Horner, Quincy Jones, Dario Marianelli, Ennio Morricone, Rachel Portman, Howard Shore, Gabriel Yared, and Hans Zimmer. Readings will vary but typically include works by musicologists and film theorists such as Michel Chion, Rebecca Coyle, Dean Duncan, Julie Hubbert, Lawrence Kramer, Frank Lehman, Richard Leppert, and Laura Mulvey, as well as film critics and journalists. Students will write 15-20 double-spaced pages during the semester, including revisions based on instructor and peer feedback. Assignments may include discussion threads, a close listening essay, an original research paper, and an oral presentation.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1643

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

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

1974

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

Selected issues in music and related areas are studied. Topics vary each semester and may include (but are not limited to): musical structure and form, aural literacy, opera studies, music and words, music and the visual arts, history of recorded music, history of the oral tradition, semiotics, communications theory, and others.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1631

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

Selected issues in music and related areas are studied. Topics vary each semester and may include (but are not limited to): musical structure and form, aural literacy, opera studies, music and words, music and the visual arts, history of recorded music, history of the oral tradition, semiotics, communications theory, and others.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1647

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

This course examines the multifaceted ways music is interwoven with social processes of war and peace. In what ways do people use musical sounds to control, torture, and kill individuals and populations? What types of concepts elucidate the ways music reproduces oft-hidden forms of violence? How can music heal trauma and resolve conflict? Throughout this course, we will work towards developing a deeper understanding about the ways music is used to support, oppose, and heal from actions and consequences made in the name of war and peace. Through studying films, texts, and audio recordings, students are expected to think critically and write persuasively about the diverse ways musicians, politicians, military personnel, and civilians use music in wartime contexts. While case studies will vary, we will pay particular attention to the role of Western popular music in the United States-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A broader goal of this course is to analyze music in ways that generate critical responses to the permeation of violence throughout society and everyday life. Coursework will include reading responses, short writing assignments, a mid-term, and a final project.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1636

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Public Space, Site, Landscape

Location

MacLean 617

Description

This course investigates the relationship between eroticism, excess, artistic practice, and modes of representation. Taking an interdisciplinary and transgeneric approach (with readings in theory, history, philosophy, psychology, and literature), the course will treat a variety of mediums, with special emphasis on painting, drawing, and adjacent practices. Instructors frame the concept of ?erotics? as a mode of practice that investigates and integrates sex, gender, and a variety of ambivalent movements, for example, the play of form and formlessness, figuration and monstrosity, taboo and transgression, attraction and repulsion, incorporation and excretion, abjection and sublimity. Key ideas discussed in class include sex/uality, gender, difference, bodies, ritual, violence, representation, desire, ?perversion.? Students will read texts from art theory and history, psychoanalysis, literature, and psychology. Throughout the class, they will be asked to synthesize course readings and discussions with their own artistic practice.

Prerequisites

Studio Symposia - Students must enroll in both PTDW 3298 and HUMANITY 3298

Class Number

2290

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality, Class, Race, Ethnicity

Location

280 Building Rm 124

Description

This course investigates the relationship between eroticism, excess, artistic practice, and modes of representation. Taking an interdisciplinary and transgeneric approach (with readings in theory, history, philosophy, psychology, and literature), the course will treat a variety of mediums, with special emphasis on painting, drawing, and adjacent practices. Instructors frame the concept of ?erotics? as a mode of practice that investigates and integrates sex, gender, and a variety of ambivalent movements, for example, the play of form and formlessness, figuration and monstrosity, taboo and transgression, attraction and repulsion, incorporation and excretion, abjection and sublimity. Key ideas discussed in class include sex/uality, gender, difference, bodies, ritual, violence, representation, desire, ?perversion.? Students will read texts from art theory and history, psychoanalysis, literature, and psychology. Throughout the class, they will be asked to synthesize course readings and discussions with their own artistic practice.

Prerequisites

Studio Symposia - Students must enroll in both PTDW 3298 and HUMANITY 3298

Class Number

2290

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality, Class, Race, Ethnicity

Location

280 Building Rm 124

Description

Amid global environmental and political turmoil and local grassroots activism, we will traverse regenerative urban spaces with different organizational frameworks and ideas about what it means to be with others and what it means to include the non-human. This course explores these new modes of being, with fellow humans and among other species and things, in a changing world. The course is structured around critical readings, as well as community-based projects in North Lawndale. This course generally meets at Homan Square 5-6 times a term.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2029

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202, Homan 1200

Description

This course is 'not quite introductory' because it is more specific, more experimental, and far less thorough than a survey class on major textual and conceptual touchstones of the field of Asian-American Studies. It has twin goals: the first, to organize encounters with a variety of textures and styles of representation, political action, and cultural production loosely defined as, or associated with, 'Asian-American.' This means that in addition to theoretical texts intended to anchor and stage each unit, we will also be reading across genres of analytic objects, like the blog, memoir, novel, documentary, and play. The second, to treat these studies of Asian American life/living as extended cases, immanently constitutive, of the study of politics. Units will be thematically organized around conceptual concerns that include: economies of labor, circulations of stereotype (from terrorist to model minority), articulations of the nation and citizenship in the context of diaspora, and food.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2030

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

This seminar explores various media industries from both US and Global perspectives. A number of major topic areas are examined. We historically compare the media industries before the Internet era. We then take an overview of a variety of today's media businesses followed by an examination of current global television business and management structures. We also survey the competitive and creative outlook in areas such as programming, distribution, markets and seek to develop a basic knowledge of nomenclature, practices and career paths. Readings include work by media theorists such as Theodor Adorno and Marshall McLuhan and by contemporary business strategists Jim Collins and Morten Hansen. Screenings include documentaries by Adam Curtis and Douglas Rushkoff. Assignments include responses to weekly readings, a commentary on current research, an at home exam that examines readings in-depth, and a project that explores each student’s interest in the media industries.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2031

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

Scientists now know that global warming is causing more hurricanes? or is it? This course will explore how environmental disasters ? both man-made and natural ? impact human society and the biosphere, and how they have changed in both frequency and intensity in response to climate change. Some relevant topics that this class will investigate include: heat waves and cold snaps, links between climate change and vectorborne diseases, tropical cyclones, tornadoes and severe thunderstorms, environmental impacts of natural gas fracking and oil spills, El Ni?o, long and short-term species extinction, ecosystem responses to climate change, and more. We will consider current news articles and relevant policy solutions/responses, and class work will involve group work, critical thinking, quantitative practice and analysis of scientific literature. Course work will include quantitative in-class assignments, relevant scientific readings, qualitative homework, quizzes, an exam and a final project.

Class Number

2357

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art and Science

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

1994

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

The oceans and the animals that dwell there are a key resource to planet earth, providing food, medicine, the bases for sacred cultural customs, and much more. However, they are in trouble. This course is a survey of marine ecosystems and the organisms that make them up from diatoms and dinaflagellates, to seahorses and great white sharks. We will discuss the abysmal forecast for the future of the planetary sea and how we can change the outcome now.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1971

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Sustainable Design

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

In this course, students will develop the skills they need to recognize and evaluate arguments, wherever they find them: journalistic media, social media, advertising, and even the arts. They’ll do this by learning how to identify argument patterns, how to draw out implicit arguments, and how to avoid common mistakes in reasoning, both psychological and formal. Students will primarily learn through guided practice, and through the work of philosophers like Vaughn, Nguyen, and Setiya.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1637

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 203

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

2358

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

What makes Earth unique? In this course, we place the study of the Earth in the context of other Solar System bodies, comparing their surfaces, interiors, and atmospheres. We begin with a study of universal concepts including light and gravity, and we apply this knowledge to our investigation of why the planets are so diverse. We explore the planets' formation processes as an explanation for some of their differences, and we look to other newly discovered solar systems as a way to contrast with ours. Finally, we examine what makes Earth suitable for life, and we consider whether life might exist elsewhere in the Solar System ? as well as whether humanity could someday leave Earth. We will use the textbook ?The Cosmic Perspective: The Solar System? (Bennett et al.) and the Mastering Astronomy website. Each week, we will also discuss recent articles describing new discoveries in the field, chosen and presented by the students. Course work typically includes a 5-minute oral presentation, a 5-page research paper, in-class labs, 2-3 weekly reading questions, two homework assignments, and a final exam.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1975

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

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

1649

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 920

Description

This course examines the role of love and relationality in human life. A basic, innate longing for association drives us in our various endeavors, and relationships permeate every aspect of human becoming. When we examine our love relationships we find trust, mutual reliance, reciprocity, and care, but also a tangle of strife, misunderstanding, angst, and longing for connection. We explore the nature of love through works of philosophy, literature and film. We investigate the distinction between eros, philia, and agape, and discuss ideas of love as a feeling, an action, or a species of ?knowing someone.? We evaluate several philosophical theories of romantic love, and question the tension between the individual?s desire for self-discovery and her responsibility towards others. We address the concept of love from the Platonic, Kantian, and existentialist perspectives. We also read work by Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche and De Beuvoir. 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

1627

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This course provides a broad overview of philosophical discussions of race and racism in American culture. We focus on phenomenological issues concerning the experience of race (especially in the U.S.), epistemological issues concerning racial distortions and racial ignorance, and ethical and political issues concerning racial oppression. We also explore the connections between race and other identity categories such as gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, and nationality. In pursuit of these topics, we read classical and contemporary work on race theory, such as W.E.B. Du Bois?s The Souls of Black Folks, Malcolm X?s Letter to the Grassroots, and Frantz Fanon?s Black Skin, White Masks. 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

1648

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

In this course we will consider the meaning of “work,” the importance of meaningful work and the role that work plays in the good life, issues of justice in the modern workplace – including conceptions of domination, exploitation, alienation, and the right to strike – and imagined alternatives to the modern workplace. We will also focus on women and work, and animals as workers. We will consider the work of historical figures such as Karl Marx, William Morris, and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as contemporary thinkers such as Elizabeth Anderson, Alex Gourevitch, and Emily Guendelsberger.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2453

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

The course examines conceptual and ethical questions surrounding sexual desire and behavior. The questions we address include: Is there such a thing as sexual perversion and what is it? Are prostitution, adultery, casual sex, promiscuity, and pornography morally wrong? If yes, why? What is objectification and is it wrong? What is sexual harassment and why is it wrong? Most of the readings are by contemporary authors, though some are by important historical figures, such as Immanuel Kant.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1645

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 707

Description

This course examines basic questions in the philosophy of art from the analytic tradition. Some major questions include: What is the definition of ?art?? What is the role of artistic intentions in interpreting and evaluating art? What connections are there between art, on the one hand, and beauty and aesthetics, on the other? What are aesthetic (artistic) principles and how do they differ from aesthetic (artistic) judgments? Are aesthetic or artistic judgment objective or subjective, and how do they connect to issues of taste? What connections are there between art and ethics? And what is the value of art? Philosophers that we study include Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and contemporary ones such as George Dickie, Jerrold Levinson, Monroe Beardsley, Kendall Walton, Noel Carroll, Berys Gaut, Marcia Muelder Eaton, Carolyn Korsmeyer, Paul C. Taylor, Richard Shusterman, Frank Sibley, and Malcolm Budd. 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

2250

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

This course examines both the explanation and justification of central concepts and ideas in political thought. These include, but are not confined to, the nature and scope of political (governmental) authority in its various forms (e.g., democracy, monarchy, and dictatorship), social contract theories, citizenship, nationalism, cultural pluralism, political obligations, civil disobedience, revolutions, and terrorism. Readings range from historical to contemporary sources, including Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Marx, Nietzsche, Adorno, Rawls, Dworkin, and Nozick. 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

1640

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

About 9 billion years after the Big Bang, our Solar System's sun ignited from the gravitational collapse of a molecular cloud. This course explores the 4.6 billion years of subsequent chemical evolution of the Solar System. Our tool of study, cosmochemistry, lies at the crossroads of chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, and biology. As such, we can use it to help us answer some fundamental questions, including: What are the elemental and molecular building blocks of our Solar System? Under what conditions, and by which processes, did these building blocks assemble into planets, asteroids, moons, comets, meteorites, and interstellar dust? What is the Earth made of, how did it evolve over time, and why do we need to study extraterrestrial materials to understand our home planet? Where did water come from and what led to the rise of life on Earth? How can we use this knowledge to guide future space exploration?

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2296

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

About 9 billion years after the Big Bang, our Solar System's sun ignited from the gravitational collapse of a molecular cloud. This course explores the 4.6 billion years of subsequent chemical evolution of the Solar System. Our tool of study, cosmochemistry, lies at the crossroads of chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, and biology. As such, we can use it to help us answer some fundamental questions, including: What are the elemental and molecular building blocks of our Solar System? Under what conditions, and by which processes, did these building blocks assemble into planets, asteroids, moons, comets, meteorites, and interstellar dust? What is the Earth made of, how did it evolve over time, and why do we need to study extraterrestrial materials to understand our home planet? Where did water come from and what led to the rise of life on Earth? How can we use this knowledge to guide future space exploration?

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2437

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

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

1976

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

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

1977

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

This course engages jazz and blues traditions on three interrelated fronts: as a set of historically situated practices emergent within the context of the African diaspora; as critical strategies of resistance, collectivity, and self definition; and as dynamic systems of sonic signification, meaning, and value. Lectures, readings, discussion, and critical listening will introduce students to the historical contexts, soundscapes, and discourses of jazz and blues, as well as the musical and social structures at work in their creation and reception. Throughout the semester we will critically consider the writings of musicians, historians, ethnomusicologists, and critics, as well as musical recordings, filmed performances, and documentary films. Through this students will synthesize foundational theories and concepts relating to the study of music, race, gender, and diaspora; cultivate their skills as critical listeners and musical analysts; and will integrate these capacities within a final project due at the end of the semester.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1651

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 617

Description

At the turn of the 21st century, scientists proposed that we have entered a new geological epoch, defined entirely by the impacts of human activities on the planet. They titled this epoch ‘the Anthropocene’. Chemistry provides a unique, powerful toolbox to measure these human imprints on our soils, air, waters and biological life. But, which human impacts best define the Anthropocene? Did it begin with theIndustrial Revolution, or atomic bomb testing? With widespread conversion of forest to cropland, or dispersion of microplastics into oceans and lakes? In this course, we will learn and use chemistry to consider and debate these questions on our own. We will merge primary scientific observations and written works by Kyle Whyte, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Kathryn Yusoff and Naomi Oreskes to consider case studies on carbon emissions, radioactive debris, marine pollution, and more. We will inspect the evidence for human influence on the planet through time, and evaluate just and sustainable solutions to the racial, gender and socioeconomic inequities tied to these environmental impacts. Assignments for this course will consist of brief, weekly homework problems and readings, one open-book midterm exam, and an end-of-term Anthropocene Expo comprising the final project. Note that no prior experience in chemistry is required for this course.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2242

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art and Science

Location

MacLean 301

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

2243

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 203

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

2439

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

These classes cover a variety of topical and geographically oriented courses in Sociology. These include courses on race, ethnicity, gender, and class from a sociological perspective.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2032

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

Eating is a highly individualized behavior. What you put in your mouth is solely and exclusively consumed by yourself, thus issues surrounding food is often understood in terms of personal taste, choice, and practice. While such an individual aspect of food and eating holds true, however, we should realize there is another aspect, namely, a social aspect of food and eating. One?s preference and choice does not emerge in a social vacuum. Individual practice is formed in a society, also vice versa, it is reforming back a given society. This course sociologically inquires the interplays of individual practice and social structure surrounding food issues. We will consider issues of food and diet by using sociological concepts, such as, class, gender, social status, ethnicity, nationalism, and agency and structure. With those conceptual tools, we will explore various food topics: culinary culture, identity, globalization, GMOs, Slow Food movement, urban food desert, ethical consumption, etc. Students are expected to bring their thoughts derived from their own daily food practice, and actively develop theoretical and empirical insights into issues of food cultures.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2049

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

2033

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

The course is a general introduction to politics in the United States, closely examining several current policy debates. Significant attention is given to the ways that the critical engagement and intervention of artists, writers, and other creators contribute to and shape these debates. Topics include but are not confined to Iraq and the politics of war, globalization and economic change, immigration 'reform,' global warming and environmental politics, cultural policymaking.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2041

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Economic Inequality &amp; Class

Location

MacLean 608

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

2245

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

This course covers the science behind the biologic systems that allow us to gather information about the world around us collected through our five major senses (sight, sound, hearing, taste, smell, and touch). Each sense is examined individually. In addition, we discuss how our bodies constantly monitor internal data on biologic functions such as digestion, respiration, pain and position. We explore ways in which animals and plants sense the world differently than humans and what we can learn from them. Finally, this course considers how our brains serve as the final arbitrator in our integration of this data and how we bring meaning to it.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2246

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality

Location

MacLean 707

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

2247

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This course is a survey of modern Chinese history from the late imperial Qing dynasty through the 20th century. The purpose of this course is to articulate the ways in which China has dealt with social, political, and economic turmoil since the late imperial period and how this turmoil has related to challenging developments in East Asia, which are a microcosm for globalization. The context of this history includes Western encroachment since the Opium War in 1839, Japanese imperialism, the Cold War confrontation, and China?s rise at the end of the century. Throughout the course, we will examine China?s long 19th- and 20th-century efforts to nationalize global challenges and form cultural and political unity at various levels of the society. The class meets twice a week and will be conducted in a lecture/guided discussion format. Students must attend both the lecture and discussion classes on a regular basis and are expected to actively participate in discussion.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2038

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

This course is an introduction to the history of Latin America in and part of the modern world from the independence movements of the 1810s to the present. The course is organized thematically as well as chronologically. We will cover political and economic regimes and transformations, as well as social and cultural movements, and will travel from the deserts of the US-Mexico border to the Amazon rainforest and the glacial archipelago of Patagonia. Source materials will include everything from revolutionary priests to tango celebrities and some of the world?s first female heads of state. By the end of the course, we will have worked through a history of Latin America on its own terms, but also within a modernizing world.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2026

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

This course offers a critical overview of the origins and politics of the Arab-Israeli conflict through the use of dual narratives. It examines the roots of Zionism and Palestinian nationalism, the deterioration of Jewish-Arab relations during the late Ottoman and Mandate periods, the role of Arab states, the establishment of the state of Israel and subsequent dispersion of Palestinians, the Arab-Israeli wars, the Intifadas, and the possibility of a negotiated peace agreement.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2039

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

Home to nearly one-fourth of the world’s population today, South Asia is a vast and chronically understudied region. This survey course will cover over two hundred years of the history of South Asia, a region that includes modern-day Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and India, and South Asian communities and diasporas that we encounter around the world today. From the mid-eighteenth century to the present, South Asia has undergone numerous transitions—from Mughal sovereignty to British colonial rule, from colony-state to independence and post-colonial nation-building and the creation of new nation-states. In this course, we will explore a range of themes that defined, shaped, and transformed this diverse region, such as imperialism, British colonialism and its mercantile roots, religion and communalism, the questions of statehood, authority, and belonging, and the long-lasting legacy of the struggle for independence and Partition that still haunt South Asia today. Alongside such macro-scale topics, we will also dive into discourses of caste, gender, religion, culture, and ethnicity, as visualized through art, architecture, textiles, film, fiction, and poetry.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2050

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

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

1967

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

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

1987

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

This introductory class concentrates on mammalian classification and general structural features. Skeletal and other anatomical comparisons are made as the more 'primitive' mammals are compared to the more 'advanced' mammals. The survey portion of the course begins with egg-laying and pouched mammals, then examines shrews, bats, hooved mammals, rodents, rabbits, carnivores, and primates. Unusual mammals such as pangolins, aardvarks, whales, and tapirs provide insight into evolutionary and ecological processes. This liberal science class includes both lecture and laboratory components. Some labs take place at the Lincoln Park Zoo and/or the Shedd Aquarium.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1968

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

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

1973

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Sustainable Design

Location

MacLean 816

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

1969

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

The mythic narrative that drives Gnosticism, that the creation of the cosmos was usurped by an evil Demiurge who enslaves all life to do his bidding but that true salvation lies outside the cosmos to be attained by the activation of interior, intuitive knowledge (gnosis), has informed traditions of rich speculation and resistance, from antiquity into the present. In this course, we will explore the historical ground of Gnosticism in detail, studying the early Gnostic scriptures discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945, among them the gospels of Thomas and Mary, as well as the seminal foundational studies on Gnosticism by Hans Jonas and Elaine Pagels. We will also examine the historical and creative vectors of Gnosticism over the centuries, especially in the twentieth century, in which Gnosticism manifested in Jung?s analytical psychology, in novels and fiction such as Cormac McCarthy?s Blood Meridian and Jorge Luis Borges?s stories, in films such as The Matrix and The Truman Show, and, most recently, in Japanese manga, such as Eden: It?s an Endless World!

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2251

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 203

Description

Focusing on the discourse of surrealism from its inception to the current moment, this class investigates the peculiar powers of surrealist modes of mimesis in the interrelated forms of mimicry, masks, and doubles. Taking a philosophical approach to the material, we ask questions including: How does surrealism theorize, analyze, and use mimesis to achieve its particular uncanny effects? What is the value of these effects? What implications does this vein of surrealist inquiry have for thinking and making today? The class engages a wide array of concepts, including: sex, sexuality, and gender; love and eroticism; the uncanny; death; chance; desire; madness; haunting; mannequins and dolls; representation; camouflage and counterfeiting; simulation; Afrosurrealism; humor; identity/otherness; revolutionary politics; freedom; unconscious; image; imagination; dreams; games; myth; magic. We engage surrealist expressions in both written (literary and philosophical) and visual forms. Required course readings prioritize “primary” texts from surrealist thinkers (e.g. Breton, Caillois, Bataille, Dali, Césaire, Carrington), but also include critical literature (e.g. Taussig, Caws). Students write two short reflection papers and a longer final paper (graded). Students also take part in both individual and group making exercises (particularly writing and drawing) as an experimental basis for critical analysis (ungraded).

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2252

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 920

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

2293

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

Daily there are news reports about newly discovered genes, about advancements in genetic engineering, or about ethical questions involving genetics and health, identity, security, and more. Without a clear understanding of what genes are, it is hard to make sense of these claims. This course will help students understand genetics, drawing from a range of source materials from science journals to popular podcasts. We will approach genetics broadly, discussing what is life, the biochemistry of DNA, and gene expression, then move toward more advanced topics like heredity, epigenetics, and bioengineering. The class incorporates lab activities such as isolating genetic material, and also addresses how the basic science relates to contemporary issues including GMO's, forensic science, biohacking, eugenics, and behavioral genetics. Assignments vary, but typically include weekly reading responses and midterm and final presentations.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1970

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1503

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

1978

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Sustainable Design

Location

Lakeview - 1503

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

1979

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Sustainable Design

Location

Lakeview - 1503

Description

This introductory course is used to historicize globalization as well as to understand its contemporary dimensions. Emphasis is placed upon analyzing the rationales underlying globalization, the emergence of institutions making globalization possible, manifestations of globalization in culture (especially art and popular culture), and resistance to globalization as shaped by race, nation, gender, class, and their intersections. Possible authors and texts include Saskia Sassen, Deciphering the Global: Its Spaces, Scales and Subjects; Anita Chan, et. al., Chen Village: Revolution to Globalization; Ann Marie Stock, On Location in Cuba: Street Filmmaking During Times of Transition; Valentine Moghadam, Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks; and McKenzie Wark, A Hacker Manifesto.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2322

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

280 Building Rm 120

Description

This course surveys the science behind emerging biotechnologies in neuroscience, genomics, genetic engineering, transhumanism and artificial intelligence. For each technology we discuss, we will focus on the biology on which that tool has been developed from/for. Once we obtain an understanding of the scientific background of these topics, we will also discuss potential bioethical situations the use of these biotechnologies brings. Finally, we will learn to think critically about these topics and how they are presented to us in the media. The objective of this course is to gain a thorough understanding of the scientific method, as well as the key functional components of the brain and body on a molecular level. These foundations are critical for the translation of scientific knowledge into critical thinking about the presentation of science in the media, as well as the creation of a strong justification for one?s own ethical positions. Throughout the semester students will complete readings and written homework assignments. The final will consist of a written paper on a specific technology that the student would like to further analyze, as well as a short oral presentation to their peers.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2295

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Art and Science

Location

MacLean 111

Description

This course offers students an introduction to the field of political theory through a wide-ranging engagement with a diverse cross-section of political thought from across the planet. As such, we will engage political thought and thinkers not only from the “Western” canon but also the thought and writings of minoritized thinkers and groups—including Indigenous, Black, and feminist thinkers, as well as political thought beyond “the West.” In so doing, we will consider how various thinkers have thought through problems and questions of political community and belonging, freedom and domination, modernity and tradition, and have sought to (re)imagine their own conditions and possibilities.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2048

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

This class is an introduction to emotions and global politics; how do emotions shape and affect global politics? What sorts of emotions motivate and drive global actors? Together, we will think about different emotions and what they mean, such as fear, love, hope, shame, anxiety, humiliation, and how these affect politics. What does it mean to fear, and what kind of politics does fear lead to? To love, care, hate? How do certain emotions make specific political choices legible and sensible? What kind of emotionality makes bombing a country, taking in refugees, or closing borders seem legitimate and sensible political decisions? The course will examine the politics of melodrama and freedom, humanitarian interventions and poverty porn, and the broader politics of representation to make us feel differently. The seminar begins with an introduction to global politics and different ways of thinking about emotions before diving into classes structured around emotion and its politics or political issue. Together we will study melodrama, empathy, music, the feelings and performances of rationality, and morality (among others) in relation to global politics.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2052

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

The course will engage students in the basic principles of economics in order to foster an understanding of the global economy, public policy, and personal investment. Linking the global, public policy, and the personal in a course appropriate for art and design undergraduates, key topics covered in the course include: supply and demand, market equilibrium, labor markets, the division of labor, firm competition and monopoly, corporate social responsibility, international trade and ?trade wars,? income inequality, public finance and public choice, markets for insurance, investment and capital markets, externalities and property rights, regulation, prohibitions, and the tragedy of the commons.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2034

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

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

1990

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 203

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

2037

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This class will introduce students to the thought of the two major Ancient Greek thinkers, Plato and Aristotle. For both thinkers we will begin by exploring their basic metaphysical beliefs, then examine how those beliefs lead them to ethical and political reflections that are both parallel and contrasting. Finally, we will ask how art fits into their vision. We will read broadly from their works, with special emphasis on Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

1655

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 301

Description

In the first scene of Marlowe?s Dr. Faustus, the main character systematically dismisses the foundations of medieval European thought. The play represents the profound skepticism of the late Renaissance, a skepticism that takes formal philosophical form in the thought of Rene Descartes. Over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a new intellectual orthodoxy arose in Europe, one that continues to influence global thought and culture to this day. In this course, we encounter the varied approaches to truth, self, nature, and power that combined, sometimes dramatically, to produce this new modern worldview. The course closely examines the work of some of the seventeenth and eighteenth century European philosophers: Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Anne Conway, John Locke, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant, to name a few. However, the course places their work in its cultural context by exploring the religious, scientific, and political thought of the period, as well as literature and the visual arts. 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

1634

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

2047

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

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

2238

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality

Location

Lakeview - 202

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

2025

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

Psychology is relatively new as a distinct discipline in science or social science, and relatively old as a part of philosophy of mind. In this course we will consider a spectrum of issues and approaches beginning with ancient concerns and theories and ending with contemporary developments. We will consider thinkers and theories, beginning in ancient Greece, that have addressed human concerns which now fall under the disciplines of academic and clinical psychology, and philosophy of mind. Readings may include some thinking as old as Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes and other philosophers, and as new as contemporary theories in cognitive science and artificial intelligence. Requirements for Credit: participation in class discussions through weekly essays responding to the readings, and/or brief in-class discussions based on the readings. A mid-term and a final paper will be required. The final paper is expected to be an expanded and re-written final draft of the mid term paper.'

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2046

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online

Description

This course provides an introduction to social theories of visual communication and to methods of critiquing, producing, and displaying visual representations of cultural phenomena. Drawing primarily from anthropology and ethnographic research, students will explore the significance of visual images to represent and document identity, behavior, and everyday life. This includes examining how even ways of viewing - sight - are shaped, and also vary by and within, culture. Influences from film, photography, and graphic design provide examples of how the social sciences may incorporate these technologies from other disciplines, into behavioral analysis and to understand culture. However, the consequences of visual content creation and circulation (unintended or otherwise), features heavily in the course topics such as: travel photography, photojournalism, social media, and digital activism. Course readings and ethnographic films focus on documentary developments spanning the 20th century - from the silent picture era, scientific cinema, and cinéma vérité - to internet media like virtual reality, gifs, screenshots, and Tik Toks. In reviewing this learning content, students will conduct comparative analysis of still, moving, and digital images while also creating their own visual content in the process. Learning activities include in-class breakout groups and students presentations, as well as independent work involving ethnographic drawing, a photo essay, film critique paper, and meme ethnography research project.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2027

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 620

Description

The scientific story of what a human is and how we ?became? human covers 6 million years of biological and cultural evolution. In this course, we look to the fossil record and living nonhuman primates to examine selective forces that influenced the human biological form as well as technology/culture as a factor that complicates the study of humans from a biological perspective. Topics include the origins of language, art, self expression, and spirituality.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2028

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This course will explore intimacy's connotations of love, care, feelings, sex, and personal connections in a transnational context, asking how its meanings come to be constructed and what their broader social significance could be. We will pay attention to the forms, institutions and labours that enable intimacy, from the couple to the family, domestic labour to sex work, queer socialities to art and aesthetics. In doing so, we will come to see how intimacy straddles the private and public, personal and political. We will read widely, with texts from Marxist feminism, queer and critical race theory that point to the intersection of intimacy with structural inequalities such as gender, race and caste, empire, globalization and capitalism, and themes of optimism, loneliness, and yearning. There will also be literary and artistic texts to ground discussion in each class. Authors include Sylvia Federici, Lauren Berlant, Yasmin Nair, Kimberly Kay Hoang, Hazel Carby, Saidiya Hartman, and Kim Tallbear. There will be short in-class writing assignments from time to time, along with a final paper. Art and design elements are also welcome as part of the final, alongside a written component.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

Class Number

2289

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This course enables upper-level students to develop a well-researched thesis project on a topic of their choice. Such a thesis project may be linked to their final BFA thesis or studio project, and may be useful for students considering graduate school in a field in which research and writing expertise is required. Students may choose to enlist innovative formats and incorporate a variety of media. Topics as diverse as 'Gay Cinema,' 'Culture as Industry,' 'Is Rap Subversive?,' 'The Art and Science of Fragrance,' and 'The Morphology of the Toy Soldier Body' have been explored. Class meetings are used to share research methods, discuss the given challenges of various projects, and present works-in-progress for critique.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: SOCSCI/HUMANITY 3900

Class Number

1675

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818