The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning

Past Writing Fellows Course Descriptions

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Past Writing Fellows Course Descriptions

Crossing the Consumer Chasm by Design
Professor: Richard D. Fleeter
Technologies have shaped human life since tools were sticks and flints to today's hydrocarbon powered, silicon managed era. Some spread throughout society; bread, cell phones, airlines, but most never do; personal jet packs, Apple Newton, freeze dried ice cream.
Space Tourism, the Segway, electric cars: Can we predict which ones will cross the chasm to broad application? Can we help them to by combining design, engineering, marketing, communications, education, art, and business strategies?
Student teams identify potential new products, conceptualize, package, and define their business mode. By plotting their course across the chasm, we confront the cross-disciplinary barriers to realizing benefits from technology.

Cardiovascular Engineering
Professor: Kareen L. Coulombe
In this course, students will learn quantitative physiological function of the heart and vascular system, including cardiac biomechanics and vascular flow dynamics, through lectures and discussion of current scientific literature. A systems approach will integrate molecular biophysics, cell biology, tissue architecture, and organ-level function into a quantitative understanding of health and disease. Discussion topics will include cardiovascular devices, pre-clinical regenerative therapies, stem cell ethics, and clinical trials.

Social Context of Learning and Development
Professor: Jin Li
This course focuses on the social environment that contributes to the development of children’s minds, language, self, affect, relationships with others, beliefs about learning, experience with/attitudes toward school. The course covers the period from birth through young adulthood. Topics include child development and learning under the influences of family, peers, community, school, and immigration, culture, race/ethnicity, and SES. We will review theoretical frameworks and empirical research and discuss implications for education.

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
Professor: Monica Linden
Exploration of learning and memory from the molecular to the behavioral level. Topics will include declarative and procedural memory formation and storage, associative and non-associative learning, cellular and molecular mechanisms for learning, and disorders affecting learning and memory. Examples will be drawn from numerous brain areas and a variety of model systems, including humans. Students will gain experience interpreting experiments from primary literature.

The Entrepreneurial Process
Professor: Daniel E. Warshay
Entrepreneurship is innovation in practice: transforming ideas into opportunities, and, through a deliberate process, opportunities into commercial realities. These entrepreneurial activities can take place in two contexts: the creation of new organizations; and within existing organizations. This course will present an entrepreneurial framework for these entrepreneurial processes, supported by case studies that illustrate essential elements. Successful entrepreneurs and expert practitioners will be introduced who will highlight practical approaches to entrepreneurial success.

Roman History I: The Rise and Fall of an Imperial Republic
Professor: Amy Russell
The social and political history of Ancient Rome from its origins to the death of Augustus in 14 CE. Focuses on the social conflicts of the early Republic; the conquest of the Mediterranean and its repercussions; the breakdown of the Republic and the establishment of monarchy. Readings emphasize ancient sources in translation.

Mathematics and Climate
Professor: Mara Freilich
Mathematical models play a critical role in projecting and understanding climate processes. This course will discuss techniques for application of theoretical models, computational experiments, and data analysis in climate science, including oceanic, atmospheric, and ecological phenomena. Intended for students in applied mathematics and other concentrations with quantitative skills who are interested in applying their knowledge to mathematical modeling and climate problems. No previous coursework in climate science is required. Physical science concepts and mathematical techniques will be introduced throughout the course. Students will develop collaborative or individual projects later in the semester.

Truth on Trial: Justice in Italy, 1400-1800
Professor: Caroline Castiglione
Why do we think that one human being can judge another? How did this activity, enshrined in legal and political systems, profoundly shape society? This course examines the changing face of justice, from the medieval ordeal to judicial torture; the expansion of inquisitorial and state law courts; and the critical role the judicial system played in shaping Italian society. Using Italy as a focus, the course explores how law courts defined social, political, scientific, and religious truth in the early modern period.

LANG 0710 : Protest and Dissidence in Iran
Professor Michelle Quay
Course Description: The anti-authoritarian Woman, Life, Freedom movement arose as a reaction to protests, incarceration and death in Iran in the fall of 2022. In this first-year seminar, you will learn about Iran, a country of 87 million people bordered by Iraq and Afghanistan. We will discuss historical events such as the 1979 Iranian Revolution and how they still affect Iran’s relationship to the West. Through a broad selection of texts, film and art, we will explore topics that include corruption, authoritarianism, multiculturalism, race, social class, religion and gender relations in today’s Iranian culture and society. In English.

PHP 0060: Complexities and Challenges of Global Health
Professor Nisha Trivedi
Course Description: Global health refers to the health and wellbeing of all of the world’s populations, regardless of geography, country, or citizenship. Many of today’s most pressing issues, from climate change to political conflict and population displacement, have profound implications for health. This course will introduce students to fundamental topics in global health, and it will encourage them to approach global health issues through a lens of equity and responsibility toward people and populations beyond United States’ borders. Students will develop a framework for understanding contemporary health challenges and learn how responses to these complex problems require collaboration across health and non-health sectors of society. This course will challenge students’ assumptions about world health while strengthening their skills in data literacy and critical analysis.

EDUC1900: Senior Seminar
Professor Diane Silva Pimentel
Course Description: Required of and reserved for seniors of the Education Studies Concentration as a culminating experience of your Concentration. Our foundational and methodological courses introduced you to the basic themes and research in the field, and upper-level courses typically focused on particular topics in greater depth. Your decision to be an Education Studies concentrator was likely related to one or more of the central themes of the field of education (e.g., human development, education policy and history, culture, race/ethnicity, gender, social justice, etc.). We hope to build on these learning experiences, broadening and deepening your learning across different areas of education.

ENVS/ EEPS 1615 Making Connections: The Environmental Policy Process
Professor Amanda Lynch
Course Description: The diminishing quality of Earth’s systems and resources carries profound implications for the fulfillment of human rights and aspirations. But even as Western knowledge systems understand better the intrinsic interdependencies between humans and the non-human, policy gridlock persists. Indeed, scientific findings are regularly contested on political grounds. The purpose of this course is to learn how to apply diverse knowledges from Indigenous to Modern to map the relevant policy in problems at the intersection of human rights and environmental integrity, and to develop approaches to address them in ways that are creative, effective, responsible and just.

POBS 0810: Belonging and Displacement: Cross-Cultural Identities
Professor Patricia Sobal
Course Description: Focuses on the representation of immigrants, migrants and other "border crossers" in contemporary literature from Brazil and other countries. How do people respond to the loss of home and the shift to a new culture? Is "going home" possible? How do individuals deal with their dual or triple identities? Piñon, Lispector, Scliar, Rushdie, Salih, Cristina Garcia, V. S. Naipaul and others. Conducted in English.

BIOL1515/2015: Conservation in the Genomics Age
Professor Tyler Kartzinel
Course Description: The course will introduce students to the rapidly developing field of molecular ecology, emphasizing its importance for conservation biology. Students will explore key principles in evolutionary ecology based on readings, lectures, and discussions. Participants will also gain practical experience with ecological, genomic, and computational methods in the lab. This course is intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

LACA 1900 Preparation for Honors and Capstone Projects on Latin American and Caribbean Topics
Professor Erica Durante
Course Description: This workshop is designed for junior and seniors in any concentration who are researching and writing about Latin America and the Caribbean. It will help students to enhance their research and organization skills, refine their research or creative projects, and develop or complete a Capstone Project (e.g. honors thesis, honors project, substantial research paper).

COLT0510R: War and the Arts: Guantánamo, Twenty Years On
Professor Esther Whitfield
Course Description: In January 2002, the first captives in the so-called “War on Terror” were flown to the Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for indefinite periods of detention that for some lasted over twenty years. More than a century earlier, in 1901, the Platt Amendment was signed into U.S. law, enabling the lease “in perpetuity” that gives the U.S. military exclusive use of the forty-square mile naval station, despite the Cuban government’s objection. Participants in this seminar will assess the legal and political arguments that have structured “Guantánamo” as an exceptional space, of grave concern to human rights advocates and scholars. At the same time, however, and drawing on poetry, art and memoirs by detainees and military personnel at the base and by Cubans living near its border, we will consider an alternative Guantánamo of sympathies, solidarities and shared space.

ENGN 1010: The Entrepreneurial Process
Professor Danny Warshay
Course Description Entrepreneurship is innovation in practice: transforming ideas into opportunities, and, through a deliberate process, opportunities into commercial realities. These entrepreneurial activities can take place in two contexts: the creation of new organizations; and within existing organizations. This course will present an entrepreneurial framework for these entrepreneurial processes, supported by case studies that illustrate essential elements. Successful entrepreneurs and expert practitioners will be introduced who will highlight practical approaches to entrepreneurial success.

CSCI 2951E: Topics in Computer System Security
Professor Lileka Markatou
Course Description: This course explores advanced topics and highlights current research in computer security and privacy. Recent research papers will be presented and discussed. Also, projects will provide an opportunity for creative work. Class attendance is required and active participation in class discussions is essential. The course has two sections, each with a different focus and prerequisites. Section S01 (Networks, Software, and Systems) addresses computer security and privacy from the perspective of networks, software, and systems. Section S02 (Human Factors, Law, and Policy) addresses computer security and privacy from the perspective of law, policy, and human factors.

PHP0060: Complexities and Challenges of Global Health
Professor Nisha Trivedi
Course Description: Global health refers to the health and wellbeing of all of the world’s populations, regardless of geography, country, or citizenship. Many of today’s most pressing issues, from climate change to political conflict and population displacement, have profound implications for health. This course will introduce students to fundamental topics in global health, and it will encourage them to approach global health issues through a lens of equity and responsibility toward people and populations beyond United States’ borders. Students will develop a framework for understanding contemporary health challenges and learn how responses to these complex problems require collaboration across health and non-health sectors of society. This course will challenge students’ assumptions about world health while strengthening their skills in data literacy and critical analysis.

ENVS1920: Methods for Interdisciplinary Environmental Research
Professor Mindi Schneider
Course Description: This course provides an introduction to a wide range of research approaches in the social and environmental sciences. We will cover the epistemological and theoretical foundations of various research approaches and discuss implications of these foundations for what research questions are answerable and what evidence one can bring to bear to answer such questions. By the end of the semester, students will be able to write a clear and answerable research question, and know what methods are appropriate to use to answer such a question.

ENGL 1190M: The Teaching and Practice of Writing
Professor Charlie Carroll
Course Description: This course prepares students for their work as Writing Fellows. Course readings, activities, and assignments introduce students to: post-process writing theory and pedagogy; data-based investigations of the revision habits of experienced and inexperienced writers; and effective methods for responding to student writing and conferencing with student writers. Enrollment is restricted to undergraduates who have been accepted into the Writing Fellows Program in the preceding July. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval.

ETHN 0090A: The Border/La Frontera
Professor Evelyn Hu-DeHart
Course Description: We will examine the historical formation, contemporary reality and popular representation of the U.S.-Mexico border from a bilingual (English-Spanish), multicultural (U.S., Mexican, and Latino), and transnational perspective within the framework of globalization. We will explore the construction of border communities, lives and identities on both sides of the international divide, and pay particular attention to the movement of peoples in both directions. We will read materials, watch films, and conduct class discussions in English and Spanish. Comfort and reasonable proficiency in Spanish is required, but native command is not necessary.

AFRI 1330: Africana Studies Junior Seminar
Professors: Lisa Biggs and Austin Jackson
Course Description: This junior seminar course is designed to support students’ growth as academic writers and will prepare them to better complete their culminating senior thesis projects. While specifically geared towards Africana Studies concentrators, the class is open to any undergraduate student who has successfully completed AFRI 0090: An Introduction to Africana Studies and at least four semesters of coursework overall towards the Bachelor’s degree. Course materials will delve deeply into the history, spaces, peoples and cultures of the African Diaspora, exploring a selection of critical writings, performance pieces, fiction and non-fiction works by leading scholars and artists.

CZCH1000: Dimensions of Czech Animation
Professor: Masako Fidler
Course Description: What are our expectations of animation films? This course will help you rethink and learn to “read” animation as an artistic and politically inspired form. Czech animation, with its long tradition and international reputation, is a vibrant branch of visual arts. Yet this artistic form has not only been extensively studied nor noticed until recently. We will study cultural-historical contexts that gave rise to the internationally acclaimed Czech animation by Trnka, Svankmajer and others. Fascination with Czech animation in Japan used as an example to illustrate the mechanism of cross-cultural reception of Czech animation. Readings of related Czech culture/metaphor/animation techniques. Selected Japanese animation films will also be discussed. Readings in English. Films are dubbed or subtitled in English. No prerequisites.

EDUC 1645-S01: Moral Development and Education
Professor: Jin Li
Course Description: This course focuses on the acquisition of moral values within the home, school, and peer groups. We will examine contending approaches to moral development and its fostering. Topics include the philosophical underpinnings of moral theory, the cognitive and behavioral dynamics of moral growth, the values climate of contemporary American society, and the role of education in the moral development of children. We will also consider cultural, ethnic, and gender differences.

ENGN 1010: The Entrepreneurial Process
Professor: Danny Warshay
Course Description: Entrepreneurship is innovation in practice: transforming ideas into opportunities, and, through a deliberate process, opportunities into commercial realities. These entrepreneurial activities can take place in two contexts: the creation of new organizations; and within existing organizations. This course will present an entrepreneurial framework for these entrepreneurial processes, supported by case studies that illustrate essential elements. Successful entrepreneurs and expert practitioners will be introduced who will highlight practical approaches to entrepreneurial success.

HIST0250: American Exceptionalism: The History of an Idea
Professor: Michael Vorenberg
Course Description: For four centuries, the theme of America having a special place in the world has dominated American politics and culture, though many have questioned or challenged American distinctiveness. This course examines articulations and critiques of American exceptionalism, using sources from American history and literature, from comparative history and literature, and from modern U.S. culture and politics. Although it offers an introduction to American history, it is different from a traditional high school or introductory college course because of its thematic focus and its emphasis on U.S. history in a global context. Intended for students in any discipline and in any year at Brown.

ITAL 1262-01 / HIST 1262 F-01: Women Gender Feminism in Early Modern Italy
Professor: Caroline Castiglione
Course Description: This course explores the variety of Italian women’s histories, issues of gender and sexuality, and ingenious responses to circumvent the social, economic, religious, and political limitations placed upon them during the early modern period (1400-1800). Italian women produced some of the foundational texts of historical feminism, the intellectual and cultural movement that advanced the idea of equality across genders and the necessity of equal access to opportunity and education. This course surveys the alternatives proposed to the gender hierarchies of Italian society and will include selections from archival documents, letters, literature, treatises, and the visual arts. Taught in English.

POLS 0920I: The Politics, Ethics, and Art of Corruption
Professor: Rebecca Weitz-Shapiro
Course Description: What explains variation in corruption across and within democratic countries? What motivates the citizens and officials who engage in corrupt acts? Is there such a thing as a “culture of corruption”? In order to understand these questions (and attempt to answer them), this course takes a somewhat unconventional approach. While we use the analytical approach of the social sciences as our foundation, we also draw on films (documentary and fiction), interviews, and journalistic reporting to understand the individual and systemic causes and consequences of corruption, as well as the narratives citizens create surrounding corruption. Some weeks we focus on a particular country, while in other weeks we take a thematic approach. Throughout the course, we will draw on examples from across the globe, including Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia.

RELS 0095B: Islam in Fiction: History, Romance, Satire
Professor: Shahzad Bashir
Course Description: For Muslims and non-Muslims alike, modern fiction has been a dynamic and inspiring arena to express understandings of Islam. We will concentrate on works remarkable for the virtuosity of literary expression and the religious, social, and political issues they treat while speaking from, and to, specific societies. Readings include works in English and translations from Arabic, Bosnian, French, Indonesian, Persian, Portuguese, Urdu/Hindi, and Turkish. No prior knowledge of Islam is presumed. The course will be conducted in an exploratory spirit, welcoming all who are interested in Islam and/or fiction as a means for exploring major issues in human existence.

SOC1871O: Law, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
Professor: Mark Suchman
Course Description: This seminar explores the relationship between law and organizational change, with particular attention to the emergence of new technologies, new enterprises, and new fields. Topics focus on underlying sociological processes, not on technical or practical details of particular legal or industrial settings. The seminar is aimed at advanced students who are familiar with organizational sociology; familiarity with law is helpful, but not essential. Through shared and individual readings, weekly discussions, and e-mail dialogs, this course helps students to refine and extend their thinking on important and controversial topics at the intersection of contemporary organizational and socio-legal studies.

HISP 0740: Intensive Survey of Spanish Literature
Professor: Sarah Thomas
Course Description: This course provides students an overview of the major authors and movements in Spain’s literature from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It teaches students to close-read and engage critically with individual texts and their literary, historical, and social conditions of production. Throughout, we will interrogate canon formation, examine the literary construction of the self and the nation, and analyze the reflection – and creation – of culture in literature.

COLT 0710N: A Comparative Introduction to the Literatures of the Americas
Professor: Luiz Valente
Course Description: Considers the common links between the diverse literatures of North and South America, approached in relation to one another rather than to Eurocentric paradigms. Focuses on the treatment of such topics as the representation of the past and the self, the role of memory and the imagination, the nature of literary language, and the questions of alienation, colonialism and post-colonialism, communication versus silence, and fiction versus history in the works of selected writers from North and Latin America, including García-Márquez, Faulkner, Cortázar, Allende, Lispector, Morrison, Doctorow, Rosa, and DeLillo.

COLT 0711Q: Writing Love in Korean Literature
Professor: Samuel Perry
Course Description: This course looks at literature to explore how intimacy, passion and commitment have been socially sanctioned and redefined in Korea. From Yi Dynasty tales to modern-day webtoons, we will explore the roles different genres have played in the generation of forms of human affect that are themselves intimately tied to Korea's tumultuous history. What does it mean to love, and to write about love, under the conditions of Neo-Confucianism, empire, war, national division, authoritarianism, and the neoliberal marketplace?

ETHN 0090A: The Border/La Frontera
Professor: Evelyn Hu-Dehart
Course Description: We will examine the historical formation, contemporary reality and popular representation of the U.S.-Mexico border from a bilingual (English-Spanish), multicultural (U.S., Mexican, and Latino), and transnational perspective within the framework of globalization. We will explore the construction of border communities, lives and identities on both sides of the international divide, and pay particular attention to the movement of peoples in both directions. We will read materials, watch films, and conduct class discussions in English and Spanish.

HIST 1262M: Truth on Trial: Justice in Italy, 1400-1800
Professor: Caroline Castiglione
Course Description: Why do we think that one human being can judge another? How did this activity, enshrined in legal and political systems, profoundly shape society? This course examines the changing face of justice, from the medieval ordeal to judicial torture; the expansion of inquisitorial and state law courts; and the critical role the judicial system played in shaping Italian society. Using Italy as a focus, the course explores how law courts defined social, political, scientific, and religious truth in the early modern period.

PHP 0060: Complexities and Challenges of Global Health
Professor: Nisha Trivedi
Course Description: Global health refers to the health and wellbeing of all of the world’s populations, regardless of geography, country, or citizenship. Many of today’s most pressing issues, from climate change to political conflict and population displacement, have profound implications for health. This course will introduce students to fundamental topics in global health, and it will encourage them to approach global health issues through a lens of equity and responsibility toward people and populations beyond United States’ borders. Students will develop a framework for understanding contemporary health challenges and learn how responses to these complex problems require collaboration across health and non-health sectors of society. This course will challenge students’ assumptions about world health while strengthening their skills in data literacy and critical analysis.

POBS 0810: Belonging and Displacement
Professor: Patricia Sobral
Course Description: Focuses on the representation of immigrants, migrants and other "border crossers" in contemporary literature from Brazil and other countries. How do people respond to the loss of home and the shift to a new culture? Is "going home" possible? How do individuals deal with their dual or triple identities? Piñon, Lispector, Scliar, Rushdie, Salih, Cristina Garcia, V. S. Naipaul and others. Conducted in English.

ENGL 1030H: Black Popular Culture and Social Movements
Professor: Austin Jackson
Course Description: As a site of critical inquiry, Black popular culture provides valuable insight into the ways oppressed people (and allies) identify and mobilize against unjust power structures in society. We will begin with immersion experiences with primary and secondary resources that reveal how “voices on the margins” assert agency, identity, and community.

ENVS 0070C: Transcending Transportation Impacts
Professor: Kurt Teichert
Course Description: Students will be engaged in interdisciplinary analyses of the life-cycle costs, environmental impacts, technical developments, and policy innovations at the local and regional level. We will discuss technical modifications in vehicles, such as plug-in hybrids, as well as policy and planning on intermodal systems, recycle-a-bike programs, intelligent transportation systems, and other innovations.

ENGL 1190M: The Teaching and Practice of Writing
Professor: Charles Carroll
Course Description: This course prepares students for their work as Writing Fellows. Course readings, activities, and assignments introduce students to: post-process writing theory and pedagogy; data-based investigations of the revision habits of experienced and inexperienced writers; and effective methods for responding to student writing and conferencing with student writers. Enrollment is restricted to undergraduates who have been accepted into the Writing Fellows Program in the preceding July.

COLT 0711O: Off the Beaten Path: The Diversity of Modern Japanese Literature
Professor: Samuel Perry
Course Description: An introduction to major and minor works of Japanese literature produced during the Japanese Empire and in post-WWII Japan. Canonical writers include Tanizaki Junichiro, Higuchi Ichiyo and Kawabata Yasunari, as well as contemporary novelists Ogawa Yoko, Murata Sayaka and others, including women, queers, revolutionaries and Japan-resident Koreans. Close reading skills will be emphasized, as well as an understanding of how literature has generated knowledge about race, ethnicity, gender, class and their intersections.

EAST 1070: China Modern: An Introduction to the Literature of Twentieth-Century China
Professor: Lingzhen Wang
Course Description: A general introduction to modern and contemporary Chinese literature from the May Fourth Movement to contemporary Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. Emphasizes reading of literary works in relation to topics such as cultural tradition, modernity, nationalism, revolution, class, gender, region, cultural commodification, and literary innovations. Readings in English. No previous knowledge of Chinese required.

EDUC 0410G: The Afterschool Hours
Professor: Hilary Levey Friedman
Course Description: The family and the school are seen as the two primary institutions of childhood. But what about the space in between? Over the course of the twentieth century—once compulsory schooling became law—the way American children occupied the hours between school and home became ever more important. This course examines the literature on how youth should “best” spend their afterschool time. Looking at enrichment courses, sports, work, leisure, and more, this class introduces you to the social science method of interviewing as you learn to undertake your own original research and reflect on how you spent your own afterschool hours.

EEPS 0240: Earth: evolution of a habitable planet
Professor: James Russell
Course Description: Introduces Earth's surface environment evolution - climate, chemistry, and physical makeup. Uses Earth's carbon cycle to understand solar, tectonic, and biological cycles' interactions. Examines the origin of the sedimentary record, dating of the geological record, chemistry and life on early Earth, and the nature of feedbacks that maintain the "habitable" range on Earth. Two field trips; five laboratories arranged.

HIST 1262M: Truth on Trial: Justice in Italy, 1400-1800
Professor: Caroline Castiglione
Course Description: Why do we think that one human being can judge another? How did this activity, enshrined in legal and political systems, profoundly shape society? We'll examine the changing face of justice, from the medieval ordeal to judicial torture; expansion of inquisitorial and state law courts; and the eventual disillusionment with the use of torture and the death penalty in the eighteenth century. Using Italy as focus, the course explores how law courts defined social, political, scientific, and religious truth in Italy.

IAPA 1805: Inequality, Sustainability and Mobility in a Car-Clogged World
Professor: Caroline Lutz
Course Description: With the possible exception of the computer or antibiotics, the car is arguably the most significant invention of the last two centuries. It has fundamentally reshaped the environment, social landscapes, lives, and economies, and its impact will only increase as the global vehicle population doubles, as predicted, to two billion by the year 2030. This class will explore the immense social, political, health, and environmental consequences, as well as cultural and political economic explanations for the car population explosion. Alternative forms and futures for transit will be considered throughout the course.

ITAL 0950: Introduction to Italian Cinema: Italian Film and History
Professor: Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg
Course Description: How do we visualize the past? How has cinema influenced our understanding of contemporary history? The course will focus on how key moments of 20th-century History (Fascism, WWII, the Mafia and Terrorism) have been described or fictionalized by major Italian film-makers (including Benigni, Bertolucci, Cavani, Fellini and Pasolini). Subtitled films, readings and discussion groups. Reserved for First Year students. Enrollment limited to: 19.

AFRI 1330: Africana Studies Junior Seminar
Professor: Lisa Biggs & Oladotun Ayobade
Course Description: This junior seminar course is designed to support students’ growth as academic writers and will prepare them to better complete their culminating senior thesis projects. While specifically geared towards Africana Studies concentrators, the class is open to any undergraduate student who has successfully completed AFRI 0090: An Introduction to Africana Studies and at least four semesters of coursework overall towards the Bachelor’s degree. Course materials will delve deeply into the history, spaces, peoples and cultures of the African Diaspora, exploring a selection of critical writings, performance pieces, fiction and non-fiction works by leading scholars and artists. (WRIT) (DIAP)

ENGL 1140F: Critiquing the Cultures of Kinship
Professor: Emily Hipchen
Course Description: What produces family relations outside blood-kinning? What binds “normal” families, and how are ideas of origin tied to the “normal”? Students will write researched essays that address literary and cultural representations of families that cohere without blood kinship—including Superman, Jane Eyre, Elf, Steve Jobs, and Frankenstein—probing the impact of practices and technologies that produce enfamilied selves outside biogenesis. Open to juniors and seniors. Writing sample required. Prerequisite: ENGL 0930 or any 1000-level nonfiction writing course. Class list will be reduced to 12 after writing samples are reviewed during the first week of classes. Preference will be given to English concentrators. Instructor permission required. S/NC.

SOC 1020: Methods of Social Research
Professor: Carrie Spearin
Course Description: This course introduces students to the frameworks and methods of conducting sociological research -- from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective. The aim is that students develop the skills to ask and answer interesting and important questions about sociological phenomenon. The focus is on designing and executing research, from identifying an interesting question and reviewing the relevant literature, to collecting and analyzing data, to drawing reliable inferences and presenting meaningful results. There is a heavy focus on reading and discussing academic research and working in research teams. By the end of the semester students will complete their own research projects.

ENGN 1010: The Entrepreneurial Process: Innovation in Practice
Professor: Danny Warshay
Course Description: Entrepreneurship is innovation in practice: transforming ideas into opportunities, and, through a deliberate process, opportunities into commercial realities. These entrepreneurial activities can take place in two contexts: the creation of new organizations; and within existing organizations. This course will present an entrepreneurial framework for these entrepreneurial processes, supported by case studies that illustrate essential elements. Successful entrepreneurs and expert practitioners will be introduced who will highlight practical approaches to entrepreneurial success. Enrollment limited to 35. (WRIT)

ENGN 0120A: Crossing the Consumer Chasm by Design
Professor: Rick Fleeter
Course Description: Technologies have shaped human life since tools were sticks and flints to today's hydrocarbon powered, silicon managed era. Some spread throughout society; bread, cell phones, airlines, but most never do; personal jet packs, Apple Newton, freeze dried ice cream. Space Tourism, the Segway, electric cars: Can we predict which ones will cross the chasm to broad application? Can we help them by combining design, engineering, marketing, communications, education, art, and business strategies. Student teams identify potential new products, conceptualize, package, and define their business mode. By plotting their course across the chasm, we confront the cross-disciplinary barriers to realizing benefits from technology. Enrollment limited to 18 first year students. Instructor permission required. (FYS) (WRIT)

HIST 1430: Truth on Trial: Justice in Italy, 1400-1800
Professor: Caroline Castiglione
Course Description: Why do we think that one human being can judge another? How did this activity, enshrined in legal and political systems, profoundly shape society? This course examines the changing face of justice, from the medieval ordeal to judicial torture; the expansion of inquisitorial and state law courts; and the eventual disillusionment with the use of torture and the death penalty in the eighteenth century. Using Italy as a focus, the course explores how law courts defined social, political, scientific, and religious truth in Italy. Students may pursue a project of another geographical area for their final project for the course. (WRIT)

PHP 0060: Challenges and Complexities of Global Health
Professor: Nisha Trivedi
Course Description: Global health refers to the health and wellbeing of all of the world’s populations, regardless of geography, country, or citizenship. Many of today’s most pressing issues, from climate change to political conflict and population displacement, have profound implications for health. The current COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the vital role of public health in an increasingly interconnected world. This course will introduce students to fundamental topics in global health, and they will be encouraged to approach global health issues through a lens of equity and responsibility toward people and populations beyond the United States’ borders. They will develop a framework for understanding contemporary health challenges and learn how responses to these complex problems require collaboration across health and non-health sectors of society. This course will challenge students’ assumptions about world health while strengthening their skills in data literacy and critical analysis. (FYS) (WRIT)

LACA 1503V: Health of Hispaniola
Professor: Timothy M. Empkie
Course Description: Two developing countries, Dominican Republic and Haiti, have widely differing health outcomes despite centuries of shared experience on the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola. This course will examine the history, politics, economics, culture, international relations, demography, and geography, as well as epidemiology and health services, to demonstrate that multiple factors, both recent and long-standing, determine the present health of these populations. Enrollment limited to 19 first year students. Instructor permission required.

POBS 0990: Mapping Cross-Cultural Identities
Professor: Patricia Sobral
Course Description: How do we construct our own identity as life becomes a multitude of narrative threads intersecting and overlapping like roadways on a map? How do we reconfigure identities vis-à-vis those who surround us? We will investigate the ever-changing map of cultural identities and its repercussions on human existence via contemporary literature and a series of projects that incorporate the arts (visual, digital, literary) and oral history. Some of the writers include Julia Alvarez, Kiran Desai, Junot Diaz, Milton Hatoum, Chang-Rae Lee, Clarice Lispector, Dinaw Mengestu, Nélida Piñon, Salman Rushdie, Taiye Selasi and others. No experience in the arts necessary. (SOPH) (WRIT) (DIAP)

EEPS 0240: Earth: Evolution of an Habitable Planet
Professor: Timothy Herbert
Course Description: Introduces Earth's surface environment evolution - climate, chemistry, and physical makeup. Uses Earth's carbon cycle to understand solar, tectonic, and biological cycles' interactions. Examines the origin of the sedimentary record, dating of the geological record, chemistry and life on early Earth, and the nature of feedbacks that maintain the "habitable" range on Earth. Two field trips; five laboratories arranged.

EEPS 1960L: Foundational Readings in Earth Sciences
Professor: Victor Tsai
Course Description: This class focuses on the reading and discussion of a number of foundational and highly influential papers in the Earth sciences. Topics of papers will cover all aspects of Earth science, including the age of the Earth, plate tectonics, the discovery of planets, climate change, and chaos. The focus of writing assignments and discussion will be on gaining an appreciation for what sets these contributions apart from other science of that time and will include brief discussions about why the authors of the papers are not representative of a diverse world population. Specific Learning Goals: (A) Improving critical thinking and evaluation of groundbreaking ideas; (B) Understanding the scientific context in which breakthroughs are made; (C) Improving communication (written and oral); (D) Understanding the changing diversity of scientists in historical context.

AFRI 0690 / MUSC 0695: Gospel Titan, Divas, and Dynasties
Professor: Charrise Barron
Course Description: The course will explore some of contemporary black gospel music’s most celebrated artists, as a lens into gospel music history and the challenges of commercializing religious folk music. This course will explore gospel music performance and commerce as defined by artists such as The Clark Sisters, who were recently celebrated in the biopic The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel, which first aired on the Lifetime network Sunday, April 12, 2020. The course will also explore other gospel music-making families, such as The Winans, The Staples Singers, Mary Mary, and The Crouches.

AFRI 1920: Health Inequality in Historical Perspective
Professor: Lundy Braun
Course Description: Seminar takes a historical perspective to explore causes of health inequality. Draws on studies from the 19th century-present. Examines socio–political and economic context of health/disease, focusing on how race, class, and gender shape the experience of health, disease causality, and public health responses with emphasis on the COVID-19 pandemic. Includes health consequences of immigration and pandemics, incarceration, race-based medicine. Enrollment restricted to 20, second and third-year students.

CLPS 700: Social Psychology
Professor: Oriel FeldmanHall
Course Description: Examines the theories, findings, and methods of social psychology. Topics include: social cognition (person perception, attitudes), social influence (cultural sources of attitudes, conformity), and social relations (aggression, altruism, prejudice). Students become better informed consumers of empirical research and acquire a new framework for interpreting social behavior. Applications to historic and current events.

ECON 1590: Health, Hunger and the Household in Developing Countries
Professor: Andrew Foster
Course Description: Microeconomic analysis of household behavior in low income societies emphasizing the economic determinants of health and nutrition and the evaluation of policy. The relationship among health, nutrition, fertility, savings, schooling, labor productivity, wage determination, and gender-based inequality. Emphasizes theoretically-based empirical research.

FREN 0500: Writing and Speaking French
Professor: Stéphanie Ravillon
Course Description: A four-skill language course that stresses oral interaction in class. Thematic units will focus on songs, poems, a short novel, a graphic novel, films and a longer novel. Activities include a creative project using Comic Life, and a systematic grammar review. Prerequisite: FREN 0400, FREN 0200 with written permission, or placement.

FREN 0950: Paris hors les murs
Professor: Sylvie Toux
Course Description: This course represents an immersive exploration of Paris. Discussions will be organized around a number of themes covering modern and contemporary visions of the city. After a brief presentation of the history and the geography of the city, we will study the myths of Paris (the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame); various short writings (Baudelaire, Hugo, Barthes); the rise of the suburbs (La Haine, Les Misérables); current challenges (the climate, COVID-19). We will visit the city through newspaper articles, films videos, podcasts and museums. Three papers during the semester including your personal "mythology" of Paris as a concluding project for the course.

GNSS 1990: Senior Seminar
Professor: Jeremy Lehnen
Course Description: A research seminar focusing on the research and writing of the participants. Required of senior concentrators; open to other advanced students by permission.

PHP 1070: The Burden of Disease in Developing Countries
Professor: Stephen McGarvey
Course Description: Defines and critically examines environmental, epidemiologic, demographic, biomedical, and anthropological perspectives on health and disease in developing countries. Emphasis on changes in the underlying causes of morbidity and mortality during economic development. Focuses on the biosocial ecology of diseases. Required major term paper worth 50% of final grade is scholarly centerpiece of course. Weekly discussion sections and small group research projects supplement the two exams and term paper. Guest lecturers cover different diseases and public health perspectives. Enrollment limited to 65.

AFRI 1930: Race, Difference and Biomedical Research: Historical Considerations
Professor: Lundy Braun
Course Description: This advanced seminar places the current debate over race, health, and genetics in historical context. An overarching goal is to understand how the social world informs the scientific questions we ask, design of research studies, and interpretation of findings. How have the theories and practices of biomedical science and technology produced knowledge of “race” and racial difference historically? How does race relate to gender and class? What are the implications of this debate for understanding health inequality? Previous coursework in Africana Studies preferred. Enrollment limited to 20; instructor permission. (WRIT) (DIAP)

BIOL 0285: Inquiry in Biochemistry: From Gene to Protein Function
Professor: Kristina Cohen
Course Description: In this inquiry-based research course, students work in teams to formulate and test a hypothesis about how a change in genetic sequence affects enzyme function. Students will cultivate skills in scientific visualization, experimental design, data analysis, and laboratory techniques in molecular biology and biochemistry. In discussion, students will learn scientific writing through peer editing and iterative revisions to write a full scientific paper. This course is WRIT designated and will prepare students for writing an honors thesis. Expected: Students have previously taken or be concurrently enrolled in BIOL 0280. Enrollment in one lab section and one discussion section is required.

BIOL 0160: Plants, Food, and People
Professor: Peter Heywood
Course Description: This course examines the challenges of feeding a world population that might expand to 10 billion people. Will it be possible to produce enough nutritious food for everyone without loss of biodiversity due to converting natural habitats into farmland, or without damaging environments with agricultural pesticides and fertilizers? What will be the effects of global climate change and agricultural pests on the productivity of food plants? Will shortages of water and essential plant nutrients (such as phosphate) compromise food production?

EDUC 1860: Social Context of Learning Development
Professor: Jin Li
Course Description: This course focuses on the social environment that contributes to the development of children’s minds, language, self-understanding, relations with others, affect, and attitudes toward learning. The course covers the period from birth through young adulthood. Topics include children’s cognition, social interactions, parental expectations and socialization practices, and the influences of family, peers, school, and immigration. Differences in social development and learning within and across ethnicities/cultures will be considered. We will review theoretical frameworks as well as empirical research. (WRIT)

GEOL 0240: Earth: Evolution of a Habitable Planet
Professor: James Russell
Course Description: Introduces Earth's surface environment evolution - climate, chemistry, and physical makeup. Uses Earth's carbon cycle to understand solar, tectonic, and biological cycles' interactions. Examines the origin of the sedimentary record, dating of the geological record, chemistry and life on early Earth, and the nature of feedbacks that maintain the "habitable" range on Earth. Two field trips; five laboratories arranged. Prerequisite: GEOL 0220 or 0230, or instructor permission. (WRIT)

HIST 1978B: Bearer of Light, Prince of Darkness: The Devil in Premodern Christianity
Professor: Charles Carroll
Course Description: Satan. Lucifer. The Prince of this World. The personification of evil in the Abrahamic traditions has gone by many names and titles. To premodern Christians, the devil was not an abstract entity; they felt the real presence of Satan and his demonic army all around them. This course explores the devil as a dynamic concept evolved in accordance with cultural and political priorities. It looks at the relationship between the premodern Christian perceptions of personified evil and the Jewish and Islamic traditions. It will also look at the ways in which misogyny and racism shaped ancient and medieval demonologies. (WRIT)

PHP 0030: Health of Hispaniola
Professor: Timothy M. Empkie
Course Description: Two developing countries, Dominican Republic and Haiti, have widely differing health outcomes despite centuries of shared experience on the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola. This course will examine the history, politics, economics, culture, international relations, demography, and geography, as well as epidemiology and health services, to demonstrate that multiple factors, both recent and long-standing, determine the present health of these populations. Enrollment limited to 20 first year students. Instructor permission required. (FYS) (WRIT)

SC 0020: Perspectives on Social Interaction: An Introduction to Social Psychology
Professor: Greg Elliott
Course Description: An introduction to the discipline of sociology examining the individual in society. Explores the social development of the person, the development of interpersonal relationships, and the problems of integrating the individual and social system. For each area, the personal and structural factors that bear upon the issue are investigated. The objective is to deepen understanding of the behavior of people in a social context. (WRIT)

CLPS 1181A Canine Behavior (Online)
Professor: Ruth Colwill
Course Description: This discussion-based online course focuses on the psychology of dogs using primary readings on canine perception, cognition, communication, development, genetics, social behavior, and common behavioral pathologies. Case studies of domestic dogs are used to illustrate the diagnosis and treatment of aggression, fear, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. The natural behaviors of wolves and other wild canids are explored to facilitate our understanding of the domestic dog. After taking this course, you will be so much closer to knowing a dog!

GNSS 1090W Bodies Out of Bounds
Professor: Gail Cohee
Course Description: What happens to bodies—and the world around them—when they refuse to stay within “normal” boundaries? Against the backdrop of fiction written over the past four decades, and within the context of contemporary theory and film, we will look at what is considered normal in various locations and by whom. When are bodies we would consider “normal” somehow not suitable? How are boundaries changing because of technology, medicine, politics, etc.? How are bodies constructed/deconstructed/reconstructed? In addition to fiction, memoir, essays, and theory, we will assess ideas about bodies as observed and depicted in contemporary media. We will think about bodies in terms of gender, especially as gender intersects with other markers of identity, including race, gender identity and expression, dis/ability, and hybridity.

ENGL 0900 Critical Reading and Writing I: The Academic Essay
Professor: Austin Jackson
This course provides an introduction to university-level writing. Students produce and revise multiple drafts of essays, practice essential skills of paragraph organization, and develop techniques of critical analysis and research. Readings from a wide range of texts in literature, the media, and academic disciplines. Assignments move from personal response papers to formal academic essays. Enrollment limited to 17. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC. FYS

ENGN1010 The Entrepreneurial Process
Professor: Danny Warshay
Entrepreneurship is innovation in practice: transforming ideas into opportunities, and, through a deliberate process, opportunities into commercial realities. These entrepreneurial activities can take place in two contexts: the creation of new organizations; and within existing organizations. This course will present an entrepreneurial framework for these entrepreneurial processes, supported by case studies that illustrate essential elements. Successful entrepreneurs and expert practitioners will be introduced who will highlight practical approaches to entrepreneurial success. Enrollment limited to 35. WRIT

ENVS0700c Transcending Transportation Impacts
Professor: Kurt Teichert
Students will be engaged in interdisciplinary analyses of the life-cycle costs, environmental impacts, technical developments, and policy innovations at the local and regional level. We will discuss technical modifications in vehicles, such as plug-in hybrids, as well as policy and planning on intermodal systems, recycle-a-bike programs, intelligent transportation systems, and other innovations. Enrollment limited to 20 first year students. Instructor permission required. FYS WRIT.

ETHN0090A: The Border/La Frontera
Professor: Eveelyn Hu-DeHart
We will examine the historical formation, contemporary reality and popular representation of the U.S.-Mexico border from a bilingual (English-Spanish), multicultural (U.S., Mexican, and Latino), and transnational perspective within the framework of globalization. We will explore the construction of border communities, lives and identities on both sides of the international divide, and pay particular attention to the movement of peoples in both directions. We will read materials, watch films, and conduct class discussions in English and Spanish. Comfort and reasonable proficiency in Spanish is required, but native command is not necessary. Enrollment limited to 19 first year students.

ITAL 0975: Let’s Eat, Italy: Italian History and Culture Through Food
Professor: Filomena Fantarella
We are what we eat. In this course, we will focus our attention on Italian traditions and its daily culinary practices to understand how food shaped and continues to shape Italian culture and identity. We will explore the historical, economic and social factors that have influenced the development of a national cuisine. How does food connect memory and identity? Among the sources we will consider family memoirs and cookbooks; the political programs of Futurism and Fascism and their relationship to Italian foodways; how food has been represented in literature and cinema. We conclude the course with a look at Italian - American cuisine and its key role in shaping identities in the new world.

HIST 1272E: Paris: Sacred and Profane, Imagined and Real
Professor: Charlie Carroll
Paris has been called the capital of modernity, the capital of the nineteenth century, and the capital of the black Atlantic. This course explores how Paris grew from a small settlement into a vast city with an enormous global impact. Covering the settlement of the Celtic Parisii in the mid-third century BCE through the present, the course investigates the dynamic relationship between urban space, public activism, racism, and colonialism. It also considers who has been excluded from the city’s complex mythology and how these myths impacted experiences of the “other” (including people of color, low-income people, Jewish people, and women).

PHP 0050 Pain and the Human Condition: Exploring the Science, Medicine, and Culture of Pain
Professor: Nisha Trivedi
Pain is a universal human experience, yet it is highly subjective. For most, pain represents an occasionally unpleasant, self-limited experience. However, for others, chronic pain persists beyond the recovery from an injury or as a result of a chronic health condition. Persons with chronic pain often describe their pain as permeating every aspect of their lives. While an active area of research, pain remains a significant challenge to the individual seeking treatment, the health care provider and society. This multidisciplinary course introduces students to scientific, medical, and public health aspects of pain and explores personal narratives and cultural meanings of pain. Enrollment limited to 20 first year students. FYS WRIT.

PHP 1070 The Burden of Disease in Developing Countries
Professor: Stephen McGarvey
Defines and critically examines environmental, epidemiologic, demographic, biomedical, and anthropological perspectives on health and disease in developing countries. Emphasis on changes in the underlying causes of morbidity and mortality during economic development. Focuses on the biosocial ecology of diseases. Required major term paper worth 50% of final grade is scholarly centerpiece of course. Weekly discussion sections and small group research projects supplement the two exams and term paper. Guest lecturers cover different diseases and public health perspectives. Enrollment limited to 65. DPLL WRIT.

POBS 0810 Belonging and Displacement: Cross-Cultural Identities
Professor: Patricia Sobral
Focuses on the representation of immigrants, migrants and other "border crossers" in contemporary literature from Brazil and other countries. How do people respond to the loss of home and the shift to a new culture? Is "going home" possible? How do individuals deal with their dual or triple identities? Piñon, Lispector, Scliar, Rushdie, Salih, Cristina Garcia, V. S. Naipaul and others. Conducted in English. Enrollment limited to 20 first year students. FYS WRIT.

SOC 0030D: Who Am I: Sociological Perspectives on the Self
Professor: Greg Elliot
A study of self in contemporary society. We examine the structural and situational forces that shape the self and their impact on personal development, orientations to the world, and interpersonal behavior; we investigate the development of the self as a way of being in the world that makes everyday doings and, ultimately society, possible. Enrollment limited to 19 first year students. Instructor permission required.

SOC 1116: Criminal Courts and the Law in an Era of Mass Incarceration
Professor: Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to America’s criminal court system and all its institutional stakeholders. We will examine America’s criminal court system from myriad of different perspectives: courts as organizations, courts as social arrangements of professionals, courts as providers of social services and courts as consumer institutions – providing the experience of justice to victims, witnesses, defendants and jurors. We will focus on state courts as well as the federal system.

SOC 1440: Intimate Violence
Professor: Greg Elliot
Explores sociological perspectives of violence in intimate relationships. Begins with theories of violence, including social learning theory, the frustration-aggression hypothesis, and violence as catharsis. Examines the contributions of gender, race status, media violence, and pornography to the issue. Investigates specific forms of intimate violence: sexual aggression (including "acquaintance rape"), partner abuse, elderly abuse, and child abuse. Not open to first year students.

POLS 1824T: Foreign Policy in the People’s Republic of China
Professors: Tyler Jost
This undergraduate seminar examines the foreign policy of the People’s Republic of China. It aims both to teach students theoretical perspectives on international relations and to critically evaluate whether these theories explain past and present Chinese foreign policy. What explains China’s historical use of military force? Why did the alliance between China and the Soviet Union fall apart despite their institutional and ideological similarities? Has the personality of China’s leaders or its domestic institutions affected its international behavior? Why is China modernizing its military and how concerned should we be? To what extent has the world changed China and to what extent does it seek to change the world?