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Academic Catalog 2015-2016 
    
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Academic Catalog 2015-2016 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Courses

 

Liberal Arts: Literature, Writing, and Film
  

  • LALW301 Monster Madness 3 cr.

    We round up the usual suspects: the appalling and tragic monster and his equally tragic and appalling creator; the charismatic vampire and his bevy of vamps; the traveling salesman who finds himself transformed into a giant dung-beetle. More broadly, the course studies the idea of monstrosity and the ways in which monsters represent the shadowy side of human nature: what people fear and what they desire. The syllabus includes Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Kafka’s Metamorphosis, and Nabokov’s Lolita.

     

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
    Summer (PCE)
  

  • LALW303 The Family Drama in Literature 3 cr.

    An exploration of literature that portrays families, the complicated dynamics of family relationships, generational conflicts, and sibling rivalries. The course examines the ways in which the microcosm of the family reflects its larger cultural and historical settings. The syllabus is culturally diverse and trans-historical, ranging from the story of David and Absalom in the Bible to Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, with a variety of novels, plays and films along the way.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture
    All College Elective
    Spring
  

  • LALW305 Russian Short Story 3 cr.

    Russian literature burst on to world stage suddenly and unexpectedly in the early nineteenth century and almost immediately gained tremendous worldwide influence. Everyone knows the names of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Pasternak, Nabokov and Solzhenitsyn. Great Russian literature is also uniquely connected to Russian philosophy and politics. Reading and studying these works helps students to better understand the trials and tribulations of modern times.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
    Fall and Spring
  

  • LALW306 Modernist Word and Image 3 cr.

    Nearly 100 years on, the visual and verbal experiments of high Modernism still have the
    power to arrest our gaze and our attention. In this course, we explore the unique conversation between word and image that occurred between approximately 1910 and 1945. How did visual artists respond to innovations in poetic form? What does literature look like when it aspires to be pictorial or visual? Do artists and writers actually practice the principles laid out in their manifestos? Questions like these-and many others- guide our investigation and analysis. Texts include seminal writings from Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism; avant-garde poetry by Apollinaire, Pound, Stein, Williams, and others; Wyndham Lewis’ periodical Blast; Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and other readings that complicate the boundaries between mediums, genres, and forms of
    expression.

     

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
    Fall/Spring
  

  • LALW307 Modern Drama 3 cr.

    Readings of several modern playwrights, from Ibsen and Chekhov to the present. The course examines how these writers responded to cultural change, modified dramatic conventions, and explored shifting relations between comedy and tragedy, illusion and reality.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW308 Lyric Poetry 3 cr.

    Literary analysis and oral readings of lyric poems from several eras and cultures. Particular attention is given to subtle interactions between linguistic and structural elements such as rhythm, meter, stanza form, syntax, diction, and imagery.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW309 Twentieth Century American Literature 3 cr.

    A focus on major writers who emerged in the twentieth century. The course concentrates on late twentieth century figures and earlier modernist writers.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW310 Religion and Literature 3 cr.

    The class treats a selection of texts addressing universal religious themes such as creation, sacrifice, love, death and the problem of evil. Several religious perspectives (including polytheistic ones) are represented. The class uses the texts as lenses through which to examine some of humankind’s deepest concerns and questions. More generally, the class examines the complicated and often strained relationship between art and ideology. Students are assigned three critical papers and a final examination. The syllabus includes texts from the Old and New Testaments, Sufi poems by Rumi, the Native American memoir Black Elk Speaks, Tolstoy’s story “The Death of Ivan Illych” and Ginsberg’s poem “Kaddish.”

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW311 Contemporary Poetry and the Modernist Tradition 3 cr.

    An examination of poems of the Americas in the context of modernist innovations in the twentieth century. African-American, Asian American, and Native American poetry is covered, as is Beat poetry, confessional poetry, sound poetry, and other voices. Poetic styles and themes are examined in relation to the visual arts and to intellectual and social currents.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW312 Creative Writing: The Essay 3 cr.

    This course, conducted as a workshop with essays read aloud and critiqued in class, provides students with an opportunity to explore through their own writing the power and variety of the essay form. From memoir to observation, personal profile to political observation, this course encourages students to transmit interior reflection and external observation into essay form. Assigned reading of essays. Grade based on 25-page portfolio (usually five essays).

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW313 Caribbean Diaspora Literature: Beyond the ‘Tropical Paradise’ 3 cr.

    This course explores the concept of ‘border’ as a geographic and symbolic space by focusing on the work of contemporary writers from the Caribbean region, many of whom reside  in the USA and Europe. The course provides students with an overview of the histories, cultural identities, literary and creative expressions of the Caribbean archipelago. Students consider the role that Caribbean diaspora fiction, poetry, and critical theory play in contemporary North American and European societies.  Readings are in English or translated into English.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW317 Literature from Immigrants in America 3 cr.

    This course focuses on literary texts and films that examine the experience of immigrants in the USA from the 1950s to today. Through the reading of excerpts of novels, short stories and critical essays, and the viewing of feature films and documentaries, the course treats issues that have affected successive generations of Irish, Jewish, Italian, Japanese, Indian and more recently Hispanic/Caribbean immigrants in the USA. The course devotes special attention to the experience of marginalization of the immigrants, changes in their family structure, the process of ‘becoming American,’ and the social and cultural impact these communities have had on US national identity. The course also considers ways in which immigrant writers both adopt and adapt the English language, while changing and often enriching it, and how they work against conventional cultural and visual representations of immigrants in US media. [Formerly Immigrants in America]

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
    Fall/Spring
  

  • LALW318 Word and Image in the 19th Century: The Romantic Tradition 3cr

    This course investigates the connections between poetry, painting, and the graphic arts in the nineteenth century. The course treats how writers and artists shared a series of similar concerns over revolution, nature, and the individual and how these concerns combined to shape the development of a specifically romantic tradition within the literary and visual arts. Writers and artists include Blake, Wordsworth, Byron, Rossetti, Goya, Constable, Turner, Delacroix and the Pre-Raphaelites.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
  

  • LALW320 Poetry Workshop 3 cr.

    In this course, students write, revise, and share poems as a community, experimenting with new subjects and new forms and responding attentively to poems written by other class members. Additionally, they consider published poetry to learn key elements of poetic craft. Students assemble their original poems into portfolios to demonstrate their command of imagery, diction, stanza, line, voice, form, prosody (sound and rhythm), and other aspects of richly dynamic poetry.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW321 The Crisis of Modern Man 3cr

    This course revolves around the great themes of Existentialism.  Throughout our readings and discussions, we come face to face with “Modern Man.” We encounter a world in which “God is dead” where human beings are suddenly and absolutely confronted with the responsibility of creating meaning for themselves in an absurd world, a world where people must define good and evil on their own terms with no recourse to a “morality” to guide them.  We look at the uniquely human problems of alienation and despair, freedom and responsibility, the striving for authenticity in an inauthentic world, the power wielded by the objectifying other, and the confrontation with a society which dehumanizes us and would imprison us within a world of limits, with death being the most terrible limit of all. Authors include Kierkegaard, Sartre, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky and Camus, among others.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Undergraduate Elective
    Spring
  

  • LALW322 Shakespeare: On Film and In Print, Part 1 3 cr.

    A study of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Hamlet, and King Lear, using a genre approach. Emphasis is on reading and understanding Shakespeare. The films are studied as contemporary realizations and interpretations of the plays.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW323 Nationalism in Music & Literature 3cr

    This course focuses on the interplay of folk and sacred music and idioms, language and dialect, and regionalist and nationalist literature in the evolution of 19th-century musical regionalist and nationalist expression.   It treats the confluence of history and geography, the significance of minority-language rights and expression, and the development of human rights and religious freedoms as central to understanding artists’, composers’ and authors’ motivations.

    Prerequisites: LALW200
     

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Spring
  

  • LALW324 Shakespeare: On Film and In Print, Part II 3 cr.

    A study of The Taming of the Shrew, Henry IV: Part I, Julius Caesar, Othello, and Antony and Cleopatra, using a genre approach. Emphasis is on reading and understanding Shakespeare. The films are studied as contemporary realizations and interpretations of the plays.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW326 Asian Cinema: Postwar India, Japan & China 3cr

    This course looks at the development of Asian cinema through the lens of three of the most important national film industries: India, Japan, and China.  How do the films from these countries reflect diverse but interrelated cultural traditions?  How is the cinematic representation of these traditions shaped by a dialogue with Hollywood and European film?  How does the development of post-war Asian cinema reflect the shift from a national to a more global film market?  This course explores these and other related questions though a combination of weekly film screenings, lecture, and class discussion.  Directors include Satyajit Ray, Kenji Mizoguchi, Akira Kurosawa, John Woo, and Wong Kar-Wai.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall & Spring
  

  • LALW327 Irish Literature: The Easter Rebellion 3 cr.

    The course treats the literature and politically explosive speeches that reflected Irish-English tensions and inflamed Ireland’s desire for freedom. Readings include Yeats, Joyce, Synge and others.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW328 Contemporary Italian Literature and Film: Myths, Identity and the “Mirage of America” 3cr

    This course introduces students to significant Italian literature of the second half of the 20th century. These novels and short stories provide a variety of perspectives and insights into Italy as a country, with its complex history, rich culture, and changing values (e.g. the role of the Catholic Church in a secular society, recent immigration from Africa and Asia, North-South regional conflict, and recent national debates on gender equality, on politics, and on the Mafia).

    The course also treats significant post-1960 feature films by Italian directors and actors. These Italian authors, intellectuals and artists influence contemporary American literary and culture. In this respect, novels and films treated in this course reflect the “mirage of America” in Italian culture and also reveal contemporary Italian representations of Italian-Americans. Students analyze these representations of America in Italian culture and compare them with the images of present-day Italy in American media, arts and popular culture.

    Prerequisites: LALW-200

    Lecture
    Elective
    Fall and Spring
  

  • LALW329 Literature & Culture of the Great War 3 cr

    The Great War (1914-1918) altered global politics, national cultures, language, consciousness, and aesthetics in ways that the world is still processing. This course explores the culture into which the war exploded; the lived and written experience of soldiers and civilians alike; and hallmarks of the diverse body of literary and artistic output that responded to the horrors of mechanized trench warfare, shellshock, and massive loss. The reading list includes works by Robert Graves, David Jones, Guillaume Apollinaire, Virginia Woolf, Erich Maria Remarque, Wilfred Owen, and others.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture
    Elective
    Fall/Spring
  

  • LALW332 The End is Near! Envisioning the Apocalypse 3cr.

    The course introduces apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic literary texts. Readings include eighteen and nineteen century end-of-days texts by Daniel Defoe, Anita Letita Barbauld, Edgar Allen Poe, and present-day manifestations of this idea (among others, Cormac McCarthy, The Road, Robert Kirkman & Tony Moore, The Walking Dead). The course treats the concept of “dystopia” as an expression of recurring and contemporary anxieties.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture
    Spring
  

  • LALW333 Silent Film Miracles 3cr.

    This course introduces students to masterpieces
    of silent cinema, the now lost art form that
    predates the widespread adoption of sound-on-disc
    and sound-on-film recording technology in the
    late 1920s. Students undertake research on
    aspects of silent cinema. Readings include Silent
    Stars (Jeanine Basinger), Silent Players (Anthony
    Slide), Hollywood: The Pioneers (Kevin Brownlow &
    John Kobal), and others. The viewing list
    includes Battleship Potemkin, Beau Geste, Ben
    Hur, Broken Blossoms, Cabinet of Dr. Cagliari,
    City Lights, He Who Gets Slapped, Hell’s Angels,
    Hunchback of Notre Dame, It, Man With Movie
    Camera, Metropolis, My Best Girl, Passion of Joan
    of Arc, Peter Pan, Prix de Beauté, Rain, Seventh
    Heaven, Show People, Son of the Sheik, Speedy,
    Stella Dallas, The Big Parade, The Crowd, The
    Great White Silence, Thief of Bagdad, Trip to the
    Moon.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture
    Spring
  

  • LALW336 Masters of Film 3cr

    An examination of the contributions that distinguished filmmakers, including directors, editors, and cinematographers, have made to the art of motion pictures.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall
  

  • LALW346 Camelot: Tales of King Arthur 3 cr.

    A study of the literary epics of the legends surrounding Camelot and King Arthur, their origins in the middle ages and subsequent variations.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW349 History of Film 3 cr.

    This course surveys film history from the 1890s to the present. Students use a history of film textbook and general history readings to study films demonstrating the evolving development of motion picture art and the motion picture industry. Students undertake film making exercises and produce written research treating trends and questions in motion picture history.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW353 Modern European Cinema 3 cr.

    The course treats trends in recent European cinema, discussing themes and production values across genres and cultures from western to eastern Europe, including Scandinavia and Great Britain. Filmmakers include Lars von Trier, Patrice Chéreau, Fatih Akin, Hanif Kureishi, Catherine Breillat and others. This is a seminar course with a lecture and discussion format, several essays and one mid-term.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW362 Twenty-first Century Novel 3 cr.

    This course examines developing trends and standards for English-language novels in the twenty first century. It treats nine geographically and stylistically varied permutations of this long-fiction art form (including literary prize-winners and bestsellers) while attempting to place them in the web of literary tradition. Touchstone text and beginning book is the acclaimed 20th century novel Howard’s End, in which author E.M Forster famously exhorts his readers to “only connect.” In this spirit, the course seeks to connect the best of what authors are writing now with traditions of literary practice, always looking ahead to probable evolutions in the twenty first century.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    All College Elective
  

  • LALW365 Women’s literature in Global Perspective’ 3cr.

    This course surveys twentieth and twenty-first century literature by women authors working from transnational perspectives. It introduces authors from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and West Africa who, collectively, expand and enrich existing narratives of women’s experience. These authors, from formerly colonized parts of the world and now residing and writing in Europe or the USA, engage with colonial histories and their lingering effect on today’s gender roles and expectations, on myths of masculinity, and on exoticization of non-western women’s bodies. The writings cross borders of literary genres, languages, fields of knowledge and media. In the course we investigate how global women’s narratives can respond to existing gender, racial, and colonial hierarchies, and how globalization influences the production and reception of women’s literature across cultures. [Formerly Women’s Literature in International Perspective]

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture
    Culturally Diverse
    Fall & Spring
  

  • LALW400 Directed Study 3 cr.

    A Liberal Arts directed study is a research project selected by a student in a Liberal Arts discipline. Typically, the study results in a research paper of thirty plus pages or the equivalent, as agreed upon by the faculty member supervising the project. Because of its advanced nature, a Liberal Arts LALW directed study is open only to seniors and is limited to one per semester. No more than two Liberal Arts directed studies may be counted toward Liberal Arts degree requirements. Students seeking to register for a LALW directed study must execute a directed study proposal form that describes the proposed project, includes a bibliography, and describes the final project. Liberal Arts directed studies proposals require the approval of the Liberal Arts Department chair.

     

    Prerequisites: LALW200 enrollment senior elective, and consent of the instructor.

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
  

  • LALW403 Writing an Artist’s Statement 3 cr.

    A workshop in which initial drafts and subsequent revisions of students’ writings are photocopied, distributed to all members of the class, and critiqued. The objective is to help students develop artist’s statements that: (a) are appropriate to the purposes for which they are written; (b) articulate what the student wants to say about their art; and (c) communicate clearly to the intended audiences.

     

    Prerequisites: Seniors Only

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    Senior Elective
  

  • LALW404 Translations: Literature, Language and Psychology 3cr

    What drives humans to use artistic means to communicate? Why do we manifest our thoughts and feeling as images, as texts, on the screen and on a canvas? This course considers these questions through a study of the concept of translation broadly defined. Students translate from one language to another, paraphrase within a single language, interpret signs, translate from one artistic medium to another, and translate inner thoughts to the outside world. Course materials include film adaptations of literary texts, poems based on plays, paintings based on poems or novels, adaptations of TV series for foreign audiences, and theories about the possibility of communicating one’s inner world to the outside. Readings by Borges, Freud, Pirandello, Jhumpa Lahiri, E.T.A. Hoffman, André Breton, Kafka, Hawthorne, Shakespeare, and Ovid.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Spring
  

  • LALW410 Opera and the fusion of the Arts 3 cr.

    What is opera? German composer Richard Wagner described it as a “total art work,” combining music, drama, singing, and scenic design. This course encourages new ways of thinking about the relationships between different artistic disciplines and forms. Students view and discuss a selection of operas from the seventeenth through twentieth centuries. No classical music background is required, and no one is expected to sing. In a final project combining artwork and critical writing, students imagine and design a production for an opera of their choice.

    Prerequisites: LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS243 Planet Earth: A User’s Guide 3 cr.

    This course examines the Earth’s landforms,
    oceans, atmosphere and major physical processes.
    It considers how natural systems and historic
    natural processes influence human societies and
    individual humans. It investigates the extent to
    which past and present human activities may or
    may not influence natural systems of the planet.
    Students utilize Google Earth, in-class
    activities, maps, and associated tools and
    documents to investigate the Earth’s physical
    geography.

    Prerequisites: LALW100 and FRSM100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall

Liberal Arts: Mathematics and Science
  

  • LAMS200 The Universe 3 cr.

    A study of how the basic laws of physics and astronomical observations lead to an understanding of the universe as a whole.

    Prerequisites: FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LAMS203 Physics of Music 3 cr.

    This course uses principles of physics to understand musical instruments, scales, and chords. Required background: students must be able to find notes from written music on an instrument of their choice. The course draws upon algebra.

    Prerequisites: FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LAMS204 Botany 3cr

    This course explores the diverse world of plants from a variety of angles, including their structure, ecology, classification, and their importance in world economies and cultures. Topics include plant growth and morphology, identification of local plants, plant symbolism, medicinal and edible plants, and conservation. We will consider these attributes through seminar, discussion, projects, and local field trips and explorations. No prior biological knowledge is necessary.

    Prerequisites: FRSM100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall & Spring
  

  • LAMS205 Mathematics, Logic, and Knowledge 3 cr.

    A study of the veracity of mathematics and mathematical thought. Axioms of mathematics, elements of formal logic, and Gödel’s proof and its philosophical consequences are covered.

    Prerequisites: FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LAMS206 Biomimicry 3cr

    Biomimicry is the study of the structure and function of biological systems as models for the design and engineering of materials. In this course, students become acquainted with basic concepts in biology, physics and engineering. Building upon this foundation, the course treats how designers solve design problems by mimicking nature.

    Prerequisites: FRSM100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall & Spring
  

  • LAMS208 Bacteria Assassins 3cr.

    Almost everyone has taken antibiotics at some point during their lives and we read every day about deadly “superbugs” that are resistant to antibiotics. But what does this resistance mean and how did we get here? The course examines the antibiotic resistance problem and an often-touted possible alternative, bacteriophages. Bacteriophages are viruses of bacteria and were discovered exactly 100 years ago during the First World War. Students examine and synthesize the biology, history, ecology, and applications of these two types of bacteria killers to better understand the treatment of bacterial infections today and what may come in the future. This course helps students understand current events and science relevant to their lives - such as on antibiotics and antibiotic resistance, emerging diseases (such as Ebola), and the human microbiome. No laboratory experience is required.

    Prerequisites: FRSM-100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall & Spring
  

  • LAMS240 Biological Form and Function 3 cr.

    An examination of the importance of shape, or form, to biological function. Students explore selected examples at several levels of organization (molecule, cell, individual, community) in a variety of organisms (viruses, bacteria, plants, fungi, invertebrate and vertebrate animals, embryos and mature forms). The course teaches fundamental concepts of biology and prepares students to compare biological and artistic form and function.

    Prerequisites: FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LAMS320 Environmental Science 3 cr.

    A study of the principles of ecology, a science intertwining many biological and physical science disciplines. The course distinguishes the scientific, technological, and social domains. It treats complex human impacts and environmental concerns (such as biodiversity, population size, food and energy resources, air and water pollution, waste management, recycling, and sustainability) and raises issues of environmental ethics, risk assessment, and policy planning.

    Prerequisites: FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LAMS321 Visual Ecology 3cr

    Many animals utilize vision every day for a diversity of functions, from foraging, navigation, and communication. Animal visual systems are complex and critically important to the survival and ecology of animals everywhere. However, not all visual systems are the same. How do visual systems differ between different species, populations, sexes, and individuals? How do eyes, visual processing and perception evolve? What role does the environment play in the development and evolution of visual systems? This course examines the vast diversity of animal visual systems, including the human visual system, and explores the function, design, and adaptive mechanisms across species. This course takes a comparative and integrative approach to explore nature’s most complex and fascinating sensory system from an ecological and evolutionary context.

    Prerequisites: FRSM100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Spring
  

  • LAMS322 Animal Sex, Biodiversity and Gender 3cr.

    This course explores the vast diversity of reproductive and mating strategies, sex roles, gender and sexuality in animals and nature. This course takes an integrative and comparative approach to survey the diverse morphological, behavioral, physiological and ecological aspects of sex and reproduction. The course treats the evolution of sexual and asexual reproduction, focusing on ecological and evolutionary factors that influence and constrain biodiversity. Students critically examine the scientific evidence that supports and questions the framework of sexual selection and alternative theories. Students consider and evaluate traditional and emerging forms of scientific communication regarding evolutionary biology and sexual diversity.

    Prerequisites: FRSM100

    Lecture
    Fall & Spring
  

  • LAMS400 Directed Study Math/Science 3 cr.

    A Liberal Arts directed study is a research project selected by a student in a Liberal Arts discipline. Typically, the study results in a research paper of thirty plus pages or the equivalent, as agreed upon by the faculty member supervising the project. Because of its advanced nature, a Liberal Arts LAMS directed study is open only to seniors and is limited to one per semester. No more than two Liberal Arts directed studies may be counted toward Liberal Arts degree requirements. Students seeking to register for a LAMS directed study must execute a directed study proposal form that describes the proposed project, includes a bibliography, and describes the final project. Liberal Arts directed studies proposals require the approval of the Liberal Arts Department chair.

     

    Prerequisites: FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar

Liberal Arts: Social Sciences
  

  • LASS200 Pirates, Witches and Slaves: Studies in Early American History 3 cr.

    A study of American history beginning with its roots in early America, Africa and Europe, continuing through the colonial period, the War for Independence, the Constitution and the Creek War (commonly known as the War of 1812), which set the stage for the developing internal conflict leading up to the Civil War.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS206 Seminar in Romanticism 3 cr.

    What is Romanticism? To what areas of intellectual life does the term have reference? To art? Literature? Philosophy? Religion? History? Politics? The answer is yes to all the above, and then some. The seminar explores the nature of this immense cultural movement while focusing on the work of the great Romantic poets, writers and artists of the nineteenth century in Europe and America.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    Undergraduate Elective
  

  • LASS208 Social Psychology 3 cr.

    Social Psychology explores the behavior of individuals and groups in social contexts. In this course, emphasis is placed on how social aspects may be relevant to being an artistic individual in today’s society. Topics include: How are our thoughts, feelings, and behavior influenced by the presence of other human beings? Can we manipulate someone else’s opinion? Does self-fulfilling prophesy exist? What are social norms? Questions related to how a person’s self-image develops, how individuals think about and react to the world, and how they understand themselves and others are explored. In addition, students learn about concepts such as impression and attitude formation, persuasion, pro-social behavior, prejudice and discrimination, obedience and compliance, aggression, group psychology, and personality

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS209 Civil War and Reconstruction Era 3 cr.

    US history from the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to the presidential election of 1876.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS210 Representations of Race 3 cr.

    This course considers how “race” is constructed and affirmed, drawing on images and texts from nineteenth century minstrelsy through 1950s depiction of the American family up to the current pluralistic moment.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    Undergraduate Elective
  

  • LASS211 The American Century 3 cr.

    From the Spanish-Cuban-Filipino-American War to the present.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS221 Free Speech, Free Art and the Law 3 cr.

    Would you like to know more about Shepard Fairey’s controversial poster of Barack Obama or “Dread” Scott Tyler’s confrontational art installation, “What is the Proper Way to Display a US Flag?”? Or what do you make of the attempted censorship of Chris Ofili’s “Holy Virgin Mary?” In this course students study recent debates as well as past disputes over freedom of speech and exhibiting works of art from socio-cultural perspectives including art historical and legal.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS222 History of Modern Middle East 3 cr.

    One hundred years ago, the borders of modern Middle Eastern states did not exist. With the conclusion of World War I in 1918, however, the European powers divided up the territories of the former Ottoman Empire and created new borders, new states, and new conflicts. Beginning with the end of World War I, the course explores the development of each Middle Eastern country’s unique identity and history and considers how they interact with one another and with the outside world today. The course treats differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims, Middle Eastern minorities such as Druze, Christians, Alawis, Alevis, and Ismailis, and the differences between Jews, Arabs, Turks, Persians and Kurds. The impact of the Arab-Israeli conflict, oil, the war in Iraq, and the rise of political Islam throughout the region are also considered. The class includes readings, lectures, video, and class discussions in order to illuminate the region’s unique history and political style.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS229 History of Jazz 3cr

    The history of jazz music, people, and culture, from nineteenth century origins to today. A survey of major artists, groups, and periods, including New Orleans jazz, the Swing Era, Bebop, and other movements. Reading of historical sources and recent commentary inform the study of jazz in American society and global culture. Guided listening builds understanding of form and structure in this art form. No knowledge of music notation required.

    Prerequisites: FRSM100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall & Spring
  

  • LASS230 Financial Literacy 3cr

    Practical knowledge about personal finance (budgets and credit) and money management (banking and the ABCs of investing). Readings and discussion on current financial topics.

    Prerequisites: LALW100 and FRSM100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
  

  • LASS232 Free Speech, Democracy and Artists 3cr

    This course examines freedom of speech, a fundamental right indispensable to democracy and indispensable for artists. The tension between liberty and control of speech is central to many forms of media and artistic expression. The course examines speech broadly by examining topics such as:  speech during wartime or in time of fear; hate speech; speech by students; and libel and slander. In addition, the course examines free speech controversies involving obscenity and pornography, or merely nudity, including controversies concerning artistic expression in film and literature. Students consider speech on television, the Internet, and social media. The course also treats symbolic expressions of speech, such as flag burning and painting; as well as campaign financing as speech. The course focuses primarily on U.S. law–most of the readings will be excerpts of U.S. Supreme Court cases–but the course includes a comparative component, incorporating laws regulating speech and expression in other nations.

    Prerequisites: FRSM100, LALW100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall & Spring
  

  • LASS233 The World of Music 3cr

    The course explores selected music and rhythms from throughout the world. Students explore various folk, popular, indigenous, and hybrid music from every continent and surveys the development of musical traditions through the development of contemporary world music.  The course also treats several American musical traditions, including country, folk, and musical transmissions from Europe, expressive cultural traditions from indigenous peoples of America, and black musical traditions in the New World. This is a Liberal Arts course with required readings, written assignments, and listening work. Under a different course number and requiring different assignments,  this course may also provide studio credit in selected studio departments.

    Prerequisites: FRSM100. LALW100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall & Spring
  

  • LASS236 Music and Society 3cr

    The course considers how music expresses and inspires social change.  By examining the origin and inspiration of major works of classical music, such as Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro, Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, and Shostakovich’s Babi Yar Symphony, the course considers what music reveals about history.

    Prerequisites: FRSM100; LALW100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall & Spring
  

  • LASS237 Ethics, Technology and Change 3cr

    We live in a period that promises dramatic technological changes. Information technology continually spawns new and popular applications, and genetic technology promises to revolutionize food production and medicine. The emergence of these and other technologies raises new ethical and social issues and recasts existing issues in new forms. What will our technological future be like? Which kinds of technologies should we develop? How should they be utilized? This course will examine ethical issues arising from developments in biotechnology and medical engineering, modern agriculture, machine intelligence, and information technology. Should we produce ‘bio-hybrid’ humans by making genetic and robotic enhancements available to the able bodied? What are the ethical implications of factory farming and genetically modified foods? How do information technologies impact our rights to privacy and free speech? The course explores the real-world implications of emerging technologies on issues of equality, privacy, poverty and the health of our bodies, our societies and our planet.

    Prerequisites: LALW100, FRSM100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall & Spring
  

  • LASS239 Entrepreneurship 3 cr

    This course imparts practical knowledge about starting an entrepreneurial business. The course treats different elements of business creation; idea generation and development, customer needs and potential markets, advertising, pricing, and financial modeling. The final project is a ten-minute pitch to outside investors and business consultants.

    Prerequisites: LALW100, FRSM100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall/Spring
  

  • LASS241 Twentieth Century World History 3cr.

    World history from 1900 to 2001. The course
    introduces students to major events and major
    themes in twentieth century history, including
    world wars, the rise and fall of totalitarian
    philosophies and empires, economic contractions
    and expansions, colonial empires and liberation
    movement, antithetical internationalist,
    nationalist, regionalist, and faith-based
    movements, and the gradual process by which the
    machine age became the information world.

    Prerequisites: LALW-100 & FRSM-100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall & Spring
  

  • LASS242 Film Music 3cr.

    This course treats the evolution of film music
    from silent movies until the present.  It
    introduces students to musical syntax, the
    aesthetics of film music, and the means by which
    composers synchronize music and script to convey
    mood and render action vivid. Working
    chronologically, the course explores the
    increasing importance of music in cinema and how
    music functions as an expressive element in a
    film.  The course treats composers who wrote
    almost exclusively for the cinema (i.e., Charlie
    Chaplin and the contemporary John Williams),
    treats classical central European composers who
    migrated to the screen composition from wartime
    Europe (i.e., Korngold, Waxman, Alexandre
    Tansman, Bronislaw Kaper), and treats
    composer-director/producer collaborations such as
    Eisenstein-Prokofiev, Rota-Fellini/Visconti, and
    others. The course additionally treats the role
    of ethnic music (Morocco, India, China, Japan) in
    world cinema. Two term papers are assigned, one
    dealing with a composer-director partnership, the
    second treating the function of score in a major,
    iconic film such as Gone with the Wind. The
    textbook is Mervyn Cooke’s A History of Film
    Music.

    Prerequisites: LALW-100 & FRSM-100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Spring
  

  • LASS280 Introduction to Psychology 3 cr.

    An examination of the dynamics of the self from the interpretative, clinical perspective. The course discusses the growth and the making of the “solid self” and explores the influences that can further or hinder the constitution of a coherent, stable personality. Narcissistic disorders, the most common psychic disorders of our time, are also addressed.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
    Fall/Spring
  

  • LASS281 Psychology of Flourishing 3 cr.

    This course examines the human potential for growth and flourishing as well as for resiliency. Traditionally, psychologists have aimed at helping individuals notice and fix unwanted or dysfunctional habits, uncover and repair unfortunate or traumatic childhood experiences, or calibrate damaged brain chemistry. Rather than focusing on human weakness and dysfunction, this class explores the human condition from a positive psychology perspective. Students study concepts such as hope, happiness, optimism, and resiliency, and surveys human core character strengths and virtues.

     

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS300 Race in America 3 cr.

    How did various peoples from America, Africa, and Europe, speaking different languages and possessing different cultures, come to be defined as “red”, “black”, and “white,” and how did later immigrants or conquered peoples from Asia and the western hemisphere get fitted into this scheme? This class examines how race categories were formed in the colonial period and have been repeatedly remade up to the present.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS301 Social Philosophy of Art 3 cr.

    This course is for enthusiasts, juniors and seniors, who like ideas and think that valid reasons exist to examine art in the social, intellectual, and cultural context. Our framework is that of social philosophy. Three central themes organize the course: the pre- modern and the rise of modernity, the transition of modernity into postmodernity, and the character of art at our current moment. The course examines the roots of the modern and the current in the pre-modern. Why did the Romanesque give way to the Gothic? Was it just that people became bored with the same old style? If not that, then what? How far do you need to go to understand the phenomenon? The art-historical background is paramount. Students lacking this art history and history background should take the course at a later date. Students unprepared to understand historical references this material takes for granted must make up for it by reading historical texts in the reader. Our intention is not descriptive but analytic and critical. Many preconceived notions are challenged. Participants  use examples from art history as needed to enlighten a larger point: the intersection between ideas, culture, society, and the art world as it evolves from the premodern into the modern and into our current moment.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    Junior, Senior Elective
  

  • LASS302 Gender, Class and Race in American Film 3 cr.

    This class analyzes film as an important part of mass culture. The course is a social science course, not a “film viewing” one. It treats sociological themes such as gender, class, and race as these themes are reflected in the actions of the film’s characters; in their relations with other characters; in their expectations, hopes, and dreams; and, implicitly, in the film’s cinematic, visual aspects.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS303 Abnormal Psychology 3 cr.

    This course introduces the field of abnormal psychology. Questions regarding the “abnormal” or “normal” in historical and cultural contexts are explored. In addition, students study diagnostic criteria and statistical data of the major mental disorders as compiled in the DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Treatment options for each disorders and associated theoretical perspectives are examined. The roles of environment, genetic factors, psychodynamics, neuropsychology, and biochemistry in the determination of psychopathology are discussed.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS305 How Language Works 3 cr.

    The course introduces basic linguistic concepts, including wordplay, language games, and the symbolic power of language. Supplementing the course textbook are: Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass; cartoons by Saul Steinberg; remarks by Oscar Wilde and Groucho Marx; puns by Shakespeare; paintings that incorporate words; newspaper headlines; advertising slogans; bumper-stickers; word puzzles and brain teasers.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS306 Ancient History from Prehistory to Rome 3 cr.

    A survey of the extensive period from the Old Stone Age to the fall of Rome in the fifth century AD. The course first investigates the ancient river valley civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China, concentrating on the major achievements of each. The second half of the course offers a detailed account of the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome and an in-depth discussion of Judaism and early Christianity.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS307 Medieval and Renaissance History 3cr

    This course encompasses no less than twelve centuries of European history extending from the last decades of the Roman Empire in the West to what is often referred to as the Early Modern period (I.e., the 16th century), the era characterized by the rise of powerful centralized monarchical states and empires.  Throughout, a determined effort is made to precisely define broad historical concepts such as “civilizations” and “intellectual revolutions.”  For example,  we will ask what particular historical and cultural elements made the Medieval West a distinct civilization?  In the same manner, what presumably different and distinct elements formed and shaped the civilization of Byzantium?  What was the Renaissance, both in  Italy, and north and west of the Alps?  Where and how does the Renaissance intersect with the Reformation and the Reconnaissance, enormously significant historical phenomena in themselves?

    Prerequisites: LALW100, FRSM100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall & Spring
  

  • LASS308 Narcissism, Aggression and Creativity 3cr

    Are we really capable of falling in love with an image of ourselves, as in the story of Echo and Narcissus? If so, what are the consequences? Do contemporary cultural themes cast a light on the story? What impulses motivate these thoughts and processes? This course utilizes a psychoanalytic approach to discover and analyze themes that emerge from an awareness of creative impulses. What blocks them? What role does aggression play in the responsiveness to the creative impulse? Psychoanalytic literature, in combination with contemporary themes, questions and illuminates the art making process.

    Prerequisites: LALW100, FRSM100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall
  

  • LASS309 History of Modern Europe 3 cr.

    A comprehensive overview of the last four centuries of European history. The course surveys political and international history, social history, and intellectual history. Students gain a deep appreciation for the rich complexity of European civilization and an understanding of the continuity of events from the seventeenth century onward.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS312 Technology and Language 3cr

    The course investigates the relationship of languages of expression to tools and communication technologies. Through interdisciplinary exploration of various modes and practices, from the language of typography, audio/visual expression, to dynamic languages of interaction, social media and crowd sourcing, students gain knowledge and understanding of current issues of social communication in the context of dynamic media technology. The course introduces students to recent developments, theory and criticism of communication design and technology through selected case studies involving the work of historical and contemporary inventors, designers, artists and new media innovators.

    Prerequisites: LALW100,FRSM100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall
  

  • LASS313 American Radical Tradition 3cr

    What is radicalism (as distinct from liberalism)? Is there an American (as distinct from an international) radical tradition? By focusing on the anti-slavery movement before the Civil War, the Industrial Workers of the World of the first quarter of the twentieth century, and the New Left of the 1960s, the class probes these questions.

    Prerequisites: LALW100,FRSM100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Spring
  

  • LASS314 Race,Class and the American Dream 3cr

    How do race and class operate not just in categorizing people, but in maintaining and reproducing the socio- economic life and in
    shaping common experience of history and present. We will focus on African Americans and white Americans and discuss what race means, and what class means – historically, culturally, and economically – in the context of the American dream.  6 cinematic representations  will serve
    us as prompts to examine in depth selected historical themes, from the Civil War to the
    present.

    Prerequisites: LALW-100 and FRSM-100

    Lecture
    Undergraduate Elective
    Fall and Spring
  

  • LASS318 Seminar: Reading Marx 3 cr.

    A critical reading and discussion of some of Karl Marx’s writings on history, philosophy and society, plus commentary.

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS321 Bonds of Love: Attachment and the Brain 3 cr.

    This course examines intimate human relationships ranging from infancy through adulthood by exploring new findings in neuroscience as well as in developmental/relational/depth psychologies. The course treats questions about selfhood and emotion; the capacities for empathy, attachment and solitude, and received ideas of love in the relationships we form. The course includes readings in psychology, neuropsychology, fiction,  documentary and feature film clips.

     

    Prerequisites: LALW100; FRSM100; LALW200

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS351 Intellectual History of Modern Europe 3 cr.

    A study of major trends in Europe from the French Enlightenment to the present. Topics include the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and major nineteenth and twentieth century schools of philosophy and criticism.

    Prerequisites: LALW100,FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS357 Civil Liberties 3 cr.

    This course addresses civil liberties, fundamental rights indispensable to democracy and indispensable for artists. The course examines civil liberties broadly by examining topics such as: freedom of speech and association; freedom of religion; equal protection of the laws and affirmative action; gender discrimination and abortion cases, as well as gay marriage, and the important notion of human dignity. In addition, the course  addresses the right to privacy, the death penalty, and gerrymandering of Congressional districts. We study primarily U.S. law–most of the readings are excerpts of U.S. Supreme Court cases – but the course also includes other readings, such as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, and considers laws of other nations affecting civil liberties.

    Prerequisites: LALW100,FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS359 Technology and Change 3 cr.

    A study of the relationship between technological advance and social, economic, political, intellectual, and artistic change. Historical in method, the course concentrates on the last two hundred years.

    Prerequisites: LALW100,FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS360 Memory and Dreams 3 cr.

    This course explores the intersecting realms of memory and dream. Dreaming is an entirely subjective experience, but how objective is remembering? How do we understand phenomena like post-traumatic or implanted or false memories? How can culture construct our memories–and our forgettings–for us? How can we separate identity from memory and either from forms of fiction? The world of dream: is it meaningful, nonsense, prophetic, usable? This course treats current neuroscience and neuropsychology,  film clips, case histories, fiction, and analytic theory. In preparation for the final project,  students keep a nightly dream journal. The course treats the nature of consciousness and subjectivity, the existence of a coherent self over time, and the creative uses to which memory and dream may be put.

    Prerequisites: LALW100, FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS401 On Truth and Value 3 cr.

    The course is organized around the following core questions: What is truth and is it attainable? Why is truth important? How do we get to know objective reality? What is a “good life” in the ethical sense, and why should one desire to live a “good life?”

    Prerequisites: LALW100, FRSM100

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    All College Elective
  

  • LASS402 Minds,Brains&Consciousness 3 cr.

    What is the mind? Some of history’s most
    profound thinkers have attempted to answer this
    question, yet the nature of the mind remains
    elusive and hotly debated in contemporary
    philosophy. Can the mysteries of conscious
    experience be reconciled with a naturalistic,
    scientific world view? Is the mind really just a
    kind of computer, a machine made of meat? What
    is thinking, and can computers do it? In this
    course, we will investigate what Francis Crick
    has called the Astonishing Hypothesis-“that
    “You,” your joys and your sorrows, your memories
    and your ambitions, your sense of personal
    identity and free will, are in fact no more than
    the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells
    and their associated molecules.”

    Prerequisites: LALW-100 and FRSM-100

    Lecture
    Fall

Photography
  

  • MPPH100 Intro Photo for Non-Majors 3 cr.

    A beginning course for students with an interest in creative work and study in black and white photography. Teaches exposure controls, camera operation and rudimentary film development and printing.

    Hybrid Studio/Critique
    All College Elective
  

  • MPPH206 Introduction to Digital Photography for Non-Majors 3 cr.

    An introduction to the digital darkroom that offers a solid foundation in digital imaging skills. Technical focus is on the current array of input, editing and output options. The content of student work is addressed in periodic critiques, and class discussions emphasize the role of the computer in contemporary photography.

    Hybrid Studio/Critique
    All College Elective
  

  • MPPH240 Sophomore Major Studio I 6 cr.

    This required sophomore course is the first in the progression of major studio/hybrid seminars
    in photography. The course addresses the aesthetic and technical dimensions of contemporary practice in black and white analog photography. Proficiency in B&W darkroom techniques is
    emphasized. At the discretion of the instructor, the class will concentrate on the use of either
    4X5 view cameras or small/medium format cameras for the semester. Weekly assignments and
    critiques familiarize students with the importance of this equipment in contemporary
    practice as well as the history of the medium. Slide presentations and field trips are combined
    with the principles of optics, cameras, film, photographic chemistry and darkroom technique. Studetns are required to attend the regular lecture series that occurs within the limits of scheduled course contact hours.

    Prerequisites: Majors Only

    Hybrid Studio/Critique
    Departmental Requirement
    Fall
  

  • MPPH241 Sophomore Major Studio II 6 cr.

    This required sophomore course is the second in the progression of major studio/hybrid seminars in photography. The course builds upon the base of knowledge students gained about black and white analog photography in Sophomore Major Studio I. Advanced B&W darkroom techniques and fine silver gelatin printing  are emphasized. The class concentrates on the use of the camera format they were not exposed to in Sophomore Major Studio 4X5 view cameras or
    small/medium format cameras- for the semester. Weekly assignments and critiques familiarize
    students with the importance of this equipment in contemporary practive as well as in the history
    of the medium. Slide presentations and field trips are combined with principles of optics,
    cameras, film, photographic chemistry and darkroom technique. Students are required to attend the regular lecture series that occurs within the limits of scheduled course contact hours.

    Prerequisites: MPPH241

    Hybrid Studio/Critique
    Departmental Requirement
    Spring
  

  • MPPH303 Alternative Camera, Alternative Techniques 3 cr.

    An introduction to non-silver processes such as palladium and cyanotype printing and to unusual types of cameras including plastic cameras, pinholes, and others. This class will include regular demonstrations as well as critique and research techniques for seeking out unusual photographic materials.

    Critique
    Departmental Elective
  

  • MPPH304 Lighting for Photography 3 cr.

    This course is designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of photographic
    lighting. Students will explore the uses of strobe, tungsten and ambient light in both studio and location settings. Classes will consist of lectures on a wide array of approaches to the use of lighting, in-class demonstrations, and critique of student work. Over the course of the semester we will endeavor to create a collaborative conversation regarding the use of lighting and its integral relationship to the photographic image.

    Prerequisites: MPPH240 or permission of instructor

    Critique
  

  • MPPH323 Topics in Photography 3 cr.

    Courses with this title offer in-depth studies of special topics in photography. Past seminars have included “Ways of Seeing”, “Photo Book Making”, “Portrait”, and “Afterlife: Professional Practices in Photography”.

    Prerequisites: MPPH240 or permission of instructor

    Critique
    Culturally Diverse Content
    Departmental Elective
  

  • MPPH330 Word and the Photographic Image 3 cr.

    This course is an interdisciplinary look at the intersection of literature and art. Students will be creating work combining the visual and the written. The course will provide lectures and readings of work by artists working in both media, as well as critique of student work, field trips and visiting artists. Emphasis will be on making things, individual or collaborative, combining these two elements.

    Prerequisites: MPPH 100 or MPPH 200 or equivalent, LALW200, or by permission of instructor

    Critique
  

  • MPPH350 Visiting Artist Seminar 3 cr.

    This course introduces students to leading practitioners in the field of contemporary photography through frequent lectures by visiting artists, historians, and curators. The course also includes readings and discussion, film screenings, slide lectures, and visits to area exhibitions.

    Prerequisites: concurrent enrollment in Junior Projects, Senior Projects or Senior Thesis

    Lecture/Seminar
    Culturally Diverse Content
    Departmental Requirement
    Fall/Spring
  

  • MPPH360 Major Studio: Digital Photography 6 cr.

    This course is a rigorous introduction to the digital tools available to photographers. The class covers a wide array of topics, with emphasis placed on digital image capture and the use of the computer as a parallel tool to traditional photographic practices. Weekly critiques address students’ aesthetic and technical progress and are supplemented by readings, lectures, and discussions that evaluate the role of the computer in contemporary photography. Students are meant to develop a solid understanding of these digital imaging practices as well as an adaptable approach to emerging technologies.

    Prerequisites: MPPH260 and MPPH261

    Seminar/Hybrid
    Culturally Diverse Content
    Departmental Requirement
    Fall
  

  • MPPH361 Junior Projects 3 cr.

    In this required course, students develop and refine a personal vision of their own through long-term photography based projects, more advanced technical knowledge, and a deeper familiarity with uses of the medium. Weekly critiques, slide presentations and group discussions are important elements of this class.

    Prerequisites: MPPH260, MPPH261, MPPH360 and concurrent enrollment with the same instructor in MPPH350critique

    Culturally Diverse Content
    Departmental Requirement
    Spring
  

  • MPPH373 Photo Techniques 3 cr.

    Provides an in-depth knowledge of photographic chemistry and advanced black and white printing methods in both analog and digital printing. Techniques covered are print toning and bleaching, negative reducing and intensifying, experimentation with a variety of developers and papers, and archival finishing methods.

    Prerequisites: MPPH240

    Critique
    Departmental Elective
  

  • MPPH374 Photo: Documentary 3 cr.

    This course provides an overview of the history, theory, and politics implied in making documentary work. Assignments and weekly critiques of student projects will encourage our greater understanding of the world and of the photographic language of documentary. By the end of the semester, students will produce a coherent body of work following a specific subject chosen in consultation with the instructor. Related readings, discussions, and slide presentations will be introduced. Formely titled: Documentary Seminar

    Prerequisites: MPPH240 or MPPH241

    Critique
    Culturally Diverse Content
    Departmental Elective
    Fall & Spring
  

  • MPPH377 Landscape Photo 3 cr.

    A course designed to explore the contemporary landscape, both with the camera and through readings on the land and on environmental concerns. Emphasis is on student photographic work, discussion of imagery and literature, and developing a personal perspective on the human relationship to the land.

    Prerequisites: MPPH240 or permission of instructor

    Critique
    Culturally Diverse Content
    Fall/Spring
  

  • MPPH379 Image and Object 3 cr.

    Image and Object is a cross-media course that examines some of the possible intersections of photography and sculpture. The course will provide demonstrations of a number of photographic and sculptural processes, lectures about artists who work with both mediums as well as critiques, field trips and visiting artists. The emphasis in this course will be on making hybrid objects, on the development of individual projects and critiques.

    Prerequisites: jr. level or above

    Hybrid Studio/Critique
    All College Elective
 

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