Foundation Requirements

HCD-1020

Writing and Thinking NYC

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

This New York City-themed course helps students become critical and independent writers. To help establish a solid foundation in writing, the course introduces different types of writing using persuasive rhetoric in three writing genres—narration, description, and cause and effect. Course readings are drawn from a variety of New York-based texts, including historical documents, short stories, drama, poetry and essays, which will be used as discussion and writing prompts. By the end of the course, students will have an enhanced understanding of writing as a means to think and better communicate their ideas.

HCD-1025

Writing and Literature

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

This course emphasizes reading, critical thinking and essay writing. Students will build on their skills acquired in HCD-1020, Writing and Thinking NYC, in order to work on more complex essays. Students will learn how to research, use proper citations, and continue to work on their grammar and essay development. Readings are drawn from a selection of literary works, including drama, poetry and the narrative, as well as the critical essay.

General Course Listing

HISTORY

HHD-2001

History of Ancient Civilizations

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

In Egypt and Mesopotamia people built big and thought big. Between 3,500 to 500 BCE, they created technology that allowed them to live in cities. They invented writing and began to record their own story. They built the pyramids and charted the motion of the stars. Their “firsts” include the work of the world’s first-known author and the first medical description of cancer. They wrote about gods and heroes that walked among them, powerful queen-mothers and women who were kings; they also wrote the books that are the scriptures of some major world religions. This course will focus on the seminal urban cultures of Mesopotamia and Africa: Sumer, Egypt and Nubia, Akkad, Assyria, Hatti, Israel, Phoenicia, Crete and Mycenae, and Persia. Contacts with other cultures of Afro-Eurasia will be considered. Literary texts include Gilgamesh, Sinuhe and the hymns of Enheduanna.

HHD-2011

Medieval and Renaissance History

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

People who lived during the thousand years between the end of the Roman Empire in the West and the discovery of the “New World” did not, of course, describe themselves as “medieval.” They thought they lived in “modern times.” This course will look at a selection of topics that were once “current events,” such as the last Romans, Anglo-Saxon England, monasticism, the Vikings, the Crusades, Arabic learning, the Eastern Roman Empire, the Black Death, the university, the communes, chivalry and war. We will also look into popular culture phenomena such as the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin and political medievalism. Throughout the course, emphasis will be on the work and words of medieval people (primary sources). Texts include Barbara Rosenwein’s A Short History of the Middle Ages, 5th ed. and Reading the Middle Ages, 3rd ed.

HHD-2013

History of Witchcraft

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Witches—the epitome of “deviant” women, have long haunted our historical memory. This course investigates the gendered history of witchcraft in Europe and the Americas and the origins of Western witch folklore, from riding brooms to black cats. The course also explores how the intersection of law, religion, medicine and magic influenced and fueled these beliefs, and examines the impact of European colonialism and Christian imperialism on them across the colonial and postcolonial world. Students will also work extensively with primary sources, along with modern depictions of premodern witches, to compare and contrast historical fiction and reality.

HHD-2016

Gender Rebels and Gendered Power in Premodern History

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The course explores the history of premodern gender on a global scale through case studies of notable (or notorious) women and nonbinary individuals who exemplified or defied gendered expectations of their culture and era. By showcasing these influential individuals who operated both within and outside gendered social constructs and constraints, we will examine the relationship between gender, identity and authority across the premodern world. Students will gain a richer understanding of premodern gender and sexuality and the lives of women and nonbinary people of the past, as well as how premodern beliefs surrounding gender and sexuality were not as static (nor as rigid) as modern “traditional” gender roles would suggest.

HHD-2022

Justice, Crime and Punishment in the West, from the Middle Ages to the Present

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

How a society defines crime and punishes offenders reveals much about its values and power structures. This course will explore the changing landscape of crime and punishment in the West, beginning with the judicial ordeal of the early Middle Ages and concluding with a survey of current trends and controversies. Topics covered will include the medieval Inquisition, the great witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries, the symbolic and pragmatic dimensions of public executions, gender-based crimes and punishments, and the prison movement of the late 18th and 19th centuries. In the process we’ll chart the shifting relationships among social ideals and fears, state power and the rights of the individual.

HHD-2111

World History: Classical to Renaissance

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

A whirlwind tour of the first 5,000 years of human history, this course will begin with the origins of humanity two million years ago, stopping for a closer look at key periods in the cultures of Afro-Eurasia, and continuing on until rejoining with the cultures of the Western Hemisphere at the end of the 15th century CE. We will focus on those events and people that were influential in shaping the identity of their cultures of origin and the global culture of humanity.

HHD-2112

World History: Renaissance to the 21st Century One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will survey major landmarks in world history from the 15th century to the present. It will focus on significant political, economic, social and cultural developments from a global perspective. Topics will include: the Renaissance and the scientific revolution; the rise of Russia in Eastern Europe and Asia; modern revolutions in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas; global significance of the world wars; legacy of 19th-century thought for the present; unification of Europe and the prospects for peace.

HHD-2144

Revolutions: From America 1776 to The Arab Spring 2011

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

What makes revolutions happen? Why do they fail or succeed? This course will examine the revolutions in modern history, beginning with the American, French and Haitian revolutions of the 18th century. We will then jump ahead to cover the Russian Revolution of 1917, Cuban Revolution of 1956-59 and Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, among others, concluding with recent movements including The Arab Spring.

HHD-2913

Political Ideologies: From Liberalism and Conservatism to the Alt-Right

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

From the first shots of the French Revolution, political ideologies have been driving modern human history; warring ideas sometimes turning into actual bloody wars. This course will begin with the 18th century liberal revolt (with the American and French revolutions) and continue to the present day, covering all the major political philosophies. Conservatism, from Edmund Burke to Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump; liberalism from John Locke to John Stuart Mill to Barack Obama; Socialism from Karl Marx to Mikhail Bakunin to Bernie Sanders; fascism from Joseph Arthur de Gobineau to Adolf Hitler to Marine Le Pen; radical Islamism from Sayyid Qutb to Osama bin Laden; and modern identity politics, including bell hooks (feminism), John Corvino (LGBTQ rights) and Cornel West (race). The course will also cover today’s movements, including the alt-right and antifa. Students will be assigned close readings of original sources by philosophers, politicians and activists. Lively debate will be encouraged.

HHD-3011

History of Ideas: The 20th Century I

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will focus on the social, political and economic background of the 20th century. We will examine Victorianism, imperialism, World War I, the Russian Revolution and other developments, through the 1920s. The ideas of Marx, Lenin, Freud, Darwin, and others will be covered in historical context.

HHD-3012

History of Ideas: The 20th Century II

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course is a continuation of HHD-3011, History of Ideas: The 20th Century I. Topics include: the Depression, New Deal, World War II, the Cold War, the turbulent 1960s, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, Watergate, Irangate, the third world. The ideas of Hitler; Mao; Martin Luther King, Jr.; and the issues behind McCarthyism, totalitarianism, socialism, capitalism and communism will be discussed.

HHD-3017

The Enlightenment: Its Impact and Its Fate

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The Enlightenment inspired many ideas, like political equality, anti-authoritarianism, modern science, criticism of religion, and more. Enlightenment thinkers achieved this primarily by emphasizing the power of human reason. So profound was this development that many fundamental ideals and institutions of the modern world still base themselves upon Enlightenment principles. Several strands of modern thought and belief, however, have come to challenge many Enlightenment values, including the worth of reason in human affairs. This course will trace the trajectory of Enlightenment thought, first, by considering its key ideas and achievements, and then by examining the ways in which these contributions have been questioned (and occasionally rejected) in the modern day. Topics covered will be wide-ranging, from religion, to politics, aesthetics, philosophy, and science. Our goal is to understand the continuing role of the Enlightenment achievement in the modern world and the more recent ideas that seek to scale it back. Readings will include key contemporary sources as well as recent historical studies.

HHD-3022

Turning Points in History: From the French Revolution to the Present

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will focus on some of the pivotal events—from the Enlightenment to the space race and beyond—that have shaped the modern world. The historical contributions of such thinkers as Locke, Voltaire, Darwin, Nietzsche, Einstein and Ellis will be examined.

HHD-3186

Global Crisis and Conflict from 1500 to the Present

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

In the last 500 years, encounters between different cultures have taken place over the globe through trade, exploration, conquest, forced migrations and movements of people in search of food, water and shelter as well as religious, economic or political freedom. This course explores these encounters and their consequences with a focus on the resultant crisis and conflict that have shaped the changing landscape of geopolitics, social structures and social theories. We will also look at how the various interactions created perspectives about groups of newly encountered individuals, defining them as “the other.” By examining the underlying reasoning and motives, and the ensuing reaction brought about by direct contacts, we may better understand one another in an ever more interconnected world.

HHD-3226

Science and History: Ideas and Controversies

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Science as we know it today is relatively new to human society. Still, it has brought profound changes that affect our lives, beliefs and identities. This course will survey the main ideas in the emergence of modern science, as well as the cultural contexts and conflicts involved in its development. We will take a broad overview, from the late Middle Ages to the modern day, with a focus on key developments such as the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution and the remarkable discoveries of the 20th century. We will also cover key controversies to get a fuller knowledge of the cultural context of science in different time periods. These controversies include Galileo’s trial, the challenge of mechanical theories to religious authority, the emergence of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and its relation to current controversies about science teaching in schools and, lastly, issues related to science in modern concerns such as biomedical and military research. Readings will include key contemporary sources as well as recent historical studies.

HHD-3328

The World Since 1945

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The conflicts, crises and trends that have built our modern world will be examined in this course. We will cover the Cold War, nuclear proliferation, the Korean and Vietnam wars, decolonization, the European Union, the creation of Israel and the Israeli-Arab wars, the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and current conflicts from 9/11 and Afghanistan to North Korea to ISIS and the Syrian Civil War.

HHD-3331

World War II

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The social, political and military roots of the Second World War will be addressed in this course. We will then trace their development throughout the war, with a focus on American involvement. Finally, we will look at the aftermath and consequences brought about by the hostilities. Through writings and films, we will read and screen firsthand accounts of those who experienced the war.

HHD-3334

Postcolonial Africa

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Africa is said to be the cradle of human civilization. Today, it is a continent of reemerging independent nations with a complex history and a changing pattern of indigenous ways of life. This course will explore the culture and history of the African continent from the 1870s to the present, focusing on East, West and Southern Africa. Readings will include works of both European and African writers and activists. Selected videos will be screened.

HHD-3367

U.S. History of Slavery and Resistance

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

A historical overview of major themes from Columbus and the Colonial era to the Civil War will be provided in this course. Topics such as slavery, the emergence of a labor movement, women’s role in society, westward expansion vs. indigenous resistance, urbanization vs. utopian reform movements and the development of what it meant to be “American” will be explored. Readings will include such works as “Complaint of an Indentured Servant”; petitions to the Massachusetts legislature; Tecumseh on American Indians and land; Orestes Brownson, “The Laboring Classes”; Judith Sargent Murray, “On the Equality of the Sexes”; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments”; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. While the main focus of this course will be on slavery and resistance of the colonial era and the United States, making links to the present and other experiences will be discussed.

HHD-3368

U.S. History of Civil Rights and Activism

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

American history since 1865 will be examined in this course. Such topics as reconstruction, the rise of labor unions, industrialization, political parties, civil rights, the peace movement and the emergence of identity politics will be discussed. Readings include works by Chief Joseph; Eugene V. Debs; Margaret Sanger; Marcus Garvey; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Allen Ginsberg and César Chavez.

HHD-3369

History of Human Rights

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The evolution in the history of rights from 1789 to today will be examined in this course. Economic justice, racial equality, gender inclusion, environmental protection, privacy, immigration and reproductive rights will be among the issues addressed. We will explore the history of human rights activism from the Nuremberg trials to the formation of truth and reconciliation commissions and human rights grassroots organizations today. Through historical documents and documentary projects by contemporary journalists, visual artists and filmmakers, we will consider the intellectual and historical trajectory of human rights politics in different geographies. Works by and on Hannah Arendt, Martin Luther King Jr., Rigoberta Menchú, Nelson Mandela, Alfredo Jaar, Patricio Guzmán, Ernesto Sábato, Desmond Tutu, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Vandana Shiva and Joshua Oppenheimer will be included.

HHD-3371

21st-Century Social Movements

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Another world is possible—but how do we get from here to there? This course is designed for students who wish to be more engaged with active social movements confronting the realities of the climate crisis, racial justice, a failing economy and our militarized world. Examples of social movements in the US, India, China, Sierra Leone and the Amazon will be examined, with special emphasis on understanding indigenous movements and perspectives. In the classroom, we will dive into theories of change, strategies of community organizing, truth and reconciliation, and historic movements that helped lead us to the current moment. Students will research and present on a movement of their choice; then, together, we will create a collective final project. Students will also learn from experience (in the fall semester we will engage with the climate movement by participating in Climate Week; in the spring we will help plan a College-wide action for Earth Day). Class discussions play a central role as students expand their political consciousness and ethics, develop confidence in expressing themselves politically and build community with other students who are doing this work. 

HHD-3451

Creative and Destructive Personalities in History One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Individuals can make a profound impression on history. Whether they are founding new institutions or destroying civilizations, unique personalities can be seen as a powerful source for changes in society. In this course we will look at a variety of significant people—from Buddha to The Beatles, from Julius Caesar to Genghis Khan, and others—to see how their actions and their legacies influenced the world.

HHD-3515

Before the Gun

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The history of ancient and medieval warfare has been the inspiration for popular films, TV series, novels and video games, such as 300, Game of Thrones, The Last Kingdom and Vikings. Focusing on the conduct of war from prehistory until the development of gunpowder artillery in the 14th century, this course will explore how military systems interact with the societies to which they are a part. The experience—the motivations, equipment, place in society—of individual combatants and the justifications for waging war will be scrutinized as will the role of most of the population—youth, women, the unfree—in wars. New research on gender will be analyzed: female lordship in the Middle Ages, the Sacred Band of Thebes and the reality underlying the legend of the Amazons in classical Greece, as well as findings of experimental archaeology. Students will have ample opportunity to evaluate a deep store of written and visual primary sources, and to hone critical thinking skills that may allow comparison with the contemporary war-torn world.

HHD-3567

Comic Book Superheroes and American Society 

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will examine the social, political and cultural history of American comic books, beginning with the creation of Superman in 1938 to the present day. Focusing on Marvel and DC comics as well as independent houses such as Dark Horse and Pacific Comics, we will explore the historical forces that shaped and influenced the comic book world, while addressing issues of power, authority and immigration. Topics covered include: the development of the horror genre in the 1950s and the Great Comic-Book Scare during the era of McCarthyism; the Silver Age of comic books and the reality-based superheroes, including the Fantastic Four; the impact of the Cold War on Iron Man and S.H.I.E.L.D.; the 1960s popular culture and the birth of Silver Surfer; and “Stan’s Soapbox” columns on the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War. We will conclude with a discussion of the comic books of the last few decades, and how the emergence of new storytellers such as Christopher Priest have brought new perspectives on cultural, racial and gender issues.

HHD-3669

Modern Russian History

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

We must understand Russia to understand ourselves. – Timothy Snyder

During the 19th century, Russia was one of the world’s great powers; during the 20th century, it became one of two superpowers in the Cold War; in the 21st, it has made a dramatic return to the world stage after the dissolution of the USSR. The Soviet Union and its successor states forged unique visions of modern culture, art, society, economy and politics that have exerted active influence in every region of the globe. In order to “understand ourselves” we will investigate the history of Soviet and post-Soviet Eurasia from the First World War to the present day. From the innovations of Bolshevik propaganda to the contemporary resistance against suppression of creative freedom, artists have had a prominent role in shaping the course of Russian history, and thus special attention will be paid in this course to visual art, graphic design, filmmaking and literature. Other key topics include the Soviet Empire and nation-building; ideology and dictatorship; global geopolitics; relations with the United States, China, Japan and Europe; and the attempt to build a noncapitalist civilization in a capitalist world.

HHD-3726

Global Extremism: Forms and Consequences in Today’s World

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Providing an introduction to the phenomenon of extremism in a variety of forms, this course will focus on movements that have had a significant impact on human societies since the late-19th century. Examples include: religious groups such as ISIS, the Lord’s Resistance Army in Central Africa, the Dominion Theology movement in the United States; nationalist and race-oriented movements, including the Pan- Slavic nationalism and the Hindutva Movement in South Asia; political movements, such as right-wing authoritarianism and its left-wing anarchist counterparts. Class discussions will consider extremist violence as well as nonviolent extremist ideologies and economic views that have led to wealth inequality, corruption and social tension. As these problems continue to extend worldwide, facilitated by our modern technology and globally interconnected world, this course will also explore how extremist views propagate and find new adherents.

HHD-3788

China: Past and Present

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

After a generation of isolation, the world is now in full communication with the globe’s most populous nation. The course aims to provide a broad background in China’s history and culture. We will examine the impact of Confucianism and Buddhism on China’s political and social development and China’s role in politics, industry and global relations in view of the new, major changes in Chinese communism. The scope ranges from the classic ancient dynasties of Shang, Han, Tang, Sung and Ming to contemporary times. A selection of films will supplement the lectures and study projects.

HHD-3883

From Books to Blogs: A Cultural History of Communication

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

One way to view the history of the world from the Renaissance to the present day is to see it as an ongoing revolution in the production and communication of information. From the invention of movable type in Europe in the 15th century to the still-evolving technology of the Internet, societies around the globe have benefited from the spread of ideas but often at the cost of experiencing the anxiety and pain typically associated with rapid and profound change. This course will explore ways in which communication technologies have shaped and continue to influence global cultures. We will not only examine the ways in which printing and other forms of information exchange changed the preindustrial world, but will also consider the ramifications of more recent communications technologies, such as the burgeoning effects of radio, television, and the internet. Throughout, our concern will be focused on the larger cultural, social, and political consequences of communications technologies from the Renaissance to the present.

HHD-3889

Totalitarianism Past and Present

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The forms of totalitarianism that have convulsed global history from World War I to the present will be explored in this course. We will study the social, economic and cultural circumstances that led to the creation of totalitarian regimes as well as those forces that continue to sustain them. The origins of the Soviet Union and the fascist regimes of Italy and Germany, and how and to what extent they succeeded, will be examined. We will also consider the responses to totalitarianism that have sought to change such regimes or, at the very least, have allowed individuals to maintain some level of normal material and cultural life within them. Ultimately, we will address totalitarian trends in the modern day, from long- standing regimes like North Korea to the rise of radical right-wing movements elsewhere. Readings will include modern studies on the nature and history of totalitarianism as well as primary sources, such as memoirs.

HHD-3895

Latin American History

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will introduce students to the major events, topics and protagonists in the history of Latin America from pre-Columbian times to the present. Writings by Columbus, Hernán Cortés, Sor Juana Inés, Simón Bolívar, José Martí, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Gloria Anzaldúa and Rigoberta Menchú will be analyzed and discussed through critical lenses. Connections to art and politics will enrich the narrative of Latin American history through a historical analysis of the political dimensions of culture (visual arts, cinema and literature) and ongoing social debates (human rights, immigration policies, drug wars, environmental crises). Issues of colonization, anti-colonialism and neocolonialism will be addressed and paired with current debates on U.S.-Latin American relations.

HHD-4011

Eco-History: Oil and Water, the 21st Century in Crisis

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This is, essentially, a course about world resources, specifically water and fossil fuels. More fundamentally, it’s about the clash of capitalism and climate change. Over the course of the semester, students will deepen their understanding of the climate crisis, its geopolitical consequences, the fossil fuel industry and its impacts, the world water shortage, and the politics of water. Students will research global dynamics and ocean problems and share what they discover with classmates. We will examine what it means to take action, inspired by indigenous activists resisting pipelines, and gain a deeper understanding of our own role in both the crisis and its solutions. Our semester will culminate with participation in SVA’s Earth Day activities.

HHD-4041

American Interventions from Vietnam to Iraq

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

After World War II, the United States began a policy of engagement and intervention that continues to the present day. As a result, American soldiers have fought and died in controversial wars around the globe. We will examine American military interventions in Vietnam, Bosnia, Somalia and Iraq, as well as American involvement in regime changes in Iran and Chile. How did America become involved in each of these conflicts? Were they morally justifiable or in our national interests? What have been the long-term consequences of this tradition of interventionism?

HHD-4118

World Geography

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Geographers seek answers to four broad questions: Where is it? Why is it there? Why is it important? What global patterns of biology, environment, climate, transportation, affect us? This course will provide basic answers to these questions through an overview of the different features and processes on the Earth. These features and processes are both natural and man-made and both physically and culturally determined. Moreover, the relationship between people and place is central to an understanding of human history, international politics, and economics. It is key to understanding human cultures and land use. This relationship also helps us understand environmental and climatic changes that are global in scale. The goal of this course is to help students develop a critical awareness of the dynamic world in which we live, as well as to understand the spatial relationships between people, places and the environment.

HHD-4119

Sea: History and Culture

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The historical interaction between humanity and the sea from ancient times to the present day will be examined in this course. We will begin by exploring the role the sea has long played in human civilizations as a highway connecting different peoples and cultures around the world, and as a provider of many essential resources sustaining human societies and commerce. We will also trace the development of seagoing technology and how it enabled ideas and practices in religion, language and economics to spread as a result. Topics will include: Ancient and early modern maritime trade routes; the diffusion of religious beliefs such as Islam and Christianity; the evolution of ship technology, navigation techniques and transoceanic communications cables; the links among oceans and climate, pollution and global warming. Readings will draw on accounts of sea voyages by Ibn Battuta, Christopher Columbus, Charles Darwin and Zheng He, among others, as well as modern scholarship concerning the sea.

HHD-4122

History of Classical Greece and Rome

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The legacy of the Greek and Roman civilizations extends into our modern world. In this survey we will examine the rise of the Greek city-states and their political and artistic development, ending with the growth of Hellenistic culture. We will then turn our attention to the growth of Rome, from its mythic roots through the Republican era, the rise of the Caesars and the political, religious and artistic achievements of the empire. The course will conclude with an investigation of the factors that contributed to the eventual decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

HHD-4288

Nature and Society: A Global Perspective

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course traces the history of the diverse and evolving relationships between human societies and the natural environment, from the 1500s to the present day. We will explore the various creation mythologies as well as religious, philosophical and scientific ideas that have shaped and expressed the ways in which different cultures—in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia—have defined the meaning of “nature” and the place of humans within or separate from it. Topics examined include conceptions of nature in Judeo- Christian, pagan, Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu and secular belief systems; the impact of the scientific and industrial revolutions; theories and practices of conservation and ecology in the 19th and 20th centuries; and the environmental crisis today.

HHD-4333

African-American History I

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will trace the histories and experiences of African-Americans in the United States from 1619 to 1865, covering the Colonial period, antebellum period and the Civil War. It will focus on the social, historical and political development of the African-American family and community. Texts will include: Jacqueline Jones, Labors of Love, Labors of Sorrow; John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom; Joanne Grant, Black Protest.

HHD-4334

African-American History II

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will begin with an examination of Reconstruction and the backlash against it. We will then explore the lives, philosophical views and major contributions of Booker T. Washington; W.E.B. DuBois; Marcus Garvey; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Malcolm X; Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.; Paul Robeson and Thurgood Marshall. The social and historical ramifications of World War I, World War II, the Depression, the Harlem Renaissance, the NAACP, CORE, SNCC, SCLS and the Black Panther Party will also be considered.

HHD-4348

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Although world peace and stability in the 21st century will depend heavily on achieving a more equitable distribution of global wealth, the disparity between the world’s rich and poor nations has never been so great, and, in fact, continues to increase even as the need to resolve this inequality grows ever more pressing. How have we arrived at this dilemma? Have first-world nations created their own wealth, or have they stolen it from others? Have some nations always been poor, or have they been impoverished? Do wealth and poverty result from decisions freely made by each nation’s political and business leaders, or are they the result of larger social, economic and cultural dynamics? Is there a way out of the deepening crisis? This course will address these and related questions in light of the historical processes that have led to the development of a world of rich and poor nations. We shall also attempt to evaluate the relative merits of various solutions that have been proposed to resolve this dilemma.

HHD-4397

Genocides

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

From the gas chambers of Auschwitz to the villages of Rwanda, the 20th century has been a century of genocides. This course will try to understand how mass extermination can ever be a goal, and why cries of “never again” have failed to stop it from occurring again and again. The course will cover the Nazi destruction of Europe’s Jews in World War II, the Hutu slaughter of the Tutsi in Rwanda, Serbian militias

killing Muslims in Bosnia, and other examples of ethnic mass murder. We will use first-person accounts of genocide, such as Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz and Philip Gourevitich’s book on Rwanda, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, as well as secondary sources.

LITERATURE

HLD-2042

20th-Century Literature and Culture from Victorianism to Modernity

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

In this course we will examine European and American authors who, influenced by Nietzsche, Marx and Freud, challenged Victorian social taboos of morality and restraint to create new artistic forms— thematically and stylistically. Students will read novels and short works of transgressive sexual desire and hedonism by Andre Gide, Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin, and be introduced to the works of Kafka, Eliot and Angela Carter who departed from structured writing to experiment with fragmented perspective in fantastic, surreal modes. By semester’s end, students should have a firm understanding of the literary, philosophical and intellectual background of the 20th century. Themes and topics presented will focus on Victorian culture, the Freudian tradition, surrealism and gender issues.

HLD-2043

20th-Century Literature and Culture from the Dystopian Novel to the Feminist Revolt and Beyond

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

In this course we will read great literary classics by authors from England, France, Russia, Canada and America dealing with a similar theme in different genres and styles—namely, the erosion of individual liberty in cultures of repression, prejudice and taboos. Students will encounter this theme of the individual versus the collective in the dystopian novels of the Russian émigré Ayn Rand, in Huxley and in the feminist Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood; in a play of religious fanaticism in 17th-century witch hunts in Salem, and in a scathing indictment of American racism by the existentialist Sartre and the freedom fighter Malcolm X. Students will be introduced to works of the Beat generation’s rejection of America’s complacency, myopia and bigotry on its journey to Eastern mysticism and drugs to expand consciousness.

HLD-2058

Fantasy

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Shaped by our desires and fears, fantasy literature offers radical departures from consensus reality into worlds of magic, peril and delight. This course will explore the imagery, characters, themes and narrative structures of several types of fantasy fiction. We will begin by briefly examining parent genres before reading examples of modern fantasy types, including heroic, surrealist, magic realism, science fiction and feminist. In addition to the fiction, we will read some critical theory to help define and locate the subgenres of this large category of fiction.

HLD-2088

American Literature: 19th Century

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course explores the intellectual, cultural and literary roots and directions of American literature, from its Puritan, Gothic and Romantic origins through realist, transcendental and premodern tendencies late in the 19th century. We’ll read selected works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Henry James and the utopian feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. We’ll investigate questions of style, genre, tradition and critical interpretation in relation to the blooming of American society and culture.

HLD-2089

20th-Century American Literature Now

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will plot the major movements in modernist literature in the U.S., beginning with the Harlem Renaissance, Imagism and the cultural front of the 1930s and ’40s, to postmodernism and postwar counterculture (including the American Indian Movement, the Beats and Nuyorican poets) to third-wave feminism. This course centers the writing of those who, historically, have been read as representing specific sub-groups of American culture—whereas, now, these writers and their works are appreciated as foundational to a broadly American literary tradition. We’ll read authors such as William Carlos Williams, Lorraine Hansberry, Maxine Hong Kingston and Ralph Ellison, carving out a sense of what America has been, is, and may come to be, from the perspective of its great writers.

HLD-2161

The Beat Generation

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will explore the beat counterculture as a post-World War II American phenomenon, a literary correlative to abstract expressionist painting and to bebop music, auguring the “era” of sex, drugs and rock & roll to follow.

HLD-2211

Introduction to Poetry

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Why did William Carlos Williams devote a poem to the plums in the icebox he so sinfully devoured? How did T.S. Eliot present the modern world as “a heap of broken images” in The Waste Land? Was Sylvia Plath’s most famous poem inspired by her horse, Ariel? Full of questions and rarely answers, poetry, which Lawrence Ferlinghetti calls “the anarchy of the senses making sense,” is the art of noticing and slowing down. When a good poem opens its starry petals at the right moment for a reader, it can, as Harold Bloom says, “enlarge a solitary existence,” and offer refuge and resistance. This course will take you on a journey to explore the lives of major poets, and reading—with your eyes and ears—some of the most influential English and American poems, as well as poems in translation. From sonnet to haiku, we will dive into and experiment with various literary traditions and forms, and by building connections between them, we will hear Sappho’s lyre through Adrienne Rich, or Gwendolyn Brooks’s cool kids through Terrance Hayes.

HLD-2223

Short Fiction

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Through close readings of modern and contemporary short fiction, students will learn how to analyze stories not only for plot and characters, but also for writers’ literary technique, such as narrative style,

choice of language, imagery and tone. In considering what the story implies or omits as much as what it includes, students will become active and imaginative readers capable of forming their own interpretations. Short fiction gives us an opportunity to read several works by the same author, and thus gain a deeper understanding of the writer’s craft, perspectives and obsessions. The course begins with late-19th and early 20th-century authors, such as Chekhov, James, Woolf and Kafka, followed by contemporary writers, such as Munro, Lahiri and Adichie.

HLD-2268

The Power and the Pity: Brutal Tales From Latin America

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will examine works by 20th century artists and storytellers through their reaction to the violence and horrors of Latin America’s brutal dictatorships. Students will explore the earth-body surrealism of the Cuban-American Ana Mendieta and the powerful war photography of Susan Meiselas, and respond through critical writing. We will read the poetry of the Chilean Pablo Neruda and the heartbreaking novel One Day of Life by the Salvadoran Manlio Argueta. Students will create their own poems steeped in rebellion, bandido manifestos, mock-ups of news articles and creative dispatches that mix their own art practice with literary forms. Confronted with the stark injustice of colonization, and by immersing themselves in the blood-storm of revolutionary eras, students will emerge from this course armed with wisdom extracted from the clashing of warring bodies—in jungle terrain and smoking wastelands—and, perhaps, with the confidence necessary to face the machinery of government in their own age.

HLD-2279

Down These Mean Streets: The City in Fiction

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will introduce you to a host of midnight people who have made the city their stomping grounds, from down-and-out boxers in Stockton, California in Leonard Gardner’s Fat City to low-level gangsters on the streets of Little Italy in Martin Scorsese’s film Mean Streets. You will also encounter writers such as the hardboiled Raymond Chandler, who paints the neon-drenched streets of Los Angeles and Hollywood like no writer before or since in The Big Sleep, and the playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, who delivers the broken poetry of real New York speech. We will also examine excerpts from the streetwise, autobiographical performances of the Colombian live wire John Leguizamo. This course will open the painted door to the hidden cultural and social life of 20th-century metropolises such as Los Angeles and New York.

HLD-2281

The Haunted Psyche: Horror Fiction

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

According to H. P. Lovecraft, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.” This course dives straight into the shock factory and unveils a multitude of fears that turn spines to jelly. Students will read bone-chilling novels such as The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jaskson and Child of God by Cormac McCarthy, in addition to stories by Edgar Allan Poe, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Clive Barker and Stephen King. These Grand Guignol masters provide insights into aberrant behavior and sadistic compulsions, and explore the traditional Gothic literary imagination; their writings reflect the societal and cultural anxieties of the time in which they were produced. Students will learn that the most terrifying of creatures do not necessarily flaunt tentacles and bare gleaming fangs—as the philosopher Eric Hoffer wrote: “What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people’s faces as unfinished as their minds.”

HLD-2313

Erotic Literature

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will focus on selections from the great erotic literature from ancient Greece to modern times in a variety of genres, themes and styles. Topics will include social attitudes (traditional and contemporary) toward sexual dynamics, erotica and censorship, with a consideration of what constitutes erotica and what differentiates it from pornography. Readings will include a licentious Greek comedy presented as anti-war protest; bawdy fabliaux from the Middle Ages and salacious sonnets from the 16th century; an irreverent and sacrilegious 18th century anti-Platonic dialogue; a novella depicting Christ’s resurrection into “blood consciousness”; a sexually explicit celebration of love, art and Bohemian life; a collection of short stories solicited as porn for a dollar a page; a love letter, written in novel form, as a challenge to a paramour who claimed women could not write erotica; a version of a classic, romantic fairy tale transmuted into a B&D fantasy set in the Middle Ages. Students will gain an appreciation of the many protean forms of erotica from comedy to agitprop.

HLD-2565

American Theater

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will introduce students to key playwrights of the American theater from the 1940s to the present. Assigned readings include works by classic playwrights like Arthur Miller, David Mamet, August Wilson and María Irene Fornés, as well as contemporary masters like Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Jiehae Park. Students will read an average of one play per week and view several films during the semester.

HLD-2677

Fiction of the 19th Century: Love of Demophilia to the Psychosexual Anima

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

In this course we will read literary masterpieces by authors from Germany, France, Russia, Ireland and America. Topics will include fairy tale tropes; the femme fatale; the genre of social reform; tales of sin, redemption, madness and death. We will explore how overcrowding and poverty, a result of urban industrialization, and immigration, produced the novel of social consciousness and love of the common man, exemplified in the works of Oscar Wilde, Tolstoy and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Students will be introduced to the literature of fantasy and the surreal, attesting to the 19th century’s vast panoply of stories filled with psychological insight and timely sociopolitical issues. The correlations between literature and the visual and performing arts—film, ballet, opera—will also be addressed.

HLD-2678

Fiction of the 19th Century: From the Reemergence of the Superhero (Heroine) in Myth and Fairy Tale Tropes to the Darwinian Bête Humaine

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Fictional masterpieces by authors from Denmark, England, France and America will be read in this course, highlighting the 19th century’s three great literary movements: Romanticism, realism and naturalism. Students will be introduced to the salient features and motifs of each movement— Romanticism’s love of nature, the supernatural, fantasy, the exotic and heroic (Hans Christian Andersen and Mary Shelley); realism’s minute depiction of contemporary life and examination of sociopolitical issues of gender, race and class prejudice (Flaubert, Melville and H.B. Stowe); naturalism’s focus on sordid passions and moral decay; aspects of contemporary urban industrial life (Zola). We will examine the authors’ lives, and the social and political environment in which the works were written in order to understand and appreciate the beauty and complexity of the writing.

HLD-2922

Medieval Literature

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The medieval period was a time of extraordinary literary flowering in Europe. Themes like heroism, religion, courtly love and chivalry became popular as the institutions that supported them rose and fell. The result was a literature full of contradictions, at once spiritual and bawdy, romantic and cynical. Readings will be selected from Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon heroic verse, the plays of Hrotsvitha, lyric poems of the troubadours and trobairitz and al-Andalus, The Poetic Edda, the Arthurian cycle, Dante’s Inferno and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, as well as popular culture such as the fabliaux and “Carmina Burana,” Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, poems of François Villon and Christine de Pizan. Modern medievalist works such as John Gardner’s Grendel, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and Hermann Hesse’s Narcissus and Goldmund will be considered.

HLD-2977

Shakespeare: Comedies and Histories

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will provide the student with a selective, chronological overview of Shakespeare, the dramatist. Plays assigned will include a selection of his comedies and histories.

HLD-2978

Shakespeare: Tragedies and Romances

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will provide the student with a selective, chronological overview of Shakespeare, the dramatist. Plays assigned will include the four major tragedies and one of the final romances.

HLD-3033

Art and Revolution I: The Working-Class Hero

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The multicultural revolution has deepened and broadened our understanding of gender, race, sexual preference and international culture. Unfortunately, we have tended to ignore one crucial factor that cuts across all areas of human experience: socioeconomic class. This course will focus on the art, literature and struggles of working-class people during the past two centuries. Readings will be selected from

fictional works such as Zola’s Germinal, Gorky’s My Childhood, Sillitoe’s The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner, Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Wright’s Black Boy and Tillie Olsen’s Tell Me a Riddle. In conjunction with the readings we will view and discuss the paintings of artists such as Courbet, Millet, Daumier, Kollwitz, the Russian social realists and the American Ashcan School. Selected videos will be screened and discussed.

HLD-3034

Art and Revolution II: The Rebel

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The landscape of history has periodically been illuminated by apocalyptic struggles to change society, reinvent the world and re-create human nature. In this course we will explore the literature of social revolt and political revolution. Readings will be selected from authors such as Maxim Gorky, André Malraux, Arthur Rimbaud, Marge Piercy, Bertolt Brecht, Albert Camus, Mariano Azuela and Malcolm X. In conjunction with the readings, we will view and discuss selected works of such artists as Diego Rivera, Siquieros, Eisenstein, Orozco and Frida Kahlo. Selected videos will be screened and discussed.

HLD-3051

Literature of Self-Knowledge

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

“Who am I, standing in the midst of this thought-traffic?” wondered the Sufi poet Rumi. Achieving self- knowledge is a challenge not only because our perception of self may not always jibe with the tenuous labels that society imposes on us, but also because self-revelation may sometimes be terrifying. This course draws upon fiction, film and art to reflect upon the daunting task of “knowing oneself” with guidance from thinkers like Socrates and Simone de Beauvoir. We will read works by authors such as Clarice Lispector, James Baldwin, Carlos Fuentes and Mahmoud Darwish, who will lead us into the unmapped labyrinths of self by discussing racial-ethnic consciousness, sexual identity, transfiguration and self-accountability. We will also view such films as Moonlight, as well as discuss art, in particular, self- portraits and “selfies.”

HLD-3231

Disability in Literature and Art

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

With the rise of disability rights and societal inclusion, literature has witnessed a surge in authentic representations of illness narratives and disability experiences. This course delves into literary depictions of illness, disability and the application of disability studies in understanding literature and art. We will explore the following questions: How has contemporary literature influenced our perceptions of health, physicality and mental well-being? How have factors like illness, disability and neurodiversity molded literature? How can we discuss disabilities and illness? Participants will engage with a curated selection of both timeless and modern works, including impactful autobiographical pieces by authors who identify as disabled. Using investigative frameworks like disability studies scholar Garland-Thomson's notion of the “stare,” postcolonial theory and intersectionality, we will examine the societal and cultural dynamics that influence interactions between diverse bodies/minds. We will encounter the literary works of Rita Charon, Lucille Clifton, Lucy Grealy, Carson McCullers, Leslie Marmon Silko and Audre Lorde, and consider artists Diane Arbus, Frida Kahlo, Paul Klee, Vincent van Gogh, Rebecca Horn and Yayoi Kusama, among others.

HLD-3239

You Will Hear Thunder: The Masters of Russian Literature

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

Love-stricken aristocrats waltzing in ballrooms, a civil servant waking up to discover his nose is missing, a deluded man chatting with an apparition of a monk clad in black, the eternity-long day of a prisoner in a Siberian labor camp, the doubts and deliria of a nihilistic murderer. Since the 19th century, Russian writers have produced some of the greatest stories in world literature and have become what Solzhenitsyn called “a second government,” a voice for many lives uprooted by war and crushed by the cudgel of Soviet totalitarianism. This course explores why Russian literature has gained such prestige and how it forged its own tradition by magnifying the most essential aspects of human experience. We will visit Tolstoy’s immortal character Ivan Ilyich on his deathbed, and let Dostoevsky take us to St.

Petersburg, “that most abstract and premeditated city,” to hear the confessions of a self-destructive eccentric in Notes from Underground. Other readings include works by masters such as Gogol, Chekhov, Turgenev, Nabokov, Babel and Akhmatova. We will also discuss key historical events and take a look at modern-day Russia through films such as Leviathan.

HLD-3241

Contemporary Afrodiasporic Literature in America

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

A Swahili proverb says, “Tamu ya madafu kunywea dafuni” (“The sweetness of the coconut juice is best when the juice is taken in the nut.”) This course will explore how contemporary African writers in the diaspora have portrayed America in their works and, in the process, created an alternative narrative of Africa for the world. For students, it will be an opportunity to expand their horizon and see America from the perspective of outsiders with different viewpoints. Afro diasporic writers’ distinct reinterpretation of Africa, despite a sense of alienation, provides contexts that make it easy for the uninitiated to absorb their narratives that are neither sanitized nor Westernized. By expanding students’ imaginative space, the course will also draw students into the world of the African writer. In a world that is fast becoming a shifting global village, this course will bring the two worlds closer to what Ben Okri calls “strange corners of what it means to be human.” Topics include discussions on Afropolitans and their contribution to African literature in the diaspora. Readings will include Adichie, Ndibe, Selasi, Wainaina and Okonkwo. We will also view films by Africans in the diaspora to engage in further discussion of the subject.

HLD-3251

African Folktales: Once Upon a Time

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The richness of African epic folktales, which have remained virtually unexplored in the West, will be introduced in this course. It will expose students to the intricacies of constructing these age-long stories and how the myths and legends in the stories shape the cultures, religions, spiritualities and philosophies of the region. Through books, films, lectures and storytelling, students will take a journey into the jungle of long ago, in the land of giants and cities between heaven and earth, where animal tricksters of Africa speak, ancient plants perform, the cloud in the sky visits the world and mermaids in rivers wrestle with humans. Class discussions will explore stories from several regions of Africa, their universal themes, and their influence on African writings, arts and sensibilities. As part of the course, students will have an opportunity to bring to life these stories through illustrations, short films, cartoons, animations, and other visual representations.

HLD-3258

Chinese and Chinese-American Fiction Since 1943

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will explore the work of Chinese and Chinese-American writers, and writers of the Chinese diaspora in the U.S., from the era of World War II to the present. It will focus on fiction, both novels and short stories, by authors such as Zhang Ailing, Lin Haiyin, Yu Hua, Mo Yan, Amy Tan, Yiyun Li, Ling Ma,

C. Pam Zhang and Charles Yu. Themes discussed include the experience of World War II and postwar China as well as of China’s rapid economic development from the 1970s to the present, the experiences of emigration/immigration and of living abroad, and the development of Chinese-American literature and identity as examples of American literature and identity.

HLD-3341

20th-Century Italian Literature

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The Italian literary tradition didn’t end abruptly with the Renaissance. Many of the greatest novels of the last century were written by Italian authors, writers who fought for or against Fascism, participated in the desperate struggles between labor and capital, took their stand on the issues of anti-Semitism, racism and sexism. Their names may sound obscure to readers of modern fiction—Berto, Morante, D’Annunzio, Pirandello, Levi, Silone—yet we neglect them to our own detriment—politically, morally and aesthetically. This course will explore their work, together with major films of the Italian neorealist cinema.

HLD-3367

Modern Japanese Literature in Translation

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

An examination of Japanese literature of the modern period that began with the Meiji Restoration in 1868 is the focus of this course. This dramatic time marked the end of the feudal era and Japan’s subsequent transformation into an industrialized nation that could compete with its Western counterparts. Topics will include the profound influence that this transformation has had on Japanese society and its people, the conflicts between traditional Japanese values and Western values, and the changing conceptions of identity and gender relations. We will read works by Sōseki, Tanizaki, Enchi, Abe and Murakami.

HLD-3477

Children’s Literature for Illustrators

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Students will gain an appreciation of the author’s and illustrator’s craft by investigating both classic and contemporary novels written for young people. Students will be introduced to picture books, graphic novels, fables and fairy tales as they discover the connections between pictures and words, as well as surveying issues of gender, race, ideology and politics in children’s literature. Some of the authors we will study include Aesop, E.B. White, Roald Dahl, Brian Selznick, Gene Luen Yang, Margaret Wise Brown, Yangsook Choi and Mo Willems.

HLD-3501

Tragedy

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course provides a historical overview of the art form that gives expression to human suffering and despair, beginning with Sophocles, Euripides and Shakespeare, then ending with modern playwrights, such as Ibsen, Chekhov and Beckett. We will consider the enduring power of the tragic form by exploring works that reimagine classical tragedies, such as Caroline Bird’s The Trojan Women and Akira Kurosawa’s film adaptation of Macbeth. Students will become familiar with important works of tragedy, why the genre continues to fascinate both writers and audiences alike, and what it teaches us about the human condition.

HLD-3521

The Arts and Forms of Comedy

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

It is well known that dying is easy, but comedy is hard. And nothing can be more difficult than trying to explain what makes us laugh. Still we laugh, and our laughter proves us human. This course traces the history of comedy, starting in Greece with the plays of Aristophanes and concluding with a look at the contemporary scene in film, television and print. Along the way, we will read Plautus, Chaucer, Shaw, Shakespeare, Thurber, Ionesco and Beckett. Screenings will include films by Chaplin, Keaton and Woody Allen. We will read such essays as “The Mythos of Spring: Comedy,” Northrup Frye; “The Comic

Rhythm,” Susanne Lange; and “Comedy,” Christopher Fry. We will consider comedic forms such as satire, parody, burlesque, theater of the absurd, romantic comedy, sitcoms and tragicomedy.

HLD-3553

Images of Artists in Literature

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

How are visual artists and their creative processes depicted in literature? Are these literary representations more romanticized, mythologized and mysterious than realistic and accurate? Has society’s understanding of visual artists and the creative process changed since the 19th century? Visual artists are often misunderstood, misrepresented or championed by society. Reading short stories and novels from the 19th century to the present, students will examine the way the creative process is described and how authors use artists as literary characters. The relationships between the artist and the muse, the artist and audience and the artist in society will also be explored. Works from among the following authors will be considered: Honoré de Balzac, Émile Zola, Edgar Allan Poe, Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, Nick Hornby, Mary Gordon and Siri Hustvedt. Readings are supplemented with film screenings and visual art. Contemporary art issues will inform class discussions.

HLD-3566

Civilization and Its Discontents

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course explores the themes of civilization and the discontents of individuals within modern society. It focuses on the particular role that the artist and art plays within this relationship. Theoretical writings, literature, film and art will be examined historically as well as critically and aesthetically. Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents is the primary textbook for this semester. Among additional theoretical sources are essays by Susan Sontag, Sigmund Freud and Donald Kuspit. Among the literary texts and films are: The Remains of the Day, Ishiguro; The Lover, Duras; Swept Away, Wertmuller; American Beauty, Sam Mendes.

HLD-3951

Literature and Psychoanalysis

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will explore how an author’s unconscious memories, wishes, fears and fantasies shape their fictional and philosophical world. Various psychoanalytic approaches will be evaluated and applied to an understanding of the writer and their characters. Readings will be illustrated by clinical case material.

Topics will include: pathological types and defenses, dreams and the unconscious, the history of psychoanalysis, trauma and creativity, and the relationship of the writer/artist to the work. We will read theorists such as Freud, Jung, Alice Miller and Winnicott and writers such as Camus, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Ozick and D.H. Lawrence.

HLD-4022

Poetry and Art

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Since Baudelaire, innovative poets have often exercised important influence on avant-garde visual artists, primarily through radical innovations of form and content in their poetry, but also as friends and, in some cases, major art critics as well. The course concentrates on the work of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Apollinaire and William Carlos Williams. Home assignments include readings to locate the poems against their literary and cultural background. There are also selected readings from the poets’ essays and art criticism. Primary emphasis is on the poetry, and the course also attempts to answer the questions: What accounts for the mutual interplay of influence between poetry and visual art? How does it work?

HLD-4044

Surrealist Literature

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Surrealism, a 20th-century movement begun by poets, attempted to unite the dream and waking worlds through art. The poets were later joined by visual artists whose works they influenced, both as critics and as friends, and Tristan Tzara, the Dada animateur. André Breton, the “pope” of surrealism, is covered in detail, with close readings of his manifestos, poetry and fiction. We also read such poets as Jean Arp, Paul Eluard, Louis Aragon and Aimé Césaire. Sessions feature surrealist plays and films, and discussions of visual artists associated with the movement. Translations by the instructor are included.

HLD-4122

18th-Century Fiction: The Enlightenment to Romanticism

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

18th-century Europe embodied the philosophical, historical and literary foundations of Enlightenment thought, setting the stage for modernism. Though characterized by repressive and hierarchical social, political and religious institutions, its literature and visual arts are filled with challenges to accepted norms. Students will learn about Voltaire and Diderot, philosophers whose ideas led to the bloody French Revolution; the Marquis de Sade who wrote the definitive manual of sexual depravity and provocatively espoused absolute freedom from autocratic despotism; Jonathan Swift who satirized religious and governmental exploitation and indifference; and Adelaide Labille-Guiard, a painter who shook up the art academy, first by being admitted to it and then by campaigning to admit other women painters. The century also gave birth to Romanticism and to Johann Goethe who looked to nature and feelings (sensibility) rather than social institutions for inspiration to produce a literature of passion and horror.

Through these texts, students will gain a deeper understanding of the power of literature and allied arts to present and represent new ideas, putting pressure on society to change.

HLD-4123

18th-Century Fiction: Women and the Supremacy of the Passions

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will examine the transformative nature of two great literary traditions in 18th-Century Europe—the literature of social reform (culminating in the great revolutionary play by Beaumarchais), and the novel of sensibility. Students will be sensitized to how these genres would dissolve and merge. Many “enlightened” thinkers would turn their attention to the oppression of women in their critique of social institutions. Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the first great feminists, would advocate the parity of education for women in their journey to suffrage. Diderot would point to despotic paternalism as the cause of demonic behavior and insanity in young women forced into convents against their will. Cleland and Laclos (in his great erotic novel) would critique gender inequality using the delicate and sensuous genre of sensibility as would Prevost in an early template for the femme fatale. This course, while referencing the literature of fantasy, will focus on the portrayal of women in a male-dominated society ruled by an ideology of suppression and exploitation. Students, through reading and analyzing great literature, will develop a deeper understanding of how the past’s repressive institutions continue in today’s society.

HLD-4152

20th-Century Irish Literature

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will explore how, through literature, 20th-century Ireland has dealt with its losses and forged its identity. The course will cover the Irish Literary Renaissance, the founding of the Abbey Theatre, Joyce’s efforts to give Ireland a voice and situate it within the mainstream aesthetic movements of Europe, Yeats’s delving into folklore and spirituality, as well as more recent writers’ explorations into such questions as cultural identity. We will read the work of fiction writers, playwrights, and poets such as: W.

B. Yeats, James Joyce, J. M. Synge, Sean O’Casey, Flann O’Brien, Samuel Beckett, Patrick Kavanagh, Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Mary Lavin and Tom Murphy.

HLD-4193

Literature of Love

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The exploration of love relationships and values of various cultures and times is the focus of this course. Beginning with an examination of ancient attitudes toward love in the works of Sappho, Plato, Aristotle and Ovid, we then consider the influence of courtly love and Christianity on attitudes of love in medieval literature. Lastly, we will address more modern conceptions of love in Chekhov, Proust and Woolf.

HLD-4199

Antiheroes and Villains in Literature

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

What are villains and why do we love them so much? This course will examine the literary device of “the villain” and the emergence of the antihero in literature. We will read representative texts by such authors as: Sophocles, Shakespeare, Dante, Dostoevsky, Beckett and Hammett.

HLD-4288

Politics and Literature

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will explore how great writers have dramatized and/or promoted various political philosophies in their work. We will examine questions such as: What is the best form of government? What are the appropriate means to achieve political ends? What is the relationship between elites and the masses? Readings in the course will include works by: Plato, Machiavelli, Shaw, Brecht, Orwell, Camus and Malraux.

HLD-4293

Literature and Environmental Justice

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The ways in which writers and theater makers are cultivating response to climate chaos beyond the spectacle of disaster will be investigated in this course. In particular, we will explore works that re-imagine elements of time, place, wildness, collective action and symbiosis to experiment with forms of narrative that can address the enormity of the ecological crisis and the complicity of modern literature in its unfolding. We will also look at some of the views that underpin systemic exhaustion of the planet: anthropocentrism, extractivism, progress, empire. Readings will include Amitav Ghosh, Anna Tsing, Caryl Churchill, Nnedi Okorafor and Robin Wall Kimmerer. In addition to writing critical analysis of contemporary literature and plays, students will create their own short fiction and climate justice artist statement.

HLD-4306

Poetic Justice: Literature and the (Out)Law

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

What is justice? Who deserves to be punished? What laws should govern us? Philosophers and legal scholars have long contemplated these questions, and for some writers and artists they provide urgency to inspiration. In this course we will look at what “justice” might mean and how writers and artists have provoked and created when the gap between law and justice unravels. We’ll look at how writers from Sophocles in “Antigone” to Franz Kafka question what is just when the law isn’t. We’ll look at writers and poets who have found themselves writing from prisons, from Nelson Mandela to members of Pussy Riot, as well as the work of currently incarcerated writers and artists, and those responding to contemporary questions of justice, including Rhodessa Jones, founder of the Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, and prison abolitionist Mariam Kaba.

HLD-4312

Modern Literary Survey: India and Asia

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This world literary survey will focus on the best-known and most influential writers of India and Asia. The enormous changes of the 20th century have produced literatures that uniquely blend traditional cultural forms with new styles and content. Readings will include short stories, novels and essays from such authors as Kobo Abe, Yukio Mishima, Lu Xun, Lao She, Salmon Rushdie, B. Bandopadhyay and V. S. Naipaul.

HLD-4322

The American Novel Since 1900

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will concentrate on how the novel chronicled the growth of America from a young isolated country at the beginning of the 20th century to a world leader in literature, art and politics, and how that legacy has affected America’s position in the first part of the 21st century. It will also use the novel to demonstrate how American literature evolved from being produced by a relatively homogenous group of writers to include the increasingly diverse voices of contemporary America. The works included will be drawn from the early and mid-century novelists such as Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. We will then move forward chronologically and look at the works of such novelists as Toni Morrison, Saul Bellow, Cormac McCarthy, James Baldwin, Philip Roth, Ralph Ellison and Jhumpa Lahiri.

HLD-4331

Portraits of the Self in Early Modern Narrative

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

What is the nature of experience? This very basic question is at the heart of how we understand ourselves. Using fiction from the 18th and 19th centuries, this course will explore the history of our concept of experience to think about how we communicate our feelings to others. Close attention will be paid to the ways in which literature imagines the experience of beauty, oppression, commodification and modernization. Authors will include Austen, Defoe, Smollett, Sterne and Cleland.

HLD-4336

Postcolonial Literature: Resistance and Recuperation 

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

Postcolonial Literature explores works from a variety of regions around the world, providing a global perspective on the historical development of the postcolonial situation, the anti-colonialist movements that produced it, its many diasporic communities after independence, and its potential relapse into forms of neo-colonialism. The term “postcolonial” generally refers to the political, economic and social interactions between Western powers and the societies they colonized over a period of conquest, occupation, independence and globalization. Texts by such authors as Anita Desai, Amitav Ghosh, Mohsin Hamid, Lu Xun, Su Tong and Bao Ninh will be considered in relation to issues of power, exploitation, resistance and migration.

HLD-4342

The Myth of Self-Creation in American Literature

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

D.H. Lawrence wrote, “She starts old, old, wrinkled and writhing in an old skin. And there is a gradual sloughing off of the old skin, towards a new youth. It is the myth of America.” The idea that the past could be discarded as an old skin and that we could be better and freer by virtue of being new is a myth that defined America before there was an America. It is an idea that has had tremendous influence on the religious and political history of this country. This myth continues to shape how Americans think about themselves and their relationship to what is still perceived as an older and more corrupt world. In spite of slavery, genocide, global profiteering, two world wars, economic colonialism and other such sins, America still sees itself as a pure and innocent force for good in an evil world. This course will draw on a broad range of authors to show how this myth has adapted itself to different times and social conditions and yet remains recognizable as the same myth. We will focus primarily on short stories and novels, but will also examine some poetry and essays. Readings will include works by such authors as Emerson, Whitman, Twain, Lewis, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Baldwin, Dreiser, Norris and Hurston. We will also discuss some contemporary manifestations of this myth.

HLD-4352

Lands of Memory: Literature Beyond Borders

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

As a medium of cultural memory, literature has shaped our collective past and human consciousness. Manifested in all genres—from poetry to plays, through short stories and novels—and in all presentations of media, the story of who we are is a composition of real events, dreams, imaginative wanderings and creative ideas that gradually find a place in our collective memory. These memories, when explored through the agency of literature, exist beyond time and beyond geographical borders. We will enter the lands of memories with Jorge Luis Borges in “Funes the Memorious.” In Anthony Doerr’s “Afterworld” we are transported to a future world where a person’s memory can be downloaded and traded on the black market. In Yōko Ogawa’s The Memory Police we witness the erasure of an island culture by a futuristic totalitarian government, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, we travel back in time with a woman who has a limited future. This course explores how remembered worlds can act in concert to form this vast universe we call our human experience.

HLD-4372

At the Crossroads: Utopia or Dystopia?

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The term “utopia” is generally associated with Sir Thomas More, whose famous work portrayed an idealized island kingdom representing what a perfect society might look like, although, ironically, utopia stems from the Greek ou topos, which suggests “no place.” The tradition of reaching for exemplary values and the common good continues to be the highest of human aspirations. Unfortunately, the ideal vision of utopia inevitably suggests the harsh contrast of dystopia, a vision of totalitarian repression and severe limitations on the human spirit. Can there be a society of radical reform and dramatic progress? Or will this society, left unexamined and unchecked, become a dangerous and terrifying nightmare future? In this course we will explore these questions with reference to literature and film. Readings may include works such as: The Handmaid’s Tale, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, and other speculative fiction.

HLD-4389

States of Exile

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

In reading works of fiction and nonfiction, this course will explore how writers have represented states of exile as both cultural and personal phenomena of exclusion, dislocation and repatriation. In examining various stories of exiles, we will discuss ideas about identity, tribal social instincts and the sense of belonging, while addressing questions such as: What does exile mean? Who is an outsider? What is home? Is exile a physical state always based on geography or a psychological one? Texts will include works by Rebecca Solnit, Vladimir Nabokov, Roxane Gay, Lila Azam Zanganeh, Daniel Mendelsohn, Azar Nafisi, Émile Zola, Doris Salcedo, John Berger, Akiko Busch and Georges Didi-Huberman.

HLD-4416

Artificial Minds in Myth, Fantasy and Reality

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Artificial intelligence has increasingly become an unavoidable part of our daily lives, but what unexpected problems could this technology create? For thousands of years, myths and fantasy literature have anticipated and explored the moral dilemmas of creating artificial minds. From the ancient Greek tales of Pygmalion and Prometheus to Judaic myths of the Golem and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this course will examine stories that warn us of the dangers of creating artificial life. We will continue with Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. (in which the word “robot” was coined to refer to artificial slaves) and science-fiction stories by Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick and William Gibson. The course concludes with considering work by posthuman philosophers like Donna Haraway and her “Cyborg Manifesto,” as well as writings by computer scientists and technologists such as Alan Turing and Jaron Lanier. All of these works will be approached as thought experiments that could provide guidance for navigating the real-world dangers and benefits of artificial intelligence.

PHILOSOPHY and CULTURAL STUDIES

HMD-2023

Masterpieces of Western Music: Medieval to Classical

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Through readings, recordings and films this course will present a survey of Western music masterpieces from the medieval, Renaissance, baroque and classical periods. We will explore works by Palestrina, Monteverdi, Handel, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and others, while considering their historical context as well as concurrent developments in fine arts and architecture. Such topics as plainchant, the development of harmony in the Middle Ages and compositional techniques will also be addressed.

HMD-2024

Masterpieces of Western Music: Early Romantic to the 20th Century

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

A survey of masterpieces of Western music from early Romantic to early 20th century will be presented in this course. Through readings, recordings and films we will explore works by Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Mahler, Debussy, Richard Strauss and Ravel, among others, while considering their historical context as well as concurrent developments in fine arts and architecture. Stylistic and compositional differences between European and American music will also be discussed.

HMD-2031

Classical Music of the Early 20th Century

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course explores the masterpieces of Western music during the first half of the 20th century. Through readings, recordings and films we will examine works by Strauss, Mahler, Ives, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, among others, while considering their historical context as well as concurrent developments in fine arts and architecture. We will also discuss the innovations in compositional forms and rhythmic structures such as atonality, twelve-tone technique and serial music.

HMD-2032

Modern and Contemporary Music

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The masterpieces of Western and world music from the mid-20th century to the present day will be explored in this course. Through readings, recordings and films, we will examine works by Joplin, Gershwin, Copland, Bernstein, Williams, Crumb, Cage, Ellington, Parker, Glass and Adams, among others, while considering their historical context as well concurrent developments in fine arts, photography and architecture. We will discuss the wide variety of music genres that developed during this period, ranging from American popular music to musical theater, rock and film scores as well as the relationship between music and technology.

HMD-2036

Music of Latin America

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will begin with the period of European colonialism, which took place primarily between the 15th and 19th centuries. We will also look at the music of the indigenous peoples in Latin America as well as the musical traditions of enslaved West Africans, several million who were brought over to the Americas during the colonial era. Various musical forms emanating from this cross-cultural amalgam will be defined and discussed, including the bolero, candomblé, chacarera, danza, bomba, son and many others. Composers and artists whose work will be explored include Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Santiago de Murcia, Manuel Ponce, Carlos Chávez and Silvestre Revueltas. Songs and music of protest, which arose at various times in Latin American history, during such periods as the Guerra sucia (dirty war) in Argentina (1976-1983) and the years of the Pinochet regime in Chile, will also be explored. Contemporary popular music and forms, such as salsa and bachata, along with the artists who produce and perform them will also be covered.

HMD-2046

Roots and Rhythms: Music in Culture 1920-1964

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will begin the exploration of the cultural history of popular music in 20th-century America (1920-1964), with particular emphasis on the beginnings of recorded blues and hillbilly music in the 1920s and 1930s, the evolution from rural-based genres to more urban forms such as rhythm and blues and country and Western during the 1940s, the bridging of various styles into the rock ‘n roll revolution of the 1950s, the emergence of record producers, the origins of surf and soul music, and the folk revival of the 1960s. Along the way, we will closely examine the work of such seminal artists as Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, Muddy Waters, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Ray Charles, Phil Spector and Brian Wilson.

HMD-2047

Beatles to Beyoncé: Music in Culture 1964 to the Present

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will continue the exploration of the cultural history of popular music in the 20th century (1964 to the present), with particular emphasis on the British Invasion and the subsequent rise of folk rock, garage and psychedelia during the mid-to-late 1960s; country rock and disco to heavy metal, punk and new wave in the 1970s; MTV and the first video generation of the 1980s; hip hop, grunge and other 1990s alternatives, the return of the teen idol and celebrity-driven pop in the new millennium. Along the way, we will closely examine the work of such seminal artists as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Ramones, Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Nirvana, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift.

HMD-2051

Songs of Conscience: Music and Social Change

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Throughout history, music has shown itself to be a powerful force for social and political change. This course will examine the role of music in expressing the hopes, fears, attitudes and dreams of the common man and woman, and of the struggle to help the unempowered and underprivileged of society. Along the way, we will underscore the ongoing connections between protest music of past eras to such recent movements as Occupy Wall Street, Me Too, and Black Lives Matter. We will listen to, read about, and discuss the works of socially and politically committed artists from all walks of music, including folk (Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan), rock (John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen), soul (Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye), rap (Queen Latifah, Kendrick Lamar), reggae (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh) and country (The Carter Family, Willie Nelson).

HMD-2056

Songs, Screens and Scenes: Coming of Age with Music and Movies

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

It’s often said that the music we listen to and the films we watch provide the aural and visual timestamps for our lives. Every generation expresses itself in unique ways, with values and tastes shifting to reflect reactions to, and attitudes toward the world it joins. In this course we will explore the impact and influence of various genres of music featured in American and international films from the last six decades, with a sharp focus on recurring themes of rebellion and challenge to authority that shape both the personal and collective identities of young people. We will investigate the role of music in various eras and locales, and students will engage in comparing and contrasting the portrayals of youth from both within and outside their own experiences. Settings and styles will range from South American jazz (Black Orpheus), California acid-rock (Psych-out) and Jamaican reggae (The Harder They Come) of the 1960s and ‘70s to Seattle grunge (Shingles), LA rap (Boyz n the Hood) and Tehran alt-rock (No One Knows About Persian Cats) of the ‘90s and 2000s.

HMD-2063

History of Jazz

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will begin with an examination of the African roots of jazz and early African-American forms such as spirituals, blues and ragtime. We will see the beginnings of jazz as a blending of European and African elements in brass bands at the turn of the 20th century. We will then study subsequent phases of the music as it has evolved over time, including swing, be bop, free jazz and fusion, with close examination of the work of such iconic artists as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus. Along the way, we will view these developments with a cultural perspective to help us understand jazz’s place in American social (as well as global) history. Musical examples will be presented in a way that can be readily understood by anyone.

HMD-2069

The Magic of Opera

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Created more than four centuries ago, opera continues to be truly magical, as it encompasses various forms of art—including acting, set design, costumes and instrumental music—all working in harmony with that ultimate vehicle for transmitting human emotions: the beauty of the singing voice. Through readings, recording, and videos, students will explore a series of key operatic masterpieces, spanning from Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1607) to Adams’s Nixon in China (1987), to examine such subjects as: the birth and history of opera; its various forms and structures; the political, socio-economic, and philosophical background that influenced its creators. This course will serve as an introduction to opera for students with no previous operatic listening experience; those already familiar will gain a deeper appreciation of this unique and exciting art form.

HMD-2073

Popular Music and Technology

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Technology’s role in the establishment of the modern music industry is, and continues to be, of immense importance. This course explores the developments in Western popular music concurrent with the advent and advancements in audiovisual technology. We will closely examine how the commodification of music and development of mass media shaped the trajectory of popular music of the past 150 years. There will be an emphasis on material history where we will examine phonographs, wax cylinders, vinyl records, etc., while studying their reception and how they influenced artists, producers and listeners. This course will also consider how the dissemination of popular music at an industrial level both influenced and reflected racial and gendered identities with Western culture.

HMD-2078

The Music Video

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Among the most powerful developments in media history, the music video has revolutionized how we receive and perceive popular music. This course will explore the televisual history of music in the 20th century, beginning with televised music programs in the mid-century and culminating with music in contemporary short-form media such as TikTok. We will consider several questions such as: How did the rise of narrative music videos influence both the reception of music and television programming? To what degree should artists maintain control over the use of their music in third-party programs, advertisements, or campaigns? And, what role does digital media play in constructing global music cultures?

HMD-2084

Music and Migration

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Music has been the vessel of exchange, contention, and collaboration across diasporic groups from Africa, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Arab World in the U.S. Focusing on the transnational nature of American popular music, this course explores the relation between music and society, challenging preconceived notions of difference and identity. Students will learn how music has survived, transformed, and hybridized in diverse U.S. ethnic and cultural communities and how they have changed our music.

Finally, we will put into consideration what the connections between music and identity are among the selected diasporic groups.

HMD-2244

Art Theory: From Modernism to Postmodernism 

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course is an introduction to the philosophical ideas that have shaped the practice of contemporary art and criticism in the West. We begin with an examination of some historical problems that have arisen in thinking about art. Then we survey the various systems that constitute modernist cultural “theory,” including formalism, phenomenology, Marxism, structuralism, semiotics and psychoanalysis. These modernist theories are compared to poststructuralist and feminist views of art production and reception. The overall objective is to provide the necessary background for understanding and evaluating contemporary theories of art and design. Required texts: Stephen David Ross, ed., Art and Its Significance: An Anthology of Aesthetic Theory; Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory; Harrison and Wood, eds., Art in Theory: 1900-1990.

HMD-2247

Magic, Symbolism, Modernism and Art

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

What is a mystic, a magician, a seer, a charlatan, a scientist, an artist? When do poetry, art, emotion and science collide? This course explores the themes of magic and science as they relate to the movements of symbolism and modernism in 19th- and 20th-century literature, philosophy, art and art theory. We will examine Edgar Allan Poe’s definition of the infinite universe, Nikola Tesla’s scientific achievements in electrical discoveries, Harry Houdini’s sleight-of-hand tricks, the films of Georges Méliès and Jean Painleve, and the art of Pablo Picasso. Readings from literature, scientific articles, philosophy and art theory will be complemented with films and demonstrations.

HMD-2267

African Art and Civilization

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The aims of this course are to study the traditional art of specific ethnic groups and to explore artistic variations from Africa, parts of the Americas, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Haiti and the continental United States. We will examine Dogon symbols and Bobo/Bwa, Guro, Senufo, Baule, Kingdoms of life, Fon, Benin, Yoruba, Congo, Bakuba, as well as Gabon, Cameroon, Cross Niger/Igbo Nigeria. South Africa, Zimbabwe. We will also look at African contemporary art, including modern film that contrasts modernity with antiquity.

HMD-2411

The Female Gaze

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

We will look at artists whose vision has been clearly shaped by an awareness that what we see is conditioned by who we are, and that our sexuality and personal histories play significant roles in the forming of our artistic statements. We will study artists like Sofonisba Anguissola, Hannah Hoch, Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Mary Kelly, Adrian Piper, Lorna Simpson, Sophie Calle, Shirin Neshat and Louisa Matthíasdóttir in light of such questions as: How does gender relate to art? How is this relationship

reflected in history? What is the relationship between the rise of the women’s movement and art? What is feminist art? We will also look at the collaborative group known as the Guerrilla Girls. Language, identity and autobiographical impulses are among the topics to be discussed and integrated through readings in Ways of Seeing, John Berger, and Manifesta, Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards. We will also examine the history of the women’s movement and the feminist art movement through selected essays by John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Linda Nochlin, Lucy Lippard, Betty Friedan and Michelle Wallace.

HMD-2422

Art and Politics

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

How do artists respond to the social upheavals of their times? What is the artist’s responsibility to these concerns and what is the responsibility to one’s craft and to the development of a personal statement? In this course we will examine the inspiration and creation of politically focused art and literature and its role in the development of art history. We will examine a wide variety of topics, artworks, literature and videos that address the current issues of sociopolitical concern, such as Diego Rivera and the Mexican muralists, Guernica by Pablo Picasso, Create Dangerously and Caligula by Albert Camus, as well as view the film Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo Del Toro.

HMD-2432

Philosophy, Arts and Revolution

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The radicalization of philosophy, politics and the arts during the 1960s will be explored in this course. Students will examine the connections between postwar theories of social conflict and the rise of radical movements across the world. Key philosophers we will study include Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Hélène Cisoux, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and Jacques Lacan. The artistic works of Tropicália, the Neo-Concrete Movement, Cinema Novo, Louise Bourgeois, Agnès Varda, Valie Export and Roberto Burle Marx will serve as aesthetic counterparts to our study of the selected philosophers and the radical movements inspired by their thoughts. Students will consider the relentless power of philosophy, art and militancy as critical antidotes to state repression and police brutality.

HMD-2513

The Artist as Activist

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course combines a historical survey of art and activism movements with studio-based practices that students will actively engage in by creating their own activist work. The historical survey begins in the 19th century with the Suffragettes fighting for the female vote, and ends with the recent Black Lives Matter and MAGA movements. We will examine various arenas in which creatives strive to bring about social change, such as performance art, street art, public art, participatory art, satirical art and propaganda. Significant attention will be paid to understanding the dynamic between the artist, the work, the media and the public’s perception of the work. As noted, students will also create activist work for a “real-life,” nonprofit organization chosen by the instructor. This course aims to give students the knowledge and experience they need to be able to direct their creative practice toward supporting causes of their choosing.

HMD-2639

World Religions

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The beginnings of the world’s major religions based on the historical and archaeological record will be the focus of this course. These include Judaism, Christianity, Islam in the Western tradition; Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism in the Eastern tradition. Other religious traditions may be referenced. Readings will be selected from the fundamental scriptures of each religion. Special topics drawn from history or current events will be considered during the last weeks of the semester. Texts include The Illustrated World’s Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions.

HMD-2931

The Mythology of War

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Perhaps an understanding of institutionalized violence and man’s inhumanity to man has never been more important than in the troubled times in which we live. In this course we will explore the philosophical and psychological foundations of the allure of war. While many studies of war and its causes look to states and institutions, here we turn our attention to what might be called the “mythology of war.” Simply put, despite its costs—both human and economic—war and battle have an enduring appeal that defies rational understanding. Our task will be to probe the depths of the human experience in war and battle so as to better comprehend this appeal. We will consider the claim that man is by nature a warrior or, as a consequence of an innate lust for destruction, naturally driven to killing and violence. To guide us in this endeavor, we will study the insights offered in such texts as Michael Gelvin’s War and Existence, A Philosophical Inquiry; Stephen Pressfield’s Gates of Fire, An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae; Glenn Gray’s The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle; Dave Grossman’s On Killing: The Psychological Cast of Learning to Kill in War and Society and Jonathan Shay’s Achilles in Vietnam.

HMD-2939

Peace and Nonviolent Militancy

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will reflect on the transnational reception of nonviolent thinkers: Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Rosa Luxemburg, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Leonardo Boff, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg, Angela Davis, Dolores Huerta, Aung San Suu Kyi, Wangechi Mutu, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi and Tarana Burke. We will examine the connections between justice and peace, nonviolence and reconciliation. By exploring the cultural, political and social influence of nonviolent movements on public opinion and governmental decision-making, students will study the myths and paradoxes of nonviolent revolutions and reflect on the limits of translating nonviolent theory into political practice. Can peace become a long-term condition in the lives of multicultural communities? Or is it a mere utopia limited by the unpredictable turns of human behavior and the international order of politics?

HMD-2998

The Philosophy of Mind

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The philosophy of mind concerns itself with the mental, intellectual and spiritual awareness of the self and the universe broadly conceived. The course begins with a historical and thematic review of the ways in which philosophers have conceived reality, sense perception, awareness, consciousness and the psyche or soul. We will consider such classic issues as the mind-body problem and our perceptual knowledge of other minds. We will then explore some contemporary questions such as the relationship between thought and language, the intelligence of animals, moral action and free will. Students are encouraged to reflect intensely on their own mental states as the source of phenomena that a coherent theory of mind must account for.

HMD-3016

Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence and You

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Algorithms and artificial intelligence play larger and larger roles in creating and curating the media that we use to acquire information and knowledge. This course will focus on how these information technologies are transforming media and our relationship with them. We’ll look at the good and the bad, from artificial intelligence tools helping investigative journalists learn from enormous data sets to search and suggestion algorithms sending viewers down endless rabbit holes of dangerous conspiracy theories. We’ll dig into how these technologies function and look at some of the psychology that explains why they can be so compelling. Finally, we’ll pair this knowledge with a tool kit of critical thinking practices to help us navigate our complicated and automated modern world as artists and citizens.

HMD-3021

Technology, Identity and Crisis

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Technological innovation has been a major driver of fundamental cultural and socioeconomic developments in human society. This course will examine technology as a major engine of change. Particular focus will be placed on specific examples of technological innovation and its impacts on modern life. We will devote special attention to the development of crucial technologies affecting modern civilization from the Industrial Revolution to the present. One goal of the course will be to understand the basic material and scientific principles behind technological developments at the foundation of modern society. Major topics covered will include transportation, communications, electrification and materials. These technologies are now so pervasive that they largely define who we are. This all comes at a cost, however, as That-Which-Makes-Us-Who-We-Are has massive consequences, often on a global scale and not all very positive. Our other goal, then, is to consider the consequences of our technological lives for the environment, for social stability, and for long-term economic growth. Readings will include an array of modern studies on various technologies and their impacts.

HMD-3024

Art, Ethics and Moral Responsibility

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course is an introduction to philosophic reasoning about some basic ethical questions of human life. We will begin by exploring the moral notions of right and wrong, and whether there are rational ways for determining the difference between them. In particular, we will examine the nature and the application of moral standards to our personal behavior and especially to our artistic pursuits. In addition, we will consider whether there is a philosophical basis for moral responsibility, action and commitment, and whether such concepts will impact our freedom of expression. Among the authors and artists to be considered are Immanuel Kant, W.D. Ross, Alasdair MacIntyre, Andre Serrano and Jock Sturges.

HMD-3129

Philosophy of Feminism

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Serving as a cultural and philosophical look at women, gender and performance, this course introduces students to feminist theory and gender studies from their historical roots to the present. While we will focus predominantly on philosophical issues—intersectionality, radical feminism and postcolonial feminism, as well as ways that trans and queer studies offer new lenses for thinking about identity and difference—we will also consider the deeply interdisciplinary nature of feminist practice, highlighting the importance of the visual arts—looking at performance, photography and painting as we discuss philosophical texts. This course pairs written texts from Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, and Audre Lorde with case studies drawn from art, performance and film, including the work of Louise Lawler, Adrian Piper and Trinh T. Minh-ha.

HMD-3278

Environmental Philosophy

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The birth of modernity in the Western world marked a new way of thinking about the human being as an individual subject, independent and separate from nature. As inheritors of this framework, traditional ethical philosophy has left us ill-equipped for responding to the environmental crisis we face today. This course will begin by examining how the metaphysical picture established by modern philosophy transformed human self-conceptualization and licensed our exploitative relationships to nature. We will then re-examine these relationships to radically rethink what it means to be a human being with/in the natural world by exploring such texts as Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac and Rachel Carlson’s Silent Spring, which awakened the environmental movement in the mid-20th century; and works by Stacy Alaimo and Jason Moore, which seek to undercut the strict dichotomies between human/nature, mind/body, fact/value, etc. The course ends by examining attempts to respond to the environmental crisis by eco-Marxism, ecofeminism, and post-humanism.

HMD-3288

Introduction to Philosophy

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The great thinkers of the Western world will be examined in their historical context in an attempt to explain how their thought is a reflection and transformation of their culture. Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Marx, Rousseau, Mill, Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre, among others, will be studied and related to areas as diverse as the scientific revolution, the Industrial Revolution and modernism in art.

HMD-3443

Semiotics and Visual Culture

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Semiotics is the study of signs and the codes that envelope them. In this course we will examine the difference between linguistic (speech and writing) and iconic (paintings, photographs, drawings, sculptures, digital images, advertising and fashion) signs and focus on their cultural meaning and how they interconnect in aesthetic, political and moral sign systems. Readings will include A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments and Elements of Semiology by Roland Barthes; The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution by Denis Dutton; The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker; and Theory of Semiotics by Umberto Eco, as well as contemporary news articles.

HMD-3451

Introduction to Asian Thought

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will introduce the diverse doctrines and practices of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions as they developed in ancient India and traveled to Tibet, China and Japan. Through scriptural texts we will explore Hinduism’s three spiritual paths: the Path of Action, the Path of Devotion and the Path of Knowledge. We will then examine how the Buddha’s radical reinterpretation of the meaning of self formed the basis of one of the most powerful spiritual and philosophical movements in history. The course will then focus on Japanese Zen Buddhism through the writings of its founders. We will conclude with a look at the forms that these traditional schools are now taking as they are transplanted into Western cultures. Readings include: Fenton’s Religions of Asia; Koller’s A Sourcebook in Asian Philosophy; Harvey’s An Introduction to Buddhism; Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.

HMD-3458

Ethics

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Is might right? Should there be majority rule? Does power corrupt? Does pluralism entail the abdication of values? Ethics is the rational analysis of morals, with no regard for fashion and political correctness, and can therefore both seek and find firm and objective answers to what is right, good, duty, justice and freedom in all corners of personal and social life. This course is not an issues menu or a survey of all possible positions, but a concentrated study of deontological, naturalistic and utilitarian ethics in classical texts and contemporary commentaries. The status of universal human rights will be addressed.

HMD-3473

Media Criticism

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

What is the role of the media in our contemporary society? How does it interact with our conception of democracy? What is the difference between information and propaganda? How does thought control work in a democratic society? How can we detect bias, conflicts of interest, inaccuracy, censorship and “dumbing down”? What is the role of visual imagery in shaping our attitudes toward gender, race and class? This course will explore these questions through readings from such analysts as Noam Chomsky, Ben Bagdikian and Norman Solomon. We will also examine some alternative sources of information and visual imagery.

HMD-3474

Understanding Media Culture

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

As a main source of news, information and entertainment, media plays a powerful role in shaping, and at times controlling, how we understand the world and ourselves. Regardless of its form—including the Internet, television, films, magazines and advertising—its content is rarely neutral as it often embodies a story or message that reflects the creators’ beliefs, assumptions, or biases. Compounding this fact is the continual development of new technology, which has made it increasingly easier to manipulate images and, consequently, their viewers as well. It is thus essential to have the ability to differentiate fact from fiction, your own independent thinking from what others want you to believe. This course will provide an introduction to key theories in media and cultural studies to equip students with the tools and knowledge to critically analyze and evaluate the complex media culture as its audience, while also considering the impact their own work can have on society. We will read and examine works by such scholars and thinkers as Walter Benjamin, Marshall McLuhan, Roland Barthes, Laura Mulvey and bell hooks.

HMD-3478

Digital Games and Culture

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

In analyzing the reciprocal relationship between our virtual and IRL experiences, this course will critically interpret the powerhouse of cultural influence that is digital gaming, and consider how we can shape both digital games and our roles within them. By exploring how world-building and game narratives reflect society as well as individual creators, we will assess personal agency within the prescribed frameworks of gameplay and identify issues of representation throughout. We will examine works of game theory (Mary Flanagan, Alexander Galloway, Lisa Nakamura), game criticism (Clara Fernández-Vara, Anita Sarkeesian, Peter Bebergal), and independent game design (Zoë Quinn, Adam Cadre) while engaging in writing prompts, group discussions, gameplay, and more.

HMD-3484

The Future Now

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This is a course about the climate crisis, and it’s also about the future. It is designed to strengthen our positive imaginations and understanding of indigenous perspectives as our generation is forced to confront the terrible consequences of the climate crisis. The semester begins while Climate Week unfolds, offering a perfect moment for experiential learning by participating in activities happening across NYC. Together we will immerse ourselves in the global climate movement, listening specifically to messages about the future that give an indication of where the earth and all humanity are collectively heading. In the classroom we will consider the climate crisis, end-game capitalism, the future of various sectors and visionary ideas for the future. By the end of the semester, and after the United Nations Climate Change Conference has ended, students will co-create visions of their own versions of the future, based on what they've learned.

HMD-3486

Advanced Studies in Collective Action

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This discussion-oriented course is for students who have already taken a humanities course on contemporary politics or activism. If you have been wanting to build community with other students to deepen your political analysis while taking part in collective action (or getting support for actions you have already been taking), this course is for you. Students will examine such concepts as decolonization, capitalism, patriarchy and climate justice through in-class discussions, readings, videos and lectures. Practical training on collective action will be shared as collaborative projects unfold revealing personal narratives from trans and indigenous peoples as well as past and present discussions in racial justice and climate movements.

HMD-3494

Workers of the World: The Representation of Labor

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Time is money. At least that’s what we’re told. It’s strange to imagine that you could put a price on hours and minutes, but this is precisely what we do at the workplace. This course will explore literary and visual texts that challenge our assumptions about how human time and human lives should be valued. Readings from authors of philosophical and fictional works will include Marx, Orwell, Sartre, Melville and Woolf. We will also view selected films in the science fiction and magic-realist genres that imagine futuristic forms of labor, such as Brazil, Metropolis and Dark City.

HMD-3496

Gods and Goddesses, Heroes and Tricksters in World Mythology

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will examine creation myths and theistic myths as well as hero myths and trickster stories from many lands and cultures, including Egypt, West Africa and the African Diaspora; the U.S. and the Caribbean; Aztec and Hopi; China, Japan, Korea and India. The recognized gods of a culture, its pantheon, reflect that culture’s value system and view of itself. Myths are often employed to answer such questions as: Who am I? How did I get here? Where am I going? We will address whether myths are relevant today and if so, why. Texts will include: Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces; Carolyn McVickar Edwards, The Storyteller’s Goddess: Tales of the Goddess and Her Wisdom from Around the World; Clyde Ford, The Hero with an African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa; David Adams Leeming, World of Myth: An Anthology.

ANTHROPOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIOLOGY

HPD-3511

Archaeology of New York City

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The land on which New York City now stands has been continuously occupied and used by humans for at least 10,000 years. Vestiges of its indigenous, colonial and industrial past are with us still, buried underneath our feet. This course will study the history of New York City through its major archaeological finds as well as introduce students to archaeology as a discipline. We will survey the major historical events and archaeological sites in the city and discuss the state of modern urban archaeology. Students will also learn about the importance of the profession, historic preservation laws and their impact on local communities. Assignments will include trips to museums and/or historic sites.

HPD-3514

Introduction to Anthropology

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course provides a general overview of the field of anthropology, which is the study of the human experience across time and space. In the United States, anthropology is a four-field discipline that includes cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, biological anthropology and archaeology. Each subfield emphasizes important aspects of human existence and provides methods to enhance our understanding of the commonalities and diversity of human societies and cultures over time. Students will leave the course with a broad understanding of human culture and lifeways and will obtain specific knowledge of the fundamentals and methodologies of all four subfields. Cumulatively, students will acquire an anthropological perspective, or “toolkit,” which provides new ways of thinking about and engaging with the human world.

HPD-3516

Power, Politics and Society

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The history and prospects of American democracy will be examined in this course. To shed light on our own social and political context, we’ll read works by social theorists as well as contemporary social scientists. We’ll ask key questions: Where did democracy come from? What are the fundamental principles of democracy? What role does money play in influencing social policy? What has happened to public infrastructure? What are political parties? Why do so few Americans vote? Why is information about public affairs so poor? How does American foreign policy take shape? Why does inequality persist in the face of majority rule? How does major social change occur? Is democracy at risk today? The aim of the course is to empower students as citizens, by developing a critical understanding of the nature of political power in the society and formulating paths to action.

HPD-3518

Storytelling and the Oral Tradition in the 21st Century: From Fairy Tales to Conspiracy Theories

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Why do we tell the stories we tell? And how do certain stories—get taken as truth, as seen by the recent popularity of conspiracy theories from Flat Earth theorists to QAnon? We’ll examine the evolution of mythos, starting with early oral traditions, including myths and fairytales. And we’ll listen for how these stories echo in contemporary versions of witch hunts, conspiratorial gods, or explanations for the mysterious. New technologies have changed the ways we tell and share oral stories, and who gets to share them. Podcasts, live streams, Twitter feeds and troll bots keep traditional storytelling structures, but their cultural functions have changed. The art of storytelling has been returned to the people with wider reach, power and apparent veracity. Employing a wide range of media—literature, film, radio, social media—this course will explore the ways in which technology has created and transformed oral traditions from the 5th century BCE to the present. We will think about why particular stories take hold, and what kind of stories we want to tell from here.

HPD-3520

Men and Women in the Modern Workplace

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

After a historical overview of work in pre-industrial and industrial contexts, this course will focus on the experience of work in postindustrial society. Current issues within the workplace will be addressed, including: gender roles, the impact of the computer, functioning in complex organizations and opportunities for worker satisfaction. Those working in unbureaucratic, smaller-scale contexts, such as professionals and artists, will also be discussed. A common theme will be the potential for, and limits to, worker autonomy and participation in decision-making. Readings will be supplemented with selected videos and films.

HPD-3526

Social Media and Psychology

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

We are in the digital age, constantly connecting through our devices. According to Abraham Maslow, humans are motivated by a need to belong. How does social media reinforce this need to connect? How are our electronic devices and online personas redefining human connections and communication? This course will explore the interplay between psychological and media processes, including the effect of social media on personal development, self-image and self-esteem, interpersonal relationships and mental health. In applying psychological constructs, such as personality theory and social cognition as well as neuroscience, we will examine the reasons people participate on social media, and debate how it functions as a vehicle of positive/prosocial versus negative/antisocial behavior. We will also reflect on how social media influences both the way we see art and the way it is seen. As this social media trend will only continue, we will review the current research, because it is time to talk about it in our constantly connected culture.

HPD-3530

Interpersonal Behavior

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will analyze the structures and processes involved in face-to-face interpersonal relationships.

A variety of social and psychological perspectives will form the basis for an analysis of love relationships, friendships, social and political interactions, workplace dynamics and family ties. Issues such as aggression, alienation, conformity and prejudice will also be addressed.

HPD-3531

Life Span Development: Child

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

In this course we will focus on the extraordinary changes undergone by the developing child from conception through adolescence. We will base our study on the body of knowledge generated by theory and research in the field of developmental psychology. Our emphasis will be on patterns of physical maturation; linguistic and cognitive development; personal, social and emotional growth. Current issues in child psychology such as the working mother, popular media, neglect and abuse, drugs, and violence will also be addressed. The primary text will be Of Children: An Introduction to Child Development.

HPD-3532

Life Span Development: Adult

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Do adults develop through predictable stages or do they reach a peak in their twenties or thirties and then decline and die? Within the framework of this organizing question, we will trace predictable changes and challenges experienced by adults from young adulthood through old age and death. Central issues will include: finding a mate, bearing and rearing children, negotiating relationships with family and friends, selecting and developing a career, accommodating to changing physical capacities and health, and coming to terms with death.

HPD-3541

Introduction to Psychology

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

This course will systematically examine the content of psychology as a life science. Specifically, it will explore the principles, methodological techniques and theoretical models that shaped the science of psychology and that distinguish it from other approaches to human behavior. The course will provide an overview of basic concepts in diverse areas of psychology, including neuroscience, memory, cognitive learning, developmental personality, abnormal psychology and social psychology. Ultimately, the course will serve as a primer to the more advanced study of psychology.

HPD-3557

Income Inequality, Human Suffering and the Artist’s Perspective

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Why are the wealthy getting wealthier and the middle class and poor suffering? Does government policy contribute to inequality, and why do so many Americans seem to support policies that undermine the economic mobility, stability and growth of the middle class? What are the implications of the growing gap between the wealthy and the rest of society? This course will address the dangers posed by the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a select few to a nation predicated on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Racial and gender inequality as well as the attack on basic benefits, such as health insurance, unemployment insurance and public education will be explored in light of both capitalism and income inequality. Occupy Wall Street, Citizens United, the Tea Party, corporate interests, and other social and political movements will be discussed. Students will use their perspectives as artists to explore this threat to American stability and growth.

HPD-3623

Art and the Psyche

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

What do you reveal to your audience through your work? Is your art a free flowing stream to your unconscious? Is it a window to your own internal world or a reflection of the external? Do you strive for the content or the form? Freud argued that when making art one engages in complex mental processes. He described art as an effort at mastery as well as a regressive search for pleasure, representing both affective and cognitive expression. This course will examine three distinct theories of psychology as they apply to the relationships between art, artist and audience. The lectures will focus on drive theory, ego psychology and object-relations theory and their corresponding approaches to art analysis. We will explore selected works from Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Ernst Kris, D.W. Winnicott, Margaret Mahler, Anna Freud and Fred Pine, along with the principal authors of some alternative theories of psychology.

HPD-3636

Artists’ Rights: Basic Theory and Practice

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course provides a historical and cultural study of artists’ rights and art law, as well as practical knowledge that artists need for their own work and careers. Students will learn about artists’ basic rights in making art, using others’ works, artistic freedom and its limitations, and how to handle contracts and releases. The course also surveys laws that govern the ownership of art, protect creative assets, prevent distortion and mutilation of artwork, and whether there is a need for regulation of the art market. Guest speakers will complement readings and lectures.

HPD-3641

Abnormal Psychology I: Neurotic and Character Disorders

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will introduce students to the psychological and interpersonal conflicts that underlie obsessional, hysterical, depressive and narcissistic disorders. Treatment strategies will also be explored with reference to actual case histories. Readings include selections from such clinical theorists as Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, David Shapiro, Alice Miller, Charles Brenner, Karen Horney and Heinz Kohut.

HPD-3642

Abnormal Psychology II: Psychotic and Character Disorders

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will focus on the psychological and interpersonal conflicts that characterize specific personality disorders as well as psychotic mood disorders (i.e., bipolar disorder and schizophrenia). Treatment strategies will also be explored with reference to actual case studies. Readings include selections from such clinical theorists as Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Peter Breggin, and Nancy Andreasen, as well as media selections on topics of creativity and mental illness, and the role of trauma in psychopathology.

HPD-3644

Deviant Behavior and Social Control

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will examine the impact that cultural norms and societal beliefs can have on human experience. In particular, we will seek to understand how people, as an essentially moral creature, attempt to exist in a broader sociocultural framework that often utilizes fundamentally flawed methods for control and compliance. Social deviance and maladaptive behavior will be examined in a variety of forms, including as attempts to combat essentially unfair or harmful dynamics, blind obedience to cultural myths, and structural mechanisms that strengthen policies, which only serve to undermine the individual’s quality of life. Specific attention will be given to the following topics: racism, sexism, homophobia, demonization of the poor, and denying equal access to education. A critique of modern American culture will examine how strongly held American beliefs contribute to social deviance and cultural decay.

HPD-3899

Theories of Personality

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

Beginning with classical psychoanalytic writers, such as Freud, Klein, Winnicott and Mahler, this course will review different theories of personality development. Contemporary relational theorists will also be studied, with an emphasis on gender development, creativity and the impact of childhood trauma on adult functioning.

HPD-4057

Modern Art and Psychology: The Secrets of the Soul

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

What do dreams mean? What causes madness? How should society care for the insane? Is the mind a machine? With the rise of science in modern times, psychologists have become the new doctors of the soul who address these age-old questions. This course presents their fascinating answers, as well as examines the influence of psychology on culture and the visual arts. Topics include: 19th-century asylum medicine, 20th-century psychoanalysis and today’s neuroscience, as well as metaphors for the psyche in the arts. Readings from: Madness in America: Cultural and Medical Perspectives on Mental Illness until 1914 and Dreams 1900-2000: Science, Art and the Unconscious Mind.

HPD-4282

The 21st-Century Family: Alternative Lifestyles, Civil Unions, Gay Marriage

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This behavioral science course will focus on an examination of the basic functions of the family unit as well as its cross-cultural and historical forms. The course will focus on the profound changes occurring within the 21st century family unit and the reasons for these changes. Emphasis will be placed on the new American family: civil unions, gay marriage, domestic partnerships, single parent families, stepfamilies and blended families as well as other familial units. Issues will include a discussion of the political and economic impact of the new family paradigm upon society, alternative lifestyles, family values agenda, the divorce culture and abortion. This course gives students an understanding of the history of the family unit and how these institutions have changed over the past 25 years. Students will also explore how media and cultural institutions shaped the notion of marriage and family during the past half-century and the beginning of the 21st century.

HPD-4286

Psychology of Relationships and Sexuality

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will cover several major branches of psychology—biological, developmental, clinical, social— as well as clinical research methods through the study of romantic relationships. Topics include how chemicals such as dopamine and oxytocin impact feelings; stages of development; sexuality; gender differences and relationship dysfunction. Students will explore established theories, including those by Freud, Adler and Bowlby, and compare them to current research on relationships and love.

HPD-4289

Psychology of Happiness

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The concepts, research and theories of happiness are explored in this course, within the perspective of positive psychology—a branch of psychology that examines evidence-based research and application of behavioral practices that increase the likelihood of personal happiness and a purpose-filled life. We will begin with the historical background of positive psychology and progress through the topics of resiliency, optimism, positive relationships, goal-setting, well-being, motivation, self-esteem, development of coping skills, gratitude and mindfulness. Evidence-based concepts, including growth vs. fixed mindset, self- determination theory, self-efficacy theory and strengths-based psychology will be explored through the work of William James, Abraham Maslow, Albert Bandura, and others.

HPD-4292

The Psychology of Stereotyping, Prejudice and Discrimination

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will focus on exploring stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination through the lens of psychology. Both individual and community psychology will be addressed and students will examine the origins of commonly held beliefs about members of other communities (stereotypes), preconceived notions and consequent attitudes about members of a certain community (prejudice) and fixed behaviors toward members of a specific population (discrimination). The psychological causes and consequences of stereotyping, bias and discrimination on the lives of both the oppressed and the privileged will be included. We will read and discuss the work of Kurt Lewin, Albert Bandura, Gordon Allport, and other prominent psychologists in the field of social psychology, as well as different experimental studies and the major theoretical perspectives that have sought to explain stereotyping and prejudice.

HPD-4298

Introduction to Queer/Gender Studies

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will study the transgressive activists, artists, writers, filmmakers and thinkers who have radically changed our understanding of gender and sexuality. We will first examine the categories of sex and gender and unmoor them from their binary anchors. We will interrogate the works of artists such as Nan Goldin, Juliana Huxtable, Leslie Feinberg and Keith Haring, and events such as the Compton Cafeteria and Stonewall Riots, de-classification of homosexuality as a psychiatric illness, CeCe McDonald’s conviction and the Dog Day Afternoon bank robbery using interdisciplinary theories of sex and gender. From civil rights activism, movements in art and the ability to think differently, students will explore their assumptions about sex and gender, as well as their understanding of themselves and their artwork.

HPD-4299

Race and Ethnic Relations

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will focus on a variety of theoretical and empirical issues related to race and ethnic relations. Topics will include the concept of “race”; minorities; social stratification and social conflict; the relationship between prejudice and discrimination; assimilation, amalgamation and cultural pluralism; race, ethnicity and ideology; patterns of segregation; and the question of racial oppression or class subordination.

HPD-4481

Psychological Aspects of the Creative Process

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will explore creativity using a contemporary psychoanalytic theory that weaves together the psychological, the social and the political. We will address such topics as: how the unconscious shapes the artist’s thinking; Freud’s method of dream interpretation and how it can be used to decode the unconscious; how gender, race and trauma impact the creative process; how contemporary psychoanalysis views the self and its relation to creativity. These topics will be examined through lectures, discussions and readings, including works by Freud and Csikszentmihalyi.

SCIENCE and MATHEMATICS

HSD-2114

Evolution

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will explore the origins of life on Earth as well as the evolutionary processes of microbes, plants and animals, especially humans. Focal topics will include Darwin’s theory of natural selection and Gregor Mendel’s contributions to our understanding of the diversity of life forms. Modern tools of artificial selection and the cloning of organisms will also be examined and discussed. Students will further explore these topics with microscopes and other experiments in artificial selection.

HSD-2447

The Physics of the Human Body

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Living organisms are governed by the laws of physics on all levels. The aim of this course is to relate some of the concepts in physics to living systems; therefore, the course is designed to explain certain concepts in physics using the human body as the model and devoted to the applications of physics to biology and medicine. The theory and descriptions of basic measurement and analysis techniques such as CT scan, endoscopy, MRI and fMRI imaging will be included.

HSD-2566

Biological Genetics

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Genetics has increasingly found applications in a variety of areas collectively known as biotechnology. This course will focus on providing a basic understanding of genetics and biotechnology as they relate both to biological theories and to practical applications of other sciences. These will include the methods of disease diagnosis, development of new drugs and vaccines, forensic sciences, agricultural sciences and their uses in ecological sciences. Students will conduct further explorations with microscopes and experiments that use classical methods to characterize phenotypes to deduce genotypes and more recent developments that characterize genotypes to deduce phenotypes.

HSD-2578

Germs and Gems

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will explore the pigments and minerals that emerge from microbial worlds. The origins of life and production of pigments throughout the history of the Earth will be viewed through the “lens” of microscopic life. Bacteria, protists and exceptional viruses will be among the creatures discussed; they provided the first green revolution. These creatures reside in and on all life as seen by the symbiotic theories. Cell theory, germ theory, the chemistry of metals and pigments, and the laws that explain their colors will be discussed. These topics will be further examined with microscopes and other experiments with minerals and germs.

HSD-2631

Neuroscience and Culture

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will analyze the essential connections between neuroscience and culture in contemporary society and in history. We will explore general concepts about the nervous system from a variety of perspectives—structural, physiological, behavioral—and examine their resonance in today’s world.

Attention will be given to cultural products that address these topics, such as literature, music, film and, especially, the visual arts.

HSD-2642

Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Diverse roles of the brain in the biological world and the emergence of artificial intelligence will be explored in this course. Topics will include: evolution and development of the brain, engineering intelligence in animals, artificial organs, robotics and neural networks as the basis of artificial minds. Explorations of these topics will be supplemented with views through microscopes and by conducting other experiments into the theories of the brain.

HSD-2663

Metaphors in Science and Their Relation to Culture

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The role and significance of metaphor in cognition, particularly with respect to science and art, will be analyzed in this course. As we investigate the nature and ramifications of metaphorical thinking in scientific theory and practice, we will attempt to understand the primary cultural factors that affect this mode of thought. The influence of media on science, culture and especially the visual arts will also be explored.

HSD-2773

Urban Ecology: The Natural History of Cities

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The emerging science of urban ecology is broadly defined as the study of relationships between living organisms and their biotic and abiotic (non-living) environment within cities. In this course we will use New York City as a living laboratory to introduce key concepts, including: the geologic and physical setting of NYC; the influence of land use history on local ecosystems; landscape ecology, island biogeography and habitat fragmentation; ecology and management of invasive species; the types and distribution of forest, freshwater and saltwater wetlands, and meadows in NYC; habitat and wildlife management; insect/plant relationships; predator/prey relationships; and ecological restoration. Sessions will include field trips to parks, natural areas, the American Museum of Natural History, lectures and media screenings. Students will be required to do independent field work and keep a natural history journal.

HSD-2774

Urban Zoology: The Natural History of Urban Wildlife

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

In this field and classroom course students will be introduced to animal life in cities by examining wildlife in an ecological context, considering habitat needs and relationships. We will use New York City as a living laboratory to introduce key concepts, including the classification and evolutionary relationships of animals; adaptation of urban wildlife to cities; invasive species ecology and management; the relationship of wildlife to habitats including forest, freshwater and saltwater wetlands, and meadows in NYC; animal roles in the distribution of plants; predator/prey relationships; and ecological restoration. Sessions will include field trips to parks, natural areas and the American Museum of Natural History as well as lectures, discussions and media screenings. Students will be required to do independent field work and keep a natural history journal.

HSD-2781

Introduction to Invertebrate Zoology

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

Invertebrates are animals that lack a vertebral column or backbone, including cephalopods, mollusks and segmented worms as well as arthropods such as insects, crustaceans and arachnids. They make up the vast majority of Earth’s animals and are key elements in the food chain. In this course students will explore the development and evolutionary relationships between select species connected to ecology, with a focus on life’s origins. This will be an integrated lecture course with field trips to the American Museum of Natural History and aquatic urban environments. Together, we will examine historical

collections, geologic time scales and visual displays. This course will increase students’ understanding of the scientific study of invertebrate animal species, and how they play important roles in plant pollination as well as current threats to biodiversity. Students will keep a journal to record observations from nature.

HSD-2863

Ornithology: The Natural History of Birds

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This introductory ornithology course will explore the principles of avian biology, including bird evolution with a focus on the fossil record, the origins of flight, life cycles, conservation, behavior and ecology.

Students will have an opportunity to visit local urban ecosystems for independent observation. Firsthand experience will be supplemented with directed reading, a visit to the American Museum of Natural History, lectures and media screenings. Students will maintain a weekly journal of bird observations.

HSD-2898

Warm and Cold Blooded: An Introduction to Vertebrate Species

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

How are all of the species living on Earth related? In this vertebrate evolution course, we will study both endothermic (warm-blooded) and ectothermic (cold-blooded) animals, their habitats and origins. We begin with an introductory overview of paleozoology, focusing on ancient aquatic animals (including the oldest ectothermic vertebrate classes on the planet), modern birds and reptiles. Students will examine the fossil record and how to read a phylogenetic tree. Historical scientists, life cycles, conservation, and other topics will be explored. This will be an integrated lecture course with field trips to the American Museum of Natural History and urban environments. Together, we will explore historical collections, geologic time scales and visual displays. Overall, this course will increase each student’s understanding of vertebrate animal species, their evolution and groupings, as well as current threats to biodiversity.

HSD-2987

Introduction to Mathematics I

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

What are the “atoms” of mathematics? Are they points in a plane, numbers on a line, or something more fundamental? This introductory course begins by addressing these and other foundational questions, such as “what is the precise meaning of infinity?” Major topics covered will include an introduction to set theory, number theory and topology. We will explore the historical evolution of these fields, with an emphasis on recent developments. The applications of math to the physical sciences and cryptography, and on the interaction of math and art will also be considered. Students will engage with math through problem solving, and through reading essays and blogs, watching films and observing working mathematicians.

HSD-2988

Introduction to Mathematics II

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

After a review of logic and set theory, students will study discrete probability, Euclidean and non- Euclidean geometries, and abstract algebra, with an emphasis on the applications of probability and the rich interplay between geometry and algebra. We will touch on the applications of the mathematical theory developed in the course to science and art. Students will engage with math through problem solving, and through reading essays and blogs, watching films and observing working mathematicians.

HSD-2992

Programming with Java

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

As technology continues to evolve, it’s important for artists and designers to have the ability to harness computing resources to explore ideas and solve problems. The goals of this course are two-fold. First, students will become comfortable with the notion of thinking like a programmer. Away from the computer, we’ll explore the basic building blocks of a computer program, such as loops, conditional statements and variables, and combine these elements to begin constructing step-by-step solutions to problems. Second, we’ll put these ideas to work in the Java programming environment. Students will develop basic programming skills through a series of small, practical assignments and a final project of their choosing. This course will prepare novice programmers to continue developing their programming fluency in the future, collaborate more effectively with programmers in their professional lives, write scripts and create small programs to perform a variety of useful tasks.

HSD-3044

History of the Human Body: Society, Culture and Medicine

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Humans have always worried about their health, and for good reason since we have always faced illness. We are more fortunate than other species because we have been able to discover the causes of many diseases and to invent treatments and prevention for many of them. This course will focus primarily on the development of medical ideas, medical practice, and treatments for the human body from antiquity to the modern day. We will survey theories of the body, advances in anatomy, the diagnosis and treatment of disease, and pharmacology. We will also consider the social and cultural aspects of medicine, focusing on the lives of people who generated and consumed medical knowledge. Moreover, since medicine does not exist in a vacuum, this course will also explore the influences that medical ideas and practices have had on human culture and society. We will discuss medical practices that are considered traditional from several world cultures. The focus, however, will be on rational attempts to understand the body that have culminated in modern scientific medicine. Readings will primarily include important recent work on the history of medicine and its relation to culture.

HSD-3111

Astronomy

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Astronomy has played a role in every known human civilization, past and present. It has had practical roles such as shaping calendars and aiding in navigation. It has also played a large role in human culture, contributing to the existential concerns all peoples have had and often enriching ideas of the divine. With the development of modern science, astronomy has lost some of its cultural importance, but it has developed into a profound tool for the investigation of our physical universe and continues to inspire profound ideas. This course will begin with a study of the basic appearance of the sky as well as the laws of motion and the nature of light. Building on these topics, we will move on to discuss the formation of planets in our own solar system. We will then move beyond our cosmic neighborhood to focus on the nature of stars, how they develop, how they burn, their characteristics and, finally, their deaths. We will eventually look at much larger structures in the universe, including galaxies, dark matter and extremely large-scale cosmic structures. We will also consider cosmological theories about the origin and evolution of the Cosmos. Along the way, we shall study any number of exotic things, including black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, quasars, comets, etc. Lastly, we will seek to understand the methods used in astronomy, as well as the various tools astronomers use from telescopes to satellites and various other gadgets.

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Modern Art and Astronomy: The Expanding Universe

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Where do stars come from? How big is the universe? What’s inside an atom? Why is the sky blue? In the last century, scientists have given revolutionary answers to these questions, profoundly altering how modern society perceives reality. This course presents fascinating responses to these questions in plain, easy-to-understand English, along with illustrations of their impact on art and culture. Topics include Einstein’s theory of the relativity of space and time, the discovery that the universe is expanding, space travel, the splitting of the atom, and the dawning of the nuclear age, as well as scientific metaphors in the arts.

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Botany

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

In this course students will explore basic aspects of plant anatomy, physiology, plant types, and the historical and current importance of plants in human life. Students will actively participate in lab work to understand plant reproduction, propagation, cultivation and nutrition. The course will increase student awareness of and knowledge about the uses of plants and critical issues affecting ecology, including the threat and promise of science and agribusiness to modify plants for human and animal consumption.

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Economic Botany

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Plants are the basis for life on earth and provide the raw materials for natural plant products. This course explores the world of plants from an economic and a cultural perspective. Lectures focus on economic, agricultural, edible, and medicinal plants as well as the science involved in collection, domestication, cultivation, taxonomy, and utilization of culturally important plant species. Lab sessions will involve hands- on involvement with plants and processing of plant products.

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Science, Technology and War: A Historical Overview

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will examine several links between technology, science and war. Our view will be historical, and we will look at the development of weapons from the earliest days of human civilization to the present. Moreover, we will consider the kinds of technology and technological developments that allowed for weapons manufacture and key innovations in weapons themselves. We will also survey the kinds of societal organizations and institutions that have evolved and now sustain weapons manufacturing. Lastly, we will consider the kinds of conflicts that have existed in the past, as well as current modes of warfare as each have been influenced greatly by the types of weapons available. More generally, this course will examine two areas of great importance. The first deals with the historical analysis of the roles that science and technology have played in the development and transformation of war. We will focus on the evolution of weapons and weapons systems and their effect in battle. The second area examines the interaction between weapons, warfare and the rest of society. We will study how changes in weapons technology have and still can alter political relationships. We will also look at the role of modern science in weapons development and the conduct of war.

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The Material World

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

In this course we will examine the way scientists and engineers look at the material world around us. At a practical level, we first examine the basic mechanical principles used in the design of cathedrals, ships and living organisms. At a more fundamental level, we ask: What do physicists know about the ultimate nature of matter? What are the ultimate laws governing the physical universe? We examine the answer to this question as it has evolved from the time of Newton to the present.

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Art Meets Science

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will investigate the relationship between art and science, from the early anatomy books to computer graphics and animation today. We will explore as well many of the organizations and Internet sources that link art and science. The history and significance of scientific illustration will also be examined. How artists use science to create their art, and the benefits of a cross-disciplinary approach to learning science through art are among the topics explored.

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Modern Art and Biology: The Mystery of Life

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

How did the first life on earth begin? How smart were dinosaurs? Why do children look like their parents? How does the human brain remember things? Scientists gave revolutionary answers to these questions in the 20th century, profoundly altering how modern society perceived reality. This course presents fascinating responses to these questions in plain English, along with illustrations of their impact on art and culture. Topics include the theory of evolution, how cells function, deciphering the DNA molecule, and medical revolutions from antibiotics to organ transplants as well as biological metaphors in the arts.

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Science and Religion

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will take both a historical and a philosophical approach to the interaction between science and religion. Our focus will be on the Western experience and we will have occasion to explore other cultures. The ways in which science and religion have interacted in the past will be examined, looking at areas of mutual support as well as areas of conflict. A number of issues that we will address include whether religion has actually contributed to scientific progress and whether science, in return, has influenced religion. We will focus on crucial historical periods and movements, including the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, 19th-century thought, and the discoveries of modern science and culture. We will also consider the current state of the relationship between science and religion, including attacks on science from some religious believers and more positive attempts to bring modern science and religious beliefs together. In the end, we will consider whether science and religion are fundamentally compatible.

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World Water Resources

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Of all the water on our Blue Planet, only about 2.5% is freshwater, and most of that is frozen in ice. This precious resource supports all life on Earth, from microbes to marigolds to mountain lions. This also means that water access will continue to be a defining issue of our time, for human health, development and sustainability. This course will explore the future of water, including water resources, ecosystems, infrastructure, management, treatment and policy.

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Environmental Studies

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Human beings are inseparable from the natural world. With a population of more than seven billion people on the planet, now more than ever scientists are considering the effects of human activities on Earth. This course stresses the basic principles of the physical sciences, as well as the social and cultural implications of human impacts on the environment. Topics include: physical and chemical parameters of the environment, biodiversity, conservation, pollution, climate change, energy, food and agriculture.

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Ecological Economics

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Economic progress in the industrialized world has been shaped by a profound and alarming reliance upon the Earth’s ecosystem. This course will examine the logic, justifications and ideologies that have propelled society toward global capitalism, with an emphasis on the environmental conditions related to that growth. Readings from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes will reveal the scope of traditional economic thought as it relates to the natural world; while texts from authors such as Aldo Leopold, Herman Daly and Elinor Ostrom will employ the pragmatism of economic philosophy to offer solutions for our most dire ecological predicaments.

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Conservation Biology

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Conservation biology is the study of the maintenance, loss and restoration of ecosystems of biodiversity. This course covers the basics of paleontology, evolution and ecology, as well as relevant issues in environmental science. The objective of the course is to introduce students to the issues related to our current extinction crisis and to enable them to make informed decisions on both national and local levels. Special attention will be paid to current debate and controversy in this quickly growing field of study.

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Human Diseases

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will survey the major human diseases, their history, causes, treatments and effects on human history. The legends and myths about diseases will be examined, and the sociological and cultural aspects of human diseases will be explored. We will also study illness related phenomena such as physical pain, psychological suffering, disability and death. Genetic disorders, neurological diseases, mental disorders, concepts of infection, immunology and epidemiology will also be discussed.

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Art, Science and the Spiritual

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

What is our place in the universe? How do we perceive the world? Students will learn how modern science has profoundly transformed modern art. The theories of Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein forever changed how artists understand reality. The rise of science also entailed the decline of organized religion, causing traditional spiritual questions to be reformulated in secular terms. At the same time, the theories proposed by psychologists—the new doctors of the soul—revolutionized modern society’s understanding of the human psyche. Artists responded to the challenges posed by science and psychology by creating new metaphors for the human condition during the first secular, scientific age in human history. We will explore the interplay between art, science and the spiritual by evaluating major scientific and religious trends of the 20th century in relation to the representative artistic movements and works of the time.

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Paradigm Shift: Scientific Revolutions

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

In this course we will analyze the concept of paradigm shift. As our class focus and discussions move from lab experimentation, through studio art to life experience, we will explore important science paradigm shifts such as the discovery of neurons and the creation of the first transgenic mammals as well as important paradigmatic shifts in art and society. During the course of our studies, we will examine the connections between experience in the lab, the art studio, our personal lives and the world at large.

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Science, Art and Visual Culture

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will analyze the essential connections between science, art and visual culture. We will review and explore the importance of visual models in science and examine how these visual models are integrated into culture. The class will devote special attention to a variety of cultural products that address these topics such as books, music, film and especially the visual arts.

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Brave New Worlds: Science and Science Fiction

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will explore the complex relationship between science and science fiction, alternatively focusing on science fiction as a source of inspiration for scientists and, conversely, the role of science as a source of inspiration for science-fiction authors and filmmakers. Students will become familiar with the historical development and far-reaching consequences of scientific discoveries and advances in scientific theory. From neuroscience through genetic engineering and nanotechnology, our work will give us a deeper understanding of how scientific research and science fiction have contributed to the generation of new ideas, social relationships and worldviews. We will read and discuss a wide variety of scientific articles and science-fiction novels such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World and Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics. Films such as Fantastic Voyage, Blade Runner and The Matrix will be screened. Students will be encouraged to create their own science-based artistic projects.

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Fantastic Voyage and Nanotechnology

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Have you ever been on a mission traveling inside the human body? This is the plot of the science-fiction movie Fantastic Voyage. This course is a voyage through the world of scientific illustration, microscopic observation and other techniques to explore the interior of the human body. From the macroscopic anatomists like Vesalius to microscopic anatomists like Cajal, we will review the visual work of different anatomists. Using different ways of visualizing the body’s interior (anatomical bodies, videos, brain scans, dissection, online visual atlas and microscopic observations) we will explore the beauty of the anatomy of different tissues (such as epithelial, connective, osseous, muscular, nervous, endocrine). Through this visual travel we will also review basic concepts of physiology (nervous transmission, muscular contraction, etc.) that will correlate structure and function.

HSD-4204

Human Anatomy and Physiology

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

A comparative study of human anatomy in the context of vertebrate evolution is the focus of this course. Students will view tissues and cells through microscopes and with other physiological experiments. Field trips to the American Museum of Natural History and detailed discussion of the major physiological systems will be included.

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Light, Color and Vision

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

The basic physics and chemistry of light will be explored in this course by examining the qualitative parameters that distinguish classical, geometrical and physical optics, and the quantitative characteristics that distinguish color. We will discuss refraction and diffraction, structural color, the modern view of the nature of light and its interactions with matter, photochemistry, pigments and dyes, the principles underlying fluorescence and phosphorescence, lasers and holography.

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Vision, Perception and the Mind

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

This course will explore the biology and psychology of vision from the sensory responses to light in microorganisms and plants to the complex interplay of visual perception, thought and creativity in the human brain. Readings and discussions will be supplemented by laboratory experiments and analyses of various theories of vision and the brain.

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The Art of Mapping: History and Practice

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Cartography, the science of drawing maps, has oriented people in the cosmos for centuries. Maps are powerful tools for artists, designers and illustrators to communicate complex patterns and create immersive visuals. In this course students will learn how to use open source platforms such as QGIS, Locus Tempus, StoryMaps, Ocellus and Google Earth to create precise and evocative digital maps. The fundamentals of spatial analysis will be covered—gathering data, testing hypotheses and visualizing conclusions. Students will collect and interpret qualitative and quantitative data on location and use open source datasets like OpenData NYC and iNaturalist. We will use this data to generate interactive maps and test hypotheses about distribution and correlation. Through field work students will explore the environment of New York City while developing a portfolio of hand-drawn and digital maps.

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Art, Mathematics and the Mystical

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

What is infinity? Do numbers originate in our minds or in the cosmos? How do abstract patterns acquire meaning? These fascinating questions lie at the heart of mathematics, which—because of its abstractness—is the foundation of exact thought and the international language of today’s high-tech culture. But despite its pivotal importance, mathematics is often a disappointment to artists because its secrets are written in a language—mathematical symbols—that they may not understand. The goal of this course is to describe in plain English the ideas that drive mathematics—numbers, infinity, geometry, pattern, and so on—and to demonstrate how these topics have been absorbed, interpreted and expressed by modern artists. The course will also explain how mathematical ideas are conveyed in symbols, formulas, graphs and diagrams. These figures and formulas amount to a pictorial visualization of abstract concepts that have profound implications for artists who create animated patterns, abstract paintings or conceptual art. No background in mathematics is needed; the only prerequisite is a natural curiosity about numbers.

HSD-4321

Sustainable Food Systems

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Food is an essential human need, and yet the issues of hunger, malnutrition and food waste persist around the world. This course will address these issues by examining the current food system—a complex set of practices and policies that govern the production, processing, distribution, marketing and disposal of foods—and then exploring alternative models for sustainability. Through readings and discussions, students will gain an understanding of topics such as the history of agriculture, current methods of farming and their economic and ecological consequences, alternative models, food justice, and grassroots efforts to redesign food systems.

CRITICAL WRITING

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Writing About Art

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

In this critical writing course, students will be immersed in the world of the arts, which spans multiple genres and styles. We will read and discuss inspiring essays by artists and critics, such as the great film editor Walter Murch, cultural critic Camille Paglia, the novelists James Baldwin and Tom Wolfe, and art grandee Dave Hickey, along with the crackling prose of artist-eccentrics such as William Blake, Vincent van Gogh and Andy Warhol. Students will also be introduced to autobiographical works, including William Eggleston’s film Stranded in Canton, in order to explore how the personal narrative is transformed into a sparkling art. This reading and arts immersion will guide students to write eloquently, confidently, and with an abundance of passion for their own artistic practice, as well as that of others. Students will keep journals detailing their gallery/museum visits and place writing—including their own—under the microscope.

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Words in Action: The Play’s the Thing

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Sharpen your critical writing skills at the theater. See live performances of works from cutting-edge playwrights in theaters Off-Broadway. Read plays by Pulitzer prize-winning authors Suzan-Lori Parks, Ayad Akhtar, August Wilson, Edward Albee, Lynn Nottage, Tony Kushner, and more. Explore how a play makes it from the page to the stage. Learn the techniques of dramatic writing: how to create characters, plot and narrative lines, as well as discovering how the director, designers and actors collaborate in the process. Students will write essays and critical reviews of assigned plays and have the opportunity to put into practice playwriting techniques by writing a 10-minute play. Tune up your ears for wit, banter, rage and chaos, and listen to the voices of contemporary writers—see their words in action.

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Images and Criticism

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

The emphasis of this course is to help students develop clear and critical thinking by writing about images and media selected from students and their majors. We will examine images, installations and design projects while considering the space and context in which they are shown. Students will respond to these images through class discussions as well as in a series of short written analysis and essays open to edits and rewrites. We will explore how forms and media relate to internal and external contexts to discover concepts that can be applied across other media and environments. This process improves awareness of how multiple meanings are made beyond an artist’s intentions. Students will learn to write professional- level analyses, critical reviews and interviews in a supportive and interesting environment.

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About Comics

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

This course is a formal and practical analysis of comics as a medium, as well as a general historical survey. It will consist of reading, writing, lecture and discussion components. We will focus on many key texts that have helped to create the landscape of comics, as well as a sampling of contemporary graphic novels, works of criticism, documentaries, etc. We will investigate the themes that these works generate, relating them to culture and to personal experience. Students will write criticism and analyses on the history, culture, aesthetics and language of comics and graphic novels in response to class readings. As a final project, students will write and execute a short comics memoir. In addition, guest creators will visit the class to discuss their work. Throughout our exploration we will address what it is about comics that compels our attention as a dominant cultural form of the 21st century.

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Becoming a Digital Critic

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Have you ever wanted to add your voice to the world of cultural criticism online? This course will teach you how to build an online portfolio of reviews (TV, film, music, book), essays and think pieces, with a focus on developing your voice and brand, as well as navigating the world of freelance pitching. We will tackle digital literacy and digital media theory to explore and discover your own place in the digital landscape. Readings include works of contemporary media theory, such as The Ambivalent Internet: Mischief, Oddity, and Antagonism Online and Going Viral, focusing on what it means to be constantly consuming and synthesizing information. Practical readings will come from a variety of sites that cover cultural criticism, including Buzzfeed, Broadly, Vice, Catapult, The A.V. Club and Vulture. Students will complete this course with at least two pieces of cultural criticism ready for publication, as well as corresponding pitch letters and a list of sites best suited for each piece.

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Writing the Past

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

We would not exist without those who came before us. In this course students will examine their own genealogy, explore universal social and cultural histories, and write responsive critical essays relating to these themes. We will take field trips to institutions in the city where students will immerse themselves in genealogy and family research, and study historical newspapers to consider major historical events. These primary materials will be utilized to craft essays that analyze the past. Students will be encouraged to think of history and the archive as a vital source of inspiration for both writing and visual art. Readings will include writers who examine the past, such as Jack Finney, Patrick Modiano, Suzannah Lessard and Daniel Mendelsohn, among others. This course is an introduction into the art of visualizing and writing about the past.

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Art Objects: Writing Material Culture

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

In this course students will learn how to interpret and write about material culture created by a variety of artists and producers. By working from objects in museum collections as well as the SVA Archives, we will examine how these objects’ material attributes as well as their cultural and historical contexts affect the viewer’s interpretation of the work. Students will also critically read and analyze texts on material culture from a diverse group of critics, historians and artists. Through writing assignments and workshops, students will author different types of object-based writing, from essays to object labels and blog posts to artist statements. Additionally, students will select and write about objects from the SVA Archives that will culminate in an exhibition in the SVA Library. Student writing will also be published on the SVA Archives blog.

CREATIVE WRITING

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Writing Beat

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Inspired by the literary inventiveness of the Beat Generation, this writing course in prose and poetry departs from the standard notions of story, play and poem to focus on experimentation with language. Readings from Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Kathy Acker, Diane di Prima, and others will inform student work. Intended for students from a variety of visual disciplines, this course will include the interrelationship of writing with other art forms, such as film, photography, painting and music. Students will explore such techniques as spontaneous bop prosody, sketching and unrevised prose based on the principle of “first thought, best thought,” to help students find their own voice and forms of expression in writing.

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Restructuring the Narrative

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Consider this course a language “work-out.” A writing workshop—with a twist, the course will expand the use of language as a creative tool. In the belief that writing is a frontier for artists, open and free methods such as automatic writing, cut-ups and fold-ins will be used to render states of consciousness in written form, and will be extended to innovative forms of storytelling, creating new narrative possibilities. We will read selections from Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, the modern haiku poets, and humorists Hunter S. Thompson and William S. Burroughs.

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Introduction to Creative Writing

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

This course provides a foundation for students to find their own voice and develop their writing skills in four genres of creative writing: poetry, (short) fiction, memoir, and dramatic scene and dialogue. Each class session is held in a workshop setting where students’ writings are shared and critiqued. Writing exercises are assigned from pieces by recognized authors and texts on craft, such as Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. Discussions highlight basic writing techniques, including theme selections, language use, emotional connection, musicality and how to stay focused. Revision work and in-class writing will add to the mix, culminating in class presentations where students showcase their creative pieces.

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Storytelling and Narrative Art

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

What is story and why do we love it? Why has storytelling been a fundamental feature of all cultures since humanity’s earliest days on earth? This course will explore storytelling, its origins and the diverse forms of creative works and theory. How is narrative composed? What motivates the stories we continue to share? We will survey many different ideas about narrative beginning with neurobiological concepts to the origins of myth and religion to modern-day psychology. We will also look toward advertising, sociopolitical narratives and propaganda. This is a writing course designed to help you build a personal narrative map that can be a creative compass both as a writer and a visual storyteller. This practice will require weekly reading and written assignments with word limits. Students are encouraged to incorporate their own visual artwork.

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Reading and Writing Young Adult Books Across Genres

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Young adult fiction has become a rich literary classification covering all genres, from fantasy to literary fiction to magical realism. The one unifying theme across all YA is a sense of hope in the conclusion—for the protagonist, their community, or even humankind. This course offers specific units that introduce subgenres of YA through readings and discussion. As a class, we will workshop students’ concepts, outlines and short pieces of writing. Close attention will be paid to voice and dialogue, and we will study and practice the importance of world building. The importance of representation and the increased visibility of diverse characters in young adult fiction will be discussed. Assigned readings will focus on young adult literature from the last 20 years, and be divided into subgenres, including mystery (One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus), literary fiction (Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz), and fantasy (The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton). We will also explore form, looking at novels in verse (Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds) and graphic novels (Nimona by Noelle Stevenson).

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Writing the Short Story

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Do you want to have a blast hatching plots and narratives so explosive they could blow the dome off a palace of steel? In this workshop-based course, we will concentrate on writing and reading short stories. Throughout the semester we will explore masterworks by writers such as Joyce Carol Oates and John Cheever in order to shake, shiver, rattle and roll out the inspired writing from your fiery fingertips. Students will hone their storytelling skills through feedback from both the instructor and their peers. We will investigate the “exquisite joy” that fantasist Ray Bradbury felt when he wrote, and become familiar with the “magic of existence” that Nobel prize-winning writer Saul Bellow understood all too well. Completed stories will be considered for publication in SVA’s online literary magazine, The Match Factory.

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Night Has a Thousand Eyes: Noir Fiction Writing

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Noir is not so much a genre but a style, a mood, that presents a night-for-night world with barely a sun in between. It is a world in which a cynical loner walks beyond the limits of the law and becomes caught in a web of circumstances out of their control. A world of hopelessness, futility, perversity and violence amid a stylized chiaroscuro, devoid of order and rampant with chaotic imagery. In this course students will slip on their trench coats and snap-brim fedoras, and trudge down rain-soaked streets. We will explore the genre’s themes and conventions through the reading of tough and sinister gems such as Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett; The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith; Kevin Young’s book of verse inspired by film noir, Black Maria; and the screening of classics such as Night and the City and The Killers.

Inspired by these masterworks, students will produce stories and poems drenched in the existential anguish and despair of noir.

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Electricidad: A Playwriting Workshop

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

Theater is a jolt to the spine, a shock to the ribs, a current wired directly to the heart. It is of the moment and hooked to the now. Where else could one experience the vivid lightning strike of vitality, as the performers work through their passions on the stage? Where else better to immerse oneself in the outsized complexity of a human life? This course will revel in the excitement and electricidad of the theater, and inspire students to write their own monologues, comedic routines, dramatic encounters and, ultimately, produce their own one-act plays. The course will introduce powerful soliloquies from Shakespeare’s King John and Richard II; explosive excerpts from plays by David Mamet, Harold Pinter and José Rivera; and brilliant plays by María Irene Fornés, Luis Alfaro, August Wilson and Sam Shepard, all of which will act as fuel to prime the engine of the mind. Students will learn tips on how to craft believable dialogue and intense interaction between characters, and discover how to create a world that a theater audience could fall in love with.

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Journals: Yours and Theirs

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits 

How many half-filled notebooks do you have lying around? Have you always wanted to fill up a journal but find you can’t keep it up? This course is designed to help you do just that. Everyone will write at home in their personal journal at least three times a week. In addition, in class you will write to suggested prompts and topics, and read that writing aloud to give you practice in sharing your thoughts and feelings, which are the stuff of journal writing. Keeping a journal is crucial to an artist because it develops a private space in which to connect your art with that of others. We will also explore journals of great writers such as Virginia Woolf, Albert Camus, Sylvia Plath, Sappho Durrell, Allen Ginsberg, Anton Chekhov, Mike Figgis, Lord Byron, Juanita de la Sorjuana and Walter Benjamin, including the logbooks of women whalers from the 19th century. The journal will be yours to keep except what you choose to share. It will not be graded or handed in. Each student will select a published journal to explore and critique.

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Visuality in Poetry

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

How are words made into images? What is the science of figurative language? What are opportunities for music, image and language to complement as opposed to contrast with one another? This course will address these fundamental questions by engaging with poetic works drawn from diverse periods. In this effort to understand poetry’s relationship with the visual world, we will read closely and critically. We will study the mechanics of poetry and work on writing, listen to writers and attend readings to arrive at a practical understanding of writing and prepare for tackling the larger questions of ekphrasis in poetry.

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The Digital Experience

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

This course will explore writing for digital platforms, from blogs and social media to artists’ websites and online literary magazines. By examining the most beautiful, dangerous and cutting-edge work from all corners of the Internet, we will investigate and respond to the following: How can we take advantage of the fundamental differences between traditional and digital writing? How is the relationship between visual arts and digital media evolving? What is the vast potential and what are grave perils of writing on the Internet? The focus of the course will not be on expressing ourselves, but rather on creating new digital experiences through writing in a variety of genres, including memoir, fiction, poetry, description of art, about me pages, and more. By the end of the course students will have created a personal website and portfolio, mastered the fundamentals of personal branding, improved their writing skills and developed their understanding of online

audiences.

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Writing, Multimedia and Performance

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

The excitement of writing a poem or flash fiction and sharing it with an audience can be taken to another level when visual components and music are added. This course invites you to compose short creative pieces with the intent of combining them with multimedia elements for a portfolio and a live performance. Based on a chosen topic and numerous prompts, you will develop your writing in a workshop setting, add your own visual art aspect (photos, painting, collage, etc.) and practice reading what you write in order to sharpen your ear for language, rhythm and sound. Guest artists will discuss their work and how it

connects writing and multimedia. At semester’s end, you will present excerpts from your finished project, joined by musicians to heighten the experience. Readings and exercises will be drawn from works by Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, Margaret Atwood, Etgar Keret, Sandra Cisneros, Sherman Alexie, Claudia Rankine, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Laurie Anderson and Yoko Ono, as well as critical essays by Billy Collins, Saul Williams and Gertrude Stein.

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Writing the Chapbook

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

The excitement and reward of compiling a short collection of creative writing and seeing it published in book form is what this course is about. During the semester students will compose and piece together a group of theme-based work (poetry, flash fiction, or memoir) in order to complete a 12-page chapbook. Students will design their own book cover. Readings will include Jean Valentine’s Lucy; Matt Rasmussen’s Fingergun; Eduardo Corral’s “Border Triptych” and Natalie Eilbert’s “Imprecation.”

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Writing Dystopia and Beyond

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

This creative writing course invites students to bring imaginings, dreams and metaphysical impulse as inspiration to create their own short stories/poems using dystopian or other futuristic themes. Students’ pieces will be shared and critiqued in a workshop setting. Along the way, we’ll read notable dystopian and sci-fi work for discussion and writing prompts. Authors include: Edgar Allen Poe, Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury, Margaret Atwood, Yoko Tawada, Junot Diaz, Deborah Levy and Taichi Yamada.

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Adventures in Prosody

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

This course, for both experienced and novice poets, explores the use of meter and rhyme in poetic practice. Through a series of weekly readings and exercises, students will try their hand at a variety of forms from all areas of the globe—limerick, sestina, villanelle, renga, ghazal, and so on—building to the sonnet. Emphasis will be on exposure, appreciation and playful exploration, rather than flawless regimentation. Text: The Poem's Heartbeat by Alfred Corn, plus works by Bishop, Dove, Ali, Auden, Dickinson, Wolcott, Frost, Coleridge, Rich, Keene, Nabokov, and others.

HWD-3576

Writing for the Graphic Novel and Ongoing Series

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

In the longer form, character development and world-building take on greater importance. With this in mind, students will learn how to pitch, outline and structure a multi-chapter graphic novel or series. We will cover a variety of storytelling tools, including cliffhangers, scene transitions and reveals while developing a professional pitch and first chapter for an original book or ongoing series. Over the course of the semester we will also study popular series across genres to understand what makes them successful.

HWD-3582

The Path is Made by Walking: Travel Writing

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

Travel endears the world to us. It helps us grasp and critique our place in society. In this course we will read classics of travel writing, from Basho to Bruce Chatwin. We will read travelogs by a diversity of writers, from naturalists like Edwin Way Teale and Nan Shepherd to brilliant essayists like Rebecca Solnit and Teju Cole to novelists who played with the genre like Cortazar and Calvino. We will also do a fair bit of traveling ourselves around the city, and workshop stories about our own voyages, past and present.

We will try our hand at rising to the challenges that travel writing poses: How to describe a place—a room, a street, a city, a landscape—so vividly that the reader can look and walk around. How to develop characters from first impressions and evoke the quirks of a place by telling the stories of the people you meet along the way. How to write about vastly different perspectives honestly. And how to create a narrative arc out of the randomness of real life. This course is perfect for those who love being present in the moment, careful observers, good listeners, rememberers and storytellers.

HWD-3587

Writing Across the Screen, Stage and Page

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

In this course we will investigate a multitude of literary, theatrical and narrative writing sources, from realist plays to experimental work, conceptual manifestos and artists writings to personal essayist projects. We will analyze and critique dialogue-driven sources across a wide range of forms—commercials, infomercials, plays, animation and narrative shorts. Emphasis will be placed on the quality of content and form, as well as structure and craft. From research, preproduction and outlining to content generation and editing, students will gain mastery in writing across narrative, literary, performative and moving-image formats.

HWD-3593

Picture This: Writing Children’s Literature

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

The basics of writing children's books will be covered in this course. We will explore the creative process involved, beginning with concept generating, drafting, revision and editing, and finally submitting to a literary agent or a publisher. The writing sessions will be supplemented with discussions on the history of children's literature, Q&As with publishing professionals and practical writing techniques. By the end of the semester, students will have completed a minimum of two drafts of their children's book.