ENROLL

Elizabeth McKinsey

Yaron Klein

Yaron Klein

It is difficult to overstate Arab scientists' contribution to science. A translation movement from Greek, Persian and Sanskrit into Arabic initiated in the eighth century, led to centuries of innovative scientific investigation, during which Arab scientists reshaped science in a variety of disciplines: from mathematics to astronomy, physics, optics and medicine. Many of their works entered Latin and the European curriculum during the Renaissance. In this reading course we will explore some of the achievements and thought processes in pre-modern Arabic scientific literature by reading selections from several seminal works. We will examine these in the cultural contexts in which they emerged and to which they contributed, and reflect on modern Western perceptions of this intellectual project. Readings and class discussions will be in both Arabic and English.

Prerequisite: Arabic 206 or equivalent

Sidney K. Robinson

This course will examine how various twentieth-century American architects searched for ways to evade European precedents and instead to base architecture on nature and geometry, two sources that could be radical and conservative simultaneously. Frank Lloyd Wright, the central figure in this search, who popularized the term “Organic Architecture,” will loom large in the course, but we will also study many other architects who were looking for a similarly individual, experimental architecture to be uniquely “American.”

Sidney K. Robinson

This course will focus upon the emergence of a novel aesthetic approach to landscape design: the Picturesque. During the eighteenth century, the British landscape became the scene of a new way to design the land according to models of a loosened, irregular, composition in contrast to previous rigid geometries that sought to improve nature’s waywardness. Not only gardens but books also took up the call for liberty against tyranny and for the natural against the artificial without giving up convention altogether.

Jessica Keating

This course examines European artistic production in Italy, Spain, France, and the Netherlands from the end of the sixteenth century through the seventeenth century. The aim of the course is to interrogate how religious revolution and reformation, scientific discoveries, and political transformations brought about a proliferation of remarkably varied types of artistic production that permeated and altered the sacred, political, and private spheres. The class will examine in depth select works of painting, sculpture, prints, and drawings, by Caravaggio, Bernini, Poussin, Velázquez, Rubens, and Rembrandt, among many others.

Ross Elfline

This course is a survey of major artistic movements after 1945 as well as an introduction to significant tendencies in current art and craft production. The goal of this course is to develop a familiarity with the important debates, discussions, and critical issues facing artists today. By the end of the course, students will be able to relate their own work as cultural producers to these significant contemporary artistic developments. Students will read, write about, and discuss primary sources, artist statements, and theoretical essays covering a wide range of media with the ultimate goal of articulating their own artistic project.

Prerequisite: Any two studio art courses or permission from the instructor. No open to students who hae previously taken Art History 240

Extra Time Required

Kathleen Ryor

A garden is usually defined as a piece of land that is cultivated or manipulated in some way by humans for one or more purposes. Gardens often take the form of an aestheticized space that miniaturizes the natural landscape. This course will explore the historical phenomenon of garden building in Japan, with a special emphasis on how cultural and religious attitudes towards nature contribute to the development of gardens in urban and suburban environments. In addition to studying historical source material, students will be required to visit garden sites on a weekly basis.

OCS ARTH Kyoto Program

Kathleen Ryor

Reading assignments followed by an independent project related to Japanese gardens. Linked to the work done in Art History 268, this course requires an in-depth study of a particular style of Japanese garden design and its history.

OCS ARTH Kyoto Program

Laurel Bradley

Organize an exhibition, and get grounded in curatorial practice and theory, with this small team-based seminar. The exhibition, a collaboration with the Hillstrom Museum at Gustavus Adolphus College, with some input from the Flaten Art Museum at St. Olaf, will feature American art works organized around themes identified by students and collection curators. This seminar offers a unique opportunity to work directly with art works and to contribute to multiple aspects of an exhibition and related programs.

Prerequisite: Instructor permission

Extra Time Required

Ross Elfline

An intensive study of the nature of art history as an intellectual discipline and of the approaches scholars have taken to various art historical problems. Attention as well to principles of current art historical research and writing. Recommended for juniors who have declared art history as a major.

Jay Beck

Sophomore Priority. Extra Time required for screenings

Waitlist for Juniors and Seniors: CAMS 110.WL0 (Synonym 45064)

Carol Donelan

In this course we survey four or more Hollywood film genres, including but not limited to the Western, musical, horror film, comedy, and science-fiction film. What criteria are used to place a film in a particular genre? What role do audiences and studios play in the creation and definition of film genres? Where do genres come from? How do genres change over time? What roles do genres play in the viewing experience? What are hybrid genres and subgenres? What can genres teach us about society? Assignments aim to develop skills in critical analysis, research and writing.

Sophomore Priority, Extra Time Required

Waitlist for Juniors and Seniors: CAMS 186.WL0 (Synonym 45066)

Cherif Keita

Born as a response to the colonial gaze and discourse, African cinema has been a deliberate effort to affirm and express an African personality and consciousness. Focusing on the film production from West and Southern Africa since the early fifties, this course will entail a discussion of major themes such as colonialism, nationalism and independence, and the analysis of African symbolisms, world-views, and their links to narrative techniques. In this overview, particular attention will be given to the films of Ousmane Sembène, Souleymane Cissé, Mweze Ngangura, Zola Maseko, Oliver Schmitz, Abderrahmane Sissako and many others.

Extra Time Required

Jay Beck

This course presents the broader field of Sound Studies, its debates and issues. Drawing on a diverse set of interdisciplinary perspectives, the seminar explores the range of academic work on sound to examine the relationship between sound and listening, sound and perception, sound and memory, and sound and modern thought. Topics addressed include but are not limited to sound technologies and industries, acoustic perception, sound and image relations, sound in media, philosophies of listening, sound semiotics, speech and communication, voice and subject formation, sound art, the social history of noise, and hearing cultures.

Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 or instructor permission

Shaohua Guo

In translation

Kofi Owusu

Peter Balaam

Jeremy P DeAngelo

Some of the most enduring figures of the Middle Ages are Robin Hood and his Merry Men.  However, the Robin Hood we know only appeared in English literature in the Late Middle Ages and his story was not established until the Renaissance. This course traces the development of the outlaw figure from Anglo-Saxon poetry through Irish and Icelandic traditions to the rebels that arose in the Middle English period. We examine the outlaw from several theoretical standpoints, including the postcolonial, anthropological, ecocritical, and gender studies perspectives. All readings are either in Middle English or in Modern English translation.

Susan Jaret McKinstry

Two exceptional groups of artists changed aesthetic and cultural history through their writings, art, politics, and lives. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood began in 1847 when art students united to create “direct and serious and heartfelt” work; the Bloomsbury group began with Cambridge friends sharing their insistence on aesthetic lives. Critics said the PRB “extolled fleshliness as the supreme end of poetic and pictorial art,” and the Bloomsbury Group “painted in circles, lived in squares and loved in triangles.” We will study Dante Rossetti, Holman Hunt, John Millais, William Morris, Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, Roger Fry, Vanessa and Clive Bell.

Kofi Owusu

Nancy Cho

Arnab Chakladar

There has been a rich history of immigration to England from its colonies from the very beginning of the colonial period. And in the twentieth century writers from England's (ex) colonial possessions have reshaped our understanding of English identity and literature. Beginning in the 1950s and progressing to the present, this class will study a number of these writers and in particular their representation of the city of London. Readings include Sam Selvon, V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Monica Ali, Zadie Smith and Hanif Kureishi. There will also be film and television screenings as well as other visual and musical materials.

Participation in Carleton OCS London Program

Arnab Chakladar

Students will attend productions (at least two per week) of classic and contemporary plays in a range of London venues both on and off the West End, and will do related reading.   We will also travel to Stratford-upon-Avon for a 3-day theater trip.  Class discussions will focus on dramatic genres and themes, dramaturgy, acting styles, and design.  Guest speakers may include actors, critics, and directors.  Students will keep a theater journal and write several full reviews of plays.

Requires participation in OCS Program: Living London

Jeremy P DeAngelo

Some of the most enduring figures of the Middle Ages are Robin Hood and his Merry Men.  However, the Robin Hood we know only appeared in English literature in the Late Middle Ages and his story was not established until the Renaissance. This course traces the development of the outlaw figure from Anglo-Saxon poetry through Irish and Icelandic traditions to the rebels that arose in the Middle English period. We examine the outlaw from several theoretical standpoints, including the postcolonial, anthropological, ecocritical, and gender studies perspectives. All readings are either in Middle English or in Modern English translation.

Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one other 6 credit English course

Constance Walker

Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one other 6 credit English course

Nancy Cho

Prerequisite: One English foundations course or one other 6 credit English course, or instructor permission

Pierre Hecker

From the ancient Greeks to the King James Bible to the modern serial killer novel, murder has always been a preeminent topic of intellectual and artistic investigation. Slaying our way across different genres and periods, we will explore why homicide has been the subject of such fierce attention from so many great minds. Prepare to drench yourselves in the blood of fiction and non-fiction works that may include: the Bible, Shakespeare, Poe, Thompson, Capote, Tey, McGinniss, Malcolm, Wilder, and Morris, as well as legal and other materials. Warning: not for the faint-hearted.

Prerequisite: English 295 and one 300-level English course

Not open to students who have taken ENGL 187

Cathy Yandell

The idea of the Seven Deadly Sins (the source of all vices) captured the medieval western imagination and continues to inspire diverse writers, artists, filmmakers, and graphic novelists to the present day. Through La Fontaine’s fables, Maupassant’s Carmen (and Bizet’s eponymous opera), the African tales of Amadou Koumba, Camus’s The Stranger, and Julie Mazoh’s graphic novel, Blue is the Warmest Color, this course explores literary and filmic representations of such vices as pride, envy, and lust. Interrogating the presence and power of these categories in both historical and contemporary culture, the course also develops students’ skills in analysis, writing, and discussion in French.

Prerequisite: French 204 or equivalent

Eva Posfay

Home of some of the finest and best known museums in the world, Paris has long been recognized as a center for artistic activity. Students will have the opportunity to study art from various periods on site, including Impressionism, Expressionism, and Surrealism. In-class lectures and discussions will be complemented by guided visits to the unparalleled collections of the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Centre Pompidou, local art galleries, and other appropriate destinations. Special attention will be paid to the program theme.

Prerequisite: French 204 or the equivalent

Requires participation in OCS Program: French and Francophone Studies in Paris

Eva Posfay

In this course, students will explore the historical, cultural, social, and religious traces of Islam as they have been woven over time into the modern fabric of French society. Through images drawn from film, photography, television, and museum displays, they will discover the important role this cultural contact zone has played in the French experience. The course will take advantage of the resources of the city of Paris and will include excursions to museums as well as cultural and religious centers.

Prerequisite: French 204 or the equivalent

Requires participation in OCS Program: French and Francophone Studies in Paris

Eva Posfay

Through literature, cultural texts, and experiential learning in the city, this course will explore the development of both the "Frenchness" and the hybridity that constitute contemporary Paris. Immigrant cultures, notably North African, will also be highlighted. Plays, music, and visits to cultural sites will complement the readings.

Prerequisite: French 204 or the equivalent

Requires participation in OCS Program: French and Francophone Studies in Paris

Christine Lac

Learn what language can do for you when you use techniques that express ideas with clarity, convince readers and listeners, and create a sense of style. Beyond basic grammar, you will work on various strategies to enliven your writing and speaking and to communicate more effectively with a given audience. Sample projects in the course may include translations, subtitling, blogging, academic and creative writing, and formal oral presentations. Required for the major in French and Francophone Studies, and recommended for all advanced students.

Prerequisite: One French course beyond French 204 or permission of instructor

Eva Posfay

Through literature, cultural texts, and experiential learning in the city, this course will explore the development of both the "Frenchness" and the hybridity that constitute contemporary Paris. Immigrant cultures, notably North African, will also be highlighted. Plays, music, and visits to cultural sites will complement the readings.

Prerequisite: French 230 or beyond or instructor permission

Requires participation in OCS Program: French and Francophone Studies in Paris

Cherif Keita

This course examines the main aspects of social change in the area formerly covered by the medieval Empire of Mali, through anthropological texts, oral narratives, novels, films and both traditional and modern music. Some of the writers, film directors and musicians who will be studied are: Amadou Kourouma, Massa Makan Diabaté, Amadou Hampaté Bâ, Souleymane Cissé, Cheick O. Sissoko, Salif Keita, and others. Conducted in French.

Prerequisite: French 200-level course or equivalent

Extra Time Required, evening films

Juliane Schicker

In this course, we survey significant developments in German-language culture, broadly defined, from the Enlightenment to the twentieth century. Students of all disciplines and majors are invited to receive an overview of the culture of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, starting in the 1750s and tracing its impact into the present time. The course is based on literature, film, music, language, history, habits, news, etc., and surveys major figures, movements, and their influence on the world’s civilization. The course encourages critical engagement with the material at hand and provides the opportunity to compare it with the students’ own cultural background. In translation.

In Translation

Sigi Leonhard

In this course, students will read and discuss a number of new works from the German-speaking countries that deal with important contemporary issues--the pressures of growing up and finding a job in uncertain economic times, the catastrophe of 9/11, the ever-present theme of finding love, immigrant perspectives, the challenges of aging, etc. We will examine novels and stories that deal with these topics, but also articles in magazines (Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) and films, trying to understand how various genres and media differ in their approaches to our themes. At the center of our discussion there will thus be the question of what forms of expression a society finds for the formulation of its most urgent challenges, and how these texts take part in the public debate.

Prerequisite: German 204 or the equivalent

Alex Knodell

Hesiod is the first Greek author to express an individual persona. He was a man from Askra -- “harsh in winter, hard in summer, never pleasant” -- yet at the same time he refers to nearby Mt. Helikon as the beautiful home of the muses who inspire his songs. His is a world of contrasts. This course will study (in Greek) Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, which range widely in subject matter and message: the former describing the cosmic origins of the world; the latter a lesson in living the good life. We will also read some contemporary poetry.

Prerequisite: Greek 204 or equivalent

Andy Flory

Megan E Sarno

Music and religion are united through philosophical precepts, but also through practical means. In this course we will encounter philosophical ideas about music as well as examine sacred musical practices of various religions, including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu. Students will analyze what function music holds in liturgies of many traditions. The final project will involve visiting local services to observe first-hand how religions use music. No previous music experience required. 

Ronald Rodman

An introduction to advanced analytical techniques for larger formal structure in Western Art Music repertoire from the classic, romantic and early twentieth century. Musical forms to be considered are binary, ternary, rondo, and variation forms, with particular emphasis on theories and analyses of sonata forms of eighteenth and nineteenth century music.

Prerequisite: Music 201 or 204

Daniel Groll, David A Davies

A central idea in modernist thinking about the arts is that an artwork is meant to be appreciated ‘for its own sake.’ In this course, we shall challenge this idea and consider art that is not primarily ‘for art’s sake’ in order to explore more general questions about the nature of artworks and of artistic appreciation. We ask, under what conditions are such works artworks? Much of the course will address material in a new monograph upon which Professor Davies is working. This course is co-taught by Daniel Groll and Cowling Visiting Professor David Davies.

Prerequisite: One previous Philosophy course

Barbara Allen

Visual media offer an alternative method of framing political ideas and events. Images found in such texts as film, posters, and even in statistical tables can enlighten--or mislead. Readings in visual theory, political psychology, and graphic representation will enable you to read images and use these powerful media to convey your ideas and research.

1st 5 weeks

Laura Goering

An introduction to the works of Dostoevsky. Readings include Poor Folk, Notes from the Underground, and The Brothers Karamazov. Conducted entirely in English.

Prerequisite: No prerequisites and no knowledge of Russian literature or history required.

1st 5 weeks In translation

Laura Goering

Close reading and discussion of Tolstoy's magnum opus. Conducted entirely in English.

Prerequisite: No prerequisites and no knowledge of Russian literature or history required.

2nd 5 weeks, In translation

Anna Dotlibova

Prerequisite: At least 6 credits at the level of Russian 330 or higher or instructor permission

Jorge Brioso

Prerequisite: Spanish 204 or equivalent

Silvia Lopez

Prerequisite: Spanish 204 or equivalent

Jorge Brioso

In 2014 Obama and Castro simultaneously announced the end of an era: the Cold War. This announcement was a turning point for one of the most influential and symbolically important political movements in Latin America: The Cuban Revolution. We will study the political and historical background that sustained this revolution for over fifty years. We will read historical, political, philosophical, and cultural texts to understand this process and the fascination that it commanded around the world. We will also examine the different exoduses that this revolution provoked and the exile communities that Cubans constructed in different parts of the world.

Prerequisite: Spanish 205 or above

Silvia Lopez

This course will focus on letters and their significance as acts of symbolic and material exchange, as objects that bear the mark of the bodily act of writing, and as a staging of the scene of writing itself. We will study different types of letters (love letters, prison letters, literary letters, letters imbedded in other texts, fictional letters, epistolary novels, etc.), but always as the site of production of a modern and gendered self. Texts by Simón Bolívar, Manuela Sáenz, Rosa Luxemburg, Simone de Beauvoir, André Gorz, Pedro Salinas, Marina Tsvetaeva, Boris Pasternak, Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann, Elena Poniatowska, Alan Pauls and Alfredo Bryce Echenique.

Prerequisite: Spanish 205 or above