ENROLL

Wendy M. Sepponen

Wendy M. Sepponen

This course engages with the visual and material characteristics and practices particular to sculpture. Often relegated to the sidelines of art history classes, this course seeks to teach how to talk about sculptures and to explore the diverse contexts and processes with which sculptors worked. A medium-specific focus allows us to consider how sculptures functioned in the early modern period while allowing for effective bridges to the students' contemporary surroundings and viewing practices. While early modern European sculpture will be the course's core, direct engagement with sculptures and display practices will enliven our understanding of and appreciation for sculpture.

Prerequisite: Any one Art History course

Extra time required

Baird Jarman

This course surveys the history of European architecture while emphasizing firsthand encounters with actual structures. Students visit outstanding examples of major transnational styles--including Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Moorish, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical and Modernist buildings--along with regionally specific styles, such as Spanish Plateresque, English Tudor and Catalan Modernisme. Cultural and technological changes affecting architectural practices are emphasized along with architectural theory, ranging from Renaissance treatises to Modernist manifestoes. Students also visit buildings that resist easy classification and that raise topics such as spatial appropriation, stylistic hybridity, and political symbolism.

Requires participation in OCS Program: Architectural Studies in Europe

Jeremy P DeAngelo

King Arthur is a figure from Western tradition whose name conjures a clear series of associations: the Sword in the Stone, the Round Table, the Holy Grail. This course traces the development of this tradition, from its origins in an obscure corner of the British Isles to its dominance within both European literature and the popular imagination. Similarly, Arthur himself takes on multiple, sometimes contradictory guises—an enemy of the English and yet a symbol of England, the archetype of the perfect king but a champion of democracy, the epitome of Christian devotion yet suffused with pagan imagery. Our texts range from medieval Welsh legend to modern film; everything is in modern English translation.

Pierre Hecker

1st 5 Week.

Pierre Hecker

Mary Savina, William North

Earthquakes are complex and fascinating geological events, and they have profound effects on human societies. In this course, we will explore the changing understanding of earthquakes and their geological mechanisms from antiquity to the present, as well as the ways in which societies respond to and prepare for life in seismically active zones of the world. Case studies will form an important element of the course. There is a required lab, and students will also be expected to spend two additional hours per week in a structured research setting.

Prerequisite: 100 level Geology course or prior History course

2nd five weeks, Extra Time Required

Noah Salomon

Sonja Anderson

This course introduces students to the structure, history, and theology of the Catholic Church through the lens of gender and power. Through a combination of readings and conversations with living figures, students will develop the ability to critically and empathetically interpret Catholicism in its various manifestations. Topics include: God, rituals, salvation, the body, women, materiality, sex; the authority of persons, texts, and tradition; conflicts and anxieties involving masculinity, feminist theologies, the ordination of women as priests, the censuring of heretical theologians, and the clerical sex abuse crisis. Conditions permitting, this course will include trips to local Catholic sites.

Jorge Brioso

Prerequisite: Spanish 205 or above