ENROLL

Clara S Hardy

Stories of gods, heroes and monsters were a pervasive part of life in ancient Greece and Rome, integrated into landscape, the built environment and cultural practice from ritual worship to informal storytelling, and they have retained their power to fascinate through subsequent eras. This seminar will investigate the roles myth played in the ancient world, drawing on literary, historical and archaeological evidence, as well as the most prominent theoretical frameworks for interpreting myths, and some examples of modern adaptations. Topics in the second half of the course will be driven by student interests as they develop their own research and present it at the department Symposium.

Prerequisite: At least two courses in Classics or instructor consent

Claudio Gómez-Gonzáles

The modern world is dominated by chance; we walk through life speaking of hopes, fears, failures, and more in the language of statistics. In this course, we will explore fundamental concepts in probability with an emphasis on computational examples, from apartment hunting to computer-generated art. We'll look at the human history of chance—especially over the 19th and 20th centuries—to think about how we got here. We'll see that, in a life of finite spacetime but infinitely complex problems, sometimes embracing randomness can be just what we need. But what is chance, how do we understand it, and why?

Prerequisite: Concurrent registration in IDSC 198

Held for new first year students who are focus participants, Instructor Permission Required