ENROLL

Adriana Estill

This seminar introduces advanced skills in American Studies research, focusing on the shaping and proposing of a major research project. Through a combination of class discussion, small group work and presentations, and one-on-one interactions with the professor, majors learn the process of imaging, creating, and preparing independent interdisciplinary projects as well as the interconnections of disparate scholarly and creative works. 

Prerequisite: American Studies 345

Adriana Estill

This seminar focuses on advanced skills in American Studies research, critical reading, writing, and presentation. Engagement with one scholarly talk, keyed to the current year's comps exam theme, will be part of the course. Through a combination of class discussion, small group work and presentations, and one-on-one interactions with the professor, majors learn the process of crafting and supporting independent interdisciplinary arguments, no matter which option for comps they are pursuing. Students also will learn effective strategies for peer review and oral presentation.

Prerequisite: American Studies 345

Justin M London

Senior majors in cognitive studies will work with the instructor to develop a thesis proposal for their comps project.

Prerequisite: Cognitive Science 130, Cognitive Science/Psychology 232/233 and Psychology 200/201 or Instructor Consent

Anita P Chikkatur

This course explores the important role that public schools have played in the American national imagination as the way to socialize students about what it means to be American and to prepare them to participate as citizens in a democracy. Focusing on two periods of high rates of immigration into the United States (1890-1920 and 1965-present), the course examines how public schools have attempted to Americanize newly arrived immigrant children as well as to socialize racial minority children into the American mainstream. While most of the readings will focus on urban schools, the course will also consider the growing immigrant populations in rural schools through readings and applied academic civic engagement projects.

Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level Educational Studies course or instructor permission

Extra Time Requied.

Ronald Rodman

How can music persuade us to buy that expensive iPhone, drink Coca-Cola, or wear those new Nike sneakers? This A&I seminar will focus on music and its role in advertising in the electronic media. In this class, we will explore how music is produced for advertising spots in radio, television, and the internet, and how audience reaction determines the success or failure of ads in the marketplace. As part of the class, we will create our own video ads with music. We will also cover methods of analysis and criticism of music in advertising by exploring scholarly and critical writing on music in advertising, all leading up to a final research project.

Held for new first year students

Laurence D Cooper

The modern age has been characterized by the unprecedented advance of natural science and the attempt to achieve technological mastery of nature. How did this come about? What worldview does it express, and how does that worldview affect the way we live and think? We will investigate these questions by studying classic works by some of modernity's philosophic founders (including Francis Bacon, René Descartes, and Thomas Hobbes) and some of its most penetrating interpreters and critics (including Jonathan Swift and Friedrich Nietzsche).

Held for new first year students

Andrew I Carlson

From ancient myths to Pixar films, from conversations with doctors to Superbowl commercials, we understand and shape our world through story. This course teaches students the principles of dramatic storytelling through theatrical improvisation and critical analysis of plays and films that deal with the themes of power and resistance. The course is both analytical and creative. You will learn how artists structure dramatic stories to impact society while writing and performing your own stories for the class.  

Held for new first year students

Andrew I Carlson

Throughout history, theatrical performance has been both a reflection of cultural values and a platform for envisioning social change. In this course, students will examine many of the traditions that inform contemporary understandings of theatre, including Greek tragedy, commedia dell’arte, Japanese Noh, Sanskrit drama, Realism, Brechtian theatre, and the Theatre of the Oppressed. Students will also study the history of theatre in the United States by examining blackface minstrel performance, African American drama, and the role of theatre in the social movements of the twentieth century. Class sessions will combine lecture, discussion, embodied exercises, and performance of historical texts.