ENROLL

Sarah Kennedy

As a field that is truly interdisciplinary, archaeology uses a wide range of methods to study the past. This course provides a hands-on introduction to the entire archaeological process through classroom, field, and laboratory components. Students will participate in background research concerning local places of historical or archaeological interest; landscape surveying and mapping in GIS; excavation; the recording, analysis, and interpretation of artifacts; and the publication of results. This course involves real archaeological fieldwork, and students will have an opportunity to contribute to the history of the local community while learning archaeological methods applicable all over the world.

Sophomore priority

Waitlist for Juniors and Seniors: ARCN 246.WL2 (Synonym 68834)

Sarah Kennedy

As a field that is truly interdisciplinary, archaeology uses a wide range of methods to study the past. This course provides a hands-on introduction to the entire archaeological process through classroom, field, and laboratory components. Students will participate in background research concerning local places of historical or archaeological interest; landscape surveying and mapping in GIS; excavation; the recording, analysis, and interpretation of artifacts; and the publication of results. This course involves real archaeological fieldwork, and students will have an opportunity to contribute to the history of the local community while learning archaeological methods applicable all over the world.

Sophomore priority

Waitlist for Juniors and Seniors: ARCN 246.WL3 (Synonym 68835)

Baird Jarman

This course will survey the history of ideal plans for the built urban environment. Particular attention will be given to examples from about 1850 to the present. Projects chosen by students will greatly influence the course content, but subjects likely to receive sustained attention include: Renaissance ideal cities, conceptions of public and private space, civic rituals, the industrial city, Baron Haussmann’s renovations of Paris, suburbanization, the Garden City movement, zoning legislation, Le Corbusier’s Ville Contemporaine, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City, New Urbanism and urban renewal, and planned capitals such as Brasília, Canberra, Chandigarh, and Washington, D.C.

Prerequisite: Any one Art History course or instructor permission

Laska Jimsen

This course addresses nonfiction media as both art form and historical practice by exploring the expressive, rhetorical, and political possibilities of nonfiction production. A focus on relationships between form and content and between makers, subjects, and viewers will inform our approach. Throughout the course we will pay special attention to the ethical concerns that arise from making media about others' lives. We will engage with diverse modes of nonfiction production including essayistic, experimental, and participatory forms and create community videos in partnership with Carleton's Center for Community and Civic Engagement and local organizations. The class culminates in the production of a significant independent nonfiction media project.

Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111 or instructor consent

Extra Time Required

Kathleen Galotti

This Argument and Inquiry seminar will focus on the cognitive changes experienced by children in the preschool and elementary school years, in such realms as perception, attention, memory, thinking, decision-making, knowledge representation, and the acquisition of academic skills. Weekly observation at local day care centers or elementary schools will be a required course component.

Held for new students

Eric Alexander

As part of their senior capstone experience, majors will work together in teams (typically four to seven students per team) on faculty-specified topics to design and implement the first stage of a project. Required of all senior majors.

Prerequisite: Senior standing. Students are strongly encouraged to complete Computer Science 252 and Computer Science 257 before starting Computer Science 399.

Eric Alexander

As part of their senior capstone experience, majors will work together in teams (typically four to seven students per team) on faculty-specified topics to design and implement the first stage of a project. Required of all senior majors.

Prerequisite: Senior standing. Students are strongly encouraged to complete Computer Science 252 and Computer Science 257 before starting Computer Science 399.

Ryan Oto

This course examines the historical and contemporary issues surrounding the concept of "multicultural education." The course focuses on the respect for human diversity, especially as these relate to various racial, cultural and economic groups, and to women. It includes lectures and discussions intended to deepen students' understandings of what it means to live in a multicultural society. Offered at both the 100 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly. Students who have previously taken a 100- or 200-level Educational Studies course should register for EDUC 338; students who have not taken a previous Educational Studies course should register for EDUC 138.

Students with prior EDUC courses should register for EDUC 338

Deborah Appleman

Extra Time required.

Ryan Oto

This course focuses on the respect for human diversity, especially as these relate to various racial, cultural and economic groups, and to women. It includes lectures and discussions intended to aid students in relating to a wide variety of persons, cultures, and life styles. Offered at both the 100 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

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

Extra Time Required

Pierre Hecker

With an emphasis on critical reading, writing, and the fundamentals of college-level research, this course will develop students' knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the relationship between drama and film and the social and cultural contexts of which they are (or were) a part and product. The course explores the various ways in which these plays and movies (which might include anything and everything from Spike Lee to Tony Kushner to Christopher Marlowe) generate meaning, with particular attention to the social, historical, and political realities that contribute to that meaning. An important component of this course will be attending live performances in the Twin Cities. These required events may be during the week and/or the weekend.

Held for new first year students. Extra Time required.

Pierre Hecker

What makes a work of art dangerous? While present-day attacks on books, libraries, and schools feel unprecedented, writers and artists have always had to fight efforts to suppress their work, often at great personal and societal cost. We will study literature, films, graphic novels, images, music, and other materials that have been challenged and attacked as offensive, taboo, or transgressive, and also explore strategies of resistance to censorship.

Colleen Carpenter

This course is an introduction to the central ethical debates in environmental policy and practice, as well as some of the major traditions of environmental thought. It investigates such questions as whether we can have moral duties towards animals, ecosystems, or future generations; what is the ethical basis for wilderness preservation; and what is the relationship between environmentalism and social justice. The Academic Civic Engagement aspect of the course for Spring 2024 will involve beaver monitoring in the Arb and participation in planning the BeaverFest campus and community event in May.

Susannah Ottaway

Food, health, medicine, public policy and the built environment... all were transformed as Britain industrialized in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This course explores how cultural, social and economic changes shaped the culture of food consumption during this transitional period. We also explore changing ideas in medical history and public health from the early modern to modern period. We will consider how our historical understanding can inform our views of the present through an academic civic engagement project that will connect students to Northfield communities.

Held for new first year students

Meredith McCoy

This course introduces oral history methods in historical research. Students will examine power and authority, personal and collective memory, trust, representation, and community benefit in oral history projects. This iteration of the course will emphasize scholarship from Indigenous Studies and Indigenous scholars whose work employs oral histories. Students will deepen and apply their learning through an Academic Civic Engagement partnership with a local Indigenous organization; please note that this course requires some travel to Minneapolis, which will be organized by the professor. While prior coursework in history, Indigenous Studies, or American Studies would be useful, it is not mandatory.

Extra Time Required, 1-2 field trips to the Twin Cities to conduct interviews

Annette Igra

Susannah Ottaway

How do historians find and use evidence of Ireland's history? Starting with an exploration of castle archaeology and digital reconstruction, and ending with a unit on folklore and oral history collections from the early twentieth century, the first half of the course takes students through a series of themes and events in Irish history. During the second half of the course, students will pursue independent research topics to practice skills in historical methods, and will complete either a seminar paper or a digital project.

Anita Chikkatur

From Starbucks' failed "Race together" initiative to debates about Rachel Dolezal's racial identity to the Black Lives Matter movement, it is clear that race still matters in America. These incidents also demonstrate the difficulties of having discussions about race, especially across racial lines. Drawing on texts from multiple disciplines, this course will examine the history of racial categories with a particular emphasis on how race matters in higher education. This course will also incorporate readings and activities that will help students develop further their skills to have productive discussions about race, especially in the context of a small residential college.

Extra Time Required

Lin Winton

Data visualization (turning evidence into images) and activism have a common goal: to make the invisible more visible. How can graphs be used for activist work? Through discussion, reading, production, and reflection, this seminar will teach students how to read and think critically about graphs, produce graphs for public audiences, and consider the ethical dimensions of data access and representation. We will learn from data visualization pioneers such as W.E.B. Du Bois, who combined graphs and photographs for the 1900 Paris World's Fair to tell a complex story of the agency, sophistication, and oppression of African Americans in post-emancipation America. As we discuss the role of data viz in activism, we will learn to experiment with creating our own visual arguments; our final project will be in partnership with a local community organization. No previous experience with statistics or graphing software is necessary.

Held for new first year students Only students eligible for TRIO should select this course. If you apply to TRIO but are not admitted, you will be allowed to change your course selection. TRIO Student Support Services is a program that serves U.S. citizens and permanent residents who meet established income requirements, are first-generation in college, and/or who have a documented disability., Instructor Permission Required

Michael McNally

This course explores vexing ethical questions raised in academic civic engagement practice. With structured reflection on students’ varied civic engagement experiences and a group project aligned with the instructor’s work, students will consider questions arising from asymmetries of power, the relationships between scholarship and advocacy, scholarly and community knowledges, empathy with others and a student’s own moral commitments, and practices of civic engagement and community organizing. Offered biennially by rotating faculty, course themes will vary accordingly. The 2023 theme is Indigenous engagement in Minnesota.

Extra time with community partner, flexibly scheduled

Mija Van Der Wege

Prerequisite: Interdisciplinary Studies 198 as first year student

Prior registration in IDSC 198

Deanna Haunsperger

Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing and instructor permission

Arjendu Pattanayak, Chris West

An introduction to principles of physics and their application to the environment. Topics include energy and its flows, engines, energy efficiency, energy usage and conservation in vehicles and buildings, the atmosphere, and climate change. Comfort with algebra and the integration and differentiation of elementary functions is assumed. Weekly laboratory work or field trips.

Prerequisite: Mathematics 101, 111 (completion or concurrent registration) and Physics 131 (completion or concurrent registration), 143, 144 or 145

2nd 5 weeks

Tun Myint

What are the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic on global politics and public policy? How do state responses to COVID-19 as well as historical cases such as the Black Death in Europe, the SARS outbreak in East Asia and Middle East, and the Ebola outbreak in Africa help us understand the scientific, political, and economic challenges of pandemics on countries and communities around the world? We will apply theories and concepts from IR, political economy, and natural sciences to explore these questions and consider what we can learn from those responses to address other global challenges like climate change.

Gisel Flores-Montoya

Prerequisite: Psychology 110 or instructor permission

8 spots held for sophomores (sophomores register for PSYC 260 10)

Gisel Flores-Montoya

Prerequisite: Psychology 110 or instructor permission

Held for sophomores, sophomores unable to register should waitlist on PSYC 260 01

Cross-listed with PSYC 260.00

Kristin Bloomer

From its beginnings, Christianity has been concerned with the making of new persons and worlds: the creation of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. It has also maintained a tight relationship to power, empire, and the making of modernity. In this course we will investigate this relationship within the context of colonial projects in the Americas, Africa, India, and the Pacific. We will trace the making of modern selves from Columbus to the abolition (and remainders) of slavery, and from the arrival of Cook in the Sandwich Islands to the journals of missionaries and the contemporary fight for Hawaiian sovereignty.

Held for new first year students

Michael McNally

Daniel Williams

Sociology is an intellectual discipline, spanning the gap between the sciences and humanities while often (though not always) involving itself in public policy debates, social reform, and political activism. Sociologists study a startling variety of topics using qualitative and quantitative methods. Still, amidst all this diversity, sociology is centered on a set of core historical theorists (Marx/Weber/Durkheim) and research topics (race/class/gender inequality). We will explore these theoretical and empirical foundations by reading and discussing influential texts and select topics in the study of social inequality while relating them to our own experiences and understanding of the social world.

Sophomore Priority.

Waitlist for Juniors and Seniors: SOAN 111.WL0 (Synonym 68198)

Palmar Alvarez-Blanco

Pragmatics studies the relationship between language and context. Learning conversational skills in a second language requires students to linguistically adapt to a range of contexts, hence the field of pragmatics provides an ideal theoretical framework for a conversation class. For example, students learn about essential cultural and linguistic differences between English and Spanish with regard to conversational styles, politeness and verbal interaction in general.

Prerequisite: Spanish 205

Requires participation in OCS Program: Spanish Studies in Madrid

Palmar Alvarez-Blanco

When we travel to another country are we tourists or travelers? What are our expectations when traveling? How do we get to know a place, its people, and culture? In this course we will walk through the history of some of the most important cultural and historical landmarks that mark the different transitions that Spain has gone through. We will become travelers who read, think, observe, and reflect upon political, cultural, and social questions connected to each text we read and every place we visit. This program includes several workshops with guest speakers, and significant contact with social collectives and communities in Spain.

Prerequisite: Spanish 205 and participation in OCS Madrid Program

Requires participation in OCS Program: Spanish Studies in Madrid

Adam Loy

Students will apply their statistical knowledge by analyzing data problems solicited from the Northfield community. Students will also learn basic consulting skills, including communication and ethics.

Prerequisite: Statistics 230 and instructor permission

All interested students are encouraged to add to the waitlist and the instructor will reach out after registration. This course is repeatable, but if the instructor cannot admit every student on the waitlist, priority will be given first to Statistics majors who have not previously taken the course and then to other students who have not taken the course.

Jeanne Willcoxon

A usual evening in the theater consists of seeing a text--the play--staged by a director and performed by actors. While this is certainly a collaborative endeavor, recent decades have seen a marked increase in "devised theater," a mode intended to upset the traditional hierarchies of theatrical production. In practical terms, this means the abandonment of the extant text in favor of a performance "score"--sometimes textual, often physical--developed improvisationally in rehearsal by the performers. This course will explore the methods and approaches used to work in this collective and highly creative manner, and will culminate in a public performance. We will also discuss the history and cultural politics that inform devised practice.

Prerequisite: Theater 110 or Dance 150 or 190 or instructor permission