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Catalogue 2013-2014 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Descriptions
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Latin American and Latino/a Studies: II. Intermediate |
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LALS 242 - Brazil: Society, Culture, and Environment in Portuguese America Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 242 , GEOG 242 , INTL 242 ) Brazil, long Latin America’s largest and most populous country, has become an industrial and agricultural powerhouse with increasing political-economic clout in global affairs. This course examines Brazil’s contemporary evolution in light of the country’s historical geography, the distinctive cultural and environmental features of Portuguese America, and the political-economic linkages with the outside world. Specific topics for study include: the legacies of colonial Brazil; race relations, Afro-Brazilian culture, and ethnic identities; issues of gender, youth, violence, and poverty; processes of urban-industrial growth; regionalism and national integration; environmental conservation and sustainability; continuing controversies surrounding the occupation of Amazonia; and long-run prospects for democracy and equitable development in Brazil. Mr. Godfrey.
Two 75-minute periods.
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LALS 249 - Latino/a Formations
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 249 and SOCI 249 ) This course focuses on the concepts, methodologies and theoretical approaches for understanding the lives of those people who (im)migrated from or who share real or imagined links with Latin America and the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean. As such this course considers the following questions: Who is a Latino/a? What is the impact of U.S. political and economic policy on immigration? What is assimilation? What does U.S. citizenship actually mean and entail? How are ideas about Blackness, or race more generally, organized and understood among Latino/as? What role do heterogeneous identities play in the construction of space and place among Latino/a and Chicano/a communities? This course introduces students to the multiple ways in which space, race, ethnicity, class and gendered identities are imagined/formed in Latin America and conversely affirmed and/or redefined in the United States. Conversely, this course examines the ways in which U.S. Latina/o populations provide both economic and cultural remittances to their countries of origin that also help to challenge and rearticulate Latin American social and economic relationships. Mr. Alamo.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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LALS 251 - Development and Social Change in Latin America
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 251 ) This course examines the ways in which Latin American and Caribbean nations have defined and pursued development and struggled for social change in the post World-War II era. We use country studies and development theories (including Modernization, Dependency, World-Systems, Feminist and Post-Structuralist) to analyze the extent to which development has been shaped by the tensions between local, national, and international political and economic interests. Within this structural context we focus on people and their relationships to each other and to a variety of issues including work, land, reproductive rights, basic needs, and revolution. Integrating structural analysis with an analysis of lived practice and meaning making allows us to understand development as a process that shapes, but is also shaped by, local actors. Ms. Carruyo.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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LALS 253 - Children of Immigration
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 253 ) Immigration to the U.S. since the 1970s has been characterized by a marked and unprecedented increase in the diversity of new immigrants. Unlike the great migrations from Europe in the late 1800s and early 1900s, most of the immigrants who have arrived in the U.S. in the last four decades have come from Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean. New immigration patterns have had a significant impact on the racial and ethnic composition and stratification of the American population, as well as the meaning of American identity itself. Immigrants and their families are also being transformed in the process, as they come into contact with various institutional contexts that can facilitate, block, and challenge the process of incorporation into the U.S. This course examines the impact of these new immigration patterns by focusing on the 16.4 million children in the U.S. who have at least one immigrant parent. Since 1990, children of immigrants - those born in the U.S. as well as those who are immigrants themselves - have doubled and have come to represent 23% of the population of minors in the U.S. In this course we study how children of immigrants are reshaping America, and how America is reshaping them, by examining key topics such as the impact of immigration on family structures, gender roles, language maintenance, academic achievement, and identity, as well as the impact that immigration reforms have had on access to higher education, employment, and political participation. This course provides an overview of the experiences of a population that is now a significant proportion of the U.S. population, yet one that is filled with contradictions, tensions and fissures and defies simple generalizations. Ms. Rueda.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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LALS 255 - Global Political Economy Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 255 ) This course explores competing visions of economic globalization, and uses these distinct frameworks to analyze the meaning, causes, extent, and consequences of globalization, with a particular focus on the relationships among global, national and local economic phenomena. What do we mean by globalization? What are the effects of globalization on growth, inequality, and the environment? How might international economic policy and the particular form(s) of globalization that it promotes help to explain the pace and form of urbanization? Who benefits from globalization, and who might be hurt? Why do economists and others disagree about the answers to these and related questions? This course explores some of the ways that interdisciplinary analysis might enrich our understanding of economic globalization. Mr. Koechlin.
Two 75-minute periods.
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LALS 258 - Latin American Politics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as POLI 258 ) Drawing from political processes across several Latin American countries, this course will focus on conceptual debates regarding political representation and participation, political institutions, political culture, and political economy in the region. A major theme will be inequality. The course will examine historical-structural patterns, relationships among social, economic, and political conditions at the national, sub-national and regional levels, and important social and political actors and institutions. The course will also examine the evolution of US roles in Latin America. Ms. Hite.
Two 75-minute periods.
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LALS 269 - Constructing School Kids and Street Kids Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 269 and SOCI 269 ) Students from low-income families and racial/ethnic minority backgrounds do poorly in school by comparison with their white and well-to-do peers. These students drop out of high school at higher rates, score lower on standardized tests, have lower GPAs, and are less likely to attend and complete college. In this course we examine theories and research that seek to explain patterns of differential educational achievement in U.S. schools. We study theories that focus on the characteristics of settings in which teaching and learning take place (e.g. schools, classrooms, and home), theories that focus on the characteristics of groups (e.g., racial/ethnic groups and peer groups), and theories that examine how cultural processes mediate political-economic constraints and human action. Ms. Rueda.
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LALS 283 - The Virtual Barrio: Latin American and Latino Media Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as HISP 283 and MEDS 283 ) This course aims to deepen our understanding of the complex media ecologies of Latin American and Latino contexts. Attending to how messages make meanings through a range of media-we study the role media play not only in the molding of ideas and opinions, but also in the constitution of subjectivities, social spheres, and non-human circuits of exchange (images, information, capital). Do theories of media and embodiment mean something different in this context, given the ways in which race, skin/hair color, cultural expectations, and history have inscribed themselves on the Hispanic body? Exploring mediation from the perspective of postcoloniality, transnationalism, and the glocal we thus examine the internet through the lens of recent developments in social movements (Chile, Mexico, Spain); film through the experiments of Third, Imperfect Cinema and Andean indigenous media practices; television through the genre and industry of the Telenovela; graphics through the traditions of murals, graphics and comics and the more recent transnational iconography of Ché Guevara; alternative youth culture through video and online gaming; and convergence through multi-media performances and installations. The course will be taught in English. Ms. Woods.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 or HISP 219 .
Two 75-minute periods.
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LALS 290 - Field Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1/2 or 1 unit(s)
By special permission.
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LALS 297 - Reading Course Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1/2 unit(s)
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LALS 297.02 - Indigenous Mexico
1/2 unit(s)
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LALS 297.03 - Chronicles of the Conquest
1/2 unit(s)
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LALS 297.04 - Latino Writings
1/2 unit(s)
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LALS 297.05 - Socio-Political Thought in Latin America
1/2 unit(s)
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LALS 297.06 - Latin American Cinema
1/2 unit(s)
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LALS 297.08 - Syncretic Religions of the Caribbean and Latin American
1/2 unit(s)
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LALS 297.09 - The Legacy of the Plantation in Caribbean and Latin American
1/2 unit(s)
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LALS 297.10 - Cultures of the Amazon
1/2 unit(s)
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LALS 297.11 - Native Peoples of the Andes
1/2 unit(s)
By special permission.
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LALS 298 - Independent Research Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1/2 or 1 unit(s)
By special permission.
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Latin American and Latino/a Studies: III. Advanced |
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LALS 300 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
1/2 unit(s)
Yearlong course 300-LALS 301 .
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LALS 301 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
1/2 unit(s)
Yearlong course LALS 300 -301.
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LALS 302 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
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LALS 303 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Fall
1/2 unit(s)
US Latino/a studies programs have their origins in the joining of university students with grassroots organizers to create multidisciplinary curricula and initiatives recognizing the contributions of Latino communities. A senior project reflects that spirit. In conjunction with two faculty members, one of whom must come from the LALS steering committee, students formulate a project topic based on continuing community-based work they have done during their Vassar years. The project might be rooted in the local Latino/a community, or from sustained work in Latin America. Students submit a proposal and bibliography, develop a work plan, and follow the same schedule as thesis writers. The senior project must go beyond a fieldwork experience, and requires a well-defined written analytical component.
Yearlong course 303-LALS 304 .
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LALS 304 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Spring
1/2 unit(s)
Yearlong course LALS 303 -304.
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LALS 340 - Advanced Urban/Regional Studies
1 unit(s)
Previous topics include: Ethnic Geography and Transnationalism and World Cities: Globalization, Segregation, and Defensive Urbanism.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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LALS 351 - Language and Expressive Culture
1 unit(s)
Not offered in 2013/14.
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LALS 360 - Amerindian Religions and Resistance.
1 unit(s)
Not offered in 2013/14.
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LALS 363 - Revolution and Conflict in Twentieth-Century Latin America
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 363 ) Revolution has been a dominant theme in the history of Latin America since 1910. This course examines the revolutionary experiences of three nations-Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua. It examines theories of revolution, then assesses the revolutions themselves-the conditions out of which each revolution developed, the conflicting ideologies at play, the nature of the struggles, and the postrevolutionary societies that emerged from the struggles. Ms. Offutt.
Prerequisite(s): HIST 264 or permission of the instructor.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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LALS 375 - Seminar in Women’s Studies
1 unit(s)
Not offered in 2013/14.
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LALS 382 - Race and Popular Culture Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 382 and SOCI 382 ) This seminar explores the way in which the categories of race, ethnicity, and nation are mutually constitutive with an emphasis on understanding how different social institutions and practices produce meanings about race and racial identities. Through an examination of knowledge production as well as symbolic and expressive practices, we focus on the ways in which contemporary scholars connect cultural texts to social and historical institutions. Appreciating the relationship between cultural texts and institutional frameworks, we unravel the complex ways in which the cultural practices of different social groups reinforce or challenge social relationships and structures. Finally, this seminar considers how contemporary manifestations of globalization impact and transform the linkages between race and culture as institutional and intellectual constructs. Mr. Alamo.
One 2-hour period.
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LALS 383 - Nation, Race and Gender in Latin America and the Caribbean - Senior Seminar Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as Sociology 383) With a focus on Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean this course traces and analyzes the ways in which the project of nation building creates and draws upon narratives about race and gender. While our focus is on Latin America, our study considers racial and gender formations within the context of the world-system. We are interested in how a complicated history of colonization, independence, post-coloniality, and “globalization” has intersected with national economies, politics, communities, and identities. In order to get at these intersections we examine a range of texts dealing with policy, national literatures, common sense, and political struggle. Specific issues addressed include the relationship between socio-biological theories of race and Latin American notions of mestizage, discursive and material “whitening,” the myth of racial democracy, sexuality and morality, and border politics. Ms. Carruyo.
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LALS 384 - Indigenous Religions of the Americas Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ANTH 384 ) The conquest of the Americas was accompanied by various intellectual and sociopolitical projects devised to translate, implant, or impose Christian beliefs in Amerindian societies. This course examines modes of resistance and accommodation, among other indigenous responses, to the introduction of Christianity as part of larger colonial projects. Through a succession of case studies from North America, Mesoamerica, the Caribbean, the Andes, and Paraguay, we analyze the impact of Christian colonial and postcolonial evangelization projects on indigenous languages, religious practices, literary genres, social organization and gender roles, and examine contemporary indigenous religious practices. Mr. Tavarez.
Prerequisite(s): prior coursework in Anthropology or Latin American Latino/a Studies or permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
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LALS 385 - Women, Culture and Development
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 385 , SOCI 385 , and WMST 385 ) This course examines the ongoing debates within development studies about how integration into the global economy is experienced by women around the world. Drawing on gender studies, cultural studies, and global political economy, we explore the multiple ways in which women struggle to secure well-being, challenge injustice, and live meaningful lives. Ms. Carruyo.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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LALS 388 - Latin American Economic Development Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ECON 388 ) This course examines why many Latin American countries started with levels of development similar to those of the U.S. and Canada but were not able to keep up. The course begins with discussions of various ways of thinking about and measuring economic development and examines the record of Latin American countries on various measures, including volatile growth rates, high income and wealth inequality, and high crime rates. We then turn to an analysis of the colonial and post-Independence period to examine the roots of the weak institutional development than could explain a low growth trajectory. Next, we examine the post WWII period, exploring the import substitution of 1970s, the debt crises of the 1980s, and the structural adjustment of the 1990s. Finally, we look at events in the past decade, comparing and contrasting the experience of different countries with respect to growth, poverty and inequality. Ms. Pearlman.
Prerequisite(s): ECON 100 and ECON 209 .
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LALS 399 - Senior Independent Research Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1/2 or 1 unit(s)
By special permission.
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Mathematics: I. Introductory |
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MATH 101 - Introduction to Calculus
1 unit(s)
A course intended for students not majoring in mathematics or the physical sciences who need a working knowledge of calculus. The course emphasizes techniques and applications with relatively little attention to the rigorous foundations.
Not open to students with AP credit in mathematics or students who have completed MATH 121 or its equivalent.
Does not generally serve as a prerequisite for MATH 122 , MATH 125 , or 200-level mathematics courses, consult with the department for more information. The department.
Prerequisite(s): at least three years of high school mathematics.
Three 50-minute periods.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MATH 121 - Single Variable Calculus Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
The calculus of one variable and its applications are discussed. Topics include: limits, continuity, derivatives, applications of derivatives, transcendental functions, the definite integral, applications of definite integrals, approximation methods, differential equations, sequences, and series.
Mathematics 121 is not open to students with AP credit in mathematics or students who have completed MATH 101 or its equivalent. The department.
Prerequisite(s): a minimum of three years of high school mathematics, preferably including trigonometry.
Three 50-minute periods.
Yearlong course 121/MATH 122 .
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MATH 122 - Single Variable Calculus Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The calculus of one variable and its applications are discussed. Topics include: limits, continuity, derivatives, applications of derivatives, transcendental functions, the definite integral, applications of definite integrals, approximation methods, differential equations, sequences, and series. The department.
Prerequisite(s): a minimum of three years of high school mathematics, preferably including trigonometry.
Three 50-minute periods.
Yearlong course MATH 121 /122.
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MATH 125 - Topics in Single Variable Calculus Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Material from MATH 121 /MATH 122 presented in one semester for students with previous experience with calculus. Topics in second semester calculus are fully developed and topics in first semester calculus are reviewed. The department.
Three 50-minute periods.
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MATH 131 - Numbers, Shape, Chance, and Change Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
What is the stuff of mathematics? What do mathematicians do? Fundamental concepts from arithmetic, geometry, probability, and the calculus are explored, emphasizing the relations among these diverse areas, their internal logic, their beauty, and how they come together to form a unified discipline. As a counterpoint, we also discuss the “unreasonable effectiveness” of mathematics in describing a stunning range of phenomena from the natural and social worlds. The department.
Prerequisite(s): at least three years of high school mathematics.
Two 50-minute periods and one 50-minute discussion per week.
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MATH 141 - Introduction to Statistics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as BIOL 141 ) The purpose of this course is to develop an appreciation and understanding of the exploration and interpretation of data. Topics include display and summary of data, introductory probability, fundamental issues of study design, and inferential methods including confidence interval estimation and hypothesis testing. Applications and examples are drawn from a wide variety of disciplines. When cross-listed with biology, examples will be drawn primarily from biology.
Prerequisite(s): three years of high school mathematics.
Not open to students with AP credit in statistics or students who have completed ECON 209 or PSYC 200 .
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Mathematics: II. Intermediate |
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MATH 220 - Multivariable Calculus Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
This course extends differential and integral calculus to functions of several variables. Topics include: partial derivatives, gradients, extreme value problems, Lagrange multipliers, multiple integrals, line and surface integrals, the theorems of Green and Gauss.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 122 or MATH 125 or equivalent.
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MATH 221 - Linear Algebra Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
The theory of higher dimensional space. Topics include: geometric properties of n-space, matrices and linear equations, vector spaces, linear mappings, determinants. The department.
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite for all intermediate courses: MATH 122 , MATH 125 , or permission of the department, unless otherwise indicated.
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MATH 228 - Methods of Applied Mathematics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Survey of techniques used in the physical sciences. Topics include: ordinary and partial differential equations, series representation of functions, integral transforms, Fourier series and integrals. The department.
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite for all intermediate courses: MATH 122 ,MATH 125 , or permission of the department, unless otherwise indicated.
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MATH 231 - Topics in Geometry Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Topics to be chosen from: conic sections, transformational geometry, Euclidean geometry, affine geometry, projective geometry, inversive geometry, relativistic geometry, non-Euclidean geometry, spherical geometry, convexity, fractal geometry, solid geometry, foundations of geometry. With departmental permission, course may be repeated for credit when the topic changes. The department.
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite for all intermediate courses: MATH 122 ,MATH 125 , or permission of the department, unless otherwise indicated.
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MATH 241 - Probability Models Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course in introductory probability theory covers topics including combinatorics, discrete and continuous random variables, distribution functions, joint distributions, independence, properties of expectations, and basic limit theorems. The department.
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite for all intermediate courses: MATH 122 ,MATH 125 , or permission of the department, unless otherwise indicated.
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MATH 242 - Applied Statistical Modeling Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Applied Statistical Modeling is offered as a second course in statistics in which we present a set of case studies and introduce appropriate statistical modeling techniques for each. Topics may include: multiple linear regression, logistic regression, log-linear regression, survival analysis, an introduction to Bayesian modeling, and modeling via simulation. Other topics may be substituted for these or added as time allows. Students will be expected to conduct data analyses in R. Ms. An.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 122 or MATH 125 ; MATH 141 .
Three 50-minute periods.
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MATH 261 - Introduction to Number Theory Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Topics include: divisibility, congruence, modular arithmetic, diophantine equations, number-theoretic functions, distribution of the prime numbers. The department.
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite for all intermediate courses: MATH 122 , MATH 125 , or permission of the department, unless otherwise indicated.
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MATH 263 - Discrete Mathematics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Mathematical induction, elements of set theory and logic, permutations and combinations, relations, topics in graph theory, generating functions, recurrence relations, Boolean algebras. The department.
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite for all intermediate courses: MATH 122 ,MATH 125 or permission of the department, unless otherwise indicated.
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MATH 268 - Protecting Information: Applications of Abstract Algebra
1 unit(s)
In today’s information age, it is vital to secure messages against eavesdropping or corruption by noise. Our study begins by surveying some historical techniques and proceeds to examining some of the most important codes currently being used to protect information. These include various public key cryptographic schemes (RSA and its variants) that are used to safeguard sensitive internet communications, as well as linear codes, mathematically elegant and computationally practical means of correcting transmissions errors. The department.
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite for all intermediate courses: MATH 122 ,MATH 125 , or permission of the department, unless otherwise indicated.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MATH 290 - Field Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1/2 or 1 unit(s)
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MATH 297 - Topics in Mathematics Semester Offered: Fall
1/2 unit(s)
Reading Course
Prerequisite(s): MATH 221 or equivalent, and permission of the instructor.
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MATH 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1/2 or 1 unit(s)
Election should be made in consultation with a department adviser.
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Mathematics: III. Advanced |
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MATH 301 - Senior Seminar Semester Offered: Spring
1/2 or 1 unit(s)
Areas of study and units of credit vary from year to year.
Open only to seniors who have a declared major in mathematics. It is strongly recommended that MATH 361 be completed before enrolling in Mathematics 301. The department.
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MATH 321 - Real Analysis Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
A rigorous treatment of topics in the classical theory of functions of a real variable from the point of view of metric space topology including limits, continuity, sequences and series of functions, and the Riemann-Stieltjes integral. The department.
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite for all advanced courses: MATH 220 and MATH 221 , unless otherwise indicated.
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MATH 324 - Complex Analysis Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Integration and differentiation in the complex plane. Topics include: holomorphic (differentiable) functions, power series as holomorphic functions, Taylor and Laurent series, singularities and residues, complex integration and, in particular, Cauchy’s Theorem and its consequences. The department.
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite for all advanced courses: MATH 220 and MATH 221 , unless otherwise indicated.
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MATH 327 - Advanced Topics in Real Analysis Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Continuation of MATH 321 . Measure theory, the Lebesgue integral, Banach spaces of measurable functions. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 321 .
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MATH 328 - Theory of Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems
1 unit(s)
Existence and uniqueness theorems for ordinary differential equations; general theory and eigenvalue methods for first order linear systems. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 321 or permission of the instructor.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MATH 335 - Differential Geometry
1 unit(s)
The geometry of curves and surfaces in 3-dimensional space and an introduction to manifolds. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 321 .
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MATH 339 - Topology
1 unit(s)
Introductory point-set and algebraic topology; topological spaces, metric spaces, continuous mappings, connectedness, compactness and separation properties; the fundamental group; simplicial homology. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 321 or MATH 361 .
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MATH 341 - Mathematical Statistics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
An introduction to statistical theory through the mathematical development of topics including resampling methods, sampling distributions, likelihood, interval and point estimation, and introduction to statistical inferential methods. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 220 and MATH 241 .
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MATH 342 - Applied Statistical Modeling Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
For students who have completed MATH 341 . Students in this course attend the same lectures as those in MATH 242 , but will be required to complete extra reading and problems. Ms. An.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 122 or MATH 125 , MATH 341 .
Three 50-minute periods.
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MATH 351 - Mathematical Logic Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
An introduction to mathematical logic. Topics are drawn from computability theory, model theory, and set theory. Mathematical and philosophical implications also are discussed. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 321 or MATH 361 .
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MATH 361 - Modern Algebra Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The theory of groups and an introduction to ring theory. Topics in group theory include: isomorphism theorems, generators and relations, group actions, Sylow theorems, fundamental theorem of finite abelian groups. The department.
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite for all advanced courses: MATH 220 and MATH 221 , unless otherwise indicated.
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MATH 364 - Advanced Linear Algebra Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Further study in the theory of vector spaces and linear maps. Topics may include: scalar products and dual space; symmetric, hermitian and unitary operators; eigenvectors and eigenvalues; spectral theorems; canonical forms. The department.
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite for all advanced courses: MATH 220 and MATH 221 , unless otherwise indicated.
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MATH 367 - Advanced Topics in Modern Algebra
1 unit(s)
Continuation of MATH 361 . Rings and fields, with a particular emphasis on Galois theory. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 361 .
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MATH 380 - Topics in Advanced Mathematics
1 unit(s)
Advanced study in an area of mathematics. The department.
Not offered in 2013/14. Alternate years.
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MATH 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1/2 or 1 unit(s)
Election requires the approval of a departmental adviser and of the instructor who supervises the work.
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Media Studies: I. Introductory |
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MEDS 160 - Approaches to Media Studies Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
This course explores concepts and issues in the study of media, attentive to but not limited by the question of the “new” posed by new media technologies. Our survey of key critical approaches to media is anchored in specific case studies drawn from a diverse archive of media artifacts, industries, and technologies: from phonograph to photography, cinema to networked hypermedia, from typewriter to digital code. We examine the historical and material specificity of different media technologies and the forms of social life they enable, engage critical debates about media, culture and power, and consider problems of reading posed by specific media objects and processes, new and old. We take the multi-valence of “media”-a term designating text and apparatus of textual transmission, content and conduit-as a central problem of knowledge for the class. Our goal throughout is to develop the research tools, modes of reading, and forms of critical practice that help us aptly to describe and thereby begin to understand the increasingly mediated world in which we live. Mr. Elseewi (a); Mr. Ellman (b).
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Media Studies: II. Intermediate |
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MEDS 218 - Chinese Popular Culture
1 unit(s)
(Same as CHIN 218 ) The course analyzes contemporary Chinese entertainment and popular culture. It provides both historical coverage and grounding in various theoretical and methodological problems. Topics focus on thematic contents and forms of entertainment through television, radio, newspaper, cinema, theatre, music, print and material culture. The course also examines the relations between the heritage of traditional Chinese entertainment and the influences of Western culture. All readings and class discussions are in English. Mr. Du.
Prerequisite(s): one course in language, literature, culture, film, drama, or Asian Studies, or permission of the instructor.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MEDS 250 - Medium Specificity Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Medium specificity is a consideration of what makes a medium a medium. The emergence of so-called new media has called attention to the ways in which new forms borrow upon or “remediate” older forms. By asking what aspects a particular medium can surrender to another without losing its particularity, we can form provisional representations of the essential aspects of a given medium, new or old, which differentiate it from others. The course considers old and new media including literature, photography, film, television, computer games, immersive computer environments, new media art, and digital image manipulation, sometimes viewing them comparatively in order to isolate those cultural, economic, and ideological structures which have led to the construction, identification, and conservation of a specific medium.
Topic for 2013/14a:The Book as Medium. A study of the rise of print technology in the west and its impact on the development of the book. Insofar as possible, the method of the class is empirical; class meets in the special collections seminar room where printed books of all sorts are available for inspection. In addition to studying the book as object, the course treats questions concerning the sociology of texts, the influence of books on the nature of reading, the relations between form and content in printed books, and the effects of publishers and printers on the construction of literature. This fall a special focus of the course is on books of knowledge: dictionaries, encyclopedias and other books that try to organize and present the sum of what is known in arts and sciences. May be repeated for credit if the topic has changed. Mr. DeMaria and Mr. Patkus.
Prerequisite(s): MEDS 160 or permission of the instructor.
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MEDS 260 - Media Theory Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course aims to ramify our understanding of “mediality”-that is, the visible and invisible, audible and silent contexts in which physical messages stake their ghostly meanings. The claims of media theory extend beyond models of communication: media do not simply transport preexisting ideas, nor do they merely shape ideas in transit. Attending to the complex network of functions that make up media ecologies (modes of inscription, transmission, storage, circulation, and retrieval) demonstrates the role media play not only in the molding of ideas and opinions, but also in the constitution of subjectivities, social spheres, and non-human circuits of exchange (images, information, capital). Texts and topics vary from year to year, but readings are drawn from a broad spectrum of classical and contemporary sources. Mr. Chang.
Prerequisite(s): MEDS 160 or permission of the instructor.
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MEDS 263 - Anthropology Goes to the Movies: Film, Video, and Ethnography Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ANTH 263 ) This course examines how film and video are used in ethnography as tools for study and as means of ethnographic documentary and representation. Topics covered include history and theory of visual anthropology, issues of representation and audience, indigenous film, and contemporary ethnographic approaches to popular media. Ms. Cohen.
Prerequisite(s): previous coursework in Anthropology or Film or Media Studies or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods, plus 3-hour preview laboratory.
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MEDS 264 - The Nature of Change: the Avant-Gardes
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 264 ) Radical prototypes of self-organization were forged by the new groups of artists, writers, filmmakers and architects that emerged in the early twentieth century as they sought to define the future. The course studies the avant-gardes’ different and often competing efforts to meet the changing conditions that industrialization was bringing to culture, societies and economies between 1889 and 1929, when works of art, design, and film entered the city, the press, the everyday lives and the wars that beset them all. Ms. Nesbit.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 -ART 106 , or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods and one weekly film screening.
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MEDS 265 - Modern Art and the Mass Media, 1929-1968
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 265 ) The history of modern painting and sculpture in Europe and America from the onset of the Great Depression to the events of 1968, together with their contemporary developments in film, photography, and the mass media. Special attention is paid to the criticism, theory, and politics of the image as part of the newly divided modern culture of abstractions, generalities, human rights and identities. Weekly screenings supplement the lectures. Ms. Nesbit.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 -ART 106 .
Two 75-minute periods and one weekly film screening.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MEDS 266 - Indigenous and Oppositional Media
1 unit(s)
(Same as ANTH 266 ) As audiovisual and digital media technologies proliferate and become more accessible globally, they become important tools for indigenous peoples and activist groups in struggles for recognition and self-determination, for articulating community concerns and for furthering social and political transformations. This course explores the media practices of indigenous peoples and activist groups, and through this exploration achieves a more nuanced and intricate understanding of the relation of the local to the global. In addition to looking at the films, videos, radio and television productions, and Internet interventions of indigenous media makers and activists around the world, the course looks at oppositional practices employed in the consumption and distribution of media. Course readings are augmented by weekly screenings and demonstrations of media studied, and students explore key theoretical concepts through their own interventions, making use of audiovisual and digital technologies. Ms. Cohen.
Two 75-minute periods, plus one 3-hour preview laboratory.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MEDS 268 - The Activation of Art, 1968 - now
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 268 ) This course studies the visual arts of the last thirty years, here and abroad, together with the collective and philosophical discussions that emerged and motivated them. The traditional fine arts as well as the new media, performance, film architecture and installation are included. Still and moving images, which come with new theatres of action, experiment and intellectual quest, are studied as they interact with the historical forces still shaping our time into time zones, world pictures, narratives and futures. Weekly screenings supplement the lectures. Ms. Nesbit.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 -ART 106 .
Two 75-minute periods and one weekly screening.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MEDS 280 - The Middle East in Cinema and Media Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as FILM 280 ) This course looks at Middle Eastern electronic media and film to ask questions about contemporary culture, social life and politics in the region. Using the events of the “Arab Spring” and its aftermath as touchstones, we investigate such topics as globalization, mediated identity, gender, and mediated entertainment. While most of our focus is on the Arab countries, we also examine cultural material from Iran, Israel, and Turkey. We watch films, follow blogs, and read popular and academic material on the region. Mr. Elseewi.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 210 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods, plus outside screenings.
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MEDS 283 - The Virtual Barrio: Latin American and Latino Media Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as HISP 283 or LALS 283 ) This course aims to deepen our understanding of the complex media ecologies of Latin American and Latino contexts. Attending to how messages make meanings through a range of media-we study the role media play not only in the molding of ideas and opinions, but also in the constitution of subjectivities, social spheres, and non-human circuits of exchange (images, information, capital). Do theories of media and embodiment mean something different in this context, given the ways in which race, skin/hair color, cultural expectations, and history have inscribed themselves on the Hispanic body? Exploring mediation from the perspective of postcoloniality, transnationalism, and the glocal we thus examine the internet through the lens of recent developments in social movements (Chile, Mexico, Spain); film through the experiments of Third, Imperfect Cinema and Andean indigenous media practices; television through the genre and industry of the Telenovela; graphics through the traditions of murals, graphics and comics and the more recent transnational iconography of Ché Guevara; alternative youth culture through video and online gaming; and convergence through multi-media performances and installations. The course will be taught in English. Ms. Woods.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 or HISP 219 .
Two 75-minute periods.
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MEDS 286 - TV History and Criticism Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as FILM 286 ) This course is a survey of the history, technology, regulation, audience, and economics of television and related electronic media from the 1920s until the present. This class focuses on both the historical development of the medium and its texts as well as on the theoretical frameworks scholars have used to study television. The course approaches television primarily through the lens of its relationship with American culture with an ongoing focus on issues of race, gender, class, and the political process. Mr. Elseewi.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 210 or MEDS 160 .
Two 75-minute periods, plus outside screenings.
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MEDS 290 - Field Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1/2 or 1 unit(s)
Permission of the director required.
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MEDS 298 - Independent Study Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1/2 or 1 unit(s)
Permission of the director required.
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Media Studies: III. Advanced |
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MEDS 300 - Senior Project Preparation Semester Offered: Fall
1/2 unit(s)
The Senior Project may be a full-length thesis or a (multi)media project. During the fall semester, students carry out the following independent work under the supervision of the Program Director and participating faculty: formulating a project topic; identifying suitable faculty advisors; writing a project proposal and bibliography; presenting the proposal at a poster event; and developing a work plan. Ms. Cohen.
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MEDS 301 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Students carry out the Senior Project during the spring semester, under the supervision of their two project advisors. All students present their projects at a public symposium at the end of the semester. The projects become part of a permanent Media-Studies archive. The program faculty.
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MEDS 302 - Adaptations Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as CLCS 302 and ENGL 302 ) If works of art continue each other, as Virginia Woolf suggested, then cultural history accumulates when generations of artists think and talk together across time. What happens when one of those artists switches to another language, another genre, another mode or medium? In the twenty-first century we may reframe Woolf’s conversation in terms of intertextuality-art invokes and revises other art-but the questions remain more or less unchanged: What motivates and shapes adaptations? What role does technology play? Audience? What constitutes a faithful adaptation? “Faithful” to what or whom? In this course we consider the biological model, looking briefly at Darwin’s ideas about the ways organisms change in order to survive, and then explore analogies across a range of media. We’ll begin with Virgil’s Georgics; move on to Metamorphoses, Ovid’s free adaptations of classical myths; and follow Orpheus and Eurydice through two thousand years of theater (Euripides, Anouilh, Ruhl, Zimmerman); painting and sculpture (Dürer, Rubens, Poussin, Klee, Rodin); film and television (Pasolini, Cocteau, Camus, Luhrmann); dance (Graham, Balanchine, Bausch); music (Monteverdi, Gluck, Stravinsky, Birtwistle, Glass); narratives and graphic narratives (Pynchon, Delany, Gaiman, Hoban); verse (Rilke, H.D., Auden, Ashbery, Milosz, Heaney, Atwood, Mullen, Strand); and computer games (Battle of Olympus, Shin Megami Tensei). During the second half of the semester, we investigate other adaptations and their theoretical implications, looking back from time to time at what we’ve learned from the protean story of Eurydice and Orpheus and their countless progeny. M. Mark.
Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
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MEDS 310 - Senior Seminar Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Topic: Media End Memory. We will explore: the destruction of memory; the invention of memory; mnemotechnics; collective memory; historical memory, fabrication and power; voluntary and involuntary memory; modes of collection, storage, and retrieval; memory theaters, cabinets, and atlases; trauma, erasure and blindness; flows, clouds and the futures of memory. Special topics course for all senior Media Studies majors, providing a capstone experience for the cohort. Mr. Chang.
Prerequisite(s): MEDS 250 or MEDS 260 .
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MEDS 317 - The Bible as Book: Manuscript and Printed Editions
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 317 and RELI 317 ) The Bible has been one of the most influential texts in Western history. Yet there are great differences in what constituted “the Bible” and how it has been produced, disseminated, read, and discussed across the centuries and across cultures. Drawing from the perspective of the history of the book, this seminar provides an opportunity to examine and consider key moments in the production and transmission of biblical texts from Egypt, Asia Minor, and Palestine in Antiquity, to editions of the bible produced in Europe, England, and America, from the early middle ages to the present. Examples include Codex Sinaiticus, the Vienna Genesis, Codex Amiatinus, the Lorsch Gospels, the Winchester Bible, Bible Moralisée, the Biblia Pauperum, the Wycliffe Bible, the Gutenberg Bible, translations of Erasmus and Luther, the Geneva Bible, the King James Bible, the Eliot Indian Bible, the Woman’s Bible, bibles of fine presses, family bibles, childrens’ bibles, and recent translations. We discuss current scholarship relating to these and other editions, but our approach is largely empirical; by looking closely at books and considering all aspects of their makeup (such as scribal tendencies, binding and format, typography, illustrations, texts and translations, commentaries and paratexts), we try to gain an understanding of the social, economic, cultural and political factors behind the appearance of particular bibles, and also the nature of their influence in particular places. In order to “go to the source,” we rely heavily on examples from the Bible Collection in the Archives & Special Collections Library. Ms. Bucher and Mr. Patkus.
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite for advanced courses is ordinarily two units of 200-level work in history, or permission of the instructor. Specific prerequisites assume the general prerequisite.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MEDS 350 - New York City as Social Lab
1 unit(s)
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MEDS 351 - Language and Expressive Culture
1 unit(s)
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MEDS 352 - The City in Fragments
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 352 ) In this seminar, we use the concept of the fragment to explore the contemporary city, and vice versa. We draw on the work of Walter Benjamin, for whom the fragment was both a central symptom of urban modernity and a potentially radical mode of inquiry. We also use the figure of the fragment to explore and to experiment with the situationist urbanism of Guy Debord, to address the failure of modernist dreams for the city, and to reframe the question of the “global” in contemporary discussions of global urbanization. Finally, we use the fragment to destabilize notions of experience and evidence-so central to positivist understandings of the city-as we make regular visits to discover, as it were, non-monumental New York. Readings include works by Walter Benjamin, Stefano Boeri, Christine Boyer, Guy Debord, Rosalyb Deytsche, Paul Gilroy, Rem Koolhaas, Henri Lefebvre, Thomas Lacquer, Saskia Sassen, Mark Wigley, and others. Ms. Brawley, Mr. Chang.
Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor.
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MEDS 356 - Culture, Commerce, and the Public Sphere Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 356 ) This course examines the culture and politics of the public sphere, with an emphasis on the changing status of public spaces in contemporary societies. Drawing upon historical and current analyses, we explore such issues as the relationship between public and commercial space and the role of public discourse in democratic theory. Case studies investigate such sites as mass media, schools, shopping malls, cyberspace, libraries, and public parks in relation to questions of economic inequality, political participation, privatization, and consumer culture. Mr. Hoynes.
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MEDS 360 - Problems in Cultural Analysis
1 unit(s)
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MEDS 364 - Seminar in Twentieth Century and Contemporary Art Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 364 ) The Moving Image: Between Video and Experimental Curating. Already by 1930 experimental film had tested the boundaries for the exhibition of works of art; when video built on that foundation thirty years later, the borders were again expanded. Moving image and radical exhibition formats would continue to evolve in tandem, becoming a succession of inspirations and experiments. The seminar studies these as theoretical, practical and perceptual questions posed in fact since the invention of cinema; case studies from past and present are compared; the seminar plans and executes curatorial experiments of its own. Ms. Nesbit.
Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor
One 2-hour period.
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MEDS 379 - Computer Animation: Art, Science and Criticism
1 unit(s)
(ART 379 , CMPU 379 , FILM 379 ) An interdisciplinary course in Computer Animation aimed at students with previous experience in Computer Science, Studio Art, or Media Studies. The course introduces students to mathematical and computational principles and techniques for describing the shape, motion and shading of three-dimensional figures in Computer Animation. It introduces students to artistic principles and techniques used in drawing, painting and sculpture, as they are translated into the context of Computer Animation. It also encourages students to critically examine Computer Animation as a medium of communication. Finally, the course exposes students to issues that arise when people from different scholarly cultures attempt to collaborate on a project of mutual interest. The course is structured as a series of animation projects interleaved with screenings and classroom discussions. Mr. Ellman, Mr. Roseman.
Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor.
Two 2-hour periods.
Offered alternate years. Not offered in 2013/14.
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MEDS 380 - Special Topics in Media Studies Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Not offered in 2013/14.
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MEDS 381 - Bible as Book: Manuscr/Printed
1 unit(s)
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