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Catalogue 2019-2020 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Descriptions
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Latin American and Latino/a Studies: II. Intermediate |
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LALS 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Individual or group field projects or internships. May be elected during the college year or during the summer. Open to all students. The Department.
Corequisite(s): kapanebianco
By special permission.
Course Format: INT
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LALS 298 - Independent Research Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Individual or group research project. May be elected during the college year. Open to all students. The Department.
By special permission.
Course Format: INT
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Latin American and Latino/a Studies: III. Advanced |
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LALS 300 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis written over two semesters. The Department.
Yearlong course 300-LALS 301 .
Course Format: INT
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LALS 301 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis written over two semesters. The Department.
Yearlong course LALS 300 -301.
Course Format: INT
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LALS 302 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis written in the fall or spring semester. Students may elect this option only in exceptional circumstances and by special permission of the program director. The Department.
Course Format: INT
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LALS 303 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 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. The Department.
Yearlong course 303-LALS 304 .
Course Format: INT
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LALS 304 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 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. The Department.
Yearlong course LALS 303 -304.
Course Format: INT
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LALS 305 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 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.
This will serve as a 1-unit/1-semester option for a Latin American Studies Project. Special permission. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Special permission
This will serve as a 1-unit/1-semester option for a Latin American Studies Project. Special permission.
Course Format: INT
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LALS 321 - Feminism, Knowledge, Practice Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 321 and WMST 321 ) How do feminist politics inform how research, pedagogy, and social action are approached? Can feminist anti-racist praxis and insights into issues of race, power and knowledge, intersecting inequalities, and human agency change the way we understand and represent the social world? We discuss several qualitative approaches used by feminists to document the social world (e.g. ethnography, discourse analysis, oral history). Additionally, we explore and engage with contemplative practices such as mediation, engaged listening, and creative-visualization. Our goal is to develop an understanding of the relationship between power, knowledge and action and to collectively envision healing forms of critical social inquiry. Light Carruyo.
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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 2019/20.
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LALS 351 - Language and Expressive Culture
1 unit(s)
Not offered in 2019/20.
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LALS 352 - Indigenous Literatures of the Americas Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 352 and ANTH 352 ) This course addresses a selection of creation narratives, historical accounts, poems, and other genres produced by indigenous authors from Pre-Columbian times to the present, using historical, linguistic and ethnographic approaches. We examine the use of non-alphabetic and alphabetic writing systems, study poetic and rhetorical devices, and examine indigenous historical consciousness and sociopolitical and gender dynamics through the vantage point of these works. Other topics include language revitalization, translation issues, and the rapport between linguistic structure and literary form. The languages and specific works to be examined are selected in consultation with course participants. They may include English or Spanish translations of works in Nahuatl, Zapotec, Yucatec and K’iche’ Maya, Quechua, Tupi, Aymara, and other indigenous languages of Latin America. David Tavárez.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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LALS 360 - Amerindian Religions and Resistance
1 unit(s)
Not offered in 2019/20.
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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. Leslie Offutt.
Prerequisite(s): HIST 264 or permission of the instructor.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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LALS 367 - Indigenous Cultures and Languages of Latin America Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ANTH 367 ) This intensive offering focuses on closely mentored, collaborative work on Mesoamerican, Andean, or Amazonian languages and cultures. Students develop and execute a concise research project based on their own interests, qualifications, and previous coursework. Possibilities include intensive study, work with material culture in Vassar’s museum and rare book collections or elsewhere, and digital humanities projects, including those under development by the instructor. One previous course in Latin American and Latino/a Studies, Anthropology, History or the social sciences is recommended, but not required. David Tavárez.
NRO for Juniors and Seniors only.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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LALS 374 - Writing Workshop Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as HISP 374 ) It admits of three modes, according to each student’s preference. The course includes periodic meetings where the texts are collectively discussed (Previous Requisite: one course at the 220 level or special permission by me.). A) Chronicle: the course hinges around an ongoing event (political, historical, etc.) chosen by each student. Such event is researched as it develops during the semester, in depth and thoroughly. The end result is an annotated dossier of primary and secondary sources and the writing of a chronicle based upon some of the models studied (García Márquez, Rodolfo Walsh, Germán Castro Caycedo, Alma Guillermo Prieto, etc.) B) Fiction: the course is geared toward completion of a piece of writing previously agreed upon between each student and me (collection of poems or short stories, novelistic fragment, journal, short film and so on). Writing models and problematics will be discussed and serve as a springboard for each student’s project. C) Testimonial Writing: the course allows for crafting a piece of testimonial writing (of one’s own or someone else’s experience). Writing strategies are derived from an understanding of the genre’s logic and its problematization. In all modalities, the final text can take the form of an audiovisual product (the student’s technical knowledge for carrying on such a project is presupposed). Mario Cesareo.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 or HISP 219 or permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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LALS 381 - Race and Popular Culture Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 381 and SOCI 381 ) 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. Carlos Alamo.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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LALS 383 - Nation, Race and Gender in Latin America and the Caribbean - Senior Seminar
1 unit(s)
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. Light Carruyo.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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LALS 384 - Native Religions of the Americas
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 384 and 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. David Tavárez.
Prerequisite(s): Prior coursework in Anthropology or Latin American Latino/a Studies or permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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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. Light Carruyo.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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LALS 386 - Ghetto Schooling Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 386 and SOCI 386 ) In twenty-first century America, the majority of students attend segregated schools. Most white students attend schools where 75% of their peers are white, while 80% of Latino students and 74% of black students attend majority non-white schools. In this course we will examine the events that led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and the 60-year struggle to make good on the promises of that ruling. The course will be divided into three parts. In part one, we will study the Brown decision as an integral element in the fight against Jim Crow laws and trace the legal history of desegregation efforts. In part two, we will focus on desegregation policies and programs that enabled the slow move toward desegregation between 1954 and the 1980s. At this point in time, integration efforts reached their peak and 44% of black students in the south attended majority-white schools. Part three of the course will focus on the dismantling of desegregation efforts that were facilitated by U.S. Supreme Court decisions beginning in the 1990s. Throughout the course we will consider the consequences of the racial isolation and concentrated poverty that characterizes segregated schooling and consider the implications of this for today’s K-12 student population, which is demographically very different than it was in the 1960s, in part due to new migration streams from Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean. Over the last 40 years, public schools have experienced a 28% decline in white enrollments, with increases in the number of black and Asian students, and a noteworthy 495% increase in Latino enrollments. Eréndira Rueda.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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LALS 387 - Latin American Seminar Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as HISP 387 ) A seminar offering in-depth study of topics related to the literary and cultural history of Latin America. This course may be repeated for credit when the topic changes.
Topic for 2019/20b: The Poetry of Pablo Neruda. In this seminar we examine the works of the man Gabriel García Márquez once called “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language.” In addition to studying selections from most of Neruda’s poetry, we read his autobiography Confieso que he vivido, his play Fulgor y muerte de Joaquín Murieta, his manifestos and essays, discuss the movie Il postino and study several documentaries about the poet’s life. By examining the different styles of Neruda’s poetry, we define the major poetic movements of twentieth century Latin America. Mihai Grünfeld.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 and one course above 216.
One 2-hour period.
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LALS 388 - Latin American Economic Development
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. Sarah Pearlman.
Prerequisite(s): ECON 209 .
Not offered in 2019/20.
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LALS 399 - Senior Independent Research Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
By special permission.
Course Format: OTH
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Mathematics and Statistics: I. Introductory |
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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. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): A minimum of three years of high school mathematics, preferably including trigonometry.
Mathematics 121 is not open to students with AP credit in mathematics.
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 126 - Calculus IIA: Integration Theory Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 unit(s)
In this course, we expand and build upon basic knowledge of differential and integral calculus. Various techniques and applications of integration will be studied. The calculus of transcendental functions—such as the exponential, logarithmic, and inverse trigonometric functions—will also be developed. A main theme in this course is the many ways functions can be defined, and arise naturally in problems in the mathematical sciences.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 121 or its equivalent.
First or second six-week course.
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 127 - Calculus IIB: Sequences and Series Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 unit(s)
Real numbers may be represented as infinite decimals. In this course we generalize this representation by studying the convergence of sequences and of series of real numbers. These notions further generalize to the convergence of sequences and series of functions. We study these ideas and their relation to the Calculus.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 121 or its equivalent.
First or second six-week course.
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 132 - Mathematics and Narrative
1 unit(s)
To most, mathematics and narrative live in opposition-narrative is ubiquitous while mathematics is perceived as inscrutably esoteric and obscure. In fact, narrative is a fundamental part of mathematics. Mathematical proofs, problems and solutions, textbooks, and journal articles tell some sort of story. Conversely, many literary works (Arcadia, Proof, and Uncle Petros and the Goldbach Conjecture) use mathematics as an integral part of their narrative. Movie and television narratives such as Good Will Hunting and Numb3rs are also mathematically based. Nonfiction works about mathematics and mathematical biographies like Chaos, Fermat’s Enigma, and A Beautiful Mind provide further examples of the connection between mathematics and narrative. We use this course to explore this connection by reading and writing a variety of mathematical narratives.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 141 - Introduction to Statistical Reasoning Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
The purpose of this course is to develop an appreciation and understanding of the exploration and interpretation of data. Topics include exploratory data analysis, basic probability, design of studies, and inferential methods including confidence interval estimaation and hypothesis testing. Applications and examples are drawn from a wide variety of disciplines. When cross-listed with biology, examples are drawn primarily from biology. Statistical software is used. Computationally less intensive than MATH 240 . The department.
Prerequisite(s): Three years of high school mathematics.
Not open to students with AP credit in statistics or students who have completed MATH 240 , ECON 209 or PSYC 200 .
Not recommended for students who have taken a semester of calculus: those students should instead consider MATH 240 . AP Statistics, MATH 141 and MATH 240 all provide an introduction to statistics and students should not take more than one; they all can serve as a prerequisite for further statistics courses in the Mathematics and Statistics Department.
In certain semesters, one section may be cross-listed with BIOL 141 .
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 142 - Statistical Sleuthing: Personal and Public Policy Decision-Making in a World of Numbers
1 unit(s)
The world inundates us with numbers and pictures intended to persuade us towards certain beliefs about our health, public policy, or even which brand of product to buy. How can we make informed decisions in this context? The goal of this course is for us to become statistical sleuths who critically read and summarize a piece of statistical evidence. We read articles from a variety of sources, while using basic statistical principles to guide us. Course format: mixture of discussion and lecture, with regular reading and writing assignments. The department.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Three 50-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 144 - Foundations of Data Science Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as CMPU 144 ) This course focuses on students’ development and practice of computational thinking and inferential thinking. Students will learn the basics of the Python progamming language to make generalizations based on limited data while accounting for uncertaintly in the data collection processs. Students will learn to write programs, generate images to visualize data, and work with real-world datasets, culminating in a final project centered around analyzing climate change data. Jingchen (Monika) Hu, Jason Waterman. Jason Waterman
Two 75 minute periods and One 2-hr lab
Course Format: CLS
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Mathematics and Statistics: II. Intermediate Prerequisites for all intermediate courses: MATH 126 and MATH 127 , or permission of the department, unless otherwise indicated.
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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. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 126 and MATH 127 or equivalent.
Course Format: CLS
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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): MATH 126 and MATH 127 or equivalent, or permission of the department.
Course Format: CLS
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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): MATH 126 and MATH 127 , or permission of the department.
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 240 - Introduction to Statistics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The purpose of this course is to introduce the methods by which we extract information from data. Topics are similar to those in MATH 141, with more coverage of probability and more intense computational and computer work. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 126 and 127 .
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 241 - Probability 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): MATH 126 and MATH 127 , or permission of the department.
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 242 - Applied Statistical Modeling Semester Offered: Spring
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. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 126 and MATH 127 ; MATH 141 .
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 261 - Introduction to Number Theory Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Topics include: divisibility, congruence, modular arithmetic, diophantine equations, number-theoretic functions, distribution of the prime numbers. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 126 and MATH 127 , or permission of the department.
Course Format: CLS
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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): MATH 126 and MATH 127 , or permission of the department.
Course Format: CLS
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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): MATH 126 and MATH 127 , or permission of the department.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: INT
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MATH 297 - Topics in Mathematics Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
Reading Course
Prerequisite(s): MATH 221 or equivalent, and permission of the instructor.
Course Format: OTH
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MATH 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Election should be made in consultation with a department adviser.
Course Format: OTH
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Mathematics and Statistics: III. Advanced Prerequisites for all advanced courses: MATH 220 and MATH 221 , or permission of the department, unless otherwise indicated.
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MATH 301 - Topics In Advanced Mathematics and Statistics Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
The focus of the intensive is proposed by the faculty leader and based on student’s previous studies. Students take an active role in presentation and research throughout the semester in collaboration with the faculty leader. Topics may come from mathematics, statistics, and applications of mathematics. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 220 , 221 and permission of the instructor.
Open only to declared majors in mathematics.
Course Format: INT
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MATH 315 - Advanced Topics in Applied Mathematics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course introduces three main types of partial differential equations: diffusion, elliptic, and hyperbolic. We develop such equations from real-world examples and applications from physics, biology, epidemiology, and from student interests. We explore several mathematical and numerical strategies for solving these models and introduce ways to glean information from them. Students may also be exposed to a collection of non-standard mathematical modeling techniques: Cellular Automata, Pair Approximation Equations, and Agent Based Modeling. Familiarity with programming in Matlab is developed throughout the semester.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 220 , MATH 221 and MATH 228 .
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 321 - Real Analysis Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
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): For all advanced courses: MATH 220 and MATH 221 , unless otherwise indicated.
Course Format: CLS
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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): For all advanced courses: MATH 220 and MATH 221 , unless otherwise indicated.
Course Format: CLS
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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 .
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 328 - Theory of Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems Semester Offered: Spring
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.
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 331 - Topics in Geometry Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Topics vary from year to year and may include differential geometry, fractal geometry, Euclidean geometry, hyperbolic geometry, projective geometry, and algebraic geometry.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 220 and MATH 221 , unless otherwise indicated.
Course Format: CLS
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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 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 339 - Topology Semester Offered: Spring
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 .
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 341 - Statistical Inference
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 , MATH 221 and MATH 241 .
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 342 - Applied Statistical Modeling Semester Offered: Spring
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. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 220 , MATH 221 and MATH 341 .
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 347 - Bayesian Statistics Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
An introduction to Bayesian statistics. Topics include Bayes Theorem, common prior and posterior distributions, hierarchical models, Bayesian linear regression, latent variable models, and Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. The course uses R extensively for simulations. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 220 , MATH 221 and MATH 241 .
Course Format: CLS
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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 .
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 361 - Modern Algebra Semester Offered: Fall and 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): for all advanced courses: MATH 220 and MATH 221 , unless otherwise indicated.
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 364 - Advanced Linear Algebra Semester Offered: Fall
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): for all advanced courses: MATH 220 and MATH 221 , unless otherwise indicated.
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 367 - Advanced Topics in Modern Algebra Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Continuation of MATH 361 . Rings and fields, with a particular emphasis on Galois theory. The department.
Prerequisite(s): MATH 361 .
Course Format: CLS
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MATH 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Election requires the approval of a departmental adviser and of the instructor who supervises the work.
Course Format: OTH
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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. Justin Patch, Thomas Porcello (a); Paulina Bren (b).
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 184 - Star Wars: Resistance, Rebellion, and Death Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
According to Fred Botting, author of Gothic, “Postmodernism, emerging as a global aesthetic style at the end of the 1970s and associated with the wider transformations of modernity, seemed particularly hospitable to the resuscitation of gothic forms and figures.” The theatrical release of Star Wars in 1977 marked one such occasion. The film’s revolutionary blend of science fiction and fantasy is built upon a foundation of gothic tropes and devices from the dysfunctional families and Mephistophelean tempters of the 18th century to the Inquisition prisons and revolutionary anxieties of the 19th century. How might our contemporary understanding of the Star Wars canon develop if we view it through this critical lens that highlights psychological violence, transgression, and excess as a way of unbalancing the hierarchies of good and evil, free will and predestination, tyranny and liberty?
Together we examine the gothic elements of Star Wars across representational media (including films, storyboards, comics, propaganda posters, short stories, and toys) in order to better understand the ways in which Star Wars engages with the experience of (neo)Imperialism. The Skywalker saga projects a particularly gothic sense of loss and dislocation (of history, culture, identity, and autonomy) by displaying the terrors and traumas of colonization: subjugation, banishment, enforced assimilation, slavery, and genocide. As a paragon of political resistance to the patterns of retributive violence, Star Wars invites us to consider gothic fiction as a crucible for self-knowledge and deliberate action. Matthew Schultz.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
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Media Studies: II. Intermediate |
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MEDS 214 - Process, Prose, Pedagogy Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENGL 214 ) An exploration of the intersections among language, form, genre, and medium, this course aims to deepen your appreciation for and understanding of multimodal authorship. To do so, we focus our critical gaze upon one of the more experimental periods of textual production: literary modernism. Together, we consider selections of poetry, short fiction, the novel, woodcut narratives, autobiography, letters, manifestos, essays, and film produced by a diverse range of authors such as Mina Loy and Djuna Barnes, Mu Shiying and Mikhail Bulgakov, Max Ernst and Zora Neale Hurston––as well as more canonical figures like James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Samuel Beckett. Our discussions center on the ways in which writing emerges from its immediate historical contexts, and also how genre and medium look beyond their present moment, revising models inherited from the past and anticipating future forms of expression. Ultimately, this course helps us to better analyze and construct arguments about distinct types of texts through the sustained practice of close critical reading and recursive writing, and to sharpen our ability to facilitate dialogue about complex ideas and various modes of communication. Matthew Schultz.
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 217 - Studies in Popular Music Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 217 and MUSI 217 ) Justin Patch.
Recommended: one unit in either Music, Sociology, or Anthropology.
Two 75-minute periods.
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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. Wenwei Du.
Prerequisite(s): One course in language, literature, culture, film, drama, or Asian Studies, or permission of the instructor.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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MEDS 220 - Medieval and Renaissance Culture Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as MRST 220 ) Topic for 2019/20b: Detectives in the Archive: Reading Medieval and Renaissance Texts. Study of manuscripts of various types, from late antiquity to the early modern period. The course includes guest lectures by Vassar faculty and other experts, a field trip, and direct work with manuscripts from Vassar’s collection. The course serves as a de facto survey of medieval and renaissance culture. Marc Epstein and Ronald Patkus.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 241 - Topics in the Construction of Gender Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 241 ) Topic for 2019/20: 241b. Masculinities///Femininities through the Lens of DisneyTM
The Disney industry has had a global impact on the circulation of masculinities and femininities in the post-war Fordist and then post-Fordist late capitalist eras. Generating a proliferation of ideas of gender that contradict and embolden one another, Disney films provide an ideal case study for examining the centrality of gender and sexuality to imperialism and the imbrication of identity and power. While remaining mostly staunchly heteronormative despite other media industries becoming more inclusive of queer relationships, DisneyTM can be read “queerly,” as this course will explore. We will be examining not only the films themselves, but also at the historical moments in which they were created, and the corporations that shaped them. The
goal of the course is to give you ways to approach texts that ask not to be seen critically and also to learn how to mine normative texts for their queer and anti-racist potential. We look at the Disney Corporation’s efforts to portray itself as innocuous and “timeless,” and then use that information to think about the aspects of Disney’s films that have implications for our understanding of the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, class, disability, nation, and imperialism. Elias Krell
Prerequisite(s): Course is by permission of instructor and requires a short application.
2 75 Minute periods
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 250 - Exploratory Media Practices Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course instructs students in a varied set of practical media skills in order to interrogate and possibly transform the uses to which they are habitually put. It grounds a creative reflection on the relation between theory and practice through the critical use of production technologies. Each semester is devoted to a topic or a question to be explored through three distinct kinds of media “making.” These techniques include graphic design, literary journalism, sound recording, book production, the digital still image and its sequencing, the moving image and post-production techniques, computer graphics and physical computing, user interface design. Students will compose a formally sophisticated, rhetorically inventive “essay” in three medium specific idioms. They also are asked to determine how the three exercises go together, how they work as interlocking parts of a transmedia narrative or ensemble.
Topic for 2019/20a: Investigating critical media practice in the production of multi-media artifacts including sound, moving images, and interactive maps. Course work is organized around the concept of “mapping” as a metaphor for many kinds of media production. The course also addresses themes of appropriation and remediation, the archive, popular memory; inclusion and exclusion. Alexander Kupfer.
Prerequisite(s): MEDS 160 or permission of the instructor.
Two 2-hour periods.
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 254 - Emotional Engagement with Film Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as FILM 254 and PSYC 254 ) While movies engage our emotions in psychologically significant ways, scholarship on the psychological allure and impact of film has existed primarily at the interdisciplinary margins. This course aims to bring such scholarship into the foreground. We begin with a careful examination of the appeal and power of narrative, as well as processes of identification and imagined intimacy with characters, before taking a closer analytical look at specific film genres (e.g., melodrama, horror, comedy, action, social commentary) both in their own right and in terms of their psychological significance (e.g., why do we enjoy sad movies? How do violent movies influence viewer aggression? How might socially conscious films inspire activism or altruism?) In addition to delving into theoretical and empirical papers, a secondary goal of the course is to engage students as collaborators; brainstorm and propose innovative experimental methods for testing research questions and hypotheses that emerge in step with course materials. Dara Greenwood and Sarah Kozloff.
Prerequisite(s): For Psychology majors - PSYC 105 ; for Film majors - FILM 175 or FILM 209 ; for Media Studies majors - MEDS 160 .
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 256 - American Television History Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as FILM 256 ) This course surveys the history of television in the United States from the 1940s to the present. It examines the social and industrial significance of television and its impact on issues such as class, race, gender, consumerism, and national identity. We investigate changes in televisual aesthetics and narrative paradigms and the ways that television responded to significant cultural, political and technological changes in American society. Throughout the semester we draw upon a range of critical frameworks including media industry studies, genre theory, and celebrity studies as we address topics such as the attempts to develop alternate models of broadcasting, networks’ efforts to bolster television’s cultural status, media convergence, and the formal characteristics of different television genres. Screenings include I Love Lucy, The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Orange is the New Black. Alex Kupfer.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 for students registering for FILM 256. MEDS 160 for students registering for MEDS 256.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 258 - Studies in Sound
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 258 ) This course familiarizes students with the emerging field of sound studies. We spend the first eight weeks exploring the different facets of sound culture: histories and ethnographies of listening; theories of sound capture and reproduction; the political economy of recording media (particularly the MP3); the experience of the modern American soundscape. We conclude with case studies of contemporary sonic experiences: “glitch”-based digital music and the aesthetics of failure; new developments in sonic weaponry; art and activism that “listens” to drones and the US-Mexico border. Hua Hsu.
Prerequisite(s): 100-level course work within the multidisciplinary programs, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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MEDS 260 - Media Theory Semester Offered: Fall
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. Giovanna Borradori.
Prerequisite(s): MEDS 160 or permission of the instructor.
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 263 - Anthropology Goes to the Movies: Film, Video, and Ethnography
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. Colleen 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.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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MEDS 264 - The Metropolitan Avant-Gardes
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 264 and URBS 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. Molly Nesbit.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 or ART 106 , or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods and one weekly film screening.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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MEDS 265 - Modern Art and the Mass Media: the New Public Sphere
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 265 and URBS 265 ) When the public sphere was reset during the twentieth century by a new order of mass media, the place of art and artists in the new order needed to be claimed. The course studies the negotiations between modern art and the mass media (advertising, cinema, TV), in theory and in practice, during the years between the Great Depression and the liberation movements of the late 1960s–the foundation stones of our own contemporary culture. Neither the theory nor the practice has become obsolete. Molly Nesbit.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 or ART 106 .
Two 75-minute periods and one weekly film screening.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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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. Colleen Cohen.
Two 75-minute periods, plus one 3-hour preview laboratory.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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MEDS 268 - After 1968: the Activation of Art
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 268 and URBS 268 ) This course studies the emancipation of the visual arts after 1968, here and abroad, together with the political and philosophical discussions that guided them. Theory and practice would form new combinations. The traditional fine arts as well as the new media, performance, film, architecture and installation art are treated as part of the wider global evolution creating new theaters of action, critique, community and hope. Molly Nesbit.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 -ART 106 .
Two 75-minute periods and one weekly screening.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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MEDS 271 - Hello, Dear Enemy: Mounting an Exhibition of Picture Books on Experiences of War and Displacement Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 271 LALS 271 INTL 271 WMST 271 ) At a time when the world is witnessing the largest displacement of people since WWII, due in significant measure to armed conflict, this course examines select case studies (both past and present) of armed conflict and their consequences for children. Journalists, photographers and writers of young adult literature have done much to raise awareness about children and armed conflict, and to treat them in such a way that audiences develop understanding, empathy, and solidarity with children affected by armed conflict. A principal aim of the course is to study the topics of war and displacement, journalism and photography, and young adult literature, and then to mount an exhibition in the Collaboratory of photographs and books that will travel to area schools and libraries, where Vassar students serve as docents. Our work is enriched by study of human rights statutes and policy pertaining to children affected by armed conflict, as well as by interaction with visiting artists and educators. Tracey Holland. Tracey Holland
2 75 Minute periods
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 283 - Fandom and Sports Media Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as FILM 283 ) This course examines the historical and cultural development of sports media in the United States. It explores the definitions of sports media as a generic and industrial label and the transformation of audiences into fan communities. Throughout the semester, we examine how producers, leagues, and fans have used media to engage with cultural, political and technological changes in American society. We also consider more recent forms of cultural production and participation that engage the varied social practices associated with fandom. Special attention is paid to the connections between media consumption and performances of identity and community. The course places sports media in a broader industrial context that will include forms such as sponsored, experimental, amateur, and documentary films and television series. Screenings include Moneyball, Senna, Jim Thorpe All-American, Hoop Dreams, Raging Bull, The Jackie Robinson Story, and O.J.: Made in America. Since this course focuses on the relationship between media and fandom, students do not need to have any knowledge of sports to enroll. This course is not open to first-year students. Alexander Kupfer.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 or MEDS 160 .
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 289 - Homer’s Odyssey: From Oral Composition to Digital Editions Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as GRST 289 ) In this course we consider the long history of Homer’s epic poem from its beginning as an oral composition in Archaic Greece to its current manifestations in digital editions. Along the way we look at papyrii, medieval manuscripts, early print editions, examples of fine printing and contemporary versions. As we consider the history of the poem we also study the poem itself and explore the ways that its meaning has also been transformed through time. Among the issues we consider are orality and oral cultures, the advent of writing, the development of the text and the influence of technology. We examine materials in Greek, Latin, and English though no knowledge of the ancient languages is required. The Archives and Special Collections Library, with its rich collection of primary sources, will serve as our laboratory. Rachel Friedman and Ronald Patkus.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Permission of the director required.
Course Format: INT
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MEDS 298 - Independent Study Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Permission of the director required.
Course Format: OTH
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Media Studies: III. Advanced |
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MEDS 300 - Senior Project Preparation Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 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. The program faculty.
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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
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.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 303 - Senior Project Preparation Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
The Senior Project is a full length Thesis or a (Multi) Media Project. During the Fall semester, students write a Project Proposal and Bibliography, and complete a Chapter or a comprehensive Project Statement. In the Spring, students finalize the Senior Project under the supervision of Project Advisor. All students present their Projects in a Public Symposium at the end of the semester. The Projects become part of a permanent Media Studies Archive. The Department.
Yearlong course 303-MEDS 304 .
Course Format: INT
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MEDS 304 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
The Senior Project is a full length Thesis or a (Multi) Media Project. During the Fall semester, students write a Project Proposal and Bibliography, and complete a Chapter or a comprehensive Project Statement. In the Spring, students finalize the Senior Project under the supervision of Project Advisor. All students present their Projects in a Public Symposium at the end of the semester. The Projects become part of a permanent Media Studies Archive. The Department.
Yearlong course MEDS 303 -304.
Course Format: INT
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MEDS 310 - Senior Seminar Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special topics course for all senior Media Studies majors, providing a capstone experience for the cohort. This course is taught in the fall semester each year.
The capstone seminar for Media Studies aims to consolidate our majors’ core coursework in theory and praxis with an eye to giving them useful tools for the critical making of their senior projects. Taking the human hand as our guiding metonymic thread, we read a wide array of ancient and modern texts that interrogate the relationship between thinking and grasping, drafting and dwelling, making (poiesis) and touching (aesthesis), manual and intellectual labor, authenticity (the handmade) and reproducibility (the ready-to-hand), the human and the inhuman, the material and the virtual. We devote particular attention to the reemergence of the hand in our contemporary moment: the era of screen capitalism. The rise of artisanal foods and spirits, the popularity of bespoke design in the creative economy, the use of critical design in oppositional media interventions, the expanding adoption of design thinking in universities and corporations: these assorted trends seem to point to a renewed focus on making in our culture. What do these dexterous ventures have to tell us about our media ecology? about our relationship to the recycled stories, images, and objects we live with? about our “reality hunger” and dreams of transformation? Class assignments incorporate design methods that accentuate process: immersive listening, collaboration, prototyping, failing, testing, and more. The pedagogical goal of the seminar is not to provide students arts-and-crafts skills, but to activate their preferred creative-critical medium of expression - for example, writing - in an expanded field of possibilities, one that is mindful of our embodiment, our being-with-others, and our irreducible desire for something new. Giovanna Borradori.
Prerequisite(s): MEDS 250 or MEDS 260 .
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 340 - Seminar in Continental Philosophy Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as PHIL 340 ) Topic for 2019/20b: Frames of the Invisible. Politics of Photography. The transformation of textual into visual culture and the retooling of the cellular phone as a camera have given photography a new political role. From the self-immolation of a street vendor in Tunisia that unleashed the Arab Spring to the images of police brutality in the United States, photographs have mobilized grass root movements of political resistance against atrocity and oppression. The thesis of this seminar is that our visual culture is governed by a “regime of visibility” that regulates the background of what is represented. The snapshots and the photographs taken by ordinary people possess the unique power of eluding this “staging apparatus.” We discuss these images as performative statements of moral outrage and appreciate how they expose both patterns of dispossession and the uneven distribution of human suffering across world populations. This enables us to question whether the ethics of photography, and especially of photographs of human rights abuses, should not be directed at what is shown within the photographic frame but rather at the active and unmarked delimitation that lies beyond it, which limits what we see and what we are able, and unable, to recognize. Texts by Walter Benjamin, Merleau-Ponty, Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes, Vilem Flusser, Giorgio Agamben, Judith Butler, Julia Kristeva, Edward Said, and Jacques Derrida, and images by Sebastiao Salgado, Gilles Peres, and Sophie Ristelbueber. Giovanna Borradori.
One 3-hour period.
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MEDS 350 - Studies in 18th Century British Literature Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENGL 350 ) Topic for 2019/20b: Origins of the Periodical Essay. Although periodical publications got started in Europe shortly after the invention of printing, there was in England such a vast increase in their numbers and importance during the British Civil Wars (1642-60) that it’s reasonable to think of that period as giving rise to periodical writing in its modern form. In the later seventeenth century periodical publications became important vehicles for a new kind of writing aptly called the periodical essay. Among the most important eighteenth-century practitioners of this form were John Dunton, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Eliza Haywood, Samuel Johnson, and Oliver Goldsmith. This course will examine the periodical writing of these authors in the context of the newspapers and journals for which they wrote: The Athenian Oracle; The Review; The Tatler; The Spectator; The Female Spectator; The Gentleman’s Magazine; The Rambler; and The Bee, among other. There will be several meetings of the class in Special Collections, and students will be expected to write on an early journal or periodical writer, making use of the original publications. Robert DeMaria
One 2-hr meeting
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 351 - Language and Expressive Culture Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ANTH 351 ) This seminar provides the advanced student with an intensive investigation of theoretical and practical problems in specific areas of research that relate language and linguistics to expressive activity. Although emphasizing linguistic modes of analysis and argumentation, the course is situated at the intersection of important intellectual crosscurrents in the arts, humanities, and social sciences that focus on how culture is produced and projected through not only verbal, but also musical, material, kinaesthetic, and dramatic arts. Each topic culminates in independent research projects.
May be repeated for credit if the topic has changed. Thomas Porcello
Topic for 2019/20b: Sound. Same as Anth 351b. This seminar centers on the examination of acoustic, perceptual, and cultural dimensions of aural phenomena. Linguistics is one focal area of the course, in which we pursue both qualitative and quantitative analyses of paralinguistic and prosodic features (pitch, intonation, rhythm, timbre, formants), acoustic phonetics, and especially issues of sound symbolism (onomatopoeia, iconicity, metaphor, and synaesthesia). Additional topics of discussion include relationships between sound structure and social structure as investigated by anthropologists and ethnomusicologists, the cultural history of sound (as encoded in regulatory practices such as public noise ordinances, as well as in architectural and technological designs), and the emergent field of “sound studies.”
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 150 or ANTH 250 or permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 352 - The City in Fragments Semester Offered: Spring
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. Lisa Brawley, Heesok Chang.
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MEDS 356 - Culture, Commerce, and the Public Sphere
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. William Hoynes.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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MEDS 364 - Seminar in Twentieth Century and Contemporary Art
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 364 ) The World Picture: The Shape of Change. It has been a while since the world appeared as it did to Heidegger—as a picture. What shape, then, does the world take? Or, is it better to turn George Kubler’s “Shape of Time” sideways and ask about the shape of change? The seminar studies the global condition of present day culture. That there continues to be no consensus on its definition enables us to explore the active critical problems as steps in a larger trajectory inherited from the utopian experiments of the 1970s and the use they made of materialism. These questions are examined through the work of various contemporary artists. Molly Nesbit.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 374 - Ideas, Sound, and Story: Podcast Production Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 374 ) This is a course on narrative audio production that focuses on the study and production of various nonfictional genres in the American podcasting landscape, including audio documentaries, investigative reporting, confessionals, art pieces, storytelling for academic purposes, and others. Students learn the craft of audio production from getting tape, tape-logging, writing for audio, story and tape-editing, and sound-tracking. Students complete various technical assignments, and submit a final 10-minute piece, with regular progress graded throughout. In order to model the highly competitive nature of the podcasting production space today, students must be highly-motivated, highly-organized, and grading is very rigorous, with the highest of standards and strict deadlines. Barry Lam.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 1-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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MEDS 376 - Computer Games: Design, Production and Critique
1 unit(s)
(Same as CMPU 376 ) Investigates all stages of the game development process, including conception, design, physical and digital prototyping, implementation and play-testing, among others. The course emphasizes the integration of formal, dramatic and dynamic game elements to create a specific player experience. The course also examines various criteria and approaches to game critique, including issues of engagement, embodiment, flow, and meaningful play. Course work includes a series of game development projects carried out in groups, along with analysis of published games and readings in critical game-studies literature. No previous experience in media production or computer programming is necessary. Thomas Ellman.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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MEDS 379 - Computer Animation: Art, Science and Criticism
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 379 , CMPU 379 , and 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. Thomas Ellman, Harry Roseman.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Two 2-hour periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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