Catalogue 2020-2021 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
College Courses
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The college course program was established to ensure that students can have direct exposure in their years at Vassar to some important expressions of the human spirit in a context that is both multidisciplinary and integrative. The aim of a college course is to study important cultures, themes, or human activities in a manner that gives the student experience in interpreting evidence from the standpoint of different fields. The courses relate this material and these interpretations to other material and interpretations from other fields in order to unite the results of this study into a coherent overall framework. The interpretations are expected to be both appreciative and critical and the artifacts will come from different times, places, and cultures.
College Course: I. Introductory
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CLCS 100 - The Theater of Chekhov and Stanislavski: Higher, Lighter, Simpler, More Joyful
1 unit(s)
This course is designed to explore the major works of late nineteenth-century playwright Anton Chekhov. Through careful reading, discussion, writing, and occasional performance of these works students will discover the ways in which this Russian dramatist has come to shape what’s thought of as modern drama. By looking at each play act by act, Seagull, Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, and The Cherry Orchard the class will explore the links they share to one another as well as to theatrical tradition at large. The work of Constantine Stanislavski, first to stage these works (as well as the artist to develop the process of “method” acting, and to define the role of the modern stage director), will be used to better understand these plays and their performance. Though this course will be of particular interest to students of theater, non-theater students are encouraged to enroll. Christopher Grabowski.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2018/19.
Course Format: CLS -
CLCS 101 - Civilization in Question
1 unit(s)
(Same as GRST 101 and MRST 101 ) In the past, college curricula in this country were often organized around the idea of the “Great Books” of “Western Civilization.” Today though, the very idea of a Western literary canon has been challenged as a vehicle for reinforcing questionable norms and hierarchies and silencing other important perspectives. In this class we read well-known ancient, medieval and Renaissance texts with a view to how they themselves question the civilizations from which they emerge. A unique feature of this class is that it is taught by faculty from three different disciplines who bring a variety of interpretive practices to bear on the texts. This creates a classroom environment in which dialogue is the means to discovery. Students are encouraged to be part of the conversation both during class and in weekly discussion sections. Readings may include such authors as Homer, Aeschylus, Plato, Augustine, Chretien de Troyes, and Machiavelli. Nancy Bisaha, Rachel Friedman, and Christopher Raymond.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
CLCS 103 - How We Got Here Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 103 ) This course is a dynamic introduction to the ways in which texts, traditions, concepts, and institutions throughout history have brought us to the moment in which we currently exist, and how they prepare us to meet the challenges of the future. No matter how “modern” an issue may seem—be it race, money, gender, violence—the roots or echoes of a deeper past are always there in ways that bear examining. By starting with the distant past and bringing our questions forward in time, we can find a space to explore and discuss tough issues that often polarize people today. Sources may include selections from the Bible, medieval epic, and the arts. This course has several Vassar faculty guest speakers who work on these issues in the modern period, and it also features practitioners in various fields beyond academia who discuss how their undergraduate studies in the humanities and social sciences shaped their lives. Students all have the chance to attend a dinner with one of the speakers outside of class. Nancy Bisaha and Marc Epstein.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
CLCS 107 - The Liberal Arts in Question Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
We plan to curate conversations of different kinds and in various locations (e.g., Baccios, The Retreat, Waryas Park, Rose Parlor, Adriance Library). In these conversations, we place the idea and experience of the liberal arts ‘in question’ from many substantive perspectives, including our disciplinary locations, which we will also place ‘in question’. The movement into and from different material or built spaces on the residential campus parallels the movement into and from different disciplinary contexts – the shape of a student’s education at the college. Their exposures are, at the end of every day, not housed in one place or in one department, but in a multifaceted, residential educational environment that calls upon them as full persons. This is a college course ‘intensive’ therefore in its constitutive sense and one that allows us to ask and explore questions with students about the college and why and how we shape the spaces and contexts of their intellectual engagements every day the ways that we do. Our interface and extension with the summer immersion students, who have already expressed an interest in community involvement, is a way of going deeper, with more time, and with their whole experience (intellectual and embodied) as they begin their broader educational exposure and journeys at the college.
Our culminating exercise involves boldly placing ‘assessment in question’ through reflective and performative engagement with both conventional and less conventional modes of evaluation (e.g., portfolios, exams, etc.). Andrew Bush, Sophia Harvey, Candice Lowe Swift, Himadeep Muppidi.
Course Format: INT -
CLCS 110 - Interactions among Public Health, Political Instability and Environmental Degradation Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
(Same as STS 110 ) For the first six weeks, we meet once per week to discuss readings and to hear from faculty providing different perspectives on these issues, using Haiti as a model. During this period, students plan for independent projects to be undertaken during the second six weeks of this intensive experience. Projects may be literature-based or may be project-based and focus on a region of the world or even more locally. Towards the end of the semester, possibly to coincide with the Vassar Haiti Project’s annual Art and Soul Fundraiser, students present their projects. Kathleen Susman.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: INT -
CLCS 120 - The Vassar Campus Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as ART 120 ) A multidisciplinary exploration of the Vassar College campus. This intensive course is conducted as a succession of local field trips to sites across the college, and walks around campus. With this direct experience of landscape, buildings, and collections, from works of art to natural history specimens, we consider the history of Vassar’s campus, as well as our lived experience of campus spaces. We also approach our own campus in broader contexts, exploring the notion of campus in American culture, the campus as physical space and as idea, and the role of place in higher education. Individual projects allow participants to explore a campus space of their choice in various modes. Students from all majors are encouraged to apply. Yvonne Elet.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
First six-week course.
Course Format: INT -
CLCS 121 - Anti-Racist Equity and Justice: Learning and Activism Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This Intensive course offers a space for concentrated reflection on racism, white supremacy and the demands of contemporary antiracist movements, such as defunding the police and reparations. This is a small and unique forum in which we can engage with guest speakers from campus and our broader communities who have expertise in anti-racist facilitation. By centering and learning from those already doing abolitionist work, we can learn best practices for dialoguing with others about racism, reflecting honestly on privilege and intersectionality, and becoming accomplices rather than mere allies, all the while recognizing the long history of antiracist work that precedes us. Through check-ins and guided experiential activities, we build inclusive community with our peers; and through consultations with practitioners of radical, liberatory social justice technologies, we explore vulnerability and self-love as foundations for anti-racist work. The explorations of our social, assigned identities and the networks of power and privilege in which they operate are enhanced by book discussions, journaling, and facilitated circle sharing. The final project provides an opportunity for both storytelling and community engaged collaborations. Eva Woods.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: INT -
CLCS 150 - Revolution, Evolution, and the Global Nineteenth Century Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 150 and VICT 150 ) The world as we know it largely came into being during the nineteenth century. Marked by social, political, cultural, and technological transformations, the nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of modernity out of the instabilities of change. Railways crisscrossed continents; European empires expanded; agricultural laborers flocked into mushrooming urban centers; and the enslaved, the colonized, and the disenfranchised around the world fought for liberty and citizenship. In this course, we consider these and other nineteenth-century transformations in a global context by focusing on the interconnections between North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Our investigations are organized around five core areas: revolutions, emancipations, evolution and progress, popular culture, and the domestic sphere. Students analyze a variety of sources, including novels, plays, short stories, photographs, early films, paintings, periodicals and pamphlets, government documents, letters, music, and scientific works. The course is team taught with occasional guest lectures. Rebecca Edwards and Susan Zlotnick.
Three 50-minute periods.
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CLCS 151 - Introduction to Contemplative Studies Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course provides an introduction to how people deepen and broaden their attention and awareness, and why it matters for individuals and societies. Cultures and disciplines have long traditions for promoting concentration and reflection, and students will explore and appraise such practices and perspectives. In addition to working with scholarly “third person perspective” sources on contemplative process, students engage in a variety of contemplative practices (which provide “first person perspective”, and occasionally “second person perspective”). Topics may include critical contemplative pedagogy; embodied experience; non-violent communication; deep listening; cultivating attention and intention; storytelling; emotion and motivation; language and thought; contemplative movement; contemplative arts; social activism; constructing contemplative places; visualizations; imagination; improvisation; interdependence; contemplative leadership; personal and institutional transformation; and taking a critical decolonizing approach to contemplative studies itself. Readings include extensive scholarly and practice-based sources. Assignments include journaling, observing, interviewing, and critiquing sources and experiences. Carolyn Palmer.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
CLCS 160 - Issues in Feminism Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2020/21b: Bodies and Texts. (Same as WMST 160 ) This course is an introduction to issues in feminism with a focus on the female body and its representations. We read and write about a variety of texts, consider historical objects as well literary documents, and analyze visual materials from art, fashion, advertising, and film from the nineteenth century to the present. Particular focus is given to women’s bodies in visual, material, and literary culture. We make use of Vassar resources such as the Rare Book Collection, the Costume Shop and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. Kristin Carter.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
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CLCS 175 - Creating Communities that Care Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
This intensive focuses on aspects of community health and well-being that are challenged by recent events, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the responses to police violence and racial injustices, and the political and economic strife in our nation, and how we can build, shape, and motivate communities to develop practices that infuse a commitment to caring about each other. Students interested in this intensive may find a faculty sponsor and may engage in readings, videos, and webinars to develop knowledge, skills and practices to foster supportive and nurturing ways of engaging each other both on and off campus. This highly flexible intensive opportunity enables students to interpret community caring from multiple perspectives. This intensive could be conducted in-person or remotely.
Both first and second six-week course.
Course Format: INT -
CLCS 183 - Vassar For Veterans Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
This course is designed to help Posse veterans acclimate to Vassar and introduce them to the array of campus resources available to them. It gives Vassar veterans the opportunity to explore the issues and challenges they face as non-traditional students at a residential liberal arts college, and it identifies strategies for making the transition to college and succeeding within Vassar’s rigorous academic environment. Taught by the Posse Faculty Mentor.
Open to first-year Posse veterans.
One 2-hour group meeting and one 1-hour individual meeting per week.
Course Format: CLS -
CLCS 298 - Independent Study Across the Disciplines Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
This course, for either 0.5 or 1.0 unit, enables faculty to work with students on projects and independent study that cross disciplines and work that is not particular to a given department or program. This course is open to all faculty and students who wish to conduct this kind of academic, intellectual work for academic credit. Jonathon Kahn.
Individual conferences with the instructor.
Course Format: INT
College Course: II. Intermediate
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CLCS 256 - Building Inclusive Communities Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 256 ) As Vassar College continues to work toward establishing a community characterized by a strong sense of inclusion and belonging, and one that can sustain challenging dialogues, we seek to support this college-wide goal. This course explores four critical themes related to developing and sustaining inclusive communities: personal growth and well-being; intimacy; social identity & power; and effective communication & conflict resolution. Skills and knowledge in these areas can be immediately applied to nurturing more supportive, resilient, and effective student living situations, clubs, teams, classes, and the college-wide community. They are also very important to success and well-being beyond college life – in family and personal relationships, work situations, civic engagement and volunteer situations, activist groups, etc.
Enrolled students should be prepared to step outside their “comfort zones.” They should have an interest in actively engaging in class discussions and experiential exercises, they should have an interest in learning techniques, gaining tools and increasing skills to effectively communicate across differences (differences in living styles and habits, differences in social identity, and differences in personal identity), they should be prepared to explore how vulnerability can benefit them and their relationships, and to explore the relationship between their own personal growth and well-being and the well-being of the communities they are a part of. Candice Lowe Swift.
First six-week course.
One 3-hour period.
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CLCS 260 - Fundamentals of Grantwriting Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
Writing effective grant applications is a valuable skill in many fields, including the scholarly world, the arts, the non-profit sector, community organizing, and government. In this course students gain familiarity with tools for grants research. They study model grant applications and track current trends in government and philanthropic funding, through readings and through discussions with local leaders. Each student partners with a local agency to define needs, research funding sources, and draft and revise a grant proposal on the agency’s behalf. Rebecca Edwards.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT -
CLCS 281 - Legal Challenges: Local Interventions in the Criminal-Legal System Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
In 2020, police killings of unarmed civilians (re)ignited a nationwide protest movement calling for a radical overhaul of the American criminal-legal system. This community-engaged intensive explores the efforts of local activist groups to document problems or effect changes in the criminal-legal system in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, and New York State. As a community of co-learners, we consider a number of different questions: What changes are local activists calling for? What role can Vassar students play? How does the involvement of Vassar students in these efforts intersect with town-gown relations? Along with readings on police accountability, mass incarceration, and systemic racism, participants also have a chance to speak to and learn from outside activists about their goals and strategies related to police reform, bail reform, court watching, Dutchess county jail expansion, conditions in local state prisons, the school-to-prison pipeline, alternatives to incarceration, and efforts to obtain justice for local victims of police violence. In addition to classroom discussions and self-directed readings related to one of these issues, students also intern with End the New Jim Crow Action Network (ENJAN), a Poughkeepsie-based advocacy organization, in conjunction with other local and state-wide organizations, such as Celebrating the African Spirit, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Vera Institute, Vocal-NY, and New York LGBTQ centers, among others. Meetings take place twice weekly, moving to once weekly as students begin to participate in meetings with various advocacy organizations and/or attend government meetings, such as the Poughkeepsie Common Council, the Dutchess County Legislature, and the Dutchess County Criminal Justice Council. Katherine Hite and Jeffrey Schneider.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor.
Course Format: INT -
CLCS 284 - Reclaiming the Sacred Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
In this highly experiential 6-week course we start by surveying the central findings of positive psychology to understand the core factors related to human well-being. Based on that, students design “personal journeys” of activities they want to engage in outside of class to nurture greater joy and purpose in their lives. Drawing on the work of many people, including Robert Holden, Audre Lorde, Kristin Neff, Sobonfu Somé, Tara Brach, bell hooks, Joanna Macy, Brené Brown, Thich Nhat Hanh, and more, each week there are in-class activities and outside-of-class assignments that contribute to greater happiness and/or meaning, including weekly meditations and gratitude circles. Key themes are gratitude and presence, self-compassion and vulnerability, and healthy relationships with emotions and adversity. We also explore our relationships with money and the psychological and cultural reasons money and consumption play such important roles in many of our lives despite their limited and frequently contradictory relationship with happiness. Candice Lowe Swif.
Second six-week course.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
CLCS 290 - Community-Engaged Learning
0.5 or 1 unit(s)
Course Format: INT
College Course: III. Advanced
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CLCS 301 - History, Memory, and Legacies of the Holocaust
1 unit(s)
After WWII the Holocaust emerged as a universal evil that holds lessons beyond the boundaries of Western civilization. While scholars have been relying on different theoretical models to understand the Holocaust, reflection on this unprecedented genocide itself has shifted theoretical discussion in many disciplines. This course looks at the legacies of the Holocaust from a variety of different disciplines by discussing texts, films, and memorials with German students at the University of Potsdam. The exchange takes place at two different levels in the course of the semester: together with their German partners, students discuss readings and work on research projects in the MOO, our online learning environment at Vassar; and in a second phase, Vassar students travel to Berlin and German students to New York to complete on-site research for their projects. Maria Höhn, Silke von der Emde, Debra Zeifman.
By special permission.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2018/19.
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CLCS 302 - Adaptations
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENGL 302 and MEDS 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.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2020/21.
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