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Catalogue 2021-2022 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Descriptions
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Science, Technology and Society: I. Introductory |
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STS 110 - Interactions among Public Health, Political Instability and Environmental Degradation Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
(Same as CLCS 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
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STS 111 - Science and Justice in the Anthropocene
1 unit(s)
(Same as ESCI 111 and GEOG 111 ) Geoscientists have proposed a new designation in the geologic time scale for our current time period, “the Anthropocene.” The designation reflects the fact that human beings are acting as geological agents, transforming the Earth on a global scale. In this first-year seminar course we explore the possibilities of reconfiguring the actions of humans in the Anthropocene so as to lead to a flowering of a new Era once called ‘the Ecozoic’ by cultural historian Thomas Berry. Jill Schneiderman.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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STS 131 - Genetic Engineering: Basic Principles and Ethical Questions Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course includes a consideration of: 1) basic biological knowledge about the nature of the gene, the genetic code, and the way in which the genetic code is translated into the phenotype of the organism; 2) how this basic, scientific knowledge has led to the development of a new technology known as “genetic engineering”; 3) principles and application of the technology itself; 4) the ethical, legal, and economic issues which have been raised by the advent of this technology. Among the issues discussed are ethical questions such as the nature of life itself, the right of scientists to pursue research at will, and the role of the academy to regulate the individual scientific enterprise. Jennifer Kennell.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 137 - Unpacking Climate Change (Un)Certainty Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The dissonance between the scientific and public understandings of uncertainty can manifest in many ways, but becomes most obvious during scientific controversies. As of late there seems to be a rash of scientific controversies dominating public discourse on all sides of the political landscape. We are seeing an Orwellian emergence of a “post-fact” politics that has normalized the denial of scientific evidence. Whether someone rejects the incontrovertible evidence for anthropogenic climate change or dismisses the numerous studies showing no causal links between childhood vaccinations and autism, it seems that consensus driven scientific evidence and authority are being regularly dismissed on the public stage. In this Grand Challenge course, we use the controversy surrounding the science of climate change as a way of examining the various ways people engage with uncertainty and the impact this has on the erosion of scientific authority. Although this course is firmly rooted in STS frameworks examining the social, political, and economic dimensions of science, it also involves some light quantitative analysis. Although students do not learn statistical methods, they are introduced to concepts like bell curves, standard deviation, and p-hacking. The goal is for students to become more literate and reflexive in how they engage scientific controversies like climate change. As with all scientific controversies, answers are never clear cut. Yet, the messiness isn’t always grounded in the science itself. By examining the social dimensions of this controversy students begin to identify and navigate other rhetorical forces at play. Jose Perillan.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 146 - The Culture and Chemistry of Cuisine Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as CHEM 146 ) A basic biological need of all organisms is the ability to acquire nutrients from the environment; humans accomplish this in many creative ways. Food is an important factor in societies that influences population growth, culture, migration, and conflict. Humans discovered the science and art of food preparation, topics that are explored in this course, not in a single step but rather as an evolving process that continues to this day. This course develops the basic chemistry, biochemistry and microbiology of food preparation; explores the biochemical basis of certain nutritional practices; covers social and political aspects of foods throughout world history. It covers controversies like genetically modified organisms, the production of high-fructose corn syrup, and the historic role of food commodities such as salt, rum, and cod in the world economy. Course topics are explored through lectures, student presentations, and readings from both popular and scientific literature. The course includes a few laboratories to explore the basic science behind food preparation. Miriam Rossi.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 150 - EMT Training Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
This course provides training as required for state certification as an emergency medical technician. The course is taught by state-certified instructors. Students must attend all sessions to qualify for a certificate. The course meets weekly through both semesters, with one or two Saturday sessions each semester. Observation times in the emergency department and with an ambulance are required. Upon completion of the Vassar EMT course, it is expected that the students will serve on the Vassar EMT squad. Kelly Kohler.
Not open to Seniors.
Yearlong course 150-STS 151 .
Two 3-hour periods.
Course Format: INT
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STS 151 - EMT Training Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
This course provides training as required for state certification as an emergency medical technician. The course is taught by state-certified instructors. Students must attend all sessions to qualify for a certificate. The course meets weekly through both semesters, with one or two Saturday sessions each semester. Observation times in the emergency department and with an ambulance are required. Upon completion of the Vassar EMT course, it is expected that the students will serve on the Vassar EMT squad. Kelly Kohler.
Not open to Seniors.
Yearlong course STS 150 -151.
Two 3-hour periods.
Course Format: INT
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STS 152 - Smallpox: The Biology and History of a Disease
1 unit(s)
(Same as BIOL 152 , HIST 152 and VICT 152 ) Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases in history: it killed millions, often leaving survivors scarred or blinded. Its eradication in 1980 also marks one of the great medical victories of the modern era. This course examines smallpox from both biological and historical perspectives. Students explore the workings of the virus, the effects of the disease, the popularization of inoculation in the eighteenth century, Edward Jenner’s development of the cowpox vaccine and how it protects, and efforts to enforce vaccination globally through some of the earliest state public health initiatives. We also investigate the nineteenth-century origins of the anti-vaccination movement with particular attention to its class, anti-imperial, and religious underpinnings. David Esteban.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 160 - Uncertainty, Probability and Spirituality: Physics in Popular Culture
1 unit(s)
(Same as PHYS 160 and RELI 160 ) This course examines the cultural history of key ideas and experiments in physics, looking in particular at how non-scientists understood key concepts such as entropy, relativity, quantum mechanics and the idea of higher or new dimensions. It begins with an assumption that’s widely accepted among historians – namely, that the sciences are a part of culture and are influenced by cultural trends, contemporary concerns and even urgent personal ethical or religious dilemmas. In this course we are attuned to the ways that physicists drew key insights from popular culture and how non-scientists, including religious or spiritual seekers, appropriated (and misappropriated) scientific insights about the origin and nature of the world, its underlying laws and energetic forces, and its ultimate meaning and purpose. Brian Daly and Christopher White.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 172 - Microbial Wars
1 unit(s)
(Same as BIOL 172 ) This course explores our relationship with microbes that cause disease. Topics including bioterrorism, vaccinology, smallpox eradication, influenza pandemics, antibiotic resistance, and emerging diseases are discussed to investigate how human populations are affected by disease, how and why we alter microorganisms intentionally or unintentionally, and how we study disease causing microbes of the past and present. The use of new technologies in microbiology that allow us to turn harmful pathogens into helpful medical or industrial tools are also discussed. David Esteban.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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Science, Technology and Society: II. Intermediate |
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STS 200 - Conceptualizing STS: Theories and Practice Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
An introduction to the multidisciplinary study of contemporary science and technology through selected case studies and key texts representing the major perspectives and methods of analysis, including work by Thomas Kuhn, Robert Merton, Bruno Latour, Sandra Harding, Helen Longino, and Naomi Oreskes. Some of the issues include the concept of scientific revolution, the nature of “big science” and “high technology,” the sociology of scientific knowledge, the social construction of science and technology, the ethics of funding/owning science and technology, and feminist approaches to science and technology. Abigail Coplin.
Prerequisite(s): One other Science, Technology and Science course.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 220 - Health Economics Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ECON 220 ) Applies theoretical and empirical tools of economics to problems of health and medical care delivery. The main focus of the course addresses how medical care is produced and financed, in both private and public sectors. Emphasis is on the US, and includes a comparison of the US health system to other countries’ health care systems. Alicia Atwood.
Prerequisite(s): ECON 102 . Students with a strong quantitative background may enroll with the instructor’s permission.
Two 75-minute periods.
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STS 221 - Medieval Science and Technology
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 221 and MRST 221 ) Science and technology: the very words seem synonymous with “modernity.” Yet, crucial developments in scientific knowledge and application occurred during the Middle Ages, forming the foundation for the Scientific Revolution. This interdisciplinary course offers an introduction to science and technology in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean world, exploring the influence of classical, East Asian, and Arab learning, and the rise of empiricism and experimentation. Through readings, discussions, and hands-on activities, we examine developments in monasteries, universities, castles, and farms. Topics may include beer making, beekeeping, alchemy, siege warfare, watermills, astrology, plagues, and medicine. Nancy Bisaha.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 222 - Bioethics and Human Reproduction
1 unit(s)
Scientific and technological advances are revolutionizing the ways in which human beings can procreate. This has given rise to debates over the ethical use of these methods, and over whether and how law and public policy should regulate these procedures and recognize the family relationships created by their use. This course examines topics such as fertility treatments, the commodification of gametes and embryos, contraceptive development and use, genetic screening and genetic modification of embryos, genetic testing in establishing family rights and responsibilities, and human cloning. We examine issues surrounding the ethical use of these methods, and consider whether and how law and public policy should regulate these procedures and recognize the family relationships created by their use. Nancy Pokrywka.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 226 - Philosophy of Science Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as PHIL 226 ) The way scientific investigation works is more complex than what we are taught when we learn about the scientific method in school. What is scientific investigation, how does it work, and what makes it a good way to learn about the world? Philosophy of science aims at understanding and answering these questions. In this course, we investigate these concerns through the following questions: What is scientific reasoning, and how is it different from the reasoning we use outside of science, if it is? Does science discover objective truths about the world? Many of our past scientific theories have turned out to be wrong. Should we trust our current theories? Why do we accept one theory over another? How might science be biased, and what, if anything, can we do about it? How do the different sciences fit together, if they do? This course draws on historical and current scientific cases across biology, neuroscience, social science, and physics. Toward the end of the course, we turn our attention to a major, new scientific methodology and ask about its virtues and limitations. Is data analysis transforming the scientific landscape and pushing us toward a new scientific revolution? Kate Pendoley.
Prerequisite(s): One 100-level course in Philosophy.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 240 - The International Social Life of Science and Technology
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 240 ) Technological development is not “simply a matter of advances in science and technology, but a product of complex entanglements among knowledge, technical capability, politics, and culture” (Jasanoff 2005, 290). This class examines the co-production of science, politics, and society by analyzing controversies tied to science, technology, and medicine in different international contexts. Using these international cases, we examine how science and technology shape—and are shaped by—structures of inequality, social identities, state’s governance strategies, and society’s counter-movements against the state. We also use this diverse array of global examples to introduce the major theoretical frameworks used by science and technology studies scholars. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the socio-politics of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, genetic manipulation and testing, nuclear energy and meltdown, environmental disaster, reproductive technologies, the population policy construction, genetically modified crops, the globalized pharmaceutical industry, and information and communication technologies. Abigail Coplin.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 245 - Medicine, Health and Diseases in East Asia Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 245 and HIST 245 ) From the globalization of acupuncture to the proliferation of biobanks to the fight against the deadly SARS virus, the history of East Asian medicine and society has been marked by promises and perils. Through examining the ways in which East Asians conceptualized medicine and the body in their fight against diseases from a myriad of sources, this course critically examines the persistence, transformation, and globalization of both “traditional medicine” and biomedicine in East Asia. Topics covered include the knowledge of nature as embedded in the changing categorization of pharmaceuticals, the contestation over vaccination and the definition of diseases, the construction of gender and sexuality in medicine, the importance of religion in healing, the legacies of colonialism in biopolitics and biotechnology, the development of healthcare systems, and the imaginations of Asian medicine in the West. Wayne Soon.
Two 75-minute periods.
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STS 247 - Albert Einstein Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 247 ) This course explores the complex life and work of the iconic scientist of the 20th century. Using recent biographical studies and a wide range of original sources (in translation), Einstein’s revolutionary contributions to relativity and quantum mechanics, his role in Germany in the opposition to the rise of Nazi ideology and anti-Semitism, and his work as a political and social activist in the United States are examined. Students are encouraged to make use of Vassar’s Bergreen Collection of original Einstein manuscripts. José Perillán.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 252 - Health Inequalities and Activism Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 252 ) When comparing the 36 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States spends twice the average on healthcare. However, the US ranks 28 in life expectancy, 33 in infant mortality, and last in obesity. In other words, Americans spend more on healthcare but live shorter and unhealthier lives. When examining US healthcare up close, there are significant disparities between sub-populations. For example, socioeconomic status (SES) is inversely associated with risk of disease, which means that having higher SES correlates with lower risk of disease. In the first half of this course, students investigate how race, gender, socio-economic status, and their intersections impact health disparities and inequalities. In the second half of this course, students examine collective responses to health inequalities and representation. Catherine Tan.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 255 - Medical Sociology Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 255 ) The objective of this course is to introduce students to the central themes and topics of medical sociology, such as: the social model of illness, the profession of medicine, medicalization, clinical gaze, experiences of illness, contested illness, diagnosis, politics of prevention, cultural health capital, and social production of health disparities. How does something become “medical”? What does it mean to be ill? How does illness impact a person’s relationships and sense of self? How might a diagnosis work to stigmatize or validate? The significance of being ill (or of possessing a diagnosis) extends beyond the medical model of health—beyond clinical understandings of causation, treatment, and prevention. Disorders and diseases are socially and culturally dynamic. During this course, students investigate the broader social context in which issues of health and illness are embedded. They also address the social structures that shape the field of medicine and how different groups of people engage with and within this field. Finally, the course examines communities that have formed around illness (such as support groups) and considers how these groups shape identity, empower, and generate knowledge. Catherine Tan.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 264 - Controversies in Science, Technology & Religion
1 unit(s)
(Same as RELI 264 ) This course introduces students to new and controversial topics in the study of religion, science, technology and spirituality. We examine controversial issues such as evolution/creation, artificial intelligence, science fiction as spirituality, religious and secular views of the mind, issues in biomedical ethics such as cloning, the neurology of religious experience, technologically-mediated spirituality, pseudo-science and parapsychology. Christopher White.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 267 - Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ECON 267 ) This course examines environmental and natural resource issues from an economic perspective. Particular attention is given to the evidence and analysis presented at the UN climate negotiations and the recent history of climate accords and assesses the case for more drastic commitments. Particular attention is given this year to the evidence and analysis presented at to the UN Conference of the Parties (COP 26). The various possible policies to address the situation are analyzed in economic terms identifying those who gain by, and those who lose by these policies. The goal is for students to develop a framework for understanding environmental problems and then to learn how to analyze policy actions within that framework. Topics include the economics of externalities, free rider issues, global warming, air and water pollution, the loss of biodiversity, energy demand and technology, and natural resource extraction. David Kennett.
Prerequisite(s): ECON 102 or permission of the instructor.
Recommended: ECON 209 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 268 - Current and Emerging Issues in Public Health
1 unit(s)
This course examines public health topics of current and emerging interest in both developed and developing nations. Selected topics include theories of justice and public health ethics, social determinants of health, health promotion and disease prevention, health care delivery, environmental problems, and the issues that are influencing and that may influence the health status of populations now and in the future. Contemporary case studies are used to examine and demonstrate the inter-relatedness of social justice, culture, politics, technology, and public health. Leroy Cooper.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 273 - The New Economy Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 273 ) The new economy is, in one sense, a very old concern of sociology. Since the discipline’s 19th-c. origins, sociologists have asked how changes in material production and economic relations alter the ways that people live, work, understand their lives, and relate to one another. However, current interests in the new economy center upon something new: a flexible, “just in time” mode of industry and consumerism made possible by information technologies and related organizational innovations. The logic of this new economy, as well as its consequences for society, are the subject of this course. Topics include the evolving role of technology in economic globalization; the precarity of today’s workplaces and labor markets; the question of the “creative class”; digital divides in technology access, education, and lifestyles; and the cutting edges of consumerism. Leonard Nevarez.
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STS 277 - Feminist Approaches to Science and Technology
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 277 ) In this course students examine the intersections of science and technology with the categories of gender, race, class, and sexuality. We explore the ways that science and technology help to construct these socio-cultural categories and how the constructions play out in society. Examples come from the history of science and technology, concerns about gender identity, health care, environmentalism, and equal opportunity in education and careers. Throughout the course, we ask how the social institution and power of science itself is affected by social categories. We also investigate alternative approaches to the construction of knowledge. Jill Schneiderman.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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STS 278 - Environmental Political Thought Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENST 278 and POLI 278 ) In the current, urgent context of eco-catastrophe, the high-stakes question of how to rethink the human and the nonhuman arises (together, in relation with one another, entangled as they are, distinct as they might be…). Many theorists from myriad disciplines and multidisciplinary areas have taken on this question, some stressing the “intrinsic value” of the natural world, some proclaiming the end of nature, some critiquing the concept of Nature as so all-encompassing that it inevitably allows human claims to mastery of the nonhuman. Though this course cannot exhaustively survey all these approaches, we will explore some of the key contemporary debates (regarding mass extinction, Gaia theories, the oft-cited “Anthropocene”) pertaining to deep ecology, social and political ecology, de-growth theory, object-oriented ontology, speculative realism, environmental justice, posthumanism, ecofeminism, (feminist) new materialisms. Claire Sagan.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 279 - Pandemic, Politics and Theory
1 unit(s)
(Same as POLI 279 ) Who knew that a virus could so radically interrupt, accelerate, damage, mobilize humans and nonhumans? In a context which reads increasingly like a tragic dystopia, this course explores theoretical texts that engage the current pandemic and its effects on power, discipline, and control. We discuss how the virus has transformed our relationship to temporality, the recognition and erasure of care work, the microbe’s relation to ecology and disaster capitalism, the pandemic’s effects on borders, immunity, community, and confinement, masks, faces and screens, mutual aid and abandonment, neoliberal austerity and public health, epidemiology and epistemology, the unknown and uncertainty, etc. Slavoj Zizek immediately described the “PANdemIC” as “a moment when the greatest act of love is to stay distant from the object of your affection.” While Paul Preciado has argued that the lockdown has entrenched a biopolitics of “pharmacopornographic production,” Nick Mirzoeff has described New York City as a “necropolis” that should be transformed into decolonial networks of care. Wendy Brown, Lauren Berlant, Brian Massumi each reflected upon the quarantine. We attempt to ride the prolific wave of writings that came out of COVID19 and its biopolitics, for collective catharsis and in hopes to be better equipped to face this faceless event. Claire Sagan.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: INT
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STS 288 - Machines and Musicians: A Technocultural History from Metronomes to Moby Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as MUSI 288 ) This course explores the often-unacknowledged connections between novel acoustic technologies and vital compositional practices. Through weekly lectures, assignments, and discussions, students consider the ways in which machines have helped to influence certain musical trends from the classical, Romantic, and contemporary eras.
Some featured clockwork and electronic technologies include Winkel’s Componium, Maelzel’s Panharmonicon, the Welte-Mignon player piano, Cahill’s Telharmonium, the Theremin, and the Moog synthesizer. This technocultural survey similarly presents a gamut of musical repertoires: from Haydn’s musical-clock suites to Antheil’s Ballet mécanique; Miles Davis’ synthesized jazz albums to Todd Machover’s recent robotic opera, Death and the Powers; and more.
In a final project devoted to modern-age sound production, students examine compositions and texts by Schaeffer, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Reich, and Roads. Grading is determined through class participation, a midterm test, a research and analysis project, as well as a listening quiz. Alex Bonus.
Prerequisite(s): One unit in one of the following: Music, Science, Technology, and Society; Sociology; or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: INT
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STS 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: OTH
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Science, Technology and Society: III. Advanced |
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STS 301 - Senior Seminar Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
The seminar meets during the first six weeks of the second semester. Senior majors present and defend their senior theses before the student and faculty members of the program. The Department.
Course Format: INT
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STS 303 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
Yearlong senior thesis research and writing. The Department.
Open only to STS seniors.
Yearlong course 303-STS 304 .
Course Format: INT
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STS 304 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
Yearlong senior thesis research and writing. The Department.
Open only to STS seniors.
Yearlong course STS 303 -304.
Course Format: INT
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STS 305 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
One-semester thesis research and writing. Used only for unusual circumstances. Open only to STS seniors.
Prerequisite(s): Special permission.
Course Format: INT
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STS 307 - Advanced Topics in Health Economics and Policy
1 unit(s)
(Same as ECON 307 ) A survey of contemporary issues in the economics of health and health policy including a more detailed examination of select issues from ECON 220 /STS 220 and more advanced topics using recent research in health economics. Alicia Atwood.
Prerequisite(s): ECON 201 , ECON 220 /STS 220 and ECON 203 or ECON 210 ; or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 323 - History of Geological Thought 2020 Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ESCI 323 ) In this course we examine the historical context and scientific ideas put forth by natural philosophers and scientists including Thomas Burnet, Nicolas Steno, James Hutton, Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin, Alfred Wegener, Marie Tharp, Bruce Heezen, Stephen Jay Gould, Niles Eldredge, Neil Shubin, James Lovelock and Walter Alvarez. Topics of study include geologic time, continental drift and plate tectonics, evolution and punctuated equilibrium, Gaia, and bolide impacts. This intensive requires a one-week field trip to Great Britain in the first week of Spring Break. Jill Schneiderman.
Prerequisite(s): Must be a science or Science, Technology, and Society major at the sophomore, junior or senior level, or by permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: INT
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STS 340 - Controversies in Context: Technoscientific Futures
1 unit(s)
Will the CERN particle accelerator in Europe create a mini black hole on earth? What are the intended and unintended consequences of genetic and technological enhancements on humanity? Are we headed towards a technological singularity? Will we colonize other planets? These seem like plot lines ripped from science fiction stories, yet recent advances in scientific knowledge and technological innovation have begun to ripple through societies leaving a trail of confusion, excitement, terror, and controversy. In this seminar, we grapple with the controversies surrounding humanity’s technoscientific future. Einstein observed that “[s]cience as something existing and complete is the most objective thing known to man. But science in the making, science as an end to be pursued, is as subjective and psychologically conditioned as any other branch of human endeavor.” Our work in this seminar is based on the assumption that science is a human practice and a social phenomenon, and as a result, humanity’s technoscientific future is fundamentally contingent and not predetermined. We engage with scientists, STS scholars and science fiction writers as we reflexively explore our tethered extrapolations of the frontiers of technoscience. José Perillán.
Prerequisite(s): STS 200 .
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 345 - Asian Sociotechnical Imaginaries
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 345 ) This seminar examines sociotechnical imaginaries in Asia, broadly construed. It investigates how science and technology have shaped—and been shaped by—particular configurations of state-society-market relations, governance strategies (and social push-back against those strategies), and sociopolitical identities at the national, group, and individual level. It examines how science and technology are co-produced with narratives not only of national and personal empowerment, but also entwined with narratives of failure and disillusionment. It also scrutinizes the role of technology—both existent and imagined—in connecting, or detaching, different Asian nations from global markets and international institutions. National contexts include China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam and Malaysia. Abigail Coplin.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 360 - Issues in Bioethics
1 unit(s)
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 370 - Feminism and Environmentalism
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENST 370 and WMST 370 ) In this seminar we explore some basic concepts and approaches within feminist environmental analysis paying particular attention to feminist theory and its relevance to environmental issues. We examine a range of feminist research and analysis in ‘environmental studies’ that is connected by the recognition that gender subordination and environmental destruction are related phenomena. That is, they are the linked outcomes of forms of interactions with nature that are shaped by hierarchy and dominance, and they have global relevance. The course helps students discover the expansive contributions of feminist analysis and action to environmental research and advocacy; it provides the chance for students to apply the contributions of a feminist perspective to their own specific environmental interests. Jill Schneiderman.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor; WMST 130 recommended.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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STS 371 - Gender, Science and Politics
1 unit(s)
(Same as POLI 371 and WMST 371 ) In a context that some have described as “post-truth,” and in which “marching for Science” has become a form of resistance to power, there are high stakes behind science literacy. When the climate sciences are helping us understand our ecological condition, yet climatology and the new discourse of “Anthropocene” also has begun legitimizing fantasies of geoengineering the Earth, what would a feminist climatology look like? In today’s digital age, when boundaries between real/unreal, physical/virtual, human/natural, female/male seem to collapse all around us, should we, more-than-women and more-than-men espouse our new cyborg selves, or cling to an image of women-as-goddesses oh-so-close to nature, and to images of men as taming, mastering, dominating nature? What are some alternatives beyond these possibilities? This course critically engages the sciences from a feminist theoretical perspective. We examine the ”situated” nature of scientific knowledge, against the positivist grain of scientific claims to Truth and objectivity. We also examine how feminist theorists have drawn from some dissensual and innovative scientific theories of late, to inspire provocative arguments about the environment, ontology, and normativity. Claire Sagan.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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STS 374 - Epidemic: Global Responses to Disease Outbreak and Public Health Crises Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 374 ) What is an “epidemic”? How are epidemics given social and cultural meaning? How do epidemics mobilize action? This course takes a global perspective to understand how different countries address disease outbreaks. This course approaches epidemics (and the idea of “epidemic”) as vehicles to understand the social structures and mechanisms that shape the way societies conceptualize and respond to public health crises. Students also consider factors that facilitate the construction of epidemics. For instance, Autism Spectrum Disorder prevalence has increased precipitously over the last twenty years. Autism is estimated to affect 1 in 59 children in the United States and 1 in 38 in South Korea. But is there an autism “epidemic”? What are the factors contributing to this rise? How is the term “epidemic” mobilized? And what does this achieve? How does increasing prevalence change the way societies think about autism? Students engage with sociological and public health scholarship on HIV/AIDS, Ebola, SARS, Zika, measles, autism, and opioid addiction. Catherine Tan.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 376 - Ecological Catastrophe and Nietzsche’s Eternal Return Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as POLI 376 and ENST 376) This course explores several sorts of texts together, for thought experiments pertaining to our times of ecological catastrophe. We critically engage: 1) theories concerned with ecological collapse, extinction, catastrophism, and the oft-cited and ill-named Anthropocene 2) literature on Nietzsche within environmental political thought 3) literature on Nietzsche and gender 4) selected primary texts by Nietzsche. Examining the latter in close readings and in the context of our compromised ecological futures, we ask ourselves to what extent the Nietzschean concepts of “eternal return” and “will to power” may help us think in these troubled times: what would a feminist Nietzschean ecology look like? Claire Sagan.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 378 - Strategic Thinking in Global Health Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course seeks to equip students with knowledge and skills to understand current global health challenges in their historical context. We begin with the emergence of international health and humanitarian efforts in the wake of World War I and track various conflicts in approaches in the post-World War II era. Students also develop the capacity to frame problems, understand root causes of problems, develop and analyze strategic alternatives, and communicate recommended strategies to a variety of audiences engaged in global health. Assignments include weekly reading and discussion, small group strategy brief presentations, and an individual paper on a relevant topic selected by the student and approved by the instructor. Elizabeth Bradley.
Prerequisite(s): One unit of social science or one unit in Science, Technology, and Society and permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 380 - Religion, Anti-Science, Public Health & Pandemic Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as RELI 380 ) How have religious people both embraced and resisted public health directives during the Covid-19 pandemic? How do religious people understand the meaning of health, sickness, and suffering in the midst of a global health crisis? How do religious people think about the ethical issues involved in confronting illness on such a large scale – how do they (for example) ponder complicated decisions about healthcare rationing, disease mitigation, economic lockdowns, and social inequality? This course examines these questions and tries to understand better conservative religious attitudes in particular. It surveys how conservative groups (Christian and Jewish) have resisted public health guidelines during the last century, insisted on their freedom to worship without restrictions, juxtaposed divine healing and medical treatment, sometimes eschewed vaccination, and organized channels of dissent and protest online and via social media platforms. Christopher White.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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STS 394 - Philosophy of Mental Illness
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as PHIL 394 ) This interdisciplinary intensive focuses on two main issues: psychopathological categorization and diagnosis, and ethical issues that surround categorization, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders. We will ask questions such as: what are the biological, physical, sociological, and individual characteristics that do influence, and which are the characteristics that should or should not influence, psychopathological taxonomy and diagnosis? What can we learn about mental illness from the disability rights movement? And are current treatment options the optimal approach for general and particular mental illnesses? After an initial seminar-style period of common reading and discussion, students will be expected to pursue individual research projects that may involve a short-term production or creative component, with instructor approval. Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: INT
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STS 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: OTH
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Swahili: I. Introductory |
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SWAH 105 - Beginning Swahili I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Yearlong course SWAH 105-106 .
Course Format: OTH
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SWAH 106 - Beginning Swahili II Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Yearlong course SWAH 105 -106.
Course Format: OTH
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Swahili: II. Intermediate |
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SWAH 210 - Intermediate Swahili I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course 210-SWAH 211 .
Course Format: OTH
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SWAH 211 - Intermediate Swahili II Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course SWAH 210 -211.
Course Format: OTH
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SWAH 298 - Intermediate Swahili Independent Study Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
This course covers Swahili grammar, speaking, reading, and writing at the intermediate level. Lioba Gerhardi.
Second six-week course.
Two 60-minute periods.
Course Format: OTH
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Swahili: III. Advanced |
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SWAH 310 - Advanced Swahili I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Course Format: OTH
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SWAH 311 - Advanced Swahili II Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Course Format: OTH
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Swedish: I. Introductory |
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SWED 105 - Introduction to Swedish I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Yearlong course SWED 105-106 .
Course Format: OTH
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SWED 106 - Introduction to Swedish II Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Yearlong course SWED 105 -106.
Course Format: OTH
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Swedish: II. Intermediate |
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SWED 210 - Intermed Swedish I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course 210-SWED 211 .
Course Format: OTH
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SWED 211 - Intermed Swedish II Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course SWED 210 -211.
Course Format: OTH
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Swedish: III. Advanced |
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SWED 310 - Advanced Swedish I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Course Format: OTH
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SWED 311 - Advanced Swedish II Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Course Format: OTH
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SWED 380 - Advanced Swedish Special Topics Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
One 1-hour period.
Course Format: OTH
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Turkish: I. Introductory |
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TURK 105 - Introduction to Turkish I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course TURK 105-106 .
Course Format: OTH
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TURK 106 - Introduction to Turkish II Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Yearlong course TURK 105 -106.
Course Format: OTH
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Turkish: II. Intermediate |
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TURK 210 - Intermediate Turkish I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course 210-TURK 211 .
Course Format: OTH
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TURK 211 - Intermediate Turkish II Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course TURK 210 -211.
Course Format: OTH
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Turkish: III. Advanced |
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TURK 310 - Advanced Turkish
1 unit(s)
Special Permission
Course Format: OTH
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TURK 311 - Advanced Turkish
1 unit(s)
Special Permission
Course Format: OTH
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Urban Studies: I. Introductory |
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URBS 100 - Introduction to Urban Studies Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
As an introduction to urban inquiry, this course focuses on the historical evolution of cities, socio-spatial conflicts, and changing cultural meanings of urbanism. We examine the formation of urban hierarchies of power and privilege, along with their attendant contradictions and social movements of contestation, in terms of the rights to the city and the prospects for inclusive, participatory governance. Instructors coordinate the course with the assistance of guest presentations by other Urban Studies faculty, thereby providing insight into the architecture, cultures, economics, geography, history, planning, and politics of the city. The course involves study of specific urban issues, their theory and methodology, in anticipation of subsequent work at more advanced levels. Lisa Brawley, Timothy Koechlin.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 106 - Philosophy & Contemporary Issues Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic 2021/22b: Incarcerating Philosophies. (Same as PHIL 106 ) This introductory philosophical course examines the topic of “Incarcerating Philosophies”. Philosophy is used both as a justification to incarcerate as well as that which is incarcerated. This course offers a philosophical survey of various relevant literatures in order to ask the following questions: What are the different methods and rationalities employed in order to incarcerate, and how are those methods used to fashion the incarcerated, criminal body? How have various Western philosophical programs and approaches, figures and texts responded to such incarcerating methods in order to question and oppose them critically and immanently? Readings include: Plato, Boethius, Jeremy Bentham, Antonio Gramsci, Martin Luther King Jr., Michel Foucault, Angela Davis, Frank Wilderson III, Michelle Alexander, Lisa Guenther, and others. Osman Nemli.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 144 - Living in the Ancient City Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as ART 144 and GRST 144 ) The great Mediterranean cities of Classical Antiquity, Athens in the 5th c. BC and Rome in the 1st-2nd c. CE (along with some of their satellite cities), are synonymous with the rise of western civilization. The city plans and monumental architecture dominate our view, but this course also focuses on the civic institutions housed in the spectacular buildings and the social worlds shaped by the grand public spaces, as well as the cramped working quarters. Neighborhoods of the rich and the poor, their leisure haunts, and places of congregation and entertainment are explored to reveal the rituals of everyday life and their political consequences. Eve D’Ambra.
Second six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods.
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URBS 177 - Special Topics Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 177 and ENGL 177 ) Topic for 2020/21a: Imagining the City. This six-week course surveys various approaches to thinking and writing about the city. How do our surroundings change us? What power does an individual have to reshape or reimagine the vast urban landscape? We consider a diverse array of texts (journalism, philosophy, literature, photography and video) and a range of case studies: the “city of the future” circa 1910, 1950 and 2000; underground networks of utilities and subways; the rise of car culture and the case of Los Angeles; debates around gentrification and art; globalization, style, and AirBNB; present-day graffiti artists and urban farmers reclaiming their “right to the city.” Hua Hsu.
Second six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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Urban Studies: II. Intermediate |
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URBS 200 - Urban Theory Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course reviews the development of theories regarding human behavior in cities and the production of space. The course spans the twentieth century, from the industrial city to the themed spaces of contemporary cities. Literature and topics examined to include the German school, urban ecology, debates in planning and architecture, political economy, and the cultural turns in urban studies. Lisa Brawley.
Prerequisite(s): URBS 100 or permission of the instructor.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 202 - Public Policy and Human Environments
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENST 202 , ESCI 202 , ESSC 202 and GEOG 202 ) This course combines the insights of the natural and social sciences to address a selected topic of global concern. Geographers bring spatial analysis of societal and political-ecological changes, while Earth Scientists contribute their knowledge of the diverse natural processes shaping the earth’s surface. Together, these distinctive but complementary fields contribute to comprehensive understandings of the physical limitations and potential, uses and misuses of the Earth’s natural resources.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 211 - Rome: The Art of Empire Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 211 and GRST 211 ) From humble beginnings to its conquest of most of the known world, Rome dominated the Mediterranean with the power of its empire. Art and architecture gave monumental expression to its political ideology, especially in the building of cities that spread Roman civilization across most of Europe and parts of the Middle East and Africa. Roman art also featured adornment, luxury, and collecting in both public and private spheres. Given the diversity of the people included in the Roman empire and its artistic forms, what is particularly Roman about Roman art? Eve D’Ambra.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 -ART 106 or GRST 216 or GRST 217 , or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 219 - The First Cities: The Art and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 219 and GRST 219 ) The art, architecture, and artifacts of the region comprising ancient Iraq, Iran, Syria, Palestine, and Turkey from 3200 BCE to the conquest of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE. Beginning with the rise of cities and cuneiform writing in Mesopotamia, course topics include the role of the arts in the formation of states and complex societies, cult practices, trade and military action, as well as in everyday life. How do we make sense of the past through its ruins and artifacts, especially when they are under attack (the destruction wrought by ISIS)? Eve D’Ambra.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 or 106 or one unit in Greek and Roman Studies, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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URBS 225 - Renaissance Italy
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 225 ) This course examines the history of Italy between 1300 and 1565. Italian intellectual, political, and religious history is emphasized, but some attention is also given to cross-cultural, gender, and social history. Looking beyond Italy, we also consider developments in Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire and their impact on Italy and Europe. Topics to be covered include the Black Death, the rise of humanism, the Renaissance papacy, and the Catholic Reformation. Finally, throughout the course, we question the meaning of the term “Renaissance”: is it a distinct period, a cultural movement, or an insufficient label altogether? Nancy Bisaha.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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URBS 229 - Paris and London: Society and Culture in the Early Modern City, 1500-1800
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 229 ) Between 1500-1800 European society experienced upheavals caused by cataclysmic events such as the Reformation and major shifts in economic and political organization. And it was Europeans living in urban areas – Europeans of different social status, faith, and ethnicities – who experienced these changes most intensely. This course investigates how two of the most dynamic cities in early modern Europe, London and Paris, changed from essentially medieval cities to urban metropolises. We look at the changing material, religious, and political conditions of London and Paris over two centuries and explore how the peoples of these two cities articulated and made sense of such changes. The central focus of the class will be examining how the identities of Parisians and Londoners as urban dwellers underwent transformations during this period. Sumita Choudhury.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/2022.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 230 - Making Cities
1 unit(s)
This course surveys the production of urban space, from the mid 19th century industrial city to today’s post-bubble metropolis. Theories of urban planning and design, landscape architecture, infrastructure and real estate development are discussed in the context of a broad range of social, cultural, political and economic forces that have shaped urban space. Looking at American and European case studies, we ask: Who made decisions on the production of urban space? How were urban interventions actually brought about? Who were the winners and losers? Tobias Armborst.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 237 - Urban Sociology
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 237 ) Since the late 19th century, sociology has contributed to the historic formation and evolving agenda of urban studies. This course introduces classical sociological studies of the urban, from German sociologists like Georg Simmel to the so-called Chicago school of sociology, and their elaboration and challenge by later generations of sociologists. In many ways, traditional sociological concepts of neighborhood, stratification, deviance, and urbanism inform contemporary research on unanticipated urban phenomena, like gentrification and megacities. Elsewhere, sociologists have shaped multidisciplinary inquiries into public space, political economy, and place. We survey these disciplinary developments with added focus on the global forces and urban change visible in Poughkeepsie and the larger New York metropolitan area. Leonard Nevarez.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 240 - Activating the Architectural Uncanny in the City
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 240 ) Cities all over the world and in different eras have become participants and arenas in creating urban spectacles. Often such activities consist of processions involving masquerades, mobile floats, musicians decked in elaborate attire and playing instruments – commemorating the dead, the living, royalties and politicians; to name a few examples. This course will study how certain case-studies - ranging from Mexico City to Notting Hill in London – demonstrate how architectural facades, urban spaces as well as certain ceremonies activate an uncanny experience, which may even echo Trahndorff’s theory of the Gesamtkuntswerk. Adedoyin Teriba.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 245 - The Ethnographer’s Craft Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ANTH 245 ) This course introduces students to the methods employed in constructing and analyzing ethnographic materials through readings, classroom lectures, and discussions with regular field exercises. Students gain experience in participant-observation, fieldnote-taking, interviewing, survey sampling, symbolic analysis, the use of archival documents, and the use of contemporary media. Attention is also given to current concerns with interpretation and modes of representation. Throughout the semester, students practice skills they learn in the course as they design, carry out, and write up original ethnographic projects. Daniel Schniedewind.
Two 75-minute periods.
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URBS 250 - Urban Geography: Space, Place, Environment Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as GEOG 250 ) Now that most of the world’s population lives in urban areas, expanding city-regions pose a series of social, spatial and environmental problems. This course focuses on the making of urban spaces, places, and environments at a variety of geographical scales. We examine entrepreneurial urban branding, sense of place and place making, geographies of race and class, urbanization of nature, environmental and spatial justice, and urban risk and resilience in facing climate change. Concentrating on American urbanism, case studies include New York City, Poughkeepsie, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Students also research specific issues in cities of their own choice, such as land-use planning and public space, historic preservation, transit-oriented development, urban ecology and restoration, urban sustainability programs, and citizen movements for livable cities. Brian Godfrey.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 252 - Cities of the Global South: Urbanization and Social Change in the Developing World Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as GEOG 252 and INTL 252 ) The largest and fastest wave of urbanization in human history is now underway in the Global South—the developing countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Most of the world’s urban population already resides here, where mega-cities now reach massive proportions. Despite widespread economic dynamism, high rates of urbanization and deprivation often coincide, so many of the 21st century’s greatest challenges will arise in the Global South. This course examines postcolonial urbanism, global-city and ordinary-city theories, informal settlements and slums, social and environmental justice, and urban design, planning, and governance. We study scholarly, journalistic, and film depictions of Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro in Latin America; Algiers and Lagos in Africa; Cairo and Istanbul in the Middle East; and Beijing and Mumbai in Asia. Brian Godfrey.
Prerequisite(s): A previous Geography or Urban Studies course.
Two 75-minute periods.
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URBS 254 - Victorian Britain
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 254 and VICT 254 ) This course examines some of the key transformations that Victorians experienced, including industrialization, the rise of a class-based society, political reform, and the women’s movement. We explore why people then, and historians since, have characterized the Victorian age as a time of progress and optimism as well as an era of anxiety and doubt. Lydia Murdoch.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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URBS 255 - Race, Representation, and Resistance in U.S. Schools Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 255 and EDUC 255 This course interrogates the intersections of race, racism and schooling in the US context. In this course, we examine this intersection at the site of educational policy, media and public attitudes towards schools and schooling- critically examining how representations in each shape the experiences of youth in school. Expectations, beliefs, attitudes and opportunities reflect societal investments in these representations, thus becoming both reflections and driving forces of these identities. Central to these representations is how theorists, educators and youth take them on, own them and resist them in ways that constrain possibility or create spaces for hope. Kimberly Williams Brown.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 256 - Bilingualism and/in K-12 Public Education Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 256 and LALS 256 ) Learning in schools where the language of instruction is new presents a challenge familiar to young immigrants and refugees across the globe. This affects their educational achievement, as well as their sense of inclusion and belonging in their new communities. This course examines the issue of education for English Language Learners through a field based experience. The hands-on component of the course is paired with readings that draw from bilingual education, critical theories of pedagogy, education policy, migration,, and education for social change. A group research and writing project is intended to highlight the academic needs of local ELLs, to examine the current instructional models for bilingual students. The course is open to all Vassar students interested in (a) community-based learning as a tool for social change; (b) learning about the experiences of bilingual students in Poughkeepsie schools; and (c) gaining practical experience researching bilingual education policy. Tracey Holland.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 257 - Genre and the Postcolonial City
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 257 and POLI 257 ) This course explores the physical and imaginative dimensions of selected postcolonial cities. The theoretical texts, genres of expression and cultural contexts that the course engages address the dynamics of urban governance as well as aesthetic strategies and everyday practices that continue to reframe existing senses of reality in the postcolonial city. Through an engagement with literary, cinematic, architectural among other forms of urban mediation and production, the course examines the politics of migrancy, colonialism, gender, class and race as they come to bear on political identities, urban rhythms and the built environment. Case studies include: Johannesburg , Nairobi, Algiers and migrant enclaves in London and Paris. Samson Opondo.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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URBS 258 - Sustainable Landscapes: Bridging Place and Environment in Poughkeepsie
1 unit(s)
(Same as GEOG 258 ) Geographers have long understood the relationship of aesthetic landscapes and place to include concepts of identity, control, and territory. Increasingly we consider landscape aesthetics in the context of sustainability and environmental quality. How do these contrasting sets of priorities meet in the process of landscape design and land use analysis? In this course we begin by examining regional and local histories of landscape design and land use planning and their relationship to concepts of place, territory, and identity. We consider landscape ecological approaches to marrying aesthetic, land use planning, and environmental priorities in landscapes. We investigate local issues such as watershed quality, native plantings, and storm water management in the context of local land use planning in order to consider creative ways to bridge these once-contrary approaches to understanding the landscapes we occupy and construct. We focus on projects and topics related to the greater Poughkeepsie area.
Susan Blickstein.
Prerequisite(s): One 100-level course in Geography.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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URBS 264 - The Metropolitan Avant-Gardes
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 264 and MEDS 264 ) Radical prototypes of creativity and self-organization were forged by the new groups of artists, writers, filmmakers and architects that emerged in the first decades of the twentieth century. They based themselves in the new metropolitan centers. The course studies the avant-gardes’ different and often competing efforts to meet the economic transformation that industrialization was bringing to city and country alike. Afterward, the role of art itself would be seen completely differently. 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 2021/22.
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URBS 265 - Modern Art and the Mass Media: the New Public Sphere Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 265 and MEDS 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. As a consequence, the physical spaces of culture would be reimagined and designed. Molly Nesbit.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 or ART 106 .
Two 75-minute periods and one film screening.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 268 - After 1968: Sustainable Aesthetics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 268 or MEDS 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 or ART 106 .
Two 75-minute periods and one film screening.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 272 - “All That Is Solid Melts Into Air”: Modernity’s Global Story Through Architecture (1800s-1930s)
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 272 ) While the ideas that gave rise to an era that today is spoken of as the age of Modernity originated in the Enlightenment or even the Renaissance; architecture’s account of Modernity took an acute and unprecedented turn at the end of the nineteenth century, which coincided with the rise of the Industrial Revolution. Adolf Loos and F.T Marinetti rejected past architectural forms and championed minimalist structures that spoke to the new technological age. Antonio Gaudi and others created an ornate architecture known as Modernistá. In other parts of the world, Modernity’s tale involved movement of former slaves recasting Classical, Renaissance and Baroque architecture as their own, modern architecture. This class explores how the advent of Modernity into the world assumes many guises if narrated through the architecture people created. Adedoyin Teriba.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 or ART 106 or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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URBS 273 - A Mirror Image: The Search for Self, Place & Home in Contemporary Architecture in the World, 1980s+
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 273 ) One could imagine that in the 1970s, the architectural movement known as the International Style looked back at the twentieth century with glee, surveying its spoils. It was after all, a style of architecture that held the century in thrall for almost 50 years; determining the built forms for much of the world in steel, glass and concrete. Le Corbusier for instance, likened architecture to a machine with parts that could be erected and function anywhere. Yet voices arose to articulate local architectural responses to such a paradigm, where the interrelationship between self, place, identity and home needed to be articulated in built form. The phrase that became the rallying cry for such a movement was “Critical Regionalism” and this course analyzes how many architectural projects in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas embodied an approach to a more humane architecture. Adedoyin Teriba.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 or ART 106 or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 274 - Buildings and Cities in Early Modern Italy
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 274 ) A history of architecture and urban design on the Italian peninsula, c. 1300-1700. We focus on the influential centers of Florence, Rome, and Venice, with reference to parallel developments elsewhere in Europe and the Mediterranean. Buildings and urban spaces are considered in social and political contexts, looking at the social structures as well as the patrons for which they were designed: governments, trade guilds, popes, nobles, and merchants. We study architectural and urban forms in relation to their functions, considering quotidian and ceremonial uses, the public and private spheres, and gendered spaces. Visual and textual evidence of performance, navigation, ritual, and sound reveal the varied ways that interior and exterior spaces could be experienced. Other topics include the changing role of the architect; individual versus collaborative design methods; the relation between theory and practice; new media; the transmission of memory; patterns of urban information exchange; manifestations of the ideal city; and the relation of urban, suburban, and rural topography. We investigate the designs and built work of such figures as Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Leonardo da Vinci, Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, Palladio, Bernini, and Borromini. We also consider multimedia ensembles that blur traditional boundaries among art, architecture, urbanism, and landscape. Yvonne Elet.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 275 - Architectural Design I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 275 ) A studio-based class introduction to architectural design through a series of short projects. Employing a combination of drawing, modeling and collage techniques (both by hand and using digital technology) students begin to record, analyze and create architectural space and form. Tobias Armborst.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Two 2-hour periods.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 276 - Architectural Design II Semester Offered: Spring.
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 276 ) A studio-based course aimed at further developing architectural drawing and design skills. Employing a variety of digital and non-digital techniques students record, analyze and create architectural space and form in a series of design exercises.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Two 2-hour periods.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 277 - America 1890-1990 “The Rise and Fall of “The American Century”
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 277 ) In 1941, Henry Luce, publisher of Time and Life magazines, proclaimed the twentieth as “America’s century.” At mid-century, many Americans agreed with Luce’s view of the US as the preeminent global power By the 1980s, however, believing their country was in decline, more and more Americans began losing confidence in America’s greatness. Using primary sources that range from political pamphlets to Hollywood film, presidential speeches to oral interviews, this course looks at America’s rise to prominence after 1890 and the nation’s so-called decline nearly a century later. We pay particular attention to the social and political changes marking the growth of progressive reform from the 1890s to the 1970s, then trace the rise of conservatism during the final decades of “the American century.” Miriam Cohen.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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URBS 286 - Lines Intertwine: Fay Jones and the Architecture of the Ozarks Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 286 ) In 1980, the opening of the Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas launched Fay Jones, an Arkansas architect and erstwhile professor of architecture at the University of Arkansas – who designed the building - onto the international scene. More than 3 million visitors from around the world have visited the chapel since then. The edifice is significant for its site: it is in a forest, almost resembling the natural landscape it is embedded in. The structure is almost entirely made from glass, except for long pieces of wood that intersect in the top part of the building, producing intertwined lines of remarkable beauty. The cross-bracing or intertwining of lines became a signature motif of Jones’ residential, secular and sacred architecture as well as his vision of what an architecture of the Ozarks could be – with the multitude of forests in the region.
Hence, during the Spring Break Intensive four students and I will visit the aforementioned ThornCrown Chapel, the Mildred B Cooper Chapel and the Barry Evans Tree House in the Garvan Woodland Gardens – a structure inspired by Fay Jones’ architectural vision of intertwining lines. Adedoyin Teriba.
Prerequisite(s): Open to Majors. Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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URBS 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Individual projects through the Office of Community-Engaged Learning, under supervision of one of the participating instructors. May be elected during the college year or during the summer.
Special permission.
Unscheduled.
Course Format: INT
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