2017-2018 University Catalog archived
Course Descriptions
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Spanish |
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SPAN 324 - Visions of the Nation: Romanticism and the Generation of 1898
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 220 and SPAN 275. A study of the contrasting identities of Spain, her land and peoples, as represented by Romanticism and the Generation of 1898. From the romantic period students read the popular and folkloric “romances” of Duque de Rivas and the works of Mariano José de Larra. Works from the more philosophical Generation of 1898 include: El árbol de la ciencia by P’o Baroja, the poetry of Antonio Machado, and various texts of Miguel de Unamuno. Staff.
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SPAN 326 - Modern Spanish Prose Fiction
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 220 and SPAN 275. The development of the Spanish novel from the late 19th century through the present day. Representative authors may include Galdos, Baroja, Unamuno, Cela, Martín Gaite, and Mayoral. Mayock.
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SPAN 328 - Contemporary Spanish Poetry
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 220 and SPAN 275. A study of Spanish poetry within its historical context from Romanticism until the present day. Special emphasis is given to the generations of 1898 and 1927, the poetry of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco period. Representative authors include Antonio Machado, Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti, and Gloria Fuertes. Staff.
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SPAN 333 - El Cid in History and Legend
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 220 and SPAN 275. A study of the most significant portrayals of the Castilian warrior Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, El Cid (1045-1099), from his 12th-century biography Historia Roderici to the Hollywood blockbuster El Cid. Epic poems, late medieval ballads, and Renaissance drama all recreate the legendary life of El Cid. This course examines the relevant narratives in an effort to determine the heroic values and attributes recreated by authors and their audiences for nearly a thousand years. Bailey.
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SPAN 340 - Spanish-American Short Story
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 240 and SPAN 275. A study of the Spanish-American short story with special attention to the works of Quiroga, Borges, Cortázar, and Valenzuela. Barnett.
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SPAN 341 - 20th-Century Mexican Literature: Beyond Revolution
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: SPAN 240 and either SPAN 215 or 275. This course examines the artistic reaction to the 1910 Mexican Revolution and seeks to understand its aesthetic impact on 20th-century Mexican artists from a variety of genres. Seminal works from narrative, poetry, and essay as well as the visual arts reveal how some artists promoted the ideals of the Revolution, others became disenchanted, and still others invented revolutionary styles of expression in order to convey a new cultural self-perception and worldview. Barnett.
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SPAN 342 - Spanish-American Narrative: The Boom Generation
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 240 and SPAN 275. Readings in the contemporary Spanish-American narrative of the second half of the 20th century with special emphasis on the members of the “Boom” generation, such as Rulfo, Fuentes, García Márquez, Vargas Llosa, Carpentier, and Puig. In addition to short narrative pieces, the readings include El Tunel (Ernesto Sábato), El Amor y Otros Demonios (García Márquez), Aura (Carlos Fuentes), Los Pasos Perdidos (Carpentier), and Casa de Los Espiritus (Allende). The class meets once a week for three hours so that we may maximize our time with each novel. Barnett.
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SPAN 343 - Spanish-American Colonial Literature
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 240 and SPAN 275. This course examines the Latin American Colonial period by reading the most important Spanish, Creole, and indigenous texts of the period, and by reflecting on the violent cultural dynamics that created the problematic notion of continental “America.” The questions this course examines are related to how identity discourses are produced in Colonial America, and who are the main agents involved in this process. By analyzing the different sides of the Latin American colonial experience, the student will be able to critically approach many “given” paradigms that inform our understanding of the Americas and of the world. Staff.
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SPAN 344 - Spanish-American Poetry
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 240 and 275. Analysis of the most relevant poetic texts of Spanish-America, including U.S. Hispanic poetry, beginning with precursors of 20th-century poetry and spanning to contemporary works. Representative works include those by Octavio Paz, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Nicanor Parra, Ernesto Cardenal, Raúl Zurita, among others. Staff.
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SPAN 345 - Spanish-American Modernist Poetry
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 240 and SPAN 275. Considered the literary movement that achieves the “linguistic independence” of Latin America from Spain, Modernismo is the first “original aesthetic” which exercises an influence on the poetic production of Europe. This course studies the movement through the poems and works by four of its principal writers: the Nicaraguan Ruben Dario, the Mexican Manuel Gutierrez Najera, the Peruvian Manuel Gonzalez Prada, and the Cuban Jose Marti. By contrasting their literature to the “paradigm of modernity” which surrounded its production, the course distinguishes the dialectics between the artists and their respective geopolitical circumstances. By analyzing the literature of writers from different regions, we visualize and distinguish the divergent modernities which emerged in Latin America during the 19th century and the diverse artistic reactions and consequences. Staff.
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SPAN 346 - Poetry in Prison: Immigration. Empathy, and Community Engagement
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 240 and 275. This course emphasizes community-engaged learning through readings of Spanish-American poetry, critical theory, and philosophy on empathy for otherness and immigration across the Hemispheric Americas, in concert with a series of intensive, weekly poetry workshops in the most restrictive maximum-security detention center in the United States for undocumented, unaccompanied youth from Mexico and the Northern Triangle. Invoking and testing insights from the texts in the syllabus, undergraduates work with and for the incarcerated children in term-long partnerships, collaborating in the poetry workshops to respond to a diversity of writing prompts examining the intertwined themes of borders and belonging. Students maintain a writing journal wherein they individually engage in sustained reflection on community needs, course objectives, current events, theorizations of justice, concepts of belonging, empathic philosophies, and affective politics. In this manner, students develop their ability to read, write, and converse in multiple regional varieties of Spanish and gain cultural awareness and insights into Hispanic peoples and culture. Michelson.
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SPAN 347 - Poetry and Power
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 240 and 275. This is a course about reading. We read Spanish-American poetry on power and violence as a way of engaging and investigating the multifaceted and layered historiographies of the region. To intensify our reading, we also “read” a diversity of complementary cultural production, including paintings, murals, and music. Through these self-conscious acts of reading–that is, acts of identifying, evaluating, and critiquing form as much as content–we enhance our ability to analyze and debate ways of defining power in the Americas from within, without, and in liminal zones. Recurring motifs include sexism, racism, classism, and fascism. Michelson.
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SPAN 348 - Spanish-American Women Writers
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 240 and SPAN 275. An examination of the role of women writers in the development of Spanish- American literary history, including U.S. Hispanic writers. Textual and cultural analysis of readings from multiple genres by authors such as Poniatowska, Ferré, Bombal, Mastretta, Gambaro, Lispector, Valenzuela, Castellanos, Cisneros, Esquivel, Peri Rossi, and Allende, among others. Staff.
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SPAN 350 - The Cuban Story
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 240 and SPAN 275. A multigenre examination of 20th-century Cuba as its own “story.” Beginning with the first European account of Columbus, to insights from slaves, to finally more recent writers who question its future, the course presents the development of Cuban society as its own narrative. Major readings by Manzano, Barnet, Marti, Carpentier, Castro, Guevara, Garcia, and Hernandez Diaz, among others. Shorter anthologized works by Guillen, Lezama Lima, Valdes, Novas Calvo, Cabrera Infante, and Sarduy, among others. Films by Guitiérrez Alea, Vega, Solas, and Tabio, among others. Barnett.
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SPAN 354 - Spanish-American Theater: 20th Century to the Present
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 240 and SPAN 275. This course provides a panoramic view of the theatrical traditions that have emerged in Spanish-American theater, beginning with the independent theater movement of the 1930s and concluding with the most recent trends in theatrical practices. In particular, the plays are studied as vehicles that reveal how theater practitioners engaged with their historical and cultural contexts in aesthetic terms. Therefore, the focus is also on the plays as performative texts. In order to develop this objective, students are expected to read, discuss, and analyze the dramatic texts, as well as perform scenes from the plays. This course includes works from playwrights such us Arlt, Triana, Diaz, Gambaro, Carballido, Castellanos, and Berman, among others. In addition, we study the political and aesthetic theories of theater developed by Enrique Buenaventura and Augusto Boal. Botta.
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SPAN 390 - Topics in Latin American Culture and Literature
FDR: HL
Credits: 4
Prerequisite: SPAN 212 or 240 and instructor consent. This course offers students the opportunity to further their knowledge of the culture and literature of a specific Latin American country, and their awareness of Latin America in general, through the study of special cultural and literary topics. Readings, discussions, and assignments occur primarily in Spanish. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. (HL)
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SPAN 392 - Spanish Language Theory and Practice
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: SPAN 275 and three credits at the 200 level. A topics course that approaches language study through theories of language use and meaning, as well as their practical application through extensive writing exercises. Topics may include translation theory, analysis of theoretical approaches to language study, and advanced grammar. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
Winter 2018, SPAN 392: Spanish Language Theory and Practice: Spanish Grammar: The Making of a Language (3). Prerequisites: SPAN 275 and three credits in Spanish at the 200 level or instructor consent. This course analyzes areas of the Spanish language that are problematic for non-native speakers of Spanish. At the same time, the course explores the processes involved in the standardization of a language, in particular the Spanish language, as a social and political construct. Reyes.
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SPAN 393 - Workshop in Literary Translation
Credits: 4
Prerequisite: Three credits from any SPAN 200-level course. An intensive workshop devoted to the practical application, methods, and theories of literary translation. Students collaborate to produce artistic renderings of literary texts into the target language in a workshop-style setting. Preliminary attention is given to English-to-Spanish narrative as well as Spanish-to-English poetry. The primary activity involves the collaborative production of an original translation of a previously non-translated Spanish short story into English. Barnett.
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SPAN 397 - Peninsular Seminar
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SPAN 220 and SPAN 275. A seminar focusing on a single period, genre, motif, or writer. The specific topic will be determined jointly according to student interest and departmental approval. Recent topics have included “The Female Voice in Hispanic Literature”, “19th- and 20th-Century Spanish drama”, “Women Writers of the Golden Age”, and “Romanticism and the Generation of ‘98”. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
Fall 2017, SPAN 397A-01: Representaciones de la Guerra Civil Española (3). This seminar examines the fundamental importance of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in literary and visual texts of the Franco and contemporary periods of Spain. Through readings of these literary and visual texts, students come to understand the evolution of often conflicting histories, ideologies, obsessions, and artistic notions surrounding the war itself and its consequences. After a review of the events leading up to the Spanish Civil War and of the prelude to the Second World War, we observe how the themes and issues of the war manifest in fiction, poetry, film, and other visual texts. We pay particular attention to the Franco regime, the pact of silence, and the desire to uncover the past in myriad ways. Literature includes works by Federico García Lorca, Jaime Gil de Biedma, Carmen Laforet, Alberto Méndez, and Mercè Rodoreda. Visual texts include posters, newspapers, letters, government documents, documentaries, fictional films, and NO-DO reels from the Franco era. (HL) Mayock.
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SPAN 398 - Spanish-American Seminar
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:SPAN 240 and SPAN 275. A seminar focusing on a single period, genre, motif, or writer. Recent topics have included “Spanish American Women Writers: From America into the 21st Century,” “20th Century Latin America Theater,” and “Past, Memory, and Identity in Contemporary Argentina’s Cultural Products.” May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
Fall 2017, SPAN 398A-01: Spanish-American Seminar: Fictions of Self-Representation (3). Prerequisites: SPAN 240 and 275. An examination of forms of self-representation through the reading of literary and non-literary works. In addition to conceptual discussions of how artists use fictionalized forms of self-portraiture in diverse Latin-American contexts, we pay special attention to issues of subjectivity, self-empowerment, authority, and reader recognition, among others. Primary texts focus mainly on the 19th and 20th centuries. (HL) Botta.
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SPAN 401 - Directed Individual Study
Credits: 1
Prerequisites: At least nine credits of 300-level Spanish and permission of the department head. Taught in Spanish. Nature and content of course to be determined by students’ needs and by instructors acquainted with their earlier preparation and performance. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Staff.
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SPAN 402 - Directed Individual Study
Credits: 2
Prerequisites: At least nine credits of 300-level Spanish and permission of the department head. Taught in Spanish. Nature and content of course to be determined by students’ needs and by instructors acquainted with their earlier preparation and performance. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Staff.
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SPAN 403 - Directed Individual Study
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: At least nine credits of 300-level Spanish and permission of the department head. Taught in Spanish. Nature and content of course to be determined by students’ needs and by instructors acquainted with their earlier preparation and performance. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Staff.
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SPAN 493 - Honors Thesis
Credits: 3-3
Prerequisites: Senior standing, honors candidacy, and instructor consent. Interested students should see a member of the Spanish faculty by winter term of their junior year. May not count towards fulfillment of the major requirements.
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Theater |
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DANC 201 - Artistic Identity in Contemporary European Dance
Credits: 2
This course provides an introduction through video and text to influential European dance artists. We explore the contemporary aesthetics of these artists, how their particular culture and society influences, their movement choices, and the ways in which society adapts to their new forms of expression. We examine how art is produced, challenged, and transformed. We study the ways in which these cultures interact and affect one another through dance, examine hybrid styles, and explore ethnic and national identity in a global society. This class provides a framework for further exploration in the Spring term course, DANC 202: Dance Europe Davies.
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THTR 100 - Introduction to Theater
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
An introduction to drama and the theater arts, including a brief historical survey, selected examples of dramatic literature, and a sequence on theater disciplines such as acting, designing, and directing. Staff.
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THTR 109 - University Theater
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 1
Prerequisite: Instructor consent. Participation in a university theater production for a minimum of 40 hours. A journal recording the production process is required. May be repeated for degree credit with permission. Maximum seven credits for students with a major or minor in theater, eight credits for others. Staff.
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THTR 121 - Script Analysis for Stage and Screen
(FILM 121) FDR: HL
Credits: 3
The study of selected plays and screenplays from the standpoint of the theatre and screen artists. Emphasis on thorough examination of the scripts preparatory to production. This course is focused on developing script analysis skills directly applicable to work in production. Students work collaboratively in various creative capacities to transform texts into productions. Sandberg, Levy, Collins, Evans.
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THTR 131 - Fundamentals of Theater Art
FDR: HA
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 3
Corequisite: THTR 132 An introduction to modern theater practice involving two hours of lecture per week and participation of approximately 45-60 hours of work in a large-scale production spread throughout the term. A practical course, emphasizing scene-craft, stage lighting, and prop making. The student applies the methods and theories discussed in class to work on actual productions. Laboratory course with THTR 132. Staff.
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THTR 132 - Laboratory for Fundamentals of Theater Art I
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 1
Corequisite: THTR 131. An introduction to modern theater practice involving four hours of laboratory work per week. A practical course, emphasizing scenecraft, stage lighting, and prop making. The student applies the methods and theories discussed in class to work on actual productions. Staff.
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THTR 141 - Stage Acting I
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
An introduction to acting for the stage. In this hands-on class, students learn and develop physical and vocal techniques for text-based and improvisational performance, focusing on relationships, objectives, and actions. Work includes in-class scene presentations from modern scripts. Levy, Mish.
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THTR 180 - FS: First-Year Seminar
Credits: 3
First-year seminar. Prerequisite: First-year standing. First-year seminar.
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THTR 181 - FS: First-Year Seminar
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: First-Year standing. First-Year seminar. Topics vary by term and instructor. Staff.
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THTR 202 - Supervised Study Abroad
FDR: HA
Credits: 4
Prerequisite: Instructor consent. A Spring Term Abroad course. An intensive exposure to English theater and the current season in London. In addition to a full schedule of theater attendance, the course includes a study of theater training, production techniques and representative styles and periods of English drama. Collins, Martinez.
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THTR 203 - Preparation for Study Abroad; Swedish Theater
Credits: 1
Graded Pass/Fail only. This course is designed to enable students to participate successfully in the Spring term study abroad course in Sweden. During the weekly class meetings, students examine the historical, social, political, and artistic qualities that make Sweden unique, arming them with knowledge for their time in Sweden. Studying abroad, which promotes encountering cultural difference and, hopefully, crossing cultural boundaries, can be expected to be uncomfortable and even incomprehensible some of the time. As a result of this course, students will be open to exploring and enjoying those cultural differences. Evans.
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THTR 204 - Study Abroad in Swedish Theater
FDR: HA
Credits: 4
This course provides a broad impact on student’s cross-cultural skills and global understanding, enhancing their worldview. Students have the opportunity to acquire critical intercultural knowledge, appreciation of cultural and social differentness, and exposure to perspectives critical for global leadership. The course focuses on examining cultural differences between Sweden and United States through the exploration of the arts; however, because of the size of the class students are encouraged to examine Swedish culture from their own disciplinary interest. Evans.
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THTR 209 - Stage Management
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
Stage management is an essential position for all theatrical productions. Students develop personal management style through the study of techniques and skill sets necessary to manage and run stage and film productions. Students hone their management techniques by applying management solutions to specific production problems of a theatrical, dance, or film project produced by the department. Students are required to participate in a production in a stage-management capacity. Evans.
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THTR 210 - Ancient and Global Theater
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
This course examines the history of theater and dramatic literature from its foundations in ancient world cultures through the Renaissance. Since this history course covers over 2000 years of time, class meetings sometimes move at a fast pace. Students gain a general world-wide cultural understanding of the art and history of the theater from its beginnings, and how theater spread as a phenomenon across the globe. Since theater is primarily a cultural institution, we simultaneously examine politics, philosophy, religion, science, and other factors that influence how the art form is created, maintained, and culturally preserved. We also examine history itself as an important cultural tool for assessing the events of the past.
Sandberg, Levy.
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THTR 211 - Western Theater History
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
This course examines theater from the Renaissance period up to the modern era. Students read, analyze, and perform texts from this period, studying in detail how the theater is culturally created and maintained. The goal of the course is to gain a general overview of how the theater came to be what it is today. Since theater is primarily a cultural institution, we simultaneously examine politics, philosophy, religion, science, and other factors that influence how the art form is created, maintained, and culturally preserved. We also examine history itself as an important cultural tool for assessing the events of the past. Sandberg, Levy.
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THTR 215 - Modern Drama
FDR: HL
Credits: 3
This course explores the principal movements and aesthetics in the modern period in European and American theater history from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. Significant plays, playwrights, theatre artists and theorists are studied in context of the successive waves of modern movements: realism, symbolism, expressionism, surrealism, epic theater and theater of the absurd. Oral presentations, short research papers and performance projects will be required.
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THTR 216 - Contemporary Drama
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
This course explores European and American theater and drama from the late 20th century to the present. Significant plays, playwrights, theater artists and theorists are studied alongside the issues of postmodernism, capitalism, feminism, diversity and the emerging global economy and culture. Dramatic works under review also include solo and performance art, as well as fringe and political theatrical forms. The current state of theater is also a focal point for class discussion. Oral presentations, short research papers and performance projects are required.
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THTR 220 - Playwriting
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Instructor consent. An introductory workshop in creative writing for the theater that will focus on traditional forms of scene and script writing. Opportunities for collaborative writing and devised theater may be included. Weekly writing and reading assignments are required. Limited enrollment.
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THTR 227 - Discover Scotland: History and Culture through Theater
(HIST 227) FDR: HU
Credits: 4
Spring Term Abroad. For a small nation of just over 5 million, Scotland looms remarkably large in our historical, cultural, and artistic imagination. This course travels to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Highlands to allow students to go beyond the mythologizing and romance to discover Scotland as it has been experienced and performed by the Scottish people. Using Scotland’s vibrant and remarkably political theater scene as our jumping-off point, we study this country’s history and culture, examining the powerful intersections of myth and reality that shape Scottish identity past and present. We pay particular attention to the dichotomies – Highland and Lowland; urban and rural; separatist and unionist; poor and rich; Protestant and Catholic, etc. – that make modern Scotland such a fascinating subject of historical and artistic inquiry. Brock, Levy.
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THTR 236 - Special Effects for Theater
FDR: HA
Credits: 4
Additional course fee required, for which the student is responsible after Friday of the 7th week of winter term. In this hands-on, project-based course, students apply the process of iterative design and use critical thinking to provide creative solutions to solve the artistic effects required to tell stories in theater. Starting with textual analysis of given scripts, students develop the parameters required for various effects, figure out a process to create those effects, and make them. Collins.
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THTR 238 - 3D Printing & Desktop Manufacturing for the Theater
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
Desktop manufacturing has revolutionized the design and prototyping of objects. This course is an introduction to the use of desktop manufacturing technologies. Students learn how to create digital designs, publish them electronically and create physical versions of those digital ideas. The course concentrates on how these technologies can be used in theater design and technology. Collins.
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THTR 239 - Total Theater
FDR: HA
Experiential Learning (EXP): Y
Credits: 4
Prerequisite: Three credits in theater or dance and instructor consent. A practical study of design, directing, production and acting problems in a specific style of dramatic literature, culminating in a public theatrical production. Staff.
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THTR 241 - Stage Acting II
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: THTR 141 and instructor consent. A studio course continuation of THTR 141 with greater emphasis placed on research techniques and performance. Levy.
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THTR 242 - Musical Theater
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
Students learn, through study of seminal texts and video clips of performances and interviews with performers, a basic history of the American musical theater as an art form, combining the talents of composers, lyricists, directors, choreographers, set and costume designers, and others. Students research musical dramatic literature and apply musical and acting skills in the development and performance of excerpts from distinctive musicals of various eras. Students develop constructive, critical methods in the process of practicing and viewing musical theater performance. Mish.
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THTR 245 - Talk to Us: How to Make Friends and Influence People
FDR: HA
An investigation, using theatre, film, television, performance art, and stand-up comedy, of the ways in which speaking directly to an audience can or should influence them. In particular, we talk about the use of rhetoric to make an argument, and the relationship between performer/speaker and audience. Students evaluate the use of direct address in various media, and the class includes some domestic travel to attend live events. The course culminates with a public performance by the students. Levy.
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THTR 250 - Women in Contemporary Theater
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
This course explores the contemporary theater scene, investigating its plays, playwrights, directors and actors. The representation of women in theatrical art, as well as the unique contributions of contemporary women as artists, theorists and audiences, provides the principal focus of study. Traditional critical and historical approaches to the material are complemented by play reading, play attendance, oral presentations, writing assignments, journal writing and the creation of individual performance pieces.
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THTR 251 - Introduction to Performance Design
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
An introduction to the history, fundamentals and aesthetics of design for theater and dance with an emphasis on the collaborative nature of the design disciplines. Design projects are required. Lab fee required Collins, Evans.
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THTR 253 - Digital Production
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
Digital technologies and multimedia interaction are increasingly utilized to produce, enhance, and innovate theatrical production. Students examine and experiment with various digital technologies as they relate to theater and dance performance. Students create digital audio, video, design rendering, and animation projects for theatrical performances. Evans.
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THTR 290 - Topics in Performing Arts
FDR: HA
Credits: 3 credits in fall or winter, 4 in spring
Prerequisite: Three credits in theater and instructor consent. Selected studies in theater, film or dance with a focus on history, criticism, performance or production. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
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THTR 309 - University Theater III
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 1
Prerequisites: Junior standing and instructor consent. Participation in a university theater production for a minimum of 40 hours. A journal recording the production process is required. Staff.
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THTR 336 - Lighting Design
FDR: HA
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 3
A study of the practice of stage lighting, focusing on styles of production, historical methods and artistic theory. Culminates in a light design for a public theatrical production. Lab fee required. Evans.
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THTR 337 - Scene Painting and Scenic Art
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Instructor consent. This course is an exploration and application of the methods and materials used in painting and finishing scenery for the theater. The course covers both historical and current scene painting techniques, as well as the tools and paints that have been developed to support those techniques. Outside projects are required. Lab fee required. Collins.
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THTR 338 - Costume Design
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
A study of stage costuming with emphasis on design and construction. The course includes lecture and lab sessions. Lab fee required. Staff.
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THTR 341 - Acting 3: Styles
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: THTR 141 or instructor consent. An advanced acting class focused on performing the work of a particular playwright or playwrights. In this course, students enhance their scene work by examining the theatrical and historical context in which the plays were written, thereby achieving a deeper understanding of a performance style other than contemporary realism. Topics change regularly. May be repeated twice for degree credit if the topics are different.
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THTR 361 - Stage Directing 1
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: THTR 141 and instructor consent. An introduction to directing for the stage. In this hands-on class, students learn and develop basic techniques for integrating work with scripts, performers, and designers into a cohesive stage performance. Students direct scenes from realistic modern or contemporary plays, focusing on collaboration, clarity, imagination, and analysis to create stage pictures and character relationships that tell a specific story on stage. The class culminates in invited classroom performances. Levy.
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THTR 362 - Directing Practicum
FDR: HA
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: THTR 361 and at least junior standing. Students are required to direct a theater event. Levy.
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THTR 397 - Seminar in Theater Topics
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Six credits in theater or dance courses and instructor consent. A seminar in theater history, literature/ criticism or production with a specific topic and scope to be announced prior to registration. Work in the seminar is based on research, discussion and assigned papers and/or projects. Lab fee required for certain topics. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
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THTR 423 - Directed Individual Project
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Instructor consent. This course permits the student to follow a program of specialized applied research in order to widen the scope of experience and to build upon concepts covered in other courses. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Staff.
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THTR 453 - Internship
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: Departmental consent. After consultation with a theater faculty member and a representative of a departmentally approved theater or dance company, students submit a written description of a proposed summer internship with the company. Specific conditions of the internship and of required on-campus, follow-up projects must be approved by the department. Credit is awarded after completion of the required on-campus, follow-up projects. Mish.
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THTR 471 - University Theater IV: Capstone
Credits: 1
Prerequisites: Senior standing and instructor consent. Participation in a university theater production for a minimum of 50 hours. A journal recording the production process and a portfolio documenting the student’s productions at Washington and Lee University are required. Staff.
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THTR 493 - Honors Thesis
Credits: 3-3
Prerequisites: Completion of the required courses for the major, a 3.500 grade-point average in courses used for the major, and permission of the department. Students must have completed advanced theater courses in their area of interest, demonstrated ability in the area of interest as evidenced by course work, performance and/ or production experience, and completion of additional area-specific requirements. An advanced theater course that serves as a capstone to the major. Theater majors selected by the department conduct advanced theater research and individual artistic preparation, contribute artistically to the department’s performance season, and produce a significant written thesis under the guidance of a thesis adviser. Staff.
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Writing |
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WRIT 100 - Writing Seminar for First-Years
FDR: FW
Credits: 3
No credit for students who have completed FW through exemption. Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition with readings ranging across modes, forms, and genres in the humanities, social sciences, or sciences. The sections vary in thematic focus across disciplines, but all students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-01: Writing Seminar for First Years: Wicked Women (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. This section begins with Chaucer’s Wife of Bath and ends with recent essays on Hillary Clinton. In between, we examine witches, femme fatales, and prostitutes, considering representations of difficult women in literature, journalism, and film. The course is not for women only—for instance, our discussion of witchcraft and wizardry runs from Miller’s The Crucible through excerpts from Harry Potter. (FW) Brodie.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-02: Writing Seminar for First Years: AdaptationX2 (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. Film adaptations of stories, novels, plays, and even historical events or persons (see, for example, the long career of Oliver Stone and his Snowden, World Trade Center, and JFK) have proven a mainstay of a multibillion-dollar industry along with a perennial concern of newspaper reviews, cultural debates, and dinner-table conversations. We explore this phenomenon through a series of case studies and raise the stakes by looking at instances in which there have been multiple adaptations (here limited to two) of the source. Such material allows for productive classroom discussions meant to prepare students for their individual papers, but advances this central purpose by foregrounding complex, varying, sometimes contradictory perspectives that at once require and foster careful thinking, analysis, and writing. The course showcases four examples (each comprising a written work and two subsequent film adaptations) drawn from numerous possibilities—a myth or fairy take such as “Cinderella”, A Christmas Carol, Jane Eyre, a Sherlock Holmes detective story, The Picture of Dorian Gray, True Grit, Murder on the Orient Express, The Maltese Falcon, Talented Mr. Ripley, Casino Royale, and The Shining. (FW) Adams.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-03: Writing Seminar for First Years: War is Hell: Literary Depictions of the Second World War (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. General William T. Sherman famously told a crowd in Columbus, Ohio, in the year 1880 that, “There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.” In this seminar, we read, discuss, and write about three famous novels by authors who agreed with Sherman but chose very different strategies to convey that message: The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer (1948), Joseph Heller’s dark comedy, Catch 22 (1961), and Thomas Keneally’s carefully researched Schindler’s List (1982). We compare these novels with reminiscences by women workers on the “home front” to investigate the different forms of suffering caused by the Second World War, its long-term psychological impact, and its role in causing social change in postwar America. We also compare the book version of Schindler’s List with the film directed by Steven Spielberg. (FW) Patch.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-04: Writing Seminar for First Years: Writing in Public (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. Fifty years ago, getting your writing into print could be tough. Now, anyone with a keyboard and an internet connection can publish their thoughts. But how do you get people to read what you have written? And what makes good public writing? How do you make your opinions about pop culture or animal cruelty interesting and persuasive? How do you join the public conversation, instead of screaming into the internet void? This class investigates public writing on topics as varied as Kim Kardashian, Black Lives Matter, September 11, and internet trolls. We examine ways authors use evidence and analysis to build persuasive arguments and team strategies for identifying and engaging with public audiences. We also produce public writing in response to the essays we read and learn the skills for setting up, maintaining, and promoting blogs and websites. (FW) Bufkin.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-05: Writing Seminar for First Years: Slaveries, Past and Present (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. This writing-intensive course reads about place and period, spanning ancient Greece, 19th-century Brazil, and 20th-21st-century India. What defines and distinguishes forms of enslavement ranging from war conquests to chattel slavery to debt bondage? How have abolitionists, past and present, defined and argued for freedom, equality, and other Enlightenment ideals? A readerly goal of this section is to excavate the presence of slavery in seemingly straightforward and “post”-abolition texts. Canonical works include André Schwarz-Bart’s novel A Woman Named Solitude, R. F. Conrad’s documentary history Children of God’s Fire, and the film adaptation of Patricia McCormick’s novel Sold. Such cross-genre readings emphasize the potential of form in articulating un/freedom and guides students in generating a final hybrid work. (FW) Rajbanshi.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-06: Writing Seminar for First Years: Conspiracies and the Paranoid Style (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. In this section, we explore the strange shadow realities of the conspiracy theory, from classics like the Kennedy assassination and alien autopsies to new favorites like lizard people and the flat earth. We watch a handful of movies and read some fiction, some creative non-fiction, and some things that defy categorization, with the goal of understanding how conspiracy theorists construct arguments and how to recognize when we might be buying into paranoid narratives or fake news. (FW) Ferguson.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-07: Writing Seminar for First Years: Mysteries, Puzzles, & Conundrums (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. We concern ourselves with mysteries, not in the generic sense of stories about crime and detection, but mysteries of character, morality, religion, and art. Central to each of the works we study is some puzzle, secret, riddle, enigma, or complexity. Sometimes the work itself is the mystery, a kind of hieroglyph. Each work, in its own way, raises questions about the methods and limitations of human discovery. We approach the student’s writing as a means of investigation and discovery as well, with an emphasis on developing the skills necessary to build convincing “cases” (i.e., arguments) when evidence is incomplete, ambiguous, or contradictory. (FW) Oliver.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-08: Writing Seminar for First Years: Animals, People, and Cyborgs (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. This section examines the relationships of human beings to nature and technology. What kinds of relationships do we have with animals, both wild and domestic? Where do we draw the boundary between humans and machines? Does humanity occupy a (privileged) middle ground between other kinds of being? Our readings come from a mix of science, environmental literature, and science fiction. (FW) Warren.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-09: Writing Seminar for First Years: A Whole New World (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. In this age of global travel, economics, and politics, people can go almost anywhere and find similar technology and consumer goods, experiencing a new place as a comfortable and in some ways familiar variation on home. At other times visitors and newcomers really have discovered a whole new world. In this section, students study novels, movies, and other accounts of cultural encounters between people who have been in the same place but experienced very different worlds. Works may include James Welch’s Fools Crow about white men first meeting the Blackfeet Indians in Montana, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart about the English first coming to Nigeria, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road about the breakdown of shared culture in a post-apocalyptic world. We also think about how such encounters are depicted in popular culture, from Disney movies to advertisements to music videos. We compare these fictional encounters with international experiences, issues, and conflicts today. (FW) Smout.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-10: Writing Seminar for First Years: Magic, Realism and Alternative Facts: Literature, Politics and the Creation of Reality (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. In our class we study works by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alejo Carpentier, Isabel Allende and others, who responded to government-sponsored atrocities in Latin America through the literary form of Magical Realism. When confronted by political machines insistent on minimizing, denying and ultimately erasing brutal events, these authors paradoxically embraced the fantastical in order to accurately portray reality. With this as our starting point, we continue to consider other authors and different forms of media, including the contemporary and popular, to examine the role of fact in both showing, and shaping, reality. (FW) Fuentes.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-11: Writing Seminar for First-Years: The Nature of Nature: Environmental Thought and Literature (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. This section is an exploration of the human relationship to nature. How do writers, poets, and environmental thinkers understand their relationships to “the natural world”? How can we understand our own? In this section, we read widely within environmental literature. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Annie Dillard, and Wendell Berry, among others, provide scaffolding for our discussion of “nature”, “truth”, “individuality”, “community”, “life”, “death”, “knowledge”, and “mystery”, and the relationships these ideas have to one another. We explore the implications of these ideas for an individual life as well as for a globalized world in which ecological concern is a matter of daily news and attention. (FW) Green.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-12: Writing Seminar for First Years: Immigrant Voices (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. This section stresses active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style as we examine how the voices of recent immigrants to the United States speak to us about social struggle, tradition, isolation, discovery, prejudice, identity, transition and freedom. We explore the lives and experiences, cultural differences and challenges of various immigrant communities and different generations within immigrant families. Throughout focused reading and class discussions about contemporary novels, short stories, media, and related articles by and about recent immigrants to the United States, students learn to compose clear, organized, and well-supported articulations of their understanding of the texts and issues at hand. (FW) Ruiz.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-13: Writing Seminar for First Years: Wicked Women (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. This section begins with Chaucer’s Wife of Bath and ends with recent essays on Hillary Clinton. In between, we examine witches, femme fatales, and prostitutes, considering representations of difficult women in literature, journalism, and film. The course is not for women only—for instance, our discussion of witchcraft and wizardry runs from Miller’s The Crucible through excerpts from Harry Potter. (FW) Brodie.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-14: Writing Seminar for First-Years: The Nature of Nature: Environmental Thought and Literature (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. This section is an exploration of the human relationship to nature. How do writers, poets, and environmental thinkers understand their relationships to “the natural world”? How can we understand our own? In this section, we read widely within environmental literature. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Annie Dillard, and Wendell Berry, among others, provide scaffolding for our discussion of “nature”, “truth”, “individuality”, “community”, “life”, “death”, “knowledge”, and “mystery”, and the relationships these ideas have to one another. We explore the implications of these ideas for an individual life as well as for a globalized world in which ecological concern is a matter of daily news and attention. (FW) Green.
Winter 2018, WRIT 100-15: Writing Seminar for First Years: Controversies in Children’s Literature (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. In this section, students engage with works written for children (some classic and some modern, some fiction and some nonfiction) and apply a critical lens to issues involving violent content, gender representation, racial stereotyping, religious objections, and historical accuracy. Coursework will stress active reading, critical analysis, argumentation, presentation of evidence, and clarity of style. (FW) Harrington.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-01: Writing Seminar for First-Years: The Good Wife (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. This seminar considers the good wife, or, how to survive a marriage, run a household, and save a kingdom, by examining two iconic wives in literature: Griselda and Scheherazade. One is known for her sacrificial patience, the other, cunning fabrication. Yet both share the status of female paragons around whom a community coheres. Reading an eclectic range of texts from the medieval to the postmodern, we ask how gender shapes representation, and vice versa. We chart the various transformations of the two female archetypes through literary history and are on the lookout for moments of breakdown under the burden of exemplarity. And if their goodness resides in securing common profit, how do Griselda and Scheherazade compare to other figures of femininity, such as the diva and the whore? Throughout the seminar, our emphasis is on learning the craft of academic writing via close reading, research, and engagement with critical sources. That is, we read, think, and write like Griselda and Scheherazade—with fortitude and deftness. (FW) Kao.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-02: Writing Seminar for First-Years: Slaveries, Past and Present (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. This seminar reads about forms of bondage spanning ancient Greece, 19th-century Brazil, and 20th- and 21st-centrury India. What define and distinguish forms of enslavement ranging from war conquests to chattel slavery to debt bondage? How have abolitionists, past and present, defined and argued for freedom, equality, and other Enlightenment ideals? A readerly goal of this course is to excavate the presence of slavery in seemingly straightforward and “post”-abolition texts. Works include a novel (A Woman Named Solitude), a documentary history (Children of God’s Fire), and a film adaptation (the novel Sold). (FW) Rajbanshi.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-03: Writing Seminar for First-Years: Faith, Doubt and Identity (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. In this writing-intensive seminar, we explore the topic of belief and how it shapes a person’s selfhood. How does being a part of a religious community, or a variety of religious communities, shape one’s identity? How does identity change with the adoption of either belief, skepticism, or another culture? We ask these questions primarily through the genres of novels and short stories, examining lives of faith and doubt. In addition to completing a series of argumentative papers, students practice multimodal writing by creating digital stories. (FW) Gertz.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-04: Writing Seminar for First-Years: Business Writing Essentials (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. From emails to pitch books, writing remains a foundation of modern business communication. This section offers students the essential theories, skills, strategies, and tactics to become effective written communicators in modern business settings. Students taking this course develop written work purposefully designed to engage readers within a business context with well-researched information and well-founded arguments. Students analyze, discuss, and produce various forms of professional documentation as they develop their abilities to write ethically and effectively. Projects involve chirographic, print, digital, verbal, and non-verbal forms of business writing. (FW) Lind.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-05: Writing Seminar for First-Years: Aspects of Elizabeth (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) is among history’s most fascinating figures. She ruled a small island, beset by threats both external and internal, during a period of tremendous political, religious and cultural change. Her 45-year reign saw the conspiracies and eventual execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, the consolidation of the Church of England, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the flowering of English culture in such figures as Shakespeare, Donne, and Marlowe. We learn about both the public and private Elizabeth by focusing on four distinct topics: her own poetry, letters and speeches; the portraits of her as princess and queen; her controversial personal and political relationship with Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; and films about Elizabeth. The primary texts of the course are each other’s essays; we learn about our topic by reading what other students have written, while focusing most of our class time on improving our writing skills. (FW) Dobin.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-06: Writing Seminar for First-Years: Fiends, Monsters, and Tyrants: Gothic Literature from Frankenstein to Coraline (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. Beginning with the first gothic novel in 1764, the gothic has thrilled readers for centuries. Featuring a wide variety of foes, the gothic novel offers readers a way to explore their deepest fears: Frankenstein (1818), for instance, speaks to concerns about scientific ambition, while Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) taps into anxiety about whether you can ever really know your neighbor (or yourself). In this course, students learn the fundamentals of strong writing, with an emphasis on clarity, use of evidence, and argumentation. Students build these skills in a series of writing assignments; in addition to literary analyses, students write papers examining how the gothic speaks to our contemporary moment, culminating in a project in which they create a gothic work of their own. (FW) Walle.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-07: Writing Seminar for First-Years: Superheroes (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. This writing-focused course studies the development of superhero graphic narratives as a genre and comics as an art form through the 20th and into the 21st century. Likely texts include Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s Superman episodes in Action Comics (1938), Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Amazing Spider-Man (1962), Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz’s Elektra: Assassin (1987), and Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona’s Ms. Marvel (2015). (FW) Gavaler.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-08: Writing Seminar for First-Years; Magic, Realism and Alternative Facts: Literature, Politics and the Creation of Reality (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. In this section, we study works by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alejo Carpentier, Isabel Allende and others, who responded to government-sponsored atrocities in Latin America through the literary form of Magical Realism. When confronted by political machines insistent on minimizing, denying and ultimately erasing brutal events, these authors paradoxically embraced the fantastical in order to accurately portray reality. With this as our starting point, we continue on to consider other authors and different forms of media, including the contemporary and popular, to examine the role of fact in both showing, and shaping, reality. (FW) Fuentes.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-09: Writing Seminar for First-Years: A Whole New World (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. In this age of global travel, economics, and politics, people can go almost anywhere and find similar technology and consumer goods, experiencing a new place as a comfortable and in some ways familiar variation on home. At other times visitors and newcomers really have discovered a whole new world. In this section, students study novels, movies, and other accounts of cultural encounters between people who have been in the same place but experienced very different worlds. Works may include James Welch’s Fools Crow about white men first meeting the Blackfeet Indians in Montana, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart about the English first coming to Nigeria, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road about the breakdown of shared culture in a post-apocalyptic world. We also think about how such encounters are depicted in popular culture, from Disney movies to advertisements to music videos. We compare these fictional encounters with international experiences, issues, and conflicts today. (FW) Smout.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-10: Writing Seminar for First-Years: Mysteries, Puzzles, & Conundrums (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. In this section, we concern ourselves with mysteries, not in the generic sense of stories about crime and detection, but mysteries of character, morality, religion, and art. Central to each of the works we study is some puzzle, secret, riddle, enigma, or complexity. Sometimes the work itself is the mystery, a kind of hieroglyph. Each work, in its own way, raises questions about the methods and limitations of human discovery. We approach the student’s writing as a means of investigation and discovery as well, with an emphasis on developing the skills necessary to build convincing “cases” (i.e., arguments) when evidence is incomplete, ambiguous, or contradictory. (FW) Oliver.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-11: Writing Seminar for First-Years: Other Worlds (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. This section focuses on fiction and poetry about borders and boundary states. Many of the readings, too, come from the edges of genre. Authors may include Butler, Le Guin, Mandel, and other 20th- and 21st-century writers. In addition to critical writing, there are creative writing options. (FW) Wheeler.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-12: Writing Seminar for First-Years: Nonconformity and Community (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. What’s the proper role of nonconformity in the healthy community? How much conformity is needed to sustain a culture? Are complete nonconformity and strict conformity even possible? Through readings by classic and contemporary writers, we explore the importance of sameness and difference within the various communities to which we belong. In the process, the seminar includes an examination of some of Washington and Lee’s core values, including honor and integrity. (FW) Pickett.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-13: Writing Seminar for First Years: On the Flip (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. In this section, we explore the ideas of remaking and adaptation. We examine 20th- and 21st-century fiction, poetry, film, and hybrid texts that interact with subject matter stretching from Greek mythology to New World castaway stories to African American slave narratives. Authors and artists considered throughout the term include John Keene, Elizabeth Bishop, Steve McQueen, Gordon Parks, Anne Carson, J.M. Coetzee, and Luis Buñuel. What is the nature of the work they attempt? What is lost and gained in these re-visions? In response to these questions, emphasis is placed on critical reading and writing (and rewriting), as well as on research skills. In addition to traditional scholarly writing, an option exists for students to produce a creative project responding to the ideas of the seminar. (FW) Wilson.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-14: Writing Seminar for First-Years: Conspiracies and the Paranoid Style (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. In this section, we explore the strange shadow realities of the conspiracy theory, from classics like the Kennedy assassination and alien autopsies to new favorites like lizard people and the flat earth. We watch a handful of movies and read some fiction, some creative nonfiction, and some things that defy categorization, with the goal of understanding how conspiracy theorists construct arguments and how to recognize when we might be buying in to paranoid narratives or fake news. (FW) Ferguson.
Fall 2017, WRIT 100-15: Writing Seminar for First-Years: Business Writing Essentials (3). Prerequisite: First-year standing. Concentrated work in composition. All students write at least four revised essays in addition to completing several exercises emphasizing writing as a process. All sections stress active reading, argumentation, the appropriate presentation of evidence, various methods of critical analysis, and clarity of style. From emails to pitch books, writing remains a foundation of modern business communication. This section offers students the essential theories, skills, strategies, and tactics to become effective written communicators in modern business settings. Students taking this course develop written work purposefully designed to engage readers within a business context with well-researched information and well-founded arguments. Students analyze, discuss, and produce various forms of professional documentation as they develop their abilities to write ethically and effectively. Projects involve chirographic, print, digital, verbal, and non-verbal forms of business writing. (FW) Lind.
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Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies |
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WGSS 120 - Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies and Feminist Theory
FDR: HU
Credits: 3
This course introduces students to the fields of feminist theory and women’s and gender studies by focusing on key theoretical concepts and surveying a range of topics that have been central to the academic study of women and gender. Such topics are likely to include the family as a social institution, gender in the workplace, beauty norms, violence against women, the history of feminist activism, and/or women’s achievements in traditionally male-dominated fields such as sports, art, science, or literature. Students learn to approach such topics using gender as an analytical tool that intersects in complex ways with other categories of social power, such as race, class, and sexuality. The course is interdisciplinary in approach and presents a plurality of feminist perspectives in order to offer a rich understanding of the development of feminist thought over the past several decades. Course assignments encourage students to use such thought to analyze their other academic pursuits, as well as the non-academic environments in which they live, including thinking critically about their own experiences as women and men in contemporary society. Staff.
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WGSS 150 - Women in Sport
Credits: 4
In this course, students use feminist theories and women’s studies to examine many aspects of women’s participation in sport in the United States. Students examine a range of topics including women’s achievements in sport; Title IX and associated arguments for and against its implementation; social and cultural influences on women’s participation; gender stereotypes associated with sport; and the role of the media in reinforcing gender-based stereotypes. Staff.
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WGSS 180 - FS: First-year Seminar
FDR: Offered occasionally. Each first-year seminar topic is approved by the Dean of The College and the Committee on Courses and Degrees. Applicability to FDRs and other requirements varies.
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: First-year standing. First-year seminar. Topics vary with term and instructor.
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WGSS 220 - 21st-Century Feminism: Where Are We Now?
FDR: HU
Credits: 3
Where it used to be considered a liability, the word feminist is now proudly claimed by pop stars and emblazoned on t-shirts. What has changed, and what should we make of this popular feminism? Does it herald a new age of equal rights, or does it threaten to undermine the progress that 20th-century feminists worked so hard to secure? Looking exclusively at texts published after 2000, this course surveys a wide range of feminist issues, including intersectionality, body positivity, sexual assault, trans feminism, popular feminism, feminist “merch”, the 2016 election, and the future of feminism. Walle.
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WGSS 235 - The Second Sex: Beauvoir on the Power of Gender
(PHIL 235) FDR: HU
Credits: 3
Sixty years after its initial publication, The Second Sex is as eye-opening and relevant as ever. Simone de Beauvoir’s masterpiece weaves together history, philosophy, economics, biology, and a host of other disciplines to analyze the Western notion of “woman” and to explore the making and the power of gender and sexuality. The Second Sex is an important philosophical and political document about inequality and enforced “otherness.” Referring to the history of philosophy, new developments in existential thought, and drawing on extensive interviews with women, Beauvoir synthesizes research about women’s bodies and psyches as well as their historic and economic roles. Verhage.
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WGSS 242 - Social Inequality and Fair Opportunity
(PHIL 242) FDR: HU
Credits: 3
An exploration of the different range of opportunities available to various social groups, including racial, ethnic and sexual minorities, women, and the poor. Topics include how to define fair equality of opportunity; the social mechanisms that play a role in expanding and limiting opportunity; legal and group-initiated strategies aimed at effecting fair equality of opportunity and the theoretical foundations of these strategies; as well as an analysis of the concepts of equality, merit and citizenship, and their value to individuals and society Bell.
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WGSS 244 - Feminist Social and Political Philosophy
(PHIL 244) FDR: HU
Credits: 3
This course critically examines the gender norms that pervade our identities, govern our everyday behavior, and organize our social life. Questions addressed may include: What is gender? In what ways does it affect the quality of women’s and men’s lives? Is gender difference natural? Is it valuable? Can it contribute to, or interfere with, human flourishing? Can a gendered society be just? What can any of us do to promote good relations among women and men? Bell.
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WGSS 246 - Philosophy of Sex
(PHIL 246) FDR: HU
Credits: 3
This course explores questions related to contemporary conceptions of sexuality and its proper role in our lives. Questions addressed include: What is the purpose of sex? Are sexual practices subject to normative evaluation on grounds of morality, aesthetics, and/or capacity to promote a flourishing human life? We consider the relation between sex and both intimacy and pleasure, viewed from the perspective of heterosexual women and men, and gay men and lesbians. What are our sexual practices and attitudes toward sex? What should they be like? Bell.
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WGSS 254 - Philosophy of the Family: Beyond Tradition
(PHIL 254) FDR: HU
Credits: 3
This course considers philosophical issues raised by family as a social institution and as a legal institution. Topics addressed include the social and personal purposes served by the institution of family, the nature of relationships between family members, the various forms that family can take, the scope of family privacy or autonomy, and how family obligations, mutual support, and interdependency affect individual members of families. Bell.
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WGSS 295 - Humanities Topics in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Depending on the topic, WGSS 120 or instructor consent. A topical seminar that focuses on an interdisciplinary examination of a singular theme and/or geographic region relevant to the overall understanding of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, such as Hispanic Feminisms. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
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WGSS 296 - Social Science Topics in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Depending on the topic, WGSS 120 or instructor consent. A topical seminar that focuses on an interdisciplinary examination of a singular theme and/or geographic region relevant to the overall understanding of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, such as Men and Masculinities. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
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WGSS 310 - Representations of Women, Gender and Sexuality in World Literature
(LIT 310) FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Completion of FW FDR requirement. This course examines a plethora of literary texts chosen from across historical periods from antiquity, through early modern times, to the modern and postmodern era and across several national traditions and cultural landscapes. Its main intellectual objective is to sensitize students to the ways in which women and gender have been represented in literary texts of various genres and to help them develop specific analytic skills in order to discover and evaluate the interconnections between the treatment of women in society and their artistic reflections in works of literature. Radulescu.
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WGSS 396 - Advanced Seminar in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: WGSS 120, junior or senior standing, or instructor consent. This course provides an opportunity for advanced students to explore in detail some aspect of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Specific topics may vary and may be determined, in part, by student interest. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
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