2023-2024 University Catalog 
    
    May 06, 2024  
2023-2024 University Catalog archived

Course Descriptions


 

Sociology & Anthropology

  
  • SOAN 277 - Seminar in Medical Anthropology


    FDR: SS4 Social Science - Group 4 Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Despite radical differences in theory and procedure, the diagnosis and treatment of diseases are human cultural universals. This seminar first examines the beliefs and practices that comprise the medical systems found among a wide variety of non-western peoples. We then investigates the responses of a number of non-western communities to the introduction of western, biomedical practices. We finish by considering such ethical issues as whether or not non-western peoples who supply western doctors and pharmacologists with knowledge of curing agents should be accorded intellectual property rights over this information; in what situations, if any, should western medical personnel impose biomedical treatments on populations; and should anthropologists make use of indigenous peoples as medical trial subjects as was allegedly done by Napoleon Chagnon.
  
  • SOAN 278 - Health and Inequality: An Introduction to Medical Sociology


    FDR: SS4 Social Science - Group 4 Distribution
    Credits: 3

    This course introduces sociological perspectives of health and illness. Students examine topics such as social organization of medicine; the social construction of illness; class, race and gender inequalities in health; and health care reform. Some of the questions we address: How is the medical profession changing? What are the pros and cons of market-driven medicine? Does class have an enduring impact on health outcomes? Is it true that we are what our friends’ eat? Can unconscious racial bias affect the quality of care for people of different ethnicities? What pitfalls have affected the way evidence-based medicine has been carried out?
  
  • SOAN 279 - Conceptions of Race and Health: Black & White=Gray


    FDR: SS4 Social Science - Group 4 Distribution
    Credits: 3

    This seminar tackles the question of what is “race” and how does it affect health? In the United States, “race” is a concept frequently taken for granted. But what does “race” signify? Does race denote something inherently biological, cultural, or structural about one’s ancestry, background, or lifestyle? Is race truly a stable “ascribed” characteristic that has predictive implications for peoples’ everyday well-being? By specifically concentrating on the case study of health disparities for African-Americans in the United States, we explore the concept of “race”, and how societal conceptions of race affect health policy, people’s health outcomes, their access to healthcare, and their relationship to the medical establishment.
  
  • SOAN 280 - Gender and Sexuality


    FDR: SS4 Social Science - Group 4 Distribution
    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 3

    This class will investigate gender and sexuality cross-culturally. We will give special consideration to biology, cultural variation, intersectionality, and power. The class will be structured around a collaboration with Project Horizon, a local organization that provides education and programming to address the pervasive problem of domestic and sexual violence. Students will volunteer their time there, as well as produce programming ideas for healthy sexual culture on our campus.
  
  • SOAN 281 - Adolescence Under the Microscope


    FDR: SS4 Social Science - Group 4 Distribution
    Credits: 4

    This course focuses on adolescence through the lens of social psychology. Insights from sociology, anthropology, and psychology are employed to explicate the adolescent experience in the United States in contrast to other societies. Topics include: the impact of liminality on adolescent identity in cross-cultural perspective; adolescence as objective reality or cultural fiction; adolescence and peer relations, gender and suicide; and new technologies and virtual adolescence. Each student engages in a research project focusing on adolescence and identity through either interviews or observational techniques. The final project is a group analysis of adolescence as reflected in Facebook.
  
  • SOAN 285 - Introduction to American Indian Religions


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Same as REL 285. This class introduces students to some of the dominant themes, values, beliefs, and practices found among the religions of North America’s Indian peoples. The first part of the course explores the importance of sacred power, landscape, and community in traditional Indian spiritualities and rituals. It then examines some of the changes that have occurred in these traditions as a result of western expansion and dominance from the 18th through early 20th centuries. Lastly, the course considers some of the issues and problems confronting contemporary American Indian religions.
  
  • SOAN 286 - Lakota Land Culture, Economics and History


    FDR: SS4 Social Science - Group 4 Distribution
    Credits: 4

    Prerequisite: ECON 100, ECON 101, ECON 180, or ECON 180A. Same as ECON 286. This class focuses on the cultural, economic, and historical dimensions of the Lakotas’ (Titonwan tawapi ) ties to their lands as expressed in their pre- and post-reservation lifeways. It includes a 10 day field trip to western South Dakota to visit and meet with people in the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations and the Black Hills.
  
  • SOAN 288 - Childhood


    FDR: SS4 Social Science - Group 4 Distribution
    Credits: 3

    This course explores the experience of childhood cross culturally, investigating how different societies conceptualize what it means to be a child. Our readings progress through representations of the lifecycle, starting with a discussion of conception, and moving through issues pertaining to the fetus, infants, children, and adolescents. We discuss socialization, discipline, emotion, education, gender, and sexuality, with special attention given to the effects of war, poverty, social inequality, and disease on children and youth.
  
  • SOAN 290 - Special Topics in Sociology


    Credits: 3-4

    A discussion of a series of topics of sociological concern. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
  
  • SOAN 291 - Special Topics in Anthropology


    Credits: 3-4

    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. A discussion of a series of topics of anthropological concern.
  
  • SOAN 367 - Seminar: 9/11 & Modern Terrorism


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: at least junior class standing. Terrorism is a form of collective violence famously illustrated in the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington on September 11, 2001. This course provides an intensive interdisciplinary examination of the origins of the 9/11 attacks and the terrorist organization that launched them. The course also addresses the impact of the attacks and the future prospects of mass violence against civilians, as well as the role of the media in covering (and dramatizing) terrorism. Much of the course focuses on the social divisions and conflicts that lead to terrorism and its increasingly lethal nature over time. Topics include old “terrorism” (as seen in Northern Ireland and Algeria), “new terrorism” (such as that associated with Al Qaeda), the logic of terrorist recruitment, and the nature of and spread of weapons of mass destruction.
  
  • SOAN 370 - Theorizing Social Life: Classical Social and Cultural Theory


    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SOAN 101, SOAN 102, and at least junior class standing. Sociologists and anthropologists have traditionally approached their role as students of social and cultural phenomena from two different paradigmatic starting points: a so-called “Galilean” model and an “Aristotelian” model. Practitioners were thought that they could eventually arrive at covering laws as powerful as those of physics or, falling short of this ideal, arrive at significant generalizations about human phenomenon. This class explores the trajectory of this paradigmatic split among some of the founders of sociology and anthropology and how these theorists utilized their chosen paradigms to make sense of social and cultural life. We also explore the assumptions about human nature, society, and culture that informed each of these theorists approaches and the wider historical contexts influenced their thought.
  
  • SOAN 371 - Theorizing Social Life: Contemporary Approaches


    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SOAN 101, SOAN 102, and at least junior class standing. This course is an introduction to selected recent theoretical work in anthropology and sociology. Our two disciplines are not the same but they overlap. The best scholars in each discipline tend to read in both. We take such an approach in this course, looking at examples of (and opportunities for) cross-pollination.
  
  • SOAN 390 - Special Topics in Sociology


    Credits: 3-4

    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Prerequisite may vary by topic. A discussion of a series of topics of sociological concern.
  
  • SOAN 391 - Special Topics in Anthropology


    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: Permission of the department required. Topics and prerequisites to be arranged. A discussion of a series of topics of anthropological concern. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
  
  • SOAN 395 - Senior Seminar in Quantitative Analysis


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SOAN 102 and Methods requirement for the Sociology and Anthropology major. In this course students will carry out independent research on anthropological or sociological topics that they identify and develop in consultation with their professor and while working alongside their peers. Projects completed under the auspices of this course will use (or mostly use) quantitative methods, generally the statistical analysis of experimental or observational data. Students will develop a question, select appropriate methods, ground their approach in an appropriate theoretical perspective from their discipline of concentration (anthropology or sociology), carry out, write up, and present their research.
  
  • SOAN 396 - Senior Seminar in Qualitative Analysis


    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SOAN 102 and Methods requirement for the Sociology and Anthropology major. In this course students will carry out independent research on anthropological or sociological topics that they identify and develop in consultation with their professor and while working alongside their peers. Projects completed under the auspices of this course will use (or mostly use) qualitative methods, such as interviews, textual analysis, archival research, or field observation, among others. Students will develop a question, select appropriate methods, ground their approach in an appropriate theoretical perspective from their discipline of concentration (anthropology or sociology), carry out, write up, and present their research.
  
  • SOAN 401 - Directed Individual Study


    Credits: 1

    Prerequisite: instructor consent. A course for selected students, typically with junior or senior standing, who are preparing papers for presentation to professional meetings or for publication. May be repeated for degree credit with permission and if the topics are different.
  
  • SOAN 402 - Directed Individual Study


    Credits: 2

    May be repeated for degree credit with permission and if the topics are different. Prerequisite: instructor consent. A course for selected students, typically with junior or senior standing, who are preparing papers for presentation to professional meetings or for publication.
  
  • SOAN 403 - Directed Individual Study


    Credits: 3

    May be repeated for degree credit with permission and if the topics are different. Prerequisite: instructor consent. A course for selected students, typically with junior or senior standing, who are preparing papers for presentation to professional meetings or for publication.
  
  • SOAN 421 - Directed Individual Research


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 1

    Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory. May be repeated for degree credit with department consent and if the topics are different. Prerequisite: instructor consent. A course for selected students with direction by different members of the department.
  
  • SOAN 422 - Directed Individual Research


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 2

    Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory. May be repeated for degree credit with department consent and if the topics are different. Prerequisite: instructor consent. A course for selected students with direction by different members of the department. 
  
  • SOAN 423 - Directed Individual Research


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 3

    Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory. May be repeated for degree credit with department consent and if the topics are different. Prerequisite: instructor consent. A course for selected students with direction by different members of the department.
  
  • SOAN 493 - Honors Thesis


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: instructor consent. Honors Thesis.

Spanish

  
  • SPAN 111 - Elementary Spanish I


    Credits: 4

    Prerequisite: has not completed SPAN 162 or SPAN 164. Emphasis on listening comprehension and speaking, with gradual introduction of reading and writing.
  
  • SPAN 112 - Elementary Spanish II


    Credits: 4

    Prerequisite: SPAN 111 and has not completed either SPAN 162 or SPAN 164. Emphasis on listening comprehension and speaking, with gradual introduction of reading and writing.
  
  • SPAN 161 - Intermediate Spanish I


    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 112 or SPAN 161 placement and has not completed SPAN 162 or SPAN 164. Intensive, concentrated course in review grammar and reading, with practice in listening and speaking.
  
  • SPAN 162 - Intermediate Spanish II


    FDR: FL World Language Foundation
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 161. Intensive, concentrated course in review grammar and reading, with practice in listening and speaking.
  
  • SPAN 164 - Advanced Intermediate Spanish


    FDR: FL World Language Foundation
    Credits: 3

    Students with credit in SPAN 164 may not receive subsequent credit in a lower numbered Spanish course. Students may not receive degree credit for both SPAN 162 and 164. Prerequisite: SPAN 164 placement. Emphasis on reading and composition skills, with extensive practice in speaking and listening through class discussion. Some grammar review.
  
  • SPAN 165 - Advanced Intermediate Spanish


    FDR: FL
    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 4

    Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Departmental consent as a result of placement examination or by instructor consent. Students with credit in SPAN 165 may not receive subsequent credit in a lower numbered Spanish course. Students may not receive degree credit for both SPAN 162 and 165. This course takes place during the 4-week spring-term in Costa Rica. Students live with host families and attend classes five days per week for four hours in the morning and two additional hours in the afternoon. Emphasis is on speaking and comprehension skills developed in small groups with no more than three students per instructor, with extensive practice in reading and writing. Some Grammar review. Cultural component is based on visits to sites of cultural interest as well as readings and discussion on Costa Rica culture; Central-America and Latin America culture more broadly.
  
  • SPAN 200 - Service Learning Practicum in Spanish


    Credits: 1

    Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory. An obligatory corequisite to Spanish courses when the course instructor deems it appropriate. Prerequisite: SPAN 200 placement. The course comprises activities outside the classroom conducted in conjunction with the academic focus of the corequisite course with which it is taught.
  
  • SPAN 201 - Supervised Study Abroad: Costa Rica


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 4

    Spring Term Abroad course. Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement Direct exposure to the language, people, and culture of Costa Rica. Designed to improve grammar and vocabulary of the advanced student through intensive training in Spanish with special emphasis on oral proficiency. The program also includes a home-stay with a Costa Rican family, excursions to local and national sites of interest, cultural activities, and a service-learning component at the local elementary school, hospital, law and accounting firms, or other community agencies.
  
  • SPAN 204 - Conversational Skills


    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement. Development of speaking skills for communication in Spanish. Acquisition and use of practical vocabulary and development of pronunciation skills.
  
  • SPAN 205 - Spanish for Healthcare Professionals


    Credits: 3

    This course is for students with an advanced intermediate level of Spanish who are considering professions relating to healthcare including physicians, nurses, physical therapists, paramedics, firefighters, law enforcement, health policy, workers, medical attorneys, and hospital administrators. Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement. The course emphasizes oral comprehension while examining a diversity of factors influencing the health of Hispanic patients. A primary goal is to learn to conduct a complete medical interview in Spanish via a blend of readings, discussions, films, role-playing, and writing assignments. Students develop their ability to read, write, and converse in Spanish using information and vocabulary pertaining to the medical sciences and healthcare, and they gain cultural awareness and insights into Hispanic peoples and cultures.
  
  • SPAN 209 - Intro to Hispanic Linguistics


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement. This course provides a broad view of major subfields of linguistic study with a particular focus on data drawn from the Spanish language. Class discussions begin with broader questions, such as “What is language?” and “How do language and human behavior intersect?”; throughout the term students revisit those questions in light of topics presented in class. By the end of the course, students demonstrate an understanding of the many facets of the Spanish language and also the linguistic principles as can be applied to any language. The course covers major concepts in Spanish phonology and phonetics, Spanish morphology and syntax, and lastly, Spanish dialectology.
  
  • SPAN 211 - Spanish Civilization and Culture


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement. A survey of significant developments in Spanish civilization. The course addresses Spanish heritage and the present-day cultural patterns formed by its legacies. Readings, discussions and papers, primarily in Spanish, for further development of communication skills.
  
  • SPAN 212 - Spanish-American Civilization and Culture


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement. A survey of significant developments in Spanish-American civilizations. The course addresses Spanish-American heritage and the present-day cultural patterns formed by its legacies. Readings, discussions and papers primarily in Spanish for further development of communication skills.
  
  • SPAN 213 - Seville and the Foundations of Spanish Civilization


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 4

    Prerequisite: instructor consent. This course takes place in Seville, Spain, and uses this privileged location to study the cultures of Foundational Spain. Primary focus is on the medieval and Renaissance periods, from the troubled co-existence of Muslims, Jews, and Christians to the Christian reconquest and subsequent Empire. Significant cultural currents are examined through texts (literary, historical, and religious), direct contact with art and architecture through site visits, and with hands-on exposure to early and contemporary cuisine. Students live in homestays, attend daily classes, participate in site visits, and engage with the local culture independently and through planned activities.
  
  • SPAN 214 - Contemporary Spain in Context: (Re)searching Spanish Identity and Culture in the 21st Century


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 4

    Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement. This course examines contemporary social issues in Spain through lectures and interviews with local subjects in Spain. Lectures provide a formal understanding of contemporary Spanish society, while interviews of local subjects provide data for further analysis by the students that may challenge, complement or further develop their understanding of current social issues.
  
  • SPAN 216 - Living on the Edge: Identities in Motion in Argentina and Uruguay


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 4

    Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement. Conducted in Spanish in Argentina and Uruguay, this course comprises a study of Argentine culture, language, and identity. Students live in Buenos Aires with Spanish-speaking families while pursuing coursework on identity in local, national, and international contexts. What does geography have to do with identity? How might a nation redefine its policies and peoples over time? Where does the line exist between an economic system and its individual constituents? And what insights can art offer into domestic and international conflict? This course engages such questions through the study of Argentine historiography, literature, economics, and art. Coursework is accentuated by visits to sites of cultural importance in Argentina and Uruguay, including museums, banks, literary presses, political centers, meat markets, parks, and tango houses.
  
  • SPAN 217 - Somos Mas: Poetry, Ecology and Sovereignty in Puerto Rico


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 4

    Prerequisite: SPAN 162, 164, or equivalent. Conducted in Spanish in Puerto Rico, this course combines the close reading of literature with pertinent
    site visits as a means to examine ecological politics across the island, paying special attention to its rain forest, desert, ocean, rivers, and urban centers. Through the geographical specificity of our ecopolitical inquiries, we will paradoxically be examining the world, gaining insights into such fundamental sociopolitical concepts as sovereignty, coloniality, and autonomy. That is, foregrounding an awareness of the US annexation of Puerto Rico in 1898, as well as questions of indigeneity and slavery, we will continuously rethink how the local and the global are at once interwoven in distinct and consubstantial instantiations in Puerto Rican ecopolitics. This will help us in turn to deepen our understanding of the processes and legacies of colonialism, slavery, modernity, and neoliberal capitalism in the hemispheric Americas.
  
  • SPAN 220 - Introducción a la literatura española


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement. Spanish literary masterpieces from the Poema del Cid through the present. Readings and discussions are primarily in Spanish.
  
  • SPAN 240 - Introducción a la literatura hispanoamericana


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement. Spanish-American literary masterpieces from colonial times through the present. Readings and discussions are primarily in Spanish.
  
  • SPAN 265 - Rise Up! Indigenous Poetry and Resistance in the Hemispheric Americas


    LACS 265 FDR: HL
    Credits: 4

    What, if anything, can poetry do in the face of injustice? How, if at all, can it influence shared experience? And in what ways can it inflect, and perhaps even constitute, identity, whether individual or collective? To approach such complex questions, this course engages poetries of resistance by Indigenous poets of the hemispheric Americas. Together we will read and discuss a broad and scintillating diversity of periods, places, and peoples, all the while endeavoring to understand the potential intersections of poetry, identity, injustice, and resistance. Implicitly, this is also to say that we will be celebrating life. We will be exploring the potential of poetry to present and affirm diverse ways of being in the world, as well as its capacity to create new solidarities and communities, and to encourage equity and inclusion. To enhance such study, we also will read pertinent prose, drawing upon memoir, critical indigenous theory, gender theory, and trauma theory, among other interdisciplinary fields. Students will even try their hand at expressive writing (no experience needed!), and they can look forward to a collaborative, vibrant, and supportive environment for the free and open exchange of creative thought.
  
  • SPAN 275 - Introducción al análisis literario


    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 220 or SPAN 240. Preparation for analysis of Hispanic literature. Composition develops style and method for analyzing prose, poetry, and drama in Spanish. Conversation continues vocabulary building and concentrates on discussion of literary themes.
  
  • SPAN 290 - Topics in Latin American Culture and Literature


    Credits: 4

    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Prerequisite may vary with topic. Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement. 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.
  
  • SPAN 291 - Poetry Workshop


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 1-3

    The topical focus of the course varies by academic term. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Glasgow Writer in Residence and Romance Language Faculty. Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement. A poetry workshop taught in Spanish. Students read, write, and critique poetry with the faculty member in both the workshop setting and in individual conferences. The course also includes exercises in the translation and recitation of poetry.
  
  • SPAN 295 - Special Topics in Conversation


    Credits: 3-4

    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement. Further development of listening and speaking skills necessary for advanced discussion. Acquisition of both practical and topic-specific vocabulary. Appropriate writing and reading assignments, related to the topic, accompany the primary emphasis on conversational skills. Recent topics include: Hispanic Cinema and La Prensa.
  
  • SPAN 296 - Topics in Hispanic Culture and Expression


    Credits: 3-4

    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Prerequisite: SPAN 162, SPAN 164, or SPAN 200 placement. This course offers students the opportunity to further their understanding of Hispanic cultures and their expression by focusing on a relevant cultural, linguistic or literary topic, on an historical period, or on a region of Spain, Latin America or the U.S. Readings, discussions, and assignments are primarily in Spanish.
  
  • SPAN 308 - Power and Ideology: (Critical) Discourse Perspectives


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 215 or SPAN 275. This course explores different theoretical approaches to account for the relationship between language and power, and therefore the relationship between language use and social processes. In particular, it observes how meaning is constructed and reconstructed in the discourse manifested in different settings and platforms ranging from social media to institutional and official communication (political discourse, media discourse, academic discourse, etc.).
  
  • SPAN 309 - History of the Spanish Language


    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 275 and 3 more SPAN credits from courses numbered between 200 and 299. An introduction to the field of historical linguistics and to the genealogy and development of the Spanish language. It begins with an introduction to the field of historical linguistics: essentially, what it means to study the history of a language, the concept of linguistic change, and the types of language families. This is followed by the study of the genealogy and the development of the Spanish language from its Latin origins to present-day Spanish. These include the examination of the structures and peculiarities of Latin, the cultural and historical events that have influenced the shaping of the Spanish language, the properties of medieval Spanish, the most stubborn linguistic myths, and the development of Spanish outside the Iberian Peninsula, especially in Spanish America.
  
  • SPAN 312 - Ornament of the World: Muslims, Jews, and Christians in Early Iberia


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 211 or SPAN 220. Muslims, Jews, and Christians co-existed for eight hundred years on the Iberian Peninsula. This course examines these diverse cultures through texts (literary, historical, religious, and philosophical) from the eleventh century to the expulsion of Jews in 1492. The objective of the course is to glean from the remnants of the experience of their co-existence insights into the distinctive characteristics of each culture and how they understood and influenced each other.
  
  • SPAN 320 - Don Quijote


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 220 and SPAN 275. Close reading and discussion of this Early Modern novel. May include close reading and discussion of additional narrative and poetic genres of the Golden Age, as represented in or contributing to the Cervantine work
  
  • SPAN 322 - Spanish Golden-Age Drama


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 220 and SPAN 275. Close reading and discussion of a variety of selected Golden Age dramas of the 17th century. Representative dramatists may include Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina, Lope de Vega, and María de Zayas.
  
  • SPAN 323 - Golden Age Spanish Women Writers


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 220 and SPAN 275. A study of the comedia and the novela corta and the manner in which the secular women writers inscribe themselves within and beyond these genres. Close reading and discussion of representative works that may include the short stories and plays by María de Zayas, Ana Caro, Leonor de Meneses, Mariana de Carvajal, and Angela de Azevedo.
  
  • SPAN 333 - El Cid in History and Legend


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: 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.
  
  • SPAN 340 - Spanish-American Short Story


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: 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.
  
  • SPAN 341 - 20th-Century Mexican Literature: Beyond Revolution


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 240 and SPAN 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.
  
  • SPAN 342 - Spanish-American Narrative: The Boom Generation


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: 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.
  
  • SPAN 344 - Spanish-American Poetry


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 240 and SPAN 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.
  
  • SPAN 346 - Poetry in Prison: Immigration. Empathy, and Community Engagement


    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: 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.
  
  • SPAN 347 - Poetry and Power


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: SPAN 240 and SPAN 275. This is a course about reading. With tremendous care, and taking nothing for granted, we will 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 will “read” a diversity of pertinent 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 will enhance our ability to analyze and debate many different ways of defining power in the Americas from within, without, and in liminal zones. In this manner we will trace through poetry the complexities and tensions of transcultural, transnational, and transhistorical legacies of violence, all the while cultivating our abilities to read, write, speak, and listen rigorously in Spanish. This is also to say that our process will be thoroughly collaborative and interactive as we endeavor to discover the potentiality and even the hope in our difficult and sometimes even despairing project. Recurring motifs throughout the term will include sexism, racism, classism, and fascism, and each will be framed and examined by critical theory from leading scholars from the Americas and beyond. Students will leave the course feeling more confident and articulate in addressing through poetry many of our most urgent ideas about literatures, cultures, and historiographies of power and violence.
  
  • SPAN 354 - Spanish-American Theater: 20th Century to the Present


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: 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.
  
  • SPAN 380 - Spanish Grammar Rules: The Making of a Language


    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: 2 Spanish courses numbered between 200 and 299. This course analyzes areas of the Spanish language that are problematic for non-native speakers of Spanish. At the same time, students explore the processes involved in the standardization of a language, in particular the Spanish language, as a social and political construct.
  
  • SPAN 392 - Spanish Language Theory and Practice


    Credits: 3

    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Prerequisite varies with topic. 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.
  
  • SPAN 393 - Workshop in Literary Translation


    Credits: 4

    Prerequisite: 3 Spanish credits in courses numbered between 200 and 299. 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.
  
  • SPAN 397 - Literature of Spain Seminar


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Prerequisite: 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.
  
  • SPAN 398 - Spanish-American Seminar


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: 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.
  
  • SPAN 401 - Directed Individual Study


    Credits: 1

    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: instructor consent. Nature and content of course to be determined by students’ needs and by instructors acquainted with their earlier preparation and performance.
  
  • SPAN 402 - Directed Individual Study


    Credits: 2

    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: instructor consent. Nature and content of course to be determined by students’ needs and by instructors acquainted with their earlier preparation and performance.
  
  • SPAN 403 - Directed Individual Study


    Credits: 3

    May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: instructor consent. Nature and content of course to be determined by students’ needs and by instructors acquainted with their earlier preparation and performance.
  
  • SPAN 493 - Honors Thesis


    Credits: 3

    May not count towards fulfillment of the major requirements. Interested students should see a member of the Spanish faculty by winter term of their junior year.

Student Summer Independent Research

  
  • SSIR 481 - Student Summer Independent Research


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 1

    Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory. Prerequisite: instructor consent. W&L-funded support for students to pursue their own research or creative interest, with the mentorship of a faculty member. Students work 18-35 hours per week for no fewer than three weeks and prepare a research report.
  
  • SSIR 482 - Student Summer Independent Research


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 2

    Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory. Prerequisite: instructor consent. W&L-funded support for students to pursue their own research or creative interest, with the mentorship of a faculty member. Students work 18-35 hours per week for no fewer than three weeks and prepare a research report.
  
  • SSIR 483 - Student Summer Independent Research


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 3

    Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory. Prerequisite: instructor consent. W&L-funded support for students to pursue their own research or creative interest, with the mentorship of a faculty member. Students work 18-35 hours per week for no fewer than three weeks and prepare a research report.

Theater

  
  • THTR 100 - Introduction to Theater


    FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
    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.
  
  • 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.
  
  • THTR 121 - Script Analysis for Stage and Screen


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Same as FILM 121. 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.
  
  • THTR 125 - Speak/Persuade/Influence


    FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
    Credits: 3

    From courtrooms to comedy clubs, novels to movie theatres, stages to TV screens to corporate boardrooms, the use of direct address (acknowledging the actual presence of an audience by speaking directly and specifically and in response to them) has been part of performative human communication as long as we’ve been communicating. This course will study direct address in many of its forms in preparation for practicing it in our own public performance. Students will learn to read an audience, use persuasive rhetoric, choose body language and make vocal adjustments to present the “character” that will best persuade or influence their audience, and gain confidence in speaking in front of others.
  
  • THTR 131 - Introduction to Entertainment Technology


    FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 3

    Laboratory course with THTR 132. Corequisite: THTR 132 - Laboratory for Intro to Entertainment Technology Have you ever been wowed by a show’s lights, costumes, set, or video? This course takes you ‘behind the curtain’ to understand the backstage technology used to create productions in Theater, Dance, and Film. Through hands-on exercises students will be introduced to the tools, materials, and techniques for creating the scenery, costumes, props, painting, lighting, sound, and video for productions. Students participate as run crew 40-50 hours for one of the department productions during the term as well as complete the co-requisite lab course THTR 132. No prior theater experience is required.
  
  • THTR 132 - Laboratory for Introduction to Entertainment Technology


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 1

    Corequisite: THTR 131 - Introduction to Entertainment Technology An introduction to modern technical practice involving three hours of laboratory work per week. A practical course, emphasizing skills for creating scenery, costumes, props, painting, lighting, sound, and video elements for Theater, Dance, and Film productions. The student applies the methods and theories discussed in class to work on actual productions. Laboratory co-requisite course for THTR 131.
  
  • THTR 141 - Intro to Acting: Foundations of Collaboration


    FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Are you interested in being a lawyer?  A teacher?  A politician?  A journalist?  A marketing professional?  Or anyone whose job or social life requires interaction with other people?  (Or do you secretly want to be a star of stage or screen?)   In this class you will learn new ways to be a creative thinker and problem solver, a clear communicator, a savvy listener, and a great storyteller by connecting with others, playing games, and performing scenes.
  
  • THTR 180 - FS: First-Year Seminar


    FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: first-year student class standing. First-year seminar.
  
  • THTR 181 - FS: First-Year Seminar


    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: Prerequisite: First-Year standing. First-Year seminar. Topics vary by term and instructor.
  
  • THTR 202 - London Theatre


    FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
    Credits: 4

    Prerequisite: instructor consent. 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. A Spring Term Abroad course.
  
  • THTR 203 - Preparation for Study Abroad: Swedish Theater


    Credits: 1

    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. This course is designed to enable students to participate successfully in the Spring term study abroad course in Sweden.
  
  • THTR 204 - Study Abroad in Swedish Theater


    FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
    Credits: 4

    Prerequisite: instructor consent. 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.
  
  • THTR 209 - Production and Stage Management


    FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Production and stage management are essential leadership roles for all performance organizations. Students will begin to develop a personal management style necessary to manage and run theater, dance, and film productions. Students will explore methods and skills required to manage productions through hand-on exercises. The course offers students greater understanding of the artistic and organizational best practices for running creative performance organizations, while focusing on the collaborative communication essential to an inventive and safe environment.
  
  • THTR 212 - Reimagining the Classics


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    This course examines classical theatrical texts throughout history, from their original context of creation in the ancient world and cultures through to modern adaptations in their contemporary context. We ask the questions, “How and why are these texts a part of the dramatic canon of civilization?” and “What ties these works together across centuries and cultures?” Through exploration of the texts, students will learn about how the stories have transformed throughout theatre history in response to new audience demands and shifting cultural values and needs.
  
  • THTR 213 - Theatrical Outsiders


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    While most of us think of theatre as primarily a source of entertainment, over the course of its history, theatre has been a civic duty, a political undertaking, a source of propaganda, a religious act, a means of rebellion, and a lascivious sin. In many of these iterations, the stories it has chosen are those of people who are different, or special, or who don’t fit in. This course explores how definitions of “outsiders” continue to shift and how the treatment of them has varied in response to historical, cultural and societal changes. In looking at the stories of outsiders that both theatre and film present, we will ask how and why these stories continue to fascinate audiences, build theories about what purpose is served in telling these stories, and explore how these ideas might affect our own community and those who may feel like outsiders here.
  
  • THTR 221 - Writer in Residence Seminar


    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 1

    Prerequisite: instructor consent. A one-credit intensive seminar course in playwriting/screenwriting taught by a guest arist-in-residence and focusing on a specific topic.
  
  • THTR 222 - Writing for the Screen and Stage


    FDR: HL Literature Distribution
    Credits: 3

    This course focuses on the creating dramatic works for the stage and the screen. Students learn how to create a core message and idea; from that foundation, they practice building strong plot, bold characters, effective dialogue, and descriptive writing for these visual mediums. Writing techniques, structure, and styles will be taught through readings, lectures, in-class writing exercises, small group activities, and student presentations.
  
  • THTR 227 - Discover Scotland: History and Culture through Theater


    FDR: HU Humanities Distribution
    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 4

    Same as HIST 227. 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. Spring Term Abroad.
  
  • THTR 236 - Special Effects for the Theater


    FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Additional course fee required, for which the student is responsible after Friday of the 7th week of winter term. Do you like practical effects from films? Do you like to find creative solutions to problems? In this hands-on, project-based course, students apply the process of iterative design and use critical thinking to provide ingenious 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, and through a process execute practical rehearsal and final effect solutions for a show. No prior theater experience is required. Lab fee. 
  
  • THTR 238 - 3D Printing & Digital Fabrication for Theater


    FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
    Credits: 3

    3D printing has revolutionized manufacturing and prototyping. This course is an introduction to Digital Fabrication and concentrates of how to craft practical objects for use in theatrical production. Students will develop a systematic approach to envisioning digital designs, publish them electronically, and execute physical versions through iterative development, in order to achieve a successful stage prop. No prior theater or computer knowledge is required. Lab fee.  
  
  • THTR 239 - Total Theater


    FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 4

    Prerequisite: 3 credits in Dance or Theater. A practical study of design, directing, production and acting problems in a specific style of dramatic literature, culminating in a public theatrical production. Additional fee required. Laboratory course. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
  
  • THTR 241 - One-Act Performance


    FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
    Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
    Credits: 3

    Prerequisite: THTR 141. This studio course offers students the opportunity to perform in one or more short, one-act performances culminating in a public presentation. The focus of the course will be on clear oral and physical communication, improvisation, textual analysis, collaboration, and creative problem-solving. No prior acting experience is necessary.
  
  • 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.
  
  • THTR 251 - Exploration of Performance Design


    FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
    Credits: 3

    Lab fee required. Have you ever loved the costumes in a movie? Or the scenery in a musical? This course breaks down the fundamentals and aesthetics of design in performance. This project based course gives students the chance to create their own designs with an emphasis on how design tells a story.  Students will develop their own systematic approach and aesthetic through peer critique. No prior theater or drawing experience is required. Lab fee.
  
  • 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.
 

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