Winter Quarter 2026 A&H courses
This is for informational purposes only. Areas of inquiry, degree requirements, fees, and course descriptions may change. Check the time schedule or MyPlan BEFORE you register.
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For more A&H courses, use the Time Schedule.
African American Studies
Afram 334 – Civil Rights and Black Power in the U.S. (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Examines the politics and culture of the modern African American freedom struggle, which began after WWII and continued into the 1970s. Interrogates political strategies associated with nonviolent direct action, armed self-reliance, and black nationalism, as well as the cultural expression that reflect these political currents. Offered jointly with HSTAA 334.
Afram 337 – Popular Music, Race, Identity, and Social Change (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Focuses on popular music, shifting formations of race and identity and social change in various cultural, historical, and political contexts. Explores popular music as a tool for social change, a vehicle for community-building and a form of political and aesthetic expression.
Afram 350 – Black Aesthetics (5 credits)
Draws on both multi-media and print sources, including fiction, poetry, prose, films, polemics, historiography and speeches to explore the idea of a black aesthetic in various cultural, historical, and political contexts within the twentieth century.
American Ethnic Studies
AES 404 – Advanced Seminar in American Ethnic Studies: Visual Archives of Unfreedom and Liberation (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Comparative interdisciplinary study of race and ethnicity. Examines experiences and cultural expressions of racialized communities in the U.S. and its diasporas from a cultural studies' perspective. Explores how expressive cultures engage and transform racial formations and their intersections, animating social relations of everyday life and reshaping structures of power.
Asian American Studies
AAS 320 – Hawaii’s Literatures (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Covers views by Native Hawaiian and multicultural writers and composers, studied within historical contexts ranging from the eighteenth century to the present. Examines how the colonization of a sovereign people redefines culture in ethnocentric, racist, Orientialist ways. Analyzes strategies of decolonization as presented and interpreted in works studied. Offered jointly AIS 375C.
American Indian Studies
AIS 305 – American Indian and Indigenous Storytelling (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Stories tell us who we are, where we come from, and how to properly relate to the other creatures with whom we share this world. In telling and listening to these stories, we build community. Hear stories from two master storytellers, one local, one from Cherokee Nation, and learn to tell your own stories in this rich and interactive course.
AIS 310 – Linguistic Approach to Culture: Southern Lushootseed Seasonal Calendar (5 credits)
Diversity credit
This course begins with readings and research to build discussions pertaining to cultural calendars, historical ways of life and cultural sensitivities. Topics of research and study will include stories of seasons, the moons cycles tides, commonly used language terms and a geographical study that demonstrates plant, food sources and typical weather all of which takes place during each season and month. The historical studies will provide the necessary connections that will build an understanding to what cultural aspects still continue today and aid in the production of modern cultural calendars as each student will construct an individual calendar through their own research. Although not required, this course is an excellent avenue for additional study of the 3-course Lushootseed language sequence.
AIS 377 – Contemporary American Indian Literature (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Creative writings (novels, short stories, poems) of contemporary Indian authors; the traditions out of which these works evolved. Differences between Indian writers and writers of the dominant European/American mainstream. Offered jointly with ENGL 359.
Anthropology
Anth 233 – Language and Society (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Introduces the study of sociolects, the varieties of language that arise from differences in cultural and societal groups, often reflective of power inequalities. Raises awareness of the role that society and the individual play in shaping sociolects via the systematic observation and critical discussion of linguistic phenomena. Offered jointly with COM 233/LING 233.
Anth 303 – Health Technologies (5 credits)
Ethnographic, historical, and philosophical approaches to the study of technologies in biomedical sciences and care. Topics include infrastructures, colonialism development, reproduction, race, gender, disability, subjectivities, visualization, and diagnosis. Prerequisite: ANTH 208, ANTH 215, or ANTH 302.
Architecture
Arch 150 – Appreciation of Architecture I (3 credits)
Online/asynchronous
Online course. Historical survey of global architecture and built environments with reference to environmental, technological, and socio-cultural contexts, from prehistory to 1400. For nonmajors.
Arch 151 – Appreciation of Architecture II (3 credits)
Online/asynchronous
Historical survey of global architecture and built environments with reference to environmental, technological, and socio-cultural contexts, from 1400 to the present. For nonmajors. No pre-reqs.
Arch 351 – World Architecture, 700-1750 (3 credits)
Surveys episodes in the history of world architecture during the period from about 700 to 1750. Course restriction: No Freshmen.
Art History
Art H 201 – Survey of Western Art-Ancient (5 credits)
This course surveys select developments in architecture, sculpture, painting, and other arts in Southern Europe, Southwest Asia and Northeast Africa from the bronze age to the 4th century. There are no prerequisites.
Art H 204 – Visual Culture: Michelangelo (5 credits)
Quiz sections, times vary
Study of art and visual culture as instruments of knowledge and methods of human expression that operate in many arenas of history, tradition, and the contemporary environment.
Art H 209 – Art History Themes and Topics: Photography’s Histories in South Asia
Writing credit
$30 course fee
Introduces students to new ideas, developing themes, and current research in art history and visual culture.
Art H 220 – American Art (5 credits)
Writing credit
$30 course fee
Broad survey of key issues and achievements in the history of the visual arts, including painting, sculpture, architecture, photography and prints, among other media, made in the United States or by American artists living abroad from the colonial era to the present.
Art H 233 – Arts and Cultures of the Northwest Coast: From Totems to Tennis Shoes (5 credits)
$30 course fee
Surveys indigenous art of the Pacific Northwest Coast from the Columbia River in the south to Southeast Alaska in the north and from ancient through contemporary times. Focuses on the historical and cultural contexts of the art and the stylistic differences between tribal and individual artists' styles.
Art H 260 – Fashion, Nation, Culture (5 credits)
Introduction to Italian culture focusing on fashion and manners from the late Middle Ages to today. Explores common assumptions about nation, gender, clothes, make-up, and manners, through literary and visual analysis. In English. Offered jointly with ITAL 260/JSIS A 260.
Art H 314 – Modern and Contemporary Art in India: Modernity and Modernisms in South Asia (5 credits)
$30 course fee
Surveys the visual arts of India from the late colonial through the postcolonial period. Topics include impact of colonialism, anti-colonial nationalist claims for art, shifting status of oil paintings, emergence of a national style, new art movements in urban centers, and art in the service of forge postcolonial identities and alliances.
Asian Language and Literature
Asian 207A – Special Topics in Literature and Culture of Asia: Namaste: Language Politics and South Asia (5 credits)
Explore South Asia through the politics of language in this introductory course. Whether you are curious about the region, have been greeted with a ‘namaste’ at your local yoga class, or grew up around South Asian languages, this course invites you to bring your curiosity and questions. We will put these in conversation with essays, poetry and academic texts by South Asian and diasporic authors to explore language’s links to postcolonial literature, history and identity. Across three modules on representation, colonialism, and speech and accent, we will study how debates about language have shaped the region and its diaspora.
The course has two goals – one, it will familiarize you with the history of modern South Asia and how the region is represented in diasporic contexts, such as the United States. Two, it will enable you to deepen your understanding of language and its uses in your life and writing. To that end, we will explore how texts in a variety of genres (literature, history, political tracts and non-academic writing) by diverse writers (academics, public intellectuals and literary figures) have made claims about language and its relationship to the self and the world.
You will use the course readings to produce a mix of academic and non-academic writing, including a translation project. There are no prerequisites, and you do not need prior familiarity with any South Asian language, except English. While all the texts we read for the course will be available to you in English, given the course foci you will be strongly encouraged to draw on any existing proficiency (fleeting, spoken or written) in languages other than standard English, including those not typically associated with South Asia. You will also compare texts written in different kinds of English to cultivate awareness about diverse writing styles and voices.
Asian 207B – Special Topics in Literature and Culture of Asia: Modern Classics of Southeast Asia (5 credits)
Introduction to the literature of one or more Asian traditions considered in its cultural context. Content varies depending on the specialization and interest of instructor. Texts in English translation.
Asian 223 – Buddhist Literature (5 credits)
Introduction to Buddhist literature in India, China, and Japan including biographies, poetry, narratives, ritual manuals, doctrinal treatises, and historical accounts. Attention also given to issues of textual composition, transmission, authorship, audience, context, and function. Taught in English.
Chicano Studies
CHSTU 332 – Chicano Film (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Provides a historical overview of the evolution of Chicano culture through film. Critically examines the portrayal and self-portrayal of Chicanos in film and selected works of narrative. Taught in English. Offered jointly with Comp Lit 357A/Glits 314B.
CHSTU 466 – Chicano Literature: Fiction (5 credits)
Examines nineteenth- and early twentieth-century fiction, as well as contemporary works in attempts to trace the development of Chicano fiction in the proper historical trajectory. Taught in English. Offered jointly with Comp Lit 321B/Span 466A/Glits 313B.
Cinema and Media Studies
CMS 274 – Perspectives on Meida: Critical Concepts (5 credits)
Provides an introduction to media studies, with particular attention to critical concepts including, but not limited to, audience studies, formal analysis, and ideological critique. Specific media analyzed varies.
CMS 315 – History of New Media (5 credits)
Study of new media histories and methodologies for research, with particular emphasis on new and emergent technologies such as the Internet and other digital forms. Specific media to be analyzed vary.
Classics
Clas 239 – Greece: From Ancient to Modern (5 credits)
How are Ancient and Modern Greece connected to each other? Partly real and partly invented, the bond between them can simultaneously be described in terms of revival and continuity, but also in terms of discontinuity, tension, appropriation and conflict. In the first half of the course we will look at some of the most distinctive features of and moments in Ancient Greek culture: the combination of competition and collaboration that gave rise to tyranny, oligarchy, and radical democracy, tragedy and comedy, athletic competition, and a much imitated style of art and architecture; how the Greeks presented themselves for generations to come in their literature, art, and architecture and saw themselves in relation to other peoples around them. In the second half of the course we look at Modern Greece and its relationship with Ancient Hellas: how has the heritage of Ancient Greece shaped Modern Greece? How have the excavations at Knossos and the debate about the Parthenon marbles impacted Modern Greek identity? How have Ancient Greek drama, myth and ritual been revived and to what end? What lies behind the modern (Greek) institution of the Olympic Games? How has the ancient Greek concept of democracy been used, appropriated, and abused?
We will explore primary texts and images both ancient and modern (poetry, history, novels, painting, sculpture, photography, and film) and a wide range of secondary readings in history, archaeology, literary criticism, cultural studies, and political science. There are no prerequisites. Offered jointly with JSIS A 239.
Clas 320 – Society and Status in Greece and Rome (5 credits)
Diversity credit
In this course, we will be examining the public and private lives of the ancient Greeks and Romans, with a special focus on status, class, and gender. The diversity of human experience in the ancient world will be explored through the following topics: Greek and Roman social organization (men, women, children, the elderly, enslaved people, and formerly enslaved people); housing; dress; food and drink; sex and sexuality; health and sickness; death and beliefs in the afterlife; magic and religion; politics; theatre and music; art and architecture; economics; law; warfare; athletics and spectator sports; etc. No prerequisites.
Clas 430 – Greek and Roman Mythology (3 credits)
Online course. Check Time Schedule for details.
Of the many traditions handed down to us by the Greeks and Romans, their mythology has surely exercised the farthest-reaching and longest-lasting influence and attracted a long line of artists, writers, philosophers, composers, and filmmakers. The extent of this influence results in part from the vibrant ancient literary and artistic tradition that has transmitted the mythology to us, though it should be borne in mind that classical (Greek and Roman) mythology makes up only a portion of our rich and varied mythic heritage. A familiarity with classical mythology can therefore significantly enrich one's appreciation of art, literature, music, and film, and beyond that, the myths often provide fascinating insights into human behavior, culture, and the individual and societal psyche. And, of course, the stories are in and of themselves exceptionally entertaining.
The overall aim of this course is to help you acquire substantial familiarity with the principal classical myths and the ways those myths are represented in Greek and Roman literature and, to a degree, art. Your responsibilities will include reading chapters from the required textbook (see below), viewing recorded lectures, and completing assignments determined by the assignment path you select.
Clas 432 – Classical Mythology in Film (5 credits)
Comparison and discussion of classical myths and modern films inspired by them. Promotes access to the reading of classical mythology. Analyzes significant differences between ancient literary and modern cinematographic representations of the myth.
Communications
Com 200 – Introduction to Communication (5 credits)
Introduces theories and research in communication. Explores the myriad ways scholars approach fundamental issues of contemporary human communication. Focuses on theories and research of communication (e.g. relational, group, political, cultural, and international). Acts as a gateway to knowledge about the communication discipline.
Com 220 -Intro to Public Speaking (5 credits)
Designed to increase competence in public speaking and the critique of public speaking. Emphasizes choice and organization of material, sound reasoning, audience analysis, and delivery.
Com 231 – Intro to Rhetoric (5 credits)
Online course. Check time schedule for details.
Introduces students to the over two thousand year old discipline of rhetoric. Through contemporary examples of texts and images from politics and popular culture, students will explore concepts such as: the public, identity, persuasion, difference, and ethics.
Comparative History of Ideas
Chid 201 – Radical Poetics (5 credits)
This course explores the revolutionary potential of surrealism, Afrosurrealism, and negritude as artistic, literary, and political movements, with a focus on the francophone Caribbean and its global resonances.
Chid 212 – Critical Perspectives on Belonging in Western Europe (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Emergence of ideals now associated with Western Europe through analysis of literary, artistic, or cinematic sources. How those ideals contrast with reality as experienced by marginalized others within and without its borders.
Chid 234 – Environmental Justice and the Humanities (5 credits)
Introduces central concepts and concerns within the environmental humanities. Includes scholarly debates in the field in relationship to wider cultural, political, and historical contexts as well as the imperatives of environmental justice.
Digital Arts and Experimental Media
DXArts 200 – Digital Art and New Art Media (5 credits)
Group start online course. Check Time Schedule for details.
$20 course fee
Investigates and illuminates Digital Art and New Media from a creative, theoretical, and historical perspective. Towards an exploration and discovery of the future of art, examines the paradigm shifts implicit in the inception and expansion of media art, as well as the dynamic core ideas that underscore digital art practices in the early twenty-first century.
Drama
Drama 103 – Theatre Appreciation (5 credits)
Group Start Online course. Check Time Schedule for details.
Covers the art of live theatrical performance. Discussion of how theatre is assembled, who the artists are, what they do, how theatre differs from other media, and how the various genres and styles of performance function, to create a deeper understanding of live performance.
English
Engl 204A & B – Popular Fiction and Media (5 credits)
Writing credit
No seniors period I registration.
Introduces students to the study of popular culture, possibly including print or visual media, understood as sites of critical reflection. Particular attention to dynamics of production and reception, aesthetics and technique, and cultural politics. Topics may foreground genres (science fiction; romance) or forms (comics; graffiti).
Engl 206 – Everyday Rhetoric (5 credits)
Writing credit
No seniors period I registration. Open to all students period II.
Introductory rhetoric course that examines the strategic use of and situated means through which images, texts, objects, and symbols inform, persuade, and shape social practices in various contexts. Topics focus on education, public policy, politics, law, journalism, media, digital cultural, globalization, popular culture, and the arts.
Engl 257 – Asian American Literature (5 credits)
Diversity credit & writing credit
No seniors period I registration.
In line with both the “model minority” and “forever foreign” racial tropes, Asian Americans are often viewed as newcomers to the literary and cultural scene. Against this prevailing attitude, this course will introduce readers to central works from across the two centuries of Asian American literatures. Along the way, we will address how authors have used literary texts to reflect, theorize, and negotiate the historical conditions of their existence, as well as how they have used writing to imagine new relationships to formal and cultural citizenship, racism and racialization, gender norms, class and socioeconomic status, and the expansion of U.S. empire during the “American Century.” Further, students will be introduced to key issues in Asian American literary criticism, and the course will culminate in students research and writing criticism of their own. As a course that meets the DIV requirement, you will be asked to learn about and respectfully discuss racial identity, community, systemic racism, immigration, citizenship, xenophobia, and U.S. imperialism. As a course that meets the W requirement, the course final will be the culmination of a quarter-long writing project; it will be due during finals week but will be submitted electronically.
Engl 259A – Literature and Social Difference (5 credits)
Diversity credit & writing credit
No seniors period I registration
Literary texts are important evidence for social difference (gender, race, class, ethnicity, language, citizenship status, sexuality, ability) in contemporary and historical contexts. Examines texts that encourage and provoke us to ask larger questions about identity, power, privilege, society, and the role of culture in present-day or historical settings.
Engl 265A & B – Environmental Humanities (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Writing credit Section B only
No seniors period I registration
Introduces the study of the environment through literature, culture, and history. Topics include changing ideas about nature, wilderness, ecology, pollution, climate, and human/animal relations, with particular emphasis on environmental justice and the unequal distribution of environmental crises, both globally and along class, race and gender lines.
Engl 322 – Medieval and Early Modern Literatures of Encounter (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Open to all students period II
Cultural encounters across medieval and early modern worlds, with particular attention to how these works depict cultural difference, race/racism, and geopolitical power.
Engl 347 – Non-Fiction Prose: The Essay (5 credits)
Open to all students period II
This class focuses on the essay, since it’s flourishing nowadays as a (well, is it?) genre. We’ll start with the Frankfurt School writer Theodore Adorno and his hair-raising essay on the essay as a form that affords certain ways of thinking. We focus (albeit not exclusively) on 20th and 21st century writers at work in the United States, and will put special emphasis on women writing, and the role of art in culture. To that end, the class presumes that Joan Didion and Janet Malcolm were two of the greatest American essayists, even as Namwali Serpell, Rebecca Solnit, Susan Sontag (“Notes On Camp” is mandatory), Rachel Kushner, David Shields, Ali Smith (the chapter on “On Form” from her Artful mayhap), and Zadie Smith are 1. extremely far from shabby and 2. likely to be on the syllabus. I’d also like us to spend time with the divine Hilton Als, because who wouldn’t; and ditto Anne Carson, a classicist and poet and yes essayist, whose work defies genre. Maybe we’ll read some avant-garde manifestos. Maybe you’ll write one. “Essay” is also a verb, and means to start, to begin, or/and to try—so we’ll see what happens as we essay.
Engl 376 – Middle English (5 credits)
Open to all students period II
Explores the language and culture of the Middle English period in England (1100-1500). Examines Middle English texts, the cultural importance of written material, the shifting roles of literacy in early England, the relationship to French and Latin, the regional dialects of English in the period, and manuscript culture.
French
French 378 – Contemporary France
Study of the historical origins and subsequent development of contemporary problems and characteristics of French government and politics, economy, and society. Taught in English.No pre-reqs.
Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies
GWSS 272 – Gender and Fandom (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Examines gender, race, and sexuality in transformation of cultural products by online fandoms, in both domestic and transnational contexts, across a wide variety of media.
German
German 243 – Fairy Tale and Fantasy (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Fairy tales are part of a storytelling web that stretches from 16th-century Italy to 19th-century Germany to contemporary North America. This course will trace that web, especially its environmental and ecological relations, and spin it in new directions through an adaptation project.
Global Literary Studies
Glits 250A – Intro to Global Literatures: The Sounds of Silence (5 credits)
This is a course for students who love to read, to linger with the joys and pleasures of complex literary texts. It is a course for students who love to learn, to learn about diverse cultures and varied people, about the profound depths of historical traditions, about the intricate pathways of human thoughts and behaviors. It is a course where the primary learning objective is to work toward using better the most powerful tool ever devised by human beings—language. We won’t read a huge number of pages, but we will practice how to read them with steadily increasing analytical precision. We won’t be writing a huge number of pages but will practice writing them with the fluency that increases rhetorical impact.
The core idea for the course is the sounds of silence. Our writers all seek to give voice to components of global ecosystems (psychological, social, ecological and economic) that are essential, but often unheard or ignored. How do we make the silences resound? A simple question, but quite sufficient for a quarter of reflection. This is a fully in-person course, where regular attendance and participation in class activities constitutes a significant portion of the grades.
Glits 252A – Intro to Global Literatures: Genres Across Time and Place: Electronic Literature (5 credits)
An introduction to literary study. Literature from around the globe, with focus on a specific genre such as novel, short story, fairy tale, myth, drama, lyric or epic poetry. Topics vary.
Glits 311A – Literature Across Time: Cervantes’ Don Quixote in Translation (5 credits)
Cervantes' Don Quixote de la Mancha: close study of this comic masterpiece, and the life, times, and works of its author. Consideration of the work's enduring influence and vitality. Offered jointly with Spanish 318A. Taught in English.
History of Modern Europe
HSTEU 276 – Postwar Europe: European History and Film After 1945 (5 credits)
Writing credit
Diversity credit
How did Europeans attempt to come to terms with the aftermath and legacy of the Second World War? As they sought to rebuild their cities, laws, empires, economies, and social relations in the wake of the war, the place of Europe in the world seemed ever more fragile. In this course, we will explore efforts to reconstruct Europe and European identity after 1945, as well as assessing the successes and failures of these efforts. We will address the themes of poverty and affluence, postwar justice, Americanization, the expansion and collapse of communism, decolonization, migration, and ongoing ethnic tensions that threatened new forms of warfare.
Throughout this tumultuous period, film offered a powerful way for Europeans to rethink their identity. We will focus on films that illustrate how Europe tried to memorialize (and forget) the wartime past, and what arguments Europeans made about how they might build a new future. The course thus provides students with an opportunity to explore the historical uses of film, and to sharpen their skills of visual analysis, along with an overview of key themes in post-1945 European history.
Jackson School of International Studies: Area Studies
JSIS A 207 – Asian Civilizations: Traditions (5 credits)
Writing credit
Online course. Check time schedule for details.
Interdisciplinary introduction to the civilizations of Asia, particularly those of India, China, Japan, and Korea. Explores the religion, philosophy, literature, art, and social and political thought of these civilizations from ancient times to the seventeenth century.
Jackson School of International Studies: Comparative Religion
Relig 456 – Gender and the Hindu Goddess (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Explores implications of the perception of a feminine divine for gender issues in South Asia. Includes historical overview of goddess worship in South Asia, mythologies, philosophical systems, cults, and rituals associated with the major goddesses, the phenomena of suttee, goddess possession, and women's goddess rituals at the village level. Offered jointly with Asian 498B.
Jackson School of International Studies: Jewish Studies
Jew St 215 – Ladino Language and Culture (5 credits)
Fundamental elements of Modern Ladino, the traditional language of Sephardic Jews of the Balkans and Middle East, including the traditional Hebrew-based alphabet and its Romanization, and basic grammar, syntax and lexicon. Historical stages in the development of Ladino and the social and cultural life of modern Ladino speakers. No prior knowledge of Spanish or Hebrew required.
Jew St 359 – Jewish American Literature and Culture (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Examines literary and cultural production about the Jewish experience in America. Considers ways in which American Jews assimilate and resist assimilation while Jewish writers, filmmakers, comedians, and graphic novelists imitate and transform American life and literature—with particular emphasis on questions of immigration, identity, gender, sexuality, race, inter-generational trauma, and cultural memory. The reading list includes: short fiction by, among others, Grace Paley, Cynthia Ozick, Philip Roth, Isaac Bashevis Singer; graphic novels/comic books by Art Spiegelman, Liana Finck, and Amy Kurzweil; several films, including by the Coen brothers; and other materials. Offered jointly with Engl 357/Glits 253A.
Landscape Architecture
L Arch 353A – History of Modern Landscape Architecture (5 credits)
Writing credit
Development of profession and art of landscape architecture in the United States, Europe, South America, and Japan in relation to prevailing social, economic, political, and cultural factors. Relationships with other professions, especially architecture and urban planning, and other arts, such as painting and sculpture. Open to non-majors.
L Arch 361A – The Human Experience of Place (3 credits)
Diversity credit
Interdisciplinary approaches to exploring the reciprocal relationship between people and the landscapes of everyday life. Through readings, discussion, in-class activities and mini-projects, students study place attachment, relationships to nature, environmental attitudes and perception, personal space, territoriality, urban public space, diversity, participation, and the politics of space. Open to nonmajors.
Linguistics
Ling 200 – Intro to Linguistic Thought (5 credits)
RSN credit
Not open for credit to students who have completed LING 201 or LING 400.
Language as the fundamental characteristic of the human species; diversity and complexity of human languages; phonological and grammatical analysis; dimensions of language use; and language acquisition and historical language change.
Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures
Melc 229 – Introduction to Islamic Cultures (5 credits)
Covers major developments in the formative, classical, and modern periods of Islamic civilization from seventh century Arabia to the contemporary Muslim world. Looks at the development of Islamic religious thought and legal practice as well as the Muslim polities, cultures, and intellectual traditions of Asia, Africa, Europe, and America. Offered jointly with JSIS A 210.
Melc 269 – Music Cultures of the Silk Road (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Explores music cultures of the Silk Road lands of Central Eurasia, China, and the Middle East from anthropological perspectives. Examines the interconnections between music and culture, and the political ramifications and the sociohistorical contexts of colonization, imperialism, and sovereignty on the production of musical expressions. Topics include culture, ethnicity, diversity of musical expression, literature, religion, and colonialism. Offered: jointly with MUSIC 269.
Melc 286A – Themes in Middle Eastern Literature: Middle East Illustrated (5 credits)
Writing credit
This course explores the dynamic intersection of word and image in graphic novels and animations about the Middle East. Through close reading, visual analysis, and creative exercises, we’ll examine how artists from and about the region use pictures and language together to tell complex, often challenging stories.
You’ll learn to “read” both text and image as cultural expressions—considering diversity, Orientalism, representation, and ways of seeing—while exploring how visual storytelling reshapes our understanding of the Middle East. Although our focus will be on graphic novels and animation, students are encouraged to incorporate related media such as film, anime, and video games into their projects. We’ll combine short lectures, group discussions, and hands-on exercises in reading, writing, and drawing (yes, doodling counts!). Students will keep notebooks for in-class writing and sketching, develop analytical and creative portfolios, and collaborate on group projects. No prior background is required—just curiosity, a willingness to read and look closely, and an openness to creative experimentation. Offered jointly with TXTDS 401B/Glits 314C. Cannot be taken is credit received for Melc 330.
Melc 305 – Biblical Prophets (5 credits)
Explores the Biblical prophets (in translation) within their Near Eastern contexts. Historicity, literary and rhetorical sophistication, and ideological agendas. Seeks to uncover the meaning and distinctiveness of Israelite prophecy within the context of the larger Near East. No knowledge of the Bible required. Offered: jointly with RELIG 315.
Melc 335 – Language Conflict and Identity in the Middle East and North Africa (5 credits)
Hybrid course
Diversity credit
This course explores social and linguistic aspects of the languages and cultures of the Middle East and North Africa. We examine the power relationship between language and ethnicity, the role played by language in power inequalities, and inequality in the distribution of resources. The central goal of the course is to introduce students to the interplay between social and linguistic variables in the context of the Middle East from a contemporary sociolinguistic perspective. The course examines the interaction of language and social variables such as power, class, ethnicity, gender, and education. We also explore the relationship between language and national/ethnic identity from the perspective of intra- and intergroup conflict. The course also touches on politico-linguistic issues in the region such as language planning, language loss, linguistic conflict, and linguistic rights, as well as considering how language policies and practices in colonial and post-colonial states evolved. Additionally, we observe the effects of colonialism on modern language policy and planning, as well as institutional language reform and individual strategies of accommodation and resistance to these policies.
Other issues include how language use relates to the sense of belonging to a national or local entity, and the concept of social identity. We will also look at identity politics and ethnic conflict, and the conflict between official languages and linguistic minorities. These topics have been discussed by scholars from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, history, sociolinguistics, education, economics, political science, and sociology. In this course, the contributions of these disciplines will enhance our understanding of language use as we focus on the Arabic-speaking countries of the Middle East and North Africa.
Melc 337 – Egyptian Cinema (5 credits)
History and development of Egyptian cinema. Examines a range of topics, including: the transition to sound, the differentiation into film genres, the nationalization of the film industry in the 1960s, the role of the director as auteur, and the recovery of the Egyptian film industry after 2000. Offered jointly with CMS 320A.
Music
Music 120 – Intro to Classical Music (5 credits)
Studies in listening, with emphasis on the changing components of Western art music. Illustrated lectures, laboratory section meetings, and presentations by guest artists. Intended for non-majors.
Music 131 – History of Jazz (5 credits)
Group start online course. Check time schedule for details.
Extensive overview of important musicians, composers, arrangers, and stylistic periods of jazz history from emergence of the first jazz bands at the turn of the twentieth century through post-modern bebop era of the 1990s.
Music 162 – American Pop Song (5 credits)
Group start online course. Check time schedule for details.
Diversity credit
Historical, social, and stylistic study of popular idioms from the late nineteenth century to the present. Most attention to contemporary idioms (rock, country-western, soul, hip-hop). Various facets of the industry examined to learn how they influence taste and musical style.
Music 185 – The Concert Season (2 credits)
Group start online course. Check time schedule for details.
Performances from the School of Music concert season, supplemented by lecture topics related to concert repertoire. Analysis of applicable musical topics appropriate for enhanced appreciation of historical and cultural contexts of works performed. Attendance at ten concerts required.
Music 251 – Music of the Americas (5 credits)
Music of the Americas.
Philosophy
Phil 242 – Medical Ethics (5 credits)
Writing credit
Introduction to ethics, primarily for first- and second-year students. Emphasizes philosophical thinking and writing through an in-depth study of philosophical issues arising in the practice of medicine. Examines the issues of medical ethics from a patient's point of view.
Phil 243 – Environmental Ethics (5 credits)
Writing credit
Focuses on some of the philosophical questions that arise in connection with environmental studies. Topics to be considered include: the ideological roots of current issues, values and the natural world, public policy and risk assessment, intergenerational justice, and social change. Offered jointly with ENVIR 243.
Polish
Polsh 325 – Science Fiction in Eastern Europe (5 credits)
Covers science fiction in film and literature of Central and Eastern Europe as shaped by world wars, totalitarianisms, and revolutions. Explores radical and uncompromising thought experiments and daring aesthetics found in works by Polish, Russian, and Czech artists and others against the volatile cultural modernity of the twentieth century. Offered jointly with Glits 252B/Slavic 200.
Russian
Russ 260 – Underworlds (5 credits)
Examines real and metaphoric underworlds in literature and films about the afterlife, the heroic journey, guilt, grief, violence, and redemption. Students learn how the mythic underworld functions not only in art, but in their own lives. Offered jointly with Glits 251A.
Scandinavian Studies
Scand 100 – Intro to Scandinavian Culture (5 credits)
The Scandinavian experience from the Viking Age to the present day. Covers the background for contemporary Scandinavian democracy with major emphasis on the cultural, political, and religious development of the Scandinavian countries.
Scand 316 – Child and School in Scandinavia (5 credits)
The child and school in Scandinavia as constructed and represented in film and literature. Approaches child and school through key cultural examples and scholarly studies of these topics. Focal areas include changing historical notions of childhood and youth, schooling, the welfare state, and Finnish schools.
Scand 367 – Sexuality in Scandinavia: Myth and Reality (5 credits)
The recent public global image of the Nordic countries involves their status as some of the most egalitarian and sexually open nations in the world. In Scand 367, we consider how they achieved this reputation, as well as what has changed (and stayed the same) since the decency debates of the 1880s. Our sources—literary works, critical articles, sociopolitical writings, film, art, and television—will help us to explore how the Nordics have perceived human sexualities since the late nineteenth century, while also acknowledging the complexity and heterogeneity of the landscape of family, gender, and desire in Northern Europe.
Slavic Languages and Literatures
Slavic 320 – Eastern European Fiction: Migrant Writers & Their Journeys (5 credits)
Introduces post-WWII Eastern European fiction created during and after the communist era, both in Eastern European countries and in exile. Includes works by Polish, Czech, Yugoslav, post-Yugoslav, Hungarian, and Baltic writers. Taught in English. Offered jointly with Glits 313A.
Slavic 425 – Ways of Meaning (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Focuses on the diversity of human experience and the social and cultural conditioning of language use. Language as a mirror of culture and national character. Universal and culture/language specific components in linguistic expression of emotions, courtesy/politeness and rudeness, prejudice and (in)sensitivities, linguistic expression of gender differences in different cultures. Offered jointly with Honors 394C.
Textual and Digital Studies
TXTDS 267 – Data Science and the Humanities in Asian Contexts (5 credits)
Applications of concepts and methods in data science to the study of the literary and cultural texts and to the study of language. Also explores humanistic perspectives on the role of data and data science in society. Offered jointly with Asian 207C.