Schedule of Classes

Term

School

Subject

General Education

RESULTS:College of Arts & Sciences, Advent Semester 2024

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English

This course introduces students to modern British poetry, fiction, and drama, starting with the fin de siècle, continuing through high modernism and its mid-century detractors, and reaching to postmodernism. Using and breaking a variety of familiar forms, tropes, and conventions, the writers of this period work to understand and represent the practice of modern warfare, the disintegration of the British Empire, the rise of the English welfare state, and the slippery concept of "Britishness" itself. The survey explores these historical and cultural contexts, observes the different kinds of critical attention these genres demand, and emphasizes the practice of close reading.

A paradox of American literary history is that the South--the poorest and least educated American region, the one beset by the most glaring injustices, the one that seemed to resist modernity most fiercely—produced the most innovative and important American writers of the twentieth century, writers like William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, and Ernest Gaines. This course focuses most intently on their era, “the Southern renascence,” but examines its origins in the nineteenth century and its echoes in the remarkable Southern writing of contemporaries like Jesmyn Ward, Natasha Trethewey, Janice Ray, and others.

A study of the major traditions of African-American writing from the nineteenth century to the present, including Frederick Douglass, Linda Brent, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Ernest Gaines, Toni Morrison, and Rita Dove.

This course supports students in conceiving and writing an honors thesis. Students explore the research and writing methods required by a thesis, such as creating a project bibliography, reading scholarship critically, identifying a compelling research question, drafting sections, and bringing multiple pieces of writing together into an extended work of scholarship. The writing for this course will culminate in a polished draft of the thesis.

Environmental Sciences

Landscape ecology is the study of how spatial patterns in landscapes impact ecological processes. This course will explore how human and natural factors combine to produce landscape patterns. Students will learn to quantify spatial patterns, including the composition of habitat types, the configuration of habitat patches, and their connectivity to each-other. This course will investigate how these spatial characteristics influence ecological processes including species occurrences, extinctions, and ecological function. Finally, students will explore applications in spatial planning, conservation biology, and ecosystem management.

A study of sound and its roles in terrestrial and aquatic ecology, biodiversity conservation, and environmental justice. Topics include the evolution and ecology of sonic communication and soundscapes, the role of sound in the study and management of ecosystems, the origins and effects of noise pollution, and the future of Earth’s sensory richness. Labs emphasize the appreciation, measurement, and analysis of sounds from the local environment.

Environmental Studies

An interdisciplinary introduction to Environmental Studies through the examination of the scientific and social aspects of environmental issues. Field components of the course focus on the University Domain and the surrounding area. This course is required for all students who major or minor in environmental studies and should be taken before the junior year.

Students conduct experiments in nonfiction writing and critique, informed by study of the local environment and notable contemporary essays that discuss how "nature" is understood and represented. Class activities focus on literary craft, peer critique, and revision of written work. Field study provides both substance and inspiration for student writing.

This seminar-style course exposes students to literature on a variety of issues related to climate change and other examples of our dynamic global environment including natural resource use and natural hazards.

An introduction to the basic concepts and applications of geographic information systems (GIS). Topics include geographic data acquisition, data management, cartography, and methods of geospatial analysis. Laboratory exercises and projects focus on applications of GIS in understanding and managing the environment. Laboratory course.

This course introduces students to the most influential factors shaping the ecosystems and their conservation, looking at the global, regional and local factors that determine the climates and the contrasting ecosystems that can be found in Ecuador. The course includes several field visits to the Ecuadorian Amazon (Tiputini Biodiversity Station) and the Galapagos Islands. Thus, allowing students to experience first-hand current topics of conservation and policy issues, while discussing the main environmental challenges associated with the conservation of natural ecosystems in tropical developing countries.

This course examines local environmental challenges in Cuenca, Ecuador, and explores connections to the broader global context. Emphasis will be placed on learning about the ways and beliefs of local cultures and understanding the difficulties in maintaining cultural identity in today’s environmental economic climate. Experiential learning will be a significant element of the course, and students will regularly visit local communities and NGOs so that students can learn from those who are most affected by these issues.

A service-oriented exploration of environmental pedagogies, investigated through a critical lens that is dedicated to correcting historical barriers to access, opportunity, and belonging in nature for marginalized learners. Through readings, site visits, reflective writing, and self-designed lesson planning, students analyze educational models for developing environmental literacy, identity, and stewardship in learners of all ages in a wide range of contexts, from backcountry to rural county to inner city.

This course uses spatial analysis methods for environmental analysis and management. Topics include remote sensing and image analysis, surface analysis, spatial statistics, internet mapping, visualization of geographic data, and other advanced GIS methods.

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