This course examines the complex systems and values influencing land-use decision-making in both rural and urban settings throughout the U.S. and abroad. Students learn how government agencies and local citizens often conflict in their attitudes and values regarding the costs and benefits of growth and development. Particular attention is paid to forest conversion issues on the South Cumberland Plateau. Students attend local planning sessions and meetings with local officials.
This course, which calls for involvement in some faith-based or otherwise engaged form of appropriate activity or service, offers students a capstone opportunity to examine their spiritual experiences and religious beliefs in the context of active engagement with environmental issues in a variety of ways. Reflection on the engagement experience, expressed both in written form and through oral presentation, is required.
Film Studies
An introduction to processes dependent on the lens as an imaging device, including wet-lab photography, digital photography, video editing and installation-based sequencing. The course incorporates the fundamental theoretical, technical and aesthetic principles of working with photography as an expressive medium. Assignments include darkroom laboratory work, studio projects, discussions, written analyses, and class presentations.
This course involves study of the theories and processes of video and audio production as well as other techniques for making moving images. It examines a variety of aesthetic, formal, thematic, and technical approaches to composition and artistic expression through moving images and sound. The evaluation and analysis of assignments involves group discussions and individual critiques. Examples from a spectrum of artists and filmmakers provide a context for understanding the potential of moving images in a variety forms.
This course examines Alfred Hitchcock’s persistent interest in climactic chases, claustrophobic locations, sexual voyeurism, ironic humor, and a sense of the inevitability of fate. Analysis of Hitchcock films from the late twenties to the mid-sixties will emphasize the director’s treatment of editing, framing, sound, and mis en scene. Students will become familiar with a variety of critical approaches and with cultural and historical influences on Hitchcock's work.
This class is a survey of Eastern European cinema from the 1960s until the present day. We will look at films and directors from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Russia, and the former Yugoslavia. Despite state control, the filmmakers of Communist Europe were often more bold, honest, and provocative than their profit-driven Hollywood counterparts. By drawing on political and cultural discourses, the course will offer pointed analyses of the most significant East European films that touch upon issues of ethnicity, gender, cultural identity, and censorship. Films screened with English subtitles.
This course explores and analyzes a selection of films directed by women in the Spanish and Hispanic American context. The course reviews theoretical approaches to women’s cinema and considers the transnational nature of film production. The course is organized chronologically and deals with topics of gender and sexuality, politics of representation and memory, and other social and global issues.
Finance
This course addresses the concepts underlying corporate finance and equity markets. Topics include financial statement analysis, time value of money, security valuation, capital budgeting, capital structure, dividend policy, and working capital management.
This course addresses the concepts underlying corporate finance and equity markets. Topics include financial statement analysis, time value of money, security valuation, capital budgeting, capital structure, dividend policy, and working capital management.
This course examines investment theory and its applications. Topics include equity valuation, equity trading, portfolio theory, asset pricing models, performance evaluation, and efficient market hypothesis.
This course examines theory, concepts, and tools for analyzing investment decisions in real estate. Topics include mortgage analysis, and valuation, financing, and taxation of real estate investments.
First-Year Program
This course considers both how natural chemical processes shape our surroundings and how place is created by the intentional manipulation of matter to create objects of everyday use as well as of symbolic, cultural, or artistic importance. While developing an understanding of place-making broadly, the course focuses on both nature's creation of place and the role of art and cultural materials in defining place. Field trips and plenary lectures allow students to explore the local and regional context of place formation, engage in the practice of place-making, and synthesize knowledge across disciplines. Capstone projects provide opportunities for in-depth exploration. This course is not repeatable for credit.
The music of Sewanee, the surrounding Plateau, and the Southern Appalachians resounds with the interplay of locals and outsiders. In the songs heard here--from bluegrass to traditional ballads, from shape-note hymns to string bands--musicians incorporate far-flung styles while cultivating local traditions. In the words of a well-known video featuring this music, no matter where the musicians get their start, eventually they come "Down from the Mountain." In this course students listen to, study, and interact with these musicians and their music. Field trips and plenary lectures allow students to explore the region, engage in the practice of place-making, and synthesize knowledge across disciplines. Capstone projects provide opportunities for in-depth exploration. This course is not repeatable for credit.
This course examines the many aspects of "place" revealed by the stories told about it. The readings illustrate disparate views of those born and those who choose to move into an environment. Students learn how stories shape and expose the culture of place through images of the land, language, and common legends and analyze the tensions evoked by different cultures living in close proximity. Field trips and plenary lectures allow students to explore the region, engage in the practice of place-making, and synthesize knowledge across disciplines. Journal response and revision lets students integrate their own narratives into the story of this place. Capstone projects provide opportunities for in-depth exploration. This course is not repeatable for credit.
This course considers Sewanee in the twenty-first century in light of ancient texts about place and placelessness, especially Virgil's Aeneid. Field trips and plenary lectures allow students to explore the region, engage in the practice of place-making, and synthesize knowledge across disciplines. Capstone projects provide opportunities for in-depth exploration. This course is not repeatable for credit.
This course introduces students to people, places, and events that helped shape the history, culture, and environment of the South Cumberland Plateau. Students explore multiple cultural, historical, and political narratives that tell the story of the region. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of historical and current land-use in shaping local environmental attitudes and perceptions. Field trips and plenary lectures allow students to explore the region, engage in the practice of place-making, and synthesize knowledge across disciplines. Capstone projects provide opportunities for in-depth exploration. This course is not repeatable for credit.
We all have our stories, and those stories shape who we are, what we believe, and how we engage with others. This course allows students to consider and reflect on their own identities and the lived experiences they bring with them as new members of the Sewanee community while also examining the lived experiences of diverse community members in both Sewanee and in Selma, Alabama. Through local travel as well as a group trip to Selma, Alabama, students will engage in hands-on learning through relationship building, service-learning, and public history collection. The course will culminate with a group project supporting the Roberson Project on Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation.
This course places Indigenous topics at the center of the Domain, introducing students to the history of the Native South and building conversations about the ongoing importance of Native America. Course content will feature readings on Indigenous worldviews and lifeways; our local history of Cherokee Removal; policies of erasure and strategies of Native resilience; and Indigenous representation in modern film and media. Coursework will include a collaborative project on the Bell Route of the Trail of Tears. Course discussions will focus on current topics including land acknowledgments, Native representation and inclusion, and allyship through Sewanee’s Indigenous Engagement Initiative.
This course places Indigenous topics at the center of the Domain, introducing students to the history of the Native South and building conversations about the ongoing importance of Native America. Course content will feature readings on Indigenous worldviews and lifeways; our local history of Cherokee Removal; policies of erasure and strategies of Native resilience; and Indigenous representation in modern film and media. Coursework will include a collaborative project on the Bell Route of the Trail of Tears. Course discussions will focus on current topics including land acknowledgments, Native representation and inclusion, and allyship through Sewanee’s Indigenous Engagement Initiative.