RESULTS:College of Arts & Sciences, Advent Semester 2025

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History

An examination of the events, people, movements, and themes of the region's past, from earliest known human habitation to the present. The course explores contrasting ways of life expressed by native and European peoples; implications of incorporating the area into the United States; the agricultural, industrial, and transportation revolutions of the nineteenth century; popular culture within and about Appalachia; contemporary issues of regional development and preservation; and ways the unique environment of these mountains has shaped and frustrated notions of regional identity.
This course closely analyzes the relatively rare sources that allow historians to see the experience of medieval women through the eyes of the women themselves rather than through the prescriptive lens of the men who held most forms of power in their society: a ninth-century woman's book of advice for her son, surviving letters and spiritual writings, wills, and the legal records that show both the vulnerability of women and their readiness to bend and break the law. Case studies of individual women are employed, along with critical analysis of different categories of source material.
This seminar explores the origins and paradoxes of European celebrity culture from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. This new form of renown was a product of the consumer and media revolutions and of democratization. It depended on the public’s ability to consume, appropriate, and remake the celebrity’s image on its own authority and for its own purposes. The course examines not only how celebrities were produced over time, but also how the meaning of this culture was contested and redefined by fans, the media and famous individuals. It highlights the racial, gendered and class-based dynamics of historical celebrity culture.
A seminar dealing with important political, social, and intellectual movements in American history.
This course introduces students to the history of a particular kind of early modern museum: the curiosity cabinet or Wunderkammer. These striking collections of curious objects, marvels, and "monsters" had become key research and educational venues in many European cities by 1500. They generated discussion about the relation between local and global knowledge, between the natural and artificial, the extent and causes of biodiversity, and much more. The course explores the history and politics of these collections while recognizing their role as nodes in global circuits of information transfer and exchange. Also considered is the Wunderkammer's impact on the development of museums of art, science and technology, natural history, and anthropology.
This seminar deals with the historical interaction of Latin America with the United States from 1898 to the present. Specific topics to be examined include U.S. views of Latin America, imperialism, economic nationalism, the Cuban Revolution, guerrilla warfare, the Chilean and Nicaraguan cases, and the drug problem. The course will discuss the goals, perceptions, and actions of the United States and various Latin American governments during this period.
This course will explore the place of Christian saints in the society and culture of the late Roman and medieval worlds. It will analyze changing ideals of sanctity and their relationship to broader social, religious and cultural developments. It will also focus on the varied functions of saints' cults as perceived by both the promoters and the followers. Emphasis throughout will be on the close relationship of religious ideals, ecclesiastical and secular politics, and social and cultural change. The course will be a seminar with emphasis on reading, class participation, and papers.
An examination of the history of the practices of human slavery in the Atlantic World. Topics include the conduct of the transatlantic trade, the Middle Passage experience, plantation systems in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, the role of Atlantic slavery in the transition to industrialism, slave resistance and revolt, and the abolitionist movements.
History majors engage in primary and secondary research on a topic of interest, culminating in a significant analytical paper. The semester concludes with an oral presentation of each student's research.

Humanities

This interdisciplinary course explores significant issues in Greco-Roman culture as well as the religious traditions of the Near East. It provides a critical introduction to cultural contexts and ideological tensions that have contributed to the construction of Western identities and civilizations. Through examination of selected textual and intellectual echoes over time, the course considers the changing reception and impact of controversies and debates that have not only shaped ideas of "the West" but continue to challenge and perplex human beings.
This course explores how utopian, dystopian, and post-apocalyptic discourse imaginatively engages--and has engaged--cultural and historical challenges. Using approaches related to history, philosophy, literature, political theory, and the visual arts--especially film--this class seeks to ground utopian and dystopian speculation in the historical and cultural circumstances engendering it. Possible texts include works by Rousseau, More, Plato, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Marx, Leibniz, Voltaire, Huxley, Orwell, Zamyatin, McCarthy, Burgess, Atwood, Ishiguro, Lovecraft, Fritz Lang, and Ridley Scott.

International & Global Studies

This anthropological investigation into medical topics with a cultural component (gerontology, substance abuse, nutrition, folk medicine, etc.) will also examine the ways in which various cultural backgrounds may impede or enhance the medical process. Issues such as disease and therapy will also be examined in cross-cultural perspective.
The Enlightenment, particularly the brand of enlightened despotism promoted by the Bourbons, transformed art and art institutions in the Hispanic world. Despite the ideals of ‘enlightened despotism,’ in actuality colonialism as the larger cultural system in which art functioned was an ongoing and complex process that involved negotiation, resistance, reconciliation, and manipulation of new and old art forms. This course explores how a new intellectual movement—framed under specific political goals—was and wasn’t accepted and both did and did not change art in Spain and its colonies.
This course delves into the rich tapestry of literary and visual narratives from three vibrant Asian metropolises: Shanghai, Taipei, and Hong Kong. Beyond their geopolitical significance, all three cities have played pivotal roles in the evolution of modern Chinese-language literature and film. Through a careful examination of creative works from these urban centers, students will uncover the historical interconnections and cultural exchanges that characterize this dynamic region of the world. Taught in English, readings in English translations.
The course examines the principles and concepts of development and focuses on major development problems and policies, both domestic and international. Topics of analysis include theories of economic growth and development, poverty and income distribution, population, human capital, agricultural and rural development, and international trade.
A study of the causes of and solutions for pollution and environmental degradation weighs the value of ecosystems and their role in sustaining economic activity. Applies cost/benefit analysis to environmental issues and provides an introduction to economics of nonrenewable and renewable resources such as mines, forests, and fish.
This course studies international trade theories and trade policy. Topics include trade models, the gains from trade, determinants of the terms of trade and income distribution, global factor movements, protectionist policy, and trade agreements.
A study of twentieth-century literature written in English from Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean, concentrating on colonial and post-colonial themes, as well as issues of gender, politics, and nationalism. Possible authors include Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, J. M. Coetzee, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, V. S. Naipaul, and Derek Walcott.
As an introduction to the geologic, physical, chemical, and biological processes of the world's ocean, this course emphasizes its complex relationships with human cultures. Students in this course engage with a mix of readings from scientific journals, textbooks, and classic literature while conducting their own scientific reviews to pursue questions at the frontiers of ocean sciences.
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.
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