Why did humans first develop mortuary rituals? Is caring for the dead unique to our species? This course begins by examining these questions, drawing from paleoanthropological and archaeological studies, and then covers different theoretical approaches to the cross-cultural study of death and the afterlife. Particular focus is given to the materiality of death—funerary items, tombs, and other necromaterials—and how different cultural traditions enable the remembrance or erasure of the dead. Finally, the course ends with considering how death and mourning rituals are rapidly changing in the twenty-first century.
This course explores the art of creating photographs specifically for the book format. Students will learn to craft photographic images while exploring how to curate, sequence, and design a cohesive collection of photographs as physical handmade artist's books. Students will experiment with various bookbinding techniques and experimental approaches, examining the diverse possibilities of the artist book. This beginner-level course requires no prior photographic experience and examines the photographic book from both conceptual and technical perspectives. Throughout the class, students will analyze historical and contemporary books format, their evolution, and their significance in photography's history.
How do drugs shape not only cells, but also culture? This course introduces the principles of evidence-based medicine, pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, and the actions of drugs on major organ systems —while situating these scientific foundations in a broader liberal arts context. Case studies of recreational drugs, cognitive enhancers, and therapeutic agents highlight ethical debates, historical trajectories, and social implications.
In this workshop-style course, we will review the most recent United States Mortality Report and use summary data to help you develop an independent research project on a topic of your interest. Then you will write a publication-worthy systematic review about your findings, including a Public Health Policy recommendation, and present your work at the end of the semester. This course is designed to reinforce concepts and skills presented in lower-level courses while emphasizing interdisciplinary thinking, analytical skills and effective communication.
In this course we will investigate how contemporary women rethink and rewrite the Roman poet Ovid’s epic masterpiece, the Metamorphoses. We will consider the idea of artistic “translation” on a broad scale, encompassing ideas of imitation, confrontation, and indeed metamorphosis. Special emphasis will be placed on how women writers and artists present the Ovidian motifs of love, trauma, agency, speech, (dis)empowerment, and sexual violence.
Comics, Exhibitions, Video Games, Social Media takes a broad,exploratory approach infused with theoretical fervor, pairing primary media texts, at least one from each of its four units, with excerpted scholarship from Black literary studies, media studies, visual culture, game studies, and museum studies.
This course is an introduction to literary history via Mary Shelley’s perennially fascinating novel. In addition to reading the novel itself through a variety of critical lenses, we will explore its source material in Greek mythology, the Faust legend, Milton, Romantic poetry, and eighteenth-century science. We will also examine the afterlives of the story through various films and novels of our own time.