Course Descriptions

FRE 329 - Studies in the Novel: Body Politics in Francophone Fiction (Spring 2018)

Study of the political, social and cultural forces that shape women’s experience and beliefs about their own bodies.  In this literature course, we will analyze the social construction of women’s bodies through the very intimate lens of the family in contemporary French and Francophone fictions. We will see that personal power weighs as much as institutional and disciplinary powers when it comes to the degree of control young women retain over their bodies. Throughout our readings, students will learn to define and analyze the historical, political and socio-cultural conditions surrounding these representations in order to acquire critical skills that are essential to approaching a literary text. Students will become familiar with authors such as Marguerite Duras, Mongo Beti, Marie Chauvet, Maryse Condé, Yannick Lahens and Leïla Marouane.  Discussion, assignments, primary and secondary sources studied in French.  

Satisfies the ways of knowing requirement in Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric.

Prerequisites & Notes
French 220 or above, or permission of the instructor.

FRE 335 - French Colonial Empire

This course focuses on literature written in the colonies under French colonial rule. France’s colonial history started in the 16^th century and ended with bitter defeats in Vietnam (1955) and Algeria (1962). With focus on a specific region (North Africa, Asia, Africa, or the West Indies) and/or time period, the students will examine texts produced by writers in the colonies and in France to understand the complexities of oppression and intricacies of colonization, and how the texts subvert or reinforce colonial power.

Satisfies a requirement in French and Francophone Studies major and minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major.
Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Global Literary Theory.
Satisfies a Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.
Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

FRE 340 - Symbolist Poets: Drugs, Music, Revolt

Study of late 19th-century innovators in poetry: Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarmé, and of their use of metaphor, syntax, image, rhythm, tonality, and literary references.

Satisfies distribution requirement in Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric.

Prerequisites & Notes
Any course numbered French 220 or above. (Not offered 2016-17.)

FRE 341 - Poetry, Passion, Painting

Poetry by Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Heather Dohollau, Anne Hébert. Close Reading. Resonances with impressionists and other art. Dynamics of image, rhythms, sounds, time, space, emotions, poetic voice.

Satisfies distribution requirement in Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric.

Prerequisites & Notes
Any course numbered French 220 or above, or permission of the instructor. (Fall)
FRE 341 is dual-listed with FRE 241.

FRE 343 - Cubist and Surrealist Poets

Satisfies distribution requirement in Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
Any course numbered 220 or above, or permission of the instructor. (Not offered 2016-17.)

FRE 360 - Québec Through Film

An introduction to contemporary Québec society as portrayed in film, with a focus on questions of individual and collective identities.  Students will develop critical skills as readers of film as they examine feature films, documentaries, and animated short subjects.  Typical directors include Arcand, Dolan, Jutra, Pool and Vallée. 

Satisfies a requirement in French and Francophone Studies major and minor.
Satisfies distribution requirement in Visual and Performing Arts.

Prerequisites & Notes
FRE 201 or FRE 212.
FRE 360 is dual-listed with FRE 230.  Students who have completed FRE 220 or above must enroll in FRE 360.

FRE 363 - Québec: Literature, Society, and Culture

FRE 364 - Paris Noir

This course examines the lives and works of artists and intellectuals from Africa, the African Diaspora and the US in Paris (1920-1960).

Satisfies a requirement in French & Francophone Studies major and minor.
Satisfies ae requirement in Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: North America). 
Satisfies a cultural diversity requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
FRE 212 Oral Expression or FRE 222 Introduction to Literature or FRE 260 Contemporary France

FRE 366 - Africa Shoots Back, in transl. (=AFR 266)

Africa Shoots Back examines West African cinema from its beginnings in the early 1960s to today.  The selection of films exposes students to new voices, perspectives and representations of Francophone West Africa from a West African perspective.  We will discuss issues of decolonization and post-colonial cultural economy, as well as analyze traditional African narrative strategies and new and unconventional images.

Counts towards the French & Francophone Studies major and minor.
Fulfills a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: Africa).
Fulfills a requirement in the Film & Media Studies interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies distribution requirement in Visual and Performing Arts.

FRE 368 - France and Métissage

Course explores the concept of métissage in the contemporary French literary context.

Fulfills a requirement in the French & Francophone Studies major and minor.
Fulfills a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: Africa).
Fulfills a requirement in the Global Literary Theory interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies distribution requirement in Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric.

Prerequisites & Notes
Any course numbered 220 or above.

FRE 389 - European Union Politics

European Union Politics counts an an elective for the Political Science major.

Satisfies the Liberal Studies Distribution Requirement.

FRE 390 - Studies in Civilization and Culture Abroad

FRE 395 - Independent Study for Majors

Independenty Study for Majors

Prerequisites & Notes
Permission of instructor required.

FRE 395, 396, 397 - Independent Study for Majors

FRE 490 - Senior Seminar: The Hidden and the Forbidden: A Study of (Anti-) Inclusion and (Anti-) Diversity in Medieval France

In this seminar, we will study the literary and artistic representation of facts of life that were considered against the “standard” and therefore scorned, repelled, rejected and punished in Medieval France. The purpose of this study is to determine what inclusion and diversity, as we perceive them today, meant then and to understand why certain aspects of our contemporary society are still perceived as threatening.

Three main themes will be approached: homosexuality, slavery and religion. We will study primary texts outside of the main stream of literary production, and accompany them by secondary readings of articles/books addressing our main themes.

FRE 491 - Senior Thesis

FRE 499 - Senior Honors Thesis

GSS 101 - Introduction to Gender and Sexuality Studies

This class provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the analytical tools, key scholarly debates, history, and research subfields of gender and sexuality studies. It pays particular attention to the construction and deployment of gender as a cultural category across various social institutions. Students will learn to assess and analyze documents pertaining to the history of and contemporary state of feminisms and women’s rights, masculinity, queer theory, disability studies, body image and consumer culture, intersectionality, as well as a host of gendered questions related to health, work, the family, violence, and politics.

Satisfies Liberal Studies distribution requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

GSS 201 - Feminist and Queer Theories

Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

GSS 220 - Topics in Queer Studies

This course provides an introduction to the field of queer studies by way of a specialized topic. Course content and emphasis will vary with instructor, but sample topics include queer theories, queer of color critiques, queer popular culture, transgender studies, and queer activism.

Satisfies a major requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies - content course for society and politics of trade.
Satisfies a minor requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies-elective.
Satisfies Liberal Studies distribution requirement

GSS 292 - Queer Russia (=RUS 292)

Russia is accustomed to playing the role of the “evil empire.” The current ongoing war in Ukraine has resurrected the Cold War-era narratives about Russia as a dark, aggressive, and ruthless military power. The notorious legislation of recent years-whose functions range from barring Americans from adopting Russian orphans to criminalizing the so-called “gay propaganda”-have further solidified Russia’s reputation as a country with little regard for human rights. Yet generations of Russian poets, artists, and writers have transformed the country’s systematic oppression and violence into spectacular forms of protest and self-expression. This course focuses on gender and sexuality in exploring an alternative cultural history of Russia, which highlights its queer legacy from the nineteenth century to the present. We will examine poetry, fiction, art, memoirs, plays, films, performances, and discursive texts that showcase uniquely Russian conceptions of marriage, gender relations, gender expression, and sexual identity. Attention will be paid to the ways in which Russian and Western narratives of queerness align and diverge. In English. No knowledge of Russian is required or expected.

Satisfies major and minor requirements in Russian Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Rhetoric distribution requirement.

GSS 321 - Sex Outside the City

Since the early 1990s, many queer theorists have reasserted the centrality of western cities to the formation of queer subjectivities. But more recent scholarship has challenged this assumption, suggesting that not only have LGBTQ identities historically developed in suburban, rural, and non-western locales, but that the dominant urban narrative reinforces white, upper-class maleness as the norm of queer life. This course examines the ways in which space is queered and queerness emerges in response to metropolitan, non-metropolitan, Western, and non-Western space. We will examine the queer convergence of the public and the private, the processes by which space is simultaneously raced and gendered, the relationship between sexuality and built environments, and the role of capitalism and neoliberalism in producing queer individuals and networks.

Satisfies a major requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies -Histories and Geneologies Track.
Satisfies a minor requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies - elective.
Satisfies liberal studies distribution requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement

GSS 324 - Sex, Law, Modernity (= HIS 324)

This course, team-taught by a historian of European gender and a legal and literary scholar of the Hispanic world, will introduce students to the ways that early modern and modern Western societies have intervened in and defined categories of illicit sexual desire, identity, and conduct. Modern European states took an abiding interest in regulating what they considered to be disordered and deviant sexual persons- the Homosexual, the Prostitute, the Intersexed. These same states took a marked interest in enforcing public health and hygiene by way of laws targeting private sexual behavior, from birth control to interracial relationships. These interventions expressed sharp anxieties about the character of modern life: urbanization, industrialization, democratization, the rise of the middle classes, empire. The course will combine an interrogation of primary texts from the early modern and modern periods with secondary and theoretical works dealing with history, law, and sexuality.

Satisfies a major requirement in History

Satisfies a major requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies.  Only counted in one track.

Satisfies a minor requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies  Only counted in one track.

Satisfies a distribution requirement in Historical Thought

GSS 340 - Transnational Sexualities Studies

This course surveys a number of emerging frameworks for rethinking the concept of queerness from a transnational perspective. Our investigations will move between theory and lived experience, within and across national borders, and will challenge key Western assumptions about sexual development, freedom, identity, and citizenship. We will consider questions such as: To what extent do Western paradigms of sex, gender, and sexuality limit our understanding of non-Western sexual cultures? How does the relationship between sexual practice and sexual identity shift across cultures? How do tourists and migrants negotiate, adapt, and remake sexual discourses and economies as they move in and through new spaces? How has the legacy of colonialism shaped and been shaped by sexual practice? How is sexuality used to articulate national, racial, class, and ethnic identities?

Satisfies a requirement in the Gender and Sexuality Studies major and minor.
Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought distribution requirement.
Satisfies cultural diversity requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

GSS 341 - Trans: Bodies, Identities, Politics

Trans: Bodies, Identities, Politics

GSS 350 - Sex Radicals!

When we think about queer and feminist politics, we typically think of the processes by which women and LGBT people have effected change through legislation, court cases, and supporting candidates friendly to their causes. But much U.S. queer and feminist thought and activism has taken root outside the bounds of liberal electoral politics. This course centers on the fringes. It surveys the writings of less-palatable political actors: punks, anarchists, communists, anti-capitalists, sex workers, black radicals, and prison abolitionists. In exploring these political genealogies, we will ask: How does the personal constitute the political? What counts as (legitimate) political action according to whom? (How) can social change be effected outside of electoral politics and state institutions? What should be the role of the state in regulating labor and distributing rights and entitlements? What priorities have animated the various radical traditions within queer and feminist thought, and how have they addressed or failed to address race, class, ethnicity, and disability? How have these traditions intersected and diverged? Why have contemporary queer radicals come to focus on issues less obviously connected to gender and sexuality like global capitalism, drone warfare, and police militarization?

Satisfies a requirement for the Gender and Sexuality Studies major and minor. Satisfies a Social-Scientific Thought distribution requirement.
Satisfies a cultural diversity requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

GSS 360 - Transgender Studies

A political platform, identity, field of study, and more, “transgender” holds many different meanings for different people today.  This course explores the history and present of an expansive sense of trans- transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, and more- through an array of texts, including memoir, fiction, film, television, and scholarly writings.  By thinking trans in these different contexts and through different concepts, trans studies/politics connects to queer studies, explores and challenges “umbrella”-type understandings, and critically interrogates the inheritances that shape trans activisms today.  Topics that focus our work together include histories of sexology and activisms, disability and trans politics, trans people’s experiences with prisons and carceral violences, trans people’s participation and representation in larger projects for racial justice, environmental justice and trans activisms, and more.

Satisfies a requirement in the Gender and Sexuality Studies major and minor (society and politics track).
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought distribution requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.
 

GSS 390 - Sexuality and Public Discourses in the United States

This course examines the history of sexuality in the United States from 1642 to the present through the lens of primary documents, analyzed using rhetorical methods.

Satisfies a major requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Satisfies a minor requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Students entering 2012 and after: satisfies Historical Thought distribution requirement.

GSS 401 - Television: Queer Representations (=ENG 409)

With its roots in the gendered domestic suburban household, television has a longstanding investment in questions of gender and sexuality.  Pushing back against the assumption that LGBTQ characters did not appear on our screens in a sustained way until the 1980s, this course will investigate how TV representation of queer life have changed with the evolution of the medium since the 1950s.  Recent work in the field of queer TV studies has unearthed queer characters from previously invisible archives, charged changing conceptions of masculinity and femininity in broadcast programming, and documented the organizational strategies  employed by television narrative that disclose and contain expressions of non-normative sexualities.  We will seek to understand the dynamics of visibility and invisibility that structure representations of televised queerness.

Fulfills the Diversity requirement in the English major.
Satisfies a requirement in the Gender & Sexuality Studies major and minor.

GSS 431 - The Science of Sex

Contemporary understandings of sex, gender, and sexuality are shaped by a long history of scientific work in fields as diverse as sexology, genetics, phrenology, eugenics, biology, and more. This course traces how these understandings shaped and were shaped by sex, gender, and sexuality. The course begins with early work in the field of feminist science studies, then turns to questions of taxonomy and difference before interrogating the role of nationalisms in sex-related sciences. The class also explores American eugenics, early work in sexology and the study of homosexuality, sex and the brain in the contemporary U.S., problems with sex differentiation, the role of sex in current ecological sciences, assisted reproductive technologies, posthuman bodies, and feminist interventions in technosciences.

Satisfies a major requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies

Satisfies a minor requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies

GSS 440 - Matters of Life and Death: Biopower, Necropolitics, Sex

In this course, we will investigate how definitions of life and death have evolved over the last two centuries and how those definitions have shaped American culture and policy. We will ask who is empowered to make decisions about who lives and who dies and by what authority; what bodies are included and excluded in discussions of bio- and necropolitics; and how gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and religion frame and become framed by matters of life and death.

Satisfies a requirement in the Gender and Sexuality Studies major and minor.
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought distribution requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

GSS 498 - GSS Senior Capstone

Senior Capstone in Gender and Sexuality Studies

GER 101 - Elementary German I

GER 102 - Elementary German II

GER 103 - Intensive Elementary German (2 credits)

GER 201 - Intermediate German

Fulfills the foreign language requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
German 102, 103, or placement. (Fall)

GER 230 - German Literary Masterpieces (in trans.)

This course offers students an overview of some of the major authors and works of German literature that are significant (1) in their own right, (2) for the German literary tradition, and (3) because of their relationship to English and American literature. We will explore a variety of periods (Enlightenment, Romanticism, Poetic Realism, Modernism, Postmodernism) and genres (drama, novella, novel, opera, poetry, and film).

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
Taught in English. (Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 231 - Special Literary Topics (in trans.)

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.
 

GER 232 - Burning Books (in trans.)

Would the six million Jews have lived had the estimated 100 million books not been destroyed? What is it about books that suggests such a link to the human condition? Using the 1933 book burnings as its point of departure, this course explores the nature of literature in the context of the Third Reich. As you learn about Nazi Germany and the imaginary, and literary resistance to it, you will also be introduced to some basic methods of literary criticism. The end of the course is devoted to literary representations of the Holocaust.

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
Taught in English.

(Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 240 - German for Economics and Policy

This advanced intermediate language course provides an introduction to the economic and political structures in Germany and the EU. Covered topics include the history and current state of the most important political structures (parties, governmental structures in Germany and Europe), economic structures (trade agreements, finance, corporate and business structures), the role of the press and political foundations and non-governmental think thanks, and the transatlantic relationship. The course involves case studies: small groups of students will coordinate with a local German (or Swiss or Austrian) company in the Charlotte region and do an in-depth study of the company in the context of the course; this involves on-site visits and interviews and networking with German business leaders. The course culminates with a student-designed Davidson German Business Forum: a symposium and poster session in which students present their case studies with the German business leaders present. The course offers intensive work in German in the course topics. Taught in German. Prerequisite: German 201 or the equivalent.

Satisfies a major requirement in German Studies

Satisfies a minor requirement in German Studies

Satisfies a minor requirement in International Studies

Students entering 2012 and after: satisfies Liberal Studies distribution requirement

Fulfills the foreign language requirement

Prerequisites & Notes
Taught in German. German 201 or the equivalent.

(Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 241 - Special Cultural Topics (in trans.)

Instructor
Staff

Selected topics in German, Austrian, or Swiss culture. Covers various aspects of culture and society, such as history, politics, economics, literature, film, art and architecture, music, and mass media. Sample topics include The Holocaust and Vienna at the Turn of the Century.

Satisfies the Liberal Studies distribution requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
(Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 242 - Hollywood Alternatives, From Germany and Beyond (in trans.)

Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts distribution requirement.
May be counted toward the interdisciplinary minor in Film and Media Studies.

Prerequisites & Notes
(Spring 2017)

GER 243 - Special Topics in Film (in trans.)

Selected topics primarily in German and Austrian film that introduce students to genres, historical periods, and methods of film analysis. Classes focus on close readings and discussions.

Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts distribution requirement.
May be counted toward the interdisciplinary minor in Film and Media Studies.

 

Prerequisites & Notes
Taught in English.
(Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 243 Gender in Film topic counts towards the Gender and Sexuality Studies major.

GER 250 - Introduction to German Literary Studies

GER 251 - Special Literary Topics

Students entering 2012 and after: satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.
Students entering before 2012: satisfies the Literature distribution requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
German 250 or permission of the instructor. (Not offered 2016-17.)

GER 260 - Introduction to German Cultural Studies

Satisfies the Liberal Studies distribution requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
German 201 or placement. (Fall)

GER 261 - Special Cultural Topics

Satisfies the Liberal Studies distribution requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
German 260 or permission of the instructor.
(Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 263 - Special Topics in Film

Selected topics primarily in German and Austrian film which introduce students to genres, historical periods, and methods of film analysis. Sample topics include an overview of German cinema, as well as German popular film. Classes are taught in German and focus on close readings and discussions.

Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts distribution requirement.
May be counted toward the interdisciplinary minor in Film and Media Studies.

Prerequisites & Notes
German 201 or placement test.
(Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 270 - Contemporary Germany

Examination of contemporary life in Germany. Texts include current newspapers and magazines, supplemented by video and film. Emphasis on composition and conversation. Strongly recommended for students planning to study in Germany.

Satisfies the Liberal Studies distribution requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
German 201 or placement.
(Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 298 - Independent Study

GER 331 - Special Literary Topics (in trans.)

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
(Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 332 - Modernism (in trans.)

An interdisciplinary study in English of modernist movements in Central Europe between 1890 and 1940. Topics covered include literary movements (Naturalism, Expressionism, New Realism); artistic movements (Blue Rider, the Bridge, Jugendstil, Neue Sachlichkeit, Bauhaus); music (Neo-Romanticism, Second Viennese School, Jazz); culture and politics (Freud, fascism, urbanism, film, anti-Semitism). Some key figures include: Kandinsky, Klee, Gropius, Rilke, Kafka, Luxemburg, Modersohn-Becker, Th. Mann, Musil, Döblin, Nietzsche, Lasker-Schüler, Hitler, Riefenstahl, Trakl, R. Strauss, Torberg, Jünger.

Satisfies the Liberal Studies distribution requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
(Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 336 - Memory on Film (in trans.)

Examines personal and collective memory in a variety of cultural contexts and the strategies that film and literature use to represent it. We will also analyze the roles that truth-telling, trauma and national narratives play in memory’s construction. From the German context, we will look specifically at cultural and social memory in understanding Germany’s twentieth-century history. More generally, and in light of James Frey’s controversial autobiography, we will examine general assumptions around memory and the extent to which it can be accurately rendered.

Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts distribution requirement.
May be counted toward the interdisciplinary minor in Film and Media Studies.

GER 341 - Nazi Art & Culture in translation

Analysis of the state-controlled culture industry in Germany, 1933 to 1945; examination of its dominant art forms, including literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, film, music, dance, theatre, and industrial art.

Provides credit for the German Studies major.
Provides credit for the History major.
Satisfies the Historical Thought distribution requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Taught in English

GER 343 - Special Topics in Film (in trans.)

Selected topics primarily in German and Austrian film that introduce students to genres, historical periods, and methods of film analysis. Classes focus on close readings and discussions.

Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts distribution requirement.
May be counted toward the interdisciplinary minor in Film and Media Studies.

Prerequisites & Notes
Taught in English.
(Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 350 - Modernes Drama

Overview of modern German drama in the context of major developments in German, Swiss, and Austrian theater. Playwrights discussed include: Büchner, Brecht, Fleißer, Dürrenmatt, Frisch, Weiß, Bernhard, Tabori, Meinhof, and Jelinek. Taught in German.

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.

 

Prerequisites & Notes
German 250 or permission of the instructor.
(Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 351 - Special Literary Topics

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
German 250 or permission of the instructor. (German 351: “Modernes Theater” offered in the spring.)

GER 354 - Contemporary German Literature

Overview of German literature since 1989, with particular emphasis on prose fiction and popular literature. Authors discussed include: Günter Grass, Judith Hermann, Florian Illies, Daniel Kehlmann, and Juli Zeh, among others. Taught in German.

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.

 

Prerequisites & Notes
German 250 or permission of the instructor.
(Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 361 - Literary Topics: Imagining Berlin

Although the “Berlin Republic” is more than twenty years old, journalistic assessments of the city emphasize its youthful energy and the start of a new era. Yet literary and filmic representations of Berlin offer a more variegated picture, one both celebratory and critical. This course aims to get beyond the official hype by looking at recent novels and films and how they: represent Berlin topography; call upon historical and ideological perspectives as well as individual and collective memory; depict everyday life and fantasies in a multicultural city; allude to historical and/or continued divisions between East and West. In the process students will encounter both concrete and imaginary conceptions of what one critic has called “the capital of the 20^th century.” All readings, class discussions, and essays will be in German.

Satisfies the Liberal Studies requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
German 250 or 260 or permission of the instructor.

GER 363 - Special Topics in Film

Selected topics primarily in German and Austrian film which introduce students to genres, historical periods, and methods of film analysis. Sample topics include an overview of German cinema, as well as German popular film. Classes are taught in German and focus on close readings and discussions.

Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts distribution requirement.
May be counted toward the interdisciplinary minor in Film and Media Studies.

Prerequisites & Notes
German 260 or permission of the instructor.
(Not offered  in 2016-17)

GER 380 - Studies in German Language, Literature, Culture

GER 398 - Independent Study

GER 430 - Seminars (in trans.)

GER 433 - The Holocaust and Representation (=HIS 433)

History and historiography of the origins and execution of the Nazi genocide during World War II, with a focus on representations of the Holocaust and cultural memory practices in popular and public history, in the visual and performing arts and in literature, and especially in memorial structures and spaces.

This seminar includes a required study trip (at no cost to participants except for food) during the week of spring break. Students must agree to participate in the study trip in order to receive permission to add the course to WebTree.

Prerequisites & Notes
(Not offered in 2016-17)

GER 438 - Seminar: Goethe, Schiller, Kleist

Introduction to the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), and Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811)

GER 450 - Seminars

GER 495 - Senior Colloquium

GER 498 - Independent Study

LIT 372 - Nabokov & Global Literature (=RUS 373)

Vladimir Nabokov–brilliant writer, outrageous literary gamesman, and cosmopolitan exile–is a towering figure of twentieth-century literature. His most famous novel, Lolita, propelled him to international stardom and changed the transnational literary landscape. Child of a turbulent century, Nabokov wrote exquisite and at times disturbing prose in Russian and English, balancing between imaginary worlds and harsh realities. This seminar offers a sustained exploration of Nabokov’s major Russian and American writings as well as film adaptations of his Despair (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) and Lolita (Stanley Kubrick). In the second half of the seminar we turn to novels Nabokov haunts: Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran, J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, Orhan Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence, and W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants. We will consider memory, exile, trauma, nostalgia, and identity as we read Nabokov, who saw existence as a “series of footnotes to a vast, obscure, unfinished masterpiece.” All readings and discussion in English.

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.  

Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.

LIT 432 - Theory and Practice of Literary Translation (Seminar)

This seminar addresses theoretical and practical aspects of literary translation, underscoring translation as both a distinctive form of creative writing and a demonstration of cross-cultural and linguistic competencies. Coursework includes regular literary translation, theoretical and historical readings, peer review, and a substantial final project and writing portfolio. The course explores translation across languages and cultures, but also issues of genre, adaptation, register, period, colonial and post-colonial literary and cultural relations, canonicity and innovation, for example.

Satisfies a requirement of the English major.

Prerequisites & Notes
Intermediate competence (one course beyond 201) in at least one language besides English and prior satisfaction of the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.

GRE 103 - Intensive Introductory Greek

For beginners. Introduction and development of basic skills, particularly reading, along with presentation of the fundamental structures of Greek. Requires participation in AT sessions. Meets five days a week.
[Equivalent to Greek 101 and 102, counting for two courses.]

 

Prerequisites & Notes
(Offered annually, Spring only)

GRE 201 - Intermediate Greek

GRE 213 - Lyric Poetry

Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
 Students who have alrleady taken a GRE course beyond 201 should enroll in this course as GRE 313.

GRE 214 - Greek Tragedy: Sophocles’ Oedipus the King

A close reading in Greek of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King in light of its context and current scholarship.

Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Greek 201
Students who have already taken a GRE course beyond 201 should enroll in this course as GRE 314.
(Fall 2017)

GRE 218 - New Testament Greek

GRE 244 - Greek Historians: Thucydides

Readings of select passages from Thucydides’ Histories, of the rest in English and of secondary literature for understanding of Thucydides’ style and importance for 5th century Greek history.

Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students who have already taken a GRE course beyond 201 should enroll in this course as GRE 344. 

GRE 266 - Greek Philosophers: Plato’s Gorgias

Introduction to the Platonic dialogue, with special attention devoted to the relationship between philosophy, rhetoric, poetry, and desire.

Prerequisites & Notes
Greek 201
Students who have already taken a GRE course beyond 201 should enroll in this course as GRE 366.
(Spring 2018.)

GRE 313 - Lyric Poetry

Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.

GRE 314 - Greek Tragedy: Sophocles’ Oedipus the King

A close reading in Greek of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King in light of its context and current scholarship.

Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Greek 201
(Fall)

GRE 318 - New Testament Greek

GRE 344 - Greek Historians: Thucydides

Readings of select passages from Thucydides’ Histories, of the rest in English, and of secondary literature for understanding of Thucydides’ style and importance for 5th century Greek history.

Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.

GRE 366 - Greek Philosophers: Plato’s Gorgias

Introduction to the Platonic dialogue, with special attention devoted to the relationship between philosophy, rhetoric, poetry, and desire.

Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Greek 201
(Spring 2018)

GRE 399 - Independent Study in Greek

GRE 499 - Senior Thesis

HHV 110 - Introduction to Public Health

This course will introduce the fundamentals and core concepts of public health research and practice. As we explore the history, philosophy and different disciplines of public health, we will evaluate contemporary health issues in ongoing individual assignments as well as in group activities. This course will focus on introducing the principles and basic disciplines of public health:  epidemiology and biostatistics; environmental health sciences; social and behavioral health; and health policy, law and regulation.

Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Health and Human Values.

HHV 120 - Introduction to Clinical Ethics

This course will introduce students to the history, evolution and current topics relevant in clinical ethics. Topics will include issues around birth, reproduction, organ donation, refusal of vaccinations and blood transfusions, experimental treatments, alternative medicine, euthanasia, physician assisted suicide, and issues around death. Students will navigate ethical principles from a theoretical perspective, such as autonomy (self-determination), beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. At the same time they will discuss these principles in practical applications through case analysis and they will examine the tension between theory and practice. The course seeks to create awareness of the health care setting as an enterprise with different stakeholders and tensions, and to develop methods and analytical reasoning skills to discuss value-based conflicts in the health care setting.

Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Health and Human Values.
Satisfies Philosophical and Religious Perspectives distribution requirement.

HHV 130 - Sociobiology of Health and Illness

This course provides an exploration of biological mechanisms that underlie the effects of the psychosocial environment on chronic disease susceptibility in humans. In this course, students will learn about the biological and chemical bases of disease manifestation, diagnosis and treatment, psychosocial and cultural factors that impact health and wellness, and disparities in health status and access to healthcare amongst various populations in the US. However, emphasis will be given to the fundamental concepts in biology; this course has been specifically designed for students who are interested in future careers in health and seek to refresh the knowledge they acquired in a high school biology course.  Faced with the new realities of aging and associated increase in the prevalence of chronic disease, how do we as individuals, families and communities manage our health?  We need a vision of health care which allows effective and efficient management of chronic disease in order to reduce the burden of illness and disability on society. In this course, you will integrate your knowledge of the natural, clinical, and social sciences to understand select chronic illnesses and consider primary care as an effective, equitable and sustainable chronic care management model.  The goal of the course is to provide you with the knowledge and skills you will need to be a thoughtful advocate for quality healthcare for yourself, your family and your community. 

Community-based learning is an important component of this course.  As such, it will require a field experience at a local hospital or clinic.

Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Health and Human Values.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Not open to students who have credit for BIO 111/113 except by permission of the instructor.

HHV 220 - Health Psychology (= PSY 220)

Health Psychology uses the biopsychosocial approach to examine how psychological factors influence health and how they can be used to change health behaviors.   Specific emphasis will be placed on pain, chronic illness, nicotine use, and obesity.  This class also includes a community-based learning experience.

Social-Scientific Thought distribution requirement.
Health and Human Values interdisciplinary minor credit.

Prerequisites & Notes
PSY 101 or permission of the instructor.

HHV 232 - Introduction to Environmental Health with Community-Based Learning (=ENV 232)

Students will apply biological, chemical and epidemiological content to environmental health case studies and community-based learning projects. This is an introductory course designed to expose students to different scientific disciplines within the context of environmental health.

Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Health and Human Values.
Satisfies depth or breadth course requirement in Natural Science Track of the Environmental Studies major or interdisciplinary minor. 
Satisfies the Liberal Studies distribution requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
ENV 232 may not be taken for credit after ENV 233.

HHV 233 - Introduction to Environmental Health with Laboratory-Based Learning (= ENV 233)

Students will apply biological, chemical and epidemiological content to environmental health case studies and laboratory projects. This is an introductory course designed to expose students to different scientific disciplines within the context of environmental health.

Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Health and Human Values.

Satisfies the Natural Science distribution requirement.

Satisfies depth or breadth course requirement in Natural Science Track of the Environmental Studies major or interdisciplinary minor.

Prerequisites & Notes
ENV 233 may not be taken for credit after ENV 232.

HHV 234 - Genes, Environment and Health

This course introduces students to the role of epigenetic changes - mechanisms that regulate gene expression by altering chromatin structure and function in the absence of changes in DNA base sequence - in mediating the long-term effects of early life environment and variations in social experience across the life span on human health.

Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Health and Human Values.
Satisfies an interdisciplinary major requirement in Public Health.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Bio 111/113 is a prerequisite for this course as it builds on content covered in Bio 111/113.

HHV 244 - Child Psychopathology (=EDU 234 and PSY 234)

An overview of the psychological disorders of childhood, including their description, classification, etiology, assessment and treatment.  Emphasis will be placed on the theoretical and empirical bases of these disorders, focusing on relevant research methods and findings as well as case history material. 

Social-Scientific Thought distribution requirement.
Educational Studies minor credit.
Health and Human Values interdisciplinary minor credit.
Psychology Major credit (Clinical column)

Prerequisites & Notes
PSY 101

HHV 250 - Methods in Health & Research

This course will focus on introducing fundamentals of methods used in modern public health research and practice. Through a variety of approaches to formal and experiential learning, you will develop your skills and knowledge in several core concept areas of public health methods: quantitative health data analysis, health surveys, policy analysis, environmental health risk assessment, qualitative data analysis, and health communications. One class per week (on average) will be a “workshop class”, in which you and your classmates will break out into groups to evaluate current topics and issues in public health using different methodological approaches.

Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Health and Human Values.

Prerequisites & Notes
HHV 110 “Introduction to Public Health” or HHV 392 “Introduction to Epidemiology”

HHV 251 - Health Disparities in the U.S. and Beyond (=SOC 251)

This course will explore connections between race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and U.S.  social policy with the historical and current trends in health disparities in the USA. This course will offer a foundation in both core concepts and theoretical frameworks for understanding health disparities in the US. Additionally, this course will introduce theory and strategies for developing health interventions and policies to address the crisis of racial, ethnic and socioeconomic health disparities in the USA.

Satisfies a major requirement in Sociology.
Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Health and Human Values.
Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought distribution requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
HHV 110 “Introduction to Public Health” or HHV 392 “Introduction to Epidemiology”

HHV 280 - Introduction to Global Health (= SOC 280)

Global health is an emerging interdisciplinary field that approaches health issues as transnational challenges requiring multi-level, community-based solutions. This course introduces its major concepts, tools, and debates. Topics include global health inequities, historical and ongoing strategies for control of communicable diseases from smallpox to HIV/AIDS, the global rise in prominence of non-communicable disease, connections between social structures and the global distribution of disease, and debates over health as a human right. Students will learn to interpret and evaluate population health indicators, interact with WHO datasets, and analyze health interventions and policies from both solutions-oriented and critical perspectives.

Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
(Fall)

HHV 320 - Health, Culture and Illness in East Asia

This seminar explores the health systems of East Asia using Arthur Kleinman’s definition of a health system as the complex social system of healing supported by culture-bound understandings of health and illness, not merely the institutions that provide health services. Readings and discussion cover the major cultural and institutional characteristics of health, illness, and health care in Japan and mainland China, with more limited attention to Taiwan and South Korea. Discussion topics include the role of Chinese medicine, cultures of biomedicine, rapid demographic change, environmental/industrial diseases, and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Particular attention is paid to the role of “plural” medical cultures in many East Asian contexts and how such syncretic health systems shape health practices and policies across the region.

Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in East Asian Studies.
Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Health and Human Values.
Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement

HHV 354 - Medical Rehabilitation & Disability (=PSY 354)

This course addresses the conceptualization, assessment, and treatment of chronic health conditions, traumatic injuries, and disabilities.  The readings will include an evidenced-based handbook on psychosocial adjustment to illness; peer-reviewed articles; and memoirs from the vantage point of the patient, caregiver, and healthcare provider.  This course is community-based; therefore, it will also include a field experience at a local rehabilitation hospital. 

Fulfills a credit in the Psychology major.
Fulfills a credit in the Health and Human Values interdisciplinary minor.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
PSY 101
(Fall)

HHV 380 - Issues in Medicine

HHV 381 - Health Regulations and Public Policy

HHV 387 - Health Law, Policy and Ethics

This survey course will introduce students to contemporary issues in health law, policy and ethics. Topics will address the history, evolution of legislation, policy and case law in areas of individual health care, as well as the public health law sphere.

Topics will include issues in the patient-physician relationship, such as reproduction, experimental treatments, medical error and death. Other topics relate more to the relationship individual-state and include quality of health care provision, organ donation and vaccinations. Students will navigate legal principles and statutes, and will develop critical thinking towards policy and legal regimes. This course seeks to create awareness of policies and legislations in health care.  It will combine theory and practice and stimulate critical thinking. The goal of this course is to develop methodic and analytical reasoning skills to discuss value-based conflicts in the health care setting.

Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Health and Human Values