Course Descriptions

ENV 330 - Surface Geology and Landforms

A detailed survey of processes in surface geology including weathering, soils, landslides, stream systems, glaciers, and climate as well as differences between these processes in various environments.  The class will split time between learning and discussion of geomorphic principles and practicing them in the field.  The class will be roughly based around the collection of new field data for an overarching class project.

Satisfies depth or breadth course requirement in the Natural Science Track of the Environmental Studies major or interdisciplinary minor.
Counts as an Applied Environmental Science course in the Natural Science track of the Environmental Studies interdisciplinary major.

Prerequisites & Notes
ENV 120 or ENV 201 or instructor permission.

ENV 335 - Soil Science

Understanding geologic landscapes and surficial processes requires a multidisciplinary understanding of soils.  This course will examine soils with a focus on soil-forming processes and morphology.  In the classroom, students will learn the terminology and concepts of soil genesis, soil taxonomy, and soil morphology.  These concepts will then be applied in the field so that students can learn to identify and interpret horizonation and morphological characteristics. 

Satisfies depth or breadth course requirement in the Natural Science Track of the Environmental Studies major or interdisciplinary minor.
Counts as an Applied Environmental Science course in the Natural Science track of the Environmental Studies interdisciplinary major.

Prerequisites & Notes
ENV 120 or ENV 201 or instructor permission.

ENV 341 - Political Ecology

The interdisciplinary field of political ecology examines relationships between social and ecological systems to interrogate how politics and economics are shaped by nature and how nature is shaped by politics and economics. This course interrogates how political-economic processes drive environmental change and how conceptions of nonhuman nature are created through power and culture. The course introduces students to key theories in political ecology that explore ideas about capitalism, colonialism, and racism and investigates case studies of environmental issues and struggles over land and natural resources in the global South and North. This is a seminar designed for upper level students, but first-year students can contact instructor for permission.

Fulfills social science track depth component in the environmental studies major and interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

ENV 351 - Environmental Social Movements

This course traces how and why environmentalism emerged, particularly in the U.S., and how social movements for environmental protection have changed over time with different social and political-economic contexts. Highlighted are the frequently overlooked histories of environmental activism from people of color, immigrants, workers and labor unions, people in the Global South, and Indigenous communities. The course examines core questions about social movements and social change: How do people perceive socio-environmental problems? Why do people take and sustain political action? What strategies are successful and why does change happen? This course focuses on relationships between marginalized communities and those in power - the state, corporations and scientific experts - as well as dynamics of power and privilege between environmental organizations. Case studies of environmental movements will range from early conservation activism in the 1900s through contemporary protests around climate change and fossil fuels.

Satisfies a depth and breadth course in the Social Science track of the Environmental Studies interdisciplinary major and minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the Sociology major.
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought Ways of Knowing requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

ENV 356 - Diversity & Extinction Analysis (= BIO 356)

This group investigation course focuses on the analysis of patterns of biodiversity and biodiversity loss. Students conduct literature reviews to compile data on biodiversity and/or extinction events to identify patterns of biodiversity, biodiversity function, and extinctions, with the goal of understanding the causes and consequences of biodiversity variation and loss. An emphasis is placed on the analysis of biodiversity data and the development of novel analyses to address issues such as sampling effects, extinction bias, random extinction, and emergent properties of biodiversity. The course culminates with a group project that addresses student-driven questions via the application of analyses developed during the semester.

Counts as an elective in the Data Science interdisciplinary minor.
Counts as an Applied Environmental Science course in the Natural Science track of the Environmental Studies interdisciplinary major.

Prerequisites & Notes
Successful completion of BIO 112/114 and BIO 227 or 321 is required.  Completion of BIO 240 is recommended.

ENV 366 - Renew Natural Resources: Science and Policy (= BIO 366, ANT 382)

This interdisciplinary seminar course focuses on developing a scientific understanding of renewable natural resources such as fisheries and forests and how resources are then used, overused, managed, and conserved by humans.  The course primarily consider smodern methods of resource management, including adaptive and ecosystem-based management.  The course builds upon knowledge gained in the foundation courses of Anthropology, Biology, or Environmental Studies.  It addresses natural resource and environmental issues from ecosystem and policy perspectives.  Through case studies, readings, class discussions, and knowledge construction, students gain deep knowledge of ecosystem ecology and management policies and approaches.  Students then apply their knowledge to identify management principles that are consistent with a more holistic ecosystem approach and develop a case study of one natural resource and how it is managed.

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

ENV 367 - Ecotoxicology (= BIO 367)

Ecotoxicology is the science that examines the fate and effects of toxicants in and on ecological systems.  While toxicology examines effects at molecular, cell, and organism levels, effects at higher levels are not always predictable based on findings at lower levels. Ecotoxicology integrates effects at multiple levels of biological organization.

Satisfies depth or breadth course requirement in Natural Science Track of the Environmental Studies major or interdisciplinary minor.
Counts as an Applied Environmental Science course in the Natural Science track of the Environmental Studies interdisciplinary major.

Prerequisites & Notes
BIO 111 and 112 (or 113 and 114) or ENV 201 required and permission of the instructor required; CHE 115 recommended.

ENV 385 - Group Investigation - Environmental Humanities

Satisfies the depth or breadth requirement in the Humanities track of the Environmental Studies major.
Counts as an additional course in the environmental humanities in the Environmental Studies interdisciplinary minor.
 

TOPIC - Botanical Humanities
Instructor - Merrill

This Group Investigation in the Botanical Humanities will give students experience in conducting original archival research; analyzing literature, primary sources, and material culture; and writing a research article for a scholarly audience, all related to the study of amateur botanists and popular botany in the nineteenth-century US.

 

Prerequisites & Notes
ENV 203 or permission of the instructor

ENV 395 - Independent Research

ENV 401 - Environmental Studies Seminar (= ENV 499)

The goal of this seminar course is to integrate the depth and breadth components of the Environmental Studies major. Students will examine a special topic through an interdisciplinary lens, accounting for a variety of perspectives.

Prerequisites & Notes
ENV 201, 202, and 203.

For juniors only.  Seniors should register for ENV 499. 

ENV 495 - Independent Research

ENV 497 - Honors Research

ENV 498 - Environmental Studies Capstone I

In collaboration with their capstone mentor, students will formally propose and carry out a project based on fieldwork and/or substantive library research in the area of the student’s depth component track - Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities, or self-designed.  Projects will demonstrate an integration of the methods and theory appropriate to the student’s depth component by investigating a question or problem that is significant, situated, and original in its application within the context of Environmental Studies.

Satisfies major requirement in Environmental Studies.

Prerequisites & Notes
ENV 201, ENV 202, ENV 203. Offered in the Fall. 

ENV 499 - Environmental Studies Seminar (= ENV 401)

The goal of this seminar course is to integrate the depth and breadth components of the Environmental Studies major. Students will examine a special topic through an interdisciplinary lens, accounting for a variety of perspectives.

Prerequisites & Notes
ENV 498. For seniors only.

EVN 351 - Special Topics in Environmental Studies

Special Topics in Environmental Studies

ETH 236 - Ethics and Warfare

This course examines key philosophical and religious concepts in the history of moral deliberations about war, modern analyses of the diverse and sometimes conflicting moral principles that those traditions have bequeathed to us, and theories about why human beings engage in mass killing. Students will develop an appreciation for the richness of ethical thinking about war, and enhance their skills in applying moral philosophical reasoning to con­tem­porary wars. Questions that will be tackled in readings, class discussions and exams include: Do people have a right not to be killed? Is that right absolute, or not? If it’s an absolute right, how can war ever be justified? If that right is not absolute, can we nonetheless establish sensible limits on when and how war may be waged? Can we clearly distinguish between combatants and non­com­batants? If so, may noncombatants ever be directly targeted in war? If not, may they be threatened in order to deter attacks against us? Or is that equivalent to terrorism? What’s the right way to balance risks to noncombatants vs. risks to our troops?

Students entering 2012 and after: satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

ETH 237 - Business Ethics

What does society have a right to expect from corporations in the realm of moral respon­si­bility?  Do corporate leaders have any obligations beyond serving the interests of stockholders and obeying the law?  Do they have moral obligations to other “stakeholders” such as employees, consumers, suppliers, members of communities living near factories, et al.?  This course will address these and other related questions.

Students entering 2012 and after: satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

ETH 238 - Ethics in Professional Life

This course is intended  to foster your awareness of ethical concerns across a wide range of professions (such as law, medicine, journalism, and business); to enable you to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various moral beliefs and ethical arguments relative to professional life; and to reinforce your personal sense of compassion and fairness in the context of your future professional roles. Does loyalty to one’s professional clients permit one to ignore at least some ethical obligations that the rest of us would be condemned for violating? What counts as a conflict of interest in various professional contexts? How should physicians deal with tensions between preventing avoidable harms to their patients and respecting their autonomous choices? How far may lawyers go in protecting their clients’ interests? Must they defend clients they know are guilty? May they undermine the credibility of witnesses they know are testifying truthfully? Are business managers solely obligated to maximize stockholders’ wealth? Or do they have moral duties to other “stakeholders” as well?

Students entering 2012 and after: satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

ETH 239 - The Moral Status of Humans and Other Animals

There is a general consensus today that all people share a set of basic rights, or what might also be called full moral status. But we are less likely to agree about the moral status of human beings at the edges of life, such as early embryos (may we use them to extract stem cells, or freeze them indefinitely?) and individuals who are permanently unconscious (should they be considered dead?). We also have not reached a consensus about the moral status of various non-human animals: some cultures revere all living things, while others grant non-human animals little or no independent moral status at all. Some contemporary theorists argue that any sentient animals (capable of suffering) deserve to have their interests count in our moral deliberations; among them are many proponents of vegetarianism who regard our treatment of food animals as unnecessarily cruel. A few philosophers go so far as to argue that highly intelligent animals like chimpanzees and dolphins have rights like ours, and should not be kept in zoos or used in biomedical experiments. This course will explore these and other fascinating ethical questions, drawing in part on recent findings in neuroscience and zoology.

Students entering 2012 and after: satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

FMS 220 - Introduction to Film and Media Studies

An introduction to the history and analysis of screen media, with an emphasis on film (feature films, documentaries, animation, and experimental) together with an examination of ways cinematic techniques of storytelling do and do not find their ways into later media like television and video games. Lectures and discussions supplemented by theoretical readings and weekly screenings.

Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.
Required course for fulfilling the Film and Media Studies Interdisciplinary Minor.

FMS 321 - Interactive Digital Narratives

A close study of selected video games using an interdisciplinary blend of methodologies culled from cultural studies, film and media studies theory, literary criticism, and history.

Film and Media Studies Interdisciplinary Minor Credit.
Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
FMS 220 or ENG 293.

FMS 323 - Special Topics in Digital Media and Film

An intensive investigation of digital media and film production.  Screenings, discussions, and readings will explore the theory and practice of a selected cinematic tradition.  Significant production component will include videography, non- linear video editing, lighting, and sound recording.

Satisfies Film and Media Studies Interdisciplinary Minor requirement.
Satisfies Visual and Performing Arts requirement.
 

FMS 385 - Video Game Music (= MUS 385)

Historical, stylistic, and analytic study of video game music from its origins in the arcade games of the 1970s to the present. Emphases on close readings of music in relation to gameplay, and vice versa. Includes training in digital audio manipulation to create sound design and musical sequences.

Satisfies the Liberal Studies requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Normally offered in alternate years; not offered in 2016-17.

FMS 421 - Seminar in Film and Media Studies: After Birth of a Nation

This seminar will take the occasion of the 100th anniversary of D. W. Griffith’s controversial film The Birth of a Nation (1915) as an invitation to conduct a close investigation of the original film and its impact on film history and U.S. culture along with a study of this film and the history and representation of racial identities in U.S. media. The historical scope of the seminar will reach back to the nineteenth century and up to the present, with attention given to Oscar Micheaux’s cinematic response (Within Our Gates) and the entire twentieth century history of what have been called “race movies.” Projects will include both scholarly writing along with production exercises involving editing, remixing, and re-composing. Weekly screenings expected outside of class.

NOTE: This seminar will fulfill the 400-level capstone requirement for the FMS minor in 2015-16.

Prerequisites & Notes
FMS 220. (Fall)

FRE 101 - Elementary French I

FRE 102 - Elementary French II

FRE 103 - Intensive Beginning French (2 credits)

FRE 201 - Intermediate French

Satisfies requirement in foreign language.

Prerequisites & Notes
French 102 or 103-104 at Davidson, or placement exam.

FRE 212 - Oral Expression, Listening Comprehension and Practical Phonetics

Discussion, continuing oral practice, and corrective pronunciation. Requires participation in weekly AT session.

Prerequisites & Notes
French 201, placement examination, or permission of the instructor. (Fall and Spring)

FRE 221 - Visions of the City

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

Prerequisites & Notes
French 210 or above. (Not offered 2016-17.)

FRE 222 - Narrating the Self

In this course we will explore examples of fully-fledged autobiographies, as well as other versions of autobiographical writing or films. Students will be invited to consider how autobiographical elements are conveyed in each work and, more importantly, how they differ from the model exemplified by Rousseau’s Confessions. These differences will then be analyzed in their relation with pertinent social, cultural, and political circumstances of the period, as well as with questions of identity as they become important, particularly otherness in the colonial context, gender, and sexuality. Students will be continuously asked to reflect not simply on what is being said, but also how and why it is being said in that way. Although material will mostly be presented chronologically so that we may trace the development of autobiography and its offshoots, students will also be expected to make connections across time and space in ways that relate seemingly disparate figures, periods, works, and circumstances.

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

Prerequisites & Notes
French 201 or above. 

FRE 224 - The Return in Francophone Literature

Is it possible to go home again?  Through poetry, novel, graphic novel, and film, we examine how francophone authors try to answer this question.  Readings and films from Césaire, Laferrière, Mabanckou, Teno, Gomis, Belkaïd, and Burton.

FRE 225 - Rich and Poor

FRE 226 - Mapping Desire

Desire is a passion that has driven men and women to build and destroy empires, and has thus been a topic and subject in French literature since medieval times. This course examines the various forms of desire, and maps the spaces and places in which it is expressed, from France to the confines of the colonial Empire and more recently the Francophone world.

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies a requirement in the Global Literary Theory major and interdisciplinary minor.

Prerequisites & Notes
FRE 201 or 212.
FRE 226 is cross-listed with FRE 326.  Students who have completed FRE 220 or above must enroll in FRE 326.

FRE 228 - Introduction to Francophone Literature Abroad

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

FRE 229 - Introduction to French and/or Francophone Literature Abroad

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

FRE 230 - 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 the French and Francophone Studies major and minor.
Satisfies Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

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

FRE 242 - Autobiographies, Journals, Diaries (=FRE 321)

Reading and discussion of first-person narratives from a variety of periods. Typical authors: Diderot, Guillerargues, Graffigny, Camus, Gide, Duras.

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

Prerequisites & Notes
FRE 201 or FRE 212. Students who have completed FRE 220 or above must enroll in FRE 321.

FRE 260 - Contemporary France

FRE 287 - Studies in Civilization and Culture Abroad

FRE 288 - Studies in Civilization and Culture Abroad

FRE 295 - Independent Study for Non-Majors

Independent Study for Non-Majors

Prerequisites & Notes
Permission of instructor required.

FRE 295, 296, 297 - Independent Study for Non-Majors

FRE 313 - Advanced Grammar Review and Written Expression

Advanced work in written French.

Prerequisites & Notes
French 220 or above. (Spring)
 

FRE 320 - Husbands, Wives, and Lovers

FRE 321 - Autobiographies, Journals, Diaries (=FRE 242)

Reading and discussion of first-person narratives from a variety of periods. Typical authors: Diderot, Guillerargues, Graffigny, Camus, Gide, Duras.

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

Prerequisites & Notes
Any course numbered French 220 or above, or permission of the instructor. (Spring)

FRE 326 - Geographies of Desire

Desire is a passion that has driven men and women to build and destroy empires, and has thus been a topic and subject in French literature since medieval times. This course examines the various forms of desire, and maps the spaces and places in which it is expressed, from France to the confines of the colonial Empire and more recently the Francophone world.

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies a requirement in the Global Literary Theory major and interdisciplinary minor.

Prerequisites & Notes
Any French course numbered 220 or above.
Cross-listed with FRE 226.

FRE 329 - Studies in the Novel

Studies in the Novel.  Topics vary.

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 332 - The Hidden and the Forbidden

In this course, 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 or taboo.

Two main themes will be approached: homosexuality 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 theme.

Satisfies a requirement in the Gender & Sexuality Studies major and minor.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
One French coruse numbered 220 or above.

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 requirement.
Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

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 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 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 requirement in Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric.

Prerequisites & Notes
Any course numbered 220 or above.

FRE 369 - Francophone Cultural Café

An active, project-based course, organized around different cities of the francophone world: Dakar, Montreal, Paris, Algiers. Through cultural events, newspapers, music, film, and literary texts from each city, students will produce cultural critiques for our course site, in written, video and audio formats.

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Any course numbered French 220 or above.

FRE 389 - European Union Politics

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

Satisfies the Liberal Studies 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 399 - Topics in Francophone Literature

Topics in Francophone Literature

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Rhetoric requirement
Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

FRE 490 - Senior Seminar

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 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 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 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 requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

GSS 341 - Race, Gender & Sexuality in Asian American Literature and Film

This course introduces critical race theory and issues of gender and sexuality specific to Asian American context, using literature, film and media, and art and performance. We will explore problems of identity and citizenship, class and labor history, model minority discourse, sexual politics as well as intersection of gender and Asianness, and locate ways in which contemporary Asian America literature and film respond to these issues: how they critique and reinvent traditional ideas about Asian American culture. Furthermore, this course will pay special attention to transnational discourses (e.g. history of immigration, generational conflicts, border-defying transnational experiences and questioning the problematic “national identity”) within Asian American experience, and how gender and sexuality intersect with such discourses. The notions of power, nation, and citizenship in relationship to gender and sexuality are important in this course as we will be asking how gender-conscious and queer Asian American cultural productions may intercept the traditional US thinking on citizenship and racial differences, particularly at this time in our national history. Finally, this course will have a film/media focus, which means we will learn intellectual ways to analyze and discuss Asian American film works, and consider dynamic ways in which minority discourses can be productively deployed in art, film, media, and performance activism. The course content will encompass different Asian American experience, including South Asian, East Asian, and Southeast Asian American narratives.

Satisfies a requirement in the Gender and Sexuality Studies Major and Minor. (Literary and Cultural Representations Track)
Satisfies a Diversity requirement in the English Major and Minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the Global Literary Theory Interdisciplinary Major and Minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the East Asian Studies Major and Interdisciplinary Minor.
Satisfies a requirment in the Film and Media Studies interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, & Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

GSS 345 - Queer Immigration and Diaspora

This course will explore immigration, exile, and diaspora from the perspective of sexuality and queerness, with a focus on Latin American and Asian subjects. We will study basic theory of immigration, globalization, and queerness, and strive to understand problems of citizenship, politics of (not) belonging, affect of exclusion, and narratives of searching home. In order to develop skills of intellectual and critical analysis on the border issues and queer theory, this class will deploy the methods of transnational feminism, ethnic studies, and critical border studies. The course materials include: ethnography, political theory, documentaries and cutting edge works from the field of “immigration and sexuality.” Needless to say, this class takes an interdisciplinary approach and postcolonial perspective: course topics cover many different cultural and counter-cultural productions, articulation of power and resistance, theory of belonging and displacement. Furthermore, we will examine important key concepts to study immigration and sexuality, such as affect, intimacy, double identity, loss of citizenship, homonormativity, and inquire how various borders are being crossed while sexual (dis)identification becomes an opening for encounters. Through these works, we will question what it means today to be sexual, ethnic, and national minority simultaneously and how contemporary globalization and transnational economic activities affects ways we live and love.
 

Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

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 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 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 requirement.

GSS 394 - Latinx Sexual Dissidence and Guerilla Translation (=LAS 394)

Instructor 
González

Despite local differences and sociocultural contexts, there are also remarkable convergences in subcultural minority activisms focused on liberation from intersecting oppressions related to sexuality, race, gender, ability, citizenship status, and class in North and South America. In this upper-level bilingual seminar, students will translate guerilla-style-functionally and in a non-literary fashion-texts by activists and cultural producers focused on intersectional sexual dissidence. Working in teams, students will have the opportunity to consult with some of their target texts’ authors, and the course’s final product will be an online archive of English and Spanish translations of texts related to intersectional, feminist, and queer Latinx American activisms and cultural productions. First, students will study the rhetorics and aesthetic strategies of feminist and queer activist collectives focused on social issues such as immigration, transgender rights, anti-racism, economic equality, anti-speciesim, body positivity, and prison abolition with a pro-pleasure, leftist perspective. Second, students in the course and I will elaborate a list of the principles and goals informing our functional, guerrilla translations. In the third unit, students will work exclusively on the translation projects they have been developing throughout the semester. They will have the opportunities to interview at least one of the authors whose work they are translating. Collectives, authors, and artists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and the U.S. that we will study include: Colectivo Lemebel; Colectivo Universitario de la Disidencia Sexual (CUDS); TransLatina Coalition; Biblioteca Fragmentada; Lino Arruda; Constanzx Alvarez Castillo; Jorge Díaz; Valeria Flores; Daisy Hernández; Jennicet Gutiérrez; Claudia Rodríguez; Ignacio Rivera; Julio Salgado; and Susy Shock.

Satisfies a major requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies
Satisfies a minor requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies
Satisfies a major requirement in Latin American Studies
Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Latin American Studies
Satisfies the Justice, Equality and Community requirement
Satisfies the Literary Thought, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement

Prerequisites & Notes
Requires permission from the instructor.

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 representations 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, charted changing conceptions of masculinity and femininity in broadcast programming, and documented the organizational strategies employed by television narrative that disclose and contain expressions of nonnormative sexualities. Indeed, in one of the foundational texts on queer TV, Lynne Joyrich argues that “U.S. television does not simply reflect an already closeted sexuality but actually helps organize sexuality as closeted.” Extending Joyrich’s line of reasoning, we will seek to understand the dynamics of visibility and invisibility that structure representations of televised queerness. How might we understand the contemporary series Transparent alongside or against the representation of a trans character on All in the Family (1975)? Why might The New Normal, a seemingly positive portrayal of new kinship structures, have failed as a series in 2013? Even as we watch the problematic take on villainous lesbian characters in the Angie Dickinson vehicle, Police Woman (“Flowers of Evil,” 1974), we will move beyond diagnoses and critiques of “bad” versus “good” queer representations to acknowledge the pleasures that may attend the viewing of even ideologically corrupt programming. Which shows and episodes became lightening rods for desire despite their failure to produce fully realized queer characters? And what genealogy (or genealogies) of queer TV might take us from the groundbreaking episodes of Ellen (“The Puppy Episode”) and Roseanne (“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”) in the 1990s to the moment at which a Vanity Fair cover declared that with “Gay-per-view TV” shows like Will and Grace and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, prime time had “come out” (2003)? As we historicize such developments, we will consider the contributions of writer-producers and series creators such as Alan Ball and Ryan Murphy, and analyze a variety of programs from “quality television” to animation, from the sit-com to reality TV, and from sci-fi to the game show.

Satisfies a major requirement in English
Satisfies a minor requirement in English
​Fulfills the Diversity requirement in the English major.
Satisfies a major requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies
Satisfies a minor requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies
Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Film and Media Studies
Satisfies the Justice, Equality and Community requirement
 

GSS 403 - Latinx Sexual Dissidence

Latinx Sexual Dissidence

Satisfies a requirement in the Latin American Studies major and minor.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Permission of instructor required.

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 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 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 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 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 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 requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
(Not offered in 2016-17)

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

Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts 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 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

An introduction to authors, genres, and periods in German literature as well as methods of literary criticism. Close reading, discussion, and analytical writing in German about key original texts from various periods and traditions.

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

Prerequisites & Notes
German 201 or placement. (Spring)

GER 251 - Special Literary Topics

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

Prerequisites & Notes
German 201 or placement. (Fall)

GER 261 - Special Cultural Topics

Satisfies the Liberal Studies 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 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 requirement.

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

GER 298 - Independent Study