Jun 16, 2024  
2022-2023 Catalog 
    
2022-2023 Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Descriptions


 

History

  
  • HIS 389 - Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Japan


    Instructor
    Mortensen

    This course explores gender dynamics and the lives of women in Japan from the nineteenth century to the present day. It introduces students to the gendered dimensions of Confucianism, marriage, paid employment and unpaid work, parenting, war, political activism, structural power, and popular culture in Japan. Other topics include the political, social, and economic challenges that Japanese women and the Japanese LGBTQ community continue to face.


    Satisfies a requirement for the History, East Asian Studies, and Gender and Sexuality Studies majors.
    Satisfies a requirement for the Gender and Sexuality Studies minor.
    Satisfies a requirement for the East Asian Studies and International Studies interdisciplinary minors.
    Satisfies an Historical Thought requirement.
    Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement. 

  
  • HIS 390 - Davidson Summer Program at Cambridge University


    Limited to thirty students, the Davidson Summer Program at Cambridge focuses on the history and literature of late 18th- and 19th-century Britain. Students may receive credit for either English or History. 

    Students entering 2012 and after: satisfies Historical Thought requirement. 
    Students entering before 2012: satisfies History requirement.

  
  • HIS 391 - Writing Historical Fiction


    Instructor
    Wertheimer

    This course teaches students about history by having them research and write original works of historical fiction.  The course approaches historical fiction with an emphasis on the “historical.”  A paper prepared in this course might be a lousy work of fiction but still a great paper if the historical research and analysis are strong.  But no fictional glitter, however sparkling, can redeem a paper marred by weak historical research and analysis.

    Satisfies a major requirement in History

    Satisfies Historical Thought requirement

     

  
  • HIS 392 - Histories of Science, Knowledge, and Skill


    Instructor
    Schade

    A study of how humans have known, verified, and communicated about natural phenomena, how they have tested their observations through science, applied technical knowledge, and skill, and how they have institutionalized scientific knowledge and engineered their own impacts on the natural world.  Satisfies the History requirement through class of 2015.  Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement for class of 2016 and after.  Environmental Studies major.

  
  • HIS 393 - Spanish History and Historical Memory


    Instructor
    Wertheimer

    Spain’s history is long, rich, and very much alive.  The meanings of that history are multiple, contested, and politically divisive.  This course will explore both Spanish history and Spanish historical memory.  After doing some brief introductory readings about the concept of historical memory, students will proceed through a chronological survey of Spanish history.  Each unit will include an excursion to a relevant Spanish historical site.  Students will prepare for each visit by studying the site’s history.  Afterwards, students will reflect about the ways in which the site portrayed the past.  Throughout the semester, the course will chew on the following observation from Spanish writer Reyes Mate: “Although memory sharpens the sense of justice, the process of remembering is a long haul, for the painful past that we slowly uncover together surely holds many surprises.”  Students in this course should have taken three semesters of college-level Spanish or the equivalent.

    Satisfies History major and minor requirement.
    Satisfies Historical Thought requirement.

  
  • HIS 395 - IS: Historic Documentary Film


    Instructor
    Wertheimer

    Reading and research on a special subject and writing of a substantial paper. Under the direction and supervision of a faculty member who reviews and approves the topic of the independent study.  Admission with permission of the professor, who will also evaluate the student’s work.  Does not satisfy distribution requirement.

  
  • HIS 396 - Independent Study


    Instructor
    Staff

    Reading and research on a special subject and writing of a substantial paper. Under the direction and supervision of a faculty member who reviews and approves the topic of the independent study.  Admission with permission of the professor, who will also evaluate the student’s work.  Does not satisfy distribution requirement.

  
  • HIS 414 - Mapping Medieval Europe


    Instructor
    Kabala

    Students in this research seminar will investigate the medieval past by reading, mapping, and writing about medieval primary sources. Students will acquire basic coding skills, build geo-databases, and engage in a collective project of digital mapping of a major medieval source or collection of sources.

    Satisfies History major requirement.
    Satisfies Digital Studies minor requirement.

  
  • HIS 420 - The English Civil War


    Instructor
    Dietz

    An examination of how 17th-century English men and women turned their world “upside down.” Emphasis on the political, social, and religious causes and consequences of the Great Rebellion of 1640-1660.

  
  • HIS 422 - Gender in Early Modern Europe (C. 15th-18th Centuries)


    Instructor
    Dietz

    From Christine de Pisan to Mary Wollstonecraft. An examination of changing roles, expectations, and desires of men and women, with particular emphasis on their interaction.

  
  • HIS 424 - The Global French Revolution


    Instructor
    Tilburg

    This seminar explores the history and historiography of the French Revolution of 1789 as a global event. The Revolution released potent new ideals of political participation and social mobility, and unleashed decades of warfare in Europe, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. It marked a decisive and violent rupture between the Old and the Modern, created “sister republics” across Europe, and touched off the revolutions of free and enslaved people of color in the Caribbean, especially in the Haitian Revolution. We consider historical debates about the origins of the Revolution, and investigate the symbols and rituals of revolutionary culture. What were the consequences of the revolutionary moment for groups not included in triumphal rhetoric of liberty, equality and fraternity (women, workers, enslaved and free black people)? And how has the Revolution been remembered and commemorated around the world in the two centuries since the Bastille fell?

  
  • HIS 426 - Victorian People


    Instructor
    Dietz

    Society and culture of Victorian Britain through the lens of some of its more captivating personalities and their writings. Possible figures include: Charles Darwin, George Eliot, William Gladstone, William Morris, and Sidney and Beatrice Webb.

  
  • HIS 427 - European Consumer Culture: 1750 to the Present


    Instructor
    Tilburg
     

    This seminar explores the history of consumer culture in Europe from the 18th century through the 1990s. From the luxury consumption of the Old Regime aristocracy to the electric-lit department stores of the 19th-century metropolis, an examination of European consumer culture allows us to trace momentous economic, social, and political transformations of the modern era through tourism, revolutionary fashion, imperialism, and socialist critiques. In the 20th century, we assess the interrelated markets and pop cultures of Europe and the U.S. with postwar “Americanization”- from rock & roll to McDonald’s.

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


    Instructor 
    Denham

    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.

     

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Permission of instructor required.

  
  • HIS 439 - Topics in Modern European History


    Instructor
    Staff

    Topics in Modern European History.

  
  • HIS 440 - Slavery in the Americas


    Instructor
    Guasco

    Comparative exploration of the foundation and development of slavery in the western hemisphere since 1492. Topics include the transatlantic slave trade, work and labor, resistance and rebellion, and the articulation of African culture throughout the Americas.

    Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: North America).

  
  • HIS 441 - Natives and Newcomers in Early America


    Instructor
    Guasco

    Encounter between indigenous peoples and English, French, and Spanish newcomers in North America. Special emphasis on the clash of cultures in spiritual, material, and physical realms and how Europeans and Indians created a distinctive American landscape by the end of the eighteenth century.

  
  • HIS 444 - History of Sexuality in the United States


    Instructor
    Stremlau

    In this course, students will study changing constructions and expressions of sexuality in what is now the United States. Considering the evolving spectrum of behaviors and identities that society has defined as normal and deviant, we will challenge notions of human reproduction and desire as timeless, unchanging, and universal. By embedding our analysis of sexuality with that of class, race, gender, age, ability, and other identities, we will examine how sexual experience and expression has varied, defied, reinforced, repressed, and liberated. Informed by the critical consideration of theory and comprehensive reading in the secondary literature, we will engage in primary source analysis of materials created by and about those who lived in our community in the past. Students will share their research via a web-based project we will build together.

    Satisfies History major and minor requirement.
    Satisfies Gender and Sexuality Studies major and minor requirement.
    Satisfies Justice, Equality and Community requirement.

     

  
  • HIS 446 - Presidents and First Ladies


    Instructor
    Staff

    Presidents and first ladies from Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt through Ronald and Nancy Reagan.  Emphasis on their goals and policies, their successes and failures, and the changing meanings of “liberalism” and “conservatism” that they represented.

  
  • HIS 449 - Age of Revolution: The United States in the 1960s


    Instructor
    Aldridge

    A seminar on an important era of changes and transformation in American history. Topics studied include the civil rights movement, the counterculture, the New Left, the Vietnam War, and the women’s movement.

    Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: North America).

  
  • HIS 451 - African American Cultural History


    Instructor
    Aldridge

    A study of African American cultural history with particular focus on the 20th century. Specific artistic and cultural forms studied may include the visual arts, music, dance, film, and television in their historical context.

    Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: North America).
    Satisfies a requirement in the Communication Studies major and minor.
    Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.

  
  • HIS 454 - Filming Southern History


    Instructor
    Wertheimer

    Students in HIS 454 will work collaboratively to research, write, and produce a documentary film about some aspect of the U.S. South’s history, guided by an instructional team that includes both the course professor and two aspiring filmmakers from the Documentary Film Program at Wake Forest University.

    Satisfies a requirement in the History major and minor.
    Counts as an elective for the Film and Media Studies interdisciplinary minor.
    Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

     

  
  • HIS 455 - Law and Society in American History


    Instructor
    Wertheimer

    Selected topics in U.S. legal history. Seminar members will work collaboratively on a large-scale research project.

  
  • HIS 459 - Topics in American History


    Instructor
    Stremlau
    Title- Body, Story, Memory: The History Of Rape In The United States

    This course challenges popular views of rape as existing outside of history. Instead of a universal human expression, both the act and idea of rape have histories situated in specific contexts. We will focus on the region that is now the United States from prior to European colonization through the twenty-first century. In doing so, we will center the experiences of women and girls, who have in the past and who now continue to experience sexual violence at higher rates than men and boys, but our study is neither exclusive nor restrictive. Recognizing the limitations of current scholarship, we will consider rape comprehensively with attention to gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, nationality, and sexual orientation. We will distinguish among acts of rape, narratives about rape told in specific moments, and the evolution of broader cultural understandings of rape’s meanings and purposes. We will balance our discussions of violence with those of resistance, and in centering survivors and their resilience, we will rewrite/re(right) narratives that have perpetuated victimization and train ourselves to engage the rape discourses that exist today.

    Satisfies Gender and Sexuality Studies major and minor requirement

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Instructor permission required.

  
  • HIS 462 - Public Health and Society in Latin America


    Instructor
    Mangan

    This course introduces students to major topics in public health history in Latin America including epidemic disease, eugenics, reproductive and maternal health, indigenous medicine, and mental illness. Emphasis on the complex relationship between Latin American society, medicine, and health policies/practices in 20th- century Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and Peru.  Seminar-style course focuses on reading, discussion, research paper.

    Counts as an upper-level elective in the History major and minor.
    Counts as an upper-level elective in the Latin American Studies major and interdisciplinary minor.
    Satisfies a requirement in the Public Health interdisciplinary minor.
    Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

  
  • HIS 464 - Religion and Social Change in Latin America


    Instructor
    Mangan

    Exploration of the nexus between religion and social upheaval through topics including conquest, rebellion, liberation theology, and religious tradition new to the region, such as Evangelicalism.

    Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

  
  • HIS 465 - Colonialism and Imagination in Early Latin America


    Instructor
    Mangan

    The rise and fall of colonial power in Latin America with a focus on the emergence of colonial Latin America as a historical unit.  Topics include justification of colonial rule, civilization and barbarism, differences between the Old and New Worlds, and American Identity.

    Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean).
    Satisfies a requirement in the Latin American Studies major and minor.
    Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

  
  • HIS 466 - Migrations and Immigration in Latin America


    Instructor
    Mangan

    Study of the relationship between internal migrations and outward immigration in Latin America.  Students will acquire in-depth information about migration/immigration in the early colonial period, in the neo-imperial nineteenth century, and in the twentieth century.

    Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean).
    Satisfies a requirement in the Latin American Studies major and minor.
    Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

  
  • HIS 467 - Family and Families in African History


    Instructor
    Weimers

    Studies how Africans have defined and achieved family and family connections along with ways that states have attempted to use family–as metaphor, ideal, and unit of political and social organization-to organize African life from the 17th century to the present. 

    Satisfies a major or minor requirement in History.
    Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: Africa).
    Satisfies a major and a minor requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies.
    Satisfies a Historical Thought requirement.
    Satisfies a cultural diversity requirement.

  
  • HIS 469 - Work, Gender, and Political Imagination in Africa


    Instructor
    Wiemers

    Investigates how gender and labor have been used to construct and contest the political imaginaries of individuals, communities, and states in 19th and 20th c Africa.

    Satisfies a major requirement in History.
    Satisfies a major and minor requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies.
    Satisfies a major requirement in Africana Studies.
    Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Global Literary Theory.
    Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.

  
  • HIS 470 - Global War on Terror: A History


    Instructor
    Staff

    The US war in Afghanistan is now in its 17th year, the longest foreign war in American history. The Global War on Terror, however, has yet to be historicized. For the first time, this exploratory seminar does just that. It examines the history of the global war on terror by considering 9/11 and the era it inaugurated, while also consciously understanding it in relation to the forces of modern imperalism in the twentieth century. The seminar is structured as a “people’s history” of the global war on terror. It takes seriously the impact of global warfare from the standpoint of its victims. Topics include but are not limited to: definitions of terror and terrorism; European and Anglo-American histories of orientalism and Islamophobia; torture and torture legislation; drones, proxy wars, and war crimes; legislation and state led-initiatives of disapperances and entrapment; old and new formations of the national security state; how new technologies of violence and surveillance have reshaped domestic American policies; cold war politics in relation to contemporary conflagrations in Afghanistan and Pakistan; military occupations in relation to Palestine and Kashmir; refugees and displacement; suicide bombing; contemporary travel bans; and gender and feminist politics in relation to the war on terror. This seminar will involve weekly readings and discussion, films, documentaries, and one final paper.

    Satisfies a requirement in the History major and minor.
     

  
  • HIS 474 - Bollywood and the Indian Imagination


    Instructor
    Staff

    History of Indian Cinema, one of the world’s most popularly viewed, from the ‘golden age’ of Bombay’s Hindi- and Urdu- language films of the 1940s to the present.

    Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
    Satisfies a requirement of the Film and Media Studies Interdisciplinary minor.

  
  • HIS 477 - War & Post-War Memory in Asia


    Instructor
    Mortensen

    Why did a war that was fought in the name of a “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere” result in millions of deaths in Asia and leave Japan’s major cities in ruins? Today, nearly eighty years after the end of the war, why do historical interpretations of the Asia Pacific War continue to be so politically charged in East Asia? To explore these questions, this seminar will analyze Japanese, Chinese, and Korean people’s experiences of wartime Japan. We will also explore how individuals and diverse groups in East Asia have narrated these experiences and how historical memory continues to be put to political use today. The course will start with the colonization of Korea in 1910 and deal with the entirety of the wartime experience to 1945. Next, the course will focus on how memories of the war shaped domestic politics, international relations, and national identity in Japan, China, and Korea in the post-war period.

    The “Pacific War,” the “Fourteen Year War,” “World War II,” the “Asia-Pacific War,” and the “Greater East Asian War” all refer to the same general time period and series of events, but each of these names has very different political meanings. The various terms used to describe the period during which Japan was at war demonstrate how naming and memory work together. In this seminar, we will consider how imperialism and colonialism of both the Euro-American and Japanese varieties were central to the war’s outbreak, conduct, and resolution. We will also explore various local experiences - rather than simply national experiences and memories - of the war. These will include the experiences and memories of marginalized groups in Japan and its colonies, “comfort women,” victims of war atrocities, Japanese North Americans, and Pacific Islanders. In addition to learning about key issues in the study of the Second World War in the Asia Pacific region, students in this course will also come to critically analyze and reconsider mainstream views of the war.

    Satisfies History major and minor requirement.
    Satisfies East Asian Studies major and minor requirement.
    Satisfies Historical Thought requirement.
    Satisfies Cultural Diversity requirement.

     

  
  • HIS 480 - Senior Research Seminar


    Instructors
    Mortensen D, Wiemers A

    Capstone course for history majors.  Students define, research, and write a major research paper on a topic of their choice.  Required of senior majors not enrolled in History 488/489.

  
  • HIS 488 - Kelley Honors Seminar: Research and Thesis


    Instructors 
    Stremlau R

    Two-semester research seminar for senior history majors who qualify for honors work and who are selected as Kelley Scholars.   Culminates in the researching and writing of a thesis. Admission by invitation of the History Department.

  
  • HIS 489 - Kelley Honors Seminar: Research and Thesis


    Instructor
    R. Stremlau

    Two-semester research seminar for senior history majors who qualify for honors work and who are selected as Kelley Scholars. Culminates in the researching and writing of a thesis. Admission by invitation of the History Department.


Humanities

  
  • HUM 103 - Connections and Conflict in the Humanities I


    Instructors

    Boyer, Fache, Pyle, Robb, Sample, Wiemers, Wills

    A team-taught interdisciplinary course that engages critically key texts and artifacts from both the Western tradition and beyond, with topics that fall under the broad theme of the body, from intellectual, spiritual, and artistic traditions from around the globe.  Attention to historical contexts, critical theoretical approaches, and comparative synthesis.  Introduces habits of humanistic learning as well as basic skills needed to understand a variety of humanistic discourses. including written works, musical compositions, paintings and sculptures, live performances, architecture, and film and digital media. The course meets extra sessions and requires extra work beyond the course meetings. Students take HUM 103 in the fall and HUM 104 in the spring and receive a total of three credits for those two semesters.

    2 credits
     

    Prerequisites & Notes
    The course has a required preorientation.

    Visit the Sapere Aude preorientation webpage for more information.

     

     

    Note: Students may not add this class during the Add/Drop period.

  
  • HUM 104 - Connections & Conflicts in the Humanities II


    Instructors

    Bory, Denham, Fache, Luis, Robb, Wills

    A team-taught interdisciplinary course that engages critically key texts and artifacts from both the Western tradition and beyond, with topics that fall under the broad theme of the body, from intellectual, spiritual, and artistic traditions from around the globe.  Attention to historical contexts, critical theoretical approaches, and comparative synthesis.  Introduces habits of humanistic learning as well as basic skills needed to understand a variety of humanistic discourses. including written works, musical compositions, paintings and sculptures, live performances, architecture, and film and digital media. The course meets extra sessions and requires extra work beyond the course meetings. Students take HUM 103 in the fall and HUM 104 in the spring and receive a total of three credits for those two semesters.

    1 credit

    Fulfills the WRI requirement, Historical Thought requirement, and Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.

     

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Prerequisite: HUM 103

  
  • HUM 195 - Advanced Studies in Humanities


    Instructor
    Boyer P

    During March each year students apply to take part in this course and thus the role of Humanities Fellow for the following year (either fall or spring semester). Those selected must take this required course for students serving as Humanities Fellows. This course meets with HUM 103-104 as well as during the open course period not used by HUM 103-104. In 2019-20, HUM 103-104 meets TR9:40-10:55 + R3:05-4:20. Thus HUM 195-196 meets those three 75-minute class sessions as well as T3:05-4:20. The seminar follows the syllabus for HUM 103-104, with weekly written assignments due every Sunday on the teaching team blog (for faculty, librarians and archivists integrated into the course, and fellows), to be discussed on Tuesday. Materials include all the HUM 103-104 materials as well as some additional readings and viewings. See the HUM 103-104 syllabus for readings, timeline of topics, etc. Final essay due at the end of exam period.

    HUM 195 parallels material in HUM 103 (Fall); HUM 196 parallels material in HUM 104 (Spring).

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Instructor permission required.

  
  • HUM 196 - Advanced Studies in Humanities II


    Instructor

    P. Boyer

     

    During March each year students apply to take part in this course and thus the role of Humanities Fellow for the following year (either fall or spring semester). Those selected must take this required course for students serving as Humanities Fellows. This course meets with HUM 103-104 as well as during the open course period not used by HUM 103-104. In 2019-20, HUM 103-104 meets TR9:40-10:55 + R3:05-4:20. Thus HUM 195-196 meets those three 75-minute class sessions as well as T3:05-4:20. The seminar follows the syllabus for HUM 103-104, with weekly written assignments due every Sunday on the teaching team blog (for faculty, librarians and archivists integrated into the course, and fellows), to be discussed on Tuesday. Materials include all the HUM 103-104 materials as well as some additional readings and viewings. See the HUM 103-104 syllabus for readings, timeline of topics, etc. Final essay due at the end of exam period.

    HUM 195 parallels material in HUM 103 (Fall); HUM 196 parallels material in HUM 104 (Spring).

  
  • HUM 395 - Independent Study


    Instructor
    Staff

    Humanities: Independent Study

    Prerequisites & Notes
    (Fall)

  
  • HUM 396 - Independent Study


    Instructor
    Staff

    Humanities: Independent Study

    Prerequisites & Notes
    (Spring)


Latin

  
  • LAT 101 - Elementary Latin I


    Instructor
    McClellan

    This course introduces you to classical Latin. You will establish a foundation in Latin vocabulary and grammar and develop skills in reading, writing, and speaking Latin. We will also explore the history and culture of the ancient Romans through our reading of adapted excerpts of Latin texts. Each week, in addition to three full-class sessions, you will participate in two smaller drill sessions led by Apprentice Teachers.

    Prof. Truetzel will be on campus, and she welcomes the opportunity to meet outside of class - both in-person and digitally - throughout the semester.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    (Offered annually, Fall only.)

     

  
  • LAT 102 - Elementary Latin II


    Instructor
    Truetzel

    This course builds upon the foundation in Latin established in LAT 101. You will continue to develop your skills in reading, writing, and speaking increasingly complex Latin. By the end of the term, you will have been introduced to all major grammatical constructions and will be prepared to read unadapted excerpts of Latin texts. Each week, in addition to three full-class sessions, you will participate in two smaller drill sessions led by Apprentice Teachers.

    Prof. Truetzel will be on campus, and she welcomes the opportunity to meet outside of class - both in-person and digitally - throughout the semester.

     

    Prerequisites & Notes
    (Offered annually, Spring only.)

    LAT 101 or Placement Test

  
  • LAT 201 - Intermediate Latin


    Instructor
    McClellan

    This course fulfills the college’s language requirement and is your gateway to advanced Latin at Davidson. Together, we’ll review the language’s grammar, read and discuss a variety of excerpts in prose and poetry, and explore concepts such as semantics, pronunciation, metrics and translation.

    Fulfills the foreign language requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    LAT 102 or placement test. (Offered annually, Fall only.)

  
  • LAT 221 - Roman Comedy


    Instructor
    Breitenfeld

    Forced to immigrate to Rome from Carthage as an enslaved person and later freed, the playwright Publius Terentius Afer, also known as Terence, was a popular Roman author whose six comedies continue to be read to this day. In particular, his comic play Eunuchus (“The Eunuch”) was an immediate success upon its debut in 161 BCE, prompting an encore performance and earning Terence more money than any of his other comedies.

    In this course, we will read Eunuchus in its entirety, examining not only Terence’s lively and conversational Latin, but also his engagement with the complex dynamics of Roman daily life, including topics such as gender, slavery, prostitution, and sexual assault. By placing Eunuchus in conversation with comedies by Terence, Plautus, and Menander (to be read in translation), we will explore the ways in which Terence incorporates the established themes of New Comedy, and the ways in which his Eunuchus is unique for its genre. Finally, we will consider Terence’s influence on subsequent writers and thinkers, including Shakespeare, Phillis Wheatley, Thornton Wilder, and Maya Angelou.

    Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.
    Counts towards the Classical Languages and Literature major and as an elective for the Classical Studies major.
    Counts towards the Latin minor and the interdisciplinary minor in Global Literary Theory.

     

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Latin 201 or placement test. Students who have already taken a LAT course beyond 201 should enroll in this course as LAT 321.

  
  • LAT 244 - Roman Historians: Livy


    Instructor
    Truetzel

    Titus Livius (59 BCE - 17 CE) wrote a 142-volume history of the city of Rome from its founding down to his own day. This monumental opus became the standard account of the history of the Roman republic, and it remains one of the best historical sources for this period. But Livy’s work is also a complex piece of literature in its own right, as he selected, arranged, and presented the historical material to create his own overarching story of the Roman past and its relationship to the Roman present. 

    In this course, we will read selections from the extant portions of Livy’s work, ranging from the expulsion of Rome’s kings, to the war against Hannibal, to the infamous Bacchanalian conspiracy. In doing so, we will explore topics such as Livy’s conception of history, narrative structure, literary style, characterization, speeches, morality, monumentality, religion, and women. We will also consider where Livy himself stands in history, by looking back at selections of his sources (for example, Cato the Elder, Polybius, inscriptions) and by eamining the impact on Livy’s work of the transition from republic to empire that occurred during his own lifetime.

    Prof. Truetzel will be on campus, and she welcomes the opportunity to meet outside of class - both in-person and digitally - throughout the semester.

    Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
    Counts towards the Classical Languages and Literature major and as an elective for the Classical Studies major.
    Counts towards the interdisciplinary minor in Global Literary Theory.
     

    Prerequisites & Notes
    LAT 201 or placement test. Students who have taken a LAT course beyond 201 should enroll in this course as LAT 334. (Fall)

  
  • LAT 250 - Latin Letters


    Instructor
    Neumann

    This course focuses on the various practices of letter-writing (personal, political, philosophical, literary) in the context of their production and transmission. Students will be expected to compose brief letters in Latin based on the reading.

    Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
    Counts towards the Classical Languages and Literature major and as an elective for the Classical Studies major.
    Counts towards the interdisciplinary minor in Global Literary Theory.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    LAT 201 or placement test. Students who have taken a LAT course beyond 201 should enroll in this course as LAT 350. 
     

  
  • LAT 321 - Roman Comedy


    Instructor
    Breitenfeld

    Forced to immigrate to Rome from Carthage as an enslaved person and later freed, the playwright Publius Terentius Afer, also known as Terence, was a popular Roman author whose six comedies continue to be read to this day. In particular, his comic play Eunuchus (“The Eunuch”) was an immediate success upon its debut in 161 BCE, prompting an encore performance and earning Terence more money than any of his other comedies.

    In this course, we will read Eunuchus in its entirety, examining not only Terence’s lively and conversational Latin, but also his engagement with the complex dynamics of Roman daily life, including topics such as gender, slavery, prostitution, and sexual assault. By placing Eunuchus in conversation with comedies by Terence, Plautus, and Menander (to be read in translation), we will explore the ways in which Terence incorporates the established themes of New Comedy, and the ways in which his Eunuchus is unique for its genre. Finally, we will consider Terence’s influence on subsequent writers and thinkers, including Shakespeare, Phillis Wheatley, Thornton Wilder, and Maya Angelou.

    Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.
    Counts towards the Classical Languages and Literature major and as an elective for the Classical Studies major.
    Counts towards the Latin minor and the interdisciplinary minor in Global Literary Theory.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Latin 201 or placement test.

     

  
  • LAT 325 - Ovid: Poetry from Exile


    Instructor
    Cheshire

    Carmen et error (“a poem and a mistake”). Many of us have perhaps done worse, and yet these are what the poet Ovid says provoked the Roman emperor Augustus to exile him for life. Ovid nevertheless kept the carmina coming, writing his Tristia, Epistulae ex Ponto, and Ibis from the Black Sea. We will read in Latin excerpts from these collections, considering how his experience of estrangement and disconnection influenced this renowned writer’s amor Romae, his feelings toward friend and foe, and, of course, his invention of a new genre of sorts: poetry from exile.

    Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Rhetoric requirement.
    Counts as an elective toward the Classical Studies major and the Classical Languages and Literature major.
    Counts towards the interdisciplinary minor in Global Literary Theory.

     

     

    Prerequisites & Notes
    LAT 201 or placement test. 
    (Not offered in 2021-2022)

     

  
  • LAT 328 - Roman Tragedy: Seneca


    Instructor
    Cheshire

    Through a close reading in Latin of one of Seneca’s tragedies in light of current scholarship, of Seneca’s corpus and of the play’s Greek literary influences, we will consider how and why a person with a profound interest in Stoicism and who served as tutor and advisor to the emperor Nero wrote tragedies featuring the ruination of humankind and a hideous subversion of the natural world.

    Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Rhetoric requirement.
    Counts towards the Classical Languages and Literature major and as an elective for the Classical Studies major.
    Counts towards the interdisciplinary minor in Global Literary Theory.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    LAT 201 or placement test.
    (Not offered in 2021-2022)

  
  • LAT 334 - Latin Philosophical Poetry: Lucretius



    Instructor
    Neumann

    The influence of Lucretius’ de Rerum Natura, an epic in six books celebrating Epicurean philosophy in poetry of spectacular beauty, cannot be overstated. His poetry imbued the verse of the Augustan poets, especially Virgil and Horace; there is nothing else like it in Latin.  In addition to extensive excerpts, we will read the entire poem in translation, and consider the poem both in its contemporary context and its afterlife.   

    Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
    Counts towards the Classical Languages and Literature major and as an elective for the Classical Studies major.
    Counts towards the interdisciplinary minor in Global Literary Theory.
    Satisfies Foreign Language requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    LAT 201 or placement test. (Spring)
     

  
  • LAT 344 - Roman Historians


    Instructor
    Truetzel

    Titus Livius (59 BCE - 17 CE) wrote a 142-volume history of the city of Rome from its founding down to his own day. This monumental opus became the standard account of the history of the Roman republic, and it remains one of the best historical sources for this period. But Livy’s work is also a complex piece of literature in its own right, as he selected, arranged, and presented the historical material to create his own overarching story of the Roman past and its relationship to the Roman present. 

    In this course, we will read selections from the extant portions of Livy’s work, ranging from the expulsion of Rome’s kings, to the war against Hannibal, to the infamous Bacchanalian conspiracy. In doing so, we will explore topics such as Livy’s conception of history, narrative structure, literary style, characterization, speeches, morality, monumentality, religion, and women. We will also consider where Livy himself stands in history, by looking back at selections of his sources (for example, Cato the Elder, Polybius, inscriptions) and by eamining the impact on Livy’s work of the transition from republic to empire that occurred during his own lifetime.

    Prof. Truetzel will be on campus, and she welcomes the opportunity to meet outside of class - both in-person and digitally - throughout the semester.

    Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
    Counts towards the Classical Languages and Literature major and as an elective for the Classical Studies major.
    Counts towards the interdisciplinary minor in Global Literary Theory.

     

    Prerequisites & Notes
    LAT 201 or placement test. (Fall)

     

  
  • LAT 350 - Latin Letters


    Instructor
    Neumann

    This course focuses on the various practices of letter-writing (personal, political, philosophical, literary) in the context of their production and transmission. Students will be expected to compose brief letters in Latin based on the reading.

    Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
    Counts towards the Classical Languages and Literature major and as an elective for the Classical Studies major.
    Counts towards the interdisciplinary minor in Global Literary Theory.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    LAT 201 or placement test. 
     

  
  • LAT 351 - Roman Novel: The Golden Ass


    Instructor
    Cheshire

    “Your Life as a Donkey” might just as easily serve as title for this course. Ostensibly writing to titillate his readers, the Numidian (modern Algeria) Platonic philosopher Apuleius confounds them with his meandering tale of Lucius, a man transformed into an ass that endures unimaginable (yet gripping!) sufferings until his shocking religious conversion to the Egyptian goddess Isis. We will read the entire novel in English, but spend the majority of the course focusing on excerpts in Latin. As we familiarize ourselves with Apuleius’ playful, hypnotic prose style, we will inevitably confront what the philosopher’s novel seems to demand of us: the gulf between expectation and fulfillment, the illusory nature of form and perception, and how in fact we “donkeys” know what we know.

    Satisfies Classical Languages and Liturature major requirement.
    Satisfies Classical Studies major requirement.
    Satisfies Latin minor requirement.
    Satisfies Global Literary Theory major requirement.
    Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Rhetoric requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Prerequisite- LAT 201 or placement test. Students who have taken a LAT course beyond 201 should enroll in this course as LAT 351. (Spring 2021)

     

  
  • LAT 388 - Transition to Empire


    Instructor
    Neumann

    The political upheaval of late 1st century BCE Rome remains one of the best-documented periods of Greco-Roman history. Caesar gives us on side in de Bello Civili (49-48 BCE) while Cicero gives us glimpses of the other in his letters (62-43 BCE). At the end of his life (14 CE), the Princeps (civil first citizen) and Imperator (military commander-in-chief Augustus had the Res Gestae- the definitive version of his accomplishments-engraved on bronze pillars in front of his mausoleum and distributed throughout the Roman Empire. In between we can listen to the voices of the poets and tease out their relation to the changing regime. Were they complicit, subversive, or some more complicated version of the two? This course will survey, in Latin with English supplements, the rich literature of Rome’s transition from dying republic to empire.

    Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement
    Counts towards the Classical Languages and Literature major and as an elective for the Classical Studies major.
    Counts towards the interdisciplinary minor in Global Literary Theory.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    LAT 201 or placement test. 
    (Not offered in 2021-2022)

  
  • LAT 399 - Independent Study in Latin


    Readings and research on Latin texts, under the direction and supervision of a faculty member who reviews and approves the topic(s) and evaluates the student’s work.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Latin 201 or placement test and permission of the instructor.

  
  • LAT 499 - Senior Thesis


    Writing of a thesis under the supervision of an appropriate professor. Oral defense before the entire classics faculty required. Admission by unanimous consent of the Department of Classics.


Latin American Studies

  
  • LAS 101 - Introduction to Latin American Studies


    Instructors
    Crandall B

    LAS 101 is an interdisciplinary introduction to the study of Latin America.  The class draws on expertise of Latin American studies experts from across the faulty.  Important areas of study include theory, cultural production, history, and contemporary politics and society. 

    Satisifies Cultural Diversity requirement.

    The course is a requirement for the Latin American Studies major and minor.
     

    Prerequisites & Notes
    (Spring)

  
  • LAS 120 - Afro-Latin America (= AFR 120)


    Instructor
    Benson

    From Mexico to Brazil and beyond, Africans and people of African descent have fought in wars of independence, forged mixed race national identities, and contributed politically and culturally to the making of the Americas.  Even though Latin America imported ten times as many slaves as the United States, only recently have scholars begun to highlight the role blacks and other people of African descent played in Latin American history.  This course will explore the experiences of Afro-Latin Americans from slavery to the present, with a particular focus on Haiti, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia.  In doing so, the course seeks to answer questions such as: What does it mean to be black in Latin America? Why has racism persisted in Latin America despite political revolutions claiming to eliminate discrimination? What are the links between blacks in Latin America and the United States? How have differing conceptions of “race” and “nation” caused the rise and decline of transnational black alliances between U.S. blacks and Afro-Latin Americans?  All course readings will be in English and will include memoirs, films, and first-hand historical documents in additional to scholarly books and articles.  

    Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean).
    Satisfies a requirement in the Latin American Studies major or minor.
    Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

  
  • LAS 220 - Politics and Economics of Brazil (= POL 344)


    Instructor
    B. Crandall

    Treatment of political and economic change in modern Brazil.  Focus on inequality, violence, environmental protection, and US-Brazil relations.  Course includes historical background from 1946 forward.

    Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement
    Meets the Cultural Diversity requirement

     

  
  • LAS 235 - The 1959 Cuban Revolution (= AFR 235, =HIS 362)


    Instructor
    Benson

    This course explores the historical underpinnings of the 1959 Cuban Revolution, U.S.-Cuban relations, and how Cubans have experienced the changes the island has undergone in the past 100 years. Particular attention is given to people of African descent who make up over a one-third of the island’s population. This Cuban narrative illuminates a variety of themes including the spread of U.S. imperialism, Cuba’s fight for sovereignty, and race relations in the Americas.  

    Satisfies a major requirement in Africana Studies (Geographic Region: Latin American/Caribbean).
    Satisfies a major or minor requirement in History.
    Satisfies a major or minor requirement in Latin American Studies.
    Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement.
    Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

     

  
  • LAS 240 - Introduction to Latinx Studies


    Instructor
    Luna

    An introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Latinx studies based on ethnographic texts by anthropologists and sociologists. It examines how Latinx people in the United States are criminalized and constructed as threatening to the nation, as well as how they have constructed meaningful lives in relation to structural inequalities. Particular attention given to issues of language, identity, migration, and gender and sexuality.

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

  
  • LAS 241 - Latin American Social Movements


    Instructor
    Stuartevant

    Throughout Latin America, social movements extend democratic participation far beyond the ballot box and transform political possibilities for those who had previously been excluded from power. In this course, we will examine how social movements convince national populations of their legitimacy, how they negotiate with and relate to national governments, and how they challenge the legitimacy of elected and unelected leaders.

     

    Satisfies a major requirement in Latin American Studies.

    Satisfies a minor requirement in Latin American Studies.

    Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

    Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.

  
  • LAS 243 - Sex, Drugs, & Money on the Mexico/US Border


    Instructor
    Luna

    Ethnographic approach to understanding the social effects of several profit-generating industries in Mexican border cities: drug trafficking, sex work, and the maquiladora industry.  Emphasis on Mexico’s relationship to the United States and how the implementation of neoliberal economic policies have profoundly circumscribed the way that people in Mexico earn a living and fulfill gendered kinship obligations.

    Satisfies a requirement in the Latin American Studies major and interdisciplinary minor.
    Satisfies a requirement in the Anthropology major and minor.
    Satisfies a requirement in the Gender & Sexuality Studies major and minor.
    Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
    Fulfills the Justice, Equality, and Community Requirement.

     

  
  • LAS 245 - Race and Ethnicity in Latin America


    Instructor
    Sturtevant

    Race and ethnicity are among the principal concepts through which difference is explained and enacted throughout Latin America. Though they have no grounding in biological sciences, these socially constructed realities play an outsized role in how we envision national, regional, and temporal spaces. In Latin America these discourses often frame race in terms of blending (harmoniously or not) of African, Indigenous, and European peoples, and the construction of a new racial identity. This course will explore constructions of race and ethnicity in Latin America through a comparative approach, juxtaposing distinct constructions from particular contexts within Latin America to each other and examining their relationship to global discourses about race, ethnicity, and difference.

    Satisfies Latin American Studies major and minor requirement.
    Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
    Satisfies Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

  
  • LAS 273 - Art, Activism, and Environment


    Instructor
    Garcia Peacock

    In this course students will explore environmental themes in American visual culture. Taking the art related to the environmental justice movement as a point of departure, students will be exposed to a broad range of visual material that offers insight into how humans have advocated for a wide range of political opinions through their painting, sculpture, memorials, historical markers, roadside and yard installations, printmaking, murals, and the natural environment. Students will gain a strong sense of how this visual material not only has been used as important tools in inspiring political action but also how these materials also serve as important “texts” in documenting and preserving less well-known environmental perspectives.  

    Satisfies the Humanities track of the Environmental Studies major and interdisciplinary minor.
    Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

  
  • LAS 280 - Special Topics in Latin American Studies


    One-time course offerings with themes related to the interdisciplinary study of Latin America.  Typically taught at an introductory or intermediate level but with no prerequisites unless otherwise stated.

    Fall 2021

    Latin American Nations and Nationalisms 
    Instructor: Sturtevant

    This course will address political projects that strive to construct national identities and legitimize government authority throughout Latin America in the present day. We will explore how the privileges and obligations associated with citizenship within a national community are unequally distributed; how elite groups and marginalized communities deploy conceptions of national identity to achieve their political goals; and how racial and ethnic diversity transform and is transformed by these national identity projects. At the heart of this exploration is the difficult relationship between a people and a political authority: the “untenable hyphen” between nation and state.

    Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement
    Satisfies Cultural Diversity requirement

  
  • LAS 284 - Latinx and Environment (=ENV 284)


    Instructor
    Garcia Peacock

    In this course, students will examine a broad range of Latinx environmental experiences across time and place in the United States.  Taking the environment as a key category of analysis, students will explore the ways that the natural and built environments shape, and are shaped by, Latinx culture.  Looking to important rural, urban, suburban, and wilderness sites across the United States, students will construct a nuanced “picture” of how Latinx environments have changes over time.  With our methodology placed squarely in historical and visual analysis, we will frequently engage interdisciplinary approaches to enhance our understanding of key issues including: labor, migration, public health, community and neighborhood building, transportation networks, natural resource development, education, and tourism.  Students will be exposed to a wide range of human expressions of place, such as art, literature, and activism, to gain a better understanding of how Latinxs have represented their environmental experiences.

    Satisfies the Humanities track of the Environmental Studies major and minor.
    Satisfies a requirement in the Latin American Studies major.
    Fulfills the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

  
  • LAS 300 - Major Thinkers in Africana Studies: Afro-Cuban Feminisms (=AFR 300)


    Instructor
    Benson

    Black and mulata women have participated in constructing Cubanidad (Cuban nationalism) since the beginning of the Cuban republic in 1902. However, the largely male-dominated national narrative that has made Che Guevara’s “New Man” famous since 1959 frequently overshadows their interventions. Despite this public silence, Afro-Cubanas (Afro-Cuban women) have consistently challenged narratives of exclusion and contributed to antiracist and antisexist movements in Cuba. As theater critic, Inés María Martiatu Terry explained in 2011 one of the goals of the Afrocubanas movement is to “feminize negritude and to blacken feminism.”  

    This course will analyze Afro-Cubana feminisms through a close reading of the work of four key black and mulata intellectuals and activists-Sara Gómez, Nancy Morejón, Daisy Rubiera, and Gloria Rolando. In doing so, it seeks to trace the legacy of the many black and mulata women who participated in revolutionary Cuba from the 1960s to the present. In particular, the course will examine how Afro-Cubanas have challenged negative stereotypes about black women, worked both inside and outside of Cuba’s state-sponsored women’s movement, and fought to create space for racial and sexual rights. All course readings will be in English and will include memoirs, films, and first-hand historical documents in additional to scholarly books and articles.

    The course can be repeated for credit given sufficiently distinct topics.

    Satisfies a major requirement in Africana Studies

    Satisfies a major requirement in Latin American Studies

    Satisfies the Histories and Genealogies major requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies

  
  • LAS 321 - Indigenous Politics in Latin America Today


    Instructor
    Sturtevant

    In recent years, indigenous movements have transformed national political landscapes throughout Latin America. They have challenged the position of indigenous peoples within the nation and within long-held ideologies of national identity based on race-mixing (mestizaje); reconfigured ideologies of citizenship and belonging; and upended longstanding hierarchies of inclusion and marginalization. In doing so, these movements have also produced shifting conceptions of what it means to be indigenous. This course will explore these changing conceptions of indigeneity and nationhood, alongside political projects that call for alternatives to national frameworks, including indigenous autonomies and cosmopolitical entanglements.

    Satisfies a Latin American Studies major and minor requirement.
    Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
    Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement. 

  
  • LAS 342 - The Latin American City: Historical Narratives & Cultural Representations (= SPA 342)


    Instructors
    Maiz-Peña and Mangan

    This course will study the Latin American city through histrocial and cultural perspectives.  Students will learn about the history of select cities and then analyze the relationship between historical context and cultural production through texts offering historical, cultural and literary representations of the cities.  The course will emphasize comparison of cities over time, with attention to the prehispanic city, the modern city and the contemporary Latin American city,  as well as US cities with a strong Latino influence.
    (Taught in Spanish.) 

    Satisfies an Area III requirement for the Hispanic Studies major.
    Counts as an upper-level elective in the Latin American Studies major.

    Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement
    Satisfies a requirement in the History major and minor.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    SPA 260 and/or SPA 270

  
  • LAS 350 - Latinx Experiences in North Carolina


    Instructor
    Sturtevant

    This is a practice-based course. We will develop the skills to tell stories through audio documentaries (aka podcasts). We will use those skills to explore the variety and richness of Latinx experiences in North Carolina, focusing on the area around Davidson. Students will be encouraged to choose from a wide array of topics in their research, including culture and entertainment, sports, labor, race and racism, gendered perspectives, queer theory, business and commerce, and others.

    Satisfies a major requirement in Latin American Studies
    Satisfies a minor requirement in Latin American Studies
    Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement
    Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement

  
  • LAS 353 - Practical Encounters in Latinx Studies


    Instructor
    Sturtevant

    In this seminar, students will be placed with an organization that is engaged with (or involved in outreach efforts with) the Latinx community of Mecklenberg County and the surrounding region. Field placements will vary, but ideally, the student will be involved in carrying out a project for the host organization that will involve research. Examples might include, developing an outreach plan for an organization that aspires to engage with a Latinx community, or developing a set of resources that an organization for implementing their programs with Spanish-speaking populations. The learning will come not only from the practical experience of collaboration, but also from written reflections on that experience and readings on engaged, participant, and activist research.

    Satisfies a Latin American Studies major and minor requirement.
    Satisfies Social and Scientific Thought Ways of Knowing requirement.
    Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.

  
  • LAS 360 - History of the Caribbean: Race, Nation, and Politics (= AFR 360, = HIS 360)


    Instructor
    Benson

    This course explores the history of the Caribbean from pre-Colombian times to the present. The goal of the class is to trace the emergence of modern Caribbean nations beginning from their status as slave colonies of the not-so-distant past within an emphasis on the central role the Caribbean islands have played in global history.  Particular emphasis is given to the maintenance of European and North American imperial enterprises and the elaboration of racial ideologies growing out of the diversity that has characterized the island populations.  Issues to be addressed include colonialism, piracy, sugar revolution, slavery and emancipation, national independence, tourism, and Caribbean migrations. Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica will be the main areas under consideration, although texts from other islands such as the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Martinique are included.

    Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean).
    Satisfies a requirement in Latin American Studies major and minor.
    Satisfies a requirement in the History major or minor.
    Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement.
    Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

  
  • LAS 380 - Special Topics in Latin American Studies


    One-time course offerings with themes related to the interdisciplinary study of Latin America.  Typically taught at an advanced level but with no prerequisites unless otherwise stated.

    Spring 2022 - History and Politics of US Immigration

    Instructor - Parsonage

    A survey of the impact of race, religion, gender, and politics on our immigrant history and on current immigration law and policy. 

     

    Counts as an elective in Latin American Studies major and minor.

     



  
  • LAS 381 - Colonialism and Digital Media in Latin America and the Philippines


    The legacies of colonialism in Latin America and the Philippines have been bitterly contested in recent film and digital media. From enslavement to Native rights, creators and audiences have turned to screens to address and interpret some of the greatest traumas of the colonial past. From recent hits of Colombian cinema by Ciro Guerra like Abrazo de la serpiente to the Werner Herzog classic, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, this course uses film analysis, cultural memory, and historical contextualization, to analyze these representations of Latin American history. The course also centers videogame and social media interactivity as fundamental genres of historical narration and indigenous cultural preservation respectively. By engaging digital media critically, we will uncover how they shape popular historical imaginations and create new stories, often expressing the region’s rich complexities and contested historical memories.

    Fulfills an elective in the Latin American Studies major and minor.

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


    Please email Melissa Gonzalez (megonzalez@davidson.edu) if you are interested in this course.

    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.

  
  • LAS 395 - Independent Study


    Instructor
    TBD

    Independent study in a topic related to Latin Amercan Studies

  
  • LAS 395 - Independent Study in Latin American Studies


    Independent Study

  
  • LAS 396 - Latin American Studies Independent Study


    Instructor
    Staff

    Independent study in a topic related to Latin American Studies

  
  • LAS 490 - Latin Amer Studies Capstone


    Instructor
    Crandall B
     

    Capstone course for Latin American Studies majors.  Students will study one theme from an interdisciplinary perspective and prepare a related major research paper.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Spring

  
  • LAS 495 - Honors Independent Research


    Instructor
    Staff

    Independent study dedicated to research and writing the honors thesis: Grade will be noted as NG after the first semester and the final grade will be applied in the spring semester at the completion of the thesis.  The final grade for the thesis will be determined by the thesis committee following a spring defense of the thesis.

  
  • LAS 499 - Honors Independent Study


    Instructor
    Staff

    Honors Independent Study


Mathematics

  
  • CSC 385 - Linear and Discrete Optimization


    Instructor
    Pulaj

    This course will serve as an introduction to the theory of linear and discrete optimization, which underlies algorithmic methods with connections to both pure and applied mathematics. We will learn fundamental techniques that solve linear programs and discrete optimization problems in a mathematically rigorous way. The focus of the course will be the interplay between geometry, linear algebra and the resulting duality theory and simplex method. Within this framework, we will learn how to prove that an algorithmic solution to a problem of interest is optimal.

    Satisfies Theory elective within Computer Science major and minor.
    Satisfies Mathematics major and minor requirement.

     

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Prerequisites & Notes

    Math 150, one of CSC 120, CSC 121, CSC 200, or CSC 209, and one of CSC/MAT 220, MAT 230, or MAT 255.

  
  • MAT 101 - Math for Human Flourishing


    Instructor
    Heyer

    A critical examination of mathematics as a vehicle for human flourishing. We consider how mathematics supports the pursuit of intellectual and moral virtues such as truth, beauty, and justice by feeding the human desire to explore, play, struggle, and create something permanent and powerful. Students will investigate the cultural history and social construction of mathematics as a discipline, how mathematics benefits society, and how it can be taught in ways that better reveal its human dimensions. 

    Satisfies Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.

  
  • MAT 104 - Introduction to Statistics


    Instructor
    Staff

    An introduction to statistics as a science of understanding and analyzing data. Students will learn how to effectively make use of data in the face of uncertainty: how to collect data, how to analyze data, and how to use data to make inferences and conclusions about real world phenomena. 

    Satisfies Data Science minor requirement
    Satisfiest Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement
     

  
  • MAT 105 - Introduction to Statistics


    Instructor
    Byers J.

    An introduction to statistics as a science of understanding and analyzing data. Students will learn how to effectively make use of data in the face of uncertainty: how to collect data, how to analyze data, and how to use data to make inferences and conclusions about real world phenomena. Students will practice their analytical and statistical skills while exploring topics related to social justice, equality, and community.

    Satisfies Data Science minor requirement
    Satisfiest Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement
    Satisfies Justice, Equality, and Community requirement
     

  
  • MAT 108 - Exploring Mathematical Ideas


    Instructor
    Merriman

    Survey of abstract mathematical ideas that deepen understanding of patterns from mathematics, art, and the physical world. Topics may include the nature of number, infinity, dimension, symmetries, alternate geometries, topology, chaos, fractals, probability and social choice. While techniques and concepts have much in common with advanced theoretical mathematics, little background is assumed and the course is not practical preparation for later courses in mathematics. The course title is occasionally changed to reflect a special emphasis.

    Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Not open to students with credit for, or enrolled in, Mathematics 220, 230, or 255.

  
  • MAT 110 - Finite Mathematics


    Instructor
    Molinek, Chartier

    Mathematical techniques that have been used, productively and extensively, during the last thirty years and that do not involve the use of calculus. Probability, linear programming, matrix algebra, Markov chains, game theory, and graph theory are representative topics. Students learn to use computer software, including a spreadsheet, to solve problems.

    Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Not open to students with credit for Mathematics 150, 220, or 340.

  
  • MAT 111 - Calculus I (for those with no previous exposure)


    Instructor
    Blake H

    An introduction to the differential and integral calculus of algebraic, trigonometric, exponential, and inverse trigonometric functions with applications including graphical analysis, optimization and numerical methods. 

    Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Not open to students with one semester of a high school or college course about calculus. (Fall)

  
  • MAT 112 - Calculus I and Modeling


    Instructor
    Duhon, Neale, Pulaj, Zhuang
     
    An introduction to the differential and integral calculus of algebraic, trigonometric, exponential, and applications including graphical analysis, optimization, and numerical methods. An emphasis on investigating mathematical approaches to describing and understanding change in the context of problems in the life sciences. 

    Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    No exposure to calculus is expected

    Math 112 is not open for students with credit for Math 111

  
  • MAT 113 - Calculus II


    Instructor

     Neale, Molinek, Chartier

    An introduction to techniques and applications of integration; infinite series including convergence tests and Taylor series; calculus on parametric and polar curves; and concepts in 3-space including vectors, lines, planes, and vector-valued functions. Satisfies a major requirement in Mathematics.

    Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Mathematics 111 or 112 or equivalent preparation.

  
  • MAT 140 - Multivariable Calculus and Modeling


    Instructor
    Heyer

    Continued study of calculus and other mathematical methods for modeling change and uncertainty. Multivariable calculus topics include partial derivatives and the gradient vector, multivariate optimization, and double integrals. Matrix methods include systems of linear equations, matrix algebra, and eigenvalues. Models, primarily in the context of problems in the life sciences, make use of these methods and others chosen from systems of differential equations, difference equations, and discrete and continuous probability.

    Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Mathematics 111 or 112 or equivalent preparation.

    Not open to students with credit for MAT 150 or MAT 160.

  
  • MAT 150 - Linear Algebra


    Instructor
    Chan, Merriman

    An introduction to systems of linear equations, matrices, determinants, vector spaces, and eigenvectors in an interactive learning environment provided by the computer algebra system Mathematica. Applications are chosen from linear programming, least squares approximation, graph theory, cryptography, computer graphics, and other topics. 

    Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    MAT 113 or placement above MAT 113

  
  • MAT 160 - Calculus III


    Instructor
    Yerger

    A study of the differential and integral calculus of functions of several variables together with an introduction to vector calculus.  Topics include partial derivatives, directional derivatives, gradients, tangent planes to surfaces, double and triple integrals, change of variables in multiple integrals, vector fields, line integrals, Green’s Theorem, and surface integrals.

    Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Mathematics 113.

  
  • MAT 210 - Mathematical Modeling (=CSC 210)


    Instructor
    Chartier

    A survey of discrete mathematical and computational modeling techniques and their application to the natural and social sciences. Mathematical tools are selected from such topics as Monte Carlo simulation, queuing theory, Markov chains, optimization, discrete dynamical systems, computational geometry, agent-based modeling, and cellular automata. Emphasis is on formulating models, investigating them analytically and computationally, and communicating the results.

    Counts as an elective in the Mathematics major.
    Counts as an Applications elective in the Computer Science major.
    Counts as an elective in the Data Science interdisciplinary minor.
    Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    MAT 140 or MAT 150, and one of CSC 120, CSC 121, CSC 200, or CSC 209.

  
  • MAT 220 - Discrete Structures (= CSC 220)


    Instructor
    H. Blake, J. Pulaj, H. Smith, Wiedenbeck

    (Cross-listed as CSC 220) 

    An introduction to proof techniques and discrete mathematics, with a focus on topics relevant to computer science, and an introduction to functional programming. Topics include logic, sets, functions, equivalence relations, algorithm analysis, methods of proof, essential combinatorics, recurrence relations, and discrete probability, as well as the essentials of functional programming. Additional topics may be selected from graph theory, number theory, or automata theory. This course prepares students for advanced work in both computer science and mathematics.

    Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.
    Counts towards the Mathematics major and minor.
    Counts towards the Computer Science major and minor.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    MAT 140, MAT 150, or MAT 160, and the ability to program in a high-level language such as Python, C++, or Java at the level expected in CSC 121 or an equivalent course.

  
  • MAT 230 - Sets and Proofs


    Instructor
    D. Molinek

    An introduction to proof techniques (including quantifiers and induction), elementary set theory, abstract functions, infinite cardinalities, and properties of sets of real numbers; followed by an introduction to topics chosen from topology, analysis, dynamical systems, or set theory, among others.  Emphasis throughout is on developing abilities in writing proofs.

    Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Mathematics 150 or Mathematics 160  or permission of the instructor.

  
  • MAT 235 - Differential Equations


    Instructor
    Chartier

    A study of solution techniques and models in ordinary differential equations including first order equations, linear differential equations, series solutions, Laplace transform methods, and concepts of numerical and graphical techniques applied to equations and systems. 

    Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Mathematics 150. (Fall)

 

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