21st Century Library
Learn how library research is conducted during the Internet Age and explore the digital files of photographs, architectural drawings,newspapers, broadsides, and documents from the College's Archives and Special Collections. Offered Tuesday only.

ART

History of Western Art
Developments in Western architecture, painting, and sculpture in historical and cultural perspective. The process of analyzing a work of art. Topics will include Paleolithic, Greek, Roman, and medieval art. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

Modern European Art
Developments in the European tradition, 1860–1940, that culminate in experiments in abstraction in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. Realism, impressionism, postimpressionism, expressionism, fauvism, cubism, dada, surrealism. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

BIOLOGY

Perspectives in Biology
Current topics in biology used to illustrate the strengths and limitations of the process of science and the approaches biologists use to learn about living organisms. Emphasis changes from semester to semester, reflecting the expertise and interests of the faculty member teaching the course. For further information consult the appropriate faculty member before registration. Lecture and laboratory. May not be applied toward the biology major. Offered Monday & Wednesday

Ecology and the Environment
An introduction to principles underlying the distribution and abundance of plants and animals. Examination of how these principles can inform understanding of current environmental problems like overpopulation, climate change, invasive species, pollution, species extinction. Introduction to the methods of scientific investigation through laboratory and field studies that describe ecological phenomena and test hypotheses. Offered Monday & Wednesday

CHEMISTRY

General Chemistry
Introduction to the general principles of chemistry required for students planning a professional career in chemistry, a related science, the health professions, or engineering. Stoichiometry, atomic structure, chemical bonding and geometry, thermochemistry, gases, types of chemical reactions, statistics. Weekly laboratory exercises emphasizing qualitative and quantitative techniques that complement the lecture material. Offered Monday & Wednesday

Perspectives in Nutrition
The fundamental basis of human nutritional needs and contemporary controversies in nutrition. Extracting energy from carbohydrates, fats, and proteins; essential amino acids and the cellular synthesis of proteins; water-soluble vitamins in major nutrient metabolism; biological function of fat-soluble vitamins; physiological roles of minerals. Readings on contemporary controversies in nutrition including the relationship between diet and disease. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

Perspectives in Environmental Chemistry
Principles of chemistry applied to global, regional, and local problems of the earth's environment. Chemistry of the atmosphere and of natural and waste waters. Sources, reactions, and impact of chemical species on the environment and control strategies. Energy production. Offered Monday & Wednesday

CLASSICAL STUDIES

Introduction to Classical Studies
The course will be a survey of various aspects of the expression of primary Greek and/or Roman cultural values, as they are found in the history, religion, visual arts, literature, theatre, and philosophy of ancient Greece and/or Rome. Works will be read in translations. An introductory course intended for first- and second-year students. Offered Monday & Wednesday

COMMUNICATIONS

Methods in the study of Communications
All facets of the research process: philosophy of science, hypothesis formation and testing, experimental and nonexperimental research designs, the logic and use of random sampling procedures, measurement validity and reliability, frequently used measurements (including paper-and-pencil questionnaires, content analysis, nonreactive measures), logic and application of common statistical tests, ethics of social science research. Offered Monday & Wednesday

CORE COURSE

Exploration and Discovery
Various professors add on their own expertise and area of academic study to this course, but in general it is concerned with exploring enduring works, questions, and ideas in the liberal arts tradition. Common readings for the Fall 2007 includes works by Plato, Sophocles, Virgil, Galileo, Descartes, and Mary Shelley. Offered Monday & Wednesday

ECONOMICS

Principles of EconomicsIntroduction to the study of market economies. Microeconomics including supply and demand, production theory, market structure. Macroeconomics including economic growth, inflation and unemployment, money and banking, monetary and fiscal policy. Government regulation and policy. Discrimination and poverty, imperfect competition, environmental problems, international competitiveness. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

Technology, Institutions, and Economic Growth
Emergence of modern economic growth in Europe. The roots of the Industrial Revolution over the very long-term, 1000 to 1750, through the application of basic economic theory. Causes and consequences of very long-term economic growth. Specific attention paid to technology, institutions, geography, and culture as sources of economic growth. While the geographic focus is European, important cross-sectional work, especially with regard to China, is undertaken. Offered Monday & Wednesday

ENGLISH

Topics in Literature - Lyric Poem
Emphasis on the historical lyrical poem. Each professor chooses their own topic to cover each semester, so the course is always evolving and changing. Offered Monday & Wednesday

FRENCH

Beginning French - open to those who do not speak French
Basic vocabulary and structural patterns of the French language. Emphasis on developing speaking and writing skills. Practical conversations dealing with all aspects of traditional French and Francophone culture. Offered Monday & Wednesday

Intermediate French - open to those who know some French
Strengthening language skill foundation. Solid grammar review and vocabulary expansion. Emphasis on oral and written proficiency. Short compositions and group presentations based on selected literary and cultural readings, audio and video materials. Offered Monday & Wednesday

Major Periods in French Literature - open to those who know some French
Major trends in French literature from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Introduction to basic techniques of literary analysis. Class discussion, oral presentations, short papers, research paper, final. Offered Monday & Wednesday

French Literature and Society: Louis XIV - open to those who know some French
In-depth study of representative works of French poetry, short fiction, or drama from a particular historical period. Focus on a specific genre and/or theme. An examination of how literature provides aesthetic responses to political and sociocultural issues through innovative strategies of narration and interconnections between literature and the arts. Offered Monday & Wednesday

GERMAN

Intermediate German
Active language skills and grammar review. Reading of short stories for class discussion and writing compositions to implement new vocabulary and structure. Viewing and discussion of German film to improve listening comprehension and speaking proficiency and to develop understanding of German culture. Offered Monday, Tuesday (movie), & Wednesday

German Composition and Conversation
Oral expression, idiomatic usage, and creative and expository writing with grammar review and new grammatical material. Readings, discussions, and compositions based on selections from German literature and culture. Emphasis on developing proficiency in spoken and written German with correct syntax and style. Offered Monday & Wednesday

RUSSIAN

Russian Literature in Translation
Introduction to Russian literature's greatest writers and thinkers including Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Bunin, Pasternak, Bulgakov. Close textual analysis; literary structures and forms; thematic content. Relationship between style and structure. Themes, genres, historical context, social and ethical issues. Taught in English; no background in Russian language or literature required. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

HISTORY

Early East Asian History
Early histories of China and Japan from earliest origins to the 13th century. Prehistory; early cultural foundations; development of social, political, and economic institutions; art and literature. Readings from Asian texts in translation. The two cultures, covered as independent entities, compared to each other and to European patterns of development. Offered Monday & Thursday

Wilderness and the American West
History of the trans-Mississippi West, including Euro-American perceptions of North America, issues of progress and preservation, and environmental history. Role of the federal government; contributions of minorities, women, and men in shaping the trans-Mississippi West. Voices of those who have sought to develop and conserve the West. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

Constructing American Landscape
This course analyzes the political, social, economic and aesthetic forces that have shaped the ordinary built environments where twentieth century Americans live,work,and play. Looking at everyday landscapes such as farms, fast food restaurants, theme parks, sports stadiums, highways, prisons, and public housing, we will study the forces that have influenced the character, form and use of American space in order to understand why the national landscape looks as it does today. Themes to be addressed include patterns of economic growth and decline, technological innovation, segregation, gentrification, capital migration and globalization, historic preservation, the rise of consumer culture, and changing ideologies about nature and the city. The goal of the course is for students to understand that everyday places have a history and are socially produced, to become more aware of, and begin to question the evolution of, their physical surroundings. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

Britain in the Age of Revolution
A history of Britain and its people from the Glorious Revolution to the end of the Napoleonic War. The end of absolutism and the rise of the constitutional monarchy; the Augustan Age: arts, letters, and religion; the Atlantic world and British overseas expansion; the Enlightenment and scientific revolution; the American Revolution and its aftermath; union with Scotland and Ireland and the creation of the British national identity; the revolution in France and the wars against Napoleon; the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. Offered Monday & Wednesday

Race and Nation in Latin America
Social thought about race and nation in Latin America. The Iberian concept of pureza de sangre, development of criollo national consciousness, 20th–century indigenista movements. Linkages between national identities and constructions of race, particularly in the wake of revolutionary movements. Freyre (Brazil), Marti (Cuba), Vasconcelos (Mexico), and Sarmiento (Argentina). Offered Tuesday & Thursday

Colonial Latin American History
History of Latin America from Native American contact cultures through the onset of independence movements in the early 19th century. Cultural confrontations, change, and Native American accommodation and strategies of evasion in dealing with the Hispanic colonial empire. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

Ancient Rome: Republic and Empire
A history of Ancient Rome from the foundation of the Roman Republic in the late 5th century BC to the end of the Severan dynasty in AD 235. Special emphasis will be given to Rome's political transformation from a Republic to an Empire and the effect of this transition on the Roman civilization. Topics for discussion include Roman conquest and imperialism, religion, contact with other Mediterranean cultures, class conflict, law and governance, slavery, and family structure, The course will also highlight the interpretation of primary source materials (especially ancient historical writings) and the problems of reconstructing the history of a civilization that flourished two thousand years ago. Offered Monday only

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Intro to International Affairs
An introduction to a conceptual, analytical, and historical understanding of international relations. Emphasis on the international system and the opportunities and constraints it places on state and nonstate behavior. Cooperation and conflict, sovereignty, the rich-poor gap, determinants of national power, interdependence, the process of globalization, international institutions, and the role of transnational phenomena. Offered Wednesday only

International Organizations
The changing relationship between the United Nations and other selected international organizations and their environments. Purposes for which national governments try to use international organizations and consequences of their efforts. Politics of the U.N. and other international organizations, conflict management, economic and social issues facing the organizations. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

United States Foreign Policy
An overview of contemporary U.S. foreign policy from a historical and theoretical perspective. International, domestic, bureaucratic, and individual determinants of policy-making. New challenges and prospects for U.S. foreign policy in the post–Cold War era. Offered Monday & Thursday

Human Rights and International Politics
This course examines the tension surrounding sovereignty, or non-intervention, in the face of increasingly severe human rights abuses. The course provides an overview of the philosophical underpinnings of human rights literature. Students critically examine the doctrine of sovereignty in international relations theory and practice. They also analyze the international community's ways of preventing rights violations, including political and judicial enforcement of human rights norms. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

MATHEMATICS

Calculus I
Basic analytical and quantitative reasoning and problem-solving skills that depend on the concept of the limit. Continuity, the derivative and its applications, the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, introduction to the definite integral with applications. Offered Monday & Wednesday

MUSIC

Jazz Appreciation
Developing listening skills, understanding musical concepts and the elements of music, examining the work of several major jazz figures. Styles from jazz roots through contemporary. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

PHILOSOPHY

Logic
Informal and formal analyses of arguments. Aristotelian deductive logic, truth functional logic, propositional logic, other introductory topics. Offered Monday & Wednesday

PSYCHOLOGY

Introduction to Psychology
Principles underlying behavioral development and change, physiological processes that mediate psychological functioning, processes of human perception and cognition, approaches to understanding functional and dysfunctional personality characteristics of individuals, counseling and psychotherapy techniques, application of psychological principles to social phenomena. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

Developmental Psychology
Principles underlying behavioral development and change, physiological processes that mediate psychological functioning, processes of human perception and cognition, approaches to understanding functional and dysfunctional personality characteristics of individuals, counseling and psychotherapy techniques, application of psychological principles to social phenomena. Offered Thursday only

Advanced Topics in Psychology: Developmental Psychopathology
In-depth understanding of current issues and topics in psychology. Central theoretical, empirical, practical issues of each topic. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Islamic Origins
Explores major religious and socio-historical developments in the Islamic world from ca. 600-1300 CE. Focus on the Qur'an, Muhammad, early Islamic expansions and dynasties, and interactions with non-Muslims. Examines the formation of "orthodox" beliefs and practices (e.g., theology, ritual, law), contestation over religious ideals and political power, and the emergence of Shi'ite and Sufi Islam. Offered Monday & Wednesday

Religion and Culture of Hindu India
Introduction to Hinduism in its Indian cultural context, with focus on theories of sacrifice, fertility, and discipline. Studies in classic Hindu sacred texts, with careful readings of myths of order and productivity. Analysis of reconstructed postcolonial Hinduism. Emphasis on studying religion from a critical and comparative perspective. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

Religions and Cultures of East Asia
Chinese and Japanese worldviews. Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Shintoism: their origins, development, interactions. Mutual influence of folk and elite traditions, expansion of Buddhism and its adaptation to different sociopolitical environments, effects of modernization on traditional religious institutions. Offered Tuesday & Thursday

Religion in Modern America
Impact of religion in modern America from the end of the Civil War to the present day, emphasizing the interaction between America's many religions and emerging American modernity. The fate of "traditional" religion in modern America; "alternate" American religious traditions; urbanization, industrialism, and religion; science, technology, and secularism; evangelicalism, modernism, and fundamentalism; religious bigotry; pluralism; new religions and neofundamentalism. Offered Monday & Wednesday