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College Catalog 2019-2020 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
All Courses
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Liberal Arts Electives: Humanities (Literature and Creative Writing) |
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LARTS 361 — Creative Nonfiction 3 credits
Fall
Ron Price
Prerequisite: LARTS 112 Creative Nonfiction tells a story. The story might have a political or an ecological, an economic or a racial focus. It might be about the art of glassblowing or animal husbandry, anything from a narrative history of the U.S. Civil War to a coming of age memoir — stories about what real people do, what happens to them, how they respond. The genre employs a journalist’s focus on facts; the dialogue and scenes of a novelist or playwright; the analytical thinking of an essayist; the images, musicality, and wordplay of a poet. Creative Nonfiction writers use literary techniques when facts alone cannot adequately render the truth of a subject. They aim for the truth as they understand it. Strategic analysis of work by Jonathan Swift, Virginia Woolf, Joyce Carol Oats, John Hersey, Truman Capote, Annie Dillard, Tom Wolfe, Isabella Allende, Joan Didion, Gay Talese, and John McPhee will serve as models for student writings to culminate in a manuscript of original essays.
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LARTS 378 — Comedy Tonight 3 credits
Spring
Roger Oliver
Prerequisite: LARTS 112 After a brief consideration of some theories of comedy and laughter (Aristotle, Henri Bergson, Freud, Suzanne Langer) this course will explore great comic dramas from Classical Greek drama to contemporary farce. Among the playwrights whose work we will explore are Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Moliere, Congreve, Sheridan, Wilde, Feydeau, Kaufman and Hart and Michael Frayn. A good sense of humor is not required for the course but is highly recommended.
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LARTS 380 — Shakespeare and the Performing Arts 3 credits
Fall
Roger Oliver
Shakespeare has not only shaped the theater that has followed him, but has profoundly influenced major artists in music, dance, and film. This course will focus on several of his plays (e.g., Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello) and the musical compositions, operas, ballets, and films that have been based on them. Landmark productions of the plays will also be discussed.
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LARTS 381 — The Bible as Literature 3 credits
Fall
Anthony Lioi
Prerequisite: LARTS 112
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LARTS 382 — African American Literature – The World and Works of Toni Morrison 3 credits
Spring
Renée Baron
In describing what propelled the former book editor to write her first novel at the age of 39, Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison said, “If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” This semester, we will read and discuss that book, The Bluest Eye, and the subsequent works that Morrison added to the American literary canon, including Sula, Song of Solomon, and Tar Baby, and selected later novels, such as Beloved. We will appraise Morrison’s essays and her collaboration with Richard Danielpour on the opera Margaret Garner and examine major influences on her work, including William Faulkner and Gabriel García Márquez. Throughout the semester, we will consider the cultural and literary significance of Morrison’s oeuvre while investigating the socio-political context of her work and the literary world to which she responded.
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LARTS 385 — Modern European Drama 3 credits
Fall
Roger Oliver
This course will explore the evolution of modern drama in Europe from the rise of realism and naturalism in the late 19th century through the main experimental movements of the 20th century to the present day. Among the playwrights studied will be Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Shaw, Brecht, Pirandello, Beckett, Pinter, and Churchill.
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Liberal Arts Electives: Humanities (Philosophy) |
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LARTS 321 — Humanitarianism & Philosophy 3 credits
Fall
Jeffrey Flynn
Prerequisite: LARTS 112 We are all familiar with aid agencies asking for donations to support their life-saving work. Often these appeals aim to stimulate compassion for the suffering of distant strangers in ways that prompt us to act. This course takes humanitarian action – broadly construed as organized attempts to alleviate the suffering of distant strangers – as a point of departure for analyzing a range of issues using the tools of moral and political philosophy. We will attempt to better understand the nature and scope of our moral obligations to distant strangers as well as the nature and value of moral sentiments like compassion and their relation to justice. We will engage different frameworks for evaluating various modes of humanitarian action by non-governmental organizations, governments, and international bodies. We will also critically examine the modes of representation used to portray the suffering of distant strangers.
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Liberal Arts Electives: History and Social Sciences |
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LARTS H310 — Honors: Studying New York City 3 credits
Fall
Lisa Andersen
New York City will be our subject and classroom for this interdisciplinary, writing-intensive course. By visiting archives, traveling to diverse neighborhoods, and analyzing census tables, community health surveys, and other data, we will explore our city, its past, and its possible future. We will also read the work of historians, anthropologists, scientists, and psychologists to learn about their approaches. What have these researchers discovered about New Yorkers’ public health, politics, ecology, and culture? As a capstone assignment, students will design an independent study course, research program, or service-learning exercise of their own. Interested students may apply to continue developing their project in the second semester, mentored by a faculty advisor.
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LARTS 330 — Totalitarianism 3 credits
Fall
Gonzalo Sanchez
Totalitarianism is a political program of absolute control over state, society, and individual life that was born in 20th-century Europe and which led to wars, campaigns of mass extermination, and the subsequent loss of millions of lives. This interdisciplinary Academic Honors course will examine the two most fateful examples of totalitarianism in the 20th century, the Leninist regime in Soviet Russia and Hitler’s Nazism in Germany. Our approach is both historical and theoretical, trying not only to define what sort of “ism” totalitarianism is, but also to determine whether it is a dying phenomenon or still has a future. We will address questions of political ideology, culture, group identity, technology, violence, human rights, resistance, and conformity. Readings—by Hannah Arendt, George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, and other writers—include works of history, political science, social theory, fiction, and memoirs.
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LARTS 377 — United States History from 1877 3 credits
Spring
Lisa Andersen
America’s religious leaders, politicians, freed people, workers, women’s rights advocates, moral reformers, capitalists, and intellectuals explored the meanings of massive transformations in the wake of Civil War and emancipation. This course will explore Americans’ debates about the changing nature of work, expanding state capacity, popular politics, immigration, race and racism, family roles, industrial economy, and the nation’s standing as a world power. Students will gain familiarity with a wide variety of historical documents “” military reports, political speeches, court records, personal correspondence, and campaign memorabilia “” as well as classic and recent historical scholarship.
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LARTS 470 — The Arts and Society 3 credits
Fall
Damian Woetzel
Prerequisite: LARTS 112 This survey course examines the intersection of arts and society, looking specifically at the role of arts and artists in addressing issues facing the world today. Through extensive reading lists, case studies, individual and group projects, and conversations with distinguished guests, we will explore areas including but not limited to law, health care, education, science, and civic participation to consider our ideal version of a collective future and how we might use arts, creativity, and culture to help get us there. Past guests have included Elizabeth Alexander (poet, memoirist, and president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), Vijay Gupta (violinist, social justice advocate, and 2018 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow), Mitch Landrieu (lawyer, author, and former New Orleans mayor), Sarah Lewis (author, curator, and Harvard University Assistant Professor in the Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Department of African and African American Studies), Caroline Shaw (Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, vocalist, violinist, and producer), and Jeannie Suk Gersen (Harvard Law School John H. Watson, Jr. Professor of Law). Open to 3rd and 4th-year undergraduates and cross-listed as graduate elective; preference given to graduate students.
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Liberal Arts Electives: Languages |
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LARTS 151-2 — Russian I 6 credits
Full Year
Gina Levinson
Introductory language courses provide basic reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Students also study the culture and history of the language and the countries where it is spoken. Students may not enroll in courses involving the study of their native languages.
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LARTS 161-2 — English and Communication 6 credits
Full Year
Harold Slamovitz, Robert Wilson
May be required as a result of language assessments. This course is designed for emergent bilingual English speakers to advance their academic language skills. Working with periodicals and literature, this course fosters the comprehensive development of language skills including reading, writing, listening, speaking, and grammar. Undergraduate students are expected to pass this course with a grade of at least “C”. Graduate students are expected to pass this course with a grade of at least “B”.
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LARTS 171-2 — French I 6 credits
Full Year
Harold Slamovitz
Introductory language courses provide basic reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Students also study the culture and history of the language and the countries where it is spoken. Students may not enroll in courses involving the study of their native languages.
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LARTS 181-2 — German I 6 credits
Full Year
Harold Slamovitz
Introductory language courses provide basic reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Students also study the culture and history of the language and the countries where it is spoken. Students are expected to pass the first semester with a grade of at least “C” in order to continue to the second semester. Students may not enroll in courses involving the study of their native languages.
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LARTS 191-2 — Italian I 6 credits
Full Year
Faculty
Introductory language courses provide basic reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Students also study the culture and history of the language and the countries where it is spoken. Students are expected to pass the first semester with a grade of at least “C” in order to continue to the second semester. Students may not enroll in courses involving the study of their native languages.
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LARTS 561-2 — Graduate English Seminar 4 credits
Full Year
Robert Wilson
May be required as a result of language assessments. This course is designed for emergent bilingual graduate students to advance their academic language skills. Working with popular, academic, and scientific articles, along with literature, this course cultivates the rhetorical knowledge and compositional skills required for participation in postgraduate education. Students are expected to pass this course with a grade of at least “B.”
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Liberal Arts Electives: American Studies |
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LARTS 392 — Democracy at the Crossroads 3 credits
Spring
Anita Mercier
Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . Members of Western societies tend to assume that democracy is the best form of government. Yet today, many democratic countries are sliding toward authoritarianism, and others are struggling to maintain stability. What conditions are necessary to establish and maintain democracy? What are democracy’s vulnerabilities? Does democracy have a future?
To answer these questions, we will trace the intellectual foundations of democracy from its origins in the ancient world through the Atlantic republican tradition and through the emergence of modern liberal democracies worldwide. We will examine the ideas of both proponents and critics of democracy. Finally we will focus on some of the pressing problems facing contemporary democracies, including populism, the persistence of illiberal and anti-democratic ideologies, skyrocketing economic inequality, and sweeping technological changes.
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LARTS 393 — Culture 2022 3 credits
Spring
Anthony Lioi
Prerequisite: LARTS 112
The year 1922 was a watershed for literary modernism, witnessing the publication of major works by T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, and the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski. Thus, the course of modernism and the practice of anthropology were intertwined using the concept of “culture:” both “the best which has been thought and said” and “the everyday lifeways of a people.” Beginning with Victorian anthropology, this course will trace the rise of the culture concept through classic modernist works by Eliot, Joyce, Woolf, Hurston, Auden, and Brooks. It will then examine what became of “culture” in our own time using contemporary anthropology and art to understand the legacy of modernism today.
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Liberal Arts Electives: Gender Studies |
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LARTS 304 — Feminist Philosophy 3 credits
Spring
Aaron Jaffe
Prerequisite: LARTS 112
This class explores feminist philosophy, beginning with Diotima’s response to Socrates, with the aim of reconstructing an historical arc of the concerns informing contemporary feminist thinking. Though starting with the “Western” tradition, the class will problematize the largely White and upper-class feminisms of the so-called “global north” with challenges from the “global south” as well as Black, Chicana, and working-class feminisms. This process will generate not only a sequential, but a comparative and critical approach to different possible feminisms. The class will examine the nature of women’s oppression and the structuring role of gender and orientation, and highlight the conceptual resources to reflect upon and resist domination developed by people not traditionally identified as “men.”
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