The Journey Within: The Spiritual Pursuit in Literary and Mystical Traditions A fundamental teaching of the world’s religious and mystical traditions is that the source of love, the fulfillment of life, and the treasure of heaven are found within. With mystical and literary texts from antiquity to the present day as our guides, we shall explore themes such as the concept of the soul, the discovery of a deeper self, the spiritual awakening, and the nature of the mystical experience. Using both intellectual and experiential tools of inquiry, we shall consider questions related to religious and psychological experience such as: Where does the self reside? Why is it important to “know thyself”? What is the state of consciousness described as enlightenment? How does one rise above the sorrows and struggles of the world? Finally, we shall try to understand how ‘turning within’ may not mean fleeing away from the world; rather we shall explore the possibility that this direction might even mean engaging in the world around us in a more profound and meaningful way. Readings will include Plato, Marcus Aurelius, excerpts from the New Testament, Tolstoy, Emily Dickinson, Herman Hesse, J.D. Salinger, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mary Oliver.

Refugee Stories “Stories are just things we fabricate,” says a character in Viet Nguyen’s The Refugees. “We search for them in a world besides our own, then leave them here to be found, garments shed by ghosts.” In this course students will find stories by and about a paradigmatic modern figure: the displaced refugee seeking asylum in unfamiliar lands. Highlighting literary and visual representations, we will also draw from history, sociology, anthropology, environmental studies, and feminist critique. Beginning with the Syrian refugee crisis, we will circle back to the Vietnam War and the lingering questions it poses to today’s social justice movement.

On Time Time is at once familiar and confounding. After eighteen years (568 million seconds) of existence, you know it intimately. But what is time, really? The truth is, we don’t know. Time doesn’t even appear in the most fundamental laws of physics. In this course we explore the history of time-keeping from mechanical clocks to atomic clocks, human perceptions of time, Einstein’s theory of relativity, and present-day theories on time. Readings include Longitude (Dava Sobel), Simply Einstein (Richard Wolfson), The Order of Time (Carlo Rovelli) and selected articles from neuroscience. We will also look back in time using the College Observatory.

Life is Short: Introduction to the Russian Short Story Russian literature may be best known in the West for producing big lumbering novels, novels thicker than bricks—think War & Peace, Brothers Karamazov, or Gulag Archipelago—but from the beginning of the nineteenth century on, many of its greatest prose masterpieces emerge from a seemingly lesser, though nimbler genre—the short story. In this course we will read classic short works by Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Nabokov and others, and learn to analyze them in a sophisticated way; we will also learn about Russian culture, and, more broadly, what makes literature what it is. All readings in English.

The Milky Way Galaxy - Our Island Universe In this course we will learn how we came to know that we live in a galaxy that is distinct from the other hundreds of billion galaxies in the observable Universe – a fact that only became accepted in the mid 1920’s. We will discuss the history and philosophy of humanity’s effort to find our place in the Universe, focusing on how progress is made in science and how we settle scientific debates. We will examine the anatomy of the Milky Way, including the disk of rotating stars in which our Sun resides, the globular clusters that are scattered throughout, the dark matter that holds the Galaxy together, and the black hole quietly sitting at its center. Throughout, we will explore how historical events, as well as human creativity and ingenuity, drove the major discoveries that give us an understanding of our place in the Universe.

Lyme Disease Lyme disease is fascinating from medical, public health, and ecological perspectives. In this seminar we will explore the disease in an interdisciplinary fashion. We will look at the history of—and controversy around—its diagnosis, treatment, and control. Because Lyme has a tick vector and animal reservoirs, we will consider how the local environment affects it. Connections to other zoonotic diseases (SARS, West Nile, EEE) will be made. Readings will come from Bull's Eye: Unraveling the Medical Mystery of Lyme Disease by Eldow, Lyme Disease: The Ecology of a Complex System by Ostfeld, and primary sources.

Metaphors, Models, and Measurement of Light We perceive, imagine, explain, produce, use, measure, absorb, and even slow down light.  It is pervasive in our human experience and our scientific understanding of the universe. Represented in all kinds of ways, from discrete measurements to evocative metaphors, light appears in literature, in science, and in our daily lives, and we will use each of these contexts as a lens for critical thinking. We will employ methods from the humanities and from the sciences to explore concepts of light in fiction, poetry, essays, and scientific writing, and we will incorporate our own observations and experimental activities into our consideration of this material.

The Lives of the Buddha What is a buddha? How does a person become one? The life of the Buddha is one of the most influential stories ever, but it was not the focus of the earliest Buddhist literature. When narratives of his life (and previous lives) first appear in word and image, which concerns dominate them? How and why do later groups of Buddhists tell, interpret, and ritually enact his life story differently? We will focus on the telling and retelling of these lives over the long span and wide spread of the Buddhist tradition - and what they reveal about doctrine and practice as well as issues of gender, authority, and religious aspiration.

Ecopoetry: From Nature to Environment Can poetry save the world, as some have proposed? Maybe not, yet a poem can reframe our perceptions of the natural world. In this course we will develop our critical thinking and writing skills, as well as our “ecocritical” thinking skills, by exploring how poems about the human relationship to the biophysical environment can inspire us to rethink our place in the universe. We will read works by such poets as Gerard Manley Hopkins, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, Galway Kinnell, Maxine Kumin, Lucia Perillo, Jorie Graham, and Layli Long Soldier. 3hrs. sem.

Virginia Woolf in Context In this seminar we will focus on the novels, essays, and short stories of Virginia Woolf, considering them in the light of her social, political, and artistic contexts and commitments.  We will explore in particular the tension in her work between Victorian values and aesthetics and the progressive goals of the modernist movement. Our readings will take us from the early novels (Voyage Out, Night and Day) to the later experimental works (To the Lighthouse, Orlando, The Waves). Some of the topics central to the seminar will be Woolf’s engagement with modernism and its key figures (such as James Joyce); her treatment of gender and sexuality in her essays and elsewhere; and her struggles with mental illness.  We will intersperse our reading of Woolf’s prose with consideration of some film versions of her work, and we will conclude the seminar with a reading of Michael Cunningham’s 1998 creative homage to Mrs. Dalloway: The Hours.

Space, Time, and Measurement The ability to precisely measure distance and time is essential to modern science and technology.  Improvements in the technology of measurement made possible scientific discoveries that then redefined our fundamental understanding of space, time and measurement themselves.  We’ll follow this process, from Galileo’s pendulum through Einstein’s theory of relativity to modern applications in quantum mechanics and cosmology, using historical and scientific texts, analytic writing, and a few hands-on activities to understand these ideas and their impact on science and society.   3 hr. sem.

Shakespeare's Characters Shakespeare’s reputation owes much to his characters; yet well-known as they are, they remain mysterious. What did they mean in Shakespeare’s time? How do they still succeed as characters?  What explains idiotic Bottom’s charisma?  What does Henry V’s flirtation with Princess Katherine or Othello’s jealousy about Desdemona reveal about Elizabethan—and our own—understandings of gender and race?  Such questions will help us develop skills in speaking, writing, and critical inquiry.  Texts will include at most three plays from among the following: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Merchant of Venice, Henry V, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, Othello, Lear, as well as contextual readings. We will also study a film of one of the plays.

The Body in Question What does literature have to say about the fact that we are “embodied” beings?—that our consciousness interacts with the world through an envelope of flesh that both weighs us down with its mundane requirements and propels us forward with its remarkable abilities and insistent desires?  We know that the world at large cares deeply about our bodies, for it continually categorizes us along the lines of race, gender, age, and “normality,” but who gets (or should get) the last word about what our skin and bones declare about us?  In this class we will investigate what novelists, playwrights, and poets have to say about our ability to either make peace with our flesh or to transcend it, and whether such outcomes can best be accomplished through religion, imagination, drugs, sexuality, or political action.  The works we address will include Shelley’s Frankenstein, Morrison’s Sula, Beckett’s Happy Days, Silko’s Ceremony, Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, and others.

Filling in the Blanks-Reading between Words Not only written words, but also the spaces that connect them, influence and determine literary readings. In this course we will analyze the cultural as well as the personal assumptions that enable us to create specific meanings in texts. Applying theoretical concepts to known works of literature, and reflecting on their own cultural and personal assumptions, students will gain an understanding of how culturally situated their readings are. Literary works by Shakespeare, Lessing, Choderlos de Laclos, Kafka, Walker, Tawada, and others create a canon to which we will apply various theoretical approaches.

Anthropology and Climate Change Climate change has become one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century, and much of the discussion about its causes and consequences is based on the biophysical sciences and is strongly influenced by political and economic interests.  Anthropology offers a wider set of perspectives on climate change.  In this seminar we will examine cross-cultural case studies of past and present responses to climate change.  We will look at how technological, economic, social, political, and spiritual dynamics shape the way people understand and react to climate change.  Key themes will include gender and vulnerability, social-ecological resilience, climate ideologies, development policy, social scale, and ethnometeorology.

Catastrophic Memories: Past and Present Perspectives on the American Civil War and Second World War How do people remember traumatic events? How do those memories impact our American and priorities in the present? How might they guide goals for the future? And what roles can History play in that process? In this course we will examine how two great catastrophes—the American Civil War and the Second World War—have been remembered over time and space. We will consider what roles historical memories play in American society, how collective memories are formed, and what makes them change. To do so, we will consider a broad range of sources—major films, historical fiction, popular non-fiction, and historical scholarship. Students end by examining one facet or feature of these historical memories of their choosing.

The Climate Crisis, Place, and Mindful Photography in Copenhagen Copenhagen, one of the world’s most livable cities, is not immune from the impact of global forces. We will examine the city’s response to three issues associated with the climate crisis: microbursts, migrants, and burning fossil fuels. In this course we will follow a systematic process to create a deeper, more meaningful, and lasting personal connection with Copenhagen as a place. We will study the climate crisis, geographic theories of place and space, and the literature on “mindful photography.” We will conduct photo shoots at locations identified with our three issues and discuss and write about theory, process, and the subsequent connections we make to places in Copenhagen. The course will culminate in an exhibition of photos and oral presentations.

American Superheroes and Immigration In this course we will explore how American comic book artists represent diasporic identities through superhero narratives. We will focus on Superman and the character's Kryptonian heritage while also juxtaposing imaginary diasporas—such as Wonder Woman’s Amazon heritage and Black Panther’s Wakanda—with real ones from South and East Asia, and the Caribbean, linked to characters such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Shang-Chi, Ms. Marvel, and La Borinqueña. Key topics will include how changes in American culture have broadened the corporate definition of American immigrant identities and why this issue is controversial in modern political discourse. The final project will involve each student creating their own diasporic superhero.

Ethics in the MCU The movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) are fun entertainment, but they also deal with a range of important ethical issues. Using Marvel films and streaming series as springboards, we will discuss topics like artificial intelligence, bodily enhancement, racial justice, gender equality in the workplace, the obligations of power, and the relationship between intention and culpability. In the process of analyzing the MCU, we will learn the fundamentals of ethical theory and develop skills necessary to make and respond constructively to moral arguments, contributing to our maturation as moviegoers and ethical citizens.

The American Political Tradition In this seminar we will study the theoretical ideas that informed the creation and development of America’s political system and consider some of the major contemporary challenges to American democracy.  Topics to be treated include the political thought of the American Founders, the place of religion in public life, the nature of written constitutions, American political culture, race in American politics, and the role of America in the world.  Readings will include selections from the Federalist Papers, Alexis de Tocqueville, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, John Dewey, Theodore Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and many other primary source documents.

Everyday Life in South Africa, 1948-Present In this seminar we will explore some of the social worlds of South Africans amid the country's recent decades of turbulent and dramatic change.  We will look at how different groups within the nation's diverse population have understood and experienced the rise of the apartheid system, its demise, and its legacies in their "everyday" lives and interactions.  We will draw from various sources - non-fiction, fiction, film, music, and other forms of popular culture - to interpret these social dynamics and their ongoing significance in a post-apartheid society.

What is Religion? What is the origin of religion? How can we begin to understand the forceful and continuous presence of religion in human history? What do we make of individuals who claim to hear God or interact with the supernatural? Is there any way to understand the people at Jonestown who drank the Kool-Aid or the individuals who brought down the Twin Towers at 9/11 besides dismissing them as crazy and/or brainwashed? In this course we will use select analytical frameworks offered by religious studies to explore these questions, and more. We will pay special attention to the construction of the category of religion and how modern attitudes and assumptions about it have shaped acceptable and unacceptable forms of religious behavior and belief.

The Feminine Heroic In this class we will explore the hero’s journey in literature as it relates to women and the natural world: who gets to go on the adventure, and who arrives home, transformed? How do race and gender complicate the traditional man-versus-nature narrative? We will discuss character agency, narrative authority, and structure — and look at texts where women undertake the journey, including work by Annie Dillard, Camille Dungy, Rachel Carson, Anne LeBastille, Rahawa Haile, and Pam Houston. We will work on reading critically, editing, and practicing the art of giving and receiving feedback. This class will provide students with opportunities to create both critical and creative work.

Analyzing World Musical Pieces Every musical piece tells stories about its place of origin, the artists who create and perform it, the contexts of its performance, the audiences that experience it, and the meanings associated with it. Yet, these stories are often unobvious to listeners without the right tools to analyze and interpret the piece. In this seminar we will develop critical skills for analyzing exemplary musical pieces from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. Through readings, writing assignments, lectures, discussions, mini-performances, research activities, and oral presentations, we will learn how to appreciate and represent diverse musical works and their accompanying stories more fully and appropriately, as extensions of their sonic and extra-sonic worlds. No musical background is required.

Happiness Economists now devote considerable effort to rigorous identification of the sources of happiness or well-being. To do so, they draw on a range of methods and disciplines, from philosophy and psychology to statistics and, of course, economics. In this seminar, we will sample this fascinating literature and discuss the “science of happiness” and its implications for our own lives. Students will also build a portfolio of work designed to answer a happiness-related question of specific interest to them, using the qualitative and quantitative methods learned during the semester, and then share their findings with one another.

Mountains of the Northeast The mountains of the northeastern U.S. are an integral part of the cultural and natural history of this region. In this seminar we will consider topics germane to northeastern mountains including the geologic origin of the northern Appalachians, characteristics of mountain environments, changing perceptions of northeastern mountains over time, mountains as resources for modern society, and challenges facing these environments today and in the future. Readings and discussion will be combined with field excursions to enhance our understanding of mountains from a variety of perspectives. 3 hrs sem.

Teaching ‘The 1619 Project’: Battling Miseducation, Engaging Freedom Dreaming, and Regaining Hope In August of 2019 The New York Times launched the 1619 Project, created by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Nikole Hannah-Jones, explores the history of slavery in the United States.  In this course we will explore various ways to approach teaching The 1619 Project and examine how the project pushes against miseducation within the U.S. education system.  We will also delve into various states' bans against teaching the 1619 Project and scrutinize how Critical Race Theory became wrapped in these bans.

Postwar Japanese History in Film and Literature In this seminar we will study the history of postwar Japan (1945 to the present), focusing on how literature and film have engaged the defining historical and political questions of this period. The seminar is organized around specific themes, including: trauma and war memory, the Allied occupation, the cold war in East Asia, high economic growth in the 1960s, political protest, post-coloniality, and a resurgent nationalism. Students will learn postwar Japanese history while also considering the possibilities of pursuing historical analysis through translated literature and narrative film.

Mathematics of Board Games People have been playing games since as early as 2000 B.C. Since then, avid players have devised strategies to maximize their chances of winning. In this course we will dissect a variety of modern board games and analyze various strategies for each game using mathematics, computers, and intuition. We will further discuss whether an optimal strategy exists for each game and propose modifications to existing rules and scoring schemes. The course will culminate with a project to construct a board game. All are welcome regardless of mathematical background. 3 hrs. sem

J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth In this course we will explore the philology, philosophy, ecology, and theology of J.R.R.Tolkien as expressed in his Middle-earth Legendarium.  We will begin with close readings of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, looking at the literary aspects of the storytelling and exploring important sources and influences including Beowulf and Norse mythology. We will then turn to the specific tasks of exploring the four subjects mentioned above, making use of secondary scholarship such as: Shippey’s J.R.R.Tolkien Author of the Century and Kreeft’s The Philosophy of J.R.R.Tolkien. Some emphasis will be given to Tolkien’s environmental vision.

American Revolutions: Reacting to the Past In this course we will be examining three moments of intellectual and cultural conflict in the United States, which will likely include 1) The Revolution in NYC, 1775-76, 2) Greenwich Village, 1913 (Suffrage, Labor and the New Woman) and, 3) Chicago, 1968. We will dive deep into these revolutionary moments via Reacting to the Past games, in which you will present  the perspectives of historical characters—sometimes with values quite different than your own--in lively debate. These games do not have a fixed script: you’ll find yourself researching historic documents, collaborating, making public speeches, plotting—and in the end, perhaps even rewriting history.

Migrations: Politics, Ethics, Literature In this class we will learn about the political and ethical issues of migration. What are the rights of those who migrate and how can we hear and make space for their voices? How can we study and talk about migration in ways that are respectful to everyone? To answer these and other questions, we will analyze different texts (literary, journalistic, essays), learn how to assess their reliability, and apply them to our understanding of migration. We will consider migration in its local and global aspects with a focus on Italy and Europe compared with what happens in other parts of the world (eg. U.S. and Syria), through group and individual research that we will present in oral and written form.

The Beast in the Jungle In this course we will explore some literary texts in which the practice of exploration itself yields a complex confrontation with, and often breakdown of, identity and will.  Westerners’ longing to separate themselves from home and make contact with a foreign “other” arises from the high purposes that set imperial adventures in motion in the first place. Readings will include Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Forster’s Passage to India, Waugh’s Handful of Dust, Bowles’ Sheltering Sky, Stone’s/ Dog Soldiers/, Duras’ The Lover, Greene’s A Burnt-Out Case.

Time Around A Table: A Culinary History of Italy Food is a window into the culture and values of any society. In this seminar we will explore the history of Italian culture by investigating the ever-changing issues relating to food, through books, articles, films, recipes, and cooking. How did production and consumption change over time? What did the Ancient Romans eat? What was Italian cuisine like before pasta and tomatoes?  What triggered the Italian appetite to change? Such questions allow us to examine what culinary choices reveal about today’s Italy.

Civil War & Civil Rights In a time of national emergency, the rules governing everyday life often get suspended to meet a more pressing need. What rights of citizens remain protected in these circumstances, and what liberties are vulnerable to erosion? Where are the boundaries of reasonable sacrifice?  While these questions are applicable to every era, we will focus on the years of the American Civil War (the 1860s) to explore them most fully.  We will use the thoughts of 19th-century Americans and Confederates and the arguments of historians as our guide towards deep thinking and discussion about rights, liberties, individual responsibility, and community cohesion.

Introduction to Contemporary Chinese Culture, Politics, and Society Is China poised to rule the world? Are we already living in the shadow of China’s economic dominance?  Is China’s soft power transforming global culture? Is China a fragile superpower? In this seminar we will prepare to answer these questions, all of which have been raised in recently published books, by studying some of the important people, events, ideas, stories, and films in 20th- and 21st-century China. Our inquiry will be guided by the assumption that we cannot understand what China’s rise means until we acquire a basic understanding of Chinese culture, politics, and society.

The Philosophy of Human Rights What are human rights?  What duties, if any, flow from them, and who is morally obligated to bear those duties?  In this course, we will investigate the philosophical origins and development of the concept of human rights.  We will critically analyze both historical and contemporary moral perspectives on the existence and nature of human rights.  What does it mean to say that one possesses a human right?  In addition to examining the existence and nature of human rights, we will take a closer look at the issue of human rights related to world poverty and humanitarian intervention.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Gods, Goddesses, and Demons in Indian Art Indian mythology and epic literature abound with stories of conflicts between the forces of good and evil. There are multiple forms of Hindu gods and goddesses who battle an array of evil and colorful demonic foes, and each cosmic battle embodies a profound philosophical lesson about relative values and complex moral choices. We will explore the meanings and myriad creative expressions of this rich terrain through a lively variety of artistic depictions—in mythological literature, painting, sculpture, drama, dance, television, film, graphic novels, and contemporary arts.3 hr sem.

Self and Identity What is the self? Do we have a permanent, immaterial soul, or is the self constructed by the brain and body? How do we form our identities, and how do these identities relate to social norms? Do we have free will? What is the nature of moral responsibility? These are some of the questions we will address in this course on the nature of the self, personal identity, and social identity. Readings will include works by traditional and contemporary philosophers (Descartes, Locke, Sartre, Parfit); neuroscientific accounts of the self (Damasio, Metzinger); Buddhist critiques of the self and contemporary responses to them; and contemporary debates about social identity (Foucault, Butler, Appiah,Haslanger).

Euripides and Athens Was the tragic genius of Euripides (480?-406 BC) corrupted by the atheistic rationalism of the sophists and the philosophy of Socrates (470-399 BC), as their Athenian contemporary, the comic poet Aristophanes, alleged? Nietzsche makes that view the basis of his attack on Socrates in The Birth of Tragedy (1872). Or, was Euripides in fact "the most tragic of the poets," as Aristotle argued in his Poetics, written during the half century after Euripides' death in 406 BC? In this course we discuss twelve of Euripides' extant plays in the context of 5th c. BC Greek political and intellectual history, with the help of Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, and some modern critics.

Ralph Ellison and His Influence(s) Ralph Ellison is a pivotal figure in American letters. His fiction—most notably his 1952 novel Invisible Man—draws inspiration from an encyclopedic list of sources, from Benjamin Franklin’s 1791 autobiography to Norbert Weiner’s 1950 treatise on cybernetics. His oeuvre, in turn, continues to influence creatives like Percival Everett, Spike Lee, Jesmyn Ward, and Colson Whitehead, whose imagined worlds contain distinctly Ellisonian elements. In this course, we will explore Ellison’s fiction, criticism, and photography in this expanded context and learn why Ellison is, in the words of Timothy Parrish, “arguably the most important black intellectual after [W. E. B.] Du Bois,” and “the essential figure of twentieth-century American letters.”

Economics and Racism: Economic Drivers and Consequences of Anti-Black Racism in the United States While racism is relevant for many groups in many places, this course will focus on the economic drivers and consequences of anti-Black racism in the United States. A primary text for the course will be The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein. The course will also incorporate materials from The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ seminar series entitled: Racism and the Economy: Understanding the implications of structural racism in America’s economy and advancing actions to improve economic outcomes for all. We will learn how to use data analysis and visualization to understand the economic past and present of racism in the US (no previous data experience required).

Models for Contemplative Education: Mindful Inquiry and Learning Contemplative education refers to a form of pedagogy that identifies the principles of embodied, mindful learning as integral to deep, engaged meaning-making. The field of contemplative studies informs this work, as educators develop new models of teaching that use critical first-person inquiry and mindfulness practices to foster sustained engagement. In this course we will explore the field of contemplative education and consider such questions as: what is learning and how does divergent or mindful thinking influence how we learn? Is there a connection between mindfulness and creativity, attention, memory? We will review research in the field and critically examine findings that suggest a correlation between contemplative practices and the intellectual growth and psychological well-being of students.

Native Presence and Performance: Reclaiming the Indigenous Narrative In this sminar we will respectfully engage with contemporary Native American and First Nations theatre makers representing the nations of the Kiowa/Delaware, Onieda/Ojibwe, Cherokee, and Kana/Rappahannock. Additionally, we will meet with Abenaki culture bearers to learn how cultural expression has contributed to their nation’s reclamation and decolonization in Vermont and the Northeast. Despite centuries of attempted erasure, the Indigenous of the Americas have survived and thrived in powerful ways. Conversations with Native leaders and artists, will deepen understanding while strengthening communication skills (including listening); writing assignments will strengthen critical, sensitive, and reflexive analysis.

Activism and the U.S. AIDS Crisis * The history of HIV/AIDS has much to teach us about the politics of late twentieth-century and early twenty-first century American life. Building on foundations laid by earlier generations, people with AIDS in the 1980s organized against government neglect, homophobia, and a profit-driven pharmaceutical industry to demand treatment and care. Using historical scholarship, oral history, digitized archival collections, and film, we will explore a rich yet hidden history of grassroots activism, and consider how race, sexuality, gender, and class shaped responses to HIV/AIDS. In addition to readings-based discussion, students will conduct multi-staged research projects to explore AIDS activism in historical perspective.

Questions of Evidence: Historical, Legal, and Psychotherapeutic How do historians marshal evidence and to what ends? How does this intersect with psychotherapeutic and legal approaches? In this seminar we will ask “questions of evidence.” What is evidence? How do we find it? How do we decide to believe it? In the first half of the course we will examine the role of social and institutional power in shaping what we understand to be evidence. In the second half of the course, we will explore a recent historical controversy or a single historical study for its argument and presentation of evidence. Readings include works by historians, philosophers, legal scholars, psychotherapists, journalists, and activists.

Animals in Literature and Culture In this course we will engage with the representation of animals in novels, children’s books, poetry, philosophy, the visual arts, and popular culture to explore the role animals play in our aesthetic, ethical, and emotional lives. We will examine how animals have been represented historically and across various cultures in our attempt to gain insight into the ways humanity uses animals to make meaning for ourselves.

Art and the Environment “The land is not the setting for the work but a part of the work.” So did the artist Walter de Maria describe The Lightning Field (1980), a site-specific, environmental work of art built in an isolated part of western New Mexico. In this seminar we will discuss the different ways that recent artists have used, commented upon, and at times altered their surrounding environment. We will take an expansive view of the term "environmental" in our seminar as we explore natural, urban, media-based, and conceptual artistic environments.

How Money Makes the World Go Round Our society is structured around money – how to get it, how to spend it, how to amass it.  Power comes easily to those with more than their fair share of it, and powerlessness plagues those without it.  In this seminar we will study key aspects of the financial system, while examining the inherent biases, inequity, and unfairness within the institutions we rely on.  We will explore ideas about how to address those impediments through readings devoted to current events, personal memoirs, and essays.  Our discussions will illuminate the problematic way that money makes the world go round, while we also learn to navigate our own personal financial journey.

Watching the Wire: Urban America and Serial Television Frequently hailed as one of television’s great masterpieces, The Wire shines a light on urban decay in 21st-century America, creating a dramatic portrait of Baltimore’s police, drug trade, and other institutions over five serialized seasons. In this course we will watch and discuss this remarkable—and remarkably entertaining—series twenty years after its debut, placing it within the dual contexts of urban American society and television storytelling. This is a time-intensive course (60 hours of TV!), focused on close viewing, critical analysis of race and policing, and research into The Wire’s social contexts, aesthetic practices, and politics of representation.

Acoustic Ecology Acoustic ecology is the study of sounds in relationship to life and society. An interdisciplinary field, it explores the social, cultural, scientific, and ecological aspects of the sonic environment.  In this seminar  we will gain auditory literacy by experiencing the world through sound (e.g., noise, speech, music). Topics will include the impact of noise on society; the urban experience through sound (especially Berlin and New York); aural architecture; production and reception of speech; representations of sound in literature and the visual arts; and even emotional responses to certain songs. Sources include texts by neuroscientists, literary scholars, linguists, anthropologists, musicologists, and others; music, and films.

The Russian Idea In 1866, poet Fedor Tiutchev claimed “Russia cannot be understood by the mind […] Russia can only be believed in”. This mystical interpretation of Russian history and culture is a common trope employed by scholars, artists, and political actors. But why did this conception emerge, how has it evolved, and why does it hold such appeal? We will explore various iterations of the “Russian Idea” in literature, art, philosophy, and politics. In addition to reading excerpts from influential interpreters (Dostoevsky, Tolstoi, Solovev, Berdiaev), we will explore contemporary official and unofficial Russian discourse. Questions we will consider include: What different iterations of the “Russian Idea” have been offered and how have they been connected to state policy (historical and contemporary)? What relationship exists between cultural/artistic production, philosophical ideas, and politics?

Science and Democracy: Philosophical Perspectives The scientific method has been heralded as inherently democratic, based as it is on observation rather than authority. Yet the relationship between science and democracy is much more complex: what happens to our own relationship to democracy when we find ourselves needing to rely on expert scientific knowledge to make informed decisions? In this course we will explore the work of philosophers and science studies scholars to help us understand the many challenges of integrating science and democracy. We will consider what might be required for scientific and technological research to be objective, trustworthy, just, and able to serve the needs of a diverse society well, and we will examine challenges such as the commercialization and politicization of science. Topics such as climate change, health policy, medical research, AI, and food safety will help frame our considerations of the appropriate role of science in developing sound public policy.

Once Upon a Time – Fairy Tales of the World Tell me a story! We will examine the complex, inter-connected folk fairy tale traditions found in every society. Comparing fairy tale variants from around the world, we will explore their convoluted and fertile relationships as observed in the rise of fairytale collections in 15th Century Europe, reaching a culmination in the Brothers Grimm collection, often synonymous with the fairy tale itself.  To attain a more dispassionate critical stance we will explore theoretical approaches to the fairy tales by such authers as Jack Zipes, Ruth Bottigheimer, Maria Tatar, and Kay Stone, and conclude by examining modern variants in prose, poetry, and film.

Language in Motion Languages are dynamic systems, constantly evolving and adapting. What factors motivate language variation? How does a language become a powerful political tool? This course explores the social dynamics of linguistic change through the example of French. We will investigate the global reach of French as a first and second language before examining its highly diverse varieties. We will also discuss strategies for language preservation in our interconnected world. Throughout the semester, we will identify parallels between the evolution of French and the status of English in the United States. This course will be taught in English.

Playing the Part: Text Analysis and the Revelation of Character In this seminar we will apply the actor’s techniques of text analysis and character development to the study of dramatic literature in the hopes that these tools can illuminate the texts in ways conventional approaches might not.  This is not a performance class nor is acting experience a prerequisite. We will read six plays, and, using the technical tenets of Stanislavsky-based method acting, chart the characters’ progress through the script. We will watch plays on film, and travel to see a professional production.

Poetry and Poetics This seminar is an introduction to the formal and generic aspects of lyric poetry in English.  We will work to develop sensitivity to the various strategies of meaning available to poets—meter, rhyme, sound, diction, imagery—in order to read poems more closely, thoughtfully, and with pleasure. We will also attend to the historical, cultural, and biographical contexts of poems and poets, but our emphasis will be on lyric poems by a variety of poets from a range of periods and traditions. This is a literature, rather than a creative writing, course; but student poets are welcome to join.

Seeing and Being Photography has evolved rapidly and is now pervasive in our daily lives. How do photographs influence our experience of time, space, ourselves, and each other? This course focuses on these four areas central to understanding its incredible impact. Studying fine art and vernacular usage, students will discover how art, science, media, and personal histories are shaped by photography. By learning how to read images of their own and of others, students will develop the critical skills necessary to interpret images and their use. In addition to producing their own visual projects, students will read, research, analyze and write about photographs.

Fate, Filial Piety, and Passion in Chinese Civilization In this course, for which no prior study of China is needed, we will look at the place of the ideas of “ming” (fate), “xiao” (filial piety) and “qing”(passion) in Chinese culture as they are expressed in literature and film. We will study fortune telling, including divination using the 1000 BCE “Book of Changes,” read traditional and modern versions of the story of the filial woman warrior Mulan, and discuss the grand, death-defying passion in the Ming dynasty opera “The Peony Pavilion.” Our contemporary texts will include the film “Farewell My Concubine,” the novel “To Live,” and the documentary film “Our Time Machine,” about a son’s love for his aging father. Written work will be both critical and creative.

American President Biography In this course we will examine biographies, both written and filmed, of several American presidents, including those who are well known – Madison, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt – and those who are less well known – Cleveland, Polk, Van Buren, John Quincy Adams, and McKinley. What, if anything, prepared these men for the nation’s highest office? What explains their successes? Their failures? Why do we consider some great, and others not so great? What do these biographies reveal about how Americans evaluate their leaders? 3 hr. sem. AMR, CW, HIS

The “good” Body In this seminar we will examine the roles bodies play in defining our public and private identities.  What indications of beliefs, access, and cultural values do our bodies provide? What counts as a “good” body? Who has one (or doesn’t), and why? The many different answers to these and related questions impact every body in our Middlebury community and beyond. Topics will include aesthetic and ideological issues relating to the body; course work includes physically based workshops, oral presentations, written analyses and creative responses.

Herodotus and the Writing of History Dubbed ‘the Father of History’ by Cicero, Herodotus saw himself as presenting the results of an investigation in order to preserve human achievements, grant them renown, and above all to explain why the Greeks and Persians came to fight one another.  We will read the whole of Herodotus’ Histories, considering the place of story-telling, ethnography, and divine intervention in explaining the past, and exploring how Herodotus’ inquiry spawned historical writing.  Ancient and modern discussions about historical writing will supplement the central text.

Nature and Society This seminar is sociology for nature lovers. We often behave as if nature is independent of social life, but the two are profoundly interconnected. In this course we will explore this paradox through short excursions in the natural world—hikes, walks, field trips, outdoor meetings—and classroom-based learning. Drawing on practices of naturalism, social science, ecology, and philosophy, we will investigate the social construction of the natural world under capitalism. Course material will focus on studying Vermont’s ecological communities, the environmental movement, cultural geography, and natural literacy. Students will learn to “read the landscape” through the critical lens of sociology, and to challenge concepts of “natural” and “wild,” as well as “race” and “gender.” The course emphasizes an approach to writing based on observation, reflection, and evidence.

Reading Africa What do we know about Africa? In this seminar we will explore this vast continent through novels written about it. African and non-African writers will help us discover the continent’s geographies, histories, cultures, and politics. We will study particular phenomena affecting Africans over the centuries including colonialism, dictatorial rule, humanitarianism, the women’s rights movement, and racism. With the help of films and student presentations, we will focus on Algeria, Nigeria, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

The Poet’s ‘I’: Poetry and Autobiography In this seminar we will work to discover the sometimes subtle connections between the "objective" events of a poets’ lives and the poems that they produced.  Emily Dickinson and Gerard Manley Hopkins are known as reticent, self-concealing poets; nonetheless their poems tell their life stories. John Berryman is a "confessional" poet; yet questions about the relationship between his poems and his life are similar.  Lyn Hejinian is a postmodern poet who complicates all of those questions.  We will read a great many poems, as well as letters, diaries, drafts, published biographies, and autobiographical prose by each poet.

Memory Matters In this course, we look at Holocaust memory cultures that have evolved in the US and Germany and at the processes that have shaped our collective imaginations of the Shoah across time, space and genres. Students will develop critical awareness of the power of stories and the importance of memory work in all of our lives. They will also reflect on their own roles in the transmission of memory and the formation of collective and national memory cultures. We will examine documentary and feature films, read survivors' testimonies and fictional accounts, comics, poetry, theoretical and historical reflections, and examine monuments, counter-monuments and commemorative sites.

Ancient Women on Stage: Tragic and Comic As soon as theater was born in Ancient Greece around 500 BCE, it embarked on a radical examination of social institutions and cultural values. By adapting myths and rituals for the stage, tragic and comic playwrights invited their audiences to reflect critically on their own communities. In this seminar we will meet some of the women they put on stage to challenge traditional gender roles and push the boundaries of acceptable thought and behavior. Employing modern theoretical approaches and close reading, we will study tragedies by Sophocles (Antigone) and Euripides (Medea, Hecuba, Helen) and comedies by Aristophanes (Lysistrata, Assemblywomen) to explore what the prominence of female characters means for Athenian society but also for the art of theater.

K-pop & Transcultural Fandom K-pop fandom is multilingual and spans cultures and nationalities. Fans gather online and in person all over the world, commenting on live streams, making videos, buying merchandise, voting in competition shows, and participating in online communities. In vastly different contexts, fans find meaning through music, fashion, dance, identification with favorite artists, and parasocial engagement with group members and fellow fans. What draws fans from different contexts to k-pop? How can we understand the cultural work of k-pop fandom across national and cultural boundaries? If you’re a fan yourself, how has k-pop fandom informed your sense of self, identity, and community?

Writing Rivers In this class we will read and write about rivers, as well as streams, brooks, and creeks, considering the ecology of rivers, rivers as metaphors, rivers in literature, and rivers in our lives. Our readings will come from: the writings of scientists such as Kurt Fausch’s For the Love of River; works of philosophers such as Kathleen Dean Moore’s Riverwalking; and novels such as Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It.  As part of the class, we will take regular field trips to rivers and streams in the Middlebury area, especially in the nearby Green Mountain National Forest.

Myth and Cosmology The course will trace the early development of thought and meaning, introducing some of the fundamental concepts underlying ancient ways of approaching the world. We will approach the subject with a comparative view, studying, for example, the Chinese, Judeo-Christian, Hindu, Navaho and Maori creation traditions, Chinese cosmology, divination systems of East Asian and African nations, and the rich symbolism that emerged out of some of the major centers of ancient civilization. Through our reading of myths, scholarly writings, and literary works, we will explore the ways China and various other cultures understood and dealt with the world around them, from flood myths to astrology, from the Yijing to omens and geomancy. We will learn about the place of story in the formation of worldview, particularly in notions of the place of humans in the world.

The Artistry of the Maya Scribe The Maya produced what was arguably the most beautiful script of the ancient Americas—a true combination of art and writing.  This course explores Maya history and the fundamentals of their writing system, but with a twist: instead of just focusing on reading comprehension, we explore how scribes learned to write.  Using ancient painting techniques and natural pigments, students will discover how to combine words and images in playful ways and, in so doing, understand why this system evolved as it did.  They will explore the stylistic choices made in the first millennium CE—and perhaps make those same choices again. This course is part of the Public Humanities Labs Initiative administered by the Axinn Center for the Humanities./

Growth and its Limits What is economic growth? Is it limited in a world of finite resources? In this seminar we will explore these questions from a multidisciplinary perspective, drawing on readings from 18th century philosophers to 21st century research on climate change and artificial intelligence. Particular attention will be paid to the role of demography, agricultural productivity, and fossil fuels. We will develop simple mathematical models of growth and seek out relevant data to help inform our discussions and writing.

Psychological Diagnosis Psychological disorders do not typically manifest in the body and are not detectable through blood tests or biopsies the way many medical conditions are.  Rather, psychological disorders are expressed through patterns of behavior, mood, and interaction.  Diagnosing them therefore involves human clinicians making judgements about others’ behavior and well-being, and about what counts as normal or abnormal.  Is that as it should be?  Why are some behaviors considered just “unusual” while others are labelled “disordered,” and who gets to decide which is which?  Who benefits and who suffers from the biases inherent in clinicians’ diagnostic judgments?  We will consider these and related questions as we critically examine the process of psychological diagnosis.

Models, Contexts, and Afterlives of the Bayeux Tapestry In this course we will look closely at the late eleventh-century Bayeux Tapestry (also known as the Bayeux Embroidery), examining its historical and literary sources, the details of its creation, and its reverberations throughout the arts of the medieval and modern eras. We will also consider how this embroidered textile entangled its medieval and modern viewers in the stories it tells and those it avoids. We will discover that it can tell us much about attitudes toward gender and masculinity, the taming of the natural world, and the terrors of war. Hands-on assignments will familiarize us with some of the techniques and materials used to create this monument of medieval European Art History.

Arabian Oral Poetry The Arabian Peninsula enjoys a rich legacy of oral poetry and written poetry with oral roots.  In this seminar, we will explore how the oral poetic traditions of the Arabian Peninsula have evolved over time, starting with pre-Islamic odes from the 6th century CE and ending with contemporary poetry circulated on social media.  In addition to reading, analyzing, and enjoying individual poetic texts and performances, we will consider how the concept of oral literature emerged with Milman Parry’s Oral Formulaic thesis, giving rise to new ways of reading historical texts, understanding the art of performance, and reckoning with the cultural implications of literacy.

Fifty Shades of Italy: an Exploration of Contemporary Italian History, Culture and Society Italy is the land of a seductive culture that for centuries has inspired undeniable romanticism and continues to capture the imagination of many. But there is more to Italy than beautiful landscapes and world famous cuisine. From the darkness of fascism and terrorism, to the sophisticated colors of Italian fashion and design, to the dramatic tones of illegal immigration, we will explore, discover, or critically revisit the many shades that together compose the complexity of the Italian mosaic.  Our interdisciplinary approach will include short stories, essays, newspaper articles, films, music, and images.

Transforming Traditions How do traditions transform when they expand beyond the time and place of their origin? In considering this question we will interrogate the value of authenticity, consider concerns of appropriation, and examine the impacts of new perspectives on existing practices. Course material (readings, videos, and recordings) will focus on the Korean percussion genres pungmul and samulnori. However, students will draw on their own traditions, interests, and experiences for discussions and assignments. Weekly in-class drumming practices will culminate in a performance at the end of the semester. No prior musical experience is needed but must have a willingness to bang vigorously on a drum in a group.

Literature and Moral Choice Literature’s subject is almost always morality; that is, how human beings treat one another. We will read and discuss difficult moral and ethical decisions made by characters in fiction and poetry, including works by Toni Morrison, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky among others. We will also acquaint ourselves with major theories of moral development and moral reasoning, and through reading, writing, discussion, and preparing oral presentations, we will explore how human beings, including those portrayed by writers who are great students of the human spirit, try to do the right thing in a complex modern and postmodern world.

Exercise Biochemistry and the Limits of Human Endurance In this course we will investigate the biochemical, biological, genetic, and psychological factors associated with athletic performance.  We will begin by discussing the origins of exercise physiology in the early 1900’s, introducing topics such as metabolic fuels and their utilization, oxygen and water, metabolism, and physiological adaptations to training.  Special attention will be paid to muscle (power) and pulmonary organization and function (VO2 max),  and how psychology and the brain (the master regulator) contribute to achieve maximum performance.  We will bring these topics to the present by reading and discussing papers from the popular and primary literature.   Films and guest lectures by experts will provide a personal perspective.  The seminar will conclude by considering controversies such as performance enhancing drugs and sex determination.

Awe, Happiness, and Positive Psychology When have you felt awe? What makes people happy? Are there clear, predictable explanations for why some people are more resilient in life than others? How might experiencing awe or holding a positive worldview relate to performance at work or in school? Over this seminar, we will explore not only what makes us happy, but what makes us thrive.  In doing so we will consider why this matters to us as individuals and, more broadly, to society. Emphasis will be placed on Self Determination Theory and understanding the link between intrinsic motivation and engagement with work and life. Additionally, we will contemplate the potential for using psychological theories in institutions such as schools, businesses, and non-profits to facilitate stakeholders’ commitment, performance, and health. We will read empirical research articles, popular books, and blogs to learn how researchers measure awe, happiness, and wellbeing.

Soccer and Society Whether it goes by soccer, football or futbol, the beautiful game is not only the world’s most popular sport but it is also intertwined with social, economic, political and cultural forces. In this course, we will use soccer as our lens to examine important sociological questions. We will study soccer’s relationship to nationalism and collective identity, globalization and migration, commercialization and labor rights, issues of race, class, gender and sexuality, and the role of soccer in social change and movements for social justice. Reading academic studies about soccer’s players, fans, leagues, mega events and governing bodies, students will develop skills to think critically about the role of sports in contemporary society, and they will conduct their own research project about one aspect of the beautiful game.

Town-Gown Lands of Middlebury In this course we mix methods to investigate lands that connect Middlebury College and Vermont towns. We will study the natural and human histories of land and investigate relationships between Middlebury College and local human and natural communities. We ground these themes at field sites along a transect from the Champlain Valley to the Green Mountains where college and non-college communities overlap in space and time. Students explore questions from multi-disciplinary perspectives, learn to interpret and integrate different kinds of evidence, including texts, images, maps, and direct observations, share their work with peers to help contextualize field excursions, and produce a short research article linked to a web map of Middlebury town-gown lands.

College Life Through Literature (in Spanish) In this seminar students will read fiction and nonfiction related to university life, including topics such as attending college in a rural area, studying abroad, equity and inclusion in higher education, and the first-generation experience. Our focus will be on the literary representation of university life. We will examine these narratives through theories and perspectives such as the (post) pandemic scenario, critical race theory, critical pedagogy, the #MeToo movement, etc. Readings may include Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner, On Beauty by Zadie Smith, Todas las Almas by Javier Marias, and Historia de Una Maestra by Josefina Aldecoa. Texts will be in English and Spanish. This seminar will be taught in Spanish (appropriate for native speakers, bilingual speakers, or through placement test equivalent to SPAN 0300).

Writing Women's Religious Worlds In this course we will examine how we can understand and recognize what “counts” as religion—perhaps in new ways—by focusing on the religious lives of women. Our primary texts will be ethnographic studies of women in various religious traditions around the world, including Hindu women in North India, Muslim women in Egypt, and a Vodou priestess in New York. We will examine how women construct their religious identities and negotiate religious authority as public leaders, ritual experts, and healers, and consider how what women say about their own lives and practices may challenge our assumptions of what religion “is” or “does.” We will also consider the ethics of ethnographic approaches to studying religion, particularly in terms of the “self” and “other,” as students develop their own ethnographic practices and writing.

Language and Social Justice In this seminar we will explore questions such as the following: What is the relationship between language and power? How does linguistic prejudice contribute to social inequality? Is language a human right, and if so, what are the implications? We will engage with scholarly, journalistic, and literary works, including writing by Julia Alvarez, James Baldwin, John Baugh, Lisa Delpit, Rosina Lippi-Green, Jamila Lyiscott, Richard Rodriguez, Debora Tannen, and others. Students will develop a range of reading, writing, and oral presentation skills, and will receive feedback on their work throughout the semester.

Skull Wars: Sordid True Tales of Rapacity, Revenge, and Racism in the Search for Human Origins Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey. Richard Leakey and Don Johanson. Lee Berger and Tim White. In this course we will examine how jealousy, competition, and racism drive knowledge production and sabotage in the hunt for human ancestors. We’ll do so by exploring how these personalities, and others, have leveraged the media, from the New York Times to National Geographic, to push forward their vision and status in science. Through scientific articles, popular books, and film, we will also explore how settler colonialism and racism have plagued, and continue to plague, the science of paleoanthropology. 3 hrs. Sem

Literary and Filmic Protest of Environmental Racism Can Literature and Film Save the Planet?  This course focuses on literary and filmic responses to environmental racism. Bearing witness to those whose lives are most endangered, we will learn about environmental justice, economics, migration, globalization, and the anthropology of climate change through comparative study of works authored by Iraqi, Chinese, and African Americans, as well as by indigenous Latin Americans (Andean, Xavante, and Wayuu), Native Americans (Navajo and Sioux), Africans (Ogoni), Indians (Dalit and Adivasi), and Armenians. We will write literature and film reviews, and work incrementally toward the realization of activist essays.

Politics and Delusion in Francophone Literature How does politics shape identity? What roles have politics played in shaping the French Caribbean culture and imagination, and how have they impacted people and landscapes? Are these policies challenged? By whom? In this seminar we’ll explore such questions by reading, writing about, and discussing several francophone novels. We will focus on the significance of historical experiences such as colonization, departmentalization, and dictatorship through themes of alienation, assimilation, and emancipation. The analysis of these imagined or experienced accounts by Césaire, Chamoiseau, Chauvet and Juminer will help us further understand notions of power, privilege, and justice. No knowledge of French is required.

Gut Check: Exploring Microbiomes Imagine there were an organ in your body with a mass similar to that of your heart, which trained your immune system, affecting your weight and perhaps even your behavior. Wouldn’t you want to know? There is such an organ — your microbiome, the collection of microbes in and on your body.  You are not alone; corals, squid, beetles, and many other organisms harbor microbiomes that generate nutrients, produce light, and defend their host organisms in the environment. Increasingly, we also understand microbiomes to be intrinsically and deeply embedded within social and environmental (in)justice. We will read I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong, as well as other popular science and research papers to investigate these fascinating microbes.

Gender, Genre, and History In this seminar we will examine the relationship between gender, literary genre, and history. As we consider how different genres have helped to define, enforce, or question the logic of binary gender, we will also investigate their relationship to their original and shifting historical conditions. Topics we may explore include the relationship between the romance and femininity, gender in sci-fi and fantasy, and whether experimental forms enable gender play. Texts may include Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild, Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Ridley Scott’s Alien, Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues, and various poetry, theory, and film.

First Contact: Language in Science Fiction In this course we explore how humans conceptualize communication with extraterrestrial beings and artificial intelligence. Through fiction and film works in the “first contact” subgenre of science fiction, we will reflect on how language functions as a device in these narratives to reveal our own limited perspective, sense of in-group and out-group, and anxieties about the “other” and our own future. Students will learn critical analysis skills by dissecting the works of writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Ted Chiang; additionally, students will engage in thematic gameplay and creative writing in the genre.

The Horror of Deep Time Vanishing species, hostile climates, plagues that engulf planets – the looming dread of our current world can be paralyzing. In this course, we will cultivate curiosity as a technique for confronting such phenomena by looking to those who regularly face the limits of human knowledge: scientists and the protagonists of cosmic horror. Paleontology provides the ideal toolkit for grappling with overwhelming timescales, worlds without humans, and bizarre lifeforms. We will combine works by Lovecraft, Thacker, VanderMeer, and others with visits to spaces of science (e.g., fossil outcrops, molecular laboratories) to engage with the simultaneous beauty and terror inherent to discovery. Projects that blend scientific, environmental, and creative writing will allow students to explore darkness as an empowering opportunity to shine light.

Marvel Comics & Society Comic books and graphic novels are a powerful storytelling medium that often connects to both contemporary cultural issues and human emotions. Marvel Comics has long used their pages to tackle issues of race, poverty, gender, identity, science, and justice, either indirectly or head-on. In this course we will analyze both the source material and scholarship related to Marvel comics, as well as learn to communicate our own analysis and stories in both written and oral forms. Note: This course will focus on the comics, not any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Enrolled students must purchase a subscription to Marvel Unlimited (https://www.marvel.com/unlimited) for the duration of the term.

The True Believer When he published The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, social thinker Eric Hoffer sought to explain exactly what inspires people to commit themselves passionately to causes defined by their unyielding belief. Like Hoffer, we will examine not only what has motivated individuals over time to join extremist social, political, and religious movements, but also the  psychologies of those who have led them throughout history. We will try to determine precisely who the true believer is, and whether true belief is generally of greater benefit or harm to the believer and to broader society.

First Language Acquisition All human children have the potential to acquire any human language in the right environment, yet it is much more difficult for adults to achieve native proficiency in a second language. Why? In this course we will explore questions such as: How does first language acquisition happen? Is it effortless? Are humans “hardwired” with language? Is it true that after the “Critical Period,” i.e., the onset of puberty, humans have lost this capacity? We will also explore social and cultural constraints on language acquisition, and learn basic techniques for collecting and analyzing data in language acquisition research.

Language and Identity In this seminar we will explore the multiple ways in which language is used in society to express, create, and perform identities. We will analyze—from a sociolinguistic perspective—how variation in speakers’ linguistic resources (pronunciation, syntax, word choice, language choice, etc.) can serve as tools to shape, stereotype, or subvert national, regional, ethnic, racial, gender, and other types of identities. We will draw examples from linguistic research, literature, film, television (particularly “reality” TV), political discourse, popular songs, internet memes, and other media in the United States context as well as in other societies.

From Godzilla to Totoro: Monsters in Japanese Culture In this course we will examine a series of Japanese monsters (foxes, badgers, demons, vengeful spirits, and others), which populate Japanese myths, tales, folklore, art, and popular culture, in order to understand how the fear of the Other leads to marginalization and demonization and how monsters are created to contain undesirable figures. We will also explore the literary expressions of cultural anxieties generated by lack of understanding or misunderstanding of phenomena, such as the powers of nature and the afterlife, as well as the existential terrors resulting from trauma and war.

Sexuality and Power on Stage: Female Trouble, Closet Homos, and Shameless Queers What do Sophie Treadwell's Machinal, Martin Sherman's Bent, and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America teach us about the history of sexual marginalization? In this seminar we will study a selection of US American plays in which gender, desire, and sexuality constitute a problem for society and the state. Students will learn how to analyze dramatic texts from the director’s and the actor’s perspectives with a focus on action, structure, characterization, and space in addition to genre and larger themes. Cinematic renderings of the plays and in-class staging exercises will help us engage the embodied dimension of performance

Abolitionism(s): Then and Now In this course, we will explore the intersections between historical campaigns to abolish the transatlantic slave trade and chattel slavery throughout the British empire and contemporary American movements to abolish policing and prisons. We’ll pay particular attention to the roles that literary and artistic representations, political speech, and activist organizing play in these processes, and consider how they complement or clash with on-the-ground resistance. We’ll ask: what does the history of abolitionism tell us about the horizons of an abolitionist future? Our guides will range from Olaudah Equiano and Mary Prince to Mariame Kaba, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and Olúf?mi Táíwò.

Diane DeBella

Roberto Lint Sagarena

Peter Tarjanyi

Noah Graham

James Douglas

Mairead Harris

Hang Du

Jeremy Ward

Hector Vila

AJ Vasiliou

Allison Stanger

Linsey Sainte-Claire

Allison Cardon

Alex Lyford

Maria Hatjigeorgiou

Ian Barrow

Barbara Hofer

James Calvin Davis

Eliza Garrison

James Fitzsimmons

David West

Steven Viner

Timothy Billings

Trinh Tran

Paul Monod

Timothy Case

Natalie Eppelsheimer

Elsa Mendoza

Cynthia Packert

Roman Graf

William Nash

Megan Mayhew-Bergman

Jennifer Ortegren

Alexis Mychajliw

Michelle Leftheris

Linda White

Damascus Kafumbe

Alexander Draper

Darien Davis

Ryan Sheldon

Heidi Grasswick

Rebecca Bennette

Roger White

Murray Dry

Martha Woodruff

Chris Herdman

Louisa Stein

Samuel Liebhaber

Rachael Joo

Shawna Shapiro

Cates Baldridge

Sarah Lohnes Watulak

Ursula Olender

Sarika Sharma

Jennifer Wang

Erin Eggleston

Marcos Rohena-Madrazo

William Waldron

Suzanne Gurland

Jessica Holmes

Peter Matthews

Eilat Glikman

Carolyn Dash

Jessica L'Roe

Susan Burch

Otilia Milutin

Stacie Cassarino

Matthew Walker

Kemi Fuentes-George

Tara Affolter

Anne-Marie Magri

Sandra Carletti

Lindsay Repka

Michael Germana

Connor Williams

Nikolina Dobreva

Yumna Siddiqi

Katherine O'Brien

Robert Cohen

Daniel Silva

Karima Borni

Amy Morsman

Edward Vazquez

Karin Gottshall

Sunder Ramaswamy

Ben Cotts

John Spackman

Christopher Star

Nadia Horning

Amanda Crocker

Maggie Clinton

Jason Mittell

Elizabeth Morrison

Jeff Munroe

Tanya Byker

Matthew Dickinson

Carrie Wiebe

Amy Collier

Enrique Garcia

Deb Evans

Read 333 reviews for First Year Seminar courses at Middlebury College. Find the best First Year Seminar professors and courses.  Discover your new major today!

this class was great, but it did feel strange that my first year seminar course was the one where i had the biggest workload. kafumbe is very flexible with due dates, but weekly essays and writing assignments oftentimes were overwhelming. i did however, learn a significant amount in this class and it challenged my thinking in a variety of ways.  