The Humanities & Sciences is not a degree program at SVA. But all students enrolled in the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program must successfully complete a minimum of 30 credits in humanities and sciences coursework.
Department specific Humanities and Sciences requirements can be found with the major studio department.
Courses are listed in numerical order by discipline.
FOUNDATION REQUIREMENT
HCD-1020
Writing and Literature I
One semester: 3 credits
This is the first part of a two-semester course that helps students become capable, critical and independent writers. With its focus on developing an argument, the course offers an introduction to some of the skills necessary for critical analysis of written art. It will include a review of writing basics (grammar, coherence, idea development, sentence and essay structure). Since reading widely is a foundation of good writing, course readings are drawn from a selection of premodern Western works, including drama, poetry, the narrative and the critical essay, which will be used as discussion and writing prompts.
HCI-1020
Writing and Literature I for International Students
One semester: 3 credits
This is the first part of two-semester course that helps students become capable, critical and independent writers. With its focus on developing an argument, the course offers an introduction to some of the skills necessary for critical analysis of written art. It will include a review of writing basics (grammar, coherence, idea development, sentence and essay structure). Since reading widely is a foundation of good writing, course readings are drawn from a selection of premodern Western work, including drama, poetry, the narrative and the critical essay, which will be used as discussion and writing prompts.
HCD-1025
Writing and Literature II
One semester: 3 credits
This is the second part of a two-semester course that emphasizes writing, reading and critical thinking. Students will write more in-depth essays and a research paper and continue to study grammar and essay development. Course readings are drawn from a selection of modern works, including drama, poetry, the narrative and the critical essay, which will be used as discussion and writing prompts.
HCI-1025
Writing and Literature II for International Students
One semester: 3 credits
This is the second part of a two-semester course that emphasizes writing, reading and critical thinking. Students will write more in-depth essays and a research paper, and continue to study grammar and essay development. Course readings are drawn from a selection of modern works, including drama, poetry, the narrative and the critical essay.
WRITING PROGRAM
In the Writing Program, students will choose critical and creative writing courses culminating in the creation of a writer’s portfolio. The program consists of 15 credits designed to be completed by the end of the junior year.
HWD-2000
Writing About Art
One semester: 3 credits
In this critical writing workshop, students will read and discuss essays by other artists and writers, and explore techniques to write eloquently and confidently about their own artistic practice. Students will keep journals, analyze their own writing and that of other people, and experiment with a few applications necessary to student-artists: writing an artist’s statement and biography. The focus will be on writings in which ideas are conveyed with logic, critical reflection and factual support. By reading the writings of artists and essayists, students will locate their own inspiration and focus their attention on what attracts them to visual art. This is a course for those who want to explore writing as a way to understand the ideas that grow from art. Readings will range from the invention of the modern essay by Michel de Montaigne to more recent works by artists and writers such as Seth Price, James Baldwin, Dave Hickey and Nancy Princenthal.
HWD-2103
Perspectives in Cultural Criticism
One semester: 3 credits
While artists express their vision of the world around them through their work, it often falls to critics to translate an artist’s aesthetic into ways that are readily understandable to audiences. In so doing, critics face unique challenges as both arbiters of taste and as writers seeking to express their unique voices. We all see the world subjectively and we all have opinions; in this course, students will explore how to take their individual, cultural perspectives and bring them into sharp focus as writer/critics. We will analyze essays by renowned music, television, film and theater critics such as Lester Bangs, John Leonard, Manny Farber and Frank Rich. Through in-class and home assignments, and collective reviews, students will develop their critical writing skills so that their thoughts, and their voices, come through clearly and distinctly.
HWD-2501
Experimental Writing I: Spontaneous Poetics
One semester: 3 credits
This is a workshop in fiction and poetry with a twist. Using the standard notions of story, play and poem as points of departure, it will focus on linguistic experimentation. Topics will include the interrelationship of writing with other art forms such as film, painting and music. Automatic writing, spontaneous bop prosody, sketching, “first thought, best thought” are some techniques that will be used to help students find their own forms of expression. Reading will be selected from Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway, Paul Bowles, Allen Ginsberg and James Joyce, among other noted authors.
HWD-2502
Experimental Writing II: Collage Poetics
One semester: 3 credits
This course will focus on linguistic experimentation as well as the students’ own imaginative visual art (a brief film or graphic novel, for example) to illustrate visual texts. We will examine the juxtapositions of language with visual art in the creation of hybrid forms. Topics will include the relationship of fiction to nonfiction, adaptation of fiction to film and such genres as the graphic novel. Techniques of cut ups will be used to render states of consciousness in written form. Readings will be selected from Kathy Acker, William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Gertrude Stein and Robert Crumb, among other noted literary and visual artists.
HWD-2523
Creative Nonfiction
One semester: 3 credits
A workshop in the language and craft of nonfiction, this course will explore the genres of memoir, personal essay, travel essay, graphic personal history and the new journalism. Readings will be selected from the work of Virginia Woolf, V.S. Naipul, M.F.K. Fisher, André Aciman, Mary Karr, Kathryn Harrison, Norman Mailer, Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson and Art Spiegelman.
HWD-2534
Autobiography
One semester: 3 credits
This course will introduce students to autobiography in the context of literary debate: Why do we read autobiography? How do we classify it (nonfiction or fiction)? Works by both men and women of many cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds will be read. Students will examine various styles, elements, and recurring themes, while working on their own “reflection of the self.” At the end of the course, students will have written a considerable narrative manuscript that will show the patterns and metaphors that inform their lives. We will read such writers as Richard Wright, Sylvia Plath, Amy Tan, Pablo Neruda, Malika Oufkir and Frank McCourt. Student work will be submitted to the College’s literary magazine.
HWD-2546
The Art of Words
One semester: 3 credits
In this workshop, student assignments in poetry and short fiction will be critiqued. Content and craft will be analyzed in order to develop editing and revision skills. We will read from contemporary minimalist and impressionist writers as well as more traditional writers, to understand their history and impact on the literary world. Works by such writers as Joy Williams, Raymond Carver, Bei Dao, Tobias Wolff, Ann Sexton and Annie Proulx will be read. Student work will be submitted to the College’s literary magazine.
HWD-2567
Journals: Yours and Theirs
One semester: 3 credits
How many half-filled notebooks do you have lying around? Have you always wanted to fill up a journal but find you can’t keep it up? This course is designed to help you do just that. Everyone will write at home in their personal journal at least three times a week. In addition, in class you will write to suggested prompts and topics, and read that writing aloud to give you practice in sharing your thoughts and feelings, which are the stuff of journal writing. Keeping a journal is crucial to an artist because it develops a private space in which to connect your art with that of others. We will also explore journals of great writers such as Virginia Woolf, Albert Camus, Sylvia Plath, Sappho Durrell, Allen Ginsberg, Anton Chekhov, Mike Figgis, Lord Byron, Juanita de la Sorjuana and Walter Benjamin, including the logbooks of women whalers from the 19th century. The journal will be yours to keep except what you choose to share. It will not be graded or handed in. You will select a published journal to explore and critique.
HWD-2568
Art of the Journal/Journal as Art
One semester: 3 credits
This course will focus on reading the journals of visual artists that will model the connection between the written and the visual. The requirements for keeping the journal are to write at least three times a week outside of class, to write to prompts in class and to read aloud in class. The journal will also include a visual component—sketches, cartoons, cut-outs, cut ups, collages—whatever you feel will add to the mood and content of the journal, which will express more of what you do and who you are. The journal will be yours, private, glanced-at but not graded. You will read from journals of artists such as Wojnarowicz, Leonardo da Vinci, Warhol, Degas, Cézanne, Van Gogh, dancer Vladimir Nijinsky, musicians David Byrne and Henry Rollins. You will find an artist from your field and critique his or her work.
HWD-3154
Photography: Images and Criticism
One semester: 3 credits
Photography has had a profound impact on the way we perceive the world. In order to understand that impact we will try to answer some basic questions in this course. How do we know that an artistic photograph is art? What is the difference between art photography and other kinds of photography? What does a documentary image document? Who determines which newspaper photographs make the news? How do advertising images sell? A selection of essays covering all critical approaches to photography from the formalist to the Marxist will be read. Students will write short reviews during the semester.
HWD-3990
Writing Portfolio
One semester: 3 credits
Writing faculty will oversee and help students develop a writing project. Students will submit drafts of their work for discussion and review.
ELECTIVE WRITING
HCD-2633
Workshop in Comedy Writing I
One semester: 3 credits
Funny and interesting writing emerges from a personal vision; therefore, this workshop encourages students to express their own ideas and feelings. The writing forms include sketches, monologues, verse, short stories, essays and plays. The course will focus on the writing, subsequent discussion and development of material created by students.
HCD-2634
Workshop in Comedy Writing II
One semester: 3 credits
Funny and interesting writing emerges from a personal vision. This workshop encourages students to express their own ideas and feelings. The course will focus on the development of first-draft sketches into fully rounded plays, stories, essays and poems.
DEVELOPMENTAL WRITING
HCD-0161
Writing Fundamentals I
One semester: no credit
This is the first part of a two-semester workshop that focuses on writing fundamentals (grammar, sentence and paragraph logic, idea development, organization and essay structure). This course will help prepare students for required first-year courses in composition and art history as well as for upper-level humanities and sciences courses. The writing lab will be given in the Computer Assisted Writing Lab (CAWL), where students will learn to revise their work using a computer.
HCD-0162
Writing Fundamentals II
One semester: no credit
This is the second part of a two-semester course. Please see HCD-0161 for course description.
MUSIC
HDD-2188
Music in Western Civilization I
One semester: 3 credits
This course presents a preliminary survey of masterpieces of Western music in their historical context, with an exploration into compositional techniques and concurrent developments in other art forms. Music will be selected from medieval, baroque, classical and Romantic periods, including works by Palestrina, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Liszt and Wagner, among others. Recordings; films; slides of painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, and live performances will be coordinated with the class sessions.
HDD-2189
Music in Western Civilization II
One semester: 3 credits
This course presents a secondary survey of masterpieces of Western music in their historical context, with an exploration into compositional techniques and concurrent developments in other art forms. Music will be selected from late Romantic through 20th century periods, including works by Mahler, Strauss, Ives, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Henze, Cage, Stockhausen, Xenakis and Glass, among others. Recordings; films; slides of painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, and live performances will be coordinated with the class sessions.
HDD-2233
20th-Century Music I
One semester: 3 credits
Masterpieces of Western music from the first half of the 20th century are explored in this course, with a discussion of compositional techniques and their relationship to concurrent art forms. Music will be selected from the works of Mahler, Ives, Stravinsky, Satie, Prokofieff, Rachmaninoff, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern and Varèse, among others. Recordings; films; slides of painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, and live performances will be coordinated with the class sessions.
HDD-2234
20th-Century Music II
One semester: 3 credits
Masterpieces of Western music from the second half of the 20th century are explored in this course, with a discussion of compositional techniques and their relationship to concurrent art forms. Music will be selected from the works of Henze, Boulez, Stockhausen, Berio, Ligeti, Xenakis, Penderecki, Cage, Reich and Glass, among others. Recordings; films; slides of painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, and live performances will be coordinated with the class sessions. Note: No technical music background is required.
HDD-2334
Music in Culture I
One semester: 3 credits
This course will begin the exploration of the cultural history of popular music in 20th-century America (1920-1964), with particular emphasis on the beginnings of recorded blues and hillbilly music in the 1920s and 1930s, the evolution from rural-based genres to more urban forms such as rhythm and blues and country and Western during the 1940s, the bridging of various styles into the rock ‘n roll revolution of the 1950s, the emergence of record producers, the origins of surf and soul music, and the folk revival of the 1960s. Along the way, we will closely examine the work of such seminal artists as Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, Muddy Waters, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Ray Charles, Phil Spector and Brian Wilson.
HDD-2336
Music in Culture II
One semester: 3 credits
This course will continue the exploration of the cultural history of popular music in the 20th century (1964 to the present), with particular emphasis on the British Invasion and the subsequent rise of folk rock, garage and psychedelia during the mid-to-late 1960s; country rock and disco to heavy metal, punk and new wave in the 1970s; MTV and the first video generation of the 1980s; rap, grunge and other 1990s alternatives, and the return of the teen idol in the new millennium. Along the way, we will closely examine the work of such seminal artists as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Ramones, Prince, U2, Madonna, Nirvana and Eminem.
HDD-2339
Songs of Conscience: Music and Social Change
One semester: 3 credits
Throughout history, music has shown itself to be a powerful force for social and political change. This course will examine the role of music in expressing the hopes, fears, attitudes and dreams of the common man and woman, and of the struggle to help the unempowered and underprivileged of society. We will listen to, read about and discuss the works of socially and politically committed artists from all walks of music, including folk (Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan), rock (John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen), soul (Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye), rap (Public Enemy, Tupac Shakur), reggae (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh) and country (The Carter Family, Willie Nelson).
HDD-2348
History of Jazz
One semester: 3 credits
This course will begin with an examination of the African roots of jazz and early African-American forms such as spirituals, work songs, and ragtime. We will see the beginnings of jazz as a blending of European and African elements in brass bands at the turn of the 20th century. We will then study each subsequent phase of this music through the works of representative artists such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, and attempt to place these developments in cultural perspective. Musical examples will be presented in a way that can be readily understood by nonmusicians.
HDD-2513
Heroines of the Musical Stage
One semester: 3 credits
This course will examine the representation and contributions of women to the pivotal musical dramas of our age. Among the works to be considered are Bizet’s Carmen, Puccini’s Tosca, Verdi’s La Traviata, Strauss’ Salome, Donizetti’s Lucia, Beethoven’s Fidelio and Rossini’s Barber of Seville. We will also take a look at some of the favorite female vocal characters of the American musical theater. Videos and recordings of the famed Maria Callas, Cecilia Bartoli and Teresa Stratas will be screened and aired, and the class will attend a live performance at the Metropolitan Opera or the New York City Opera. Required text: Opera: A Listener’s Guide by Jack Sacher.
HDD-2514
Opera and the Human Condition
One semester: 3 credits
Through the musical exploration of traditional operatic literature, we will examine music’s ability to probe human emotions and attempt to discover why inner demons torment so many heroes who have won the admiration of audiences throughout the world. We will hear arias and recitatives of the famous characters of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Verdi’s Rigoletto, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Brecht and Weill’s Mahagonny, Berg’s and Buechner’s Wozzeck and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Original sets will be designed by students in a class presentation of an opera of their choice. Required text: Opera: A Listener’s Guide by Jack Sacher.
HISTORY
HHD-2001
History of Ancient Civilizations
One semester: 3 credits
This course will begin with an introduction to prehistory and then continue to the first civilizations in the river valleys of Ancient Near East (Mesopotamia and Egypt), Harappa in India and the Huang River Valley in China. Topics to be studied include the cultures of Babylonia, Assyria, Israel, the Egyptian New Kingdom, Greece, Rome, Vedic India and Han China. The course continues to the end of the ancient world and the beginning of the Middle Ages with the rise of universalizing religions. Along the way, students will become acquainted with Socrates, the Buddha, Confucius, Moses, Jesus and Alexander, among others. Students will study case histories of important historical investigations and, when possible, incorporate the latest discoveries into class discussions. Required textbooks: Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A Companion Reader and Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World: Beginnings Through 1200.
HHD-2011
Medieval Perspectives and Origins of the Renaissance
One semester: 3 credits
This course will track the history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. We will examine medieval institutions and beliefs; chart the changes that brought about the Renaissance; and look at the underlying connections between culture, power and ideas. Topics will include the medieval church in religion and politics; the nature and role of chivalry; and the Black Death, along with other catastrophes. Students are welcome to suggest related topics of interest. We will read selections from influential authors of the period, including: Augustine, Gregory of Tours, Christine de Pizan, Machiavelli, Martin Luther and Sir Francis Bacon.
HHD-2011
Medieval Perspectives and Origins of the Renaissance
One semester: 3 credits
People who lived during the thousand years between the end of the Roman Empire in the West and the discovery of the “New World” did not, of course, describe themselves as “medieval.” They thought they lived in “modern times.” We will study a selection of the political, institutional, cultural, religious, military and social topics that were once “current events.” Highlights will include: The empire of Charlemagne, Anglo-Saxon England, monasticism, the Vikings, the Crusades, Arabic learning, the Eastern Roman Empire, the Black Death, the university, the Communes, chivalry and war. Throughout the course, emphasis will be on the work and words of medieval men and women. Texts include: Cruz and Gerberding, Medieval Worlds; Wiesner, Wheeler and Curtis, Discovering the Medieval Past; Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
HHD-2051
21st-Century History I: Globalization and the New World Order
One semester: 3 credits
This course will address the major global trends defining the 21st century, looking back at historical roots and forward to potential paths. The interaction of corporate power, government power, people power and nature as they impact key issues will be examined, including the global economy, the role of nations, the end of the oil age, climate change and sustainability. We will use a specific lens—the political economy of food—to see how these forces play out in our lives, shaping how we answer the question: Will democracy make a difference?
HHD-2052
21st-Century History II: The Power of Citizens and Nations
One semester: 3 credits
This course will review issues of economic globalization and America’s declining superpower role to focus on two major trends: the shifting fate of nations and the rise of people power in defining the new world order. We will look at how national and corporate powers are emerging around technology, energy and the environment. We will also look at the growing role of people power and social movements, in conflict with both established power systems and traditional hierarchies based on race, gender, class, religion and nationality. Note: This course has no prerequisite, and is linked to HHD-2051, 21st-Century History I: Globalization and the New World Order.
HHD-2112
World History: Renaissance to the 21st Century
One semester: 3 credits
This course is a survey of the major landmarks in world history from the 15th century to the present. It will focus on significant political, economic, social and cultural developments from a global perspective. Topics will include: the Renaissance and the scientific revolution; the rise of Russia in Eastern Europe and Asia; modern revolutions in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas; global significance of the world wars; legacy of 19th-century thought for the present; unification of Europe and the prospects for peace.
HHD-2144
Modern Revolutions
One semester: 3 credits
A comparative examination of revolutionary movements, focusing on the large-scale political social, economic and cultural transformations in modern history will be explored. The course will begin with the American and French revolutions of the 18th century, continue with the Russian Revolution of 1917 and conclude with a discussion of the most important landmarks of the political and economic transformations in Eastern Europe today. Works by Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, Marx, Lenin, Sakharov and Havel will be discussed.
HHD-2777
U.S. History I: 1600-1865
One semester: 3 credits
An examination of the forces behind the social, political and economic developments of American civilization and their interrelationships will be the focus of this course. Special attention will be placed on the role of individuals like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee, and the variety of interpretations of American history. Readings will be from primary sources of the men and women who made this history. The text will be Daniel Boorstin’s The Americans.
HHD-2778
U.S. History II: 1865-Present
One semester: 3 credits
An examination of the forces behind the social, political and economic developments of American civilization and their interrelationships will be the focus of this course. Special attention will be placed on the role of individuals such as Theodore Roosevelt; Harry S. Truman; John F. Kennedy; Richard Nixon; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bill Clinton; and the variety of interpretations of American history. Readings will be from primary sources of the men and women who made this history. The text will be Daniel Boorstin’s The Americans.
HHD-2785
A Social History of Modern Western Culture
One semester: 3 credits
This course will examine the social life of the West from the aftermath of the French Revolution to the present. Special attention will be given to the long-term effects and consequences of the Industrial Revolution on the lifestyles, beliefs and culture of all levels of society. We will consider relationships produced by class and gender differences as well as the impact of economic development. We will also survey topics such as family structure, attitudes toward work, methods of entertainment, the role of religion and popular attitudes toward new scientific theories. Lastly, we will explore institutional responses to changing social needs and examine their historical effects on people’s lives. Our sources will include diaries, works of art and other contemporary artifacts as well as recent historical studies.
HHD-2811
Constitutional Law
One semester: 3 credits
Is the Constitution under attack? Warrantless wiretaps, citizens detained without due process—are these unconstitutional attacks on our rights or the legitimate exercise of presidential power? Everyone talks about the Constitution, yet many people know little about it. What rights does it protect? What powers does it give to the Congress as opposed to the President? This course will examine what the Constitution has meant throughout the country’s history and how it may (or may not) work in the 21st century.
HHD-2990 / HHD-2995
Western Civilization I and II
One semester: 3 credits
These courses provide a historical overview of Western thought from the Renaissance to the early 20th century. Students will explore the ways in which history and culture have interacted to shape the development of societies and individuals in the modern age. We will focus on major historical transformations such as the Renaissance and the Reformation (first semester), the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution (second semester) in order to understand how such pivotal events both condition and reflect movements in science, philosophy and the arts. The course will also provide an introduction to the assumptions, strategies and methods that inform the disciplines of history, philosophy and the social sciences. Readings include selections from: A History of Modern Europe, vols. I and II; Plato; Hobbes; Descartes; Locke; Voltaire; Kant; Mill; Marx; Nietzsche; Freud; Heisenberg; Einstein.
HHD-3011
History of Ideas: The 20th Century I
One semester: 3 credits
This course will focus on the social, political and economic background of the 20th century. We will examine Victorianism, imperialism, World War I, the Russian Revolution and other developments, through the 1920s. The ideas of Marx, Lenin, Freud, Darwin, and others will be covered in historical context.
HHD-3012
History of Ideas: The 20th Century II
One semester: 3 credits
This course is a continuation of HHD-3011, History of Ideas: The 20th Century I. Topics include: the Depression, New Deal, World War II, the Cold War, the turbulent 1960s, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, Watergate, Irangate, the third world. The ideas of Hitler; Mao; Martin Luther King, Jr.; and the issues behind McCarthyism, totalitarianism, socialism, capitalism and communism will be discussed.
HHD-3017
Enlightenment, Reason, Modern Culture
One semester: 3 credits
Reason is under attack; in fact, it has been for some time. The Enlightenment of the 18th century brought together several remarkable achievements of the human mind. For example, the Enlightenment fostered and supported revolutionary ideals such as science, political equality, democracy, and anti-authoritarianism; and it did so primarily by emphasizing the power of human reason. So comprehensive was this development that many fundamental ideals and institutions of the modern world still base themselves upon Enlightenment principles. Modernity, however, has recently questioned many of these enlightenment values and achievements. This class will begin by looking at the contributions and accomplishments of the Enlightenment and then proceed to consider the ways in which this heritage has been challenged. For example, we will look at the powerful objections that aspects of modern science and art have mounted to Enlightenment rationalism. Moreover, we will consider political challenges to the Enlightenment, ranging from the ideological underpinnings of world wars and fascist ideology to the philosophical origins and ultimate failures of communism. Lastly, we will consider more recent challenges to Enlightenment principles such as postmodern philosophy and the various religious fundamentalisms. Our sources will include key works illuminating Enlightenment thought and the Modernist temperament.
HHD-3022
Turning Points in History: From the French Revolution to the Present
One semester: 3 credits
This course will focus on some of the pivotal events—from the Enlightenment to the space race and beyond—that have shaped the modern world. The historical contributions of such thinkers as of Locke, Voltaire, Darwin, Nietzsche, Einstein and Ellis will be examined.
HHD-3144
Crisis and Conflict in Early Modern Europe
One semester: 3 credits
New political theories, social unrest, economic upheaval and intellectual discontent often rocked early modern Europe, resulting in a series of crises. Crisis was often accompanied by open conflict, as challenges to various forms of authority were posed by changing geopolitics, inventive minds and a growing middle class that was no longer satisfied with its place within the social hierarchy. From the wars of religion and the rise of absolutism, to the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution, we will explore the political, social and intellectual developments of the early modern European nation-states.
HHD-3226
A History of Science
One semester: 3 credits
Modern science emerged out of a world caught in the philosophical, social, and religious crises of Early Modern Europe. Many things influenced the development of science, including the cultural heritage of classical antiquity, the technological skill of artisans, politics, and religion. Science itself has been a major influence on the modern world, contributing to the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and our Modernist worldviews. Moreover, this history has often been defined by conflict between science and established authority of one kind or another. These conflicts have continued into the modern age, including, for example, the debates about the teaching of evolution, reproductive rights and climate change. This course will explore the history of science and scientific ideas within this larger cultural context from the early Renaissance until today. Key figures will be discussed, such as Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, and many more. Readings will include contemporary sources as well as recent historical studies.
HHD-3288
Historical Introduction to Philosophy
One semester: 3 credits
The great thinkers of the Western world will be examined in their historical context in an attempt to explain how their thought is a reflection and transformation of their culture. Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Marx, Rousseau, Mill, Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre, among others, will be studied and related to areas as diverse as the scientific revolution, the Industrial Revolution and modernism in art.
HHD-3328
The World Since 1945
One semester: 3 credits
This course will examine the conflicts, crises, and trends that have built our modern world. We will cover the Cold War, nuclear proliferation, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, decolonization, the European Union, the creation of Israel and the Israeli-Arab Wars, the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and current conflicts from Darfur to Baghdad to the “War on Terror.”
HHD-3334
Postcolonial Africa
One semester: 3 credits
Africa is said to be the cradle of human civilization. Today, it is a continent of reemerging independent nations with a complex history and a changing pattern of indigenous ways of life. This course will explore the culture and history of the African continent from the 1870s to the present, focusing on East, West and Southern Africa. Readings will include works of both European and African writers and activists. Selected videos will be screened.
HHD-3367
A People’s History of the United States I
One semester: 3 credits
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the social and labor history of the United States. Topics such as slavery, Indian resistance, reform movements and what it meant to be “American” will be explored. Readings include such works as slave petitions inspired by the American Revolution, Tecumseh on Indians and land; Orestes Brownson, “The Laboring Classes”; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments”; Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience.
HHD-3368
A People’s History of the United States II
One semester: 3 credits
American history since 1865 will be examined in this course. Such topics as reconstruction, the rise of labor unions, industrialization, political parties, civil rights, the peace movement and the emergence of identity politics will be discussed. Readings include works by Chief Joseph; Eugene V. Debs; Margaret Sanger; Marcus Garvey; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Allen Ginsberg and César Chavez.
HHD-3451
Creative and Destructive Personalities in History I
One semester: 3 credits
There are a variety of elements and factors that contribute to the making of history. Among these factors are the influences of individuals and personalities. This course will examine several men and women who helped make history through the works of such figures as Moses, Michelangelo, William Shakespeare, Thomas Jefferson, Abigail Adams, Booker T. Washington and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Each student will complete a project on a historic individual.
HHD-3452
Creative and Destructive Personalities in History II
One semester: 3 credits
There are a variety of elements and factors that contribute to the making of history. Among these factors are the influence of individuals and personalities. This course will examine the lives and works of such figures as Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Albert Einstein, Anne Frank, Pablo Casals and John F. Kennedy. Each student will complete a project on a historic individual.
HHD-3454
The Crusades: Fact, Fiction, Film
One semester: 3 credits
This course will provide an overview of the Crusading movement from 1095 to the 14th century, accompanied by readings from medieval European and Islamic sources. Students will also read excerpts from works of fiction set during the Crusades and view excerpts from films referencing the Crusades such as: Fiction: Tariq Ali, Chaucer, Amos Oz, Sir Walter Scott. Film: Alexander Nevsky (Eisenstein) Seventh Seal (Bergman) The Crusades (De Mille, Terry Jones), Kingdom of Heaven (Scott), El Naser Salah el Dine (Chahine). There will be some film viewing assignments to be done outside of class time. Among the topics considered will be the crusaders as they viewed themselves, just war theory, djihad, the Templars, and the use of the Crusades in later political contexts. Textbook: Thomas Madden, New Concise History of the Crusades.
HHD-3611
History of Religion
One semester: 3 credits
This course will survey the major religions of the world, beginning with Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism, and ending with Christianity and Islam. The spiritual crisis of the sixth century BCE that gave rise to Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism in the East will be compared to the epochs that gave rise to Christianity and Islam. While examining the similarities as well as the differences in the ultimate concepts of major Eastern and Western religions, such as moksha, nirvana, Tao and the kingdom of heaven, this course will explore the historical conditions in which the world religions evolved.
HHD-3643
Religious Fundamentalism in the Modern World
One semester: 3 credits
Religious fundamentalism is a major force in modern history. Examples abound of militant fundamentalist groups invoking God in their determined struggles to reshape the world. Jihadist movements in Islam, Dominion Theology in Evangelical Christianity, anti-Muslim Hinduism, anti-scientific Creationism, millenarian religious sects, Jewish settler claims on Palestinian land—all these represent but a small sample of the modern varieties of religious fundamentalism. This course will provide a historical overview of modern fundamentalisms from the 18th century to the present day. We will explore the effects of key intellectual and cultural developments, such as the Enlightenment, modern science, and cultural pluralism on religious beliefs and institutions. We will also consider the ways in which Imperialism, global economic policies, and competing political and social ideologies have contributed to the development of fundamentalist movements. The goal is to better understand some of the most volatile and controversial forces now affecting modern societies. The readings for this course will include contemporary historical sources as well as recent analyses of modern fundamentalist movements.
HHD-3651
Ecopolitics: Who Rules America?
One semester: 3 credits
What are the real connections between politics and the economy? We will trace the development of the free enterprise system, with special emphasis on the inherent contradictions between American capitalism and democracy. Discussion will focus on such issues as the rise and fall of traditional economic systems, ranging from feudalism to socialism; the evolution of the United States from a 17th-century agrarian society to a complex 21st-century postindustrial giant; the ideal of social equality as envisioned in the First and 14th Amendments of the American Constitution and the threats to that ideal; the debate over whether poverty can be eliminated in a free enterprise system; industrialism’s legacy of environmental abuse and the survival of the planet; economic planning vs. the free market: which strategy will work best within the emerging international economy? Selected readings from Carson, Economic Issues Today: Alternative Approaches; Cochran and Lawrence, American Public Policy; Barke and Stone, Governing The American Republic: Economics, Law and Policies. Readings will be supplemented by pertinent videos and guest speakers.
HHD-3766
Politics and Power in America: From Roosevelt to the Present
One semester: 3 credits
The Cold War, the civil rights movement, the 1960s, Watergate, Reagan’s “revolution” and Iran-Contra: What did each of these reveal about politics and power in American society? We’ll read and screen videos about these topics along with the Great Depression, McCarthyism, Vietnam and the future of American politics. Issues of social justice and democracy will be major themes. The course will be conducted in a lecture-discussion format.
HHD-3788
China: Past and Present
One semester: 3 credits
After a generation of isolation, the world is now in full communication with the globe’s most populous nation. The course aims to provide a broad background in China’s history and culture. We will examine the impact of Confucianism and Buddhism on China’s political and social development and China’s role in politics, industry and global relations in view of the new, major changes in Chinese communism. The scope ranges from the classic ancient dynasties of Shang, Han, Tang, Sung and Ming to contemporary times. A selection of films will supplement the lectures and study projects.
HHD-3883
From Books to Blogs: A Cultural History of Communication
One semester: 3 credits
One way to view the history of the world from the Renaissance to the present day is to see it as an ongoing revolution in the production and communication of information. From the invention of moveable type in Europe in the 15th century to the still-evolving technology of the Internet, societies around the globe have benefited from the spread of ideas, but often at the cost of experiencing the anxiety and pain typically associated with rapid and profound change. This course will explore the ways in which communication technologies have shaped and continue to shape global cultures. We will not only examine the ways in which printing and other forms of information exchange changed the pre-industrial world, but will also consider the ramifications of more recent communications technologies, such as the burgeoning effects of the Internet in the 21st century. Throughout, our concern will be focused on the larger cultural, social and political consequences of communications technologies in the modern world. Readings will include studies on the history and influence of communications technologies from the Renaissance to the present.
HHD-3889
Modern Totalitarianism
One semester: 3 credits
This course will explore the many forms of totalitarianism that have convulsed global history during the last one hundred years. We will study the social, economic, and cultural circumstances that have led to the creation of totalitarian regimes as well as those forces that continue to sustain them. Various manifestations of 20th century Communism and Fascism will be considered along with the development and spread of modern theocratic forms of totalitarianism. We will also consider the responses to totalitarianism that have sought to change such regimes or, at the very least, have allowed individuals to maintain some level of normal material and cultural life within them. Readings will include modern studies on the nature and history of totalitarianism as well as primary sources, such as memoirs, which will allow us to gauge individual responses.
HHD-4011
Eco-History: Oil and Water, the 21st Century in Crisis
One semester: 3 credits
This course looks at two interrelated ecology issues that are central to how we will live during the 21st century: the oil-based economy and the world water supply. We will start with the history of the fossil fuels industry in the last century and its impact on past geo-political conflicts, current resource wars and the advent of global warming. How petrochemicals and climate change are impacting the world’s clean water supply, spurring “water wars” between nations, corporations and people will then be examined. Lastly, the course will explore the environmental alternatives and political choices before us, on both a global and a personal scale, as we enter this era of conflict and crisis.
HHD-4041
American Interventions from Vietnam to Iraq
One semester: 3 credits
After World War II the United States began a policy of engagement and intervention that continues to the present day. As a result, American soldiers have fought and died in controversial wars around the globe. We will examine American military interventions in Vietnam, Bosnia, Somalia, and Iraq as well as American involvement in regime changes in Iran and Chile. How did America become involved in each of these conflicts? Were they morally justifiable or in our national interests? What have been the long-term consequences of this tradition of interventionism?
HHD-4122
History of Classical Greece and Rome
One semester: 3 credits
The legacy of the Greek and Roman civilizations extends into our modern world. In this survey we will examine the rise of the Greek city-states and their political and artistic development, ending with the growth of Hellenistic culture. We will then turn our attention to the growth of Rome, from its mythic roots through the Republican era, the rise of the Caesars and the political, religious and artistic achievements of the empire. The course will conclude with an investigation of the factors that contributed to the eventual decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
HHD-4288
Society and Nature: A Historical Perspective
One semester: 3 credits
This course explores the varied and evolving relationships between human societies and the natural environment since the Renaissance. Topics of study will include: the “meaning” of nature and our place within it; conceptions of nature in Judeo-Christian, pagan, Taoist and other belief systems; the impact of the scientific and industrial revolutions on nature and society; theories and practices of conservation and ecology in the 19th and 20th centuries; and current conceptions of environmental crisis. Related issues such as capitalism and socialism will also be considered.
HHD-4333
African-American History I
One semester: 3 credits
This course will trace the histories and experiences of African-Americans in the United States from 1619 to 1865, covering the Colonial period, antebellum period and the Civil War. It will focus on the social, historical and political development of the African-American family and community. Texts will include: Jacqueline Jones, Labors of Love, Labors of Sorrow; John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom; Joanne Grant, Black Protest.
HHD-4334
African-American History II
One semester: 3 credits
This course will begin with an examination of Reconstruction and the backlash against it. We will then explore the lives, philosophical views and major contributions of Booker T. Washington; W.E.B. DuBois; Marcus Garvey; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Malcolm X; Adam Clayton Powell Jr.; Paul Robeson and Thurgood Marshall. The social and historical ramifications of World War I, World War II, the Depression, the Harlem Renaissance, the NAACP, CORE, SNCC, SCLS and the Black Panther Party will also be considered.
HHD-4348
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
One semester: 3 credits
Although world peace and stability in the 21st century will depend heavily on achieving a more equitable distribution of global wealth, the disparity between the world’s rich and poor nations has never been so great, and, in fact, continues to increase even as the need to resolve this inequality grows ever more pressing. How have we arrived at this dilemma? Have first-world nations created their own wealth, or have they stolen it from others? Have some nations always been poor, or have they been impoverished? Do wealth and poverty result from decisions freely made by each nation’s political and business leaders, or are they the result of larger social, economic and cultural dynamics? Is there a way out of the deepening crisis? This course will address these and related questions in light of the historical processes that have led to the development of a world of rich and poor nations. We shall also attempt to evaluate the relative merits of various solutions that have been proposed to resolve this dilemma.
HHD-4356
Religious Conflict and Its Impact: The Reformation
One semester: 3 credits
The Reformation of the 16th century was one of the most pivotal events in Western civilization. The unity of the medieval worldview was shattered, and competing views of God and humanity challenged social and political views as well. Fundamental questions arose as to the nature of social life, political organization, knowledge and truth. This course will explore how new religious views contributed to new ways of life and new beliefs; how Anabaptists, for example, sought to “turn the world upside down,” how marital problems of Henry VIII led to the Church of England, how translating the Christian Bible opened a can of worms. Lastly, we will seek to explain some of the religious views held by modern believers. Key historical figures and movements will be discussed, including Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli, Henry VIII and the Radical Reformation. Readings will include selections by 16th-century authors and recent historical studies.
HHD-4397
Genocides
One semester: 3 credits
From the gas chambers of Auschwitz to the villages of Rwanda, the 20th century has been a century of genocides. This course will try to understand how mass extermination can ever be a goal, and why cries of “never again” have failed to stop it from reoccurring again and again. The course will cover the Nazi destruction of Europe’s Jews in World War II, the Hutu slaughter of the Tutsi in Rwanda, Serbian militias killing Muslims in Bosnia, and other examples of ethnic mass murder. We will use first-person accounts of genocide, such as Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz and Philip Gourevitich’s book on Rwanda, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, as well as secondary sources.
LITERATURE
HLD-2042
20th-Century Literature and Culture I
One semester: 3 credits
This course will focus on the literary, philosophical and intellectual background of the 20th century. Topics for the fall semester will include Victorian culture, existentialism, social Darwinism, the Freudian tradition and the jazz age. We will discuss the works of Dostoevsky, T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and John Steinbeck, among others.
HLD-2043
20th-Century Literature and Culture II
One semester: 3 credits
This course is a continuation of HLD-2042, 20th-Century Literature and Culture I. Cultural themes and movements will include the beat generation, feminism, black nationalism, the peace movement, the global village concept and the convergence of Eastern and Western cultures. Writers will include: James Baldwin, Albert Camus, Angela Davis, Bob Dylan, Jean-Paul Sartre, John Updike, Malcolm X.
HLD-2058
Fantasy
One semester: 3 credits
Shaped by our desires and fears, fantasy literature offers radical departures from consensus reality into worlds of magic, peril and delight. This course will explore the imagery, characters themes and narrative structures of several types of fantasy fiction. We will begin by briefly examining parent genres before reading examples of modern fantasy types, including dark fantasy, heroic, surrealist, magic realism, science fiction and feminist. In addition to the fiction, we will read some critical theory to help define and locate the subgenres of this large category of fiction.
HLD-2088
American Literature: 19th Century
One semester: 3 credits
This course explores the intellectual, cultural and literary roots and directions of American literature, from its Puritan, Gothic and Romantic origins through realist, transcendental and premodern tendencies late in the 19th century. We’ll read selected works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Henry James and the utopian feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. We’ll investigate questions of style, genre, tradition and critical interpretation in relation to the blooming of American society and culture.
HLD-2089
American Literature: 20th Century
One semester: 3 credits
This course will plot the legacies and outgrowths of modernism, from its inception with imagism, surrealism and societal critique, through the Harlem Renaissance to the wartime epic novel, reactive 1960s beat confessional, to contemporary poetry and prose, especially rich in ethnic and literary diversity. We’ll read Jack London, Robert Frost, Djuna Barnes, William Faulkner, Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, William Carlos Williams and Toni Morrison, carving out a sense of what America has been, is, or may come to be, from the perspective of its great writers. Research papers, oral reports and abstracts will focus on each student’s particular interests within this survey of distinct traditions, perspectives and possibilities.
HLD-2154
Myths and the Cosmos
One semester: 3 credits
A study of some of the world’s ancient religious myths of creation, the cosmos, and man’s role within it, as contrasted with the universe of modern science. Among the mythologies to be considered are those of the Egyptians, Hebrews, Indians, Chinese and Greeks. Texts will include: Homer’s Odyssey (E.V. Rieu translation, Penguin paperback); Plato’s Symposium (B. Jowett translation, many editions); John Updike’s The Centaur; and The Epic of Gilgamesh.
HLD-2161
The Beat Generation
One semester: 3 credits
This course will explore the beat counterculture as a post-World War II American phenomenon, a literary correlative to abstract expressionist painting and to bebop music, auguring the “era” of sex, drugs and rock & roll to follow.
HLD-2201
Drama and Society
One semester: 3 credits
This course traces the history of drama and the interaction of drama with the society in which it is created. The course will emphasize modern and contemporary works, but will trace the rise of drama from ancient Greece to the present day. Students will view plays, either on tape or in live performance. Among the playwrights whose works will be read are: Euripides, Plautus, Molière, Ibsen, Shakespeare, Shaw, O’Neill, Ionesco, Beckett, Kopit and Mamet.
HLD-2211
Introduction to Poetry
One semester: 3 credits
We do not like that which we do not understand. As Marianne Moore wrote: “I too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle. Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in it after all, a place for the genuine.” This course will concentrate on the close reading of a wide variety of poems—ballads, nursery rhymes, sonnets and contemporary lyrics—and will attempt to focus on the genuine aspects of the poet’s craft and vision. Students will be encouraged to attend poetry readings, and guest poets will be invited to the class. Texts include: Perrine, Sound and Sense; O. Williams ed., Modern Verse; T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems.
HLD-2223
Short Fiction I
One semester: 3 credits
In many respects, the short story is more like a play than a novel. Its brevity, immediacy, concentration on character and compression of plot enable it, in the hands of a master, to profoundly affect the reader. Some of the best literary work of the last century has been in the form of short stories. Writers we will study include: Leo Tolstoy, Herman Melville, Anton Chekhov, James Joyce, Franz Kafka and Ernest Hemingway.
HLD-2224
Short Fiction II
One semester: 3 credits
Some of the finest literary work of the last 100 years has been in the form of short fiction. In this course, we will study the short stories and novellas of such writers as Raymond Carver, J.D. Salinger, Jorge Luis Borges, John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates and Tillie Olsen.
HLD-2313
Erotic Literature
One semester: 3 credits
This course will focus on selections from the great erotic literature from ancient Greece to modern times. Topics will include social attitudes about sex; the distinction between pornography and erotica; feminist issues, including exploitation and political relationships between men and women; erotica and censorship. We will read and discuss the works of Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller, D. H. Lawrence, Marquis de Sade, Chaucer, Boccaccio and Aristophanes.
HLD-2565
American Theater
One semester: 3 credits
This course will introduce students to key playwrights and stage artists of the American theater from the 1930s to the present. Assigned readings will include plays by Eugene O’Neill, Clifford Odets, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, David Mamet, August Wilson, Sam Shepard and Tony Kushner. Video screenings of important productions by these authors will be included.
HLD-2677
Fiction of the 19th Century I
One semester: 3 credits
We will read short stories and one or two short novels by selected writers such as Wilde, Gogol, Mérimée, Tolstoy and Hoffmann, exploring such psychological and emotional themes as love, sin, madness and death. Attention will be paid to the interrelations of the literature and art of the period—Romanticism, realism and symbolism. Videos will supplement course material.
HLD-2678
Fiction of the 19th Century II
One semester: 3 credits
This course is a further exploration of some of the themes and movements of fiction of the 19th century offered in HLD-2677, Fiction of the 19th Century I. Readings will include selections from the novels and short stories of, among others, Dostoevsky, Anderson, Poe, Shelley, Hugo and Hawthorne. Videos will supplement course material.
HLD-2701
Arthurian Literature
One semester: 3 credits
The Arthurian legend has had an enduring appeal for writers from the early Middle Ages to the present time. It has embodied the ideals of romantic love, chivalry and Christian heroism as well as served as a vehicle for satirizing these ideals. Readings will include: History of the Kings of Britain, Geoffrey of Monmouth; Morte d’Arthur, Malory; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain; The Once and Future King, T.H. White; The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart; The Alliterative Morte Arthure; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; The Death of Arthur; The Mabinogian.
HLD-2922
Medieval English Literature
One semester: 3 credits
The medieval age was a period of extraordinary literary flowering in Europe. Themes like heroism, religion, courtly love and chivalry became popular as the institutions that supported them rose and fell. The result was a literature full of contradictions, at once spiritual and bawdy, romantic and cynical. Readings will include Beowulf; selected Anglo-Saxon heroic verse; Dante’s Inferno; selections from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; John Gardner’s Grendel; and Hesse’s Narcissus and Goldmund.
HLD-2950
Modern Drama
One semester: 3 credits
This course will introduce students to the foundation of present-day theater. While attention will be paid to directors, actors and stage artists, the emphasis is on the playwright. The concentration will be on the realistic movement and will cover such dramatists as Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov and O’Neill.
HLD-2977
Shakespeare I
One semester: 3 credits
This course will provide the student with a selective, chronological overview of Shakespeare, the dramatist. Plays assigned will include a selection of his comedies, histories and early tragedies.
HLD-2978
Shakespeare II
One semester: 3 credits
This course will provide the student with a selective, chronological overview of Shakespeare, the dramatist. Plays assigned will include the four major tragedies and one of the final romances. Note: There is no prerequisite for this course.
HLD-3007
The One-Act Play
One semester: 3 credits
Most plays are either read as literature or used as vehicles for actors to perform. This course offers both. We will first study plays from a literary point of view by analyzing and discussing plot, character, language, cultural and philosophical implications. Next, we will approach the text as actors using various techniques, including improvisation. We will explore selected scenes from plays studied and, through the power of performance, seek to uncover a deeper understanding of both their human and dramatic significance. The playwrights studied will include: Strindberg, O’Neill, Williams, Miller, Beckett, Pinter, Ionesco, Shepherd and Mamet. This course is for anyone interested in exploring the special environment where word and action become one.
HLD-3011
The Anatomy of Hell
One semester: 3 credits
From mankind’s very beginnings, human beings have pondered the nature of the afterlife. Although the concept of heaven inspires us, it is the notion of hell that truly fires our imaginations. This course, drawing on readings ranging from the Egyptian Book of the Dead all the way to episodes from Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone, will explore numerous conjectures concerning hell, the devil and the afterlife. Readings include Dante’s Inferno, selections from Milton’s Paradise Lost, Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, Sartre’s No Exit and David Mamet’s Oh Hell!
HLD-3026
Comparative Literature: Great Books
One semester: 3 credits
This course explores some of the more influential European and American literary and poetic works written between the turn of the 20th century and World War II. The modern period was rich for writers, stimulating participation in both political struggles of the age and its anxiety-ridden debates about progress. Class discussions will focus on how these works respond, both formally and thematically, to pervasive social transformation. We will read works by Baudelaire, Wilde, Kafka, Stein, Crane, Camus, Beckett, Levi, Baroka and Lorca.
HLD-3033
Art and Revolution I: The Working-Class Hero
One semester: 3 credits
The multicultural revolution has deepened and broadened our understanding of gender, race, sexual preference and international culture. Unfortunately, we have tended to ignore one crucial factor that cuts across all areas of human experience: socioeconomic class. This course will focus on the art, literature and struggles of working-class people during the past two centuries. Readings will be selected from fictional works such as Zola’s Germinal, Gorky’s My Childhood, Sillitoe’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Wright’s Black Boy, Tillie Olsen’s Tell Me a Riddle. In conjunction with the readings we will view and discuss the paintings of artists such as Courbet, Millet, Daumier, Kollwitz, the Russian social realists and the American Ashcan School. Selected videos will be screened and discussed.
HLD-3034
Art and Revolution II: The Rebel
One semester: 3 credits
The landscape of history has periodically been illuminated by apocalyptic struggles to change society, reinvent the world and re-create human nature. In this course, we will explore the literature of social revolt and political revolution. Readings will be selected from authors such as Maxim Gorky, André Malraux, Arthur Rimbaud, Marge Piercy, Bertolt Brecht, Albert Camus, Mariano Azuela and Malcolm X. In conjunction with the readings, we will view and discuss selected works of such artists as Diego Rivera, Siquieros, Eisenstein, Orozco and Frida Kahlo. Selected videos will be screened and discussed.
HLD-3051
Literature of Self-Knowledge
One semester: 3 credits
Beginning with the book On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, by Alan Watts, this course will draw upon fiction, nonfiction, film, art and photography to explore various responses to the question “Who am I?” Among the authors and artists considered will be Lao-tzu, Plato, Rembrandt, Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Fellini, Capote and Anne Sexton.
HLD-3341
20th-Century Italian Literature
One semester: 3 credits
The Italian literary tradition didn’t end abruptly with the Renaissance. Many of the greatest novels of the last century were written by Italian authors, writers who fought for or against Fascism, participated in the desperate struggles between labor and capital, took their stand on the issues of anti-Semitism, racism and sexism. Their names may sound obscure to readers of modern fiction—Berto, Morante, D’Annunzio, Pirandello, Levi, Silone—yet we neglect them to our own detriment—politically, morally and aesthetically. This course will explore their work, together with major films of the Italian neorealist cinema.
HLD-3477
Children’s Literature for Illustrators
One semester: 3 credits
Illustrators will gain an appreciation of the writer’s craft and of the various possible relations between pictures and words in a children’s book. We will read as literature works by Aesop, E.B. White, Maurice Sendak, Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl, Lois Lowery, Mildred Taylor, and others. Narrative voice, the visual element in language and other topics will be discussed throughout a survey of the best children’s books, past and present.
HLD-3501
Tragedy
One semester: 3 credits
What are the common and unique features of tragic works? Is there a universal definition of tragedy? Is tragedy a realistic appraisal of the human condition? These and other questions will be explored as we come to grips with works that confront the underlying possibilities and limitations of the human condition. Readings will include: The Bacchae, Euripides; Timon of Athens and King Lear, Shakespeare; Peer Gynt, Ibsen; Lord Jim, Conrad; The Iceman Cometh, Eugene O’Neill; A View from the Bridge, Arthur Miller.
HLD-3514
Radical and Revolutionary American Literature
One semester: 3 credits
This course will provide an overview of radical and revolutionary American literature from the American Revolution to the present day. We will read and discuss the works of such authors and artists as Thomas Paine, Allen Ginsberg, Abraham Lincoln, Malcolm X, Walt Whitman, Tillie Olsen, Jack London, Woody Guthrie and Bruce Springsteen. A major focus will be on working-class fiction and reality in light of the economic depression and cultural diversity of the 20th century.
HLD-3521
From Aristophanes to Woody Allen:
An Introduction to the Arts and Forms of Comedy
One semester: 3 credits
It is well known that dying is easy, but comedy is hard. And nothing can be more difficult than trying to explain what makes us laugh. Still we laugh, and our laughter proves us human. This course traces the history of comedy, starting in Greece with the plays of Aristophanes and concluding with a look at the contemporary scene in film, television and print. Along the way, we will read Plautus, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Shaw, Thurber, Ionesco and Beckett. Screenings will include films by Chaplin, Keaton and Woody Allen. We will read such essays as The Mythos of Spring: Comedy, Northrup Frye; The Comic Rhythm, Susanne Lange; and Comedy, Christopher Fry. We will consider comedic forms such as satire, parody, burlesque, theater of the absurd, romantic comedy, sitcoms and tragicomedy.
HLD-3553
Images of Artists:
Definitions of Culture from the 19th Century to the Present
One semester: 3 credits
What is culture and how do we know when we are experiencing it? What are the effects of not having access to culture? This course will look at how different depictions of the artist help shape our conceptions of what culture is and of the codes by which we identify what is “valuable” and “meaningful” in our world. We will trace various characterizations of the artist. From the conscience of society to voices of dissension and avant-gardism, artists are, variously, misunderstood or championed. Paying particular attention to biographies and novels about artists’ lives, we will examine how ideas of culture and the artist are constructed and debated through literature, film and video. Texts will include: Mary Gordon, Spending: A Utopian Divertimento; Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas; Emile Zola, The Masterpiece; Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray; short stories by Edgar Allan Poe; selections from the diaries of Frida Kahlo, Anne Truitt and Virginia Woolf; and Vincent van Gogh’s letters. Screening of films like Martin Scorsese’s Life Lessons, Ed Harris’s Pollock, Vincent Minnelli’s Lust for Life, and Robert Altman’s Vincent and Theo will be included.
HLD-3566
Civilization and Its Discontents
One semester: 3 credits
This course explores the themes of civilization and the discontents of individuals within modern society. It focuses on the particular role, which the artist and art plays within this relationship. Theoretical writings, literature, film and art will be examined historically as well as critically and aesthetically. Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents is the primary textbook for this semester. Among additional theoretical sources are essays by Susan Sontag, Sigmund Freud and Donald Kuspit. Among the literary texts and films are: The Remains of the Day, Ishiguro; The Lover, Duras; Swept Away, Wertmuller, and American Beauty, Sam Mendes.
HLD-3951
Literature and Psychoanalysis I
One semester: 3 credits
This course will explore how an author’s unconscious memories, wishes, fears and fantasies shape his/her fictional and philosophical world. Various psychoanalytic approaches will be evaluated and applied to an understanding of the writer and his/her characters. Readings will be illustrated by clinical case material. Topics will include: pathological types and defenses, dreams and the unconscious, the history of psychoanalysis, trauma and creativity, and the relationship of the writer/artist to the work. We will read theorists such as Freud, Jung, Alice Miller and Winnicott and writers such as Camus, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Ozick and D.H. Lawrence.
HLD-3952
Literature and Psychoanalysis II
One semester: 3 credits
This course focuses on normal psychological processes such as separation and individuation, the development of a sense of identity and the individual’s relationship to society. Readings include Mahler, Blos, Erikson and Laing, and such writers as Tennessee Williams, Woolf, Moravia, Ibsen and Strindberg.
HLD-3998
James Joyce
One semester: 3 credits
The development of this modernist master, as he discovers his subject and evolves his style and voice, is the focus of this course. We will read the early fiction, Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and chapters from Ulysses. How Joyce develops his writing style in response to the literary renaissance in Ireland as well as the movements of modern art and literature in Europe will be explored. We will then observe how Joyce decenters his narrative voices and develops stream of consciousness narrative to explore the inner reality of his characters as his vision matures. Supplementary readings will help to shed light on his character and era. Against this backdrop, we’ll explore how Joyce crafts his work and creates his artistic self.
HLD-4022
Poetry and Art
One semester: 3 credits
Since Baudelaire, innovative poets have often exercised important influence on avant-garde visual artists, primarily through radical innovations of form and content in their poetry, but also as friends and, in some cases, major art critics as well. The course concentrates on the work of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Apollinaire and William Carlos Williams. Home assignments include readings to locate the poems against their literary and cultural background. There are also selected readings from the poets’ essays and art criticism. Primary emphasis is on the poetry, and the course also attempts to answer the questions: What accounts for the mutual interplay of influence between poetry and visual art? How does it work?
HLD-4044
Surrealist Literature
One semester: 3 credits
Surrealism, a 20th-century movement begun by poets, attempted to unite the dream and waking worlds through art. The poets were later joined by visual artists whose works they influenced, both as critics and as friends. The course studies the manifestos and poetry of such seminal precursors as F. T. Marinetti, the founder of futurism, and Tristan Tzara, the Dada animateur. André Breton, the “pope” of surrealism, is covered in detail, with close readings of his manifestos, poetry and fiction. We also read such poets as Jean Arp, Paul Eluard, Louis Aragon and Aimé Césaire. Class sessions feature surrealist plays and films, and discussions of visual artists associated with the movement. Translations by the instructor are included.
HLD-4122
18th-Century Fiction I
One semester: 3 credits
This course will explore the age of eroticism, the birth of Romanticism and the development of the great satiric tradition in Western literature. We will read short works by great 18th-century authors such as Swift, Voltaire, Goethe, and the Marquis de Sade—the man who wrote the definitive manual of sexual depravity. Video screenings will supplement readings and discussions.
HLD-4123
18th-Century Fiction II
One semester: 3 credits
This course will explore the themes of passion, horror, revolution and fantasy through 18th-century fiction. Readings will include a trip to the moon with Baron Munchausen (early science fiction and fantasy), and the great 18th-century erotic novels Fanny Hill and Dangerous Liaisons. Videos will supplement readings and discussions.
HLD-4152
20th-Century Irish Literature
One semester: 3 credits
This course will explore how, through literature, 20th-century Ireland has dealt with its losses and forged its identity. The course will cover the Irish Literary Renaissance, the founding of the Abbey Theater, Joyce’s efforts to give Ireland a voice and situate it within the mainstream aesthetic movements of Europe, Yeats’ delving into folklore and spirituality, as well as more recent writers’ explorations into such questions as cultural identity. We will read the work of fiction writers, playwrights, and poets such as: W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, J. M. Synge, Sean O’Casey, Flann O’Brien, Samuel Beckett, Patrick Kavanagh, Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Mary Lavin and Tom Murphy.
HLD-4162
Existential Origins
One semester: 3 credits
This course will investigate the literature of the artists and thinkers who fundamentally question the meaning of our existence in the absence of an absolute faith, philosophical system or political ideology—artists who believe that we share sole responsibility for our alienation and our freedom. By selecting from Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Kafka, Gide and Malraux, we will examine the origins of what is retrospectively called existentialism wherein the individual acts without an ethical or metaphysical blueprint to define who one is or what one might choose, or why. This impasse, which Camus metaphorically called “the desert” and Nietzsche diagnosed conceptually as nihilism posits the vision of a world in which it is our challenge to create new truths and more life out of nothing. We will begin the course with Beauvoir’s affirmation of the existential freedom of women.
HLD-4177
French Existentialism
One semester: 3 credits
The influence of French existentialism is global, but not everyone has read the novels, plays and philosophic essays that challenged the recurring myth (that we are mere victims of fate, environment or history). Existentialists maintain that we make our own lives through fundamental choices, trying to avoid self-deception and living with the anxiety (angst) of having nothing determining what we do. The stark simplicity of this philosophy, when translated into literature by Sartre, Malraux, Camus, de Beauvoir and Beckett, unites original philosophy with artistic freedom. While the Germans Husserl and Heidegger offer the first existentialist philosophic inquiry, the French gave our urban alienation a human face, enticing us back to the barricades, engaged with social justice, leading us to face the uncanniness of our struggle as individuals, despite the absurdity of our existence to create a meaning for our lives on earth.
HLD-4193
Literature of Love
One semester: 3 credits
The exploration of love relationships and values of various cultures and times is the focus of this course. Beginning with an examination of ancient attitudes toward love in the works of Aristophanes, Sappho, Plato, Greek Anthology and Ovid, we then consider the influence of courtly love and Christianity on attitudes of love with excerpts from Dante, Shakespeare and Donne. Lastly, we will address modern conceptions of love in Flaubert, D. H. Lawrence, Proust and Toni Morrison. The following works will be read in full: Clouds, The Symposium, The Art of Love, Madame Bovary, Women in Love, Swann’s Way, Love.
HLD-4199
Antiheroes and Villains in Literature
One semester: 3 credits
What are villains and why do we love them so much? This course will examine the literary device of “the villain” and the emergence of the antihero in literature. We will read representative texts by such authors as: Sophocles, Shakespeare, Dante, Dostoevsky, Beckett and Hammett.
HLD-4288
Politics and Literature
One semester: 3 credits
This course will explore how great writers have dramatized and/or promoted various political philosophies in their work. Questions such as: What is the best form of government? What are the appropriate means to achieve political ends? and What is the relationship between elites and the masses? will be examined. Readings in the course will include works by: Plato, Machiavelli, Shaw, Brecht, Orwell, Camus and Malraux.
HLD-4312
Modern Literary Survey: India and Asia
One semester: 3 credits
This world literary survey will focus on the best-known and most influential writers of India and Asia. The enormous changes of the 20th century have produced literatures that uniquely blend traditional cultural forms with new styles and content. Readings will include short stories, novels and essays from such authors as Kobo Abe, Yukio Mishima, Lu Xun, Lao She, Salmon Rushdie, B. Bandopadhyay and V. S. Naipaul.
HLD-4321
The Gothic Tale
One semester: 3 credits
As a retort to the refinement of the 18th century, Gothic stories favored plots that strayed as far outside the literary law as possible, relying on the effects created by claustrophobic atmosphere and grotesque character. Evil, the supernatural and the sexually taboo were their canon and creed. While the Romantics of the 19th century favored anything Gothic (to them it meant whatever was natural, wild and authentic), modern writers use the Gothic to explore the nature and limits of our humanity and the quivering core of our personal identities. This course will trace the rise of the Gothic tale in England and the United States from the late 18th century, noting the presence of the many women writers who have been attracted to its themes. We will read works by such writers as Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Isak Dinesen, Jorge Luis Borges, Jerzy Kosinski, Joyce Carol Oates and Isabel Allende.
HLD-4322
20th-Century American Novel
One semester: 3 credits
Throughout the 20th century, American novelists provided some of the most insightful commentary on the political, social and cultural conditions of America and the world. This course will examine such authors as Faulkner, Hemingway and Fitzgerald who dominated the literary landscape of the first half of the century. It will also examine writers of the latter 20th century such as Bellow, Barth and Morrison.
HLD-4331
Portraits of the Self in Early Modern Narrative
One semester: 3 credits
What is the nature of experience? This very basic question is at the heart of how we understand ourselves. This course will explore the history of our concept of experience, using fiction from the 18th and 19th centuries, to think about how we communicate our feelings to others. Close attention will be paid to the ways in which literature imagines the experience of beauty, oppression, commodification and modernization. Authors will include Austen, Defoe, Smollett, Sterne and Cleland.
HLD-4342
The Myth of Self-Creation in American Literature
One semester: 3 credits
D.H. Lawrence wrote of America, “She starts old, old wrinkled and writhing in an old skin. And there is a gradual sloughing off of the old skin toward a new youth. It is the myth of America.” The idea that the past could be discarded as an old skin and that we could be better and freer by virtue of being new is a myth that defined America before there even was such a country as America. It is an idea that has had tremendous influence on the religious and political history of this country. This myth continues to shape how Americans think about themselves and their relationship to what is still perceived as an older and more corrupt world. In spite of slavery, genocide, global profiteering, two world wars, economic colonialism and other such sins, America still sees itself as a pure and innocent force for good in an evil world. This course will draw on a broad range of authors to show how this myth has adapted itself to different times and social conditions and yet remained recognizable as the same myth. We will focus primarily on short stories and novels, but will also examine some poetry and essays. Readings will include works by such authors as Emerson, Whitman, Twain, Lewis, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Baldwin, Dreiser, Norris and Hurston. We will also discuss some contemporary manifestations of this myth.
HLD-4372
At the Crossroads: Utopia or Dystopia?
One semester: 3 credits
The term utopia is generally associated with Sir Thomas More whose famous work portrayed an idealized island kingdom representing what a perfect society might look like, although, ironically, utopia stems from the Greek ou topos, which suggests “no place.” The tradition of reaching for exemplary values and the common good has been and continues to be the highest of human aspirations. Unfortunately, the ideal vision of utopia inevitably suggest the harsh contrast of the dystopia, a vision of totalitarian repression and severe limitations on the human spirit. Can there be a society of radical reform and dramatic progress? Or will this society, left unexamined and unchecked, become a dangerous and terrifying nightmare future? In this course we will explore this question with reference to literature and films such as Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Robert Edwards’s Land of the Blind and Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.
SOCIAL SCIENCES - Philosophy and Cultural Studies
HPD-2044
Art Theory: From Modernism to Postmodernism
One semester: 3 credits
This course is an introduction to the philosophical ideas that have shaped the practice of contemporary art and criticism in the West. We begin with an examination of some historical problems that have arisen in thinking about art. Then we survey the various systems that constitute modernist cultural “theory,” including formalism, phenomenology, Marxism, structuralism, semiotics and psychoanalysis. These modernist theories are compared to poststructuralist and feminist views of art production and reception. The overall objective is to provide the necessary background for understanding and evaluating contemporary theories of art and design. Required texts: Stephen David Ross, ed., Art and Its Significance: An Anthology of Aesthetic Theory; Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory; Harrison and Wood, eds., Art in Theory: 1900-1990.
HPD-2047
Magic, Symbolism, Modernism and Art
One semester: 3 credits
What is a mystic, a magician, a seer, a charlatan, a scientist, an artist? When do poetry, art, emotion and science collide? This course explores the themes of magic and science as they relate to the movements of symbolism and modernism in 19th- and 20th-century literature, philosophy, art and art theory. We will examine Edgar Allan Poe’s definition of the infinite universe, Nikola Tesla’s scientific achievements in electrical discoveries, Harry Houdini’s sleight-of-hand tricks, the films of Georges Méliès and Jean Painleve, and the art of Pablo Picasso. Readings from literature, scientific articles, philosophy and art theory will be complemented with films and demonstrations.
HPD-2104
An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy and Yoga
One semester: 3 credits
The enlightenment, satori or liberation spoken of in both Buddhism and yoga share many similarities. Both rely on the union of the physical, mental and spiritual resources within the seeker. By incorporating basic yoga practices we will be able to experience a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Because the esoteric side must be witnessed through the silence, we will learn and practice meditation techniques as well as study the texts. In this course we practice the roots or base of Buddhism as well as explore the philosophy. Readings include: Living Yoga, George Feuerstean and Stephan Bodian; Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki; Zen in the Art of Archery, Eugene Herrigel; Siddhartha, Herman Hesse, and other books on Mahayana and Hinayana aspects of Buddhism.
HPD-2267
African Art and Civilization
One semester: 3 credits
The aims of this course are to study the traditional art of specific ethnic groups and to explore artistic variations from Africa, parts of the Americas, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Haiti and the continental United States. We will examine Dogon symbols and Bobo/Bwa, Guro, Senufo, Baule, Kingdoms of life, Fon, Benin, Yoruba, Congo, Bakuba, as well as Gabon, Cameroon, Cross Niger/Igbo Nigeria. South Africa, Zimbabwe. We will also look at African contemporary art, including modern film that contrasts modernity with antiquity.
HPD-2411
The Female Gaze
One semester: 3 credits
We will look at artists whose vision has been clearly shaped by an awareness that what we see is conditioned by who we are, and that our sexuality and personal histories play significant roles in the forming of our artistic statements. We will study artists like Sophonisba Anguissola, Hannah Hoch, Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Mary Kelly, Adrian Piper, Lorna Simpson, Sophie Calle, Shirin Neshat and Louisa Mattiasdottir in light of such questions as: How does gender relate to art? How is this relationship reflected in history? What is the relationship between the rise of the women’s movement and art? What is feminist art? We will also look at the collaborative group known as the Guerrilla Girls. Language, identity and autobiographical impulses are among the topics to be discussed and integrated through readings in Ways of Seeing, John Berger, and Manifesta, Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards. We will also examine the history of the women’s movement and the feminist art movement through selected essays by John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Linda Nochlin, Lucy Lippard, Betty Friedan and Michelle Wallace.
HPD-2422
Art and Politics
One semester: 3 credits
An examination of the role of political art in history including Goya’s Disasters of War and Caprichos, Picasso’s Guernica, and Käthe Kollwitz’s antiwar woodcuts, posters and other graphic work. How do artists respond to the social upheavals of their times? What is the artist’s responsibility to these concerns and what is the responsibility to one’s craft and to the development of a personal statement? Readings will be supplemented by film, video and field trips.
HPD-2687
Metaphysics
One semester: 3 credits
Metaphysics is the study of the world in its entirety. The metaphysician attempts to understand reality as a kind of a whole, attempts to answer not the how’s, but the why’s of life; producing a map that, hopefully, captures with genuine insight what the seer leaves as inspired intuition. The map’s legends are identity, potentiality, universals, time, mind, beauty, freedom and their cosmological adhesion is its paper. The course is designed to introduce the intermediary student to exploratory touring of the territory with classical and contemporary maps. Texts will include: Metaphysics, Aristotle; Monadology, Leibniz; Foundations, Kant; Metaphysics, Hamlyn.
HPD-2931
The Mythology of War
One semester: 3 credits
Perhaps an understanding of institutionalized violence and man’s inhumanity to man has never been more important than in the troubled times in which we live. In this course, we will explore the philosophical and psychological foundations of the allure of war. While many studies of war and its causes look to states and institutions, here we turn our attention to what might be called the “mythology of war.” Simply put, despite its costs—both human and economic—war and battle have an enduring appeal that defies rational understanding. Our task will be to probe the depths of the human experience in war and battle so as to better comprehend this appeal. We will consider the claim that man is by nature a warrior or, as a consequence of an innate lust for destruction, naturally driven to killing and violence. To guide us in this endeavor, we will study the insights offered in such texts as Michael Gelvin’s War and Existence, A Philosophical Inquiry; Stephen Pressfield’s Gates of Fire, An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae; Glenn Gray’s The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle; Dave Grossman’s On Killing: The Psychological Cast of Learning to Kill in War and Society and Jonathan Shay’s Achilles in Vietnam.
HPD-2998
The Philosophy of Mind
One semester: 3 credits
The philosophy of mind concerns itself with the human—and perhaps nonhuman—mental, intellectual and spiritual awareness of the “world,” broadly conceived. This course begins with an attempt to define typical mental states, such as perceiving, knowing and desiring, and then consider such issues as the mind-body problem and our knowledge of other minds. Contemporary questions will explore the relationship of thought and language, the possibility of artificial intelligence, the intelligence of animals, moral action and free will. Students will be encouraged to reflect on their thought processes as a source of phenomena that a coherent theory of mind must account for.
HPD-3013
Madness and Creativity
One semester: 3 credits
When is madness a cry for independence, a revelation of alienated creativity, or an invitation to the frontiers of human experience, and when is it a retreat into repetition, nihilism and silence? At what point do we confuse the authentic suffering of the mind with genius or originality? Can creation mean that one risks madness to become what Rimbaud called a “seer,” or might this play into a dangerously conventional myth? Our project is to venture into the universe of the imagination to separate the myth of madness from the freedom of creativity. Selected psychological and philosophic works from Nietzsche, Freud, Foucault and Laing will be explored, as well as the literature of Rimbaud, Stevenson, Gogol, Gilman, Artaud and Plath. Required texts: The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche; Madness and Civilization, Foucault; “A Season in Hell,” Rimbaud; The Divided Self, R.D. Laing; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson; “The Uncanny,” Freud; “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman.
HPD-3024
Art, Ethics and Moral Responsibility
One semester: 3 credits
This course is an introduction to philosophic reasoning about some basic ethical questions of human life. We will begin by exploring the moral notions of right and wrong, and whether there are rational ways for determining the difference between them. In particular, we will examine the nature and the application of moral standards to our personal behavior and especially to our artistic pursuits. In addition, we will consider whether there is a philosophical basis for moral responsibility, action and commitment, and whether such concepts will impact our freedom of expression. Among the authors and artists to be considered will be Immanuel Kant, W.D. Ross, Alasdair MacIntyre, Andre Serrano and Jock Sturges.
HPD-3123
The Philosophy of Human Nature
One semester: 3 credits
Since Darwin shook the belief in divine provenance, philosophers and scientists have sought a new theory of human nature—or have denied such a thing is possible. This course begins with a study of classic sources of humankind’s picture of itself—in Plato, the Bible, the Upanishads and Confucianism. Modern theories reflect on the human being as a respondent organism, a genetic mechanism, a maker of tools, a seeker of God, a creator of art, the destroyer of its own habitat, and even as the slayer of its own species. Contemporary readings will include reflections by Marx, Skinner, Dawkins, Freud, Lorenz and Sartre.
HPD-3133
Nietzsche: Nihilism and Freedom
One semester: 3 credits
Nietzsche has inspired much of what is essential to 20th-century thought. Existentialists, expressionists, Freudian and Jungian psychotherapists, deconstructionists—even positivists and futurists—have claimed him as their forerunner. Yet, while key to all this ferment, Nietzsche is more than a Rorschach test for novel ideas. The confusion is understandable—Nietzsche is not only an accurate and comprehensive philosopher, but also a poet and visionary. This course will seek to interpret the core of his thought and his contribution to modern aesthetic, ethical and psychological theory, through an exploration of his statements on art, truth and perception, as well as his metaphors, humor and epigrams. We will study such works as The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, Thus Spake Zarathustra, The Case Against Wagner and Twilight of the Idols, to examine the interplay between metaphoric and conceptual language, and between poetry and philosophy. Our goal will be to recover Nietzsche’s ideas from his legend, and to understand a thinker who defies categorization, schools and systems, for intellectual integrity and individual freedom.
HPD-3201
Noticing and Awe
One semester: 3 credits
Our consciousness is itself a “miracle.” Noticing our existence enables us to make art and be creative, but rarely are we in awe of it. This course will pose the most fundamental of questions—why are we here— to investigate this first enigma: how and why do we lose our fundamental gratitude for existence? And how does art reflect back to the origins of our perception to return us to wonder, to inspire us, to notice with awe? Beginning with Taoism, Buddhism and the philosophy of Heidegger, we will explore Plato’s Phaedrus, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and the poetry of Rimbaud, Rilke and Dickinson, and discuss revealing extracts on the subject drawn from astronomy, music and the visual arts. Required texts: Tao Té Ching, Lao Tzu; The Way of Zen, Watts; Phaedrus, Plato; Poetry, Language, Thought, Heidegger; Duino Elegies, Rilke; The Tempest, Shakespeare.
HPD-3342
Philosophy of the Sexes and Racism
One semester: 3 credits
We will study how various art works, performances, music, films, inquiries and textual forms, including fiction and memoir, mediate ways authors, artists, audiences and scholars think about sexism, racism and heterosexism, and other kinds of power relations. Topics, texts, authors, artists include: Louis Armstrong; “male” and “female” in Western thought; films by Marlon Riggs (Black Is…Black Ain’t and Ethnic Notions); art, music and filmed performances by Ethel Waters, Nina Simone, Zora Neale Hurston, Adrian Piper; artist Pam Tom’s independent fiction film Two Lies, and related anthropological and visual analyses by Eugenia Kaw and Kathleen Zane, regarding “Asian eye” operations; Ruth Frankenberg on “color evasion”; whiteness; Paula Giddings’s The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America; critical race theory; Judith Butler; the film Who Killed Vincent Chin (1988); feminist inquiries about rape; Women of Color anti-racist feminist thinkers Patricia Williams, bell hooks, Deborah King, Aida Hurtado, Barbara Omolade; civil rights movement films; a short story by Alice Walker; and Luce Irigaray. This is a foundational course for future study of any forms of oppression. A class project will be to study, create and develop strategies of “difference thinking.” This project will be informed by our study of Women of Color feminist thought. This course is recommended for students interested in philosophy, critical thinking skills and the arts.
HPD-3343
Sexuality, Race and Representation
One semester: 3 credits
Artists think through sexuality, race and representation issues embodied in art and we will study such artworks from various perspectives of anti-racist feminist thought. Framed by Fatimah Tobing Rony’s ‘third eye’ concept in her The Third Eye: Race, Cinema, & Ethnographic Spectacle, we study Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) set in 1941, bell hooks’s Black Looks: Race & Representation, Julie Dash’s early film Illusions (1983) set in 1941, and related blues and swing (including Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters and Ella Fitzgerald); Helen Lee’s 1990 fiction video Sally’s Beauty Spot, the 1950s Hollywood film The World of Susie Wong and related American music in film (“As Time Goes By” in Casablanca); performances by David Mura; the Whitney Museum 1994 art exhibit “Black Male”; the 1970s feminist art movement and its legacies; women’s art, minimalism and surrealism; feminist debates about prostitution embodied in Lizzie Borden’s classic film Working Girls (1984), in feminist history, and in philosophy, engaged with Drucilla Cornell’s ‘imaginary domain’ concept. Some specific debates and ideas covered: the power of cinema, whiteness, looking and being looked at, passing, the social and aesthetic meanings of race, sex, beauty, music, performance, romantic love, good and evil, envy and hatred, stereotypes, split consciousness and resistance, fiction and truth.
HPD-3401
History of Problems in Social and Political Philosophy I
One semester: 3 credits
This course will critically examine the values and assumptions underlying governments and political systems. Students will examine and discuss philosophically, concepts such as liberty, justice, patriotism, nationalism, civil disobedience, democracy, social contract, and political rights. In addition, social problems such as war, poverty, economic inequality, and racism will be considered. Among the authors to be studied are Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, More, Thoreau and King.
HPD-3402
History of Problems in Social and Political Philosophy II
One semester: 3 credits
This course will critically examine the values and assumptions underlying governments and political systems. Students will examine and philosophically discuss concepts such as liberty, justice, patriotism, nationalism, civil disobedience, democracy, social contract and political rights. In addition, social problems such as war, poverty, economic inequality, racism, and speciesism will be considered. Among the authors to be studied are Hobbes, Locke, Marx, Singer, Rawls and Nozick. Note: There is no prerequisite for this course.
HPD-3442
Semiotics I
One semester: 3 credits
Semiotics is the study of signs, both linguistic (speech and writing) and iconic (paintings, photographs, drawings, sculptures, etc.). Some texts will provide a background to the theory of semiotics while others will apply the theory and language of semiotics to contemporary aesthetics and current issues. Marshall Blonsky’s On Signs is one source of essays. In addition, we will read authors and look at texts that have had great influence in recent visual and musical thought, such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jonathan Ames, Roland Barthes, Thom Yorke, Maureen Dowd, Barack Obama, Kristen Schaal, Julia Kristeva, Sam Amidon, Jasper Johns, Sam Mendes, Carter Ratcliff, Steve Martin, Thomas McEvilley, Susan Sontag, John Stewart, Gail Collins, Bruce Nauman, Walter Benjamin, Jean Baudrillard, Dave Hickey and Steven Pinker, as well as excerpts from Umberto Eco’s Theory of Semiotics.
HPD-3443
Semiotics II
One semester: 3 credits
This course will explore the semiotics of iconic signs, paintings and photographs. We will examine the difference between iconic and linguistic signs, and focus on applied semiotics and the interconnection of sign systems: aesthetic, political and moral. Texts include A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments and Elements of Semiology, Roland Barthes; The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution, Denis Dutton; Chromophobia, David Batchelor.
HPD-3451
Introduction to Asian Thought
One semester: 3 credits
This course will introduce the diverse doctrines and practices of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions as they developed in ancient India and traveled to Tibet, China and Japan. Through scriptural texts we will explore Hinduism’s three spiritual paths: the Path of Action, the Path of Devotion and the Path of Knowledge. We will then examine how the Buddha’s radical reinterpretation of the meaning of self formed the basis of one of the most powerful spiritual and philosophical movements in history. The course will then focus on Japanese Zen Buddhism through the writings of its founders. We will conclude with a look at the forms that these traditional schools are now taking as they are transplanted into Western cultures. Readings include: Fenton’s Religions of Asia; Koller’s Source-book in Asian Philosophy; Harvey’s An Introduction to Buddhism; Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.
HPD-3454
Aesthetics and the Modern Artist
One semester: 3 credits
Why does art exist and what does it mean to human perception and our experience of the world? Why are we fascinated by beauty? What is the source of inspiration? What is the relationship of art to truth? This course is designed to explore the concepts of taste, beauty, expression, artistic judgment, genius and inspiration in the light of classical and contemporary aesthetic theory. Texts will include selections from philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre. We will also consider the contributions of poets, musicians and visual artists. Finally, this course will probe views of the political and social significance of creativity and assess their value in terms of history and the future.
HPD-3458
Ethics
One semester: 3 credits
Is might right? Should majority rule? Does power corrupt? Does pluralism entail the abdication of values? Ethics is the rational analysis of morals, with no regard for fashion and political correctness, and can therefore both seek and find firm and objective answers to what is right, good, duty, justice and freedom in all corners of personal and social life. This course is not an issues menu or a survey of all possible positions, but a concentrated study of deontological, naturalistic and utilitarian ethics in classical texts and contemporary commentaries. Additionally, the question of evil in the world and the status of universal human rights must be sorted out.
HPD-3466
Uncontrollable Beauty I
One semester: 3 credits
This course will focus on the nature of beauty, style and fashion, drawing upon contemporary critics and philosophers, and contrasts our modern notion of beauty with Victorian ideas like those of John Ruskin, Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. We will discuss new philosophies of beauty from people like Dave Hickey, Versace, Frank Gehry, Jeremy Gilbert Rolfe and Jacqueline Lichtenstein. Uncontrollable Beauty is the primary text for the course.
HPD-3467
Uncontrollable Beauty II
One semester: 3 credits
What defines the nature of beauty is the focus of this course. We will draw upon the views of contemporary critics, novelists and artists, and discuss the notion of cultural relativity and the modern artist’s affinity for so-called “primitive” art. This course will also examine the practice of beauty and art-making through the essays of artists, designers and writers like Agnes Martin, Kenneth Koch, Julia Kristeva, Steven Pinker, Steven Colbert, Alexander McQueen and Louise Bourgeois. Uncontrollable Beauty and Sticky Sublime anthologies compiled and edited by the instructor are the primary texts for the course.
HPD-3471
Media Criticism
One semester: 3 credits
What is the role of the media in our contemporary society? How does it interact with our conception of democracy? What is the difference between information and propaganda? How does thought control work in a democratic society? How can we detect bias, conflicts of interest, inaccuracy, censorship and “dumbing down”? What is the role of visual imagery in shaping our attitudes toward gender, race and class? This course will explore these questions through readings from such analysts as Noam Chomsky, Ben Bagdikian and Norman Solomon. We will also examine some alternative sources of information and visual imagery.
HPD-3474
Social Problems in Contemporary Society: Peace, War, Terrorism and Personal Freedom
One semester: 3 credits
This course will be devoted to examining and interpreting the nature and justification, if any, for war and terrorism; moral questions about tactics in war and responding to terrorism; ideas for avoiding war and eliminating terrorism; and concepts and strategies for attaining peace and the morality of relations between nations. Then, putting theoretics behind us, we will focus on the historical details of the Vietnam and Iraq wars in the hope of uncovering some historical insights relevant to these issues. Finally, we will discuss the impact of terrorism and war upon such important values as personal freedom, dissent and patriotism. Reading assignments will include the works of such thinkers and social activists as Michael Walzer; Stanley Karnow; Mohandas Gandhi; Martin Luther King, Jr.; George Orwell and Virginia Held.
HPD-3494
Workers of the World: The Representation of Labor
One semester: 3 credits
Time is money. At least that’s what we’re told. It’s strange to imagine that you could put a price on hours and minutes, but this is precisely what we do at the workplace. This course will explore literary and visual texts that challenge our assumptions about how human time and human lives should be valued. Readings from authors of philosophical and fictional works will include Marx, Orwell, Sartre, Melville and Woolf. We will also view selected films in the science fiction and magic-realist genres that imagine futuristic forms of labor, such as Brazil, Metropolis and Dark City.
SOCIAL SCIENCES - Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology
HPD-3511
Archaeology of New York City
One semester: 3 credits
The past surrounds us in New York City. It’s under our feet and our basements, and enshrined in our museums. This course is an introduction to archaeology as a social science, as well as an examination of New York’s history using the artifacts found during archaeological excavations in the City. Museum visits and a walking tour of lower Manhattan are included.
HPD-3520
Men and Women in the Modern Workplace
One semester: 3 credits
After a historical overview of work in pre-industrial and industrial contexts, this course will focus on the experience of work in postindustrial society. Current issues within the workplace will be addressed, including: gender roles, the impact of the computer, functioning in complex organizations and opportunities for worker satisfaction. Those working in non-bureaucratic, smaller-scale contexts, such as professionals and artists, will also be discussed. A common theme will be the potential for, and limits to, worker autonomy and participation in decision-making. Readings will be supplemented with selected videos and films.
HPD-3522
Anthropology and the Bible
One semester: 3 credits
This course will explore the Old and New Testaments through a study of cultural anthropology. Attention will be paid to the historical and cultural framework of Biblical times, with discussions focusing on social customs as well as religious, political and economic institutions. We will also examine our perceptions of contemporary cultural diversity and the factors that shape our culture.
HPD-3530
Interpersonal Behavior
One semester: 3 credits
This course will analyze the structures and processes involved in face-to-face interpersonal relationships. A variety of social and psychological perspectives will form the basis for an analysis of love relationships, friendships, social and political interactions, workplace dynamics and family ties. Issues such as aggression, alienation, conformity and prejudice will also be addressed.
HPD-3531
Life Span Development: Child
One semester: 3 credits
In this course, we will focus on the extraordinary changes undergone by the developing child from conception through adolescence. We will base our study on the body of knowledge generated by theory and research in the field of developmental psychology. Our emphasis will be on patterns of physical maturation; linguistic and cognitive development; personal, social and emotional growth. Current issues in child psychology such as the working mother, popular media, neglect and abuse, drugs, and violence will also be addressed. The primary text will be Of Children: An Introduction to Child Development.
HPD-3532-R
Life Span Development: Adult
One semester: 3 credits
Do adults develop through predictable stages or do they reach a peak in their twenties or thirties and then decline and die? Within the framework of this organizing question, we will trace predictable changes and challenges experienced by adults from young adulthood through old age and death. Central issues will include: finding a mate, bearing and rearing children, negotiating relationships with family and friends, selecting and developing a career, accommodating to changing physical capacities and health, and coming to terms with death.
HPD-3541
Introduction to Psychology
One semester: 3 credits
Psychology is the science that systematically studies human behavior and experience. Within the last 100 years, psychologists have developed a significant body of knowledge in the areas of child and adult development, psychopathology, perception, cognition, memory, learning and social psychology. This course presents an overview of key topics in psychology and examines the methods that distinguish psychology from other approaches to human behavior.
HPD-3601
The Role of Free Speech, Organized Activism and Public Opinion in American Democracy
One semester: 3 credits
Have the traditional American ideals of free speech and democracy been reduced to mere rhetoric? Or do they remain a vital reality? Who really shapes U.S. public opinion? How is it formed? What role does it play in American political life? Why is the true nature of political power and policy shrouded in mystery? In this course, we will examine various theories of political and economic power as we explore the secret dynamics of American politics and public policy. The role of propaganda and public opinion in current political life will be discussed in light of such issues as the presidential election, abortion, the environment, race relations and foreign policy. Assigned readings will be supplemented by salient videos and guest speakers.
HPD-3623
Art and the Psyche
One semester: 3 credits
What do you reveal to your audience through your work? Is your art a free flowing stream to your unconscious? Is it a window to your own internal world or a reflection of the external? Do you strive for the content or the form? Freud argued that when making art one engages in complex mental processes. He described art as an effort at mastery as well as a regressive search for pleasure, representing both affective and cognitive expression. This course will examine three distinct theories of psychology as they apply to the relationships between art, artist and audience. The lectures will focus on drive theory, ego psychology and object-relations theory and their corresponding approaches to art analysis. We will explore selected works from Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Ernst Kris, D.W. Winnicott, Margaret Mahler, Anna Freud and Fred Pine, along with the principal authors of some alternative theories of psychology.
HPD-3636
Protect Your Creative Assets:
Legal Concerns for Visual Artists in a Digital Age
One semester: 3 credits
You have a talent—a creative ability that others desire, need and covet. A foundation for a successful career is an understanding of your legal rights and responsibilities. This course will focus on the pressing concerns for artists today, including digital media, websites and blogs. It is critical to understand the bundle of rights you have so you can protect them. Learn how much content you can appropriate without being sued and losing your precious assets. During the course of your career, contracts will be presented to you as “standard” that can strip your rights away. Learn how to negotiate contracts and include provisions that are beneficial to you. In this course, you will become familiar with legal and business issues so that you can successfully navigate them throughout your career.
HPD-3641
Abnormal Psychology I: Neurotic and Character Disorders
One semester: 3 credits
This course will introduce students to the psychological and interpersonal conflicts that underlie obsessional, hysterical, depressive and narcissistic disorders. Treatment strategies will also be explored with reference to actual case histories. Readings include selections from such clinical theorists as Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, David Shapiro, Alice Miller, Charles Brenner, Karen Horney and Heinz Kohut.
HPD-3642
Abnormal Psychology II: Psychotic and Character Disorders
One semester: 3 credits
This course will focus on the psychological and interpersonal conflicts that characterize schizoid and borderline personality disorders as well as psychotic mood disorders and schizophrenia. Treatment strategies will also be explored with reference to actual case studies. Readings include selections from such clinical theorists as Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Harry Stack Sullivan, Irvin Yalom, W.W. Meissner, R.D. Laing and Peter Breggin.
HPD-3644
Deviant Behavior and Social Control
One semester: 3 credits
This course will examine the causes and consequences of various forms of deviant behavior. In addition to viewing deviant behavior as a residual and problematic phenomenon in society, we will focus on what some sociologists consider to be the integrated and necessary relationship between deviance and society. Specific topics for analysis and discussion will include prostitution, pornography, drug addiction, alcoholism, mental illness, street crime and white-collar crime.
HPD-3677
Surviving into the 21st Century: A Multicultural Perspective
One semester: 3 credits
At this moment, there are approximately 40 wars on our small planet. Most are based on racial, religious or ethnic differences. With today’s weapons, it is easy to imagine omnicide, the death of everything. To move with hope in the 21st century, and the new millennium it has begun, we must learn to understand how we create “us” and “them” scenarios. We must learn to recognize ourselves as a single species. We will read some of the great writers and thinkers of many different cultures, religions and eras (Freud, Geronimo, Gandhi, Maya Angelou, Bei Dao, Neruda, Whitman, Marina Tvetayeva, Elie Wiesel, Nelson Mandela, Virginia Woolf, Malcolm X). The process of reading, writing and discussion should enable each student to raise his or her consciousness and to explore ways of eliminating prejudice in daily life, the necessary first step toward world peace.
HPD-3898
Theories of Personality I
One semester: 3 credits
What is a personality? How can we understand human behavior? What are the criteria according to which people can be characterized? This course will introduce students to a psychological approach to the question of what it means to be a person. It has two aims: First, it will provide an introduction to the classical personality theories of Freud, Jung, Erikson and Winnicott, as well as to current developmental perspectives on personality emerging from the ideas of Bowlby, Stern and Ainsworth; second, it will teach students to use theories of personality to inform their understanding of self and others.
HPD-3899
Theories of Personality II
One semester: 3 credits
Beginning with classical psychoanalytic writers, such as Freud, Klein, Winnicott and Mahler, this course will review different theories of personality development. Contemporary relational theorists will also be studied, with an emphasis on gender development, creativity and the impact of childhood trauma on adult functioning.
HPD-4057
Modern Art and Psychology: The Secrets of the Soul
One semester: 3 credits
What do dreams mean? What causes madness? How should society care for the insane? Is the mind a machine? With the rise of science in modern times, psychologists have become the new doctors of the soul who address these age-old questions. This course presents their fascinating answers, as well as examines the influence of psychology on culture and the visual arts. Topics include: 19th-century asylum medicine, 20th-century psychoanalysis and today’s neuroscience, as well as metaphors for the psyche in the arts. Readings from: Madness in America: Cultural and Medical Perspectives on Mental Illness until 1914 and Dreams 1900-2000: Science, Art and the Unconscious Mind.
HPD-4282
The 21st-Century Family: Alternative Lifestyles, Civil Unions, Gay Marriage
One semester: 3 credits
This behavioral science course will focus on an examination of the basic functions of the family unit as well as its cross-cultural and historical forms. The course will focus on the profound changes occurring within the 21st century family unit and the reasons for these changes. Emphasis will be placed on the new American family: civil unions, gay marriage, domestic partnerships, single parent families, step-families and blended families as well as other familial units. Issues will include a discussion of the political and economic impact of the new family paradigm upon society, alternative lifestyles, family values agenda, the divorce culture and abortion. This course gives students an understanding of the history of the family unit and how these institutions have changed over the past 25 years. Students will also explore how media and cultural institutions shaped the notion of marriage and family during the past half-century and the beginning of the 21st century.
HPD-4299
Race and Ethnic Relations
One semester: 3 credits
This course will focus on a variety of theoretical and empirical issues related to race and ethnic relations. Topics will include the concept of “race”; minorities; social stratification and social conflict; the relationship between prejudice and discrimination; assimilation, amalgamation and cultural pluralism; race, ethnicity and ideology; patterns of segregation; and the question of racial oppression or class subordination.
HPD-4333
Man the Animal
One semester: 3 credits
This course in physical anthropology will cover human evolution, physical characteristics of human populations (including growth studies, human variation and forensic anthropology) and the other primates (monkeys and apes). There will be field trips to museums as well as the Bronx Zoo.
HPD-4481
Psychological Aspects of the Creative Process
One semester: 3 credits
This course reviews the intellectual and the emotional processes that facilitate creativity. What kind of thinking facilitates creativity and what blocks it, and how do you develop creative thinking? What kind of internalized negative voices block you from achieving your fullest creative potential? How do you carve a personal space that will best assist your art-making? We will read psychological theories as well as personal accounts of writers and artists who write about the creative process. The work of Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, will be the centerpiece of the course.
SOCIAL SCIENCES - Science and Mathematics
HSD-2114
Evolution
One semester: 3 credits
This course will explore the origins of life on Earth as well as the evolutionary processes of microbes, plants and animals, especially humans. Focal topics will include Darwin’s theory of natural selection and Gregor Mendel’s contributions to our understanding of the diversity of life forms. Modern tools of artificial selection and the cloning of organisms will also be examined and discussed. Students will further explore these topics with microscopes and other experiments in natural selection.
HSD-2447
Cells and Molecules
One semester: 3 credits
The last three decades have witnessed an enormous explosion of knowledge in cell biology. New techniques from molecular biology and new imaging techniques have revealed a complex web of interlocking processes, coordinated by a system or molecular signals. In this course, we will examine this system from a modern viewpoint, including the potential applications in cancer treatment and other clinical areas. Topics will include: Basic biochemistry and cell anatomy; enzymes and metabolic pathways, signals and receptors; signal transduction cascades; the cell as a complex system with many subsystems; the cell cycle—control of reproduction and mortality, apoptosis, developmental biology, cancer and the aging process.
HSD-2566
Biological Genetics
One semester: 3 credits
Genetics and molecular biology have increasingly found applications in a variety of areas collectively known as biotechnology. Many of these applications have become a part of our everyday lives. This course will focus on providing a basic understanding of genetics and molecular biology as they relate to the practical application of these sciences. The basic architecture of cells; principles of inheritance; DNA structure, function and replication; gene expression, including RNA and protein synthesis, will form the base of our investigations. The study of genetic engineering will allow for an understanding of the uses of biotechnology in many different areas. Biotechnologies covered will include the production of tools for disease diagnosis, the development of new drugs and vaccines, forensic employment in a variety of legal proceedings, uses in improving agricultural output and uses in environmental technologies. Students will further explore these ideas with microscopes and other experiments to reveal the gene theory of heredity.
HSD-2578
Germs and Gems
One semester: 3 credits
This course will explore the pigments and minerals that emerge from microbial worlds. The origins of life and production of pigments throughout the history of the Earth will be viewed through the “lens” of microscopic life. Bacteria, protists and exceptional viruses will be among the creatures discussed; they provided the first green revolution. These creatures reside in and on all life as seen by the symbiotic theories. Cell theory, germ theory, the chemistry of metals and pigments, and the laws that explain their colors will be discussed. These topics will be further examined with microscopes and other experiments with minerals and germs.
HSD-2642
Designs of Brains and Minds
One semester: 3 credits
Diverse roles of the brain in the biological world and the emergence of artificial intelligence will be explored in this course. Topics will include: evolution and development of the brain, engineering intelligence in animals, artificial organs, robotics and neural networks as the basis of artificial minds. Explorations of these topics will be supplemented with views through microscopes and by conducting other experiments into the theories of the brain.
HSD-2666
Our Living Planet: The Biology of Life on Earth
One semester: 3 credits
This course will explore the biological nature and environmental habitats of microbial, plant and animal life on earth. The origins, physiology, behavior and reproductive patterns of the planet’s various life forms will be examined in relation to their diverse natural conditions and interactions. The quest for life on other planets will also be discussed. The course will also explore this world with microscopes and cultures of a few of its creatures.
HSD-2773
Life in the Concrete Jungle: Urban Ecology
One semester: 3 credits
New York City is one of the largest cities in the world, yet many New Yorkers do not know that they have numerous ecosystem habitats and thousands of species in their backyard. In this field and lab-studio course, students will be introduced to conceptual framework of ecology, major environmental and local ecological issues, strategies and skills needed for scientific study, and transdisciplinary art and ecological practices. The emerging science of urban ecology is broadly defined as the study of relationships between living organisms and their biotic and abiotic (non-living) environment within cities. Field trips to local ecosystems will explore local aquatic and terrestrial habitats as well as urban tolerant and migratory floral/faunal species. Discussions will address the importance of ecology in improving environmental quality and for conserving biodiversity. Laboratory exercises will address population impact, environmental stressors, ecological footprint and urban biodiversity, among other topics. This course will increase students’ understanding of ecology and be helpful toward their creation of future ecological artworks. Required text: Miguel A. Santos, Principles of Ecology, 3rd edition.
HSD-2796
Study of Life: Principles of Biology
One semester: 3 credits
Since ancient times, nature and animals have been a source of artistic inspiration. This course will give students a better understanding of core concepts in the biological sciences, including characteristics of living matter (from the molecular to the macro-environmental), and the development, reproduction, genetic inheritance and unifying concept of evolution. This will be an integrated lecture and laboratory course, with presentations and a field trip to a New York City ecosystem where we will explore concepts of species adaptation and diversity. These ideas will help inform and inspire future artworks involving living processes; in-class lectures will examine the emerging field of bio art. Students will conduct virtual as well as actual dissections of preserved invertebrates and vertebrates. Required text: Biology: Concepts & Connections, 5th edition.
HSD-2987
Introduction to Mathematics I
One semester: 3 credits
This course approaches mathematics historically, emphasizing its relation to art, science and other cultural areas. We will study ancient Greek mathematics and early astronomers; number systems and geometry; algebra, projective geometry, early physics and Renaissance culture.
HSD-2988
Introduction to Mathematics II
One semester: 3 credits
This course is a continuation of HSD-2987, Introduction to Mathematics I. After review of material covered in the first semester, we examine an array of topics of interest: combinations and permutations, statistics and probability theory, topology, non-Euclidean geometries, and other areas of students’ interest.
HSD-3003
Energy and the Modern World
One semester: 3 credits
This course will examine the basic nature, forms and concepts of energy. We will also explore the similarities and differences between various types of available energy as well as the techniques by which they can be converted into one another. Special attention will be paid to the importance of energy conservation and the pitfalls and global perils that attend the growing competition over, demand for, and production of, energy in today’s world.
HSD-3016
Science in the Modern World
One semester: 3 credits
The triumphs of modern science have been heralded as an emancipation from the burdens of ignorance, fear, toil and disease. But have the sciences fulfilled their promise to liberate humankind? Have we truly overcome superstition and dogma, or simply replaced them with the uncertainties of a scientific “metaphysics” bristling with mysterious forces, powers, fields, waves, quarks and rays? Have we achieved the goals of knowledge and power, or have we reinvented ignorance and multiplied the dangers that surround us? In an attempt to come to grips with these questions, this course takes stock of recent scientific progress in fields such as anthropology, cosmology, ecology, subatomic physics and genetic engineering, measuring the claims of science and technology against those of the individual. Microscopes and other experiments will be used to provide students with more direct experience with these ideas.
HSD-3021
Technology, Identity, Crisis
One semester: 3 credits
Since the Scientific Revolution, technological innovation has driven fundamental cultural and socio-economic developments in all human societies. This course will examine technology as a major engine of change. Particular focus will be placed on specific examples of technological inventions and their impacts on human life. We will devote our attention to crucial periods and advances of technological innovation, such as the Industrial Revolution, modern electronics and computer technologies, military and space oriented technology, and many others. One major goal of the course will be to understand the material and scientific principles behind successful technological developments. Yet another goal will be to consider the impact of technological advances on culture and society, including the sometimes profoundly negative consequences of technological development. Readings will include an array of modern studies on various technologies and their impact.
HSD-3044
History of the Human Body: Society, Culture and Medicine
One semester: 3 credits
This course will focus on the ways in which concepts of the human body have shaped Western culture from classical antiquity to the present day. We will survey theories of the body, anatomy, the diagnosis and treatment of disease, and pharmacology. We will also consider the social aspects of medicine, focusing on the lives of people who generated and used medical knowledge. Moreover, we will investigate the ways in which this knowledge has affected modern culture, from its impact on art and philosophy to modern attitudes toward medicine and health care practitioners. In part, this course will consist of a survey of medical ideas and practices from earliest times to the present. We will subsequently focus upon the vast influence that medicine has had on the realms of culture, society and politics. Readings will include important contemporary sources as well as recent historical studies.
HSD-3111
Astronomy
One semester: 3 credits
This is an introductory astronomy course for nonscience students. We will begin with a study of the early history of astronomy and our current understanding of the planets and other components of the solar system. The second part of the course is devoted to the study of the rest of the universe. We examine the optical tools used, spectral types, the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, the various kinds of stars and their life histories, black holes, galaxies, quasars and other celestial bodies. Cosmological theories will be discussed.
HSD-3114
Modern Art and Astronomy: The Expanding Universe
One semester: 3 credits
Where do stars come from? How big is the universe? What’s inside an atom? Why is the sky blue? In the last century, scientists have given revolutionary answers to these questions, profoundly altering how modern society perceives reality. This course presents fascinating responses to these questions in plain, easy-to-understand English, along with illustrations of their impact on art and culture. Topics include Einstein’s theory of the relativity of space and time, the discovery that the universe is expanding, space travel, the splitting of the atom, and the dawning of the nuclear age, as well as scientific metaphors in the arts.
HSD-3204
Science, Technology and War: A Historical Overview
One semester: 3 credits
This course will examine two areas of great importance. The first area deals with the historical analysis of the roles that science and technology have played in the development and transformation of war. We will focus on the evolution of weapons and weapons systems and their effect in battle. The second area examines the effects of weapons technology upon the rest of society. We will study how changes in weapons technology can alter state and world systems. Can they increase the need to mobilize the population for industrial production? Do they increase the capacity to, and rationality of, striking at civilians? Has technological change made massive violence unlikely, or more likely?
HSD-3211
The Material World
One semester: 3 credits
In this course, we will examine the way scientists and engineers look at the material world around us. At a practical level, we first examine the basic mechanical principles used in the design of cathedrals, ships and living organisms. At a more fundamental level, we ask: What do physicists know about the ultimate nature of matter? What are the ultimate laws governing the physical universe? We examine the answer to this question as it has evolved from the time of Newton to the present.
HSD-3253
Modern Art and Biology: The Mystery of Life
One semester: 3 credits
How did the first life on earth begin? How smart were dinosaurs? Why do children look like their parents? How does the human brain remember things? Scientists gave revolutionary answers to these questions in the 20th century, profoundly altering how modern society perceived reality. This course presents fascinating responses to these questions in plain English, along with illustrations of their impact on art and culture. Topics include the theory of evolution, how cells function, deciphering the DNA molecule, and medical revolutions from antibiotics to organ transplants as well as biological metaphors in the arts.
HSD-325
Science and Religion
One semester: 3 credits
What is the relationship between religion (popular and official) and science? Are they complementary in their effects, or are they antagonistic? Is there continuity and interdependence between the philosophical propositions of science and religion? Has Western science replaced religion as a rational activity? These and similar questions will be posed and discussed in the course through the critical examination of major historical, sociological and anthropological studies.
HSD-3322
Environmental Studies
One semester: 3 credits
This course stresses the basic principles of the physical sciences. Topics include: physical and chemical parameters of the environment, populations, biochemical cycles, biological diversity, human ecology and energy.
HSD-3344
Environmental Economics
One semester: 3 credits
Beginning with an examination of economic ideas, from the Physiocrats and Adam Smith to the present, this course will focus on issues of environmental economics. Readings include Heilbroner’s The Worldly Philosophers as well as selections from Herman Daly and other contemporary writers.
HSD-3901
Human Diseases
One semester: 3 credits
This course will survey the major human diseases, their history, causes and treatment. Emerging diseases are also discussed. The legends and myths about diseases will be clarified and insights into infectious diseases will be provided. A trip to the American Museum of Natural History will be included.
HSD-4026
Art, Science and the Spiritual
One semester: 3 credits
What is our place in the universe? How do we perceive the world? Students will learn how modern science has profoundly transformed modern art. The theories of Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein forever changed how artists understand reality. The rise of science also entailed the decline of organized religion, causing traditional spiritual questions to be reformulated in secular terms. At the same time, the theories proposed by psychologists—the new doctors of the soul—revolutionized modern society’s understanding of the human psyche. Artists responded to the challenges posed by science and psychology by creating new metaphors for the human condition during the first secular, scientific age in human history. We will explore the interplay between art, science and the spiritual by evaluating major scientific and religious trends of the 20th century in relation to the representative artistic movements and works of the time.
HSD-4199
Human Biology: The Immune System
One semester: 3 credits
With the advent of diseases that attack and cripple the immune system, immunology has been thrust into the public domain. This course will attempt to help the nonscientist understand some of the basics of the critical cells within the blood that help protect us from infection, disease and cancer, and that play an everyday role in our lives. Topics will include some of the myths about the immune system, how stress adversely influences our body’s ability to cope with disease, how to potentially strengthen the immune system through dietary supplements, and how medical science is attempting to harness the immune system as a partner in the prevention and treatment of cancer using vaccines and immunotherapy.
HSD-4204
Human Anatomy and Physiology
One semester: 3 credits
A comparative study of human anatomy in the context of vertebrate evolution is the focus of this course. Students will view tissues and cells through microscopes and with other physiological experiments. Field trips to the American Museum of Natural History and detailed discussion of the major physiological systems will be included.
HSD-4232
Light, Color and Vision I
One semester: 3 credits
The basic physics and chemistry of light in a nonmathematical treatment of classical geometrical and physical optics will be examined in this course. We will discuss: refraction and diffraction; structural color; a qualitative discussion of the modern view of the nature of light and its interactions with matter; photochemistry, pigments and dyes; the principles underlying fluorescence and phosphorescence, lasers and holography.
HSD-4232
Light, Color and Vision I
One semester: 3 credits
The basic physics and chemistry of light in a nonmathematical treatment of classical geometrical and physical optics will be examined in this course. We will discuss refraction and diffraction; structural color; the modern view of the nature of light and its interactions with matter; photochemistry, pigments and dyes; the principles underlying fluorescence and phosphorescence, lasers and holography. Students will use microscopes and experiment with discrete electrons to explore these topics.
HSD-4233
Light, Color and Vision II
One semester: 3 credits
A continuation of HSD-4232, Light, Color and Vision I, this course will examine the biology and psychology of vision, sensory responses to light in microorganisms and plants, vision in the invertebrates, the vertebrate eye, aberrations of human vision, the biochemistry and neurology of vision, visual illusions and visual perception in relation to art history. Students will view these ideas more closely through the lenses of microscopes and by conducting experiments in theories of vision. Prerequisite: HSD-4232, Light, Color and Vision I, or instructor’s permission.
HSD-4289
Art, Mathematics and the Mystical
One semester: 3 credits
What is infinity? Do numbers originate in our minds or in the cosmos? How do abstract patterns acquire meaning? These fascinating questions lie at the heart of mathematics, which—because of its abstractness—is the foundation of exact thought and the international language of today’s high-tech culture. But despite its pivotal importance, mathematics is often a disappointment to artists because its secrets are written in a language—mathematical symbols—that they may not understand. The goal of this course is to describe in plain English the ideas that drive mathematics—numbers, infinity, geometry, pattern, and so on—and to demonstrate how these topics have been absorbed, interpreted and expressed by modern artists. The course will also explain how mathematical ideas are conveyed in symbols, formulas, graphs and diagrams. These figures and formulas amount to a pictorial visualization of abstract concepts that have profound implications for artists who create animated patterns, abstract paintings or conceptual art. No background in mathematics is needed; the only prerequisite is a natural curiosity about numbers.
HSD-4324
Food Explorations
One semester: 3 credits
Cuisine, nutrition and the problems of our abundant food supply will be examined in this course. Topics will include the selections of crops, meats and beverages by ancient civilizations; industrialization of farming through genetic engineering; and fast-food diets. The impact of our changing taste for nutrition and our health will also be explored. Other areas suggested by students will be included. Field trips to green markets and purveyors of food will provide a chance to explore the culinary arts. Readings include: Harold McGee’s Science and Lore of the Kitchen.
SPECIAL COURSES
SPD-2717
The Philosophy and Practice of Yoga I
One semester: 3 miscellaneous credits
Three routines designed for freedom and alignment of both the body and mental processes will be practiced. Gradual or sudden improvement in lifestyle involving diet, general health habits, ways of thinking, etc., will be studied and discussed. Texts include: B.K.S. Iyengar’s Light on Yoga; Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat; P. Yoganand’s Autobiography of a Yogi.
SPD-2718
The Philosophy and Practice of Yoga II
One semester: 3 miscellaneous credits
Throughout the semester we will practice three different routines designed to develop a fund of energy and vitality. By balancing these energies by practice and meditation, we can reach higher and more efficient levels of mental/spiritual perception and calmness. Because yoga demands a holistic approach in lifestyles for best results, we will study literature dealing with diet and general health. Class discussions will share experiences and information. The following books will be used: The Soul and Its Mechanism, Alice Bailey; Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Lappe; Yoga, Immortality and Freedom, Mircea Eliade; Pranayama (The Yoga Breathing), Andre van Lysbeth.
SPD-2753
French for Artists (and Travelers)
One semester: 3 miscellaneous credits
We are constantly surrounded by things French: painting, wine, perfume, cuisine, literature and film, and sometimes intimidated by the language itself. Many of us wish to learn it so that we could speak easily, visit a French-speaking country, perhaps even sell our artwork there, but we are daunted by pronunciation. This course is designed to help students speak and read French, with a sense of humor and patience, to get over that “foreign” barrier. Starting from the beginning, we will gradually learn the language, while exploring the inspirational peaks of French culture, literature, art and film.
SPD-2877
Holography
One semester: 3 miscellaneous credits
This studio-oriented course will begin with an introductory discussion of the basic principles and history of holography, followed by work in the holography lab. Students will make single-beam-reflection (Denisyuk) holograms, shadowgrams, laser-viewable transmission master holograms and white-light viewable transfers.
HSD-4026
Art, Science and the Spiritual
One semester: 3 credits
What is our place in the universe? How do we perceive the world? Students will learn how modern science has profoundly transformed modern art. The theories of Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein forever changed how artists understand reality. The rise of science also entailed the decline of organized religion, causing traditional spiritual questions to be reformulated in secular terms. At the same time, the theories proposed by psychologists—the new doctors of the soul—revolutionized modern society’s understanding of the human psyche. Artists responded to the challenges posed by science and psychology by creating new metaphors for the human condition during the first secular, scientific age in human history. We will explore the interplay between art, science and the spiritual by evaluating major scientific and religious trends of the 20th century in relation to the representative artistic movements and works of the time.
HSD-4199
Human Biology: The Immune System
One semester: 3 credits
With the advent of diseases that attack and cripple the immune system, immunology has been thrust into the public domain. This course will attempt to help the nonscientist understand some of the basics of the critical cells within the blood that help protect us from infection, disease and cancer, and that play an everyday role in our lives. Topics will include some of the myths about the immune system, how stress adversely influences our body’s ability to cope with disease, how to potentially strengthen the immune system through dietary supplements, and how medical science is attempting to harness the immune system as a partner in the prevention and treatment of cancer using vaccines and immunotherapy.
HSD-4204
Human Anatomy and Physiology
One semester: 3 credits
A comparative study of human anatomy in the context of vertebrate evolution is the focus of this course. Students will view tissues and cells through microscopes and with other physiological experiments. Field trips to the American Museum of Natural History and detailed discussion of the major physiological systems will be included.
HSD-4232
Light, Color and Vision I
One semester: 3 credits
The basic physics and chemistry of light in a nonmathematical treatment of classical geometrical and physical optics will be examined in this course. We will discuss: refraction and diffraction; structural color; a qualitative discussion of the modern view of the nature of light and its interactions with matter; photochemistry, pigments and dyes; the principles underlying fluorescence and phosphorescence, lasers and holography.
HSD-4232
Light, Color and Vision I
One semester: 3 credits
The basic physics and chemistry of light in a nonmathematical treatment of classical geometrical and physical optics will be examined in this course. We will discuss refraction and diffraction; structural color; the modern view of the nature of light and its interactions with matter; photochemistry, pigments and dyes; the principles underlying fluorescence and phosphorescence, lasers and holography. Students will use microscopes and experiment with discrete electrons to explore these topics.
HSD-4233
Light, Color and Vision II
One semester: 3 credits
A continuation of HSD-4232, Light, Color and Vision I, this course will examine the biology and psychology of vision, sensory responses to light in microorganisms and plants, vision in the invertebrates, the vertebrate eye, aberrations of human vision, the biochemistry and neurology of vision, visual illusions and visual perception in relation to art history. Students will view these ideas more closely through the lenses of microscopes and by conducting experiments in theories of vision. Prerequisite: HSD-4232, Light, Color and Vision I, or instructor’s permission.
HSD-4289
Art, Mathematics and the Mystical
One semester: 3 credits
What is infinity? Do numbers originate in our minds or in the cosmos? How do abstract patterns acquire meaning? These fascinating questions lie at the heart of mathematics, which—because of its abstractness—is the foundation of exact thought and the international language of today’s high-tech culture. But despite its pivotal importance, mathematics is often a disappointment to artists because its secrets are written in a language—mathematical symbols—that they may not understand. The goal of this course is to describe in plain English the ideas that drive mathematics—numbers, infinity, geometry, pattern, and so on—and to demonstrate how these topics have been absorbed, interpreted and expressed by modern artists. The course will also explain how mathematical ideas are conveyed in symbols, formulas, graphs and diagrams. These figures and formulas amount to a pictorial visualization of abstract concepts that have profound implications for artists who create animated patterns, abstract paintings or conceptual art. No background in mathematics is needed; the only prerequisite is a natural curiosity about numbers.
HSD-4324
Food Explorations
One semester: 3 credits
Cuisine, nutrition and the problems of our abundant food supply will be examined in this course. Topics will include the selections of crops, meats and beverages by ancient civilizations; industrialization of farming through genetic engineering; and fast-food diets. The impact of our changing taste for nutrition and our health will also be explored. Other areas suggested by students will be included. Field trips to green markets and purveyors of food will provide a chance to explore the culinary arts. Readings include: Harold McGee’s Science and Lore of the Kitchen.
SPECIAL COURSES
SPD-2717
The Philosophy and Practice of Yoga I
One semester: 3 miscellaneous credits
Three routines designed for freedom and alignment of both the body and mental processes will be practiced. Gradual or sudden improvement in lifestyle involving diet, general health habits, ways of thinking, etc., will be studied and discussed. Texts include: B.K.S. Iyengar’s Light on Yoga; Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat; P. Yoganand’s Autobiography of a Yogi.
SPD-2718
The Philosophy and Practice of Yoga II
One semester: 3 miscellaneous credits
Throughout the semester we will practice three different routines designed to develop a fund of energy and vitality. By balancing these energies by practice and meditation, we can reach higher and more efficient levels of mental/spiritual perception and calmness. Because yoga demands a holistic approach in lifestyles for best results, we will study literature dealing with diet and general health. Class discussions will share experiences and information. The following books will be used: The Soul and Its Mechanism, Alice Bailey; Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Lappe; Yoga, Immortality and Freedom, Mircea Eliade; Pranayama (The Yoga Breathing), Andre van Lysbeth. Note: There is no prerequisite for this course.
SPD-2753
French for Artists (and Travelers)
One semester: 3 miscellaneous credits
We are constantly surrounded by things French: painting, wine, perfume, cuisine, literature and film, and sometimes intimidated by the language itself. Many of us wish to learn it so that we could speak easily, visit a French-speaking country, perhaps even sell our artwork there, but we are daunted by pronunciation. This course is designed to help students speak and read French, with a sense of humor and patience, to get over that “foreign” barrier. Starting from the beginning, we will gradually learn the language, while exploring the inspirational peaks of French culture, literature, art and film.
SPD-2877
Holography
One semester: 3 miscellaneous credits
This studio-oriented course will begin with an introductory discussion of the basic principles and history of holography, followed by work in the holography lab. Students will make single-beam-reflection (Denisyuk) holograms, shadowgrams, laser-viewable transmission master holograms and white-light viewable transfers.
ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE COURSES
ESD-0050
English as a Second Language: Reading Strategies I
One semester: no credit
Students will develop vocabulary and their critical reading and thinking skills through discussion of essays, short stories and related media. Students will be required to keep a reading journal.
ESD-0055
English as a Second Language: Reading Strategies II
One semester: no credit
This is the second part of a two-semester course. Please see ESD-0050 for course description.
ESD-0060
English as a Second Language: Writing Strategies I
One semester: no credit
This course will focus on the fundamentals of essay writing using class readings and discussions as a basis for writing. Grammar, sentence and paragraph logic, idea development, organization and essay structure will be explored.
ESD-0065
English as a Second Language: Writing Strategies II
One semester: no credit
This is the second part of a two-semester course. Please see ESD-0060 for course description.
ESD-0066
Topics in Grammar
One semester: no credit
Students will improve their written grammar through an exploration of themes in American culture. The course will focus on grammar topics that will emerge from paragraph writing exercises and class discussion.
ESD-0068
Understanding Academic Lectures
One semester: no credit
Students will improve their listening comprehension and ability to understand academic lectures. Note-taking strategies, as well as speaking, writing and vocabulary, will be included.
ESD-0070
The Language of Art I
One semester: no credit
This course will focus on the vocabulary of art relevant to oral and written critiques and to art history.
ESD-0071
The Language of Art II
One semester: no credit
A continuation of ESD-0070, The Language of Art I, this course is intended to further develop oral and written fluency in the language of art.
ESD-0073
TOEFL Strategies I
One semester: no credit
Using the Internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL iBT), students will study test-taking strategies, listening comprehension, grammar, reading comprehension and vocabulary.
ESD-0074
TOEFL Strategies II
One semester: no credit
This is the second part of a two-semester course. Please see ESD-0073 for course description.
ESD-0078
Speak Fluently I
One semester: no credit
Students will build fluency and help improve pronunciation through acting and improvisation techniques. These creative exercises will help students overcome their blocks to speaking. In the second semester, public speaking and class discussion skills will be emphasized. Students may take one or both semesters.
ESD-0079
Speak Fluently II
One semester: no credit
This is the second part of a two-semester course. Please see ESD-0078 for course description.
ESD-0226
IBT TOEFL Reading
One semester: no credit
In this course, students will focus on the reading portion of the iBT TOEFL exam. Through practice in reading passages and exams, students will learn strategies and vocabulary to foster the comprehension skills necessary for the iBT exam and academic material. Speed reading techniques will also be discussed. Home assignments will be given.
ESD-0283
Building Vocabulary Skills I
One semester: no credit
This course will help you to increase your word power through themed readings, dictionary use and class participation in engaging discussions and writing topics that elicit the natural use of words. You will study a wide variety of vocabulary words used in academic settings and standardized tests. You will also learn about basic word parts (prefix, root, suffix) and word forms (noun, verb, adjective, adverb), and how these can help you figure out the meaning of new words you encounter. A personal vocabulary journal will be required.
ESD-0284
Building Vocabulary Skills II
One semester: no credit
This is the second part of a two-semester course. Please see ESD-0283 for course description.
ESG-0168
Speaking Visually
One semester: no credit
This course focuses on visual media and how to talk about it. Through discussion of various art forms and mediums, students will practice using art terminology as well as expressive, abstract language. Several postmodernist theories will be introduced. Students will work on curatorial projects as well as presentations of their own work. The meetings are fast-paced, with exercises designed to build vocabulary and enhance fluency. Students will gain greater confidence in their English language abilities, enabling them to participate more fully in their other courses.
ESG-0169
Questioning Contemporary Art
One semester: no credit
Honing the skills to understand and communicate metaphors in art is the focus of this course. Through discussions on inventive contemporary artists, central topics that emerge will be turned into questions. In response, students will compose short essays addressing the topics in their own work. Journal entries in reaction to exhibitions, lectures, books, animations, or websites will help to develop the expression of a personal aesthetic. Artists to be discussed include Robert Irwin, Jessica Stockholder, Bradley Wester, Jane South, Diana Cooper, Daniel Verbis, Regine Schumann, Eunjung Hwang, Harvey Benschoter, Jose Alvarez, Buff Monster and Jovi Schnell.
ESG-0223
Visual to Verbal: Film, Art, Writing
One semester: no credit
This course will support the fashioning of inventive studio and thesis projects. Students will articulate their aesthetic in relation to cinematography, astute visual approaches and cultural understanding. Through written responses to film, contemporary art and critical theory, students will develop cogent artists’ statements and thesis passages. Current idiomatic English and precise vocabulary will be emphasized with editing assistance provided. Film directors to be discussed include: Charlie Kaufman, Alain Resnais, John Carpenter, Tsai Ming Liang, Wes Anderson, Susanne Bier, Emir Kusturica, Chris Marker, Kim Ki-duk, Richard Linklater. The first four sessions of this course are group meetings. For the remainder of the course, individual conferences with the instructor will be scheduled.
ESG-0233
Write to Engage: Thesis and Professional Writing
One semester: no credit
Through reading passages from literature and critical essays, as well as artists’ statements and proposals, students will examine how to craft their writing with effervescent detail. How to be rigorous in choosing language to effectively convey insight will be emphasized. The result will be writing in a personal style that communicates original thinking and engages the reader. The first four sessions of this course are group meetings; for the remainder of the course, individual conferences with the instructor will be scheduled.
