This course seeks to introduce students to Latin America's experience of war and peace in the second half of the 20th century and the 21st century. It focuses on the causes of war, how political violence manifests, the effects of war on society, and how people make peace and move on from war. Instead of studying only war or only peace, the course questions the division between these two categories, and considers how conflicts can transition from peace to violence. Relevant to interests in politics, sociology, history, international studies, Latin America, law, and peace studies.

This is a hands-on seminar and laboratory experience about the engineering design of motorcycles. Students will restore or repair a vintage Triumph motorcycle and will compare it to previous restorations of the same make and model of motorcycle from other years (1955, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, and 1964). No previous shop or laboratory experience is necessary, and we welcome liberal arts students as well as engineering students. The class meets twice each week, starting with a discussion session followed by laboratory work.

This course explores the linguistic and extralinguistic aspects of intercultural communication, including pragmalinguistics, politeness, and cross-cultural communication. It aims to develop an understanding of the culture-language relationship and an interest in the multifaceted nature of language and the way its components are shaped by sociocultural practices. The course does not require any background in linguistics; it is meant to be an accessible introduction for undergraduates who are new to intercultural communication and are interested in international relations and global cultures. Classes are highly participatory.

Have you ever wanted to "get even" with someone? Each of us has likely been or felt we have been wronge--and has pondered how that wrong is to be recompensed. Together, we'll sample that dish "best served cold" by investigating great reads that puts revenge at the center of the story, showing how it relates to the principle of "evenness" in justice, to theories of punishment, and to philosophies of honor and of forgiveness. Though literature will be our focus, visual depictions of revenge and the discourses of law and philosophy will deepen our conversation about the ethics and outcomes of "getting even."

An introduction to religious studies and history of philosophy using classic works produced by imprisoned authors. Readings span the world's major religious and philosophical traditions and include works by Plato, Boethius, Marguerite Porete, Gandhi, Levinas, Martin Luther King, Jr., JP Sartre, and detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Works will be exegeted according to their contexts of origination while also asking what they have to teach us in an era of rising nationalism and mass incarceration.

Glass is so ubiquitous that we barely notice it. Yet, glass has far-reaching applications in global communications, biomedical, and energy industries! Glass has also been a versatile medium for creating visually stunning artworks. Few materials so brilliantly connect the artists and the scientists among us. The seminar introduces the material science, physical and chemical properties of glass that result in applications that impact culture, scientific discoveries, and technology. Through museum and artisan studio visits in Venice, and hands-on activities, we highlight how material properties connect to artistic characteristics.

When, where, why and how did human language originate? There are no definite answers, but findings from many different areas of investigation (including paleontology, archeology, linguistics, animal communication, neurobiology, genetics, statistics), when considered in conjunction, shed light on these old and fascinating questions. Current research often gives rise to contrasting interpretations and hypotheses; the seminar will attempt to present a balanced picture and invite students to weigh all evidence.

This course examines the nature, causes, and consequences of inequalities of income, wealth, happiness, and life expectancy within the US and across countries. US economic inequality has surged since 1980. Women earn less than men, Black Americans earn less than Whites, the bottom 50% earns less than the top 1%, and the global middle class earns less than the poor in rich countries. Why? And what can policy do to reduce economic inequality? How does inequality affect justice? Is poverty or inequality the more serious problem? Do moral obligations to reduce inequality extend beyond national borders?

This course explores the representation of the Middle East in Western media, challenging misconceptions, prejudices, and stereotypes. It analyzes how the media perpetuates these perceptions. It examines various mediums, including the video game Call of Duty, to understand how the Middle East is constructed and its individuals are depicted as villains. It provides an analytical framework to help students develop critical analysis skills to challenge prevailing narratives that shape popular perceptions. It fosters critical thinking to discern accurate and unbiased depictions of the "other" and promotes empathy, respect, and appreciation.

Documentary filmmakers forge complex relationships with the real people who appear in their films. Even in the most empathic works, that process can be fraught. So, what happens when filmmakers portray people with whom they have an adversarial relationship? Through analysis, conversations with directors, and their own original creative work, students will learn the artistic, practical and ethical approaches that filmmakers take with tough subjects. We will look at both historical and new forms of non-fiction cinema and explore parallels to other artistic and academic disciplines.

Explores the creative output of one of the most exceptional figures in European history: Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), abbess, composer, poet, mystic, healer. Hildegard's staggeringly original corpus of works across media was uniquely directed toward the cultivation and care of her fellow creatures. A millennium out, when society's failure to care has proven catastrophic, Hildegard's vision of cosmic connectedness provides a historical counter-case. Class activities move between medieval and modern, historical and hands-on, using workshops in medieval medicinal gardening, cooking, and singing as springboards to Hildegard's complex works.

Feminism is an identity practice, but it is also a lens that we can use to examine the world around us. In this seminar, we will study influential feminist theories--historical and contemporary, scholarly and popular--and use them to analyze a range of contemporary pop cultural forms including Broadway musicals, movies, magazines, television shows, stand-up comedy specials, social media, and music.

From climate change to politics, crisis feels ever present. But what comes after loss? We will approach questions about rebuilding community from a narratological perspective. We examine how fictional communities, like Boccaccio's brigata, attempt to reinstitute society after the Plague, and analyze Giorgio Rosa's real project to build his own independent nation. This seminar examines the nexus of narrative and solace in The AIDS Quilt and in The Last of Us video-game. By closely studying these 'texts,' we'll have the opportunity to explore themes of consolation as we generate and pursue new questions about the art of storytelling.

Sidestepping paper and the primacy of an individual artist's mark, students will repeatedly work together using colored tape to transform a shared studio by covering the walls, floor and ceiling with tape drawn designs. Projects include large scale abstraction, imagery, illustration, performance with costumes and the play of light and shadow. No previous art experience necessary.

What is a nation, how is it made, and how does it constantly have to be remade? How do ideas about language, race, gender, and culture shape perceptions of the past and understandings of belonging? This course takes Greece as a case study to examine the concepts and tools that go into making a nation. Each week we consider a different resource for nation making, from the use of history and the shaping of ethnicity to sports and food. We also explore the relevance of this study to understanding the U.S. today. Students work towards a final project that educates the public about how works of art contribute to making, or unmaking, the nation.

This seminar explores the profound impact of storytelling, focusing on Elena Ferrante's "Neapolitan Novels," a global literary sensation translated into fifty languages that sparked a "Ferrante Fever." We will explore the novels' central themes of female friendship, identity formation, socioeconomic inequalities, and violence through the lenses of psychoanalysis, deconstruction, and feminist philosophy. Assignments include short response papers, a midterm, and a final paper.

Produced from the post-World War II period to the present, the Italian, French, German, and Polish films we will study in this seminar establish a theoretical framework for the analysis of Fascism, its political ideology, and its ethical dynamics. We shall consider such topics as the concept of fascist normality, the racial laws, the morality of social identities (women, homosexuals), and the aftermath of the Holocaust. An interdisciplinary approach will be combined with learning basic concepts of film style.

Amazonia is a planetary hotspot of biocultural diversity and a massive carbon sink on the brink. The seminar explores how Indigenous knowledges and the environment co-produce one another and considers the significance of forest-making practices for conservation science and climate change mobilization. Drawing from historical, ethnographic, and ecological studies, Planet Amazonia is a platform for alternative storytelling and future-making agendas based on new scholarly and activist alliances. Students will engage with Indigenous scholars and environmental activists and will craft alternative visions to safeguard this vital planetary nexus.

Long before ChatGPT, speculative fiction imagined the promises and perils of Artificial Intelligence in literature. This course will introduce students to literature and ethics through the topic of AI, asking such broad questions as: How can literature help us think through philosophical questions and ethical problems? How does culture borrow from literature in ways that are ethically dubious? What can the literature of the past tell us about our society's present and future?

This course focuses on major issues raised by but also extending beyond Holocaust survivor testimony, including genres of witnessing, the communication of trauma, the ethical implications of artistic representation, conflicts between history and memory, the fate of individuality in collective upheaval, the condition of survival itself, and the crucial role played by reception in the enabling and transmitting of survivors' speech.

How can humankind harvest enough energy to maintain or raise the standard of living of people everywhere, while minimizing the damage to our habitat and the conflicts over resources? The solution to the problem will require a clear understanding of the physics of energy in all its fascinating manifestations. In this seminar we will survey the physical phenomena involved in energy extraction, conversion, and storage. Starting from an AP Physics level of knowledge, we will learn the basics of mechanical, electromagnetic, thermal, chemical, and nuclear energy.

An intensive introduction to the work of Bob Dylan. Examining Dylan's long career unlocks major currents in American cultural history while it provides a model of American creativity and self-creation for the present and future.

Our way of speaking is an essential part of our identity. Our particular language variety gives information to the listeners about where we were born, how old we are, our social class and even our race or ethnicity. However, since not all dialects are equally accepted, some speakers might feel judged because of their way of talking. In this seminar, we will analyze the reasons behind the belief that some language varieties are better than the rest, and debunk that myth. We will look at several examples of dialects around the globe and especially here in the US and we will study linguistic situations like multilingualism in our society.

How did Mesoamerican cultures of the Americas survive colonialism? How did they adopt European culture and writing systems? What were the linguistic and cultural barriers for both Indigenous peoples and Europeans in understanding each other? In this seminar, students dive into one of the most captivating ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica, the Aztecs, to reflect on their rich history and legacy from pre-Columbian to colonial times. Based on the analysis of chronicles, códices, illustrations, and contemporary texts students will be able to understand the Nahua culture of the Aztecs in the context of Spanish transatlantic expansion.

This seminar offers a contemporary, interdisciplinary introduction to the study of the Holocaust. We will study this unthinkable atrocity in both its historical specificity and its relevance to the present. We will thus move between works of history, first-person accounts, fiction, poetry, film, critical theory, and philosophy, testing the limits and powers of divergent idioms and genres in the face of atrocity. Is poetry possible 'after Auschwitz'? What about philosophy? We will conclude by asking how the Holocaust relates to contemporary forms of racism and fascism and if it is possible to think about the Holocaust 'intersectionally.'

In 1945 President Harry Truman was told the US was building "the most terrible weapon ever known in human history," one by which "modern civilization might be completely destroyed." This class explores how the US became the first country to make nuclear weapons and the only one to use them in war, how and why the bomb has spread to a few other countries and been rejected by the rest, and the new nuclear arms race with China and Russia. It unpacks the often hidden political, social, economic, and environmental costs of the bomb, and traces the efforts to ban the bomb, including the new UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

This seminar explores the problem of power and morality, or the tension between the pursuit of rule and empire and the pursuit of excellence, through an examination of classic works of Greek literature. The intense experience of living and acting together in the Greek city-states inspired a remarkable degree of reflection on questions of human nature and many texts that have endured as sources of self-knowledge and humane critique in subsequent cultures. Students will engage works from four distinctly Greek literary traditions- epic poetry, tragedy, history, and philosophy.

Increasing global connectivity has brought forth multiple challenges such as such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the rise in cryptocurrency assets driven by mistrust in institutions, and informational opacity despite continuous digital connectivity. To address these challenges, we need to understand the history of the technologies that have precipitated their trajectories. In this seminar, we will explore the history of modern communications technology from a non-technical perspective. Starting with the evolution of Bell Labs and the invention of the transistor in 1949, every decade since has seen a path-breaking invention.

Many Latin American performance artists have reimagined the use of theater to challenge social and political structures. Boal's 'Theater of the Oppressed', Teatro Yuyachkani, TiT, Teatro Trono, and more, challenge, subvert, and manipulate classic Eurocentric theater perspectives to spur awareness and action in their audiences. Through readings, discussion, viewing, writing, improv and play we will explore these artists' work, theatrical origins, and socio/geopolitical contexts. We will apply inspired tactics to our own work. Spanish not required. Acting experience not required. Willingness to play and take risks is integral to class.

Data is everywhere. Using methods of creative research, students will investigate and explore the world around them, searching for data. They will collect their observations in evolving archives, iterating on modes of communication, including digital illustration, documentary media, data analysis, and information design. The output of the course will consist of small weekly projects, responding to the work of data-driven artists, designers, writers, and engineers. The semester will culminate in the production of a larger creative data visualization project that illuminates a story or pattern via data uncovered during their research.

New York's Central Park, 843 acres in the center of Manhattan Island, remains, now more than a century and a half after its construction, the most iconic urban park in the United States. Visited by 42 million people each year, Central Park has been called the most filmed location in the world. This seminar will take a deep dive into its history and cultural meanings, and will approach the park through a myriad of disciplinary lenses. The course will take up the complexity and contradictions inherent in the creation and preservation of 'nature' in the city that would become the cultural and economic capital of the United States.

Can lessons from Japan's past shape a sustainable future? This course explores the intersection of sustainability, aesthetics, ethics, and innovation by examining Japan's unique approach to environmentalism. We will combine readings on Japanese history and culture with virtual, zero carbon footprint trips to Japanese sites, both real and imagined, and discuss how to address contemporary global environmental issues.

They say, "you are what you eat," but what does the food that we consume say about us and our ways of being? La cocina, the kitchen, as the heart of the home often appears in literature, film, commercial enterprises, and television. This course will examine food practices and behaviors through the anthropological, historical, sociological, and psychological interpretations of food and eating. An understanding of how food and meals have evolved to create culture and identity will augment students' understanding of their relationship with food and culture, history, geography, and themselves.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most celebrated teachings of Jesus. By looking at diverse religious and secular interpretations of this story and its themes, this seminar examines the nature and scope of morality in an age of globalization (including debates about immigration, global poverty, and humanitarian intervention). The questions raised by these issues are neither abstract nor limited to public policy. They involve practical decisions that face ordinary people in everyday life. In fact, so the seminar will argue, they reveal basic understandings of politics, human nature, and the place of morality in life itself.