Society Culture and Thought

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Term
Time & Day Offered
Level
Credits
Course Duration

Monsters, Magic, and Madness in Western Music — MHI4136.01

Instructor: Joseph Alpar
Credits: 4
Magic bullets forged in a pact with the Devil. A blood-stained bride driven to despair and murder on her wedding night. An opium dream of a diabolical witches' Sabbath. Composers and performers have represented horror, madness, magical creatures, and supernatural elements in innumerable and thrilling ways since the Middle Ages. In this course, we will study key musical works

Multilingualism and Cognition — PSY4249.01

Instructor: Anne Gilman
Days & Time: MO,TH 10:00am-11:50am
Credits: 4

How are language and thought connected, and does speaking multiple languages affect these connections?  Most people have had the experience of struggling to come up with a particular word or phrase, sometimes recalling it after a substantial delay.  This course will unpack the mental processes involved in that experience and explore the ways that cognitive

Music and Culture: An Introduction to Ethnomusicology — MET2136.01

Instructor: Joseph Alpar
Credits: 4
This course will be a hands-on introduction to ethnomusicology, the study of music in its social and cultural contexts. Ethnomusicologists think about the role music plays in everyday life. How do music and musicians build community, ignite protest and revolution, articulate racial identity, express and complicate gender and sexuality, or affirm faith? Some ethnomusicologists

Music, Gender, and Sexuality in the Middle East — MHI2252.01

Instructor: Joseph Alpar
Credits: 2
This course will explore the construction and experience of gender and sexuality in the Middle East through a musical lens. Drawing on ethnomusicological, historical, sociological and anthropological research in the region, the course will examine music-making as a process of representation, assertion, and sometimes transgression of sexuality and gender identities. We will talk

Music, Gender, and Sexuality in the Middle East — MET2137.01

Instructor: Joseph Alpar
Credits: 4
This course will examine the construction and experience of gender and sexuality in the Middle East through a musical lens. Drawing on research in ethnomusicology, queer studies, gender studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and other interdisciplinary fields, we will study music-making and other modes of performance as processes of representation, assertion, and sometimes

Musical Taste and Transformation: the Self, Algorithms and the Human Connection — MHI2254.02

Instructor: Michael Wimberly
Credits: 1
With so much recorded music available at our fingertips, recommender systems such as algorithmic playlists have become a routine part of our daily lives. By focusing on the self and examining our own listening history and habits, this course will build a chain of musical works which will allow us to investigate how we encounter music and become more aware of what actually

Narrative, Trauma, and Bearing Witness — PSY4134.01

Instructor: Ella Ben Hagai
Credits: 4
In this advanced psychology seminar, we will dive into foundational work in Narrative Psychology. We will study the relationship between the narrative structure and human cognitive processes including memory, perception, and conceptualization. We will learn how cultural differences shape children's varied storytelling practices. Through the lens of social psychology research,

Narrative, Trauma, and Bearing Witness — PSY4134.01

Instructor: Ella Ben Hagai
Credits: 4
In this advanced psychology seminar, we will dive into foundational work in Narrative Psychology. We will study the relationship between the narrative structure and human cognitive processes including memory, perception, and conceptualization. We will learn how cultural differences shape children’s varied storytelling practices. Through the lens of social psychology research,

Nature in the Americas — Canceled

Instructor: David Bond
Credits: 4
What is Nature? Is Nature the biological substratum of human society or the converging practices of local ecology? Is Nature a potent historical agent in its own right or a philosophical blunder of epic proportions? Such questions have a lively history in the Americas. Indeed, while Nature has a near mythic form in many public debates, much of its content is culled again

Nature in the Americas — APA4148.01

Instructor: David Bond
Credits: 4
What is Nature? Is Nature the biological substratum of human society or the converging practices of local ecology? Is Nature a potent historical agent in its own right or a philosophical blunder of epic proportions? Such questions have a lively history in the Americas. Indeed, while Nature has near mythic form in scholarly and public debates, its content is culled again and

Navigating Media in Institutional History — MS4109.01

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 4
In this 4000-level course, students will develop an understanding of the ways in which visual media functions on the practices of archives that document the history of institutions including asylums, hospitals and schools. We will engage with archival sources through interdisciplinary approaches to media studies, drawing on visual culture studies, art history, and material

Needs, Wants, and Economic Rights — PEC2279.01

Instructor: Emma Kast
Days & Time: TU,FR 10:30am-12:20pm
Credits: 4

Commodities such as cars, smartphones, laptops, and refrigerators were initially considered luxuries but are now widely viewed as everyday necessities. This shift suggests that our understanding of need is shaped by social, historical, and cultural context. In this class we will explore questions such as: how do we distinguish what we want from what we need to live a

Needs, Wants, and Economic Rights — PEC2279.01

Instructor: Emma Kast
Credits: 4
Commodities such as cars, smartphones, laptops, and refrigerators were initially considered luxuries but are now widely viewed as everyday necessities. This shift suggests that our understanding of need is shaped by social, historical, and cultural context. In this class we will explore questions such as: how do we distinguish what we want from what we need to live a dignified

Newton's Principia: On the System of the World — MAT4161.01

Instructor: Andrew McIntyre
Days & Time: TU,FR 8:30am-10:20am
Credits: 4

I would (and will) argue that Newton's Principia is the most important book yet written. It is certainly the most important book that a vanishingly small number of people have actually read.

Written about 150 CE, Ptolemy's Almagest collected and systematized the knowledge of astronomers of the time to give a system which roughly predicted the

NGOs, Peacebuilding, and Development — SCT4109.01

Instructor: Kate Paarlberg-Kvam
Credits: 4
In the last thirty years, non-governmental organizations have played an outsized role in global affairs, perhaps most notably in development and peacebuilding processes. How did the NGO form develop, and why? How do NGOs interact with states, global institutions, and grassroots populations in the Global South? What effects - positive, negative, and complicated - have NGOs had

Nietzsche and His Followers — PHI4137.01

Instructor: Karen Gover
Credits: 4
Postmodernism, for better or worse, is often traced back to the thought of Friedrich Nietzche. But what is postmodernism? Keeping this question in mind, we will ground ourselves in Nietzche’s thought, with an eye to his critique of the Western philosophical tradition. We will then turn to some of the important and influential philosophers of the 20th century as inheritors of

Night of the Johnstown Flood — HIS2405.01

Instructor: Eileen Scully
Credits: 4
On the afternoon of May 31, 1889 the people of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, heard "a roar like thunder," as the South Fork Dam broke high above them, unleashing 20 million tons of water in walls up to 60 feet high and speeds of 40 miles per hour. Initial casualties were 2,200 people, making it one of the worst national disasters in 19th-century America. Though the

Non-normative Bodies — DAN4364.01

Instructor: Levi Gonzalez
Credits: 4
This course will combine theory and practice to explore representations of non-normative bodies and corporeal difference, their impacts on embodied experience, and the role artistic work can play in expanding and/or challenging limited and often harmful notions of normativity. This class is designed for students interested in the intersections of embodiment, art, corporeality,

Normality and Abnormality — PSY2204.01

Instructor: David Anderegg
Credits: 4
This course is an examination of the idea of normality as a central organizing principle in psychology. We begin with an effort to define normality and/or psychological health, and then move on to examine the limits or borders of normality. The course examines the value-laden, historically determined, and political nature of psychological normality. Topics discussed include:

Normality and Abnormality — cancelled

Instructor: David Anderegg
Credits: 4
This course is an examination of the idea of normality as a central organizing principle in psychology. We begin with an effort to define normality and/or psychological health, and then move on to examine the limits or borders of normality. The course examines the value-laden, historically determined, and political nature of psychological normality. Topics discussed include:

Normality and Abnormality: Defining the Limits — PSY2206.01

Instructor: David Anderegg
Credits: 4
This course is an examination of the idea of normality as a central organizing principle in psychology. We begin with an effort to define normality and/or psychological health, and then move on to examine the limits or borders of normality. The course examines the value-laden, historically determined, and political nature of psychological normality. Topics discussed include:

Normality and Abnormality: Defining the Limits — PSY2206.01

Instructor: David Anderegg
Credits: 4
This course is an examination of the idea of normality as a central organizing principle in psychology. We begin with an effort to define normality and/or psychological health, and then move on to examine the limits or borders of normality. The course examines the value-laden, historically determined, and political nature of psychological normality. Topics discussed include:

Normality and Abnormality: Defining the Limits — PSY2206.01

Instructor: David Anderegg
Days & Time: TBA
Credits: 4
This course is an examination of the idea of normality as a central organizing principle in psychology. We begin with an effort to define normality and/or psychological health, and then move on to examine the limits or borders of normality. The course examines the value-laden, historically determined, and political nature of psychological normality. Topics discussed include: