Spring 2026 Course Search

Special Projects in Spanish — SPA4812.01

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

In lieu of more conventional advanced Spanish classes, paralleling a series of often disparate tutorials, with tutees working in relative isolation, the proposal is to allow students free reign over an idea for a final, term-long project, while concurrently offering them an educated, exoteric audience to assist in fleshing out their work.

Sculpture Studio/ advanced practice — SCU4217.01

Instructor: John Umphlett
Days & Time: TU 8:30am-12:10pm
Credits: 4

This course asks each student to work in a self-directed way among a community of critical thinkers. Finding one’s voice, as a maker, requires research sources of influence and inspiration. Students are expected to undertake a significant amount of work outside of regular class meetings. At this point in your Visual Arts Education you must be able to represent serious attention and dedication to your work, and prove that you can manage your time and energy towards advanced inquiry.

about the membrane — SCU2216.01

Instructor: John Umphlett
Days & Time: TH 8:30am-12:10pm
Credits: 4

This course focuses on the additive construction methods essential to contemporary sculpture. Students will embark on independent projects that hone their skills in constructing armatures and exploring innovative skinning techniques. Throughout the term, participants will learn to build and manipulate forms using primarily additive processes, developing their own sculptural vocabulary in a studio environment. There will be two personal independent projects in this class that will ultimately converge into a dynamic, large-scale collaborative sculpture.

Advanced techniques; welding and metal fabrication. — SCU4229.01

Instructor: John Umphlett
Days & Time: MO 1:40pm-5:20pm
Credits: 2

In this course we will focus on cutting and welding non-ferrous metals. Hand cutting and CNC assisted plasma cutting will be the methods in which stock will be cut. The fabrication processes will begin through brazing methods (acetylene) for connecting non-similar metals. There will also be instruction on pinpoint forging as well as the safe use of the blacksmithing forge in the Sculpture department. We will then advance to learning the skills involved in using the GTAW welders for non-ferrous welding.

Spanish Through Film — SPA4222.01

Instructor: Jonathan Pitcher
Days & Time: MO,WE,TH 8:30am-9:50am
Credits: 4

Students with burgeoning linguistic skills will learn the language through an immersion in Latin American and Spanish film in the second half of this full-year introduction to the Spanish-speaking world. While there will be some discussion of more common tactics such as stylistic nuances, script-writing, acting, dubbing, and directors’ biographies, it is expected that we will continue to develop sufficient linguistic ability to focus on cinematographic and social movements, thus treating the films as ideologemes, representations of political import.

Inner Travel — SPA4604.01

Instructor: Jonathan Pitcher
Days & Time: MO,TH 1:40pm-3:30pm
Credits: 4

Beyond Columbus’ errant journey into the abyss and the ensuing quest for El Dorado, or Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle, Latin America’s interior has often enticed its own learned population. Their travels, in space, time and thought, do not merely present a physical confrontation with alterity, with the continent’s supposed heart of darkness, but an intellectual clearing, an origin, from which a more equitable politics may begin.

Special Projects in Advanced Japanese — JPN4801.01

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

This course enables students to undertake the research essential for composing their thesis or completing a project within their field of study or area of interest. Enrollment requires the submission of a comprehensive project proposal to Ikuko Yoshida, which must include a project title, a brief description, a list of relevant preparatory courses, and clearly articulated objectives and goals. 

Digital Book Project: Analyzing Social and Cultural Values in Japan — JPN4404.01

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

This fourth-term Japanese course is purposefully designed to enable students to create digital books that promote cultural understanding among Japanese children. The curriculum begins with students engaging with short stories and Japanese animations to analyze expected behaviors and communication styles among Japanese children. Additionally, students examine social and cultural values in Japan—focusing on how these values are conveyed and how gender roles are represented in children’s literature and media.

Representation of Cultural Values in Japanese Children’s Books — JPN4219.01

Instructor: Ikuko Yoshida
Days & Time: MO,WE,TH 8:30am-9:50am
Credits: 5

In this second-term Japanese course, students will explore Japanese cultural values and create digital books that reflect Japanese values. Students will read Japanese children’s books and watch children’s TV shows to examine how social and cultural values are portrayed and taught. Based on their analysis and understanding of Japan's social and cultural values, students will write their own digital storybooks, which aim to teach children about embracing cultural differences as a final project.

Life and Death: Buddhism in Modern Japanese Films — JPN4604.01

Instructor: Ikuko Yoshida
Days & Time: MO,TH 1:40pm-3:30pm
Credits: 4

In this sixth-term Japanese course, students will examine how Buddhism influenced Japanese thought on the afterlife and analyze how Japanese views on the relationship between life and death are depicted in Japanese films.  In the first seven weeks of the course, students will examine and discuss the history, beliefs, and deities of Buddhism, as well as their influences on society.  In the second half of the term, students will analyze how death and the common theme of reincarnation are depicted in different genres of Japanese films, such as love stories and