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This course provides practical information specifically relevant to the field of visual arts and art education. Students learn basic concepts about child growth, developmental stages, learning styles and varied classroom approaches. They participate in classroom observations and practical applications of classroom activities, prepare units of instruction and micro-teach. Topics include arts advocacy, interdisciplinary instruction, assessment and teaching art history. Required field experience component. Prerequisite: Education 330 or permission of the instructor. Spring Semester only.


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This course provides basic professional knowledge and skills needed for successful entry into the field of dance education. Through readings, class discussions, and active participation in teaching situations (including microteaching), students become familiar with the theory and the practice of teaching dance K-12. Students learn about issues faced by the profession and how to manage a dance production program. Required field experience component. Prerequisite: Education 330 or permission of instructor. Spring Semester only.


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This course introduces students to teaching Latin in grades K-12. Theories, methods, issues, and trends are examined. Other topics include curriculum development and textbook, computer and audio visual resources. Offered upon demand. Arranged with Classics and Education chairs and the Latin instructor. Prerequisite: Education 330 or permission of instructor. Spring Semester only.


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This course provides basic professional knowledge and skills needed for successful entry into the field of theater education. Through readings, class discussions, and active participation in teaching situations (including microteaching), students become familiar with the theory and practice of teaching theater K-12. Students learn about issues faced by the profession and how to manage a theater production program. Required field experience component. Prerequisite: Education 330 or permission of instructor. Spring Semester only.


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These courses treat specific periods in American literature and examine the relationship between literary texts and movements and their particular cultural, political, and historical contexts. Each offering of this course examines a different literary era and emphasizes specific literary and historical issues. Students may register for the course more than once provided a different era is studied. Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Early American Literature focuses upon the literature of the colonial and early national periods, as in works by Bradstreet, Edwards, Franklin, Wheatley, and Equiano, in the context of America's Puritan origins, democratic revolutions, and uneasy relations with native peoples. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19th-Century American Literature examines literary works by authors such as Whitman, Dickinson, Twain, James, Douglass, and Wharton in the context of emergence of modern individualism, industrialism and immigration, and the struggles for the rights of women and African Americans. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Modern American Literature examines literary movements and works in 20th-century America, such as those by Frost, Eliot, Cather, Faulkner, Hurston, Ginsberg, Plath, and Morrison, in such contexts as the world wars, economic depression and experiences, and alienation of different cultures and generations. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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Students study individuals or groups of authors, looking at themes such as the individual as cultural hybrid, the place of politics in literature, ethnocentrism and imperialism. They examine the formation of literature from the clashes of culture, and the relationship between non- traditional literary forms and traditional European aesthetics. Prerequisites: English 185 plus one additional course of relevant background. For more information about this course please see the following website: http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/english/courses/


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This class focuses on defining, classifying, analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, and understanding literature. Students study both practical criticism (discussion of particular works or writers) and theoretical criticism (principles and criteria appropriate to literature generally). The course introduces a broad range of critical theories and provides an historical overview of the subject. Prerequisites: English 185 plus one additional course relevant background


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This American environmental history explores the social construction of nature in the 20th century, looking at the roots (both natural and cultural) of contemporary environmental issues. To figure out what nature means to us now, students study the history of stuff, the culture of grasslands and lawns, the changing character of the city and the country, the nature of the suburbs, the conservation and preservation movements, different energy ecologies, the nature of TV, the contemporary environmental movement, and alternative ecological practices. They also use the St. Olaf campus as a case study of 20th-century environmental design.


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Remote sensing and GIS are increasingly used to address basic and applied questions in the environmental sciences and a host of other disciplines. Students survey available remote sensing image types and learn to process (ground-truthing, GPS, scanning, digitizing) and interpret remotely sensed images. They also learn theory and practice of geographic information systems (basic cartography and spatial statistics). A weekly 3-hour laboratory is required. Counts toward major and concentration: Environmental Studies. Prerequisites: Environmental Studies 137 or a Level 1 course in biology, chemistry or physics.


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Students begin to learn French through listening, speaking, reading and writing about topics familiar to them. They study social and cultural notions inherent in the daily life of peoples in diverse Francophone communities and learn to think critically and make interdisciplinary connections and informed cross-cultural comparisons. Open to students with no prior background in French or placement into French 111. Offered both semesters.


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Students move from intermediate to advanced oral proficiency through practice in daily life communicative skills such as in interviews, party games, telling stories, giving reports, and organizing social events. The course focuses on higher-order functions such as paragraph-length narration, presenting opinions, group discussions, and individual presentations, as well as interviews, debates, and regular group conversations with classroom guests and speakers. Taught in German. Prerequisite: German 232 or equivalent.


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Students examine fictional works such as short stories, novel excerpts, and other narrative texts, including film, with weekly writing assignments on plot analysis, characterization and multiple layers of voices in a text. Students retell stories in oral and written form and adapt them to different audiences. Coursework includes a review of basic grammar as well as advanced grammar for writing papers in German, with help sessions by native German exchange students. The course is designed to teach students writing strategies and the final project is a short term paper written in German. Taught in German. Prerequisite: German 232 or equivalent.


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Students translate selections from one or more genres of Ancient Greek literature while exploring a specific topic or theme chosen by the instructor. Close study of the text is combined with discussion of broader literary, historical, and cultural questions. Sample topics: "Famous Speeches in Ancient Greek Texts," "Praise and Blame in the Greek Poetic Tradition," "Tall Tales from Homer to Lucian." Prerequisite: Greek 231 or equivalent. Offered every third year.


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This course explores topics in European History, designed to emphasize active skills of critical reading, textual and contextual analysis, historiographical argument, and historical writing. Offered most years.


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This course surveys the history of France since 1774, tracing elements of stability and upheaval from Old Regime to the 5th Republic. Emphasis is on the revolutionary tradition and the development of republicanism, social history of the 19th century, de Gaulle and his legacy, and the Socialist experiment. Foreign Language Across the Curriculum course available in French. Offered most years.


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This course surveys the history of the medical profession in Europe and the U.S. from 1700 to the present, with attention to the legacies from earlier periods. "Vocation," understood as a lived experience shaped by the values and expectations of practitioner, profession, and society, manifested in various ways, provide the unifying theme. Students examine scientific, cultural, institutional, ethical, and personal factors influencing the development of physicians and their practice in specific historical contexts. Offered alternate years.


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This seminar covers various topics in the history of medieval Europe, depending upon the instructor. May be repeated if topics are different.


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Strange things happened on the ancient Roman stage; this course gives students firsthand proof of that. The comedies of Plautus and Terence and the tragedies of Seneca make entertaining reading. Students in the course also discuss the evolution of the Roman theater, staging, and modern interpretations. Prerequisite: Latin 231 or equivalent. Offered every third year.


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Discrete (noncontinuous) mathematics has become increasingly important as more situations are investigated, represented and solved using computers (essentially discrete machines). Students explore finite graphs, recurrence relations and combinatorial optimization using problem solving techniques and algorithm design strategies. Prerequisite: Mathematics 120 or 121, or permission of the instructor. Offered alternate years.


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This course covers basic enumeration, including generating functions, recursion, inclusion-exclusion, Polya theory, etc. Students also explore topics in graph theory and constructive combinatorics, time permitting. Prerequisite: Mathematics 252; some previous exposure to counting methods is helpful (e.g. Mathematics 262). Offered in 2007-08 and alternate years.


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This course examines the importance of entrepreneurship, covering both the theory and practical aspects of the subject. Discussions focus on the paradigms of creativity and innovation, the relationship of liberal arts disciplines to the entrepreneur, the role of the entrepreneur in society and history, the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship, and the elements of the entrepreneurial behavior in a variety of settings. Study concentrates on the entrepreneurial process from idea creation to ultimate business or other organizational activity. A leadership theme permeates these discussions. A variety of instructional techniques are used including group projects, guest presenters and practicing entrepreneurs attending the class. Offered annually.


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Intended primarily for music majors, this course introduces basic techniques for performance on the trumpet, horn, trombone, euphonium, and tuba. Each student develops a basic proficiency on any three of these instruments. Pedagogical techniques, repertoire, literature, and instrument maintenance are also included. Students play a solo with piano accompaniment and perform with the class ensemble at the end of the term. Offered Spring Semester.


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Intended for students in vocal music education, this course introduces fundamental characteristics of orchestral and band instruments, including orchestration, instrument ranges and transposition. Prerequisite: Music 114 and junior standing. Offered Fall Semester, 2006-2007 and alternate years.


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Students survey the solo vocal repertoire (art song) of France, England, the United States, and the Nordic countries. This course provides the materials for the study of song literature, highlighting the significant features and developments inherent in the form. Course work includes class performances. Prerequisite: Music 214, 241, 242, 263 and 264, or permission of instructor. Offered Spring Semester, 2007-08, and alternate years.


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An analytical study of the wide range of musical styles found in the 20th century, this course provides an opportunity to study important works from our time and to come to a deeper understanding of their structure and meaning. Students study atonal music theory in depth and examine some of the new approaches to tonality in our time. Prerequisite: Music 214. Offered Spring Semester, 2007-08, and alternate years.


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This course offers an in-depth study of the music literature and styles of the Renaissance, ca. 1430-1600. Prerequisite: Music 241, 242. Offered in alternate years.


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Neuroscience is one of the fastest growing fields, with activity ranging from the fundamentals of behavior to molecular aspects of neuronal function. This course provides a foundation and overview of the important and extensive ways in which biological and physiological processes are involved in the regulation and maintenance of behavior. Among the topics students explore are: fundamental electrophysiology, sensory and motor systems, integration, learning and memory, and the mind-body connection. Prerequisites: Biology 125, or Chemistry 121 (or 125), or Chemistry/Biology 125, or Physics 126, or Psychology 125. Biology 125 is strongly recommended. Counts towards the Biology major. Offered Spring Semester.


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Contemporary Norway is much more than lutefisk, lefse, Hardanger fiddles, rosemaling, and elaborate costumes. This course examines modern Norwegian society - imperfections and all - against the back-drop of tradition, looking at such issues as Norway's role in peace negotiations, its position as an outsider in Europe, and its evolving relationship with the United States. Taught in English.


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An introduction to Kierkegaard's work and to existentialism, this course emphasizes the aesthetic, ethical, and religious "stages on life's way." Existential questions concerning the meaning of human existence, passion and faith, freedom and choice, despair, and the absurd are examined. Offered every year.


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Moral issues concerning friendship and love are analyzed from the perspective of normative moral theories and various theories of value. Issues may include the role of friendship in the moral life, exploitative versus fulfilling relationships, and the conflict between altruism and self-love. Since loving is itself a form of valuing, value theory is approached by investigating philosophical and theological works concerning the basic types of love: philia, eros, and agape. Prerequisite: completion of BTS-T. Offered most years.


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Physics 127, the second course in the three-semester calculus based sequence, explores special relativity, waves, atomic physics, heat, and thermodynamics. There is one 2.5-hour laboratory meeting per week. Prerequisites: Physics 126 or permission of instructor, and concurrent registration in (or previous completion of) Mathematics 126 or 128. Offered Spring Semester.


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In 1945, humanity's relationship to science was forever changed by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This course examines the scientific developments that led to these first atomic weapons, from the discovery of the nucleus to the manipulation of fission processes for the explosive release of nuclear energy. It also considers present day weapons and nuclear power plants and discusses scientific developments in the human contexts that influenced them. Prerequisite: High School algebra. Offered Spring Semester.


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How do the peoples of Latin America participate politically? How do domestic politics interact with national and international economics? How do states treat challenges posed by migration and by desires for "modernization" and democracy in a context of authoritarian legacy and debt? Students examine how Latin American politics work, focusing on Mexico, parts of Central America, the Caribbean, the Andean Region, and the Southern Cone.


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This course examines Just War theory and Jihad to enquire about the connections between religions and political violence. It considers the strategic logic of terrorism and the ethical "costs" of responses to it. The course also studies conflicts between "moderates" and "extremists" within Islam in order to reveal the ethical and political spectrums within it. Offered annually. Required prior experience of political analysis or the study of religion.


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How do psychologists characterize the most basic aspects of the learning process? While some emphasis is on analysis of the behavioral viewpoint (Pavlov, Skinner), students also examine approaches to how we learn which have grown out of recent cognitive and ecological (evolutionary) perspectives in psychology. The course includes lecture and laboratory work with nonhuman animals. Prerequisite: Psychology 125, or Biology 125. Offered each year.


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This seminar explores research on mental imagery and visual perception, focusing on the use of imagery in thinking. Drawing on both 19th-century empirical studies of visual imagery and contemporary brain scan research, students explore individual differences in mental representations of problem solving and abstract concepts, including numbers, colors, and time. Students also research mental conceptions as represented in dance notation, pictorial instructions, and scientific images. Prerequisites: Psychology 231 and 235, or 237. Offered each year.


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This seminar explores current knowledge of mechanisms involved in behavioral responses to drugs of abuse at the systems, cellular, and molecular levels. The action of stimulant drugs, alcohol, and the opiates on reward pathways are discussed in terms of behavioral neurobiology, pharmacology, and gene expression. Consideration is given to the role of environmental cues and stress in relapse to drug-seeking both in animal models and human studies. Prerequisites: Psychology 231 and 238, or Neuroscience 234. Offered alternate years.


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Complex cognitive processes such as memory, language and spatial perception have a neurological basis. This course provides the opportunity to examine the relationship between human brain structures and their expression in cognition. Students examine cerebral asymmetry, head trauma, learning disabilities and aphasia. The course includes three hours lecture and three hours laboratory per week. Prerequisites: Psychology 231, and 238 or Neuroscience 234; completion of BTS-T. Offered each year.


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This course examines the faith of Israel in the God of the covenant and how the covenant faith was shaped in the community of Israel and expressed in its literature. Prerequisite: BTS-B.


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This course provides a critical analysis of the development of Christian thought in the Middle Ages and Reformation, 11th through 16th centuries. Particular attention is paid to the great theological systems of the Middle Ages and to the theological aims of the 16th-century reforming movements, drawing upon readings from Anselm, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Luther, Calvin and others. Prerequisite: BTS-B.


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Careful study of selected sacred texts provides students with the opportunity to learn and use various tools and methods of interpretation. Students increase their understanding of the origins, structure, use and interpretation of sacred texts in various religious communities. Specific texts and traditions will vary. Students may repeat the course with different primary texts. Prerequisite: BTS-B.


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May be repeated if topics are different. Prerequisite: BTS-B. Spring 2008: Aids to Resaon -- Faithfulness, Humility, and Charity.


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This course considers masterworks of Russian and Soviet cinema from the Bolshevik revolution to the present. Students examine significant Russian contributions to world cinema. Readings and topics include basic cinema analysis, Russian cinema criticism, and Russian film theory. No prerequisites.


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This course explores the forces that shape contemporary Latin America society, including material and cultural interactions with Europe, Africa, and the U.S. Emphasis is placed on understanding the formation of the region in terms of the responses of key groups of actors (indigenous peoples, women, peasants, workers, the poor, revolutionaries) to the actions of outside and/or more powerful forces and institutions (conquerors, the state, the military, missionaries, multinational corporations). Offered Fall or Spring Semester.


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This course provides an overview of the major thinkers who sought to create a science of human society, the ideas they found fundamental to a science of society and how human society changes through history. Classical thinkers such as Marx, Durkheim, Simmel, Weber, and Mead are studied along with the schools of theory which they inspired: positivism, interpretive and critical conflict theory. Open to Sociology/Anthropology majors only. Offered Spring Semester.


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Students learn to design and conduct qualitative research in the tradition of sociological and anthropological ethnography. Students discuss theoretical approaches to ethnography and learn data collection methods through case studies and fieldwork assignments. Students use their own research to gain experience in interpreting field notes, doing analysis, and writing an ethnographic interpretation of their research findings. Open to Sociology/Anthropology majors only. Offered Spring Semester.


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This course extends and generalized methods introduced in Statistics 272. Topics include generalized lindear models, including logistic and poisson regression. Correlated data methods including longitudinal data analysis and multilevel models are covered. Applications are drawn from across the disciplines. Prerequisite: Statistics 272. Offered Spring Semester.


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This capstone course is for senior majors. Students complete a project commonly assigned to a beginning level generalist social worker. Weekly seminars introduce auxiliary skills and knowledge for beginning workers. Students discuss current social work issues and provide peer assistance with projects. Evaluation includes: a report of project results; analysis of decision-making in relation to theory, scientific findings, diversity, and ethics; and assessment of demonstrated mastery of program objectives. Prerequisite: Social work majors who have satisfactorily completed Social Work 380. Offered Spring Semester.


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Throughout history, playwrights have represented the human condition in a wide variety of forms and styles, with intentions ranging from the profound to the absurd. This course surveys approximately 24 works of dramatic literature in exploring how playwrights employ structure, character, and narrative in creating live performances.


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Examines theatrical activities, from theater's origins to 1700, from three interrelated perspectives 1) theater as social history, 2) theater as dramatic literature and 3) theater as performance; i.e. the result of creative decisions made by playwrights, actors, directors and designers. Prerequisite: Theatre 110. Offered Spring Semester 2008 and Fall Semester 2008.


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The course provides a capstone to the major. Taught as a seminar, it offers an opportunity for students to integrate their studies of women across disciplines and to become more aware of the intricate web of gender, race, culture, and class that informs women's experiences. Prerequisite: Women's Studies 121.


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This course, designed for students who want to heighten their drawing skills, emphasizes using expressive qualities of drawing by investigating various media, techniques and content. Assignments are both traditional and nontraditional within historical contemporary perspectives. Experimentation is encouraged. Developing a personal visual language is stressed, culminating in the production of a series of drawings that relate thematically. Critical thinking and discussion skills are important. Prerequisites: Art 111 and 112 (or 120), and 113. Materials fee. Offered annually.


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The boundaries between the fine arts disciplines of visual art, music, dance, and theater are now seen as completely permeable. This course will allow students to combine visual art making with movement, sound, and performance to create visual spectacle. The course will be organized around a theme or text set each year by the instructor. The course will emphasize process and collaboration and incorporate readings, discussion, critiques, field trips, guest artists, and studio practice. Prerequisites: As least one full credit (or equivalent) in art, dance, music, or theater. Offered occasionally.


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This course provides intensive exposure to career opportunities in the field of art including advertising, graphics, illustration, film, television, computer graphics, architecture, textile design and fine art (painting, sculpture, etc.). Working five to seven hours a day, students interview over 25 artists/designers during the month, visit more than 100 galleries and museums and write extensively about artists and artwork. This course does not count toward the minimum major in studio art or art history. Prerequisites: Art 253 (preferred) or Art 252. Offered Interim only.


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This course is an introduction to postmodern art and thought through a survey of painting, sculpture, architecture, and new-media arts produced mostly in the United States since the Cold War era. Students learn about celebrated art and artists, major values informing their work, and ways of analyzing and making sense of newer art. Offered annually.


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This course explores major aspects of language use that reflect Japanese culture and society. Issues covered include the characteristics of the Japanese language, loan words, regional differences, politeness, gender differences and communication styles. The course will be taught in a combination of lectures, class discussions, subtitled Japanese films, anime (Japanese animation) and student presentations. There are no prerequisites for 126; knowledge of Japanese helpful but not necessary. Readings, lectures and discussions are all in English. The prerequisite for 226 is Japanese 231.


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Is the press free to shape a nation's politics? How do news media shape international relations? Through the assigned readings, students explore the answers to these questions in the context of East Asian countries ( including China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan). Additionally, each student will conduct an up-to-date investigation of how news media, such as newspapers, television, and the Internet, contribute to national images within Asia.


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In this Interim course students who have completed the Asian Conversations sequence travel to sites in China and Japan in order to experience those cultures firsthand and to study Chinese and Japanese constructions of national identity. Through readings, site visits, interactions with peers in the target languages, homestays and journal writing in both English and their target language, students learn about how Asians in these two countries perceive themselves and their role in the region and in the world, both in the past and in the present. Prerequisite: Asian Studies 211 or permission of the instructor.


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This course is a service/learning experience in partnership with Children's Surgery International. Week one is spent on-campus examining emerging and existing health care issues. Students spend two weeks in Cusco, Peru, assessing patient needs in a public hospital, a homeless shelter, and a small village. Week four takes place at St. Olaf in discussion, writing reflective papers, and reporting on needs assessment to Children's Surgery International. Prerequisites: Biology 125 and 291. Apply through the instructor. Offered only during Interim.


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Students examine freshwater ecology related to pollution in freshwater resources, including streams, lakes, wetlands and groundwater. Global patterns of water distribution and use are examined from a management perspective. Using case studies, students examine the effects of water use on water quality. Topics vary year to year but may include wastewater treatment, wetland restoration, sedimentation and effects of dams. Offered during Interim. Prerequisites: Biology 125 and 126.


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San Salvador Island is a small Caribbean island boasting a great diversity of marine and terrestrial habitats, including coral reefs, sea grass beds, mangrove forests, hypersaline ponds, limestone caverns and "blue-holes" connecting inland waterways to the sea. Students study major invertebrate zoology and community ecology within these remarkable habitats. Prerequisites: Biology 125, 126, or permission of instructor. Apply through International and Off-Campus Studies. Offered only during Interim.


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Equatorial Biology offers intensive field-biology experiences within three equatorial New World environments: the Amazon rainforest, the Andean cloud forests, and the Galapagos Islands. Preparation for class requires readings from texts and primary literature concerning evolutionary and ecological biology specific to each region. Three field expeditions alternate with home-base rest days allowing for journaling, readings, assimilation and discussion. Offered during Interim 2003 and in alternate years. Apply through the instructor.


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Zoological parks serve a critical role in the 21st century, preserving endangered species, and educating the public. Are zoos our best bet for preserving rare species, or would our time and money be better spent preserving the habitats that species require? This course gives students a background in conservation biology, zoo biology, and first-hand experience conducting research in a zoo setting. Prerequisites: Environmental Studies 125 or 137; Biology 126 and 261. Offered only during Interim.


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This brief study of the structure and function of molecules common to living organisms such as proteins, carbohydrates, fats and DNA includes speculation on the formation of the solar system and the early chemical history of the earth and examination of possible mechanisms by which smaller and then larger molecules may have formed, from which the present great diversity of life has evolved. Prerequisite: high school chemistry or biology. Offered during Interim.


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This course, a continuation of Chemistry 121, examines atomic and molecular structure, including classical and quantum theories, bonding models, molecular orbitals and coordination chemistry. Chemistry 121 and 123 together are equivalent in content to Chemistry 125 and are designed to prepare students for Chemistry 126. Prerequisite: Chemistry 121. Offered only during Interim.


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Students study the chemistry of the environment, from the fundamental chemical properties of air, water and soil to human impact on natural processes, including damage to and protection of the environment. Laboratory work explores environmental issues such as detecting hazardous and beneficial materials in a variety of samples.


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The field of chemistry is constantly expanding into new frontiers This course provides an in-depth study of selected topics within the broad discipline of chemistry. Classwork includes comprehensive review of the literature and group discussion. Topics will be chosen based on student interest and available staff and will be announced prior to registration for the term. Prerequisites: permission of the instructor and junior or senior standing.


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This course introduces students to the history and art of ancient Greece, from the Bronze Age through the archaic, classical and Hellenistic periods. Students visit every major region of Greece, with extended stays in Athens, Heraklion and Thessaloniki. When not visiting museums and archaeological sites and learning about ancient Greek civilization, students experience modern Greek culture. Offered annually in Interim.


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This course offers an introductory, hands-on exploration of the integration of computer technology within the field of dance. Creative projects integrate improvisational and structured human movement experiences, dance for the camera, computer-generated movement, and digital video and sound editing. Historical and contemporary practices are introduced. Lab fee. Offered alternate years during Interim.


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These classes (110-120) introduce first-year students to principles of economics through special topics. Each course emphasizes the application of economic concepts to topics of general interest, capitalizing on the special interests and expertise of the faculty. A list of topics and course descriptions will be included with registration materials each semester. These courses are open only to first-year students.


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This course focuses on the economics of human resources in the modern corporation. Managers today face many questions about their employment practices. This course addresses such issues from the perspective of both manager and worker. Students are introduced to theories of human capital, labor supply, and the economics of education. Specific topics include theory of wage differentials, labor market discrimination, hiring, promotion, evaluation, raiding, job definition, pay schemes, benefits, and design of work.


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Vigorous debates about globalization and poverty have persisted for the past decade, gaining international attention as protests interrupted the 1990 WTO Ministerial Conference in Seattle. This course introduces economic principles and uses them to evaluate thoughts on globalization, trade, growth, and poverty as articulated by economists like John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich von Hayek, Joseph Stiglitz, Jagdish Bhagwati, Jeffrey Sachs, and William Easterly, and as enacted by institutions like the WTO, IMF, and World Bank.


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This course examines Christian ethics along with major frameworks in philosophical ethics (Utilitarianism, Liberalism and Marxism) in addressing economic issues. Some introductory analysis will be presented and utilized. Economics 220 cannot be taken after taking Economics 293. Does not count toward the economics major. Prerequisites: BST-T Course. Offered many Interims.


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Through lectures, readings and field placements in Minneapolis, students gain an understanding of how race, class, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation and religion shape the character of urban youth and communities. Students spend the first week on campus in preparation for their placements and the last week reflecting upon their experiences. During weeks two and three students live in Minneapolis, tutor in the schools and participate in various after-school activities. Counts toward the major: American Racial and Multicultural Studies. Fulfills Education 382. P/N only. Offered during Interim.


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This course provides practical experiences for students desiring to explore career opportunities Students, primarily sophomores, live off-campus and participate in different observational and practical experiences in schools of their choice. Students are placed in schools for the full day and are expected to participate in evening and weekend activities. First-year students with special circumstances should consult Education Department chair. Applications due Oct. 15. P/N only. Offered during Interim.


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Students examine the influence of race, class and multiculturalism in American schools by participating as teachers' assistants and tutors in two distinctly different K-12 settings. Through guest lectures, readings, field trips and seminars, students explore the unique geography and culture of the Hawaiian Islands and develop a framework for examining diversity on the mainland. Prerequisite: Education 290, 2.5 GPA, meeting all off-campus study requirements and satisfactory portfolio progress. Fulfills Education 382 and partially fulfills field experience requirements. Students apply in the Spring Semester. Counts toward the major: American Racial and Multicultural Studies. P/N only. Offered during Interim.


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Students work full-time as tutors and teacher aides in Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools. They are expected to participate in the co-curricular life of the school and surrounding community. This course is designed to heighten students' sensitivities to the complexities of educating urban youth in a multicultural setting. Prerequisite: Education 290, 2.7 GPA, meeting all off-campus study requirements. The course fulfills Education 382 and partially fulfills field experience requirements. Counts toward the major: American racial and multicultural studies. Applications due by Oct. 15. P/N only. Offered during Interim.


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Students examine various heroic and trickster figures as manifested in post-colonial literature from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, both oral and written, and seek to understand what basic human needs and realities these figures express and fulfill.


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Romantic comedy was invented by Shakespeare and perfected by Jane Austen. We will begin with "As You Like It", "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Pride and Prejudice" and then look at American movie romantic comedies from the Thirties to the present: "It Happened One Night", "Bringing Up Baby", "The Lady Eve", "When Harry Met Sally", "Groundhog Day" and "Before Sunrise". These comedies celebrate a distinctively American woman who, in the words of Alexis de Tocqueville, is "always mistress of herself." Film noir, rooted in hard-boiled detective fiction, presents this same independent woman in much darker light. Our examples here will be "The Big Sleep", "The Maltese Falcon", "Double Indemnity", "Out of the Past" and "Red Rock West".


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Students study selected poets, dramatists, novelists, and essayists of the Eastern Caribbean islands of Barbados, Trinidad, and St. Lucia. Examination of the literature is supplemented by guest lecturers, presentations by creative writers, and field trips to sites of cultural and environmental interest. Offered alternate years during Interim.


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This course examines aspects of theater production in New York City. Students meet artists, directors, producers, critics, and other scholars skilled in the areas of performance and important to the critical reception of poetry and drama. They also tour relevant sites, developing skill at analyzing and evaluating artistic excellence, especially in the genre of review writing. Specifically, students consider three aspects of theater: written drama, play production and review writing. Offered in alternate years during Interim.


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Students travel to the Caribbean island of Martinique to study French language and French-Caribbean culture at the upper-intermediate level. An immersion experience that includes home stays with local families, the course emphasizes the multicultural aspects of this region and facilitates student interaction with the local population. Field trips, events, lectures and language instruction are conducted by experts on the campus of the Universitè des Antilles. Prerequisite: French 231 or higher (or equivalent) or placement in French 232 or higher. Open to first-year students.


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This course provides an on-campus immersion experience for students interested in improving their oral language proficiency. Students engage in small and large group discussion, give individual and group oral presentations and review grammar and registers of language. They also explore the notions of communicative competence and oral proficiency in order to become more effective speakers. Taught in French. Prerequisite: French 232, 233, or equivalent. Offered only during Interim.


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Students explore the Greek and Hebrew legacies in Roman society and in the New Testament, discussing various attempts to find personal fulfillment in political life, in stoicism and epicureanism, and in the teachings of Christ and St. Paul. Students read works by Cicero, Horace, Virgil, Epictetus, the writers of the New Testament and study the artistry of Roman sculpture. Offered only in Interim.


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Students Examine a major period of German history and its impact on the institutional, intellectual and artistic heritage of Europe. Course involves close reading and analysis of primary sources as well as critical evaluations of the period and focus on history as an interpretive reconstruction of the past. Sample periods include: the Reformation, Weimar Classicism, the German revolution of 1848, German modernism and post-holocaust Germany. Taught in German. Prerequisite: one 250-level course (two recommended). May be repeated if topic is different.


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This seminar examines the social and political role of warfare in ancient Greek and Roman history. Students investigate the concepts of war and peace by considering the role of the soldier within society, details of tactics and logistics, and the impact of warfare on both combatants and non-combatants alike. The seminar uses primary sources to examine these themes.


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This course explores the origins of the modern Russian empire. Using primary sources such as folktales, legal codes, letters, and religious icons, students consider Russia's development from a loose collection of princedoms into a powerful, multi-ethnic empire spanning 11 time zones. Topics include the impact of geography and climate, the Orthodox religion, Mongol rule, gender roles, the rise of autocracy, and social rebellion.


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On the basis of selected works of O.E. Rolvaag, including Giants in the Earth, this course considers the literature and history of Norwegian America in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. For the sake of comparison students also read selections from other Norwegian and Norwegian-American authors. Topics for consideration include ecology, family, gender, agriculture, economics, technology, urbanization, religion, immigration, ethnicity, and American pluralism.


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Students explore the experiences of women in both religious and secular life from the period of the late Roman Empire through the 15th century. Topics include women's roles in the early church, changes in the status of women from the late Roman Empire through the Carolingian period, women's monasticism, marriage and the family in the feudal system, courtly love, and late medieval spirituality.


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This course examines the history of 20th-century Cuba, especially the 1959 revolution and its aftermath. Students study the transformation of Cuban political culture, the obstacles to economic and agrarian reform, education, the role of women, human rights, U.S. policies toward Cuba and the future of Cuba after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The role of charismatic leadership in Latin America and the possibilities for revolutionary changes in the Americas are also examined.


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This international travel course explores economic and social developments along the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Topics of interest range from the Hanseatic League of the 13th century to the current transition from Soviet-style central planning to a Western European social market system. Offered during Interim.


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Students explore health care at a major metropolitan hospital (Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, Ill.), investigating the variety of services designed to treat patients as whole beings -- including pastoral patient care, day care for preschool and elderly, and treatment for substance abuse. Students meet weekly in group seminars in addition to their observations at the hospital and conversations with health care professionals. Prerequisite: apply through instructor before registration. P/N grading only.


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Students study drama and theater through the reading of dramatic criticism and plays, attendance at approximately 20 performances, group discussions, guest lectures and tours. London, the theatrical center of the English-speaking world, enables students to experience a wide variety of theatrical performances ranging from traditional to modern. Excursions to Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford and Canterbury offer additional theater perspectives. Offered during Interim.


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Students work in groups on significant problems posed by and of current interest to area businesses and government agencies. The student groups decide on promising approaches to their problem and carry out the necessary investigations with minimal faculty involvement. Each group reports the results of its investigations with a paper and an hour long presentation to the sponsoring organization. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor. Interim only.


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Designed for students with little or no background in music, this course introduces the fundamentals of music materials through the keyboard, computer programs and written work in music theory. Offered during Interim.


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In this course, students explore orchestral music, in history, forms, styles, instrumentation, vocabulary and specific landmark works. The course includes two orchestral concerts in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Offered during Interim.


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This course is a hands-on study of the science, aesthetics, history and current practices of electronic music. Creative projects include work with MIDI synthesizers and sequencers, as well as digital sampling and software synthesis.


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Students study the musical history of hymnody and its relationship to the history of the church. In addition, this course explores the Biblical Psalms and their use in worship of the church and includes references to their musical settings in Gregorian chant; Anglican chants, responsorial settings and choral music. Offered during Interim.


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The course examines how basic conventions, styles, and forms of music convey drama, emotion, and meaning in dance, opera, musical, and film genres. Intended for the general student (non-music major), the course provides fundamental musical listening skills and vocabulary to analyze and describe how music can partner with movement, texts, and visual images to portray time, place, and plot, while simultaneously depicting a character's mental state, conveying political messages or predicting the future.


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Opera Workshop focuses on the preparation for performance of a one-act opera or opera scenes. Students receive coaching and performance experience through individual and group singer/actor exercises. The course culminates with public performances of fully staged and costumed lyric theater work. May be repeated once. A class fee may be required. Offered during Interim.


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The sagas, myths, and poetry of the Vikings rank with the world's great literary treasures. Strong men and clever women engage in a heroic struggle with a tough and unyielding nature and face perennial human problems: love and hate, crime and punishment, travel and adventure. These works will be read in their historical and cultural context, as well as examining their impact on popular culture, including film, video games, comics, and sci-fi/fantasy fiction.


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Violence between family members and intimates is recognized as a significant social and public health problem. This course explores the magnitude, causes, and consequences of family violence in America. Students examine the factors predisposing individuals to violence and the institutional and societal responses to the problem. The issue is addressed from health care, legal, religious, and public policy perspectives.


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Literature provides rich resources for thinking through central philosophical questions, including the metaphysics and ethics of freedom, the problem of evil, the role of character in choice and action, the nature of morality, rebellion and human solidarity, God's existence and relation to the world, and the nature of truth. This course explores philosophical ideas in literary works of several different genres by studying plot, character, point of view, imagery, and symbolism. Offered only during Interim.


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This course clarifies central concepts and distinctions developed in the literature of moral philosophy and applications of those concepts and distinctions to concrete moral problems that arise in the practice of medicine. Issues may include euthanasia, abortion, medical paternalism, allocation of scarce medical resources, culturally sensitive medical care, pandemics, and conflicts of loyalty in managed care. Readings are drawn from both philosophical and medical discussions. Prerequisite: completion of BTS-T.


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This course offers an introduction to the physics of sound waves, the biological, physical and psychological origins of sound perception and the synthesis of sounds and sound production in different instruments. Students explore these topics, as well as sound recording and reproduction systems, through lectures, discussions, laboratory experiments and student presentations. Prerequisite: proficiency in algebra and geometry. No musical experience necessary. Interim only.


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The goal of this course is to introduce students to the long tradition of debate concerning the nature and legitimacy of war. The course explores the reality of war, the revulsion of violence and the possibility of just war through texts ranging from Thucydides, Aquinas, and Freud. The course explores contemporary debates in light of moral and empirical arguments learned. Offered during Interim.


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The course focuses on the process and substance of Minnesota State Government. Among the topics receiving attention will be health care, education, transportation, and taxes. The class meets daily at the capitol in St. Paul. Students will question, in a seminar format, state legislators, executive branch officials, judges, journalists, lobbyists, and other involved in state government. Students read one or more textbooks as well as a daily metropolitan newspaper.


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This course explores how today's media and technologies shape child development. The course focuses on the effects of TV, video games, computers, toys, music, and other technologies on children's cognitive and social development. It also critically examines how the science of developmental psychology is presented in the media. The class considers how the media and popular press affect child development by influencing parents. Prerequisite: Psychology 125, Psychology 241 (recommended), Media Studies 160.


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This course compares Christian and Islamic conceptions of the relationship between God and humanity, as foundations for thinking about moral excellence and obligation. It also considers and compares how theological commitments and methods in each religious tradition affect approaches to particular ethical issues such as sexuality, war and politics. Students work with scripture, film, polemical literature, judicial texts and theological texts. Prerequisites: BTS-B and BTS-T.


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During this study of how the gospel transforms the practices of personal and social life, students explore the nature of Christian community and the connections between Christian theological beliefs and practices. Students participate in the life of Holden Village, an isolated Lutheran retreat center in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. Prerequisite: BTS-B. Offered during Interim.


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Christians and people of other faiths seek to be faithful to their own traditions and also to attend to each other's claims. This course examines ways Christians and other believers develop their doctrinal traditions in the context of religious pluralism. This course gives specific attention to Christian reflection on the doctrines of God, Christ, and salvation in relation to religious reflection by people of other faiths. Prerequisite: BTS-B. Offered during Interim.


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This course explores the critical and constructive significance of the musical arts for Christian theological reflection. Specific musical works, musical styles, and issues in philosophical aesthetics are considered in conjunction with central themes and figures in Western theology from antiquity to the present. Students investigate the ways in which musical feeling, form, and performance can function as theologically formative. Prerequisite: BTS-B. Offered during Interim.


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Students examine religion in Italy and Germany at a crucial historical turning point: the 16th century Reformation. Analyzing the development of Catholicism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance and the emergence of Protestantism from the reforming efforts of Martin Luther, students compare Catholic-Lutheran relations then and now. Study of religious thought and practice is connected with site visits and events. Offered only in Interim. Prerequisite: BTS-B.


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This course concentrates on the historical and geographical background of the Bible. Visits to archaeological sites in Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem especially enable students to understand the religious pluralism of ancient Palestine as well as the Jewish roots of Christianity. A secondary emphasis of the course is on the current diversity of worship and piety in Jerusalem. May be repeated if topics are different. Offered in Interim. Prerequisite: BTS-B.


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This course approaches longstanding questions about the meaning of conflict, violence, and power in human societies from an anthropological perspective. The course examines indigenous traditions of conflict and conviviality and the violence indigenous societies endured in colonial encounters with the West. Students also consider anthropological approaches to modern forms of violence including terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and state violence. Finally, students examine anthropological approaches to the analysis of twenty-first century wars and contemporary peace movements. Offered during Interim.


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In many respects, products like caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and opium provide the glue that holds together modern life. This course examines the web of these substances from an anthropological perspective. Our focus includes the politics of production, the culturally diverse practices of consumption and the social consequences of regulation. Based on our collective experience at St. Olaf, we consider the mood-altering substances on and off campus, and examine their influence in such things as our social identity, individual consciousness and the structure of authority. Offered during Interim.


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Ireland, renowned for scenic vistas, literary and musical heritage, is also the site of important post-colonial social change. This course examines changes in Irish culture and institutions coinciding with European/global restructuring and troubles in Northern Ireland. We begin in the western (Gaeltacht-Irish speaking) rural counties of Galway and Mayo, move to the Northern Irish city of Derry and conclude in urban Dublin. Offered during Interim.


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This course explores the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people from several social science perspectives. Students examine debates about whether gender and sexual orientation (both heterosexual and homosexual) are socially constructed or biologically natural, and what cross-cultural and historical examples can reveal. The course also addresses controversies surrounding the family, religion and politics in regard to GLBT people, along with examining movements for change.


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Students begin learning Spanish through listening, speaking, reading and writing about topics familiar to them, including family, academic and social life, in an intercultural context. They reinforce these skills through complementary exercises in the language laboratory. Open only to students with no prior experience in Spanish or who have placed into Spanish 111. Offered during Interim.


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Students analyze patterns of continuity and change in Spain, Latin America, and/or the Hispanic U.S. Using readings from the press, academic sources, and governmental as well as non-governmental documents, students read, discuss, and write about issues at an advanced level of linguistic and analytical sophistication. The course includes study of at least one substantive literary work. Possible themes include love, family and marriage or crossing borders and the challenges of migration. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: Spanish 250.


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Students explore human services as a profession, a vocation, or a hobby. Who needs help? Who helps? Where? How? Using the liberal arts as a foundation for helping people, students can study careers in areas such as homelessness, addictions, juvenile delinquency, welfare and social ministry. The class includes discussion, speakers and field trips; additional fee. Open to first year students and sophomores. Offered in Interim 2004 and alternate years.


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Families in central Mexico survive and thrive in their communities. Students explore how public and private organizations work with informal systems to assist those challenged by poverty, injustice, poor health, addictions and global economic pressures. Development opportunities for, and contributions of, women are emphasized. Speakers, site visits to agencies and programs, home-stays, indigenous village immersion, and an orientation to Mexico City are included.


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This course studies theater performance through the full-scale mounting of a production during the month of January, followed by public performances at the beginning of Spring Semester. Students enroll in the class through either an acting audition or a production position interview held in late October or early November. No previous experience is necessary. Selected participants are notified prior to Interim registration. Details about the audition/interview and scripts are available by calling the Theatre Department Office, x3240. Offered only in Interim.


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Designed for the student with previous course work and production work in theater. This course studies theater performance through the full-scale mounting of a production during the month of January, followed by public performances at the beginning of Spring Semester. Students enroll in the class through either an acting audition or a production position interview held in late October or early November. No previous experience is necessary. Selected participants are notified prior to Interim registration. Details about the audition/interview and scripts are available by calling the Theatre Department Office, x3240. Offered only in Interim.


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How do sexual experiences and impulses contribute to identity? How are sex and sexuality involved in representations of national identity and cultural difference? This course explores thse question as they play out in postcolonial contexts. Our novels' authors and settings span much of the former British Empire, touching on India, South Africa, Egypt, Antigua, Sri Lanka, the United States, Canada, Ireland and English itself. Alongside gripping novels including Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy, Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, and Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, we will also watch and discuss the films Bride and Prejudice, Monsoon Wedding, and My Beautiful Laundrette.


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Americans have long understood their diverse identities through stories. This course analyzes familiar and less familiar narratives that have formed and re-formed identity in the context of American culture. Students examine literary works, histories, cultural artifacts, and media, paying attention to the forms and themes through which the American experience is constructed. They develop their own writing skills. The course also introduces students to the American Conversations program's emphasis on civic engagement. Offered annually in the fall semester. Counts toward media studies concentration. Prerequisite: enrollment in the American Conversations program.


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This course, surveying the general nature and assumptions of Hindu thought, focuses on the diversity of doctrines and practices within some of its major traditions. Students analyze selections from authoritative Sanskrit texts like the Upanishads and Bhagavad-gita, directing special attention to the central issues and developments in Hindu-Christian dialogue. Offered periodically. Counts toward Asian studies and religion majors and Asian studies concentration.


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What is Asia? Students explore how concepts of culture, language, nation, race, and environment define Asia today and in years past and plan related projects for their Interim course. Offered annually in the fall semester. Counts toward Asian studies, Chinese, and Japanese majors and Asian studies concentration. Prerequisite: CHIN 112 or JAPAN 112 or permission of instructor; must be accepted into Asian Conversations program to register.


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What is Chinese diaspora? In this course we will compare modern Chinese immigration with ancient Chinese exodus and exile, in addition to comparisons with the migration of an empire, and the sojourns of officials, students, and merchants. Students will read a selection of literary and scholarly works, examining not only the genres in their cultural contexts, but also the borders that the Chinese diaspora crossed, the places where they went, and the environments to which they tried/failed to adapt. Finally, we will look into chapter novels, novellas, and films in which post-loyalism, creolization, and gender are considered while Chineseness and diaspora are re-considered. Counts toward Asian Studies and Chinese majors.


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This course introduces students to major works of Japanese literature written from 1885 to the present. The focus of this survey is Japan's rich body of prose narratives, primarily novels and novellas. To supplement this focus, students also investigate genres and media such as poetry, film, theater, photography, advertisements, historical nonfiction, anime, and manga. Offered alternate years. Also counts toward Japanese major.


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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that "the inherent dignity and ... the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family [are] the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world." Who speaks to human rights in East Asia? What ethical perspectives are voiced? Case studies presented through memoirs, films, reports, and multidisciplinary analyses provide the material for exploring diverse normative claims about individual rights in East Asia. Offered annually. Also counts toward Chinese and Japanese majors. Prerequisites: BTS-T or permission of instructor.


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For science majors, learning to read the primary literature and other professional sources is an important transition from classroom learning to post-graduate endeavors. Students read, present, and discuss scientific literature in a field selected by participating faculty. The goal is to garner sufficient expertise to allow critical analysis of the particular field. May be repeated if topic is different. Does not count toward biology major. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.


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Human gross anatomy students participate in the dissection of both a female and a male cadaver, preparing cadavers for use in the Human Anatomy and Physiology course, BIO 243. In addition, students serve as TAs for one lab section of BIO 243, conduct guided showings of the cadavers for approved courses such as Biology of Women and Human Biology, and participate in the annual Human Anatomy Chapel service. Does not count towards the biology major. Application required. Offered annually during Fall. Prerequisite: BIO 243.


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Limnology is the study of inland freshwaters, which includes lakes, ponds, reservoirs, rivers, streams, and wetlands. This course examines the physical, chemical, and biological drivers of freshwater ecology. Class periods will introduce students to the fundamental concepts and knowledge of limnology, while the laboratory exercises will provide hands-on experience studying freshwaters. This course will build upon fundamental concepts to examine real-world problems facing freshwater ecosystems (e.g. hydropower, invasive species, pollution, climate change). Students attend lectures plus one three-hour laboratory per week. Prerequisite: BIO 261; or permission of instructor.


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Immunology focuses on the structure, development, and function of the immune system. The course explores the molecular and cellular basis of the immune responses. The application of immunological principles to allergy, autoimmunity, AIDS, transplantation, and cancer are included. Students attend lectures plus one three-hour laboratory per week. Also counts toward biomolecular science concentration. Prerequisites: BIO 227 and BIO 233, or CH/BI 227 and BIO 233.


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This course provides continued practice in speaking, reading, and writing at the third-year level. Our text introduces students to Chinese geography and history and modern written style. Conducted entirely in Chinese. Offered annually in the fall semester. Also counts toward Asian studies major and management studies concentration. Prerequisite: CHIN 232 or equivalent.


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In this fourth-year-level Chinese course, students explore a specified topic or theme in language, in various text/media (literature, newspaper, television, and film), in culture/civilization, or in a combination of these, through close examination of texts (written or visual), discussion, analysis, and interpretation of selected materials. Specific topics vary by instructor and semester. May be repeated if topic is different. Taught in Chinese. Offered annually. Also counts toward Asian studies major. Prerequisite: CHIN 302 or equivalent.


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What made the last years of the Roman Republic and the early years of the Roman Empire "golden"? Students learn the answer by reading some of the finest Latin literature ever written, from epic to satire. They also do research with historical source materials. The course emphasizes the many ways in which ancient Rome has influenced and continues to influence Western culture. Offered alternate years. Also counts toward ancient studies, Greek, and Latin majors.


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This coure explores life, death, and entertainment in the ancient world, particularly Rome. We will focus especially on how and why people take part in sporting events and on how sport intersected with gender, social class, and economics. Topics include the history of sport, slavery and marginal groups, demography, gladiatorial events, and entertainment and politics. Our primary focus will be interpretation of ancient sources, but we will also evaluate modern views of ancient entertainment. Also counts toward the Ancient Studies major.


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This course explores modern computer hardware, emphasizing trade-offs among architectural choices and examining representative examples. Programming exercises explore how these topics relate to five high-level programming languages. Topics include machines, overview of computer organization, the design of processors including hardware, forms of parallelism, machine-level implementation of programming language features, memory organization, digital logic, microprogrammed and RISC architectures, multi-core architectures, performance enhancements, assembly programming, and architecture of networks and their protocols. Offered annually. Also counts toward management studies concentration. Prerequisite: CSCI 121 or CSCI 125 or consent of the instructor.


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This topics course focuses on social dancing during a time of social and physical distancing due to COVID 19. Students explore social dance and learn dance forms that do not require dancing with a partner, but rather are typically done in a group setting that does not involve a partner. In addition students will explore the varying ways in which the social dance world has adapted to this time of social distancing and what that can tell us about the nature of "social dance."


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The health care sector in the U.S. is undergoing rapid change that affects patients, providers and payers. Managed care and managed competition are restructuring the delivery of health care services and reducing costs, while frustrating physicians and patients. The course examines the economic factors leading to the changes, current issues and controversies, and federal health policies. Students interested in nursing, medicine, and the sciences are encouraged to enroll. Offered annually. Prerequisites: one of ECON 110-121 or permission of instructor.


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This course addresses the institutions that comprise modern monetary systems and the influence that these systems have on levels of income, output, employment, and prices in market economies. Monetary theory and monetary policy, including both the nature of our central bank and the role that it plays in our monetary system, are also addressed in some detail. Offered annually. Prerequisite: ECON 261 and either ECON 263 or STAT 272, or permission of instructor.


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This course emphasizes theoretical foundations, mathematical structure and applications of major econometric techniques appropriate for cross-sectional and panel data. Topics to be covered include generalized least squares, dummy variables, non-linear models, instrumental variables techniques, fixed- and random-effects models, and limited dependent variable models. This course is recommended for students interested in analysis of issues in mircroeconomics and public policy. Offered annually. ECON 384 and ECON 385 may not both be used to satisfy the economic analysis requirements for either the Economics or Quantitative Economics major. Prerequisite: ECON 262 and either ECON 260, ECON 263, or STAT 272; or permission of instructor.


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Students explore the challenges and opportunities that have occurred in Faribault for people with refugee and immigrant backgrounds and educators and community members working with those communities to create supportive contexts (including educational, social, economic, political) that meet the needs and aspirations of those communities. Offered periodically. Prerequisites: EDUC 260 or EDUC 290.


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Students explore the histories, cultural patterns, religious practices, key institutions, gender issues, narrative styles, and significant contributions to our nation of an array of racial and multicultural groups. Such diverse writers as Leslie Silko, Chaim Potok, Amy Tan, and Toni Morrison raise questions about voice and identity, both individual and collective. Also counts toward race and ethnic studies major and Africa and the African Diaspora, educational studies, and race and ethnic studies concentrations. Prerequisite: FYW.


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Trying to define "comedy" is deceptively difficult. While the first definition that comes to mind - anything that is humorous and makes the reader laugh - seems the clearest, it raises a host of questions. Are any topics universally funny? Can the genre apply to a work during which the reader never laughs? Do comedies offer a chance to engage more deeply with, or ignore, social issues? In this class, students analyze a variety of texts considered "comedies" - possibly including Arvind Adiga's White Tiger, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail - to explore the literary, social, and ethical debates in this slippery genre.


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Heroes, monsters, battles, and journeys - for over a thousand years, elements of epic poetry shaped ideas of what a good story should be. But with the modern age, the novel replaced epic as the most culturally revered literary form. Students explore how the novel draws upon as well as rejects the epic tradition, and how the novel reflects what we mean by "modernity" itself. This course ranges from Anglo-Saxon epic to modern and contemporary novels. Offered periodically. Prerequisite: FYW.


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Students explore specific periods in British literature and examine the relationship between literary texts and movements and their particular cultural, political, and historical contexts. Each offering of this course examines a different literary era and emphasizes specific literary and historical issues. May be repeated if topic is different. Prerequisites: ENGL 185 plus at least two English courses at level II, or permission of the instructor.


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In this course, students will be introduced to representations of the Arctic region across time and from a variety of perspectives, observing how authors employ different literary techniques to portray the region as a site of adventure, everyday life, and environmental change. At the same time, students will analyze examples of both fiction and nonfiction and consider the appropriateness of this division for representations of place.


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This course provides students with an opportunity to develop an in-depth understanding of the principles of strength training and conditioning, including anatomical and physiological considerations, lifting techniques, equipment selection, program development/evaluation, and weightlifting safety; thus enabling them to teach and train others. Prerequisites: exercise science major, BIO 143, and BIO 243.


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This course explores the long history of the French in North America and of Americans in France, focusing on how this history influenced ideas of race in America. Topics include 17th-century encounters between French missionaries and indigenous populations, Francophone cultures of Louisiana, and the experiences of African American expatriates in France. Coursework includes readings, critical analysis, research methods, and substantive projects. Taught in English. Offered periodically. May count toward the French major (see instructor).


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Students explore life in the German-speaking countries through reading, discussing, and retelling narrative texts. The course emphasizes vocabulary building, a thorough review of German grammar, and the composition of short narratives to develop writing skills for paragraph-length discourse. Taught in German with some grammar explanations in English. Offered annually in the fall semester. Does not count toward German major or concentration.Prerequisite: GERM 112 or by placement test.


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This course is designed to teach media literacy in the German context with emphasis on ideological, cultural, aesthetic, and ethical perspectives. Students examine current issues, events, culture, politics, education, entertainment, advertising, and other non-literary topics as treated in contemporary German print and electronic media, including press, television, film, internet, and radio. Students compare and contrast presentations by different German media and by German versus U.S. media. The course emphasizes strategies for writing papers in German. Taught in German. Offered every three years. Also counts toward management studies concentration. Prerequisite: GERM 251 or GERM 252.


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This course introduces students to the historical forces leading to and scholarly debates about slavery in African history. Students examine the nature and development of domestic slavery to the 19th century as well as the slave trade systems across the Saharan Desert and the Atlantic Ocean. Students "do history" using primary sources to retrieve the African voices and agency in discussions of the slave trade and debate themes such as ethnicity, kinship, state formation, and colonialism. Offered annually. Also counts toward Africa and the African Diaspora concentration.


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This seminar examines American society since 1945. The main focus is social history. Topics include the impact of the Cold War, migration to the suburbs, post-industrial society, the culture of the 1950s, civil rights, the Vietnam War, the student movement, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. Sources include novels, essays, magazine stories, films, and documentaries. Offered annually. Also counts toward women's and gender studies major and media studies and women's and gender studies concentrations.


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Since 1492, Latin America has been a site of -- often violent -- coexistence between people from the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. This course examines the history of race in Latin America from 1492 to the present. We will ask how people created racial hierarchies through processes of colonization, enslavement and modernization, and examine how race has shaped peoples’ access to physical security, social mobility and material well-being. With a focus on the politics and ideas of people who challenged white supremacy -- from slave rebels to indigenous peasants, to anthropologists and artists -- we will assess the failures and successes of antiracist politics in Latin American history.


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In studying the impact of the Civil War era on American society and politics, students focus on slavery, emancipation, and race relations. They also address the impact of industrialization on northern society, encompassing immigration and nativism, the westward movement, and the dispossession of Native Americans. The course situates the dramatic political and military events of the era in the wider evolution of American life. Offered annually. Also counts toward race and ethnic studies major and Africa and the African Diaspora and race and ethnic studies concentrations.


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This seminar introduces students to the nature and development of Muslim societies in sub-Saharan Africa, from the earliest times to the present. Students also explore questions of authenticity and "historical truth" as they examine current debates on themes such as patterns of Islamization, "African Islam," and Islam in Africa. Other themes include the invention of Muslim identities, expansion of Sufism, women in Islam, Islamic education, Islam and colonialism, as well as revivalism in Islam. Also counts toward Africa and the African Diaspora concentration. Offered annually.


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New capabilities in digitization have radically changed the way people understand and interact with history. In this seminar, students survey new digital tools in data visualization, curation, and presentation available to the historian. They experiment with these tools to craft compelling scholarly arguments which can be showcased online for historians and non-historians alike. Students produce a major digital research project using historical documents from online archives and St. Olaf College Archives and Libraries Special Collections. Offered in alternate years.


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Students continue to develop the listening, speaking, reading and writing skills that enable them to deal not only with topics of daily life, but also cultural themes and authentic materials. Class meets four times weekly. Individual language laboratory visits are also required. Offered annually in the fall semester. Also counts toward Asian studies major and concentration. Prerequisite: JAPAN 112 or its equivalent.


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This course engages students in problem solving and introduces them to abstract mathematical thinking, with an emphasis on mathematical reasoning and writing. Using a variety of topics as the backdrop, students learn to investigate, to make conjectures, and to express themselves using precise mathematical language. Topics may include number theory, graph theory, game theory, combinatorics, and more. Students may not take this course after MATH 244 or MATH 252 without permission of instructor. Offered annually. Also counts toward management studies concentration. Prerequsites: MATH 119 or MATH 120 or CSCI 121 or CSCI 125 or permission of instructor.


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Students are introduced to modeling and mathematical optimization techniques (e.g., linear programming, network flows, discrete optimization, constrained and unconstrained nonlinear programming, queuing theory). Students use computers to explore these topics, but prior computer experience is not assumed. Offered annually. Also counts toward management studies concentration. Prerequisites: MATH 126 or MATH 128, and MATH 220; MATH 226 and/or MATH 262 recommended.


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This course introduces students to the principles of entrepreneurship, covering both the theory and practical aspects of the subject. Students acquire an understanding of the entrepreneurial process: opportunity recognition, resource marshaling, and team building, driven by communication, creativity, and leadership. Discussions focus on the relationship of liberal arts disciplines to the entrepreneur, the role of entrepreneurship in society and history, risks and rewards of entrepreneurship, and the elements of entrepreneurial behavior. Study concentrates on the entrepreneurial process from idea creation to ultimate business or other organizational activity. A variety of instructional techniques are used, including group projects and guest presenters. Offered annually.


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An introduction to the diversity of musics on Earth. Topics include performance practice, methods for analysis and comparison of various musics, and interdisciplinary approaches to studying the powerful influence of music in human life. Offered annually in the fall semester. Also counts toward race and ethnic studies major and educational studies and race and ethnic studies concentrations.


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Students survey the solo art song repertoire of Germany, Italy, and Spain. The course highlights the significant features and development of the art song, and provides context, approaches, and resources for studying this literature. Course work includes in-class performance. Offered fall semester 2019-20 and alternate years. Prerequisite: MUSIC 214 or permission of instructor; MUSIC 263 and MUSIC 264 preferred.


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Like the Swedish character Pippi Longstocking, who lives alone and can lift a horse above her head, the Nordic child is widely considered an autonomous being. Yet the child's autonomy is often at odds with their vulnerability. Through Scandinavian literature and film, this course considers questions such as: What is the child capable of and from what must they be protected? What is the difference between children and adults? And, what makes Nordic childhood particular? Offered periodically. Prerequisites: FYW or current registration.


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Students analyze the plays of Henrik Ibsen in English translation using a variety of critical approaches. Students investigate ethical issues and themes in Ibsen's plays by examining the plays through the lens of ethics, using readings in ethical theory to better understand both the ethical issues and the plays themselves. Students also study Ibsen's dramatic technique and the historical and literary context of his work. Taught in English. Offered annually. Also counts toward women's and gender studies major and concentration. Prerequisite: BTS-T or permission of instructor.


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This course introduces the philosophical and scientific foundations of professional nursing. Students examine historical foundations of the nursing profession and scientific processes and frameworks underlying nursing theory and practice. Exploration of concepts in the nursing discipline builds knowledge and understanding essential to the provision of holistic patient care across the lifespan. Emphasis is on development of professionalism, use of critical thinking, and evidence-based practice. Offered annually in the fall semester. Prerequisites: open to junior nursing majors only; NURS 211 with grade of C or above; concurrent registration in NURS 313.


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Students focus on the nursing care of childbearing and childrearing families in the context of family-centered care. Family theory will be utilized as the framework for nursing assessment and care of families in various situations across the lifespan. Clinical experiences are provided with childbearing and childrearing families. Offered annually in the fall semester beginning fall 2019. Prerequisites: open to senior nursing majors only; NURS 314 with grade of C or above; concurrent registration in NURS 315 and NURS 316.


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Students examine social, psychological, and biological aspects of aging within the context of holistic nursing. Application of knowledge and skills using gerontological principles for prevalent health problems experienced by older adults is emphasized. The course incorporates instruction and feedback for developing oral communication through the practice of interpersonal communication skills. Clinical experiences focus on elder care in a variety of community settings. Offered annually in the fall semester. Prerequisite: open to junior nursing majors only; NURS 211 with grade of C or above; concurrent registration in NURS 311.


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Building on the interplay between pathophysiology, pharmacology and the nursing process in NURS 314, this course expands upon the holistic nursing care for ill patients of various ages. Students utilize diverse roles of the nurse to manage the care of children and adults with complex abnormalities in the clinical setting. Offered annually in the fall semester. Prerequisites: open to senior nursing majors only; NURS 314 with grade of C or above; concurrent registration in NURS 312 and NURS 316.


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Public health nursing is informed by community needs and environmental factors focusing on health promotion and disease prevention. Through project management, students address the health needs of groups and communities utilizing group communication processes, teamwork, and collaboration. Students focus on utilizing community resources, identifying risk factors, and evaluating the impact on population health as related to current epidemiological trends. Offered annually in the fall semester. Also counts toward management studies concentration. Prerequisites: open to senior nursing majors only; NURS 314 with grade of C or above; concurrent registration in NURS 312 and NURS 315.


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Engineering Thermodynamics explores the relationship between energy, heat, and work. Students develop the analytical skills to model the movement of energy through a system. Major topics include the laws of thermodynamics, heat transfer processes, control volume analysis, engine cycles, gas and vapor power systems, and refrigeration and heat pump systems. These thermodynamic processes are fundamental to a wide variety of Engineering fields. Offered annually in fall. Prerequisites: PHYS 130 and PHYS 131, or PHYS 124, PHYS, 125, and CSCI 121 or CSCI 125; and MATH 126.


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How ought citizens respond to threats to national security from terrorists and distant states? The course examines Just War theory and Jihad to enquire about the connections between religions and political violence. It considers the strategic logic of terrorism and the ethical "costs" of responses to it. It examines conflicts between Islamic "moderates" and "extremists" to reveal the ethical and political spectrums within Islam. Prerequisite: BTS-T; required prior experience of political analysis or the study of religion.


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Students analyze 16th-century reform movements in light of their theological and historical contexts and their significance for contemporary theology. The course focuses on contributions and lives of the major figures in the Protestant Reformations (e.g., Luther, Calvin, Zwingli) and the Roman Catholic Reform. Offered periodically. Also counts toward German studies concentration. Prerequisite: BTS-B.


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In this course students investigate the relationship between historical and emergent environmental decline and Christianity's scriptures, claims, traditions and practices. Students explore how variant ecotheological perspectives address the intersectional realities of gender, race and socio-economic status when responding to a number of contemporary environmental issues and whether Christianity might aid in the envisaging of future solutions. Offered annually. Prerequisite: BTS-B.


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This course introduces students to Russian culture and civilization from its beginning to the present. Students will gain a general understanding of Russia and will be introduced to her history, art, literature, political systems, music, society, geography, religions, etc. No prerequisites.


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This course considers masterworks of Russian and Soviet cinema from the Bolshevik revolution to the present. Students examine significant Russian contributions to world cinema. Readings and topics include basic cinema analysis, Russian cinema criticism, and Russian film theory. Offered alternate years. Counts toward Russian area studies major and film studies concentration; does not count toward Russian language major.


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College is one of the pivotal institutions in modern society, a place where significant cultural reproduction occurs. Campus life carries a high profile: admissions practices, curricular changes, and university events earn significant public attention. And yet the institution itself is difficult to understand, even to those in the midst of it. This is partly due to how we romanticize higher education, as well as to the system's immense complexity. This course is designed to explore how college works. We will examine the different tribes known as students, professors and staff, we will look at how they have developed over time, and we will analyze the problems and possibilities of American higher education.


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What is the role of language in our society? What is the impact of bilingualism in the U.S.? Students explore such questions from current Spanish socio-linguistics research. Through analysis of data, students examine issues of language contact, variation and change, language and gender, language and power, and/or language planning. May be repeated if topic is different. This course includes the study of at least one substantive literary work. Taught in Spanish. Offered alternate years. Also counts toward race and ethnic studies major and linguistic studies and race and ethnic studies concentrations. Prerequisites: SPAN 250 and SPAN 276.


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This course focuses on the use of statistics in a social science context. Students investigate three essential questions: How can one reliably measure something? How does one design valid research? How does one analyze research results? Topics include ANOVA designs (for example, one-way and two-way with interaction), data reduction methods, and principles of measurement. Interdisciplinary groups work together on case studies throughout the term. Offered alternate years. Prerequisites: STAT 110 or STAT 212 or ECON 263 or equivalent preparation, or permission of the instructor.


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This course introduces students to North American archaeological field techniques and methods such as survey, site identification, artifact processing and analysis, photogrammetry, and site excavation. During a 21-day summer session, students work with indigenous community leaders to recognize artifacts and contextualize them in local and regional traditions; practice and refine excavation and survey techniques; and critically examine how archaeological knowledge about North American Indigenous Peoples is constructed and expressed. Offered alternate years during summer.


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What kinds of stories do historians, writers, and artists tell about the cities in which they live? How are these stories reflected in the architecture and urban fabric of the cities themselves? And how do the geography and environment of Italy shape both the lore about a city and its actual built environment? To answer these questions, students explore the representations of Italian cities in literature and visual arts and the documented and architectural realities of urban development. The majority of the course focuses on a study of the city of Florence; students make shorter visits to other Italian cities and study the facts and fictions about each city's urban history. Prerequisite: At least one Art or Art History course at St Olaf College.


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Students investigate community-based approaches to environmental sustainability during this January Term course taught in Tokyo, smaller towns in the Kansai region, and at the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) in northern Japan. Students explore how ARI builds on local Japanese resources to support its mission of training rural leaders from developing countries in organic agricultural practices. Activities include field trips, discussions, and field outings, as well as hands-on participation in the daily food life at ARI. Offered periodically during January Term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Prerequisites: preference given to students with prior coursework in either Asian studies or environmental studies.


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Students explore the major genres of traditional Chinese literature -- poetry, short story, novel and drama -- in English translation. A small number of major works are singled out for close attention. Offered periodically.


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Students gain meaningful research experience studying marine ecosystems. The course begins on campus as students develop field and analytical skills that they will apply to their research. Staying at the Discovery Bay Marine Lab in Jamaica provides access to unique coral reef and intertidal habitats where students conduct independent research projects. The course concludes on campus for data analysis and interpretation. Offered periodically during January term. Prerequisite: BIO 150 or permission of instructor.


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This intensive January term course empowers students to design a career path rooted in self-awareness and adaptability. Through a blend of introspective exercises, hands-on workshops, and real-world simulations, participants uncover their core values, strengths, and passions while learning to articulate their unique value in the evolving business and professional landscapes. Not open to first year students. Prerequisite: sophomore standing or above.


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New Zealand is recognized as one of the world's most entrepreneurial countries. This course explores the unique innovation eco-systems that have developed to support entrepreneurship and economic development in New Zealand. Students will have site visits to both incubators and start-up organizations to meet with entrepreneurs while traveling from Auckland to Dunedin. Assignments will focus on idea generation and implementation. Offered alternate years during January Term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Prerequisite: sophomore standing or above.


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This course introduces the fundamentals of forensic science. Class periods may focus on the historic development of forensic science, proper collection and storage of evidence, background in scientific concepts, scientific techniques used to analyze evidence, the types of information that can be obtained, and the statistical methods for making a case in a court of law. Some topics that may be covered include hair, drug, paint, fiber, fingerprint, accelerant, or DNA analysis. The laboratory component features the use of forensic techniques to collect and analyze evidence including fingerprinting, drug analysis, alcohol investigation, DNA fingerprinting, and fiber analysis. Students attend three classes and one three-hour laboratory per week. Does not count toward the chemistry major. Offered alternate years during January term (next time 2026).


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The field of chemistry is constantly expanding into new frontiers. This course provides an in-depth study of special topics that are chosen with attention to student interest and available staff. Topics are announced prior to registration for the term; see the current class and lab schedule. May be repeated if topic is different. Offered periodically.


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This course builds depth of biochemical understanding upon the foundation laid in CHEM 379. Contents may include selected topics in catabolic and anabolic metabolism, integration and regulation of metabolism, photosynthesis and biochemical genetics. In addition, students will gain experience with the primary literature. Offered annually during Spring semester. Prerequisite: CHEM 379.


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With their tales of shape-shifting, vengeance, heroic quests, and tragic turns of fortune, the myths of the ancient Greeks and Romans have long inspired artists, poets, and philosophers. Even today, they continue to influence how human beings view the world and interact with one another. In this course students read thought-provoking stories about gods, heroes, and mortals, explore them in their original contexts, and investigate their connections with modern times and with students' own experiences. Offered annually.


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This course introduces students to the wild and wacky world of ancient Greek and Roman comedy. It traces the development of the genre with discussion of how the plays were produced in antiquity and what influence they wielded on the drama of later centuries. Students read works by Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, and Terence and stage selected scenes. Offered periodically during January term.


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This course introduces students to the history and art of ancient Italy, focusing on the city of Rome and the Bay of Naples (Pompeii) area. It covers more than 1000 years of civilization, beginning with the Etruscans and ending with the fall of the Western Roman Empire. When not visiting museums and archaeological sites, students have the opportunity to experience modern Italian culture as well. Offered during January term in alternate years. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement.


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An introduction to world dance traditions, this course examines dance forms, functions, contexts, and differing aesthetics found in selected cultures of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the South Pacific, and the Americas. The course includes lectures, discussion, video-viewing, and required field-trips to dance events, in addition to studio experiences where students learn dances from the cultures studied. No previous dance experience required. Ticket/transportation fee required. Offered alternate years during January Term.


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Students examine the influence of race, class, and multiculturalism in American schools by participating as teachers' assistants and tutors in Honolulu schools. Students discover the challenges and benefits associated with teaching in a diverse racial, cultural, and socio-economic environment. Through guest lectures, readings, field trips, and seminars, students learn about the truly unique geographic and cultural setting of the Hawaiian Islands. This environment makes an excellent framework for examining race, ethnicity, power, and privilege in U.S. schools. P/N only. Intended for education major/licensure students; cannot fulfill the January term requirement for TEFL certification. Offered alternate January terms, even years. Prerequisite: EDUC 330.


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This program provides an opportunity for students to gain direct teaching experience by serving as an intern for a teacher in a Minneapolis/St. Paul public school. The January Term will heighten students' sensitivities to the complexities of multicultural, urban education and provide exposure to models used to foster educational and personal success in diverse student populations. On/off-campus orientation will be followed by four weeks of full-time work in a classroom with a host teacher and participation in weekly seminars with the college instructor. Reading assignments, reflective journals, and guest speakers will complement the experience. Fulfills EDUC 382: Human Relations requirement. Intended for education major/licensure students. P/N only. Offered during January term. Apply through the Education Department by Oct.15. Prerequisites: EDUC 330.


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The creators in this class transgress the boundaries of gender, genre, and form. Their works tell women’s stories from intersectional perspectives and many emphasize biography, autobiography, or history. However, they also hybridize, mashup, and cross genres and forms. For example, Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate is both a novel and a cookbook while Ntozake Shange describes When the Rainbow Is Enuf, which combines poetry, dance, and music, as a "choreopoem." Students will examine the role of the female writer, director, and artist in texts from across cultures. By analyzing how they defy cultural constructs like genre, form, gender, nation, and race, students will appreciate how the texts reveal and redress cultural differences shaped by power, privilege, and inequality.


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This creative writing course focuses on craft issues of place and historical research, as well as how both travel and other art forms can fuel the writing process. The first half of the course, based at St. Olaf, acquaints students with the tools of fiction through exercises and readings, while also preparing for flash fiction writing projects to be developed during two weeks in Tuscany, Italy, which has long served as home or inspiration for writers. Offered periodically during January term. Prerequisite: sophomore standing or above.


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Using methods from public health and literary studies, students critically analyze the role of storytelling in medical encounters. In reflection papers and close-readings, students ask how memoir, film, and poetry highlight the layers of meaning and power dynamics that doctors and patients navigate. Students also volunteer with community partners to create quilts and bandages for hospitals and package them with other medical supplies, telling their own stories about the experience. Offered periodically in January term. Prerequisite: WRIT 120 or equivalent.


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Though their career as a recording group lasted only about seven years and ended over half a century ago, the Beatles are still considered one of the most important creative collaborations of the twentieth century. In this course, students practice cultural analysis by examining the Beatles' musical, lyrical, and cultural works, focusing on their creative evolution in the context of social, cultural, and technological developments during the 1960s.


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This course immerses students in the narrative, storytelling culture of Indigenous Australian and New Zealand peoples, the Aboriginal and Maori cultures. Students gain an understanding of the history of these peoples, their family culture, and storytelling as a healing and powerful force. Students study Narrative Family Therapy and learn to articulate the parallels between it and Aboriginal and Maori culture. Students also learn to apply this theory to their own lived experience. Prerequisite: One of the following: FAMST 132, FAMST 242, SWRK 120, SWRK 122, SWRK 221, PSYCH 125, SOAN 121, SOAN 128, SOAN 260, SOAN 262, SOAN 264, RACE 121, RACE 252.


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Students study French language and Québec culture through an immersion experience that includes home stays with local French-speaking families in Québec City and Montreal. Second-year French grammar and writing and speaking skills are integrated into the reading and discussion of texts focusing on the experiences and identities of immigrants to Québec and their descendants, as well as how immigration is shaping the linguistic and cultural identity of the broader Québec population. Taught in French. Offered periodically during January term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Prerequisites: FREN 231, placement in FREN 232, or by permission of instructor.


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This course introduces students to the urban and rural landscapes of two Irelands - the Free State/Republic, and Northern Ireland - through histories of love and sex from 1884 to 2018. Students consider histories of marriage, prostitution, same-sex desire, and bodily autonomy, and how the built and imagined environment shaped possibilities, dangers, and everyday experiences of love and sex. The course culminates in original research projects utilizing the archives only accessible by visiting Ireland.


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A full immersion in the art of theater, students attend approximately 22 performances at London and Stratford theaters. The course includes the reading of play texts, dramatic criticism, group discussions, and backstage tours. England, a theatrical center of the English-speaking world, enables students to experience a wide variety of theatrical performances ranging from traditional to modern. Excursions to Stratford-upon-Avon and other locations offer additional cultural perspectives. Offered annually during January term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement.


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Have you ever wondered why exercise makes your tissues stronger? This course offers an accessible introduction to the principles governing the structure and adaptation of the musculoskeletal system. We will explore how physical forces influence the health and function of our most critical tissues, including bone, cartilage, tendon, and muscle. The curriculum will bridge the gap between cellular mechanisms (known as mechanobiology) and whole-body function, demonstrating how an understanding of mechanical loading can optimize performance and accelerate recovery. This is a foundational course perfect for those in physical science majors and/or considering careers in the rehabilitation sciences, medicine, or fitness.


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Students study the mathematics of Emmy Noether and Sonya Kovalevskaya, visit cultural and historical sites in Germany and Sweden associated with the women, and learn about the societal contexts in which they lived and worked. Noether was fundamental in the development of algebra, in particular the theory of how rings decompose into ideals. Kovalevskaya extended work of Cauchy to prove the main theorem for analytic solutions to partial differential equations. Offered alternate years during January Term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Prerequisites: MATH 252, or MATH 230 and MATH 244.


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Students study the musical history of hymnody and its relationship to the history of the church. In addition, this course explores the Biblical Psalms and their use in worship of the church and includes references to their musical settings in Gregorian chant, Anglican chant, responsorial settings, and choral music. Offered periodically during January term. Prerequisite: declared music major.


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This course delves into the unique history of Musical Theatre in Japan. Students explore Japanese theatrical traditions and observe their influence on contemporary productions and pop culture. Activities include performances of Noh, Kabuki, Takarazuka, translated American musicals, Disneyland, and original Japanese musicals. Guest lectures from industry professionals provide insights into training, career trajectory, and considerations for translation. The course culminates in reflections on the role of musical theater in society, both locally and globally. Offered alternate years during January term.


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Opera was conceived in Italy in the 16th century and has continued to evolve into the living artistic expression presented worldwide today. In this course, students explore and reflect on opera while being embedded in the unique cultural settings of two countries of its origin: Austria and Germany. Through readings, research, reflection, discussion, and group projects, students connect history, architecture, politics, society, and art to performances on the stage and the places that shaped them. Offered periodically during January Term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Open to all students.


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There are vaccines to prevent more than 20 life-threatening diseases, helping people to live longer, healthier lives. Despite controversy, vaccines remain a necessary tool to continue to protect and improve the health of populations. This course explores the basics of vaccinology, how vaccines are licensed and recommended, the vaccine safety system in the U.S., how vaccines are used to prevent and control disease, the factors influencing vaccine hesitancy, and strategies to strengthen vaccine confidence. Offered periodically in January term.


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Modern scientific work relies heavily on electronic circuitry and computation. This course examines the fundamentals of analog and digital electronics, explores the applications of discrete and integrated circuits, and introduces the broad topic of computer control of experiments. Students develop hands-on skills in circuit building, computer interfacing, and programming in LabView®. Students attend lectures and one 2.5-hour laboratory per week. Offered alternate years. Prerequisite: PHYS 125 or PHYS 131.


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This course combines experiential learning with ethical reflection. It offers networking and possible job shadowing opportunities in the areas of policy-making, advocacy, campaigning, federal and local government, journalism, advocacy, law, among others. Students will be matched with a number of St. Olaf alumni and professionals in Washington, D.C. and be able to talk with them about their jobs and perhaps shadow them at their workplace. The jobs-shadowing and career-related experiences will be paired with course material that will help you learn about the practice of governance, politics as a vocation, political efficacy and the ethical dimensions of leadership and public service. Offered periodically during January term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Also counts toward international relations concentration.


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This course integrates on-campus classroom learning with off-campus internships in community organizations in Northfield. Readings, classroom discussions, and assignments highlight the theoretical perspectives, knowledge, and methods that psychologists use to address social problems and community needs through research, practice, and policy. Throughout the month, on-site experiences and observations provide opportunities for the application of previous coursework, while guided reflection supports exploration of personal and vocational development. Prerequisite: PSYCH 125 and two 200-level PSYCH courses.


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From legalized marijuana, to the widespread use of antidepressants and antianxiety medications, to the ubiquitous presence of coffee shops, the "drug culture" affects nearly everyone in our society. This course introduces the world of psychopharmacology, with an emphasis on the basic neural mechanisms underlying the effects of drugs, including their portrayal in popular movies and music. By learning how drugs can affect the way neurons communicate, students become more thoughtful consumers. Offered periodically during January term. Prerequisites: PSYCH 125 or PSYCH 238 or any Level I biology, chemistry, or chemistry/biology course.


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Big History examines patterns across vast time scales, from cosmic origins to the present. Students trace the brain's story from the evolution of the simplest nervous systems to hominin brain evolution to contemporary neuroscience. This interdisciplinary course integrates evolutionary biology, history and philosophy of psychology, literature, and the arts to explore how different cultures and eras have conceptualized the brain and mind. Through primary sources, scientific papers, creative works, and computational visualization, students examine the brain from its evolutionary origins to its function as the biological foundation of human culture and society. Prerequisite: PSYCH 125.


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Rapid global aging represents the next great challenge that students in a broad range of majors must be prepared to address. Students will consider contemporary and enduring questions about aging from multidisciplinary perspectives to explore issues, methods, and theories surrounding what life will be like as people grow older. Students will interact with older adults in the community to understand aging in context. Also counts toward the neuroscience concentration. Prerequisites: PSYCH 125 and PSYCH 230.


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Students explore constructions of Europe by critically engaging with museums and heritage sites in two European cultural capitals and their vicinities. Travel experiences serve as the core course "texts," with students entrusted with facilitating their cohort's learning. On excursions, students experience first-hand architecture, artifacts, and artworks they encounter across St. Olaf's liberal arts curriculum. In class discussions and reflective writing, they consider the ways in which those sites and objects delineate and disrupt cultural borders. Offered alternate years during January term.


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In this course, popular myths, slurs, and mythologies around images of Voodoo religion are examined through histories of the African diaspora and interpretations of religion and cultural contact in Black Atlantic studies. While providing students with a fundamental understanding of African Diaspora Traditions such as Conjure (USA), Vodou (Haiti), Obeah, Kumina, Revival Zion and Rastari (Jamaica), Spiritual Baptist (Tobago), and Yoruba (USA & Cuba), media and film representations of Haitian Vodou and Voodoo in the Lower South are central sites of investigation. Viewing and analyzing horror films such White Zombie (1932) and animated features such as Princess and the Frog (2009), we work toward a historical description of how the making of world religions, race, media & representation, and consumer capitalism shaped the ways audiences in North America have come to think and talk about Voodoo.


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This course explores the notion of sacred places and examines specific sites sacred to ancient people, Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Students visit both natural landscapes and constructed sites and attend to places' physical characteristics and history, ongoing human interaction, inter-religious dynamics, scholarly theory, and their own lived experiences of place. The interplay of religion, social life, and political power within sacred spaces provides additional thematic focus. Offered periodically during January Term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Also counts toward ancient studies major.


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This course considers masterworks of Russian and Soviet cinema that were directed by women. In what subtle and/or overt ways did being socialized as a woman affect a director's perspective? In what subtle and/or overt ways are the challenges that women faced in the USSR and in contemporary Russia reflected in their films? Topics include basic cinema analysis, Russian cinema criticism, Russian film theory, and gender theory.


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Students analyze selected contemporary issues in the Spanish-Speaking world. Using readings from the press, academic sources, and governmental as well as non-governmental documents, students read, discuss, and write about issues at an advanced level of linguistic and analytical sophistication. The course includes study of at least one substantive literary work. May be repeated if topic is different. Taught in Spanish. Also counts toward Latin American studies major and business and management studies concentration. Prerequisite: SPAN 250 or SPAN 251 or permission of the instructor.


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Students explore service to human beings as a profession, both vocation and avocation. Who needs help? Who helps? Where? How? What motivates people to help? Using the liberal arts as a foundation for helping people, students study opportunities in areas such as health care, social services, ministry, youth work, and the arts. The class includes lectures, discussions, speakers, and field visits. Open only to first-year students. Offered annually in January Term. Does not count toward social work major.


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In this course, students explore the early medieval period, a time of dynamic transformation. Migrating and conquering cultures brought new approaches to art and architecture that forever changed the visual landscape of the early medieval world. Students examine the art of the Christian empires of the Mediterranean, the monastic traditions of Egypt and Nubia, Germanic cultures (the barbarians), the Islamic caliphate in Spain, and the Carolingians and Ottonians in northern Europe.


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This course introduces students to global Indigenous artistic traditions, with case studies drawn from cultures including the Lakota (United States), Ainu (Japan), Sámi (Scandinavia), Inuit (Canada), Maori (Aotearoa/New Zealand), and Yanomami (Brazil), among others. Through close analysis of visual and material practices, the course examines how Indigenous artists represent their own communities and how those communities have been represented by others. Students will explore the relationships between art, cultural sovereignty, and knowledge transmission, with particular attention to both tangible and intangible heritage, including artistic practices, oral traditions, and foodways. The course considers the ongoing challenges posed by colonial histories and contemporary museum practices, as well as the strategies Indigenous communities employ to sustain and revitalize cultural traditions. Working closely with objects from the Flaten Art Museum's collection--including a recent acquisition of Inuit prints--students will engage in object-based learning and may participate in collaborative projects with the museum, with emphasis on critical looking, ethical interpretation, and the role of museums in shaping understandings of Indigenous art.


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This course provides a strong foundation in the array of copper plate processes of etching, aquatint, lift ground, soft ground, and polymer plate printmaking processes as well as in painterly monoprinting techniques. Students address personal sources of ideas, experimentation, drawing skills, and compositional concerns and draw upon examples of master printmakers to discuss how images reflect culture. Critical thinking skills are necessary in discussion and critiques. Materials fee. Offered annually. Prerequisite: ARTS 102.


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This core course of Asian studies introduces students to modern Chinese literature and society. It examines canonical and popular works of Chinese writings including fiction, drama, autobiography, correspondences, and poetry from the early 20th century to the 21st century. Films and songs also serve as supplementary material when appropriate. Students read texts in translation and approach them in the context of modern Chinese society. They also study the literature as it reflects diverse Chinese communities across political boundaries. Offered annually.


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The study of global change and human environmental impacts requires students to link concepts from biology, chemistry, and physics. Students investigate these links by exploring current theories in biogeochemistry, with an emphasis on understanding the feedback between physical and ecological processes and the coupling of multiple element cycles. Students attend lectures plus one three-hour lab per week. Laboratory activities focus on a practical exploration of the methods biogeochemists use, including experience with a variety of instruments. Offered periodically. Prerequisite: any level II biology, chemistry, or physics course or permission of instructor.


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How do animals do what they need to do to survive in all sorts of environments? Why are others able to exist in only very particular conditions? These are the sorts of questions students explore as they navigate the basic systems that provide circulation, ventilation, movement, digestion, and waste removal. Students look at how these processes are coordinated by the nervous and endocrine systems and how they vary across the animal kingdom to help organisms survive in dry, hot deserts, in dark, deep oceans, and places in between. Students attend lectures plus one three-hour laboratory per week. In laboratory, they conduct quantitative physiological measurements to assess functions such as temperature control, respiration rates, and salt and water balance. Counts as "comparative organismal biology" core category. Offered periodically. Prerequisites: BIO 150; BIO 227 recommended.


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What makes a microscopic sequence of genetic code one of the most powerful forces on Earth? This course explores the fascinating world of viruses, from their elegant morphology to the complex machinery they use to hijack host cells. We will dissect the life cycles of major human pathogens, examining how they spread, evade the immune system, and cause disease. Beyond the biology of infection, we will discuss the development of vaccines, the rise of emerging global threats, and the cutting-edge use of viruses as tools for gene therapy. Prerequisite: BIO 150; recommended: BIO 227, BIO 231, or BIO 233.


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In this seminar course, students explore molecular biology topics or techniques and their applications. Short lectures and in-class activities provide students with the necessary background to analyze primary scientific articles, and small group discussions provide a forum for student-led discourse and critique of these articles. Each student undertakes a literature research project on a topic of their choice; this semester-long project includes regular faculty consultation and peer review. Prerequisite: BIO 233.


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Students develop a business or not-for-profit venture concept using the Design Thinking Process. Students acquire an understanding of the entrepreneurial process: opportunity recognition, resource marshaling, and team building, driven by communication, creativity, and leadership. The course concentrates on the entrepreneurial process from idea creation to ultimate business or other organizational activity. A variety of instructional techniques are used, including group projects and guest presenters. Offered annually. Prerequisite: sophomore status or above.


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This study of chemical stoichiometry, equilibrium, acid-base chemistry, coordination chemistry, and atomic and molecular structure supplies the fundamental background on which all later chemistry courses depend. It includes applications of equilibrium principles to acid-base chemistry. Students attend four classes and one three-hour laboratory each week. Students planning to continue in chemistry should consider concurrent registration in MATH 119 or MATH 120. Offered annually during Fall semester. Prerequisites: placement via online placement survey.


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This course takes students on an exciting journey back to the world of the ancient Romans, a land of republic and empire, oratory and elegy, brick and marble--and much more. Students explore ancient Roman society from an interdisciplinary perspective, analyzing its literature, art, and ideas in the light of their historical and cultural contexts. The course ranges far, both chronologically and geographically, from the Tiber River to the shores of Carthage to Hadrian's Wall. Offered periodically in the fall or the spring semester.


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Machine learning algorithms are used to make decisions in a wide variety of applications, including recommendation systems, criminal justice, healthcare, and more. This course explores several common machine learning algorithms: how they work, their strengths and limitations, their applications to real-world datasets, their implementation via Python frameworks, and the ethical and societal consequences of their use. A background in statistics or data science is recommended but not required. Offered annually. Prerequisites: CSCI 221 or permission of instructor.


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Students study musculoskeletal anatomy (structure) and kinesiology (science of human motion) from the perspective of dance training and performance. Students learn anatomical terminology, identify select bones (major features, articulations) and muscles (locations, actions), and analyze their influence during coordinated movement patterns. Students learn joint structure and mechanics, alignment and imbalances, movement behavior, conditioning needs, and injury prevention. Students learn to notice, measure, experience, sense, and reflect upon the impact of anatomical characteristics and anomalies. Offered annually during fall semester. Prerequisite: students taking this course should have previous experience in a movement intensive practice similar to dance, athletics, or kinesiology.


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This course surveys the geographic patterns of economic activity, with a focus on cities. It examines issues related to history, efficiency, and governance. The course introduces and applies several economic frameworks, including gains from specialization and trade, location theory, central place theory, migration, real estate valuation, rent analysis, income--expenditure models, consumer and producer choice, and public choice.These perspectives will be applied to several important questions: Why do cities develop and grow? What makes them so prosperous? How and why do cities differ? What economic problems commonly arise in them? How can local governments work to solve those problems? How might state and federal programs complicate matters? Will cities continue to promise growth and prosperity in the future? Adding the human dimension and real-world complexity to economic theory, we will also explore urban issues through an applied project. Groups of three to five students will select a city of their choice and investigate a specific urban issue, examining local problems, services, and ventures and report their findings. Prerequisite: ECON 121 or permission of instructor.


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Classic economics assumes that people make decisions rationally. Behavioral economics weakens that assumption, incorporating the findings of psychology into economic models. Students learn to apply behavioral economics theories to improve their understanding of business, marketing, public policy, and other domains of economics. Students utilize skills they have learned from microeconomic theory and statistics orally and in writing. Offered annually. Prerequisites: ECON 262 and one of ECON 260 or SDS 272, or permission of instructor.


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This course focuses on the development of the U.S. economy since colonial times and the contributions and limitations of economic analysis and quantitative methods in understanding the economy's evolution. The course explores how economic analysis illuminates past trends and events, and how the historical record can further our understanding of economic principles, theory, and current economic problems. Course topics include colonialism, slavery, industrialization, the economic effects of wars, and the Great Depression. Prerequisites: ECON 261 and/or ECON 262 (at the discretion of the instructor) and one of ECON 260 or SDS 272, or permission of the instructor.


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In this course, teacher candidates learn how to meet the academic, physical, emotional, and developmental needs of all K-12 students, including students with disabilities, multilingual learners, gifted students, and other diverse learners. Participants apply principles of differentiated instruction and assessment in class and field experiences. Additional topics include mental health, historical perspectives, service delivery models, and legal requirements. Required 10-hour field experience. Open to juniors and seniors only. Offered fall semester. Prerequisites: EDUC 295 and EDUC 330.


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This course focuses on evidence-based best practices in reading instruction that can be used across the curriculum by secondary teachers. Students acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and strategies to teach reading in the teaching candidate's content area(s).Required 10-hour field experience. Offered during fall semester. Prerequisite: EDUC 330 or permission of the instructor.


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This course examines a number of foundational texts of the medieval legend of King Arthur. Students study the specific political and socio-cultural contexts that produced these works, in addition to later works that reflect the ongoing appeal of Arthurian myth. Students will both analyze and imitate to deepen their understanding of Arthurian texts as creative acts whose form and style reveal their creator's fears, desires, self-image, and social status.


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This course examines the life cycle of Black women in Africa, Canada, the Caribbean, and the United States. Romance, marriage, family, interracial relations, mothers and daughters, urban environments, gender politics and sexual violence, relations among females, intergenerational depictions, historical experiences, public expression and private reflections, individual and communal identities, class considerations--all of these and more images and themes arise in the fictional readings required for this course. Students read such writers as Mariama Ba, Gordimer, Hurston, and Naylor. Ticket/transportation fee required. Offered periodically. Prerequisite: WRIT 120 or equivalent.


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Frederic Jameson has described conspiracy theory as a form of cognitive mapping that attempts "to think a system so vast that it cannot be encompassed by the natural and historically developed categories of perception." Engaging with both literature and film, this course invites students to think about how conspiracy narratives reflect and manage the anxieties and fears that accompany the totalizing conditions of late-stage capitalism, state surveillance and violence, media consolidation, and so on. Students study the form these narratives take, while paying special attention to allegory, detection, and conspiracy's "paranoid style." Topics include alien abduction, the assassination plot, government overreach, space exploration, mind control, medical treatment, and ecological disaster. Prerequisite: WRIT 120 or equivalent.


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In this fiction writing course, students will read works of fabulism and horror and write stories of their own in these genres. "Fabulism" is a term often used interchangeably with "magical realism" to describe a mode of literature in which the fantastical and surreal are interwoven with the fabric of everyday life. This course will unpack fabulism's complexity and possibilities for a fiction writer. Students will write two original stories, workshop each, then choose one for revision at the end of the semester. Prerequisite: WRIT 120 or equivalent.


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In this discussion-based seminar, students hone their literary-critical skills through study of seventeenth-century British literature, highlighting the works of John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, as well as Lucy Hutchinson, Andrew Marvell, Aphra Behn, George Herbert, Katherine Philips, Margaret Cavendish, and John Donne. The course also introduces historical context, including the English Civil Wars and Restoration. Students write literary analyses based on original thinking and reading of scholarly criticism. Prerequisites: ENGL 185 plus at least two English courses at level II, or permission of the instructor.


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From medieval moral interludes to postmodern productions, the stage has long been a site for ethical inquiry. In this course, students study a set of ethical theories and apply them to their analyses of ethical problems and moral agency in four to five plays. The plays, which represent a range of genres and periods, are assigned viewing as well as reading; in addition to watching filmed productions, students will attend at least one live performance. Offered periodically. Prerequisites: ENGL 185 plus at least two English courses at level II.


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In this course, students will explore environmental connections by looking deeply into natural systems, social systems, and the links between them using both quantitative and qualitative frameworks. Through this integrated approach, students will learn to analyze complex environmental challenges and identify solutions aimed at optimizing the health of people, animals, and ecosystems. Prerequisites: ENVST 137 or permission of instructor.


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Environmental crises are borne of environmental histories. In this class, we examine how we arrived at the present through long histories of human and non-human relationships that span rare earth mineral extraction to swampy-earthed resistance to early settler colonizers. We will utilize the resources like the college archives and Natural Lands, and look at the specificity of Midwestern environmental histories as well as planetary processes. Students will learn how to read a landscape and historicize how processes like colonization, industrialization, suburban development and contamination have shaped the environment.


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In this course, we will foreground Inuit voices and Indigenous scholars to consider climate change, environmental activism and imperialism in the Arctic. We will trace Indigenous presence and futurity in the north and consider why the Arctic environment is increasingly an object of geopolitical contestation and of global concern. Using experimental media, art, and diverse texts, students will develop skills in reflective and critical writing and gain an understanding of the relationship between state power, Indigenous politics and nature.


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In this course, we’ll be exploring environmental storytelling and stories. What are the important elements of storytelling? And what exactly is an environmental story? Defining "environmental stories" is a little mysterious, hard to put in a box or wrestle into a paragraph because the word "environment" itself contains pretty much everything. Environmental stories can contain genres (such as science writing, nature writing, climate writing or journalism) but at their core, they must contain a story with stakes for the reader and the author and the environment itself. People tell stories to turn abstract patterns into opportunities for action. They tell stories to empathize, mobilize, find villains, celebrate heroes, give credit, assign blame, experiment with new ways of thinking, make sense of their experiences, and call for action. And listening to and telling stories are actions in their own rights.


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This course offers a broad overview of European cinema and is split into three segments of similar scope. The first addresses Western European cinema during the period 1960-1990, the second will focus on the Eastern European counterpart during the same time period, and the third and final segment will consider the impact of the European Union and the fall of the Soviet Union upon filmmaking in the continent overall.


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This course will move beyond Hollywood and popular cinema's proposals of celebrity, assimilation, and visibility as the ultimate markers of liberation for trans and gender-nonconforming people. It will take the documentarian’s camera and consider its uniquely queer potential. How have queer filmmakers used the audio, visual, and temporal components of cinema to transform reality into uniquely queer worlds? Students will engage directly with queer cinema, analyzing the formal techniques at play and their effect on the viewer. We will then put these ideas into practice in a series of creative projects inspired by and modeled after the works of queer documentary filmmakers.


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Often described as the golden age of Hollywood, the studio era provided American filmmaking with unusual stability during a period (1930-60) that was everything but stable. We will consider the interrelations of Hollywood and American society and politics during the era, as well as the inner workings of the studios themselves and the particular form their product, the classical Hollywood cinema, took. Film genres include musicals, melodrama, war films, comedy, westerns, horror and sci-fi films.


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This course provides an on-campus immersion experience for students interested in improving their oral language proficiency. Students engage in small and large group discussion, give individual and group oral presentations, and review grammar and registers of language. They also explore the notions of communicative competence and oral proficiency in order to become more effective speakers. Taught in French. Offered at least alternate years; one 250-level course will be offered each fall and spring semester. Prerequisite: FREN 232 or FREN 235 or FREN 237, or equivalent.


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"Le polar" or crime fiction typically unravels a singular crime, but can also touch on broader corruption, conspiracies, and injustices. In French-language literature and cinema, crime fiction often takes on political and social issues that other genres avoid. In this course, we will look at how and why crime fiction of the postcolonial period--from the 1960s to today--approaches questions of violence, memory, and belonging in Francophone spaces. The course will focus on discussion of texts' historical, political, and cultural contexts and close textual analysis of works by Leïla Slimani, Alain Mabanckou, Didier Daeninckx, Sabri Louatah, and others. Prerequisite: at least one 270-level French course, two strongly recommended


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Throughout history, gardens have been spaces of cultivation, experimentation, discovery, and reflection. Many notable artists and thinkers have turned to gardening as both a refuge and exploration of being in right-relationship with the natural world. How can gardens help us to navigate the complexities of contemporary life as sites where we can explore alternative ways of collaborating with human and non-human beings? Can a hopeful, constructive imagination be cultivated through the practice of gardening? In this First-Year Seminar we will consider these questions by reading a variety of texts, holding small-group and full-class discussions, and writing regular reflective journal entries. We will also visit several local gardens and green spaces where we will practice slow looking and field drawing/journaling. Our semester will culminate in the creation of a collaborative, hand-bound book about (literal, imagined, or metaphorical) gardens with written and visual entries from each class participant.


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Dutch Historian Johan Huizinga designates the spaces in which we play games as "temporary worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart." One might say the same of college, a particular kind of space where students come together to learn and grow in ways that prepare them to thrive in the "ordinary world" they enter after graduation. Students in this seminar will draw from the world of tabletop games and texts about games (both practical and philosophical) to learn how to apply good game design to creating a productive and enjoyable college experience. Students will discuss readings, play a variety of tabletop games (some educational and some designed for leisure), and work in groups to create, prototype, and playtest games every few weeks. Students will end the term with one revised and polished game. Writing will include design documents, instructional and marketing text, and reflections.


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Students explore notions of identity and belonging through the lens of German-speaking societies. They interpret written texts, films, and images that deal with those themes and examine how their own experiences, perspectives, and interests influence how they understand the texts. Students deepen their vocabulary and writing skills through collaborative and iterative writing tasks, and gain confidence synthesizing information and expressing opinions orally through interactive speaking tasks, short presentations, and reflective speaking activities. Prerequisite: GERM 112 or by placement test.


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Students examine the National Socialist period (1933-1945), its embedding in cultural memory, and its implications for contemporary society. Students discuss and analyze literary and audio/visual texts that emerged from or reflect upon diverse experiences of oppression, violence, destruction and resistance under Nazism. The course is writing intensive and includes short weekly assignments as well as several longer, multi-step writing projects. Advanced grammar review supports analytical tasks. Taught in German. A one-hour weekly small group discussion section led by a native German speaker is required. Offered annually in fall semester. Prerequisite: GERM 232 or by placement test.


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In this course, students read core theories of translation and translators' reflections, assess existing translations of well-known German works, and create their own translations, collectively and individually, from a variety of text genres, including literary prose, poetry, film subtitling and essays. There is space for students to pursue their own topic interests and hone advanced German skills through reflective and analytical writing and presentations. Taught in German. Prerequisite: At least one 250-level GERM course or with instructor permission.


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Students translate selections from one or more genres of ancient Greek literature while exploring a specific topic or theme chosen by the instructor. Close study of the text is combined with discussion of broader literary, historical, and cultural questions. Sample topics: "Tales of Odysseus," "Hellenistic Greek," "Famous Speeches in Ancient Greek Texts." Offered periodically in the fall or the spring semester. Prerequisite: GREEK 231 or equivalent.


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Independent work is guided by a faculty member. Students need to have the necessary background, including appropriate coursework, before an independent project is approved. A student may not substitute an IS/IR course for a course regularly offered in a department or program. IS/IR culminates in at least one product (a paper, laboratory report, work of art, etc.). Normally, the student and faculty instructor are expected to meet at least once a week. See catalog for more information under registration and course enrollment. Prerequisite: at least second-year standing; at least 2 relevant courses for 298 (IS); approval from the faculty instructor, the academic advisor, and the department chair or program director.


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This course introduces students to the historical forces leading to and scholarly debates about slavery in African history. Students examine the nature and development of domestic slavery to the 19th century as well as the slave trade systems across the Saharan Desert and the Atlantic Ocean. Students "do history" using primary sources to retrieve the African voices and agency in discussions of the slave trade and debate themes such as ethnicity, kinship, state formation, and colonialism. Offered annually. Prerequisite: first-year student standing.


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In this class, students use primary source readings from the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries to get a closer look at the human lives and histories of those living in East Asia, Persia, and Europe during the time of the Mongol conquests and subsequent imperial rule. As the class unfolds, students develop basic research knowledge and skills including in-depth interpretation of sources and research-based academic writing. Offered periodically.


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While ideas abound about how best to solve problems in the "Middle East," few understand the extreme diversity of the region or the political fault lines that undergird the various regimes currently holding power. While many Americans have recently developed an intense fascination with the "Question of Palestine," few understand how that issue fits into the broader set of questions that plague what has only recently been labeled the "Middle East." In this course, we will examine the emergence of the "Modern Middle East" out of the wreckage of the World Wars and the disintegration of empires that those wars wrought. We will learn to situate the conflict in Palestine within the broader trends of Arab nationalism and, later, rising Islamism. We will take the influence of religions and religious narratives on the region seriously without resorting to maximalist caricatures. Ultimately, we will weave together a broad contextual understanding in which to situate the conflicts we see daily reflected in our news outlets and social media feeds.


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This course examines the historical roots of modern culture and institutions from the earliest records of the Ancient Middle East and Mediterranean to Medieval Europe. Through a multi-disciplinary approach, students analyze the evolution of ubiquitous modern systems such as base-6 time keeping (60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day), trial by jury, "school" and the liberal arts university, "money," enslavement, democracy, republic, monarchy and settler colonialism and imperialism. Offered annually.


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This course examines the development of American culture and society from the Columbian encounter through the Civil War. Topics include the interaction of Europeans, Africans, and Indigenous peoples in early America; the social development of the British colonies; the evolution of American enslavement; the Revolution and the Constitution; industrialization, expansion, and reform in the 19th century; and the Civil War. Offered annually.


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This seminar explores the development of the discipline of history, from its beginnings in the Ancient world to the present. Students investigate methodological and stylistic innovations in the Medieval and Early Modern periods that later formed the basis for history's emergence as an academic discipline in the nineteenth century. It features intellectual trends that have transformed historical research and writing over the last one-hundred years, resulting in a number of important "turns" influenced by other disciplines, ranging from sociology and anthropology to linguistics. In addition to reading some of the most influential texts in the discipline, students conduct research on a historiographical topic of their choosing.


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How and why did the utopian dreams of nineteenth-century European intellectuals become the ideological justifications for twentieth-century totalitarian regimes? How did theBolshevik revolution in the name of the workers and oppressed peoples lead to authoritarianism and mass terror? How were nineteenth-century romantic dreams of a unified German Volk appropriated in service to a racialized "Volksgemeinschaft" that fueled Nazi violence? This seminar begins with the intellectual history of utopianism. Inverted social hierarchies and re-conceptualized means of correcting or preventing injustice are favorite tropes in utopian literature and in plans for creating utopian societies. To our modern ears, this sounds progressive, no? If only we could redesign society with justice and individual human freedom in mind, everyone would benefit, right? Our task will be to consider where and how this type of thinking produces opportunities for greater equity and equality while also laying the groundwork for future exclusivity. The heart of the course will consider the two greatest perversions of utopianism in European history and their deadly, tragic consequences: Stalinism and Nazism. Through primary sources and scholarship on the "history of everyday life," we will encounter a range of lived experiences of utopias in the making in the USSR and Germany.


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This course surveys the history of France since 1815 and considers, across the arc of five republics, two monarchies, two Napoleonic empires, and one authoritarian regime, what it means to be French. Organizing themes include the revolutionary tradition and the notion of republicanism, industrialization's impact on society, the transformation of France in response to two catastrophic world wars, and contemporary challenges such as austerity and immigration. Language Across the Curriculum (LAC) course often available in French. Offered periodically.


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In this study of African Americans in U. S. society from African origins to the present, students explore the African heritage, the experience of enslavement, segregation, and the rise of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The course pays particular attention to the issue of Black nationalism as a force in American life. Offered periodically.


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In the first half of the course, we will examine the "History" of the Holocaust, and establish a firm grounding in the historical context of the Third Reich and the genocide of the European Jewry. We will pay particular attention to Germany's development of a "Racial State" which defined who was and was not part of the Volk, and the legal, social, and economic steps the state took to exclude and persecute a range of the people they deemed "racially inferior"--Jews, but also the Roma and Scintii, people with developmental and physical disabilities, homosexuals, Slavs, and others. In the second half of the course, we will focus on ways the Holocaust has been remembered. After we've gained an overview of the Holocaust, its victims, its perpetrators, and its bystanders, we will explore the ways that the Holocaust has been memorialized, historicized, and fictionalized. Then, as a class, we will develop our own interpretative memorialization of this horrific moment in history.


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This course familiarizes students with Cold War, twentieth-century Latin American history, including US imperialism and intervention in the region. We will ponder; what comes first (or has come first historically), counterrevolution or revolution? How much was anticommunist Cold War paranoia exactly that--a panicked witch hunt whose culprits did not exist or were exaggerated and demonized? How serious and successful were and are the revolutionary, leftist, and socialist politics of twentieth-century Latin America? We will explore why and how the US exported state terror, torture, and dictatorship to Latin America, as well as how homegrown local elite and common people made right-wing, anticommunist policies possible. The class will also document everyday Latin Americans such as campesinos (rural dwellers or peasants) turn to revolutionary and radical politics after being brutalized by counterinsurgency and policing.


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Alexander the Great might be one of the most recognizable historical people. As a result, he is surrounded by a haze of myth, legend, propaganda and idealistic imaginings (and that is just among the modern accounts!). In this research seminar, students will examine the modern scholarship and ancient primary sources in order to uncover their own "historical" Alexander.


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This course offers students opportunities to examine, question, and investigate "modern: Irish history through independent research. Students consider the impact of socialism, feminism, religion, sexuality, and emigration on the expansion of Irish national consciousness, the formation of two states after 1922, and the divergent histories of Northern Ireland and the Republic.


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In this 300-level seminar, students will study key criminal cases from the 20th century to explore the connection between true crime, copaganda, and the expansion of the prison industrial complex. Students will use a race, gender, and capital lens to examine the cases of Adam Walsh, O.J. Simpson, the New Jersey Four, the DC Sniper case, and more. As part of the class, students will also conduct an independent research project that examines the historiography of contemporary crime and punishment in the U.S. Using a variety of sources including court transcripts, art, and documentary film, students will learn how to identify and examine key trends within this historiography and the relationship between true crime and the expansion of the carceral state. Prerequisite: HIST 199 is recommended but not required.


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This course introduces students to methods in historical research that look beyond the nation-state in examining the past. Students will research a topic in transnational history that interests them, but as a class we will focus on three types of transnational linkages in history -- flows of humans, ideas and commodities -- to explore different strategies and methods for telling interconnected histories. Through an examination of the historical forces that have made our world interconnected yet also unequal, we will pay attention to local histories of global interconnection and ask if the world itself can be thought of as an interconnected system. Drawing on historical research as well as methods from across the disciplines, students will learn dynamic and connective ways to think about the past.


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Students engage with applied topics to increase knowledge, skills, and habits for student success. Topics vary to support first- and second-year students who seek sustained supplemental support for their college transition. Courses commonly emphasize the theory and practice of how to learn, navigate academic cultures and communities, develop a sense of belonging, advocate for educational and personal support, and identify and deepen individual strengths through coursework and sustained reflection. P/N only. Prerequisite: Instructor permission.


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Students who are pursuing an Individual Major, in consultation with their faculty advisor, may register for this fall semester course, which is graded P/N. This optional course is generally used for research and other preparation for the work planned for the spring semester. Whether students are enrolled in IM 391 or another approved level III course or experience, senior project plans must be submitted to the Individual Major Program by the end of September. Prerequisite: permission of the Individual Major Program.


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This course will explore the different time periods in a woman's life starting at puberty, the time around pregnancy, perimenopause, and post menopause. Changes in hormones lead to potential challenges for sleep, nutrition, exercise, and general health. As women approach mid-life, the risk of chronic disease significantly increases potentially leading to a poorer quality of life. Prevention strategies relating to wellness, nutrition, and exercise will be discussed. Prerequisite: declared kinesiology major.


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Students analyze mechanical principles in depth as they affect human motion. Topics include study of muscular and skeletal systems, skill analysis, and motion measurement techniques. Students attend lectures plus one three-hour laboratory per week. Offered annually. Prerequisites: BIO 143, BIO 243, and junior status.


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This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to Latin America. A central theme is the complex and recurring dynamics of traditions and change that have characterized Latin America since its inception more than five centuries ago. This includes examining how traditions are constructed and change, how they are maintained and/or revitalized by mixing new with old, local with regional and global, ideology with practice, as well as how new traditions are formed. Offered periodically during fall semester.


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Lyric poems -- short, occasional pieces composed in various meters, often concerned with love and longing -- are the focus of this Latin course. Students translate the vivacious verse of Catullus, Horace, Tibullus, and Ovid and learn to recognize the features that make lyric a distinctive genre of Latin poetry. Offered periodically in the fall or the spring semester. Prerequisite: LATIN 231 or equivalent.


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This course covers fundamental concepts of graph theory and their applications, including topics such as simple graphs and directed graphs, degree sequences, Eulerian and Hamiltonian graphs, trees and spanning trees, matchings, networks and feasible flows, connectivity, and graph colorings. Other applications and algorithms may include greedy algorithms for minimum spanning trees, Prüfer codes, Hall's Theorem, the Gale-Shapley Algorithm, Menger's Theorem, the Max-Cut/Min-Flow Theorem, the Committee Scheduling Problem, Kuratowski's Theorem, and Ramsey's Theorem. Offered alternate years. Prerequisites: MATH 244 or MATH 252.


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Contemporary Styles Voice Class is open to all students regardless of music background and will focus on singing techniques utilized in contemporary music. Students will develop healthy techniques for breathing and vocalizing in the three core singing techniques used in all contemporary genres: belt, mix, and legit. Students will choose their own repertoire from any style, including but not limited to: pop, jazz, rock, blues, country, R&B, gospel, contemporary music theater, hip hop, etc. Offered annually each semester.


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In this course, students explore the profound relationship between music and social change, examining how songs and sound have served as powerful tools for activism across cultures and movements. Through historical case studies, critical listening, and hands-on workshops, this class emphasizes experiential learning, culminating in a group project where students organize and lead a community event in collaboration with local organizations. This course carries an ACE component.


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This studio course focuses on advanced techniques of acting and singing for the musical stage with emphasis on opera. Students explore voice, movement, improvisation, and characterization at an advanced level. Participants receive coaching in musical and dramatic style through solo and small ensemble literature and prepare scenes for class performance. The course culminates with public performances of a fully staged and costumed lyric theater work. May be repeated once. A production fee will be charged to all students participating in the production. Offered annually. Prerequisites: two semesters of voice study or permission of instructor.


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This course introduces a systematic approach to the study of voice production for use in the studio or classroom. Students examine basic vocal anatomy and physiology approached through body mapping strategies. Students then apply these principles of vocal pedagogy to the child and adolescent voice with emphasis on the developing voice, establishing healthy vocal habits, appropriate teaching techniques, and literature. Offered annually during fall semester. Prerequisite: at least three semesters of MUSPF 152 (voice lessons) or permission of instructor.


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Independent work is guided by a faculty member. Students need to have the necessary background, including appropriate coursework, before an independent project is approved. A student may not substitute an IS/IR course for a course regularly offered in a department or program. IS/IR culminates in at least one product (a paper, laboratory report, work of art, etc.). Normally, the student and faculty instructor are expected to meet at least once a week. See catalog for more information under registration and course enrollment. Prerequisites: at least second-year standing; at least 2 relevant courses for 298 (IS); approval from the faculty instructor, the academic advisor, and the department chair or program director.


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This course addresses the relationship between music and society by considering questions like, "Why do I like the music that I like?" and "Is there such a thing as bad music?" Using a vigorous musicological framework, students will engage in readings, in-class discussions, produce podcasts and/or blog posts, and produce a final research paper to examine the concepts of musical value, popularity, genre, and taste. Prerequisite: MUSIC 141 or permission of instructor.


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This course examines how women writers from the Nordic region represent gendered identities and sexualities. Using a variety of texts from the nineteenth century to today, students learn how authors have challenged the socio-political role of women over time. Additionally, students investigate how authors make use of different literary genres such as dystopian writing, crime fiction, magical realism, or sci-fi to shine a light on gendered identities in society. Offered alternate years during the spring semester. Prerequisite: WRIT 120 or equivalent.


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This course focuses on fundamental knowledge for nursing practice. Students examine core concepts of physiological integrity, adaptation, and the delivery of basic care and comfort. Learners engage in classroom instruction with hands-on clinical rotations, simulation, and laboratory experiences. By the end of this course, learners are able to demonstrate competency in basic nursing skills while progressing towards competency in performing holistic patient assessments. Prerequisites: Open to junior nursing majors only; NURS 211 and NURS 212 with grades of C or above; concurrent enrollment in NURS 310.


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This course is a historical introduction to philosophy, a discipline which pursues fundamental questions about the nature of reality and our place within it. Students critically engage with philosophical works across multiple periods and perspectives, while developing their own point of view on major philosophical questions. Specific topics vary, but typical examples include: What can we know, and how can we know it? What is a meaningful life? Is reality objective? What is the self? Offered annually. Prerequisite: first-year student or sophomore standing.


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Literature provides rich resources for thinking through central philosophical questions, including the metaphysics and ethics of freedom; the problem of evil; the role of character in choice and action; the nature of morality; rebellion and human solidarity; God's existence and relation to the world; and the nature of truth. This course explores philosophical ideas in literary works of several different genres by studying plot, character, point-of-view, imagery, and symbolism. Offered periodically.


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This course examines the main Western ethical theories and their application to contemporary moral concerns. Theoretical issues may include rights, duties, virtue, hedonism, egoism, the relation between ethics and theology, the fact-value distinction, relativism, and pluralism. Students discuss current topics such as global economic justice, euthanasia, the death penalty, animal rights, censorship, racism, privacy rights versus public safety, reproductive ethics, and environmental ethics. Offered annually.


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Pragmatism is a philosophical school of thought holding that the truth of our theories depends on their practical value. Students will explore the foundations of this deceptively radical view as it emerged in late 19th and early 20th Century America. And they will follow its more recent development through major innovations in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of science. Readings include William James, John Dewey, Richard Rorty, Elizabeth Anderson, and others. Prerequisite: two courses in philosophy, one of which must be either PHIL 235 or PHIL 236 or permission of the department chair.


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Independent work is guided by a faculty member. Students need to have the necessary background, including appropriate coursework, before an independent project is approved. A student may not substitute an IS/IR course for a course regularly offered in a department or program. IS/IR culminates in at least one product (a paper, laboratory report, work of art, etc.). Normally, the student and faculty instructor are expected to meet at least once a week. See catalog for more information under registration and course enrollment. Prerequisites: one level III course in philosophy, at least second-year standing; and at least 5 relevant courses for 398 (IR); approval from the faculty instructor, the academic advisor, and the department chair or program director.


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Experiments explore various topics in physics. Emphasis is on the development of good laboratory techniques, analytical skills, and the ability to work independently. Each 0.25-course registration includes one three-hour laboratory per week. Offered annually in the fall semester. Prerequisite: PHYS 245.


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This research seminar examines foundational and contemporary questions in American politics through the lens of federalism and democratic governance. How does the federal structure shape political inequality, representation, and policy outcomes? What methodological approaches best illuminate the dynamics of American political institutions? Students will engage with both classic texts and cutting-edge empirical research, critically evaluating the methods scholars use to answer core questions about power, polarization, and democracy in the United States. The seminar emphasizes methodological literacy; students will assess how quantitative, qualitative, historical, and mixed-method approaches address central debates in the field. Through discussion leadership, peer review, and an original research project presented in conference format, students will develop skills essential for advanced study in political science. Prerequisites: PSCI 220 and one course in the subfield, or permission of instructor.


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The International Relations Seminar this spring explores order and empire in international relations. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world, each book explores a distinct vision of change and stability at key moments in global history. The course emphasizes the theoretical approaches scholars use to examine past, present, and future interactions between and among political entities. Students will submit a substantial research paper applying theoretical perspectives and historical insight on a topic agreed to with their instructor. Prerequisites: PSCI 220 and one course in the subfield, or permission of instructor.


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Students apply psychological facts and principles to the problems that permeate business and industry. Topics include organizational structure, personnel management, employee-supervisor relationships, job satisfaction and motivation, communication and leadership. Offered periodically. Prerequisite: PSYCH 125.


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This seminar examines development from birth to age three. Topics include prenatal development, birth and the newborn, physical and motor development, caregiver relationships, infant mental health, cognition, and language development. Students explore questions such as: How long-lasting are the effects of early experiences? How do diverse cultural contexts influence early development? Course format is primarily discussion-based and includes community-based experiential learning projects. Offered annually. Prerequisites: PSYCH 230 and PSYCH 241 or permission of instructor.


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This seminar trains students to process and interpret electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potential (ERP) data using MATLAB. The course has two tracks: an ERP Theory track in which students lead discussions on major ERP components -- their cognitive significance, neural generators, and research applications -- and a Technical Skills track consisting of weekly MATLAB labs that walk students through the complete EEG/ERP processing pipeline, from raw data to publication-quality figures. Students work with real electrophysiological recordings from the ERP CORE dataset and complete a final project in which they conduct a full ERP analysis of an assigned component. Prerequisites: PSYCH 125 and PSYCH 230.


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Students explore the philosophy, arts, and religion of the Ancient Mediterranean through works of the Babylonians, Israelites, and Greeks, usually including the Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Sappho, Sophocles, and the Hebrew Bible, with modern criticism providing context. This course requires close reading of texts, critical analysis, engaged discussion, and learning in community. Students complete an intensive research project and reflect on the liberal arts and their positions as modern students of ancient texts. Offered annually in the fall semester.


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Covering the period from 1600 to 1900, this course examines themes of explorers, rationalists, and revolutionaries across cultural spheres including Western Europe, Russia, China, and the Americas. Students explore how emerging forms of thought inspired social movements, advocated intellectual and political liberation, but also contributed to colonization, political exclusion, and slavery, questioning: "What constitutes knowledge?" "How should a government use its power justly?" and "How can one achieve freedom and equality within the modern state?" Prerequisites: QUEST 116.


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This course examines how U.S. citizenship is shaped by race and intersecting relations of labor, class, gender, and sexuality. Students analyze how citizenship defines inclusion and exclusion across national and local contexts from the nineteenth century to the present. Through interdisciplinary perspectives, students explore racialized histories of rights, state power, and violence while considering alternative visions of belonging, justice, and equity emerging from critical ethnic studies. Offered alternate years during fall semester.


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This course explores Jesus through Scripture and Christian tradition using an Indigenous and decolonizing lens. The course examines how colonial histories have shaped dominant interpretations of Jesus and the impact of those interpretations on Indigenous and marginalized communities. Centering Indigenous voices, students encounter Jesus as healer, relative, and liberator, grounded in relationships to land, community, and justice. Through engagement with biblical texts and diverse perspectives, the course invites reflection on how these understandings reshape faith, identity, and belonging.


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This course examines the relationship between religion and violence across diverse global contexts. Students consider whether some dimensions of religion - monotheistic belief or rituals of sacrifice, for example - are more prone to produce violent conflict than others; explore debates over how to measure the power of religion vis-a-vis other drivers of behavior; and discuss ethical arguments about justified violence, suffering, and peace-building, focusing on how religious ideas and practices contribute to these debates. Offered periodically.


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Students critically analyze the development of Christian thought from its beginnings to the 9th century. Special attention is placed on the theological controversies which led to the formation of the Christian community's central doctrines: God as Trinity, Jesus Christ as divine and human, salvation as divine action and human response. Students read from Irenaeus, Origen, Athanasius, Augustine, and others. Offered periodically.


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Ukrainian writer Nikolay Gogol is often miscategorized as a "Great Russian Writer." Many readers are unaware that Gogol was Ukrainian and that he aimed to promote the idea of an independent Ukrainian nation. This course will critically examine the Russocentric view of Gogol and Russophone literature (literature written in Russian by non-Russian writers) by placing Gogol in the space of empire, between Russia and Ukraine. No knowledge of Russian or previous background required. Offered periodically during fall semester.


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This course facilitates oral and written use of the language through conversation and composition, English to Russian translation, selections from Russian literature, and original themes. Offered annually in the fall semester. Prerequisite: RUSSN 232 or permission of instructor.


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This course extends and generalizes methods introduced in SDS 272 by introducing generalized linear models (GLMs) and correlated data methods. GLMs cover logistic and Poisson regression, and more. Correlated data methods include longitudinal data analysis and multi level models. Applications are drawn from across the disciplines. Offered annually. Prerequisite: SDS 272.


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This anthropology course examines the ocean both as an object of study and as a tool by which to understand social, global, and cultural complexity. Today's economic and geopolitical imaginations are dictated by geographic territorialisms, primarily articulated by political forms such as nation states, area studies, and trenchant regionalisms. The course offers a "view from the boat" or an "oceanic perspective" to understand contemporary issues such as climate change, border crises, human-non-human relations, and resource extraction, while also expanding our understandings of history, global connection and exchange.


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Students explore the topic of family and gender roles in Spanish society by analyzing cultural documents (literary and non-literary texts, including at least one substantive literary work). This cultural analysis provides for the development of critical reading and writing skills (e.g., description, narration, exposition, and argumentation). Taught in Spanish. Offered each semester. This course is equivalent to SPAN 251 and students can earn credit from only one of them. Prerequisite: SPAN 232 or placement into SPAN 250 or SPAN 251.


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Students examine the diverse elements that have shaped Spanish culture through an exploration of political, social, economic, religious, and artistic topics. They develop critical analysis skills through reading, discussion, and written and/or oral projects. This course includes the study of selected literary and non-literary texts, including at least one substantive literary work. May be repeated if topic is different. Taught in Spanish. Offered periodically. Prerequisite: SPAN 250 or SPAN 251.


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Among English-speakers one sometimes hears references to "the power of love" and much is written about love, particularly the love between man and woman as well as family love (between parents and children, between siblings, between grandparents and grandchildren). At the same time some people deny human capacity to overcome difficulties and profound changes in life through love. Is it possible to sustain love between two people under extremely adverse conditions? Are there biological and social forces that 'drive us to love'? What matters at the end of a human life: the political, social, and economic history of a society or the history of the family? What has ultimate meaning: the history of a nation or the love of a committed couple based on shared perceptions, experiences, and esteem? Even among those who believe in the power of love, there are differing opinions with respect to the importance of the love of God. For many novelists toward the end of the past century and today, God does not appear to exist, or at least the force of God in human life is never communicated. In Spanish 314 we will explore these and other themes in a series of literary works written in Latin America. We will analyze not only the authors' perspectives but also the techniques employed to communicate them. Our particular focus will be the use of magical realism. Prerequisite: SPAN 275.


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Humans relate to one another in diverse families, groups, organizations, and communities. Through traditional and alternative theoretical perspectives on human behavior, students apply prerequisite and advanced material from biology, sociology, psychology, and social work to assess situations encountered by social workers. Diverse examples are drawn from literature, social work research, and from students' autobiographies. Offered annually in the fall semester. Prerequisites: SOAN 121, PSYCH 241, and BIO 123 or BIO 243; open to non-majors by permission of chair only.


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This course immediately precedes SWRK 380. The course provides an overview of how structural oppression across cultural positions (e.g. race, sexuality, ability, class) may affect client systems. Students integrate awareness, knowledge, and skills for engaging in anti-oppressive, inclusive practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. This includes role plays assisting clients who are challenged by oppression as part of their presenting problems and brief immersions with diverse communities. Offered annually during fall semester. Prerequisite: SWRK 261.


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This studio course focuses on the techniques and styles of movement for the musical theatre through dance, rhythm, and musicality. Students learn the basics of musical theater dance and movements forms including tap, jazz, character, hip hop, and social dance through a character driven and storytelling approach. Offered annually during fall semester.


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This studio course focuses on the fundamentals of stage direction. Students develop skills of play selection, audience analysis, text interpretation, working with actors, stage picturization and blocking, design considerations, and the process of casting and rehearsals. A primary focus is on developing a point of view about theater and directing by the study of other directors and theories of theater. Offered annually in the fall semester. Prerequisites: THEAT 110 or THEAT 180, and THEAT 115 or THEAT 130 or THEAT 131, and THEAT 140.


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Examines theatrical activities, from theater's origins to 1700, from three interrelated perspectives: 1) theater as social history; 2) theater as dramatic literature; and 3) theater as performance (the result of creative decisions made by playwrights, actors, directors, and designers). Offered in the fall semester. Prerequisite: THEAT 110 or THEAT 180 or permission of instructor.


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When we read a text that is distant from us, whether in time, space, cultural or social context, how do we overcome that distance? As writers, whether our aim is to create a text that pleases or persuades, how do we work towards closing the distance between ourselves and our readers? These are the general questions that we will wrestle with this semester. We will approach them head-on through readings and discussions of a world that will be so distant for many of us that we might not know anything about it at all -- medieval Eastern Europe. In so doing, we will find out how filthy vikings really were, how much bread a squirrel skin could buy in the tenth century, and finally what was an aurochs? By the end, we will gain a better understanding of how to approach texts produced by cultures and peoples that are profoundly distant from us and become better readers and writers in the process.


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The word "utopia" means both a "good place" and "no place." Utopian literature embraces this duality by imagining places better than our own. This seminar will begin with these literary utopias before considering historical attempts to make a "good place" in a real place and time. We'll investigate the common problems that both real and imagined utopias have tried to solve, and we’ll seek to understand the roots of these problems. Writing for the course will emphasize research, analysis, argumentation, and reflection.


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This seminar is designed for students interested in language as action in "real life," literature, and performance. In each context, speakers seek to connect with and influence others through language. Questions we may address are: What makes a good conversation? Why (and when) do we lie? How does dialogue capture voices in personal narrative? What is a character trying to achieve through the words they speak in a scene? How does an actor convey and interpret intentions already present in the play's language? We'll seek to answer them through careful observation of our own conversations, readings in non-fiction and drama, and viewing live and filmed productions. Students synthesize these experiences and the results of their inquisitive research to write in several modes and genres. The writing process for these assignments integrates substantial time for workshops of drafts and students' reflections on their own rhetorical practices and development.


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In this seminar, we'll explore the evolution and manifestations of how society has tried to control and shape our environment and the spaces we live in--from suburbs to the planning of major cities to what makes an area like Division Street in Northfield difficult to replicate. How has this obsession with placemaking (including our digital streets) impacted our conception of family, work, and community? How has the organization of our neighborhoods contributed to racism and socio-economic divides? Major assignments will include personal narratives and reflective journals, an op-ed, a creative project centering around town/city planning, and a major research essay.


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How do we know what's ethical in a medical setting, and how can we explore those ethics through literature? Going a step further: how can reading and writing lead us to deeper insights about the nature of health itself, including the health of an individual, a group, or even a society? And how do processes of research and reflection inform the daily choices of readers, writers, and medical practitioners? As we explore a range of genres in this seminar, from illustrated memoir and drama to journalism and personal essays, we'll ask how literature and medicine can interact to teach us about observing details, setting priorities, and listening in ethical ways. By working on three sequenced portfolio collections of writing during the semester, each student will hone their own authorial voice before learning to engage with one other writer on a key medical debate, and finally host a research conversation between multiple cited sources.


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Have you noticed that despite our unprecedented access to news, entertainment, and social networks, it can often seem harder to stay informed and easier to feel disconnected? This feeling has a history, and this course follows the rise of the modern media--from the transnational networks built in the 19th century to the growth of broadcast media in the 20th century and the rapid spread of social media in the 21st century. We not only explore the histories of technological change (the telegraph, the television, and the internet), but also grapple with the questions they have raised about knowledge, free speech, social fracture, and the future of democracy. Our daily experience of media is deeply personal, and through reading, conversation, and argumentative writing we will discover why our media landscape appears the way it does and how we can find a stable and healthy orientation within it.


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Many people today yearn for slowness and connection with each other and the earth as we navigate ecological degradation, rising global autocracy, and accelerating AI automation. In this seminar, we trace the roots of these crises through reading and discussion, and work to imagine alternatives to our current society. Together, we explore what animals, plants, fungi, and water can teach us about liberation and living in right relations with our more-than-human world. We also practice a slow, salvage-and-repair writing process, composing messy first drafts without AI or automation, practicing research as a method to honor our intellectual "ancestors," and developing our voices as civic and public writers, imagining and contributing to livable futures for the common good.


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Human beings have created and increasingly inhabit a digital world. Our reliance on computers, phones, and digital technology, however, is a recent development. How are our relationships with devices and technology altering us individually? Collectively? Evolutionarily? This seminar will examine the social, psychological, physical, and cultural impacts of computers, internet, smartphones, and AI. We will explore these impacts from different perspectives, including science, social science, and science fiction. Students will reflect on their technology habits, experiment with habit changes, and write a review, an argumentative essay, speculative fiction, and a research project on a topic of their choice.


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What does it mean for art to be "good" or "bad?" For example, why does Instagram poetry raise questions about its validity as art? What about paintings that try to be ugly? What makes the film The Room "so bad it's good?" This seminar explores forms of "bad" and "ugly" art--specifically in poetry, visual art, and on the screen--that nevertheless attract attention and praise. Our reading, writing, and discussion aim to clarify the nature and the stakes of the most fundamental questions related to art, literature, and aesthetics. Does beauty have an essence that can be identified, qualified, and quantified independent of culture? Is there a connection between our sense of what is "beautiful" and our sense of what is "good" or "just" or "ethical"? We'll go beyond art to consider how our individual aesthetic tastes influence our friendships and relationship tastes. Students will read, view, watch, and write in order to learn about existing aesthetic theories and to develop their own. Major writing assignments will include a "letter of recommendation" for an object or text that you think is "beautiful" and a research project that examines an "ugly" work of art within the context of existing aesthetic theories.


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This seminar explores the use of writing as a way of engendering the body and its multiple identities: that is, the body as a sex, raced, queer, and non-normative matter. We will practice close reading through class discussions, personal essays, reflections, and short digital responses while engaging in a relational examination of how contemporary memoirs, essays, short fictions, and other narratives and media show the relationship between consciousness and the body. We will explore how writers narrate what it means to have a disabled, dying, diseased, or ethnically othered body, and how these different conditions are formally and thematically represented across genres and media. It centers how writers narrate embodied experiences, craft alternative spaces of kinship and belonging, love and acceptance, against limiting and normative social categories. To develop as writers, students will be expected to engage in close reading, to write critically and to develop their skills by engaging in regular peer review of each other’s writing (understanding writing as a process that improves through collaboration), and finally by composing a final paper or creative project on a course theme. Readings might include Marjane Satrapi, Lucy Grealy, Jamaica Kincaid, James Baldwin, Richard Rodríguez, and Gloria Anzaldúa. This seminar is ideal for students interested in feminism, queer thinking, and comparative race studies.


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How did we get from Richard Nixon and DJ Kool Herc's break to Obama's playlists and Cardi B? This writing course uses hip-hop culture as a guide to the social, political, economic, and artistic changes that have taken place in the US since the early 1970s. We will focus on the historical circumstances and unique spaces out of which hip-hop has arisen as well as the culture's own conceptions of history, social life, and aesthetics, or what you might call its poetics of place. Our study of hip-hop culture will encourage us to think about writing as a process, a practice of daily attention and development. To this end, you will learn to write in diverse formats, from close listening exercises and album reviews to personal reflection papers and a research-driven essay. As a class, we will participate in a semester-long series of workshops that will invite you to generate and circulate drafts among your peers, respond to and provide feedback on the work of others, and revise your writing.


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Environmental Humanities is the name given to the effort to bring together the humanities (literature, art, history, philosophy) and the sciences to address contemporary environmental problems like climate change. This approach recognizes the physical, cultural, and social elements that contribute to complex definitions of environment and environmental problems. In this seminar, we will explore a variety of texts that engage the sciences and humanities to appreciate the essential role that storytelling, poetry, cinema, and other creative genres play in bringing diverse voices and multicultural perspectives to understanding and addressing environmental issues. Students will write a narrative argument, critical analysis, and develop a research project based on a course theme or subject.


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Stephen Hawking once mused that "[c]omputers will overtake humans with AI within the next 100 years. When that happens, we need to make sure the computers have goals aligned with ours." Artificial Intelligence (AI) will fundamentally change our world; on this point, scientists, journalists, and creative writers all agree. How it will do so, and whether those changes are positive or catastrophic, is up for debate. In this seminar, we will delve into discussions about AI in the United States and Britain in the contemporary era (1850s-present) and analyze how we talk about AI: what it can do, what it can't (or shouldn’t) do, and what role humans should play in the process. This seminar does not require any technical knowledge and will not ask you to do any coding. Instead, we will read creative works, watch films, and play with generative AI platforms to look at representations of AI to understand how they shape our understanding of this technology, explore its impact on society, and consider its implications for our understanding of our own humanity.


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Today and in the past, romantic love is a hotly contested theme in many kinds of narratives, including film, poetry, novels, plays, and cultural analyses. In this seminar, students write argumentative papers, interpretive essays, reflections, and other responses to love narratives from Shakespeare to early Hollywood film to contemporary memoir. The seminar will question why romantic love is such a widely celebrated subject, how it has changed over time, how its representation differs among cultures and subcultures, and how queer viewpoints, asexuality, and aromanticism have critiqued its assumptions. Class time will include discussion of assigned texts, workshopping of student writing, and in-class writing sessions.


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What does it take to build a world from scratch - and what does the act of building one reveal about storytelling, culture, and imagination? Dungeons & Dragons has been inviting players to answer that question for over 50 years, drawing on a rich literary tradition that runs from Tolkien and Jack Vance to contemporary film, television, and live-play streams like Critical Role. In this seminar, we trace the literary DNA of D&D: the foundational texts that shaped the game, the world-building traditions they created, and how those traditions became a global cultural phenomenon. We treat world-building itself as a writing practice - a way of making arguments about how societies work, what we value, and what we fear. Major writing assignments will move from close analysis of texts and games to research-driven argumentation and reflection. Students will also learn practical skills for engaging AI as a thought partner to strengthen their own writing - learning how to use it and when not to use it. Students with reservations about AI will always have non-AI alternatives. No prior experience with D&D is required or expected.


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What if we understand clarity in writing to mean not just the difference between usable and inaccessible, but also between just and violent? In this course, we will explore how clarity, or a lack thereof, shapes our experience with interpersonal and institutional power. We'll begin with the Plain Writing Act signed by President Obama in 2010, which requires federal agencies to make their documents clearer and more usable. This legislation argues that clarity will make government language more accessible to the public and by extension, yet perhaps more importantly, that it will reduce federal spending on paperwork. To explore how people communicate with diverse audiences when justice is at stake, we will analyze texts ranging from workplace emails to college marketing copy to legal prose and even long-term nuclear waste warning systems. Students in this class will develop practical rhetorical skills, including the Plain Language style guide, while also considering broader questions about language, power, and responsibility.


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Based in Chicago, this course gives students the opportunity to study and experience the history and contemporary landscape of social change movements in one of the most significant U.S. urban settings. The city has spawned a range of social and political movements, from labor, to community organizing, to civil rights. Contemporary social change initiatives include immigrant rights groups, ethnic and racial cultural and political organizations, workers' centers, and school reform organizations. Counts toward the American Studies major. Offered periodically.


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This course provides intensive exposure to career opportunities in architecture, painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, photography, illustration, video, digital media, and design of all kinds (from toys to exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Working five to seven hours a day, students interview over 25 artist professionals during the month, visit more than 100 galleries and museums, and write extensively about artists and artwork.This course does not count toward the major in studio art or art history. Offered during Interim in alternate years. Counts toward management studies concentration. Prerequisite: none, but completion of the following courses is highly recommended: ART 253 (preferred), ART 252, and ART 280.


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Students study Georgia O'Keeffe's New Mexican art, natural and cultural contexts. Three weeks at Ghost Ranch follow a week in Santa Fe with the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and other resources. Discussions, readings, activities, and field trips help students gain insight into the desert as a source of spiritual quest and inspiration to nature writers and artists. They learn about Native American cultures and the regiion as a place women found liberation and scientists created the atom bomb. Counts toward Art History, Studio Art, American Studies, Environmental Studies, and Women's and Gender Studies majors; and Environmental Studies and Women's and Gender Studies concentrations. Offered Interim 2017-18 only.


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This course explores the natural history of our planet through the fossil record. Students learn from professional paleontologists and museum curators about how fossils are used in scientific research prior to embarking on a 10-day vertebrate fossil expedition in central Florida. The students then curate, catalog and interpret their data, using a large museum reference collection. Open only to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Offered periodically during Interim. Counts toward biology major.


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In this course students gain an appreciation for the drug development process, including how natural products are isolated and utilized as starting points for drug development, how molecular structure relates to biological activity, and how research into the mechanism of disease leads to the targeted development of drugs. Offered Interim alternate years. Prerequisite: CHEM 248.


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Mobile devices are actually sophisticated and powerful computers. This course explores mobile computing technology by creating applications for the Android platform, including a final team project. The course introduces Java language and provides exposure to graphics user interfaces (GUIs), event-driven programming, APIs, databases, SQL query language, and agile team programming methodologies. Offered alternate years .Counts toward management studies concentration. Prerequisite: CSCI 251 or permission of instructor.


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Argentina is a global leader in production and exports of several major agricultural products: corn, soy, beef, and wine. Students explore the economic and political factors that affect these goods' internal markets and how domestic production responds to these factors and world market conditions. Students gain an understanding of international commodity trade, futures markets, and the economics of agricultural production through readings, discussions, and meetings with experts in Argentine agriculture. Counts toward the Economics major. Prerequisite: ECON 121 or permission of instructor.


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Students examine the influence of race, class and multiculturalism in American schools by participating as teachers' assistants and tutors in two distinctly different K-12 schools. Students discover the challenges and benefits associated with teaching in a diverse racial, cultural and socio-economic environments. Through guest lectures, readings, field trips and seminars, students learn about the truly unique geographic and cultural setting of the Hawaiian islands. This environment makes an excellent framework to examine diversity on the mainland. Fulfills EDUC 382: Human Relations requirement. P/N only. Offered alternate Interims. Counts toward race and ethnic studies and American studies majors and race and ethnic studies concentration. Prerequisite: EDUC 260 and EDUC 290, or EDUC 330.


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How do Cubans view their past, and how does this shape their understanding of the present? This course focuses on the 1959 Revolution and historical memory. Students explore through visits to museums, memorials, and monuments how the government has sought to influence the ways Cubans remember the revolution and the later turn toward socialism. Students also study present-day Cuba through visits to health clinics, cooperatives, and schools, as well as lectures from local experts. Offered during Interim in alternate years. Counts toward Latin American studies major and concentration.


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This course investigates the interrelationships between humans and their surroundings in New Zealand and Australia, exploring conditions and practices that encourage human and environmental flourishing. The off-campus portion of the course in particular integrates psychological and environmental discourses with personal experience and mindfulness practices. Students explore meanings, values, and questions that demonstrate how the ability to flourish relies on individual and collective action connected to place as made manifest in nature as well as culture. Offered Interim 2018 only. Prerequisite: membership in the St. Olaf Band.


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This course investigates the interrelationships between humans and their surroundings in New Zealand and Australia. Students study conditions and practices that encourage human flourishing though with special applied schooling in matters of ethics and the environment. The off-campus portion of the course integrates psychological and environmental discourses with personal experience and mindfulness practices. Students explore meanings, values, and questions that demonstrate how the ability to flourish relies on individual, collective, and ethical thought and action in relationship to place and environmental stewardship. Offered Interim 2018 only. Prerequisite: BTS-T and membership in St. Olaf Band.


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The focus of public Health efforts differs markedly for the U.S. in contrast to the rest of the world. Through talks, interviews, readings, and research, students conduct comparative assessments of the public health systems of the U.S. and the world. Students tour and visit with researchers at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, and the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, in order to explore factors affecting public health nationally and internationally. Offered alternate Interims.


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This elementary introduction to the geometry of four-dimensional Euclidean space begins with an examination of lower-dimensional spaces and their relationships to one another. Generic objects are examined with the goal of understanding how a four-dimensional counterpart might be generated. Students explore what it means to "see" four-dimensional objects and in alternative ways. The term ends with group projects realized as a short research paper, a virtual reality show/object, and a class presentation. Offered periodically during Interim. No Prerequisite.


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Students study Nordic conflict resolution theories and practices as those relate to various approaches to conflict resolution, peace, and nonviolent resistance around the globe. What key strategies are individuals and groups using in creating just communities and a just world? The course offers academic inquiry into people's movements and interactive training methods. Students examine both theoretical premises and conflict resolution mechanisms as they together produce decisions about power and peace. Counts toward the Nordic Studies concentration. Offered periodically.


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Why does human life involve suffering? If God is omnipotent and good, why does evil exist? Is God responsible, or can all evil -- and the suffering that accompanies it -- be explained by sin or human frailty? Students explore some of the ways that Christian theology has attempted to respond to these questions, and they also examine challenges to the Christian perspective. Prerequisite: BTS-B.


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This course explores the notion of sacred places and examines specific sites sacred to ancient people, to Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Students visit both natural places and constructed sites (i.e., temples, churches, mosques, and synagogues). Students attend to scholarly theory, sites' physical characteristics and history, ongoing human interaction, inter-religious dynamics, and their own responses. The interplay of religion, social life, and political power relative to sacred space provides additional thematic focus. Offered during Interim in alternate years. Counts toward ancient studies major. Prerequisite: BTS-B.


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This course introduces fundamental technical and perceptual skills of drawing, including the basic elements of mark, line, value, texture, form, space and their dynamics in composition. By translating observed subjects onto two-dimensional surfaces, students explore drawing as a means to self-expression, as a springboard to understanding how ideas are given visible form and as a cornerstone of artistic practice. Lab fee.


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This course, designed for students who want to heighten their drawing skills, emphasizes using expressive qualities of drawing by investigating various media, techniques and content. Assignments are both traditional and nontraditional within historical perspectives. Experimentation is encouraged. Developing a personal visual language is stressed, culminating in the production of a series of drawings that relate thematically. Critical thinking and discussion skills are important. Prerequisites: Art 111 and 112 (or 120), and 113. Lab fee. Offered annually.


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This course is an introduction to postmodern art and thought through a survey of painting, sculpture, architecture, and new-media arts produced mostly in the United States since the Cold War era. Students learn about celebrated art and artists, major values informing their work, and ways of analyzing and making sense of newer art.


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There is no substitute for direct, personal experience. In Italy, students study Renaissance and Medieval paintings, sculptures and buildings in context. Students examine the works that went before the Renaissance and the ones which came afterwards to work out for themselves what made Italian art special and what value it has for us today.


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This course is an introductory exploration of Scandinavian visual arts and the cultural and historical forces related to them. The span of time, specific cultures covered and art forms studied varies depending upon the instructor.


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In this Interim course students who have completed the Asian Conversations sequence travel to sites in China and Japan in order to experience those cultures firsthand and to study Chinese and Japanese constructions of national identity. Through readings, site visits, interactions with peers in the target languages, homestays and journal writing in both English and their target language, students learn about how Asians in these two countries perceive themselves and their role in the region and in the world, both in the past and in the present. They travel to Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing, Nagasaki and Tokyo. Prerequisite: Asian Studies 211 or permission of the instructor.


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This course examines issues of women's biology including views of the evolving female and biological determinism. Core material covers anatomy, development, the biological basis of gender, reproduction, sexual response, the menstrual cycle and aging and aspects of women's health such as eating disorders, cancers and hormonal treatments. Students participate in significant amounts of group work and oral presentation. The course is open to both men and women. Offered during Interim. GE: NST-B.


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This course is designed as an introduction to molecular biology for non-biology majors. We will learn about molecular biology techniques and the use of molecular biology in medicine, forensics and agriculture. We will discuss human genetic diseases, mutations, DNA cloning, DNA fingerprinting, eugenics, gene therapy, reproductive technologies, fetal tissue research and genetic privacy. Each issue will be addressed on scientific and ethical levels. Offered during Interim. GE: NST-B, NSL.


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Why do biologists do what they do? How is biology actually done? In "Thinking and Doing Biology" we investigate the reasons biological science is done the way it is today. Students are given the opportunity to design and perform their own experiments while being taught the process of scientific investigation. Offered during Interim. GE: NST-B, NSL.


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Offered at the University of Minnesota Biological Field Station at Itasca State Park, Minnesota, this course provides study (lectures, readings, laboratory work and short field trips followed by extensive independent field research) in a wide range of habitats. The first week is spent on campus and the remaining three weeks are spent at the field station. Offered in 2002 and in alternate years during Interim. Prerequisite: Biology 125 and 126.


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Students study the structure, bonding and reactions of compounds containing metal-carbon bonds. Special topics include applications of organometallic chemistry to the synthesis of organic compounds, homogeneous catalysis and biochemistry. Examples illustrate organometallic chemistry as a bridge between organic and inorganic chemistry. Prerequisite: Chemistry 247. Offered during Interim.


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This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to the roughly 300-year period of Western European history from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the establishment of the 6th-century Christian Germanic kingdoms. Using primary sources, archaeological evidence and remains of art and architecture, students investigate the collapse of Roman authority and the rise of the Christian Church, gaining insight into an age of great transition and change. GE: HWC. Offered periodically in Interim.


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This course introduces students to the history and art of ancient Greece, from the Bronze Age through the archaic, classical and Hellenistic periods. Students visit every major region of Greece, with extended stays in Athens, Heraklion and Thessaloniki. When not visiting museums and archaeological sites and learning about ancient Greek civilization, students experience modern Greek culture. GE: HWC, ALS-A. Offered annually in Interim.


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An introduction to world dance traditions, this course examines dance forms, functions, contexts and differing aesthetics found in selected cultures of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Near and Middle East, the South Pacific and Latin America. The course includes lectures, discussions, video-viewing and required field-trips to dance events, in addition to studio experiences where students learn dances from the cultures studied. No previous dance experience required.


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Consumers, families, and community are intertwining elements of the social economy, each depending on the others for success. This course focuses on the triad, highlighting economic roles and principles. Among the topics of interest are the "rational consumer," saving and investing, momentous decisions, prodigal behavior, consumer protection, group dynamics, nurturing manipulation, collective purchases, budgeting, voting, and social welfare.


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This international travel course tracks economic development in China with emphasis on Shanghai. The course examines the emergence and evolution of markets in rural, urban, commercial and financial centers and how the changes affect culture, attitudes, customs and life of the people. Shanghai will be compared with other Chinese cities, including Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Hong Kong. The role of Hong Kong in China's reform and its integration since 1997 is also discussed.


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This course examines Christian ethics along with major frameworks in philosophical ethics (Utilitarianism, Liberalism and Marxism) in addressing economic issues. Some introductory analysis will be presented and utilized. Economics 220 cannot be taken after taking Economics 293. Does not count toward the economics major. Prerequisites: BST-T Course.


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This international travel course examines economic change in Britain from the Industrial Revolution to the current European Union membership. The course focuses on the process of change and how economic factors interact with values and culture. Prerequisite: one of Economics 110-122, or consent of instructor. Offered alternate Interims.


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Through lectures, readings and field placements in Minneapolis, students gain an understanding of how race, class, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation and religion shape the character of urban youth and communities. Students spend the first week on campus in preparation for their placements and the last week reflecting upon their experiences. During weeks two and three students live in Minneapolis and tutor in the schools and participate in various after-school activities. Counts toward the major: American Racial and Multicultural Studies.


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This course provides practical experiences and insights for students desiring to explore career opportunities in the many facets of education. Students, primarily sophomores, live off-campus, participating in different observational and practical experiences in schools of their choice. First-year students with special circumstances should consult Education Department chair. Applications due early in Fall Semester. Offered during Interim.


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Students examine the influence of race, class and multiculturalism in American schools by participating as teachers' assistants and tutors in two distinctly different K-12 settings. Through guest lectures, readings, field trips and seminars, students explore the unique geography and culture of the Hawaiian Islands and develop a framework for examining diversity on the mainland. Prerequisite: Education 290, 2.7 GPA, meeting all off-campus study requirements and satisfactory portfolio progress. Fulfills Education 382 and partially fulfills clinical practicum requirements. Students apply in the Spring Semester. Counts toward the major: American Racial and Multicultural Studies.


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Students working as tutors and teacher aides gain direct teaching experience in urban schools. This course is designed to heighten students' sensitivities to the complexities of the education of urban youth in a multicultural setting. Prerequisite: Education 290, 2.7 GPA, meeting all off-campus study requirements and satisfactory portfolio progress. The course fulfills Education 382 and partially fulfills clinical practicum requirements. Counts toward the major: American Racial and Multicultural Studies.


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The personal essay may contain rumination, memoir, anecdote, diatribe, scholarship, fantasy and moral philosophy. Students will read and write about the personal essay from its origins to the present day as well as craft their own personal essays. Readings range from founding father Montaigne to classic practitioners Charles Lamb and Virginia Woolf; students will also explore multicultural essayists such as Wole Soyinka and American voices from Thoreau to Annie Dillard.


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Students study modern Irish short stories in four distinct Irish settings (ancient city, coastal village, urban capital, lake-country town) where these stories were written. Reading, discussion and cultural experiences (including theater, museums and excursions by van) provide the basis for daily journal entries and several short papers. Offered alternate years during Interim.


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This course provides an on-campus immersion experience for students interested in improving their oral language proficiency. Students engage in small and large group discussion, give individual and group oral presentations and review grammar and registers of language. They also explore the notions of communicative competence and oral proficiency in order to become more effective speakers. Taught in French. Prerequisite: French 232, 233, or equivalent.


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This course provides advanced language work and on-the-spot investigation of French culture, past and present, including theater, film, visual arts, the French court, the medieval cathedral, etc., through background readings and visits to important monuments. Students read, discuss, see and critique plays ranging from the classical to the contemporary. Prerequisite: One French 250-level course.


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Students explore the Greek and Hebrew legacies in Roman society and in the New Testament, discussing various attempts to find personal fulfillment in political life, in stoicism and epicureanism and in the teachings of Christ and St. Paul. Students read works by Cicero, Horace, Virgil, Epictetus, the writers of the New Testament and study the artistry of Roman sculpture. Offered only in Interim.


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Reading and discussion of works stemming from the oral tradition, including chapbooks such as Till Eulenspiegel and Faust, fables modeled on antiquity during the 18th century, fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm during the 19th century and Kunstmarchen (literary fairy tales) by well-known writers of the Romantic and modern periods, from Geothe to Hermann Hesse. Emphasis on literary aspects and historical contexts. Taught in English. GE: HWC, ALS-L. Offered every Interim.


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A total immersion experience and capstone course for students completing the language requirement. Integrates listening, speaking, reading, writing and cultural competency. Exploration of city culture, recent history and contemporary aspects of three major German cities: Cologne, Bonn and Berlin. Meetings with German students and professors, museum visits, performances, intensive daily classes and exploration of individually chosen topics. Taught in German. Prerequisite: German 232, B grade or higher in 231, or equivalent. Open to first-year students. Fulfills the language requirement and can be counted toward the German major. GE: FOL-G. Offered every Interim.


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Explores Viennas cultural traditions as revealed in museums, theaters, operas, operettas, concerts and the citys architectural masterpieces. Focus on turn-of-the-century Vienna and the shift from the late-19th-century romanticism of the declining Habsburg Empire to an unprecedented modernism in all the arts, including architecture (Loos) and music (Schonberg), as well as psychology (Freud), science (Mach) and philosophy (Wittgenstein). Taught in English. GE: ALS-A, HWC. Offered alternate Interims.


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This course examines the history of 20th-century Cuba, especially the 1959 revolution and its aftermath. We will study the transformation of Cuban political culture, the obstacles to economic and agrarian reform, education, the role of women, human rights, U.S. policies toward Cuba and the future of Cuba after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The role of charismatic leadership in Latin America and the possibilities for revolutionary changes in the Americas are also examined. Offered periodically during Interim.


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Peacebuilding is a growing field that engages international organizations and governments as well as civil society organizations and community activists. This course provides an introduction to the field of peacebuilding and conflict management and an opportunity to apply this knowledge to current events through case studies and practice in conflict management skills. Topics covered include cultures of peace, the role of history and future in conflict, conflict analysis and dynamics, intervention strategies, identity and reconciliation. Offered during Interim.


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Students explore health care at a major metropolitan hospital (Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, Ill.), investigating the variety of services designed to treat patients as whole beings -- including pastoral patient care, day care for preschool and elderly and treatment for substance abuse. Students meet weekly in group seminars in addition to their observations at the hospital and conversations with health care professionals. Prerequisite: apply through instructor before registration. P/N grading only. Offered during Interim.


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Students study drama and theater through the reading of dramatic criticism and plays, attendance at approximately 20 performances, group discussions, guest lectures and tours. London, the theatrical center of the English-speaking world, enables students to experience a wide variety of theatrical performances ranging from traditional to modern. Excursions to Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford and Canterbury offer additional theater perspectives.


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This course focuses on using Microsoft Excel to analyze common management problems and develop solutions. Microsoft PowerPoint, a presentation graphics software program, is also introduced. Offered during Interim.


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This course explores health and nursing in Norway. Students learn about culture, compare nursing and health care in Norway and the U.S., examine the influence of government and economics, explore settings where health care is provided, analyze the effectiveness of the social welfare system in meeting health needs and identify factors affecting health care in the future. Activities include lectures by Norwegian health professionals, seminars with St. Olaf faculty, readings, journals, short papers, visits to health agencies and cultural field trips. Does not count toward the major. Open to non-majors on a space-available basis. Offered during Interim in alternate years.


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Students analyze literary works of different genres as aesthetic treatments of philosophical themes. Poetry, prose and drama explore themes such as the metaphysics and ethics of freedom, the problem of evil and the role of character in choice and action. For example, with Camus students explore such ideas as absurdity, lucidity, rebellion and human solidarity by studying plot, character, point of view, imagery and symbolism.


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This course introduces philosophical ideas and methods through reading, discussing and writing about basic questions that arise when we reflect on the human condition. What is meant by meaning when one asks whether (a person's) life has meaning? How do our beliefs about human nature, religion and morality affect how we ask or answer the question? How does our mortality affect our living? Classical and contemporary writings -- philosophical and autobiographical -- will be used. Offered only in Interim.


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Students reflect on their own culture as they explore childhood and family life in China and Japan. Developmental and cross-cultural research, memoirs, works of fiction, and films are used to study parents' beliefs and childrearing practices as well as the development of the self, peer relationships, school achievement, and role changes during adulthood. With life expectancy increasing around the world, students also discover how China and Japan are responding to the graying of their populations. Prerequisites: Psychology 125 or Asian Studies 111 or Asian Studies 121.


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Analyzing continuity and change within the Lutheran tradition, students will consider Luther's theology and proposals for the reform of Catholicism and evaluate major reappraisals of Lutheran beliefs and practices which developed in response to new issues and social situations. Topics include Orthodoxy and Pietism, conservative and liberal responses to the Enlightenment, modern European Lutheranism and issues of particular importance to Lutheranism in Scandinavia, America and the Third World.


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This course traces the influences of religion in Rome as it was gradually transformed from the capital city of a pagan empire into the administrative center of Catholic Christianity. Students conduct a selective comparison of ancient, medieval, renaissance, baroque and modern religion through visits to historical sites, churches, museums and contemporary cultural events in Rome -- and to other Italian cities which interacted with Rome. Offered in Interim, 2001-02.


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This course concentrates on the historical and geographical background of the Bible. Visits to archaeological sites in Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem especially enable students to understand the religious pluralism of ancient Palestine as well as the Jewish roots of Christianity. A secondary emphasis of the course is on the current diversity of worship and piety in Jerusalem. Offered in Interim. Offered in 2002-03.


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The nature and boundaries of communities, as well as the quality of relationships within communities, are determined by theology as well as by social, political and ethnic factors. Students examine the ways in which the world's religions, particularly Christianity, have interpreted each other's significance and truth claims and considers the ethical implications of these different responses. Prerequisite: a BTS-T course.


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This course examines the development of differing approaches to some aspect of Russian life and culture as presented in the classical texts of Russian literature. Actual topics vary according to year and instructor.


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In many respects, products like caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and opium provide the glue that holds together modern life. This course examines the web of these substances from an anthropological perspective. Our focus includes the politics of production, the culturally diverse practices of consumption and the social consequences of regulation. Based on our collective experience at St. Olaf, we consider the mood-altering substances on and off campus, and examine their influence in such things as our social identity, individual consciousness and the structure of authority. Offered Interim.


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Students begin learning Spanish through listening, speaking, reading and writing about topics familiar to them, including family, academic and social life, in an intercultural context. And they reinforce these skills through complementary exercises in the language laboratory. Offered Fall Semester. Open only to students with no prior experience in Spanish.


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Students explore geographic, economic, political and ethnic dimensions of life in present-day Ecuador by combining intensive course work with such cross-cultural experiences as a homestay in Quito, interactions with university students in Quito, field trips to an indigenous maket in Otavalo, the Amazon region east of Tena, and so forth. They consolidate their language skills and continue to develop their skills for analyzing and communicating in Spanish by writing compositions, making oral presentations, interviewing their host families, visiting indigenous homes and engaging in other interactive group activities. Prerequisite: Spanish 231 or placement.


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Students explore geographic, economic, political and ethnic dimensions of life in present-day Costa Rica by combining intensive course work with such cross-cultural experiences as a homestay in San Jose; field work, visits to sites of cultural interest and excursions to the geographically and culturally diverse Atlantic and Pacific coasts. They consolidate their language skills and continue to develop their skills for analyzing and communicating in Spanish by writing compositions, making oral presentations, interviewing their host families and engaging in other interactive group activities. Prerequisite: Spanish 231 or placement.


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Spanning two centuries, from the founding of the colonies to the close of the Civil War, this course begins the discussion of questions central to the entire sequence: "What is an American?" "What does it mean to be free?" Students explore the institutions, images, and stories of Euro-Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans.Topics and texts range from the Declaration of Independence and Thomas Jefferson's architecture to the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and the coming of the Civil War.


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Burgeoning cities and industrialism, an emerging market economy, changing opportunities for women, an influx of immigrants, and the migration of African Americans to urban centers -- all opened questions of freedom of expression, distribution of resources, and American identity. Topics and texts range from the Statue of Liberty and the World's Columbian Exposition to the Model T Ford and the Harlem Renaissance. Prerequisite: American Conversations 101 and 102.


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This analysis of modern American society introduces theories and methods of culture studies, beginning with anthropological definitions of culture and including perspectives of sociology, political science, history, art history, and English. Students examine the moral ecology of everyday life in America, looking at the cultural meanings of work, clothes, food, family, gender, buildings, bodies, television, advertising, and education. Counts toward major: Women's Studies. Offered Fall Semester.


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This introductory course employs wheel-throwing techniques in clay. Students are introduced to historical and contemporary approaches to clay. Course includes clay mixing, kiln loading, various firing procedures, and glaze and surface embellishment. Materials fee. Offered each semester.


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This course develops and stimulates research into the emotional/expressive properties of art-making in the painting media. By investigating thematic compositional and technical problems, students develop a personalized approach to ideas and content. Students learn the importance of process, need for flexibility, how to seek alternatives and how to recognize that a painting has a life of its own. Prerequisites: Art 102 or Art 111 and 112 (or 110), and 113. Materials fee. Offered annually.


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This sculpture course introduces lost wax bronze casting, an art and industrial process that changed the course of human civilization. Students learn to cast, finish, and present cast metal work, building upon concepts from the foundation course and exploring the next level of sculpture topics, issues, and concerns. The course makes use of hands-on instruction, readings, slide talks, and discussion. Materials fee. Offered annually. Fall Semester only.


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This course focuses on the art of the narrative video short. Students study the rudiments of visual storytelling by developing their own short projects. Students study all aspects of production from concept to screening, including idea generation, pre-production planning, lighting, shooting, editing, and sound mixing, with special emphasis on innovative approaches to narrative form. Prerequisites: Art 104 or permission of instructor. Materials fee. Offered alternate years.


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This course explores the arts and architecture of western Europe from c. 300 to c. 1300. Through lectures and discussions, students study paintings, sculpture, manuscripts, metalwork, and stained glass windows created by the many cultures of this rich and diverse period in the history of art. Students approach the material in a variety of ways; in addition to issues of style, technique, and iconography, students address issues of viewing, patronage, and gender throughout the semester. Offered periodically.


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This course examines visual forms that reveal Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Islamic religious concepts in painting, sculpture, and architecture of sacred precincts and royal palaces of India. Included are monuments that incorporate the axis mundi, as well as religious images carried by monks into East Asia. Students probe into the meaning behind artistic expressions. Offered annually. (Open to First-year students.)


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This course enables the advanced studio art student to pursue further work in any chosen two or three dimensional medium or combination of media including performance, installation, and collaborative ways of working. This course is organized around an interdisciplinary theme set each year by the instructor. Within a seminar format students read, discuss and write on the selected topic in conjunction with topic driven individual studio work and critiques. Prerequisites: three foundation studio courses plus a minimum of two Level II studio courses. Offered annually.


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How do pilgrims, travelers and migrants make sense of their journeys in Asia? Students explore maps, histories, tales, and guides that define Asia today and in years past, including at least one of the classic Asian texts; study how cultural, linguistic, economic, religious, social, and political connections and divisions create and sustain communities in Asia; spend the last few weeks of the term planning related projects for their Interim course. Prerequisite: Chinese 112 or Japanese 112 or permission of instructor. Offered Fall Semester.


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The study of global change and human environmental impacts requires us to link concepts from biology, chemistry, and physics. Students investigate these links by exploring current theories in biogeochemistry, with an emphasis on understanding the feedback between physical and ecological processes, and the coupling of multiple element cycles. Laboratory activities focus on a practical exploration of the methods biogeochemists use, including experience with a variety of instruments. Prerequisite: Any level 200 biology, chemistry, or physics course; or permission of instructor.


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How do animals do what they need to do to survive in all sorts of environments? Why are others able to exist in only very particular conditions? These are the sorts of questions students explore as they navigate the basic systems that provide circulation, ventilation, movement, digestion, and waste removal. Students look at how these are coordinated by the nervous and endocrine systems and how they vary across the animal kingdom to help organisms survive in dry, hot deserts or in dark, deep oceans and places in between. In the weekly 3-hour lab, they conduct quantitative physiological measurements to assess functions such as temperature control, respiration rates, and salt and water balance. Prerequisites: Biology 125 and 126, or Chemistry/Biology 125-127 and Biology 126.


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Limnology is the study of inland waters and includes their physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. The course focuses on biotic processes and interactions set within the abiotic habitat of lakes and streams. Students examine current management problems facing freshwater environments by focusing on human-induced changes to aquatic habitats and their biotic consequences. Investigative laboratories introduce students to aquatic habitats and biological processes within them. Prerequisites: Biology 125 and 126, or Chemistry/Biology 125-127 and Biology 126.


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Immunology focuses on the structure, development and function of the immune system. The course explores the molecular and cellular basis of the immune responses. The application of immunological principles to allergy, autoimmunity, AIDS, transplantation, and cancer will be included. Students attend lectures plus a 2-hour discussion per week. Prerequisites: Biology 125 and 126, or Chemistry/Biology 125-127 and Biology 126, and Biology 233; one semester of Chemistry or Chemistry/Biology 125-127.


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This course introduces chemical concepts that are important for students pursuing a study of chemistry or biology. Topics include atomic structure, the Periodic Table, bonding interactions within and between particles, water and its solutions, biological membranes, chemical reaction types, chemical stoichiometry, equilibrium systems, acids and bases, introduction to protein structure. Examples are often pulled from the realm of biological molecules and processes. Students attend three classes and one 3-hour laboratory each week. Prerequisites: high school biology, chemistry and physics. Students should consider concurrent registration in Mathematics 120 or 121. Placement via online placement exam is required. Offered Fall Semester.


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This course provides a study of chemical stoichiometry and equilibrium at a level and pace appropriate to students with little or no background in chemistry. The combination of this course and the Interim course 123 provides coverage of topics equivalent to those in Chemistry 125. Students planning to continue in Chemistry should consider concurrent registration in Mathematics 120 or 121. Students attend three classes and one 3-hour laboratory per week. Offered Fall Semester.


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Students explore analytical applications, problem solving, and understanding how people and instruments operate together to make things happen. Problems include how systems of amplifiers detect signals, how computers process and display them, and how people use networks to transfer the information to others who need it. A lab robot is used to prepare samples and to do analyses. Prerequisite: concurrent registration in Chemistry 382. P/N only. Offered Fall Semester.


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Students study how an instrument functions mechanically, mathematically, optically and electronically, and then how its parts are linked together. Topics covered include basic electronics and computer interfacing, spectrophotometric instruments, mass spectrometers, electrochemical instrumentation, and various separation methods. Prerequisites: Physics 125 or 228, and Chemistry 255, 256. Concurrent registration in Chemistry 378 is required. Offered Fall Semester.


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This accelerated course accomplishes the combined goals of Computer Science 121 and Computer Science 251 for students with sufficient prior C++ or Java programming skills. The course includes a weekly laboratory meeting and a team project experience. Prerequisites: A high school CS advanced placement course, or comparable experience in C++ or Java programming and permission of instructor.


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This course surveys technologies represented in networked software systems based on the client-server model, including graphics user interfaces (GUIs) and databases, and features a team project to design and build such a system with interdisciplinary application. Topics include design of client-server systems, GUI applications, event-driven programming, APIs, databases and SQL query language, embedded queries, data modeling, concurrency, network programming, security and ethical considerations, and team programming methodologies. Prerequisites: Computer Science 225 or 251, or permission of the instructor.


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This introduction to dance allows students to broadly experience and learn about dance. Students explore dance from the following perspectives: historical, cultural and social, creative and expressive, performing, critical and aesthetic, and kinesthetic. Lectures, experiential movement labs, group presentations, and viewing of both live and recorded dance performances are all components of the course. No dance experience required. A ticket/transportation fee is required for performances. Offered Fall Semester.


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Students examine critically a variety of national, metro, and local media. Students then learn to write their own news copy, including hard news, features, editorials, arts and entertainment reviews, sports, business, and travel stories. Students also learn UPI/AP style copy editing and proofreading, important skills for students applying for internships and print media jobs. Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent.


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Students explore various forms of prose, both fiction and nonfiction. Each instructor selects different material to be studied and emphasizes various aspects of the form. Topics can range from the 19th-century novel to African American autobiography. May be repeated if topics are different. Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent.


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Students develop and complete individual projects in fiction, deepening and polishing their work. Class sessions are devoted to discussion of craft, examination of literary models, and workshopping of student writing. Prerequisite: Approval of portfolio by department committee.


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Students learn the techniques of screenwriting, including how to write a treatment, to create backstories, and to break down scenes. Each student produces and revises a narrative screenplay. Prerequisite: English 251, 257, or writing equivalent.


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This course examines Milton's works through the lens of ethics, using readings in ethical theory to better understand both the ethical issues and the works themselves. Students participate in a series of trials and panels designed to explore in depth issues of censorship, individual liberty, and the role of civil governments. Prerequisite: English 185 plus one course of relevant background; completion of BTS-T.


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Students contrast the world views of the ancient Greeks and Hebrews: Greek polytheism and the hero with the Hebrew notion of one God and the believer; Greek notions of civic community and earthly life with the Hebrew ideal of a religious covenant and historical destiny; Greek thoughts about beauty, war, peace, justice, politics, metaphysics, art, architecture, and drama with the prophetic stance toward the past and the future. Students read and discuss works by Homer, Sappho, Thucydides, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, the writers of the Hebrew scripture, and the artistry of the Parthenon.


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Students examine the Renaissance's return to classical values and the Reformation's return to early Christian attitudes which challenge the authority of the medieval synthesis. Students trace the development of new sources of authority including the new science with its influence on art, literature, politics, and philosophy. Discussions consider writers and artists such as Luther, Calvin, Descartes, Locke, Milton, Aphra Behn, Voltaire, Rousseau, Goethe, Teresa of Avila, Michaelangelo, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Bach, and Shakespeare. Prerequisites: Great Conversation 113, 115, and 116.


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This course is intended primarily for English language learners to develop and practice English skills required for college-level work. Composition and the writing process, as well as other language skills, will be emphasized in class and through individual instruction. Students must pass the course with a grade of C or higher in order to enroll in General Education 111. Offered Fall Semester only.


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Students begin to learn German through listening, speaking, reading, and writing about situations familiar to them including their personal biographies, family, daily life, studies, travels, and hobbies. Regular writing assignments are designed to learn vocabulary, check spelling, and to form thoughts with German sentence structure. Regular language lab activities aid in acquiring good pronunciation and listening skills. Offered Fall Semester.


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Students examine expository texts such as (auto)biographical writings, journalistic articles, and critical essays, with an eye to understanding the strategic organization of the text, the information presented, and the various layers of critical voices in a text. Coursework includes weekly writing assignments on the analysis of structure, style, argumentation, evidence, and perspective in a text. The course is designed to teach students writing strategies and the final project is a short term paper written in German. Taught in German. Prerequisite: German 232 or equivalent.


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Students explore the form, history and theory of a particular genre or medium, including film, the novella, drama, poetry and short story, or the works of a single author or period. Coursework includes close reading, discussion, analysis and interpretation of texts. Taught in German. Prerequisite: minimum of one 270-level course. May be repeated if topic is different.


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Third-semester Greek students read selections from Plato's dialogues (Apology, Crito, Phaedo) in uncut, original versions, reviewing basic vocabulary, grammar, and syntax while translating the Greek texts. The class discusses the life and death of Socrates and the significance of the dialogues as works of literature. Prerequisite: Greek 112 or equivalent. Offered annually.


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It has been said that all philosophy is a mere footnote to Plato and Aristotle. In this course students translate selected works by the two renowned philosophers and their predecessors, while examining the forces that influenced them and the impact that Greek philosophy exerted on subsequent ages. Prerequisite: Greek 231 or equivalent. Offered in alternate years.


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This course explores topics in Ancient History, designed to emphasize active skills of critical reading, textual and contextual analysis, historiographical argument, and historical writing. Primarily for History majors - others by consent of instructor.


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This course examines issues of race and ethnicity in Latin America from colonial times to the present. Although not directly comparative, by highlighting the region's distinctive tradition of racial mixture the course provides students with a model of race relations that contrasts sharply with that of the U.S. The course also concerns changing ideas about race in Latin America and the impact of these ideas on debates over national identity. Offered periodically.


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This course explores the fundamental transformation in our conception of the physical world since the sixteenth century. The classical view suggests our universe is a grand machine determined by universal laws and causal regularities. The quantum revolution of the early twentieth century, and its extensions into our own time, have emphasized indeterminacy, entanglement, complexity, and emergent novelty. This revolution in thought will be investigated from scientific, philosophical, and theological perspectives. Team taught. Offered Fall semester.


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This course is designed for students who plan to take courses for which calculus is a prerequisite, and need additional preparation before taking calculus. The course emphasizes functions, including polynomial, exponential, logarithmic, and trigonometric. Other topics include interpretation of graphs and charts, unit analysis, and problem solving methods. Students must have permission of the Director of Mathematics Placement to enroll. Offered Fall Semester only.


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This course covers the material in Mathematics 126 in greater depth and includes supplementary material. Prerequisite: Mathematics 120, 121, or Mathematics Placement Recommendation. Credit may be earned for either Mathematics 126 or 128, but not both. Offered both semesters.


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Modern mathematics is characterized by the interaction of theoretical and computational techniques. In this course, students study topics from pure and applied mathematics with the aid of computation. Symbolic, graphical, and numerical computational techniques are introduced. Students develop computational skills sufficient to investigate mathematical questions independently. No previous programming experience is required.


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This course is an introduction to topological spaces and their structure from point-set, differential and algebraic points-of-view. Topics may include separation axioms, compactness, connectedness, classification of surfaces, homology, fundamental group, and others. Prerequisite: Math 244 or 252. Offered in 2008-09 and alternate years.


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This course introduces basic techniques for performance on the violin, viola, cell and string bass. Additional topics include: pedagogical techniques, tools, and literature; teaching repertoire; and instrument care. Prerequisite: permission of instructor required for students not majoring in Theory/Composition or Music Education. Offered Fall Semester.


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This course introduces basic techniques for performance on selected instruments in the woodwind family. Additional topics include: pedagogical techniques, tools, and literature; teaching repertoire; and instrument history and care. Prerequisite: permission of instructor required for students not majoring in Theory/Composition or Music Education. Offered Fall Semester.


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Students study and practice principles for singing in English and Italian with good pronunciation, enunciation, and expression. Course content includes phonetic analysis using the International Phonetic Alphabet and identifying and exercising the phonemic features of English and Italian through class performances and listening assignments. Prerequisite: two semesters of voice lessons. Offered Fall Semester, 2006-07, and alternate years.


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This studio course focuses on advanced techniques of acting and singing for the musical stage with emphasis on opera. Students explore voice, movement, improvisation, and characterization at an advanced level. They receive coaching in musical and dramatic style through solo and small ensemble literature and prepare scenes for class performance. The course culminates with public performances of fully staged and costumed lyric theater work. May be repeated once. Prerequisites: Two semesters of voice study and Theatre 131 (Acting for the Lyric Stage). A production fee will be charged to all students participatig in the production. Generally offered Fall Semester.


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This course offers an in-depth study of the music literature of the 20th and 21st centuries (ca. 1890-present). Prerequisite: Music 241, 242. Offered in alternate years.


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Students study the role of music in worship with an emphasis on strategies for developing music groups, including handbells and Orff instruments, in worship and church education. Prerequisite: Music 214 or permission of instructor. Offered Fall Semester, 2006-07. and alternate years.


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Neuroscience is one of the fastest growing fields, with activity ranging from the fundamentals of behavior to molecular aspects of neuronal function. This course provides a foundation and overview of the important and extensive ways in which biological and physiological processes are involved in the regulation and maintenance of behavior. Among the topics students explore are: fundamental electrophysiology, sensory and motor systems, integration, learning and memory, and the mind-body connection. Prerequisites: Biology 125, or Chemistry 121 (or 125), or Chemistry/Biology 125, or Physics 126, or Psychology 125. Biology 125 is strongly recommended. Counts towards the Biology major. Offered Fall Semester.


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This seminar provides an introduction to philosophy that compares psychological and philosophical approaches to moral behavior and character. The course examines the nature of those states of mind that are thought to constitute moral (or evil) character and produce moral (or evil) actions, relationships, and societies. States considered may include humility, self-respect, beneficence, compassion, caring, anger, forgiveness, courage, and truthfulness. Open to first-year students and sophomores only. Offered every year.


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A philosophical inquiry into beauty and art. Students investigate the relationship between beauty, goodness, and truth, and examine different accounts of art, its value, meaning, and the standards by which it should be judged. Themes include the nature of creativity, censorship, and the cultural, moral, and religious significance of art.


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An advanced introduction to moral philosophy emphasizing normative theories, the foundations of morality (metaethics), and moral reasoning. Normative theories (e.g. virtue ethics, deontological ethics, theological ethics, and utilitarianism) explore the nature of the good and the difference between right and wrong. Metaethics concerns the origins and objectivity of moral judgments, studying moral relativism, moral subjectivism, divine command theory, and ideal observer theories. Students explore moral reasoning in theory and practice using contemporary moral issues as examples. Prerequisites: One course in philosophy and completion of BTS-T, or permission of instructor.


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Students explore contemporary approaches to classical issues in theory of knowledge which include the nature and limits of knowledge; theories of justification; conceptions of truth; relativism and skepticism; and the standards of knowledge in the sciences, mathematics, history, ethics and religion. Specific issues discussed vary year to year. May be repeated if topics are different. Prerequisites: two courses in philosophy, one of which must be either 235 or 236, or permission of the department chair. Offered 2008-09 and alternate years.


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This three-semester calculus-based sequence leads the student through the basic principles that account for the processes involved in baseballs, car engines, electrical power distribution systems, stereos, and black holes. It is the starting point for a major in physics and is also appropriate for majors in fields such as chemistry or mathematics who desire more mathematical depth than would be used in the two-semester 124-125 sequence.
Physics 130 is a study of Newtonian mechanics --- motion, forces, energy, gravity, and rotation. There is one 2.5 -hour laboratory meeting per week. Prerequisite: concurrent registration in (or previous completion of) Mathematics 120 or 121. Offered Fall Semester.


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Mexicans dying to enter the U.S. Moroccans dying to enter Spain. Europeans reluctant to accept Turkey's EU bid out of fear of more migrants. Britons worried that migrants fuel terrorism. Headlines worldwide draw attention to transnational migration. This course covers explanations of entry control policy, integration and citizenship policy, and the political activities of migrants in the wealthy democracies. Alternative arguments emphasizing the role of economic interests, sovereignty, national identity, and gender are introduced. This course can count for comparative or IR.


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Students consider the present situation and future prospects of Roman Catholic theology through an engagement with the figures and events which have most deeply shaped Catholic theology in this century. The course also examines recent Catholic views on the central topics of Christian theology, God, Christ, salvation and the Church, and the relationship of these views to Protestant ideas about the same issues. Prerequisite: BTS-B.


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How might the Christian ethical systems which have dominated western culture look different if women's experiences and perspectives had been more centrally included? This course focuses on the continuities and contrasts between traditional Jewish and Christian ethics and the feminist and womanist ethical challenges to them which have emerged over the last quarter century. Prerequisite: completion of BTS-B and BTS-T.


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This course traces the development of Russian literature from the end of the 19th century to the present. A variety of genres are studied, including the novel, the short story, drama, and lyric poetry. Major authors include: Chekhov, Akhmatova, Bulgakov, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, and Nabokov. Taught in translation. No prerequisites.


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As an overview of the variety of belief systems and ways of life, this course explores ethnographic case studies of Native American groups from the major culture areas of North America north of Mexico. Topics addressed in this course include language families, social organization systems, ecological and economic adaptations, material culture, religions, and revitalization movements. This course will also examine the impacts of colonial encounters upon Native American cultures. Offered Fall or Spring Semester.


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This course examines and analyzes religious beliefs, meanings, rituals, and organizational patterns from an empirical perspective. Students study the social organization and functions of religion, the process of secularization in society, the practice and function of civil religion, religious conversion and defection, and sectarian religious movements. Offered Fall or Spring Semester.


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This course introduces students to anthropological theory and the "culture" of the discipline itself. Students examine anthropology's formation during the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Empire, which called for new explanations of human differences and gave new significance to the nature and meaning of "culture." They explore the method of participant observation research, the question of whether anthropology is a science, the problem of representing one culture to another, and the changing nature of ethnographic writing. Open to Sociology/Anthropology majors only. Prerequisite: one Sociology/Anthropology course. Offered Fall Semester.


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Students gain the skills necessary to conduct and critically evaluate quantitative research. Students learn the underlying theoretical assumptions and orientations of quantitative research, including research design, sampling techniques, strategies for data collection, and approaches to analysis. Students gain practice in data analysis by conducting a research project and using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), a standard in sociology. Open to Sociology/Anthropology majors only. Prerequisite: Statistics 110 or 212. Offered Fall Semester.


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Students explores a topic pertinent to more than one geographic area of the Spanish-speaking world (Spain, Latin America, and/or the Hispanic U.S.). Students focus on comparative analysis through reading, discussion and writing in Spanish. The course includes study of at least one substantive literary work. Sample topics include: Dictatorship and Literature, and Language and Identity. Students may register more than once provided a different topic is offered. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: Spanish 250 and at least one 270-level course.


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Students study the progression of the U.S. social welfare system from English Poor Laws and the Social Security Act to contemporary reforms and how its components (public, private, faith-based) interrelate to serve diverse populations in cities and small towns. The development of social work, its values and knowledge and its relationship to fields of social welfare are included. Students shadow a social worker for four hours. Offered Fall Semester.


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Humans relate to one another in families, groups, organizations and communities. Through social systems theory, ethics and a strengths perspective, students apply prerequisite and advanced theoretical research material from biology, sociology, and psychology to assess situations encountered by social workers. Diverse examples are drawn from literature -- Love in the Driest Season, The Color of Water, A Poison Stronger than Love -- and from students' autobiographies. Prerequisites: Sociology 121, Psychology 241, and Biology 123 or 243; open to non-majors by permission of program director only. Offered Fall Semester.


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This course immediately precedes the Field Practicum (Social Work 380). Students integrate principles and skills of culturally competent assessment, planning, intervention, and evaluation with diverse clients - micro, mezzo, and macro. They roleplay diverse practice situations and articulate implications of social policy for cross-cultural practice. Brief immersion opportunities in diverse communities are included. Prerequisite: Social Work 261. Offered in September each year, for majors only; additional fee.


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The attributes of the things we see and hear in the performances that we attend contribute strongly to our experience as an audience. This course considers the elements and principles of design and their application to performance work. Students study the performance space, scenery elements, costuming, lighting and shadow, and the aural experience that the audience encounters during a performance. Problem-solving, collaboration, and design development are included in project work. Materials fee. Offered Fall semester.


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Examines theatrical activities, from theater's origins to 1700, from three interrelated perspectives 1) theater as social history, 2) theater as dramatic literature and 3) theater as performance; i.e. the result of creative decisions made by playwrights, actors, directors and designers. Prerequisite: Theatre 110. Offered Fall Semester of 2008-2009 and Fall Semester of 2010-2011.


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This course introduces students to the art and craft of writing for stage and screen. As a workshop, the course encourages students to work out unique solutions to the aesthetic and practical challenges confronting dramatic writers of a one act play or short screenplay in light of historical, theoretical, and critical materials. The course emphasizes the technical elements of dramatic writing, the vocabulary of the writer, and the nature of the writing experience, from germinal idea to marketing the completed script. Prerequisite: Theatre 110 or permission of instructor.


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This course provides intensive exposure to career opportunities in architecture, painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, photography, illustration, video, digital media, and design of all kinds (from toys to exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Working five to seven hours a day, students interview over 25 artist professionals during the month, visit more than 100 galleries and museums, and write extensively about artists and artwork. Offered during January Term in alternate years. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Also counts toward management studies concentration. Prerequisite: none, but completion of the following courses is highly recommended: ART 253 (preferred), ART 252, and ART 280.


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How do people in Asia understand citizenship? Students learn how membership in cultural, social, and political communities shapes rights, responsibilities, and identities in Asian countries. Reading historical and social science research, students consider and compare citizenship in Asian countries, including China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Offered periodically. Counts toward Asian studies, Chinese, Japanese, and political science majors and Asian studies concentration. Prerequisite: one previous course in Asian studies or political science is recommended.


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Students pursue guided fieldwork experience in Taiwan and Japan. Activities and readings in this course build on the topics from ASCON 210 and language study. Students continue to explore their understanding of Asia through language activities, site visits, and ethnographic observations. Students develop projects and follow a process of inquiry that will help them understand how ordinary people construct "Asian" culture and society today. Offered annually during January Term. Counts toward Asian studies, Chinese, and Japanese majors and Asian studies concentration. Prerequisite: ASCON 120.


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Engaging the diverse cultures and Asian American communities in San Francisco, students learn about the intersection of power, race, class, gender, sexuality, language, and multiculturalism. Students examine the past through immigration history, museums, and Angel Island; experience the present in Chinatown, Nihonmachi (Japantown), and the Castro District; and explore the future by connecting with alumni, academics, and Silicon Valley professionals. Through guest lectures, readings, discussions, field trips, and digital projects, students gain unique perspective and knowledge in one of the historical, political, and cultural centers of Asian America. Offered periodically during January Term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Also counts toward Chinese, Japanese, and race and ethnic studies majors and race and ethnic studies concentration. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above.


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This interdisciplinary course explores principles and approaches in second language learning and teaching with the focus on Asian languages. Through debunking myths in second language learning, students will learn key factors affecting second language learning and effective language learning strategies. Skills in teaching a second language in Asian context are also discussed. However, this course focuses on the research and theoretical understanding of language acquisition rather than on pedagogical methods of language teaching. Offered periodically. Also counts toward Chinese and Japanese majors and applied linguistics concentration.


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This course explores the natural history of our planet through the fossil record. Students learn from professional paleontologists and museum curators about how fossils are used in scientific research prior to embarking on a 10-day vertebrate fossil expedition in central Florida. The students then curate, catalog, and interpret their data, using a large museum reference collection. Open only to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Offered periodically in January Term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement.


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This course offers intensive field-biology experiences within three equatorial New World environments: the Amazon rainforest, the Andes cloud forests, and the Galapagos Islands. Students compare the rich biodiversity, the adaptations and natural history of species, and the influence of human impact on these areas. Preparation for class requires readings from texts and primary literature concerning ecological and environmental issues specific to each of these regions. Based in Quito, the three field expeditions alternate with home-based rest days allowing for reflective writing in journals, assimilation, and discussion. Offered during January Term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Prerequisite: BIO 150 or permission of instructor.


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In this research-based lab course, students learn molecular cloning technique theory and methods. With a faculty member, students design and conduct a cloning project relevant to the faculty member's ongoing research. Students interpret their data and make connections to relevant scientific literature and present their findings in lab meetings and a final poster presentation. Students also consider and articulate how the skills developed through this course impact their future careers as scientists. Prerequisite: BIO 233.


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This course introduces students to the history and art of ancient Italy, focusing on the city of Rome and the Bay of Naples area. It covers more than 1000 years of civilization, beginning with the Etruscans and ending with the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The itinerary includes extended stays in Civitavecchia, Rome, and Pompeii. When not visiting museums and archaeological sites, students have the opportunity to experience modern Italian culture as well. Offered during January Term in alternate years. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Also counts toward ancient studies, Greek, and Latin majors.


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Class members participate in a team research project abroad. The central activity of the project teams is to implement an applied research project in collaboration with a host community in West Africa. This research project drives the other elements of the course, which include readings from the research literature, ethical analysis of their project applying CSCI 263 principles, documentation practices, and writing a research paper for public presentation. Offered periodically during January Term. Apply through the Smith Center for Global Engagement. Prerequisites: computer science major with senior standing and completion of or concurrent enrollment in computer science core courses, ordinarily including CSCI 353 and CSCI 263, or permission of instructor.


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In this course, students examine how schools and communities in the Twin Cities interact to provide support and developmental opportunities for school-age children. Through lectures, readings, discussions, field trips, and in-school and co-curricular placements, students gain an understanding and awareness of how race, class, ethnicity, national origin, and gender shape the complex character of urban youth and schools. Students spend one week in orientation activities on campus and two weeks in the Twin Cities. During the time in the Twin Cities, St. Olaf students participate as tutors and classroom assistants during the school day and then assist in various after-school and community programs. The last week of January Term is spent back on campus discussing the experience. P/N only. Preference given to first-year students but all students may apply. Offered during January Term. Apply through the Education Department. Also counts toward race and ethnic studies major and concentration.


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Students examine the influence of race, class, and multiculturalism in American schools by participating as teachers' assistants and tutors in two distinctly different K-12 schools. Students discover the challenges and benefits associated with teaching in a diverse racial, cultural, and socio-economic environment. Through guest lectures, readings, field trips, and seminars, students learn about the truly unique geographic and cultural setting of the Hawaiian islands. This environment makes an excellent framework for examining race, ethnicity, power, and privilege in U.S. schools. Fulfills EDUC 382: Human Relations requirement. P/N only. Intended for education major/licensure students and educational studies concentrators; cannot fulfill the January Term requirement for TEFL certification. Offered alternate January Terms, even years. Apply through the Education Department. Also counts toward race and ethnic studies major and concentration. Prerequisite: EDUC 295 or EDUC 330.


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This course immerses students in the narrative, storytelling culture of indigenous Australian and New Zealand peoples, the Aboriginal and Maori cultures. Students gain an understanding of the history of these peoples, their family culture, and storytelling as a healing and powerful force. Students study Narrative Family Therapy and learn to articulate the parallels between it and Aboriginal and Maori culture. Students also learn to apply this theory to their own lived experience. Prerequisite: One of the following: FAMST 132, FAMST 242, SWRK 120, SWRK 122, SWRK 221, PSYCH 125, SOAN 121, SOAN 128, SOAN 260, SOAN 262, SOAN 264, RACE 121, RACE 252.


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Students study French language and Moroccan culture in the Imperial City of Fez. An immersion experience that includes home stays with local French-speaking families, the course focuses on Moroccan culture, emphasizing the multicultural aspects of Morocco and facilitating student interaction with the local population. Second-year French grammar and writing and speaking skills are integrated into the reading and discussion of texts pertaining to Morocco's history and culture and their relation to present-day Morocco. Taught in French. Offered during January Term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Also counts toward Middle Eastern studies concentration. Prerequisite: FREN 231 or placement in FREN 232.


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This course introduces the study of patterns and relationships satisfied by natural numbers. Topics include divisibility, modular arithmetic, prime numbers, congruences, primitive roots, and quadratic residues. The course is offered in Budapest, Hungary, a world center for mathematics research. The course includes several hours of Hungarian language instruction and lectures by Hungarian mathematicians and scholars. Offered annually during January Term. Prerequisite: Math 220 or permission of instructor.


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The musical product is an artistic expression; acquiring the skills necessary to make good music depends on the performer's analytical thinking and good time management - also, at times, imagination. This performance-based course will help students develop good practice management skills, working with several strategies and techniques that may enable them to better discern and achieve their musical objectives. Offered periodically during January Term. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.


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Students study the musical history of hymnody and its relationship to the history of the church. In addition, this course explores the Biblical Psalms and their use in worship of the church and includes references to their musical settings in Gregorian chant, Anglican chant, responsorial settings, and choral music. Offered alternate years during January Term.


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This course is designed for students interested in civic engagement in the arts and arts fusion projects. Participants mentor students from a local elementary school in an Opera Creation Residency as the elementary students compose and perform their own original works. The course culminates in staged public performances. Enrollment is subject to a fall interview/audition. Open to all students. May be repeated once. A class fee may be required. Offered during January Term in alternate years. Counts toward musical theater concentration. Prerequisites: two semesters of voice study or permission of instructor.


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Drawing from the fields of biology, neuroscience, physics, and psychology, this course introduces students to the biological and psychological aspects of music performance. Students develop an understanding of the origins of performance-related injury, the mechanism of hearing, the sources of workplace stress in the lives of professional musicians. Each student will design and complete an exercise program tailored to their individual needs as a musician. Offered January Term alternate years.


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Literature provides rich resources for thinking through central philosophical questions, including the metaphysics and ethics of freedom; the problem of evil; the role of character in choice and action; the nature of morality; rebellion and human solidarity; God's existence and relation to the world; and the nature of truth. Designed primarily for first-year students, this course explores philosophical ideas in literary works of several different genres by studying plot, character, point-of-view, imagery, and symbolism. Offered during January Term.


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Since its inception in 1916, the New Hampshire primary has attained a preeminent place in American presidential politics. This course will provide students with a broad overview of the presidential nominating process through a detailed examination of the New Hampshire primary. Students read academic analyses of the New Hampshire primary and intern with a presidential candidate. Offered periodically during January term. Apply through The Smith Center for Global Engagement. Prerequisites: one course in political science or permission of instructor.


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How do we hear? What do we hear? How do we know? This course examines the perception of the acoustic world through our sense of hearing. Topics include the structure of sound itself (acoustics), how sound is encoded and processed by the brain, and how we come to understand sound as something beyond a physical stimulus (representation, meaning, and interpretation). Additional topics include speech perception, music, hearing loss, and cochlear implants. Offered periodically during January Term. Also counts toward linguistic studies concentration and neuroscience concentration. Prerequisite: PSYCH 125 recommended.


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The Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity posed questions about the soul, civic and religious virtue, building and resisting empire, and the use of history for political ends. Students address how Christianity was shaped by Roman culture and shaped it in turn. Works include epic, history, philosophy, oratory, canonical and non-canonical gospels, epistles, and apocalyptic works. Students practice oral presentations and debates and complete a project linking visual arts to Roman culture and religion. Offered annually during January Term. Counts toward ancient studies major. Prerequisite: QUEST 113


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Through immersive, multifaceted engagement with Korea including but not limited to the performing arts, guest lectures from writers and cultural bearers, and visits to significant cultural and historical sites, this course ponders the production of a Korean indigeneity in critical contexts. Students consider how indigenous practices recognized as "intangible cultural heritage" construct national identities, and how these traditions are deployed to reimagine and write Korean selves. Counts toward the Race and Ethnic Studies major/concentration.


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This course studies the New Testament in light of its cultural, political, and religious contexts, focusing on the intersection of religion and empire. Visiting archaeological and cultural sites throughout Greece and Turkey enable students to explore how early Christians diversely navigate imperial pressures and challenges. Secondary areas of study will include the intersection of religion and empire in ancient Greece and Rome, Byzantium, the Ottoman empire, and modern Greece and Turkey. Offered periodically in January Term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Also counts toward ancient studies major.


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This course explores Dostoevsky's magnum opus, The Brothers Karamazov, in its literary, historical, philosophical, and religious contexts. Acclaimed for its spiritual and psychological depth, The Brothers Karamazov is considered by some (e.g., Einstein and Freud) to be the greatest novel ever written. Course topics include faith, doubt, nihilism, the problem of evil, suffering, death, God, ethics, the law, guilt, forgiveness, and the interrelation of heaven and earth, of time and eternity. The Brothers Karamazov will be taught in English translation. Offered periodically. Offered in January term.


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This topics course explores a Spanish peninsular cultural, literary, and/or linguistic theme from a base in Spain through analysis and discussion of texts, guest lectures, excursions to appropriate cultural sites, field research, and related experiential activities. Sample topics include: Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Spain; Food, Migration, and Identity; and Spain's Multilingual and Multicultural Landscape. Taught in Spanish. Offered alternate years during January Term. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement. Also counts toward the Latin American studies major. Prerequisite: SPAN 250 or SPAN 251.


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Are grocery stores located more frequently in certain areas than others? Is your health related to your zip code? How much will it snow in Northfield? Do bees of different species tend to live near each other or in separate areas? These seemingly different questions are united by a common thread: We address them using data collected over space. In this course, you will learn to visualize and analyze three main types of spatially correlated data through examples in a wide variety of applications. Pre-requisites: Introductory Statistics (Stat 110, Stat 172, Stat 212, Econ 260, or equivalent) AND experience with R (Stat 172, Stat 212, MSCS 164, MSCS 264, or other).


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This course uses sitcoms as primary sources to explore significant themes in American history and culture for the last sixty years, including race, gender, work, sexual identity, and family structures. We'll consider how media scholars, historians, and sociologists have interpreted these texts, in effect gaining a history of the sitcom as well as insight the ways media helps to define our understanding of normality.


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This course explores major aspects of language use that reflect Japanese culture and society. Issues covered include the characteristics of the Japanese language, loan words, regional differences, politeness, gender differences, and communication styles. The course is taught in a combination of lectures, class discussions, subtitled Japanese films, anime (Japanese animation), and student presentations. Knowledge of Japanese helpful but not necessary. Readings, lectures, and discussions are all in English. Counts toward Asian studies major and Japan studies and linguistic studies concentrations. Offered alternate years.


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Students study computational problems arising from the need to store, access, transform, and utilize DNA-related data. Topics from computer science include: exhaustive search; algorithms (including dynamic programming, divide-and-conquer, graph and greedy algorithms) for fragment reassembly, sequence alignment, phylogenetic trees; combinatorial pattern matching; clustering and trees; and hidden Markov models. Offered alternate years. Counts toward neuroscience, biomolecular studies, and mathematical biology concentrations and mathematics major. Prerequisites: CSCI 253, or one of CSCI 121 or CSCI 125, and one of BIO 125 or MATH 220, or permission of instructor.


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Dance is inherently embodied and thus engages the question of sex and gender in ways both intimate and complex. This course explores the role of gender and the moving body. Surveying both Western theatrical and nonwestern dance traditions, this course traverses a broad cultural landscape to explore the means through which dance communicates aesthetic and gendered meaning and the relation between aesthetic form and social change. We will explore questions of sexuality and changing notions of gender from both biological and social perspectives.


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This course focuses on bodily experience and afterlives in and of literature from the fourteenth to the early seventeenth century. The “corpse” of the title refers to the human bodies in the texts we will study —bodies that may experience pleasure, suffer pain and even martyrdom, and ultimately decay, as the spirit experiences some kind of afterlife. However, despite conceptions of the afterlife, the dead remained an important presence for the living, as intercessors, apparitions, ghosts and saints. The “corpus” is the body of a text—a story that is revisited by artists over time, in an afterlife of its own, as Shakespeare re-writes Hamlet or The Revenger’s Tragedy is re-imagined by Alan Cox in a postmodern film. For the English major, this course counts as a Literary History course and a pre-1800 course. Prerequisite: FYW.


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In this course we take a close look at the work of three writers who address the social challenges facing the United States during the turbulent interwar years. The dramatic consequences of the Great Depression only tell part of the story. America was also deeply affected by the aftershock of World War I, the rise of communism (and later fascism) in Europe, class struggles at home, women’s liberation, the great migration, urbanization, and modernization, which included revolutionary changes in both transportation and communication (modern journalism, the feature film and public radio broadcasting). In studying Steinbeck, Dos Passos and Agee, we will not only look at how the subject materials of their writings reflect these social changes, but also how the authors developed different -- and in some cases strikingly modern -- textual strategies to engage with this tumultuous era of American history. In addition to Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat, The Grapes of Wrath, and Cannery Row, Dos Passos' U.S.A. Trilogy (The 42nd Parallel, 1919 and The Big Money) and Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, students will read a variety of scholarly texts that situate these primary works in their aesthetic, cultural, social and historical context. Prerequisite: FYW.


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This course explores the everydayness of psychopathology in American culture. Exploring various approaches, but emphasizing a psychoanalytic-Marxist methodology, we will analyze how pathology gets normalized in culture and how such pathologization obstructs or corrupts collective attempts at social justice. Stated differently, we will study how such pathologies arrest the development of social progress. Areas to be explored include madness, criminality, and politics. Texts and films/television series to be analyzed include Dexter, Batman, The Talented Mr. Ripley, True Detective (season one), and American Psycho. Prerequisite: FYW. See English Department website for more details.


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The Muslim world is perhaps the least understood or most misunderstood part of the world, among Americans. The Muslim world is seen as homogeneous, and the very name Muslim conjures up images of religious fanaticism and terrorism. Muslim women are imagined as burka clad beings living under perpetual suffering and silence inflicted on them by archaic religious and cultural traditions. This course will explore such perceptions from the perspective of writings by Muslim women. There is a longstanding tradition of writing by Muslim women in languages such as Urdu, Arabic, Turkish, Hausa, Swahili, French and English. With a focus on writings in English and some translations, we will discuss writers from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan, Senegal, and the USA, in the context of Islam and ideologies such as Orientalism, Islamophobia, and Islamic feminism. Students will gain a good understanding of the ways Muslim women interpret their condition in the context of culture, religion, and gender. Prerequisite: FYW. See English Department website for more details.


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In this seminar we’ll read novels about families. The novel as a form — with its narrative ability to move in and out of interior states, to create numerous plots and sub-plots – has been particularly suitable for capturing the near-dizzying relations of family members. To help us make better sense of the complex relations between characters and the worlds they inhabit, we’ll dig deep into family systems theory and psychoanalytic theory. Texts for the course will be drawn from recent decades of American literature; novelists may include Jhumpa Lahiri, Richard Russo, Anne Tyler, Jonathan Franzen, and Dorothy Allison.


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This seminar is designed to compliment studies in literature and/or creative writing through the examination and application of rhetorical and composition (writing) theory. You will learn basic rhetorical analysis methodology. Rhetorical analysis examines what makes arguments effective for a specific purpose, audience, and context. By learning this methodology, you will improve your close reading, critical thinking, and writing skills—hallmarks of a graduating English major. You will also read and discuss contemporary composition theory, investigating what writing is, how it comes into being, and how it circulates. You will apply what we learn to issues, practices, and text (literary, digital, visual, and non-academic) to analyze contemporary uses of rhetoric and writing theory. See English Department website for more details.


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This natural science course explores contemporary changes in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems through the lense of paleoecology. Paleoecology is literally the study of past ecology, using proxy records (charcoal, pollen, nutrients) to understand the development of existing modern ecosystems as well as on-going and future changes in response to climate change, invasive species, and the intensification of agriculture. These changes are in part the basis for proposing a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Students learn about the sediment coring and other “natural” archives, isotopic dating, and proxy-based reconstruction of ecosystem properties. The course will be taught using readings from the primary literature and will provide hands-on opportunities to learn more about paleoecology.


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Students examine the conceptual framework for ethical decision-making using sports as a prism to examine normative perspectives. Varied ethical perspectives are analyzed through the conflicts presented in sports-related questions. Course readings and lectures examine the theoretical constructs of ethical decision-making from Christian and non-Christian positions. Offered annually. Counts toward management studies and media studies concentrations. Prerequisite: completion of BTS-T or permission of instructor.


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Students analyze mechanical principles in depth as they affect human motion. Topics include study of muscular and skeletal systems, skill analysis, and motion measurement techniques.The course includes a laboratory component. Counts toward neuroscience concentration. Offered annually. Prerequisite: BIO 143 and junior standing.


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Students examine American families through the life cycle in relation to personal and professional life, with the major emphasis on communication and commitment in interpersonal relationships. Students study courtship, marriage, and adjustment to parenthood.They examine stressors that affect families such as family violence, divorce, grief and loss, and socioeconomic issues. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach; students have opportunity for a broad range of individualized study. Offered annually in the fall semester. Counts toward American studies major and family studies and management studies concentrations.


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Students examine the lives and works of writers and/or filmmakers representing a significant minority group rooted in two or more cultural traditions. Students explore how the lives of these authors have been impacted by their dual heritage, how their cultural hybridity manifests itself in their works, and to what extent their voices have affected mainstream German culture. Sample topics include: Jewish-German, Turkish-German, Afro-German, and contemporary immigrant writers and/or filmmakers. Taught in German. May be counted toward German major or German studies concentration. May be repeated if topic is different.


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This course explores topics in American history, designed to emphasize active skills of critical reading, textual and contextual analysis, historiographical argument, and historical writing. Recent topics have included "Franklin's America," "Women and Slavery," "American Family in Historical Perspective," and "Work in America." Primarily for history majors; others by permission of instructor. Offered most years. Counts toward American studies major.


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This course introduces students to the intellectual dimensions of cultures and traditions of the modern Middle East, focusing on the period from the late 18th century to the present. Students gain familiarity with significant moments, movements, voices, and trends in society, politics, architecture, and literature, and their interdependence. The course also acquaints students with intellectual debates and conflicts in and about the Middle East, and enables them to better think through those debates for themselves. Counts toward middle eastern studies concentration.


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Lyric poems -- short, occasional pieces composed in various meters, often concerned with love and longing -- are the focus of this Latin course. Students translate the vivacious verse of Catullus, Horace, Tibullus, and Ovid and learn to recognize the features that make lyric a distinctive genre of Latin poetry. Offered periodically. Counts toward ancient studies and medieval studies majors. Prerequisite: LATIN 231 or equivalent.


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Race concepts historically rely on visual cues, developing out of perceived differences in phenotype. However, non-visual cues such as timbre, volume, language, rhythm, and musical scale frequently bolster existing stereotypes to an extent that sound itself becomes racialized. Students read foundational literature from race and ethnic studies as well as specific case studies in music as a means to consider how people from different times and places have used sound to express or assign racial identity. Prerequisites: Music 241 and 242. WRI pending approval.


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In this course, students learn about how hormones act in the brain and the body to affect behaviors. This course draws heavily on biological psychology and students learn about techniques in neuroendocrinology to better understand cellular function, neural circuits, and the display of behaviors. Team-based learning and case studies are used to explore the endocrine system, sexual differentiation, the stress response, thirst and digestion, and reproductive behaviors. The experimental evidence upon which our understanding of hormones, brain, and behavior is constructed is emphasized.


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This seminar will examine the "post-neoliberal" politics of Latin America, beginning with a reconsideration of the market-oriented turn in the region during the 1980s and 1990s. The seminar will then focus on the rise of leftist governments as diverse as Hugo Chávez' Venezuela, Evo Morales' Bolivia, and Lula da Silva's Brazil. Other topics will include the emergence of anti-neoliberal movements, the wave of indigenous politics, new social movements, environmental politics, and experiments with anti-poverty programs throughout Latin America.


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Reading the Bible Around the World What does the place one reads the Bible matter? What difference does who one reads with make? These questions are central to this section. Composed in what we call the Middle East, the Bible has been carried around the world. The Bible is one thing Christians in have in common, though the context in which they read it varies. Protestant Reformers insisted that the Bible be made available in the vernacular, common language of believers. Missionaries make translating the Bible among their first tasks. Despite agreement that the Bible is central to faith differing readings of the Bible often lead to disputes and divisions among Christians. In this section we consider both what the Bible says and to how it is heard/read by various audiences. We pay particular attention to readers in the global south, where Christianity is growing, read this book. In addition, we look at the ways artists interpret the Bible in images drawn from the culture of their time and place. We ask what constitutes a “good” reading and what factors contribute to one.


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The Bible and Salvation Like the Philippian jailer, who cries out for salvation while his life crumbles around him, people for millennia have turned to the God of scripture for hope in the midst of brokenness. From images of personal healing to cosmic renewal, the Bible employs a surprising variety of metaphors to speak of God’s care and faithfulness toward God’s creation and covenant people. Employing both literary and historical approaches to reading, we will explore the rich diversity of biblical images of salvation. We will also delve into ways select theologians, artists, and filmmakers have utilized these biblical motifs to address specific cultures and contexts, with an eye toward exploring metaphors of salvation appropriate to our contemporary situations.


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Reading the Bible for Love and Justice This course traces the twin themes of justice and love in the Bible. Some of the questions we’ll ask include: How do conceptions of divine love and justice change over the course of the Bible’s history? What kinds of justice and love are envisioned for human communities? How do different contexts, such as family, clan and community, national and international relations, affect biblical perspectives on justice? Where do we see biblical writers wrestling with problems posed by the apparent lack of justice? Can there be love without justice, or justice without love? A major focus of the course will be on the ways contemporary reading communities address lingering problems caused by unjust uses of the Bible, for example, in questions of gender, race, and power. We will also ask whether the Bible can continue to be a resource for reflecting on justice in the modern world, and if so, how.


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Call and Response in Biblical Traditions For better or worse religious persons throughout history have acted out of a sense of divine calling. As in the biblical texts humans today migrate and mobilize, associate and separate, build and destroy in effort to respond to God. This section explores the tension of these lived realities by asking: 1) What authenticates calling in the Bible? 2) Who is called, and to whom? 3) For what purposes are persons called? Specifically examining the biblical underpinnings of Protestant renderings of vocation we will address these questions by attending to the relationship between self, God and neighbor in the texts and in their contemporary reception and application. Our study will be informed by consideration of four major themes related to vocation: work, family, the environment and political engagement.


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Land, Food and Justice in Biblical Traditions This section uses food as a lens for understanding the Bible, both in the context of cultures that wrote it, and in the context of contemporary discussions of sustainability. Because food is prominent in biblical narratives it is a useful interpretative lens. Biblical prophets make food central in their vindication of the poor and hungry. Biblical communities announce, debate, adjust, and renounce dietary prescriptions. Biblical texts employ similes, metaphors, and parables derived from food to advance larger points about spiritual growth or fulfillment. Guided by these considerations, we will address four main themes involving food and biblical traditions: (1) distributive food justice; (2) food production and care of the land; (3) food and just treatment of animals; and (4) food choices as religiously meaningful.


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Abraham's Children Daily news reports regarding violence between Jews, Christians, and Muslims make it difficult to remember that these religions share common roots. Yet, all three trace their lineage back to Abraham. This section explores the common roots of these religions by introducing students to the Bible and the Qur’an, and examining their parallel characters and narratives. At the same time, distinctive beliefs and practices of each religion that are grounded in scripture will be investigated to better understand what makes each religious tradition unique. In our pluralistic world, a basic understanding of the relationship between these three monotheistic religions may be more valuable now than ever before.


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"Nature" and the Biblical Traditions This section, focused on ecological themes and experiences, considers how different interpretations of the Bible have influenced (positively and negatively) conceptions of responsibility to and for the natural world. What is the relationship between “human nature” and the "natural" world? How do encounters with wildness and wilderness shape dispositions of gratitude, joy, and wonder? What is the value or significance of the more-than-human world? How should we deliberate about questions of wildlife management, endangered species, wilderness conservation, or climate policies? We will pair close readings of the Bible with selections from the tradition of nature writing, an interdisciplinary exercise which will allow us to address these questions of historical and on-going significance.


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The Bible as Screen Play Movies have become our common language, one of the principal means by which we communicate and interpret our experiences and ideas (not to mention our primary form of entertainment). Biblical stories and themes have been a central source for filmmakers from the very beginning of the medium. What happens to those stories and themes in the process? What does the process of filmmaking teach us about how the Biblical authors may have brought their stories to life in their time? How do films illuminate the Biblical text, and how are contemporary perspectives, values, and prejudices reflected in the filmmakers' work? The balcony is open. Please note that the films will be screened outside of class; there will be a weekly scheduled screening, and the films will be available on library reserve for those unable to attend.


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The Bible, Angels and Demons How should interpreters of the biblical text make sense of references to supernatural beings like angels and demons? In what sense are they supposed to be real? How do they relate to the divine? What is their relationship with evil? Are there evil angels in the Bible and if so, where do they come from? This section will explore how different biblical texts deal with these questions. It will also examine how diverse religious communities, reading the Bible from different cultural backgrounds, have interpreted biblical texts differently in constructing concepts of spiritual, superhuman, and non-corporeal beings. From biblical texts, we will discuss figures such as the heavenly court, the serpent and Watchers of Genesis, angelic visitors, the Adversary of Job, and angels, demons, and the devil seen in many New Testament texts. We will consider how the interpretation of these biblical texts has impacted post-biblical reflection on discernment, the importance of radical hospitality, witchcraft, and heresy. In addition to the biblical text, students will work with historical writings, film, literary fiction, and traditions of scientific skepticism.


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Belonging as Blessing and Challenge The Bible is filled with stories of conflict and hope as people interpret their relationship with God and with one another. Lines are drawn and identities are defined within families, communities, and nations. In this section we will discuss how kinship, ethnicity, race, and friendship function within key Biblical narratives. How are identities defined and contested? Are the boundaries fixed or porous? Making use of historical, literary, and theological methods we will weigh the benefits and burdens of belonging. While exploring the Biblical narrative we will also examine the impact of racism on contemporary religious and political struggles.


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Comparative Scriptures: The Bible and Other Sacred Texts What is the place of the Bible in our religiously diverse world? In this section of Religion 121 we will study the Bibles of Judaism and Christianity together with scriptures of other religious traditions. We will consider the following questions: What is scripture? What kinds of literature are found in scriptures? What kinds of questions do scriptures address? How are scriptures used by religious people around the world? What is the relevance of scripture in the 21st century? We will carefully read and discuss selections from the Hebrew Bible of Judaism, the Old and New Testaments of Christianity, the Qur’an of Islam, the Vedas and other sacred texts of Hinduism, various Buddhist sutras, and Native American stories.


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This course focuses on the theories, political goals, strategies, and activities of the emerging trends of Islamic feminisms. After mapping the landscape of this movement and identifying its different manifestations, students investigate Islamic feminists' readings and interpretations of the Quran, Hadith, and Islamic history. The course examines methods Islamic feminists use in interpreting and reinterpreting such sources, politics and strategies they employ, and the impact of their work on Muslim women's lives worldwide. Offered annually in the fall or spring semester. Counts toward women's and gender studies major and concentration.


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Lately it seems disasters and crisis characterize our contemporary moment. What are the social implications of these phenomena? How do we attempt to understand them, as expansive as they are? When is a disaster over? What are the politics of disaster? This course explores these questions, examining disasters through various media: ethnography, film, journalism.


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Despite the dominance of visual investigation of the social world, serious attempts to make sense of visual techniques of photography and filmmaking are surprisingly rare, and rigorous attempts to represent the social world visually are rarer still. This course seeks to fill these gaps by challenging students to grapple with visual theory and to develop their own visual research projects. In-class discussions of fieldwork, key writings about visual techniques by sociologists and anthropologists, and samples of groundbreaking documentary projects will inform student work.


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The Violence of Contemporary Life. This seminar will address an unsettling claim made by a number of recent American and Anglophone artists: that the seemingly mundane acts of self care and domesticity, of finding and maintaining work, of being with others on the other side of normal, entail daily encounters with direct and hidden forms of violence. From Margaret Atwood's dystopian fictions of authoritarian patriarchy and Claudia Rankine's harrowing, poetic account of living as an African-American citizen of the United States to Alex Gibney's documentary film on military torture Taxi to the Dark Side, and Kendrick Lamar's recent album about growing up in Compton, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, we will scour contemporary works that approach everyday violence, particularly as it is inflected by questions of race, gender, and sexuality. We will ask: how do certain modes of representation depict, contest, promote, and even produce violence? And what do we mean by "violence" anyway? What counts and what does not? Writing assignments will begin with short blog posts, a close reading essay devoted to a single work, and a film review, and build toward a final research project.


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Border Crossings. This seminar examines the concept of crossing borders--geographically as well as metaphorically. Using readings from journalism, nonfiction, and fiction, we examine the reasons for leaving home and breaching a boundary and the ways people create a new life on the other side. Issues we explore include 2016 as the year of the greatest refugee crisis in recorded history; "border syndrome" as an emotional state (Gazmend Kapllani, A Border Crossing Handbook); the body's borders and the limits of medicine (the journalists who reported on the Ebola crisis); undocumented immigration to the United States (Sonia Nazario, Enrique's Journey), and the thin line between life and death (Markus Zusak, The Book Thief). We focus on the process of writing, revision, and contextual research in short assingments, with each student's work culminating in a "thick description" of a border crossing.


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Memorializing the Past. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana's famous line about the importance of historical awareness suggests that “the past” can be readily recalled instead of carelessly forgotten. But since recollection — whether through memory or historical accounts — is a social act in which people interpret and negotiate the meaning of events, remembering is more challenging than Santayana implies. This seminar focuses on the tensions that emerge when we try to capture the past by memorializing it. What are the benefits of relying on inscriptions and objects to stimulate memory, and what are the drawbacks? Why was opposition to the Disney Company’s proposed historical theme park so fierce that it abandoned the project? Is the national Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. — a site that is more controversial than you think — well justified? We’ll explore responses to these and other questions as a way to improve our writing about the past. Readings include selections from Plato, Pierra Nora, Philip Gourevitch, Michael Eisner, Alison Landsberg, Elie Wiesel, and Roger Rosenblatt


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The Trickster. "The Trickster" is an engaging and significant phenomenon in the lives of human beings all over the world. Thinking and writing about the trickster will help us discover an important part of ourselves as humans. We will read, discuss, and write about narratives and other discourses dealing with the trickster. These will include folktales, epic and fictional tales, and theoretical works. We will reflect on these readings and respond to them in our writings, particularly by using these materials as sources of inspiration. Student writing will be discussed in conferences with the instructor. Texts include Beti's The Poor Christ of Bomba, Niane's Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, Radin's The Trickster, and Sanders' The Epic of Gilgamesh.


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Exploring and Re-Imaging Place in the 21st Century. Place is much more than a set of geographic coordinates or physical location. When we talk about feeling out of place or feeling at home, we are invoking discourses regarding culture, race, gender, history, and politics. Place can be the Golden Gate Bridge, a web forum, Middle Earth, Yellowstone National Park, a video game, a shared memory, or a piece of art. Through discussion of literature and scholarly essays, we will examine what place means and how we give meaning to place and vice versa. We will explore the roles technology and a mobile lifestyle play in redefining our environments and how we behave in them. Major assignments may include personal narratives, research-driven profiles on place, reviews, and interactive digital projects that challenge or enhance our perception of particular places.


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The recent economic downturn—what many have called a collapse—has raised concerns regarding the financial health of future generations. It is now widely accepted that the potential for younger Americans to do better than previous generations—the narrative of social mobility popularly understood as the American Dream—is no longer a reality. Instead, there is a growing consensus regarding the death of this dream and with it the very possibility to improve one’s economic, social, and cultural condition. It seems that rather than progressing toward a healthy democracy, the United States has spiraled into a science fiction reality where the media controls our thinking, politics is governed by self-interest, and corporations are powerful enough to hire private armies to impose their will around the globe. This seminar centers on twentieth century American culture, particularly as it relates to issues of historical progress, national identity, cultural change, and aesthetic experimentation. The main question we will address is “What has happened to the American Dream?” In addition to literature, we will also read some philosophical and political texts. Requirements will include short writing assignments, a mid-term paper, and a final paper. Some of the texts we will discuss include The Yellow Wallpaper, as well as films like There Will Be Blood, The Corporation, Revolutionary Road, andFight Club.


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Race and Power. The presidential election of Barack Obama appeared to signal a new era of racial equality in the United States. However, race persists today as a system of power interlocked with class and gender as evidenced by the criminalization of black and brown communities and the fatal shootings of young men of color, as well as the ban on ethnic studies in Tucson, Arizona, despite the curriculum's life-changing effects in students' lives. This seminar looks at texts related to these events and others in order to understand how race continues to hold force over our social realities. Students write short essays and a research paper to strengthen their writing processes while developing analytical language to name and interrogate race in the United States.


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Telling Stories About Climate Change. The most recent report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) doesn’t pull any punches. The globe continues to warm, ice continues to melt at an alarming pace, and the seas continue to rise. Climate change is already happening. Yet, according to a 2016 survey by the Pew Research Center, only 41% of Americans cited climate change as a major threat. So what gives? Why aren’t people getting the message? Are we delivering it wrong? Do we need more stories and better storytellers? This writing seminar will examine various approaches to the subject, with a particular focus on how a compelling story might be told, especially when conveying scientific data and abstract ideas. What makes a story compelling? Memorable? Inspiring? We’ll frame our discussion and writings around a variety of nonfiction (literary and investigative journalism, media, film, and graphic novels). In class, students write responses to assigned reading or films, work in small writing groups to give and receive feedback, and work on exercises that take up a certain element covered in our writing handbook. Additional writing assignments will include a personal essay, analysis essay, a research essay, short blog entries, a manifesto, and more.


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Can We Have Environmental Conversations, Please? Why is it so difficult to talk about or come to action on environmental issues, when it seems as if all humans should care in making progress on how we take care of the non-human world? Our seminar will examine the impediments and the possibilities for such conversations by looking at various matters: the environmental mantra “Think Globally, Act Locally”; the environmental framework of “Integral Ecology” and its relation to Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudago Si; food production in the United States; and St. Olaf College’s efforts to be good stewards of the non-human world. Students will read texts, research current events, watch films, and write essays in order to examine how we might promote environmental conversations. Intellectual play as well as experiential learning will be encouraged. (Open to Environmental Conversations students only.)


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On Being Human. What does it mean to be a human being in our modern world? Though all modern humans are biologically and genetically distinguishable in one unified species, technology and social attitudes challenge that unity. In this seminar, we will support each other in discussing and writing about a range of topics relevant to being a modern human (and a college student!). For example, new information about our species’ scandalous relationships with extinct relatives like Neanderthals will help us interpret how evolutionary history has resulted in today's globally distributed Homo sapiens. As another example, wide ranging perspectives on racism will help us navigate this difficult concept together and then launch students into investigations of other “isms.” Course resources draw from science and literature and are accessible to students of all interests and backgrounds. Assignments are designed to build research and writing skills over the semester and will include a personal essay, a research paper, and several response and summary assignments.


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Language Matters. Evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel has called it “the most powerful, dangerous and subversive trait that natural selection has ever devised a piece of neural audio technology for rewiring other people’s minds.” Language—spoken, signed, and written—is one of the most important ways we influence others and construct ourselves. This seminar is designed for students interested in the phenomenon of human language, its beauty and persuasive power, and its roles in social and cultural identities. Questions we may address include: How have time, technology, and travel changed the English language? How do advertisers manipulate language? Why are “bad words” bad? Varied reading assignments, including journalism, memoir, and drama show us how some authors have thought through these questions. We discuss these authors’ ideas and the “moves” they make as writers. Writing assignments draw on our readings, on personal experience, and on the results of your inquisitive research. We give sustained attention to writing as an ongoing process, devoting substantial time to workshops of your drafts.


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Changing Our Minds. The United States is a country increasingly divided by issues of politics and religion. From immigration to abortion, from gun rights to bathroom rights, from vaccinations to marijuana use, many of us feel strongly about the issues that we care about. But from where, exactly, do our deepest held beliefs emerge? And how do we actually change the minds of others—or ourselves? In this seminar, we’ll use moral psychology to consider the roots of belief and the human capacity for change. Students will investigate an issue they care about through a variety of lenses: personal reflection, research, argument/debate, and interview/immersion with an “other” viewpoint. Ultimately students will try to convince their classmates—and themselves—to see the world in a more complex light.


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Fandom, Entertainment, and the Shaping of Fan Identity. Often, the things we like aid us in forming new connections with others who have similar interests. Does this mean the entertainment we consume informs who we become, or that it reflects who we already are? Fan practices, objects of fan devotion, and fans themselves are incredibly varied, yet they are the seeds that form subcultures and unite thousands. In this seminar, we will examine the history of fan culture as well as the current state of fandom. Students are welcome to introduce their own fandoms and fan experiences to written assignments and class discussions. Major assignments will include an investigative essay, a review, and a research paper. In addition to real-world examples of participatory culture, we will also consider depictions of fandom within fictional narratives that both critique and cater to fans, such as Ready Player One, Supernatural, and Galaxy Quest.


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Personal Narratives. Students in this seminar work the whole semester to develop a single personal narrative, one made of shorter essays that develop their skill at writing description, analysis, and argumentation. For the short essays, for example, they develop statements that draw on their memories from childhood, involving recollections of a place, person, and incidents. Ultimately, they produce seamless stories that integrate these accounts and incorporate an array of genres. In the course of writing a neighborhood biography or migrant or farm story, or an immigrant account or family secret, or a recession story, they also learn to do library research and gather information from interviews. Finally, after reading models of excellent writing produced by contemporary American authors who focus in their work on issues of American identity and after working regularly in peer groups, they develop a keen sense of their audience.


