This course serves as the introductory offering in Africana Studies. It explores, in an interdisciplinary fashion, salient aspects of the Black experience, both ancient and modern, and at the local, national and international levels. This course provides an overview of many related themes, including slavery, Africanisms, gender, colonialism, civil rights, and pan-African exchange.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis; HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This course is a survey of the second half of African American History and Culture and traces the historical, political, social, and cultural experiences of black Americans from Reconstruction to the modern freedom movement for Black Lives. This course will focus upon a number of specific movements in the history of black Americans. Thematically, we explore the meaning of freedom, the dynamic between black struggle and white resistance, and the ways in which factors such as gender and geography complicate any notions of a single black experience. 

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

The development of African literature in English and in translation. Although special attention will be paid to the novels of Chinua Achebe, writers such as Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Camara Laye, Wole Soynika, Miriama Ba, Nawal El Saadawi, and Buchi Emecheta will also be considered. The influence of oral tradition on these writers' styles as well as the thematic links between them and writers of the Black awakening in America and the West Indies will be discussed.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course is designed to examine the meaning of race and ethnicity and the determinants and fluidity of membership in a particular racial or ethnic group. We will also explore different ways to measure ethnic and racial identification and how ethnicity affects attitudes, economic development, social mobilization and migration. We will seek to assess to what extent ethnic and racial identities shape trust and prejudice, and examine the impact of ethnic diversity on development and the provision of public goods. Analyses will be made of ethnic and racial electoral politics and the varying extent and impact of ethnic voting patterns in relation to democratic governance and ethnic conflict.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Through a critical and exhilarating exploration of the life and legacy of dramatist-historian, producer-director, and activist, Val Gray Ward, this course underscores the emancipatory, political, and pedagogical power of Black Arts and Black Life. Known as “The Voice of the Black Writer” and founder of Chicago’s pioneering Kuumba Theatre, Val Gray Ward was born and reared in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, one of the oldest all-Black towns in the U.S. before she migrated to the city of Chicago in the early 1950s. Inspired by her assertion, “Black Art is Black Life,” the course is immersive in nature and will be facilitated by an enriching combination of audio/visual materials such as interactive lectures, discussions, first-person testimonies, interviews, music, poetry, plays, photos, quotes, books, articles, documentaries, library research, and "The HistoryMakers Digital Archive." Further, we will study “Kuumba Theatre’s 12 Principles” and Val Gray Ward’s autobiographical quilt titled "Peace The Way Home" to learn about notable people and moments through her family ties and friendships with Gwendolyn Brooks, Mari Evans, James Baldwin, C.L.R. James, John Henrik Clarke, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Elma Lewis, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Betty Shabazz, John O. Killens, Walter Rodney, Sammy Davis Jr., Lerone Bennett Jr., Abdias do Nascimento, Margaret Burroughs, and Useni Perkins to name a few along with her travels to Africa for the Sixth Pan-African Congress (6PAC) and FESTAC ‘77, Japan, the Caribbean, and other parts of the world. Additionally, we will listen to her tribute CD, "rhapsody in hughes 101," and view the docutainment film "Precious Memories: Strolling 47th Street." Central themes of the course include Blackness, Black consciousness and cosmology, identity, family, community, the arts, language, oral tradition, orality/literacy, Black talk/Black text, ritual theatre, womanism, activism, Civil Rights, Black Power, Black Arts Movement (BAM), FESTAC ‘77, Pan-Africanism, and freedom.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This foundation and team-taught course surveys the history, importance, and core tenets of Black Studies, and its emergence and evolution at Wellesley College. Facilitated by stimulating lectures, discussions, readings, archival research, oral historical testimonies, and invaluable interactions with living alums, faculty, and staff, we explore (1) the dynamic lives and legacies of members of the Black community at the College; (2) the pioneering architects and pillars of the Black Studies department; and (3) the establishment of Black intellectual and cultural organizations, and communal spaces founded by students, faculty, and staff on campus. Students will also learn from the interdisciplinary expertise and experiences of the current Africana Studies faculty in Black studies, literature, history, political science, psychology, cosmology, ontology, religion, and culture. Central themes include Black pedagogy and intellectualism, cultural identity and expression, self-definition and -determination, community consciousness, activism, systemic discrimination, civil rights, political and social movements, Black Power to Black Lives Matter, wellness, and wholeness.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: EC - Epistemology and Cognition

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course explores the historical landscape of Ancient Africa, with specific emphasis on its founding civilizations, politics, trade & commerce, culture and cosmologies. It serves to dispel the myth that the African continent was ahistorical, “dark” and primitive before European invasion in the 1400s. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the course encourages students to critically engage Africa from an Afro-centric perspective by examining its ancient kingdoms such as Egypt, Ghana, Mali, Songhay and Great Zimbabwe. It is anticipated that by studying these early civilizations and cultural formations, students will see Africa’s contribution and engagement in the global exchange of ideas and goods. Major themes include the political, economic and social impacts of European imperialism; the Atlantic Slave Trade; ‘Legitimate Trade’ and prelude to colonialism.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course focuses on African American Women's history in the United States with certain aspects of black women's activism and leadership covered within the African Diaspora. The course is intended explore the ways in which these women engaged in local, national, and international freedom struggles while simultaneously defining their identities as wives, mothers, leaders, citizens, and workers. The course will pay special attention to the diversity of black women’s experiences and to the dominant images of black women in America from Mumbet (the first enslaved black woman to sue for her freedom and win) to contemporary issues of race, sex, and class in the Age of Obama. We will explore such questions as: What is black Women’s History? How does black women’s history add to our understanding of American history? Where should black women’s history go from here?

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This course exposes students to the dynamic forms of Caribbean cultural expressions and the demographic diversity of its peoples.  Through a multidisciplinary lens, students shall explore major themes including identity, migration, language, religious expression, cultural expression including festivals, music and cuisine, the role of women, and Caribbean traditions of intellectualism. We will engage in critical examination of the history of slavery, colonialism and emancipation, as well as regional movements toward independence and unification and the contribution of the region to global development.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

During the twentieth century the Anglophone Caribbean produced a rich body of ideas that had an enormous impact upon the colonial and postcolonial worlds. These ideas cover fields such as history, politics, economics, and culture. This course traces the development of these ideas, examines their applicability to the specific circumstances in the Caribbean, and analyzes how they resonated in the larger world of ideas. We will look at the works of writers and thinkers that could include: A.R.F. Webber, Marcus Garvey, Arthur Lewis, Eric Williams, C.L.R James, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Jamaica Kincaid, Patricia Mohammed, Erna Brodber, Cheddi Jagan, Walter Rodney, Maurice Bishop, and Michael Manley.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: One 200-level course of relevance to Africana Studies or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course will examine the history of black cinema through the lens of American slavery. The institution of slavery has had a profound impact on the United States and Atlantic World. Yet, it has not always been the easiest topic for public discussion. Outside of the classroom much of what we know, or think about American slavery derives often from popular media—particularly through film and television. Classics like Gone with the Wind, the television miniseries Roots, and even lesser known films such as Langston Hughes’ (screenwriter) Way Down South have done much to shape our perspective regarding how we remember and understand the slave system, the enslaved, its participants and politics. This course poses the following question: Can Hollywood do the work of historians?

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: AFR 105.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The ongoing global pandemic and elections have revived conversations on race and the marginalization of the Black Diaspora. In this course, we will engage with the various ways in which black people practice politics in Africa and elsewhere in the diaspora. We will pay special attention to the ongoing impact of national politics on the global pandemic. Scholars taking the course will each week respond to a reading by writing public facing work such as blogs, editorials and/or opinion pieces, and other forms of public writing. A primary goal in this course is to learn how to bring academic arguments to the general public.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: At least one Africana Studies or Political Science course.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course explores the nature and composition of the African Diaspora and its changing meanings. We will examine the sociocultural connections among diasporic Africans such as the forced migrations of enslaved Africans and voluntary emigration of Africans out of continental Africa. The seminar also explores the historical, religious, and cultural factors that foster distinctive diasporic African identities and how these people constitute and contribute to global citizenry.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: One 200-level course of relevance to Africana Studies or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course is intended to explore ways in which enslaved women engaged in local, national and international freedom struggles while simultaneously defining their identities as slaves, mothers, leaders, and workers. This course will pay special attention to the diversity of black women’s experiences and to the dominant images of black women in North America, the Caribbean and Brazil, but greater emphasis will be placed on the American experience. The course asks: What role did gender play in the establishment of slavery and racial hierarchy in the trans-Atlantic World? How did gender shape the experience of slavery for enslaved women and men and their masters?

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: AFR 105

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: AFR 360 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

This course will examine the role of political violence in the form of riots, rebellions, and revolutions in the black Atlantic world. Together, we grapple with black liberation in the face of chattel slavery and white supremacy. We will spend considerable time examining the unfinished work of the American Revolution, the success of the Haitian Revolution, and the failed rebellions of the French Antilles. From there, we will examine how equality is obtained in post-emancipation societies. This course asks: What is a revolution? What makes revolutions revolutionary? What does failure mean? Is progressive change possible without the tools of war? In the last part of the course, we will focus on some recent and contemporary events that involve political violence and carry the potential to turn into a revolutionary process. In sum, this course reckons with the inseparable ideas of race, violence, and political power.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: One 200-level course of relevance to Africana Studies or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

American slavery was a national crime. Every state in colonial America enslaved black people. However, the North’s profit from—indeed, dependence on—slavery has mostly been a shameful and well-kept secret. This course reveals the history of the slave trade and slavery in the American North. We grapple with New England in particular as we examine the lives of the enslaved people in places that feel incredibly “close to home.” From there, we will explore how after the Civil War, structural racism and white supremacy manifested in the policy, housing, education, and policing systems of northern cities and states. This course covers the false promises of the Great Migration and the myth of an equal North in the face of Jim Crow South. Ultimately, this class uses history to combat the idea that slavery and racism are regional.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: None. A course in African American History recommended (AFR 210).

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

An interdisciplinary examination of some of the varieties of American experience, aimed at developing a functional vocabulary for further work in American Studies or related fields. Along with a brief review of American history, the course will direct its focus on important moments in that history, including the present, investigating each of them in relation to selected cultural, historical, artistic, and political events, figures, institutions, and texts. Course topics include intersectional ethnic and gender studies, consumption and popular culture, urban and suburban life, racial formation, and contemporary American culture.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: This course is required of American Studies majors and should be completed before the end of the Junior year.

This course offers an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Ethnic Studies. Ethnic Studies centers the theories, histories, and perspectives of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian American people in the United States, with particular attention to the study of comparative race and ethnic relations in the United States and its empire. We will explore key themes and concepts in Ethnic Studies such as imperialism and colonialism, social movements, migration, and intersectionality using analysis of popular culture, and historical and current events.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

An interdisciplinary introduction to the study of Asian Americans, the fastest-growing ethnic group in North America. Critical examination of different stages of their experience from "coolie labor" and the "yellow peril" to the "model minority" and struggles for identity; roots of Asian stereotypes; myth and reality of Asian women; prejudice against, among, and by Asians; and Asian contributions to a more pluralistic, tolerant, and just American society. Readings, films, lectures, and discussions.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: HS or REP - Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Latinas/os in the United States have diverse histories, cultures, and identities, yet many people in the U.S. assume a commonality among Latina/o groups. What links exist between various Latina/o groups? What are the main differences or conflicts between them? How do constructions of Latina/o identities contend with the diversity of experiences? In this course, we will examine a variety of topics and theories pertinent to the field of Latina/o Studies, including immigration, language, politics, panethnicity, civil rights, racialization, border studies, media and cultural representation, gender and sexuality, and transnationalism, among other issues.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

What is Korean American Literature and what is the justification for setting it apart from the rest of Asian American literature? The course approaches this question by taking up a range of recent fictional writings, all of which were turned out by Korean Americans, between 1995 and the present day. Films on Korean Americans help us to look beyond literature to a wider cultural perspective. As the semester evolves we will continue to keep an eye on the range of styles, issues, and silences that characterize this field. Finally, we will take up the problem of language: the ways in which English is used to evoke a specifically Korean American idiom and the contrary process through which certain Korean American works reach beyond the "ethnic" designation and into the mainstream.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course uses Latin music as a lens through which to examine broader social issues in the United States. We will consider how music industries decide what counts as “Latin,” and how these processes intersect or fail to intersect with ideas of Latinx identity on the ground. We will explore topics such as racial identity, immigration, gender and sexuality, transnationalism, and crossover. We will study genres including, but not limited to, banda, norteña, bachata, reggaetón, and pop, and artists such as Aventura, Daddy Yankee, Jenni Rivera, Selena, and Shakira.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This course will use food as a lens to explore Asian American history and contemporary political, cultural, and economic issues. We will explore the role of food in histories of immigration; labor in restaurant and service industries; farming and agriculture; and the politics of consumption and circulation of food. We will trace contemporary experiences to larger histories through a critical engagement with interdisciplinary scholarship as well as primary sources like recipe books, food criticism, media, film and television, literature, and memoirs.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken AMST 314.

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course analyzes the significance of Asian American pop culture. We will investigate cultural constructions of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality through an examination of various kinds of popular media, including film, music, performance, social media, and art. We will read key works in cultural studies alongside transnational feminist works. Central to this course will be an examination of how popular culture can reproduce and challenge racial, sexual, gender, class, and national identity formations in the United States.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

From the Zumba Fitness Program to Jane the Virgin, salsa night to the ubiquitous taco truck, “Latin” culture is popular. But what do we make of the popularity of “Latin” culture at a time when many Latina/o communities face larger systemic inequalities related to issues such as race, ethnicity, or immigration status? How do organizations and industries represent and market Latinidad to the US public, and how do these forms of popular culture and representation influence our perceptions of Latina/o life in the United States? How do Latina/o consumers view these representations? This course explores these questions through a critical examination of the representation and marketing of Latinidad, or Latina/o identities, in US popular culture. We will pay particular attention to the intersections between Latina/o identities, belonging, immigration, race, gender, and sexuality in the United States.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

On January 6th, 2021, a right-wing mob violently attacked the U.S. Capitol using guns, clubs, and fists. But perhaps their most powerful weapon was not physical, but ideological: a white supremacist version of America’s revolutionary past. This course examines the complex interplay between historical memory and present-day social and political realities. We will consider how stories, symbols, and artifacts shape popular understandings of the past, and in turn, how historical memory legitimizes social attitudes and systems. How do narratives about colonization, slavery, and war impact policy decisions? How do they shape racial attitudes and social identities? How do people of different racial groups, political leanings, and generations see the past differently? Students will examine a range of cultural artifacts, including fiction, film, monuments, museum exhibits, speeches, and digital media and create their own sites of memory. These items provide tangible links to the past that will shape the future of democracy in America.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is recommended for students who have some familiarity with American history and critical reading and analytical writing in the humanities.

This course offers an introduction to the history of Asian American labor and immigration from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Using a range of interdisciplinary frameworks and sources, the course will focus on the flow and movement of people to the United States, we will nonetheless pay special attention to the global, transnational and transpacific networks, issues, events and moments that have historically impacted the movement of peoples around the world. This course also spotlights the ways in which labor played a central role in shaping these migratory flows and experiences. As much as possible, this course will aim to look at historical events and moments from the perspective of ordinary people, or “histories from below,” in order to understand how historical narratives may change when you are not looking at histories from the perspective of those in power.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

In this course students will explore the interdisciplinary approaches by which Asian American scholars, artists, and activists produce work on and in the Asian American diaspora from the 1960s to present day. This survey of Asian American methodologies will offer students the exciting opportunity to receive hands-on experience in conducting ethnographic interviews, studying archival materials, analyzing films, reading memoirs and more that showcase the interdisciplinary nature of Asian American Studies and identity at large.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: At least one of the following courses - AMST 101, AMST 121, AMST 151, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course examines historical and contemporary contexts and processes of defining Asian/American beauty as well as the ways in which beauty is used to manage bodies, define social hierarchies, and gain or maintain power. Moreover, this course asks how presentations of beauty, especially “beautiful bodies,” could also be used as forms of subversion and resistance. Looking at sites such beauty pageants, cosmetic consumer cultures, drag performances, cosmetic surgery, and the transnational production and consumption of beauty influencers we will investigate how race, gender, sexuality, and class informs definitions of beauty and how definitions of beauty inform constructions of race, gender, sexuality, and class.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: At least one course in AMST, or permission of the instructor. Not open to First-Year students.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Benito Martínez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny, has quickly risen through the ranks to become one of the most significant and impactful global Latin music stars in history. This course explores what analyzing Bad Bunny can teach us in Latinx Studies. We will explore his role in the 2019 protests in Puerto Rico, and what the summer of 2019 teaches us about U.S. empire and Puerto Rican politics. We will also pay particular attention to the politics of race, gender, and queerness in Bad Bunny’s performance. Finally, we will consider Bad Bunny as a Spanish-language “crossover” star in the United States to understand the place of Latinx artists in the U.S. mainstream. Overall, this course will explore these topics by closely situating Bad Bunny’s work in relation to key texts in Latinx Studies regarding race, empire, gender, and queerness.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Previous coursework in Latinx Studies, American Studies, Africana Studies or Latin American Studies preferred. Not open to First-Year students.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Priority given to American Studies majors, Latinx Studies minors, and Latin American Studies majors

This course uses Black and Latina feminist theories to critically examine the performances, personas, and representations of Beyoncé Knowles and Jennifer López. We will begin with an overview of classic Black and Latina feminist theory texts by authors such as Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Cherríe Moraga. We will then read more contemporary Black and Latina feminist academic and popular works that expand, challenge, and complicate these theories. Throughout the course, we will put these texts in conversation with Beyoncé and Jennifer López, as well as other Black and Latina artists. In addition to the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, topics include performance, fashion and beauty, colorism, motherhood, sex and pleasure, and the politics of representation.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Previous experience with feminist or race theory helpful.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This seminar examines the expansion of United States empire starting at 1898. The course begins with the Spanish American War and the U.S. tumultuous acquisition of island colonies under the Spanish control, and how this imperial transition impacted the making of a U.S. empire as well as people and communities living in and emigrating from these islands, specifically islands of the Pacific and in Asia, including Hawai'i, the Philippines, Guam, and Samoa. Through a multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary approach, the course will explore the building of imperial power and key themes such as race, indigeneity, ideology, cultures of imperialism, policy, militarism, labor, immigration, and nationalism.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: One course in AMST or by permission of the instructor

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This class will look at several pivotal moments in US working class history: slave rebellions, early unionization, Black radical labor formations of the 1960s and 1970s, neoliberal attacks on labor, and 2022’s “Hot Labor Summer.” We will use this series of historical studies to think critically about what and who constitutes the working class in the US, when and how that might change, and about how colonial, racial, and gendered dynamics drive these histories while too often being written out of them. For each moment, we will also look to working class cultural artifacts as their own kind of theoretical and historical texts, including music, pamphlets, poetry, drama, photography, film and video, and memes. Potential authors: Gerald Horne, Charisse Burden-Stelly, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, J. Sakai, Philip Foner, James Yaki Sayles, James Boggs, Grace Lee Boggs, Silvia Frederici, Karl Marx, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Kim Kelly, Joshua Clover, Sarah Jaffe.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: One 100- or 200-level AMST course (AMST 101 recommended).

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Open by the permission of the director to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

To what extent do contemporary streaming services include queer people and people of color? How do contemporary children's books accommodate progressive ideas in the face of conservative backlash? How have networks like HBO, Netflix, or Amazon promoted or undercut LGBTQ civil rights or racial justice? American Studies often focuses on the appraisal, interpretation, and critique of historical and contemporary popular culture. Designed for juniors and seniors, this seminar will explore how American Studies multidisciplinary perspectives can be adapted to reviews, critiques, opinion pieces, and other forms of journalistic, literary, and public writing. Students will consider a variety of historical and contemporary American cultural products, including television, film, books, literature, websites, exhibitions, performances, and consumer products, in order to enter the public conversation about the cultural meanings, political implications, and social content of such culture.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: AMST 101 or another AMST 100- or 200-level course.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the director.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: AMST 360 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

A comparative approach to the concept of culture and an analysis of how culture structures the worlds we live in. The course examines human societies from their tribal beginnings to the postindustrial age. We will consider the development of various types of social organization and their significance based on family and kinship, economics, politics, and religion.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This course will examine the evolutionary foundations of human variability. This theme is approached broadly from the perspectives of anatomy, paleontology, genetics, primatology, and ecology. For this purpose, the course will address the principles of human evolution, fossil evidence, behavior, and morphological characteristics of human and nonhuman primates. Explanation of the interrelationships between biological and sociobehavioral aspects of human evolution, such as the changing social role of sex, are discussed. In addition, human inter-population differences and environmental factors that account for these differences will be evaluated.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course will provide an overview of the theoretical ways in which the topic of food can be addressed from an anthropological perspective. We will examine the role food plays in shaping identity, gender construction, and the co-evolution of human food practices and society. The seminar will ask students to engage with food and foodways in their own surroundings and think about the way food is a source of nutrition, a focus of individual life, and a mechanism of labor. This course will draw upon readings from the various sub-fields of Anthropology (socio-cultural anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, biological anthropology) and thus also serve as an introduction to the discipline.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites:

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course is intended to provide a theoretical framework as to how anthropologists construct questions, design research strategies, and produce anthropological knowledge. Students will discuss and explore major framing questions for anthropological methods while pursuing an independent project of their choice. Working with a faculty advisor, students will engage in independent research, while using the class as a workshop and discussion environment to refine their project. Students will be exposed to issues of positionality, ethical obligations in research, mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, and writing for specific audiences. This course is required of all anthropology majors and will provide a bridge between introductory and advanced courses.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: ANTH 101, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

The hominin fossil record provides direct evidence for the evolution of humans and our ancestors through the past 5 million to 7 million years. This course will provide an overview of human evolutionary history from the time of our last common ancestor with the living great apes through the emergence of "modern" humans. Emphasis is placed on evolutionary mechanisms, and context is provided through hands-on examination of the hominin fossil record and its history. The human story begins with origins and the appearance of unique human features such as bipedality, the gradual beginnings of an expanded brain and durable material technology, increased social complexity, and eventually the emergence of a human-like ecology. The emergence of contemporary humans is examined through the interaction of environmental, evolutionary, genetic, fossil, and archaeological evidence.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The identification of human remains for criminological and political purposes is widespread. This course explores issues in the identification and interpretation of human bones including methods for determining sex, age, stature, and ancestry as well as for identifying pathologies and anomalies. The course will pay particular attention to those anatomical elements, both soft tissue and bones, that aid in the reconstruction of individuals and their life history. In addition, the course explores search and recovery techniques, crime-scene analysis, the use of DNA in solving crimes, and the role of forensic anthropology in the investigation of mass fatalities from both accidents and human rights violations.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 42

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: Does not fulfill the laboratory requirement.

This course explores major themes in the subfield of political anthropology. How do anthropologists locate “the political” and study it the ethnographically – that is, through the long-term fieldwork they conduct? Throughout this course, we will delve into anthropological approaches to power, authority, and domination; statecraft and transnational governance; everyday forms of resistance and collective action; violence and disorder; and the politics of care and abandonment, among other themes. We will consider the animating questions that helped consolidate the subfield during the 1940s and 1950s, and trace anthropology’s growing concern with (post)colonialism and global capitalism. Finally, we will explore questions of labor restructuring, activism, caregiving, and life itself in an era that is often characterized as “neoliberal.”

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This is a course about race concepts and human biological variation, viewed from historical and biological perspectives. This course thus has two intertwined emphases. One is placed on the historical connection between science and sociopolitical ideologies and policies. The other is on the evolutionary origin of human biological and cultural diversity. Through lecture and discussion section, topics explored include the role of polygenism, historically and in current scientific thought; biological determinism and scientific racism; the rise of eugenics and other examples of “applied biology”; and the role of the race concept in current scientific and medical debates, such as those over the place of the Neanderthals in human evolution, as well as the importance of race in clinical practice. The course seeks to guide students through a critical exercise in studying the evolutionary origins of contemporary human biological variation and its close relationship with scientific and popular concepts of race.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every three years

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course will introduce students to the anthropology of science and the use of anthropological methodology to study the making of science and technology. Through the analysis of case studies of biotechnology, energy, computing, lay and activist science, medicine, genetics, bioethics, the environment and conservation around the world, this class will investigate the global dynamics of science and technology. We will compare and contrast the production and use of scientific knowledge around the globe. What happens when science and technology travel and how do new places emerge as centers of knowledge production? How are culture, identity, technology, and science linked?

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Do you ever wonder what your possessions say about you? Our possessions and other things we use lie at the hearts of our everyday lives. We inadvertently generate material culture during our daily activities and interactions. In turn, material culture helps us structure negotiations with one another in our cultured worlds. Archaeology is unique among anthropological endeavors in its reliance on material culture to reconstruct and understand past human behavior. We will learn methodological and theoretical approaches from archaeology and ethnography for understanding material culture. Lecture topics will be explored in hands-on labs. Studying the world of material can help us understand the nature of objects and how humans have interacted with them across time and space. In addition, material culture indicates how humans mobilize objects in their cross-cultural interactions.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course. This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement.

This course will provide students with an overview of primatology, with a focus on comparative morphological, behavioral, and ecological aspects of Anthropoid primates. Students will consider the evolutionary relationship among humans and non-human primates and how comparative studies can elucidate shared aspects of social, energetic, and reproductive behaviors, while also pointing to uniquely derived features among these organisms. Readings for the course will focus on primary research derived from a diverse range of primates in addition to theoretical pieces that connect the study of non-human primates to evolutionary understandings of what it means to be human. Students will also be exposed in their assignments to the methods used to understand the behavioral ecology of humans and non-human primates. Finally, the course will introduce students to the complex history of primatology as a field of study situated across anthropology, psychology, and biology, and one in the midst of a shift towards questions of conversation and decolonization.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: ANTH 102 or BISC 111, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 10

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

What can architecture and design tell anthropologists about culture? This seminar addresses this question using a distinctly anthropological approach that focuses on topics as diverse as the ethnographic analysis of vernacular architecture in rural Newfoundland, how the Danish notion of hygge (coziness) informs a culturally distinct design aesthetic, and the ways in which city planning influences cultural identity in Boston. Students engage in themed discussions and participate in case-based workshops that utilize foundational anthropological practices including participant-observation, visual anthropology, and ethnographic writing to form real-world dialogues about the cultural significance of design and architecture. Core anthropological concepts such as cultural relativity, applied ethnography, globalization, and the anthropology of space and place serve as the central themes for the course as we apply contemporary anthropological theory to cross-cultural understandings of architecture and design.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course.This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement.

Why are myths often tied to geography and why are particular locations charged with powerful cultural meaning? This anthropological field course in Iceland explores the diverse ways that humans interact with their surroundings to create culture. This intensive two-week excursion (followed by two weeks of follow-up assignments) examines the cultural and geographic significance of Iceland's unique landscape and settlements. Glacial lakes, bustling cities, remote fishing villages, and eerie lava fields provide the setting for an introduction to the fascinating field of cultural geography. Students gain hands-on experience with methods of cultural anthropology, including participant-observation, interviewing, writing field notes, photography, and critical analysis. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, this course offers students a rare chance to conduct ethnographic research in one of the most stunning places on Earth!

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 8

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Summer

Notes: Not offered every year. Subject to Provost's Office approval.

This course traces a series of conversations in theory and method in anthropology from a broadly thematic perspective. It provides students with a foundation for situating contemporary anthropology and its many theoretical approaches and debates by tracing the field's historical development. It examines the social context in which various "paradigms" took hold and the extent that they gained traction, were critiqued and discredited, or were reconfigured and reinvigorated. We will explore the development of contemporary theory as internal to the discipline and as a response to changing intellectual climates and social milieus. Our discussions will be aimed at identifying both shifts and continuities in the thematic foci, methodological stance, and guiding concerns of the discipline.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ANTH 101 and at least one 200 level ANTH course, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This seminar will immerse students in current developments in Museum Anthropology through an exploration of the history of museum development, the role of museums in society, and the ethical considerations of preservation and education. Under an anthropological lens, the history of development of museums in the global North can be used to contextualize recent movements to decolonize the collection, curation, and display of ethnographic and archaeological material. After researching up-to-date international exhibitions, students will critically assess museum curation practices and then develop their own outreach projects in small groups. This course will include virtual visits to New England area museums–including the MFA Boston, Harvard Peabody Museum, and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: One 100-level or 200-level Anthropology course.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Advances in genetic sequencing technology have dramatically reduced the cost of obtaining genomic data. As a result, personal genomic information is now available and utilized at an ever-increasing pace. As an anthropologist, the arrival of the “genomic age” raises important questions about how we approach and understand the topic of what it means to be human. Never before have individuals had such direct access to the raw data at the core of their own biology. This class will examine personal genomics from a biocultural anthropology perspective, simultaneously dealing with the question of what personal genomics has to offer and what consequences arise given the availability of genomic information. The important distinction between information and knowledge, uncertainty and determinism, and the ethical and legal apparatus around genomics will be examined through the use of genomic case studies focused on issues of health and ancestry.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ANTH 102 or ANTH 214, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every three years

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This seminar critically examines the use of prehistory and antiquity for the construction of accounts of national origins, historical claims to specific territories, or the biased assessment of specific peoples. The course begins with an examination of the phenomenon of nationalism and the historically recent emergence of contemporary nation-states. It then proceeds comparatively, selectively examining politically motivated appropriations of the remote past that either were popular earlier in this century or have ongoing relevance for some of the ethnic conflicts raging throughout the world today. The course will attempt to develop criteria for distinguishing credible and acceptable reconstructions of the past from those that are unbelievable and/or dangerous.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: One 200-level unit in anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies; SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

From giant, immovable stone currency on the Pacific island of Yap to accumulating 'likes' on social media, we occupy a world of exchange where our everyday lives are mediated through the transfer of objects, ideas, and various forms of capital. This seminar examines the cross-cultural understanding of exchange from an anthropological perspective with particular attention paid to gift-giving, social and cultural capital, money, and the transmission of knowledge across space and time. Drawing on the work of Malinowski, Bourdieu, Marx, Mauss, Derrida and many other anthropologists and philosophers, we will unpack the hidden dimensions of taking, keeping and giving as key elements of culture.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ANTH 101, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every three years

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

From de-mining countries to rehabilitating child soldiers, from channeling donations for AIDS orphans to coordinating relief efforts in the wake of natural disasters, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are ubiquitous. They provide essential services once thought to be the purview of the state, and increasingly champion entrepreneurial approaches to poverty reduction. NGOs are also subject to heated debate and increased surveillance within the countries where they operate. This seminar brings a critical anthropological lens to bear on the work of NGOs, connecting global trends, donor platforms, and aid workers to the everyday experiences of people targeted by NGO projects.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: One 200-level unit in anthropology, economics, history, political science, or sociology, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 10

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: ANTH 360 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

An introduction to the Arabic language. The course takes a comprehensive approach to language learning and emphasizes the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students are introduced to the principles of grammar, taught how to read and write in the Arabic alphabet, and trained in the basics of everyday conversation. Through the use of a variety of written, video, and audio materials, as well as other resources made available through the Web, the course emphasizes authentic materials and stresses the active participation of students in the learning process.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

An introduction to the Arabic language. The course takes a comprehensive approach to language learning and emphasizes the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students are introduced to the principles of grammar, taught how to read and write in the Arabic alphabet, and trained in the basics of everyday conversation. Through the use of a variety of written, video, and audio materials, as well as other resources made available through the Web, the course emphasizes authentic materials and stresses the active participation of students in the learning process.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: ARAB 101 or permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

An introduction to the Arabic language in an intensive course. The course takes a comprehensive approach to language learning and emphasizes the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students are introduced to the principles of grammar, taught how to read and write in the Arabic alphabet, and trained in the basics of everyday conversation. Through the use of a variety of written, video, and audio materials, as well as other resources made available through the Web, the course emphasizes authentic materials and stresses the active participation of students in the learning process. Students who complete this course will be ready and eligible to enroll in ARAB 201.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: None

Typical Periods Offered: Summer

Notes:

A continuation of ARAB 101-ARAB 102. The course takes students to a deeper and more complex level in the study of the Arabic language. While continuing to emphasize the organizing principles of the language, the course also introduces students to a variety of challenging texts, including extracts from newspaper articles, as well as literary and religious materials. Students will be trained to work with longer texts and to gain the necessary communicative skills to prepare them for advanced-level Arabic.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ARAB 102, or permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

A continuation of ARAB 201. The course takes students to a deeper and more complex level in the study of the Arabic language. While continuing to emphasize the organizing principles of the language, the course also introduces students to a variety of challenging texts, including extracts from newspaper articles, as well as literary and religious materials. Students will be trained to work with longer texts and to gain the necessary communicative skills to prepare them for advanced-level Arabic.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ARAB 201 or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course further develops students’ listening and speaking skills in Arabic, with special emphasis on achieving familiarity with a variety of Arabic dialects from across the Arab World. The primary focus will be on practicing conversation, as the curriculum will utilize a variety of materials, including videos, short stories, and films for discussion.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: ARAB 202 or by permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ARAB 201-ARAB 202 or equivalent and permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: ARAB 201-ARAB 202 or equivalent and permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Continuation of ARAB 201-ARAB 202. Involving further development of students' skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, this course exposes students to a variety of authentic Arabic materials, including print and online sources, incorporating MSA and diglossia. Focus on enhanced communication skills in Arabic and attention to the use of language in its sociocultural context. Appropriate for students who have completed ARAB 201-ARAB 202 at Wellesley or the equivalent in summer courses or international study programs.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ARAB 201-ARAB 202 or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Further development of all linguistic skills with special attention to reading, writing, and discussion. The course also introduces students to modern Arabic literature. Focus on enhanced communication skills in Arabic and attention to the use of language in its sociocultural context. Appropriate for students who have completed ARAB 202 at Wellesley or the equivalent in summer courses or international study programs.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ARAB 202 or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the directors and advisory committee.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: ARCH 360 and permission of the directors and the advisory committee.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

Art matters. Because images, buildings, and environments shape our ways of understanding our world and ourselves, learning how to look closely and analyze what you see is a fundamental life skill. Within a global frame, this course provides an introduction to art and its histories through a series of case studies from the ancient world to the present day. Through the case studies, we will explore concepts of gender and race, cultural appropriation, political propaganda, materials and media, questions of cultural ownership and repatriation, and other historical issues relevant to our current art world.  Site visits and assignments will engage with the rich art and architectural resources of Wellesley's campus.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 18

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: This course is open to all students; it is required for all Art History, Architecture, and Studio Majors.

This first-year seminar examines the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti (1474-1564). Although he is best known as a sculptor and painter, Michelangelo was also a poet, architect, civil engineer, and diplomat driven by complex artistic, religious, political, and economic motivations. His long career provides a framework for understanding the Italian Renaissance, and the mythology surrounding that career provides insight into changing perceptions of the artist and the individual during that time. We will focus on works of art and contemporary texts, as well as real or virtual visits to Wellesley’s Special Collections, Papermaking Studio, and Book Arts Lab, as well as Harvard's Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 13

Prerequisites: None. Open to First-Years only.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Other Categories: FYS - First Year Seminar

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Jewelry is art made to adorn the human body, and designs from the ancient Mediterranean have inspired artists for thousands of years. This introductory course analyzes the creation and use of jewelry from 2,600 BCE to 800 CE. Case studies drawn from the connected Mediterranean world will compare the traditions of neighboring peoples such as the Egyptians, Assyrians, Romans, and Celts. Readings will introduce these communities and the meanings they gave to symbols, metals, and gemstones. Lectures will consider how adornment expressed gender, asserted freedom, and attracted magical protection. Class discussions will critique the history of excavating, collecting, and exhibiting this portable art now held by museums around the world. Assignments will develop the skill of conducting research in museum databases.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

An introduction to the study of architecture and the built environment. This course is limited to majors or prospective majors in architecture, art history, studio art, or urban studies, or to those students with a serious interest in theoretical and methodological approaches to those fields.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. Prior coursework in Art History, Classical Civilization, or Middle Eastern Studies recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The majestic and powerful Black African empires of Ancient Nubia, located on the Nile to the south of Egypt in present-day Sudan, have either been ignored by mainstream scholarship or subsumed under Egyptian culture. Yet, Ancient Nubia produced more pyramids than Egypt, colossal sculpture, magnificent gold jewelry and monumental architecture that, to date, remains unparalleled. This course will begin with the Nubian Neolithic Period (ca. 6,000 BCE) with its sensational abstract ceramics and human sculpture and end with art of the great cosmopolitan city of Meroe in ca. 350 CE. It will touch on aspects of colonialism, feminism and museology. Conditions permitting, one session will meet at the Museum of Fine Arts, home to the finest collection of Nubian Art outside Sudan.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 or ANTH 103/CLCV 103 recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course considers architecture, urbanism, and landscapes in a global context throughout the long eighteenth century. We will consider European architecture’s relation to enlightenment thought, developments in the natural sciences, and political transformations. We will also consider these claims upon enlightenment relationally to the infrastructures of European colonialism. We will examine the plantations of the West Indies and the Southern United states; French and English estates and gardens of a rising colonial bourgeoisie; and the slave factories of western Africa. Taken together these works map the global circulation of people, capital, commodities, and revolutionary ideas. We thus consider eighteenth century architecture as a transnational culture of global modernity.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: ARTH 100 or WRIT 107 recommended but not required.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

An examination of modern art from the 1880s to World War II, including the major movements of the historical avant-garde (such as cubism, expressionism, Dada, and surrealism) as well as alternate practices. Painting, sculpture, photography, cinema, and the functional arts will be discussed.  Framing the course are critical issues including emerging technologies, colonialism, global exchange, the art market, gender, and tensions between national and cultural identities.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

An analysis of art since World War II, examining painting, sculpture, photography, performance, video, film, conceptual practices, social and intermedial practices, and the mass media. Critical issues to be examined include the art market, feminist art practices, the politics of identity, and artistic freedom and censorship.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course introduces students to the visual cultures of the Mediterranean in the centuries of the Crusades. It approaches the distinct local, religious, and imperial visual cultures of the Mediterranean as interlocking units within a larger regional system. Focusing on the mobile networks of patrons, merchants, objects, and artisans that connected centers of artistic and architectural production, it covers a geographical territory that includes Spain, North Africa, the Middle East, Anatolia, and the Italian Peninsula. Readings emphasize the theoretical frameworks of hybridity, appropriation, hegemony, and exoticism through which Medieval Mediterranean art and architecture have been understood. Discussions will highlight the significant connections that existed among the Western Medieval, Byzantine, and Islamic worlds.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 or WRIT 107 recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course explores modern architecture from the turn of the 20th-century to the present. What makes architecture “modern”? We will consider fluid definitions of modernism and modernity when studying the built environment across cultures and geographic boundaries. Rather than following a linear narrative, we will approach modern architecture thematically by looking at topics that include urban planning, tall buildings, domesticity, race, gender, environmentalism and sustainability. A diverse range of architects, designers, and practitioners will be explored in the context of these themes.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course introduces students to the central role that the book has played (and continues to play) in the Islamic world. We will study the history of the Islamic book, from manuscripts of the Qur’an, which often feature refined calligraphy but almost never include illustrations, to historical, astrological, and poetic works – like the famous Shahnama (Book of Kings) – that contain images of various types and sizes. Students will learn about the production, collection, and circulation of these books, and ask how and according to which criteria they were conceived, used, and evaluated. In addition to traditional art-historical methods of close-looking and socio-historical analysis, students will learn to use digital approaches to produce new knowledge about the field. Visits to view manuscripts and related materials in local collections will supplement classroom discussion and assigned readings.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 or WRIT 107 recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course will present a survey of American architecture and urbanism from prehistory to the late twentieth century. Lectures and discussions will focus particularly on placing the American-built environment in its diverse political, economic, and cultural contexts. We will also explore various themes relating to Americans' shaping of their physical surroundings, including the evolution of domestic architecture, the organization and planning of cities and towns, the relationships among urban, suburban and rural environments, the impact of technology, and Americans' ever-changing relationship with nature.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

A survey of major buildings, urban plans, and designed landscapes in Latin America from the 1st century CE through the 20th century. The course will analyze the intersections of architecture, planning, and power in indigenous, colonial, and post-colonial contexts, foregrounding the interdependence of the arts. Taking as a point of departure the interplay of land, nature, images, and buildings in histories of conquest and the exercise of power, it will also investigate the ways artists and their patrons used representations of cities and landscapes to shape the idea of the Americas for diverse audiences and to advance political and social agendas.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: ARTH 100 or ARTH 200 recommended. Not open to students who have taken ARTH 333.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as ARTH 333.

This course will provide an introduction to the arts of the Ancient Americas from before the Spanish Conquest. Rather than a survey, we will concentrate on courtly ceremonial life in major cities from the Teotihuacan, Maya, Moche, Aztec, and Inca civilizations. We will explore specific artistic forms viewed across time and space, including palace architecture; stone sculpture; luxury arts of gold and feathers; textiles and costume; and manuscript painting. The course will also examine the history of collecting, with attention to legal and ethical concerns. We will consider the roles of archaeologists, curators, collectors, and fakers in creating our image of the Ancient American past. In-class discussion will be combined with the study of original objects and forms of display at the Davis and area museums.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken ARTH 338.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as ARTH 338.

Frida Kahlo is one of the most famous artists in the world, the subject of a vast bibliography, both academic and popular, accurate and inaccurate. This seminar will explore how Kahlo moved from the margins to the center of art history. We will explore her life and work in detail using a wide variety of methodologies, readings, and assignments, in order to better understand the results of her complex self-invention. We will place her paintings in their historical context, but we will also study how she has been interpreted by feminists, filmmakers, and fakers. We will also use Kahlo as a jumping off point to consider broader topics, from self-portraiture to Chicano/a practice. Finally, whether you are new to art history or an advanced student, the class will help you develop the skills necessary to research, evaluate, and present visual and written information effectively and professionally.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 or WRIT 107 recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is also offered at the 300 level as ARTH 339.

This course is a survey of the art and architecture of China from the Neolithic period to the turn of the twentieth century in two simultaneous approaches: chronologically through time and thematically with art in the tomb, at court, in the temple, in the life of the élite, and in the marketplace. It is designed to introduce students to the major monuments and issues of Chinese art and architecture by exploring the interactions of art, religion, culture, society, and creativity, especially how different artistic styles were tied to different intellectual thoughts, historical events, and geographical locations.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course is a survey of the major artistic traditions of Asia including India, Southeast Asia, China, Korea, and Japan from Neolithic times to the turn of the twentieth century. It introduces students to Asian art and architecture by exploring the interactions of art, religion, culture, and society, especially how different artistic styles were tied to different intellectual thoughts, political events, and geographical locations. Students are expected to acquire visual skills in recognizing artistic styles, analytical skills in connecting art with its historical contexts, and writing skills in expressing ideas about art. Field trips to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Harvard's Art Museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and/or the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, depending on available exhibitions.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This is a course about the Roman Empire’s buildings; the art that once adorned them; and how these ensembles have been preserved over time. Key themes include the ancient experience of architecture, Mediterranean traditions of design, and the place of this complex heritage in modern politics and cityscapes. Case studies will focus not just on Rome, but also on cities across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, all lands that were once within the empire’s borders. Students will leave the course knowing how to use the Roman Empire’s roads, temples, and amphitheaters and understanding why preserving them matters.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. Prior college-level coursework in Art History, Architecture, or Classical Civilization recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: ARTH 243 focuses on public architecture.

This course will examine art from the so-called High Renaissance and Mannerist periods in Italy. We will focus in particular on papal Rome, ducal Florence, and republican Venice, and the work of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and their followers, as well as the intersection of Italian art and artists with northern Europe. Issues such as private patronage, female artists, contemporary sexuality, and the connections between monumental and decorative art will be examined through discussions, readings, and hands-on experiences in local museums, Special Collections, the Botanic Gardens, and the Book Arts Lab.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This course surveys a selection of the arts in Italy from circa 1575 to circa 1750. The works of artists such as the Carracci, Caravaggio, Bernini, Gentileschi, and Longhi will be examined within their political, social, religious, and economic settings. Particular emphasis will be placed on Rome and the impact of the papacy on the arts, but Bologna, Florence, and Venice will also play a part, especially in regard to the growing interest in scientific enquiry and the production of arts in the courts and for the Grand Tour. We will focus on works of art and contemporary texts, as well as real or virtual visits to Wellesley’s Special Collections, Papermaking Studio, Book Arts Lab, and Botanic Gardens, Harvard's Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

What, if anything, makes a work of art or architecture Islamic? Islam has formed an important context for the production and reception of visual and material culture. This course enables students to develop a critical vocabulary in analyzing the arts of the Islamic world. Through the study of a broad range of objects and monuments including mosques, manuscripts, textiles, tiles, and amulets, students learn to hone their formal analysis of both figural and non-figural works of art, as well as their close reading of historical sources that reveal how objects and monuments were made and experienced. As students progress through a chronological and multi-regional overview of works produced from the emergence of Islam in the seventh century to the Early Modern empires, they also gain familiarity with methods for the study of Islamic art and ongoing debates within the field. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on the ways in which cultural frameworks including politics, religion, ethnicity, science, and gender shaped the production and reception of images, objects, and monuments within the Islamic world.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course examines Chinese painting from early times to the turn of the twentieth century. It serves as an introduction to theories, masters, and principles in the practice of Chinese painting. Issues of investigation include major themes, techniques, connoisseurship, and functions of Chinese painting. Special attention is given to (1) imperial patronage, (2) the triangle relationship between painting, calligraphy, and poetry, (3) the tension between representation and expression, (4) between professional and literati, (5) between tradition and creativity, and (6) the impact of the West. Trips to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and other museums. 

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course is a survey of the rich visual arts of Japan from the Neolithic period to the turn of the twentieth century with emphasis on architecture, sculpture, painting, ceramics, and ukiyoe. It examines Japan's close ties to India, China, and Korea and explores the development of a distinct Japanese artistic style and national identity. Special attention is given to the sociopolitical forces, cultural exchanges, religious thoughts, intellectual discourses, and commercial activities that shaped the representation and expression of these arts.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites:

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ARTH 100 or permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

This course surveys a selection of the arts in Italy during the period we now call the Renaissance, dating from circa 1260 to 1500. We will examine the rise of the mendicant orders, the devastation of the Black Death, the growth of civic and private patronage, and the connection with art and artists in northern Europe, all of which had a profound impact on the visual arts. The work of major artists and workshops will be examined and contextualized within their political, social, and economic settings by readings and discussions of contemporary texts and recent scholarship.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course examines Chinese art in the socially and politically tumultuous twentieth century,which witnessed the end of imperial China, the founding of the Republic, the rise of the People's Republic, the calamity of Mao's cultural revolution, the impact of the West, and the ongoing social and economic reforms. Critical issues of examination include the encounters of East and West, the tensions of tradition and revolution, the burdens of cultural memory and historical trauma, the interpretations of modernity and modernism, the flowering of avant-garde and experimental art, and the problems of globalization and art markets. The course is designed to develop an understanding of the diverse threads of art and society in twentieth-century China.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This course will challenge everything you think you know about Celtic art and aesthetics. Focusing on the period between 600 BCE and 800 CE, when Celtic styles first emerged, case studies will include golden necklaces and coins from France, mesmerizing mirrors and shields from England, intricate stone monuments from Scotland, and colorful manuscripts from Ireland. We will use this material to counter ethnic stereotypes developed by vengeful Greeks, to analyze the transformations of Celtic art made in the Roman empire, and to assess how modern notions of Celtic identity map onto the reality of the past. The course coincides with the Harvard Art Museums' Celtic Art Across the Ages, the first major exhibit of ancient Celtic art to take place in the United States. On field trips to the exhibit, we will engage directly with Celtic antiquities that have left Europe for the first time.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. Prior coursework in Art History or Classical Civilization recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course will present a thematic survey of 18th-century European art and architecture from the reign of Louis XIV to the French Revolution (1660-1789). We will examine works of art in relation to the social, political, and cultural debates of the period, and how artistic practice engaged with new approaches to empiricism, secularism, and political philosophy spurred by the Enlightenment. Topics include French art in the service of absolutism, debates between classicism and the Rococo, public and private spaces of social reform, the Grand Tour and the rediscovery of antiquity, collecting, global trade, and imperialism. We will also consider Enlightenment and counter-Enlightenment trends in Spain, Austria, and Great Britain.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 or WRIT 107 recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course will study art made by African Americans from early colonial America to the present. We will also examine images of African Americans by artists of diverse cultural backgrounds. Throughout the course we will analyze construction(s) of subjectivity of African-American identity (black, Negro, colored) as it relates to visual worlds. Although the course is outlined chronologically, the readings and class discussions will revolve around specific themes each week. The course is interdisciplinary, incorporating a variety of social and historical issues, media, and disciplines, including music, film, and literary sources.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: AFR 262

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken this course as a topic of ARTH 316.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

As an introduction to the arts and architecture of Africa, this course explores the meaning and the contexts of production within a variety of religious and political systems found throughout the continent, from Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mali, to name a few. We will consider important topics such as the ancient art outside the Nile Valley sphere, symbols of the power of royalty, and the aesthetic and spiritual differences in masquerade traditions. We will pay special attention to traditional visual representations in relation to contemporary African artists and art institutions.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: AFR 264

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

An examination of the architecture and urban development of Western Europe and the United States from the late eighteenth century to the 1890s, with special attention to the theoretical, social, and political contexts in which major works were created.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: ARTH 100 or ARTH 200 recommended

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This course surveys European art from the French Revolution of 1789 to the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900. Focusing on such major movements as Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, and Art Nouveau, we will examine the relationship of art to tradition, revolution, empire, social change, technology, and identity. Emphasis is placed on the representation and experience of modern life, in paintings by David, Goya, Turner, Manet, Seurat, and others, and in venues ranging from political festivals to avant-garde art galleries to London's Crystal Palace. Topics include the expanded audience for art, Orientalism, gender and representation, and the aesthetics of leisure.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 or WRIT 107 recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Frozen in time by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 C.E., Pompeii's grand public baths, theatres, and amphitheater, its seedy bars and businesses, its temples for Roman and foreign gods, and its lavishly decorated townhomes and villas preserve extremely rich evidence for daily life in the Roman Empire. Lecture topics include urbanism in ancient Italy; the structure and rituals of the Roman home; the styles and themes of Pompeian wall paintings and mosaics; and the expression of non-elite identities. We conclude by analyzing Pompeii's rediscovery in the eighteenth century and the city's current popularity in novels, television episodes, and traveling exhibits.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. Prior coursework in Art History or Classical Civilization recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

We will investigate the transmission and transformation of African art and culture and their ongoing significant impact on the continent, in Europe, and in the Americas. This course explores the arts of primarily western and central Africa, including the communities of the Bakongo, Yoruba, and Mande, among many others. The influences of early European contact, the Middle Passage, colonialism, and postcolonialism have affected art production and modes of representation in Africa and the African Diaspora for centuries. Documentary and commercial films will assist in framing these representations. The study of contemporary art and artists throughout the African Diaspora will allow for a particularly intriguing examination of postmodern constructions of African identity.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: AFR 292

Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

A survey of the evolution of the book, both as a vessel for the transmission of text and image and as evidence of material culture. Through close examination of rare books in Clapp Library's Special Collections, we will explore the social and political forces that influenced the dissemination and reception of printed texts. Lectures will cover the principle techniques and materials of book production from the ancient scroll to the modern codex, including calligraphy, illumination, format and composition, typography, illustration, papermaking, and bookbinding. Weekly reading, discussion, and analysis of specimens will provide the skills needed to develop a critical vocabulary and an investigative model for individual research. Additional sessions on the hand press in the Book Arts Lab and in the Pendleton paper studio.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Wellesley College opened its doors to the first incoming students on September 8, 1875. In celebration of the College’s 150th anniversary, this course will examine the evolution of the campus from its inception through current plans for its future development. Every aspect of the College’s material culture is open for investigation from the buildings, landscape, and art collections to dormitory dishware and student clothing. The course will involve substantial primary research in the College archives and other sources.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: At least one 100-or 200-level course in ARTH, ARCH, or AMST.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

One of the thorniest issues facing artists, art historians, curators, critics, theorists, city planners, and others who have to negotiate art in public places is the question of competing perceptions and meanings. As soon as a work of art is proposed for or installed in a site in which numerous publics intersect, or a work is destroyed, the question arises of “whose public” is being addressed. This seminar will bring to the table historical and contemporary case studies in public art, in part selected by students, as the subjects of several genres of public writing, among them reviews and Op. Ed. pieces. Students in all areas of art history will have already confronted, and will confront in the future, the question of who has the right to make the art, install the art, or destroy the art, in any geography at any time.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Any 200 or 300 level course in Art History. Open to Senior Art History majors only.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Using collegiate and corporate campuses as case studies, this seminar examines the intersections of architecture, urban planning, landscape design, and institutionalism in private and public contexts in the modern period. We will consider the ways architects and clients used campuses to define institutional character, often in response to political and social concerns that extended far beyond the campus edge. While the course will emphasize examples in the Americas, case studies from outside the region will be included, and special attention will be devoted to the Wellesley campus.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: ARTH 228, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Through analysis of buildings and texts created in North and South America, this course explores major themes, works, and problems in American architecture, and approaches to understanding architectural history in this region. Topics will include architects’ and clients’ understandings of land and landscape; nationalism and internationalism; social change; institutionalism; and architectural theory. Through changing case studies, the course will examine the status and meanings of architectural modernism when understood comparatively within the western hemisphere, and from the vantage of places distinguished by persistent engagements with racial and class difference, colonialism, and pluralism.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ARTH 228 or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Using texts written in a variety of cultural and historical contexts, this course considers the architectural manifesto as a genre; as a means of articulating architectural theory and offering critique; and as a tool used by architects to promote their work and profession. We will consider latent and explicit ideologies within manifestos, the gaps and continuities between written and built work, and the status of architectural argumentation today.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: One previous ARTH course, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

In the first course to explore the biography and legacy of a living Wellesley College alumna, students build and analyze a dynamic monographic study of one of the most important contemporary artist of our time–in real time–Lorraine O’Grady. Coinciding with the Davis Museum opening of Lorraine O’Grady’s retrospective exhibition, Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And, students learn directly from the exhibition and work in the College Archives with O’Grady’s physical and digital archives. Critical topics covered include: art criticism, feminist art, Black art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, performance art, conceptual art, museum studies, among others. Students contribute directly to O’Grady’s ongoing scholarship through interviews of scholars and artists influenced by her writings, artworks, and archival collections. The course is Speaking Intensive.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: At least one 200 level ARTH, or 300 level humanities course.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every three years

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

This course considers a history of performance art, a genre that features time-based media, technologies, and the archive. The curriculum covers performance art through a global lens and emphasizes queer artists and artists of African, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous descent. This seminar prepares students to answer critical questions necessary for defining the field: What are the ethical, physical, and psychological quandaries that artists face from theory to practice in performance art? How does using the body as a medium challenge the “object-ness” of performance, and how does that impact its reception? What roles do artists, museums, cultural institutions, and their audiences play? What are the institutions' responsibilities for fundraising, staff support, and conservation of performance art? Students explore these questions along with key topics on ephemerality, experimentation, documentation, and audience reception to develop performance projects of their own.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Not open to First-Years.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course charts past and present artistic mediations of racial, ethnic, and gendered experiences throughout the world, using the rubric of the body. In the struggle to understand the relation between self and other, artists have critically engaged with the images that define our common sense of belonging, ranging from a rejection of stereotypes to their appropriations, from the discovery of alternative histories to the rewriting of dominant narratives, from the concepts of difference to theories of diversity. The ultimate goal of the course is to find ways of adequately imagining and imaging various identities today. We will discuss socio-political discourses, including essentialism, structuralism, postmodernism, and post-colonialism and we will question the validity of such concepts as diaspora, nationalism, transnationalism, and identity in an era of global politics that celebrates the hybrid self.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: AFR 316

Prerequisites: ARTH 100 or a 200-level ARTH course or a 200-level AFR course or a visual culture course.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

This course will explore the theory and practice of historic preservation. Beginning with a focus on the history of preservation in the United States, we will trace the development of legal, economic, public policy, and cultural frameworks that have shaped attitudes and approaches toward the preservation of our built environment. Students will engage in both individual and group projects that will emphasize field study of buildings and landscapes, archival research, planning, and advocacy. The course is designed for Architecture and Art History majors, but could also be of interest to students in History, American Studies, Environmental Studies and Political Science.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Prior 200-level coursework in Architecture or permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have completed ARTH 217.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is sometimes offered at the 200-level as ARTH 217.

This seminar will examine the buildings and theories of Frank Lloyd Wright, with a particular focus on two themes: Wright's designs for progressive and feminist clients across the long span of his career; and his relationship to the Modern Movement in Europe and the Americas.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ARTH 100 and one 200-level course in Art History or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This seminar considers Staatliches Bauhaus, the school of architecture, art, and design that was founded in Weimar Germany at the end of World War I, closed under National Socialism in the mid-30s, reestablished in Chicago in 1937, and whose practices were transmitted through institutions globally. The class considers the historical position of the Bauhaus; examines the school's community, philosophy, and practices; studies contemporaneous developments and contacts in the international art and design world; and examines the legacies of the Bauhaus in the Americas and Asia. We will also consider how Bauhaus products and pedagogies came to be synonymous with mid-century modernity and continue to resonate in contemporary design. The seminar provides an integrative examination of visual arts disciplines, and it brings together interdisciplinary approaches to the historical movement.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Preference will be given to senior Art History and Architecture majors and minors.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This seminar will analyze women in Italy from circa 1300 to 1700 through the lens of both art and history. We will examine a variety of sources to understand women's lives and work; with this evidence we will see that women had a much stronger presence than previously recognized, as artists, writers, musicians, patrons, nuns, and a wide range of professions inside and outside their homes. The seminar is linked to an exhibition at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, and several sessions will be held on site with museum staff.  Other sessions will include visits to Wellesley's Special Collections, Papermaking Studio, and Book Arts Lab.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 13

Prerequisites: Previous courses in European art, history, or literature recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This seminar will analyze the role of food in the art and life of early modern Italy. We will examine the historic and economic context of food as the basis of our investigation of its representation in paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from circa 1300 to 1800. This will entail a close look at food as subject and symbol, as well as the material culture surrounding its production and consumption. The seminar will investigate illustrated herbals and cookbooks in Special Collections, dining habits and etiquette, and food as sexual metaphor through a wide range of interdisciplinary sources; Wellesley's Botanic Gardens will grow Italian fruits, vegetables, and herbs for us to incorporate in Renaissance-era recipes.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Previous courses in European art, history, or literature recommended but not required.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Communicate your art-historical knowledge to the broadest possible public. While focusing on public writing, we will study the history and politics of fashion. Topics will include gender and class performance, cultural appropriation, medicine and the body; technology; and law and society. Weekly meetings will include collaborative editing workshops, guest speakers, and a field trip. Students will build a writing portfolio including a book review, film review, Smarthistory essay, museum labels, and a one-minute radio text, among other projects. The Calderwood seminar model demands firm weekly deadlines, allowing classmates time to reflect and comment on each other’s work. We build a scholarly community that shows the larger world how the history of art intersects with fashion.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: Intended for Seniors majoring or minoring in Art History Intended for Seniors majoring or minoring in Art History

A survey of major buildings, urban plans, and designed landscapes in Latin America from the 1st century CE through the 20th century. The course will analyze the intersections of architecture, planning, and power in indigenous, colonial, and post-colonial contexts, foregrounding the interdependence of the arts. Taking the interplay of land, nature, images, and buildings in histories of conquest and the exercise of power, it will also investigate the ways artists and their patrons used representations of cities and landscapes to shape the idea of the Americas for diverse audiences and to advance political and social agendas. Advanced students who enroll in 333 will have additional assignments, including a research essay.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 10

Prerequisites: ARTH 100, ARTH 200, or ART 234 recommended. Not open to students who have taken ARTH 233.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as ARTH 233.

The Imperial Painting Academy of the Song Dynasty China (960-1279), founded in 984, was the first of its kind in the history of world art. This seminar investigates the nature of imperial patronage and the institution and achievements of the Painting Academy (comparable to those of the Italian Renaissance art) in relation to the Song Empire. The seminar attempts to identify how exactly a particular imperial commission was initiated and carried out through critical reading of primary sources (in translation) that include artists biographies and case studies. Issues of connoisseurship and the relationship of painting/image and poetry/word are also examined.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Open to junior and senior students or by permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course runs in parallel with ARTH 236. It will provide an introduction to the arts of the Ancient Americas from before the Spanish Conquest. Rather than a survey, we will concentrate on courtly ceremonial life in major cities from the Teotihuacan, Maya, Moche, Aztec, and Inca civilizations. We will explore specific artistic forms viewed across time and space, including palace architecture; stone sculpture; luxury arts of gold and feathers; textiles and costume; and manuscript painting. The course will also examine the history of collecting, with attention to legal and ethical concerns. We will consider the roles of archaeologists, curators, collectors, and fakers in creating our image of the Ancient American past. In-class discussion will be combined with the study of original objects and forms of display at the Davis and area museums.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Two 100- or 200-level art history courses. Not open to students who have taken ARTH 236.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as ARTH 236.

Frida Kahlo is one of the most famous artists in the world, the subject of a vast bibliography, both academic and popular, accurate and inaccurate. This seminar will explore how Kahlo moved from the margins to the center of art history. We will explore her life and work in detail using a wide variety of methodologies, readings, and assignments, in order to better understand the results of her complex self-invention. We will place her paintings in their historical context, but we will also study how she has been interpreted by feminists, filmmakers, and fakers. We will also use Kahlo as a jumping off point to consider broader topics, from self-portraiture to Chicano/a practice. Finally, whether you are new to art history or an advanced student, the class will help you develop the skills necessary to research, evaluate, and present visual and written information effectively and professionally.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Two 200 level ARTH courses. Not open to students who have taken ARTH 237.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is also offered at the 200 level as ARTH 237.

Landscape painting, or more accurately, shanshui (literally "mountain-and-water/river"), rose as an independent and major art form in the tenth century in East Asia as a great tradition in the history of world art. How did it develop so early? What did it mean? How was it used for? How does its past serve as inspiration for the present? And why does shanshui remain a major subject of significance in modern and contemporary East Asian art? Following the development of shanshui from the early periods to the twentieth century, the course explores such critical issues as shanshui and representation of nature, shanshui and power, shanshui and national development,  shanshui and environment, shanshui as images of the mind, the tension of tradition and creativity in painting shanshui. Comparisons will be made with Dutch, English, French, and American landscape painting to provide a global perspective.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites:

Poetic painting is a conspicuous visual phenomenon in East Asian art that at its best is technically superlative and deeply moving. This seminar investigates the development of this lyric mode of painting first in China and then in Korea and Japan from the eighth century to the twentieth through the practices of scholar-officials, emperors and empresses, masters in and outside of the Imperial Painting Academy, literati artists, and modern intellectuals. Literary ideals and artistic skills, tradition and creativity, patronage and identity, censorship and freedom of expression, and other tensions between paintings and poetry/poetry theories will be examined.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Open to Juniors and Seniors with prior coursework in art history, or by permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

How do images, or their absence, shape belief, power, and identity? In the Islamic world, sacred images have been celebrated, contested, erased, and reimagined across centuries. This course explores the shifting roles of sacred imagery—from depictions of holy figures and places to talismans believed to hold divine power. We’ll dive into big questions, including debates over iconoclasm and aniconism, the power of images to protect or provoke, and moments in history when new attitudes toward images emerged. Spanning from the seventh century to today, this course invites students of all backgrounds to rethink the role of sacred art in shaping culture, politics, and faith.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Prior coursework in Art History or Middle Eastern Studies, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

In the medieval Islamic world, crafting scientific tools wasn't just practical—it was an art form. Artists and builders used their knowledge of chemistry, metallurgy, geometry, astronomy, and anatomy to produce objects and monuments that were both beautiful and crucial to the discovery of new phenomena. In this seminar, we'll dive into the intertwined practices of artistic creation and scientific exploration, spanning the seventh to the fifteenth centuries. You'll investigate the discoveries behind objects, images, and monuments, such as astrolabes and zoological manuscripts. We'll cover fascinating topics like the secrets of constructing robotic automata, the alchemy of turning plants into vibrant textile dyes, and the geometric principles guiding the design of astronomical observatories and tile patterns. Our field trips to Special Collections and other exhibits will bring these concepts to life. You'll learn to see the world through both an artist's and a scientist's eyes, gaining insights into how medieval Islamic innovations continue to influence our modern world.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Previous courses in Art History, Middle Eastern Studies, or Medieval and Renaissance Studies recommended but not required.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every three years

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: ARTH 100 or permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ARTH 100 or permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ARTH 360 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

Visual images have always been enlisted to influence individual and collective decision-making, action, and identity. However, the rise of the mass media in the nineteenth century, the multiplication of technologies in the twentieth century, and the media spaces of the twenty-first century have created unprecedented opportunities for the diffusion of propaganda and persuasive images. This seminar enlists case studies to examine the uses and functions of visual images in advertising and political propaganda. It also considers the historical interplay between elite and popular arts. The goal of the course is to sharpen our critical understanding and reception of the visual world.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: At least one 200-level course in Art or Media Arts and Sciences, and permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Why does New York's Metropolitan Museum have one of the world's largest collections of ancient Mediterranean art? Focusing on the Egyptian, Near Eastern, and Greek and Roman departments, this seminar analyzes key phases of collecting and curating over the past 150 years. Readings will address the museum's sponsored excavations abroad, controversial acquisitions from dealers, and strategic gifts from donors. Group presentations will explore influential exhibitions and published catalogs. Individual research projects will delve into iconic and overlooked works in the collection, including fresco paintings, stone sculptures, and luxurious metalwork. Students will leave the seminar understanding why acquiring antiquities made the Metropolitan Museum a leading international institution, and how curators have used these artifacts to shape modern understandings of the ancient Mediterranean world. The seminar will culminate in a field trip to the museum.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Prior coursework in art history (ARTH), classical civilization (CLCV), or permission of the instructor. Priority will be given to students who have taken at least one of the following courses - ARTH 123, ARTH 203, ARTH 209, ARTH 241, ARTH 243, ARTH 256, ARTH 290, ARTH 343, or ARTH 373; CLCV 200, CLCV 215, CLCV 300, CLCV 373.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

In less than two centuries, the British presence in India transformed from a small company of merchants into a vast, extractive empire ruled by the Crown. This course will critically examine visual culture relating to British colonialism in India from the mid-eighteenth century to Independence. We will consider the role of art in British diplomacy with rival kingdoms and independent territories, photography’s use in colonial surveillance, the impact of industrialization on Indian crafts, colonial patronage and institutions of art education, and architecture and monuments designed to naturalize British presence on the subcontinent. We will equally consider South Asian perspectives such as the role of photography and reproductive prints in the rise of nationalism, the swadeshi movement, and Indian artists’ engagement with or rejection of modernism.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: At least one 200-level Art History course or permission of the instructor recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

A foundational course that explores observational strategies and theories of perception using a range of drawing tools. Project work is focused on observational drawing methods with attention to the articulation of line, shape, time, form, gesture, perspective, and value. In-class drawing exercises, weekly homework assignments, and group critiques address a variety of approaches to image making and visual expression, with some attention put towards the human figure. Aimed at first years and sophomores and those considering majors in Studio Art or Architecture. Also recommended for those considering majors in Media Arts and Sciences, or Art History.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: None. Open to First-Years, Sophomores, and Juniors. Seniors by permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes: Required for majors and minors in Studio Art as well as majors in Architecture.

This foundational studio course addresses the issue of composition in two-dimensional media. It focuses on the fundamental elements of visual design (e.g., line, shape, value, space, color) and their compositional impact. Studio projects emphasize visual problem-solving skills as a means of achieving more effective communication, with some attention to the issues of typography. Assignments explore a range of media and encourage creative experimentation with both analog and digital processes.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 18

Prerequisites: None. Open to First-Years, Sophomores, and Juniors.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This introductory, time-based media production course explores motion graphics, performance art, social practice, installation, Internet art, game design, animation, and the expanding digital domain of 'new media.' The focus will be on experimental, artistic practice using various methods of animation, video, and motion graphics. Studio projects will utilize Photoshop, Maya, Animate, and other imaging and audio programs. Aimed for first and second-year students.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

This studio course addresses the theoretical and practical aspects of the manufacture, publication, distribution, and survival of the book. Studio projects in Clapp Library's Book Arts Lab explore themes such as the evolution of the book form, the sequencing of image and text, and the relationship between form and content. Class sessions will feature demonstrations, visiting artists, and presentation of Special Collections materials. Readings and studio projects culminate in a book-based studio project. The knowledge base and skills acquired in this course can be applied to advanced coursework in a variety of disciplines.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: None. Open to First-Years, Sophomores, and Juniors. Seniors by permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course. This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement.

This introductory course explores the basic formal and spatial considerations when working with three-dimensional structure and form. Studio projects incorporate a range of materials and methods of visualization. Outside assignments and class discussions are aimed toward helping students enhance their creativity and spatial awareness while acquiring sensitivity for placement, process, and materials. Required for Architecture majors.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Open to First-Years, Sophomores and Juniors. Priority given to declared Architecture majors.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course. This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement.

This intermediate level studio course addresses a range of sculptural approaches by way of various materials, including clay, wood, metal, plaster, and cardboard. Each of these materials will be used to explore a specific technique or sculptural method such as carving, modeling, or fabrication. By the end of the semester, emphasis shifts towards the completion of more independent projects and conceptual questions regarding the tangible impact of materials, functions, and histories on sculptural artworks.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course or permission of the instructor required.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: Strongly recommended for Architecture majors.

An intermediate studio course designed for architecture and studio art majors wishing to strengthen their visual and spatial responsiveness. Class work explores various forms of drawing in two and three dimensions, including basic architectural rendering, fixed viewpoint perspective, mapping, modeling, and some digital work. Following a series of projects and discussions considering issues of space and place, the physicality of space, and our historic relationship to architecture, each student produces a self-directed final project. Strongly recommended for architecture majors before enrolling in the architectural design sequence at MIT.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course or permission of the instructor required.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course. This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement. Strongly recommended for Architecture majors before enrolling in architectural design sequence at MIT.

Understanding the human form through sustained observational drawing, research, and experimentation. An intensive, mixed media drawing course that balances careful visual analysis with empathetic, gestural response. Tactile, experiential drawing exercises are complemented by shared readings and research addressing questions of representation in art and cultural conceptions of the body.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: This course may be repeated once for credit.

An intermediate studio course centered on the fundamental issues of painting, emphasizing color, composition, and paint manipulation through direct observation and response. Studio assignments, presentations, discussions and critiques help students gain technical skills, visual sophistication, and critical awareness of the medium. Students paint from a variety of subjects, including the self-portrait, nude model, and still life.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: This course may be repeated once for credit.

This intermediate level studio course centers on forms of hand printing, from stone and plate lithography to screen printing and pochoir. Projects incorporate image/text juxtapositions, color theory, digital photo processes, zines and vector based graphics using the extensive Dactyl Press facilities. Field trips, readings, and collaborative print exchanges complement the individual studio assignments. Recommended for students interested in drawing, design, architecture, media arts, book studies, and art history.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course or permission of the instructor required.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: ARTS 219, ARTS 220, ARTS 222 and ARTS 223 are complementary print media courses that may be elected in any order.

A studio exploration of intaglio and relief printing methods, including copperplate etching, collograph, and woodcut. Students develop visual and graphic flexibility through hands-on projects considering image sequences, pattern, text, and multiples. Several projects address color and typography and/or incorporate digital methods. Students participate in a collaborative print exchange in addition to completing individual projects. ARTS 219, ARTS 220, and ARTS 221 are complementary graphic arts courses and may be elected in any order.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course or permission of the instructor required.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: ARTS 219, ARTS 220, ARTS 222 and ARTS 223 are complementary print media courses and may be elected in any order.

This intermediate studio course is centered on the relationship between text and image through letterpress relief printing techniques and handmade book structures. Studio projects will include the production of limited edition artist's books that focus on the interplay of two and three dimensions in the book form. Emphasis will be placed on creative problem solving within the limitations of technology, and on the importance of the act of revision. Class sessions in the Papermaking Studio and Special Collections will augment intensive studio work in the Book Arts Lab.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course and permission of the instructor required.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course. This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement.

This intermediate studio course explores new hybrid approaches to graphic thinking, integrating traditional and new print technologies in experimental ways. Students develop greater visual and conceptual range in the Dactyl Press studios while developing iterative projects involving color, text-based art, handmade books, and installations. Some projects explore photo-digital print processes, laser-cutting, and vector graphics. Readings, discussions, critiques, demonstrations, and collaborative exchanges consider the ongoing impact of media culture. Especially recommended for students interested in design, architecture, media arts, and book studies.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course or permission of the instructor required.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: ARTS 219, ARTS 220, ARTS 222 and ARTS 223 are complementary print media courses that may be elected in any order.

This interdisciplinary studio art course invites students to explore the intricate connections between art, disability, and medical experiences. Designed for those with lived experiences or a keen interest in these areas, the course seeks to foster a supportive community for open discussion and creative experimentation. Students will engage in hands-on projects that reflect diverse embodied experiences while examining themes of identity, healing, and representation. Through critical readings, collaborative studio work, and interactions with local organizations, students will develop artworks that challenge societal norms surrounding disability and illness. By integrating theory with practice, participants will cultivate a deeper understanding of how art serves as a powerful medium for expression and empowerment.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course, or permission from the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

An exploration of sculptural concepts utilizing a variety of materials and methods. This course will integrate the constructed and tangible, with process and practice, culminating in the development of independent projects. Emphasis will be placed on conceptual considerations, such as audience, context/location, materials, functionality, and histories.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: At least one 200 level ARTS course completed at Wellesley.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

An intensive studio course for juniors and seniors, considering the visual, conceptual, and spatial issues driving contemporary drawing practices. This course explores the act of drawing as a speculative and critical thinking process as well as a visual language. Class work addresses various observational and technical methods as well as reciprocities between sound, drawing, and time, and/or drawing and materiality. In-depth studio critiques, field trips, and interaction with visiting artists and musicians augment the projects. Following a period of intense studio exploration and dialogue, each student develops and hones an independent, cohesive body of work.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course and at least one 200-level ARTS course.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: This course may be repeated once for credit.

A project-based course that examines in depth the history and the processes of painting. This studio provides an opportunity for advanced students to share their painting practice and benefit from intensive and well-informed critical dialogue. The group interacts in a seminar fashion, in which topics and problems are presented and students are asked to develop independent projects examining them. Students explore painting as object, painting in space, site specificity, and consider the impact of digital technologies on image making. Each student will continue to explore elements pertaining to the construction of painting while developing an independent vocabulary and a substantial, cohesive body of work.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: ARTS 105 and ARTS 218, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: This course may be repeated once for credit.

Part I of a year-long seminar supporting advanced studio students, divided into one half-credit course offered during the Fall semester and one half-credit in the Spring. This methodology-based course functions as an overlay to advanced studio projects underway in the context of 300 level studio classes and thesis projects. Students enrolled in the course will have access to independent workspace for the year and benefit from sustained dialogue and studio critiques with a range of faculty and visiting artists, including those hosted through the Frank Williams Visiting Artist Lecture Series. This course is mandatory for all Studio Art majors and strongly recommended for Studio Art minors and related visual arts majors.

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 11

Prerequisites: ARTS 105 and two other 100-level studio courses, and either (at least two 200-level studio art courses; or one 200-level and one 300-level studio art course). Permission of the instructor required.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: Each semester of ARTS 317H and ARTS 318H earns one half unit of credit; however, both semesters must be completed satisfactorily to receive credit for either course. This course may be repeated once for credit, with the permission of the department.

Part II of a year-long seminar supporting advanced students, divided into one half-credit offered during the fall semester and one half-credit course in the spring leading towards the senior exhibition in May. This methodology-based course functions as an overlay to advanced projects underway in the context of advanced studio classes or thesis projects. Students enrolled in the course will have access to independent workspace and benefit from sustained dialogue and studio critiques with a range of faculty and visiting artists, including those hosted through the Frank Williams Visiting Artists Lecture Series. This course is mandatory for all Studio Art majors and strongly recommended for Studio Art minors and related visual arts majors.

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 11

Prerequisites: ARTS 317H or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Each semester of ARTS 317H and ARTS 318H earns one half unit of credit; however, both semesters must be completed satisfactorily to receive credit for either course. This course may be repeated once for credit with the permission of the department.

What are graphic conventions and how do print methods inform contemporary artistic inquiry? A conceptually driven studio aimed for juniors and seniors who have successfully completed at least one graphics based studio course course at the 200 level. Readings, discussions, and field trips address sequential imagery, text/image interactions and the use of multiplicity in a range of visual formats, from the artist book to the site-based installation. Following a period of interactive studio experimentation and dialogue, each student develops a comprehensive self-directed project using the Dactyl Press facilities. May be repeated for degree credit.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: One of the following - ARTS 208/CAMS 238, ARTS 219, ARTS 220, ARTS 221/CAMS 239, ARTS 222, ARTS 223, or by permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: Normally alternates with ARTS 323 every third semester. This course may be repeated once for credit.

Print studios are packed with metaphors of travel, and for good reason: the layered, iterative movement of an image from here to there is the central narrative guiding all graphic production. This topic driven, advanced studio course is aimed for juniors and seniors who can demonstrate previous experience in at least one print-based medium and are ready to pursue more independent project work. Students share a dialogue with visiting artists considering theories of travel while developing sustained, self-directed projects in reproducible print media. Studio research will be complemented by discussions, critiques, readings, and field trips. Recommended for Studio and Architecture majors, this course may be used to fulfill the capstone requirement for the MAS major.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Normally alternates with ARTS 322 every third semester.

This interdisciplinary studio art course invites students to explore the intricate connections between art, disability, chronic illness and medical experiences. Designed for those with lived experiences or a keen interest in these areas, the course seeks to foster a supportive community for open discussion and creative experimentation. Students will engage in hands-on projects that reflect diverse embodied experiences while examining themes of identity, healing, and representation. Through critical readings, collaborative studio work, and interactions with local organizations, students will develop artworks that challenge societal norms surrounding disability and illness. By integrating theory with practice, participants will cultivate a deeper understanding of how art serves as a powerful medium for expression and empowerment.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Any 100 level studio arts course.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 10

Prerequisites: ARTS 360 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a studio faculty member, with assessments from the full studio art faculty. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

This conceptually-driven studio seminar uses food as a theoretical and material strategy of investigation and production. It is a multi-disciplinary exploration of project themes spanning a range of creative disciplines (e.g., printmaking, sculpture and new media) that students have expertise in, with the added expectation of collaborating across new fields of inquiry within and outside the Art Department. The conceptual insights from texts will set the foundations for our understandings of literal and ideological consumption of food, as well as inform the implications of those principles on art making and presentation.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course and at least one 200-level ARTS course.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

The first course in a two-semester investigation (355/365) of a significant research problem, culminating in the preparation of a thesis. This route does not lead to departmental honors.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: Open only to seniors with permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

The first course in a two-semester investigation (360/370) of a significant research problem, culminating in the preparation of a thesis and defense (oral examination) of that thesis before a committee of faculty from the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Required for honors in the major.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the director.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member, sometimes in coordination with an off-site mentor. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

The second course in the 355/365 sequence.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: ASPH 355 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

The second course of the 360/370 sequence.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: ASPH 360 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

This course investigates the origin of life on the Earth and the prospects for finding life elsewhere in the cosmos, and begins with an overview of the Earth's place in the solar system and the universe. The course examines the early history of the Earth and the development of life, changes in the sun that affect the Earth, characteristics of the other objects in our solar system and their potential for supporting life, the detection of planets around stars other than the sun, and the search for extraterrestrial life. Our exploration of our place in the universe will include some nighttime observing at our on-campus observatory.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 36

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course provides an overview of the Universe through the lens of the physical principles that help us to probe it from right here on our puny planetary perch. Topics include stars and their planetary companions, the lives and deaths of stars, black holes, galaxies, and the origin and fate of the Universe. Class meetings include a mix of lecture and daytime laboratory activities. Additional required weekly nighttime sessions (scheduled according to the weather) guide students through their own observations of the sky with both naked eyes and the historic and modern telescopes of Whitin Observatory. This course serves as a gateway to more advanced courses in our astronomy curriculum.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 28

Prerequisites: Open to First-Years, Sophomores. Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. High school physics strongly recommended.

Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This course will focus on exoplanets and the stellar systems they inhabit. Topics include exoplanet demographics, techniques of discovery and characterization, models of formation and evolution, and potential for future telescopes to uncover signs of atmospheric chemistry and habitability. Students will practice application of physical principles, build data analysis skills, and be introduced to astronomical literature. Students will also make exoplanet transit observations with our on-campus telescope and will model the resulting light curve to ascertain properties of a real exoplanetary system.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: ASTR 107; or ASTR 100 with permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Design your own planetary mission and build your own scientific probe in this project-based course about the practice of planetary exploration! Students will learn about the science and technology of exploring extreme environments through  studying the development of a historical planetary mission and by building their own instrumented probe to investigate a challenging environment such as the Earth's lower atmosphere or the bottom of Lake Waban. Depending on their role in the project, students can gain experience with a wide range of new skills, such as how to assemble and test electronic circuits, computer programming, and data analysis.  

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Any 100-level science course (including CS). High school physics recommended.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course provides an introduction to modern methods of astronomical observation. Students will learn to use the Whitin Observatory's 0.7m research telescope. Topics include: planning observations, modern instrumentation, and the acquisition and quantitative analysis of astronomical images. This course requires substantial nighttime telescope use and culminates with an independent observing project.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: ASTR 107

Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

The 21st-century Universe is weirder than 20th-century astronomers could imagine: its matter is mostly dark, the effects of dark energy dominate its evolution, and it is expanding at an accelerating rate. The galaxies in our Universe come in all shapes, sizes, and colors; they are cocooned in dark matter envelopes and harbor monster black holes at their centers. This class will explore what we think we know about our Universe's makeup, history, and fate. We will develop some of the basic laws of physics necessary to understand theoretical cosmology and galaxy evolution and apply them to the interpretation of modern observations.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: Either ASTR 107 and MATH 116, or PHYS 107.

Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Anomalies are observable phenomena that resist explanation in terms of a prevailing set of scientific beliefs. As such, anomalies sometimes have the effect of driving upheavals in scientific thought, in some cases overturning deeply-entrenched paradigms. Examples include: (a) the discovery that rocks fall to earth from space, and (b) aberrations in the orbit of Mercury that required a new theory of gravity to fully understand. Observations that at first appear anomalous sometimes turn out to be illusory, such as canal-like features reported in early 20th century telescopic observations of Mars. This course will explore the role of anomalies in driving scientific discovery, and in testing our critical thinking faculties, as well as our standards for what kinds of knowledge and inquiry count as "scientific". We will address case studies from this history of astronomy and other sciences, as well as relevant epistemological questions and social critiques of the modern scientific enterprise. We will also examine present-day candidate anomalies from within the scientific mainstream such as dark matter, as well as from the so-called pseudoscientific fringe, such as paranormal phenomena and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Any 100-level science course taken at Wellesley.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Every three years

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

The first course in a two-semester investigation (355/365) of a significant research problem, culminating in the preparation of a thesis. This route does not lead to departmental honors.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: Open only to seniors with permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

The first course in a two-semester investigation (360/370) of a significant research problem, culminating in the preparation of a thesis and defense (oral examination) of that thesis before a committee of faculty from the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Required for honors in the major.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 5

Prerequisites: Permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member, sometimes in coordination with an off-site mentor. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

The second course in a two-semester investigation (355/365) of a significant research problem, culminating in the preparation of a thesis. This route does not lead to departmental honors.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: ASTR 355 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

The second course of the 360/370 sequence.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: ASTR 360 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall; Winter

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Winter; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall; Winter

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Winter; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

The first course in a two-semester investigation of a significant research problem, culminating in the preparation of a thesis and defense of that thesis before a committee of faculty from the Biochemistry program. Students will discuss their research progress informally with faculty and student colleagues and gain familiarity with contemporary research through presentations by outside seminar speakers. This route does not lead to departmental honors.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Open only to Seniors with permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

The second course in a two-semester investigation of a significant research problem, in the preparation of a thesis and defense of that thesis before a committee of faculty from the Biochemistry program. Students will discuss their research progress informally with faculty and student colleagues and gain familiarity with contemporary research through presentations by outside seminar speakers. This route does not lead to departmental honors.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 10

Prerequisites: BIOC 355 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: BIOC 360 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

This course will examine the scientific facts behind phenomena portrayed in a variety of Hollywood and foreign movies. We will cover topics ranging from the definition and recreation of life, genetics and behavior to evolution and environmental issues. The course will include weekly screenings of movies outside of class time as well as lectures, assigned readings and discussions. While obtaining an introduction to key concepts in biology, students will also explore misconceptions about science and scientists that are perpetuated by these movies.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Summer

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

In this course we will focus on the cellular, evolutionary, and developmental biology of stem cells, how these cells contribute to development, regeneration, and aging in animals and plants, and how stem cells have been harnessed as novel patient therapies. Questions to be addressed include: How were stem cells discovered? Where do stem cells come from, and how can they be used to study and cure human diseases? What are the similarities and differences between embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells? How does the capacity to regenerate vary across the plant and animal kingdom and why? We will also discuss the scientific, bioethical and political controversies associated with regenerative medicine and recent stem cell research. Students will be able to explain how translational research, basic research, science policy, and the layman's perspective all impact how that science is done and where it could lead. In the lab, students will observe and track stem cells in developing embryos, visualize stem cells in a variety of organisms, and design experiments to test the limits of regeneration.

This course has a required co-requisite Laboratory - BISC 107L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 107.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

What can we learn from plants and ecosystems to sustainably grow food, source energy, and support people in a changing climate? This course will deepen your appreciation of plants and explore how plants grow, respond to change, and create resilient biological communities. We will apply an ecological lens toward understanding how humans can cultivate plants responsibly, whether caring for a houseplant, growing vegetables, or managing forests. Students will learn from diverse plants in the campus greenhouses and gardens, building scientific and horticultural skills through observation, experimentation and collaborative projects.

This course has a required co-requisite Laboratory - BISC 108L

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 48

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 108.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course focuses on human anatomy, physiology, and evolution. Lecture topics will include: human origins and evolution; the structure and function of the major physiological systems; exercise physiology; and human genetics. Laboratories explore human physiology, focusing on the development and application of skills in experimental design, statistical analysis, and scientific writing.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - BISC 109L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 28

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Typical Periods Offered: Summer; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 109.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

A foundation course that focuses on the study of life at the cellular and molecular level, including eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell structure, function of biological macromolecules, molecular genetics, cellular metabolism, and key topics in cell biology. This course will provide the fundamental tools for exploration of cellular and molecular biology with the aim of enhancing conceptual understanding. Laboratories focus on experimental approaches to these topics and are shared with BISC 112. One year of high school chemistry or equivalent is strongly recommended. Either BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, or BISC 116; or BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y may be taken first. Students must attend lab during the first week in order to continue in the course.

This course has a required co-requisite lab - BISC 110L.

Please be aware that there is no guarantee you will be able to swap into different lecture or lab sections, due to the demand in this course. We encourage you to make initial registration choices carefully and wisely.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 32

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken BISC 112, BISC 112Y, or BISC 116.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 110.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken BISC 112, BISC 112Y, or BISC 116.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

A foundation course that focuses on the study of life at the cellular and molecular level, including eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell structure, function of biological macromolecules, molecular genetics, cellular metabolism, and key topics in cell biology. This course will provide the fundamental tools for exploration of cellular and molecular biology with the aim of enhancing conceptual understanding. Laboratories focus on experimental approaches to these topics. This course is intended for students who, because of their previous biology, chemistry or math preparation, would benefit from additional academic support for the study of introductory biology, or who do not meet the prerequisites to enroll in BISC 110. Includes two additional class meetings per week. Students in BISC 110P must enroll in BISC 110P lab. Students must attend lab during the first week in order to continue in the course.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Open by permission of the instructor to students regardless of high school background or of whether they have already completed the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken (BISC 110, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, or BISC 116).

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

A study of life, ranging from the physiology of organisms to the structure of ecosystems. The main themes of the course are evolution and biodiversity, form and function in plants and animals, and ecological interactions among organisms. The course provides the fundamental tools for exploration of organismal biology with the aim of enhancing conceptual understanding. Laboratories focus on experimental approaches to these topics and are shared with BISC 113 and BISC 113Y. Either BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, or BISC 116; or BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y may be taken first. Students must attend lab during the first week in order to continue in the course.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory: BISC 111L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 32

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 111.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites:

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: BISC 111L is the laboratory course for BISC 111. Students must register for a lab section of BISC 111L when registering for a lecture section of BISC 111.

Introduction to the central questions, concepts, and methods of experimental analysis in selected areas of organismal biology with a focus on tropical island biology. Topics include evolution, ecology, and plant and animal structure and physiology. Lectures and discussions during the Spring semester will prepare students for the field laboratory taught at the Central Caribbean Marine Institute in Little Cayman. Laboratory work will be carried out primarily in the field and includes introductions to the flora and fauna of the island and the coral reefs, as well as group projects. The nine-day field portion of the class will take place in mid-May.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken BISC 111, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y. Contact instructor for the application in early October.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Seminar-style introduction to life at the cellular and molecular level, designed as an alternative to BISC 110 for students with strong high school preparation (such as AP, IB, or other). The course will include eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell structure, function of biological macromolecules, molecular genetics, cellular metabolism, molecular genetics, and mechanisms of growth and differentiation, with an emphasis on experimental approaches to investigating these topics. This course will aim to develop students' skills in data analysis and scientific writing along with building foundational knowledge in the field. Lab sections are shared with BISC 110. This course differs from BISC 110 in its small class size and discussion-based format; it meets for one discussion and one lab session per week. One year of high school chemistry or equivalent is strongly recommended. BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, or BISC 116; or BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y may be taken first. Students must attend lab during the first week in order to continue in the course.

This course has a required co-requisite lab - BISC 112L.

Please be aware that there is no guarantee you will be able to swap into different lecture or lab sections, due to the demand in this course. We encourage you to make initial registration choices carefully and wisely.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Biology AP score of 4 or 5, or IB HL Biology score of 6 or 7, or permission of the instructor. Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112Y or BISC 116.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 112.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Biology AP score of 4 or 5, or IB HL Biology score of 6 or 7, or permission of the instructor. Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112Y or BISC 116.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Seminar-style introduction to life at the cellular and molecular level, designed as an alternative to BISC 110 for students with strong high school preparation (such as AP, IB, or other). The course will include eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell structure, function of biological macromolecules, molecular genetics, cellular metabolism, molecular genetics, and mechanisms of growth and differentiation, with an emphasis on experimental approaches to investigating these topics. This course will aim to develop students' skills in data analysis and scientific writing along with building foundational knowledge in the field. Lab sections are shared with BISC 110. This course differs from BISC 110 in its small class size and discussion-based format; it meets for one discussion and one lab session per week. One year of high school chemistry or equivalent is strongly recommended. BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, or BISC 116; or BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y may be taken first. Students must attend lab during the first week in order to continue in the course.

This course has a required co-requisite Laboratory - BISC 112YL.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Open to First-Years only. Biology AP score of 4 or 5/IB HL Biology score of 6 or 7, or permission of the instructor. Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112 or BISC 116.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Other Categories: FYS - First Year Seminar

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 112Y.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Open to First-Years only. Biology AP score of 4 or 5/IB HL Biology score of 6 or 7, or permission of the instructor. Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112 or BISC 116.

Other Categories: FYS - First Year Seminar

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

An exploration of the central questions, concepts, and methods of experimental analysis in selected areas of organismal biology, designed as an alternative to BISC 111 for students with strong high school preparation (such as AP, IB, or other). Topics include: the evolution and diversification of life, the form and function of plants and animals, and ecological interactions among organisms, with an emphasis on laboratory methods, data analysis, and science writing. Lab sections are shared with BISC 111. This course differs from BISC 111 in its smaller class size, a seminar-style format, and a focus on discussion of landmark scientific studies that shape this field; it meets for one discussion and one lab session per week. Either BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, or BISC 116 or BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y may be taken first. Students must attend lab during the first week in order to continue in the course.

This course has a required co-requisite lab - BISC 113L.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Biology AP score of 4 or 5, or IB HL Biology score of 6 or 7, or permission of the instructor. Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken BISC 111, BISC 111T, or BISC 113Y.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 113.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Biology AP score of 4 or 5, or IB HL Biology score of 6 or 7, or permission of the instructor. Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken BISC 111, BISC 111T, or BISC 113Y.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

An exploration of the central questions, concepts, and methods of experimental analysis in selected areas of organismal biology, designed as an alternative to BISC 111 for students with strong high school preparation (such as AP, IB, or other). Topics include: the evolution and diversification of life, the form and function of plants and animals, and ecological interactions among organisms, with an emphasis on laboratory methods, data analysis, and science writing. Lab sections are shared with BISC 111. This course differs from BISC 111 in its smaller class size, a seminar-style format, and a focus on discussion of landmark scientific studies that shape this field; it meets for one discussion and one lab session per week. Either BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, or BISC 116; or BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y may be taken first. Students must attend lab during the first week in order to continue in the course.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Open to First-Yeas only. Biology AP score of 4 or 5, or IB HL Biology score of 6 or 7, or permission of the instructor. Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken BISC 111, BISC 111T, or BISC 113.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Other Categories: FYS - First Year Seminar

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

A foundation course that provides an integrated introduction to the application of chemical principles to understand biological systems and covers the content of both (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, or BISC 112Y) and CHEM 105. It is designed for students whose interests lie at the interface of chemistry and biology and must be taken concurrently with CHEM 116. Students will learn how structure and function of biological systems are shaped by principles of atomic properties and chemical bonding. Cellular metabolism and molecular genetics are integrated with quantitative introductions to thermodynamics, equilibrium, and kinetics. Other topics motivated by the application of chemistry to biology include nuclear chemistry and cellular growth and differentiation. The laboratory is a hands-on introduction to spectroscopy, microscopy, and other experimental techniques, as well as quantitative analysis, experimental design, and scientific writing. Successful completion of this course enables a student to take any course for which either CHEM105 or (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, or BISC 112Y) is a prerequisite.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 32

Prerequisites: One year of high school chemistry, math equivalent to two years of high school algebra, and fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken BISC 110 , BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, CHEM 105, CHEM 105P, or CHEM 120. Students must attend lab during the first week to continue in the course.

Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: CHEM 116-01 and BISC 116-01 are co-requisite courses and students must register for both sections at the same time. Students must also register simultaneously for a lab section (either BISC 116 L01 or BISC 116 L02). Students must attend the first lab session in order to continue in the course. Students with AP or IB credit in chemistry who elect this course forfeit the AP or IB credit.

This course applies  statistical theory to problems in  ecology and experimental biology to illustrate some of the more common techniques of experimental design and data analysis. Students will learn how to plan an experiment and consider the observations, measurements, and potential statistical tests before data are collected and analyzed. The course will enable students to work with complex datasets and distill them into meaningful information from which they can draw reasoned conclusions and communicate their findings. Specific topics include best practices in data visualization, probability distributions and their applications, one- and two-way ANOVA and t-tests, regression and ANCOVA, and nonparametric alternatives. The course will be run as a studio with combined lecture and hands-on data analysis using the open-source computing software R.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 27

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement and one course in biology, chemistry, ES 100 or ES 101.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

An introduction to the scientific study of the interrelationships among organisms and their interactions with the environment.  Topics include evolutionary adaptation in dynamic environments, behavioral ecology and life-history strategies, population dynamics, interactions among organisms, and the structure and function of biological communities and ecosystems. Emphasis is placed on the development of quantitative skills and reading the primary scientific literature to address issues such as the stability and resilience of ecosystems with climate change, conservation of endangered species, and the dynamics of infectious disease.  Laboratory will focus on applying ecological concepts to observational and experimental field data collection, data organization, and statistical analysis.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - BISC 201L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 28

Prerequisites: BISC 108 or (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y) or ES 100 or ES 101 or by permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF)

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 201.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: BISC 108 or (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y) or ES 100 or ES 101 or by permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Examination of evolution, the central paradigm of biology, at the level of populations, species, and lineages. Topics include the genetics of populations, the definition of species, the roles of natural selection and chance in evolution, the reconstruction of phylogeny, the evolution of sex, the impact of sexual selection, the importance of evolutionary thinking in medicine, and patterns in the origination of diversity, and extinction of species over time. Class work emphasizes collaborative work and reading and interpreting primary literature. Labs include hands-on assessments of genetic variation in populations using DNA and protein based analyses; exploration of computer simulations to understand the effects of genetic drift and student-designed experiments to assess the effects of natural selection in populations.

This course has a required co-requisite Laboratory - BISC 202L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y) or by permission of the instructor. (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, or BISC 112Y is strongly recommended.)

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 202.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y) or by permission of the instructor. (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, or BISC 112Y is strongly recommended.)

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

How do animals work?  This course addresses the structure, systems of physiology, and energetics of vertebrate animals, with comparisons of the adaptations of animals of different thermal regime, body size, lifestyle, and environment.  The laboratories include projects in diversity, digestion, muscle energetics, study of comparative anatomy through dissections of vertebrate specimens, and the use of statistics and graphing.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - BISC 203L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 24

Prerequisites: BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, BISC 113Y or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 203.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, BISC 113Y or permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

An overview of the physiology and development of land plants from the cell/molecular level to the whole organism. Topics include photosynthesis, transport systems, patterns and regulation of growth and development, and interactions with the environment – both biotic (pathogens, animals, other plants) and abiotic (light, water, temperature). Applied aspects including medicinal plants and the potential for biotechnology to increase food production in the face of climate change will be addressed. The investigative, exploratory laboratory sessions will provide an introduction to techniques currently employed in answering research questions ranging from the cellular to the organismal level.

This course has a required co-requisite Laboratory - BISC 207L

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, or BISC 116) or (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y) or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 207.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, or BISC 116) or (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y) or permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Comprehensive overview of the microbial world, with emphasis on bacteria. Topics include microbial cell structure and function, diversity, metabolism, evolution, genetics, and ecology. Also covered are applied aspects of microbiology with a focus on the food industry, biotechnology, human health, and the role microbes play in environmental processes. The course also covers different aspects of microbes and climate change, including the spread and emergence of infectious diseases and importance of microbes in global biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem resilience. Labs encompass inquiry-based projects exploring microbial ecology, metabolism and interactions between microbes, production of antibiotics, and sequence-based identification of microbes and microbial communities. Students will have the opportunity to design and conduct an experiment on microbes. Students must attend both lecture and lab during the first week in order to continue in the course.

This course has a required co-requisite Laboratory - BISC 209L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 24

Prerequisites: ((BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, or BISC 112Y) and one unit of college chemistry) or BISC 116.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 209.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: ((BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, or BISC 112Y) and one unit of college chemistry) or BISC 116.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and are our planet’s primary life support system. This course examines adaptations and interactions of plants and animals in a variety of marine habitats. Focal habitats include the photic zone of the open ocean, the deep-sea, subtidal and intertidal zones, estuaries, coral reefs and kelp forests. Emphasis is placed on the dominant organisms, food webs, and experimental studies conducted within each habitat, and the measures being taken to conserve these ecosystems. Laboratories will emphasize diversity of species in marine habitats and will highlight local coastal ecosystems. The course capstone will allow students to investigate a human impact on a marine ecosystem and propose solutions, supported by the scientific literature.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - BISC 210L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: One of the following (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, BISC 113Y) or ES 101; or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 210.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: One of the following (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, BISC 113Y) or ES 101; or permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

In meeting the challenges of survival and reproduction, animals have evolved behaviors that can be spectacular and sometimes unpleasant. With the goal of understanding how behaviors ultimately shape an animal's fitness, we will explore the aspects of life that make each animal's strategy unique, including communication, finding mates, parental care, and sociality. Laboratories will expose students to the challenges of experimental design and collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting data on animal behavior.

This course has a required co-requisite Laboratory - BISC 214L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 24

Prerequisites: BISC 109 or (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y) or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 214.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: BISC 109 or (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y) or permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

In this course, we will explore animal development beginning with the process of fertilization. We will consider how a single cell gives rise to the many specialized cell types of the adult and how the development of tissues is coordinated. The mechanisms that determine cell fate during embryonic development will be discussed. Topics will include: embryonic induction, pattern formation, organ development, regeneration, stem cells, and aging. Laboratory sessions will focus on experimental approaches to development. This course does not have a waitlist, we know enrollments shift and spaces open up, so check back regularly for spots.

This course has a required co-requisite Laboratory - BISC 216L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 24

Prerequisites: One of (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, or BISC 116) and one of (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y) or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 216.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: One of (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, or BISC 116) and one of (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y) or permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

The goal of the course is to develop an understanding of the fundamental principles of genetics at the molecular, cellular, organismal, and population levels. The course establishes a link between the generation of genetic variants through mutation and recombination, their patterns of inheritance, interactions between genes to produce complex phenotypes, and the maintenance of such genetic variation in natural populations. The course also explores principles of genome organization and the mechanisms that regulate gene expression. Other topics include: DNA sequencing and the use of genomic data to address questions in genetics, comparing and contrasting genetic regulation strategies across the three domains of life, and exploring experimental approaches for addressing genetic questions. Laboratory investigation will expose students to the fundamentals of genetics including transmission, molecular, and computational techniques for genetic analysis. Students must attend lab during the first week in order to continue in the course. During certain weeks, students are required to come in outside of scheduled lab time for approximately one hour 3-4 days after the scheduled lab. Please plan your schedule accordingly.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory: BIOC 219L/BISC 219L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 60

Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 219

Prerequisites: BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y or BISC 116. One unit of college chemistry is recommended. Not open to First-Year students.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BIOC 219/BISC 219.

The grading option chosen for the lecture (BIOC 219/BISC 219) - either Letter Grade or Credit/Non Credit - will apply to the lab as well; the final grade is a single unified grade for both lecture and lab and is based on the grading option you choose for the lecture section.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 219L

Prerequisites:

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Examines structure-function relationships in eukaryotic cells. We will explore the operation and regulation of molecular mechanisms that carry out processes central to life. Considerable emphasis is placed on experimental approaches for investigating the following topics: protein structure and function, biological membranes and transport, cytoskeletal assembly and function, protein biogenesis and trafficking, cell communication and signaling, the cell cycle, and intercellular interactions. Laboratory investigations will provide students with experience in classical and modern approaches to examine and quantify cellular processes.

This course has a required co-requisite Laboratory - BIOC 220L/BISC 220L.

Students must attend lab during the first week in order to continue in the course.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 48

Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 220

Prerequisites: One of the following (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, or BISC 112Y) and two units of college chemistry; or  BISC 116 and CHEM 116 and one unit of college chemistry. One semester of organic chemistry is recommended. Not open to First-Year students.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BIOC 220/BISC 220.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 220L

Prerequisites: One of the following (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, or BISC 112Y) and two units of college chemistry; or BISC 116 and CHEM 116 and one unit of college chemistry. One semester of organic chemistry is recommended. Not open to First-Year students.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

This course takes an integrated approach to the study of organ system function in humans. We will examine control mechanisms that allow the body to maintain a constant balance in the face of environmental challenges, such as exercise, temperature change, and high altitude. Our particular focus will be recent findings in the areas of neural, cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, and muscle physiology. In the laboratory, students gain experience with the tools of modern physiological research at both the cellular and organismal levels.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, BISC 113Y or NEUR 100) and (BISC 203 or NEUR 200).

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 302.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, BISC 113Y or NEUR 100) and (BISC 203 or NEUR 200).

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

In some countries, 3-5% of births are achieved with assisted reproductive technologies, and this number is projected to grow as societies become increasingly interested in beating the biological clock. This class will introduce the basic biology behind fertility and explore the etiology and diagnosis of infertility. We will cover the latest developments in reproductive science and consider the clinical challenges of translating research findings into medical treatments. We will discuss gonadal stem cells and their use for rejuvenation of fertility, oocyte and embryo cryopreservation, and mouse models with abnormal reproductive phenotypes. This class will highlight open questions in reproductive biology, familiarize students with both tried-and-true and emerging reproductive technologies, and explore the advantages and pitfalls of each. A major goal of the class is to teach students to read and critically evaluate the primary research literature. Student participation in discussions will be emphasized.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: One of the following (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, BISC 116) and two of the following three courses (BISC 219/BIOC 219, BIOC 220/BISC 220, BISC 216), or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course takes an anatomical approach to the study of the eleven organ systems of the human body. Using form and function as a guiding principle, we will examine body structures, how tissues build organs, how systems function together to produce the essential processes of life, and the impacts of disease. Students will learn and practice anatomical language through the exploration of clinical scenarios and the use of medical imaging for diagnosis applications. In the laboratory, students will gain a deeper understanding of human structures that are discussed in lecture using models, dissection, and virtual tools.

This course has a required co-requisite Laboratory - BISC 304L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y) and BISC 203, or permission of instructor.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 304.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, or BISC 113Y) and BISC 203, or permission of instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Tropical forests and coral reefs are among the most fascinating and diverse ecosystems, but unfortunately face an ever increasing number of threats. In this discussion based class, students present and analyze papers that illustrate how these ecosystems function, why they are struggling and what can be done to prevent further decline and to hopefully restore them. We will pay attention to the observational, experimental and analytical approaches that are used in this field of study. The week-long laboratory part takes place at the Central Caribbean Marine Institute in Little Cayman in mid-May. Students will have the opportunity to carry out their own research projects that they designed during the semester. To receive more information including the application form, please reach out to the department chair for more information.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: One of the following courses - BISC 201, BISC 202, BISC 207, BISC 210, BISC 214, or permission of the instructors.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The diversity of organismal forms has fascinated human beings for centuries.  How did butterflies get eyespots? What is the evolutionary origin of bird feathers? How did snakes get to be so long? How did humans evolve? The field of evolutionary developmental biology, or evo-devo, integrates the long-separate fields of evolutionary biology and developmental biology to answer these questions. In this course, we will explore topics such as the evolution of novelties, body plan evolution, developmental constraints, convergent evolution, and the role of environmental changes in evolution. Through reading of original papers, we will examine recent advances made in evo-devo and critically analyze the role of evo-devo in biology and the implications beyond biology.  Students will have the opportunity to design and conduct an independent research project using molecular tools in arthropods.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: BISC 202, or BISC 216, or BISC 219/BIOC 219, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Evolution is the foundation for all biology. We have long been able to recognize its contributions to understanding infectious disease and genetics, but we are yet far from realizing its full potential in the medicine field. We often think of the human body as an efficient machine. We view disease as a defect arising in an otherwise perfect device. An evolutionary perspective offers a more realistic view of the body as a product of natural selection: functional and remarkable in many ways, but also flawed in many ways, for good evolutionary reasons. In this course we will explore the premise that the human body and its pathogens are not perfectly designed machines but evolving biological systems shaped by selection under the constraints of tradeoffs that produce specific compromises and vulnerabilities. Through primary literature analysis, group presentations, student designed activities, and collaborative work, we will explore fundamental evolutionary principles such as arms races, maladaptation, evolutionary mismatch, and evolutionary theories of senescence, and their connections to medicine.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: One of the following (BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, BISC 113Y) and either (BISC 202 or BISC 219/BIOC 219), or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course delves into the rapidly evolving field of human microbiome research, an area significantly transformed by the advent of next-generation sequencing technologies. We will learn about microorganisms and microbial ecosystems within the human body and their impact on human health. Key topics include an overview of the human microbiome, advances in technologies, microbial diversity and function and its role in health and disease, the gut-brain axis and microbiome’s impact on neurocognitive development and mental health, microbiome and metabolic disorders, and other topics. Through a combination of lectures, critical analysis of recent research papers, and discussions, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the human microbiome's complexity and its significance in health and disease. This course aims to equip students with the knowledge to critically evaluate current research and contemplate the future direction of this exciting field, with an emphasis on ethical and responsible scientific practice.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: CHEM 105 and any of the following - BISC 201, BISC 202, BISC 209, BISC 210, BISC 219/BIOC 219 or BISC 220/ BIOC 220, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The availability of next generation sequencing in the last two decades has revolutionized the field of environmental microbiology. Although most of the microbial world remains to be discovered and explored, we are now starting to find answers to some central ecological questions such as: What microbes are present in various ecosystems? What is the distribution of each type of organism? What are their roles (functions)? How does each role relate to the magnitude of microbial activity? What factors influence microbial activity and interactions? We will explore the questions in the context of the human and fermented foods microbiomes. The topics will include microbial diversity, microbial evolution, phylogeny, physiology, metabolism, community ecology, genomics, metagenomics and proteomics. Through reading of original papers on the human microbiome, we will examine recent advances made in microbial ecology and critically analyze the role of microorganisms on human health and beyond. Students will have the opportunity to design and conduct an independent research project to explore the cheese microbiome.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: CHEM 211 and any of the following - BISC 201, BISC 202, BISC 209, BISC 210, BISC 219/BIOC 219 or BISC 220/ BIOC 220, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 314.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: CHEM 211 and any of the following - BISC 201, BISC 202, BISC 209, BISC 210, BISC 219/BIOC 219 or BISC 220/ BIOC 220, or permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Molecular genetic techniques, which allow us to identify, analyze and manipulate genes, have revolutionized our understanding of how organisms develop and function. This course focuses on the use of molecular genetic and genomic approaches to dissect and manipulate complex biological systems. In this semester-long project-based course, students will use these approaches to pursue an original research question in a genetic model organism. Seminar-style class sessions will focus on critical analysis, presentation and discussion of the primary literature relevant to the research project. In the laboratory, students will gain experience with a variety of current molecular genetic methods (e.g. DNA cloning and sequencing, PCR, genomic analysis, gene knock-outs, CRISPR, mutagenesis, bioinformatics) with an emphasis on experimental design and data analysis.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - BISC 316L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: BIOC 219/BISC 219 or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Fall

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 316.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: BIOC 219/BISC 219 or permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

CRISPR gene editing is at the center of an ongoing revolution in biology. This system for precise and efficient gene editing has led to numerous applications in medicine, agriculture and the environment. This course will examine the molecular genetic, cellular and biochemical principles that govern CRISPR and its myriad uses. Topics will include the microbial adaptive immune system and its modification for use as a gene editing tool, applications of CRISPR to the study and treatment of cancer and human diseases — both genetic and infectious, the use of CRISPR to engineer food crops that thrive in the face of climate change, CRISPR gene drives as tools to control disease-spreading insects and invasive species in wild populations, and CRISPR as a powerful tool to study model organisms and probe biological functions. We will also evaluate ethical and legal issues surrounding this revolutionary genome engineering system.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: BISC 219/BIOC 219 or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

Cell biology was born in the microscope, which now allows us to visualize the dynamic processes of life inside cells. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine how scientists address physiologically significant questions using microscopy and imaging approaches. The course’s main goal is to empower students to explore and evaluate the use of microscopy in cell and molecular biology. We study the development and utilization of qualitative and quantitative optical microscopy techniques, focusing on fluorescence microscopy. Theoretical and practical fundamentals are discussed, and student analysis of review and primary literature is integral to this course. Class meetings may include a combination of introductory lectures, literature discussions, student presentations throughout the semester, and hands-on experience in the laboratory where students work with research-grade microscopes. Student-designed investigations will incorporate the expression and assessment of fluorescent protein tags in mammalian cell model systems with an emphasis on experimental design and image analysis. Assignments and activities are designed to help students learn to collaborate successfully to solve problems in an interdisciplinary team.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - BISC 329L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Two 200-level BISC or BIOC courses, one of which is BISC 219/BIOC 219 or BISC 220/BIOC 220, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 329.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Two 200-level BISC or BIOC courses, one of which is BISC 219/BIOC 219 or BISC 220/BIOC 220, or permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Computational analyses of large-scale datasets have become central to modern biology. In this class, students will learn how 'omics' techniques such as genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics can help to answer questions in diverse fields ranging from cell biology to ecology and evolution. Lectures and discussions of primary literature will utilize examples from microbiology to introduce students to the design, analysis, and interpretation of 'omics'-based studies. We will explore the theory behind key bioinformatic algorithms and gain hands-on experience applying these tools to real datasets. The laboratory will culminate in an original research project utilizing genomic data to study microbial ecosystems. Topics covered include genome sequencing, assembly and interpretation; comparative genomics; metagenomics; transcriptomics; metabolic models; network analysis; and machine learning.

This course has a required co-requisite Laboratory - BISC 333L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: BISC 219/BIOC 219 or BISC 209; or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BISC 333.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: BISC 219/BIOC 219 or BISC 209; or permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course will explore the underlying mechanisms of a variety of human diseases whose causes have been heavily studied at the cellular and molecular level. We will take a research-oriented approach to the material through critical reading and analysis of primary literature on each topic and we will explore how this knowledge informs the design, development and implementation of treatments. Topics of study may include diseases related to: metabolism, genetics, protein folding, cytoskeleton, membrane trafficking, inflammation, and/or pathogenic infection. This course will utilize a combination of lectures to introduce general concepts, seminar-style discussions of primary literature articles, and student presentations throughout the semester.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: BIOC 220/BISC 220

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

In this course, we will analyze the molecular, cellular, and biochemical mechanisms involved in the development and function of the immune system. We will also explore the immunological basis of infectious diseases (e.g. influenza and tuberculosis), allergic disorders, autoimmune diseases (e.g. multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis), immunodeficiency syndromes (e.g. AIDS), transplantation, and cancer. This course will utilize a combination of lectures to introduce new material, seminar-style discussions of primary research articles, and student presentations.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Two 200-level BISC/BIOC courses. At least one of these 200-level courses must be either BISC 219/ BIOC 219 or BISC 220/ BIOC 220.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

Warfare, communication, agriculture, and caring for family are phenomena that are typically attributed to human societies, but social insects do these same things. In this course, we will explore the weird and wonderful world of social insects to discover why sociality is the most successful animal strategy on the planet. We will learn about how conflict and selfishness have shaped the cooperative effort that characterizes these seemingly utopian communities, and why human survival depends on their ecosystem services. Using social insects as a lens for major themes in biology, we will discuss biodiversity, invasions, animal communication and cognition, self-organized systems and the evolution of biological oddities. The course will focus on discussion of classic literature, groundbreaking research, and topical writing for the sciences and general public. Group activities will also include excursions outdoors and a book club.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: BISC 201, BISC 202, or BISC 214 or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Scientists have made great progress revealing intricate details of many biological processes. They understand the importance of their work like the back of their hands. The scientific literacy of the general public, however, has not kept pace. This seminar aims to equip students with the writing skills necessary to communicate important ideas from a breadth of biological disciplines in an exciting, clear and relevant manner to a range of audiences. The body of work created in this class will include short pieces on articles from the primary literature, reviews of presentations and magazine articles by experts, as well as op-eds on scientific issues of interest and a profile of a scientist of choice. Peer editing and writing workshops play a large part, aiding students as they write multiple drafts of each assignment.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: Any two BISC 200-level courses or permission of the instructor. Open to Juniors and Seniors only.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Independent research supervised by a member of the faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences or an off-campus director. Off-campus projects require an on-campus advisor from the department. Students will be expected to devote 10-12 hours per week to their research.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

Independent research supervised by a member of the faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences or an off-campus director. Off-campus projects require an on-campus advisor from the department. Students will be expected to devote 5-6 hours per week to their research.

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

The first course in a two-semester investigation of a significant research problem, in the preparation of a thesis and defense of that thesis before a committee of faculty from the Department of Biological Sciences. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Thesis Research (365) in the second semester.This route does not lead to departmental honors.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Open only to Seniors with permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester. This route can lead to departmental honors.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

The second course in a two-semester investigation of a significant research problem, culminating in the preparation of a thesis and defense of that thesis before a committee of faculty from the Department of Biological Sciences. This route does not lead to departmental honors.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: BISC 355 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: BISC 360 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

What makes an informed and engaged citizen of media, culture, and society in the second quarter of the 21st century? This course will equip students with crucial skills for navigating contemporary media environments: how to engage in formal and visual analysis across media, how to be discerning consumers of information, and how to think critically about the political and economic systems that structure our heavily mediated lives. Critical terms for the study of media, such as industry, information, infrastructure, interactivity, networks, publics, screens, will be examined through the analysis of various media artifacts from photography, cinema, broadcast TV and digital platforms.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None. Open to First-Years, Sophomores and Juniors.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

This course introduces students to the study of audio-visual media, including oral, print, photographic, cinematic, broadcast, and digital media forms and practices. Using a case study approach, we will explore the nature of audio-visual communication/representation in historical, cultural, disciplinary, and media-specific contexts, and examine different theoretical and critical perspectives on the role and power of media to influence our social values, political beliefs, identities, and behaviors. We'll also consider how consumers of media representations can and do contest and unsettle their embedded messages. Our emphasis will be on developing the research and analytical tools, modes of reading, and forms of critical practice that can help us to negotiate the increasingly mediated world in which we live.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: Required weekly film screening.

In an age of algorithmic automation, mass surveillance, and the commodification of social relations, this course asks the question: is technology evil? Using that provocation as a means to investigate the design, use, and economics of social media and other digital objects, we will read a mix of academic and popular texts that treat new media as a problem—not as an unqualified ill, but as something to be carefully considered in all of its immense power and pervasiveness in everyday life. Through an introduction to the methodologies of visual analysis, and close reading, we will think critically about the role of mass media in the production of consuming subjects, of the representations of race, gender and sexuality in new media, and the nature and role of aesthetics and design in contemporary life.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: None. Open to First-Years only.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Other Categories: FYS - First Year Seminar

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This introductory course explores video as an art form. Organized around a series of assignments designed to survey a range of production strategies, the course is a primer to the technical and conceptual aspects of video production and to its historical, critical, and technical discourse. Relationships between video and television, film, installation, and performance art are investigated emphasizing video as a critical intervention in social and visual arts contexts. Weekly readings, screenings, discussions and critique, explore contemporary issues in video and help students develop individual aesthetic and critical skills. Practical knowledge is integrated through lighting, video/sound production and editing workshops.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 14

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 135

Prerequisites: Open to First-Years, Sophomores, and Juniors. Seniors by permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: Meets the Production requirement for CAMS majors. Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

Photo I is a foundational studio course exploring key methods and concepts in analog photography and visual media. Technical skills will be addressed through camera and darkroom work and the discussion of photographic images. Studio assignments, readings, discussions, lectures, gallery visits, and critiques will help students understand photography's broader role in contemporary art, history, and society. Aimed for first year and sophomore students, and those pursuing majors in Studio Art, MAS, or CAMS.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 138

Prerequisites: None. Open to First-Years and Sophomores. Juniors and Seniors by permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Meets Production requirement for CAMS major.

This course investigates the technological, economic, and cultural determinants behind forms of media from the last 150 years, including the telephone, the telegraph, photography, and film, as well as new media like virtual reality and interactive media. If photography realized the desire to transcend mortality and early cinema fulfilled the dream to depict the world, their missions have been extended by technologies that seek to invent new worlds as well as material and virtual realities. Relying on a material theory of film and audio-visual media, the course examines both technologies of making and of circulation, exploring the commercial potential of the entertainment industry. The course will employ relevant texts, films, and other audio-visual artifacts.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: One of the following - CAMS 100, CAMS 101, ARTS 165/CAMS 135, ARTS 108/CAMS 138, any CAMS 200-level course, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Examining cinematic forms and styles, this course retraces film's emergence and development as an art and its relations to other artistic, cultural, technological, and socio-economic practices. Analysis of representative films will help understand cinema's relationship to reality, including its reproduction and construction of the "real," the changing terms of spectatorship, and the ways in which film aesthetics have been employed to build ideology and interrogate it. Understanding form as inextricably bound to content, we will appreciate the aesthetic significance of formal choices and innovations within particular films, directorial oeuvres, periods and movements, from classical Hollywood cinema to European New Waves of the 60s and 70s, to the contemporary cinemas of Asia and Latin America.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: One of the following - CAMS 100, CAMS 101, CAMS 105, ARTS 165/CAMS 135, ARTS 108/CAMS 138; or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Photography is so much a part of our private and public lives, and it plays such an influential role in our environment, that we often forget to examine its aesthetics, meanings, and histories. This course provides an introduction to these analyses by examining the history of photography from the 1830s to the present. Considering fine arts and mass media practices, the class will examine the works of individual practitioners as well as the emergence of technologies, aesthetic directions, markets, and meanings.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 20 7

Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 strongly recommended.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The standard narrative of digital technologies is that they change the world for the better: they facilitate access to information and create new efficiencies in labor and entertainment. But does this story accurately reflect the impact of technology on global society? In this course, we will undertake a critical investigation of the seminal moments and objects in the history of computing, from cybernetics to social media. Along the way, we will work to focus on perspectives that have too often remained invisible in this history, for instance the gendered role of labor in computer programming and production and the prevalence of social bias in the design and function of technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course explores the history and theory of queer cinema through the lens of contemporary media studies. Rather than separating film from other media, we will study the ways in which queer cinema has always trafficked with the broader landscape of queer cultural production, including literature, television, art, and activist speech. The course will thus ultimately examine queerness as a question of aesthetic form: How is queerness be rendered through experiments in filmic color? Or sound and sonics? Does transgender cinema represent a distinct genre of film or has it been part of queer cinema from the beginning?

To better understand these questions, we will situate our study of queer cinema and media within the history of LGBTQIA + political struggle, both in the United States and globally. We will study, for example, film and video production during the American AIDS crisis and examine its relationship to queer activism. We’ll also ask after the political promise of platforms like TikTok and Instagram: Do they have the potential to build queer utopia? Has social media inherited or betrayed the radical political vision of older queer cinemas?

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

In this course we will investigate the relationship between the individual, the mass, and the medium from the early twentieth century to today. We will begin with the phenomenon of mass media and the idea of popular culture as it has historically been constituted by the film, television, and radio industries. We will then turn our attention to contemporary algorithmic media, from streaming platforms like Netflix and Spotify to social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. Through an engagement with major theoretical works in media studies and the formal analysis of media objects including films, TV shows, and video games, we will consider the ways that popular media across a range of historical and cultural contexts have been theorized in terms of identity, social control, and spectacle.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Why is it that only a limited number of filmmakers and national cinemas figure prominently in histories of cinema? Why do film scholars tend to prioritize artistic direction and ignore the labor of technicians or seasonal employees? Why is Alice Guy-Blaché overshadowed by the “great men” who, it is claimed, “invented” cinema? With such questions in mind, we will re-scan conventional film historiography and claim places for previously overlooked individuals and practices. We seek to create an inclusive canon that acknowledges the work of women, minor cinemas, and indigenous communities. In an endeavor to decolonize film history, this course will take a global approach to cinema’s rich and vastly unsurveyed legacy of more than a century.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course will consider how documentary film and media have responded to the expansion of digital technology, the birth of social media, and a rapidly evolving media environment to engage with contemporary global concerns like climate change, migration, and rising authoritarian politics. Students will gain a familiarity with issues central to documentary studies like voice, authority, authenticity, and evidence and analyze a variety of non-fiction texts from the past twenty years, in media forms ranging from theatrical film and broadcast television to podcasts and documentary games. Assignments will include response papers, an analytical essay, and a class presentation.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course surveys the history, theory, and practice of documentary film, considering the ways its forms and ethics have changed since the beginning of cinema. We study the major modes of the documentary, including cinema verité, direct cinema, investigative documentary, ethnographic film, agit-prop and activist media, and the personal essay, as well as recent forms such as the docudrama, the archival film, “mockumentary,” and Web-based forms. We will examine the “reality effects” of these works, focusing on the ways in which they create their authority. We will ask: How do these films shape notions of truth, reality, and point of view? What are the ethics and politics of representation and who speaks for whom when we watch a documentary? What do documentaries make visible or conceal?

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The history of Chicanxs and Latines on the big screen is a long and complicated one. To understand the changes that have occurred in the representation of the Chicanx/Latine community, this course proposes an analysis of films that traces various stereotypes to examine how those images have been perpetuated, altered, and ultimately resisted. From the Anglicizing of names to the erasure of racial backgrounds, the ways in which Chicanxs and Latines are represented has been contingent on ideologies of race, gender, class, and sexuality. We will examine how films have typecast Chicanas/Latinas as criminals or as "exotic" based on their status as women of color, and how filmmakers continue the practice of casting Chicanas/Latinas solely as supporting characters to male protagonists.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 223

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

How did cinema, originally hailed as a popular entertainment, achieve the social legitimacy that elevated it to the rank of an art form and an industrial force? This course examines the development of cinema as an institution from its origins to its present digital extensions, with a particular focus on the United States and its dominance in the domestic and global markets. Relying on academic scholarship, film criticism, and a selection of films, we will examine the historical, social, and aesthetic conditions that led to the creation of the movie theater, art houses, and multiplexes, as well as cinema's relationship to television and online streaming. The study of the screening technologies and physical spaces will be accompanied by an analysis of how race, gender, and class played in drawing in or keeping out moviegoers.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Creative exploration of the moving image as it relates to digital methods of animation, video, and motion graphics. Hands-on production of audio, image, text, and time-based media synthesis, with a conceptual emphasis on nonlinear narrative, communication design, and visual expression. Screenings and lectures on historical and contemporary practices, coupled with readings and discussions of the theoretical, artistic, and cultural issues in the moving image.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 230

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course, or ARTS 221/CAMS 239.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course. This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement.

This course introduces students to key analytic frameworks through which media and the mediation of culture have been examined. Using an anthropological approach, students will explore how media as representation and as cultural practice have been fundamental to the (trans)formation of modern sensibilities and social relations. We will examine various technologies of mediation-from the Maussian body as “Man's first technical instrument” to print capitalism, radio and cassette cultures, cinematic and televisual publics, war journalism, the digital revolution, and the political milieu of spin and public relations. Themes in this course include: media in the transformation of the senses; media in the production of cultural subjectivities and publics; and the social worlds and cultural logics of media institutions and sites of production.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 232

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

An intermediate level studio that guides students through different approaches to film/video production while challenging linear narrative and documentary conventions. Students experiment with non-narrative approaches to content, structure, and technique. Investigations of space and performance are informed by poetry, literature, sound, color, fragmentation, and abstraction. Building upon the historical legacy of the moving image, students incorporate self-exploration, social critique, and manipulation of raw experience into an aesthetic form. Students develop independent or collaborative moving image and/or performance projects and articulate their artistic process through a series of presentations and critiques.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 14

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 235

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: Meets the Production requirement for CAMS majors. CAMS majors who have taken CAMS 201 are encouraged to register for this class instead of ARTS 165/CAMS 135.

This course introduces students to the new literacy of Artificial Intelligence. It is designed to support the development of student agency and skills in analyzing AI through humanities and media studies. We will examine AI from historical, cultural, and technological perspectives through readings, screenings, lectures, discussions, small-group work, and critical making. Readings will cover a range of methodologies, from media history, media archaeology, and cultural studies to posthumanism, feminist theory, and decolonial approaches. This work will encourage students to expand their understanding of what AI is and how it reshapes cultural order, social relations, and human–machine interaction. The course will culminate in a final writing or making project and a collective online exhibition of student work.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Photo II focuses on digital photography, photographic color theory, studio and location lighting, digital retouching, inkjet printing, and Adobe software. Assignments address contemporary and historic theories of photography as contemporary art and the aesthetic and cultural implications of the ubiquity of digital photography. Studio assignments, readings, discussions, lectures, gallery visits, and critiques will help students prepare for project-based work.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 238

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Introduction to artistic production through electronic imaging, manipulation, and output. Emphasis on expression, continuity, and sequential structuring of visuals through the integration of image, text, and motion. Image output for print, screen, and adaptive surfaces are explored in conjunction with production techniques of image capture, lighting, and processing. Lectures and screenings of historic and contemporary uses of technology for artistic and social application of electronic imaging.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 239

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This will be a course about the future and how it is made. We will look at multiple modes of speculation, including financial speculation, speculative storytelling through fiction and cinema, and speculative political claims on new futures. Each of these modes of speculation will imagine and predict radically different futures, and each mode will tell us something crucial about economic, cultural, and political life in the US. We will study the rise of futures trading and money as a speculative media technology; read some of Octavia Butler’s fiction and watch sci-fi movies; and look at contemporary movements for debt cancellation, prison abolition, and climate justice. Readings will draw from film and media studies, Black feminism, queer theory, anti-colonialist thought, and Marxism.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 245

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Defying repeated prophecies of the “death of cinema,” 21st century filmmaking has shown extraordinary vitality across the globe. In this course, we will explore some of the remarkable cinema produced since the turn of the millennium, from both long-prominent filmmaking nations, such as the United States, Japan, and France, and cinematic domains new to international audiences, such as Romania, Taiwan, and Greece. We will study the complex interplay between aesthetic, ideological, economic, and technological concerns in a range of recent films, exploring how contemporary filmmakers combine traditional cinematic forms and emerging new media technologies, and the ways they are broadening and transforming the possibilities of filmmaking. We will aim to deepen both our appreciation and our understanding of some of the most compelling films made in recent decades, and of the cinematic medium itself.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 10

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and director of Cinema and Media Studies required.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 10

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and director of Cinema and Media Studies required.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This course will look at representations of prisons, policing, and criminality across US cinema history. We will watch a wide range of movies, from Thomas Edison’s 1901 recreation of Leon Czolgosz’s execution to classic noir, cop procedurals, crime thrillers, horror, and science fiction. Readings will draw from abolitionist, feminist, Marxist, and Black Radical traditions to guide our attention to the ideologies of crime, punishment, policing and incarceration that circulate in and spill out of US cinema. Readings will occasionally invite us to step back and think about the role of cinema in the production of what Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Jordan T. Camp have called “carceral commonsense.” In addition to Gilmore and Camp, authors will include Angela Y. Davis, Khalil Gibran Muhammed, Dylan Rodriguez, W.E.B Du Bois, Assata Shakur, Stuart Hall, Mariame Kaba, Jonathon Finn, Eric A. Stanley, Gina Dent, Simone Browne, and Erin Gray.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 254

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Critical examination of the expanding field of information and interface design for interactive media. Emphasis will be on effective visual communication, information design, and creative content creation for online and digital platforms. Hands-on production will focus on design methods, theory, limitations leading to innovative approaches. Screenings and discussions on contemporary practices, theoretical, artistic, and cultural issues.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 255

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ARTS course and either CS 110 or CS 111.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

From worries about digital surveillance, to the widespread dissemination of misinformation, we live in a paranoid age. But technological anxiety and mistrust are hardly new to our culture. We will see how emerging media technologies have been met with fear throughout history—from beliefs that early electronic media such as radio could contact other worlds, to contemporary concerns about how corporations and governments track our every behavior. We will trace how popular media such as film have represented paranoia, from 1950s science fiction to 1970s thrillers, and conclude by examining how paranoia is central to so much of today’s popular culture and political discourse. Central to our exploration will be an examination of how our understanding of “reality” has shifted alongside our adaptation of emerging technologies.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

“Weimar cinema” brings to mind expressionist films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, films that Siegfried Kracauer called “[m]acabre, sinister, morbid” and saw as “exposing the German soul.” But Weimar cinema was more than this: producing an average of 250 films yearly, including comedies, musicals, farces, detective serials, and big-budget historical dramas, it was one of the most significant eras in film history and had an international impact. Weimar film is thus both bound up with national developments and connected to the global film scene. In examining Weimar cinema, this course traces some of the key technological, social, and economic developments that shaped the film industry and considers the long-lasting international influence of Weimar filmmakers’ innovations.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

In 1895, the first movie camera filmed workers leaving a factory. That movie camera has been replaced by a security camera that both protects and monitors those workers. From the early cameras to the latest technologies, the history of cinema and media can be understood as a recurrent series of surveillance techniques. This course examines surveillance technologies and monitoring practices to explore how technology and ideology came to play together in audio-visual forms. We will examine the politics and ethics of security and surveillance, stretching from the first manifestations of voyeuristic photography  to such modern forms as drones, GPS and user security on social media. Course materials will include readings as well as features, documentaries and video installations.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: CAMS 201 or CAMS 202, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

What does it mean to be human in the digital age? Where do modern Western ideas of humanity or subjectivity come from, and how are they changing in an age of global commerce and digital technology? In this course, we will explore these questions under the broad rubric of posthumanism, a multi-disciplinary body of literature which is concerned with the ways that the concepts of humanism and identity are manifest with and through modern technology. We will investigate posthumanism and related concepts from multiple perspectives: cultural, historical, philosophical, and aesthetic, with a particular emphasis on representations of identity and labor in popular culture, from film and television to digital media.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: CAMS 201 or CAMS 202, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This course examines how the over 4,000 annual film festivals impact the economics, circulation, and aesthetics of cinema. Events like Cannes, Berlin, and Venice may be known for glitzy red carpet premieres but are also important nodes in the global film market; less well-known, local, or niche festivals bring communities together and raise awareness about social issues. Students will learn the history of major A-level festivals and examine their global geopolitical implications. Furthermore, academic texts from the new and burgeoning subfield of festival studies will help us consider film’s role in conversations about human rights, environmentalism, and LGBTQ+ identity. Students will compare festival histories, objectives, and programming to construct arguments about how festivals have impacted global film circulation. Students will also plan a hypothetical festival to think through the practical concerns of programming.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: Either CAMS 201 or CAMS 202, and an additional 200-level CAMS course.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Introduction to the design and production of three-dimensional objects and spaces using industry-standard modeling software. Overview of basic modeling, surface design, and camera techniques. Emphasis on creative application of the media, in relation to architectural, experimental, and time-based forms. Screenings and lectures on traditional and contemporary practices, coupled with readings and discussions of the theoretical, artistic, and cultural issues in the virtual world.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 313

Prerequisites: Any ARTS course. Strong computer familiarity needed.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

What is “real” and what is “reality” in an age of artificial intelligence, photorealistic (but fake) images, and immersive simulations like VR? In this course we will investigate these questions from a historical, theoretical, and aesthetic perspective. We will examine a range of media, from 19th century immersive technologies like the stereoscope to contemporary digital media like video games to VR, in order to situate them both within and against traditions of aesthetic realism, in both Western and Non-Western countries. Through an examination of these and other objects, our goal will be to develop a set of tools for interpreting reality and realism as historical concepts that change over time with and through the evolution of media technologies.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: CAMS 201 or CAMS 202 or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Various topics in New Media are explored through research, creative activity, and theoretical discussion. Topics address historical as well as contemporary issues that bridge art and technology. This is an advanced level New Media course giving students the opportunity to focus on personal projects, explore contemporary and historical new media concepts as well as receive critiques from other students. Topics covered will focus on media history and research, contemporary intermedia artists, designers, thinkers and scientists, along with readings and discussions. Collaboration will be encouraged between Studio Art, Architecture, Music, CAMS, Media Arts, Theater and Computer Science. This course may be used to fulfill the capstone requirement for MAS.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 321

Prerequisites: Two 200-level courses in ARTS, CAMS, or MAS.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course may be repeated once for credit.

We constantly describe films with labels like action, horror, rom-com, sci-fi, musical, western, but where do those categories come from, and how do we decide what belongs within them? This course will explore the concept of film genre in terms both theoretical and practical. We’ll examine the antecedents of cinema’s genre system in literary criticism, read key works of film genre theory, and watch films in a wide range of genres. Among the questions we’ll address are: How do ideas about genre help us understand the cinematic experience? How do genre categories influence the production and marketing of films, and the discourse around them? How do ideas about genre connect to social identities, such as race and gender, to create categories like “chick flick” or “Blaxploitation”? What criteria differentiate the genres we value from those we don’t?

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Either CAMS 201 or CAMS 202, and an additional 200-level CAMS course.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This advanced-level projects class centers on the production and critique of individual lens-based media, including film/video, photography, and digital time-based media. Students will develop semester-long projects and will articulate their artistic process through a series of presentations and critiques over the semester structured alongside screenings, readings, invited lectures, and discussions that investigate various positions from artists and directors on the dynamics of space on screen. This is a project-based rather than an assignment-based class, and students will be encouraged to try new techniques and exercises as their work progresses over the semester. Students work individually and in groups and will participate in their peers' production exercises.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 14

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 335

Prerequisites: One of the following - ARTS 165/CAMS 135, ARTS 208/CAMS 238, ARTS 265/CAMS 235, ARTS 308/CAMS 338, ARTS 221/CAMS 239, ARTS 255/CAMS 255, ARTS 260/CAMS 230, ARTS 313/CAMS 313, ARTS 321/CAMS 321, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: Meets the Capstone requirement for MAS majors.

Advanced explorations of aesthetic and content issues through the use of both traditional light-sensitive and digital methodologies. Advanced photographic techniques and equipment will be presented in response to each student's work. Continued emphasis is placed on research into the content and context of the photographic image in contemporary practice through visiting artist events as well as gallery and museum visits.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 338

Prerequisites: One of the following - ARTS 108/CAMS 138, ARTS 208/CAMS 238; or permission of the instructor required.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 10

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the director.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

This advanced-level studio class is for students interested in exploring the relationship between architecture, narrative and digital space. The class will begin with research into filmic environments that utilize place, architecture and objects as narrative tools. We will look at the use of interiors and exteriors, circulation between spaces, and the use of props and/or computer generated imagery to create space. Our focus will be on the construction of cinematic space as a formal and conceptual component of storytelling. Using architecture, installation, performance, film, and literature as guides to navigating both constructed and conceptual landscapes, students projects will explore advanced strategies of image and sound manipulation, both technical and conceptual. Students will develop semester-long projects and will articulate their artistic process through a series of presentations and critiques over the semester focusing on a project that integrates digital and physical narrative spaces.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 14

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 366

Prerequisites: One of the following - CAMS 101, ARTS165/ CAMS 135, ARTS 265/ CAMS 235, ARTS 216, an MIT Architecture Studio, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: CAMS 360 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

This course is designed to deepen students' understanding of the skills and topics taught in introductory chemistry. Enrollment is by invitation only and will draw from students concurrently enrolled in CHEM 105. The class will link the skills and concepts covered in CHEM 105 to topics of current interest including food science, environmental pollution and remediation, nuclear power, and alternative fuels. Students will gain a better understanding of the ways the tools they are learning in introductory chemistry can be applied to real world situations.

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Students must be simultaneously enrolled in CHEM 105.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

This course is designed for students majoring in the physical and biological sciences as well as those wishing an introduction to modern molecular science. Core principles and applications of chemistry are combined to provide students with a conceptual understanding of chemistry that will help them in both their professional and everyday lives. Topics include principles of nuclear chemistry, atomic and molecular structure, molecular energetics, chemical equilibrium, and chemical kinetics. The laboratory work introduces students to synthesis and structural determination by infrared and other spectroscopic techniques, periodic properties, computational chemistry, statistical analysis, and various quantitative methods of analysis. This course is intended for students who have taken one year of high school chemistry and have a math background equivalent to two years of high school algebra. Students who have AP or IB credit in chemistry, and who elect CHEM 105, forfeit the AP or IB credit.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - CHEM 105L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 32

Prerequisites: One year of high school chemistry. Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken CHEM 105P, CHEM 116, or CHEM 120.

Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for CHEM 105.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: One year of high school chemistry. Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken CHEM 105P, CHEM 116, or CHEM 120.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This course is designed for students interested in pursuing further study in the physical and biological sciences, as well as those wishing an introduction to modern molecular science. Core principles and applications of chemistry are combined to provide students with a conceptual understanding of chemistry that will help them in both their professional and everyday lives. Topics include principles of nuclear chemistry, atomic and molecular structure, thermodynamics, chemical equilibrium, and chemical kinetics. The laboratory work introduces students to synthesis and structural determination by infrared and other spectroscopic techniques, periodic properties, computational chemistry, statistical analysis, and various quantitative methods of analysis. This course is intended for students who do not meet the prerequisites for CHEM 105 or for students who, because of their previous chemistry and math experiences, would appreciate additional academic support for the study of introductory chemistry. Includes two additional class meetings each week. Students in CHEM 105P must enroll in CHEM 105P lab.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Open by permission of the instructor to students regardless of high school background or whether the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement has been fulfilled. Not open to students who have taken CHEM 105, CHEM 116, or CHEM 120

Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This gateway course provides an integrated introduction to the application of chemical principles to understand biological systems and covers the content of both BISC 110/BISC 110P/BISC 112/BISC 112Y and CHEM 105. It is designed for students whose interests lie at the interface of chemistry and biology and must be taken concurrently with BISC 116. Students will learn how structure and function of biological systems are shaped by principles of atomic properties and chemical bonding. Cellular metabolism and molecular genetics are integrated with quantitative introductions to thermodynamics, equilibrium, and kinetics. Other topics motivated by the application of chemistry to biology include nuclear chemistry and cellular growth and differentiation. The laboratory is a hands-on introduction to spectroscopy, microscopy, and other experimental techniques, as well as quantitative analysis, experimental design, and scientific writing. Successful completion of this course enables a student to take any course for which either CHEM105 or BISC 110/BISC 110P/BISC 112/BISC 112Y is a prerequisite.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 32

Prerequisites: One year of high school chemistry, math equivalent to two years of high school algebra, and fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken BISC 110/BISC 110P, BISC 112/BISC 112Y, CHEM 105, CHEM 105P, or CHEM 120. Students must attend lab during the first week to continue in the course.

Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: CHEM 116-01 and BISC 116-01 are co-requisite courses and students must register for both sections at the same time. Students must also register simultaneously for a lab section (either BISC 116 L01 or BISC 116 L02). Students must attend the first lab session in order to continue in the course. Students with AP or IB credit in chemistry who elect this course forfeit the AP or IB credit.

A one-semester course for students who have completed more than one year of high school chemistry, replacing CHEM 105 and CHEM 205 as a prerequisite for more advanced chemistry courses. It presents the topics of nuclear chemistry, atomic structure and bonding, periodicity, kinetics, thermodynamics, electrochemistry, equilibrium, acid/base chemistry, solubility, and transition metal chemistry. All of these topics are presented in the context of both historical and contemporary applications. The laboratory includes experiments directly related to topics covered in lecture, an introduction to statistical analysis of data, molecular modeling and computational chemistry, instrumental and classical methods of analysis, thermochemistry, and solution equilibria. The course meets for four periods of lecture/discussion and one 3.5-hour laboratory.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 48

Prerequisites: Open to students who have a score of 4 or 5 on the Chemistry AP exam or an IB Chemistry higher level score of 5 or above. Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have completed CHEM 105, CHEM 105P, CHEM 116 and/or CHEM 205.

Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This course builds on the principles introduced in CHEM 105, with an emphasis on chemical equilibrium and analysis, and their role in the chemistry of the environment. Topics include chemical reactions in aqueous solution with particular emphasis on acids and bases; solubility and complexation; electrochemistry; modeling of complex equilibrium and kinetic systems; statistical analysis of data; and solid state chemistry. The laboratory work includes additional experience with instrumental and noninstrumental methods of analysis, sampling, and solution equilibria.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - CHEM 205L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 42

Prerequisites: CHEM 105 or CHEM 105P or CHEM 116 and fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement (formerly QR-Basic Skills). Not open to students who have taken CHEM 120

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF)

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for CHEM 205.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: CHEM 105 or CHEM 105P or CHEM 116 and fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement (formerly QR-Basic Skills). Not open to students who have taken CHEM 120.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Topics covered include: stereochemistry, synthesis and reactions of alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, alkyl halides, alcohols and ethers, nomenclature of organic functional groups, polarimetry, IR, C-NMR, and GC/MS.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - CHEM 211L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 36

Prerequisites: CHEM 105, CHEM 105P, CHEM 116, or CHEM 120.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for CHEM 211.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: CHEM 105, CHEM 105P, CHEM 116, or CHEM 120.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

A continuation of CHEM 211. Includes NMR spectroscopy, synthesis, reactions of aromatic and carbonyl compounds, amines, and carbohydrates. In addition, students are expected to study the chemical literature and write a short chemistry review paper.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - CHEM 212L

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 36

Prerequisites: CHEM 211.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for CHEM 212.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: CHEM 211.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This course brings together the fundamental multidisciplinary concepts governing life at the molecular level and opens a gateway to advanced biochemistry offerings. Grounded in an understanding of aqueous equilibria, thermodynamic, kinetic, and spectroscopic principles, the course will emphasize the structure and function of proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and lipids. The laboratory introduces modern laboratory techniques for the study of biomolecules and develops experimental design and critical data analysis skills. The laboratory component can be of particular value to students planning or engaged in independent research and those considering graduate level work related to biochemistry. This course counts toward Chemistry or Biochemistry major requirements.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - BIOC 223L/CHEM 223L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 18

Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 223

Prerequisites: (CHEM 205 or CHEM 120) and CHEM 211 and one of the following (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, BISC 116, CHEM 212). Open only to Biochemistry or Chemistry majors, or by permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for BIOC 223L/CHEM 223L.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 6

Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 223L

Prerequisites: (CHEM 205 or CHEM 120) and CHEM 211 and one of the following (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, BISC 116, CHEM 212), and permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

A survey of the chemical foundations of life processes, with focus on theory and applications relevant to medicine. Topics include bioenergetics, metabolism, and macromolecular structure. Essential skills such as data analysis and understanding of the primary literature will be approached through in-class discussions and application to current biomedical problems. This course is suitable for students wanting an overview of biochemistry, but it will not contain the experimental introduction to biochemical methods and laboratory instrumentation required for the Chemistry and Biochemistry majors.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 24

Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 227

Prerequisites: (CHEM 205 or CHEM 120) and CHEM 211 and one of the following (BISC 110, BISC 110P, BISC 112, BISC 112Y, BISC 116). Not open to students who have completed BIOC 223/CHEM 223.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Does not count toward the minimum major in Chemistry.

Research is supervised by a member of the Wellesley College chemistry department. Off-campus research requires active participation of a Wellesley faculty member throughout the research period. Course fulfills the research requirement for the major only upon completion of a paper of 8-10 pages on the research and a presentation to the chemistry department during one of the two research seminar presentation periods. A copy of the paper must be submitted to the chair of the department. (Note: Paid internships are not eligible for CHEM 250.)

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Open by permission to students who have taken at least one chemistry course and are not eligible for CHEM 350.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

Research is supervised by a member of the Wellesley College Chemistry Department. Students will be expected to devote 10-12 hours per week for CHEM 250 and five to six hours for CHEM 250H. (Note: Paid internships are not eligible for CHEM 250H.)

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Open by permission to students who have taken at least one chemistry course and are not eligible for CHEM 350 or 350H.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

“Why cannot we write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica on the head of a pin?” When the physicist Richard Feynman first asked that question a half century ago, the word nanoscience had yet to be used. Today, nanoscience and nanotechnology have created a great deal of interest from scientists and engineers and also from the general public. Questions we will address include: What is the nature of nanoscience and nanotechnology? What are the principles that enable us to predict behavior over nanometer length scales? How are nanomaterials made and organized? How is nanotechnology likely to impact our lives? We will use the primary literature, popular portrayals, and interactions with researchers in nanoscience as avenues to explore the field.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHEM 205 or CHEM 120, and CHEM 211.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Every three years

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Computational chemistry now plays a crucial role in both the design and the analysis of molecules and systems across industries including pharmaceuticals, materials, and manufacturing. This course will provide students with a conceptual understanding of computational modeling techniques pertinent to chemistry along with practical experience applying these methods. Specific techniques considered in the course may include quantum mechanical ab initio and semiempirical models, molecular mechanics, molecular dynamics simulations, optimization and sampling frameworks, and machine learning, with case studies coming from current literature. Emphasis will be placed on the trade-offs between model accuracy and efficiency, and fundamental principles in computer programming, numerical methods, hardware, and software will be introduced as they relate to this trade-off. Application of these methods to solve problems in diverse areas, such as protein structure, drug design, organic reactivity, and inorganic systems, will also be emphasized. In addition to regular computer-based exercises, the course will culminate in an independent project utilizing techniques presented in the course.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: (CHEM 105 and CHEM 205) or (CHEM 116 and CHEM 205) or CHEM 120, and CHEM 211 and MATH 116, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The course will cover the foundations of astrochemistry, a young field at the intersection between chemistry and astronomy. Topics to be discussed include the interstellar medium, atomic and molecular physics, interstellar chemistry, molecular astronomy, and unresolved enigmas in the field, such as the homochirality of amino acids. The seminar will involve guest lectures by experts, group discussions, readings from the primary and review literature, field trip(s), movies (including a science fiction movie), weekly writing assignments, telescopic observations, and one day in a laboratory on earth.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 24

Prerequisites: CHEM 105 or CHEM 120.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Every three years

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course will cover strategies and tactics for assembling complex organic molecules. Considerable emphasis will be placed on stereoselective synthesis, including the stereoselective construction of ring systems, acyclic stereocontrol, and asymmetric catalysis. Reaction mechanisms will also be emphasized throughout the semester. Lecture topics will be accompanied by case studies drawn from the current chemical literature. The course will culminate in an independent project involving pharmaceuticals and other molecules of medicinal importance.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: CHEM 212

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Every three years

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

An intensive laboratory course offering a multiweek independent team research project and training in experimental applications of physical chemistry and biochemistry. Topics will include spectroscopy and chemical thermodynamics of biomolecules. This course will emphasize independent hypothesis development and experimental design skills as well as public presentation of results. Students will read primary literature, construct a research proposal, develop their own laboratory protocols manual, conduct experiments using a variety of instrumentation, and present their research in a public poster session. One class period per week plus one lab and mandatory weekly meetings with the instructor.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - BIOC 320L/CHEM 320L.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 8

Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 320

Prerequisites: BIOC 223/CHEM 223.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

This is a required co-requisite laboratory of BIOC 320/CHEM 320.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 8

Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 320L

Prerequisites: BIOC 223/CHEM 223.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

In-depth consideration of the functions of biomolecules and macromolecular assemblies. Topics will focus on the core concepts described by the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology: bioenergetics; structure-function relationships; information storage and flow; scientific discovery and communication. The class will include shared reading, analysis, and discussion of research based on the primary biochemical literature. Throughout the semester, each student will develop an independent research proposal.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 323

Prerequisites: BIOC 223/CHEM 223 or BIOC 227/CHEM 227, or permission of instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Researchers increasingly attempt to harness biochemical approaches as a way to address pressing societal problems. For example, recent work has focused on topics including the effective production of biofuels, remediation of environmental pollutants and developing new treatments for antibiotic resistant pathogens. In this course, juniors and seniors will explore contemporary research aimed at solving these problems through readings in the primary literature, invited lectures, interviewing researchers and developing independent research proposals. Students will analyze and interpret research findings through weekly writing assignments targeted towards broad audiences, such as research summaries for the scientific press, textbook sections, executive summaries and proposals accessible to non-specialists. Class sessions will be structured as workshops to analyze core chemical and biological concepts and provide structured critiques of writing assignments.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 324

Prerequisites: BIOC 223/CHEM 223 or BIOC 227/CHEM 227 or BIOC 220/BISC 220 or (CHEM 205 and CHEM 211 and (BISC 110 or BISC 112 or BISC 116)), or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing

Typical Periods Offered: Every three years

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Biosensors and optogenetics are important tools used to understand the physiology of living systems across the molecular, cellular, tissue, and organismal levels. Luminescent biosensors emit light during a measurement while optogenetics are activated by light to control and manipulate signaling and metabolism in living cells. In this course, students will explore the chemistry and biology of these tools, focusing on the principles of their design, strategies for their construction, and their applications in the life and physical sciences. Students will engage the subject matter with group work, peer-to-peer editing, and individual assignments through a combination of active-learning lectures, current literature analysis, and oral presentations. The course will culminate in the writing and presentation of an NIH-style original research proposal. This course will provide foundations for thinking about protein engineering as well as hypothesis-driven biological questions, and it is appropriate for students across the spectrum of chemical, physical, and biological interests.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 325

Prerequisites: BIOC 223/CHEM 223 or BIOC 223/CHEM 227 or BIOC 220/BISC 220 or (CHEM 205 and CHEM 212 and (BISC 110 or BISC 112 or BISC 116))

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Molecular basis of chemistry; intensive overview of theories, models, and techniques of physical chemistry; extensive coverage of quantum mechanics; applications of quantum mechanics to atomic and molecular structure, and spectroscopy; introductory statistical mechanics, with an emphasis on connections to thermodynamics; intermediate topics in chemical kinetics and introduction to reaction dynamics. The laboratory work involves learning elementary programming to quantitatively model data collected with various spectroscopies (UV-VIS, IR, NMR, fluorescence) using quantum theory.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - CHEM 330L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 32

Prerequisites: (CHEM 205 or CHEM 120) and (PHYS 104 or PHYS 107) and (MATH 215 (strongly recommended) or MATH 205). Not open to students who have taken CHEM 331.

Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for CHEM 330.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 8

Prerequisites: (CHEM 205 or CHEM 120) and (PHYS 104 or PHYS 107) and (MATH 215 (strongly recommended) or MATH 205). Not open to students who have taken CHEM 331.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Molecular basis of chemistry; intensive overview of theories, models, and techniques of physical chemistry; extensive coverage of quantum mechanics; applications of quantum mechanics to atomic and molecular structure, and spectroscopy; classical thermodynamics of gases and solutions; intermediate topics in chemical kinetics and introduction to reaction dynamics; basic statistical mechanics to calculate thermodynamic variables and equilibrium constants. This course does not count towards the major requirements in chemistry.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 18

Prerequisites: (CHEM 205 or CHEM 120) and (PHYS 104 or PHYS 107) and (MATH 215 (strongly recommended) or MATH 205). Not open to students who have taken CHEM 331.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Provides a survey of fundamental principles in physical chemistry and how they relate specifically to the study of biological molecules and processes. Emphasis is placed on empowering students to understand, evaluate, and use models as approximations for the biomolecular world. Models are mathematically represented and provide both qualitative and quantitative insight into biologically relevant systems. Commonly used experimental techniques such as spectroscopy and calorimetry are explained from first principles with quantum mechanical and statistical mechanical models, and computational applications such as protein structure prediction and molecular design are explained through physical models such as molecular mechanics and dynamics.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 24

Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 331

Prerequisites: BIOC 223/CHEM 223 and MATH 116 or equivalent.

Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Does not count toward the chemistry major but counts toward the biochemistry major and the chemistry minor. Students are strongly encouraged to complete one course in physics in addition to the stated prerequisites before enrolling.

This course provides an in-depth study of the physical models used in the study of chemical systems, including both first-principle derivations and cutting-edge applications of such models. Topics include statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, computational chemistry, molecular mechanics and dynamics, philosophical foundations of quantum mechanics, time-dependent quantum mechanics, and kinetics.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHEM 330 or CHEM 330X (or CHEM 331 by permission of the instructor) and either (PHYS 106 or PHYS 108) and MATH 215. Not open to students who have taken CHEM 335.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course provides an in-depth study of the physical models used in the study of chemical systems, including both first-principle derivations and cutting-edge applications of such models. Topics include probability theory, classical thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, computational chemistry, philosophical foundations of quantum mechanics, time-dependent quantum mechanics, and kinetics. Additionally, there is an emphasis on implementing statistical and numerical models via computer programing, culminating in an independent project.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - CHEM 335L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 6

Prerequisites: CHEM 330 and (PHYS 106 or PHYS 108) and MATH 215. Not open to students who have taken CHEM 334.

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for CHEM 335.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: CHEM 330 and (PHYS 106 or PHYS 108) and MATH 215. Not open to students who have taken CHEM 334.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course provides an in depth look at inorganic chemistry concentrating on chemical applications of group theory, molecular orbital theory, the chemistry of ionic compounds, transition metal complexes, organometallic chemistry, catalysis, and bioinorganic chemistry. Students will learn theories and models to analyze the structure and bonding of inorganic compounds and to predict and explain reactions of those compounds. The laboratory introduces a number of experimental and computational techniques used in inorganic chemistry.

This course has a required co-requisite laboratory - CHEM 341L.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 16

Prerequisites: Required CHEM 205 or CHEM 120, and CHEM 211; Strongly recommended CHEM 212.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This is a required co-requisite laboratory for CHEM 341.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 8

Prerequisites: Required CHEM 205 or CHEM 120, and CHEM 211; Strongly recommended CHEM 212.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Research is supervised by a member of the Wellesley College chemistry department. Students will be expected to devote (per week) 10-12 hours for CHEM 350 and five to six hours for CHEM 350H. Student projects will be planned accordingly. Off-campus research requires active participation of a Wellesley faculty member throughout the research period. Course fulfills the research requirement for the major only upon the completion of a paper of 8-10 pages on the research and a presentation to the chemistry department during one of the two research seminar presentation periods. A copy of the paper must be submitted to the chair of the department. (Note: Paid internships are not eligible for CHEM 350.)

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Open by permission to students who have taken at least three chemistry courses.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

Research is supervised by a member of the Wellesley College chemistry department. Students will be expected to devote (per week) 10-12 hours for CHEM 350 and five to six hours for CHEM 350H. (Note: Paid internships are not eligible for CHEM 350H.)

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

The first course in a two-semester investigation of a significant research problem, culminating in the completion and defense of a thesis in the second semester before a committee of faculty from the chemistry department. Students will participate in a regular weekly seminar program, in which they will discuss their research progress informally with faculty and student colleagues and gain familiarity with contemporary research through presentations by outside seminar speakers. This route does not lead to departmental honors. If the first semester of thesis is used to fulfill the research requirement, the student must complete a paper of 8-10 pages on the research and give a presentation to the chemistry department during one of the two research seminar presentation periods. A copy of the paper must be submitted to the chair of the department. (Note: Paid internships are not eligible for CHEM 355.)

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Open only to Seniors with permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

CHEM 360 is the first course in a two-semester investigation of a significant research problem, culminating in departmental honors upon the completion and defense of a thesis in the second semester of a thesis and defense of that thesis before a committee of faculty from the chemistry department. Students in 360 and 370 will be expected to attend the weekly departmental honors seminar, listed in the schedule of classes. The seminar provides a forum for students conducting independent research to present their work to fellow students and faculty. (See Academic Distinctions.) If the first semester of thesis is used to fulfill the research requirement, the student must complete a paper of 8-10 pages on the research and give a presentation to the chemistry department during one of the two research seminar presentation periods. A copy of the paper must be submitted to the chair of the department. (Note: Paid internships are not eligible for CHEM 360.)

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Instrumental methods of chemical analysis. Topics include statistical analysis, electronics and circuitry, electrochemistry, spectroscopy, and separations science with special attention to instrument design and function. The course work emphasizes the practical applications of chemical instrumentation and methods to address questions in areas ranging from art history to biochemistry to materials science. The laboratory work focuses on the design, construction, and use of chemical instrumentation along with the interfacing of instruments with computers.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 8

Prerequisites: Either (CHEM 205 and CHEM 211) or (CHEM 120 and CHEM 211). Suggested - PHYS 106 or PHYS 108.

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

The second course in a two-semester investigation of a significant research problem, culminating in the completion and defense of a thesis before a committee of faculty from the chemistry department. Students will participate in a regular weekly seminar program, in which they will discuss their research progress informally with faculty and student colleagues and gain familiarity with contemporary research through presentations by outside seminar speakers. This route does not lead to departmental honors. Course counts toward the research requirement if the student completes the thesis and the thesis presentation. (Note: Paid internships are not eligible for CHEM 365.)

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHEM 355 and permission of the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

CHEM 370 is the second course in a two-semester investigation of a significant research problem, culminating in departmental honors upon the completion and defense of a thesis before a committee of faculty from the chemistry department. Students will participate in a regular weekly seminar program, in which they will discuss their research progress informally with faculty and student colleagues and gain familiarity with contemporary research through presentations by outside seminar speakers. Course counts toward the research requirement if the student completes the thesis and the thesis presentation. See Academic Distinctions. (Note: Paid internships are not eligible for CHEM 370.)

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: CHEM 360 and permission of department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

An introductory course that teaches the skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing in Mandarin Chinese. Emphasis is on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and communication. Computer programs for pronunciation, listening comprehension, grammar, and writing Chinese characters will be used extensively.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: None. Open only to students with no Chinese language background.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

An introductory course that teaches the skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing in Mandarin Chinese. Emphasis is on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and communication. Computer programs for pronunciation, listening comprehension, grammar, and writing Chinese characters will be used extensively.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 101 or placement by the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

An introductory course that teaches the skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing in Mandarin Chinese. Emphasis is on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and communication. Computer programs for pronunciation, listening comprehension, grammar, and writing Chinese characters will be used extensively.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Placement by the department. Open to students who can speak some Chinese (Mandarin or other Chinese dialects), or who have some knowledge in reading and writing Chinese characters.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

An introductory course that teaches the skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing in Mandarin Chinese. Emphasis is on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and communication. Computer programs for pronunciation, listening comprehension, grammar, and writing Chinese characters will be used extensively.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 103 or placement by the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Further training in listening comprehension, oral expression, reading, and writing.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 102 or placement by the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Further training in listening comprehension, oral expression, reading and writing.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 201 or placement by the department.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Further training in listening comprehension, oral expression, reading, and writing.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites:  CHIN 104 or placement by the department.

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Further training in listening comprehension, oral expression, reading, and writing.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 203 or placement by the department.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Over the course of the twentieth century, China underwent enormous changes in the sweep of modernization, which opened the door to a wealth of experimentation, especially in literature and culture. The primary focus of this course is to explore how literary forms adapted to the dominant political and cultural movements of modern China. At the same time, individual Chinese writers crafted unique visions from their experiences "on the ground." In works that date from the late Qing to the present, we will explore the varied representations of Chinese modernity, including topics such as the individual and society, revolution and tradition, the countryside and the city, gender and sexuality. No prior knowledge of Chinese literature or Chinese language is required.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Variously known in English as Dream of the Red Chamber, A Dream of Red Mansions, and The Story of the Stone, Honglou meng is the most widely discussed Chinese novel of all time. Written in the mid-eighteenth century, the novel offers telling insight into Chinese culture as it once was and as it remains today. The novel is still wildly popular due to its tragic love story, its sensitive depiction of the plight of the talented woman in late imperial culture, and its narrative intricacies. The goal of the course is to understand the novel both as a literary text and as a cultural phenomenon. Optional extra sessions will accommodate those who wish to read and discuss the novel in Chinese.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 311.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as CHIN 311.

What are emotions? Are they innate and universal, or do they vary across time, societies, and languages? How do humans express and describe emotions? How should individuals and societies relate to the experience and expression of emotions? Such questions sparked an animated debate among early Chinese thinkers (5th c. BCE–220 CE), a debate we will continue in this course. We begin by surveying ancient and modern theories of emotion. The subsequent unit turns to the representations of different emotions in early Chinese literature and philosophical writings, where we explore whether our experiences of love, joy, and grief are comparable across ancient and modern contexts. In the final unit, we evaluate different philosophical proposals—from Confucian, Daoist, and Legalist lineages—for how to cultivate and regulate emotions.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: EC - Epistemology and Cognition

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The Ming (1368) was a glorious dynasty, and its fall was “heard round the world." The course approaches its glory and fall through novels (such as The Water Margin and The Plum in a Golden Vase), short stories (by Feng Menglong and others), and dramas like Peach Blossom Fan. Elsewhere in East Asia, too, the Ming was a theme in literature, especially at the time of its fall. Works by Chikamatsu (Japanese) and Ho Kyun (Korean) serve as illustrations. Additionally, dramas from Holland and England provide some measure of the impact of this event in Europe. In the last third of the course we will survey this group of writings by non-Chinese and use them to show how reactions varied, depending on the nationality of the observer. Finally, we will read a Cantonese opera composed in the twentieth century. It is one sign of the topic's continuing currency throughout the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and it highlights south China's longstanding resistance to the Qing.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 320.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as CHIN 320.

Confucius in the Analects asserts that “The Master never spoke of the strange, the violent, the disorderly, and the numinous.” Yet “recording the strange” was a thriving literary genre in classical and imperial China—one collection of supernatural tales was in fact entitled What the Master Never Spoke Of. How do we understand this contradiction? This course is a survey of stories and essays on ghosts, spirits, talking animals, and spooky events, beginning from the earliest Chinese writings incised on turtle shells to the twentieth century. We will examine changing worldviews and religious practices during these three millennia, retracing the storylines retold around East Asia and across media ancient and modern.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy; LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course explores the cinematic conventions and experiments employed by Chinese filmmakers over the past hundred years. Unique Chinese film genres such as left-wing melodrama, martial arts films and model play adaptations, as well as the three "new waves" in China's recent avant-garde cinema, will be examined and discussed. Individual filmic visions and techniques experimented with by important directors such as Fei Mu, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Zhang Yimou, and Jia Zhangke will be closely analyzed. Class discussions will aim to help students understand the history, politics, and aesthetics of Chinese cinema. Theoretical aspects of film studies will also be incorporated into class readings and discussions. No prior knowledge of China or film studies is required.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 20 3

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The period 1850-1950 witnessed five political revolutions in China. Each one had an impact on the status of women. By the end of the hundred years, the stay-at-home, bound-footed gentlewoman was no more, and old-style dreams in which women changed gender to pursue careers or fight wars had faded away. Instead a whole new reality for women had emerged. This course explores these changes through the writings of male sympathizers, western missionaries, and most importantly Chinese women themselves. In bridging the “late imperial” and “modern” eras and in its emphasis on women’s voices, it offers a distinctive take on the period under review. Although the story is Chinese, it is a part of women’s history worldwide.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 345.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as CHIN 345.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 30

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This course is designed to further expand students' comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Reading materials will be selected from newspapers, short stories, essays, and films. Students will study Chinese and China from different perspectives. In addition to authentic audio and videotapes, Chinese learning APPs will also be used as study aids. The class is conducted in Chinese.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 202 or placement by the department.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Advanced language skills are further developed through reading, writing, and discussions. Reading materials will be selected from a variety of authentic Chinese texts. Students will study Chinese and China from different perspectives. In addition to authentic audio and videotapes, Chinese learning APPs will also be used as study aids. The class is conducted in Chinese.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 301 or placement by the department.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course is designed to further expand and refine students' language skills through intensive reading of authentic Chinese materials, such as novels, short stories, essays, and plays and through viewing of contemporary Chinese films. Particular attention will be paid to increasing levels of literary appreciation and to enriching understanding of the sociocultural contexts from which our readings have emerged.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 204 or CHIN 302 or placement by the department.; students entering the course through CHIN 301 are strongly encouraged to first complete CHIN 302 as well.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

A variety of authentic materials, including films and literary works, will be selected to cover the period from 1949 to the early twenty-first century.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 204 or CHIN 302 or placement by the department; students entering the course through CHIN 301 are strongly encouraged to first complete CHIN 302 as well.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 204 or CHIN 301 or CHIN 306 or permission of instructor

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Variously known in English as Dream of the Red Chamber, A Dream of Red Mansions, and The Story of the Stone, Honglou meng is the most widely discussed Chinese novel of all time. Written in the mid-eighteenth century, the novel offers telling insight into Chinese culture as it once was and as it remains today. The novel is still wildly popular due to its tragic love story, its sensitive depiction of the plight of the talented woman in late imperial culture, and its narrative intricacies. The goal of the course is to understand the novel both as a literary text and as a cultural phenomenon. Optional extra sessions will accommodate those who wish to read and discuss the novel in Chinese. This course may be taken as CHIN 211 or, with additional assignments, as CHIN 311.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: One previous course on Chinese history or culture. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 211.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as CHIN 211.

The Ming (1368) was a glorious dynasty, and its fall was “heard round the world." The course approaches its glory and fall through novels (such as The Water Margin and The Plum in a Golden Vase), short stories (by Feng Menglong and others), and dramas like Peach Blossom Fan. Elsewhere in East Asia, too, the Ming was a theme in literature, especially at the time of its fall. Works by Chikamatsu (Japanese) and Ho Kyun (Korean) serve as illustrations. Additionally, dramas from Holland and England provide some measure of the impact of this event in Europe. In the last third of the course we will survey this group of writings by non-Chinese and use them to show how reactions varied, depending on the nationality of the observer. Finally, we will read a Cantonese opera composed in the twentieth century. It is one sign of the topic's continuing currency throughout the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and it highlights south China's longstanding resistance to the Qing.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CHIN 220.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as CHIN 220.

This course guides students to explore Chinese literary modernity through authentic literary texts written by major Chinese writers of the past hundred years. It aims to give students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of modern China in both its historical and cultural practice. Instead of language training, literary and cultural analyses will be emphasized. Class discussions will be conducted in Chinese, and students are expected to offer their critical responses to readings through oral presentations and papers written in Chinese.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: CHIN 306 and CHIN 307 or placement by the department.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: