Special Topics in Communication Arts
A course exploring a particular topic in communication arts not covered in regular Catalog courses.
Independent Study
Independent study projects allow a student to do individual work, under the guidance of a qualified director, on a topic of special interest to the student. The student is responsible for the overall scope and direction of the project, but receives course credit only with the approval of the independent study director. During the fall…
Quantum Mechanics
This course is an introduction to the elements of quantum physics with emphasis on the theoretical underpinnings. Basic “facts of life” in the atomic world, wave-particle duality in physical systems, wave-mechanical descriptions, structure of the hydrogen atom, many-electron atoms, and discussion of radiation are studied. Examples from various areas of physics selected to illuminate how…
Topics in Professional Writing
A focused study of one genre within professional writing, such as science writing or mass media writing, paying particular attention to issues unique to the genre as well as issues of invention, audience, ethics, and aesthetics. In addition to analyzing published examples, students compose and revise several works in the genre. This course counts toward…
Advanced Writing and Research Skills
A course developing writing skills beyond those covered in first-year composition. Students explore, research and analyze significant contemporary topics, gaining skills in idea generation, research, persuasion, and revision. This course is required for Secondary Education (grades 7-12) Certification in English and for Upper Elementary Education Certification (4-8) in Language Arts-Option 2. This course counts toward…
Documenting Lives: Oral History Theory and Practice
This course introduces students to the theory and practice of oral history. We will discuss the value that oral history offers in historical research and its relationship to other kinds of historical research; the challenges inherent in working with individuals and communities; best practices for designing oral history projects, interviewing subjects, and managing data; and…
After War: U.S. Culture in the Aftermath of Conflict
What happens after wars end? This seminar will examine critical issues that emerged to impact the lived experiences of veterans and civilians in the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War, the First and Second World War, and the U.S. War in Vietnam and analyze the responses that various constituencies have made to them. Topics will…
The U.S. and the World
This course will place U.S. cultural history in a global context as we ask how people within and outside of the United States have imagined and debated the United States’ relationship with and role in the world. Focusing on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, we will ask how the global flows of people, products, and…
Slavery and the University
This course will examine the historical relationship between universities and slavery in the United States. We will discuss how universities were born from and depended on the labor of enslaved people, as well as how institutions of higher learning were sites of intellectual thought around pro-slavery ideologies, white supremacy, and anti-blackness. We will also discuss…
Dispossession and the Making of the United States
This course examines the role of dispossession in the early United States. We will study two particular, but also overlapping, forms of dispossession in the making of American empire, namely racial slavery and Indigenous land theft and genocide in a settler colonial state. As we interpret the historical relationship between slavery, settler colonialism, and dispossession,…