Amherst College

2012-13 Catalog

Current as of July 27, 2012

View the catalog online for the most up-to-date course listings at:

https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/registrar/ac_catalog

or

https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments

Directions for Correspondence

The post office address of the College is Amherst, Massachusetts, 01002-5000. The telephone number for all departments is (413) 542-2000.

General information about Amherst College is available upon request from the Public Affairs Office, Amherst College, AC #2202, P.O. Box 5000, Amherst, MA 01002-5000.

Specific inquiries on the following subjects should be addressed to the officers named below:

Admission of students
and catalog requests Office of Admission

Alumni Elizabeth Cannon Smith, Alumni Secretary
and Executive Director of Alumni and Parent
Programs

Business matters Shannon D. Gurek, Interim Treasurer

Development Megan E. Morey, Chief Advancement Officer

Financial aid Joe Paul Case, Dean of Financial Aid

Public Affairs Peter Rooney, Director of Public Affairs

Student affairs Charri J. Boykin-East, Interim Dean of Students

Title IX Coordinator Molly Mead, Director of the Center for
Community Engagement

Transcripts and records Kathleen Goff, Registrar

Amherst College does not discriminate in its admission or employment policies and practices on the basis of factors such as race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, color, religion, national origin, disability, or status as a veteran of the Vietnam War era or as a disabled veteran. The College complies with federal and state legislation and regulations regarding non-discrimination. Inquiries should be addressed to the Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and Inclusion, Amherst College, P.O. Box 5000, Amherst, MA 01002-5000.

Contents

I MISSION STATEMENT

CALENDAR

THE CORPORATION

FACULTY

ADMINISTRATIVE AND
PROFESSIONAL OFFICERS

II AMHERST COLLEGE

III ADMISSION

TUITION AND FEES

FINANCIAL AID

IV GENERAL REGULATIONS

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

V COURSES OF INSTRUCTION

VI PROFESSORSHIPS AND READERSHIPS

LECTURESHIPS

HONORS

FELLOWSHIPS

FELLOWS

PRIZES AND AWARDS

ENROLLMENT

I

MISSION STATEMENT

CALENDAR

THE CORPORATION

FACULTY

ADMINISTRATIVE AND PROFESSIONAL OFFICERS

The Mission of Amherst College

Terras irradient
“Let them give light to the world.”
1821

Amherst College educates men and women of exceptional potential from all backgrounds so that they may seek, value, and advance knowledge, engage the world around them, and lead principled lives of consequence.

Amherst brings together the most promising students, whatever their financial need, in order to promote diversity of experience and ideas within a purposefully small residential community. Working with faculty, staff, and administrators dedicated to intellectual freedom and the highest standards of instruction in the liberal arts, Amherst undergraduates assume substantial responsibility for undertaking inquiry and for shaping their education within and beyond the curriculum.

Amherst College is committed to learning through close colloquy and to expanding the realm of knowledge through scholarly research and artistic creation at the highest level. Its graduates link learning with leadership—in service to the College, to their communities, and to the world beyond.

College Calendar

2012

August 26, Sunday. New student orientation begins; first-year residences open at 9 a.m.

August 30, Thursday. Residences open for upper-class students at 9 a.m. (Keys at Campus Police.)

September 3, Monday. Opening Convocation.

September 4, Tuesday. Fall semester classes begin.

September 5, Wednesday. Monday classes will be held.

September 12, Wednesday. Last day to add/drop courses for fall semester.

October 6-9, Saturday-Tuesday. Midsemester break. Residence halls and dining hall remain open.

October 24, Wednesday. Midsemester grades due in Registrar’s Office.

October 26, Friday. Last day for Class of 2013E to take comprehensive exams.

October 26-28, Friday-Sunday. Family Weekend.

October 30, Tuesday. Last day for first-year students and first-semester transfer students to obtain permission to withdraw from a course without penalty.

November 1, Thursday. Deadline for students to apply for spring 2014 withdrawal, readmission, and off-campus housing.

November 1-7, Thursday-Wednesday. Advising Week.

November 8-14, Thursday-Wednesday. Preregistration for spring semester.

November 9-11, Friday-Sunday. Homecoming.

November 17-25, Saturday-Sunday. Thanksgiving vacation.

December 11, Tuesday. Senior honors theses due in Registrar’s Office.

December 12, Wednesday. Last day of fall semester classes. Deadline for Class of 2015E to declare major at Registrar’s Office.

December 13-16, Thursday-Sunday. Reading/Study period.

December 17-21, Monday-Friday. Fall semester examination period.

December 21, Friday. Dining hall closes after dinner.

December 22, Saturday. Residence halls close at 5 p.m.

2013

January 3, Thursday. Fall semester grades due on ACData.

January 6, Sunday. Residences reopen at 9 a.m.

January 7-23, Monday-Wednesday. Interterm. Dining hall reopens with breakfast on Jan. 7.

January 11, Friday. Students leaving campus for spring semester must vacate residences by 5 p.m.

January 18, Friday. Students returning to campus after absence may access housing at 9 a.m.

January 22, Tuesday. Spring semester classes begin at the University of Massachusetts.

January 24, Thursday. Spring semester classes begin at Amherst College.

February 1, Friday. Last day to add/drop courses for spring semester.

March 15, Friday. Last day for graduating seniors to take comprehensive exams. Deadline for applications for room draw; off-campus housing; fall 2013 Study Abroad, educational leave, withdrawal and readmission; and special program proposals. Last day for first-year and first-semester transfer students to obtain permission to withdraw from a course without penalty. Mid-term grades due. Dining hall closes after dinner.

March 16-24, Saturday-Sunday. Spring recess.

April 1-5, Monday-Friday. Advising Week.

April 8-12, Monday-Friday. Preregistration for fall semester.

April 9-11, Tuesday-Thursday. Room Draw.

April 15, Monday. Deadline for students to submit spring 2014 Study Abroad and other educational leave requests.

April 25, Thursday. Deadline for upperclass students to apply to renew financial aid.

April 30, Tuesday. Deadline for students to submit Commencement/Reunion housing applications.

May 7, Tuesday. Senior honors theses due in Registrar’s Office at 4 p.m. Honors recommendations due to Registrar. College meeting.

May 8, Wednesday. Last day of spring semester classes. Deadline for Class of 2015 to declare major. Senior Assembly. Deadline for RCs to post summer storage hours.

May 9-13, Thursday-Monday. Reading/Study Period.

May 14-18, Tuesday-Saturday. Spring semester examination period.

May 19, Sunday. Residences close for non-graduating students at 5 p.m.

May 20, Monday. Senior grades due at 9 a.m.

May 22, Wednesday. Grades due for non-seniors at 4 p.m.

May 26, Sunday. Commencement. Residences close for graduates at 5 p.m.

May 29-June 2, Wednesday-Sunday. Alumni Holiday and Reunion.

June 1, Saturday. Deadline for upperclass students to request early return in September.

This calendar is available online at www.amherst.edu/calendar.

The Corporation

Chairman of the Corporation

Cullen Murphy ’74, A,B, Medfield, Massachusetts

President of the College

Carolyn A. Martin, Ph.D., Amherst, Massachusetts

Trustees

Danielle S. Allen, Ph.D., Princeton, New Jersey

Theodore W. Beneski ’78, M.B.A., Colleyville, Texas

Rafael Campo ’87, M.D., Brookline, Massachusetts

Wei Sun Christianson ’85, J.D., Beijing, China

Brian J. Conway ’80, M.B.A., Boston, Massachusetts

Walter C. Donovan ’85, A.B., Boston, Massachusetts

William E. Ford ’83, M.B.A., New York, New York

Howard E. Gardner, Ph.D., Cambridge, Massachusetts

Arthur W. Koenig ’66, M.I.A., London, England

Christopher S. Lehane ’90, J.D., San Francisco, California

John S. Middleton ’77, M.B.A., Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

Andrew J. Nussbaum ’85, J.D., New York, New York

Hope E. Pascucci ’90, A.B., Needham, Massachusetts

Paula K. Rauch ’77, M.D., Boston, Massachusetts

Julie A. Segre ’87, Ph.D., Bethesda, Maryland

Blair H. Taylor ’85, Los Angeles, California

James C. Tsai ’85, M.D., New Haven, CT

Scott F. Turow ’70, J.D., Chicago, Illinois

Laura J. Yerkovich ’80, M.B.A., Riverside, Connecticut

Life Trustees

K. Frank Austen ’50, M.D., Boston, Massachusetts

George B. Beitzel ’50*, M.B.A., Ridgefield, Connecticut

Martha L. Byorum, M.B.A., New York, New York

Rosanne M. Haggerty ’82, A.B., New York, New York

Amos B. Hostetter, Jr. ’58*, M.B.A., Boston, Massachusetts

Charles A. Lewis ’64, M.B.A., Evanston, Illinois

Charles R. Longsworth ’51*, M.B.A., Royalston, Massachusetts

Robert J. McKean, Jr. ’50, LL.B., Lantana, Florida

Mary Patterson McPherson, Ph.D., Rosemont, Pennsylvania

Peter A. Nadosy, M.B.A., New York, New York

Edward N. Ney ’46, A.B., New York, New York

Edward E. Phillips ’52, LL.B., Weston, Massachusetts

H. Axel Schupf ’57, M.B.A., New York, New York

George L. Shinn ’45*, Ph.D., Scarborough, Maine

John I. Williams, Jr. ’75, J.D., Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Philip S. Winterer ’53, LL.B., New York, New York

Jide J. Zeitlin ’851, M.B.A., New York, New York

1 

1. Chair Emeritus

Trustees Emeriti

John E. Abele ’59, A.B., Natick, Massachusetts

Margaret A. Bangser ’81, M.P.P.M., Tanzania

Alan S. Bernstein ’63, M.B.A., Coral Gables, Florida

Paul E. Bragdon ’50, LL.B., Portland, Oregon

Robert W. Carington ’53, M.Arch., Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Katherine K. Chia ’88, M.Arch., New York, New York

William A. Davis, Jr. ’63, J.D., Washington, D.C.

Michele Y. Deitch ’82, J.D., Austin, Texas

Colin S. Diver ’65, LL.B., Portland, Oregon

Anne Melissa Dowling ’80, M.B.A., West Hartford, Connecticut

Charles C. Eldredge ’66, Ph.D., Lawrence, Kansas

Willie J. Epps, Jr. ’92, J.D., Kansas City, Missouri

John C. Esty, Jr. ’50, M.A., Concord, Massachusetts

Nicholas M. Evans ’52, M.B.A., Vero Beach, Florida

Steven M. Gluckstern ’72, Ed.D., San Francisco, California

Frederick E. Hoxie ’69, Ph.D., Evanston, Illinois

Richard F. Hubert ’60, A.B., Rye Brook, New York

George R. Johnson, Jr. ’73, J.D., Greensboro, North Carolina

David A. Kessler ’73, M.D., San Francisco, California

Woodward Kingman ’49, M.B.A., Belvedere, California

David L. Kirp ’65, LL.B., San Francisco, California

Jonathan I. Landman ’74, M.S., New York, New York

Thai-Hi T. Lee ’80, M.B.A., Lebanon, New Jersey

Richard S. LeFrak ’67, J.D., New York, New York

Van Doorn Ooms ’56, Ph.D., Bethesda, Maryland

Stephen B. Oresman ’54, M.B.A., Darien, Connecticut

George E. Peterson ’63, Ph.D., Washington, D.C.

Mark J. Sandler ’64, LL.B., New York, New York

W. Lloyd Snyder III ’66, M.B.A., Conshohocken, Pennsylvania

Joan E. Spero, Ph.D., New York, New York

Richard R. Spies ’67, Ph.D., Providence, Rhode Island

Joseph E. Stiglitz ’64, Ph.D., New York, New York

Bradley A. Stirn ’72, M.B.A., Woodside, California

Louis B. Thalheimer ’66, J.D., Towson, Maryland

Diana Chapman Walsh, Ph.D., Brookline, Massachusetts

Gail T. Wickes, Ph.D., Dallas, Texas

Karen Hastie Williams, J.D., Washington, D.C.

David S. Wolff ’62, M.B.A., Houston, Texas

Kimba M. Wood, J.D., New York, New York

Secretary of the Corporation

Susan Pikor, A.B., Amherst, Massachusetts

Corporate Name

The Trustees of Amherst College

Faculty and Administrators

EMERITI

Tom Gerety President and Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus. B.A. (1969), M.Phil. (1974), J.D. (1976), Ph.D. (1976) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1995) Amherst College; L.H.D. (hon.1996) Doshisha University; LL.D. (hon. 1995) Williams College, (hon. 2001) Wesleyan University, (hon. 2003) Amherst College.

Anthony W. Marx, President and Professor of Political Science, Emeritus. B.A. (1981) Yale College; M.P.A. (1986), M.A. (1987), Ph.D. (1990) Princeton University; L.H.D. (hon. 2004) Williams College; A.M. (hon. 2004) Amherst College; L.H.D. (2006) Doshisha University ; L.H.D. (2012) Amherst College.

Peter R. Pouncey, President and Edwin F. and Jessie Burnell Fobes Professor in Greek (Classics), Emeritus. B.A. (1964), M.A. (1967) Oxford University; Ph.D. (1969) Columbia University; A.M. (hon. 1985) Amherst College; L.H.D. (hon. 1987) Doshisha University, (hon. 1990) Trinity College; LL.D. (hon. 1985) Williams College, (hon. 1989) Wesleyan University, (hon. 1995) Amherst College.

David L. Armacost, Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus. B.A. (1965) Pomona College; M.S. (1966), Ph.D. (1969) Stanford University; A.M. (hon. 1980) Amherst College.

Lawrence Alan Babb, Willem Schupf Professor of Asian Languages and Civilizations and Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus. B.A. (1963) University of Michigan; M.A. (1965), Ph.D. (1969) University of Rochester; A.M. (hon. 1980) Amherst College.

Ralph E. Beals, Clarence Francis Professor of Economics, Emeritus. B.S. (1958) University of Kentucky; M.A. (1959) Northwestern University; Ph.D. (1970) Massachusetts Institute of Technology; A.M. (hon. 1971) Amherst College.

Edward S. Belt, Samuel A. Hitchcock Professor in Mineralogy and Geology, Emeritus. B.A. (1955) Williams College; M.A. (1957) Harvard University; Ph.D. (1963) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1978) Amherst College.

Robert J. Bezucha, George Daniel Olds Professor of Economics and Social Institutions (History), Emeritus. B.A. (1962) Lawrence University; M.A. (1963), Ph.D. (1968) University of Michigan; A.M. (hon. 1981) Amherst College.

Michael Birtwistle, Stanley King ’03 Professor of Dramatic Arts (Theater and Dance), Emeritus. B.A. (1960) Wesleyan University; M.F.A. (1962), Ph.D. (1967) Tulane University; A.M. (hon. 1985) Amherst College.

Willis E. Bridegam, Jr., Librarian of the College, Emeritus. B. Mus. (1957) Eastman School of Music; M.S. (1964) Syracuse University; A.M. (hon. 1985) Amherst College.

Gerald P. Brophy, Samuel A. Hitchcock Professor of Mineralogy and Geology, Emeritus. B.A. (1951), M.A. (1953), Ph.D. (1954) Columbia University; A.M. (hon. 1968) Amherst College.

Mavis C. Campbell, Professor of History, Emerita. B.S. (1958), M.S. (1960), Ph.D. (1971) University of London; A.M. (hon. 1983) Amherst College.

Fredric L. Cheyette, Professor of History, Emeritus. A.B. (1953) Princeton University; M.A. (1954), Ph.D. (1959) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1974) Amherst College.

Richard J. Cody, Eliza J. Clark Folger Professor of English, Emeritus. B.A. (1952) University of London (University College, Southampton); M.A. (1958), Ph.D. (1961) University of Minnesota; A.M. (hon. 1968) Amherst College.

Peter Czap, Jr., Henry Winkley Professor of History, Emeritus. B.A. (1953) Rutgers University; Ph.D. (1959) Cornell University; A.M. (hon. 1973) Amherst College.

James Q. Denton, Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus. B.S. (1951) California Institute of Technology; M.S. (1958), Ph.D. (1962) University of Oregon; A.M. (hon. 1974) Amherst College.

Richard D. Fink, George H. Corey Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus. A.B. (1958) Harvard University; Ph.D. (1962) Massachusetts Institute of Technology; A.M. (hon. 1971) Amherst College; L.H.D. (1988) Doshisha University.

Richard A. Goldsby, Thomas B. Walton Jr. Memorial Professor of Biology, Emeritus. B.A. (1957) University of Kansas; Ph.D. (1961) University of California at Berkeley; A.M. (hon. 1985) Amherst College.

Peter J. Gooding, Parmly Billings Professor of Hygiene and Physical Education, Emeritus. D.L.C. (1964) Loughborough College; M.S. (1967) University of Massachusetts at Amherst; A.M. (hon. 1981) Amherst College.

Joel E. Gordon, Stone Professor of Natural Science (Physics), Emeritus. A.B. (1952) Harvard University; Ph.D. (1958) University of California at Berkeley; A.M. (hon. 1969) Amherst College.

George S. Greenstein, Sidney Dillon Professor of Astronomy, Emeritus. B.S. (1962) Stanford University; Ph.D. (1968) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1983) Amherst College.

Robert F. Grose, Professor of Psychology, Emeritus. B.A. (1944), M.S. (1947), Ph.D. (1953) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1970) Amherst College.

Werner L. Gundersheimer, Adjunct Professor of History and Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Emeritus. A.B. (1959) Amherst College; M.A. (1960), Ph.D. (1963) Harvard University; D.H.L. (hon. 1984) Amherst College, (hon. 1998) Davidson College; D.L. (hon. 1989) Williams College, (hon. 1991) Muhlenberg College.

John B. Halsted, Winkley Professor of History, Emeritus. B.A. (1948), M.A. (1949) Wesleyan University; Ph.D. (1954) Columbia University; A.M. (hon. 1966) Amherst College.

Hugh D. Hawkins, Anson D. Morse Professor of History and American Studies, Emeritus. B.A. (1950) DePauw University; Ph.D. (1954) The Johns Hopkins University; A.M. (hon. 1969) Amherst College.

Kurt Maximilian Hertzfeld, Treasurer, Emeritus. B.A. (1941), M.B.A. (1942) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1969) Amherst College.

William M. Hexter, Edward S. Harkness Professor of Biology, Emeritus. B.A. (1949), M.A. (1951), Ph.D. (1953) University of California at Berkeley; A.M. (hon. 1966) Amherst College.

Robert C. Hilborn, Amanda and Lisa Cross Professor of Physics, Emeritus. B.A. (1966) Lehigh University; M.A. (1967), Ph.D. (1971) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1987) Amherst College.

Thomas R. Kearns, William H. Hastie Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought, Emeritus. A.B. (1959) University of Illinois; LL.B. (1962), M.A. (1964) University of California at Berkeley; Ph.D. (1968) University of Wisconsin; A.M. (hon. 1981) Amherst College.

Heinz Kohler, Willard Long Thorp Professor of Economics, Emeritus. B.A. (1956) Free University of Berlin; M.A. (1958), Ph.D. (1961) University of Michigan; A.M. (hon. 1969) Amherst College.

Allen Kropf, Julian H. Gibbs Professor in the Natural and Mathematical Sciences (Chemistry), Emeritus. B.S. (1951) Queens College; Ph.D. (1954) University of Utah; A.M. (hon. 1969) Amherst College.

J. Tracy Mehr, Professor of Physical Education, Emeritus. B.A. (1950) Holy Cross College; M.B.A. (1967) Boston College; A.M. (hon. 1979) Amherst College.

Ray A. Moore, Professor of History and Asian Languages and Civilizations, Emeritus. B.A. (1958), M.A. (1960), Ph.D. (1968) University of Michigan; A.M. (hon. 1976) Amherst College.

Aida Y. Nawar, Senior Lecturer in French, Emerita. B.A. (1969) University of Massachusetts at Amherst; M.A. (1972) Smith College; Ph.D. (1984) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Rose R. Olver, L. Stanton Williams ’41 Professor of Psychology and Women’s and Gender Studies, Emerita. B.A. (1958) Swarthmore College; Ph.D. (1962) Radcliffe College; A.M. (hon. 1973) Amherst College.

Hilda Otaño-Benítez, Senior Lecturer in Spanish, Emerita. B.A. (1949), B.S. (1949) Institute of Secondary Education, of Ciego de Avila, Cuba; Doctor of Law (1954) University of Havana; M.A. (1979) Boston University.

John Pemberton III, Stanley Warfield Crosby Professor of Religion, Emeritus. B.A. (1948) Princeton University; B.D. (1952), Ph.D. (1958) Duke University; A.M. (hon. 1967) Amherst College.

David B. Reck, Professor of Music and Asian Languages and Civilizations, Emeritus. B. Mus. (1956) University of Houston; M.Mus. (1959) University of Texas; Ph.D. (1983) Wesleyan University; A.M. (hon. 1986) Amherst College.

Robert H. Romer, Professor of Physics, Emeritus. A.B. (1952) Amherst College; Ph.D. (1955) Princeton University.

Andrea B. Rushing, Professor of Black Studies and English, Emerita. B.A. (1962) Queens College, City University of New York; M.A. (1970) Simmons College; Ph.D. (1983) University of Massachusetts at Amherst; A.M. (hon. 1987) Amherst College.

Carl N. Schmalz, Jr., Professor of Fine Arts, Emeritus. B.A. (1948), M.A. (1949), Ph.D. (1958) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1969) Amherst College.

Sigrit Schütz, Senior Lecturer in German, Emerita. Zwischenprhfung (1968) Heidelberg Universitat; M.A. (1970) University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Ph.D. (1977) Five Colleges.

Viktoria A. Schweitzer, Senior Lecturer in Russian, Emerita. M.A. (1955) Moscow State University.

Marc S. Silver, Massachusetts Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus. B.A. (1955) Harvard University; Ph.D. (1959) California Institute of Technology; A.M. (hon. 1969) Amherst College.

Charles A. Sorenson, Professor of Psychology (Neuroscience), Emeritus. B.A. (1966) University of California at Berkeley; Ph.D. (1971) University of California at Los Angeles; A.M. (hon. 1984) Amherst College.

M. Lewis Spratlan, Peter R. Pouncey Professor of Music, Emeritus. B.A. (1962), M.Mus. (1965) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1980) Amherst College.

Norton Starr, Brian E. Boyle ’69 Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Emeritus. A.B. (1958) Harvard College; Ph.D. (1964) Massachusetts Institute of Technology; A.M. (hon. 1978) Amherst College.

Jane A. Taubman, Professor of Russian, Emerita. B.A. (1964) Radcliffe College; M.A. (1968), Ph.D. (1972) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1989) Amherst College.

William C. Taubman, Bertrand Snell Professor of Political Science, Emeritus. B.A. (1962) Harvard College; M.A. (1965), Ph.D. (1969) Columbia University; A.M. (hon. 1978) Amherst College.

William E. Thurston, Professor of Physical Education, Emeritus. B.S. (1957), M.S. (1962) University of Michigan; A.M. (hon. 1979) Amherst College.

Robert C. Townsend, Class of 1959 Professor of English, Emeritus. B.A. (1957) Princeton University; M.A. (1959) Cambridge University; Ph.D. (1962) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1974) Amherst College.

Helen von Schmidt, Senior Lecturer in English, Emerita. A.B. (1978) Amherst College.

Donald O. White, Professor of German, Emeritus. B.A. (1953), M.A. (1956), Ph.D. (1963) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1970) Amherst College.

Arthur G. Zajonc, Professor of Physics, Emeritus. B.S.E. (1971), M.S. (1973), Ph.D. (1976) University of Michigan; A.M. (hon. 1991) Amherst College.

William F. Zimmerman, Professor of Biology, Emeritus. B.A. (1960), Ph.D. (1966) Princeton University; A.M. (hon. 1980) Amherst College.

FACULTY

Symbol beside names indicates:

*On leave 2012-13.

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Rowland O. Abiodun, John C. Newton Professor of the History of Art and Black Studies. B.A. (1965) Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria; M.A. (1969) University of Toronto; A.M. (hon. 1992) Amherst College.

Maria Elena Aldea-Agudo, Lecturer in Spanish. Licenciatura (2002) Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain; M.A. (2006), Ph.D. (2010) University of Kentucky.

Anouk Alquier, Visiting Lecturer in French. M.A. (1997) Université de Toulouse-le-Mirail, France; M.A. (2000) Washington University at St. Louis.

Ana M. Araujo, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology. B.A. (1996) University of California at Berkeley; M.A. (2004), Ph.D. (2009) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Gabriel Arboleda, Five College Visiting Assistant Professor of Sustainable Architecture. Ariquitecto (1998) Universadad del Valle, Columbia; M.S. (2005) Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ph.D. (2012) University of California at Berkeley.

Elizabeth J. Aries, Professor of Psychology. B.A. (1969) University of Michigan; M.A. (1971), Ph.D. (1973) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1989) Amherst College.

Hadley P. Arkes, Edward N. Ney Professor in American Institutions (Political Science). B.A. (1962) University of Illinois; Ph.D. (1967) University of Chicago; A.M. (hon. 1977) Amherst College.

Tatyana Babyonyshev, Senior Lecturer in Russian. M.A. (1983) Moscow State University.

Carol Y. Bailey, Visiting Lecturer in Black Studies. B.A. (1977) University of West Indies; M.A. (1999) Clark University.

Philippe Baillargeon, Visiting Lecturer in French. B.A. (1998), M.A. (1999) McGill University; M.A. (2001), Ph.D. (2011) Princeton University.

John-Paul Baird, Associate Professor of Psychology (Neuroscience). B.Sc. (1992) University of Toronto; M.A. (1993), Ph.D. (1997) University of Pennsylvania.

Michèle A. Barale, Thalheimer Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies and Director of the Writing Center. B.A. (1968), M.A. (1975) Loyola University; Ph.D. (1983) University of Colorado; A.M. (hon. 2002) Amherst College.

Jennie Barbour, Five College Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion. B.A. (1994); M.St. (2006), D.Phil. (2010) Oxford University.

Dimaris Barrios-Beltran, Lecturer in Spanish. B.A. (2003), M.A. (2007) University of Puerto Rico.

Ronald D. Bashford, Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance. A.B. (1988) Amherst College; M.F.A. (1992) University of Delaware.

Carleen R. Basler, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Sociology. B.A. (1991) University of California at Los Angeles; M.A. (1998), M.Ph. (1999), Ph.D. (2003) Yale University.

Amrita Basu‡, Domenic J. Paino 1955 Professor of Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies. B.A. (1975) Cornell University; M.A. (1977), M.Phil. (1978), Ph.D. (1984) Columbia University; A.M. (hon. 1994) Amherst College.

Danielle L. Benedetto, Lecturer in Mathematics. B.A. (1994) Colby College; Sc.M. (1996), Ph.D. (1999) Brown University.

Robert L. Benedetto, Associate Professor of Mathematics. A.B. (1993) Harvard University; Sc.M. (1996), Ph.D. (1998) Brown University.

Peter Berek, Visiting Professor of English. A.B. (1961) Amherst College; M.A. (1963), Ph.D. (1967) Harvard University.

Wendy H. Bergoffen, Visiting Lecturer in English. A.B. (1992) University of Georgia; M.A. (1995) Florida State University; Ph.D. (2004) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Abdelkader Berrahmoun, Five College Lecturer in Arabic. B.A. (1991) Oran University, Algeria; Maitrise (1993) La Sorbonne University, Paris; M.A. (1994) Creteil University, Paris; Ph.D. (1996) Nanterre University, Paris.

Anthony C. Bishop, Associate Professor of Chemistry. B.A. (1993) University of California at San Diego; Ph.D. (2000) Princeton University.

Anston L. Bosman, Associate Professor of English. B.A. (1990) University of Cape Town, South Africa; B.A. (1992) University of Witwatersrand; Ph.D. (2000) Stanford University.

Ellen Boucher, Assistant Professor of History. B.A. (2000) University of Michigan; M.A. (2002), Ph.D. (2008) Columbia University.

Karin E. Boxer, Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy. A.B. (1994) Princeton University; B. Phil. (1996), D.Phil. (2002) University of Oxford.

Ute T. Brandes, Georges Lurcy Professor of German. B.A. (1972), M.A. (1974) University of New Hampshire; Ph.D. (1982) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1993) Amherst College.

Scott J. Branson, Five College Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature. B.A. (2003), M.A. (2005) New York University; Ph.D. (2011) Emory University.

Sara J. Brenneis, Assistant Professor of Spanish. B.A. (1998) Wesleyan University; M.A. (2002), Ph.D. (2007) University of California at Berkeley.

Lisa Brooks, Associate Professor of English and American Studies. B.A. (1993) Goddard College; M.A. (1998) Boston College; Ph.D. (2004) Cornell University.

Fumiko U. Brown, Five College Lecturer in Japanese. B.A. (1989) International Christian University, Tokyo; M.A. (2005) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Kristin Bumiller, Professor of Political Science. B.A. (1979), M.A. (1979) Northwestern University; Ph.D. (1984) University of Wisconsin at Madison; A.M. (hon. 2001) Amherst College.

Sandra L. Burkett, Associate Professor of Chemistry. A.B. (1990) Princeton University; Ph.D. (1995) California Institute of Technology.

Gregory S. Call, Peter R. Pouncey Professor of Mathematics. A.B. (1980) Dartmouth College; A.M. (1981), Ph.D. (1986) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 2001) Amherst College.

John A. Cameron, Professor of English. B.A. (1952), M.A. (1957), Ph.D. (1963) Yale University; Diploma (1955) University of Edinburgh; A.M. (hon. 1970) Amherst College.

Jay L. Caplan, Professor of French. A.B. (1967) Oberlin College; M.A. (1969), Ph.D. (1973) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1991) Amherst College.

Ashley R. Carter, Assistant Professor of Physics. B.S., B.S.E. (2002) University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; M.S., Ph.D. (2008) University of Colorado at Boulder.

José Celso de Castro Alves, Assistant Professor of Black Studies and History. B.A. (1995) University of Texas at Austin; M. Phil. (2000), M.A. (2001), Ph.D. (2006) Yale University.

John T. Cheney, Samuel A. Hitchcock Professor of Mineralogy and Geology. B.A. (1970), M.A. (1972) University of Montana; Ph.D. (1975) University of Wisconsin at Madison; A.M. (hon. 1987) Amherst College.

Mallorie Chernin, Senior Lecturer in Music and Director of the Choral Music Program. B.Mus. (1976) University of Wisconsin; M.Mus. (1978) Westminster Choir College.

Howell D. Chickering, Jr.†, G. Armour Craig Professor of Language and Literature. B.A. (1959) Dartmouth College; Ph.D. (1965) Indiana University; A.M. (hon. 1976) Amherst College.

Michael Ching, Assistant Professor of Mathematics. B.A. (2000), M.A. (2004) University of Cambridge, Trinity College; Ph.D. (2005) Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Nusrat Sabina Chowdhury, Assistant Professor of Anthropology. B.A. (1998) University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; M.A. (2002) University of Texas at Austin; Ph.D. (2011) University of Chicago.

Alicia Jean Christoff, Robert E. Keiter ’57 Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of English. B.A. (2004), M.A. (2005) New York University; Ph.D. (2011) Princeton University.

Catherine A. Ciepiela, Professor of Russian. A.B. (1983) Amherst College; M.A. (1985), Ph.D. (1992) Yale University.

Carol C. Clark, William McCall Vickery 1957 Professor of the History of Art and American Studies. A.B. (1969), M.A. (1971) University of Michigan; Ph.D. (1981) Case Western Reserve University; A.M. (hon. 1992) Amherst College.

Katherine H. Clemans, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology. B.A. (2002) Duke University; M.S. (2007), Ph.D. (2010) University of Florida.

Ethan D. Clotfelter†, Associate Professor of Biology and Neuroscience. B.A. (1991) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; M.S. (1994), Ph.D. (1998) University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Rhonda Cobham-Sander‡, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Black Studies and English. B.A. (1974) University of the West Indies; Ph.D. (1982) University of Saint Andrews; A.M. (hon. 1998) Amherst College.

Jonathan A. Collins, Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry. B.Sc. (2005) Allegheny College; Ph.D. (2010) Brock University, Canada.

Constance S. Congdon, Playwright-in-Residence. B.A. (1969) University of Colorado; M.F.A. (1982) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Margery C. Coombs, Adjunct Professor of Geology. A.B. (1967) Oberlin College; M.A. (1968), Ph.D. (1973) Columbia University.

Javier Corrales‡, Professor of Political Science. B.S. (1986) Georgetown University; Ph.D. (1996) Harvard University; M.A. (hon. 2010) Amherst College.

Nicola M. Courtright*, Professor of the History of Art. B.A. (1976) Oberlin College; M.A. (1978) Yale University; Ph.D. (1990) The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; A.M. (hon. 2004) Amherst College.

Francis G. Couvares, E. Dwight Salmon Professor of History and American Studies. B.A. (1969) University of Pittsburgh; M.A. (1973), Ph.D. (1980) University of Michigan; A.M. (hon. 1993) Amherst College.

David A. Cox, William J. Walker Professor of Mathematics. B.A. (1970) Rice University; Ph.D. (1975) Princeton University; A.M. (hon. 1988) Amherst College.

Peter D. Crowley, Professor of Geology/Director of the Museum of Natural History. B.Sc. (1979) McGill University; Ph.D. (1985) Massachusetts Institute of Technology; A.M. (hon. 1998) Amherst College.

Douglas Culhane, Visiting Lecturer in Art. B.A. (1979) Colgate University; M.A. (1982) University of Iowa.

Michael Davis, Visiting Professor of Art and the History of Art. A.B. (1972), A.M. (1973), Ph.D. (1979) University of Michigan.

Rosalina de la Carrera, Professor of French. B.A. (1973) Carleton College; M.A. (1977) Cornell University; Ph.D. (1985) The Johns Hopkins University; A.M. (hon. 1996) Amherst College.

David P. Delaney, Senior Lecturer in Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought. B.A. (1987) San Francisco State University; M.S. (1989), Ph.D. (1995) University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Amy P. Demorest, Professor of Psychology. B.A. (1979) Williams College; Ph.D. (1987) Duke University; A.M. (hon. 2001) Amherst College.

Evgeny Dengub, Five College Lecturer in Russian. B.A. (2002) Khabarovsk State Pedagogical University, Russia; M.A. (2007) Bryn Mawr College.

Jerry P. Dennerline, Olin Professor in Asian Studies (History and Asian Languages and Civilizations). B.A. (1964) Wabash College; M.A. (1966), Ph.D. (1973) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1987) Amherst College.

Bruce P. Diehl, Senior Lecturer in Music and Director of Jazz Performance. B.Mus. (1990) Eastman School of Music; M.M. (1995) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Jan E. Dizard†, Charles Hamilton Houston Professor in American Culture (Sociology) and Pick Reader. B.A. (1962) University of Minnesota at Duluth; M.A. (1964), Ph.D. (1967) University of Chicago; A.M. (hon. 1978) Amherst College.

Andrew C. Dole, Associate Professor of Religion. B.A. (1989) Yale University; M.A. (1997) Yale Divinity School; Ph.D. (2004) Yale University.

Christopher T. Dole*, Associate Professor of Anthropology. B.A. (1992) Baylor University; M.A. (1996), Ph.D. (2002) Case Western Reserve University.

Robert Doran, Samuel Williston Professor of Greek and Hebrew (Religion). S.T.Lect. (1967) Blackfriars Seminary; S.T.Lic. (1970) Universita di S. Tommaso; L.S.S. (1971) Pontifical Biblical Institute; Th.D. (1977) Harvard Divinity School; A.M. (hon. 1990) Amherst College.

Suzanne P. Dougan, Stanley King ’03 Professor of Dramatic Arts (Theater and Dance) and Director of Theatrical Productions. A.B. (1973) Vassar College; M.F.A. (1979) Yale School of Drama; A.M. (hon. 1996) Amherst College.

Lawrence R. Douglas, James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought. A.B. (1982) Brown University; M.A. (1986) Columbia University; J.D. (1989) Yale Law School.

John E. Drabinski, Visiting Associate Professor of Black Studies. B.A. (1991) Seattle University; M.A. (1993), Ph.D. (1996) University of Memphis.

Thomas L. Dumm, William H. Hastie ’25 Professor of Political Science. B.A. (1976), M.A. (1978) Pennsylvania State University; Ph.D. (1984) Cornell University; A.M. (hon. 1997) Amherst College.

Stephanie Elsky, Robert E. Keiter ’57 Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought. B.A. (2002) Columbia University; M.A. (2005), Ph.D. (2010) University of Pennsylvania.

Jeffers L. Engelhardt, Assistant Professor of Music. B.M. (1998) Oberlin College Conservatory of Music; M.A. (2000), Ph.D. (2005) University of Chicago.

Catherine Epstein, Professor of History. A.B. (1985) Brown University; M.Sc. (1987) London School of Economics; Ph.D. (1998) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 2012) Amherst College.

Wendy Taylor Ewald, Visiting Artist-in-Residence in the Department of Art and the History of Art. B.A. (1974) Antioch College.

Jeffrey B. Ferguson, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Black Studies and American Studies. B.A. (1985) Harvard College; Ph.D. (1999) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 2012) Amherst College.

Vanessa L. Fong, Associate Professor of Anthropology. A.B. (1996) Amherst College; M.A. (1998), Ph.D. (2002) Harvard University.

Judith E. Frank†, Professor of English. B.A. (1981) The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; M.A. (1986), M.F.A. (1987), Ph.D. (1990) Cornell University; A.M. (hon. 2002) Amherst College.

Jonathan R. Friedman*, Associate Professor of Physics. B.A. (1987) Vassar College; Ph.D. (1996) City College of New York.

Amity Gaige†, Visiting Writer, Department of English. B.A. (1995) Brown University; M.F.A. (1999) The Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Betsey Garand†, Senior Resident Artist in the Department of Art and the History of Art. B.F.A. (1981) University of New Hampshire; M.F.A. (1983) Tyler School of Art, Temple University.

Jyl Gentzler, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Philosophy and Associate Director of the Writing Center. A.B. (1985) Bryn Mawr College; M.A. (1988), Ph.D. (1991) Cornell University; A.M. (hon. 2003) Amherst College.

Alexander George, Professor of Philosophy. B.A. (1979) Columbia College; M.A. (1983), Ph.D. (1986) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 2001) Amherst College.

Stephen A. George†, The Manwell Family Professor of Life Sciences (Biology and Neuroscience). B.S. (1964) University of British Columbia; Ph.D. (1970) The Johns Hopkins University; A.M. (hon. 1984) Amherst College.

Deborah B. Gewertz, G. Henry Whitcomb 1874 Professor of Anthropology. B.A. (1969) Queens College; Ph.D. (1977) City University of New York; A.M. (hon. 1988) Amherst College.

Heidi L. Gilpin, Associate Professor of German. A.B. (1984) Amherst College; A.M. (1987), Ph.D. (1993) Harvard University.

Sergey Glebov, Five College Assistant Professor of History and Russian. M.A. (1999) Central European University, Budapest; Ph.D. (2004) Rutgers University.

David I. Gloman, Resident Artist in the Department of Art and the History of Art. B.F.A. (1983) Indiana University; M.F.A. (1986) Yale University.

Miriam R. Goheen, Professor of Anthropology and Black Studies. B.A. (1976) Oregon State University; A.M. (1978), Ph.D. (1984) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1998) Amherst College.

Susanne Gomoluch, Lecturer in German. B.A. (2001) Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany; M.A. (2009), Ph.D. (2012) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Caroline E. Goutte†, Professor of Biology. B.A. (1985) Cornell University; Ph.D. (1992) University of California at San Francisco; A.M. (hon. 2012) Amherst College.

Ethan R. Graf, Assistant Professor of Biology (Neuroscience). B.A. (1999) Kalamazoo College; Ph.D. (2005) Washington University.

Frederick T. Griffiths, Class of 1880 Professor in Greek (Classics) and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies. B.A. (1969) Yale College; M.A. (1972), Ph.D. (1974) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1984) Amherst College.

Luca Grillo, Assistant Professor of Classics. B.A. (1994) Università Cattolica di Milano, Italy; M.A. (2003) University of Minnesota; Ph.D. (2008) Princeton University.

Christopher Grobe, Assistant Professor of English. B.A. (2005), Ph.D. (2011) Yale University.

Rachel Gross, Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Art and the History of Art. B.A. (1992) Oberlin College; M.F.A. (1998) Temple University.

Allen Guttmann, Emily C. Jordan Folger Professor of English and American Studies. B.A. (1953) University of Florida; M.A. (1956) Columbia University; Ph.D. (1961) University of Minnesota; A.M. (hon. 1971) Amherst College.

Daniel J. Hall, Writer-in-Residence, Department of English.

David Sumner Hall, Professor of Physics. A.B. (1991) Amherst College; A.M. (1994), Ph.D. (1997) Harvard University.

David Hanneke, Assistant Professor of Physics. B.S. (2001) Case Western Reserve University; A.M. (2003), Ph.D. (2008) Harvard University.

Craig Harbison, Visiting Professor of Art and the History of Art. B.A. (1966) Oberlin College; M.F.A. (1969), (1972) Princeton University.

Tekla A. Harms, Professor of Geology. A.B. (1977) Bryn Mawr College; M.Sc. (1982) Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario; Ph.D. (1986) University of Arizona; A.M. (hon. 1999) Amherst College.

Allen J. Hart*, Professor of Psychology. A.B. (1982) Amherst College; A.M. (1989), Ph.D. (1991) Harvard University.

Mohamed Hassan Ahmed ElSawi Hassan, Five College Senior Lecturer in Arabic and Director of the Five College Arabic Language Program. B.A. (1993) Mansoura University, Egypt; M.A. (2001) Tanta University, Egypt; Ph.D. (2008) Ain Shams University, Egypt.

Amelie Hastie, Professor of English and Film and Media Studies. B.A. (1988) Brown University; M.A. (1994), Ph.D. (1999) University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee; A.M. (hon. 2012) Amherst College.

Robert T. Hayashi, Assistant Professor of English and American Studies. B.A. (1985) Denison University; M.F.A. (1989) Cornell University; M.A. (2000), Ph.D. (2002) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Maria Heim‡, Associate Professor of Religion. B.A. (1991) Reed College; Ph.D. (1999) Harvard University.

Aneeka A. Henderson, Robert E. Keiter ’57 Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies. B.A. (2001) Southern Illinois University; M.A. (2004), Ph.D. (2012) University of Illinois at Chicago.

Leah D. Hewitt‡, Professor of French. B.A. (1972) Kent State University; M.A. (1974), Ph.D. (1979) University of California at Berkeley; A.M. (hon. 1995) Amherst College.

Jerome L. Himmelstein, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Sociology. B.A. (1970) Columbia College; M.A. (1972), Ph.D. (1979) University of California at Berkeley; A.M. (hon. 1994) Amherst College.

Hannah A. Holleman, Assistant Professor of Sociology. B.A. (2002), B.S. (2005) Oklahoma State University; Ph.D. (2012) University of Oregon.

Adam Honig, Associate Professor of Economics. B.A. (1997), M.A. (2000), M.Phil. (2001), Ph.D. (2004) Columbia University.

Michael E. Hood†, Associate Professor of Biology. B.A. (1991), M.S. (1992) University of Virginia; Ph.D. (1996) North Carolina State University.

Ken Howard, Croxton Lecturer in Film and Media Studies. A.B. (1966) Amherst College; M.F.A. (1999) Kent State University.

Margaret R. Hunt, Winkley Professor of History and Political Economy (History) and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies. A.B. (1976) Radcliffe College; M.T.S. (1978) Harvard Divinity School; Ph.D. (1986) New York University; A.M. (hon. 1998) Amherst College.

Larry R. Hunter, Stone Professor of Natural Sciences (Physics). B.A. (1974) Columbia University; M.A. (1978), Ph.D. (1981) University of California at Berkeley; A.M. (hon. 1992) Amherst College.

Nasser Hussain, Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought. B.A. (1988) Yale University; M.S. (1990), Ph.D. (1995) University of California at Berkeley; A.M. (hon. 2012) Amherst College.

Jun Ishii, Associate Professor of Economics. B.A. (1995) Rice University; Ph.D. (2001) Stanford University.

Tariq Jaffer, Assistant Professor of Religion. B.A. (1995) University of Toronto; M.A. (1998) McGill University; Ph.D. (2005) Yale University.

Kannan Jagannathan, Bruce B. Benson ’43 and Lucy Wilson Benson Professor of Physics. B.Sc. (1973) Loyola College; M.Sc. (1975) Indian Institute of Technology, Madras; M.A. (1977), Ph.D. (1980) University of Rochester; A.M. (hon. 1993) Amherst College.

Sheila S. Jaswal*, Assistant Professor of Chemistry. B.A. (1992) Mills College; Ph.D. (2000) University of California at San Francisco.

Joanna M. Jeneralczuk, Visiting Lecturer in Mathematics. B.A. (1984), M.A. (1986) University of Warsaw, Poland.

Christopher Mason Johnson, Visiting Lecturer in Art and the History of Art in Film and Media Studies. A.B. (1995) Amherst College.

Andrew Robert Johnston, Visiting Assistant Professor of English in Film and Media Studies. B.A. (2001) College of William and Mary; M.A. (2004) University of Maryland at College Park; Ph.D. (2011) University of Chicago.

David Stewart Jones, Assistant Professor of Geology. B.A. (1998) Carleton College; Ph.D. (2009) Harvard University.

Jenny L. Kallick*, Professor of Music. B. Mus. (1969) University of Southern California; M.M.A. (1973) Yale School of Music; M.Phil. (1986), Ph.D. (1987) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1996) Amherst College.

Cindy P. Kan, Assistant Professor of Chemistry. B.A. (2000) Barnard College; Ph.D. (2006) Stanford University.

Scott F. Kaplan, Professor of Computer Science. A.B. (1995) Amherst College; Ph.D. (1999) University of Texas at Austin.

Laure G. Katsaros‡, Associate Professor of French. Maîtrise (1995) Ecole Normale Superiéure, Paris; Thèse de doctorat (2000) University Paris VII-Denis Diderot; Ph.D. (2003) Yale University.

Ikumi Kayama, Lecturer in Asian Languages and Civilizations (Japanese). B.A. (1991) Aoyama Gakuin University; M.Ed. (2000) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Carol W. Keller, Professor of Art. B.A. (1974) Manchester College; M.F.A. (1980) Boston University School for the Arts; A.M. (hon. 2005) Amherst College.

Justin F. Kimball, Associate Professor of Art. B.F.A. (1985) Rhode Island School of Design; M.F.A. (1990) Yale University School of Art; M.A. (hon. 2009) Amherst College.

Christopher G. Kingston, Associate Professor of Economics. B.A. (1994) Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland; Ph.D. (2001) Stanford University; M.A. (hon. 2009) Amherst College.

Michael Klare, Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies (Political Science). B.A. (1963), M.A. (1968) Columbia University; Ph.D. (1976) Union Institute.

Elizabeth A. Klarich, Five College Assistant Professor of Anthropology. B.A. (1995) University of Chicago; M.A. (1998), Ph.D. (2005) University of California at Santa Barbara.

Daniel Koltonski, Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy. B.A. (2002) Swarthmore College; M.A. (2007), Ph.D. (2011) Cornell University.

Edward Hao Mang Koo, Croxton Lecturer in Biology and Neuroscience. A.B. (1976) Amherst College; M.D. (1980) Duke University School of Medicine.

Joseph N. Kushick‡, Professor of Chemistry. A.B. (1969) Columbia College; Ph.D. (1975) Columbia University; A.M. (hon. 1988) Amherst College.

Tanya L. Leise, Assistant Professor of Mathematics. B.S. (1993) Stanford University; M.S. (1995), Ph.D. (1998) Texas A&M University.

Ronald A. Lembo, Professor of Sociology. B.A. (1974) University of Massachusetts at Boston; M.A. (1980) University of California at Santa Barbara; Ph.D. (1989) University of California at Berkeley; A.M. (hon. 2005) Amherst College.

Helen O. Leung, George H. Corey 1888 Professor of Chemistry. B.S. (1982), B.A. (1983) California State University at Northridge; M.A. (1985), Ph.D. (1988) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 2003) Amherst College.

N. Gordon Levin, Jr., Dwight Morrow Professor of History and American Studies. B.A. (1956) Yale University; Ph.D. (1967) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1975) Amherst College.

Rachel A. Levin, Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology. B.A. (1994) Carleton College; M.S. (1997), Ph.D. (2001) University of Arizona.

Weijia Li, Senior Lecturer in Asian Languages and Civilizations. B.A. (1982) Hebei Teachers’ University, Shijiazhuang, China; B.A. (1985) China Broadcast and Television University, Beijing; M.A. (1987) Beijing University of Science and Technology; M.A. (1996) City University of New York; Ed.D. (2004) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Shu-Min Liao‡, Assistant Professor of Mathematics (Statistics). B.S. (2001) National Chengchi University, Taiwan; M.S. (2005), Ph.D. (2009) Pennsylvania State University.

Ralph Lieberman, Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Art and the History of Art. B.A. (1961) Brandeis University; M.A. (1964), Ph.D. (1972) New York University.

Peter Lobdell†, Senior Resident Artist in the Department of Theater and Dance. A.B. (1968) Amherst College.

William A. Loinaz, Associate Professor of Physics. B.S.E. (1989) Princeton University; M.S. (1991), Ph.D. (1995) University of Michigan.

Thom Long, Five College Assistant Professor of Architectural Studies (European Studies). B.Arch. (1999) Roger Williams University; M.S.-AAD (2000) Columbia University.

Rick A. López, Associate Professor of History. A.B. (1993) Amherst College; M.A. (1998), Ph.D. (2001) Yale University.

Pavel Machala, Professor of Political Science. B.A. (1970) St. Olaf College; M.A. (1972), Ph.D. (1976) The Johns Hopkins University; A.M. (hon. 1990) Amherst College.

Victoria Maillo de Aguilera, Senior Lecturer and Language Coordinator of Spanish. B.A. (1989) Universidad de Salamanca, Spain; M.A. (2004) Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.

Corey Manack, Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics. B.S. (2003) Ohio State University; M.S. (2005), Ph.D. (2010) Indiana University at Bloomington.

James E. Maraniss‡, Professor of Spanish. B.A. (1966), M.A. (1967) Harvard University; Ph.D. (1975) Princeton University; A.M. (hon. 1985) Amherst College.

Mark D. Marshall, Class of 1959 Professor of Chemistry. B.S. (1979) University of Rochester; M.A. (1981), Ph.D. (1985) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 2000) Amherst College.

Carolyn A. Martin, Professor of German and Women’s and Gender Studies. B.A. (1973) College of William and Mary; M.A. (1974) Middlebury College; Ph.D. (1985) University of Wisconsin at Madison; L.H.D (hon. 2012) The College of William and Mary.

Anna Melick Martini, Associate Professor of Geology. B.A. (1986) Colgate University; M.S. (1992) Syracuse University; Ph.D. (1997) University of Michigan.

Paul Matteson, Five College Assistant Professor of Dance. B.A. (2000) Middlebury College; M.F.A. (2007) Bennington College.

Trent E. Maxey*, Associate Professor of Asian Languages and Civilization and History. B.A. (1998) Northwestern University; M.A. (2001), Ph.D. (2005) Cornell University.

Jessica McCutcheon, Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics. B.A. (2001) University of Wisconsin; M.A. (2004) University of Toronto; M.A. (2007), M.Phil. (2010), Ph.D. (2012) Yale University.

Catherine C. McGeoch†, Beitzel Professor in Technology and Society (Computer Science). B.S. (1981) Butler University; M.S. (1983), Ph.D. (1986) Carnegie Mellon University; A.M. (hon. 2001) Amherst College.

Lyle A. McGeoch, Brian E. Boyle ’69 Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science (Computer Science). B.S.E. (1981) Princeton University; M.S. (1983), Ph.D. (1987) Carnegie Mellon University; A.M. (hon. 2000) Amherst College.

Karena A. McKinney*, Assistant Professor of Chemistry. A.B. (1991) Harvard University; Ph.D. (1998) University of California at Irvine.

Julia D. McQuade, Assistant Professor of Psychology. B.A. (2004) Bates College; Ph.D. (2012) University of Vermont.

Edward D. Melillo*, Assistant Professor of History and Environmental Studies. B.A. (1997) Swarthmore College; Ph.D. (2006) Yale University.

Harold Meltzer, Joseph E. and Grace W. Valentine Visiting Associate Professor of Music. A.B. (1998) Amherst College; M.Phil. (1991) Cambridge University; J.D. (1992) Columbia University School of Law; M.MA. ((1997), D.MA. (2000) Yale School of Music.

Saaid A. Mendoza, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology. B.A. (2004) Rice University; Ph.D. (2010) New York University.

Emily E. Miller, Visiting Lecturer in Film and Media Studies. B.A. (1991) University of Wisconsin; M.A. (2002) Temple University; M.F.A. (2009) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Jill Suzanne Miller, Associate Professor of Biology. B.A. (1992) Colorado College; M.S. (1997), Ph.D. (2000) University of Arizona.

Kozue Miyama, Senior Lecturer in Asian Languages and Civilizations (Japanese). B.A. (1982) University of Tsukuba, Japan; M.A. (1988) International Christian University, Japan.

Joseph G. Moore, Professor of Philosophy. B.A. (1986) University of California at Berkeley; M.A. (1989), Ph.D. (1994) Cornell University.

Michelle D. Morgan, Professor of Physical Education and Senior Women’s Administrator. B.A. (1974) Colorado Women’s College; M.S. (1976) Smith College; A.M. (hon. 1990) Amherst College.

Klára Móricz, Joseph E. and Grace W. Valentine Visiting Associate Professor of Music. Diploma (1986), Diploma (1992) Franz Liszt Academy of Music; M.A. (1995), Ph.D. (1999) University of California at Berkeley.

Samuel C. Morse, Howard M. and Martha P. Mitchell Professor of the History of Art and Asian Languages and Civilizations. B.A. (1978) Harvard College; Ph.D. (1985) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1995) Amherst College.

Hilary J. Moss†, Associate Professor of Black Studies and History. B.A. (1998) Northwestern University; Ph.D. (2004) Brandeis University.

Eunmi Mun, Robert E. Keiter ’57 Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology. B.A. (2002), M.A. (2004) Seoul National University, Ph.D. (2011) Harvard University.

F. Rémy Ndangali, Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics. B.A. (2003) Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Sénégal; M.Sc. (2007), Ph.D. (2011) University of Florida.

Ingrid Nelson, Assistant Professor of English. B.S. (1997) The College of William and Mary; M.A. (2005) University of Colorado; Ph.D. (2010) Harvard University.

Walter E. Nicholson‡, Ward H. Patton Professor of Economics. B.A. (1964) Williams College; Ph.D. (1970) Massachusetts Institute of Technology; A.M. (hon. 1978) Amherst College.

Susan R. Niditch, Samuel Green Professor of Religion. A.B. (1972) Radcliffe College; Ph.D. (1977) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1990) Amherst College.

Barry F. O’Connell†, James E. Ostendarp Professor of English. B.A. (1966) Harvard College; M.A. (1972), Ph.D. (1976) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1984) Amherst College.

Patricia B. O’Hara, Amanda and Lisa Cross Professor of Chemistry. B.A. (1976) Adelphi University; Ph.D. (1981) Columbia University; A.M. (hon. 1995) Amherst College.

Andrew Olendski, Visiting Lecturer in Religion. B.A. (1977) University of Colorado; M.A. (1978), Ph.D. (1987) University of Lancaster, England.

Olabode Omojola, Five College Associate Professor of Black Studies. B.A. (1980) University of Nigeria; M.A. (1983) University of Ibadan, Nigeria; Ph.D. (1988) University of Leicester, England.

Marisa Parham, Associate Professor of English. B.A. (1996) Washington University; M.A. (1997), M.Phil. (2000), Ph.D. (2004) Columbia University; M.A. (hon. 2009) Amherst College.

Dale E. Peterson‡, Eliza J. Clark Folger Professor of English and Russian. B.A. (1963) Harvard University; M.A. (1965), Ph.D. (1971) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1981) Amherst College.

Dominic L. Poccia, Rufus Tyler Lincoln Professor of Biology. B.S. (1967) Union College; A.M. (1968), Ph.D. (1971) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1987) Amherst College.

Andrew Poe, Assistant Professor of Political Science. B.A. (2001) St. John’s College; M.A. (2002) University of Chicago; Ph.D. (2010) University of California at San Diego.

Khary Oronde Polk, Visiting Assistant Professor of Black Studies. B.A. (2000) Oberlin College; Ph.D. (2011) New York University.

William H. Pritchard, Henry Clay Folger Professor of English. A.B. (1953) Amherst College; M.A. (1956), Ph.D. (1960) Harvard University.

Patrick Pritchett, Visiting Lecturer in English. B.A. (2001), M.A. (2004) University of Colorado at Boulder.

Alexandra Elizabeth Purdy, Assistant Professor of Biology. B.S. (2000) College of William and Mary; Ph.D. (2007) Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego.

Julia Rabig, Visiting Lecturer in History and Black Studies. B.A. (1997) Hampshire College; Ph.D. (2007) University of Pennsylvania.

Stanislav Rabinovich, Assistant Professor of Economics. B.A., B.S. (2006) University of Chicago; Ph.D. (2012) University of Pennsylvania.

Stanley J. Rabinowitz, Henry Steele Commager Professor and Professor of Russian. A.B. (1967) City University of New York (Brooklyn College); A.M. (1969), Ph.D. (1975) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1984) Amherst College.

John E. Rager III, Professor of Computer Science. S.B. (1977) Massachusetts Institute of Technology; S.M. (1978) University of Chicago; Ph.D. (1987) Northwestern University; A.M. (hon. 2001) Amherst College.

Lisa A. Raskin, John William Ward Professor of Psychology (Neuroscience). B.A. (1975) Skidmore College; M.A. (1977), Ph.D. (1979) Princeton University; A.M. (hon. 1991) Amherst College.

David I. Ratner‡, Alfred Sargent Lee ’41 and Mary Farley Ames Lee Professor of Biology. B.S., M.S. (1968) Yale University; Ph.D. (1975) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1994) Amherst College.

Sean Redding, Professor of History. B.A. (1978) Swarthmore College; Ph.D. (1987) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 2000) Amherst College.

Sujani K. Reddy, Five College Assistant Professor of Asian Pacific American Studies. B.A. (1995) Yale University; Ph.D. (2008) New York University.

Jessica Reyes, Associate Professor of Economics. A.B. (1994) Amherst College; Diploma (1995) Churchill College, University of Cambridge; A.M. (1999), Ph.D. (2002) Harvard University.

Monica M. Ringer, Associate Professor of History and Asian Languages and Civilizations. B.A. (1988) Oberlin College; M.A. (1992), Ph.D. (1998) University of California at Los Angeles.

Ramón G. Rivera-Moret, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and the History of Art in Film and Media Studies. B.A. (1982) University of Notre Dame; M.A. (1989) University of Iowa.

Steven G. Rivkin*, Rachel and Michael Deutch Professor of Economics. B.A. (1984) University of Michigan; M.A. (1987), Ph.D. (1991) University of California at Los Angeles; A.M. (hon. 2006) Amherst College.

Donald L. Robinson, Visiting Professor of Political Science. B.A. (1958) Yale University; M.Div. (1962) Union Theological Seminary; Ph.D. (1966) Cornell University.

Jason Robinson, Assistant Professor of Music. B.A. (1998) Sonoma State University; M.A. (2000), Ph.D. (2005) University of California at San Diego.

Stephanie L. Robinson, Visiting Lecturer in Theater and Dance. B.M. (1998) University of Southern California; M.Mus. (2000) University of Michigan; Ph.D. (2005) University of California at San Diego.

Paul V. Rockwell†, Professor of French. B.A. (1980), M.A. (1982), Ph.D. (1988) University of Wisconsin; A.M. (hon. 2001) Amherst College.

Christian Rogowski, Professor of German. B.A. (1980) Mannheim University; M.A. (1981) London University; Ph.D. (1988) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 2001) Amherst College.

Ronald C. Rosbottom‡, Winifred L. Arms Professor in the Arts and Humanities and Professor of French and European Studies. B.A. (1964) Tulane University; M.A. (1966), Ph.D. (1969) Princeton University; A.M. (hon. 1990) Amherst College.

Jeffrey Saletnik, Visiting Assistant Professor of the History of Art and ACLS New Faculty Fellow. B.Mus. (1997) Oberlin Conservatory of Music; B.A (1997) Oberlin College; M.A. (2001) Williams College; Ph.D. (2009) The University of Chicago.

Geoffrey Sanborn, Professor of English. B.A. (1987) Stanford University; Ph.D. (1992) University of California at Los Angeles.

Benigno R. Sánchez-Eppler, Visiting Lecturer in English. B.A. (1979) Williams College; B.A. (1981), M.Phil. (1983) Cambridge University; Ph.D. (1988) The John Hopkins University.

Karen Sánchez-Eppler, Professor of American Studies and English. B.A. (1981) Williams College; B.A. (1983) Cambridge University; M.A. (1986), Ph.D. (1990) The Johns Hopkins University; A.M. (hon. 2001) Amherst College.

Catherine Ashley Sanderson, Professor of Psychology. A.B. (1990) Stanford University; M.S. (1993), Ph.D. (1997) Princeton University; M.A. (hon. 2010) Amherst College.

Austin D. Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science. B.A. (1969) Providence College; M.A. (1970), Ph.D. (1973) University of Wisconsin; A.M. (hon. 1984) Amherst College; J.D. (1988) Yale Law School, LL.D. (hon. 2008) Providence College.

Eric W. Sawyer, Associate Professor of Music. A.B. (1985) Harvard College; M.A. (1988) Columbia University; Ph.D. (1994) University of California at Davis.

Martha Saxton‡, Professor of History and Women’s and Gender Studies and Elizabeth W. Bruss Reader. B.A. (1967) University of Chicago; Ph.D. (1989) Columbia University.

David E. Schneider, Professor of Music. A.B. (1985) Harvard College; M.A. (1990), Ph.D. (1997) University of California at Berkeley.

Matthew D. Schulkind, Associate Professor of Psychology. B.A. (1990) Haverford College; M.A. (1993), Ph.D. (1997) Duke University.

Dwaipayan Sen, Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and Civilizations and History. B.A. (2004) Oberlin College; M.A. (2005), Ph.D. (2012) University of Chicago.

John W. Servos†, Anson D. Morse Professor of History. A.B. (1972) Columbia College; Ph.D. (1979) The Johns Hopkins University; A.M. (hon. 1992) Amherst College.

Nishiten Shah*, Associate Professor of Philosophy. B.S. (1991) University of Wisconsin at Madison; Ph.D. (2000) University of Michigan.

Krupa Shandilya, Assistant Professor of Women and Gender Studies. B.A. (2002) University of Mumbai (St. Xavier College); B.A. (2004) University of Rochester; M.A. (2006), Ph.D. (2009) Cornell University.

C. Teresa Shawcross*, Five College Assistant Professor of History. B.A. (1998) University of Oxford and Wadham College; Maîtrise (1998) Université de Paris II-Sorbonne Nouvelle; M.Phil. (2001), D.Phil. (2005) University of Oxford and Exeter College.

Tong Shen, Senior Lecturer in Asian Languages and Civilizations (Chinese). M.A. (1988) Long Island University; Ph.D. (1995) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Katharine R. Emans Sims, Assistant Professor of Economics. B.A. (1998) Princeton University; M.A. (2005), Ph.D. (2008) Harvard University.

Prakarsh Singh, Assistant Professor of Economics. B.Sc. (2006), M.Res. (2008), Ph.D. (2011) London School of Economics.

Dale S. Sinos, Visiting Professor of Classics. B.A. (1968) Hunter College, City University of New York; M.A. (1973), Ph.D. (1976) The Johns Hopkins University.

Rebecca H. Sinos, Professor of Classics. A.B. (1976) The College of William and Mary; M.A. (1978), Ph.D. (1980) The Johns Hopkins University; A.M. (hon. 1992) Amherst College.

Adam Sitze†, Assistant Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought. B.A. (1996) Drake University; Ph.D. (2003) University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

David R. Sofield, Samuel Williston Professor of English. B.A. (1957) Princeton University; M.A. (1965), Ph.D. (1971) Stanford University; A.M. (hon. 1977) Amherst College.

Natasha Staller, Professor of the History of Art. B.A. (1973) Wellesley College; Ph.D. (1983) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 2006) Amherst College.

Ilán Stavans†, Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture (Spanish). B.A. (1984) Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana; M.A. (1987) The Jewish Theological Seminary; M.A. (1988), M.Phil. (1989), Ph.D. (1990) Columbia University; A.M. (hon. 1998) Amherst College.

Lucia de las Mercedes Suárez, Associate Professor of Spanish. B.A. (1991) Hunter College, City University of New York; Ph.D. (1999) Duke University.

Mark Lane Swanson, Director of Instrumental Music and Senior Lecturer in Music. A.B. (1982) Stanford University; J.D. (1985) University of California at Los Angeles School of Law; M.Mus. (1997) Indiana University at Bloomington.

Kevin M. Sweeney, Professor of American Studies and History. B.A. (1972) Williams College; M.A. (1973), M.Phil. (1975), Ph.D. (1986) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 2000) Amherst College.

Robert T. Sweeney, William R. Mead Professor of Art. B.F.A. (1970), M.F.A. (1972) Boston University; A.M. (hon. 1986) Amherst College.

Marilyn Sylla, Five College Lecturer in Dance.

Wako Tawa, Professor of Asian Languages and Civilizations. B.A. (1971) State University of New York at Buffalo; M.A. (1975) International Christian University; Ph.D. (1986) Pennsylvania State University; A.M. (hon. 2000) Amherst College.

Ethan J. Temeles, Professor of Biology. A.B. (1978) Cornell University; M.Sc. (1980) Louisiana State University; Ph.D. (1987) University of California at Davis.

Xiaoping Teng, Senior Lecturer in Asian Languages and Civilizations (Chinese). B.A. (1982), M.A. (1984) Tianjin University; M.A. (1994) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Ronald S. Tiersky‡, Joseph B. Eastman ’04 Professor of Political Science. B.A. (1966) University of Illinois; M.A. (1971), Ph.D. (1972) Columbia University; A.M. (hon. 1987) Amherst College.

Rebekah A. L. Tolley, Artist-in-Residence in the Department of Art and the History of Art. B.F.A. (2000) Concordia College, Montreal; M.F.A. (2002) Tyler School of Art, Temple University.

Josef G. Trapani, Assistant Professor of Biology. B.A. (1999), M.S. (2004), Ph.D. (2005) University of Connecticut.

Sarah M. Turgeon, Professor of Psychology (Neuroscience). B.A. (1989) Kenyon College; Ph.D. (1994) University of Michigan.

Maria E. Twardy, Lecturer in Spanish. B.A. (1993) Universidad Del Salvador, Buenos Aires; M.A. (2007) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Raina Forbes Uhden†, Senior Lecturer in French. B.A. (1996) Virginia Polytechnic and State University; M.A. (1997) Reid Hall, Columbia University in Paris; Ph.D. (2005) Columbia University.

Martha M. Umphrey‡, Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought. B.A. (1986), J.D. (1991), Ph.D. (2000) University of Michigan.

Joel M. Upton‡, Professor of Art and the History of Art. A.B. (1963) Rutgers University; M.A. (1968), Ph.D. (1972) Bryn Mawr College; A.M. (hon. 1984) Amherst College.

Constance Valis Hill, Five College Associate Professor of Dance. B.A. (1969) State University of New York at Albany; M.A. (1990) City College of New York; Ph.D. (1998) Tisch School of Arts, New York University.

Timothy Van Compernolle, Associate Professor of Asian Languages and Civilizations (Japanese). B.A. (1992), M.A. (1995) University of Kansas; M.A. (1997), Ph.D. (2001) University of Michigan.

Christopher S. van den Berg*, Assistant Professor of Classics. B.A. (1996) University of California at Berkeley; Ph.D. (2006) Yale University.

Daniel J. Velleman, Julian H. Gibbs ’46 Professor of Mathematics. B.A. (1976) Dartmouth College; M.A. (1977), Ph.D. (1980) University of Wisconsin; A.M. (hon. 1992) Amherst College.

Kiara Maria Vigil, Assistant Professor of American Studies. B.A. (1997) Tufts University; M.A. (1998) Teachers College, Columbia University; M.A.L.S. (2006) Dartmouth College; Ph.D. (2011) University of Michigan.

Jonathan M. Vogel, Professor of Philosophy. B.A. (1976), Ph.D. (1986) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1998) Amherst College.

Amy S. Wagaman, Assistant Professor of Mathematics (Statistics). B.A. (2003) Kenyon College; M.S. (2005), Ph.D. (2008) University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Jon Western, Five College Professor of International Relations (Political Science). B.A. (1984) Macalester College; M.P.P. (1988) University of Michigan; Ph.D. (1999) Columbia University.

Frank H. Westhoff‡, Professor of Economics. S.B. (1969) Massachusetts Institute of Technology; M.Ph. (1971), M.A. (1973), Ph.D. (1974) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1985) Amherst College.

Richard P. Wilbur, John Woodruff Simpson Lecturer. A.B. (1942) Amherst College; M.A. (1947) Harvard University; D.H.L. (hon. 1967) Amherst College.

Patrick Williamson, Edward H. Harkness Professor of Biology. B.A. (1970) Beloit College; M.A. (1971), Ph.D. (1974) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1990) Amherst College.

David W. Wills, Winthrop H. Smith ’16 Professor of American History and American Studies (Religion). A.B. (1962) Yale University; B.D. (1966) Princeton Theological Seminary; Ph.D. (1975) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1983) Amherst College.

Geoffrey R. Woglom, Richard S. Volpert ’56 Professor of Economics. B.A. (1968) Yale College; M.Ph. (1970), Ph.D. (1974) Yale University; A.M. (hon. 1984) Amherst College.

Boris Wolfson, Assistant Professor of Russian. B.A. (1997) University of Chicago; M.A. (1999), Ph.D. (2004) University of California at Berkeley.

Colleen Woods, Robert E. Keiter ’57 Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of History. B.A. (2003) University of Michigan; M.A. (2006) University of New York Graduate Center; Ph.D. (2012) University of Michigan.

Wendy Woodson, Roger C. Holden 1919 Professor of Theater and Dance. B.A. (1969), M.A. (1976) George Washington University; A.M. (hon. 2000) Amherst College.

Roman Yakub, Visiting Lecturer in Music. Diploma (1982) L’viv State Conservatory, Ukraine; M.M.A. (1995) University of Massachusetts at Amherst; D.M.A. (1999) Boston University.

Beth V. Yarbrough, Willard Long Thorp Professor of Economics. B.S. (1977) University of Texas; M.A. (1980), Ph.D. (1983) University of Washington; A.M. (hon. 1993) Amherst College.

Robert M. Yarbrough, Adjunct Professor of Economics. B.S. (1977) University of Texas at Dallas; M.A. (1980), Ph.D. (1983) University of Washington.

Elizabeth R. Young, Assistant Professor of Chemistry. B.S. (2002) Haverford College; Ph.D. (2009) Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Paola Zamperini, Associate Professor of Asian Languages and Civilizations and Women’s and Gender Studies. B.A. (1991) University of Eunmi Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Italy; M.A. (1994), Ph.D. (1999) University of California at Berkeley.

F. Gizem Zencirci, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science. B.A. (2003), M.A. (2004) Bilkent University, Turkey; Ph.D. (2012) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

FELLOWS

Brite Christ, Ph.D., Karl Loewenstein Fellow in Political Science.

Maud M. L. Eriksen, Ph.D., STINT Fellow in Religion.

Elsa L. Petit, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow in Biology.

Merle Ivone Barriga Ramirez, Five College Fellow in Theater and Dance.

Yael Rice, Ph.D., Five College Postdoctoral Fellow in Islamic Art.

Jessica Salvatore, Ph.D., Five College Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology.

Phil Scraton, Ph.D., Karl Loewenstein Fellow in Political Science.

Haley Hedlin, Ph.D., Five College Postdoctoral Fellow in Mathematics (Statistics).

X. Elena Wang, A.B., Karl Loewenstein Fellow in Political Science.

LANGUAGE ASSISTANTS

Justine Baudot, Language Assistant in French, University of Dijon.

Javier Chavez Chacon, Language Assistant in Spanish, Amherst College.

Jeremy Fournel, Language Assistant in French, Ecole Normale Supérieure.

Verónica González Otero, Language Assistant in Spanish, Universidad de Cádiz.

Heloise Luxardo, Language Assistant in French, Levy-Despas Fellow.

Maren Molde, Language Assistant in German, Göttingen University.

Ana Isabel Rodríguez Pérez, Language Assistant in Spanish, Universidad de Cádiz.

Elvira Samaniego Martín, Language Assistant in Spanish, University of Barcelona.

Hitomi Sovjani, Language Assistant in Japanese.

Anton Vorobyov, Language Assistant in Russian.

Nina Waschkowitz, Language Assistant in German, Göttingen University

Administrative and Professional Officers

Carolyn A. Martin, President of the College. B.A. (1973) The College of William and Mary; M.A. (1974) Middlebury College; Ph.D. (1985) University of Wisconsin at Madison L.H.D. (hon. 2012) The College of William and Mary.

Gregory S. Call, Dean of the Faculty/Title IX Deputy Coordinator for Faculty. A.B. (1980) Dartmouth College; A.M. (1981), Ph.D. (1986) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 2001) Amherst College.

Officers

Ira S. Addes, Psychiatrist, Counseling Center. B.A. (1969) Brooklyn College; M.D. (1973) Tufts University School of Medicine.

Brent W. Alderman Sterste, Senior Development Officer. A.B. (2000) Amherst College; M.Div. (2004) Harvard Divinity School.

Carol Allman Morton, Assistant Director of Alumni and Parent Programs. B.A. (2000) Brandeis University; M.Div. (2005) Andover Newton Theological School.

Richard J. Ampiah-Bonney, Academic Manager, Chemistry Department. B.Sc. (1993) University of Science and Technology, Ghana; M.Sc. (1996), M.Phil. (2008) University of Hull, United Kingdom; Ph.D. (2006) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

A. Elizabeth Anema, Director of the Annual Fund. A.B. (1991) Mount Holyoke College; Ed.M. (2000) Harvard University.

Jack A. Arena, Senior Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. A.B. (1983) Amherst College; M.S. (1988) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Richard A. Aronson, Assistant Dean of Students/Health Professions Advisor. A.B. (1969) Amherst College; M.D. (1974) University of Rochester School of Medicine; M.P.H. (1988) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Eddy Augustin, Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.A. (1994) Millersville University of Pennsylvania; M.S. (1998) John F. Kennedy University.

Jacqueline K. Bagwell, Senior Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.S. (1982) Indiana University.

Ellie Swain Ballard, Director of Class and Constituent Programs, Alumni and Parent Programs. A.B. (1995) Amherst College.

Matthew C. Ballard, Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.A. (1990), M.A. (1993) University of Albany.

T. Adam Banks, Assistant Coach and Physical Education Instructor. B.A. (2005) Georgetown University; M.Ed. (2007) Marymount University.

Jesse D. Barba, Associate Registrar/Associate Director of Institutional Research. B.A. (1998) Ohio University, M.A. (2005) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Elizabeth E. Barker, Director and Chief Curator, Mead Art Museum. B.A. (1992) Yale College; M.A. (1995), Ph.D. (2003) Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.

Gayle R. Barton, Chief Information Officer. A.B. (1973) Bryn Mawr College; M.Ed. (1992) St. Lawrence University.

Carolyn S. Bassett, Associate Dean of Students/International Student Advisor. B.A. (1989) Bates College; M.A. (1996) Boston College.

Dawn M. Bates, Investment Manager, Operations. B.B.A. (1991) University of Massachusetts at Amherst; CPA (1994).

Jacqueline S. Bearce, Psychologist, Director of Counseling Center. B.A. (1966) Merrimack College; M.A. (1968), M.Ed. (1978), Ed.D. (1981) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Jane A. Beebe, Head of Cataloging/Music Librarian. B.A. (1977) College of Wooster; M.M. (1980) University of Tennessee; M.S.L.S. (1982) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Janna K. Behrens, Assistant Dean of Students/Director of International Experience, Career Center. B.S. (1994) Syracuse University; M.P.P. (2005) Tufts University.

Laurie M. Bouchard, Assistant Comptroller. B.S. (1991) American International College; CPA (1995).

Emily Gold Boutilier, College Editor. B.A. (1996) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Charri J. Boykin-East, Interim Dean of Students/Coordinator of Academic Support. B.A. (1983) University of Massachusetts at Amherst; M.Ed. (1984) Cambridge College.

Christopher G. Boyko, Strength and Conditioning Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.S. (2000) University of Massachusetts at Lowell; M.Ed. (2002) Springfield College.

James D. Brassord, Director of Facilities/Associate Treasurer for Campus Services. B.S. (1982) University of Connecticut; M.S. (1985) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; M.B.A. (1993) University of Connecticut.

Leykia D. Brill, Associate Dean of Admission/Coordinator of Diversity Outreach. B.A. (2006) Wheaton College; M.S.Ed. (2009) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Caitlin Brome, Assistant Dean of Admission/Coordinator of International Recruitment. B.A. (2006) Middlebury College.

J. Luke Bussard, Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.A. (1999) Dickinson College; M.B.A. (2006) Norwich University.

Brian S. Butler, Senior Development Officer. A.B. (1996) Amherst College; J.D. (2002) Boston College Law School.

Elizabeth Cannon Smith, Alumni Secretary and Executive Director of Alumni and Parent Programs. A.B. (1984) Amherst College.

John B. Carter, Chief of Campus Police. B.S. (1985) University of Lowell; M.S. (1998) Fitchburg State College.

Joe Paul Case, Dean of Financial Aid. B.A. (1967) Oklahoma City University; B.D. (1970) Yale University Divinity School.

Patrick Chehade, Director of Rental Property. A.A. (1990) Holyoke Community College; B.A. (1996) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

John T. Cheney, Associate Dean of the Faculty. B.A. (1970), M.A. (1972) University of Montana; Ph.D. (1975) University of Wisconsin at Madison; A.M. (hon. 1987) Amherst College.

Valdina Chirico, Director of Donor Relations. B.A. (1972) Temple University; M.A. (1980) Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.

Jennifer M. Christian Wright, Assistant Dean of Financial Aid. B.A. (1995) Appalachian State University; M.S. (1999) Miami University, Ohio.

Suzanne R. Coffey, Director of Athletics and Physical Education/Title IX Deputy Coordinator for Athletics. B.A. (1980) University of New Hampshire; M.A. (2001) Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Affairs, University of Southern Maine.

Matthew Cook, Assistant Athletic Trainer. B.S., A.S. (2003) Keene State College.

Carole A. Cunningham, Director of the 1821 Society of the Annual Fund. B.A. (1981) Whitman College; M.A. (1998) Vanderbilt University.

John R. Dailey, Investment Officer. B.S. (1999), M.B.A, M.S.F. (2007) Boston College; CFA.

Thomas K. Davies, Assistant Director of Facilities/Director of Design and Construction. B.A., B.S. (1986) University of Pennsylvania; M.S. (1994) Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Cynthia S. Dickinson, Director of Interpretation and Programs, Emily Dickinson Museum. A.B. (1991) Princeton University; M.A. (1993) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; M.A. (1995) University of Delaware.

Kendall D. Doble IV, Investment Analyst. B.A. (2007) Connecticut College.

Debra Edelman, Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Counseling Center. B.S. (1978), M.Ed. (1987), Ph.D. (1994) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Katie O’Hara Edwards, Director of Advancement Operations. A.B. (1987) Amherst College; M.B.A. (1991) INSEAD.

Thomas A. Ehrgood, Jr., Director of 50th Reunion Giving. A.B. (1973) Amherst College; J.D. (1978) George Washington University Law School.

Michael P. Ellison, Associate Dean of Admission and Financial Aid. B.B.A. (1989) University of Massachusetts at Amherst; M.B.A. (1998) University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

Suzanne J. Everden, Senior Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.Sc. (1977) Slippery Rock University; M.Ed. (1980) Springfield College.

Hannah S. Fatemi, Assistant Dean of Students/Director of the Campus Center. B.A. (2004), M.Ed. (2006) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Donald R. Faulstick, Jr., Senior Coach, Associate Athletic Director. B.S. (1986) Mansfield University; M.S. (1988) Shippensburg University.

Mary Foulk, Associate Director of Donor Relations. A.B. (1991) Princeton University; M.A. (1996) Columbia University.

Katharine L. Fretwell, Director of Admission/Senior Associate Dean of Admission. A.B. (1981) Amherst College; Ed.M. (1985) Harvard University.

Gretchen Gano, Social Sciences Librarian. M.P.P. (2004), M.L.I.S. (2005) Rutgers University.

Christopher J. Garner, Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.A. (2007) Ohio State University.

Letha Gayle-Brissett, Assistant Director of Alumni and Parent Programs. B.S. (2001) University of the West Indies.

Bryn Geffert, Librarian of the College. B.A. (1990) St. Olaf College; M.S. (1992) University of Illinois; Ph.D. (2003) University of Minnesota.

Mauricia A. Geissler, Chief Investment Officer. B.B.A. (1985) University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Kathleen A. Gentile, Senior Associate Dean of Financial Aid. B.A. (1977) State University of New York at Geneseo; M.S. (1979), Ed.S. (1979) State University of New York at Albany.

Kathleen S. Gerrity, Cataloging Librarian. B.A. (1988) Bard College at Simon’s Rock; M.L.I.S. (2007) Simmons College.

Kathleen Goff, Registrar. B.S. (1985) North Adams State College; M.Ed. (2001) Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

Randall R. Griffey, Curator of American Art, Mead Art Museum. B.A. (1990) Bethany College; M.A. (1993), Ph.D. (1999) University of Kansas.

Frederick T. Griffiths, Associate Dean of the Faculty. B.A. (1969) Yale College; M.A. (1972), Ph.D. (1974) Harvard University; A.M. (hon. 1984) Amherst College.

George P. Gromacki, Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.S. (1993), M.A. (1996), M.P.A. (1996) Ohio State University.

Shannon D. Gurek, Associate Treasurer/Director of Budget/Interim Treasurer. B.S. (1992) Nichols College; M.B.A. (1999) University of Massachusetts at Amherst; CPA (1995).

David L. Hamilton, Director of Web Services. B.A. (1991) College of Wooster.

Brian Hamm, Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.A. (2002) Middlebury College; M.S. (2007) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Caroline J. Hanna, Director of Media Relations. B.A. (1998) St. Lawrence University; M.S. (1999) Syracuse University.

Allen J. Hart2, Dean of Students. A.B. (1982) Amherst College; A.M. (1989), Ph.D. (1991) Harvard University.

2 

Michael T. Hawkins, Associate Dean of Admission. B.A. (1984) Williams College; M.T.S. (1990) Harvard Divinity School.

Dale R. Hendricks, Associate Dean of Admission. B.A. (1999) Wesleyan University.

Rebecca Henning, Cataloging Librarian, Frost Library. B.A. (1991) Colby College; M.L.S. (2000) Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

David D. Hixon, Senior Coach and Senior Associate Athletic Director. A.B. (1975) Amherst College; M.S. (1979) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Jennifer Hughes, Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.A. (1997) Colgate University; M.S. (2004), M.B.A. (2005) University of Massachusetts at Amherst; J.D. (2010) University of Connecticut.

Amanda L. Huhmann, Assistant Director of Advancement Communications. B.A. (2003) Northwest Missouri State University; M.F.A. (2007) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Alexandra Hurd, Assistant Dean of Admission. A.B. (2006) Amherst College.

Jennifer B. Innes, Director of the Moss Quantitative Center. B.A. (1983) Kalamazoo College; Ph.D. (1993) Yale University.

Katherine Jekanowski, Assistant Athletic Trainer. B.S. (1996) Westfield State University; M.Ed. (2002) Springfield College.

Janet Marie Jourdain, Head of Library Information Technology. B.A. (1978) Siena College; M.L.S. (1983) University of Arizona.

Stephen A. Judycki, Director, Telecommunications and Networking. A.S. (1984) Holyoke Community College; B.S. (1990) Westfield State University.

Bettina Jungen, Thomas P. Whitney Class of 1937 Curator of Russian Art. M.A. (1997), Ph.D. (2005) University of Zurich.

Ruth Kane-Levit, Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Counseling Center. B.S. (1976) Simmons College; M.Ed. (1983) Harvard University; Ph.D. (1989) Adelphi University.

Michael Kasper, Reference/Collection Development Coordinator, Frost Library. B.A. (1967) Harpur College; M.L.S. (1973) University of British Columbia.

Liza A. Katz, Associate Director of Alumni and Parent Programs. B.A. (2001) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

T. Michael Kelly, Head of Archives and Special Collections, Frost Library. B.A. (1991) Boston College; M.A. (1992) University of Virginia; M.L.S. (1996) University of Texas at Austin.

Marian Kent, Director of 25th Reunion Giving. B.A. (1988) University of Pittsburgh; J.D. (1993) University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Susan J. Kimball, Head of Access Services, Frost Library. A.B. (1995) Bowdoin College; M.S.L.S. (1997) The Catholic University of America.

Mark T. Klingensmith, Associate Athletic Trainer. B.S. (1991) Westfield State University.

Carol Knerr, Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.A. (1998) University of Richmond.

Ethan A. Kolek, Director of Evaluation, Center for Community Engagement. B.A. (1996) Vassar College; M.Ed. (2003), Ph.D. (2012) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Mardi Krantz, Development Officer, Emily Dickinson Museum. B.A. (2002) Hollins University.

Gretchen A. Krull, Assistant Director of Health Education/Sexual Assault Counselor. B.A. (1971) Wells College; M.Ed. (1987) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Debra Krumholz, Assistant Dean of Students/Pre-Law Education/NFP Career Counselor. B.A. (1980), M.Ed. (1983) University of Arizona; M.P.H. (2002) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Marcy J. Larmon, Director of On-Campus Programs, Alumni and Parent Programs. B.A. (1976) Middlebury College.

Ernest A. LeBlanc, Benefits Administrator. B.S. (1973) University of Maine at Orono.

Constance B. Lentz, Physician, Student Health Services. B.A. (1971) Goddard College; M.S. (1977) University of North Carolina; M.D. (1980) State University of New York at Buffalo.

Paullette M. Leukhardt, Assistant Director, Database Services. B.S. (1976) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Benson Lieber, Dean of Academic Support and Student Research. B.A. (1972) Columbia College; M.A. (1974), M.Phil. (1978) Columbia University.

Patricia F. Long, Associate Director of Human Resources. B.S. (1979) Westfield State University; M.S. (2012) Villanova University.

Erin E. Loree, Electronic Resources Librarian. B.S. (1995) Michigan State University; M.LIS. (2002) University of Rhode Island.

Anna M. Lugo, Assistant Dean of Admission. B.A. (2005) Smith College; M.Ed. (2011) University of St Thomas at Houston.

John W. Manly, Director, Systems and Networking. A.B. (1985) Amherst College.

Marian F. Matheson, Director of Institutional Research. B.S. (1980) Juniata College; M.A. (1982) State University of New York at Plattsburgh.

Billy T. McBride, Assistant Athletic Director-Diversity and Inclusion/Director of Club Sports and Senior Coach. B.S. (1979) Tennessee State University; M.A. (2006) Smith College.

Darien F. S. McFadden, Psychotherapist, Counseling Center. B.A. (1988) Colgate University; Ph.D. (1999) University of Pittsburgh.

Edward R. McGlynn, Physician Assistant-Certified. B.S. (1994) Hahnemann University.

Denise McGoldrick, Assistant Dean of Students/Director of Health Education. B.A. (1971) Lehman College; M.S. (1977) Hunter College.

Dunstan C. McNutt, Research and Instruction Librarian, B.A. (2006) East Tennessee State University; M.A., M.L.S. (2009) Indiana University.

Molly Mead, Director of the Center for Community Engagement/Title IX Coordinator. A.B. (1971) Cornell University; M.B.A. (1979) Simmons College; Ed.D. (1990) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Douglas R. Meneke, System Administrator/Senior Database Programmer. B.S. (1989) Sam Houston State University.

Keith R. Michel, Senior Development Officer. B.A. (2007) Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

Edward J. Mills, Senior Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.A. (1988) University of Dayton.

Sandra J. Miner, Director of Database Services. B.S. (1985) Bentley College.

Torin Moore, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life. B.A. (1991), M.Ed. (1997) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Megan E. Morey, Chief Advancement Officer. B.A. (1989) Ohio Wesleyan University.

Warren H. Morgan, Director of Student Health Services. B.S. (1974) University of Massachusetts at Amherst; M.D. (1980) University of Vermont.

Paul R. Murphy, Legal and Administrative Counsel. A.B. (1973) Amherst College; J.D. (1976) Yale Law School.

Lillian Mosgofian, Associate Registrar. B.S. (1980) Northeastern University; M.Ed. (1991) Rhode Island College.

Liza M. Nascembeni, Assistant Dean of Students/Dean of Student Conduct/Title IX Deputy Coordinator for Students. B.A. (2003) Western New England University; M.Ed. (2005) Springfield College.

Erik L. Nedeau, Senior Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.S. (1994) Northeastern University; M.S. (1996) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Peter A. Nelson, Archivist, Frost Library. A.B. (1982) Hamilton College; M.A. (1987) Cornell University; M.L.S. (1991) State University of New York at Albany.

George D. Nichols III, Senior Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.A. (1982) St. Lawrence University.

Stephen M. Nigro, Comptroller. B.S. (1990) Westfield State University; CPA (1995).

Diane Norman, Family Nurse Practitioner, Student Health Services. B.A. (1978) Vassar College; M.S.N., FNP, B.C. (1985) Pace University.

Patricia B. O’Hara, Dean of New Students. B.A. (1976) Adelphi University; Ph.D. (1981) Columbia University; A.M. (hon. 1995) Amherst College.

Ursula H. Olender, Director of the Career Center and Associate Dean of Students. B.A. (1991) Greenville College; M.Ed. (1993) Springfield College.

Christine Paradis, Senior Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.B.A. (1984) The College of William and Mary; M.Ed. (1993) Springfield College.

Thomas H. Parker, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid. B.A. (1969) Williams College; M.A.T. (1973) Harvard University.

J. Scott Payne, Director of Academic Technology Services. B.A. (1988) Western Washington University; M.A. (1993) University of Arizona; Ph.D. (2000) Washington State University.

George W. Phillips, Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Counseling Center. B.A. (1972) University of Pennsylvania; Psy.D. (1995) Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology.

Susan Pikor, Executive Assistant to the President/Secretary of the Board of Trustees. A.B. (1965) Emmanuel College.

Mary J. Ramsay, Associate Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations. B.A. (1976) Pennsylvania State University; M.A. (1979) University of Pittsburgh.

Nancy K. Ratner, Associate Dean of Admission/Researcher for Academic Projects, Office of the Dean of Faculty. B.A. (1970) University of Rochester; M.Ed. (1975) Harvard University.

Maria Rello, Associate Director of Sports Medicine. B.S. (1989), M.S. (1994) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Sandra M. Riley, Director of 50th Reunion Programs, Alumni and Parent Programs.

Peter H. Robson, Senior Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.A. (1981) Trent University, Ontario.

Maria-Judith Rodriguez, Director of Human Resources/Title IX Deputy Coordinator for Staff, Administration, and Visitors. M.B.A. (2006) University of Phoenix; M.A. (2006) Inter American University of Puerto Rico.

Peter Rooney, Director of Public Affairs. B.A. (1987), M.A. (1995) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Peter R. Root, Assistant Director of Facilities for Operations. B.A. (1979), M.Arch. (1983) University of California at Los Angeles.

Eva Rosenn, Director of the Parents’ Fund. A.B. (1983) Amherst College; Ph.D. (1992) Columbia University.

Melissa Roser, Head of Research and Instruction, Frost Library. A.B. (1994) Amherst College; M.L.I.S. (2003) Dominican University; M.A. (2010) DePaul University.

Pamela J. Russell, Andrew W. Mellon Coordinator of College Programs, Mead Art Museum. A.B. (1976) Yale University; Ph.D. (1986) University of Pennsylvania.

Justin Serpone, Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.A. (2001) Drew University; M.B.A. (2011) Bay Path College; M.A. (2011) Northwestern University.

Erika P. Shelburne, Director of Leadership Giving. B.A. (1990) Hollins College.

Kelcy Shepherd, Head of Digital Programs, Frost Library. B.A. (1992) Iowa State University; M.S.L.I.S (1998) Simmons College.

Susan M. Sheridan, Head of Technical Services, Frost Library. B.A. (1973) Douglass College; M.L.S. (1974) Rutgers University; M.P.A. (1984) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Kristen Spargo, Director of Advancement Communications. A.B. (1995) Amherst College; M.B.A. (2009) University of Minnesota.

Margaret A. Stancer, Director of Desktop Computing Services. B.A. (1970) University of California at Riverside.

Lauren M. Stencel, Academic Manager, Chemistry Department. B.S. (2005) University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth; Ph.D. (2010) University of Connecticut.

Lisa C. Stoffer, Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations. A.B. (1987) Haverford College; A.M. (1990) University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Charles G. Thompson, Director of Dining Services. A.O.S. (1977) Culinary Institute of America.

Jonathon P. Thompson, Coach, Physical Education and Athletics. B.A. (2003) Brown University.

Janet S. Tobin, Assistant Dean of the Faculty. B.A. (1982) Bates College; M.A. (1990) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Lucy E. Trainor, Assistant Director of the Annual Fund. B.A. (2007) Barnard College.

Paul M. Trumble, Head of Serials, Frost Library. B.A. (1979) State University of New York at Potsdam; M.L.S. (1989) University of Rhode Island.

Frances E. Tuleja, Assistant Dean of Admission. B.A. (1974) Douglass College, Rutgers University; M.A. (1984) University of Pennsylvania; J.D. (2006) Western New England University.

John C. Urschel, Director of Gift Planning. B.A. (1993) Lewis & Clark College; M.P.A. (2004) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Jane H. Wald, Executive Director of the Emily Dickinson Museum. A.B. (1980) Bryn Mawr College; M.A. (1987) Princeton University.

Miloslava Waldman, Museum Study Room Supervisor. Ph.D. (1990) Masarka University.

Michael Witmore, Director of Folger Shakespeare Library. A.B. (1989) Vassar College; M.A. (1994), Ph.D. (1997) University of California at Berkeley.

Stanley M. Zieja, Director of Sports Medicine. B.S. (1973) University of Massachusetts at Amherst; M.S. (1976) United States International University at San Diego.

Cate Granger Zolkos, Associate Dean of Admission. B.A. (1983) Middlebury College; M.Ed. (2008) University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

2. On leave 2012-13.

RELIGIOUS ADVISORS

The Rev. Dr. Paul V. Sorrentino, D.Min., Director of Religious Life and Protestant Religious Advisor and the Multifaith Council.

Mohammed Abdelaal, B.Arch., Muslim Religious Advisor.

Sister Mary Christina Clark, D.H.M., Catholic Religious Advisor.

The Rev. Dr. Deene D. Clark, D.Min., Protestant Religious Advisor, Emeritus.

The Rev. Dr. Thomas Edward Fisher, D.Min., Adjunct Presbyterian Religious Advisor.

Hermenia T. Gardner, M.S., H.T. Gardner Bi-Semester Christian Worship Advisor, Emerita.

Mark Hart, Ph.D., Buddhist Religious Advisor.

The Rev. Alfred L. Johnson, Sr., M.Div., Adjunct Protestant Religious Advisor and Pastor to the Goodwin Memorial AME Zion Church.

The Reverend Timothy Jones, M.Div., H.T. Gardner Bi-Semester Christian Worship Fellow.

Rabbi Yechiael Lander, M.A., Jewish Religious Advisor, Emeritus.

Elizaveta Lozovaya, M.A., Adjunct Muslim Religious Advisor.

Angela Nzegwu, B.A. Adjunct Advisor to the Amherst Christian Fellowship.

Rabbi Bruce Bromberg Seltzer, M.A., Jewish Religious Advisor.

Manju Sharma, M.S., Hindu Religious Advisor.

GRADUATE FELLOWS

Tyler M. Chapman, A.B., Mayo-Smith Admission Fellow.

Stephanie M. Clegg, A.B., Edward Hitchcock Fellow in Physical Education.

Ioanida Costache, A.B., Associate in Music (orchestra assistant).

Trevor G. Hyde, A.B., Quantitative Fellow.

Julie R. Keresztes, A.B., Eugene S. Wilson Admission Fellow.

Jeremy Koo, A.B., Associate in Music (choral assistant).

Jessica L. Mestre, A.B., Student Life Fellow.

Jennifer R. Shamash, A.B., International Student Life Fellow.

Nora Smith, B.A., Graduate Assistant in Theater and Dance.

Samuel P. Feldman, A.B., Susan and Kenneth Kermes Fellow in Computer Science.

FIVE COLLEGES INCORPORATED

Neal B. Abraham, Ph.D., Executive Director.

Carol Aleman, B.A., Assistant to the Executive Director.

Alexandra deMontrichard, M.A., Five College Program Coordinator.

Sue Dickman, M.F.A., Academic Programs Liaison.

Nancy Goff, M.S., Director, Program Planning and Development.

Barbara Lucey, B.S., Treasurer.

Kevin S. Kennedy, B.A., Director, Information and Publications.

Yvette Morneau, B.S., Business Officer Manager.

Nathan A. Therien, Ph.D., Director, Academic Programs.

Sue Thrasher, Ed.D., Coordinator, Five College Partnership Program.

Maria Toyofuko, M.S., Director of Information Technology.

II

Amherst College

Amherst College

AMHERST COLLEGE looks, above all, for men and women of intellectual promise who have demonstrated qualities of mind and character that will enable them to take full advantage of the College’s curriculum. The College seeks qualified applicants from different races, classes, and ethnic groups, students whose several perspectives might contribute significantly to a process of mutual education within and outside the curriculum. Admission decisions aim to select from among the many qualified applicants those possessing the intellectual talent, mental discipline, and imagination that will allow them most fully to benefit from the curriculum and to contribute to the life of the College and of society. Grades, standardized test scores, essays, recommendations, independent work, the quality of the individual’s secondary school program and achievements outside the classroom are among the factors used to evaluate this promise, but no one of these measures is considered determinative.

Founded in 1821 as a non-sectarian institution for “the education of indigent young men of piety and talents for the Christian ministry,” Amherst today is an independent liberal arts college for men and women. Its approximately 1,700 students come from most of the fifty states and many foreign countries.

The campus is near the center of the town of Amherst, adjacent to the town common. A few miles away are four other institutions of higher learning—Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts—with which Amherst engages in a number of cooperative educational programs.

The College offers the bachelor of arts degree and cooperates with the University of Massachusetts in a Five College Ph.D. program. The College curriculum involves study in the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences and combines a broad education with knowledge of some field in depth. Emphasis falls upon each student’s responsibility for the selection of an appropriate program.

Some students may engage in independent study free of formal courses in their junior and senior years; Honors work is encouraged and in recent years has been undertaken by nearly half of the graduating class.

Whatever the form of academic experience—lecture course, seminar, conference, studio, laboratory, independent study at various levels—intellectual competence and awareness of problems and methods are the goals of the Amherst program, rather than the direct preparation for a profession. The curriculum enables students to arrange programs for their own educational needs within established guidelines. Faculty advisors, representing all academic departments, assist undergraduates in their course selections; but the ultimate responsibility for a thoughtful program of study rests with the individual student.

The College’s Faculty is engaged in two primary activities: first, the education of undergraduates; and, second, research and writing. Its 167 full-time members hold degrees from colleges and universities throughout this country and abroad. Classes range in size from a few courses of two students to several lecture courses of more than 100 students; more than 80 percent of the classes and sections have 25 students or fewer.

Amherst has extensive physical resources: libraries with more than 1,000,000 volumes and over 29,000 other media materials, science laboratories, a mathematics and computer science building, theaters, gymnasium, swimming pool, skating rink, squash and tennis courts, playing fields, a museum of fine arts and another of natural history, a music center and concert hall, a dance studio, a central dining hall for all students, a campus social center that includes a snack bar and movie theater, dormitories, media center, and classroom buildings. There are a wildlife sanctuary and a forest for the study of ecology, an observatory and a planetarium, and varied equipment for specialized scientific research. At Amherst, and at its neighboring institutions, there are extensive offerings of lectures, concerts, plays, films, and many other events.

The College provides a variety of services to support the academic work of students. In addition to the advising and teaching support provided by the Faculty, the services include a tutorial program, reading and study skill classes, an Interterm pre-calculus course, a full-time writing counselor, and tutoring for students for whom English is a second language. For more details, please contact the Office of the Dean of Students.

Amherst has a full schedule of intercollegiate athletics for men and women in most sports. About 85 percent of all students participate in the physical education program or in organized intramural athletics.

Undergraduates may also take part in a variety of other extracurricular activities: journalism, public service, publishing, broadcasting, music, dramatics, student government, College committees, and a wide assortment of specialized interests. Religious groups, working independently or through the religious advisors, maintain a program of worship services, Bible study, community service projects, and other activities.

Most graduates continue their formal education to enter such professions as teaching, medicine, law, and business. At Amherst, presumably they have only begun their life-long education at “commencement,” but have developed attitudes and values that will encourage them to participate thoughtfully and generously in the service of humanity.

Amherst College is pleased to provide the following information regarding our institution’s graduation rates in compliance with the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended. The rates reflect the graduation status of students who enrolled during the 2005-06 school year and for whom 150% of the normal time-to-completion has elapsed.

During the fall semester of 2005, 431 first-time, full-time, degree-seeking undergraduate students entered Amherst College. As of August 31, 2011, 96% of those students had graduated from our institution.

Questions related to this report should be directed to: Kathleen Goff, Registrar, Amherst College, Box 5000, Amherst, MA 01002-5000.

FIVE COLLEGE COOPERATION

Amherst is joined with Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts in a consortium that sponsors a variety of cooperative programs and enterprises. The goal of cooperation among the five colleges is to enrich the educational opportunities available to students by providing them with access to the resources of all five institutions.

Students are entitled to participate in a course interchange program which allows them to construct up to one half of their program from liberal arts courses at the four other colleges without additional cost. Also freely available to students are the libraries of each institution. The present and continuing emphasis of the Five College Libraries is on the sharing and enhancement of total resources and services.

A monthly calendar of lectures, concerts and other cultural events on all five campuses is available online to the Five College community. Access to classes, libraries, and extracurricular activities is made feasible by a free transportation system connecting all five campuses.

An FM radio station (WFCR 88.5) is supported by all five colleges. It is managed by the University with the advice of a board made up of representatives of the cooperating institutions. The five colleges also cooperate in sponsoring The Massachusetts Review, a quarterly of literature, the arts, and public affairs.

Academic cooperation includes two joint departments—Astronomy and Dance—and coordinated programs in African-American Studies, East Asian Studies, Latin American Studies and Linguistics. Joint faculty appointments make possible the presence of talented professors in highly specialized areas. Five College senior appointments bring to the area distinguished international figures, listed on pages 506-527.

AIR FORCE RESERVE OFFICERS TRAINING CORPS

Amherst College offers interested students the opportunity to pursue a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force through an affiliation with the USAF ROTC Detachment 370 at University of Massachusetts—Amherst, located less than two miles from the Amherst College campus. The program combines traditional classroom instruction, hands-on leadership training and physical fitness training. Amherst College students do not receive degree credit for participation in the courses. For underclass students the combined mandatory requirements are five hours per week and six hours per week for upperclass students. Scholarship funding is available on a competitive basis for qualified applicants and “express” scholarship funding is available for qualified applicants in specific majors. Interested Amherst College students should explore the ROTC experience by seeking more information below:

Phone: 413-545-2437/2451

Email: afrotc@acad.umass.edu

http://www.umass.edu/afrotc/

AIR FORCE ROTC SCHOLARSHIPS

Air Force ROTC one- to four-year college scholarships are available on a competitive basis to qualifying high school and college students. Scholarship recipients are selected using the whole person concept. This includes objective factors (grade point average) and subjective factors (interview evaluation). In selected academic areas, scholarships may be extended to meet a five-year degree program recognized by the college. Most scholarships cover full college tuition and most laboratory fees, and mandatory fees; plus a tax-free allowance during the school year ranging from $300 to $500 per month, and an annual $900 textbook stipend.

ARMY RESERVE OFFICERS TRAINING CORPS

Amherst College offers the opportunity to train to become an officer in the United States Army through the Department of Military Leadership at the University of Massachusetts. The Military Leadership curriculum provides leadership and management training experience and is open to any Amherst College student who wishes to participate. Amherst students do not receive degree credit for participation in the courses. While all students receive the same experience in using Army equipment, uniforms and training techniques, those students desiring a commission have scholarship opportunities available to them. Army ROTC scholarships are offered for periods of four, three and two years and are awarded on a merit basis to the most outstanding applicants. Interested students should call 413-545-2321 or 5364 for more information.

VETERANS

Eligible veterans may enroll in Air Force ROTC while in college, complete degree requirements and earn an Air Force Commission. Veterans can use their GI Bill or veterans’ benefits, receive the tax-free allowance and compete for other scholarship and financial aid programs.

Exchange Programs and Study Abroad

The College encourages students to participate in educational programs at other institutions in the United States and abroad. In addition to the following programs sponsored or co-sponsored by Amherst, students may participate in programs offered by other American or foreign institutions. For further information and guidelines concerning educational leave from the College, see page 65.

Selected students may participate in Independent Study projects under guidance from a teacher at Amherst College without enrollment at host institutions and may pursue their studies elsewhere in the United States or abroad.

The Twelve College Exchange

Within the Northeast, the College has special exchange arrangements with Bowdoin, Connecticut, Dartmouth, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Trinity, Vassar, Wellesley, and Wheaton Colleges, and Wesleyan University, which together form the Twelve College Exchange Program. This arrangement gives students who wish to take advantage of special programs not available in the Five College area, or who wish to experience a similar, but different, college environment, the opportunity to do so with the minimum of difficulty. Further information is available from the Twelve College Exchange coordinators of the participating colleges. The coordinator for Amherst College is Assistant Dean of Students and Director of International Experience Janna Behrens.

The Williams College—Mystic Seaport Program in American Maritime Studies

This program is available to undergraduate participants through the Twelve College Exchange program. Its purpose is to provide undergraduates with the opportunity to focus one semester of their studies on man’s relationship with the sea. Further information is available in the Career Center.

Dartmouth Dual Degree Engineering Program

Through the Twelve College Exchange, a student may spend junior year at Dartmouth College studying engineering. After graduating from Amherst, the student would have the option to return to Dartmouth for an additional year to earn a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree from Dartmouth College. Further information is available in the Career Center or from Professor William A. Loinaz. See http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/academics/undergraduate/dual/.

The National Theatre Institute

Through a Twelve College Exchange arrangement, undergraduate participation in the program of the National Theatre Institute, Waterford, Conn., is possible. Further information is available in the Career Center.

The Associated Kyoto Program

The Associated Kyoto Program, sponsored by Amherst and 15 other institutions, is hosted by Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. It emphasizes direct and intensive contact with the Japanese and aims to develop in students an understanding of Japan’s culture, history, language, and contemporary society. The program carries credit equivalent to a full academic year’s course work. About 50 students are admitted each year, with applicants from member institutions receiving priority. Information can be obtained from Professor Samuel C. Morse.

Gottingen Exchange

Amherst maintains a student exchange program with Göttingen University in Germany. Each year, upon application to the Department of German, two Amherst students are selected to attend Göttingen University. In return, Amherst accepts two Göttingen students to study at the College and to serve as Language Assistants in the German Department. Details about the exchange programs may be obtained from the Department of German.

Doshisha University

THE COLLEGE’S relationship with Doshisha University offers various opportunities for students and faculty to study, to research, and to teach in Japan. Located in Japan’s ancient imperial capital of Kyoto, The Doshisha was founded by Joseph Hardy Neesima of the Class of 1870, the first Japanese to graduate from a Western institution of higher learning. Neesima stowed away aboard a clipper ship from Japan while that country was still officially “closed.” From the China Coast he eventually arrived in 1865 aboard a ship owned by Alpheus Hardy, who was a trustee of both Phillips Academy, Andover, and Amherst College.

After graduating from both Andover and Amherst, Neesima returned to Japan to found a Christian college in Kyoto. From this modest start The Doshisha has developed into a complex of educational institutions: Doshisha University, a separate Women’s College, four senior and four junior high schools, an elementary school, and a kindergarten, with a total enrollment of approximately 32,000 on six different campuses. The Doshisha is one of the oldest and best known private educational institutions in Japan.

Scores of Amherst graduates have taught at The Doshisha, and since 1922, except for the war years, Amherst has maintained a resident instructor at Doshisha University. Since 1947 until his retirement in 1992, Professor Otis Cary of the Class of 1943 represented Amherst College at Doshisha, taught American history at the University, and served in a number of other capacities. Currently, Professor Masanori Morita is acting as our Amherst representative. Professor Samuel Morse is our Doshisha representative at Amherst College.

Through the generosity of alumni and friends of the College, Amherst House was built on the Doshisha University campus in 1932 as a memorial to Neesima and to Stewart Burton Nichols of the Class of 1922, the first student representative. In 1962, the College, thanks to further generosity of friends and alumni, built a guest house of modern Japanese design, including quarters for the Representative, three guest suites, and dining facilities. In 1979 a traditional rustic teahouse, Muhinshuan, was donated by the family of a Japanese alumnus and rebuilt in a corner of the Amherst House grounds, lending cultural atmosphere appropriate to Kyoto.

In 1971 the College took the lead in organizing the Associated Kyoto Program (AKP), a junior-year program at Doshisha University for Amherst students and others who wish to pursue the study of Japanese language, culture, and history. This program offers the main avenue today for both student and faculty contact with Doshisha University. With offices on Doshisha’s main campus since 1971, the AKP, sponsored by Amherst College and 15 American liberal arts colleges, hosts American undergraduates for a year of study in Kyoto and awards fellowships to American and Japanese faculty to participate in educational exchange for periods of one or two semesters.

Amherst and Doshisha have a number of opportunities for faculty exchange. Since 1976 an arrangement with Doshisha University has permitted a member of one of the nine Doshisha Faculties (Theology, Letters, Law, Economics, Commerce, Engineering, Sociology, Policy Studies, Culture and Information Science) to spend up to a year’s leave at Amherst. Housing for that faculty member is provided by Amherst, and Doshisha also provides housing for a single Amherst faculty member on sabbatic leave. The Short-term Faculty Exchange supports a yearly lecture series by a faculty member from each institution.

Also, since 1958, a graduating Amherst College senior has been selected annually as the Amherst-Doshisha Fellow to spend a year at Doshisha University. A student exchange begun in 2009 permits up to two Amherst students to spend the fall semester at Doshisha. Two students are also eligible to attend the Japanese language summer program at Doshisha as well.

In 1971 the College took the lead in organizing the Associated Kyoto Program (AKP), a junior-year program at Doshisha University for Amherst students and others who wish to pursue the study of Japanese language, culture, and history. This program offers one avenue for both student and faculty contact with Doshisha University. With offices on Doshisha’s main campus since 1971, the AKP, sponsored by Amherst College and 15 American liberal arts colleges, hosts American undergraduates for a year of study in Kyoto and awards fellowships to American and Japanese faculty to participate in educational exchange for periods of one or two semesters.

The Folger Shakespeare Library

THE FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY in Washington, D.C., was established in 1932 under the governance of The Trustees of Amherst College by the will of Henry Clay Folger, Class of 1879, and his wife, Emily Jordan Folger. The Folgers’ original collection of Shakespeareana remains the largest and most complete in existence today. Subsequent acquisitions have enabled the Library now to claim the largest accumulation of English-language publications from 1475 to 1640 outside of England, as well as other important Continental Renaissance materials. Folger holdings span a broad range of subjects and include books, manuscripts, musical instruments, musical scores, and artifacts from the Renaissance and theater history.

In keeping with its founders’ intentions, the Folger Shakespeare Library is an educational and cultural center, with a mission inspired by its world-class collection “to advance understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare’s writing and of the culture of early modern Europe.” The Folger is an internationally recognized research library offering advanced scholarly programs in the humanities; an innovator in the preservation of rare materials; a national leader in how Shakespeare is taught in grades K-12; and an award-winning producer of cultural and arts programs—theater, music, readings, exhibitions, lectures, and family programs. Its commitment to learning extends to the seminars of the Folger Institute, a consortium of 40 universities and colleges—including Amherst, for whom the Folger offers special undergraduate research opportunities—and a wide array of publications, including Shakespeare Quarterly, a scholarly journal produced in cooperation with The George Washington University, the award-winning Folger Magazine for general audiences, and the Folger Shakespeare Library editions, the top-selling imprint of Shakespeare’s works in the United States.

Located one block from the U.S. Capitol, next to the Library of Congress, the Folger Shakespeare Library is housed in a landmark building widely considered among the loveliest in the nation’s capital. Inside its elegant art deco marble facade is an Elizabethan interior with vaulted ornamental plaster ceilings, richly paneled walls, terracotta and tile floors, and windows of leaded and stained glass. Its reading room is modeled after a Tudor banquet hall; the Great Hall suggests a Tudor-style gallery, and its theater is designed after the Elizabethan innyard playhouses so popular in Shakespeare’s time. The Folger welcomes more than 200,000 visitors each year, and millions more visit its informative website at www.folger.edu.

FOLGER LIBRARY OFFICERS

Michael Witmore, Ph.D., Director

Stephen Enniss, Ph.D., Eric Weinmann Librarian

David Schalkwyk, Ph.D., Director of Academic Programs

Janet Alexander Griffin, M.A., Director of Public Programs and Artistic Producer

Melody P. Fetske, C.P.A., Director of Finance and Administration

Essence Newhoff, Acting Director of Development

Robert G. Young, Ph.D., Director of Education

Paul T. Ruxin, Chair, Board of Governors

III

ADMISSION

TUITION AND FEES

FINANCIAL AID

Admission

Amherst College looks, above all, for men and women of intellectual promise who have demonstrated qualities of mind and character that will enable them to take full advantage of our curriculum. We seek qualified applicants from different races, classes and ethnic groups—students whose several perspectives might contribute significantly to a process of mutual education within and beyond the curriculum.

We aim to select from among the many qualified applicants those possessing the intellectual talent, mental discipline and imagination that will allow them most fully to benefit from the curriculum and contribute to the life of the college and society. Grades, standardized test scores, essays, recommendations, independent work, the quality of the secondary school program and achievements outside the classroom are among the factors used to evaluate this promise, but no one of these measures is considered determinative.

THE ADMISSION PROCESS

We take great care to give every application a thorough review. Each application is read by at least two admission deans before being presented to the Admission Committee for discussion. We pay closest attention to a student’s:

secondary school (or college) transcript;

standardized tests: the SAT and two SAT subject exams or the ACT (writing test recommended);

teacher and counselor recommendations;

quality of writing as demonstrated in essays, testing and recommendations;

extra- and co-curricular involvements and talents.

We give the greatest weight to the academic transcript. The rigor of the courses taken, the quality of grades and the consistency with which a student has worked over four years give us the clearest indication of how well a student will do at Amherst. Standardized tests also play an important role in helping us evaluate a student in comparison to students taught in very different secondary schools. Recommendations, the quality of a student’s writing, and extra- and co-curricular talents also help the Admission Committee draw fine distinctions among very talented applicants.

While no precise list of secondary school courses is required for entrance, we strongly recommend the following as minimal preparation for a liberal arts education at Amherst, with the understanding that content and availability will vary from school to school and that most successful applicants will have taken a course of study well beyond this minimum: English—four years; Mathematics—through pre-calculus; three or four years of one Foreign Language; two years of History and Social Science; at least three years of Natural Science, including one year of Laboratory Science.

FIRST-YEAR APPLICANTS

Applying. First-year applicants must submit the Common Application and the Amherst College Common Application Supplement, along with other supporting materials. Applications may be mailed or submitted electronically, accompanied by payment (on-line or by check) of the $60 non-refundable application fee or by a fee-waiver request. Additional information about the application process and required application materials is available at the Admission Office website (www.amherst.edu/admission). Applications must be received at our Admission Office by the appropriate deadline.

Regular Decision. More than 90 percent of applicants choose the Regular Decision option. Applications must be received at our Admission Office by January 1. Applicants will receive notice of our decision by early April and, if admitted, must reply to our offer by May 1.

Early Decision. About 10 percent of Amherst applicants choose our binding Early Decision (ED) program. This is a good option only for those who have decided early in the college search process that Amherst is their clear and definite first choice. As an Early Decision applicant, a student agrees not to be an ED candidate at any other college. The student also agrees, if admitted, to withdraw all applications from other colleges and to enroll at Amherst in the fall. Early Decision applications must be received at our Admission Office by November 15. Applicants will receive notice of our decision by December 15.

IB, AP and College Courses. If a student has taken International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement or college courses during secondary school, we view this as significant evidence of academic accomplishment and preparation. In addition, some Amherst departments will allow a student to forego introductory-level courses in areas in which rigorous work has already been completed. However, we do not accept such courses for credit or advanced standing.

Deferred Admission. An admitted first-year student may, with the permission of the Director of Admission, defer matriculation for a year without reapplying. The student should confirm his or her intent to enroll at Amherst by submitting the enrollment form and required deposit along with a written request for the deferral by May 1. Deferred students wishing to receive credit for academic work completed during the year between high school and their enrollment at Amherst would be required to reapply for admission to the College as transfer student applicants.

TRANSFER APPLICANTS

A student may apply for transfer admission to Amherst after completing one year of transferable liberal arts course work as a full-time student at another college or university. We do not accept applications from individuals who have already earned an undergraduate degree. Nor do we accept transfer applications from students who have completed college coursework as part of a program of early graduation from secondary school or other accelerated completion of secondary school.

Transfer applicants must submit the Common Application for Transfer Students and the Amherst Supplement to the Common Application for Transfer Students, along with supporting materials. Applications may be mailed or submitted electronically, accompanied by payment (on-line or by check) of the $60 non-refundable application fee or by a fee-waiver request. Additional information about the admission process and application materials is available at the Admission Office website (www.amherst.edu/admission). Applications for fall semester transfer must be received at our Admission Office by March 1. Applicants will receive notice of our decision in late May and, if admitted, must reply to our offer by early June. Applications for spring semester transfer must be received at our Admission Office by November 1. Applicants will receive notice of our decision in late December and, if admitted, must respond to our offer promptly.

INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS

We welcome applications from international students. Currently, more than ten percent of our students are international—nine percent are non-U.S. citizens and another two percent are a combination of U.S. dual citizens, U.S. permanent residents, and U.S. citizens living or raised abroad. Our Admission Committee is familiar with various education systems around the world.

Regardless of citizenship or geographic location, international students should follow the same first-year or transfer application process required of any other student. Amherst College practices “need-blind” admission for all international applicants, in addition to U.S. and Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

Amherst requires any applicant whose first language is not English to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or similar English-proficiency test (MELAB or IELTS) with the following exceptions: The TOEFL is not required of international applicants who have conducted their entire secondary education in a school with English as the primary language of instruction or who have scored at least 700 on the Critical Reading section of the SAT.

VISITING STUDENTS

A limited number of places are available in the spring semester for full-time visiting students. A student is eligible for visitor status if the student is currently enrolled in college and has completed at least one year of full-time college work. Individuals enrolled as Visiting Students at Amherst as well as Twelve College Exchange Students at Amherst are not eligible for transfer to the college. Students interested in visiting student status should use the Amherst College Visiting Student Application, available at the Admission Office website (www.amherst.edu/admission). Applications must be received at the Admission Office by December 1. Applicants will receive notice of our decision in late December and, if admitted, must respond to our offer promptly.

For further information please contact:

Office of Admission

Amherst College

P.O. Box 5000

Amherst, MA 01002-5000

413-542-2328

413-542-2040 (fax)

admission@amherst.edu

www.amherst.edu/admission

For sending express mail requiring a street address:

Office of Admission

Amherst College

220 South Pleasant Street

Amherst, MA 01002-5000

Tuition and Fees

A CANDIDATE’S formal application for admission should be accompanied by payment of the $60 non-refundable application fee or a fee-waiver request. For applications submitted electronically, payment of the application fee should be made on-line; for applications submitted by mail, payment should be made by check or money order payable to Amherst College. Admitted candidates who intend to enroll at Amherst are required to return with the enrollment form a non-refundable $400 advance tuition deposit, which will be credited in full on the first term bill, or an advance tuition deposit waiver form issued by our Office of Financial Aid.

Comprehensive Fee (Tuition, Room, Board) $55,510

Student Activities Fee 556

Residential Life Fee (not required of off-campus residents) 114

Campus Center Program Fee 80

Student Health Insurance (optional) $1,699

$57,959

The first semester bill in the amount of $29,829 is made available to all students (except first-year students) and their designated “Friends and Family” electronically in early July and is due and payable on or before August 3, 2012. First-year students receive their first semester bill by mail at their home residence at approximately the same date. The mailing to first-year students is the only bill received by mail and all future bills are made available electronically. The second semester bill totaling $28,130 is available electronically in early December and is due and payable on or before January 4, 2013. All College scholarships, Tuition Management Systems Payment Plans, and any other cash payments received prior to mailing will appear as credits on the bill.

The fee for the support of various activities of the student body for 2012-13 is determined by the Student Allocations Committee. The $556 fee is turned over to the Student Allocations Committee for disbursement to more than 40 student organizations, clubs, special interest groups and activities. Six dollars of the fee helps to underwrite the Five College Performing Arts Program. This cooperative program entitles students at Amherst College (as well as students at Smith, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke Colleges and the University of Massachusetts) to receive a one-half price ticket discount for all Fine Arts Center sponsored programs. The fee also contributes to the support of the student newspapers, magazines, radio station, yearbook, tutorial and hospital service commitment and student government. In addition to the Student Activities Fee, there is a $114 Residential Life Fee and a $80 Campus Center Program Fee which are used to promote all campus programs.

The charge of $1,699 appears on the comprehensive bill for twelve months of Accident and Sickness Insurance for the period August 15, 2012, through August 14, 2013. Any clinical services provided on campus at the Amherst College Student Health Service are covered by the comprehensive fee for all Amherst College students. Further details concerning the Student Health Services and the Student Health Insurance Plan appear in the Amherst College Student Handbook.

Guarantee Deposit

Each new student, or former student reentering, is charged a $175 fee unless this deposit has previously been paid. Included in the $175 guarantee deposit is a $25 transcript fee, which provides all students the opportunity to receive transcripts upon request with no additional charge. This part of the fee is a non-refundable charge. The $150 balance of this deposit is refundable after a student graduates or otherwise leaves the College, less any unpaid charges on his/her account.

Miscellaneous charges such as fees for late registration, extra courses, library fines, lost or damaged property, etc., are payable currently when incurred.

Payment Plans

For those who wish the convenience of monthly payments, arrangements have been made for pre-payment plans, including insurance for continued payment in case of death or disability of the parent. For further details contact Tuition Management Systems at www.amherst.afford.com.

Tuition Changes

Despite every effort to maintain College fees at the lowest possible level, it has been necessary to increase the tuition fee at Amherst in the past. Therefore, students and their parents are advised that such increases may well be necessary in subsequent years. The College attempts to notify students of tuition changes as early as possible during the preceding academic year. Financial aid awards will be based on the schedule of fees in effect during the year of the award. Students who may require financial aid as the result of tuition changes are eligible to make application whenever necessary.

Refund Policy

In case of withdrawal before the opening day of a semester, all charges except the Advanced Tuition Deposit will be cancelled. (See also Conduct.)

Refund of payment for or credit on student accounts in the event of withdrawal are as follows:

TUITION

Period of attendance calculated from day of first scheduled classes:

Fall semester

Prior to September 4 $21,930.00

September 5-14 90% 19,737.00

September 15-23 50% 10,965.00

September 24 to October 20 25% 5,482.50

October 21 or later no refund

Spring semester

Prior to January 24 $21,930.00

January 25 to February 4 90% 19,737.00

February 5-13 50% 10,965.00

February 14 to March 12 25% 5,482.50

March 13 or later no refund

ROOM AND BOARD

Refund shall be made on a per diem basis for any student who withdraws voluntarily or who is dismissed from the College during a semester.

SCHOLARSHIP GRANTS

Scholarship grants are cancelled in full when determining cash refunds.

The officer having general supervision of the collection of tuition and fees and refund policy is the Comptroller.

Financial Aid

IN a sense, every student at Amherst College is on scholarship. Beginning in September 2012, the comprehensive charge for tuition, room and board will be $55,510, and yet the education of each student costs the College more than $80,000 per year. General endowment income, gifts and grants to the College supply the difference.

For those students who cannot afford the regular charge, financial aid is available from a variety of sources. Through the years, alumni and friends of the College have contributed or bequeathed capital funds with the income to be used for scholarship and loan assistance to worthy students. In addition, each year the alumni of the College through the Annual Fund contribute a substantial sum for financial aid purposes. Without this support, the College could not maintain its present financial aid program.

Additional financial aid is available to Amherst students from sources outside the College. A number of foundations and corporations grant funds which the College distributes on the basis of financial need. The College also participates in the Federal Work-Study, Pell Grant, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, Direct Stafford Loan, Perkins Loan, and Direct Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students programs.

Amherst College has a broad financial aid program that includes scholarship grants and student employment. More than one-half of the students receive need-based financial aid. Students and their parents may also borrow educational loans.

FINANCIAL AID POLICY AND PROCEDURE

The College grants financial aid only in cases of demonstrated financial need. Students’ financial needs are calculated by subtracting from estimated academic year expenses an amount that they and their families may reasonably be expected to supply. Academic year expenses include tuition, room, board and fees, and allowances for books, personal expenses, and transportation. The family contribution is computed in accordance with the need analysis procedures of The College Board and amended in individual cases by Amherst College policy. In awarding federal financial aid, the College determines eligibility according to the procedures specified in the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended. The College assumes that students will assist in financing their education through summer employment and part-time jobs during the college year.

Financial aid awards are usually a combination of scholarship grant and student employment opportunities. After allowances have been made for parental contributions and student contributions from savings and income (usually from summer employment), the first $1,800 of an applicant’s demonstrated need will typically be met with a college-year employment opportunity. A student may expect to receive scholarship and grant aid to cover remaining financial need.

Outside scholarship awards and tuition benefits from parents’ employers will be used first to reduce the college-year employment portion of a financial aid award. Any excess outside aid may reduce the Amherst scholarship amount, in accordance with the recipient’s financial need.

Students have no loan included in their financial aid awards. Students with financial need may borrow long-term, low-interest, subsidized student loans to replace a shortfall in summer savings, to substitute for student employment in a financial aid award, or to purchase a personal computer. Unsubsidized student loans are available to students without financial need or to replace a portion of the expected family contribution.

APPLYING FOR FINANCIAL AID

To apply for financial aid from Amherst College, a candidate should submit the documents indicated below by the appropriate dates, as noted.

Students who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States or whose parents reside in the United States:

CSS/Financial Aid Profile. Complete this form online at https://profileonline.collegeboard.com. The Amherst College code for the Profile is 3003.

Early Decision: November 1

Regular Decision: February 15

Fall Transfer: March 15

Spring Transfer: November 1

Noncustodial Profile (NCP), as appropriate. If the student’s parents are separated or divorced, the noncustodial parent should file The College Board’s Noncustodial Profile after the student and the custodial parent have filed the CSS/Financial Aid Profile. Information about the NCP will be sent to the student by The College Board soon after the Profile has been filed.

Parents’ and student’s federal income tax returns and wage statements. Signed copies of tax returns and copies of W-2 forms for 2012 should be submitted through The College Board’s Institutional Documentation (IDOC) service. Students who file a CSS/Financial Aid Profile will receive information about submitting documents in early February. Students who apply for Early Decision admission and Regular Decision candidates whose family’s income tax forms are not available by March 10, should submit copies of the prior year’s tax returns and income documentation directly to the Office of Financial Aid. When the current documents are available, they should be submitted through the IDOC service.

If the student’s parents own an interest in a business corporation, submit a copy of the corporate income tax return (IRS Form 1120, 1120A, 1120-S, and/or Schedule K-1). If your parents have income from a partnership, submit a copy of the partnership income tax return and/or a copy of the statement of partner’s share of income (IRS Form 1065 and/or Schedule K-1).

Early Decision: November 15

Regular Decision: March 10

Fall Transfer: April 10

Spring Transfer: November 1

Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)—for U.S. citizens and permanent residents only. Complete the FAFSA online at www.fafsa.ed.gov. A paper version of the FAFSA form may also be available from secondary school counselors. The FAFSA should not be submitted until after January 1. The Amherst College code for the FAFSA is 002115.

Students who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada or whose parents reside in Canada:

CSS/Financial Aid Profile. Complete the Profile by the dates indicated above for students in the United States.

Noncustodial Profile (NCP). If the student’s parents are separated or divorced, the noncustodial parent should complete the NCP, as noted above for students in the United States.

Parents’ and student’s federal and provincial income tax returns and wage statements. Submit signed copies of tax returns and copies of T-4 forms for 2012 directly to the Office of Financial Aid. Students who apply for Early Decision admission and Regular Decision candidates whose family’s income tax returns are not available by March 10, should submit copies of the prior year’s tax returns and income documentation. Current documents should be submitted when they become available.

If the student’s parents own an interest in a business corporation, submit a copy of the corporate income tax return. If your parents have income from a partnership, submit a copy of the partnership income tax return.

Other international students (whose parents do not reside in the United States or Canada):

CSS/Financial Aid Profile. Complete the Profile by the dates indicated above for students in the United States. Students from Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Myanmar (Burma), Nigeria, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and Togo should contact the Office of Financial Aid regarding procedures for applying.

Noncustodial parent’s International Student Financial Aid Application. If the student’s parents are separated or divorced, the noncustodial parent should complete the International Student Financial Aid Application, which is available on the Office of Financial Aid website.

Parents’ and student’s income tax returns and income documentation. Submit copies of your and your parents’ most recent income tax return(s) and/or other documentation of income directly to the Office of Financial Aid.

If the student’s parents own an interest in a business or farm, complete the International Business/Farm Supplement, which is available on the Office of Financial Aid website.

Early Decision: November 1

Regular Education: February 15

Fall Transfer: March 15

Spring Transfer: November 1

Transfer Applicants. Transfer applicants are treated identically to first-year applicants, with admission decisions made on a need-blind basis and financial need met in full.

International Applicants. Amherst College offers financial aid to international students based on financial need. Admission of international students does not take into consideration a candidate’s need for financial aid.

Early Decision. Early Decision applicants who submit their financial aid application materials on time will receive a preliminary financial aid award soon after getting a letter of admission. This award will be confirmed later, after the cost of attendance for the coming year has been set and after income is confirmed on the basis of the student’s and student’s parents’ income tax returns. A student who wants to compare financial aid packages from several colleges should apply as a Regular Decision applicant.

Renewal of Financial Aid. Students in the upper classes who desire renewal of their financial aid awards or who wish to apply for financial aid for the first time must file applications by April 25. Renewal forms may be printed from the financial aid website, www.amherst.edu/offices/financialaid and should be returned directly to the Office of Financial Aid. Students will receive notification of their financial aid awards in June.

WILLIAM M. PREST BEQUEST

The Faculty of Amherst College, at its meeting of February 29, 1972, passed by unanimous vote a resolution that:

. . . until such time as it votes to the contrary, the income and a portion of the principal of the Bequest of William M. Prest, Class of 1888, will be used to initiate new approaches to the problem of providing appropriate forms of financial assistance to Amherst College students.

First claim on the Prest funds goes to transfer students at Amherst, with special consideration to graduates of junior and community colleges.

STUDENT LOAN FUND

Through the generosity of friends of the College, the Student Loan Fund has been established from which small short-term loans may be made to students who require funds to meet personal emergencies or other needs for which financial aid funds may not be obtained. In accordance with the conditions set by the donors, use of the Student Loan Fund is limited to students who are otherwise receiving grant assistance from the College. The New England Society’s Student Loaning Fund (for New England residents) and the Morris Morgenstern Student Loan Fund provide special interest-free loans on the same short-term basis as other student loans.

A brochure with a more detailed description of the financial aid program is available upon request from the Admission Office. Additional information is also available from the College’s website at www.amherst.edu/offices financialaid. Questions about the financial aid policy of Amherst College should be directed to the Office of Financial Aid, Amherst College, B-5 Converse Hall, P.O. Box 5000, Amherst, MA 01002-5000 or finaid@amherst.edu.

IV

GENERAL REGULATIONS

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

General Regulations

TERMS AND VACATIONS

THE COLLEGE year 2012-13 includes two regular semesters, the first with 13 weeks and the second with 14 weeks of classes. In the fall semester are an October break and a Thanksgiving recess. After the winter recess, there is a January Interterm. In the spring semester there is a vacation of one week.

All official College vacations and holidays are announced on the College Calendar appearing at the beginning of this catalog.

The January Interterm is a three-week period between semesters free from the formal structures of regular classes, grades, and academic credit. It is, in essence, a time when each student may undertake independent study in a subject or area to which he or she might not have access during the normal course of the year.

Students may center their activities on the campus or elsewhere as they choose. They may read, write, paint, compose, or inquire into some question or concern as inclination, ingenuity, and resources permit. They may wish to explore further or more deeply a subject which has aroused their curiosity or about which they wish to know more.

CONDUCT

It is the belief of Amherst College that those engaged in education should be responsible for setting, maintaining, and supporting moral and intellectual standards. Those standards are assumed to be ones which will reflect credit on the College, its students, and its guests.

The College reserves the right to exclude at any time students whose conduct or academic standing it regards as unsatisfactory; in such cases fees are not refunded or remitted in whole or in part, and neither the College nor any of its officers consider themselves to be under any liability whatsoever for such exclusion.

All are expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the principles set forth in the following three statements, which together comprise the Amherst College Honor Code. Failure to do so may in serious instances jeopardize the student’s continued association with the College.

A. STATEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL RESPONSIBILITY AT AMHERST COLLEGE

Preamble

Every person’s education is the product of his or her own intellectual effort and participation in a process of critical exchange. Amherst cannot educate those who are unwilling to submit their own work and ideas to critical assessment. Nor can it tolerate those who interfere with the participation of others in the critical process. Therefore, the College considers it a violation of the requirements of intellectual responsibility to submit work that is not one’s own or otherwise to subvert the conditions under which academic work is performed by oneself or by others.

Article I Student Responsibility

Section 1. In undertaking studies at Amherst College every student agrees to abide by the above statement.

Section 2. Students must review the Statement of Intellectual Responsibility via the Registrar’s Webpage at the beginning of each semester. It is the responsibility of each student to read and understand this Statement and to inquire as to its implications in his or her specific courses.

Section 3. Orderly and honorable conduct of examinations is the individual and collective responsibility of the students concerned in accordance with the above Statement and Article II, Section 3, below.

Article II Faculty Responsibility

Section 1. Promotion of the aims of the Statement of Intellectual Responsibility is a general responsibility of the Faculty.

Section 2. Every member of the Faculty has a specific responsibility to explain the implications of the statement for each of his or her courses, including a specification of the conditions under which academic work in those courses is to be performed. At the beginning of each semester all members of the Faculty should review the Statement of Intellectual Responsibility via the Registrar’s Webpage; they are reminded of their duty to explain its implications in each course.

Section 3. Examinations shall not be proctored unless an instructor judges that the integrity of the assessment process is clearly threatened. An instructor may be present at examinations at appropriate times to answer questions.

B. STATEMENT ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND DISSENT

Amherst College prizes and defends freedom of speech and dissent. It affirms the right of teachers and students to teach and learn, free from coercive force and intimidation and subject only to the constraints of reasoned discourse and peaceful conduct. It also recognizes that such freedoms and rights entail responsibility for one’s actions. Thus, every student bears the responsibility to protect the rights of all to express their views so long as there is neither use nor threat of force nor interference with the rights of others. Demonstrated cases of disruption of classes (whether, for example, by the abridgement of free expression in a class or by obstructing access to the place in which the class normally meets) or similarly of other academic activities will be regarded as serious breaches of this Statement and community standards and will receive appropriate sanctions.

C. STATEMENT ON RESPECT FOR PERSONS

Respect for the rights, dignity and integrity of others is essential for the well-being of a community. Actions by any person that do not reflect such respect for others are damaging to each member of the community and hence damaging to Amherst College. Each member of the community should be free from interference, discrimination, intimidation, sexual harassment or disparagement in the classroom; the social, recreational and residential environment; or the work place. Any behavior which constitutes sexual harassment or other verbal or physical abuse of any member of the community for reasons that include but are not limited to race, color, religion, national origin, ethnic identification, age, political affiliation or belief, sexual orientation, gender, economic status or physical or mental disability will be regarded as a serious violation of the Honor Code, and anyone found guilty of such behavior will be disciplined.

Harassment

Amherst College does not condone harassment of any kind, against any group or individual, because of race, religion, ethnic identification, age, handicap, gender or sexual orientation. Such harassment is clearly in conflict with the interests of the College as an educational community and in many cases with provisions of law.

Sexual Harassment

Amherst College is committed to establishing and maintaining an environment free of all forms of harassment. Sexual harassment breaches the trust that is expected and required in order for members of an educational community to be free to learn and work. It is a form of discrimination because it unjustly deprives a person of equal treatment. Sexual harassment can injure anyone who is subjected to it, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

The College’s policy on sexual harassment is directed towards behavior and does not purport to regulate beliefs, attitudes, or feelings. It is based on federal and state law, which prohibit certain specific forms of sexual harassment; on the College’s Statement on Respect for Persons, which requires that a person’s sex and sexual orientation be treated with respect; and on the following statement on sexual harassment passed by the Faculty on May 23, 1985:

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other unwelcome verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when: (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment, academic work, or participation in social or extracurricular activities; (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for decisions affecting the individual; or (3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or demeaning working, academic or social environment.

The College believes that sexual harassment, besides being intrinsically harmful and illegal, also corrupts the integrity of the educational process.

Because it is possible for one person to act unintentionally in a manner that sexually harasses another, it is imperative that all members of the College community understand what kinds of behavior constitute sexual harassment. Hence, we provide here a general description of sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment occurs when one person attempts to coerce another into a sexual relationship, or to punish a refusal to respond to or comply with sexual advances. Attempts to subject a person to unwanted attention of a sexual character, sexual slurs or derogatory language directed at another person’s sexuality or gender also can be forms of sexual harassment. Thus, sexual harassment can include a wide range of behavior, from the actual coercing of sexual relations to the forcing of sexual attentions, verbal or physical, on a non-consenting individual. It is also possible that sexual harassment can occur unintentionally when behavior of a sexual nature has the effect of creating a hostile environment. In some cases, sexual harassment is obvious and may involve an overt action, a threat, or reprisal. In other instances, sexual harassment is subtle and indirect, with a coercive aspect that is unstated.

Sexual harassment also occurs when a position of authority is used to threaten the imposition of penalty or the withholding of benefit unless sexual favors are granted, whether or not the threat is carried out. Sexual harassment, when it exploits the authority the institution gives its employees, or otherwise compromises the boundary between personal and professional roles, is an abuse of the power the College entrusts to them. The potential for sexual harassment exists in any sexual relationship between a student and a member of the faculty, administration or staff. Anyone in a position of authority should thoroughly understand the potential for coercion in sexual relationships between persons who are professionally affiliated. These relationships may involve persons in a position of authority over their colleagues (e.g., tenured faculty and non-tenured faculty; administrators and staff); or they may involve those who teach, advise or supervise students.

Sexual harassment also takes the form of unwanted attention among peers. Sexual harassment by peers may have the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, or demeaning environment. Sexual harassment by peers can occur between strangers, casual acquaintances, hall-mates, and even friends.

Because sexual harassment is a direct violation of the College’s “Statement on Respect for Persons,” Amherst College will seriously and thoroughly investigate any complaints of sexual harassment and will discipline those found guilty. Any student who believes she or he may be the victim of sexual harassment by a member of the faculty should consult the section on “Seeking Redress in Cases of Sexual Harassment” and “The Resolution of Student Grievances with Members of the Faculty or Administration” in the Student Handbook. The Faculty Handbook gives further information about grievance procedures. Any student who believes she or he may be the victim of sexual harassment by a peer should consult the student-student grievance procedures in the Student Handbook.

Consensual Sexual Relationships Between Faculty Members and Students

Experience has shown that consensual sexual relationships between faculty members and students can lead to harassment. Faculty members should understand the potential for coercion in sexual relationships with students with whom the faculty members also have instructional, advisory or supervisory relationships.

Even when such relationships do not lead to harassment, they can compromise the integrity of the educational process. The objectivity of evaluations which occur in making recommendations or assigning grades, honors, and fellowships may be called into question when a faculty member involved in those functions has or has had a sexual relationship with a student.

For these reasons, the College does not condone and, in fact, strongly discourages consensual sexual relationships between faculty members and students. The College requires a faculty member to remove himself or herself from any supervisory, evaluative, advisory, or other pedagogical role involving a student with whom he or she has had or currently has a sexual relationship. Since the absence of this person may deprive the student of educational, advising, or career opportunities, both parties should be mindful of the potential costs to the student before entering into a sexual relationship.

In cases in which it proves necessary, the Dean of Faculty, in consultation with the Dean of Students and the Chair (or Head) of the relevant department, will evaluate the student’s situation and take measures to prevent deprivation of educational and advising opportunities. The appropriate officers of the College will have the authority to make exceptions to normal academic rules and policies that are warranted by the circumstances.

ATTENDANCE AT COLLEGE EXERCISES

It is assumed that students will make the most of the educational opportunities available by regularly attending classes and laboratory periods. At the beginning of the semester, all instructors are free to state the policy with regard to absences from their courses. Thereafter, they may take such action as they deem appropriate, or report to the Dean of Students the names of any students who disregard the regulations announced.

Students are asked to notify the Office of the Dean of Students if they have been delayed at home by illness or family emergencies. They are also requested to report any unusual or unexplained absences from the College on the part of any fellow students.

Students who have been attended at home by a physician should, on the day of their return, report their absence to the Office of the Dean of Students and submit a statement concerning their illness and any recommended treatment to the Health Services Office. Students who are ill at College will normally be attended at the College Health Service or will be referred to the University of Massachusetts University Health Services by the Staff Physician. It is assumed that all students not excused by the College physician are well enough to attend their regular classes.

The responsibility for any work missed due to an illness or other absence rests entirely upon the student.

Details about student health and medical programs are provided in the Student Handbook.

RECORDS AND REPORTS

Grades in courses are reported in three categories:

Passing Grades = A+, A, A–, B+, B, B–, C+, C, C–, D, Pass

Failing Grade = F

Term averages and cumulative averages are reported on a 14-point scale rounded to the nearer whole number. The conversion equivalents are: A+ = 14, A = 13, A– = 12; B+ = 11, B = 10, B– = 9; C+ = 8, C = 7, C– = 6; D = 4, F = 1. A Pass does not affect a student’s average.

Midterm warning letters are sent to students who receive grade of D or F after the end of the seventh week of classes each semester. Midterm warning grades are also available online. A report of all grades and averages is available online after the end of each semester.

Students may only retake courses for which they have received a failing grade or from which they have withdrawn in a prior semester.

The academic records and averages of Amherst College students completing Five College Interchange courses at Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts will include these courses and grades; no separate transcripts are maintained at the other institutions for Amherst College students.

“Rank in class” will not be used, but transcripts and grade reports will be accompanied by a profile showing the distribution of cumulative averages for students of the same class level in the current and in the previous two years.

Student academic records are maintained by the Registrar’s Office and are confidential; information is released only at the request of the student. Partial transcripts are not issued; each transcript must include the student’s complete record at Amherst College to date. An official transcript carries an authorized signature as well as the embossed seal of Amherst College.

Transcripts of credit earned at other institutions, which have been presented to Amherst College for admission or transfer of credit, become a part of the student’s permanent record but are not issued, reissued, or copied for distribution. With the exception of Five College Interchange courses, grades for courses that were transferred from other institutions including study abroad are not recorded; credit only is listed on the Amherst transcript. Transcripts for all academic work at other institutions of higher education, including summer schools, should be requested directly from those institutions.

PASS/FAIL OPTION

Amherst College students may choose, with the permission of the instructor, a pass/fail arrangement in two of the 32 courses required for the degree, but not in more than one course in any one semester. The choice of a pass/fail alternative must be made by the last day of add/drop at the beginning of the semester and must have the approval of the student’s advisor. No grade-point equivalent will be assigned to a “Pass,” but courses taken on this basis will receive either a “P” or an “F” from the instructor, although in the regular evaluation of work done during the semester the instructor may choose to assign the usual grades for work submitted by students exercising this option. First-year students, who have the privilege of withdrawing from one course without grade penalty, and transfer students, who have the privilege of withdrawing from one course during their first semester at Amherst, must take no less than three graded courses in each semester.

EXAMINATIONS AND EXTENSIONS

Examinations are held at the end of each semester and at intervals in the year in many courses. At the end of each semester, final grades are reported and the record for the semester is closed. In conformity with the practice established by the Faculty, no extension of time is allowed for intraterm papers, examinations and incomplete laboratory or other course work beyond the date of the last scheduled class period of the semester, unless an extension is granted in writing by both the instructor and the Class Dean. Students will not be allowed to register or participate in add/drop for the subsequent term until all grades from their last semester are recorded by the Registrar.

A student who is prevented by illness from attending a semester examination may be granted the privilege of a special examination by the instructor and the Class Dean, who will arrange the date of the examination with the instructor. There are no second or make-up semester examinations, unless a student is prevented by illness from taking such an examination at the scheduled time.

A semester examination may be postponed only by approval of the instructor and the Class Dean.

Only for medical reasons or those of grave personal emergency will extensions be granted beyond the second day after the examination period.

VOLUNTARY WITHDRAWALS AND MEDICAL AND EDUCATIONAL LEAVES

The College has traditionally recognized the educational and personal rewards that many students receive from a semester or two away from the campus. Some departments, especially language departments, strongly encourage or require that students majoring in their department study in a foreign country. Occasionally, faculty members, advisors, or deans may suggest that students withdraw from formal studies to gain fresh perspectives on their intellectual commitments, career plans, or educational priorities. Family circumstances, medical problems, declining motivation, and other factors commonly encountered by students may require that they remain away from the College for more than the usual College vacation periods. The College, therefore, encourages students to consider carefully their situations, to clarify their objectives, and to decide for themselves whether they should temporarily interrupt their study at the College and take voluntary withdrawals or go on educational leaves.

Students who wish to explore the advantages and disadvantages of voluntary withdrawals or medical or educational leaves should confer with their class deans, College and departmental advisors, resident counselors and parents. Some students will also find it beneficial to discuss their situations and tentative plans with the Registrar, the Study Abroad Advisor, the foreign language departments, the Career Center and the Dean of Financial Aid.

Students who go on educational leave from the College usually do so during the junior year, although sophomore year educational leaves are permitted. It is expected that students will spend their senior year at Amherst. To receive academic credit for study elsewhere, students must perform satisfactorily in a full schedule of courses approved in advance by the Dean of Students Office, the Registrar, and the students’ advisors. Students on educational leave from Amherst must enroll at other institutions as visiting non-degree students. (See Transfer Policy statement.) Students on academic dismissal may not participate in Study Abroad. Students on Academic Review, Warning or Probation should discuss their plan to Study Abroad with their academic advisor, Class Dean and Dean of International Studies prior to enrollment in a study abroad program.

To ensure that students have ample time for changing their status with the College and to allow the College to maintain full use of its educational facilities, some minimum procedures and deadlines have been instituted. All students considering voluntary withdrawals or medical or educational leaves for the fall semester must notify their class deans and advisors before March 15. Students who may be away from campus for the spring term should notify their dean and advisor before April 15 of the previous year. Students who fail to notify the dean of their plans prior to these deadlines will not be guaranteed housing for the semester in which they prefer to return. Educational leaves usually require a considerable amount of correspondence with other colleges and universities, especially in the case of foreign study. Therefore, students who may wish to go on educational leaves should begin discussing their plans at least a full semester before they expect to be enrolled in another institution.

Prior to the seventh week of any semester, students may choose to withdraw voluntarily without their final grades being recorded. However, unless granted exemptions for disabling medical reasons or grave personal emergencies by the Committee on Academic Standing or the class deans, students who withdraw after the seventh week of a semester will withdraw with penalty and have final grades for that semester recorded on their permanent academic records. Refunds of tuition, deposits and fees are treated according to the College policy stated on page 54 of this Catalog. When withdrawals have been approved by the class deans and faculty advisors, the deans will specify any readmission requirements in writing and will indicate what academic work, if any, must be completed prior to readmission.

Students considering educational leaves, voluntary leaves, and medical withdrawals should also read the next section on Readmission.

INVOLUNTARY WITHDRAWALS

The College reserves the right to exclude at any time students whose conduct it regards as unsatisfactory. Such conduct includes, but is not limited to: A student engages in, or is at significant risk of engaging in, behavior that could result in physical harm to self or other(s); manifests an inability to attend to personal needs related to food, shelter, personal safety and general well-being, such that there is a reasonable possibility of serious physical harm; behaves in a manner that interferes substantially with the rightful daily activities of members of the College or surrounding community, with the educational and/or residential environment, or with the orderly operation of the College, including behavior that imposes a significant burden on the College’s human resources needed for continued management of such behavior; fails to pay term bill by the stated due date; fails to provide required immunization records by the stated deadline; fails to register as required at the beginning of each term or fails to have all course grades recorded for the prior term. In addition, a student who has been granted make-up examinations or extensions of time beyond the end of the term in order to avoid failing those courses, may be required to take a withdrawal. In such cases, fees are not refunded or remitted in whole or in part and neither the College nor any of its officers will have any liability whatsoever for such exclusion. When withdrawals have been imposed by the class deans, the deans will specify any readmission requirements in writing and will indicate what academic work, if any, must be completed prior to readmission. All readmission requirements must be completed by August 15 for fall or December 15 for spring or the student will not be allowed to return and will need to begin the readmission process again for the next academic semester. Students may appeal an involuntary withdrawal to the Dean of Students or designee.

Students anticipating return from leave should also read the next section on Readmission.

READMISSION

All students requesting readmission after voluntary withdrawals, involuntary withdrawals, medical leaves, and academic dismissals and all students on educational leaves who wish to return for the fall semester should write to their class deans as early as possible, but before March 15. For students planning to return for the spring semester, the letters should be received by the College before November 1.

Provisional Administrative Readmission following leave may be offered by the Dean of Students to facilitate processes such as pre-registration and housing where appropriate. However, students must complete all readmission requirements by August 15 for fall and December 15 for spring.

In some cases, additional information, such as an interview on-campus with a class dean, may be requested. Readmission requests from students seeking to return from academic dismissals and, in some cases from medical leaves, voluntary and involuntary withdrawals, will be referred to the Committee on Academic Standing. In these cases, detailed letters requesting readmission, accompanied by grade reports of courses taken at an approved college or university, letters from employers, and other documents supporting the readmission requests should be sent to the class deans. Students on educational leaves should simply confirm their intention of returning to the campus before the above stated dates. Failure to meet these deadlines will jeopardize students’ opportunities to participate in the student residence room selection.

TRANSFER POLICY

Amherst College students who are considering transferring to other institutions should understand that the College will not readmit those who choose to become degree candidates at other colleges and universities. All Amherst College students who transfer to and enroll as degree candidates at other institutions will forfeit their opportunity to re-enroll in the College. Before arranging to transfer, students should discuss their plans and options with their class dean.

Students who plan to attend other colleges and universities while on educational leave or as participants in exchange programs must have explicit written understanding with Amherst College as well as confirmation from host schools that they will be enrolled as visitors, rather than as degree candidates. (See Academic Credit from Other Institutions.)

DELINQUENCIES

At the midpoint and end of each semester, the academic records of all students are reviewed by the class deans and the Committee on Academic Standing. Those students who have demonstrated they are unfit for academic work are dismissed from the College. The academic records of others about whom the Committee has some concern are also carefully examined. Depending on the degree of difficulty a student has experienced, he/she may be regularly reviewed, issued an academic warning or placed on probation. Students who, by failing a course, incur a deficiency in the number of courses required for normal progress toward graduation are expected to make up that course deficiency before being permitted to register for the next academic year. (See Course Requirements.)

Students belonging to one or more of the following groups may not expect to continue at Amherst College:

a. Those who in any semester fail in two or more courses. Withdrawal from a course while failing it shall count as a failure.1 

1 

b. Those who in any semester fail a course and receive an average of less than 7 in courses passed.*

c. Those who in any semester pass all courses but receive an average of less than 6.

d. Those who have accumulated delinquencies in three or more courses during their college careers.

e. Those who have been on probation and have failed to meet the conditions of their probation.

1. See Degree Requirements.

Normally, a student dismissed from the College for reasons of unsatisfactory academic performance, involuntary leave or medical withdrawal will not be eligible for readmission until he or she has been away from the College for two semesters. During the period of academic dismissal (separation from the College) the student is usually expected to demonstrate readiness to return by simultaneously completing and passing at least two liberal arts courses at another accredited college or university each with grades of C or higher (a C– is not satisfactory). The courses must be approved (in advance) by the Registrar and the Class Dean before the student enrolls. The student will be granted credit towards his/her Amherst degree for deficiencies only. Any remaining course deficiencies, after the two-course requirement has been met, must be completed before returning. Other conditions for readmission shall be set forth clearly in writing and must be met by the student before he or she can be considered for readmission to the College. (See section on Readmission.)

A student readmitted to the College following an academic dismissal returns on academic warning.

Students taking courses in a summer school to make up a delinquency incurred at Amherst College must have their summer school courses approved in advance by the Registrar. The College does not grant transfer credit for courses completed with a grade below “C”.

ROOM AND BOARD

Dormitory and house rooms are equipped with bed, mattress, bureau, desk, chairs, and bookcase or shelves. Occupants furnish their own blankets, linen, pillows, and towels, and may provide extra furnishings if they wish, such as rugs, curtains, lamps, etc.; they may not add beds, sofas, lounges, or other furniture of such nature except under certain circumstances. More complete regulations for occupancy are contained in the Student Handbook.

All students living in dormitories and houses, except for those students living in the Humphries House cooperative, are required to subscribe to the 21 meals per week plan of Valentine Hall. Valentine Hall is able and willing to accommodate students with special dietary needs. There are no rebates for absence from meals.

Students with unique circumstances who want to live off campus should speak with the dean in charge of housing or their class dean. First-year students, unless specifically excused by the Dean of Students, are required to live in College-owned houses or with relatives.

Degree Requirements

BACHELOR OF ARTS

THE DEGREE Bachelor of Arts is conferred upon students who have satisfactorily met the requirements described below. The plan of studies leading to this degree is arranged on the basis of the equivalent of an eight-semester course of study to be pursued by students in residence at Amherst College.

The degree Bachelor of Arts cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude (Degree with Honors) is awarded to students who have successfully completed an approved program of Honors work with a department or program.

Other students who satisfactorily meet requirements as indicated below receive the degree, Bachelor of Arts, rite.

REQUIREMENTS

Each student is responsible for meeting all degree requirements and for ensuring that the Registrar’s Office has received all credentials.

The Bachelor of Arts degree is awarded to students who:

1. Complete 32 full semester courses and four years (eight semesters) of residence,2 except that a student who has dropped a course without penalty during the first year, or who has failed a course during the first or second year, shall be allowed to graduate, provided he or she has been four years in residence at the College and has satisfactorily completed 31 full courses. Transfer students must complete 32 full semester courses or their equivalent, at least 16 of them at Amherst, and at least two years of residence at Amherst, except that a transfer student who has dropped a course without penalty during his or her first semester at Amherst shall be allowed to graduate with one less full course.

2 In exceptional cases, a student with at least six semesters of residence at Amherst and at least 24 courses, excluding summer school courses not taken as make-up work or recognized as part of a transfer record, may apply for early graduation. Students seeking to graduate before they have satisfied the normal 32-course requirement will have the quality of their achievement thoroughly evaluated. The approval of the student’s advisor, department, the Dean of Faculty, the Committee of Six, and finally the Faculty must be received to be granted the status of candidate for the degree.

2. Complete the requirements for a major in a department or a group of departments including a satisfactory performance in the comprehensive evaluation. Standard full courses are equal to four semester credits each. Half courses are equal to two semester credits. Our course system considers all standard full courses to have equal weight toward completing the degree requirements. Courses typically meet for at least three hours a week, with the expectation that additional time may be spent in lab, discussion, studio, film viewing, or preparatory work.

3. Attain a general average of 6 in the courses completed at Amherst and a grade of at least C in every course completed at another institution for transfer credit to Amherst.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

All students except Independent Scholars are required to elect four full courses each semester and may elect an additional half course. The election of a half course in addition to the normal program is at the discretion of the student and without special permission. A student may not elect more than one half course in any semester except by consent of his or her class dean and the departments concerned. In such cases the student’s program will be three full courses and two half courses. Half courses are not normally included in the 32-course requirement for graduation.

In exceptional cases a student may, with the permission of both his or her academic advisor and class dean, take five full courses for credit during a given semester. Such permission is normally granted only to students of demonstrated superior academic ability, responsibility, and will. Fifth courses cannot be used to accelerate graduation. On occasion, a student who has failed a course may be permitted to take a fifth course in a given semester if, in the judgment of the Committee on Academic Standing, this additional work can be undertaken without prejudice to the student’s regular program. Students may only retake a course for which they have received a failing grade or from which they have withdrawn in a prior semester.

Also in exceptional cases a student may petition the Dean of Students at the time of admission or prior to the beginning of any semester for permission to enroll in a program of three courses per semester for any number of semesters of his or her enrollment at Amherst. Such permission may be granted only for reasons of physical disability (e.g., for students who have serious visual or hearing impairments) or compelling family responsibility (e.g., for students who are parents and have custodial responsibility for their children). In such cases, the student may be granted permission to spend as many as two additional semesters at Amherst College and to graduate with no fewer than 31 courses.

A student who by failing a course incurs a deficiency in the number of courses required for normal progress toward graduation is usually expected to make up that course deficiency by taking a three- or four-semester hour course at another approved institution during the summer prior to the first semester of the next academic year and no later than the semester prior to the student’s last semester at Amherst.

A student may not add a course to his/her program after the last day of add/drop at the beginning of each semester or drop a course after this date except as follows:

First-year students who experience severe academic difficulty may petition the Dean of New Students for permission to drop one course without penalty during their first year. The Dean of New Students, in consultation with the instructor and advisor, will decide on the basis of the student’s educational needs whether or not to grant the petition. Petitions to withdraw from a course will normally be accepted only during the sixth, seventh, and eighth weeks of either the first or the second semester. Exceptions to this rule shall be made only for disabling medical reasons or reasons of grave personal emergency, and shall be made only by the Dean of New Students.

Transfer students may petition their Class Dean to drop one course without penalty during the sixth, seventh, and eighth weeks of their first semester at Amherst. They must follow the petition procedure described above. The Class Dean, in consultation with the student’s instructor and advisor, will decide whether or not to grant this petition.

For sophomores, juniors, and seniors, exceptions to the rule prohibiting the dropping of a course after the ninth calendar day of the semester shall be made only for disabling medical reasons or reasons of grave personal emergency, and shall be made only by the Dean of Students in consultation with the student’s class dean.

Courses taken by a student after withdrawing from Amherst College, as part of a graduate or professional program in which that student is enrolled, are not applicable toward an Amherst College undergraduate degree.

THE LIBERAL STUDIES CURRICULUM

Under the Liberal Studies Curriculum, the first-year students are required to take a First-Year Seminar. These courses are planned and taught by one or more members of the Faculty as a way to introduce students to liberal studies through a range of innovative and often interdisciplinary approaches. The subject matter of the courses varies, as do the capabilities they seek to encourage. Each seminar constitutes an inquiry-based introduction to critical thinking and active learning at the college level. To achieve this goal, all courses have an enrollment limit of 15 students and provide discussion-based classes, writing attentive instruction with frequent and varied assignments, close reading and critical interpretation of written texts, and careful attention to the analysis of argument in speech and writing. The courses offered for fall 2012-13 are described on pages 80-90.

Amherst’s liberal studies curriculum is based on a concept of education as a process or activity rather than a form of production. The curriculum provides a structure within which each student may confront the meaning of his or her education, and does it without imposing a particular course or subject on all students. Students are encouraged to continue to seek diversity and attempt integration through their course selection and to discuss this with their advisors.

Under the curriculum, most members of the Faculty serve as academic advisors to students. Every student has a College Advisor until he or she declares a major, no later than the end of the sophomore year; thereafter each student will have a Major Advisor from the student’s field of concentration. As student and advisor together plan a student’s program, they should discuss whether the student has selected courses that:

develop fundamental capabilities such as critical reading, written and oral expression, quantitative reasoning, and proficiency in using information resources

achieve breadth of understanding through study in a range of disciplines and modes of inquiry.

THE MAJOR REQUIREMENT

Liberal education seeks to develop the student’s awareness and understanding of the individual and of the world’s physical and social environments. If one essential object in the design of education at Amherst is breadth of understanding, another purpose, equally important, is mastery of one or more areas of knowledge in depth. Upperclassmen are required to concentrate their studies—to select and pursue a major—in order to deepen their understanding: to gain specific knowledge of a field and its special concerns, and to master and appreciate the skills needed in that disciplined effort.

A major normally consists of at least eight courses pursued under the direction of a department or special group. A major may begin in either the first or second year and must be declared by the end of the second year. Students may change their majors at any time, provided that they will be able to complete the new program before graduation.

The major program can be devised in accordance with either of two plans:

DEPARTMENTAL MAJORS

Students may complete the requirement of at least eight courses within one department. They must complete at least six courses within one department and the remaining two courses in related fields approved by the department.

Some Amherst students may wish to declare a major in more than one department or program. This curricular option is available, although it entails special responsibilities. At Amherst, departments are solely responsible for defining the content and structure of an acceptable program of study for majors. Students who elect a double major must present the signatures of both academic advisors when registering for each semester’s courses and they must, of course, fulfill the graduation requirements and comprehensive examinations established by two academic programs. In addition, double majors may not credit courses approved for either major toward the other without the explicit consent of an announced departmental policy or the signature of a departmental chairperson. In their senior year, students with a double major must verify their approved courses with both academic advisors before registering for their last semester at the College.

INTERDISCIPLINARY MAJORS

Students with special needs who desire to construct an interdisciplinary major will submit a proposed program, endorsed by one or more professors from each of the departments concerned, to the Committee on Academic Standing and Special Majors. Under ordinary circumstances, the proposal will be submitted during the first semester of the junior year and not under any circumstances later than the eighth week of the second junior semester. The program will include a minimum of six upper-level courses and a thesis plan. Upon approval of the program by the Committee on Academic Standing and Special Majors, an ad hoc advisory committee of three professors appointed by the Committee will have all further responsibility for approving any possible modifications in the program, administering an appropriate comprehensive examination, reviewing the thesis and making recommendations for the degree with or without Honors. Information on preparation, form, and submission of proposed interdisciplinary programs is available in the Office of the Dean of Students.

A part of the major requirement in every department is an evaluation of the student’s comprehension in his or her major field of study. This evaluation may be based on a special written examination or upon any other performance deemed appropriate by each department. The mode of the evaluation need not be the same for all the majors within a department, and, indeed, may be designed individually to test the skills each student has developed.

The evaluation should be completed by the seventh week of the second semester of the senior year. Any student whose comprehension is judged to be inadequate will have two opportunities for reevaluation: one not later than the last day of classes of the second semester of the senior year, and the other during the next college year.

DEGREE WITH HONORS

The requirements for graduation with a degree with honors are as follows:

The degree Bachelor of Arts with Honors is awarded at graduation to students whose academic records give evidence of particular merit. Latin Honors are awarded to students completing a thesis within their major department or program. English honors are awarded to students solely on the basis of performance in course work. The awarding of both Latin and English honors will be made by the Faculty of the College, and will appear on the diploma. In making such awards, the Faculty will observe the following guidelines:

Latin Honors

1. Candidates eligible for the degree summa cum laude must have a minimum overall grade point average in the top 25% of their class and have received a recommendation of summa based on a thesis or comparable work from a department or program in which they have majored. In addition, the theses of candidates for the degree summa cum laude will be reviewed by the Committee of Six, who will transmit its recommendation to the Faculty. Candidates will also have their entire records reviewed by the Dean of the Faculty and the Committee of Six, who will transmit their recommendations to the Faculty.

2. Candidates eligible for the degree magna cum laude must have a minimum overall grade point average in the top 25% of their class and have received a recommendation of magna based on a thesis or comparable work from a department or program in which they have majored. Although each department or program may define additional criteria upon which it will base its recommendation, the candidate must submit a thesis or comparable work that is judged by the department or program to be of magna quality. Candidates will also qualify for the degree magna cum laude if they have been recommended for summa cum laude and are in the top 40% but not the top 25% of their class and have otherwise met the requirements for the degree summa cum laude

3. Candidates eligible for the degree cum laude must have received a recommendation of cum based on a thesis or comparable work from a department or program in which they have majored. Although each department or program may define additional criteria upon which it will base its recommendation, the candidate must submit a thesis or comparable work that is judged by the department or program to be of cum quality.

Distinction

Candidates eligible for a degree with Distinction must have an overall grade point average in the top 25% of their class.

INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR PROGRAM

A limited number of students who elect to do so may participate in an Independent Scholar Program, usually in the junior or senior years in lieu of a traditional major program. Participants are chosen by the four-member Faculty Committee on Academic Standing and Special Majors, which includes the Dean of Students, after nomination for the program by a member of the Faculty. Independent Scholars are free to plan a personal program of study under the direction of a tutor, chosen by the student with the advice and consent of the Committee. The tutor provides the guidance and counsel necessary to help the student attain the educational objectives he or she has set. The tutor and one or more other members of the Faculty familiar with the student’s work will ultimately assign a comprehensive grade and provide a detailed, written evaluation of the student’s performance which will become part of the individual’s formal record at Amherst College. Grades in such regular courses as the student may elect will be taken into account in assigning the comprehensive grade, and the student is eligible for a degree with Honors, as well as all other awards and distinctions. An Independent Scholar who studies away from the College may be eligible for a tuition reduction.

FIELD STUDY

The Faculty has instituted a program of Field Study under which students may pursue a course of study away from Amherst for either one or two semesters. Students are admitted to the program by the Committee on Academic Standing and Special Majors after approval of their written proposal and are assigned a Field Study Advisor chosen from the Faculty.

Upon being admitted to Field Study, students become candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Field Study, which is normally attained in four-and-one-half or five years. During the first semester in residence at Amherst after the period of Field Study, students must take a Special Topics course, normally with their Field Study Advisor, in which they draw on both their experience of Field Study and further investigation relating to it. Students may also pursue a related Special Topics course in the semester before they enter their program of Field Study.

Students pursuing a two-semester plan of Field Study will be allowed to continue after the first semester only upon providing evidence to the Committee that they are satisfactorily carrying out their program. No student shall begin study in the field later than the first semester of the senior year.

Students pursuing Field Study shall maintain themselves financially in the field, and during the period shall pay a Field Study fee of $50 to the College in lieu of tuition.

The transcript of a student who has undertaken Field Study shall include a short description and appraisal by the Field Advisor of the student’s project and of the related Special Topics course.

FIVE COLLEGE COURSES

Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts have for some time combined their academic activities in selected areas for the purpose of extending and enriching their collective educational resources. Certain specialized courses not ordinarily available at the undergraduate level are operated jointly and open to all. In addition, students in good standing at any of the five institutions may take a course, without cost, at any of the other four if the course is significantly different from any offered on their own campus and they have the necessary qualifications.

The course must have a bearing on the educational plan arranged by the student and his or her advisor. Professional, technical and vocational courses are not generally open for Five College interchange credit. Those courses accrue credit toward degrees other than the Bachelor of Arts degree which is offered at Amherst College. Individual exceptions must be approved by both advisor and Dean of the Faculty on the basis of the student’s complete academic program at the College.

The Premedical Committee reminds health preprofessional students that required courses (biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics) should normally be taken at Amherst College and not at other Five College institutions.

To enroll in a Five College course, an Amherst student must have the approval of his or her advisor and the Dean of the Faculty. Only under special circumstances will permission be granted by the advisor and the Dean of the Faculty for an Amherst student to enroll in more than two Five College courses per semester. If permission to enroll in a course is required for students of the institution at which the course is offered, students from the other Five Colleges must also obtain the instructor’s permission to enroll.

Free bus transportation among the five institutions is available for interchange students.

Students interested in such courses will find more information on the Registrar’s website. Lists of courses being offered by the other institutions are accessible there and on the other institutions’ websites.

Other aspects of Five College cooperation are described in the Student Handbook.

ACADEMIC CREDIT FROM OTHER INSTITUTIONS

Amherst College does not grant academic credit for work completed at other institutions of higher education unless it meets one of the following criteria: (1) each course offered as part of a transfer record has been completed and accepted by the College prior to matriculation at Amherst; (2) the work is part of an exchange program of study in the United States or abroad approved in advance by a Dean of Students and the Registrar; or (3) the work has been approved by the Registrar as appropriate to make up a deficiency deriving from work not completed or failed at Amherst College (see Delinquencies); (4) The work has been approved by the Registrar as appropriate to meet conditions of involuntary leave or medical withdrawal.

COOPERATIVE DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

A cooperative Doctor of Philosophy program has been established by Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts. The degree is awarded by the University of Massachusetts, but some, perhaps much—and in a few exceptional cases even all—of the work leading to the degree might be done in one or more of the other institutions.

When a student has been awarded a degree under this program, the fact that it is a cooperative doctoral degree involving Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts will be indicated on the diploma, the permanent record, and all transcripts, as well as on the commencement program.

The requirements for the degree are identical to those for the Ph.D. degree at the University of Massachusetts except for the statement relating to “residence.” For the cooperative Ph.D. degree “residence” is defined as the institution where the dissertation is being done.

Students interested in this program should write to the Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts. However, a student who wishes to work under the direction of a member of the Amherst Faculty must have the proposal approved by the Dean of the Faculty of Amherst College and by the Amherst Faculty Committee of Six.

V

COURSES OF INSTRUCTION

The most up-to-date information about the curriculum is found in the course listings on departmental websites:

https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments

or at:

https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/registar/ac_catalog

Courses of Instruction

COURSES are open to all students, subject only to the restrictions specified in the individual descriptions. Senior Honors courses, usually open only to candidates for the degree with Honors, are numbered 498 and 499, and Special Topics courses are numbered 490. All courses, unless otherwise marked, are full courses. The course numbers of double courses and half courses are followed by D or H.

SPECIAL TOPICS COURSES

Departments may offer a semester course known as Special Topics in which a student or a group of students study or read widely in a field of special interest. It is understood that this course will not duplicate any other course regularly offered in the curriculum and that the student will work in this course as independently as the director thinks possible.

Before the time of registration, the student who arranges to take a Special Topics course should consult the instructor in that particular field, who will direct the student’s work; they will decide the title to be reported, the nature of the examination or term paper, and will discuss the preparation of a bibliography and a plan of coherent study. All students must obtain final approval of the Department before registration. Two Special Topics courses may not be taken concurrently except with the prior approval of the Student’s Class Dean.

First-Year Seminars:

The Liberal Studies Curriculum

During 2012-13, Faculty members in groups of one or more will teach 28 First-Year Seminars. Every first-year student must take one of these courses during the first semester. They are open only to Amherst College first-year students.

101. The Value of Nature. Our impact on the environment has been large, and in recent decades the pace of change has clearly accelerated. Many species face extinction, forests are disappearing, and toxic wastes and emissions accumulate. The prospect of a general environmental calamity seems all too real.

This sense of crisis has spurred intense and wide-ranging debate over what our proper relationship to nature should be. This debate will be the focus of the seminar. Among the questions we shall explore will be: What obligations, if any, do we have to non-human animals, to living organisms like trees, to ecosystems as a whole, and to future generations of humans? Do animals have rights we ought to respect? Is nature intrinsically valuable or merely a bundle of utilities for our benefit? Is there even a stable notion of “what is natural” that can be deployed in a workable environmental ethic? We will investigate these and related questions with readings drawn from literature, philosophy, the social sciences and ecology.

Fall semester. Professor Moore.

102. Secrets and Lies. Politics seems almost unimaginable without secrecy and lying. From the noble lie of Plato’s Republic to the controversy about former President Clinton’s “lying” in the Monica Lewinsky case, from the use of secrecy in today’s war against terrorism to the endless spinning of political campaigns, from President John Kennedy’s behavior during the Cuban missile crisis to cover-ups concerning pedophile priests in the Catholic church, from Freud’s efforts to decode the secrets beneath civilized life to contemporary exposés of the private lives of politicians, politics and deception seem to go hand-in-hand. This course investigates how the practices of politics are informed by the keeping and telling of secrets, and the telling and exposing of lies. We will address such questions as: When, if ever, is it right to lie or to breach confidences? When is it right to expose secrets and lies? Is it necessary to be prepared to lie in order to advance the cause of justice? Or, must we do justice justly? When is secrecy really necessary and when is it merely a pretext for Machiavellian manipulation? Are secrecy and deceit more prevalent in some kinds of political systems than in others? As we explore those questions we will discuss the place of candor and openness in politics and social life; the relationship between the claims of privacy (e.g., the closeting of sexual desire) and secrecy and deception in public arenas; conspiracy theories as they are applied to politics; and the importance of secrecy in the domains of national security and law enforcement. We will examine the treatment of secrecy and lying in political theory as well as their appearance in literature and popular culture, for example Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Primary Colors, Schindler’s List and The Insider.

Fall semester. Professor Sarat.

103. Growing Up in America. How do race, social class and gender shape the experience of growing up in America? We will begin by examining the life of a contemporary African-American male on his journey from the inner city to an Ivy League university. We then look back historically at some nineteenth-century lives—male and female, real and fictional—to understand how the transition from an agricultural to an urban industrial society has influenced the experience of coming of age. The remainder of the course will center on coming of age in the twentieth century. Our focus will be on the formation of identity, relationship with parents, courtship, sexuality and the importance of place. In addition to historical, sociological and psychological texts, the class will include fiction by Horatio Alger, Ella Deloria, and James Baldwin.

Fall semester. Professor Aries.

104. Friendship. An inquiry into the nature of friendship from historical, literary, and philosophical perspectives. What are and what have been the relations between friendship and love, friendship and marriage, friendship and erotic life, friendship and age? How do men’s and women’s conceptions and experiences of friendship differ? Readings will be drawn from the following: The Epic of Gilgamesh; Plato’s Symposium and Phaedrus; selections from the Bible and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics; essays by Montaigne, Emerson, and C.S. Lewis; Mill’s On the Subjection of Women; Whitman’s poetry; Jewett’s The Country of the Pointed Firs; Morrison’s Sula; Truffaut’s Jules and Jim, and Herzog’s My Best Fiend.

Fall semester. Professor Emeritus Townsend.

105. Romanticism and the Enlightenment. The late eighteenth century is often characterized as the Age of Enlightenment, a time when educated men and women were confident that human reason was sufficient to understand the laws of nature, to improve society’s institutions, and to produce works of the imagination surpassing those of previous generations (and rivaling those of classical antiquity). The early nineteenth century brought a distrust of rationality (the Head) and an affirmation of the importance of human emotion (the Heart). “Romanticism and the Enlightenment” will test these broad generalizations by reading, looking at, and listening to some representative verbal, visual, and musical texts. Among the texts are paired and opposed works by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Benjamin Franklin, J. W. von Goethe, Voltaire, Thomas Gray, John Keats, Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Jacques Louis David, and Caspar David Friedrich. In dealing with these and other diverse texts, no special skills are required and all are welcome.

Fall semester. Professors Brandes and Guttmann.

106. Africa: Power and Representation. The right to represent oneself has always been an important piece of symbolic capital and a source of power. External representations of Africa have consistently distorted and misinterpreted the peoples and cultures of the continent. Within Africa, this right—to produce and display particular images—has been inseparable from both secular and sacred power. The discrepancy in interpretation of various images, whether these are in the form of visual objects or in the form of philosophies or concepts, has produced a misunderstanding of African institutions and art. In addition, historically the right to represent and claim one’s identity has become increasingly politicized. Control over various representations and images of Africa and things African has become contested. Using an interdisciplinary focus from the fields of art history, history and anthropology, this course will examine representations and interpretations of images of Africa both from within and from outside the continent. Ultimately we will link these various forms of power and legitimacy to consider the complexity behind the development of an idea of Africa.

Fall semester. Professor Goheen.

107. Ancient and Modern Rhetoric. This course explores the theory and practice of Greek and Roman oratory in comparison with contemporary speeches, with particular regard to those that will be delivered during the presidential campaign. Are there rules for crafting a successful speech? What does a speech reveal about the assumptions and mentality of its audience? How much do Greek and Roman oratory affect the way we construct and evaluate a speech today? Oratory will be considered both as a discipline with its own laws and practices and as a window into the values and debates that animate the public life of a people. We will do close readings of key passages and orations and analyze their rhetorical structure and argument. Assignments will include not only essays on major themes in classical rhetoric and on their reception in modern discourse, but also close readings of key passages and orations, and analysis of their rhetorical structure and argument.

Fall semester. Professor Grillo.

108. Evolution and Intellectual Revolution. The centerpiece of this course is Darwin and his book On the Origin of Species. Like all revolutionary ideas, Darwin’s theory did not appear out of nowhere and did not settle matters once and for all; therefore the course will explore the scientific context in which this work appeared and Darwin’s own intellectual background. We will read the great book itself to see what exactly Darwin had to say and how he went about saying it. Pigeons will come up. Then extracts from the writings of Darwin’s contemporaries will be used to look at the scientific, social, and theological responses to Darwin’s theory. Finally, we will consider a few of the major issues in evolution that still reverberate today.

Fall semester. Professor Martini.

109. Political Leadership. Political leadership can be a good and noble profession. But leadership can also be a position from which great damage can be done. Leadership in political life attracts various kinds of people and for various reasons. Some leaders live for politics; for them politics is a cause. Others live off politics; for those leaders politics is essentially a livelihood. Most leaders seem to enjoy the pleasures of power and influence, whether openly or hidden in their inner lives. Some leaders would refuse to trade their power even for significant wealth.

Leadership is necessary to all government—democratic, authoritarian and totalitarian governments, revolutionary movements and even terrorist networks. There seem to be certain general qualities of leadership and then there are those particular to a given type of politics. Understanding democratic leadership requires comparative thinking because it’s important to consider what democracy is not, as well as what it is. The paradox of a vibrant democracy is that it necessarily involves perpetual struggle between the people and the leaders, even if both want the public good. Citizens must be supportive yet vigilant; leaders must be effective yet accountable. Democracy is by nature self-contradictory and often frustrating, like life itself.

The course emphasizes improvement of student writing as well as an understanding of political life.

Fall semester. Professor Tiersky.

110. Art in Place and The Place of the Arts. Art is the product of the imagination, but imagination is often the product of a place. We will examine the process by which art can spring from and return to a place, whether geographically or abstractly located. In coordination with this year’s Copeland Colloquium of the same title, the course will survey the interaction of place and art from several perspectives: site-specific art, art in the community, borders and frontiers, art in the academy, and art and ecology. Each perspective will be framed by examples of established work in music, dance, theater, and film that arise from or respond to place, both locally and globally. We will also consider art being created on our own campus by Copeland fellows and Five College faculty and students. Finally, students will be given tools to work on a final creative project of their own, individual or collaborative, following the models and approaches to interaction with place that they have studied.

Fall semester. Professors Sawyer and Woodson.

111. Thinking Through Improvisation. Much of the thinking we do in college is applied to activities that involve large amounts of reworking and editing. But in many endeavors, efforts that are apparently more spontaneous are required. Thinking in improvisational modes requires several special techniques, and yet is done by virtually all of us at times. Improvisation can be used to solve emergency problems or create art at the highest levels. The preparation for successful improvisation is often enormous, but editing must occur just before the act of execution. We will explore improvisational thinking with the aid of several skilled practitioners as guest lecturers and performers. We will ask how improvisational thinking differs from other ways of thinking and how it is similar. We will inquire into the variety of techniques used in improvisation, drawing from diverse fields. We will explore the relationship between improvisation and creativity. We will learn how to naturally incorporate improvisational strategies into our explorations of the liberal arts.

Improvisation is a process not a product. It involves creating in the moment without the opportunity to edit later, instead evaluating during its execution. Improvisation is difficult, rewarding and unavoidable. It requires mastery of many automatic subroutines as raw material and extreme attention to one’s surroundings and inner voice to integrate these subroutines successfully. Improvisation is one major way of thinking. It can be routine or creative and can be practiced and learned. It requires risk-taking and courage, openness and trust. Good improvisation is strongly connected to the creative life. Improvisational skills are intrinsically multidisciplinary and can be used to advantage in many fields where they are often unacknowledged. Improvisation is also multicultural in practice. Therefore experience with improvisational thinking is essential to a complete liberal arts education.

Fall semester. Professor Poccia.

112. Thought-Experiments in Physics. As a boy Einstein famously imagined chasing a light beam on its way to a mirror and wondered if he would see his reflection in such an event. Later in life, he was struck by the conflict such a hypothetical experiment would create with other parts of experience and physical theory. This reflection (or its absence!) eventually led him to the formulation of the special theory of relativity. The kind of reasoning Einstein undertook as a boy goes by the name gedankenexperiment or thought-experiment. In fact before Einstein, different kinds of thought-experiments had been used by Galileo, Newton and Maxwell among others in their path-breaking contributions to physics. The common element in these works in the philosopher Martin Cohen’s words “is the discovery of a way of seeing the world” rather than making an observation or measurement. In this seminar we will take up the thought experiments considered by these and other physicists as a primary means of gaining some insights into aspects of space, time, motion, relativity, and gravity. We will also examine the different kinds of thought experiments and inquire into the peculiar status they have in producing knowledge or understanding.

Fall semester. Professor Jagannathan.

113. Christianity and Evolution. The recent and ongoing controversies over “Intelligent Design” and the teaching of evolution represent the tip of a large and rather interesting iceberg. Christian opposition to evolution is not new, but neither does it represent the universal report of the tradition. In fact, prior to the early twentieth-century emergence of the fundamentalist movement in the United States, attempts to reconcile Christianity and an evolutionary understanding of human beings were prominent among Christian intellectuals. This course will explore the pre-history and history of the relationship between Christianity and theories of evolution. Over the course of the semester we will explore the classical “design argument” for the existence of God, as articulated by William Paley in the early nineteenth century, attempting to understand both the content of the argument and its religious importance; pre-Darwinian attempts to construct a developmental and yet Christianity-friendly understanding of the world; Darwin’s theory of evolution and its initially positive reception in Christian circles; the Scopes Trial of 1925 and its historical context; and texts drawn from proponents and opponents of the contemporary Intelligent Design movement. Finally, we will turn briefly to recent attempts to explain religion itself using evolutionary theories.

Fall semester. Professor A. Dole.

114. Encounters with Nature. What is our place in nature? How do we feel about natural spaces we encountered growing up and how do we view the environment of Amherst College and its setting in New England? How did people in the past think about nature and how did they change their environments as a consequence? How have their ideas affected us today? And how do we imagine the future of the natural world?

This course will explore how our ideas of nature have changed over time. We will give particular attention to the ways we have recreated particular kinds of natural spaces and how we have depicted nature in images. We begin with walks in the nearby wildlife sanctuary, discussions of our past encounters with nature, a study of the Amherst Campus, and, while the weather is still warm, a hike or two. During these excursions we will discuss what we see, learn some basic drawing techniques that will help us take visual notes on the landscape, and discuss and write about how our experience with the land might differ from how people experienced it in the past. We then will explore New England further, discuss ideas about wilderness in the United States, and look closely at American landscape painting. Where do our deeply held assumptions come from? To find out, we will look at poetry, philosophy, Western traditions of landscape painting, and scientific illustration. We also will think about why people collect and draw natural specimens, and how they mapped their environments from the Renaissance through the Aztec empire to the current day.

Fall semester. Professor López.

115. Encounters with Eurasia: Russian Culture at the Frontier. From medieval times to the present, Russians have defined themselves as positioned between Western and Eastern cultural traditions, claiming for themselves a unique role in an historic “clash of civilizations.” This course closely examines influential representations, in literature and film, of Russia’s encounter with the peoples on the southern and eastern borders of Imperial, Soviet, and contemporary Russia. Beginning with the depiction of pagan “others” in the ancient chronicles and narrative poetry of early Russia’s Orthodox civilization, the course will shift focus onto the secular literature of Imperial Russia, reading the texts that shaped popular conceptions of the “natives” with whom Russians battled, traded, and incorporated into their own non-Western identity. We shall investigate the long history of Russian “Orientalism” in poems, stories, and films that powerfully imposed or challenged stereotypes of the tribal peoples of the Caucasus and Central Asia. Coming closer to the present, we shall follow the development in recent times of the concept of “Eurasianism,” which proclaims Russia to be the center of an emerging civilization that blends the races and cultures of East and West. As appropriate, the course will pause to consider comparisons and contrasts with American national expansion and the encounter with indigenous people on the North American continent. Works to be studied include Russian literary classics by Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, and Tolstoy as well as more recent Soviet and post-Soviet depictions of Russia’s “inner Asia” in film and writing.

Fall semester. Professor Peterson.

116. Genes, Genomes and Society. The sequencing of the human genome ranks as one of the most significant scientific achievements of the last century. How might we ensure that scientific progress is matched by society’s ability to use that knowledge for human betterment? Although the scientific ramifications of the genomic revolution are just beginning to be explored, major implications are already apparent in such diverse fields as philosophy, medicine and law. The course will begin with a primer on genetics and molecular biology but quickly move to consider some of the philosophical, ethical, and very practical societal concerns raised by recent genetic discoveries. We will consider such issues as the origin of humans and of human races (and are there such?), the use and potential misuse of DNA fingerprinting by governmental agencies, whether genetic information should be protected from scrutiny by insurance companies or employers, the ability of parents to screen potential offspring for a range of diseases, the creation of genetically altered plants and animals, and human gene therapy.

Fall semester. Professors Bishop and Ratner.

117. Transformative Ideas. In this course we will explore a series of ideas from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that have substantially changed the way people think about humanity. Each idea is closely associated with an author. While from year to year the ideas and thinkers will shift, for 2012 we will closely read and write about Karl Marx and Frederick Engels Communist Manifesto, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Friedrich Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals, Sigmund Freud’s The Ego and the Id, Max Weber’s essays “Science as a Vocation” and “Politics as a Vocation,” Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, Franz Kafka’s story, “In the Penal Colony,” and Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish.

Fall semester. Professor Dumm.

118. Genocide. In the last century, genocide has occurred all too often. The Holocaust is the most famous case, but it was not the first, nor has it been the last. Indeed, in your lifetime, genocide has occurred in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sudan. But just what is genocide? Why do states engage in mass murder? How do they mobilize citizens to become perpetrators? What happens to societies in the aftermath of genocide? How unique is the Holocaust as a case of genocide? And finally, what are the politics surrounding the term “genocide”? We will examine these and other questions through the in-depth study of three particular cases of genocide: the Nazi murder of Jews and other groups during World War II, Pol Pot’s massacre of Cambodians in the 1970s, and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Professors Boucher, Epstein, and Redding.

119. Happiness. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson breaks with John Locke’s emphasis on “life, liberty and property” and instead asserts that the basic rights (“inalienable”) of humans are “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” In this bold move, Jefferson placed “happiness” at the core of the political and personal concern. We will examine in this seminar how we define, measure, and attempt to generate and maintain happiness. Our examination will serve as an introduction to the many methods of inquiry and articulation available at the College. We will read, discuss and write about written texts from philosophy, political science, history, literature, psychology and economics. We will watch, discuss and write about films from different eras that demonstrate examples of “happiness.” In addition, we will undertake exercises that will allow students to become mindful of their own well-being and will allow them to have direct experiences of the issues we address.

Professor Barbezat.

120. Imagining the Past. How do we imagine the past, and how does that imagining inform our understanding of the present? What can we learn by studying literature and art that takes the (historical or personal) past as its topic? This course examines the intersections between the historical past (especially the medieval past) and modes of imaginative representation, especially the literary text. We will read literature by Shakespeare, Chaucer, and others; visit the Mead Art Museum on campus; and examine the “Prince Valiant” archives in Frost Library to think about how literature, art, and history interact with each other. The course will conclude with a conference in which students present creative projects that demonstrate how they imagine their own past, whether cultural, personal, or familial.

Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Nelson.

121. Pariscape: Imagining Paris in the Twentieth Century. Paris has been for centuries one of the exemplary sites of our urban sensibility, a city that has indelibly and controversially influenced the twentieth-century imagination. Poets, novelists and essayists, painters, photographers and film-makers: all have made use of Paris and its cityscape to examine relationships among technology, literature, city planning, art, social organizations, politics and what we might call the urban imagination. This course will study how these writers and visual artists have seen Paris, and how, through their representations, they created and challenged the “modernist” world view.

In order to discover elements of a common memory of Paris, we will study a group of writers (Apollinaire, Calvino, Stein, Hemingway and others), philosophers and social commentators (Simmel, Benjamin, Barthes), filmmakers (Clair, Truffaut, Tati and others), photographers (Atget) and painters (DeChirico, Picasso, Delaunay, and others). Finally, we will look at how such factors as tourism, print media, public works, immigration and suburban development affect a city’s simultaneous and frequently uncomfortable identity as both a geopolitical and an imaginative site.

Fall semester. Professor Rosbottom.

122. Strange Russian Writers. We will read tales of rebels, deviants, dissidents, loners and losers in some of the weirdest fictions in Russian literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The writers, most of whom imagine themselves to be every bit as bizarre as their heroes, will include Kharms, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Saltykov, Sukhovo-Kobylin, Olesha, Erdman, Babel, Nabokov, Platonov, Tertz, and others. Their enigmatic masterpieces foreground the authors’ attempts to redefine the very idea of what art can do, and so to reshape the relationship between text and experience. Our goal, then, will be less to construct a canon of strangeness than to consider closely how estranged women, men, animals, and objects become the center of narrative attention. The “strangeness” of these texts—their unorthodox uses of character, motivation, plot, and genre—will help attune us to the less visible strategies of more familiar kinds of writing. Our discussions, student presentations, screenings of several films that engage with the texts we read, visits to the Mead Art Museum, the Frost Library and the Amherst Center for Russian Culture, and frequent short writing assignments, some of which will entail substantial revision of earlier work in the course, will provoke alert observation of how literary works are constructed and what effects they produce.

Fall semester. Professor Ciepiela.

123. Reading Serially. When we think of a novel, we usually think of a book: a single bound volume that we read from cover to cover. But in the nineteenth century, novels were published in a variety of different formats, from multi-volume “triple-deckers” to even smaller weekly or monthly parts. Reading a novel in parts meant devouring a few chapters at a time and waiting weeks to find out what would happen next, and it also meant living with characters for a very long time. In this seminar, we will read like the Victorians. The focus of our course will be Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, originally published in 20 monthly installments in 1852-53. Reading the novel in parts and making frequent trips to the archives to see it in its original form, we will ask: How does an understanding of serial publication change the way we see not only Bleak House, but also the novel as a genre? And finally, how do changes in technology, the marketplace, and literary form change the experience of reading itself?

To bring serial reading and Victorian culture to life, we will read Dickens alongside other fiction published in the same year and that nineteenth-century readers would have been reading simultaneously. How does Bleak House compare, for instance, to the sensational “penny dreadfuls” of the 1850s? What makes one work canonical and the other “merely” popular? Finally, we will consider modern versions of seriality by tracing a favorite TV show, blog, or graphic novel throughout the semester.

Fall semester. Visiting Professor Christoff.

124. Vienna around 1900: Cradle of Modernity. This course explores the “joyful apocalypse” of fin-de-siècle Vienna, where brilliant artistic creativity emerged in a volatile multi-ethnic Empire teetering on the verge of collapse. We shall examine how and why the city became the birthplace of many ideas on gender, sexuality, class, and ethnicity that continue to be relevant today. We shall explore artistic experimentation in literature (Schnitzler, Hofmannsthal, Musil, Kraus), music (Mahler, Schönberg), and the visual arts (Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, O. Wagner, A. Loos). We shall trace the various forces that sought to respond to a pervasive sense of crisis: the emergence of new, often irrational, forms of mass politics; the psychoanalysis of Freud; the skeptical philosophies of Ernst Mach and Ludwig Wittgenstein; the pacifism of Bertha von Suttner; and the emergence of modern Zionism (Theodor Herzl) in a context of a growing anti-Semitism that shaped Hitler’s irrational worldview. And we shall discuss how fin-de-siècle Vienna became a breeding ground for many of the social, cultural, and political forces that characterize modernity to this day.

Fall semester. Professor Rogowski.

125. Space and Place. This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of physical space and the sense of belonging we call place. The organizing principle of the course is the expanding circle; we will begin with the individual, then move to the home and family, the city, the nation, and end with the globe as a whole. We will cover a range of topics along the way, including memory, narrative, representation, nationalism, borders, exile, imperialism, and globalization. Works include Gaston Bachelard’s phenomenology of space, Benedict Anderson’s classic Imagined Communities, contemporary critical geography, the 1920s film genre of the “city symphony,” with works by Ruttmann, Vertov, and Vigo, and novels by a diverse array of nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers, including E. M. Forster, Joseph Conrad, and Tayeb Salih. We will approach this material from a liberal arts perspective, which will give students exposure to a wide variety of perspectives in the humanities and social sciences.

Fall semester. Professor Van Compernolle

126. Privacy. In the age of the internet, do we have any privacy anymore? More to the point, do we want it? In this seminar we will examine the idea of “privacy” and the values protected by it, exploring how the very idea of the “private” developed and how it has been represented in culture in shifting ways. Broadly stated, the “right to privacy” can be understood as a “right to be let alone.” But that language of rights tends to universalize and decontextualize a concept that has a traceable history and that exists within particular social landscapes. Drawing upon novels and films, historical studies, philosophical texts, legal cases, and political/cultural debates, we will consider, for example, the relation between privacy and property rights, the emergence and development of individual self-consciousness, the conflict between sexual privacy and state police powers, and the redefinition of privacy through technology. Who has the privilege of privacy, and how does access to privacy inflect social identity? How and why does law either protect or puncture private spaces in liberal democracies? Given the power and the lure of technology in contemporary society, has the idea of privacy been emptied of meaning?

Fall semester. Professor Umphrey.

127. Things Matter. We are surrounded by things that mean something—the objects we place by our bedsides, the pictures we tack on our walls, the books and DVDs we set on our shelves, even the foods we keep in our cupboards. To the unwitting passerby, these things might mean differently or they might appear to mean nothing at all. But in fact we know that, in the space of a house or a dorm room, a subculture, or a nation, things matter. Objects tell stories; images reveal histories; favorite television shows represent tastes; movies incite emotions. Through readings in literature, poetry, autobiography, and philosophy and through screenings of films and television, this seminar will explore the meaning of things in our everyday lives. How do things matter? What do they mean? And how do we describe the ineffable quality of stuff?

Fall semester. Professor Hastie.

128. Race and Racialization in the United States. In this course, we will investigate the cultural meanings and social consequences of the categories of race and ethnicity in the United States. We will explore the historical production of modern conceptions of racial and ethnic difference by investigating the role of these ideas in producing “scientific” knowledge, nation-building, and capitalist accumulation. We will track the changing “common sense” ideas about race and ethnicity over the past two centuries. The material in this course covers a variety of theoretical approaches to the study of race and ethnicity. The course begins with an examination of both classical and more contemporary sociological perspectives on race-ethnic stratification including assimilation, pluralism, class theory, and racial formation theory. Attention is given to the shifting boundaries of race and ethnicity, the construction of ethnic and racial identities, research on prejudice and racial attitudes, race and gender intersectionality, and the urban poverty-segregation debate. Inequality in education, work, and wealth are also covered, and the course ends with an overview of immigrants and the changing racial/ethnic landscape in the United States. Rather than focusing at length on any one racial or ethnic category, we will focus on analytical frameworks, such as biological determinism, historical materialism, and fantasy, to promote comparisons and connections between cases of racialization at different historical moments. We will also investigate how globalization has altered the dynamics of race and racism in American society. The interdisciplinary design of the seminar encourages critical thinking about the complex ways that race and ethnicity shape scientific knowledge, material realities, social interactions, and personal experiences.

Fall semester. Professor Basler.

American Studies

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

Professors Clark, Couvares, Dizard†, Ferguson, Guttmann, Levin, Sánchez-Eppler (Chair), and K. Sweeney; Associate Professor Brooks; Assistant Professors Basler, Hayashi and Vigil; Five College Assistant Professor Reddy.

The core premise of American Studies is disarmingly simple: no discipline or perspective can satisfactorily encompass the diversity and variation that have marked American society and culture from the very beginning. This premise invites majors to craft their own distinctive way of coming to terms with America. Some will favor sociological, historical or economic interpretations; others will be drawn to literary or visual modes of interpretation. However individual majors fashion their courses of study, each major engages with one or more of the department’s faculty in an ongoing discussion of what is entailed in the study of American society. This discussion culminates in the choice of a topic for the senior essay. The topic may emerge organically from the courses a major has selected or it may arise out of a passionate engagement with a work of fiction, a curiosity about a historical event, or a desire to understand the persistence of a social problem. Whatever the substantive focus, the senior essay affords majors the opportunity to reflect on what they have learned, refine their analytic and expository skills, and put all this to the test of making sense of some aspect of American society and culture. The diversity of course selections available to majors ensures that they gain a heightened awareness of the history and present state of the peoples and social forces which constitute American society. Race, class, ethnicity and gender figure centrally in our courses, whether they are treated historically, sociologically or aesthetically. Majoring in American Studies offers students great latitude as well as the opportunity to work closely with a faculty advisor in the senior year on a specific topic.

Major Program. The Department of American Studies assists the student through the following requirements and advising program:

Requirements: AMST 111 and 112 are required of all majors. Students may also fulfill this requirement by taking AMST 111 or AMST 112 twice when the topic changes. In addition, all majors will take AMST 468, the junior Seminar, and, in the senior year, AMST 498 and 499 in order to write an interdisciplinary essay on an aspect of American experience. Ideally, majors take these courses in order, but study abroad or other contingencies may make this impossible in individual cases.

Students also take seven other courses about American society and culture. At least three of these courses should be in one department or concentrated on a single theme. At least three of the seven courses should be devoted largely to the study of a period before the twentieth century. Since the topics of AMST 111 and 112 change frequently, majors may take more than two of these courses and count the third as one of the seven electives and/or one of the courses concentrated on America before the twentieth century.

Advising: In response to the range of the majors’ individual preferences and interest, departmental advisors are available for regular consultation. The advisor’s primary function is to aid the student in the definition and achievement of his or her own educational goals.

Departmental Honors Program. All majors must complete the requirements outlined above. Recommendations for Latin Honors are made on the basis of the senior essay produced during the independent work of the senior year.

Evaluation. There is no single moment of comprehensive evaluation in the American Studies major. The Department believes that fulfillment of the course requirements, combined with the writing of a senior essay, provides adequate grounds for a fair assessment of a major’s achievement.

For related courses, see offerings in the study of America in the Departments of Art and the History of Art; Black Studies; Economics; English; Environmental Studies; History; Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought; Political Science; Religion; Sociology; Theater and Dance; and Women’s and Gender Studies.

111. Global Valley. Drawing on a wide range of primary materials, and taking advantage of the ease of visiting the sites of many of the topics we study, this course offers an introduction to American Studies through an exploration of the Connecticut River Valley that stresses both the fascination of detailed local history and the economic, political, social, and cultural networks that tie this place to the world. Topics may include conflicts and accommodations between Native peoples and English settlers; changing uses of land and resources; 17th century witchcraft trials; the American Revolution and Shays rebellion; religious revivalism of the Great Awakening; abolitionist and other 19th century reform movements; tourism and the scenic including Thomas Cole’s famous painting of the oxbow; immigration, industrialization and deindustrialization, especially in the cities of Holyoke and Springfield; educational institutions and innovations; the cold war, the reach of the “military industrial complex” into local educational institutions, and “the bunker”; the sanctuary movement; feminist and gay activism; present environmental, mass incarceration, and other social equity issues; and of course, Emily Dickinson’s poetry.

Limited to 20 students per section. Fall semester. Professors Couvares, Hayashi, and K. Sanchez-Eppler.

112. The City: New York. This course will explore the imagined and conflicted experience of urban life in the United States through study of the country’s first metropolis: New York. Drawing on primary materials—maps, memoirs, film, poetry, fiction, census data, the natural and the built environment—and a selection of secondary sources, we will encounter moments in the life of the city from the 17th into the 21st century. This semester there will be special focus on the physical city: parks and amusement parks, cemeteries, bridges, housing, skyscrapers, and the public art of memorials.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Clark.

120. Writing Ourselves into Existence: Politics, Culture, and Rhetoric. Using the process of writing to uncover the relationship between literary study and history, and as a means for self-discovery, students will read a variety of texts, such as: Meridian by Alice Walker, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldua, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. They will then write and revise their responses to these readings through a series of weekly writing assignments, peer-workshops, and informal presentations. Additionally, our discussions and writing assignments will be driven by three essential questions: First, how do we uncover and reveal ourselves through the act of writing? Second, how might we also conceal something about ourselves through our rhetorical choices? And third, how might research and non-fiction academic writing relate to the construction of fictional narratives? These questions, among others related to the study of genre, narrative, and language, will be generated and examined in this seminar in an attempt to bring craft (form) into conversation with research (content).

This is a Writing Intensive course and also discussion based. We will focus on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. Students will work closely with their peers, the instructor, and the Writing Center at Amherst, to develop their written prose. Also, because our approaches to writing will be driven by methodologies used by American Studies scholars, primary and secondary readings will be drawn from a wide-variety of genres and academic disciplines including English and History, as well as Ethnic Studies.

Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Professor Vigil.

215. The Embodied Self in American Culture and Society. (Offered as AMST 215 and ANTH 111) “The Embodied Self” in American Culture and Society is an interdisciplinary, historically organized study of American perceptions of and attitudes towards the human body in a variety of media, ranging from medical and legal documents to poetry and novels, the visual arts, film, and dance. Among the topics to be discussed are the physical performance of gender; the social construction of the ideal male and female body; health reform movements; athletic achievement as an instrumentalization of the body; commercialization of physical beauty in the fitness and fashion industries; eating disorders as cultural phenomena; the interminable abortion controversy; the equally interminable conflict over pornography and the limits of free speech; and adaptations to the possibility of serious illness and to the certainty of death.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Guttmann.

221. Building Community. This course investigates the practice and ideal of community in America both on a national and a local level, asking students to engage in specific projects aimed at strengthening the public sphere and fostering community life. We will consider the nature and limits of democracy, the meaning of belonging, the experience of stigma and exclusion, the concepts of civic responsibility and public discourse, and the conflict and compromises inherent in political advocacy. This course will pay particular attention to the struggles of often-marginalized groups to build healthy and just communities. Coursework will include contemporary and historical case studies, literary depictions, and more theoretical readings, as well as a substantial commitment to the development and fulfillment of projects that assess or respond to contemporary concerns. Projects may range from youth work, to cultural events, to work on local policy goals, environmental, poverty and rights initiatives, or the 2012 elections.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor K. Sánchez-Eppler and Ms. Mead, Director of the Center for Community Engagement.

232. Racialization in the U.S.: The Asian/Pacific/American Experience. This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to Asian/Pacific/American Studies. We will begin by looking at the founding of the field through the student-led social movements of the 1960s and ask ourselves how relevant these origins have been to the subsequent development of the field. We will then use questions that arise from this material to guide our overview of the histories, cultures, and communities that make up the multiplicity of Asian/Pacific America. Topics will include, but not be limited to, the racialization of Asian Americans through immigrant exclusion and immigration law; the role of U.S. imperialism and global geo-politics in shaping migration from Asia to the U.S., the problems and possibilities in a pan-ethnic label like A/P/A, interracial conflict and cooperation, cultural and media representations by and about Asian Americans, diaspora, and homeland politics. In addition, throughout the semester we will practice focusing on the relationships between race, gender, class, sexuality, and nation. The ultimate goal of the course is to develop a set of analytic tools that students can then use for further research and inquiry.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Five College Professor Reddy.

235. Racialization in the U.S.: Immigration Nation. This interdisciplinary course defines, analyzes and interrogates processes of U.S. racial formation with a particular focus on immigration, immigrant communities and the question of immigrant rights. We will begin by examining both race and racism as elements in the historical process of “racialization,” and proceed by positing racialization as the key to understanding the political, economic, social and cultural dynamics of the United States. Our focus on immigration will begin in the late nineteenth century and follow through to the present day. It will include an outline of the basic patterns of migration to the United States; the role that empire has played in creating these flows; the relationship between immigration, racialization and nation-state formation; questions of naturalization, citizenship and family reunification; immigrant labor; “illegal” immigrants; nativism and anti-immigration movements; the relationships between gender, sexuality, race, class and nation; and diaspora/transnationalism. Throughout we will pay specific attention to the shape of contemporary debates about immigration and their relationship to the histories we consider.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Reddy.

236. From Civil Rights to Immigrant Rights: The Politics of Race, Nation and Migration Since World War II. (Offered as AMST 236 and ASLC 292.) This course centers ongoing struggles for social justice and liberation as a means for investigating the landscape of U.S. social formation in what many term the “post-civil rights” era. Our inquiry will begin with the youth-led movements of the late 1960s and 1970s and move through to the present day. Topics will include questions of empire, the criminalization of radical movements, the prison industrial complex, the “war on drugs,” the diversification of immigration to the United States, struggles over citizenship, migrant labor, and immigrant detention and deportation. Throughout we will pay attention to the relationships between hierarchies of gender, sexuality, race, class and nation and specific attention to the shape of contemporary debates about the issues we examine.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Five College Professor Reddy.

240. Rethinking Pocahontas: An Introduction to Native American Studies. From Longfellow’s Hiawatha and D.H. Lawrence’s Studies in Classic American Literature to Disney’s Pocahontas and James Cameron’s Avatar, representations of the indigenous as “Other” have greatly shaped cultural production in America as vehicles for defining the nation and the self. This interdisciplinary course introduces students to the broad field of Native American Studies, engaging a range of texts from law to policy to history and literature as well as music and aesthetics. Film and literary texts in particular will provide primary grounding for our inquiries. By keeping popular culture, representation, and the nature of historical narrative in mind, we will consider the often mutually constitutive relationship between American identity and Indian identity as we pose the following questions: How have imaginings of a national space and national culture by Americans been shaped by a history marked by conquest and reconciliation with indigenous peoples? And, how has the creation of a national American literary tradition often defined itself as both apart from and yet indebted to Native American cultural traditions? This course also considers how categories like race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and religion have contributed to discussions of citizenship and identity, and changed over time with particular attention to specific Native American individuals and tribal nations. Students will be able to design their own final research project that may focus on either a historically contingent or contemporary issue related to Native American people in the United States.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Vigil.

358. Indigenous American Epics. (Offered as ENGL 458 and AMST 358.) [before 1800] This course will delve deeply into the literature and history of “Turtle Island,” or North America. The Quiché Maya Popol Vuh (Council Book), the Iroquois Great Law, and the Wabanaki creation cycle are rooted in longstanding, complex oral narratives of emergence and transformation, which were recorded by Native authors and scribes. We will close read these epics (in English) as works of “ancient American” literature, as narratives of tribal history, and as living constitutions of tribal governance. We will study the tribally and regionally-specific contexts of these epic narratives as well as the “intellectual trade routes” that link them together. The course will conclude with an epic narrative of more recent colonial history, composed by the nineteenth-century Pequot author William Apess, born in the Connecticut River valley. Following an interdisciplinary American studies approach, our reading will be enriched by guest speakers and artistic media.

Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Brooks.

360. Public Art and Collective Memory in the United States. (Offered as AMST 360, ARCH 359, and ARHA 360.) What is public art and what role does it play in public life and collective memory in the United States? In this course we will study art that is commissioned, paid for, and owned by the state as well as private works scaled to public encounter. A focus of our study will be the evolution of public art in Washington, D.C. (19th-21st centuries), but we will range from New York harbor to the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Great Salt Lake, and we will discuss the fate of works that, like Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc, exist today only in photographic record and documented debate. Asking whether and how public art mediates between private and public life will guide us to consider when and how it defines national or local values and why so many public art projects have aroused controversy. The course is organized around class discussion and student presentations, and it includes short papers and a paper/presentation of an independent research project. Two meetings per week.

Requisite: One course in American Studies, History, or the History of Art. Limited to 20 students. Permission required for first-year students. Spring semester. Professor Clark.

390. Special Topics. Fall and spring semesters.

468. Research Methods in American Culture. (Offered as AMST 468 and ENGL 470.) This course is designed to provide American Studies juniors (and others) with a methodological grounding in the discipline and an opportunity to write a research paper on a topic of their own choosing. We will engage a wide range of materials and methodologies in this course in order to grasp the broad interdisciplinarity of the field of American Studies. Through short written exercises addressing a variety of documents including manuscripts, journals, census records, images and printed books, students will gauge the utility of various methodological approaches to determine which are most useful for their own independent work. The major requirement of this course is a research paper, approximately 20-25 pages in length, that will be due at the end of the semester.

Limited to 20 students. Open to juniors and seniors as a research seminar; underclassmen admitted under special circumstances. Spring semester. Professor Hayashi.

490. Special Topics. Fall and spring semesters.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Fall semester.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Spring semester.

Anthropology and Sociology

*On leave 2012-13.

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

Professors Dizard†, Gewertz, Goheen, Himmelstein, and Lembo (Chair); Associate Professors C. Dole* and Fong; Assistant Professors Basler, Chowdhury, and Holleman; Keiter Fellow and Assistant Professor Mun; and Five College Assistant Professor Klarich.

The Anthropology and Sociology program is committed to familiarizing students with the systematic analysis of culture and social life. While anthropology once tended to focus on pre-industrial peoples and sociology on peoples in industrial societies, both disciplines are now thoroughly involved in understanding the contemporary, globalizing world—albeit through the use of somewhat distinctive methodologies. Moreover, both disciplines share a common theoretical and epistemological history such that insights garnered from one are relevant to the other.

Major Program. Students will major in either Anthropology or Sociology (though a combined major is, under special circumstances, possible). Anthropology majors will normally take ANTH 112 and 323, ANTH 113 or 332, and at least one Sociology course. In addition, majors will take at least four additional Anthropology electives. Sociology majors will normally take SOCI 112, 315, and 316 and at least one Anthropology course. In addition, majors will take at least four additional Sociology electives. Candidates for degrees with Departmental Honors will include ANTH/SOCI 498 and 499 in addition to the other major requirements.

Majors fulfill the department’s comprehensive examination by getting a grade of B or better in the relevant theory course (ANTH 323 or SOCI 315). Those who fail to do so will write a paper on a topic in theory set by the Department.

Anthropology

110. Exploring Human Diversity: An Introduction to Anthropology and Sociology. (Offered as ANTH 110 and SOCI 110.) The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to the central concepts and themes in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology. Anthropology and sociology emerged as distinct modes of inquiry in 19th-century Europe in response to several centuries of disorienting change. Monarchies were collapsing, economies were industrializing, modern science was emerging, and democratic aspirations were rising. Alongside this flux, Europe’s imperial reach had revealed a mind-boggling variety of cultures, each ordered and disordered in dramatically different ways. In this context, it is not surprising that two questions became urgent: Why do some societies change while others appear to be unchanging? When a society undergoes change, how does social order get re-established? These classic questions have long since been reframed to confront a fundamental challenge that we live with today: Why do people do what they do, and why do different people do things differently? This course is intended to introduce students to the ways anthropologists and sociologists continue to grapple with these critical questions. While the course will touch upon classic works from the two disciplines, it will largely focus on the ways these questions have given rise to new and often surprising answers. In exploring the ways humans make sense of and produce unique social worlds, the course will highlight points of convergence and divergence in regard to theory, formulation of research problems, and methods within the two disciplines.

Not open to students who have taken ANTH 111 or SOCI 111. Limited to 70 students. Omitted 2012-13.

111. The Embodied Self in American Culture and Society. (Offered as AMST 215 and ANTH 111) “The Embodied Self” in American Culture and Society is an interdisciplinary, historically organized study of American perceptions of and attitudes towards the human body in a variety of media, ranging from medical and legal documents to poetry and novels, the visual arts, film, and dance. Among the topics to be discussed are the physical performance of gender; the social construction of the ideal male and female body; health reform movements; athletic achievement as an instrumentalization of the body; commercialization of physical beauty in the fitness and fashion industries; eating disorders as cultural phenomena; the interminable abortion controversy; the equally interminable conflict over pornography and the limits of free speech; and adaptations to the possibility of serious illness and to the certainty of death.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Guttmann.

112. Sociocultural Anthropology. An examination of theory and method in social anthropology as applied in the analysis of specific societies. The course will focus on case studies of societies from different ethnographic areas.

Fall semester. Professor Gewertz.

113. Evolution and Culture. This course concentrates on the role of culture in evolutionary perspective, regarding it as the distinctive adaptive mode of humanity. Drawing on the materials of primatology, paleontology, archaeology, the prehistoric record as well as cultural studies, the primary emphasis will be on the relations among biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors in human evolution and human life. The focus is primarily on the role of culture in human evolution, and aspects of culture that make humans unique.

Limited to 50 students. Spring semester. Professor Goheen.

215. Anthropology of Education. This course looks at the meanings and purposes of various kinds of educational practices, policies, and discourses in schools, families, and social organizations, and how they affect and are affected by social processes and power relationships, in the U.S. and in several other countries. We will consider the effects of particular kinds of educational discourses, experiences, policies, and practices on students’ academic achievements, preparation for particular kinds of work, and understandings, practices, and experiences of citizenship, nationalism, race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic stratification.

Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professor Fong.

218. Anthropology of Transnational Migration. This course looks at how and why people move from one country to another, what they experience as they migrate, how they are changed by what they experience, how they decide when and whether to return to their countries of origin, and how their transnational journeys affect the countries they migrate between. We will also consider the kinds of policies and practices that might improve the experiences of transnational migrants and the people they interact with during and after their time in other countries. We will look not only at the experiences of immigrants in the U.S., but also at various other kinds of transnational migrants, such as immigrants in other countries besides the U.S., and U.S. citizens as well as citizens of other countries who leave their own countries to study, work, do business, engage in tourism, and/or seek dating and marriage partners in other countries.

Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Professor Fong.

220. Collecting the Past: Art and Artifacts of the Ancient Americas. Early European explorers, modern travelers, collectors, curators, and archaeologists have contributed to the development of ancient Latin American collections in museums across the globe. This course traces the history of these collecting practices and uses recent case studies to demonstrate how museums negotiate—successfully and unsuccessfully—the competing interests of scholars, donors, local communities, and international law. Students will learn how archaeologists study a variety of artifact types within museum collections and will have the opportunity to conduct independent research projects using pre-Columbian pottery and textile collections from the Mead Museum at Amherst College.

Limited to 18 students. Spring semester. Five College Assistant Professor Klarich.

222. Anthropology of Religion. A survey of anthropological and sociological theories concerning religion’s role in human life. The course will examine a range of questions social scientists have asked about religion. What is religion from an anthropological or sociological point of view? Does it have social or cultural functions that account for its near ubiquity? To what extent is the concept of rationality useful or a hindrance in understanding religion? Is rationality itself culturally relative? The course will consider classical and contemporary approaches to questions such as these.

Limited to 50 students. Omitted 2012-13.

224. Archaeological Method, Theory and Practice. This course focuses on the theoretical foundations of archaeological research, the variety of methods available to analyze material culture, the interpretation of results, and ethical considerations of practicing archaeology in the United States and abroad. Course provides students with a solid foundation for evaluating and contextualizing current methodological and theoretical trends within archaeology. Case studies illustrate the diversity of archaeological thought, interdisciplinary approaches to studying material culture, and innovative directions in the field of anthropological archaeology. Discussions of practice will address the roles and responsibilities of archaeologists in heritage management, museum development, and community outreach.

Omitted 2012-13.

226. African Cultures and Societies. (Offered as ANTH 226 and BLST 216 [A].) This course explores the cultural meaning of indigenous African institutions and societies. Through the use of ethnographies, novels and films, we will investigate the topics of kinship, religion, social organization, colonialism, ethnicity, nationalism and neocolonialism. The principal objective is to give students an understanding of African society that will enable them better to comprehend current issues and problems confronting African peoples and nations.

Limited to 50 students. Spring semester. Professor Goheen.

230. Ethnographic Methods. This course will explore ethnographic field methods and techniques as well as the epistemological, political and ethical debates about them. In order to explore various approaches to writing an ethnographic text, students will read excerpts from classic ethnographies and full-length contemporary ethnographies; discuss content, method, and style of each piece; and examine the connections between theory and method. Students will gain an understanding of differing approaches to fieldwork and analysis and discuss the broader ethical and theoretical implications of each approach. Issues to be discussed will include: the politics of representation; power, ethics, and fieldwork; feminist methodology; “insider” critiques of anthropological knowledge; and Participatory Action Research (PAR) approaches, among other topics. Students will gain first-hand ethnographic experience and apply what they learn as they engage in ethnographic fieldwork throughout the course and produce a written ethnographic project.

Requisite: ANTH 112. Not open to first-year students. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Araujo.

235. Global Markets and Local Cultures. This course is an introduction to anthropological approaches to the study of economic globalization. We will discuss the socioeconomic transformation of cultures around the globe, with special attention to the interconnections between market-based economic change and the processes of colonialism and its legacies; the construction of a global economy; nationalism and the formation of nation-states; conceptions and consequences of the rise of “development”; the existence of local economic forms; the globalization of popular culture and consumerism; migration; commodity production; new social movements and the impact of global financial institutions and non-governmental organizations. The focus will be on how residents of the Global South and postcolonial societies respond to the impact of global institutions and market forms. The course is divided into three thematic sections which consist of: 1) The Age of Empire (1850-1945): Colonialism and the Construction of a Global Economy; 2) The Age of Development and State-Building (1945-1979); and 3) The Age of Deregulation and the New Globalisms (1979-present).

Requisite: ANTH 112. Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Araujo.

236. The Ethnography of Latin America. This course is an overview of the processes of social, economic, and cultural change in Latin America. While focusing on the present, we will discuss the impacts of the colonial encounter and the social, cultural, and economic relations established during the colonial era. We pay particular attention to the construction of racial difference, class formation, agrarian structures, ethnic identity, gender patterns, political conflict, and national and regional economic policy. The course examines the impacts of the processes of nation-building, development, urbanization, migration, transnationalism and political conflict in Latin America with a focus on the emergence of Latin American social movements during the second half of the twentieth century. The course will focus on case studies drawn from Mexico, Central and South America.

Requisite: ANTH 112. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Araujo.

241. Visual Anthropology. (Offered as ANTH 241 and FAMS 378.) This course will explore and evaluate various visual genres, including photography, ethnographic film and museum presentation as modes of anthropological analysis—as media of communication facilitating cross-cultural understanding. Among the topics to be examined are the ethics of observation, the politics of artifact collection and display, the dilemma of representing non-Western “others” through Western media, and the challenge of interpreting indigenously produced visual depictions of “self” and “other.”

Requisite: ANTH 110. Limited to 12 students. Spring semester. Professor Gewertz.

245. Medical Anthropology. The aim of this course is to introduce the ways that medical anthropologists understand illness, suffering, and healing as taking shape amidst a complex interplay of biological, psychological, social, political-economic, and environmental processes. The course is designed to engage a broad range of medical anthropology topics, theoretical approaches, and research techniques by examining case studies concerned with such issues as chronic illness and social suffering, ritual and religious forms of healing, illness and inequality, medicalization, the global AIDS crisis, the social life of new medical technologies, and the politics of global health and humanitarian intervention. A basic premise of the course is that an understanding of illness, health, and the body requires an understanding of the contexts in which they are experienced, contexts contingently shaped by interwoven processes of local, national, and global significance. Particular emphasis will thus be placed on ethnographic approaches to the lived context in which illness and other forms of suffering are experienced, narrated, and addressed. Our focus will be comparative, treating illness, suffering, and healing in a range of societies and settings—from Haiti to China, from urban Brazil to rural Nepal, from the townships of South Africa to genetic labs in the United States.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor C. Dole.

251. Anthropology of Natural Wealth. From diamonds and bananas to coca and coal, natural wealth as commodities have shaped the way we think of global connections from early colonial encounters to the present. They are signs of the legacies of colonial exploitation as well as the seemingly infinite reach of global capital. Yet, anthropology of the politics around these commodities—that is, a critical understanding of the places of their production, extraction and exchange, along with the people whose lives are intimately tied to these processes—has also brought to the fore the provocative and often unpredictable ways in which the politics of natural resources has generated new forms of resistances, cultural practices and social worlds. They are pivots around which nations are being imagined, states are being legitimated, and nature itself is being redefined. This course will examine anthropological literature on the politics and practices around natural wealth. Drawing on examples from varied cultural contexts, such as the petroleum boom in Nigeria, the occult practices of tin miners in Colombia, coffee-drinking in American households, or the coal mining communities in South Africa, among others, this course aims to understand the social and political lives of natural resources and how they help us to conceptually approach colonialism, capitalism and globalization.

Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professor Chowdhury.

315. Inequalities in Contemporary China. (Offered as ANTH 315 and ASLC 315 [C].) This course examines various factors that produce inequality in mainland China, such as age, generation, gender, ethnicity, education, income, work, differences between rural and urban areas within China, and differences between China and developed countries. We will look at how Chinese citizens, state leaders, and media producers understand, portray, and produce such inequalities, and at how Chinese individuals and families try to improve their positions in the hierarchies created by such inequalities. Students will work in teams to conduct original research about particular kinds of inequalities in China, drawing on data from the instructor’s research projects. Each team will consist of at least one student experienced in statistical analysis who will analyze English-language survey data, at least one student with Chinese language skills who will translate and analyze Chinese-language interview questions and responses, and several students without Chinese language skills or statistical analysis skills who will analyze the English-language scholarly literature on particular kinds of inequality in China. It is expected that most students in this class will not have Chinese language skills or statistical analysis skills, and these skills are not required for admission to or success in the course.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Fong.

318. Contemporary Chinese Childrearing. (Offered as ANTH 318 and ASLC 318 [C].) This course examines contemporary Chinese childrearing, focusing primarily on childrearing in mainland China, but also looking for comparative purposes at childrearing among other Chinese populations, such as those in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United States. We will look at differences as well as similarities between childrearing in Chinese families of different socioeconomic statuses within China, as well as between childrearing in Chinese families and non-Chinese families. We will also look at dominant discourses within and outside of China about the nature of Chinese childrearing and ask about relationships between those discourses and the experiences of Chinese families. Students will work in teams to conduct original research about particular kinds of inequalities in China, drawing on data from the instructor’s research projects. Each team will consist of at least one student experienced in statistical analysis who will analyze English-language survey data, at least one student with Chinese language skills who will translate and analyze Chinese-language interview questions and responses, and several students without Chinese language skills or statistical analysis skills who will analyze the English-language scholarly literature on childrearing in China. It is expected that most students in this class will not have Chinese language skills or statistical analysis skills, and these skills are not required for admission to or success in the course.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Fong.

323. History of Anthropological Theory. A general survey of writings that have played a leading role in shaping the modern fields of cultural and social anthropology. Beginning with a discussion of the impact of Darwin and the discoveries at Brixham Cave on mid-nineteenth century anthropology, the course surveys the theories of the late-nineteenth-century cultural evolutionists. It then turns to the role played by Franz Boas and his students and others in the advent and later development of cultural anthropology in the U.S. Readings of Durkheim and Mauss will provide the foundation for a discussion of the development of British social anthropology, French structuralism, and Bourdieu’s theory of social practice. The course will conclude with a discussion of recent controversies concerning the work of a key theorist in the anthropological tradition.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Gewertz.

331. Anthropology and the Middle East. (Offered as ANTH 331 and ASLC 341 [WA].) In an era where “terrorism” has eclipsed the nuclear fears of the Cold War and become associated with a radicalism that is portrayed as at once militant, anti-Western, and bound to a particular region (the Middle East) and religion (Islam), the task of this seminar—to examine the everyday realities of people living throughout the Middle East—has become all the more critical. Beginning with an historical eye toward the ways that the “West” has discovered, translated, and written about the “Orient,” this seminar will use anthropological readings, documentary film, and literary accounts to consider a range of perspectives on the region commonly referred to as the Middle East. Rather than attempting a survey of the entire region, the course will take a thematic approach and explore such topics as: Islam and secularism, colonialism and postcoloniality, gender and political mobilization, media and globalization, and the politics and ethics of nation building. As an anthropology course, the class will take up these themes through richly contextualized accounts of life within the region. While it is recognized that the Middle East is incredibly heterogeneous, particular attention will given to the influence and role of Islam. By the end of the seminar, students will have gained a broad understanding of some of the most pressing issues faced within the area, while at the same time grappling with advanced theoretical readings. No previous knowledge of the Middle East is assumed.

Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor C. Dole.

332. Topics in Contemporary Anthropology. This seminar will examine contemporary issues in anthropology. Topics will vary from year to year but might, for instance, include anthropological and ethnographic engagements with postcolonialism, the politics of development, neoliberalism and “anti-globalization” activism, militarism, poverty and the politics of survival, institutions of confinement and care, as well as the writing of grants as a prerequisite for the writing of culture in ethnographies.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Chowdhury.

333. Prehistory of Food. This course explores how and why humans across the globe began to domesticate plant and animal resources approximately 10,000 years ago. The first half of the course presents the types of archaeological data and analytical methods used to study the “agricultural revolution.” The second half examines case studies from the major centers of domestication in order to investigate the biological, economic, and social implications of these processes. Special emphasis will be placed on exploring the relationship between agriculture and sedentism, food and gender, the politics of feasting, and methods for integrating archaeological and ethnographic approaches to the study of food.

Recommended coursework: ANTH 110, 224 or 339. Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Klarich.

334. Religion and Society in the South Asian World. (Offered as ANTH 334 and ASLC 360 [SA].) Observers have long marveled at the sheer number of separate religious traditions that flourish and interact with each other in South Asia. In this single ethnographic region, the Indian subcontinent, we find Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Jews, and others as well. Given this extraordinary diversity, South Asia provides an unparalleled opportunity to study interactions among religious systems in a broad range of social and political contexts. This course takes advantage of this circumstance by exploring, in South Asian settings, a variety of theoretical approaches to the study of religion. Among the subjects to be considered are religion and social hierarchy, religion and gender, religious responses to rapid social change, modern religious movements, religion and modern media, religious nationalism, and South Asian religions in diaspora. Although the course focuses on the South Asian region, it is designed to emphasize theoretical issues of current interest to anthropologists and others who study religion from the perspective of social science. While some background in South Asian studies would be helpful, it is not a prerequisite for this course.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13.

335. Gender: An Anthropological Perspective. This seminar provides an analysis of male-female relationships from a cross-cultural perspective, focusing upon the ways in which cultural factors modify and exaggerate the biological differences between men and women. Consideration will be given to the positions of men and women in the evolution of society, and in different contemporary social, political, and economic systems, including those of the industrialized nations.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Gewertz.

339. The Anthropology of Food. Because food is necessary to sustain biological life, its production and provision occupy humans everywhere. Due to this essential importance, food also operates to create and symbolize collective life. This seminar will examine the social and cultural significance of food. Topics to be discussed include: the evolution of human food systems, the social and cultural relationships between food production and human reproduction, the development of women’s association with the domestic sphere, the meaning and experience of eating disorders, and the connection among ethnic cuisines, nationalist movements and social classes.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Gewertz.

340. The Anthropology of Development. This course is an in-depth exploration of theories and strategies of international development as they have been applied in the Global South since the second half of the twentieth century. We will discuss the production of global inequality and the construction of parts of the world as underdeveloped through discourses and practices of development. Development strategies will be examined from a cultural and historical perspective. The course will pay significant attention to how the development problem and its solutions are constructed within differing theoretical frameworks such as liberal, Marxist, and poststructuralist frameworks in the field of development studies. We will examine the historical background of development by situating it within the rise and consolidation of capitalism and modernity. The impacts of the application of development models will be explored through ethnographic case studies. We conclude the course with an analysis of various attempts to rethink the development model by academics, activists, and communities in order to develop what might be termed post-development thought or alternative forms of development.

Requisite: ANTH 112. Limited to 25 students. Not open to first-year students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Araujo.

343. Economic Anthropology and Social Theory. This course will look at the relationship between economy and society through a critical examination of Marx with particular emphasis on pre-capitalist economies. The more recent work of French structural Marxists and neo-Marxists, and the substantivist-formalist debate in economic anthropology will also be discussed. The course will develop an anthropological perspective by looking at such “economic facts” as production, exchange systems, land tenure, marriage transactions, big men and chiefs, state formation, peasant economy, and social change in the modern world.

Limited to 25 students. First-year and sophomore students must have consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Goheen.

347. South Asia Now. (Offered as ANTH 347 and ASLC 347 [SA]. Anthropology of South Asia, in the last decade or more, has focused primarily on such themes as bureaucracy and corruption in relation to the postcolonial state; the economy, with special attention to development, liberalization and globalization; mass media and pubic culture; technology and global capital; and violence, as both a strategy and outcome of governmental and non-governmental politics. As students of South Asian cultures, how do we understand this trend? Is there an influence in South Asian scholarship of the changes taking place in the broader field of anthropology, or is there something specific to the region’s postcolonial modernity that demands this intellectual move? What is new about these emergent themes and how could they be read in light of canonical interests of South Asian anthropology? We shall explore these questions by way of reading recent anthropological writing on South Asia while paying special attention to theories of governmentality, identity, violence, mediation, and the state. The course is designed to offer a critical survey of recent ethnographic writing on the politics and aesthetics of South Asian public life. The larger aim is to situate South Asian anthropology within the body of literature known as South Asian Studies as well as against the unfolding history of the discipline of anthropology.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Chowdhury.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Courses. A full course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

490H. Special Topics. Independent Reading Courses. A half course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Fall semester.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Spring semester.

Sociology

110. Exploring Human Diversity: An Introduction to Anthropology and Sociology. (Offered as ANTH 110 and SOCI 110.) The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to the central concepts and themes in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology. Anthropology and sociology emerged as distinct modes of inquiry in 19th-century Europe in response to several centuries of disorienting change. Monarchies were collapsing, economies were industrializing, modern science was emerging, and democratic aspirations were rising. Alongside this flux, Europe’s imperial reach had revealed a mind-boggling variety of cultures, each ordered and disordered in dramatically different ways. In this context, it is not surprising that two questions became urgent: Why do some societies change while others appear to be unchanging? When a society undergoes change, how does social order get re-established? These classic questions have long since been reframed to confront a fundamental challenge that we live with today: Why do people do what they do, and why do different people do things differently? This course is intended to introduce students to the ways anthropologists and sociologists continue to grapple with these critical questions. While the course will touch upon classic works from the two disciplines, it will largely focus on the ways these questions have given rise to new and often surprising answers. In exploring the ways humans make sense of and produce unique social worlds, the course will highlight points of convergence and divergence in regard to theory, formulation of research problems, and methods within the two disciplines.

Not open to students who have taken ANTH 111 or SOCI 111. Limited to 70 students. Omitted 2012-13.

112. Self and Society: An Introduction to Sociology. Sociology is built on the premise that human beings are crucially shaped by the associations each person has with others. These associations range from small, intimate groups like the family to vast, impersonal groupings like a metropolis. In this course we will follow the major implications of this way of understanding humans and their behavior. The topics we will explore include: how group expectations shape individual behavior; how variations in the size, structure, and cohesion of groups help account for differences in individual behavior as well as differences in the patterns of interaction between groups; how groups, including societies as a whole, reproduce themselves; and why societies change. As a supplement to readings and lectures, students will be able to use original social survey data to explore first-hand some of the research techniques sociologists commonly use to explore the dynamics of social life.

Limited to 35 students. Fall semester. Professor Lembo.

222. Sociology of the Life Course. “Man, woman, birth, death, infinity . . .” This course examines the spectrum of the human life course—infancy, childhood, adolescence, middle age, old age—through the prism of sociology. It asks how we have come to subdivide the life course into these stages and addresses the role of social context in their development. Finally, it discusses public policy implications of this categorization.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13.

225. Reproducing Social Order: Prisons, Schools, and the Military. This course examines U.S. prisons, schools and the military, as institutions of social reproduction, in historical and comparative perspective. This lens allows for exploration of broad questions regarding the role of the state in society and persistent contradictions of democracy and opportunity vs. coercion and constraint. Specific questions on which the course centers are: How do social inequalities condition the relationship between individuals, institutions, the market and the state? How does privatization affect the mission, activity and future of these institutions? What role do prisons, schools and the military play in reproducing social order on the national and international stage? Readings will consist of sociological perspectives on such questions as well as historical accounts and political texts documenting contests over these institutions and their functions.

Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Professor Holleman.

226. Footprints on the Earth: The Environmental Consequences of Modernity. As a basis for understanding current global ecological crises, this course marries natural and social history as well as ecological and social science of the human society/environment nexus. We will study the anthropogenic drivers of environmental change in historical perspective. The new and greater scale of environmental degradation made possible by industrialization and the globalizing tendencies of the modern economic system will receive special attention as these continue to be central factors promoting ecological change. Course readings include classical social theory as well as current perspectives on the relationship between modern human society and the broader environment of which we are a part.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Holleman.

230. Economy, Society and Change in East Asia. (Offered as SOCI 230 and ASLC 230.) East Asia has been booming, economically—first Japan, then Korea and Taiwan, and now China. In this course, we will study both what made the economic boom in these countries possible and what social issues have arisen in each country because of the particular social system that arose through its process of economic development. In particular, we will consider patterns of social inequality. In the case of Japan and Korea, we will focus on understanding important inequality patterns that arose during the economic development in the 1970s and 1980s and their enduring effect on current society, such as youth unemployment and gender inequality. As for China, we will study how the rapid economic development generated social inequalities (such as glaring income inequality and urban-rural inequality) different from those observed in Japan and Korea. Through the readings and class discussions, students will learn about the lives of people who live in these East Asian societies: How are the societies organized? What are the critical social issues in these countries? How are these societies both similar and different?

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Mun.

234. Social Class. This course will consider various ways that class matters in the United States. Historical accounts will be used in conjunction with sociological theories to discuss the formation of classes, including the formation of discourses and myths of class, in American society. Class will then serve as a lens to examine the origins and characteristics of social stratification and inequality in the U.S. The bulk of the course will focus on more contemporary issues of class formation, class structure, class relations, and class culture, paying particular attention to how social class is actually lived out in American culture. Emphasis will be placed on the role class plays in the formation of identity and the ways class cultures give coherence to daily life. In this regard, the following will figure importantly in the course: the formation of upper class culture and the role it plays in the reproduction of power and privilege; the formation of working class culture and the role it plays in leading people to both accept and challenge class power and privilege; the formation of the professional middle class and the importance that status anxiety carries for those who compose it. Wherever possible, attention will be paid to the intersection of class relations and practices with those of other social characteristics, such as race, gender and ethnicity. The course will use sociological and anthropological studies, literature, autobiographies, and films, among other kinds of accounts, to discuss these issues.

Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Professor Lembo.

243. Drugs and Society. This course examines the use and control of mood-altering drugs in the United States today. Specifically, we look at two important sets of issues: first, the increasing use of prescription drugs to deal with a growing range of human moods and thoughts; second, the ongoing “war” against drugs like marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. By juxtaposing these two, we will reflect on the contradictions of drug use and drug control in America. On the one hand, we take a more punitive approach to the control of currently illegal drugs like marijuana than any other western society. On the other hand, we use and encourage the use of prescriptions like antidepressants more than any other western society.

Limited to 35 students. Fall semester. Professor Himmelstein.

245. Latino Identity in the United States: Continuity and Complexity. The Latino population currently consists of approximately 24,000,000 people in the United States; by the year 2050 the Census Bureau estimates that the Latino population will make up 22 percent of the total population. This diverse group traces its origin to a variety of countries and its experiences in the United States are quite varied. In this course we will examine the experiences of the various Latino communities in the United States. The course is designed to examine the socioeconomic experiences of the various Latino groups (Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans, among others). Our examination will require that we pay close attention to issues of race, class, and gender, as well as the complexities of pan-ethnic identity, group politics, and immigration.

Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Basler.

315. Foundations of Sociological Theory. Sociology emerged as part of the intellectual response to the French and Industrial Revolutions. In various ways, the classic sociological thinkers sought to make sense of these changes and the kind of society that resulted from them. We shall begin by examining the social and intellectual context in which sociology developed and then turn to a close reading of the works of five important social thinkers: Marx, Tocqueville, Weber, Durkheim, and Freud. We shall attempt to identify the theoretical perspective of each thinker by posing several basic questions: According to each social thinker, what is the general nature of society, the individual, and the relationship between the two? What holds societies together? What pulls them apart? How does social change occur? What are the distinguishing features of modern Western society in particular? What distinctive dilemmas do individuals face in modern society? What are the prospects for human freedom and happiness? Although the five thinkers differ strikingly from each other, we shall also determine the extent to which they share a common “sociological consciousness.” Required of sociology majors.

Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professor Himmelstein.

316. Social Research. This course introduces students to the range of methods that sociologists use to understand humans as social beings. It explores the strengths and weaknesses of these methods. Students will design and execute an original research project. The course emphasizes the general logic of social inquiry and research design rather than narrowly defined techniques and statistical proofs. Required of sociology majors.

Requisite: ANTH/SOCI 110. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Himmelstein.

324. Financial Crises and the Future of Democracy. Austerity measures promoted as a response to the deep global economic recession beginning in 2007 have resulted in protests around the globe. However, these are only the most recent series of measures that fall under the aegis of neoliberal reform. With much of the world’s population under 30 years old, neoliberalism has been a constant fact of life for many. This course looks at the historic rise and consequences of the neoliberal economic model as well as alternatives implemented by breakaway governments in the global South. We will study how the past 40 years of financialization, related debt crises, economic shock therapy and growing inequality fit into broader economic history and help explain current developments. We also will explore the challenge to neoliberalism posed by movements for greater economic democracy and equality from Rome and Cairo to Quito and New York.

Requisite: SOCI 112. Limited to 20 students. Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Holleman.

331. Conceptualizing White Identity in the United States. (Offered as SOCI 331 and BLST 226 [US].) The debate over the virtues of multiculturalism and the promotion of diversity have, ironically, led an increasing number of scholars to question the meaning of “whiteness.” What does it mean to be “white”? Who gets to decide who is and who isn’t “white”? Clearly, “white” means more than is captured by complexion alone, but what is there besides complexion? Given the undeniable fact that cultural variations among those regarded as white are as large as the variations between whites and non-whites, it is not clear what exactly constitutes whiteness. To study whiteness is to analyze the collective memory and practices of “white people” and to scrutinize carefully those moments when white identity is used to mobilize passions. This course will attempt to unpack the myths and realities that have created and maintained “white identity.”

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Basler.

332. Thinking Differently about Culture. In this course, we will focus attention first on the dynamics of cultural difference which characterize the civil rights era in the United States and use our sociological assessment of them to frame an analysis of culture leading up to and following from this tumultuous time, paying particular attention to what is now commonly referred to as a “post civil rights era.” Some of the important questions we will ask are: How adequate are conventional sociological ideas of culture—ideas that presume “cohesion” and “commonality,” among other things—when it comes to conceptualizing, documenting, and theorizing cultural difference? What are the consequences of accounting for cultural difference as something to be incorporated into what is, or could be, held in common by people? What is at stake, sociologically speaking, when aspects of cultural difference—previously ignored or marginalized in hegemonic accounts—become the focal point of intellectual inquiry or political practice? How do we distinguish among discourses of cultural difference? How are they subject to cooptation, assimilation, or exploitation?

Limited to 20 students. Not open to first-year students. Spring semester. Professor Lembo.

333. Race and Politics in the United States. (Offered as SOCI 333 and BLST 246 [US]. This course is an intensive examination of the politics, and the policy consequences, of racial and ethnic identity in the United States. The course focuses on the historical and contemporary experiences of several racial and ethnic groups in American politics. Attention is given to contemporary issues, emphasizing the roles of governmental actors, institutions, and policies. In the first part of the course, we begin by considering the concept of racial identity. We then look at various principles such as equality, freedom, and solidarity, which underlie the ways in which we think about and judge racial politics and race-related policies. The second part of the course focuses on race and politics: public opinion, political image, and political and social movements. In the third part of the course, we move to policy-related case studies. Most policy-related case studies focus on blacks and whites, but this course considers the ways in which the traditional model may be outdated or otherwise inappropriate. Among the issues to be discussed are vote dilution, school desegregation, affirmative action, “new” multiculturalism, immigration, and bilingual education. We close the course with a look to the future of race and ethnicity in American politics. A fundamental premise of this course is that knowledge of race and ethnic dynamics in the United States is necessary to comprehensively analyze American political development and many important issues in contemporary American politics. The course is conducted in a seminar format.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Basler.

335. Borderlands and Barrios: Latino/a Representation in Film and Television. (Offered as SOCI 335 and FAMS 374.) This course uses a two-pronged sociological approach to examine Latino/a culture in the United States through the mediums of film and television. We begin with discussion of how to critically analyze films and television relative to race and ethnicity, and a review of the history of representation of Latinos/as in media. We then examine the content of the Latino/a experience as depicted in film and television and the accuracy of that content in describing the diversity and truth of the Latino/a experience in the United States, particularly in regard to race, class, and gender.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Basler.

338. Race and Races in American Studies. (Offered as SOCI 338 and BLST 136 [US].) This interdisciplinary seminar examines influential scholarship on the “race concept” and racialized relations in American culture and society. The course will focus on selected themes, approaches, methods, debates, and problems in a variety of scholarly genres. Major topics include the cultural construction of race; race as both an instrument of oppression and an idiom of resistance in American politics; the centrality of race in literary, sociological, anthropological, and legal discourse; the racialization of U.S. foreign policy; “race mixing” and “passing” and the vicissitudes of “whiteness” in American political culture; and “race” in the realm of popular cultural representation.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Basler.

340. The Social Construction of Nature. This course rests on two premises. The first is that the non-human world—”nature”—exerts a profound influence on the social arrangements of humans. The second premise is that humans not only modify nature to suit their needs but also construct nature ideologically. We will explore the ways in which nature has been manipulated, both physically and symbolically, and the consequences these manipulations have had both for nature and for humans. We will pay particular attention to the shifts over the past century and a half in the ways Americans have regarded the natural world, tracing the emergence of the conservation movement of the late nineteenth century and how it slowly got transformed into the contemporary environmental movement.

Requisite: ANTH/SOCI 110, ENST 112 or consent of the instructor. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Dizard.

341. Making Peace with the Planet: Environmental Movements and Ideas. In the last 20 years, climate change was acknowledged by every major scientific body in the world and, along with other environmental issues, put on the policy agenda of most national governments. Debates today are less over whether anthropogenic ecological change is happening and more over what should be done about it. In this course we explore the diversity of global movements and proposed environmental solutions that reflect the wide range of perspectives and interests behind these debates. Social inequalities both within and between countries condition what is at stake in negotiations addressing ecological problems for communities and people occupying different social locations. Therefore, issues of environmental justice are highlighted as we study the achievements of environmental movements internationally as well as enduring challenges and controversies.

Requisite: SOCI 112 and ENST 120. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Holleman.

347. Sociology from the Margins. In this course we will examine texts that challenge the conventional wisdom of sociology, thereby enabling us to see foundational concerns of the discipline in new ways. These texts—some by sociologists, some not—will be used to explore such things as changing modes of social power, the cultural unconscious, commodity culture, normality and its transgressions, media technology and the social imaginary, as well as social identity and the self in ways unanticipated by mainstream sociological thought. Historical transitions from Fordism to flexible accumulation, the modern to the postmodern, the colonial to the postcolonial, the national to the transnational, and from the real to the virtual will figure importantly in course discussion.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Lembo.

390. Special Topics. Independent Reading Courses. A full course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

390H. Special Topics. Independent Reading Courses. A half course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Courses. A full course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

490H. Special Topics. Independent Reading Courses. A half course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Fall semester.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Spring semester.

Related Courses

Myth, Ritual and Iconography in West Africa. See BLST 315.

Architectural Studies

*On leave 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Advisory Committee: Professors Clark, Courtright*, Rosbottom‡, and K. Sweeney; Associate Professor Gilpin (Chair); Five College Assistant Professor Long.

Amherst College participates in the Five College Architectural Studies (FCAS) major with the unique requirements indicated below.

The FCAS major firmly places the study of architecture in the liberal arts by encompassing the history, theory, philosophy, design, and science of the built environment. The major draws on resources and faculty from a range of disciplines across the colleges, which include art history, cultural studies, history, literature, economics, urban studies, visual and media arts, gender studies, physics, sociology, and environmental studies. With the guidance of their Amherst FCAS advisor, Amherst students create an individualized course of study that may include, among others, sustainable design, urban planning, and architectural history, theory, and criticism.

An Amherst student wishing to pursue this major will meet with one of the faculty members on the College’s Architectural Studies Advisory Committee to discuss his or her interests, intentions, and coursework options. Following this discussion, the student will submit a proposal that identifies a focus within the major, courses already taken, and those planned. This proposal must be approved by the College’s Architectural Studies Advisory Committee, which will forward it to the Five College Architectural Studies (FCAS) review committee. In this manner, a student’s major coursework decisions are discussed and vetted first by Amherst faculty and subsequently by Five College faculty in Architectural Studies to ensure that students will have appropriate preparation and a strong plan for the major.

Once the student’s proposal has been approved, he or she will meet at least twice per semester with his or her Amherst faculty advisor to discuss continued progress in the major. Amherst students, preferably before senior year, will be required to take four foundational (normally 100 level) courses focused on architectural history and design, and five intermediate (normally 200 and 300 level) courses in which they develop their particular field of concentration. A senior thesis is required. Consequently, the Amherst FCAS major requires nine (9) courses plus two (2) thesis courses, for a total of eleven (11) courses. The student may choose to take a double senior thesis course (ARCH 499D) in the second semester of senior year, in which case the total number of courses required to complete the major becomes twelve (12). Before the second semester of junior year, the student must submit to his or her College advisor a significant research project (which may constitute a final project for a course taken) that demonstrates the ability to undertake rigorous research. This will constitute the comprehensive requirement for the major. Before the end of the junior year, the student will propose a senior thesis project and three potential advisors (two of whom must be Amherst faculty members) to the College’s Architectural Studies Advisory Committee; an Amherst College thesis advisor will be designated.

216. Digital Constructions: Intermediate Architectural Design Studio. (Offered as EUST 216, ARCH 216, and ARHA 216.) In this intermediate architectural design studio we will explore the intellectual and creative process of making and representing architectural space. The focus will be to explore the boundaries of architecture—physically and theoretically, historically and presently—through digital media. Our process will prompt us to dissect 20th-century European architectures and urban spaces and to explore their relationships to contemporary, global issues. The capstone of the course will be a significant design project (TBD) requiring rigorous studio practices, resulting in plans, sections, elevations and digital models. This course will introduce students to various digital diagramming, drawing, and modeling software, while challenging students to question the theoretical and practical implications of these interdisciplinary media processes. This course will combine lectures, reading, discussion, and extensive studio design.

Requisite: ARHA 111. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 10 students. Spring semester. Five College Professor Long.

220. Reinventing Tokyo: The Art, Literature, and Politics of Japan’s Modern Capital. Offered as ASLC 220 [J] and ARCH 220.) Tokyo is the political, cultural, and economic center of Japan, the largest urban conglomeration on the planet, holding 35 million people, fully one fifth of Japan’s population. Since its founding 400 years ago, when a small fishing village became Edo, the castle headquarters of the Tokugawa shoguns, the city has been reinvented multiple times—as the birthplace of Japan’s early modern urban bourgeoise culture, imperial capital to a nation-state, center of modern consumer culture, postwar democratic exemplar, and postmodern metropolis. The course will focus on the portrayals of Tokyo and its reinventions in art, literature, and politics from the end of the Edo period to the present day. It will examine the changes that took place as the city modernized and Westernized in the Meiji era, became the center of modern urban life in Japan before the Second World War, and rebuilt itself as part of the country’s economic miracle in the postwar era. As the largest human cultural creation in Japan, one that endured political upheavals, fires, earthquakes, fire-bombings and unbridled development, Tokyo has always been a complex subject. The course will use that complexity to consider how to analyze an urban environment that draws upon Japan’s long history, yet which is also one of the most modern in Asia.

Preference to majors and students with an interest in urban studies. Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professors Morse and Van Compernolle.

242. Material Culture of American Homes. (Offered as HIST 242 [USP], ARCH 242, and AHRA 133) Using architecture, artifacts, visual evidence and documentary sources, the course examines social and cultural forces affecting the design and use of domestic architecture, home furnishings, and domestic technology in the eastern United States from 1600 to 1960. In addition to providing a survey of American domestic architecture, the course provides an introduction to the study of American material culture. Field trips to Historic Deerfield, Old Sturbridge Village, Hartford, Connecticut, and sites in Amherst form an integral part of the course. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor K. Sweeney.

356. Bauhaus. (Offered as GERM 366, ARCH 356, and EUST 246). This course will explore in detail the art, architecture, history and theory of the influential German art school, the Bauhaus. The subject of recent blockbuster exhibitions in New York and Berlin, this course will make use of many new publications and critical viewpoints. We will begin with the school’s origins during WWI and the German Revolution, its spectacular contributions and controversial development during the Weimar Republic, and conclude with the demise of the Bauhaus by the National Socialists. We will trace the forced exile of many Bauhaus artists and architects, as well as analyze Bauhaus legacies (at Black Mountain College, the Ulm School of Design, the New Bauhaus Chicago, Yale, and Harvard, and in the Situationists’ New Babylon project). The course will include the work of the architects Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, Mies van der Rohe and Lilli Reich; the art and design (textiles, metal work, prints, photographs, typography, paintings, sculpture, etc.) of Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger, Gunta Stözl, Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Joseph Albers, and Oskar Schlemmer; and the writings of important Weimar writers and theorists, such as Erich Maria Remarque, Walter Benjamin, Georg Lukács, and Siegfried Kracauer. Students will be responsible for in-class presentations, a book review, and a final paper. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of their reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13.

359. Public Art and Collective Memory in the United States. (Offered as AMST 360, ARCH 359, and ARHA 360.) What is public art and what role does it play in public life and collective memory in the United States? In this course we will study art that is commissioned, paid for, and owned by the state as well as private works scaled to public encounter. A focus of our study will be the evolution of public art in Washington, D.C. (19th-21st centuries), but we will range from New York harbor to the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Great Salt Lake, and we will discuss the fate of works that, like Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc, exist today only in photographic record and documented debate. Asking whether and how public art mediates between private and public life will guide us to consider when and how it defines national or local values and why so many public art projects have aroused controversy. The course is organized around class discussion and student presentations, and it includes short papers and a paper/presentation of an independent research project. Two meetings per week.

Requisite: One course in American Studies, History, or the History of Art. Limited to 20 students. Permission required for first-year students. Spring semester. Professor Clark.

360. Performance. (Offered as GERM 360, ARCH 360, EUST 360 and FAMS 316.) What is performance? What constitutes an event? How can we address a phenomenon that has disappeared the moment we apprehend it? How does memory operate in our critical perception of an event? How does a body make meaning? These are a few of the questions we will explore in this course, as we discuss critical, theoretical, and compositional approaches in a broad range of multidisciplinary performance phenomena emerging from European—primarily German—culture in the twentieth century. We will focus on issues of performativity, composition, conceptualization, dramaturgy, identity construction, representation, space, gender, and dynamism. Readings of performance theory, performance studies, gender studies, and critical/cultural studies, as well as literary, philosophical, and architectural texts will accompany close examination of performance material. Students will develop performative projects in various media (video, performance, text, online) and deliver a number of critical oral and written presentations on various aspects of the course material and their own projects. Performance material will be experienced live when possible, and in text, video, audio, digital media and online form, drawn from selected works of Dada and Surrealism, Bauhaus, German Expressionism, the Theater of the Absurd, Tanztheater, and Contemporary Theater, Performance, Dance, Opera, New Media, and Performance Art. A number of films, including Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Oskar Schlemmer’s Das Triadische Ballett, Fernand Léger’s Ballet Mécanique, and Kurt Jooss’ Der Grüne Tisch, will be also screened. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Gilpin.

364. Architectures of Disappearance. (Offered as GERM 364, ARCH 364, and EUST 364.) This course will address a number of developments and transformations in contemporary urban architecture and performance from an international perspective. We will explore issues including, but not limited to, trauma, memory, absence, perception, corporeality, representation, and the senses in our examination of recent work in Germany and elsewhere, and read a number of texts from the fields of philosophy, critical theory, performance studies, and visual and architectural studies, in an attempt to understand how architecture is beginning to develop compositional systems in which to envision dynamic and responsive spaces in specific cultural contexts. We will focus our research on the work of a number of German and international architects, performance, and new media artists, including Jochen Gerz, Renata Stih and Frieder Schnock, Horst Hoheisel, Micha Ullman, Shimon Attie, Daniel Libeskind, Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas, Greg Lynn, Mark Goulthorpe, R & Sie(n), Axel Kilian, Paul Privitera, Hani Rashid and Lise-Ann Couture, Herzog and de Meuron, Archigram, William Forsythe, Jan Fabre, Rachel Whiteread, Rebecca Horn, Sasha Waltz, Richard Siegal, Michael Schumacher, Robert Wilson, the Blix Brothers of Berlin, Pina Bausch, Granular Synthesis, Sponge, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Toni Dove, and many others. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Gilpin.

365. Making Memorials. (Offered as GERM 365 ARCH 365, and EUST 365.) This is a course about what happens to difficult memories: memories that are intensely personal, but made public, memories that belong to communities, but which become ideologically possessed by history, politics, or the media. How are memories processed into memorials? What constitutes a memorial? What gets included or excluded? How is memory performed in cultural objects, spaces, and institutions? What is the relationship between the politics of representation and memory? Who owns memory? Who is authorized to convey it? How does memory function? This course will explore the spaces in which memories are “preserved” and experienced. Our attention will focus on the transformation of private and public memories in works of architecture, performance, literature, and the visual arts primarily in Germany, Europe, and the United States. Preference given to German majors and European Studies majors, as well as to students interested in architecture/design, performance, the visual arts, interactive installation and/or the environment. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Gilpin.

368. SPACE. (Offered as GERM 368, EUST 368, and FAMS 373.) This research seminar will explore conceptions of space as they have informed and influenced thought and creativity in the fields of cultural studies, literature, architecture, urban studies, performance, and the visual, electronic, and time-based arts. Students will select and pursue a major semester-long research project early in the semester in consultation with the professor, and present their research in its various stages of development throughout the semester, in a variety of media formats (writing, performance, video, electronic art/interactive media, installation, online and networked events, architectural/design drawings/renderings), along with oral presentations of readings and other materials. Readings and visual materials will be drawn from the fields of literature and philosophy; from architectural, art, and film theory and history; from performance studies and performance theory; and from theories of technology and the natural and built environment. Emphasis on developing research, writing, and presentation skills is a core of this seminar.

For spring 2013, we will focus on the river as the generative and dynamic concept that will guide our explorations of space and of different kinds of spaces, in conjunction with the European Union/Five College project on Riverscaping/Alles am Fluss: Rethinking art, environment and community/Kunst—Umwelt—Nachbarschaft neu denken. Students will pursue research projects concerning the visual arts, history, literature, environment, ecology, visibility/interactivity, conditions and movements of the river (specific rivers including the Elbe River in Hamburg, Germany and the Connecticut River here in the Pioneer Valley), and explore the visions, challenges, and possibilities of creating spaces in which art can happen and in which creative processes can transform communities. Students will have the opportunity to present their final research projects at the European Union/Five Colleges Riverscaping conference on Europe Day, May 9, 2013. One three-hour meeting per week.

Preference given to German majors and European Studies majors, as well as to students interested in architecture/design, performance, film/video, interactive installation, and/or the environment. Conducted in English. German majors will select a research project focused on a German Studies context, and will do a substantial portion of the readings in German.

Limited to 15 students. Enrollment requires attendance at the first class meeting. Spring semester. Professor Gilpin.

390. Special Topics. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

490. Special Topics. Fall and spring semesters.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. A full course. Fall semester.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. A full course. Spring semester.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. A double course. Spring semester.

Art and the History of Art

*On leave 2012-13.

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors Abiodun, Clark†, Courtright*, Keller, Morse, Staller (Chair), R. Sweeney, and Upton‡; Associate Professor Kimball; Senior Resident Artist Garand†; Resident Artists Gloman and Tolley (spring); Visiting Artist-in-Residence Ewald (fall); Visiting Professors Davis (spring) and Harbison, (spring); Visiting Assistant Professors Rivera-Moret (fall) and Saletnik; Visiting Lecturers Culhane (fall), Gross (fall), and Lieberman (fall); Five College Post-doctoral fellow Rice.

The Department of Art and the History of Art offers students a singular means within the College to develop artistic awareness, historical understanding, critical faculties and practice in the visual arts. Students across the College may accomplish these objectives by taking introductory to advanced courses in art history and studio practice. To identify and serve individual interests and goals, the department major is organized into two distinct programs: The History of Art, which offers two concentrations and The Practice of Art, which offers one concentration:

Art History: The ‘Art’ of the History of Art Concentration: Professors Abiodun, Staller, and Upton‡.

The Concentration called “ ‘Art’ of the History of Art” aims to integrate a rigorous grounding in both the disciplines of Art History and Studio Practice. Rigorous grounding in Studio Practice means a working knowledge of two-dimensional form, three-dimensional form and color. In Art History it means a working knowledge of pre-Modern, Modern, African and Asian Art.

The goal of this Concentration is to identify the power of ‘art’ within its historical, cultural, theoretical and material presence in the world. This shared goal may be met through courses individually selected by each participating student in consultation with their advisor in this Concentration.

Since this is an “open” Concentration, there is no upper limit on the number of courses that students might take within and outside the department. As a guide, however, the normal expectation is a minimum of one course focusing on each of the specific areas in Studio Practice and Art History that are designated above, along with two advanced courses in art history to assure explicit awareness of art historical method and purpose. This Concentration assumes the completion of a total of 10 courses or 12 if the student pursues an honors project.

Course Requirements: The ‘Art’ of the History of Art is a goal-oriented concentration with an open curriculum comprising ten courses (12 with honors project) selected in consultation with the advisors for this concentration. The concentration called “Art of the History of Art” aims to integrate a rigorous grounding in both the disciplines of Art History and Studio Practice. Rigorous grounding in Studio Practice means a working knowledge of two-dimensional form, three-dimensional form and color. In Art History it means a working knowledge of pre-Modern, Modern, African and Asian Art. The goal of this concentration is to identify the power of ‘art’ within its historical, cultural, theoretical and material presence in the world. This shared goal may be met through courses individually selected by each participating student in consultation with their advisor in this concentration. Since this is an “open” concentration, there is no upper limit on the number of courses that students might take within and outside the department. As a guide, however, the normal expectation is a minimum of one course focusing on each of the specific areas in Studio Practice and Art History that are designated above, along with two advanced courses in art history to assure explicit awareness of art historical method and purpose. This Concentration assumes the completion of a total of 10 courses or 12 if the student pursues an honors project.

Honors: Candidates for honors will, with departmental permission, take ARHA 498-499 during their senior year. Honors work in this concentration provides an opportunity for independent historical research and writing, resulting in a thesis project in art history or some combination of art history, the practice of art and/or related areas of study in which ‘art’ in some form becomes manifest, including the very writing of an art historical essay.

Comprehensive Examination: In spring of the senior year, students in this concentration will complete a comprehensive examination in consultation with their advisor. In this self-directed examination which may include any relevant material, each student will demonstrate an individually evolved sophistication in their understanding of ‘art’ within the history of art.

Advising: To allow for maximum individual flexibility and the purposeful integration of the disciplines of the practice of art and art history, each student in this concentration will select all of their concentration courses freely, but with the advice and guidance of their assigned advisor(s). We encourage student-centered initiatives (independent of honors work) including, courses in the Department of Art and Art History or related fields, lectures, site visits, language study, self directed essays or works of art that broaden the student’s particular major concentration while deepening and extending forward the pursuit of artistic awareness.

Art History: Historical and Cultural Studies Concentration: Professors Clark, Courtright* and Morse; Visiting Professor Saletnik.

For students who want an intensive and structured engagement with the visual heritage of many cultures throughout the centuries, this concentration requires not only the study of art history as a way to acquire deep and broad visual understanding, but also a self-conscious focus on the contexts and meanings of art. By encountering the architecture, painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and material culture created within a variety of historical frameworks, students will deepen their understanding of political, religious, philosophical, aesthetic, and social currents that defined those times as well. As a consequence, students will face art and issues that challenge preconceptions of our own era.

Course Requirements: The concentration consists of a minimum of 10 courses (12 with honors project). With the help of a department advisor, each student will devise a program of study and a sequence of courses that must include:

One introductory course in the history of art

One course in the arts of Asia or Africa

One course in European art before 1800

One course in European or American art after 1800

Two upper-level courses or seminars with research papers, one of which may be a course outside the department with a focus on visual arts in the student’s research paper

One studio course (before Senior Year)

Many of our courses could count for two of these requirements. For example, an upper-level course in European art before 1800 with a required research paper will fulfill two of the requirements. An introductory course in the arts of Asia will fulfill two of the requirements as well.

Honors: Candidates for honors in this concentration will, with departmental permission, take ARHA 498-499 during their senior year.

Comprehensive Examination: Students who have chosen the major concentration History of Art: Historical and Cultural Studies in the Department of Art and the History of Art fulfill the comprehensive examination during the senior year by considering the way in which a text, chosen by the faculty, shapes or challenges their understanding of works of art. Each student’s inquiry forms the basis for an essay, which all majors who chose this concentration and faculty members discuss at a colloquium early in the spring semester of the senior year.

The Practice of Art: Studio Concentration: Professors Keller, R. Sweeney; Associate Professor Kimball; Senior Resident Artists Garand†; Resident Artist Gloman; Visiting Artist-in-Residence Ewald; Visiting Lecturer Culhane.

The concentration in the Practice of Art enables students to become fluent in the discipline of the practice of visual arts. Students will develop critical and analytical thinking as well as the discipline’s techniques and methods as a means to explore artistic, intellectual and human experience. Students will build towards creating a personal vision beginning with primary studies in drawing and introductory art history, proceeding on to courses using a broad range of media, and culminating in advanced studio studies of a more self directed nature. Working with their advisor, students will be encouraged to nurture the strong interdisciplinary opportunities found both at Amherst and the other institutions in the valley.

Course Requirements: The Practice of Art concentration consists of a minimum of 10 courses (12 with honors project):

Drawing I (ARHA 111 may be considered as an alternative in special cases.)

Painting I

Sculpture I

Printmaking I

Photography I

Third-year Seminar: Courses qualifying for third-year seminar include:

The Five College Advanced Studio Seminar

Ideas, Influences and Vision: Building a Body of Work

Collaborative Art: Practice and Theory of Working with a Community

Advanced Studio Seminar

Experiments in Narrative

Studio Elective

Studio Elective

Art History Elective

Contemporary Art History or Related Elective

In consultation with their advisors, students in this concentration will be encouraged to take additional courses both in art history and other disciplines. These courses should be broadly related to their artistic interests outside of the studio concentration, enriching their interdisciplinary understanding and engagement within a liberal arts curriculum. This expectation will be especially high for honors thesis candidates.

Honors: Candidates for honors will, with departmental permission, take Art 498-499 during the senior year. Students must apply and be accepted at the end of their third year, usually the last week in April. In designing their year long projects, students will be encouraged to explore the interdisciplinary implications and opportunities inherent in their artistic directions. Thesis students will also be required to develop a statement which ultimately places their body of work within a historical and cultural artistic discourse. There will be a exhibition of the bodies of work representing the honors theses in the Eli Marsh Gallery, Fayerweather Hall, in May.

Comprehensive Examination: A two-part comprehensive exam is required of all studio concentration majors:

1. Students are expected to be familiar with 150 modern and contemporary artists from a list supplied by the department. Students are responsible for 75 artists in their third year and an additional 75 in their fourth year. The comprehensive examination will be a formal and contextual analysis and discussion of works of art to be selected by faculty at random from the list of 150 artists.

2. Creation, in the senior year, of an independent work of art: (Waived for studio thesis students.) This work of art, designed and created independently by the student, can be in any medium or combination of mediums, and may also be interdisciplinary in nature. Students will be required to develop a statement which ultimately places their work of art within a historical and artistic context. There will be an exhibition of these works of art in the spring.

Courses numbered in the 100s are introductory courses, courses in the 200s are mid-level courses, and courses in the 300s and 400s are upper-level and special courses.

History of Art

103. Twentieth-Century Art. This course provides a survey of major artworks produced during the twentieth century in Europe and the Americas, as well as an introduction to their social and historical contexts, their theoretical justifications and critical receptions, and their varied functions. Toward these ends, we will discuss issues of agency and authenticity with regard to modernist and postmodernist artistic practice—from the utopianism of Constructivism to the subversions of Dada; from Abstract Expressionism to conceptual art; and from Fluxus performance to more recent trends. By combining an overview of the period with select in-depth case studies (including influential figures such as Kandinsky, Pollock, Beuys, Warhol, LeWitt, and Bourgeois) the course provides a forum for the development of visual (and verbal) acumen—how to look at, think about, and discuss the visual arts.

Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Saletnik.

132. Art and Architecture of Europe from 300 to 1500 C.E. (Offered as ARHA 132 and EUST 132.) By learning how specifically to encounter the transcendent symbolism of the catacombs of Rome, the devotional intensity of monastic book illumination, the grandeur and vision of the first basilica of St. Peter, the Byzantine church of Hagia Sophia, and selected monasteries and cathedrals of France, we will trace the artistic realization of the spiritual idea of Jewish and Christian history from the transformation of the Roman Empire in the fourth century C.E. to the apocalyptic year of 1500 C.E. Several prophetic masterpieces by Albrecht Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti completed on the very eve of the modern world will reveal a profound “forgotten awareness” crucial to our collective and private well-being but long obscured by the “renaissance” bias that called this period “medieval.” Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Upton.

133. Material Culture of American Homes. (Offered as HIST 242 [USP], ARCH 242, and AHRA 133) Using architecture, artifacts, visual evidence and documentary sources, the course examines social and cultural forces affecting the design and use of domestic architecture, home furnishings, and domestic technology in the eastern United States from 1600 to 1960. In addition to providing a survey of American domestic architecture, the course provides an introduction to the study of American material culture. Field trips to Historic Deerfield, Old Sturbridge Village, Hartford, Connecticut, and sites in Amherst form an integral part of the course. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor K. Sweeney.

135. Art and Architecture of Europe from 1400 to 1800. (Offered as ARHA 135 and EUST 135.) This course is an introduction to painting, sculpture, and architecture of the early modern period. The goal of the course is to identify artistic innovations that characterize European art from the Renaissance to the French Revolution, and to situate the works of art historically, by examining the intellectual, political, religious, and social currents that contributed to their creation. In addition to tracing stylistic change within the oeuvre of individual artists and understanding its meaning, we will investigate the varied character of art, its interpretation, and its context in different regions, including Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Courtright.

137. American Art and Architecture, 1600 to Present. Through the study of form, content, and context (and the relationship among these categories) of selected works of painting, architecture, and sculpture made in colonial America and the United States from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, this course will probe changing American social and cultural values embodied in art. We will study individual artists as well as thematic issues, with particular attention to the production and reception of art in a developing nation, the transformation of European architectural styles into a new environment, the construction of race in ante- and post-bellum America, and the identification of an abstract style of art with the political ascendance of the United States after World War II. Introductory level.

Limited to 35 students. Spring semester. Professor Clark.

138. Visual Arts and Orature in Africa. (Offered as BLST 313 [A] and ARHA 138.) In the traditionally non-literate societies of Africa, verbal and visual arts constitute two systems of communication. The performance of verbal art and the display of visual art are governed by social and cultural rules. We will examine the epistemological process of understanding cultural symbols, of visualizing narratives, or proverbs, and of verbalizing sculptures or designs. Focusing on the Yoruba people of West Africa, the course will attempt to interpret the language of their verbal and visual arts and their interrelations in terms of cultural cosmologies, artistic performances, and historical changes in perception and meaning. We will explore new perspectives in the critical analysis of African verbal and visual arts, and their interdependence as they support each other through mutual references and allusions.

Fall semester. Professor Abiodun.

145. The Modern World. (Offered as ARHA 145 and EUST 145.) This course will explore the self-conscious invention of modernism in painting, sculpture and architecture, from the visual clarion calls of the French Revolution to the performance art and earthworks of “art now.” As we move from Goya, David, Monet and Picasso to Kahlo, Kiefer and beyond, we will be attentive to changing responses toward a historical past or societal present, the stance toward popular and alien cultures, the radical redefinition of all artistic media, changing representations of nature and gender, as well as the larger problem of mythologies and meaning in the modern period. Study of original objects and a range of primary texts (artists’ letters, diaries, manifestos, contemporary criticism) will be enhanced with readings from recent historical and theoretical secondary sources.

Limited to 75 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Staller.

146. Art From the Realm of Dreams. (Offered as ARHA 146, EUST 146, and WAGS 113.) We begin with a long-standing Spanish obsession with dreams, analyzing images and texts by Calderón, Quevedo and Goya. We next will consider a range of dream workers from a range of cultures, centuries, and disciplines—among them Apollinaire, Freud, Breton, Dalí, Carrington, and Kahlo—as well as others working around the globe in our own time.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Staller.

147. Arts of China. (Offered as ARHA 147 and ASLC 143.) An introduction to the history of Chinese art from its beginnings in neolithic times until the end of the twentieth century. Topics will include the ritual bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Chinese transformation of the Buddha image, imperial patronage of painting during the Song dynasty and the development of the literati tradition of painting and calligraphy. Particular weight will be given to understanding the cultural context of Chinese art.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Morse.

148. Arts of Japan. (Offered as ARHA 148 and ASLC 123.) A survey of the history of Japanese art from neolithic times to the present. Topics will include Buddhist art and its ritual context, the aristocratic arts of the Heian court, monochromatic ink painting and the arts related to the Zen sect, the prints and paintings of the Floating World and contemporary artists and designers such as Ando Tadao and Miyake Issey. The class will focus on the ways Japan adopts and adapts foreign cultural traditions. There will be field trips to look at works in museums and private collections in the region.

Spring semester. Professor Morse.

149. Survey of African Art. (Offered as ARHA 149 and BLST 123 [A].) An introduction to the ancient and traditional arts of Africa. Special attention will be given to the archaeological importance of the rock art paintings found in such disparate areas as the Sahara and South Africa, achievements in the architectural and sculptural art in clay of the early people in the area now called Zimbabwe and the aesthetic qualities of the terracotta and bronze sculptures of the Nok, Igbo-Ukwe, Ife and Benin cultures in West Africa, which date from the second century B.C.E. to the sixteenth century C.E. The study will also pursue a general socio-cultural survey of traditional arts of the major ethnic groups of Africa.

Spring semester. Professor Abiodun.

151. Twenty-four Buildings. This course is a history of western architecture from Classical Greece to Post-Modern America in the form of relatively detailed considerations of two dozen buildings. After introductory discussions of the nature of architecture and various structural materials and systems, each class will be devoted to a single building. This approach offers the scope to demonstrate that works of architecture can be historically important for different reasons: some conclude a line of stylistic or technical development, others initiate them; some are structurally daring while others are quite unadventurous; some were built to solve standard problems, others to solve new and unprecedented ones.

The lectures are intended as both introductions to particular buildings and examples of the varied ways architecture can be considered. What makes specific buildings great will be emphasized rather than how they fit into an apparently inevitable development.

Among the buildings to be studied are: the Parthenon, the Pantheon, Constantine’s church of Saint Peter, Hagia Sophia, Chartres cathedral, The Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence, Sant’Andrea in Mantua, Bramante’s Saint Peter’s, Saint Eustache in Paris, the Villa Rotunda, Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza in Rome, the Petit Trianon at Versailles, the Crystal Palace, the Paris Opera, the Guaranty Building in Buffalo, Villa Savoye near Paris, Fallingwater, the Seagram Building in New York and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Visiting Lecturer Lieberman.

250. The Monastic Challenge. (Offered as ARHA 250 and EUST 250.) This course aims to be a visually and spatially attentive search for the ‘art’ of the monastic and cathedral masterpieces of medieval France. First, by learning how to recognize, define, and respond to the artistic values embodied in several “romanesque” and “gothic” monuments including the Abbeys of Fontenay, Vézelay and Mont St. Michel and the Cathedrals of Laôn, Paris, Chartres, Amiens and Reims, we will try to engage directly (e.g., architecturally and spatially) the human aspiration these structures embody. Secondly, with the help of two literary masterpieces from the period, The Song of Roland and Tristan and Isolde, we will discover that the heart of the “monastic” challenge to our own era is not the common opposition of the medieval and modern worlds, but rather the recognition of the potential diminishment of ‘art’ by an exclusively ratiocinated view of all reality. The tragic love affair of Eloise and Peter Abelard will dramatize a vital existential dilemma too easily forgotten that always (but especially in our time) threatens ‘art,’ human compassion and spirituality. Our goal is to reclaim the poetic potential of the word “cathedral.” Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: One course in Art and the History of Art or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Upton.

253. Dutch and Flemish Painting (The Art of Beholding). (Offered as ARHA 253 and EUST 253). This course means to ask the question: What would it be like to engage with the paintings of Jan van Eyck, Roger van der Weyden, Hieronymous Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, Jan Vermeer and Rembrandt van Rijn as a consciously embodied person and to reclaim in such a direct encounter the rejuvenating powers of erôs, insight and wisdom residing within ourselves and in the art of works of art with which we would behold. In addition to reaffirming the practice of artistic contemplation for its own sake, “Dutch and Flemish Painting” will offer explicit guidance in both the means and the attitude of being that underlie and enable such beholding. Our goal will be to allow a series of exemplary masterpieces including Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Double Portrait, Roger’s Prado Deposition, Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, Vermeer’s Portrait of a Girl with a Pearl Earring, Rembrandt’s Nightwatch and several intimate Self Portraits to open outward and implicate us in their human aspiration to wholeness. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Upton.

254. Sixteenth-and-Seventeenth Century Northern European Painting. The course will begin with a brief introduction to important themes in Northern Renaissance art that have direct bearing on later 16th- and 17th-century developments. Relevant historical issues for the entire course will include the effects of the Reformation and Counter Reformation; changing attitudes toward sexuality, and toward the lower classes or peasants; social and economic movements in the Dutch Republic; and the open market for art and the consequent development of artistic specialties—landscape, portrait and still-life. Studying the works of Pieter Bruegel, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, Pieter Saenredam, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan Vermeer and Rembrandt van Rijn, students will examine the attractions and pitfalls of the contextual analysis of works of art. The course will also address the role of present day viewers’ subjective responses when evaluating historical evidence and whether unexamined objectivity is possible or even desirable. We will also consider whether there is continued value in the notion of a period style or of an artist’s single-minded or consistent stylistic development. Specialized readings will shed light on all of these topics. Looking closely at original works of art from this period will be a crucial component of the course with special emphasis on refining our visual acuity. Two class meetings per week.

One previous course in art history or in European history strongly recommend. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13.

261. Buddhist Art of Asia. (Offered as ARHA 261 and as ASLC 260.) Visual imagery plays a central role in the Buddhist faith. As the religion developed and spread throughout Asia it took many forms. This class will first examine the appearance of the earliest aniconic traditions in ancient India, the development of the Buddha image, and early monastic centers. It will then trace the dissemination and transformation of Buddhist art as the religion reached South-East Asia, Central Asia, and eventually East Asia. In each region indigenous cultural practices and artistic traditions influenced Buddhist art. Among the topics the class will address are the nature of the Buddha image, the political uses of Buddhist art, the development of illustrated hagiographies, and the importance of pilgrimage, both in the past and the present.

Spring semester. Professor Morse.

262. From Edo to Tokyo: Japanese Art from 1600 to the Present. (Offered as ARHA 262 and ASLC 238 [J].) In 1590 the Tokugawa family founded its provincial headquarters in eastern Japan. By the eighteenth century, this castle town, named Edo (now known as Tokyo), had become the world’s largest city. This class will focus on the appearance of artistic traditions in the new urban center and compare them with concurrent developments in the old capital of Kyoto. Topics of discussion will include the revival of classical imagery during the seventeenth century, the rise of an urban bourgeois culture during the eighteenth century, the conflicts brought on by the opening of Japan to the West in the nineteenth century, the reconstruction of Tokyo and its artistic practices after the Second World War, and impact of Japanese architecture, design and popular culture over the past twenty years.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Morse.

266. Sacred Images and Sacred Space: The Visual Culture of Religion in Japan. (Offered as ARHA 266 and ASLC 261.) An interdisciplinary study of the visual culture of the Buddhist and Shinto religious traditions in Japan. The class will examine in depth a number of Japan’s most important sacred places, including Ise Shrine, Tôdaiji, Daitokuji and Mount Fuji, and will also look at the way contemporary architects such as Andô Tadao and Takamatsu Shin have attempted to create new sacred places in Japan today. Particular emphasis will be placed on the ways by which the Japanese have given distinctive form to their religious beliefs through architecture, painting and sculpture, and the ways these objects have been used in religious ritual.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Morse.

270. African Art and the Diaspora. (Offered as ARHA 270 and BLST 293 [D].) The course of study will examine those African cultures and their arts that have survived and shaped the aesthetic, philosophic and religious patterns of African descendants in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti and urban centers in North America. We shall explore the modes of transmission of African artistry to the West and examine the significance of the preservation and transformation of artistic forms from the period of slavery to our own day. Through the use of films, slides and objects, we shall explore the depth and diversity of this vital artistic heritage of Afro-Americans.

Fall semester. Professor Abiodun.

271. Modern Architecture, Design, and the Built Environment. (Offered as ARHA 271 and EUST 271.) This course considers architecture and design of the 19th and 20th centuries in light of contemporary disciplinary themes like space, globalization, and sustainability. In doing so, it strives to highlight the social, political, intellectual, and technological forces that have influenced (and continue to motivate) modern design. Key figures to be addressed include: Gottfried Semper, William Morris, Peter Behrens, Adolf Loos, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Daniel Liebeskind, Herzog and de Meuron, and Zaha Hadid. This course may include field trips to the Department of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art and to important regional buildings/sites. Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: EUST 216, EUST 364, a course in art history, studio art, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Saletnik.

272. Foundations and Integrations: Film and Media Studies. (Offered as ENGL 281, FAMS 220, and ARHA 272.) “Foundations and Integrations” will be an annual team-taught course between a Critical Studies scholar and moving-image artist. A requirement of the Film and Media Studies major, it will build on critical analysis of moving images and introductory production work to develop an integrated critical and creative practice. Focused in particular around themes and concepts, students will develop ideas in both written and visual form. The theme for spring 2012 will be “Film and Inner Life.”

Requisites: A foundations course in Critical Studies of Film and Media (such as “Coming to Terms: Cinema”) and an introductory film/video production workshop. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Hastie.

273. Modernization, Modernity, and Modernism in Europe, 1848-1918. (Offered as ARHA 273 and EUST 273.) This course considers the dynamics of European Modernism between 1848 and 1918 in relation to processes of modernization, such as technological innovation, the advent of mass culture and spectacle, and socio-political change. In tracing the history of visual culture from the introduction of photography through the rise of cinema, we will address the work of Gustave Courbet, William Henry Fox Talbot, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, Georges Méliès, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Vladimir Tatlin, and others.

Requisite: a course in art history, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Saletnik.

280. Cathedral, Crown, and City: Gothic Art. Through case studies, this course explores the art of Western Europe between 1100 and 1500. The great church, including the cathedrals of Chartres and Paris, serves as the matrix for the consideration of architecture and its integration of sculpture, stained glass, and ritual performance. Thematic surveys examine art as a political tool in the hands of the secular elite, its construction of gender roles, and its reflection of the values of medieval society.

Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Davis.

284. Women and Art in Early Modern Europe. (Offered as ARHA 284, EUST 284, and WAGS 206.) This course will examine the ways in which prevailing ideas about women and gender-shaped visual imagery, and how these images influenced ideas concerning women from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. It will adopt a comparative perspective, both by identifying regional differences among European nations and tracing changes over time. In addition to considering patronage of art by women and works by women artists, we will look at the depiction of women heroes such as Judith; the portrayal of women rulers, including Elizabeth I and Marie de’ Medici; and the imagery of rape. Topics emerging from these categories of art include biological theories about women; humanist defenses of women; the relationship between the exercise of political power and sexuality; differing attitudes toward women in Catholic and Protestant art; and feminine ideals of beauty.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Courtright.

301. The Art of Beholding. What would it be like to “behold”? Without diminishing the value of objective observation, analysis, cultural and historical positioning of works of art, this seminar will offer a working hypothesis concerning the act of “beholding” as a deliberate and disciplined means of entering into the thrall of the art of individual works of art. Learning to behold by beholding: Each member of the seminar will have the opportunity to experience and assess the power of “beholding” by way of a semester-long encounter with one painting of their choosing, including time spent with this painting in situ. We will follow the progress of each encounter in conversation and presentation during our class meetings through a series of particular focused steps leading to the direct experience of “beholding,” both individually and as a group. Our goal will be to re-imagine the possibility that artistic contemplation realized in multiple forms (not only pictorial, architectural and sculptural, but social, political, economic, religious and spiritual) is the highest aspiration of our human being in which love will have become the animating source of compassionate action. One class meeting per week.

Limited to 10 students. Fall semester. Professor Upton.

351. Renaissance Art in Italy. (Offered as ARHA 351 and EUST 351.) This course treats painting, sculpture, and architecture of the art historical periods known as the Early and High Renaissance, Mannerism, and the Counter Reformation. It will dwell upon works by artists such as Giotto, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael, Bramante, Michelangelo, and Titian in the urban centers of Florence, Rome, and Venice, art produced for patrons ranging from Florentine merchants and monks to Roman princes and pontiffs. The art itself—portraits, tombs, altarpieces, cycles of imagined scenes from history, palaces, churches, civic monuments—ranges from gravely restrained and intentionally simple to monumental, fantastically complex or blindingly splendid, and the artists themselves range from skilled artisans to ever more sought-after geniuses. Emphasis will be upon the way the form and content of each type of art conveyed ideas concerning creativity, originality, and individuality, but also expressed ideals of devotion and civic virtue; how artists dealt with the revived legacy of antiquity to develop an original visual language; how art imparted the values of its patrons and society, but also sometimes conflicted with them; and how art and attitudes towards it changed over time. Rather than taking the form of a survey, this course, based on lectures but regularly incorporating discussion, will examine in depth selected works and will analyze contemporary attitudes toward art of this period through study of the art and the primary sources concerning it. Upper level.

Requisite: One other art history course or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Courtright.

352. Images of Sickness and Healing: Research Seminar. (Offered as ARHA 352, EUST 352 and WAGS 352.) In this research seminar, we will explore how sickness and healing were understood, taking examples over centuries. We will analyze attitudes toward bodies, sexuality, and deviance—toward physical and spiritual suffering—as we analyze dreams of cures and transcendence. We will interrogate works by artists such as Grünewald, Goya, Géricault, Munch, Ensor, Van Gogh, Schiele, Cornell and Picasso, as well as images by artists in our own time: Kiki Smith, the AIDS quilt, Nicolas Nixon, Hannah Wilke, and others. Texts by Edgar Allen Poe, Sander Gilman, Roy Porter, Susan Sontag, Thomas Laquer and Caroline Walker Bynum will inspire us as well. Significant research projects with presentations in class. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Staller.

353. Myth, Ritual and Iconography in West Africa. (Offered as BLST 315 [A] and ARHA 353.) Through a contrastive analysis of the religious and artistic modes of expression in three West African societies—the Asanti of the Guinea Coast, and the Yoruba and Igbo peoples of Nigeria—the course will explore the nature and logic of symbols in an African cultural context. We shall address the problem of cultural symbols in terms of African conceptions of performance and the creative play of the imagination in ritual acts, masked festivals, music, dance, oral histories, and the visual arts as they provide the means through which cultural heritage and identity are transmitted and preserved, while, at the same time, being the means for innovative responses to changing social circumstances.

Spring semester. Professor Abiodun.

354. The History of European Printmaking from 1400-1920. This course will cover the history of printmaking in Europe from its origins in the early fifteenth century in Germany to a time just before WW II. Three major concerns will be treated throughout the semester: (1) technique. The various graphic techniques of woodcut, engraving, etching, aquatint, mezzotint and lithography will be analyzed in detail in the studio and through various historical examples. (2) history and popular culture. The history of printmaking often grows from and reflects important historical, social and political developments (early publishing, Reformation and Counter-Reformation, political upheavals throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries). We will repeatedly examine the relation between printmaking as a fine art and the wider social and political purposes it can serve. (3) aesthetics. Although the issue of color in printmaking will be considered from the sixteenth century onward, we will focus on the development of a graphic aesthetic, the beauty and power of “black lines alone,” something noted already in the sixteenth century. Among the major artists covered will be Martin Schongauer, Albrecht Dürer, Lucas van Leyden, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jacques Callot, Francisco Goya, Honore Daumier, Pablo Picasso and Kathe Kollwitz.

This will be a writing-attentive course with assignments including a critical book review, an exhibition catalog introduction and entry, an evocative essay, a biographical study, and a research paper on an individual original print. Field trips to study original prints in the Mead Art Museum will be an integral part of the course. There will also be optional field trips to the Smith College Art Museum printroom and, at the end of the semester, a trip to the Zea Mays Printmaking Studio in Florence, a rare example of a “green” printmaking studio, which avoids the traditional use of toxic chemicals in the production of prints.

Requisite: One course in art history. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Harbison.

360. Public Art and Collective Memory in the United States. (Offered as AMST 360, ARCH 359, and ARHA 360.) What is public art and what role does it play in public life and collective memory in the United States? In this course we will study art that is commissioned, paid for, and owned by the state as well as private works scaled to public encounter. A focus of our study will be the evolution of public art in Washington, D.C. (19th-21st centuries), but we will range from New York harbor to the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Great Salt Lake, and we will discuss the fate of works that, like Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc, exist today only in photographic record and documented debate. Asking whether and how public art mediates between private and public life will guide us to consider when and how it defines national or local values and why so many public art projects have aroused controversy. The course is organized around class discussion and student presentations, and it includes short papers and a paper/presentation of an independent research project. Two meetings per week.

Requisite: One course in American Studies, History, or the History of Art. Limited to 20 students. Permission required for first-year students. Spring semester. Professor Clark.

372. The John Cage Nexus: Music, Image, Text. (Offered as ARHA 372 and MUSI 304) This seminar explores the practice and influence of John Cage. Although primarily regarded as a composer of music, Cage was also a writer, publishing essays and poetry, and a printmaker of both etchings and monotypes. He moved among creative media, yet understanding Cage’s practice in this regard has been a difficult—even an anxious—endeavor. Published debates on hearing, reading, and seeing that fuel this media anxiety will underscore discussions throughout the semester as we consider Cage alongside creative influences such as Erik Satie, Marcel Duchamp, and James Joyce, and collaborators such as Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, and David Tudor. Furthermore, we will delve into the practice of contemporary artists whose work exhibits an indebtedness to Cage. This course may include a field trip to The John Cage Trust at Bard College. One class meeting per week. (NB: this course may be counted towards the music major, but it does not fulfill the seminar requirement for the major.)

Requisite: one course in art history, studio art, creative writing, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Saletnik.

373. Materiality and Meaning in Modern and Contemporary Art. This seminar explores the conceptualization and employment of matter in modern and contemporary artistic practice. Matter will be considered plainly as constituent material having mass and occupying space, but also as material means for expression, action, and the formation of thought. We will probe the material process of Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Beuys, Robert Rauschenberg, Eva Hesse, Richard Serra, Robert Irwin and other artists in context of broad understandings of these practices as performing a social or even epistemological role.

Requisite: One course in art history, studio art, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Not open to first-year students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Saletnik.

380. Museums and Society. This course considers how art museums reveal the social and cultural ideologies of those who build, pay for, work in, and visit them. We will study the ways in which art history is (and has been) constructed by museum acquisitions, exhibitions, and installation and the ways in which museums are constructed by art history by looking at the world-wide boom in museum architecture, and by examining curatorial practice and exhibition strategies as they affect American and Asian art. We will analyze the relationship between the cultural contexts of viewer and object, the nature of the translation of languages or aesthetic discourse, and the diverse ways in which art is understood as the materialization of modes of experience and communication. The seminar will incorporate visits to art museums and opportunities for independent research. One meeting per week.

Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professors Clark and Morse.

383. The Tea Ceremony and Japanese Culture. (Offered as ARHA 383 and ASLC 319.) An examination of the history of chanoyu, the tea ceremony, from its origins in the fifteenth century to the practice of tea today. The class will explore the various elements that comprise the tea environment—the garden setting, the architecture of the tea room, the forms of tea utensils, and the elements of the kaiseki meal. Through a study of the careers of influential tea masters and texts that examine the historical, religious, and cultural background to tea culture, the class will also trace how the tea ceremony has become a metaphor for Japanese culture and Japanese aesthetics both in Japan and in the West. There will be field trips to visit tea ware collections, potters and tea masters. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Morse.

385. Witches, Vampires and Other Monsters. (Offered as ARHA 385, EUST 385, and WAGS 310.) This course will explore the construction of the monstrous, over cultures, centuries and disciplines. With the greatest possible historical and cultural specificity, we will investigate the varied forms of monstrous creatures, their putative powers, and the explanations given for their existence—as we attempt to articulate the kindred qualities they share. Among the artists to be considered are Valdés Leal, Velázquez, Goya, Munch, Ensor, Redon, Nolde, Picasso, Dalí, Kiki Smith, and Cindy Sherman. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Staller.

412. The Sixties. We will investigate a series of historical events (such as the Vietnam War, the Cuban missile crisis, Stonewall, the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King) as well as the Civil Rights Movement, the rise of identity politics (Feminism, Black Power, the Brown Berets) and the counterculture. We will study the myriad art forms and their attendant ideologies invented during the decade (such as Pop, Op, Color Field, Minimalism, Land Art, Conceptual Art, Performance Art, Fluxus), as well as some crucial critics, dealers and art journals, in an effort to understand the ways in which artists rejected or appropriated, then transformed, certain themes and conceptual models of their time.

Requisite: One course in modern art or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Spring semester. Professor Staller.

Practice of Art

102. Practice of Art. An introduction to two-dimensional and three-dimensional studio disciplines with related lectures and readings. Historical and contemporary references will be used throughout the course to enhance and increase the student’s understanding of the visual vocabulary of art. How the comprehension of differing visual practices directly relates to personal investigations and interpretations within the covered disciplines of drawing, sculpture, painting, photography and printmaking. This includes applying elements of composition, weight, line, value, perspective, form, spatial concerns, color theory and graphics. Work will be developed from exercises based on direct observation and memory, realism and abstraction. Formal and conceptual concerns will be an integral aspect of the development of studio work. Class time will be a balance of lectures, demonstrations, exercises, discussions and critiques. Weekly homework assignments will consist of studio work and reading assignments. Two two-hour class sessions per week. No prior studio experience is required.

Not open to students who have taken ARHA 111 or 215. Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Resident Artist Gloman.

111. Drawing I. An introductory course in the fundamentals of drawing. The class will be based in experience and observation, exploring various techniques and media in order to understand the basic formal vocabularies and conceptual issues in drawing; subject matter will include still life, landscape, interior, and figure. Weekly assignments, weekly critiques, final portfolio. Two three-hour sessions per week.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester: Resident Artist Gloman; Visiting Lecturer Culhane. Spring semester: Resident Artist Gloman.

213. Printmaking I. An introduction to intaglio and relief processes including drypoint, engraving, etching, aquatint, monoprints, woodcut and linocut. The development of imagery incorporating conceptual concerns in conjunction with specific techniques will be a crucial element in the progression of prints. Historical and contemporary references will be discussed to further enhance understanding of various techniques. Critiques will be held regularly with each assignment; critical analysis of prints utilizing correct printmaking terminology is expected. A final project of portfolio making and a portfolio exchange of an editioned print are required.

Requisite: ARHA 102 or 111, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Fall semester: Visiting Lecturer Gross. Spring semester: Senior Resident Artist Garand.

214. Sculpture I. An introduction to the practice of sculpture in a contemporary and historical context. A series of directed projects will address various material and technical processes such as construction, modeling, casting and carving. Other projects will focus primarily on conceptual and critical strategies over material concerns. By the end of the course, students will have developed a strong understanding of basic principles of contemporary sculpture and have acquired basic skills and knowledge of materials and techniques. Further, students will be expected to have formed an awareness of conceptual and critical issues in current sculptural practice, establishing a foundation for continued training and self-directed work in sculpture and other artistic disciplines. Two three-hour class meetings per week.

Requisite: ARHA 102 or 111 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 14 students. Fall and spring semesters. Professor Keller.

215. Painting I. An introduction to the fundamentals of the pictorial organization of painting. Form, space, color and pattern, abstracted from nature, are explored through the discipline of drawing by means of paint manipulation. Slide lectures, demonstrations, individual and group critiques are regular components of the studio sessions. Two three-hour meetings per week.

Requisite: ARHA 102 or 111 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 18 students. Fall semester. Professor Sweeney.

216. Digital Constructions: Intermediate Architectural Design Studio. (Offered as EUST 216, ARCH 216, and ARHA 216.) In this intermediate architectural design studio we will explore the intellectual and creative process of making and representing architectural space. The focus will be to explore the boundaries of architecture—physically and theoretically, historically and presently—through digital media. Our process will prompt us to dissect 20th-century European architectures and urban spaces and to explore their relationships to contemporary, global issues. The capstone of the course will be a significant design project (TBD) requiring rigorous studio practices, resulting in plans, sections, elevations and digital models. This course will introduce students to various digital diagramming, drawing, and modeling software, while challenging students to question the theoretical and practical implications of these interdisciplinary media processes. This course will combine lectures, reading, discussion, and extensive studio design.

Requisite: ARHA 111. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 10 students. Spring semester. Five College Professor Long.

218. Photography I. An introduction to black-and-white still photography. The basic elements of photographic technique will be taught as a means to explore both general pictorial structure and photography’s own unique visual language. Emphasis will be centered less on technical concerns and more on investigating how images can become vessels for both ideas and deeply human emotions. Weekly assignments, weekly critiques, readings, and slide lectures about the work of artist-photographers, one short paper, and a final portfolio involving an independent project of choice. Two three-hour meetings per week.

Requisite: ARHA 102 or 111, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Fall and spring semesters. Professor Kimball.

222. Drawing II. A course appropriate for students with prior experience in basic principles of visual organization, who wish to investigate further aspects of pictorial construction using the figure as a primary measure for class work. The course will specifically involve an anatomical approach to the drawing of the human figure, involving slides, some reading, and out-of-class drawing assignments. Two two-hour meetings per week.

Requisite: ARHA 102 or 111, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 18 students. Fall semester. Professor Sweeney.

225. Image, Movement, Sound. (Offered as ARHA 225 and FAMS 225.) This course is a hands-on, in-depth exploration of the formal elements of moving images and sound. We will begin with a study of the camera, and, through in-class projects and individual assignments, we will explore framing and composition; light, color and texture; camera movement and rhythm; editing and relationships between image and sound. We will approach set-up and documentary situations from a variety of formal and conceptual perspectives. We will consider all equipment not simply as technology, but as creative tools to be explored and manipulated. Our goal is to make the camera an extension of our eyes and minds, to learn to see and think about the world around us through moving images and sound. An individual final video project will give students the opportunity to bring the concepts explored throughout the term into a work with an expressive, cohesive cinematic language. In Scenario du Film Passion, Jean-Luc Godard expresses his desire to turn a camera movement into a prayer. It is this profound engagement with the world and intense, thoughtful consideration of the medium that we seek to achieve.

Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Rivera-Moret.

230. Sculpture from the Human Figure: Subject, Symbol, Object, Presence. The human image was at the core of what are understood as the first steps into modern sculpture. We will look at the beginnings of the modernist approaches to the human image in sculpture and continue through its use by a wide variety of contemporary artists. Students will build sculptures based on the head and the figure, working from life, as well as from memory and imagination. From initial studies in clay from observation, students will move on to a variety of self-directed projects using the human image as central subject matter. Casting techniques, a range of materials, and a multiplicity of approaches to both analyzing and building form will be covered in the course. Two three-hour class meetings per week.

Requisite: At least one of the following—ARHA 111, ARHA 102, or ARHA 214. Limited to 10 students. Fall semester. Professor Keller.

303. Still and Moving Image Strategies. Common photographic and video cameras are increasingly similar but photographic and videographic imagemaking differ in significant ways. This class explores those differences. How do imagemaking artists parse varied understandings of time? What are the distinctions between how photographers and filmmakers look through a camera? How does this pragmatic distinction lead to how an imagemaker differentiates between past and present, or between nostalgia and trauma? How do photo-based artists, video artists, and artists using other media conceive of their practices differently? How does the overlap of the photographic and the videomaking tools affect the imagemaker’s practice?

In this studio class/investigation into how to “use” the camera to produce a clear artistic voice, we will investigate various existing and not-yet-existing strategies, such as “photograph as clock,” “photograph as artifact,” “stillness as motion,” and “images without images” to understand the differences. We will invite artists working to produce photographic imagery, as well as artists who work in multiple media, to speak to the class. The class will visit contemporary installations that address how video has affected photography and vice versa, and we will look back in recent art history to determine trajectory of these overlapping imagemaking tools and how they relate to varied aesthetic strategies. We will view films that deal with the photograph and discuss how the “cinematic” gaze has affected contemporary photography. Additionally, we will explore how new media hardware and software (web-based technologies, personal viewing devices, cell phone cameras) continue to affect the changing relationship between photography, video and viewers.

Requisite: ARHA 218. Recommended requisite: One course in basic video editing. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2012-13.

310. Collaborative Art: Practice and Theory of Working with a Community. This course will examine the approaches of various contemporary artists to creating collaborative work. Over the last two decades a growing number of artists have adopted a mode of working that is radically different from the usual modernist model. These artists are working as collaborators with people or groups outside the world of art—with children, senior citizens, sanitation workers, or residents of a particular neighborhood. The artists often create work with, not for a community, and share decision making with people not ordinarily given a place in the world of museums or other art world sites. The results are artworks that express a variety of social and aesthetic positions. In general, the work is intertwined with progressive educational philosophies and radical democratic theory.

Some of the issues examined will be: What is the special attraction for artists of working collaboratively? What are the roles of the artist, community, and audience? How does one attribute quality or success to collaborative projects? What is the relationship between process and product? This course will examine the work of artists working in various media, including Ewald’s methods for working with children in photography and with communities. Human rights photographer Fazal Sheikh will be in residence and working on a project in the Pioneer Valley for periods of time during the semester. Students will work with Fazal as well as completing companion projects with communities in the Amherst area. Weekly class discussions will provide students the opportunity to reflect upon their own experiences and observations as artists. They will also read about and discuss collaboration, social issues as it relates to the people they will be working with.

Requisite: One course in the practice of art. Limited to 10 students. Fall semester. Visiting Artist Ewald.

314. Cine-Eye. (Offered as ARHA 314 and FAMS 442.) How can cinema become a tool for reflection and inquiry? How do we express thought in cinema?

For filmmaker Dziga Vertov, the camera is a “Cine-Eye,” capturing, deciphering and reflecting on found reality to create its own cine-truths, apart from preceding art forms and beyond the stale conventions of traditional narrative and socially constructed realism. In his 1948 article “The birth of a new avant-garde: La caméra-stylo,” Alexandre Astruc envisions the camera as a pen to express abstract thought. Quite recently, in Terrence Malick’s fictionalized, autobiographical film, The Tree of Life, a brother’s death triggers a series of questions about the human condition that form the core of a wide-ranging, expansive film-poem with a narrative structure akin to a philosophical essay.

This advanced production seminar proposes a cinema of thought and investigation in which each filmmaker will engage the world with a reflexive eye. We will look closely at a group of films from genres that foreground inquiry and experimentation: the film essay, the political film, the diary, the notebook, the travelogue, the memoir and other hybrid forms. We will consider content, formal structure (mise-en-scene, decoupage) and the content embedded within form, to understand how these films generate a cohesive cinematic/philosophical statement. Readings by filmmakers, theorists and critics will serve as a springboard and counterpoint for our own film projects.

In addition to short group and individual projects, each student will conceptualize, develop and produce a non-fiction film during the semester. Each week, students will present their work-in-progress for class and individual discussion and critique. Prior film production experience is required.

Recommended requisite: ARHA 102 or 111. Limited to 8 students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Rivera-Moret.

315. Experiments in Narrative. (Offered as ARHA 315 and FAMS 443.) What constitutes cinematic narrative, distinct from other forms of storytelling? How do we engage film form to tell a story? Can the camera be a narrator? How can we alter a traditional narrative structure, and, what are the implications of these transformations? How can we use color to construct the subjective space of a character, or use sound to manipulate the temporal order of the story, creating flashbacks, ellipses or flash-forwards?

In this advanced production workshop we will explore cinematic narrative first by closely studying how a group of classical, experimental, and contemporary filmmakers have engaged narrative through filmic form. We will then formulate our own new cinematic narratives. Cinema is no longer restricted to the theater or the gallery. Moving images surround us—online, on our phones and screens, in the streets, and in stores, taxis, and train stations. We will consider the formal parameters of these new cinematic spaces and their possibilities. Coursework consists of film viewing, analysis and discussion, and the production of several short narrative films.

Requisite: Prior film production experience; Recommended requisite: ARHA 102 or 111. Limited to 8 students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Rivera-Moret.

323. Advanced Studio Seminar. A studio course that will emphasize compositional development by working from memory, imagination, other works of art and life. The use of a wide variety of media will be encouraged including, but not limited to, drawing, painting, printmaking and collage. Students will be required to create an independent body of work that explores an individual direction in pictorial construction. In addition to this independent project, course work will consist of slide lectures, individual and group critiques, in-class studio experiments and field trips.

Requisite: ARHA 222, 326 or 327. Limited to 8 students. Spring semester. Professor Sweeney.

324. Sculpture II. A studio course that investigates more advanced techniques and concepts in sculpture leading to individual exploration and development. Projects cover figurative and abstract problems based on both traditional themes and contemporary developments in sculpture, including: clay modeling, carving, wood and steel fabrication, casting, and mixed-media construction. Weekly in-class discussion and critiques will be held. Two two-hour class meetings per week.

Requisite: ARHA 214 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Spring semester. Professor Keller.

325. Color Photography. This course is an exploration of the materials, processes, techniques, and aesthetics of color photography. It is designed for those who already possess a strong conceptual and technical foundation in black-and-white photography. An emphasis is placed on students’ ability to express themselves clearly with the medium. Concepts and theories are read, discussed, demonstrated and applied through a series of visual problems. This course offers the opportunity for each student to design and work on an individual project for an extended period of time. This project will result in a final portfolio that reflects the possibilities of visual language as it relates to each student’s ideas, influences and personal vision. Students may work with 35mm, medium format, or U5 cameras. Student work will be discussed and evaluated in both group and individual critiques, complemented by slide presentations and topical readings of contemporary and historical photography. Two two-hour class meetings per week.

Requisite: ARHA 102 or 111 and ARHA 328 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 8 students. Omitted 2012-13.

326. Painting II. This course offers students knowledgeable in the basic principles and skills of painting and drawing an opportunity to investigate personal directions in painting. Assignments will be collectively as well as individually directed. Discussions of the course work will assume the form of group as well as individual critiques. Two three-hour class meetings per week.

Requisite: ARHA 215 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 18 students. Spring semester. Professor Sweeney.

327. Printmaking II. This course is an extension of intaglio and relief processes introduced in ARHA 213 with an introduction to lithography. Techniques involved will be drypoint, etching, engraving, aquatint, monoprints, monotypes, woodcut, linocut and stone lithography. Printmaking processes will include color printing, combining printmaking techniques and editioning. Combining concept with technique will be an integral element to the development of imagery. A final project of portfolio-making and a portfolio exchange of prints will be required. Individualized areas of investigation are encouraged and expected. In-class work will involve demonstration, discussion and critique.

Requisite: ARHA 213 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Spring semester. Senior Resident Artist Garand.

328. Photography II. A continuing investigation of the skills and questions introduced in ARHA 218. Advanced technical material will be introduced, but emphasis will be placed on locating and pursuing engaging directions for independent work. Weekly critiques, readings, and slide lectures about the work of artist-photographers, one short paper, and a final portfolio involving an independent project of choice.

Requisite: ARHA 218 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Spring semester. Professor Kimball.

329. Ideas, Influences and Vision: Building a Body of Work. An advanced level interdisciplinary studio course focused on the development of a personal and independent body of work, and the technical and conceptual problems associated with such a project. Students concentrating in any visual medium or across mediums are welcome and encouraged to enroll. Each student, in consultation with the professors, will design a semester-long project. This project will result in a final body of work or series that reflects the student’s ideas, influences and personal vision. In addition to production of this extended independent project, course work will consist of weekly group critiques, historical and topical readings, discussions, field trips and in-class studio experiments. This course is highly recommended for any ARHA major considering a senior honors project with a concentration in studio; however, it is open to any student having the necessary prerequisites.

Requisite: Two introductory level studio courses and one intermediate level studio course. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 10 students. Fall semester. Resident Artist Gloman and Professor Kimball.

Special Topics and Senior Honors

490. Special Topics. Full course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

490H. Special Topics. Half course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Preparation of a thesis or completion of a studio project which may be submitted to the Department for consideration for Honors. The student shall with the consent of the Department elect to carry one semester of the conference course as a double course weighted in accordance with the demands of his or her particular project.

Open to seniors with consent of the Department. Fall semester. The Department.

498D. Senior Departmental Honors. Preparation of a thesis or completion of a studio project which may be submitted to the Department for consideration for Honors. The student shall with the consent of the Department elect to carry one semester of the conference course as a double course weighted in accordance with the demands of his or her particular project.

Open to seniors with consent of the Department. Fall semester. The Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Preparation of a thesis or completion of a studio project which may be submitted to the Department for consideration for Honors. The student shall with the consent of the Department elect to carry one semester of the conference course as a double course weighted in accordance with the demands of his or her particular project.

Open to seniors with consent of the Department. Spring semester. The Department.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. Preparation of a thesis or completion of a studio project which may be submitted to the Department for consideration for Honors. The student shall with the consent of the Department elect to carry one semester of the conference course as a double course weighted in accordance with the demands of his or her particular project.

Open to seniors with consent of the Department. Spring semester. The Department.

Related Courses

The City: New York. See AMST 112.

Asian Languages and Civilizations

*On leave 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors Dennerline, Morse, and Tawa; Associate Professors Maxey*, Ringer, Van Compernolle, and Zamperini (Chair); Assistant Professor Sen; Senior Lecturers Kayama, Li, Miyama, Shen, and Teng; Five College Senior Lecturer in Arabic Hassan; Five College Lecturer in Japanese Brown; Five College Lecturer in Arabic Berrahmoun.

Affiliated Faculty: Professor Basu‡, Associate Professors C. Dole* and M. Heim‡.

Asian Languages and Civilizations is an interdisciplinary exploration of the histories and cultures of the peoples of Asia. Through a systematic study of the languages, societies, and cultures of the major civilizations that stretch from the Arab World to Japan, we hope to expand knowledge and challenge presuppositions about this large and vital part of the world. The purpose is to encourage in-depth study as well as to provide guidance for a general inquiry into the problem of cultural difference and its social and political implications, both within Asia and between Asia and the West.

Major Program. The major program in Asian Languages and Civilizations is an individualized interdisciplinary course of study. It includes general requirements for all majors and a concentration of courses in one area. As language study or use is an essential part of the major, language defines the area of concentration.

Aims. By graduation a concentrator in Asian Languages and Civilizations is expected to have gained a sophisticated understanding of one of the four cultural areas that make up our department. In addition, we expect students to expand their understanding of Asia by taking two classes in two of the three areas outside of their region of concentration.

Methodological skills. We expect students to have attained at least third-year competency in one Asian language. In addition to gaining broad exposure to the history and culture of one region we expect them to have acquired the facility in at least one of the disciplines represented in our curriculum.

Requirements. All majors are required to take a minimum of nine courses dealing with Asia, exclusive of first-year language courses. A major’s courses must include an area concentration (see below), and designated courses taught by area specialists broadly covering history and culture in two of the three geographic areas outside the area of concentration. Courses designated to fulfill the area distribution requirement are marked in the list of courses with [C] for China, [J] for Japan, [SA] for South Asia, and [WA] for West Asia. In addition, each student will show a certain minimum level of competence in one language, either by completing the third year of that language at Amherst or by demonstrating equivalent competence in a manner approved by the department. For graduation with a major in Asian Languages and Civilizations, a student must have a minimum B grade average for language courses taken within his or her area of concentration. Students taking their required language courses elsewhere, or wishing to meet the language requirement by other means, may be required, at the discretion of the department to pass a proficiency examination. No pass-fail option is allowed for any courses required for the departmental major.

Area Concentration. Prospective majors should consult with a member of the department as early as possible to plan a concentration. The concentration, which must be approved by the advisor, will include a language and at least four non-language courses dealing entirely or substantially with the chosen area of concentration. Advisors encourage students to enroll in relevant courses in the disciplines as well.

Comprehensive Evaluation. Majors normally fulfill the comprehensive requirement by completing the distribution requirement.

Departmental Honors Program. Students who wish to be candidates for Departmental Honors must submit a thesis proposal to the Department for its approval and, in addition to the nine required courses, enroll in ASLC 498 and 499.

Study Abroad. The Department supports a program of study in Asia during the junior year as means of developing mastery of an Asian language and enlarging the student’s understanding of Asian civilization, culture, and contemporary society. Asian Languages and Civilizations majors are therefore encouraged to spend at least one semester abroad during the junior year pursuing a plan of study which has the approval of the Department. Students concentrating on Japan should apply to Amherst College’s Associated Kyoto Program (AKP) at Doshisha University in Kyoto. Similar arrangements can be made in consultation with members of the Department for students who wish to study in China, India, Korea, or Egypt.

123. Arts of Japan. (Offered as ARHA 148 and ASLC 123.) A survey of the history of Japanese art from neolithic times to the present. Topics will include Buddhist art and its ritual context, the aristocratic arts of the Heian court, monochromatic ink painting and the arts related to the Zen sect, the prints and paintings of the Floating World and contemporary artists and designers such as Ando Tadao and Miyake Issey. The class will focus on the ways Japan adopts and adapts foreign cultural traditions. There will be field trips to look at works in museums and private collections in the region.

Spring semester. Professor Morse.

124. Chinese Civilization to 1800. (Offered as HIST 171 [ASP] and ASLC 124 [C].) A survey of Chinese history from ancient times to the eighteenth century. We will focus on texts and artifacts to explore the classical roots and historical development of Chinese statecraft, philosophy, religion, art, and literature. Using these media for evidence, we will trace the histories of inter-state relations, imperial institutions, global commerce, and family-based society through the ancient Han empire, the great age of Buddhism, the medieval period of global trade, and the Confucian bureaucratic empires that followed the Mongol world conquest. We will also compare these histories to those of European and other civilizations, considering Chinese and non-Chinese views of the past. Readings include the Analects of Confucius and other Confucian and Daoist texts, Buddhist tales and early modern fiction, selections from the classic Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), and Jonathan Spence’s Emperor of China: Self-portrait of Kangxi. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Dennerline.

126. Middle Eastern History: 600-1800. (Offered as HIST 190 [MEP] and ASLC 126 [WA].) This course surveys the history of the Middle East from the outset of the Islamic period to the beginning of the modern period. It is divided into the following segments: the formative period of Islam, the classical caliphates, the classical courts, the Mongols, and the great empires of the Ottomans and the Safavids. The course is organized chronologically and follows the making and breaking of empires and political centers; however, the focus of the course is on the intellectual, social, cultural and religious developments in these periods. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Ringer.

143. Arts of China. (Offered as ARHA 147 and ASLC 143.) An introduction to the history of Chinese art from its beginnings in neolithic times until the end of the twentieth century. Topics will include the ritual bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Chinese transformation of the Buddha image, imperial patronage of painting during the Song dynasty and the development of the literati tradition of painting and calligraphy. Particular weight will be given to understanding the cultural context of Chinese art.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Morse.

146. Modern China. (Offered as HIST 172 [AS] and ASLC 146 [C].) A survey of Chinese history from the Manchu conquest of 1644 to the present. Beginning with the successes and failures of the imperial state as it faced global economic development, expanding European empires, and internal social change, we will study the Opium War, massive nineteenth-century religious rebellions, Republican revolution and state-building, the “New Culture” movement, Communist revolution, the anti-Japanese war, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, and the problems of post-Mao reform, all with comparative reference to current events. Readings, which include a wide variety of documents such as religious and revolutionary tracts, eye-witness accounts, memoirs, and letters, are supplemented by interpretive essays and videos. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Dennerline.

148. The Modern Middle East: 1800-Present. (Offered as HIST 191 [ME] and ASLC 148 [WA].) This course surveys the history of the Middle East from 1800 to the present. The focus is threefold: following political, social and intellectual trends as they evolve over time, exploring contemporary historical and methodological debates and analysis, and introducing students to important historical literature of the period. The class is divided into modules: “From Subject to Citizen,” “Engineering a Modern Middle East,” “Nationalism and the Quest for Independence,” “Islamist Opposition,” and “Taking Sovereignty: Contemporary Debates and the Post-Modern Era.” The class is discussion-oriented and writing intensive. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Ringer.

152. Introduction to Buddhist Traditions. (Offered as RELI 152 and ASLC 152 [SA].) This course is an introduction to the diverse ideals, practices, and traditions of Buddhism from its origins in South Asia to its geographical and historical diffusion throughout Asia and, more recently, into the west. We will explore the Three Jewels—the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha—and how they each provide refuge for those suffering in samsara (the endless cycle of rebirth). We will engage in close readings of the literary and philosophical texts central to Buddhism, as well as recent historical and anthropological studies of Buddhist traditions.

Fall semester. Professor M. Heim.

173. Introduction to Medieval and Early Modern South Asia: From the Delhi Sultanates to Mughal Successor States, 1200-1800 A.D. (Offered as HIST 173 [ASP] and ASLC 173.) This course presents an introduction to major themes and developments in medieval and early modern South Asian history with a particular emphasis on the emergence and flourishing of Islamic regimes in the sub-continent. Commencing with the rise of Islam in South Asia, the course explores the evolutions of the Delhi Sultanates, syncretistic cults and sects, the Vijayanagara Empire, and the Mughal Empire, as well as the relationships between politics, religion, literature, art, and trade under these formations. Readings are drawn from both primary and secondary sources. The course aims at providing a broad overview of six centuries of sub-continental history, coupled with closer attention to select themes. Challenging both colonialist and early nationalist views of this vast period as one of stagnation and tyranny, the course seeks to demonstrate the vitality and dynamism that characterized these centuries of the second millennium. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Sen.

174. Introduction to Modern South Asian History. (Offered as HIST 174 [AS] and ASLC 174.) This survey course introduces key themes and events in the making of modern South Asia. The objective is to provide a skeletal historical narrative of the various transformations the subcontinent and its peoples experienced through the colonial and post-colonial eras. A variety of primary sources and audio and visual materials will be utilized in conjunction with excerpts from panoramic textbooks as well as portions of monographs, combining perspectives from political, social, cultural and economic history. Commencing with the transitions occurring in the middle to late 18th century, the course explores some of the major historical developments in South Asia until the present moment including the East India Company-state, colonial and imperial rule, social reform, the revolt of 1857, Indian nationalism, caste and communal conflict, and the struggles for post-colonial democracy. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Sen.

220. Reinventing Tokyo: The Art, Literature, and Politics of Japan’s Modern Capital. Offered as ASLC 220 [J] and ARCH 220.) Tokyo is the political, cultural, and economic center of Japan, the largest urban conglomeration on the planet, holding 35 million people, fully one fifth of Japan’s population. Since its founding 400 years ago, when a small fishing village became Edo, the castle headquarters of the Tokugawa shoguns, the city has been reinvented multiple times—as the birthplace of Japan’s early modern urban bourgeois culture, imperial capital to a nation-state, center of modern consumer culture, postwar democratic exemplar, and postmodern metropolis. The course will focus on the portrayals of Tokyo and its reinventions in art, literature, and politics from the end of the Edo period to the present day. It will examine the changes that took place as the city modernized and Westernized in the Meiji era, became the center of modern urban life in Japan before the Second World War, and rebuilt itself as part of the country’s economic miracle in the postwar era. As the largest human cultural creation in Japan, one that endured political upheavals, fires, earthquakes, fire-bombings and unbridled development, Tokyo has always been a complex subject. The course will use that complexity to consider how to analyze an urban environment that draws upon Japan’s long history, yet which is also one of the most modern in Asia.

Preference to majors and students with an interest in urban studies. Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professors Morse and Van Compernolle.

221. Canons and Traditions: Japanese Literature to 1750. [J] Before the emergence of print capitalism and the proliferation of books, literature was one of the repositories of cultural memory in Japan. Pre-modern authors alluded to and appropriated the writings of their predecessors as a way to bind their own creations to the great works from the past, but they also necessarily transformed the literature of their forebears in the process. A long-term perspective, stretching from the beginning of Japan’s written language to the early commercialization of literature in the eighteenth century, can best help us understand how canons, traditions, and genres emerge, develop, and become destabilized over time as part of the construction of and contestation over cultural memory. We will also examine a variety of genres, including courtly love poetry, war tales touched by many hands, Chinese verse composed by Japanese monks, theatrical forms for audiences large and small, and travel journals that overlay a literary topography on the physical landscape, among others. This course assumes no prior knowledge of Japan or Japanese, and all texts are taught using English translations.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Van Compernolle.

225. Japanese History to 1700s. (Offered as HIST 175 [ASP] and ASLC 225 [J].) This is a writing attentive survey of Japan’s history from antiquity to the early-eighteenth century. It traces political, social, and cultural developments in order to provide basic literacy in pre-modern Japanese history and a basis both for comparative history and further course work in Japanese history. Prominent themes include the rise of early polities, contact with the Chinese continent and Korean peninsula, the aristocratic culture of the Heian court and its displacement by medieval samurai rule, the role of Buddhist thought and institutions, the “warring states” period of the sixteenth-century and cosmopolitan contact with Christian Europe, the Tokugawa peace and its urban cultural forms. Throughout, we will read a variety of sources, including eighth-century mythology, aristocratic literature, chronicles of war, religious and philosophical texts, as well as modern fiction and film. Classes will combine lectures with close readings and discussions of the assigned texts. Requirements include short response papers and topical essays. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Maxey.

233. Words, Self, and Society: Japanese Literature Since 1750. [J] In the past two and a half centuries, Japan has experienced vertiginous transformations, including the rise of a money economy, the encounter with the West, rapid modernization, imperial expansion, war, defeat, democratization, and its postwar reemergence as a technological and economic superpower. This course will examine how literature has both reflected and responded to these disorienting changes. We will focus on how varied social, historical, and aesthetic contexts contribute to the pendulum swings among artistic positions: the belief that literature has an important role to play in the exploration of the relationship between society and the individual; the fascination with the very materials of artistic creation and the concomitant belief that literature can only ever be about itself; and the urgent yet paradoxical attempt, in the writing of traumas such as the atomic bombings, to capture experiences that may be beyond representation. This course assumes no prior knowledge of Japan or Japanese, and all texts are taught using English translations.

Spring semester. Professor Van Compernolle.

234. Japan on Screen. (Offered as ASLC 234 [J] and FAMS 320.) Is the concept of national cinema useful in the age of globalization? Given the international nature of cinema at its inception, was it ever a valid concept? In this course, we will consider how the nation is represented on screen as we survey the history of film culture in Japan, from the very first film footage shot in the country in 1897, through the golden age of studio cinema in the 1950s, to important independent filmmakers working today. While testing different theories of national, local, and world cinema, we will investigate the Japanese film as a narrative art, as a formal construct, and as a participant in larger aesthetic and social contexts. This course includes the major genres of Japanese film and influential schools and movements. Students will also learn and get extensive practice using the vocabulary of the discipline of film studies. This course assumes no prior knowledge of Japan or Japanese, and all films have English subtitles.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Van Compernolle.

235. An Introduction to Contemporary Chinese Cinema. (Offered as ASLC 235 [C] and FAMS 326.) In the last fifteen years, Chinese films have regularly won important awards in international film festivals. Who are the major filmmakers, actors and producers in the People’s Republic of China today? How can the recent success be traced to the Chinese film industry that has thrived since 1905? This course introduces the world of contemporary cinematic representations and discourses in the People’s Republic of China in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with a focus on how social, political and cultural changes of modern and contemporary China find their expressions in films.

By focusing on the work of directors like Zhang Yimou and Jiang Wen, Jia Zhangke and Cui zi’en, as well as Xu Jinglei and Du Haibin, we will discuss millennial utopias and dystopias, gender and transgender, modernity and cultural identity, history and memory, urban culture, relocation and social migration. Students will learn to develop a critical understanding of Chinese society and culture through film, as well as to use and analyze film language.

No previous knowledge of Chinese cinema and culture is required. Fall semester. Professor Zamperini.

238. From Edo to Tokyo: Japanese Art from 1600 to the Present. (Offered as ARHA 262 and ASLC 238 [J].) In 1590 the Tokugawa family founded its provincial headquarters in eastern Japan. By the eighteenth century, this castle town, named Edo (now known as Tokyo), had become the world’s largest city. This class will focus on the appearance of artistic traditions in the new urban center and compare them with concurrent developments in the old capital of Kyoto. Topics of discussion will include the revival of classical imagery during the seventeenth century, the rise of an urban bourgeois culture during the eighteenth century, the conflicts brought on by the opening of Japan to the West in the nineteenth century, the reconstruction of Tokyo and its artistic practices after the Second World War, and impact of Japanese architecture, design and popular culture over the past twenty years.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Morse.

240. Flowers in the Mirror: Writing Women in Chinese Literature. (Offered as ASLC 240 [C] and WAGS 240.) The focus of this course will be the study of sources authored by women throughout the course of Chinese history. We will deal with a wide range of material, from poetry to drama, from novels and short stories to nüshu (the secret script invented by peasant women in a remote area of Hunan province), from literary autobiographies to cinematic discourse. We will address the issue of women as others represent them and women as they portray themselves in terms of gender, sexuality, social class, power, family, and material culture. Focusing on issues such as foot-binding, sexuality, violence, and love, in the works of writers such as Li Qingzhao and Zhang Ailing, we will try to detect the presence and absence of female voices in the literature of different historical periods, and to understand how those literary works relate to male-authored literary works. In addition to primary sources, we will integrate theoretical work in the field of pre-modern, modern, and contemporary Chinese literature and culture.

Fall semester. Professor Zamperini.

247. Modern Japanese History from 1800 to the 2000s. (Offered as HIST 176 [AS] and ASLC 247 [J].) This course surveys the modern history of the Japanese archipelago, from the late-Tokugawa period through the rise of the modern Meiji nation-state, colonial expansion and total war. We will conclude with the postwar economic recovery and the socio-political challenges facing the Japanese nation-state in the early-2000s. Through primary documents, fiction, and film, we will explore themes including the disestablishment of the samurai class, industrialization, imperialism, feminism, nationalism, war, democracy, and consumerism. Classes will consist of lectures along with close readings and discussions. Requirements include short response papers and topical essays. Three class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Maxey.

249. China in the World, 1895-1919. (Offered as HIST 275 [AS] and ASLC 249 [C].) In 1895 the emergent Japanese empire imposed a humiliating defeat on the declining Qing empire in China, began the colonization of Korea and Taiwan, and set in motion the reformist and revolutionary trends that would shape the political culture of the Chinese nation in later times. In 1919, concessions by the Chinese warlord regime in Beijing to Japan at Versailles sparked the student movement that would further radicalize the political culture and ultimately divide the nation politically between Nationalist and Communist regimes. This course focuses on the intellectual, cultural, political, and economic issues of the era in between, when, despite the weakness of the state, the creative visions and efforts of all informed people were in line with those of progressives throughout the world. We will explore these visions and efforts, with special reference to national identities, civil society, and global integration, and we will consider their fate in wartime, Cold War, and post-Cold War Asia. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Dennerline.

252. Buddhist Life Writing. (Offered as RELI 252 and ASLC 252) From the biographies of Gotama Buddha to the autobiographies of western converts, life writing plays a central role in teaching Buddhist philosophy, practice, history, and myth. This course explores the diverse forms and purposes of Buddhist life writing in the literary and visual cultures of India, Tibet, Sri Lanka, China, Vietnam, Japan, and America. Reading the lives of eminent saints and laypersons, charismatic teachers, recluses, and political activists, the course aims to broaden understanding of how Buddhists have variously imagined the ideal life. We will pay particular attention to how literary and cultural conventions of genre guide the composition of lives.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor M. Heim

253. Theravada Buddhism. (Offered as RELI 253 and ASLC 253 [SA].) This course introduces the history and civilization of Theravada Buddhism. The Theravada (the “Doctrine of the Elders”) is the dominant form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar (Burma); in recent decades it has also found a following in other regions in Asia and the west. We will trace the Theravada’s origins as one of the earliest sectarian movements in India to its success and prestige as a religious civilization bridging South and Southeast Asia. We will also consider this tradition’s encounter with modernity and its various adaptations and responses to challenges in the contemporary world. No previous background in Buddhism is required.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Heim.

260. Buddhist Art of Asia. (Offered as ARHA 261 and as ASLC 260.) Visual imagery plays a central role in the Buddhist faith. As the religion developed and spread throughout Asia it took many forms. This class will first examine the appearance of the earliest aniconic traditions in ancient India, the development of the Buddha image, and early monastic centers. It will then trace the dissemination and transformation of Buddhist art as the religion reached South-East Asia, Central Asia, and eventually East Asia. In each region indigenous cultural practices and artistic traditions influenced Buddhist art. Among the topics the class will address are the nature of the Buddha image, the political uses of Buddhist art, the development of illustrated hagiographies, and the importance of pilgrimage, both in the past and the present.

Spring semester. Professor Morse.

261. Sacred Images and Sacred Space: The Visual Culture of Religion in Japan. (Offered as ARHA 266 and ASLC 261.) An interdisciplinary study of the visual culture of the Buddhist and Shinto religious traditions in Japan. The class will examine in depth a number of Japan’s most important sacred places, including Ise Shrine, Tôdaiji, Daitokuji and Mount Fuji, and will also look at the way contemporary architects such as Andô Tadao and Takamatsu Shin have attempted to create new sacred places in Japan today. Particular emphasis will be placed on the ways by which the Japanese have given distinctive form to their religious beliefs through architecture, painting and sculpture, and the ways these objects have been used in religious ritual.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Morse.

271. Caste in Modern South Asian History. (Offered as HIST 271 [AS] and ASLC 271.) This course seeks to understand how practices of caste have transformed over the course of modern South Asian history. It focuses on various movements opposed to caste discrimination and inequality as well as the ongoing search for social justice. The course simultaneously provides an overview of the scholarship and debates about understanding this form of social identification. Rather than studying caste in a reified manner, we will be concerned with analyzing how it articulates with various other social phenomena, like gender, class, community, and nationality, amongst others. Based on close readings of primary sources, as well as an engagement with secondary literature in history, political science, anthropology and literary studies, the course explores some of the major interpretations of the experience and practice of caste produced by historical actors and scholars until the present moment. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Sen.

292. From Civil Rights to Immigrant Rights: The Politics of Race, Nation and Migration Since World War II. (Offered as AMST 236 and ASLC 292.) This course centers ongoing struggles for social justice and liberation as a means for investigating the landscape of U.S. social formation in what many term the “post-civil rights” era. Our inquiry will begin with the youth-led movements of the late 1960s and 1970s and move through to the present day. Topics will include questions of empire, the criminalization of radical movements, the prison industrial complex, the “war on drugs,” the diversification of immigration to the United States, struggles over citizenship, migrant labor, and immigrant detention and deportation. Throughout we will pay attention to the relationships between hierarchies of gender, sexuality, race, class and nation and specific attention to the shape of contemporary debates about the issues we examine.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Five College Professor Reddy.

315. Inequalities in Contemporary China. (Offered as ANTH 315 and ASLC 315 [C].) This course examines various factors that produce inequality in mainland China, such as age, generation, gender, ethnicity, education, income, work, differences between rural and urban areas within China, and differences between China and developed countries. We will look at how Chinese citizens, state leaders, and media producers understand, portray, and produce such inequalities, and at how Chinese individuals and families try to improve their positions in the hierarchies created by such inequalities. Students will work in teams to conduct original research about particular kinds of inequalities in China, drawing on data from the instructor’s research projects. Each team will consist of at least one student experienced in statistical analysis who will analyze English-language survey data, at least one student with Chinese language skills who will translate and analyze Chinese-language interview questions and responses, and several students without Chinese language skills or statistical analysis skills who will analyze the English-language scholarly literature on particular kinds of inequality in China. It is expected that most students in this class will not have Chinese language skills or statistical analysis skills, and these skills are not required for admission to or success in the course.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Fong.

318. Contemporary Chinese Childrearing. (Offered as ANTH 318 and ASLC 318 [C].) This course examines contemporary Chinese childrearing, focusing primarily on childrearing in mainland China, but also looking for comparative purposes at childrearing among other Chinese populations, such as those in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United States. We will look at differences as well as similarities between childrearing in Chinese families of different socioeconomic statuses within China, as well as between childrearing in Chinese families and non-Chinese families. We will also look at dominant discourses within and outside of China about the nature of Chinese childrearing and ask about relationships between those discourses and the experiences of Chinese families. Students will work in teams to conduct original research about particular kinds of inequalities in China, drawing on data from the instructor’s research projects. Each team will consist of at least one student experienced in statistical analysis who will analyze English-language survey data, at least one student with Chinese language skills who will translate and analyze Chinese-language interview questions and responses, and several students without Chinese language skills or statistical analysis skills who will analyze the English-language scholarly literature on childrearing in China. It is expected that most students in this class will not have Chinese language skills or statistical analysis skills, and these skills are not required for admission to or success in the course.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Fong.

319. The Tea Ceremony and Japanese Culture. (Offered as ARHA 383 and ASLC 319.) An examination of the history of chanoyu, the tea ceremony, from its origins in the fifteenth century to the practice of tea today. The class will explore the various elements that comprise the tea environment—the garden setting, the architecture of the tea room, the forms of tea utensils, and the elements of the kaiseki meal. Through a study of the careers of influential tea masters and texts that examine the historical, religious, and cultural background to tea culture, the class will also trace how the tea ceremony has become a metaphor for Japanese culture and Japanese aesthetics both in Japan and in the West. There will be field trips to visit tea ware collections, potters and tea masters. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Morse.

325. Beyond Shangri-La: Narratives of Tibet, East and West. This course will look in depth at Asian and Western constructions of Tibetan identity in various sources and media, from Tibetan folk songs and legends to Buddhist philosophical and historical treatises, from Chinese Yuan and Ming dramas to Hollywood cinema, from Tibetan traditional art and music to some of its contemporary Western interpretations. By trying to get to the heart of Tibetan culture in this multimediatic universe, we will also try to map the ways in which, throughout different periods and at the hands of different agents, readers, and performers, “Tibet” has been constructed, invented, and deconstructed, as a site of identity, oppression, and resistance. The second part of the course will also involve sustained engagement with the Tibetan community in the Pioneer Valley, as the students will interview, in collaboration with the Shang Shung International Institute for Tibetan Studies and the Tibetan Association of Western Massachusetts, local Tibetan immigrants and collect their stories about the ways in which they identify with Tibetan culture in the North American diaspora. Course participants will give updates about their fieldwork projects, and the course will culminate in the creation of database of the oral histories and narratives of Tibetans in the Pioneer Valley.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Zamperini.

326. Enlightening Passion: Sexuality and Gender in Tibetan Buddhism. (Offered as ASLC 326 and WAGS 326.) In this course we will study the lives of prominent female teachers in Tibetan Buddhism from its inception up to the present day. Our focus will be on reconstructing the narratives of the trajectories to realization that women like Yedshe Tsogyal, Mandarava, Yid Thogma, Machig Labdron, Sera Khandro, and Ayu Khandro, among others, undertook, often at high personal and societal cost. By utilizing biographical and—as much as possible—autobiographical records (in English translation), we will analyze the religious and social aspects of these women’s choice to privilege the Vajarayana path to enlightenment, often (but not always), at the expense of more conventional and accepted lifestyles. In order to do so, we will explore in depth the meanings attached to femininity, masculinity, sexuality, and gender dynamics within Tibetan monastic and lay life.

The course will combine methodology from Buddhist studies, Tibetan studies, women and gender studies, critical theory, and literary criticism in an effort to unravel and explore the complex negotiations that Buddhist female teachers engaged in during their spiritual pursuit, in the context of traditional as well as contemporary Tibetan culture.

Recommended requisite: Previous knowledge of Tibetan culture and Buddhism. Spring semester. Professor Zamperini.

328. The Dao of Sex: Sexuality in China, Past and Present. (Offered as ASLC 328 [C] and WAGS 205.) This survey course will focus on sexual culture in China, from pre-Qin times to the present. Using various sources such as ancient medical texts, Daoist manuals, court poetry and Confucian classics, paintings and illustrated books, movies and documentaries, as well as modern and pre-modern fiction written both in the classic and vernacular languages, we will explore notions of sex, sexuality, and desire. Through the lens of cultural history and gender studies, we will try to reconstruct the genealogy of the discourses centered around sex that developed in China, at all levels of society, throughout 5,000 years. Among the topics covered will be sexual yoga, prostitution, pornography, and sex-tourism.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Priority given to Asian Studies and WAGS majors. Others admitted to balance by class year and major. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Zamperini.

329. Fashion Matters: Clothes, Bodies and Consumption in East Asia. (Offered as ASLC 329 and WAGS 313.) This course will focus on both the historical and cultural development of fashion, clothing and consumption in East Asia, with a special focus on China and Japan. Using a variety of sources, from fiction to art, from legal codes to advertisements, we will study both actual garments created and worn in society throughout history, as well as the ways in which they inform the social characterization of class, ethnicity, nationality, and gender attributed to fashion. Among the topics we will analyze in this sense will be hairstyle, foot-binding and, in a deeper sense, bodily practices that inform most fashion-related discourses in East Asia. We will also think through the issue of fashion consumption as an often-contested site of modernity, especially in relationship to the issue of globalization and world-market. Thus we will also include a discussion of international fashion designers, along with analysis of phenomena such as sweatshops.

Limited to 20 students. Priority given to ASLC and WAGS majors. Others admitted to balance by class year and major. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Zamperini.

331. Asian Studies Colloquium. A close study of a focused topic that has broad significance in Asian Studies. Normally to be team-taught by two faculty of the department. The approach will be multidisciplinary; the goal of the course will be to explore a subject of interest in Asian Studies that also has suggestive implications for issues in the humanities and social sciences.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13.

335. The World’s Oldest Novel: The Tale of Genji and Its Refractions. Written over one thousand years ago by Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari) is the supreme masterpiece of Japanese literature, a work whose influence on subsequent arts and letters in the country is impossible to exaggerate. As the world’s earliest extant prose narrative by a woman writer, the Genji has received attention in world literature and women’s studies programs. With its rich psychological portraits of desire, guilt, and memory, the work has also gained a reputation as “the world’s oldest novel.” In this course, we will read the entire Tale of Genji in English translation and engage fully with its sophistication and complexity by employing diverse critical perspectives. We will investigate both the tenth-century prose experiments that made the work possible and a number of later works in different genres so as to gain awareness of the impact of the Genji on the culture of every historical era since its composition. We will also have occasion to consider the reception of Murasaki’s masterpiece in the English-speaking world.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Van Compernolle.

341. Anthropology and the Middle East. (Offered as ANTH 331 and ASLC 341 [WA].) In an era where “terrorism” has eclipsed the nuclear fears of the Cold War and become associated with a radicalism that is portrayed as at once militant, anti-Western, and bound to a particular region (the Middle East) and religion (Islam), the task of this seminar—to examine the everyday realities of people living throughout the Middle East—has become all the more critical. Beginning with an historical eye toward the ways that the “West” has discovered, translated, and written about the “Orient,” this seminar will use anthropological readings, documentary film, and literary accounts to consider a range of perspectives on the region commonly referred to as the Middle East. Rather than attempting a survey of the entire region, the course will take a thematic approach and explore such topics as: Islam and secularism, colonialism and postcoloniality, gender and political mobilization, media and globalization, and the politics and ethics of nation building. As an anthropology course, the class will take up these themes through richly contextualized accounts of life within the region. While it is recognized that the Middle East is incredibly heterogeneous, particular attention will given to the influence and role of Islam. By the end of the seminar, students will have gained a broad understanding of some of the most pressing issues faced within the area, while at the same time grappling with advanced theoretical readings. No previous knowledge of the Middle East is assumed.

Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor C. Dole.

351. Mother India: Reading Gender and Nation in South Asia. (Offered as WAGS 366, ASLC 351, and FAMS 325.) Do you often wonder why some countries are referred to as the “motherland” and others as the “fatherland”? What and who decides how we refer to a country? In this course, we will examine seismic changes over time in gendered imaginings of the Indian subcontinent. As women stepped out of the domestic sphere to participate in the nationalist struggle of the late 19th century, the idea of the nation swayed dramatically between the nation as wife and the nation as mother in the Indian popular imagination. Readings will include novels such as Rabindranath Tagore’s Home and the World and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. We will also study a range of cinematic texts from the classic Mother India to the recent feminist film Silent Waters.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Shandilya.

352. Buddhist Ethics. (Offered as RELI 252 and ASLC 352.) A systematic exploration of the place of ethics and moral reasoning in Buddhist thought and practice. The scope of the course is wide, with examples drawn from the whole Buddhist world, but emphasis is on the particularity of different Buddhist visions of the ideal human life. Attention is given to the problems of the proper description of Buddhist ethics in a comparative perspective.

Fall semester. Professor M. Heim.

355. Early Islam: Construction of an Historical Tradition. (Offered as HIST 393 [MEP] and ASLC 355 [WA].) This course examines in depth the formative period of Islam between c. 500-680. Using predominantly primary material, we will chart the emergence, success, and evolution of Islam, the Islamic community, and the Islamic polity. The focus of this course is on understanding the changing nature over time of peoples’ understanding of and conception of what Islam was and what Islam implied socially, religiously, culturally and politically. We concentrate on exploring the growth of the historical tradition of Islam and its continued contestations amongst scholars today. This course will familiarize students with the events, persons, ideas, texts and historical debates concerning this period. It is not a course on the religion or beliefs of Islam, but a historical deconstruction and analysis of the period. This class is writing intensive. Two class meetings per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Ringer.

356. The Islamic Mystical Tradition. (Offered as RELI 285 and ASLC 356.) This course is a survey of the large complex of Islamic intellectual and social perspectives subsumed under the term Sufism. Sufi mystical philosophies, liturgical practices, and social organizations have been a major part of the Islamic tradition in all historical periods, and Sufism has also served as a primary creative force behind Islamic aesthetic expression in poetry, music, and the visual arts. In this course, we will attempt to understand the various significations of Sufism by addressing both the world of ideas and socio-cultural practices. The course is divided into four modules: central themes and concepts going back to the earliest individuals who identified themselves as Sufis; the lives and works of two medieval Sufis; Sufi cosmology and metaphysics; Sufism as a global and multifarious trend in the modern world.

Spring semester. Professor Jaffer

363. Women in the Middle East. (Offered as HIST 397 [ME], ASLC 363 [WA], and WAGS 362.) The course examines the major developments, themes and issues in woman’s history in the Middle East. The first segment of the course concerns the early Islamic period and discusses the impact of the Quran on the status of women, the development of Islamic religious traditions and Islamic law. Questions concerning the historiography of this “formative” period of Islamic history, as well as hermeneutics of the Quran will be the focus of this segment. The second segment of the course concerns the 19th- and 20th-century Middle East. We will investigate the emergence and development of the “woman question,” the role of gender in the construction of Middle Eastern nationalisms, women’s political participation, and the debates concerning the connections between women, gender, and religious and cultural traditions. The third segment of the course concerns the contemporary Middle East, and investigates new developments and emerging trends of women’s political, social and religious activism in different countries. The course will provide a familiarity with the major primary texts concerning women and the study of women in the Middle East, as well as with the debates concerning the interpretation of texts, law, religion, and history in the shaping of women’s status and concerns in the Middle East today. This class is conducted as a seminar. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Ringer.

366. The Monkey, the Outlaws, and the Stone: The Novel in Pre-modern China. [C] This course will be devoted to reading the English translations of the major Chinese novels, from the Ming dynasty Xiyouji (Journey to the West), to the Jin Ping Mei (The Plum in the Golden Vase), the Shui hu zhuan (The Water Margins), to the eighteenth-century novel Hongloumeng (The Dream of the Red Chambers. Due to the length of each individual text, only one major novel will be the focus of the course each time, though we will often include selections from other contemporary and related sources, when relevant to the overall understanding of the text under study. In spring 2013 we will read the English translation of Xiyou ji, Journey to the West. As we explore this text, uncovering its richness and complexity, we will in turn address issues such as the place of the novel in traditional Chinese literature; authorship and authority; narrative strategies and plot development; Buddhism in China and its meanings and roles in literature and art; buddhafields, paradises, and hells; Daoist and Buddhist magic; the figure and the fortune of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, in narratives past and present; ghosts, demons and exorcism; travel narratives and geographical wonders; desire, sexuality, femininity, masculinity, and their discontents. In addition to Xiyou ji, representative theoretical work in the field of pre-modern Chinese literature will be incorporated as much as possible.

Previous knowledge of Chinese literature and culture is not required. Spring semester. Professor Zamperini.

452. South Asian Feminist Cinema. (Offered as WAGS 469, ASLC 452 [SA], and FAMS 322.) How do we define the word “feminism”? Can the term be used to define cinematic texts outside the Euro-American world? In this course we will study a range of issues that have been integral to feminist theory—the body, domesticity, same sex desire, gendered constructions of the nation, feminist utopias and dystopias—through a range of South Asian cinematic texts. Through our viewings and readings we will consider whether the term “feminist” can be applied to these texts, and we will experiment with new theoretical lenses for exploring these films. Films will range from Satyajit Ray’s classic masterpiece Charulata to Gurinder Chadha’s trendy diasporic film, Bend It Like Beckham. Attendance for screenings on Monday is compulsory.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Shandilya.

459. Inside Iran. (Offered as HIST 492 [ME] and ALSC 459 [WA].) This seminar explores contemporary Iran from a historical and interdisciplinary perspective. The aim of the course is both to provide an overall understanding of the history of Iran, as well as those key elements of religion, literature, legend, and politics that together shape Iran’s understanding of itself. We will utilize a wide variety of sources, including Islamic and local histories, Persian literature, architecture, painting and ceramics, film, political treatises, Shiite theological writing, foreign travel accounts, and U.S. state department documents, in addition to secondary sources. Two class meetings per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Ringer.

462. The History and Memory of the Asia-Pacific War. (Offered as HIST 477 [AS] and ALSC 462 [J].) The varied names given to the fifteen years of war conducted by Japan—the Pacific War, the Great East Asian War, the Fifteen-Year War, World War II, and the Asian-Pacific War—reflect the conflicting perspectives that arise from that war. How has the experience of a fifteen-year war during the 1930s and 1940s shaped memory and history in Japan, East Asia, and the United States? This seminar begins with this broad question and pursues related questions: How are the memory and history of war intertwined in both national and international politics? What forms of memory have been included and excluded from dominant historical narratives and commemorative devices? How does critical historiography intersect with the politics and passions of memory? We will use oral histories, primary documents, film, and scholarship to guide our thoughts and discussions. We will begin with a brief history of Japan’s Fifteen-Year War and move on to prominent debates concerning the history and memory of that war. Short response papers and a research paper will be required. One class meeting per week.

Limited to 15 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Maxey.

470. Seminar on Modern China: The People and the State. (Offered as HIST 478 [AS] and ASLC 470 [C].) Political thinkers and activists inside China and throughout the world today puzzle over the relationship between the people and the state. Where do state functions and state control begin and end? How do the global economy, China’s increasing regional hegemony, internal migration, NGOs, rural protest, and the internet influence the relationship between the people and the state? Fundamental questions about the relationship between the people and the state have occupied thinkers and activists since the beginning of the twentieth century. Reformers in China tried to transform the imperial state into a constitutional monarchy, revolutionaries tried to create a Republic, Nationalists tried to build a “corporatist state,” and Communists tried to create a Socialist one. At each stage, the state-makers “imagined” the people, mobilized them, categorized them, and tried to control them. The people became subjects, citizens, nationals, and “the masses.” They divided themselves by native place, region, language, ethnicity, political party, class, and educational status. Chinese people in Southeast Asia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, have imagined themselves in relation to both “the ancestral land” and the colonial or national states under which they live. The process is by no means over. This seminar will focus on the problem of “imagining” and mobilizing people in China and these other states over the past century. General topics will include the ideas, the intellectual and educational context, and the mobilizations of urban and rural communities, commercial and religious groups, and NGOs. Research topics will depend on the interests of students. One class meeting per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Not open to first-year students. Spring semester. Professor Dennerline.

473. The Partition of British India: Event and Experience. (Offered as HIST 473 [AS] and ASLC 473.) This reading and writing intensive seminar explores the Partition of British India—the division of the South Asian subcontinent into the independent nation-states of India and Pakistan in 1947—as event and experience. It attends to both the high-political negotiations and disagreements that culminated in the decision to divide British India, as well as the profound and multi-faceted human consequences of the event. Themes include the transfer of power, the demand for Pakistan, communalism, riots, violence, gender, caste, migration, rehabilitation, and memory. The course will examine the different ways in which Partition affected the lives of variously defined communities of South Asian society, in the process encouraging sensitivity to how histories of Partition are written. Readings include both primary and secondary sources, and assignments include presentations, response papers, and a final research paper. One class meeting per week.

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sen.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course.

Fall and spring semesters. Members of the Department.

493. Turkey: From Empire to Republic. (Offered as HIST 493 [ME] and ASLC 493.) Turkey has a particularly complex relationship with the Ottoman Empire. On the one hand, the establishment of Turkey as a secular republic following the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire after World War I marked a watershed between empire and republic, sultan and president, subject and citizen. On the other hand, significant areas of continuity persisted. This seminar focuses on areas of rupture and continuity in order to shed light on the way that these tensions continue to impact contemporary debates surrounding secularism and the place of religion, nationalism and minority rights, and the tensions between authoritarianism and democracy. We will pay particular attention to the intellectual, social and cultural construction of modernity and to the ongoing contestations over historical memory and the Ottoman past. Students will work in consultation with the instructor on developing, articulating and researching a seminar-length (20 pp) research paper. Two class meetings per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Ringer.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Fall semester.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Spring semester.

Arabic

101. First-Year Arabic I. This year-long course introduces the basics of Modern Standard Arabic, also known as Classical Arabic. It begins with a coverage of the alphabet, vocabulary for everyday use, and essential communicative skills relating to real-life and task-oriented situations (queries about personal well-being, family, work, and telling the time). Students will concentrate on speaking and listening skills, as well as on learning the various forms of regular verbs, and on how to use an Arabic dictionary.

Limited to 18 students. Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Five College Senior Lecturer Hassan.

102. First-Year Arabic II. A continuation of ARAB 101.

Requisite: ARAB 101 or equivalent. Spring semester. Five College Senior Lecturer Hassan.

201. Second-Year Arabic I. This course expands the scope of the communicative approach, as new grammatical points are introduced (irregular verbs), and develops a greater vocabulary for lengthier conversations. Emphasis is placed on reading and writing short passages and personal notes. This second-year of Arabic completes the introductory grammatical foundation necessary for understanding standard forms of Arabic prose (classical and modern literature, newspapers, film, etc.) and making substantial use of the language.

Requisite: ARAB 102 or equivalent. Fall semester. Five College Senior Lecturer Hassan.

202. Second-Year Arabic II. Continued conversations at a more advanced level, with increased awareness of time-frames and complex patterns of syntax. Further development of reading and practical writing skills.

Requisite: ARAB 201 or equivalent or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Five College Senior Lecturer Hassan.

301. Third-Year Arabic I. This year-long course continues the study of Modern Standard Arabic. The course concentrates on all four skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students will read and discuss authentic texts by writers throughout the Arab world. Topics address a variety of political, social, religious, and literary themes and represent a range of genres, styles, and periods.

Requisite: ARAB 202 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13.

302. Third-Year Arabic II. A continuation of ARAB 301, this year-long course continues the study of Modern Standard Arabic. The course concentrates on all four skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students will read and discuss authentic texts by writers throughout the Arab world. Topics address a variety of political, social, religious, and literary themes and represent a range of genres, styles, and periods.

Requisite: ARAB 301 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13.

401. Fourth Year Arabic—Media Arabic. Media Arabic is an advanced language course at the 400 level. Students are required to complete a set amount of material during the semester. Media Arabic introduces the language of print and the Internet news media to students of Arabic seeking to reach the advanced level. It makes it possible for those students to master core vocabulary and structures typical of front-page news stories, recognize various modes of coverage, distinguish fact from opinion, detect bias and critically read news in Arabic. The course enables students to read extended texts with greater accuracy at the advanced level by focusing on meaning, information structure, language form, and markers of cohesive discourse. The prerequisite for Media Arabic is the equivalent of three years of college-level Arabic study in a classroom course that includes both reading/writing skills and speaking/listening skills. The final grade is determined by participation and assignments, two term-papers and a final paper, a final written exam, an oral presentation and a comprehensive oral exam. Participation in the program requires significant independent work and initiative.

Requisite: ARAB 302 or equivalent. Fall semester. Five College Senior Lecturer Hassan.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course.

Fall and spring semester. Five College Teachers of Arabic.

Chinese

101. First-Year Chinese I. This course, along with CHIN 102 in the spring semester, is an elementary introduction to Mandarin Chinese offered for students who have no Chinese-speaking backgrounds. The class takes an integrated approach to basic language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and it emphasizes pronunciation and the tones, Chinese character handwriting, and the most basic structure and patterns of Chinese grammar. The class meets five times per week (lectures on MWF and drill sessions on TTh).

Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Li.

102. First-Year Chinese II. A continuation of CHIN 101. By the end of the course, students are expected to have a good command of Mandarin pronunciation, the basic grammar structures, an active vocabulary of 700 Chinese characters, and basic reading and writing skills in the Chinese language. The class meets five times per week (lectures on MWF and drill sessions on TTh). This course prepares students for CHIN 201 (Second-year Chinese I).

Requisite: CHIN 101 or equivalent. Limited to 30 students. Discussion sections limited to 8 students. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Li.

201. Second-Year Chinese I. This course is designed for students who have completed first-year Chinese classes. The emphasis will be on the basic grammatical structures. The course reinforces the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) through vigorous drills and practices. There will be two class meetings and two drill sessions each week.

Requisite: CHIN 102 or equivalent. Limited to 28 students, maximum enrollment of 4 students per section. Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Teng.

202. Second-Year Chinese II. This course is a continuation of CHIN 201. By the end of the semester, most of the basic grammatical structures will be addressed. This course continues to help students develop higher proficiency level on the four skills. Class will be conducted mostly in Chinese. There will be three meetings and two drill sessions each week. This course prepares students for CHIN 301.

Requisite: CHIN 201 or equivalent. Limited to 28 students, maximum enrollment of 8 students per discussion section. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Teng.

301. Third-Year Chinese I. This course is designed to expose students to more advanced and comprehensive knowledge of Mandarin Chinese, with an emphasis on both linguistic competence and communicative competence. Expanding of vocabulary and development of reading comprehension will be through different genres of authentic texts. Students will be trained to write short essays on a variety of topics. Three class hours are supplemented by two drill sessions.

Requisite: CHIN 104, 202 or equivalent. Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Shen.

302. Third-Year Chinese II. A continuation of CHIN 301, a modern Chinese reading and writing course at the advanced level. Development of the basic four skills will continue to be stressed. It will emphasize both linguistic competence and communicative competence. Acquisition of additional characters will be through authentic readings of different genres. More training will be given on writing with more precision and details. Three class hours are supplemented by two drill sessions. This course prepares students for CHIN 401.

Requisite: CHIN 301 or equivalent. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Shen.

401. Fourth-Year Chinese I. This course is designed for students who have completed three years of Chinese at the college level. The emphasis is on building substantial sophisticated vocabulary and reading various genres of writings and literary works like newspaper articles, essays, and short novels, etc. Development of a higher level of proficiency of the four skills will be stressed through class discussions, writing compositions, listening to TV news clips and watching movies that are supplemental to the themes of the reading materials. Class will be conducted entirely in Chinese. There will be three class meetings each week.

Requisite: CHIN 302 or equivalent. Admission with the consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Shen.

402. Fourth-Year Chinese II. This course is a continuation of CHIN 401. More advanced authentic texts of different genres of writings and literary works will be introduced to students. Development of a higher level of proficiency of the four skills will be stressed through class discussions, writing compositions, listening to TV news clips and watching movies that are supplemental to the themes of the reading materials. Class will be conducted entirely in Chinese. There will be three class meetings each week.

Requisite: CHIN 401 or equivalent. Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Shen.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course.

Fall and spring semester. Members of the Department.

Japanese

101. Introduction to the Japanese Language. This course is designed for students who have never previously studied Japanese. The course will introduce the overall structure of Japanese, basic vocabulary, the two syllabaries of the phonetic system, and some characters (Kanji). The course will also introduce the notion of “cultural appropriateness for expressions,” and will provide practice and evaluations for all four necessary skills—speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Students will be required to practice with the materials that are on the course website at the college. Two group meetings and two individualized or small group evaluations per week are normally required throughout the semester.

Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Kayama and Professor Tawa.

102. Building Survival Skills in Japanese. This course is a continuation of JAPA 101. The course will emphasize active learning by each student in the class by means of the materials in the course website and individualized or small group discussions with the instructor. Small groups based on the students’ proficiency levels will be formed, so that instruction accords with the needs of each group. By the end of this course, students are expected to be familiar with most basic Japanese structures, to have acquired a substantial vocabulary, and to have gained sufficient speaking, listening, reading, and writing proficiency levels, which will enable the students to survive using Japanese in Japan. As for literacy, a few hundred new characters (Kanji) will be added by reading and writing longer passages. Two group meetings and two individualized or small group evaluations per week are normally required throughout the semester.

Requisite: JAPA 101 or equivalent. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Kayama and Five-College Lecturer Brown.

103. Review and Progress in Japanese. This course is designed for students who have already begun studying Japanese in high school, other schools, or at home before coming to Amherst, but have not finished learning basic Japanese structures or acquired a substantial number of characters (Kanji). This course is also for individuals whose proficiency levels of the four skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) are uneven to a noticeable degree. Small groups based on the students’ proficiency levels will be formed, so that instruction accords with the needs of each group. Students will be required to practice with the materials that are on the course website at the college. Two group meetings and two individualized or small group evaluations per week are normally required throughout the semester.

Requisite: Some Japanese instruction in high school, home, or college. Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Miyama, Five-College Lecturer Brown, and Professor Tawa.

104. Beyond Basic Japanese. This course is a continuation of JAPA 101. The course will emphasize active learning from each student in the class by the use of the materials on the course website and individual or small group discussions with the instructor. By the end of this course, students are expected to be able to use basic Japanese structures with a substantial vocabulary and to have attained post-elementary speaking, listening, reading, and writing proficiency levels. As for literacy, a few hundred new characters (Kanji) will be added by reading and writing longer passages. Small groups based on the students’ proficiency levels will be formed, so that instruction accords with the needs of each group. Students will be required to practice with the materials that are on the course website at the college. Two group meetings and two individualized or small group evaluations per week are normally required throughout the semester.

Requisite: JAPA 101 or equivalent. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Kayama and Professor Tawa.

201. Communicating in Sophisticated Japanese. This course is designed for students who have completed the acquisition of basic structures of Japanese and have learned a substantial number of characters (Kanji) and are comfortable using them spontaneously. The course will emphasize the development of all four skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) at a more complex, multi-paragraph level. For example, students will be trained to speak more spontaneously and with cultural appropriateness in given situations using concrete as well as abstract expressions on a sustained level of conversation. As for literacy, students will be given practice reading and writing using several hundred characters (Kanji). Small groups based on the students’ proficiency levels will be formed, so that instruction accords with the needs of each group. Students will be required to practice with the materials that are on the course website at the college. Two group meetings and two individualized or small group evaluations per week are normally required throughout the semester.

Requisite: JAPA 102 or 104, or equivalent. Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Miyama, Five-College Lecturer Brown, and Professor Tawa.

202. Experience with Authentic Japanese Materials. This course is a continuation of JAPA 201. The course will provide sufficient practice of reading authentic texts and viewing films to prepare for the next level, JAPA 301, in which various genres of reading and films will be introduced. Throughout the course, the development of more fluent speech and stronger literacy will be emphasized by studying more complex and idiomatic expressions. Acquisition of an additional few hundred characters (Kanji) will be part of the course. The class will be conducted mostly in Japanese. Small groups based on the students’ proficiency levels will be formed, so that instruction accords with the needs of each group. Students will be required to practice with the materials that are on the course website at the college. Two group meetings and two individualized or small group evaluations per week are normally required throughout the semester.

Requisite: JAPA 201 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Tawa and Senior Lecturer Miyama.

209H. Conquering Kanji I. Japanese uses three different writing systems, one of which is called Kanji, with characters that were borrowed from China. A linguist, R.A. Miller (1986) in his book Nihongo (Japanese), writes: “The Japanese writing system is, without question, the most complicated and involved system of script employed today by any nation on earth; it is also one of the most complex orthographies ever employed by any culture anywhere at any time in human history.” The difficulty lies not merely in the number of characters that students must learn (roughly a couple of thousand), but also in the unpredictable nature of the ways these characters are used in Japanese. It is not possible in regular Japanese language classes to spend very much time on the writing system because the students must learn other aspects of the language in a limited number of class hours. This writing system is, however, not impossible to learn. In this half course, the students will learn the Japanese writing system historically and metacognitively, in group as well as individual sessions, and aim to overcome preconceived notions of difficulty related to the learning of Kanji. Each student in this class is expected to master roughly 500 Kanji that are used in different contexts.

Requisite: JAPA 104 or its equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Tawa.

210H. Conquering Kanji II. This half course serves either as continuation of JAPA 209H or the equivalent of 209H. See JAPA 209H for the course content.

Requisite: JAPA 104 or its equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Tawa.

301. Introduction to Different Genres of Japanese Writing and Film. This course will introduce different genres of writing: short novels, essays, newspaper and magazine articles, poems, expository prose, scientific writings, and others. Various genres of films will also be introduced. Development of higher speaking and writing proficiency levels will be focused upon as well. The class will be conducted entirely in Japanese. Small groups based on the students’ proficiency levels will be formed, so that instruction accords with the needs of each group. Students will be required to practice with the materials that are on the course website at the college. Two group meetings and two individualized or small group evaluations per week are normally required throughout the semester.

Requisite: JAPA 202 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Tawa.

302. Moving From “Learning to Read” to “Reading to Learn” in Japanese. This course will be a continuation of JAPA 301. Various genres of writing and film, of longer and increased difficulty levels, will be used to develop a high proficiency level of reading, writing, speaking, and listening throughout the semester. At this level, the students should gradually be moving from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” This important progression will be guided carefully by the instructor. Small groups based on the students’ proficiency levels will be formed, so that instruction accords with the needs of each group. Students will be required to practice with the materials that are on the course website at the college. Two group meetings and two individualized or small group evaluations per week are normally required throughout the semester.

Requisite: JAPA 301 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Tawa.

401. Introduction to Thematic Reading and Writing. This course is designed for the advanced students of Japanese who are interested in readings and writings on topics that are relevant to their interests. Each student will learn how to search for the relevant material, read it, and summarize it in writing in a technical manner. The course will also focus on the development of a high level of speaking proficiency. Small groups based on the students’ proficiency levels will be formed, so that instruction accords with the needs of each group. Two group meetings and two individualized or small group evaluations per week are normally required throughout the semester.

Requisite: JAPA 302 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Tawa.

402. Thematic Reading and Writing. This course is a continuation of JAPA 401. In addition to learning how to search for the relevant material, read it with comprehension, and produce a high level of writing, the students will learn to conduct a small research project in this semester. The course will also focus on the development of a high level of speaking proficiency through discussions with classmates and the instructor. Small groups based on the students’ proficiency levels will be formed, so that instruction accords with the needs of each group. Two group meetings and two individualized or small group evaluations per week are normally required throughout the semester.

Requisite: JAPA 401 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Tawa.

411. Introduction to Great Books and Films in the Original. This course is designed for students who possess a high proficiency level of speaking but need training in cover-to-cover book reading or film comprehension. Class materials will be selected from well-known books and films. Writing assignments will be given to develop critical and creative writing skills in Japanese. Small groups based on the students’ proficiency levels will be formed, so that instruction accords with the needs of each group. Two group meetings and two individualized or small group evaluations per week are normally required throughout the semester.

Requisite: JAPA 402 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Tawa.

412. Great Books and Films in the Original. This course is a continuation of JAPA 411. The course is designed for students who possess a high proficiency level of speaking but need training in cover-to-cover reading or film comprehension. Class materials will be selected from well-known books and films. Writing assignments will be given to develop critical and creative writing skills in Japanese. Small groups based on the students’ proficiency levels will be formed, so that instruction accords with the needs of each group. Two group meetings and two individualized or small group evaluations per week are normally required throughout the semester.

Requisite: JAPA 411 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Tawa.

490. Special Topics. Full course. Fall and spring semesters.

490H. Special Topics. Half course. Fall and spring semester.

Astronomy

Astronomy was the first science, and it remains today one of the most exciting and active fields of scientific research. Opportunities exist to pursue studies both at the non-technical and advanced levels. Non-technical courses are designed to be accessible to every Amherst student: their goal is to introduce students to the roles of quantitative reasoning and observational evidence, and to give some idea of the nature of the astronomical universe. These courses are often quite interdisciplinary in nature, including discussion of issues pertaining to biology, geology and physics. Advanced courses are offered under the aegis of the Five College Astronomy Department, a unique partnership among Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke and Hampshire Colleges and the University of Massachusetts. As a result of this partnership, students can enjoy the benefits of a first-rate liberal arts education while maintaining association with a research department of international stature. Students may pursue independent theoretical and observational work in association with any member of the department, either during the academic year or summer vacation.

Advanced students pursue a moderate study of physics and mathematics as well as astronomy. A joint Astronomy Department provides instruction at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts. Introductory courses are taught separately at each of the five institutions; advanced courses are taught jointly. ASTFC indicates courses offered by the Five College Astronomy Department. These courses are listed in the catalogs of all the institutions. The facilities of all five institutions are available to departmental majors. (See description under ASTR 498, 499.) Should the needs of a thesis project so dictate, the Department may arrange to obtain special materials from other observatories.

Major Program. The minimum requirements for the rite major are two Astronomy courses at the 200-level, two Astronomy courses at the 300-level or higher, PHYS 123 and 124, and MATH 111 and 121. Students intending to apply for admission to graduate schools in astronomy are warned that the above program is insufficient preparation for their needs. They should consult with the Department as early as possible in order to map out an appropriate program.

Students even considering a major in Astronomy are strongly advised to take MATH 111, PHYS 123, and some Astronomy during the first year. The sequence of courses and their requisites is such that failure to do so would severely limit a student’s options. All Astronomy majors must pass a written comprehensive examination in the second semester of their senior year.

The Website for the Five College Astronomy Department is http://www.astro.umass.edu/index.php?id=fcad.

111. Introduction to Modern Astronomy. A course reserved exclusively for students not well-versed in the physical sciences. The properties of the astronomical universe and the methods by which astronomers investigate it are discussed. Topics include the nature and properties of stars, our Galaxy, external galaxies, cosmology, the origin and character of the solar system, and black holes. Three one-hour lectures per week.

Limited to 35 students. No student who has taken any upper-level math or science course and received a grade of B or higher in either high school or college, will be admitted. Spring semester. Professor TBA.

473. Reading Course. Students electing this course will be required to do extensive reading in the areas of astronomy and space science. Two term papers will be prepared during the year on topics acceptable to the Department.

Open to Seniors. Omitted 2012-13.

474. Reading Course. Students electing this course will be required to do extensive reading in the areas of astronomy and space science. Two term papers will be prepared during the year on topics acceptable to the Department.

Open to seniors. Omitted 2012-13. The Department.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Opportunities for theoretical and observational work on the frontiers of science are available in cosmology, cosmogony, radio astronomy, planetary atmospheres, relativistic astrophysics, laboratory astrophysics, gravitational theory, infrared balloon astronomy, stellar astrophysics, spectroscopy, and exobiology. Facilities include the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, the Laboratory for Infrared Astrophysics, balloon astronomy equipment (16-inch telescope, cryogenic detectors), and modern 24- and 16-inch Cassegrain reflectors. An Honors candidate must submit an acceptable thesis and pass an oral examination. The oral examination will consider the subject matter of the thesis and other areas of astronomy specifically discussed in Astronomy courses.

Open to seniors. Required of Honors students. Fall semester. The Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Opportunities for theoretical and observational work on the frontiers of science are available in cosmology, cosmogony, radio astronomy, planetary atmospheres, relativistic astrophysics, laboratory astrophysics, gravitational theory, infrared balloon astronomy, stellar astrophysics, spectroscopy, and exobiology. Facilities include the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, the Laboratory for Infrared Astrophysics, balloon astronomy equipment (16-inch telescope, cryogenic detectors), and modern 24- and 16-inch Cassegrain reflectors. An Honors candidate must submit an acceptable thesis and pass an oral examination. The oral examination will consider the subject matter of the thesis and other areas of astronomy specifically discussed in Astronomy courses.

Open to seniors. Required of Honors students. Spring semester. The Department.

Biochemistry and Biophysics

*On leave 2012-13.

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Advisory Committee: Professors O’Hara, Poccia, Ratner‡, and Williamson; Associate Professors Bishop (Chair), Goutte†, and Loinaz; Assistant Professors Carter, Jaswal*, and Kan.

Biochemistry and Biophysics is an interdisciplinary major that integrates the three disciplines of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, using the principles of chemistry and physics to explain and explore biological phenomena.

Major Program: A student in the major takes six foundational courses in the three disciplines as well as three additional courses to develop a more advanced understanding along either a more biophysical or biochemical track. Students develop their expertise by the election of two courses from a list of electives, at least one of which is a biology course with a lab. Two advanced courses complete coursework for the major.

The six foundational courses are CHEM 151/155, CHEM 161, BIOL 191, BIOL 251/291, PHYS 116/123, and PHYS 117/124.

The three additional courses depend on which track a student elects. Students who are on the Biophysics Track will take MATH 140/272/335/PHYS 227; PHYS 225/CHEM 351; and PHYS 230/CHEM 361. Students who are on the Biochemistry Track will take CHEM 221, BIOL 331, and PHYS 230/CHEM 361.

Two electives are then chosen, at least one of which must be a laboratory course in biology. In the Biophysics Track, the electives include BIOL 251, BIOL 271, BIOL 291, BIOL 301, BIOL 310, BIOL 321, BIOL 331, BIOL 351, BIOL 381, CHEM 221, CHEM 330, COSC 111, COSC 112, MATH 211, MATH 260, MATH 335, or PHYS 343. In the Biochemistry Track, the electives include BIOL 220, BIOL 241, BIOL 251, BIOL 271, BIOL 291, BIOL 301, BIOL 310, BIOL 321, BIOL 351, BIOL 370, BIOL 381, CHEM 231, COSC 111, MATH 140, MATH 272, or MATH 335. Other courses not listed here may satisfy this elective upon approval by the Advisory Committee.

The two required advanced courses are BCBP 400/CHEM 400/PHYS 400/BIOL 400 and an advanced seminar such as BIOL 404/BCBP 405 or CHEM 408/BCBP 408. Thesis work (BCBP 498/498D) or Five College Courses (with approval) may also serve as upper level seminars to complete the major.

Special Topics Course BCPB 490 may be elected for students who wish an intensive laboratory or research tutorial in Biochemistry and Biophysics with individual members of the faculty.

For completion of the major, a comprehensive requirement consists of attendance at and presentation to a Biochemistry and Biophysics seminar series.

Departmental Honors Program: Some majors may elect to pursue an independent research project that enables them the opportunity to graduate with honors. Candidates for the degree with honors should elect Biochemistry and Biophysics (BCBP) 498 and 499D.

281. Molecular Genetics. (Offered as BIOL 251 and BCBP 281) A study of the molecular mechanisms underlying the transmission and expression of genes. DNA replication and recombination, RNA synthesis and processing, and protein synthesis and modification will be examined. Both prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems will be analyzed, with an emphasis upon the regulation of gene expression. Application of modern molecular methods to biomedical and agricultural problems will also be considered. The laboratory component will focus upon recombinant DNA methodology. Four classroom hours and four hours of laboratory per week; some laboratory exercises may require irregular hours.

Requisite: BIOL 191 or equivalent. Limited to 30 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Ratner.

291. Cell Structure and Function. (Offered as BIOL 291 and BCBP 291) An analysis of the structure and function of cells in plants, animals, and bacteria. Topics to be discussed include the cell surface and membranes, cytoskeletal elements and motility, cytoplasmic organelles and bioenergetics, the interphase nucleus and chromosomes, mitosis, meiosis, and cell cycle regulation. Four classroom hours and three hours of laboratory per week.

Requisite: BIOL 191 and completion of, or concurrent registration in, CHEM 161. Limited to 24 students. Spring semester. Professor Poccia.

310. Structural Biochemistry. (Offered as BIOL 310 and BCBP 310.) This course will concentrate on the structure of proteins at the atomic level. It will include an introduction to methods of structure determination, to databases of structural information, and to publicly available visualization software. These tools will be used to study some class of specific structures, (such as membrane, nucleic acid binding, regulatory, structural, or metabolic proteins). These proteins will provide the framework for discussion of such concepts as domains, motifs, molecular motion, structural homology, etc., as well as addressing how specific biological problems are solved at the atomic level. Four classroom hours per week plus one hour discussion.

Requisite: BIOL 191 and CHEM 161; CHEM 221 would be helpful but is not required. Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Williamson.

331. Biochemistry. (Offered as BIOL 331, BCBP 331, and CHEM 331.) Structure and function of biologically important molecules and their role(s) in life processes. Protein conformation, enzymatic mechanisms and selected metabolic pathways will be analyzed. Additional topics may include: nucleic acid conformation, DNA/protein interactions, signal transduction and transport phenomena. Four classroom hours and four hours of laboratory work per week. Offered jointly by the Departments of Biology and Chemistry. A student may not receive credit for both BCBP/BIOL/CHEM 331 and CHEM 330.

Requisite: CHEM 221 and BIOL 191; or consent of the instructor. CHEM 231 is a co-requisite. Spring semester. Limited to 45 students. Professors Williamson (Biology) and Bishop (Chemistry).

400. Molecular and Cellular Biophysics. (Offered as PHYS 400, BIOL 400, BCBP 400, and CHEM 400.) How do the physical laws that dominate our lives change at the small length and energy scales of individual molecules? What design principles break down at the sub-cellular level and what new chemistry and physics becomes important? We will answer these questions by looking at bio-molecules, cellular substructures, and control mechanisms that work effectively in the microscopic world. How can we understand both the static and dynamic shape of proteins using the laws of thermodynamics and kinetics? How has the basic understanding of the smallest molecular motor in the world, ATP synthase, changed our understanding of friction and torque? We will explore new technologies, such as atomic force and single molecule microscopy that have allowed research into these areas. This course will address topics in each of the three major divisions of Biophysics: bio-molecular structure, biophysical techniques, and biological mechanisms.

Requisite: CHEM 161, PHYS 116/123, PHYS 117/124, BIOL 191 or evidence of equivalent coverage in pre-collegiate courses. Fall semester. Professors Carter and Williamson.

405. Seminar in Biochemistry. (Offered as BIOL 404 and BCBP 405) The topic of this advanced seminar will be cholesterol. It has been said that more Nobel prizes have been awarded for the study of cholesterol than any other biological topic, yet it is astonishing how much we have learned only in the last few years, and how much we still don’t understand. The topics in this course will include biosynthesis, transport, regulation, physiology, and biophysics of cholesterol. In many cases, these subjects illuminate or are illuminated by cholesterol-related diseases, so the biochemical bases for high cholesterol medications and for a genetic propensity for getting heart disease from eating broccoli are likely to come up. The course will be based on the scientific literature, and will include writing and presentation assignments.

Requisite: BIOL 191 and 291 or 331 or equivalent. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Williamson.

408. Seminar in Chemical Biology: The Chemistry/Biology Interface. (Offered as CHEM 408 and BCBP 408.) This advanced seminar will focus on the ways in which chemical approaches have been used to study and engineer biological systems. We will explore a series of case studies in which the tools of chemistry have been brought to bear on biological questions and seek to answer the following: Did the application of small molecules that were designed and synthesized by chemists allow the researchers to elucidate biological phenomena that would have remained opaque using genetic and biochemical approaches? Do the findings suggest further experiments? If so, could follow-up experiments be carried out with known techniques, or would development of further chemical tools be required? Topics will include: the design and synthesis of chemical modulators of gene expression, signal transduction, and protein-protein interactions; chemical approaches to protein engineering and drug-target validation; activity-based proteomics; and chemical tagging of biomolecular targets. Readings will draw heavily from the primary scientific literature. Students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions, to write, and to present their work to the class. This course can be used to fulfill either the elective requirement for the CHEM major or the seminar requirement for the BCBP major. Two eighty-minute classes per week.

Requisite: CHEM 231. Recommended requisite: CHEM 330 or 331. Fall semester. Professor Bishop.

490. Special Topics. Fall and spring semesters.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Fall semester.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. A double course. Spring semester.

Biology

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors S. George†, Goutte†, Poccia, Ratner‡, Temeles and Williamson; Professor Emeritus Zimmerman; Associate Professors Clotfelter†, Hood† and Miller (Chair); Assistant Professors Graf, Trapani and Purdy; Visiting Assistant Professor Levin; Croxton Lecturer Koo; Lab Coordinator Emerson.

The Biology curriculum is designed to meet the needs of students preparing for postgraduate work in biology or medicine, as well as to provide the insights of biology to other students whose area of specialization lies outside biology.

Courses for Non-Major Students. BIOL 104, 106, 108, 110 and 114 each focus on a particular topic within biology and are specifically intended for students who do not major in biology. These courses will not count toward the Biology major and do not meet the admission requirements for medical school. The two semesters of introductory biology (BIOL 181 and 191) may also be taken by non-majors who wish a broad introduction to the life sciences.

Major Program. The Biology major consists of three categories:

1. Two introductory biology courses (BIOL 181 and 191);

2. Two courses in chemistry (CHEM 151 or 155 and CHEM 161 or above) and two courses in mathematics and/or physics at the level of MATH 111 and PHYS 116 or above. Students with Advanced Placement scores may satisfy the requirement by taking upper-level courses;

3. Five additional courses in biology, not including Special Topics and courses numbered below BIOL 181, chosen according to each student’s needs and interests, subject to three constraints: First, at least three of the five must be laboratory courses. These laboratory courses are BIOL 241, 251, 271, 281, 291, 301, 321, 331, 351 and 381. Second, effective beginning with the class of 2014, Biology majors who do not complete an Honors thesis must take a seminar course as one of these five courses. These seminar courses are BIOL 404, 410, 420, 424, 430, 434, 440, 444 and 450. Third, the five courses must include at least one course in each of the following three areas:

a) Molecular and cellular mechanisms of life processes: Molecular Genetics (BIOL 251), Cell Structure and Function (BIOL 291), Molecular Neurobiology (BIOL 301), Structural Biochemistry (BIOL 310), Biochemistry (BIOL 331) and Biophysics (BIOL 400);

b) Integrative processes that show the relationship between molecular mechanisms and macroscopic phenomena: Developmental Biology (BIOL 220), Genetic Analysis of Biological Processes (BIOL 241), Animal Physiology (BIOL 260), Microbiology (BIOL 271), The Molecular Biology of Cancer (BIOL 340), Neurophysiology (BIOL 351), Neurobiology of Disease (BIOL 360), Immunology (BIOL 370), Genome Biology (BIOL 380) and Genome Biology With Lab (BIOL 381)

c) Evolutionary explanations of biological phenomena: Ecology (BIOL 230), Animal Behavior (BIOL 281), Evolutionary Biology (BIOL 320) and Evolutionary Biology With Lab (BIOL 321).

All Biology majors will take a Senior Comprehensive Examination administered by the Department. All majors are strongly encouraged to attend Departmental seminars (Mondays 3:30-4:30 p.m.); attendance is required for senior majors.

Most students should begin with BIOL 181 in the spring semester of their first year and BIOL 191 in the fall semester of their sophomore year. This will require completing MATH 111 and CHEM 151—or their equivalents—in the student’s first year. Students with a Biology AP score of 5 who wish to place out of either course must first seek permission from the Biology Department. Students placing out of BIOL 181 must substitute a course from category 3c (evolutionary explanations); students placing out of BIOL 191 must substitute a course from category 3a (molecular and cellular mechanisms). Students placing out of BIOL 181 or BIOL 191, or in exceptional cases both, must take a minimum of four semesters of laboratory work (one intro and three upper-level labs or four upper-level labs).

CHEM 151 and/or CHEM 161 are requisites for several Biology courses. Students are therefore encouraged to take CHEM 151 or 155 in the fall of their first year, particularly students whose planned courses emphasize integrative processes or cellular and molecular mechanisms. Students preparing for graduate study in life sciences should consider taking CHEM 221 and 231, PHYS 117, and a course in statistics in addition to the minimum requirements for the Biology major. Note that CHEM 221 and 231 are requisites for BIOL 331, and that prior completion of PHYS 117 or 124 is recommended for BIOL 351.

Please note that courses taken as pass/fail cannot be counted toward the major. This includes biology courses as well as ancillary courses (i.e., chemistry, physics, and math). Also, a Biology course cannot be counted towards the Biology major if it is also being used to meet the requirements of another major, unless the course in question is required by both majors.

Departmental Honors Program. Honors work in Biology is an opportunity to do original laboratory or field research and to write a thesis based on this research. The topic of thesis research is chosen in consultation with a member of the Biology Department who agrees to supervise the Honors work. Honors candidates take BIOL 498 and 499D in addition to the other requirements for the major, except that Honors candidates may take four rather than five courses in addition to BIOL 181 and 191, subject to the laboratory and subject area constraints.

Courses for Premedical Students. Students not majoring in Biology may fulfill the two-course minimum premedical requirement in Biology by taking two laboratory courses numbered 181 or above in Biology. Students interested in health professions other than allopathic medicine should consult a member of the Health Professions Committee regarding specific requirements and visit the Amherst Health Professions webpage.

104. Food, Fiber, and Pharmaceuticals. It is perhaps impossible to experience a day without plants. From the air we breathe, the bed we sleep in, the soap we wash with and clothes we put on, to the foods we consume and the medicines we take, we are very much dependent upon plants and their products. Through a combination of lecture, discussion, and observation, we will explore how, why, and when plants became vital to people and their societies. Several economically important plant groups will be studied, including those that provide food and beverages, medicines and narcotics, spices, perfumes, fuels, and fiber. What are the characteristics of these groups enabling their exploitation, and what is the history of these associations? How and when were plants domesticated and what are the consequences of large-scale agriculture? What impacts do human population growth and habitat destruction have on the ways that people interact with plants now and in the future? Finally, we will explore the role of technology in efforts to both improve and synthesize plant products. Three classroom hours per week. Two local field trips.

Limited to 26 students. This course is for non-majors. Students majoring in Biology will be admitted only with permission from the instructor. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Levin.

106. Why Sex? Perhaps no subject in biology is as troublesome (or as fraught with contradictions) as sex. Why should organisms devote so much of their time and energy to attracting mates, when they can reproduce much more efficiently by cloning themselves? Similarly, why not pass on all your genes, rather than just half? Darwin was among the first to realize that competition for mates is sometimes as important as competition for survival. Sex is an exceedingly powerful ecological and evolutionary force, responsible for generating a tremendous diversity of morphologies and behaviors. In this course, we will draw upon examples from microbes to mosses to mammals in order to address these most basic biological questions: Why did sex evolve and what are its consequences? Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.

Limited to 30 students. This course is for non-majors. Students majoring in Biology, Chemistry, or Psychology will be admitted only with permission from the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Miller.

108. The Biology of Catastrophe: Cancer and AIDS. AIDS, the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, is caused by HIV infection and is the result of a failure of the immune system. Cancer is the persistent, uncontrolled and invasive growth of cells. A study of the biology of these diseases provides an opportunity to contrast the normal operation of the immune system and the orderly regulation of cell growth with their potentially catastrophic derangement in cancer and AIDS. A program of lectures and readings will provide an opportunity to examine the way in which the powerful technologies and insights of molecular and cell biology have contributed to a growing understanding of cancer and AIDS. Factual accounts and imaginative portraits will be drawn from the literature of illness to illuminate, dramatize and provide an empathetic appreciation of those who struggle with disease. Finally, in addition to scientific concepts and technological considerations, society’s efforts to answer the challenges posed by cancer and AIDS invite the exploration of many important social and ethical issues. Three classroom hours per week.

Limited to 50 students. This course is for non-majors. Students majoring in Biology, Chemistry, or Psychology will be admitted only with permission from the instructor. Omitted 2012-13.

110. Contagion. Infection by contagious microorganisms remains a leading cause of death in many parts of the world. This course will explore the biological mechanisms of infectious diseases, as well as the challenges associated with fighting their emergence and spread. We will focus on diseases of global health importance, such as HIV/AIDS, cholera, and tuberculosis, to discuss the strategies pathogens have evolved that ensure their successful transmission. In light of their ability to effectively outwit our own immune systems, we must devise new means to overcome these disease-causing microbes. Here, the challenges are legion. We will see that the answer lies not only with an understanding of biology to formulate treatments and prevention measures, but this knowledge must be integrated with awareness of complex societal issues to inform and implement solutions. Discussions will focus upon the many perspectives from which infectious diseases are encountered, drawing on resources from the literature on microbiology, ethics, and policy, as well as personal accounts and current news stories. Three hours of lecture and discussion per week. This course is for non-science majors and will not count toward the Biology major.

Limited to 40 students. Spring semester. Professor Purdy.

114. Evolution of Human Nature. Recent extensions of the theory of natural selection provide a unified explanatory framework for understanding the evolution of human social behavior and culture. After consideration of the relevant principles of genetics, population biology, developmental biology and animal behavior, the social evolution of animals—especially that of our nearest relatives, the apes—will be discussed and illustrated. With this background, many aspects of human social, psychological and cultural evolution will be considered: the instinct to create and acquire language; aggression and cooperation within and between the sexes; the human mating system; the origin of patriarchy; systems of kinship and inheritance; incest avoidance; rape; reciprocity and exchange; conflict between parents and offspring; homicide; warfare; moral emotions; deceit and self deception; the evolution of laws and justice; and the production and appreciation of art and literature. Three hours of lecture and films per week, and several guest speakers.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Emeritus Zimmerman.

131. Chemical Basis of Biological Processes. (Offered as CHEM 131 and BIOL 131.) What are the natural laws that describe how biological processes actually work? This course will use examples from biology such as human physiology or cellular signaling to illustrate the interplay between fundamental chemical principles and biological function. We will explore how bonding plays a central role in assembling simple biological building blocks such as sugars, amino acids, and fatty acids to form complex carbohydrates, proteins, and membranes. What underlying thermodynamic and kinetic principles guide systems to biological homeostasis or reactivity? What is pH, and how are proton gradients used to generate or change an organism’s response? Emphasis is on using mathematics and physical sciences to understand biological functions. Three classroom hours and three hours of laboratory per week.

Enrollment is limited to first-year students who are interested in science or premedical study, who are recommended to begin with either MATH 105 or MATH 111 (Intensive), and who are enrolled in a Mathematics course but not in CHEM 151.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Poccia and Postdoctoral Fellow Hebda.

181. Adaptation and the Organism. An introduction to the evolution, ecology, and behavior of organisms and how these relate to the diversity of life. Following a discussion of the core components of evolutionary theory, we’ll examine how evolutionary processes have shaped morphological, anatomical, physiological, and behavioral adaptations in organisms that solve many of life’s problems, ranging from how to find or acquire food and avoid being eaten, to how to attract and locate mates, and how to optimize reproduction throughout a lifetime. We’ll relate and compare characteristics of animals, plants, fungi, protists, and bacteria, examining how and why these organisms have arrived at various solutions to life’s problems. Laboratory exercises will complement lectures and will involve field experiments on natural selection and laboratory studies of vertebrates, invertebrates, bacteria, and plants. Four classroom hours and three laboratory hours per week.

Spring semester. Professors Clotfelter and Miller, and Lab Coordinator Emerson.

191. Molecules, Genes and Cells. An introduction to the molecular and cellular processes common to life with an emphasis on control of energy and information flow. Central themes include metabolism, macromolecular function, and the genetic basis of cellular function. We examine how membranes work to establish the internal composition of cells, how the structure of proteins including enzymes affects protein function, how energy is captured, stored and utilized by cells, and how cells communicate, move and divide. We explore inheritance patterns and underlying molecular mechanisms of genetics, the central dogma of information transfer from DNA replication to protein synthesis, and recombinant DNA methods and medical applications. Laboratories include genetic analyses, enzyme reaction kinetics, membrane transport, and genomic analysis. Four classroom hours and three laboratory hours per week.

Requisite: Prior completion of, or concurrent registration in, CHEM 161. Fall semester. Professors Graf and Ratner and Lab Coordinator Emerson.

210. Experimental Design and Data Analysis in the Life Sciences. Organisms—even members of the same species—differ from one another in structure, genetics, physiology, biochemistry, and behavior. Life scientists’ observations contain variability not only because of measurement error or imprecision, but also because of real differences within the samples being studied. How is this variation best described quantitatively? What inferences about a population can be made from measurements on a sample of the population? If our aim is to detect differences between groups, such as experimental and control groups, how do we go about designing a study that has a reasonable chance of finding a meaningful difference if one exists, subject to considerations of time and cost? How is experimental design affected by ethical considerations in the treatment of animal and human subjects? Once the data are obtained, how likely is it that an observed difference between experimental and control groups could have arisen by chance because of variability in the samples chosen for study even if there were no actual effect of the experiment? The course will include study of the principles and methods of data analysis, practice in using these methods, and discussion of examples of successes and failures in the design of experiments and the use of statistics.

Not open to first-year students. Spring semester. Professor S. George.

220. Developmental Biology. A study of the development of animals, leading to the formulation of the principles of development, and including an introduction to experimental embryology and developmental physiology, anatomy, developmental genetics and “evo-devo.” Four classroom hours per week.

Requisite: BIOL 191. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Poccia.

230. Ecology. (Offered as BIOL 230 and ENST 210.) A study of the relationships of plants and animals (including humans) to each other and to their environment. We’ll start by considering the decisions an individual makes in its daily life concerning its use of resources, such as what to eat and where to live, and whether to defend such resources. We’ll then move on to populations of individuals, and investigate species population growth, limits to population growth, and why some species are so successful as to become pests whereas others are on the road to extinction. The next level will address communities, and how interactions among populations, such as competition, predation, parasitism, and mutualism, affect the organization and diversity of species within communities. The final stage of the course will focus on ecosystems, and the effects of humans and other organisms on population, community, and global stability. Three hours of lecture per week.

Requisite: BIOL 181 or ENST 120 or permission from the instructor. Not open to first-year students. Fall semester. Professor Temeles.

241. Genetic Analysis of Biological Processes. This course will explore the application of genetic analysis toward understanding complex biological systems. Scientists often turn to the study of genes and mutations when trying to decipher the mechanisms underlying such diverse processes as the making of an embryo, the response of cells to their environment, or the defect in a heritable disease. By reading papers from the research literature, we will study in detail some of the genetic approaches that have been taken to analyze certain molecular systems. We will learn from these examples how to use genetic analysis to formulate models that explain the molecular function of a gene product. The laboratory portion of this course will include discussions of the experimental approaches presented in the literature. Students will apply these approaches to their own laboratory projects. Three hours of lecture and four hours of laboratory per week; the laboratory projects will require additional time outside of class hours.

Requisite: BIOL 191. Limited to 24 students. Not open to first-year students. Spring semester. Professor Goutte.

251. Molecular Genetics. (Offered as BIOL 251 and BCBP 281) A study of the molecular mechanisms underlying the transmission and expression of genes. DNA replication and recombination, RNA synthesis and processing, and protein synthesis and modification will be examined. Both prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems will be analyzed, with an emphasis upon the regulation of gene expression. Application of modern molecular methods to biomedical and agricultural problems will also be considered. The laboratory component will focus upon recombinant DNA methodology. Four classroom hours and four hours of laboratory per week; some laboratory exercises may require irregular hours.

Requisite: BIOL 191 or equivalent. Limited to 30 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Ratner.

260. Animal Physiology. This course will examine the function of tissues, organs, and organ systems, with an emphasis on the relationship between structure and function. Building outward from the level of the cell, we will study bodily processes including respiration, circulation, digestion and excretion. In addition, the course will address how different organisms regulate these complex processes and how ion and fluid balance is maintained. We will also study the nervous system in the context of sensory systems, focusing on how external stimuli are transformed into meaningful neuronal signals and processed by the brain. Weekly discussions will include readings from primary literature. Four classroom hours per week.

Requisite: BIOL 191 and either BIOL 181 or NEUR 226. Spring semester. Professor Trapani.

271. Microbiology. Microbes inhabit the world’s oceans, deserts, lakes, soils, and atmosphere, and play a vital role in the Earth’s biogeochemical cycles. As humans, we harbor a diverse microbial flora estimated to outnumber our own human cells. During this course, we will explore this microbial world by investigating the structure, physiology, genetics, and evolution of microorganisms with a focus on bacteria, but including discussions of archaea, viruses, and microbial eukaryotes. The goal of the course is to gain an understanding of the unique properties of microbes that enable their persistence and diversification. We will also pay special attention to microbial interactions with eukaryotic organisms, by studying both host and microbe contributions to virulence, mutualism, and symbiotic relationships. Laboratory exercises will include explorations of microbial functions and diversity in a variety of contexts using both classical and molecular approaches. Three hours of lecture, three hours of laboratory and one hour of discussion per week.

Requisite: BIOL 181 and 191. Limited to 28 students. Not open to first-year students. Fall semester. Professor Purdy.

281. Animal Behavior. Shaped by millions of years of natural and sexual selection, animals have evolved myriad abilities to respond to their biotic and abiotic environment. This course examines animal behavior from both a mechanistic and a functional perspective. Drawing upon examples from a diverse range of taxa, we will discuss topics such as sensory ecology, behavioral genetics, behavioral endocrinology, behavioral ecology and sociobiology. Three classroom hours and four laboratory hours per week; the laboratory projects will require additional time outside of class hours.

Requisite: BIOL 181. Limited to 24 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Clotfelter.

290. Special Topics. Independent reading or research courses. Full course as arranged. Does not normally count toward the major.

Fall and spring semesters.

290H. Special Topics. Independent reading or research courses. Half course as arranged. Does not normally count toward the major.

Fall and spring semesters.

291. Cell Structure and Function. (Offered as BIOL 291 and BCBP 291) An analysis of the structure and function of cells in plants, animals, and bacteria. Topics to be discussed include the cell surface and membranes, cytoskeletal elements and motility, cytoplasmic organelles and bioenergetics, the interphase nucleus and chromosomes, mitosis, meiosis, and cell cycle regulation. Four classroom hours and three hours of laboratory per week.

Requisite: BIOL 191 and completion of, or concurrent registration in, CHEM 161. Limited to 24 students. Spring semester. Professor Poccia.

301. Molecular Neurobiology. An analysis of the molecules and molecular mechanisms underlying nervous system function, development, and disease. We will explore the proteins that contribute to the unique structure and function of neurons, including an in-depth analysis of synaptic communication and the molecular processes that modify synapses. We will also study the molecular mechanisms that control brain development, from neurogenesis, neurite growth and synaptogenesis to cell death and degeneration. In addition to analyzing neural function, throughout the course we will also study nervous system dysfunction resulting when such molecular mechanisms fail, leading to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disease. Readings from primary literature will emphasize current molecular techniques utilized in the study of the nervous system. Three classroom hours and three hours of laboratory per week.

Requisite: BIOL 191 and CHEM 161. Limited to 24 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Graf.

310. Structural Biochemistry. (Offered as BIOL 310 and BCBP 310.) This course will concentrate on the structure of proteins at the atomic level. It will include an introduction to methods of structure determination, to databases of structural information, and to publicly available visualization software. These tools will be used to study some class of specific structures, (such as membrane, nucleic acid binding, regulatory, structural, or metabolic proteins). These proteins will provide the framework for discussion of such concepts as domains, motifs, molecular motion, structural homology, etc., as well as addressing how specific biological problems are solved at the atomic level. Four classroom hours per week plus one hour discussion.

Requisite: BIOL 191 and CHEM 161; CHEM 221 would be helpful but is not required. Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Williamson.

320. Evolutionary Biology. Evolution is a powerful and central theme that unifies the life sciences. In this course, emphasis is placed on microevolutionary mechanisms of change, and their connection to large-scale macroevolutionary patterns and diversity. Through lectures and readings from the primary literature, we will study genetic drift and gene flow, natural selection and adaptation, molecular evolution, speciation, the evolution of sex and sexual selection, life history evolution, and inference and interpretation of evolutionary relationships. Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion each week.

Requisite: BIOL 181; BIOL 191 recommended. Limited to 14 students. Not open to first-year students. Fall semester. Professor Miller.

321. Evolutionary Biology With Lab. Evolution is a powerful and central theme that unifies the life sciences. In this course, emphasis is placed on microevolutionary mechanisms of change, and their connection to large-scale macroevolutionary patterns and diversity. Through lectures and readings from the primary literature, we will study genetic drift and gene flow, natural selection and adaptation, molecular evolution, speciation, the evolution of sex and sexual selection, life history evolution, and inference and interpretation of evolutionary relationships. The laboratory investigates evolutionary processes using computer simulations, artificial selection experiments, and a semester-long project that characterizes phenotypic breeding relationships among individuals and integrates these results with analyses of molecular sequence variation for genes contributing to mating recognition. Three hours of lecture, one hour of discussion and four hours of laboratory work each week.

Requisite: BIOL 181; BIOL 191 recommended. Limited to 16 students. Not open to first-year students. Fall semester. Professor Miller.

330. Biochemical Principles of Life at the Molecular Level. (Offered as BIOL 330 and CHEM 330) What are the molecular underpinnings of processes central to life? We will explore the chemical and structural properties of biological molecules and learn the logic used by the cell to build complex structures from a few basic raw materials. Some of these complex structures have evolved to catalyze chemical reactions with enormous degree of selectivity and specificity, and we seek to discover these enzymatic strategies. We will consider the detailed balance sheet that shows how living things harvest energy from their environment to fuel metabolic processes and to reproduce and grow. Examples of the exquisite control that permits a cell to be responsive and adapt its responses based on input from the environment will be considered. We will also consider some of the means by which cells respond to change and to stress. A student may not receive credit for both CHEM 330 and BCBP/BIOL/CHEM 331.

Requisite: BIOL 191 and CHEM 221. Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professor O’Hara.

331. Biochemistry. (Offered as BIOL 331, BCBP 331, and CHEM 331.) Structure and function of biologically important molecules and their role(s) in life processes. Protein conformation, enzymatic mechanisms and selected metabolic pathways will be analyzed. Additional topics may include: nucleic acid conformation, DNA/protein interactions, signal transduction and transport phenomena. Four classroom hours and four hours of laboratory work per week. Offered jointly by the Departments of Biology and Chemistry. A student may not receive credit for both BCBP/BIOL/CHEM 331 and CHEM 330.

Requisite: CHEM 221 and BIOL 191; or consent of the instructor. CHEM 231 is a co-requisite. Spring semester. Limited to 45 students. Professors Williamson (Biology) and Bishop (Chemistry).

340. The Cell and Molecular Biology of Cancer. While still mysterious, cancer is now recognized as a set of diseases resulting from molecular aberrations that are traceable to mutations in the genome. Molecular biology and cell biology have emerged as key approaches in the continuing effort to gain a fundamental understanding of the origin, development and pathogenesis of cancer. In this course we will explore the experimental and conceptual foundations of current views of oncogenes, tumor suppressors, multistep carcinogenesis, cancer stem cells, immune responses to cancer and the rational design of targeted chemotherapeutic agents. The work of the course will include lectures and discussions, critical reading of the primary literature of cancer research, and one-on-one tutorials. Three classroom hours per week and regularly scheduled tutorial meetings with the instructor.

Requisite: At least one but preferably two or more courses from the following list—BIOL 220, 241, 251, 291, 310, 331, 370, or 381. Limited to 20 students. Open to juniors and seniors or permission from the instructor. Omitted 2012-13.

351. Neurophysiology. This course will provide a deeper understanding of the physiological properties of the nervous system. We will address the mechanisms underlying electrical activity in neurons, as well as examine the physiology of synapses; the transduction and integration of sensory information; the function of nerve circuits; the trophic and plastic properties of neurons; and the relationship between neuronal activity and behavior. Laboratories will apply electrophysiological methods to examine neuronal activity and will include experimental design as well as analysis and presentation of collected data. Throughout the course, we will focus on past and current neurophysiology research and how it contributes to the field of neuroscience. Three classroom hours and three hours of laboratory work per week.

Requisites: BIOL 191 and CHEM 151; PHYS 117 or 124 is recommended. Limited to 24 students. Fall semester. Professor Trapani.

360. Neurobiology of Disease. How translational research applies neuroscience knowledge to seek to understand the pathophysiology, prevent, treat, and cure brain diseases. After reviewing basic neuroanatomy, neuropathology, and neuronal cell biology, we will study Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s diseases, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, neurologic complications of AIDS and cancer, cerebrovascular disease, trauma, alcoholism and other intoxications, motor neuron disease including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and prion diseases. Several Amherst alumni who are doing translational neuroscience research will serve as guest lecturers in the course. How are animal models of these diseases developed? What promises and problems arise in using animal models? How are pharmacological and other therapeutic strategies derived? How do we assess genetic influences on human nervous system diseases, and how should we use such knowledge? Three classroom hours per week.

Requisite: BIOL 191 and either NEUR 226 or BIOL 301 or BIOL351, or consent of the instructor. Additional upper-level courses in biology recommended. Fall semester. Limited to 20 students. Croxton Lecturer Koo.

370. Immunology. The immune response is a consequence of the developmentally programmed or antigen-triggered interaction of a complex network of interacting cell types. These interactions are controlled by regulatory molecules and often result in the production of highly specific cellular or molecular effectors. This course will present the principles underlying the immune response and describe the methods employed in immunology research. In addition to lectures, a program of seminars will provide an introduction to the research literature of immunology. Three classroom hours per week.

Requisite: BIOL 191, 251, 291, 331 or permission from the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13.

380. Genome Biology. A study of the architecture and interactions of genetic systems. Advances in genomics are providing insights into a variety of important issues, from the structural limits of DNA-based inheritance to the discovery of novel infectious and genetic diseases. We will address how heritable information is organized in different groups of organisms. We will also cover a major challenge of this emerging field—the application of vast amounts of genetic data to understanding genomic integrity and regulation. We will critically assess the genome as a “cooperative assemblage of genetic elements” and conclude by discussing the consequences of genomic structure for shaping species traits and long-term evolutionary potential. Three hours of lecture per week.

Requisite: BIOL 181 and BIOL 191. Spring semester. Professor Hood.

381. Genome Biology with Lab. A study of the architecture and interactions of genetic systems. Advances in genomics are providing insights into a variety of important issues, from the structural limits of DNA-based inheritance to the discovery of novel infectious and genetic diseases. We will address how heritable information is organized in different groups of organisms. We will also cover a major challenge of this emerging field—the application of vast amounts of genetic data to understanding genomic integrity and regulation. We will critically assess the genome as a “cooperative assemblage of genetic elements” and conclude by discussing the consequences of genomic structure for shaping species traits and long-term evolutionary potential. Three hours of lecture, and three hours of laboratory per week. Lab activities will require work outside of the scheduled meeting times.

Requisite: BIOL 181 and 191. Limited to 18 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hood.

400. Molecular and Cellular Biophysics. (Offered as PHYS 400, BIOL 400, BCBP 400, and CHEM 400.) How do the physical laws that dominate our lives change at the small length and energy scales of individual molecules? What design principles break down at the sub-cellular level and what new chemistry and physics becomes important? We will answer these questions by looking at bio-molecules, cellular substructures, and control mechanisms that work effectively in the microscopic world. How can we understand both the static and dynamic shape of proteins using the laws of thermodynamics and kinetics? How has the basic understanding of the smallest molecular motor in the world, ATP synthase, changed our understanding of friction and torque? We will explore new technologies, such as atomic force and single molecule microscopy that have allowed research into these areas. This course will address topics in each of the three major divisions of Biophysics: bio-molecular structure, biophysical techniques, and biological mechanisms.

Requisite: CHEM 161, PHYS 116/123, PHYS 117/124, BIOL 191 or evidence of equivalent coverage in pre-collegiate courses. Fall semester. Professors Carter and Williamson.

404. Seminar in Biochemistry. (Offered as BIOL 404 and BCBP 405) The topic of this advanced seminar will be cholesterol. It has been said that more Nobel prizes have been awarded for the study of cholesterol than any other biological topic, yet it is astonishing how much we have learned only in the last few years, and how much we still don’t understand. The topics in this course will include biosynthesis, transport, regulation, physiology, and biophysics of cholesterol. In many cases, these subjects illuminate or are illuminated by cholesterol-related diseases, so the biochemical bases for high cholesterol medications and for a genetic propensity for getting heart disease from eating broccoli are likely to come up. The course will be based on the scientific literature, and will include writing and presentation assignments.

Requisite: BIOL 191 and 291 or 331 or equivalent. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Williamson.

410. Seminar in Disease Biology. The majority of organisms on earth cause disease or are parasitic, and it could be said that a thorough understanding of biology should necessarily involve the study of infectious disease. Yet only within the past two decades has there been a realization that diseases may regulate populations, stabilize ecosystems, and be responsible for major biological features such as reproductive systems or genomic structures. Disease is of course responsible for large amounts of human misery and death, and it is all the more remarkable that our understanding of disease as an ecological and evolutionary force is in its infancy. In this course we will discuss our historical and current understandings of infectious disease biology. We will include studies of human, animal, and plant diseases, as well as their impacts on wild and domestic populations. Three classroom hours per week.

Requisite: BIOL 230 or 321 or permission from the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Hood.

430. Seminar in Behavioral Ecology. This course will explore the relationship between an animal’s behavior and its social and ecological context. The topic for 2010 will be the evolution of sexual dimorphism in animals. Sexual dimorphism is widespread in animals, yet its causes remain controversial and have generated much debate. In this seminar, we will examine a variety of sexual dimorphisms in different groups of animals and consider hypotheses for how these sexual dimorphisms may have evolved. We will then consider how such hypotheses are tested in an attempt to identify the best approaches to studying the evolution of sexual dimorphisms. Then we will look at evidence that either supports or refutes various hypothesized mechanisms for the evolution of sexual dimorphisms in different animal groups. Finally, we will consider whether some mechanisms for the evolution of sexual dimorphism are more common among certain kinds of organisms (predators) than others (herbivores). Three hours per week.

Requisite: One or more of BIOL 181, 230, 281, 321 or consent of the instructor. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 14 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Temeles.

434. Seminar in Ecology. The topic is the ecology and evolution of plant-animal interactions. Most animals on Earth obtain their energy from green plants, and thus it is not surprising that interactions between plants and animals have played a prominent role in our current understanding of how ecological processes such as predation, parasitism, and mutualism shape evolutionary patterns in plants and animals. In this course we will start our analysis with a consideration of how plant-animal relationships evolve by studying examples from both extant systems and the fossil record. Next we will examine the different kinds of plant-animal interactions (pollination, seed dispersal, seed predation, and herbivory, to mention a few) that have evolved on our planet, and the ecological processes promoting reciprocal evolution of defenses and counter-defenses, attraction, and deceit. Finally, we will turn our attention to global change and the implications of human alteration of the environment for the future of plant-animal relationships, such as pollination, which are of vital importance to life on Earth. Three classroom hours per week.

Requisite: BIOL 230 or 321 or permission from the instructor. Limited to 14 students. Not open to first-year students. Spring semester. Professor Temeles.

440. Seminar in Conservation Biology. Conservation biology is a highly interdisciplinary field, requiring careful consideration of biological, economic, and sociological issues. Solutions to biodiversity conservation and environmental challenges are even more complex. Yet, conservation is a topic of timely importance in order to safeguard biological diversity. Utilizing articles from the primary literature, course topics will include invasive species, restoration, climate change, and biodiversity banking, as well as how to determine appropriate conservation priorities. Three classroom hours per week.

Requisite: BIOL 230 or 321 or permission of the instructor. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 14 students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor R. Levin.

444. Seminar in Developmental Genetics. Much of our molecular understanding of developmental biology stems from genetic analysis of mutants in model systems. In this seminar we will consider a range of developmental events, such as cell specialization and cell communication, in the well-studied Drosophila and C. elegans model systems. Reading from scientific journals, we will follow a variety of genetic approaches that have uncovered the molecular mechanisms responsible for these developmental events. Class discussions will focus on experimental design, data interpretation, and model building. Assignments will include scientific writing and oral presentations.

Requisite: BIOL 220, 241, 251, or 291. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Goutte.

450. Seminar in Physiology: Classic Papers in Neurophysiology. Concentrating on reading and interpreting primary research, this course will focus on classic and soon-to-be classic neurophysiology papers. We will discuss the seminal experiments performed in the 1950s that led to our understanding of action potentials; experiments in the 1960s and 1970s that unlocked how synapses function; and more recent research that combines electrophysiology with optical methods and genetic techniques to investigate the role of many of the molecular components predicted by the work from the earlier decades. Assignments will include written reviews of literature as well as oral presentations.

Requisite: PHYS 117 or PHYS 124 and either NEUR 226, BIOL 260, BIOL 351, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Not open to first-year students. Spring semester. Professor Trapani.

490. Special Topics. Independent reading or research courses. Full course as arranged. Does not normally count toward the major.

Fall and spring semester.

490H. Special Topics. Independent reading or research courses. Half course as arranged. Does not normally count toward the major.

Fall and spring semester.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Honors students take three courses of thesis research, usually, but not always, with the double course load in the spring. The work consists of seminar programs, individual research projects, and preparation of a thesis on the research project.

Open to seniors. Fall semester. The Department.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. Honors students take three courses of thesis research, usually, but not always, with the double course load in the spring. The work consists of seminar programs, individual research projects, and preparation of a thesis on the research project.

Open to seniors. Spring semester. The Department.

Black Studies

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors Abiodun (Chair), Cobham-Sander‡, Ferguson, and Goheen; Associate Professor Moss†; Assistant Professor Castro Alves; Visiting Associate Professor Drabinski; Five College Associate Professor Omojola; Visiting Assistant Professor Polk; Visiting Lecturers Bailey and Rabig.

Affiliated Faculty: Professors Basu‡, Hart, Hewitt‡, Lembo, Peterson‡, Redding, and Saxton‡; Associate Professors Hussain and Parham; Assistant Professors Basler, Robinson, and Sitze; Senior Lecturer Delaney.

Black Studies is an interdisciplinary exploration of the histories and cultures of black peoples in Africa and the diaspora. It is also an inquiry into the social construction of racial differences and its relation to the perpetuation of racism and racial domination.

Major Program. The major in Black Studies consists of eight courses: three core courses, three distribution courses, and two electives. The three core courses are BLST 111 (normally taken by the end of the sophomore year), BLST 200 (normally taken in the sophomore year), and BLST 300 (normally taken in the sophomore year), but before the final semester of the senior year. The three course distribution consists of one course in three of four geographic areas: Africa; the United States; Latin America and the Caribbean; and Africa and its Diaspora. The student may choose the two electives from the Department’s offerings, from cross-listed courses, or from other courses at the Five Colleges. Majors fulfill the department’s comprehensive requirement by successfully completing BLST 300.

Departmental Honors Program. Normally students planning to write a thesis should have completed BLST 300 before the last semester of their senior year. All candidates for Honors must write a senior thesis. Candidates for Honors will, with departmental permission, take BLST 498-499 during their senior year. The departmental recommendation for Latin honors will be determined by the student’s level of performance on her/his thesis.

Key for required core and distribution requirements for the major: R (Required); A (Africa); US (United States); CLA (Caribbean/Latin America); D (Africa and its Diaspora).

101. Black Diaspora from Emancipation to the Present. (Offered as HIST 161 [LA/AF] and BLST 101 [CLA/D].) This course explores the historical roots of contemporary racial formations in Latin America and the Caribbean. It focuses particularly on the black experiences, inter-ethnic conflicts and racial solidarities in Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and Puerto Rico from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Topics of discussion will include the struggles for emancipation from slavery, black notions of sovereignty, forms of black nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and political radicalism. We will examine a multiplicity of historical sources, including novels, music, film, personal testimonies, and historical monographs in order to understand the black diaspora as both an historical process and as a seedbed for various identities, racial cultures and political projects. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Castro Alves.

111. Introduction to Black Studies. [R] This interdisciplinary introduction to Black Studies combines the teaching of foundational texts in the field with instruction in reading and writing. The first half of the course employs How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren as a guide to the careful reading of books focusing on the slave trade and its effects in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. Important readings in this part of the course include Black Odyssey by Nathan Huggins, Racism: A Short History by George Frederickson, and The Black Jacobins by C. L. R. James. The second half of the course addresses important themes from the turn of the twentieth century to the present. Beginning with The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois, it proceeds through a range of seminal texts, including The Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon and The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. This part of the course utilizes Revising Prose by Richard Lanham to extend the lesson in reading from the first half of the semester into an exploration of precision and style in writing. Computer exercises based on Revising Prose and three short essays—one on a single book, another comparing two books, and the last on a major theme in the course—provide the main opportunity to apply and reinforce skills in reading and writing learned throughout the semester. After taking this course, students at all levels of preparation should emerge not only with a good foundation for advancement in Black Studies but also with a useful set of guidelines for further achievement in the humanities and the social sciences.

Each section limited to 20 students. Fall semester: Visiting Professor Polk. Spring semester: TBA.

121. Introduction to South African History. (Offered as HIST 283 [AFP] and BLST 121 [A].) South African history is undergoing radical shifts in the way it is being written, read and interpreted, and this course will explore established and emerging themes in the history of this intriguing country. The time period covered will span the precolonial indigenous cultures and move on to study the initiation and expansion of white settlement and its early dependence on slave labor. The course will also investigate African resistance, both in its political and cultural forms, as well as the social effects of gold-mining and migrant labor. African nationalism, including the ANC, the Black Consciousness Movement, and the United Democratic Front, will be the focus of our study of the responses to apartheid and the ultimate collapse of the apartheid state. The course will end with discussions of recent events in South Africa, particularly the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its aftermath as well as the developing AIDS epidemic and the growing problem of crime. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Redding.

123. Survey of African Art. (Offered as ARHA 149 and BLST 123 [A].) An introduction to the ancient and traditional arts of Africa. Special attention will be given to the archaeological importance of the rock art paintings found in such disparate areas as the Sahara and South Africa, achievements in the architectural and sculptural art in clay of the early people in the area now called Zimbabwe and the aesthetic qualities of the terracotta and bronze sculptures of the Nok, Igbo-Ukwe, Ife and Benin cultures in West Africa, which date from the second century B.C.E. to the sixteenth century C.E. The study will also pursue a general socio-cultural survey of traditional arts of the major ethnic groups of Africa.

Spring semester. Professor Abiodun.

132. Foundations of African American Literature. (Offered as ENGL 160 and BLST 132 [US].) The focus of this introduction to African American literature is the complex intertextuality at the heart of the African American literary tradition. Tracing the tradition’s major formal and thematic concerns means looking for connections between different kinds of texts: music, art, the written word, and the spoken word‚ and students who take this class will acquire the critical writing and interpretive skills necessary to any future study of literature.

Fall semester. Professor Parham.

136. Race and Races in American Studies. (Offered as SOCI 338 and BLST 136 [US].) This interdisciplinary seminar examines influential scholarship on the “race concept” and racialized relations in American culture and society. The course will focus on selected themes, approaches, methods, debates, and problems in a variety of scholarly genres. Major topics include the cultural construction of race; race as both an instrument of oppression and an idiom of resistance in American politics; the centrality of race in literary, sociological, anthropological, and legal discourse; the racialization of U.S. foreign policy; “race mixing” and “passing” and the vicissitudes of “whiteness” in American political culture; and “race” in the realm of popular cultural representation.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Basler.

147. Race, Place, and the Law. (Offered as LJST 105 and BLST 147 [US].) Understandings of and conflicts about place are of central significance to the experience and history of race and race relations in America. The shaping and reshaping of places is an important ingredient in the constitution and revision of racial identities: think of “the ghetto,” Chinatown, or “Indian Country.” Law, in its various manifestations, has been intimately involved in the processes which have shaped geographies of race from the colonial period to the present day: legally mandated racial segregation was intended to impose and maintain both spatial and social distance between members of different races.

The objective of this course is to explore the complex intersections of race, place, and law. Our aim is to gain some understanding of geographies of race “on-the-ground” in real places, and of the role of legal practices—especially legal argument—in efforts to challenge and reinforce these racial geographies. We will ask, for example, how claims about responsibility, community, rationality, equality, justice, and democracy have been used to justify or resist both racial segregation and integration, access and expulsion. In short, we will ask how moral argument and legal discourse have contributed to the formation of the geographies of race that we all inhabit. Much of our attention will be given to a legal-geographic exploration of African-American experiences. But we will also look at how race, place and the law have shaped the distinctive experiences of Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans.

Limited to 40 students. Omitted 2012-13. Senior Lecturer Delaney.

191. Black Diaspora from Africa to the Haitian Revolution. (Offered as HIST 160 [LAP/AFP] and BLST 191 [CLA/D].) This course maps the range of black experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean from the emergence of Atlantic slave-based economies in the sixteenth century to the 1844 slave conspiracy of La Escalera in Cuba. It treats the Atlantic Ocean as a crossroads of diverse cultures and as a point of reference for understanding the condition of Africans and people of African descent. Topics of discussion will include the rise of the transatlantic slave trade, slave and free black communities, the meaning of Africa and African culture, changing ideas of freedom, and forms of black activism. We will read Alejo Carpentier’s historical novel The Kingdom of This World (1949), slave narratives and monographic works on the British colony of Demerara (today Guyana), Mexico, Peru, Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti and Cuba. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Castro Alves.

200. Critical Debates in Black Studies. [R] In this course students will focus closely on major debates that have animated the field of Black Studies, addressing a wide range of issues from the slave trade to the present. Each week will focus on specific questions such as: What came first, racism or slavery? Is African art primitive? Did Europe underdevelop Africa? Is there Caribbean History or just history in the Caribbean? Should Black Studies exist? Is there a black American culture? Is Affirmative Action necessary? Was the Civil Rights Movement a product of government action or grass-roots pressure? Is the underclass problem a matter of structure or agency? The opposing viewpoints around such questions will provide the main focus of the reading assignments, which will average two or three articles per week. In the first four weeks, students will learn a methodology for analyzing, contextualizing, and making arguments that they will apply in developing their own positions in the specific controversies that will make up the rest of the course.

Each section limited to 20 students. Fall semester: Professor Ferguson. Spring semester: Visiting Professor Drabinski.

203. Women Writers of Africa and the African Diaspora. (Offered as BLST 203 [D] and WAGS 203.) This course focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first century texts by black women writers based in Africa and the Americas. We will consider the stylistic choices that these women writers make in response to the broad range of challenges confronting them within the modern and postcolonial contexts in which they write. The reading list varies from year to year. This year we will read works by Edwidge Danicat, Marie Elena John, Buchi Emecheta, Chimamanda Adichie and Suzan-Lori Parks.

Fall semester. Visiting Lecturer Bailey.

204. African Popular Music. (Offered as BLST 204 [A] and MUSI 105.) This course focuses on twentieth-century African popular music; it examines musical genres from different parts of the continent, investigating their relationships to the historical, political and social dynamics of their respective national and regional origins. Regional examples like highlife, soukous, chimurenga, and afro-beat will be studied to assess the significance of popular music as a creative response to social and political developments in colonial and postcolonial Africa. The course also discusses the growth of hip-hop music in selected countries by exploring how indigenous cultural tropes have provided the basis for its local appropriation. Themes explored in this course include: the use of music in the construction of identity; popular music, politics and resistance; the interaction of local and global elements; and the political significance of musical nostalgia.

Fall semester. Five College Professor Omojola.

205. Theorizing the Black Atlantic. [D] What happens to culture in the transition between Africa, Europe, and the Americas? What new forms of subjectivity, community, and culture emerge in the Americas? How do these new forms help us clarify the specifically African sense of “diaspora”? How does the experience of “the black Atlantic” alter our understanding of history and the development of ideas? In addressing these questions, this course examines themes of hybridity, double-consciousness, Modernity, and diaspora in contemporary philosophy and cultural theory. Our attention will center on the work of Paul Gilroy, whose reflections on black Atlantic cultural formations have broken new theoretical ground over the past two decades. Gilroy’s work will allow us to engage theoretically with the peculiar historical dynamics of the black Atlantic, which, in turn, enables us to attend at some depth to this particular diasporic consciousness through characterizations of literature, art, philosophy, and music. Alongside Gilroy, we will read other core theoretical texts on the black Atlantic by Du Bois, Césaire, Fanon, Wright, Baldwin, and others. In order to establish context and some points of contrast, we will also read important texts on the philosophy of history and history of ideas by Hegel, Nietzsche, Benjamin, and Bhabha. These varied reflections on the black Atlantic and the dynamics of cultural development help us understand the distinctive character of the African diaspora and its hybrid intellectual productions.

Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Drabinski.

211. Africa Before the European Conquest. (Offered as HIST 284 [AFP] and BLST 211 [A].) The African continent has been called by one historian the social laboratory of humanity. Art, trade, small-scale manufacturing, medical knowledge, religion, state systems, history and legend all flourished before the formal political take-over of the continent by European powers in the late nineteenth century and continue to have a decisive impact on African societies today. It is this varied and sometimes difficult to access history of states and cultures in the period before 1885 that this course will examine. Initially, we will investigate the notion of “tribe” and its relationship to language, political affiliation and identity. The largest segment of the course will examine historical myths and their impact on the research and construction of historical narratives on precolonial Africa while discussing four topics in depth: domestic, local slave-ownership and the impact of the slave trade; the interaction of religion and power on the rise and fall of the kingdom of Kongo and of the states along the southern border of the Sahara (the sahel); the genesis of the Zulu state in southern Africa and the creation of the legend of Tshaka; and the changing roles of women as economic, political and social actors in the period before 1885. We will also discuss some of the differences between oral historical narratives and written ones while we analyze primary documents and histories written by scholars over the past half-century to understand both the history of the people living on the continent as well as the active process of constructing that history. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Redding.

214. Master Musicians of Africa I: West Africa. (Offered as BLST 214 [A] and MUSI 106.) This course concentrates on the lives and music of selected West African musicians. Departing from ethnographic approaches that mask the identity of individual musicians and treat African societies as collectives, this course emphasizes the contributions of individual West African musicians whose stature as master musicians is undisputed within their respective communities. It examines the contributions of individual musicians to the ever continuous process of negotiating the boundaries of African musical practice. Individuals covered this semester include Babatunde Olatunji (Nigerian drummer), Youssou N’Dour (Senegalese singer), Kandia Kouyate (Malian jelimuso) and Ephraim Amu (Ghanaian composer). The variety of artistic expressions of selected musicians also provides a basis for examining the interrelatedness of different African musical idioms, and the receptivity of African music to non-African styles.

Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Omojola.

216. African Cultures and Societies. (Offered as ANTH 226 and BLST 216 [A].) This course explores the cultural meaning of indigenous African institutions and societies. Through the use of ethnographies, novels and films, we will investigate the topics of kinship, religion, social organization, colonialism, ethnicity, nationalism and neocolonialism. The principal objective is to give students an understanding of African society that will enable them better to comprehend current issues and problems confronting African peoples and nations.

Limited to 50 students. Spring semester. Professor Goheen.

217. Apartheid. (Offered as LJST 206 and BLST 217) The goal of this course will be to understand some of the problems posed for legal studies in the humanities by the emergence of the system of administrative and constitutional law known as apartheid. This system, which was designed to institute “separate development for separate peoples” in South Africa, is widely and rightly regarded to be among the most inhuman régimes of the 20th century. Yet even and especially today, more than a decade after its formal end in South Africa, apartheid’s social, economic, and epistemic conditions of possibility, as well as the place and function of lawyers, legal discourse, and legal scholars in the resistance to it, remains at best vaguely understood.

This course is designed to remedy this gap. Our inquiry will be at once specific and general. Under what economic and political conditions did apartheid come into being? What legal traditions and practices authorized its codification? What academic disciplines and intellectual formations rendered it intelligible and enabled its theorization? What specific arrangement of juridical institutions, practices, and theories together comprised the apartheid state? What was the place and function of law in the critique of and resistance to apartheid? What new and specific problems did apartheid pose for legal theory?

Limited to 40 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sitze.

221. Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa. (Offered as HIST 181 [AF] and BLST 221 [A].) This is a history of Africa from the late nineteenth century to the present day. In the first half of the course, we will study the imperial scramble to colonize Africa; the broader integration of African societies into the world economy; the social, political and medical impact of imperial policies; Western popular images of Africa in the colonial period; the nationalist struggles that resulted in the independent African states; and the persistent problems faced by those post-colonial states. In the final half of the course, we will investigate three cases: Congo-Zaire and the state as a source of chaos through the Second Congo War; violence, liberation and memories of childhood in late colonial Rhodesia and postcolonial Zimbabwe; the political history of economic development programs and the advent of “resource conflicts,” particularly those involving diamonds. Three class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Redding.

225. Contemporary African Fiction. [A] This course examines prose fiction by selected African writers published between the mid-twentieth century and the present. We will explore the writers’ treatment of a range of issues, particularly those pertinent to post-colonial and post-independent African societies. These include: the ways African countries have fashioned themselves in the age of modernity, migration and the formation of diasporas, and the experiences of women. We will be especially attentive to how the intersections between European novelistic conventions and African oral traditions impact form in these works. We will focus on writings from Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and South Africa and examine works by such writers such as Chinua Achebe, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Chimamanda Adichie, and Yvonne Vera.

Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Lecturer Bailey

226. Conceptualizing White Identity in the United States. (Offered as SOCI 331 and BLST 226 [US].) The debate over the virtues of multiculturalism and the promotion of diversity have, ironically, led an increasing number of scholars to question the meaning of “whiteness.” What does it mean to be “white”? Who gets to decide who is and who isn’t “white”? Clearly, “white” means more than is captured by complexion alone, but what is there besides complexion? Given the undeniable fact that cultural variations among those regarded as white are as large as the variations between whites and non-whites, it is not clear what exactly constitutes whiteness. To study whiteness is to analyze the collective memory and practices of “white people” and to scrutinize carefully those moments when white identity is used to mobilize passions. This course will attempt to unpack the myths and realities that have created and maintained “white identity.”

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Basler.

231. African American History from the Slave Trade to Reconstruction. (Offered as BLST 231 [US] and HIST 247 [USP; or may be included in AF concentration, but not AF for distribution in the History major.]) This course is a survey of the history of African American men and women from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through the Civil War and Reconstruction. The content is a mixture of the social, cultural, and political history of blacks during two and a half centuries of slavery with the story of the black freedom struggle and its role in America’s national development. Among the major topics addressed: the slave trade in its moral and economic dimensions; African retentions in African American culture; origins of racism in colonial America; how blacks used the rhetoric and reality of the American and Haitian Revolutions to their advancement; antebellum slavery; black religion and family under slavery and freedom; the free black experience in the North and South; the crises of the 1850s; the role of race and slavery in the causes, course, and consequences of the Civil War; and the meaning of emancipation and Reconstruction for blacks. Readings include historical monographs, slave narratives by men and women, and one work of fiction.

Combined enrollment limited to 50 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Moss.

232. Passing in Literature and Film. (Offered as ENGL 361, BLST 232 [US], and FAMS 372.) Is identity natural or cultural? This question has persisted through centuries of American writing, and many of the most interesting meditations on this question arise from books and films that deal with passing. Texts about passing, about people who can successfully pass themselves off as something different from what they were “born as,” form an important subgenre of American culture because they force us to question some strangely consistent inconsistencies in how we define identity. If race, for example, signifies a real and material difference, how could there be such a thing as racial passing? But, at the same time, if race is “only” a social construction, then why is racial passing so often characterized as a crime against nature? Stories about passing often illustrate a fundamental ambivalence on the personal meaningfulness of biopower in America, and also reveal the nascent virtuality of worldly experiences more generally. That in mind, this course explores a broad range of literary and cultural texts, including novels by Charles Chesnutt, Percival Everett, and Danzy Senna, and film and televisual texts like Gattaca, Avatar, Sirk’s Imitation of Life, and Eddie Murphy’s “White Like Me.”

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parham.

234. Jazz History to 1945: Emergence, Early Development, and Innovation. (Offered as MUSI 224 and BLST 234 [US].) One of two courses that trace the development of jazz from its emergence in early 20th-century New Orleans to its profound impact on American culture. Jazz History to 1945 examines its early roots in late 19th-century American popular culture and its role as American popular music in the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s. Using themes that connect the evolution of jazz practices to social and racial politics in American popular culture, we will look closely at the work of well-known historical figures (Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and several others) as well as the vibrant communities that nurtured and prompted their innovative musical practices. Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: MUSI 111 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Robinson.

236. Black Sexualities. (Offered as BLST 236 [US] and WAGS 330) From the modern era to the contemporary moment, the intersection of race, gender, and class has been especially salient for people of African descent—for men as well as for women. How might the category of sexuality act as an additional optic through which to view and reframe contemporary and historical debates concerning the construction of black identity? In what ways have traditional understandings of masculinity and femininity contributed to an understanding of African American life and culture as invariably heterosexual? How have black lesbian, gay, and transgendered persons effected political change through their theoretical articulations of identity, difference, and power? In this interdisciplinary course, we will address these questions through an examination of the complex roles gender and sexuality play in the lives of people of African descent. Remaining attentive to the ways black people have claimed social and sexual agency in spite of systemic modes of inequality, we will engage with critical race theory, black feminist thought, queer-of-color critique, literature, art, film, “new media” and erotica, as well as scholarship from anthropology, sociology, and history.

Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Polk.

238. African-American Religious History. (Offered as RELI 238 and BLST 238 [US]. A study of African-American religion, from the time of slavery to the present, in the context of American social, political, and religious history. Consideration will be given to debates concerning the “Africanity” of black religion in the United States, to the role of Islam in African-American religious history, and to the religious impact of recent Caribbean immigration. The major emphasis throughout the course, however, will be on the history of African-American Christianity in the United States. Topics covered will include the emergence of African-American Christianity in the slavery era, the founding of the independent black churches (especially the AME church) and their institutional development in the nineteenth century, the predominant role of the black Baptist denominations in the twentieth century, the origins and growth of black Pentecostalism, the increasing importance of African-American Catholicism, the role of the churches in social protest movements (especially the civil rights movement) and electoral politics, the changing forms of black theology, and the distinctive worship traditions of the black churches.

Fall semester. Professor Wills.

241. African American History from Reconstruction to the Present. (Offered as BLST 241 [US] and HIST 248 [US; or may be included in AF concentration, but not AF for distribution in the History major].) This course is a survey of the social, cultural, and political history of African American men and women since the 1870s. Among the major topics addressed: the legacies of Reconstruction; the political and economic origins of Jim Crow; the new racism of the 1890s; black leadership and organizational strategies; the Great Migration of the World War I era; the Harlem Renaissance; the urbanization of black life and culture; the impact of the Great Depression and the New Deal; the social and military experience of World War II; the causes, course and consequences of the modern civil rights movement; the experience of blacks in the Vietnam War; and issues of race and class in the 1970s and 1980s. Readings and materials include historical monographs, fiction, and documentary films.

Limited to 50 students. Omitted 2012-13.

242. Black Women’s Narratives and Counternarratives: Love and the Family. (Offered as WAGS 202 and BLST 242 [US].) Why does love and courtship continue to be central concerns in black women’s literature and contemporary black popular fiction? Are these thematic issues representative of apolitical yearnings or an allegory for political subjectivity? Drawing on a wide range of texts, we will examine the chasm between the “popular” and the literary, as we uncover how representations of love and courtship vary in both genres. Surveying the growing discourse in media outlets such as CNN and the Washington Post regarding the “crisis” of the single black woman, students will analyze the contentious public debates regarding black women and love and connect them to black women’s literature and black feminist literary theory. Authors covered will range from Nella Larsen to Terry McMillan and topics will include gender, race, class, and sexuality.

Limited to 20 students. Open to first-year students with consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Five College Fellow Henderson.

243. Marvelous Blackness: Surrealism and Negritude. [D] In the moment of anti-colonial struggle, what meanings can be found in cultural forms and expressions? Are the colonized suffocated by the violence of history and the imposition of foreign cultural forms? Or is another language, poetics, community, and politics possible? How might another language, poetics, etc., redefine the meaning of blackness after colonialism? In this course we will examine these questions as they arise in the anti-colonial movements of mid-twentieth century Francophone Africa and the Caribbean. Our readings will engage questions of nation, identity, language, and the cultural and political meaning of diaspora in the Surrealist and Negritude movements. In particular, we will examine the complex and subtle debate between theorists, artists, and poets René Ménil, Aimé Césaire, Léon Damas, and Léopold Senghor regarding the theory and practice of anti-colonial culture and politics. What are the limits and possibilities of Surrealism and its conception of “the marvelous”? How is that conception of the marvelous transformed and politicized in the pan-African context of the Negritude movement? What does blackness mean in these two movements? How are questions of race transformed by the Surrealist and Negritude methods of cultural and political creation? As well, we will consider the lesser-known contributions by Suzanne Césaire, Paulette Nardal, and Jane Nardal to these movements and consider crucial questions of gender in the politics of cultural meaning. Last, we will measure the veracity of Surrealism and Negritude in relation to the political movements, poetry, and plastic arts produced by those movements, with special attention to Césaire’s Martinique and Senghor’s Sénégal.

Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Drabinski.

244. Jazz History After 1945: Experimentalism, Pluralism, and Traditionalism. (Offered as MUSI 227 and BLST 244 [US].) One of two courses that trace the development of jazz from its emergence in early 20th-century New Orleans to its profound impact on American culture. Jazz History after 1945 explores the emergence of bebop in the 1940s, the shift of jazz’s relationship with American popular culture after World War II, and the dramatic pluralization of jazz practice after the 1950s. We will also look at the emergence of fusion and the jazz avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s, and theorize the reformulation of “tradition” during the 1980s. Central to our examination will be the phenomenon of “neoclassicism” common in jazz discourse today, measuring that against the radical diversity of jazz practice around the world. Many figures central to the development of the varied post-bebop directions in jazz will be discussed: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Ornette Coleman, the New York Downtown scene, and many others. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Robinson.

245. Introduction to African-American Philosophy. (Offered as BLST 245 and PHIL 245.) What is distinctive about African-American experience? How does that distinctiveness bear on the theory and practice of philosophy and philosophical thinking? And how does the African-American philosophical tradition alter conventional philosophical accounts of subjectivity, knowledge, time, language, history, embodiment, memory, and justice? In this course, we will read a range of African-American thinkers from the twentieth century in order to develop an appreciation of the unique, critical philosophical voice in the black intellectual tradition. Our readings of works by W.E.B. Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, Alain Locke, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Jr., Angela Davis, Anthony Appiah and Cornel West will open up crucial issues that transform philosophy’s most central problems: knowing, being, and acting. As well, we will consider the cluster of thinkers with whom those works are critically concerned, including key texts from nineteenth century German philosophy, American pragmatism, and contemporary existentialism and postmodernism. What emerges from these texts and critical encounters is a sense of philosophy and philosophical practice as embedded in the historical experience—in all of its complexity—of African-Americans in the twentieth century.

Fall semester. Visiting Professor Drabinski.

252. Caribbean Poetry: The Anglophone Tradition. (Offered as ENGL 317 and BLST 252 [CLA].) A survey of the work of Anglophone Caribbean poets, alongside readings about the political, cultural and aesthetic traditions that have influenced their work. Readings will include longer cycles of poems by Derek Walcott and Edward Kamau Brathwaite; dialect and neoclassical poetry from the colonial period, as well as more recent poetry by women writers and performance (“dub”) poets.

Fall semester. Professor Cobham-Sander.

293. African Art and the Diaspora. (Offered as ARHA 270 and BLST 293 [D].) The course of study will examine those African cultures and their arts that have survived and shaped the aesthetic, philosophic and religious patterns of African descendants in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti and urban centers in North America. We shall explore the modes of transmission of African artistry to the West and examine the significance of the preservation and transformation of artistic forms from the period of slavery to our own day. Through the use of films, slides and objects, we shall explore the depth and diversity of this vital artistic heritage of Afro-Americans.

Fall semester. Professor Abiodun.

295. Black Existentialism. [D] During the middle decades of the twentieth century, existentialism dominated the European philosophical and literary scene. Prominent theorists such as J-P Sartre, Albert Camus, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty put the experience of history, alienation, and the body at the center of philosophical and literary life. It should be no surprise, then, that existentialism appealed to so many Afro-Caribbean and African-American thinkers of the same period and after. This course examines the critical transformation of European existentialist ideas through close readings of black existentialists Aime Césaire, Frantz Fanon, George Lamming, and Wilson Harris, paired with key essays from Sartre, Camus, and Merleau-Ponty. As well, we will engage black existentialism not just as a series of claims, but also a method, which allows us to read works by African-American writers such as W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison in an existentialist frame. Lastly, we will consider the matter of how and why existentialism continues to function so centrally in contemporary Africana philosophy.

Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Drabinski.

300. Research in Black Studies. [R] This seminar prepares students to conduct independent research. Although it concentrates on the field of Black Studies, it serves as a good introductory research course for all students in the humanities and social sciences regardless of major. The first part of the course will intensively introduce students to the library through a series of readings, exercises, and discussions aimed at sharpening the ability to locate information precisely and efficiently. The second part of the course will introduce research methods in three important areas of Black Studies: the arts, history, and the social sciences. Faculty members of the Black Studies Department, departmental affiliates, and visitors will join the class to present their own ongoing research, placing particular emphasis on the disciplinary methods and traditions of inquiry that guide their efforts. Also in the second part, through individual meetings with professors, students will begin developing their own research projects. The third part of the course will concentrate more fully on development of these projects through a classroom workshop. Here students will learn how to shape a topic into a research question, build a bibliography, annotate a bibliography, shape a thesis, develop an outline, and write a research proposal, or prospectus.

This class is required of Black Studies majors. It is open to non-majors with the consent of the instructor. Although BLST 111 and 200 are not required for admission, preference will go to those who have taken one or both of these courses.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professors Castro Alves and Ferguson.

313. Visual Arts and Orature in Africa. (Offered as BLST 313 [A] and ARHA 138.) In the traditionally non-literate societies of Africa, verbal and visual arts constitute two systems of communication. The performance of verbal art and the display of visual art are governed by social and cultural rules. We will examine the epistemological process of understanding cultural symbols, of visualizing narratives, or proverbs, and of verbalizing sculptures or designs. Focusing on the Yoruba people of West Africa, the course will attempt to interpret the language of their verbal and visual arts and their interrelations in terms of cultural cosmologies, artistic performances, and historical changes in perception and meaning. We will explore new perspectives in the critical analysis of African verbal and visual arts, and their interdependence as they support each other through mutual references and allusions.

Fall semester. Professor Abiodun.

315. Myth, Ritual and Iconography in West Africa. (Offered as BLST 315 [A] and ARHA 353.) Through a contrastive analysis of the religious and artistic modes of expression in three West African societies—the Asanti of the Guinea Coast, and the Yoruba and Igbo peoples of Nigeria—the course will explore the nature and logic of symbols in an African cultural context. We shall address the problem of cultural symbols in terms of African conceptions of performance and the creative play of the imagination in ritual acts, masked festivals, music, dance, oral histories, and the visual arts as they provide the means through which cultural heritage and identity are transmitted and preserved, while, at the same time, being the means for innovative responses to changing social circumstances.

Spring semester. Professor Abiodun.

321. Riot and Rebellion in Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa. (Offered as HIST 488 [AF] and BLST 321 [A].) There were numerous rebellions against the state during the period of European colonial rule, and violent resistance to state authority has continued to characterize political life in many post-colonial African countries. This seminar will examine the development of several outbreaks of violence in Africa in the colonial and post-colonial periods to explore important questions in a comparative context. We will look at the economic, social, religious, and political roots of these disturbances; at the challenges faced both by rebel groups attempting to gain a foothold and by states with a fragile hold on ruling authority; and at the social disruptions caused by the participation of child and youth soldiers in various conflicts. We will also discuss the problems historians face in trying to narrate and analyze revolts whose strength often emerged from their protean character, and the legends and rumors that frequently swirled around violent revolts and their role in the construction of historical narratives. The events studied will include the Maji-maji rebellion in German-controlled Tanganyika in 1906-1907; the first (1896-1897) and second (1960-1980) Chimurengas (revolts) in southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe; the widespread revolt in the 1980s and ’90s in South Africa against the apartheid regime; and the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda in the late 1990s. Students will each write a 20- to 25-page research paper on an individually chosen topic as a final project; in addition there will be frequent, shorter writing assignments throughout the semester. There will be one class meeting per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Not open to first-year students. Fall semester. Professor Redding.

330. Spike Lee’s Joints. (Offered as ENGL 374, BLST 330 [US], and FAMS 358.) In offering extended formal considerations of Spike Lee’s cinematic oeuvre—in particular his uses of light, sound, and color—this course is interested in how shifting through various modes of critical inquiry can enable or broaden different kinds of cultural, political, or historical engagement with a film. This semester we will also pay special attention to the question of what it means to encapsulate a particular cultural moment, particularly vis-à-vis the often differing demands of fictional and non-fictional representation.

Spring semester. Professor Parham and Visiting Professor Drabinski.

331. The Black Arts Movement. (Offered as BLST 331 [US] and HIST 353 [AF].) Students will encounter the Black Freedom struggle through the literature, music, art, and political activism of the Black Arts Movement. The artistic corollary to Black Power, the Black Arts Movement flourished in the 1960s and 1970s as artists/activists sought to put a revolutionary cultural politics into practice around the country. The Black Arts Movement had far-reaching consequences for the way artists and writers think about race, gender, history, identity, and the relationship between artist production and political liberation. We’ll read work by Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, and Larry Neal, among others. We’ll also trace the movement’s extension through local political battles and the emergence of new institutions, including theaters, journals, and Black Studies programs. We’ll consider the overlap of the Black Arts Movement with other political currents of the late 1960s and early 1970s, explore its relationship to Black feminism, and trace the influence of the Black Arts Movement in hip-hop and film.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Visiting Lecturer Rabig.

335. Du Bois and After. [US] This course offers a systematic study of the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, drawing on the whole range of his life and writing in order to assess his importance for theorizing race, racism, and the human condition. What do we mean by “race”? How is our understanding of history, consciousness, and hope transformed by the experience of anti-black racism? What is the role of gender, class, and nation in theorizing race and racism? In Du Bois’ early work on these questions, especially his masterpiece Souls of Black Folk, we encounter some of the most significant foundational work in the black intellectual tradition. Themes of double-consciousness, the color line, and the veil set many of the terms of discussion for the twentieth century and after. In this course, we will read this early work closely, but also consider the development of his later thought in historical and intellectual context, putting Du Bois in dialogue with his contemporaries William James, Booker T. Washington, Josiah Royce, and others, as well as considering contemporary appropriations of his work. Lastly, we will read Du Bois critically by considering recent scholarship on his often fraught relationship to questions of gender, class, and transnational identity. Across these readings, we will develop a deep, engaged appreciation of the scope and power of Du Bois’ thinking and the fecundity of his intellectual legacy.

Fall semester. Visiting Professor Drabinski.

341. Topics in African American History: Race and Educational Opportunity in America. (Offered as HIST 355 [US; or may be included in AF concentration, but not AF for distribution in the major] and BLST 341 [US].) This seminar is an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between race and educational opportunity in American history. Students will gain a historical understanding of the divergent educational experiences of various groups within American society. The course is divided into four units: ethnicity and educational access in early America, education and segregation in Jim Crow America, desegregation (implementation and opposition) after Brown v. Board of Education, and contemporary discussions over race and access to education. In the first section of the course, students will pay special attention to trends including northern and southern resistance to African American education, education as assimilation, and vocational vs. classical education. Next, they will delve into twentieth- and twenty-first-century issues involving race and education. For example, they will examine how specific communities—northern, southern, and western—grappled with the desegregation process. Finally, students will assess the extent to which desegregation has been achieved and the transformative effects of this policy on public schools. One class meeting per week.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Moss.

342. Studies in African American Literature. (Offered as ENGL 360 and BLST 342 [US].) The topic changes each time the course is taught. In spring 2011 the topic was “The Weary Blues: Mourning in African American Literature and Culture.” As a population generally familiar with the facts of living too hard and dying too soon, how have African Americans used their literary and cultural traditions to memorialize—to articulate and often to work through conditions of pain and loss? Using a variety of literary and cultural texts, including RIP murals, poetry, and music, this semester’s topic examined the various ways African Americans express and aestheticize loss; how mourning often works as a foundation for militancy; and, most importantly, how loss is often recuperated through ideologies of art, love, and memory.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parham.

362. Childhood in African and Caribbean Literature. (Offered as ENGL 318 and BLST 362 [A/CLA].) The course will concentrate on Caribbean authors. It explores the process of self-definition in literary works from Africa and the Caribbean that are built around child protagonists. We will examine the authors’ various methods of ordering experience through the choice of literary form and narrative technique, as well as the child/author’s perception of his or her society. French texts will be read in translation.

Open to first-year students with consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Cobham-Sander.

371. Latin America and the Caribbean in the Age of Revolution. (Offered as HIST 469 [LAP] and BLST 371 [CLA].) This seminar examines in historical perspective the complicated transition of several Latin American and Caribbean countries from colony to independent nation-states during the Age of Revolution. It focuses particularly on the role of working people in the making of modern nation-states in Brazil, Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and the Andean region (Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador). How did the subaltern classes view the colonial order? What are the causes of popular protest? Is there such a thing as popular nationalism? What is the meaning of postcolonialism in Latin America? Overall, the seminar’s objectives are threefold: to make students more familiar with the historical development of Latin America and the Caribbean during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; to introduce the themes and issues in the current historiography of anti-colonialism and postcolonialism; and finally, to guide students to write their own research papers. In the first two weeks, readings will include theoretical texts on nationalism, state formation, and popular discontent. In the remaining weeks, we will read historical studies, documents and literary texts, which discuss various aspects of popular political activism from 1789 to 1850. One class meeting per week.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Castro Alves.

390. Special Topics. Fall and spring semesters. Members of the Department.

390H. Special Topics. A half course.

Fall and spring semesters. Members of the Department.

431. Great Thinkers of the African American Intellectual Tradition. This seminar provides students an opportunity to study closely the works of a single great African American intellectual, such as Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, or Toni Morrison. The specific topic for the course will be announced and available from the Black Studies Academic Department Coordinator four months in advance each time it is taught. Readings will include major and minor works of the author, secondary sources such as biographies and literary criticism, and archival resources when available at a local or regional library. Classes will place a strong emphasis on in-depth discussion of individual works and class participation will constitute a substantial proportion of the final grade. Students will also be required to develop their own research project that will serve as the basis for a 20-25-page term paper, due at the end of the semester. Students will also be asked at the discretion of the instructor to report to the class from time to time regarding the progress of their research project.

Not open to first-year students. Open to sophomores with the consent of the instructor. Recommended requisite: BLST 300. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Ferguson.

432. Exploring Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. [US] Ralph Waldo Ellison wrote Invisible Man to confirm the existence of the universal in the particulars of the black American experience. The same can be said of the larger aim of this course. It will provide students with the opportunity to explore the broadest themes of Black Studies through the careful reading of a particular text. Due to its broad range of influence and reference, Invisible Man is one of the most appropriate books in the black tradition for this kind of attention. The course will proceed through a series of comparisons with works that influenced the literary style and the philosophical content of the novel. The first part of the course will focus on comparisons to world literature. Readings will include James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo; and H.G. Wells, The Invisible Man. The second part of the course will focus on comparisons to American literature. The readings in this part of the course will include Herman Melville, The Confidence Man; William Faulkner, “The Bear”; and some of Emerson’s essays. The last part of the course will focus on comparisons with books in the black tradition. Some of the readings in this part of the course will include W.E.B. Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk and Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery. Requires 20-25 page research paper.

Limited to 15 students. Open to juniors and seniors. Preference given to Black Studies majors. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Ferguson.

435. Representing Slavery. [before 1800] (Offered as ENGL 466, BLST 435 [US], and FAMS 314.) Mining a variety of archives in search of captivity narratives created by American slaves and their progeny, this class will use its materials to consider larger questions regarding the overlapping roles of voice, testimony, trauma, and narrative in cultural and historical understanding. Work for this semester will culminate in the production of a multimedia research project, but no previous familiarity with media production is required.

Junior/Senior seminar. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parham.

441. Ghosts in Shells? Virtuality and Embodiment from Passing to the Posthuman. (Offered as ENGL 456, BLST 441 [US], and FAMS 451.) This class begins with narratives about individuals who pass—that is, who come to be recognized as someone different from whom they were sexually or racially “born as.” Such stories suggest that one’s identity depends minimally on the body into which one is born, and is more attached to the supplementation and presentation of that body in support of whichever cultural story the body is desired to tell. Drawing on familiar liberal humanist claims, which centralize human identity in the mind, these narratives also respond to the growing sophistication of human experience with virtual worlds—from acts of reading to immersions in computer simulation. But what kinds of tensions emerge when bodies nonetheless signify beyond an individual’s self-imagination? As technology expands the possibilities of the virtual, for instance surrogacy, cloning, and cybernetics, what pressures are brought to bear on the physical human body and its processes to signify authentic humanness? Rather than ask whether identity is natural or cultural, our discussions will project these questions into a not-so-distant future: What would it mean to take “human” as only one identity, as a category amongst many others, each also acknowledged as equally subject to the same social and biological matrices of desire, creation, and recognition? We will approach these questions through works of literature, philosophy, media history, and contemporary science writing.

Junior/Senior seminar. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Parham.

442. Faulkner and Morrison. (Offered as ENGL 454 and BLST 442.) William Faulkner and Toni Morrison are generally understood as two of the most important writers of the twentieth century, and indeed, the work of each is integral to American literature. But why are Morrison and Faulkner so often mentioned in the same breath—he, born in the South, white and wealthy, she, the daughter of a working-class black family in the Midwest? Perhaps it is because in a country that works hard to live without a racial past, both Morrison’s and Faulkner’s work bring deep articulation to the often unseen, and more commonly—the unspeakable. This class will explore the breadth of each author’s work, looking for where their texts converge and diverge. And we will learn how to talk and write about the visions, dreams, and nightmares—all represented as daily life—that these authors offer.

Junior/Senior seminar. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parham.

461. The Creole Imagination. (Offered as ENGL 491 and BLST 461 [CLA].) What would it mean to write in the language in which we dream? A language that we can hear, but cannot (yet) see? Is it possible to conceive a language outside the socio-symbolic order? And can one language subvert the codes and values of another? Questions like these have animated the creolité/nation language debate among Caribbean intellectuals since the mid-1970s, producing some of the most significant francophone and anglophone writing of the twentieth century. This course reads across philosophy, cultural theory, politics, and literature in order to consider the claims such works make for the Creole imagination. We will engage the theoretical and creative work of Édouard Glissant, Maryse Condé, Wilson Harris, Derek Walcott, Kamau Brathwaite, Patrick Chamoiseau, Jamaica Kincaid, and Edwidge Danticat. We also will consider how these writers transform some of the fundamental ideas of psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, and critical historiography. At stake in our readings will be the various aesthetic and political aspects of postcolonial struggle—how to think outside the colonial architecture of language; how to contest and subvert what remains from history’s violence; and how to evaluate the claims to authenticity of creolized New World cultural forms.

Junior/Senior seminar. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Cobham-Sander and Visiting Professor Drabinski.

490. Special Topics. Fall and spring semesters. Members of the Department.

490H. Special Topics. A half course.

Fall and spring semesters. Members of the Department.

491. Black Marxism. (Offered as HIST 418 [C] and BLST 491 [CLA/D].) The seminar traces in historical perspective the relationship between Black radicalism and Marxist thought. Since the late nineteenth century, Black diasporic intellectuals have found in Western Marxism, particularly its internationalist discourse, theory of class formation, and historical materialist analysis, the recipes for critical inquiry and radical politics. Their engagement with Marxism and socialist theory, however, has not precluded tensions and new theoretical resolutions. Black intellectuals from various generations have questioned “classical” Marxism’s economic reductionism, simplistic understanding of peasant politics, and dismissal of political struggles outside metropolitan regions. For writers such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, Frantz Fanon, and C.L.R. James, Western Marxism has failed to account for the racial character of capitalism or to provide a historical narrative of blacks’ emancipatory politics. Students will acquire a basic knowledge of Marxist theory, and a historical understanding of Black Marxism by analyzing the works from two generations of intellectuals: the modernist and Pan-Africanist generation (Du Bois, Wright, James, Oliver Cromwell Cox, and Eric Williams), and the New Left generation (Frantz Fanon, Amiri Baraka, Amilcar Cabral, Walter Rodney, Stuart Hall, Angela Davis, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o). One class meeting per week.

Limited to 15 students. Not open to first year students. Fall semester. Professor Castro Alves.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Fall semester. Members of the Department.

498D. Senior Departmental Honors. A double course.

Fall semester. Members of the Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Spring semester. Members of the Department.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. A double course.

Spring semester. Members of the Department.

BRUSS SEMINAR

The Bruss Seminar is part of the Bruss Memorial Program, established in memory of Professor Elizabeth Bruss, who taught at Amherst from 1972 to 1981. Under the Program, a member of the faculty is appointed Bruss Reader for a term of two or three years, with the responsibility of addressing questions with regard to women as they emerge from existing disciplines and departments, and to promote curricular change and expansion to incorporate the study of women. The Bruss Reader does this by serving as a resource person, through revision of department offerings, and by teaching the Bruss Seminar. The subject of the seminar, therefore, changes over time reflecting the disciplines of successive Bruss Readers.

Chemistry

*On leave 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors Kushick‡, Leung (Chair), Marshall, and O’Hara; Associate Professors Bishop and Burkett; Assistant Professors Jaswal*, Kan, McKinney*, and Young; Academic Managers Ampiah-Bonney and Stencel; Visiting Assistant Professor Collins.

Major Program. Students considering a major in Chemistry should consult a member of the Department as early as possible, preferably during their first year. This will help in the election of a program which best fits their interests and abilities and which makes full use of previous preparation. Programs can be arranged for students considering careers in chemistry, chemical physics, biochemistry, biophysical chemistry, biomedical research, medicine, and secondary school science teaching.

For the Class of 2013, the minimum requirements for a major in Chemistry are CHEM 151 or 155, 161, 221, 231, 351, and three of the following four courses: 331, 361, 371, and 381. Alternatively, members of that class, in consultation with their advisor, may choose to meet the revised requirements effective with the Class of 2014. Beginning with the Class of 2014, the minimum requirements for a major in Chemistry are CHEM 151 or 155, 161, 221, 231, 351, 361, and 371, and an additional Chemistry course numbered in the 300s or 400s (excluding 498/499). Please note that some Chemistry courses require successful completion of work in other departments: for the required courses, the non-Chemistry pre-requisites are MATH 111 for CHEM 161, MATH 121 and PHYS 116 or 123 for CHEM 351 and 361. Students are encouraged to discuss their proposed course of study for the major with a member of the Department, as there may be years when staffing considerations preclude offering one of the required courses.

Departmental Honors Program. A candidate for the degree with Honors will also elect CHEM 498 and 499D in the senior year. Honors programs for exceptional interests, including interdisciplinary study, can be arranged on an individual basis by the departmental advisor.

Honors candidates attend the Chemistry seminar during their junior and senior years, participating in it actively in the senior year. All Chemistry majors are required to attend the seminar in their senior year. During this seminar, discussions of topics of current interest are conducted by faculty, visitors and students.

In the senior year an individual thesis problem is selected by the Honors candidate in conference with a member of the Department. Current areas of research in the Department are: inorganic and hybrid materials synthesis; protein-nucleic acid interactions; immunochemistry; fluorescence and single-molecule spectroscopy; high resolution molecular spectroscopy of jet-cooled species; ab initio, quantum chemical calculation of molecular properties and intermolecular interactions; chemical-genetic characterization of cell signaling enzymes; protein phosphatase inhibitor design; biochemistry of tRNA modification enzymes; investigation of the protein folding landscape of kinetically stabilized proteins; development of hydrogen exchange mass spectrometry methodology to monitor protein folding and dynamics; development of organic methods and the synthesis of biologically active natural products; atmospheric chemistry of biogenic volatile organic compounds; and mechanistic studies of spectroscopy and kinetics in proton-coupled electron transfer model systems and photovoltaic materials.

Note on Placement: CHEM 151 followed by CHEM 161 are the appropriate first courses in Chemistry for most students. Those students with minimal preparation in quantitative areas will be invited to enroll in CHEM 131 (cross-listed with BIOL 131) as an entry level point. For those students with extensive high school preparation in the subject and strong quantitative skills as measured by SAT I and II (or ACT), CHEM 155 followed by CHEM 161 is recommended by the Department. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis to determine whether placement out of either CHEM 151/155 or CHEM 161 or, less frequently, both, is appropriate. Students considering advanced placement are advised to contact the Department soon after arriving on campus.

Certification by the American Chemical Society: The Chemistry Department at Amherst College is among the programs approved by the American Chemical Society (ACS). The chemistry curriculum is reviewed by the ACS Committee on Professional Training on a five-year cycle and reports are made to the ACS annually. To earn an ACS-certified degree, Amherst College chemistry majors, in addition to the minimum requirements, must elect CHEM 330 or 331, take a second semester of Physics (PHYS 117 or 124, or receive equivalent placement from the Physics Department), and successfully complete a senior thesis in Chemistry (CHEM 498/499D).

131. Chemical Basis of Biological Processes. (Offered as CHEM 131 and BIOL 131.) What are the natural laws that describe how biological processes actually work? This course will use examples from biology such as human physiology or cellular signaling to illustrate the interplay between fundamental chemical principles and biological function. We will explore how bonding plays a central role in assembling simple biological building blocks such as sugars, amino acids, and fatty acids to form complex carbohydrates, proteins, and membranes. What underlying thermodynamic and kinetic principles guide systems to biological homeostasis or reactivity? What is pH, and how are proton gradients used to generate or change an organism’s response? Emphasis is on using mathematics and physical sciences to understand biological functions. Three classroom hours and three hours of laboratory per week.

Enrollment is limited to first-year students who are interested in science or premedical study, who are recommended to begin with either MATH 105 or MATH 111 (Intensive), and who are enrolled in a Mathematics course but not in CHEM 151.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Poccia and Postdoctoral Fellow Hebda.

151. Introductory Chemistry. This course examines the structure of matter from both a microscopic and macroscopic viewpoint. We begin with a detailed discussion of the physical structure of atoms, followed by an analysis of how the interactions between atoms lead to the formation of molecules. The relationship between the structures of molecular compounds and their properties is then described. Experiments in the laboratory provide experience in conducting quantitative chemical measurements and illustrate principles discussed in the lectures.

Although this course has no prerequisites, students with a limited background in secondary school science should confer with one of the CHEM 151 instructors before registration. Each laboratory section is limited to 24 students. In the fall, sufficient sections will be added to meet total enrollment. The spring semester is limited to two laboratory sections. Four class hours and three hours of laboratory per week.

Fall semester: Professors Burkett and Kushick. Spring semester: Professor O’Hara.

155. Fundamental Principles of Chemistry. A study of the basic concepts of chemistry for students particularly interested in natural science. Topics to be covered include atomic and molecular structure, spectroscopy, states of matter, and stoichiometry. These physical principles are applied to a variety of inorganic, organic, and biochemical systems. Both individual and bulk properties of atoms and molecules are considered with an emphasis on the conceptual foundations and the quantitative chemical relationships which form the basis of chemical science. This course is designed to utilize the background of those students with strong preparation in secondary school chemistry and to provide both breadth in subject matter and depth in coverage. Four hours of lecture and discussion and three hours of laboratory per week.

Limited to 40 students. Fall semester. Professor Marshall.

161. Chemical Principles. The concepts of thermodynamic equilibrium and kinetic stability are studied. Beginning with the laws of thermodynamics, we will develop a quantitative understanding of the factors which determine the extent to which chemical reactions can occur before reaching equilibrium. Chemical kinetics is the study of the factors, such as temperature, concentrations, and catalysts, which determine the speeds at which chemical reactions occur. Appropriate laboratory experiments supplement the lecture material. Each laboratory section is limited to 24 students. In the spring, sufficient sections will be added to meet total enrollment. The fall semester is limited to two laboratory sections. Four class hours and three hours of laboratory work per week.

Requisite: CHEM 151 or 155 (this requirement may be waived for exceptionally well-prepared students; consent of the instructor is required); and MATH 111 or placement by the Mathematics department into MATH 121 or higher.

Fall semester: Professor Young. Spring semester: Professors Leung and Marshall.

221. Organic Chemistry I. A study of the structure of organic compounds and of the influence of structure upon the chemical and physical properties of these substances. The following topics are emphasized: hybridization, resonance theory, spectroscopy, stereochemistry, acid-base properties and nucleophilic substitution reactions. Periodically, examples will be chosen from recent articles in the chemical, biochemical, and biomedical literature. Laboratory work introduces the student to basic laboratory techniques and methods of instrumental analysis. Four hours of class and four hours of laboratory per week.

Requisite: CHEM 161 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Kan.

231. Organic Chemistry II. A continuation of CHEM 221. The second semester of the organic chemistry course first examines in considerable detail the chemistry of the carbonyl group and some classic methods of organic synthesis. The latter section of the course is devoted to a deeper exploration of a few topics, among which are the following: sugars, amino acids and proteins, advanced synthesis, and acid-base catalysis in nonenzymatic and enzymatic systems. The laboratory experiments illustrate both fundamental synthetic procedures and some elementary mechanistic investigations. Four hours of class and four hours of laboratory per week.

Requisite: CHEM 221. Spring semester. Professor Kan.

290. Special Topics. A full course.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

290H. Special Topics. A half course.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

330. Biochemical Principles of Life at the Molecular Level. (Offered as BIOL 330 and CHEM 330) What are the molecular underpinnings of processes central to life? We will explore the chemical and structural properties of biological molecules and learn the logic used by the cell to build complex structures from a few basic raw materials. Some of these complex structures have evolved to catalyze chemical reactions with enormous degree of selectivity and specificity, and we seek to discover these enzymatic strategies. We will consider the detailed balance sheet that shows how living things harvest energy from their environment to fuel metabolic processes and to reproduce and grow. Examples of the exquisite control that permits a cell to be responsive and adapt its responses based on input from the environment will be considered. We will also consider some of the means by which cells respond to change and to stress. A student may not receive credit for both CHEM 330 and BCBP/BIOL/CHEM 331.

Requisite: BIOL 191 and CHEM 221. Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professor O’Hara.

331. Biochemistry. (Offered as BIOL 331, BCBP 331, and CHEM 331.) Structure and function of biologically important molecules and their role(s) in life processes. Protein conformation, enzymatic mechanisms and selected metabolic pathways will be analyzed. Additional topics may include: nucleic acid conformation, DNA/protein interactions, signal transduction and transport phenomena. Four classroom hours and four hours of laboratory work per week. Offered jointly by the Departments of Biology and Chemistry. A student may not receive credit for both BCBP/BIOL/CHEM 331 and CHEM 330.

Requisite: CHEM 221 and BIOL 191; or consent of the instructor. CHEM 231 is a co-requisite. Spring semester. Limited to 45 students. Professors Williamson (Biology) and Bishop (Chemistry).

351. Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy. The theory of quantum mechanics is developed and applied to spectroscopic experiments. Topics include the basic principles of quantum mechanics; the structure of atoms, molecules, and solids; and the interpretation of infrared, visible, fluorescence, and NMR spectra. Appropriate laboratory work will be arranged. Three hours of class and four hours of laboratory per week.

Requisite: CHEM 161, MATH 121, PHYS 116 or 123. Limited to 24 students. Fall semester. Professor Leung.

361. Physical Chemistry. The thermodynamic principles and the concepts of energy, entropy, and equilibrium introduced in CHEM 161 will be expanded. Statistical mechanics, which connects molecular properties to thermodynamics, will be introduced. Typical applications are non-ideal gases, phase transitions, heat engines and perpetual motion, phase equilibria in multicomponent systems, properties of solutions (including those containing electrolytes or macromolecules), and transport across biological membranes. Appropriate laboratory work is provided. Four hours of class and four hours of laboratory per week.

Requisite: CHEM 161, PHYS 116 or 123, and MATH 121. MATH 211 is recommended. Spring semester. Professor Young.

371. Inorganic Chemistry. The structure, bonding, and symmetry of transition metal-containing molecules and inorganic solids are discussed. Structure and bonding in transition metal complexes are examined through molecular orbital and ligand field theories, with an emphasis on the magnetic, spectral, and thermodynamic properties of transition metal complexes. Reactions of transition metal complexes, including the unique chemistry of organometallic compounds, will be examined. The laboratory experiments complement lecture material and include a final independent project. Four hours of class and four hours of laboratory per week.

Requisite: CHEM 221 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Burkett.

381. Atmospheric Chemistry. As global environmental issues such as stratospheric ozone depletion and global warming have arisen, the impact of mankind on the environment, particularly the atmosphere, has become a pressing concern for both the public and scientific communities. Addressing these large-scale and highly complex problems demands a greater scientific understanding of the earth system. In this course, students will investigate Earth’s atmosphere and the chemical and physical principles that shape it. Fundamental processes that determine atmospheric composition and climate, including multistep reaction mechanisms, chemical kinetics, molecular spectroscopy, photolysis, and heterogeneous chemistry, are introduced. Specific topics treated will include atmospheric composition, structure, and motion; element cycling; the transfer of solar and longwave radiation; stratospheric composition and chemistry; tropospheric oxidation processes; air pollution; and the role of human activity in global change. Laboratory, computational, and field experiments complement the lecture material. Three hours of lecture and four hours of laboratory per week.

Requisite: CHEM 161. Omitted 2012-13.

390. Special Topics. A full course.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

390H. Special Topics. A half course.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

400. Molecular and Cellular Biophysics. (Offered as PHYS 400, BIOL 400, BCBP 400, and CHEM 400.) How do the physical laws that dominate our lives change at the small length and energy scales of individual molecules? What design principles break down at the sub-cellular level and what new chemistry and physics becomes important? We will answer these questions by looking at bio-molecules, cellular substructures, and control mechanisms that work effectively in the microscopic world. How can we understand both the static and dynamic shape of proteins using the laws of thermodynamics and kinetics? How has the basic understanding of the smallest molecular motor in the world, ATP synthase, changed our understanding of friction and torque? We will explore new technologies, such as atomic force and single molecule microscopy that have allowed research into these areas. This course will address topics in each of the three major divisions of Biophysics: bio-molecular structure, biophysical techniques, and biological mechanisms.

Requisite: CHEM 161, PHYS 116/123, PHYS 117/124, BIOL 191 or evidence of equivalent coverage in pre-collegiate courses. Fall semester. Professors Carter and Williamson.

408. Seminar in Chemical Biology: The Chemistry/Biology Interface. (Offered as CHEM 408 and BCBP 408.) This advanced seminar will focus on the ways in which chemical approaches have been used to study and engineer biological systems. We will explore a series of case studies in which the tools of chemistry have been brought to bear on biological questions and seek to answer the following: Did the application of small molecules that were designed and synthesized by chemists allow the researchers to elucidate biological phenomena that would have remained opaque using genetic and biochemical approaches? Do the findings suggest further experiments? If so, could follow-up experiments be carried out with known techniques, or would development of further chemical tools be required? Topics will include: the design and synthesis of chemical modulators of gene expression, signal transduction, and protein-protein interactions; chemical approaches to protein engineering and drug-target validation; activity-based proteomics; and chemical tagging of biomolecular targets. Readings will draw heavily from the primary scientific literature. Students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions, to write, and to present their work to the class. This course can be used to fulfill either the elective requirement for the CHEM major or the seminar requirement for the BCBP major. Two eighty-minute classes per week.

Requisite: CHEM 231. Recommended requisite: CHEM 330 or 331. Fall semester. Professor Bishop.

490. Special Topics. A full course.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

490H. Special Topics. A half course.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. A full course.

Open to Senior Honors candidates, and others with consent of the Department. Fall semester. The Department.

498D. Senior Departmental Honors. A double course.

Open to Senior Honors candidates and others with consent of the Department. Fall semester. The Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Open to Senior Honors candidates, and others with consent of the Department. A full course.

Spring semester. The Department.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. Open to Senior Honors candidates, and others with consent of the Department. A double course.

Spring semester. The Department.

Classics

Professors Griffiths and R. Sinos (Chair); Assistant Professors Grillo and van den Berg1; Visiting Professor D. Sinos; Visiting Assistant Professor McCutcheon.

1On leave 2012-13.

Major Program. The major program is designed to afford access to the achievements of Greek and Roman antiquity through mastery of the ancient languages. The Department offers majors in Greek, in Latin, and in Classics, which is a combination of the two languages in any proportion as long as no fewer than two semester courses are taken in either. All three majors consist of eight semester courses, of which seven must be in the ancient languages. The eighth may be a Classical Civilization course, PHIL 217, or a course in some related field approved in advance by the Department. Courses numbered 111 may not be counted toward the major. LATI 202-316 will normally be introductory to higher courses in Latin, and GREE 212-318 will serve the same function in Greek.

The statement of requisites given in the course descriptions below is intended only to indicate the degree of preparation necessary for each course, and exceptions will be made in special cases. For students beginning the study of Greek the following sequences of courses are normal: Either 111, 212, 215 or 217, 318; or 111, 215 or 217, 212 or 318.

Departmental Honors Program. The program of every Honors candidate in Greek, Latin, or Classics must include those courses numbered 441 and 442 in either Greek or Latin. It will also include, beyond the eight-course program described above, the courses numbered 498 and 499. The normal expectation will be that in the senior year two courses at the 441/442 level be taken along with the 498/499 sequence. Admission to the 498 course is contingent on approval by the Department of a thesis prospectus. Translations of work already translated will not normally be acceptable nor will comparative studies with chief emphasis on modern works. Admission to the 499 course is contingent on the submission of a satisfactory chapter of at least 2,000 words and a detailed prospectus for the remaining sections to be defended at a colloquium within the first week of the second semester with the Department and any outside reader chosen.

In addition, Honors candidates must in the first semester of their senior year write an examination on a Greek or Latin text of approximately 50 pages (in the Oxford Classical Text or Teubner format) read independently, i.e., not as a part of work in a course, and selected with the approval of the Department. The award of Honors will be determined by the quality of the candidate’s work in the Senior Departmental Honors courses, thesis, and performance in the comprehensive work and language examination. The Department will cooperate with other departments in giving combined majors with Honors.

Comprehensive Requirement. Majors in Greek, Latin, and Classics will fulfill the Department’s comprehensive requirement in one of two ways.

(1) Students ordinarily complete the requirement through course work that provides a chronological survey of the cultures of the major.

—For the Greek major, one course: CLAS 123 (Greek Civilization), CLAS 132 (Greek History), or CLAS 134 (Archaeology of Greece).

—For the Latin major, one course: CLAS 124 (Roman Civilization) or CLAS 133 (History of Rome: Origins and Republic), or CLAS 135 (History of the Roman Empire).

—For the Classics major, two courses: one from the courses fulfilling the Greek major’s requirement, and one from the courses fulfilling the Latin major’s requirement.

(2) When circumstances prevent the satisfaction of this requirement through course work, students may take an examination consisting of essay questions on the literary and historical interpretation of major authors. It will be given in the fifth week of the first semester of the senior year.

Classical Civilization

121. Greek Mythology and Religion. A survey of the myths of the gods and heroes of ancient Greece, with a view to their original context in Greek art and literature as well as their place in Greek religion. We will give particular attention to myths that live on in Western art and literature, in order to become familiar with the stories which were part of the repertory of later artists and authors. Three class hours per week.

Omitted 2012-13.

123. Greek Civilization. (Offered as CLAS 123 and WAGS 123.) We read in English the major authors from Homer in the 8th century BCE to Plato in the 4th century in order to trace the emergence of epic, lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, history, and philosophy. How did the Greek enlightenment, and through it Western culture, emerge from a few generations of people moving around a rocky archipelago? How did oral and mythological traditions develop into various forms of “rationality”: science, history, and philosophy? What are the implications of male control over public and private life and the written record? What can be inferred about ancient women if they cannot speak for themselves in the texts? Other authors include Sappho, Herodotus, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Thucydides. The course seeks to develop the skills of close reading and persuasive argumentation. Three class hours per week.

Spring semester. Professor Griffiths.

124. Roman Civilization. A study of Roman civilization from its origins to the Empire, with emphasis on major Roman writers. The material will be interpreted in the light of Roman influence upon later Western civilization. The reading will be almost entirely from Latin literature, but no knowledge of the ancient language is required. Three class hours per week.

Omitted 2012-13.

128. Life in Ancient Rome. An introduction to the people of ancient Rome, their daily routines and occupations as well as their place in the developing Roman state. Topics will include religious practices, the Roman army, games, slavery, women’s lives, and Roman law. We will focus on primary sources, including literary as well as archaeological evidence, but will make use of modern representations of ancient Rome for the sake of comparison. Three class hours per week.

Omitted 2012-13.

132. Greek History. A chronological survey of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the age of Alexander, with attention to the wars that punctuated and to large extent defined the different phases of Greek history. We will use primary sources, including not only the fundamental histories of Herodotus and Thucydides but also other texts and monuments, to examine a range of perspectives of war and its effects.

Fall semester. Professor R. Sinos.

133. History of Rome: Origins and Republic. This course examines the political and social systems and struggles that marked Rome’s growth from a small city-state to a world empire. Through various sources (Roman works in translation and material evidence) we will focus on the development of the republican form of government and its transformation into an empire. We will study also the daily life of the people and the impact of Christianity on the Roman Empire. Three class hours per week.

Omitted 2012-13.

134. Archaeology of Greece. Excavations in Greece continue to uncover a rich variety of material remains that are altering and improving our understanding of ancient Greek life. By tracing the architecture, sculpture, and other finds from major sanctuaries, habitations, and burial places, this course will explore the ways in which archaeological evidence illuminates economic, political, philosophical, and religious developments in Greece from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic Period. Three class hours per week.

Omitted 2012-13.

135. History of the Roman Empire. This course considers the Roman Empire at its height, tracing the political, social, and religious changes that shaped Rome from the death of Julius Caesar through the Fifth Century CE. We will seek to understand the longevity of this extraordinary empire as well as the roots of its eventual decline. Using literary, historiographical, and archaeological sources, we will see how Rome’s once unitary society was challenged and transformed by the diverse cultures and religions of its empire.

Spring semester. Professor McCutcheon.

222. Political Rhetoric. (Offered as POSC 222 [PT] and CLAS 222) [PT—starting with the Class of 2015] Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, of using language—both written and oral—to convince others of one’s point of view. Yet many perceive such convincing as dangerous, especially to democracies where individual voice matters so much to politics. The line between persuasion and manipulation is not always clear, and the effects of crossing it can be incredibly corrosive. This course investigates the history and theory of political rhetoric. How and when should we be rhetorically persuasive? Which rhetorical techniques are persuasive and how do they operate? To what extent do rhetoric and persuasion determine our understanding of politics? When might persuasion prove dangerous to politics? This course revisits classical debates on the use and function of rhetoric in politics, as well as modern reflections on this tradition. The first section of the course addresses the thought of the three central figures in this debate—Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. In close engagement with key texts of the rhetorical tradition, our task will be to uncover precisely how ancient conceptions of rhetoric developed, exploring how rhetoric was viewed as both dangerous and necessary to successful governance. Building on these models, the course will then examine more recent theoretical discussions, reflecting on the development of attitudes and ideas about the rhetorical craft in modern and contemporary political thought. These investigations allow us to discover the risks and rewards of persuasion for our own political lives.

Omitted 2012-13. Professors Poe and van den Berg.

390. Special Topics. Fall and spring semester. Members of the Department.

490. Special Topics. Fall and spring semester. Members of the Department.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Fall semester. Members of the Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Spring semester. Members of the Department.

Greek

111. Introduction to the Greek Language. This course prepares students in one term to read Plato, Greek tragedy, Homer, and other Greek literary, historical, and philosophical texts in the original and also provides sufficient competence to read New Testament Greek. Three class hours per week. This course is normally followed by GREE 212 and then GREE 215 or 217.

Fall semester. Professor Griffiths.

111. Introduction to the Greek Language. This course prepares students in one term to read Greek tragedy, Plato, Homer, and other Greek literary, historical and philosophical texts in the original and also provides sufficient competence to read New Testament Greek. Three class hours per week. This course is normally followed by GREE 215 or 217 and then GREE 212 or 318.

Spring semester. Professor R. Sinos.

212. Greek Prose: Plato’s Apology. An introduction to Greek literature through a close reading of the Apology and selected other works of Attic prose of the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Additional readings in translation. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: GREE 111 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Griffiths.

215. An Introduction to Greek Tragedy. An introduction to Greek tragedy as a literary and ritual form through a close reading of one play. We will read Euripides’ Bacchae, with attention to poetic language, dramatic technique, and ritual context. This course aims to establish reading proficiency in Greek, with review of forms and syntax as needed. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: GREE 111 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor R. Sinos.

217. Reading the New Testament. This course offers an introduction to New Testament Greek. We will read selections from the Gospels and Epistles and will discuss the social and philosophical context as well as the content of the texts. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: GREE 111 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor D. Sinos.

318. An Introduction to Greek Epic. A reading of selected passages from the Iliad with attention to the poem’s structure and recurrent themes as well as to the society it reflects. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: GREE 212, 215, 217 or equivalent, or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor D. Sinos.

390. Special Topics. Fall and spring semester. Members of the Department.

441. Advanced Readings in Greek Literature I. The authors read in GREE 441 and 442 vary from year to year, but as a general practice are chosen from a list including Homer, choral and lyric poetry, historians, tragedians, and Plato, depending upon the interests and needs of the students. GREE 441 and 442 may be elected any number of times by a student, providing only that the topic is not the same. In 2012-13 GREE 441 will read Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns. Three class hours per week. Seminar course.

Requisite: A minimum of three courses numbered GREE 111 to 318 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor D. Sinos.

442. Advanced Readings in Greek Literature II. The authors read in GREE 441 and 442 vary from year to year, but as a general practice are chosen from a list including Homer, choral and lyric poetry, historians, tragedians, and Plato, depending upon the interests and needs of the students. GREE 441 and 442 may be elected any number of times by a student, providing only that the topic is not the same. In 2012-13 GREE 442 will read Herodotus. Three class hours per week. Seminar course.

Requisite: A minimum of three courses numbered GREE 111 to 318 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor R. Sinos.

490. Special Topics. Fall and spring semester. Members of the Department.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Fall semester. Members of the Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Spring semester. Members of the Department.

Latin

111. An Introduction to Latin Language and Literature. This course prepares students to read classical Latin. No prior knowledge of Latin is required. Three class hours per week.

Fall semester. Professor McCutcheon.

202. Intermediate Latin: Introduction to Literature. This course aims at establishing reading proficiency in Latin. Forms and syntax will be reviewed throughout the semester. We will read selections from Seneca’s Epistulae morales and possibly other authors. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: LATI 111 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Grillo.

215. Latin Literature: Catullus and the Lyric Spirit. This course will examine Catullus’ poetic technique, as well as his place in the literary history of Rome. Extensive reading of Catullus in Latin, together with other lyric poets of Greece and Rome in English. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: LATI 202 or equivalent. Fall semester. Visiting Professor McCutcheon.

316. Latin Literature in the Augustan Age. An introduction to the literature and culture of Augustan Rome through a close reading of selections from Augustan authors. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: LATI 202, 215 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Grillo.

390. Special Topics. Fall and spring semester. Members of the Department.

441. Advanced Readings in Latin Literature I. The authors read in LATI 441 and 442 vary from year to year, the selection being made according to the interests and needs of the students. Both 441 and 442 may be repeated for credit, providing only that the topic is not the same. In 2012-13 LATI 441 will read literature in the last generation of the Roman Republic. Three class hours per week. Seminar course.

Requisite: LATI 215 or 316 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Grillo.

442. Advanced Readings in Latin Literature II. See course description for LATI 441. In 2012-13 LATI 442 will read TBA. Three class hours per week. Seminar course.

Requisite: LATI 215, 316, 441 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor McCutcheon.

490. Special Topics. Fall and spring semester. Members of the Department.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Fall semester. Members of the Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Spring semester. Members of the Department.

Related Courses

Readings in the European Tradition I. See EUST 121.

Ancient Philosophy. See PHIL 217.

Colloquia

Colloquia are interdisciplinary courses not affiliated with a department. Whether colloquia are accepted for a major credit by individual departments is determined for each colloquium separately; students should consult their major departments.

230. Cultural Agency: Dance, Democracy and Tourism in Bahia, Brazil. This tutorial offers an intensive introduction to writings of contemporary democracy, tourism studies, and cultural agency in Latin America. We will study the role that African dance in Bahia, Brazil plays in the dynamics of social and political inclusion of marginal lives.

Examining the works of cultural agents in Latin American contemporary history, we will interrogate the definition and function of cultural agency set within the context of contemporary discourses of democracy. Is democracy an empty buzz-word that re-defines the Brazilian nation internationally without really reshaping the everyday lives of individuals locally? What role do tourism and the arts play in creating venues for cultural inclusion? Is cultural inclusion synonymous with political insertion? How does violence preclude or propel political change?

Within that frame, the working goal of the tutorial is to help students identify a researchable topic, master the literature presented by the professor (this includes original interviews and videos), develop a viable research design, and become comfortable with the process of academic research, synthesis, and organization. During the seminar, each student will develop a detailed prospectus for a research project.

This course is part of a new model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive research with faculty. It is open to six sophomores.

Proficiency in Spanish and/or Portuguese highly welcomed, but not necessary. Limited to six sophomores. Spring semester. Professor Suarez.

234. America’s Death Penalty. The United States, almost alone among constitutional democracies, retains death as a criminal punishment. It does so in the face of growing international pressure for abolition and of evidence that the system for deciding who lives and who dies is fraught with error. This seminar is designed to expose students to America’s death penalty as a researchable subject. It will be organized to help students understand how research is framed in this area, analyze theories and approaches of death penalty researchers, and identify open questions and most promising lines of future research. It will focus on the following dimensions of America’s death penalty: its history, current status, public support/opposition, the processing of capital cases in the criminal justice system, race and capital punishment, and its impact and efficacy. During the seminar, each student will develop a prospectus for a research project on America’s death penalty. This course is part of a new model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive research with faculty. It is open to sophomores interested in research.

Limited to 6 sophomores. Spring semester. Professor Sarat.

235. Concepts and Representations of Fortuna in Ancient Rome. The primary goal of this course is to improve sophomores’ ability to conduct personal and original research, starting from the Roman understanding of fortuna. A supernatural power bringing pleasant or unpleasant surprises, a mysterious entity whose strokes can be skillfully tempered but never quite avoided, a capricious deity to be feared, respected, and at times worshipped, a force to which even gods and goddesses are subjected, and a notion which affected Roman religion, literature, figurative arts, politics, and history, fortuna provides both a unique window into Roman civilization and a fascinating unitary focus for interdisciplinary research. How was the Romans’ view of the forces that governed their world different from that of other Western civilizations? How did their understanding of fortuna affect their view on justice, and how did it shape their mapping of civic, ethical, psychological, and religious systems? Students will be encouraged to formulate questions in pursuit of their specific interests, to investigate and weigh conflicting explanations, to launch and test hypotheses, while drawing connections between disciplines and cultures and becoming familiar with the tools and methods of research. No knowledge of Latin is required.

This course is par of a new model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive research with faculty. It is open to sophomores interested in research. Limited to 4 students. Omitted 2012-13.

236. Art, Things, Spaces, and Places from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to research on lived environments from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, the architecture that shaped them and the art and objects that they contained. We will explore research strategies that are most useful in understanding the forces that explain change in the four hundred years marking the beginning of the Renaissance to the Enlightenment in Europe and England. We will examine work on families from a variety of social classes who joined forces through marriage and other alliances and the process through which they acquired and passed on precious objects, furniture, paintings, and sculpture embedded with meanings from their origins. How can we go about understanding how the construction of homes defined their inhabitants’ status, their political allegiance, their spirituality, and their place in the world? How can we best analyze the significance of the ways they adorned their domiciles with family portraits, tapestries, wall paintings, religious prints and icons, beds, marriage chests, silverware and jewelry?

This course will give students tools to conduct their own research about why and how domiciles and their contents expressed meaning for their inhabitants and society, and how we in the 21st century might come to understand these relics of the past. As the culmination of the course each student will choose a topic—anywhere from exploring special qualities found in a single object or work of art in a domicile to identifying unusual properties in architecture of a palace with a public function—and develop a prospectus for a research project. This course is part of a new model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive and collaborative research with faculty. It is open to sophomores interested in research.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 6 sophomores. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Courtright.

237. The Senses in Motion. This course is focused on developing research skills within a multidisciplinary and international context. We will begin with the question debated by neurologists and others: What constitutes a sense? Aristotle identified the five senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste, but research in many fields identifies a number of additional senses that include nociception (the sense of pain), the sense of time, equilibrioception (the sense of balance), proprioception (the sense of where your body is in space), kinesthesia (the sense of joint and muscle motion and acceleration), thermoception (the sense of temperature differences), and magnetoception (the sense of direction), as well as the interoceptive senses (the internal senses of respiration, heartbeat, hunger, and the need for digestive elimination), among others.

We will investigate the properties and functions of the senses and sensory systems from a variety of disciplinary perspectives including neuroscience, psychology, philosophy of perception, critical theory, literature, performance, architecture, and the visual and electronic arts. We will study moments of aberration, when the senses offer unexpected or unanticipated information, and explore how that often fluid information can contribute to knowledge. Some say the senses offer us information that is only an illusion: we will explore the ways in which illusions are generated and transformed, and the ways in which they can generate further materials to help us develop knowledge about our dynamic experience in the world.

Throughout, we will identify strategies for framing research questions, for gathering and digesting research materials from various sources, and for employing this research in projects of writing and creation according to individual student interest. We will examine how writers, artists, dancers, performers, filmmakers, and architects employ research in the development of their work, and students will articulate the ways in which they can perform their research in writing, performance, design, and the visual and electronic arts according to their own interests and experience. To end the semester, each student will propose a topic and develop a prospectus for an original research project. This course is part of a new model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive and collaborative research with faculty. It is open to sophomores interested in research.

Enrollment with consent of the instructor. All interested students should email Professor Gilpin at hgilpin at amherst.edu indicating their specific interests, and they must attend the first class meeting. Limited to 6 students, priority to sophomores.

Spring semester. Professor Gilpin.

238. Buddhism on the Silk Road. The “Silk Road” is shorthand for 1500 years of economic and cultural exchange across Eurasia. We focus on one important historical process along the Silk Road: Buddhism’s journey from India to Central and East Asia as it was conveyed by monks and merchants along these ancient international trade routes. The course focuses on how the natural environment, political and economic forces, and interactions among various religious and cultural forms shaped the dissemination, establishment, and ultimate decline of Buddhism in this part of Asia. We will study key sites in Gandhara, the Tarim Basin, and Dunhuang, which have left fascinating archaeological and textual evidence indicating once-thriving Buddhist centers. We will also read travel narratives of Chinese pilgrims to India. We will learn how to study this varied evidence and uncover what it can tell us of the nature and impact of Buddhism in this region. To end the semester, each student will propose a topic and develop a prospectus for an original research project. This course is part of a new model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive and collaborative research with faculty. It is open to sophomores interested in research.

Enrollment with consent of the instructor. Limited to 6 sophomores. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Heim.

332. Cities, Schools, and Space. In America, a child’s address, more than any other factor, often determines what kind of public education he or she will receive. A complex set of historical forces including local and federal housing policies, mortgage lending practices, highway construction, and school districting have channeled particular economic, racial, ethnic, and linguistic groups into particular neighborhoods, where many remain today. And because public schools are funded by local property taxes and influenced by neighborhood boundaries, they often become harnessed to a narrative of inequality. Yet recent Supreme Court rulings have severely circumscribed the strategies communities might employ to disrupt the linkage between residence and educational opportunity. This research seminar blends urban history with educational policy to explore how spatial relationships have shaped educational opportunity since World War II. It will investigate a range of historical, legal, and contemporary issues relevant to both the segregation and desegregation of American cities and their public schools in the twentieth century. Class meetings will alternate between seminar-style discussion and an intensive, hands-on study of one particular community—Cambridge, Massachusetts—noteworthy for the innovative strategies it has utilized to desegregate its public schools. This course involves a significant research component designed to expose students to a range of approaches including archival analysis and oral interviews. In particular, students will learn to utilize geographic information systems (GIS) to visualize the spatial evolution of inequality in urban communities like Cambridge and to analyze past, present, and future strategies to equalize educational opportunity in American cities.

This course is part of a new model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive research with faculty. It is open to juniors interested in developing a senior thesis project.

Limited to six juniors. Spring semester. Professor Moss and Dr. Anderson.

333. Advanced Topics in Latin America’s Political Economy. This course is part of a new model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive research with faculty. The objective of the tutorial is to expose students to various aspects of academic research: identify a researchable topic, master the relevant literature, develop a viable research design, learn to formulate causal arguments and address rival hypotheses, become comfortable with the academic practice of revising and resubmitting, etc. Each student is free to choose his or her topic of inquiry, after close consultation with me and other participants. Students are expected to work independently and meet jointly once a week to discuss progress. Some assignments will be common to the group as a whole, other assignments will be individualized, based on each student’s interests and skills. At various points during the semester, students should also be prepared to share their work, orally or in writing, with everyone else in the course. I too will share drafts of some of my work for discussion. Final requirements will vary depending on the selected project and may include: developing a thesis prospectus; writing a literature review; researching a topic in close collaboration with me; collecting, analyzing and presenting data. This course is part of a new model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive research with faculty.

Open to juniors interested in developing a senior thesis project who have taken at least one course with me. Sophomores will be considered space permitting. Limited to 6 students. Professor Corrales.

334. Archives of Childhood. Childhood is elusive and so is the past. This Mellon Research Seminar explores the particular problems of researching the lives of children, and recognizes those challenges as exemplary of the difficulties of historical inquiry in general. We know that evidence from the past tends to come to us in bits and pieces, and that the motivations and perspectives of people in the past inevitably prove difficult to discern. Across class, gender, racial, religious, and geographic categories the historical records that children leave are often quite literally scribbles and scraps. Moreover, evidence of childhood almost always comes heavily mediated by adult hands and adult memories. This Mellon Research Seminar is devoted to developing research methods and locating research materials that can help us to access the experiences and perspectives of children in the nineteenth-century United States. We will focus on developing strategies for locating primary materials in archives that rarely use age as a category of analysis and on developing methods of interpretation for making sense of materials that may initially seem too scanty, too formulaic, too obedient, or even too cute to be historically meaningful. Research sites may include letters and diaries, school work and copy-texts, marginalia in children’s books, institutional records, photographs, and the adult recollection offered by memoirs. This course is part of a new model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive and collaborative research with faculty.

Open to 6 juniors interested in developing a senior thesis project. Enrollment with consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sánchez-Eppler.

336. Inquiries into the Catastrophic. Large-scale disaster has emerged as a defining feature of our times. From New Orleans to Haiti, Chernobyl to Bhopal, we appear to live in the age of the catastrophic. This research seminar is designed to introduce students to catastrophes and large-scale disasters as objects of scholarly inquiry. Organized around a topic that invites inquiries of multiple forms, the course will expose students to a range of disciplinary approaches that scholars have developed in examining the complex effects of disaster on people and communities. In the process, students will gain significant experience in developing original research. By the end of the semester, participants will have a sense of what it means to identify researchable questions, evaluate relevant approaches to the topic, and develop a viable research design. This course is part of a new model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive research with faculty.

Open to 6 juniors interested in developing a senior thesis project. Admission with the consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor C. Dole.

338. American Occupation of Germany. This course will explore the American occupation of western Germany between 1945 and 1949, as well as the continued American presence in Germany thereafter. We will examine the occupation and post-occupation years through the lens of archival materials found in Special Collections at Frost Library—the John J. McCloy, Karl Loewenstein, and Willard Thorp papers. Based on these papers, we will focus on American plans for the political, economic, legal, and educational transformation of Germany. How did American planners envision eradicating Nazism in Germany? What did they hope to accomplish? How realistic were their plans? Because McCloy was the U.S. High Commissioner in Germany from 1949-1952, we will also explore the American role in Germany after that country regained limited sovereignty in 1949. Class meetings will include general discussion of occupation policy and broader issues of regime transition, as well as hands-on work in Special Collections. Using materials found in Special Collections, students will write 20-25 page seminar papers on some aspect of American-German relations in the first postwar years. While all papers will focus on Germany, students will be encouraged to draw parallels with other American occupations, including those of Japan and Iraq. The course will be co-taught by a professor of history and an archivist. This course is part of a new model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive research, with faculty. One class meeting per week (3 hours).

The course is open to juniors interested in developing a senior-thesis project. Limited to six juniors. Spring semester. Professor Epstein and Ms. Crosby.

339. American Performance Culture Circa 1900. Centering on the Samuel French Collection, a rich and untapped archive of theater and performance history at Amherst, this course will explore American culture at the turn of the twentieth century through the lens of performance. Through shared readings, discussions, and archival exploration, students will consider the complexity of each of the terms in this course’s title, asking such questions as: (1) how local or transnational was American performance? (2) what kinds of behavior “counted” as performance in this period? and (3) how did such performances take part in the creation of a truly national culture in turn-of-the-century America?

Students will learn how to pose a productive and original research question, how to master the critical and historical literature relevant to that question, and how to enter into the scholarly conversation on their topic. Particular emphasis will be placed on the value and difficulty of interdisciplinary work. The semester will culminate in two projects. Individually, students will produce research papers involving materials from the Samuel French Collection. Together, the class will curate an exhibition of materials from the archive to be displayed in the Frost Library.

Admission with consent of the instructor. This course is part of a Mellon-funded program designed to encourage students to engage in substantive, original humanities research. It is open to any junior preparing to do thesis research in the humanities, but given the intensive nature of the course, enrollment will be limited to six students. Spring semester. Professor Grobe.

347. The King James Bible: Readings and Research. Two thousand and eleven marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible, the most widely printed book in the English language. Built on a century of English translations by writers from Tyndale to Cranmer, the new Bible was a masterpiece of intellectual collaboration and has had an incalculable influence on the language, literature and culture of the western world. This seminar will read substantial parts of the Old and New Testaments in the King James version and explore the 1611 text, along with its precedents and afterlife, as a foundation for research in literary and cultural studies. A unique interdisciplinary object—not so much a book as a library of books—the King James Bible provides and opportunity to explore and synthesize resources and method in linguistics, rhetoric, the arts, popular culture, religion, politics, and education. Students will practice both close and contextual reading, and they will learn how to frame research topics by means of analyzing past approaches and identifying open questions. Final projects may vary in form but will develop out of colloquy with the instructor and seminar members—a form of collective work best exemplified by the King James Bible itself. This course is part of a new model of tutorials at Amherst designed to enable students to engage in substantive research with faculty.

Open to 6 juniors interested in developing a senior thesis project. Admission with consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Bosman.

Computer Science

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

Professors Kaplan, C. McGeoch†, L. McGeoch (Chair), and Rager.

Major Program. The course requirements for the Computer Science major are COSC 111, 112, 161, 201, 261, and 301, and three additional Computer Science courses numbered above 201. Students with a strong background may be excused from taking COSC 111 and/or 112. It is recommended that such students consult with a member of the Department in the first year. Majors must pass at least nine Computer Science courses, so one or two additional electives are required for those who are excused from COSC 111 and/or 112.

Participation in the Departmental Honors program is strongly recommended for students considering graduate study in computer science. Such students should consult with a member of the Department as soon as possible to plan advanced coursework and to discuss fellowship opportunities. Most graduate programs in computer science require that the applicant take the Graduate Record Examination early in the senior year.

Comprehensive Examination. Each major must take an oral comprehensive examination during the senior year. A document describing the comprehensive examination, which covers COSC 112, 161, 201, and 301, can be obtained from the Department Coordinator. Majors are encouraged to take the exam early in the year if they have completed the covered courses.

Departmental Honors Program. The Honors Program in Computer Science is open to senior majors who wish to pursue independent research and to write a thesis. A student may apply to the program by submitting a proposal during the spring semester of the junior year. If the proposal is accepted, the student is admitted to the program, enrolls in COSC 498 for the fall semester, and begins research under the guidance of a faculty advisor. Students in COSC 498 meet together weekly to discuss their independent work. At the end of the fall semester, each student writes an extended abstract describing his or her work. Students whose abstracts show significant progress are admitted to COSC 499 and complete a thesis during the spring semester. A document describing the details of the Honors Program is available from the Department Coordinator. COSC 498 and 499 do not count as elective courses in completing the major in Computer Science.

105. Demystifying the Internet. This course provides an introductory survey of topics in computer science that are related to the Internet. Students will become familiar with the history and underlying structure of the Internet and with technologies such as email, web browsers, search engines, and web page design tools. We will learn about the science behind the technology: topics to be addressed include network design and network protocols, modern encryption methods, and applications of algorithmics and artificial intelligence to the design of search engines. Some time will also be spent considering social issues such as privacy, worms and viruses, spam, cookies, and encryption policy. Three class meetings per week, with occasional in-class lab sessions. This course does not provide prerequisite credit for any computer science course, nor does it count towards the computer science major. No previous experience with computers is required.

Limited to 40 students. Spring semester. Professor C. McGeoch.

111. Introduction to Computer Science I. This course introduces ideas and techniques that are fundamental to computer science. The course emphasizes procedural abstraction, algorithmic methods, and structured design techniques. Students will gain a working knowledge of a block-structured programming language and will use the language to solve a variety of problems illustrating ideas in computer science. A selection of other elementary topics will be presented, for example: the historical development of computers, comparison and evaluation of programming languages, and artificial intelligence. A laboratory section will meet once a week to give students practice with programming constructs. Two class hours and one one-hour laboratory per week.

Fall semester. Professor Kaplan. Spring semester: Professors Kaplan and Rager.

112. Introduction to Computer Science II. A continuation of COSC 111. This course will emphasize more complicated problems and their algorithmic solutions. The object-oriented programming paradigm will be discussed in detail, including data abstraction, inheritance and polymorphism. Other topics will include linked lists and trees and the use of finite-state machines in algorithm design. A laboratory section will meet once a week to give students practice with programming constructs. Two class hours and one one-hour laboratory per week.

Requisite: COSC 111 or consent of the instructor. This course is the appropriate starting point for most students with some prior programming experience. Fall semester: Professor Rager. Spring semester: L. McGeoch.

161. Computer Systems I. This course will provide an introduction to computer systems, stressing how computers work. Beginning with Boolean logic and the design of combinational and sequential circuits, the course will discuss the design of computer hardware components, microprocessing and the interpretation of machine instructions, assembly languages, and basic machine architecture. The course will also introduce operating systems topics, basic memory management, and topics in network communication. Projects will include the design of digital circuits and the simulation of operating system and network processes.

This course has no requisite and no programming experience is required. Fall semester. Professor Kaplan.

201. Data Structures and Algorithms I. This course is the first part of a two-semester sequence examining data structures (ways of organizing data so that it can be used effectively) and algorithms (the methods that can be used to manipulate data). The use of appropriate data structures and algorithms can often dramatically reduce the computational work needed to solve a problem. Topics examined in this course will include proof techniques, run-time analysis, heaps, hash tables, sorting, searching, and divide-and-conquer algorithms. The course will provide advanced programming experience and will emphasize the use of abstraction in program design.

Requisite: COSC 111. Spring semester. Professor C. McGeoch.

231. Programming Language Paradigms. The main purpose of a programming language is to provide a natural way to express algorithms and computational structures. The meaning of “natural” here is controversial and has produced several distinct language paradigms; furthermore the languages themselves have shaped our understanding of the nature of computation and of human thought processes. We will explore some of these paradigms and discuss the major ideas underlying language design. Several languages will be introduced to illustrate ideas developed in the course. Topics will include functional programming, declarative programming, and programming for concurrency and distributed computing. Offered in alternate years.

Requisite: COSC 112. Fall semester. Professor Rager.

241. Artificial Intelligence. An introduction to the ideas and techniques that allow computers to perform intelligently. The course will discuss methods of representing knowledge and methods of solving general problems using heuristic search. It will also discuss the design of algorithms that learn and generalize from experience. Other topics will be chosen to reflect the interests of the class and may include: communicating in English, game playing, probabilistic reasoning, planning, vision and speech recognition, computers modeled on neurons, and the possibility and implications of the existence of non-human intelligence. Three class meetings per week. Offered in alternate years.

Requisite: COSC 112. Omitted 2012-13.

261. Computer Systems II. This course will examine the principles and design choices involved in creating the software and hardware systems on which ordinary computer programs rely. It will develop advanced topics in computer processor architecture, cover the design of operating systems and runtime systems, and provide an introduction to programming language compilers. Architectural topics will include pipelines, out-of-order execution, symmetric multithreading, and multi-core cache management. Topics in operating and runtime systems will include virtual memory, file systems, linkers and loaders, virtual machines, memory allocators, and garbage collectors. Projects will involve the implementation of key concepts and structures.

Requisite: COSC 111 and 161. Spring semester. Professor Rager.

281. Networks and Cryptography. Computing networks have fundamentally changed the ways in which we use computers. The ubiquity of networks and their broad range of uses have created substantial challenges in the area of computer communication. Not only must data be delivered quickly and reliably from one computer to another, but in many cases that data must also be secure from eavesdroppers. Moreover, the recipient of the information often needs to be sure of the identity of the sender. Encryption can be used to achieve both security and authentication of information. This course will begin with the problem of communicating between two computers, followed by the problem of building generalized networks for an arbitrary number of computers. Networking topics will include layered network structure, signaling methods, error detection and correction, flow control, routing, and protocol design and verification. We will then examine in detail a variety of encryption schemes, how they can be used, and how secure they are. Cryptographic topics will include classical cryptosystems, the data encryption standard, public-key cryptography, key escrow systems, and public policy on encryption. Offered in alternate years.

Requisite: COSC 112 or 201. Spring semester. Professor Kaplan.

301. Data Structures and Algorithms II. This course continues the exploration of data structures and algorithms that is begun in COSC 201. Topics include balanced search trees, amortized algorithms, graph data structures and algorithms, greedy algorithms, dynamic programming algorithms, NP completeness, and case studies in algorithm design.

Requisite: COSC 112 and 201. Fall semester. Professor L. McGeoch.

321. Computer Graphics. This course will explore the algorithms used to create “realistic” three-dimensional computer images. Major topics will include object representations (polygons, curved surfaces, functional models), rendering algorithms (perspective transformations, hidden-surface removal, reflectance and illumination, shadows, texturing), and implementation techniques (scan conversion, ray tracing, radiosity). Students will create images using OpenGl and Pixar’s Renderman.

Requisite: COSC 112 or 201 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13.

341. Applied Algorithms. We will look at recent advances in the design and analysis of data structures and algorithms, with an emphasis on real-world applications. Topics to be covered include approximation algorithms and heuristics for NP-hard problems; combinatorial optimization; new analysis techniques; and methods of algorithm engineering and experimental analysis of algorithms. The specific problem domains to be studied will vary from year to year, to reflect the state of the art in algorithm research. Students will read and present research papers and carry out small research projects to evaluate algorithm performance in realistic scenarios.

Requisite: COSC 201. Omitted 2012-13.

371. Compiler Design. An introduction to the principles of the design of compilers, which are translators that convert programs from a source language to a target language. Some compilers take programs written in a general-purpose programming language, such as C, and produce equivalent assembly language programs. Other compilers handle specialized languages. For instance, text processors translate input text into low-level printing commands. This course examines techniques and principles that can be applied to the design of any compiler. Formal language theory (concerning regular sets and context-free grammars) is applied to solve the practical problem of analyzing source programs.

Topics include: lexical analysis, syntactic analysis (parsing), semantic analysis, translation, symbol tables, run-time environments, code generation, optimization, and error handling. Each student will design and implement a compiler for a small language. Offered in alternate years.

Requisite: COSC 112 and 161. Omitted 2012-13.

390. Special Topics. Independent reading.

Fall and spring semesters.

401. Theoretical Foundations of Computer Science. This course covers basic mathematical concepts that are essential in computer science, and then uses them to teach the theory of formal languages and machine models of languages. The notion of computability will be introduced in order to discuss undecidable problems. The topics covered include: regular, context-free and context-sensitive languages, finite state automata, Turing machines, decidability, and computational complexity. Offered in alternate years.

Requisite: None, although analytical aptitude is essential. Spring semester. Professor L. McGeoch.

450. Seminar in Computer Science. The topic changes from year to year. The topic for fall 2012 is “Combinatorial Optimization Algorithms.” We will examine algorithms for a range of optimization problems, including linear programming, matching, computation of network flows, and integer programming. Many of the algorithms are both surprising and efficient. Topics will include the simplex algorithm, duality, primal-dual algorithms, and cutting-plane algorithms.

Requisite: COSC 121 and 201. Fall semester. Professor L. McGeoch.

461. Advanced Operating Systems. Computer operating systems are responsible for allowing multiple users and their programs to share the hardware resources of a single machine. The policies implemented in an operating system determine its ability to provide good performance, fair sharing, isolation between programs, and predictable behavior. There are many policy choices that determine these properties, and measuring their effect requires empirical experimentation and analysis.

This course will examine both basic and advanced policies that can be used to control process scheduling, memory management, disk scheduling, network bandwidth allocation, and power consumption. We will design and perform experiments to evaluate these policies, comparing them and analyzing their behavior. Experiments will involve both simulation and in-kernel implementation. Offered in alternate years.

Requisite: COSC 261 and either COSC 112 or 201. Omitted 2012-13.

490. Special Topics. Independent reading.

Fall and spring semesters.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Open to seniors with consent of the Department.

Fall semester. The Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Open to seniors with consent of the Department.

Spring semester. The Department.

Creative Writing Center

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Advisory Committee: Writer-in-Residence Hall (Director); Professors Ciepiela, Douglas, Frank†, Maraniss‡, and Sofield; Visiting Writer Gaige†.

The Creative Writing Center offers courses in the writing of fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction, and translation; in addition we sponsor a reading series, as well as class visits by practicing writers and editors. The work of the Center is interdisciplinary in that those who teach creative writing are drawn from various College departments.

The faculty of the Center strongly believes that creative writing should take place in the context of a liberal arts education. We also believe that students benefit from the discipline of writing from experience, real and imagined, and from submitting that writing, in small classes, to the criticism of instructors and other student writers. Because we believe that creative writing is in large part learned through creative reading, all faculty of the Center also teach courses in the reading of literature. We do not offer a major and do not invite students to formulate interdisciplinary majors in creative writing; instead we believe that the most desirable education for a writer is not a heavy concentration of writing courses, but rather a selection of such courses along with many others in literature and other subjects.

The Center does not offer courses independently: all of the courses listed below are located in various departments and count toward the major requirements of those departments. In addition to the courses listed here, students may arrange to take special topics courses with any faculty member willing to do so—including those who do not teach in the Center—and to undertake creative writing honors projects in their major departments.

Generally, pre-registration for creative writing courses is not allowed. Consult the Creative Writing web page (https://cms.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/cwc) for information on admission procedures.

Related Courses

Writing Poetry I. See ENGL 221.

Non-Fiction Writing. See ENGL 225.

Fiction Writing I. See ENGL 226.

Unreliabilities. See ENGL 255.

Writing Poetry II. See ENGL 324.

Imitations. See ENGL 325.

Fiction Writing II. See ENGL 326.

The Poet’s Prose. See ENGL 359.

Crafting the Novel. See ENGL 427.

Poetic Translation. See EUST 303.

Playwriting I. See THDA 270.

Playwriting Studio. See THDA 370.

Economics

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors Barbezat, Nicholson‡, Westhoff‡, Woglom, and B. Yarbrough; Adjunct Professor R. Yarbrough; Associate Professors Honig, Ishii, Kingston, and Reyes (Chair); Assistant Professors Rabinovich, Sims, and Singh.

Major Program. A major in economics comprises a sequence of courses that begins with ECON 111/111E, a survey of current economic issues and problems and an introduction to the basic tools essential for all areas of economics. ECON 111/111E is a requisite for all other courses in economics, and for many courses there is no other requisite. After completing ECON 111/111E a student may enroll in a variety of applied courses. Students may be excused from the requirement of taking ECON 111/111E by demonstrating an adequate understanding of basic economic principles. Four specific ways of being excused from the ECON 111/111E requirement are: (1) Attaining a grade of 4 or 5 on both the macroeconomic and microeconomic portion of the Advanced Placement Exam; (2) Passing a placement exam that is given by the department typically at the beginning of each semester; (3) Attaining a grade of 6 or 7 on the higher level International Baccalaureate in Economics; (4) Attaining a grade of A on the A levels.

In addition to ECON 111/111E, all majors must complete the sequence of core theory courses: ECON 300 or 301, 330 or 331, and 360 or 361. These courses can be taken in any order, but it is recommended that a student take ECON 300/301 or 330/331 before enrolling in ECON 360/361. In addition, it is not generally advisable to take more than one of the core theory courses in a given semester. The core theory courses must be completed at Amherst. In exceptional circumstances, a student may be permitted to substitute a non-Amherst course for one of the core courses. Such exceptions are considered only if a written request is submitted to the Department Chair prior to initiating the other work.

The major is completed by taking a number of elective courses in economics and passing a comprehensive exam. Majors in the Class of 2013 and 2014 must take a total of nine courses in economics, which include ECON 111/111E, the core theory courses, and at least one upper-level elective numbered 404 to 490. Effective with the Class of 2015, majors must take a total of nine courses, including ECON 111/111E, the core theory courses, and at least two upper-level electives. Honors students must take a total of ten courses. Non-Amherst College courses (including courses taken abroad) may be used as elective courses (excluding the upper-level elective(s)). Such non-Amherst courses must be taught in an economics department, and the student must receive one full Amherst College course credit for the work. Therefore, if a student were to take five courses abroad, which included two economics courses and for which Amherst College awarded four course credits, the work done abroad would be counted as the equivalent of one elective course in economics. If only one of the five courses were an economics course, the student would not receive any elective credits. Students who transfer to Amherst and wish to receive credit towards the major requirements for previous work must obtain written permission from the Chair of the department.

Requirements for Declaring an Economics Major. In addition to the requirements described above, students must attain a grade of B or better in ECON 111/111E or a grade of B— or better in an elective (numbered 205-275) before being allowed to register for a core course (numbered 300-361) or to add the economics major. Entering students who pass out of ECON 111/111E may register for a core course with consent of the instructor.

Departmental Honors Program. To be eligible to enter the honors program, a senior (or second-semester junior in an E Class) must have already completed Microeconomic Theory (ECON 300 or 301), Macroeconomic Theory (ECON 330 or 331) and Econometrics (ECON 360 or 361) with an average grade of 11.00 or higher. No exceptions to this rule will be allowed. Normally, all these core courses must be taken at Amherst. In exceptional circumstances, a student may be permitted to substitute a non-Amherst course for one of the core courses. Such exceptions are considered only if a written request is submitted to the Department Chair prior to initiating the other work. Therefore, a student considering writing a thesis and intending to study abroad should plan their course of study carefully, in consultation with economics faculty. Students who intend to enter the honors program are encouraged to take the advanced core theory courses, to gain some experience doing economic research, and to complete at least one upper-level elective prior to the senior year. Honors students take ECON 498, the Senior Departmental Honors Seminar, in the fall semester, and complete their honors essay under the guidance of an individual advisor in the spring semester, ECON 499. ECON 498 and 499 can both be counted as elective courses towards the major total course requirement (ten courses for honors students). Students who successfully complete ECON 498 and 499 do not have to take the comprehensive exam in economics.

Comprehensive Exam. A written comprehensive exam is given during the second week of the second semester to senior economics majors who have completed the core theory courses.

Graduate Study. Students who intend to pursue graduate study in economics are strongly advised to take additional courses in mathematics. Such students should plan on taking MATH 121 and 272, at a minimum, and ideally MATH 211 and 355 in addition.

Note on Pass/Fail Courses. ECON 111/111E may be taken on a Pass/Fail basis only by second semester juniors or seniors, and only with the consent of the instructor. Other departmental courses may be taken on a Pass/Fail basis at the discretion of the instructor. Majors may not use the Pass/Fail option in a course used to satisfy a major requirement.

111. An Introduction to Economics. A study of the central problem of scarcity and of the ways in which the U.S. economic system allocates scarce resources among competing ends and apportions the goods produced among people.

Requisite for all other courses in economics.

One lecture and three hours of discussion per week. Each section is limited to 35 Amherst College students. Fall semester: Professors Kingston, Rabinovich, Singh, Westhoff, and Woglom.

One lecture and three hours of discussion per week. Each section is limited to 35 Amherst College students. Spring semester. Professors Honig, Rabinovich, and Singh.

111E. An Introduction to Economics with Environmental Applications. (Offered as ECON 111E and ENST 230.) A study of the central problem of scarcity and of the ways in which micro and macro economic systems allocate scarce resources among competing ends and apportion goods produced among people. Covers the same material as Economics 111 but with special attention to the relationship between economic activity and environmental problems and to the application of micro and macroeconomic theory tools to analyze environmental issues. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 111 and ECON 111E.

Two 80 minute and one 50 minute lecture/discussion per week. Each section is limited to 30 Amherst College students. Fall and spring semesters. Professor Sims.

208. Economics of Education. Investments in education benefit individuals and society in a variety of ways. Education affects the productivity of the labor force, economic growth, the earnings of individuals, social mobility, the distribution of income, and many other economic and social outcomes. In 1990 educational expenditures exceeded seven percent of the Gross Domestic Product of the United States. A sector this large and important poses a number of serious policy questions—especially since it lacks much of the competitive discipline present in profit-making sectors of the economy. Should we increase expenditures? Are resources allocated efficiently? Equitably? How should the sector be organized? Who should bear the costs of education? Which policy changes will be effective? Many of these questions are part of the national policy debate. This course will use economic principles to study these and other issues which have been central to discussions of education policy.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E or consent of the instructor. Limited to 50 students. Omitted 2012-13.

210. Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. Students in this course will explore society’s use of the natural environment as a component of production and consumption. The allocation of exhaustible and renewable resources and the protection of environmental quality from an economic standpoint will be examined. Public policy avenues for controlling natural resource management and the environment will also be explored. Case studies include air pollution and acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect, the solid waste crisis, and deforestation, among others.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 50 students. Fall semester. Professor Sims.

214. Health Economics and Policy. Health care poses many pressing questions: Why do we spend so much on health care? Does this spending actually produce better health? How do health care institutions function? What is the appropriate role of government? How are we to judge the efficiency and equity of health care policy? By applying economic analysis to health, health care, and health care markets, health economics provides insight into these questions. In the first section of this course, we will assess the role of health care in the economy and apply economic models to the production of health and health care. In the second section of the course, we will study the structure of health care markets and the roles of key institutions. In the third section of the course, we will investigate the role of government and use our acquired knowledge to understand and evaluate health care policy and reform. Throughout this analysis, we will pay careful attention to the nature of health care markets, the anatomy of market failures, and the implications for public policy. Empirical results, current issues, and public policies will be discussed throughout the course. In addition to technical problems and economic analyses, students will be asked to write analytical papers and participate actively in the discussion of current economic research and public policy.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Recommended: any one of Microeconomics (ECON 300/301), Econometrics (ECON 360/361), or Statistics (MATH 130). Limited to 35 students. Spring semester. Professor Reyes.

225. Industrial Organization. This course examines the determinants of and linkages between market structure, firm conduct, and industrial performance. Some of the questions that will be addressed include: Why do some markets have many sellers while others have only few? How and why do different market structures give rise to different prices and outputs? In what ways can firms behave strategically so as to prevent entry or induce exit of rival firms? Under what circumstances can collusion be successful? Why do firms price discriminate? Why do firms advertise? Does a competitive firm or a monopoly have a greater incentive to innovate? In answering these and other questions, the consequent implications for efficiency and public policy will also be explored.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 50 students. Spring semester. Professor Ishii.

227. International Trade. This course uses microeconomic analysis to examine economic relationships among countries. Issues addressed include why nations trade, the distributional effects of trade, economic growth, factor mobility, and protectionism. Also included are discussions of the special trade-related problems of developing countries and of the history of the international trading system.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 50 students. Fall and spring semesters. Professor B. Yarbrough.

235. Open-Economy Macroeconomics. This course uses macroeconomic analysis to examine economic relationships among countries. Issues addressed include foreign exchange markets, the balance of payments, and the implications of openness for the efficacy of various macroeconomic policies. Also included are discussions of the special macroeconomic problems of developing countries and of the history of the international monetary system. Not open to students who have taken ECON 435.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 50 students. Fall semester. Professor B. Yarbrough.

237. Financial Globalization, Growth and Crises. This course surveys the recent wave of financial globalization and assesses both its merits and potential risks. In particular, we will examine the most important potential benefit of financial globalization, an increased rate of economic growth that can be a powerful tool in alleviating poverty. We will analyze the theoretical arguments for a growth-enhancing effect of globalization and discuss the empirical evidence. We will then turn to the most important potential drawback: the risk of a devastating financial crisis, particularly in emerging market economies that have only recently opened to international capital movements. Throughout the course we will emphasize the conditions and policies under which financial globalization is likely to be successful. The course will conclude with an analysis of the effect of financial globalization, as well as increased trade openness, on inflation and the conduct of monetary policy.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 50 students. Consent of the instructor required for students who have taken ECON 435. Fall semester. Professor Honig.

245. Development Economics. An introduction to the historical experience and current economic problems of developing countries, and survey of theories of economic growth and development. Topics will include economic growth, health, education, urbanization, corruption, technology, aid, gender and institutions. The course will throw light on market failures in developing countries and show how we can use the tools of economics to understand these problems and to evaluate policy options.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 50 students. Fall semester. Professor Singh.

265. Money and Economic Activity. This course studies the monetary systems that facilitate exchange. Such systems overcame the limitations of barter with commodity monies such as gold, and gradually evolved into financial intermediaries that issue paper notes and bank deposits as money. Intermediaries in markets for insurance, debt, and equity are studied too. Also, the effects of financial markets on aggregate economic activity and the level and term structure of interest rates are studied. Not open to students who have taken ECON 423.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 50 students. Spring semester. Professor Woglom.

271. Economic History of the United States, 1600-1860. The economic development of the United States provides an excellent starting point for an understanding of both this nation’s history and its current economic situation. We begin with the colonial period and the creation of the nation and end with the Civil War and the breakdown of the Union. Throughout we provide an economic reading of the events and try to explain the conflicts and resolutions in economic terms.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 35 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Barbezat.

272. Economic History of the United States, 1865-1965. The economic development of the United States provides an excellent starting point for an understanding of both this nation’s history and its current economic situation. We begin with the reconstruction period after the Civil War and end with the Civil Rights Era and the War on Poverty. Throughout we provide an economic reading of the events and try to explain the conflicts and resolutions in economic terms.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 35 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Barbezat.

275. Consumption and the Pursuit of Happiness. In the Declaration of Independence, the Founders called the “pursuit of happiness” an “inalienable right,” yet both psychologists and economists have noted that we do not well understand the determinants of the attainment of happiness or contentment. In this course, we will examine the literature on well-being in both micro- and macroeconomic contexts. We will review the neoclassical model of utility maximization and contrast it to other modes of understanding how and why people make the decisions they do, as they pursue their happiness. On the macroeconomic side, we will attempt to understand what factors (e.g. growth, unemployment, inflation) seem most important for policy-makers to focus on in order to sustain their citizens’ well-being. The course will also include opportunities for students to examine their own consumption decisions and assumptions about the attainment of happiness.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 50 students. Spring semester. Professor Barbezat.

300. Microeconomics. This course develops the tools of modern microeconomic theory and notes their applications to matters of utility and demand; production functions and cost; pricing of output under perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, etc.; pricing of productive services; intertemporal decision-making; the economics of uncertainty; efficiency, equity, general equilibrium; externalities and public goods. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 300 and ECON 301.

Requisite: At least a “B” grade in ECON 111/111E or a “B–” in ECON 200-290, or equivalent, and MATH 111, or equivalent. Fall semester: Professor Reyes. Spring semester: Professor Kingston.

301. Advanced Microeconomics. This course covers similar material to that covered in ECON 300 but is mathematically more rigorous and moves at a more rapid pace. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 300 and ECON 301.

Requisite: At least a “B” grade in ECON 111/111E or a “B–” grade in ECON 200-290, or equivalent, and MATH 211 or equivalent, or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Nicholson.

330. Macroeconomics. This course develops macroeconomic models of the determinants of economic activity, inflation, unemployment, and economic growth. The models are used to analyze recent monetary and fiscal policy issues in the United States, and also to analyze the controversies separating schools of macroeconomic thought such as the New Keynesians, Monetarists and New Classicals. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 330 and ECON 331.

Requisite: At least a “B” grade in ECON 111/111E or a “B–” in ECON 200-290, or equivalent, and MATH 111, or equivalent. Fall semester: Professor Honig. Spring semester: Professor Barbezat.

331. Advanced Macroeconomics. This course covers similar material to that covered in ECON 330 but is mathematically more rigorous and moves at a more rapid pace. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 330 and ECON 331.

Requisite: At least a “B” grade in ECON 111/111E or a “B–” grade in ECON 200-290, or equivalent, and MATH 121 or equivalent, or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Woglom.

360. Econometrics. A study of the analysis of quantitative data, with special emphasis on the application of statistical methods to economic problems. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 360 and ECON 361.

Requisite: At least a “B” grade in ECON 111/111E or a “B–” in ECON 200-290, or equivalent, and MATH 111, or equivalent. Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall semester: Professor Westhoff. Spring semester: Professor Sims.

361. Advanced Econometrics. This course studies the specification, estimation, and testing of econometric models based on the maximum likelihood and method of moments principles. It builds from mathematical statistics and utilizes matrix algebra, the rudiments of which will be introduced in the course. The course will also review applications of econometric models to various areas of micro and macroeconomics. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 360 and ECON 361.

Requisite: At least a “B” grade in ECON 111/111E or a “B–” grade in ECON 200-290, or equivalent, and MATH 130 and MATH 211 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Ishii.

404. Labor Economics. An analysis of the labor market and human resource economics. Issues concerning labor supply and demand, wage differentials, the role of education, investment in human capital, unemployment, discrimination, income inequality, and worker alienation will be discussed utilizing the tools of neoclassical economics. In addition, we shall examine the major non-neoclassical explanations of the perceived phenomena in these areas.

Requisite: ECON 300 or 301. Omitted 2012-13.

416. Evaluating Social Policy. This is an upper-level seminar in social policy which examines a number of social programs in the United States, including Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Temporary Aid to Needy Families. The seminar will introduce you to the operation of these programs and will teach you how to use economic and econometric tools to evaluate them. Most of the course will be devoted to close reading and discussion of research papers, including discussion of the relative merits of various empirical and econometric techniques. Students will be asked to participate actively in class discussion, to make oral presentations, to evaluate empirical data, and to write analytical papers. Throughout the course, we will think broadly about the goals of social policy, always keeping the canonical tradeoff between efficiency and equity at the forefront. We will also consider the practical challenges faced not only by policymakers in designing effective policies but also by scholars in evaluating the effectiveness of those policies.

Requisite: Microeconomics (ECON 300/301) and Econometrics (ECON 360/361). Limited to 18 students. Spring semester. Professor Reyes.

420. Game Theory and Applications. Game theory analyzes situations in which multiple individuals (or firms, political parties, countries) interact in a strategic manner. It has proved useful for explaining cooperation and conflict in a wide variety of strategic situations in economics, political science, and elsewhere. Such situations can include, for example, firms interacting in imperfectly competitive markets, auctions, arms races, political competition for votes, and chess. This course will provide an introduction to the tools and insights of game theory. Though mathematically rigorous, emphasis will be on applications rather than on formal theory.

Requisite: ECON 300 or 301. Fall semester. Professor Kingston.

423. The Economics of Finance. A study of the role of financial markets in the efficient allocation of resources. We look at how financial markets: (1) enable the transfer of resources across time and space; (2) facilitate the reduction and management of risk; and (3) provide information about the future, which is important to public policymakers as well as private firms and individuals. The financial theories studied include: (1) the theory of present discounted values; (2) the capital asset pricing model; (3) the efficient markets hypothesis; and (4) the Black-Scholes model for the pricing of contingent claims.

Requisite: ECON 300 or 301. Limited to 35 students. Fall semester. Professor Woglom.

426. Law and Economics. This course introduces students to the ways in which legal issues can be examined using the tools of economic analysis. Topics covered include: Property and contract law, accident law, family law, criminal law, financial regulation, and tax law. In all of these areas the intent is not to provide an exhaustive examination of the law, but rather to show how economic methods can contribute to an understanding of the basic issues that must be addressed by the law.

Requisite: ECON 300 or 301 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Nicholson.

435. Topics in Open-Economy Macroeconomics. A seminar in international macroeconomics, with an emphasis on emerging market economies. We will read and discuss empirical research papers. Topics covered will include financial globalization, banking and currency crises, exchange rate regimes, dollarization, and institutions and governance.

Requisite: ECON 235, 330 or 331. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Honig.

462. Microeconometrics. An introduction to advanced econometric tools used to conduct empirical analysis of microeconomic data. Topics include extensions of linear regression to panel data, discrete choice models, unobserved heterogeneity, and sample selection. Depending on student interest, the course may also cover even more advanced topics including structural econometrics, simulation-based methods, and Bayesian analysis. Emphasis of the course is on the application of the tools to actual empirical research. Examples will be drawn from a variety of microeconomic fields including labor, public finance, and industrial organization. The interplay between econometrics and modern microeconomics will be a key theme.

Requisite: ECON 300 or 301 and 360 or 361. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Ishii.

471. Economic History Seminar. We will begin by examining contemporary growth and development models and then apply them to the sweep of global economic history over the past 300 years. The course is a seminar, so students will be assessed on their close reading and their responses to articles and books assigned in the course. Students will engage directly with economic history issues and will produce an original piece of research by the end of the course.

Requisite: ECON 300 or 301 and 330 or 331. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Barbezat.

479. New Institutional Economics. All economic activity is embedded in a framework of institutions including both formal laws and contracts, and informal norms and conventions. Institutions constrain individual behavior and thereby affect resource allocation, income distribution, learning, and economic growth. This course introduces recent approaches to the study of institutions in economics and political science. Particular emphasis will be placed on recent applications to economic history and development, and to theories of institutional stability and change.

Requisite: ECON 420 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Kingston.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course. Full course.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters.

490H. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course. Half course.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters.

498. Senior Departmental Honors Seminar. A seminar preparing senior economics majors to undertake independent research for their honors projects. Five or six topics of current interest will be studied.

Requisite: An average grade of 11.00 or higher in ECON 300/301, 330/331, and 360/361. Fall semester. Professor Reyes.

499. Senior Departmental Honors Project. Independent work under the guidance of an advisor assigned by the Department.

Requisite: ECON 498. Spring semester.

English

*On leave 2012-13.

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professor Emeritus Townsend; Professors Barale, Cameron, Chickering†, Cobham-Sander‡, Frank, Guttmann, Hastie, O’Connell†, Peterson‡, Pritchard, Sanborn, K. Sánchez-Eppler, and Sofield; Associate Professors Bosman‡, Brooks, and Parham (Director of Studies); Assistant Professors Grobe, Hayashi, and Nelson; Writer-in-Residence Hall; Visiting Writer Gaige†; Dean Lieber; Visiting Professor Emeritus Berek (Chair); Visiting Assistant Professors Christoff and Johnston; Five College Visiting Assistant Professor Branson; Simpson Lecturer Wilbur; Visiting Lecturers Bergoffen, Pritchett, and B. Sánchez-Eppler.

Major Program. Students majoring in English are encouraged to explore the Department’s wide range of offerings in literature, film, culture, and creative writing.

Majoring in English requires the completion of ten courses offered or approved by the Department. The Department’s courses are organized into four levels. The courses numbered in the 100s cover a variety of topics, but all center on close reading and frequent writing. The courses in the 200s introduce students to literary, film, and cultural studies, and to creative writing. Each of these courses engages with a particular approach, method, genre, medium, period, or discourse. Open to all, they are intended to provide majors with a foundational understanding of fields of study in English. The courses in the 300s address specific topics in film and cultural studies, individual authors, and literary history, criticism, and theory. This level also includes advanced creative writing. Courses in the 400s emphasize independent inquiry, critical and theoretical issues, and extensive writing. These courses are seminars, limited in enrollment and normally for junior and senior majors. Also in the 400s are senior tutorial courses. Majors are required to take at least one 100 course, at least three 200 courses, and a 400-level seminar. One of these courses must substantially address material from the period before 1800.

In designing their major, all students work closely with their advisor in defining an area of concentration within the range of offerings in English studies. Upon declaring the major, all students must submit to the Department a statement of concentration which defines a field of inquiry structured around no fewer than three interrelated English courses. This statement articulates the student’s understanding of how the named courses cohere in a field of concentration, along with courses in other disciplines or languages that may be related to the primary focus of the English major. In consultation with the advisor, the statement of concentration is regularly reviewed and it may be revised to accommodate shifts of emphasis in the student’s curricular choices. An updated concentration statement must be signed by the advisor and submitted to the Department in order to complete a major in English.

Majors may count towards the ten required courses up to three courses in creative writing. No more than two courses not offered by members of the Department may be counted towards the major, except with the recorded permission of the student’s advisor. Because 400-level seminars can lead in the senior year to a tutorial project, the Department strongly urges majors to fulfill the seminar requirement during the junior year. The Department will not guarantee admission to a particular 400-level seminar in the second semester of the senior year.

In addition, in the fall of the senior year, majors must pass a comprehensive examination based upon an outside reading list. The current list, along with other information and announcements about the English major, is available on the Department’s web page.

Departmental Honors Program. The Department awards Latin honors to seniors who have achieved distinction in course work for the major and who have also demonstrated, in a submitted portfolio of critical or creative work, a capacity to excel in composition. Students qualify for Latin honors only if they have attained a B+ average in courses approved for the major; the degree summa cum laude usually presupposes an A average.

Unlike other Amherst departments, English has no senior honors course. While students often include in their portfolios work that they complete in the Senior Tutorial (English 498/499), enrollment in these independent study courses is not a requirement for honors consideration.

To be considered for honors a student must submit to the Department a portfolio, which contains normally 50 to 70 pages of writing. The materials included may derive from a variety of sources: from work completed in the Senior Tutorial course(s); from Special Topics (English 490), composition, and creative writing courses; from projects undertaken on the student’s own initiative; or from essays composed originally for other courses in the major (these essays must be revised and accompanied by a covering statement that describes in detail the nature of the project they constitute and comments thoughtfully and extensively upon the writer’s acts of interpretation and composition). The Department does not refer to the portfolio as a “thesis” because that is simply one of many forms the portfolio may take. It may be, for example, a short film or video, a collection of essays or poems or stories, a play, a mixture of forms, an exploration in education or cultural studies.

Before a student can submit a portfolio, it first must be approved by his or her designated tutor or major advisor. If the portfolio is approved, a committee of faculty examiners is then appointed. Following an interview with the student, the committee conveys its evaluation to the whole Department, which then makes the final recommendation for the level of honors in English.

Senior Tutorial. Senior English majors may apply for admission to the Senior Tutorial (English 498/499) for either one or both semesters. Preregistration is not allowed. Appropriate tutors are assigned to students whose applications have been approved. The purpose of the Senior Tutorial is to provide an opportunity for independent study to any senior major who is adequately motivated and prepared to undertake such work, whether or not he or she expects to be considered for Latin honors at graduation. Admission to English 498/499 is contingent upon the Department’s judgment of the feasibility and value of the student’s proposal as well as of his or her preparation and capacity to carry it through to a fruitful conclusion.

Graduate Study. Students interested in graduate work in English or related fields should discuss their plans with their advisor and other members of the Department to learn about particular programs, requirements for admission, the availability of fellowships, and prospects for a professional career. Many graduate programs in English or comparative literature require reading competence in several foreign languages; while to some extent these programs permit students to satisfy the requirement concurrently with graduate work, we would encourage those interested in graduate study to broaden their language skills while at Amherst. We would also encourage students to consider writing a thesis, for several reasons: to produce a polished writing sample they can submit with their application; to gain, and demonstrate, experience in sustained independent work; and to get a sense of the areas they might want to pursue in graduate school, some knowledge of which is essential for writing an effective admissions essay.

N.B. The English Department does not grant advanced placement on the basis of College Entrance Examination Board scores.

100 COURSES: Close reading and frequent writing in small sections.

104. Learning Conditions. (Offered as WAGS 104 and ENGL 104.) In this course we will examine a broad variety of texts—novels and short fiction, academic essays and first person narratives—in order to critically analyze their points of view, arguments, opinions, biases, and omissions. Readings this semester will cluster around the topic of education in its broadest sense: as acts of discovery, moments of insight, and as ways of learning what a culture deems important. Authors will include Dorothy Canfield, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sarah Orne Jewett, Charles Johnson, James Joyce, Toni Morrison, Flannery O’Connor, Ngugi wa Thiong’o. This is a writing intensive course with weekly assignments.

Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Barale.

111. Having Arguments. Using a variety of texts—novels, essays, short stories—this course will work to develop the reading and writing of difficult prose, paying particular attention to the kinds of evidence and authority, logic and structure that produce strong arguments. The authors we study may include Peter Singer, Aravind Adiga, Willa Cather, Toni Morrison, George Orwell, Charles Johnson, James Baldwin, Alice Munro, William Carlos Williams. This is an intensive writing course. Frequent short papers will be assigned.

Preference given to first-year students. Limited to 12 students. Fall and spring semesters. Fall semester: Professor Barale and Dean Lieber. Spring semster: Dean Lieber.

115. Novels, Plays, Poems. A first course in reading fictional, dramatic, and lyric texts: stories, a major novel, one or more plays by Shakespeare, poems by Donne, Dickinson, Frost, and others.

Why does any writer—an Amherst College student, Philip Roth, Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare—say what he or she says one way rather than another? And what in the expression itself makes a story, a play, a poem effective, something a reader might care about, be moved or delighted by? We will try to answer these questions by reading primary examples of each genre, including much recent work, with close and sustained attention to details of expressive language. There will be frequent writing exercises.

The course will be taught in sections of 15 students. Preference will be given to first-year students. Fall semester: Professor Sofield. Spring semester: Professor Emeritus Berek (Mount Holyoke College).

119. Modernism 101 or, The Shock of the New. In 1852, Karl Marx observed that “The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” Modernism—the aesthetic response to the experience of modernity—can be understood as a way to cast off that nightmare through the revolutionary force of the new. In this course, arranged around thematic clusters such as The City, Alienation, Primitivism, The New Woman, War, Speed, and Consciousness, we will range widely through European and Anglo-American writers, painters, musicians, and filmmakers from the late nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries as we look at the explosion of styles and approaches that characterize modernism in all its dazzling vivacity and disruption.

Preference given to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Visiting Lecturer Pritchett.

120. Reading, Writing, and Teaching. Students, as part of the work of the course, each week will tutor or lead discussions among a small group of students at Holyoke High School. The readings for the course will be essays, poems, autobiographies, and stories in which education and teaching figure centrally. Among these will be materials that focus directly on Holyoke and on one or another of the ethnic groups which have shaped its history. Students will write weekly and variously: critical essays, journal entries, ethnographies, etc. Readings for the course will include works by Sylvia Ashton-Warner, James Baldwin, Judith Ortiz Cofer, John Dewey, Jonathan Kozol, Herbert Kohl, Sarah Lightfoot, John Stuart Mill, Abraham Rodriguez, Esmeralda Santiago, and Patricia Williams. Two class meetings per week plus an additional workshop hour and a weekly morning teaching assistantship to be scheduled in
Holyoke.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester: Professor Cobham-Sander. Spring semester: Visiting Lecturer B. Sánchez-Eppler.

125. Representing Illness. With a focus on the skills of close reading and analytical writing, we will look at the ways in which writers imagine illness, how they try to make meaning out of illness, and how they use illness to explore other aspects of experience. This is not a course on the history of illness or the social construction of disease. We will discuss not only what writers say about illness but also how they say it: with what language and in what form they speak the experience of bodily and mental suffering. Readings may include drama by Sophocles, Molière and Margaret Edson; poetry by Donne and Mark Doty; fiction by José Saramago and Mark Haddon; and essays by Susan Sontag, Raphael Campo and Temple Grandin.

Preference given to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Bosman.

150. American Renaissance. A study of what might be referred to as “classical American literature” or “The Age of Emerson.” The writers studied will be Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, and Dickinson. Among the central questions asked are these: How successful were these writers in their efforts to create a distinctively American language and literature? What was their view of nature and of human nature? How did they dramatize social conflict? In what ways did they affirm or challenge traditional conceptions of gender? The course will pay close attention to the interactions of these writers with one another and will give particular emphasis to Emerson as the figure with whom the others had to come to terms.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Guttmann.

152. Writers in Conversation. This course offers students an opportunity to explore the relationships of literary works to one another, their readers, and the field of literary studies. We will read a series of works written by American authors between 1880 and 1930, putting canonical and lesser-known writers into conversation with one another. The conversation theme will inform not only the works we read but also shape how we read, write, and “converse” in class and through assignments. For each set of readings, we will consider multiple conversations: the processes by which readers respond to texts, thereby participating in a dialogue with writers; the “cultural debates” to which the authors, their texts, and readers contribute; and the role of critics and literary criticism in shaping and sustaining discussions about writers and their
works.

Preference given to first-year and sophomore students. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Visiting Lecturer Bergoffen.

153. New Women in America. (Offered as ENGL 153 and WAGS 112.) This course will examine the emergence of the “New Woman” as a category of social theory, political action, and literary representation at the turning of the twentieth century. Early readings will trace the origins of the New Woman as a response to nineteenth-century notions of “True Womanhood.” Discussions will situate literary representations of women in larger cultural events taking place during the Progressive Era—debates over suffrage as well as their relationship to issues of citizenship, immigration, Jim Crow segregation, urbanization, and nativism. The course will focus on texts written by a diverse group of women that present multiple and, at times, conflicting images of the New Woman. Close attention will be paid to the manner in which these women writers constructed their fictions, particularly to issues of language, style, and form. Readings will include texts by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Pauline Hopkins, Anzia Yezierska, and Sui Sin Far.

Preference given to first-year students and sophomores. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Lecturer Bergoffen.

156. American Wilderness. This course will explore the concept of wilderness in American culture. Americans have portrayed the less tamed region of the American landscape in a variety of ways: as a hostile space full of evil, as a rugged frontier that shapes individuals into Americans, and as a protected sanctuary for endangered species. In this class, we will focus on writings that explore the range of definitions and responses to the nation’s wild spaces. Students will explore these issues in class discussions about the texts and in writing assignments that analyze and critique the readings and our own definitions of what makes a place “wild.”

Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Hayashi.

159. Reading Regions, Reading the South. In the United States, as in many countries, we divide ourselves into regions. Differences in language and/or
dialect, in history, in customs and politics, are often seen as legitimating regional divisions. The South has always held an especially powerful place
in the American imagination, even before the Civil War. Through close encounters with texts and music, we will explore the differences within the South, the ways in which particular literary texts have come to be seen not just as representing the South but, in part, constituting its difference, and the complex roles played by race, ethnicity, and class. Among the writers and musicians we will study: Louis Armstrong, Ernest Gaines, Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Breece D.J. Pancake, William Faulkner, Hank Williams, and the Carter Family.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor O’Connell.

160. Foundations of African American Literature. (Offered as ENGL 160 and BLST 132 [US].) The focus of this introduction to African American literature is the complex intertextuality at the heart of the African American literary tradition. Tracing the tradition’s major formal and thematic concerns means looking for connections between different kinds of texts: music, art, the written word, and the spoken word—and students who take this class will acquire the critical writing and interpretive skills necessary to any future study of litera-
ture.

Fall semester. Professor Parham.

180. Film and Writing. (Offered as ENGL 180 and FAMS 110.) A first course in reading films and writing about them. A varied selection of films for study and criticism, partly to illustrate the main elements of film language and partly to pose challenging texts for reading and writing. Frequent short papers. Two 80-minute class meetings and two screenings per week.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester: Visiting Professor Johnston. Spring semester: TBA.

200 COURSES: Foundation courses in literary, film, and cultural studies, and in creative writing.

211. Reading Historically. This course explores the relation between literature and history. How does fiction work to interpret and understand the past? Can literary texts serve as historical evidence, providing information about social conditions and beliefs in a particular place and time? In what ways might other sorts of historical documentation affect or amplify the reading of literature? We will address these questions through specific examples and through theoretical readings that address issues of narration, memory, and the continuance of the past. The theme changes each time the course is taught. In 2011 we will focus on American literature and in particular on writing that confronts the social “problem” of the unmarried woman. Texts will include Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Stephen Crane’s Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, Toni Morrison’s Sula, and Mei Ng’s Eating Chinese Food Naked.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor K. Sánchez-Eppler.

212. American Literature in the Making: Colonies, Empires, and a New Republic. Over the last twenty-five years literary historians and critics have completely remade the field of American literature. The important artistic contributions of women, of African Americans, of Latinos, of Asian Americans, and of Native Americans have received attention and appreciation. In many instances long-forgotten texts have been uncovered and appreciated as first-rate works of art. Neglected artists like Willa Cather and James Weldon Johnson have been reread, re-seen. The goal of this four-semester sequence is to survey American literature from its beginnings to the present in a history that attempts to bring together what were once considered the classics with the most important of the newer additions to the body of American literature. In doing so our primary attention will be on texts of exceptional literary
merit.

Once American literature began with the Pilgrims and Puritans, though they were latecomers among the Europeans in the Americas. In this course we will begin with the oral traditions of some of the native inhabitants and then read accounts from the European discovery and conquest, Spanish, French, and English: Columbus, Verrazano, Cartier, Cortes, Bradford, and others. Then we will read the literature of the settlers: diaries, sermons, captivity narratives, and autobiographies. In the eighteenth century we will follow the emerging literature of independence, not only that written by Anglo-Americans, but also the writings of Africans and African Americans like Olaudah Equiano. We will end the course with the literature of post-independence: novels by Charles Brockden Brown and Rebecca Rush.

Limited to 40 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor O’Connell.

213. American Literature in the Making: Nineteenth Century to the Civil War. Over the last twenty-five years literary historians and critics have completely remade the field of American literature. The important artistic contributions of women, of African Americans, of Latinos, of Asian Americans, and of Native Americans have received attention and appreciation. In many instances long-forgotten texts have been uncovered and appreciated as first-rate works of art. Neglected artists like Willa Cather and James Weldon Johnson have been reread, re-seen. The goal of this four-semester sequence is to survey American literature from its beginnings to the present in a history that attempts to bring together what were once considered the classics with the most important of the newer additions to the body of American literature. In doing so our primary attention will be on texts of exceptional literary
merit.

The course will cover the years from 1820 to 1920. These are the years when Anglo-American literature achieved an international reputation. They are also the years of African Americans’ first intense and bitter struggle for liberation, and the years when the Euro-American conquest of the Indians was completed. The second half of the century also experienced the largest immigration in the history of the country until the post-1965 period, which enabled the United States to become the greatest industrial power in the world. The literature we will read is enmeshed in all these complex events: Cooper, Sedgwick, Emerson, Thoreau, Fanny Fern, Hawthorne, Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Frederick Douglass.

Limited to 40 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor O’Connell.

221. Writing Poetry I. A first workshop in the writing of poetry. Class members will read and discuss each others’ work and will study the elements of prosody: the line, stanza forms, meter, free verse, and more. Open to anyone interested in writing poetry and learning about the rudiments of craft. Writing exercises weekly.

Limited enrollment. Preregistration is not allowed. Please consult the Creative Writing Center website for information on admission to this course.

Fall semester: Writer-in-Residence Hall. Spring semester: Professor Sofield and Simpson Lecturer Wilbur.

225. Non-Fiction Writing. We will study writers’ renderings of their own experiences (memoirs) and their analyses of society and its institutions (cultural criticism). Workshop format, with discussion of texts and of students’ experiments in the genre. Students must submit examples of their writing to the English office. Three class hours per week.

Limited to 12 students. Preregistration is not allowed. Please consult the Creative Writing Center website for information on admission to this course. Spring semester. Professor Emeritus Townsend.

226. Fiction Writing I. A first course in writing fiction. Emphasis will be on experimentation as well as on developing skill and craft. Workshop (discussion) format.

Limited enrollment. Preregistration is not allowed. Please consult the Creative Writing Center website for information on admission to this course. Fall semester: Professor Douglas. Spring semester: Professor Frank.

231. Three, Two, One: Reading Small Drama. How small can drama get while remaining “dramatic”? During the first half of the twentieth century, it was not unusual for a stage in America (or anywhere in the English-speaking world) to be filled with dozens of actors. Over the last sixty years, though, the crowds onstage have thinned. Today, three-, two-, and even one-person plays are as common as twenty-person plays once were.

In this course, we will study plays by American, British, Irish, and South African writers—from Eugene O’Neill and Samuel Beckett to Athol Fugard and Sarah Kane—who have found new inspiration within these tight constraints. In doing so, we will not only closely analyze dramatic texts, we will also look through those texts to imagine how they might shape our sense of space, sound, movement and image in the theater. Plays, after all—from the most “realist” to the most avant-garde—both reflect reality and compress or distort it in beautiful and strategic ways. We will also pay particular attention to the way in which drama creates and deploys character differently than novels or
poems do.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Grobe.

232. Reading Drama. This course explores the unique challenges of experiencing performance through the page. While this course is not intended as a survey of dramatic literature or theater history, students will be introduced to a variety of drama from across the English-language tradition. The organizing theme of the course may change slightly from year to year, but the goal will always be to explore a wide array of theoretical and methodological approaches to drama. Of particular interest will be the relationship of play-reading to other reading practices. What does a play demand of the reader that a novel, a poem, or an essay does not? How must the central elements of storytelling or world-making (character, plot, setting, dialogue, point of view, etc.) change when they are required to appear onstage?

Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professor Grobe.

240. Reading Poetry. A first course in the critical reading of selected English-language poets, which gives students exposure to significant poets, poetic styles, and literary and cultural contexts for poetry from across the tradition. Attention will be given to prosody and poetic forms, and to different ways of reading poems.

Limited to 35 students. Fall semester: Professor Nelson. Spring semester: Professor Sofield.

250. Reading the Novel. An introduction to the study of the novel, through the exploration of a variety of critical terms (plot, character, point of view, tone, realism, identification, genre fiction, the book) and methodologies (structuralist, Marxist, feminist, psychoanalytic). We will draw on a selection of novels in English to illustrate and complicate those terms; possible authors include Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Wilkie Collins, Henry James, Kazuo Ishiguro, Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison, John Edgar Wideman, Emma Donoghue, David Foster Wallace, Monique Truong, Jennifer Egan.

Preference given to sophomores. Limited to 35 students. Spring semester. Professor Frank.

251. Reading Story Sequences. Although little studied as a separate literary form, the book of interlinked short stories is a prominent (and increasingly popular) form of modern fiction. This course will slowly read and closely examine a variety of these compositions in order to better understand how they achieve their coherence and how they structure a larger story through an unfolding sequence of independent narratives. Works likely to be considered include Joyce’s Dubliners, Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, Hemingway’s In Our Time, Eudora Welty’s The Golden Apples, Jean Toomer’s Cane, and more recent collections by contemporary American and Anglophone writers. For each class meeting a pair of students will collaborate on presenting a reading of a story that links it to the larger whole in which it is integrated. The course includes frequent brief writing and concludes with an independent project on a chosen modern (or recent) example of this unusual genre of sequenced stories. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Peterson.

255. Unreliabilities. This course is concerned with the problem of honesty in subjective expression. We will study both fictional and non-fictional first person narratives. Some narrators deliberately deceive, and some deceive without intending to. How does an elusive understanding of the self make even an “honest” narrator’s project of telling harder, if not impossible? Readings will include works by Kazuo Ishiguro, Vladimir Nabokov, Joseph Mitchell, Janet Malcolm, Lauren Slater, and Geoff Dyer. Students will be required to produce both critical and creative writing. Creative writing experience preferred. Writing attentive.

Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Visiting Writer Gaige.

272. A Primer to Children’s Literature. Children’s books are a site of first encounter, a doorway to literacy and literature. This course will offer both a history of book production for child readers in England and the United States and an exploration of what these first books can teach us about the attractions, expectations, and responsibilities of reading.

Spring semester. Professor K. Sánchez-Eppler.

280. Coming to Terms: Cinema. (Offered as ENGL 280 and FAMS 210.) An introduction to cinema studies through consideration of a few critical and descriptive terms, together with a selection of various films (classic and contemporary, foreign and American) for illustration and discussion. The terms for discussion will include, among others: the cinematic image, mise en scène, montage and editing, narration in cinema, genre, authorship. Frequent critical writing required.

Requisite: ENGL 180/FAMS 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 35 students. Fall semester: Professor Cameron. Spring semester: Visiting Professor Johnston.

281. Foundations and Integrations: Film and Media Studies. (Offered as ENGL 281, FAMS 220, and ARHA 272.) “Foundations and Integrations” will be an annual team-taught course between a Critical Studies scholar and moving-image artist. A requirement of the Film and Media Studies major, it will build on critical analysis of moving images and introductory production work to develop an integrated critical and creative practice. Focused in particular around themes and concepts, students will develop ideas in both written and visual form. The theme for spring 2012 will be “Film and Inner Life.”

Requisites: A foundations course in Critical Studies of Film and Media (such as “Coming to Terms: Cinema”) and an introductory film/video production workshop. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Hastie.

287. Introduction to Super 8 Film and Digital Video. (Offered as ENGL 287 and FAMS 228.) This course will introduce students to basic Super 8 film and digital video techniques. The course will include workshops in shooting for film and video, Super 8 film editing, Final Cut Pro video editing, lighting, stop motion animation, sound recording and mixing. Students will learn to think about and look critically at the moving and still image. Students will complete three moving image projects, including one Super 8 film, one video project, and one mixed media project. Weekly screenings will introduce students to a wide range of approaches to editing, writing, and directing in experimental, documentary, narrative, and hybrid cinematic forms. Screenings include works by Martha Rosler, Bill Viola, the Yes Men, Jennifer Reeves, Mona Hatoum, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Dziga Vertov, D.A. Pennebaker, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Cécile Fontaine, and Johanna Vaude.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 13 students. Please complete the questionnaire at https://cms.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/english/events/questionnaire. Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Hillman.

289. Production Workshop in the Moving Image. (Offered as ENGL 289 and FAMS 222.) The topic changes each time the course is taught. In spring 2011 the topic was “Narrative Cinema in a Global Context.” The course introduces students to a diverse range of approaches to narrative filmmaking. Students gain skills in videomaking and criticism through project assignments, readings and analysis of critical discourses that ground issues of production. The course includes workshops in cinematography, sound recording, lighting and editing. Screenings will include works by Jia Zhangke, Claire Denis, Charles Burnett, and Lucrecia Martel. Students complete three video projects.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Please complete the questionnaire at https://cms.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/english/events/questionnaire. Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Hillman.

291. Coming to Terms: Literature. An introduction to contemporary literary studies through the analysis of a variety of critical terms, a range of literary examples, and the relations between and among them. The terms considered in spring 2011 were lyric, narrative, author, translation, and autobiography.

Preference given to sophomores. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Bosman.

292. Reading and Experience. To be taught in fall 2012 as ENGL 472.

Professor Parham.

294. Literature and Ventriloquism. This course will explore ventriloquism as a literary and cultural phenomenon. What does it mean to “throw” one’s voice? How is a ventriloquized voice different from one’s “own”? Why has the possibility of ventriloquism stimulated the literary imagination from the ancient world to the present?

Discussion will focus on novels, poems, plays, films, and essays bearing on the relationship between voice and body. Requirements include voice-throwing and other in-class exercises, contributions to a class wiki, frequent short papers and a final exam.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parker.

295. Literature and Psychoanalysis. Why does it seem natural to read ourselves and other people in the same way that we read books? This course will introduce students to both psychoanalytic theory and literary interpretation, asking about their similarities as well as their dissonance. Why do novels of development and case-studies resemble one another? What can the Freudian understanding of the structure of the psyche teach us about the structure of narrative? And what do “illnesses” like hysteria and paranoia have in common with everyday acts of meaning-making and with the way we read literature? Each week pairing a psychoanalytic paper with a short story or novel, we will ask how psychoanalysis alters not only what we see in literary works, but also the way we understand our own acts of interpretation. Topics include the unconscious, dreams, childhood, the uncanny, desire, subjects and objects, and mourning.

Reading will include essays by Freud, Lacan, Winnicott, Melanie Klein, and others; and fiction by Jensen, Melville, Poe, Brontë, James, Flaubert, and Ishiguro.

Preference given to sophomores considering an English major. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Christoff.

300 COURSES: Topics in film and cultural studies, individual authors, literary history, criticism, theory, and advanced creative writing.

300. Encountering Islam in Medieval and Renaissance Literature. [before 1800] This course provides an introduction to some of the most popular texts of the medieval and Renaissance periods in England by focusing on stories of Christian-Muslim encounter. These stories of interfaith conflict and union offer an important prehistory to the highly-charged relations between Christians and Muslims today. Such interfaith encounters lay at the center of numerous early modern texts, generating a wide variety of stories about love, warfare, friendship, and conversion. We will place these stories in their proper historical contexts, learning about the history of the Crusades as well as about the rise of English commerce with the Ottoman empire. How did literature contribute to the formations of religious, national, and racial identity? We will consider the interrelations between literary form and cultural history, as well as the significance of genre in shaping stories of Christian-Muslim encounter. Texts include poetry, prose, and drama by such authors as Geoffrey Chaucer, John Mandeville, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Mary Wortley Montagu, and others.

Omitted 2012-13.

301. The Moral Essay. [before 1800] The moral essay is a genre situated somewhere between literature and philosophy, between stories and sermons. “The essay interests itself in the narration of ideas,” one critic writes, “in their unfolding.” The moral essay is not about morals per se but about manners, about the way people live—and die. We will read essays by Montaigne, Bacon, Emerson, and Simone Weil.

Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Emeritus Townsend.

302. Dangerous Reading: The Eighteenth-Century Novel in England and France. (Offered as EUST 302, ENGL 302 [Meets the pre-1800 requirement for English majors.], and FREN 362.) Why was reading novels considered dangerous in the eighteenth century, especially for young girls?

This course will examine the development, during this period, of the genre of the novel in England and France, in relation to the social and moral dangers it posed and portrayed. Along with the troublesome question of reading fiction itself, we will explore such issues as social class and bastardy, sexuality and self-awareness, the competing values of genealogy and character, and the important role of women—as novelists, readers, and characters—in negotiating these questions. We will examine why the novel was itself considered a bastard genre, and engage formal questions by studying various kinds of novels: picaresque, epistolary, gothic, as well as the novel of ideas. Our approach will combine close textual analysis with historical readings about these two intertwined, yet rival, cultures, and we will pair novels in order to foreground how these cultures may have taken on similar social or representational problems in different ways. Possible pairings might include Prévost and Defoe, Laclos and Richardson, Voltaire and Fielding, Sade and Jane Austen. French novels will be read in translation. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professors Frank and Rosbottom.

304. Narratives of Suffering. “The word ‘suffer,’ ” Nietzsche writes, is something that we “set up . . . at the point at which our ignorance begins, at which we can see no further.” What makes suffering especially mysterious—and especially attractive as an element of story-telling—is that it both escapes secure designation and refuses to be ineffable; it is a Thing, neither fully beyond nor fully within our ken. It provokes a desire to give it shape and a desire to do no more than approach its shapelessness; it occasions humanitarian crises and stands beyond them as an unbudgeable element of existence; it rings like a pure gold coin and like an alarm bell that cannot be shut off. In this course, we will be studying a series of thematically connected but wildly different works that model especially suggestive ways of approaching this phenomenon. Readings will include the Book of Job, King Lear, Emily Dickinson’s poetry, Owen Chase’s shipwreck narrative, John Hersey’s Hiroshima, Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Art Spiegelman’s Maus, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

Fall semester. Professor Sanborn.

306. Modern British and American Poetry, 1900-1950. Readings and discussions centering on the work of Thomas Hardy, W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, and Wallace Stevens. Some attention also to A.E. Housman, Edward Thomas, Ezra Pound, and William Carlos Williams.

Not open to first-year students. Spring semester. Professor Pritchard.

308. Expatriate Poets. Readings of poets who have chosen to live in a culture other than their own, with an emphasis on T.S. Eliot in London, Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil, Thom Gunn in California, and Agha Shahid Ali in New England. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Writer-in-Residence Hall.

309. Proust. A critical reading in English translation of substantial portions of Marcel Proust’s great work of fiction and philosophy, A la Recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time). An extended synopsis of the entire work will be provided. Class discussion and exercises will concentrate on major passages of the work (amounting to roughly half of the whole). Attention will be given to the tradition of critical commentary in English on Proust’s work and its place as a document of European modernism. Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: Recommend prior study in nineteenth- or early twentieth-century English or French novel. Not recommended for first-year students. Spring semester. Professor Cameron.

311. The Literature of Madness. A specialized study of a peculiar kind of literary experiment—the attempt to create, in verse or prose, the sustained illusion of insane utterance. Readings will include soliloquies, dramatic monologues and extended “confessional” narratives by classic and contemporary authors, from Shakespeare and Browning, Poe and Dostoevsky to writers like Nabokov, Beckett, or Sylvia Plath. We shall seek to understand the various impulses and special effects which might lead an author to adopt an “abnormal” voice and to experiment with a “mad monologue.” The class will occasionally consult clinical and cultural hypotheses which seek to account for the behaviors enacted in certain literary texts. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: Several previous courses in literature and/or psychology. Open to juniors and seniors and to sophomores with consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Peterson.

312. Reading and Criticizing Novels. The novels read include ones by nineteenth-century English and American writers: Jane Austen, Dickens, Trollope, George Eliot, Henry James, Thomas Hardy, as well as ones more recent and less well-known. E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel and James Wood’s How Fiction Works will be used as critical handbooks that address themselves to questions of narrative procedures and literary value. Papers are directed at improving the student’s resourcefulness as a reader and critic of fiction.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Pritchard.

314. Sexuality and History in the Contemporary Novel. A study of American and British gay and lesbian novelists, from 1990 to the present, who have written historical novels. We will examine such topics as the kinds of expressive and ideological possibilities the historical novel offers gay and lesbian novelists, the representation of sexuality in narratives that take place before Stonewall, and the way these authors position queer lives in history. Novelists include Sarah Waters, Emma Donoghue, Jeanette Winterson, Leslie Feinberg, Alan Hollinghurst, Colm Tóibín, and Michael Cunningham.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Frank.

315. The Revolutionary Tradition. In this course we will read novels about revolutionaries and about violent responses to oppression. Most were written for and about particular social problems. Yet revolutionaries often appeal to novelists precisely because they seem to represent much more than the social problem they seek to reform. The course examines the extent to which this representative quality can help and hinder a novel’s status as globally lasting art. Two critical questions among the many we will explore are: How does the novel reconcile the long aims of literature with the urgent claims of the present? What happens when historically specific stories are smuggled across national borders, or revisited a century later? How, for example, does a novelist writing about Kenya, a former British colony, relate to the literary heritage of the British colonizers? Readings will include novels by Dickens, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Henry James, Conrad, Ngugi, and others.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13.

317. Caribbean Poetry: The Anglophone Tradition. (Offered as ENGL 317 and BLST 252 [CLA].) A survey of the work of Anglophone Caribbean poets, alongside readings about the political, cultural and aesthetic traditions that have influenced their work. Readings will include longer cycles of poems by Derek Walcott and Edward Kamau Brathwaite; dialect and neoclassical poetry from the colonial period, as well as more recent poetry by women writers and performance (“dub”) poets.

Fall semester. Professor Cobham-Sander.

318. Childhood in African and Caribbean Literature. (Offered as ENGL 318 and BLST 362 [A/CLA].) The course will concentrate on Caribbean authors. It explores the process of self-definition in literary works from Africa and the Caribbean that are built around child protagonists. We will examine the authors’ various methods of ordering experience through the choice of literary form and narrative technique, as well as the child/author’s perception of his or her society. French texts will be read in translation.

Open to first-year students with consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Cobham-Sander.

324. Writing Poetry II. A second, advanced workshop for practicing poets. Students will undertake a longer project as well as doing exercises every week exploring technical problems.

Requisite: ENGL 221 or the equivalent. Limited enrollment. Preregistration is not allowed. Please consult the Creative Writing Center website for information on admission to this course. Fall semester. Writer-in-Residence Hall.

325. Imitations. A poetry writing course, but with a strong emphasis on reading. Students will closely examine the work of various poets and periods, then attempt to write plausible imitations of their own, all by way of learning about poetry from the inside, as it were.

Spring semester. Writer-in-Residence Hall.

326. Fiction Writing II. An advanced level fiction class. Students will undertake a longer project as well as doing exercises every week exploring technical problems.

Requisite: Completion of a previous course in creative writing. Limited enrollment. Preregistration is not allowed. Please consult the Creative Writing Center website for information on admission to this course. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Writer Gaige.

328. Whitmania! Walt Whitman’s radical poetics changed the landscape of American and international poetry. With his long, unmetered lines and his adaptation of Transcendental ideas of intersubjectivity, he expanded the possibilities for a poem’s form and content. This course begins with an extended study of Whitman’s poetry against the literary context from which it emerged, both in America and abroad (including French symbolism), and continues by studying poets influenced by Whitman in the twentieth century (Ginsberg, Neruda, and others). We will ask, does Whitmanian poetics demand a different reading practice than we bring to formal poetry? Are Whitman’s innovations in form and content separable? Is one more influential to modern poetry than the other?

Recommended: A previous course in English. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Nelson.

329. The Poetics of Performance. Poetry is not merely a written form; it is an oral art and a prompt to performance. Students in this course will learn to use “close listening,” as well as the embodied experience of performing poetry themselves, in order to access poetic meanings that are unavailable through silent reading alone. This course will require both written analyses and performed repertoires of poetry. No prior performance experience is required.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Grobe.

330. Old English and Beowulf. [before 1800] This course has as its first goal the rapid mastery of Old English (Anglo-Saxon) as a language for reading knowledge. Selected prose and short poems, such as The Wanderer and The Battle of Maldon, will be read in the original, with emphasis on literary appreciation as well as linguistic analysis. After that, our objectives will be an appreciation of Beowulf in the original, through the use of the instructor’s dual-language edition, and an understanding of the major issues in interpreting the poem. Students will declaim verses and write short critical papers. Three class hours per week.

Spring semester. Professor Chickering.

332. Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales. [before 1800] The course aims to give the student rapid mastery of Chaucer’s English and an active appreciation of his poetry. No prior knowledge of Middle English is expected. A knowledge of Modern English grammar and its nomenclature, or a similar knowledge of another language, will be helpful. Short critical papers and frequent declamation in class. The emphasis will be on Chaucer’s humor, irony, and his narrative and dramatic gifts. We will read all of the poetic Tales and excerpts from the two prose Tales. Three class hours per week.

Spring semester. Professor Chickering.

333. Chaucer’s Shorter Poems. [before 1800] A study of Chaucer’s “dream visions” and short lyric poems, which explore topics as diverse as love, death, fame, and politics. This course will introduce students to Chaucer’s poetic style and themes, and to the medieval culture in which he lived. All texts will be read in Middle English (of which no prior knowledge is required).

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Nelson.

336. Renaissance Drama: The Places of Performance. [before 1800] The course surveys multiple forms of drama and spectacle in Renaissance England with special attention to the cultural articulation of space. We will consider the relation of a range of texts to their real and imagined performance sites—public theatres like the Globe as well as private playhouses, castles, fairgrounds, taverns, and the streets of London—asking what impact these places had on the dramas themselves, on their representation of public and private worlds, and on the social and political role of theatre in society at large. Reading will include works by Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, Heywood, Middleton and Rowley, and Milton.

Recommended requisite: A previous course in Shakespeare or Renaissance literature. Fall semester. Professor Bosman.

338. Shakespeare. [before 1800] Readings in the comedies, histories, and tragedies, with attention to their poetic language, dramatic structure, and power in performance. Texts and topics will vary by instructor.

Limited to 50 students. Fall semester: Professor Emeritus Berek (Mount Holyoke College). Spring semester: Professor Grobe.

339. Tragedy. This course offers a survey of tragedy as a genre of theatrical representation, charting the development and crisis of the form. We will read texts from the classical and contemporary dramatic repertoire coupled with theoretical readings and documentation of performance. Readings may include plays by Sophocles, Euripides, Shakespeare, Racine, Buchner, Miller and Parks, among others. Attendance at weekly screenings and/or local performances is required.

Omitted 2012-13.

340. Major English Writers I. [Before 1800] Readings in the literature of the British Isles from the medieval and early modern periods. We will read masterpieces of English literature by Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton alongside lesser-known works by anonymous authors, chroniclers, and women. Our focus will be on the emergence of a distinctly “English” literature, defined by shifting ideas of language, nation, and world from the seventh through seventeenth centuries.

Spring semester. Professor Nelson.

346. Victorian Novel I. A selection of mid-nineteenth-century English novels approached from various critical, historical, and theoretical perspectives. In spring 2011 the course will focus on novels written around 1848, among them Disraeli’s Sybil, Gaskell’s Mary Barton, E. Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Dickens’ Dombey and Son, Trollope’s Barchester Towers, and Eliot’s Adam Bede.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parker.

348. Modern British Literature, 1900-1950. Readings in twentieth-century writers such as Henry James, Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, Wyndham Lewis, Ford Madox Ford, Virginia Woolf, Evelyn Waugh, W.H. Auden, Robert Graves, George Orwell, Ivy Compton-Burnett.

Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Pritchard.

349. James Joyce. Readings in Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and some portions of Finnegans Wake. Two class meetings per week.

Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Cameron.

355. Studies in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. To be taught in fall 2012 as ENGL 444.

Professor K. Sánchez-Eppler.

358. Readings in English and American Fiction, 1950-2010. Novels and short fiction, mainly comic, by such writers as Evelyn Waugh, Saul Bellow, Flannery O’Connor, Elizabeth Taylor, Kingsley Amis, John Updike, Philip Roth, Nicholson Baker, Ian McEwan, Jonathan Franzen, Barbara Pym. The effort will be to refine and complicate one’s performance as a critic of these writers and their books.

Fall semester. Professor Pritchard.

359. The Poet’s Prose. We’ll be reading the letters, stories, and essays of writers who are much better known for their poetry, beginning with Walt Whitman’s Civil War diaries, Specimen Days. Other writers will include Hart Crane (letters), Elizabeth Bishop (fiction), and Li-Young Lee and James Merrill (memoirs). Three class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Writer-in-Residence Hall.

360. Studies in African American Literature. (Offered as ENGL 360 and BLST 342 [US].) The topic changes each time the course is taught. In spring 2011 the topic was “The Weary Blues: Mourning in African American Literature and Culture.” As a population generally familiar with the facts of living too hard and dying too soon, how have African Americans used their literary and cultural traditions to memorialize—to articulate and often to work through conditions of pain and loss? Using a variety of literary and cultural texts, including RIP murals, poetry, and music, this semester’s topic examined the various ways African Americans express and aestheticize loss; how mourning often works as a foundation for militancy; and, most importantly, how loss is often recuperated through ideologies of art, love, and memory.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parham.

361. Passing in Literature and Film. (Offered as ENGL 361, BLST 232 [US], and FAMS 372.) Is identity natural or cultural? This question has persisted through centuries of American writing, and many of the most interesting meditations on this question arise from books and films that deal with passing. Texts about passing, about people who can successfully pass themselves off as something different from what they were “born as,” form an important subgenre of American culture because they force us to question some strangely consistent inconsistencies in how we define identity. If race, for example, signifies a real and material difference, how could there be such a thing as racial passing? But, at the same time, if race is “only” a social construction, then why is racial passing so often characterized as a crime against nature? Stories about passing often illustrate a fundamental ambivalence on the personal meaningfulness of biopower in America, and also reveal the nascent virtuality of worldly experiences more generally. That in mind, this course explores a broad range of literary and cultural texts, including novels by Charles Chesnutt, Percival Everett, and Danzy Senna, and film and televisual texts like Gattaca, Avatar, Sirk’s Imitation of Life, and Eddie Murphy’s “White Like Me.”

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parham.

364. Multiethnic American Literature. Ethnicity. What is it? What does it mean to be Irish American? African American? Jewish American? How does one experience being any one of these? What does literature by “ethnic” authors tell us about identity in America and how ethnicity, in particular, shapes how we tell stories? Moreover, what about the other side of that hyphenated identity—American? What does that mean in an increasingly diverse nation? These are some of the questions that will guide us during the semester as we read and discuss samples of American ethnic literature: poetry, oratory, prose, and memoir.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hayashi.

366. Making Asians: Asian American Identity in Literature and Law. Over the course of the semester, we will examine the construction of Asian American identity from the late 1800s to the present day. We will explore, in particular, how Asians in America have been represented and defined in the realms of law and literature, how these separate realms have intersected and informed one another. We will not only explore the formation of Asian American identity from the outside, but also from within this broad racial category, as reflected in works by Asian American authors and documentary filmmakers. The course will be strongly interdisciplinary and include readings in history, ethnic studies, legal studies, material culture, and literary criticism.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hayashi.

368. Novel American Novels. This semester we will consider works by post-bellum writers who clearly emerged out of recognizable narrative traditions, but who nonetheless pushed the boundaries of those traditions, particularly vis-à-vis their inclusion of other media, disparate or conflicted genre desires, historical exigency, or some other kind of narrative emergency. Beginning with brief introductions to romanticism, realism, naturalism, and modernism in American literature, over the course of the semester we will work to understand the kinds of narrative strategies that have in different eras signified important shifts in what the novel “is” or prognosticated what it could be. We will end by investigating some genre-bending, media-crossing trends in contemporary prose narrative: graphic novels, hypertext media, and other kinds of hybrid texts. The novel is not dead, and it definitely remains novel. The diverse range of writers we will be reading this semester will likely include: Hawthorne, Chesnutt, Dreiser, Larsen, Faulkner, Toomer, Kingston, Tomasula, and Gayl Jones.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parham.

371. Victorian Lives. This course surveys the literature and culture of the Victorian era. Reading novels, poetry, and non-fiction, we will ask how the Victorians lived, worked, and played, and how they imagined such essential differences in lifestyle as those between the wealthy and the working classes, between men and women, and between the young and the old. Topics include the life of Queen Victoria, the “invention” of childhood, life-writing and gender, the Industrial Revolution and factory work, religious belief and secular culture, evolutionary science, and an essential Victorian literary obsession: gaining access to the minds and inner lives of others.

Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Christoff.

374. Spike Lee’s Joints. (Offered as ENGL 374, BLST 330 [US], and FAMS 358.) In offering extended formal considerations of Spike Lee’s cinematic oeuvre—in particular his uses of light, sound, and color—this course is interested in how shifting through various modes of critical inquiry can enable or broaden different kinds of cultural, political, or historical engagement with a film. This semester we will also pay special attention to the question of what it means to encapsulate a particular cultural moment, particularly vis-à-vis the often differing demands of fictional and non-fictional representation.

Spring semester. Professor Parham and Visiting Professor Drabinski.

379. Cinema and the Avant-Garde. (Offered as ENGL 379 and FAMS 380.) Throughout its history artists and filmmakers have experimented radically with cinema, exploring the limits of the medium. This course traces the history of experimentation and its relation to broader avant-garde movements in the arts, such as Symbolism, Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, and Minimalism. Many of the filmmakers and movements we will study set about creating a new type of film, as well as a new kind of film language, in an attempt to re-orient how individuals engage with art in their everyday lives. We will interrogate broad theoretical questions, such as: What is the avant-garde? What is the relation between cinema and different art movements? How are different revolutionary aesthetic practices tied to political projects? How are mainstream and avant-garde cinemas related? What can cinema do beyond providing representations and narratives? Besides theoretical and critical texts by Peter Bürger, Renato Poggioli, Annette Michelson and Michael Fried, we will examine manifestos and documents from the various movements, as well as historical studies. We will view films by artists such as Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Marcel Duchamp, Hans Richter, Jean Epstein, Luis Buñuel, Maya Deren, Andy Warhol, Tony Conrad, and Stan Brakhage. Two class meetings and one required screening per week.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Johnston.

381. Cinema and Everyday Life. (Offered as ENGL 381 and FAMS 351.) Film theorist Siegfried Kracauer declared that some of the first films showed “life at its least controllable and most unconscious moments, a jumble of transient, forever dissolving patterns accessible only to the camera.” This course will explore the ways contemporary narrative films aesthetically represent everyday life—capturing both its transience and our everyday ruminations. We will further consider the ways we incorporate film into our everyday lives through various modes of viewings (the arthouse, the multiplex, the DVD, the mp3), our means of perception, and in the kinds of souvenirs we keep. We will look at films by Chantal Akerman, Robert Altman, Marleen Gorris, Hirokazu Koreeda, Marzieh Makhmalbaf, Terrence Malick, Lynne Ramsay, Tsai Ming-liang, Agnès Varda, Wong Kar-wai, and Andy Warhol. Readings will include work by Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, Marlene Dietrich, Sigmund Freud, and various works in film and media studies. Two class meetings and one screening per week.

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Professor Hastie.

387. Topics in Film Study: Knowing Television. (Offered as ENGL 387 and FAMS 215.) The topic changes each time the course is taught. In fall 2010 the topic was “Knowing Television.” For better or worse, U.S. broadcast television is a cultural form that is not commonly associated with knowledge. This course will take what might seem a radical counter-position to such assumptions—looking at the ways television teaches us what it is and even trains us in potential critical practices for investigating it. By considering its formal structure, its textual definitions, and the means through which we see it, we will map out how it is that we come to know television.

Prior coursework in Film and Media Studies is recommended, but not required. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hastie.

391. Readings in Media Theory and History. (Offered as ENGL 391 and FAMS 331.) What is a medium? Why has the term acquired its current theoretical prominence? How does it differ from discourse, genre, mode, format, and other such terms? This course surveys accounts of mediation from the ancient world to the present, focusing on key figures and historically-important texts (among them, Plato’s Republic, Martin Heidegger’s “The Question Concerning Technology” and “The Origin of the Work of Art,” and Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”) before turning attention to our contemporary mediascape and some recent attempts to take its theoretical measure.

Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13.

393. Poetry and Theory: High Modernism, Late Modernism, Postmodernism. This course will focus on the major poets and schools of American poetry from 1900 to 1990, placing equal weight on each school’s agenda. Inevitably, though, we will confront two related questions: how does one form and represent aesthetic judgment and what is the social basis for evaluations of taste. These questions will become evident as we analyze the often fractious (but also nourishing) dynamics of formation and counter-formation which govern the development of distinct schools and trends in poetry. Along the way we will try to unsettle a few cherished orthodoxies while contextualizing formal concerns within historical frameworks. Why, for instance, does Imagism emerge when it does and what drives its rejection of the past? How does the Cold War inflect the mid-century work of poets as distinct as Elizabeth Bishop and Charles Olson? Is there really such a deep divide between Allen Ginsberg, on the one hand, and Anne Sexton, on the other? Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13.

398. Literary and Historical Perspectives on the Criminal Justice System. This course looks at our penal system and places it in the context of the economic and political development of the U.S. It begins with the introduction of the penitentiary in the antebellum period at a time of extraordinary economic expansion and optimism about social institutions. After the Civil War ideas of criminal control change as rapid industrialization in the North and large waves of immigration produce labor unrest and unprecedented urban poverty. The course also explores the convict-lease system in the post-emancipation “New South.” It looks, too, at Progressives’ creation of the juvenile justice system at the turn of the century as well as ideas linking criminality with heredity. It ends with the current boom in prison populations. Throughout it closely attends prisoners’ accounts of their experiences and how they represent them in diverse literary forms.

The course will be conducted inside a correctional facility and enroll an equal number of Amherst students and residents of the facility. Permission to enroll will be granted on the basis of a questionnaire and personal interview with the instructor. Amherst students studying the philosophical and material development of the penal system in the company of incarcerated men will get the benefit of their fellow students’ personal experience of that system. This setting creates a pedagogical opportunity to bring together genuinely diverse perspectives. One class meeting per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor O’Connell.

399. “Where Do We Find Ourselves?” The question begins Emerson’s essay on Experience. For us it begins an inquiry into the contemporary United States. This will be a course largely of questions and grounded speculation about the state of this society. Some of the areas we will explore are education, issues of inequality, the place of religions in civil society, immigration, work, the economy and more. The course necessarily will be cross-disciplinary, drawing on ethnographic, historical, economic, and sociological materials along with a substantial section of contemporary literature.

Limited to 50 students. Spring semester. Professor O’Connell.

400 COURSES: Independent inquiry, critical and theoretical issues, and extensive writing. These courses are seminars, limited in enrollment and normally for junior and senior majors.

410. Autobiography in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Did medieval and early modern people think of themselves as individuals? What aspects of their personal experience did they record, and why? This seminar will examine medieval and Renaissance records of private experience, in the genre of autobiography or, to use its medieval name, confession. Reading writers as varied as Shakespeare, Chaucer, Augustine, and Anne Askew, we will explore the many varieties of confessional literature and life-writing that were available to and invented by early authors. As we examine first-person, experiential texts written in the centuries before “autobiography” became a well-defined genre, we will ask: What constitutes confessional literature? How do these texts bear on the construction of Western ideas of the individual? How do gender and class inform representations of individual experience? Texts not in English will be read in translation; Middle English and Renaissance English texts will be read in student-friendly editions with substantial notes.

Prior knowledge of Middle English helpful, but not required. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Nelson.

415. The Unprinted Page: Working with Manuscripts. This course will focus on the manuscript culture of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America, using manuscripts as a means of thinking about the act of writing, the implications of audience and publication, and the relations between the private and public word. We will study the private forms of diaries and letters. We will look at the traces of the writing process in manuscripts of ultimately published works—the window into the literary creation that manuscripts provide. We will also confront the problems raised by literary work that was never published during its author’s lifetime, heedful of the questions of social propriety and power that often inform what can and can’t be published. Texts will include Julia Ward Howe’s The Hermaphrodite, a “closet” manuscript of sexual indeterminacy written in the 1840s and only published in 2004; Hannah Crafts’ The Bondswoman’s Tale, a manuscript novel probably written in the late 1850s by a fugitive slave and first published in 2002; the manuscript books of Emily Dickinson; the posthumous publication process of Ernest Hemingway’s The Garden of Eden and of Sylvia Plath’s Ariel poems; and works like Edgar Allan Poe’s “MS. Found in a Bottle” and Henry James’ The Aspern Papers that tell anxious tales about manuscripts. The heart of the course, however, will be independent research with students drawing on rich local archives to do some manuscript recovering of their own.

Limited to 15 students. Open to juniors and seniors. Omitted 2012-13. Professor K. Sánchez-Eppler.

417. Americans in Paris. The story of American writers, artists, and musicians who lived and worked in Paris can be imagined as a drama in two acts. Act I, set in the 1920s, brings Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein to center stage. Act II, set in the postwar years, belongs mainly to African American writers such as Richard Wright and James Baldwin. Although the spotlight is mainly on the writers, there are important roles for painters (Gerald Murphy), photographers (Man Ray), dancers (Josephine Baker), and musicians (Sidney Bechet). There is also a kind of epilogue in which the French present their view of the Americans in their midst. Foremost among the questions to be asked is this: how did their experience as “exiles abroad” alter and complicate these Americans’ sense of their national, racial, sexual, and professional identities? Two class meetings per week.

Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Guttmann.

427. Crafting the Novel. This is an advanced writing course for students seeking to move their fiction writing into longer forms. Students will be expected to complete at least 60 pages of new writing, comprised of three different “approaches” to novel writing. Readings will be extensive, including published novels, the work of peers, and essays on theory and craft. One class meeting per week.

Requisite: ENGL 226. Recommended requisite: ENGL 326. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited enrollment. Preregistration is not allowed. Please consult the Creative Writing Center website for information on admission to this course. Spring semester. Visiting Writer Gaige.

431. Transnational Shakespeares. [before 1800] By studying selected Shakespeare plays and their afterlives in literature and performance, we will explore the fate of culture over centuries of global mobility. What qualities of Shakespeare’s works render them peculiarly adaptable to a world of intercultural conflict, borrowing and fusion? And what light does the translation and adaptation of Shakespeare shed on the dialectic of cultural persistence and change? Our examples may include European literature and theater; American silent film and musicals; post-colonial appropriations in India, Africa and Latin America; and versions in the drama, opera and cinema of China and Japan. The course includes an independent research project on a chosen case study.

Requisite: ENGL 338 (Shakespeare). Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Bosman.

435. The Play of Ideas. Plot is never the only motor driving drama forward, though it is the most conspicuous. This class focuses on a long tradition of playwrights using argument—instead of, or alongside plot—to structure their plays. Readings in drama (mainly from the eighteenth century to the present) will be supplemented by consideration of the “dramatic” traditions in philosophy and in philosophical poetry. We will also pay particular attention to those playwrights who have written simultaneously in dramatic and essayistic forms. Why (and when) is thought theatrical? Featured playwrights include Addison and Steele, Ibsen, Shaw, Brecht, Churchill, and Kushner.

Junior/Senior seminar. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Grobe.

441. Lyrics Before the Lyric. [before 1800] (Offered as ENGL 441 and EUST 441.) No word for lyric poetry is in use in Europe until the sixteenth century. This course examines the poems written before and at the dawn of the definition of lyric poetry, in order to form our own working definition of a short, musical poem. We will read poetry by Sappho, Horace, Pindar, anonymous medieval writers, Richard Rolle, William Dunbar, and others, along with classical and medieval tracts on poetry and poetics. The course will conclude with readings from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century lyric poets (Wyatt, Surrey, Shakespeare, Donne) alongside the treatises that defined lyric for the first time (such as Sidney’s Defense of Poesy). Does the “lyric” poem change once it is defined? How do later works speak to the earlier tradition?

Requisite: At least one previous English course, preferably in poetry. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Nelson.

442. Poets: Emily Dickinson to Seamus Heaney. A seminar devoted to the work of an eclectic list of poets active from the 1850s to the 2010s: Emily Dickinson, Thomas Hardy, A.E. Housman, T.S. Eliot, Robert Francis, Langston Hughes, W.H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Randall Jarrell, James Merrill, and Seamus Heaney.

Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors, with preference to junior English majors. Although an English Department seminar, students not majoring in English are welcome. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Sofield and Simpson Lecturer Wilbur.

443. Four Poets: Donne, Herbert, Wordsworth, Frost. Who are the earlier poets whose work remains acutely alive in the minds of recent and contemporary poets, critics, scholars, and what Samuel Johnson called, respectfully, common readers? This seminar will consider the thesis that the short and mid-length poems of John Donne, George Herbert, William Wordsworth, and Robert Frost make the case that these poets belong high on the list of those who are read now with the kind of attention that the range of readers gives to today’s major writers. Beginning with Donne in the 1590s and concluding with Frost in the 1950s, the work of the poets will be considered, in detail, from historical, formal, and religious/philosophical points of view. In addition, we will read examples of the abundant criticism devoted to each of the four.

Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors, with preference to junior English majors. Although an English Department seminar, students not majoring in English are welcome. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sofield and Simpson Lecturer Wilbur.

444. Emily Dickinson. “Experience is the Angled Road / Preferred against the Mind / By—Paradox—the Mind itself—” she explained in one poem and in this course we will make use of the resources of the town of Amherst to play experience and mind off each other in our efforts to come to terms with her elusive poetry. The course will meet in the Dickinson Homestead, visit the Evergreens (her brother Austen’s house, and a veritable time capsule), make use of Dickinson manuscripts in the College archives, and set her work in the context of other nineteenth-century writers including Helen Hunt Jackson, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, and Harriet Jacobs. But as we explore how Dickinson’s poetry responds to her world we will also ask how it can speak to our present. One major project of the course will be to develop exhibits and activities for the Homestead that will help visitors engage with her poems. One class meeting per week.

Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Professor K. Sánchez-Eppler.

446. The Lyric. Is any term in the study of literature more contested than lyric? Reaching agreement on a definition beyond Aristotle’s obvious claim that lyric may be distinguished from epic and dramatic has proved impossible. Yet what critics have named lyric poems have been written for two and a half millennia, and for two centuries now the lyric has been the dominant poetic mode. With an eye to its literary-historical development, this seminar will undertake to read closely the English-language lyric from the sixteenth century to the present. Attention will be given to concurrent attempts to describe its properties, concluding with recent considerations of the genre. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sofield and Simpson Lecturer Wilbur.

450. Henry James. The course will trace the arc of James’ development as a novelist. It will also concern itself with his writing about the form and conditions of the traditional novel in Europe and America as it approaches the crisis of early modernism at the turn of the twentieth century. Works to be considered will probably include, together with selections from his essays on fiction, The American, The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians, The Ambassadors and either The Wings of the Dove or The Golden Bowl. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Cameron.

452. Hawthorne, Melville, and Literary Friendship. During a mountain picnic in the summer of 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville struck up a private conversation. That champagne-fueled talk led to an intense, maddening, and relatively brief friendship, a friendship that grew out of writing, that was mediated by writing, and that can only be approached by way of writing. What was it like? How did it affect each of them? What might it suggest about the nature of the intimacies that are made possible by words on a page? In pursuit of the answers to these and other questions, we will read everything that Hawthorne and Melville wrote between July 1849 and December 1852. That will mean reading, in addition to White-Jacket, The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, The House of the Seven Gables, A Wonder Book, Pierre, and The Blithedale Romance, all of their letters, journals, and marginalia. We will also take trips to Melville’s house in Pittsfield and the House of the Seven Gables in Salem.

Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Sanborn.

453. American Novelists: John Updike and Philip Roth. A study of two major writers whose works span five decades. Their careers will be followed by a chronological survey of each from the late 1950s to the present. They will be viewed biographically and historically, but mainly through close engagement with literary style.

Open to junior and senior majors. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Pritchard.

454. Faulkner and Morrison. (Offered as ENGL 454 and BLST 442.) William Faulkner and Toni Morrison are generally understood as two of the most important writers of the twentieth century, and indeed, the work of each is integral to American literature. But why are Morrison and Faulkner so often mentioned in the same breath—he, born in the South, white and wealthy, she, the daughter of a working-class black family in the Midwest? Perhaps it is because in a country that works hard to live without a racial past, both Morrison’s and Faulkner’s work bring deep articulation to the often unseen, and more commonly—the unspeakable. This class will explore the breadth of each author’s work, looking for where their texts converge and diverge. And we will learn how to talk and write about the visions, dreams, and nightmares—all represented as daily life—that these authors offer.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parham.

455. Memory, Haunting, and Migration in Contemporary American Novels by Women. (Offered as ENGL 455 and WAGS 495.) This course examines some of the many ways American authors have written about memory—memories of the past as well as of other places, about memories that refuse to be surfaced and memories that are at times not even of their protagonists’ own lives. How, for instance, do writers portray the ways painful pasts have influenced their characters’ senses of self-identity? What does it mean to suffer for a past whose details one does not even know? Is a truth freeing, or does overcoming the hidden and silent increase memory’s burdens? What are some of the possibilities and limitations of portraying traumatic experiences in the novel form? And can “trauma” even mean the same thing across ethnic experiences? With such questions in mind we will look specifically at novels concerned with two of the foundational experiences of American civilization, slavery and migration, and at the pervasive problems of longing, disjuncture, and displacement endemic to such experiences. Authors we may read in this cross-cultural literature course include Maxine Hong Kingston, Edwidge Danticat, Gayl Jones, and Cynthia Ozick.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parham.

456. Ghosts in Shells? Virtuality and Embodiment from Passing to the Posthuman. (Offered as ENGL 456, BLST 441 [US], and FAMS 451.) This class begins with narratives about individuals who pass—that is, who come to be recognized as someone different from whom they were sexually or racially “born as.” Such stories suggest that one’s identity depends minimally on the body into which one is born, and is more attached to the supplementation and presentation of that body in support of whichever cultural story the body is desired to tell. Drawing on familiar liberal humanist claims, which centralize human identity in the mind, these narratives also respond to the growing sophistication of human experience with virtual worlds—from acts of reading to immersions in computer simulation. But what kinds of tensions emerge when bodies nonetheless signify beyond an individual’s self-imagination? As technology expands the possibilities of the virtual, for instance surrogacy, cloning, and cybernetics, what pressures are brought to bear on the physical human body and its processes to signify authentic humanness? Rather than ask whether identity is natural or cultural, our discussions will project these questions into a not-so-distant future: What would it mean to take “human” as only one identity, as a category amongst many others, each also acknowledged as equally subject to the same social and biological matrices of desire, creation, and recognition? We will approach these questions through works of literature, philosophy, media history, and contemporary science writing.

Junior/Senior seminar. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Parham.

458. Indigenous American Epics. (Offered as ENGL 458 and AMST 358.) [before 1800] This course will delve deeply into the literature and history of “Turtle Island,” or North America. The Quiché Maya Popol Vuh (Council Book), the Iroquois Great Law, and the Wabanaki creation cycle are rooted in longstanding, complex oral narratives of emergence and transformation, which were recorded by Native authors and scribes. We will close read these epics (in English) as works of “ancient American” literature, as narratives of tribal history, and as living constitutions of tribal governance. We will study the tribally and regionally-specific contexts of these epic narratives as well as the “intellectual trade routes” that link them together. The course will conclude with an epic narrative of more recent colonial history, composed by the nineteenth-century Pequot author William Apess, born in the Connecticut River valley. Following an interdisciplinary American studies approach, our reading will be enriched by guest speakers and artistic media.

Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Brooks.

459. The Spiral of Time in Native American Novels. What if the past is not behind us, but spiraling within our present? How are indigenous conceptions of time expressed in Native American writing? How do Native novelists enable us to imagine a past, present, and future that are intertwined, embedded in place, and spiraling in constant motion? How does the creation of a fictional world, so similar to ours, allow us to envision alternative models of gender, sexuality, race, and nationhood? This seminar will invite in-depth exploration of contemporary Native American fiction, through frameworks drawn from oral traditions, indigenous languages, literary media, and scientific theory. Authors will include Sherman Alexie, LeAnne Howe, Thomas King, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Craig Womack, among others.

Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Brooks.

466. Representing Slavery. [before 1800] (Offered as ENGL 466, BLST 435 [US], and FAMS 314.) Mining a variety of archives in search of captivity narratives created by American slaves and their progeny, this class will use its materials to consider larger questions regarding the overlapping roles of voice, testimony, trauma, and narrative in cultural and historical understanding. Work for this semester will culminate in the production of a multimedia research project, but no previous familiarity with media production is required.

Junior/Senior seminar. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parham.

470. Research Methods in American Culture. (Offered as AMST 468 and ENGL 470.) This course is designed to provide American Studies juniors (and others) with a methodological grounding in the discipline and an opportunity to write a research paper on a topic of their own choosing. We will engage a wide range of materials and methodologies in this course in order to grasp the broad interdisciplinarity of the field of American Studies. Through short written exercises addressing a variety of documents including manuscripts, journals, census records, images and printed books, students will gauge the utility of various methodological approaches to determine which are most useful for their own independent work. The major requirement of this course is a research paper, approximately 20-25 pages in length, that will be due at the end of the semester.

Limited to 20 students. Open to juniors and seniors as a research seminar; underclassmen admitted under special circumstances. Spring semester. Professor Hayashi.

472. Reading and Experience. By working through a combination of creative non-fiction, film, and prose texts, this course in literary theory and textual analysis explores some of the assumed tensions between experiences generally described as real and those described as imaginary. Over the course of the semester we will consider how literature enlarges personal experience, even as we also attend to what happens when art approaches the limits of representation. Some of our particular concerns will include: learning how to draw relationships between texts and their social and historical moments; how to question our own acts of learning about others through our consumption of culture; and examining how personal identity itself might also be understood as a question of narrative. This semester will likely include texts by Kazuo Ishiguro, Daniel Defoe, J.M. Coetzee, Marlene Nourbese Philip, Stephen King, Herman Melville, and the Wachowskis.

Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Parham.

473. Proseminar: Methods for Literary Research. This course’s primary objective is to enable students to conduct independent and substantive research in literary studies. The vehicle to meet these goals will be the traditional canon of American literature. Reading, considering, and evaluating recent scholarship on a selection of canonical American literary texts will demonstrate how different theoretical frames and methodological approaches reveal textual content and meaning in unexpected ways. Such practices reconstitute our sense of even the most familiar texts. We will study this scholarship—in areas such as ecocriticism, sexuality studies, regionalism, cultural studies, postcolonialism—as a means to apprehend, appreciate, define, and ultimately model literary research. We will also consider and model various methods of analyzing literary texts: interdisciplinary, biographical, comparative and material. Moreover, we will focus intently on fundamental information gathering skills: finding, evaluating, and synthesizing both secondary and primary sources. Therefore, the course will entail formal sessions in library training and archival research. Students will conduct a major independent research project of their choice over the course of the semester. Authors may include Dickinson, Rowlandson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Melville.

Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Hayashi.

476. Reading Post-Freudian Psychoanalysis. This course explores psychoanalytic theory beyond Freud. Reading the work of modern and contemporary psychoanalytic thinkers in depth, we will ask as well what their theories teach us about reading itself. We will cover a range of modern psychoanalytic approaches, from ego psychology to the British object relations school to “contemporary Freudian revisionists.” Writers may include Anna Freud, Heinz Hartmann, Harry Stack Sullivan, Melanie Klein, Wilfred Bion, W.R.D. Fairbairn, D.W. Winnicott, Heinz Kohut, Jacques Lacan, Otto Kernberg, Roy Schafer, and Christopher Bollas, among others. The course is organized around ideas and close reading: we will trace the evolution of a number of psychoanalytic concepts (such as hysteria, paranoia, aggression, aesthetic experience, dissociation, projection, and transference) from their foundations to the present day. In addition to learning about the history of psychoanalysis, its modern incarnations, and the development of psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice, we will consider how contemporary psychoanalysis offers us new approaches to reading, thinking, and cultural analysis.

Previous experience with courses in English and/or psychoanalysis recommended. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Christoff.

481. Inventing Film Theory. (Offered as ENGL 481 and FAMS 421.) As an upper-division seminar in film theory, this course will offer an in-depth examination of historically significant writings that analyze film form and its social functions and effects. Our particular focus will be on the production of film theory in a collective setting: the film/media journal. Thus the course will be organized by five units, each centering on a particular journal in generally chronological order: Close Up, Cahiers du Cinéma, Film Culture, Screen, and Camera Obscura. Through this structure, we will consider how ideas have developed and transformed, often in dialogue with one another and on an international stage. Our purpose will be threefold: to understand the context for the production and development of film theories; to comprehend a wide range of changing theoretical notions and methodologies; and to create our own dialogue with these works, considering especially their impact on their own contemporaneous film viewers and on viewing positions today. One three-hour class meeting and one film screening per week.

Prior coursework in Film and Media Studies is strongly recommended. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hastie.

482. Cinephilia. (Offered as ENGL 482 and FAMS 482.) This course focuses on cinephilia—a passionate, affective engagement with cinema—as a means of seeing both the movies themselves and our critical, historical understanding of them. While focusing on cinephilic figures (the archivist, the filmmaker, the critic, the theorist, the historian, the collector, the teacher, the student), we will also look at particular historical junctures in which cinephilia has arisen in earnest (the photogenie movement in 1910s and 1920s France; post-war French criticism and auteurist production; late twentieth-century enthrallment with international new wave movements). Through experiments with reading, writing, and viewing habits, we will inject theoretical work with experiential practices, ultimately asking how (and if) cinephilia might be mobilized today. One class meeting and one screening per week.

Prior film course recommended. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hastie.

483. Feminism and Film: A Study of Practice and Theory. (Offered as ENGL 483, FAMS 426, and WAGS 483.) This seminar will be devoted to the study of feminism and film, considering the ways feminism has shaped both film theory and film practice. Though focusing in large part on post-1968 writings, which largely ushered in semiotic, psychoanalytic, and feminist theory to film studies, we will also consider early writings by women from the 1910s-1950s in a range of venues—from fan magazines to film journals—that developed points of view regarding women’s practices as both artists and audience members. We will also consider a range of films, from Hollywood melodrama (also known as “the women’s picture”) of the 1940s to contemporary action films, and from avant-garde feminist works to current independent and international films directed by women. Informed by feminist film theorist Claire Johnston, we will explore how and when “women’s cinema”—whether theory or practice—constitutes or shapes “counter-cinema.” One three-hour class meeting per week.

Requisite: As an advanced seminar in film theory, some previous work with film and media studies is required. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Hastie.

484. Animating Cinema and New Media. (Offered as ENGL 484 and FAMS 484.) This seminar will explore theories of animation and new media in moving image culture. While animation is many times considered children’s entertainment, this course situates it as the technical coincidence of life and movement while examining its relation to the nature of cinema and other media. Cinema is a privileged type of animation in the class, but one that exists in a long history of moving images that we will interrogate along with the roles different techniques and technologies play in that history’s formation. We will begin with an examination of nineteenth-century optical devices like zoetropes and phenakistoscopes and then study handmade and industrial animation practices, finally working our way to digital special effects technology, machinima, and algorithmic cinema. Particular attention will be paid to the role of motion in the aesthetics of cinema and the sense of vitality objects and figures take on in film. How is life attributed to this illusion of movement? How is the threshold between the animate and inanimate used to define our understandings of media and mediation? To answer these questions we will read theoretical and historical texts by Donald Crafton, Sergei Eisenstein, Tom Gunning, Esther Leslie, and Lev Manovich and view films by artists such as Emile Cohl, Lotte Reiniger, Mary Ellen Bute, Chuck Jones, the Quay Brothers, Lewis Klahr, Cory Arcangel, Marjane Satrapi, and Takeshi Murata. One three-hour class meeting and one required screening per week.

Requisite: Prior coursework in Film and Media Studies. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Johnston.

485. Word / Life / Image. (Offered as ENGL 485 and FAMS 485.) How do words and images bring each other to life? How have different graphic and material instantiations articulated their separation or union? This seminar will explore the relationship between word and image across different media forms and historical periods, continually asking how they mutually animate, constrain, and give shape to one another. Studying works such as illustrated and graphic novels, theatrical performances, films, and digital works we will attend at once to the intersection between material form and aesthetic experience. Over the course of this seminar we will engage with key concepts and topics including ekphrasis, adaptation, remediation, and synaesthesia while reading theoretical and historical texts by classical and Renaissance authors as well as contemporary critics from Maurice Merleau-Ponty to Katherine Hayles. Primary texts may include works by Shakespeare, William Blake, Lewis Carroll, Virginia Woolf, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Dziga Vertov, W.G. Sebald, William Gibson, and Miranda July. One three-hour class meeting per week.

Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Bosman and Visiting Professor Johnston.

486. Media Archaeology and Historiography. (Offered as ENGL 486 and FAMS 456.) How can we write histories of media? How are media written about, used, designed, preserved and sometimes discarded? Where are the relics of past media stored and what do these alternative paths not taken and now forgotten futures of media say about different historical moments and the present? This seminar will explore theories and practices of media archaeology and historiography by both examining different scholarly responses to the above questions while also learning about forms of media preservation at various archives throughout the semester. We will move through different historical periods, from the magic lantern performances and phantasmagoria of the eighteenth century through film and the phonograph, and then on to recent digital media and magnetic storage technologies like the floppy disk, hard drive, and personal computer. Throughout the seminar we will continue to ask how media landscapes of the past provide a context for our contemporary engagements with media and also emphasize how the histories we will explore point not only to technological experimentation and change but also to how these media were to engage with the senses of the body. We will read theoretical and historical texts by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Jonathan Crary, Lisa Gitelman, Tom Gunning, Katherine Hayles, Matthew Kirschenbaum, Friedrich Kittler, Vivian Sobchack, Paolo Cherchi Usai and Siegfried Zielinski. One three-hour class meeting and one required screening per week.

Prior coursework in Film and Media Studies is recommended. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Johnston.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Courses.

Fall and spring semester. The Department.

491. The Creole Imagination. (Offered as ENGL 491 and BLST 461 [CLA].) What would it mean to write in the language in which we dream? A language that we can hear, but cannot (yet) see? Is it possible to conceive a language outside the socio-symbolic order? And can one language subvert the codes and values of another? Questions like these have animated the creolité/nation language debate among Caribbean intellectuals since the mid-1970s, producing some of the most significant francophone and anglophone writing of the twentieth century. This course reads across philosophy, cultural theory, politics, and literature in order to consider the claims such works make for the Creole imagination. We will engage the theoretical and creative work of Édouard Glissant, Maryse Condé, Wilson Harris, Derek Walcott, Kamau Brathwaite, Patrick Chamoiseau, Jamaica Kincaid, and Edwidge Danticat. We also will consider how these writers transform some of the fundamental ideas of psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, and critical historiography. At stake in our readings will be the various aesthetic and political aspects of postcolonial struggle—how to think outside the colonial architecture of language; how to contest and subvert what remains from history’s violence; and how to evaluate the claims to authenticity of creolized New World cultural forms.

Junior/Senior seminar. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Cobham-Sander and Visiting Professor Drabinski.

498. Senior Tutorial. Open to senior English majors who wish to pursue a self-defined project in reading and writing. Students intending to elect this course must submit to the Department a five-page description and rationale for the proposed independent study by the end of the first week of classes in the fall semester of their senior year. Those who propose projects in fiction, verse, playwriting, or autobiography must submit a substantial sample of work in the appropriate mode; students wishing to undertake critical projects must include a tentative bibliography with their proposal. Preregistration is not allowed.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall semester.

498D. Senior Tutorial. A double course. This form of the regular course in independent work for seniors will be approved only in exceptional circumstances.

Fall semester.

499. Senior Tutorial. Students intending to continue independent work begun in ENGL 498 are required to submit, by the end of the first week of classes, a five-page prospectus describing in detail the shape of the intended project along with a substantial writing sample from the work completed in English 498. Students beginning a new project who wish to apply for English 499 must submit, by the end of the first week of classes, a five-page description and rationale for the proposed independent study. Those who propose projects in fiction, verse, playwriting, or autobiography must submit a substantial sample of work in the appropriate mode; students wishing to undertake critical projects must include a tentative bibliography with their proposal. Preregistration is not allowed.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring semester.

499D. Senior Tutorial. A double course. This form of the regular course in independent work for seniors will be approved only in exceptional circumstances.

Spring semester.

Related Courses

American Performance Culture Circa 1900. See COLQ 339.

Friendship. See FYSE 104.

Romanticism and the Enlightenment. See FYSE 105.

Imagining the Past. See FYSE 120.

Reading Serially. See FYSE 123.

Things Matter. See FYSE 127.

Environmental Studies

*On leave 2012-13.

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

Advisory Committee: Professors Cox, Crowley, Demorest, Dizard† (Co-Chair), Hunter, Moore (Co-Chair), and Temeles; Associate Professors Clotfelter†, López, Martini, Miller, and Reyes; Assistant Professors Hayashi, Laio, Leise, Melillo*, Sims and Wagaman; Senior Lecturer Delaney; Visiting Assistant Professor R. Levin.

For many thousands of years, our ancestors were more shaped by than they were shapers of the environment. This began to change, first with hunting and then, roughly ten thousand years ago, with the beginnings of agriculture. Since then, humans have had a steadily increasing impact on the natural world. Environmental Studies explores the complex interactions between humans and nature. This exploration requires grounding in the natural sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences. Hence, majors in Environmental Studies must take six core courses, which collectively reflect the subject’s interdisciplinary nature. The required introductory course (ENST-120) and senior seminar (ENST-498) are taught by faculty from the natural sciences, the social sciences, and humanities. The remaining core courses include Ecology (ENST-210), Environmental History (either ENST-220 or HIST-105), Economics (ENST-230), and Statistics (ENST-240). Majors are strongly encouraged to complete the core requirements prior to their senior year. The senior seminar, offered in the fall semester, fulfills the comprehensive requirement.

Beyond the required core courses, majors will take at least four courses from the list of electives. Elective courses must include at least one course from each of the two categories, which span different fields of environmental inquiry. The honors program in Environmental Studies is a two semester sequence. Majors electing to do honors are required to submit a thesis proposal to the Advisory Committee prior to enrolling in ENST-498. Following successful completion of ENST-498, students complete their thesis by enrolling in ENST-499. Students who wish to satisfy a core or elective requirement with a Five College course or a course taken abroad must petition the Advisory Committee in writing and submit a syllabus or description of the course for approval. Students for whom Environmental Studies is a second major can count no more than two courses toward both majors.

Core Courses

120. The Resilient (?) Earth: An Introduction to Environmental Studies. Life has existed on Earth for nearly four billion years, shaped by massive extinction events. In the short span of the last 10,000 years, humans have become important agents in shaping global environmental change. The question this course considers is straightforward: Have humans been modifying the environment in ways that will, in the not distant future, cause another worldwide extinction event? There are no simple, much less uncontested, answers to this question. We will have to consider the ways we have altered habitats and ecosystem processes. We will also consider the economic consequences of disturbed ecosystems and assess contemporary policy responses intended to avert what some claim is an impending catastrophe.

Limited to 75 students. Spring semester. Professors Dizard and R. Levin.

210. Ecology. (Offered as BIOL 230 and ENST 210.) A study of the relationships of plants and animals (including humans) to each other and to their environment. We’ll start by considering the decisions an individual makes in its daily life concerning its use of resources, such as what to eat and where to live, and whether to defend such resources. We’ll then move on to populations of individuals, and investigate species population growth, limits to population growth, and why some species are so successful as to become pests whereas others are on the road to extinction. The next level will address communities, and how interactions among populations, such as competition, predation, parasitism, and mutualism, affect the organization and diversity of species within communities. The final stage of the course will focus on ecosystems, and the effects of humans and other organisms on population, community, and global stability. Three hours of lecture per week.

Requisite: BIOL 181 or ENST 120 or permission from the instructor. Not open to first-year students. Fall semester. Professor Temeles.

220. Environmental Issues of the Nineteenth Century. (Offered as HIST 104 [C] and ENST 220.) This course considers the ways that people in various parts of the world thought about and acted upon nature during the nineteenth century. We look historically at issues that continue to have relevance today, including: invasive species, deforestation, soil-nitrogen availability, water use, desertification, and air pollution. Themes include: the relationship of nineteenth-century colonialism and environmental degradation, gender and environmental change, the racial dimensions of ecological issues, and the spatial aspects of human interactions with nature. We will take at least one field trip. In addition, we will watch three films that approach nineteenth-century environmental issues from different vantage points. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Melillo.

228. Ethics and the Environment. (Offered as PHIL 225 and ENST 228) As our impact on the environment shows itself in increasingly dramatic ways, our interaction with the environment has become an important topic of cultural and political debate. In this course we will discuss various philosophical issues that arise in such debates, including: What obligations, if any, do we have to future generations, to non-human animals, and to entire ecosystems? How should we act when we are uncertain exactly how our actions will affect the environment? How should we go about determining environmental policy? And how should we implement the environmental policies we decide upon? What is the most appropriate image of nature?

Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Professor Emeritus Kearns.

230. An Introduction to Economics with Environmental Applications. (Offered as ECON 111E and ENST 230.) A study of the central problem of scarcity and of the ways in which micro and macro economic systems allocate scarce resources among competing ends and apportion goods produced among people. Covers the same material as Economics 111 but with special attention to the relationship between economic activity and environmental problems and to the application of micro and macroeconomic theory tools to analyze environmental issues. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 111 and ECON 111E.

Two 80 minute and one 50 minute lecture/discussion per week. Each section is limited to 30 Amherst College students. Fall and spring semesters. Professor Sims.

240. Introduction to Statistics. (Offered as MATH 130 and ENST 240.) This course is an introduction to applied statistical methods useful for the analysis of data from all fields. Brief coverage of data summary and graphical techniques will be followed by elementary probability, sampling distributions, the central limit theorem and statistical inference. Inference procedures include confidence intervals and hypothesis testing for both means and proportions, the chi-square test, simple linear regression, and a brief introduction to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Some sections of MATH 130 have an environmental theme and are recommended for students interested in Environmental Studies. In fall 2012, the environmental section will be section 02; in spring 2013, there will NOT BE an environmental section. Four class hours per week (two will be held in the computer lab). Labs are not interchangeable between sections due to course content.

Each section limited to 20 students. Fall semester: Professors Liao and Wagaman, Visiting Professor Jeneralczuk. Spring semester: Professor Wagaman, Visiting Professor Manack and Postdoctoral Fellow Hedlin.

Other Seminars and Tutorials

401. Proseminar: Research and Writing. (Offered as HIST 402 [C] and ENST 401.) The topic for this proseminar changes year to year. In the Fall of 2012 the topic is wine. Through analysis of the production and consumption of wine in various regions of Europe, North Africa, and the Americas the course will introduce students to such issues as the environmental impact of wine; the politics of taste; the impact of global trade; the changing ways producers have dealt with blights (phylloxera); the development and impact of monocrop production; class conflict within both production and consumption; and the emergence of claims about terroir (the notion that each wine, like each culture, is unique to a particular place) and how such claims relate to regional and national identities. Course content will be student-driven, since members of the class will take responsibility for identifying many of the documents and secondary studies. Through class discussion, focused workshops, and close supervision each student will learn to design a research prospectus related to wine, and then expand it into a research paper. Two meetings per week.

Open to juniors and seniors. Preference given to history majors. (Note to History majors: you may take this course instead of HIST 301, “Writing the Past,” which is ordinarily required for completion of the major.)

Fall semester. Limited to 15 students. Professor Hunt. Spring semester. Limited to 20 students. Professors López and Martini.

420. Seminar on Sustainable Agriculture and Human Populations. The current world human population numbers 6.7 billion people, and the United Nations estimates that 9 billion people will live on Earth in the year 2050. Will there be enough food for this many people, and can we sustain our current lifestyle and agricultural practices in the future? These are among the questions asked in this course, which will address the biological, social, economic, and political aspects of agriculture and human population growth. Other questions to be addressed are: How have humans managed to sustain their current rate of population growth? What is the Green revolution? What are the environmental impacts of current agricultural practices? Can we feed the growing world population without destroying our environment, and if so, how? Is genetic engineering of crops a solution to world hunger?

Requisite: ENST 120 or 210 or BIOL 230 or consent of the instructor. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 14 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Temeles.

430. Seminar on Fisheries. The dependence of many countries on marine organisms for food has resulted in severe population declines in cod, bluefin tuna, swordfish, and abalone, as well as numerous other marine organisms. In this seminar we will examine the biological, sociological, political, and economic impacts of the global depletion of fisheries. Questions addressed will include: What is the scope of extinctions or potential extinctions due to over-harvesting? How have overfished species responded to harvest pressures? How are fisheries managed, and are some approaches to harvesting better than others? How do fisheries extinctions affect the societies and economies of various countries and marine ecosystems? How do cultural traditions of fishermen influence attempts to manage fisheries? Does acquaculture offer a sustainable alternative to overfishing? What is acquaculture’s impact on marine ecology? Three class hours per week.

Requisites: ENST 120 or BIOL 230/ENST 210 or consent of instructors. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professors Temeles and Dizard.

490. Special Topics. Independent reading course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

498. Senior Seminar. The Senior Seminar is intended to bring together majors with different course backgrounds and to facilitate original independent student research on an environmental topic. In the early weeks of the seminar, discussion will be focused on several compelling texts (e.g., Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring or Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us) which will be considered from a variety of disciplinary perspectives by members of the Environmental Studies faculty. These discussions are intended to help students initiate an independent research project which may be expanded into an honors project in the second semester. For students not electing an honors project, the seminar will offer an opportunity to integrate what they have learned in their environmental studies courses. The substance of the seminar will vary from year to year, reflecting the interests of the faculty who will be convening and participating in the seminar.

Open to seniors. Fall semester. Professors Temeles and Moore.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Spring semester. The Department.

Related Courses

CATEGORY I. SCIENCE ELECTIVES

Food, Fiber, and Pharmaceuticals. See BIOL 104.

Adaptation and the Organism. See BIOL 181.

Animal Behavior. See BIOL 281.

Evolutionary Biology. See Biology 320.

Evolutionary Biology (with lab). See BIOL 321.

Seminar in Disease Biology. See BIOL 410.

Seminar in Conservation Biology. See BIOL 440.

Chemistry and the Environment. See CHEM 108.

Atmospheric Chemistry. See CHEM 381.

Environmental Science: Global Warming and Energy Resources. See GEOL 109.

Surface Earth Dynamics. See GEOL 121.

Hydrology. See GEOL 301.

Seminar in Biogeochemistry. See GEOL 450.

Mathematical Modeling. See MATH 140.

Energy. See PHYS 109.

CATEGORY II: SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES ELECTIVES

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. See ECON 210.

American Wilderness. See ENGL 156.

The Value of Nature. See FYSE 101.

Encounters with Nature. See FYSE 114.

Global Environmental History of the Twentieth Century. See HIST 105.

Environmental History of Latin America. See HIST 265.

Proseminar: Research and Writing. See HIST 402.

Commodities, Nature and Society. See HIST 411.

Law’s Nature: Humans, the Environment and the Predicament of Law. See LJST 235.

The Political Economy of Petro States: Venezuela Compared. See POSC 231.

Environmental Psychology. See PSYC 246.

The Social Construction of Nature. See SOCI 340.

European Studies

*On leave 2012-13.

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Advisory Committee: Professors Barbezat, Brandes, Caplan†, Ciepiela, Courtright*, de la Carrera, Doran, Epstein, Griffiths, Hewitt‡, Hunt, Machala, Maraniss‡, Rabinowitz, Rockwell†, Rogowski, Rosbottom‡, Schneider, R. Sinos, Staller, Stavans†, and Tiersky‡; Associate Professors Gilpin (Chair), and L. Katsaros; Assistant Professors Brenneis, Engelhardt, Grillo, and Wolfson; Five College Assistant Professor Long.

European Studies is a major program that provides opportunity for independent and interdisciplinary study of European culture. Through integrated work in the humanities and social sciences, the student major examines a significant portion of the European experience and seeks to define those elements that have given European culture its unity and distinctiveness.

Major Program. The core of the major consists of eight courses that will examine a significant portion of European civilization through a variety of disciplines. Two of these courses will be EUST 121 and 122 (or the equivalent; see below), and two will be independent work during the senior year. In the second semester of the senior year, the student major writing a thesis may designate the research course as a double course (EUST 499D), in which case the total number of courses required to complete the major becomes nine. Comparative literary studies, interdisciplinary work in history, sociology, philosophy, music, performance, visual arts, architecture, political science, or economics involving one or more European countries are possible approaches for the student’s required senior project.

Application to the major will be considered only after a student has taken at least one of EUST 121, 122, or an approved, similarly broad course in European history or culture. A second such required course will be taken during the sophomore year or as soon as the student elects a European Studies major. The student major will select four core courses in consultation with the Chair or major advisor. All majors shall complete a substantial course-based research project on some aspect of European culture by the end of their junior year. Prior arrangement for supervision must be made if a student intends to do this project while abroad.

All European Studies honors majors must complete a thesis. Should, during the senior year, the Program faculty decide that a declared major is not qualified to proceed to work on a thesis, the student may elect to do a substantial research project instead. Students may be recommended for Program honors only if they complete a thesis. Save in exceptional circumstances, a major will spend at least one semester of the junior year pursuing an approved course of study in Europe. All majors must give evidence of proficiency in one European language besides English, ideally one that is appropriate to their senior project. Upon return from study abroad, the student will ordinarily elect, in consultation with the Program Chair or major advisor, at least one course that helps integrate the European experience into the European Studies major.

121. Readings in the European Tradition I. Topics in the past have included readings and discussion of a series of related texts from Homer and Genesis to Dante: Homer’s Iliad, selected Greek tragedies, Virgil’s Aeneid, selections from the Bible, and from medieval texts. The theme this year will be “The Journey.” Three class hours per week.

Open not only to European Studies majors but also to any student interested in the intellectual and literary development of the West, from antiquity through the Middle Ages. Required of European Studies majors.

Fall semester. Professor Doran.

122. Readings in the European Tradition II. In this course, we will discuss writings and art that have contributed in important ways to the sense of what “European” means. The course covers the intellectual and artistic development of Europe from the Renaissance to the 21st century. The course will use a chronological and/or thematic template that focuses on dominant and persistent preoccupations of the European imagination. We will study poetry, drama, the novel, the essay, painting, photography, and film. In the past, we have studied works by Cervantes, Shakespeare, Montaigne, Molière, Mann, Swift, Voltaire, Wordsworth, Austen, Marx, Flaubert and Tolstoy. We have looked at art ranging from Velásquez to Picasso, filmmakers from Chaplin to Godard. This course welcomes all students who enjoy studying literature and essays in depth, as well as those interested in the visual arts. Required of European Studies majors.

Spring semester. Five College Professor Branson.

125. Early Modern Europe. (Offered as HIST 125 [EUP] and EUST 125.) This introductory survey covers Western, Central and Eastern Europe and the European parts of the Ottoman Empire during the period from approximately 1500 to 1800. It looks at the main political developments of the period, with special attention to court culture, rebellions and revolutions, colonial expansion and contraction, and the clash of states and empires. It examines new developments in long-distance trade, agriculture, industry, finance, warfare, media and the arts, and their impact on social life, politics and the environment. It looks at the emergent slave systems of Europe and her colonies as well as the Ottoman Empire. And it analyzes religious conflict and accommodation with respect to Catholics, Protestants, the Eastern Orthodox, Jews, Muslims and “non-believers.” The course aims to uncover the political, ethnic and religious diversity of Early Modern Europe as well as to plumb the roots of present-day conflicts and controversies about the historical definition of “Europe” and “Europeans.” Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Hunt.

130. World War I. (Offered as HIST 130 [EU] and EUST 130). When one thinks of the First World War today, a few stock images tend to come to mind: trenches, mud, the machine gun. Yet this insular vision does not do justice to the immensity and complexity of the twentieth century’s first global conflict. This course aims to move beyond the conventional understanding of World War I by exploring its varied impact on Europe and the world. It examines how the war shaped the lives, beliefs, and emotions of people both on and off the battlefield, from European and colonial soldiers to politicians, civilians, and families. It also explores how the war has been commemorated, remembered, and studied, questioning whether later depictions of the “Great War” sufficiently capture the perspectives of those who lived through it. Through a close examination of the causes, course, and legacy of World War I, this course reflects upon the experience of modern warfare more generally. Readings and materials will be drawn from secondary and primary sources, including letters, diaries, memoirs, short stories, artwork, photographs, and films. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 35 students. Spring semester. Professor Boucher.

132. Art and Architecture of Europe from 300 to 1500 C.E. (Offered as ARHA 132 and EUST 132.) By learning how specifically to encounter the transcendent symbolism of the catacombs of Rome, the devotional intensity of monastic book illumination, the grandeur and vision of the first basilica of St. Peter, the Byzantine church of Hagia Sophia, and selected monasteries and cathedrals of France, we will trace the artistic realization of the spiritual idea of Jewish and Christian history from the transformation of the Roman Empire in the fourth century C.E. to the apocalyptic year of 1500 C.E. Several prophetic masterpieces by Albrecht Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti completed on the very eve of the modern world will reveal a profound “forgotten awareness” crucial to our collective and private well-being but long obscured by the “renaissance” bias that called this period “medieval.” Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Upton.

133. Europe in the Twentieth Century. (Offered as HIST 132 [EU] and EUST 133.) This course offers a broad survey of European history in the twentieth century. It will cover events such as World War I; the Bolshevik Revolution and the ensuing Soviet experiment; the Spanish Civil War; Nazism, World War II, and the Holocaust; the Cold War in Europe; the collapse of communism; and the Balkan Wars in the 1990s. In addition, the course will focus on the broad themes of twentieth-century European history: the confrontation between liberalism, fascism, and communism; the role of nationalism; the development of the welfare state; the decline of Europe’s role in the world; the movement for European unity; and changing notions of race, class, and gender during the course of the century. Course materials will focus on primary documents, including films, memoirs, novels, political manifestos, and government and other official documents. Three class meetings per week.

Limited to 60 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Epstein.

135. Art and Architecture of Europe from 1400 to 1800. (Offered as ARHA 135 and EUST 135.) This course is an introduction to painting, sculpture, and architecture of the early modern period. The goal of the course is to identify artistic innovations that characterize European art from the Renaissance to the French Revolution, and to situate the works of art historically, by examining the intellectual, political, religious, and social currents that contributed to their creation. In addition to tracing stylistic change within the oeuvre of individual artists and understanding its meaning, we will investigate the varied character of art, its interpretation, and its context in different regions, including Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Courtright.

145. The Modern World. (Offered as ARHA 145 and EUST 145.) This course will explore the self-conscious invention of modernism in painting, sculpture and architecture, from the visual clarion calls of the French Revolution to the performance art and earthworks of “art now.” As we move from Goya, David, Monet and Picasso to Kahlo, Kiefer and beyond, we will be attentive to changing responses toward a historical past or societal present, the stance toward popular and alien cultures, the radical redefinition of all artistic media, changing representations of nature and gender, as well as the larger problem of mythologies and meaning in the modern period. Study of original objects and a range of primary texts (artists’ letters, diaries, manifestos, contemporary criticism) will be enhanced with readings from recent historical and theoretical secondary sources.

Limited to 75 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Staller.

146. Art From the Realm of Dreams. (Offered as ARHA 146, EUST 146, and WAGS 113.) We begin with a long-standing Spanish obsession with dreams, analyzing images and texts by Calderón, Quevedo and Goya. We next will consider a range of dream workers from a range of cultures, centuries, and disciplines—among them Apollinaire, Freud, Breton, Dalí, Carrington, and Kahlo—as well as others working around the globe in our own time.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Staller.

201. Napoleon’s Legends. Napoleon Bonaparte’s legacy in French domestic and international politics and military strategy profoundly influenced nineteenth-century Europe. But so did the legends surrounding him, created before his great defeat and exile, and nurtured after his death in 1821. In painting, caricature, and sculpture, literature, music, and film, the legends—positive and negative—of Napoleon have served many ends. The cultural complexity of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe becomes clearer when one understands the motives behind and results of these representations of Napoleon.

In this course, we will study painting (e.g., David and Goya), narrative fiction (e.g., Balzac, Stendhal, and Tolstoy), poetry (e.g., Wordsworth and Hugo), music (e.g., Beethoven), urban history and architecture (e.g., of Paris), and the silent and sound films of our century (e.g., Gance). We will examine how different generations and a variety of cultures appropriated the real and imagined images of Napoleon for social, political, and artistic ends, and thereby influenced the creation of modern Europe. Three class hours per week.

Fall semester. Professor Rosbottom.

202. World War II in European Literature and Film. This course is designed to introduce students to the impact that World War II (1939-1945) had and continues to have on the society and culture of several European nations. As the last of the generation that lived during the war passes on, their grandchildren persist in raising questions about the reasons and effects of this political cataclysm. During the war, and afterwards with more or less intensity, writers and filmmakers made and have made attempts to analyze and represent the memories, the guilt, and the false histories that the war left behind in every involved nation.

The course will examine the ethics of historical memory, the sincerity of representation, the clever use of history for political purposes. It will also probe and analyze persistent myths of the war as well as discover stories and facts that have been ignored or forgotten. Finally, the course will look at alternative scenarios, that is, “what if” narratives.

Readings might include works by Camus, The Plague, Fallada, Every Man is Alone, Modiano, Dora Bruder, Jünger, On the Marble Cliffs, Semprùn, The Long Journey, De Gaulle’s and Churchill’s memoirs, Némirovsky, La Suite française, and Levi, The Periodic Table. Films might include Rossellini’s Rome: Open City and Germany: Year Zero, Bresson’s Pickpocket, Holland’s Europa, Europa, Clouzot’s Le Corbeau, Reed’s The Third Man, Wyler, Mrs. Miniver, and Peterson, Das Boot.

The class will study how nations too have attempted to make sense of this hecatomb, seeking explanation, expiation, and often excuses. We will also study how the Second World War’s legacy still affects contemporary European culture and politics.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Rosbottom

216. Digital Constructions: Intermediate Architectural Design Studio. (Offered as EUST 216, ARCH 216, and ARHA 216.) In this intermediate architectural design studio we will explore the intellectual and creative process of making and representing architectural space. The focus will be to explore the boundaries of architecture—physically and theoretically, historically and presently—through digital media. Our process will prompt us to dissect 20th-century European architectures and urban spaces and to explore their relationships to contemporary, global issues. The capstone of the course will be a significant design project (TBD) requiring rigorous studio practices, resulting in plans, sections, elevations and digital models. This course will introduce students to various digital diagramming, drawing, and modeling software, while challenging students to question the theoretical and practical implications of these interdisciplinary media processes. This course will combine lectures, reading, discussion, and extensive studio design.

Requisite: ARHA 111. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 10 students. Spring semester. Five College Professor Long.

221. Music and Culture I. (Offered as MUSI 221 and EUST 221.) One of three courses in which music is studied in relation to issues of history, theory, culture, and performance, with the focus of the course changing from year to year. This course is an introduction to European music in the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras. We will begin by singing Gregorian chant and will go on to cover such topics as the music of the Troubadours, the polyphonic style associated with Notre Dame, the development of musical notation, Renaissance sacred polyphony, madrigals, court dances, and the birth of opera. Throughout the course we will seek to bring the music we study alive by singing and/or playing. We will also host several professional performers of “early music” who will help us understand how this music is likely to have sounded at the time of its creation.

Requisite: MUSI 112 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Valentine Professor Móricz.

222. Music and Culture II. (Offered as MUSI 222 and EUST 222.) One of three courses in which the development of Western music is studied in its cultural-historical context. As practical, in-class performance and attendance at public concerts in Amherst and elsewhere will be crucial to our work. Composers to be studied include Beethoven, Rossini, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz, Wagner, Verdi, Musorgsky, and Brahms. Regular listening assignments will broaden the repertoire we encounter and include a wide sampling of Classical and Romantic music. Periodic writing assignments will provide opportunities to connect detailed musical analysis with historical-cultural interpretation. A variety of readings will include music-historical-aesthetic documents as well as selected critical and analytical studies. Class presentations will contribute to a seminar-style class environment. This course may be elected individually or in conjunction with other Music and Culture courses (MUSI 221 and 223). Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: MUSI 111, 112, or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Schneider.

223. Music and Culture III. (Offered as MUSI 223 and EUST 223.) The third of three courses in the Music and Culture series, this course focuses on the experimental and revolutionary musical repertoire of the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Some of the featured repertoire in 2011-12 includes 1) string quartets by Béla Bartók (1881-1945) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975); 2) songs by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), Charles Ives (1874-1954), and Bob Dylan (1941-); 3) ballet, film, and music theatre music by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), Aaron Copland (1900-1990), Bernard Hermann (1911-1975), Leonard Bernstein (1920-1989), John Adams (1947-), Stephen Sondheim (1930-), Michael Giacchino (1967-). Assignments will include close listening, background readings, short essays, midterms, and a culminating presentation. This course may be elected individually or in conjunction with other Music and Culture courses (MUSI 221 and 222). Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: Reading knowledge of music and background in music fundamentals or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Kallick.

228. Seventeenth-Century European Theater. (Offered as SPAN 228 and EUST 228.) Readings of plays by Spanish, English and French playwrights of what has been, in the modern world, the great century of the stage. Works of Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, Shakespeare, Molière, Racine, Webster and Wycherly. Conducted in English. Students will read plays in the original languages whenever possible.

Limited to 40 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Maraniss.

229. The European Enlightenment. (Offered as HIST 229 [EUP] and EUST 229.) This course begins with the political, social, cultural and economic upheavals of late seventeenth-century England, France, and the Netherlands. The second part of the course will look at the Enlightenment as a distinctive philosophical movement, evaluating its relationship to science, to classical antiquity, to organized religion, to new conceptions of justice, and to the changing character of European politics. The final part will look at the Enlightenment as a broad-based cultural movement. Among the topics discussed here will be the role played by Enlightened ideas in the French Revolution, women and non-elites in the Enlightenment, scientific racism, pornography and libertinism, orientalism, and the impact of press censorship. Readings for the course will include works by Descartes, Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Hume, Adam Smith, Choderlos de Laclos, Kant and others. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hunt.

230. The French Revolution. (Offered as HIST 230 [EU] and EUST 230.) Often viewed as one of the defining events in modern history, the French Revolution has been debated and discussed, derided and celebrated by generations of politicians, cultural commentators, and historians. This course enters into this on-going conversation by examining the nature of the revolutionary process as it unfolded in late eighteenth-century France and its empire. Beginning in the “old regime” of kings and commoners, it untangles the social, political, and intellectual roots of the Revolution and investigates the extent to which these factors contributed to the radical overthrow of the French establishment in 1789. It then follows the extension of the Revolution throughout French society and across the seas to the Caribbean, analyzing how popular and colonial upheavals influenced the revolutionary new order of “liberty, equality, and brotherhood” that was taking shape in France. Finally, the course explores the aftermath of the Revolution by tracing the various ways that its history has been interpreted and reinterpreted from the nineteenth century to the present day. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Boucher.

231. Race and Empire: The British Experience from 1760. (Offered as HIST 231 [EU] and EUST 231.) From the mid-eighteenth century through the 1960s, Britain presided over the most powerful empire in the world. At its height, this small island nation ruled one-quarter of the earth’s surface and more than 450 million of its inhabitants. Not only did British imperialism play a decisive role in shaping world politics, economics, and cultures in its day, it also left a number of profound legacies that continue to affect our lives in the present. This course traces the rise, fall, and lasting influence of the British empire, and pays particular attention to questions of race and ethnicity. Through a series of colonial encounters—such as the first contacts made between explorers and Pacific Islanders in the 18th century, the interactions between missionaries and Africans in the 19th century, or the migration of South Asians to Britain in the 20th century—it examines what “race” meant in different historical contexts. The course thus explores the institutionalization of racism in government, law, and society, and analyzes moments in which racism has been combated and overturned. Readings and course materials will be drawn from secondary and primary sources, including newspapers, novels, photographs, artwork, oral histories, and films. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Boucher.

232. Representation and Reality in Spanish Cinema. (Offered as SPAN 236, EUST 232 and FAMS 328.) Once severely constrained by dictator Francisco Franco’s censorship laws and rarely exported beyond the country’s borders, Spanish film has been transformed into an internationally-known cinema in the last decades. This course offers a critical overview of Spanish film from 1950 to the present, examining how Spain’s culture and society are imagined onscreen by directors such as Berlanga, Erice, Bollaín, and Almodóvar. Students will analyze works of Spanish cinema alongside theoretical and critical texts, exploring such topics as gendered roles in contemporary society, immigration, globalization, censorship, and experiences of war and violence. We will also track the sociological, cultural, and political forces inside Spain that have inspired such cinematic representations. This course provides an introduction to visual analysis and critical writing about film and will be conducted in English. Students are expected to attend weekly screenings where films will be shown in Spanish with English subtitles. Spanish majors who wish to count this course toward fulfillment of requirements will be asked to write papers in Spanish.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Brenneis.

234. Nazi Germany. (Offered as HIST 234 [EU] and EUST 234.) This course will explore the history of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. It will examine the emergence of Hitler and Nazism in Germany, Nazi ideology and aesthetics, Nazi racial policies, daily life in the Third Reich, women under Nazism, resistance to the Nazis, Nazi foreign policy and World War II, the Holocaust, and the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. Class participants will also discuss themes that range beyond the Nazi case: How do dictatorships function? What constitutes resistance? How and why do regimes engage in mass murder? Texts will include films, diaries, memoirs, government and other official documents, and classic and recent scholarly accounts of the era. Three class meetings per week.

Limited to 60 students. Fall semester. Professor Epstein.

235. Impostors. An interdisciplinary exploration of the causes behind the social, racial, artistic, and political act—and art—of posing, passing, or pretending to be someone else. Blacks passing for whites, Jews passing for gentiles, and women passing for men, and vice versa, are a central motif. Attention is given to biological and scientific patterns such as memory loss, mental illness, and plastic surgery, and to literary strategies like irony. As a supernatural occurrence, the discussion includes mystical experiences, ghost stories, and séance sessions. The course also covers instances pertaining to institutional religion, from prophesy from the Hebrew and Christian Bibles to the Koran and Mormonism. In technology and communications, analysis concentrates on the invention of the telegraph, the telephone, and the Internet. Entertainment, ventriloquism, puppet shows, voice-overs, children’s cartoon shows, subtitles, and dubbing in movies and TV are topics of analysis. Posers in Greek mythology, the Arabian Nights, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Jorge Luis Borges, Philip Roth, Oliver Sacks, and Nella Larsen are examined. Conducted in English.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Stavans.

236. The Bible as Literature. A close reading of significant portions of the Five Books of Moses, done from the perspective of literature: how are the human and divine characters built, what interior life do they display and what philosophical view do they convey? Attention will be given to the 19th-century theories that approach the Bible as a composite book delivering a nationalistic story. Students will also reflect on the impact of the Bible in Western literature, from Dante’s Divine Comedy to R. Crumb’s cartoon retelling of Genesis. Taught in English.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Stavans.

237. God. This course rotates around the shifting notion of the divine in Western Civilization, focusing on theology, philosophy, literature, and music. Students explore the development of the three major prophetic religions as well as some of the mystical movements they fostered. Discussions rotate around the King James Bible, Augustin’s Confessions, the Koran, Maimonides’ The Guide for the Perplexed, the Zohar, and Spinoza’s work as a cornerstone to the Enlightenment. Secularism in modern culture is contemplated and the contemporary atheist movement of Dawkins and Hitchens is analyzed. Music explorations range from Johann Sebastian Bach to John Cage; in science, from Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking; and in film, from Ingmar Bergman to Woody Allen. Readings include parts of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Freud’s Moses and Monotheism, Kafka’s The Castle, Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, Borges’ “The Secret Miracle” and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Stavans.

238. Soviet Union During the Cold War. (Offered as HIST 236 [EU] and EUST 238.) The Cold War indelibly shaped the second half of the twentieth century. Spies seemed ubiquitous; nuclear annihilation imminent. Films such as Red October and the James Bond series forged a Western image of the Soviet Union. But how were these decades experienced behind the Iron Curtain? This class explores Soviet history between the end of World War II and the collapse of the USSR. We will study the roots of the Cold War; the politics of de-Stalinization in the USSR; the unfolding of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe; and Soviet relations with the West, China, and the developing world. We will also explore the internal dynamics of Soviet society: the rise of the Soviet middle class, consumerism, tourism, the entertainment industry, demographic trends, education, and public health. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Five College Professor Glebov.

246. Bauhaus. (Offered as GERM 366, ARCH 356, and EUST 246). This course will explore in detail the art, architecture, history and theory of the influential German art school, the Bauhaus. The subject of recent blockbuster exhibitions in New York and Berlin, this course will make use of many new publications and critical viewpoints. We will begin with the school’s origins during WWI and the German Revolution, its spectacular contributions and controversial development during the Weimar Republic, and conclude with the demise of the Bauhaus by the National Socialists. We will trace the forced exile of many Bauhaus artists and architects, as well as analyze Bauhaus legacies (at Black Mountain College, the Ulm School of Design, the New Bauhaus Chicago, Yale, and Harvard, and in the Situationists’ New Babylon project). The course will include the work of the architects Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, Mies van der Rohe and Lilli Reich; the art and design (textiles, metal work, prints, photographs, typography, paintings, sculpture, etc.) of Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger, Gunta Stözl, Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Joseph Albers, and Oskar Schlemmer; and the writings of important Weimar writers and theorists, such as Erich Maria Remarque, Walter Benjamin, Georg Lukács, and Siegfried Kracauer. Students will be responsible for in-class presentations, a book review, and a final paper. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of their reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13.

250. The Monastic Challenge. (Offered as ARHA 250 and EUST 250.) This course aims to be a visually and spatially attentive search for the ‘art’ of the monastic and cathedral masterpieces of medieval France. First, by learning how to recognize, define, and respond to the artistic values embodied in several “romanesque” and “gothic” monuments including the Abbeys of Fontenay, Vézelay and Mont St. Michel and the Cathedrals of Laôn, Paris, Chartres, Amiens and Reims, we will try to engage directly (e.g., architecturally and spatially) the human aspiration these structures embody. Secondly, with the help of two literary masterpieces from the period, The Song of Roland and Tristan and Isolde, we will discover that the heart of the “monastic” challenge to our own era is not the common opposition of the medieval and modern worlds, but rather the recognition of the potential diminishment of ‘art’ by an exclusively ratiocinated view of all reality. The tragic love affair of Eloise and Peter Abelard will dramatize a vital existential dilemma too easily forgotten that always (but especially in our time) threatens ‘art,’ human compassion and spirituality. Our goal is to reclaim the poetic potential of the word “cathedral.” Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: One course in Art and the History of Art or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Upton.

253. Dutch and Flemish Painting. (Offered as ARHA 253 and EUST 253). This course means to ask the question: What would it be like to engage with the paintings of Jan van Eyck, Roger van der Weyden, Hieronymous Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, Jan Vermeer and Rembrandt van Rijn as a consciously embodied person and to reclaim in such a direct encounter the rejuvenating powers of erôs, insight and wisdom residing within ourselves and in the art of works of art with which we would behold. In addition to reaffirming the practice of artistic contemplation for its own sake, “Dutch and Flemish Painting” will offer explicit guidance in both the means and the attitude of being that underlie and enable such beholding. Our goal will be to allow a series of exemplary masterpieces including Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Double Portrait, Roger’s Prado Deposition, Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, Vermeer’s Portrait of a Girl with a Pearl Earring, Rembrandt’s Nightwatch and several intimate Self Portraits to open outward and implicate us in their human aspiration to wholeness. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Upton.

271. Modern Architecture, Design, and the Built Environment. (Offered as ARHA 271 and EUST 271.) This course considers architecture and design of the 19th and 20th centuries in light of contemporary disciplinary themes like space, globalization, and sustainability. In doing so, it strives to highlight the social, political, intellectual, and technological forces that have influenced (and continue to motivate) modern design. Key figures to be addressed include: Gottfried Semper, William Morris, Peter Behrens, Adolf Loos, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Daniel Liebeskind, Herzog and de Meuron, and Zaha Hadid. This course may include field trips to the Department of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art and to important regional buildings/sites. Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: EUST 216, EUST 364, a course in art history, studio art, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Saletnik.

273. Modernization, Modernity, and Modernism in Europe, 1848-1918. (Offered as ARHA 273 and EUST 273.) This course considers the dynamics of European Modernism between 1848 and 1918 in relation to processes of modernization, such as technological innovation, the advent of mass culture and spectacle, and socio-political change. In tracing the history of visual culture from the introduction of photography through the rise of cinema, we will address the work of Gustave Courbet, William Henry Fox Talbot, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, Georges Méliès, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Vladimir Tatlin, and others.

Requisite: a course in art history, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Saletnik.

284. Women and Art in Early Modern Europe. (Offered as ARHA 284, EUST 284, and WAGS 206.) This course will examine the ways in which prevailing ideas about women and gender-shaped visual imagery, and how these images influenced ideas concerning women from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. It will adopt a comparative perspective, both by identifying regional differences among European nations and tracing changes over time. In addition to considering patronage of art by women and works by women artists, we will look at the depiction of women heroes such as Judith; the portrayal of women rulers, including Elizabeth I and Marie de’ Medici; and the imagery of rape. Topics emerging from these categories of art include biological theories about women; humanist defenses of women; the relationship between the exercise of political power and sexuality; differing attitudes toward women in Catholic and Protestant art; and feminine ideals of beauty.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Courtright.

302. Dangerous Reading: The Eighteenth-Century Novel in England and France. (Offered as EUST 302, ENGL 302 [Meets the pre-1800 requirement for English majors.], and FREN 362.) Why was reading novels considered dangerous in the eighteenth century, especially for young girls?

This course will examine the development, during this period, of the genre of the novel in England and France, in relation to the social and moral dangers it posed and portrayed. Along with the troublesome question of reading fiction itself, we will explore such issues as social class and bastardy, sexuality and self-awareness, the competing values of genealogy and character, and the important role of women—as novelists, readers, and characters—in negotiating these questions. We will examine why the novel was itself considered a bastard genre, and engage formal questions by studying various kinds of novels: picaresque, epistolary, gothic, as well as the novel of ideas. Our approach will combine close textual analysis with historical readings about these two intertwined, yet rival, cultures, and we will pair novels in order to foreground how these cultures may have taken on similar social or representational problems in different ways. Possible pairings might include Prévost and Defoe, Laclos and Richardson, Voltaire and Fielding, Sade and Jane Austen. French novels will be read in translation. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professors Frank and Rosbottom.

303. Poetic Translation. This is a workshop in translating poetry into English, preferably from a Germanic, Slavic, or Romance language (including Latin, of course), whose aim is to produce good poems in English. Students will present first and subsequent drafts to the entire class for regular analysis, which will be fed by reference to readings in translation theory and contemporary translations from European languages. Advanced knowledge of the source language is required and experience with creative writing is welcome.

Limited to 12 students. Fall semester: Professor Maraniss. Spring semester: Professor Ciepiela.

305. Isaac Bashevis Singer. Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1993), winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, who moved to the United States in 1935, created a complex fictional world of longing and despair. The course studies his oeuvre in chronological order, from his early experiments in mysticism while in his native Poland, such as the novel Satan in Goray, to his numerous stories like “Gimpel the Fool” and “A Wedding in Brownsville,” rendered in English by a cadre of mostly female translators and published in Forverts, The New Yorker, and other periodicals. The focus is on Singer’s immigrant identity and his embrace by American readers as a symbolic bridge between the Old World and the New. Singer’s sexual persona, his philosophical and political investigations on Spinoza, Communism, and God, his reaction to the Holocaust and the creation of the state of Israel, his interest in Golems and Dybbuks, and his thoughts on translation, are part of the discussion. Some of his children stories are also contemplated. Conducted in English.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Stavans.

310. Fascism. (Offered as HIST 310 [C] and EUST 310.) This course addresses the vexing questions of what fascism is, whether it was a global phenomenon, and whether it has been historically banished. The first part of the semester will consider the conceptual issues related to nationalism, modernity, and fascism. Next we will address case studies, noting comparative continuities and regional peculiarities. The countries that will receive the most attention are Italy, France, Argentina, Britain, Brazil, Germany, Spain, and Mexico, with additional attention to Portugal, Japan, China, New Guinea, Chile, Turkey, Palestine and Australia. This will be followed by an examination of gender and fascism, including the role of women as agents of this radical ideology. The course will close with two recent works of scholarship, one on transnational fascism in early twentieth-century Argentina and the other on the applicability of the term “fascism” to contemporary movements in the Middle East. Two meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor López.

312. Spanish Detectives and the género negro. (Offered as SPAN 392 and EUST 312) The Spanish detective narrative has developed as a manifestation of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Spain’s confrontations with social and political chaos. Offering a critical examination of a genre that has both resided on and represented the margins of Spanish society, this course traces the rise of the Spanish género negro during and after the Franco dictatorship, through its arrival in recent years as a mainstream, exportable cultural phenomenon. Readings will consist of contemporary Spanish novels by authors such as Javier Marías and Antonio Muñoz Molina, critical approaches to the genre, and short narrative works from Latin America and the United States for a comparative perspective. Additional films and other media consisting of detective parodies, popular suspense tales, and new trends in historical investigation from Spain will also come under examination. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211, 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Brenneis.

313. Serving the Tsars and the Party. (Offered as MUSI 442 and EUST 313.) Russian music has long been a staple of the repertory of “classical music” in the concert halls of the world, but the relationship of the seductive sounds of this music to the complex culture that produced it is rarely understood outside of Russia. This course examines connections between Russian culture and Russian music through in-depth analysis of individual works of music and reading of related canonic texts. Starting with the emergence of Russian nationalism and the nationally motivated myths of Pushkin and Glinka in the 1830s, we will critically assess the achievements of the Russian national school in music in the nineteenth century; explore the Western face of Russian art through the showcases of Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet in Paris in the first decades of the twentieth century; follow the cataclysmic changes in cultural politics after the October Revolution and their effect on music; and take a close look at musical politics during the years of Stalinist terror. Composers to be discussed include Glinka, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major.

Requisite: MUSI 242 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Visiting Valentine Professor Móricz.

314. Twentieth-Century Analysis. (Offered as MUSI 444 and EUST 314.) In this seminar we explore stylistic characteristics of compositions that demonstrate the most important tendencies in twentieth-century music. Instead of applying one analytical method, we try out various approaches to twentieth-century music, taking into consideration the composers’ different educational and cultural backgrounds. The repertory of focus will consist of compositions written in the first half of the twentieth century in Europe, Russia and America (including works by Debussy, Scriabin, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Bartok, Copland), but will also sample music by late twentieth-century composers. Two class meetings and two ear-training sections per week. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major.

Requisite: MUSI 241 and 242, or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Visiting Valentine Professor Meltzer.

333. Poland: Heart of Europe’s Twentieth Century. (Offered as HIST 333 [EU] and EUST 333) Few places experienced the drama of Europe’s twentieth century as did Poland—a country imagined before World War I, created anew in 1918, and shifted west after World War II. This course will cover the legacy of Poland’s eighteenth-century partitions; World War I; the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1921; the interwar Polish state; World War II (including the Katyn massacre, the Holocaust, and the Warsaw Uprising); the imposition of communism after World War II; the growth of Solidarity; and revolution and the transition to post-communist society after 1989. Themes will include nationalism and state-building; the role of Catholicism in Polish society; Poland’s attempts to assert itself against both Germany and Russia; and ethnic relations between Poles and Germans, Jews, Ukrainians, and Lithuanians. Throughout, we will explore historical controversies surrounding these events and themes. Sources will include films, novels, memoirs, eyewitness accounts, government and other documents, and secondary sources. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Epstein.

335. European Migrations. (Offered as HIST 335 [EU] and EUST 335). By tracing the journeys of people into, across, and out of Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this course explores the role of migration in forging modern national, regional, and global identities. On one level, it analyzes the factors that have impelled groups of people to cross borders. On another, it examines how these migrations have changed the social landscape of Europe, serving both to forge and to challenge the divides of culture, religion, and nationhood. Topics will include: mass emigration and the rise of European imperialism; debates over “belonging” in the era of nation-building; the development of passports, visa restrictions, and quotas; the emergence of the categories of “refugee” and “asylum seeker”; forced migration and human trafficking; colonial and postcolonial immigration into Europe; and contestations over multiculturalism. Readings will relate to a variety of geographical locations, but with special emphasis on migration into and out of Britain, France, Germany, and their empires. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 35 students. Fall semester. Professor Boucher.

339. Defining the Modern: Russia Between Tsars and Communists. (Offered as HIST 439 [EU] and EUST 339) The course will explore a most intense and fascinating period in Russian history: the years 1890-1910. This period witnessed rapid urbanization and industrialization; the rise of professional and mass politics; first instances of modern terrorism and an intensification of nationalist struggles; imperialist ventures in Central Asia, Manchuria, and Korea; several revolutions and wars; and, above all, an unprecedented efflorescence of modernist culture in the late Russian Empire which was readily exported to and consumed in Europe. We will analyze these developments through a range of sources, including resources found at the Mead Art Museum. In addition to acquainting students with major developments in turn-of-the-century Russian Empire, the class will address contemporary scholarly debates that focus on concepts such as “modernity,” “self,” “discipline,” “knowledge,” “civil society,” and “nationalism.” Students will be required to complete an independent research paper. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Five College Professor Glebov.

345. Contemporary Europe. Offered as POSC 345 [CP, IR] and EUST 345.) [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] Decline and renewal of Europe. An analysis of Europe’s role in the world order and the European Union (EU). What are Europe’s strengths and weaknesses as an international power? Does Europe meet its responsibilities or is it content to be a free rider on the ambitions and policies of other countries? What is the European Union and what are its successes and failures? What is the relationship between various European countries and the EU, between national sovereignty and European integration? Is more European integration still the future of Europe or is there now “enough Europe”?

Limited to 25 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Tiersky.

351. Renaissance Art in Italy. (Offered as ARHA 351 and EUST 351.) This course treats painting, sculpture, and architecture of the art historical periods known as the Early and High Renaissance, Mannerism, and the Counter Reformation. It will dwell upon works by artists such as Giotto, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael, Bramante, Michelangelo, and Titian in the urban centers of Florence, Rome, and Venice, art produced for patrons ranging from Florentine merchants and monks to Roman princes and pontiffs. The art itself—portraits, tombs, altarpieces, cycles of imagined scenes from history, palaces, churches, civic monuments—ranges from gravely restrained and intentionally simple to monumental, fantastically complex or blindingly splendid, and the artists themselves range from skilled artisans to ever more sought-after geniuses. Emphasis will be upon the way the form and content of each type of art conveyed ideas concerning creativity, originality, and individuality, but also expressed ideals of devotion and civic virtue; how artists dealt with the revived legacy of antiquity to develop an original visual language; how art imparted the values of its patrons and society, but also sometimes conflicted with them; and how art and attitudes towards it changed over time. Rather than taking the form of a survey, this course, based on lectures but regularly incorporating discussion, will examine in depth selected works and will analyze contemporary attitudes toward art of this period through study of the art and the primary sources concerning it. Upper level.

Requisite: One other art history course or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-2013. Professor Courtright.

352. Images of Sickness and Healing: Research Seminar. (Offered as ARHA 352, EUST 352 and WAGS 352.) In this research seminar, we will explore how sickness and healing were understood, taking examples over centuries. We will analyze attitudes toward bodies, sexuality, and deviance—toward physical and spiritual suffering—as we analyze dreams of cures and transcendence. We will interrogate works by artists such as Grünewald, Goya, Géricault, Munch, Ensor, Van Gogh, Schiele, Cornell and Picasso, as well as images by artists in our own time: Kiki Smith, the AIDS quilt, Nicolas Nixon, Hannah Wilke, and others. Texts by Edgar Allen Poe, Sander Gilman, Roy Porter, Susan Sontag, Thomas Laquer and Caroline Walker Bynum will inspire us as well. Significant research projects with presentations in class. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Staller.

360. Performance. (Offered as GERM 360, ARCH 360, EUST 360 and FAMS 316.) What is performance? What constitutes an event? How can we address a phenomenon that has disappeared the moment we apprehend it? How does memory operate in our critical perception of an event? How does a body make meaning? These are a few of the questions we will explore in this course, as we discuss critical, theoretical, and compositional approaches in a broad range of multidisciplinary performance phenomena emerging from European—primarily German—culture in the twentieth century. We will focus on issues of performativity, composition, conceptualization, dramaturgy, identity construction, representation, space, gender, and dynamism. Readings of performance theory, performance studies, gender studies, and critical/cultural studies, as well as literary, philosophical, and architectural texts will accompany close examination of performance material. Students will develop performative projects in various media (video, performance, text, online) and deliver a number of critical oral and written presentations on various aspects of the course material and their own projects. Performance material will be experienced live when possible, and in text, video, audio, digital media and online form, drawn from selected works of Dada and Surrealism, Bauhaus, German Expressionism, the Theater of the Absurd, Tanztheater, and Contemporary Theater, Performance, Dance, Opera, New Media, and Performance Art. A number of films, including Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Oskar Schlemmer’s Das Triadische Ballett, Fernand Léger’s Ballet Mécanique, and Kurt Jooss’ Der Grüne Tisch, will be also screened. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Gilpin.

363. Traumatic Events. (Offered as GERM 363, EUST 363, and FAMS 370.) How is memory constructed and represented? How is it possible to bear witness, and what exactly is involved? Who is authorized to testify, to whom, when? Whose story is it? Is it possible to tell “the story” of a traumatic event? What are the disorders of testimony, and how and where do they emerge? This course will observe the workings of trauma (the enactment and working-through of collective and individual symptoms of trauma), memory, and witnessing in various modes of everyday life. We will examine notions of catastrophe, disaster, accident, and violence, and explore the possibilities and impossibilities of bearing witness in many forms of cultural production: in fiction, poetry, architecture, critical theory, oral and written testimonies, visual art, monuments, memorials, philosophy, science, cartoons, film, video, theater, television reportage, newspaper documentation, performance, online, and in our public and domestic spaces. We will study various representations of trauma, paying particular attention to events in Germany and Europe from the twentieth century, as well as to 9/11 and other recent international events. Material to be examined will be drawn from the work of Pina Bausch, Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Cathy Caruth, Paul Celan, Marguerite Duras, Peter Eisenman, Shoshana Felman, Florian Freund, Jochen Gerz, Geoffrey Hartman, Rebecca Horn, Marion Kant, Anselm Kiefer, Ruth Klüger, Dominick LaCapra, Claude Lanzmann, Dori Laub, Daniel Libeskind, W.G. Sebald, Art Spiegelman, Paul Virilio, Peter Weiss, Wim Wenders, Elie Wiesel, Christa Wolf, and others. Conducted in English with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Gilpin.

364. Architectures of Disappearance. (Offered as GERM 364, ARCH 364, and EUST 364.) This course will address a number of developments and transformations in contemporary urban architecture and performance from an international perspective. We will explore issues including, but not limited to, trauma, memory, absence, perception, corporeality, representation, and the senses in our examination of recent work in Germany and elsewhere, and read a number of texts from the fields of philosophy, critical theory, performance studies, and visual and architectural studies, in an attempt to understand how architecture is beginning to develop compositional systems in which to envision dynamic and responsive spaces in specific cultural contexts. We will focus our research on the work of a number of German and international architects, performance, and new media artists, including Jochen Gerz, Renata Stih and Frieder Schnock, Horst Hoheisel, Micha Ullman, Shimon Attie, Daniel Libeskind, Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas, Greg Lynn, Mark Goulthorpe, R & Sie(n), Axel Kilian, Paul Privitera, Hani Rashid and Lise-Ann Couture, Herzog and de Meuron, Archigram, William Forsythe, Jan Fabre, Rachel Whiteread, Rebecca Horn, Sasha Waltz, Richard Siegal, Michael Schumacher, Robert Wilson, the Blix Brothers of Berlin, Pina Bausch, Granular Synthesis, Sponge, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Toni Dove, and many others. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Gilpin.

365. Making Memorials. (Offered as GERM 365 ARCH 365, and EUST 365.) This is a course about what happens to difficult memories: memories that are intensely personal, but made public, memories that belong to communities, but which become ideologically possessed by history, politics, or the media. How are memories processed into memorials? What constitutes a memorial? What gets included or excluded? How is memory performed in cultural objects, spaces, and institutions? What is the relationship between the politics of representation and memory? Who owns memory? Who is authorized to convey it? How does memory function? This course will explore the spaces in which memories are “preserved” and experienced. Our attention will focus on the transformation of private and public memories in works of architecture, performance, literature, and the visual arts primarily in Germany, Europe, and the United States. Preference given to German majors and European Studies majors, as well as to students interested in architecture/design, performance, the visual arts, interactive installation and/or the environment. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Gilpin.

368. SPACE. (Offered as GERM 368, EUST 368, and FAMS 373.) This research seminar will explore conceptions of space as they have informed and influenced thought and creativity in the fields of cultural studies, literature, architecture, urban studies, performance, and the visual, electronic, and time-based arts. Students will select and pursue a major semester-long research project early in the semester in consultation with the professor, and present their research in its various stages of development throughout the semester, in a variety of media formats (writing, performance, video, electronic art/interactive media, installation, online and networked events, architectural/design drawings/renderings), along with oral presentations of readings and other materials. Readings and visual materials will be drawn from the fields of literature and philosophy; from architectural, art, and film theory and history; from performance studies and performance theory; and from theories of technology and the natural and built environment. Emphasis on developing research, writing, and presentation skills is a core of this seminar.

For spring 2013, we will focus on the river as the generative and dynamic concept that will guide our explorations of space and of different kinds of spaces, in conjunction with the European Union/Five College project on Riverscaping/Alles am Fluss: Rethinking art, environment and community/Kunst—Umwelt—Nachbarschaft neu denken. Students will pursue research projects concerning the visual arts, history, literature, environment, ecology, visibility/interactivity, conditions and movements of the river (specific rivers including the Elbe River in Hamburg, Germany and the Connecticut River here in the Pioneer Valley), and explore the visions, challenges, and possibilities of creating spaces in which art can happen and in which creative processes can transform communities. Students will have the opportunity to present their final research projects at the European Union/Five Colleges Riverscaping conference on Europe Day, May 9, 2013. One three-hour meeting per week.

Preference given to German majors and European Studies majors, as well as to students interested in architecture/design, performance, film/video, interactive installation, and/or the environment. Conducted in English. German majors will select a research project focused on a German Studies context, and will do a substantial portion of the readings in German.

Limited to 15 students. Enrollment requires attendance at the first class meeting. Spring semester. Professor Gilpin.

370. Mozart and the Classical Style. (Offered as MUSI 420 and EUST 420.) As one of the most popular composers of all time, Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791) has come to be taken as the paradigm for the creative genius who produces beautiful art with seemingly no effort—a child of nature, to use a popular eighteenth-century trope, unencumbered by the struggles of adulthood. In this seminar we will examine the cultural-historical context that produced Mozart, his music, and, even before his untimely death, the “Mozart myth.” The main texts for the class will be scores of Mozart’s mature compositions—symphonies, chamber music, concertos, and most important, operas—as well as selected works by his contemporaries and predecessors. We will interpret these works with the help of primary documents relating to Mozart’s life, and with the help of analytic methods developed by scholars such as Wye J. Allanbrook, William Caplan, Daniel Heartz, Robert Levin, and Leonard Ratner. Our studies will be integrated into attending performances of Mozart’s work in New York or Boston. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major.

Requisite: MUSI 241 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Schneider.

371. Music and Revolution: The Symphonies of Mahler and Shostakovich. (Offered as MUSI 422 and EUST 422.) Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) are arguably the two greatest symphonic composers after Beethoven. In this course we will compare and contrast their highly charged music and explore the eras in which they worked—for Mahler, imperial Vienna on the eve of World War I, and for Shostakovich, revolutionary Russia under the tyrannical reign of Joseph Stalin. The class will attend Mahler and Shostakovich performances in New York and Boston, particularly as the musical world marks Mahler’s 150th birthday in 2010 and the 100th anniversary of his death in 2011. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major.

Requisite: MUSI 241 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Kallick.

372. Culture and Politics in 20th-Century Europe. (Offered as POSC 372 [CP, IR] and EUST 372.) [SC—starting with the Class of 2015] This seminar discusses political ideas, ideologies and political culture in 20th-century Europe. Some themes are Nationalism; Marxism, Socialism and Communism; Fascism; anti-Semitism; Existentialism; the “Century of Total War”; the year 1968; Pope John Paul II; Soccer Hooliganism; “The Idea of Europe,” and the question of whether there is a “European identity.” Throughout the course, ideas are connected to historical context. The syllabus is a mix of books and films.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Tiersky.

373. Topics in European History: The Politics of Memory in Twentieth-Century Europe. (Offered as HIST 438 [EU] and EUST 438.) This course will explore the role of historical memory in the politics of twentieth-century Europe. It will examine how evolving memories of major historical events have been articulated and exploited in the political cultures of England, France, Germany, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union/Russia. Topics will include the politics of memory surrounding World Wars I and II, Vichy France, the Holocaust, Soviet Stalinism, and Eastern European communism. Seminar participants will also discuss general issues concerning collective memory: why societies remember and forget historical events, how collective memories resurface, the relationship between memory and authenticity, and the pitfalls of politicizing historical memory. Finally, seminar participants will analyze different sites of memory including film, ritual, monuments, legal proceedings, and state-sponsored cults. One class meeting per week.

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Epstein.

374. Lyrics Before the Lyric. [before 1800] (Offered as ENGL 441 and EUST 441.) No word for lyric poetry is in use in Europe until the sixteenth century. This course examines the poems written before and at the dawn of the definition of lyric poetry, in order to form our own working definition of a short, musical poem. We will read poetry by Sappho, Horace, Pindar, anonymous medieval writers, Richard Rolle, William Dunbar, and others, along with classical and medieval tracts on poetry and poetics. The course will conclude with readings from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century lyric poets (Wyatt, Surrey, Shakespeare, Donne) alongside the treatises that defined lyric for the first time (such as Sidney’s Defense of Poesy). Does the “lyric” poem change once it is defined? How do later works speak to the earlier tradition?

Requisite: At least one previous English course, preferably in poetry. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Nelson.

385. Witches, Vampires and Other Monsters. (Offered as ARHA 385, EUST 385, and WAGS 310.) This course will explore the construction of the monstrous, over cultures, centuries and disciplines. With the greatest possible historical and cultural specificity, we will investigate the varied forms of monstrous creatures, their putative powers, and the explanations given for their existence—as we attempt to articulate the kindred qualities they share. Among the artists to be considered are Valdés Leal, Velázquez, Goya, Munch, Ensor, Redon, Nolde, Picasso, Dalí, Kiki Smith, and Cindy Sherman. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Staller.

390. Special Topics. Fall and spring semesters.

490. Special Topics. Fall and spring semesters.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. A full course.

Fall semester.

498D. Senior Departmental Honors. A double course.

Fall semester.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. A full course.

Spring semester.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. A double course.

Spring semester.

Related Courses

Art and Architecture of Europe from 300 to 1500 C.E. See ARHA 132.

The Monastic Challenge. See ARHA 250.

Dutch and Flemish Painting. See ARHA 253.

Modernization, Modernity, and Modernism in Europe, 1848-1918. See ARHA 273.

Greek Mythology and Religion. See CLAS 121.

Greek Civilization. See CLAS 123.

Roman Civilization. See CLAS 124.

Life in Ancient Rome. See CLAS 128.

History of Rome: Origins and Republic. See CLAS 133.

Archaeology of Greece. See CLAS 134.

The Moral Essay. See ENGL 301.

Proust. See ENGL 309.

The Literature of Madness. See ENGL 311.

Sexuality and History in the Contemporary Novel. See ENGL 314.

Renaissance Drama: The Places of Performance. See ENGL 336.

Shakespeare. See ENGL 338.

Major English Writers I. See ENGL 340.

Victorian Novel I. See ENGL 346.

Modern British Literature, 1900-1950. See ENGL 348.

James Joyce. See ENGL 349.

The Non-Fiction Film. See ENGL 380.

Topics in Film Study: The Romance. See ENGL 385.

Topics in Film Study: Knowing Television. See ENGL 387.

Americans in Paris. See ENGL 417.

Cultural History of France: From the Middle Ages to the Revolution. See FREN 311.

Literary Masks of the Late French Middle Ages. See FREN 320.

Amor and Metaphor in the Early French Middle Ages. See FREN 321.

Studies in Medieval Romance Literature and Culture. See FREN 324.

Humanism and the Renaissance. See FREN 327.

The Doing and Undoing of Genres in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. See FREN 330.

Lovers and Libertines. See FREN 335.

The Republic of Letters. See FREN 338.

Worldliness and Otherworldliness. See FREN 339.

Women of Ill Repute: Prostitutes in Nineteenth-Century French Literature. See FREN 342.

Agents Provocateurs: Scandalous French Artists, from Baudelaire to Céline. See FREN 343.

Enfants Terribles: Childhood in Nineteenth-Century French Literature and Art. See FREN 346.

Literature in Crisis: The Contemporary French Novel. See FREN 350.

France’s Identity Wars. See FREN 351.

Literature in French Outside Europe: Introduction to Francophone Studies. See FREN 353.

Masterpieces of French Literature in Translation. See FREN 360.

Toward the New Wave. See FREN 365.

German Cultural History to 1800. See GERM 315.

German Cultural History from 1800 to the Present. See GERM 316.

Romantic Couples. See GERM 325.

The Age of Goethe. See GERM 327.

Berlin, Metropolis. See GERM 331.

Popular Cinema. See GERM 344.

Weimar Cinema: The “Golden Age” of German Film. See GERM 347.

Rilke. See GERM 350.

Joyful Apocalypse: Vienna Around 1900. See GERM 351.

Kafka, Brecht, and Thomas Mann. See GERM 352.

Greek Prose: Plato’s Apology. See GREE 212.

An Introduction to Greek Tragedy. See GREE 215.

Reading the New Testament. See GREE 217.

An Introduction to Greek Epic. See GREE 318.

Advanced Readings in Greek Literature I. See GREE 441.

Advanced Readings in Greek Literature II. See GREE 442.

World War II in Global Perspective. See HIST 101.

Spain and the Pacific World, 1571-1898. See HIST 208.

Disease and Doctors: An Introduction to the History of Western Medicine. See HIST 212.

Turning Points in the History of Science. See HIST 213.

Poland: Heart of Europe’s Twentieth Century. See HIST 333.

Latin Literature: Catullus and the Lyric Spirit. See LATI 215.

Latin Literature in the Augustan Age. See LATI 316.

Advanced Readings in Latin Literature I. See LATI 441.

Law Between Plato and the Poets. See LJST 136.

Psychoanalysis and Law. See LJST 212.

Interpretation in Law and Literature. See LJST 341.

Law And War. See LJST 348.

Representing and Judging the Holocaust. See LJST 356.

Global Sound. See MUSI 124.

Creating Musical Drama. See MUSI 188.

Serving the Tsars and the Party. See MUSI 442.

Twentieth-Century Analysis. See MUSI 444.

Introduction to Philosophy. See PHIL 111.

Ancient Philosophy. See PHIL 217.

Early Modern Philosophy. See PHIL 218.

Aesthetics. See PHIL 227.

Normative Ethics. See PHIL 310.

Origins of Analytic Philosophy: Frege, Russell, and the Early Wittgenstein. See PHIL 360.

Kant. See PHIL 364.

Hume’s Masterpiece. See PHIL 367.

The Later Wittgenstein. See PHIL 463.

World Politics. See POSC 213.

Culture and Politics in 20th-Century Europe. See POSC 372.

The Political Theory of Globalization. See POSC 413.

Taking Marx Seriously. See POSC 415.

Personality and Politics:Gorbachev, the End of the Cold War, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. See POSC 475.

Seminar on War and Peace. See POSC 479.

Contemporary Political Theory. See POSC 480.

Memory. See PSYC 234.

Personality and Political Leadership. See PSYC 338.

Autobiographical Memory. See PSYC 368.

Introduction to Religion. See RELI 111.

The End of the World: Utopias and Dystopias. See RELI 122.

Suspicion and Religion. See RELI 213.

Prophecy, Wisdom, and Apocalyptic. See RELI 265.

History of Christianity—The Early Years. See RELI 275.

Christianity, Philosophy, and History in the Nineteenth Century. See RELI 278.

Liberation and Twentieth-Century Christian Thought. See RELI 279.

Folklore and the Bible. See RELI 362.

The Secret Jesus. See RELI 372.

The Rise of the Russian Novel. See RUSS 211.

Survey of Russian Literature From Dostoevsky to Nabokov. See RUSS 212.

Russian Literature in the Twentieth Century. See RUSS 213.

Strange Russian Writers: Gogol, Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, Nabokov, et al. See RUSS 217.

Seminar on One Writer: Vladimir Nabokov. See RUSS 225.

Fyodor Dostoevsky. See RUSS 227.

Tolstoy. See RUSS 228.

Russian Lives. See RUSS 232.

The Soviet Experience. See RUSS 234.

Russian and Soviet Film. See RUSS 241.

Advanced Studies in Russian Literature and Culture I. See RUSS 401.

Foundations of Sociological Theory. See SOCI 315.

Women Writers of Spain. See SPAN 232.

Representation and Reality in Spanish Cinema. See SPAN 236.

Golden Age Literature. See SPAN 316.

Generations of 1898 and 1927. See SPAN 320.

The Spanish Civil War: Art, Politics, and Violence. See SPAN 344.

Madrid. See SPAN 355.

Cervantes. See SPAN 365.

Postwar Spain and the Novel. See SPAN 389.

Spanish Detectives and the género negro. See SPAN 392.

Materials of Theater. See THDA 112.

Film and Media Studies

*On leave 2012-13.

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Affiliated Faculty: Professors Cameron, Couvares, Hastie (Chair), Hewitt, Keller, Maraniss, Parker*, Rogowski, Sarat, Umphrey‡, and Woodson. Associate Professors Gilpin, Kimball, Parham, Van Compernolle, and Zamperini. Assistant Professors Basler, Brenneis, Engelhardt, Shandilya, and Wolfson. Visiting Associate Professor Drabinski, Visiting Assistant Professors Johnston and Rivera-Moret, Croxton Lecturer Howard; Visiting Lecturers Johnson and Miller.

Contributing Faculty: Professors Caplan, Gewertz, Keller, and Rosbottom‡; Professor Emeritus Reck.

The Film and Media Studies Program situates the study and practice of the moving image in its aesthetic, technical, and socio-cultural dimensions within a wider history of media. The program integrates formal, historical and theoretical analysis with various forms of creative and production experience in its required core courses. In courses in Critical Studies and Production, we explore the practice of constructing moving images through considerations of narrative, non-narrative and experimental structures, camera motion, editing techniques, music and sound design, mise-en-scène, and digital technologies. The dual emphasis on study and practice allows the historical, theoretical, compositional, and aesthetic issues to illuminate each other and thus to allow students to engage with both the depth and breadth of media production and analysis. The program interfaces with a variety of disciplines across the Liberal Arts spectrum, such as philosophy, social and literary theory, area studies, language study, visual culture, theater and dance, anthropology, computer science, and gender studies.

Major Program. The Film and Media Studies (FAMS) major requires four core courses, a minimum of five additional courses (electives) from a variety of related disciplines that reflect each student’s individual academic and creative interests, and a two-semester thesis project. The FAMS major is framed by three foundations courses: Foundations in Critical Media Studies (e.g. “Coming to Terms: Cinema”), Foundations in Production (an introductory production workshop), and a Foundations in Integrated Media Practices. Foundations courses in Critical Media Studies and Production will serve as the prerequisites for the Foundations in Integrated Media Practices, which will be a team-taught course, and which FAMS majors should ideally complete by the end of their junior year. Majors will also be required to take at least one FAMS seminar in their junior or senior year. In addition, students will take at least five other courses as electives, including at least one course at one of the other Five Colleges. The FAMS program grants wide scope to students for creating an individualized program of study. When declaring the major, each student is required to make a contract for his or her program with the Faculty Committee on Film and Media Studies (which will function as a review board), as represented and coordinated by the Chair. Each student’s progress towards the completion of the contract will then be assessed, over the following semesters, by two faculty advisors from different departments appointed by the Committee.

110. Film and Writing. (Offered as ENGL 180 and FAMS 110.) A first course in reading films and writing about them. A varied selection of films for study and criticism, partly to illustrate the main elements of film language and partly to pose challenging texts for reading and writing. Frequent short papers. Two 80-minute class meetings and two screenings per week.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester: Visiting Professor Johnston. Spring semester: TBA.

210. Coming to Terms: Cinema. (Offered as ENGL 280 and FAMS 210.) An introduction to cinema studies through consideration of a few critical and descriptive terms, together with a selection of various films (classic and contemporary, foreign and American) for illustration and discussion. The terms for discussion will include, among others: the cinematic image, mise en scène, montage and editing, narration in cinema, genre, authorship. Frequent critical writing required.

Requisite: ENGL 180/FAMS 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 35 students. Fall semester: Professor Cameron. Spring semester: Visiting Professor Johnston.

215. Topics in Film Study: Knowing Television. (Offered as ENGL 387 and FAMS 215.) The topic changes each time the course is taught. In fall 2010 the topic was “Knowing Television.” For better or worse, U.S. broadcast television is a cultural form that is not commonly associated with knowledge. This course will take what might seem a radical counter-position to such assumptions—looking at the ways television teaches us what it is and even trains us in potential critical practices for investigating it. By considering its formal structure, its textual definitions, and the means through which we see it, we will map out how it is that we come to know television.

Prior coursework in Film and Media Studies is recommended, but not required. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hastie.

220. Foundations and Integrations: Film and Media Studies. (Offered as ENGL 281, FAMS 220, and ARHA 272.) “Foundations and Integrations” will be an annual team-taught course between a Critical Studies scholar and moving-image artist. A requirement of the Film and Media Studies major, it will build on critical analysis of moving images and introductory production work to develop an integrated critical and creative practice. Focused in particular around themes and concepts, students will develop ideas in both written and visual form. The theme for spring 2012 will be “Film and Inner Life.”

Requisites: A foundations course in Critical Studies of Film and Media (such as “Coming to Terms: Cinema”) and an introductory film/video production workshop. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Hastie.

222. Production Workshop in the Moving Image. (Offered as ENGL 289 and FAMS 222.) The topic changes each time the course is taught. In spring 2011 the topic was “Narrative Cinema in a Global Context.” The course introduces students to a diverse range of approaches to narrative filmmaking. Students gain skills in videomaking and criticism through project assignments, readings and analysis of critical discourses that ground issues of production. The course includes workshops in cinematography, sound recording, lighting and editing. Screenings will include works by Jia Zhangke, Claire Denis, Charles Burnett, and Lucrecia Martel. Students complete three video projects.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Please complete the questionnaire at https://cms.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/english/events/questionnaire. Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Hillman.

225. Image, Movement, Sound. (Offered as ARHA 225 and FAMS 225.) This course is a hands-on, in-depth exploration of the formal elements of moving images and sound. We will begin with a study of the camera, and, through in-class projects and individual assignments, we will explore framing and composition; light, color and texture; camera movement and rhythm; editing and relationships between image and sound. We will approach set-up and documentary situations from a variety of formal and conceptual perspectives. We will consider all equipment not simply as technology, but as creative tools to be explored and manipulated. Our goal is to make the camera an extension of our eyes and minds, to learn to see and think about the world around us through moving images and sound. An individual final video project will give students the opportunity to bring the concepts explored throughout the term into a work with an expressive, cohesive cinematic language. In Scenario du Film Passion, Jean-Luc Godard expresses his desire to turn a camera movement into a prayer. It is this profound engagement with the world and intense, thoughtful consideration of the medium that we seek to achieve.

Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Rivera-Moret.

228. Introduction to Super 8 Film and Digital Video. (Offered as ENGL 287 and FAMS 228.) This course will introduce students to basic Super 8 film and digital video techniques. The course will include workshops in shooting for film and video, Super 8 film editing, Final Cut Pro video editing, lighting, stop motion animation, sound recording and mixing. Students will learn to think about and look critically at the moving and still image. Students will complete three moving image projects, including one Super 8 film, one video project, and one mixed media project. Weekly screenings will introduce students to a wide range of approaches to editing, writing, and directing in experimental, documentary, narrative, and hybrid cinematic forms. Screenings include works by Martha Rosler, Bill Viola, the Yes Men, Jennifer Reeves, Mona Hatoum, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Dziga Vertov, D.A. Pennebaker, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Cécile Fontaine, and Johanna Vaude.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 13 students. Please complete the questionnaire at https://cms.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/english/events/questionnaire. Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Hillman.

240. Screenwriting. (Offered as ENGL 388 and FAMS 240.) A first workshop in narrative screenwriting. Through frequent exercises, readings, and screenings we will explore the fundamentals of scene and story shape as they’re practiced in mainstream commercial filmmaking, while taking a broader look at what a screenplay might be outside of that world. In the process, we’ll juxtapose two modes of writing that are not mutually exclusive but are often at odds with each other, both historically (within the industry) and aesthetically: the well-established craft of three-act screenwriting, on the one hand, and the more elastic possibilities of the audio-visual medium as exemplified by the art film, on the other. Two class meetings per week.

Requisites: Two classes from any of the following categories in any combination: critical studies of film and media; film/video production; creative writing workshops (fiction or non-fiction); playwriting; photography or drawing courses. Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Preference will be given to English, Film and Media Studies, and Art majors.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Lecturer Johnson.

310. Global Sound. (Offered as MUSI 124 and FAMS 310.) This course explores the global scale of much music-making and musical consumption today. Migration, diaspora, war, tourism, postsocialist and postcolonial change, commerce, and digital technology have all profoundly reshaped the way musics are created, circulated, and consumed. These forces have also illuminated important ethical, legal, and aesthetic issues concerning intellectual property rights and the nature of musical authorship, the appropriation of “traditional” musics by elites in the global North, and local musical responses to transnational music industries, for instance. Through a series of case studies that will include performances and workshops by visiting musicians, Global Sound will examine how musics animate processes of globalization and how globalization affects musics by establishing new social, cultural, and economic formations. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Professor Engelhardt.

312. Pioneer Valley Soundscapes. (Offered as MUSI 238 and FAMS 312.) This course is about exploring, participating in, and documenting the musical communities and acoustic terrain of the Pioneer Valley. The first part of the course will focus on local histories and music scenes, ethnographic methods and technologies, and different techniques of representation. The second part of the course will involve intensive, sustained engagement with musicians and sounds in the Pioneer Valley. Course participants will give weekly updates about their fieldwork projects and are expected to become well-versed in the musics they are studying. There will be a significant amount of work and travel outside of class meetings. The course will culminate in contributions to a web-based documentary archive of Pioneer Valley soundscapes. We will also benefit from visits and interaction with local musicians. Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: MUSI 111, 112, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Robinson.

313. The Soviet Experience. (Offered as RUSS 234 and FAMS 313.) With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the great utopian experiment of the 20th century—a radical attempt to reorganize society in accordance with rational principles—came to an end. This course explores the dramatic history of that experiment from the perspective of those whose lives were deeply affected by the social upheavals it brought about. We begin by examining the early visions of the new social order and attempts to restructure the living practices of the Soviet citizens by reshaping the concepts of time, space, family, and, ultimately, redefining the meaning of being human. We then look at how “the new human being” of the 1920s is transformed into the “new Soviet person” of the Stalinist society, focusing on the central cultural and ideological myths of Stalinism and their place in everyday life, especially as they relate to the experience of state terror and war. Finally, we investigate the notion of “life after Stalin,” and consider the role of already familiar utopian motifs in the development of post-Stalinist and post-Soviet ways of imagining self, culture, and society. The course uses a variety of materials—from primary documents, public or official (architectural and theatrical designs, political propaganda, transcripts of trials, government meetings, and interrogations) and intimate (diaries and letters), to works of art (novels, films, stage productions, paintings), documentary accounts (on film and in print), and contemporary scholarship (from the fields of literary and cultural studies, history and anthropology). Course assignments emphasize careful writing and experiential learning; students will have an opportunity to work on projects involving multimedia production and community-based research. No previous knowledge of Soviet or Russian history or culture is required; course conducted in English, and all readings are in translation. Students who read Russian will be given special assignments.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Wolfson.

314. Representing Slavery. [before 1800] (Offered as ENGL 466, BLST 435 [US], and FAMS 314.) Mining a variety of archives in search of captivity narratives created by American slaves and their progeny, this class will use its materials to consider larger questions regarding the overlapping roles of voice, testimony, trauma, and narrative in cultural and historical understanding. Work for this semester will culminate in the production of a multimedia research project, but no previous familiarity with media production is required.

Junior/Senior seminar. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parham.

315. The Immigrant City. (Offered as HIST 457 [US] and FAMS 315.)A research seminar, this course will enroll eight students from Amherst College and eight from Holyoke Community College, and will be taught on alternate weeks at both colleges. The city of Holyoke will be the focus of individual and collective research. Students will form research teams (one Amherst, one HCC student in each) and choose a topic for research. Each student will write a research paper based on primary sources, but the results of that research will also go into a collective data base and an ARIS historical simulation project. The latter will allow students (and, eventually, anyone who wishes to access the program) to create visual and narrative simulations about Holyoke history. For example, a research team might generate a “typical” Irish immigrant family story, recounting migration, settlement, work experience, marriage and family growth, political and union affiliations, etc. Another might investigate the anti-immigrant or anti-Catholic movement, perhaps by generating a “typical” Yankee family story; still another might look into the building of the canals and the growth of factory economy, or the architectural evolution of the city, any of which might make use of the GPS and other visual capacities of the ARIS system. Technical support will be available to assist in these efforts. Much of the first half of the course will be devoted to intensive readings and discussions about immigration, urban development, industrialization, etc. However, from the start, students will be expected to become familiar with the ARIS program and to begin to generate ideas for research. Most of the latter weeks of the course will be devoted to research, writing, and oral reports to the class. One three-hour class meeting per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 8 Amherst juniors and seniors. Spring semester. Professors Couvares and Clinton (Holyoke Community College).

316. Performance. (Offered as GERM 360, ARCH 360, EUST 360 and FAMS 316.) What is performance? What constitutes an event? How can we address a phenomenon that has disappeared the moment we apprehend it? How does memory operate in our critical perception of an event? How does a body make meaning? These are a few of the questions we will explore in this course, as we discuss critical, theoretical, and compositional approaches in a broad range of multidisciplinary performance phenomena emerging from European—primarily German—culture in the twentieth century. We will focus on issues of performativity, composition, conceptualization, dramaturgy, identity construction, representation, space, gender, and dynamism. Readings of performance theory, performance studies, gender studies, and critical/cultural studies, as well as literary, philosophical, and architectural texts will accompany close examination of performance material. Students will develop performative projects in various media (video, performance, text, online) and deliver a number of critical oral and written presentations on various aspects of the course material and their own projects. Performance material will be experienced live when possible, and in text, video, audio, digital media and online form, drawn from selected works of Dada and Surrealism, Bauhaus, German Expressionism, the Theater of the Absurd, Tanztheater, and Contemporary Theater, Performance, Dance, Opera, New Media, and Performance Art. A number of films, including Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Oskar Schlemmer’s Das Triadische Ballett, Fernand Léger’s Ballet Mécanique, and Kurt Jooss’ Der Grüne Tisch, will be also screened. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Gilpin.

320. Japan on Screen. (Offered as ASLC 234 [J] and FAMS 320.) Is the concept of national cinema useful in the age of globalization? Given the international nature of cinema at its inception, was it ever a valid concept In this course, we will consider how the nation is represented on screen as we survey the history of film culture in Japan, from the very first film footage shot in the country in 1897, through the golden age of studio cinema in the 1950s, to important independent filmmakers working today. While testing different theories of national, local, and world cinema, we will investigate the Japanese film as a narrative art, as a formal construct, and as a participant in larger aesthetic and social contexts. This course includes the major genres of Japanese film and influential schools and movements. Students will also learn and get extensive practice using the vocabulary of the discipline of film studies. This course assumes no prior knowledge of Japan or Japanese, and all films have English subtitles.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Van Compernolle.

321. Russian and Soviet Film. (Offered as RUSS 241 and FAMS 321.) Lenin declared “For us, cinema is the most important art,” and the young Bolshevik regime threw its support behind a brilliant group of film pioneers (Eisenstein, Vertov, Kuleshov, Pudovkin, Dovzhenko) who worked out the fundamentals of film language. Under Stalin, historical epics and musical comedies, not unlike those produced in 1930s Hollywood, became the favored genres. The innovative Soviet directors of the 1960s and 1970s (Tarkovsky, Parajanov, Abuladze, Muratova) moved away from politics and even narrative toward “film poetry.” Post-Soviet Russian cinema has struggled to define a new identity, and may finally be succeeding. This course will introduce the student to the great Russian and Soviet film tradition. Conducted in English. Two class meetings and one or two required screenings a week.

Fall semester. Professor Wolfson.

322. South Asian Feminist Cinema. (Offered as WAGS 469, ASLC 452 [SA], and FAMS 322.) How do we define the word “feminism”? Can the term be used to define cinematic texts outside the Euro-American world? In this course we will study a range of issues that have been integral to feminist theory—the body, domesticity, same sex desire, gendered constructions of the nation, feminist utopias and dystopias—through a range of South Asian cinematic texts. Through our viewings and readings we will consider whether the term “feminist” can be applied to these texts, and we will experiment with new theoretical lenses for exploring these films. Films will range from Satyajit Ray’s classic masterpiece Charulata to Gurinder Chadha’s trendy diasporic film, Bend It Like Beckham. Attendance for screenings on Monday is compulsory.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Shandilya.

323. Weimar Cinema: The “Golden Age” of German Film. (Offered as GERM 347 and FAMS 323.) This course examines the German contribution to the emergence of film as both a distinctly modern art form and as a product of mass culture. The international success of Robert Wiene’s Expressionist phantasmagoria, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), heralded the beginning of a period of unparalleled artistic exploration, prior to the advent of Hitler, during which the ground was laid for many of the filmic genres familiar today: horror film (F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu), detective thriller (Fritz Lang’s M), satirical comedy (Ernst Lubitsch’s The Oyster Princess), psychological drama (G.W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box), science fiction (Lang’s Metropolis), social melodrama (Pabst’s The Joyless Street), historical costume film (Lubitsch’s Passion), political propaganda (Slatan Dudow’s Kuhle Wampe), anti-war epic (Pabst’s Westfront 1918), a documentary montage (Walther Ruttmann’s Berlin—Symphony of a Big City), and the distinctly German genre of the “mountain film” (Leni Riefenstahl’s The Blue Light). Readings, including Siegried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, Lotte H. Eisner, Béla Balázs, and Rudolf Arnheim, will address questions of technology and modernity, gender relations after World War I, the intersection of politics and film, and the impact of German and Austrian exiles on Hollywood. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Rogowski.

324. Popular Cinema. From Fritz Lang’s thrilling detective mysteries to Tom Tykwer’s hip postmodern romp Run Lola Run, from Ernst Lubitsch’s satirical wit to the gender-bending comedies of Katja von Garnier, this course explores the rich legacy of popular and genre films in the German-speaking countries. Topics to be covered include adventure films, comedies, and costume dramas of the silent period, including Fritz Lang’s Spiders (1919) and Joe May’s The Indian Tomb (1920); the musical comedies of the Weimar Republic and the “dream couple” Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch; Nazi movie stars and the “non-political” entertainment films of the Third Reich, such as Josef von Baky’s blockbuster Münchhausen (1943); the resurgence of genre films in the 1950s (“Heimatfilme,” romantic comedies, melodramas, etc.); the Cold War Westerns in the West (based on the novels by Karl May) and in the East (starring Gojko Mitic); the efforts to produce audience-oriented films in the politicized climate of the 1960s and 1970s; the big budget quasi-Hollywood productions by Wolfgang Petersen; and the recent spate of relationship comedies. We will discuss the work of, among others, actors and performers Karl Valentin, Heinz Rühmann, Zarah Leander, Hans Albers, Heinz Erhardt, Romy Schneider, Loriot, and Otto, and directors including Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang, Joe May, Wilhelm Thiele, May Spils, Katja von Garnier, Detlev Buck, Tom Tykwer, and Doris Dörrie. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Rogowski.

325. Mother India: Reading Gender and Nation in South Asia. (Offered as WAGS 366, ASLC 351, and FAMS 325.) Do you often wonder why some countries are referred to as the “motherland” and others as the “fatherland”? What and who decides how we refer to a country? In this course, we will examine seismic changes over time in gendered imaginings of the Indian subcontinent. As women stepped out of the domestic sphere to participate in the nationalist struggle of the late 19th century, the idea of the nation swayed dramatically between the nation as wife and the nation as mother in the Indian popular imagination. Readings will include novels such as Rabindranath Tagore’s Home and the World and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. We will also study a range of cinematic texts from the classic Mother India to the recent feminist film Silent Waters.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Shandilya.

326. An Introduction to Contemporary Chinese Cinema. (Offered as ASLC 235 [C] and FAMS 326.) In the last fifteen years, Chinese films have regularly won important awards in international film festivals. Who are the major filmmakers, actors and producers in the People’s Republic of China today? How can the recent success be traced to the Chinese film industry that has thrived since 1905? This course introduces the world of contemporary cinematic representations and discourses in the People’s Republic of China in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with a focus on how social, political and cultural changes of modern and contemporary China find their expressions in films.

By focusing on the work of directors like Zhang Yimou and Jiang Wen, Jia Zhangke and Cui zi’en, as well as Xu Jinglei and Du Haibin, we will discuss millennial utopias and dystopias, gender and transgender, modernity and cultural identity, history and memory, urban culture, relocation and social migration. Students will learn to develop a critical understanding of Chinese society and culture through film, as well as to use and analyze film language.

No previous knowledge of Chinese cinema and culture is required. Fall semester. Professor Zamperini.

327. Toward the New Wave. (Offered as FREN 365 and FAMS 327.) This course will study films from the French New Wave (1959-63), as well as earlier French films that influenced many New Wave directors. These films will include: Jean-Luc Godard’s A bout de souffle, Vivre sa vie, and Le Mépris; Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour and L’annee dernière à Marienbad; Jean Vigo’s Zero de Conduite and L’Atalante; Jean Renoir’s Boudu sauvé des eaux, La Grande Illusion and La Règle du Jeu; Jean-Pierre Melville’s Bob le flambeur; and Robert Bresson’s Un condamné à mort s’est échappé. This course will also provide basic training in the analysis of films. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Caplan.

328. Representation and Reality in Spanish Cinema. (Offered as SPAN 236, EUST 232 and FAMS 328.) Once severely constrained by dictator Francisco Franco’s censorship laws and rarely exported beyond the country’s borders, Spanish film has been transformed into an internationally-known cinema in the last decades. This course offers a critical overview of Spanish film from 1950 to the present, examining how Spain’s culture and society are imagined onscreen by directors such as Berlanga, Erice, Bollaín, and Almodóvar. Students will analyze works of Spanish cinema alongside theoretical and critical texts, exploring such topics as gendered roles in contemporary society, immigration, globalization, censorship, and experiences of war and violence. We will also track the sociological, cultural, and political forces inside Spain that have inspired such cinematic representations. This course provides an introduction to visual analysis and critical writing about film and will be conducted in English. Students are expected to attend weekly screenings where films will be shown in Spanish with English subtitles. Spanish majors who wish to count this course toward fulfillment of requirements will be asked to write papers in Spanish.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Brenneis.

331. Readings in Media Theory and History. (Offered as ENGL 391 and FAMS 331.) What is a medium? Why has the term acquired its current theoretical prominence? How does it differ from discourse, genre, mode, format, and other such terms? This course surveys accounts of mediation from the ancient world to the present, focusing on key figures and historically-important texts (among them, Plato’s Republic, Martin Heidegger’s “The Question Concerning Technology” and “The Origin of the Work of Art,” and Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”) before turning attention to our contemporary mediascape and some recent attempts to take its theoretical measure.

Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parker.

341. Video Production: Bodies in Motion. (Offered as THDA 250 and FAMS 341.) This studio production class will focus on multiple ways of tracking, viewing, and capturing bodies in motion. The course will emphasize working with the camera as an extension of the body to explore radically different points of view and senses of focus. We will experiment with different techniques and different kinds of bodies (human, animal, and object) to bring a heightened awareness of kinesthetic involvement, animation and emotional immediacy to the bodies on screen and behind the camera. In addition, we will interject and follow bodies into different perceptions of time, progression, place and relationship. In the process, we will express various experiences and theories of embodiment and question what constitutes a body. Depending on student interests, final projects can range from choreographies for the camera to fictional narratives to documentary studies. The class will alternate between camera sessions, both in the studio and on location, and sessions in the editing suite working with Final Cut Pro.

Requisite: Previous experience in composition. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2012-13.

345. Performance Studio. (Offered as THDA 353 and FAMS 345.) An advanced course in the techniques of creating performance. Each student will create and rehearse a performance piece that develops and incorporates original choreography, text, music, sound and/or video. Experimental and collaborative structures and approaches among and within different media will be stressed. The final performance pieces and events will be presented in the Holden Theater. Can be taken more than once for credit.

Requisite: THDA 252 or the equivalent and consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Woodson.

351. Cinema and Everyday Life. (Offered as ENGL 381 and FAMS 351.) Film theorist Siegfried Kracauer declared that some of the first films showed “life at its least controllable and most unconscious moments, a jumble of transient, forever dissolving patterns accessible only to the camera.” This course will explore the ways contemporary narrative films aesthetically represent everyday life—capturing both its transience and our everyday ruminations. We will further consider the ways we incorporate film into our everyday lives through various modes of viewings (the arthouse, the multiplex, the DVD, the mp3), our means of perception, and in the kinds of souvenirs we keep. We will look at films by Chantal Akerman, Robert Altman, Marleen Gorris, Hirokazu Koreeda, Marzieh Makhmalbaf, Terrence Malick, Lynne Ramsay, Tsai Ming-liang, Agnès Varda, Wong Kar-wai, and Andy Warhol. Readings will include work by Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, Marlene Dietrich, Sigmund Freud, and various works in film and media studies. Two class meetings and one screening per week.

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Professor Hastie.

358. Spike Lee’s Joints. (Offered as ENGL 374, BLST 330 [US], and FAMS 358.) In offering extended formal considerations of Spike Lee’s cinematic oeuvre—in particular his uses of light, sound, and color—this course is interested in how shifting through various modes of critical inquiry can enable or broaden different kinds of cultural, political, or historical engagement with a film. This semester we will also pay special attention to the question of what it means to encapsulate a particular cultural moment, particularly vis-à-vis the often differing demands of fictional and non-fictional representation.

Spring semester. Professor Parham and Visiting Professor Drabinski.

370. Traumatic Events. (Offered as GERM 363, EUST 363, and FAMS 370.) How is memory constructed and represented? How is it possible to bear witness, and what exactly is involved? Who is authorized to testify, to whom, when? Whose story is it? Is it possible to tell “the story” of a traumatic event? What are the disorders of testimony, and how and where do they emerge? This course will observe the workings of trauma (the enactment and working-through of collective and individual symptoms of trauma), memory, and witnessing in various modes of everyday life. We will examine notions of catastrophe, disaster, accident, and violence, and explore the possibilities and impossibilities of bearing witness in many forms of cultural production: in fiction, poetry, architecture, critical theory, oral and written testimonies, visual art, monuments, memorials, philosophy, science, cartoons, film, video, theater, television reportage, newspaper documentation, performance, online, and in our public and domestic spaces. We will study various representations of trauma, paying particular attention to events in Germany and Europe from the twentieth century, as well as to 9/11 and other recent international events. Material to be examined will be drawn from the work of Pina Bausch, Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Cathy Caruth, Paul Celan, Marguerite Duras, Peter Eisenman, Shoshana Felman, Florian Freund, Jochen Gerz, Geoffrey Hartman, Rebecca Horn, Marion Kant, Anselm Kiefer, Ruth Klüger, Dominick LaCapra, Claude Lanzmann, Dori Laub, Daniel Libeskind, W.G. Sebald, Art Spiegelman, Paul Virilio, Peter Weiss, Wim Wenders, Elie Wiesel, Christa Wolf, and others. Conducted in English with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Gilpin.

371. Film, Myth, and the Law. (Offered as LJST 352 and FAMS 371.) (Analytic Seminar) The proliferation of law in film and on television has expanded the sphere of legal life itself. Law lives in images that today saturate our culture and have a power all their own, and the moving image provides a domain in which legal power operates independently of law’s formal institutions. This course will consider what happens when legal events are re-narrated in film and examine film’s treatment of legal officials, events, and institutions (e.g., police, lawyers, judges, trials, executions, prisons). Does film open up new possibilities of judgment, model new modes of interpretation, and provide new insights into law’s violence? We will discuss ways in which myths about law are reproduced and contested in film. Moreover, attending to the visual dimensions of law’s imagined lives, we ask whether law provides a template for film spectatorship, positioning viewers as detectives and as jurors, and whether film, in turn, sponsors a distinctive visual aesthetics of law. Among the films we may consider are Inherit the Wind, Call Northside 777, Judgment at Nuremberg, Rear Window, Silence of the Lambs, A Question of Silence, The Sweet Hereafter, Dead Man Walking, Basic Instinct, and Unforgiven. Throughout we will draw upon film theory and criticism as well as the scholarly literature on law, myth, and film.

The Professor aims to admit a mix of students from different classes and with backgrounds in Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought and in other fileds, in order to foster a rich interdisciplinary conversation.

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sarat.

372. Passing in Literature and Film. (Offered as ENGL 361, BLST 232 [US], and FAMS 372.) Is identity natural or cultural? This question has persisted through centuries of American writing, and many of the most interesting meditations on this question arise from books and films that deal with passing. Texts about passing, about people who can successfully pass themselves off as something different from what they were “born as,” form an important subgenre of American culture because they force us to question some strangely consistent inconsistencies in how we define identity. If race, for example, signifies a real and material difference, how could there be such a thing as racial passing? But, at the same time, if race is “only” a social construction, then why is racial passing so often characterized as a crime against nature? Stories about passing often illustrate a fundamental ambivalence on the personal meaningfulness of biopower in America, and also reveal the nascent virtuality of worldly experiences more generally. That in mind, this course explores a broad range of literary and cultural texts, including novels by Charles Chesnutt, Percival Everett, and Danzy Senna, and film and televisual texts like Gattaca, Avatar, Sirk’s Imitation of Life, and Eddie Murphy’s “White Like Me.”

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parham.

373. SPACE. (Offered as GERM 368, EUST 368, and FAMS 373.) This research seminar will explore conceptions of space as they have informed and influenced thought and creativity in the fields of cultural studies, literature, architecture, urban studies, performance, and the visual, electronic, and time-based arts. Students will select and pursue a major semester-long research project early in the semester in consultation with the professor, and present their research in its various stages of development throughout the semester, in a variety of media formats (writing, performance, video, electronic art/interactive media, installation, online and networked events, architectural/design drawings/renderings), along with oral presentations of readings and other materials. Readings and visual materials will be drawn from the fields of literature and philosophy; from architectural, art, and film theory and history; from performance studies and performance theory; and from theories of technology and the natural and built environment. Emphasis on developing research, writing, and presentation skills is a core of this seminar.

For spring 2013, we will focus on the river as the generative and dynamic concept that will guide our explorations of space and of different kinds of spaces, in conjunction with the European Union/Five College project on Riverscaping/Alles am Fluss: Rethinking art, environment and community/Kunst—Umwelt—Nachbarschaft neu denken. Students will pursue research projects concerning the visual arts, history, literature, environment, ecology, visibility/interactivity, conditions and movements of the river (specific rivers including the Elbe River in Hamburg, Germany and the Connecticut River here in the Pioneer Valley), and explore the visions, challenges, and possibilities of creating spaces in which art can happen and in which creative processes can transform communities. Students will have the opportunity to present their final research projects at the European Union/Five Colleges Riverscaping conference on Europe Day, May 9, 2013. One three-hour meeting per week.

Preference given to German majors and European Studies majors, as well as to students interested in architecture/design, performance, film/video, interactive installation, and/or the environment. Conducted in English. German majors will select a research project focused on a German Studies context, and will do a substantial portion of the readings in German.

Limited to 15 students. Enrollment requires attendance at the first class meeting. Spring semester. Professor Gilpin.

374. Borderlands and Barrios: Latino/a Representation in Film and Television. (Offered as SOCI 335 and FAMS 374.) This course uses a two-pronged sociological approach to examine Latino/a culture in the United States through the mediums of film and television. We begin with discussion of how to critically analyze films and television relative to race and ethnicity, and a review of the history of representation of Latinos/as in media. We then examine the content of the Latino/a experience as depicted in film and television and the accuracy of that content in describing the diversity and truth of the Latino/a experience in the United States, particularly in regard to race, class, and gender.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Basler.

375. Jazz Film: Improvisation, Narrativity, and Representation. (Offered as MUSI 225 and FAMS 375.) Jazz occupies a special role in the development of American film. From The Jazz Singer (1927), the first American film that included synchronized sound, to the sprawling Jazz: A Documentary by Ken Burns (2001), filmic representations of jazz speak to fundamental ways that Americans negotiate difference and imagine national identity. This course examines the relationship between jazz and American culture through three modalities: improvisation, narrativity, and representation. How might jazz improvisation influence the construction of film? Is there an “improvised film”? Moreover, jazz musicians often speak about “telling stories” through their music. How might this influence narrative structure in film and inform the ways that stories about jazz musicians are constructed in film? And how might these stories about jazz musicians reflect larger debates about race, gender, sexuality and nationality? Assignments will include guided viewing of several important jazz films, required reading, and a series of essays.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Robinson.

378. Visual Anthropology. (Offered as ANTH 241 and FAMS 378.) This course will explore and evaluate various visual genres, including photography, ethnographic film and museum presentation as modes of anthropological analysis—as media of communication facilitating cross-cultural understanding. Among the topics to be examined are the ethics of observation, the politics of artifact collection and display, the dilemma of representing non-Western “others” through Western media, and the challenge of interpreting indigenously produced visual depictions of “self” and “other.”

Requisite: ANTH 110. Limited to 12 students. Spring semester. Professor Gewertz.

380. Cinema and the Avant-Garde. (Offered as ENGL 379 and FAMS 380.) Throughout its history artists and filmmakers have experimented radically with cinema, exploring the limits of the medium. This course traces the history of experimentation and its relation to broader avant-garde movements in the arts, such as Symbolism, Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, and Minimalism. Many of the filmmakers and movements we will study set about creating a new type of film, as well as a new kind of film language, in an attempt to re-orient how individuals engage with art in their everyday lives. We will interrogate broad theoretical questions, such as: What is the avant-garde? What is the relation between cinema and different art movements? How are different revolutionary aesthetic practices tied to political projects? How are mainstream and avant-garde cinemas related? What can cinema do beyond providing representations and narratives? Besides theoretical and critical texts by Peter Bürger, Renato Poggioli, Annette Michelson and Michael Fried, we will examine manifestos and documents from the various movements, as well as historical studies. We will view films by artists such as Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Marcel Duchamp, Hans Richter, Jean Epstein, Luis Buñuel, Maya Deren, Andy Warhol, Tony Conrad, and Stan Brakhage. Two class meetings and one required screening per week.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Johnston.

421. Inventing Film Theory. (Offered as ENGL 481 and FAMS 421.) As an upper-division seminar in film theory, this course will offer an in-depth examination of historically significant writings that analyze film form and its social functions and effects. Our particular focus will be on the production of film theory in a collective setting: the film/media journal. Thus the course will be organized by five units, each centering on a particular journal in generally chronological order: Close Up, Cahiers du Cinéma, Film Culture, Screen, and Camera Obscura. Through this structure, we will consider how ideas have developed and transformed, often in dialogue with one another and on an international stage. Our purpose will be threefold: to understand the context for the production and development of film theories; to comprehend a wide range of changing theoretical notions and methodologies; and to create our own dialogue with these works, considering especially their impact on their own contemporaneous film viewers and on viewing positions today. One three-hour class meeting and one film screening per week.

Prior coursework in Film and Media Studies is strongly recommended. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hastie.

422. Cinephilia. (Offered as ENGL 482 and FAMS 482.) This course focuses on cinephilia—a passionate, affective engagement with cinema—as a means of seeing both the movies themselves and our critical, historical understanding of them. While focusing on cinephilic figures (the archivist, the filmmaker, the critic, the theorist, the historian, the collector, the teacher, the student), we will also look at particular historical junctures in which cinephilia has arisen in earnest (the photogenie movement in 1910s and 1920s France; post-war French criticism and auteurist production; late twentieth-century enthrallment with international new wave movements). Through experiments with reading, writing, and viewing habits, we will inject theoretical work with experiential practices, ultimately asking how (and if) cinephilia might be mobilized today. One class meeting and one screening per week.

Prior film course recommended. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hastie.

426. Feminism and Film: A Study of Practice and Theory. (Offered as ENGL 483, FAMS 426, and WAGS 483.) This seminar will be devoted to the study of feminism and film, considering the ways feminism has shaped both film theory and film practice. Though focusing in large part on post-1968 writings, which largely ushered in semiotic, psychoanalytic, and feminist theory to film studies, we will also consider early writings by women from the 1910s-1950s in a range of venues—from fan magazines to film journals—that developed points of view regarding women’s practices as both artists and audience members. We will also consider a range of films, from Hollywood melodrama (also known as “the women’s picture”) of the 1940s to contemporary action films, and from avant-garde feminist works to current independent and international films directed by women. Informed by feminist film theorist Claire Johnston, we will explore how and when “women’s cinema”—whether theory or practice—constitutes or shapes “counter-cinema.” One three-hour class meeting per week.

Requisite: As an advanced seminar in film theory, some previous work with film and media studies is required. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Hastie.

442. Cine-Eye. (Offered as ARHA 314 and FAMS 442.) How can cinema become a tool for reflection and inquiry? How do we express thought in cinema?

For filmmaker Dziga Vertov, the camera is a “Cine-Eye,” capturing, deciphering and reflecting on found reality to create its own cine-truths, apart from preceding art forms and beyond the stale conventions of traditional narrative and socially constructed realism. In his 1948 article “The birth of a new avant-garde: La caméra-stylo,” Alexandre Astruc envisions the camera as a pen to express abstract thought. Quite recently, in Terrence Malick’s fictionalized, autobiographical film, The Tree of Life, a brother’s death triggers a series of questions about the human condition that form the core of a wide-ranging, expansive film-poem with a narrative structure akin to a philosophical essay.

This advanced production seminar proposes a cinema of thought and investigation in which each filmmaker will engage the world with a reflexive eye. We will look closely at a group of films from genres that foreground inquiry and experimentation: the film essay, the political film, the diary, the notebook, the travelogue, the memoir and other hybrid forms. We will consider content, formal structure (mise-en-scene, decoupage) and the content embedded within form, to understand how these films generate a cohesive cinematic/philosophical statement. Readings by filmmakers, theorists and critics will serve as a springboard and counterpoint for our own film projects.

In addition to short group and individual projects, each student will conceptualize, develop and produce a non-fiction film during the semester. Each week, students will present their work-in-progress for class and individual discussion and critique. Prior film production experience is required.

Recommended requisite: ARHA 102 or 111. Limited to 8 students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Rivera-Moret.

443. Experiments in Narrative. (Offered as ARHA 315 and FAMS 443.) What constitutes cinematic narrative, distinct from other forms of storytelling? How do we engage film form to tell a story? Can the camera be a narrator? How can we alter a traditional narrative structure, and, what are the implications of these transformations? How can we use color to construct the subjective space of a character, or use sound to manipulate the temporal order of the story, creating flashbacks, ellipses or flash-forwards?

In this advanced production workshop we will explore cinematic narrative first by closely studying how a group of classical, experimental, and contemporary filmmakers have engaged narrative through filmic form. We will then formulate our own new cinematic narratives. Cinema is no longer restricted to the theater or the gallery. Moving images surround us—online, on our phones and screens, in the streets, and in stores, taxis, and train stations. We will consider the formal parameters of these new cinematic spaces and their possibilities. Coursework consists of film viewing, analysis and discussion, and the production of several short narrative films.

Requisite: Prior film production experience; Recommended requisite: ARHA 102 or 111. Limited to 8 students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Rivera-Moret.

451. Ghosts in Shells? Virtuality and Embodiment from Passing to the Posthuman. (Offered as ENGL 456, BLST 441 [US], and FAMS 451.) This class begins with narratives about individuals who pass—that is, who come to be recognized as someone different from whom they were sexually or racially “born as.” Such stories suggest that one’s identity depends minimally on the body into which one is born, and is more attached to the supplementation and presentation of that body in support of whichever cultural story the body is desired to tell. Drawing on familiar liberal humanist claims, which centralize human identity in the mind, these narratives also respond to the growing sophistication of human experience with virtual worlds—from acts of reading to immersions in computer simulation. But what kinds of tensions emerge when bodies nonetheless signify beyond an individual’s self-imagination? As technology expands the possibilities of the virtual, for instance surrogacy, cloning, and cybernetics, what pressures are brought to bear on the physical human body and its processes to signify authentic humanness? Rather than ask whether identity is natural or cultural, our discussions will project these questions into a not-so-distant future: What would it mean to take “human” as only one identity, as a category amongst many others, each also acknowledged as equally subject to the same social and biological matrices of desire, creation, and recognition? We will approach these questions through works of literature, philosophy, media history, and contemporary science writing.

Junior/Senior seminar. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Parham.

456. Media Archaeology and Historiography. (Offered as ENGL 486 and FAMS 456.) How can we write histories of media? How are media written about, used, designed, preserved and sometimes discarded? Where are the relics of past media stored and what do these alternative paths not taken and now forgotten futures of media say about different historical moments and the present? This seminar will explore theories and practices of media archaeology and historiography by both examining different scholarly responses to the above questions while also learning about forms of media preservation at various archives throughout the semester. We will move through different historical periods, from the magic lantern performances and phantasmagoria of the eighteenth century through film and the phonograph, and then on to recent digital media and magnetic storage technologies like the floppy disk, hard drive, and personal computer. Throughout the seminar we will continue to ask how media landscapes of the past provide a context for our contemporary engagements with media and also emphasize how the histories we will explore point not only to technological experimentation and change but also to how these media were to engage with the senses of the body. We will read theoretical and historical texts by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Jonathan Crary, Lisa Gitelman, Tom Gunning, Katherine Hayles, Matthew Kirschenbaum, Friedrich Kittler, Vivian Sobchack, Paolo Cherchi Usai and Siegfried Zielinski. One three-hour class meeting and one required screening per week.

Prior coursework in Film and Media Studies is recommended. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Johnston.

484. Animating Cinema and New Media. (Offered as ENGL 484 and FAMS 484.) This seminar will explore theories of animation and new media in moving image culture. While animation is many times considered children’s entertainment, this course situates it as the technical coincidence of life and movement while examining its relation to the nature of cinema and other media. Cinema is a privileged type of animation in the class, but one that exists in a long history of moving images that we will interrogate along with the roles different techniques and technologies play in that history’s formation. We will begin with an examination of nineteenth-century optical devices like zoetropes and phenakistoscopes and then study handmade and industrial animation practices, finally working our way to digital special effects technology, machinima, and algorithmic cinema. Particular attention will be paid to the role of motion in the aesthetics of cinema and the sense of vitality objects and figures take on in film. How is life attributed to this illusion of movement? How is the threshold between the animate and inanimate used to define our understandings of media and mediation? To answer these questions we will read theoretical and historical texts by Donald Crafton, Sergei Eisenstein, Tom Gunning, Esther Leslie, and Lev Manovich and view films by artists such as Emile Cohl, Lotte Reiniger, Mary Ellen Bute, Chuck Jones, the Quay Brothers, Lewis Klahr, Cory Arcangel, Marjane Satrapi, and Takeshi Murata. One three-hour class meeting and one required screening per week.

Requisite: Prior coursework in Film and Media Studies. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Johnston.

485. Word / Life / Image. (Offered as ENGL 485 and FAMS 485.) How do words and images bring each other to life? How have different graphic and material instantiations articulated their separation or union? This seminar will explore the relationship between word and image across different media forms and historical periods, continually asking how they mutually animate, constrain, and give shape to one another. Studying works such as illustrated and graphic novels, theatrical performances, films, and digital works we will attend at once to the intersection between material form and aesthetic experience. Over the course of this seminar we will engage with key concepts and topics including ekphrasis, adaptation, remediation, and synaesthesia while reading theoretical and historical texts by classical and Renaissance authors as well as contemporary critics from Maurice Merleau-Ponty to Katherine Hayles. Primary texts may include works by Shakespeare, William Blake, Lewis Carroll, Virginia Woolf, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Dziga Vertov, W.G. Sebald, William Gibson, and Miranda July. One three-hour class meeting per week.

Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Bosman and Visiting Professor Johnston.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Courses.

Fall and spring semester. The Department.

498. Senior Honors. Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall semester.

499. Senior Honors. Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring semester.

French

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors Caplan†, de la Carrera (Chair), Hewitt‡, Rockwell†, and Rosbottom‡; Associate Professor Katsaros‡; Senior Lecturer Uhden†; Visiting Lecturers Alquier and Baillargeon.

The objective of the French major is to learn about French culture directly through its language and principally by way of its literature. Emphasis in courses is upon examination of significant authors or problems rather than on chronological survey. We read texts closely from a modern critical perspective, but without isolating them from their cultural context. To give students a better idea of the development of French culture throughout the centuries, we encourage majors to select courses from a wide range of historical periods, from the Middle Ages to the present.

Fluent and correct use of the language is essential to successful completion of the major. Most courses are taught in French. The Department also urges majors to spend a semester or a year studying in a French-speaking country. The major in French provides effective preparation for graduate work, but it is not conceived as strictly pre-professional training.

Major Program. The Department of French aims at flexibility and responds to the plans and interests of the major within a structure that affords diversity of experience in French literature and continuous training in the use of the language.

A major (both rite and with Departmental Honors) will normally consist of a minimum of eight courses. Students may choose to take (a) eight courses in French literature and civilization; or (b) six courses in French literature and civilization and two related courses with departmental approval. In either case, a minimum of four courses must be taken from the French offerings at Amherst College. One of these four must be taken during the senior year. All courses offered by the Department above FREN 103 may count for the major. Among these eight courses, one must be chosen from the Middle Ages or Renaissance, and one from the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. (FREN 311 satisfies either of these distribution requirements.) Up to four courses taken in a study abroad program may count toward the eight required courses for the major. Comprehensive examinations must be completed no later than the seventh week of the spring semester of the senior year.

Departmental Honors Program. Candidates for Departmental Honors must write a thesis in addition to fulfilling the course requirements for the major described above. Students who wish to write a thesis should begin to develop a topic during their junior year and must submit a detailed thesis proposal to the Department at the beginning of the second week of fall semester classes. Subject to departmental approval of the thesis proposal, candidates for Departmental Honors will enroll in FREN 498 and 499 during their senior year. (FREN 498 and 499 will not be counted towards the eight-course requirement for the major.) Oral examinations on the thesis will be scheduled in late spring.

Foreign Study. A program of study approved by the Department for a junior year in France has the support of the Department as a significant means of enlarging the major’s comprehension of French civilization and as the most effective method of developing mastery of the language.

Exchange Fellowships. Graduating seniors are eligible for two Exchange Fellowships for study in France: one fellowship as Teaching Assistant in American Civilization and Language at the University of Dijon; the other as Exchange Fellow, Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Course numbering system. FREN 101-208 are French Language and Composition courses. FREN 101-207 are numbered by degree of difficulty. FREN 207, 208 and 311 have identical prerequisites and may be taken in any order. All courses numbered 320 and above, with the exception of those courses conducted in English, list FREN 207, 208, 311 or 312 as prerequisites. Courses numbered 320 and above are advanced courses but are not ranked by order of difficulty. They are organized, instead, by period in the following manner:

311-319: French Literature and Civilization

320-329: Medieval and Renaissance Literature and Culture

330-339: Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture

340-349: Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture

350-359: Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Literature and Culture

360-369: Special Courses

498-499: Senior Departmental Honors

490: Special Topics

French Language and Composition

101. Elementary French. This course features intensive work on French grammar, with emphasis on the acquisition of basic active skills (speaking, reading, writing and vocabulary building). We will be using the multimedia program French in Action which employs only authentic French, allowing students to use the language colloquially and creatively in a short amount of time. Three hours a week for explanation and demonstration, plus small sections with French assistants. This course prepares students for FREN 103. For students without previous training in French.

Fall semester: Visiting Lecturer Alquier and Assistants. Spring semester: The Department and Assistants.

103. Intermediate French. Intensive review and coverage of all basic French grammar points with emphasis on the understanding of structural and functional aspects of the language and acquisition of the basic active skills (speaking, reading, writing and systematic vocabulary building). We will be using French in Action, the multimedia program. Three hours a week for explanation and demonstration, plus small sections with French assistants. This course prepares students for FREN 205.

Requisite: FREN 101 or two years of secondary school French. Fall semester: Visitng Lecturer Alquier and Assistants. Spring semester: The Department and Assistants.

205. Language and Literature. An introduction to the critical reading of French literary and non-literary texts; a review of French grammar; training in composition, conversation and listening comprehension. Texts will be drawn from significant short stories, poetry and films. The survey of different literary genres serves also to contrast several views of French culture. Supplementary work with audio and video materials. Successful completion of FREN 205 prepares students for FREN 207, 208, 311 or 312. Conducted in French. Three hours a week.

Requisite: FREN 103 or three to four years of secondary school French. Fall semester: Professor de la Carrera and Visiting Lecturer Baillargeon. Spring semester: The Department.

207. Introduction to French Literature and Culture. Through class discussion, debates, and frequent short papers, students develop effective skills in self-expression, analysis, and interpretation. Literary texts, articles on current events, and films are studied within the context of the changing structures of French society and France’s complex relationship to its recent past. Assignments include both creative and analytic approaches to writing. Some grammar review as necessary, as well as work on understanding spoken French using video materials. Highly recommended for students planning to study abroad.

Requisite: FREN 205, or completion of AP French, or four years of secondary school French in a strong program. Fall semester: Professors Hewitt and Katsaros. Spring semester: Visiting Lecturer Alquier.

208. French Conversation. To gain as much confidence as possible in idiomatic French, we discuss French social institutions and culture, trying to appreciate differences between French and American viewpoints. Our conversational exchanges will touch upon such topics as French education, art and architecture, the status of women, the spectrum of political parties, minority groups, religion, and the position of France and French-speaking countries in the world. Supplementary work with audio and video materials.

Requisite: FREN 205, or completion of AP French, or four years of secondary school French in a strong program. Limited to 16 students. Spring semester. Visiting Lecturer Alquier.

French Literature and Civilization

311. Cultural History of France: From the Middle Ages to the Revolution. A survey of French civilization: literature, history, art and society. We will discuss Romanesque and Gothic art, the role of women in medieval society, witchcraft and the Church, Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the centralization of power and the emergence of absolute monarchy. Slides and films will complement lectures, reading and discussion of monuments, events and social structures. Conducted in French.

Requisite: FREN 205 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Caplan.

314. From Astérix to Houellebecq: Translating Contemporary French. This course aims at improving the students’ knowledge of the contemporary French language and of contemporary French society through translation. We will draw from a wide variety of sources, such as fiction, poetry, film, songs, press articles, graphic novels and advertising, to gain a better understanding of idiomatic French and of the translation process. Conducted in French.

Requisite: FREN 207 or 208 or the equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Katsaros.

Medieval and Renaissance Literature and Culture

320. Literary Masks of the Late French Middle Ages. The rise in the rate of literacy which characterized the early French Middle Ages coincided with radical reappraisals of the nature and function of reading and poetic production. This course will investigate the ramifications of these reappraisals for the literature of the late French Middle Ages. Readings may include such major works as Guillaume de Dole by Jean Renart, the anonymous Roman de Renart, the Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris, selections from the continuation of the Roman de la Rose by Jean de Meun, anonymous Fabliaux, and poetic works by Christine de Pisan, Guillaume de Machaut, Jean Froissart, and Charles d’Orléans. Particular attention will be paid to the philosophical presuppositions surrounding the production of erotic allegorical discourse. We shall also address such topics as the relationships between lyric and narrative and among disguise, death and aging in the context of medieval discourses on love. All texts will be read in modern French. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Rockwell.

321. Amor and Metaphor in the Early French Middle Ages. The eleventh and twelfth centuries witnessed social, political, and poetic innovations that rival in impact the information revolution of recent decades. Essential to these innovations was the transformation from an oral to a book-oriented culture. This course will investigate the problems of that transition, as reflected in such major works of the early French Middle Ages as: The Song of Roland, the Tristan legend, the Roman d’Eneas, the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes, anonymous texts concerning the Holy Grail and the death of King Arthur. We shall also address questions relevant to this transition, such as the emergence of medieval allegory, the rise of literacy, and the relationship among love, sex, and hierarchy. All texts will be read in modern French. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Rockwell.

324. Studies in Medieval Romance Literature and Culture. The study of a major author, literary problem, or question from the medieval period with a particular focus announced each time the course is offered. The topic for 2011 was: “The Allegorical Impulse.” We studied the social, philosophical, poetic and institutional currents that contribute to the emergence of allegorical texts in the period between the twelfth and the late-fourteenth centuries. Readings included the Quest for the Holy Grail and works by Chrétien de Troyes, Guillaume de Lorris, Jean de Meung, Dante Alighieri, and Guillaume de Machaut. All readings were done in English translation. Conducted in English.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Rockwell.

327. Humanism and the Renaissance. Humanists came to distrust medieval institutions and models. Through an analysis of the most influential works of the French Renaissance, we shall study the variety of literary innovations which grew out of that distrust with an eye to their social and philosophical underpinnings. We shall address topics relevant to these innovations such as Neoplatonism, the grotesque, notions of the body, love, beauty, order and disorder. Readings will be drawn from the works of such major writers as: Erasmus, Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, Montaigne, Ronsard, Du Bellay, Maurice Scève and Louise Labé. The most difficult texts will be read in modern French. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Rockwell.

Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture

330. The Doing and Undoing of Genres in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. This course explores the formation and transformation of various genres in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literature, with a particular focus announced each time the course is offered. The topic for 2012-13 is: “The Eighteenth-Century Novel and Theater in France.” Readings will include texts by Diderot, Voltaire, Marivaux, Prévost, Laclos, and Beaumarchais. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor de la Carrera.

335. Lovers and Libertines. Passion and the art of seduction, from Mme. de Lafayette’s La Princesse de Clèves to Stendhal’s Le Rouge et le noir. We will focus on the oppositions between romantic love and social norms, passion and seduction. Both original masterpieces and their filmic adaptations will be considered. Sample reading list: Mme. de Lafayette, La Princesse de Clèves; Prévost, Manon Lescaut; Casanova, Histoire de ma vie; Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses; Mozart/da Ponte, Don Giovanni; Stendhal, Le Rouge et le noir. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Caplan.

337. The French Enlightenment. Le Siècle des Lumières. An analysis of the major philosophical, literary, and artistic movements in France between the years 1715 and 1789 within the context of their uneasy relationship to the social, political, and religious institutions of the ancien régime. Readings will include texts by Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, and others. To gain a better sense of what it might have been like to live in eighteenth-century France, we will also read essays in French cultural history. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor de la Carrera.

338. The Republic of Letters. An exploration of Enlightenment thought within the context of the collaborative institutions and activities that fostered its development, including literary and artistic salons, cafés, and the Encyclopédie. We will read texts by Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, and others, drawn from the domains of literature, memoirs, and correspondence. To get a better idea of what it might have been like to live in the eighteenth century and be a participant in the “Republic of Letters,” we will also read a variety of essays in French cultural history. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor de la Carrera.

339. Worldliness and Otherworldliness. Many eighteenth-century writers imagined and invented other, better societies. To attenuate their criticisms of the social, political, and religious structures of the ancien régime, they had recourse to the viewpoint of fictional “outsiders” who arrive in France as if for the first time and describe what they see in minute and telling detail. We will analyze the role that these “other” worlds and the “otherworldly” point of view played in the development of eighteenth-century thought and literature, as well as some of the repercussions that these questions have had in twentieth-century thought. Readings will include Montesquieu’s Lettres persanes, Rousseau’s Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité, Diderot’s Supplément au Voyage de Bougainville, and Madame de Graffigny’s Lettres d’une Péruvienne, as well as Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents and a selection of essays by Claude Lévi-Strauss. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor de la Carrera.

Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture

342. Women of Ill Repute: Prostitutes in Nineteenth-Century French Literature. Prostitutes play a central role in nineteenth-century French fiction, especially of the realistic and naturalistic kind. Both widely available and largely visible in nineteenth-century France, prostitutes inspired many negative stereotypes. But, as the very product of the culture that marginalized her, the prostitute offered an ideal vehicle for writers to criticize the hypocrisy of bourgeois mores. The socially stratified world of prostitutes, ranging from low-ranking sex workers to high-class courtesans, presents a fascinating microcosm of French society as a whole. We will read selections from Honoré de Balzac, Splendeur et misère des courtisanes; Victor Hugo, Les Misérables; and Gustave Flaubert, L’éducation sentimentale; as well as Boule-de-Suif and other stories by Guy de Maupassant; La fille Elisa by Edmond de Goncourt; Nana by Emile Zola; Marthe by Joris-Karl Huysmans; La dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils; and extracts from Du côté de chez Swann by Marcel Proust. Additional readings will be drawn from the fields of history (Alain Corbin, Michelle Perrot) and critical theory (Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva). We will also discuss visual representations of prostitutes in nineteenth-century French art (Gavarni, Daumier, C. Guys, Degas, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec). Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Katsaros.

343. Agents Provocateurs: Scandalous French Artists, from Baudelaire to Céline. “Merdre!” This is, famously, the opening word of Alfred Jarry’s play Ubu-Roi. First performed in 1897, Ubu-Roi illuminates in retrospect a key aspect of nineteenth-century French literature. Since the Romantics, French literature had been saying “Merdre!” to its bourgeois readers with remarkable consistency. From the bohemian to the poète maudit, from the dandy to the decadent, the art of provocation reached its peak in nineteenth-century France. In this course, we will explore the various aspects, meanings, and purposes of this strategy. We will examine the various forms of literary, artistic, and theatrical provocation, as well as their historical and critical significance. We will ask how and why the artist and the bourgeois were set up as enemies, and what effect this conflict has had on theories of artistic creation. We will also try to understand why the myths of the artist invented in the nineteenth century (such as the dandy, the bohemian, and the provocateur) still form an essential part of the critical discourse on the arts today. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Katsaros.

346. Enfants Terribles: Childhood in Nineteenth-Century French Literature and Art. Images of childhood have become omnipresent in our culture. We tend to fetishize childhood as an idyllic time, preserved from the difficulties and compromises of adult life; but the notion that children’s individual lives are worth recording is a relatively modern one. This course will try to map out the journey from the idea of childhood as a phase to be outgrown to the modern conception of childhood as a crucial moment of self-definition. We will examine literary works as well as historical and theoretical sources. We will also look at nineteenth-century artists’ visions of childhood, with a particular emphasis on female artists such as E. Vigée-Lebrun, Berthe Morisot, and Mary Cassatt.

Literary readings will include selections from Rousseau, Confessions; and Chateaubriand, Mémoires d’outre-tombe; Gérard de Nerval, Sylvie; Stendhal, Vie de Henry Brulard; selected poems and prose by Baudelaire; Comtesse de Ségur, Les Malheurs de Sophie; selected stories by Guy de Maupassant; Emile Zola, Une page d’amour; Jules Vallès, L’enfant; Jules Renard, Poil-de-Carotte.

Theoretical and historical readings will include essays by Philippe Ariès, Michelle Perrot, André Breton, and Jacques Lacan. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Katsaros.

Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Literature and Culture

350. Literature in Crisis: The Contemporary French Novel. What can literature do? What is its social force? Is it an agent of change, a reflection of human thought in language, or both? The great French novelists of the 20th and 21st centuries have self-consciously questioned, and struggled to justify, the nature and value of literature. This course will focus on the long series of novelistic experiments, both narratological and ideological, that begin around the time of the First World War. It will include the existential novel, the “New Novel” of the sixties and seventies, the French postmodern novel, and conclude with two overlapping trends of the last two decades: novels that emphasize traumatic history (war, decolonization, immigration) and autofictions that showcase the individual subject in contemporary life. Like the authors we study (such as Proust, Sartre, Camus, Robbe-Grillet, Modiano, Nothomb, Makine, Echenoz, N’Diaye, Beigbeder), we will question the novel’s revolutionary potential as we study the nature of story-telling and the literary act, and ask how the novel can shape our understanding of the world. Literary readings will be supplemented with theoretical essays (Freud, Barthes, J. L. Austin, Robbe-Grillet, Sarraute, Derrida). Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or the equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hewitt.

351. France’s Identity Wars. This course studies the shifting notions about what constitutes “Frenchness” and reviews the heated debates about the split between French citizenship and French identity. Issues of decolonization, immigration, foreign influence, and ethnic background will be addressed as we explore France’s struggles to understand the changing nature of its social, cultural, and political identities. We will study theoretical and historical works, as well as novels, plays and films. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hewitt.

353. Literature in French Outside Europe: Introduction to Francophone Studies. This course will explore cross-cultural intersections and issues of identity and alienation in the works of leading writers from the French-speaking Caribbean and West Africa. Our discussions will focus on the sociopolitical positions and narrative strategies entertained in key texts of postcolonial literature (both fiction and critical essays). Issues involving nationalism, race, gender, assimilation and multilingualism will help to shape our discussion of how postcolonial subjects share in or distinguish themselves from certain tenets of Western thought. At issue, then, is the way French Caribbean and West African literatures and cultures trace their own distinctiveness and value. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Hewitt.

Special Courses

360. Masterpieces of French Literature in Translation. A study of great works of French literature. Readings may include: selections from Montaigne’s Essays and Pascal’s Pensées; Molière, Tartuffe and The Misanthrope; Voltaire, Candide; Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons; Stendhal, The Red and the Black; Balzac, Old Goriot; Flaubert, Madame Bovary; and Proust, Swann in Love. Conducted in English.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Caplan.

361. European Film. A study of some of the greatest French New Wave (1959-1963) films, as well as earlier French films that influenced the New Wave. From the New Wave we shall view Truffaut’s The 400 Blows; Godard’s Breathless, My Life to Live, and Contempt; Hiroshima mon amour and Last Year at Marienbad by Resnais. We shall also study Zero for Conduct (1933) and L’Atalante (1934) by Jean Vigo; Boudu Saved From the Waters (1932) Grand Illusion (1937), and The Rules of the Game (1939) by Jean Renoir; Jean-Pierre Melville’s Bob le Flambeur (1956) and A Man Escaped (1956) by Robert Bresson. No previous training in film analysis is required. Conducted in English.

Spring semester. Professor Caplan.

362. Dangerous Reading: The Eighteenth-Century Novel in England and France. (Offered as EUST 302, ENGL 302 [Meets the pre-1800 requirement for English majors.], and FREN 362.) Why was reading novels considered dangerous in the eighteenth century, especially for young girls?

This course will examine the development, during this period, of the genre of the novel in England and France, in relation to the social and moral dangers it posed and portrayed. Along with the troublesome question of reading fiction itself, we will explore such issues as social class and bastardy, sexuality and self-awareness, the competing values of genealogy and character, and the important role of women—as novelists, readers, and characters—in negotiating these questions. We will examine why the novel was itself considered a bastard genre, and engage formal questions by studying various kinds of novels: picaresque, epistolary, gothic, as well as the novel of ideas. Our approach will combine close textual analysis with historical readings about these two intertwined, yet rival, cultures, and we will pair novels in order to foreground how these cultures may have taken on similar social or representational problems in different ways. Possible pairings might include Prévost and Defoe, Laclos and Richardson, Voltaire and Fielding, Sade and Jane Austen. French novels will be read in translation. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professors Frank and Rosbottom.

365. Toward the New Wave. (Offered as FREN 365 and FAMS 327.) This course will study films from the French New Wave (1959-63), as well as earlier French films that influenced many New Wave directors. These films will include: Jean-Luc Godard’s A bout de souffle, Vivre sa vie, and Le Mépris; Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour and L’annee dernière à Marienbad; Jean Vigo’s Zero de Conduite and L’Atalante; Jean Renoir’s Boudu sauvé des eaux, La Grande Illusion and La Règle du Jeu; Jean-Pierre Melville’s Bob le flambeur; and Robert Bresson’s Un condamné à mort s’est échappé. This course will also provide basic training in the analysis of films. Conducted in French.

Requisite: One of the following—FREN 207, 208, 311, 312 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Caplan.

Advanced Courses

470. Advanced Seminar. An in-depth study of a major author or literary problem. The topic for fall 2011 was “French Theories.” It focused on theoretical activities in which French intellectuals played a leading role during the second half of the twentieth century: semiotics (the domain of investigation that explores the nature and function of signs and sign-production), structuralism, and deconstruction. We read work by some of the most influential practitioners of these theories in literary criticism (Roland Barthes), anthropology (Claude Lévi-Strauss), psychoanalysis (Jacques Lacan) and philosophy (Jacques Derrida), with special emphasis upon questions of method (how to do a semiotic or structuralist analysis of an object, what deconstruction does). Conducted in English.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Caplan.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Courses. Full course.

Admission with consent of the instructor consent required. Fall and spring semesters.

490H. Special Topics. Independent Reading Courses. Half course.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. A single course.

Fall semester. The Department.

498D. Senior Honors. Double course. Fall semester.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. A single course.

Spring semester. The Department.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. A double course.

Spring semester. The Department.

Geology

Professors Cheney, Crowley (Chair), and Harms; Associate Professor Martini; Assistant Professor Jones; Adjunct Professor Coombs.

Major Program. The Geology major starts with an introduction to the fundamental principles and processes that govern the character of the earth from its surface environment to its core. GEOL 111 surveys these principles and is required of all Geology majors. Geology encompasses many sub-disciplines that approach study of the earth in a variety of ways, but all share a core of knowledge about the composition and constitution of earth materials. Accordingly, all Geology majors must also take GEOL 121 (Surficial Earth Dynamics), GEOL 291 (Structural Geology), and GEOL 271 (Mineralogy). Finally, in consultation with their departmental advisor, Geology majors must take five additional courses from the Department’s offerings, constructing an integrated program that may be tailored to the major’s fields of interest or future plans. Senior Departmental Honors, generally consisting of GEOL 498 and 499D, will count as one such course for the major. Only one of these five courses may be from a Geology course numbered less than 111 and only if that course was taken prior to the junior year. Students may substitute one course from ASTR 114 or 223, BIOL 181 or 191, CHEM 151 or 155, COSC 111, MATH 111, or PHYS 115 or 116 for one of the five elective geology courses required for the major. Most, but not all, higher numbered courses in these departments may also be the single substituted ancillary science course, with permission from the Geology Department. The department, in coordination with the student’s academic goals, will consider departures from this major format. In the fall semester of the senior year, each major shall take a comprehensive examination.

Departmental Honors Program. For a degree with Honors, a student must have demonstrated ability to pursue independent work fruitfully and exhibit a strong motivation to engage in research. A thesis subject commonly is chosen at the close of the junior year but must be chosen no later than the first two weeks of the senior year. GEOL 498, 499D involves independent research in the field or the laboratory that must be reported in a thesis of high quality.

All courses are open to any student having requisite experience or consent of the instructor.

103. The Geology of the Great American West. From the high plains west of the Mississippi River, across the Rockies, Canyonlands, and Great Basin, to the Sierra Nevada, the striking natural landscapes of western North America result from the interactions of varied geologic processes through geologic time. This course will first survey the fundamental geologic dynamics that shape the earth’s surface and review major stages in the evolution of the earth’s crust and oceans. We will then turn to the particular expression of those processes in the American west, with special attention given to our national parks. Readings from the reports of the first geologists to survey the western lands will be included, as will the art and literature of explorers and early travelers who interpreted the western landscape for easterners of the day. Four class hours per week.

No previous knowledge of geology is assumed. Not open to those who have taken GEOL 111. Spring semester. Professor Harms.

109. Climate Change, Global Warming and Energy Resources. From the earliest civilizations man has been a major agent of environmental change. However, from the dawn of the industrial age, when fossil fuels were first tapped for energy, the rate of this change has increased exponentially. In this course, we will dissect environmental issues by first examining the recent geologic record of climate change and how processes that affect climate change operate in modern natural systems. We will then assess how societies have modified such systems and what factors control the trajectory and rate of change. Several environmental case studies will be used to provide insight into the scientific issues associated with specific environmental problems. Case studies will focus on nonrenewable and renewable energy resources and their relationship to climate change. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 60 students. Fall semester. Professor Martini.

111. Principles of Geology. As the science that considers the origin and evolution of the earth, Geology provides students with an understanding of what is known about the earth and how we know it, how the earth “works” and why we think it behaves as it does. In particular this course focuses upon the earth as an evolving and dynamic system where change is driven by energy generated within the earth. Concepts to be covered are: the structure of the earth’s interior, isostasy, deep time, the origin and nature of the magnetic field, plate tectonics, the origin and evolution of mountain belts, and ocean basins and the growth of the continents over time. In this context, Geology 111 considers a diverse range of topics such as the Appalachian mountain belt, the Hawaiian Islands, Yellowstone Park, the consequences of seismicity, faulting, meteorite impact, and volcanism on the earth’s inhabitants, and the sources and limitations of mineral and energy resources. This is a science course designed for all students of the College. Three hours of class and two hours of lab in which the student gains direct experience in the science through field trips, demonstrations, and projects.

Limited to 60 students with 20 students per lab. Fall and spring semesters: Professors Crowley and Harms.

121. Surface Earth Dynamics. For at least 3.5 billion years, the Earth’s surface environment has supported some form of life. What geologic processes first created and now maintain this environment? To what extent has life modified this environment over geologic time? What conditions are necessary for a planet to be conducive to life? What are the natural processes that operate at the Earth’s surface? This course looks at the environment from a geologist’s perspective. The course will start with dynamic systems that can be observed in operation today, as in river and coastal settings, where erosion and deposition occur, and by the interaction of the oceans, atmosphere, and climate. Techniques for interpreting the rock record will be developed so that past environments can be examined and potential future conditions on Earth better appreciated. Differences between earliest Earth environments and those of the more recent few billion years will be studied and integrated with the history of the origin and evolution of life. Three hours of lecture and two hours of lab, including field trips, each week.

Requisite: GEOL 111 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Jones.

224. Vertebrate Paleontology. The evolution of vertebrates as shown by study of fossils and the relationship of environment to evolution. Lectures and projects utilize vertebrate fossils in the Beneski Museum of Natural History. Three hours of class and one discussion/laboratory session per week. Offered in alternate years.

Requisite: One course in biology or geology or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13.

251. Paleontology and Geobiology. This course focuses on the history of life as preserved in the sedimentary rock record. Students will learn how paleontologists and geobiologists use skeletal fossils, molecular fossils, and geochemical signatures to ask and answer questions about the evolution of ancient life and Earth history. Students will study the origination, radiation, and extinction of major groups of organisms in the context of global environmental change, with an emphasis on invertebrate and microbial life. Laboratories include the systematic description, identification, and interpretation of fossils in the field, in hand specimen, and in thin section. Three hours of lectures and three hours of laboratory. Two weekend field trips are required.

Requisite: GEOL 111 or BIOL 181 or 191. Fall semester. Professor Jones.

271. Mineralogy. The crystallography and crystal chemistry of naturally occurring inorganic compounds (minerals). The identification, origin, distribution and use of minerals. Laboratory work includes the principles and methods of optical mineralogy, X-ray diffraction, back-scattered electron microscopy, and electron beam microanalysis. Three hours of lecture and three hours of lecture/discussion and directed laboratory.

Recommended requisite: GEOL 111, CHEM 151 or 155 or their equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Cheney.

291. Structural Geology. A study of the geometry and origin of sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rock structures that are the products of earth deformation. Emphasis will be placed on recognition and interpretation of structures through development of field and laboratory methodology. Three hours of lecture and five hours of laboratory each week.

Requisite: GEOL 111. Fall semester. Professor Crowley.

301. Hydrogeology. As the global human population expands, the search for and preservation of our most important resource, water, will demand societal vigilance and greater scientific understanding. This course is an introduction to surface and groundwater hydrology and geochemistry in natural systems, providing fundamental concepts aimed at the understanding and management of the hydrosphere. The course is divided into two roughly equal parts: surface and groundwater hydrology, and aqueous geochemistry. In the first section, we will cover the principal concepts of physical hydrogeology including watershed analysis and groundwater modeling. In the second half, we will integrate the geochemistry of these systems addressing both natural variations and the human impact on our environment. Three hours of lecture and three hours of lab or field trip each week.

Requisite: GEOL 111 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Martini.

311. Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. An overview of the dominant sedimentologic processes operating in both modern and ancient depositional environments. Students will learn how to examine and interpret features of sedimentary rocks and how to assess temporal or spatial patterns in sequences of sedimentary rocks. Students will then use these observations to expand their understanding of Earth history. Three hours of lecture and three hours of laboratory each week.

Requisite: GEOL 111. Spring semester. Professor Jones.

321. Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology. A study of igneous and metamorphic processes and environments. Application of chemical principles and experimental data to igneous and metamorphic rocks is stressed. Identification, analysis, and mapping of rocks in laboratory and field. Four hours of class and three hours of laboratory per week.

Requisite: GEOL 271. Spring semester. Professor Cheney.

341. Environmental and Solid Earth Geophysics. Only the surface of the earth is accessible for direct study but, as a two-dimensional surface, it represents a very incomplete picture of the geologic character of the earth. The most fundamental realms of the earth—the core and mantle—cannot themselves be observed. Even the uppermost part of the crust, where the lithosphere and hydrosphere interact to determine the quality of the environment in which we live, is hidden. Indirect signals, observed at the surface, can give us a more comprehensive understanding of earth structure—from environmental problems that lie just below the surface to the dynamics of the core/mantle boundary. We can “see” these subsurface realms using seismology, gravity, magnetism and heat flow observations. This course will bring findings from geophysics to bear on developing a picture of the earth in three dimensions. Three hours of class and three hours of laboratory each week.

Requisite: GEOL 111. Spring semester. Professor Crowley.

401. Plate Tectonics and Continental Dynamics. An analysis of the dynamic processes that drive the physical evolution of the earth’s crust and mantle. Plate tectonics, the changing configuration of the continents and oceans, and the origin and evolution of mountain belts will be studied using evidence from diverse branches of geology. Present dynamics are examined as a means to interpret the record of the past, and the rock record is examined as a key to understanding the potential range of present and future earth dynamics. Three hours of class and three hours of laboratory each week.

Requisite: GEOL 111 and two additional upper-level Geology courses. Fall semester. Professor Harms.

431. Geochemistry. This course examines the principles of thermodynamics, via the methodology of J. Willard Gibbs, with an emphasis upon multicomponent heterogeneous systems. These principles are used to study equilibria germane to the genesis and evolution of igneous and metamorphic rocks. Specific applications include: the properties of ideal and real crystalline solutions, geothermometry, geobarometry, and the Gibbs method—the analytic formulation of phase equilibria. This course also introduces the student to the algebraic and geometric representations of chemical compositions of both homogeneous and heterogeneous systems. Four class hours each week.

Requisite: GEOL 271 or CHEM 161, or PHYS 116 or 123. Omitted 2012-13.

450. Seminar in Biogeochemistry. Through biogeochemical cycles microbes influence the chemical composition of all of our habitable environments. They are found in the most extreme environments on Earth, from the upper atmosphere to the depths of our oceans as well as in the deep subsurface of Earth’s crust. In this seminar, we will examine tracers and proxies for microbial activity present in rock, sediment, soil and porewater. Environments to be studied include hydrothermal vents, deep sedimentary basins, early Earth and possible extraterrestrial habitats. We will survey the major biologically relevant elements of the periodic table (C, O, S, N, Fe, P) and examine how these elements cycle through the environment, focusing on stable isotopic tracers of biological processes. Students will gain experience with field and laboratory techniques and we will emphasize the current scientific literature in discussions. Three hours of class per week.

Requisite: CHEM 151 or GEOL 301 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13.

490. Special Topics. Independent reading or research. A written report will be required. A full course.

Approval of the Departmental Chair is required. Fall and spring semesters. The Staff.

490H. Special Topics. Independent reading or research. A written report will be required. A half course.

Approval of the Departmental Chair is required. Fall and spring semesters. The Staff.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Independent research on a geologic problem within any area of staff competence. A dissertation of high quality will be required.

Open to seniors who meet the requirements of the Departmental Honors program. Fall semester. The Staff.

498D. Senior Departmental Honors. Independent research on a geologic problem within any area of staff competence. A dissertation of high quality will be required. A double course.

Open to seniors who meet the requirements of the Departmental Honors program. Fall semester. The Staff.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Independent research on a geologic problem within any area of staff competence. A dissertation of high quality will be required.

Open to seniors who meet the requirements of the Departmental Honors program. Spring semester. The Staff.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. Independent research on a geologic problem within any area of staff competence. A dissertation of high quality will be required. A double course.

Open to seniors who meet the requirements of the Departmental Honors program. Spring semester. The Staff.

German

Professors Brandes and Rogowski (Chair); Associate Professor Gilpin; Lecturer Gomoluch.

Major Program. Majoring in German can lead to a variety of careers in education, government, business, international affairs, and the arts.

The German Studies Major is broadly humanistic and cross-cultural. It develops language and cultural literacy skills and provides a critical understanding of the cultural and literary traditions of the German-speaking countries: The Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The Department offers effective preparation for graduate study in German literature and language while also opening up a broad range of interdisciplinary perspectives.

The major requires GERM 210 (or its equivalent), GERM 315 and 316 (German Cultural History), and a minimum of five further German courses. Three of these must be courses in German culture and literature, conducted in German. Majors are advised to broaden their knowledge of other European languages and cultures and to supplement their German program with courses in European history, politics, economics, and the arts.

Students who major in German Studies are expected to enroll in at least one German course per semester. The Department faculty will help majors develop individual reading lists as they prepare for a Comprehensive Examination administered during each student’s final semester.

Study Abroad. German majors are strongly encouraged to spend a summer, semester, or year of study abroad as a vital part of their undergraduate experience. The Department maintains a regular student exchange program with Göttingen University in Germany. Each year we send students to that university in exchange for two German students who serve as Language Assistants at Amherst College. Faculty can also advise students on a variety of other options for study in a German-speaking country.

Departmental Honors Program. In addition to the courses required for a rite degree in the major, candidates for Honors must complete GERM 498 and 499 and present a thesis on a topic chosen in consultation with an advisor in the Department. The aim of Honors work in German is (1) to consolidate general knowledge of the history and development of German language, culture, and history; (2) to explore a chosen subject through a more intensive program of readings and research than is possible in course work; (3) to present material along historical or analytical lines, in the form of a scholarly thesis.

Honors students who major with a concentration in German Studies are encouraged to consult early with their faculty advisor about a possible thesis topic. Depending on the topic chosen, their thesis committee will be comprised of Amherst College German Studies faculty who may or may not invite faculty from other departments, or from the Five Colleges to participate as readers. The thesis committee will be chaired by the student’s Department of German thesis advisor.

The quality of the Honors thesis, the result of the Comprehensive Examination, together with the overall college grade average, will determine the level of Honors recommended by the Department.

German Language

101. Elementary German I. Our multi media course is based on videos depicting realistic stories of the lives of present day Germans as well as authentic documents and interviews with native speakers from all walks of life. The video program, as well as related Internet webpages, will serve as a first-hand introduction to the German-speaking countries and will encourage students to use everyday language in a creative way. Text and audio-visual materials emphasize the mastery of speaking, writing, and reading skills that are the foundation for further study. Three hours a week for explanation and demonstration, one hour a week in small sections plus frequent viewing of video clips and Internet sites.

Fall and spring semesters. Lecturer Gomoluch.

102. Elementary German II. A continuation of GERM 101, with increased emphasis on reading of selected texts. Three class meetings per week plus one additional conversation hour in small sections, with individual work on the course website.

Requisite: GERM 101 or equivalent. Spring semester. Lecturer Gomoluch.

205. Intermediate German. Systematic review of grammar, aural and speaking practice, discussion of video and television programs, and reading of selected texts in contemporary German. Stress will be on the acquisition and polishing of verbal, reading, writing, and comprehension skills in German. Three hours per week for explanation and structured discussion, plus one hour per week in small sections for additional practice with German language assistants.

Requisite: GERM 102 or two years of secondary-school German or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Gilpin.

210. Advanced Composition and Conversation. Practice in free composition and analytical writing in German. Exercises in pronunciation and idiomatic conversation. Supplementary work with audio and video materials. Oral reports on selected topics and reading of literary and topical texts. Conducted in German. Three hours per week, plus one hour per week in small sections for additional practice with German language assistants.

Requisite: GERM 205 or equivalent, based on departmental placement decision. Spring semester. Professor Gilpin.

312. Advanced Reading, Conversation, and Style I. Reading, discussion, and close analysis of a wide range of cultural materials, including selections from Die Zeit and Der Spiegel, essays, and short works by modern authors and song writers (Böll, Brecht, Biermann, Udo Lindenberg, etc.). Materials will be analyzed both for their linguistic features and as cultural documents. Textual analysis includes study of vocabulary, style, syntax, and selected points of grammar. Round-table discussions, oral reports and structured composition exercises. Students will also view unedited television programs, work with the Internet, and listen to recordings of political and scholarly speeches, cabaret, protest songs, and to authors reading from their own works. Conducted in German. Three class hours per week, plus an additional hour in small sections.

Requisite: GERM 210 or equivalent. Fall semester. Lecturer Gomoluch.

314. Advanced Reading, Conversation, and Style II. Focusing on one contemporary novel, we will develop strategies for analyzing texts for their literary expression, their linguistic and stylistic features, and their cultural content. Additional materials (Internet, video, CD-ROMs, etc.) on literary and cultural topics as well as articles drawn from history, sociology, psychology, and philosophy. Three class hours per week, plus one hour with German Language Assistants.

Requisite: GERM 210 or equivalent. Spring semester. Lecturer Gomoluch.

315. German Cultural History to 1800. An examination of cultural developments in the German tradition, from the Early Middle Ages to the rise of Prussia and the Napoleonic Period. We shall explore the interaction between socio-political factors in German-speaking Europe and works of “high art” produced in the successive eras, as well as Germany’s centuries-long search for a cultural identity. Literature to be considered will include selections from Tacitus’ Germania, the Hildebrandslied, a courtly epic and some medieval lyric poetry; the sixteenth-century Faust chapbook and other writings of the Reformation Period; Baroque prose, poetry, and music; works by Lessing and other figures of the German Enlightenment; Sturm und Drang, including early works by Goethe, Schiller, and their younger contemporaries. Selected audio-visual materials will provide examples of artistic, architectural, and musical works representative of each of the main periods. Conducted in German.

Requisite: GERM 210 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Rogowski.

316. German Cultural History from 1800 to the Present. A survey of literary and cultural developments in the German tradition from the Romantic Period to contemporary trends. Major themes will include the Romantic imagination and the rise of nationalism in the nineteenth century, the literary rebellion of the period prior to 1848, Poetic Realism and the Industrial Revolution, and various forms of aestheticism, activism, and myth. In the twentieth century we shall consider the culture of Vienna, the “Golden Twenties,” the suppression of freedom in the Nazi state, issues of exile and inner emigration, and the diverse models of cultural reconstruction after 1945. Authors represented will include Friedrich Schlegel, Brentano, Heine, Büchner, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heinrich and Thomas Mann, Kafka, Brecht, Grass, Wolf, and Handke. Music by Schubert, Wagner, Mahler, and Henze; samples of art and architecture. Conducted in German.

Requisite: GERM 210 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Brandes.

320. Fairy Tales. This course invites you to journey into the world of German fairy tales, sagas, and legends. Castles and humble huts, enchanted forests and crumbling ruins are the topographies of our critical inquiry into bewitching, at times haunting tales of power struggles, family conflicts, the rise from “rags to riches,” as well as cruel acts, punishments, and rewards. Our focus will be on folk and literary tales, chief among them the tales of the brothers Grimm. We will also examine other European traditions of storytelling and their continuing relevance as literary, cultural, and social documents for today. Conducted in German.

Requisite: GERM 210 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13.

325. Romantic Couples. Can romantic love be pure passion? Or is it subject to rules designed to express feeling? The course explores the language and representations of love around 1800, during a time of profound social and aesthetic change. We will investigate the romantic yearnings for love as a meeting of autonomous subjects, leading to the discovery and realization of the self; the ecstasy of love and erotic misery; longings for everlasting fidelity and trust; issues of speechlessness and delusions; and the social marriage contract which gave rise to a desire to harmonize erotic and Platonic love and friendship. Readings will include romantic tales and fairy tales, novels, poetry, and letters by Goethe, Friedrich Schlegel, Dorothea Schlegel, Bettina von Arnim, Tieck, Hoffmann, and Kleist; music by Schubert and Wagner; romantic painting by Friedrich, Runge, and the Nazarenes. Conducted in German.

Requisite: GERM 210 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Brandes.

327. The Age of Goethe. Classical German literature and music, from the 1780s to the 1830s, has influenced German and Western culture until today. While considering music and art, this course will focus primarily on the greatest writers of the period: Goethe, Schiller, and Hölderlin. Placing their literature in the philosophical and political contexts of Idealism and of German enlightened absolutism, we will distinguish this “high art” from contemporary early romantic concepts as well as from German Jacobine activism, which was strongly influenced by the French Revolution. We will also examine the legacy of this rich cultural era in its impact on Western romantic, transcendentalist, and symbolist movements—and its influence on the rise of the myth of the Germans as a “nation of poets and thinkers.” Readings will include Goethe’s Faust I, Egmont, Iphigenie, and Römische Elegien; Schiller’s Die Räuber and Maria Stuart; Hölderlin’s Hyperion and selected poems; essays and manifestos by Kant, Fichte, and Forster. Listening assignments in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and selected Lieder of the period. Conducted in German.

Requisite: GERM 210 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Brandes.

331. Berlin, Metropolis. “Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome!” to Berlin, Europe’s youngest metropolis. Virtually exploding in the early 1900s into a creative and influential urban center, the new Berlin reacted to the political challenges of imperialism, war, revolution, and inflation with wit, sarcasm, and radical politics—the perfect proving ground for those seeking personal freedom and political change, including artists, amateurs, reformers, and revolutionaries. We will trace the beginnings and flowering of urban modernism in Berlin public life, architecture, the fine arts and theater, up to the Nazi virulent attacks on modern art and urban lifestyles as “degenerate” in 1933. Course materials focus on the changes from pre-modern to urban metropolis, including such topics as alternative ways of life in the social and cultural spaces of the city; the celebration of the exotic; new concepts of sexuality and the body; ethnicity and difference; and the ill-fated German-Jewish symbiosis. Readings and viewings include novels, films, essays, design, architecture, theater, cabaret, jazz, and montage in the arts. Conducted in German.

Requisite: GERM 210 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Brandes.

332. Exile and Migration. Migration is integral to the human experience, having become more common as our global economy encourages the free movement of people and ideas. About twenty percent of all people living in Germany today have a migration background, making life between cultures central to the ongoing discussion “What is German?” Over the centuries, many foreign-born persons immigrated into the German lands, and Germans fled from their home country, either to escape political repression or to look for better opportunities. We will explore issues of exile, alienation, gender, race, migration, and post-migration since the late eighteenth century, focusing on the German experience. Readings will include literature and essays by Herder, Chamisso, Heine, Kafka, Brecht, Anna Seghers, Thomas Mann, Paul Celan, Jurek Becker, and Thilo Sarrazin as well as texts in German by various foreign-born writers currently living in Germany, among them Herta Müller, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Yadé Kara, Wladimir Kaminer, Feridun Zaimog˘lu, and Rafik Schami. Films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Fatih Akin, Angelina Maccarone, Jörg Grünler, Tamara Staudt, Lars Becker, Züli Aladag˘, Yasemin S¸amdereli. Conducted in German.

Requisite: GERM 210 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Brandes.

333. Comedy and Humor. The course with the shortest reading list ever—not! Contrary to popular opinion, Germans (and their Austrian and Swiss neighbors) do have a sense of humor that has produced a wide variety of both high-brow and popular forms, ranging from the absurdist skits of Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt, to raunchy “Ostfriesenwitze,” and to the current boom in sex and “relationship” comedies in film. We will explore broadsheets and cartoons (Wilhelm Busch, Loriot, E. O. Plauen, Uli Stein), populist theater forms such as the operetta (Strauss, Lehar) and farcical “Volkstheater,” sophisticated literary comedies (Tieck, Büchner, Sternheim, Dürrenmatt), social satire in print and other media (Heine, Kraus, Tucholsky, Staudte, Irmtraud Morgner, Robert Gernhardt, Eckhard Henscheid, Luise Pusch, Elfriede Jelinek), parody pastiche in song and movies (Comedian Harmonists, Max Raabe, Bully Herbig), and political humor in cabaret from the Wilhelmine period, the Weimar Republic, inside and outside the Third Reich, communist East Germany, and the multi-ethnic Germany of today (Wedekind, Werner Finck, Erika Mann, Gerhart Polt, Sinasi Dikmen). Primary materials will be supplemented by theoretical readings, including Arthur Koestler, Volker Klotz, Susanne Schäfer, and—of course—Sigmund Freud. Conducted in German.

Requisite: GERM 210 or equivalent. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Rogowski.

Courses Offered in English

344. Popular Cinema. From Fritz Lang’s thrilling detective mysteries to Tom Tykwer’s hip postmodern romp Run Lola Run, from Ernst Lubitsch’s satirical wit to the gender-bending comedies of Katja von Garnier, this course explores the rich legacy of popular and genre films in the German-speaking countries. Topics to be covered include adventure films, comedies, and costume dramas of the silent period, including Fritz Lang’s Spiders (1919) and Joe May’s The Indian Tomb (1920); the musical comedies of the Weimar Republic and the “dream couple” Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch; Nazi movie stars and the “non-political” entertainment films of the Third Reich, such as Josef von Baky’s blockbuster Münchhausen (1943); the resurgence of genre films in the 1950s (“Heimatfilme,” romantic comedies, melodramas, etc.); the Cold War Westerns in the West (based on the novels by Karl May) and in the East (starring Gojko Mitic); the efforts to produce audience-oriented films in the politicized climate of the 1960s and 1970s; the big budget quasi-Hollywood productions by Wolfgang Petersen; and the recent spate of relationship comedies. We will discuss the work of, among others, actors and performers Karl Valentin, Heinz Rühmann, Zarah Leander, Hans Albers, Heinz Erhardt, Romy Schneider, Loriot, and Otto, and directors including Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang, Joe May, Wilhelm Thiele, May Spils, Katja von Garnier, Detlev Buck, Tom Tykwer, and Doris Dörrie. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Rogowski.

347. Weimar Cinema: The “Golden Age” of German Film. (Offered as GERM 347 and FAMS 323.) This course examines the German contribution to the emergence of film as both a distinctly modern art form and as a product of mass culture. The international success of Robert Wiene’s Expressionist phantasmagoria, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), heralded the beginning of a period of unparalleled artistic exploration, prior to the advent of Hitler, during which the ground was laid for many of the filmic genres familiar today: horror film (F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu), detective thriller (Fritz Lang’s M), satirical comedy (Ernst Lubitsch’s The Oyster Princess), psychological drama (G.W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box), science fiction (Lang’s Metropolis), social melodrama (Pabst’s The Joyless Street), historical costume film (Lubitsch’s Passion), political propaganda (Slatan Dudow’s Kuhle Wampe), anti-war epic (Pabst’s Westfront 1918), a documentary montage (Walther Ruttmann’s Berlin—Symphony of a Big City), and the distinctly German genre of the “mountain film” (Leni Riefenstahl’s The Blue Light). Readings, including Siegried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, Lotte H. Eisner, Béla Balázs, and Rudolf Arnheim, will address questions of technology and modernity, gender relations after World War I, the intersection of politics and film, and the impact of German and Austrian exiles on Hollywood. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Rogowski.

349. Witches: Myth and Reality. This course examines the historical construction of the witch and the context of the women (and men) labeled as witches. Our main topics will be: European Pagan religions and the spread of Christianity; the “Burning Times” in early modern Europe, with an emphasis on the German situation; 17th-century New England and the Salem witch trials; the images of witches in folklore and fairy tales in the context of the historical persecutions; and some contemporary Wiccan/witch practices in their historical context. Readings are drawn from documentary records of the witch persecutions and witch trials, literary representations, scholarly analyses of witch-related phenomena and themes, and essays examining witches, witchcraft, and the witch persecutions, including from contemporary feminist and/or neo-Pagan perspectives. Readings and discussions will be supplemented by related material taken from current events in addition to visual material (videos, slides) drawn from art history, early modern witch literature, popular culture, and documentary sources. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13.

350. Rilke. The course will explore the rich legacy of one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. We will examine Rilke’s peculiar background in the German-speaking minority in Hapsburg Prague; his situation in the literary world of fin-de-siècle Munich; the significance of his encounter with Lou Andreas-Salomé; the intellectual experiences that shaped his outlook on life and on poetry (Nietzsche; Russia and Tolstoy; Paris and Rodin); his artistic breakthrough in the two-volume New Poems (1907) and the concept of the “Ding-Gedicht”; the existential crisis reflected in the modernist novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (1910); his reflections on the role of poetry in a modern world of uncertainty in texts such as A Letter to a Young Poet (1903); his artistic crisis of the 1910s; and the extraordinary double achievement of 1922, The Duino Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Spring semester. Professor Rogowski.

351. Joyful Apocalypse: Vienna Around 1900. Between 1890 and 1914, Vienna was home to such diverse figures as Sigmund Freud, Gustav Klimt, Gustav Mahler, Leon Trotsky, and—Adolf Hitler. Which social, cultural, and political forces brought about the extraordinary vibrancy and creative ferment in the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? The course will examine the multiple tensions that characterized “fin-de-siècle” Vienna, such as the connection between the pursuit of pleasure and an exploration of human sexuality, and the conflict between avant-garde experimentation and the disintegration of political liberalism. Against this historical backdrop we shall explore a wide variety of significant figures in literature (Schnitzler, Hofmannsthal, Musil, Kraus), music (Mahler, R. Strauss, Schönberg), and the visual arts (Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, O. Wagner, A. Loos). We will explore the significance of various intellectual phenomena, including the psychoanalysis of Freud and the philosophies of Ernst Mach and Ludwig Wittgenstein. We shall also trace the emergence of modern Zionism (Theodor Herzl) in a context of growing anti-Semitism, and discuss the pacifism of Bertha von Suttner in a society on the verge of the cataclysm of the First World War. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Rogowski.

352. Kafka, Brecht, and Thomas Mann. Representative works by each of the three contemporary authors will be read both for their intrinsic artistic merit and as expressions of the cultural, social, and political concerns of their time. Among these are such topics as the dehumanization of the individual by the state, people caught between conflicting ideologies, and literature as admonition, political statement, or escape. Readings of short stories and a novel by Kafka, including “The Judgment,” “The Metamorphosis,” and The Castle; poems, short prose, and plays by Brecht, e.g., The Three-Penny Opera, Mother Courage, and The Good Woman of Setzuan; fiction and essays by Mann, including “Death in Venice” and Buddenbrooks. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Brandes.

360. Performance. (Offered as GERM 360, ARCH 360, EUST 360 and FAMS 316.) What is performance? What constitutes an event? How can we address a phenomenon that has disappeared the moment we apprehend it? How does memory operate in our critical perception of an event? How does a body make meaning? These are a few of the questions we will explore in this course, as we discuss critical, theoretical, and compositional approaches in a broad range of multidisciplinary performance phenomena emerging from European—primarily German—culture in the twentieth century. We will focus on issues of performativity, composition, conceptualization, dramaturgy, identity construction, representation, space, gender, and dynamism. Readings of performance theory, performance studies, gender studies, and critical/cultural studies, as well as literary, philosophical, and architectural texts will accompany close examination of performance material. Students will develop performative projects in various media (video, performance, text, online) and deliver a number of critical oral and written presentations on various aspects of the course material and their own projects. Performance material will be experienced live when possible, and in text, video, audio, digital media and online form, drawn from selected works of Dada and Surrealism, Bauhaus, German Expressionism, the Theater of the Absurd, Tanztheater, and Contemporary Theater, Performance, Dance, Opera, New Media, and Performance Art. A number of films, including Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Oskar Schlemmer’s Das Triadische Ballett, Fernand Léger’s Ballet Mécanique, and Kurt Jooss’ Der Grüne Tisch, will be also screened. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Gilpin.

363. Traumatic Events. (Offered as GERM 363, EUST 363, and FAMS 370.) How is memory constructed and represented? How is it possible to bear witness, and what exactly is involved? Who is authorized to testify, to whom, when? Whose story is it? Is it possible to tell “the story” of a traumatic event? What are the disorders of testimony, and how and where do they emerge? This course will observe the workings of trauma (the enactment and working-through of collective and individual symptoms of trauma), memory, and witnessing in various modes of everyday life. We will examine notions of catastrophe, disaster, accident, and violence, and explore the possibilities and impossibilities of bearing witness in many forms of cultural production: in fiction, poetry, architecture, critical theory, oral and written testimonies, visual art, monuments, memorials, philosophy, science, cartoons, film, video, theater, television reportage, newspaper documentation, performance, online, and in our public and domestic spaces. We will study various representations of trauma, paying particular attention to events in Germany and Europe from the twentieth century, as well as to 9/11 and other recent international events. Material to be examined will be drawn from the work of Pina Bausch, Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Cathy Caruth, Paul Celan, Marguerite Duras, Peter Eisenman, Shoshana Felman, Florian Freund, Jochen Gerz, Geoffrey Hartman, Rebecca Horn, Marion Kant, Anselm Kiefer, Ruth Klüger, Dominick LaCapra, Claude Lanzmann, Dori Laub, Daniel Libeskind, W.G. Sebald, Art Spiegelman, Paul Virilio, Peter Weiss, Wim Wenders, Elie Wiesel, Christa Wolf, and others. Conducted in English with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Gilpin.

364. Architectures of Disappearance. (Offered as GERM 364, ARCH 364, and EUST 364.) This course will address a number of developments and transformations in contemporary urban architecture and performance from an international perspective. We will explore issues including, but not limited to, trauma, memory, absence, perception, corporeality, representation, and the senses in our examination of recent work in Germany and elsewhere, and read a number of texts from the fields of philosophy, critical theory, performance studies, and visual and architectural studies, in an attempt to understand how architecture is beginning to develop compositional systems in which to envision dynamic and responsive spaces in specific cultural contexts. We will focus our research on the work of a number of German and international architects, performance, and new media artists, including Jochen Gerz, Renata Stih and Frieder Schnock, Horst Hoheisel, Micha Ullman, Shimon Attie, Daniel Libeskind, Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas, Greg Lynn, Mark Goulthorpe, R & Sie(n), Axel Kilian, Paul Privitera, Hani Rashid and Lise-Ann Couture, Herzog and de Meuron, Archigram, William Forsythe, Jan Fabre, Rachel Whiteread, Rebecca Horn, Sasha Waltz, Richard Siegal, Michael Schumacher, Robert Wilson, the Blix Brothers of Berlin, Pina Bausch, Granular Synthesis, Sponge, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Toni Dove, and many others. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Gilpin.

365. Making Memorials. (Offered as GERM 365 ARCH 365, and EUST 365.) This is a course about what happens to difficult memories: memories that are intensely personal, but made public, memories that belong to communities, but which become ideologically possessed by history, politics, or the media. How are memories processed into memorials? What constitutes a memorial? What gets included or excluded? How is memory performed in cultural objects, spaces, and institutions? What is the relationship between the politics of representation and memory? Who owns memory? Who is authorized to convey it? How does memory function? This course will explore the spaces in which memories are “preserved” and experienced. Our attention will focus on the transformation of private and public memories in works of architecture, performance, literature, and the visual arts primarily in Germany, Europe, and the United States. Preference given to German majors and European Studies majors, as well as to students interested in architecture/design, performance, the visual arts, interactive installation and/or the environment. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Gilpin.

366. Bauhaus. (Offered as GERM 366, ARCH 356, and EUST 246). This course will explore in detail the art, architecture, history and theory of the influential German art school, the Bauhaus. The subject of recent blockbuster exhibitions in New York and Berlin, this course will make use of many new publications and critical viewpoints. We will begin with the school’s origins during WWI and the German Revolution, its spectacular contributions and controversial development during the Weimar Republic, and conclude with the demise of the Bauhaus by the National Socialists. We will trace the forced exile of many Bauhaus artists and architects, as well as analyze Bauhaus legacies (at Black Mountain College, the Ulm School of Design, the New Bauhaus Chicago, Yale, and Harvard, and in the Situationists’ New Babylon project). The course will include the work of the architects Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, Mies van der Rohe and Lilli Reich; the art and design (textiles, metal work, prints, photographs, typography, paintings, sculpture, etc.) of Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger, Gunta Stözl, Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Joseph Albers, and Oskar Schlemmer; and the writings of important Weimar writers and theorists, such as Erich Maria Remarque, Walter Benjamin, Georg Lukács, and Siegfried Kracauer. Students will be responsible for in-class presentations, a book review, and a final paper. Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of their reading in German.

Omitted 2012-13.

368. SPACE. (Offered as GERM 368, EUST 368, and FAMS 373.) This research seminar will explore conceptions of space as they have informed and influenced thought and creativity in the fields of cultural studies, literature, architecture, urban studies, performance, and the visual, electronic, and time-based arts. Students will select and pursue a major semester-long research project early in the semester in consultation with the professor, and present their research in its various stages of development throughout the semester, in a variety of media formats (writing, performance, video, electronic art/interactive media, installation, online and networked events, architectural/design drawings/renderings), along with oral presentations of readings and other materials. Readings and visual materials will be drawn from the fields of literature and philosophy; from architectural, art, and film theory and history; from performance studies and performance theory; and from theories of technology and the natural and built environment. Emphasis on developing research, writing, and presentation skills is a core of this seminar.

For spring 2013, we will focus on the river as the generative and dynamic concept that will guide our explorations of space and of different kinds of spaces, in conjunction with the European Union/Five College project on Riverscaping/Alles am Fluss: Rethinking art, environment and community/Kunst—Umwelt—Nachbarschaft neu denken. Students will pursue research projects concerning the visual arts, history, literature, environment, ecology, visibility/interactivity, conditions and movements of the river (specific rivers including the Elbe River in Hamburg, Germany and the Connecticut River here in the Pioneer Valley), and explore the visions, challenges, and possibilities of creating spaces in which art can happen and in which creative processes can transform communities. Students will have the opportunity to present their final research projects at the European Union/Five Colleges Riverscaping conference on Europe Day, May 9, 2013. One three-hour meeting per week.

Preference given to German majors and European Studies majors, as well as to students interested in architecture/design, performance, film/video, interactive installation, and/or the environment. Conducted in English. German majors will select a research project focused on a German Studies context, and will do a substantial portion of the readings in German.

Limited to 15 students. Enrollment requires attendance at the first class meeting. Spring semester. Professor Gilpin.

Other Courses

490. Special Topics. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Fall semester. The Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Spring semester. The Department.

History

*On leave 2012-13.

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors Couvares, Dennerline, Epstein (Chair), Hunt, G. Levin, Redding, Saxton‡, Servos†, and K. Sweeney; Associate Professors López, Maxey*, Moss†, and Ringer; Assistant Professors Boucher, Castro Alves, Melillo* and Sen; Keiter Visiting Assistant Professor Woods; Five College Assistant Professors Glebov and Shawcross*; Visiting Lecturer Rabig.

Goals for the History Major

Students who complete the major in History will be able to

Think critically about the relationship between historical evidence and arguments.

Challenge and revise existing narratives of the past, both to comprehend the events they describe and to shed light on society’s evolving needs and concerns.

Question their own ideas and assumptions, and reflect on the often hidden relationships between ideas and social institutions, and between individuals and their cultures.

Analyze texts, documents, and oral historical materials, and assess the uses made of these materials by other historians.

Frame research questions, conduct independent research, and write persuasively.

The requirements for the history major encourage students to develop these capacities by studying the history of a particular region or historical topic in depth and by ranging more widely so as to fulfill geographical and chronological breadth requirements.

Majors will demonstrate their mastery of History by successfully completing nine history courses that include

Four courses in an individually chosen area of concentration

One course each in at least three different geographic areas

Either two courses that cover the pre-1800 period [P], or one pre-1800 course and one comparative history [C] course

A research seminar (numbered 400 and up) resulting in the completion of a 20- to 25-page research paper that conforms to the department’s “Guidelines for Research Papers”

HIST 301, Writing the Past or HIST 402, Proseminar: Research and Writing

Some individual courses may fulfill more than one of the above requirements. Students who have taken history courses outside of the Five College Consortium (including history courses taken in study abroad programs) must petition the department to receive its approval to count those courses toward the major requirements. Majors should consult their departmental advisers as they select their courses or if they have questions about the requirements.

In addition, all majors must satisfy a comprehensive assessment by either

Completing a senior thesis on an independently chosen topic, and participating in an oral defense of the thesis with three faculty members chosen jointly by the student and the department. The thesis adds two to three additional courses (normally HIST 498 and 499) to the major program for a total of eleven or twelve history courses. The thesis is a requirement for the student to be a candidate for a degree with Latin honors.

or

Completing a capstone project. A major who elects not to write a thesis will prepare a brief (10-15 minute) oral presentation based on his or her 20 to 25 page research paper, and will also prepare a brief (3-5 page) written commentary on the paper. The presentation should highlight the research question, the sources and methods of investigation, and the overall conclusion. Students will give their presentations in their senior years, on a day designated by the department, and with faculty and junior and senior majors in attendance. The written commentary should highlight the research question, discuss how the student would revise the paper if he or she had more time, had access to distant archives, etc., and elaborate on how the paper draws upon the student’s background in the major.

Concentration within the major. In completing their major, history students must take four courses either in the history of one geographical region (chosen from the six possibilities listed below), or in the history of a particular historical topic (for example, colonialism or nationalism), or in a comparative history of two or more regions, chosen by the student. The geographical regions are as follows:

1) the United States [US]; 2) Europe [EU]; 3) Asia [AS]; 4) Africa and the diaspora [AF]; 5) Latin America and the Caribbean [LA]; 6) the Middle East [ME].

Each student shall designate a concentration in consultation with his or her advisor.

Departmental Honors Program. The Department recommends Latin Honors for seniors who have achieved distinction in their course work and who have completed a thesis of Honors quality. Students who are candidates for Latin Honors will normally take two courses, HIST 498 and HIST 499, in addition to the courses required of all majors. With the approval of the thesis advisor, a student may take either HIST 498 or HIST 499 as a double course. In special cases, and with the approval of the entire Department, a student may be permitted to devote more than three courses to his or her thesis.

Course Levels in the Department of History. Introductory level courses assume little or no previous college or university level experience in studying history either in general or in the specific regions covered by the courses. They are appropriate both for students new to the Department’s offerings and for those who wish to broaden their historical knowledge by studying a region, topic, or period that they have not previously explored. Intermediate level courses usually focus on a narrower region, topic, or historical period. Although most intermediate level courses have no prerequisites (see the individual course listings), they assume a more defined interest on the part of the student, and are appropriate for those who wish to enhance their understanding of the specific topic as well as their analytical and writing skills. Seminars (upper-level courses) usually require the student to complete an independent research paper that satisfies the “Guidelines for Research Papers.” They are appropriate both for history majors as a way of fully comprehending and practicing the craft of the historian, as well as for non-history majors who wish to pursue a topic in depth.

Key for concentration and breadth requirements for the major: US [United States]; EU [Europe]; AS [Asia]; AF [Africa and the diaspora]; LA [Latin America and the Caribbean]; ME [Middle East]; P [Pre-1800]; C [Comparative].

101. World War II in Global Perspective. [C] This course will explore World War II in global perspective. Historians of Europe, Japan, and the United States will join together to teach the history of the world’s most destructive war. Topics include the rise of militant regimes in Germany and Japan; German and Japanese aggression in the 1930s; the attack on Pearl Harbor; famous battles of the war; the Holocaust; German and Japanese occupation practices; civilian life in the Allied and Axis countries; and the later memory of the war. The course will also address moral controversies raised by the war, including the Anglo-American firebombing of Germany and the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Texts for the course will include film, memoirs, government documents, graphic and other novels, and secondary accounts of the war. Class will consist of two lectures and one discussion section per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professors Epstein, Maxey, and K. Sweeney.

104. Environmental Issues of the Nineteenth Century. (Offered as HIST 104 [C] and ENST 220.) This course considers the ways that people in various parts of the world thought about and acted upon nature during the nineteenth century. We look historically at issues that continue to have relevance today, including: invasive species, deforestation, soil-nitrogen availability, water use, desertification, and air pollution. Themes include: the relationship of nineteenth-century colonialism and environmental degradation, gender and environmental change, the racial dimensions of ecological issues, and the spatial aspects of human interactions with nature. We will take at least one field trip. In addition, we will watch three films that approach nineteenth-century environmental issues from different vantage points. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13, Professor Melillo.

105. Global Environmental History of the Twentieth Century. [C] This course examines the environmental history of the world since 1900 with a particular focus on Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and China. We will use books, articles, four films, and a range of online media to illuminate the comparative and interdisciplinary possibilities of global environmental history. In addition to studying the past, we will explore how to use historical knowledge in the formulation of policy recommendations and grassroots initiatives for addressing contemporary environmental issues. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Melillo.

112. Russian Empire in Eurasia. (Offered as HIST 112 [CP] and RUSS 230.) In the course of five hundred years, the Russian empire in Eurasia evolved as the largest territorial polity in the world. In this course, we will explore the medieval foundations of the imperial state and look at its predecessors and models (Kievan Rus’ and the empire of the Mongols), discuss ways in which cooperation and resistance shaped the imperial state and society, and study cultural and political entanglements among different ethnic, linguistic and confessional groups in Eurasia. Chronologically, we will cover the period from the 10th century to the crisis of the empire in the early 20th century. Thematically, we will focus on structures of imperial state and society (the imperial house, peasantry, nobility, confessions, intelligentsia, revolutionary movement) and most important regions of the Russian Empire (Ukraine, the Caucasus, the Baltics, Siberia, Central Asia).

Faculty from the Five College Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies Certificate program will contribute lectures and discussions to the class. The course serves as the core course to the Five College REEES Certificate. Requirements will include several reaction papers, map quiz, mid-term exam and final research paper. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13, Five College Professor Glebov.

121. Medieval Europe: From Charlemagne to Columbus. [EUP] The period from the rise of the Holy Roman Empire to the discovery of the New World has been rightly described as the “making of Europe.” This course explores aspects of medieval institutions, society and culture from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia and beyond, looking at royal and aristocratic authority, the power of the papacy, and the emergence of urban classes. Attention will be drawn to agrarian and commercial revolutions, to technological advances and revivals of intellectual activity, letters and the arts, but also to warfare and religious conflict. We will discover how people lived, how they viewed themselves, and how their perceptions of the world changed. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Shawcross.

125. Early Modern Europe. (Offered as HIST 125 [EUP] and EUST 125.) This introductory survey covers Western, Central and Eastern Europe and the European parts of the Ottoman Empire during the period from approximately 1500 to 1800. It looks at the main political developments of the period, with special attention to court culture, rebellions and revolutions, colonial expansion and contraction, and the clash of states and empires. It examines new developments in long-distance trade, agriculture, industry, finance, warfare, media and the arts, and their impact on social life, politics and the environment. It looks at the emergent slave systems of Europe and her colonies as well as the Ottoman Empire. And it analyzes religious conflict and accommodation with respect to Catholics, Protestants, the Eastern Orthodox, Jews, Muslims and “non-believers.” The course aims to uncover the political, ethnic and religious diversity of Early Modern Europe as well as to plumb the roots of present-day conflicts and controversies about the historical definition of “Europe” and “Europeans.” Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Hunt.

130. World War I. (Offered as HIST 130 [EU] and EUST 130). When one thinks of the First World War today, a few stock images tend to come to mind: trenches, mud, the machine gun. Yet this insular vision does not do justice to the immensity and complexity of the twentieth century’s first global conflict. This course aims to move beyond the conventional understanding of World War I by exploring its varied impact on Europe and the world. It examines how the war shaped the lives, beliefs, and emotions of people both on and off the battlefield, from European and colonial soldiers to politicians, civilians, and families. It also explores how the war has been commemorated, remembered, and studied, questioning whether later depictions of the “Great War” sufficiently capture the perspectives of those who lived through it. Through a close examination of the causes, course, and legacy of World War I, this course reflects upon the experience of modern warfare more generally. Readings and materials will be drawn from secondary and primary sources, including letters, diaries, memoirs, short stories, artwork, photographs, and films. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 35 students. Spring semester. Professor Boucher.

132. Europe in the Twentieth Century. (Offered as HIST 132 [EU] and EUST 133.) This course offers a broad survey of European history in the twentieth century. It will cover events such as World War I; the Bolshevik Revolution and the ensuing Soviet experiment; the Spanish Civil War; Nazism, World War II, and the Holocaust; the Cold War in Europe; the collapse of communism; and the Balkan Wars in the 1990s. In addition, the course will focus on the broad themes of twentieth-century European history: the confrontation between liberalism, fascism, and communism; the role of nationalism; the development of the welfare state; the decline of Europe’s role in the world; the movement for European unity; and changing notions of race, class, and gender during the course of the century. Course materials will focus on primary documents, including films, memoirs, novels, political manifestos, and government and other official documents. Three class meetings per week.

Limited to 60 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Epstein.

136. The Soviet Century: Rise and Fall of the Communist Experiment. (Offered as HIST 136 [EU] and RUSS 235.) This course will explore the history of Soviet state and society through the revolutionary turmoil, Stalin’s socio-economic transformations and terror, World War II and the Cold War. As we follow the development of the Soviet Union, we will focus on topics such as the role of ideology in policy and everyday life, people’s reactions and adaptations to unprecedented pressures of “really existing socialism,” function of terror, repression and accommodation in Communist society, and the place of the USSR on the changing map of world powers in the twentieth century. While we will discuss the role of leaders and institutions, we will also pay attention to cultures and practices of everyday life that developed behind the Iron Curtain. Materials for the class will include writings by contemporary historians, memoirs, novels, films, and art works from the Mead Museum. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Glebov.

141. Colonial North America. [USP] A survey of early American history from the late 1500s to the mid-1700s. The course begins by looking at Native American peoples and their initial contacts with European explorers and settlers. It examines comparatively the establishment of selected colonies and their settlement by diverse European peoples and enslaved Africans. The last half of the course focuses on the social, economic, political, and cultural conditions influencing the rise of the British colonies. Three class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor K. Sweeney.

144. Nineteenth-Century America. [US] A survey of American history from the early national period to the turn of the century, with an emphasis on social history. The course will trace the growth of slavery, the dispossession of Native Americans, Civil War and Reconstruction, the rise of postwar large-scale industry, and big cities. Topics will include changing ethnic, racial, gender, and class relations, the struggles between labor and capital, and the emergence of middle-class culture. The format will include lectures and weekly discussions; readings will be drawn from both original and secondary sources. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Saxton.

155. Twentieth-Century America. [US] The course traces United States political, social, and cultural history from 1900 to the present. Among the topics covered are the rise of the modern corporation, class conflict and the Progressive movement; immigration, ethnic pluralism, and the rise of mass culture; the Great Depression and the New Deal; World War II, the Cold War, and McCarthyism; the civil rights, women’s and environmental movements, the New Left, the New Right, and the continuing inequalities of race and class. Films and videos will regularly supplement class readings. Three class meetings per week.

Limited to 40 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Couvares.

160. Black Diaspora from Africa to the Haitian Revolution. (Offered as HIST 160 [LAP/AFP] and BLST 191 [CLA/D].) This course maps the range of black experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean from the emergence of Atlantic slave-based economies in the sixteenth century to the 1844 slave conspiracy of La Escalera in Cuba. It treats the Atlantic Ocean as a crossroads of diverse cultures and as a point of reference for understanding the condition of Africans and people of African descent. Topics of discussion will include the rise of the transatlantic slave trade, slave and free black communities, the meaning of Africa and African culture, changing ideas of freedom, and forms of black activism. We will read Alejo Carpentier’s historical novel The Kingdom of This World (1949), slave narratives and monographic works on the British colony of Demerara (today Guyana), Mexico, Peru, Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti and Cuba. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Castro Alves.

161. Black Diaspora from Emancipation to the Present. (Offered as HIST 161 [LA/AF] and BLST 101 [CLA/D].) This course explores the historical roots of contemporary racial formations in Latin America and the Caribbean. It focuses particularly on the black experiences, inter-ethnic conflicts and racial solidarities in Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and Puerto Rico from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Topics of discussion will include the struggles for emancipation from slavery, black notions of sovereignty, forms of black nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and political radicalism. We will examine a multiplicity of historical sources, including novels, music, film, personal testimonies, and historical monographs in order to understand the black diaspora as both an historical process and as a seedbed for various identities, racial cultures and political projects. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Castro Alves.

171. Chinese Civilization to 1800. (Offered as HIST 171 [ASP] and ASLC 124 [C].) A survey of Chinese history from ancient times to the eighteenth century. We will focus on texts and artifacts to explore the classical roots and historical development of Chinese statecraft, philosophy, religion, art, and literature. Using these media for evidence, we will trace the histories of inter-state relations, imperial institutions, global commerce, and family-based society through the ancient Han empire, the great age of Buddhism, the medieval period of global trade, and the Confucian bureaucratic empires that followed the Mongol world conquest. We will also compare these histories to those of European and other civilizations, considering Chinese and non-Chinese views of the past. Readings include the Analects of Confucius and other Confucian and Daoist texts, Buddhist tales and early modern fiction, selections from the classic Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), and Jonathan Spence’s Emperor of China: Self-portrait of Kangxi. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Dennerline.

172. Modern China. (Offered as HIST 172 [AS] and ASLC 146 [C].) A survey of Chinese history from the Manchu conquest of 1644 to the present. Beginning with the successes and failures of the imperial state as it faced global economic development, expanding European empires, and internal social change, we will study the Opium War, massive nineteenth-century religious rebellions, Republican revolution and state-building, the “New Culture” movement, Communist revolution, the anti-Japanese war, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, and the problems of post-Mao reform, all with comparative reference to current events. Readings, which include a wide variety of documents such as religious and revolutionary tracts, eye-witness accounts, memoirs, and letters, are supplemented by interpretive essays and videos. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Dennerline.

173. Introduction to Medieval and Early Modern South Asia: From the Delhi Sultanates to Mughal Successor States, 1200-1800 A.D. (Offered as HIST 173 [ASP] and ASLC 173.) This course presents an introduction to major themes and developments in medieval and early modern South Asian history with a particular emphasis on the emergence and flourishing of Islamic regimes in the sub-continent. Commencing with the rise of Islam in South Asia, the course explores the evolutions of the Delhi Sultanates, syncretistic cults and sects, the Vijayanagara Empire, and the Mughal Empire, as well as the relationships between politics, religion, literature, art, and trade under these formations. Readings are drawn from both primary and secondary sources. The course aims at providing a broad overview of six centuries of sub-continental history, coupled with closer attention to select themes. Challenging both colonialist and early nationalist views of this vast period as one of stagnation and tyranny, the course seeks to demonstrate the vitality and dynamism that characterized these centuries of the second millennium. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Sen.

174. Introduction to Modern South Asian History. (Offered as HIST 174 [AS] and ASLC 174.) This survey course introduces key themes and events in the making of modern South Asia. The objective is to provide a skeletal historical narrative of the various transformations the subcontinent and its peoples experienced through the colonial and post-colonial eras. A variety of primary sources and audio and visual materials will be utilized in conjunction with excerpts from panoramic textbooks as well as portions of monographs, combining perspectives from political, social, cultural and economic history. Commencing with the transitions occurring in the middle to late 18th century, the course explores some of the major historical developments in South Asia until the present moment including the East India Company-state, colonial and imperial rule, social reform, the revolt of 1857, Indian nationalism, caste and communal conflict, and the struggles for post-colonial democracy. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Sen.

175. Japanese History to 1700s. (Offered as HIST 175 [ASP] and ASLC 225 [J].) This is a writing attentive survey of Japan’s history from antiquity to the early-eighteenth century. It traces political, social, and cultural developments in order to provide basic literacy in pre-modern Japanese history and a basis both for comparative history and further course work in Japanese history. Prominent themes include the rise of early polities, contact with the Chinese continent and Korean peninsula, the aristocratic culture of the Heian court and its displacement by medieval samurai rule, the role of Buddhist thought and institutions, the “warring states” period of the sixteenth-century and cosmopolitan contact with Christian Europe, the Tokugawa peace and its urban cultural forms. Throughout, we will read a variety of sources, including eighth-century mythology, aristocratic literature, chronicles of war, religious and philosophical texts, as well as modern fiction and film. Classes will combine lectures with close readings and discussions of the assigned texts. Requirements include short response papers and topical essays. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Maxey.

176. Modern Japanese History from 1800 to the 2000s. (Offered as HIST 176 [AS] and ASLC 247 [J].) This course surveys the modern history of the Japanese archipelago, from the late-Tokugawa period through the rise of the modern Meiji nation-state, colonial expansion and total war. We will conclude with the postwar economic recovery and the socio-political challenges facing the Japanese nation-state in the early-2000s. Through primary documents, fiction, and film, we will explore themes including the disestablishment of the samurai class, industrialization, imperialism, feminism, nationalism, war, democracy, and consumerism. Classes will consist of lectures along with close readings and discussions. Requirements include short response papers and topical essays. Three class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Maxey.

181. Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa. (Offered as HIST 181 [AF] and BLST 221 [A].) This is a history of Africa from the late nineteenth century to the present day. In the first half of the course, we will study the imperial scramble to colonize Africa; the broader integration of African societies into the world economy; the social, political and medical impact of imperial policies; Western popular images of Africa in the colonial period; the nationalist struggles that resulted in the independent African states; and the persistent problems faced by those post-colonial states. In the final half of the course, we will investigate three cases: Congo-Zaire and the state as a source of chaos through the Second Congo War; violence, liberation and memories of childhood in late colonial Rhodesia and postcolonial Zimbabwe; the political history of economic development programs and the advent of “resource conflicts,” particularly those involving diamonds. Three class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Redding.

190. Middle Eastern History: 600-1800. (Offered as HIST 190 [MEP] and ASLC 126 [WA].) This course surveys the history of the Middle East from the outset of the Islamic period to the beginning of the modern period. It is divided into the following segments: the formative period of Islam, the classical caliphates, the classical courts, the Mongols, and the great empires of the Ottomans and the Safavids. The course is organized chronologically and follows the making and breaking of empires and political centers; however, the focus of the course is on the intellectual, social, cultural and religious developments in these periods. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Ringer.

191. The Modern Middle East: 1800-Present. (Offered as HIST 191 [ME] and ASLC 148 [WA].) This course surveys the history of the Middle East from 1800 to the present. The focus is threefold: following political, social and intellectual trends as they evolve over time, exploring contemporary historical and methodological debates and analysis, and introducing students to important historical literature of the period. The class is divided into modules: “From Subject to Citizen,” “Engineering a Modern Middle East,” “Nationalism and the Quest for Independence,” “Islamist Opposition,” and “Taking Sovereignty: Contemporary Debates and the Post-Modern Era.” The class is discussion-oriented and writing intensive. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Ringer.

207. The Wild and the Cultivated. [C] For thousands of years, wild and domesticated plants have played crucial roles in the development of cultures and societies. Students in this course will consider human relationships with plants from a global-historical perspective, comparing trends in various regions and time periods. We will focus on the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution, seed-saving practices, medicinal plants, religious rites, food traditions, biopiracy, agribusiness, and biofuels. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Melillo.

208. Spain and the Pacific World, 1571-1898. [CP/AS] This course explores the historical relationship between the Spanish Empire and the peoples and environments of the Pacific Ocean region. We will begin in 1571 with the opening of Manila as a Spanish trading port and end in 1898 with the Spanish-American War. Over the course of the semester, we will discuss the trans-Pacific silver and silk trades, the function of Catholic missionaries in shaping the Pacific World, environmental exchanges between the Americas and Asia, indigenous resistance to imperialism, and the role of Pacific peoples in the development of the world economy. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Melillo.

212. Disease and Doctors: An Introduction to the History of Western Medicine. [C] Disease has always been a part of human experience; doctoring is among our oldest professions. This course surveys the history of Western medicine from antiquity to the modern era. It does so by focusing on the relationship between medical theory and medical practice, giving special attention to Hippocratic medical learning and the methods by which Hippocratic practitioners built a clientele, medieval uses of ancient medical theories in the definition and treatment of disease, the genesis of novel chemical, anatomical, and physiological conceptions of disease in the early modern era, and the transformations of medical practice associated with the influence of clinical and experimental medicine in the nineteenth century. The course concludes by examining some contemporary medical dilemmas in the light of their historical antecedents. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Servos.

213. Turning Points in the History of Science. [EUP] An introduction to some major issues in the history of science from antiquity to the twentieth century. Topics will include the genesis and decay of a scientific tradition in Greco-Roman antiquity, the reconstitution of that tradition in medieval Europe, the revolution in scientific methods of the seventeenth century, and the emergence of science as a source of power, profit, and cultural authority during the past century. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Servos.

214. Science and Society in Modern America. [US] A survey of the social, political, and institutional development of science in America from the Civil War to the present. Emphasis will be on explaining how the United States moved from the periphery to the center of international scientific life. Topics will include the professionalization of science; roles of scientists in industry, education, and government; ideologies of basic research; and the response of American scientists to the two world wars, the Depression, and the Cold War. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Servos.

217. Childhood and Child Welfare in the Modern World. [C] The recent trend of big-name celebrities adopting children from the developing world has made international child welfare the subject of rich public debate. Is it right for citizens of wealthier countries to remove children from poorer nations to give them a better life, or does this act constitute a blatant case of cultural imperialism and “child stealing”? The issue hinges on the question of whether it is possible to define a single, universal standard of child welfare. If the answer is yes, then intervening into other families and societies is justified to give all children a “proper childhood.” If the answer is no, then all manner of child-centered humanitarianism becomes subject to critique. This course explores the historical roots of these current social issues. It begins by analyzing the creation of a “modern” definition of childhood in the era of the Enlightenment, then follows the attempts of nineteenth and twentieth century reformers to extend this model of childhood throughout Europe and the European empires. Topics include debates over the limits of parental rights, the role of ethnicity and culture in childrearing, definitions of child abuse, international charities and NGOs, adoption, and child psychology. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Boucher.

221. The Crusades. [EUP] Immortalized in modern books and on film, the Crusades were a central phenomenon of the Middle Ages. This course examines the origins and development of the Crusades and the Crusader States in the Islamic East. It explores dramatic events, such as the great Siege of Jerusalem, and introduces vivid personalities, including Richard the Lionheart and Saladin. We will consider aspects of institutional, economic, social and cultural history and compare medieval Christian (Western and Byzantine), Muslim and Jewish perceptions of the crusading movement. Finally, we will critically examine the resonance the movement continues to have in current ideological debates. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Shawcross.

222. The Byzantine Empire. [EUP] Based in Constantinople—ancient Byzantium and present-day Istanbul—the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine Empire, survived the collapse of the Western Roman Empire by over a millennium. This long-lived state on the crossroads of Europe and Asia was Roman in law, civil administration, and military tradition, but predominantly Greek in education and language, and Christian in religion. The course explores the changing face of medieval Byzantium as it turned itself into one of the greatest civilizations the world has known. We trace the empire’s survival through the dramatic centuries of the Islamic conquests, Iconoclasm, and the Crusades, until its final fall to the Ottoman Turks. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Shawcross.

229. The European Enlightenment. (Offered as HIST 229 [EUP] and EUST 229.) This course begins with the political, social, cultural and economic upheavals of late seventeenth-century England, France, and the Netherlands. The second part of the course will look at the Enlightenment as a distinctive philosophical movement, evaluating its relationship to science, to classical antiquity, to organized religion, to new conceptions of justice, and to the changing character of European politics. The final part will look at the Enlightenment as a broad-based cultural movement. Among the topics discussed here will be the role played by Enlightened ideas in the French Revolution, women and non-elites in the Enlightenment, scientific racism, pornography and libertinism, orientalism, and the impact of press censorship. Readings for the course will include works by Descartes, Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Hume, Adam Smith, Choderlos de Laclos, Kant and others. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hunt.

230. The French Revolution. (Offered as HIST 230 [EU] and EUST 230.) Often viewed as one of the defining events in modern history, the French Revolution has been debated and discussed, derided and celebrated by generations of politicians, cultural commentators, and historians. This course enters into this on-going conversation by examining the nature of the revolutionary process as it unfolded in late eighteenth-century France and its empire. Beginning in the “old regime” of kings and commoners, it untangles the social, political, and intellectual roots of the Revolution and investigates the extent to which these factors contributed to the radical overthrow of the French establishment in 1789. It then follows the extension of the Revolution throughout French society and across the seas to the Caribbean, analyzing how popular and colonial upheavals influenced the revolutionary new order of “liberty, equality, and brotherhood” that was taking shape in France. Finally, the course explores the aftermath of the Revolution by tracing the various ways that its history has been interpreted and reinterpreted from the nineteenth century to the present day. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Boucher.

231. Race and Empire: The British Experience from 1760. (Offered as HIST 231 [EU] and EUST 231.) From the mid-eighteenth century through the 1960s, Britain presided over the most powerful empire in the world. At its height, this small island nation ruled one-quarter of the earth’s surface and more than 450 million of its inhabitants. Not only did British imperialism play a decisive role in shaping world politics, economics, and cultures in its day, it also left a number of profound legacies that continue to affect our lives in the present. This course traces the rise, fall, and lasting influence of the British empire, and pays particular attention to questions of race and ethnicity. Through a series of colonial encounters—such as the first contacts made between explorers and Pacific Islanders in the 18th century, the interactions between missionaries and Africans in the 19th century, or the migration of South Asians to Britain in the 20th century—it examines what “race” meant in different historical contexts. The course thus explores the institutionalization of racism in government, law, and society, and analyzes moments in which racism has been combated and overturned. Readings and course materials will be drawn from secondary and primary sources, including newspapers, novels, photographs, artwork, oral histories, and films. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Boucher.

234. Nazi Germany. (Offered as HIST 234 [EU] and EUST 234.) This course will explore the history of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. It will examine the emergence of Hitler and Nazism in Germany, Nazi ideology and aesthetics, Nazi racial policies, daily life in the Third Reich, women under Nazism, resistance to the Nazis, Nazi foreign policy and World War II, the Holocaust, and the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. Class participants will also discuss themes that range beyond the Nazi case: How do dictatorships function? What constitutes resistance? How and why do regimes engage in mass murder? Texts will include films, diaries, memoirs, government and other official documents, and classic and recent scholarly accounts of the era. Three class meetings per week.

Limited to 60 students. Fall semester. Professor Epstein.

236. Soviet Union During the Cold War. (Offered as HIST 236 [EU] and EUST 238.) The Cold War indelibly shaped the second half of the twentieth century. Spies seemed ubiquitous; nuclear annihilation imminent. Films such as Red October and the James Bond series forged a Western image of the Soviet Union. But how were these decades experienced behind the Iron Curtain? This class explores Soviet history between the end of World War II and the collapse of the USSR. We will study the roots of the Cold War; the politics of de-Stalinization in the USSR; the unfolding of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe; and Soviet relations with the West, China, and the developing world. We will also explore the internal dynamics of Soviet society: the rise of the Soviet middle class, consumerism, tourism, the entertainment industry, demographic trends, education, and public health. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Five College Professor Glebov.

242. Material Culture of American Homes. (Offered as HIST 242 [USP], ARCH 242, and AHRA 133) Using architecture, artifacts, visual evidence and documentary sources, the course examines social and cultural forces affecting the design and use of domestic architecture, home furnishings, and domestic technology in the eastern United States from 1600 to 1960. In addition to providing a survey of American domestic architecture, the course provides an introduction to the study of American material culture. Field trips to Historic Deerfield, Old Sturbridge Village, Hartford, Connecticut, and sites in Amherst form an integral part of the course. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor K. Sweeney.

245. Native American Histories. [USP] This course examines selectively the histories and contemporary cultures of particular groups of American Indians. It will focus on Algonquian- and Iroquoian-speaking native peoples of the east in the period from 1600 to 1800; Indians of the northern plains during the 1800s and 1900s; and the Pueblo and Navajo peoples from the time before their contacts with Europeans until the present day. Through a combination of readings, discussions, and lectures, the course will explore the insights into Native American cultures that can be gained from documents, oral traditions, artifacts, films and other sources. Three class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor K. Sweeney.

247. African American History from the Slave Trade to Reconstruction. (Offered as BLST 231 [US] and HIST 247 [USP; or may be included in AF concentration, but not AF for distribution in the History major.]) This course is a survey of the history of African American men and women from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through the Civil War and Reconstruction. The content is a mixture of the social, cultural, and political history of blacks during two and a half centuries of slavery with the story of the black freedom struggle and its role in America’s national development. Among the major topics addressed: the slave trade in its moral and economic dimensions; African retentions in African American culture; origins of racism in colonial America; how blacks used the rhetoric and reality of the American and Haitian Revolutions to their advancement; antebellum slavery; black religion and family under slavery and freedom; the free black experience in the North and South; the crises of the 1850s; the role of race and slavery in the causes, course, and consequences of the Civil War; and the meaning of emancipation and Reconstruction for blacks. Readings include historical monographs, slave narratives by men and women, and one work of fiction.

Combined enrollment limited to 50 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Moss.

248. African American History from Reconstruction to the Present. (Offered as BLST 241 [US] and HIST 248 [US; or may be included in AF concentration, but not AF for distribution in the History major].) This course is a survey of the social, cultural, and political history of African American men and women since the 1870s. Among the major topics addressed: the legacies of Reconstruction; the political and economic origins of Jim Crow; the new racism of the 1890s; black leadership and organizational strategies; the Great Migration of the World War I era; the Harlem Renaissance; the urbanization of black life and culture; the impact of the Great Depression and the New Deal; the social and military experience of World War II; the causes, course and consequences of the modern civil rights movement; the experience of blacks in the Vietnam War; and issues of race and class in the 1970s and 1980s. Readings and materials include historical monographs, fiction, and documentary films.

Limited to 50 students. Omitted 2012-13.

252. Women’s History, America: 1607-1865. (Offered as HIST 252 [USP] and WAGS 252.) This course looks at the experiences of Native American, European and African women from the colonial period through the Civil War. The course will explore economic change over time and its impact on women, family structure, and work. It will also consider varieties of Christianity, the First and Second Awakenings and their consequences for various groups of women. Through secondary and primary sources and discussions students will look at changing educational and cultural opportunities for some women, the forces creating antebellum reform movements, especially abolition and feminism, and women’s participation in the Civil War. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Saxton.

253. Women’s History, America: 1865 to Present. (Offered as HIST 253 [US] and WAGS 253.) This course begins with an examination of the experience of women from different racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds during Reconstruction. It will look at changes in family life as a result of increasing industrialization and the westward movement of settler families, and will also look at the settlers’ impact on Native American women and families. Topics will include the work and familial experiences of immigrant women (including Irish, Polish, and Italian), women’s reform movements (particularly suffrage, temperance, and anti-lynching), the expansion of educational opportunities, and the origins and programs of the Progressives. The course will examine the agitation for suffrage and the subsequent splits among feminists, women’s experiences in the labor force, and participation in the world wars. Finally, we will look at the origins of the Second Wave and its struggles to transcend its white middle-class origins, the challenges working mothers face in contemporary society, and women’s experience with the criminal justice system. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Saxton.

255. Historical Perspectives on Criminal Justice and the U.S. Economy. [US] This course will look at the development of our penal system and place it in the context of the economic and political development of the U.S. We will begin with the introduction of the penitentiary in the antebellum period at a time of extraordinary economic expansion and optimism about social institutions. After the Civil War we will look at changing ideas of criminal control as rapid industrialization in the North and large waves of immigration produced labor unrest and unprecedented urban poverty. We also explore the convict-lease system in the post-emancipation “New South” after the abandonment of hopes for Reconstruction. We will look at Progressives’ creation of the juvenile justice system at the turn of the century as well as ideas linking criminality with heredity. The course will conclude by examining the current boom in prison populations and place this growth in the context of our post-industrial economy and growing economic inequality. The course will be conducted inside a correctional facility and enroll an equal number of Amherst students and residents of the facility. Permission to enroll will be granted on the basis of a questionnaire and personal interview with the instructor. Amherst students studying the philosophical and material development of the penal system within the Northampton jail in the company of incarcerated men will get the benefit of their fellow students’ personal experience of that system. The setting creates the unique pedagogical opportunity to bring together the two perspectives. One class meeting per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2012-13.

256. Case Studies in American Diplomacy. (Offered as HIST 256 [US] and POSC 311 [AP, IR] [G—starting with the Class of 2015].) This course will combine the methods of diplomatic history and political science in examining critical moments and themes in American diplomacy. Our overall aim is to better understand the evolving position of the United States in world politics as well as domestic controversies over the character of America’s global role. Specifically, we will assess the combined influence of racism and ethnicity as well as of religious and secular values and class interest on American diplomacy. We shall also investigate the major domestic political, social, economic and intellectual trends and impulses, (e.g., manifest destiny, isolationism and counter-isolationism, and containment) that have shaped American diplomacy; analyze competing visions for territorial conquests and interventions as advocated by various American elites; examine the methods used to extend the nation’s borders, foreign trade and international influence and leadership; and seek to understand the impact of key foreign policy involvements and controversies on the character of the Presidency, Congress and party politics. Among the topics to be considered are the Federalist/Anti-Federalist debates over the scope of constitutional constraints on foreign policy, the Monroe Doctrine, the Mexican War, the imperialist/anti-imperialist debate, the great power diplomacies of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and FDR, as well as key moments of American diplomacy during the Cold War (e.g., the origins of the Cold War, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the end of the Cold War. To see examples of past syllabi please go to http://www3.amherst.edu/~pmachala/Syllabi/ for more information. One class meeting per week.

Limited to 35 students. Fall semester. Professors G. Levin and Machala.

257. Post-Cold War American Diplomacy. (Offered as POSC 312 and HIST 257 [US].) [G—starting with the Class of 2015] A 1992 still-classified Pentagon Defense Policy Guidance draft asserts that America’s political and military mission in the post-cold war era will be to ensure that no rival superpower be allowed to emerge in world politics. This course will examine American foreign relations from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the present. We will study the similarities and differences in the styles of statecraft of all post-cold war U.S. administrations in producing, managing and sustaining America’s unrivaled international position, which emerged in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. While examining the debates between liberals and neoconservatives about America’s role in the world both preceding and following the 9-11 attack, we will also discuss the extent to which these debates not only have shaped American foreign policy but also how they have influenced our domestic politics and vice versa. Among the other main themes to be examined: the strategic, tactical and humanitarian uses of military and other forms of power by each administration (e.g., towards Somalia, the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan); U.S. policy towards NATO and towards the world economy; U.S. policy towards Russia, China, the Middle East and Latin America; human, economic and political costs and benefits of American leadership in this period.

Preference given to students who have taken one of the following courses: POSC 213, 310, 311, 410; HIST 256. Limited to 30 students. Not open to first-year students. Spring semester. Professors G. Levin and Machala.

258. The Vietnam War: Transnational Histories and the Politics of Memory. [USC] Until recently, American histories of the Vietnam War have focused on the reasons, roles, and results of the American intervention in Vietnam or, as one historian described it, “what Americans did in Vietnam (or even at home in the United States) and what was done to them.” In Vietnam, on the other hand, histories of the war were, until the 1990s, largely collapsed into a linear and nationalist narrative of state development. Transnational methodologies used by scholars in recent years have brought to the forefront new understandings of the conflict including: the complexities of colonialism, nationalism, and communist/socialist internationalism, the diversity of Vietnamese experiences, and the influence of culture on diplomatic policy-making. Drawing from this body of new scholarship, the course will engage multiple approaches to the study of the Vietnam War from accounts of French and U.S. colonialism in Asia, to investigations of the policy-making role of state officials in both Vietnam and the U.S., to micro-histories of village networks in South Vietnam. This course will also consider how “collective memory-making,” i.e., how people with shared experiences remember or retell the past, intersects with the contested histories of the war. Through considerations of film, memoir, and memorial sites, the course not only considers how the Vietnam War unfolded but also how its place in public memory was created and mobilized in its aftermath. Two class meeting per week.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Woods.

259. 20th-Century United States in the World. [USC] This course considers the multifaceted ways that the United States (understood as a nation, an idea, a diverse group of people with conflicting interests) has had an economic, cultural, military, and political effect on a range of people and places. This course seeks to place the U.S. in the field of Global History, emphasizing the spatial, cultural and economic distributions of power between global metropoles, such as Western Europe and the U.S., and peripheries, the geographically diverse terrains of colonies or client states. We will also consider how the geographies of “center” and “periphery” shifted over time. Thinking historically about the interaction between the U.S. and global peripheries, this course will investigate how the distribution of global power and resources developed over time. Finally, this course will pay particular attention to the U.S. role in the global historical shifts of the twentieth century including colonization and decolonization, sovereignty and state formation, the rise of global governance structures, the Cold War, globalization, terrorism, and “the Rise of China.” Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Visiting Professor Woods.

263. Struggles for Democracy in Modern Latin America, 1820 to the Present. [LA] Latin Americans began their struggle for democracy during the Independence wars at the start of the 19th century. Their struggle continues today. This course considers the historical meanings of democracy in various Latin American countries, with particular attention to the relationship between liberalism and democracy in the 19th century; the broadening of democracy at the start of the 20th century; the rise and fall of military dictatorships in the 1960s-80s and their impact upon civil society; and the current clashes between neo-Liberal economic programs and the neo-populist resurgence of the left. Readings and discussions will focus on the ways broad economic and political shifts impacted individuals’ lives; how each economic class experienced these shifts differently; the way race and gender have shaped peoples’ experience with democratization and repression; and the personal processes of radicalization by which individuals became inspired to take risks in their struggle for inclusion and against repression. Because the approach is thematic and chronological, some countries and regions will receive more attention than others. Meetings and readings will draw on secondary studies, historical documents, testimonials, music, images, and film. Two meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13.. Professor López.

265. Environmental History of Latin America. [LA] In this course we will focus on the links between environmental impacts (such as environmental degradation, desertification, soil “exhaustion,” species extinction, genetic simplification, oil extraction, biotic invasions, deforestation, pesticide contamination, and animal grazing) and human problems (such as colonial and imperial domination, declining subsistence, defense and violation of civil rights, income inequality, scientific racism, regional underdevelopment, incomplete capitalist transformation, social marginalization, and political violence). Questions we will engage include: How have environmental changes contributed to, or otherwise conditioned, processes of conquest and domination? How have these processes of conquest, domination, and resistance, in turn, altered the environmental? In what ways has environmental devastation been a rational response to the challenges people face, and in what ways has it been irrational? Can history guide us in our current efforts to develop a sustainable approach to the environment that helps the land and its fauna, but does so in a way that brings greater justice and self-determination to the people who live there, while at the same time balancing the interests of the state and of investors? The class will introduce students to classic texts in Latin American environmental history (including the foundational studies by Warren Dean and Elinore Melville), as well as some of the newest scholarship. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor López.

271. Caste in Modern South Asian History. (Offered as HIST 271 [AS] and ASLC 271.) This course seeks to understand how practices of caste have transformed over the course of modern South Asian history. It focuses on various movements opposed to caste discrimination and inequality as well as the ongoing search for social justice. The course simultaneously provides an overview of the scholarship and debates about understanding this form of social identification. Rather than studying caste in a reified manner, we will be concerned with analyzing how it articulates with various other social phenomena, like gender, class, community, and nationality, amongst others. Based on close readings of primary sources, as well as an engagement with secondary literature in history, political science, anthropology and literary studies, the course explores some of the major interpretations of the experience and practice of caste produced by historical actors and scholars until the present moment. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Sen.

275. China in the World, 1895-1919. (Offered as HIST 275 [AS] and ASLC 249 [C].) In 1895 the emergent Japanese empire imposed a humiliating defeat on the declining Qing empire in China, began the colonization of Korea and Taiwan, and set in motion the reformist and revolutionary trends that would shape the political culture of the Chinese nation in later times. In 1919, concessions by the Chinese warlord regime in Beijing to Japan at Versailles sparked the student movement that would further radicalize the political culture and ultimately divide the nation politically between Nationalist and Communist regimes. This course focuses on the intellectual, cultural, political, and economic issues of the era in between, when, despite the weakness of the state, the creative visions and efforts of all informed people were in line with those of progressives throughout the world. We will explore these visions and efforts, with special reference to national identities, civil society, and global integration, and we will consider their fate in wartime, Cold War, and post-Cold War Asia. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Dennerline.

283. Introduction to South African History. (Offered as HIST 283 [AFP] and BLST 121 [A].) South African history is undergoing radical shifts in the way it is being written, read and interpreted, and this course will explore established and emerging themes in the history of this intriguing country. The time period covered will span the precolonial indigenous cultures and move on to study the initiation and expansion of white settlement and its early dependence on slave labor. The course will also investigate African resistance, both in its political and cultural forms, as well as the social effects of gold-mining and migrant labor. African nationalism, including the ANC, the Black Consciousness Movement, and the United Democratic Front, will be the focus of our study of the responses to apartheid and the ultimate collapse of the apartheid state. The course will end with discussions of recent events in South Africa, particularly the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its aftermath as well as the developing AIDS epidemic and the growing problem of crime. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Redding.

284. Africa Before the European Conquest. (Offered as HIST 284 [AFP] and BLST 211 [A].) The African continent has been called by one historian the social laboratory of humanity. Art, trade, small-scale manufacturing, medical knowledge, religion, state systems, history and legend all flourished before the formal political take-over of the continent by European powers in the late nineteenth century and continue to have a decisive impact on African societies today. It is this varied and sometimes difficult to access history of states and cultures in the period before 1885 that this course will examine. Initially, we will investigate the notion of “tribe” and its relationship to language, political affiliation and identity. The largest segment of the course will examine historical myths and their impact on the research and construction of historical narratives on precolonial Africa while discussing four topics in depth: domestic, local slave-ownership and the impact of the slave trade; the interaction of religion and power on the rise and fall of the kingdom of Kongo and of the states along the southern border of the Sahara (the sahel); the genesis of the Zulu state in southern Africa and the creation of the legend of Tshaka; and the changing roles of women as economic, political and social actors in the period before 1885. We will also discuss some of the differences between oral historical narratives and written ones while we analyze primary documents and histories written by scholars over the past half-century to understand both the history of the people living on the continent as well as the active process of constructing that history. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Redding.

294. The History of Israel. [ME] This course will survey the history of Israel from the origins of Zionism in the late nineteenth century to the present. One class meeting per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor G. Levin.

301. Proseminar in History: Writing the Past. This course offers an opportunity for history majors to reflect upon the practice of history. How do we claim to know anything about the past at all? How do historians construct the stories they tell about the past from the fragmentary remnants of former times? What is the connection of historians’ work to public memory? How do we judge the truth and value of these stories and memories? The course explores questions such as these through readings and case studies drawn from a variety of places and times. Two class meetings a week. Required of all history majors.

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 45 students. Spring semester: Professor Epstein.

303. Oral History: Theory and Method. [C] Oral history first emerged as a tool for historians to record the perspectives of marginalized or “voiceless” groups. More recently, the field had expanded to encompass a range of theoretical issues, including the relationship between objective and subjective experience, the construction of memory, the “hidden orality” of written sources, and the capacity of personal narratives to produce social change. As students explore these scholarly debates, they will also learn the craft of oral history. During the course of the semester, each student will research, conduct, and interpret an oral history interview related to a shared theme, which in 2013 will be the role of women as students and teachers at Amherst College. As the practice of oral history has applications across multiple disciplines and fields, from sociology, psychology, and anthropology to journalism, social activism, and the health sciences, this course welcomes the participation of history majors and non-majors alike. One class meeting per week.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Boucher.

310. Fascism. (Offered as HIST 310 [C] and EUST 310.) This course addresses the vexing questions of what fascism is, whether it was a global phenomenon, and whether it has been historically banished. The first part of the semester will consider the conceptual issues related to nationalism, modernity, and fascism. Next we will address case studies, noting comparative continuities and regional peculiarities. The countries that will receive the most attention are Italy, France, Argentina, Britain, Brazil, Germany, Spain, and Mexico, with additional attention to Portugal, Japan, China, New Guinea, Chile, Turkey, Palestine and Australia. This will be followed by an examination of gender and fascism, including the role of women as agents of this radical ideology. The course will close with two recent works of scholarship, one on transnational fascism in early twentieth-century Argentina and the other on the applicability of the term “fascism” to contemporary movements in the Middle East. Two meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor López.

319. Religion, Empires, and Secular States in the Nineteenth Century. [C] Conceptions of the religious and the secular that continue to resonate today assumed global significance in the course of the nineteenth century as colonial empires and nascent nation-states negotiated how they would govern heterogeneous populations and interact with each other. Drawing on scholarship from a number of disciplines that historicize the categories of religion and secularity, this course will examine the political function of the religious and the secular as conceptual and regulatory categories in the 19th century. Colonial administrations, for example, employed the conceit of secularism to neutralize religious difference while individuals and communities attempted to reform and modernize local traditions as “religion” in order to navigate global hierarchies. We will begin with a historiographic and theoretical survey, covering topics that include the academic creation of “World Religions,” the politics of conversion within the British Empire, and the discourse of Orientalist spiritualism. The second half of the course will apply these historiographic and theoretical concerns to East Asia and Japan in particular. Requirements will include two topical essays and one longer paper entailing modest research. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 15 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Maxey.

333. Poland: Heart of Europe’s Twentieth Century. (Offered as HIST 333 [EU] and EUST 333) Few places experienced the drama of Europe’s twentieth century as did Poland—a country imagined before World War I, created anew in 1918, and shifted west after World War II. This course will cover the legacy of Poland’s eighteenth-century partitions; World War I; the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1921; the interwar Polish state; World War II (including the Katyn massacre, the Holocaust, and the Warsaw Uprising); the imposition of communism after World War II; the growth of Solidarity; and revolution and the transition to post-communist society after 1989. Themes will include nationalism and state-building; the role of Catholicism in Polish society; Poland’s attempts to assert itself against both Germany and Russia; and ethnic relations between Poles and Germans, Jews, Ukrainians, and Lithuanians. Throughout, we will explore historical controversies surrounding these events and themes. Sources will include films, novels, memoirs, eyewitness accounts, government and other documents, and secondary sources. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Epstein.

335. European Migrations. (Offered as HIST 335 [EU] and EUST 335). By tracing the journeys of people into, across, and out of Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this course explores the role of migration in forging modern national, regional, and global identities. On one level, it analyzes the factors that have impelled groups of people to cross borders. On another, it examines how these migrations have changed the social landscape of Europe, serving both to forge and to challenge the divides of culture, religion, and nationhood. Topics will include: mass emigration and the rise of European imperialism; debates over “belonging” in the era of nation-building; the development of passports, visa restrictions, and quotas; the emergence of the categories of “refugee” and “asylum seeker”; forced migration and human trafficking; colonial and postcolonial immigration into Europe; and contestations over multiculturalism. Readings will relate to a variety of geographical locations, but with special emphasis on migration into and out of Britain, France, Germany, and their empires. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 35 students. Fall semester. Professor Boucher.

353. The Black Arts Movement. (Offered as BLST 331 [US] and HIST 353 [AF].) Students will encounter the Black Freedom struggle through the literature, music, art, and political activism of the Black Arts Movement. The artistic corollary to Black Power, the Black Arts Movement flourished in the 1960s and 1970s as artists/activists sought to put a revolutionary cultural politics into practice around the country. The Black Arts Movement had far-reaching consequences for the way artists and writers think about race, gender, history, identity, and the relationship between artist production and political liberation. We’ll read work by Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, and Larry Neal, among others. We’ll also trace the movement’s extension through local political battles and the emergence of new institutions, including theaters, journals, and Black Studies programs. We’ll consider the overlap of the Black Arts Movement with other political currents of the late 1960s and early 1970s, explore its relationship to Black feminism, and trace the influence of the Black Arts Movement in hip-hop and film.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Visiting Lecturer Rabig.

354. Human Rights in Historical Perspective. [US] This course will explore the historical background of the Human Rights movement in a weekly seminar made up of 12 Amherst students and 12 incarcerated men at the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction. Students will look at the principles of the eighteenth-century revolutions in North America, France and Haiti for divergent understandings of the rights of man as well as the British and American abolition movements as prototypes of human rights activism. In the twentieth century, we will look at the legacies of both World Wars, the founding of the United Nations and the drafting of the Universal Declaration. In the latter part of the semester, we will look at the development of NGOs and sample an array of human rights activism, including work on the rights of the incarcerated. In addition to introducing students to the background and practices of a significant social and political movement, this course will provide the opportunity for productive conversations between college students and incarcerated men, each with unique perspectives on the value and meaning of human rights. In addition to weekly reflection papers on readings and class discussions, students will write a research paper on a particular human rights initiative, dilemma, or accomplishment. One class meeting per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Saxton.

355. Topics in African American History: Race and Educational Opportunity in America. (Offered as HIST 355 [US; or may be included in AF concentration, but not AF for distribution in the major] and BLST 341 [US].) This seminar is an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between race and educational opportunity in American history. Students will gain a historical understanding of the divergent educational experiences of various groups within American society. The course is divided into four units: ethnicity and educational access in early America, education and segregation in Jim Crow America, desegregation (implementation and opposition) after Brown v. Board of Education, and contemporary discussions over race and access to education. In the first section of the course, students will pay special attention to trends including northern and southern resistance to African American education, education as assimilation, and vocational vs. classical education. Next, they will delve into twentieth- and twenty-first-century issues involving race and education. For example, they will examine how specific communities—northern, southern, and western—grappled with the desegregation process. Finally, students will assess the extent to which desegregation has been achieved and the transformative effects of this policy on public schools. One class meeting per week.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Moss.

364. Popular Revolution in Modern Mexico. A century ago Mexicans were embroiled in a popular revolution that demolished the state and transformed the political landscape all across Latin America. The recent centennial of Mexico’s revolution offers an opportunity to reflect upon the outcomes of that bloody conflict. This course provides a general overview of the dominant narratives of the Mexican revolution and its aftermath, while challenging those narratives through an examination of the experience of subaltern groups (including women, indigenous peoples, peasants, and those from the periphery). We also will grapple with the question of what genuine social revolution looks like, how it unfolds, and to what degree it has been attained in Mexico. Original documents, testimonials, movies, images, music, and art will supplement discussions and secondary readings. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor López.

390. Special Topics. Independent reading.

Fall and spring semesters.

393. Early Islam: Construction of an Historical Tradition. (Offered as HIST 393 [MEP] and ASLC 355 [WA].) This course examines in depth the formative period of Islam between c. 500-680. Using predominantly primary material, we will chart the emergence, success, and evolution of Islam, the Islamic community, and the Islamic polity. The focus of this course is on understanding the changing nature over time of peoples’ understanding of and conception of what Islam was and what Islam implied socially, religiously, culturally and politically. We concentrate on exploring the growth of the historical tradition of Islam and its continued contestations amongst scholars today. This course will familiarize students with the events, persons, ideas, texts and historical debates concerning this period. It is not a course on the religion or beliefs of Islam, but a historical deconstruction and analysis of the period. This class is writing intensive. Two class meetings per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Ringer.

397. Women in the Middle East. (Offered as HIST 397 [ME], ASLC 363 [WA], and WAGS 362.) The course examines the major developments, themes and issues in woman’s history in the Middle East. The first segment of the course concerns the early Islamic period and discusses the impact of the Quran on the status of women, the development of Islamic religious traditions and Islamic law. Questions concerning the historiography of this “formative” period of Islamic history, as well as hermeneutics of the Quran will be the focus of this segment. The second segment of the course concerns the 19th- and 20th-century Middle East. We will investigate the emergence and development of the “woman question,” the role of gender in the construction of Middle Eastern nationalisms, women’s political participation, and the debates concerning the connections between women, gender, and religious and cultural traditions. The third segment of the course concerns the contemporary Middle East, and investigates new developments and emerging trends of women’s political, social and religious activism in different countries. The course will provide a familiarity with the major primary texts concerning women and the study of women in the Middle East, as well as with the debates concerning the interpretation of texts, law, religion, and history in the shaping of women’s status and concerns in the Middle East today. This class is conducted as a seminar. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Ringer.

402. Proseminar: Research and Writing. (Offered as HIST 402 [C] and ENST 401.) The topic for this proseminar changes year to year. In the Fall of 2012 the topic is wine. Through analysis of the production and consumption of wine in various regions of Europe, North Africa, and the Americas the course will introduce students to such issues as the environmental impact of wine; the politics of taste; the impact of global trade; the changing ways producers have dealt with blights (phylloxera); the development and impact of monocrop production; class conflict within both production and consumption; and the emergence of claims about terroir (the notion that each wine, like each culture, is unique to a particular place) and how such claims relate to regional and national identities. Course content will be student-driven, since members of the class will take responsibility for identifying many of the documents and secondary studies. Through class discussion, focused workshops, and close supervision each student will learn to design a research prospectus related to wine, and then expand it into a research paper. Two meetings per week.

Open to juniors and seniors. Preference given to history majors. (Note to History majors: you may take this course INSTEAD OF History 301 “Writing the Past” which is ordinarily required for completion of the major.)

Fall semester. Limited to 15 students. Professor Hunt. Spring semester. Limited to 20 students. Professors López and Martini.

410. History of the Pacific World, 1898-Present. [C/AS] In recent decades, historians have begun to study the cultures and environments of the Pacific Ocean Region from a transnational perspective. Participants in this seminar will build upon such approaches when examining the Pacific World from the Spanish American War (1898) to the present. Themes and topics will include: immigration, anti-colonial movements, the emergence of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, and the recurring idea of a “Pacific Century.” We will also focus on the history of four regional environmental issues: nuclear waste disposal, fisheries regulation, deforestation, and the effects of rising sea levels on coastal communities. Although there is no prerequisite for this seminar, it is the companion course to History 73: “Spain in the Pacific World, 1571-1898.” One class meeting per week.

Admission with consent of instructor. Limited to 15 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Melillo.

411. Commodities, Nature and Society. [C] Participants in this seminar will explore the environmental and social histories of nine commodities: sugar, silver, silk, coffee, tobacco, sneakers, microchips, units of bandwidth, and the human body. Each of these commodities represents a complex array of linkages among producers, consumers, and intermediaries over time and space. Readings draw upon the disciplines of history, ecology, anthropology, and geography to place these commodities in their social, environmental, and spatial contexts. One of our aims is to understand the changing roles of natural systems and the divisions of labor that underlie the long-term processes of globalization. One class meeting per week.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Melillo.

414. The Therapeutic Revolution and Modern Medicine. [C] Physicians often say that medicine became truly effective only in the mid-twentieth century when an avalanche of new remedies became available, first in Europe and North America but soon thereafter around the world. Collectively dubbed “the wonder drugs,” these products included sulfa drugs and antibiotics for bacterial infections, cortico-steroids for arthritis and other inflammatory diseases, tranquilizers for mental illness, and diuretics for hypertension. The new medicines offered millions of patients relief from dread diseases and physicians long-awaited validation of the effectiveness of scientific medicine. For a generation that came of age in the 1940s and 1950s, they supplied powerful testimony to the creative and beneficent powers of science. The “wonder drugs” also gave pharmaceutical firms lucrative new products and governments complex new regulatory challenges. Many of our current debates over drug development, testing, marketing, and pricing commenced in the 1950s, as newly-introduced drugs helped reshape health care.

This seminar will treat the history of these “wonder drugs”—their origins in biomedical research, their production and distribution, and some of the medical and political issues that are associated with their cost and safety. All participants in the seminar will be required to write a research paper of at least 20 pages involving the use of primary sources. One class meeting per week.

Admission with consent of instructor. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Servos.

418. Black Marxism. (Offered as HIST 418 [C] and BLST 491 [CLA/D].) The seminar traces in historical perspective the relationship between Black radicalism and Marxist thought. Since the late nineteenth century, Black diasporic intellectuals have found in Western Marxism, particularly its internationalist discourse, theory of class formation, and historical materialist analysis, the recipes for critical inquiry and radical politics. Their engagement with Marxism and socialist theory, however, has not precluded tensions and new theoretical resolutions. Black intellectuals from various generations have questioned “classical” Marxism’s economic reductionism, simplistic understanding of peasant politics, and dismissal of political struggles outside metropolitan regions. For writers such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, Frantz Fanon, and C.L.R. James, Western Marxism has failed to account for the racial character of capitalism or to provide a historical narrative of blacks’ emancipatory politics. Students will acquire a basic knowledge of Marxist theory, and a historical understanding of Black Marxism by analyzing the works from two generations of intellectuals: the modernist and Pan-Africanist generation (Du Bois, Wright, James, Oliver Cromwell Cox, and Eric Williams), and the New Left generation (Frantz Fanon, Amiri Baraka, Amilcar Cabral, Walter Rodney, Stuart Hall, Angela Davis, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o). One class meeting per week.

Limited to 15 students. Not open to first year students. Fall semester. Professor Castro Alves.

432. Gender, Class, and Crime: the Victorian Underworld. [EU] Victorian Britain was a nation of contrasts. It was at once the world’s foremost economic and imperial power, the richest nation in Europe, and the country where the consequences of industrialization—slums, poverty, disease, alcoholism, sexual violence—took some of their bleakest forms. In an era of revolution, Britain enjoyed one of the most stable political systems in Europe; yet it was also a society plagued by crime and by fears of popular unrest, the place where Marx predicted the worker’s revolt would begin. This seminar explores the complex world of the Victorians through a focus on what contemporaries termed the “social problem”: the underclass of criminals, paupers, and prostitutes who seemed immune to reform. Themes will include political liberalism and the Poor Law, imperialism at home and abroad, industrialization and urbanization, sanitation, hygiene, and disease control initiatives, shifting cultural understandings of gender and class, and Jack the Ripper. Students will be expected to write a research paper on a topic of their choice. Two class meetings per week.

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Boucher.

438. Topics in European History: The Politics of Memory in Twentieth-Century Europe. (Offered as HIST 438 [EU] and EUST 438.) This course will explore the role of historical memory in the politics of twentieth-century Europe. It will examine how evolving memories of major historical events have been articulated and exploited in the political cultures of England, France, Germany, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union/Russia. Topics will include the politics of memory surrounding World Wars I and II, Vichy France, the Holocaust, Soviet Stalinism, and Eastern European communism. Seminar participants will also discuss general issues concerning collective memory: why societies remember and forget historical events, how collective memories resurface, the relationship between memory and authenticity, and the pitfalls of politicizing historical memory. Finally, seminar participants will analyze different sites of memory including film, ritual, monuments, legal proceedings, and state-sponsored cults. One class meeting per week.

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Epstein.

439. Defining the Modern: Russia Between Tsars and Communists. (Offered as HIST 439 [EU] and EUST 339) The course will explore a most intense and fascinating period in Russian history: the years 1890-1910. This period witnessed rapid urbanization and industrialization; the rise of professional and mass politics; first instances of modern terrorism and an intensification of nationalist struggles; imperialist ventures in Central Asia, Manchuria, and Korea; several revolutions and wars; and, above all, an unprecedented efflorescence of modernist culture in the late Russian Empire which was readily exported to and consumed in Europe. We will analyze these developments through a range of sources, including resources found at the Mead Art Museum. In addition to acquainting students with major developments in turn-of-the-century Russian Empire, the class will address contemporary scholarly debates that focus on concepts such as “modernity,” “self,” “discipline,” “knowledge,” “civil society,” and “nationalism.” Students will be required to complete an independent research paper. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Five College Professor Glebov.

453. The Era of the American Revolution. [USP] This seminar, focused on the period from 1760 to 1815, examines the origins, development and more immediate consequences of the American Revolution. The course looks at the founding of the American republic as an intellectual debate, a social movement, a military conflict and a political revolution. By offering an overview of these developments and introducing the historiographic debates surrounding them, the seminar provides students with the necessary background to examine in depth a topic of interest by writing a research paper. The course will also provide instruction in writing such a research paper using the rich and readily accessible primary sources from the period. Two class meetings per week.

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor K. Sweeney

454. Antebellum Culture: North and South. (Offered as HIST 454 [US] and WAGS 354.) This research seminar will be focused on the development of family life and law, religion, and literature in the pre-Civil War North and South. Students will read material on childrearing practices and the production of gender; conventions of romantic love; the customs and legalities of marriage, parenthood, and divorce; social and geographic mobility; the emergence of the novel, magazines and newspapers; and the role and shape of violence in the North and South. We will discuss contrasts in these developments, many resulting from the strengthening southern commitment to race-based slavery. We will look at these trends through the growth of a national, white Protestant middle class and at the ways in which members of other groups adopted, rejected, or created alternatives to them. Readings will include secondary and primary sources including memoirs, novels, short stories, essays and diary entries. Students will write one twenty-page essay based on original research.

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Saxton.

457. The Immigrant City. (Offered as HIST 457 [US] and FAMS 315.)A research seminar, this course will enroll eight students from Amherst College and eight from Holyoke Community College, and will be taught on alternate weeks at both colleges. The city of Holyoke will be the focus of individual and collective research. Students will form research teams (one Amherst, one HCC student in each) and choose a topic for research. Each student will write a research paper based on primary sources, but the results of that research will also go into a collective data base and an ARIS historical simulation project. The latter will allow students (and, eventually, anyone who wishes to access the program) to create visual and narrative simulations about Holyoke history. For example, a research team might generate a “typical” Irish immigrant family story, recounting migration, settlement, work experience, marriage and family growth, political and union affiliations, etc. Another might investigate the anti-immigrant or anti-Catholic movement, perhaps by generating a “typical” Yankee family story; still another might look into the building of the canals and the growth of factory economy, or the architectural evolution of the city, any of which might make use of the GPS and other visual capacities of the ARIS system. Technical support will be available to assist in these efforts. Much of the first half of the course will be devoted to intensive readings and discussions about immigration, urban development, industrialization, etc. However, from the start, students will be expected to become familiar with the ARIS program and to begin to generate ideas for research. Most of the latter weeks of the course will be devoted to research, writing, and oral reports to the class. One three-hour class meeting per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 8 Amherst juniors and seniors. Spring semester. Professors Couvares and Clinton (Holyoke Community College).

467. Seminar on Race and Nation in the U.S.-Mexican Borderland. [LA or US] The U.S.-Mexican borderland has been the site of violent conflict over race and nationality. The way race and nation have been defined, and the ways these definitions have changed over time, has been linked intimately with struggles over politics, economics, and culture in a land that is short on ecological resources, but rich in mineral wealth and ideal for commercial agriculture. Central themes include state and nation formation; nationalism; indigenous politics; Mexican-American politics; constructions of whiteness; gender; violence; industrialization; colonialism and imperialist expansion; and cultural improvisation. In addition to secondary readings, the class incorporates original documents, music, film and images. This is a history research seminar. As such, we will learn how to find and interpret original documents; how to develop original research questions that contribute to current historical debates; and how to formulate effective analytical questions and historical arguments. Students will be required to complete an independent research paper. Two meetings per week.

Limited to 15 students. Not open to first-year students; preference given to junior history majors who plan to write theses. Omitted 2012-13. Professor López.

469. Latin America and the Caribbean in the Age of Revolution. (Offered as HIST 469 [LAP] and BLST 371 [CLA].) This seminar examines in historical perspective the complicated transition of several Latin American and Caribbean countries from colony to independent nation-states during the Age of Revolution. It focuses particularly on the role of working people in the making of modern nation-states in Brazil, Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and the Andean region (Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador). How did the subaltern classes view the colonial order? What are the causes of popular protest? Is there such a thing as popular nationalism? What is the meaning of postcolonialism in Latin America? Overall, the seminar’s objectives are threefold: to make students more familiar with the historical development of Latin America and the Caribbean during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; to introduce the themes and issues in the current historiography of anti-colonialism and postcolonialism; and finally, to guide students to write their own research papers. In the first two weeks, readings will include theoretical texts on nationalism, state formation, and popular discontent. In the remaining weeks, we will read historical studies, documents and literary texts, which discuss various aspects of popular political activism from 1789 to 1850. One class meeting per week.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Castro Alves.

473. The Partition of British India: Event and Experience. (Offered as HIST 473 [AS] and ASLC 473.) This reading and writing intensive seminar explores the Partition of British India—the division of the South Asian subcontinent into the independent nation-states of India and Pakistan in 1947—as event and experience. It attends to both the high-political negotiations and disagreements that culminated in the decision to divide British India, as well as the profound and multi-faceted human consequences of the event. Themes include the transfer of power, the demand for Pakistan, communalism, riots, violence, gender, caste, migration, rehabilitation, and memory. The course will examine the different ways in which Partition affected the lives of variously defined communities of South Asian society, in the process encouraging sensitivity to how histories of Partition are written. Readings include both primary and secondary sources, and assignments include presentations, response papers, and a final research paper. One class meeting per week.

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sen.

477. The History and Memory of the Asia-Pacific War. (Offered as HIST 477 [AS] and ALSC 462 [J].) The varied names given to the fifteen years of war conducted by Japan—the Pacific War, the Great East Asian War, the Fifteen-Year War, World War II, and the Asian-Pacific War—reflect the conflicting perspectives that arise from that war. How has the experience of a fifteen-year war during the 1930s and 1940s shaped memory and history in Japan, East Asia, and the United States? This seminar begins with this broad question and pursues related questions: How are the memory and history of war intertwined in both national and international politics? What forms of memory have been included and excluded from dominant historical narratives and commemorative devices? How does critical historiography intersect with the politics and passions of memory? We will use oral histories, primary documents, film, and scholarship to guide our thoughts and discussions. We will begin with a brief history of Japan’s Fifteen-Year War and move on to prominent debates concerning the history and memory of that war. Short response papers and a research paper will be required. One class meeting per week.

Limited to 15 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Maxey.

478. Seminar on Modern China: The People and the State. (Offered as HIST 478 [AS] and ASLC 470 [C].) Political thinkers and activists inside China and throughout the world today puzzle over the relationship between the people and the state. Where do state functions and state control begin and end? How do the global economy, China’s increasing regional hegemony, internal migration, NGOs, rural protest, and the internet influence the relationship between the people and the state? Fundamental questions about the relationship between the people and the state have occupied thinkers and activists since the beginning of the twentieth century. Reformers in China tried to transform the imperial state into a constitutional monarchy, revolutionaries tried to create a Republic, Nationalists tried to build a “corporatist state,” and Communists tried to create a Socialist one. At each stage, the state-makers “imagined” the people, mobilized them, categorized them, and tried to control them. The people became subjects, citizens, nationals, and “the masses.” They divided themselves by native place, region, language, ethnicity, political party, class, and educational status. Chinese people in Southeast Asia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, have imagined themselves in relation to both “the ancestral land” and the colonial or national states under which they live. The process is by no means over. This seminar will focus on the problem of “imagining” and mobilizing people in China and these other states over the past century. General topics will include the ideas, the intellectual and educational context, and the mobilizations of urban and rural communities, commercial and religious groups, and NGOs. Research topics will depend on the interests of students. One class meeting per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Not open to first-year students. Spring semester. Professor Dennerline.

488. Riot and Rebellion in Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa. (Offered as HIST 488 [AF] and BLST 321 [A].) There were numerous rebellions against the state during the period of European colonial rule, and violent resistance to state authority has continued to characterize political life in many post-colonial African countries. This seminar will examine the development of several outbreaks of violence in Africa in the colonial and post-colonial periods to explore important questions in a comparative context. We will look at the economic, social, religious, and political roots of these disturbances; at the challenges faced both by rebel groups attempting to gain a foothold and by states with a fragile hold on ruling authority; and at the social disruptions caused by the participation of child and youth soldiers in various conflicts. We will also discuss the problems historians face in trying to narrate and analyze revolts whose strength often emerged from their protean character, and the legends and rumors that frequently swirled around violent revolts and their role in the construction of historical narratives. The events studied will include the Maji-maji rebellion in German-controlled Tanganyika in 1906-1907; the first (1896-1897) and second (1960-1980) Chimurengas (revolts) in southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe; the widespread revolt in the 1980s and ’90s in South Africa against the apartheid regime; and the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda in the late 1990s. Students will each write a 20- to 25-page research paper on an individually chosen topic as a final project; in addition there will be frequent, shorter writing assignments throughout the semester. There will be one class meeting per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Not open to first-year students. Fall semester. Professor Redding.

490. Special Topics. Independent reading.

Fall and spring semesters.

492. Inside Iran. (Offered as HIST 492 [ME] and ALSC 459 [WA].) This seminar explores contemporary Iran from a historical and interdisciplinary perspective. The aim of the course is both to provide an overall understanding of the history of Iran, as well as those key elements of religion, literature, legend, and politics that together shape Iran’s understanding of itself. We will utilize a wide variety of sources, including Islamic and local histories, Persian literature, architecture, painting and ceramics, film, political treatises, Shiite theological writing, foreign travel accounts, and U.S. state department documents, in addition to secondary sources. Two class meetings per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Ringer.

493. Turkey: From Empire to Republic. (Offered as HIST 493 [ME] and ASLC 493.) Turkey has a particularly complex relationship with the Ottoman Empire. On the one hand, the establishment of Turkey as a secular republic following the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire after World War I marked a watershed between empire and republic, sultan and president, subject and citizen. On the other hand, significant areas of continuity persisted. This seminar focuses on areas of rupture and continuity in order to shed light on the way that these tensions continue to impact contemporary debates surrounding secularism and the place of religion, nationalism and minority rights, and the tensions between authoritarianism and democracy. We will pay particular attention to the intellectual, social and cultural construction of modernity and to the ongoing contestations over historical memory and the Ottoman past. Students will work in consultation with the instructor on developing, articulating and researching a seminar-length (20 pp) research paper. Two class meetings per week.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Ringer.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Culminating in one or more pieces of historical writing which may be submitted to the Department for a degree with Honors. Normally to be taken as a single course but, with permission of the Department, as a double course as well.

Open to juniors and seniors. Fall semester. The Department.

498D. Senior Departmental Honors. Culminating in one or more pieces of historical writing which may be submitted to the Department for a degree with Honors. Normally to be taken as a single course but, with permission of the Department, as a double course as well.

Open to juniors and seniors. Fall semester. The Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Culminating in one or more pieces of historical writing which may be submitted to the Department for a degree with Honors. Normally to be taken as a single course but, with permission of the Department, as a double course as well.

Open to juniors and seniors. Spring semester. The Department.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. Culminating in one or more pieces of historical writing which may be submitted to the Department for a degree with Honors. Normally to be taken as a single course but, with permission of the Department, as a double course as well.

Open to juniors and seniors. Spring semester. The Department.

Related Courses

Research Methods in American Culture. See AMST 468.

History of Rome: Origins and Republic. See CLAS 133.

Economic History of the United States, 1600-1860. See ECON 271.

Economic History of the United States, 1865-1965. See ECON 272.

Law and Historical Trauma. See LJST 238.

Cuba: The Politics of Extremism. See POSC 248.

Religion in the United States. See RELI 235.

History of Christianity—The Early Years. See RELI 275.

Kenan Colloquium

Every three years the President selects as William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor a faculty member distinguished for scholarship and teaching. The Kenan Professor devises a colloquium or seminar, usually interdisciplinary in nature, to be taught in conjunction with one or more junior faculty members.

424. Giving. The course offers students who have worked as interns or volunteers an interdisciplinary framework within which to think together about what it means to give. We will explore philanthropy’s diverse forms over time and across cultures; its philosophical underpinnings; its complex interrelationships with modern notions of charity, advocacy, and democracy; and its often paradoxical effects on social relations and public policy. The first half of the course considers what it means to foster a “love of humanity,” to offer and receive “the kindness of strangers,” to practice charity as a civic or religious obligation, as a status building stratagem or, simply, to help. We will look at how these diverse philanthropic expectations are laid out in various religious traditions, as well as in written works by Sophocles, Shakespeare, Alexis de Tocqueville, George Eliot, Marcel Mauss, Jane Addams, Ama Ata Aidoo, and Michael Ignatieff, and in images created by selected artists and filmmakers. The second half of the course examines case studies and literary representations of philanthropic efforts and outcomes in a variety of social situations, from the perspectives of donors and recipients; board members and volunteers; advocacy groups, policy makers, and non-governmental organizations.

Not open to first-year students. Priority will be given to students who have recent experience working as volunteers or interns. This course may be used for credit towards the major in English and Black Studies.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Cobham-Sander and Ms. Mead, Director of the Center for Community Engagement.

LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES

Amherst students interested in Latin American Studies have the following two options: (1) they can, in conjunction with an advisor and with the approval of the Committee on Academic Standing and Special Majors, design their own Latin American Studies major, taking advantage of the varied Five College offerings in the field; (2) they can participate in the Five College Latin American and Caribbean Studies Certificate Program. This is not a major program and is viewed as supplementary to work done by the major.

Information about the Certificate can be found on page 468. Students interested in a Latin American Studies major are advised of the following faculty at the College who are available for counseling in Latin American Studies: Professor Cobham-Sander of the English and Black Studies Departments, Professor López of the History Department, Professor Castro Alves of the History and Black Studies Departments, Professor Basler of the Sociology Department, and Professors Maraniss and Stavans of the Spanish Department.

Individual courses related to the Latin American area which are offered at the College include: HIST 160, 161, 263, 265, 467, and 469; POSC 486 and 489; SOCI 245 and 335; SPAN 215, 240, 292, 293, 294, 295, and 391.

Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors Douglas, Hussain, Sarat, and Umphrey‡ (Chair); Assistant Professor Sitze†; Senior Lecturer Delaney.

The Department of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought (LJST) places the study of law within the context of a liberal arts education. The Department offers courses that treat law as an historically evolving and culturally specific enterprise in which moral argument, distinctive interpretive practices, and force are brought to bear on the organization of social life. These courses use legal materials to explore conventions of reading, argument and proof, problems of justice and injustice, tensions between authority and community, and contests over social meanings and practices. In addition, the curriculum of LJST is designed to foster the development of a substantive focus for student interests in the study of law and skills in analysis, research, and writing as well as capacity for independent work.

Major Program. A major in Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought consists of a minimum of eleven courses.

Offerings in the Department include courses in Legal Theory (these courses emphasize the moral and philosophical dimensions that inform legal life and link the study of law with the history of social and political thought), Interpretive Practices (these courses emphasize the ways law attempts to resolve normative problems through rituals of textual interpretation), Legal Institutions (these courses focus on the particular ways different legal institutions translate moral judgments and interpretive practices into regulation and socially sanctioned force), and Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspectives (these courses explore the ways in which law and societies change over time, as well as the interdependence of law and culture).

Students in the classes of 2013 and 2014 wishing to major in LJST must complete LJST 101 (The Social Organization of Law) and LJST 110 (Legal Theory) by the end of their sophomore year and before declaring their major. In addition, LJST majors must take two seminars during their junior year, one of which is an Analytic Seminar and one of which is a Research Seminar. Analytic Seminars emphasize close analysis of text, practice, or image, and frequent writing; Research Seminars require students to complete substantial, independent projects. Study abroad or other contingencies may require alterations of the timing of these requirements in individual cases.

Starting with the Class of 2015, students wishing to major in LJST must complete LJST 101 (The Social Organization of Law) and LJST 110 (Legal Theory) by the end of their sophomore year and before declaring their major. In addition, prior to graduation, LJST majors are required to take LJST 103 (Legal Institutions) and LJST 143 (Law’s History). LJST majors also must take two seminars during their junior year, one of which will be an Analytic Seminar and one of which will be a Research Seminar. Analytic Seminars emphasize close analysis of text, practice, or image, and frequent writing; Research Seminars require students to complete substantial, independent projects. Study abroad or other contingencies may require alterations of the timing of these requirements in individual cases.

Senior Writing Requirement. Senior majors of all classes must complete a senior writing project. For those students with a college-wide average of A– or above at the end of their junior year, the writing requirement may be satisfied through a two-semester (LJST 498 and 499) honors program. Each student shall submit a description of his/her proposed independent project by the end of the second semester of junior year. That description shall designate an area of inquiry or topic to be covered, a bibliography of sources relevant to the project, and a research plan.

Students with less than an A– average at the end of their junior year may satisfy the senior writing requirement by doing a substantial (25 page) additional writing project in an LJST course taken during their senior year.

Departmental Honors Program. The Department awards Honors to seniors who have achieved distinction in their course work, whose independent projects are judged to be of honors quality, and who have a college-wide grade average of A– or above. Students should begin to identify a suitable project during the second semester of their junior year and must submit a proposal by the end of that semester for Departmental evaluation. The proposal consists of a description of an area of inquiry or topic to be covered, a list of courses that provide necessary background for the work to be undertaken, and a bibliography. A first draft of the honor thesis will be submitted before the start of the second semester. The final draft will be submitted in April and read and evaluated by a committee of readers.

Post-Graduate Study. LJST is not a pre-law program designed to serve the needs of those contemplating careers in law. While medical schools have prescribed requirements for admission, there is no parallel in the world of legal education. Law schools generally advise students to obtain a broad liberal arts education; they are as receptive to students who major in physics, mathematics, history or philosophy as they would be to students who major in LJST.

LJST majors will be qualified for a wide variety of careers. Some might do graduate work in legal studies, others might pursue graduate studies in political science, history, philosophy, sociology, or comparative literature. For those not inclined toward careers in teaching and scholarship, LJST would prepare students for work in the private or public sector or for careers in social service.

Students may receive credit toward a major in LJST for up to two “related” courses from outside the Department (see list below) or for approved study abroad courses. In no case may those courses be used to satisfy the Analytic or Research Seminar requirements.

101. The Social Organization of Law. (Offered as LJST 101 and POSC 218 [LP] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015].) Law in the United State is everywhere, ordering the most minute details of daily life while at the same time making life and death judgments. Our law is many things at once—majestic and ordinary, monstrous and merciful, concerned with morality yet often righteously indifferent to moral argument. Powerful and important in social life, the law remains elusive and mysterious. This power and mystery is reflected in, and made possible by, a complex bureaucratic apparatus which translates words into deeds and rhetorical gestures into social practices.

This course will examine that apparatus. It will describe how the problems and possibilities of social organization shape law as well as how the social organization of law responds to persons of different classes, races and genders. We will attend to the peculiar way the American legal system deals with human suffering—with examples ranging from the legal treatment of persons living in poverty to the treatments of victims of sexual assault. How is law organized to cope with their pain? How are the actions of persons who inflict inquiries on others defined in legal terms? Here we will examine cases on self defense and capital punishment. Throughout, attention will be given to the practices of police, prosecutors, judges, and those who administer law’s complex bureaucratic apparatus.

Limited to 100 students. Fall semester. Professor Sarat.

103. Legal Institutions and Democratic Practice. This course will examine the relationship between legal institutions and democratic practice. How do judicial decisions balance the preferences of the majority and the rights of minorities? Is it possible to reconcile the role that partisan dialogue and commitment play in a democracy with an interest in the neutral administration of law? How does the provisional nature of legislative choice square with the finality of judicial mandate? By focusing on the United States Supreme Court, we will consider various attempts to justify that institution’s power to offer final decisions and binding interpretations of the Constitution that upset majoritarian preferences. We will examine the origins and historical development of the practice of judicial review and consider judicial responses to such critical issues as slavery, the New Deal, and abortion. The evolving contours of Supreme Court doctrine will be analyzed in the light of a continuing effort to articulate a compelling justification for the practice of judicial intervention in the normal operation of a constitutional democracy.

Limited to 50 students. Spring semester. Professor Douglas.

105. Race, Place, and the Law. (Offered as LJST 105 and BLST 147 [US].) Understandings of and conflicts about place are of central significance to the experience and history of race and race relations in America. The shaping and reshaping of places is an important ingredient in the constitution and revision of racial identities: think of “the ghetto,” Chinatown, or “Indian Country.” Law, in its various manifestations, has been intimately involved in the processes which have shaped geographies of race from the colonial period to the present day: legally mandated racial segregation was intended to impose and maintain both spatial and social distance between members of different races.

The objective of this course is to explore the complex intersections of race, place, and law. Our aim is to gain some understanding of geographies of race “on-the-ground” in real places, and of the role of legal practices—especially legal argument—in efforts to challenge and reinforce these racial geographies. We will ask, for example, how claims about responsibility, community, rationality, equality, justice, and democracy have been used to justify or resist both racial segregation and integration, access and expulsion. In short, we will ask how moral argument and legal discourse have contributed to the formation of the geographies of race that we all inhabit. Much of our attention will be given to a legal-geographic exploration of African-American experiences. But we will also look at how race, place and the law have shaped the distinctive experiences of Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans.

Limited to 40 students. Omitted 2012-13. Senior Lecturer Delaney.

107. The Trial. If media coverage is any evidence, it is clear that legal trials capture, and have always captured, the imagination of America. Trials engage us affectively and politically by dramatizing difficult moral and social predicaments and by offering a public forum for debate and judgment. They also “perform” law in highly stylized ways that affect our sense of what law is and does. This course will explore the trial from a number of different angles: as an idea, as a legal practice, and as a modern cultural phenomenon. What does it mean to undergo a “trial”? How do various historical trial forms—trial by ordeal or by oath, for example—compare with our contemporary adversarial form? What cultural and legal trajectories have trials followed in U.S. history? What narrative and structuring roles do trials play in literature and film? How do popular renderings of trials in imaginative texts and the media compare with actual trial practice, and perhaps encourage us to sit in judgment on law itself? In what ways do well-known trials help us to tell a story about what America is, and what kind of story is it?

Limited to 40 students. Fall semester. Professor Umphrey.

110. Introduction to Legal Theory. This course provides an introduction to the primary texts and central problems of modern legal theory. Through close study of the field’s founding and pivotal works, we will weigh and consider various ways to think about questions that every study, practice, and institution of law eventually encounters. These questions concern law’s very nature or essence; its relations to knowledge, morality, religion, and the passions; the status of its language and interpretations; its relation to force and the threat of force; and its place and function in the preservation and transformation of political, social and economic order.

Limited to 40 students. Spring semester. Professor Sitze.

120. Murder. Murder is the most serious offense against the legal order and is subject to its most punitive responses. It establishes the limits of law’s authority and its capacity to tame violence. Murder is, in addition, a persistent motif in literature and popular culture used to organize narratives of heroism and corruption, good and evil, fate and irrational misfortune. This course considers murder in law, literature and popular culture. It begins by exploring various types of murders (from “ordinary murder” to serial killing and genocide) and compares murder with other killings that law condemns (e.g., euthanasia and assisted suicide) as well as those it tolerates or itself carries out. It asks how, if at all, those who kill are different from those who do not and whether murder should be understood as an act of defiant freedom or simply of moral depravity. In addition, we will analyze the prevalence of murder in American life as well as its various cultural representations. Can such representations ever adequately capture murder, the murderer, and the fear that both arouse? The course will draw on legal cases and jurisprudential writings, murder mysteries, texts such as Macbeth, Poe’s “The Murders on the Rue Morgue,” Capote’s In Cold Blood, and Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, and such films as Hitchcock’s The Rope, Thelma and Louise, Silence of the Lambs, and Menace to Society. Throughout, we will ask what we can learn about law and culture from the way both imagine, represent and respond to murder.

Limited to 100 students. Spring semester. Professor Sarat.

136. Law Between Plato and the Poets. Ancient tragedy, ancient comedy, and Platonic political philosophy pose very different questions about the essence and basis of law, and about law’s relation to such matters as conflict, politics, guilt, love, suffering, action, justice, and wisdom. This course is a preliminary study of the relationships between these differing modes of inquiry. We will spend the first half of the course outlining the theories of law that govern select dramatic works by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Aristophanes. In the second half of the course, we will trace the intricate way these theories are at once incorporated into and rejected by Platonic political philosophy, as exemplified by Plato’s Republic. Along the way, we shall weigh and consider competing versions of the “return to Plato” in contemporary philosophy. In addition to reading key works by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Plato, we will read contemporary texts by Giorgio Agamben, Danielle Allen, Alain Badiou, Hans-Georg Gadamer, René Girard, Martin Heidegger, Bonnie Honig, Bernard Knox, Nicole Loraux, Ramona Naddaff, Martha Nussbaum, Jacques Rancière, Leo Strauss, Jean-Pierre Vernant, and Simone Weil.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sitze.

143. Law’s History. This course examines the ways in which historical thinking and imagining operate in the domain of law. History and law are homologous and tightly linked. Law in various guises uses history as its backbone, as a lens through which to view and adjudicate tangled moral problems, and as a means of proof in rendering judgment. Questions of history and precedent are integral to an understanding of the way language and rhetoric operate in the very creation of legal doctrine. Moreover, law’s use of history also has a history of its own, and our present understanding of the relationship between the two is a product of Enlightenment thinking. Conceiving of history as one kind of “narrative of the real,” in this course we will explore the premises that underlie history’s centrality to law as we inquire after the histories that law demands, creates, and excludes, as well as the ways in which law understands and uses history to seek finality, and to legitimize its authority.

Limited to 40 students. Spring semester. Professor Hussain.

206. Apartheid. (Offered as LJST 206 and BLST 217) The goal of this course will be to understand some of the problems posed for legal studies in the humanities by the emergence of the system of administrative and constitutional law known as apartheid. This system, which was designed to institute “separate development for separate peoples” in South Africa, is widely and rightly regarded to be among the most inhuman régimes of the 20th century. Yet even and especially today, more than a decade after its formal end in South Africa, apartheid’s social, economic, and epistemic conditions of possibility, as well as the place and function of lawyers, legal discourse, and legal scholars in the resistance to it, remains at best vaguely understood.

This course is designed to remedy this gap. Our inquiry will be at once specific and general. Under what economic and political conditions did apartheid come into being? What legal traditions and practices authorized its codification? What academic disciplines and intellectual formations rendered it intelligible and enabled its theorization? What specific arrangement of juridical institutions, practices, and theories together comprised the apartheid state? What was the place and function of law in the critique of and resistance to apartheid? What new and specific problems did apartheid pose for legal theory?

Limited to 40 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sitze.

211. Law, Violence and Forgiveness. In this course, we will approach the problem of forgiveness from a very specific angle. Our most general question will be how, if at all, forgiveness is related to the specifically legal powers of amnesty, equity, and pardon. In the first two thirds of this course, we will take up this question by exploring a series of dramatic, philosophical, and jurisprudential texts that together constitute what might be called the “genealogy of forgiveness.” In the last third of the course, we will bring our genealogical understanding of forgiveness to bear on its contemporary use and, perhaps, abuse. We will seek to understand how amnesty, equity, pardon, and forgiveness have been used in situations where law finds itself obliged to respond to three forms of exceptional violence, namely, civil war, genocide, and apartheid.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sitze.

212. Psychoanalysis and Law. Although psychoanalysis is not usually considered a part of the discipline of jurisprudence, its theories allow for comprehensive answers to the fundamental questions of jurisprudence, and its lexicon permits us to refer with clarity and precision to realities of juridical experience about which disciplinary jurisprudence remains silent. Psychoanalysis interprets law within a field defined by the vicissitudes and impasses of unconscious desire, giving us a way to speak about the pathologies that are constitutive of law’s normal operation, and this amounts, in effect if not in name, to a jurisprudence as compelling as it is unorthodox. At the same time, however, psychoanalysis also has been constrained, at key points in its history, by some of the very juridical forms and forces it seeks to analyze and to question, sometimes even to the point where those forms and forces have reappeared, internalized, within its own most basic theories and practices. If psychoanalysis allows for a comprehensive theory of law, so too then can law serve as an exemplary point of departure for the rethinking of psychoanalysis itself. The purpose of this course will be to pursue this twofold inquiry. After tracing the way that law emerges as a question within the thinking of Sigmund Freud, and considering the ways in which certain juridical problems and events are prior to and generative of Freud’s thought, we then will explore the various ways in which post-Freudian thinkers have not only applied but also rethought Freudian psychoanalysis in their own studies of law.

Limited to 40 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sitze.

214. What’s So Great About (In)Equality? In our world, commitment to “equality” in one sense/form or another is nearly uncontested. At the same time, the form that it should take, its normative ground, scope, limits and conditions, the ways in which it may be realized, and much else are deeply contested. It is also the case that the world in which we live is characterized by profound, enduring and intensifying inequalities and numerous exceptions to the principle. These may be justified with reference to various countervailing commitments that are accorded ethical or practical priority (desert, liberty, efficiency, political stability, ecological integrity, pluralism, etc.). This suggests that while for many “equality” may be normatively compelling, its realization may be subordinated to any number of interests and desires; or, to put it bluntly, there may be such a condition as too much equality or not enough inequality, privilege and “disadvantage.” This course treats these themes as they have arisen in distinctively legal contexts, projects and arguments. It will engage a range of debates within political philosophy and legal theory as to the appropriate limits of equality. While many forms and expressions of inequality have fallen into relative disfavor, some seem virtually immune to significant amelioration. Among these are those associated with social-economic class. Following general investigations of egalitarianism and anti-egalitarianism in social thought and legal history, we will devote closer attention to the legal dimensions of class inequality in contexts such as labor law, welfare and poverty law, education and criminal justice. We will conclude with an examination of the limits of legal egalitarianism vis-à-vis international class-based inequalities under conditions of globalization and cosmopolitan humanitarianism.

Limited to 40 students. Omitted 2012-13. Senior Lecturer Delaney.

215. Jurisprudence of Occupation. This class is organized as an inquiry into the questions that are raised for jurisprudence by the specific cultural, spatial, and political experience of occupation. In particular, we will examine the experiences of colonial occupation in twentieth-century India, South Africa, Malaya and Algeria, as well as contemporary occupations in the West Bank, Gaza, Iraq, and Afghanistan, focusing throughout on the continuities and discontinuities between the two. Throughout the course, we will concentrate on the way in which the jurisprudence of occupation blurs many of the distinctions that modern, liberal jurisprudence seeks to maintain and justify—fusing, for example, everyday practices of governing (e.g., policing, census-taking, and policies of segregation) with distinctively military actions (e.g., air power, destruction of lives and infrastructure, and counterinsurgency campaigns). The questions we ask in this course will be both theoretical and historical. What might the genealogy of colonial occupation have to teach us about aspirations and limits of the jurisprudence of contemporary occupation? How, if at all, have paradigms of occupation changed with the advent of the era of decolonization, the introduction of tactics of sophisticated air power, the emergence of advanced communications technology, and the unprecedented temporalities and spatialities of economic globalization? Additionally, we will examine how international law defines and regulates occupation. What is occupation? On what grounds does modern jurisprudence authorize and constrain occupation? What is the difference between a legal occupation and an illegal occupation? Last but not least, we will ask what precedents, insights and lessons occupation provides for a more general understanding of law, governance, and conflict.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professors Hussain and Sitze.

221. The State and the Accused. This course will examine the unusual and often perplexing means by which the law makes judgments about guilt and innocence. Our inquiry will be framed by the following questions: What gives a court the authority to pass judgment on a person accused of criminal wrongdoing, and what defines the limits of this authority? What ends does the law seek to pursue in bringing an accused to justice? What “process” is due the accused such that the procedures designed to adjudicate guilt are deemed fair? How do these standards differ as we travel from adversarial systems of justice (such as the Anglo-American) to inquisitional systems (e.g., France or Germany)? Finally, how has the process of rapid globalization changed the relationship between the state and the accused and, with it, the idea of criminal justice itself? In answering these questions, our investigations will be broadly comparative, as we consider adversarial, inquisitional, and transnational institutions of criminal justice. We will also closely attend to the differences between law’s response to “common” criminals and extraordinary criminals, such as heads of state, armed combatants, and terrorists.

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Douglas.

224. Law and Social Relations: Persons, Identities and Groups. One of the foundational analytics governing law’s relationship to identity and personhood is the grand trope of public and private. As an historical matter, the public/private divide has demarcated the boundary of law’s authority: under a liberal theory of government, law may regulate relations in the public sphere but must leave the private realm in the control of individuals. The stakes associated with this line of demarcation are extremely high: those problems of identity and relation that are considered “public” are problems visible to law and subject to law’s authority; those that are considered private remain below the horizon of law’s gaze. Yet definitions of the public and the private are notoriously slippery and inexact, and their contours are inexorably on a train as an African-American, or a license to practice law as a white woman, was to experience a kind of discrimination that the law would refuse to see. In the twentieth century we no longer experience such officially-sanctioned harms but remain conflicted about the extent to which law should address other, more “private” interactions: verbal bigotry, family relations, sex.

This course will trace and explore the modes by which the public/private divide constitutes identities in law by examining the ways law defines the public, and does or does not regulate ostensibly “private” harms. Using both legal and non-legal texts we will map a history of social relations, particularly as they implicated deeply held assumptions about racialized, gendered, and sexualized bodies, and explore the shifting boundary between public and private as it has emerged in public debates over the meaning of equality, privacy, and free speech. To what extent does law’s authority remain constituted upon the public/private divide? To what extent are we now witnessing the redefinition, even the virtual elimination, of the private? And with what consequences for our social relations?

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Umphrey.

226. Critical Legal Geographies. The spatiality of social life is a fundamental element of human existence, not least through its involvement with power of various sorts. Spatiality is also a significant—and problematic—dimension of law (think of sovereignty, jurisdiction, citizenship). At the same time, law is a significant force through which spatiality is produced, reinforced, contested and transformed. Law literally constitutes social spaces through constitutions, treaties, statutes, contracts, modes of surveillance and policing, and so on. As it does so, it constitutes itself as a force in the world. Law may also be an arena in which other social-spatial conflicts are played out and, provisionally, resolved. The course will consider both the changing spatiality of law (its scope, scale, limits; its vectors and circuits) and the changing legal constitution of other social spaces. This will be done through an engagement with contemporary socio-spatial and legal theories and through a survey of exemplary events and situations. Among the more specific topics we will consider are privacy and property; public space of speech and dissent; migration, displacement and sanctuary; colonialism and occupation. The contexts of our study will not be limited to/by American law but will include examples involving international law, forms of legal pluralism, and other legal-cultural contexts. The course will conclude with an investigation of globalization and the emergence of cyberspace and their posited effects on the very possibility of law as we have come to understand and experience it.

Requisite: LJST 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Delaney.

227. Law’s Madness. We imagine law to be a system of reason that governs and pacifies a disorderly world. Indeed law derives much of its legitimacy from its relation to reason: it uses reason to justify the imposition of state violence even as it limits its own power, punishing only acts done by reasoning human beings. Any “mistakes” or “disruptions” are understood as unfortunate departures from an ideal rational system. And yet what if one were to reimagine law as constituted as much by its irrationalities as its rationality? To ask that question is to enter the language of psychoanalysis, and the theories proposed by Sigmund Freud to explain human irrationalities. This course, following Freud, theorizes law as emerging out of and actively engaging in repressions of fundamental drives or desires—both its own and those of the legal subjects who come before it. We will map some of the ways in which law understands legal subjectivity in relation to the capacity to reason, and draw upon Freud to put the idea of the “reasonable self” under some pressure. We will also consider the ways in which law’s authority may be conjured as an expression of the (sometimes violent) authority of the judge-father, and the limits of that authority as Freud understood them. Finally, we will speculate on the ways in which we make law an object of our own desire, which themselves depend upon the repression of law’s violence.

Requisite: LJST 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Umphrey.

230. Law, Speech, and the Politics of Freedom. In the United States, the idea of free speech is held to be both a political and moral ideal. The First Amendment makes freedom of speech a centerpiece of liberal democratic values and processes, and thus of American identity itself. But what, precisely, do we mean when we link the ideas of freedom and speech? What kinds of speech, and what kinds of freedom, are implicated in that linkage? Correlatively, what does it mean to “censor”? Drawing upon political philosophy, literary theory, court cases, imaginative writing, and examples from contemporary culture, this course will explore the multiple meanings of “free speech,” their legal regulation, and their deployment in American public culture. Why should we value “free” speech? Who do we imagine to be the speaker whose speech is or ought to be free: the man on the soapbox? The political protester? The media conglomerate? The anonymous chat-room inhabitant? What does it mean to say that various kinds of speech may be dangerous, and under what conditions it might be conceivable to shut down or regulate dangerous speech, or conversely to promote “politically correct” speech in either formal or informal ways? How do speech forms (for example, parody, poetry, or reportage) differ, and should some garner more legal protection than others? Can silence be considered a kind of speech?

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Umphrey.

231. Social Movements and Social Change. This course examines social movements (and related phenomena) as integral elements of legal orders and as significant sources of legal transformations. Through interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and historical analyses, the course will explore the ways in which non-state actors engage formal legal institutions to shape or reform law, in order to affect the conditions of social life. Of particular interest are not merely desired changes in laws but resultant changes in the culture of law more broadly. The course will draw on a wide range of movements (historical and contemporary; “progressive” and conservative; broad-based and narrowly focused; American and non-American; local, national and global; North and South, activist and bureaucratic from “below” and from “within”; etc.) and study two or three in closer detail. The over-arching objective is to achieve a richer understanding of both the inner workings of “the law” and the dynamic life of law outside of formal institutions.

Requisite: LJST 101 or consent of instructor. Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Delaney.

234. Law, Crime and Culture. Crime and criminality are the sites where law most directly and forcefully intervenes in everyday life through ritual and spectacle, through the construction of boundaries that include or exclude certain kinds of behavior or types of individuals from the social polity, and through direct physical violence and the containment of bodies. Focusing mainly but not exclusively on the United States, this course will explore, both historically and theoretically, the ways in which crime and criminality have been imagined, enacted, and punished. Drawing heavily on the work of Michel Foucault, we will explore the historical changes, continuities and contradictions visible in various imaginings of the relationship between the state, the criminal, and the public. We will consider the significance of shifting modes of punishment, from a spectacle of pain to incarceration behind the high walls of the penitentiary. We will also examine various theories of criminality and inquire into their cultural assumptions and consequences as they have gained and lost legitimacy over time. Whom do we hold legally or morally responsible for criminal acts? Can criminal activity be explained as product of vice, or an imperfect body, or the social environment? How does popular culture encode various representations of criminality?

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Umphrey.

235. Law’s Nature: Humans, the Environment and the Predicament of Law. “Nature” is at once among the most basic of concepts and among the most ambiguous. Law is often called upon to clarify the meaning of nature. In doing so it raises questions about what it means to be human.

This course is organized around three questions. First, what does law as a humanistic discipline say about nature? Second, what can law’s conception of nature tell us about shifting conceptions of humanness? Third, what can we learn by attending to these questions about law’s own situation in the world and its ability to tell us who we are? We will address these questions by starting with the environment (specifically wilderness). We will then expand our view of nature by examining legal engagements with animals (endangered species, animals in scientific experiments, and pets), human bodies (reproductive technologies, involuntary biological alterations, the right to die) and brains (genetic or hormonal bases for criminal defenses). Throughout, we will focus our attention on the themes of knowledge, control and change. We will look, for example, at relationships between legal and scientific forms of knowledge and the problematic role of expert knowledge in adjudicating normative disputes. We will also look at law’s response to radical, technologically induced changes in relations between humans and nature, and to arguments in favor of limiting such transformations.

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Senior Lecturer Delaney.

237. Law and the American War in Vietnam. The American war in Vietnam was, among other things, a watershed event in American legal history. Throughout the duration of the war there was vigorous debate about its legality in terms of international law, natural law and constitutional law. The conduct of the war and its relation to the draft and to dissent generated unprecedented public disagreement about such fundamental legal issues as authority, obligation, due process, civil liberties, crime and punishment, and the relationship between law and morality. The war was also the topic or context for a number of trials during which official legal actors endeavored to make formal legal sense of the war and of law’s relationship to it. As a historical event, the war may also be examined in light of more contemporary themes such as legal consciousness, law as violence, and governmentality. The course will explore legal aspects of the war both as a historical study and as a case study of law in extreme situations.

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Senior Lecturer Delaney.

238. Law and Historical Trauma. Certain events in political history—revolutions, civil wars, transitions from authoritarian or totalitarian regimes to political democracy, or particular moments in the ongoing constitutional life of a nation—seem unusual in the breadth and depth of the break or rupture that they make from tradition, the past, and the ongoing self-understandings of a people. Those events pose a special opportunity and challenge for law. Can law repair the traumatic ruptures associated with revolution, civil war, and recent democratic transitions? In such moments does law provide a reassuring sense of stability that serves to maintain the underlying continuity of history? Or, does it compound the crisis of dramatic historical transformation by insisting on judging the past, bringing the losers to justice, and publicly proclaiming the “crimes” of the old order? What can we learn about law by examining its responses to historical trauma? To address these questions we will first examine the idea of trauma and ask what makes particular events traumatic and others not. Is trauma constitutive of law itself? Is law always born in traumatic moments and, at the same time, continuously preoccupied with responding to its own traumatic origins? We will then proceed comparatively and historically by focusing on a series of case studies including colonial revolution in Algeria, Aboriginal rights cases in Australia, slavery and civil war in the United States, and regime changes in South Africa, Germany, and Argentina. In each we will identify the part played by law and ask what we can learn about the capacities and limits of law both to preserve national memory and, at the same time, to build new social and political practices.

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hussain.

240. Law, God and Modernity. It is the hallmark of modernity that law is secular and rational, made by humans for their purposes. Modern law relegates the divine to the realm of private belief, while the modern state guarantees the uninterrupted observance of a multiplicity of beliefs. Yet secularism has never been an uncontested position and many philosophers have suggested that the sovereignty of the modern state is itself a worldly duplicate of religious understandings of god’s omnipotence. Today the connection of law and the sacred has taken on new urgency with the so-called “return of the religious,” most famously with the rise of political Islam but also with Christian movements in the west, and with the transformations of sovereignty through globalization. This course is a historical and cross-cultural examination of the relationship of law, sovereignty, and the sacred. It focuses on a range of topics: the understanding of secularism in general and the American doctrine of the separation of church and state in particular; the legal theory of Islamization; the meaning of orthodoxy, both legal and religious. It examines both the secular uses of the concept of the sacred, and the religious deployment of modern legal concepts. It asks how the proper names of law and god are used to anchor various normative visions.

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hussain.

325. Film, Myth, and the Law. The proliferation of law in film and on television has expanded the sphere of legal life itself. Law lives in images that today saturate our culture and have a power all their own, and the moving image provides a domain in which legal power operates independently of law’s formal institutions. This course will consider what happens when legal events are re-narrated in film and examine film’s treatment of legal officials, events, and institutions (e.g., police, lawyers, judges, trials, executions, prisons). Does film open up new possibilities of judgment, model new modes of interpretation, and provide new insights into law’s violence? We will discuss ways in which myths about law are reproduced and contested in film. Moreover, attending to the visual dimensions of law’s imagined lives, we ask whether law provides a template for film spectatorship, positioning viewers as detectives and as jurors, and whether film, in turn, sponsors a distinctive visual aesthetics of law. Among the films we may consider are Inherit the Wind, Call Northside 777, Judgment at Nuremberg, Rear Window, Silence of the Lambs, A Question of Silence, The Sweet Hereafter, Dead Man Walking, Basic Instinct, and Unforgiven. Throughout we will draw upon film theory and criticism as well as the scholarly literature on law, myth, and film.

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. See LJST 352. Professors Sarat and Umphrey.

341. Interpretation in Law and Literature. (Analytic Seminar) Interpretation lies at the center of much legal and literary activity. Both law and literature are in the business of making sense of texts—statutes, constitutions, poems or stories. Both disciplines confront similar questions regarding the nature of interpretive practice: Should interpretation always be directed to recovering the intent of the author? If we abandon intentionalism as a theory of textual meaning, how do we judge the “excellence” of our interpretations? How can the critic or judge continue to claim to read in an authoritative manner in the face of interpretive plurality? In the last few years, a remarkable dialogue has burgeoned between law and literature as both disciplines have grappled with life in a world in which “there are no facts, only interpretations.” This seminar will examine contemporary theories of interpretation as they inform legal and literary understandings. Readings will include works of literature (Hemingway, Kafka, Woolf) and court cases, as well as contributions by theorists of interpretation such as Spinoza, Dilthey, Freud, Geertz, Kermode, Dworkin, and Sontag.

Requisite: LJST 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Douglas.

344. Late Modern Moral Philosophy and Legal Theory. (Analytic Seminar) No one disputes that moral argumentation is central to law’s theory and practice. Yet what exactly do we mean when we speak of morality? In this course, we shall take up this question by closely studying what is arguably the paradigmatic text of modern moral philosophy, Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. After studying the relations between Kant’s Groundwork to Kant’s more general philosophy of public and international law, we will then study a set of critiques of, and commentaries on, Kant’s work. The purpose of this course will be to weigh and consider Kant’s moral law as a point of reference for the critique of law today. Readings will include works by Adorno, Arendt, Butler, Derrida, Freud, Nietzsche, Levinas, Lacan, and Zizek.

Requisite: LJST 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sitze.

345. Law and Political Emergency. (Analytic Seminar) This course introduces students to one of the more sustained problems in jurisprudence and legal theory: what happens to a constitutional order when it is faced with extraordinary conditions such as rebellion, war and terrorism. While it is generally agreed that rules, rights and procedures may be temporarily suspended, it is less clear which rights, and who decides on the suspension (the executive alone or in some combination with the legislature, with or without oversight by the courts). While these questions have now become familiar to us—and this course will guide students through the policy shifts and court battles in the United States since 9/11, from the issue of enemy combatants to the use of Guantanamo Bay as a detention center—we will take a more theoretical and historical approach to these questions. Thus we will look at the earliest use of some emergency techniques by the British in the colonies, Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War and the notorious Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which has often been blamed for facilitating the rise of the Nazis. We will end by examining alternative methods for contending with emergency. One class meeting per week.

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Hussain.

348. Law And War. (Research Seminar) The traditional understanding of war involved the armies of two nation-states confronting each other on a battlefield. And other than general customs of a just war, the law was thought to have little to say about war. But in the last half century even as the traditional form of war has changed rapidly, as conflicts involving non-state actors (such as insurgency and terrorism) have increased, international law has developed an intricate set of rules regarding who can fight and what methods of fighting are legal.

This course explores the connection between different types of conflict and the norms and rules of international law that are used to regulate that conflict. In this course, we will take a historical approach. We will read classic theorists of war such as Clausewitz, Schmitt and Michael Walzer. We will examine the history of The Hague and Geneva Conventions. And we will focus on specific instances of war from nineteenth-century colonial conflicts and guerilla warfare, to the 1999 “humanitarian” intervention in Kosovo, to the various fronts in the contemporary “war on terror.” Throughout we will ask how changes in technology and law change the definition of war. How do legal definitions of war attempt to demarcate it from other forms of violent conflict such as insurgency or terrorism?

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professors Hussain and Douglas.

349. Law and Love. (Research Seminar) At first glance, law and love seem to tend in opposing directions: where law is constituted in rules and regularity, love emerges in contingent, surprising, and ungovernable ways; where law speaks in the language of reason, love’s language is of sentiment and affect; where law regulates society through threats of violence, love binds with a magical magnetism. In this seminar, placing materials in law and legal theory alongside theoretical and imaginative work on the subject of love, we invert that premise of opposition in order to look for love’s place in law and law’s in love. First we will inquire into the ways in which laws regulate love, asking how is love constituted and arranged by those regulations, and on what grounds it escapes them. In that regard we will explore, among other areas, the problematics of passion in criminal law and laws regulating sexuality, marriage, and family. Second we will ask, how does love in its various guises (as, philia, eros, or agape) manifest itself in law and legal theory, and indeed partly constitute law itself? Here we will explore, for example, sovereign exercises of mercy, the role of equity in legal adjudication, and the means that bind legal subjects together in social contract theory. Finally, we will explore an analogy drawn by W. H. Auden, asking how law is like love, and by extension love like law. How does attending to love’s role in law, and law’s in love, shift our imaginings of both?

Requisite: LJST 110 or consent of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Umphrey.

350. Twentieth-Century American Legal Theory. (Analytic Seminar) The discipline of legal theory has the task of making law meaningful to itself. But there is a variety of competing legal theories that can make law meaningful in divergent ways. By what measure are we to assess their adequacy? Is internal coherence the best standard or should legal theory strive to accord with the extra-legal world? Then too, the institutions and practices of law are components of social reality and, therefore, as amenable to sociological or cultural analysis as any other component. Here again, many different kinds of sense can be made of law depending upon how “the social” is itself theorized. This course engages the theme of law and the problems of social reality by way of a three-step approach. The first part of the course presents an overview of the main lines of twentieth-century American legal thought. We begin with a study of legal formalism and the challenges posed to it by legal realism and its various successor theories. One focus of debate between formalism and its rivals is how much social realism should be brought to bear on legal analysis. Another question is: what kind of social realism should be brought to bear on the analysis of law. The second segment of the course provides a survey of some of the candidates. These include the Law and Society Movement, neo-Marxism and Critical Legal Studies. In the final segment we look at how these theoretical issues are given expression in connection with more practical contexts such as poverty law, labor law or criminal law.

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to Juniors and Seniors. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Delaney.

352. Film, Myth, and the Law. (Offered as LJST 352 and FAMS 371.) (Analytic Seminar) The proliferation of law in film and on television has expanded the sphere of legal life itself. Law lives in images that today saturate our culture and have a power all their own, and the moving image provides a domain in which legal power operates independently of law’s formal institutions. This course will consider what happens when legal events are re-narrated in film and examine film’s treatment of legal officials, events, and institutions (e.g., police, lawyers, judges, trials, executions, prisons). Does film open up new possibilities of judgment, model new modes of interpretation, and provide new insights into law’s violence? We will discuss ways in which myths about law are reproduced and contested in film. Moreover, attending to the visual dimensions of law’s imagined lives, we ask whether law provides a template for film spectatorship, positioning viewers as detectives and as jurors, and whether film, in turn, sponsors a distinctive visual aesthetics of law. Among the films we may consider are Inherit the Wind, Call Northside 777, Judgment at Nuremberg, Rear Window, Silence of the Lambs, A Question of Silence, The Sweet Hereafter, Dead Man Walking, Basic Instinct, and Unforgiven. Throughout we will draw upon film theory and criticism as well as the scholarly literature on law, myth, and film.

The Professor aims to admit a mix of students from different classes and with backgrounds in Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought and in other fields, in order to foster a rich interdisciplinary conversation.

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sarat.

354. The Crisis of Neoliberal Legal Theory. (Research Seminar) The theory of governance known today as “neoliberalism” is most often understood as a mainly economic policy. Both its opponents and its proponents seem to agree that neoliberalism is best debated as an ensemble of practices (such as free trade, privatization, deregulation, competitiveness, social-spending cutbacks and deficit reduction) that emphasize the primacy of the free market in and for the arrangement of social and political orders. But, particularly in its initial theorizations, neoliberalism was also, perhaps even primarily, a philosophic doctrine concerning the place and function of law in and for human civilization in general. At the 1938 Walter Lippman Colloquium in Paris and then again at the inaugural 1947 meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Switzerland, the leading figures of what would later become known as neoliberalism criticized existing economic theories for neglecting basic questions of legal theory and argued that capitalism could not be saved from the perils of socialism and communism without a renewed understanding of, and insistence on, the rule of law. In this course, we shall take this, the “legal theoretical” origin of neoliberalism, as a point of departure for understanding neoliberalism as a whole. In the first half of the course, we shall seek to understand neoliberalism on the basis of the way it posed law as a problem for thought. In relation to what alternate theories of law did neoliberalism emerge? On what terms did neoliberals reinterpret the “classical” liberalism of Hobbes and Locke? How did certain concepts of law figure into the way that neoliberal thinkers arrived at their understandings of the basic meanings of life and labor? In the second half of the course, we shall explore the ways in which various critics of neoliberalism have sought to expose and to question the legal theories at its origin. How might renewed attention to legal theoretical problems help us today in our attempt to think and act beyond neoliberalism’s constitutive limits? Our goal in all phases of the course will be to reconstruct neoliberal thought on its own terms in order to grasp better its contemporary incoherence, crisis, and dissolution. Readings will include Samir Amin, Zygmunt Bauman, Michel Foucault, Milton Friedman, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, David Harvey, Friedrich Hayek, Maynard Keynes, Naomi Klein, Karl Marx, Ludwig von Mises, Alexander Rustow, and Saskia Sassen.

Requisite: LJST 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester; Professor Sitze.

356. Representing and Judging the Holocaust. (Research Seminar) This seminar will address some of the foundational questions posed by radical evil to the legal imagination. How have jurists attempted to understand the causes and logic of genocide, and the motives of its perpetrators? Is it possible to “do justice” to such extreme crimes? Is it possible to grasp the complexities of history in the context of criminal trial? What are the special challenges and responsibilities facing those who struggle to submit traumatic history to legal judgment? We will consider these questions by focusing specifically on a range of legal responses to the crimes of the Holocaust. Our examination will be broadly interdisciplinary, as we compare the efforts of jurists to master the problems of representation and judgment posed by extreme crimes with those of historians, social theorists, and artists. Readings will include original material from the Nuremberg, Eichmann, and Irving trials, and works by, among others, Hannah Arendt, Zygmunt Bauman, Christopher Browning, Primo Levi, and Art Spiegelman.

Requisite: LJST 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Douglas.

357. Property, Liberty and Law. (Research Seminar) What we call property is enormously important in establishing the nature of a legal regime. Moreover, an exploration of property offers a window on how a culture sees itself. Examining how property notions are used and modified in practice can also provide critical insights into many aspects of social history and contemporary social reality.

We will begin our discussion of property by treating it as an open-ended cluster of commonplace and more specialized notions (e.g., owner, gift, lease, estate) used to understand and shape the world. We will look at how the relation of property to such values as privacy, security, citizenship and justice has been understood in political and legal theory and how different conceptions of these relations have entered into constitutional debates. We will also study the relationship of property and the self (How might one’s relation to property enter into conceptions of self? Do we “own” ourselves? Our bodies or likenesses? Our thoughts?), property and everyday life (How are conceptions of property used to understand home, work and community?) and property and culture, (Do our conceptions of property influence understandings of cultural differences between ourselves and others? Does it make sense to claim ownership over one’s ancestors?). In sum, this course will raise questions about how property shapes our understandings of liberty, personhood, agency and power.

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Delaney.

374. Norms, Rights, and Social Justice: Feminists, Disability Rights Activists and the Poor at the Boundaries of the Law. (Offered as POSC 474 [GP, LP] [SC—starting with the Class of 2015] and LJST 374.) This seminar explores how the civil rights movement began a process of social change and identity-based activism. We evaluate the successes and failures of “excluded” groups’ efforts to use the law. We primarily focus on the recent scholarship of theorists, legal professionals, and activists to define “post-identity politics” strategies and to counteract the social processes that “normalize” persons on the basis of gender, sexuality, disability, and class. This course fulfills the requirement for an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: One introductory Political Science course or its equivalent. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Bumiller.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Courses. Reading in an area selected by the student and approved in advance by a member of the Department.

Fall and spring semester.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Independent work under the guidance of a tutor assigned by the Department. Open to senior LJST majors who wish to pursue a self-defined project in reading and writing and to work under the close supervision of a faculty member.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall semester.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Independent work under the guidance of a tutor assigned by the Department. Open to senior LJST majors who wish to pursue a self-defined project in reading and writing and to work under the close supervision of a faculty member.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring semester.

Related Courses

History of Anthropological Theory. See ANTH 323.

Economic Anthropology and Social Theory. See ANTH 343.

America’s Death Penalty. See COLQ 234.

Law and Economics. See ECON 426.

Riot and Rebellion in Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa. See HIST 488.

Normative Ethics. See PHIL 310.

What Is Morality About? See PHIL 312.

Political Rhetoric. See POSC 222.

The American Constitution I: The Structure of Rights. See POSC 241.

The American Constitution II: Federalism, Privacy, and the “Equal Protection of the Laws.” See POSC 242.

Modern Political Thought. See POSC 335.

Punishment, Politics, and Culture. See POSC 360.

Ancient Israel. See RELI 263.

Reading the Rabbis. See RELI 267.

Foundations of Sociological Theory. See SOCI 315.

Gender Labor. See WAGS 224.

LINGUISTICS

Courses in linguistics and related fields are offered occasionally through the Departments of Asian Languages and Civilizations, Computer Science, English, Mathematics, and Philosophy. The College does not offer a major in this subject. Students interested in linguistics are advised to consult Professor Wako Tawa, Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations, Amherst College.

Mathematics

‡On leave spring 2012-13.

Professors Call, Cox, and Velleman; Associate Professor R. Benedetto; Assistant Professors Ching, Leise, Liao‡, and Wagaman; Visiting Assistant Professors Manack and Ndangali; Lecturer D. Benedetto; Visiting Lecturer Jeneralczuk; Five College Post-Doctoral Fellow Hedlin.

The Department offers the major in Mathematics as well as courses meeting a wide variety of interests in this field. Non-majors who seek introductory courses are advised to consider MATH 105, 111, 130, 140, and 220, none of which require a background beyond high school mathematics.

Major Program. The minimum requirements for the Mathematics major include MATH 111, 121, 211, 271 or 272, 350, 355, and three other elective courses in Mathematics numbered 130 or higher. In addition, a major must complete two other courses, using one of the following options:

A. Two courses, each of which is either an elective course in Mathematics numbered 130 or higher or a course from outside Mathematics chosen from among: COSC 201, 301, and 401, any Physics course numbered 116 or higher (excluding PHYS 227), PHIL 350, ECON 300, 301, 361, 420, and 428. (Note: this option can be satisfied by taking two math electives, one math elective and one outside course, or two outside courses.)

B. Two courses from outside of Mathematics, one of which is chosen from the list in (A) above, and one of which is a requisite for that course chosen from the same discipline.

In either option A or B, requests for alternative courses must be approved in writing by the chair of the Department.

Students who have placed out of certain courses, such as introductory calculus, as indicated by a strong performance on an Advanced Placement Exam or other evidence approved by the department, are excused from taking those courses.

A student considering a major in Mathematics should consult with a member of the Department as soon as possible, preferably during the first year. This will facilitate the arrangement of a program best suited to the student’s ability and interests. Students should also be aware that there is no single path through the major; courses do not have to be taken in numerical order (except where required by prerequisites).

For a student considering graduate study, the Departmental Honors program is strongly recommended. Such a student is advised to take the Graduate Record Examination early in the senior year. It is also desirable to have a reading knowledge of two foreign languages, usually French, German, or Russian. All students majoring in Mathematics are expected to attend the departmental colloquium during their junior and senior years.

Comprehensive Examination. A comprehensive examination for majors who are not participating in the Honors Program will be given near the beginning of the spring semester of the senior year. (Those who will complete their studies in the fall semester may elect instead to take the comprehensive examination at the beginning of that semester.) The examination covers MATH 111, 121, 211, 271 or 272, and a choice of MATH 350 or 355. A document describing the comprehensive examination can be obtained from the Department website.

Departmental Honors Program. Students are admitted to the Honors Program on the basis of a qualifying examination given at the beginning of the spring semester of their junior year. (Those for whom the second semester of the junior year occurs in the fall may elect instead to take the qualifying examination at the beginning of that semester.) The examination is identical to the comprehensive examination mentioned above and is described in a document available from the Department website. Before the end of the junior year, an individual thesis topic will be selected by the Honors candidate in conference with a member of the Department. After intensive study of this topic, the candidate will write a report in the form of a thesis which should be original in its presentation of material, if not in content. In addition, the candidate will report to the departmental colloquium on her or his thesis work during the senior year. Honors candidates are also required to complete MATH 345 and either MATH 450 or 455.

105. Calculus with Algebra. MATH 105 and 106 are designed for students whose background and algebraic skills are inadequate for the fast pace of MATH 111. In addition to covering the usual material of beginning calculus, these courses will have an extensive review of algebra and trigonometry. There will be a special emphasis on solving word problems.

MATH 105 starts with a quick review of algebraic manipulations, inequalities, absolute values and straight lines. Then the basic ideas of calculus—limits, derivatives, and integrals—are introduced, but only in the context of polynomial and rational functions. As various applications are studied, the algebraic techniques involved will be reviewed in more detail. When covering related rates and maximum-minimum problems, time will be spent learning how to approach, analyze and solve word problems. Four class meetings per week, one of which is a two-hour group-work day.

Note: While MATH 105 and 106 are sufficient for any course with a MATH 111 requisite, MATH 105 alone is not. However, students who plan to take MATH 121 should consider taking MATH 105 and then MATH 111, rather than MATH 106. Students cannot register for both MATH 105 and CHEM 111 in the same semester.

Fall semester. Professor Cox.

106. Calculus with Elementary Functions. MATH 106 is a continuation of MATH 105. Trigonometric, logarithmic and exponential functions will be studied from the point of view of both algebra and calculus. The applications encountered in MATH 105 will reappear in problems involving these new functions. The basic ideas and theorems of calculus will be reviewed in detail, with more attention being paid to rigor. Four class meetings per week, one of which is a two-hour group-work day.

Requisite: MATH 105. Spring semester. Professor Cox.

111. Introduction to the Calculus. Basic concepts of limits, derivatives, anti-derivatives; applications, including max/min problems and related rates; the definite integral, simple applications; trigonometric functions; logarithms and exponential functions. Four class hours per week.

Fall and spring semesters. In the fall semester, the intensive section (Section 01) is open only to students listed as eligible on the Mathematics placement list. The intensive section replaces one weekly class hour with a 90-to-120 minute group work day. The Department.

121. Intermediate Calculus. A continuation of MATH 111. Inverse trigonometric and hyperbolic functions; methods of integration, both exact and approximate; applications of integration to volume and arc length; improper integrals; l’Hôpital’s rule; infinite series, power series and the Taylor development; and polar coordinates. Four class hours per week.

Requisite: A grade of C or better in MATH 111 or consent of the Department. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

130. Introduction to Statistics. (Offered as MATH 130 and ENST 240.) This course is an introduction to applied statistical methods useful for the analysis of data from all fields. Brief coverage of data summary and graphical techniques will be followed by elementary probability, sampling distributions, the central limit theorem and statistical inference. Inference procedures include confidence intervals and hypothesis testing for both means and proportions, the chi-square test, simple linear regression, and a brief introduction to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Some sections of MATH 130 have an environmental theme and are recommended for students interested in Environmental Studies. In fall 2012, the environmental section will be section 02; in spring 2013, there will NOT BE an environmental section. Four class hours per week (two will be held in the computer lab). Labs are not interchangeable between sections due to course content.

Each section limited to 20 students. Fall semester: Professors Liao and Wagaman, Visiting Lecturer Jeneralczuk. Spring semester: Professor Wagaman, Visiting Professor Manack and Postdoctoral Fellow Hedlin.

140. Mathematical Modeling. Mathematical modeling is the process of translating a real world problem into a mathematical expression, analyzing it using mathematical tools and numerical simulations, and then interpreting the results in the context of the original problem. Discussion of basic modeling principles and case studies will be followed by several projects from areas such as environmental studies and biology (e.g., air pollution, ground water flow, populations of interacting species, social networks). This course has no requisites; projects will be tailored to each student’s level of mathematical preparation. Four class hours per week, with occasional in-class computer labs.

Fall semester. Professor Leise.

211. Multivariable Calculus. Elementary vector calculus; introduction to partial derivatives; multiple integrals in two and three dimensions; line integrals in the plane; Green’s theorem; the Taylor development and extrema of functions of several variables; implicit function theorems; Jacobians. Four class hours per week.

Requisite: A grade of C or better in MATH 121 or the consent of the instructor. Fall semester: The Department. Spring semester: The Department.

220. Discrete Mathematics. This course is an introduction to some topics in mathematics that do not require the calculus. The topics covered include logic, elementary set theory, functions, relations and equivalence relations, mathematical induction, counting principles, and graph theory. Additional topics may vary from year to year. This course serves as an introduction to mathematical thought and pays particular attention to helping students learn how to write proofs. Four class hours per week.

Spring semester. Professor Velleman.

230. Intermediate Statistics. This course is an intermediate applied statistics course that continues the theme of hands-on data analysis begun in MATH 130. Students will learn how to evaluate an experimental study, perform appropriate statistical analysis of the data, and properly communicate their analyses. Emphasis will be placed on the use of statistical software and the interpretation of the results of data analysis. Topics covered will include basic experimental design, parametric and nonparametric methods for comparing two or more population means, analysis of variance models for multi-factor designs, multiple regression, analysis of covariance, model selection, logistic regression, and methods for analyzing various types of count data. Four class hours per week (two will be held in the computer lab).

Requisite: MATH 130 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13.

250. Theory of Numbers. An introduction to the theory of rational integers; divisibility, the unique factorization theorem; congruences, quadratic residues. Selections from the following topics: cryptology; Diophantine equations; asymptotic prime number estimates; continued fractions; algebraic integers. Four class hours per week. Offered in alternate years.

Requisite: MATH 121 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Cox.

255. Geometry. In Euclidean geometry, the parallel axiom asserts that if we have a line and a point not on the line, then there is a unique line through the point which is parallel to the given line. This seemingly obvious statement has many consequences, including the Pythagorean Theorem and the fact that the angles of a triangle sum to 180 degrees. In the nineteenth century, it was discovered that this is not the only possible geometry.

The course will begin with neutral geometry, which makes no assumptions about parallel lines. We will then study non-Euclidean geometry, which uses a different parallel axiom. Familiar objects like circles and triangles behave differently in this geometry. For example, rectangles don’t exist, and the angles of a triangle sum to less than 180 degrees, and the difference is proportional to the area of the triangle. This will allow us to construct an eight-sided house where every corner is a right angle. Besides proving some fun theorems, we will also study the history of non-Euclidean geometry.

The final part of the course will be an introduction to differential geometry. The key concepts will be geodesics (which generalize straight lines) and curvature (which measures how the space is warped). This will allow us to make models of non-Euclidean geometry and explore how geometric ideas apply in a much wider context. Four class hours per week.

Requisite: Math 211 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13.

260. Topics in Differential Equations. The study of differential equations is an important part of mathematics that involves many topics, both theoretical and practical. The precise subject matter of this course will vary from year to year. In spring 2013 the topics will be nonlinear dynamics and chaos. We will study the dynamics of one- and two-dimensional flows. The focus of the course will be on bifurcation theory: how do solutions of nonlinear differential equations change qualitatively as a control parameter is varied, and how does chaos arise? To illustrate the analysis, we will consider examples from physics, biology, chemistry, and engineering. The course will also cover basic theorems concerning existence and uniqueness of solutions and continuous dependence on parameters. Four class hours per week, one of which will be in the computer lab.

Requisite: MATH 211 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Leise.

271. Linear Algebra. The study of vector spaces over the real and complex numbers, introducing the concepts of subspace, linear independence, basis, and dimension; systems of linear equations and their solution by Gaussian elimination; matrix operations; linear transformations and their representations by matrices; eigenvalues and eigenvectors; and inner product spaces. Special attention will be paid to the theoretical development of the subject. Four class meetings per week.

Requisite: MATH 121 or consent of the instructor. This course and MATH 272 may not both be taken for credit. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Manack.

272. Linear Algebra with Applications. The study of vector spaces over the real and complex numbers, introducing the concepts of subspace, linear independence, basis, and dimension; systems of linear equations and their solution by Gaussian elimination; matrix operations; linear transformations and their representations by matrices; eigenvalues and eigenvectors; and inner product spaces. Additional topics include ill-conditioned systems of equations, the LU decomposition, covariance matrices, least squares, and the singular value decomposition. Recommended for Economics majors who wish to learn linear algebra. Four class hours per week, with occasional in-class computer labs.

Requisite: MATH 121 or consent of the instructor. This course and MATH 271 may not both be taken for credit. Spring semester. Professor Leise and Visiting Professor Ndangali.

320. Wavelet and Fourier Analysis. The first half of the course covers continuous and discrete Fourier transforms (including convolution and Plancherel’s formula), Fourier series (including convergence and the fast Fourier transform algorithm), and applications like heat conduction along a rod and signal processing. The second half of the course is devoted to wavelets: Haar bases, the discrete Haar transform in 1 and 2 dimensions with application to image analysis, multiresolution analysis, filters, and wavelet-based image compression like JPEG2000. Three class hours per week plus a weekly one-hour computer laboratory.

Requisite: MATH 211 and 271 or 272. Omitted 2012-13.

330. Multivariate Data Analysis. Real world experiments often provide data that consist of many variables. When confronted with a large number of variables, there may be many different directions to proceed, but the direction chosen is ultimately based on the question(s) being asked. In biology, one could ask which observed characteristics distinguish females from males in a given species. In archeology, one could examine how the observed characteristics of pottery relate to their location on the site, look for clusters of similar pottery types, and gain valuable information about the location of markets or religious centers in relation to residential housing. This course will explore how to visualize large data sets and study a variety of methods to analyze them. Methods covered include principal components analysis, factor analysis, classification techniques (discriminant analysis and classification trees) and clustering techniques. This course will feature hands-on data analysis in weekly computer labs, emphasizing application over theory. Four class hours per week.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Wagaman.

335. Time Series Analysis and Applications. Many real world applications deal with a series of observations collected over time. Some familiar examples are daily stock market quotations in finance, monthly unemployment rates in economics, yearly birth rates in social science, global warming trends in environmental studies, seismic recordings in geophysics, and magnetic resonance imaging of brain waves in medicine. In this applied course, students will learn how to model the patterns in historical values of the variable(s), as well as how to use statistical methods to forecast future observations. Topics covered will include time series regression, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models, transfer function models, state-space models and spectral analysis. If time permits, additional topics will include autoregressive conditionally heteroscedastic (ARCH) models, Kalman filtering and smoothing, and signal extraction and forecasting. Students will get practice with various applications using statistical software. Four class hours per week.

Requisite: MATH 130 or 360 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13.

345. Functions of a Complex Variable. An introduction to analytic functions; complex numbers, derivatives, conformal mappings, integrals. Cauchy’s theorem; power series, singularities, Laurent series, analytic continuation; Riemann surfaces; special functions. Four class hours per week.

Requisite: MATH 211. Fall semester. Professor R. Benedetto.

350. Groups, Rings and Fields. A brief consideration of properties of sets, mappings, and the system of integers, followed by an introduction to the theory of groups and rings including the principal theorems on homomorphisms and the related quotient structures; integral domains, fields, polynomial rings. Four class hours per week.

Requisite: MATH 271 or 272 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor R. Benedetto.

355. Introduction to Analysis. Completeness of the real numbers; topology of n-space including the Bolzano-Weierstrass and Heine-Borel theorems; sequences, properties of functions continuous on sets; infinite series, uniform convergence. The course may also study the Gamma function, Stirling’s formula, or Fourier series. Four class hours per week.

Requisite: MATH 211. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Manack.

360. Probability. This course explores the nature of probability and its use in modeling real world phenomena. The course begins with the development of an intuitive feel for probabilistic thinking, based on the simple yet subtle idea of counting. It then evolves toward the rigorous study of discrete and continuous probability spaces, independence, conditional probability, expectation, and variance. Distributions covered include the Bernoulli and Binomial, Hypergeometric, Poisson, Normal, Gamma, Beta, Multinomial, and bivariate Normal. Four class hours per week.

Requisite: MATH 121 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Liao.

380. Set Theory. Most mathematicians consider set theory to be the foundation of mathematics, because everything that is studied in mathematics can be defined in terms of the concepts of set theory, and all the theorems of mathematics can be proven from the axioms of set theory. This course will begin with the axiomatization of set theory that was developed by Ernst Zermelo and Abraham Fraenkel in the early part of the twentieth century. We will then see how all of the number systems used in mathematics are defined in set theory, and how the fundamental properties of these number systems can be proven from the Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms. Other topics will include the axiom of choice, infinite cardinal and ordinal numbers, and models of set theory. Four class hours per week.

Requisite: MATH 220, 271, 272, or 355, or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Velleman.

385. Mathematical Logic. Mathematicians confirm their answers to mathematical questions by writing proofs. But what, exactly, is a proof? This course begins with a precise definition specifying what counts as a mathematical proof. This definition makes it possible to carry out a mathematical study of what can be accomplished by means of deductive reasoning and, perhaps more interestingly, what cannot be accomplished. Topics will include the propositional and predicate calculi, completeness, compactness, and decidability. At the end of the course we will study Gödel’s famous Incompleteness Theorem, which shows that there are statements about the positive integers that are true but impossible to prove. Four class hours per week. Offered in alternate years.

Requisite: MATH 220, 271, 272, or 355, or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13.

390. Special Topics. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

430. Mathematical Statistics. This course examines the theory behind common statistical inference procedures including estimation and hypothesis testing. Beginning with exposure to Bayesian inference, the course will cover Maximum Likelihood Estimators, sufficient statistics, sampling distributions, joint distributions, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing and test selection, non-parametric procedures, and linear models. Four class hours per week.

Requisite: MATH 360 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Wagaman.

450. Functions of a Real Variable. An introduction to Lebesgue measure and integration; topology of the real numbers, inner and outer measures and measurable sets; the approximation of continuous and measurable functions; the Lebesgue integral and associated convergence theorems; the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. Four class hours per week. Offered in alternate years.

Requisite: MATH 355. Omitted 2012-13.

455. Topology. An introduction to general topology; the topology of Euclidean, metric and abstract spaces, with emphasis on such notions as continuous mappings, compactness, connectedness, completeness, separable spaces, separation axioms, and metrizable spaces. Additional topics may be selected to illustrate applications of topology in analysis or to introduce the student briefly to algebraic topology. Four class hours per week. Offered in alternate years.

Requisite: MATH 355. Spring semester. Professor Ching.

490. Special Topics. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Open to seniors with the consent of the Department. Fall semester. The Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Open to seniors with consent of the Department. Spring semester. The Department.

Mellon Seminar

The Andrew W. Mellon Professorship is awarded for a three-year period to members of the faculty whose scholarship and teaching transcend normal disciplinary lines. The Mellon Professors contribute to the continuing process of curriculum revision and revitalization by developing courses or colloquia exploring new ways to teach and learn in their areas of interest and inquiry.

116. Numbers Rule the World. “Numbers rule the world,” many scholars agree. That is, they have become “the dominant form of acceptable evidence in most areas of public life.” We will examine these claims and their implications by asking several questions: How did numbers come to rule? What kinds of numbers? Where do numbers rule and where don’t they? What differences do they make? How are the numbers and scientific claims we encounter created? How do they change as they travel from their original scientific context into everyday life? Ultimately, we seek to improve our ability to understand and evaluate the numbers and related scientific claims we encounter by seeing them as human creations, not just as “nuggets of objective fact.”

Limited to 15 students. Preference to juniors and seniors. Spring semester. Professor Himmelstein.

Music

*On leave 2012-13.

Professors Kallick* and Schneider; Associate Professor Sawyer (Chair); Assistant Professors Engelhardt and Robinson; Valentine Associate Professor Móricz; Five College Associate Professor Omojola; Visiting Professor Meltzer; Lecturer Diehl; Visiting Lecturers S. Robinson and Yakub.

The Music Department offers a full range of courses both for students with previous musical experience and for those coming to the study of music for the first time. We strive as a department—within the limits of our resources—to support the widest possible range of musical styles in our course offerings and performance activities. We encourage all students interested in making music a part of their lives and their liberal arts education to acquire a strong mastery of the fundamentals of musicianship.

Students in need of review of music fundamentals (scales, key signatures, intervals, sight-singing) and those particularly interested in learning to read music should enroll in MUSI 111. Students with fluency in music fundamentals but without extensive theory background should consider MUSI 112 and 269. Students who have not previously taken a course in music theory at Amherst College should take a self-administered placement exam available on reserve in the Music Library and on the Music Department Website (http://www.amherst.edu/~music/TheoryPlacement.pdf). Students are also encouraged to discuss placement in music theory with a member of the Music Department. Students contemplating a major in music should take the necessary background courses so as to elect MUSI 241 no later than the fall of their junior year. Students will not be admitted to the major before the completion of MUSI 241. Students contemplating honors work must complete MUSI 242 no later than the spring of their sophomore year.

Performance Instruction. Performance Instruction (141H-177H) is available on a credit or non-credit basis. A fee is charged in either case. For 2012-13 the fee for each semester course will be $675, for which the student is fully committed following the 14-day add/drop period. Students who wish to elect performance instruction for credit must meet the criteria outlined under the heading PERFORMANCE. Students who elect performance instruction for credit and are receiving need-based scholarship assistance from Amherst College will be given additional scholarship grants in the full amount of these fees. Normally no more than one half-credit of performance instruction is allowed per semester. See the Music Department Coordinator for information regarding instructors for this program.

Major Program. The Department offers the major in Music with a concentration in performance (classical, jazz, and World music), composition, music scholarship (music history, theory, and the anthropology of music), and music drama and opera studies. Students interested in declaring a music major should contact the chair, normally no later than the first week of their junior year. Students will not be admitted to the major before the completion of MUSI 241. At the time of application to the major, students will be asked to describe in writing their goals for the major and the courses they plan to elect (www.amherst.edu/~music/MusicMajorForm.pdf). Normally, students will not be admitted to the major in their senior year. In consultation with a member of the department, students determine the most appropriate manner of fulfilling the departmental requirement of eight semester courses. Note that because the music faculty is eager to help students create individualized paths in the major, we strongly encourage potential majors to speak with members of the department as early as possible in their academic careers.

We urge, as well, that students acquaint themselves with the wide variety of music courses available through Five College Interchange. For example, courses in African-American music are also offered at the University of Massachusetts and Hampshire College; courses in rock and popular music at Smith College, and courses on African music are offered at Mount Holyoke College. Above all, the Department is committed to helping students put together the program best suited to their interests, abilities, and aspirations. All majors must elect at a minimum: one course in Music and Culture (MUSI 221, 222, or 223); MUSI 241 and 242; and one course designated as a major seminar. A class designated as a major seminar must be taken after the completion of MUSI 241 to fulfill the major seminar requirement. In 2012-13, major seminars include MUSI 439, 442, 444 and 448. Majors contemplating honors work must elect MUSI 443 or 444. Majors contemplating honors in Composition must complete MUSI 371 or MUSI 372 no later than the spring of their junior year, and normally MUSI 269 in preparation.

Comprehensive Examination. Majors who are not electing to do honors work must successfully complete a comprehensive examination in the senior year, or by permission of the Department enroll in a second major seminar. No comprehensive exam is required of students doing honors projects. Note that MUSI 439, 442, 444 and 448 may be used to fulfill either the seminar requirement or comprehensive examination requirement, but not both.

Departmental Honors Program. In the senior year students may elect to do honors work—a critical thesis (historical, theoretical, or ethnomusicological), a major composition project, a major music drama or opera project, or performance of a full recital. In preparation for this work, a student will ordinarily elect a number of courses in a field of concentration beyond those required. Students doing full recital honors work in Performance are required to take at least two semesters of private instruction prior to the senior year and be affiliated with a private instructor while enrolled in MUSI 498 and 499. The thesis course, MUSI 498-499, should be elected in the senior year. Students interested in the Honors Program should inform the Department of their plans no later than the midpoint of the spring semester in their junior year. An honors proposal must be submitted to the Music Department for approval no later than the end of drop/add in the fall of the senior year.

Introductory Courses

104. Writing Through Popular Music. This course will introduce students to important concepts in effective academic writing by thinking about and thinking “through” popular music. Our complex relationships to popular music provide a rich theoretical landscape of social, cultural, and political issues. How do we use music to construct, maintain, or challenge private and public identities? How have race, gender, class, sexuality, and nationalism been activated through popular music? What is the role of music in our everyday lives? How do commercial interests influence the music that we listen to? These questions, among others, will generate a series of assignments designed to encourage students to develop clear and persuasive writing styles. As a writing intensive course, we will focus on fundamentals of writing style, grammatical accuracy, thesis development, and research methodologies crucial to successful written communication. We will use weekly reading assignments drawn from the field of popular music studies to frame and debate important issues emanating from global popular music cultures and to provide models of successful written scholarship. Peer review and a strong focus on editing and revising will be central to the course. Students will be encouraged to utilize the resources of the Writing Center.

Students admitted in consultation with the Dean of Students’ Office and/or their academic adviser. Preference given to first-year students. Limited to 12 students. Spring semester. Professor Robinson.

105. African Popular Music. (Offered as BLST 204 [A] and MUSI 105.) This course focuses on twentieth-century African popular music; it examines musical genres from different parts of the continent, investigating their relationships to the historical, political and social dynamics of their respective national and regional origins. Regional examples like highlife, soukous, chimurenga, and afro-beat will be studied to assess the significance of popular music as a creative response to social and political developments in colonial and postcolonial Africa. The course also discusses the growth of hip-hop music in selected countries by exploring how indigenous cultural tropes have provided the basis for its local appropriation. Themes explored in this course include: the use of music in the construction of identity; popular music, politics and resistance; the interaction of local and global elements; and the political significance of musical nostalgia.

Fall semester. Five College Professor Omojola.

106. Master Musicians of Africa I: West Africa. (Offered as BLST 214 [A] and MUSI 106.) This course concentrates on the lives and music of selected West African musicians. Departing from ethnographic approaches that mask the identity of individual musicians and treat African societies as collectives, this course emphasizes the contributions of individual West African musicians whose stature as master musicians is undisputed within their respective communities. It examines the contributions of individual musicians to the ever continuous process of negotiating the boundaries of African musical practice. Individuals covered this semester include Babatunde Olatunji (Nigerian drummer), Youssou N’Dour (Senegalese singer), Kandia Kouyate (Malian jelimuso) and Ephraim Amu (Ghanaian composer). The variety of artistic expressions of selected musicians also provides a basis for examining the interrelatedness of different African musical idioms, and the receptivity of African music to non-African styles.

Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Omojola.

111. Introduction to Music. This course is intended for students with little or no background in music who would like to develop a theoretical and practical understanding of how music works. Students will be introduced to different kinds of musical notation, melodic systems, harmonies, meters, and rhythmic techniques with the goal of attaining basic competence in the performance and creation of music. The music we analyze and perform will be drawn from the Western tonal tradition as well as a variety of other musical traditions. Assignments will include notational exercises, short papers, and the preparation of music for classroom performance. This course serves as a prerequisite for many other Music Department offerings. Three class meetings and one lab section per week.

Students with some musical experience contemplating MUSI 111 are encouraged to take a self-administered placement exam available on reserve in the Music Library and on the Music Department Website (www.amherst.edu/~music/TheoryPlacement.pdf). Students are also encouraged to discuss placement in music theory with a member of the Music Department.

Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professor Engelhardt.

111. Introduction to Music. This course is intended for students with little or no background in music who would like to develop a theoretical and practical understanding of how music works. Students will be introduced into the technical details of music such as musical notation, intervals, basic harmony, meter and rhythm. Familiarity with basic music theory will enable students to read and perform at sight as well as to compose melodies with chordal accompaniment. Music analyzed and performed during the course will be drawn primarily from the Western tonal tradition. Assignments will include notational exercises, short papers and preparation of music for classroom performance. This course serves as a requisite for many of the music department offerings. Three class meetings and one lab section per week.

Students with some musical experience contemplating MUSI 111 are encouraged to take a self-administered placement exam available on reserve in the Music Library and on the Music Department Website (www.amherst.edu/~music/TheoryPlacement.pdf). Students are also encouraged to discuss placement in music theory with a member of the Music Department.

Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Visiting Lecturer S. Robinson.

112. Exploring Music. Through analysis, performance, and composition, we will build a solid working understanding of basic principles of melody and harmony common in Western musical traditions. Assignments will include writing short melodies and accompaniments as well as more detailed compositional and improvisational projects. We will use our instruments and voices to bring musical examples to life in the classroom. Two class meetings and one lab session per week. Students who have not previously taken a course in music theory at Amherst College are encouraged to take a self-administered placement exam available on reserve in the Music Library and on the Music Department Website (www.amherst.edu/~music/TheoryPlacement.pdf). Students are also encouraged to discuss placement in music theory with a member of the Music Department.

Requisite: MUSI 111, or equivalent ability gained by playing an instrument or singing. Limited to 20 students. Fall semester: Professor Robinson. Spring semester: Visiting Lecturer Yakub.

113. Jazz Theory and Improvisation I. A course designed to explore jazz harmonic and improvisational practice from both the theoretical and applied standpoint. Students will study common harmonic practice of the jazz idiom, modes and scales, rhythmic practices, and consider their stylistic interpretation. An end-of-semester performance of material(s) studied during the semester will be required of the class. A jazz-based ear-training section will be scheduled outside of the regular class times. Two class meetings per week.

Students who have not previously taken a course in music theory at Amherst College are encouraged to take a self-administered placement exam available on reserve in the Music Library and on the Music Department Website (www.amherst.edu/~music/TheoryPlacement.pdf). Students are also encouraged to discuss placement in music theory with a member of the Music Department.

Requisite: MUSI 111 or 112 or equivalent, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 16 students. Fall semester. Lecturer Diehl.

115. Writing About Music. This course will introduce students to important concepts in effective academic writing through the study of selected works of music taken primarily from the masterpieces of Western music in the period 800-1995 (from Gregorian chant through the minimalism of the late twentieth century). Our discussion of the works we listen to will be informed by writings about music penned by both scholars and the composers themselves. As a writing intensive course, we will focus on fundamentals of writing style, grammatical accuracy, thesis development, and research methodologies crucial to successful written communication. Peer review and a strong focus on editing and revising will be central to the course. Students will be encouraged to utilize the resources of the Writing Center. Students admitted in consultation with the Dean of Students’ Office and/or their academic advisor. Preference given to first-year students. No prior musical experience required.

Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Schneider.

123. Sacred Sound. Sacred Sound examines the relationship between music and religion in broad comparative perspective. In the context of major world religions, new religious movements, and traditional spiritual practices, we will address fundamental issues concerning sacred sound: How does music enable and enhance the ritual process? How is sound sacred and what are its affects? What happens as sacred sound circulates globally among diverse communities of listeners and in secular spaces? Listening, reading, and discussion will include Sufi music from Pakistan, Haitian Vodou, the songs of Ugandan Jews, Orthodox Christian hymns from Estonia, Islamic popular music from Malaysia, Chinese Buddhist chant, spirit possession music from Bali, and the music of Korean Shamans. We will also benefit from visiting performers and the sacred sounds of religious communities in and around Amherst. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Engelhardt.

124. Global Sound. (Offered as MUSI 124 and FAMS 310.) This course explores the global scale of much music-making and musical consumption today. Migration, diaspora, war, tourism, postsocialist and postcolonial change, commerce, and digital technology have all profoundly reshaped the way musics are created, circulated, and consumed. These forces have also illuminated important ethical, legal, and aesthetic issues concerning intellectual property rights and the nature of musical authorship, the appropriation of “traditional” musics by elites in the global North, and local musical responses to transnational music industries, for instance. Through a series of case studies that will include performances and workshops by visiting musicians, Global Sound will examine how musics animate processes of globalization and how globalization affects musics by establishing new social, cultural, and economic formations. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Professor Engelhardt.

Ensemble Performance

These courses entail the study of music from the perspective of ensemble or combo participation. Repertoire will include those compositions programmed by the director of a particular group in each semester. Work for the course will include thorough preparation of one’s individual part, intensive listening preparation, and short analytical and historical projects. This course will culminate with a public performance. This course may be repeated. Students who wish to elect performance ensemble credit must meet the following criteria:

1. An instrumental or vocal proficiency of at least intermediate level as determined by the Department.

2. Enrollment in one Music Department course concurrently with the first enrollment of performance ensemble.

This course may be elected only with the written consent of the ensemble director and the Department Coordinator. This course may be repeated. The following arrangements pertain to the study of performance ensemble at Amherst College:

a. All performance ensemble courses will be elected as a half course.

b. Two half courses in performance may be counted as the equivalent of one full course for fulfilling degree requirements. These two half courses must be in the same instrument (or in voice); though not strictly required, the Department urges that the two semesters be consecutive.

c. A student electing a performance ensemble course may carry four and one-half courses each semester, or four and one-half courses the first semester and three and one-half courses the second semester.

d. Only with special permission of the Department may students elect more than one performance ensemble in a semester. This request must be in writing to the Department Chair with detailed explanation on why this request is being made. This also requires a special request form obtained from the Registrar with signatures needed from your advisor, your Dean, the Chair of the Music Department, and the Music Department Coordinator.

Half credit. Fall and spring semesters.

136H. Choral Ensemble (Women’s Chorus, Glee Club, Concert Choir).

137H. Jazz Ensemble.

138H. Jazz Combo Ensemble.

139H. Orchestra Performance.

140H. Chamber Music Performance.

Performance Instruction

A fee is charged to cover the expense for this special type of instruction. For 2012-13 the fee for this course will be $675, for which the student is fully committed following the end of the add/drop period. Those students who are receiving need-based scholarship assistance from Amherst College will be given additional scholarship grants in the full amount of these fees. Students who wish to elect performance for credit must meet the following criteria:

1. An instrumental or vocal proficiency of at least intermediate level as determined by the Department.

2. Enrollment in one full-credit Music Department course concurrently with the first semester’s enrollment in performance instruction.

This course may be elected only with the consent of the Music Department Coordinator. This course may be repeated. The following arrangements pertain to the study of performance at Amherst College:

a. All performance courses will be elected as a half course. Only senior Music Majors preparing a recital may take performance as a full course.

b. Fifty minutes of private instruction (12 lessons per semester) will be given and regular practice is expected.

c. Two half courses in performance may be counted as the equivalent of one full course for fulfilling degree requirements. These two half courses must be in the same instrument (or in voice); though not strictly required, the Department urges that the two semesters be consecutive.

d. A student electing a performance course may carry four and a half courses each semester, or four and a half courses the first semester and three and a half courses the second semester.

e. Only with special permission of the Department may students elect more than one performance course in a semester. This request must be in writing to the Department Chair with detailed explanation on why this request is being made. This also requires a special request form obtained from the Registrar with signatures needed from your advisor, your Dean, the Chair of the Music Department, and the Music Department Coordinator.

Students should consult with the Music Department Coordinator to arrange for teachers and auditions. A form located on the bulletin board outside Music Room 212 must be filled out in order to receive an instructor for piano.

Instruction in performance is also available through the Five Colleges with all of the above conditions pertaining; a student wishing to study under this arrangement must enroll through Five College Interchange.

Half credit. Fall and spring semesters.

141H. Piano Performance Instruction.

142H. Voice Performance Instruction.

143H. Violin Performance Instruction.

144H. Viola Performance Instruction.

145H. Trumpet Performance Instruction.

146H. Percussion Performance Instruction.

147H. Saxophone Performance Instruction.

148H. French Horn Performance Instruction.

149H. Clarinet Performance Instruction.

150H. Cello Performance Instruction.

151H. Classical Guitar Performance Instruction.

152H. String Bass Performance Instruction.

153H. Flute Performance Instruction.

154H. Choral Conducting Performance Instruction.

155H. Orchestra Conducting Performance Instruction.

156H. Fiddle Performance Instruction.

157H. Banjo Performance Instruction.

158H. Jazz Piano Performance Instruction.

159H. Jazz Voice Performance Instruction.

160H. Jazz Guitar Performance Instruction.

161H. Jazz Bass Performance Instruction.

162H. Bassoon Performance Instruction.

163H. Organ Performance Instruction.

164H. Tuba Performance Instruction.

165H. Trombone Performance Instruction.

166H. Harp Performance Instruction.

167H. Oboe Performance Instruction.

168H. Lute Performance Instruction.

169H. Mallets Performance Instruction.

170H. Veena Performance Instruction.

171H. Tabla Performance Instruction.

172H. Mridangam Performance Instruction.

173H. Balafon Performance Instruction.

174H. Recorder Performance Instruction.

175H. Mandolin Performance Instruction.

176H. Shakuhachi Performance Instruction.

177H. Harpsichord Performance Instruction.

Studies in Opera and Musical Theater

186. Dungeons and Dragons. The fantastic, the criminal, and the mysterious are opera’s coin of the realm. In a course designed as an introduction to opera and musical theater, we will explore how myth, history, and tales reflecting cultural conflict join with music and stagecraft to create musical drama. Listening, video viewing, and trips to live productions will be central to the semester’s work. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Kallick.

188. Creating Musical Drama. Students enrolled in this course will join together as the creative team for a fully staged production of George Bizet’s Carmen, the quintessential music drama of love and jealousy that unfolds in the colorful Andalusian landscape of bull fights, matadors, soldiers, gypsies, and thieves. A cast of professional singers will perform for this fully staged production with members of the Amherst Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mark Lane Swanson. Professional directors, designers, and performers will be class guests on a regular basis. Each member of the class will have the opportunity to make creative decisions in a class bounded together by collaboration. Singers will become part of the collaboration later in the semester and will share their perspective with class members.

Offered only occasionally when resources are available, this course is open to students with no prerequisite. The collaborative creative experience shapes the course requirement: all class members must commit themselves to the experience, including the preparatory phase of background reading, relevant research, and guided close listening. Celebrated in the professional opera world as an ideal way for newcomers and those experienced with music and theatre, this course is a special opportunity to learn by doing.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Kallick.

Studies in Music History, Culture, and Jazz

221. Music and Culture I. (Offered as MUSI 221 and EUST 221.) One of three courses in which music is studied in relation to issues of history, theory, culture, and performance, with the focus of the course changing from year to year. This course is an introduction to European music in the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras. We will begin by singing Gregorian chant and will go on to cover such topics as the music of the Troubadours, the polyphonic style associated with Notre Dame, the development of musical notation, Renaissance sacred polyphony, madrigals, court dances, and the birth of opera. Throughout the course we will seek to bring the music we study alive by singing and/or playing. We will also host several professional performers of “early music” who will help us understand how this music is likely to have sounded at the time of its creation.

Requisite: MUSI 112 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Valentine Professor Móricz.

222. Music and Culture II. (Offered as MUSI 222 and EUST 222.) One of three courses in which the development of Western music is studied in its cultural-historical context. As practical, in-class performance and attendance at public concerts in Amherst and elsewhere will be crucial to our work. Composers to be studied include Beethoven, Rossini, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz, Wagner, Verdi, Musorgsky, and Brahms. Regular listening assignments will broaden the repertoire we encounter and include a wide sampling of Classical and Romantic music. Periodic writing assignments will provide opportunities to connect detailed musical analysis with historical-cultural interpretation. A variety of readings will include music-historical-aesthetic documents as well as selected critical and analytical studies. Class presentations will contribute to a seminar-style class environment. This course may be elected individually or in conjunction with other Music and Culture courses (MUSI 221 and 223). Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: MUSI 111, 112, or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Schneider.

223. Music and Culture III. (Offered as MUSI 223 and EUST 223.) The third of three courses in the Music and Culture series, this course focuses on the experimental and revolutionary musical repertoire of the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Some of the featured repertoire in 2011-12 includes 1) string quartets by Béla Bartók (1881-1945) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975); 2) songs by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), Charles Ives (1874-1954), and Bob Dylan (1941-); 3) ballet, film, and music theatre music by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), Aaron Copland (1900-1990), Bernard Hermann (1911-1975), Leonard Bernstein (1920-1989), John Adams (1947-), Stephen Sondheim (1930-), Michael Giacchino (1967-). Assignments will include close listening, background readings, short essays, midterms, and a culminating presentation. This course may be elected individually or in conjunction with other Music and Culture courses (MUSI 221 and 222). Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: Reading knowledge of music and background in music fundamentals or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Kallick.

225. Jazz Film: Improvisation, Narrativity, and Representation. (Offered as MUSI 225 and FAMS 375.) Jazz occupies a special role in the development of American film. From The Jazz Singer (1927), the first American film that included synchronized sound, to the sprawling Jazz: A Documentary by Ken Burns (2001), filmic representations of jazz speak to fundamental ways that Americans negotiate difference and imagine national identity. This course examines the relationship between jazz and American culture through three modalities: improvisation, narrativity, and representation. How might jazz improvisation influence the construction of film? Is there an “improvised film”? Moreover, jazz musicians often speak about “telling stories” through their music. How might this influence narrative structure in film and inform the ways that stories about jazz musicians are constructed in film? And how might these stories about jazz musicians reflect larger debates about race, gender, sexuality and nationality? Assignments will include guided viewing of several important jazz films, required reading, and a series of essays.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Robinson.

226. Jazz History to 1945: Emergence, Early Development, and Innovation. (Offered as MUSI 224 and BLST 234 [US].) One of two courses that trace the development of jazz from its emergence in early 20th-century New Orleans to its profound impact on American culture. Jazz History to 1945 examines its early roots in late 19th-century American popular culture and its role as American popular music in the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s. Using themes that connect the evolution of jazz practices to social and racial politics in American popular culture, we will look closely at the work of well-known historical figures (Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and several others) as well as the vibrant communities that nurtured and prompted their innovative musical practices. Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: MUSI 111 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Robinson.

227. Jazz History After 1945: Experimentalism, Pluralism, and Traditionalism. (Offered as MUSI 227 and BLST 244 [US].) One of two courses that trace the development of jazz from its emergence in early 20th-century New Orleans to its profound impact on American culture. Jazz History after 1945 explores the emergence of bebop in the 1940s, the shift of jazz’s relationship with American popular culture after World War II, and the dramatic pluralization of jazz practice after the 1950s. We will also look at the emergence of fusion and the jazz avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s, and theorize the reformulation of “tradition” during the 1980s. Central to our examination will be the phenomenon of “neoclassicism” common in jazz discourse today, measuring that against the radical diversity of jazz practice around the world. Many figures central to the development of the varied post-bebop directions in jazz will be discussed: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Ornette Coleman, the New York Downtown scene, and many others. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Robinson.

238. Pioneer Valley Soundscapes. (Offered as MUSI 238 and FAMS 312.) This course is about exploring, participating in, and documenting the musical communities and acoustic terrain of the Pioneer Valley. The first part of the course will focus on local histories and music scenes, ethnographic methods and technologies, and different techniques of representation. The second part of the course will involve intensive, sustained engagement with musicians and sounds in the Pioneer Valley. Course participants will give weekly updates about their fieldwork projects and are expected to become well-versed in the musics they are studying. There will be a significant amount of work and travel outside of class meetings. The course will culminate in contributions to a web-based documentary archive of Pioneer Valley soundscapes. We will also benefit from visits and interaction with local musicians. Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: MUSI 111, 112, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Robinson.

241. Tonal Harmony and Counterpoint. Basic principles of harmonic and contrapuntal technique. Emphasis will be on the acquisition of writing skills. This course is the first of the required music theory sequence for majors. Three hours of lecture and two ear-training sections per week.

Students who have not previously taken a course in music theory at Amherst College are encouraged to take a self-administered placement exam available on reserve in the Music Library and on the Music Department Website (www.amherst.edu/~music/TheoryPlacement.pdf). Students are also encouraged to discuss placement in music theory with a member of the Music Department.

Requisite: MUSI 112 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester: Professor Schneider. Spring semester: Professor Sawyer.

242. Form in Tonal Music. A continuation of MUSI 241 and the second of the required music theory sequence for majors. In this course we will study different manifestations of formal principles, along with the relationship of form to harmony and tonality. We will start with pre-tonal music (Lassus) focus on the understanding of musical form in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Topics to be covered will include minuet, variation, sonata form, the romantic character piece and eighteenth-century counterpoint. There will be analyses and writing exercises, as well as model compositions and analytic papers. Two class meetings and two ear-training sections per week.

Requisite: MUSI 241 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Valentine Professor Meltzer.

246. Jazz Theory and Improvisation II. A continuation of MUSI 113, this course is designed to acquaint students with the theory and application of advanced techniques used in jazz improvisation. Work on a solo transcription will be a main focus throughout the semester. An end-of-semester performance of material(s) studied during the semester will be required of the class. A jazz-based ear-training section will be scheduled outside of the regular class times. Two class meetings per semester.

Requisite: MUSI 113 and/or performance experience in the jazz idiom strongly suggested. Musical literacy sufficient to follow a score. Limited to 16 students. Omitted 2012-13. Lecturer Diehl.

247. Advanced Topics in Jazz. In this class we will explore jazz through transcription, composition, arranging and improvisation. Materials for transcription will range from the classic renditions of jazz standards by Gershwin and Kern to highly complex works by such greats as Wayne Shorter and Charles Mingus. Advanced approaches to improvisation will include the exploration of new source materials including the Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns by Nicolas Slonimsky as used by John Coltrane. Using members of the class as a laboratory band we will seek to develop our own unique compositional voices that draw on jazz traditions.

Requisite: MUSI 113, 246 and/or performance experience in the jazz idiom strongly suggested. Musical literacy sufficient to follow a score. Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Lecturer Diehl.

260. Words and Music for Theatrical Performance. (Offered as THDA 280 and MUSI 260.) Conducted as a collaborative workshop among student writers and composers, this course explores the close relationship between words and music. While working together on new music/text pieces for the stage, we will seek to arrive at various definitions of “music theater.” In addition to ongoing creative assignments, we will examine existing works in various genres, including songs, musical theater, opera and other experimental forms. Featured writers and composers will include Brecht and Weill, Auden/Kallman and Stravinsky, Sondheim and Bernstein, and Goodman and Adams, among others. Although students with varied experience in musical composition and/or creative writing will be admitted, all students should expect both to write text, to compose music and to work together doing so. Regular class meetings will be supplemented by individual tutorials. The course will culminate in a public performance of final projects created in collaboration with other students.

Admission with consent of the instructors. Limited to 16 students. Spring semester. Professor Bashford and Visiting Professor Meltzer.

265. Electroacoustic Composition. This course provides instruction in the use of electronic equipment for composition of music. Topics to be considered include approaches to sound synthesis, signal editing and processing, hard disk recording techniques, sequencing audio and MIDI material, and the use of software for interaction between electronics and live performers. The course will also survey the aesthetics and repertory of electroacoustic music. Assignments in the use of equipment and software as well as required listening will prepare students for a final composition project to be performed in a class concert.

Requisite: MUSI 241 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 10 students. Omitted 2012-13.

266. Electroacoustic Performance and Improvisation. This course introduces students to current trends in improvisation-oriented electroacoustic performance. Using laptop computers in dynamic performance situations, we will develop techniques to generate sound and modify and enhance the sound of acoustic instruments. Hardware topics will include audio interfaces, cabling, mixing boards, MIDI controllers, microphone techniques, and networking. A wide variety of specialized software will be explored, including Max/MSP, Ableton Live, Reason, and others. Assignments will focus on preparing students to perform and improvise using new “instruments” built through customized hardware and software configurations. Directed listening and reading will introduce students to the development of electroacoustic music since the 1960s. The course culminates with a class performance.

Requisite: MUSI 112 or 113, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 10 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Robinson.

267. Song Writing. The writing of songs based upon a study of the works of past masters in a variety of styles, including rock, blues, American folksong, “shape note” music and more. A composition course with much individual attention. Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: Students should have some background in music performance, chords, or writing. Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Robinson.

269. Composition I. This course will explore compositional techniques that grow out of the various traditions of Western art music. Innovations of twentieth-century composers in generating new approaches to melody and scale, rhythm and meter, harmony, instrumentation, and musical structure will be examined. The course will include improvisation as a source of ideas for written compositions and as a primary compositional mode. Instrumental or vocal competence and good music reading ability are desirable. Assignments will include compositions of various lengths and related analytical projects. Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: MUSI 111 or 112, and consent of the instructor. Limited to 10 students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Meltzer.

304. The John Cage Nexus: Music, Image, Text. (Offered as ARHA 372 and MUSI 304) This seminar explores the practice and influence of John Cage. Although primarily regarded as a composer of music, Cage was also a writer, publishing essays and poetry, and a printmaker of both etchings and monotypes. He moved among creative media, yet understanding Cage’s practice in this regard has been a difficult—even an anxious—endeavor. Published debates on hearing, reading, and seeing that fuel this media anxiety will underscore discussions throughout the semester as we consider Cage alongside creative influences such as Erik Satie, Marcel Duchamp, and James Joyce, and collaborators such as Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, and David Tudor. Furthermore, we will delve into the practice of contemporary artists whose work exhibits an indebtedness to Cage. This course may include a field trip to The John Cage Trust at Bard College. One class meeting per week. (NB: this course may be counted towards the music major, but it does not fulfill the seminar requirement for the major.)

Requisite: one course in art history, studio art, creative writing, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Saletnik.

309. Performance and Analysis I. Members of the class will be assigned to chamber ensembles, representing a range of repertoire from the past and present. Ensembles will include both student and artist musicians, who will prepare works for performance in class sessions and private coachings. Intensive class analysis will serve as the basis of musical expression and interpretation. This course is open to singers and instrumentalists. MUSI 309 may be elected either as a full credit or half credit and may be repeated.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Kallick.

309H. Performance and Analysis I. Members of the class will be assigned to chamber ensembles, representing a range of repertoire from the past and present. Ensembles will include both student and artist musicians, who will prepare works for performance in class sessions and private coachings. Intensive class analysis will serve as the basis of musical expression and interpretation. This course is open to singers and instrumentalists. MUSI 309 may be elected either as a full credit or half credit and may be repeated.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Kallick.

310. Performance and Analysis II. Members of the class will be assigned to chamber ensembles, representing a range of repertoire from the past and present. Ensembles will include both student and artist musicians, who will prepare works for performance in class sessions and private coachings. Intensive class analysis will serve as the basis of musical expression and interpretation. This course is open to singers and instrumentalists. MUSI 310 may be elected either as a full credit or half credit and may be repeated.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Schneider.

310H. Performance and Analysis II. Members of the class will be assigned to chamber ensembles, representing a range of repertoire from the past and present. Ensembles will include both student and artist musicians, who will prepare works for performance in class sessions and private coachings. Intensive class analysis will serve as the basis of musical expression and interpretation. This course is open to singers and instrumentalists. MUSI 310 may be elected either as a full credit or half credit and may be repeated.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Schneider.

371. Composition Seminar I. Composition according to the needs and experience of the individual student. One class meeting per week and private conferences. This course may be repeated.

Requisite: MUSI 269 or the equivalent, and consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Sawyer.

372. Composition Seminar II. A continuation of MUSI 371. One class meeting per week and private conferences. This course may be repeated.

Requisite: MUSI 371 or the equivalent and consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Sawyer.

390. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course. A full course.

Fall and spring semesters.

390H. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course. A half course.

Fall and spring semesters.

420. Mozart and the Classical Style. (Offered as MUSI 420 and EUST 420.) As one of the most popular composers of all time, Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791) has come to be taken as the paradigm for the creative genius who produces beautiful art with seemingly no effort—a child of nature, to use a popular eighteenth-century trope, unencumbered by the struggles of adulthood. In this seminar we will examine the cultural-historical context that produced Mozart, his music, and, even before his untimely death, the “Mozart myth.” The main texts for the class will be scores of Mozart’s mature compositions—symphonies, chamber music, concertos, and most important, operas—as well as selected works by his contemporaries and predecessors. We will interpret these works with the help of primary documents relating to Mozart’s life, and with the help of analytic methods developed by scholars such as Wye J. Allanbrook, William Caplan, Daniel Heartz, Robert Levin, and Leonard Ratner. Our studies will be integrated into attending performances of Mozart’s work in New York or Boston. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major.

Requisite: MUSI 241 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Schneider.

422. Music and Revolution: The Symphonies of Mahler and Shostakovich. (Offered as MUSI 422 and EUST 422.) Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) are arguably the two greatest symphonic composers after Beethoven. In this course we will compare and contrast their highly charged music and explore the eras in which they worked—for Mahler, imperial Vienna on the eve of World War I, and for Shostakovich, revolutionary Russia under the tyrannical reign of Joseph Stalin. The class will attend Mahler and Shostakovich performances in New York and Boston, particularly as the musical world marks Mahler’s 150th birthday in 2010 and the 100th anniversary of his death in 2011. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major.

Requisite: MUSI 241 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Kallick.

428. Seminar in Popular Music: Popular Music and Cultural Identity. Music often serves as one of the primary ways that we create and maintain identities. Our social groups—peers, colleagues, acquaintances—are often determined by shared affinities for specific musical styles, artists, and the world views they come to represent. Yet music is also frequently used to catalyze various forms of social and political activism, challenge our relationship to society and structures of power, and initiate change. This seminar explores the nature of popular music and its relationship to culture, politics, and identity. The first part of the course surveys the discourse of popular music studies and the various trends in cultural studies that have prompted new ways of examining the relationship between popular music and social and cultural identities. We will use this theoretical landscape to analyze an array of popular music cultures in and beyond the United States. The second part of the course focuses on developing multifaceted research projects that put these theories to use. Students will be encouraged to combine ethnographic research (interviews, location-based research) with historical and critical analysis to generate a unique, personal project exploring the relationship between music and identity. Two class meetings per week. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major.

Requisite: MUSI 111 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Robinson.

429. Seminar in the Anthropology of Music: Listening, Hearing, Audition. What happens when you think about music from the perspective of listening, hearing, and audition? How does the way people listen vary over time and across distances? What knowledge of musical experience, musical values, and the social and cultural significance of music-making does this approach generate? This seminar engages these questions by examining listening and audition as culturally specific practices, as forms of performance in their own right, as forms of consumption and exchange, and as relationships to technologies. Drawing on a wide variety of musics, media, and scholarly work, we will think comparatively about the difference between listening and hearing, sound and hierarchies of the senses, representations of listening in various media, the relationship of sound and audition in various religious traditions, and the relationship of listening to musical analysis, structure, and meaning. The seminar will culminate with ethnographic, historical, creative, or performance projects. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major.

Requisite: MUSI 241 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Engelhardt.

439. Improvised Music: Spectrum, Theory, and Practice. Functioning as a combined seminar and performance workshop, this course explores the theory and practice of musical improvisation. Rather than focus on one specific musical style, we will define “improvised music” in an inclusive way that draws equally from American and European experimental musics, various approaches to post-1965 jazz improvisation, and several musical traditions from around the world that prominently use improvisation. Students will be encouraged to develop new performance practices drawn from and in dialogue with these diverse musical traditions. Reading, listening, and video assignments will help familiarize students with the burgeoning field of improvised music studies and will serve to guide class discussions. Students with any musical/stylistic background are encouraged to enroll. Two class meetings per week. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major.

Requisite: Basic instrumental or vocal proficiency and consent of the instructor. Senior seminar. Limited to 10 students. Spring semester. Professor Robinson.

442. Serving the Tsars and the Party. (Offered as MUSI 442 and EUST 313.) Russian music has long been a staple of the repertory of “classical music” in the concert halls of the world, but the relationship of the seductive sounds of this music to the complex culture that produced it is rarely understood outside of Russia. This course examines connections between Russian culture and Russian music through in-depth analysis of individual works of music and reading of related canonic texts. Starting with the emergence of Russian nationalism and the nationally motivated myths of Pushkin and Glinka in the 1830s, we will critically assess the achievements of the Russian national school in music in the nineteenth century; explore the Western face of Russian art through the showcases of Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet in Paris in the first decades of the twentieth century; follow the cataclysmic changes in cultural politics after the October Revolution and their effect on music; and take a close look at musical politics during the years of Stalinist terror. Composers to be discussed include Glinka, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major.

Requisite: MUSI 242 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Valentine Professor Móricz.

443. Repertoire and Analysis. A continuation of MUSI 242. In this course we will study music by a wide variety of nineteenth-century composers, including Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Musorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Works will be considered from a number of different analytical perspectives including methods current in the nineteenth century and those developed more recently. Comparing analytical methods of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries will enable students to gain a critical perspective on each and to learn about the limits of analysis and interpretation in general. Work will consist of short weekly assignments, papers, and class presentations. Two class meetings and two ear-training sections per week. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major.

Requisite: MUSI 241 and 242, or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Valentine Professor Móricz.

444. Twentieth-Century Analysis. (Offered as MUSI 444 and EUST 314.) In this seminar we explore stylistic characteristics of compositions that demonstrate the most important tendencies in twentieth-century music. Instead of applying one analytical method, we try out various approaches to twentieth-century music, taking into consideration the composers’ different educational and cultural backgrounds. The repertory of focus will consist of compositions written in the first half of the twentieth century in Europe, Russia and America (including works by Debussy, Scriabin, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Bartok, Copland), but will also sample music by late twentieth-century composers. Two class meetings and two ear-training sections per week. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major.

Requisite: MUSI 241 and 242, or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Meltzer.

444. Twentieth-Century Analysis. In this seminar we explore stylistic characteristics of compositions that demonstrate the most important tendencies in twentieth-century music. Instead of applying one analytical method, we try out various approaches to twentieth-century music, taking into consideration the composers’ different educational and cultural backgrounds. The repertory of focus will consist of compositions written in the first half of the twentieth century in Europe, Russia and America (including words by Debussy, Scriabin, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Bartok, Copland), but will also sample music by late twentieth-century composers. Two class meetings and two ear-training sections per week. Fulfills either the departmental seminar requirement or the comprehensive exam requirement for the major.

Requisite: MUSI 241 or 242, or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Valentine Professor Móricz.

448. Patterns, Principles and Processes in Sound. How do people organize sound into music? How do they organize themselves to make music? What do musicians hear in and think about the music they are making? How can one describe and compare patterns, principles, and processes in different musics? This course addresses these questions through the close study of rhythm, groove, and meter, harmonic practices, mode and tuning, pedagogy, composition, and improvisation, and musical form in a variety of musical traditions from around the world. Our explorations will cover popular, classical, and improvised musics from the Balkans, the Indian subcontinent, North and South America, West and East Africa, the Caribbean, and East and Central Asia, as well as globalized forms of hip hop and electronic dance music, for instance. The goal of this course is to develop translatable ways of thinking analytically about and listening closely to musical patterns, principles, and processes. This course includes lecture-demonstrations by visiting artists, weekly listening and analytical work, and hands-on engagement with music. Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: MUSI 111, 112, or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Engelhardt.

Departmental Honors and Special Topics

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course. A full course.

Fall and spring semesters.

490H. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course. A half course.

Fall and spring semesters.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Advanced work for Honors candidates in music history and criticism, music theory, ethnomusicology, composition, or performance. A thesis, a major composition project or a full-length recital will be required. No student shall elect more than one semester as a double course. A full course.

Fall semester.

498D. Senior Departmental Honors. Advanced work for Honors candidates in music history and criticism, music theory, ethnomusicology, composition, or performance. A thesis, a major composition project or a full-length recital will be required. No student shall elect more than one semester as a double course. A double course.

Fall semester.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Advanced work for Honors candidates in music history and criticism, music theory, ethnomusicology, composition, or performance. A thesis, a major composition project or a full-length recital will be required. No student shall elect more than one semester as a double course. A full course.

Spring semester.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. Advanced work for Honors candidates in music history and criticism, music theory, ethnomusicology, composition, or performance. A thesis, a major composition project or a full-length recital will be required. No student shall elect more than one semester as a double course. A double course.

Spring semester.

Neuroscience

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Advisory Committee: Professors S. George†, Raskin, and Turgeon; Associate Professors Baird (Chair)‡ and Clotfelter; Assistant Professors Graf and Trapani.

Neuroscience seeks to understand behavior and mental events by studying the brain. The interdisciplinary Neuroscience major at Amherst is designed for those students who wish either to have the breadth of experience this program provides or to prepare for graduate study in a neuroscience-related field.

Major Program. Class of 2013 and earlier: Each student, in consultation with a member of the Advisory Committee, will construct a program that will include a basic grounding in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and psychology, as well as advanced work in some or all of these disciplines.

The major is organized into basic, core, and elective courses.

1. The program will begin with the following basic courses: MATH 111; CHEM 151 or 155, 161 and 221; and BIOL 191. PHYS 116 and 117 or 123 and 124 are recommended.

2. All majors will take three core Neuroscience courses: NEUR 226, BIOL 331, and BIOL 301 or 351.

3. Each student will select three additional elective courses in consultation with his or her advisor. A list of approved courses is available from any member of the Advisory Committee and the College’s Neuroscience Web page.

Class of 2014 and beyond:

(1) General science requirements: CHEM 151 or 155, and 161, and 221; (most majors also take 231);

MATH 111 (you may place out of this requirement with a score of 4 or 5 on the AB test, or a 3 on BC);

BIOL 191 (BIOL 181 is optional for Neuroscience, but should be considered by students in the second semester of the first year who are considering majoring in Biology or Neuroscience but who haven’t made a decision yet.)

[*Note: you can substitute a higher level Biology course for BIOL 191 if you meet the following conditions: (1) Document AP Bio. with a score of “5,” and (2) complete BIOL 251, 381, or 291 (all lab courses). If so, you must then complete BIOL 331 as the upper-level biochemistry requirement for the major (BIOL 251 cannot be doubled counted and BIOL 381 and 291 cannot be used to substitute for BIOL 251).];

Biochemistry (BIOL 331), or Molecular Genetics (BIOL 251);

Statistics: either MATH 130 or PSYC 122. Also Physics is recommended: either PHYS 116 and 117, or PHYS 123 and 124.

(2) The Introduction to Neuroscience course:

NEUR 226, taken in spring semester of sophomore year

(3) Upper-level Behavioral Neuroscience. One of the following:

PSYC 325: Psychopharmacology

PSYC 356: Neurophysiology of Motivation

PSYC 359: Hormones and Behavior

PSYC 360: Developmental Psychobiology

(4) Upper-level Cellular/Molecular Neuroscience. One of the following:

BIOL 301: Molecular Neurobiology

BIOL 351: Neurophysiology

(5) Electives: Two additional upper-level science courses, chosen as follows:

GROUP A: At least one must be chosen from this list:

An additional behavioral neuroscience course in item (3) above

An additional molecular/cellular neuroscience course in item (4) above

BIOL 360: Neurobiology of Disease

Five College neuroscience courses that are approved as electives by the Neuroscience faculty

GROUP B: The second elective may also be from the above list, or it may be chosen from the following list:

BIOL 251: Molecular Genetics (if BIOL 331 was taken as a General science requirement, or BIOL 331 if BIOL 251 was used as a General science requirement

BIOL 220: Developmental Biology

BBIOL 241 : Genetic Analysis

BIOL 260: Animal Physiology

BIOL 381 : Genome Biology

BIOL 291 : Cell Structure and Function

BIOL 370 : Immunology

BIOL 310 : Structural Biochemistry

BIOL 281 : Animal Behavior

CHEM 351 : Physical Chemistry I

CHEM 361 : Physical Chemistry II

PHYS 225, Modern Physics

PHYS 400, Molecular and Cellular Biophysics (also called Biology 400 and Chemistry 400)

PSYC 233, Cognitive Psychology

PSYC 234, Memory

PSYC 236 : Psychology of Aging

PSYC 357 : History of Psychiatry

The large number of courses required for the major makes it important for a prospective Neuroscience major to begin the program early, usually with CHEM 151 and MATH 111 in the first semester of the first year. A student considering a Neuroscience major should also consult with a member of the Advisory Committee early in his or her academic career. All senior majors will participate in the Neuroscience Seminar, which includes guest speakers and student presentations; attendance and participation constitute the senior comprehensive exercise in Neuroscience.

Departmental Honors Program. Candidates for the degree with Honors should elect NEUR 498 and 498D in addition to the above program. An Honors candidate may choose to do Senior Departmental Honors work with any faculty member from the various science departments who is willing to direct relevant thesis work. Due to demand and availability, a Senior Departmental Honors project cannot be assured for all interested majors interested.

226. Introduction to Neuroscience. (Offered as NEUR 226 and PSYC 226.) An introduction to the structure and function of the nervous system, this course will explore the neural bases of behavior at the cellular and systems levels. Basic topics in neurobiology, neuroanatomy and physiological psychology will be covered with an emphasis on understanding how neuroscientists approach the study of the nervous system. Three class hours and four hours of laboratory per week.

Requisite: PSYC 212 or BIOL 181 or 191. Limited to 36 students. Spring semester. Professors Turgeon and Graf.

390. Special Topics. Research in an area relevant to neuroscience, under the direction of a faculty member, and preparation of a thesis based upon the research. Full course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Committee.

390H. Special Topics. Independent Reading. Half course.

Fall and spring semesters.

425. Proseminar: Research and Writing. The general topic for this proseminar may change from year to year. For 2011-12 the course will emphasize research and writing skills on topics related to behavioral neurobiological systems. Students will explore recent research findings in areas pertaining to the role of hormones and/or neural circuits in several behavioral processes including but not limited to echolocation, mating, prey location, flight control, spatial navigation, song development in birds, mineral appetites, social functions, aggression, and learning in memory mechanisms in several species. Through instructor supervision, discussion, group presentations, and peer review, each student will develop a specific research project that will result in a 20-30 page review paper and a subsequent research proposal. Key goals of the course are to prepare juniors for a thesis research project and to provide a research-intensive experience for seniors who do not elect to conduct an honors thesis. This course will count as a Group A/List A elective course for the neuroscience major.

Limited to junior and senior Neuroscience majors or by permission of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Baird.

490. Special Topics. Research in an area relevant to neuroscience, under the direction of a faculty member, and preparation of a thesis based upon the research. Full course.

Fall and spring semester. The Committee.

490H. Special Topics. Independent Reading. Half course.

Fall and spring semester.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Research in an area relevant to neuroscience, under the direction of a faculty member, and preparation of a thesis based upon the research. Full course fall semester. Double course spring semester.

Fall semester. The Committee.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. Research in an area relevant to neuroscience, under the direction of a faculty member, and preparation of a thesis based upon the research. Full course fall semester. Double course spring semester.

Spring semester. The Committee.

Related Courses

Sports Psychology. See PSYC 235.

Philosophy

*On leave 2012-13.

Professors A. George, Gentzler (Chair), Moore, and Vogel; Professor Emeritus Kearns; Associate Professor Shah*; Visiting Assistant Professors Boxer and Koltonski.

An education in philosophy conveys a sense of wonder about ourselves and our world. It achieves this partly through exploration of philosophical texts, which comprise some of the most stimulating creations of the human intellect, and partly through direct and personal engagement with philosophical issues. At the same time, an education in philosophy cultivates a critical stance to this elicited puzzlement, which would otherwise merely bewilder us.

The central topics of philosophy include the nature of reality (metaphysics); the ways we represent reality to ourselves and to others (philosophy of mind and philosophy of language); the nature and analysis of inference and reasoning (logic); knowledge and the ways we acquire it (epistemology and philosophy of science); and value and morality (aesthetics, ethics, and political philosophy). Students who major in philosophy at Amherst are encouraged to study broadly in all of these areas of philosophy.

Students new to philosophy should feel comfortable enrolling in any of the entry-level courses numbered 100 through 228. Courses numbered 310 through 337 are somewhat more advanced, typically assuming a previous course in philosophy. Courses numbered 360 through 369 concentrate on philosophical movements or figures. Courses numbered 460 through 470 are seminars and have restricted enrollments, a two-course prerequisite, and are more narrowly focused. No course may be used to satisfy more than one requirement.

All students are welcome to organize and to participate in the activities of the Philosophy Club.

Major Program. To satisfy the comprehensive requirement for the major, students must pass nine courses, exclusive of PHIL 498 and 499. Among these nine courses, majors are required to take:

(1) Three courses in the History of Philosophy: PHIL 217 and 218, and a course on a Major Figure or Movement (i.e., PHIL 360 to 369);

(2) One course in Logic (PHIL 213, or MATH 385, or the equivalent);

(3) One course in Moral Philosophy (PHIL 310 or 312);

(4) One course in Theoretical Philosophy (i.e., PHIL 332, 333, 335, 336, 337, 350 or 341); and

(5) One seminar (i.e., PHIL 460 to 470).

Departmental Honors Program. Candidates for Honors in Philosophy must complete the Major Program and the Senior Honors sequence, PHIL 498 and 499. Admission to PHIL 499 will be contingent on the ability to write an acceptable honors thesis as demonstrated, in part, by performances in PHIL 498 and by a research paper on the thesis topic (due in mid-January). The due date for the thesis falls in the third week of April.

Five College Certificate in Logic. The Logic Certificate Program brings together aspects of logic from different regions of the curriculum: Philosophy, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Linguistics. The program is designed to acquaint students with the uses of logic and initiate them into the profound mysteries and discoveries of modern logic. For further information about the relevant courses, faculty, requirements, and special events, see http://www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/logic/index.php.

111. Introduction to Philosophy. This is an introduction to philosophy that explores a range of issues pertaining to religious conviction, knowledge, mind, freedom, ethics, and value. This exploration will take place through critical engagement, via reflection, writing, and conversation, with written work—some classical, some contemporary—in the philosophical tradition.

Two sections will be taught each semester. Each section limited to 25 students. Fall semester: Visiting Professors Boxer and Koltonski. Spring semester: Professor George and Professor Emeritus Kearns.

213. Logic. “All philosophers are wise and Socrates is a philosopher; therefore, Socrates is wise.” Our topic is this therefore. We shall expose the hidden structure of everyday statements on which the correctness of our reasoning turns. To aid us, we shall develop a logical language that makes this underlying structure more perspicuous. We shall also examine fundamental concepts of logic and use them to explore the logical properties of statements and the logical relations between them. This is a first course in formal logic, the study of correct reasoning; no previous philosophical, mathematical, or logical training needed.

Fall semester. Professor A. George.

217. Ancient Philosophy. An examination of the origins of Western philosophical thought in Ancient Greece. We will consider the views of the Milesians, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Protagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Particular attention will be paid to questions about the nature, sources, and limits of human knowledge; about the merits of relativism, subjectivism, and objectivism in science and ethics; about the nature of, and relationship between, obligations to others and self-interest; and about the connection between the body and the mind.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Gentzler.

218. Early Modern Philosophy. A survey of European philosophy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with emphasis on Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Reading and discussion of selected works of the period.

Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Professor Vogel.

219. Philosophy of Religion. (Offered as RELI 316 and PHIL 219.) An examination of several major discussion topics in the analytic philosophy of religion: the ethics of religious belief, the “problem of religious language,” the nature of God and the problem of evil. It would seem that it is always irrational to believe that statements about matters which transcend the realm of the empirical are true, since none of these statements can be directly supported by evidence. Thus it would seem that a great deal of religious belief is irrational. Is this the case, or can religious beliefs be supported by other means? Can philosophical reflection bring clarity to such puzzling matters as God’s relationship to time, or the question of how a good and all-powerful God could permit the existence of evil? Alternatively, is the entire project of evaluating religious discourse as a set of claims about transcendent realities misguided—i.e., does religious language work differently than the language we use to speak about ordinary objects?

Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Professor A. Dole.

222. Contemporary Moral Problems. In the United States today citizens disagree fiercely about torture, gay marriage, abortion, the role of religion in science and politics, the demands of patriotism, etc. Can we find common ground in shared ethical principles that will allow us to engage in rational debates about these issues rather than in disrespectful shouting matches? This will be our guiding question as we investigate many of the contemporary moral issues that divide us.

Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13.

223. Health Care Ethics. This course is intended to introduce students to moral philosophy by exploring some of the central issues in medical ethics. The first third of the course is designed to familiarize students with philosophical methodology and the three central traditions in normative ethics (Utilitarianism, Kantianism, and Virtue Ethics). In the remainder of the course, students will apply what they have learned to controversial issues such as abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, and human cloning. Matters to be considered include what makes right acts right; whether killing is intrinsically worse than letting die; what renders a being person; whether personhood entails a right to life; when a being’s future meaningfully qualifies as its future; and whether there is anything morally objectionable about cloning a human being, and, if so, what it is.

Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Boxer.

225. Ethics and the Environment. (Offered as PHIL 225 and ENST 228) As our impact on the environment shows itself in increasingly dramatic ways, our interaction with the environment has become an important topic of cultural and political debate. In this course we will discuss various philosophical issues that arise in such debates, including: What obligations, if any, do we have to future generations, to non-human animals, and to entire ecosystems? How should we act when we are uncertain exactly how our actions will affect the environment? How should we go about determining environmental policy? And how should we implement the environmental policies we decide upon? What is the most appropriate image of nature?

Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Professor Emeritus Kearns.

227. Aesthetics. The course investigates the central issues of aesthetics. These include: the nature and value of art, works of art, expression, creativity, artistic meaning, aesthetic experience, interpretation and aesthetic judgment. In the first half of the course, we will examine certain historical texts—from Plato to Tolstoy—that have been influential in both the study and practice of art. In the second half, we will discuss contemporary treatments of selected topics in aesthetics.

Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Professor Moore.

228. Choice, Chance and Conflict. Life is a risky and competitive business. As individuals, we constantly confront choices involving chancy and uncertain outcomes. And our institutional decisions—in government and business, for example—are often complicated by the competing interests of the individuals involved. Are there any general, rational procedures for making individual and institutional choices that involve chance and conflict? Positive proposals have been developed within decision theory, game theory and social choice theory. This course will provide an introduction to these theories and their philosophical foundations. Topics include the following: different conceptions of probability and utility; proposed rules for rational decision making under ignorance and risk; recent accounts of the way we actually assess prospects and make decisions; the source of altruism and fairness; “tragedies of the commons”; voting procedures and other methods of determining a just group policy.

Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Moore.

229. The Problem of Evil. (Offered as RELI 318 and PHIL 229.) If God is omnibenevolent, then God would not want any creature to suffer evil; if God is omniscient, then God would know how to prevent any evil from occurring; and if God is omnipotent, then God would be able to prevent any evil from occurring. Does the obvious fact that there is evil in the world, then, give us reason to think that there is no such God? Alternatively: if an omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent God does exist, then what could possibly motivate such a God to permit the existence of evil? This course will survey recent philosophical discussions of these questions. We will read works by J. L. Mackie, Nelson Pike, John Hick, Alvin Plantinga, Robert and Marilyn Adams, and others.

Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor A. Dole.

245. Introduction to African-American Philosophy. (Offered as BLST 245 and PHIL 245.) What is distinctive about African-American experience? How does that distinctiveness bear on the theory and practice of philosophy and philosophical thinking? And how does the African-American philosophical tradition alter conventional philosophical accounts of subjectivity, knowledge, time, language, history, embodiment, memory, and justice? In this course, we will read a range of African-American thinkers from the twentieth century in order to develop an appreciation of the unique, critical philosophical voice in the black intellectual tradition. Our readings of works by W.E.B. Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, Alain Locke, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Jr., Angela Davis, Anthony Appiah and Cornel West will open up crucial issues that transform philosophy’s most central problems: knowing, being, and acting. As well, we will consider the cluster of thinkers with whom those works are critically concerned, including key texts from nineteenth century German philosophy, American pragmatism, and contemporary existentialism and postmodernism. What emerges from these texts and critical encounters is a sense of philosophy and philosophical practice as embedded in the historical experience—in all of its complexity—of African-Americans in the twentieth century.

Fall semester. Visiting Professor Drabinski.

310. Normative Ethics. We will be concerned to see whether there is anything to be said in a principled way about right and wrong. The core of the course will be an examination of three central traditions in ethical philosophy in the West, typified by Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill. We will also look at contemporary discussions of the relation between the demands of morality and those personal obligations that spring from friendships, as well as recent views about the nature of personal welfare.

Requisite: One course in Philosophy or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Koltonski

332. Metaphysics. Metaphysics is the investigation, at the most fundamental level, of the nature of reality. It has been an especially vibrant area of philosophy in recent years, and we will read some of the freshest and most important work in the field. Among the questions to be considered are: What is existence? Is there more than one kind of existence? Are there merely possible things? Could you have been a poached egg (Tichy)? What is possibility anyway? Can things really change, or do they last for no more than a moment, or both? When are several things parts of some greater whole, and why? Is a statue identical to the lump of clay from which it is fashioned? How can you destroy the statue, yet not destroy the clay? Thinking through such basic questions leads to surprising perplexities and surprising insights. Readings by Quine, Kripke, Lewis, Van Inwagen, and others.

Requisite: One course in philosophy. Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Professor Vogel.

333. Philosophy of Mind. An introduction to philosophical problems concerning the nature of the mind. Central to the course is the mind-body problem—the question of whether there is a mind (or soul or self) that is distinct from the body, and the question of how thought, feelings, sensations, and so on, are related to states of the brain and body. In connection with this, we will consider, among other things, the nature of consciousness, mental representation, the emotions, self-knowledge, and persons.

Requisite: One course in Philosophy. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Moore

335. Theory of Knowledge. A consideration of some basic questions about the nature and scope of our knowledge. What is knowledge? Does knowledge have a structure? What is perception? Can we really know anything at all about the world?

Requisite: One course in Philosophy or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Vogel.

337. Philosophy of Science. The practice of science and its fruits have dominated the lives of human beings for centuries. But what is science? How does it differ, if at all, from common sense, or religion, or philosophy? One hears that scientists follow the “scientific method,” but what is that? It is said to be based on observation, but what is it to observe something? And how can our observations justify claims about what we do not, or even cannot, observe? The claims of science are often said to describe “laws of nature,” but what are such laws? These claims are said to form “theories,” but what is a theory? And if science issues in theories, what is their point, that is, what is the goal of science? To predict? To explain? What is it to explain something, anyway? And do all sciences explain in the same way; for instance, does physics explain in the way that psychology does? Science is often treated as the paragon of rationality and objectivity. But what is it to be rational or objective? To what degree does, or can, science really approach such ideals? Are there any values explicit or implicit in the practice of science? If so, do they threaten science’s alleged objectivity, and do they conflict with other values one might hold?

Requisite: One course in Philosophy or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor A. George.

341. Freedom and Responsibility. Are we free? Do we possess the freedom necessary for moral responsibility? What form of freedom is necessary for moral responsibility? Is this freedom compatible with causal determinism? To be morally responsible for an action, must its agent have been able to act otherwise? Must she have chosen her own character? What is it to be morally responsible for an action? These are the main questions we shall address in this course. To address them, we shall read works by Hume, Reid, Chisholm, Ayer, Strawson, Frankfurt, Nagel, and others.

Requisite: One course in Philosophy. Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Boxer.

350. Philosophy of Mathematics. Mathematics is often thought to be the paragon of clarity and certainty. However, vexing problems arise almost immediately upon asking such seemingly straightforward questions as: “What is the number 1?” “Why can proofs be trusted?” “What is infinity?” “What is mathematics about?” During the first decades of the twentieth century, philosophers and mathematicians mounted a sustained effort to clarify the nature of mathematics. The result was three original and finely articulated programs that seek to view mathematics in the proper light: logicism, intuitionism, and finitism. The mathematical and philosophical work in these areas complement one another and indeed are, to an important extent, intertwined. For this reason, our exploration of these philosophies of mathematics will examine both the philosophical vision that animated them and the mathematical work that gave them content. In discussing logicism, we will focus primarily on the writings of Gottlob Frege. Some indication of how the goal of logicism—the reduction of mathematics to logic—was imagined to be achievable will also be given: introduction to the concepts and axioms of set theory, the set-theoretic definition of “natural number,” the Peano axioms and their derivation in set theory, reduction of the concepts of analysis to those in set theory, etc. Some of the set-theoretic paradoxes will be discussed as well as philosophical and mathematical responses to them. In the section on intuitionism, we will read papers by L.E.J. Brouwer and Michael Dummett, who argue that doing mathematics is more an act of creation than of discovery. This will proceed in tandem with an introduction to intuitionistic logic, which stands in contrast to the more commonly used classical logic. Finally, we will discuss finitism, as articulated in the writings of David Hilbert, who sought to reconcile logicism and intuitionism. Students will then be taken carefully through Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems and their proofs. The course will conclude with an examination of the impact of Gödel’s work on Hilbert’s attempted reconciliation, as well as on more general philosophical questions about mathematics and mind.

Requisite: PHIL 213 or MATH 385 or consent of the instructors. Omitted 2012-13. Professors A. George and Velleman.

360. Origins of Analytic Philosophy: Frege, Russell, and the Early Wittgenstein. Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein are towering figures in the history of analytic philosophy. We shall examine their work, paying special attention to the following themes and their interconnections: language and the nature of meaning, the limits of sense and rationality, and the search for a philosophical method.

Requisite: One course in Philosophy. Spring semester. Professor George.

364. Kant. An examination of the central metaphysical and epistemological doctrines of the Critique of Pure Reason, including both the historical significance of Kant’s work and its implications for contemporary philosophy.

Requisite: PHIL 218 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Vogel.

365. Command and Consent: The Social Contract Tradition. The state exercises authority over its citizens: if you fail to obey its dictates, you will be punished. Does this authority not conflict with human freedom and autonomy? If it does, can political authority be morally justified? We will focus on this central question in political philosophy, with particular attention to the idea that this authority is justifiable because we have in some fashion given our consent to it. Readings will include works by Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and (most extensively) John Rawls.

Requisite: One course in Philosophy or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor A. George.

368. Philosophy at the Extremes. A traditional view distinguishes two overarching approaches to philosophy, rationalism and empiricism. Rationalists hold that reality is known primarily through reason; empiricists hold that reality is known primarily through sense perception. Perhaps the most rigorous, unflinching, radical and profound exponents of these opposed positions were Baruch Spinoza and David Hume. Both Spinoza and Hume are led by powerful arguments to staggering conclusions (e.g., there is only one thing, God, and you and I are ideas in the divine mind—Spinoza; there is no causality in the usual sense, there are no ordinary material objects, and in the end there is no self—Hume). In this course, we will read carefully Spinoza’s Ethics and Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature (Book One), two of the greatest philosophical works ever written. Satisfies the “major figure or movement” requirement of the Philosophy Major.

Requisite: PHIL 218 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Vogel.

460. Seminar: Reason, Experience and Reflection. We have various ways of knowing: reason, perception, and introspection. When we perceive, things around us seem to be directly present to our minds. Is this picture compatible with the fact that perception involves a complicated causal process? And if perception is the immediate grasp of objects in the world, how can we be subject to illusion and hallucination? We say that seeing is believing. Is it really? Or, if not, what is the relation between perception and belief? Can the contents of perceptual experience be captured completely by conceptual thought?

Reason is the source of our knowledge of logic and mathematics. But what is reason, and how does it work? Is it something like perception? Do we somehow “see” that there is no greatest number, or that the conclusion of a proof follows from its premises? Is reason subject to illusion and error? How could we ever tell? What do reason and understanding language have to do with each other?

Finally, we have some way of knowing what we’re thinking and feeling, which can be called introspection or reflection. Should we think of introspection as some sort of inward perception? What else could it be? What is the relation between having an experience and knowing that you have that experience? To what extent do we know our own minds better than anyone else can?

These questions are the subject of great interest and intense controversy in contemporary philosophy. We will try to get clear about them by reading some of the best work in field, from authors such as Grice, McDowell, Quine, BonJour, Peacocke, Burge, and Shoemaker.

Requisite: Two courses in Philosophy or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Vogel.

461. Seminar: Skepticism. The topics change from year to year. Some of the most interesting and most characteristic work in recent philosophy has been concerned with the problem of skepticism about the external world, i.e., roughly, the problem of how you know that your whole life isn’t merely a dream. We will critically examine various responses to this problem and, possibly, consider some related issues such as relativism and moral skepticism. There will be readings from authors such as Wittgenstein, Moore, and Austin, and philosophers working today such as Dretske and Putnam.

Requisite: Two courses in Philosophy or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Vogel.

463. The Later Wittgenstein. In 1933, shortly after he returned to philosophy, Ludwig Wittgenstein began to dictate to his students at Cambridge a series of notes on his revolutionary new ideas “so that they might have something to carry home with them, in their hands if not in their brains.” They were never published during his lifetime but were circulated privately, eventually becoming known as The Blue Book. This course will primarily be a slow reading and discussion of this seminal and suggestive work.

Requisite: Two courses in philosophy or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor A. George.

466. Evolution and Morality. Almost all human adults believe that:

(1) The fact that an action would promote one’s survival is a reason to do it.

(2) The fact that an action would promote the interests of a family member is a reason to do it.

(3) We have greater obligations to help our own children than we do to help complete strangers.

(4) The fact that someone has treated one well is a reason to treat that person well in return.

(5) The fact that someone is altruistic is a reason to admire, praise, and reward him or her.

(6) The fact that someone has done one deliberate harm is a reason to shun that person or seek his or her punishment.

Why do we accept these claims? Is it because they accurately describe a moral reality that we are able to perceive? (By what means do we perceive it? Do we have moral antennae?) Or is it because, as evolutionary biology leads many to believe, these beliefs tended to promote survival and reproduction? If the evolutionary explanation is correct, does this mean that these moral judgments are merely useful fictions that we would cease to accept if we were fully clear-eyed and rational? We will pursue these and related questions.

Requisite: Two courses in Philosophy or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Shah.

467. Seminar: Philosophy of Music. Music is sometimes described as a language, but what, if anything, does Charlie Parker’s “Ah-Leu-Cha” say to us? If music isn’t representational, then how should we understand its connection to the various emotions that it can express and invoke? (Or maybe these aren’t genuine emotions: Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings is widely described as sad, but what exactly are we—or is it—sad about? And why would we choose to listen to Mozart’s Requiem if it genuinely terrified us?) Perhaps our musical descriptions and experiences are metaphorical in some way—but how, and why?

What exactly is a musical work anyway? Where, when and how do “Summertime,” or “Stairway to Heaven,” or “Shake Ya Tailfeather” exist? And what makes for a performance of one or the other (or of no work at all)?

What, if anything, guides a proper “listening” or understanding of a musical work? Does it require knowledge of relevant musical and cultural conventions, or of the composition’s historical context, or even of the composer’s intentions and guiding aesthetic philosophy? (Think of gamelan music; think of the Sgt. Pepper’s album; think of John Cage.)

What determines whether a work, or a performance of it, is good? What role is played by beauty, grace, intensity and so on? And how objective are these aesthetic properties? Finally, why do we sometimes find music to be not just enjoyable, but intensely moving and even profound?

Requisite: Two courses in Philosophy or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Moore.

470. Epistemology Seminar: Of Disagreement and Doubt. We are fallible creatures, prone to making all sorts of mistakes. How should we accommodate evidence of our own epistemic imperfection? Should such evidence lead us to doubt ourselves and our beliefs? Or are we rationally permitted to dismiss it?

One way in which we might get evidence of our own error is through disagreement. The discovery that someone you respect disagrees with you can make you lose confidence in, and sometimes altogether abandon, your belief in the disputed proposition—but should it? Does disagreement provide evidence of error? Is it epistemically significant, or simply unpleasant?

We will approach these questions by looking at current work on the epistemology of disagreement. This will lead us to more general issues about evidence and rationality that are central to both recent and traditional epistemology.

Requisite: Two courses in PHIL or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13.

471. Proseminar: Research and Writing in Philosophy. The topic for this proseminar (which is one of four similar proseminars offered across the College) changes from year to year. In 2012-13, the proseminar in Philosophy will be on Metaphilosophy.

Proseminars are designed to give students the knowledge and the intellectual and technical skills necessary to do advanced research and writing in their major. They are most suitable for junior majors who are considering writing a senior honors thesis, and for senior majors, who are not writing a thesis, but would like to have the experience of writing a significant paper in the discipline. “Metaphilosophy,” as philosopher Nicholas Rescher put it, “is a philosophical investigation of the practice of philosophizing itself. Its definitive aim is to study the methods of the field in an endeavor to illuminate its promise and prospects.” What is philosophy? What are its methods? What are its objects of inquiry? Is there progress in philosophy? If so, then why do philosophers study the history of philosophy in order to gain philosophical insight? What constitutes progress in philosophy? Are the discoveries of the natural and social sciences relevant to philosophical investigation? What are philosophical intuitions, and should we trust them to give us insight into anything interesting? Why is there so much disagreement in philosophy, and is such disagreement rationally resolvable?

In this seminar, we will carefully examine the practice of philosophy as it is done by some of its best practitioners, and we will critically examine philosophical work on the very nature and methods of philosophy. As a result, we will identify those methods required to do philosophy at the highest level and attempt to determine why these methods are effective. In addition, through significant practice and feedback over the course of the semester, students will develop and improve their ability to apply these methods to the philosophical problems that most engage them. This course will satisfy the seminar requirement for the Philosophy Major.

Open to juniors and seniors, but priority will be given to junior majors who are considering writing a senior thesis and to senior majors who have opted not to write a thesis. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Gentzler.

472. Seminar: Identity. Identity is the relation a thing bears to itself and to no other thing. It is so basic to our thought, and so fundamental to the world we think about, that philosophers have despaired of saying much more about it. Some have even suggested that we should dispense with talk of “identity.” Yet, issues of identity are at the center of many important philosophical issues, for example, the relation between mind and body, the constitution of persons, and the nature of scientific discovery. And recent philosophers have done much to illuminate the nature of identity by studying its logic and grammar, and by asking how it interacts with other fundamental phenomena.

In the first part of this seminar, we will explore some puzzles revealed by these recent investigations. Identity and meaning: why exactly is it more informative to say that Lady Gaga is Stafani Germanotta than it is to say that Lady Gaga is identical to herself? Relative Identity: Should we say that one thing is identical to another, such as Barack Obama and the President of the United States, only relative to a functional role or a sortal concept? Contingent identity: could one thing, such as Water/H20, have been two, or two things one? Vague identity: is it coherent to hold that two things, such as the mountain(s) that rise to connected and nearby peaks, neither stand, nor fail to stand in the identity relation to one another? Identity and composition: is my reading lamp identical to the swarm of microphysical particles that compose it? Identity and change: how can a thing, such as a river, undergo change while retaining its identity?

In the second part of the course, we will use our general understanding of identity to explore the individuation of such entities as psychological states, musical works, events, and persons. The topic of personal identity will consume the final month of the seminar.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Moore.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course. Reading in an area selected by the student and approved in advance by a member of the Department.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Required of candidates for Honors in Philosophy. Directed research culminating in a substantial essay on a topic chosen by the student and approved by the Department.

Open to seniors with consent of the Department. Fall semester. The Department.

499. Departmental Honors Course. Required of candidates for Honors in Philosophy. The continuation of PHIL 498. In special cases, subject to approval of the Department, a double course.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring semester. The Department.

Related Courses

Artificial Intelligence. See COSC 241.

Mathematical Logic. See MATH 385.

Christianity, Philosophy, and History in the Nineteenth Century. See RELI 278.

Philosophy of Religion. See RELI 316.

The Problem of Evil. See RELI 318.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Athletic Director Coffey; Professor Morgan; Coaches Arena, Augustin, Bagwell, Ballard, Banks, Boyko, Bussard, Everden, Faulstick, Funke-Harris, Garner, Gromacki, Hamm, Hixon, Hughes, Knerr, McBride, Mills, Nedeau, Nichols, Paradis, Robson, Serpone, and Thompson.

The courses in Physical Education are available to all Amherst College students and members of the College community. All courses are elective, and although there is no academic credit offered, transcript notation is given for successful completion of all courses.

Courses are offered on a quarter basis, two units per semester, and one unit during the January interterm. Classes are offered on the same time schedule as all academic courses. Students are encouraged to enroll in courses that interest them and may obtain more information about the Physical Education Program from the Department of Physical Education and Athletics.

In an attempt to meet the needs and interests of the individual student, the Department offers the following:

1. Physical Education Courses. In these courses, the basic skills, rules and strategy of the activity are taught and practiced. This program emphasizes individual activities which have value as lifelong recreational pursuits.

2. Recreational Program.

(a) Organized Recreational Classes, in which team sports are organized, played, and supervised by Physical Education Department personnel, and

(b) Free Recreational Scheduling, where the Department schedules, maintains and supervises facilities and activities for members of the College community, i.e., recreational golf, skating, squash, swimming and tennis.

A detailed brochure concerning all programs is available upon request from the Department of Physical Education. Details concerning the College’s physical education and athletic programs are available on the Department’s website and in the Student Handbook.

Physics

*On leave 2012-13.

Professors Hunter, Hall, and Jagannathan; Associate Professors Friedman*, and Loinaz; Assistant Professors Carter and Hanneke.

Physics is the study of the natural world emphasizing an understanding of phenomena in terms of fundamental interactions and basic laws. As such, physics underlies all of the natural sciences and pervades contemporary approaches to the study of the universe (astronomy and astrophysics), living systems (biophysics and neuroscience), chemistry (chemical physics), and earth systems (geophysics and environmental science). In addition, the relationship of physics to mathematics is deep, complex and rich. To reflect the broad range of activities pursued by people with training in physics, the department has developed a curriculum that provides a solid background in the fundamentals of physics while allowing some flexibility, particularly at the upper level, for students’ interests in astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, geology, mathematics and neuroscience.

The core physics program provides a course of study for those who are interested in physics as a liberal arts major, with career plans in diverse fields such as law, medicine, business and education. The department also provides a number of upper-level electives to deepen the background of those students intending to pursue careers in physics and closely related technical fields.

The sequence PHYS 116, 117 may be taken by students who require two semesters of physics with laboratory. MATH 111 is a requisite for PHYS 116. There is no additional mathematics requirement for PHYS 117. Students interested in majoring in physics should take PHYS 123 and 124 early in their college career. Those who have taken PHYS 116 and 117 are also able to join the majors’ stream, but they should discuss the transition with a faculty member as early as they can. The general content of the two sequences is similar, but the mathematical levels are different. MATH 121 is a requisite for PHYS 124, but not for PHYS 117. Hence, students who wish to major after completing PHYS 117 should complete MATH 121.

Major Program. Students who wish to major in physics are required to take MATH 111 and 121, and PHYS 123, 124 (or PHYS 116, 117, but see above), 225, 226, 227, 230 (or CHEM 361), 343, 347 and 348. Students may petition the Department to substitute an upper-level course in a related discipline for a required upper level departmental course. Students planning a career in physics should seriously consider taking one or more electives in physics and mathematics. PHYS 452 is an advanced course in electromagnetic theory and will follow the required intermediate course on the subject, PHYS 347; similarly, PHYS 453, an advanced course in quantum mechanics, will follow PHYS 348. PHYS 460 is a course on General Relativity. Not all these electives may be offered every year, and from time to time, the department may offer other upper-level electives.

All Physics majors must take a written comprehensive examination in the second semester of their senior year, which they must pass as a requirement for graduation as a major.

General Education Physics Courses. The Physics Department offers a variety of courses for students not majoring in the sciences. Typically these courses do not assume any background beyond high-school mathematics. In most years, the department teaches several of these courses.

Departmental Honors Program. Students who wish to receive departmental Honors should enroll in PHYS 498 and 499D in addition to completing the other requirements for the major. At the end of the first semester of the senior year the student’s progress on the Honors problem will determine the advisability of continuation in the Honors program.

The aim of Departmental Honors work in Physics is to provide the student an opportunity to pursue, under faculty direction, in-depth research into a project in experimental and/or theoretical physics. Current experimental areas of research in the department include atomic and molecular physics, precision measurements and fundamental symmetries, Bose-Einstein condensation, ultra cold collisions, the quantum-classical frontier, non-linear dynamics, and phase transitions. Theoretical work is primarily in the area of High Energy and Elementary Particle physics, but faculty members pursue studies in quantum computers, foundations of quantum mechanics, and classical gravitation theory. In addition to apparatus for projects closely related to the continuing experimental research activity of faculty members, facilities are available for experimental projects in many other areas. Subject to availability of equipment and faculty interest, Honors projects arising out of students’ particular interests are encouraged. Students must submit a written thesis on the Honors work a few weeks before the end of their final semester (in late April for spring graduation). Students give a preliminary presentation of their work during the first semester, and a final presentation at the end of the second semester. In addition, they take oral examinations devoted primarily to the thesis work. The departmental recommendation for the various levels of Honors will be based on the student’s record, Departmental Honors work, Comprehensive Examination and oral examination on the thesis.

109. Energy. We will develop the concept of energy from a Physics perspective. We will introduce the various forms that energy can take and discuss the mechanisms by which it can be generated, transmitted, and transformed. The law of conservation of energy will be introduced both as a useful tool, and as an example of a fundamental physical law. The environmental and financial costs and benefits of various methods of energy generation and consumption will be discussed. Demonstrations and hands-on laboratory experiences will be an integral part of the course. The course is intended for non-science majors and not for students who have either completed or intend to complete the equivalent of PHYS 117 or CHEM 110.

Requisite: A working knowledge of high-school algebra, geometry and trigonometry. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13.

114. Relativity, Cosmology, and Quantum Physics. Beginning with the roots of the principle of relativity in the work of Galileo and Newton, the course will discuss Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity in quantitative detail. The eighteenth- and nineteenth-century developments in electrodynamics and optics will be explored along the way. A qualitative outline of general relativity will be presented. The next topic will be the study of the structure of matter and forces on the small scale and the challenges posed by the quantum theory that best describes the microworld. The last topic of the semester will be the application of relativity and quantum physics to the early universe. The approach will be elementary but rigorous. The course is designed for the non-specialist audience; no advanced mathematics or prior physics will be required. The work will include readings and regular problem sets as well as a few essays. High school algebra and geometry will however be used extensively in class and in the problem sets.

Omitted 2012-13.

116. Introductory Physics I: Mechanics and Wave Motion. The course will begin with a description of the motion of particles and introduce Newton’s dynamical laws and a number of important force laws. We will apply these laws to a wide range of problems to gain a better understanding of them and to demonstrate the generality of the framework. The important concepts of work, mechanical energy, and linear and angular momentum will be introduced. The unifying idea of conservation laws will be discussed. The study of mechanical waves permits a natural transition from the dynamics of particles to the dynamics of waves, including the interference of waves. Additional topics may include fluid mechanics and rotational dynamics. Three hours of lecture and discussion and one three-hour laboratory per week.

Requisite: MATH 111. Fall semester: Professor Hunter (lecture) Professors Hall and Loinaz (labs). Spring semester. Professor TBA.

117. Introductory Physics II: Electromagnetism and Optics. Most of the physical phenomena we encounter in everyday life are due to the electromagnetic force. This course will begin with Coulomb’s law for the force between two charges at rest and introduce the electric field in this context. We will then discuss moving charges and the magnetic interaction between electric currents. The mathematical formulation of the basic laws in terms of the electric and magnetic fields will allow us to work towards the unified formulation originally given by Maxwell. His achievement has, as a gratifying outcome, the description of light as an electromagnetic wave. The course will consider both ray-optics and wave-optics descriptions of light. Laboratory exercises will emphasize electrical circuits, electronic measuring instruments, optics and optical experiments. Three hours of lecture and discussion and one three-hour laboratory per week.

Requisite: PHYS 116 or 123. Fall semester: Professors Hanneke and Jagannathan. Spring semester: Professor TBA.

123. The Newtonian Synthesis: Dynamics of Particles and Systems, Waves. The idea that the same simple physical laws apply equally well in the terrestrial and celestial realms, called the Newtonian Synthesis, is a major intellectual development of the seventeenth century. It continues to be of vital importance in contemporary physics. In this course, we will explore the implications of this synthesis by combining Newton’s dynamical laws with his Law of Universal Gravitation. We will solve a wide range of problems of motion by introducing a small number of additional forces. The concepts of work, kinetic energy, and potential energy will then be introduced. Conservation laws of momentum, energy, and angular momentum will be discussed, both as results following from the dynamical laws under restricted conditions and as general principles that go well beyond the original context of their deduction. Newton’s laws will be applied to a simple continuous medium to obtain a wave equation as an approximation. Properties of mechanical waves will be discussed. Four hours of lecture and discussion and one three-hour laboratory per week.

Requisite: MATH 111. Fall semester. Professor Hall.

124. The Maxwellian Synthesis: Dynamics of Charges and Fields, Optics. In the mid-nineteenth century, completing nearly a century of work by others, Maxwell developed an elegant set of equations describing the dynamical behavior of electromagnetic fields. A remarkable consequence of Maxwell’s equations is that the wave theory of light is subsumed under electrodynamics. Moreover, we know from subsequent developments that the electromagnetic interaction largely determines the structure and properties of ordinary matter. The course will begin with Coulomb’s Law but will quickly introduce the concept of the electric field. Moving charges and their connection with the magnetic field will be explored. Currents and electrical circuits will be studied. Faraday’s introduction of the dynamics of the magnetic field and Maxwell’s generalization of it will be discussed. Laboratory exercises will concentrate on circuits, electronic measuring instruments, and optics. Four hours of lecture and discussion and one three-hour laboratory per week.

Requisite: MATH 121 and PHYS 116 or 123. Spring semester. Professor TBA.

225. Modern Physics. The theories of relativity (special and general) and the quantum theory constituted the revolutionary transformation of physics in the early twentieth century. Certain crucial experiments precipitated crises in our classical understanding to which these theories offered responses; in other instances, the theories implied strange and/or counterintuitive phenomena that were then investigated by crucial experiments. After an examination of the basics of Special Relativity, the quantum theory, and the important early experiments, we will consider their implications for model systems such as a particle in a box, the harmonic oscillator, and a simple version of the hydrogen atom. We will also explore the properties of nuclei and elementary particles, study lasers and photonics, and discuss some very recent experiments of interest in contemporary physics. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: MATH 121 and PHYS 117 or 124. Fall semester. Professor Hanneke.

226. Intermediate Laboratory. A variety of classic and topical experiments will be performed. In the area of fundamental constants, we will undertake a measurement of the speed of light, a determination of the ratio of Planck’s constant to the charge of the electron through the study of the photoelectric effect, and an experiment to obtain the charge-to-mass ratio of the electron. We will study the wave nature of the electron through a diffraction experiment. An experiment to measure optical spectra and another on gamma ray spectra will reveal the power of spectroscopy for exploring the structure of matter. Other experiments such as nuclear magnetic resonance, quantized conductance in nanocontacts, and properties of superconductors will give students an opportunity to experience laboratory practice in its contemporary form. Emphasis will be placed on careful experimental work and data-analysis techniques. One meeting a week of discussion plus additional, weekly self-scheduled laboratory work.

Requisite: PHYS 225 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor TBA.

227. Methods of Theoretical Physics. The course will present the mathematical methods frequently used in theoretical physics. The physical context and interpretation will be emphasized. Topics covered will include vector calculus, complex numbers, ordinary differential equations (including series solutions), partial differential equations, functions of a complex variable, and linear algebra. Four class hours per week.

Requisite: MATH 121 and PHYS 117/124 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Loinaz.

230. Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics. The basic laws of physics governing the behavior of microscopic particles are in certain respects simple. They give rise both to complex behavior of macroscopic aggregates of these particles, and more remarkably, to a new kind of simplicity. Thermodynamics focuses on the simplicity at the macroscopic level directly, and formulates its laws in terms of a few observable parameters like temperature and pressure. Statistical Mechanics, on the other hand, seeks to build a bridge between mechanics and thermodynamics, providing in the process, a basis for the latter, and pointing out the limits to its range of applicability. Statistical Mechanics also allows one to investigate, in principle, physical systems outside the range of validity of Thermodynamics. After an introduction to thermodynamic laws, we will consider a microscopic view of entropy, formulate the kinetic theory, and study several pertinent probability distributions including the classical Boltzmann distribution. Relying on a quantum picture of microscopic laws, we will study photon and phonon gases, chemical potential, classical and degenerate quantum ideal gases, and chemical and phase equilibria. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: PHYS 225 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor TBA.

343. Dynamics. This course begins with the foundation of classical mechanics as formulated in Newton’s Laws of Motion. We then use Hamilton’s Principle of Least Action to arrive at an alternative formulation of mechanics in which the equations of motion are derived from energies rather than forces. This Lagrangian formulation has many virtues, among them a deeper insight into the connection between symmetries and conservation laws. From the Lagrangian formulation we will move to the Hamiltonian formulation and the discussion of dynamics in phase space, exploring various avenues for the transition from the classical to the quantum theory. We will study motion in a central force field, the derivation of Kepler’s laws of planetary motion from Newton’s law of gravity, two-body collisions, and physics in non-inertial reference frames. Other topics may include the dynamics of driven, damped oscillators, and non-linear dynamics of chaotic systems. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: PHYS 227 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Carter.

347. Electromagnetic Theory I. A development of Maxwell’s electromagnetic field equations and some of their consequences using vector calculus. Topics covered include: electrostatics, steady currents and static magnetic fields, time-dependent electric and magnetic fields, and the complete Maxwell theory, energy in the electromagnetic field, Poynting’s theorem, electromagnetic waves, and radiation from time-dependent charge and current distributions. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: PHYS 117 or 124 and PHYS 227 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Hunter.

348. Quantum Mechanics I. Wave-particle duality and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Basic postulates of Quantum Mechanics, wave functions, solutions of the Schroedinger equation for one-dimensional systems and for the hydrogen atom. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: PHYS 225 and 343 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor TBA.

400. Molecular and Cellular Biophysics. (Offered as PHYS 400, BIOL 400, BCBP 400, and CHEM 400.) How do the physical laws that dominate our lives change at the small length and energy scales of individual molecules? What design principles break down at the sub-cellular level and what new chemistry and physics becomes important? We will answer these questions by looking at bio-molecules, cellular substructures, and control mechanisms that work effectively in the microscopic world. How can we understand both the static and dynamic shape of proteins using the laws of thermodynamics and kinetics? How has the basic understanding of the smallest molecular motor in the world, ATP synthase, changed our understanding of friction and torque? We will explore new technologies, such as atomic force and single molecule microscopy that have allowed research into these areas. This course will address topics in each of the three major divisions of Biophysics: bio-molecular structure, biophysical techniques, and biological mechanisms.

Requisite: CHEM 161, PHYS 116/123, PHYS 117/124, BIOL 191 or evidence of equivalent coverage in pre-collegiate courses. Fall semester. Professors Carter and Williamson.

453. Quantum Mechanics II. This course is a continuation of PHYS 348. We will study variational methods, semiclassical approximations, time-dependent perturbation theory, non-relativistic scattering theory, and the quantization of the radiation field.

Requisite: PHYS 348. Omitted 2012-13.

460. General Relativity. The course is an elementary introduction to Einstein’s theory of gravity. After a brief review of the special theory of relativity, we will investigate vector and tensor fields in terms of their properties under changes of coordinates. Geometric ideas such as geodesics, parallel transport, and covariant differentiation will be studied. The Principle of Equivalence will be presented as the central physical principle behind Einstein’s theory of gravity. After an introduction to the stress tensor, the field equations will be stated and the simplest solutions to them obtained. Physical implications of the theory for the motion of planets and light in the vicinity of massive stars will be derived. Classical cosmology and gravitational radiation will round out a traditional presentation of the subject.

Requisite: PHYS 225 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor TBA.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course. A full course.

Fall and spring semester.

490H. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course. A half course.

Fall and spring semester.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Individual, independent work on some problem, usually in experimental physics. Reading, consultation and seminars, and laboratory work. Designed for honors candidates, but open to other advanced students with the consent of the department.

Fall semester. The Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Same description as PHYS 498. A single course.

Requisite: PHYS 498. Spring semester. The Department.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. Same description as PHYS 498. A double course.

Requisite: PHYS 498. Spring semester. The Department.

Pick Colloquium

The Pick Colloquia are part of the Pick Readership established in 1999 by Thomas and Sue Pick to include courses in environmental studies in the curriculum. Under the Readership, a faculty member is appointed to be the Pick Reader for three years during which time he or she coordinates lectures and panel discussions on environmental themes and organizes one or two interdisciplinary colloquia on the environment each year. The Pick Reader also advises students interested in preparing themselves for careers in environmental studies and related fields.

Political Science

*On leave 2012-13.

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professor Arkes‡, Basu‡, Bumiller, Corrales‡, Dumm, Machala, Sarat (Chair), W. Taubman†, and Tiersky‡; Assistant Professor Poe; Karl Loewenstein Fellows Christ, Scraton and Wang.

Major Program. Majors in Political Science must complete 10 courses for rite or 12 for honors in courses offered or approved by the Department, including at least one introductory course and at least one advanced seminar. In addition they must fulfill a distribution requirement and complete a core concentration within Political Science.

Introductory courses. These courses are generally numbered in the 100s. Because these courses are designed to introduce students to the study of politics, the department recommends that they be taken in the first and second years. Students may count a maximum of two introductory courses toward their major.

Advanced Seminars. These courses are generally numbered in the 300s AND 400s. They have prerequisites, limited enrollment, and a substantial writing requirement.

Distribution Requirement for the Classes of 2013—2014. To fulfill the distribution requirement, majors must take one course in at least three of the following areas: American government and politics [AP]; comparative politics [CP]; gender and politics [GP]; politics, law, and public policy [LP]; international relations [IR]; and political theory [PT].

Distribution Requirement Starting with the Class of 2015. To fulfill the distribution requirement, majors must take one course in at least four of the following areas: Institutions and Law:States, institutions, parties, political economy, the law and public policy [IL]; Society and Culture: Civil society, social movements, rights and identities, cultural politics [SC]; Global: War, peace, diplomacy, foreign policy and globalization [G]; Political Theory: Power, norms, and justice [PT].

Core Concentration. Political Science majors shall also designate a core concentration within the major. The core concentration will consist of a minimum of four courses organized around a theme chosen by the student in consultation with the advisor. Students may count up to two courses from outside the Political Science Department to fulfill the core requirement. These courses will count for the completion of the major. Ordinarily students shall designate a core concentration by the end of the sophomore year or at the time they declare the major. Advisors will certify that graduating students have completed their core concentration requirement.

Honors in Political Science. Students who wish to be considered for graduation with Departmental Honors in Political Science must have an A– cumulative average.

Prospective applicants should consult with members of the Department during their junior year to define a suitable Honors project and to determine whether a member of the Department competent to act as an advisor will be available to do so.

Information about topics that faculty members would like to supervise is posted on our website. We will give preference to working with students whose research interests coincide with our own. The department may deny students permission to pursue projects for which suitable advisors are not available. In assigning advisors for honors work, in addition to the expertise/interests of the faculty, we will also consider faculty workload. The Department Chair will organize three meetings for juniors who hope to do honors work. These meetings are designed to introduce students to the thesis program and to facilitate the development of a thesis proposal. Students who hope to do honors work should attend all of these meetings. Those who are studying abroad should communicate with prospective thesis advisors before leaving and while abroad.

A thesis proposal, posted on the web site, should be submitted on line by May 1st. The proposal consists of a description of the thesis topic—what it is, why it is important, how it is to be illuminated—and information about relevant experience and interests. The department chair will inform students whether they have been admitted into the thesis program by the end of the spring semester of their junior year. Prior department approval is necessary to register for thesis courses in the senior year.

In assigning second and third readers, the principal advisor shall play a primary role. Colleagues from other departments at Amherst or in the Five Colleges may serve as second and third readers. Only one member of a thesis committee may be from another department at Amherst or from the Five Colleges.

Candidates for Honors will normally take Political Science 490. Students may request a third thesis course in either the fall or the spring and, with the approval of their advisor, register for 498D or 499. A first draft of the thesis will be submitted by the middle of January. At that time, the candidate’s advisor, in consultation with a second reader, will evaluate the draft and determine whether it merits the candidate’s continuing in the Honor’s program in the second semester. Students who are informed that they cannot continue in the thesis program submit their work for a “special topics course” to be graded by the thesis advisor. Students continuing in the Honors program participate in a thesis defense with the first and third reader in late April.

101. Political Identities. [CP, GP] [SC—starting with the Class of 2015] The assertion of group identities, based on language, region, religion, race, gender, sexuality, and class, among other variables, has increasingly animated politics cross-nationally. However, the extent to which identities become politicized varies enormously across time and place. We will explore what it means to describe an identity as political. This exercise entails assessing the conditions under which states, civil societies, and political societies recognize certain identities while ignoring or repressing others. In other words, it entails analyzing the ways in which political processes make and remake identities. What do groups gain and lose from identity-based movements? And what are the broader implications of identity-based movements for democratic politics?

Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professor Basu.

103. Secrets and Lies. [AP] [PT—starting with the Class of 2015] Politics seems almost unimaginable without secrecy and lying. From the noble lie of Plato’s Republic to Oliver North’s claim that he lied to Congress in the name of a higher good, from the need to preserve secrets in the name of national security to the endless spinning of political campaigns, from President Kennedy’s behavior during the Cuban missile crisis to current controversies concerning lies by the tobacco industry, from Freud’s efforts to decode the secrets beneath civilized life to contemporary exposés of the private lives of politicians, politics and deception seem to go hand-in-hand. This course investigates how the practices of politics are informed by the keeping and telling of secrets, and the telling and exposing of lies. We will address such questions as: When, if ever, is it right to lie or to breach confidences? When is it right to expose secrets and lies? Is it necessary to be prepared to lie in order to advance the cause of justice? Or, must we do justice justly? When is secrecy really necessary and when is it merely a pretext for Machiavellian manipulation? Are secrecy and deceit more prevalent in some kinds of regimes than in others? As we explore those questions we will discuss the place of candor and civility in politics; the relationship between the claims of privacy (e.g., the closeting of sexual desire) and secrecy and deception in public arenas; conspiracy theories as they are applied to politics; and the importance of secrecy in resistance and revolutionary movements. We will examine the treatment of secrecy and lying in political theory as well as their appearance in literature and popular culture, for example, King Lear, Wag the Dog, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Year of Living Dangerously, and Quiz Show

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Dumm.

104. The State. [CP, IR] [G—starting with the Class of 2015] Most humans live in territories that are controlled by a state. Why do different nations have different types of states? Why are some states more repressive than others, more war-prone than others, better promoters of development than others, more inclusive than others? How can we make sense of the varied reactions to state domination, ranging from active support to negotiated limits to apathy to vigorous contestation? Does globalization make states more or less democratic, more or less efficient, more or less able to promote development?

This course goes to the heart of current debates on the “state of the state.” How significant is the state in an era in which its sovereignty is increasingly challenged both by global and domestic forces? What ought to be the proper role of the state in the twenty-first century? These questions are central to the current debates taking place—in the U.S. and abroad—on the extent to which countries should open up their economies, privatize social services, incorporate minorities and immigrants, recognize gay marriages, counterbalance U.S. pop culture, accommodate religious fundamentalism, etc. We will explore these questions by studying political theorists and empirical cases from around the world.

Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professor Corrales.

105. Politics, Statecraft, and the Art of Ruling. [AP, IR, PT] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] In the teaching of the classic philosophers, the central questions of politics are questions of justice: What are the grounds of our judgment on the things that are just or unjust, right or wrong? What is the nature of the just, or the best, political order? What measures would we be “justified” in imposing with the force of “law”? What is the nature of that regime we would seek to preserve in this country—or, on the other hand, what are the regimes that we would be justified in resisting in other places, even with the force of arms? The problem of judgment must point to the principles, or the standards, of judgment, and to an understanding that is distinctly philosophic. But political men and women also need a certain sense of the ways of the world: the things that hold people in alliance or impart a movement to events; the ways in which the character of politics is affected by the presence of bureaucracies or elections; the arts of persuasion; the strains of rendering judgments. And the knowledge of these things must depend on experience. In this style of introduction to political science, a central place will be given over to the study of statesmen and politicians: Lincoln, Churchill, Eisenhower, but also Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan. The course will draw us back to Aristotle and Plato, to Machiavelli and the American Founders, but then it will also encompass the study of voting and campaigns, and the more recent politics of race and gender.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Arkes.

110. An Introduction to Political Theory. [PT] [PT—starting with the Class of 2015] This course is an introduction to political theory, examining the assumptions that allow the various forms of politics to operate as they do. It is divided into three parts: The first investigates the problems of foundations—what politics is and where we can find its limits; the second explores the politics in our ordinary lives—the politics that determine how we interact with our families and friends, and how we choose to live in our private lives; the third deals with the costs that may come from sharing our world. Throughout, we will use a variety of resources—philosophic, literary, cultural, cinematic, and historical—to develop ways of engaging our political world, unraveling those very assumptions we choose to live by.

Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Poe.

200. Introduction to American National Politics. [AP] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] This course focuses on the study of American national institutions of governance, including the presidency, the Congress, the courts, as well as political parties, some of the key concepts of American federalism, and the politics of governance, including the study of legislative processes, campaigns, political media, socio-economic elites and their influence on policymaking, and populist movements.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Dumm.

203. From Petrograd to Petrostate: Power and Public in Post-Communist Russia. [G—starting with the Class of 2015] Russia emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union a budding democracy with aggressively contested elections on the federal and local level. Twenty years later, it is an authoritarian state in which opposition is persecuted and the electorate divorced from any policy-making. This course will examine the dynamics of Russian politics from the anti-Communist revolution of 1991 to the present, attempting to answer the question why this happened. First, we will revisit the legacy of the Soviet era pertinent to “new” Russia—centralism and political repression but also social welfare systems, feminism, and communality. Second, we will look at the socio-economic factors of Russia’s metamorphosis, the products of the Russian version of a free market economy (among others: the emergence of a new dominant minority, the “oligarchs,” and the gap between the rich and the poor). Third, we will examine the concepts of democracy and human rights prevalent in Russia over the past twenty years and ask how different they are from Western concepts of democracy and human rights. Fourth, we will try determining the role of individuals in Russian politics. How did Vladimir Putin dismantle the democratic institutions of Russia so quickly? What was the voters’ reaction to that? What made his victory over the “oligarchs” possible? Was this a case of a leader going against the grain or did he fit the profile of an ideal leader the majority of Russians wanted? Is it Putin’s Russia or Russia’s very own Putin?

Omitted 2012-13.

204. Kremlin Rising: Russian Foreign Policy from Yeltsin to Medvedev. [G—starting with the Class of 2015] This course will examine the foreign policy of the Russian Federation throughout the past twenty years, from the disintegration of the Soviet Union to the present. We will start with the Soviet legacy—tensions and conflicts coming from Stalin’s territorial expansion and the concepts of world revolution, superpower, and empire. Second, we will examine Russia as a successor state that has inherited both the Soviet Union’s clout (nuclear arms, permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council) and Soviet debts—monetary, psychological, and historical. Third, we will explore the foreign policy resources Russia has—economic, human, and political. Fourth, we will attempt to track the dynamics of Russia’s foreign policy from Yeltsin to Putin and Medvedev. What are the conceptual foundations of Russian diplomacy? Can we deconstruct Russian nationalism so as to examine its different trends and their impact on foreign policy? Do Russian exports of oil and gas define Russian diplomacy, as it is often claimed? Is there any pattern in the struggle over resources and their export routes in continental Eurasia? What is the foreign policy-making mechanism in Russia today, and do Russian oligarchs have any say in it? At the end of the semester, we will address several scenarios for the future of Russia’s relations with other post-Soviet countries, Europe, the United States, and, last but not least, China.

Omitted 2012-13.

207. The Home and the World: Women and Gender in South Asia. (Offered as WAGS 207 and POSC 207 [SC—starting with the Class of 2015].) This course will study South Asian women and gender through key texts in film, literature, history and politics. How did colonialism and nationalism challenge the distinctions between the “home” and the “world” and bring about partitions which splintered once shared cultural practices? What consequences did this have for postcolonial politics? How do ethnic conflicts, religious nationalisms and state repression challenge conceptions of “home”? How have migrations, globalization and diasporas complicated relations between the home and the world? Texts will include Salman Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown, Ram Gopal Varma’s epic film Sarkar and Partha Chatterjee’s The Nation and Its Fragments.

Omitted 2012-13. Professors Basu and Shandilya.

211. The Political Theory of Liberalism. [PT] [PT—starting with the Class of 2015] This course is a survey of Western liberal political theory from its 17th-century origins through some of its contemporary expressions. Among the thinkers whose works we may read are Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Mary Wollstonecraft, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Stuart Mill, Isaiah Berlin, John Rawls, Stanley Cavell, and Judith Sklar.

Limited to 40 students. Spring semester. Professor Dumm.

212. Political Obligations. [PT] [PT—starting with the Class of 2015] The mark of the polity, or the political order, has always been the presence of “law”—the capacity to make decisions that are binding, or obligatory, for everyone within the territory. The roots of obligation and law are the same: “ligare,” to bind. When the law imposes a decision, it restricts personal freedom and displaces “private choice” in favor of a public obligation, an obligation applied uniformly or universally. The law may commit us then on matters that run counter even to our own convictions, strongly held, about the things that are right or wrong, and even on matters of our private lives. The law may forbid people to discriminate on grounds of race even in their private businesses; the law may forbid abortions or, on the other hand, the law may compel the funding of abortions even by people who find them abhorrent. This state of affairs, this logic of the law, has always called out for justification, and in facing that question, we are led back to the original understanding of the connection between morality and law. The law can justify itself only if it can establish, as its ground, propositions about the things that are in principle right or wrong, just or unjust—which is to say, right or wrong, just or unjust, for others as well as ourselves. The questions of law and obligation then must point to the questions at the root of moral philosophy: What is the nature of the good or the just, and the grounds on which we may claim to “know” moral truths?

The course will proceed through a series of cases after it returns to the beginning of political philosophy and lays the groundwork for the argument. We will begin with Aristotle on the polis, and the debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas on “natural rights.” We will draw on Kant and Hume, on Thomas Reid and Bertrand Russell, as we seek to set the groundwork in place. The argument of the course will then be unfolded further, and tested, through a train of cases and problems: conscientious objection, the war in Vietnam, the obligation to rescue, the claims of privacy. And the culmination will come on the issues of abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide.

Fall semester. Professor Arkes.

213. World Politics. [IR] [G—starting with the Class of 2015] This is an introductory course which examines the interaction of military, political, economic, social and cultural forces in present-day world politics. Close attention is paid to the complex relationship between two central components of this system: great power relations and global capitalist dynamics. Among the topics covered are hegemonic stability and the rise and fall of the great powers, the changing role of state sovereignty, the strengths and weaknesses of international civil society, as well as the role of justice and international/transnational legal institutions in world politics. Other issues to be discussed include the relations of the world’s sole superpower (the United States) vis-à-vis the newly emerging geopolitical centers of power, namely the European Union, China, India and Russia, as well as such regions as the Middle East and Latin America. The course does not rely on a single theoretical framework; instead, we will follow in the path of such world classics as Kautylia, Sun Tzu, Thucydides, Clausewitz, Locke, Kant, and Karl Marx. To see examples of past syllabi please go to http://www3.amherst.edu/~pmachala/Syllabi/ for more information.

Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professor Machala.

218. The Social Organization of Law. (Offered as LJST 101 and POSC 218 [LP] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015].) Law in the United State is everywhere, ordering the most minute details of daily life while at the same time making life and death judgments. Our law is many things at once—majestic and ordinary, monstrous and merciful, concerned with morality yet often righteously indifferent to moral argument. Powerful and important in social life, the law remains elusive and mysterious. This power and mystery is reflected in, and made possible by, a complex bureaucratic apparatus which translates words into deeds and rhetorical gestures into social practices.

This course will examine that apparatus. It will describe how the problems and possibilities of social organization shape law as well as how the social organization of law responds to persons of different classes, races and genders. We will attend to the peculiar way the American legal system deals with human suffering—with examples ranging from the legal treatment of persons living in poverty to the treatments of victims of sexual assault. How is law organized to cope with their pain? How are the actions of persons who inflict inquiries on others defined in legal terms? Here we will examine cases on self defense and capital punishment. Throughout, attention will be given to the practices of police, prosecutors, judges, and those who administer law’s complex bureaucratic apparatus.

Limited to 100 students. Fall semester. Professor Sarat.

231. The Political Economy of Petro States: Venezuela Compared. [CP, IR] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] This is a modified version of POSC 232, The Political Economy of Development. The first half of the course is identical to 232, but the second half will have a different focus: the political economy of oil. This section will explore the extent to which oil is a “resource curse,” the neo-structuralist notion that an abundance of a natural resource, in this case oil, is detrimental for development because it distorts economic incentives (away from diversification) and distorts politics (by facilitating corruption, raising the stakes of power-holding, increasing the chance for abuse of state power, and weakening society’s capacity to hold the state accountable). We will examine these hypotheses by focusing on Venezuela, one of the world’s leading oil producers. Until the 1980s, Venezuela was considered an example of democratization. In the 1990s, Venezuela became instead a paradigmatic case of policy incoherence. In the early 2000s, under the Hugo Chávez administration, Venezuela became a case of political polarization, and some argue, rising authoritarianism. The second half of this course will assess whether the resource-curse theory provides the best account of Venezuela’s politics since the 1980s. To address this question, we will: (1) compare the resource-curse argument with other competing theories of development that might account for Venezuelan politics; and (2) compare the Venezuelan case with other cases in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. This course fulfills requirements for the Five College Certificates in Latin American Studies and International Relations.

Not open to students who have taken POSC 232. Limited to 35 students. Fall semester. Professor Corrales.

232. Political Economy of Development. [CP, IR] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] This course surveys some of the principal themes in the political economy of lower-income countries. Questions will cover a broad terrain. What are the key characteristics of poor economies? Why did these countries fail to catch up economically with the West in the 20th century? Who are the key political actors? What are their beliefs, ideologies and motivations? What are their political constraints, locally, nationally and globally? We will review definitions of development, explanations for the wealth and poverty of nations, the role of ideas, positive and dysfunctional links between the state and business groups, the role of non-state actors, the causes and consequences of poverty, inequality, disease and corruption, the impact of financial globalization and trade opening, the role of the IMF and the World Bank, and the arguments of anti-developmentalists. We will look at the connection between regime type and development. (Are democracies at a disadvantage in promoting development?) We will also devote a couple of weeks to education in developing countries. We know education is a human good, but is it also an economic good? Does education stimulate economic growth? What are the obstacles to education expansion? We will not focus on a given region, but rather on themes. Familiarity with the politics or economics of some developing country is helpful but not necessary.

Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Corrales.

237. The American Founding. [PT, AP] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] Lincoln famously said at Gettysburg that the nation had been brought forth “four score and seven years” earlier. Counting back 87 years from Gettysburg brought the beginning of the republic to 1776, not 1789. The American Founding included the ingenious crafting of the Constitution, but the Founding, and the Union, did not begin with the Constitution. It began with the Declaration of Independence and the articulation of that “proposition” as Lincoln called it, which marked the character of the regime: “all men are created equal.” From that proposition sprang the principle for government by consent, and as Lincoln and the Founders understood, the case in principle against slavery. Lincoln thought it a stroke of genius on the part of Jefferson that, on the occasion of a revolution, he inserted in the Declaration an “abstract truth applicable to all men and all times.” And yet, now, that truth of the Declaration has become controversial; it is often denied on both sides of the political divide, by conservatives as well as liberals. But the claim for the Founders remains: if that central moral “truth” of the Declaration is not true, it may not be possible to give a coherent account of the American regime and the rights it was meant to secure.

The course will explore the writings and work of that uncommon generation that made the case for the American revolution and framed a “new order for the ages.” The topics will include the political philosophy of “natural rights”; the debates during the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and during the contest over ratification; the Federalist and Anti-federalist papers; the political economy of the new Constitution; the jurisprudence of Alexander Hamilton, James Wilson, and John Marshall; and some of the leading cases in the founding period of the Supreme Court.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Arkes.

241. The American Constitution I: The Structure of Rights. [LP, AP] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] This course will focus on the questions arising from the relations of the three main institutions that define the structure of the national government under the Constitution. We will begin, at all times, with cases, but the cases will draw us back to the “first principles” of constitutional government, and to the logic that was built into the American Constitution. The topics will include: the standing of the President and Congress as interpreters of the Constitution; the authority of the Congress to counter the judgments—and alter the jurisdiction—of the federal courts on matters such as abortion and busing; the logic of “rights” and the regulation of “speech” (including such “symbolic expression” as the burning of crosses); and the original warning of the Federalists about the effect of the Bill of Rights in narrowing the range of our rights.

Fall semester. Professor Arkes.

242. The American Constitution II: Federalism, Privacy, and the “Equal Protection of the Laws”. [LP, AP] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] In applying the Constitution to particular cases, it becomes necessary to appeal to certain “principles of law” that were antecedent to the Constitution—principles that existed before the Constitution, and which did not depend, for their authority, on the text of the Constitution. But in some cases it is necessary to appeal to principles that were peculiar to the government that was established in the “decision of 1787”; the decisions that framed a new government under a new Constitution. This course will try to illuminate that problem by considering the grounds on which the national government claims to vindicate certain rights by overriding the authority of the States and private institutions. Is the federal government obliged to act as a government of “second resort” after it becomes clear that the State and local governments will not act? Or may the federal government act in the first instance, for example, to bar discriminations based on race, and may it reach, with its authority, to private businesses, private clubs, even private households? The course will pursue these questions as it deals with a number of issues arising from the “equal protection of the laws”—most notably, with the problem of discriminations based on race and sex, with racial quotas and “reverse discrimination.” In addition, the course will deal with such topics as: self-incrimination, the exclusionary rule, the regulation of “vices,” and censorship over literature and the arts. (This course may be taken independently of POSC 241, The American Constitution I.)

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Arkes.

243. Ancient Political Thought. [PT] This course surveys ancient Greek and Roman political thought. Although the ancient world was remarkably different from our own, many of the concepts and ideas that dominate our thinking about politics today have been influenced by our inheritance of these classic traditions. Such ideals as democratic citizenship, the rule of law, public and private spheres, and civil liberties find their first articulation in these ancient polities. Indeed, many of the questions and problems that plagued politics in those ancient worlds—What is justice? What are the obligations of democratic citizens? What is the best form of government?—are still vibrant today. Through close textual readings and contextual analysis we will engage in a systematic comparison of our assumptions about politics with those expressed in these ancient worlds. And, in so doing, we will attempt to further our understanding of political problems requisite to our contemporary political practices.

Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Poe.

244. Global Women’s Activism. (Offered as WAGS 244 and POSC 244 [SC—starting with the Class of 2015].) Globally as well as locally, women are claiming a new voice in civil society by spearheading both egalitarian movements for social change and reactionary movements which would restore them to putatively traditional roles. They are prominent in local level community-based struggles but also in women’s movements, perhaps the most international movements in the world today. This course will explore the varied expressions of women’s activism at the grass roots, national and transnational levels. How is it influenced by the intervention of the state and international agencies? How is it affected by globalization? Among the issues and movements which we will address are struggles to redefine women’s rights as human rights, women’s activism in religious nationalism, the international gay-lesbian movement, welfare rights activism, responses to state regulation, and campaigns around domestic violence. Our understanding of women’s activism is informed by a richly comparative perspective and attention to cases from diverse regions of the world.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Basu.

248. Cuba: The Politics of Extremism. [CP, IR] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] The study of Cuba’s politics presents opportunities to address issues of universal concern to social scientists and humanists in general, not just Latin Americanists. When is it rational to be radical? Why has Cuban politics forced so many individuals to adopt extreme positions? What are the causes of radical revolutions? Is pre-revolutionary Cuba a case of too little development, uneven development or too rapid development? What is the role of leaders: Do they make history, are they the product of history, or are they the makers of unintended histories? Was the revolution inevitable? Was it necessary? How are new (radical) states constructed? What is the role of foreign actors, existing political institutions, ethnicity, nationalism, religion and sexuality in this process? How does a small nation manage to become influential in world affairs, even altering the behavior of superpowers? What are the conditions that account for the survival of authoritarianism? To what extent is the revolution capable of self-reform? Is the current intention of state leaders of pursuing closed politics with open economics viable? What are the most effective mechanisms to change the regime? Why does the embargo survive? Why did Cubans (at home and abroad) care about Elián González? Although the readings will be mostly from social scientists, the course also includes selections from primary sources, literary works and films (of Cuban and non-Cuban origin). As with almost everything in politics, there are more than just two sides to the issue of Cuba. One aim of the course is to expose the students to as many different sides as possible.

Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Corrales.

300. Impact of War: A Case Study of Russia. [G—starting with the Class of 2015] Sometimes the object of aggression, sometimes itself the aggressor, Russia has been party to all the major military conflicts of the 19th and 20th centuries—Napoleonic Wars, Crimean War, World War I, and World War II. The Russian army also fought in numerous regional wars, notably in Afghanistan in 1979-1989 and recently in Chechnya and Georgia. We will study perceptions of war in modern Russian society. First, on the basis of primary sources (memoirs, interviews, speeches) we will address war-related nationalist stereotypes present in Russia today. Second, we will look at the origins of these myths; to do that we will study in depth the impacts of past wars, primarily World War II, Afghan War of 1979-1989, and the Chechnya War. What generated support for the government? How does the notion of “acceptable losses” change over time? How did wars of the past sixty years affect social structures and gender roles in Russia? What is the current Russian definition of “just wars”? The war in Chechnya occurred in post-Soviet, “capitalist” Russia with its new class divisions, rampant corruption and consumerism; did these changes cause society to perceive the war in a new way? In the last section of the course we will discuss the “new” Russians’ willingness to support regional wars that the Kremlin will possibly choose to wage against other Soviet successor states and their likely attitude to another Cold War with the West.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13.

301. Terrorism and Revolution: A Case Study of Russia. [SC—starting with the Class of 2015] Russia was among the first nations in the world to face political terrorism when in the 1870s the leftist People’s Will group launched the hunt for Tsar Alexander II. The terrorist trend continued into the twentieth century; in 1918, the Socialist Revolutionary Party attempted to assassinate Lenin. Eradicated by Stalin, terrorism resurfaced in the 1990s, when Russia found itself under attack of Chechen separatists. Legitimacy of political terrorism as the last refuge of the oppressed has been actively debated in Russia for more than a century, and the fact that terrorist groups in question ranged from proto-Marxists to the pseudo-Islamic has made Russian discourse on terrorism uncommonly rich. We will be using a variety of primary sources, such as terrorists’ manifestos and memoirs, as well as conceptual critiques of terror, starting with Dostoyevsky’s novel Demons. First, we will wrestle with the definition of “terrorism” as opposed to “terror.” Second, we will explore the place of terrorism in a revolutionary movement and war. Third, we will look at the counter-terrorism measures applied by the Russian government in the past and now. A case study of terrorism in Russia will hopefully help us to answer a number of questions that are highly relevant today.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13.

302. Disabling Institutions. [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] This course will consider how institutions, often contrary to their intended purposes, serve to disable individuals and limit their life potential. We will examine a variety of institutions, including state bureaucracies, facilities designed to house people with mental and physical conditions, schools, and prisons. We will also consider a range of disablements, resulting from visible and invisible disabilities as well as gender, sexuality, race and class-based discrimination. We will explore how institutions might be redesigned to less rigidly enforce normalcy and to enable the political participation of individuals who currently experience social exclusion.

Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Professor Bumiller.

304. Seminar on Parties and Elections. James MacGregor Burns, an eminent political historian, once remarked that party leaders in America are constantly engaged in an attempt to “outwit the framers.” To foil “factions,” the framers built a structure of separated powers, added staggered elections, and distributed the powers of government through a federal system. The struggle of partisans to overcome these obstacles continues today. Indeed, it is a major theme in the 2012 presidential election.

In the mid-twentieth century, many political scientists urged that America adopt a version of “responsible party government” on the European model. The entrenchment of Southern Democrats in positions of Congressional leadership and the strength of liberal Republicans in coastal states prevented that, but the recent polarization of parties (how has that happened?) may put that old vision within reach. Is this what the Committee on Responsible Party Government had in mind?

Many scholars include party leadership among the “hats” presidents have worn. Another, tracing the outlines of the “rhetorical presidency,” writes of the enduring vitality of the Constitution as a restraint on what a president can accomplish. Alfred Stepan and Juan Linz have shown that, while 32 countries in the Americas, North and South, have adopted constitutions featuring the separation of powers, only one of them, the United States, has avoided collapsing into presidential dictatorship. How do we account for this? It may have something to do with the nature of the American party system. If that is changing, do we risk an end to American exceptionalism, or are there other factors that account for it?

We will examine how these factors—the Constitution and the party system, interacting—have shaped American political development, and what they contribute to the current impasse in American politics.

Requisite: Coursework in either American National Government or American Presidency, or consent of the Instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Robinson.

310. American Politics/Foreign Policy. [AP, IR] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] The attacks of September 11, the continuing war in Iraq and America’s growing relative industrial decline, have cast a long shadow over current U.S. foreign policy. But while these events dominate much of the news, the purpose of this course will not be to analyze any specific foreign policies, but, instead, to examine how foreign policy is made in the United States. We will explore the domestic political, socio-economic and cultural forces which have historically shaped major foreign policy debates as well as the grand strategies which have sustained America’s role in world affairs. After familiarizing ourselves with the four main foreign policy ideological traditions (Jeffersonian, Hamiltonian, Jacksonian and Wilsonian), which typically compete for political dominance, we will scrutinize how the rules set in the Constitution structure the foreign policy making process. Special attention will be paid to the shifting and evolving power of the Presidency, Congress, the mass media, public opinion, elections, think-tanks, ethnic, religious and class-based lobbies and grass roots social movements. The course will also examine the rise of the power elite and the national security state, the role of the military and intelligence agencies, the power of secrecy and deception, and the significance of the political psychology of presidents and their key advisors, as well as the function of gender in the making of foreign policy.

Limited to 70 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Machala.

311. Case Studies in American Diplomacy. (Offered as HIST 256 [US] and POSC 311 [AP, IR] [G—starting with the Class of 2015].) This course will combine the methods of diplomatic history and political science in examining critical moments and themes in American diplomacy. Our overall aim is to better understand the evolving position of the United States in world politics as well as domestic controversies over the character of America’s global role. Specifically, we will assess the combined influence of racism and ethnicity as well as of religious and secular values and class interest on American diplomacy. We shall also investigate the major domestic political, social, economic and intellectual trends and impulses, (e.g., manifest destiny, isolationism and counter-isolationism, and containment) that have shaped American diplomacy; analyze competing visions for territorial conquests and interventions as advocated by various American elites; examine the methods used to extend the nation’s borders, foreign trade and international influence and leadership; and seek to understand the impact of key foreign policy involvements and controversies on the character of the Presidency, Congress and party politics. Among the topics to be considered are the Federalist/Anti-Federalist debates over the scope of constitutional constraints on foreign policy, the Monroe Doctrine, the Mexican War, the imperialist/anti-imperialist debate, the great power diplomacies of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and FDR, as well as key moments of American diplomacy during the Cold War (e.g., the origins of the Cold War, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the end of the Cold War. To see examples of past syllabi please go to http://www3.amherst.edu/~pmachala/Syllabi/ for more information. One class meeting per week.

Limited to 35 students. Fall semester. Professors G. Levin and Machala.

312. Post-Cold War American Diplomacy. (Offered as POSC 312 and HIST 257 [US].) [G—starting with the Class of 2015] A 1992 still-classified Pentagon Defense Policy Guidance draft asserts that America’s political and military mission in the post-cold war era will be to ensure that no rival superpower be allowed to emerge in world politics. This course will examine American foreign relations from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the present. We will study the similarities and differences in the styles of statecraft of all post-cold war U.S. administrations in producing, managing and sustaining America’s unrivaled international position, which emerged in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. While examining the debates between liberals and neoconservatives about America’s role in the world both preceding and following the 9-11 attack, we will also discuss the extent to which these debates not only have shaped American foreign policy but also how they have influenced our domestic politics and vice versa. Among the other main themes to be examined: the strategic, tactical and humanitarian uses of military and other forms of power by each administration (e.g., towards Somalia, the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan); U.S. policy towards NATO and towards the world economy; U.S. policy towards Russia, China, the Middle East and Latin America; human, economic and political costs and benefits of American leadership in this period.

Preference given to students who have taken one of the following courses: POSC 213, 310, 311, 410; HIST 256. Limited to 30 students. Not open to first-year students. Spring semester. Professors G. Levin and Machala.

320. Rethinking Post-Colonial Nationalism. [CP] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] Nationalist fervor seemed likely to diminish once so-called Third World nations achieved independence. However, the past few years have witnessed the resurgence and transformation of nationalism in the post-colonial world. Where anti-colonial nationalist movements appeared to be progressive forces of social change, many contemporary forms of nationalism appear to be reactionary. Did nationalist leaders and theoreticians fail to identify the exclusionary qualities of earlier incarnations of nationalism? Were they blind to its chauvinism? Or has nationalism become increasingly intolerant? Was the first wave of nationalist movements excessively marked by European liberal influences? Or was it insufficiently committed to universal principles? We will explore expressions of nationalism in democratic, revolutionary, religious nationalist, and ethnic separatist movements in the post-colonial world.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Basu.

334. American Political Thought. [AP, PT] [PT—starting with the Class of 2015] This course is a study of aspects of the canon of American political thought. While examining the roots of American thought in Puritanism and Quakerism, the primary focus will be on American transcendentalism and its impact on subsequent thought. Among those whose works we are likely to consider are Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Walt Whitman, W.E.B. DuBois, William James, Jane Addams, John Dewey, Martin Luther King, Hannah Arendt, Richard Rorty, and Stanley Cavell.

Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Dumm.

335. Modern Political Thought. [PT] [PT—starting with the Class of 2015] This course surveys the development of key political concepts in modern Western thought. These include new conceptions of political rationality and affect (how we think and feel about our politics), as well as reconceptualizations of equality and liberty in a world of rapidly changing economic conditions and social mobility. The course begins with recent and contrasting views (Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss) on what constitutes the basis for political action in the modern world: whether tradition is the only legitimate measure of political action, or if there are preferable standards by which to justify politics. Then, as a means to explain this problematic, the course will examine critical philosophical engagements on the historical appearance of modern political concepts. We will trace these paradigmatic shifts as they begin to surface in late 18th- and 19th-century European thought (evidenced in the writings of Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche amongst others), on through to the consequent political outcomes of such transformations in 20th-century politics. Through close textual readings and contextual analysis we will engage in a systematic comparison of our assumptions about politics with those expressed in these philosophical debates. And, in so doing, we will attempt to further our understanding of contemporary politics and the political problems requisite to our own political practices.

Requisite: One course in political or social theory. Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Professor Poe.

345. Contemporary Europe. Offered as POSC 345 [CP, IR] and EUST 345.) [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] Decline and renewal of Europe. An analysis of Europe’s role in the world order and the European Union (EU). What are Europe’s strengths and weaknesses as an international power? Does Europe meet its responsibilities or is it content to be a free rider on the ambitions and policies of other countries? What is the European Union and what are its successes and failures? What is the relationship between various European countries and the EU, between national sovereignty and European integration? Is more European integration still the future of Europe or is there now “enough Europe”?

Limited to 25 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Tiersky.

354. The Political Theory of Home. [PT—starting with the Class of 2015] Home is supposed to be a refuge, the place where they have to take you in, as Frost once put it, but as he also knew, it is a place of conflict and death as much as comfort and birth. We are hidden from the world in our homes, but we also take pride in our homes, however modest, or even in their modesty. Home is a place of personal remembrance where we do not fight the battles of immortality, but instead follow another way through life, a parallel imagining of where and how we may be in the world, and away from the world. It is the most private of places, and a site of privation because of that. It is the oikos, (the household, where economy began) not the polis (the public place of political argument). And yet home is of political significance paradoxically, because it is supposed to be a refuge from the storms of politics—hence, for instance, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security as a reassurance to the American people following the terrorist attack of 9/11. In this course, we will explore the idea of home and its political significance in Western thought. Among the authors we will study will be Homer, Virgil, Books of Genesis, Exodus, and Ruth, Fustel de Coulanges, Vico, Shakespeare, Heidegger, Said, Winthrop, Thoreau, Jefferson, Addams, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Pogue Harrison.

Requisite: One introductory Political Science course or its equivalent. Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Dumm.

356. Regulating Citizenship. [AP, PT] IL—starting with the Class of 2015] This course considers a fundamental issue that faces all democratic societies: How do we decide when and whether to include or exclude individuals from the rights and privileges of citizenship? In the context of immigration policy, this is an issue of state power to control boundaries and preserve national identity. The state also exercises penal power that justifies segregating and/or denying privileges to individuals faced with criminal sanctions. Citizenship is regulated not only through the direct exercise of force by the state, but also by educational systems, social norms, and private organizations. Exclusion is also the result of poverty, disability, and discrimination based on gender, race, age, and ethnic identity. This course will describe and examine the many forms of exclusion and inclusion that occur in contemporary democracies and raise questions about the purpose and justice of these processes. We will also explore models of social change that would promote more inclusive societies. This course will be conducted inside a correctional facility and enroll an equal number of Amherst students and residents of the facility. Permission to enroll will be granted on the basis of a questionnaire and personal interview with the instructor.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Professor Bumiller.

359. The Politics of Moral Reasoning. [GP, PT] [PT—starting with the Class of 2015] This course is an exploration of the connections between the experience of ordinary life and the judgments humans and citizens make concerning good and bad, and competing goods. We will use as the core text Stanley Cavell’s Cities of Words, which organizes themes concerning moral reasoning around a series of thinkers—Emerson, Aristotle, Plato, Rawls, Nietzsche, Locke, Mill and others—and couples each thinker with a movie from the classic age of American cinema. While we will be relying on Cavell’s study as a primary source, students will also be reading essays by the thinkers Cavell identifies. Each week we will discuss the reading in the first class exclusively, and then screen the film prior to the second class meeting, when we will broaden the discussion.

Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Dumm.

360. Punishment, Politics, and Culture. [AP, LP] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] Other than war, punishment is the most dramatic manifestation of state power. Whom a society punishes and how it punishes are key political questions as well as indicators of its character and the character of the people in whose name it acts. This course will explore the connections between punishment and politics with particular reference to the contemporary American situation. We will consider the ways crime and punishment have been politicized in recent national elections as well as the racialization of punishment in the United States. We will ask whether we punish too much and too severely, or too little and too leniently. We will examine particular modalities of punishment, e.g., maximum security prisons, torture, the death penalty, and inquire about the character of those charged with imposing those punishments, e.g., prison guards, executioners, etc. Among the questions we will discuss are: Does punishment express our noblest aspirations for justice or our basest desires for vengeance? Can it ever be an adequate expression of, or response to, the pain of victims of crime? When is it appropriate to forgive rather than punish? We will consider these questions in the context of arguments about the right way to deal with juvenile offenders, drug offenders, sexual predators (“Megan’s Law”), rapists, and murderers. We will, in addition, discuss the meaning of punishment by examining its treatment in literature and popular culture. Readings may include selections from The Book of Job, Greek tragedy, Kafka, Nietzsche, Freud, George Herbert Mead, and contemporary treatments of punishment such as Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, Butterfield’s All God’s Children, Scarry’s Body in Pain, Garland’s Punishment in Modern Society, Hart’s Punishment and Reasonability, and Mailer’s Executioner’s Song. Films may include The Shawshank Redemption, Dead Man Walking, Mrs. Soffel, Minority Report, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Sarat.

372. Culture and Politics in 20th-Century Europe. (Offered as POSC 372 [CP, IR] and EUST 372.) [SC—starting with the Class of 2015] This seminar discusses political ideas, ideologies and political culture in 20th-century Europe. Some themes are Nationalism; Marxism, Socialism and Communism; Fascism; anti-Semitism; Existentialism; the “Century of Total War”; the year 1968; Pope John Paul II; Soccer Hooliganism; “The Idea of Europe,” and the question of whether there is a “European identity.” Throughout the course, ideas are connected to historical context. The syllabus is a mix of books and films.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Tiersky.

387. Political Thought and Statecraft of Abraham Lincoln. [LP, PT] IL—starting with the Class of 2015] This seminar will study the statesmanship of Lincoln, and it will weave together two strands, which accord with different parts in the understanding of the statesman. First, there is the understanding of the ends of political life and the grounds of moral judgment. Here, we would consider Lincoln’s reflection on the character of the American republic, the principles that mark a lawful regime, and the crisis of principle posed in “the house divided.” But second, there is the understanding drawn from the actual experience of politics, the understanding that informs the prudence of the political man as he seeks to gain his ends, or apply his principles, in a party. The main materials will be supplied by the writings of Lincoln: the speeches, the extended debates with Stephen Douglas, the presidential messages and papers of State. The problem of his statesmanship will be carried over then to his exercise of the war powers, his direction of the military, and his conduct of diplomacy. This course fulfills the requirement of an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: One of the POSC 212, 218, 241, 242. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Arkes.

400. Domestic Politics. [SC—starting with the Class of 2015] This course will explore the domestic sphere as a site of politics. We will define the domestic sphere broadly, including politics in the home, private life, and state and local governments. The principle questions to be addressed will include: How does the conception of public and private shift over time and what are the forces driving these changes? How is the private sphere seen as a site of safety versus danger? What are the consequences of the intervention of state power and policing into the private sphere? A wide range of issues will be covered including the role of bureaucracies, the social organization of families, regulation of health and safety, domestic violence, urban revitalization, the deinstitutionalization of people with disabilities, homelessness, economic and racial inequality, policing, and incarceration. The course will examine these issues primarily in the context of American politics and society. There is a required 20-page research paper. This course satisfies the seminar requirement for the Department of Political Science.

Requisite: An Introductory course in political science or its equivalent. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Bumiller.

401. Fanaticism. [PT] [SC—starting with the Class of 2015] Many perceive a dangerous rise in radically Utopian politics, often described as “fanaticism.” Against the backdrop of increased ethnic and nationalist violence, authoritarianism, and declining safeguards for human rights, fanaticism is considered a fundamental impediment to well-functioning democratic politics. Yet, if such a concept is to have the theoretical force policy makers and theorists would like, more clarity is needed regarding what fanaticism is and how it operates. This course examines the history of fanaticism as a political concept. In particular, we will explore theoretical critiques of fanaticism, especially as the concept developed in relation to the history of liberal democracy. The first half of the course explores the emergence of fanaticism as a political—not merely as a religious—idea. Engaging Enlightenment debates on civil society, toleration, and public passions, this section of the course should highlight how fanaticism came to be re-conceived in modern political thought. Here we will explore the traditionally perceived dangers of fanaticism to democratic politics. The second half of the course questions the conceptual costs of this redefinition. Who are political fanatics? What are the political (and psychological) consequences to us in labeling others as fanatics? How might we distinguish between fundamentalism and fanaticism? Is fanaticism necessary to define the extant parameters of toleration or civil society? Is fanaticism always dangerous to democratic politics? Ultimately, this inquiry into the genealogy of fanaticism is designed to test our assumptions about what fanaticism is as a political idea and how it operates in contemporary political thought. This course fulfills the requirement of an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: One course in political or social theory. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Poe.

413. The Political Theory of Globalization. [IR, PT] [SC—starting with the Class of 2015] “Globalization” can mean many things. To some, it means equal integration of individual societies into worldwide political, economic and cultural processes. To others it means accentuated uneven economic development, accompanied by cultural imperialism, which merely exaggerates the political dependence of “peripheral” on “core” societies. For still others, globalization is shorthand for the social and cultural changes that follow when societies become linked with and, in an escalating way, dependent upon the world capitalist market. The idea that underlies these multiple meanings of globalization is the radical intensification of worldwide social relations and the lifting of social activities out of local and national conditions. The course will examine the major theoretical discourses raised by this idea, such as (1) the effect of globalizing material production on the formation of post-liberal democracy, (2) the nexus between globalizing cultural production and the politics of cosmopolitanism and “otherness,” (3) the impact of globalizing communication technologies and mass consumerism on the formation of transnational “gated class communities,” and (4) the relationship between the globalization of transnational class conflicts/interests/identities and transnational governance. We will also explore the connection between “late global capitalism” and liberal arts education in legitimizing the current global class dynamics. This course fulfills the requirement of an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: Two of POSC 213, 232, 244, 312, 320, 332, 345, 468, and 489 or their equivalent. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Machala.

415. Taking Marx Seriously. [PT] [PT—starting with the Class of 2015] Should Marx be given yet another chance? Is there anything left to gain by returning to texts whose earnest exegesis has occupied countless interpreters, both friendly and hostile, for generations? Has Marx’s credibility survived the global debacle of those regimes and movements which drew inspiration from his work, however poorly they understood it? Or, conversely, have we entered a new era in which post-Marxism has joined a host of other “post-”phenomena? This seminar will deal with these and related questions in the context of a close and critical reading of Marx’s texts. The main themes we will discuss include Marx’s conception of capitalist modernity, material and intellectual production, power, class conflicts and social consciousness, and his critique of alienation, bourgeois freedom and representative democracy. We will also examine Marx’s theories of historical progress, capitalist exploitation, globalization and human emancipation. This course fulfills the requirement for an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: Two of POSC 213, 413, 480. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Machala.

467. Social Movements, Civil Society and Democracy in India. (Offered as POSC 467 [CP] [SC starting with the class of 2015] and WAGS 467) The goal of this seminar is illuminate the complex character of social movements and civil society organizations and their vital influence on Indian democracy. Social movements have strengthened democratic processes by forming or allying with political parties and thereby contributed to the growth of a multi-party system. They have increased the political power of previously marginalized and underprivileged groups and pressured the state to address social inequalities. However conservative religious movements and civil society organizations have threatened minority rights and undermined secular, democratic principles. During the semester, we will interact through internet technology with students, scholars and community organizers in India. This seminar counts as an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: Prior course work in Political Science. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Basu.

468. Globalization, Social Movements and Human Rights. (Offered as POSC 468 [CP, IR] and WAGS 468.) [SC—starting with the Class of 2015] This seminar will explore the changing trajectories of social movements amidst economic, political and cultural globalization. Social movements have organized in opposition to the environmental destruction, increased class inequalities and diminished accountability of nation states that have often accompanied the global spread of capitalism. Globalization from above has given rise to globalization from below as activists have organized transnationally, employing new technologies of communication and appealing to universal human rights. However, in organizing transnationally and appealing to universal principles, activists may find their energies displaced from local to transnational arenas, from substantive to procedural inequalities, and from grass roots activism to routinized activity within the judicial process. We will consider the extent to which globalization heightens divisions between universalistic and particularistic movements or contributes to the creation of a global civil society which can protect and extend human rights. We will examine women’s movements, environmental movements, and democracy movements in several regions of the world. This course fulfills the requirement of an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: One of POSC 213, 248, 311, 320, 413, or 474. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Basu.

474. Norms, Rights, and Social Justice: Feminists, Disability Rights Activists and the Poor at the Boundaries of the Law. (Offered as POSC 474 [GP, LP] [SC—starting with the Class of 2015] and LJST 374.) This seminar explores how the civil rights movement began a process of social change and identity-based activism. We evaluate the successes and failures of “excluded” groups’ efforts to use the law. We primarily focus on the recent scholarship of theorists, legal professionals, and activists to define “post-identity politics” strategies and to counteract the social processes that “normalize” persons on the basis of gender, sexuality, disability, and class. This course fulfills the requirement for an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: One introductory Political Science course or its equivalent. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Bumiller.

475. Personality and Politics:Gorbachev, the End of the Cold War, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. [CP, IR] [G—starting with the Class of 2015] When Mikhail Gorbachev became its leader in 1985, the Soviet Union, while plagued by internal and external troubles, was still one of the world’s two superpowers. By 1991, the cold war was over, and on the day he left the Kremlin for the last time, December 25, 1991, the USSR ceased to exist. Of course, Gorbachev was not solely responsible for this upheaval. Developments in the USSR and the world prepared the way. But he set decisive change in motion, and no one else in the Soviet leadership would have done so. This course is therefore a case study of the impact of personality on politics, but also of the limits of that impact, and of the importance of other causes (economic, political, social, ideological, international) of events that changed the world. This course fulfills the requirement for an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Taubman.

479. Seminar on War and Peace. [IR, PT] [G—starting with the Class of 2015] A conceptual and theoretical study of war and peace. The course is not a history of war or a policy study of wars today. The seminar considers a variety of cases across time and space to examine the causes and consequences of war and the possibilities of peace. Readings range from classical sources to contemporary debates, including Euripides, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Kant, Clausewitz, Sun Tsu, Margaret Mead, Gandhi; K. Waltz, Michael Walzer, and the Geneva Conventions. This course fulfills the requirement for an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: Students should have some relevant background in the study of international relations, moral aspects of political life and/or international law. Limited to 15 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Tiersky.

480. Contemporary Political Theory. [PT] [PT—starting with the Class of 2015] A consideration of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Western political theory. Topics to be considered include the fate of modernity, identity and difference, power, representation, freedom, and the state. This year’s readings may include works by the following authors: Freud, Weber, Benjamin, Heidegger, Arendt, Derrida, Foucault, Berlin, Butler, Connolly, and Agamben. This course fulfills the requirement for an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Dumm.

482. United States Foreign Policy: Democracy and Human Rights. [IR, AP] [G—starting with the Class of 2015] Is the United States committed to promoting democracy and human rights abroad or just advancing its own strategic and domestic corporate interests? What influence does the United States have on the development of democracy around the world and the emergence of—and compliance with—international human rights conventions, protocols and laws? This seminar begins with an historical overview of American democracy and human rights rhetoric and policies and seeks to uncover the range of political, economic, cultural and geostrategic motivations underlying U.S. behavior. We will then examine American foreign policy responses to a broad range of contemporary human rights and democracy issues with special attention given to analyzing and comparing the post-Cold War state-building efforts in the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Previous course work relating to international relations, American politics or foreign policy, or political theory required. This course fulfills the requirement for advanced seminar in Political Science.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Five College Professor Western.

484. Seminar on International Politics: Global Resource Politics. [IR] [G—starting with the Class of 2015] An intensive investigation of new and emerging problems in international peace and security affairs. We will examine such issues as: international terrorism; global resource competition; the security implications of globalization; international migrations; transboundary environmental problems; illegal trafficking in guns, drugs, and people. Participants in the seminar will be required to choose a particular problem for in-depth investigation, entailing a study of the nature and evolution of the problem, the existing international response to it, and proposals for its solution. Students will prepare a major paper on the topic and give an oral presentation to the class on their findings. This course fulfills the requirement for an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Five College Professor Klare.

485. States of Poverty. (Offered as POSC 485 [AP, GP] and WAGS 485.) [SC—starting with the Class of 2015] In this course the students will examine the role of the modern welfare state in people’s everyday lives. We will study the historical growth and retrenchment of the modern welfare state in the United States and other Western democracies. The course will critically examine the ideologies of “dependency” and the role of the state as an agent of social control. In particular, we will study the ways in which state action has implications for gender identities. In this course we will analyze the construction of social problems linked to states of poverty, including hunger, homelessness, health care, disability, discrimination, and violence. We will ask how these conditions disproportionately affect the lives of women and children. We will take a broad view of the interventions of the welfare state by considering not only the impact of public assistance and social service programs, but the role of the police, family courts, therapeutic professionals, and schools in creating and responding to the conditions of impoverishment. The work of the seminar will culminate in the production of a research paper and students will be given the option of incorporating field work into the independent project. This course fulfills the requirement for an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: Some previous exposure to background material. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Bumiller.

486. U.S.-Latin American Relations. [CP, IR] [G—starting with the Class of 2015] Can small and non-powerful nations ever profit from a relationship with a more powerful hegemon? Who gains and who loses in this type of asymmetrical relationship? This seminar attempts to answer these questions by looking at the relations between the U.S. and Latin American nations. The seminar begins by presenting different ways in which intellectuals have tried to conceptualize and analyze the relations between the U.S. and Latin America. These approaches are then applied to different dimensions of the relationship: (1) intra-hemispheric relations prior to World War II (the sources of U.S. interventionism and the response of Latin America); (2) political and security issues after World War II (the role of the Cold War in the hemisphere and U.S. reaction to instability in the region, with special emphasis on Cuba in the early 1960s, Peru in the late 1960s, Chile in the early 1970s, The Falklands War and Nicaragua in the 1980s); and (3) economic and business issues (the politics of foreign direct investment and trade, and the debt crisis in the 1980s). Finally, we examine contemporary trends: the emerging hemispheric convergence, economic integration, drug trade, immigration, the defense of democracy regime, and the re-emergence of multilateral interventionism. This course fulfills the requirement for an advanced seminar in political science.

Requisite: POSC 213 or its equivalent. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Corrales.

489. Markets and Democracy in Latin America. [CP, IR] [IL—starting with the Class of 2015] In the 1980s an unprecedented process of change began in Latin America: nations turned toward democracy and the market. This seminar explores the literature on regime and economic change and, at the same time, encourages students to think about ways to study the post-reform period. The seminar begins by looking at the situation prior to the transition: the sources of Latin America’s over expanded state, economic decay, political instability, and democratic deficit. The seminar then focuses directly on the processes of transition, paying particular attention to the challenges encountered. It explores, theoretically and empirically, the extent to which democracy and markets are compatible. The seminar then places Latin America’s process of change in a global context: comparisons will be drawn with Asian and post-Socialist European cases. The seminar concludes with an overview of current shortcomings of the transition: Latin America’s remaining international vulnerability (the Tequila Crisis of 1995 and the Asian Flu of 1997), the rise of crime, drug trade, and neopopulism, the cleavage between nationalists and internationalists, the prospects for further deepening of reforms and the political backlash against reforms in the 2000s. This course fulfills the requirements of an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: Some background in the economics and politics of developing areas. Limited to 15 students. Not open to first- and second-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Corrales.

490. Special Topics. Fall and spring semesters.

498D. Senior Departmental Honors. Totaling three full courses, usually a double course in the fall and one regular course in the spring.

Open to seniors who have satisfied the necessary requirements. Fall semester. The Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Totaling three full courses, usually a double course in the fall and one regular course in the spring.

Open to seniors who have satisfied the necessary requirements. Spring semester. The Department.

Related Courses

Murder. See LJST 120.

PREMEDICAL STUDIES

Amherst College has no premedical major. Students interested in careers in medicine may major in any subject, while also completing medical school admission requirements. Entrance requirements for most medical schools will be satisfied by taking the following courses: MATH 111, or MATH 105 and 106; CHEM 151 or 155, and CHEM 161, 221, 231; PHYS 116 and 117, or PHYS 123 and 124; BIOL 181 and 191, or any two Biology courses with laboratory; and two English courses. Students interested in medicine or other health professions are supported by Dean Richard Aronson, the Health Professions Advisor in the Career Center, and by a faculty Health Professions Committee chaired by Professor William Loinaz. All students considering careers in medicine should read the Amherst College Guide for Premedical Students, which has extensive information about preparation for health careers and suggestions about scheduling course requirements. The Guide may be found on the College’s Website under Career Center.

Psychology

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors Aries‡, Demorest, Hart, Raskin, Sanderson, and Turgeon; Associate Professors Baird‡ and Schulkind (Chair); Assistant Professor McQuade; Visiting Assistant Professors Clemans and Mendoza; Five College Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow Salvatore.

Major Program. The Psychology major is designed to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the content of the discipline and the skills required to work within it. Psychology majors are required to elect nine full courses, including PSYC 100 and 122. Psychology majors must complete both of these courses by the end of the sophomore year and must earn a grade of B– or better in both courses to continue with the major. Students may not enroll in PSYC 100 if they scored a 4 or 5 on the Psychology Advanced Placement exam, 5 or better on the Psychology International Baccalaureate exam, or completed an introductory psychology course at another college or university. Students who place out of PSYC 100 must replace that course with an additional course to reach the number required for the major. Students may choose to place out of PSYC 122 either by scoring a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam or by completing MATH 130, ECON 360, or a statistics course at another college or university. Students who place out of PSYC 122 must replace that course with an additional course to reach the number required for the major. Beginning with the class of 2015, majors are also required to complete PSYC 123 by the end of the junior year.

Additionally, to provide a thorough understanding of fundamental areas within psychology, students must choose at least one intermediate course from each of the three areas below:

Area 1: Behavioral Neuroscience (PSYC 212), Introduction to Neuroscience (PSYC 226)

Area 2: Developmental Psychology (PSYC 227), Cognitive Psychology (PSYC 233), Psychology of Aging (PSYC 236)

Area 3: Social Psychology (PSYC 220), Personality (PSYC 221), Abnormal Psychology (PSYC 228)

To provide vertical depth in the major, students must also choose a seminar course from at least two of the following six areas:

Area 1: Biological: Psychopharmacology (PSYC 325), Neurophysiology of Motivation (PSYC 356), Hormones and Behavior (PSYC 359), Developmental Psychobiology (PSYC 360);

Area 2: Clinical: History of Psychiatry (PSYC 357), Psychopathology (PSYC 371), Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (PSYC 364);

Area 3: Cognitive: Music Cognition (PSYC 366), Autobiographical Memory (PSYC 368);

Area 4: Developmental: Adolescence (PSYC 232), Social Development (PSYC 355);

Area 5: Personality and Political Leadership (PSYC 338), Psychological Assessment (PSYC 353);

Area 6: Social: Stereotypes and Prejudice (PSYC 337), Close Relationships (PSYC 354).

Students may complete the required number of courses by taking additional distribution or seminar courses and/or by taking any of the following electives: Psychology of Food and Eating Disorders (PSYC 217), Memory (PSYC 234), Sports Psychology (PSYC 235), Gender, the Brain and Behavior (PSYC 243), Environmental Psychology (PSYC 246), Health Psychology (PSYC 247), Proseminar (PSYC 248), Social Cognition (PSYC 251), Self and Identity (PSYC 252). Special Topics classes (PSYC 397) and thesis work (PSYC 497) also count as elective courses towards the major.

Departmental Honors Research. A limited number of majors will engage in honors research under the direction of a faculty member during their senior year. Honors research involves credit for three courses (usually one course credit during the fall and two credits during the spring semester) and culminates in a thesis. These three courses count towards the nine classes required for the major. The thesis usually involves both a review of the previous literature pertinent to the selected area of inquiry and a report of the methods and results of a study designed and conducted by the student. Theses that are an in-depth investigation into a field of psychology, yet do not include the collection of data, may also be available. Any student interested in pursuing honors research in psychology should discuss possible topics with appropriate faculty before preregistration in the second semester of the junior year. Students seeking to do Departmental Honors work must have a College-wide grade average of B+ or above.

100. Introduction to Psychology. An introduction to the nature of psychological inquiry regarding the origins, variability, and change of human behavior. As such, the course focuses on the nature-nurture controversy, the processes associated with cognitive and emotional development, the role of personal characteristics and situational conditions in shaping behavior, and various approaches to psychotherapy.

Limited to 40 students per section. Fall semester: Professors Baird and Sanderson, and Visiting Professor Clemans. Spring semester: Professor Raskin and Visiting Professor Mendoza.

122. Statistics and Experimental Design. An introduction to and critical consideration of experimental methodology in psychology. Topics will include the formation of testable hypotheses, the selection and implementation of appropriate procedures, the statistical description and analysis of experimental data, and the interpretation of results. Articles from the experimental journals and popular literature will illustrate and interrelate these topics and provide a survey of experimental techniques and content areas.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Fall semester: Professor Schulkind. Spring semester: Professor McQuade.

123. Research Methods. This course is designed to explore the principles of behavioral science research and the rationale underlying various research methodologies. The course will take a hands-on approach to research design, data collection, and data analysis. Students will learn how to understand and critically evaluate original research reports, independently design and execute psychological investigations, and write scientific reports in APA format. Topics include the reliability and validity of measures, content analysis, correlational designs, randomized experiments and causal inference, experimental control, and ethical considerations. Time in class will be split between lectures, small group exercises and design of research projects, and data analysis using SPSS.

Requisite: PSYC 122. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Demorest.

212. Behavioral Neuroscience. This course will examine how brain function regulates a broad range of mental processes and behaviors. We will discuss how neurons work and how the brain obtains information about the environment (sensory systems), regulates an organism’s response to the environment (motor systems), controls basic functions necessary for survival such as eating, drinking, sex, and sleep, and mediates higher cognitive function such as memory and language. We will also consider the consequences of brain malfunction as manifested in various forms of disease and mental illness.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 40 students. Fall semester. Professor Baird.

217. Psychology of Food and Eating Disorders. Food shapes our lives in many ways that extend far beyond mere ingestive acts. Through a broad survey of basic and clinical research literature, we will explore how foods and food issues imbue our bodies, minds, and relationships. We will consider biological and psychological perspectives on various aspects of eating such as metabolism, neural mechanisms of hunger and satiety, metabolic disorders, dieting, pica, failure to thrive, starvation, taste preference and aversion, obesity, anxiety and depression relief, food taboos, bulimia, and the anorexias. Strong emphasis will be placed on biological mechanisms and controlled laboratory research with both human and animal subjects.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or 212, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Baird.

220. Social Psychology. The individual’s behavior as it is influenced by other people and by the social environment. The major aim of the course is to provide an overview of the wide-ranging concerns characterizing social psychology from both a substantive and a methodological perspective. Topics include person perception, attitude change, interpersonal attraction, conformity, altruism, group dynamics, and prejudice. In addition to substantive issues, the course is designed to introduce students to the appropriate research data analysis procedures.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 40 students. Fall semester: Visiting Professor Mendoza. Spring semester: Professor Sanderson.

221. Personality Psychology. A consideration of theory and methods directed at understanding those characteristics of the person related to individually distinctive ways of experiencing and behaving. Prominent theoretical perspectives will be examined in an effort to integrate this diverse literature and to determine the directions in which this field of inquiry is moving. These theories will also be applied to case histories to examine their value in personality assessment.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 40 students. Fall semester. Professor Demorest.

226. Introduction to Neuroscience. (Offered as NEUR 226 and PSYC 226.) An introduction to the structure and function of the nervous system, this course will explore the neural bases of behavior at the cellular and systems levels. Basic topics in neurobiology, neuroanatomy and physiological psychology will be covered with an emphasis on understanding how neuroscientists approach the study of the nervous system. Three class hours and four hours of laboratory per week.

Requisite: PSYC 212 or BIOL 181 or 191. Limited to 36 students. Spring semester. Professors Turgeon and Graf.

227. Developmental Psychology. A study of human development across the life span with emphasis upon the general characteristics of various stages of development from birth to adolescence and upon determinants of the developmental process.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 40 students. Fall and spring semesters. Visiting Professor Clemans.

228. Abnormal Psychology. A review of various forms of psychopathology including addictive, adjustment, anxiety, childhood, dissociative, impulse control, mood, organic, personality, psychophysiological, schizophrenic, and sexual disorders. Based on a review of contemporary research findings, lectures and discussion will focus on the most relevant approaches for understanding, diagnosing, and treating psychological disorders. The biopsychosocial model will serve as a basis for explaining the etiology of psychological disorders, and discussion will focus on empirically supported interventions for treating these conditions.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or 212, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 40 students. Fall and spring semesters. Professor McQuade.

232. Psychology of Adolescence. This course will focus on the issues of personal and social changes and continuities which accompany and follow physiological puberty. Topics to be covered include physical development, autonomy, identity, intimacy, and relationship to the community. The course will present cross-cultural perspectives on adolescence, as well as its variations in American society. Both theoretical and empirical literature will be examined.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or permission of instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13.

233. Cognitive Psychology. This course will examine how the mind extracts information from the environment, stores it for later use, and then retrieves it when it becomes useful. Initially, we will discuss how our eyes, ears, and brain turn light and sound into colors, objects, speech, and music. Next, we will look at how memory is organized and how it is used to accomplish a variety of tasks. Several memory models will be proposed and evaluated: Is our brain a large filing cabinet? a sophisticated computer? We will then apply these principles to understand issues like intelligence, thinking, and problem-solving. Throughout the course, we will discuss how damage to various parts of the brain affects our ability to learn and remember.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 40 students. Spring semester. Professor Schulkind.

234. Memory. This course will provide a comprehensive overview of the study of memory. We will begin by examining empirical research on memory for different kinds of content: factual information vs. personal events vs. cognitive skills. This research will be used to evaluate several contemporary models of memory. From there, we will examine how memory theories have been applied to understanding “real world” issues such as eyewitness testimony, and the false/recovered memory debate. We will also discuss developmental changes in memory—from infancy to old age. We will supplement our analysis of memory with evidence from the rapidly growing field of cognitive neuroscience.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Schulkind.

235. Sports Psychology. The field of sports psychology examines psychological variables that impact athletic participation and behavior. This course introduces students to theories and research across diverse areas of psychology, including social, cognitive, developmental, and clinical. Topics will include the role of goals and equity in providing motivation, strategies for successful performance, the use of imagery, attributions for successful versus unsuccessful performance, the predictors of aggression, the causes of the “homefield choke,” effective approaches to coaching, the “hot-hand effect,” the role of personality, the predictors of injury, and the impact of gender on athletics. This course will involve intensive participation in class discussion and many written assignments.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sanderson.

236. Psychology of Aging. An introduction to the psychology of aging. Course material will focus on the behavioral changes which occur during the normal aging process. Age differences in learning, memory, perceptual and intellectual abilities will be investigated. In addition, emphasis will be placed on the neural correlates and cognitive consequences of disorders of aging such as Alzheimer’s disease. Course work will include systematic and structured observation within a local facility for the elderly.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Raskin.

240. Sex Role Socialization. An examination of the processes throughout life that produce and maintain sex-typed behaviors. The focus is on the development of the psychological characteristics of males and females and the implications of that development for participation in social roles. Consideration of the biological and cultural determinants of masculine and feminine behaviors will form the basis for an exploration of alternative developmental possibilities. Careful attention will be given to the adequacy of the assumptions underlying psychological constructs and research in the study of sex differences.

Requisite: PSYC 111 or 112. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13.

246. Environmental Psychology. The field of environmental psychology emerged in response to our society’s increasing concern about environmental problems. While it deals with applied problems, the field makes use of theory and research on basic psychological processes to study the relationship between people and their environments. This course introduces students to the methods and findings of the field. In the first half of the course we will examine empirical research on topics such as the effects of environmental qualities (e.g., temperature, light, air pollution) on human functioning; differences in environmental attitudes and activism as a function of various human factors (e.g., culture, personality, gender); and the influence of interventions (e.g., education, reward, punishment) on promoting conservation behavior. In the second half of the course, students will conduct their own research on a topic of their own choosing.

Requisite: PSYC 122 or ENST 240, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Demorest.

247. Health Psychology. An introduction to the theories and methods of psychology as applied to health-related issues. We will consider theories of reasoned action/planned behavior, social cognition, and the health belief model. Topics will include personality and illness, addictive behaviors, psychoneuroimmunology, psychosocial factors predicting health service utilization and adherence to medical regimens, and framing of health-behavior messages and interventions.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Sanderson.

248. Proseminar: Research and Writing in Psychology. The topic for this proseminar (which is one of four similar proseminars offered across the College) changes year to year. In 2012-13, the proseminar in Psychology will be on Good and Evil.

Proseminars are designed to give students the knowledge and the intellectual and technical skills necessary to do advanced research and writing in their major. They are most suitable for junior majors who are considering writing a senior honors thesis, and for senior majors, who are not writing a thesis, but who would like to have the experience of writing a significant paper in the discipline.

Across all subfields of psychology, researchers have examined the fundamental question of what drives behavior. Two particular types of fundamental behavior of great interest to psychologists and lay people alike are prosocial behaviors (those that help others) and evil behavior (those that harm others). Why do even infants show a preference for people who engage in cooperative behavior? What leads people to fail to give help in emergencies, even in cases in which are life-threatening? What drives some people to help others—even at great personal cost—and others to ignore those in need—or, worse yet, deliberately harm others? Why does harming one person to help many others feel different—and even appear different in the brain—than standing by and watching harm occur to others?

In this seminar, we will examine both historical and current research across all of the fundamental areas in psychology—biological, developmental, social—on the role of multiple factors (e.g., genetics, environment, social, cultural) in driving both good and evil behavior. Students will gain skills in understanding the various methods used to test empirical questions in psychology, reviewing and interpreting research studies, and creating and testing their own research question that builds on prior research in a novel way.

Open to juniors and seniors, but priority in admission will be given to junior majors who are considering writing a senior thesis and to senior majors who have opted not to write a thesis. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Sanderson.

252. Self and Identity. This course will examine classic and contemporary research on selfhood and identity, two central topics of interest within social psychology. Topics will include development of self-concept; sources and accuracy of self-knowledge; self-esteem; self-regulation; self-presentation; the formation of collective identities; and contending with threats to self and identity.

Requisite: PSYC 100. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Five College Mellon Fellow Salvatore.

325. Psychopharmacology. In this course we will examine the ways in which drugs act on the brain to alter behavior. We will review basic principles of brain function and mechanisms of drug action in the brain. We will discuss a variety of legal and illegal recreational drugs as well as the use of psychotherapeutic drugs to treat mental illness. Examples from the primary scientific literature will demonstrate the various methods used to investigate mechanisms of drug action, the biological and behavioral consequences of drug use, and the nature of efforts to prevent or treat drug abuse.

Requisite: PSYC 212 or PSYC/NEUR 226, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Turgeon.

337. Stereotypes and Prejudice. This advanced seminar provides students with an overview of the social psychological study of stereotyping and prejudice. Topics will include the automatic and controlled components of stereotypes, interracial anxiety, workplace discrimination, and the neurocognitive correlates of racially biased behavior. We will learn about intergroup topics through weekly discussions of articles on theoretical and empirical research. The goal of these discussions will be to integrate various perspectives in the field in order to gain an understanding of how stereotypes and prejudices develop, why they are maintained, and how they can be reduced. Students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions, provide written reaction papers, and develop a final research proposal.

Requisite: PSYC 220. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Mendoza.

338. Personality and Political Leadership. In this course we will examine how to apply psychological theory to understand the lives of political leaders. We begin this course with a consideration the role of personality in political leadership. We then examine psychological theories that can be fruitfully applied to the study of individual lives, from traditional psychodynamic theories of the whole person (e.g., Freud) to models focusing on important organizing variables (e.g., scripts and interpersonal styles). Next, we evaluate existing psychobiographies of important figures such as Mohandas Gandhi, Adolf Hitler and Woodrow Wilson. Finally, each student prepares a psychobiographical term paper on a figure of his or her choice.

Requisite: PSYC 220, 221, or permission of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Demorest.

353. Psychological Assessment. This course examines methods used by psychologists to understand the psychology of individual personalities. The primary focus is on three psychological assessment tools: the Early Memories Procedure, the Thematic Apperception Test, and the traditional interview. Students will take these devices themselves, read the theory behind them, examine case studies by prominent psychologists using these devices, and conduct their own interpretations of responses given by college students and by psychotherapy patients. In the process, students should develop a good understanding of the complexity of the clinical thought process.

Requisite: PSYC 221 or 228. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Demorest.

354. Close Relationships. An introduction to the study of close relationships using social-psychological theory and research. Topics will include interpersonal attraction, love and romance, sexuality, relationship development, communication, jealousy, conflict and dissolution, selfishness and altruism, loneliness, and therapeutic interventions. This is an upper-level seminar for the major requirement that requires intensive participation in class discussion and many written assignments.

Requisite: PSYC 220 or 221. Open to seniors. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Sanderson.

355. Social Development and Peer Relations. This seminar covers theory and research on lifespan social development, with a particular emphasis on childhood and adolescence. Topics include socialization processes, attachment, the development of friendship and peer networks over time, and the interplay of biological, psychological, and contextual factors which shape social interactions across the lifespan.

Requisite: PSYC 227. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Clemans.

356. Neurophysiology of Motivation. This course will explore in detail the neurophysiological underpinnings of basic motivational systems such as feeding, fear, and sex. Students will read original articles in the neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, and behavioral scientific literature. Key goals of this course will be to make students conversant with the most recent scientific findings and adept at research design and hypothesis testing.

Requisite: PSYC 212 or 226 and consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Baird.

357. History of Psychiatry. Though the history of madness is as old as humanity, the field of psychiatry has come of age over the past 300 years. The understanding and treatment of mental illness within the psychiatric profession has drawn upon neurological and medical, as well as psychological and psychodynamic points of view. An emerging field, Neuropsychoanalysis, attempts to integrate the two. This course will survey psychiatry’s evolution, with special emphasis on the major contributions that have changed perspectives and directions in psychiatric medicine. We will also review the history of how mentally-ill patients have been housed, from custodial asylums to de-institutionalization and community-based programs, as a reflection of changing attitudes towards mental disease. Seminar. One class meeting per week.

Requisite: PSYC 212 and 228, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Raskin.

363. Psychology and the Law. Psychology strives to understand (and predict) human behavior. The law aims to control behavior and punish those who violate laws. At the intersection of these two disciplines are questions such as: Why do people obey the law? What are the most effective means for punishing transgressions so as to encourage compliance with the law? The idea that our legal system is the product of societal values forms the heart of this course. We will repeatedly return to that sentiment as we review social psychological principles, theories, and findings addressing how the principal actors in legal proceedings affect each other. We will survey research on such topics as: criminal versus civil procedure, juror selection criteria, juror decision-making, jury size and decision rule, the death penalty, insanity defense, and eyewitness reliability. To a lesser degree the course will also consider (1) issues that arise from the impact of ideas from clinical psychology and other mental health-related fields upon the legal system, and (2) the impact that the legal system has had upon the field of psychology.

Requisite: PSYC 220. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13.

364. Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology. This course examines the development, maintenance, and treatment of psychopathology in children and adolescents. Disorders discussed will include behavioral (e.g., Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Conduct Disorder), anxiety (e.g., the phobias and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), mood (e.g. Depression), and developmental (e.g. Autism). Using a developmental perspective, topics will focus on risk factors, theory and etiology, family and social influences, and evidence-based psycho-social treatments. Course readings will come predominantly from empirical research articles and will be discussed in-depth in class. Students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions, to provide written reaction papers, and to develop a final research proposal.

Requisite: PSYC 228. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor McQuade.

366. Music Cognition. Current theories of cognitive psychology will be evaluated in light of what is known about the effects of musical stimuli on learning, memory, and emotion. The course will begin by examining how musical information is stored and, subsequently, retrieved from memory. Particular attention will be paid to comparing learning and memory of musical and non-musical stimuli. The course will also compare the behavior of trained and untrained musicians to determine how expertise influences cognitive performance. Finally, the course will consider the ability of music to elicit emotional responses and the psychological basis for its use in applied settings.

Requisite: PSYC 233 or 234. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Schulkind.

368. Autobiographical Memory. Autobiographical memory encompasses everything we know about our personal past, from information as mundane as our Social Security number to the most inspirational moments of our lives. The course will begin by evaluating several theoretical frameworks that structure the field. We will consider how personal knowledge influences our sense of self and will examine both the contents of autobiographical memory and the contexts in which it functions, including eyewitness testimony, flashbulb memories, and the false/recovered memory controversy. We will discuss individual differences (gender and age) in autobiographical memory and will also examine the neurobiology of long-term memory and the consequences of damage to the system (i.e., dementia and amnesia). Finally, we will explore how social groups retain memories for important cultural events.

Requisite: PSYC 233 or 234. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Schulkind.

371. Psychopathology. This term, used for mental illness and mental distress, is defined by differing perspectives, i.e., medical model, family systems and psychodynamics. How the psychological and psychiatric communities define, and measure dysfunctional behavior depends upon these differing perspectives. We will review the ideas and concepts behind the definitions and descriptions of psychological and psychobiological disorders i.e., Schizophrenia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Attention Deficit Disorder. Students will write final papers on topics such as, whether specific diagnoses are scientifically or socially constructed, whether psychopathology is distress, disability or social deviance, and how a specific disorder can be understood from the point of view of depth psychology as well as underlying brain mechanisms.

Requisite: PSYC 100 or 212, PSYC 122 or MATH 130, and some knowledge of Abnormal, Personality or Clinical Psychology. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Raskin.

390. Special Topics. This course is open to qualified students who desire to engage in independent reading on selected topics or conduct research projects. Preference will be given to those students who have done good work in one or more departmental courses beyond the introductory level. A full course.

Open to juniors and seniors with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters.

390H. Special Topics. This course is open to qualified students who desire to engage in independent reading on selected topics or conduct research projects. Preference will be given to those students who have done good work in one or more departmental courses beyond the introductory level. A half course.

Open to juniors and seniors with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters.

490. Special Topics. This course is open to qualified students who desire to engage in independent reading on selected topics or conduct research projects. Preference will be given to those students who have done good work in one or more departmental courses beyond the introductory level. A full course.

Open to juniors and seniors with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters.

490H. Special Topics. This course is open to qualified students who desire to engage in independent reading on selected topics or conduct research projects. Preference will be given to those students who have done good work in one or more departmental courses beyond the introductory level. A half course.

Open to juniors and seniors with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Open to senior majors in Psychology who have received departmental approval. Fall semester.

498D. Senior Honors. A double course.

Open to senior majors in Psychology who have received departmental approval. Fall semester.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Open to senior majors in Psychology who have received departmental approval. A full course. Spring semester.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. Open to senior majors in Psychology who have received departmental approval. A double course. Spring semester.

Religion

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors Doran, Niditch, and Wills; Associate Professors A. Dole (Chair) and M. Heim‡; Assistant Professor Jaffer; Visiting Professor Eriksen; Five College Visiting Assistant Professor Barbour; Visiting Lecturer Olendski.

The study of Religion is a diversified and multi-faceted discipline which involves the study of both specific religious traditions and the general nature of religion as a phenomenon of human life. It includes cultures of both the East and West, ancient as well as modern, in an inquiry that involves a variety of textual, historical, phenomenological, social scientific, theological and philosophical methodologies.

Major Program. Majors in Religion will be expected to achieve a degree of mastery in three areas of the field as a whole. First, they will be expected to gain a close knowledge of a particular religious tradition, including both its ancient and modern forms, in its Scriptural, ritual, reflective and institutional dimensions. Ordinarily this will be achieved through a concentration of courses within the major. A student might also choose to develop a program of language study in relation to this part of the program, though this would not ordinarily be required for or count toward the major. Second, all majors will be expected to gain a more general knowledge of some other religious tradition quite different from that on which they are concentrating. Ordinarily, this requirement will be met by one or two courses. Third, all majors will be expected to gain a general knowledge of the theoretical and methodological resources pertinent to the study of religion in all its forms. It is further expected of Honors majors that their theses will demonstrate an awareness of the theoretical and methodological issues ingredient in the topic being studied.

Majors in Religion are required to take RELI 111, “Introduction to Religion,” RELI 210, “Theories of Religion,” and six additional courses in Religion or related studies approved by the Department. In meeting this requirement, majors and prospective majors should note that no course in Religion (including Five College courses) or in a related field will be counted toward the major in Religion if it is not approved by the student’s departmental advisor as part of a general course of study designed to cover the three areas described above. In other words, a random selection of eight courses in Religion will not necessarily satisfy the course requirement for the major in Religion.

All majors, including “double majors,” are required early in the second semester of the senior year to take a comprehensive examination in Religion. This examination will be designed to allow the student to deal with each of the three aspects of his or her program as described above, though not in the form of a summary report of what has been learned in each area. Rather, the emphasis will be on students’ abilities to use what they have learned in order to think critically about general issues in the field.

Departmental Honors Program. Honors in Religion shall consist of RELI 111, RELI 210, and the thesis courses, RELI 498 and 499, plus five additional semester courses in Religion or related studies approved by the Department; satisfactory fulfillment of the general Honors requirements of the College; satisfactory performance in the comprehensive examination; and the satisfactory preparation and oral defense of a scholarly essay on a topic approved by the Department. Honors students must submit a senior thesis prospectus for the approval of the Department by the end of the second semester of their junior year (mid-April). This prospectus should be developed together with the student’s prospective thesis advisor.

111. Introduction to Religion. This course introduces students to the comparative study of religion by focusing on a major theme within two or more religious traditions. Traditions and topics will vary from year to year. In 2012-13 the major traditions will be Islam and Judaism, and the theme will be death. Death is involved in life-passages both for those who die and for those they leave behind. This complex and universal concern raises questions about the very nature of being human and believing in the divine as we consider the ways in which the living make sense of death within particular religious and cultural contexts. Specific themes to explore include views of the metaphysical causes of death, descriptions of the experience of being dead, rituals surrounding the dead, ideas concerning the continued sentience or power of the departed, and beliefs about their capacity to communicate with the living and/or to return to life.

Fall semester. Professors Jaffer and Niditch.

122. The End of the World: Utopias and Dystopias. War, pestilence, famine, flood, and other calamities have been taken in a diverse range of traditions as signs of “the end of days,” as signals that the world as we know it is on the verge of collapse. Some traditions suggest that a troubled and chaotic reality will be replaced by a new and perfect world whereas some predict a much diminished and barren new creation. Others indeed see the destruction as utter and final. While many traditions allow for survivors, some are quite explicit about the identity of this remnant and about the reasons for their salvation. In this course, we will examine a variety of sources and media, ancient and modern, discuss the cultural, sociological, and psychological roots of apocalyptic worldviews, and explore the ways in which ancient texts have been appropriated in subsequent imaginings of the end of the world.

Omitted 2012-13. Professors Doran and Niditch.

123. Popular Religion. Religions, ancient or modern, are sometimes described as having two modalities or manifestations: the one institutional, of the establishment, the other, popular. The latter is sometimes branded as superstitious, idolatrous, syncretistic, heretical, or cultish. Yet we have come to realize that “popular” religion is frequently the religion of the majority, and that popular and classical threads tend to intertwine in religions as lived by actual adherents. People often express and experience their religiosity in ways related to but not strictly determined by their traditions’ sacred officials, texts, and scholars. In the modern era, mass media have provided additional means of religious expression, communication, and community, raising new questions about popular religion. In this course we will explore examples from ancient and modern times, seeking to redefine our understanding of popular religion by looking at some of the most interesting ways human beings pursue and share religious experience within popular cultural contexts.

Topics for study include: ancient Israelite traditions concerning the dead; early Jewish omen texts; televangelist movements; modern apocalyptic groups such as Heaven’s Gate; and recent films, television programs, and role-playing games rich in the occult or the overtly religious.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Niditch.

124. Folk Religion in Cross-Cultural Perspective. As world religions move through time and across geography and culture, they are met and transformed by the local, or folk, sensibilities of the communities with which they come in contact. Indeed, it is that very fluidity, that ability to absorb and contain diversity that arguably gives the world religions their strength, durability, and influence on a large scale. It is in their many folk particularities that these religions come to life in distinct, rich, sometimes surprising and contradictory ways—ways that reveal cultural essentials, shape lives, engage both intimate and institutional power relations, and re-imagine the broader traditions in which they participate. This course will explore folk religious belief and practice across the world, focusing on ethnic communities, women, immigrants, and other non-elites. Case studies include material from China, South and Southeast Asia, Mexico, Israel, southern Europe, West Africa, and the United States. As folk religion is not always visible or available to outsiders, our entry point will be ethnographic material, and the course will include grounding in ethical and methodological questions concerning field work in religious contexts.

Omitted 2012-2013. Visiting Lecturer Shapiro.

125. Religion in Contemporary Fiction. Religion has always been grounded in storytelling. As myth, as folktale, as allegory, as parable, as speculation, the story form allows writer and reader to draw persuasive connections—and distinctions—between internal experience, the social world, the natural world, and a moral or cosmic order. As both religion and culture evolve, story remains fertile ground for setting and contesting their foundations. This course examines how a range of contemporary novelists speak to and through religion to engage the deep and incendiary matters of our times: cross-cultural tensions; science and health; sex and gender relations; global and local politics; war and the weapons of war; modernity vs. traditionalism; the fate of the earth; and of course the meaning of life and death. Texts address a variety of traditions and perspectives, including: modern monastic Roman Catholicism, mainline and fundamentalist Protestantisms, Hindu and tribal India, Sufism and Pakistani Islam, Tibetan and Zen Buddhism, Biblical and contemporary Judaism, Japanese folk religion, and American neopaganism.

Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Lecturer Shapiro.

126. Science Fiction, Narrative, and Identity. Science Fiction film and literature imagine possible near or distant futures for human (and other) life. This course explores imagined futures from different points of view. We will analyze films, novels, and short stories to see what they convey about the time in which they were imagined, their reflections on worldviews and religious traditions, and the more general question of what a narrative approach can contribute to the academic study of religion. We will discuss questions concerning human nature, ontology, and morality: What makes us human? What is reality? What is a good life? A central part of the course will thus be to identify and articulate questions about life, religion, and ethics through reading narratives in relation to theories of interpretation (hermeneutics), feminist theory, and critical studies of film and literature. The course aims to supply students with tools of analysis for exploring aesthetic and narrative expressions of existential questions.

Fall semester: Visiting Professor Eriksen.

152. Introduction to Buddhist Traditions. (Offered as RELI 152 and ASLC 152 [SA].) This course is an introduction to the diverse ideals, practices, and traditions of Buddhism from its origins in South Asia to its geographical and historical diffusion throughout Asia and, more recently, into the west. We will explore the Three Jewels—the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha—and how they each provide refuge for those suffering in samsara (the endless cycle of rebirth). We will engage in close readings of the literary and philosophical texts central to Buddhism, as well as recent historical and anthropological studies of Buddhist traditions.

Fall semester. Professor M. Heim.

210. The Nature of Religion: Theories and Methods in Religious Studies. What does religious studies study? How do its investigations proceed? Can a religion only be truly understood from within, by those who share its beliefs and values? Or, on the contrary, is only the person who stands “outside” religion equipped to study and truly understand it? Is there a generic “something” that we can properly call “religion” at all, or is the concept of religion, which emerged from European Enlightenment, inapplicable to other cultural contexts? This course will explore several of the most influential efforts to develop theories of religion and methods for its study. We will consider psychological, sociological, anthropological, and phenomenological theories of religion, along with recent challenges to such theories from thinkers associated with feminist, post-modern and post-colonial perspectives. Two class meetings per week.

Spring semester. Professor Dole.

213. Suspicion and Religion. This course traces the rise of what has been termed the “hermeneutics of suspicion,” particularly in connection with the criticism of religion. The discourse of suspicion arose out of the German Idealist tradition of the philosophy of religion, flourished in the later nineteenth century, and lives on in present-day academic and popular treatments of religion and of the study of religion. In this course we will read both the classical suspicious authors (Hegel, Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud) as well as their latter-day descendants. In discussion of these two authors our primary concern will be to understand the characteristic structure and the appeal of suspicious treatments of religion; but we will also be interested in the question of what makes religion specifically an attractive target of suspicion.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor A. Dole.

215. Religion in Scientific Perspective. The idea of “scientific explanations of religion” has a long history in the academy, and the fortunes of scientific explorations of religion have been mixed. But the past decade has seen the emergence of new approaches to this project, as a growing body of literature has applied the tools of the cognitive sciences and evolutionary theory to the study of religion. This course will survey the recent literature on the subject, and will bring this material into conversation with “classical” naturalistic theorizing concerning religion. We will read works by David Hume, Stewart Guthrie, Pascal Boyer, Scott Atran, Justin Barrett, Richard Dawkins, Robert Hinde, David Sloan Wilson, and others.

Fall semester. Professor A. Dole.

231. Religion in Mesoamerica. This seminar is an advanced introduction to the history and study of religious expression in the cultural region known as Mesoamerica from prehispanic times to the present. Utilizing a diverse array of primary and secondary materials, we will examine the development of various beliefs, practices, and religious structures, in light of several interpretive approaches to the study of myth, sacred time and space, ritual performance, syncretism, and transculturation. We will explore the nature and symbolism of sacred architecture and ceremonial centers, cosmogonies and worldviews, divination and the ritual calendar, imperial ideologies, sacrificial practices, and concepts concerning the human body, death, and the soul. Attention will be given to regional and cultural variations, continuities and changes over time, and the impact and implications of conquest, colonialism, and the advance of modernity.

Omitted 2012-13.

235. Religion in the United States. An introduction to the historical development and contemporary reality of religion in the United States. The course will survey three phases of historical development: the Atlantic world phase (origins through the American Revolution); the continental phase (from the Constitution to World War I); and the global phase (from World War I to the present). Attention will be given throughout to the changing shape of religious diversity, various (and often mutually opposed) efforts to reform society or forge consensus around religious ideals, and the intersection of religion and the realities of race. Emphasis will also be placed, especially with regard to the “global phase,” on the complex relation of religious movements, ideals, and leaders to the United States’ ever-increasing role as a world power.

Spring semester. Professor Wills.

238. African-American Religious History. (Offered as RELI 238 and BLST 238 [US]. A study of African-American religion, from the time of slavery to the present, in the context of American social, political, and religious history. Consideration will be given to debates concerning the “Africanity” of black religion in the United States, to the role of Islam in African-American religious history, and to the religious impact of recent Caribbean immigration. The major emphasis throughout the course, however, will be on the history of African-American Christianity in the United States. Topics covered will include the emergence of African-American Christianity in the slavery era, the founding of the independent black churches (especially the AME church) and their institutional development in the nineteenth century, the predominant role of the black Baptist denominations in the twentieth century, the origins and growth of black Pentecostalism, the increasing importance of African-American Catholicism, the role of the churches in social protest movements (especially the civil rights movement) and electoral politics, the changing forms of black theology, and the distinctive worship traditions of the black churches.

Fall semester. Professor Wills.

252. Buddhist Life Writing. (Offered as RELI 252 and ASLC 252) From the biographies of Gotama Buddha to the autobiographies of western converts, life writing plays a central role in teaching Buddhist philosophy, practice, history, and myth. This course explores the diverse forms and purposes of Buddhist life writing in the literary and visual cultures of India, Tibet, Sri Lanka, China, Vietnam, Japan, and America. Reading the lives of eminent saints and laypersons, charismatic teachers, recluses, and political activists, the course aims to broaden understanding of how Buddhists have variously imagined the ideal life. We will pay particular attention to how literary and cultural conventions of genre guide the composition of lives.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor M. Heim

253. Theravada Buddhism. (Offered as RELI 253 and ASLC 253 [SA].) This course introduces the history and civilization of Theravada Buddhism. The Theravada (the “Doctrine of the Elders”) is the dominant form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar (Burma); in recent decades it has also found a following in other regions in Asia and the west. We will trace the Theravada’s origins as one of the earliest sectarian movements in India to its success and prestige as a religious civilization bridging South and Southeast Asia. We will also consider this tradition’s encounter with modernity and its various adaptations and responses to challenges in the contemporary world. No previous background in Buddhism is required.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Heim.

254. Reading Early Buddhist Texts: Mind, Meditation, and Transformation. This seminar focuses on the reading in translation of primary Buddhist texts from the Pali Tipitaka which highlight the early Buddhist model of mind and the role of meditation in mental development, ethical conduct and psychological transformation. Beginning with a look at how psychological perspectives emerged from the intellectual milieu of ancient India, and proceeding through a systematic study of the major elements of Buddhist psychology, the program culminates with an examination of some contemporary perspectives on the influence of meditation and Buddhist mind science on the modern fields of healing, psychotherapy and cognitive science.

Spring semester. Visiting Professor Olendski.

261. Women in Judaism. (Offered as RELI 261 and WAGS 239.) A study of the portrayal of women in Jewish tradition. Readings will include biblical and apocryphal texts; Rabbinic legal (halakic) and non-legal (aggadic) material; selections from medieval commentaries; letters, diaries, and autobiographies written by Jewish women of various periods and settings; and works of fiction and non-fiction concerning the woman in modern Judaism. Employing an inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural approach, we will examine not only the actual roles played by women in particular historical periods and cultural contexts, but also the roles they assume in traditional literary patterns and religious symbol systems.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Niditch.

263. Ancient Israel. This course explores the culture and history of the ancient Israelites through a close examination of the Hebrew Bible in its wider ancient Near Eastern context. A master-work of great complexity revealing many voices and many periods, the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament is a collection of traditional literature of various genres including prose and poetry, law, narrative, ritual texts, sayings, and other forms. We seek to understand the varying ways Israelites understood and defined themselves in relation to their ancestors, their ancient Near Eastern neighbors, and their God.

Fall semester. Professor Niditch.

265. Prophecy, Wisdom, and Apocalyptic. We will read from the work of the great exilic prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah, examine the so-called “wisdom” traditions in the Old Testament and the Apocrypha exemplified by Ruth, Esther, Job, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Susanna, Tobit, and Judith, and, finally, explore the phenomenon of Jewish apocalyptic in works such as Daniel, the Dead Sea Scrolls, 4 Ezra, and 2 Baruch. Through these writings we will trace the development of Judaism from the sixth century B.C. to the first century of the Common Era.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Niditch.

267. Reading the Rabbis. We will explore Rabbinic world-views through the close reading of halakic (i.e., legal) and aggadic (i.e., non-legal) texts from the Midrashim (the Rabbis’ explanations, reformulations, and elaborations of Scripture) the Mishnah, and the Talmud. Employing an interdisciplinary methodology, which draws upon the tools of folklorists, anthropologists, students of comparative literature, and students of religion, we will examine diverse subjects of concern to the Rabbis ranging from human sexuality to the nature of creation, from ritual purity to the problem of unjust suffering. Topics covered will vary from year to year depending upon the texts chosen for reading.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Niditch.

271. Christianity as a Global Religion. Christianity is often thought of as a European or “Western” religion. This overlooks, however, much of the early history of Eastern Christianity and, more importantly, the present reality that Christianity is increasingly a religion of “non-Western” peoples, both in their ancestral homelands and abroad. This course will trace the global spread of Christianity from the first century forward, with emphasis on modern and contemporary developments. Attention will be given both to the thought and practice of Christian missionary movements and to the diverse forms of Christianity that have emerged in response to them. To what extent can European and American missionaries be seen simply as agents of colonialism—or of a neo-colonial globalization of consumer capitalism? In what ways and with what success has an imported Christianity been adapted to cultural settings beyond the sphere of Western “Christendom”? How have Christians outside “the West” understood themselves in relation to it? Particular attention will be given to the spread of Christianity in Africa and in Asia and to the presence in the United States of Christians of African and Asian descent.

Spring semester. Professor Wills.

273. Christian Scriptures. An analysis of New Testament literature as shaped by the currents and parties of first-century Judaism. Emphasis will be placed on the major letters of Paul and the four Gospels.

Spring semester. Professor Doran.

275. History of Christianity—The Early Years. This course deals with issues which arose in the first five centuries of the Christian Church. We will examine first how Christians defined themselves vis-à-vis the Greek intellectual environment, and also Christian separation from and growing intolerance towards Judaism. Secondly, we will investigate Christians’ relationship to the Roman state both before and after their privileged position under Constantine and his successors. Thirdly, the factors at play in the debates over the divinity and humanity of Jesus will be examined. Finally, we will look at the rise and function of the holy man in late antique society as well as the relationship of this charismatic figure to the institutional leaders of the Christian Church. Note will be taken that if it is primarily an issue of the holy man, what happened to the realization of the claim that “in Christ there is neither male nor female?” What too of the claim that “in Christ there is neither free nor slave?”

Spring semester. Professor Doran.

278. Christianity, Philosophy, and History in the Nineteenth Century. The nineteenth century saw developments within Western scholarship that profoundly challenged traditional understandings of Christianity. Immanuel Kant’s critical philosophy had thrown the enterprise of theology into doubt by arguing that knowledge of anything outside space and time is impossible. During the same period, the growing awareness of Christianity’s history and the emerging historical-critical study of the Bible brought into prominence the variability and contingency of the Christian tradition. Particularly in Germany, Christian intellectuals were to wrestle intensely with the problem of knowledge of God and the authority of tradition during this period. Should Christians adapt their understandings of fundamental points of Christian doctrine to advances in historical scholarship? Did developments within philosophy require the abandonment of reliance on claims about the nature of reality, and of human existence, which had been seen as essential to Christianity? This course will be devoted to tracking these discussions. Some of the authors to be treated are Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Strauss, Kierkegaard, Newman, von Harnack, and Schweitzer.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor A. Dole.

279. Liberation and Twentieth-Century Christian Thought. In the middle of the nineteenth century Karl Marx characterized religion as “the opium of the people,” a tool of the ruling classes to keep the poor in subjection. By the end of the century, in the face of rising unrest related to political and economic developments, Christian thinkers in Europe and the United States found themselves facing the question of the church’s role in relation to questions of social and economic justice. Should Christianity be a force for radical social change in a progressive direction, or should Christians instead work for peace and “brotherly love” within existing social structures? This course will track the development of debates on these subjects, discussing the “Social Gospel,” Christian pacifism and realism, German Christianity during the Nazi period, liberation theology and its descendants. Some of the authors to be treated are Adolf von Harnack, Kirby Page, Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Gustavo Gutiérrez, James Cone, and Elizabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor A. Dole.

282. Muhammad and the Qur’an. This course deals with the life of Muhammad (the founder and prophet of Islam) and the Qur’an (the Muslim Scripture). The first part deals with the life of Muhammad as reflected in the writings of the early Muslim biographers. It examines the crucial events of Muhammad’s life (the first revelation, the night journey, the emigration to Medina, the military campaigns) and focuses on Muhammad’s image in the eyes of the early Muslim community. The second deals with the Qur’an. It focuses on the history of the Qur’an, its canonization, major themes, various methods of Qur’anic interpretation, the role of the Qur’an in Islamic law, ritual, and modernity.

Spring semester. Professor Jaffer.

316. Philosophy of Religion. (Offered as RELI 316 and PHIL 219.) An examination of several major discussion topics in the analytic philosophy of religion: the ethics of religious belief, the “problem of religious language,” the nature of God and the problem of evil. It would seem that it is always irrational to believe that statements about matters which transcend the realm of the empirical are true, since none of these statements can be directly supported by evidence. Thus it would seem that a great deal of religious belief is irrational. Is this the case, or can religious beliefs be supported by other means? Can philosophical reflection bring clarity to such puzzling matters as God’s relationship to time, or the question of how a good and all-powerful God could permit the existence of evil? Alternatively, is the entire project of evaluating religious discourse as a set of claims about transcendent realities misguided—i.e., does religious language work differently than the language we use to speak about ordinary objects?

Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Professor A. Dole.

318. The Problem of Evil. (Offered as RELI 318 and PHIL 229.) If God is omnibenevolent, then God would not want any creature to suffer evil; if God is omniscient, then God would know how to prevent any evil from occurring; and if God is omnipotent, then God would be able to prevent any evil from occurring. Does the obvious fact that there is evil in the world, then, give us reason to think that there is no such God? Alternatively: if an omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent God does exist, then what could possibly motivate such a God to permit the existence of evil? This course will survey recent philosophical discussions of these questions. We will read works by J. L. Mackie, Nelson Pike, John Hick, Alvin Plantinga, Robert and Marilyn Adams, and others.

Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor A. Dole.

335. American Religious Thought: From Edwards to Emerson—and Beyond. The eighteenth-century Calvinist Jonathan Edwards and the nineteenth-century Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson are among the most complex and influential figures in the history of American religious thought—an influence that has grown, not receded, in recent decades. Both were innovative and very distinctive thinkers, yet each also serves as a major reference point for ongoing and centrally important tendencies in American religious life. American Evangelical Protestantism has for the most part long since departed from the Calvinism that Edwards espoused, yet many of its core convictions (e.g., the necessity for conversion and the prospects for a wider spread of Christianity in the world) nowhere receive a more powerful analysis and defense than in the works of Edwards. Emerson stands in similar relation to very different currents of thought and practice, both within and beyond American Protestantism, that emphasize self-realization and an inclusive, pluralistic attitude that draws insights from a diverse range of religious traditions. This course will closely examine selected texts by both figures, but will also place them in the context of New England religious thought from Puritanism to Transcendentalism and consider their engagement with some of the major issues of the period (e.g., issues of race and slavery). Attention will be given to the similarities that exist alongside their differences. The course will conclude by examining their relation to subsequent (and contemporary) trends in American religious thought and practice.

Fall semester. Professor Wills.

352. Buddhist Ethics. (Offered as RELI 252 and ASLC 352.) A systematic exploration of the place of ethics and moral reasoning in Buddhist thought and practice. The scope of the course is wide, with examples drawn from the whole Buddhist world, but emphasis is on the particularity of different Buddhist visions of the ideal human life. Attention is given to the problems of the proper description of Buddhist ethics in a comparative perspective.

Fall semester. Professor M. Heim.

362. Folklore and the Bible. This course is an introduction to the cross-discipline of folklore and an application of that field to the study of Israelite literature. We will explore the ways in which professional students of traditional literatures describe and classify folk material, approach questions of composition and transmission, and deal with complex issues of context, meaning, and message. We will then apply the cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural methodologies of folklore to readings in the Hebrew Scriptures. Selections will include narratives, proverbs, riddles, and ritual and legal texts. Topics of special interest include the relationships between oral and written literatures, the defining of “myth,” feminism and folklore, and the ways in which the biblical writers, nineteenth-century collectors such as the Brothers Grimm, and modern popularizers such as Walt Disney recast pieces of lore, in the process helping to shape or misshape us and our culture.

Spring semester. Professor Niditch.

363. The Body in Ancient Judaism. The body is a template; the body encodes; the body is a statement of rebellion or convention, of individual attitude or of identity shared by a group. Dressed in one way or another or undressed, pierced or tattooed, shaggy or smooth, fed one way or another, sexually active or celibate, the body, viewed in parts or as a whole, may serve human beings as consummate and convenient expression of world-view. In this course we will explore ancient Israelite and early Jewish representations of the body juxtaposing ancient materials and modern theoretical and descriptive works. Specific topics include treatment of and attitudes towards the dead, hair customs, views of bodily purity, biblical euphemisms for sex, food prohibitions, circumcision, and God’s body.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Niditch.

365. Personal Religion in the Bible. In contemporary discussions about the role of religion in the lives of individuals we often hear questions such as the following: Does God hear me when I call out in trouble? Why do bad things happen to good people? How do I define myself as a believer? What is the role of prayer? Do I have a personal relationship with a divine being, apart from the institutional religion? What roles do material objects, personal images, and private practices play within my religious life? This course will suggest that questions such as these are entirely relevant to the study of early Judaism in the late biblical period, a time when the preserved literature and the evidence of material culture place great emphasis on the individual’s spiritual journey. This course introduces students to ways of thinking about personal religion and applies that theoretical framework to the study of a variety of sources in the Bible and beyond. Topics include the Book of Job, the confessional literature of the prophets, psalms of personal lament, visionary experiences, vow-making, incantations, ancient graffiti, and memoirs written in the first person. This course has no prerequisites and provides students with the methodological and historical background to appreciate this interesting corpus, its social context, and its composers.

Spring semester. Professor Niditch.

367. Jews Writing in Greek: The Formation of Jewish Identity in the Greco-Roman World. The second-century CE writer Numenius of Apamea said that Plato was nothing but Moses speaking Greek. In this course we will examine the ways in which Jews living outside Judea articulated their religious traditions in the face of more dominant cultures. We will read works by writers such as Artapanus, Eupolemus, Philo, Josephus, as well as the Wisdom of Solomon and 2 Maccabees. We will also ask what it meant for the Hebrew Bible to be translated into Greek.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Doran.

370. Close Reading: The Classics of Judaism and Christianity. This seminar offers an opportunity for students to engage in the close reading of one or two classic works in the history of Judaism or Christianity. The texts chosen will vary from year to year. In fall 2012 the course will focus on the biblical book of Qohelet / Ecclesiastes. We will examine the questions Qohelet poses to the Hebrew wisdom tradition, focusing on themes of death, justice, meaning, work, fate, and pleasure. Subsequent communities of interpreters have wrestled with the contradictions in the book, and we will study and compare the readings of the early church fathers, rabbinic writings, later thinkers, and the ongoing influence of the book in literature and art.

Fall semester. Visiting Professor Barbour.

372. The Secret Jesus. Alongside the images of Jesus found in the canonical Gospels arose others that are less well known today but that were widespread in antiquity: stories about Jesus’ parents, about his life as a young boy, stories of his non-death, enigmatic sayings and parables. In this course we will explore theses images as found in the apocryphal Gospels and in the Gnostic writings, and read closely the cryptic sayings of Jesus. We will also examine the images of Jesus in early Christian art.

Fall semester. Professor Doran.

382. Debating Muslims. This course introduces students to the intellectual tradition of Islam. It focuses on the pre-modern period. We will explore works of theology, philosophy, and political theory that were composed by Muslim intellectuals of various stripes. We will use primary sources in English translation to examine the ideas that Muslim intellectuals formulated and the movements that they engendered. In our discussions we will investigate questions concerning the rise of sectarianism, language and revelation, prophecy, heresy and apostasy, God and creation, causality and miracles, the role of logic and human reasoning with respect to the canonical sources (Quran and Hadith), and conceptions of the Islamic state.

Fall semester. Professor Jaffer.

385. The Islamic Mystical Tradition. (Offered as RELI 285 and ASLC 356.) This course is a survey of the large complex of Islamic intellectual and social perspectives subsumed under the term Sufism. Sufi mystical philosophies, liturgical practices, and social organizations have been a major part of the Islamic tradition in all historical periods, and Sufism has also served as a primary creative force behind Islamic aesthetic expression in poetry, music, and the visual arts. In this course, we will attempt to understand the various significations of Sufism by addressing both the world of ideas and socio-cultural practices. The course is divided into four modules: central themes and concepts going back to the earliest individuals who identified themselves as Sufis; the lives and works of two medieval Sufis; Sufi cosmology and metaphysics; Sufism as a global and multifarious trend in the modern world.

Spring semester. Professor Jaffer

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course. Reading in an area selected by the student and approved in advance by a member of the Department.

Fall and spring semester. The Department.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Required of candidates for Honors in Religion. Preparation and oral defense of a scholarly essay on a topic approved by the Department. Detailed outline of thesis and adequate bibliography for project required before Thanksgiving; preliminary version of substantial portion of thesis by end of semester.

Open to seniors with consent of the instructors. Fall semester. The Department.

499. Senior Honors. Spring semester.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. Required of candidates for Honors in Religion. A continuation of RELI 498. A double course.

Open to seniors with consent of the instructor. Spring semester. The Department.

Related Courses

Religion and Society in the South Asian World. See ANTH 334.

Myth, Ritual and Iconography in West Africa. See BLST 315.

Religion, Empires, and Secular States in the Nineteenth Century. See HIST 319.

Russian

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors Ciepiela, Peterson‡, and Rabinowitz (Chair); Assistant Professor Wolfson; Senior Lecturer Babyonyshev; Five College Lecturer Dungub.

Major Program. The major program in Russian is an individualized interdisciplinary course of study. It includes general requirements for all majors and a concentration of courses in one discipline: literature, film, cultural studies, history, or politics. Eight courses are required for the major, including RUSS 301 and one course beyond RUSS 301 taught in Russian. Language courses numbered 202 and above will count for the major. Normally, two courses taken during a semester abroad in Russia may be counted; 303H and 304H together will count as one course. Additionally, all majors must elect RUSS 211, 232 or 233 or an approved equivalent. Other courses will be chosen in consultation with the advisor from courses in Russian literature, film, culture, history and politics. Students are strongly encouraged to enroll in non-departmental courses in their chosen discipline.

Comprehensives. Students majoring in Russian must formally define a concentration within the major no later than the pre-registration period in the spring of the junior year. By the end of the add/drop period in the fall of the senior year, they will provide a four- or five-page draft essay which describes the primary focus of their studies as a Russian major. Throughout this process, majors will have the help of their advisors. A final draft of the essay, due at the end of the add/drop period of second semester of the senior year, will be evaluated by a committee of departmental readers in a conference with the student. This, in addition to a translation exam taken in the fall of the senior year, will satisfy the comprehensive examination in Russian.

Departmental Honors Program. In addition to the above requirements for the major program, the Honors candidate will take RUSS 498-499 during the senior year and prepare a thesis on a topic approved by the Department. Students who anticipate writing an Honors essay in Russian history or politics should request permission to work under the direction of Five College Professor Glebov or Professor William Taubman (Political Science). All Honors candidates should ensure that their College program provides a sufficiently strong background in their chosen discipline.

Study Abroad. Majors are strongly encouraged to spend a semester or summer studying in Russia. Students potentially interested in study abroad should begin planning as early as possible in their Amherst career. They should consult members of the Department faculty and Janna Behrens, Director of International Experience, for information on approved programs and scholarship support. Other programs can be approved on a trial basis by petition to the Director of International Experience. Study in Russia is most rewarding after students have completed the equivalent of four or five semesters of college-level Russian, but some programs will accept students with less. One semester of study in Russia will ordinarily give Amherst College credit for four courses, two of which may be counted towards the major in Russian.

Summer language programs, internships, ecological and volunteer programs may be good alternatives for students whose other Amherst commitments make a semester away difficult or impossible. (Please note that Amherst College does not give credit for summer programs.) U.S.-based summer intensive programs can be used to accelerate acquisition of the language, and some of these programs provide scholarship support. Consult the department bulletin board in Webster and the department website for information on a wide variety of programs.

101. First-Year Russian I. Introduction to the contemporary Russian language, presenting the fundamentals of Russian grammar and syntax. The course helps the student make balanced progress in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, writing, and cultural competence. Five meetings per week.

Fall semester. Five College Lecturer Dengub.

102. First-Year Russian II. Continuation of RUSS 101.

Requisite: RUSS 101 or equivalent. Spring semester. Five College Lecturer Dengub.

201. Second-Year Russian I. This course stresses vocabulary building and continued development of speaking and listening skills. Active command of Russian grammar is steadily increased. Readings from authentic materials in fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Brief composition assignments. Five meetings per week, including a conversation hour and a drill session.

Requisite: RUSS 102 or the equivalent. This will ordinarily be the appropriate course placement for students with 2 to 3 years of high school Russian. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Rabinowitz.

202. Second-Year Russian II. Continuation of RUSS 201.

Requisite: RUSS 201 or equivalent. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Wolfson.

211. The Rise of the Russian Novel. How and why did Russian culture produce world-famous fiction in the first half of the nineteenth century? This course traces the evolution of innovative narrative forms in Russian story-telling from Pushkin’s novel-in-verse, Eugene Onegin, to the early works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. We shall pay particular attention to the characteristic Russian mimicry and parody of Western literary conventions in the short stories of Pushkin and Gogol before examining the experimental novel-length fiction of Lermontov (A Hero of Our Time) and Turgenev (Fathers and Sons). The course also introduces important lesser-known writers like Pavlova, Aksakov, and Leskov who contributed greatly to the rise of a distinctive Russian prose tradition. Readings in translation, with special assignments for those able to do reading in Russian.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Peterson.

212. Survey of Russian Literature From Dostoevsky to Nabokov. An examination of major Russian writers and literary trends from about 1860 to the Bolshevik Revolution as well as a sampling of Russian émigré literature through a reading of representative novels, stories, and plays in translation. Readings include important works by Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gorky, Sologub, Bely, and Nabokov. The evaluation of recurring themes such as the breakdown of the family, the “woman question,” madness, attitudes toward the city, childhood and perception of youth. Conducted in English.

Spring semester. Professor Rabinowitz.

213. Russian Literature in the Twentieth Century. The Russian intelligentsia expected its writers to be the conscience of the nation, twentieth-century saints, or, as Solzhenitsyn put it, “a second government.” Stalin demanded that writers be “engineers of men’s souls.” Are these two visions all that different? Did the avant-garde’s view that art should change the world and the intelligentsia’s moralizing tradition open the door for the excesses of Stalinism and Socialist Realism? Has the fall of the Soviet regime liberated Russian writers or deprived them of their most powerful subject? In search of answers, we will study major works of twentieth-century prose, and some poetry, by Zamiatin, Mayakovsky, Akhmatova, Babel, Platonov, Bulgakov (The Master and Margarita), Olesha, Solzhenitsyn, Sinyavsky, Brodsky, Chukovskaya, and others. We will pay considerable attention to parallel developments in the visual arts, using materials from the College’s Thomas P. Whitney Collection. Conducted in English, all readings in translation (students who read Russian will be given special assignments). Two meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13.

217. Strange Russian Writers: Gogol, Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, Nabokov, et al. A course that examines the stories and novels of rebels, deviants, dissidents, loners, and losers in some of the weirdest fictions in Russian literature. The writers, most of whom imagine themselves to be every bit as bizarre as their heroes, include from the nineteenth century: Gogol (“Viy,” “Diary of a Madman,” “Ivan Shponka and His Aunt,” “The Nose,” “The Overcoat”); Dostoevsky (“The Double,” “A Gentle Creature,” “Bobok,” “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”); Tolstoy (“The Kreutzer Sonata,” “Father Sergius”), and from the twentieth century: Olesha (Envy); Platonov (The Foundation Pit); Kharms’ (Stories); Bulgakov (The Master and Margarita); Nabokov (The Eye, Despair); Erofeev (Moscow Circles); Pelevin (“The Yellow Arrow”). Our goal will be less to construct a canon of strangeness than to consider closely how estranged women, men, animals, and objects become the center of narrative attention and, in doing so, reflect the writer Tatyana Tolstaya’s claim that “Russia is broader and more diverse, stranger and more contradictory than any idea of it. It resists all theories about what makes it tick, confounds all the paths to its possible transformation.” All readings in English translation.

Limited to 35 students. Not open to first-year students. Fall semester. Professor Rabinowitz.

225. Seminar on One Writer: Vladimir Nabokov. An attentive reading of works spanning Nabokov’s entire career, both as a Russian and English (or “Amero-Russian”) author, including autobiographical and critical writings, as well as his fiction and poetry. Special attention will be given to Nabokov’s lifelong meditation on the elusiveness of experienced time and on writing’s role as a supplement to loss and absence. Students will be encouraged to compare Nabokov’s many dramatizations of “invented worlds” and to consider them along with other Russian and Western texts, fictional and philosophical, that explore the mind’s defenses against exile and separation. All readings in English translation, with special assignments for those able to read Russian. Two meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Not open to first-year students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Peterson.

227. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Among the many paradoxes Dostoevsky presents is the paradox of his own achievement. Perceived as the most “Russian” of Russian writers, he finds many enthusiastic readers in the West. A nineteenth-century author, urgently engaged in the debates of his time, his work remains relevant today. The most influential theorists of the novel feel called upon to account for the Dostoevsky phenomenon. How can we understand Dostoevsky’s appeal to so many audiences? This broad question will inform our reading of Dostoevsky’s fiction, as we consider its social-critical, metaphysical, psychological, and formal significance. We will begin with several early works (“Notes from Underground,” “The Double”) whose concerns persist and develop in the great novels that are the focus of the course: Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov. All readings and discussion in English. Conducted as a seminar. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Ciepiela.

228. Tolstoy. Count Leo Tolstoy’s life and writings encompass self-contradictions equaled in scale only by the immensity of his talent: the aristocrat who renounced his wealth, the former army officer who preached nonresistance to evil, the father of thirteen children who advocated total chastity within marriage and, of course, the writer of titanic stature who repudiated all he had previously written, including War and Peace and Anna Karenina. We will read these two masterworks in depth, along with other fictional and non-fictional writings (“The History of Yesterday,” Childhood, Strider, Confession, Sebastopol Stories, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, “What Is Art?”), as we explore his abiding search for the meaning of ever-inaccessible “self,” his far-reaching artistic innovations, and his evolving views on history, the family, war, death, religion, art, and education. Conducted in English, all readings in translation, with special assignments for students who read Russian. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Wolfson

229. Chekhov And His Theater. (Offered as RUSS 229 and THDA 229). Anton Chekhov’s reputation rests as much on his dramaturgy as on his fiction. His plays, whose staging by the Moscow Art Theater helped revolutionize Russian and world theater, endure in the modern repertoire. In this course, we will study his dramatic oeuvre in its cultural and historical context, drawing on the biographical and critical literature on Chekhov, printed and visual materials concerning the late nineteenth-century European theater, and the writings of figures like Constantin Stanislavsky, who developed a new acting method in response to Chekhov’s art. We also will examine key moments in the production history of Chekhov’s plays in Russian, English, and American theater and film.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Ciepiela and Playwright-in-Residence Congdon.

230. Russian Empire in Eurasia. (Offered as HIST 112 [CP] and RUSS 230.) In the course of five hundred years, the Russian empire in Eurasia evolved as the largest territorial polity in the world. In this course, we will explore the medieval foundations of the imperial state and look at its predecessors and models (Kievan Rus’ and the empire of the Mongols), discuss ways in which cooperation and resistance shaped the imperial state and society, and study cultural and political entanglements among different ethnic, linguistic and confessional groups in Eurasia. Chronologically, we will cover the period from the 10th century to the crisis of the empire in the early 20th century. Thematically, we will focus on structures of imperial state and society (the imperial house, peasantry, nobility, confessions, intelligentsia, revolutionary movement) and most important regions of the Russian Empire (Ukraine, the Caucasus, the Baltics, Siberia, Central Asia).

Faculty from the Five College Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies Certificate program will contribute lectures and discussions to the class. The course serves as the core course to the Five College REEES Certificate. Requirements will include several reaction papers, map quiz, mid-term exam and final research paper. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Glebov.

232. Russian Lives. In this course we will study modern Russian cultural history by attending to how key social actors have been represented. Beginning with the 17th-century religious schism and continuing up through the present day, we will study the lives of the saint, the aristocrat, the peasant, the poet, the intellectual, the revolutionary, the exile, the leader, and the merchant. We will draw on memoirs and eyewitness accounts such as Archpriest Avvakum’s “autobiography,” the first example of the genre in Russia, Alexander Herzen’s My Life and Thoughts (alongside Tom Stoppard’s renovation of his story as a recently staged trilogy of plays, Coast of Utopia), the testimony of women terrorists like Vera Figner, and the diaries of average Soviet citizens during the Stalin era. We also will consider fictional renderings of typical or historical figures in various media, works like Ivan Turgenev’s A Huntsman’s Sketches, Sergei Eisenstein’s film Ivan the Terrible, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. No acquaintance with Russian language or culture is assumed.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Ciepiela.

234. The Soviet Experience. (Offered as RUSS 234 and FAMS 313.) With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the great utopian experiment of the 20th century—a radical attempt to reorganize society in accordance with rational principles—came to an end. This course explores the dramatic history of that experiment from the perspective of those whose lives were deeply affected by the social upheavals it brought about. We begin by examining the early visions of the new social order and attempts to restructure the living practices of the Soviet citizens by reshaping the concepts of time, space, family, and, ultimately, redefining the meaning of being human. We then look at how “the new human being” of the 1920s is transformed into the “new Soviet person” of the Stalinist society, focusing on the central cultural and ideological myths of Stalinism and their place in everyday life, especially as they relate to the experience of state terror and war. Finally, we investigate the notion of “life after Stalin,” and consider the role of already familiar utopian motifs in the development of post-Stalinist and post-Soviet ways of imagining self, culture, and society. The course uses a variety of materials—from primary documents, public or official (architectural and theatrical designs, political propaganda, transcripts of trials, government meetings, and interrogations) and intimate (diaries and letters), to works of art (novels, films, stage productions, paintings), documentary accounts (on film and in print), and contemporary scholarship (from the fields of literary and cultural studies, history and anthropology). Course assignments emphasize careful writing and experiential learning; students will have an opportunity to work on projects involving multimedia production and community-based research. No previous knowledge of Soviet or Russian history or culture is required; course conducted in English, and all readings are in translation. Students who read Russian will be given special assignments.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Wolfson.

235. The Soviet Century: Rise and Fall of the Communist Experiment. (Offered as HIST 136 [EU] and RUSS 235.) This course will explore the history of Soviet state and society through the revolutionary turmoil, Stalin’s socio-economic transformations and terror, World War II and the Cold War. As we follow the development of the Soviet Union, we will focus on topics such as the role of ideology in policy and everyday life, people’s reactions and adaptations to unprecedented pressures of “really existing socialism,” function of terror, repression and accommodation in Communist society, and the place of the USSR on the changing map of world powers in the twentieth century. While we will discuss the role of leaders and institutions, we will also pay attention to cultures and practices of everyday life that developed behind the Iron Curtain. Materials for the class will include writings by contemporary historians, memoirs, novels, films, and art works from the Mead Museum. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Five College Professor Glebov.

241. Russian and Soviet Film. (Offered as RUSS 241 and FAMS 321.) Lenin declared “For us, cinema is the most important art,” and the young Bolshevik regime threw its support behind a brilliant group of film pioneers (Eisenstein, Vertov, Kuleshov, Pudovkin, Dovzhenko) who worked out the fundamentals of film language. Under Stalin, historical epics and musical comedies, not unlike those produced in 1930s Hollywood, became the favored genres. The innovative Soviet directors of the 1960s and 1970s (Tarkovsky, Parajanov, Abuladze, Muratova) moved away from politics and even narrative toward “film poetry.” Post-Soviet Russian cinema has struggled to define a new identity, and may finally be succeeding. This course will introduce the student to the great Russian and Soviet film tradition. Conducted in English. Two class meetings and one or two required screenings a week.

Fall semester. Professor Wolfson.

301. Third-Year Russian: Studies in Russian Language and Culture I. This course advances skills in reading, understanding, writing, and speaking Russian, with materials from twentieth-century culture. Readings include fiction by Chekhov, Babel, Olesha, Nabokov, and others. Conducted in Russian, with frequent writing and grammar assignments, in-class presentations, and occasional translation exercises. Two seminar-style meetings and one hour-long discussion section per week.

Requisite: RUSS 202 or consent of instructor. First-year students with strong high school preparation (usually 4 or more years) may be ready for this course. Fall semester. Professor Wolfson and Senior Lecturer Babyonyshev.

302. Third-Year Russian: Studies in Russian Language and Culture II. We will be reading, in the original Russian, works of fiction, poetry and criticism by nineteenth-century authors such as Pushkin, Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Turgenev and Chekhov. Conducted in Russian, with frequent writing and translation assignments.

Requisite: RUSS 301 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Rabinowitz and Senior Lecturer Babyonyshev.

303H. Advanced Conversation and Composition. A half course designed for advanced students of Russian who wish to develop their fluency, pronunciation, oral comprehension, and writing skills. Major attention will be given to reading, discussion and interpretation of current Russian journalistic literature. This course will cover several basic subjects, including the situation of the Russian media, domestic and international politics, culture, and everyday life in Russia. Two hours per week.

Requisite: RUSS 302 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Babyonyshev.

304H. Advanced Intermediate Conversation and Composition. A half course designed for intermediate-level students who wish to develop their fluency, pronunciation, oral comprehension, and writing skills. We will study and discuss Russian films of various genres. Two hours per week.

Requisite: RUSS 301 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Babyonyshev.

401. Advanced Studies in Russian Literature and Culture I. The topic changes every year. Taught entirely in Russian. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Babyonyshev.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Meetings to be arranged.

Open to, and required of, seniors writing a thesis. Fall semester. The Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Meetings to be arranged.

Open to, and required of, seniors writing a thesis. Spring semester. The Department.

Related Courses

Poetic Translation. See EUST 303.

Soviet Union During the Cold War. See HIST 236.

Defining the Modern: Russia Between Tsars and Communists. See HIST 439.

Spanish

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors Maraniss‡ and Stavans†; Associate Professor Suárez; Assistant Professor Brenneis; Senior Lecturer Maillo; Lecturers Aldea-Agudo, Barrios-Beltran, and Twardy.

The objective of the major is to learn about Hispanic cultures directly through the Spanish language and principally by way of their literature and other artistic expressions. We study literature and a variety of cultural manifestations from a modern critical perspective, without isolating them from their context. Courses are categorized according to level of difficulty and focus:

A. Language Courses

B. Panoramic Introductions

C. Nation-Specific Studies

D. Courses Specialized by Author and Text

E. Thematic Analyses

To give students a better idea of the development of the Hispanic world throughout the centuries, we expect majors to select courses on the literature and cultures of Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Latinos in the United States. Fluent and correct use of the language is essential to the successful completion of the major. Most courses are taught in Spanish. The Department urges majors to spend a semester or a year studying in a Spanish-speaking country.

Major Program. The Department of Spanish expects its majors to be fluent in Spanish and to have a broad and diverse experience in the literatures and cultures of Spanish-speaking peoples. To this end, continuous training in the use of the language and travel abroad will be emphasized.

The following requirements for a major in Spanish (both rite and with Departmental Honors) will apply. The major will consist of a minimum of nine courses in the literatures and cultures of Spanish-speaking peoples. Up to three courses in the SPAN 130-212 range and all upper-division courses (above SPAN 212) may be counted toward the major. Five of the nine courses must be taken from the Spanish Department offerings at Amherst College. Please note: Once enrolled in culture courses (courses numbered 211 and above), students may not go back to take a language course and receive credit toward the Spanish major. During sophomore or junior year, majors are required to enroll in an Amherst College Spanish course that stresses the use of critical research tools. Courses designed to fulfill this requirement are marked “RC” for Research Course in the course description.

Courses enrolled abroad or outside the Department will require departmental approval. Three courses taken abroad and taught in Spanish may be counted toward the major; one of these courses must focus on literature. Please consult the Study Abroad page on the Spanish Department website for further details. The Department highly recommends that students returning from studying abroad elect from among Nation-Specific, Author and Text-Specialized and Thematic Analyses courses (SPAN 300 and above) as they complete the major requirements in their final semesters.

Only one pass/fail course will count toward the major. Up to two courses offered by the Spanish Department and taught in English may be counted toward the major. Note: Beginning with the class of 2014 only one course taught in English may be counted toward the major.

Only one Special Topics course will count toward the Spanish major. Special topics courses can be taken by seniors who are interested in pursuing a subject matter that is a particular faculty’s speciality, has not been offered by the Department, nor is available through the Five Colleges. The student must have a well-defined idea of the topic and a clear and convincing reason for his/her education to take the course. Special Topic courses are limited to two students.

Comprehensive Exam. Spanish Majors will be required to take a written comprehensive exam, to be offered during the month of March of the senior year. The exam is as follows: Students will find a list of foundational texts on the Department web page organized according to geographical areas: Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean, and U.S. Latinos. By October 15 seniors must notify the Department of their selection of a total of twelve works, four per geographical area. In order to understand these works in context, students are responsible for finding secondary sources as well as engaging in conversation with their advisors and other members of the faculty. In March students will receive three individualized questions about the works they have chosen, their significance and interconnections—historical, cultural, and aesthetic. The goal of the exam is to assess the student’s broad knowledge of Hispanic civilization in all its manifestations by analyzing texts in light of their content and historical moment. Students are expected to write detailed, nuanced essays in Spanish in which complex ideas are made clear. Concepts and categories should be defined and the language should be polished and sophisticated. Seniors will have one week to complete this exam, the exact time and dates of which are determined each year by the Department. Each answer must be written in Spanish, with a length of no more than three typed pages, for a total of nine pages. Tenured and tenure-track professors in the Department will evaluate the exam. Students will be notified whether they passed or failed no later than two weeks after the exam is submitted. If all or parts of the exam are deemed unacceptable, majors will be given an opportunity to rewrite the exam. If the rewrite is unacceptable, the student will not be granted the Spanish major.

Departmental Honors Program. In addition to the major program described above, a candidate for Departmental Honors must present a thesis and sustain an oral examination upon completion of the thesis. Candidates will normally elect SPAN 498 and 499 during fall and spring semesters of their senior year.

Combined Majors. Both rite and Departmental Honors majors may be taken in combination with other fields, e.g., Spanish and French, Spanish and Religion, Spanish and Art and the History of Art. Plans for such combined majors must be approved in advance by representatives of the departments concerned.

Interdisciplinary Majors. Interdisciplinary majors are established through the Committee on Academic Standing and Special Majors, with the endorsement and cooperation of the Department or with the approval of individual members of the Department.

Study Abroad. Students majoring in Spanish are encouraged and expected to spend a summer, a semester, or a year studying in Spain or Latin America. Plans for study abroad must be approved in advance by the Department. Please see the Spanish Department website for further information.

Placement in Spanish language courses. See individual course descriptions for placement indicators.

Language Courses (110-199)

110. Elementary Spanish. SPAN 110 is an introduction to Spanish and Spanish American cultures. This course is recommended for students who have either no previous training in Spanish or no more than two years of high school Spanish. It gives the student a basic understanding of and ability to use the language. Grammar is used as a point of departure for development of oral and written skills.

This course strives to teach students to understand sentences and common expressions and to communicate in simple terms simple aspects of their background (e.g., very basic personal and family information), the immediate environment (shopping, local geography, employment), and matters of immediate need. Three hours a week with the lecturer, plus two hours with a teaching assistant. For students without previous training in Spanish. This course prepares students for SPAN 120.

Limited to 15 students per section. Fall semester: Lecturers Aldea-Agudo, Barrios-Beltran, and Assistants. Spring semester: Lecturer Aldea-Agudo and Assistants.

120. Intermediate Spanish. SPAN 120 is a continuation of SPAN 110. This course is recommended for students who have the equivalent of three or four years of high school Spanish. This course will expand Spanish language skills with exercises in conversation, oral comprehension and composition, based on cultural and literary readings.

This course teaches students to understand the main points of conversation on familiar matters regularly encountered at work, school, leisure, etc., how to deal with situations that may arise while traveling in a Spanish-speaking country, and how to compose simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Students will learn how to describe experiences, events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish. Three hours a week with the lecturer, plus one hour with a teaching assistant. This course prepares students for SPAN 130.

Requisite: SPAN 110, Spanish Placement Test or consent of the Language Coordinator. Limited to 15 students per section. Fall semester: Lecturers Aldea-Agudo and Twardy and Assistants. Spring semester: Lecturers Aldea-Agudo and Barrios-Beltran and Assistants.

130. Advanced Spanish. While expanding on the grammar essentials covered in SPAN 120, this course helps the student further develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Spanish. It is directed toward students who already have a good linguistic-communicative competency, broadening their contact with different kinds of texts, deepening their grammatical understanding, and enabling them to communicate through a variety of forms and registers. Upon completing the course, students should be able to make themselves understood with accuracy and fluency and participate easily in a wide range of formal and informal communicative situations. An array of literary texts and readings, not ordinarily considered literature and films, will be used. Three hours a week with lecturer plus one hour with a language assistant. Conducted entirely in Spanish. Prepares students for SPAN 199 and literature courses. This course counts for the major.

Requisite: SPAN 120, Spanish Placement Test or with permission of Language Coordinator. Limited to 15 students per section. Fall semester: Senior Lecturer Maillo and Assistants. Spring semester: Lecturer Twardy and Assistants.

135. Spanish Conversation. This course emphasizes fluency speaking and is designed to provide students the opportunity to practice the language through discussion of selected texts and topics of interest. SPAN 135 prepares students to express opinions, ideas, points of view and critiques on debates, readings and films. With this goal in mind, this course will also provide exposure to other language skills important to the development of fluency in speaking Spanish. The course will meet for three hours per week with the lecturer and one hour with a teaching assistant. This course counts for the major.

Requisite: SPAN 130, Spanish Placement Test or with permission of Language Coordinator. Limited to 15 students per section. Fall semester: Lecturer Aldea-Agudo and Assistants. Spring semester: Lecturer Barrios-Beltran and Assistants.

140. Spanish for Heritage Speakers. This course is designed specifically for native or heritage speakers of Spanish with oral proficiency but little or no formal training in the language. Generally, these are learners who were raised in homes where Spanish was spoken. The course is designed to build on the language base students already possess. Spanish-speaking students are not viewed as using an “improper” form of Spanish that is incorrect or needs to be eliminated. Rather, their language is viewed as an extremely valid means of oral communication. The primary purpose of this course is to develop reading and writing skills, although all of four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are emphasized via cultural and community activities.

Limited to 15 students. Fall semester: Barrios-Beltran. Spring semester: Lecturer Twardy.

199. Spanish Composition. In this course students will learn how to approach writing as a process. The emphasis is on writing as a communicative act rather than as a mere language exercise. As such, emphasis is given to the interaction between the author and the text, the target audience, and the purpose and message of the final product. In order to develop the necessary skills that good writers should have, the course will focus on expanding vocabulary, exploring rhetorical techniques for organizing information, developing strategies for writing, and characterizing the target audience(s). At the same time we will insist upon critical readings, and the processes of revising and editing. In addition, this course includes the study of written texts (narrative, description, poems, reports, essays, letters, etc.), and of literature’s many genres and subgenres (prose, poetry, drama, etc.). This course counts for the major. Conducted entirely in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 130, Spanish Placement Test or with permission of Language Coordinator. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester: Senior Lecturer Twardy. Spring semester: Senior Lecturer Maillo.

Panoramic Introductions (200-299)

200. Spanish for Community Engagement. This course is intended to enhance language skills and share knowledge of local Spanish-speaking communities. Organized around field-based learning, the material, shaped into modules, will connect students with pre-existing community service organizations in Holyoke, Springfield, and other nearby urban centers. Class time will be devoted to understanding the concept of voluntarism in a pluralistic society. Sociological and historical readings on Latinos will provide context. Students will spend approximately three hours a week doing volunteer work in the
field.

Requisite: SPAN 199, Spanish Placement Test or consent of Language Coordinator. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Maillo.

211. Introduction to Hispanic Literatures. This course provides an introduction to the diverse literatures of the Spanish-speaking world over the course of six centuries, from the Middle Ages to the turn of the twentieth century. Students will learn the tools and critical vocabulary for advanced work reading the canon of Hispanic literatures from Spain, Latin America, and the Caribbean Basin, identifying aesthetic trends and historical periods such as the Renaissance, the Golden Age, the Romantic era, realism and modernism. The syllabus will include a wide variety of authors of different national, political, and artistic persuasions and an array of linguistic styles. A medium- to high-level knowledge of the Spanish language and reasonable proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish are required. This course counts for the major. Conducted entirely in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester: Professor Brenneis. Spring semester: Professor Suárez.

212. Hispanic World: Past, Present and Future. A survey course that provides an understanding and appreciation of the Spanish-speaking world (including both North and South America and Spain) through language, geography, history, economics, sociopolitical issues, folklore, literature and art. The different units in this course are geographically oriented, and they will focus on individual countries or particular Hispanic groups. Writing skills will be refined by the completion of research papers, and communication skills will be developed further by class discussions and oral presentations. Comprehension will be enhanced by presenting students with literary texts, movies, documentaries and periodicals. The course is conducted entirely in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, Spanish Placement Test or consent of Language Coordinator. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Maillo.

215. Latino Literature. A survey course that focuses on the polyphonic literary production of Latinos in the United States, from the colonial period (Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, Alvar Nùñez Cabeza de Vaca) and the age of independence (Eugenio María de Hostos, José Martí), to the Chicano Movement (Cesar Chavez, Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzáles), the Nuyorrican Poets (Miguel Algarín, Pedro Pietri, Tato Laviera), the Puerto Rican Young Lords (Iris Morales, Pablo “Yoruba” Guzmán), and the contemporary period (Julia Alvarez, Oscar Hijuelos, Esmeralda Santiago, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Junot Díaz). Attention will be given to various genres—poetry, fiction, chronicle, memoir, essay, and theater—exploring the continuity and change in a tradition made of distinct, often incompatible national groups like Mexican Americans, Cuban-Americans, and Puerto Ricans in the mainland. Conducted in English.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Stavans.

228. Seventeenth-Century European Theater. (Offered as SPAN 228 and EUST 228.) Readings of plays by Spanish, English and French playwrights of what has been, in the modern world, the great century of the stage. Works of Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, Shakespeare, Molière, Racine, Webster and Wycherly. Conducted in English. Students will read plays in the original languages whenever possible.

Limited to 40 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Maraniss.

230. Introduction to the Literatures of the Dominican Republic and Its Diaspora. This class will introduce students to four fundamental literary and ideological periods of Dominican letters: late nineteenth-century nation formation essays, twentieth-century writing under the Trujillo dictatorship, mid-century women’s poetry, and contemporary diaspora fiction. By examining a select series of essays, poetry, short stories, and fiction, we will explore the political construction of race, the implications of a brutal dictatorship, the impact of traumatic memory, and the calls for human rights action. The class will be conducted in Spanish (readings, assignments, and discussion).

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Suárez.

232. Women Writers of Spain. (Offered as SPAN 232 and WAGS 232.) Twentieth-century Spanish women writers have carved out a particular niche in the canon of Spanish literature. Often envisioned as a single entity, they have distinguished themselves as individual writers, just as their male counterparts have. In reading contemporary novels, short fiction, essays and poetry authored by women, this course will consider how one defines an escritura femenina in Spain and what, if anything, differentiates the escritura femenina as a gendered space from other modes of writing. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Brenneis.

236. Representation and Reality in Spanish Cinema. (Offered as SPAN 236, EUST 232 and FAMS 328.) Once severely constrained by dictator Francisco Franco’s censorship laws and rarely exported beyond the country’s borders, Spanish film has been transformed into an internationally-known cinema in the last decades. This course offers a critical overview of Spanish film from 1950 to the present, examining how Spain’s culture and society are imagined onscreen by directors such as Berlanga, Erice, Bollaín, and Almodóvar. Students will analyze works of Spanish cinema alongside theoretical and critical texts, exploring such topics as gendered roles in contemporary society, immigration, globalization, censorship, and experiences of war and violence. We will also track the sociological, cultural, and political forces inside Spain that have inspired such cinematic representations. This course provides an introduction to visual analysis and critical writing about film and will be conducted in English. Students are expected to attend weekly screenings where films will be shown in Spanish with English subtitles. Spanish majors who wish to count this course toward fulfillment of requirements will be asked to write papers in Spanish.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Brenneis.

240. Fact or Fiction: Representations of Latina and Latin-American Women in Film and Literature. (Offered as SPAN 240 and WAGS 241) From La Malinche (sixteenth century) to J Lo, Latin American and Latina women have been sexualized, demonized, objectified, and even erased by narrative and visual representations. Feminist texts have interrogated and complicated sexist and stereotypical master narratives; yet, a tension remains that repeatedly places women of color on a complex stage. In this class we will analyze the discrepancies and convergences between fictional representations of Latin American and Latina lives and their personal stories of survival, assimilation, success, and economically driven daily negotiations to make ends meet in an increasingly globalized economy. We will examine myths of femininity and beauty, learn about the conditions of sex work in the Caribbean, and explore U.S. policies such as the Good Neighbor Policy to think critically about representations of women in Latin America and the U.S. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Suarez.

295. Latin American Poetry. A panoramic, historical study of poetry and its aesthetic movements in Latin America (including Brazil) from the colonial period to the present. The course explores the way Spanish and Portuguese became the main language of aesthetic expression after the Iberian conquest but also analyzes forms of poetic resistance that aboriginal languages like Nahuatl, Mayan, Quechua, Mapuche, and Aymara have employed. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the astonishing seventeenth-century Mexican nun, starts a journey that continues with Modernistas like José Martí (Cuba) and Rubén Darío (Nicaragua), the Christian meditations of César Vallejo (Peru), the cosmopolitanism of Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), the motherly vision of Gabriela Mistral (Chile), the negritud of José Guillén (Cuba), and the symphonic endeavors of Pablo Neruda (Chile), Carlos Drummond de Andrade (Brazil), and Octavio Paz (Mexico). Contemporary trends by poets born between 1930 and 1970 are also contemplated. In the region, poetry and politics always go hand in hand and the crossroads is the leitmotif of the course. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Stavans.

Nation-Specific Studies (300-359)

316. Golden Age Literature. A study of Spanish consciousness from the beginning through the Golden Age. Emphasis on the chivalric and picaresque traditions, mystical poetry, sacred and secular drama, and the invention of the novel. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Maraniss.

320. Generations of 1898 and 1927. Readings from major writers of the Spanish generations of 1898 and 1927: Baroja, Machado, Valle-Inclán, Miró, García Lorca, Salinas, Alberti, Guillén, Cernuda. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Maraniss.

344. The Spanish Civil War: Art, Politics, and Violence. (RC) Seventy years ago, the Spanish Second Republic was engaged in a civil conflict that had become a holy war to the European left and right. This course will examine the effects of the war and its passions upon the lives and works of several exemplary writers and artists in England (Orwell, Auden, Romilly, Cornford), France (Malraux, Bernanos, Simon), Spain (Machado, Hernández, Lorca, Picasso), the United States (Hemingway, Dos Passos), and South America (Neruda, Vallejo). Students are encouraged to read texts in the original languages whenever possible. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Maraniss.

346. Cuba after 1989: Culture, Film, and Literature. In 1989 the Berlin Wall was chiseled away, changing global culture and politics forever. In Eastern Europe, the rhetoric and divisions necessitated to fuel the cold war were transformed into new discourses of democracy and capitalist opportunities. In contrast, Cuba, remaining an iron-clad communist state, fell into a deep “periódo especial,” which ushered in a two-tiered economy greatly dependent on the European tourist industry. The revolutionary dream, many would argue, was then voided. Arguably, “fin-de-siglo” Cuba is a state in crisis. And a new, rich, often hypnotic, production of culture, film, and literature is available to give us a sensational glimpse of the latest of Cuban conditions. In this class we will be reading and screening some of the most outstanding materials from this period. Authors will include Abilio Estévez, Zoe Valdés, Pedro Juan Guttiérez, and Daína Chaviano. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Suárez.

352. Barcelona. [RC] As a global city with a local identity, Barcelona resides both literally and figuratively at the border between Spain and the rest of the world. This interdisciplinary course will explore the in-between space this vibrant city inhabits at the turn of the 21st century, at once imagined as a tourist’s playground in films and popular novels, while also actively guarding its particular Catalan cultural roots. Students will study architectural, literary, cinematic, linguistic and political movements set amid the urban cityscape of Barcelona, focusing on the city’s role in the exportation of a unique Spanish and Catalan identity beyond Spain’s borders. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Brenneis.

355. Madrid. Considered the heart of Spain by some and an authoritative figurehead by others, Madrid is unquestionably a space of cultural and political conflict while serving as a visible intermediary between the Iberian Peninsula and the world. Incorporating an interdisciplinary study of film, popular music, fiction, art, political movements, history and topography of the city, this course will seek to explore the place of Madrid in the Spanish and global popular imagination. Particular emphasis will be placed on the city’s role in the Spanish Civil War, the urban culture of the Franco dictatorship, the movida madrileña of the 1980s, and the present-day role of Madrid in global politics, particularly as pertains to the 2004 terrorist attacks and their political and cultural aftermath. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 of consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Brenneis.

356. Puerto Rican Flows. [RC] In this class we will examine the historic and political settings that have shaped Puerto Rican migrations, as well as the constructions of Puerto Rican national and diaspora identity through seminal literatures and films. Industrialization of Puerto Rico, discourses of national transformation, economic failures, barrio culture, representations of moral decay, and manifestos of survival and new modalities of bi-culturalism will be interrogated in order to achieve a nuanced understanding of Puerto Rican realities both on the island and the mainland. Some of the authors to be explored include Pedro Rivera, Julia de Burgos, Rosario Ferré, Ana Lydia Vega, and Piñero. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Suárez.

Courses Specialized by Author and Text (360-369)

360. Jorge Luis Borges. An in-depth, multifaceted analysis of the philosophical, theological, esthetic, and political trends of the Argentine hombre de letras Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). The course starts with his early poetry in Fervor de Buenos Aires, and concludes with world fame as one of the most influential 20th-century writers. Special attention is paid to his mid-career works, especially Otras Inquisiciones and Ficciones. Borges’ aesthetic and intellectual development is looked at against the current of Argentina’s political events and in the context of Latin American history. His views on God, death, memory, nationalism, and translation are explored as are his connection to the Bible, the Arabian Nights, the Icelandic sagas, Dante, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Nazism, and Gaucho literature. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Stavans.

361. Robert Bolaño. (RC) An exploration of the Chilean writer’s life and work in the context of the Pinochet coup, the effects of the Cold War, and his exile in Mexico and Spain. Attention will be given to Bolaño as a self-professed outcast from the mainstream tradition in Latin American literature and his connection to Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Roberto Arlt, and Nicanor Parra, among other precursors. His stories (Last Evenings on Earth), novellas (Distant Star, Nazi Literature in the Americas, etc.), and portions of The Savage Detectives and 2666 will be analyzed in detail. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Stavans.

362. Pablo Neruda. An exploration of the life and work of the prolific Chilean poet (1904-1973) and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. His work will be read chronologically, starting with Twenty Love Poems and a Song Of Despair and ending with his five posthumous collections. Special attention will be paid to Residence On Earth and Canto General. The counterpoint of politics and literature will define the classroom discussion. Neruda’s role as witness of, and sometimes participant in, the Spanish Civil War, the Cuban Revolution, the workers’ and students’ upheaval in Latin America in the sixties, and the failed presidency of Salvador Allende in Chile will serve as background. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Stavans.

363. One Hundred Years of Solitude. (RC) A detailed study of the novel by Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1967. Although other works written by the Colombian author will also be discussed (stories, essays, reportage, and fragments of other novels), the course will concentrate on the structure, style, motifs, historical and aesthetic context of the masterwork that brought him the Nobel Prize in Literature. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Professor Stavans.

365. Cervantes. Don Quixote de la Mancha and some of Cervantes’ “exemplary novels” will be read, along with other Spanish works of the time, which were present at the novels’ birth. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken SPAN 364. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Maraniss.

Thematic Analyses (370-400)

385. Early Spanish American Women Writers. (Offered as SPAN 385 and WAGS 309.) [RC] In this course we will study the writings of women of Spanish America from 1556 to the end of the 19thcentury, focusing on writers who came from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, Peru and Colombia. Their writings cover the colonial period as well as that of post-independence, and trace the ever-strengthening role of the female voice in Spanish American literature. There are the voices of an early settler in Argentina and Paraguay, three nuns (Catalina de Erauso, transvestite and soldier; the incomparable Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; and the visionary Madre Castillo) followed by an important group of 19thcentury women who were finally able to make a living by their pen. The most famous of these is Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, who wrote the first antislavery novel of the Americas, eleven years ahead of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Most of them knew and supported each other by ties of friendship and a strong professional network. In all of these voices one will hear articulated the desire for the right to express themselves as women and to be heard in a field that was decidedly masculine and often hostile to their efforts. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13.

386. Food: Power, Identity, Memory. This course will look at some of the most important texts from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century in order to trace the importance that food played in the colonization and development of Spanish America: Columbus (his initial encounters; search for spices; concerns about feeding his fleet); Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Miguel León Portilla (the conquest of Mexico—are you what you eat?); Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s odyssey of hunger in the U.S. Southwest; Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, first official chronicler of the Indies and their flora; the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (first important mestizo historian) on the beginnings of the food exchange; Arzáns de Orsúa y Vela on the association between coca and witchcraft in colonial Potosí.

Nuns had their own rules about fasting and discipline of the body: we will look at Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and her late seventeenth-century contemporary Madre María de San José and also examine the turmoil caused by nuns’ unwillingness to give up drinking chocolate. We will study the famous eighteenth-century Castas Paintings, which pair racial mixtures and autochthonous foods, as well as Concolorcorvo’s travels and his descriptions of the food practices of the gauchos. While poet Andrés Bello celebrated the fertility of the tropical American land, Argentina’s foremost woman writer, Juana Manuela Gorriti, created a celebrity community cookbook which offers a fascinating glimpse of her social, literary and economic context. We will read works by both writers. Since travel literature was an important genre in this century, we will also read Argentine Eduarda Mansilla de García’s 1861 narrative of her visit to the United States and her impressions of the country and of the food. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13.

389. Postwar Spain and the Novel. This course offers an examination of how authors and readers grapple with questions of history and narration in postwar Spain. Spanish novelists were often subject to censorship and overt oppression by the Franco dictatorship while they struggled to understand their own history and translate it onto the page. We will study the historical and cultural background of dictatorship and democratic Spain (1940-present), reading novels by authors such as Cela, Matute, Martín Gaite and Cercas that reflect the diversity of modern Spanish literature and its authors. In addition, students will encounter historical accounts, critical/theoretical materials, and multimedia in order to gain a more complete understanding of how scholars approach the era and its reflection in literature. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Brenneis.

392. Spanish Detectives and the género negro. (Offered as SPAN 392 and EUST 312) The Spanish detective narrative has developed as a manifestation of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Spain’s confrontations with social and political chaos. Offering a critical examination of a genre that has both resided on and represented the margins of Spanish society, this course traces the rise of the Spanish género negro during and after the Franco dictatorship, through its arrival in recent years as a mainstream, exportable cultural phenomenon. Readings will consist of contemporary Spanish novels by authors such as Javier Marías and Antonio Muñoz Molina, critical approaches to the genre, and short narrative works from Latin America and the United States for a comparative perspective. Additional films and other media consisting of detective parodies, popular suspense tales, and new trends in historical investigation from Spain will also come under examination. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211, 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Brenneis.

490. Special Topics. The Department calls attention to the fact that Special Topics courses may be offered to students on either an individual or group basis.

Students interested in forming a group course on some aspect of Hispanic life and culture are invited to talk over possibilities with a representative of the Department. When possible, this should be done several weeks in advance of the semester in which the course is to be taken.

Fall and spring semesters.

490H. Special Topics. The Department calls attention to the fact that Special Topics courses may be offered to students on either an individual or group basis. Half course.

Students interested in forming a group course on some aspect of Hispanic life and culture are invited to talk over possibilities with a representative of the Department. When possible, this should be done several weeks in advance of the semester in which the course is to be taken.

Fall and spring semesters.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. One single course.

Fall semester. The Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. A single course. Spring semester. The Department.

TEACHING

Students interested in teaching and education can pursue, during their four years at Amherst, Massachusetts state licensure for teaching in middle and secondary schools. Reciprocity agreements between Massachusetts and approximately 45 other states permit students licensed in Massachusetts to qualify for public school positions across the country. Those who wish to obtain licensure for public school teaching may draw upon our liaison with the Psychology and Education Department at Mount Holyoke College to complete the requirements for initial licensure during their undergraduate years. Acceptance into the Mount Holyoke program requires a formal application early in the spring term of the student’s junior year. This initial licensure will enable graduates to teach in public schools for up to five years before they obtain a master’s degree in education (M.Ed).

Because the requirements for Massachusetts licensure involve both course-work and a considerable number of hours engaged in classroom teaching, students interested in the possibility of a public school teaching career should consult with the education advisor in the Career Center, Sarah Frenette, and with the faculty advisors to the Program in Secondary School Teaching, Professors Barry O’Connell and Karen Sánchez-Eppler of the English Department, as early as possible in their time at Amherst. In addition to meeting “Field of Knowledge” content requirements in the subject area in which they seek licensure, students will need the following courses, or their equivalents, in order to participate in the Mount Holyoke program. Many of these can be taken at Amherst; others in any of the Five Colleges. A few must be taken at Mount Holyoke (indicated by an *).

1. Adolescent Psychology

2. Educational Psychology

3. A course in multicultural education

4. Observing and Assisting in Inclusive Classrooms (Educ. 320j a January interterm course at Mount Holyoke College or TEAMS at University of Massachusetts among other possibilities)

5. Educ. 330* Process of Teaching and Learning in Middle and Secondary Schools

6. A subject specific methods course

7. Teaching (Math, English, etc.) In Secondary School, an Amherst College special topics course taken in conjunction with the teaching internship

8. Educ. 331* Teaching Internship. This is a double course at Amherst College, to be taken in the spring semester of the senior year or during a ninth term at Mount Holyoke College

9. Educ. 333* Seminar in Teaching and Learning: Middle and Secondary Schools

These last three requirements will comprise a student’s full load during the spring “practicum” semester of their senior year.

Passage of the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL) is required of all participants in the Mount Holyoke College Program. Tests are administered four times each year in October, January, April and June. Application forms and test preparation materials are available at the Amherst College Career Center and online along with the most current list of test dates and locations at http://www.mtel.nesinc.com/.

Theater and Dance

†On leave fall semester 2012-13.

Professors Dougan (Chair) and Woodson; Assistant Professor Bashford; Five College Assistant Professor Matteson; Senior Resident Artist Lobdell†; Playwright-in-Residence Congdon; Five College Professor Valis-Hill; Five College Lecturer Sylla; Visiting Lecturers Robinson and TBA.

Curriculum. The study of theater and dance is an integrated one. While recognizing historical differences between these arts, the department emphasizes their aesthetic and theoretical similarities. The basic structure of the curriculum and the organizational pattern of the department’s production activities are designed to promote the collaborative and interdependent nature of the theatrical arts. Faculty, staff and major students form the nucleus of the production team and are jointly responsible for the college’s Theater and Dance season. Advanced students carry specific production assignments. Students in Core Courses and in Courses in the Arts of Theater and Dance also participate, through laboratory experiences, in the creation and performance of departmental productions.

Major Program. In the election of departmental courses, students may choose to integrate the many aspects of theater and dance or to focus on such specific areas as choreography, playwriting, directing, design, acting, performance art and video. Because advanced courses in theater and dance are best taken in a prescribed sequence, students preparing to major in the department are advised to complete the three Core Courses and one course in the Arts of Theater and Dance by the end of the sophomore year. Two of the three core courses are offered every semester in rotation. Students interested in the possibility of majoring in the Department should consult with the Chair as soon as possible.

Minimum Requirements. The three Core Courses; two courses in the History, Literature and Theory of Theater and Dance (one of which must be THDA 114, Sources of Contemporary Performance); two courses in the Arts of Theater and Dance (For the purpose of fulfilling this requirement, two half-courses in dance technique approved by the Department may replace one course in the Arts of Theater and Dance); one advanced course in the Arts of Theater and Dance; the Major Series: 400H and 498 or 499. More specific information about courses which fulfill requirements in the above categories can be obtained from the Department office.

The Senior Project. Every Theater and Dance major will undertake a Senior Project. In fulfillment of this requirement, a student may present work as author, director, choreographer, designer, and/or performer in one or more pieces for public performance. Or a student may write a critical, historical, literary or theoretical essay on some aspect of theater and dance. As an alternative, and with the approval of the department, a student may present design portfolio work, a directorial production book or a complete original playscript. In such cases, there will be no public performance requirement. In all cases, the project will represent a synthesis or expansion of the student’s education in theater and dance.

Project proposals are developed in the junior year and must be approved by the faculty. That approval will be based on the project’s suitability as a comprehensive exercise. Because departmental resources are limited, the opportunity to undertake a production project is not automatic. Approval for production projects will be granted after an evaluation of the practicability of the project seen in the context of the department’s other production commitments. Written proposals outlining the process by which the project will be developed and the nature of the product which will result must be submitted to the Department chair by April 1 of the academic year before the project is proposed to take place. The faculty will review, and in some cases request modifications in the proposals, accepting or rejecting them by May 1. Students whose production proposals do not meet departmental criteria will undertake a written project.

Comprehensive Evaluation. Because the Theater and Dance curriculum is sequenced, successful completion of the required courses and of the major series—Production Studio and Senior Project—represents satisfaction of the departmental comprehensive requirement. In addition, majors are required to attend departmental meetings and end-of-the-semester interviews each semester.

Departmental Honors Program. Departmental recommendations for Honors will be based on faculty evaluation of three factors: (1) the quality of the Senior Project, including the documentation and written work which accompanies it; (2) the student’s academic record in the department; and (3) all production work undertaken in the department during the student’s career at Amherst.

Extra-Curriculum. In both its courses and its production activities, the Department welcomes all students who wish to explore the arts of theater and dance. This includes students who wish to perform or work backstage as an extracurricular activity, students who elect a course or two in the department with a view toward enriching their study of other areas, students who take many courses in the department and also participate regularly in the production program while majoring in another department, as well as students who ultimately decide to major in theater and dance.

Core Courses in Theater and Dance

111. The Language of Movement. An introduction to movement as a language and to dance and performance composition. In studio sessions students will explore and expand their individual movement vocabularies by working improvisationally with weight, posture, gesture, patterns, rhythm, space, and relationship of body parts. We will ask what these vocabularies might communicate about emotion, thought, physical structures, cultural/social traditions, and aesthetic preferences. In addition, we will observe movement practices in everyday situations and in formal performance events and use these observations as inspiration for individual and group compositions. Two two-hour class/studio meetings and a two-hour production workshop per week. Selected readings and viewing of video and live performance.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Woodson.

112. Materials of Theater. An introduction to design, directing, and performance conducted in a combined discussion/workshop format. Students will be exposed to visual methods of interpreting a text. Early class discussions focus on a theoretical exploration of theater as an art form and seek to establish a vocabulary for and understanding of basic theatrical conventions, with readings from Aristotle through Robert Wilson. Students will spend the bulk of the semester testing these theories for themselves, ultimately designing their own performances for two plays. Two two-hour classes and two-hour production workshop included in this time.

Limited to 12 students per section. Spring semester. Professor Dougan.

113. Action and Character. This course examines what happens on stage (the action) and “how” that action happens (the character) from the points of view of the playwright and the actor. The course assumes that the creative processes of both the actor and the playwright are similar. Therefore, the students will write scenes and at least one short play, which will be rehearsed as homework for presentation in class. Students will be given a series of acting and playwriting exercises to develop craft and to reinforce their understanding of creative processes. Students will be assigned plays and certain critical texts to support their work in writing and acting. Three two-hour class meetings and a two-hour production workshop per week.

Enrollment in each section is limited but early registration does not confer preferential consideration. Twenty students attending the first class will be admitted. Selection will be based upon the instructor’s attempt to achieve a suitable balance between first-year students and upperclassmen and between men and women, and to achieve a broad range of levels of acting experience. Notice of those admitted will be posted within 24 hours of the first meeting and a waiting list will be available.

Fall semester: Professor Bashford. Spring semester: Professor Lobdell.

Courses in the Arts, History, Theory and Literature of Theater and Dance

114. Sources of Contemporary Performance. The status quo says, “We do it the way it’s always been done.” The artist replies, “I have an idea, let’s try it another way.” Thus advance theater and dance. Thus evolve opera, happenings and performance art. This course explores several seminal theatrical events and the artists who created them. These innovations changed the course of theater and dance in the 20th century, thereby preparing those who follow to make the new art of the 21st.

After reviewing basic artistic and theoretical assumptions which governed the making of theatrical entertainment at the end of the 19th century, the course will look at playwrights, performers, choreographers, designers, directors and theorists whose ideas opened up new ways of looking at the craft of making those space-time objects we struggle to categorize as plays, dances, operas, performances and events. Particular attention will fall on work that is difficult to correctly place in a single category. Research in primary material such as plays, manifestos, documentary photographs, period criticism, and video transcriptions. Critical papers comparing and contrasting works will be studied. (Required of all majors)

Omitted 2012-13.

115H. Contemporary Dance: Modern 1/2. The study and practice of contemporary movement vocabularies, including regional dance forms, contact improvisation and various modern dance techniques. Objectives include the intellectual and physical introduction to this discipline as well as increased body awareness, alignment, flexibility, coordination, strength, musical phrasing and the expressive potential of movement. The course material is presented at the beginning/intermediate level. A half course. Because the specific genres and techniques will vary from semester to semester, the course may be repeated for credit.

Omitted 2012-13.

116H. Contemporary Dance Techniques: Modern 2/3. The study and practice of contemporary movement vocabularies, including regional dance forms, contact improvisation and various modern dance techniques. Objectives include the intellectual and physical introduction to this discipline as well as increased body awareness, alignment, flexibility, coordination, strength, musical phrasing and the expressive potential of movement. The course material is presented at the beginning/intermediate level. A half course. Because the specific genres and techniques will vary from semester to semester, the course may be repeated for credit.

Omitted 2012-13.

119H. Contemporary Dance Techniques: Contact Improvisation. The study and practice of contemporary movement vocabularies, including regional dance forms, contact improvisation and various modern dance techniques. Objectives include the intellectual and physical introduction to this discipline as well as increased body awareness, alignment, flexibility, coordination, strength, musical phrasing and the expressive potential of movement. The course material is presented at the beginning/intermediate level. A half course. Because the specific genres and techniques will vary from semester to semester, the course may be repeated for credit.

Omitted 2012-13.

120H. Contemporary Dance Techniques: Ballet/Modern 1/2. The study and practice of contemporary movement vocabularies, including regional dance forms, contact improvisation and various modern dance techniques. Objectives include the intellectual and physical introduction to this discipline as well as increased body awareness, alignment, flexibility, coordination, strength, musical phrasing and the expressive potential of movement. The course material is presented at the beginning/intermediate level. A half course. Because the specific genres and techniques will vary from semester to semester, the course may be repeated for credit.

Omitted 2012-13.

121H. Contemporary Dance Technique: Modern/Ballet 2/3. The study and practice of contemporary movement vocabularies, including regional dance forms, contact improvisation and various modern dance techniques. Objectives include the intellectual and physical introduction to this discipline as well as increased body awareness, alignment, flexibility, coordination, strength, musical phrasing and the expressive potential of movement. The course material is presented at the beginning/intermediate level. A half course. Because the specific genres and techniques will vary from semester to semester, the course may be repeated for credit.

Spring semester. Guest artist TBA.

125H. The Craft of Speaking I: Vocal Freedom. A beginning studio course in the development of voice for speaking. Students develop range and tone through regular physical exercises in relaxation, breathing technique, placement, and presence. Individual attention focuses on helping each student develop the physical, mental, and emotional self-awareness needed for expressive vocal production. Practice is oriented toward acting for the stage, but students with a primary interest in public speaking, teaching, or improved interpersonal communication will find this course valuable. Three class meetings per week. A modicum of reading and written reflection is required. Only 20 students who attend the first class will be admitted based on class and major.

Fall semester. Professor Bashford.

142H. Contemporary Dance Techniques: West African. The study and practice of contemporary movement vocabularies, including regional dance forms, contact improvisation and various modern dance techniques. Because the specific genres and techniques will vary from semester to semester, the course may be repeated for credit. Objectives include the intellectual and physical introduction to this discipline as well as increased body awareness, alignment, flexibility, coordination, strength, musical phrasing and the expressive potential of movement. The course material is presented at the beginning/intermediate level.

Fall semester. Five College Lecturer Sylla.

160. Dynamics of Play Reading: Elements, Structures, Paradigms. This course explores various elements of dramatic literature and their implications for audience experiences in performance. Character, language, spectacle, plotting and theme are studied in the light of dynamic play structures. In addition to exercises in analytical and descriptive writing, students undertake experiential projects that explore underlying theatrical and narrative paradigms of the plays studied. Exemplary plays are chosen for their contrasting qualities, from antiquity to the present, and are read alongside related theoretical and critical texts. Particular emphasis is placed on exploring the legacy of classical form and later evolutionary and innovative responses to it. Playwrights considered include Euripides, Shakespeare, Shaw, Brecht, Weiss, Pinter and Kane among others.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Bashford.

161. Modes of Realism in Dramatic Literature. This course considers the evolution of conventions of theatrical realism in plays since the late nineteenth century. In particular, we consider the ways that playwrights—and later directors—exploit or challenge ideas about the perceived authenticity of theatrical representation. At issue are conventions governing action, character representation, and theatrical image as the bases for thematic, political and cultural intents. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the roles that audiences are intended to play in performance and the artistic means employed to engage them. Following consideration of Ibsen and Chekhov, the work of relevant realistic and quasi-realistic playwrights from the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries provides material for exploration of the course theme. We also explore the interplay of related artistic movements and technology with the evolution of theatrical conventions and directorial influence.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Bashford.

171. Twentieth-Century American Dance: Sixties Vanguard to Nineties Hip-Hop. Cool, candid, athletic; playful, arrogant, and promiscuous: Sixties experimental dance works were wildly divergent but can collectively be seen as a revolt against the institution of American modern dance as they offered bold alternatives as to who was a dancer, what made a dance, what was “beautiful” and worth watching, and what was “art.” Mirroring the decade that was marked by tumultuous social and political change and guided by the decade’s liberating ideal, sixties vanguard dancers often outrageously (and naively) invalidated modern dance’s authority by “going beyond democracy into anarchy.” Jill Johnston wrote about the rebels of the Judson Dance Theatre, “No member outstanding. No body necessarily more beautiful than any other body. No movement necessarily more important or more beautiful than any other movement.”

This survey of twentieth-century American dance moves from the sixties—a decade of revolt and redefinition in American modern dance that provoked new ideas about dance, the dancer’s body and a radically changed dance aesthetic—to the radical postmodernism of the nineties when the body continued to be the site for debates about the nature of gender, ethnicity and sexuality. We will investigate how the political and social environment of the sixties, particularly the Black Power and Women’s Movement, informed the work of succeeding generations of dance artists and yielded new theories about the relationship between cultural forms and the construction of identities.

Omitted 2012-13. Five College Dance Professor Valis Hill.

209. Contemporary Dance Technique and Repertory Modern 2/3. This course will include studio sessions in contemporary modern/jazz dance technique at the intermediate level and rehearsal sessions to create original choreography; the completed piece(s) will be presented in concert at the end of the semester. The emphasis in the course will be to increase expressive range, technical skills and performance versatility of the dancer through the practice, creation and performance of technique and choreography. In addition, the course will include required readings, the viewing of dance videos and live performances to give an increased understanding of the historical and contemporary context for the work. Audition for course enrollment will be held the first day of class.

Omitted 2012-13.

215H. Contemporary Dance Techniques: Modern 3/4. Spring semester. Guest Artist TBA.

216. Contemporary Dance: Modern 4/5 Technique and Repertory. This course will include studio sessions in contemporary modern/jazz dance technique at the intermediate level and rehearsal sessions to create original choreography; the completed piece(s) will be presented in concert at the end of the semester. The emphasis in the course will be to increase expressive range, technical skills and performance versatility of the dancer through the practice, creation and performance of technique and choreography. In addition, the course will include required readings, the viewing of dance videos and live performances to give an increased understanding of the historical and contemporary context for the work. Audition for course enrollment will be held the first day of class.

Fall semester. Five College Professor Matteson.

216H. Contemporary Dance Techniques: Modern 4/5. The study and practice of contemporary movement vocabularies, including regional dance forms, contact improvisation and various modern dance techniques. Objectives include the intellectual and physical introduction to this discipline as well as increased body awareness, alignment, flexibility, coordination, strength, musical phrasing and the expressive potential of movement. The course material is presented at the beginning/intermediate level. A half course. Because the specific genres and techniques will vary from semester to semester, the course may be repeated for credit.

Fall semester. Five College Professor Matteson.

225H. The Craft of Speaking II: Spoken Expression. In this second course in the craft of speaking, students learn to shape and speak text to powerful effect. Students build on prior work to extend vocal range and capacity while learning component principles of spoken expression. Articulation, inflection, methods of contrast and interpretation, tone, verbal imaging and aural structures of poetry and rhetoric are practiced in a studio setting. Emphasis is placed on personal engagement and presence to others while speaking. Assignments in text scoring and memorization support class work. The course culminates in a public presentation of student work. Three class meetings per week.

Requisite: THDA 125H. Spring semester. Professor Bashford.

228. Feminist Performance. (Offered as THDA 228 and WAGS 228.) The Women’s Liberation Movement dramatically affected the American social and intellectual climate of the 1970s. In art, as in education, medicine, and politics, women sought equality and economic parity as they actively fought against the mainstream values that had been used to exclude them. Performance art proved to be an ideal match for the feminist agenda—it was personal, immediate, and highly effective in communicating an alternate view of power in the world. Artists explored autobiography, the female body, myth, and politics, and played a crucial role in developing and expanding the very nature of performance, consciously uniting the agendas of social politics with art. This class will take us from Yoko Ono’s performances of “Cut Piece” and the Judson Dance Theater’s proto-feminist experiments of the 1960s to the radical guerilla-style performances of the 1970s and beyond, where the body was the contested site for debates about the nature of gender, ethnicity and sexuality. We will be looking at works that were not polite demands for legislative change, but raw and sloppy theatrical displays and ecstatic bonding experiences that managed to be at once satirical and celebratory, alienating and illuminating.

Fall semester. Five College Dance Professor Valis-Hill.

229. Chekhov And His Theater. (Offered as RUSS 229 and THDA 229). Anton Chekhov’s reputation rests as much on his dramaturgy as on his fiction. His plays, whose staging by the Moscow Art Theater helped revolutionize Russian and world theater, endure in the modern repertoire. In this course, we will study his dramatic oeuvre in its cultural and historical context, drawing on the biographical and critical literature on Chekhov, printed and visual materials concerning the late nineteenth-century European theater, and the writings of figures like Constantin Stanislavsky, who developed a new acting method in response to Chekhov’s art. We also will examine key moments in the production history of Chekhov’s plays in Russian, English, and American theater and film.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Ciepiela and Playwright-in-Residence Congdon.

230. The Actor’s Instrument. Technical issues of the body, voice, will, and imagination for the actor; exercises and readings in acting theory. Introduction of techniques to foster physical and emotional concentration, will and imaginative freedom. Exploration of Chekhov psycho-physical work, Hagen object exercises, Spolin and Johnstone improvisation formats, sensory and image work, mask and costume exercises, and neutral dialogues. The complex interweaving of the actor’s and the character’s intention/action in rehearsal and performance is the constant focus of the class. Three two-hour class meetings per week.

Requisite: THDA 113. Omitted 2012-13. Resident Artist Lobdell.

240. The Director’s Process. This course explores the process of directing plays for the stage. Studio exercises develop skills in key areas: interpretation of form and artistic intent, perception and sensibility in rehearsal, effective communication with actors, and balancing the interplay between action and text. Students stage scenes from distinct categories: plays in verse, realistic plays, and non-realistic or less literal modern and contemporary plays. Emphasis is placed on the role of dramaturgical understanding in the creation of meaningful stage action. Text is chosen from a wide repertoire, including Euripides, Shakespeare, Molière, Chekov, Williams, Shepherd, Kushner, Kane and McDonagh. The course culminates in a group directed ensemble piece. Throughout, students engage in reflective writing and practical research assignments, and manage class work with peers to achieve mutual rehearsal goals. Class meetings include discussion of theoretical readings and play texts. Two meetings per week. Students should expect to schedule significant outside rehearsal time.

Requisites: One of the following—THDA 111, 112 or 113, or equivalent college-level experience with consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Bashford.

242. Plays in Play: The Ensemble and the Playwright. In this course, students conduct a semester-long rehearsal investigation into the work of a particular playwright, and explore ways in which coordinated action renders distinctive writing in theatrical form. We will examine selected plays, background material, and study theatrical conventions related to the selected playwright, and we will practice ensemble techniques of close textual investigation, acting and staging. Emphasis is placed on the means and practical advantages of developing a shared vision, and on the analytical and performative ways of communicating required to do so. While primarily geared toward students interested in acting and directing, the course is designed to develop a collaborative model of the functions of acting, directing, designing and dramaturgy. All students should expect to act, co-direct, conduct research, and explore basic design implications together. The course will culminate in a workshop-style performance. This course may be repeated once when the playwright/topic is different. The chosen playwright for fall of 2012 is Molière.

Requisite: A prior course in THDA or permission of the instructor. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Bashford.

250. Video Production: Bodies in Motion. (Offered as THDA 250 and FAMS 341.) This studio production class will focus on multiple ways of tracking, viewing, and capturing bodies in motion. The course will emphasize working with the camera as an extension of the body to explore radically different points of view and senses of focus. We will experiment with different techniques and different kinds of bodies (human, animal, and object) to bring a heightened awareness of kinesthetic involvement, animation and emotional immediacy to the bodies on screen and behind the camera. In addition, we will interject and follow bodies into different perceptions of time, progression, place and relationship. In the process, we will express various experiences and theories of embodiment and question what constitutes a body. Depending on student interests, final projects can range from choreographies for the camera to fictional narratives to documentary studies. The class will alternate between camera sessions, both in the studio and on location, and sessions in the editing suite working with Final Cut Pro.

Requisite: Previous experience in composition. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2012-13.

252. Scripts and Scores. This course will provide structures and approaches for creating original choreography, performance pieces and events. An emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary and experimental approaches to composition, choreography, and performance making. These approaches include working with text and movement, visual systems and environments, music, sound and chance scores to inspire and include in performance. Students will create and perform dance, theater, or performance art pieces for both traditional theater spaces and for found (indoor and outdoor) spaces.

This course is open to dancers and actors as well as interested students from other media and disciplines. Two two-hour class meetings per week and weekly lab/rehearsal sessions. Consent of the instructor is required for students with no experience in improvisation or composition.

Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Woodson.

254. Sound Design for Live Performance. What is the role of sound in live performance, and how is it designed and produced? This course provides an introduction to the fundamentals of sound design in live performance contexts from both technical and artistic perspectives. Students will explore the fundamentals of audio production and acoustics through a series of short projects, covering a range of topics from using various sound-editing software applications, including ProTools, Logic and other DAW platforms, to live sound reinforcement principles. Special consideration will be given to software environments (QLab) dedicated to live playback and design of acoustic spaces, and we will examine strategies for developing an efficient, real-world approach to the technical rehearsal process. Throughout the course, we will consider interpretive skills needed for imagining sound design opportunities in various script, dance, and performance-oriented collaborations. The course will culminate in a final project that integrates technical and artistic problem-solving skills related to creating sound for a live performance.

Requisite: One prior practice-of-arts course in theater and dance, music or studio art, or equivalent experience. Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Visiting Lecturer Robinson.

260. Costume Design and Fashion History. An introduction to the analytical methods and skills necessary for the creation of costumes for theater and dance with emphasis on the integration of costume with other visual elements. Western costume history. Lab work in costume construction.

Requisite: THDA 112 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 8 students. Fall semester. Professor Dougan.

261. Lighting Design. An introduction to the theory and techniques of theatrical lighting, with emphasis on the aesthetic and practical aspects of the field as well as the principles of light and color.

Requisite: THDA 112 or consent of the instructor. Lab work in lighting technology. Spring semester. Resident Lighting Designer Couch.

263. Scene Design. The materials, techniques and concepts which underlie the design and creation of the theatrical environment.

Requisite: THDA 112 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 8 students. Omitted 2012-13.

270. Playwriting I. A workshop in writing for the stage. The semester will begin with exercises that lead to the making of short plays and, by the end of the term, longer plays—ten minutes and up in length. Writing will be done in and out of class; students’ work will be discussed in the workshop and in private conferences. At the end of the term, the student will submit a portfolio of revisions of all the exercises, including the revisions of all plays.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Not open to first-year students. Spring semester. Playwright-in-Residence Congdon.

280. Words and Music for Theatrical Performance. (Offered as THDA 280 and MUSI 260.) Conducted as a collaborative workshop among student writers and composers, this course explores the close relationship between words and music. While working together on new music/text pieces for the stage, we will seek to arrive at various definitions of “music theater.” In addition to ongoing creative assignments, we will examine existing works in various genres, including songs, musical theater, opera and other experimental forms. Featured writers and composers will include Brecht and Weill, Auden/Kallman and Stravinsky, Sondheim and Bernstein, and Goodman and Adams, among others. Although students with varied experience in musical composition and/or creative writing will be admitted, all students should expect both to write text, to compose music and to work together doing so. Regular class meetings will be supplemented by individual tutorials. The course will culminate in a public performance of final projects created in collaboration with other students.

Admission with consent of the instructors. Limited to 16 students. Spring semester. Professor Bashford and Visiting Professor Meltzer.

330. Rehearsal. An advanced course in acting. The class will focus upon the actor’s close analysis of the playwright’s script to define specific problems and to set out tactics for their solutions. The interaction of the actor’s creative work outside rehearsal and the work within rehearsal will be delineated by assigned exercises.

Requisite: THDA 113 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 16 students. Spring semester. Resident Artist Lobdell.

340. Directing Studio. This is a practical course in navigating the myriad positions and tasks that directors master to lead collaborators toward completed theatrical interpretations of dramatic texts. Studio exercises are employed throughout as each student director produces and directs two medium-length projects. Topics of focus include the articulation of coherent artistic intent, the role of the audience in performance, and the use of space, sound and light. In addition, this course considers organizational and research methods related to successful production. Readings and class sessions are devoted to the history and practice of directing and to discussion of problems and approaches. Two class meetings per week. Students should expect to schedule a significant amount of rehearsal time for the successful completion of projects.

Requisite: One of the following—THDA 240, 242, 252 or equivalent college-level experience with consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Bashford.

350. Video and Performance. This advanced production class will give students an opportunity to explore various relationships between live performance and video. Experiments will include creating short performance pieces and/or choreography specifically designed for the video medium; creating short pieces that include both live performance and projected video; and creating short experimental video pieces that emphasize a sense of motion in their conceptualization, and realization. Techniques and languages from dance and theater composition will be used to expand and inform approaches to video production and vice-versa. Sessions include studio practice (working with digital cameras and Final Cut Pro digital editing) and regular viewing and critiques. Students will work both independently and in collaborative teams according to interest and expertise.

Requisite: Previous experience in theater, dance, music composition, and/or video production or consent of the instructor. Limited to 10 students. Spring semester. Professor Woodson.

Studio Courses

353. Performance Studio. (Offered as THDA 353 and FAMS 345.) An advanced course in the techniques of creating performance. Each student will create and rehearse a performance piece that develops and incorporates original choreography, text, music, sound and/or video. Experimental and collaborative structures and approaches among and within different media will be stressed. The final performance pieces and events will be presented in the Holden Theater. Can be taken more than once for credit.

Requisite: THDA 252 or the equivalent and consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Woodson.

360. Design Studio. An advanced course in the arts of theatrical design. Primary focus is on the communication of design ideas and concepts with other theater artists. Also considered is the process by which developing theatrical ideas and images are realized. Students will undertake specific projects in scenic, costume and/or lighting design and execute them in the context of the Department’s production program or in other approved circumstances. Examples of possible assignments include designing workshop productions, and assisting faculty and staff designers with major responsibilities in full-scale production. In all cases, detailed analysis of the text and responsible collaboration will provide the basis of the working method. May be repeated for credit.

Requisite: THDA 260, 261, 263 or consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters. Professor Dougan.

363. Design Studio II. This course is a continuation of THDA 360, an advanced course in the arts of theatrical design. Primary focus is on the communication of design ideas and concepts with other theater artists. Also considered is the process by which developing theatrical ideas and images are realized. Students will undertake specific projects in scenic, costume and/or lighting design and execute them in the context of the department’s production program or in other approved circumstances. Students in this course will design for a full-scale production. In all cases, detailed analysis of the text and responsible collaboration will provide the basis of the working method. May be repeated for credit.

Requisite: THDA 260, 261, or 263 or consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters. Professor Dougan.

370. Playwriting Studio. A workshop/seminar for writers who want to complete a full-length play or series of plays. Emphasis will be on bringing a script to a level where it is ready for the stage. Although there will be some exercises in class to continue the honing of playwriting skills and the study of plays by established writers as a means of exploring a wide range of dramatic vocabularies, most of the class time will be spent reading and commenting on the plays of the workshop members as these plays progress from the first draft to a finished draft.

Requisite: THDA 270 or the equivalent. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 10 students. Fall semester. Playwright-in-Residence Congdon.

380. From Idea to Performance. A theoretical and practical consideration of the process by which the performance-maker’s initial idea is altered, adapted, developed, rehearsed and finally transmitted to the audience through the medium of theatrical productions.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Woodson.

400H. Production Studio. An advanced course in the production of Theater and Dance works. Primary focus will be on the integration of the individual student into a leadership role within the Department’s producing structure. Each student will accept a specific responsibility with a departmental production team testing his or her artistic, managerial, critical, and problem-solving skills. A half course.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Not open to first-year students. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course. Full course.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semester. The Department.

490H. Special Topics. Independent Reading Course. Half course.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semester. The Department.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. For Honors candidates in Theater and Dance.

Open to seniors. Fall semester. The Department.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. For Honors candidates in Theater and Dance.

Open to seniors. Spring semester. The Department.

Related Courses

Creating Musical Drama. See MUSI 188.

Five College Dance

Five College Dance Department. In addition to dance courses at Amherst College through the Department of Theater and Dance (Contemporary Techniques, Language of Movement, Scripts and Scores, Performance Studio, Video and Performance, and Issues in Contemporary Dance), students may also elect courses through the Five College Dance Department listed below. The Five College Dance Department combines the programs of Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts. The faculty operates as a consortium, coordinating curricula, performances, and services. The Five College Dance Department supports a variety of philosophical approaches to dance and provides an opportunity for students to experience a wide spectrum of performance styles and techniques. Course offerings are coordinated among the campuses to facilitate registration, interchange and student travel; students may take a dance course in any of the five campuses and receive credit at the home institution. There are also numerous performing opportunities within the Five College Dance Department as well as frequent master classes and residencies offered by visiting artists.

Please note: Five College Dance Course lists (specifying times, locations and new course updates) are available two weeks prior to pre-registration at the Theater and Dance Office in Webster Hall, individual campus dance departments and the Five College Dance Department office located at Hampshire College. The schedule is also online at www.fivecolleges.edu/dance.

Women’s and Gender Studies

‡On leave spring semester 2012-13.

Professors Barale, Basu‡, Griffiths, Hunt (Chair), and Saxton‡; Assistant Professor Shandilya; Robert E. Keiter ’57 Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor Henderson.

Women’s and Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural exploration of the creation, meaning, function, and perpetuation of gender in human societies, both past and present. It is also an inquiry specifically into women’s material, cultural, and economic productions, their self-descriptions and collective undertakings.

Major Program. Beginning with the class of 2015, students majoring in Women’s and Gender Studies are required to take a minimum of nine courses. Majors in earlier classes (2014, 2013) are still required to take only eight courses. All majors, starting with the class of 2015, are required to take Women’s and Gender Studies 100, 200 and 300, and one course in cross-cultural and/or diasporic studies. Students should consult with their advisors to determine which courses fulfill this requirement. The remaining electives may be chosen from Women’s and Gender Studies offerings or may be selected, in consultation with a student’s advisor, from courses given in other departments (see list of related courses). Other Amherst or Five College courses that address issues of women and/or gender as part of their concern may be counted toward the major only if approved by the Women’s and Gender Studies department. All senior majors not writing a thesis will satisfy the comprehensive exam by reading a common text to be announced in the fall and writing an essay to be read by the department and discussed in a colloquium of Women’s and Gender Studies seniors and faculty in the spring term.

Department Honors Program. In addition to the courses required for the major, students accepted as honors candidates will elect either WAGS 498D and 499 or 498 and 499D, depending on which option better accommodates the disciplines involved in the thesis project.

100. The Cross-Cultural Construction of Gender. This course introduces students to the issues involved in the social and historical construction of gender and gender roles from a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective. Topics change from year-to-year and have included women and social change; male and female sexualities including homosexualities; the uses and limits of biology in explaining human gender differences; women’s participation in production and reproduction; the relationship among gender, race and class as intertwining oppressions; women, men and globalization; and gender and warfare.

Fall semester. Professor Shandilya.

104. Learning Conditions. (Offered as WAGS 104 and ENGL 104.) In this course we will examine a broad variety of texts—novels and short fiction, academic essays and first person narratives—in order to critically analyze their points of view, arguments, opinions, biases, and omissions. Readings this semester will cluster around the topic of education in its broadest sense: as acts of discovery, moments of insight, and as ways of learning what a culture deems important. Authors will include Dorothy Canfield, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sarah Orne Jewett, Charles Johnson, James Joyce, Toni Morrison, Flannery O’Connor, Ngugi wa Thiong’o. This is a writing intensive course with weekly assignments.

Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Barale.

105. Women, Gender and Popular Culture. We will examine some of the most challenging issues about women and gender in our contemporary postmodern world, through the lens of popular culture. We will investigate representations of women in popular and material culture in the U.S. through music, television, blogs, fiction, and advertisements. As we interrogate some of the major theories in cultural criticism, we will use our own expertise as consumers of popular culture as an entryway for exploring the diverse roles mass-mediated popular culture plays in our lives. Several questions shape the syllabus and provide a framework for approaching the course materials: How do familiar aspects of popular culture reveal broader cultural concerns about women and gender? In what ways does popular culture blur the boundaries between the highbrow and the lowbrow? What kinds of fears or anxieties about women and gender does popular culture elicit and how do we negotiate those anxieties? Expectations include diligent reading, active participation, one presentation, two exams, and two writing projects.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Henderson.

112. New Women in America. (Offered as ENGL 153 and WAGS 112.) This course will examine the emergence of the “New Woman” as a category of social theory, political action, and literary representation at the turning of the twentieth century. Early readings will trace the origins of the New Woman as a response to nineteenth-century notions of “True Womanhood.” Discussions will situate literary representations of women in larger cultural events taking place during the Progressive Era—debates over suffrage as well as their relationship to issues of citizenship, immigration, Jim Crow segregation, urbanization, and nativism. The course will focus on texts written by a diverse group of women that present multiple and, at times, conflicting images of the New Woman. Close attention will be paid to the manner in which these women writers constructed their fictions, particularly to issues of language, style, and form. Readings will include texts by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Pauline Hopkins, Anzia Yezierska, and Sui Sin Far.

Preference given to first-year students and sophomores. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Lecturer Bergoffen.

113. Art From the Realm of Dreams. (Offered as ARHA 146, EUST 146, and WAGS 113.) We begin with a long-standing Spanish obsession with dreams, analyzing images and texts by Calderón, Quevedo and Goya. We next will consider a range of dream workers from a range of cultures, centuries, and disciplines—among them Apollinaire, Freud, Breton, Dalí, Carrington, and Kahlo—as well as others working around the globe in our own time.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Staller.

123. Greek Civilization. (Offered as CLAS 123 and WAGS 123.) We read in English the major authors from Homer in the 8th century BCE to Plato in the 4th century in order to trace the emergence of epic, lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, history, and philosophy. How did the Greek enlightenment, and through it Western culture, emerge from a few generations of people moving around a rocky archipelago? How did oral and mythological traditions develop into various forms of “rationality”: science, history, and philosophy? What are the implications of male control over public and private life and the written record? What can be inferred about ancient women if they cannot speak for themselves in the texts? Other authors include Sappho, Herodotus, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Thucydides. The course seeks to develop the skills of close reading and persuasive argumentation. Three class hours per week.

Spring semester. Professor Griffiths.

200. Feminist Theory. In this course we will investigate contemporary feminist thought from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. We will focus on key issues in feminist theory, such as the sex/gender debate, sexual desire and the body, the political economy of gender, the creation of the “queer” as subject, and the construction of masculinity, among others. This course aims also to think through the ways in which these concerns intersect with issues of race, class, the environment and the nation. Texts include feminist philosopher Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble, anthropologist Kamala Visweswaran’s Fictions of Feminist Ethnography, and feminist economist Bina Agarwal’s The Structure of Patriarchy.

Spring semester. Professor Shandilya.

202. Black Women’s Narratives and Counternarratives: Love and the Family. (Offered as WAGS 202 and BLST 242 [US].) Why does love and courtship continue to be central concerns in black women’s literature and contemporary black popular fiction? Are these thematic issues representative of apolitical yearnings or an allegory for political subjectivity? Drawing on a wide range of texts, we will examine the chasm between the “popular” and the literary, as we uncover how representations of love and courtship vary in both genres. Surveying the growing discourse in media outlets such as CNN and the Washington Post regarding the “crisis” of the single black woman, students will analyze the contentious public debates regarding black women and love and connect them to black women’s literature and black feminist literary theory. Authors covered will range from Nella Larsen to Terry McMillan and topics will include gender, race, class, and sexuality.

Limited to 20 students. Open to first-year students with consent of the instructor. Omitted 2012-13. Visiting Professor Henderson.

203. Women Writers of Africa and the African Diaspora. (Offered as BLST 203 [D] and WAGS 203.) This course focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first century texts by black women writers based in Africa and the Americas. We will consider the stylistic choices that these women writers make in response to the broad range of challenges confronting them within the modern and postcolonial contexts in which they write. The reading list varies from year to year. This year we will read works by Edwidge Danicat, Marie Elena John, Buchi Emecheta, Chimamanda Adichie and Suzan-Lori Parks.

Fall semester. Visiting Lecturer Bailey.

205. The Dao of Sex: Sexuality in China, Past and Present. (Offered as ASLC 328 [C] and WAGS 205.) This survey course will focus on sexual culture in China, from pre-Qin times to the present. Using various sources such as ancient medical texts, Daoist manuals, court poetry and Confucian classics, paintings and illustrated books, movies and documentaries, as well as modern and pre-modern fiction written both in the classic and vernacular languages, we will explore notions of sex, sexuality, and desire. Through the lens of cultural history and gender studies, we will try to reconstruct the genealogy of the discourses centered around sex that developed in China, at all levels of society, throughout 5,000 years. Among the topics covered will be sexual yoga, prostitution, pornography, and sex-tourism.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Priority given to Asian Studies and WAGS majors. Others admitted to balance by class year and major. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Zamperini.

206. Women and Art in Early Modern Europe. (Offered as ARHA 284, EUST 284, and WAGS 206.) This course will examine the ways in which prevailing ideas about women and gender-shaped visual imagery, and how these images influenced ideas concerning women from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. It will adopt a comparative perspective, both by identifying regional differences among European nations and tracing changes over time. In addition to considering patronage of art by women and works by women artists, we will look at the depiction of women heroes such as Judith; the portrayal of women rulers, including Elizabeth I and Marie de’ Medici; and the imagery of rape. Topics emerging from these categories of art include biological theories about women; humanist defenses of women; the relationship between the exercise of political power and sexuality; differing attitudes toward women in Catholic and Protestant art; and feminine ideals of beauty.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Courtright.

224. Gender Labor. In this course we will explore the intimate relations of gender and labor: both the necessary labor of genders’ production as well as the gendered organization of labor itself. In general the course will use gender to focus on contemporary concerns in the American workplace—class, ethnicity, sexuality, and race—but will also make critical comparisons with developments in other nations. The biological labor of reproduction and its intersection with the labor of production will necessarily be a constant concern in our discussions. We shall have to become familiar with certain terms: glass ceiling, glass escalator, mommy-track, affirmative action, child care, sexual harassment, welfare to workfare. We certainly might want to ask what constitutes work? But we also might need to wonder if work is done for love, is it still work?

Omitted 2012-13.

226. Women and the Law in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Historically the law has functioned as much to differentiate women from men as to assert their similarities. This course will explore the variety of types of laws (natural law, religious law, statute law, customary law, and the like) that have been used to regulate women’s lives and try to assess the philosophies that lie behind them. Family law, especially where it pertains to marriage, divorce, married women’s property, domestic assault, custody, and so forth, will receive special attention through a comparison of Western European and American legal traditions with Muslim shari’a law, both in the past and the present. The course will look closely at the law and law enforcement as they pertain to female sexuality, and assess issues to do with women criminals as well as women as victims of specific types of criminal acts such as rape. It will examine what happens to women when (a) legal structures break down, as in war, and (b) when “the law” becomes a tool of racial, ethnic, religious, sexual or gender repression. Finally, it will address the extent to which “changing the law” succeeds as a strategy for empowering women by looking at several key legal campaigns involving women in both Western and non-Western settings.

Sources will include religious writing (such as the Book of Leviticus from the Bible and the second and fourth surahs of the Qur’an), transcripts of court cases from a variety of times and places, historical writings on adultery and prostitution, biographical accounts of female criminals, and contemporary discussions in various media pertaining to the human rights of women and sexual minorities. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Hunt.

228. Feminist Performance. (Offered as THDA 228 and WAGS 228.) The Women’s Liberation Movement dramatically affected the American social and intellectual climate of the 1970s. In art, as in education, medicine, and politics, women sought equality and economic parity as they actively fought against the mainstream values that had been used to exclude them. Performance art proved to be an ideal match for the feminist agenda—it was personal, immediate, and highly effective in communicating an alternate view of power in the world. Artists explored autobiography, the female body, myth, and politics, and played a crucial role in developing and expanding the very nature of performance, consciously uniting the agendas of social politics with art. This class will take us from Yoko Ono’s performances of “Cut Piece” and the Judson Dance Theater’s proto-feminist experiments of the 1960s to the radical guerilla-style performances of the 1970s and beyond, where the body was the contested site for debates about the nature of gender, ethnicity and sexuality. We will be looking at works that were not polite demands for legislative change, but raw and sloppy theatrical displays and ecstatic bonding experiences that managed to be at once satirical and celebratory, alienating and illuminating.

Fall semester. Five College Dance Professor Valis-Hill.

232. Women Writers of Spain. (Offered as SPAN 232 and WAGS 232.) Twentieth-century Spanish women writers have carved out a particular niche in the canon of Spanish literature. Often envisioned as a single entity, they have distinguished themselves as individual writers, just as their male counterparts have. In reading contemporary novels, short fiction, essays and poetry authored by women, this course will consider how one defines an escritura femenina in Spain and what, if anything, differentiates the escritura femenina as a gendered space from other modes of writing. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Brenneis.

235. Other Shakespeares: Gender, Race and Sexuality. Why do we still read Shakespeare? What relevance does Shakespeare have for us today? In this course we will think through explorations of gender, race, caste and sexuality in modern-day adaptations of Shakespearean texts and continued need to engage with Shakespeare in the present-day. We will draw on a wide variety of both filmic and literary texts from across the world. Texts will range from Merchant Ivory’s Shakespeare Wallah to South African activist-novelist Nadine Gordimer’s My Son’s Story and South Asian feminist poet Suniti Namjoshi’s Snapshots of Caliban. Students are required to be familiar with Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and Macbeth.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Shandilya.

239. Women in Judaism. (Offered as RELI 261 and WAGS 239.) A study of the portrayal of women in Jewish tradition. Readings will include biblical and apocryphal texts; Rabbinic legal (halakic) and non-legal (aggadic) material; selections from medieval commentaries; letters, diaries, and autobiographies written by Jewish women of various periods and settings; and works of fiction and non-fiction concerning the woman in modern Judaism. Employing an inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural approach, we will examine not only the actual roles played by women in particular historical periods and cultural contexts, but also the roles they assume in traditional literary patterns and religious symbol systems.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Niditch.

240. Flowers in the Mirror: Writing Women in Chinese Literature. (Offered as ASLC 240 [C] and WAGS 240.) The focus of this course will be the study of sources authored by women throughout the course of Chinese history. We will deal with a wide range of material, from poetry to drama, from novels and short stories to nüshu (the secret script invented by peasant women in a remote area of Hunan province), from literary autobiographies to cinematic discourse. We will address the issue of women as others represent them and women as they portray themselves in terms of gender, sexuality, social class, power, family, and material culture. Focusing on issues such as foot-binding, sexuality, violence, and love, in the works of writers such as Li Qingzhao and Zhang Ailing, we will try to detect the presence and absence of female voices in the literature of different historical periods, and to understand how those literary works relate to male-authored literary works. In addition to primary sources, we will integrate theoretical work in the field of pre-modern, modern, and contemporary Chinese literature and culture.

Fall semester. Professor Zamperini.

241. Fact or Fiction: Representations of Latina and Latin-American Women in Film and Literature. (Offered as SPAN 240 and WAGS 241) From La Malinche (sixteenth century) to J Lo, Latin American and Latina women have been sexualized, demonized, objectified, and even erased by narrative and visual representations. Feminist texts have interrogated and complicated sexist and stereotypical master narratives; yet, a tension remains that repeatedly places women of color on a complex stage. In this class we will analyze the discrepancies and convergences between fictional representations of Latin American and Latina lives and their personal stories of survival, assimilation, success, and economically driven daily negotiations to make ends meet in an increasingly globalized economy. We will examine myths of femininity and beauty, learn about the conditions of sex work in the Caribbean, and explore U.S. policies such as the Good Neighbor Policy to think critically about representations of women in Latin America and the U.S. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Suarez.

244. Global Women’s Activism. (Offered as WAGS 244 and POSC 244 [SC—starting with the Class of 2015].) Globally as well as locally, women are claiming a new voice in civil society by spearheading both egalitarian movements for social change and reactionary movements which would restore them to putatively traditional roles. They are prominent in local level community-based struggles but also in women’s movements, perhaps the most international movements in the world today. This course will explore the varied expressions of women’s activism at the grass roots, national and transnational levels. How is it influenced by the intervention of the state and international agencies? How is it affected by globalization? Among the issues and movements which we will address are struggles to redefine women’s rights as human rights, women’s activism in religious nationalism, the international gay-lesbian movement, welfare rights activism, responses to state regulation, and campaigns around domestic violence. Our understanding of women’s activism is informed by a richly comparative perspective and attention to cases from diverse regions of the world.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Basu.

252. Women’s History, America: 1607-1865. (Offered as HIST 252 [USP] and WAGS 252.) This course looks at the experiences of Native American, European and African women from the colonial period through the Civil War. The course will explore economic change over time and its impact on women, family structure, and work. It will also consider varieties of Christianity, the First and Second Awakenings and their consequences for various groups of women. Through secondary and primary sources and discussions students will look at changing educational and cultural opportunities for some women, the forces creating antebellum reform movements, especially abolition and feminism, and women’s participation in the Civil War. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Saxton.

253. Women’s History, America: 1865 to Present. (Offered as HIST 253 [US] and WAGS 253.) This course begins with an examination of the experience of women from different racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds during Reconstruction. It will look at changes in family life as a result of increasing industrialization and the westward movement of settler families, and will also look at the settlers’ impact on Native American women and families. Topics will include the work and familial experiences of immigrant women (including Irish, Polish, and Italian), women’s reform movements (particularly suffrage, temperance, and anti-lynching), the expansion of educational opportunities, and the origins and programs of the Progressives. The course will examine the agitation for suffrage and the subsequent splits among feminists, women’s experiences in the labor force, and participation in the world wars. Finally, we will look at the origins of the Second Wave and its struggles to transcend its white middle-class origins, the challenges working mothers face in contemporary society, and women’s experience with the criminal justice system. Two class meetings per week.

Omitted 2012-13. Professor Saxton.

300. Ideas and Methods in the Study of Gender. This seminar will explore the influence of gender studies and of feminism on our research questions, methods and the way we situate ourselves in relationship to our scholarship. For example, how can we employ ethnography, textual analysis, empirical data and archival sources in studying the complex ties between the local and the global, and the national and the transnational? Which ideas and methods are best suited to analyzing the varied forms of women’s resistance across ideological, class, racial and national differences? Our major goal will be to foster students’ critical skills as inter-disciplinary, cross cultural writers and researchers. This course counts as a proseminar designed for juniors and seniors in WAGS.

Requisite: WAGS 100 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Not open to first-year students. Spring semester. Professor Hunt.

309. Early Spanish American Women Writers. (Offered as SPAN 385 and WAGS 309.) [RC] In this course we will study the writings of women of Spanish America from 1556 to the end of the 19thcentury, focusing on writers who came from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, Peru and Colombia. Their writings cover the colonial period as well as that of post-independence, and trace the ever-strengthening role of the female voice in Spanish American literature. There are the voices of an early settler in Argentina and Paraguay, three nuns (Catalina de Erauso, transvestite and soldier; the incomparable Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; and the visionary Madre Castillo) followed by an important group of 19thcentury women who were finally able to make a living by their pen. The most famous of these is Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, who wrote the first antislavery novel of the Americas, eleven years ahead of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Most of them knew and supported each other by ties of friendship and a strong professional network. In all of these voices one will hear articulated the desire for the right to express themselves as women and to be heard in a field that was decidedly masculine and often hostile to their efforts. Conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13.

310. Witches, Vampires and Other Monsters. (Offered as ARHA 385, EUST 385, and WAGS 310.) This course will explore the construction of the monstrous, over cultures, centuries and disciplines. With the greatest possible historical and cultural specificity, we will investigate the varied forms of monstrous creatures, their putative powers, and the explanations given for their existence—as we attempt to articulate the kindred qualities they share. Among the artists to be considered are Valdés Leal, Velázquez, Goya, Munch, Ensor, Redon, Nolde, Picasso, Dalí, Kiki Smith, and Cindy Sherman. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Staller.

312. Queer Geographies. This course will critically examine multiple works by three writers: Sarah Orne Jewett, Willa Cather, and Carson McCullers. As American regional writers—Jewett, Maine; Cather, the West; McCullers, the South—all three concern themselves with insiders and outsiders, with foreigners, neighbors, strangers, and natives. When these deeply national, and often highly racial or ethnic, distinctions begin to also make sense as sexual and gender categories, the textual layering of the narratives becomes perplexing. This course will require three short papers and one lengthy one.

Requisite: One WAGS and/or English course. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Barale.

313. Fashion Matters: Clothes, Bodies and Consumption in East Asia. (Offered as ASLC 329 and WAGS 313.) This course will focus on both the historical and cultural development of fashion, clothing and consumption in East Asia, with a special focus on China and Japan. Using a variety of sources, from fiction to art, from legal codes to advertisements, we will study both actual garments created and worn in society throughout history, as well as the ways in which they inform the social characterization of class, ethnicity, nationality, and gender attributed to fashion. Among the topics we will analyze in this sense will be hairstyle, foot-binding and, in a deeper sense, bodily practices that inform most fashion-related discourses in East Asia. We will also think through the issue of fashion consumption as an often-contested site of modernity, especially in relationship to the issue of globalization and world-market. Thus we will also include a discussion of international fashion designers, along with analysis of phenomena such as sweatshops.

Limited to 20 students. Priority given to ASLC and WAGS majors. Others admitted to balance by class year and major. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Zamperini.

326. Enlightening Passion: Sexuality and Gender in Tibetan Buddhism. (Offered as ASLC 326 and WAGS 326.) In this course we will study the lives of prominent female teachers in Tibetan Buddhism from its inception up to the present day. Our focus will be on reconstructing the narratives of the trajectories to realization that women like Yedshe Tsogyal, Mandarava, Yid Thogma, Machig Labdron, Sera Khandro, and Ayu Khandro, among others, undertook, often at high personal and societal cost. By utilizing biographical and—as much as possible—autobiographical records (in English translation), we will analyze the religious and social aspects of these women’s choice to privilege the Vajarayana path to enlightenment, often (but not always), at the expense of more conventional and accepted lifestyles. In order to do so, we will explore in depth the meanings attached to femininity, masculinity, sexuality, and gender dynamics within Tibetan monastic and lay life.

The course will combine methodology from Buddhist studies, Tibetan studies, women and gender studies, critical theory, and literary criticism in an effort to unravel and explore the complex negotiations that Buddhist female teachers engaged in during their spiritual pursuit, in the context of traditional as well as contemporary Tibetan culture.

Recommended requisite: Previous knowledge of Tibetan culture and Buddhism. Spring semester. Professor Zamperini.

330. Black Sexualities. (Offered as BLST 236 [US] and WAGS 330) From the modern era to the contemporary moment, the intersection of race, gender, and class has been especially salient for people of African descent—for men as well as for women. How might the category of sexuality act as an additional optic through which to view and reframe contemporary and historical debates concerning the construction of black identity? In what ways have traditional understandings of masculinity and femininity contributed to an understanding of African American life and culture as invariably heterosexual? How have black lesbian, gay, and transgendered persons effected political change through their theoretical articulations of identity, difference, and power? In this interdisciplinary course, we will address these questions through an examination of the complex roles gender and sexuality play in the lives of people of African descent. Remaining attentive to the ways black people have claimed social and sexual agency in spite of systemic modes of inequality, we will engage with critical race theory, black feminist thought, queer-of-color critique, literature, art, film, “new media” and erotica, as well as scholarship from anthropology, sociology, and history.

Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Polk.

352. Images of Sickness and Healing: Research Seminar. (Offered as ARHA 352, EUST 352 and WAGS 352.) In this research seminar, we will explore how sickness and healing were understood, taking examples over centuries. We will analyze attitudes toward bodies, sexuality, and deviance—toward physical and spiritual suffering—as we analyze dreams of cures and transcendence. We will interrogate works by artists such as Grünewald, Goya, Géricault, Munch, Ensor, Van Gogh, Schiele, Cornell and Picasso, as well as images by artists in our own time: Kiki Smith, the AIDS quilt, Nicolas Nixon, Hannah Wilke, and others. Texts by Edgar Allen Poe, Sander Gilman, Roy Porter, Susan Sontag, Thomas Laquer and Caroline Walker Bynum will inspire us as well. Significant research projects with presentations in class. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Staller.

354. Antebellum Culture: North and South. (Offered as HIST 454 [US] and WAGS 354.) This research seminar will be focused on the development of family life and law, religion, and literature in the pre-Civil War North and South. Students will read material on childrearing practices and the production of gender; conventions of romantic love; the customs and legalities of marriage, parenthood, and divorce; social and geographic mobility; the emergence of the novel, magazines and newspapers; and the role and shape of violence in the North and South. We will discuss contrasts in these developments, many resulting from the strengthening southern commitment to race-based slavery. We will look at these trends through the growth of a national, white Protestant middle class and at the ways in which members of other groups adopted, rejected, or created alternatives to them. Readings will include secondary and primary sources including memoirs, novels, short stories, essays and diary entries. Students will write one twenty-page essay based on original research.

Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Saxton.

362. Women in the Middle East. (Offered as HIST 397 [ME], ASLC 363 [WA], and WAGS 362.) The course examines the major developments, themes and issues in woman’s history in the Middle East. The first segment of the course concerns the early Islamic period and discusses the impact of the Quran on the status of women, the development of Islamic religious traditions and Islamic law. Questions concerning the historiography of this “formative” period of Islamic history, as well as hermeneutics of the Quran will be the focus of this segment. The second segment of the course concerns the 19th- and 20th-century Middle East. We will investigate the emergence and development of the “woman question,” the role of gender in the construction of Middle Eastern nationalisms, women’s political participation, and the debates concerning the connections between women, gender, and religious and cultural traditions. The third segment of the course concerns the contemporary Middle East, and investigates new developments and emerging trends of women’s political, social and religious activism in different countries. The course will provide a familiarity with the major primary texts concerning women and the study of women in the Middle East, as well as with the debates concerning the interpretation of texts, law, religion, and history in the shaping of women’s status and concerns in the Middle East today. This class is conducted as a seminar. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Ringer.

366. Mother India: Reading Gender and Nation in South Asia. (Offered as WAGS 366, ASLC 351, and FAMS 325.) Do you often wonder why some countries are referred to as the “motherland” and others as the “fatherland”? What and who decides how we refer to a country? In this course, we will examine seismic changes over time in gendered imaginings of the Indian subcontinent. As women stepped out of the domestic sphere to participate in the nationalist struggle of the late 19th century, the idea of the nation swayed dramatically between the nation as wife and the nation as mother in the Indian popular imagination. Readings will include novels such as Rabindranath Tagore’s Home and the World and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. We will also study a range of cinematic texts from the classic Mother India to the recent feminist film Silent Waters.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Shandilya.

367. After Midnight’s Children: Gender, Genre and the Contemporary South Asian Novel. The publication of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children in 1981 produced a radical change in the way that gender and genre were tackled in the South Asian novel. Writers in the post-Rushdie era experimented with genres such as magical realism, the postcolonial science fiction thriller and the postmodern spy novel to re-imagine the nation’s construction of gendered subjects. This course looks at the intersection of gender and genre in the work of Rushdie himself, namely his Midnight’s Children and The Moor’s Last Sigh among others, as well as Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines and Calcutta Chromosome, and Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games, Red Earth and Pouring Rain. Through a close reading of the fiction of these writers, literary theory on genre and gender, as well as feminist theory we will examine a range of topics such as the mapping of woman onto nation, the transgendered cyborg body as citizen of the nation and the production of masculinity through state-sponsored violence among others.

Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Shandilya.

371. Film, Myth, and the Law. (Offered as LJST 352 and FAMS 371.) (Analytic Seminar) The proliferation of law in film and on television has expanded the sphere of legal life itself. Law lives in images that today saturate our culture and have a power all their own, and the moving image provides a domain in which legal power operates independently of law’s formal institutions. This course will consider what happens when legal events are re-narrated in film and examine film’s treatment of legal officials, events, and institutions (e.g., police, lawyers, judges, trials, executions, prisons). Does film open up new possibilities of judgment, model new modes of interpretation, and provide new insights into law’s violence? We will discuss ways in which myths about law are reproduced and contested in film. Moreover, attending to the visual dimensions of law’s imagined lives, we ask whether law provides a template for film spectatorship, positioning viewers as detectives and as jurors, and whether film, in turn, sponsors a distinctive visual aesthetics of law. Among the films we may consider are Inherit the Wind, Call Northside 777, Judgment at Nuremberg, Rear Window, Silence of the Lambs, A Question of Silence, The Sweet Hereafter, Dead Man Walking, Basic Instinct, and Unforgiven. Throughout we will draw upon film theory and criticism as well as the scholarly literature on law, myth, and film.

The Professor aims to admit a mix of students from different classes and with backgrounds in Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought and in other fields, in order to foster a rich interdisciplinary conversation.

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Sarat.

390. Special Topics. Independent Reading Courses.

Fall and spring semesters.

467. Social Movements, Civil Society and Democracy in India. (Offered as POSC 467 [CP] [SC starting with the class of 2015] and WAGS 467) The goal of this seminar is illuminate the complex character of social movements and civil society organizations and their vital influence on Indian democracy. Social movements have strengthened democratic processes by forming or allying with political parties and thereby contributed to the growth of a multi-party system. They have increased the political power of previously marginalized and underprivileged groups and pressured the state to address social inequalities. However conservative religious movements and civil society organizations have threatened minority rights and undermined secular, democratic principles. During the semester, we will interact through internet technology with students, scholars and community organizers in India. This seminar counts as an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: Prior course work in Political Science. Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Basu.

468. Globalization, Social Movements and Human Rights. (Offered as POSC 468 [CP, IR] and WAGS 468.) [SC—starting with the Class of 2015] This seminar will explore the changing trajectories of social movements amidst economic, political and cultural globalization. Social movements have organized in opposition to the environmental destruction, increased class inequalities and diminished accountability of nation states that have often accompanied the global spread of capitalism. Globalization from above has given rise to globalization from below as activists have organized transnationally, employing new technologies of communication and appealing to universal human rights. However, in organizing transnationally and appealing to universal principles, activists may find their energies displaced from local to transnational arenas, from substantive to procedural inequalities, and from grass roots activism to routinized activity within the judicial process. We will consider the extent to which globalization heightens divisions between universalistic and particularistic movements or contributes to the creation of a global civil society which can protect and extend human rights. We will examine women’s movements, environmental movements, and democracy movements in several regions of the world. This course fulfills the requirement of an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: One of POSC 213, 248, 311, 320, 413, or 474. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Basu.

469. South Asian Feminist Cinema. (Offered as WAGS 469, ASLC 452 [SA], and FAMS 322.) How do we define the word “feminism”? Can the term be used to define cinematic texts outside the Euro-American world? In this course we will study a range of issues that have been integral to feminist theory—the body, domesticity, same sex desire, gendered constructions of the nation, feminist utopias and dystopias—through a range of South Asian cinematic texts. Through our viewings and readings we will consider whether the term “feminist” can be applied to these texts, and we will experiment with new theoretical lenses for exploring these films. Films will range from Satyajit Ray’s classic masterpiece Charulata to Gurinder Chadha’s trendy diasporic film, Bend It Like Beckham. Attendance for screenings on Monday is compulsory.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Shandilya.

483. Feminism and Film: A Study of Practice and Theory. (Offered as ENGL 483, FAMS 426, and WAGS 483.) This seminar will be devoted to the study of feminism and film, considering the ways feminism has shaped both film theory and film practice. Though focusing in large part on post-1968 writings, which largely ushered in semiotic, psychoanalytic, and feminist theory to film studies, we will also consider early writings by women from the 1910s-1950s in a range of venues—from fan magazines to film journals—that developed points of view regarding women’s practices as both artists and audience members. We will also consider a range of films, from Hollywood melodrama (also known as “the women’s picture”) of the 1940s to contemporary action films, and from avant-garde feminist works to current independent and international films directed by women. Informed by feminist film theorist Claire Johnston, we will explore how and when “women’s cinema”—whether theory or practice—constitutes or shapes “counter-cinema.” One three-hour class meeting per week.

Requisite: As an advanced seminar in film theory, some previous work with film and media studies is required. Open to juniors and seniors. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Hastie.

485. States of Poverty. (Offered as POSC 485 [AP, GP] and WAGS 485.) [SC—starting with the Class of 2015] In this course the students will examine the role of the modern welfare state in people’s everyday lives. We will study the historical growth and retrenchment of the modern welfare state in the United States and other Western democracies. The course will critically examine the ideologies of “dependency” and the role of the state as an agent of social control. In particular, we will study the ways in which state action has implications for gender identities. In this course we will analyze the construction of social problems linked to states of poverty, including hunger, homelessness, health care, disability, discrimination, and violence. We will ask how these conditions disproportionately affect the lives of women and children. We will take a broad view of the interventions of the welfare state by considering not only the impact of public assistance and social service programs, but the role of the police, family courts, therapeutic professionals, and schools in creating and responding to the conditions of impoverishment. The work of the seminar will culminate in the production of a research paper and students will be given the option of incorporating field work into the independent project. This course fulfills the requirement for an advanced seminar in Political Science.

Requisite: Some previous exposure to background material. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Bumiller.

490. Special Topics. Independent Reading Courses.

Fall and spring semester.

495. Memory, Haunting, and Migration in Contemporary American Novels by Women. (Offered as ENGL 455 and WAGS 495.) This course examines some of the many ways American authors have written about memory—memories of the past as well as of other places, about memories that refuse to be surfaced and memories that are at times not even of their protagonists’ own lives. How, for instance, do writers portray the ways painful pasts have influenced their characters’ senses of self-identity? What does it mean to suffer for a past whose details one does not even know? Is a truth freeing, or does overcoming the hidden and silent increase memory’s burdens? What are some of the possibilities and limitations of portraying traumatic experiences in the novel form? And can “trauma” even mean the same thing across ethnic experiences? With such questions in mind we will look specifically at novels concerned with two of the foundational experiences of American civilization, slavery and migration, and at the pervasive problems of longing, disjuncture, and displacement endemic to such experiences. Authors we may read in this cross-cultural literature course include Maxine Hong Kingston, Edwidge Danticat, Gayl Jones, and Cynthia Ozick.

Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2012-13. Professor Parham.

498. Senior Departmental Honors. Open to senior majors in Women’s and Gender Studies who have received departmental approval.

Fall semester.

498D. Senior Departmental Honors. Double course. Open to senior majors in Women’s and Gender Studies who have received departmental approval.

Fall semester.

499. Senior Departmental Honors. Open to senior majors in Women’s and Gender Studies who have received departmental approval.

Spring semester.

499D. Senior Departmental Honors. Double course. Open to senior majors in Women’s and Gender Studies who have received departmental approval.

Spring semester.

Related Courses

Gender: An Anthropological Perspective. See ANTH 335.

Evaluating Social Policy. See ECON 416.

Sexuality and History in the Contemporary Novel. See ENGL 314.

Women of Ill Repute: Prostitutes in Nineteenth-Century French Literature. See FREN 342.

Romantic Couples. See GERM 325.

Caribbean Women Claiming Their Islands. See SPAN 223.

Women Writers of Spain. See SPAN 232.

Latina Women Writers—Memory, Political Voice and New Identities. See SPAN 293.

FIVE COLLEGE FACULTY COURSE OFFERINGS

LANGUAGES THROUGH THE FIVE COLLEGE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WORLD LANGUAGES. The Five College Center for the Study of World Languages encourages students to embark on language study during their first year of college so that they can achieve the fluency needed to use the language for work in their major field. The Center offers two distinct programs with varying pacing options for students who are interested in independent language study. Students interested in either of the following language programs should read the informational websites thoroughly and follow the application directions. While the application process is handled by the Five College Center for the Study of World Languages, the tutorial and conversation sessions are held on all five campuses.

For program information and application forms, go to www.umass.edu/fclang.

For mentored course plans and syllabi, go to http://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu.

To make an appointment at the Center, e-mail fcsilp@hfa.umass.edu or call 413-545-3453.

FIVE COLLEGE MENTORED LANGUAGE PROGRAM (FCMLP). The “mentored” course format emphasizes speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. The courses require seven to ten hours per week of independent study, a weekly one-hour conversation session, a weekly thirty-minute individual tutorial with the mentor, and an oral and a written final evaluation. The mentored courses are based on study guides created specifically for this program. Languages offered include Arabic, Czech, Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, Formal Spoken Arabic, Hindi, Levantine Colloquial Arabic, Indonesian, Moroccan Arabic, Pashto, Persian, Swahili, Turkish, Urdu and Yoruba. Mentored courses offer elementary, some intermediate, and some advanced courses depending on the language.

FIVE COLLEGE SUPERVISED INDEPENDENT LANGUAGE PROGRAM (FCSILP). The Five College Supervised Independent Language Program (FCSILP) offers students with excellent language skills an opportunity to study a variety of less commonly taught languages. This selective program admits highly motivated students with a record of past success in language learning. Students admitted into the program normally have received high grades in previous language courses; have completed the language requirement of their college; have taken at least one intermediate or advanced college-level course in a language other than their first language(s); and/or have developed a high level of proficiency in a second language by living or studying abroad.

FCSILP stresses oral proficiency and consists of three components: (1) seven to ten hours a week of independent study using a combination of textbooks, workbooks, CDs and DVDs, software, and online materials (course components vary by language); (2) a weekly conversation practice session led by a native speaking conversation partner; and (3) a final oral exam given by a professor accredited in the target language. Each language offered in the program is divided into four levels of study. The four levels constitute four parts of an elementary course.

Languages currently offered:

African Languages: Hausa (Nigeria), Shona (Zimbabwe), Twi (Ghana), Wolof (Senegal), Zulu (South Africa).

European Languages: Bosnian (Serbo-Croatian), Bulgarian, Croatian (Serbo-Croatian), Georgian, Modern Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Romanian, Serbian (Serbo-Croatian), Slovak, Ukrainian.

Middle Eastern and Asian Languages: Tibetan, Thai, Vietnamese.

Arabic

OLLA AL-SHALCHI, Five College Lecturer in Arabic (at Smith College in the Five College Program).

IA 110. Elementary Arabic I. This year-long course introduces the basics of Modern Standard Arabic. It covers all four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. It begins with a coverage of the alphabet, vocabulary for everyday use, and essential communicative skills relating to real-life and task-oriented situations (queries about personal well-being, family, work, and telling the time). Students will acquire vocabulary and usage for everyday interactions as well as skills that will allow them to read and analyze a range of texts. In addition to the traditional textbook exercises, students will write paragraphs and participate in role plays, debates, presentations and conversations throughout the year.

Fall semester. Hampshire College.

Arabic 100Y-02. Elementary Arabic. Same description as IA 110, Elementary Arabic I.

Fall semester. Smith College.

IA 110. Elementary Arabic II. This is a continuation of Elementary Arabic I. We will complete the study of the Elementary Arabic Al-Kitaab book sequence along with additional instructional materials. Emphasis will be on the integrated development of all language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) using a communicative-oriented, proficiency-based approach. By the end of this semester, you will acquire vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and language skills necessary for everyday interactions as well as skills that will allow you to communicate with a limited working proficiency in a variety of situations, read and write about a variety of factual material and familiar topics in non-technical prose. In addition to the textbook exercises, you will write short essays, do oral and video presentations and participate in role plays, discussions, and conversations throughout the semester in addition to extra-curricular activities and a final project.

Spring semester. Hampshire College.

Arabic 100Y-02. Elementary Arabic II. Same description as IA 110, Elementary Arabic II.

Spring semester. Smith College.

HEBA ARAFAH, Five College Lecturer in Arabic (at Mount Holyoke College in the Five College Program).

Asian 130f. First-Year Arabic I. This year-long course introduces the basics of Modern Standard Arabic. It covers all four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. It begins with a coverage of the alphabet, vocabulary for everyday use, and essential communicative skills relating to real-life and task-oriented situations (queries about personal well-being, family, work, and telling the time). Students will acquire vocabulary and usage for everyday interactions as well as skills that will allow them to read and analyze a range of texts. In addition to the traditional textbook exercises, students will write paragraphs and participate in role plays, debates, presentations and conversations throughout the year.

Fall semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Asian 232f. Second-Year Arabic I. This is a continuation of Asian 130f, First-Year Arabic I. We will complete the study of the Elementary Arabic Al-Kitaab book sequence along with additional instructional materials. Emphasis will be on the integrated development of all language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) using a communicative-oriented, proficiency-based approach. By the end of this semester, you will acquire vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and language skills necessary for everyday interactions as well as skills that will allow you to communicate with a limited working proficiency in a variety of situations, read and write about a variety of factual material and familiar topics in non-technical prose. In addition to the textbook exercises, you will write short essays, do oral and video presentations and participate in role plays, discussions, and conversations throughout the semester in addition to extra-curricular activities and a final project.

Fall semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Asian 332. Third-Year Arabic I. The goal of this course is to help students achieve an advanced to superior level of proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic with an exposure to one Arabic colloquial variety using the four-skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening) approach. Students will read within a normal range of speed, listen to, discuss and respond in writing to authentic texts by writers from across the Arab world. Text types address a range of political, social, religious, and literary themes and represent a range of genres, styles, and periods. All of these texts may include hypothesis, argumentation and supported opinions that will cover both linguistic and cultural knowledge. This course covers Al-Kitaab, Book 3, Units 1-5 in addition to extra instructional materials.

Requisite: ARA 232, or the completion of Al-Kitaab, Book 2, or its equivalent. Students must be able to use Formal Spoken Arabic as the medium of communication in the classroom. Limited to 18 students. {F} 4 credits. Fall semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Asian 332. Third-Year Arabic II. The goal of this course is to help students achieve an advanced to superior level of proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic with an exposure to one Arabic colloquial variety using the four-skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening) approach. Students will read within a normal range of speed, listen to, discuss and respond in writing to authentic texts by writers from across the Arab world. Text types address a range of political, social, religious, and literary themes and represent a range of genres, styles, and periods. All of these texts may include hypothesis, argumentation and supported opinions that will cover both linguistic and cultural knowledge. This course covers Al-Kitaab, Book 3, Units 1-5 in addition to extra instructional materials.

Requisite: ARA 232, or the completion of Al-Kitaab, Book 2 or its equivalent. Students must be able to use Formal Spoken Arabic as the medium of communication in the classroom. Limited to 18 students. {F} 4 credits. Spring semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Asian 131s. First-Year Arabic II. This is a continuation of Asian 130f, First-Year Arabic I. We will complete the study of the Elementary Arabic Al-Kitaab book sequence along with additional instructional materials. Emphasis will be on the integrated development of all language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) using a communicative-oriented, proficiency-based approach. By the end of this semester, you will acquire vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and language skills necessary for everyday interactions as well as skills that will allow you to communicate with a limited working proficiency in a variety of situations, read and write about a variety of factual material and familiar topics in non-technical prose. In addition to the textbook exercises, you will write short essays, do oral and video presentations and participate in role plays, discussions, and conversations throughout the semester in addition to extra-curricular activities and a final project.

Spring semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Asian 233s. Second-Year Arabic. This is a continuation of Asian 232f, Second-Year Arabic I. We will complete the study of the Al-Kitaab II book sequence along with additional instructional materials. In this course, we will continue perfecting knowledge of Arabic integrating the four skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing using a communicative-oriented, proficiency-based approach. By the end of this semester, you should have sufficient comprehension in Arabic to understand most routine social demands and most non-technical real-life conversations as well as some discussions on concrete topics related to particular interests and special fields of competence in a general professional proficiency level. You will have broad enough vocabulary that will enable you to read within a normal range of speed with almost complete comprehension a variety of authentic prose material and be able to write about similar topics. Also by the end of this semester, you should have a wide range of communicative language ability including grammatical knowledge, discourse knowledge and sociolinguistic knowledge of the Arabic language. You should expect text assignments as well as work with DVDs, audio and video materials and websites. Exercises and activities include essay writing, social interactions, role plays and in-class conversations, oral and video presentations that cover the interplay of language and culture, extra-curricular activities and a final project.

Requisite: Arabic 232 or equivalent, or permission by the instructor. Spring semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Asian 332. Third-Year Arabic II. The goal of this course is to help students achieve an advanced to superior level of proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic with an exposure to one Arabic colloquial variety using the four-skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening) approach. Students will read within a normal range of speed, listen to, discuss and respond in writing to authentic texts by writers from across the Arab world. Text types address a range of political, social, religious, and literary themes and represent a range of genres, styles, and periods. All of these texts may include hypothesis, argumentation and supported opinions that will cover both linguistic and cultural knowledge. This course covers Al-Kitaab, Book 3, Units 1-5 in addition to extra instructional materials.

Requisite: ARA 232, or the completion of Al-Kitaab, Book 2 or its equivalent. Students must be able to use Formal Spoken Arabic as the medium of communication in the classroom. Limited to 18 students. {F} 4 credits. Spring semester. Mount Holyoke College.

ABDELKADER BERRAHMOUN, Five College Teaching Fellow in Arabic (at Smith College in the Five College Program).

Arabic 100Y-01. Elementary Arabic. This year-long course introduces the basics of Modern Standard Arabic. It covers all four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. It begins with a coverage of the alphabet, vocabulary for everyday use, and essential communicative skills relating to real-life and task-oriented situations (queries about personal well-being, family, work, and telling the time). Students will acquire vocabulary and usage for everyday interactions as well as skills that will allow them to read and analyze a range of texts. In addition to the traditional textbook exercises, students will write paragraphs and participate in role plays, debates, presentations and conversations throughout the year.

Fall semester. Smith College.

Arabic 200. Intermediate Arabic I. This is a continuation of Elementary Arabic I. We will complete the study of the Elementary Arabic Al-Kitaab book sequence along with additional instructional materials. Emphasis will be on the integrated development of all language skills—reading, writing, listening and speaking—using a communicative-oriented, proficiency-based approach. By the end of this semester, you will acquire vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and language skills necessary for everyday interactions as well as skills that will allow you to communicate with a limited working proficiency in a variety of situations, read and write about a variety of factual material and familiar topics in non-technical prose. In addition to the textbook exercises, you will write short essays, do oral and video presentations and participate in role plays, discussions, and conversations throughout the semester in addition to extra-curricular activities and a final project.

Fall semester. Smith College.

Arabic 300. Advanced Arabic I. The goal of this course is to help students achieve an advanced to superior level of proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic with an exposure to one Arabic colloquial variety using the four-skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening) approach. Students will read within a normal range of speed, listen to, discuss and respond in writing to authentic texts by writers from across the Arab world. Text types address a range of political, social, religious, and literary themes and represent a range of genres, styles, and periods. All of these texts may include hypothesis, argumentation and supported opinions that will cover both linguistic and cultural knowledge. This course covers Al-Kitaab, Book 3, Units 1-5 in addition to extra instructional materials.

Requisite: ARA 200, or the completion of Al-Kitaab, Book 2 or its equivalent. Students must be able to use Formal Spoken Arabic as the medium of communication in the classroom. Limited to 18 students. Fall semester. Smith College.

Arabic 100Y. Elementary Arabic. This is a continuation of Elementary Arabic I. We will complete the study of the Elementary Arabic Al-Kitaab book sequence along with additional instructional materials. Emphasis will be on the integrated development of all language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) using a communicative-oriented, proficiency-based approach. By the end of this semester, you will acquire vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and language skills necessary for everyday interactions as well as skills that will allow you to communicate with a limited working proficiency in a variety of situations, read and write about a variety of factual material and familiar topics in non-technical prose. In addition to the textbook exercises, you will write short essays, do oral and video presentations and participate in role plays, discussions, and conversations throughout the semester in addition to extra-curricular activities and a final project.

Spring semester. Smith College.

Arabic 201. Intermediate Arabic II. This is a continuation of Arabic 200, Intermediate Arabic I. We will complete the study of the Al-Kitaab II book sequence along with additional instructional materials. In this course, we will continue perfecting knowledge of Arabic integrating the four skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing using a communicative-oriented, proficiency-based approach. By the end of this semester, you should have sufficient comprehension in Arabic to understand most routine social demands and most non-technical real-life conversations as well as some discussions on concrete topics related to particular interests and special fields of competence in a general professional proficiency level. You will have broad enough vocabulary that will enable you to read within a normal range of speed with almost complete comprehension a variety of authentic prose material and be able to write about similar topics. Also by the end of this semester, you should have a wide range of communicative language ability including grammatical knowledge, discourse knowledge and sociolinguistic knowledge of the Arabic language. You should expect text assignments as well as work with DVDs, audio and video materials and websites. Exercises and activities include essay writing, social interactions, role plays and in-class conversations, oral and video presentations that cover the interplay of language and culture, extra-curricular activities and a final
project.

Requisite: Arabic 201 or equivalent, or permission of the instructor. Spring semester. Smith College.

MOHAMED HASSAN, Senior Lecturer in Arabic (at Amherst College in the Five College Program) and Director of the Five College Arabic Language Program.

Arabic 101. First-Year Arabic I. See ARAB 101.

Fall semester. Amherst College

Arabic 201. Second-Year Arabic I. See ARAB 201.

Requisite: Arabic 101 or equivalent. Fall semester. Amherst College.

Arabic 401. Fourth-Year Arabic/Media Arabic. See ARAB 401.

Requisite: Arabic 302 or equivalent. Fall semester. Amherst College.

Arabic 102. First-Year Arabic II. See ARAB 102.

Requisite: Arabic 101 or equivalent. Spring semester. Amherst College.

Arabic 202. Second-Year Arabic II. See ARAB 202.

Requisite: ARAB 201 or equivalent, or permission of the instructor. Spring semester. Amherst College.

NAHLA KHALIL, Five College Lecturer in Arabic (at the University of Massachusetts in the Five College Program).

Arabic 101. Elementary Four Skilled Arabic I. This year-long course introduces the basics of Modern Standard Arabic. It covers all four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. It begins with a coverage of the alphabet, vocabulary for everyday use, and essential communicative skills relating to real-life and task-oriented situations (queries about personal well-being, family, work, and telling the time). Students will acquire vocabulary and usage for everyday interactions as well as skills that will allow them to read and analyze a range of texts. In addition to the traditional textbook exercises, students will write paragraphs and participate in role plays, debates, presentations and conversations throughout the year.

Fall semester. University of Massachusetts.

Arabic 201. Intermediate Four Skilled Arabic I. This is a continuation of Arabic 101, Elementary Four Skilled Arabic I. We will complete the study of the Elementary Arabic Al-Kitaab book sequence along with additional instructional materials. Emphasis will be on the integrated development of all language skills—reading, writing, listening and speaking—using a communicative-oriented, proficiency-based approach. By the end of this semester, you will acquire vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and language skills necessary for everyday interactions as well as skills that will allow you to communicate with a limited working proficiency in a variety of situations, read and write about a variety of factual material and familiar topics in non-technical prose. In addition to the textbook exercises, you will write short essays, do oral and video presentations and participate in role plays, discussions, and conversations throughout the semester in addition to extra-curricular activities and a final project.

Fall semester. University of Massachusetts.

Arabic 102. Elementary Four Skilled Arabic II. This is a continuation of Arabic 101, Elementary Four Skilled Arabic I. We will complete the study of the Elementary Arabic Al-Kitaab book sequence along with additional instructional materials. Emphasis will be on the integrated development of all language skills—reading, writing, listening and speaking—using a communicative-oriented, proficiency-based approach. By the end of this semester, you will acquire vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and language skills necessary for everyday interactions as well as skills that will allow you to communicate with a limited working proficiency in a variety of situations, read and write about a variety of factual material and familiar topics in non-technical prose. In addition to the textbook exercises, you will write short essays, do oral and video presentations and participate in role plays, discussions, and conversations throughout the semester in addition to extra-curricular activities and a final project.

Spring semester. University of Massachusetts.

Arabic 202. Intermediate Four Skilled Arabic II. This is a continuation of Arabic 201, Intermediate Four Skilled Arabic I. We will complete the study of the Al-Kitaab II book sequence along with additional instructional materials. In this course, we will continue perfecting knowledge of Arabic integrating the four skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing using a communicative-oriented, proficiency-based approach. By the end of this semester, you should have sufficient comprehension in Arabic to understand most routine social demands and most non-technical real-life conversations as well as some discussions on concrete topics related to particular interests and special fields of competence in a general professional proficiency level. You will have broad enough vocabulary that will enable you to read within a normal range of speed with almost complete comprehension a variety of authentic prose material and be able to write about similar topics. Also by the end of this semester, you should have a wide range of communicative language ability including grammatical knowledge, discourse knowledge and sociolinguistic knowledge of the Arabic language. You should expect text assignments as well as work with DVDs, audio and video materials and websites. Exercises and activities include essay writing, social interactions, role plays and in-class conversations, oral and video presentations that cover the interplay of language and culture, extra-curricular activities and a final project.

Requisite: Arabic 297 or equivalent, or permission of the instructor. Spring semester. University of Massachusetts.

ELIZABETH KLARICH, Assistant Professor of Anthropology (at Smith College in the Five College Program).

Anthropology 226. Archaeology of Food. This course explores the study of ancient foodways with a focus on how and why humans across the globe began to domesticate plant and animal resources approximately 10,000 years ago. The first half of the course presents the types of archaeological data and analytical methods used to study the “agricultural revolution” in a variety of regions. The second half explores a number of themes within the archaeology of food that investigate the relationship between agriculture and sedentism, food and gender, the politics of feasting, and methods for integrating archaeological and ethnographic approaches to the study of food.

Spring semester. Smith College.

Anthropology 220. Collecting the Past: Art and Artifacts of the Ancient Americas. See ANTH 220.

Limited to 18 students. Spring semester. Amherst College.

Architectural Studies

NAOMI DARLING, Assistant Professor of Sustainable Architecture (at Hampshire College in the Five College Program).

HACU 105. Design Investigations. This is an introductory studio for those students interested in exploring the design fields: architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and product design. These fields all share a studio-based approach to problem solving that is at once spatial, material, conceptual and social. In practice today, this necessitates also considering sustainability issues in the broadest sense including environmental, social, economic and political. Over the course of the semester, students will be given a series of projects that will introduce visual communication tools such as plans, elevations, and sections, projected drawings and model making. Emphasis will be placed upon developing a conceptual approach to a problem and developing a design process that may lead to unexpected outcomes. The specific projects will address issues of the body, light, comfort and materials. All projects will be presented in a studio critique format with drawings and models conveying the intent of the design project.

Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Hampshire College.

THOM LONG, Assistant Professor of Architecture and Design (at Hampshire College in the Five College Program).

Arch 205. Sculpting Space. This studio course will be a design investigation of a particular theme in or approach to architecture and the built environment. Students will develop and apply traditional and contemporary architectural skills (sketches, plans, elevations, models, computer diagramming, and various modes of digital representation) to interdisciplinary and socially pertinent design problems. Creative and indexical study and analysis will be used to generate and foster a broad range of concepts and language to solve architectural issues involving site, construction, inhabitation, function, form, and space. Our goal is to apply creative techniques in art and sculpture to the creation of meaningful space.

Fall semester. Mount Holyoke College.

European Studies 216 /Art 216. Digital Constructions: Intermediate Architectural Design. See EUST 216/ARHA 216.

Requisite: ARHA 111. Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 10 students. Spring semester. Amherst College.

Art and Technology

JOHN SLEPIAN, Assistant Professor of Art and Technology (at Hampshire [home campus] and Smith Colleges in the Five College Program).

IA 241. Digital Art: Multimedia, Malleability and Interactivity. Proceeding from the premise that the ideas behind a successful artwork should be intimately related to its materials, this course will investigate three of the most significant characteristics of digital media. We will work with a wide variety of tools that allow for the creation and manipulation of various media, including bitmap and vector images, 2D animation, and sound. Students will create a series of conceptually based digital artworks, culminating in an interactive multimedia final project. Readings will include essays by diverse authors such as Richard Wagner, Walter Benjamin, Norbert Weiner and Nam June Paik.

Fall semester. Hampshire College.

ARS 172. Cross-Disciplinary Studio: Two Dimensional Foundations. (taught with John Gibson) This team-taught course will introduce first-year students to a range of conceptual frameworks for making and thinking about art. Unlike a skills-based class devoted to a single medium, in this course students will practice problem-solving across traditional media boundaries. Specifically, the course will explore such concepts as perception/description, authorship, and spatial systems, through use of a range of two-dimensional media, including drawing, photography, digital media and printmaking, with an emphasis on object/art-making framed largely within the studio setting. The course is strongly recommended for students considering the art major. A required fee of $25 to cover group supplied materials will be charged at the time of registration.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Smith College.

IA 297. Video Art in the 21st Century. To quote artist and critic Catherine Elwes, “video is the default medium of the 21st Century.” Today video screens and projections are everywhere from cell phones to the sides of buildings, and video has become one of the most prominent media in museum and gallery exhibitions. In particular, screens and projections are a prominent component of much contemporary sculpture and installation. Throughout this course, we will study not only the history of video as gallery art form, but also some of its most important themes, including: structuralism and the form of the moving image, depictions of the body and space, video as a representation of culture and gender, and digital imaging. Readings will include works by theorists Sergei Eisenstein, Laura Mulvey, Marshall McCluhan and Lev Manovich. We will look at the work of artists Joan Jonas, Martha Rosler, Vito Acconci, Bill Viola, Mariko Mori and Matthew Barney, among others. Mostly importantly, this is a studio critique course. During the semester students will create a number of screen-based and video installation works.

Requisites: Some experience with basic video production and editing tools (your home camera and iMovie are fine) and at least one studio art course in any medium. Spring semester. Hampshire College.

ARS 361. Interactive Digital Multimedia. This course emphasizes individual projects and one collaborative project in computer-based interactive Multimedia production. Participants will extend their individual experimentation with time-based processes and development of media production skills (3D animation, video and audio production) developed in the context of interactive multimedia production for performance, installation, CD-ROM or Internet. Critical examination and discussion of contemporary examples of new media art will augment this course.

Requisites: ARS 162 and permission of the instructor. Limited to 14 students. Spring semester. Smith College.

Asian/Pacific/American Studies

RICHARD CHU, Associate Professor of History (at the University of Massachusetts in the Five College Program).

History 247. “Empire,” “Race,” and the Philippines: Indigenous Peoples vs. the Spanish, U.S., and Japanese Imperial Projects. Is the United States an “empire”? Today, U.S. political, military, and economic involvement in many parts of the world like the Middle East makes this an urgent and important question. This course addresses the issue of American imperial power by examining the history of U.S. colonization of the Philippines, during the first half of the twentieth-century, and by comparing it with that of two other imperial powers—Spain and Japan. Themes to be discussed include imperialism, colonialism, religion, ethnicity, gender, orientalism, nationalism, post-colonialism, neo-colonialism, crony capitalism, globalization, and militarism.

Fall semester. University of Massachusetts.

AMS 230. Colloquium: The Asian/Pacific/American Experience. This is an introductory survey course on the history of Asian/Pacific/Americans (A/P/A) within the broader historical context of imperialism in the Asia/Pacific region. We will compare and contrast the historical experiences of specific groups of the A/P/A community; namely, those of Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Southeast Asian (Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong), Asian Indian, and Pacific Islander descent, and how these histories have been impacted or influenced by the rise of empires (especially U.S.) from the eighteenth century to the present. Students taking this class will also participate in a lecture series through Weeks 2-9, during which different faculty members from the Five Colleges, as part of the 1-credit AMS 130 Mapping Asian American Studies course at Smith, will be presenting their research in relation to a particular broader historiographical or disciplinary area within the field of A/P/A Studies. (Students in AMS 230 will earn 4 credits and cannot take AMS 130 for additional credit.)

Fall semester. Smith College.

History 253. Asian/Pacific/American History. This course is an introductory survey course in the history of Asian/Pacific/Americans within the broader historical context of U.S. imperialism in the Asia/Pacific region. We will compare and contrast the historical experiences of specific groups of the A/P/A community; namely, those of Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Southeast Asian (Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong), Asian Indian, and Pacific Islander descent. The objective of the course is to provide the students with a fundamental understanding of A/P/A history that is inextricably linked to the goal of the United States to establish military, economic, and cultural hegemony in the world as seen through its colonial and neo-colonial policies both in the U.S. and the Asia/Pacific region. Thematically, the course will focus on imperialism, migration, race and racism, class, gender, sexuality, immigration, colonialism, post-colonialism, nationalism, ethnicity, globalization, and transnationalism. Discussions will emphasize the complexity and diversity, as well as the commonalities, of certain groups of A/P/A community affected by American imperialism

Spring semester. University of Massachusetts.

CSI 208. “Empire,” “Race,” and the Philippines: Indigenous Peoples vs. the Spanish, U.S., and Japanese Imperial Projects. Same description as History 247.

Spring semester. Hampshire College.

SUJANI REDDY, Assistant Professor of American Studies (at Amherst College in the Five College Program).

American Studies 232. Racialization in the U.S.: The Asian/Pacific/American Experience. See AMST 232.

Fall semester. Amherst College.

History 278f. Immigration Nation. This course examines both race and racism as elements in the historical process of “racialization,” and proceeds by positing racialization as key to understanding the political, economic, social and cultural dynamics of the United States. We will outline the basic patterns of migration to the United States from the late nineteenth century to today. Specific topics may include (but are not limited to) imperialism; diaspora; immigrant rights; immigrant labor; “illegal” immigration; nativism; social movements; and the relationships between gender, sexuality, race, class and nation.

Fall semester. Mount Holyoke College.

American Studies 236/Asian 292. From Civil Rights to Immigrant Rights: The Politics of Race, Nation and Migration Since WWII. See AMST 236/ASLC 292.

Spring semester. Amherst College.

Sociology 392R. Racialization: Exclusion, Deportation and the Making of an Immigrant Nation. This course defines, analyzes and interrogates processes of U.S. racial formation through focus on immigration, immigrant communities and the question of immigrant rights. We will begin by examining both race and racism as elements in the historical process of “racialization,” and proceed by positing racialization as key to understanding the political, economic, social and cultural dynamics of the United States. Our focus on immigration will begin in the nineteenth century with the anti-Chinese movement and proceed through to World War II. It will include an outline of the basic patterns of migration to the United States; their relationship to settler colonialism and U.S. imperialism; questions of naturalization, citizenship and family reunification; immigrant labor; “illegal” immigration; the relationships between gender, sexuality, race, class and nation; and Diaspora.

Spring semester. University of Massachusetts.

Dance

CONSTANCE VALIS HILL, Professor of Dance (at Hampshire College in the Five College Program).

CSI/HACU 170. Twentieth-Century Dance History. African American dance and music traditions have played critical roles in African American struggles to sustain their humanity—to express joy and pain through their bodies and through a particular relationship to rhythm. This class will explore the forms, contents and contexts of black traditions which played a crucial role in shaping American dance in the twentieth century. Viewing American cultural history through the lens of movement and performance, we will focus on black protest traditions in discerning how the cakewalking performances of Ada Overton and George Walker; proto-feminist blues and jazz performances of Bessie Smith; tap dancing of Bill Robinson; protest and resistive choreographies of Katherine Dunham, Pearl Primus, and Urban Bush Women; and the hip-hop performances of Rennie Harris can be viewed as corporeal embodiments of the centuries-long freedom struggle—whether non-violent, confrontational or contestational—and how these modes of performance reflect an increasing independent free black voice demanding equal inclusion in the body politic. This course will provide a strong foundation for students who want to pursue Black Studies and will acquaint students with methodologies utilized in performance and historical studies.

Fall semester. Hampshire College.

Theater and Dance 228/Women’s and Gender Studies 228. Feminist Performance. See THDA 228/WAGS 228.

Fall semester. Amherst College.

Dance 134. Dancing Motown. Here is a social and political history of Rhythm and Blues in the 1960s that takes you from your seat to (dancing in) the street. In the classroom, we will learn about the evolution of R&B from its roots in the jump blues (up-tempo jazz-tinged style of blues that was the link between jazz, blues, and rock music) of Louis Jordan, the blues-jazz fusions of Johnny Otis, electric blues of Muddy Waters, blues-gospels of the Staple Singers, and doo-wop songs of the Five Royales to a style of soul music that reached its height of popularity in the 60s with Motown Records in the “Motor City” of Detroit where such tunes as Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street” became not only infectious party song but reflective of the politically and racially-charged environment of black urban communities in the 1960s during the Black Power Movement. In the studio, we will combine basic tap steps and social dance moves into back-up chorus routines in the style of Cholly Atkins, the legendary rhythm tap dancer who, as house director of Motown Records in the 60s, devised “vocal choreography” for such acts as the Supremes, Temptations, Four Tops, and Gladys Knight and the Pips. Class routines will be rhythmically succinct but simple enough so that each class will be a complete routine for a tune (i.e. Aretha Franklin, “Respect”; Mary Wells, “You Beat Me to the Punch”). There will also be an R&B History and Singing Lab in which students learn back-up harmonizing singing style that engages with the lyrics while (like the dancing) remaining cool, relaxed, and in control. Open to dance, music, and theatre concentrators wishing to refine their rhythmic sensibilities; and to move with grace and style. Tap dance shoes required.

Spring semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Dance 377. Advanced Studies in History and Aesthetics: New Millennium Choreography. This course looks at the vast and diverse cultural and aesthetic landscape of dance performance in the millennium and the new breed of choreographers making cutting-edge that pursue radically different methods, materials and strategies for provoking new ideas about dance, body, and corporeal aesthetics.

Taking in the vast spectrum of new-age performance (live and virtualized), we will ask such questions as: How do non-narrative dance focus on the body as an instrument with unlimited possibilities, without the impetus of stories, emotions, ideas, specific external images? How do men and women portray themselves and interact; how do heterosexuality, homosexuality, and androgyny constitute a gender spectrum in new works? How do we watch and evaluate dances from culturally-specific traditions? How, in improvisational performance, do we watch people moving with each other and in space when there is no clear beginning, middle, or end; and how is the viewer challenged to see the point of people balancing, lifting, falling, and rolling as a form of dance? How do community-based performances (which involve different kinds of performers and settings) constitute a distinct socio-political themes in dance works that can be socio-politically subversive? How do site-specific works illuminate the thematic content of a work and various spaces for the viewer? How do choreographers utilize technology, text, sets, and lighting in developing multi-disciplinary performance works?

Spring semester. Smith College.

PAUL MATTESON, Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance (at Amherst [home campus] and Mount Holyoke colleges in the Five College program).

Theater and Dance 116H. Contemporary Dance: Modern II/III. See THDA 116H.

Fall semester. Amherst College.

Theater and Dance 216. Contemporary Dance: Modern 4/5 Technique and Repertory. See THDA 216.

Fall semester. Amherst College.

Theater and Dance 216H. Contemporary Dance: Modern 4/5. See THDA 216H.

Fall semester. Amherst College.

Dance 216. Intermediate Advanced Modern. Continued training in modern dance techniques and theories. Designed for students with a strong technical foundation.

Fall semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Dance 318. Advanced Modern. This course focuses on the integration of dance technique, performance, and improvisational research to expand students’ embodied awareness, range of motion, and performance skills as contemporary dancers.

Fall semester. Mount Holyoke College.

English

SCOTT BRANSON, Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature (at Amherst College in the Five College Program)

HACU 248. The Experimental Novel in the 20th Century. How do we make sense of a meaningless world? How do we render meaninglessness in fiction without making it meaningful? Are we satisfied with literature that doesn’t explain itself? Can we read without trying to explain? This course will examine novelists grappling with these questions as they try to find place for literature in the modern world. In a century marked by drastic technological advances in communication, transportation, and warfare—changes that also characterize our historical moment—modernist and post-modernist novelists experimented with incorporating meaninglessness into their work through innovation of the form of the novel as well as expansion of its content. We will read authors from different national traditions who try to incorporate the failure of meaning into their texts. Alongside novels, we will examine narrative theory to help us understand how literary conventions promise meaning and how the 20th-century experimental novel subverts this promise. Readings may include novels by Gide, Kafka, Mann, Beckett, Camus, O’Connor, Ellison, Duras, and Pynchon.

Fall semester. Hampshire College.

English 202. Later British Literature and Culture. The development of British literature from the Enlightenment of the 18th century through the Romanticism and Realism of the 19th century to the Modernism of the early 20th century; literary response to scientific and industrial changes, political revolution and the technical and social reordering of British society.

Open only to English majors, and those studying at the University on international or domestic exchange. Requisite: English 200 or 200H with B-. Fall semester. University of Massachusetts.

HACU 149. Dying Young in the Modern Novel. In this course, we will read novels with protagonists who die young. How does early death shape plot? Why do abbreviated lives make the most fascinating stories? Is there a literary history of dying young? Though we often think literature contains the meaning of life, we don’t ask whether it might give us the meaning of death. But what could be more meaningless than the death of someone cut off in the prime of life? Through a survey of European and American literature, this course will explore the pathos and desire that turn so many plots into death sentences for young men and women. We will read novels in conjunction with philosophical and theoretical texts to examine how death makes meaning in literature and how literary death reframes issues of identity such as race, gender, and class.

Spring semester. Hampshire College.

European Studies 122: Readings in the European Tradition II. See EUST 122.

Spring semester. Amherst College.

JANE DEGENHARDT, Associate Professor of English (at the University of Massachusetts in the Five College Program), will be on leave in 2012-13.

Film/Video

BABA HILLMAN, Associate Professor of Video/Film Production (at Hampshire College in the Five College Program), will be on leave in 2012-13.

BERNADINE MELLIS, Lecturer in Film Studies (at Mount Holyoke College in the Five College Program).

Film Studies 210. Beginning Video Production: Experiments in Adaptation. This course provides a foundation in the principles, techniques, and equipment involved in making short videos. Working with already existing texts (short stories, plays, poems, films, songs, news stories, paintings, etc.), students will develop their own projects. The course will introduce the following: developing a project idea from a pre-existing text; script/treatment writing; aesthetics and mechanics of shooting; the role of sound; and the conceptual and technical underpinnings of digital editing. We will do several short exercises early in the semester, working towards a longer final piece. By translating other media into cinematic terms, we will develop our proficiency in the language of moving images.

Requisite: Introduction to Film Studies. Application and permission of instructor required. Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Film Studies 280. Introduction to Video Production: First-Person Documentary. This course provides a foundation in the principles, techniques, and equipment involved in making short videos. In it, students will make short documentary films from the first-person point of view. We will use our own stories as material, but we will look beyond self-expression, using video to explore places where our lives intersect with larger historical, economic, environmental, or social forces. We will develop our own voices while learning the vocabulary of moving images and gaining production and post-production technical training. Through in-class critiques, screenings, readings and discussion, students will explore the aesthetics and practice of the moving image while developing their own original projects.

Requisite: Introduction to Film Studies. Application and permission of instructor required. Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Smith College.

Film Studies 310. Advanced Video Production: Documentary Workshop. In this class, we will take skills and insights gained in introductory production courses and develop them over the length of the semester through the creation of one short documentary project, 10 minutes long. We will explore the ethical questions and ambivalence inherent in this medium, seeking complex answers to difficult questions about representation and the often blurry lines between fiction and non-fiction. We will watch documentaries each week, films that introduce us to new ideas and information both in their content and in their form. This course has a Community-Based Learning Component.

Requisite: Beginning Video Production or its equivalent. Application and permission of instructor required. Limited to 10 students. Spring semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Communication 497J. Advanced Production Workshop. In this class, we will take skills and insights gained in introductory production courses and develop them over the length of the semester through the creation of one short video project, 10 minutes long. The course will be driven by students’ choice of projects, which can range from experimental to narrative to documentary.

Requisite: Beginning Video Production or its equivalent. Application and permission of instructor required. Limited to 10 students. Spring semester. University of Massachusetts.

Geosciences

J. MICHAEL RHODES, Professor of Geochemistry (at the University of Massachusetts in the Five College Program).

Geo 105. Dynamic Earth. The earth is a dynamic planet, constantly creating oceans and mountain ranges, accompanied by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. This course explores the scientific ideas that led to the scientific revolution of plate tectonics; how plate tectonics provides a comprehensive theory explaining how and why volcanoes and earthquakes occur; and the hazards that they produce and their impact on humans. Emphasis is placed on current earthquake and volcanic events, as well as on momentous events from the past, such as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii, and the more recent eruptions of Mount St. Helens (Washington), Pinitubo (Philippines) and Kilauea (Hawaii).

Fall semester. University of Massachusetts.

Geo 591V. Volcanology. A systematic discussion of volcanic phenomena, including types of eruptions, generation and emplacement of magmas, products of volcanism, volcanic impact on humans, and the monitoring and forecasting of volcanic events. Case studies of individual volcanoes illustrate principles of volcanology, with particular emphasis on Hawaiian, ocean-floor and Cascade volcanism.

Each week deals with a particular topic in volcanism and includes a lecture, readings from the textbook, and class presentations. For the class presentation, each student is required to select and read a paper from an appropriate journal, and come to class prepared to discuss the paper.

Honors students will “adopt” a currently active volcano. They will report, on a regular basis, to the class what their volcano is doing during the semester, and prepare a final term report on their adopted volcano.

Spring semester. University of Massachusetts.

History

NADYA SBAITI, Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern History (at Smith [home campus] and Mount Holyoke colleges in the Five College Program), will be on leave in 2012-13.

TERESA SHAWCROSS, Assistant Professor of History (at Amherst [home campus] and Mount Holyoke colleges in the Five College Program), will be on leave in 2012-13.

International Relations

MICHAEL T. KLARE, Professor of Peace and World Security Studies (at Hampshire College in the Five College Program).

Political Science 484. Seminar on International Politics: Global Energy Politics. See POSC 484.

Spring semester. Amherst College.

Critical Social Inquiry 254. War, Resources, and Sustainability. This course will examine the relationship between resource competition, climate change, and conflict in the modern world. The course will look at a variety of contemporary conflicts from around the world and attempt to determine the degree to which they are fueled by environmental and resource considerations. This will involve study of both existing conflicts, such as those now under way in Africa and the Middle East, and potential conflicts, such as that between the United States and China over access to energy and mineral supplies. The course will also consider the ways in which changes in consumption behavior and the development of energy alternatives can reduce the risk of conflict. Student will be expected to select a particular aspect of this topic or a case study for intensive research.

Spring semester. Hampshire College.

JON WESTERN, Professor of International Relations (at Mount Holyoke College in the Five College Program).

Political Science 482. United States Foreign Policy: Democracy and Human Rights. See POSC 482.

Fall semester. Amherst College.

International Relations 319. Democracy and Human Rights. This course examines American foreign policy concerning the promotion of democracy and human rights abroad. The course begins by examining how and why these policies are developed within the U.S. political, economic, institutional, and geostrategic context. Through the use of case studies, we will then evaluate how these policies have influenced events in Latin America, East Asia, Eastern Europe, and sub-Saharan and southern Africa.

Fall semester. Mount Holyoke College.

International Relations 270. American Foreign Policy. In this examination of American foreign policy since 1898, topics include the emergence of the United States as a global power, its role in World War I and II, its conduct and interests in the cold war, and its possible objectives in a post-cold war world. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between domestic interests and foreign policy, the role of nuclear weapons in determining policy, and the special difficulties in implementing a democratic foreign policy.

Spring semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Critical Social Inquiry 280. United States Foreign Policy: Democracy and Human Rights. Is the United States committed to promoting democracy and human rights abroad or just advancing its own strategic and domestic corporate interests? What influence does the United States have on the development of democracy around the world and the emergence of—and compliance with—international human rights conventions, protocols and laws? This seminar begins with an historical overview of American democracy and human rights rhetoric and policies and seeks to uncover the range of political, economic, cultural and geostrategic motivations underlying U.S. behavior. We will then examine American foreign policy responses to a broad range of contemporary human rights and democracy issues with special attention given to analyzing and comparing the post-Cold War state-building efforts in the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Previous course work relating to international relations, American politics or foreign policy, or political theory required.

Spring semester. Hampshire College.

Italian

ELIZABETH H. D. MAZZOCCO, Professor of Italian and Director of the Five College Center for the Study of World Languages (at the University of Massachusetts in the Five College Program).

Italian 126H. Intensive Elementary Italian Honors. The course’s goal is to provide students with the opportunity to gain functional fluency in Italian in one semester so that they can, in future semesters, integrate language into their major concentrations. In addition to mastering the traditional four skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing), students will simultaneously use the language as a bridge to Italy’s culture, history and literature. Unlike the non-honors Italian 126, this course meets 5 times per week with the professor and an additional hour in small conversation groups with a native-speaking fellow from the Universita di Bologna-Forli hosted by the UMass Italian program.

Open only to first-year students and sophomores. Fall semester. University of Massachusetts.

Japanese

FUMIKO BROWN, Five College Lecturer in Japanese.

Japanese 103. Review and Progress in Japanese. See JAPA 103.

Requisite: Some Japanese instruction in high school, home, or college. Fall semester. Amherst College.

Japanese 201. Communicating in Sophisticated Japanese. See JAPA 201.

Requisite: JAPA 102 or 104, or equivalent. Fall semester. Amherst College.

Asian Studies 324f. Third-Year Japanese I. This course helps students attain a higher level of proficiency in modern Japanese through the extended use of the language in practical contexts. The class will be conducted mostly in Japanese.

Fall semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Japanese 102. Building Survival Skills in Japanese. See JAPA 102.

Requisite: Japanese 101 or equivalent. Spring semester. Amherst College.

Japanese 202. Experience with Authentic Japanese Materials. See JAPA 202.

Requisite: JAPA 201 or equivalent. Spring semester. Amherst College.

Asian Studies 326s. Third-Year Japanese II. This course continues Asian Studies 324, Third Year Japanese I. Emphasizes attaining a higher level of proficiency in modern Japanese through the extended use of the language in practical contexts. The class will be conducted mostly in Japanese.

Spring semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Korean

SUK MASSEY, Five College Lecturer in Korean.

Korean 101. Korean I. Beginning Korean I is the first half of a two-semester introductory course in spoken and written Korean for students who do not have any previous knowledge of Korean. This course is designed to improve students’ communicative competence in daily life, focusing on the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Some of the activities include oral dialogue journals (ODJ), expanding knowledge of vocabulary, conversation in authentic contexts, in-depth study of grammar, listening comprehension, pronunciation practice, mini-presentations, Korean film reviews and Korean film making.

Fall semester. Smith College.

Korean 201. Korean II. Intermediate Korean I is the first half of a two-semester intermediate course in spoken and written Korean for students who already have a basic knowledge of Korean. This course is designed to reinforce and increase students’ facility with Korean in the four language areas: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Students are encouraged to expand their knowledge and take confidence-inspiring risks through activities such as the following: expanding knowledge of vocabulary, role play in authentic contexts, in-depth study of grammar, students mini-presentations, various types of writing, Korean film reviews, skits and Korean film making.

Fall semester. Smith College.

Asian Studies 160. First-Year Korean I. Beginning Korean I is the first half of a two-semester introductory course in spoken and written Korean for students who do not have any previous knowledge of Korean. This course is designed to improve students’ communicative competence in daily life, focusing on the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Some of the activities include oral dialogue journals (ODJ), expanding knowledge of vocabulary, conversation in authentic contexts, in-depth study of grammar, listening comprehension, pronunciation practice, mini-presentations, Korean film reviews and Korean film making.

Fall semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Korean 161s. First-Year Korean II. Beginning Korean II is the second half of a two-semester introductory course in spoken and written Korean for students who have some previous knowledge of Korean. This course is designed to improve students’ communicative competence in daily life, focusing on the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Some of the activities include vocabulary-building exercises, conversation in authentic contexts, in-depth study of grammar, listening comprehension and pronunciation practice, mini-presentations, Korean film reviews and Korean film making.

Spring semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Korean 102. Korean I. Beginning Korean II is the second half of a two-semester introductory course in spoken and written Korean for students who have some previous knowledge of Korean. This course is designed to improve students’ communicative competence in daily life, focusing on the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Some of the activities include vocabulary-building exercises, conversation in authentic contexts, in-depth study of grammar, listening comprehension and pronunciation practice, mini-presentations, Korean film reviews and Korean film making.

Spring semester. Smith College.

Music

BODE OMOJOLA, Associate Professor of Music (at Mount Holyoke College in the Five College Program).

Music 105/Black Studies 204. African Popular Music. See MUSI 105/BLST 204.

Fall semester. Amherst College.

Music 371. Topics in Music: Analytical Perspectives in World Music. The course examines important theoretical and methodological issues that have shaped the field of ethnomusicology and influenced the analyses of musical traditions from different parts of the world. A major objective of the course is to facilitate the capacity for an engaged and culturally sensitive analysis of music. Relying on the works of notable scholars, musical compositions and performances from different parts of the world are analyzed with a view to understanding key principles of musical construction and the ways in which musical composition and performance relate to broader dimensions of culture. Richly illustrated with video/audio recordings and as well as musical notation, the course examines musical traditions from different parts of the world, including Africa, Asia and Latin America. Each student is expected to carry out a final analytical project on a selected musical performance or composition drawing on the issues that guide our discussion in the course.

Fall semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Music 226. World Music. This course is a survey of selected musical traditions from different parts of the world, including Africa, Indonesia, India, the Caribbean and the United States. The course adopts an ethnomusicological approach that explains music as a cultural phenomenon, and explores the social and aesthetic significance of musical traditions within their respective historical and cultural contexts. It examines how musical traditions change over time, and how such changes reflect and relate to social and political changes within a given society. Weekly reading and listening assignments provide the basis for class discussions.

Spring semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Music 593O. Master Musicians of West Africa. This course concentrates on the lives and music of selected West African musicians. Departing from ethnographic approaches that mask the identity of individual musicians and treat African societies as collectives, this course emphasizes the contributions of individual West African musicians whose stature as master musicians is undisputed within their respective communities. It examines the contributions of individual musicians to the ever continuous process of negotiating the boundaries of African musical practice. Individuals covered this semester include Babatunde Olatunji (Nigerian drummer), Youssou N’Dour (Senegalese singer), Kandia Kouyate (Malian jelimuso) and Ephraim Amu (Ghanaian composer). The variety of artistic expressions of selected musicians also provides a basis for examining the interrelatedness of different African musical idioms, and the receptivity of African music to non-African styles.

Spring semester. University of Massachusetts.

Russian, East European, Eurasian Studies

EVGENY DENGUB, Five College Lecturer in Russian.

Russian 101. First-Year Russian I. See RUSS 101.

Fall semester. Amherst College.

Russian and Eurasian Studies 251f. Advanced Studies in Russian. This course aims at expansion of students’ vocabulary and improvement of both writing and speaking skills. The course is intended for students who have completed at least four semesters of Russian or the equivalent. Heritage learners of Russian (those who speak the language) will also benefit from the course. With a strong emphasis on integrating vocabulary in context, this course aims to help students advance their lexicon and grammar, increase fluency, and overcome speaking inhibitions. We will read and discuss a variety of texts including short stories, films, and articles.

Requisite: Russian and Eurasian Studies 202. Fall semester. Mount Holyoke College.

Russian 102. First-Year Russian II. Continuation of RUSS 101.

Requisite: RUSS 101 or equivalent. Spring semester. Amherst College.

Course to be determined.

Spring semester. Mount Holyoke College.

SERGEY GLEBOV, Assistant Professor of History (at Smith [Home Campus] and Amherst Colleges in the Five College Program).

History 247. Aspects of Russian History: Affirmative Action Empire: Soviet Experiences of Managing Diversity. How the Communist rulers of the Soviet Union and Stalin in particular, mobilized national identities to maintain control over the diverse populations of the USSR. World War I and the Revolution of 1917 opened a window of opportunities for the nationalities of the former Russian Empire. Soviet policies of creating, developing, and supporting new national and social identities among diverse Soviet ethnic groups in light of collectivization, industrialization, expansion of education, and Stalin’s Terror. How World War II and post-war reconstruction became formative experiences for today’s post-Soviet nations.

Fall semester. Smith College.

History 236/European Studies 238. Soviet Union During the Cold War. See HIST 236/EUST 238.

Fall semester. Amherst College.

History 239. Imperial Russia, 1650-1917. The emergence, expansion, and maintenance of the Russian Empire to 1929. The dynamics of pan-imperial institutions and processes (imperial dynasty, peasantry, nobility, intelligentsia, revolutionary movement), as well as the development of the multitude of nations and ethnic groups conquered by or included into the empire. Focus on how the multinational Russian empire dealt with pressures of modernization (nationalist challenges in particular), internal instability and external threats.

Spring semester. Smith College.

History 439/European Studies 339. Defining the Modern: Russia between Tsars and Communists. See HIST 439/EUST 339.

Spring semester. Amherst College.

Women’s Studies

ANGELA WILLEY, Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies (at the University of Massachusetts in the Five College program).

Critical Social Inquiry 205. Feminist Science Studies. This course introduces students to theories and methodologies in the interdisciplinary field of feminist science studies. Through collaborative faculty-student research projects, we will engage key conversations in the field. Specific areas of investigation include scientific cultures, science and the law, animal models, and science in the media and popular culture. While working on project-specific questions students will continuously engage larger questions such as: What kinds of knowledge count as “science?” What is objectivity? How do cultural assumptions shape scientific knowledge production in this and other historical periods? What is the relationship between “the body” and scientific data? Is feminist science possible?

Fall semester. Hampshire College.

Gender Studies 201. Methods and Practices in Feminist Scholarship. How do scholars produce knowledge? What can we learn from differences and similarities in the research process of a novelist, a biologist, an historian, a sociologist, and a film critic? Who decides what counts as knowledge? We will examine a range of methods from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, including visual analysis, archival exploration, interviewing, and ethnography, as we consider the specific advantages (and potential limitations) of diverse disciplinary approaches for feminist inquiry. We will take up numerous practical questions as well as larger methodological and ethical debates. This course provides a foundation for advanced work in the major.

Requisite: Gndst-101 and 4 credits from a natural or physical science course with lab. Spring semester. Mount Holyoke College.

FIVE COLLEGE AFRICAN STUDIES CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The Five College African Studies Certificate Program is administered by the Five College African Studies Council through its Faculty Liaison Committee, which consists of the certificate program advisors from each of the five colleges. The certificate program offers an opportunity for students to pursue an interest in African Studies as a complement to their majors.

Requirements: The Five College African Studies Certificate Program requires a minimum of six courses on Africa. An African course is defined as one the content of which is at least 50% devoted to Africa per se. The program is designed to be broadly interdisciplinary in character. A coherent plan of study should be developed between the student and his or her certificate program advisor. Students are encouraged to complete their studies of Africa with an independent study course that gives this course work in African Studies a deliberate, integrative intellectual focus.

Minimum requirements of the Five College Certificate in African Studies are:

1. A minimum of one course providing an historical perspective;

2. A minimum of one course on Africa in the social sciences (anthropology, economics, geography, political science, sociology);

3. A minimum of one course on Africa in the fine arts and humanities (art, folklore, history, literature, music, philosophy, religion);

4. A minimum of three more courses on Africa, each in a different department, chosen from history, the social sciences, or the fine arts and humanities;

5. Proficiency in a language other than English through the level of second year in college, to be fulfilled either in a language indigenous to Africa or an official language in Africa (French, Portuguese or Arabic).

No more than three courses in any one department may be counted toward the minimum requirements of this certificate. With the approval of the student’s certificate program advisor, not more than three relevant courses taken at schools other than the five colleges may be counted toward the minimum certificate requirements. Students must receive a grade of B or better in every course that qualifies for the minimum certificate requirements. No course that counts for the minimum requirements may be taken on a pass/fail basis. Students are also encouraged to take advantage of opportunities currently available on each campus through study abroad programs to spend a semester or more in Africa.

Students who complete the certificate program requirement will be given a certificate from the Five College African Studies Council, and the following entry shall be made on the student’s permanent college record: “Completed requirements for the Five College African Studies Certificate.”

Further information about the Five College African Studies Certificate Program is available at www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/african/ or from the certificate program advisor at Amherst College, who will have a list of courses at all five colleges which will satisfy certificate requirements, as well as certificate program application forms. (Such lists and forms are also available at the Five College Center.) During 2012-13 the Amherst certificate program advisor is Professor Rowland Abiodun the Art and the History of Art and Black Studies Departments.

FIVE COLLEGE ASIAN/ PACIFIC/AMERICAN STUDIES CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The Five College Asian/Pacific/American Studies Certificate Program enables students to pursue concentrated study of the experiences of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the Americas. Through courses chosen in consultation with their campus program adviser, students can learn to appreciate APA cultural and artistic expressions, understand and critique the racial formation of Asian/Pacific/Americans, and investigate how international conflicts, global economic systems, and ongoing migration affect APA communities and individuals and their intersections with others. Drawing upon diverse faculty, archival, and community-based resources, the Five College program in Asian/Pacific/ American Studies encourages students not only to develop knowledge of the past experiences of Asian/Pacific/Americans, but also to act with responsible awareness of their present material conditions.

An Amherst student qualifies for the certificate by satisfactorily completing the following requirements:

A. A minimum of seven courses, distributed among the following categories. As always, to be counted toward graduation, courses taken at another campus must be approved by campus advisors.

1. A foundation course, normally taken during the first or second year. This course offers an interdisciplinary perspective on historical and contemporary experiences of Asian/Pacific/Americans. Attention will be paid to interrogating the term Asian/Pacific/ American and to comparing different APA populations distinguished, for example, by virtue of their different geographical or cultural derivations, their distribution within the Americas, and their historical experience of migration.

2. At least five elective courses. Students must take at least one course from each of the following categories:

a) Expressions. These courses are largely devoted to the study of APA cultural expression in its many forms.

b) U.S. Intersections. These courses are dedicated substantially to the study of Asian/Pacific/Americans but are further devoted to examining intersections between APA experiences and nonAPA experiences within the United States.

c) Global Intersections. These courses have their focus outside the United States but offer special perspectives on the experiences of Asian/Pacific/Americans.

3. A special project, which is normally fulfilled in the third or fourth year. This requirement involves the completion of a special project based on intensive study of an Asian/Pacific/American community, historical or contemporary, either through research, service- learning, or creative work (e.g., community-based learning project, action-research, internship, performing or fine arts project, etc.). Normally the requirement will be fulfilled while enrolled in an upper-level, special topics, or independent study course, although other courses may be used subject to approval of the campus program advisor. Projects should include both self-reflective and analytic components. Students fulfilling this requirement will meet as a group at least once during the semester to discuss their ongoing projects, and at the end of the semester to present their completed projects at a student symposium or other public presentation.

Students’ plans for completing the requirement should be approved by a campus program advisor in the previous semester.

B. Further Stipulations:

1. Grades: Students must receive the equivalent of a “B” grade or better in all courses counted toward the Certificate. (In the case of Hampshire students taking courses at Hampshire, “B” equivalence will be determined by the Hampshire program adviser, based on the written evaluations supplied by course instructors.)

2. Courses counted toward satisfaction of campus-based major requirements may also be counted toward the Five College Certificate.

3. No course can be counted as satisfying more than one Certificate distribution requirement.

4. Courses taken abroad may be used to fulfill the distribution requirement with the approval of the campus program advisor.

C. Recommendation:

Students are encouraged to attain some proficiency in at least one language other than English, especially if such proficiency facilitates the completion of the Special Project component of the Certificate Program. While English is sufficient and appropriate for the completion of many projects involving Asian/Pacific/American communities, many sources and communities can be consulted only through other languages.

A comprehensive list of courses and certificate requirements is available at www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/apa/. The Amherst faculty advisor for 2012-13 will be Professor Sujani Reddy.

FIVE COLLEGE BUDDHIST STUDIES CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The Five College Buddhist Studies Certificate Program is administered by the Five College Buddhist Studies Council through its Faculty Liaison Committee, which consists of the certificate program advisors from each of the five colleges. Because Buddhist Studies is an interdisciplinary field—straddling anthropology, art history, Asian studies, history, language study, literary and textual studies, philosophy, and religious studies—students are often unaware of the integrity of the field or of the range of resources available for its study in the valley. The Certificate Program provides a framework for students interested in Buddhism to develop a coherent, interdisciplinary approach to the study of this subject as a complement to their majors.

An Amherst student qualifies for the certificate by satisfactorily completing the following requirements:

1. The certificate must be comprised of at least seven courses, at least one of which must be at an advanced level (200 or 300 at Hampshire, 300 or above at Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, or the University of Massachusetts; comparable upper-level courses at Amherst).

2. Students must take at least one course in three different disciplines of Buddhist Studies (anthropology, art history, Asian studies, philosophy, religious studies, etc.).

3. Students must take at least one course addressing classical Buddhism and one course addressing contemporary Buddhist movements (19th- 21st century), and they must study Buddhism in at least two of the following four geographical areas: South and Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Tibeto-Himalayan region, and the West.

4. Students must receive a grade of at least “B” in each course counting towards the certificate.

For students who wish to pursue a certificate in Buddhist Studies as preparation for graduate study in this field, the Program strongly recommends the study of at least one canonical language (Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, or Tibetan) and/or the modern language of at least one Buddhist culture (especially for those who have an ethnographic interest in Buddhism). While language study is not required, up to two canonical or appropriate colloquial Asian language courses may count towards the seven required courses for the certificate. Students are also strongly encouraged to consider study abroad.

Faculty advisors will help students design their programs of study. Further information about the Five College Buddhist Studies Certificate is available at www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/buddhism/. For 2012-13 the Amherst faculty advisor will be Professor Maria Heim of the Religion Department.

FIVE COLLEGE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN CULTURE, HEALTH, AND SCIENCE

The Five College Certificate in Culture, Health, and Science complements a traditional disciplinary major by allowing students to deepen their knowledge of human health, disease, and healing through an interdisciplinary focus. Under the guidance of CHS faculty program advisors on each campus, students choose a sequence of courses available within the five colleges and identify an independent project that will count toward the certificate. The certificate is designed to foster holistic, biocultural, interdisciplinary understandings of health and disease.

Requirements: The certificate consists of coursework and an independent project. Four semesters of a foreign language is strongly suggested, although not required.

Coursework: Satisfactory completion of seven courses is necessary to receive the CHS Certificate. You must earn a grade “B” or better in each of the seven courses for it to count toward the certificate. You can take courses from any of the five college campuses. You must take one course from each of the five categories. No course may be used to satisfy more than one category.

If possible, it is best to begin with courses in Categories I and II. It is required that at least three of the courses used to satisfy CHS requirements fall outside of your major. In other words, no more the four of the courses used to satisfy CHS requirements should also count towards your major.

It is recommended, but not required, that at least one of your courses expose you to knowledge of health and disease processes at the level of the population. And finally, at least four courses must be above the introductory level.

The five categories are:

I. Biocultural Approaches;

II. Mechanisms of Disease Transmission;

III. Population, Health, and Disease;

IV. Ethics and Philosophy;

V. Research Design and Analysis.

A comprehensive list of certificate requirements is available online at www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/chs. For 2012-13, the Amherst faculty advisor will be Professor Christopher Dole of the Anthropology Department.

FIVE COLLEGE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY

The Five College Certificate in Ethnomusicology allows students interested in studying music from a cross-disciplinary perspective to build bridges across departmental boundaries in a rigorous, structured manner. Students working within the program approach world musical traditions as they relate to a number of areas of inquiry, including:

musical performance, analysis, and composition;

organology;

relationships between music and other artistic and expressive forms (i.e., dance, theater, film);

relationships between music and systems of value and belief;

relationships between singing and other forms of vocal practice;

relationships between the study of language and music;

human cognitive capacity for musical and other sonic expression;

listening as a culturally specific practice;

the social history of music and popular culture;

understanding national, class, gender, ethnic, sexual, and other forms of identity;

the relationship between music and social and political power;

globalization and transnationalism in music;

the uses of music and sound in contemporary media production;

roles of sonic technology and surveillance in contemporary societies;

the use of music and sound in relation to social and state control, the law, and space;

intellectual property and copyright as it pertains to musical composition, performance, and ownership.

To obtain a Five College Certificate in Ethnomusicology, students must successfully complete a total of seven (7) courses distributed as indicated in the following four (4) categories:

1) Area Studies or Topics courses: at least two courses;

2) Methodology: at least two courses;

3) Performance: at least one course;

4) Electives: interdisciplinary in focus and negotiated in consultation with the student’s ethnomusicology advisor, including relevant courses in area studies, theater and dance, history, and anthropology and sociology, for instance.

Since ethnomusicological research and related musical performance may require understanding of and competence in a foreign language, students are encouraged, but not required, to achieve relevant language proficiency. Other areas that students are encouraged to explore include experiential learning, a study abroad or domestic exchange experience, in depth study of a single musical tradition, or comparative studies of several musical traditions.

For specific course offerings within these categories and more information about the Five College Certificate in Ethnomusicology, please refer to the program website: www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/ethnomusicology/certificate. The Amherst College faculty advisors for 2012-13 are Professors Jeffers Engelhardt and Jason Robinson of the Music Department.

FIVE COLLEGE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The Five College International Relations Certificate is issued by Mount Holyoke College on behalf of the Five Colleges. The purpose of the International Relations Certificate Program is to encourage students interested in international relations but majoring in other fields to develop a coherent approach to the study of this subject. The Program recommends a disciplined course of study designed to enhance students’ understanding of complex international processes—political, military, economic, social, cultural, and environmental—that are increasingly important to all nations. Receipt of the certificate indicates that the student has completed such a course of study as a complement to his or her major.

An Amherst student qualifies for the certificate by satisfactorily completing the following seven requirements:

1. A course in introductory world politics;

2. A course concerning global institutions or problems;

3. A course on the international financial and/or commercial system;

4. A modern (post-1789) history course relevant to the development of the international system;

5. A course on contemporary American foreign policy;

6. “Two years of college-level study of a foreign language or languages during which they must complete the second year in at least one language” (Please note that this is an Amherst College language requirement it differs from that noted in the Five College International Relations Certificate brochure. This requirement is waived for non-native speakers of English).

7. Two courses on the politics, economy and/or society of foreign areas, of which one must involve the study of a Third World country or region.

No more than four of these courses in any one discipline can be counted toward the certificate. No single course can satisfy more than one requirement. A grade of B or better must be achieved in a course in order for it to count toward the certificate. Amherst students should request grades for Hampshire College courses offered in fulfillment of requirements for the certificate.

The Certificate Program is administered by the Five College International Relations Committee whose members also serve as faculty advisors concerning the program on the five campuses. Amherst students’ selection of courses to satisfy the requirements for the certificate is monitored and approved by Amherst’s faculty advisor. Further information about the Five College International Relations Certificate Program is available at www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/international/Certificate/ or from the faculty advisors at Amherst who will have Certificate Program application forms. (Such forms are also available at the Five College Center.)

In 2012-13 the Amherst faculty advisors will be Professors Javier Corráles, Pavel Machala, and Ronald Tiersky of the Political Science Department.

FIVE COLLEGE LATIN AMERICAN, CARIBBEAN, AND LATINO STUDIES CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The Five College Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies Certificate is issued by the Five College Council on Latin American Studies. To earn a Certificate, students must complete successfully a minimum of eight one-semester courses selected from five different areas, fulfill a language requirement, and achieve at least a grade of B in the minimum number of courses taken towards the certificate. Students are encouraged to plan their program of study in consultation with the Amherst College Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies Certificate advisor. Completed applications for the certificate must be signed by the home campus advisor, who will bring the application to the Five College Latin American Studies Certificate Program committee.

Requirements: The eight one-semester courses must be taken within the following five areas and the student must earn a B or better in each course:

1. A broadly based, introductory course on the social and political history of Latin America;

2, One course in the social sciences that focuses substantially on Latin America (including courses in anthropology, economics, geography, political science, etc.);

3. One course in the humanities that focuses substantially on Latin America (including courses in art, art history, dance, folklore, literature, music, philosophy, religion, or theater, etc.);

4. Four other courses on Latin America, the Caribbean, or U.S. Latinos (one of these courses can be replaced by a senior honors thesis on a Latin American, Caribbean, or U.S. Latino topic);

5. A seminar which gives the student’s coursework in Latin America an interdisciplinary focus.

Students are strongly encouraged to complete at least one of these certificate requirements through the Five Colleges or while studying abroad.

Language requirement: Proficiency through second-year college level in an official (other than English) or indigenous language of Latin America and the Caribbean.

During 2012-13 the Amherst faculty advisor is Professor Carleen Basler of the American Studies and Sociology Departments. For more information see the Latin American Studies website at www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/%20latinamericanstudies.

FIVE COLLEGE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN LOGIC

The Five College Certificate in Logic brings together aspects of logic from different disciplines within the curriculum: Philosophy, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Linguistics. The Certificate offers an opportunity for students to pursue an interest in logic as a complement to their majors.

To earn the Five College Certificate in Logic, a student must take six courses in logic from any of the Five Colleges. No more than four courses can be counted towards the Certificate from any single one of the above disciplines. At least two courses must be taken at an advanced level (300 or above at University of Massachusetts, 210 or above at Smith College, 300 or above at Hampshire College or Mount Holyoke College, 300 or above at Amherst College). And at least one course must expose students to the basic meta-theory of first-order logic and to Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems. Students must receive grades of at least “B” in each course counting towards the Certificate.

The logic courses offered at the five institutions occasionally overlap. To insure that every Certificate student chooses wisely, each course of study must be approved by the coordinating committee for the Logic Certificate (which comprises one representative from each participating institution). Please see Professor Alexander George (Philosophy) or Professor Daniel J. Velleman (Mathematics) for further information.

For a list of courses fulfilling certificate requirements, consult the Logic Website at www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/logic/.

FIVE COLLEGE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

The Five College Middle Eastern Studies Certificate provides the opportunity for serious study of the Middle East at Amherst College. The Program is administered by the Five College Committee for Middle Eastern Studies, which includes the program advisors from each of the five colleges. Students are encouraged to declare intentions and begin work with an advisor by the sophomore year. Students work closely with a Middle East Certificate Advisor to develop a particular focus of study, as well as a solid interdisciplinary foundation for a nuanced and complex understanding of the region’s history, politics, religion, and literature. Competence in a Middle Eastern language (Arabic, Turkish, Persian or Hebrew) is considered essential to this certificate. Study abroad is strongly encouraged.

The certificate requires (a) Two introductory history courses, one in the premodern (before 1800) and one in the modern period; (b) Five courses from four disciplines (Religion and Philosophy; History, Literature and Art; Social Science); Language (beyond the two years of required language). Students must take at least one course in the first three disciplines; no more than two courses in any single discipline will count towards the certificate; and (c) Two years of a Middle Eastern language (demonstrated either in coursework or competence). Courses from all Five Colleges with a minimum grade of B count towards the certificate.

Further information about this certificate is available at www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/middleeast/certificate. The Amherst faculty advisor for 2012-13 is Professor Monica Ringer of the History department.

FIVE COLLEGE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES

The Five College Certificate in Native American Indian Studies provides students with the opportunity to acquire a knowledge and understanding of the development, growth, and interactions of the indigenous peoples and nations of the Western Hemisphere. The program emphasizes the many long histories of Native American Indians as well as their contemporary lives and situations. A holistic and comparative interdisciplinary approach underlies the Certificate Program’s requirements, enabling students to become familiar with the diversity of indigenous lifeways, including cultural forms, institutions, political economies, and modes of self-expression. In addition to this broader perspective, the program places some emphasis on the Native peoples of the Northeast to that Five College students can become acquainted with the history, culture and presence of indigenous peoples in this region.

Requirements: At least seven courses are required for completion of the Five College Certificate in Native American Indian Studies: a foundation course plus six additional courses, with no more than three of the seven courses from a single discipline. A student’s program must be approved by the program advisor from her or his campus.

1. Foundation courses. Offered at various levels, foundation courses provide an opportunity to hear Native perspectives and are taught from a philosophical perspective that refl ects Native Studies theories, pedagogies and methodologies.

2. At least six additional courses from a list of courses currently approved by the Five College NAIS Committee as counting toward the certificate. For a list of these courses consult: www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/natam/. (Courses not on this list may be approved for inclusion by campus program advisors in consultation with the Committee.)

3. Grades. Students must receive a grade of B or higher in all 7 courses to receive a Certificate.

For 2012-13, the Amherst faculty advisor will be Professor Kevin Sweeney of the American Studies and History Departments.

FIVE COLLEGE QUEER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The Five College Queer and Sexuality Studies certificate provides an opportunity to enroll in a course of study that examines critically the relationship between queer sexual and gender identities, experiences, cultures, and communities in a wide range of historical and political contexts. Working across disciplines, students will take courses in a variety of fields, such as Women’s and Gender Studies, Black Studies, Asian and Asian American Studies, Latin American Studies, Art and the History of Art, English, History, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Film and Media Studies, Law, and language studies. The certificate will also lead students to investigate how non-normative and normative genders and sexualities intersect with other social categories, such as race, ethnicity, gender, class, and nationality.

To obtain a Five College certificate in Queer and Sexuality Studies, students must successfully complete a total of seven courses, including one introductory course, at least one critical race and transnational studies course, and five other courses. The five courses must include at least two courses in the Humanities and two courses in the Social Sciences, and at least one of the five courses must be an upper-level (300 or above) course.

For the application form and other particulars, including the courses that will count toward the certificate, go to www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/queerstudies/certificate/.

The certificate is currently approved for students at Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College and Smith College.

For 2012-13 the Amherst faculty advisors will be Professors Michèle Barale and Frederick Griffiths of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department.

FIVE COLLEGE CERTIFICATE IN RUSSIAN, EAST EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN STUDIES

This program offers students the opportunity to take advantage of the significant multidisciplinary resources in the Five Colleges on Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia. The certificate consists of a minimum of six courses. Courses applied to the certificate may also be used to fulfill major requirements. The list of courses fulfilling particular requirements will be maintained and regularly updated by the Five College Committee for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.

Course Requirements:

A. The Program’s core course is normally taken in the first or second year. The core course will be offered every year on a rotating basis at one of the campuses and will introduce an interdisciplinary perspective on the historical and contemporary experiences of the peoples of Russia, Eurasia (here understood as the former republics of the Soviet Union), and East (and Central) Europe. The course will include guest lectures by noted specialists in the Five Colleges.

B. Five additional elective courses, distributed as indicated below. (Independent study courses may be included, assuming approval by the student’s campus program advisor.)

C. At least four courses, including the core course, must be taken within the Five Colleges.

Language Requirement: Students receiving the Certificate must possess proficiency in a language of one of the certificate regions equivalent to the level achieved after four semesters of post-secondary course work. This proficiency may be demonstrated by course work or examination.

Study Abroad: Students are encouraged to study abroad in one of the certificate regions.

Elective Course Distribution: In electing the five courses satisfying the certificate requirements, the following guidelines should be observed:

Courses should be drawn from more than one of the three geographical areas: Russia, Eurasia (here understood as the former republics of the Soviet Union and Eastern and Central Europe).

At least one of the elective courses must focus on a period before the 20th century.

At least one course must be taken from each of the following disciplinary categories: history, social sciences, and humanities/arts. No single course can fulfill more than one distribution requirement.

Elementary or intermediate language courses cannot be included as one of the five electives. A language course beyond the intermediate level can be counted toward one of the electives.

Credit for one-time courses, special topics courses and transfer or study abroad courses requires approval from the home campus faculty advisor to the program.

The faculty advisor for 2012-13 will be Five College Professor of Russian Sergey Glebov.

FIVE COLLEGE CERTIFICATE IN SUSTAINABILITY STUDIES

Sustainability will be essential to the formulation of sound environmental, economic, and social progress in the 21st century. It is important for academic institutions to provide students with broad opportunities to pursue their interest in this pivotal topic. The Five College Sustainability Studies Certificate program (FCSS) is designed to engage students in a structured course of study that will draw on courses from across the campuses in a range of disciplines. Students will also complete an internship, independent research project, or advanced course work in sustainability studies. On each participating campus, program advisors will work with students to design a course of study tailored to students’ interests and faculty strengths at the Five Colleges. The FCSS program has identified three core course areas and five concentration areas for elective study based on current student interest as well as Five College faculty expertise. These elective concentration areas are: (1) Agriculture and Food Systems, (2) Energy, Climate, and Water, (3) Culture, History, and Representation, (4) Politics and Policy, and (5) Green Infrastructure, Design, and Technology.

Requirements: A minimum of seven courses are required for the Five College Sustainability Studies certificate program. At least five of the courses must be above the introductory level, and two of the five courses must be at the advanced level.

Students will complete 3 core courses in the areas of “Environmental Sustainability,” “Sustainable Economy and Politics,” and “Sustainable Society and Culture” (one course from each area). Students will also complete a minimum of 3 courses in one of five concentration areas (Agriculture and Food Systems; Energy Systems, Climate, and Water; Green Infrastructure, Design, and Technology; Politics and Policy; Culture, History, and Representation); another course should be chosen from a different concentration area. (One of the required core courses may also be counted toward fulfillment of the concentration requirement.) At least one of the concentration area courses must be at the advanced level.

Core Courses (3): The core courses are intended to expose students to the interconnectedness and significance of economic, environmental, and social aspects of sustainability. All students are required to complete three core courses, one from each of the following areas: (1) Environmental Sustainability; (2) Sustainable Economics and Politics; and (3) Sustainable Society and Culture.

Concentration Area Courses (4): Students pursuing a Five College Certificate in Sustainability Studies must choose an area of concentration from the following five areas of study. Students will take at least 3 courses within their declared concentration area (at least one at the advanced level) and one other course chosen from a different concentration area. The following descriptions place the concentration areas in the broad context of sustainability and detail how inquiry in these areas is vital to understanding sustainable systems.

1. Agriculture and Food Systems: By its very nature, food is central to society, culture, and basic survival. However, our current, predominantly industrial agricultural system takes a reductionist approach to growing food, with minimal concern for the resulting environmental, economic and societal impacts. In order to maintain our agricultural and food systems into the future, an integrated approach which takes environment, economy, and equity into account is critical. In this concentration, students will integrate the science, technology, policies, and ethics of agriculture and food systems, and will examine the relationships among agriculture, food choices, nutrition, and economic and social well-being.

2. Energy, Climate, and Water: More than ever before, society is coming to appreciate the complex inter-relationships between energy use, climate change, and global water availability. The production and consumption of fossil fuels is the leading source of greenhouse gases promoting climate change, which affects not only temperature but also precipitation patterns. Any effort to slow or reverse the process of global warming requires a fundamental shift to cleaner energy technology; likewise, any effort to adjust to global warming requires improved water management in order to ensure adequate water supplies. This concentration explores the changing nature of global climate and the solutions required for sustainable energy and water management in the 21st century.

3. Culture, History, and Representation: Nature was once autonomous but at least for the past 50,000 years, humans have dramatically affected nature. We cannot understand and promote sustainability without understanding the ways humans have constructed nature, both symbolically and materially. Indeed, the social construction of both nature and sustainability has given rise to conflicts over meaning and policy in the wake of growing environmental awareness and activism. This history has often been portrayed as elegy—what we have lost. But we also have to acknowledge what we have gained. This concentration invites students to explore the tension between notions of progress and loss, a tension which itself promotes the desire for sustainability. It challenges the student to consider the constitutive role of culture in defining nature and sustainability across a range of public discourses and practices.

4. Politics and Policy: In many parts of today’s world, people and environments suffer from ecological degradation, resource scarcity, economic decline and social exploitation—none of which promotes sustainability. Transitioning to sustainability will require societal and political action at local, regional, national, international and global levels. In some cases, new norms, laws, treaties and institutions will need to be crafted and enforced in order to improve environmental and other standards. In other cases, people whose livelihood practices sustain and depend on human and ecological communities may challenge policies and political systems that favor environmental and social exploitation. The politics of sustainability will be full of contest and conflict, but it carries the transformative potential to build a far better world. This concentration will examine the role of governments, businesses, non-governmental organizations, community groups and others in devising, supporting, fighting over, negotiating and enacting sustainable policies and practices.

5. Green Infrastructure, Design, and Technology: For the first time in history, more than half the world’s population now lives in cities. A sustainable future for seven billion people therefore requires sustainable urban systems, buildings and infrastructure. The aim of this concentration is to provide a broad understanding of the challenges, strategies and opportunities that face modern society as we seek to move toward more sustainable built environments. The concentration includes the study and practice of design, as well as planning policy. The course selections and project work in this concentration will examine the interrelationships between urban design and planning, ecosystem processes, green building technologies, policy-making and social equity.

EXPERIENTIAL COMPONENT

Internship, Independent Research Project, or Advanced Study in Sustainability Studies. Students will work with their campus program advisor to identify and complete an internship that leads to an independent research project that addresses a contemporary, “real world” problem. Alternatively, students may work with their program advisor to identify a suitable advanced course within their concentration area. Approved internships that lead to an independent research project, or an independent research project (e.g., a special topics course or an honors thesis) or upper-level course within the area of concentration may be counted toward fulfillment of the advanced course requirement.

Internship opportunities: The FCSS program will work with campus committees and offices to compile a list of available internships on each campus as well as a list of internships (domestic and international) available to Five College students. In addition to funded internships on each campus, opportunities for a Five College Sustainability internship program will be explored.

Capstone Symposium: Advanced students will present work fulfilling this component at an annual symposium. For these presentations, students will be encouraged to consider the ways in which their projects address the core areas of sustainability and their linkages.

CERTIFICATE LOGISTICS

Certificate Application Form/Declaration of intent: Students will submit to their campus program advisor a Declaration of Intent, outlining a potential course of study, by the second semester of their sophomore year. They will complete and submit Applications during fall of sophomore year. Completed applications will be reviewed and approved by a committee composed of program advisors from each participating campus.

Advisors: On each campus, program advisors will work with students to design courses of study fulfilling program requirements while tailored to students’ special interests. At Amherst College the following faculty members will serve as advisors: Professors Jan Dizard (Environmental Studies/Sociology), Anna Martini (Geology), Edward Melillo (Environmental Studies/History), Joseph Moore (Philosophy), Sam Morse (Asian Languages and Civilizations/History of Art), Katherine Sims (Economics), and Ethan Temeles (Biology).

VI

PROFESSORSHIPS AND READERSHIPS

LECTURESHIPS

HONORS

FELLOWSHIPS

FELLOWS

PRIZES AND AWARDS

ENROLLMENT

Professorships and Readerships

Winifred L. Arms Professorship in the Arts and Humanities. Established in 1982 by Winifred Arms in memory of her husband, Robert A. Arms ‘27, the Arms Professorship is held by a distinguished member of the faculty concerned with one of the fields of artistic or literary expression.

Paula R. and David J. Avenius 1941 Professorship. This professorship recognizes a distinguished member of the faculty at Amherst College who has demonstrated excellence in teaching and research as well as dedication to the College.

Beitzel Professorship in Technology and Society. Established in 1999 by George B. Beitzel ’50, this professorship recognizes distinction in the arts and sciences, particularly in the use of technology to enhance undergraduate learning. The Beitzel Professor at Amherst College will have a vision of interfacing man and machine in a way that fuses computer, networking, fiberoptic or future electronic technologies with the values of the academy, the ideals of a liberal education and the goals of an enlightened society.

Bruce B. Benson ’43 and Lucy Wilson Benson Professorship. Established in 2005 by Lucy Wilson Benson in memory of her husband, Professor of Physics from 1947 to 1990, the Benson Professorship recognizes distinction in science and a demonstrated commitment to teaching and research. The goals of the Benson Professorship are to promote interdisciplinary research and teaching among the physical and biological sciences (preferably molecular biology, physics, and chemistry), foster exploration of the impact of these sciences on society, and emphasize the interdisciplinary connections between the sciences and other liberal arts disciplines at Amherst College.

Parmly Billings Professorship in Hygiene and Physical Education. Established in 1890 by Frederick Billings of Woodstock, Vermont, this professorship honors the memory of his son, Parmly Billings 1884.

Brian E. Boyle Professorship in Mathematics and Computer Science. Established in 1998 by Brian E. Boyle ’69, this professorship recognizes exceptional teaching and research in the Mathematics and Computer Science Department or its successor department. The Boyle Professorship is held by a senior member of the faculty who has appreciation for the role of technology in teaching and who has demonstrated a dedication to the values of a liberal arts education.

Elizabeth W. Bruss Readership. Established in 1982 in memory of Elizabeth Bruss, The Bruss Reader is a member of the faculty appointed by the President and the Dean of the Faculty to a three-year term that rotates among the various academic disciplines at Amherst intergrating material about women into the curriculum. The Bruss Reader will also serve as a resource person for colleagues, bringing new information regarding women to their attention.

Class of 1880 Professorship in Greek. Given to the College by all living members of the Class at its 50th reunion in 1930.

Class of 1959 Professorship. Established by the Class of 1959 on the occasion of its 40th reunion to honor a distinguished faculty member in one of the traditional disciplines who has a deep commitment to students and to their habits of mind.

Henry Steele Commager Professorship. Established in 1991 by Wyatt R. Haskell ’61, Jonathan P. Rosen ’66, and others in recognition of Professor Commager’s 35 years of distinguished scholarship and dedication to the teaching of undergraduates at Amherst College.

George H. Corey Professorship in Chemistry. Established in 1952 by bequest of George H. Corey 1888.

G. Armour Craig Professorship in Language and Literature. Established in 1994 by an anonymous donor, this professorship honors G. Armour Craig, Professor of English 1940-1985 and Acting President 1983-1984.

William Nelson Cromwell Professorship in Jurisprudence and Political Science. Established in 1948 by bequest of William Nelson Cromwell, founder of the New York City law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.

George Lyman Crosby Professorship in Philosophy. Established in 1950 by Stanley Warfield Crosby, brother of George Lyman Crosby 1896.

Stanley Warfield Crosby, Jr., Professorship in Religion. Established in 1950 by Stanley Warfield Crosby ’13 in memory of his son, Stanley Warfield Crosby, Jr., who was killed in the Korean War.

Amanda and Lisa Cross Professorship. Established in 1980 by Theodore L. Cross ’46, Trustee 1973-85, emeritus since 1985, in honor of his daughters, Amanda and Lisa Cross.

Sidney Dillon Professorship in Astronomy. Established in 1894 by the family of Sidney Dillon, Chairman of Union Pacific Railroad.

Rachel and Michael Deutch Professorship. Established in 2007 by family members in memory of Rachel and Michael Deutch, this fund provides support for the Deutch Professor, held for a five-year renewable term by a distinguished professor in one of the following departments: chemistry, economics, French, history, mathematics, or philosophy.

Joseph B. Eastman Professorship in Political Science. Established in 1944 by friends of Joseph B. Eastman ’04, Trustee 1940-44.

Five College Fortieth Anniversary Professorships. Established in 2005, the Five College Fortieth Anniversary Professorships commemorate four decades of cooperation (1965-2005) among the members of the Five College Consortium. The professorships honor Five College faculty members for distinguished careers as scholars and teachers.

Edwin F. and Jessie Burnell Fobes Professorship in Greek. Established by Professor Francis H. Fobes, who taught Classics 1920-48, emeritus 1948-57.

Eliza J. Clark Folger Professorship. Established in 1930 by Emily Jordan Folger (Mrs. Henry Clay Folger), in memory of Mr. Folger’s mother.

Emily C. Jordan Folger Professorship. Established in 1930 by Emily Jordan Folger (Mrs. Henry Clay Folger).

Henry Clay Folger 1879 Professorship. Established in 1930 by Emily Clay Folger (Mrs. Henry Clay Folger).

Clarence Francis Professorship in the Social Sciences. Established in 1969 in honor of Clarence Francis ’10, former Chairman of General Foods and Amherst Trustee 1944-50.

Julian H. Gibbs Professorship in Natural and Mathematical Sciences. Established by the Trustees in 1983 to honor Julian H. Gibbs ’46, Professor of Chemistry and 15th President of the College.

Samuel Green Professorship. Established in 1867 by John Tappan, Trustee 1834-1854, and founding pastor of Unison Church in Boston, in honor of Samuel Green, also pastor of Union Church.

James J. Grosfeld 1959 Professorship. Established in 2002 by James J. Grosfeld of the Class of 1959, the Grosfeld Professorship is awarded to a senior member of the faculty in the Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought, or an allied or successor department.

Edward S. Harkness Professorship. Established in 1930 by Edward S. Harkness, New York philanthropist.

William H. Hastie Professorship. Established in 1986 by the Trustees to honor Judge William H. Hastie ‘25, the first black federal judge and Chief Justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Judge Hastie was Trustee 1962-75, emeritus 1975-76.

Hitchcock Professorship in Mineralogy and Geology. Established in 1847 by Boston merchant Samuel A. Hitchcock of Brimfield and Samuel Williston, Easthampton button manufacturer and Trustee 1841-74.

Roger C. Holden 1919 Professorship in Theater and Dance. Established by Roger C. Holden through a trust established in 1968, this professorship recognizes a distinguished member of the faculty at Amherst College who has demonstrated excellence in teaching and research as well as dedication to the College. During their lifetimes, Holden and his wife Sylvia were patrons of Amherst College, Pitzer College, and numerous arts and community organizations in southern California and Colorado.

Charles Hamilton Houston Professorship. Established in 1987 by Gorham L. Cross ’52 to honor the achievements of Charles Hamilton Houston ’15, principal architect of the legal strategy leading to the 1954 Supreme Court decision prohibiting race discrimination in U.S. public schools.

William R. Kenan, Jr., Professorship. Established in 1969 by the William R. Kenan, Jr., Charitable Trust.

Stanley King Professorship in Dramatic Arts. Established in 1952 by the Trustees in recognition of the generosity and service of Stanley King ’03, President 1932-46, emeritus 1946-51.

Alfred Sargent Lee ’41 and Mary Farley Ames Lee Professorship. Established in 2000 by Alfred Sargent Lee ’41 and Mary Farley Ames Lee to recognize a senior member of the faculty who demonstrates distinction in undergraduate teaching and a commitment to the liberal arts tradition at Amherst College.

Lewis-Sebring Professorship in Latin American and Latino Culture. Established in 2001 by the Lewis-Sebring Family Foundation on behalf of Charles A. Lewis ’64 and Penny Bender Sebring, this professorship promotes the study of the culture, language, politics, history or art of Latin America or Latino America. The professorship honors a member of the faculty whose teaching and scholarship focus on Latin America or the contributions of Latino America to the intellectual and cultural life of the United States.

Rufus Tyler Lincoln Professorship in Biology. Established in 1916 by Caroline Tyler Lincoln (widow of Rufus P. Lincoln 1862) in memory of her son, Rufus Tyler Lincoln.

Georges Lurcy Professorship. Established in 2007 by the Trustees of the Georges Lurcy Charitable and Educational Trust, Alan S. Bernstein 1963, Daniel L. Bernstein 1959, George L. Bernstein and Seth E. Frank 1955. Georges Lurcy was born in France and emigrated to the U.S. in the late 1930s, where he became a U.S. citizen and continued his successful career as an investment banker until his death in 1953. International in his background, experience and outlook, Lurcy had a particular interest in fostering international educational opportunities. In his memory, the Georges Lurcy Professorship will honor a senior member of the Amherst faculty whose teaching and research reflect a substantial commitment to international study, international relations and perspectives.

Manwell Family Professorship in Life Sciences. Established in 2000 by Edward J. Manwell ‘25, this professorship is held by a faculty member who has shown dedication to the life of the College and distinction in teaching and research.

Massachusetts Professorship in Chemistry and Natural History. Established in 1847 by the Trustees in recognition of a grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

John J. McCloy Professorship. Established in 1983 by the Trustees to honor John J. McCloy ’16, Trustee 1947-69, Chairman 1956-69, and Honorary Chairman 1969-1989, to support visiting scholars who teach courses in American institutions and international relations.

William R. Mead Professorship in Fine Arts. Established in 1936 by bequest of Mr. and Mrs. William R. Mead 1867. William R. Mead was a founder of McKim, Mead and White, architects.

Andrew W. Mellon Professorship. Established in 1974 by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Charles E. Merrill Professorship in Economics. Established in 1950 by Charles E. Merrill ’08.

Howard M. and Martha P. Mitchell Professorship. Established in 2012, the Mitchell Professorship will be awarded to a distinguished senior member of the faculty, of any department. This professorship shall stay with the faculty member so selected during his or her tenure, and is not meant to be rotating.

Zephaniah Swift Moore Professorship. Named for the first president of the College and held by a distinguished classicist on the Amherst College faculty.

Dwight W. Morrow Professorship. Established in 1941 by bequest of Dwight W. Morrow 1895, Trustee 1916-1931, to endow a professorship in political science or American history.

Anson D. Morse Professorship in History. Established in 1924 by Dwight W. Morrow 1895, Trustee 1916-31, in honor of Professor Anson Morse, who taught at Amherst from 1878 to 1907.

John C. Newton Professorship in Greek and Sculpture. Established in 1891 by bequest of John C. Newton, a Worcester mason and building contractor.

Edward N. Ney Professorship in American Institutions. Established in 1986 by Edward N. Ney ’46, Trustee 1979-89, emeritus since 1989.

George Daniel Olds Professorship in Economics and Social Institutions. Established in 1914 by Frank L. Babbott, Jr. ’13 to honor Dean George D. Olds, who later served as President 1924-27, emeritus 1927-31.

Olin Professorship in Asian Studies. Established in 1998 by the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Foundation to support a faculty member who advances students’ understanding and appreciation of Asian art, economics, history, languages, politics, society or cultures.

James E. Ostendarp Professorship. Established in 1990 by former students, friends, and colleagues to honor (football) Coach Ostendarp on the occasion of a dinner in his honor held in New York City to show their appreciation for his keen interest in all aspects of the Amherst experience and his commitment to the development of the Amherst student within the ideals of a liberal arts education.

Domenic J. Paino Professorship in Global Environmental Studies. Established in 1997 by Birgitta and Domenic J. Paino ’55, this professorship reflects the donors’ interest in issues affecting the entire world and their commitment to the study of the interconnectedness of nations.

Ward H. Patton Professorship in Economics. Established in 1989 by Ward H. Patton, Jr. ’42, in memory of his father, who was instrumental in building the Green Giant Company.

Thomas F. Pick Readership in Environmental Studies. Established in 1999, this readership will support individuals who are dedicated to teaching, studying or researching in an area of environmental studies. The Pick Reader is a member of the faculty appointed by the President and the Dean of the Faculty to coordinate studies and to organize events relating to environmental studies across existing disciplines and departments. The Pick Reader will serve as a campus resource person in environmental studies.

Peter R. Pouncey Professorship. Established in 1995 by an anonymous donor in honor of Peter R. Pouncey, President 1984-1994 and Professor of Classics 1984-1999.

E. Dwight Salmon Professorship in History. Established in 1989 by Thomas H. Wyman ’51, Trustee 1976-92, Chairman 1986-92, and emeritus 1992-2001, to honor Professor Emeritus E. Dwight Salmon, who taught history at Amherst from 1926 to 1963.

Willem Schupf Professorship in Asian Languages and Civilizations. Established in 1994 by H. Axel Schupf ’57, Trustee 1993-2005, emeritus since 2005, in memory of his father, to confirm the College’s commitment to studying the East.

Winthrop H. Smith Professorship. Established in 1956 by Winthrop H. Smith ’16, Trustee 1952-61, to fund a professorship in American history and American studies.

Bertrand Snell Professorship in American Government. Established in 1951 by bequest of Bertrand H. Snell 1894.

Stone Professorship in Natural Sciences. Established in 1880 by Valeria Goodenow Stone in honor of Julius H. Seelye, President 1876-90.

Thalheimer Professorship. Established in 1998 by the family of Louis B. Thalheimer ’66, who served as a Trustee of the College from 1992-1998, and his daughter, Deborah E. Thalheimer ’94, this professorship recognizes distinction in teaching and is intended to honor a scholar-teacher who has a strong interest in and commitment to undergraduates.

Willard Long Thorp Professorship in Economics. Established in 1989 by alumni and friends to honor Willard Long Thorp ‘20, Professor of Economics 1926-33 and 1952-63, Trustee 1942-55, and Acting President 1957.

Joseph E. and Grace W. Valentine Professorship in Music. Established in 1982 by bequest of Joseph E. and Grace W. Valentine.

William McCall Vickery 1957 Professorship. Established in 2007 by William McCall Vickery on the occasion of his 50th Reunion. The Vickery Professorship will honor a senior faculty member who is distinguished by and dedicated to teaching and research of art history or musicology.

Richard S. Volpert Professorship in Economics. Established in 2000 by Barry S. Volpert ’81 and Teri C. Volpert in honor of Richard S. Volpert ’56, this professorship supports a faculty member in the Department of Economics who has shown distinction in teaching and research concerning free market economics and dedication to the life of the College.

William J. Walker Professorship in Mathematics and Astronomy. Established in 1861 by Boston physician William J. Walker.

Thomas B. Walton, Jr., Memorial Professorship. Established in 1984 by Thomas B. Walton in memory of his son, Thomas B. Walton, Jr. ’45.

The John William Ward Professorship. Established in 2003 by a member of the Board of Trustees, the John William Ward Professorship recognizes a senior faculty member at Amherst College who is an accomplished scholar and teacher and who has served the College community with distinction on a key committee or in an administrative post. The Ward Professor will be selected by the President and the Dean of the Faculty and appointed by the Board of Trustees.

G. Henry Whitcomb Memorial Professorship. Established in 1921 in memory of G. Henry Whitcomb 1864, Trustee 1884-1916, by his three sons, all Amherst alumni.

L. Stanton Williams Professorship. Established in 1990 by L. Stanton Williams ’41 to support teaching and scholarship that encourages students to use the skills and knowledge acquired at Amherst for the benefit of their communities and the wider society.

Samuel Williston Professorship in English. Established in 1845 by Samuel Williston, Easthampton button manufacturer and Trustee 1841-74.

Samuel Williston Professorship in Greek and Hebrew. Established in 1869. Formerly known as Graves Professorship of Greek Language and Literature.

Winkley Professorship in History and Political Economy. Established in 1885 by Henry Winkley, New York and Philadelphia retailer.

Lectureships

Henry Ward Beecher Lectureship. Established by Frank L. Babbott 1878 in honor of Henry Ward Beecher 1834. The incumbent is appointed biennially by the faculty for supplementary lectures in the departments of history and the political, social, and economic sciences.

Copeland Colloquium Fund. Established in 1971 by Morris A. Copeland ’17. The Colloquium supports visiting fellows who remain in residence at Amherst and pursue their own diverse interests while engaging themselves in various ways with faculty and students.

Croxton Lecture Fund. Established in 1988 by William M. Croxton ’36 in memory of his parents, Ruth L. and Hugh W. Croxton. Income from this endowed fund is used to bring to campus well-known guest speakers who focus on topical issues.

Samuel B. Cummings Lectureship Fund. Established in 1997 by bequest of Samuel B. Cummings, this fund is to be used for an annual or biannual lecture in one of the academic fields of anthropology, archeology, psychology, and/or sociology.

Benjamin DeMott Memorial Fund. The Benjamin DeMott Memorial Fund was established in 2005 by Alan P. Levenstein, Class of 1956, and other Amherst College alumni, friends, and family members. Income from this Fund shall be used to provide funding for the Benjamin DeMott Memorial Lecture at Amherst College, which will take place annually as part of the Orientation of all first-year students. The DeMott Lecturer shall be a person who, like Professor DeMott, represents an engagement with the world marked by originality of thought coupled with direct social action, with special emphasis on intellectual participation in issues of social and economic inequality, racial and gender bias, and political activism.

Lucius Root Eastman 1895 Fund. Established in 1947 by Eva Eastman, widow of Lucius Root Eastman, Class of 1895, in memory of her husband. The objectives of the Fund are: “To enlarge the horizons of knowledge of the students; to stimulate the growth of leadership and personality possibilities in the student body; to emphasize the ethical responsibilities of every adult to society; to increase the recognition of the interdependence of persons and peoples, and therefore of the need to foster and improve the understanding of human relationships.”

Joseph Epstein Lecture Fund in Philosophy. Established in 1987 by members of the Department of Philosophy to sponsor philosophical talks and discussions at Amherst. The fund honors Professor Joseph Epstein, who for 35 years taught Amherst students philosophy, especially logic, philosophy of science, and American pragmatism.

Vadim Filatov, M.D., 1986 Memorial Lecture Fund. The Vadim Filatov, M.D., 1986 Memorial Lecture Fund, established in 2004 by Dmitry Dinces ’86 and other Amherst classmates and friends of Vadim Filatov, is a permanently endowed fund at Amherst College providing support for the Amherst Center for Russian Culture.

Clyde Fitch Fund. Established by Captain and Mrs. W. G. Fitch of New York in memory of their son, Clyde Fitch 1886. This fund is used for the furtherance of the study of English literature and dramatic art and literature.

Forry and Micken Fund in Philosophy and Science. Established in 1983 by Carol Micken and John I. Forry ’66 to promote the study of philosophical issues arising out of new developments in the sciences, including mathematics, and issues in the philosophy and history of science.

John Whitney Hall Lecture Fund. Established in 1994 by Betty Bolce Hall to honor her husband. Income is used to initiate and maintain the John Whitney Hall ’39 Lecture Series on Japan. Professor Hall became an authority on premodern Japanese history, training graduate students who entered academic, business and governmental fields relating to Japan. For more than 30 years he worked to develop Japanese studies in American colleges and universities.

Hugh Hawkins Lecture Fund. Established in 2010 by an anonymous donor, this fund supports the annual Hugh Hawkins Lecture at Amherst.

Charles H. Houston Forum. Established in 1980 by Gorham L. Cross, Jr. ’52 to honor Charles H. Houston ’15. The income from this fund brings lecturers on law and social justice to Amherst.

Victor S. Johnson Lectureship Fund. Established in memory of Victor S. Johnson (1882-1943) by his sons for the purpose of “bringing to the campus each year a stimulating individual worthy of the lectureship’s purpose of serving the best tradition of the liberal arts and individual freedom.”

Corliss Lamont Lectureship for a Peaceful World. Established in 1982 by Corliss Lamont ’57, this fund supports lecturers who may provide insight into the analytical or operational problems of lessening friction among nations.

Max and Etta Lazerowitz Lectureship. Established in 1985 by the late Professor Morris Lazerowitz of Smith College to honor his parents, this fund provides for the annual appointment of the Lazerowitz Lecturer, who is a member of the Amherst College faculty below the rank of full professor.

Georges Lurcy Lecture Series. Established in 1982 by the Georges Lurcy Charitable and Educational Trust, this lectureship was given to the College to bring distinguished lecturers to Amherst to speak on topics relating to countries other than the United States.

Everett H. Pryde Fund. Established in 1986 by Phyllis W. Pryde in honor of her late husband Everett H. Pryde ’39 to bring to the College distinguished visiting scientists to lecture on selected topics in the field of chemical research and to fund the Everett H. Pryde Research Award, given annually to an Amherst senior.

Rapaport Lectureship in Contemporary Art Fund. The Rapaport Lectureship in Contemporary Art Fund, established in 1999, provides support for an annual lecture on some aspect of contemporary art. The goal of the Rapaport Lectureship is to increase awareness and appreciation of contemporary art among students and in the community.

Dr. Raymond A. Raskin Fund. The Dr. Raymond A. Raskin Fund, established in 2003 by Amherst Professor Lisa A. Raskin, is a permanently endowed fund at Amherst College. Professor Raskin has established this Fund in honor of her father, a clinician in and teacher of psychoanalysis for over fifty years. Income from this Fund is used to support an annual lecture in the area of psychoanalysis from an interdisciplinary point of view.

John Woodruff Simpson Lectureship. Established in memory of John Woodruff Simpson 1871 by his wife and daughter, to fund fellowships and “to secure from time to time, from England, France or elsewhere, scholars for the purpose of delivering lectures or courses of instruction at Amherst College.”

Tagliabue Fund. Established in 1991 by Paul and Chandler Tagliabue to honor their son Andrew, who graduated in 1991. The fund supports the Asian Languages and Civilizations Department at Amherst College and funds lectures by social scientists on Asian issues.

Willis D. Wood Fund. Established in memory of Willis D. Wood 1894 to fund visiting scholars and lecturers to “talk with students and faculty about different aspects of the spiritual life.”

Honors

THE PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY

Massachusetts Beta Chapter. The students elected to membership in this honor society are those of highest standing. A preliminary election of outstanding students occurs at the end of the junior year, and a second election takes place at Commencement time of senior year.

President: Professor Natasha Staller
Secretary-Treasurer: Janet S. Tobin
Auditor: Professor Rose R. Olver

Class of 2012

Hayley Christine Anderson Brenna Kekst Brown

Scott Howard Bartley Emma Louise Buchsbaum

Sarah Rachel Beganskas Olivia Marie Chase

Nathan Belkin Rebecca Louise Eppler-Epstein

Kuhuk Bhushan Leah Rebecca Fine

Josephine Tessa Cochran Fisher

Kristen Scholes Gardner

Ethan Thomas Gates

Yevgeniy Golubitskiy

Maureen Anne Griffin

Anna Dorothy Hager

Taylor Davis Haney

Wenying Hu

Trevor Glen Hyde

Annemarie Iker

Jiaqi Ji

Ariah Aram Klages-Mundt

Yordanka Aleksandrova Kovacheva

Benjamin Edward Lin

Christine Marie Lyons

Miranda Claire Marraccini

Benjamin Thomas Miller

Christopher Todd Morrison

Nathan Hochhausler Nash

Rebecca Ann Ojserkis

Zohar Perla

Catherine Alice Rothacker

Alexa Anne Russo

Yusuf Saban

Sarah Elizabeth Stromseth Schear

Carolyn Grace Spalluto

Elaine Teng

Jonathan Emanuel Thaler

Jaclyn Anh Tu Tran

Dang Hong Trinh

Kate Michelle Turetsky

Rina Vernovskaya

Eric Nathaniel Weisberg

Yinan Zhang

THE SOCIETY OF SIGMA XI

Sigma Xi, the National Honorary Scientific Research Society, was founded in 1886, and the Amherst Chapter was installed March 23, 1950. As one of its purposes, the Society gives recognition of those students, members of the Faculty, research associates, and alumni who have demonstrated ability to carry on constructive scientific research or who show definite promise of research ability. Other functions are the maintenance of companionship among investigators in the various fields of science, the holding of meetings for the discussion of scientific subjects, and the fostering of an interest in scientific research in the College.

Undergraduates who show definite promise of research ability are typically recommended to associate membership by the departments concerned.

President: Professor Mark D. Marshall
Secretary-Treasurer: Professor Stephen A. George

Full Membership 2012

Professor Corey M. Manack Professor Josef G. Trapani

Professor Rebecca S. Torrey Professor Elizabeth R. Young

Associate Membership 2012

Jorge Antonio Alvarado Shirui Chen

Awah-Lem Atanga McCormick Tak Mei Chio

Sarah Rachel Beganskas Aftaab Dewan

Nathan Belkin Rebecca Louise Eppler-Epstein

Claire Frances Bennett Emily Yunxi Fan

Hanna Bouberhan Leah Rebecca Fine

Kimona Christina Cameron Gavin Stannard Front

Elizabeth Anne Carbone Kristen S. Gardner

Marlis Gnirke

Anna Dorothy Hager

Annie Isabel Chase Handler

Brigit-Alexandra High

Rebecca Hu

Wenying Hu

Michael Ryan Hudak

Songmin Mindy Hwang

Alexis Jaramillo

Roy Yoonmook Jung

Saugat Kandel

Edmund Mak Keyes III

Akosua Asantewaa Korboe

Yordanka Aleksandrova Kovacheva

Fabiana M. Kreines

Mable Lam

Rose Deanna Larios

Meredith Isabelle LaRose

Cindy Xin Li

Grace Hui Li

Mingzhu Li

Christopher Sng Lim

Sooyoung Lim

Benjamin Edward Lin

Max Kaufmann Lloyd

Rachel Lucienne Lupien

Joshua Amzad Nazirbage

Esther Mia Neustadt

Afua Adomaa Nti

Rebecca Ann Ojserkis

Kayleigh Rose O’Keeffe

Emily Sophie Pawlowski

Mary Campbell Reiser

Priscilla Riva

Junyeop Daniel Roh

Catherine Alice Rothacker

Jean Edwardo Santos

Casey Marie Silver

Alexander Bennett Stone

Melissa Trumpore Sullivan

Katherine Marie Tezanos

Dang Hong Trinh

Kate Michelle Turetsky

Alan Shyijong Wang

Xuanji Wang

Jacqueline Grace Watson

Nina Hyun Yoo

Luke Joseph Zambetti

Dalee Margaret Zhou

Fellowships

COLLEGE FELLOWSHIPS

FROM the income of the College’s fellowship funds, approximately 170 awards are made annually to graduates of Amherst College for study in graduate or professional schools. Applications should be made by February 10 on forms available in December from the Fellowships Office. This same deadline applies to seniors and to graduates. You need not have been accepted at graduate school to apply, but the awards are made contingent upon final enrollment. The awards are based on merit and need (except for the Kellogg and Rosenblum) and are determined by the Faculty Committee on Student Fellowships. An exception to this is the Amherst-Doshisha Fellowship for which the deadline is in early to mid November and for which there is a special Selection Committee.

The Amherst-Doshisha Fellowship. Amherst-Doshisha Fellowship at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, is open to graduating seniors and recent alumni of the College for a term of one, or in some cases, two years. The recipient will have the opportunity to work with a professor and representative of the College at Doshisha, and to teach English to Japanese students. No knowledge of the Japanese language is required, but many recent fellows have spoken Japanese to a greater or lesser extent.

The fellowship offers a stipend and an allowance for travel and incidental expenses, shared equally between Amherst and Doshisha. The fellowship year is normally from September to August. It carries with it formal teaching responsibilities in the English language at Doshisha University, at the first-year and second-year level. The academic year at Doshisha allows fellows to travel in Asia during February and March.

Interested applicants should contact the Office of Fellowships for more information. This fellowship is awarded by the Board of Trustees upon the recommendation of the Amherst-Doshisha Fellowship Committee.

The Amherst Memorial Fellowships. These fellowships, in memory of Amherst graduates who gave their lives for an ideal, are given primarily for the study of social, economic, and political institutions, and for preparation for teaching and the ministry. The fund was established because of the “need for better understanding and more complete adjustment” between humans and their “existing social, economic, and political institutions for the study of the principles underlying these human relationships.”

The object of the fellowships is to permit students of character, scholarly promise, and intellectual curiosity to investigate some problem in the humanistic sciences. During previous training candidates should have given evidence of marked mental ability in some branch of the social sciences—history, economics, political science—and have given promise of original contribution to a particular field of study. It is desirable that they possess qualities of leadership, a spirit of service, and an intention to devote their efforts to the betterment of social conditions through teaching in its broad sense, journalism, politics, or field work.

Preference is given to candidates planning to do advanced work in the field of the social sciences, but awards may also be made to candidates who are planning to go to theological school in preparation for a career in the ministry and to those from other fields than the social sciences who are preparing for a career in teaching in secondary schools or colleges.

The fellowships are for one year but, upon reapplication, may be approved for one or two additional years, depending upon the nature of the subjects investigated or upon other circumstances which, in the judgment of the committee, warrant a variation in the length of tenure.

The stipend will vary according to the circumstances of the appointment. Awards will depend upon those aspects of individual cases which, in the judgment of the committee, most suitably fulfill the purpose of the foundation.

These fellowships are awarded by the Board of Trustees upon the recommendation of the Faculty Committee on Student Fellowships.

The John Mason Clarke 1877 Fellowship in Paleontology and Geology. A fund from the estate of Noah T. Clarke was established in memory of his father, John Mason Clarke 1877, to provide income for a fellowship or fellowships for the pursuit of studies in paleontology or geology, preferably in the New York State Museum in Albany, New York.

The Evan Carroll Commager Fellowship. This fund, established by Professor Henry Steele Commager in memory of his late wife and “as a testimony to her affection for this College,” enables an Amherst student to study at Cambridge University. The fellowship is for one year but, upon reapplication, may be approved for a second year. The award is open to any student, with preference to seniors and to those applying to Peterhouse, St. John’s, Trinity, or Downing College.

The Henry P. Field Fellowships. Two fellowships are available from the income of the bequest of the late Henry P. Field 1880 to promote graduate study in the fields of English and history. Appointments are made annually by the College on the recommendation of the departments of English and history.

The Warner Gardner Fletcher Fellowship. The income from a gift from the late Warner Gardner Fletcher ’41 is awarded to “pursue work for the improvement of education.” Preference is given to candidates who are engaged in the study of education and then to candidates for the Master of Arts in Teaching.

Seth E. Frank ’55 Fellowship. Established in 1997 by Seth E. Frank ’55, the income from this fund is to be used annually for post-graduate work by a graduate of Amherst College. The fellowship is to be awarded to a graduate who has demonstrated exceptional ability, interest, and achievement in the area of International Relations. The fellowship is not limited to graduate study but may be awarded for other endeavors which are international in scope.

The Roswell Dwight Hitchcock Memorial Fellowship. A fund, established by the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, provides an annual award to a member or members of the senior class for excellence in history and the social and economic sciences. The holder of the fellowship pursues for one year a course of study in history or economics, to be completed within the period of two years next following graduation.

The Rufus B. Kellogg University Fellowship. The income from the fund, established by the late Rufus B. Kellogg 1858, provides certain prizes, and a fellowship award for three years to a graduate of Amherst College, who shall be appointed upon the following conditions: The Fellow is elected by the Faculty on the recommendation of the Faculty Committee on Student Fellowships. Consideration is given to seniors or members of the classes graduated in the preceding six years. The fellowship is awarded to that graduate who, in the judgment of the Faculty, is best equipped for study and research, without regard to any other considerations, except that the Fellow should have an especially good knowledge of at least one modern foreign language and should have had at least one year of Latin in preparatory school or college. The three years shall be spent by the Fellow at a German university or other approved institution, for the study of philosophy, philology, literature, history, political science, political economy, mathematics or natural science. At least one college term of the final year shall be spent by the Fellow at Amherst College, to give lectures on a subject selected by the Fellow and approved by the Trustees. The lectures shall be published in book form or in a learned journal. This fellowship is based solely on merit. The Kellogg Fellowship is awarded for three years and will be awarded again in 2016-17.

The Sterling P. Lamprecht Fellowship. From the income of this fund, fellowships are awarded to recent graduates of Amherst College for the pursuit of philosophy. Upon reapplication, these fellowships may be approved for a maximum of three years. They need not be awarded at all in one particular year, and it might be, if there were no suitable graduates, awarded to an undergraduate, in which case it would be known as the Sterling P. Lamprecht Scholarship. Preference, however, would be given for graduate study.

The Edward Poole Lay Fellowship. The income from a fund, established by Frank M. Lay 1893 and Mrs. Lay, in memory of their son Edward Poole Lay ‘22, provides fellowships to graduates who have shown unusual proficiency and talent in music and who desire to continue studies in the field. Preference is given to candidates who are proficient in voice. In the event that there are no qualified candidates in the musical arts (especially voice and instrumental music), they may be awarded to qualified candidates in the field of the dramatic arts. These fellowships are awarded by the Board of Trustees upon the recommendation of the Faculty Committee on Student Fellowships.

The Forris Jewett Moore Fellowships. These fellowships, in three fields of study, were established in memory of Forris Jewett Moore 1889 by his widow, Emma B. Moore.

(1) A fellowship to graduates distinguished in the study of chemistry while undergraduates, who desire to engage in further study of that subject. Preference is given to eligible candidates for the field of organic chemistry.

(2) A fellowship to graduates distinguished in the study of history while undergraduates, who desire to engage in further study of that subject.

(3) A fellowship to graduates distinguished in the study of philosophy while undergraduates, who desire to engage in further study of that subject.

The George Stebbins Moses Memorial Fellowship. This memorial fellowship is awarded to a graduate who has been accepted by a recognized divinity school, who has good reason to seek financial aid, who seems to be an all-around person qualified in all respects as a religious and moral leader and a lover of ordinary people, and who is qualified scholastically to meet the calling of a theological career creditably. The candidate need not be an outstanding student, but improvement in the upper-class years, dedication, and a sense of purpose will be given great consideration. The fellowship may be renewed for a second or third year at the discretion of the Committee. More than one fellowship may be awarded in any given year.

The George A. Plimpton Fellowships. These fellowships, established by the Board of Trustees in memory of George A. Plimpton 1876, a member of the Board from 1890 to 1895 and from 1900 to 1936, and President of the Board from 1907 to 1936, are awarded without stipend to seniors who are of outstanding scholastic ability and promise, who plan to continue their studies in graduate school, and who are not in need of financial assistance. These fellowships are awarded by the Board of Trustees on recommendation of the Faculty Committee on Student Fellowships.

The C. Scott Porter Memorial Fellowship for Graduate Study. Established in 1972 by the family of C. Scott Porter ’19, mathematics professor, 1924-31, and Dean of the College from 1931-1966, the C. Scott Porter Memorial Fellowship is awarded annually to a graduate for further study without restriction as to department or field.

The Lloyd I. Rosenblum Memorial Fellowship. Established in 1997 for his son, Peter M. Rosenblum ’70, and other family members, the fellowship is to be awarded annually to a graduate of Amherst College embarking on his or her first year of graduate studies in the fields of botany and biology. Each beneficiary should be a person who demonstrated significant promise in the relevant fields of study as an undergraduate at Amherst College. The fellowship is to be awarded solely on the basis of merit and without regard to race, sex, religion, gender, or nationality.

The Charles B. Rugg Fellowship. Established in memory of Charles Belcher Rugg 1911, this fellowship is awarded to a graduate for the study of law. The award may be renewed for a second or third year upon recommendation of the Faculty Committee on Student Fellowships.

The John Woodruff Simpson Fellowships and Lectureships. A fund was established in memory of John Woodruff Simpson 1871 by his wife and daughter. Income from the fund provides: (1) A fellowship for the study of law; (2) A fellowship for the study of medicine; (3) A fellowship for the study of theology, without regard to creed or religious belief; (4) A fellowship for study at any school, college or university in preparation for the teaching profession; (5) A fellowship for use in graduate study at the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge in England or at the Sorbonne in Paris.

The fund may also be used to secure from time to time from England, France or elsewhere, scholars for the purpose of delivering lectures or courses of instruction at Amherst College. These fellowships are awarded by the Board of Trustees upon the recommendations of the Faculty Committee on Student Fellowships.

The Benjamin Goodall Symon, Jr., Memorial Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded to a graduate who has been accepted by a recognized divinity school, who has good reason to seek financial aid, who seems to be an all-around individual qualified in all respects as a religious and moral leader, and who is qualified scholastically to meet the calling of a theological career creditably, although the student may plan to use the divinity school training for work in another field. The candidate need not be an outstanding student, but improvement in the upper-class years, dedication, and a sense of purpose will be given great consideration.

The fellowship may be renewed for a second or third year at the discretion of the Committee. More than one fellowship may be awarded in any given year.

The Roland Wood Fellowship. Awarded annually on recommendation of the Department of Theater and Dance as a fellowship to one or more promising and deserving graduates of Amherst College for continued study in or of the theater.

DEPARTMENTAL FELLOWSHIPS

French Department Fellowship. The French Department offers two exchange fellowships. The appointments will be made by the Department after an announcement at the beginning of March and interviews. Amherst seniors with a high proficiency in French may apply.

The University of Dijon Assistantship. This fellowship is an appointment as teaching assistant in American Civilization and Language for one year at the University of Dijon. The fellowship offers a stipend paid by the French government and free admission to courses at the University.

Exchange Fellowship, Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. This fellowship is without stipend but offers a room at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and admission to any university course in Paris.

The Edward Hitchcock Fellowship. This fellowship, established by the late Mrs. Frank L. Babbott of Brooklyn, N.Y., is available for study in the department of physical education. Its object is to make the student familiar with the best methods of physical training, both in the gymnasium and on the field. The appointment is made by the Faculty upon the recommendation of the Department of Physical Education and Athletics.

Fellows

Issa Abdulcadir ’06, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Sociology. University of Washington.

Benjamin Abelson ’08, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University.

Amal Ahmad ’12, Evan Carroll Commager Fellow in Economic History and Development Studies. London School of Economics.

Neal Allar ’08, C. Scott Porter Memorial Fellow in French Literature. Cornell University.

Margaret Anshutz ’01, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Health Policy. Harvard School of Public Health.

Alexandra Arvanitis ’11, Charles B. Rugg Fellow in Law. Boston University School of Law.

Amanda Bass ’11E, Charles B. Rugg Fellow in Law. New York University School of Law.

Samuel Cary Beckwith ’01E, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Sociology. Princeton University.

Sarah Beganskas ’12, John Mason Clarke 1877 Fellow in Geology. University of California, Santa Cruz.

Brittany Berckes ’10, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Political Science. University of Michigan Law School.

Michael Bernstein ’08, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Sustainability Science. Arizona State University.

Kuhuk Bhushan ’12, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in International and Development Economics. Yale University.

Jeffrey Blevins ’09, Amherst Memorial Fellow in English. University of California, Berkeley.

Christianna Bonin ’07, Amherst Memorial Fellow in History of Architecture and Urbanism. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Grace Booth ’12, Edward Poole Lay Fellow in Ensemble Physical Theater. Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theater.

David Bradshaw ’12, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Law, School not known.

Eli Bromberg ’02 Amherst Memorial Fellow in English and American Literature. University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Jordan Brower ’07, Amherst Memorial Fellow in English and Film Studies. Yale University.

Katerina Byanova ’09, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

Kimona Cameron ’12, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Epidemiology. Tufts University School of Medicine.

Rachel Cameron ’10, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Romain Cames ’09, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Social Sciences. Northeastern University.

Gregory Campeau ’11, Benjamin Goodall Symon, Jr. Memorial Fellow in Divinity. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Angelica Cesario ’08, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Law. Columbia Law School.

Elise Chad ’07E, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Veterinary Medicine. University of California, Davis.

Vanessa Chen ’09, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Veterinary Medicine. University of California, Davis.

Timothy Clarke ’12, George A. Plimpton Fellow in Ancient History. University of Oxford.

Alexander Coburn ’11, Rufus B. Kellogg University Fellow in Environmental Design in Architecture. University of Cambridge.

Jennie Cook-Kollars ’11, John Mason Clarke 1877 Fellow in Geology. Lehigh University.

Alice Cutler ’10, Evan Carroll Commager Fellow in History of Photography. Sotheby’s Institute of Art-London.

Julian Damashek ’09, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Environmental Microbiology. Stanford University.

Dominique de Vastey ’07, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Law. Washington University School of Law, St. Louis.

Travis Doering ’09, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. Hofstra University School of Medicine.

Kristina Doyle ’11, John Mason Clarke 1877 Fellow in Geoarchaeology. University of Oxford.

Marissa Drehobl ’09, John Mason Clarke 1877 Fellow in Geoscience. University of Iowa.

David Emmerman ’11, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Environmental Policy. Yale University.

Saskia Fabricant ’09, Amherst Memorial Fellow in English as a Second Language. Simmons College.

Joan Flores-Villalobos ’10, Amherst Memorial Fellow in African Diaspora History. New York University.

Alison Fornell ’12, George A. Plimpton Fellow in Media and Cultural Studies. University of Cambridge.

Emily Frey ’04, Edward Poole Lay Fellow in Musicology. University of California, Berkeley.

Taylor Friedlander ’10E, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Law. Pepperdine University.

Kristin Gardner ’12, George A. Plimpton Fellow in Computer Science. Carnegie Mellon University.

Adam Garmezy ’11, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Law. Duke University School of Law.

Benjamin Garmezy ’11, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. Baylor College of Medicine.

Eric Gettig ’04, Forris Jewett Moore Fellow in History. Georgetown University.

Zena-Marie Ghanney ’12, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Biomedical Sciences. School not known.

Amanda Gibson ’08, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Evolutionary Ecology. Indiana University.

Shahirah Gillespie ’12, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Public Health. Boston University.

Njoki Gitahi ’04, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Graphic Design. Yale University.

Michael Goldman ’08, Forris Jewett Moore Fellow in Physics. Harvard University.

Alexander Gonzalez ’10, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Geology. University of Utah.

Jeffrey Grover ’09, Forris Jewett Moore Fellow in Physics. University of Maryland, College Park.

Janet Ha ’07, Roland Wood Fellow in Creative Writing and Motion Picture Production. Indiana University.

Mwanasha Hamuza ’11, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. Penn State College of Medicine.

Ali Hassan ’05, Forris Jewett Moore Fellow in Mughal History. University of California, Berkeley.

William Havemann ’07, Charles B. Rugg Fellow in Law. Stanford University.

Jean-Marie Hebe ’10, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Communications. Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris.

Robert Helms ’04, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Acute Care Nursing. Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions.

Andrea Hernandez ’09, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Bilingual/Bicultural Education. Teachers College at Columbia University.

Lauren Hill ’08, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Slavic Languages and Literatures. University of California, Berkeley.

Nathaniel Hopkin ’10, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Economics. University of Michigan Law School.

Jenny Horowitz ’07, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Suzanne Hulick ’09, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Speech and Language Pathology. Emerson College.

Irina Ivanova ’06, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Multimedia Journalism. City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.

David Anton Johnson ’09E, Forris Jewett Moore Fellow in Philosophy. Rutgers University.

Rachel Johnson ’10, Rufus B. Kellogg University Fellow in History. School not known.

Catherine Jun ’01E, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Law. University of Michigan Law School.

Hyowoun Jyung ’08, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Gautam Kalani ’09, Evan Carroll Commager Fellow in Economics. University of Oxford.

Ambika Kamath ’11, Rufus B. Kellogg University Fellow in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Harvard University.

Mohammad Khan ’06, Evan Carroll Commager Fellow in History. University of Cambridge.

Katherine Claire Kiechel ’09, Edward Poole Lay Fellow in Playwriting. New School for Drama.

Caroline Kim ’09, Lloyd I. Rosenblum Memorial Fellow in Biology. Harvard University.

Min Kim ’06, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Public Administration and Policy. University of Albany.

Nary Kim ’09, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Law. University of California, Berkeley.

Yeji Kim ’12, George Stebbins Moses Memorial Fellow in Politics, Ethics and Religion. Harvard Divinity School.

Natalya Kitchin ’09, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Law. Queen Mary, University of London.

Ariah Klages-Mundt ’12, Evan Carroll Commager Fellow in Mathematics. School not known.

Akosua Korboe ’12, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Jamie Kostyun ’09, Lloyd I. Rosenblum Memorial Fellow in Evolutionary Biology. Indiana University.

Penka Kovacheva ’07, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Economics. Princeton University.

Michael Kreisel ’10, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Mathematics. University of Maryland, College Park.

Rebecca Lakind ’06, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Clinical Psychology. University of Illinois, Chicago.

Mable Lam ’12, Forris Jewett Moore Fellow in Biochemistry. University of California, San Francisco.

Matthew Langione ’05, Amherst Memorial Fellow in English. University of California, Berkeley.

Stephanie Li ’09, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. Temple University.

Susan Lin ’08, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Christine Lyons ’12E, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Education. Smith College.

Winnie Ma ’12, Sterling P. Lamprecht Fellow in Philosophy. Yale University Divinity School.

Grace Maeng ’08, George Stebbins Moses Memorial Fellow in Clinical Psychology. Fuller Theological Seminary.

Nathaniel Mahlberg ’05, George Stebbins Moses Memorial Fellow in Divinity. Union Theological Seminary.

Kimberly Maize ’11, Forris Jewett Moore Fellow in Medicinal Chemistry. University of Minnesota.

Miranda Marraccini ’12, George A. Plimpton Fellow in English Literature. University of Oxford.

Marcella McClatchey ’08, Seth E. Frank Fellow in Public Policy. Duke University—Sanford School of Public Policy.

Christopher McConkey ’10, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Law. University of California, Los Angeles.

Margaret McKeon ’05, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Civil and Environmental Engineering. University of Washington, Seattle.

Benjamin Mears ’11, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Computer Science. University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Micaela Mendlow ’03, Forris Jewett Moore Fellow in Physics/Applied Mathematics. North Carolina State University.

Megan Messersmith ’11, George Stebbins Moses Memorial Fellow in Theology. Wheaton College Graduate School.

Benjamin Miller ’12, George A. Plimpton Fellow in Economics. Yale University.

Leslie Moclock ’10E, John Mason Clarke 1877 Fellow in Geology. University of California, Davis.

Julia Moorman ’11, Roland Wood Fellow in Voice and Opera. Independent Studies.

Lindsey Moran ’12, George A. Plimpton Fellow in Political Science. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

Erin Morrison ’09, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. University of Arizona.

Laura Mortimer ’08, The Seth E. Frank Fellow in Public Policy. Duke University—Sanford School of Public Policy.

Evan Nabrit ’06E, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Fine Arts. University of Pennsylvania School of Design.

Sakura Noda ’09, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. New York Medical College.

Joseph Nwadiuko ’08, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Rachel Ojserkis ’09, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Clinical Psychology. Fordham University.

Samantha Ostrowski ’10, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Environmental Management. Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Adebayo Owolewa ’04, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Law and Business. University of Virginia School of Law and Darden School of Business Administration.

Emmanuel Owusu-Amankwah ’10, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Agricultural Economics. University of Kentucky.

Zoe Pagonis ’11, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Law. Columbia Law School.

Mariana Palacios ’09, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. Baylor College of Medicine.

Christopher Parkinson ’07, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Architecture. Yale School of Architecture.

Kimberly Partee ’08, Forris Jewett Moore Fellow in History, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies. Clark University.

Zdravko Paskalev ’08, Roswell Dwight Hitchcock Memorial Fellow in Economics. Duke University.

Lynda Perez ’08, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Veterinary Medicine. University of Pennsylvania.

Trevor Pinho ’11, Amherst Memorial Fellow in School Psychology. Lehigh University College of Education.

Ginger Polich ’06, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. University of California, San Francisco.

Vikyath Rao ’10, Forris Jewett Moore Fellow in Physics. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Jessica Rhoades ’09, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Audiology. University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Kelly Rich ’08, Amherst Memorial Fellow in English. University of Pennsylvania.

Ariana Robey-Lawrence ’12, Edward Poole Lay Fellow in Visual and Media Anthropology. Freie Universität Berlin.

Karl Rodrigues ’09E, Forris Jewett Moore Fellow in Philosophy. University of Essex.

Gina Rodriguez ’10, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Fiction Writing. New York University.

Andrew Rubenstein ’07, Charles B. Rugg Fellow in Law. Harvard Law School.

Shannon Rush ’07, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. University of Washington School of Medicine.

Katherine Ryder ’06, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Cultural Reporting and Criticism. New York University.

Naike Savain ’10, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Law. Georgetown University Law Center.

Lily Shapiro ’08, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Sociocultural Anthropology. University of Washington, Seattle.

Kin-Yee Ian Shin ’06, Forris Jewett Moore Fellow in History. Columbia University.

Emily Smith ’08, John Mason Clarke 1877 Fellow in Geology. Harvard University.

Natasha Smith ’11, Roland Wood Fellow in Theater. School not known.

David Temin ’10, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Political Science. University of Minnesota.

Emil Temnyalov ’09, Roswell Dwight Hitchcock Memorial Fellow in Economics. Northwestern University.

Elaine Teng ’12, Forris Jewett Moore Fellow in History. University of St. Andrews.

Michiko Theurer ’11, Roland Wood Fellow in Violin Performance. Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Sarah Tracy ’08, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. University of Massachusetts Medical School.

John Brooks Turner ’12, George A. Plimpton Fellow in Studio Art. Art Institute of Chicago.

Gina Turrini ’08, The Seth E. Frank Fellow in Public Policy. Duke University.

Rasheda Vereen ’10, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. Albany Medical College.

Normandy Vincent ’08, Amherst Memorial Fellow in History of Art and Architecture. Harvard University.

Alison Wahl ’08, Edward Poole Lay Fellow in Voice Performance and Literature. Northwestern University.

Jonathan Wemette ’05, Edward Poole Lay Fellow in Theater Management. Yale School of Drama.

Monica Westin ’05, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Rhetoric. University of Illinois, Chicago.

Teana White ’10, Roland Wood Fellow in Performing Arts Management. Independent Studies.

Lauren Wimbush ’11, Edward Poole Lay Fellow in Media Studies and Management. The New School.

Megan Worsley ’10, Amherst Memorial Fellow in French and Comparative Literatures. Université François Rabelais in Tours, France.

Kevin Wu ’12, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Classics and French. Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France.

Cianna Wyshnytzky ’11, John Mason Clarke 1877 Fellow in Geology. Utah State University.

Bessie Young ’11, Amherst Memorial Fellow in Photography. University of Ulster, Belfast, Ireland.

Maureen Yu ’10, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. Eastern Virginia Medical School.

Wen Zhang ’10, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. University of New England.

Yinan Zhang ’12, Warner Gardner Fletcher Fellow in International Education Policy. Harvard University.

Victor Zhu ’11, John Woodruff Simpson Fellow in Medicine. Yale University School of Medicine.

NATIONAL FELLOWS AND SCHOLARS

Bethany Brown ’12, Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, Bulgaria.

Alexander Coburn ’11, Fulbright Research Grant, United Kingdom.

Jamie Cohen ’11, Fulbright Research Grant, South Africa.

Marlis Gnirke ’12, Fulbright Research Grant, Germany.

Taylor Haney ’12, Fulbright Research Grant, India.

Bess Hanish ’13, Truman Scholar.

Dana Kaufman ’12, Fulbright Research Grant, Estonia.

Lilia Kilburn ’12, Watson Fellow.

Keri Lambert ’13, Beinecke Scholar.

Benjamin Lin ’12, Fulbright Research Grant, Turkey.

Sebabatso Manoeli ’11, South Africa Rhodes Scholar.

Ellen Richmond ’12, Watson Fellow.

Susannah Rudel ’12, French Government Teaching Assistantship, France.

Alexa Russo ’12, Fulbright Research Grant, India.

Sarah Schear ’12, Fulbright Research Grant, India.

Khan Shoieb ’13, Truman Scholar.

Bessie Young ’11, Mitchell Scholar.

AMHERST-DOSHISHA FELLOW

Harrison Muskat ’12.

Prizes and Awards

AMERICAN STUDIES

The Doshisha American Studies Prize, a gift from Amherst House, Doshisha University, is awarded for the American studies honors thesis judged by the Department of American Studies as most likely to stimulate interest in and understanding of America overseas, with a view toward possible publication in Japan.

Divided between Joni Rebecca Hirsch ’12 and David Gregory Masterman ’12.

The George Rogers Taylor Prize is awarded to the student who, in the opinion of the American Studies Department, shows the most promise for creative and scholarly work in American Studies.

Joni Rebecca Hirsch ’12.

ANTHROPOLOGY/SOCIOLOGY

The Donald S. Pitkin Prize in Anthropology-Sociology, established in honor of the founder of that department on the occasion of his retirement, is given to that student whose honors thesis best exemplifies the humane values to which Professor Pitkin committed his research and teaching.

Divided among Hayley Christine Anderson ’12, Ethan Coughlin Balgley ’12, and Lilia Maud Kilburn ’12.

ART AND THE HISTORY OF ART

The Hasse Prize, established in memory of Adrian H. Hasse ’43, is awarded for the best submitted work having a human figure as a theme.

Divided between Todd Spencer Lavine ’12 and Kathleen Charlia Paeth ’12.

The Anna Baker Heap Prize, established by Arnold N. Heap of the Class of 1873, is awarded to that senior who submits the best essay in the field of “Art.”

Alejandro Childers Chaviano ’12.

The Athanasios Demetrios Skouras Prize, given in memory of Mr. Skouras of the Class of 1936, who died in 1943 in Athens as a result of Nazi reprisal killings, is awarded to a student who, in the opinion of the Fine Arts Department, has created an outstanding work of art.

John Brooks Turner ’12.

ASIAN LANGUAGES AND CIVILIZATIONS

The Doshisha Asian Studies Prize from the income of a gift from Amherst House, Doshisha University, is awarded for the best undergraduate honors thesis pertaining to Asia.

Sarah Elizabeth Schear ’12.

ASTRONOMY

The Porter Prize, established by the late Eleazer Porter of Hadley, is awarded for proficiency in first-year astronomy.

John Kevin Riggins Jr. ’12.

ATHLETICS

The Manstein Family Award, given by Carl ’72, Mark ’74 and Joanne Manstein ’83, is presented to the outstanding senior varsity athlete who has been accepted to medical school and plans a career in medicine. The prize is awarded by the Department of Physical Education.

Awah-Lem Atanga McCormick ’12.

BIOLOGY

The James R. Elster Award for research in biology was created in memory of James R. Elster ’71, by his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Samuel K. Elster. This fund has been established for the purpose of providing support in the summer months for a research project to be undertaken by an undergraduate in the Department of Biology.

Divided between Hannah Kate Gendelman ’13 and Karen Yeh ’13.

The Sawyer Prize is awarded to that second-semester sophomore who, in the opinion of the Biology Department, has shown the most promise as a student of biology.

Divided between Christina Lee England ’14 and Christopher Sutton Finch ’14.

The Oscar E. Schotté Award is given to that member of the graduating class who, in the opinion of the department, has done the best independent work in biology.

Divided between Alan Shyijong Wang ’12 and Casey Marie Silver ’12.

The Oscar E. Schotté Scholarship Prize is awarded to a member of the junior or senior class majoring in science to enable completion of a special project during the summer.

Nathan Belkin ’12.

The William C. Young Prize, established in memory of William C. Young ‘21, is awarded to a talented student from the Biology Department to undertake a summer course, a specialized program at an advanced school or institute, a summer field program or research at a specialized laboratory.

Casey Marie Silver ’12.

BIOLOGY AND GEOLOGY

The Harvey Blodgett Scholarship, established by Frederick H. Blodgett in memory of his grandfather, Harvey Blodgett of the Class of 1829, is awarded to aid student work in biology and geology in their educational phases as distinct from their more technical and strictly scientific phases.

combined with

The Phi Delta Theta Scholarship, established by the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, is awarded as a scholarship at the Woods Hole Marine Laboratory to a student for proficiency in biology.

Joseph Myungkyu Kim ’14.

BLACK STUDIES

The Edward Jones Prize is given in honor of the College’s first black alumnus. It is awarded by the Black Studies Department to a graduating senior for the best honors thesis which addresses a present or future issue of concern to black people in Africa and the Diaspora.

Porsche Janae Dames ’12.

CHEMISTRY

The David R. Belevetz ’54 Memorial Fund Award in Chemistry was established by family and friends of David R. Belevetz and is awarded to support the work of an Amherst student engaged in preparing a senior honors thesis, as determined by the Chemistry Department Faculty.

Anna Louise Hagstrom ’13.

The Howard Waters Doughty Prize is awarded to that member of the senior class who, in the opinion of the Chemistry Department, has prepared the best honors thesis.

Divided between Mable Lam ’12 and Afua Adomaa Nti ’12.

The Frank Fowler Dow Prizes, established by Fayette B. Dow in memory of his father, are awarded to a senior preparing to enter medical school and whose undergraduate work indicates a career of distinction in medicine.

Dalee Margaret Zhou ’12.

The Everett H. Pryde Research Award is presented annually to a senior who has been an outstanding teaching assistant in chemistry and who shows great promise for carrying out research in science or medicine.

Divided between Mable Lam ’12 and Sinead Louise Murphy ’12.

The White Prize is awarded by the Chemistry Department to that chemistry major in the junior class who seems most likely to benefit from a summer’s research experience at Amherst. It consists of a summer fellowship.

Ewuradjoa Gadzanku ’13.

CLASSICS

The Anthony and Anastasia Nicolaides Award, established by Cleanthes Anthony Nicolaides ’68, in honor of his parents and in testimony of their belief in the goodness of science, is awarded to the senior who presents the best thesis on the topic of Greek science and mathematics from Homeric times to 1453 A.D.

Not awarded 2011-12.

COMPUTER CENTER

The Computer Center Prize is awarded for outstanding contributions in the application of the computer to a broad range of academic disciplines, and for generous help to many students and faculty at the Computer Center.

Divided between Ioanida Costache ’12 and Samuel Uwemedimo Udom ’12.

COMPUTER SCIENCE

The Computer Science Prize is awarded to a senior who has completed an honors thesis and who has achieved the best performance in the study of computer science. The award is based on the thesis and overall achievement in computer science.

Kristen Scholes Gardner ’12.

ECONOMICS

The Bernstein Prize, funded by a gift from the Bernstein family in honor of the work their son, Jeffrey ’91, did at Amherst College, is awarded to the senior who has done particularly outstanding honors work in economics.

Xiaoyun Zhang ’12.

The Economics Department Junior Class Prize, awarded to that member of the junior class who, in the opinion of the Economics Department, has achieved a record of excellence in the study of economics at Amherst College.

Divided between Eric Tobias Manolson Lax ’13 and Hao Zhang ’13.

The Hamilton Prize, established by his former students in memory of Professor Walton Hale Hamilton, distinguished member of the Department of Economics from 1915 to 1923, is awarded to that student other than a senior who ranks highest in the introductory economics course.

Divided between Edward Jong-In Kim ’15 and Shanghui Li ’14.

The James R. Nelson Memorial Award and The James R. Nelson Prize were established from the income of a fund established by former students, colleagues and friends to encourage and recognize the scholarly and humane qualities that Professor Nelson exemplified and sought to foster in his students.

The James R. Nelson Memorial Award is presented to that senior who, in the opinion of the Economics Department, has achieved excellence in the study of economics while pursuing a broad liberal education.

Jiaqi Ji ’12.

The James R. Nelson Prize is awarded to the senior who, in the opinion of the Economics Department, has written a distinguished honors thesis that applies economic analysis to an important question of public policy.

Divided among Daniel Byington Barnes ’12, Kuhuk Bhushan ’12 and Josephine Tessa Cochran Fisher ’12.

ENGLISH

The Academy of American Poets Prize is awarded annually for the best poem or group of poems, preferably on nature, submitted by an undergraduate.

Shane Edward Johnson ’12.

The Armstrong Prize, established in part by Collin Armstrong of the Class of 1877 in memory of his mother, Miriam Collin Armstrong, is awarded to members of the freshman class who excel in composition.

Austin Bailey Govero ’15.

The Collin Armstrong Poetry Prize, established in part by Mrs. Elizabeth H. Armstrong, is awarded to the undergraduate author of the best original poem or group of poems.

Divided between Diana Beatrice Babineau ’14 and Peter Sierks Smith ’14.

The Elizabeth Bruss Prize is presented to that senior English major who in the judgment of the English Department best represents those qualities of breadth and imagination exemplified by Elizabeth Bruss.

Daeyeong Kim ’12.

The Corbin Prize, established by the estate of William Lee Corbin of the Class of 1896, is awarded for an outstanding original composition in the form of poetry or an informal essay.

Divided between Austin Bailey Govero ’15 and Diana Poon ’12.

The G. Armour Craig Award for Prose Composition is awarded to that junior or senior who writes the best autobiographical essay on an experience of intellectual discovery.

Kevin Wu ’12.

The Peter Burnett Howe Prize for excellence in prose fiction was established by a gift from Robert B. Howe ’30 in memory of his son Peter Burnett Howe ’60.

Divided between Jeffrey Michael Holmes ’12 and Andrew Edward Lopshire ’12.

The Rolfe Humphries Poetry Prize is presented to that senior who has achieved the greatest sense of poetic form in his or her undergraduate writing. The award is made on the basis of three submissions to the English Department in the applicant’s senior year and may include writing produced during the undergraduate years.

Diana Cao ’12.

The Harry Richmond Hunter Jr. Prize, established in memory of Harry Richmond Hunter Jr. ’29, by his parents, is awarded to that member of the sophomore class who presents the best essay on a topic approved by the English Department.

Divided between Katherine Elizabeth Sisk ’14 and Peter Sierks Smith ’14.

The James Charlton Knox Prize was established by the friends of Jim Knox ’70, to honor his memory and recognize his abiding interest in English literature. It is given to the outstanding English student who demonstrates the greatest integration of scholarship, interest and creativity in the study of En-
glish.

Divided among Elizabeth A. Ballinger-Dix ’13, Daniel Robbins Pastan ’13, and Lindsay O’Connor Stern ’13.

The MacArthur-Leithauser Travel Award, from the income of a gift by the MacArthur Foundation to the College in 1985 at the request of Brad Leithauser, MacArthur Fellow and Visiting Writer at the College for 1984-85, is given annually by the English Department to a sophomore or junior of creative promise who might most benefit from exposure to a foreign landscape, for the purpose of enabling the student to travel outside the continental United States.

Not awarded 2011-12.

The Ralph Waldo Rice Prize, established by Mrs. Mary Rice Jenkins in memory of her brother of the Class of 1910, is awarded for the best essay on “The Liberal College and Christian Citizenship” or any subject named by the faculty.

Divided between Scott Howard Bartley ’12 and Miranda Claire Marraccini ’12.

The Laura Ayres Snyder Poetry Prize, endowed by a gift from Jeffrey F. Snyder ’60, in honor of his daughter, Laura Ayres Snyder ’89, is awarded to a member of the junior class and is intended to subsidize a student-poet during the summer between his or her junior and senior years. The judges of the prize are one faculty member each from the Departments of English, Philosophy, and Physics in even numbered years and English, History, and Biology in odd numbered years.

Lindsay O’Connor Stern ’13.

The Stephen E. Whicher Prize, established in memory of Stephen E. Whicher ’36 for the best essay by a senior in the interpretation of American literature in the Department of English or American Studies.

Scott Howard Bartley ’12.

FRENCH

The Jeffrey J. Carre Award, established in 1983 by his family, friends, professional colleagues and students, is presented to a sophomore or junior who has demonstrated excellence in the French language. The prize is to be used toward travel in France during the summer following the award.

Yi Lu ’14.

The Frederick King Turgeon Prize in French Literature was established by former students of Professor Turgeon upon the occasion of his retirement. It is used for the award of a book to the student who has done particularly distinguished work in French during the year.

Yevgeniy Golubitskiy ’12.

GEOLOGY

The Richard M. Foose Scholarship Prize, established by alumni and friends to honor Professor Richard M. Foose at the time of his retirement after 23 years of service to Amherst College, is awarded annually to a student or students on the recommendation of the Department of Geology, to support summer field/research in geology.

Divided among Roger Cameron Creel ’13, Bernardo Andres Rios Sanjines ’13, and Danielle Priscilla Santiago Ramos ’13.

The Walter F. Pond Prize, established in honor of Walter Pond ’07, is awarded to the senior who has submitted the best honors thesis in geology.

Divided between Benjamin Edward Lin ’12 and Max Kaufmann Lloyd ’12.

The David F. Quinn Memorial Award is awarded in memory of David Quinn ’80 to an outstanding senior who, during his or her undergraduate career, has made a positive contribution to geology at Amherst through character, leadership, enthusiasm, and participation in departmental activities.

Michael Ryan Hudak ’12.

The Belt-Brophy Prize is awarded to that student at the end of the junior year who, in the judgment of the staff of the Department of Geology, has shown the greatest promise for success as a geologist. The prize consists of a Brunton compass with field case, the most versatile field tool of the geologist.

Danielle Priscilla Santiago Ramos ’13.

GERMAN

The Consulate General Prize for Academic Achievement in German Literature, made available by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Boston, is awarded to that student who, in the judgment of the Department of German, has written the best paper as part of a German course.

Divided between Afua Adomaa Nti ’12 and Rebecca Gouldin Kelley ’12.

The Consulate General Prize for German Studies is made available by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Boston. It is awarded to that junior or senior who, in the judgment of the Department of German, has made a superior contribution to any aspect of German studies.

Katherine Leah Hillenbrand ’12.

GREEK

The William C. Collar Prize, established by William C. Collar of the Class of 1859, is awarded to the member of the freshman class who has made on a written examination the best version in English of a previously unseen page from some Greek author.

Madelin Marie Parsley ’15.

The Hutchins Prize, established by Waldo Hutchins of the Class of 1842, is awarded to a senior for excellence in Greek.

Kevin Wu ’12.

HISTORY

The Asa J. Davis Prize is awarded to a student who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in the study of the History of Africa and the Black Diaspora and whose work best reflects the comprehensive interest of Asa Davis in historical and cultural contacts between Africa, the Old World and the Americas.

Divided between Melissa Jill Greenberg ’12 and Jaclyn Anh Tu Tran ’12.

The Alfred F. Havighurst Prize, intended for the purchase of books, is awarded to that major in the Department of History who has in four years at Amherst best fulfilled the standards of excellence and humane scholarship exemplified by Professor Havighurst during his teaching career at Amherst College.

Susannah Elizabeth Rudel ’12.

JOURNALISM

The Samuel Bowles Prize, established by Samuel Bowles King ’02, to stimulate interest in journalism as a career, is awarded to a student who has demonstrated proficiency in journalism.

Elaine Teng ’12.

LATIN

The Bertram Prizes, established by John Bertram of Salem, are two prizes awarded to students who, together with attaining a high average in the Latin courses of the senior year, present the best essays connected with these courses.

First and second combined and divided between Andrew Phillips Reed ’12 and Kevin Wu ’12.

The Billings Prizes were established by Frederick Billings in memory of Parmly Billings of the Class of 1884. Two prizes are awarded for general excellence in the Latin courses of the sophomore year, together with the best essays on special topics connected with the authors read in that year.

First: Sarah Elizabeth Ashman ’14.

Second: Noelle Jing-Wan Niu ’14.

The Crowell Prizes were established in memory of Edward Payson Crowell of the Class of l853. Two prizes are awarded—one for the highest scholarship in freshman Latin courses and the other to the students who, together with attaining a high average in the Latin courses of the junior year, present the best essays on some approved topic connected with the junior Latin course.

Freshman First: Heinrich-Karl vonMoltke Greenblatt ’15.

Freshman Second: Sophia Rachel Padelford ’15.

Junior First: Alex Paul Butensky ’13.

Junior Second: James Anthony Barrett-Morison ’13.

The Dr. Ernest D. Daniels Latin Prize, established in honor of Dr. Daniels of the Class of 1890, is awarded to the graduating senior who has submitted the best honors thesis on a Latin subject.

Timothy Forrest Clark ’12.

LAW, JURISPRUDENCE AND SOCIAL THOUGHT

The Robert Cover Prize honors the memory of Robert Cover, a distinguished legal scholar whose work inspired the humanistic conception of law in the liberal arts embodied in Amherst’s Department of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought. It is given annually to a graduating senior for distinguished achievement in that major.

Jillian Marie Kochanek ’12.

LIBRARY

The Frederick S. Lane ’36 Prizes (formerly known as Friends of Amherst College Library Prizes) for Student Book Collections are awarded to the entrants in the Student Book Collection Competition who demonstrate strong interests in book collecting and who present good, beginning collections.

First: Miranda Claire Marraccini ’12.

Second: Zachary Isaac Bleemer ’13.

Third: Divided between Miranda Serafin Dershimer ’14 and Victorya Marcterlina Rockingster ’13.

The Frederick S. Lane ’36 Prize for Excellence in Book Collecting (formerly known as the M. Abbott Van Nostrand Prize for Excellence in Book Collecting) is awarded by the Friends of Amherst College Library to the entrant in the Student Book Collecting Competition who demonstrates considerable experience, knowledge, and ability in the field of book collecting.

Not awarded 2011-12.

MATHEMATICS

The Robert H. Breusch Prize is awarded to the senior who, in the opinion of the faculty in mathematics, has presented the best honors thesis in mathematics.

Trevor Glen Hyde ’12.

The Walker Prizes were established by William J. Walker of Newport, Rhode Island. Two prizes are awarded for proficiency in mathematics of the first year and two prizes for proficiency in mathematics of the second year. In each case the award is determined by an examination.

Freshman First: Hongye Guo ’15.

Freshman Second: Darius Roland Onul ’15.

Sophomore First: William Trenary Froehlich ’14.

Sophomore Second: Jianlin Zhong ’14.

MEAD ART MUSEUM

The Mead Art Museum and the Department of Art and the History of Art invite all continuing students, including first-year students, to apply for fellowships of up to $3,500 for internships in the history and/or practice of art. Students may propose to participate in an internship program or to undertake individual study in any state or country. Applications are evaluated on the following criteria: the significance of the proposed project to the student’s growth; evidence of preparation to undertake the project; and its feasibility as a summer project.

Mead/Art and the History of Art Summer Fellowship in the History of Art: Judy (Ji) Yoo, ’14.

Mead/Art and the History of Art Summer Fellowship in the Practice of Art: Not awarded 2011-12.

The Wise Fine Arts Award The Wise Award is presented annually in the spring to a student in the College for distinction in the completion of an original work or works of art and the purchase thereof. The prize-winning work of art will become the property of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College.

Henry Oscar Bedford ’12E.

MUSIC

The Sylvia and Irving Lerner Piano Prize is awarded to that student who has demonstrated the greatest skill and musicianship as a pianist.

Divided among Philip David Brown Dupont ’12, Michael Thomas O’Connor ’12, Jonathan Emanuel Thaler ’12.

The Mishkin Prize, established by the Friends of Music, is awarded in memory of Professor Henry G. Mishkin to that senior selected by the Department of Music who produces the best thesis on a critical or musical topic.

Ioanida Costache ’12.

The Lincoln Lowell Russell Prize, established by J. W. Russell Jr. of the Class of 1899 in memory of his son, is awarded to the seniors who have done most to foster the singing spirit at Amherst.

Divided among Anna Dorothy Hager ’12, Benjamin Edward Lin ’12, and Rohan Mazumdar ’12.

The Eric Edward Sundquist Prize, established in memory of Mr. Sundquist of the Class of 1936, is awarded to that senior who has demonstrated excellence in musical composition and performance.

Divided among Dana Elise Kaufman ’12, Jeremy Chun Chi Koo ’12 and Robert Mark Suits ’12.

NEUROSCIENCE

The James Olds Memorial Neuroscience Award, established by the Swerdlow Family Foundation in recognition of the contributions made to the neurosciences by Dr. Olds of the Class of 1947, is presented to the student whose research in the neurosciences is judged, by the faculty of the Neuroscience Program, to be of highest quality.

Annie Isabel Handler ’12.

PHILOSOPHY

The Gail Kennedy Memorial Prize is awarded to a senior major in Philosophy in recognition of a distinguished honors essay.

Dean Jacob Ericksen ’12.

PHYSICS

The Bassett Physics Prizes were established by Preston Rogers Bassett ’13. Two prizes may be awarded each year to those students who have distinguished themselves by the excellence and maturity of their performance in the class and laboratory work of the first course in Physics.

First and second combined and divided among: Daniel Gordon Ang ’15, Christine Bierema ’14, and Andrei-Horia Gheorghe ’15.

The William Warren Stifler Prize, established by Professor Stifler, is awarded to a senior who has majored in physics and especially excelled in the course on electricity and magnetism.

Aftaab Dewan ’12.

POLITICAL SCIENCE

The Densmore Berry Collins Prize in Political Science is given annually in memory of Mr. Collins, of the Class of 1940, for the best honors thesis in political science.

Justin David Patrick ’12.

PSYCHOLOGY

The Haskell R. Coplin Memorial Award, established in memory of Mr. Coplin, Professor of Psychology, recognizes that member of the graduating class who, in the opinion of the Psychology Department, displays the scholarly and humane qualities that best exemplify Professor Coplin. The prize is to a senior who has shown distinguished work in psychology classes and in an honors thesis, and who has contributed to the life of the department.

Divided between Amanda Danielle Rodriguez-Newhall ’12 and Katherine Marie Tezanos ’12.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

The Bancroft Prizes, established by Frederic Bancroft of the Class of 1882, are awarded to the two seniors who produce the best orations. Both composition and delivery are considered.

Divided between Lilia Maud Kilburn ’12 and Emma Louise Buchsbaum ’12.

The Gilbert Prize, established by William O. Gilbert of the Class of 1890, is awarded to a member of the junior class who produces the best oration. Both composition and delivery are considered in making the award.

Divided between Brendan McMahon Burke ’13 and Omar Wallace Brown Jr. ’13.

The Hardy Prizes, established by Alpheus Hardy of Boston, are awarded for excellence in extemporaneous speaking.

First: Justin David Patrick ’12.

Second: Jane Elizabeth Kessner ’14.

The Kellogg Prizes, established by Rufus B. Kellogg of the Class of 1858, consist of two prizes that are awarded to members of the sophomore or freshman classes for excellence in declamation.

Divided between Jane Elizabeth Kessner ’14 and Laurence Vivek Pevsner ’14.

The Rogers Prize was given by Noah C. Rogers of the Class of 1880 and is awarded for excellence in debate.

Divided among Emma Louise Buchsbaum ’12, Brendan McMahon Burke ’13, Lilia Maud Kilburn ’12, and Justin David Patrick ’12.

RELIGION

The Moseley Prizes, established by Thomas Moseley of Hyde Park, are awarded to seniors for the best essays on a subject approved by the Department of Religion.

Divided among Jesse Shoshkes Fried ’12, Caroline Antonia Medina ’12, Harrison Charles Muskat ’12, and Alexa Anne Russo ’12.

RUSSIAN

The Carol Prize in Russian, given by David James Carol ’77 in honor of his parents, Joseph and Roberta, is awarded to the student who has demonstrated the greatest dedication and commitment to Russian.

Kristin Anne Ouellette ’12.

The Mikhail Schweitzer Memorial Book Award, established by students, parents and friends in fond memory of Mikhail Schweitzer, survivor of the Soviet Gulag, author, and custodian at Amherst College, for the award of books to the student who, in the judgment of the Russian Department, most shares Misha Schweitzer’s love of Russian literature and culture.

Divided between Ethan Thomas Gates ’12 and Dana Elise Kaufman ’12.

SPANISH

The Pedro Grases Prizes for Excellence in Spanish is given by a member of the Class of 1939 to honor a great teacher and cordial scholar. It is awarded each year to that senior who has shown the greatest progress in the ability to read Hispanic literature with insight and to write and speak Spanish with intelligence and humane sensitivity.

Yinan Zhang ’12.

THEATER AND DANCE

The Raymond Keith Bryant Prize, an annual gift from Robert E. and Ethel M. Bryant in memory of their son of the Class of 1936, is awarded to that student who, in the opinion of the judges, gives the best performance of the year in a Masquers’ play.

Divided among Kariely Michelle Escobar ’12 and the Ensemble of Philip David Brown Dupont ’12, Grace Elisabeth Booth ’12, Romain Bige ’LA, Patricia Yessenia Cardenas ’14, Justin A. Knoll ’14, and Yilin Wang ’14.

WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES

The Women’s and Gender Studies Prize is awarded for excellence in scholarly or creative work in Women’s and Gender Studies.

Divided between Lilia Maud Kilburn ’12 and Sarah Elizabeth Schear ’12.

SCHOLARSHIP AND CITIZENSHIP

The Addison Brown Scholarship from a fund established by Addison Brown of the Class of 1852, is awarded to that senior who, being already on the scholarship list, has attained the highest standing in the studies of the freshman, sophomore and junior years.

Jiaqi Ji ’12.

The Samuel Walley Brown Scholarship, established by Samuel Walley Brown of the Class of 1866, is awarded to that member of the junior class who, in the estimation of the Trustees, ranks highest in his/her class in character, class leadership, scholarship, and athletic ability.

Divided between Keri Grace Lambert ’13 and Andrew Philip Erskine ’13.

The Charles W. Cole Scholarship is awarded each year to the undergraduate with an established financial aid need, who, after two years at Amherst, stands highest in the academic rank of the sophomore class. The recipient will be designated “Charles W. Cole Scholar” and will carry the award for the junior and senior years at Amherst.

Elton H. Cho ’13.

The Charles Hamilton Houston Fellowship is an annual gift awarded to a graduating senior who best personifies a commitment to realizing his or her humane ideals, much in the way Charles Houston ’15 devoted his life to the struggle for equal protection under the law for African-Americans in the United States.

Agostine Kagunda Ndung’u ’12.

The Howard Hill Mossman Trophy, awarded annually to the member of the senior class who has brought, during his/her four years at Amherst, the greatest honor in athletics to the Alma Mater—the word “honor” to be interpreted as relating both to achievement and to sportsmanship.

Benjamin Quincy Scheetz ’12.

The Gordon B. Perry Memorial Award is given to a freshman in good academic standing, whose participation and attitude in freshman athletics and other activities are outstanding.

Rachel Ellen Tannenbaum ’15.

The Psi Upsilon Prize was established by the Gamma Chapter of Psi Upsilon in 1941 on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Chapter. The prize is awarded to that member of the graduating class who is considered preeminent in scholarship, leadership, athletics and character.

Caroline Hallinan Stedman ’12.

The John Sumner Runnells Memorial, established in memory of John Sumner Runnells of the Class of 1865, is awarded to that member of the junior class who, in the opinion of the Trustees of the College, is preeminent in his/her zeal for knowledge and industry to attain it.

Divided between Risalat Khan ’13 and Antoineen Joniece White ’13.

The Obed Finch Slingerland Memorial Prize is awarded by the Trustees of the College to a member of the senior class, who has shown by his/her own determination and accomplishment the greatest appreciation of and desire for a college education.

Divided between Rachel Kaye Brickman ’12 and Michelle Johnstone ’12.

The Stonewall Prize, established by David L. Kirp ’65 and other alumni, is awarded annually to that student who produces a work of exceptional intellectual or artistic merit pertaining to the gay, lesbian or bisexual experience.

Lilia Maud Kilburn ’12.

The Woods-Travis Prize, an annual gift in memory of Josiah B. Woods of Enfield and Charles B. Travis of the Class of 1864, is awarded for outstanding excellence in culture and faithfulness to duty as a scholar.

Benjamin Thomas Miller ’12.

The Thomas H. Wyman 1951 Medal, established in 2003 by his classmates, is awarded to that member of the senior class who best represents the highest standards in scholarship, athletics, and/or extracurricular activities, community service, integrity, character and humanism.

Sarah Elizabeth Schear ’12.

Enrollment

CLASSIFICATION BY RESIDENCE

(Fall 2011)

UNITED STATES

New York 293

Massachusetts 227

California 187

Connecticut 101

New Jersey 94

Illinois 85

Maryland 69

Florida 63

Pennsylvania 51

Texas 42

Virginia 38

Minnesota 30

Georgia 28

Michigan 24

Ohio 24

Colorado 18

New Hampshire 18

Washington 18

Oregon 14

District of Columbia 12

North Carolina 12

Iowa 12

Vermont 11

Rhode Island 10

Indiana 9

Maine 9

Missouri 9

Wisconsin 8

Arizona 7

Hawaii 7

Kentucky 7

Tennessee 5

Oklahoma 4

Alaska 3

Delaware 3

New Mexico 3

Puerto Rico 3

South Carolina 3

Idaho 2

Kansas 2

Louisiana 2

Nevada 2

West Virginia 2

Alabama 1

Mississippi 1

Montana 1

Nebraska 1

Utah 1

U.S. Virgin Islands 1

Non-resident US Citizens 38

Total1615

NON-USA

China 23

Republic of Korea 19

Canada 10

Kenya 9

India 8

Singapore 8

Zimbabwe 8

Nigeria 7

Ghana 5

Brazil 4

Colombia 4

Peru 4

South Africa 4

Ethiopia 3

Jamaica 3

Japan 3

Mexico 3

Nepal 3

Turkey 3

United Kingdom 3

Venezuela 3

Bangladesh 2

Indonesia 2

New Zealand 2

Pakistan 2

Poland 2

Romania 2

Trinidad and Tobago 2

Vietnam 2

Afghanistan 1

Albania 1

Bolivia 1

Bulgaria 1

Congo, Democratic Republic of 1

Dominican Republic 1

El Salvador 1

Gaza Strip 1

Georgia, Republic of 1

Germany 1

Honduras 1

Kuwait 1

Myanmar 1

Nicaragua 1

Norway 1

Portugal 1

Rwanda 1

Serbia 1

Tanzania, United Republic of 1

Uganda 1

Uruguay 1

West Bank 1

Zambia 1

Total176

SUMMARY OF ENROLLMENT FALL 2011*

Seniors, Class of 2012 453

Juniors, Class of 2013 371

Sophomores, Class of 2014 497

First-Year Students, Class of 2015 470

Total1791

*Not included are the 110 students who were on leaves of absence away from Amherst as of the first semester, 2011-2012.

AMHERST COLLEGE is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc., a non-governmental, nationally recognized organization.

Accreditation of an institution by the New England Association indicates that it meets or exceeds criteria for the assessment of institutional quality periodically applied through a peer group review process. An accredited school or college is one which has available the necessary resources to achieve its stated purposes through appropriate educational programs, is substantially doing so, and gives reasonable evidence that it will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Institutional integrity is also addressed through accreditation.

Accreditation by the New England Association is not partial but applies to the institution as a whole. As such, it is not a guarantee of the quality of every course or program offered, or the competence of individual graduates. Rather, it provides reasonable assurance about the quality of opportunities available to students who attend the institution.

Inquiries regarding the status of an institution’s accreditation by the New England Association should be directed to the administrative staff of the school or college. Individuals may also contact the Association by writing: New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc., 209 Burlington Road, Bedford, MA 01730 (781) 271-0022.

Student Absence Due to Religious Beliefs: The Legislature has enacted and the Governor has signed into law Chapter 375, Acts of 1985. It adds to Chapter 151C of the General Laws the following new section:

Any student in an educational or vocational training institution, other than a religious or denominational educational or vocational training institution, who is unable, because of religious beliefs, to attend classes or to participate in any examination, study, or work requirement on a particular day shall be excused from any such examination or study or work requirement, and shall be provided with an opportunity to make up the examination, study, or work requirement missed because of such absence on any particular day; provided, however, that such makeup examination or work shall not create an unreasonable burden upon such school. No fees of any kind shall be charged by the institution for making available to the said student such opportunity. No adverse or prejudicial effects shall result to students because of availing themselves of the provisions of this section.