Course Listings
Arabic
Art
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Biology
Chemistry
Chinese
Classical Languages
Computer Science
English
French
German
Greek
History & Soc. Sci.
Japanese
Latin
Mathematics
Music
History & Soc. Sci.
Music
Philosophy and Religious Studies
Physics
Psychology
Russian
Interdisciplinary Science
Spanish
Theatre & Dance
ARAB-100/1, First-Level Arabic
Five class periods. Beginning with the textbook, Alif-Baa, and other resources, students will first acquire knowledge of the writing system of Arabic. Students will then work more systematically on Modern Standard Arabic using all four skills (speaking, listening, reading,writing) with the first book of the al-Kitab series. Language learning will be augmented by attention to various cultural topics throughout the term. Open only to Uppers and Seniors who have demonstrated success as language learners. Requires permission of division head.
ARAB-110/5, First-Level Arabic
A two-term commitment. Five class periods. This course is open only to those who successfully complete ARAB-100 in the fall term, and for whom it is appropriate to continue at a non-accelerated pace. This course will continue to have as its focal text the first book of the al-Kitab series, with additional attention to various cultural topics throughout the year.
ARAB-120/5, Accelerated First-Level Arabic
A two-term commitment. Five class periods. This course is open only to those who successfully complete ARAB-100 in the fall term, but for whom it is appropriate to continue at an accelerated pace. The goal of the course is to cover approximately one year of college-level Modern Standard Arabic using the first book of the al-Kitab series. Language learning will be augmented by attention to various cultural topics throughout the year. This course may required more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week.
ARAB-130, A Short Course in Beginning Arabic
Five class periods. This one-term course is intended as a means for students to acquire some familiarity with the Arabic language. Students will be presented with authentic written and spoken language, and will acquire basic functional skills, including the ability to read and write the alphabet. Using the textbook, Alif-Baa, and other resources, students will acquire some useful knowledge of the language, but an important purpose of the course is to help studnets decide if they wish to pursue Arabic more seriously in the future. Open only to Uppers and Seniors.
ARAB-131, The Cultures of Arabic-Speaking Peoples
Five class periods. Although there are no prerequisites, this couse is designed to dovetail with HIST-SS533/1 (The Middle East Heartland) and ARAB-130. The course focuses on variuos facets of the cultures of diverse Arabic-speaking peoples. Through films, art, music, and readings in literature, religion, and history, students will consider a wide range of significant cultural issues. Open only to Uppers and Seniors.
ART-225A, Visual Studies 2D Studio
For Juniors and Lowers. In this studio students use two-dimensional media (e.g.drawing, collage, painting, mixed media, artists? books) and photography to expand their perceptual, conceptual, and technical skills, and develop the visual language needed to communicate their experiences and ideas.
ART-225B, Visual Studies 3D Studio
For Juniors and Lowers. In this studio students use three-dimensional media (e.g.wire, clay, wax, paper, plaster) and photography to expand their perceptual, conceptual, and technical skills. By expanding their visual literacy students are able to observe, critically and analytically, their surroundings and visual culture.
ART-225C, Visual Studies Media Studio
For Juniors and Lowers. In this studio students make photographs and short videos to focus on two central areas of media: photography and time-based images (film/video). Through projects, presentations, and discussions students explore how these media have changed the ways people perceive the world, and express their ideas and feelings.
ART-250, Visual Studies I
For Uppers and Seniors. The ART-250 Visual Studies course explores ways in which visual experience of the world is translated into two-dimensional images and presentations. Students sharpen perceptual skills and learn the functions of line, shape, value, texture, color, and illusionistic space in communicating through drawing, collage, photography, and mixed media. Examples of print media, photography, advertising, and art provide a context for discussion.
ART-300, Visual Culture: Discovering the Addison Collection
A significant part of the course will be spent in the Addison Gallery working with the current exhibitions as they relate to the history and context of American art. Students will discover the Addison collection both on the walls and in storage. Meeting with the gallery staff and visiting artists, students will experience firsthand what makes a museum function. Throughout the term students will look at selections from the collection and prepare to curate an exhibition as a culminating project for the term. Readings, writing assignments, and research projects will help students engage, confront, and discuss a wide range of art forms and will raise questions such as the following: Is it art? How and why do artists create? What do images and artifacts tell us about ourselves and our culture? Issues surrounding the making and viewing of art will be explored. (Ms. Crivelli)
ART-301, Architecture I
This course will introduce the basic principles of architectural design through a sequence of related projects in mechanical drawing, site analysis, and research into precedent, culminating in the design of a space or structure. With hands-on sketches, drawings, and models, students will explore the issues of a well-thought-out structure and learn to see the environment in terms of human scale, materials, and the organization of space. Class time will include discussions and demonstrations, as well as studio time. There will be a required evening lab. (Ms. Boyajian)
ART-302, Ceramics I
Ceramics I is designed for students with little or no prior experience with clay. Students will learn a wide variety of forming techniques that allow them to explore solutions to conceptual problems. The instructional emphasis will be on using ceramics as an expressive medium, with hand-building techniques predominating. Projects might include tile mosaics, clay masks and portraits, boxes, vessels, and teapots. Class time will include demonstrations, critiques, and slide and video discussions, as well as studio time. Students can expect to tackle projects that engage many of the key design concepts covered in the diploma requirement courses in art. Assignments for this class will explore the historical and contemporary uses of ceramics as well as the fundamental aesthetics of three-dimensional form. Students will see their pieces through the entire ceramic process, from wet clay, to glaze, to fired finished work. This course has a required evening lab. (Mr. Zaeder)
ART-303, Computer Media I
Computer technology offers an indispensible set of tools for an artist, profoundly influencing the ways in which ideas and images are generated, constructed, and presented. Various methods of digital manipulation allow an artist to integrate photographic and traditionally generated imagery (e.g., drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture). In the first part of the term, students will work on small projects as a way to experiment with the expressive and technical potential and possibilities of Adobe PhotoShop. During the second part of the term, students will design, define, and construct a final project of their choice (e.g., a thematic portfolio of individual or sequential images, a visual book, a CD-ROM, or a mixed media collage or sculpture). (Ms. Zemlin)
ART-304, Drawing I
This course will provide students with a sequential exploration of drawing methods and concepts. Students will learn skills and concepts relating to contour, gesture, and fully rendered drawings. They will work with an assortment of materials while understanding the depiction of three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional plane, use of light and dark contrast, use of proportion, and perspective sighting. Assignments are designed to develop students' skills in direct observation and to encourage creative, expressive thinking. The creative process will be explored through hands-on studio projects, formal assignments, critiques, and discussions of historical, contemporary, and multicultural art. Trips to the Addison Gallery and other places of interest will complement the course. (Ms. Crivelli, Ms. Trespas)
ART-305, Painting I
This class is designed to introduce students to the basic elements of painting with water-mixable oil paint or acrylic paint. Specific problems are assigned to facilitate the study of fundamental paint handling, color mixing, and blending. Issues of form and space relationships, composition, and development of ideas are addressed in balance with the student's need for self-expression. Class critiques, slide talks, and visits to the Addison Gallery complement and enhance the actual painting process. This class requires students to attend a two-hour biweekly evening lab. (Ms. Trespas)
ART-306, Photography I
This class will explore, through presentations, demonstrations, and group critique, basic black and white photographic image-making. Beginning with basic camera manipulations (a 35mm camera with manual capabilities is required) and film processing, students will be encouraged to explore the magic of light-sensitive materials. Instruction in printing black and white negatives with variable contrast filters will further direct each student in examining how a photographer carefully selects and represents his or her vision of the world. Meeting four hours a week, with five hours of preparation, the evening lab provides additional workshop time for toning prints, hand-coloring techniques, and opportunities for individual critiques with the instructor. A limited number of rental cameras are available through the school for students. This course has an evening laboratory. (Mr. Wicks, Ms. Harrigan)
ART-307, Printmaking I
Students develop personal imagery while learning several types of printmaking, including relief, drypoint, and collography. Images are developed by drawing, painting, collaging, or scratching into Plexiglas, or by cutting into linoleum or wood. These surfaces are inked and transferred to paper by means of a printing press or by hand. Often several impressions will be pulled from one printing plate and combined with other images or printed layers. Emphasis is on gaining technical, conceptual, and formal skills while developing a student's ideas through various types of printing and their combinations. Critiques, slide talks, and visits to the Addison Gallery contribute to student understanding of the concepts and processes behind printmaking. (Ms. Trespas)
ART-308, Sculpture I
Winter Term - Sculpture I: Clay, Plaster, and Metal. Sculpture has become an all-inclusive field, with contemporary sculptors working in a wide range of media. In this class we will work with a variety of materials, such as wood, clay, plaster, and metal. Students will have the opportunity to learn a basic set of technical and conceptual skills for working and thinking three-dimensionally. Projects will involve an investigation of the communicative potential of materials, structure, imagery, and context through a process of research, invention, discovery, and discussion. (Ms. Zemlin) Spring Term - 3-D Structures and Hand Papermaking. Paper generally functions as a two-dimensional matrix for book pages, text, and other printed matter, but it is also a versatile material for creating three-dimensional structures. This class will introduce students to paper casting, armature construction, and hand papermaking. Technical demonstrations, assignments, and exposure to a wide range of historical and contemporary artwork will help students develop imagery of their own design. For the casting project, students will create a clay relief, which will be used to generate a plaster mold, and ultimately a series of paper casts. In the armature project, students will work with wire, reed, and other materials to create a three-dimensional structure, which will then involve the application of a skin of handmade paper. Students will learn to make paper by hand, starting with kozo, the bark of the Japanese mulberry tree. (Ms. Zemlin)
ART-309, Video I
This course introduces principles and techniques of timebased media. Students learn to shoot and edit their own productions, and view and discuss both professional and student work. Examples are chosen to show how one conveys ideas by means of images and sound, including experimental work, as well as fiction and non-fiction film. For this course, students use mini-DV cameras and non-linear editors in the Polk-Lillard Electronic Imaging Center. (Ms. Veenema)
ART-310, Introduction to Digital Photography Photography: From Pinholes to Pixels
This course investigates the transition of traditional photographic practice to new digital technologies. Discussions of file management, color theory of reproduction, color management, calibration, image admustment, workflow, black and white printing, and compositing techniques using Adobe Photoshop will enable students in the production of a traditional print portfolio, album-style book, and dynamic digital slide presentation. Students should plan on bringing a digital camera, DLR, or point-and-shoot to class. Note: Students should have some traditional film and darkroom experience prior to enrolling in this course.(Ms. Harrigan)
ART-314, Woven Structures and Fabric
The class will explore the technical and conceptual potential of fabrics and woven structures in terms of cultural significance, pattern and surface, clothing as metaphor, and the body as an armature for supporting a flexible structure. Students will learn basic fiber techniques, such as backstrap cardweaving, embroidery, coiled basket weaving, and tapestry, while developing ideas and imagery based on personal interests, contemporary fine art, crafts, and the textile collections at the Peabody Museum. There will be an opportunity toward the end of the term to produce wearable art or to further explore a material or technique learned during the term. (Ms. Zemlin)
ART-400/1, History of Art
This three-term study of the history of Western and non-Western art serves two primary goals: students explore works of art as primary source documents to unveil the values and ideas of the culture in which they were created, and students foster the literacy to read works of art well long after they depart the course. While the content and methodology differs each term, these dual goals remain paramount throughout the year. Students use the Addison Gallery, the Peabody Museum, and local collections and exhibitions for the study of original works of art. Although students may take the course any term, only those who complete all three terms are prepared for the AP examination in Art History Prerequisite: Open to Uppers and Seniors; completion of Art 225 or 250 is recommended but is not required. FALL TERM: This term focuses on the architecture, painting, and sculpture of both non-Western(African, Asian, Islamic) and Western cultures from pre-history through the Middle Ages. In addition to uncovering the concerns of diverse societies, students formulate standards for understanding and comparing the products of different cultures. WINTER TERM: This term focuses on the architecture, painting, and sculpture of Europe and the Americas from the early Renaissance through the eighteenth century. In studying the works of Giotto, Michelangelo, Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Wren, among many others, students pay particular attention to the effects of religion, technology, urbanism, gender, sexual orientation, social class, and national identity on visual culture. SPRING TERM: This term focuses on the architecture, painting, photography, and sculpture of Europe and the Americas during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and students explore some of the major movements in art: Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Post Modernism, among others. While students consider the political and social context in which works of art were created as well as varied aesthetic theories, the primary approach is Formal: examining the way the work was made and its visual aspects. (Mr. Fox)
ART-400/2, History of Art
This three-term study of the history of Western and non-Western art serves two primary goals: students explore works of art as primary source documents to unveil the values and ideas of the culture in which they were created, and students foster the literacy to read works of art well long after they depart the course. While the content and methodology differs each term, these dual goals remain paramount throughout the year. Students use the Addison Gallery, the Peabody Museum, and local collections and exhibitions for the study of original works of art. Although students may take the course any term, only those who complete all three terms are prepared for the AP examination in Art History Prerequisite: Open to Uppers and Seniors; completion of Art 225 or 250 is recommended but is not required. WINTER TERM: This term focuses on the architecture, painting, and sculpture of Europe and the Americas from the early Renaissance through the eighteenth century. In studying the works of Giotto, Michelangelo, Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Wren, among many others, students pay particular attention to the effects of religion, technology, urbanism, gender, sexual orientation, social class, and national identity on visual culture. (Mr. Fox)
ART-400/3, History of Art History of Art
This three-term study of the history of Western and non-Western art serves two primary goals: students explore works of art as primary source documents to unveil the values and ideas of the culture in which they were created, and students foster the literacy to read works of art well long after they depart the course. While the content and methodology differs each term, these dual goals remain paramount throughout the year. Students use the Addison Gallery, the Peabody Museum, and local collections and exhibitions for the study of original works of art. Although students may take the course any term, only those who complete all three terms are prepared for the AP examination in Art History Prerequisite: Open to Uppers and Seniors; completion of Art 225 or 250 is recommended but is not required. SPRING TERM: This term focuses on the architecture, painting, photography, and sculpture of Europe and the Americas during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and students explore some of the major movements in art: Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Post Modernism, among others. While students consider the political and social context in which works of art were created as well as varied aesthetic theories, the primary approach is Formal: examining the way the work was made and its visual aspects. (Mr. Fox)
ART-401/2, Architecture II
ART-401 is designed as a continuation of ART-301 for students who wish to develop and expand their ideas further and pursue individualized projects. In consultation with the instructor, students will develop a term project that includes research and analysis, as well as a developed design. In this course there also will be the possibility to develop a multidisciplinary project in coordination with work in another class. A student wishing to take architecture for a full year should begin with ART-301 in the fall and continue in ART-401 for the winter and spring terms. (Ms. Boyajian) Prerequisite: ART-301 or permission of department chair.
ART-401/3, Architecture II
ART-401 is designed as a continuation of ART-301 for students who wish to develop and expand their ideas further and pursue individualized projects. In consultation with the instructor, students will develop a term project that includes research and analysis, as well as a developed design. In this course there also will be the possibility to develop a multidisciplinary project in coordination with work in another class. A student wishing to take architecture for a full year should begin with ART-301 in the fall and continue in ART-401 for the winter and spring terms. (Ms. Boyajian) Prerequisite: ART-301 or permission of department chair.
ART-402/3, Ceramics II
This course is designed for students who have taken ART-302 and wish to continue their study of ceramics. Since ART-402 is an advanced course, students will be asked to expand on their existing knowledge of ceramics, to strengthen their technical skills, and to seek sophisticated conceptual and personal solutions to given assignments. Class projects will range in topic but will stress the concept of developing ideas in series: a series of bottle shapes, a series of vase shapes, etc. Students can expect to do some outside reading, to attend slide and video presentations, and to visit the Addison Gallery and Peabody Museum. Students will also participate in all aspects of the making and finishing of their work. This course has a required evening lab. (Mr. Zaeder) Prerequisite: ART-302 or permission of department chair.
ART-405/3, Painting II
In advanced painting, students build on already-acquired technical experience from Painting I while developing their own image ideas. Through a variety of technical processes and conceptual approaches, students explore different ways of working with water-mixable oils or acrylics. Painting in series, mixing media, innovating paint application, and utilizing collage and assemblage structure further extend the possibilities for thinking about what a painting can be. Emphasis is placed on cultivating solid technical skills as well as inventive and challenging approaches to subjects that encourage individual artistic and personal growth. Critiques, Addison Gallery visits, and exploration of artists' work and art historical issues relevant to the student's paintings are important components of this course. Painting II has a required two-hour biweekly evening lab. (Ms. Trespas) Prerequisite: ART-305 or permission of department chair.
ART-406/2, Photography II
Winter Term -- This course is designed for students who wish to continue to explore the medium of photography beyond the basic level. Photography II investigates more sophisticated photographic exposure options and laboratory techniques, including some work in digital photography,color theory, and management. Students will be encouraged to develop an expansive portfolio or photographic presentation in the style of documentary tradition and/or the personal narrative. Printed thematic portfolios in digital and/or film formats will be encouraged with regular in-process critiques and individual conferences with the instructor. Students may elect to construct a traditional handmade album-style book of sequential images as an option to a portfolio of images. Film cameras are available for rental in the art department. Students will need to have access to a digital camera. Class meets four hours per week with five hours of preparation. (Ms. Harrigan) Prerequisite: ART-306 or permission of department chair.
ART-406/3, Photography II
Spring term - What do you see? While this advanced photography course begins with a brief review of basic craft control and offers instruction in more sophisticated camera and darkroom techniques, the primary emphasis in this course is on the nature of photographic seeing and the creation of images from a personal point of view. Some assignments are given, but much of each student's portfolio will be based on self-motivated imagery. Students may choose to create an open portfolio that includes a wide variety of photographic styles, create a cohesive, thematic body of work, or develop a special project which may have as its final form a book or multimedia presentation. Slide presentations and discussions, photographic book reviews, and visits to the Addison Gallery are offered to explore more fully the scope and power of this vivid visual language. Group critiques are designed to enhance perceptual skills, and individual conferences with the teacher give feedback and direction on work in progress. Classes meet four periods a week, with five hours of preparation. Evening labs are offered for informal instruction. (Mr. Wicks) Prerequisite: ART-306 or permission of department chair.
ART-408/2, Sculpture II
This class is an opportunity for students who have taken ART-308 to continue their investigation of sculpture. Another set of technical skills will be taught, along with readings, slide talks, and visits to the Addison Gallery. In developing projects, students will be asked to focus on a particular concept, approach, or set of materials throughout the term. Students are expected to attend an informal, open lab one evening per week. (Ms. Zemlin) Prerequisite: ART-308 or permission of department chair.
ART-408/3, Sculpture II
This class is an opportunity for students who have taken ART-308 to continue their investigation of sculpture. Another set of technical skills will be taught, along with readings, slide talks, and visits to the Addison Gallery. In developing projects, students will be asked to focus on a particular concept, approach, or set of materials throughout the term. Students are expected to attend an informal, open labe one evening per week. (Ms. Zemlin) Prerequisite: ART-308 or permission of department chair.
ART-409/2, Video II: Filmmaking
This course gives students with some background in video or computer media an opportunity to deepen their knowledge. Students will be asked to develop, shoot, and complete projects of their own choosing. Class times will include viewing and discussing the work of others to inform one's own work. Students who enroll in this course should have some previous camera and editing experience. (For this course students use the mini-DV cameras and non- linear editors of the Polk-Lillard Electronic Imaging Center.) The course will include classes dedicated to review of editing software. Advanced students who wish to continue may enroll in ART-409 for more than one term. Ms. Veenema) Prerequisite: ART-309 or permission of department chair.
ART-409/3, Video II: Filmmaking
This course gives students with some background in video or computer media an opportunity to deepen their knowledge. Students will be asked to develop, shoot, and complete projects of their own choosing. Class times will include viewing and discussing the work of others to inform one's own work. Students who enroll in this course should have some previous camera and editing experience. (For this course students use the mini-DV cameras and non- linear editors of the Polk-Lillard Electronic Imaging Center.) The course will include classes dedicated to review of editing software. Advanced students who wish to continue may enroll in ART-409 for more than one term. Ms. Veenema) Prerequisite: ART-309 or permission of department chair.
ART-420, The Quest for Identity: Explorations in Film and Mixed Media
As a culture we have always been fascinated by identity, by quests to forge one, or by the machinations to invent one. American artists Edward Hopper, Robert Frank, and Beverly Buchanan, for example, reflect observations of self or describe the identity of others relative to the world around them. For most of us, the search for identity is an unending process in a constantly changing, more global America. This search will be brought into focus through the viewing of films, discussions, and the creation of mixed-media projects based on students' personal ideas about identity. (Ms. Crivelli) Prerequisite: Foundation Course (ART-200, 225, or 250) or permission of department chair.
ART-465, Art, Artifacts and Culture
This course involving the art department, the Addison Gallery, and the Peabody Museum will focus on the study of art and artifacts as they reflect diverse cultures, their similarities and differences, in the past and present. Using the collections and resources of the two museums, the class will examine questions such as the following: What do images and artifacts tell us about ourselves and our cultures? How do art forms define other cultures and differ from ours? What drives people to create? Where do our ideas of beauty come from? Who are we and what makes us unique? The class will include readings, discussion, research, and writing, and frequent visits to each museum. (Ms. Crivelli) Prerequisite: Completion of ART-200,225, or 250 is recommended but not required.
ART-500/0, Advanced Studio Art
ART-500, a yearlong commitment, provides Uppers and Seniors with the opportunity to broaden their art experience at an advanced level and also study in depth areas of their choosing. Students can use this course to develop and enhance their art portfolios, document work for college admission portfolios, or prepare Advanced Placement (AP) portfolios. In the fall term, students study broadly at an advanced level using a range of media and techniques. In the winter term students audit a 300/400-level course to focus on a specific medium, while also meeting weekly with the ART-500 class for critiques, readings, discussions, and Addison Gallery events. In the spring term, students work on supervised independent projects that are either discipline-specific or cross-disciplinary in nature. As a culmination of the course sudents organize, curate, and install an exhibition of their work in the Gelb Gallery. Guest speakers, field trips, and visits to the Addison Gallery will augment the course. Attendance at a weekly evening lab is required. (Ms. Zemlin) Prerequisite: Diploma requirement in art and at least one elective art course beyond, or permission of department chair.
ATH-100, Basics
ATH-101, Basics
ATH-102, Aerobics
ATH-103, S.A.S.E
ATH-104, Baseball
ATH-105, Flexible Fitness Option
ATH-106, Basics
ATH-107, Pe/6th-Excused
ATH-108, Cluster
ATH-109, Crew
ATH-110, Medical Excuse
ATH-111, Training
ATH-112, Medical Excuse
ATH-113, P.T. With Trainers
ATH-114, Off Campus
ATH-115, P.T. With Trainers
ATH-116, Left School
ATH-117, Unassigned
ATH-120, Intramural Soccer
ATH-121, Cluster
ATH-122, Lacrosse
ATH-123, Cycling-Team
ATH-124, Dance
ATH-125, Golf
ATH-126, Search & Rescue
ATH-127, Softball
ATH-128, Fencing-Instruction
ATH-129, Squash Instruction
ATH-130, Left School
ATH-131, Swim Instruction
ATH-132, T'ai Chi Ch'uan
ATH-133, Tennis
ATH-134, Track
ATH-135, Ultimate Frisbee
ATH-136, Volleyball
ATH-137, Yoga
ATH-138, Left School
ATH-139, Medical Excuse
ATH-140, Pt With Trainers
ATH-141, Unassigned
ATH-142, Off Campus
ATH-145, Double Dutch
ATH-150, Off Campus
ATH-220, Crew-Fall-Boys
ATH-240, Crew-Fall-Girls
ATH-260, Cross Country Boys
ATH-280, Cross Country Girls
ATH-300, Dance
ATH-301, Dance
ATH-303, Basketball Junior
ATH-320, Field Hockey
ATH-340, Football-V
ATH-400, Basketball Boys
ATH-402, Basketball Girls
ATH-404, Hockey Boys
ATH-406, Hockey Girls
ATH-407, Intramural Hockey
ATH-408, Nordic Skiing
ATH-410, Squash Boys
ATH-412, Squash Girls
ATH-414, Swimming Boys
ATH-416, Swimming Girls
ATH-420, Track Boys
ATH-422, Track Girls
ATH-424, Wrestling
ATH-500, Search & Rescue
ATH-501, Search & Rescue
ATH-520, Slam
ATH-521, Slam
ATH-522, Sr. Squash
ATH-523, Rec. Cross Ctry. Skiing
ATH-524, Yoga
ATH-530, Skating - Instruction
ATH-540, Soccer-B
ATH-560, Soccer-G
ATH-580, Squash-Fall
ATH-600, Swimming-Fall
ATH-610, Instructional Diving
ATH-620, Tennis-Fall
ATH-624, Fitness Center
ATH-630, Tennis-Fall-Recreational
ATH-640, Volleyball
ATH-650, Tennis-Hodgson-A
ATH-660, Water Polo-G
ATH-680, Water Polo-B
ATH-700, Wrestling-Fall
ATH-720, Yoga
ATH-730, Touch Football-Fall
ATH-750, Tennis-Watt-A
ATH-770, Tennis-Wilken
ATH-800, Basketball Training
ATH-910, Students Who Have Not Taken/Passed Swim Test.
ATH-990, S.L.I.D.E.
ATH-999, Unassigned
BIOL-100/0, Introduction to Biology
BIOL-100 is a five-hour course that includes significant time in the laboratory. This course is for Juniors. BIOL-100 is theme-based and focused on major biological topics. Studying a core text will be supplemented with other readings, writing assignments, and data analysis and interpretation. Students will learn a variety of study skills and will have an introduction to library research tools. Laboratory experiments and fieldwork are designed to acquaint students with fundamental biological principles and to build skills in the methods and techniques used to elucidate those principles.
BIOL-410, Global Ecological Issues
BIOL-410 is a five-hour course with time each week spent either in the laboratory or in the field. Open to Uppers and Seniors who have completed a yearlong science course. Not open to students who have taken Environmental Science 500 or a 500-level biology course. The United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment analyzed the consequences of ecosystem change for conservation and human well-being, and states that humans have changed global ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than at any comparable period of time in human history. BIOL-410 will explore the challenge that our society has of reversing the degradation of ecosystems while meeting demands for their services. Students in this course will undertake laboratory studies involving the quality of air, fresh water, soils, energy consumption and productivity, wastewater treatment, and biodiversity. The major goal of the course is to stimulate and reinforce student environmental interest and responsibility.
BIOL-420, Animal Behavior
BIOL-420 is a five-hour course including time each week either in the laboratory or in the field. Open to Uppers and Seniors who have had one year of laboratory science, the course is designed to familiarize the student with the basic principles of animal behavior. The topics that receive the greatest emphasis are territoriality, aggression, mating strategies, courtship, parental behavior, migration, dominance, and the evolution of behavior patterns. Throughout the course, an effort is made to relate the behavior of animals to the behavior of humans. A project or a research paper will be required.
BIOL-421, Ornithology
BIOL-421 is a five-hour course including time each week either in the laboratory or in the field. Open to Uppers and Seniors who have completed a yearlong science course. No other group of chordates has captured the human imagination like birds. In the United States alone, approximately 30 million homes have installed birdfeeders, and the sale of feeders, seed, binoculars, and bird guides has become a multibillion dollar business. The goal of this course is to provide an in-depth look into the world of birds by studying the behavior, anatomy, physiology, and natural history of these feathered vertebrates. The Andover area is rich in habitat diversity and corresponding bird species. A portion of the course will be dedicated to learning the identity (both visually and acoustically) of a segment of this local population. Labs will include numerous field trips and the study of the natural history of birds, using bird mounts, nesting boxes, feathers, and films.
BIOL-450, Microbiology
Four class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors who have had one year of laboratory science. From AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria to strep throat and the common cold, bacteria, parasites, and viruses affect our quality of life and are major obstacles to world development.This course will examine public health threats posed by selected microorganisms. We will study the biology and epidemiology of these microorganisms, learn how to keep ourselves healthy, and develop an awareness of personal and global public health issues.
BIOL-540/0, Topics in Advanced Biology
A yearlong commitment. BIOL-540 is a six-hour course. This college-level course treats the topics covered in an introductory biology course in greater depth and places greater emphasis on biochemistry and molecular biology. Laboratory work is an integral part of the course. Time is also set aside in the fall to learn about Andover ecology, in the winter to study the major diseases of the world, and in the spring to discuss important global issues. The syllabus for this course is appropriate preparation for the College Board Subject Test and although the course is not specific preparation for the AP exam in biology, students who do well in this course are prepared for that exam. This course is open to Uppers and Seniors. (Students who received a final grade of 5 or 6 in CHEM-300 or a grade of 4 or higher in CHEM-550 or 580 should take BIOL-560, 570, and 580 instead.) This course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Prerequisite: One yearlong course in chemistry. Lowers and students who received a final grade of 3 or below in chemistry should enroll in a physics course upper year and BIOL-540 seniors year.
BIOL-560, Cellular Biology
BIOL-560 is a six-hour course including time each week in the laboratory. Following a brief review of chemical principles, the course examines the major classes of biomolecules and how they are synthesized and degraded in the cell, with emphasis on reactions associated with energy conversion pathways such as respiration and photosynthesis. Enzyme function is considered both in terms of mechanisms of action and with regard to kinetics. The relationship between structure and function at the molecular level is emphasized in studies of molecular genetics and the control of genetic expression. Biotechnology is introduced through the laboratory. Not open to those who have had BIOL-540. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Prerequisite: Honors in a yearlong course in chemistry.
BIOL-570, Human Anatomy and Physiology
This six-hour course includes an in-depth consideration of some of the major systems of the human body. Emphasis is placed on the relationship between structure and function at the cellular, tissue, organ, and organ system levels. Not open to those who have had BIOL-540. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Prerequisite: BIOL-560 or permission of the instructor and the department chair.
BIOL-580, Evolution and Ecology
BIOL-580 is a six-hour course with time each week spent in the field or laboratory. Sustainability and change are thecentral themes through which we will consider evolution and ecology. Evolution is a major unifying theme in biology, and the mechanism of natural selection serves as a foundation for examining ecosystems and relationships between populations, including humans. Lab and field work are based on a study of the sanctuary forest. A short library research paper will be required. Not open to those who have had BIOL-540. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Prerequisite: BIOL-560 and/or 570 or permission of the instructor and the department chair.
BIOL-600, Molecular Biology: Laboratory Research
This is a course in laboratory research in molecular biology. Open to Uppers and Seniors. Permission of the instructor is required. Meets eight class periods (four double periods) a week. Students in this course will learn laboratory techniques for working with DNA and bacteria. Experiments will center on the molecular genetics of microorganisms, including the isolation, cutting, and splicing of DNA by recombinant DNA biotechnologies, and the polymerase chain reaction. After learning a core of methodologies that are used in professional labs, students will apply them to short, focused research projects in biotechnology. Uppers may use this course as a springboard for a science competition project, which would be accomplished at a professional lab during the following summer. Reading articles in scientific journals, as appropriate, is part of a student's research. Students will also be asked to keep a lab journal and to write and present a scientific paper. This course, if failed, may not be made up by examination. Prerequisite: one year of biology and one year of chemistry with grades of 4 or above.
BIOL-610, Molecular Biology: Independent Research
Students wishing to continue work from BIOL-600 may apply directly to the instructor for permission to enroll in BIOL-610. Enrollment is strictly limited and is at the discretion of the instructor and the chair of the Department of Biology. Laboratory schedules will be determined on a case-by-case basis; however, a student must be able to be in the lab for a minimum of eight hours per week at times when the instructor is available for supervision. This course is an advanced course that may require more than the standard nine hours of work per week. Requirements for successful completion of the term are similar to those for BIOL-600. This course, if failed, cannot be made up by examination.
BIOL-610/2, Molecular Biology: Independent Research
BIOL-610/3, Molecular Biology: Independent Research
CHEM-250/0, Introduction to Chemistry
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods per week. An introduction to the chemical view of the material world, including atomic theory, atomic structure, chemical reactions, the nature of solids, liquids, gases, and solutions, general equilibria, acid-base theories, electrochemistry, and aspects of nuclear chemistry. Emphasis is placed on developing problem-solving skills as well as on making connections between chemical principles and everyday life. A college-level text is used, but the pace of this course is adjusted to ensure that students have ample opportunity to ask questions. Laboratory work is an integral part of the course. The syllabus is appropriate preparation for the College Board Subject Test. High honors work adequately prepares a student for CHEM-580. Co-requisite: Registration in MATH-210 or above.
CHEM-300/0, College Chemistry
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods per week. This course is an introduction to the theoretical framework of modern chemistry, including atomic structure, chemical bonding, phase changes, solutions, chemical reactions, thermodynamics, kinetics, general equilibria, acid-base equilibria, electrochemistry, and aspects of inorganic and nuclear chemistry. Emphasis is placed on developing problem-solving skills and understanding the experimental basis of theories. A college-level text is used. Laboratory work is an integral part of the course. The syllabus of this course is appropriate preparation for the College Board Subject Test. Co-requisite: Registration in at least MATH-320 or above. Prerequisite: Grade of 4 or above in the previous mathematics course.
CHEM-460, Chemistry of the Environment
Four class periods per week. Open to Uppers and Seniors only. This course is concerned with the effect of chemistry on the earth and the implications of human action on the environment. Current issues - such as global warming, ozone depletion, air and water pollution, chemical waste, and alternative sources of energy - are discussed. Chemical theories and principles are introduced as needed. Prerequisite: One year of biology, chemistry, or physics.
CHEM-550/0, Advanced Placement Chemistry
A yearlong commitment. Six class periods per week, two of which are in the laboratory. This course is not open to students who have taken CHEM-300 or its equivalent and also not open to Juniors, with the exception of those Juniors enrolled in MATH-650. This is a rigorous course that treats the topics addressed in College Chemistry in greater depth and prepares students for the Advanced Placement examination in chemistry. Laboratory work is an integral part of the course. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours per week of homework. The syllabus of this course is appropriate preparation for the College Board Subject Test. A short research paper or advanced laboratory work may be undertaken in lieu of a final exam at the end of the spring term. Prerequisite: Grade of 5 or above in CHEM-250. Students who earn a 4 in Chemistry 250 may take CHEM-550 after taking PHYS-400 or PHYS-550. Students with no previous chemistry who are in MATH-360 or above may enroll in this course. Students with no previous chemistry who are in MATH-350 or below may enroll in this course only with permission from the department chair.
CHEM-580/0, Advanced Chemistry
A yearlong commitment. Six class periods per week. This is a rigorous second-year course that builds on the principles learned in the first year. It prepares students for the Advanced Placement examination and also includes topics beyond the AP syllabus. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours per week of homework. Laboratory work is an integral part of the course. Students will have an opportunity to review current literature on selected topics or select a lab research topic in preparation for a class seminar they will present in lieu of a final exam at the end of the spring term. Prerequiste: Grade of 6 in CHEM-250 or a 5 or above in CHEM-300. Students who earn a 4 in CHEM-300 may take CHEM-580 after taking PHYS-400 or PHYS-550.
CHEM-610, Organic Chemistry
Four class periods per week. This course introduces many of the basic reactions and concepts students will encounter in their future studies of chemistry, bioloyg, or medicine. Rather than covering a large number of reactions, as might happen in a second-year (full year) college organic chemistry course, this course emphasizes an understanding of general principles of reactivity and mechanism. The classroom work is supplemented by demonstrations through which students learn some of the fundamental tools of this highly empirical science. In addition, each student gains detailed knowledge of an area of active research related to organic chemistry. After selecting a topic of interest, each student prepares a paper and a class seminar, using current scientific literature. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours per week of homework. Prerequisite: Completion of either CHEM-550 or 580.
CHIN-100/0, First-Level Chinese
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. This course provides an introduction to spoken and written Chinese, with an emphasis on pronunciation, the pinyin Romanization system, and the building blocks (radicals) of Chinese characters.
CHIN-120/5, Accelerated Beginning Chinese Accelerated First-Level Chinese
Five class periods. Distinguished students will be recommended by the department for this accelerated course at the conclusion of the first trimester of CHIN-100. Upon successful completion of this course, students move on to CHIN-220/0.
CHIN-200/0, Second-Level Chinese
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. This course continues to emphasize proficiency in everyday situations. Students enlarge their inventory of words and phrases while also developing a deeper understanding of the essential features of Chinese grammar. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CHIN-100.
CHIN-220/0, Accelerate Second-Level Chinese
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. Upon successful completion of this course, students move directly to CHIN-400 by permission of the department. Prerequisite: Successful completion of Chinese 120 or permission of the department.
CHIN-300/0, Third-Level Chinese
Four class periods. This course provides more emphasis on reading and writing. Students are introduced to longer texts, covering such topics as family life, social issues, and aspects of Chinese culture. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CHIN-200.
CHIN-400/0, Fourth-Level Chinese
Four class periods. Increased use of authentic materials is employed as more sophisticated aspects of language and culture are explored. In particular, students are exposed to the more formal written style of Chinese, which is prevalent in newspapers, on street signs, etc. Pre-requisite: Successful completion of CHIN-300 or CHIN-220.
CHIN-520/0, Advanced Placement Chinese
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. This intensive course is designed in accordance with the College Board guidelines to prepare students for the AP exam in Chinese. Students refine their communicative abilities in the interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational modes while deepening their understanding of Chinese history and contemporary society. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CHIN-400 or permission of the department.
CHIN-620/1, Advanced Topics in Chinese
Four class periods. This advanced course explores a wide range of modern issues in China within a historical, political, and cultural framework. In addition to assigned readings and class discussions, students also are expected to conduct independent research (using a variety of media), present oral reports, and submit papers on a regular basis. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CHIN-400 or CHIN-420, or permission of the department.
CHIN-620/2, Advanced Topics in Chinese
Four class periods. This advanced course explores a wide range of modern issues in China within a historical, political, and cultural framework. In addition to assigned readings and class discussions, students also are expected to conduct independent research (using a variety of media), present oral reports, and submit papers on a regular basis. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CHIN-400 or CHIN-420, or permission of the department.
CHIN-620/3, Advanced Topics in Chinese
Four class periods. This advanced course explores a wide range of modern issues in China within a historical, political, and cultural framework. In addition to assigned readings and class discussions, students also are expected to conduct independent research (using a variety of media), present oral reports, and submit papers on a regular basis. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CHIN-400 or CHIN-420, or permission of the department.
CHIN-641/1, Topics in 20th-Century China for Advanced Heritage Learners
Four class periods. This course is intended for students with near-native fluency in Chinese and extensive familiarity with Chinese culture. A variety of recent cultural and historical topics are studied, and the course structure and content are designed to emulate the challenge of an actual high school-level course taught in China. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CHIN-640 or CHIN-642, or permission of the department.
CHIN-641/2, Topics in 20th-Century China for Advanced Heritage Learners
Four class periods. This course is intended for students with near-native fluency in Chinese and extensive familiarity with Chinese culture. A variety of recent cultural and historical topics are studied, and the course structure and content are designed to emulate the challenge of an actual high school-level course taught in China. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CHIN-640 or CHIN-642, or permission of the department.
CHIN-641/3, Topics in 20th-Century China for Advanced Heritage Learners
Four class periods. This course is intended for students with near-native fluency in Chinese and extensive familiarity with Chinese culture. A variety of recent cultural and historical topics are studied, and the course structure and content are designed to emulate the challenge of an actual high school-level course taught in China. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CHIN-640 or CHIN-642, or permission of the department.
CLAS-310, Etymology
Four class periods. Open to all classes. English has an immense vocabulary (far larger than that of any other language), over half of which is based on Latin and Greek roots. The words of this Greco-Roman inheritance are best understood not simply as stones in the vast wall of English, but rather as living organisms with a head, body, and feet (prefix, main root, and suffix), creatures with grandparents, siblings, cousins, foreign relatives, life histories, and personalities of their own; some work for doctors and lawyers, others for columnists, crusaders, and captains of commerce. Systematic study of a few hundred roots opens the door to understanding the meanings and connotations of tens of thousands of words in English, the language now rapidly emerging as the most adaptable for international and intercultural communication.
CLAS-320, Greek Literature
Four class periods. Open to all classes. A systematic study of the masterpieces of early European civilization as seen in their proper literary, intellectual, and historical contexts. In what is essentially a history of ideas, the major genres of epic, tragedy, comedy, satire, history, erotic poetry, and philosophy are stressed as aspects of the wider evolution of European thought. The major problems that still confront human life are explored through the writings of Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, and others.
COMP-310, Computer Applications and Web Page Design
Five class periods. This one-term course exposes students to using a personal computer with business productivity applications such as Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, as well as to the design of simple Web pages. The first half of the course covers the design of spreadsheets (data entry, formulas and functions, graphing, databases) and the creation of presentations (templates, inclusion of graphics and data, animation). After an overview of the hardware and software architecture of a PC and the Web, which starts the second half of the class, students learn the HTML language, which allows them to design their own Web pages. This course does not qualify a student for COMP-500. Prerequisite: None.
COMP-350, Introduction to Programming and Computer Science
Five class periods. This one-term course introduces students to the fundamentals of computer programming using Java, Python, or Ruby. The course covers syntax and style of the chosen programming language, as well as data types, conditional statements, iterations (loops), and recursion. Introduction to object-oriented programming is an integral part of this course. Students learn how to write and test short programs, design simple algorithms, and use software development tools. A grade of 4 or higher in this course qualifies a student for COMP-500 (AP Computer Science I). Prerequisite: MATH-210 or higher, or permission of the department.
COMP-500, Advanced Placement Computer Science I
Five class periods. The first term of a yearlong course in algorithms, object-oriented programming, and data structures, guided by the course description of the College Board's AB-level Advanced Placement exam in Computer Science. The course covers Java language syntax and style, classes and interfaces, lists and iterators. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours per week of homework. Prerequisite: A grade of at least 4 in COMP-350, or permission of the department.
COMP-500/5, AP Computer Science II
A two-term commitment. Five class periods. This course is the continuation of Comp-500 in Java. The emphasis is on data structures and the design of larger programs. This course completes the preparation for the AB-level Advanced Placement exam in Computer Science. The students will study abstract data types (stacks, queues, binary trees, priority queues, etc.), recursion, and algorithms (searching, sorting, hashing, etc.). The course may require more than the standard four or five hours per week of homework. Prerequisite: COMP-500.
COMP-630, Advanced Topics in Computer Science
Four class periods. This class offers students with experience and advanced knowledge of Computer Science the opportunity to explore specific topics beyond the College Board's AP curriculum. Topics will vary from year to year, and may include Graphical User Interface design, introduction to computer graphics, or introduction to database design. This course may require more than the standard four or five hours per week of homework. Prerequisite: a grade of at least 5 in COMP-500, or permission of the department.
ENGL-100/0, An Introduction
ENGL-100 provides an introduction to the study of language and literature at Andover. In this junior course, which cultivates the same skills and effects pursued throughout the English curriculum, students begin to understand the rich relationships among reading, thinking, and writing. ENGL-100 assents to Helen Vendler's notion that every good writer was a good reader first. Accordingly, ENGL-100 students work to develop their ability to read closely, actively, and imaginatively. They study not only what a text means but also how it produces meaning. They seek to make connections as they read - perhaps at first only connections between themselves and the text, but eventually connections within the text and between the texts as well. All the while, however, ENGL-100 students revel in the beauty, humor, and wisdom of the literature. Over the three trimesters, ENGL-100 students read literature of various genres and periods. Every class reads Homer's Odyssey and at least one play by William Shakespeare. For the rest of the syllabus, teachers turn to a great many authors. Among those whose work is most regularly selected are Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison, J.D. Salinger, John Steinbeck, and August Wilson. ENGL-100 students practice several types of writing, primarily in response to what they read. They write at times in narrative, expressive, and creative modes, but their efforts focus more and more on critical analysis. They learn to conceive of writing as a craft to be practiced and as a process to be followed. Through frequent assignments, both formal and informal, ENGL-100 students come to value writing as a means of making sense of what they read and think. Attending carefully to their writing at the levels of the sentence, paragraph, and full essay, they learn to appreciate the power of the written critical argument. Although their work is substantially assessed throughout the year, ENGL-100 students do not receive grades during the fall trimester. At the end of the term, their report cards will indicate Pass or Failure. Lively, purposeful class discussions reinforce the lessons of reading and writing and often leave students with especially fond memories of their ENGL-100 experience. The course prepares our youngest students well for the further challenges of their education at Andover.
ENGL-200/0, Writing to Read, Reading to Write
Fall term - During the fall term of ENGL-200, classes focus on the process of writing. Students write often, virtually every day. Students will be exposed to a variety of rhetorical modes, such as narration, description comparison/contrast, cause/effect, definition, example/analogy, classification, and argument. By the end of the term, students should be able to organize, develop, and write cogent essays in four or five of these modes. Extensive revision will be encouraged, typically with peer reading. Teachers may use poems and stories from R.S. Gwynn's Literature: A Pocket Anthology not as critical texts but as inspirational ones that will serve to generate a writing exercise. They may also choose to use a collection of essays by a particular writer and/or the online Andover Reader. Additionally, the fall term works consciously on vocabulary development (usually drawing material from the essays) and grammar, using a text such as The Everyday Writer, The English Competence Handbook, or The Grammar of Alistair Barnstable. Grammar and sentence structure study will deal with the usage problems observable in the class, especially addressing such topics as run-ons and fragments, agreement of subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent, accurate modification, correct pronoun case, and punctuation. Winter term - In the winter term, students continue to work on the sentence and the paragraph, but the texts are anthologies of poetry and short fiction, and the subject matter is literature. While the course introduces literary terms and strategies for understanding poetry and fiction, the literature serves mainly as an opportunity to work on writing skills, reinforcing the lessons of the fall term and introducing argument and persuasion as patterns of thought that can guide the writer logically through a discussion about a poem or short story. Spring term - In the spring, each teacher chooses one or two works, including a novel, with which the class will spend the term working. Students continue to write in the modes introduced in the fall term and focus on organizing the essay and on incorporating research into it. Attention is given to anti-plagiarism training in which the responsible use of sources, particularly the Internet, is addressed.
ENGL-300/4, The Story of Literature
All literature tells one story, the story of people's experiences, their dreams, their desires, their acts, their mistakes. ENGL-300 focuses on different genres of literature: tragedy and romance in the fall term and comedy and satire in the winter term. Inspired artists around the world and throughout time have created tragedies, comedies, satires, and romances, and in ENGL-300 students will explore these genres by reading short stories, poems, novels, and plays representing diverse historical periods, locations, and identities. In their writing, students will practice formal literary analysis in order to gain a greater appreciation for the artistic construction of a text and its cultural resonance.
ENGL-301/4, The Seasons of Literature for New Uppers
For new Uppers, ENGL-301 conforms in spirit and essence to ENGL-300, but with more intensive attention to expository writing.
ENGL-310, Shakespeare
No writer has influenced the literature of the English-speaking world so much as William Shakespeare. He was both of his age and for all time. ENGL-310 employs the perceptual and writing skills learned in the prior two terms and presents new, more complex problems and perspectives. Films and student performances of Shakespeare's plays complement the study of the plays as literary texts. A common text shared among all sections is Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
ENGL-400/1, American Studies for International Students
Primarily for, but not limited to, one-year students from abroad who are not yet ready for ENGL-520, this course provides intensive training in reading, literary fundamentals, and expository writing. The focus of this course is on American culture, values, and traditions as reflected in literature and other media. One or two terms of this course will provide students with the reading and writing skills required for success in other Senior electives. (Dr. Vidal)
ENGL-400/2, American Studies for International Students
Primarily for, but not limited to, one-year students from abroad who are not yet ready for ENGL-520, this course provides intensive training in reading, literary fundamentals, and expository writing. The focus of this course is on American culture, values, and traditions as reflected in literature and other media. One or two terms of this course will provide students with the reading and writing skills required for success in other Senior electives. (Dr. Vidal)
ENGL-500AA/1, Strangers in a Strange Land
This course for one-year students explores how strangers adapt to new places and new modes of being. Does one reinvent oneself, conquer the new, or seamlessly assimilate? Works to be considered might include Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Shakespeare's The Tempest, Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana, and poetry by Yosef Komunyakaa, Elizabeth Bishop, and Carolyn Forche. In both terms, the emphasis will be on close reading and textual analysis. (Ms. Curci)
ENGL-500AA/2, Strangers in a Strange Land
This course for one-year students explores how strangers adapt to new places and new modes of being. Does one reinvent oneself, conquer the new, or seamlessly assimilate? Works to be considered might include Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Shakespeare's The Tempest, Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana, and poetry by Yosef Komunyakaa, Elizabeth Bishop, and Carolyn Forche. In both terms, the emphasis will be on close reading and textual analysis. (Ms. Curci)
ENGL-501AA/2, Non-Fiction Writing
Contemporary nonfiction author Terry Tempest Williams once said, I write to discover. I write to uncover. In this course, we will consider the ways that creative nonfiction bridges the gaps between discovering and uncovering, between looking forward and looking back, between imagination and fact, and between invention and memory. Winter term -- Students will develop their talents in the art of essay writing by working in a number of rhetorical modes, including the personal essay, the analytical essay, the lyric essay, and the profile. Readings will include selected models from an anthology of contemporary works, such as The Eloquent Essay or Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: I & Eye. This workshop-centered course is open to all writers seeking to improve their craft and interested in the boundaries and possibilities that creative nonfiction, as a quickly growing genre, continues to explore. (Ms. McQuade)
ENGL-501AA/3, Non-Fiction Writing
Contemporary nonfiction author Terry Tempest Williams once said, I write to discover. I write to uncover. In this course, we will consider the ways that creative nonfiction bridges the gaps between discovering and uncovering, between looking forward and looking back, between imagination and fact, and between invention and memory. Spring term --In the spring term our focus will shift to the art of memoir writing. Students will read several memoirs and write short autobiographical exercises in preparation for developing an extended piece about their own experience. Spring texts may include Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; Karr, The Liars' Club; Nguyen, Stealing Buddha's Dinner; or Wolff, This Boy's Life. This workshop-centered course is open to all writers seeking to improve their craft and interested in the boundaries and possibilities that creative nonfiction, as a quickly growing genre, continues to explore. (Ms. McQuade)
ENGL-501AB, Writing Through Universe of Discourse
This is a course for students interested in experimenting with many different genres of writing. Throughout the term, students create a portfolio of writing that includes essays, poetry, short fiction, literary criticism, autobiography, and letters. The course is designed to serve all kinds of students, but particularly those who would like to gain confidence in their writing skills. Once a week, students are invited (not required) to join a Community Service writing workshop with Lawrence, Mass., elementary school students. Readings include texts from a variety of cultures. Authors include Malcolm X, Martin Espada, Julia Alvarez, William Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Piri Thomas, Raymond Carver, Franz Kafka, Leo Tolstoi, Stephen Biko, Louise Erdrich, Nikki Giovanni, Sandra Cisneros, Don DeLillo, William Blake, Amy Tan, Sherman Alexie, Rita Dove, James Baldwin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Anthony Morales, Bruce Smith, and Maya Angelou. (Mr. Bernieri)
ENGL-505AA, Creative Writing: Poetry
This course is for students committed to reading and writing poetry. Students will be asked to write about poetry in addition to composing their own poetry. Although students are not expected to submit portfolios or samples of their work to qualify for this class, they must be serious about writing poetry. Previous experience helps, but it is not necessary. (Mr. Lychack)
ENGL-505AB, Creative Writing: Fiction
This course is for students committed to reading and writing short fiction. Students will be asked to write about short fiction in addition to composing their own short fiction. Although students are not expected to submit portfolios or samples of their work to qualify for this class, they must be serious about writing fiction. Previous experience helps, but it is not necessary. (Mr. Lychack)
ENGL-506AA/3, Fresh Fiction: Advanced Writing Workshop in Contemporary Storytelling
This course is open to students who have completed a creative writing course successfully or who have an abiding enthusiasm for composing fiction. Inspired by the freshest voices in fiction and screen writing today, this workshop allows writers to explore the artistic and thematic frontiers of contemporary storytelling. Over the course of the term students will work to create their own collections of stories or a novella. Gutsy stories, original characters, and vigorous editing/rewriting are our aims. Companion readings from writers like Zadie Smith, Chang Rae Lee, Sandra Cisneros, Khaled Hosseini, Nathan Singer, Bobbie Ann Mason, the Coen Brothers, and Jim Jamusch will offer inspiration. (Mr. Peffer)
ENGL-507AA/1, Playwriting
Each student is expected to write at least one one-act play in addition to certain exercises in monologue, dialogue, and scene-setting. The class reads aloud from students' works in progress, while studying the formal elements in plays by important playwrights and reading selected literary criticism foccused on drama. Note that Play Writing is an English department offering and does not fulfill the Theatre and Dance requirement. (Mr. Heelan)
ENGL-510AA/1, Gothic Literature: Living in the Tomb
The course traces trends in Gothic forms, from its origins of the damp and dark castles of Europe to the aridity of the contemporary American landscape. Students will identify gothic conventions and themes such as the haunted house, family dynamics, apparitions, entrapment, secrecy, and the sublime. We will read novels, short stories, and poetry spanning roughly 200 years in order to explore questions about the supernatural, the psychology of horror and terror, the significance of fantasy and fear, the desire for moral closure, and the roles of gender, race, class, and sexuality. Probable selections include The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole; Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe; Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier; Dracula, by Bram Stoker; The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James; stories by Poe, Faulkner, Gaskell, Irving, Hawthorne, Gilman, Jackson, Cheever, DeLillo, Carver, and Oates; and poetry of Christina Rossetti, Thomas Gray, William Cowper, Louise Gluck, and Sylvia Plath. Possible films include Affliction, The Royal Tenenbaums, A Simple Plan, Psycho, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. (Mr. Tortorella)
ENGL-510AB/2, Politics, Subversion and the Heroic Tradition in Children's Literature
This course considers the role of the imagination in communicating and effecting cultural change. Students will be asked to apply a variety of critical theory for interpretation and discussion of the literature. Themes this course will explore include alternative realities, the nature of dreams, the function of the subconscious, and the use of allegory. Probable selections include The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll; Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie; The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame; The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling; The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum; The Pied Piper of Hamelin, by Robert Browning; The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett; A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis; and Grimm's Fairy Tales, Mother Goose, writings of Carlos Castaneda, and essays by Bettelheim and Zipes. Possible films include The Red Balloon and The Point. (Mr. Tortorella)
ENGL-511AA/3, Cinema Symbiosis
As the historian Daniel J. Boorstin points out, with the addition of sound in the late 1920s, film became what the composer Richard Wagner had sought: the Gesamtkunstwerk, the total work of art. Utilizing aspects of architecture, literature, music, painting, photography, and theater, film became the most popular form of art in the world and the dominant form of the 20th century. This intensive course introduces students to the study of film, helps them develop the skills necessary to read and analyze film, and provides them with a survey of some of the major movements and genres in film history. Students screen films by Charles Chaplin, Carl Dreyer, Sergei Eisenstein, John Ford, Jean-Luc Godard, Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir, Roberto Rossellini, and Martin Scorsese, among others. In addition, students read critical essays on each film and study several literary works-perhaps ones by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Bibhutibhushan, Bandopadhyay, Russell Banks, Anthony Burgess, Arthur C. Clarke, Dashiell Hammett, James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov, or Flannery O'Connor-that have been adapted to the screen. Students must be able to screen films two evenings each week and should expect to devote approximately 12 hours each week to the course, including class time. (Mr. Fox)
ENGL-511AB/2, Media Studies Looking Glass
What does it mean to be fully literate in the information age? Working from the premise that all messages are constructed, we will examine the forces (explicit and hidden) that determine those constructions, as well as the ways in which our daily and multiple interactions with various media determine our sense of self, identity, truth, and desire. Students will read a range of media studies theory and then put those theories into practice by examining the language, images, narratives, and truth we encounter in traditional or alternative news sources, advertising, television, politics, sports, and other cultural institutions. This is a writing-intensive course, and students will be expected to write several pages every week. The winter term will focus on the production and consumption of media, asking questions about the interests that own, produce, control, and sell the news, the blurry line between news and entertainment, the conventions of advertising, the rise of media conglomerates in the 1990s, and the emergence of convergence culture in the last decade. The spring term will focus on questions of narrative, character, and identity as they shape and are shaped by conventions and transgressions of gender; by the literary modes of tragedy, comedy, and romance; by fads and trends; by technology and history; by heroism and nostalgia. (Ms. Tousignant)
ENGL-511AB/3, Media Studies Looking Glass
What does it mean to be fully literate in the information age? Working from the premise that all messages are constructed, we will examine the forces (explicit and hidden) that determine those constructions, as well as the ways in which our daily and multiple interactions with various media determine our sense of self, identity, truth, and desire. Students will read a range of media studies theory and then put those theories into practice by examining the language, images, narratives, and truth we encounter in traditional or alternative news sources, advertising, television, politics, sports, and other cultural institutions. This is a writing-intensive course, and students will be expected to write several pages every week. The winter term will focus on the production and consumption of media, asking questions about the interests that own, produce, control, and sell the news, the blurry line between news and entertainment, the conventions of advertising, the rise of media conglomerates in the 1990s, and the emergence of convergence culture in the last decade. The spring term will focus on questions of narrative, character, and identity as they shape and are shaped by conventions and transgressions of gender; by the literary modes of tragedy, comedy, and romance; by fads and trends; by technology and history; by heroism and nostalgia. (Ms. Tousignant)
ENGL-512AA/1, Great Traditions in Literature: The Epic Poem
This course studies the development of the epic poem through Classical, Medieval, and Early Modern contexts. Texts: The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Metamorphoses, and Moby Dick (even years); Paradise Lost and The Inferno (odd years). (Mr. McGraw)
ENGL-512AA/2, Great Traditions in Literature: The Epic Poem
This course studies the development of the epic poem through Classical, Medieval, and Early Modern contexts. Texts: The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Metamorphoses, and Moby Dick (even years); Paradise Lost and The Inferno (odd years). (Mr. McGraw)
ENGL-512AA/3, Great Traditions in Literature: The Epic Poem
This course studies the development of the epic poem through Classical, Medieval, and Early Modern contexts. Texts: The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Metamorphoses, and Moby Dick (even years); Paradise Lost and The Inferno (odd years). (Mr. McGraw)
ENGL-513AA/1, The Short Novel: Risk & Romance
This course uses a mix of seminar classes, films, and regular, individual student-teacher conferences to examine experimental short novels from around the world. Students learn to draw conclusions about the artistic and social forces that gave rise to these novels. Each term draws comparisons among works by Vonnegut, Mann, Joyce, Walker, Puig, Rulfo, Enchi, Duras, Achebe, Hemingway, McCullers, Camus, Salinger, Garcia, and others. (Mr. Peffer)
ENGL-513AA/2, The Short Novel: Risk & Romance
This course uses a mix of seminar classes, films, and regular, individual student-teacher conferences to examine experimental short novels from around the world. Students learn to draw conclusions about the artistic and social forces that gave rise to these novels. Each term draws comparisons among works by Vonnegut, Mann, Joyce, Walker, Puig, Rulfo, Enchi, Duras, Achebe, Hemingway, McCullers, Camus, Salinger, Garcia, and others. (Mr. Peffer)
ENGL-514AA/1, Journalism
This course on print journalism recognizes the challenges all journalists face in their efforts to be fair and also accurate as they struggle to gather information and churn out lively copy under deadline pressure. The course is designed to teach essential journalistic judgment, basic skills for gathering and verifying news, and interviewing and writing techniques. Students will receive weekly assignments on deadline for news articles, feature stories, columns, and editorials, and all students will work as both reporters and editors as the course progresses. Weekly lectures will cover significant events in the history of journalism, First Amendment issues, and current events. Readings for the course are Journalism 101, by Nina Scott; the New York Times; the Boston Globe; and excepts from the News about the News, by Leondard Downie Jr. and Robert Kaiser; and The Elements of Journalism, by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstil. Films will include Absence of Malice, All the President's Men, The Year of Living Dangerously, and Welcome to Sarajevo. (Ms. Scott)
ENGL-516AA/3, Contemporary American Poetry
This course will introduce students to poets and movements that have shaped the direction and contours of American poetry since World War II. We start with a study of the Beat Movement, and then explore the so-called schools of poetry -Black Mountain, New York, Confessional, et al. The course finishes with an exposure to poetry that is happening right now, which includes bicultural and multicultural poets. Most class time will be spent deriving themes through discussions of poets, poems, poetic movements, criticism, and theory. Poets include Ginsberg, Corso, Kerouac, Dylan, Waldman, Bukowski, Creeley, Olson, Levertov, Ashbury, O'Hara, Lowell, Plath, Berryman, Bishop, Rich, Dove, Hass, Kinnell, Hogan, Nye, Springsteen, and Colvin. (Mr. Tortorella)
ENGL-517AA/1, Last Acts: Remember Me?
I got shot, Tupac Shakur declares at the opening of his posthumous film Resurrection, and the viewer asks, How did he know that was going to happen? This course begins with some basic questions: How will I be remembered? Can I influence that memory? This is a course that looks at literature and other cultural texts (film, photography, music) produced as a response to those questions, works that the instructor calls automortography: a genre that centers on acts of self-representation in the face of death and the mode of reading that such a genre produces. Automortography, then is not only how someone consciously or unconsciously anticipates and scripts one's death, but also how the audience reads works through the lens of that writer's death, thus touching on the larger question of how we memorialize others (i.e., in museums and memorials). In the course, we will explore a range of texts from Keats to Tupac so as to understand these figures, their predicaments and contexts, and why we need and how we use this mode of reading. In taking several diverse cases together, we might ask, Are they keeping it real or is this genre a ploy or performance? Potentially drawing on examples ranging across disciplines, literary figures to consider may include Sylvia Plath, Reinaldo Arenas, Raymond Carver, Charles Bukowski, Jane Kenyon, May Sarton, William Gaddis, Malcom X, and Mark Twain. (Dr. Kane)
ENGL-518AA/2, The Literature of Travel Writing
The British scholar Paul Fussell writes that successful travel writing mediates between two poles: the individual thing it describes, on the one hand, and the larger theme that it is 'about,' on the other. A travel book will make the reader aware of a lot of things - ships, planes, trains, donkeys, sore feet, hotels, bizarre customs and odd people, unfamiliar weather, curious architecture, and risky food. At the same time, a travel book will reach in the opposite direction and deal with these data so as to suggest that they are not wholly inert and discrete but are elements of a much larger meaning, a meaning metaphysical, political, psychological, artistic, or religious - but always, somehow, ethical. In the course, students will read excerpts from travel literature over time and write three travel essays of their own. Writers will include Herodotus, Pausanius, Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, Freya Stark, D.H. Lawrence, Jack Kerouac, V.S. Naipaul, Paul Theroux, Margaret Atwood, Annie Dillard, and David Foster Wallace. (Ms. Scott)
ENGL-519AA/1, 20th Century Drama
This course will be devoted to the major dramatists and theatrical movements of the 20th Century. Each term students will read plays from specific regions of the world in an attempt to locate the playwriting from that region within the world of dramatic literature, as well as come to grips with the issues with which the playwrights are dealing, and the cultures from which their work is erupting. Approaching the plays through historical, cultural and political contexts, students will analyze how the best playwrights pose and dramatize important questions of the time, while revolutionizing conventional dramatic practice through the developments in Naturalism, Realism and Symbolism (and various combinations of these). FALL Term ? European Drama. Playwrights studied may include: Ibsen, Chekhov, Stringberg, Brecht, Pinter, Stoppard, Pirandello, Beckett, Shaw. WINTER Term ? American Drama. Playwrights studied may include: O?Neill, Miller, Wilson, Albee, Norman, Wasserstein, Shepard, Kushner, Parks, Hwang, Mamet. SPRING Term ? World Drama. Playwrights studied may include: Fugard, Soyinka, Wolcott, Valdez, Garro, Wolff, Panikkar, Dattani, Xiaoli, Hirata. (Ms. Chase)
ENGL-519AA/2, 20th Century Drama
This course will be devoted to the major dramatists and theatrical movements of the 20th Century. Each term students will read plays from specific regions of the world in an attempt to locate the playwriting from that region within the world of dramatic literature, as well as come to grips with the issues with which the playwrights are dealing, and the cultures from which their work is erupting. Approaching the plays through historical, cultural and political contexts, students will analyze how the best playwrights pose and dramatize important questions of the time, while revolutionizing conventional dramatic practice through the developments in Naturalism, Realism and Symbolism (and various combinations of these). FALL Term ? European Drama. Playwrights studied may include: Ibsen, Chekhov, Stringberg, Brecht, Pinter, Stoppard, Pirandello, Beckett, Shaw. WINTER Term ? American Drama. Playwrights studied may include: O?Neill, Miller, Wilson, Albee, Norman, Wasserstein, Shepard, Kushner, Parks, Hwang, Mamet. SPRING Term ? World Drama. Playwrights studied may include: Fugard, Soyinka, Wolcott, Valdez, Garro, Wolff, Panikkar, Dattani, Xiaoli, Hirata. (Ms. Chase)
ENGL-519AA/3, 20th Century Drama
This course will be devoted to the major dramatists and theatrical movements of the 20th Century. Each term students will read plays from specific regions of the world in an attempt to locate the playwriting from that region within the world of dramatic literature, as well as come to grips with the issues with which the playwrights are dealing, and the cultures from which their work is erupting. Approaching the plays through historical, cultural and political contexts, students will analyze how the best playwrights pose and dramatize important questions of the time, while revolutionizing conventional dramatic practice through the developments in Naturalism, Realism and Symbolism (and various combinations of these). FALL Term ? European Drama. Playwrights studied may include: Ibsen, Chekhov, Stringberg, Brecht, Pinter, Stoppard, Pirandello, Beckett, Shaw. WINTER Term ? American Drama. Playwrights studied may include: O?Neill, Miller, Wilson, Albee, Norman, Wasserstein, Shepard, Kushner, Parks, Hwang, Mamet. SPRING Term ? World Drama. Playwrights studied may include: Fugard, Soyinka, Wolcott, Valdez, Garro, Wolff, Panikkar, Dattani, Xiaoli, Hirata. (Ms. Chase)
ENGL-520AA/2, Gender Roles in Contemporary World Fiction
Love, family, and passion have always been popular literary themes in a variety of cultures. However, there are different ways in which each culture approaches these subjects, especially as they relate to gender roles and the relationships between men and women (as well as men and men and women and women). In this course, we will go on a trip around the world, examining gender in a variety of contemporary cultural settings and comparing the fictional works that we will study to what we experience on a daily basis in American society. From traditional romantic obsession and rigid sex roles to challenges of these traditional roles and expectations, our texts will provide a variety of issues and perspectives to frame our discussions. Readings include: Machado de Assis, Dom Casmurro (Brazil); Rifaat, A Distant View of a Minaret (Egypt); Puig, Kiss of the Spider Woman (Argentina); Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (Zimbabwe); Ensler, Necessary Targets (Bosnia). Films: The Crying Game, Thelma & Louise, The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Strangers in Good Company, Angels in America, and excerpts from episodes of Sex and the City. (Dr. Vidal)
ENGL-520AB/1, Children in Literature: Growing Up in A Changing World
What does it mean to be a child? What defines a good or bad kid? Is there a certain age or type of behavior that separates children from adults? When and how do we grow up? Are our expectations for boys and girls different? Should they be? This course will explore how our conceptualization of childhood has changed over time by looking at a variety of sources: philosophical and psychological texts about children and representations of children in literature and film for adults, as well as some works aimed at young readers. We will focus on the emergence of self within contexts of family and community, exploring the processes of identity formation in both Western and non-Western narratives. We will pay particular attention to an analysis of gender roles and of education within these stories, pondering the ways in which different societies and their values become perpetuated through their fictional children. Readings include: Alcott, Little Women; Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Barrie, Peter Pan; Yezierska, Bread Givers; Golding, Lord of the Flies; Amado, Captains of the Sands; and poetry by Blake, Wordsworth, and Dr. Seuss. Excerpts from: Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education; Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress; Rousseau, Emile; and a variety of fairy tales. Theory by Freud, Bettelheim, and Aries. Films: Central Station, Black Shack Alley, Finding Nemo. (Dr. Vidal)
ENGL-521AA, Being, Thinking, Doing
Through reading and discussing the expression of human values in selected works, students in this philosophy and literature course explore two broad questions: How do people live their lives? and How should people live their lives? Within this framework, students think reflectively about the beliefs they and their society have developed, and they look at the emergence of different epistemological, ethical, and political ideals and responses to life. Readings may include The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Ellison's Invisible Man, Percy's The Moviegoer, Shakespeare's King Lear, Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five; excerpts from Agee and Evans' Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison; and brief selections from Aristotle, Descartes, Epictetus, Kant, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Plato, Schopenhauer, and Spinoza. (Mr. Fox)
ENGL-521AA/1, Being, Thinking, Doing
Through reading and discussing the expression of human values in selected works, students in this philosophy and literature course explore two broad questions: How do people live their lives? and How should people live their lives? Within this framework, students think reflectively about the beliefs they and their society have developed, and they look at the emergence of different epistemological, ethical, and political ideals and responses to life. Readings may include The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Ellison's Invisible Man, Percy's The Moviegoer, Shakespeare's King Lear, Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five; excerpts from Agee and Evans' Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison; and brief selections from Aristotle, Descartes, Epictetus, Kant, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Plato, Schopenhauer, and Spinoza. (Mr. Fox)
ENGL-521AB/2, When I Paint My Masterpiece: Milton and Michelangelo
Within the European tradition, both the Italian artist, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and the English poet, John Milton, responded to all that preceded them and influenced all that followed them. By comparing the lives and works of these men, students in this art and literature course explore various questions of theology and aesthetics, such as: Can humans understand the ways of God? How can God know Adam and Eve will fall while at the same time give them the freedom to do so? How is Christ both divine and human? What are the limitations and benefits of expression through poetry versus painting? In interpreting a work of art, to what extent is the creator's intention or biography relevant? What is the role of influence in artistic creation? Is originality possible? Why are these artists canonical, and what are the consequences of deeming them so? Students study Milton's Paradise Lost and Michelangelo's complete works. Supplemental readings may include selections from Achebe's Hopes and Impediments, Augustine's The City of God, Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence, Steinberg's The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and Modern Oblivion, and Walker's Medusa's Mirrors: Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and the Metamorphosis of the Female Self, among others. No previous study of art history presumed. (Mr. Fox)
ENGL-522AA/1, Great Themes From America: Land, Conflict and War, Family
This course is a study of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction in which men and women struggle for identity and self-realization in a world of change and cultural upheaval. The readings for each term, drawn from a variety of cultures, will be organized on central motifs (fall: The Land; winter: Conflict and War; spring: Family) and students will trace connections between the nature of ideas and the forms of expression. Texts may include: Thoreau, Walden; Faulkner, The Bear; Cather, O Pioneers!; MacLeod, Island; Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms; O'Brien, Going After Cacciato; McCarthy, Blood Meridian; Faulkner, The Unvanquished; Kennedy, Very Old Bones; and Morrison, Jazz. (Mr. Stableford)
ENGL-522AA/2, Great Themes From America: Land, Conflict and War, Family
This course is a study of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction in which men and women struggle for identity and self-realization in a world of change and cultural upheaval. The readings for each term, drawn from a variety of cultures, will be organized on central motifs (fall: The Land; winter: Conflict and War; spring: Family) and students will trace connections between the nature of ideas and the forms of expression. Texts may include: Thoreau, Walden; Faulkner, The Bear; Cather, O Pioneers!; MacLeod, Island; Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms; O'Brien, Going After Cacciato; McCarthy, Blood Meridian; Faulkner, The Unvanquished; Kennedy, Very Old Bones; and Morrison, Jazz. (Mr. Stableford)
ENGL-522AA/3, Great Themes From America: Land, Conflict and War, Family
This course is a study of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction in which men and women struggle for identity and self-realization in a world of change and cultural upheaval. The readings for each term, drawn from a variety of cultures, will be organized on central motifs (fall: The Land; winter: Conflict and War; spring: Family) and students will trace connections between the nature of ideas and the forms of expression. Texts may include: Thoreau, Walden; Faulkner, The Bear; Cather, O Pioneers!; MacLeod, Island; Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms; O'Brien, Going After Cacciato; McCarthy, Blood Meridian; Faulkner, The Unvanquished; Kennedy, Very Old Bones; and Morrison, Jazz. (Mr. Stableford)
ENGL-523AA/2, Modern American Literature - Rosebud: The Restless Search for an American Identity
Many of our enduring American works of literature and film, such as The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, and Citizen Kane, center on the search for self. Through discussions on class, race, and gender, this course will present a series of American portraits while examining our changing society. Students will write personal narratives, as well as critical essays. Possible texts: Continental Drift, Banks; The Awakening, Chopin; Fences, Wilson; Six Degrees of Separation, Guare. Possible films: Citizen Kane; Far From Heaven; Tully; Transamerica; Hustle & Flow. (Mr. Bardo)
ENGL-523AB/1, Welcome to the Apocalypse
Confronted with the complexity of the world's problems, one easily can feel like Wile E. Coyote, well beyond the cliff's edge, staring at the abyss below. Presented as a senior seminar this course will explore critical issues facing us, such as refugees and immigration, wealth and resource disparities, terrorism and individual rights. Central to our collective endeavor will be examining through fiction and weekly films the interconnections between various conflicting forces, as well as the search for solutions. The term will culminate with class projects devoted to addressing local and global issues. Readings include Waiting for the Barbarians, GraceLand, Saturday Snow, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families, Imagining Argentina, Death and the Maiden. Films include The Constant Gardener, Dirty Pretty Things, Tstosi, Osama, Darwin's Nightmare, Elephant, Do the Right Thing, Hotel Rwanda. (Mr. Bardo)
ENGL-524AA/1, Rememories: Trauma and Survival in Twentieth-Century Literature
In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison coins the term rememory to describe a type of memory that won't stay buried -- ghosts of experience that resurface across years, decades, even centuries, memories of trauma that continue to haunt literature to this day. This course will examine how narratives of cultural trauma and survival have been represented (and re-presented) in 20th- and 21st-century literature. In our investigation of literature about war, terrorism, and other cultural traumas, we will encounter authors writing from a variety of historical moments nad perspectives. We will look closely at how trauma literature both delineates and breaks down divisions between individual, societal, and generational trauma experience. And we will engage with the course texts by writing in a number of modes, both critical and creative. Thematic focuses will include the problematics of truth and testimony; the dismantling of traditional narrative structures and genres; individual vs. collective memory; societal regeneration; and the ways trauma literature engages with issues of race, class, gender, and national identity. In addition to selected poems and theoretical articles, possible texts include Morrison, Beloved or Sula; Foer, Everything is Illuminated or Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close; Cunningham, The Hours; Speigelman, Maus; West, The Return of the Soldier; O'Brien, The Things They Carried or In the Lake of the woods; and Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain. (Ms. McQuade)
ENGL-525AA/1, Feasts and Fools: Revelers and Puritans In Literature and Life
This course examines what Jean Toomer called the good-time spirit and its opposite, as manifest in major literature, including drama and film. Along with critical writing on literature, the students occupy themselves with parties and festivities in their lives, as well as in other cultures. Personal essays may lead to anthropological, architectural, performative, and semiological research projects, creative writing, and reports. Texts have included Mrs. Dalloway, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Love in the Time of Cholera, Vile Bodies, Like Water for Chocolate, The Custom of the Country, A Year in Provence, House of Sand and Fog, selected short stories, and poetry. Films include Babette's Feast, Much Ado About Nothing, and Table Manners. (Dr. Wilkin)
ENGL-525AA/2, Feasts and Fools: Revelers and Puritans In Literature and Life
This course examines what Jean Toomer called the good-time spirit and its opposite, as manifest in major literature, including drama and film. Along with critical writing on literature, the students occupy themselves with parties and festivities in their lives, as well as in other cultures. Personal essays may lead to anthropological, architectural, performative, and semiological research projects, creative writing, and reports. Texts have included Mrs. Dalloway, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Love in the Time of Cholera, Vile Bodies, Like Water for Chocolate, The Custom of the Country, A Year in Provence, House of Sand and Fog, selected short stories, and poetry. Films include Babette's Feast, Much Ado About Nothing, and Table Manners. (Dr. Wilkin)
ENGL-525AA/3, Feasts and Fools: Revelers and Puritans In Literature and Life
This course examines what Jean Toomer called the good-time spirit and its opposite, as manifest in major literature, including drama and film. Along with critical writing on literature, the students occupy themselves with parties and festivities in their lives, as well as in other cultures. Personal essays may lead to anthropological, architectural, performative, and semiological research projects, creative writing, and reports. Texts have included Mrs. Dalloway, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Love in the Time of Cholera, Vile Bodies, Like Water for Chocolate, The Custom of the Country, A Year in Provence, House of Sand and Fog, selected short stories, and poetry. Films include Babette's Feast, Much Ado About Nothing, and Table Manners. (Dr. Wilkin)
ENGL-526AA/1, Literature of Resistance, Resilience, and Triumph: Narratives of the Natives
This course will use texts and films from a variety of cultures underrepresented in the American curriculum. Included will be material from the following groups: South Africans, Chinese, Native Americans, and Latin Americans. Each selected novel/film will tell a story of others' cultural experiences from the perspective of the natives of that culture. Each term the course will include an exploration and understanding of the values, cultural norms, and traditions of other cultural groups to bear witness to these groups, as well as to dispel some myths about the said cultures. The course also will study the countless ways in which humans dominate other humans, and how the oppressed organize themselves in resistance and use their voices through literature and film to share their stories. Course participants will engage in literary and visual experiences of other worlds. Class discussions and frequent writing assignments will abound, and students will be encouraged to develop their own voices as they study the power of language in these narratives and undertake a topic of interest to research. There will be student-led seminars and end-of-term projects or papers, which will give students an opportunity to explore in depth a topic of their choice, culminating in class presentations. The chosen readings are as follows: Fall Term --Mother to Mother by Sindiwe Magona; Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See; Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich; In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez; and the film Long Night's Journey into Day, a documentary that takes us into post-apartheid's South Africa. (Mrs. Maqubela)
ENGL-526AA/2, Literature of Resistance, Resilience, and Triumph: Narratives of the Natives
This course will use texts and films from a variety of cultures underrepresented in the American curriculum. Included will be material from the following groups: South Africans, Chinese, Native Americans, and Latin Americans. Each selected novel/film will tell a story of others' cultural experiences from the perspective of the natives of that culture. Each term the course will include an exploration and understanding of the values, cultural norms, and traditions of other cultural groups to bear witness to these groups, as well as to dispel some myths about the said cultures. The course also will study the countless ways in which humans dominate other humans, and how the oppressed organize themselves in resistance and use their voices through literature and film to share their stories. Course participants will engage in literary and visual experiences of other worlds. Class discussions and frequent writing assignments will abound, and students will be encouraged to develop their own voices as they study the power of language in these narratives and undertake a topic of interest to research. There will be student-led seminars and end-of-term projects or papers, which will give students an opportunity to explore in depth a topic of their choice, culminating in class presentations. The chosen readings are as follows: Winter Term -Lucky Child by Luong Ung; Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie; So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba; and the film, El Norte, the story of a Guatemalan brother and sister who flee persecution at home and journey north with a dream of finding a new home in the United States. (Mrs. Maqubela)
ENGL-526AA/3, Literature of Resistance, Resilience, and Triumph: Narratives of the Natives
This course will use texts and films from a variety of cultures underrepresented in the American curriculum. Included will be material from the following groups: South Africans, Chinese, Native Americans, and Latin Americans. Each selected novel/film will tell a story of others' cultural experiences from the perspective of the natives of that culture. Each term the course will include an exploration and understanding of the values, cultural norms, and traditions of other cultural groups to bear witness to these groups, as well as to dispel some myths about the said cultures. The course also will study the countless ways in which humans dominate other humans, and how the oppressed organize themselves in resistance and use their voices through literature and film to share their stories. Course participants will engage in literary and visual experiences of other worlds. Class discussions and frequent writing assignments will abound, and students will be encouraged to develop their own voices as they study the power of language in these narratives and undertake a topic of interest to research. There will be student-led seminars and end-of-term projects or papers, which will give students an opportunity to explore in depth a topic of their choice, culminating in class presentations. The chosen readings are as follows: Spring Term -- Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah; A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah; and Tracks by Louise Erdrich. (Mrs. Maqubela)
ENGL-527AA/2, The Novel After Modernism
In the middle of the 20th century, writers began to move past both the period and the styles that we still call modern. What does it mean for a novel to be past modern? Postmodern? Past postmodern? Can a contemporary novel still be a modern novel? In this course we will study the recent progress of the novel genre. We will read aggressively, studying four or five novels whose authors may include Russell Banks, J.M. Coetzee, Robert Coover, Don DeLillo, Joan Didion, Ralph Ellison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison, Vladimir Nabokov, Joyce Carol Oates, Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, Jose Saramago, and Zadie Smith. (Mr. Domina)
ENGL-527AA/3, The Novel After Modernism
In the middle of the 20th century, writers began to move past both the period and the styles that we still call modern. What does it mean for a novel to be past modern? Postmodern? Past postmodern? Can a contemporary novel still be a modern novel? In this course we will study the recent progress of the novel genre. We will read aggressively, studying four or five novels whose authors may include Russell Banks, J.M. Coetzee, Robert Coover, Don DeLillo, Joan Didion, Ralph Ellison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison, Vladimir Nabokov, Joyce Carol Oates, Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, Jose Saramago, and Zadie Smith. (Mr. Domina)
ENGL-528AA/2, Toubling Literature: Contesting Authority In and Through Literature
What do Keanu Reeves and Osama bin Laden have in common? They both play the part of postmodern prophets, the former in The Matrix, and the latter on the news. They both reflect a widespread dissatisfaction with the same technologies and virtual realities that helped produce them. Such figures use the media even as they see the media as symbolizing the demise of their fundamental beliefs. The idea of this course comes from the troubling of traditions in recent literary works (by the likes of Sebald, Calvino, Pynchon, etc.) and the resurgence of fundamentalisms in the United States and around the globe. An example: In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeni, the leader of Iran, issued a fatwa (a death sentence) for the Indo-British writer Salman Rushdie because he felt Rushdie's novel, Satanic Verses, was heretical. While we may or may not use this novel, the situation epitomizes the relationship of modes of writing that seek to trouble accepted truths and a mode of reading that characterizes fundamentalism. Rather than being strictly bound by period or locale, the course will explore the relationship of these subversive or troubling and fundamentalist modes. By looking at the intersections and relation of these works, we can gain a greater appreciation for the source of some of today's conflicts in the United States and around the globe. The course will ask the question: Are we to or how can we read a text literally? In addition we will address wider questions of meaning, authority, and context. What makes something sacred or canonical and who gets to decide, and what does it mean to trouble the sacred? Texts will be drawn from a variety of contexts. (Dr. Kane)
ENGL-530AB/3, Brazilian Cultural Studies
Four class periods. See also HIST-SS578. One of the largest countries in the world and with a diverse population, geography, and economic base, Brazil is poised to become one of the giants of 21st-century global development. This course will look into important moments in the political, economic, literary, and artistic histories of the country in the 19th and 20th centuries, attempting to understand how Brazil came to be what it is today and what it could become in the future. We will pay specific attention to the nation's formative years after independence from Portugal in 1822, the coffee boom of the early 20th century, the Vargas and Kubitschek regimes, the military dictatorship of the 1960s and 1970s, and the new democratic period of recent years. These historical moments will be studied through the lens of the literature, film, art, and music being produced at the time. Of special interest will be the work of Machado de Assis, Gilberto Freyre, Clarice Lispector, Jorge Amado, the participants in the 1922 Week of Modern Art movement, and the protest songs and films depicting life under the military regime. A student in this course is eligible for credit in either English or history. A student who wishes to receive English credit should sign up for ENGL-530AB/3; a student who wishes to receive history credit should sign up for HIST-SS578. (Dr. Vidal)
ENGL-535AA/2, James Joyce
Five class periods. The first term is devoted to Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist; the second term to Ulysses. The purposes of the course are to develop the skill to read important and difficult works without the aid of study guides or other secondary material, and to follow the development of Joyce as an artist. Although the course may be taken in either term, the student gains a better sense of Joyce's genius by enrolling for two terms. (Mr. O'Connor)
ENGL-535AA/3, James Joyce
Five class periods. The first term is devoted to Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist; the second term to Ulysses. The purposes of the course are to develop the skill to read important and difficult works without the aid of study guides or other secondary material, and to follow the development of Joyce as an artist. Although the course may be taken in either term, the student gains a better sense of Joyce's genius by enrolling for two terms. (Mr. O'Connor)
ENGL-536AA/3, The Play's the Thing: Advanced Shakespeare
While most of us meet Shakespeare in a book, his true home is on the stage. The course will cover three plays in depth, and close reading and textual analysis will be our primary focus. Emphasis will also be placed on learning to direct, stage, and speak Shakespeare trippingly on the tongue, so that we can appreciate and learn from the Bard the way he intended. (Ms. Curci)
ENGL-537AA/1, Writers in Depth
This course will be devoted to one British novelist each term. Each writer is both a representative of a particular time and an innovator who significantly influenced the history of the novel. Fall Term -- Jane Austen. Once taken at her word that her work was very limited, Austen was one of the vital links between the 18th- and 19th-century novelists. As a class, we will read Northanger Abbey, Emma, and Persuasion. Students who have not read Pride and Prejudice will do so, while those who have will read Sense and Sensibility. We will also watch Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, as well as selections from adaptations of other Austen novels. (Ms. Fulton)
ENGL-537AA/2, Writers in Depth
This course will be devoted to one British novelist each term. Each writer is both a representative of a particular time and an innovator who significantly influenced the history of the novel. Winter Term: This term we will read Bleak House, which many consider Charles Dickens's masterpiece, an extraordinary blend of comedy, gothic mystery, and social protest, told through an intersecting double narrative. We also will read poetry by Blake and others, as well as study paintings and photographs from the time. (Ms. Fulton)
ENGL-537AA/3, Writers in Depth
This course will be devoted to one British novelist each term. Each writer is both a representative of a particular time and an innovator who significantly influenced the history of the novel. Spring Term: This term will be devoted to Virginia Woolf, who, if she had written no fiction, would still be known for her brilliant essays. We will read her two greatest novels, Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse; several of her short stories and essays; and selections from her autobiographical writings. To put Woolf's work in context, we will view some of the work of the Post-Impressionist painters; read from the war poets (the First World War is central to her novels); and compare her style with that of her fellow Modernist novelists Joyce and Faulkner. (Ms. Fulton)
ENGL-538AA/3, Edith Wharton
One of America's most gifted literary figures, 20th century that we encounter with a shock of recognition today. Her characters are the rich of New York City society, and in prose both biting and elegant, she describes their smug love of their money or uneasy love of it, as well as their desperate attempts to multiply it on Wall Street or cling to what's left of it or marry into it or survive without it. Her fiction reverberates with both satire and deep psychological insight. We will read her novel The House of Mirth and the short story collections Roman Fever and Other Stories and The New York Stories, and we will watch the films The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth (Ms. Scott)
ENGL-540AB/3, Atomic America: Service Learning
Atomic America in the spring term is a service-learning course. The first half of the term looks at an atomized America since the 1980s: niche marketing, gated communities, personal technologies, etc. During the latter half of the term, the class will confront this social atomization directly by engaging in service-learning opportunities. In small groups, participants will read about and work with populations that reflect an atomized America?recently these groups have worked with people with AIDS, the elderly, immigrants, and prisoners. Students then write a final paper that reflects on the literature and their experiences serving and being served by these people. (Dr. Kane)
ENGL-541AA/1, Yeats and the Irish Tradition
Since the establishment of Ireland's independence in 1921, the unique contribution of this nation's literature and culture has gained increasing international recognition. W.B. Yeats, the first of four Irish Nobel laureates and one of the dominant poets of the 20th century, played a key role in the revival of Irish culture. The course will focus not only on Yeats' poetry and drama, but on the great artists who preceded and followed him. Poetry, fiction, and drama, as well as art, music, and film, will be considered as part of this course, including some of the following. Poetry: Selected Poems, W.B. Yeats; Opened Ground, Seamus Heaney; The Water Horse, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill. Fiction: The Year of the French, Thomas Flanagan; Reading in the Dark, Seamus Deane; Castle Rackrent, Maria Edgeworth. Drama: Selected Plays, W.B. Yeats; The Playboy of the Western World and Riders to the Sea, J.M. Synge; Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett; Translations, Brian Friel. Film: Michael Collins (director, Neil Jordan), The Field (director, Jim Sheridan), Cal (director, Pat O'Connor). (Mr. O'Connor)
ENGL-542AA/1, An Introductory Survey of African- American Literature
This seminar course offers an overview of African-American literature through reading and writing assignments, discussions, student-led seminars, and visiting lecturers on art, music, and history. Trips to museums and jazz or blues club performances enhance the students' appreciation of cultural contexts. The fall term focuses on the early writings, on the literature of slavery and freedom, and on the literature of Reconstruction. In the winter, students read the literature of the Harlem Renaissance and African-American expressions of realism, naturalism, and modernism. In the spring, the Black Arts Movement and African- American literatures, including film and drama, since the 1970s are the foci of the course. (Ms. Hawthorne)
ENGL-542AA/2, An Introductory Survey of African- American Literature
This seminar course offers an overview of African-American literature through reading and writing assignments, discussions, student-led seminars, and visiting lecturers on art, music, and history. Trips to museums and jazz or blues club performances enhance the students' appreciation of cultural contexts. The fall term focuses on the early writings, on the literature of slavery and freedom, and on the literature of Reconstruction. In the winter, students read the literature of the Harlem Renaissance and African-American expressions of realism, naturalism, and modernism. In the spring, the Black Arts Movement and African- American literatures, including film and drama, since the 1970s are the foci of the course. (Ms. Hawthorne)
ENGL-542AA/3, An Introductory Survey of African- American Literature
This seminar course offers an overview of African-American literature through reading and writing assignments, discussions, student-led seminars, and visiting lecturers on art, music, and history. Trips to museums and jazz or blues club performances enhance the students' appreciation of cultural contexts. The fall term focuses on the early writings, on the literature of slavery and freedom, and on the literature of Reconstruction. In the winter, students read the literature of the Harlem Renaissance and African-American expressions of realism, naturalism, and modernism. In the spring, the Black Arts Movement and African- American literatures, including film and drama, since the 1970s are the foci of the course. (Ms. Hawthorne)
ENGL-543AA/3, Contemporary Caribbean Literature: Better Than Spring Break in Jamaica
Bearing a historical legacy of slavery and colonialism, the Caribbean today is viewed by many people as a tourist paradise, a place to relax and have fun in the sun. Nevertheless, the fact that, in recent years, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded twice to Caribbean authors (St. Lucian Derek Walcott and Trinidadian V.S. Naipaul) is an important indicator of the quality of the cultural production in this archipelago. In this course, we will examine Caribbean literature from various islands, investigating their significance as representatives of a common (?) Caribbean experience. Through our responses to different literary texts (novels, plays, poems, essays) as well as to film and music from the region, we will ponder the issue of identity (both individual and collective), trying to articulate what it means to be Caribbean nowadays. Writers include Aime Cesaire, Derek Walcott, Jacques Roumain, Jamaica Kincaid, Julia Alvarrez, Rosario Ferre, Esmeralda Santiago, Simone Schwarz-Bart, and V.S. Naipaul. Films: Sugar Cane Alley, Strawberry and Chocolate. The course includes a service-learning component with the Dominican and Haitian immigrant communities in Lawrence, Mass. (Dr. Vidal)
ENGL-543AB/3, Haunted by Shadows: Viewing African Independence Through Lens and Literature
This course will offer a brief survey of literature written about sub-Saharan Africa in the latter part of the 20th century. Struggling with a myriad of issues, native African authors, as well as observers like V.S. Naipaul, consider in their works the impact of colonialism, corruption, globalization, poverty, tribalism, and other forces on nations as they emerge from European domination. Class discussions will focus on how these authors craft their fiction as political and social narratives. Films such as Tsotsi, Darwin's Nightmare, and Hotel Rwanda will augment the texts, as will chapters from Martin Meredith's The Fate of Africa. Possible texts: Graceland, Albani; A Bend in the River, Naipaul; Master Harold...and the Boys, Fugard; Everything Good Will Come, Atta; The Madonna of Excelsior, Mda; July's People, Gordimer; Disgrace, Coetzee; Under African Skies: Modern African Stories, Larson. (Mr. Bardo)
ENGL-544AA/2, NOLA: The Past As Prologue
This is a project-driven, seminar-formatted, multidisciplinary course that meshes the diversity of students' interests with the diversity of NOLA's past and present and the complexity of its future. Discussion of shared and independent reading, seminar reports, the analyses of documentary videos, and presentations by visiting scholars focus the study of NOLA's cultural gumbo, its historical and annual ritual progression through conflict to celebration. A culminating service-learning project involving working and learning in NOLA may be included. Comparative analysis will be encouraged in discussions and an option for writing assignments. To form a context for their study of NOLA's culture and history, students will use selections from Through the Eye of Katrina: The Past as Prologue? (a special issue of The Journal of American History); American Tragedy: New Orleans Unde Water (a special issue of Callaloo); Sublette's The World that Made New Oleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square; and Blues for New Orleans: Mardi Gras and America's Creole Soul, ed. Abraham. After reading texts like Chopin's The Awakening, Faulkner's New Orleans Sketches and Mosquitoes, and Hurston's Mules and Men, students will use Literary New Orleans in the Modern World, ed. Kennedy, to direct their individual projects focused on New Orleans literature. (Mr. Sykes)
ENGL-545AA/1, Literature of the Civil War
Historian Shelby Foote said, Any understanding of this nation has to be based on an understanding of the Civil War. But how can one possibly understand the Civil War? Since the conflict began, countless Americans have tried to make sense of it - through letters, journals, memoirs, photographs, songs, poems, novels, films, and histories. In this course, we will attempt to reach some understanding of the Civil War and its legacy. Although our approach will necessarily be interdisciplinary, our principal focus will be the various literature of the war. The writers we study will most likely include, but not be limited to, Frederick Douglass, William Faulkner, Abraham Lincoln, Margaret Mitchell, Toni Morrison, Robert Penn Warren, Walt Whitman, and C. Vann Woodward. (Mr. Domina)
ENGL-546AA/1, Modernism Across the 20th Century
In the waning hours of the Belle Epoque, under the calamitous shadow of a devastating world war, the advent of the 1900s in Europe and America witnessed a profound change in the established social order. A breach of faith in the ability of traditional literary modes to represent the dissonance of modern life ensued. This course will examine stories of character in crisis: how does the modern hero struggle to find moral order and certainty in a world that no longer makes sense according to conventional structures of meaning? We will read Anglo-American masterpieces of high modernism, including The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot, To the Lighthouse by Viginia Woolf, and Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. (Ms. Tousignant)
ENGL-547AA/1, Rhetorical Selves in English Renaissance Poetry
That Obscure Object of Desire: Sixteenth- Century English Poetry. The poets of the English Renaissance bring to their work a kind of critical self-consciousness rarely seen again until Modernism, a consciousness of poetry as artifice, and of the poet as artificer, and to no subject more so than love, the poetic and rhetorical occasion par excellence. In the fall term, we explore the intersection in 16th-century poetry of ideals of poetic and rhetorical mastery, social advancement, and love, focusing in particular on the 1580s and 1590s, the golden age of Elizabethan poetry. We will consider the development of English meter and accentual-syllabic verse, the models for English poetry provided by Antiquity and the Continent, by Petrarchism (and its discontents), and the use of genres like the sonnet sequence and epyllion, or miniature epic, genres which Georgia E. Brown describes as marginal, exploring metamorphoses, threshold states and points of coming inti being. Among the poets that we will read are Sir Philip Sidney, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare. (Mr. Bird)
ENGL-547AA/3, Rhetorical Selves in English Renaissance Poetry
Metaphysical Wit: Seventeeth-Century English Poetry. The erotic and religious poetry of John Donne forms the nucleus of the spring term, as we explore the works of the Metaphysical Poets. Among the topics we will consider are Donne and the Metaphysical Poets' formal and metrical innovations, their use of irony and paradox, catachresis and hyperbole, and the so-called Metaphysical conceit. The complex image (a book, a globe, the legs of a compass) with which the Metaphysical Poets draw startling analogies to the heightened experience of erotic or spiritual love, a process in which, as Dr. Johnson wrote, the most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together. (Mr. Bird.
FREN-100/1, First-Level French
Five class periods. This course is designed for those students who have had little or no previous world language experience. The course emphasizes listening comprehension and the use of basic conversational patterns of French speech. Elementary grammatical and idiomatic structures are introduced, as well as appropriate reading material. Assignments are regularly required in the Language Learning Center. (Text: Motifs, Jansma/Kassen)
FREN-110/1, First-Level French
Five class periods. This course is designed for those students who have had previous experience in French, but who are not sufficiently prepared for the second-level course. The course emphasizes listening comprehension and the use of basic conversational patterns of French speech. Elementary grammatical and idiomatic structures are introduced, as well as appropriate reading material. Assignments are regularly required in the Language Learning Center. (Text: Motifs, Jansma/Kassen)
FREN-110/5, First-Level French
Five class periods. This course is a continuation of the First-Level French course for students from both FREN-100 and FREN-110 in preparation for French 200 the following year.
FREN-120/5, Accelerated First-Level French
A two-term commitment. Five class periods. Students will be recommended by the teacher for this accelerated course at the conclusion of the first trimester of FREN-100 or FREN-110. Successful completion of FREN-120 allows students to advance to FREN-220. The FREN-100/110-120-220 sequence covers three years of French in two years.
FREN-200/0, Second-Level French
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. For students who have completed FREN-110, or for new students who qualify through a placement test. While continuing to develop aural-oral skills, this course involves reading non-technical French prose and writing simple compositions.
FREN-220/0, Accelerated Second-Level French
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. Upon successful completion of this course, students continue their study in fourth-year courses. Because of the rapid pace, each student's progress will be evaluated closely in November to determine whether it is in his or her best interest to move to FREN-200. The course content consists of a complete grammar review and acquisition of contemporary vocabulary, along with films and varied texts. (Possible texts: Le Petit Nicolas, Sempé and Goscinny; Le Comte de Monte Cristo, Dumas; Une Fois Pour Toutes, Sturges, Nielsen, Herbst; Cinema for French Conversation, Rice)
FREN-300/0, Third-Level French
A yearlong commitment. Four class periods. This yearlong course develops listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills through a review of grammar and the study of French films, such as Au Revoir Les Enfants, Les Choristes, and Amélie. Articles from magazines and newspapers, online resources, and occasional literary texts complement this core program. In the fall and spring terms, as a final project, students make a presentation on a topic of their choice. Preparation for this exercise requires considerable writing, while the presentation itself emphasizes speaking. (Text: Une Fois Pour Toutes, Sturges, Nielsen, Herbst; Cinema for French Conversation, Rice)
FREN-400/1, French Civilization
Four class periods. Intended for students who understand, read, and write French well and who already speak at a competent level, but who desire to develop further conversational skills and acquire the vocabulary and idiomatic expression necessary to be able to discuss major cultural and social issues. The course is based on current articles taken directly from the French and Francophone press. The students also read a novel and write a weekly essay. Diction, elocution, and intonation also are stressed through debates and role-playing. (Text: Civilisation progressive du Francaise, CLE; Grammaire progressive du Francaise, niveau avancé, CLE; M. Ibrahim, Schmitt)
FREN-400/2, The Francophone World
Four class periods. Students continue the study of French through a focus on the French-speaking areas outside of France. The course studies the civilizations of North, West and Sub-Saharan Africa and of the Antilles, and includes a study of the geographical, social, and historical aspects of these regions of the world. (Text: Grammaire progressive du Francaise, niveau avance, CLE; Civilisation progressive de la Francophone, CLE)
FREN-400/3, The Francophone Presence in the U.S.A.
Four class periods. A study of the immigration patterns and the cultures of Haitians and Francophone Asians in the United States, with special attention to the Francophone communities in Lawrence and Lowell, Mass. This service-learning course will consist of two classes on campus and one double-period class per week working with the Francophone communities in our neighboring cities. In addition to writing daily in a journal, students will be expected to present a final project documenting a case study or a particular topic of the course. Prerequisite: enrollment in FREN-400 for the winter term.
FREN-420/0, Crossing Cultures
A year-long commitment. This course, conducted entirely in French, includes conversation practice, vocabulary acquisition, grammar exercises, and essay writing in the context of cross-cultural themes in literature and movies. Fall Term - The class studies the complex relationship between France and Algeria in Albert Camus's novel L'Etranger and Gillo Pontecorvo's movie La Bataille d'Alger. Winter Term - The relationship between France and Germany provides the cultural background for La Grande Illusion, Le Silence de la Mer, and Le Dernier Metro. Spring Term - Persepolis pursues with humor the gender themes associated with coming of age in Iran and France. Texts include excerpts from Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxieme sexe, and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, an autobiographical French graphic novel set in Iran and France, and the 2007 movie Persepolis, directed by Marjane Satrapi and Victor Paronnaud.
FREN-450/1, History of France: 1610-1815
Four class periods. This course will explore the creation of unified France from the beginning of the reign of Louis XIII through the end of the First Empire. Emphasis will be on the final consolidation of power under Louis XIV, the succeeding years, the tumultuous years of the French Revolution, and the First Empire under Napoleon I. Emphasis will be placed not only on historical events, but on their influence on the French art, music, and architecture of the time.
FREN-460/2, History of France: 1815-1945
Four class periods. This course will focus on the history and culture of France from the defeat of Napoleon I until the end of World War I, with emphasis on the prolonged struggle to institute democracy, the development as an industrialized nation with pressures for social reform, and France's grandeur as a colonial power and as a center for the arts. Particular attention will be paid to the study of French impressionism and the other dominant schools of art, literature, and music.
FREN-470/3, Contemporary French Civilization
Four class periods. This course deals with aspects of contemporary French civilization such as the family, the school system, politics, gender roles, art, and popular culture. The emphasis is on learning about culture comparatively through the discussion of articles, films, and comic strips. The course includes research on the Web and e-mail with French students.
FREN-500/1, Civilization of France and the Francophone World
Open to students who have completed fourth-level French and to qualified new students, this French history, geography, and civilization course is designed to address multidisciplinary issues concerning France and the Francophone world. There also are vocabulary, grammar, conversation, composition, and reading components. The choice of texts is generally determined by the class and the instructor. The course is intended to help students prepare for the Advanced Placement examination in French Language.
FREN-500/2, Civilization of France and the Francophone World
Open to students who have completed fourth-level French and to qualified new students, this French history, geography, and civilization course is designed to address multidisciplinary issues concerning France and the Francophone world. There also are vocabulary, grammar, conversation, composition, and reading components. The choice of texts is generally determined by the class and the instructor. The course is intended to help students prepare for the Advanced Placement examination in French Language.
FREN-500/3, Civilization of France and the Francophone World
Open to students who have completed fourth-level French and to qualified new students, this French history, geography, and civilization course is designed to address multidisciplinary issues concerning France and the Francophone world. There also are vocabulary, grammar, conversation, composition, and reading components. The choice of texts is generally determined by the class and the instructor. The course is intended to help students prepare for the Advanced Placement examination in French Language.
FREN-520/0, French Literature and Cinema
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. Open to students who have completed three terms of fourth-level French and to qualified new students. This course is primarily a seminar in which students share their interpretations of works studied in class discussions and oral presentations. It emphasizes the cultural and social contexts of major films and literary works so that class discussions often include current events of the French-speaking world. We read news articles and Web-based work. It also includes an introduction to the methodology of literary and argumentative papers in French and meets the requirements of the Advanced Placement examination in French Language. The syllabus may include works by Moliere, Flaubert, Rostand, Pagnol, Ionesco, Sartre, Begag, or Nothomb. Films range from the new wave to classic comedies and contemporary features. Film adaptations also may be studies along with the original novel (i.e., Marcel Pagnol's Manon des Sources).
FREN-600, Modern Literature
Two two-hour class periods. A seminar course open to students who have completed 500-level French or the equivalent. The course studies modern novels, plays, poetry, and films. The student may write and/or perform a play. The books studied may include La Peste, Camus; Un Amour de Swann, Proust; La Vie devant soi, Ajar; La P...respectueuse, Sartre; Coq de Bruyere, Tournier; and La Civilisation, ma Mere, Chraibi. Films recently studied include Diabolo Menthe, Kurys; Rouge, Kieslowski; and Manon des Sources, Pagnol.
FREN-600/2, Modern French Literature
Two two-hour class periods. A seminar course open to students who have completed 500-level French or the equivalent. The course studies modern novels, plays, poetry, and films. The student may write and/or perform a play. The books studied may include La Peste, Camus; Un Amour de Swann, Proust; La Vie devant soi, Ajar; La P...respectueuse, Sartre; Coq de Bruyere, Tournier; and La Civilisation, ma Mere, Chraibi. Films recently studied include Diabolo Menthe, Kurys; Rouge, Kieslowski; and Manon des Sources, Pagnol.
FREN-600/3, Modern French Literature
Two two-hour class periods. A seminar course open to students who have completed 500-level French or the equivalent. The course studies modern novels, plays, poetry, and films. The student may write and/or perform a play. The books studied may include La Peste, Camus; Un Amour de Swann, Proust; La Vie devant soi, Ajar; La P...respectueuse, Sartre; Coq de Bruyere, Tournier; and La Civilisation, ma Mere, Chraibi. Films recently studied include Diabolo Menthe, Kurys; Rouge, Kieslowski; and Manon des Sources, Pagnol.
GERM-100/0, First-Level German
A yearlong commitment. Five-hour course. A yearlong elementary course in speaking, reading, writing, listening comprehension, and culture. No previous experience in German or any other world language is needed to enroll in this course. GERM-100 offers significant daily structure and support in order to facilitate successful language learning. Current text: Deutsch Aktuell 1, 5th edition, by Kraft, supplemented by digital lab exercises, contemporary films, songs and adapted short stories.
GERM-150/5, Accelerated First-Level German
A two-term commitment. Five class periods. Open to students who have completed the fall term of GERM-100 with distinction and who have been recommended by their instructor. Superior work in this course enables students to enter GERM-250 the following fall, followed by GERM-300 in the winter and spring terms, thereby completing three years of the study of German in two years. An accelerated course in grammar, speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and culture, this course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Current texts: Deutsch Aktuell 1 and 2, by Kraft, supplemented by video, digital lab exercise, contemporary films, poems, songs, and adapted short stories.
GERM-200/0, Second-Level German
A yearlong commitment. Open to students who have successfully completed GERM-100 or its equivalent. The study of basic grammar, conversation, and reading skills is continued along with the introduction of theme writing. Current texts: Deutsch Aktuell 2, Kraft; Emil und die Detektive, Kastner; supplemented by digital lab exercises, contemporary films, songs, and adapted short stories.
GERM-250/1, Accelerated Second-Level German
Five class periods. Open to students with strong learning skills who have completed GERM-150 or its equivalent with distinction. This accelerated course covers the spring term GERM-200 syllabus with the addition of intensive grammar review and writing. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Successful completion of this course qualifies students to enter GERM-300 in the winter term. Current text: Emil und die Detektive, by Eric Kastner, supplemented by movies and digital lab exercises.
GERM-300/0, Third-Level German
Four-hour course. Open to students who have successfully completed GERM-200 or GERM-250 or its equivalent. This course develops the language skills in speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing through the introduction of German texts in the original. Greater emphasis on classroom discussion as well as short essay writing is introduced. Students are introduced to a wide variety of authors and genres, including Biedermann und die Brandstifter, Frisch; Das fliegende Klassenzimmer, Kästner; and a selection of short stories and poems. A short theatrical presentation in German complements other classroom work. Digital lab exercises, contemporary films, and songs supplement the reading. Students who complete GERM-300 with an honors grade are prepared to take the College Board Subject test. Additional practice tests are recommended.
GERM-400/1, Fourth-Level German
Five-hour course. Open to students who have successfully completed GERM-300 or its equivalent. This course is identical to the yearlong course GERM-520 (Advanced Placement German). Students who are unsure of their commitment to taking a full-year of fourth-level German should enroll in this course as it is term-contained and can be taken for one, two, or all three terms. Students who complete all three terms of GERM-400 with an honors grade are well prepared to take the AP exam in May.
GERM-400/2, Fourth-Level German
Five-hour course. Open to students who have successfully completed GERM-300 or its equivalent. This course is identical to the yearlong course GERM-520 (Advanced Placement German). Students who are unsure of their commitment to taking a full-year of fourth-level German should enroll in this course as it is term-contained and can be taken for one, two, or all three terms. Students who complete all three terms of GERM-400 with an honors grade are well prepared to take the AP exam in May.
GERM-400/3, Fourth-Level German
Five-hour course. Open to students who have successfully completed GERM-300 or its equivalent. This course is identical to the yearlong course GERM-520 (Advanced Placement German). Students who are unsure of their commitment to taking a full-year of fourth-level German should enroll in this course as it is term-contained and can be taken for one, two, or all three terms. Students who complete all three terms of GERM-400 with an honors grade are well prepared to take the AP exam in May.
GERM-520/0, AP German
A yearlong commitment. Five-hour course. Open to students who have successfully completed GERM-300 or its equivalent. Students are exposed to a variety of German works in the original, including poems, plays, short stories, novels, and accounts of current events. Authors currently read: Brecht, Funke, D
GERM-600/1, Advanced Topics in German
Four class periods. Open to students who have successfully completed three terms of fourth- level or AP German, or their equivalent, this course varies with the needs of the class. It is usually a seminar in the analytical reading and discussion of German classics. Frequent writing of greater length is expected. A term paper or student-designed independent project replaces the final exam. Authors currently read: Brecht, Goethe, Kafka, D
GERM-600/2, Advanced Topics in German
Four class periods. Open to students who have successfully completed three terms of fourth- level or AP German, or their equivalent, this course varies with the needs of the class. It is usually a seminar in the analytical reading and discussion of German classics. Frequent writing of greater length is expected. A term paper or student-designed independent project replaces the final exam. Authors currently read: Brecht, Goethe, Kafka, D
GERM-600/3, Advanced Topics in German
Four class periods. Open to students who have successfully completed three terms of fourth- level or AP German, or their equivalent, this course varies with the needs of the class. It is usually a seminar in the analytical reading and discussion of German classics. Frequent writing of greater length is expected. A term paper or student-designed independent project replaces the final exam. Authors currently read: Brecht, Goethe, Kafka, D
GREK-100/0, First-Level Greek
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. The course introduces the student directly to the classical Greek of Periclean Athens through a series of readings that present not only the vocabulary, forms, and syntax of the language, but also the thoughts, feelings, and actions that characterize Greek culture. Though preliminary selections are necessarily simplified, within the first year students are reading excerpts in their original form from various Greek authors.
GREK-130, Introduction to Greek
Four class periods. This course is for students whose curiosity for the Greek language and literature has been aroused by their studies in other areas. For students who plan some day to study Russian or German, this course provides an excellent introduction into the intricacies of a highly inflected language. The student is also treated to an inside preview of a literature that, over the centuries, has provided inspiration and models for the literature of the Western World. It is a term-contained course, but students wishing to continue with Greek will have the opportunity to do so.
GREK-150/0, First- and Second-Level Greek, Intensive
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. The course is open to Seniors, Uppers, and others, with the permission fo the department. It covers in one year the essential material of GREK-100 and GREK-200, and basic forms and structure, along with ample selected readings from various Greek authors.
GREK-200/0, Second-Level Greek
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. This course continues the format of GREK-100, with further systematic development of reading skills and control of vocabulary, forms, and syntax through the medium of more advanced selections from the Greek masterpieces, always with the purpose of understanding the spirit of the people who produced them.
GREK-300/0, Third-Level Greek: Iliad and Odyssey
Four class periods. Students will study selected works of Homer, Herodotus, and Plato.
GREK-400/1, Fourth-Level Greek: Philosophy and History, Tragedy, Lyric
Four class periods. Ancient concepts of justice and morality are examined through the works of Plato and Thucydides. Human tragedy is explored in a play of Sophocles or Euripides. One term is devoted to the study of emotion and self-expression in the Greek lyric poets.
GREK-400/2, Fourth-Level Greek: Philosophy and History, Tragedy, Lyric
Four class periods. Ancient concepts of justice and morality are examined through the works of Plato and Thucydides. Human tragedy is explored in a play of Sophocles or Euripides. One term is devoted to the study of emotion and self-expression in the Greek lyric poets.
GREK-400/3, Fourth-Level Greek: Pilosophy and History, Tragedy, Lyric
Four class periods. Ancient concepts of justice and morality are examined through the works of Plato and Thucydides. Human tragedy is explored in a play of Sophocles or Euripides. One term is devoted to the study of emotion and self-expression in the Greek lyric poets.
HIST-100/0, World History 1000-1550: When Strangers Meet
A yearlong commitment. Four class periods per week for Juniors. When Strangers Meet explores and connects key episodes in world history that contributed to the emergence of a global network. The course begins with the rise and reach of Islam, then examines the Mongol empire, and ends with the rise of European nation states and their subsequent competition overseas. By delving into specific stories, from Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca, to Marco Polo's appointment to the court of Khubilai Khan, to the first interactions between European explorers and Native Americans, students examine the political, social, and cultural forces that shaped the development of society from 1000 to 1550. An equally important objective of the course is to hone the skills of historians and social scientists: the abilities to think objectively; to read and evaluate primary documents and secondary materials; to organize outline notes; to distinguish between more and less important evidence to employ in written and oral argument; to use library research tools; and to utilize a variety of textual, visual, statistical, and physical materials to understand and explain the past.
HIST-200, The Early Modern World 1500-1800
Four class periods per week. For Lowers. Focusing on developments in the Atlantic Rim, this course offers an interregional perspective on the period 1500-1800. The course examines the economic competition that drew the nations of Europe into the broader world. Through close scrutiny of the Atlantic Rim and the trade of goods and slaves, students probe the intertwining of personal, political, and economic relations that developed during this time. As in HIST-100, a central aim of the course is to enhance student development of the central skills of historical analysis and exposition. Particular emphasis will be placed on the skills of critical reading and historical writing.
HIST-300/4, The United States
A two-term commitment. Four class periods. For Uppers and Seniors. This course, along with History 310, completes the department's diploma requirements. The sequence emphasizes three goals: a survey knowledge of American history through the Great Depression; the acquisition of skills by daily exercises in reading, note-taking, and writing; and in-depth study of organizing themes.
HIST-300/5, The United States
Four class periods. For Uppers and Seniors. This course, along with History 310, completes the department's diploma requirements. The sequence emphasizes three goals: a survey knowledge of American history through the Great Depression; the acquisition of skills by daily exercises in reading, note-taking, and writing; and in-depth study of organizing themes.
HIST-310, The United States
Four class periods. For Uppers and Seniors. Students must take HIST-310 in the term immediately following their completion of HIST-300. The focus is on the United States during and after World War II. Prerequisite: successful completion of History 300/4 or 300/5. Prerequisite: Successful completion of HIST-300/4 or 300/5. Students completing this course who wish to take the College Board Advanced Placement examination should check with their teachers, since extensive review is required.
HIST-320/4, Topics in United States History for International Students
A two-term commitment. Four class periods. A course for entering Seniors for whom English is a second language. The intention of this course is to recognize the particular needs and strengths of students. The content is focused around key questions and issues in United States history. These include how a democracy emerged in America, the enduring dilemma of race and ethnicity, the rise of the American economy, and America's role in the world. The course emphasizes writing and language skills by gradually increasing the complexity of assignments and the amount of reading.
HIST-SS480, Disease & Medicine in the United States: Pox & Pestilence
Five class periods per week. Open to Uppers and Seniors. See also SCIE-480. In recent years, historians have begun to understand the impact of disease on the human story and have incorporated it into the more traditional narratives. In common with other parts of the world, the history of the United States has been profoundly influenced by infectious disease. In this course we invite you to come along on a multi-disciplinary journey to explore the impact of disease on the American experience in the 19th and 20th centuries. After exploring the pre-contact situation in the Americas, we will focus on syphilis, smallpox, bacterial sepsis, cholera, yellow fever, malaria, tuberculosis, influenza, polio, HIV/AIDS, and bioterrorism agents such as anthrax. Students will research the role these diseases played in the social, military, and political history of the United States together with the science and medicine that developed in response to them. This is a research seminar and students will use a variety of sources to write a term paper. There is no final examination. A student in this course is elegible for credit in either history or science. A student who wishes to receive history credit should sign up for HIST-SS480; a student who wishes to receive science credit should sign up for SCIE-480. (Ms. Doheny and Dr. Hagler)
HIST-SS485, Out of Tune: Music and the State in The Twentieth Century
Four class periods per week. Can governments control culture? What effect can political oppression have on an artist's work? What does it take to be accepted by a totalitarian state as a legitimate composer? Can you determine the real intentions of a composer working under a repressive regime? While some composers enjoyed approval and even served the purposes of the state, the 20th century is rife with examples of composers whose work was compromised, neglected, even forbidden. The rise of the technology of mass media also aided governments in their use of music. Hitler and Stalin, for example, were both masters of propaganda and were acutely aware of the power of music to influence people. The course includes an exploration of the work of Richard Strauss, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Aaron Copland, amongst others, as well as the attitudes of the governments under which they worked. It ends with an examination of the artistic deprivations imposed by the Cultural Revolution in China. Students also will research a case study of their choice. A student who wishes to receive history credit should sign up for HIST-SS485; a student who wishes to receive music credit should sign up for MUSC-485. (Ms. Doheny and Mr. Walter)
HIST-SS520, Economics I: Macroeconomics and the Global Consumer
Four class periods per week. The course introduces students to the basic principles of macro- and microeconomics and their application and relevance to national and international public policy. Students examine the development of the contemporary global economy and use basic theoretical tools to analyze current issues. Classes consist primarily of discussions, although the course also employs role-playing, debates, guest speakers, films, and student reports on their term projects. Students completing this course are eligible to enroll in HIST-SS521 and/or HIST-SS522. Fall Term - Limited to Seniors. Coupled with HIST-SS521 in the winter, the fall course will prepare students to take both the macroeconomics and microeconomics AP exams. Winter Term - Preference to Seniors. Students enrolling in HIST-SS520 in the winter will be prepared to take the macroeconomics AP exam. Spring Term - Preference to Seniors. Students seeking opportunities to develop a basic understanding of the discipline prior to attending college are encouraged to enroll, although those enrolling in the spring will not be prepared for an AP examination.
HIST-SS521, Economics II: Microeconomics and the Developing World
HIST-SS521 continues the introduction to economics begun in History-Social Science 520. Students utilize the basic principles learned in HIST-SS520 and study microeconomics, theory of the firm, the organization of markets, and the role of governments in all areas of the global economy. Special attention is given to development economics, resource markets, questions concerning racial and gender wage discrimination, and public sector issues such as health care and the economics of the environment. Students also study a range of economic development models and complete an applied research project using such models in relation to a contemporary developing country. Classes consist primarily of discussions, simulations, problem sets, and guest lectures. Prerequisite: successful completion of HIST-SS520.
HIST-SS522, Economics Research Colloquium
This research colloquium investigates public policy issues in the field of economics. Topics include the debates over sustainable growth, tax reform, supply-side economics, labor organization, national industrial policy, pollution, population growth and welfare policy, and the ethical responsibilities of business. Classes center around discussion of individual students' works in progress; a term paper and presentation on an issue of choice are required. There is no final examination. Prerequisite: Successful completion of HIST-SS520.
HIST-SS530, International Relations
This course will introduce the student to international relations by investigating the major schools of thought in international relations. The class also will examine the historical setting in order to understand emerging developments in various areas of the world. Events in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas will be addressed as the current international situation unfolds. Class discussion is a major component of this course. (Mr. Gurry)
HIST-SS531, Comparative Government
This course introduces students to the world's diverse political structures and practices. A comparative study of six nations - Britain, Russia, China, Nigeria, Mexico, and Iran - serves as a core for the course. By examining the political implications of different types of social and economic development, students become familiar both with general political concepts and with a broad array of specific issues, and they are able to use their knowledge as a template for examining how other countries respond to global challenges. Students customarily chose whether to write an in-depth paper or take a final exam. The course does prepare students to take the AP examination in Comparative Government and Politics, though this is not its primary goal. (Mr. Williams)
HIST-SS532/1, East Asia
This course can be taken separately, or in a sequence with HIST-SS532/2. If taken as a sequence, they offer students a comprehensive introduction to three of the world's most important countries, the region they share, and their relations with the rest of the world. When practical, these classes engage in collaboration with Chinese and Japanese language classes, respectively. There are term-long film series, and students use extensive intranet sites as resources and in daily assignments. Fall Term: HIST-SS532/1(Modern China)-Four class periods per week. Following a rapid survey of Chinese history, the class concentrates on modern China since the early 19th century. Required reading includes selections from The Search for Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence and its accompanying documents anthology. Students write a research or other major paper or a series of short essays. There is no final exam. (Mr. Drench)
HIST-SS532/2, SS East Asia
This course can be taken separately or as part of a sequence with HIST-SS532/1. If taken as a sequence, they offer students a comprehensive introduction to three of the world's most important countries, the region they share, and their relations with the rest of the world. When practical, these classes engage in collaboration with Chinese and Japanese language classes, respectively. There are term-long film series, and students use extensive intranet sites as resources and in daily assignments. WINTER TERM: HIST-SS532/2 (Modern Japan and Korea)-This course offers a survey of Japanese history, an introduction to Japanese culture, and an intensive examination of modern Japanese and Korean issues. While it is taught in loose collaboration with Japanese 300, no knowledge of the Japanese language is necessary. Students read two required texts chosen from among Japan's Postwar History, by Gary D. Allinson; The Two Koreas, by Don Oberdorfer; Inventing Japan, by Ian Buruma; North Korea: Another Country, by Bruce Cumings; and Japan: A Modern History, by James L. McClain, Learning to Bow, by Bruce Feiler; Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami; and The Book of Masks, by Hwang Sun-won. Students write a research or other major paper or a series of short essays. There is no final exam.
HIST-SS533/1, SS The Middle East, Central and South Asia
This course can be taken separately, as part of a sequence with HIST-SS533/2. If taken as a sequence, they offer students a comprehensive introduction to a broad swath of the world in which Islam is the most widely practiced faith and with which the United States is intimately involved. Stretch-ing from Morocco to Kashmir, from the Balkans to Sudan to the former Soviet Central Asian republics, this vast area includes the world's oldest crossroads in the heart of the Middle East and a contemporary cauldron of issues competing for our attention. The class will feature guest speakers, a film series, and opportunities for corresponding via e-mail with students in the region. Andover's intranet and off-campus Internet sites are used extensively as resources and in daily assignments. (Mr. Drench) FALL TERM: HIST-SS533/1 - (The Middle East Heartland)-Four class periods. The fall term concentrates on the interior Middle East and North Africa. We survey history from the dawn of Islam to the present day, and then examine selected issues in depth. These issues have included the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Gulf War, statelessness, political Islam, terrorism, women and minorities, water and oil, the Iraq War, and the post-9/11 world. During the term, students are assigned several books to read. Other readings have included journal articles and primary documents. Students write a research or other major paper or a series of short essays, and engage in roll-plays or contribute weekly reports from online media sites they follow regularly throughout the term. There is no final exam.
HIST-SS533/2, The Middle East Asia
This course can be taken separately or in a sequence with HIST-SS533/1. If taken as a sequence, they offer students a comprehensive introduction to a broad swath of the world in which Islam is the most widely practiced faith and with which the United States is intimately involved. Stretching from Morocco to Kashmir, from the Balkans to Sudan to the former Soviet Central Asian republics, this vast area includes the world's oldest crossroads in the heart of the Middle East and a contemporary cauldron of issues competing for our attention. The class will feature guest speakers, a film series, and opportunities for corresponding via e-mail with students in the region. Andover's intranet and off-campus Internet sites are used extensively as resources and in daily assignments. WINTER TERM. HIST-SS533/2 (The Greater Middle East) - Four class periods. The winter term concentrates on the area between the Persian Gulf and the borders of Russia and China. There is a historical survey highlighting major themes, followed by an in-depth investigation of modern and contemporary issues. These have included political Islam, Afghanistan's instability, Iran's revolutions and nuclear program, the partition of India and the Indian-Pakistani rivalry in its Kashmiri and nuclear dimensions, regional energy-related issues, and the emergence of Muslim-majority states in Central Asia following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Students are assigned one or two books to read and/or choose another title from a varied booklist. Studnets write a research or other major paper or a series of short essays, and engage in role-plays or contribute weekly reports from online media sites that they follow regularly throughout the term. There is no final exam. (Mr. Drench)
HIST-SS534/2, Africa, Ecology, and the Global Economy
Africa ranks among the most resource-rich and least densely populated regions of the world. Why, then, are so many countries racked by poverty, disease, and war? Using resource endowments and global trade as our point of departure, we will examine the modern history of sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to discussion of common readings in fiction and nonfiction, each student will choose a nation, develop its current economic and environmental profile, and trace the roots of that nation's experience back through the 20th century to the colonial period. The course will include mastery of some basic concepts in ecology, economics, and international political economy, and require regular readings assigned and delivered online. The term's work will culminate in a mock roundtable of formal country briefs to the United Nation's Environment Programme in Nairobi. Open to Uppers and Seniors. (Dr. Shaw)
HIST-SS534/3, SS Africa and the World
SPRING - The modern challenge. Among the greatest achievements of the 20th century was the liberation of African countries from colonial rule. This course examines the modern history of the continent using the lens of economics. However, the course is designed for those who have not enrolled in formal economics courses but are interested in learning a few basic economic concepts. From the rationale for colonialism and the sharing in Europe of the Magnificent African Cake (1885-1945) through the heady promise of growth and development with independence (1945-1980) to the current challenge of debt, aid, and the question of post-colonialist dependency (1980-present), we will look at all three stages of modern history on the continent. Students will research one topic in depth. Open to Uppers and Seniors. No prerequisites.
HIST-SS535/3, Introduction to Latin America
Not offered in 2009-2010. This one-term course will introduce the student to many of the basic issues and themes that contribute to an understanding of Latin America. The class will deal briefly with the region's common history, the pre-colonial and colonial experiences. Rather than attempt a full survey, the course will review in some depth historical and contemporary issues in Brazil and Mexico, by far the largest countries of the region. Regionally, the class will look at a number of common themes: the New Left in Latin America; issues of U.S. foreign policy; common economic problems and prospects; regional integration, etc. Each student will be asked to look at a given Latin American country, invoking this thematic material as appropriate. The goal is to understand this important and neglected region, in its diversity and commonality, as its many links with the United States become ever more pressing. (Mr. Perry)
HIST-SS571, Gender Studies In Gender Relations
How does your moment in history shape your sexuality and your identity as a man or a woman? How does your culture shape those same aspects of your self? How do differences of gender create cross-cultural misunderstanding? Who decides what is feminine or masculine? How have mass media shaped our beliefs about gender? This course will include reading, discussions, films, guest speakers, short papers, and a final research project. There is no prerequisite and there is no final examination. (Dr. Rotundo)
HIST-SS572, Nuclear Power and Weapons Proliferation and Response
Not offered in 2009-2010. This seminar follows the evolution of and reaction to atomic energy and The Bomb, from the discovery of fission in 1938 on Otto Hahn's table in Nazi Germany, to Hiroshima, the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the START talks, SDI and Chernobyl in the 1980s, and the increased danger of proliferation and nuclear terrorism after the Cold War into the 21st century. Historians, chemists, physicists, political scientists, and journalists are among those who tell the story in lectures, documents, and secondary accounts. Readings include: Sheldon Stern, The Week the World Stood Still; Richard Smoke, National Security and the Nuclear Dilemma; and Bulletin of Atomic Scientists articles (2009-10). The course entails class seminars, field trips, films, readings, a research project, a period test, and a final examination.
HIST-SS574, Expansion and Indian Policy in the 19th Century: kill the Indian, Save The Man
In this course, students will explore the dramatic and often tragic events that accompanied the rapid expansion of white America in the 19th century. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Thomas Jefferson hoped to realize his dream of expanding the United States. The journeys of Lewis and Clark and other explorers helped open up the continent and make the dream a reality. The remarkably rapid expansion of white America permanently altered the way of life for native peoples as they faced intrusion into their traditional homelands. Throughout the 19th century the white government developed policies to deal with the Indian problem, from assimilation to removal, from reservations to allotment. In this course, students will examine these policies and the race theories that underpinned them. How influential, for example, was the measurement of human skulls by Samuel Morton for his Crania Americana? What did it mean to kill the Indian and save the man? And how, then, could white officials justify the destruction of the buffalo in the name of progress? Students will use the collections at the Peabody Museum, together with traditional written source materials, to uncover white and Indian perspectives as the continent came under the control of the U.S. government. (Mrs. Doheny)
HIST-SS575, Abolitionism in Black and White Against Slavery
Offered in winter and spring terms, this IP seminar explores the American anti-slavery movement through the lives and work of abolitionists, both black and white. Among the questions we will adress are: How did black and white abolitionists understand and approach the movement differently, and how did their motivations differ? How did slaves themselves resist slavery? White abolitionists believed that the slaves should be freed, but how many believed that former slaves should enjoy rights equal to those of whites? How was the threat of violence (armed uprising) used in anti-slavery arguments? How did the changing nature of slavery (e.g., the growth of the domestic slave trade) influence the anti-slavery movement? Both secondary and extensive primary sources will be used. After completing the introductory reading, each student will pick a topic to research and write about. Members of the seminar will meet regularly to discuss their research with one another and will also have regular individual meetings with the instructor. The major research paper or project will be due at the end of the term. Students interested in taking this IP seminar should apply to be an Abbot Independent Scholar (application available in the Dean of Studies' Office). Enrollment is limited to five students. (Mrs. Chase)
HIST-SS577A, American Popular Culture
In this course, students will examine the history of popular culture in the United States. The course will ask students to engage with a variety of popular culture forms (material culture, visual and aural culture, popular literature, etc.) and will introduce them to methodologies from different historical fields and perspectives. Students will investigate popular culture as evidence of the attitudes, assumptions, values, and anxieties of a society. Students will be encouraged to explore the contested meanings of culture, community, and membership in the United States as they cultivate an awareness of the ways popular culture has shaped -and been shaped by- race, class, and gender. Students will study both commercial and noncommercial aspects of popular culture, as well as consider how new forms of technology have altered the ways popular culture is produced and consumed. The course will examine the important role that American popular culture plays-and has played-in globalization. By looking at the products of popular culture historically, students will sharpen their abilities to read critically the popular culture of their own time. There is no final exam. (Ms. Ainsworth)
HIST-SS577C, The Founders and Their World
Those who founded the American republic confronted challenges that seem strikingly familiar: nation-building; terrorism; a ballooning national debt; use and misuse of the American military force; losing the respect of Europe; government suspension of civil liberties; and nasty presidential campaigns and disputed elections. This seminar invites a deeper understanding of the group of Americans present at the creation. Although they joined in making a revolution, they ultimately disagreed violently on the meaning of that revolution and its results. Making extensive use of primary documents and of recent appraisals of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, and others, students will develop their own understanding of these individuals and how they met the challenges of their time. Investigating those who invented the nation will raise questions such as: Why are there so many founding fathers and, apparently, so few founding mothers? Have historians overlooked figures that should be considered part of this group? Why did few of these apostles of freedom oppose slavery? Why did former colleagues and friends turn into bitter enemies? Why did so many of the founders die profoundly disillusioned with their new America? Students are expected to participate actively in seminar discussion and to write a research essay. There is no final examination. (Mr. Henningsen)
HIST-SS577D, The United States From Roosevelt to Roosevelt: America in the First Four Decades of the 20th Century
Four class periods per week. This course focuses on U.S. history starting with the Progressive Era, the 1920s, and the New Deal. As we examine the major reform movements of the Progressive Era, we will see how they were transformed by war and the nation's postwar reaction. We will look at the continuities between the Red Scare of 1919-1920 and the social conflict of the Roaring Twenties. As we study Franklin Roosevelt's administration in depth and its response to the Great Depression, we also will look at the WPA and other government attempts to reshape American culture. We also will study the response of the press, politicians, and others to the disturbing news of Hitler's repression of the Jews, as well as Eleanor Roosevelt's efforts to help refugees escape Europe. We will explore selected topics in politics, social history, and the culture of the first four decades of the 20th century. (Ms. Dalton)
HIST-SS578/3, Brazilian Cultural Studies
Four class periods. See also ENG-582B/3. One of the largest countries in the world and with a diverse population, geography, and economic base, Brazil is poised to become one of the giants of 21st-century global development. This course will look into important moments in the political, economic, literary, and artistic histories of the country in the 19th and 20th centuries, in an effort to understand how Brazil came to be what it is today and what it could become in the future. We will pay specific attention to the nation's formative years after independence from Portugal in 1822, the coffee boom of the early 20th century, the Vargas and Kubitschek regimes, the military dictatorship of the 1960s and '70s, and the new democratic period of recent years. These historical eras will be studied through the lens of the literature, film, art, and music being produced at the time. Of special interest will be the work of Machado de Assis, Gilberto Freyre, Clarice Lispector, Jorge Amado, and participants in the 1922 Week of Modern Art movement, as well as the protest songs and films depicting life under the military regime. A student in this course is elegible for credit in either English or history. A student who wishes to receive English credit should sign up for ENGL-582B; a student who wishes to receive history credit should sign up for HIST-SS578. (Mr. Perry and Dr. Vidal)
HIST-SS579, Europe 1914-1945: War and Peace
Four class periods per week. Why did Europe become the battleground for two world wars fought within 25 years of each other? This seminar will examine the political, social, and economic conditions in Europe that set the stage for the bloodletting of the first half of the 20th century. The First World War caused the collapse of empires, the death of millions, and a fissure dividing an idealized old Europe and a disconcertingly modern new one. In the 1920s and 1930s the redrawn map of Europe, socialism, fascism, and Nazism all set the stage for the next great conflagration, while the art and literature of those years expressed key cultural shifts. The Second World War brought horrors that resonate to this day: Auschwitz, the siege of Leningrad, Stalin146s purges, the firebombing of Dresden, and the atomic bomb, to name just a few. When the war finally ended it would take a remarkable shift in thinking to reconstruct a war-torn continent. Readings will include historical narrative, literature, and memoirs. Independent reading, research, and writing will be the basis for assessment. There is no final examination. (Ms. Mulligan)
INTD-539/2, Florence in the Renaissance
JAPA-100/0, First-Level Japanese
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. Open to all students. Seniors may take the course, but in situations of high enrollment, priority will be given to younger students to fulfill language requirement. Students will learn to express themselves in a variety of conversational situations and to read and write hiragana, katakana, and about 15 kanji, or Chinese characters. Classroom instruction will be based on Adventures in Japanese, Book 1, and its corresponding workbook. Students will learn not only the basic grammatical structures but also important elements of Japanese culture.
JAPA-130, Introduction to Japanese
Not offered in 2009-2010. Four class periods. This course is designed for students who are thinking of traveling to Japan and/or studying Japanese as a second language at Andover or in college. In addition to developing survival-level speaking skills, students will learn to read and write using katakana, hiragana and 50-75 kanji, or Chinese characters. Students will also sing and perform short skits, and will follow at least one popular animated film in Japanese. Selections from the textbook Japanese for Busy People, karaoke songs, audio and video tapes, visits by Japanese-speaking guests, and materials developed by the instructor will support classroom instruction. In the last weeks of the course, students will research a social, cultural, or historical topic in which they are personally interested and then present it to their classmates.
JAPA-200/0, Second-Level Japanese
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. Open to students who have successfully completed first-level Japanese or its equivalent. A continuation of JAPA-100, the instruction will be based on Adventures in Japanese, Book 2, and its workbook. In this course there is an increased emphasis on grammar and an additional 150 kanji.
JAPA-300/0, Third-Level Japanese
A yearlong commitment. Four class periods. Open to students who have successfully completed second-level Japanese or its equivalent. Instruction is given based on Adventures in Japanese, Book 3, and its workbook. Emphasis is placed on more conversational practice using the previously learned grammar and more advanced new grammar. Additional emphasis is placed on a significant increase in kanji characters. Students are expected to learn an additional 150 kanji by the end of the course.
JAPA-400/0, Fourth-Level Japanese
A yearlong commitment. Four class periods. Open to students who have successfully completed third-level Japanese or its equivalent. Using the advanced textbook of Adventures in Japanese, Book 4, and its workbook, students will learn to express themselves more creatively and to communicate with status-appropriate word usage. Students will learn an additional 150 kanji by the end of the course. Emphasis is placed on more advanced Japanese culture and understanding Japanese history and values. Projects include interviews, research, and the final papers.
JAPA-520/0, Ap Japanese Language and Culture
A yearlong commitment. This course is modeled on the AP syllabus, and is designed to be comparable to college/university Japanese courses where students complete approximately 300 hours of college-level classroom instruction. Like the corresponding college courses, the AP course supports students as they develop the productive, receptive, and cultural skills necessary to communicate with native speakers of Japanese. Students' proficiency levels at the end of the course are expected to reach the intermediate-low to intermediate-mid range, as described in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines.
JAPA-600/1, Advanced Topics in Japanese
Four class periods. This course focuses on the development of additional kanji, and on vocabulary expansion through the study of Japanese newspapers, short stories, and a feature-length film. Emphasis is placed on students' listening comprehension and speaking proficiency. Prerequisite: A successful completion of JAPA-400 and/or the approval of the instructor.
JAPA-600/2, Advanced Topics in Japanese
Four class periods. This course focuses on the development of additional kanji, and on vocabulary expansion through the study of Japanese newspapers, short stories, and a feature-length film. Emphasis is placed on students' listening comprehension and speaking proficiency. Prerequisite: A successful completion of JAPA-400 and/or the approval of the instructor.
JAPA-600/3, Advanced Topics in Japanese
Four class periods. This course focuses on the development of additional kanji, and on vocabulary expansion through the study of Japanese newspapers, short stories, and a feature-length film. Emphasis is placed on students' listening comprehension and speaking proficiency. Prerequisite: A successful completion of JAPA-400 and/or the approval of the instructor.
LATN-100/0, First-Level Latin
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. The purpose of the course is to teach students the basic features of the Latin language and of Roman culture in relation to other cultures, e.g., family life and societal relationships, slavery, travel, sports, life in the big city, entertainment, and education. Students learn the traditional forms and syntax. All six tenses, indicative and passive, are covered, as well as all five declensions of nouns, three declensions of adjectives, and the standard pronouns. There is extensive practice in recognizing endings of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs, as well as case uses and normal Latin sentence structures, with the goal of mastering basic techniques of accurate translation and comprehension of Latin sentences and stories. Students complete the textbook, Jenney's First Year Latin, then study Jenney's Second Year Latin up through the ablative absolute.
LATN-130, Introduction to Latin
Five class periods. Comparable to the first term of LATN-150, but with less depth of coverage, this one-term course is for students seeking an introduction to the Latin language or those whose studies in other languages (including English) have aroused their curiosity about the workings of languages (grammar, syntax, and vocabulary). It offers special profit and fascination to students of French, Spanish, and Italian, since it gives a wider perspective on much of what they already know. For students who plan some day to study Russian or German, it serves as an introduction to the workings of highly inflected languages. It is a term-contained course, but students wishing to continue with Latin will have the opportunity to do so.
LATN-150/0, 1st- & 2nd-Level Latin, Intensive
A yearlong commitment. Five prepared class periods. This course covers in one year the essential elements of LATN-100 and LATN-200.
LATN-200/0, Second-Level Latin
A yearlong commitment. Five prepared class periods. During the fall, the linguistic and cultural approach of ALTN-100 is continued as the class reviews and completes the basic grammar (including participles, subjunctives, and indirect statements) and reads about other aspects of Roman life. In the winter and spring, students read selections from Caesar, Livy, Ovid, and Apuleius' tale of Cupid and Psyche.
LATN-300/0, Third-Level-Latin: Livy, Catullus, Cicero, Vergil
A yearlong commitment. Four prepared classes, all single periods. Students begin the fall with a thorough review of the Latin language in conjunction with correlated reading passages. In the latter half of the fall, students read selections from Livy or Cicero. In the winter, students read the lyric love poetry of Catullus and selections from Cicero's speech, Pro Caelio, defending one of Catullus' former friends against charges brought by the woman to whom Catullus wrote his most famous poems. In the spring, students read selections from Book II of Vergil's Aeneid, the story of the Trojan Horse and the destruction of Troy, a heroic backdrop for very human struggles of duty and loyalty among women and men, parents and children, leaders and followers, humans and their gods.
LATN-520L/1, Horace, Catullus
Four prepared class periods. In the fall, students come face to face with the brilliance, passion, and candor of Catullus's lyric genius. In the winter term, they study the lyric poetry of Horace, experiencing firsthand his curiosa felicitas, admired and celebrated by other poets for 2,000 years. In the spring, students learn to compare and contrast these two monumental literary figures. Prerequisite: A grade of 5 or higher in LATN-300 or permission of the department.
LATN-520L/2, Horace, Catullus
Four prepared class periods. In the fall, students come face to face with the brilliance, passion, and candor of Catullus's lyric genius. In the winter term, they study the lyric poetry of Horace, experiencing firsthand his curiosa felicitas, admired and celebrated by other poets for 2,000 years. In the spring, students learn to compare and contrast these two monumental literary figures. Prerequisite: A grade of 5 or higher in LATN-300 or permission of the department.
LATN-520L/3, Horace, Catullus
Four prepared class periods. In the fall, students come face to face with the brilliance, passion, and candor of Catullus's lyric genius. In the winter term, they study the lyric poetry of Horace, experiencing firsthand his curiosa felicitas, admired and celebrated by other poets for 2,000 years. In the spring, students learn to compare and contrast these two monumental literary figures. Prerequisite: A grade of 5 or higher in LATN-300 or permission of the department.
LATN-520V/0, Vergil
A yearlong commitment. Five prepared class periods. Students read the entire Aeneid in English and substantial selections of Books I, IV, and VI in Latin, examining Vergil's literary form and technique, as well as the philosophical and political dimensions of his age. Book II, which students will have read in the spring of Latin 300, is reviewed quickly. Book I frames Rome's 1,000-year ascendancy in the rivalries of divine wills. Book IV tells the story of the tragic conflict between Aeneas' love for Queen Dido and his obligation to imperial Roman destiny. Book VI features Aeneas' descent into the underworld to gain prophetic visions of Rome's future greatness. Brief selections from Books VII-XII, the Roman Iliad, round out the readings for the year. Prerequisite: A grade of 5 or higher in LATN-300 or permission of the department.
MATH-100/0, Elementary Algebra
Five class periods. A yearlong course for students who have had little or no algebra. Stress is placed on an understanding of the elementary structure and language of the real number system, on the manipulative skills of simplifying expressions and solving first- and second-degree equations, and on the study and graphing of polynomial functions. Work is done with word problems, inequalities, irrational numbers, and right triangle trigonometry. Prerequisite: none.
MATH-150/4, Elementary Algebra
Five class periods. A two-term course for students who have had some algebra. Stress is placed on the manipulative skills of simplifying expressions and solving first- and second-degree equations, and on the study and graphing of polynomial functions. Work is done with word problems, inequalities, irrational numbers, and right triangle trignometry. Prerequisite: A half to a full year of algebra.
MATH-190, Algebra Review
Five class periods. A course for students who enter with a full year of algebra and who would benefit from a brief review of algebra. Stress is placed on the manipulative skills of simplifying expressions and solving first- and second-degree equations, and on the study and graphing of polynomial functions. Work is done with word problems, inequalities, irrational numbers, and right triangle trigonometry. Prerequisite: A full year of algebra.
MATH-210, Geometry
Five class periods. A course for students who have had a strong ninth-grade algebra course, but little or no geometry. This course is a thorough and systematic presentation of standard synthetic Euclidean geometry. Emphasis is placed on the need for precision and clarity in the writing of formal proofs. Prerequisites: A complete course in elementary algebra and good algebraic skills.
MATH-220, Geometry
Five class periods. This course continues the work of MATH-210, with increased emphasis on the algebraic and numerical aspects of geometry. Prerequisite: MATH-210.
MATH-280/0, Geometry and Precalculus
Five class periods. A yearlong course for extremely able entering students who have completed with distinction an intermediate algebra course but have not completed a yearlong geometry course. The course covers Euclidean geometry (both synthetic and coordinate) and elementary functions. This course completes the diploma requirement and prepares students to enroll in MATH-350 or MATH-380/4. Prerequisite: Credit for one year of elementary algebra and one year of intermediate algebra.
MATH-300/4, Algebra Consolidation
Five class periods. A two-term course primarily for new students who have completed a yearlong geometry course and would benefit from algebra review prior to entering the precalculus sequence. The course begins with a comprehensive review of elementary algebra and concludes with topics in intermediate algebra (as listed in the course description of MATH-320). Students with a (T2) grade of 4 or higher in this course enter MATH-330 in the spring. Students with a (T2) grade of 3 or below in MATH-300/4 enter MATH-320 in the spring.
MATH-320, Precalculus
Five class periods. MATH-320, MATH-330, and MATH-340 are the first three terms of a five-term precalculus sequence that covers material on a wide variety of functions: polynomical, radical, exponential, logarithmic, trigonometric, parametric, polar, and vectors. Returning students will be placed in appropriate term of this sequence based on performance in prior classes. New students will be placed based on their math placement exam scores. Completion of MATH-340 satisfies the diploma requirement.
MATH-330, Precalculus
Five class periods. MATH-320, MATH-330, and MATH-340 are the first three terms of a five-term precalculus sequence that covers material on a wide variety of functions: polynomical, radical, exponential, logarithmic, trigonometric, parametric, polar, and vectors. Returning students will be placed in appropriate term of this sequence based on performance in prior classes. New students will be placed based on their math placement exam scores. Completion of MATH-340 satisfies the diploma requirement.
MATH-340, Precalculus
Five class periods. MATH-320, MATH-330, and MATH-340 are the first three terms of a five-term precalculus sequence that covers material on a wide variety of functions: polynomical, radical, exponential, logarithmic, trigonometric, parametric, polar, and vectors. Returning students will be placed in appropriate term of this sequence based on performance in prior classes. New students will be placed based on their math placement exam scores. Completion of MATH-340 satisfies the diploma requirement.
MATH-350, Precalculus
Five class periods. MATH-350 and MATH-360 are the last two of a five-term precalculus sequence that covers material on a wide variety of functions: polynomial, radical, exponential, logarithmic, trignometric, parametric, polar, and vectors. Returning students will be placed in the appropriate term of this sequence based on performance in prior classes. New students will be placed based on their math placement exam scores.
MATH-360, Precalculus
Five class periods. MATH-350 and MATH-360 are the last two of a five-term precalculus sequence that covers material on a wide variety of functions: polynomial, radical, exponential, logarithmic, trignometric, parametric, polar, and vectors. Returning students will be placed in the appropriate term of this sequence based on performance in prior classes. New students will be placed based on their math placement exam scores.
MATH-380/4, Accelerated Precalculus
This two-term course begins with a review of polynomial and rational functions and proceeds to cover logarithmic, exponential, and trigonometric functions, inverse functions, parametric equations, polar coordinates, vectors, complex numbers, and sequences and series. Upon successful completion of MATH-380/4, students will be ready to study MATH-580. Prerequisite: Successful completion of MATH-280/0 with a grade of 4 or higher or placement by the department.
MATH-400, Elementary Functions II
Five class periods. A course primarily for entering Seniors who need to satisfy the diploma requirements in mathematics. The course focuses on functions and their applications, including polynomial, exponential, logarithmic, circular, and trigonometric functions. Strong emphasis is placed on graphing and the use of graphs as an aid in problem solving. Prerequisite: Credit for three years of high school mathematics or permission of the department.
MATH-410, Probability
Four class periods. Includes sample spaces, counting problems, sampling, conditional probability, random variables, expected value, variance, standard deviation, binomial and normal distributions. The computer is used on applications that are too time-consuming to perform by hand and to simulate experiments for which there are no models. Prerequisite: MATH-350 or its equivalent.
MATH-470, Introduction to Discrete Mathematics And Programming
Five class periods. This course blends a study of programming (using the Python programming language) with mathematics relevant to computer science. Students learn how to design simple algorithms and write and test short programs in Python. The course covers Python syntax and style, as well as data types, conditional statements, iterations (loops), and recursion. Selected mathematical topics include sets, number systems, Boolean algebra, counting, and probability. A grade of 4 or higher in this course qualifies a student for COMP-500(AP Computer Science I). Prerequisite: MATH-210 or higher, or permission of the department.
MATH-480, Analytic Geometry
Four class periods. This course is an extension of earlier work on lines and curves in the plane. It includes extended locus problems and further study of the conic sections: parabolas, ellipses, and hyperbolas, and their simple rotations. The course includes an introduction to the algebraic description of three-space: vectors, curves, planes, simple surfaces, and their intersections. Prerequisite: MATH-360 or its equivalent.
MATH-500/5, Advanced Mathematics
A two-term commitment. Four class periods. Primarily for Seniors, but open to other students who want to continue the study of functions and get an introduction to calculus. The calculus topics will include limits, problems of optimization, rates of change, areas under curves, and lengths of curves. Prerequisite: MATH-360, MATH-400, or an equivalent course in trigonometry and elementary functions.
MATH-510, Calculus
Five class periods. Primarily for Seniors. Topics covered include a review of functions and graphing, limits, continuity, determination of derivatives and integrals from graphs of functions (not from their formal definitions). Prerequisite: MATH-360 or its equivalent, or MATH-500.
MATH-520/5, Calculus
A two-term commitment. Five class periods. This is a continuation of MATH-510. Topics covered include the definite integral, the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, further differentiation of functions, techniques and applications of integration. The most successful students will be in a position to do the AB Advanced Placement examination in calculus. Prerequisite: A grade of 3 or higher in MATH-510 or permission of the department.
MATH-530, AP Statistics I
Five class periods. The first term of a yearlong sequence that prepares for the Advanced Placement Examination in Statistics. This term primarily covers the exploratory analysis of data, making use of graphical and numerical techniques to study patterns, and developing plans for data collection of valid information. Prerequisite: MATH-360 or permission of the department.
MATH-530/5, AP Statistics II
A two-term commitment. Five class periods. A continuation of MATH-530, finishing the syllabus for the Advanced Placement examination in May. Topics include probability as the tool for producing models, random variables, independence, normal distribution, simulation, sampling, statistical inference, confidence intervals, and tests of significance. Prerequisite: A grade of 3 or higher in MATH-530.
MATH-560, AP AB Calculus I
Five class periods. This is the beginning of the four-term calculus sequence that, together with MATH-570, covers the syllabus of the AB Advanced Placement examination. This term focuses primarily on differential calculus: limits, continuity, derivatives, and applications of derivatives. Some integral calculus may be covered if time permits. Graphical, numerical, and analytic methods will be used throughout the course. Prerequisite: MATH-360 or its equivalent, with no grade lower than a 3 in MATH-340, 350 and 360.
MATH-570, AP AB Calculus II
Five class periods. This course continues the work of MATH-560 in preparation for the AB Advanced Placement examination. Topics include integration and applications of integral calculus. Prerequisite: MATH-560 completed with at least a 3 or MATH-580.
MATH-570/5, AP AB Calculus (II)
Five class periods. A continuation of Mathematics 570, finishing the syllabus for the AB Advanced Placement Examination. Prerequisite: Mathematics 570 completed with at least a 3 or Mathematics 590.
MATH-575/0, AP Accelerated AB Calculus
Five class periods. A yearlong course in calculus that begins only in the fall. Satisfactory completion of this course prepares students for the College Board AB Advanced Placement examination. This course does not prepare students for MATH-650. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Prerequisite: MATH-360 or its equivalent, with no grade lower than a 4 in MATH-340, 350, and 360. Those students who do not meet this requirement should take either MATH-510 or 560.
MATH-580, AP BC Calculus I
Five class periods. This is the beginning of a four-term calculus sequence recommended for students who are well prepared in precalculus. With MATH-590 it covers the syllabus of the BC Calculus Advanced Placement examination. Topics covered include primarily differential calculus: limits, continuity, derivatives, the Chain Rule, related rates, and the Mean Value Theorem. Some integral calculus is also covered. Graphical, numerical, and analytic methods are used throughout the course. Prerequisite: MATH-360 or its equivalent, with no grade lower than a 4 in MATH-340, 350, and 360. Those students who do not meet this requirement should take either MATH-510 or 560.
MATH-590, AP BC Calculus II
Five class periods. This course continues the work of MATH-580 in preparation for the BC Advanced Placement examination. Topics include integration and applications of integral calculus. Prerequisite: MATH-580 completed with a grade of at least a 4 or departmental permission.
MATH-590/5, AP BC Calculus II
A two-term commitment. Five class periods. A continuation of MATH-590, finishing the syllabus for the BC Advanced Placement examination. Prerequisite: MATH-590 completed with a grade of 3 or better.
MATH-595/0, AP Accelerated BC Calculus
Five class periods. A yearlong course in calculus that begins only in the fall. Enrollment is limited to the most able mathematics students. Satisfactory completion of this course prepares students for the College Board BC Advanced Placement examination. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours per week of homework. In order to qualify for this course, returning students must perform satisfactorily on a special precalculus qualifying examination given the previous spring term. Prerequisite: MATH-360 or its equivalent, with no grade lower than a 5 in MATH-340, 350, and 360, plus departmental permission and demonstrated excellence on entrance tests.
MATH-630/1, Honors Mathematics Seminar
Four class periods. Each term's seminar will be devoted to one topic, which will be developed in depth. The term's topic will be announced the previous term and might be: Topics in the History of Mathematics; Numerical Methods and Approximations; Non-Linear Dynamical Systems -Instability, Chaos, and Fractals; Complex Analysis; Abstract Algebra-Groups, Rings, and Fields; Mathematical Models in the World Around Us; Topics in Discrete Mathematics; or Number Theory. Participants need to be prepared to work on one topic in great detail and, in some seminars, to work as part of a team on the solution of problems. Prerequisite: Three terms of calculus or departmental permission.
MATH-630/2, Honors Mathematics Seminar
Four class periods. Each term's seminar will be devoted to one topic, which will be developed in depth. The term's topic will be announced the previous term and might be: Topics in the History of Mathematics; Numerical Methods and Approximations; Non-Linear Dynamical Systems -Instability, Chaos, and Fractals; Complex Analysis; Abstract Algebra-Groups, Rings, and Fields; Mathematical Models in the World Around Us; Topics in Discrete Mathematics; or Number Theory. Participants need to be prepared to work on one topic in great detail and, in some seminars, to work as part of a team on the solution of problems. Prerequisite: Three terms of calculus or departmental permission.
MATH-630/3, Honors Mathematics Seminar
Four class periods. Each term's seminar will be devoted to one topic, which will be developed in depth. The term's topic will be announced the previous term and might be: Topics in the History of Mathematics; Numerical Methods and Approximations; Non-Linear Dynamical Systems -Instability, Chaos, and Fractals; Complex Analysis; Abstract Algebra-Groups, Rings, and Fields; Mathematical Models in the World Around Us; Topics in Discrete Mathematics; or Number Theory. Participants need to be prepared to work on one topic in great detail and, in some seminars, to work as part of a team on the solution of problems. Prerequisite: Three terms of calculus or departmental permission.
MATH-650, Linear Algebra
Four class periods. For students of demonstrated ability and interest. Topics include vectors, lines, and planes in space, and an introduction to linear algebra, including solving systems of linear equations using row reduction, Gaussian elimination, LU decomposition, matrices, vector spaces, and applications. There will be an emphasis on proofs throughout. Prerequisite: MATH-590/5 or MATH-595/0, and departmental permission.
MATH-651/5, Linear Algebra
Four class periods. A continuation of MATH-650 with more focus on vector spaces and linear independence. Other topics include eigenvalues including complex eigenvalues, eigenvectors, discrete dynamical systems, the Gram-Schmidt process for finding orthogonal bases, least squares models, linear transformations, symmetric matrices, and change of basis. There will be an emphasis on proofs throughout. Applications will illuminate the theory and will be chosen with the interests of the students in the course. Prerequisite: MATH-650.
MATH-661, Calculus of Vector Functions
Four class periods. This course covers functions of many variables, partial differentiation, gradients, vectors, vector valued function, multiple integration and its applications, line integrals, Green146s Theorem, and Stoke146s Theorem. Prerequisite: Mathematics 650.
MATH-661/5, Calculus of Vector Functions
Four class periods. This course covers functions of many variables, partial differentiation, gradients, vectors, vector valued function, multiple integration and its applications, line integrals, Green's Theorem, and Stoke's Theorem. Prerequisite: MATH-650.
MUSC-200, The Nature of Music
Five class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors only. This course offers a basic introduction to music literature, theory, performance, and composition. Music from many cultures and historical periods is examined in an attempt to increase student awareness of the patterns of syntax and vocabulary that comprise all musical language. Students compose several original compositions, and they also receive instruction on musical instruments. No previous experience in music is required.
MUSC-225, The Nature of Music A
Five class periods. Open to Juniors and Lowers only. This course offers a basic introduction to music literature, theory, performance, and composition. Music from many cultures and historical periods is examined in an attempt to increase student awareness of the patterns of syntax and vocabulary that comprise all musical language. Students compose several original compositions, and they also receive instruction on musical instruments. No previous experience in music is required.
MUSC-235, The Nature of Music B
Five class periods. Open to Juniors and Lowers only. This course is designed for students who have had some experience reading music and playing an instrument. As a more advanced version of MUSC-225, it will include more extensive experiences in composition. Study of some core works of music literature from a variety of cultures will help develop listening skills, and there will be opportunities for live music-making in class.
MUSC-310, Jazz History
Four class periods. This course begins by examining jazz's mixture of African and European traditions and the subsequent pre-jazz styles of spiritual, blues, and ragtime. We then proceed with a study of 20th century jazz styles beginning with New Orleans and culminating with the multifaceted creations of today's artists. Along the way we pay tribute to the work of some of jazz's most influential innovators, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis. Original recordings, photographs, and videos are used extensively throughout the term. (Mr. Cirelli)
MUSC-320, Improvisation
Formerly MUSC-420. Four class periods (two singles, one double). The art of improvisation has appeared in the musical styles of many different cultures, though it is best known for its central role in jazz performance. Students will begin by employing and refining their aural skills while improvising in the styles of early blues and jazz musicians. We will then explore more advanced harmonic concepts and begin improvising in increasingly complex styles, including those of contemporary popular music and modern jazz. Assessments will include quizzes, tests, transcriptions, and performance. (Mr. Cirelli) Prerequisite: Open to intermediate and advanced instrumentalists and vocalists from all musical backgrounds who are familiar with music notation.
MUSC-330/1, Topics in Western Music History
Formerly MUSC-250. Five class periods. A one-term survey of Western music history focusing on 18th-century Classicism and 19th-century Romanticism. Music is viewed as a mirror of its time. Selected readings and repertoire from these musical time periods are studied through melody, harmony, rhythm, form, and style, as well as literature, religion, mythology, politics, and biographies. (Mr. Lorenco)
MUSC-330/2, Topics in Western Music History
Formerly MUSC-250. Five class periods. A one-term survey of Western music history focusing on music from the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Contemporary time periods. Included is the study of American music, including jazz and rock genres. Repertoire from these musical time periods is studied through melody, harmony, rhythm, form, and style, as well as literature, religion, mythology, politics, and biographies. (Mr. Lorenco)
MUSC-330A/3, Survey of Music History
Five class periods. A one term survey of Western music history. The course progresses chronologically from classical antiquity to the music of today, exploring along the way the religious, social, historical, and human issues surrounding music and its composition. Students who took MUSC-330/1 and/or MUSC-330/2 are not eligible for this course. (Mr. Lorenco)
MUSC-340, West African Drumming Ensemble
Honors/Pass/Fail. Four class periods. This course introduces the role of music in indigenous Africa with an emphasis on Yoruba Orisha Music and its linguistic dimension. It teaches both improvisational and ensemble skills, and cites Santeria, Candomble, Lucumi, Vodum, Shungo, and Bembe as examples of Yoruba- derived cultural and musical practices in the Americas. The school owns 20 African drums; as many as 20 students can be enrolled in the course. If failed, this course cannot be made up by examination. In addition, this course cannot be taken as part of a four-course program. A $30 fee is charged for the use of the school's African drums. (Mr. Alade)
MUSC-360, Electronic Music
Four class periods. This composition course is designed to enable students with modest notational skills to use electronic equipment in order to compose music. Equipment used includes mixing board, analog and four-track tape recorders, digital stereo and eight-track recorders, analog and digitally controlled synthesizers, drum machine, Macintosh computer, and sequencing software (Professional Performer). Projects include compositions in the style of musique concrete and other sound collages using synthesizers. Space limitations in the electronic music studio require that the course be limited to nine students per term. Students must reserve three two-hour private work sessions in the studio per week. A lab fee of $30 is charged for the use of the equipment. This course does not focus on popular music. MUSC-360, if failed, cannot be made up by examination. (Mr. Monaco)
MUSC-400, Introduction to Theory and Composition
Foremrly MUSC-270, MUSC-300) Five class periods. Entering students are expected to have at least a rudimentary familiarity with musical notation. A quick review of notation is followed by the study of scales, intervals, tonality, harmony, melodic organization, voice leading, four-part choral writing, harmonic progression, and style period analysis. Ear training skills are developed through dictation and sight singing, and keyboard skills are introduced. Students acquire some skill and experience working with computer programs for ear training and music processing. During the term, students compose several original compositions. Students taking this course in the fall may combine it with MUSC-540 and MUSC-550 to form a yearlong AP theory sequence.
MUSC-460, Advanced Electronic Music
Formerly MUSC-370. Four class periods. This course continues to develop the skills and techniques introduced in MUSC-360. A $30 lab fee is charged for the use of the equipment. MUSC-460, if failed, cannot be made up by examination. Prerequisite: MUSC-360.
MUSC-485, Out of Tune: Music and the State in The Twentieth Century
Four class periods (two singles, one double.) Open to Uppers and Seniors. See also HIST-SS485. Can governments control culture? What effect can political oppression have on an artist's work? What does it take to be accepted by a totalitarian state as a legitimate composer? Can you determine the real intentions of a composer working under a repressive regime? While some composers enjoyed approval and even served the purposes of the state, the 20th century is rife with examples of composers whose work was compromised, neglected, even forbidden. The rise of the technology of mass media also aided governments in their use of music. Hitler and Stalin, for example, were both masters of propaganda and were acutely aware of the power of music to influence people. The course includes an exploration of the work of Richard Strauss, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Aaron Copland, amongst other case studies, together with the attitudes of the governments under which they worked. It ends with an examination of the artistic deprivations imposed by the Cultural Revolution in China. Students will also research a case study of their choice. A student in this course is eligible for credit in either history or music. A student who wishes to receive history credit should sign up for HIST-SS485; a student who wishes to receive music credit should sign up for MUSC-485. (Mr. Walter and Ms. Doheny) Prerequisite: Successful completion of a 200-level music course.
MUSC-500, Chamber Music Performance Seminar
Four class periods. This summary course affords students an opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge to practical music-making through the analysis and performance of chamber music. The process of performance and its attending anxieties will also be studied through readings and exercises. Class work consists of sight-reading, performing, coaching, and discussing chamber works and performance issues. Homework consists of individual practice, group rehearsal, and readings from books about performance. Students are expected to be advanced instrumentalists and they will generally have taken at least MUSC-400. Because different literature is studied each term, this course may be taken more than once. Prerequisite: Permission of the department. If failed, this course cannot be made up by examination.
MUSC-540, Intermediate Theory and Composition
Five class periods. Continuing from where MUSC-400 leaves off, this course examines dominant seventh chords, leading-tone sevenths, and nondominant seventh chords. In an attempt to bring theoretical knowledge into practice, score analysis is emphasized both in and out of class. Regular homework devoted to ear-training, sight-singing, and dictation begins to prepare students for the AP exam in the spring. During the term, students compose two major original works. Prerequisite: MUSC-400 or permission of instructor.
MUSC-550, Advanced Theory and Composition
Five class periods. Completing the theory sequence, the focus for this term is on preparation for the AP exam in May. This exam, if successfully passed, will ensure that students receive college credit for their year of music theory study. Material covered includes modulation, secondary dominants, serialism and other 20th century compositional techniques, American popular song, blues, and jazz. Prerequisite: MUSC-540 or permission of instructor.
MUSC-900, Chorus
Two class periods. Open to all qualified students. The chorus is the Academy's major singing group composed of mixed voices, and it performs a variety of choral works, both sacred and secular. Those wishing to take the course on a non-credit basis need no previous choral participation, just a desire to work hard and attend all the rehearsals. Students taking the course for credit must be taking either voice lessons or a weekly seminar in music theory. If they have not sung in the chorus before, they may take the course for credit only with the permission of the instructor. This course, if failed, cannot be made up by examination. (Mr. Walter)
MUSC-901H, Fidelio Society
Two class periods. Open to all classes. This small group of mixed voices is selected from the chorus (MUSC-900). It performs on numerous occasions throughout the year both on chorus programs and on its own. Its repertoire includes music of all types, early and modern, sacred and secular. Membership is by audition and is conditional upon continued good standing in the chorus. A student may take MUSC-901H and MUSC-900 simultaneously, but only one will be for credit. This course, if failed, cannot be made up by examination. (Mr. Walter)
MUSC-902, Band
Two class periods. Open to all qualified students. Try-outs are held any time before the beginning of a term to test the student's ability and to arrange for seating. There are some school-owned instruments available for student use. All types of music for wind ensemble are rehearsed, including marches as well as classical, popular, and show music. Some sight-reading is done, and at least one public concert per term is given. Students taking this course for credit must be taking either instrumental lessons or a weekly seminar in music theory. This course, if failed, cannot be made up by examination. (Mr. Monaco)
MUSC-903H, Jazz Band
Two class periods. Open to all qualified students. Auditions are held at the beginning of the term, as usually only one player per part is accepted. This ensemble is in a typical big band format and performs the repertoire of the groups of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Thad Jones, and Woody Herman, as well as contemporary Latin jazz and jazz/rock fusion compositions. Membership is conditional on continued good standing in the band. Students taking this course for credit must be taking either instrumental lessons or a weekly seminar in music theory. This course, if failed, cannot be made up by examination. (Mr. Cirelli)
MUSC-904, Corelli Chamber Ensemble
Two class periods. Open to all classes, but membership consists primarily of Juniors and Lowers. Students taking Corelli Chamber Ensemble for credit attend Symphony Orchestra and Corelli Chamber Orchestra rehearsals each week. The Corelli Chamber Ensemble performs string orchestral literature and performs once each term. Students electing to take Corelli Chamber Ensemble for credit must be taking either instrumental lessons or a weekly seminar in music theory. This course, if failed, cannot be made up by examination. (Ms. Aureden and Ms. Barnes)
MUSC-905, Amadeus Chamber Ensemble
Two class periods. Open to all classes. Students taking Amadeus Chamber Ensemble for credit attend Symphoney Orchestra and Amadeus Chamber Orchestra rehearsals each week. The Amadeus Chamber Ensemble performs string orchestral literature and performs once each term. Students electing to take Amadeus Chamber Ensemble for credit must be taking either instrumental lessons or a weekly seminar in music theory. This course, if failed, cannot be made up by examination. (Ms. Landolt)
MUSC-906H, Chamber Orchestra
Two class periods. Open to all classes. Most of the music played is for string orchestra; the best winds in the school are invited to join for larger works. While Chamber Orchestra may be elected as a credit-bearing course, it is also an activity in which all are invited to participate. Students taking this course for credit must be taking either instrumental lessons or a weekly seminar in music theory. This course, if failed, cannot be made up by examination. (Mr. Orent)
MUSC-909, Non-Credit Private Instrument and Voice Lessons
One class period. Weekly non-credit lessons are available on all band and orchestral instruments and, in addition, on the piano (classical and jazz), organ, harpsichord, harp, guitar (classical, folk, rock, and jazz), bagpipes, and voice. There is an additional fee for private lessons; information regarding this fee is available thorugh the Department of Music. Keyboard players are assessed a charge of $30 per term for their use of practice pianos and organs. The Academy owns many other instruments that may be rented for $30 per term. Financial assistance for lessons and/or instrument rental is available for students who are on scholarship.
MUSC-910, Private Instrument and Voice Lessons
Two class periods per week, plus required attendance at three on-campus concerts per term. Open to Lowers, Uppers, and Seniors. Juniors may enroll in the course only with the permission of the department chair. One class meeting each week is a 30-, 45-, or 60-minute instrumental or voice lesson. The other weekly class meeting is a theory seminar that reinforces notational and aural skills. Lessons are available on all band and orchestral instruments and, in addition, on the piano (classical and jazz), organ, harpsichord, harp, guitar (classical, folk, rock, and jazz), bagpipes, and voice. MUSC-910 as a credit course - instrumental lessons may be taken for credit or non-credit - is designed for students of all levels of ability who wish to study an instrument seriously. Instrumental study should not be entered into lightly: This work requires great commitment, self-motivation, independence, and discipline. In order that maximal progress is accomplished in minimal time, MUSC-910 credit students are expected to practice one hour every day. They must also prepare for a performance of their work at the end of the term. MUSC-910 does not count towards fulfilling a credit of the arts requirement. There is an additional fee for private lessons; information regarding these fees is available through the Department of Music. Keyboard players are assessed a charge of $30 per term for their use of practice pianos and organs. The Academy owns many other instruments that may be rented for $30 per term. Financial assistance for lessons and/or instrument rental is available for students who are on scholarship. A MUSC-910 credit student who is classified by the music department as a beginner MUST take MUSC-910 for two consecutive trimesters. Music 910, if failed, cannot be made up by examination.
PHRE-300, Asian Religions: an Introduction
Four class periods. Not open to Juniors. An introduction to religious studies through examining some of the traditions that originated and flourished in Asia and are practiced by people throughout the world today. Using an approach that is both critical and empathetic, students will explore the fundamental structures of belief, meaning, and practice that constitute the traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese religion, the diversity within each of these traditions, and their multiple manifestations throughout the world. In doing so, students also will explore their own essential questions of meaning in dialogue with these traditions. Texts may include The Bhagavad-Gita, The Dhammapada, and the Tao Te Ching.
PHRE-310, Religions of the Book: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Four class periods. Not open to Juniors. This course introduces students to the religious traditions that originated in the Middle East, flourished in and formed the West, and are practiced by people throughout the world today. Using an approach that is both critical and empathetic, students will be introduced to the origins and history of each tradition. They will become acquainted with the fundamental structures of belief and meaning that shaped adherents' lives, the rituals that formed and renewed them, and the social teachings that moved them to action. In doing so, they will learn something about the character of each religious path and about the questions to which we all seek answers.
PHRE-320, Perspectives on the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
(Old Testament) Four class periods. Not open to Juniors. The Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, is the one scripture shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It begins the story of monotheism in the West and introduces persons and principles who figure significantly in all three traditions. Students will consider the text's literary qualities, religious significance, and historical setting. Class discussions and written exercises stress close reading and critical analysis of this core narrative of a people under God.
PHRE-330, The New Testament Perspective
Four class periods. Not open to Juniors. The course will consider, in their cultural and historical context, the person and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, the development of the early Christian community, and the religious claims of that community concerning the Christ.
PHRE-340, Introduction to Ethics
Four class periods. Not open to Juniors. Students in this discussion course will be introduced to a variety of approaches to ethical reflection. Through the use of classical texts and personal and literary stories, students will develop a common vocabulary with which to understand and critically evaluate their moral experience.
PHRE-360, Proof and Persuasion
Four class periods. Not open to Juniors. A practical introduction to informal logic and to the philosophical study of language. Some of the questions raised are: What is the difference between a good argument and a poor one? What are the common fallacies of thought? What are the limitations of logic? What are the meaning of meaning and the truth about truth? The course stresses the development of individual skill in argument and includes a critical examination of the patterns of thought one encounters every day in magazines, in newspapers, and on television.
PHRE-370, Views of Human Nature
Four class periods. Not open to Juniors. A critical examination of selected traditional and contemporary views of human nature with the following questions in mind: Do we have a characteristic nature? What are our basic needs, purposes, rights, obligations, and values? To what extent are our actions determined by heredity and instinct? Are we free? Are we responsible for our actions? Do the answers to any of these questions differ for males and females? Given an understanding of human nature, how should we structure society to satisfy our needs and take advantage of our potential? Class discussions and written exercises are designed to encourage participants to develop views of their own against a background of a basic understanding of the readings.
PHRE-410, Religion in America: One Nation, Under God(s)?
Four class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors. In contemporary American public life, religion is everywhere, and the United States is considered one of the most religious countries in the world. This course wille xamine the role of religion in American history and politics, from colonial times to the present day. Questions to be addressed include: Is America a Christian country? What role did religion play in the founding of America? Did the founding documents seek to create a separation of church and state? How were religious arguments used to justify or challenge slavery? What are the causes of the rise of fundamentalism in the 20th century? What, looking forward, is America's religious identity in an increasingly diverse and pluralistic society? Texts will include Eck, A New Religious America; Lambert, Religion in American Politics; and a variety of primary source documents and other readings.
PHRE-420, Responses to the Holocaust
Four class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors, and to Lowers with permission of the instructor. An exploration of the Holocaust through diaries, memoirs, films, works of fiction, and later non-fiction reflections on the phenomenon. Questions to be engaged will include: What was it like for the victims? What was it like for the perpetrators? Who were the bystanders? How could it have happened? What elements from Jewish, Christian, and secular tradition contributed to its possibility? What inspired and motivated resistance, and how were resistance efforts sustained? How have various Jewish, Christian, and secular thinkers responded to the challenge of this event? What have been some of its effects on our own feelings about life and human beings? Texts may include Night, Between Dignity and Despair, The Sunflower, Tales of the Master Race, Ordinary Men, and The White Rose. Films may include Night and Fog, One Survivor Remembers, Weapons of the Spirit, and America and the Holocaust.
PHRE-430, Law and Morality
Four class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors, and to Lowers with permission of the instructor. A critical examination of issues that arise out of the relationship between law and morality. Questions of concern include: For what reasons, if any, should an individual obey or disobey the laws of society? Which kinds of governments (monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, etc.), if any, are legitimate? To what degree should society restrict the freedom of individuals through laws on matters like abortion, pornography, race, and sexual relations? Class discussions and written exercises are designed to encourage participants to develop views of their own against a background of basic understanding of the readings.
PHRE-440, Nonviolence and Moral Leadership
Four class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors. This course will examine major figures within nonviolent movements for social change, with a focus on the capacities of moral leadership possessed by these individuals. What characterizes an effective moral leader? How do these leaders motivate others in the face of injustice and oppression? Must moral leadership necessarily be nonviolent? Through a study of autobiography, letters, speeches, and case studies, students will come to a more complete understanding of nonviolent movements and the decisions made by individuals who led them. In addition to Gandhi and King, individuals studied may include Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Paul Farmer, Greg Mortenson, and Bill Drayton, PA '61. Critics of nonviolence will also be studied. The course will culminate in a substantial independent research project.
PHRE-460, Bioethics: Medicine
Four class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors, and to Lowers with permission of the instructor. Modern medical research and practice present society with new opportunities and huge challenges, and doctors are guided by both ethics and science in the search for new remedies, the treatment of patients, and the struggle for just social and healthcare policies on a national and global scale. This course provides a brief introduction to ethics, its application to issues in medicine and medical research, and its role in setting public policy. Topics may include the physician/patient relationship, professional codes, international standards in drug development, stem cell therapies, and the provision of healthcare to those in need.
PHRE-470, Bioethics: the Environment
Four class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors, and to Lowers with permission of the instructor. We are facing unprecedented environmental challenges to climate, life forms, human health and population, and essential resources. We tend to treat such issues simply as scientific or political problems. In reality, ecological controversies raise fundamental questions about what we human beings value, the kind of beings we are, the kinds of lives we should lead, and our place in nature. Sustainability is not possible without a deep change of values and commitment. In short, environmental problems raise fundamental questions of ethics and philosophy. This course seeks to provide a systematic introduction to those questions.
PHRE-500, Existentialism
Four class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors. The term existentialism covers a broad range of attitudes and values joined together by an emphasis on human existence. The authors brought together in its name share a characteristic concern for the problems of meaning, identity, and choice that confront men and women in everyday life. The lectures, discussions, and readings are designed to help us locate and express these problems as they confront each of us in our own lives, and to assist in understanding and resolving them by drawing on the experiences and insights of the major existentialist thinkers. Readings include: Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek; Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra; Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Being and Nothingness; and Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours per week of homework.
PHRE-510, Justice and Globalization
Four class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors. What is justice? What is the meaning and worth of calls to fight injustice and to strive to make the world more just? What does the search to understand and promote justice entail in our increasingly interconnected world? What principles, practices, and institutions hold the most promise for securing a desirable future? Through reading, writing, research, presentations, and discussion, participants will work together to develop a deeper understanding of a variety of ways these questions can be thoughtfully and effectively addressed. This class may require more than the standard four to five hours per week of homework.
PHRE-520, Great Philosophers
Four class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors. Participants in this upper level course in philosophy will explore a single idea and the questions that arise in its elucidation and application. Topics will change from year to year and may include love, leadership, knowledge, and athletic competition. Important thinkers from a variety of points of view will be consulted. The topic for 2009-2010 will be the nature, worth, and future of sports. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours per week of homework.
PHRE-535, Philosophy As a Way of Life: Buddhism and Stoicism
Four class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors. In the ancient world, philosophy was taught not as an academic discipline but as a matter of daily?and even moment-to-moment attention and investigation. This seminar will examine two such philosophies, one from the Eastern world and one from the Western one. We will study Buddhism and Stoicism with special focus on a set of questions: What is the connection between philosophy and a good life? What is the relationship between reason and the emotions in a good life? What methods of selfcultivation are available to students of philosophy? Special attention will be paid to methods of personal transformation and meditation in these two philosophical schools. By studying these traditions comparatively, this course hopes to shed light on fundamental questions about what it means to be a human being. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours per week of homework.
PHYS-270/0, Introduction to Physics
Formerly PHYS-200. A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. An introductory course in the basic concepts of physics that emphasizes student participation. After completion of PHYS-270, students are allowed to take PHYS-400 or PHYS-550 if they meeet the math prerequisite. Students who have completed CHEM-250 with a 4 or higher or have completed CHEM-300 should enroll in PHYS-400. Co-requisite: Registration in Math-210 or higher.
PHYS-395, Classical Mechanics
Formerly PHYS-320. This is the fall term of PHY-400, for students who do not wish to make a yearlong commitment. Students take the same final exam as the PHYS-400 students. A student who finishes PHYS-395 has the option of continuing in the winter and spring terms of PHYS-400. Co-requisite: Registration in at least MATH-330.
PHYS-400/0, College Physics
Formerly PHYS-380. A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. A non-calculus physics course, including a study of classical mechanics, electricity, magnetism, wave motion, light, relativity, and atomic and nuclear physics. Laboratory work is an integral part of the course. The syllabus of this course is appropriate preparation for the College Board Subject Test in physics. This course is for students who have earned a 4 or higher in CHEM-250 or who have completed CHEM-300 or PHYS-270. Co-requisite: Registration in at least MATH-310 or 330 (or permission of the department chair if in MATH-320 in the fall term).
PHYS-440, Astronomy
Four class periods. Astronomy is the scientific study of the origin, structure, and evolution of the universe and the objects in it. Topics may include patterns and motions in the sky, gravity and orbits, telescopes and light, planetary systems, the birth and death of stars, galaxies, the Big Bang, the search for extraterrestrial life, and the fate of the universe. One class period each week will be replaced by a Tuesday evening session in the obervatory. Prerequisite: Completion of or concurrent enrollment in one chemistry or physics course, and registration in at least MATH-340.
PHYS-450, Physical Geology
Formerly PHYS-340. Four class periods. A general introduction to physical geology, to include minerals, rocks, measurement of geologic time by radioactivity and fossils, volcanoes, seismology and earth structure, deformation of strata, faults, and plate tectonics. Some of the periods will be used for laboratory work. Prerequisite: Previous completion of one year of physics or chemistry, and registration in at least MASTH-340.
PHYS-520, Electronics
Formerly PHYS-420. Five class periods. A course in modern solid state electronics that considers passive circuit elements and their combinations, diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits. There will be considerable laboratory work. Prerequisite: Previous completion of or concurrent enrollment in PHYS-380, and completion of MATH-360.
PHYS-550/0, Calculus-Based Physics
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. Physics 550 prepares students for both Mechanics and Electricity and Magnetism of the C level Advanced Placement examination, and entrance to honors- level programs in physics at the university level. Calculus will be used as required. Open to students who (a) will be enrolled in at least MATH-590 or who have completed MATH-575, (b) do not quality for PHYS-580, and (c) have earned a 4 or higher in their two most recent terms of math. PHYS-380 is also an option for these students. This is a rigorous course that may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week.
PHYS-580/4, Calculus-Based Physics
A two-term commitment. Five class periods. This is a rigorous course in mechanics (fall term), and electricity and magnetism (winter term). Calculus will be used as required. This course prepares students for both Mechanics and Electricity and Magnetism of the C level Advanced Placement examination, and entrance to honors-level programs in physics at the university level. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Prerequisite: A grade of 6 for the year in PHYS-380 or its equivalent, and enrollment in at least Mathematics 590 or its equivalent.
PHYS-600, Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
Four class periods. Relativity and quantum mechanics are two theories that completely revolutionized our thinking about the universe. The course is a survey of the basic ideas underlying these theories. Special mathematical techniques needed for a better understanding of the material are developed in the course. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Prerequisites: Concurrent enrollment in PHYS-550 or completion of PHYS-580, and enrollment in at least MATH-590.
PHYS-630, Fluid Mechanics
Four class periods. Students taking this course will learn about fluid statics and dynamics. Dimensional analysis and derivation of Bernoulli and Navier-Stokes equations will provide the methods necessary for solving problems. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Prerequisite: Completion of MATH-590 and PHYS-550 or 580.
PHYS-650, Physics Seminar
Four class periods. The focus of this course is intermediate mechanics. Topics will vary according to the interests of the instructor and the students. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Prerequisite: Completion of MATH-590 and of the fall trimester of PHYS-550 or 580.
PSYC-420, Introductory Psychology
Four class periods, for Uppers and Seniors. A survey course designed to introduce the student to the complexity and diversity of psychological inquiry. Emphasis is placed on the application of basic psychological principles to individual experience in order to expand awareness of both self and others. In addition, the broader implications of psychological findings for an integrated understanding of human development and behavior are considered. Topics to be covered may include psychoanalytic, behavioral and humanistic theories of the person; psychosocial, cognitive, moral and early childhood development; human motivation and personality; social behavior; abnormal behavior; and research techniques in psychology. A combination of objective examinations, individualized writing assignments and an end-of-term research project is utilized to evaluate the student's learning. (Dr. Jackson)
PSYC-430, Developmental Psychology
Four class periods, for Uppers and Seniors. An examination of human growth and development from infancy through adolescence. The role of early experiences and biological factors in later formation of personality and intellectual and motivational behaviors will be considered. Different theoretical perspectives (psychodynamic, social learning and biological) of psychological development will be examined as they relate to developmental milestones. Among the theorists to be studied are Piaget, Erikson, Freud, Gilligan and Bandura. The format of the course includes readings, films, quizzes, written assignments and both group and individual projects. (Dr. Alovisetti)
PSYC-490, The Brain and You: A Users Guide
Five class periods per week. Open to Uppers and Seniors. The human brain is the most sophisticated biological organ ever evolved on Earth and is the source of all human cognitive functions. Have you ever wondered how yours works? How do you use it to enjoy music, for social relationships or experience strong emotions? Have you ever asked yourself whether there are differences between the male and female brains or if the capabilities of the human brain are really unique in the animal kingdom? Join us in this interdisciplinary course as we search for answers to these questions (and more) by examining the evolution and function of the brain and how this applies to understanding the role of the brain in complex human psychology, including the perception, creation and performance of music, personality, memory and other higher intellectual activities. A student in this course is elegible for credit in either science or psychology. A student who wishes to receive science credit should sign up for SCIE-490; a student who wishes to receive psychology credit should sign up for PSYC-490. (Dr. Israel)
RUSS-100/0, First-Level Contemporary Russian
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. A yearlong elementary course in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Texts: all-digital textbook developed by the department for exclusive use at Phillips Academy; reference materials.
RUSS-130, A Short Course in Beginning Russian
Four class periods. A term-contained introduction to speaking, reading, and writing Russian, using conversational text materials, this course enables students to feel comfortable with the somewhat different features of a Slavic language. It also gives a sound foundation for continuing courses in Russian language, history, and literature, whether at Andover or in college.
RUSS-150/5, Accelerated First Year Russian
Five class periods. Open to students who have completed the fall term of Russian 100 with distinction and who have been recommended by their instructor. Superior work in this course enables students to enter Russian 250 in the fall, followed by Russian 300 in the winter and spring terms, thereby completing three years of Russian language in two years. An accelerated course in grammar, speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and culture, this course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Texts: the same as those of Russian 100 and Russian 200.
RUSS-200/0, Second-Level Contemporary Russian
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. Completion of the elementary course with continued emphasis on active use. Texts: all-digital textbook developed by the department for exclusive use at Phillips Academy; reference materials. Prerequisite: successful completion of RUSS-100.
RUSS-250/1, Accelerated Second-Level Russian
Five class periods. Open to students with strong learning skills who have completed RUSS-150 or its equivalent with distinction. This accelerated course completes the work of RUSS-200 with the addition of intensive grammar review and writing. Successful completion of this course qualifies students to enter RUSS-300 in the winter term. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Texts: the same as those of RUSS-200 and fall term of RUSS-300.
RUSS-300/0, Third-Level Russian
A yearlong commitment. Four class periods. Students will improve conversation and composition skills through work with selected 19th and 20th century short stories and with video materials. A review of problematic areas of grammar is integrated into the course. Work with video and audio materials in the Language Learning Center constitutes an important component of the course. Prerequisite: Successful completion of RUSS-200 or RUSS-250.
RUSS-400/1, Fourth-Level Russian
Four class periods. Further work in conversation and composition. Over the course of the year, there is a transition from texts that are lightly adapted to texts in the original. The focus of materials in the winter and spring terms is the 20th century. The winter term is devoted to a single text; fall and spring terms examine shorter texts and video materials. Work with video and audio materials in the Language Learning Center constitutes an important component of the course. Prerequisite: Successful completion of RUSS-300.
RUSS-400/2, Fourth-Level Russian
Four class periods. Further work in conversation and composition. Over the course of the year, there is a transition from texts that are lightly adapted to texts in the original. The focus of materials in the winter and spring terms is the 20th century. The winter term is devoted to a single text; fall and spring terms examine shorter texts and video materials. Work with video and audio materials in the Language Learning Center constitutes an important component of the course. Prerequisite: Successful completion of RUSS-300.
RUSS-400/3, Fourth-Level Russian
Four class periods. Further work in conversation and composition. Over the course of the year, there is a transition from texts that are lightly adapted to texts in the original. The focus of materials in the winter and spring terms is the 20th century. The winter term is devoted to a single text; fall and spring terms examine shorter texts and video materials. Work with video and audio materials in the Language Learning Center constitutes an important component of the course. Prerequisite: Successful completion of RUSS-300.
RUSS-520/0, Advanced Fourth-Level Russian
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. The core materials of the course are identical to those used in Fourth-Level Russian. In addition, however, one of the five weekly meetings will be devoted to preparation for the newly announced Advanced Placement Russian test. The additional material will be selected to reflect the structure of the AP exam. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Prerequisite: Successful completion of RUSS-300 or permission of the department chair.
RUSS-600/1, Advanced Topics in Russian
Four class periods. A central goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of the major themes and developments in the last two centuries of Russian literature and history. Students will be expected to integrate this knowledge into the base they have acquired in their previous Russian study. At the same time, students will work to improve their ability to diagnose their own language-learning strengths and weaknesses, and, where relevant, to plan their approach to the continued study of Russian at the college level. Current events are a major component of the spring term. Prerequisite: Successful completion of RUSS-400/3 or RUSS-520.
RUSS-600/2, Advanced Topics in Russian
Four class periods. A central goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of the major themes and developments in the last two centuries of Russian literature and history. Students will be expected to integrate this knowledge into the base they have acquired in their previous Russian study. At the same time, students will work to improve their ability to diagnose their own language-learning strengths and weaknesses, and, where relevant, to plan their approach to the continued study of Russian at the college level. Current events are a major component of the spring term. Prerequisite: Successful completion of RUSS-400/3 or RUSS-520.
RUSS-600/3, Advanced Topics in Russian
Four class periods. A central goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of the major themes and developments in the last two centuries of Russian literature and history. Students will be expected to integrate this knowledge into the base they have acquired in their previous Russian study. At the same time, students will work to improve their ability to diagnose their own language-learning strengths and weaknesses, and, where relevant, to plan their approach to the continued study of Russian at the college level. Current events are a major component of the spring term. Prerequisite: Successful completion of RUSS-400/3 or RUSS-520.
SCIE-430, Forensic Science
Five class periods per week. Open to Uppers and Seniors only. This course will introduce students to the science of forensics. Students will learn to observe a crime scene and analyze different types of evidence found there. Designed as an interdisciplinary course, aspects of biology (DNA), chemistry (toxicology and chemical analysis) and physics (ballistics) will be discussed. The course will have a significant lab component, which will include developing fingerprints, identification of physical evidence and unknown chemicals, and DNA analysis. Prerequisite: One year of chemistry and either one year of biology or a concurrent enrollment in a year-long biology course.
SCIE-440, Humanity in the Post-Genomic Era
Five class periods per week. Open to Uppers and Seniors. This course examines current biological topics that challenge our understanding of humanity. We live in a modern age in which major scientific advances are the norm. Bombarded with stories in the news regarding ethical dilemmas pertaining to biomedical advances or interventions, it is often difficult for us to make sense of competing arguments without having a basic command of the biological and philosophical issues involved. Questions to be addressed include: What is a stem cell? When does a developing human being first experience sensation? Show evidence of cognitive abilities? Acquire moral status? How does our modern, post-genomic understanding of human biology influence our definition of humanity? Historical and current readings will be assigned and lively discussions encouraged. students will be graded through a variety of assessments, including papers, projects, and class participation. Prerequisite: One yearlong course in biology and one yearlong course in chemistry.
SCIE-460, Meteorology
Formerly PHYS-360. Four class periods. Meteorology is the study of the atmospheric environment, or weather. Topics may include the structure of the atmosphere, atmospheric energy transfers, optics and moisture, the formation of dew, fog, clouds and precipitation, pressure, forces and wind, storms, forecasting, and climate change. Prerequisite: Completion of one yearlong chemistry course in addition to either completion of PHYS-320 (or the equivalent) or completion of PHYS-250.
SCIE-470, Human Origins
Five class periods, including weekly field or laboratory work. Open to Uppers and Seniors. Take a look around. Regardless of where you aer, the consequence of three million years of human evolution is evident. This interdisciplinary science course uses insights drawn fron history, art, archaeology, and other disciplines to chart the human journey fron the hominid to the first civilizations that forecast the modern world. Hands-on laboratory exercises emphasize use of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology collections and challenge students to apply ancient techniques to solve daily problems of survival.
SCIE-480, Disease and Medicine in the United States: Pox and Pestilence
Five class periods per week. Open to Uppers and Seniors. See also HIST-SS480. In recent years, historians have begun to understand the impact of disease on the human story and have incorporated it into the more traditional narratives. In common with other parts of the world, the history of the United States has been profoundly influenced by infectious disease. In this course we invite you to come along on a multi-disciplinary journey to explore the impact of disease on the American experience in the 19th and 20th centuries. After exploring the pre-contact situation in the Americas, we will focus on syphilis, smallpox, bacterial sepsis, cholera, yellow fever, malaria, tuberculosis, influenza, polio, HIV/AIDS, and bioterrorism agents such as anthrax. Students will research the role these diseases played in the social, military, and political history of the United States together with the science and medicine that developed in response to them. This is a research seminar and students will use a variety of sources to write a term paper. There is no final examination. A student in this course is elegible for credit in either history or science. A student who wishes to receive history credit should sign up for HIST-SS480; a student who wishes to receive science credit should sign up for SCIE-480.
SCIE-490, The Brain and You: a User's Guide
Five class periods. Open to Uppers and Seniors. See also PSYC-490. The human brain is the most sophisticated biological organ ever evolved on Earth and is the source of all human cognitive functions. Have you ever wondered how yours works? How do you use it to enjoy music, for social relationships, or to experience strong emotions? Have you ever asked yourself whether there are differences between the male and female brains or if the capabilities of the human brain are really unique in the animal kingdom? Join us in this interdisciplinary course as we search for answers to these questions (and more) by examining the evolution and function of the brain and how this applies to understanding the role of the brain in complex human psychology, including the perception, creation, and performance of music, personality, memory, and other higher intellectual activities. A student in this course is elegible for credit in either science or psychology. A student who wishes to receive science credit should sign up for SCIE-490; a student who wishes to receive psychology credit should sign up for PSYC-490.
SCIE-500/0, Environmental Science
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. The course begins with a study of the components of the biosphere and the fundamental principles that underlie the interdependence of the earth's systems, including energy flow and the recycling of matter. Students will consider renewable and non-renewable resources in the context of population dynamics. Discussions of pollution and environmental quality will lead to the study of global change, both natural and human-induced. As we develop our knowledge, we will critically examine environmental issues presented in the news media. This analysis will lead to discussions on the roles of economic forces, cultural and aesthetic considerations, ethics, and environmental regulations in shaping our biosphere. This course may require more than the standard four to five hours of homework per week. Prerequisite: One yearlong course in biology and one yearlong course in chemistry. Not open to students who have taken BIOL-410.
SPAN-100/1, First-Level Spanish
Five class periods. This course is designed for those students who have had no previous world language experience. The course emphasizes listening comprehension and the use of basic conversational patterns of Spanish speech. Elementary grammatical and idiomatic structures are introduced, as well as appropriate reading material. All classwork is conducted in Spanish. (Text: Descubre I)
SPAN-110/1, First-Level Spanish
Five class periods. This course is designed for those students who have had previous experience in Spanish or in another world language. The course emphasizes listening comprehension and the use of basic conversational patterns of Spanish speech. Elementary grammatical and idiomatic structures are introduced, as well as appropriate reading material. All classwork is conducted in Spanish. (Text: Descubre I)
SPAN-110/5, First-Level Spanish
A two-term commitment. Five class periods. This course is a continuation of the first-level Spanish course for those students not enrolled in SPAN-120 (Accelerated First Level Spanish). (Text:Descubre I)
SPAN-120/5, Accelerated First-Level Spanish
Five class periods. Especially competent students will be recommended for this accelerated course at the conclusion of SPAN-100/1 or SPAN-110/1. Superior work in SPAN-120 enables recommended students to enter SPAN-220. Descubre 2 serves as the primary text and is supplemented with reading selections and proficiency-oriented exercises.
SPAN-200/0, Second-Level Spanish
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. Using the Descubre 2 text, this course completes the introduction of grammar begun in the first year. Topics covered are imperfect, imperfect/preterite contrast, subjunctive, perfect tenses, future, and conditional. Extensive thematic vocabulary is integrated into each lesson. There are integrated video and audio programs by which the grammar and vocabulary are reinforced. Significant emphasis is placed on oral praactice. Writing and reading skills are further developed. Various Latin American countries are studied.
SPAN-220/0, Accelerated Second-Level Spanish
A yearlong commitment. Five class periods. This is an accelerated second-year course that develops communicative competence, and provides intensive reading and writing practice. At least eight Latin American and Spanish short stories are read in the first trimester, followed by the theatrical play La Muerte y la doncella in the second trimester, and Relato de un naufrago in the third trimester. Advanced concepts of grammar and idiomatic expressions are studied and put into practice in three-page essays. In order to work on pronunciation and speaking proficiency, PowerPoint and oral presentations are required, as is acting out specific scenes from the theatrical play. Students normally must maintain an honors grade to remain in the course. There are at least three tests per trimester, not including final exams. This course enables students, upon departmental recommendation, to enroll in a 400/420-level course. Open to students who have completed SPAN-120 with distinction and other qualified students with departmental permission.
SPAN-300/0, Third-Level Spanish
A yearlong commitment. Four class periods. During the fall term, students read short stories, testimonies, and poems of diverse Hispanic traditions that explore notions of family, individual and collective identities, and personal and social relationships. These texts also serve as structural and thematic models to various written exercises and other class activities. The primary objective of the winter term is to expose students to a challenging and sophisticated literary text, Cronica de una Muerte Anunciada (Chronicle of a Death Foretold), while enforcing their structural skills and communicative competence through a series of grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension exercises based on the novel. In the spring, students read Las Bicicletas Son Para el Verano (Bicycles Are for Summer) and a play about the Spanish Civil War by a contemporary Spanish playwright, and then perform selected scenes from this work.
SPAN-400/1, Current Events and Multimedia: Approaches to the Hispanic World
Four class periods. Fall Term (Hispanic America) - Students will refine speaking, writing, and listening skills in Spanish and the ability to express current issues through a cultural context. This course will use canonical Latin American literary texts, film, and journalism in order to provide a basis to discuss current and historical issues of four Latin American countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. Furthermore, the course will begin a comprehensive review of basic to advanced grammar structures for students thinking about taking the various national Spanish exams. Class requirements include three essays with subsequent corrections, three tests (not including the final exam), and a class presentation made in PowerPoint. Daily class participation is essential.
SPAN-400/2, Current Events and Multimedia: Approaches to the Hispanic World
Four class periods. Winter Term (Spanish and Latin American Film)- Through the study and analysis of various films from Spanish-speaking countries, students further develop oral and written proficiency in the language. Representative cinematic works of Cuba, Spain, Argentina, and Mexico serve as an artistic medium for discussion of historical, cultural, and political issues. These films serve to enhance students? knowledge of the complexity and richness of Hispanic cultures. In addition to weekly tests on vocabulary and general comprehension of the films, students will produce an original script and a short video at the end of the term. Students also will enhance their writing by creating four essays based on issues presented on the films. The study of grammar will concentrate on the more challenging structures for English speakers, continuing the grammar review with systematic exercises that were started in the previous SPAN-400/1. Daily class participation is essential.
SPAN-400/3, Current Events and Multimedia: Approachs to the Hispanic World
Four class periods. Spring Term (Hispanic Caribbean)- Students will refine speaking and writing through the analysis of poetry and short stories of select Caribbean authors. This course will use canonical Caribbean poetry, short stories, film, music, and journalism in order to provide a basis to discuss and analyze current and historical issues of Puerto Rico and Cuba. In addition, the course will complete the review started in the fall and winter trimesters of basic to advanced grammar structures. Class requirements will include two essays with subsequent corrections, a class presentation made in PowerPoint, a midterm exam, and a final exam. Daily class participation is essential.
SPAN-401/1, Introduction to Hispanic Literature
Four class periods. Each trimester the class aims to develop language skills through reading, discussion, oral presentations, and regular writing assignments centered around major writers and texts of the contemporary Hispanic world. This course also emphasizes some of the finer Spanish grammar points and idiomatic expressions. Fall Term - Students will be exposed to short stories by contemporary Latin American and Spanish authors as varied as Carlos Fuentes, J.L. Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, among others. Allende, and others.
SPAN-401/2, Introduction to Hispanic Literature
Four class periods. Each trimester the class aims to develop language skills through reading, discussion, oral presentations, and regular writing assignments centered around major writers and texts of the contemporary Hispanic world. This course also emphasizes some of the finer Spanish grammar points and idiomatic expressions. Winter Term - In the winter, the focus is on Spanish and Spanish-American drama and contemporary Hispanic poetry.
SPAN-401/3, Introduction to Hispanic Literature
Four class periods. Each trimester the class aims to develop language skills through reading, discussion, oral presentations, and regular writing assignments centered around major writers and texts of the contemporary Hispanic world. This course also emphasizes some of the finer Spanish grammar points and idiomatic expressions. Spring Term - Students will read selected literary short novels from the Hispanic world.
SPAN-500/1, Current Issues in the Spanish-Speaking World
Three class periods. Current articles from periodicals of the Hispanic world - similar in content and format to Time magazine- provide the context for the review and practice of the more complex structures of the language and for vocabulary expansion. In addition to writing assignments based on the articles, students are evaluated on their aural comprehension and oral proficiency once a week in the Language Learning Center. In the last two weeks of the term, the focus shifts to a contemporary film from Spain or Latin America as a basis for (a) the mastery of colloquial speech patterns and current idiomatic expressions, and (b) the analysis of social and/or political issues in the Spanish-speaking world.
SPAN-500/2, Film and Narrative
Three class periods. Through a series of short stories, films, videotaped scenes, and a novel, this course focuses on childhood perceptions of the adult world in different areas of the Hispanic world. The universal aspects of childhood - those that transcend cultural or geographical boundaries - and those experiences that stem from specific child-raising practices or societal attitudes toward the child are explored through a series of analytical and creative writing assignments. Role playing and oral/aural exercises in the Language Learning Center complement these assignments. Prerequisite: enrollment in the fall trimester of SPAN-500, or permission of the chair of the Spanish department.
SPAN-500/3, Advanced Spanish Language in the Lawrence Community
In partnership with the schools of neighboring Lawrence, this course focuses on the reading and writing skills of younger students living in a bilingual, bicultural world. Phillips Academy students meet three times per week - once in Lawrence for one-hour mentoring sessions, and twice on campus to prepare their lesson plans and review the progress of their mentees. A research paper is required. Limited enrollment. Prerequisite: Enrollment in a fifth-level Spanish course in the previous two trimesters, or permission of the department chair. See also Latin American Studies (HIST-SS535), which is offered every other year.
SPAN-520/0, Advanced Topics in Spanish
A yearlong commitment. Four class periods. This course seeks to provide knowledge of the Hispanic contemporary world by looking at its major transformative historical, cultural, literary, socioeconomic and political milestones of the last century. In analyszing these major Hispanic events, students will apply critical thinking and analytical reasoning while developing and perfecting Spanish written and oral communication. By employing a wide range of tools such as historical documents, new articles, literary texts, art works and general economic principles, the course aims to foster integrative learning as students develop the ability to use applied knowledge in addressing real Hispanic-world settings. The major events to be studied are: the Spanish American War, the Mexican Revolution, Hispanic Dictatorship in context of the Cold War and Latin Ameircan revolutions, as well as emerging Hispanic-world markets and recent economic and political treaties and alliances, such as NAFTA and Mercosur.
THDA-200, Perception & Performance
One-half course. Two single class periods and one double period, with one hour of outside class preparation each week. Only four-year students who matriculated prior to 2008 may fulfill thier theater requirement with this course. This experiential class will involve students in an exploration of how human beings perceive universal conditions and respond through performance. The course will explore the collaborative process and give students an opportunity to experience and understand a dramatic event. Ritual, character, and story will serve as focal points for sections of our discovery while we introduce different theatrical styles and each of the various elements of complete technical theatre. Throughout the course students will be made aware of how the theatre comments on the historic conflicts of an age or reflects the human condition. Focusing on theatre as a performing rather than a literary art, all concepts in the course will be developed through experiential exercises, culminating in a short performance.
THDA-210, Introduction to Acting
Four class periods. Open to all classes, this course is designed for students with little or no acting experience. By doing exercises in movement and voice production, reading, improvisation, and scenes, a student who is curious about the theatre may determine whether he or she has ability or interest in acting while learning something of the process of characterization, the major responsibility of the actor. The emphasis is on the variety of acting experiences rather than on a polished final product.
THDA-320, Lighting
Four class periods. The course will introduce the student to the art of lighting design while also providing an opportunity to observe light in nature, art, stage, screen, and created environments. The course will allow the individual to gain applied practical understanding regarding the color theory of light, the psychology of color and light, and controllable qualities of light. The design process will be utilized as a method of dramatic interpretation. Artistic expression will be achieved through practical use of lighting instruments, laboratory projects, experiments, and school productions when applicable. (Mr. Murray)
THDA-321, Costuming
Four class periods. An introductory exploration into the areas of costume design and costume construction, this course will highlight primary design elements utilized in costume design for the stage and screen (i.e., line, color, tone, texture, movement, mood composition, balance, and focus). The course will examine historical period silhouette and the art and craft of the stage costume. Practical experience will be given in areas including construction, flat patterning, draping, and fabric manipulation. (Mr. Murray)
THDA-325, Scene Design
Four class periods. This course will introduce the student to the elements that inform the scenic designer's choices (the theme and mood of a script, lines of action, focus, constraints, whimsy) and discuss methods of formulating cohesive, functional, and effective design for a show. The student will be introduced to many materials and techniques available to a designer for realizing his or her ideas as a physical product. Special attention will be spent on the process of the design concept: collaboration, formulation, presentation, discussion, evaluation, and reworking. Students will be graded on both design projects and classroom participation. This is a seminar class that relies upon the open and frank exchange of ideas to stimulate creativity. (Mr. Bacon)
THDA-330, Theatre Theory and History
Four class periods. Open to Seniors and Uppers. Lowers may enroll with permission of the instructor. We will trace the role of theatre in Western culture from the Greeks to the present American stage, focusing on how important artists broke through theatrical plateaus, creating new forms to communicate with their audiences. The vehicles for our lecture discussion-based journey might include plays and writings by Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Moliere, Strindberg, and Miller; designs from the Romans, the Elizabethans, Reinhardt, Craig, Appia, and Mielziner; and theorists such as Aristotle, Stanislavsky, Brecht, Beck, and the Bread and Puppet Theatre. A major term project will wrap up the course with students' thoughts on how to push beyond present plateaus to reestablish the vitality of theatre for our culture today.
THDA-360, Introduction to Directing
Four class periods. Since directing plays is the most complex of theatrical tasks, this course will focus on methods to unlock the life of a script in the realization of production. Studies will include historic styles and productions, emphasizing their staging. Students will learn the dynamics of floor plans and their effect on blocking, the potentials for lighting and its effect on mood, the importance of rhythm and spectacle, and strategies to harness them. While no class on directing can function without including discussion of the actor's craft, this class will only touch on this area, which will be further developed in THDA-510. Prerequisite: THDA-210 or permission of the instructor.
THDA-365, Choreographic Elements
This course examines the aesthetic elements of movement through various dance styles. Students will be led through explorations and formal exercises to learn how to generate and manipulate movement in clear and innovative fashions. Course work will culminate in final presentation of original compositions. This class will provide an in-depth study of dance elements and choreographic tools, drawing upon models set forth by Laban, Balanchine, Doris Humphrey, Judson Church, Mark Morris, and Rennie Harris, among others. Ultimately, students will deepen their understanding of movement as a form of communication and expression. This course will require students to rehearse on their own outside of class, as part of the standard four to five hours of homework per week.
THDA-380, Technical Production
Five class periods. This is a practicum course in which students work on the technical elements for faculty-directed dance and theatre productions being produced by the department in that term. Skills learned will depend on the requirements of the particular show. Some lab hours to be arranged outside of class time.
THDA-381, Scenic Construction
Five class periods. Students learn and practice fundamental theatrical scenic construction techniques. Specific topics covered are shop, stage, and power tool safety; how to read and build from technical drawings; platform and flat construction; doors and windows; safe legging and support techniques; rigging systems; and scene painting. In-class instruction is supplemented by readings from The Stagecraft Handbook, by Daniel Ionazzi. Note that THDA-381 does not fulfill the Theatre and Dance requirement. (Mr. Bacon)
THDA-420, Public Speaking
Four class periods. The course has a dual objective: to learn how to speak easily in front of others, and to learn how to construct a speech and perform the speech in English. Students give prepared speeches on a variety of topics.
THDA-500, The Creative Self
Students will create a multimedia performance piece using improvisation techniques. Students will learn a variety of different techniques integrating movement, text, sound, visual components, and personal stories. The class will study the development of performance art through this century starting with the Dada movement, the Bauhaus theater, the beginnings of modern dance, the post-modern movement, happenings, and Butoh, ending with the contemporary performance art scene. No prerequisite required. The class will be geared toward Uppers and Seniors; Lowers may enroll with permission of the instructor. (Ms. Wombwell)
THDA-510, Acting and Directing Workshop
Four class periods. Enrollment by permission of the instructor. This course, for both the actor and the director, investigates tools to create a character on stage. We will learn to analyze a character and to unlock the toolbox of an actor. Students will take turns between acting and directing scenes after thorough analysis of the material. Course projects will include showing one's work as both actor and director to an actual audience. The total time requirement for this course (class time plus homework) may exceed the standard nine hours per week.
THDA-520/1, Play Production
By audition only. This course is composed of the performance of a faculty-directed play or musical. Recent choices include Urinetown, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Odd Couple, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next. The 2009-2010 productions will include a musical, Greek drama, and American modern classic. The total time required for this course (class time plus homework) may exceed the standard nine hours per week.
THDA-520/2, Play Production
By audition only. This course is composed of the performance of a faculty-directed play or musical. Recent choices include Urinetown, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Odd Couple, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next. The 2009-2010 productions will include a musical, Greek drama, and American modern classic. The total time required for this course (class time plus homework) may exceed the standard nine hours per week.
THDA-520/3, Play Production
By audition only. This course is composed of the performance of a faculty-directed play or musical. Recent choices include Urinetown, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Odd Couple, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next. The 2009-2010 productions will include a musical, Greek drama, and American modern classic. The total time required for this course (class time plus homework) may exceed the standard nine hours per week.
THDA-900, Andover Dance Group for Credit
The Andover Dance Group (ADG) is an auditioned performance group consisting of the most highly trained and dedicated dancers at Phillips Academy. Students in ADG make a commitment to dance for at least two terms a year, rehearsing for faculty-directed shows as an extra-curricular. Students dance five to six days a week. Serious dancers may be in the ADG each of their years at the Academy. After one year of performing with the ADG, students may choose to take a year for credit. In addition to rehearsals, students taking ADG for credit will be required to take a weekly dance history seminar that relates the current ADG project to a specific time period, movement, choreographer, or style in dance history. This seminar is a one-term commitment. Students may take this option only once, and it will serve to fulfill a term of their arts requirement. The total time commitment for this group (classes, rehearsals, and seminar) may exceed the standard nine hours per week. Co-requisite: Students in Andover Dance Group are required to take dance as a sport.