First-Year Seminars

Instructor(s): Ted Sargent

Description:

Electricity demand in the US and globally has entered into a new regime of growth, powered by rapid scaling of data centers in light of AI’s progress, combined with reshoring and electrification of manufacturing.

This considerable energy demand growth will need to be fulfilled rapidly; with firm guarantees re: the dependability of the electricity; and affordably. More and more of this energy will have to be lower in its CO2 intensity than has been legacy energy production.

This will entail rapid progress in solar and wind with storage; geothermal; nuclear; and blue power. Looking more broadly across sectors, it will require innovative sustainable fuels and chemicals to power transportation, to feed the needs of industry, and to fulfill the growing energy requirements of individuals, including in high-growth emerging economies.

We will explore issues of a scientific and engineering nature; as well as of systems, economics, and policy; relating to achieving the needed growth in energy during the energy transition. We will study the global potential, as well as the realistic technical capacity, of the major current and future contributors to the energy mix; look at areas of science and technology that require advances to enable sustainable growth and maintain global competitiveness; and consider the links to national and international economics and politics.

Instructor(s): Jacob Brown

Description:

Black writing matters, and in this course, students will gain a global perspective on the African diaspora through a focus on Afro-Brazilian literature. Brazil has the largest Afrodescendant population outside of Africa. It was the last nation in the Western hemisphere to officially abolish slavery in 1888, and it imported more enslaved human beings from the transatlantic slave trade than any other country in the world. Africans and their descendants have thus profoundly shaped Brazilian intellectual thought as well as virtually every aspect of Brazilian culture.

Students will take a critical look at Brazilian history, culture, and society through the lens of Afro-Brazilian fiction, poetry, testimony, feminist theory, graphic novels, documentary, music, and more. By the end of the course, students will be able to name several of the most prominent Afro-Brazilian authors and make meaningful connections between their rich and multifaceted works. Students will also be able to write and talk about how Black authors in Brazil have challenged racism and intersecting structures of oppression from the 19th century to the present. Students will leave the class with an appreciation for how Afro-Brazilian literature can help us not only critique society but also collectively imagine a more equitable and inclusive future for all in Brazil and beyond.

Instructor(s): Matthew Davis

Description:

This course will provide an introduction to Shakespeare for students who have little or no previous experience reading his work. We will begin by reading Gary Blackwood’s novella, The Shakespeare Stealer, which is set in Elizabethan England c. 1600 and provides a lively, painless, and surprisingly accurate introduction to the world of Shakespeare’s theater. We will then go on to read (and write about) five of Shakespeare’s best-known plays -- Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, and The Tempest.

In-class time will be divided among introductory mini-lectures, analysis of speeches and scenes, and class discussions. Students will learn to mark stressed and unstressed syllables in blank verse and read lines from “cue scripts.” They will memorize a speech (12-15 lines) from one of the assigned plays and complete several short writing assignments.

Instructor(s): Ian Hurd

Description: Governments frequently decide that a song or a genre is dangerous to the public and should not be heard. All around the world, songs are often banned, restricted, labeled, and controlled. From America to South Africa to Brazil and the UK, each ban tells a story about the social and political circumstances of the time, and of the anxieties of the government at that moment. This class looks at the history of control over music and musicians to understand struggles for power among governments, creators, and audiences. We will examine how the control of music is effected, through law, censorship, private companies, overt coercion, and other tools of political control. We will also discuss the songs that are at the heart of debates about decency, cancel culture, social control, and public order.

Instructor(s): Christine Helmer

Description:  With a focus on Max Weber's famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, this course explores Max and Marianne Weber's trip to America in 1904; Max Weber's relationship with W.E.B. DuBois; Marianne Weber's contributions to feminist theory; and the relation between religion and economics.

Instructor(s): Lance Rips

Description:

Infinity is a central property of most number systems. The natural numbers, integers, rationals, reals, and complex numbers all include an infinite number of elements. People’s concepts of these systems would be confused if they failed to grasp the fact that there is no end to these numbers. However, most people have great difficulty understanding infinite sets like these. Are there more positive integers than positive even integers? Are there more rational numbers than natural numbers? Are there more real numbers than rational numbers? You might be surprised at the correct answers to some of these questions.

To set the stage, we’ll look (informally) at some of the math background on infinity, as developed by Georg Cantor and others in the 19th Century. Then we’ll examine some reasons why thinking and reasoning about infinity is so difficult. We’ll read some cognitive psychology experiments that address how children first learn about the infinity of the positive integers, how they learn about infinite divisibility, and how older students (NU undergrads) think about number systems in general.

Instructor(s): Elizabeth Hurd

Description:

Modern political ideals such as democracy, multiculturalism, pluralism, secularism, toleration, and the concept of religion itself, are defined in relation to contingent features of the modern state. This course steps outside of the “state box” to explore alternative formations of political and religious agency and solidarity as embodied in the words and actions of counter-sovereigns, dissenters, heretics, dissidents, and reformers. Paying close attention to the contours and contents of specific forms of dissent, and comparing them to each other, we will study efforts to challenge, rewrite, remake, and/or cultivate indifference to dominant, state-aligned secular and religious identities, ideologies, and interests. Geographically, the course will cover a range of contexts, from the U.S. to Colombia, from Egypt to Haiti, and from Mexico to France to Israel/Palestine. Students will be encouraged to think creatively about, and perhaps even contribute to, the generation of new possibilities for living together beyond the confines of secular or religious nationalisms.

As a writing intensive seminar, this course also emphasizes research and writing skills to prepare students for college-level research and writing. We will discuss academic integrity and get tips from a librarian on how to make the most of Northwestern’s wide-ranging academic resources.

Instructor(s): Sean Hanretta

Description:

June 30th, 1960, Patrice Lumumba became Prime Minister of the independent Republic of the Congo. 201 days later, he was assassinated by Belgian soldiers with the support of the US and mining interests. Ever since, Lumumba has been a martyr and hero for many who work for the liberation and advancement of African peoples.

Course uses the life, death, and legacy of Lumumba as a window into the last 100 years of African history. We examine our own strategies and goals for written expression alongside analyzing the texts and speeches produced by those at the center of some of the key turning points of world history. Addresses colonialism, the Cold War, civil and regional wars, conflict/strategic minerals, and the repatriation of art and artifacts.

Instructor(s): Robert Gordon

Description:

World War II was clearly the most important single event of the twentieth century. However, the seeds for World War II were laid in World War I, making it necessary to study both wars. We will study both why these wars occurred and why they turned out the way they did. In asking why wars turned out the way they did, we will emphasize the size and performance of the economies involved, and such issues as why the U.S. and Soviet Union produced so much while Germany produced so little.

In the last part of the course, students will have a chance to do independent research on any economic aspect of World War II that interests them.

Instructor(s): Germán Campos-Muñoz

Description:

The topic of exile—the forced abandonment of the place and world one calls home—captured the imagination of peoples across the ancient Mediterranean. The Greek Odyssey and Roman Aeneid, famous accounts of the predicaments of classical exile, were by no means isolated instances. These renowned poems were in conversation with narratives that circulated widely among neighboring Egyptian, Hebrew, Babylonian, Phoenician, and other ancient communities, in stories which not only produced echoes among themselves, but very likely borrowed from each other. In this seminar, we will read and discuss representative accounts of exile from the ancient Mediterranean world, highlighting their historical and geographical specificity but also reflecting on their treatment of common concerns and themes—such as homelessness and hospitality, longing and belonging, identity and otherness, hosts and guests, refugees and havens, pain and nostalgia, presence and absence, etc. While the seminar will highlight the historical and archaeological coordinates of those narratives, we will also reflect upon their relevance in discussing the very current reality of exilic life in today’s world.

As a first-year seminar, this course is meant to hone your abilities in the practice of academic writing. The activities for the seminar address this goal by implementing peer-review processes and exploring different writing techniques and sequences.

Instructor(s): Govind Narayan

Description:

Is technology inherently good, or does it carry social inequities of race, class, and gender within it? At its inception, the steam engine was used to exploit workers in British factories. Despite increased productivity, workers were compelled to work long hours in precarious, often life-threatening conditions. This might seem surprising, given that we often think of technological development as an inherent good. However, the texts and films that we will engage with in this course show us that technology both reflects and perpetuates social hierarchies. For example, in Alex Garland’s 2014 film Ex Machina, we will explore expressions of gender and race in the figure of the robot and discuss the impact of generative AI on populations in the global south. In H.G. Wells’s 1895 novel The Time Machine, we will explore the presence of class conflict in the fiction of time travel and learn literary terms like allegory and parable.

As readers, we will attend to the formal techniques that writers and artists use to persuade us, and learn how to read novels, emails, and the news with attention to detail. Through class discussions, oral presentations, and written assignments, we will consider the technology of language—a tool that allows us to ask questions, provide evidence, and construct persuasive arguments. We will “reverse engineer” pieces of fiction and film that represent technology to explore the inner workings of representation and communication. We will spend ample time reflecting on the writing process, developing skills in reading, writing, and critical thinking that will prove useful throughout college and beyond.

Instructor(s): Yvonne Tam

Description: This course reflects on the connections and tensions between the demands of ethics and that of authenticity. Broadly, ethics is the systematic study of how one should live and why one should live that way. The first half of this course introduces students to prominent moral theories advanced in classic texts in the Western tradition such as Plato and Kant. The second half of the course asks, what is the connection between living well and living authentically? What kinds of tensions arise between the demands of ethical life and concerns around authenticity and alienation? Can and should we resolve them? Readings from contemporary scholars include Susan Wolff, Harry Frankfurt, Charles Taylor, Audre Lorde, and Cheshire Calhoun.

Instructor(s): Vicky Kalogera

Description:

This course introduces students to the transformative world of artificial intelligence through the lens of its impact on science, society, and the way we think. We will explore the foundational concepts of AI, its applications in diverse fields, and the ethical dilemmas and societal challenges it presents. From understanding how machines learn to examining AI’s role in reshaping industries, culture, and human interactions, this course encourages critical thinking about the promises and perils of AI.

Students will develop a nuanced understanding of AI’s past, present, and future, while honing their ability to critically evaluate its implications for the world. No prior technical experience is required—just a curiosity to explore how AI is changing what it means to live and think in the 21st century.

Instructor(s): Melville Ulmer

Description:

We'll discuss a book in class with 1 discussion leader per meeting which is twice a week. The book is for non-experts on the topic of cosmology. On one hand, cosmologists have made a story that fits together beautifully. On the other hand the fit is produced by evoking Dark Energy and Dark Matter, which have not been verified in the laboratory. The goal of this class is to discuss the pros and cons of our way forward to understand where we came from and where we are going. The book is: "Facts and Speculations in Cosmology" by Jayant Narlikar.

Teams will be assigned to present their version as a skit for their description of the Big Bang after inflation, why astronomers evoke inflation, why astronomers evoke Dark Matter, and why astronomers evoke Dark Energy = 4 teams. Then 3 papers especially addressing aspects of what's good (1 paper) or bad (one paper) about our current model of Cosmology and one discussion related to that Cosmologists tell us dark matter must exist whereas Physicists have so far failed to find the dark matter particles.

Instructor(s): Martha Biondi

Description: This first year writing seminar introduces students to apartheid, the system of white supremacy in South Africa that relegated the nation’s Black majority to isolated homelands, deprived them of political and civil rights, forcibly extracted their labor and denied them free mobility. A worldwide anti-apartheid movement from the 1940s to the 1990s helped to isolate and bring down the regime. Americans played an important role, including a Black Chicagoan named Prexy Nesbitt whose leadership and organizing anchor some of the seminar.

Instructor(s): Ann Shola Orloff

Description:

This class will investigate how gendered social relations shape politics and policy, and how these in turn shape gender, with a focus on the United States, in comparative and global context. Gender is conceptualized as a set of relations, identifications and cultural schema, complexly interacting with biology and always constituted with other dimensions of power, difference and inequality (e.g., race, class, sexuality, religion, citizenship status). We will analyze the gendered character of citizenship, political participation and representation, social rights and economic rights. We aim to understand gendered politics and policy from both "top down" and "bottom up" perspectives. What do states do, via institutions of political participation and representation, citizenship rights and policies, to shape gender relations? How do gender relations influence the nature of policy and citizenship? How has feminism emerged as a radical challenge to the androcentrism and restricted character of the democratic public sphere? And how have anti-feminism and "anti-gender theory" come to be significant dimensions of politics? We expand on conventional conceptions of political participation and citizenship rights to include the grassroots democratic activism that gave birth to modern women's movements. We explore how women's political efforts -- across different political affiliations -- have given rise to the creation of alternative visions of democracy, social provision and economic participation, as well as reshaping formal politics and policies. Finally, we'll take advantage of the fact that we are in the run up to a midterm congressional election to examine the gendered aspects of the political landscape in the contemporary United States.

Students will work with peers in small groups to examine how different candidates, from a range of different political positions, engage with gender issues.

Instructor(s): Juan Leon Baez

Description:

This seminar explores the history of science in the early modern period from both European and global perspectives, tracing how ideas, tools, and techniques were exchanged across continents to transform local understandings of the known world. It examines how empires, artisans, healers, and scholars participated in these exchanges and how intellectual development emerged from encounters, translations, and negotiations that crossed social and spatial boundaries. Centering on Europe's far western edge—the Iberian Peninsula—the course treats Iberia as a crossroads of the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Islamic worlds, and as a meeting ground for Christian, Muslim, and Jewish traditions. From this vantage point, students will see how "modern" science took shape not through isolated European innovation, but through continuous interactions among diverse cultures, beliefs, and practices.

By tracing the circulation of scientific knowledge through networks of translators, cosmographers, colonizers, missionaries, and enslaved individuals, the seminar reveals how vernacular expertise combined local experience and global exchange to create new understandings of both humanity and the natural world.

In addition to lectures and discussions, students will undertake independent research projects, developing their ability to frame meaningful questions, interpret primary and secondary sources, and contribute original perspectives to ongoing conversations about science, culture, and empire. Open to students from all majors in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, the course invites them to think critically and creatively about how scientific knowledge travels, adapts, and reshapes the world we inhabit.

Instructor(s): Michele Zugnoni

Description: Prepare to delve into the hidden realms of ancient myths and untold histories. Discover the captivating stories of goddesses and heroines who have shaped the course of human history – and often been obscured by time. In this course, we'll peel back the layers of history to uncover forgotten figures and examine heroic journeys, thus exploring the rich tapestry of the human experience. From ancient goddesses like Inanna and Persephone to leaders, artists, and trailblazers like Toni Morrison, Malala Yousafzai and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, our seminar will illuminate the multifaceted roles of women in shaping culture, politics, and societal norms across continents and eras. We'll interrogate ancient myths, historical accounts, and award-winning movies, exploring themes of empowerment and resilience in mythical and real-world contexts. Along the way, we'll develop skills essential to academic writing, reading, and success.

Instructor(s): Charles Yarnoff

Description: In this seminar, we will explore the question of what is and what might be the relationship between human and nonhuman animals. To guide us in that exploration, we'll read, discuss, and write about stories, essays, and poems that dramatize the many ways in which we experience animals: as companions and as sources of food, in zoos and in nature, as objects of scientific study and as reflections of ourselves. The readings will offer us the opportunity to reflect on such questions as: Is it possible to know what an animal is thinking and feeling? Why are our pets so important to us? Are we justified in using animals for food and in laboratory experiments? Through class discussion and varied writing assignments, you'll articulate your answers to those and other questions to your colleagues in the seminar.

Instructor(s): Kai Chase

Description:

A bloody bat hovers in the window of some unsuspecting maiden. Eerie singing haunts your every step down that dark alley. Such scenes are quintessential horror tropes. But what about when the maiden is fed up and starts hunting for bat stew? When you decide to mock that creepy doll’s off-key singing? This class looks at how 21st-century writers engage both the terrifying and the humorous as methods for coping, chuckling, and catharsis.

Working across film and literature, this course will ask the following: • What defines horror and humor as artistic genres? • How do horror and humor allow artists to confront real-world dilemmas? • How do we, as writers and creatives, utilize horror and humor in our own daily confrontations with an increasingly brutal, ludicrous world?

Besides exploring the funny and the horrific, this course is designed to meet two equally scary yet essential parts of critical thinking: reading and writing. Students will develop skills of close reading and analysis, argument construction and organization, and written expression. Texts may include Steven Graham Jones’s (Blackfeet) Only Good Indians (2020) and films such as Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (2025).

Instructor(s): Antonio Terrone

Description:

This course offers an introduction to the rich and multifaceted world of Tibetan literature, exploring its historical development, religious depth, and poetic imagination from the early Buddhist period to the modern era. Students will examine how Tibet’s literary traditions evolved in conversation with Buddhist philosophy, ritual, and aesthetics, and how they continue to shape Tibetan identity in Chine and in exile. Through close readings of translated texts — including classical Buddhist biographies, poetry, folk tales, and modern fiction — students will encounter the unique interplay between spirituality, storytelling, and cultural survival that defines Tibetan literary expression.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES: - Understand Tibetan literary traditions - Analyze themes and philosophies - Contextualize and compare - Develop critical and expressive skills TEACHING METHOD: Lectures and discussion EVALUATION METHOD: Participation, response papers, in-class presentations, term paper

CLASS MATERIALS REQUIRED: - Heruka, Tsangnyon, Life of Milarepa. PENGUIN. ISBN 13: 9780143106227 - Chogyel, Tenzin. Life of the Buddha. PENGUIN. ISBN 13: 9780143107200 - Schaeffer, Kurtis R. Himalayan Hermitess: Life of a Tibetan Buddhist Nun. OXFORD UNI PRESS. ISBN 13: 9780195152999

Instructor(s): Eskil Juul Elling

Description:

In this course, we will consider the problem of disagreements about taste or beauty: On the one hand, we all claim the right to have our own tastes and opinions regarding art and beauty. On the other hand, we tend to want others to share our opinions, and we are sometimes seriously hurt or offended when they don’t. How can we make sense of our disagreements about what counts as beautiful while also accounting for the immense force of shared aesthetic experiences? Along the way to answer such questions, we will practice the skills that go into good academic writing: analyzing the arguments of others, accurately describing them, and critically engaging with them; constructing clearly articulated arguments of one’s own and anticipating objections; and, if possible, doing all of this with as much grace in one’s prose as possible.

We will begin by considering a range of classical accounts of beauty and aesthetic disagreement: Plato on the love of beauty, Abhinavagupta on beauty and self-transcendence, Charles Batteux on objectivity in aesthetic judgments, and Hume on the role of “judges” in disputes about taste. We will also examine the idea that evolution has somehow primed us to appreciate certain kinds of beauty. From there, we will explore modern and contemporary authors who have argued for the importance, both personal and political, of having a developed individual taste. Finally, we will employ the knowledge we have gained to a wide range of concrete aesthetic phenomena, from contemporary sexual politics to relative merits of “high” and “low” art.

Instructor(s): Barbara Polster

Description:

We have all heard the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but could we also say that a word is worth a thousand pictures? Since the turn of the 20th century, many Caribbean artists and writers have investigated this complicated relationship between language and images, oftentimes even pushing so far as to ask how the circulation of slogans, newspaper photos, archival images, and artworks enters the realm of the political. For centuries, the Caribbean has been at the center of the movement of goods, people, and ideas in the Americas, and its cultural expression, in turn, has reflected this fluctuation. Thus, we might ask: what changes occurred in the 20th century that prompted writers and artists to start playing with/manipulating/redirecting images and text, and what can they teach us about our own moment today?

By considering the work of artists and writers such as Aimé Césaire (Martinique), Severo Sarduy (Cuba), Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados), and Coco Fusco (U.S./Cuba) in relation to their historical context–revolutions! the “avant garde”! sovereignty! dreams!–we will investigate the similarities and differences that arise from “reading” pictures and words. You will then use your own words to articulate a position on some of these problems, incorporating research, formal analyses, and class discussions. The course will be taught and all readings will be made available in English, but primary texts will also be provided in their respective English, French, and/or Spanish versions for anyone interested.

Instructor(s): Erin Leddon

Description:

 How do children achieve the remarkable feat of acquiring language - an accomplishment we often take for granted? Which aspects of the human capacity for language are best understood as biological, as species-wide and species-specific? How do families, schools, and communities help shape children's development as speakers and listeners, and eventually as readers and writers? How does learning a first language (or more than one language) interact with learning to think, learning to imagine, and developing a sense of identity? To explore these questions, we will consider studies of children's language development along with perspectives from social policy, medicine, education, business and marketing, the arts and publishing.

Students will have regular opportunities to reflect on their own experience, and each student will be able to select a topic of individual interest for a final seminar project. All assigned reading will be available to students on Canvas. A

By the end of this course, students should be able to: formulate thoughtful and engaged questions and comments in seminar discussions, summarize and evaluate arguments made by others, formulate persuasive arguments of their own (orally and in writing, based on a careful analysis of evidence), cite sources appropriately, and demonstrate progress in writing effectively at the college level.

Discussion: Regular opportunities to write and to share ideas based on course readings and developed through writing. Evaluation Method: Reaction papers, essays, participation in class discussion, short presentation. Course Materials: Course materials are free, distributed through Canvas.

Instructor(s): Lisa Del Torto

Description:

Language is one of the main ways we are perceived, categorized, and even assessed for opportunities. Ideas about what language “should be” shape how we are understood in classrooms, workplaces, media, and everyday interactions. These ideas influence whose knowledge is valued, whose voices are heard, and whose ways of speaking and writing are labeled “professional,” “intelligent,” or “correct.” Yet few people and institutions ever stop to ask why this is or how we might do things differently. This seminar takes those questions as its starting point!

We’ll examine how language reflects and reproduces social hierarchies while also exploring strategies for resistance and change. We’ll focus on language as a social practice rather than a fixed object or set of rules. This focus will allow us to question dominant narratives about language, consider how institutions (including universities) uphold or challenge those narratives, and explore language diversity as a source of belonging, equity, access, and justice.

As a first-year writing seminar, our course will focus on developing core academic skills such as framing questions, analyzing evidence, engaging with and synthesizing sources, writing for different audiences, and revising in response to feedback. Our readings will come from scholarly sources as well as popular non-fiction. Throughout our writing projects and class discussions, you’ll get to pursue your own curiosities and concerns about language and power.

Instructor(s): Jesse Yeh

Description: What if we live in a world where there’s no law? How will society function? Will we be better or worse off? In this class, we will anchor our discussions of these questions on a series of science fiction texts and films. Along the way, we will supplement our discussions with social theories of the law and empirical research in anthropology, political science, and sociology.

Instructor(s): Bo Zhang

Description:

Geospatial technologies have revolutionized the ways we observe, analyze, and represent our world. This seminar introduces students to how maps and spatial data shape our understanding of places, environments, and societies, from everyday navigation to global decision-making. Students will explore topics such as map design, spatial and satellite data, and the social dimensions of mapping.

Through analytical, reflective, and research-based writing, students will learn to interpret visual information, evaluate spatial arguments, and communicate insights clearly. This seminar emphasizes both spatial literacy and the development of strong academic writing skills.

Instructor(s): Bihter Esener

Description:

Chariot-racing, archery, tennis, and jousting were just some sports enjoyed over the 1000 years (4th–15th centuries CE) known as the "Middle Ages." Kings and queens, monks and nuns, and nobles and peasants engaged in these to gain athletic prowess, fame, status, wealth, love, sex, and fun. This course examines the powerful visual expressions of various sports and games developed, cultivated, and encouraged or discouraged over the medieval era in the Mediterranean world.

The evidence includes athletic monuments, illustrated manuscripts, tapestries, and relatively unexpected objects such as mirrors and combs. Modern material, such as films and TV excerpts, shall also be used. Key issues explored are the spectacle and spectatorship of medieval sports; gender, class, and religion in the practice of sports; the body, fashion, and the spaces of sports (stadiums, arenas, etc.), and comparisons between their medieval and modern versions.

Instructor(s): Teri Odom

Description:

Nanotechnology involves the creation and use of small structures at the nanometer scale. This length is around a thousand times less than the diameter of a human hair, with DNA widths 1-2 nm. For 25 years, Northwestern University has been a global leader in nanoscience research spanning the basics and applications of nanomaterials in medicine, electronic and photonic devices, and photovoltaics. Our university also houses state-of-the-art instruments and tools to carry out research at the nanoscale.

This seminar will cover all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology, with an emphasis on the groundbreaking work at Northwestern so that students can be exposed to current research. Students will have opportunities to explain an idea in nanoscience to a general audience and assess nanotechnology concerns raised in media reports.

Instructor(s): Laura Hein

Description: Okinawa is geographically a small place with a large and multi-faceted history. Is it Chinese? Is it Japanese? Is it American? Is it independent? The answer to all these questions is Yes, Sort Of. Each of those answers opens up into a different narrative of Okinawan identity, all of which are passionately held by Okinawans today. All of them are justified primarily through appeals to Okinawan history. How do we make sense of these clashing narratives? What is at stake and why does this matter so much to so many people? This course uses these questions to teach students how specialists in several academic disciplines and the general public use historical narratives in discipline-specific ways, how to evaluate their accuracy and effectiveness, what makes them powerful, and how to construct high-quality histories themselves. The true queries of this course are: why do we want to know the answer to such questions? How do we know what we know?

Instructor(s): Pamela Bannos

Description:

This course will explore the history and nature of photographic imagery relating to its capacity for misrepresentation, with emphasis on context and photography as a contemporary art practice. From the work of 19th century photographers to conceptual artists of the 1980s; from optical lens distortion to post-production manipulation and recent AI applications, we will investigate the age-old issue of truth and its relationship to photography.

In addition to more extensive essays, students will write short responses to readings, and produce imagery related to discussion topics.

Instructor(s): Claire Kirwin

Description: In this class, we will read Plato’s two masterpieces on erotic love: the Symposium and the Phaedrus. We will explore Plato’s treatment of the role of eros in human life, and consider the connection he draws between this phenomenon and the practice of philosophy. Our engagement with these texts will form the foundation for a series of structured writing assignments aimed at developing and refining your academic writing skills.

Instructor(s): Matthew Davis

Description:

In this seminar we will read, discuss, and write about short stories. Many of the stories, as well as the organizational scheme, will be taken from an unusual anthology, Points of View, edited by James Moffett and Kenneth R. McElheny. In this anthology the stories are categorized according to the mode of narration used in the story. One section of the anthology contains “interior monologues,” in which we seem to be inside the main character’s head, overhearing his or her thoughts; another section contains “dramatic monologues,” in which we hear the narrator speaking aloud to another character; a third section contains “epistolary” stories (i.e., stories told in letters); a fourth contains stories that are made up of a series of diary entries; and so on. We will look at eleven different modes of narration in all -- and we will read two examples of most modes.

As far as writing is concerned, students will learn some principles of composition and complete some brief writing exercises. The more substantial writing assignments will be two narratives and two academic essays. In the narratives students will try to tell a story using one of the modes of narration we have studied. In the academic essays, they will be asked to make a claim about one of the stories we have read and then support that claim with evidence. Each essay will be drafted, workshopped, and revised.

Instructor(s): Laurel Harbridge-Yong

Description:

How polarized is the American public? What about our elected officials? What do we mean by party polarization and what does this phenomenon mean for issues of representation, government productivity, democratic norms, and civic engagement? This first-year writing seminar explores these and other questions related to polarization in American politics, including timely topics related to the growing impact of the most ideological wings of the parties, gridlock in politics, echo chambers in the media, and the spillover of polarization into our social lives.

Through our substantive exploration of these topics, students will learn strategies for reading and engaging with academic literature, writing clearly and convincingly, and conveying information to multiple audiences.

Instructor(s): Ann Shola Orloff

Description:

The gender gap in politics -- average differences in partisan and policy preferences between men and women (and between different subgroups of men and women, or those who live beyond the binary) -- has been a key focus of attention over the last three Presidential elections. In this class, we'll examine its changing character over the generations coming of age politically from the early twentieth century through today, examining the role of gender, in interaction with other forms of power and difference, in shaping political preferences and practices. Why, for example, are non college-educated men (increasingly across racial groups) trending Republican? Why are single women a mainstay of Democratic support? Why does the educational divide separate the partisan preferences of white women? how have feminism and anti-feminism come to be significant politically? We'll dive into these questions and more as we seek to understand the gendered components of contemporary electoral politics.

Classes will usually begin with a short lecture, then move to discussion and group presentations. Students will write three short papers on topics of their choosing within the broad rubric of gender and politics.

Instructor(s): Chloe Thurston

Description: Can democracies withstand extreme inequality? This course examines this question from a range of theoretical perspectives before turning to empirical analysis of contemporary American politics. Students will engage with classic and contemporary thinkers on questions of power, influence, representation, political legitimacy, and democratic backsliding and resilience.

Instructor(s): Kevin Buckelew

Description:

Long before the modern age of AI, stories of humanoid automata—walking statues, puppets come to life, golems on patrol—circulated across the world. Like AI chatbots, such automata are fabricated by humans in our own likeness. They resemble us, but they are somehow different. Sometimes they are radically helpful or smart, better at what they do than any human could be. Other times they are evil and destructive, more malicious than we might think humanly possible. In still other cases they are just creepy, combining the familiar with the strange in an unsettling way. This class treats such automata as our “uncanny doubles” that hold up a mirror to humanity. What forgotten or repressed aspects of ourselves might we glimpse if we stop to gaze in that mirror? In other words, how have puppets, robots, and other such figures served in different times and places to stage the problem of human doubleness—whether divine, demonic, or simply uncanny? And how should we analyze the unsettling psychic effects ensuing from such glimpses of our own multiplicity?

Searching for answers, our class will scrutinize a range of sources from the ancient world through contemporary popular culture.

Instructor(s): Anthony Chen

Description: Today, key aspects of American politics are characterized by the highest levels of polarization that have been witnessed for nearly a century. A similar statement can be made about the American economy. Income and wealth are more unequally distributed these days than they have been since the earliest decades of the twentieth century. We live in an age of extremes. What happened? How and why did we get here? This course draws on a selection of academic and popular readings as well as music, film, and television to explore idea that key dimensions of our unequal and polarized times can be traced to the social struggles, political conflicts, and economic dilemmas that played out during the period of time that goes under the aegis of "The Nineties."

Instructor(s): Brian Odom

Description: The scientific enterprise, over the centuries, has often interacted with human spirituality and religion. This interaction has at times been synergistic and at times antagonistic. This course will focus on recent developments. We will look at relevant writings of influential scientists, including mystics, believers, agnostics, and atheists. At students' discretion, we might also touch at times on science related to spirituality and spiritual experience. In-class discussion will at all times be respectful, to allow productive dialogue on these deeply personal topics.

Instructor(s): Katherine Hoffman

Description:

Stories can communicate information or entertain, but they also connect, persuade, and mobilize people. This seminar explores storytelling as communicative practice, individual creation, and anthropological subject. We will look at diverse oral traditions in the US and abroad, personal narratives, and digital media. Just as importantly, we will study how organizations and activists use stories to raise awareness, inspire action, and shape public opinion. Along the way, we’ll ask how stories are shaped by power and resistance to it and what stories reveal about identity and community. Students will experiment with crafting their own personal narratives, analyzing those of others, and discovering how narrative connects people across time and space.

All readings will be provided by the instructor in digital or paper format.

Evaluation will be based on thoughtful and on-topic discussion of course readings and short lectures, participation in small group exercises, class discussion moderation, short assignments related to the final paper, class presentation, and a 8-10 page final paper on a topic of the student’s choice reflecting course themes. Student work is distributed throughout the quarter so that there is no sprint at the end.

Instructor(s): isabel Griffith-Gorgati

Description: “The Green Wave is rolling into Hollywood,” Irish actress Carrie Crowley declared in 2023, the year Irish films achieved a record-breaking number of Academy Award nominations. And the Green Wave is not limited to movies: from Sally Rooney’s wildly successful novels to the globally beloved TV show Derry Girls, to musical sensations like Hozier, the small island’s cultural appeal is bigger than ever. What is driving this boom in the international popularity of Irish culture – is it “perceptions of civic decline in the US and UK,” as film scholar Diane Negra argues, or the transnational resonances of Irish struggles? What can we learn about Ireland’s history and culture by engaging with its fashionable exports, and what can those of us outside Ireland learn about ourselves? What does it mean to read these objects as both local and global? With these questions and more in mind, we will explore a mixture of Irish fiction, music, TV, and film from the last decade. Students will develop a final paper on a piece of Irish media of their choosing.

Instructor(s): Bradley Zykoski

Description:

Of the various behaviors human beings engage in, doing mathematics is one of the strangest. With only a pencil and paper, we can predict when a falling object will land, compute the likelihood of a royal flush in poker, and discover facts like the Pythagorean Theorem that never become outdated. We talk about objects like “numbers” and “functions” that cannot be seen, heard, or felt, and yet are essential to our understanding of the natural world. The concept of infinity becomes, rather than an object of mystical wonderment, a tool for doing calculus.

How is any of this possible? In this course, we will discuss the relationship between mathematics, knowledge, and nature. We will ask questions like “What is a number, really?” and “Can we know infinitely many things?” We will read a wide variety of texts, from Plato’s “Meno” to Wigner’s “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences.” These topics will be the whetstone on which we hone our skills of technical writing, persuasive writing, and even creative writing.

It is not necessary to have any background in college-level mathematics in order to engage with these topics; this course has no math courses as prerequisites. If anything I have discussed here animates your curiosity, I would be delighted to see you in this course! Course materials: No textbook. (A variety of individual readings will be provided.)

Instructor(s): Laura MacKay Hansen

Description:

Growing up is hard to do—whether surrounded by the turbulence and poverty of post-war Naples, the violence of war-torn Vietnam, the devastation of the Islamic Revolution in Tehran, or the more genteel decline of an American auto town in the 1970’s. This course will explore coming-of-age stories and some of the challenges presented both by difficult and complicated relationships, and by the social and political forces that shape the worlds in which the protagonists are raised. What role do friendships and family play in creating identity, and how might betrayal be a part of growing up? How are the stakes different and higher for some, and how do gender, race, and class play a role in narrowing a person’s choices?

We’ll begin by considering the novel and tv series, My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, looking in particular at the female friendship at its center; then we’ll examine some of the ways that coming of age is represented in film, looking at Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, Sophia Coppola’s Virgin Suicides, and Greta Gerwig’s Ladybird; we’ll think about the way that graphic memoirs can capture both the personal and the historical, considering Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do; and finally, we’ll consider how films like Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and Jordan Peele’s Get Out might make us think differently about what it means to come of age and help us consider the question: How do we push against the life stories that have been chosen for us?

Instructor(s): Brendan O'Kelly

Description: From viral podcasts to streaming documentaries, True Crime has become an increasingly popular genre of media in the 21st century. This course traces its evolution from 19th-century crime writing to modern investigative journalism, films, TV shows, podcasts, and online communities. We’ll explore how True Crime balances storytelling, ethics, and activism—sometimes sensationalizing crime, other times exposing flaws in the justice system. Through critical academic and pop cultural readings, we will examine the genre’s legal, ethical, and social ramifications, questioning why True Crime captivates audiences and how it impacts our understanding of justice.

Instructor(s): Leslie Harris

Description: The idea of the “slave narrative” usually brings to mind the published works of antebellum fugitive slaves like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, and more recently Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave. But enslaved and formerly enslaved people created testimonials to their experiences in a variety of ways, and not only for publication. This course will explore the range of ways enslaved and formerly enslaved people provided or enabled written accounts of their lives in the 19th and 20th centuries—letters, interviews, published accounts, etc. We will also examine how the mainstream historical profession viewed those accounts, moving from skepticism in the early twentieth century, to cautious acceptance today. Are slave testimonials any more difficult to work with than other historical sources? What have literary scholars taught historians about using slave testimony?

Instructor(s): Cesar Hoyos Alvarez

Description:

Have you ever wondered how Spanish is perceived in society? How might the way people speak Spanish shape how they are seen by others? What factors influence these perceptions? This course explores the intersections between language, identity, race, and power through the lived experiences of Spanish speakers in the U.S. Together, we’ll examine how Spanish has been perceived, valued, and racialized across different social contexts, uncovering how language ideologies influence speakers’ various aspects of their everyday lives. Drawing from sociolinguistic and critical frameworks, we’ll explore topics such as bilingualism, linguistic discrimination, Spanglish, and the political dimension of language.

Along the way, you’ll be invited to reflect on your own linguistic journey, whether you’ve grown up navigating one or multiple languages, or are just beginning to learn one, and consider how language connects to your identity, your experiences, and the communities around you.

Instructor(s): Michaela Kleber

Description: Whether stigmatized as "witches" or heralded as "good wives," women were central to the events of early American history, from first encounters to the U.S. Revolution. Through the lens of women of African, European, and Native descent, this course focuses on their experiences, including well-known women like Tituba and Malintzin as well as lesser-known women like Martha Ballard and Marie Rouensa. What makes women's experience distinct from people of other genders in early America? How did the early American context change women's lives? In the course of reading, discussion, and writing, this course also examines how the category of "woman" was historically constructed, meant something different in different cultures, and what the meeting of these cultures in North America did to challenge and reconstruct that category. This course considers how these women's various circumstances shaped their lives, as well as how these diverse women shaped early America.

Instructor(s): Lauren Johnson

Description:

In 2021, WNBA legend Sue Bird, ex-soccer captain Alex Morgan, snowboarder Chloe Kim, and swimmer Simone Manuel launched a line of t-shirts that proclaimed “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports.” A few years later, celebrities arrived at the 2024 Paris Olympics wearing these shirts, and the slogan became known around the globe. Yet how are we to understand this phenomenon? Is the phrase meant as a statement of fact, or is it necessarily political? As more people than ever tune in to watch women’s sports, this course will explore how female, queer, and trans athletes are represented in 21st century novels, films, plays, and television. While we use fiction to analyze the intersectional challenges that female athletes face on and off the court, we will also consider how examining sports in particular illuminates or obscures the experiences of racialized and gendered subjects.

Primary texts may include Rita Bullwinkel’s Headshot (2024), Quan Barry’s We Ride Upon Sticks (2019), Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves (2016), Bend it Like Beckham (2002), Challengers (2024) and A League of Their Own (2022).

Through close-reading and revising written assignments, this course will assist students in improving their reading, writing, and critical-thinking skills. Assignments will include an in-class presentation (5-7 minutes), a short close-reading assignment (1-2 pages), a midterm paper (3-4 pages), and a final assignment (5-6 pages).