Nagel states, "Without consciousness the mind-body problem would be much less interesting. With consciousness it seems hopeless." Chalmers calls consciousness "the hard problem." Explaining consciousness raises significant challenges for philosophers and cognitive scientists alike, and understanding the nature of the problem is half the battle. This class will explore contemporary philosophical approaches to consciousness, and draw in psychology and neuroscience perspectives. Topics may also include split-brain problems, the nature of dreaming, and altered states.

Every day, everywhere, we are exposed to toxins in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the products we purchase, and the social worlds we inhabit. Yet while exposure is shared, its effects are unevenly distributed across lines of race, gender, class, and colonialism. Attending to unequal distributions and disproportionate harms, we consider how toxic exposure shapes historic and novel forms of difference, the politics of evidence, and assumptions about the integrity of bodies and nations.

Every day, everywhere, we are exposed to toxins in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the products we purchase, and the social worlds we inhabit. Yet while exposure is shared, its effects are unevenly distributed across lines of race, gender, class, and colonialism. Attending to unequal distributions and disproportionate harms, we consider how toxic exposure shapes historic and novel forms of difference, the politics of evidence, and assumptions about the integrity of bodies and nations.

This course serves to articulate the cultural nuances, critical theory, and artistic practices shaping the visual art production of African American and African Diasporic artists and makers. Here +54 provides immersive encounters with both historical and contemporary expressive material culture of both African America and the 54 countries on the African continent. The course will confront the fragility of African American cultural representation and challenge "Western-centric" views of the artistic practices of the African continent.

Making and Meaning is an interdisciplinary course exploring the processes, ideas, and variety of materials in the visual arts. The course addresses thematic concepts that are central to the nature of art making including the principles of art and design, approaches to color, light, and environment, and issues of identity and community. Assignments in drawing, installation, collaboration, and basic three-dimensional construction will be combined with slide lectures, assigned readings, and short written reflections.

Making and Meaning is an interdisciplinary course exploring the processes, ideas, and variety of materials in the visual arts. The course addresses thematic concepts that are central to the nature of art making including the principles of art and design, approaches to color, light, and environment, and issues of identity and community. Assignments in drawing, installation, collaboration, and basic three-dimensional construction will be combined with slide lectures, assigned readings, and short written reflections.

A hands-on introduction to digital art making using computers and related technologies. We will think creatively, work digitally and explore techno-centric art making as a new form and medium, engaging both technical and conceptual considerations. Through readings, discussion, demonstrations, viewing sessions, technical tutorials and hands-on projects, we will explore the techniques, practices and aesthetics of a broad range of current and emerging digital art practices.

This intermediate digital arts course explores diverse contemporary methods of digital production and engages conceptual and aesthetic issues that arise in this new medium. Possible topics may draw from creative coding and algorithm art, computer animation, and interactive/immersive environments on platforms ranging from computer monitors to projections, to VR headsets and to portable electronic devices. We will explore emerging digital art practices and the role that digital media art plays within contemporary art.

Painting the Series is a rigorous course that expands skills that students have gathered prior to this semester. Students will engage deeply with the practice of painting in water or oil-based paint on variety of substrates, and create multiple series of works. The semester includes presentations, research, critiques, and discussions. Throughout history, artists have actively approached the strategy of creating a series in order to transform, distill, unpack, and otherwise evolve an original idea.

The vast amount of unstructured and structured data on the web and in organizational databases has increased the need for approaches to processing large volumes of text. Such analyses help researchers and businesses to gain insights -- that would otherwise be too resource- and time-consuming to do manually -- into issues such as how much a consumer can be expected to spend in a particular context, the rise of hate groups and their impact on social media, or to whom a newly discovered manuscript may be attributed.