Data for the People

How can we communicate social science knowledge to the wider public? How can we interpret, and assess the quality of, social scientific sources? In this writing-intensive seminar, students will build data literacy and public writing skills to translate important social scientific findings to wider audiences. In a workshop-style model that maps the process of publication, students will create a long-form story that they may seek to publish in wider news outlets.

Statistical Computing

This is an intermediate course in statistical computing and theory using R software. Computational statistics is a rapidly expanding area in statistical research and applications. This course uses R for graphics and simulations. It focuses on a non-calculus-based approach to understanding theoretical statistical concepts through a simulation-based approach. Students will gain knowledge and experience in writing both simple and more advanced simulations in R. It also introduces some other topics such as missing data, resampling methods and numerical methods.

Design of Experiments

How do you get informative research results? By doing the right experiment in the first place. We'll look at the techniques used to plan experiments that are both efficient and statistically sound, the analysis of the resulting data, and the conclusions we can draw from that analysis. Using a framework of optimal design, we'll examine the theory both of classical designs and of alternatives when those designs aren't appropriate.

Theorizing Eros

The erotic is a rich site of queer feminist thinking about the costs of the imposition of sexuality as an interpretive grid. The course begins with the study of sexuality as a knowledge system, with a focus on racial and colonial histories of sexuality, then moves on to considerations of the erotic. In both Lordean and Foucauldian genealogies, eros operates as a set of possibilities, or capacities -- for pleasure, joy, fulfilment, satisfaction -- that exceed "sexuality" and can inspire ways of rethinking nature, need, and relationality. Lynne Huffer, L.H.

Theorizing Eros

The erotic is a rich site of queer feminist thinking about the costs of the imposition of sexuality as an interpretive grid. The course begins with the study of sexuality as a knowledge system, with a focus on racial and colonial histories of sexuality, then moves on to considerations of the erotic. In both Lordean and Foucauldian genealogies, eros operates as a set of possibilities, or capacities -- for pleasure, joy, fulfilment, satisfaction -- that exceed "sexuality" and can inspire ways of rethinking nature, need, and relationality. Lynne Huffer, L.H.

Intro Asian American Lit

This course introduces students to Asian American literature, considering its historical origins and evolution. Throughout the course we explore questions of identity, immigration and citizenship, generational conflict, war and migration, and mixed and cross-racial politics. Readings of primary texts will be supplemented by historical and critical source materials. Authors may include Nina Revoyr, Ruth Ozeki, Nam Le, Chang-rae Lee, Aimee Phan, Susan Choi, and Jhumpa Lahiri.

Critical Development Studies

Critical development studies explore the economic, political, cultural, and environmental conditions underpinning global economic systems (i.e. large-scale industrial, merchanting, and financial systems). Critical development studies seek to understand the dynamics of such systems and to develop methodologies for reducing marginalization and inequalities, to give the voiceless a voice in shaping public policies. These political economic studies often draw links between imperialism, colonization, slavery, and unequal trading relationships.

Early Music:Ren/Baroque Dance

Sixteenth- through eighteenth-century European social dance, contemporary with the eras of Elizabeth I and Shakespeare in England, the Medicis in Italy, Louis XIV in France, and colonial America. The focus will be on learning the dances, supplemented by historical and social background, discussion of the original dance sources, and reconstruction techniques.

Plant Biogeography

How do plant species arrive and establish on islands? What roles do ecology and evolution play in the where, how, and when of plant geographic patterns? This course establishes an appreciation for patterns of species distributions on local and global scales. Students explore how physical factors (e.g. geology, soil, and climate) interact with biological factors (e.g. physiology, evolution, and competition) to affect past, present, and potential future plant biogeography.
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