This course introduces students to themes, movements, and scholars in the Black radical tradition. We will examine how Black intellectuals and organizers (e.g., Cedric Robinson, Saidiya Hartman, Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, Frantz Fanon) have theorized and fought for dignity and freedom against slavery, colonialism, capitalism, patriarchy, and prisons. Within this reading-intensive, discussion-centered course, particular attention will be given to the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and geography in shaping Black thought and liberation struggles.

Officially, autism is a psychological and neurodevelopmental diagnosis as well as a disability. It is also a life experience, identity, and-for some-a source of power and point of pride, as part of a broader neurodivergence movement. In this discussion-centered course, we will read work about autism primarily by autistic writers (and illustrators) and will spend much of the course planning and carrying out scholarly and creative projects related to autism and/or other aspects of neurodiversity.

This course introduces students to basic mechanisms of diatonic harmony. Through analysis, performance, and composition, we will build a solid working understanding of basic principles of melody, harmony, and form common in many musical traditions that we consume in our everyday lives. In the first half of the course, we explore composition in 4-part polyphonic texture with and without modulation. In the second half, we explore modes as storytelling devices.

What if a settler future is already dead? This course explores Indigenous nihilism as both a philosophical provocation and a set of material conditions under world systems built to sustain Euro-American colonial conquest. Drawing from critical Indigenous studies, and Black, Indigenous, and non-European anarchisms, we will examine how anti-colonial nihilism (or doubts about the existence of meaning, purpose, and progress under modern/colonial conditions) emerges out of dispossession, racial terror, and a sober analysis of what is even possible under prevailing conditions.

According to a famous quip, antisemitism means "hating the Jews more than necessary." Why hate them at all? Among the most perplexing things about antisemitism is its persistence for over two millennia in a wide variety of settings. After the Holocaust it seemed no longer acceptable. Today, although Jews are more integrated than ever into western society, 73% of US voters see antisemitism as a problem, and 83 percent of Jewish college students report having witnessed or experienced it in the past two years.

This class is a collaboration between Hampshire College faculty Donna Cohn and Division III student Luka Eriksen. We will start the semester by learning and practicing the techniques of traditional broom making that Luka learned while enrolled at Berea College in Kentucky. We will gather natural materials from surrounding local habitats. We will make brooms that are functional, to a chosen specific task that can also be beautiful works of art.

This course is for students working on long fiction projects of any genre in either Div II or III. We'll build on the foundations of writing craft and develop an understanding of how to apply concepts like character, structure, narrative design, and more, specifically to the form of the novel. We'll also be exploring strategies for developing a consistent and prolonged writing practice - how to sustain one's self as an artist across the long span of time and labor required to plan, execute, and revise a long-form fiction project.

This course is geared toward Division III students and Five College seniors completing or anticipating advanced architectural or other design studio projects. The Advanced Architecture + Design Lab course provides a structured and critical creative environment for students to explore, experiment and design in both an individual and collaborative studio setting. In this course, students will develop their own individual design projects, identifying their own approach, scope and thesis, then executing their creative acts throughout the semester.

Marginalized people have always existed in the games industry, and their contributions have had an indelible impact on the field. This course examines the historic accomplishments of many such individuals as well as the tumultuous backlash they often face from misogynistic and white supremacist movements. Students will research and discuss gaming communities, the political movements and ideologies fostered within them, portrayals of power and identity in games, and the labor conditions under which games are produced.

When the Roman Empire imploded in 476, refugees from the Italian mainland settled on a few disconnected islands sheltered from the open Adriatic Sea by a lagoon. Within a few centuries, they created one of the most unlikely, beautiful, and long-lasting European cities ever to have been built. The cooperative spirit with which early medieval Venetians were able to create an urban environment built on seawater found its expression in the political and societal structures they formed to govern their city, republic, and, eventually, empire.