Religion, Democracy

[Pre-1900] The United States has inscribed the separation of church and state into its constitutional order, and yet Americans have for two centuries been more deeply committed to religious faith and practice than any other people in the Western world. This course endeavors to explore that paradox.

Youth School Pop Culture

(Offered as AMST 203, EDST 203, and SOCI 203) What do we understand about schools, teachers, and students through our engagement with popular culture? How do we interrogate youth clothing as a site of cultural expression and school-based control? How do race, class, and gender shape how youth make sense of and navigate cultural events such as the prom? Contemporary educational debates often position schools and popular culture as oppositional and as vying for youth's allegiance. Yet schools and popular culture overlap as educational sites in the lives of youth.

Race, Educ. & Belonging

(Offered as AMST 200, EDST 200, and SOCI 200) Disproportionate numbers of students of color drop out or disengage from schools in America each year. Responding to the framework of “drop out,” critical educational scholars have argued that many school practices, policies, and cultures “push out” already marginalized students, or at the very least, do not take sufficient steps to create an inclusive culture that supports all students’ participation and sense of belonging.

Immigration/White Supre.

(Offered as AMST 140 and LJST 140) While discussions of white supremacy are more common now than even a few years ago, the image of the United States as a nation of immigrants remains popular. How can we connect these two notions, that on the one hand the country was founded on and practices a settler colonialism and racial capitalism that privileges whites, with that on the other hand many immigrants of color are working towards their American Dream?

FYS- Meaning in Social Life

This course is designed to help first year students develop skills and habits for college success. It is also an introduction to cultural and linguistic anthropology, centered on the question of how people create meaning in social life. Students will learn about campus resources, share their experiences adjusting to independent college life, and take some first steps in learning how to see the world like an anthropologist. What do anthropologists mean by culture, diversity, and meaning? What tools can anthropology offer us for understanding our own lives and the world around us?

After Impressionism

This seminar will focus on the works of four painters, and we will choose from among the following: Bonnard, Cezanne, Gauguin, Pissarro, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, and van Gogh. We will study their works in relation to the feverish debates about painting in the 1880s and 1890s that the previous generation's Impressionism brought about. As we will discover, the four artists were hardly a unified group, took distinct paths away from Impressionism, and pursued projects that had limited allegiance to its main tenets or, indeed, to the ideas and practices of each other.

Critical Approaches to Art Hs

Intended as a kind of 'boot camp' for Art History majors, this course gives a major overview of the field, its methods, and its professional possibilities. Students will design their own research projects, conceptualize exhibitions, and hear from professionals working in various sectors of the art world. They will hone their research, writing, and speaking skills, while learning what it means to interpret art through lenses such as formalism, Marxism, gender, and postcolonialism.

Medieval Bodies

In this course we will examine how medieval European thinkers and artists theorized and visualized the body in ways that are vastly different from how the body is conceptualized today. Indeed, the "medieval body" was not a monolithic entity, but rather a shifting constellation of ideas and practices that waxed, waned, and coexisted throughout the Middle Ages. A body could be understood as an earthly body -- sexed, fleshly, corruptible -- as well as a heavenly and divine body, including Christ's own.

American Art

A survey of painting and sculpture, this course introduces students to the work of individual artists. Classes also develop ways of looking at and thinking about art as the material expression of American social, political, and cultural ideas, including the depictions of nature, race, revolution, and country life. The course focuses on 'American Masters': Copley, Stuart, Cole, Church, Eakins, Homer, Sargent, Whistler, and Cassatt are some of the key artists.
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