(Offered as THDA 272 and ENGL 323) This course is an exploration of writing for performance using interdisciplinary and experimental approaches. By exposing students to contemporary manifestations of performance across cultures – including those by Rodrigo Garcia, Rimini Protokoll, Romeo Castelluci, Robert Lepage, Carolina Vivas, and Gebing Tian – this course will lead to a new understanding of the art and practice of writing for the theater.
(Offered as THDA 272 and ENGL 323) This course is an exploration of writing for performance using interdisciplinary and experimental approaches. By exposing students to contemporary manifestations of performance across cultures – including those by Rodrigo Garcia, Rimini Protokoll, Romeo Castelluci, Robert Lepage, Carolina Vivas, and Gebing Tian – this course will lead to a new understanding of the art and practice of writing for the theater.
Functional morphology is the study of how organisms work. It integrates comparative anatomy and biomechanics in an ecological and evolutionary framework. The course begins with basic principles of evolutionary theory and biomechanics, before turning to the fundamental importance of body size and metabolism in governing nearly all aspects of animal biology. We then focus on how animals feed and move (running, jumping, swimming, climbing, gliding, and flying) using examples of both living and extinct species. Finally, we touch on examples of human innovation inspired by animal morphology.
How do stories move? What are the uses and limitations of the term “plot” in describing movement or development in narrative? What culturally-specific assumptions and expectations about storytelling are bound up with conventional notions of plot, and how can we, as writers and readers, unravel them?
Here is an invitation to the literary world of Lu Xun, the iconic writer of 20th-century China, a relentless critic and a man of spiritual anguish. Besides delving into Lu Xun’s different periods and genres of writing, we will also read a constellation of writers who have been in dialogue with Lu Xun: his younger brother and the humanist essayist Zhou Zuoren, the gifted female writer Xiao Hong, and the storyteller of China’s southwest hinterland Shen Congwen.
Nationalist fervor seemed likely to diminish once so-called Third World nations achieved independence. However, the past few years have witnessed the resurgence and transformation of nationalism in the post-colonial world. Where anti-colonial nationalist movements appeared to be progressive forces of social change, many contemporary forms of nationalism appear to be reactionary. Did nationalist leaders and theoreticians fail to identify the exclusionary qualities of earlier incarnations of nationalism? Were they blind to its chauvinism? Or has nationalism become increasingly intolerant?
Computing networks are ubiquitous and used for a broad range of purposes. Networks are often complex and dynamic, connecting systems with a range of capabilities. Some computers are permanently connected while others (e.g., mobile devices) routinely leave and rejoin the network. In any case, the network must ensure that data are delivered quickly and reliably from one computer to another. This course will begin with the problem of communicating between two computers, followed by the problems of building generalized networks for different types and varying numbers of computing devices.
"It is normally supposed that something always gets lost in translation; I cling, obstinately, to the notion that something can also be gained." Salman Rushdie
This course is an introduction to nonparametric and distribution-free statistical procedures and techniques. These methods rely heavily on counting and ranking techniques and will be explored through both theoretical and applied perspectives. One- and two-sample procedures will provide students with alternatives to traditional parametric procedures, such as the t-test. We will also investigate correlation and regression in a nonparametric setting.
The food and flavors of a country are a suggestive reflection of part of its identity. This course examines the cultural and literary history of food in Spain and Latin America from the sixteenth century to the present as a means to explore the relationship between what we eat and how we define ourselves. This approach is also a productive lens to examine interconnected topics such as gender, race, religion, and social identity as they relate to foodways in the Spanish-speaking world.
