A study of the architecture and interactions of genetic systems. Advances in genomics are providing insights into a variety of important issues, from the structural limits of DNA-based inheritance to the discovery of novel infectious and genetic diseases. We will address how heritable information is organized in different groups of organisms. We will also cover a major challenge of this emerging field—the application of vast amounts of genetic data to understanding genomic integrity and regulation.

Giorgio Agamben writes in Remnants of Auschwitz that “trauma is thus an event that has no beginning, no ending, no before, no during, and no after.” In this seminar, we will study texts from different genres–poetry, fiction, and memoir–that attempt to narrativize the timeless, ubiquitous, and haunted event that is a military dictatorship. How do these texts undertake the task of remembering or reimagining the past? How do they fill the gap between memory and history, between testimony and literature, and between past and present?

This course, as the continuation of Chinese 301 in the fall semester, is our third-year class offered for students who have completed the first two years of Mandarin Chinese. We continue to emphasize pronunciation and intonation, practice listening and speaking, and work to improve our command of grammar with more complex syntax structures.

A study of the architecture and interactions of genetic systems. Advances in genomics are providing insights into a variety of important issues, from the structural limits of DNA-based inheritance to the discovery of novel infectious and genetic diseases. We will address how heritable information is organized in different groups of organisms. We will also cover a major challenge of this emerging field—the application of vast amounts of genetic data to understanding genomic integrity and regulation.

(Offered as RELI 130and LLAS 130) On the dawn of the quincentenary of the Protestant Reformation, the April 2013 cover story of Time Magazine heralded the “Latino Reformation.” After 500 years of religious contact, conflict, and conversions throughout the Americas, “Latino USA” is undergoing unprecedented religious transformations. Latinxs, now comprising the largest ethnic minority group in the United States, are largely responsible for the new expressions of Abrahamic religious traditions in the country. This course is a historical survey of the growing and diverse U.S.

(Offered as RELI 130and LLAS 130) On the dawn of the quincentenary of the Protestant Reformation, the April 2013 cover story of Time Magazine heralded the “Latino Reformation.” After 500 years of religious contact, conflict, and conversions throughout the Americas, “Latino USA” is undergoing unprecedented religious transformations. Latinxs, now comprising the largest ethnic minority group in the United States, are largely responsible for the new expressions of Abrahamic religious traditions in the country. This course is a historical survey of the growing and diverse U.S.

A survey of literary and cultural developments in the German tradition from the Romantic Period to contemporary trends. Major themes will include the Romantic imagination and the rise of nationalism in the nineteenth century, the literary rebellion of the period prior to 1848, Poetic Realism and the Industrial Revolution, and various forms of aestheticism, activism, and myth.

(Offered as PHIL 301 and EDST 301) In the past decade or so, public support for liberal democratic institutions has waned significantly all over the world. The solution, some argue, is to educate our citizens better so that they understand the value of liberalism and democracy and so that they develop the knowledge and character required to exercise the rights of a citizen in a liberal democracy responsibly and well. In this class, we will consider and assess philosophical arguments for and against both liberalism and democracy.

(Offered as PHIL 301 and EDST 301) In the past decade or so, public support for liberal democratic institutions has waned significantly all over the world. The solution, some argue, is to educate our citizens better so that they understand the value of liberalism and democracy and so that they develop the knowledge and character required to exercise the rights of a citizen in a liberal democracy responsibly and well. In this class, we will consider and assess philosophical arguments for and against both liberalism and democracy.

Inequality is arguably one of the primary issues of our time. In this course, we will focus on understanding the particular manifestations of inequality in health and individual well-being that derive from inequality in environmental conditions. We will start with the canonical models of public economics, studying the role of government and paying particular attention to how failures of standard assumptions of rationality, perfect information, and perfect competition will lead to inefficiencies and inequities.