Thinking of Italy as both a European and a Mediterranean country, this course takes an interdisciplinary approach to the cultural complexity of the Mediterranean region. Shifting perspectives between European, Middle Eastern and Global studies, we will focus on how Italian writers, poets and critical thinkers, from the classic to the contemporary period, have thought about Italy among European and Mediterranean nations, religions, and cultures.

How can we change our ideas and enactments of white, Western subjectivity and being? This course contends that one transhistorical figure for such revolution is shapeshifting, and we will read examples in novels, poetry, memoir, and other nineteenth-century and contemporary media. Special attention will be paid to texts, then and now, that speak to queer/trans, disability, and critical race discourses as significant sites of resistance to Western being through bodily transformation. A substantial amount of time will be spent on individual research and methodologies.

Reading and understanding research reports from the primary scientific literature is an essential skill for any scientist. Likewise, critiquing experimental proposals and freshly-minted data is one of the core components of the pursuit of science. Using the Biology Department Seminar series as a springboard, this course seeks to familiarize students with the process of understanding, appreciating, and critiquing scientific manuscripts.

This course surveys the psychological field of abnormal psychology. We will explore historical foundations, theories, research, assessment, and treatment as they relate to diagnoses included in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition . Throughout the course, we will critically examine the concept of abnormality and its intersection with societal and cultural contexts.

Introduces the analysis of cultural diversity, including concepts, methods, and purposes in interpreting social, economic, political, and belief systems found in human societies.

This is a course on the social construction of social problems. It devotes almost exclusive attention to how a 'problem' becomes a social problem; examining how atypical cases become regarded as typical; how definitions are expanded to inflate statistics; and how claim makers and advocacy groups manipulate the media to market social problems and solutions to the public.