Physics and art represent the world in seemingly different ways. They share, however, many common themes: the guiding role of symmetry, the tension between order and disorder, and the emergence of structure from many simple constituents. We will explore some of the big ideas in physics, including quantum mechanics, relativity, entropy, and chaos theory, by looking at how these underlying themes are represented in the visual arts.

Best known as one of the literary canon's pillars, Shakespeare has also provided multiple templates for artists and storytellers who wish to challenge traditional concepts of literature, theatre, and history. Our class will explore four of Shakespeare's plays through the lens of identity, both those forms extant in Shakespeare's own time and those articulated in various contemporary adaptations, both stage and screen. In particular, we will focus on BIPOC, postcolonial, and LGBTQ adaptations.

This course revisits German cultural production (textual and visual representation) through the lens of decolonial practices. We explore how modes of power, transnational exchange, cultural upheaval, and constructions of identity from the mid-18th century to the present are represented in German-speaking realms, both real and imaginary. What role does colonialism play in shaping early and present-day German national identities? How do particular historical movements, events, and narratives create multifaceted constructions of race, gender, and ethnicities?

Partial differential equations (PDEs) are often used to describe natural phenomena arising in a wide variety of contexts including physics, biology, and economics. Our focus will be on basic yet representative linear partial differential equations such as the heat and wave equations. We will explore the motivation behind each model we study and emphasize methods of finding solutions and analyzing their behavior. Techniques will include transform methods, separation of variables, energy methods, and numerical computations.

Students will be exposed to a variety of advanced statistics and methods commonly used in clinical psychological research. Statistics and methods that will be covered include but are not limited to: data cleaning strategies, moderation, mediation, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Students will complete secondary analyses of pre-existing datasets to answer hypotheses related to advancing our understanding of mental health and well-being.

This seminar deepens students' understanding of responsibility over space and time. We first consider how the field of human geography addresses moral questions, then focus on case studies and theoretical texts discussing injury, responsibility, and repair around the world. With emphasis on migrant, indigenous, and island communities, we connect historical relationships, events, and processes to emerging methods of repair, including claim-making/testimony, reparations, apology and acknowledgment, and environmental justice.

In this course we will learn about and apply developmental and cognitive research practices to examine cognition and its development. Specifically, we will learn about a subset of assessment tools covering toddlerhood to middle childhood and will design several studies based on the interests of the class. (Depending on COVID restrictions this may mean we are limited to online assessments.) Students will collect and analyze data, and produce a final product reporting their findings.

Characterizing, categorizing, and counting text documents is at the heart of research and knowledge development in the social sciences and humanities. New digital technologies have introduced new methods for analyzing text documents on a massive scale. These computational approaches have also provoked important debates about the role of meaning, context, and reproducibility in social science research. This course considers the affordances of new digital methods for text analysis in relation to established practices of qualitative coding.

Infectious disease has plagued humanity since time immemorial. Statistical models serve a critical role in improving understanding of the progression and proliferation of infection in a population, as well as the impact of interventions in stopping the spread of disease. In this course, we will explore regression and compartmental model-based approaches, which will be motivated by some of the most impactful epidemics and pandemics in recent history, including HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19. R statistical software will be used.

What are human rights? Can you list them -- and, is there a list somewhere? Does it matter? Do some people in the world have more access to human rights than others? Why? This seminar examines the origins, evolution, and practices of human rights ideas, norms, and institutions in global politics. We will explore the wide range of debate and controversy regarding human rights: are human rights universal (i.e. rights inherent in all human beings) or do they originate and obtain only in specific cultural contexts. Are human rights individual or collective?