How do the world’s religions picture the journey beyond death? This course examines conceptions of heaven, hell and purgatory; immortality, rebirth and resurrection; the judgement of the dead and the life of the world to come. Readings include classic and sacred texts such as The Epic of Gilgamesh, Plato’s Phaedo, the Katha Upanishad, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Dante’s Divine Comedy and Newman’s Dream of Gerontius, and a variety of philosophical and theological reflections on the meaning of death and the hope for eternal life. Enrollment limited to 35.

A central feature of religious traditions and lived religious experience, ritual is often thought of as repetitive, unchanging, and prescriptive. Yet, enacted rituals are often open-ended and allow considerable room for creativity and innovation. Through embodied action and symbolic drama, rituals serve complex functions of making meaning, deepening spirituality, performing cultural identity, and advocating for social change. In this course, students will study various theories of ritual and examine ritual practices (religious and secular) in diverse traditions and societies.

Selected special topics that vary from year to year; typically some subset of the following: climate physics, cosmology, general relativity, nuclear and particle physics, optics, solid state physics. Prerequisites vary with the topics of the course: Computational physics in a computer laboratory setting. Numerical techniques and simulations of a variety of physical systems taught concurrently with programming skills using languages such as Mathematica, Python or Matlab. No prior programming experience required. Pre-requisites: PHY 215, or permission of the instructor.

Electrostatic and magnetostatic fields in vacuum and in matter, electrodynamics and electromagnetic waves. Prerequisite: PHY 215 or permission of the instructor.

This course is intended to give students who plan to continue in graduate school with the study of physics (or a related discipline) an opportunity to synthesize bodies of knowledge from the different sub-disciplines of physics. Administering of GRE practice exams will be used as an assessment tool of this understanding and of relevant analytical skills needed for problem-solving.

An advanced laboratory course in which students make use of advanced signal recovery methods to design and perform laboratory experiments covering a wide range of topics in modern physics. Available experimental modules include pulsed and CW NMR, optical pumping of atoms, single photon quantum interference, magneto-optical polarization, the Franck-Hertz experiment and the Hall effect. Experimental methods include signal averaging, filtering, modulation techniques and phase-sensitive detection.

An advanced laboratory course in which students make use of advanced signal recovery methods to design and perform laboratory experiments covering a wide range of topics in modern physics. Available experimental modules include pulsed and CW NMR, optical pumping of atoms, single photon quantum interference, magneto-optical polarization, the Franck-Hertz experiment and the Hall effect. Experimental methods include signal averaging, filtering, modulation techniques and phase-sensitive detection.

Introduction to statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. Prerequisites: PHY 215 or permission of the instructor.

A course emphasizing the pedagogy in physics based on Physics Education Research (PER). Readings and discussion emphasize the research literature and strategies for implementing successful and effective methods of teaching physics at the introductory level in the classroom. Permission of the instructor required. May be repeated once for credit. Prerequisites: PHY 117 or PHY 118 or PHY 119.

The special theory of relativity; the wave equation and mathematics of waves; optical phenomena of interference and diffraction; particle and wave models of matter and radiation, Bohr model of atomic structure; introduction to fundamental principles and problems in quantum mechanics; introduction to nuclear physics. Prerequisite: PHY 118 or PHY 119 and prior or concurrent enrollment in PHY 210.