This course is a survey of contemporary art since 1950 that examines the dissolution of high art as a concept, and how media, from ceramics and textiles to photography, video and media art, came to contest that notion even as they aspired to it. In light of the convergence of discipline-specific and other cultural histories with modernism, this course considers counter modernisms and the deconstruction and revision of Western art history.

This course will examine historical and contemporary stereotyping and representations of class/race/gender/ethnicity/sexuality in contemporary media, and discuss music videos, documentaries, experimental film and video that challenge such notions. Through readings, screenings and discussions, the class will inquire into the reasons for and consequences of stereotyping and the ways in which tensions of content, form and voice contest exploitative representation. A section of the class will be dedicated to films from global south and third cinema and to topics related to dying and death.

This course will involve a detailed study of the Japanese cinema. It will highlight works in the dramatic narrative, documentary and experimental traditions. The films screened will use the past to explore the meaning of the present, examine the relationships within families, investigate formal issues in cinematic construction and attempt to articulate broader social issues within Japanese society. Class will meet once a week for two hours and fifty minutes plus additional time for second screenings.

This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of painting, such as composition, value, and color. Students will learn about material and the technical issues of painting. Drawings will often be produced in tandem with paintings in order to illuminate visual ideas. We will work with water based and oil based paint on various surfaces. Besides creating individual paintings, students will collectively prepare and work on large-scale canvases. This course will develop from individual representational set-ups towards collective, abstract work.

Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence that aims to give computers the ability to make predictions and find relationships in data. The methods used in machine learning blend statistical concepts with ideas from computer science, and are widely used by data scientists to analyze complex datasets, and by artificial intelligence researchers to make intelligent systems.

Twitch.tv is a notable video streaming site that has had huge impact on game development and marketing. In this course, students will explore the intersection of game design, development, and marketing with Twitch. Furthermore, we will learn about best practices for Twitch-integrated game development, discuss Twitch-specific cultural issues, and actually make games that integrate with Twitch.

This course will prepare students to become peer mentors for the Knowledge Commons. Although there is some mentoring this semester as assignments in the course, students must be willing to commit to being peer mentors in the Fall of 2019. We will engage research on student learning and the value of mentoring relationships, explore how to facilitate learning in these relationships, develop an understanding of what it means to be in a mentoring role, and observe and learn from mentors in action.

In this course we will read primary literature on mathematical models of conflict and cooperation (game theory), and we will write computer programs to replicate reported results and explore related hypotheses. We will also discuss applications of game theory in many areas, possibly including economics, politics, war and peace, responses to climate change, and evolutionary biology. Prerequisite: Strong computer programming skills.

This course explores the mechanisms of plasticity within the brain from conception through childhood and the factors that influence them. The goal of the course is to provide students with an understanding of how the brain can be shaped through biological development and experience and how these processes are reflected in behavior. For example, topics will include reorganization of the brain following injury, effects of environmental toxins on the brain, as well as how these changes in the brain affect behavior.

We will examine diverse concerns regarding work: What is "work"? What significance does it have in our lives? How does work vary across social groups, classes, professions, communities, and traditions? How are individual and group identity related to work? What makes work be regarded as easy or hard, desirable or undesirable, meaningful or meaningless? What virtues and vices are associated with work? What moral rights and obligations are related to work? Is there a right to work, or a right to meaningful work? Is there an obligation to work?