Who and what did Chaucer read? How did Chaucer's literary environment move him to explore love, human will, differences of perspective, and ideas of closure (the efficacy of complaint, poetic endings, and the poet's accomplishments). These topics will be studied in light of the ranging literary influences from the medieval world, especially Chaucer's adaptation of classical poetry, French and Italian vernacular verse, romance, saints' lives, allegory, and beast fables.

This course explores the multidimensional nature of Christian-Muslim social, religious, economic, and political relations before, during, and briefly after the Crusades in the modern-day territories of Palestine, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, the Balkans, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula. Most of the readings in this course were originally penned in Syriac, Greek, Arabic, and Castilian, though we will read them in English translation.

This colloquium examines the causes and the course of the Civil War, its social, economic, and political results during Reconstruction, and the early roots of both de jure segregation and the civil rights movement. It will examine the process of emancipation from the perspective of social history. Violent conflicts over free labor, the establishment of sharecropping, and the political and economic policies pursued by various groups--freedpeople, ex-masters, northern policymakers, wage laborers, and African American women, for example--will be covered.

A course, organized topically rather than geographically or nationally, that offers a comparative analysis of African American slavery as a dominant social system in Brazil, the Caribbean, and the U.S. South. Topics include: why slavery?; sugar and slavery; historical demography; culture and the law; kinship and family; long-run economic development; patterns of race relations; master class and racist ideologies; resistance to slavery; and abolition and its aftermath. Readings include historical and anthropological studies, as well as a major documentary collection on slavery in Brazil.

We will explore the cultural and political impact of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The media's role in constructing meanings will be a main organizing focus of the course. Using readings, discussions, assignments, and films, the course will allow students to form a picture of how 9/11 changed America and beyond.

Intermediate Composition is structured as a workshop for you to explore and expand your own artistic vision. It will increase your understanding of inspiration and intention as they relate to choreography as well as encourage active consideration of choreographic possibilities for space, time, performer/audience interaction, energetic qualities, use of text, music, and physical and environmental intelligences.

Especially designed for students interested in developing their public speaking skills (or pitching) within entrepreneurial settings, this speaking-intensive two-credit course will help students reflect on, learn from, and speak about their unique experiences as they transition into their next steps after graduation. Using techniques that are effective to focus their message and connect with their audience, students will improve their ability to communicate with confidence, express themselves authentically and inspire others.

Especially designed for students interested in developing their public speaking skills (or pitching) within entrepreneurial settings, this speaking-intensive two-credit course will help students reflect on, learn from, and speak about their unique experiences as they transition into their next steps after graduation. Using techniques that are effective to focus their message and connect with their audience, students will improve their ability to communicate with confidence, express themselves authentically and inspire others.

This course is an introduction to theories and practices of collaborative learning for students preparing to work as mentors in the Speaking, Arguing, and Writing Program (SAW). We will draw on existing research, practice sessions, class discussion, and our own writing and speaking to craft our philosophies of peer mentoring and to develop effective practical strategies.

Connecting community-based learning to social justice advocacy requires experience with asset-based community analysis, and skills for project planning, implementation, and assessment. Students will develop logic models for social change and participate in exercises and reflections that enhance their capacity to support organizational community partnership development. This course is designed to facilitate learning and impact for CBL Program student staff pursuing concurrent fellowships and mentorships. Students in C.A.U.S.E.