This comprehensive survey course explores the brain and the biological basis of behavior. We will examine the anatomy of the nervous system and the unique properties of the cells that make up the brain. We will discuss the mechanisms by which individual brain cells communicate with each other, and how small networks of cells underlie more complex processes such as perception, learning, and behavior. In labs, students will perform experiments that expand upon and reinforce these ideas through hands-on exercises.

This class offers intensive work in oral and written expression in German. Frequent papers and other exercises aimed at revising grammatical structures, improving students' writing in German, and broadening their comprehension of content and style. Oral reports, class discussion, and team exercises. Students will also have the option of completing an ongoing project of interest to them such as creating a YouTube channel or developing independent videos.

We examine the writing of major nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first century theorists, such as Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Dubois, Arendt, Fanon, Foucault, Butler, and others through the lens of embodiment. Rather than read theory as an abstract entity, we explore how theory itself is an embodiment of actual lives in which human beings experience life as precarious. What are the social conditions that create vulnerable bodies? How do thinkers who lived or are living precarious lives represent these bodies?

Revolutions are deeply embedded in cultural, economic, political, and environmental structure. Some are violent, some are peaceful; some evolve out of historical processes over long periods of time; and others emerge spontaneously without warning. Still others are material in nature, such as the industrial revolution or the end of the Berlin wall. The seminar explores the causes, forms, and impact of major revolutions in German cultures from the invention of the printing press to the most recent "Wende" that led to unification.

This course examines historical, cultural, and political developments that continue to frame debates about the twentieth century, World War II, the former GDR, and German unification. Thematic focus helps students develop accuracy, fluency, and complexity of expression. Reading, writing, and speaking are consistently integrated. Special emphasis is placed on text organization toward expanding students' language abilities, with a gradual movement from personal forms of expression to written and public discourse.

Europe embodies crossroads of multiple cultures, memories, migrations, and political demarcations. Taking a critical view of conventional paradigms of European nation states and "master" narratives, we study shifting European cultures and identities through multiple perspectives across time and space. What remains of the ancient and modern regimes? How have global movements, historical upheavals, and shifting boundaries within and adjacent to European borders from early empires to contemporary global networks affected the transformation of lives? Where is Europe heading today?

Two semesters in one. Practice in speaking, reading, and writing German. Cultural and literary readings together with frequent use of online resources dealing with everyday situations and experiences in the German-speaking countries sensitize students to the cultural context in which the language is used. Weekly conversation sessions with German language assistant supplement class work.