(Offered as CLAS 126 and THDA 126)  Olympics. Greek drama. Gladiators. When we think of ancient Greece and Rome, athletic competition and public performance loom large. In this course, students will learn about archaic Greek musical and athletic competitions, Classical Athenian dramatic festivals, and the gladiatorial spectacles of imperial Rome. We will examine the representation of performance and athletics in art and literature, using primary sources to explore contemporary attitudes towards these events and to understand their role within society.

This class is designed to focus on the movement aspect of hip hop culture. Dance in the tradition of B-Boys and B-girls while learning a wide variety of hip hop movement. From the old school "bronx" style to commercial hip hop, learn a wide range of hip-hop vocabulary in a course emphasizing group choreography, floor work, and partner work.

This course will focus on case studies of selected works and artists of contemporary performance over the last century as a means of placing the creation and practice of theater and dance in context.  We will closely consider these case studies as reflective of important aesthetic traditions and experiments in contemporary performance.  In addition, we will seek connections between the different case study examples and the social, cultural and political environments that fostered them.  We will reflect on issues of race, gender, identity, political activism, individual e

An introduction to design, directing, and performance conducted in a combined discussion/workshop format. Students will be exposed to visual methods of interpreting a text. Early class discussions focus on a theoretical exploration of theater as an art form and seek to establish a vocabulary for and understanding of basic theatrical conventions, with readings from Aristotle through Robert Wilson. Students will spend the bulk of the semester testing these theories for themselves, ultimately designing their own performances for two plays.

Independent Reading Courses.

Fall and spring semester.

(Offered as ARHA 452, EUST 452, and SWAG 452)  Shortly after the Franco-Prussian War--when there were more bloody corpses in the streets of Paris than at the height of the French Revolution--Monet and some others invented Impressionism.  Rather than grab horror by the throat, as Goya and Picasso did in Spain, they created an earthly paradise.  To this end, some ecstatically immersed themselves in nature; others tapped the gas-lit pleasures of the demi-monde. 

(Offered as POSC 411[G] and SWAGS 411) Indigenous women are rarely considered actors in world politics. Yet from their positions of marginality, they are shaping politics in significant ways. This course inter-weaves feminist and Indigenous approaches to suggest the importance of Indigenous women’s political contributions. It is an invitation not merely to recognize their achievements but also to understand why they matter to international relations. 

(Offered as ANTH 353 and SWAG 353) This course offers a cross-cultural study of gender transition and transgression. We will explore ethnographic studies of gender non-conforming lives in a variety of contexts around the world. Students will be encouraged to approach gender transition and gender non-conformity, and the role of the body in the production of sex and gender, through the synthesis of feminist, queer, and transgender theories.

(Offered as ANTH 225 and SWAG 335)  This seminar provides an analysis of male-female relationships from a cross-cultural perspective, focusing upon the ways in which cultural factors modify and exaggerate the biological differences between men and women. Consideration will be given to the positions of men and women in the evolution of society, and in different contemporary social, political, and economic systems, including those of the industrialized nations.

Limited to 20 students.  Spring semester.  Professor Gewertz. 

(Offered as RELI 261 and SWAG 239) A study of the portrayal of women in Jewish tradition. Readings will include biblical and apocryphal texts; Rabbinic legal (halakic) and non-legal (aggadic) material; selections from medieval commentaries; letters, diaries, and autobiographies written by Jewish women of various periods and settings; and works of fiction and non-fiction concerning the woman in modern Judaism.