This class is an introduction for students who want to build basic digital proficiencies and a stronger technical foundation while also remaining attentive to broader social, ethical, and political issues. Students can expect to learn how to use and analyze a variety of digital tools, programs, and platforms, including but not limited to: HTML and website customizing, interactive storytelling, visualizing research objectives, Photoshop, GIF creation and analysis, and basic programming. This class is required for the Digital Humanities and New Media Specialization in English at UMass.

This course covers the economic theory, history, and policy of immigration. The standard labor market model of immigration is detailed, as are more dynamic and inter-disciplinary alternatives. The models are used to analyze immigration flows and policies in the United States, Canada, and the European Union over the past two centuries as well as contemporary immigration issues. At the end of the course, students are challenged to develop suggestions for contemporary immigration policy.

This course offers an introduction to the study of film as a distinct medium. It introduces the ways in which film style, form, and genre contribute to the meaning and the experience of movies. Topics include film as industrial commodity, narrative and non-narrative form, aspects of style (e.g. composition, cinematography, editing, and sound), and the role of film as a cultural practice. Examples are drawn from new and classic films, from Hollywood and from around the world. This course is intended to serve as a basis for film studies courses you might take in the future.

The capacity for plasticity in the brain is particularly remarkable early in life. How does the surrounding environment shape brain function during this period? From filial imprinting to social isolation, this course will integrate molecular/cellular biology with systems neuroscience to explore canonical critical periods and their influence on brain development. Particular emphasis will be placed on the regulation of experience dependent changes in neural circuits as a basis for learning.

Development of individual skills necessary for designing, implementing, testing and modifying larger programs: use of various modern automated tools, design strategies and patterns, working with large code bases and libraries, code refactoring.

Development of individual skills necessary for designing, implementing, testing and modifying larger programs: use of various modern automated tools, design strategies and patterns, working with large code bases and libraries, code refactoring.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with supplementary material and insights about the software development enterprise. Students meet once a week for a one-hour discussion of software engineering topics whose exploration is intended to provide depth and perspective on the regular material of CS 320. Topics may be suggested by current events or by problems that may arise in the course of the 320 semester. Students will be required to write a term paper as part of the requirements for this course.

Ghosts, apparitions, and messengers from the beyond have always played a role in the literary imagination. From religious visions of the Middle Ages to twenty-first century psychological thrillers, from medieval werewolves to the unexplained phenomena of an Edgar Allen Poe story, literature of the supernatural pushes us to rethink what we know and how we know it. In this course, we will explore dreams, visions, and apparitions in medieval and modern literature. Readings will include medieval romance and dream vision poetry; works by Mann, Gogol, Poe, Dinesen, and Waters; and selected films.

Taking a comparative and grounded approach, this class explores the diverse and transformative consequences of social media as they become ubiquitous and taken for granted in our everyday lives. It takes as a starting point people?s everyday engagement with social media and analyzing the cultural patterns and social outcomes of practices such as memes, selfies, Facebook friending, social media fundraising, and digital mourning.

This course is designed to help first year students develop skills and habits for college success. It is also an introduction to anthropology, particularly biological anthropology- the study of human evolution, human biology, and primates. Students will learn about campus resources, share their experiences adjusting to independent college life, and explore key questions in biological anthropology, such as: What are the origins of humanity? Who are our closest living relatives? What are the implications of our biological nature?