Using case studies such as the Eugenics Movement, Jonestown, and the Kennedy Assassination, this course will examine how distrust of the government, originally motivated by logical concerns, has transformed the way people think about power in the postmodern era. The class will explore the difference between rational questioning of authority and blind distrust that leads to questionable claims. Through topics such as the War on Drugs, this class shows how the powerful are able to use biases and public fears to carry out their own, often counterproductive, measures.

This course looks at the vast and diverse cultural and aesthetic landscape of dance performance in the millennium and the new breed of choreographers making cutting-edge works that pursue radically different methods, materials and strategies for provoking new ideas about dance, the body and corporeal aesthetics. Taking in the vast spectrum of new-age performance, we will ask such questions as: How does non-narrative dance focus on the body as an instrument with unlimited possibilities? How do heterosexuality, homosexuality and androgyny constitute a gender spectrum in new works?

A stochastic process is a collection of random variables. For example, the daily prices of a particular stock are a stochastic process. Topics of this course will include Markov chains, queueing theory, the Poisson process, and Brownian motion. In addition to theory, the course will investigate applications of stochastic processes, including models of call centers and models of stock prices. Simulations of stochastic processes will also be used to compare with the theory.

Heretics, Martyrs, and Saints investigates how early Christians described holy people as well as their nemeses. It explores how descriptions of martyrs, saints, heretics, demons, and even Satan himself were used to shore up the ever-contested boundaries of Christian orthodoxy and how the depiction of such figures forever changed the trajectory of Christian beliefs and practices.

Our minds can direct and control our bodies. See for yourself: if you decide to lift your arm, and try to do it, your arm will probably go up! This course is about the relationship between our minds, bodies, and behavior. What is the mind? How did it make your arm go up? How is lifting your arm different from an involuntary muscle spasm? The answers are not as straightforward as you might think. We confront powerful arguments that the mind is not reducible to the brain or any part of the body.

This course is an introduction to point-set topology, which is a fundamental language for much of modern mathematics. One of the goals of topology is to understand what it means for a function to be continuous, first in Euclidean space, and then to generalize the notion of continuity to other spaces. The core topics to be studied include: basic set theory, various interesting topologies, continuous functions, connectedness and compactness. Topics from algebraic topology will be covered if time permits.

How do labor relationships and the social construction of what work means affect our lives as well as our communities? How do they contribute to shape our identities? In which ways can our gender, sexual orientation, race, social class or migratory status define our working possibilities? How do the concepts of marginality and informality emerge to identify the precarious Latin American labor conditions? Through Latin American films, students will problematize the idea of service, worker, industry, classic and non-classic work, sexual and affective work, and child labor, among others.

Understanding hydrology (the distribution and movement of water at the earth's surface) is critical for resource management and climate modeling. With an eye toward these applications, we will use observational data to explore the components of the water cycle (precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, and streamflow) and the physical processes that govern them. Lectures and hands-on computer exercises are aimed at students with interests in earth and environmental science or data science. No previous experience is necessary.

Colonial relations have not only been a contest over land ownership but were also always centered around the question of who has the right to represent whom. This course will examine how, from the fifties and sixties, African students in France have represented France and Paris in their narratives. Readings will include novels and travelogues.

This course focuses on the ways digital technologies are used to enhance learning, teaching, collaborating, and creating in educational settings and personal spaces. Students will have the opportunity to assess the effectiveness of a range of digital media designed to enhance learning, gain a foundation for empirical study of young people and their learning in school, build digital toolkits for self learning and/or teaching, and utilize their creativity to engage in a project that has meaning for them.