An overview of the state of each participant's research, to familiarize members with the problems and possibilities of a doctoral dissertation in Comparative Literature. The group's composition determines the nature of invitations to potential guests, or the decision to concentrate on its own members' discussions, with topics including: preparation for paper presentations at academic conferences, potential openings for positions at colleges and universities, and opportunities for funding for fellowships, grants, and post-doctoral research.

This course provides an introductory survey of Native American Indian artistic and pictorial traditions that were intimately bound to stories and histories of nations and families, religious and mythological traditions, autobiographical narratives or aesthetic and philosophical reflections. More than mnemonic devices, these visual traditions are inseparable from culture and performance, community and nation, human life and the physical world. The visual and tactile media that will be encompassed in the course include pictorial manuscripts, ceramics, bead and shell work, and textiles.

Focus on narrative problems of love, desire, sexual identity, daily life, and death. These films' investigations of how we might gain distance on our life fictions by questioning and undermining viewer identification with narrative. (Gen.Ed. AT)

Focus on narrative problems of love, desire, sexual identity, daily life, and death. These films' investigations of how we might gain distance on our life fictions by questioning and undermining viewer identification with narrative. (Gen.Ed. AT)

Utopian and dystopian novels. The ability of literature to generate social critique. Readings include works by Huxley, Orwell, Kafka, Atwood, Burgess, Gibson, Piercy, Gilman, Dick, and others. (Gen.Ed. AL, G)

Exploration of the individual psyche, growth of self-consciousness; the dark night of the soul and the role of suffering in personal growth. Reading from a variety of spiritual diaries, autobiographies, from East and West, written by women and men, believers and heretics. Ancient and modern examples. (Gen.Ed. AL, G)

Exploration of the individual psyche, growth of self-consciousness; the dark night of the soul and the role of suffering in personal growth. Reading from a variety of spiritual diaries, autobiographies, from East and West, written by women and men, believers and heretics. Ancient and modern examples. (Gen.Ed. AL, G)

Russian, Czech, German, French, Italian, Spanish, English, American, and Latin-American stories from Romanticism to the present. Fantastic tales, character sketches, surprise endings; main types of the short story. (Gen.Ed. AL)

Our course begins with the premise that contemporary American comedy is informed by the histories of ethnic American groups -- African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans and U.S. Latinos/Latinas -- along with issues of race, class, sexuality and citizenship. American comedians, independent filmmakers, feminists and transgendered comics deploy the language of comedy to invoke serious social matters in contemporary American life: racism, heterosexism, homophobia, class biases against the poor and the undocumented, misogyny, war and other burning issues of the day.

Our course begins with the premise that contemporary American comedy is informed by the histories of ethnic American groups -- African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans and U.S. Latinos/Latinas -- along with issues of race, class, sexuality and citizenship. American comedians, independent filmmakers, feminists and transgendered comics deploy the language of comedy to invoke serious social matters in contemporary American life: racism, heterosexism, homophobia, class biases against the poor and the undocumented, misogyny, war and other burning issues of the day.