Making Dances 1 will provide a foundational experience with the art of dance-making. The studio will be our laboratory as students engage in a series of improvisational and choreographic experiments designed to open up different dimensions of the medium: kinesthesia; time and rhythm; shape, space and the visual design of movement; energy, qualities of motion and the embodiment of emotional and character states. Each experiment will provide insight into how compositional choices/strategies lend themselves to meaning making and uniquely serves to frame each student's creative impulse.

Home is where we live in every sense, but "Home" is more than the physical structure we reside in: it is also the psychological, societal, emotional, and even the mythical. In this course we will read a variety of fiction and non-fiction and explore the importance of these spaces, be they physical or metaphysical, to the construction of "home" and more importantly, how these terms, whether we accept them wholly, shun them entirely, or experience via travel and immigration, dictate to us and others a sense of self and identity via our own writing.

Images dominate our cultural imaginations with such intensity some cultural theorists describe their affect in pathological terms: "the hypertrophy of visual stimulation" (Martin Jay), "a topographical amnesia" (Paul Virilio), "excremental culture" (Arthur and Mary Louise Kroker), "our narcotic modernity" (Avital Ronell). Other critics say the explosion of visual cultures is so influential that it represents a paradigm shift-that is, a shift from the domination of language to the domination of images over our lives.

This course is a rigorous research project in the possibilities, meanings, histories, practices and contemporary meanings of drawing. It functions as an introduction to different ways drawing is used in contemporary art making. As such, we will be doing different types of investigations weekly. Through investigations into the history of drawing practices- with particular focus on its role in the liberal arts- students will develop a facility with materials, methods, concepts, and critique. Collaboration and shared findings are highly encouraged.

The Chorus is a performing ensemble in which students will learn skills of choral singing and sight-singing. They will be exposed to a wide variety of choral literature through rehearsal and performance, including a cappella and accompanied music, medieval through 20th century, ethnic, world music and folk. Several performances are given throughout the year. While this course is open to all and the ability to read music is not required, students are expected to have reasonable proficiency in aural learning (e.g. ability to sing on pitch).

In this advanced seminar, we will explore the location, use and changing nature of media in places like houses, automobiles, airports, schools and stores. Some of this investigation will be historical - say, where and how the radio was used in 1930s homes - and some will focus on the present day, when media are increasingly mobile, personal and infrastructural. Students will specialize in media in a particular place and conduct a semester-long study of that site. Our investigations will take a variety of forms, drawing on students' larger interests and experience.

Our brains underlie our ability to perform complex tasks, but exactly how neural activity enables behavior is not well understood. To gain insight into this question, neuroscientists have developed a variety of technologies to record neural activity, however to turn these recorded signals into meaningful insights data analysis methods are needed. In this class students will learn how to analyze neural data by researching how information is coded in neural activity.

There are many lenses through which one can study narrative discourse. This course investigates the temporal interpretation of narrative discourse through the lense of a formal semanticist. The course will consist of a case study that addresses what I take to be the core phenomeona: (a) prominence, (b) coherence and (c) how linguistic expressions interact with (a) and (b). At the heart of the case study is the following question: what is the meaning of 'now' and how does this meaning interact with the meaning of tense?

For instructor permission and more information, see irafay.com/classes. Virtual reality (VR) is a cutting edge platform for game development that will likely see rapid growth in the near future. In this course, students will learn best practices for virtual reality game development, discuss VR-specific cultural issues, and actually make VR games.

How do we create engaging, interesting, fun games? A growing area of interest for game designers is "educational games." But what does research on learning, especially from games, tell us about effective design that leads to learning? In this course, students will read about, design and play educational games. Through hands-on, project-based work, students will work individually and in teams to create at least two games that teach. These games can be in digital or non-digital format.