Judaism is a 3,500-year-old tradition that has developed over time as Jewish communities all over the world creatively interacted with the different cultural and historical milieus in which they lived. This course explores the ways in which Judaism has sought to transform ordinary life into sacred life. What are the ways in which Judaism conceives of God, and what is the meaning of life? What roles do study, prayer, ethics, sex, marriage, family, rituals of the life cycle, and community play in Judaism?

An attempt at understanding the Nazi-led assault on Europe's Jews. Course units include an exploration of origins, both German and European; an analysis of the evolving mechanics of genocide (mobile killing squads, death camps, etc.); comparisons (Germany proper vs. Poland, the Holocaust vs. other instances of state-sponsored mass murder); legal dimensions; and an introduction to the politics of Holocaust remembrance since 1945.

In this course we examine female and male spaces in the Italian home through modern works of literature and art. We will analyze how objects can define a personality, a space, a life. Spaces examined include intellectual/writing spaces, working spaces, eating/cooking spaces, clothing, decor. Authors include Gabriele D'Annunzio, Guido Gozzano, Oscar Wilde, Jolanda, Aldo Palazzeschi, Marchesa Colombi, Matilde Serao, Virginia Woolf, and more. This course includes an active collaboration with the Art Museum.

This course builds advanced skills in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), combining theory with weekly labs to create confident, independent users. Students move beyond mapmaking to analyze and visualize data, apply spatial models, and integrate Python programming into GIS workflows. Hands-on projects emphasize decision-making, critical thinking, and problem solving, while showcasing advanced ArcGIS functions. By working with both quantitative and qualitative datasets, students gain the ability to use GIS creatively and effectively in academic and professional contexts.

What is childhood, and how is it shaped by space and place? What can we learn about broader political and social processes by studying the spaces of children's everyday lives? How do children understand and shape the worlds they inhabit? From the playground to the detention center, from the classroom to the city, this course will explore children's lives in their spatial, social, and political dimensions. We will study childhood as a social category influenced by intersecting identities (e.g. race, class, gender, disability, and citizenship) and spatial processes (e.g.

Modern science has taught us surprising new things and modern technology has given us extraordinary new abilities. We can now prolong life in extraordinary ways, dramatically enhance our physical and cognitive abilities, collect and process remarkable amounts of data, and radically reshape the natural environment on local and global scales. This course is devoted to the critical study of moral problems that have been raised or affected by this newfound information and these newfound abilities.

What moral obligations -- if any -- do we have towards non-human entities? Do non-human animals have rights? Do trees and rivers? What about entire ecosystems? What might be the basis for such rights and obligations? We will discuss how traditional ethical theories have approached questions about moral obligations towards non-humans, and see whether these views can be extended to include some or all of the non-human natural entities mentioned above.

What should we do? How should we live our lives? What do we owe to ourselves and to others? Which actions are right, which are wrong, and how can we tell the difference? What things are good? Can we give principled answers to questions like these, or is it just a matter of opinion? We will think critically about such questions and some key theoretical approaches to answering them. We will also consider vexing contemporary moral issues with an eye to whether these theories can guide our actions.

This course develops a symbolic system that can be used as the basis for inference in all fields. It will provide syntax and semantics for the language of this system and investigate its adequacy. It provides the basis for all further work in logic or in the philosophical foundations of mathematics. Much of the course has a mathematical flavor, but no knowledge of mathematics is necessary.

This course examines philosophical questions about and in literature. Can a work of literature also be a work of philosophy? Can literature yield knowledge about the world? Do works of literature have determinate meanings, and if so, how can we know them? Are the author's intentions or identity relevant to how a work is to be interpreted? Can works of literature be immoral? We will study some proposed answers to these questions, critique those proposals, and develop our own arguments. Readings will include both philosophical texts and works of literature.