A course continuing the development of quantitative skills and quantitative literacy begun in MTH/QSK 101. Students continue to exercise and review basic mathematical skills, to reason with quantitative information, to explore the use and power of quantitative reasoning in rhetorical argument, and to cultivate the habit of mind to use quantitative skills as part of critical thinking. Attention is given to visual literacy in reading graphs, tables and other displays of quantitative information and to cultural attitudes surrounding mathematics. Prerequisites: MTH 101/QSK 101.

This course is a combination of two distinct but related areas of study: studio art and mathematics. Students are actively engaged in the design and fabrication of three-dimensional models that deal directly with aspects of mathematics. The class includes an introduction to basic building techniques with a variety of tools and media. At the same time each student pursues an intensive examination of a particular-individual-theme within studio art practice. The mathematical projects are pursued in small groups. The studio artwork is done individually.

This is an advanced community-based research seminar in which students work closely with archival materials from the Sophia Smith Collection and other archives to explore histories of resistance, collective action and grassroots organizing among domestic workers in the United States, from the mid-19th century to the present. This work has historically been done by women of color and been among the lowest paid, most vulnerable and exploited forms of labor.

Survey of women’s and gender history with women of color, working-class women and immigrant women at the center and with a focus on race, class and sexuality. Draws on feminist methodologies to consider how the study of marginalized women’s lives changes our understanding of history, knowledge, culture and the politics of resistance. Topics include labor, racial formation, empire, im/migration, popular culture, citizenship, education, religion, medicine, war, consumerism, feminism, queer cultures, capitalism and neoliberalism.

The sociology of a multiracial and ethnically diverse society. Comparative examinations of several American groups and subcultures. Enrollment limited to 35.

This course examines refugees—i.e., people displaced within their country, to another country or, perhaps, somewhere “in between.” Refugee politics prompt a consideration of the cause of refugee movements; persecution, flight, asylum and resettlement dynamics; the international response to humanitarian crises; and the “position” of refugees in the international system.

What can international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank do about corruption? This course explores the theoretical and practical dimensions of the problem of corruption and analyzes how states and international organizations have attempted to combat the problem.  Enrollment limited to 20.

An examination of typical igneous and metamorphic rocks in the laboratory and in the field in search of clues to their formation. Lab work emphasizes the microscopic study of rocks in thin section. Weekend field trips to Cape Ann and Vermont are an important part of the course. Prerequisite: 221.

Topics course.: Explore and examine the Third Reich’s media dictatorship: how spectacle and entertainment can engineer consent with manipulative distractions; how mass media can serve a totalitarian regime by responding to festering resentments with nationalist fantasies of cultural renewal; how seemingly harmless entertainment can promote a politics of fear and racism to horrific ends. Course emphasizes entertainment films of the Third Reich, with special attention to the works of Leni Riefenstahl. Conducted in English.

Topics course.: What is French America, or l’Amérique française? What is the nature of the French-American relationship, historically and today? At the height of the contemporary Franco-American culture wars, France and the United States seemed to be polar opposites. Yet at one time parts of the United States spoke French, lived and laughed in French, cried and died in French. Must French now be translated in America? Through what cultural mechanisms is Frenchness expressed by Americans? In what languages does one write French America today?