This course will engage students in interdisciplinary thinking about the dynamic relationship between environment and development. Focusing on specific case studies, we will consider complementary and contrasting perspectives about the causes of and solutions to global poverty and environmental degradation. We will examine how development theories and practices have changed over time, and we will reflect on how our assumptions shape what we 'see' in specific sites, how we frame particular problems and what we suggest as solutions.

This course will explore the historical, political, economic, social, and cultural contexts in which human-environment interactions occur. We will cover critical topics and trends in the field of political ecology, from its early manifestations to more recent expansions. Using case studies from the global south and north, we will discuss factors that shape social and environmental change across scales from the personal to the global, and we will examine the role of gender, race, class, and power in struggles over resources.

We will examine the feasibility of converting the entire energy infrastructure of the US from one that is dependent on fossil fuels to one that utilizes mostly renewable sources of energy. We will examine the potential scale of energy production and the associated costs, natural resource requirements and land usage needs for both renewables, such as solar, wind and biofuel, and non-renewables, such as coal, natural gas, petroleum and nuclear.

This course introduces students to the field of environmental studies and to some of the scientific, historical, political, economic and cultural aspects of environmental concerns. Through interdisciplinary lenses, we explore the complexities of many issues and problems such as climate change, threats to biodiversity, and toxic environments. In addition to fostering an understanding of their origins, the course focuses on potential solutions.

This course studies the films of Pedro Almodóvar, European cinema's favorite bad boy turned acclaimed auteur. On the one hand, students learn to situate films within the context of contemporary Spanish history (the transition to democracy, the advent of globalization, etc.) in order to consider the local contours of postmodern aesthetics. On the other hand, the films provide a springboard to reflect on larger theoretical and ethical debates. For instance, what can a weeping transvestite teach us about desire?

This seminar will address questions of literary censorship in France in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. We will read literary texts banned at various moments in history, situate the moments of both their publication and censoring in a historical and literary historical context, and attempt to answer the following fundamental questions: who bans what, when and why? We will examine the explicitly political, religious, and/or sexual thematic content of the texts. We will try to establish distinctions between more textual taboos and those which would appear to be universal.

Component course for Film Studies. In this course we go behind the scenes and behind the screens of anthropological films, museum exhibitions, 'small media' events such as television, and publications such as National Geographic Magazine, to explore the social contexts of image production, distribution, and interpretation. Focusing on visual activism and ethics, we consider how popular portrayals of our own society and of others' both shape and are shaped by hierarchies of value in the material world.

An examination of classic and contemporary works in two important film genres, melodrama and horror. Topics of particular interest: affinities as well as contrasts between genres; feminist analyses and uses of genre; normative and alternative representations of sexualities; genre and the representations of race; spectatorship and the production of affect - tears and screams - by these genres. Extensive readings in film studies and cultural theory. Directors may include Almodóvar, Cronenberg, Curtiz, DePalma, Hitchcock, Kent, Lee, Onwurah, Polanski, Ray, Romero, Sirk, Vidor, and Whale.

Born in 1923 in Senegal, the writer/filmmaker Ousmane Sembène is one of the rare witnesses of the three key periods of contemporary African history: the colonial period; the period of struggle for political and economic independence; and the period of effort to eliminate neocolonialism through the rehabilitation of African cultures. This course is entirely devoted to the works of Ousmane Sembène and will explore the key moments of his life, his activism in European leftist organizations, his discovery of writing, and most of all the dominant features of his film work.

We will learn by making work as well as by researching, reading, and watching films related to our projects. We will begin with brainstorming, research, script or documentary proposal writing, and pre-production. Each student will develop a script or in-depth proposal to begin. As we move into production, we will review and deepen our knowledge of camera, lighting, sound, and editing principles and techniques.