Why has Latin America struggled to achieve democratic stability? Why is it the region of the world with the highest economic inequality? How have the periodic political and economic crises allowed for creative experimentation with policy alternatives to create a more equal and sustainable social order? This course examines the political and economic evolution and transformation of Latin America from the time of the European conquest until these very days, with a particular focus on the 20th century.

In this workshop, designed for advanced students of poetry, we'll study the organization of chapbooks and collections of poems. Each workshop member will respond to published collections, with an emphasis on 'first book' and small press publications. Students will also write, revise, and design their own chapbooks (15-25 pages); at least 15 pages of this work will be 'new writing' completed in the course of the semester. The collection/chapbook produced can reflect collaboration and hybrid forms.

"Micro-fictions," like "traditional short stories," require attention to pacing, sentence, detail, image, and music. In this workshop, we'll study and practice micro-fiction (also known as "quick fiction" or "short, short stories"). We'll consider the ways that pacing and syntax are instrumental in establishing tone and narrative structure. We'll also examine particular scenes from a selection of longer stories (putting these scenes "under the micro-scope").

Cosmological models and the relationship between models and observable parameters. Topics in current astronomy that bear upon cosmological problems, including background electromagnetic radiation, nucleosynthesis, dating methods, determinations of the mean density of the universe and the Hubble constant, and tests of gravitational theories. Discussion of questions concerning the foundations of cosmology and its future as a science.