The crystallography and crystal chemistry of naturally occurring inorganic compounds (minerals). The identification, origin, distribution and use of minerals. Laboratory work includes the principles and methods of optical mineralogy, X-ray diffraction, back-scattered electron microscopy, and electron beam microanalysis. Three hours of lecture and three hours of lecture/discussion and directed laboratory.

Recommended requisite: GEOL 111, CHEM 151 or 155 or their equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Cheney.

As the science that considers the origin and evolution of the earth, Geology provides students with an understanding of what is known about the earth and how we know it, how the earth “works” and why we think it behaves as it does. In particular this course focuses upon the earth as an evolving and dynamic system where change is driven by energy generated within the earth.

From the earliest civilizations man has been a major agent of environmental change. However, from the dawn of the industrial age, when fossil fuels were first tapped for energy, the rate of this change has increased exponentially. In this course, we will dissect environmental issues by first examining the recent geologic record of climate change and how processes that affect climate change operate in modern natural systems. We will then assess how societies have modified such systems and what factors control the trajectory and rate of change.

Independent Reading Courses. Full course.

Admission with consent of the instructor required. Fall and spring semesters.

In the aftermath of the French revolution, utopias proliferated in France as perhaps never before. Socialist thinkers such as Charles Fourier and Henri de Saint-Simon invented entire systems designed to improve social justice, equality, and harmony. Utopian dreams were not restricted to political thought, however: technology, science, and the arts also inspired, and gave shape to, visions of a perfect world.

Humanists came to distrust medieval institutions and models. Through an analysis of the most influential works of the French Renaissance, we shall study the variety of literary innovations which grew out of that distrust with an eye to their social and philosophical underpinnings. We shall address topics relevant to these innovations such as Neoplatonism, the grotesque, notions of the body, love, beauty, order and disorder.