A weekly seminar for students in the Computing and Informatics Exploratory Track. Exploration of strategies for success at UMass and computer science topics through presentations and problem-solving games. Open only to first-year students in the Computing and Informatics Exploratory Track. This course does not count toward any requirements for the CMPSCI major or minor.

Not available at this time.

This course will offer an introduction to 1) key concepts and definitions e.g. diaspora, Pan-Africanism, Afro-centrism, etc. 2) the classic works in the field. 3) major trends in contemporary scholarship. We will be reading a selection of works discussing the contours and history of the field as well as examples of recent scholarship. Two papers on major themes will be required. This course is required for the Graduate Certificate in African Diaspora Studies and is open both to students pursuing the certificate and to graduate students with a general interest in the subject.

This course explores the relationship between film and culture during some of the most crucial decades of "The American Century."  It looks at the evolving connection between films and their audiences, the extent to which films are symptomatic of as well as influential on historical periods, major events and social movements, and the ways in which film genres evolve in relation to both cultural change and the rise and fall of the Hollywood studio system.  Among the questions we'll consider: How did the Depression have an impact on Hollywood film style and form?

This course aims to present an accurate picture of young people in contemporary Africa. We study their social, economic and political imaginings, initiatives and revolts, through which they seek to reinvent and change the world. Why are young people in Africa who are used to living under the power of adult and elderly domination seeking change? Most young Africans are living in a period of suspension between childhood and adulthood as a consequence of the collapse of their societies in the 1990s when all governments in Africa were subject to IMF and World Bank structural adjustment plans.

The rise of Jewish philosophy and mysticism (Kabbalah) in the Islamic world and in medieval Spain, and the development of these theological and intellectual trends as decisive influences upon all subsequent forms of Judaism. Analysis of Jewish philosophy and mysticism as complementary yet often competing spiritual paths. How did Jewish philosophers and mystics consider the roles of reason, emotion and symbols in religious faith and practice? What interrelations did they see between the natural and divine realms, and between religious, philosophical and scientific explanations?

Over the past year few years, a powerful social movement has emerged to affirm to the country and world that Black Lives Matter. Sparked by the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Stanford, Florida, and Zimmerman?s acquittal as well as the police killings of other black men and women, including Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, and Freddie Gray, this movement challenges police violence and other policing that makes black communities unsafe as well as social constructions of black people as inherently dangerous and criminal.

Modern Tibetan III is the third part of a four-part elementary course sequence in Modern Tibetan. The course is offered through the Five College Supervised Independent Language Program. The independent study format includes small group conversation sessions and an evaluation by an outside evaluator. Students studying Modern Tibetan develop speaking and listening skills needed for study abroad in Tibet or Tibetan-speaking areas and to support course work in Asian Studies or Buddhist Studies.