Topics course. An examination of selected topics related to American political behavior. Themes include empirical analysis, partisanship, voting behavior and turnout, public opinion and racial attitudes. Student projects involve analysis of survey data.

This interdisciplinary lecture course explores topics at the intersection of the life and mathematical sciences. The course has an optional laboratory (BMX 101) that meets Mondays and Wednesday evenings during the first four weeks of the course. The laboratory introduces students to writing scripts in a software program that are used in the two BMX 100 research modules. BMX 100 includes two research modules, offered Monday evenings only during weeks 5 through 13 of the semester. Each module introduces students to a biomath research question.

Topics course. Sociological perspectives on the arts in society, with particular attention to the fine arts (primarily painting), to literature, and to theatre, among other forms of cultural expression. Theories of the place of art in society, the social context of artistic production and the social production of the artist, as well as sociological perspectives on the changing nature of arts institutions and audiences, and the social position and aesthetic disposition of the artist. Prerequisite: SOC 101 and permission of instructor.

This course examines the institution of education from a sociological perspective, exploring issues of power and privilege, relationships between education and other social institutions, and the varying purposes of education in society. A recurring theme throughout the course is meritocracy. We consider how merit is defined in education, factors that affect who succeeds in the educational system and whether meritocratic education is a viable goal.

This course analyzes -- and at times challenges -- the ways in which we understand health, illness and medicine. The course is divided in roughly three parts: first dealing with definitions and representations of health and illness; the second with the significance and impact of biomedical dominance; and the third with the intersections of health, illness and medicine with gender, race, social class and sexual orientation.

For first-year students and sophomores; juniors and seniors with permission of the course director. Perspectives on society, culture and social interaction. Topics include the self, emotions, culture, community, class, ethnicity, family, sex roles, deviance and economy. Colloquium format.

Admission by permission of the director of the South Asia concentration. Normally, enrollment limited to South Asia concentrators only.

We consider people's understanding of their own and others' mental states from a variety of perspectives: comparative psychology, neuroscience, cognitive, cross-cultural and developmental. The class analyzes and discusses primary psychological research on how such a "theory of mind" develops and the role it plays in social behavior and communication, as well as what is known about the brain mechanisms that underlie it and individual variations in theory of mind development arising from cultural, sensory and neurological differences. Enrollment limit of 25 students. (E)

The Hebrew scriptures (Tanakh/Old Testament). A survey of the Hebrew Bible and its historical and cultural context. Critical reading and discussion of its narrative and legal components as well as an introduction to the prophetic corpus and selections from the wisdom literature.

Complex behavior interpreted from a behavioral perspective, supplemented, when possible, with evolutionary and neurophysiological accounts. In the laboratory component of the course, students conduct a self-control project and experiment with instructional technology with humans. Enrollment limit of 25 students.