In this course we will read and discuss stories written by living masters of the form. We will not speculate about the meaning of the work or the author's intent, rather we will read as writers, noting and comparing each author's decisions about voice, diction, syntax, image, metaphor, and tone which, within the narrow boundaries of this challenging and compressed form, bring a world into being. Authors will include Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Doris Lessing, Sabina Murray, and Jhumpa Lahiri.

Charpentier, a French scientist of the 1940s, unwittingly discovered a chemical that was to alter dramatically our understanding of madness. The chemical, chlorpromazine, has been widely used for the treatment of psychosis. Of interest is neuropsychopharmacology--the science and the technology. The principles of pharmacology are discussed and precede the examination of applications of the technology to psychopathology (for example, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, and violent behavior).

This course is conducted as a hands-on research workshop. Students will work collaboratively on one major social psychological research project during the semester. The projects typically focus on work/family issues, but other topics are possible. The methodology used depends on the project and could employ quantitative and/or qualitative methods. The course work follows the typical sequence required for research: reviewing the relevant literature, designing the method, analyzing data, and writing and presenting a final research report.

This course examines significant moments in the history of children as creators, performers, consumers, and subjects of music in the Western tradition. From Mozart to Michael Jackson, medieval psalmody to Debussy's Children's Corner and beyond, we will survey the enlisting of children, childhood, and the childlike across a range of musical genres and pedagogical, aesthetic, and cultural-political agendas. For their final project, students may work with a historical artifact of children's musical culture, or research a local children's music program or ensemble.

Mathematical optimization involves finding the best solution to a problem from a set of feasible solutions defined by mathematical constraints. It has an elegant theory and applications in fields like management, economics, engineering, and computer science that require decision making under constraints on time or other resources. We will begin by studying linear optimization, including duality, the simplex algorithm, and the geometry of linear programming. Other topics will include discrete optimization, network optimization, and nonlinear optimization.

This course is intended for students who, based on the results of their precalculus assessment and the agreement of the instructor, need to strengthen their quantitative and algebraic precalculus skills in order to be ready to progress to calculus. Features the study of functions, including trigonometric functions, the exponential function, and logarithms, and the phenomena they model.

Food has been at the center of Italian life and culture for centuries. This course explores two important aspects of food in Italian history: (a) the role and cultural meaning of food preparation and presentation in Italian literary texts and film with particular emphasis of new world foods on Italian society (tomatoes, coffee), and (b) the social and economic implications of the Italian Slow Food movement on the global economic stage. Readings include Clara Sereni, Giovanni Boccaccio, Joyce Lussu, F.T. Marinetti, Carlo Goldoni, Antonio Fogazzaro, Carlo Petrini and many more.

This course is an introduction to the major cultural movements of modern Italy, from Leopardi and Aleramo to Calvino and Pasolini. It surveys the major cultural and historical currents from the eighteenth century to the present. Representatives of romantic, realist, decadent, modernism and futurist works will be studied in their cultural and historical contexts. Class discussions, written work, and movie screenings are aimed at developing skills in oral expression and expository writing in Italian. In Fall 2015, the course will include a special focus on Italian food culture.