The Senior Seminar is the capstone course in the environmental studies major, which serves as the comprehensive requirement, and is taken by all seniors in the fall of their senior year.

The dependency of many countries on marine organisms for food has resulted in severe population declines in cod, bluefin tuna, swordfish, and abalone, as well as numerous other marine organisms. In this seminar we will examine the sociological, political, and economic impacts of global depletion of fisheries. Questions addressed will be: What is the scope of extinctions or potential extinctions due to over-harvesting of marine organisms? How are fisheries managed, and are some approaches to harvesting better than others?

This course provides an introduction to environmental science. Students will gain an understanding of the interactions between the biotic, which is inclusive of people, and the physical components of the Earth system. Through lecture, analysis of scientific literature, and lab we address topics such as biodiversity, agriculture, water resources, atmospheric pollution and climate change, and renewable and non-renewable energy, linking central scientific concepts to local, regional, and global case studies.

This course provides an introduction to environmental science. Students will gain an understanding of the interactions between the biotic, which is inclusive of people, and the physical components of the Earth system. Through lecture, analysis of scientific literature, and lab we address topics such as biodiversity, agriculture, water resources, atmospheric pollution and climate change, and renewable and non-renewable energy, linking central scientific concepts to local, regional, and global case studies.

This course provides an introduction to environmental science. Students will gain an understanding of the interactions between the biotic, which is inclusive of people, and the physical components of the Earth system. Through lecture, analysis of scientific literature, and lab we address topics such as biodiversity, agriculture, water resources, atmospheric pollution and climate change, and renewable and non-renewable energy, linking central scientific concepts to local, regional, and global case studies.

In literary studies, form tends to refer to genre (sonnet, novel, epic), style (rhyme, meter), or figure (metaphor, chiasmus). But the term has a long history across disciplines in which it can refer to the abstract, shaping containers of material things. This advanced seminar explores theories of literary formalism within the broader context of cross-disciplinary formalisms in philosophy, social science, and STEM fields. Readings will be primarily theoretical with some literary texts to anchor our discussions.

This is a class about scale and scope, borders and boundaries. 

(Offered as ENGL 420 and THDA 420) (Before 1800) Interpretations of William Shakespeare’s plays often align with and reinforce hegemonic conceptions of whiteness. Yet for over two centuries that alignment has been contested by theatre artists from the Black diaspora, from Native or Indigenous nations, and from the diverse communities of latinidad. This course centers what one First Nations playwright calls BIPOC “takeovers” of Shakespeare’s work.

(Offered as ENGL 387 and FAMS ) As an industry in the business of making both entertainment and art, Hollywood is a fascinating case study to explore. This course will focus on how contemporary Hollywood works and how understanding its work can enable us also to understand how films “work.” Our first unit will begin by exploring the context of industrial and independent practices through six key examples, which will form the primary models for the course throughout the semester.

(Offered as ENGL 379 and FAMS 379) “I detect an accent…” Anyone who has heard this sentence has had to navigate the topography of voice, accent and identity that is our multilingual world. But what is an “accent”? What assumptions about speakers and listeners do we make when we “detect” accents—or when we perform them as writers, actors, and citizens? How, in other words, does the simple act of perceiving an accent allow us to “fix” and stabilize our sense of a speaker’s origins, education, affiliations, affects, preferences, and tendencies--even their tastes?