This topics course explores the life, affiliations, and ideas of a political theorist who has made a special contribution to the self-understanding of our age. In addition to the writings by that thinker, we also will read biographies and secondary commentaries as well as selected essays by authors who have influenced our thinker or who have been influenced by her or him.

Many critics considered Kathyrn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty to be the best film of 2012, but it was also widely criticized for seeming to promote torture. Movies can be morally dangerous, seemingly endorsing or even promoting immoral or discriminatory ideals, or romanticizing immoral characters and behavior, as in Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris, 1991). In this course, we evaluate the arguments given for treating certain movies as immoral, and we examine whether and how our moral evaluations of movies should affect us. When, if ever, are movies immoral?

If all our actions are causally determined, is free will possible? Might we be justified in blaming, praising, rewarding, or punishing people even if their actions are not free? Abstract metaphysical questions about freedom intersect in important ways with everyday problems we face in our relationships with others and our attitudes about moral ignorance and madness. This course will examine these issues side by side in the hope of improving our understanding of freedom and responsibility.

Living in a global world presents distinctive and pressing moral problems. What are the responsibilities of individuals, particularly individuals living in relatively affluent societies, to prevent climate change, and to alleviate the harms caused by it? How should we act to prevent war, and should we ever initiate wars in order to prevent greater evils (such as genocide)? What responsibilities do citizens of relatively affluent nations have to prevent and ameliorate poverty and global inequality?

The main focus of this course is to facilitate a culturally sensitive analytical engagement of musical traditions from different parts of the world. The course surveys some of the theoretical and methodological issues that have shaped the field of ethnomusicology and influenced the study of musical traditions, and examines musical examples from different parts of the world, including Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Art and music are a part of all human cultures. Is there something about the human brain that drives us to paint and sing? We will examine how the brain simultaneously processes different aspects of visual and auditory stimuli, ask how this processing may affect the way we do art and music,and explore where these phenomena may occur in the brain. As we engage in discussion and hands-on activities, we will discover the commonalities between the arts and the sciences including practice, experimentation, exploration, innovation, and creativity.

A stochastic process is a collection of random variables. For example, the daily prices of a particular stock are a stochastic process. Topics of this course will include Markov chains, queueing theory, the Poisson process, and Brownian motion. In addition to theory, the course will investigate applications of stochastic processes, including models of call centers and models of stock prices. Simulations of stochastic processes will also be used to compare with the theory.

This course will explore the nature and the politics of love, sex and violence in Italian literature and culture as described by male and female authors.Beginning with the Roman poet Ovid, we will proceed to such authors as Lidia Ravera, Marco Lombardo Radice, Franca Rame, Elsa Morante, Anna Banti, Annie Vivanti, Vincenzo Cerami. In addition to viewing films by Pier Paolo Pasolini and Lina Wertmuller, we will also examine the work of the 17th-century Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi in the context of her sensational rape trial.

This course is a transition from language courses to more advanced ones. It surveys the evolution of Italian culture and literature from its origins to modern times. Class discussions, written work, and movie screenings are aimed at developing skills in oral expression and expository writing in Italian.

This course analyzes the internal culture of international humanitarian organizations and selected - often heavily debated - issues, successes and failures. We examine the evolution of development thinking over the post WWII period and landmark events in health, education and human rights, the evolution of poverty and inequality indicators and concepts, policy responses and the emergence of ODA, and development assistance results during some humanitarian emergencies (East African Drought, East Asian Tsunami, Mongolian Dzud, Haiti earthquake).