This course examines African American, Asian American, Chicana/o-Latina/o, and Native American literature and cultural politics. Examining the historical intersection of race, gender, and sexuality, we will explore themes of cultural identity, segregation and community formation, citizenship, labor, class, and family. Authors may include Toni Morrison, Danzy Senna, Josefina Lopez, Sherman Alexie, Junot Diaz, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Joy Kogawa.

We will attempt to discover some of the most useful lessons we can learn regarding ourselves, those close to us, and others with whom we share this planet; and we will study how such knowledge may be expressed in literary and expository works. Texts include novels such as Wharton's Summer, Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Barker's The Man Who Wasn't There, and others; also assorted poems, short stories, and essays.

In the summer and fall of 1888, a series of gruesome murders captured the attention of Londoners and brought questions of class, gender, race and social-economic change to the forefront of public debate. Though the culprit was never identified, Jack the Ripper became synonymous with the perceived dangers of late-Victorian London.

Drawing on archival records and other documents, including Dickinson's letters and poems, students in this seminar will explore what Dickinson's year at Mary Lyon's Mount Holyoke might have meant to her as student and poet. We will also examine Lyon's vision of women's education, as well as contrasting visions of education in Old New England from such writers and thinkers as Emerson, Thoreau, and Stowe.

In this course, students will engage a number of classic works of literature and philosophy, as well as contemporary works, in order to reflect on the ways the family shapes private and public life and is, in return, shaped by them. We will cover such questions as: how does the family create and then influence the individual? What does it mean to be part of a family? What do individuals owe their families and are those obligations fair? How do we form families? Can the family insulate individuals from politics and society--in good ways and bad? Is political order like familial order?

This course will offer an introduction to the science in forensic investigations. We will explore several methods and instruments often used in CSI programs, such as mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy and DNA analysis, which are very valuable in evaluating crime scene evidence. We will explore the validity of scientific findings and the political implications of the use and availability of the data. Students will have a chance to be expert witnesses and be in the lab evaluating evidence.

The twentieth century started with the downfall of the Chinese monarchy, numerous humiliations at the hands of Western countries, and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911. In the spirit of reform and renaissance, a group of young writers, educated in both China and the West, spearheaded a new direction in Chinese literature. This group of writers abandoned the classical Chinese language, was keenly interested in social development and betterment, attacked Confucian tradition, and adopted Western ideals.

This course explores the interconnections between art and society using a sociological lens. We will examine topics such as the social construction of cultural authenticity; the relationship between cultural capital and group boundaries; and the legitimation of art forms.

What is love? What are its causes? What kinds of love do we value? This interdisciplinary seminar explores different kinds of love (romantic, familial, divine, etc.) from diverse perspectives, including those of select philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, religious thinkers, and social justice activists.

An introduction to some topics in African studies, reading and writing about such contemporary authors as Ama Ata Aidoo, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Bessie Head, Mariama Ba, Chimamanda Adichie. Studying both fiction and essays, the course focuses on recent political situations (Ghana, Congo, South Africa), on images of women, and on representations of Africa in news media and in cinema, both from Africa and the West.