An introduction to the molecular and cellular processes common to life with an emphasis on control of energy and information flow.  Central themes include metabolism, macromolecular function, and the genetic basis of cellular function.  We examine how membranes work to establish the internal composition of cells, how the structure of proteins including enzymes affects protein function, how energy is captured, stored and utilized by cells, and how cells communicate, move and divide.  We explore inheritance patterns and underlying molecular mechanisms of genetics, the central d

Fall and spring semesters.

Independent Reading Course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

Independent Reading Course.

Fall and spring semesters.  Members of the Department.

(Offered as HIST 476 [AS] and ASLC 476 [C].) Political thinkers and activists inside China and throughout the world continue to puzzle over the relationship between the people and the state. Where do state functions and state control begin and end? How do the global economy, internal migration, NGOs, and the internet influence the relationship between the people and the state? What changes and continuities do we observe in state-society relations over time? Who are the winners and losers of China’s recent economic growth?

(Offered as HIST 477 [AS] and ASLC 462 [J].)  The varied names given to the fifteen years of war conducted by Japan-the Pacific War, the Great East Asian War, the Fifteen-Year War, World War II, and the Asian-Pacific War-reflect the conflicting perspectives from which that war is studied and remembered. How has the experience of a fifteen-year war during the 1930s and 1940s shaped memory and history in Japan, East Asia, and the United States?

(Offered as SWAG 469, ASLC  452 [SA], and FAMS 322.)  How do we define the word “feminism”? Can the term be used to define cinematic texts outside the Euro-American world? In this course we will study a range of issues that have been integral to feminist theory--the body, domesticity, same sex desire, gendered constructions of the nation, feminist utopias and dystopias--through a range of South Asian cinematic texts.

(Offered as ARHA 381 and ASLC 381.)  The term “talisman,” from telesma (Greek) and tilsam (Arabic), has traditionally been defined as a magical object that is believed to repel harmful or evil forces. According to this view, a talisman is more interesting for what it does rather than what it represents or how it looks. Taking the arts of the Near East and South Asia as its primary frame, this course aims to move beyond these standard claims to examine the aesthetic dimensions of the talisman. What forms do talismans assume, and why?

(Offered as HIST 397 [ME], ASLC 363 [WA], and SWAG 362.) The course examines the major developments, themes and issues in woman’s history in the Middle East. The first segment of the course concerns the early Islamic period and discusses the impact of the Quran on the status of women, the development of Islamic religious traditions and Islamic law. Questions concerning the historiography of this “formative” period of Islamic history, as well as hermeneutics of the Quran will be the focus of this segment.