'Although they cover ~0.6% of the earth's surface, wetlands perform more ecosystem services per hectare than any other ecosystem type. Alarmingly, over half of the earth's wetlands have been lost to agriculture and development. With these wetlands were also lost the valuable ecosystem functions wetlands perform. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the biogeochemical, ecological, societal, and regulatory aspects of wetland ecosystems.

'This course will focus on portrayals of women in nineteenth through mid-twentieth century America, particularly in the context of nature and landscape. We will explore how women, often objectified in visual images of the period, appropriated established devices or developed new images and structures to represent womanhood in their own terms. Texts will include selected poetry, sketches, autobiographical essays or memoirs, short stories, novels, paintings, films, and photography.'

'Different stories or narratives--whether myth, literature, maps, or scientific theory--have been created about every region or environment on Earth as human attempts to describe and understand our connections with that place. How do braided strands of human history and natural history contribute to stories we tell of the land, and to stories we tell of ourselves in the land and of relational identity? In this reading and writing seminar we will reflect on how lifeways, homeplace, and identity of an individual or a community are linked with environment or the land.

'A key test of our ecological knowledge is whether we can successfully apply it to create or restore ecosystems that have been damaged or destroyed. As we take on the role of restoration ecologists this semester, we will use principles and methods of ecology, conservation biology, hydrology, soil science, and related disciplines to learn about the theory, practice, and politics of ecosystem restoration. This course emphasizes fieldwork, interdisciplinary teamwork, and ecological planning to evaluate and design restoration projects in our surrounding communities and regional landscapes.

'In this course, we will explore the different facets of numerous environmental policy issues and review the substantive aspects, legal themes, and regulatory structure of the major federal environmental laws. The laws covered in this course include the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and others.

'This course introduces students to the field of environmental studies and to some of the scientific, historical, political, economic and cultural aspects of environmental concerns. Through interdisciplinary lenses, we explore the complexities of many issues and problems such as climate change, threats to biodiversity, and toxic environments. In addition to fostering an understanding of their origins, the course focuses on potential solutions.'

'This course will focus on portrayals of women in nineteenth through mid-twentieth century America, particularly in the context of nature and landscape. We will explore how women, often objectified in visual images of the period, appropriated established devices or developed new images and structures to represent womanhood in their own terms. Texts will include selected poetry, sketches, autobiographical essays or memoirs, short stories, novels, paintings, films, and photography.'

'This course will examine the writing of Emily Dickinson, both her poetry and her letters. We will consider the cultural, historical, political, religious, and familial environment in which she lived. Special attention will be paid to Dickinson's place as a woman artist in the nineteenth century. The class will meet at the Dickinson Museum (280 Main Street in Amherst and accessible by Five College bus). Enrollment is limited to ten students.'

'As London and the British novel enter the new millennium, both are sites of competing histories, traditions, and agendas. This course will map the city's progress from the center of an empire to a node in the global world's economy, and chart the twentieth-century novel's movement from realism to postmodernism and beyond. Beginning by contrasting the realist London of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes with Virginia Woolf's modernist version in Mrs. Dalloway, we will go on to trace the development of the post-1945 British novel.'

'The first half of this seminar examines the major works of Richard Wright, including Uncle Tom's Children, 12 Million Black Voices, Native Son, Black Boy, and Black Power. The second half explores Wright's literary influence along with his political legacy to a range of modern and contemporary authors, including Zora Neale Hurston, Chester Himes, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison.'