This course is an introduction to theories and practices of collaborative learning for students preparing to work as mentors in the Speaking, Arguing, and Writing Program (SAW). We will draw on existing research, practice sessions, class discussion, and our own writing and speaking to craft our philosophies of peer mentoring and to develop effective practical strategies.

Learn to speak with confidence and clarity about your summer internship or research project. Connect it to you academic coursework. What have you learned? How is it useful? What are your next steps? Students will reflect on their experience and collaborate with others to generate useful knowledge. Required for the Nexus but open to all students. For more information, email nexus@mtholyoke.edu.

Students are expected to complete a supervised field experience full-time every day during January Intersession in an inclusive classroom in a school setting. Placements can be located within or outside of the Five College area. In addition to the field experience component, students attend three course meetings (detailed below).

This course aims to enhance students' Chinese language proficiency and deepen their cultural understanding through the study of media, essays, and short stories. It focuses on exploring traditional Chinese culture, societal transformations, and contemporary issues. The primary objective is to improve students' advanced communication skills, particularly in reading and comprehending news reports and literary works in Chinese. Additionally, the course encourages students to analyze current issues with a broader perspective and a more nuanced outlook.

This course frames early American literary and cultural history as a series of hegemonic narratives and counternarratives. Starting with the violence of settler colonialism and Indigenous resistance, this course considers how US literary and national traditions have always been contested by oppressed and dispossessed peoples, who have offered alternatives to predominant American mythologies such as individualism and freedom.

This course helps students explore gender theory, and the analysis of power more generally, in concrete "real-world" connections between academia, communities, scholarship, creative expression, and social action. In January, students will find placement at an organization, foundation, or business that incorporates a feminist, and/or queer focus. Class sessions provide cohort space to reflect on students' experiences at work. We will also focus on analyzing the institutional structures that characterize philanthropic organizations, also known as the "NGO-industrial complex".

With a transnational and historical scope, this course will examine everyday life and public space in Spanish cities. We'll approach cities as dynamic global networks shaped by cultures, politics, economies, ideologies, memories, and imaginations. Through literary, visual, and theoretical texts, we'll explore the in/exclusivity of large-scale urban phenomena such as street design, architecture, gentrification, globalization, and mass tourism.

The seminar focuses on the global history centered on the Tibetan Plateau. Often referred to as "the Roof of the World," the plateau has been a magnet for missionaries, pilgrims, merchants, botanists, and military powers for centuries. Students will read travelogues of those who journeyed to Tibet since the early modern era from the 1600s. These travelers not only documented their expeditions but also brought back objects they believed represented Tibet.

What is the difference between dropping a bomb knowing that there will be civilian casualties and doing so in order to kill civilians? This course will examine the psychological concepts underlying our actions. We will ask: When is an action intentional, and when is it not? How do we know what we are doing, if we know it at all? What is practical reasoning, if such reasoning exists? We will explore these questions by reading foundational texts in philosophy of action, including Elizabeth Anscombe's Intention, among others.

This course introduces students to the tradition of the German fairy tale and the development of the short story from the 19th century to the present. We will read and discuss fairy tales written by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Wilhelm Hauff, Ludwig Tieck, Adelbert von Chamisso as well as by contemporary authors such as Elfriede Jelinek, Yoko Tawada, and Kim De L'Horizon who incorporate fairy tales into their writings.