Uranium (U) series dating has revolutionized our understanding of geologic time. U and its radiogenic daughters, like lead (Pb) and Thorium (Th), have provided us with dates for events as disparate as the formation of our solar system and the rise and fall of sea level in response to geologically recent climate and tectonic events. This seminar will survey the U-Pb, Th-Pb, and Pb-Pb methods; the common lead method; U/Th series disequilibria; and fission track dating. We may also cover Plutonium production and the mining and enrichment of Uranium for nuclear power and weapons.

This course is designed to introduce students to social, cultural, historical, and political perspectives on gender and its construction. Through discussion and writing, we will explore the intersections among gender, race, class, and sexuality in multiple settings and contexts. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to a variety of questions, we will consider the distinctions between sex and gender, women's economic status, the making of masculinity, sexual violence, queer movements, racism, and the challenges of feminist activism across nations, and possibilities for change.

This course is designed to introduce students to social, cultural, historical, and political perspectives on gender and its construction. Through discussion and writing, we will explore the intersections among gender, race, class, and sexuality in multiple settings and contexts. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to a variety of questions, we will consider the distinctions between sex and gender, women's economic status, the making of masculinity, sexual violence, queer movements, racism, and the challenges of feminist activism across nations, and possibilities for change.

How do scholars produce knowledge? What can we learn from differences and similarities in the research process of a novelist, a biologist, an historian, a sociologist, and a film critic? Who decides what counts as knowledge? We will examine a range of methods from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, including visual analysis, archival exploration, interviewing, and ethnography, as we consider the specific advantages (and potential limitations) of diverse disciplinary approaches for feminist inquiry.

Are animals persons? Subjects? Do they have gender? Important shifts in public opinion have taken place concerning the moral, legal, and affective status of animals, yet liberal Academia still marginalizes the 'animal question.' In this course, we will draw on feminism's engagement against speciesism to chart diverse forms of human/non-human companionship. The analytic categories of gender and species will be examined side by side for their usefulness in understanding a world in which we no longer approach the human as the great exception.

This course explores the interconnections of Black women's creative production and Black Feminist and Womanist thought. We will explore Black women's art, performance, and creative processes as a means of physical and psychic survival. Students will be exposed to emerging and classic Black Feminist and Womanist texts as well as the creative work of emerging and established visual artists, musicians and poets. Students will have the opportunity to engage with the work closely through close reading, formal analysis as well as creative and improvisational modes of engagement.

Yue Opera, an all-female art that flourished in Shanghai in 1923, resulted from China's social changes and the women's movement. Combining traditional with modern forms and Chinese with Western cultures, Yue Opera today attracts loyal and enthusiastic audiences despite pop arts crazes. We will focus on how audiences, particularly women, are fascinated by gender renegotiations as well as by the all-female cast. The class will read and watch classics of this theater, including Dream of the Red Chamber, Story of the Western Chamber, Peony Pavilion, and Butterfly Lovers.

An exploration of the roles and values of Chinese women in traditional and modern times. Topics will include the structure of the family and women's productive work, rules for female behavior, women's literature, and the relationship between feminism and other political and social movements in revolutionary China. Readings from biographies, classical literature, feminist scholarship, and modern fiction.

This course will focus on three topics to which feminist thinking has made important philosophical contributions: pornography, objectification, and consent. We will draw on a variety of philosophical resources, ranging from liberal and feminist political theory, to speech act theory. We'll be looking at work by Simone de Beauvoir, Ronald Dworkin, Sally Haslanger, Rae Langton, Catharine MacKinnon, Martha Nussbaum, and others. The goal will be to see how careful philosophical thought can help us with pressing issues of gender.

This course explores women and Buddhism during different historical periods and in different cultures. Through a variety of sources, this course will illuminate Buddhist concepts of gender and sexuality, views of women's spiritual capacities, the diversity of women's images, roles, experiences, concerns, and contributions in Buddhist societies, and scholarly approaches to women in Buddhism. Special attention will be given to how gender is constructed in each cultural and religious context encountered, with particular emphasis on Buddhist women in Southeast Asia.