This speaking-intensive course will help students reflect on, learn from, and speak about their unique Mount Holyoke experiences as they transition into their next steps after graduation. Using the same techniques that professional actors use to relax, focus their message and connect with their audience, students will improve their ability to communicate with confidence, express themselves authentically and inspire others.

A survey of world performance history, including: the evolution of human language and consciousness; the rise of oral, ritual, and shamanic performance; religious and civic festivals; and imperial theatre practices that position the stage at the dangerous intersection of religious worship, public taste, royal patronage, and government censure. Understanding performance as both artistic practice and social institution, this course emphasizes the role performance has played in changing audiences and as a cultural and political force in various societies.

We will study defining periods in Russian and world history with an emphasis on the powerful Russian monarchs who shaped them: in particular, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Alexander II, and Nicholas II. Russia's tsarist system raises important questions about the nature of the monarchy. The Russian case shows how monarchies can change and develop, and why, ultimately, many of them failed. Why did the Romanovs fail when their relatives, the House of Windsor, did not? Could Russia have survived as a constitutional monarchy? What is the role of a royal dynasty in defining nationhood?

We will study defining periods in Russian and world history with an emphasis on the powerful Russian monarchs who shaped them: in particular, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Alexander II, and Nicholas II. Russia's tsarist system raises important questions about the nature of the monarchy. The Russian case shows how monarchies can change and develop, and why, ultimately, many of them failed. Why did the Romanovs fail when their relatives, the House of Windsor, did not? Could Russia have survived as a constitutional monarchy? What is the role of a royal dynasty in defining nationhood?

A study of some of Shakespeare's plays emphasizing the poetic and dramatic aspects of his art, with attention to the historical context and close, careful reading of the language. Eight or nine plays.

When and how did the notion of 'development' emerge and spread? Why does nearly every country now aspire to it? What stigmas and hierarchies does the term 'underdevelopment' imply? Throughout the Spanish-Speaking world, 'development' has proved problematic not only as a material reality but also as a framework for understanding place, time, and selfhood. For that very reason, Latin American countries and Spain are ideal places from which to question commonly accepted understandings of 'development' (and associated concepts such as 'modernization' and 'progress').

Introduces the analysis of cultural diversity, including concepts, methods, and purposes in interpreting social, economic, political, and belief systems found in human societies, with special reference to anthropological films and videos.