(Offered as CLAS 123 and SWAG 123) We read in English the major authors from Homer in the eighth century BCE to Plato in the fourth century in order to trace the emergence of epic, lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, history, and philosophy. How did the Greek enlightenment, and through it Western culture, emerge from a few generations of people moving around a rocky archipelago? How did folklore and myth develop into various forms of “rationality”: science, history, and philosophy? What are the implications of male control over public and private life and the written record?

(Offered as CLAS 111 and SWAG 110) Since its invention in Athens, tragic drama has focused upward on the great or mighty as they fall but also outward on the disempowered as they are for once given public voice: women, slaves, and barbarians. The cosmic forces of fate and the gods play out along social fault lines with conflicting viewpoints. We look to a “hero,” but, changing his mask, a Greek actor could go from god to wife to peasant. This multiplicity complicates itself in modern stagings and films as they cast actors with specific gender and racial identities.

(Offered as CHEM 330 and BIOL 330) What are the molecular underpinnings of processes central to life? We will explore the chemical and structural properties of biological molecules and learn the logic used by the cell to build complex structures from a few basic raw materials. Some of these complex structures have evolved to catalyze chemical reactions with an enormous degree of selectivity and specificity, and we seek to discover these enzymatic strategies.

(Offered as ENGL-227, CHEM-250) This is an interactive course that combines academic inquiry and community engagement to investigate identity, inequality and representation within Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields--at Amherst and beyond. We begin the course by grounding our understanding of the STEM experience at Amherst in national and global contexts. We will survey the interdisciplinary literature on the ways in which identity - race, gender, class, ability, sexuality- and geographic context shape STEM persistence and belonging.

(Offered as ENGL-227, CHEM-250) Being Human in STEM (HSTEM) is an interactive course that combines academic inquiry and community engagement to investigate the theme of diversity within STEM fields at Amherst and beyond. We will survey the interdisciplinary literature on the ways in which identity—e.g., gender, class, race, sexuality, disability—and context shape STEM persistence and belonging. In parallel, students will design projects that apply the findings of our research to develop resources and engage the STEM community, whether at the college, local, or national level.

(Offered as ARHA 110 and CHEM 110.)  This interdisciplinary course is focused on exploring color through the lenses of science, culture and art. We will study how we perceive color down to the molecular level and how it impacts us as viewers. The course will seek to develop a broad, shared, set of topics that will allow students to weave together scientific and artistic concepts, rather than isolate them. As it is possible to approach color from many different disciplines, we encourage any interested student, regardless of academic focus, to register.

(Offered as BLST 410 [D], AMST 313, SWAG 409)

(Offered as BLST 410 [D], AMST 313, SWAG 409)

(Offered as ENGL 273, BLST 373, and SWAG 273) This course surveys the past roughly seventy-five years of African American literature and culture. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century with Ralph Ellison’s 1952 magnum opus Invisible Man, we will explore some of the major issues that have shaped the production of late African American literature, including the rise of various critical discourses (postmodernism, feminist theory, queer theory, black internationalism) as well as the influence of numerous twentieth and twenty-first century U.S.

This course will focus on Francophone films from sub-Saharan Africa, spanning classical gems from the mid-twentieth century to contemporary masterpieces depicting the joys and challenges of African life. Francophone African Cinema offers a rich tapestry of themes addressing different periods of African history, its often-fraught relationship with France, as well as its evolving connection to culture, both on the continent and in the diaspora.