This course invites dancers and movers of all experience levels to dive into the bold work of moving together. Over the semester, students will learn techniques from contact improvisation, contemporary partnering, and ensemble improvisation. We will engage with dance artists who utilize these practices and view choreographic works generated through related inquiries. In dialogue with readings and audio materials (podcasts), we will ask how dancing together relates to community organizing, collective work, and building coalitions.

In this course, students will create a series of interactive projects, starting with screen-based works, progressing to connecting simple electronic sensors and actuators to multimedia programs, and culminating in a fully realized interactive work, which may be web-based, a sculpture, installation or performance. Students will work with a variety of multimedia technologies (including animation, video, and sound), various types of sensors (tracking motion with video cameras, sensing movement and touch, sensing environmental conditions, etc.).

This course explores the dynamic interplay between performance, ritual, and astrology, examining how these practices shape and reflect cultural beliefs and individual identities. Through an interdisciplinary lens, we will analyze historical and contemporary rituals that utilize astrological concepts, investigating their significance in various cultures.

We will approach research as the inherently creative practice that it is, while also querying the boundaries between theory and practice, thought and creation, study and work. Rather than conceptualizing and conducting research as a linear process that goes from point A to B, we will explore research methods that invite or require us to get lost, embrace constraint, and grapple with the desires and impulses of others.

This course is a continuation of the work begun in Intro to Playwriting. We'll deepen our understanding of playwriting through the exploration of character development, thematic complexity, and dramatic structure. Building on foundational skills, this course will engage in intensive workshops, analyzing contemporary and classical texts to uncover what makes a compelling narrative. Students will experiment with different forms and styles, from one-act plays to full-length works, honing their unique voice while receiving constructive feedback from the creative ensemble.

This course will survey trans film across genres-documentary, sleaze, horror, comedy, romcom-to consider the various ways that trans has been represented in moving image from the mid-century to today. Special emphasis in this course will be placed on observation, description, and appreciation as our primary methodologies. Keywords:trans, film, moving image, documentary, horror

What is trans film? This course will survey trans film across genres-documentary, sleaze, horror, comedy, romcom-to consider the various ways that trans has been represented in moving image from the mid-century to today. This version of the course, running contiguously with another section of Trans Film, will focus on theory, from trans and queer studies, to film theory. Keywords:trans, film, moving image, documentary, theory

In this course, students will learn to create dynamic worlds with diverse populations, mythology, and characters for games and animation. Students will use a variety of techniques and processes to develop and design worlds for their concept. World building gives a rich and dynamic canvas on which to develop characters, obstacles, motivations, macro and micro issues, and conflicts and resolutions. Such practice allows for more robust and consistent worlds in which to set singular or serial events in linear and non-linear ways.

In this course, students will take existing foundational world systems and look at more complex solutions for social constructs, speculative created histories, speculative created species of flora, fauna and people as well as develop complex systems in existing worlds to further develop ideas in language, culture, history, architecture, social development and more. Students are expected to come into the course with an already developed world foundation from the previous Worldbuilding class. Keywords:Creative Writing, Speculative Fiction, Game Design, Animation

In this hybrid lit/film seminar and creative writing course, we'll explore queer monstrosity in horror film, literature, and comics, including topics such as trans horror, images of motherhood, and race in horror. Together, we'll discuss prominent works of queer horror by drawing on theorists like Susan Stryker and Toni Morrison and develop creative writing projects (prose, comics, or screenplays) that unpack what horror means to us as writers and artists. How does horror help us interrogate traditional notions of gender and embodiment?