This is a course about three of the most basic and ancient genres of verbal expression. They exist in every culture and they are a part of almost every person’s life. By thinking about each of those genres, one at a time, over the course of the semester, we will ultimately arrive at a more complex, nuanced understanding of the ways in which they both express and shape who we are. The readings and listenings will be wide-ranging and will consist partly of professor-provided works and partly of student-nominated works. Musical knowledge is useful but not necessary.

(Offered as ENGL 120 and EDST 120) This course considers from many perspectives what it means to read and write and learn and teach both for ourselves and for others. As part of the work, in addition to the usual class hours, students will serve as weekly tutors and classroom assistants in adult basic education centers in nearby towns. This course consciously engages with the obstacles to and the power of education through course readings, through self-reflexive writing about our own varied educational experiences, and through weekly work in the community.

A double course, to be taken with permission of thesis advisor.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Independent scholarly work; assessment based on completion of substantial thesis project.

Independent work on an extended academic, creative, or pedagogical project on a topic relevant to the field. Thesis progress will be assessed by the department at the end of the first semester as a precondition for entrance to the next semester of thesis work. 

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Independent scholarly work; assessment based on completion of substantial thesis project.

Independent reading course.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Reading, independent work, assessment as agreed on with instructor.

This course is designed for Education Studies majors (and prospective Education Studies majors) working on theses and other intensive research projects that examine the history, purpose, politics, and consequences of education. The course is intended to provide guidance and scholarly community for majors as they complete the requirement to produce a significant research project. Research may take a variety of forms, including but not limited to writing and research associated with a community-based project in an educational setting.

Independent reading course.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Reading, independent work, assessment as agreed on with instructor.

(Offered as SOCI 337 and EDST 337) In this course, we will focus on the diversification of higher education. We will pay particular attention to efforts made by selective liberal arts colleges and universities to open their doors to students disadvantaged by barriers of racial discrimination and excluded by the means of class privilege. We will critically interrogate the concept of diversity and its implementation, paying attention to both successes and problems. Among these problems is the gap between a diversity promised and a diversity delivered.

How has compulsory education been used to perpetuate colonialism and its associated discourses, like racism, cisheteronormativity, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, ableism, and Indigenous dispossession? Conversely, how can radical and ancestral approaches to teaching and learning insurrect subjugated knowledge and unite people in a shared struggle for liberation?

This course functions as an introduction to academic writing at Amherst College. As an intensive
writing course, the main topic of the course is writing itself. In this class, students will examine
the way that journalists present the written word in print and digital spaces to inform, analyze,
and present opinions–as we do the same in our own writing. We will pay close attention to the
way that reporter teams explicitly and implicitly build arguments, use evidence, organize texts,