Fall and Spring semesters. The Program.
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: The course emphasizes readings from the primary scientific literature, independent research, quantitative work, and laboratory work toward the writing of a senior honors thesis.
Independent reading course.
Fall and spring semesters. The Department.
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: Self-directed research and study.
Opportunities for theoretical and observational work on the frontiers of science are available in cosmology, cosmogony, radio astronomy, planetary atmospheres, relativistic astrophysics, laboratory astrophysics, gravitational theory, infrared balloon astronomy, stellar astrophysics, spectroscopy, and exobiology. Facilities include the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, the Laboratory for Infrared Astrophysics, balloon astronomy equipment (16-inch telescope, cryogenic detectors), and modern 24- and 16-inch Cassegrain reflectors.
An introduction to the techniques of observational astronomy, with emphasis on optical and infrared observations. Students will use the Python computing language to reduce real astronomical data. Topics covered include: astronomical software, observation planning, coordinate and time systems, telescope design and optics, instrumentation and techniques for imaging and photometry, astronomical detectors, digital image processing tools and techniques, and statistical techniques for making astronomical measurements.
This course provides a quantitative introduction to the physical principles that govern the universe. The laws of gravity, thermal physics, atomic physics, and radiation will be applied to develop understanding of a variety of astrophysical phenomena. These include: the formation of stars and planets, the life cycle of stars, and the nature of the interstellar medium. This course is intended for students majoring in astronomy and serves as a gateway to the more complex topics covered in upper-division astronomy classes.
Fall semester. The Department.
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: Students will conduct independent research under faculty direction.
Independent reading course.
Fall and spring semesters. The Department.
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: Students will conduct independent research under faculty direction.
(Offered as ASLC 437 and FAMS 437) Japanese animation (popularly known as anime) is ubiquitous in today’s world. This seminar traces the history of animation in Japan, from the earliest known work in 1907, stenciled directly onto a strip of celluloid, to the media convergence of the present. Animation allows us access to a larger history of media in Japan, including cinema, television, and today’s hybrid “contents industry.” Animation is also shaped by these many media forms.
(Offered as ASLC-286 and RELI-286) (Formerly offered as ASLC-381 and RELI-381)
Close readings of “classics” from the Islamic world. Topics may include: theories of language and revelation; the role of the human intellect and imagination; ritual and prayer; ethics and responsibility; prophecy and miracles; the Quran and its interpretation; salvation. All readings are in English. No prerequisites. First-year students are welcome.
Fall Semester. Professor Jaffer.
[ME/TC/TE/TS] What is the ‘Caliphate’? When did the term emerge? How should it expand our political dictionary? How does it challenge preconceptions about the relationship between ‘religious’ and ‘secular’? Why has the concept and symbol of the Caliphate remained potent to this day? How is the idea of the Caliphate tied to a vision of a ‘Golden Age’ of Islamic governance? This class deploys the central organizing idea of the caliphate to explore the diversity of Middle Eastern political thought in historical context, from the Iranian Sasanian empire to the present.
