(Offered as GERM 208, ENGL 275, and EUST 208) This course explores relationships to place, home, landscape, and belonging in Yiddish literature. From the Biblical Exodus to the Displaced Persons camps of post World War Two Europe, Jewish experience has been defined by exile, diaspora, displacement, and migration. A millennium before the “land of Israel” was a political reality, it was a spiritual longing for Jewish communities throughout Europe, for whom life in “exile”, in the diaspora, was an ongoing trial that would only end with the coming of Messiah.

(Offered as FREN 323 and EUST 323) "If my mind could gain a firm footing, I would not make essays, I would make decisions; but it is always in apprenticeship and on trial" (III, 2 "Of Repentance"). A Renaissance jurist and thinker, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) is widely recognized as one of the key figures in the history of self-writing and of the essay as genre. This course, however, situates Montaigne beyond these two frames. In the spirit of Montaigne himself, it proposes to attempt, to sample, to taste—in sum, to essay—the Essais (1580-1595).

(Offered as EUST 122 and HIST 122) Readings in European Traditions II will provide an overview of major historical developments in modern European history, including the development of the modern state and society, the transformation of early modern political and social structures under the impact of modern ideologies, revolutions and mass politics, the emergence of nation-states in imperial contexts, the contested definition of boundaries of Europeanness. Limited to 25 students. 

Spring semester 2026. Professor Semyonov.

(Offered as ENGL- 123 and EUST-121) [Before 1800] Over a thousand years ago, a group of peoples began to form themselves into what we now call “Europe,” a geopolitical space that identifies itself as a shared culture. This course reads classic texts from the European tradition in order to study some of the most influential works of Western culture as well as to interrogate and critique the foundations of an idea of the European tradition. We will put philosophy and literature from antiquity and the Middle Ages in dialogue with selected scholarship on the formation of European culture.

Ecosystem ecology provides a framework for understanding the organization and function of the biosphere and insights into the critical environmental issues of our time. Through lecture, discussion, and collaborative work, we explore interactions between organisms and the environment from the molecular to the global scale.

(Offered as ENST 292 and HIST 292) This class will take a historical and comparative approach to the topic of

(Offered as ENGL 488 and FAMS 447) The Advanced Screenwriting Workshop is designed for advanced English and FAMS majors working in film. The workshop is designed to serve as a resource for serious film students interested in developing an existing idea or script-in-progress, with the goal of writing and revising a 20- to 30-page screenplay (or completing a project-in-progress) by the end of the semester. This maximum page limit can mean drafting and revising a series episode, a script for a short film, or one act of a feature.

(Offered as ENGL 484 and FAMS 424) Sometimes referred to as the “silver era” of US film production, the 1970s were a period of aesthetic, technological, and cultural transformation. New “auteurs” emerged as both mavericks and commercial success stories. Independence reigned supreme for some, while others helped to usher in the contemporary blockbuster. At the same time, scholarly study of film was steadily increasing, experimenting with new disciplinary methods, waging debates, and often distancing itself from popular critical writings.

(Offered as ENGL 474 and AAPI 474) This seminar  draws on transpacific literatures and methods to examine the relationship between narrative and ecology. “Ecology” as a field of scientific study concerns the “relationships between people, social groups, and their environment” (OED). Throughout the course, we will draw on transpacific frameworks to reflect on how the transits of people, and the circulation of ideas, capital, and materials structures impact ecologies and the relationships between people, communities, and non-human lives.

(Offered as ENGL 280 and FAMS 210) An introduction to cinema studies through consideration of key critical terms, together with a selection of films from different cultural contexts for illustration and discussion. Special emphasis placed on prominent genres, movements, and tendencies within contemporary film culture, and the concepts that animate critical debates on contemporary cinema. The keywords for discussion may include, among others: montage, realism, ideology, the gaze, streaming, digitization, truth, and access.