This course explores a selection of works of dystopian and utopian fiction and may include examples from film, television, and other media, in addition to literature. An important part of this exploration will be to consider the relationship between this imaginative fiction and the real world conditions which may have prompted it. We will also discuss what these texts have to offer us as warnings for our own society or ideas for a better future.

This class offers an introduction to the short story as a literary genre and will cover works from different parts of the world. The course is designed to familiarize students with the analytical tools to read, interpret, and discuss short fiction. We will explore the cultural contexts and the power relations operative with each individual story, especially with reference to race, class, and gender. Assigned texts may include fantastic tales, surprise endings, or science fiction. (Gen. Ed. AL)

We will study machine learning (ML) via a probabilistic model-based approach informed by Bayesian inference. This provides a structure for developing techniques and systems that can address a wide range of problems relating to: inferring data processes, prediction, generation, discovering latent structures and decision-making. Fundamentals of probability, statistics, graphical modeling, information theory and optimization will also be covered in the early part of the course.

This is an advanced Master?s level course designed for students who are at the end of their program of study. This course focuses on an integrative approach to Social Justice Education, blending theory and practice to help students demonstrate their understanding of applied social justice work both within schools and society.

This course explores how illness, medicine, and healing have been understood and represented in Japan over the past millennium, offering valuable perspectives on the meaning and treatment of illness in other "modern" and "modernizing" societies.

This course explores the literature of postwar Japan, starting with the end of World War II and going to the present. Additionally, the course will explore the writing by Japan's minorities such as Okinawans, Resident Koreans, Buraku and LGBT writers. There are no prerequisites and no knowledge of Japanese is required. (Gen. Ed. AL, DG)

This course is a critical, interdisciplinary examination of recent responses to climate change and environmental crisis that seek to recognize or recover the sacredness of the earth (including the "more-than-human-world") as a strategy for survival in the Anthropocene. We will engage with ancient philosophy, world religions, indigenous scholarship, ecofeminism, climate activism, spirituality, and the "new animism' in the humanities and social sciences.

This is a one semester thesis seminar, focused on the topic of colonialism and empire. European colonialism (post-1492 C.E.), and the establishment of empires, were processes that shaped the modern world, setting in motion the political, economic and social changes that we live with today. In this class we will critically examine narratives of colonialism and empire, and the ways that colonial histories/ stories are told. We will read analyses from historiography, historical anthropology, and archaeology that challenge dominant colonial narratives.

Students will become familiar with the broad outlines of Polish history from its beginnings in the medieval period through the collapse of communism in 1989 and beyond.

Dialogues, reading selections from print and electronic sources, and grammar exercises for basic communication, a good understanding of the fundamentals of German grammar, and an introduction to the traditions and institutions of the German-speaking countries. Prerequisite GERMAN 110 or equivalent.