[Offered as ENGL 185 and FAMS 185] This course, an introduction to media studies, examines the relationship between contemporary media forms and the environment with an emphasis on media’s role in the ongoing global environmental crisis. We will analyze the environmental aspects of a range of media objects including science-fiction films, documentary photographs, reality TV shows, video games, and others. But we will also explore the environmental impact of broader media technologies like video streaming platforms and fiber-optic cable networks.

(Offered as ENGL 183 and FAMS 122) Television has become so vast, so amorphous that it may seem impossible to define today. But in this ineffability also lies possibility. This course will explore the possibilities that television offers us when we look at it closely: possibilities of comfort, of speculation, of desire, even of kindness. And we will consider other formal possibilities in television’s various incarnations from its original broadcast commercial format in the US to contemporary streaming applications.

(Offered as ENGL 175 and LLAS 175) This course approaches Latinx poetics from two angles: we will read poems written by U.S. Latinx writers and cultural theory on the shared and divergent experiences of people of Latin American origin or descent in the U.S. Is there a poetics of being Latinx?

(Offered as ENGL 120 and EDST 120) This Intensive Writing course functions primarily as an introduction to academic writing. It also 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 of this course, in addition to the usual class hours, students will serve as weekly tutors and classroom assistants in adult basic education centers in nearby towns.

Offered as EDST 213/AMST 213

EDST 210/AMST209:

Education is one of the most promising ways to fight inequality, yet inequality in educational attainment is rising in the United States. This course focuses on understanding inequality in education in the U.S., and whether and how education reform can reduce it. The course begins with a brief overview of the historical and current relationship between educational attainment and inequality in the U.S. We then study the empirical economics literature examining whether prominent education policies and reforms reduce inequality in educational attainment.

The United States is in an unprecedented period of rising inequality. This course begins by examining the history of inequality in the U.S. since the start of the twentieth century. It then uses cutting-edge and detailed national data to document and explore the current state of inequality and intergenerational mobility in the U.S. We consider inequality by various metrics, such as race, gender, and geography, and in various outcomes, such as income, wealth, health, educational attainment, and incarceration.

(Offered as ECON 111E and ENST 230) An introduction to the core theories and measures of markets and the current economic system. We study both microeconomics, which addresses the central problem of resource scarcity and how markets for individual goods and services function, and macroeconomics, which addresses the economy as a whole and key aggregate measures such as unemployment and inflation.

(Offered as ECON 111E and ENST 230) An introduction to the core theories and measures of markets and the current economic system. We study both microeconomics, which addresses the central problem of resource scarcity and how markets for individual goods and services function, and macroeconomics, which addresses the economy as a whole and key aggregate measures such as unemployment and inflation.