(Offered as ENGL- 123 and EUST-121) 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.

This course will discuss structure, bonding, and properties of transition metal-containing molecules and inorganic solids. Students will examine structure and bonding in transition metal complexes through molecular orbital and ligand field theories, with an emphasis on the magnetic, spectroscopic, and thermodynamic properties of transition metal complexes. The class will also examine reactions of transition metal complexes, including the unique chemistry of organometallic compounds. The laboratory experiments complement lecture material and include an independent project.

(Offered as ARHA 266 and ASLC 261) This class is an interdisciplinary study of the visual culture of the Buddhist and Shintō religious traditions in Japan. It will examine in depth a number of Japan’s most important sacred places, including Ise Shrine, Tōdaiji, Daitokuji and Mount Fuji, and will also look at the way contemporary architects such as Andō Tadao and Takamatsu Shin have attempted to create new sacred places in Japan today.