Kathyrn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (2012), a thriller about the CIA's hunt to track down Osama bin Laden, was highly praised by critics, but it was also widely criticized for appearing to promote torture. Movies can be morally dangerous, seemingly endorsing immoral or discriminatory ideals, or romanticizing immoral characters and behavior. And of course movies seem to have the power to promote virtue and goodness as well.

What does it mean to be African in a global age? The term "Afropolitan," popularized by the writer Taiye Selasi, describes a generation of Africans shaped by migration, cultural hybridity, and ties to global cities. While often celebrated for challenging stereotypical images of Africa, Afropolitanism has also drawn criticism for its association with elite privilege and a culture of consumption. Through novels and essays by writers such as Teju Cole, Achille Mbembe, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, and Selasi, this course examines the precedents, promises, and problems of Afropolitan identity.

This course is designed for intermediate and advanced dancers interested in performing. The work developed will be performed in the Fall Faculty Concert.

In this course, we will deepen our understanding of the history and foundation of Hip Hop Culture from its birth to both the current underground and commercial scenes. We will work on both foundational and dynamic movements to continue developing the skills of each student. In relation to the undergound battle scene of Breakin', we will study documentaries that will demonstrate and teach student what it takes to be a full-time breaker -- from small underground local events to big-stage events like the Olympics!

In this course we will discuss ethical issues related to working with data, computing, and artificial intelligence. These topics include, algorithmic bias and discrimination; data privacy; accountability and transparency; and individual rights in an increasingly Big Data-driven society. We will also discuss the impacts of rapid technological change on society and humanity. Through a variety of cases, students will use some of the tools of ethical reasoning to analyze these problems and develop their own solutions.

In this course, we will explore ethical issues arising from research and advancements in brain science. In a series of case studies, we explore the ethics of cognitive enhancement, neuroimaging, AI-brain interfaces, and research on neurological disorders. We will learn to apply concepts like privacy, autonomy, consent, and justice to better articulate and respond to ethical concerns about research and technological developments related to the brain.

In this course, we will focus on the artist's responsibilities to their audience. Art affects its audience in all kinds of ways, intended and otherwise: it can offend people, occupy attention and resources, instruct or misinform, and change people's views and attitudes. Art can be misunderstood and misused. Through the study of a variety of cases, in this course students will use some of the tools of ethical reasoning to analyze these problems and develop their own solutions.

The concept of time is a source of significant historical debate and active contemporary research across multiple subject areas, including philosophy, physics, and psychology. In this course, we will cover topics like: whether time passes, whether the future is open, paradoxes of time travel, arguments against the existence of time, relativity theory, entropy, quantum gravity, psychological time biases, and how the brain represents time.

This interdisciplinary course bridges STEM and the humanities by treating Spanish and English as equal vehicles for scientific knowledge. Students engage in a living laboratory to translate advanced neuroscience into accessible, bilingual communication. Through partnerships with Holyoke DualLanguage classrooms, MHC student mentors facilitate hands-on workshops on anatomy, plasticity, microscopy, and neural art to enact language justice and foster representation in STEM. This course prepares students for professional work in multilingual contexts while strengthening local community bonds.

Through hands-on design practice, cutting-edge fabrication techniques, and partnership with professional artists, designers and local communities, students will explore how emerging technologies can create new forms of human experience and interaction. Using rapid prototyping, fabrication, CAD and physical computing, we will create speculative prototypes that enhance, extend, and reimagine sensory perception, embodiment, and accessibility in physical and virtual space.