This intermediate digital arts course explores how open-source movements and contemporary art have cleared the way for play as a powerful metaphor for cultural participation. We will explore interactive tools, technologies which reframe our senses, and professional practices in environmental installation. We will consider the role of historical and social knowledge in the creation of interactive experiences and audio-visual environments, looking at work which tends to be discursive, which argues for a story or sets out a case, or which operates as a metaphor for our own digital realities.

In this student-centered course, we will explore some of the core concepts, language, and frameworks used in the discipline of biology. This course will help students develop and hone an important skill-set, including experimental design, scientific writing and problem solving. In lecture, we will learn biology by investigating topics that affect everyone, learning about the impacts of social stress on mammalian cardiovascular systems, the promise and peril of gene editing, and the evolution of human skin color, for example.

In this course, we will evaluate the practices that best support a shared understanding of facts and enable trustworthy storytelling. We will read peer-reviewed literature on the benefits, challenges, and equity considerations of using various presentation formats and platforms. Students will analyze and then practice science-sharing methods targeting professionals and general audiences.

How does the organization of information in a genome impact an organism's evolution? How does gene expression shift due to environmental factors and how can that shift and a gene's genomic context tell us about the evolution of ecologically important traits? In this course we will explore the variety of evolutionary and ecological questions that can be answered with genomic and transcriptomic techniques and discuss common methodological approaches.

To learn more about the world, study Japan. Where most countries experience a handful of political developments, Japan has experienced feudalism, civil war, isolationism, imperialism, colonialism, authoritarianism, democratization, state-led economic development, single party rule, militarism, pacifism and more. The goal of this class is to provide students with an overview of Japanese politics from its formation as a nation-state to the present.

How does the law police or protect sexuality? Why do activists and attorneys spar over theories of gender identity? How did abortion become the seeming center of American politics? This course examines sexual and gender oppression and liberation in the U.S. from the nineteenth century to the present. We will explore how sexual and gender minorities won civil rights struggles, how those rights have been rolled back, and how these political conflicts have transformed the meanings of liberty and equality.