American democracy is in trouble. But when has it not been? Since the election of Donald Trump, observers have increasingly begun to question basic assumptions about the apparent stability of the American constitutional regime. Yet critical observers, activists, and political movements across the past two centuries have persistently called attention to the deficits of U.S. democracy and sought to rectify them. Is America presently at risk of "democratic backsliding"? Or will U.S. democracy prove resilient? This course puts the current distemper of U.S.

The gap between the rich and the poor in the United States today is as wide as it was during the Great Depression. Some scholars and lawmakers have called our era the "Second Gilded Age," a reference that evokes images of robber barons and monopolists, the "billionaire class" of yesteryear. This seminar poses the question: what does law have to do with it? Together, we will explore all the ways that "law," "politics," and economics" are messily entwined, and how those entanglements explain who has wealth, who gets healthcare, who goes to jail, and who decides climate change policy.

From gardens of paradise to wild forests, silent deserts to raging seas, the natural world was a potent source of meaning and metaphor in the Middle Ages. This course examines human engagements with nature in art, architecture, and literature to reveal how medieval people were shaped by-and also shaped-the landscapes around them. Adopting a thematic and comparative approach, we will explore the intersections between medieval science, society, and religion. How did medieval people conceptualize the world around them?

Covers the basics of Olympic-style fencing. Students will learn the basic movements and principles of foil fencing and progress to bouting and refereeing one another's bouts. The second half of the semester will build on the skills learned in the first half, with the addition of strategy and additional techniques, with plenty of bouting and will culminate in an in-class tournament at the end of the semester.

In this class, we will read four full-length memoirs, each representing radically different structures and styles. Students will write four short memoirs mirroring the forms of these books. These "memoirs" will run between 2,000-2,500 words, and they will represent the pillars of the final grade. Memoir projects will receive instructor feedback, and will also be shared in smaller "care groups" to offer and receive feedback.

This course tracks the beginnings of the African American novelistic tradition in the nineteenth century. The early African American novel had to contend with a number of other literary forms within its political and cultural context such as the slave narrative with its central claim to truth. We will consider: What is specific to the form of the novel? How does it differentiate itself from and even include other forms of writing and literature? What are the politics of the early African American novel in the era of slavery and abolition?

This course tracks the beginnings of the African American novelistic tradition in the nineteenth century. The early African American novel had to contend with a number of other literary forms within its political and cultural context such as the slave narrative with its central claim to truth. We will consider: What is specific to the form of the novel? How does it differentiate itself from and even include other forms of writing and literature? What are the politics of the early African American novel in the era of slavery and abolition?

The course examines horror and comedy as genre conventions that become strained and distorted when bent to the demands of black critical expression This course will center on themes of life and death as they are framed in black film and literature through idioms of the absurd and the ghastly. We will encounter film and writing by Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Chester Himes, Toni Morrison, Danielle Fuentes Morgan, Bill Gunn, Donald Glover.

The course examines horror and comedy as genre conventions that become strained and distorted when bent to the demands of black critical expression This course will center on themes of life and death as they are framed in black film and literature through idioms of the absurd and the ghastly. We will encounter film and writing by Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Chester Himes, Toni Morrison, Danielle Fuentes Morgan, Bill Gunn, Donald Glover.

This course tracks uses of the body as a metaphor in literature by black writers in the 20th and 21st centuries. Thinking about the body as a conceptual unit that refers to a broad range of configurations -- the physical body, the national body, bodies of knowledge, and so on -- this course will ask students to think about the limits and potentials of the body as form when it is marshaled by black writers toward a range of political, social, and aesthetic projects. We will read texts by Frantz Fanon, James Hannaham, Jesmyn Ward, Octavia Butler, Jamaica Kincaid, and others.