40 courses with the subject WSP, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
WSP 100(W) STU Drawing Science Studio Lab
In the Drawing Science Studio Lab (DSSL), we explore the expansive intersection of observational drawing, painting, and the biological sciences. With a focus on natural history, students primarily work fromliving and preserved mammals, birds, insects, fossils, bones, plants, etc. DSSL explores the way observation, drawing, and art games make us better visual thinkers, learners, and communicators. Additional work includes making master copies of historic artworks, drawing outdoors, and engaging with their own ecological imaginations. We will explore how color and pattern shape perspective; how and where scientific processes overlap with creative processes; and how observation assists in field and lab work. This course is flexibly designed for every experience level and individual methodologies are highly encouraged. A majority of class time is spent in observation and drawing, either in class or on field trips to The Clark and Hopkins Research Forest. In 2027, we will also have a live animal drawing seminar. Graphite, colored pencils, markers, and watercolors are our primary mediums (we will not use charcoal or oil based materials). Our sketchbooks act as research sites for material exploration, morphological inquiry, and development of the ecological imagination. In this way, DSSL prioritizes the exploratory process over the final product. Taught by: Lauren Rachel Levato Coyne
Drawing as a learnable skill is a structured drawing class designed to walk students through a series of techniques that demonstrate that just about anyone can learn to draw. Ifyou can write your name, you can draw. This course now being offered for the 30th time is designed to develop your powers of observation and teach creative problem solving abilities. Students need no previous artistic experience, just the willingness and desire to learn. We focus on representational drawing using graphite pencils. Students will draw a convincing portrait, still life, and interior space. Some specific skills we will work on include overcoming the urge to draw symbols in place of what we see with our eyes. We will learn to measure and work with developing our sense of proportion by finding shapes, angles, relative sizes, and placement. We will learn to use a full range of light to dark marks giving our drawings more dynamic range. We will draw shadows and learn to use perspective to give our 2d pencil drawings a 3d look so our subjects we draw look like they talk up space. This course can open up a variety of fun artistic opportunities that are connected to communities of practice. Students will be expected to attend and participate in all sessions. Students will also keep a sketchbook recording their progress and complete a final project. Every class will have drawing homework, but each homework will have guided options. Evaluation will be based on participation, an Taught by: Trevor Murphy
This class will teach the practice of yoga based on a fusion of Ashtanga, Vinyasa and Iyengar methodologies. This course is open to all levels from those who have neverdone a pose to those who have practicing yoga for years. The students will learn how to connect movement to breath in a sequence of vigorous yoga poses, or asanas. The flow classes will introduce yoga sequences in an alignment- based curriculum appropriate to each student's experience. In addition to the physical work out of practicing yoga, there will be short discussions on the assigned reading of handouts that explore various topics pertinent to yoga, such as an introduction to yogic philosophy, the historical background of yoga, and a basic of knowledge of Sanskrit. The rudiments of Meditation will begin and end every session. Attendance to every class is a requirement. We will meet 4 times per week for 1.5 hours each time. The students will be expected to practice yoga daily on their own after having memorized certain basic yoga sequences. Each student will keep a journal where they will note the highlight of that day's class, whether it be a new asana or a sutra or whatever caught their attention. They will also be assigned short essays at the end of every week. Students will be evaluated on their class participation and attendance, their journal and several short essays. Taught by: Sylvia Logan
WSP 109(W) LEC "Be"ing Whole; Integrating Mindfulness through Movement, Art, Nature, and Creativity
Want to focus this winter study on being more present? In this year's "rendition" of the class on "Be"ing Whole we will explore the neuroscience behind why mindfulness practices canhelp restore the homeostasis of a stressed nervous system while practicing different types of mindful movement (yoga, hiking, walking, etc.), creative art and grounding mindfulness activities (making lavender pillows, slime, stress balls, "yoga" prose, and engaging in games, etc.), and meditative exercises (body scans, loving-kindness, etc.) We will have activities such as mindful stargazing in the planetarium, mindful walk-throughs of local museums, mindful cold plunge and sauna, and mindful hikes, and forest bathing (weather permitting). We will also have options to challenge ourselves as we dive into new yoga asanas. Each class will start with an invigorating/challenging yoga flow (modifications welcome) and then continue with a specific activity and journaling. Taught by: Amy Sosne
WSP 111(W) STU Creative Portraiture in the Darkroom
In this course, we will explore the boundaries between self-portraiture and portraiture. Working in pairs, students will practice both modeling and photographing: each student will pose as a model fortheir classmate and assist their partner in creating a self-portrait. Using Hippolyte Bayard's Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man, one of the earliest self-portraits in the history of photography, as a point of departure, students will learn to operate the view camera. The large format view camera we use in this class is a direct descendant of the camera obscura at the origins of photography, and was used by Bayard. We will also study the characteristics of film photography-light, chemicals, light-sensitive media, and negatives-and use these elements as creative tools to produce expressive portraits in the darkroom. By the end of the course, students will know how to photograph with a 4×5 view camera and use their creativity to produce unique portraits. Each student will present their work as a triptych in a group exhibition. This class requires an average of 12 weekly lab or studio hours outside of scheduled class time. Taught by: Daniel Goudrouffe
WSP 112(W) SEM Chinese Propaganda Through the Lens of Cinema
China and the US are competing within the Fourth Industrial Revolution-technology, ideology, investment and information form the nexus. One key to success is aligning the nations' respective public with thegreater national goal. For governments, the film industry is less about lucrative profits, but the power of the platform in messaging to shape and adhere the public to their national plan. The content and technical craft found in recent Chinese blockbuster films provide insight into tactics to support patriotic, nationalist and revisionist goals. Film creators may engage in self and overt censorship forced by the government through "economic coercion" in order to achieve their dreams and reap financial returns. By understanding the state's needs from propaganda in media, we will examine the development of modern media messaging. By watching current blockbuster Chinese films, short-form social media posts and reviewing posters, we will analyze the choices creatives face in authentic storytelling and messaging and the compromises made to align with various political and cultural expectations. Special Note: The second class of each week will begin 30 minutes early to accommodate in class film viewing. Taught by: Kim A Taylor
WSP 115(W) SEM Ink, Impressions & Influence: How Prints Changed Everything
Before any of the technologies that we take for granted - there was printmaking. And it changed everything. Printmaking is arguably the most influential form of visual communication. Prints havespread ideas, ignited revolutions and seduced civilizations into seeing the world differently... all with ink and paper. We'll explore 500 years of printmaking - and the techniques. You will be able to identify the mediums while exploring Ukiyo-E woodcuts, Durer, Rembrandt, Picasso and not so well known names like Norman Lewis and Dox Thrash. We'll explore the concept of the original print and how it is the most democratic of all art forms. We will have twice a week visits to these institutions to look and discuss. You will speak about prints (in a seminar and tutorial setting), write about those same prints and you'll have the chance to create your own work - field trip ! There is something wonderfully humbling and genuinely thrilling about creating a work of art. You will have an introduction in to how museums write about prints and how they support the museums collections. You will learn to "see" prints and not just "look" at them. You will gain a visual fluency that will quietly transform the way that you experience art - at least in the printed form. Final project will be a presentation about a print of your choice selected from the collections at WCMA and The Clark. Part art history, detective work, studio adventure, museum studies..and worth your time. Taught by: Jeannot Roger Barr
While there is some truth to the definition of a myth as a falsehood, Sallust put it best when he wrote, "These things never happened, but are always." In thiscourse, we will examine why humans have relied on narratives of supernatural things that never happened to help explain the world and its mysteries. Modern writers, including Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Joseph Campbell, have turned to mythology to understand the self. Exploring the traditions of Haitian Vodoun, Cuban Santería, and Brazilian Candomblé, we will study how enslaved Africans created new mythologies in the New World, influenced by the stories they brought with them, the stories they were told, and the suffering they endured. They incorporated dance into their storytelling-as have other cultures. And we will consider how such writers as J.R.R. Tolkien and filmmakers like George Lucas created new mythologies for the current era. In the middle of the course, we explore the significance of Greek mythology, its cosmology, its various tales of gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, paying close attention to how the Persephone/Proserpine tale changed when Romans retold that Greek underworld journey. Similarly, each of the great Greek tragedians gave his own spin to the legend of Electra. After meeting with the instructor to pick a myth that resonates with them, students will present it to the class during the last week of Winter Study. Taught by: B. Daniel Blatt
WSP 117(W) SEM The Great American Queer Novel: How to Read It, How to Write It
"The Great American Queer Novel: How to Read It, How to Write It" explores lesser known but brilliant queer American novels and how they fit into the canon of Americanfiction. We will emphasize the intimate relationship between reading and writing, welcoming students on both sides of the novel equation. What makes a novel queer? What makes a queer novel sing? Who gets to tell queer stories? How does storytelling, specifically queer storytelling, impact American culture? How have queer novels been essential to the development of LGBTQ rights and culture? Students will read three required novels. A list of optional reading will be provided. We will also be visited by contemporary queer authors, in person and/or via video, who will help us excavate the deeper meaning of queerness in American fiction. Students will be encouraged to explore their personal relationships to the novels we read and to queer storytelling in general. This course is open to readers and writers alike with the idea of fostering a relationship between storytellers and story recipients. We will meet three times a week to discuss the readings and to hear/view author presentations. The final project will be a collaborative novel development in which small groups of students plan and present their ideas for a Great American Queer Novel, including characters, plot, setting, and much more. Taught by: Lucy Jane Bledsoe
WSP 118(W) SEM The Art of Being Heard: Speaking, Leading, and Succeeding in the Age of AI
In a world where AI delivers answers instantly, your ability to stand out depends on how clearly, confidently, and authentically you communicate. This course explores the art of being heard-helpingstudents develop the communication and leadership skills that differentiate them in classrooms, interviews, and careers. Students will build practical skills in organizing ideas, tailoring messages to an audience, and mastering both informative and persuasive communication. Just as importantly, we will focus on how you present yourself-refining tone, body language, and pacing-to help you develop a presence that is both natural and adaptable across different settings. The course emphasizes real-world application through frequent practice, including video-recorded presentations and interview preparation. Sessions will be reviewed collaboratively and include one on one coaching. The DISC assessment will be used to help students understand their behavioral preferences and adapt their interactions. Guest speakers-experienced professionals from a range of industries-will offer perspective on how they shaped their leadership voice and what they look for when assessing potential, credibility, and exceptional talent. Designed to be engaging, practical, and fun, this course equips students with essential life skills to shine, connect, and succeed in a rapidly evolving, AI-driven world. Taught by: Dorothy Briggs Brill, Nicholas Couch
WSP 119(W) SEM History of Epidemiology and Public Health: From Pellagra and Cholera to Vapes and MAHA
The United States is now engaged in multiple, intense debates over our health. From mask mandates, vaccine requirements, nicotine and cannabis regulation, nutrition guidelines, to fluoride in the drinking water,there is no shortage of current controversies. This class will dive into the people, events, and breakthroughs that helped shape modern public health and explore how this history can inform our views on the health debates of today. In this seminar course, students will refine their skills in reading, appraising, critiquing, and presenting scientific literature, with attention to historical texts covering how public health and epidemiology emerged and evolved over the last 200 years. We will explore how public health steers policies and resources to advance the health of populations and how epidemiology generates scientific evidence to guide those decisions. We will consider a young doctor assigned to a remote island to investigate measles in 1846 and the CEOs of every major American tobacco company testifying to Congress in 1994 that nicotine is not addictive. From these and other stories from the past, we imagine an ideal public health framework that respects personal autonomy, draws from science, and promotes fairness and justice in health. Taught by: Benjamin Chaffee
"The play's the thing." Or more to the point, the ten-minute play's the thing as ten-minute play festivals continue to grow around the country and abroad. In this class, wewill look at the fundamental elements of plays and then move to the characteristics specific to the ten-minute play. We will explore the tools to write short plays with compelling characters and situations. In class and outside class, you will read about playwriting, read and listen to short plays, discuss plays and excerpts, and do writing assignments. You will write two to three ten-minute plays and workshop your classmates' work in a supportive environment. Discussions and assignments will cover character, action, conflict, dialogue, language, ideas, structure and rewrites. If scheduling permits, the class will go to a local theater to watch a ten-minute play rehearsal or will put on a presentation of students' work at a staged reading. No playwriting experience is required. Bring enthusiasm for story, camaraderie, and the lights dimming and the curtain rising. Taught by: Denise Chiarella
WSP 121(W) STU Building for People: Designing Beneficial Products using AI
How do you build a solution that genuinely helps and fits people? In this course, students gain hands-on experience with human-centered design methods and state-of-the-art AI prototyping tools to identifya real problem, build a working prototype, and test it to assess the impact on the people it's meant to serve. The course unfolds in three phases. In the first week, students will research and explore a problem area, whether systemic or rooted in their own communities, to deeply understand existing root causes firsthand. We will guide students through problem framing and scoping, drawing on design engineering methods to ensure they are solving the right problem before jumping to solutions. In the second phase, students will learn how to use and adapt AI-powered building tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude, Lovable) to rapidly prototype solutions and test them with stakeholders. Students will learn how to plan and execute effective qualitative research and testing. The final week and a half is devoted to iterative refinement based on user feedback, culminating in a final presentation where students showcase their design process, what they learned from users, and their working prototype. Throughout the course, guest practitioners - including industry professionals (e.g., Nike, IDEO), NFP leaders (e.g., UN Development Program), and Harvard & MIT faculty - will provide feedback and mentorship. No technical background is required and diverse backgrounds are welcome. S Taught by: Akhil H Dayal, Darren Chin
WSP 122(W) STU Alternative Correspondence: Introduction to Artist Books and Risograph Printing
Artists have long used printed publications to grant a voice and visibility to identities and issues that live outside mainstream culture. Artist books and zines have become a poignant toolfor both conceptually driven work and as a means to amplify movements within punk, queer, and feminist spaces. They can pair image with text in way that reflects DIY ethics, ones of urgency and radically open communication. They can also be poetic and opaque, both using and rejecting the preconceptions of how books work formally. The growing availability of Risograph machines over the last decade or so allows for the (relatively) cheap operation of artist-run publication studios that become networks for like-minded connection. During this course students will learn the foundations of Risograph printing: operating the William Printshop's RISO/SF-5450EII U machine, learning proper registration, and how to format media for print. We will also explore methods of book binding- from the stylized to the utilitarian. Students will leave the class with a small edition publication that utilizes the book form as an art object while also conveying information in an experimental and emotive way. Through lectures and field trips to the Clark Institute's Artist Book Collection and the Chapin Library, students will see first hand how artist publications have lived alongside activist movements while pushing the boundaries of the book form. Taught by: Kestrel DiFronzo
WSP 124(W) STU Building Your Nervous System Toolkit
Dr. Laurel Fedor is a Williams College graduate and Dartmouth-trained Internal Medicine physician who wants to introduce future physicians and veterinarians to the importance of a healthy, flexible, and resilientnervous system while offering practical tools for supporting nervous system regulation. This experiential course is designed for students interested in medicine (human and veterinary) who want to understand stress, resilience, and nervous system regulation before entering demanding clinical training. Grounded in the belief that caring for others begins with learning to care for one's own nervous system, the course uses yoga, guided somatic exercises, self-observation, reflection, and discussion to explore how stress and recovery take shape in the body and how breath, movement, sensory input, circadian biology, and daily habits can influence internal state. The course emphasizes direct experience and experimentation, helping students identify which practices best support their own well-being, focus, performance, and recovery. Students will finish the month with a deeper understanding of their own nervous system and a personalized toolkit to support nervous system regulation, resilience, and well-being in academic life and beyond. Taught by: Laurel Fedor
This interdisciplinary course explores the meaning of access to justice, in the context of the United States legal system, especially for those who cannot afford to hire an attorney. Wewill examine the history and role of civil legal aid and pro bono representation in the current delivery system. Innovations in bridging the justice gap will be explored, including taking a deeper dive on housing and homelessness issues by reading sociologist Matthew Desmond's Evicted. The course includes hands-on, participatory exercises such as courtroom observations, a mock mediation of a neighborhood dispute, a welfare application simulation, and volunteering with legal aid intake clinics. This course is an excellent opportunity for students considering careers in law, public policy, and philanthropy. Taught by: Monica Fennell
WSP 126(W) STU User Experience (UX): The Design of Time
This studio course provides a hands-on introduction to the field of User Experience (UX) as the design of time. Temporal experience is woven-intentionally or accidentally-into the design of industrial products,services, public spaces, supply chains, fabrication processes, and built environments. Notions of productivity, speed, duration, delay, and synchronous "real time" are all culturally and ideologically-determined products of these design practices. As we will explore, thoughtful approaches to the design of time have profound effects on public health and social wellbeing. Areas of study from Anthropology to Performance Studies, from Architecture to Music to Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience all add to the rich body of knowledge available to designers of temporal experience. We will have the opportunity to look at cutting edge research into the practices of experiential design across disciplines, grounded in observational and experimental exercises, culminating in student-led creative design projects that make use of industry-standard UX tools. Taught by: Luke Fischbeck
WSP 127(W) STU Bones to Blades: The Art and History of Figure Skating
This course examines figure skating from its early origins to its modern form as both a competitive sport and a performing art. Students learn fundamental techniques, including edges, turns, spins,and step sequences, while developing an understanding of the sport's artistic and choreographic elements. Each week introduces a new technical and artistic focus, allowing skills to build progressively and be tailored to individual experience levels. Figure skating emphasizes not only precision in movement and execution but also creativity in combining elements into expressive and dynamic sequences. The course includes both on-ice and off-ice instruction. Students are required to wear figure skates, which will be available, and may participate in up to three hours of supervised ice time, along with independent practice during open sessions. Students also learn to diagram and map movement through simple line drawings. The historical component traces the evolution of figure skating from early ice travel ("bones to blades") to the structured discipline practiced today, including competitive development and the origins of tracing geometric figures on ice. By the end, students gain practical experience alongside an understanding of the sport's historical, artistic, and cultural significance. This course is designed for those comfortable skating and/or who have completed a Learn to Skate course. Taught by: Danielle Galietti
WSP 128(W) SEM Lights, Camera, Main Street!: Small Town America in Film
Cinema burst onto the entertainment scene in the late 19th and early 20th century as a quintessentially urban industry. But from the early years of movie-making, Hollywood has been obsessedwith small towns as virtuous, evil, or something in between.In this course you will view and analyze American films that feature the town not just as a backdrop but as a major 'character' shaping plot and story. This chronological survey uses interdisciplinary readings and short video clips to expose you to the contexts in which individual films were created, their impact on critics and audiences, and their lasting cultural imprint. You will also 'read' films closely as texts that make meaning through a range of tools, including narrative, mise-en-scene, editing, camera work, and genre conventions. Students will have an opportunity to do an oral presentation on two small town films from either the 2000s or the 2010s, as individuals or in group projects. Taught by: Ruth Glasser
WSP 129(W) STU Textiles as Alternative Histories: Stitch Your Story
Whose stories are recorded? How are they documented? Across time periods and cultures, people have used oral and written histories to tell their stories, but material culture and handmade objectscan also reveal a lot about those who have come before us. Historic textiles, in particular, often give us a window into the lives of women who have otherwise been unrecorded. These ancient craftswomen used their creativity, resourcefulness, and deep knowledge of the plants and animals in their environments to create textiles-from clothing, blankets, and bags for their families and communities to fishing nets and ships' sails. In this studio class, we will explore broad arcs in textile history and learn hands-on skills, some of which have been used around the world for tens of thousands of years. By the end of the course, each student will complete a unique textile "sampler" representing their background and personal story that utilizes a wide range of techniques and materials. Through experiential learning, students will make connections to historical practices and explore how they can still be used today for self-expression, for protest, and as a more sustainable alternative to capitalist overconsumption and fast fashion. We will also research and discuss the cognitive and emotional health benefits of meditative hand work in a time when screens and the digital world often dominate our days. Taught by: Darci Hanna
WSP 130(W) SEM Writing the Ancestors: Indigenous Poetry Workshop
This course explores the particular ability of poetry to excavate memory, rewrite the archive, and facilitate communion with the ancestors. With a particular focus on indigenous docu-poetic collections, it willsurvey the work of poets writing to un-erase ancestors and to speak with and alongside them. With exposure to these forms, students will experiment with "writing their ancestors" (family, land or other). The class will culminate with students revising their own original work here in Williamstown on Mohican lands and sharing reflections and at least one original work for 3-5 minutes during a local poetry reading open to the community. Taught by: Bonney Hartley
This course investigates music through the lens of the attention economy and platform capitalism. While not a "how to make it" in the music business, students can expect to explorewhat it means to create and consume music under the influence of the cultural logics of platforms and communities of practice and belonging. We'll create playlists, build and play open-source instruments, and explore digital scholarship in music and cultural studies to dig deep into the relationship between music and capitalism in 2027. We'll also explore community listening events like sound baths and karaoke. Together we will ask: What does it mean to listen to music that wasn't created for you? What is "lean back listening?" What are the alternatives to commercial music and what makes them alternative? In what ways do citation and interpolation act as political statements? How do the means of cultural production get won while also making material differences? {Mood Machine} by Liz Pelly will serve as our common reader, complimented by work from cultural theorists and musicians such as Theodor Adorno, Pauline Oliveros, Kodwo Eshun, and others. Expect three kinds of weekly experiences: A discussion and listening session; a demo or project session built around the pedagogy of co-inquiry; and a "humanities lab" where together we head to the workshop to build and test projects including a synthesizer and audio collage. This lab will culminate in a self-determined final project and Taught by: Emery Shriver, Tath Haver
WSP 132(W) STU Eat with the Seasons: Chinese Secrets to Feeling Amazing
Food has long been central to Chinese ideas of health, balance, and daily life. This course explores how traditional Chinese approaches to food connect culinary practice, seasonal rhythms, and personalwellbeing. Drawing from Chinese philosophy, medicine, and everyday food culture, students will examine how ingredients, cooking methods, and communal meals reflect broader ideas about harmony between the body, society, and nature. Through short lectures, discussion, mindfulness exercises (such as the ancient Chinese practice of qigong), and hands-on culinary demonstrations, students will learn how Chinese traditions classify foods as warming or cooling, how seasonal ingredients are used to support health, and how regional cuisines reflect geography and climate. Topics will include soups and congee as everyday wellness foods, herbal teas and seasonal tonics, and the cultural meanings behind foods eaten during festivals and family gatherings. The course combines intellectual exploration with experiential learning. Activities may include guided meditation or qigong practice, cooking demonstrations, tasting sessions, and a possible visit to a local Asian grocery store to explore ingredients central to Chinese cuisine. In the final project, students will design a seasonal wellbeing plan inspired by Chinese food philosophy, integrating ideas about food, lifestyle, and cultural practices. No prior experience with Chinese culture or cooking is required. Taught by: Elizabeth Willmott
The goal of this course is to equip students with the basic knowledge and tools needed to demystify the fundamental elements of money and personal finance, to avoid common financialmistakes, and begin building long-term wealth. Topics to be included will be: Banking and Borrowing; Saving and Investing; Why do I need insurance? Retirement planning. By the end of the course students will be able to: Build and manage a personal budget; Understand credit, loans, and debt management; Explain basic investing principles; Create a simple financial plan for their 20s. By the end of this course students will be comfortable talking about money without feeling intimidated or ignorant. Taught by: Steve Jenks
WSP 134(W) SEM The Armed Image: Left-Wing Insurgency and Cinematic Representation
"The camera is the inexhaustible expropriator of image-weapons; the projector, a gun that can shoot 24 frames per second." - Solanas and Getino (1969). In the mid-20th century, a new"Armed Image" emerged from global anti-colonial and urban insurrection. Not a passive reflection of revolt, this image was an active participant in struggle. This course traces the cinematic representation of the leftist guerrilla as a site of political confrontation: We begin with the "blueprint" of insurgent aesthetics in The Battle of Algiers (1966), where 35mm photography produces a simulated newsreel as a manual for revolution. We then move to the disjunctive Germany in Autumn (1978). Capturing the claustrophobia of a country under emergency decree, the film uses fragmented, multi-perspective forms to contest a state's monopoly on memory and legitimate violence. In The Weather Underground (2002), we question filmic self-mythologization and the contradictions of the privileged white radical. Finally, we bridge the historical guerrilla with contemporary sabotage in How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022) and Yintah (2024), which frame the stoppage of infrastructure as a tactical proof of concept or an assertion of Indigenous sovereignty. Participants will learn the history of and analyze the moving image as an operative force: a tactical manual, a clandestine counter-strike, or a territorial claim. We find where the screen meets the struggle. Taught by: Logan C Joseph
Step into the Lab. Creating choreography can be daunting even for experienced dancers. Choreo Lab aims to arm students with a robust toolkit of strategies for stimulating their creativity asdancemakers. We will run choreographic experiments informed by diverse concepts and techniques, from Rudolf Laban's Eight Efforts to Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies. Students will be exposed to luminary choreographers innovating at the intersection of far-flung dance traditions (Ronald K Brown, Yue Yin, Hervé Koubi, Akram Khan, Dada Masilo, Andrea Miller). Dancers will learn to critically analyze choreography, to write an artistic statement, and to iterate ruthlessly on their own work. We will co-choreograph, provide feedback, and steal, borrow, and manipulate each other's creations. Lastly, importantly, will explore what it means to dance about what matters to you, to investigate an emotional truth or intellectual curiosity through the body. The course will culminate in a final choreographic project of each student's own design. Dancers of all levels (from zero to extensive experience) and all stylistic backgrounds are enthusiastically welcomed, although aspects of the course will focus on concert dance (as opposed to social dance styles) and group choreography exercises will be primarily in the contemporary dance style (broadly construed, with fusion/influence from other styles enthusiastically encouraged). Taught by: Alexandra Brigitte Krsti¿
WSP 136(W) STU From Work Song to Campus Rhythm: The History and Performance of African American Step Dance
In the late 1990s, Sankofa brought the African American Greek college tradition known as step to Williams, transforming campus culture and leaving a legacy that echoes across the Berkshires. Inthis course, taught by one of Sankofa's founders, we will explore the history, culture, and global reach of step - all while incorporating rhythm in our bodies. Students of all experience levels - whether new or seasoned - will learn choreography scaffolded to meet them where they are and will learn how to create effective step routines. Through readings, videos, discussions, and guest speakers including Sankofa founders, alumni, and dance professionals, students will gain a broader lens for the historical, cultural, and performative practice of step both at Williams and beyond. Our journey will culminate in a performance showcase incorporating both instructor and student-generated choreography. Taught by: Maxine Lyle
WSP 137(W) SEM Climate Wayfinding: Orientation, justice, and public climate literacy
Climate change is often communicated as a distant, abstract, or overwhelmingly global phenomenon. Yet climate impacts are spatial, local, embodied, and unevenly distributed. This course introduces climate wayfinding as ajustice-orientated framework for helping students orient themselves within climate realities. Drawing on training from the All We Can Save project, students will examine how infrastructure, narrative, and public space shape climate understanding. The course integrates environmental justice, public pedagogy, and design thinking to ask: How do we make climate systems visible? Who has access to climate knowledge and who is left to navigate risk alone? How can we design spaces and stories that foster collective agency rather than disorientation? Through on and off campus site visits, infrastructure audits, reflective writing, and a final applied project, students will prototype climate wayfinding interventions grounded in justice and community care. Taught by: Alex Martone
WSP 139(W) STU Empowered Embodiment: An Introduction to Mindful Movement Practices
This open level movement class draws on diverse techniques and traditions to bring greater awareness to our bodies, emotions, and thoughts through embodied practices. The aim is to build newmental and physical patterns in service of better relationships with our selves as sites of learning, liberation and power. Appropriate for all abilities, this studio-based course encourages physical exploration to develop and deepen an embodied practice for participants that supports creativity and mindfulness, while enhancing compassion, mental health and emotional well being. Incorporating authentic movement, visualization, meditation, performance studies, music and play, as well as diverse movement traditions, participants will spend time moving, observing and reflecting in each 3 hr session (2 x week). Students will be encouraged to keep a daily journal and respond to prompts and readings, and develop a short daily movement practice both as a creative outlet and means of reducing stress and anxiety. Conversations and readings will interrogate the role of cultural and gender-based expectations on our physical patterns and well being. Movement prompts will provide new tools for critical thinking and creative problem solving by getting participants out of their "heads" and grounded in the liberatory and exploratory space of the body. Evaluation will be based on in-studio participation, and the creation of a personalized embodied practice program including an original Taught by: Zoe Rabinowitz
WSP 140(W) SEM Redistricting Workshop: Maps, Metrics, and the Gerrymandering 'Game'
This course explores congressional redistricting through a mix of lectures, hands on tutorials, and prominent guest speakers. You will make extensive hands-on use of Dave's Redistricting app (DRA). You willmaster the essentials of redistricting: how to create your own legally admissible congressional redistricting map and how to evaluate & compare redistricting plans using quantitative metrics. You will understand how case law like "one person, one vote" and congressional acts like the Voting Rights Act constrain the process, how political geography influences electoral outcomes, and the mechanics of gerrymandering-it's not about crazy shapes! You will appreciate redistricting as a strategic game of sorts with unique rules-the complex interplay of law, politics, geography, demographics, math, computer science, and game theory. You will understand how the redistricting process normally works and better understand the current mid-decade redistricting in the news. Taught by Alec Ramsay '81, a principal on DRA and an independent redistricting researcher since 2016 after a 30-year career in tech/software. Taught by: Alec Ramsay
WSP 141(W) STU Clay Sculpture, Surface, & Storytelling
How can form, texture, and surface convey a story? In this hands-on studio course hosted at North Adams Clay, students will explore the expressive potential of sculptural ceramics as amedium for narrative and personal storytelling. Through guided projects, demonstrations, and individual experimentation, students will learn foundational hand-building techniques, surface treatments, and glazing processes while developing their own visual language in clay. We'll look at contemporary and historical examples of ceramic storytelling-from mythological vessels to sculptural installations-to consider how artists use material, mark, and metaphor to communicate. Students will produce a series of small-scale works culminating in a final project and group critique. No prior ceramics experience needed, just a willingness to get messy and to explore how stories shape us and how we shape our stories. This class is designed with beginners in mind! Evaluation is based on participation, engagement with studio practice, and completion of a final project. Taught by: Jenny Ribeiro, CJ Ives
WSP 142(W) SEM Creating Science Media for Children
As Bill Nye once said, "Science Rules!" Why is Bill Nye such a memorable and beloved science communicator? How did Pixar writers work with scientists to create Finding Nemo, WALL-E,and A Bug's Life? What aspects of great science media help children feel included in and excited about scientific discovery? In this course, you will analyze science media for children and create your own. You will learn techniques for creating science media from interviewing scientists, to picture-book illustration, to stop-motion animation. We will have guest lectures from professionals working across the children's science media landscape, from a science graphic novel writer, to a Khan Academy product manager. This course is ideal for anyone excited about science education, children's media, or science research. Our meetings will be collaborative and focused on helping you hone your own communication style, no matter where you're starting from. Your final project will be a picture book, short video, short nonfiction article, or another medium of your choice. At the end of the course, you will have the opportunity to share your work with local children! Taught by: Anna Ryba, Meg Richardson
WSP 144(W) SEM Beyond the Resume: Mapping Your Strengths for Professional Success
Beyond the Resume: Mapping Your Strengths for Professional Success. Ready to better understand what energizes you, how you think, and where you create the most value -- so you canmake smarter choices about the opportunities and paths ahead? In this fast-paced course, you'll explore your strengths, tendencies, and motivations -- not as abstract reflection, but as a practical advantage in navigating academic, extracurricular, and professional decisions. This course emphasizes a durable skill: knowing yourself well enough to choose wisely and communicate your value with clarity. Taught by accomplished Eph alumnae, the course also features conversations with alumni who reflect on how self-knowledge -- not just skills -- shaped their careers and long-term success. What You'll Walk Away With: Insight into patterns from formative experiences; Clarity on your strengths, values, and problem-solving approach; A skills map identifying where you excel and what energizes you; Understanding of environments where you do your best work; Ability to articulate your strengths in clear, professional terms; A network of Williams alumni who've used self-knowledge to build successful careers. Key Pedagogical Principles: Psychological safety first: vulnerable self-discovery requires trust; Reflection before action: deep introspection precedes external success; Peer learning as central: students learn as much from each other as from instructors; Failure as data: reframe setbacks Taught by: Cara Shortsleeve, Margaret Howell Lawrence
WSP 145(W) SEM Leadership in the AI Age: The Williams Bicentennial Medal Standard
In an era when Sam Altman and Dario Amodei hold radically different values while both claiming to lead the most consequential technology in human history, the question of what makesa good leader has never been more urgent or more contested. This course attacks that question from two directions. At the institutional level: Williams graduates are widely perceived as unusually capable of broad, positive impact, demonstrating the openness and humility that personality science identifies as valuable leadership traits. Yet this has never been measured, codified, or promoted as a core part of what a Williams education produces. This course begins to change that. At the personal level: students will emerge with a rigorous, evidence-based understanding of their own leadership profile and a concrete artifact useful to future employers as AI redefines entry-level work. Working in teams, students will conduct structured personality assessments of Williams Bicentennial Medal recipients and reverse-engineer what the standard requires. Guest speakers include scholars, journalists, and recognized leaders. Teams conclude by developing either an institutional case for Williams to codify this brand opportunity or personal leadership development plans. The course draws on psychology, behavioral economics, philosophy, and strategic communications. Taught by: David Ian Tager
WSP 146(W) STU The Pilates Method: Principles, Practice, and Posture
This Winter Study course introduces students to Pilates as both a movement practice and a system for understanding the body, posture, and long-term physical well-being. Developed in the early twentiethcentury by Joseph Pilates as a method of rehabilitation, Pilates focuses on controlled movement, breath, alignment, and core stability. Through guided mat-based practice, students will learn the foundational repertoire of Pilates exercises while developing a deeper awareness of how their bodies move. Particular emphasis will be placed on posture, spinal alignment, and the muscles that support the core and pelvis. Alongside movement practice, the course will introduce basic functional anatomy and the historical development of Pilates. Students will explore how the method evolved from a rehabilitative system into a widely used practice in athletic training, physical therapy, and wellness. Mat Pilates forms the foundation of the entire method. While equipment-based Pilates has grown increasingly popular, the original repertoire emphasizes control of one's own body weight through precise movement and breath. Practicing on the mat encourages students to develop a strong internal understanding of alignment, strength, and balance. The course is open to students of all experience levels and is designed to help students develop practical tools for maintaining physical well-being throughout their lives. Taught by: Dania Taki
WSP 147(W) STU Intro to DJing Electronic Dance Music
If you love listening or dancing to electronic music and want to know how DJs create seamless or exciting transitions between tracks or blend them together to create new sounds,join us for DJing 101 and get on the decks yourself! We will explore the techniques (beatmatching, syncing, cueing, looping, EQs, crossfader and effects use) and stylistic choices involved in mixing EDM with an emphasis on house, breaks, and trance music. We will learn and practice the fundamentals of live DJing, select and shop for tracks to build set lists, critique professional DJ mixes, and create our own mixtapes. The course is targeted to students enthusiastic about EDM who have no or minimal DJing or producing experience and want to build hands-on skills and better appreciate DJing as an art form. Taught by: B Thuronyi
WSP 148(W) STU The Art of Collaborative Piano and Accompanying
This Winter Study course explores the art of collaborative piano and accompanying, moving the pianist beyond the solo practice room into the dynamic world of musical partnership. Students build skillsin ensemble playing, score reading, sight-reading, and musical communication through guided rehearsal and performance practice. They develop a "collaborative ear," deepening sensitivity to phrasing, balance, pedaling, and the subtle art of nonverbal communication, while learning practical rehearsal strategies and interpretive partnership. Emphasis is placed on flexibility, stylistic awareness, and real-time responsiveness in both rehearsal and performance. Repertoire spans three centuries, including German Lied, French mélodie, American art song, and instrumental sonatas and orchestral reductions, offering experience across a range of collaborative contexts. The course also introduces professional expectations of collaboration and fosters attentive listening and adaptability. Taught by: Charles Tsui
Broadly speaking, a puzzle is a collection of information which requires the action of an observer (or "solver") to interpret and manipulate it into some predetermined final form. There aremany different types of puzzles that most people are familiar with, such as crosswords, sudoku, grid logic puzzles, and more. But these are just the tip of the iceberg, and modern examples can be original ideas best exemplified by the type of puzzle seen at the MIT Mystery Hunt and similar events. For these puzzles, in contrast to more established forms, part of the joy of solving and constructing them is the discovery of completely new varieties. In many cases, individual puzzles are combined into a "puzzle hunt" in which their solutions (typically single words or phrases) contribute to a "metapuzzle," which leads to a final answer. This course will be both a survey of existing types of puzzles, which we'll learn how to solve and construct, as well as an opportunity to create and try out original ideas with other members of the class. We'll put special emphasis on how to build a puzzle hunt, and use past hunts as examples. Because the 2027 Mystery Hunt will happen during Winter Study, students will form a team and participate (from Williams if desired), and we'll discuss the Hunt in class. Each meeting will be a short lecture followed by small group puzzle solving, and the final project will be an on-campus puzzle hunt which we'll make available to the entire Williams Taught by: Brian Wecht
WSP 150(W) SEM Why Wyeth? Andrew Wyeth, the Wyeth Family and American Art in Maine
The Wyeth family spans over 100 years of American art, beginning with NC's first commission in 1903, through Andrew's 70-year career until his death in 2009, and with Jamie's continuingexplorations today. Because many of the most important artists in American art history have also come to Maine, the Wyeth's in Maine provide a unique lens through which to view American Art history. Does Wyeth resonate today or is he passe? Was he a modernist or simply a superb craftsman? Students will gain experience with looking closely and with putting art into context. While for some this could be a valuable art appreciation course, for others it could provide an opportunity to explore an artist in depth and consider careers in the arts. Unique to the course will be spending two nights in Rockland ("the Arts capital of Maine"), exploring where Andrew and his family summered and having in-depth conversations with staff of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art as part of a day's visit to the Farnsworth Art Museum. Returning to Williamstown, we will stop at the Portland Art Museum as guests of curatorial staff for a second in-depth look at specific works. The class will also make trips to the Clark Art Museum and WCMA. In-class close looking and field trips are extensive and discussion essential, so outside assignments will be limited: brief readings and viewing of videos, two short informal presentations, and a 15 min PP culminating presentation (individual or 20 mins in Taught by: Peter Just , Chris Brewer Williamson
What can we learn about Shakespearean theatre from the punk scene? It turns out that when you strip away the superfluous trappings of contemporary theatre -- lights, recorded sound, sets,long rehearsals, and even directors -- you get back to a more actor-forward and interactive performance style that feels more like a punk show than a museum piece. And, ironically, it's closer to how the plays would've felt in 1600. Without a director, Shakespeare's actors would've had their knowledge of the text, their instincts as artists, and their connections with their comrades to mount a show in one or two days. How can we learn those tools, cultivate those instincts, and nurture those connections to produce fast, cheap, exciting shows without waiting around for permission? In this course, students will learn to be informed and empowered actors capable of making confident acting choices without a director. Textual analysis will include embedded stage directions; the you/thou distinction present in early modern English but lacking in the 21st century; rhetorical figures like antithesis; and the etymology of words like "happy" and "brave" that we use in differently than Shakespeare. Students will engage with the nuts and bolts of how theatre worked in 1600, like how the architecture of the theatres informed actors' performances; direct address; how actors would've received and prepared for their roles (cue scripts and short rehearsal processes); and meta-theatrical co Taught by: Mac MacDaniel
