127 courses with the subject CORE, 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.
CORE 111Conversations1.0
Employs a set of five common texts – selected by the faculty teaching the course – to promote wide-ranging conversations, anchored in the past and directed toward the present. Core Conversations defines the term "text" expansively, not limiting it to written work but encompassing diverse modes of intellectual and creative expression. As such, the common texts for this course are drawn from multiple disciplines, from pre-modern and modern worlds, and from Western and non-Western cultures. Instructors are encouraged to add other materials in order to enhance the themes of the course. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
The goal of the distinction seminar is to complement major work in departments and programs by giving select students the opportunity to reflect on the broader, interdisciplinary contexts of their research or creative projects. Through readings assigned by the seminar instructors, students explore the methodologies of their own and other disciplines. This requirement may be satisfied in one of the following ways: 1) by extending a departmental honors project to explore interdisciplinary perspectives on the project topic or to examine the social implications or historical foundations of the project; 2) by self-consciously considering the generation and evaluation of knowledge in the major; or 3) by collaborating with one or more members of the seminar to explore themes common to the students' departmental projects. If selected to enroll in the distinction seminar, students must achieve a 3.33 (B+) or better GPA. To earn Distinction in the Liberal Arts Core, students must earn an A- or better in the distinction seminar and achieve an overall GPA of 3.33 or better at the time of graduation. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Introduces students to the critical study of prisons, with a geographical focus on Upstate New York. Prisons contain complex communities and they are places with fraught relationships to other communities.Students engage with ethnographic research, literary and artistic works, prison-based journalism, and documentary films that highlight the lived experiences of incarcerated people, people who work within prisons, and people whose lives are impacted by prisons. In conversation with these perspectives, students consider how studying the prison can help us think about themes relevant to any community, including: belonging and non-belonging, stigma, care, hierarchy, solidarity, violence, and love. Through individual research projects, students further explore a prison-related topic of their interest, drawing on primary texts and artistic works to consider how thinking about prison life can contribute to, and complicate, our understanding of community. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Students may not take more than 1 CORE Communities course
Corequisite
None
CORE C128Armenia
Explores the nation of Armenia in a multidisciplinary context. An ancient civilization whose people once heavily populated Anatolia, northern Mesopotamia and the Levant, Armenians developed a rich and unique culture and served as crucial intermediaries in information exchange between western and eastern civilizations. At the turn of the 20th century, Armenians constituted a large and economically successful minority ethnic group in the Ottoman Empire but were afflicted by repeated massacres that culminated in the first genocide of the century beginning in 1915. The legacy of the genocide continues through today, where the contemporary independent country of Armenia struggles with its historical dependence on Russia and the Armenian diaspora, conflicts with neighboring Azerbaijan, a humanitarian crisis with refugees from Nagorno Karabakh, and a desire for a westward turn towards the United States and Europe. The current geopolitical and economic complexities facing Armenia make the country a case study for the survival of small nation states in an increasingly multi-polar world.
Examines the complexities of the US-Mexico border through literature and theoretical concepts from both sides, raising broader questions about the geopolitical, social, and ideological divisions shaping our world. Students consider borders beyond mere physical barriers, acknowledging their impacts on landscapes, communities, and cultures. Coursework addresses themes of sovereignty, identity, and their interplay within communities, linking these to the intricate history and geography of the US-Mexico border regions. Students specifically focus on communities that emerge due to their proximity to the border (borderland communities) or through the act of border crossing (forming communities of practice). Furthermore, it delves into identity politics, with particular emphasis on Latina/o/e/x and Chicana/o/e/x identities, encouraging students to view the US-Mexico borderlands as a dynamic construct shaped by historical and ongoing human interactions. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Examines the divided yet intertwined communities of the Korean peninsula, focusing on how unique political and cultural landscapes have developed over 70 years of separation and 2000 years of shared history. Key periods like Japanese colonization, the Korean War, and Western influence are explored for their lasting impact on community identities. Coursework also uniquely employs music, from traditional forms to Western- influenced genres like K-pop, to probe social and cultural shifts in both regions. Topics explored range from the influence of traditional Korean music under the late Chosun Dynasty to the arrival of Western music during colonial times, examining how each has shaped cultural and social narratives. Students also delve into the use of music as propaganda in North Korea and assess the impact of the K-pop industry on democratization movements in South Korea. Students gain a nuanced, empathetic understanding of life in both Korean communities, contemplating the complex ethical, economic, and political implications of their shared and divergent histories. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
An investigation of histories, movements, and politics that shape and are informed by Black youth. Students are introduced to critical and intersectional frames for exploring how social categories like gender, class, sexuality mediate Black youth life. Challenging monolithic narratives of Blackness and the category youth, it draws on a variety of source materials to examine Black youth as creative and social contributions alongside experiences of exclusion and injustice. With a focus on the United States, experiences of Black youth is placed within a broader diasporic, global context, including South Africa and the United Kingdom. Coursework compels students to question their lives as youth, narratives of belonging and the whole idea of "community," as well as expand analytical tools for interpreting Black youth bodies and experiences. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
CORE C133Gentrifying New York: From Brooklyn to "Upstate"1.0
Over the past two decades, gentrification has become a flash point in terms of conversations about urban renewal and development and, more recently, about rural revanchism. Reversing many decades of white suburban flight and fiscal asphyxiation, gentrification names a set of entanglements between the state, the private sector, and a set of cultural ideologies that have turned the idea of both inner city and the bucolic countryside from a space of racialized otherness, violence, backwardness, and failed public infrastructure to one of high culture, hipness, and health. Perhaps nowhere is this more visible and visceral than in New York State. From bike lanes to craft breweries in Bed-Stuy to glamping and bespoke cideries in the Catskills, the current historical moment is witnessing massive demographic and infrastructural shifts that, it's argued, are recapitulating processes of dispossession and displacement that have marked power relations for millennium. Centering questions around capital and race, readings and class conversations offer an entrée into debates about the politics of memory, renewal, and the right to place in both urban and rural spaces in New York State.
Investigates the traditions and symbolism of soul food for the black community in the United States and the black diaspora. Emerging in the mid 20th century, soul came to mean a feeling of one's roots as described in black music and culture, a sense of racial history. Students focus on black foodways by exploring the historical, political, and cultural significance of soul food to the black community. Soul food is one part of a larger universe of dishes such as collard greens, corn bread, potato salad, gumbo, barbeque, fried catfish, black-eyed peas, and chicken bog, to name a few. Soul food tells a story of how black folks endured slavery and carry the traditions and history of that time into the present. Much more than physical sustenance, soul food is an object of meaning-making, inseparable from the cultural frameworks in which it is enmeshed. The practices of making and eating soul food are foundational to the black community's survival. What people eat, how they eat, and who is doing the food preparation is every bit as much symbolic as it is rooted in biological survival. Ultimately food is an object of historical and philosophical inquiry. Students investigate black foodways through cookbooks, food media, cooking shows, and by eating and engaging with soul food in and around the Central New York area. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
The Pacific Islands, also referred to as Oceania, constitutes a broad and complex range of political, social, economic, and cultural formations, ones that are not contained to the islands but have also traversed, through diasporic migrations, to North America and elsewhere. Students consider the vast geographic expanse of that trans-pacific by drawing together lived connections across islands and diasporic communities, particularly in the U.S. mainland. With a particular attention to the effects of U.S., Spanish, and Japanese imperialism across the Pacific, and to Indigenous demands for place-making amidst military and tourist projects imposed from outside, students examine the competing geographic ideas and political struggles that make place and meaning in the region. As Pacific Islanders continue to migrate within and beyond the Pacific Islands, such movements and flows prompt the questions: What, and where, is the Pacific? What does it mean to identify as Pacific Islander or Pasifika? How do Pacific Islanders in the U.S. fit into struggles for racial justice, immigrants' rights, and decolonization in the global present? Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None
CORE C137Partition: The Division of British India1.0
The Partition of British India into India and Pakistan resulted in the movement of approximately 20 million people in 1947. The communities living in the region experience the aftershocks of Partition to this day, as evidenced by three major wars, countless peace efforts, and recent attempts to reunite separated families. Students aim to understand individuals' lived experiences during Partition and how it affects the region today. The goal of the class is to explore a variety of perspectives of the Partition and its ripple effects across geography, time, caste and gender. Later in the semester parallels are drawn with conflicts and separations in other regions of the world, including Israel and Palestine, North and South Korea, and East and West Germany, while keeping the main focus on the Partition of India. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Examines the cultural, political, artistic, and historical intersections between Italy and Africa. Through literature, film, photography, and an interdisciplinary set of academic works, students consider how Italy's colonization of northeast Africa (1890-1941) shaped and continues to shape the country's national identity. With an emphasis on contemporary Italian fiction, coursework highlights Italy's ongoing struggles to come to terms with its colonial past in Africa. Students learn how the Italy-Africa nexus remains an essential part of some of today's most serious problems in the country, such as anti-Black racism in Europe, the ongoing refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, the resurgence of xenophobic populism, and other deep-seated patterns of inclusion and exclusion. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
An exploration of the household when the "idea" of the household was not necessarily attached to place or to the psychological dynamics we associate with the word "home." Classical and medieval writers used the household as a sign of the strengths and weaknesses of a political community whose order reflected hierarchies of power. Beginning with Aristotle and ending with tales of Robin Hood, readings include philosophical, political, historical and literary texts from classical Greece, Italy, France, and England from about 800 BCE to 1500 CE that offer pictures of rural, ecclesiastical, and aristocratic households which prompt considerations of both the nature of power and the realities of gender, class, and race in relation to
Explores origin stories for LGBTQ identities and communities, tracing the emergence and histories of minoritized gender and sexuality categories. Challenging singular narratives about the development of LGBTQ identities and communities, students examine how disciplines such as psychology, anthropology, sociology, history, and epidemiology have asked and answered the question of queer origins. If queerness originates in individual pathology or early caretaking relations, or if queerness originates in biological morphology or genetics, or if queerness originates in social relations and organizing for the sake of building collectivity, the wide range of approaches taken to locate queerness and its origins have deeply shaped knowledge production about LGBTQ identities and communities. Students carry out an independent research project in which they research an LGBTQ community or identity and their origin stories. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
What is Sri Lanka? How does this faraway, "island," nation state inform different identities and belongings? Students are introduced to key questions on the study of Sri Lanka and its identity formation using cinematic, literary, historical, textual and visual scholarly materials. Students address themes such as: notions of kinship, gender, political conflict, religion, nationalism, colonialism, sexuality, and forms of belief and belonging. The course is meant for a beginner student who may have heard of Sri Lanka's ethnic war or the recent protests against the government but is not familiar with the living cultures of the people of the land. Students have an opportunity to investigate topics of interest to them, in the form of research essays as well as curatorial or media projects. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Explores addiction and recovery through fiction, poetry, memoir, film, and psychological theory. Coursework is designed to improve student's ability to analyze complex texts and to situate them within their cultural, political, and historical contexts. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
CORE C143Jewish Diasporas: Ukraine, Moscow, Jerusalem, New York1
Looks at the evolution of East European Jewry at the turn of the twentieth century, as a community with a single way of life finds itself in the vastly different environments of immigrant New York, Ottoman-era Palestine, and Soviet Russia. What stays the same and what changes? What is the fate of Marxist-inspired Jews in Palestine and in Soviet Russia? What happened, and what did they think as it happened? The course starts in the 1880s and ends in 1953 (the end of World War II, the formation of the State of Israel, the death of Stalin). The group we are studying is both a historical community, with roots going back 3,000 years, and a community of practice. Crosslisted: JWST 250 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
What is time? The question has been asked by philosophers, theologians, scientists, as well as many other serious thinkers over the centuries. Nevertheless, human beings are still far from deciphering the enigmatic qualities of time today. Students spend a semester together tackling the profound question of time from diverse angles and through diverse means. Students engage in the conversations between scientists and religious thinkers; take a moment to meditate; look at how temporality in other cultures reflects and shapes alternative relationships between man and nature; watch and discuss films; also indulge in dance and music; explore how time is connected to our body, to social structures, and to power; also make the effort to capture, reconstruct and present time through art works. This intellectual / experiential / artistic journey through "time" is intended to serve as a mirror that reflects on ourselves — our body and mind, our history, our society, and ultimately, who we are. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
The Dirty South offers an interdisciplinary exploration of the rich history, cultural and aesthetic traditions, as well as the environmental and architectural landscapes that make up Black southern life in the United States. The course title, which is inspired by the Black southern vernacular phrase for the region, marks the course's focus on the particularly diverse mixture of cross-cultural, diasporic traditions, beliefs and practices that define the south, from Virginia to Texas and all points in between. Course materials include readings that chronicle histories of slavery, Jim Crow, mass incarnation and gentrification, personal narratives that provide insights into historical and contemporary political realities and social movement organizing, and music, film, and visual art that lend an affective window into the sensory, spatial, and creative dimensions of the Black south. In addition to considering the profound social fabric of Black southern life and its larger impact on the United States, students also explore how this culture and region present a generative challenge to conventional notions that posit identity and geographical boundaries as clear and distinct categories. Crosslisted: ALST 245 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Students seek to understand the lived experiences of Haitians in Haiti and other particular geographically distinct regions of the world, with a focus on different enclaves in the Dominican Republic and United States. Students critically examine the multiple forms of social life and analyze the ways in which Haitian society functions as a unified whole and yet encompasses multiple, sometimes conflicting identities (based, for example, on gender, race, color, status, class, religion, and immigration status). Interdisciplinary in focus and materials, students study the geography, history, politics, sociology, and economics of the country, as well as its languages, literature, film, art, music, and religions. Students will develop a comparative, historical frame of reference between Haiti and the communities to which they belong. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
An investigation of the contemporary dispersal of African-descended people throughout the world. While students focus primarily on dispersion to the Americas, some attention is also given to Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Indian Ocean Basin. Recognizing the value of a complex diasporic lens that includes race, gender, sexuality, immigration status, and class, students are introduced to diasporic encounters African descendants have experienced, the formation of transnational social movements, black internationalism, Pan Africanism, post-1965 immigration, and contemporary Black life. To this end, coursework challenges and expands students' understandings of the diverse and complex history of people of the African Diaspora, what it means to be Black in the 21st Century, and how contemporary Black life is been informed by cultural exchanges in addition to migration, colonialism, slavery, and the quest for political enfranchisement. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
A single island, both divided and unified by distinct languages and colonial legacies, students explore the complex negotiations of race and nation in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. By studying works of literature, film, cultural studies, history, and politics from both sides of the border and its diasporas, students consider how the various articulations of colonial and postcolonial identities by states and different social actors have affected the national and international narratives of what it means to be from Hispaniola. Throughout the course, students ponder how physical and notional borders are employed as both tools of exclusion and sites for cooperation and exchange, while considering the complex processes by which national identities are constructed, disputed, and negated. In particular, students focus on discourses of race, language, gender, class, and migration as key to understanding the complexity of these issues, both on the island and in its diasporas.
The Native people of the Great Plains are among the most familiar, yet least understood, cultural groups in all of North America. Students seek to understand Plains Indian people beyond the simplistic renderings of Hollywood films. How have Plains people adapted to their unique environment, and how have their livelihoods changed over time? What historical processes underlay Plains Indian people's relationship to settler society, and how can we understand changes to plains life through lenses like race and gender? And what is happening in Plains Indian communities today? With these questions in mind, this Core Communities traces the experiences of Plains Indian people from the colonial era through the present day. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
A multidisciplinary introduction to the Appalachian region of the United States, with a particular focus on representation, culture, sense of place, the history of the labor movement, and issues of social and environmental justice. Books, articles, movies, songs, and art that engage the reader critically with the history, people, environment, and economy of central Appalachia will serve as the texts for this course. The course seeks to complicate and challenge popular myths and stereotypical renderings of the Appalachian region, which typically portray its people as devastatingly and deservedly impoverished: economically, intellectually, and culturally. Through the works of Appalachian authors, filmmakers, songwriters and musicians, artists, storytellers, and scholars, students develop a deeper understanding of Appalachian identity, an appreciation for the phrase "sense of place," and a new critical lens through which to view American society and their role within it. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Examines the internet as a site of disparate cultures from multiple disciplines including: computing, history, psychology, and sociology. Students are introduced to the technological infrastructure of the internet and the historical context in which it was developed. Drawing on theory, students explore the internet as a place for communities to form, individual self-presentation, social interactions online and off, as well as power and inequality. Topics may include: digital divide, echo chambers, trolling, cyberbullying, etc. Ultimately, the internet provides a context to study the concept of community and the ways in which shared identities are constructed and negotiated. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities & Identities
A multidisciplinary survey of the varied communities that make up contemporary France. Students focus on France as a leading member of the European Union and as a global power, as a former major colonial power, and as a leader in the arts. Using history, films, photography, and literature, students examine France's efforts to come to terms with its colonial past; its self-examination of World War II and the Holocaust through the "politics of memory"; the different "communities" within France itself--youth, religious groups, urban life and the countryside, the communities of refugees and immigrants; and its vibrant culture, with a particular focus on French cinema. Students also examine France's historic and current relationship with several parts of its former empire: Algeria, French Polynesia, and French Guiana. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None
Understand the cultural, political and social complexities of Puerto Rican identity, with particular attention given to the effects of Spanish and U.S. colonialism on gender and race relations in the stateless nation. Students study how the colonial discourses that shaped the earliest modern Puerto Rican imaginary continue to inform current political discourse. Through the study of a wide-ranging body of Puerto Rican works that includes literature, cinema, history, and politics, students seek answers to how national identity is articulated in a colonial context, how migration to the mainland has altered the cultural landscape and what kinds of collective cultural and political movements have emerged in response to the archipelago's socio- economic, environmental and political problems. Through its focus on how gender, sexuality, race, and class are linked to the archipelago's colonial legacy, this course develops a framework for understanding the complexities of identity on the island and within Puerto Rican communities in the U.S. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
The term "Maya" typically conjures images of ancient pyramids and/or ancient civilizations that are now found in ruins. Some forms of popular media, particularly science fiction, even go as far as describing the Maya people as a civilization that mysteriously disappeared sometime around AD. 900. The Maya currently total over 7 million people in what is today Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. Furthermore, the word "Maya" serves as an umbrella term that refers to a number of diverse populations, each with distinct culture, language, and material culture. Students focus on both the construction of the pan-Maya identity, and the numerous populations included within the concept, such as the Tzel Tal, Tzotzil, Kaqchikel, K'iche', Chantal, and the Lacandon, just to name a few. Each of these groups has distinct histories, which often demonstrated significant clashes with colonial and modern national hegemonies. Coursework also highlights how tradition, language, and identity are preserved under the forces of colonial and nationalistic domination and also delves into the subject of changing traditions, as these Maya movements of resistance have integrated social media, rock music, and hip-hop to engage younger generations. Ultimately, the Maya provide a means of deconstructing the concept of identity itself by demonstrating how shared identities are constructed, contested, and negotiated. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Through a range of themes, and across many contexts, students explore Afro-Asian communities and identities. Covering histories, music, films, food, martial arts, social movements, geopolitics and more, class materials engage how African, African diasporic, and Black communities/identities, and Asian and Asian diasporic communities/identities interact. Students also explore how these communities/identities may even blur or complicate the boundaries between each other. Major factors include race and racism, colonialism and empire, as well as nation, culture, and ethnicity. Students explore how these various social forces play a role in Afro-Asian tensions and solidarities as they are made, remade, and un-made. Coursework takes the approach of examining global and transnational Afro-Asian relationships, along with U.S. and South African contexts in particular as well. Students also participate in an intensive small group dialogue project with training involving South African partners. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
The archipelago of islands and mainland nations called the Caribbean constitutes a complex montage of races, ethnic groups, languages, and nations. Stretching from Guyana in South America to as far north as the Bahamas, minutes from the coast of Miami, the region is joined by a common history of slavery, imperialism, and resistant self-definition. Students study literature, film, and music of the region to trace a socio-cultural history of the Caribbean. What are the continued effects of slavery and imperialism on the Caribbean? How does African-Creole culture in particular respond to these continued effects? How do tourism, advertising, music, and film inform/construct people's relationship to the Caribbean in the global present? Crosslisted: ALST 203
China has the distinction of being one of the world's oldest continuous cultures, with 5,000 years of rich, complex history. Today, it is also a rising international power with the second largest economy on the globe. Students approach China not as a monolithic entity, but as a complicated place and people best understood through diverse perspectives, including but not limited to history, economics, geography, literature, art, politics, environment, society, ethnicity, gender, migration, and diaspora. Students also gain indispensable research skills as they develop their own projects. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Offers a wide-ranging and challenging introduction to contemporary India--its famed social, political and cultural diversity, its conflicts and contradictions, its literature and history. India as it is known today, with its population of more than a billion, is a recent creation, a product of the partition of the South Asian colonies of the British Raj (Empire). How has such a diverse region come together, and been held together, as one nation? How have its conflicts and contradictions—of class, caste, ethnicity, language, religion and politics— been managed by its rulers and politicians? How have these conflicts and contradictions been captured in novels and on film? The course goal is to subject the "Idea of India" to a detailed investigation, beginning in the present, and working through a process of excavation, discovery, and critique. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Engages in dialogue with popular discourses, scholarly literature, and primary information sources of Japan and those who live in the island nation state. Focuses on key social and cultural issues that characterize contemporary Japan while also paying attention to its historical experiences and traditions that variably shape the present. Examines topics such as changing 'western' views on the Japanese, diversity in Japanese society, socio-demographic challenges, literature and religion, Japanese political economy and globalization, societal response to natural disasters, and popular culture. Employs a wide range of learning
A multidisciplinary examination of the ways in which community and identity have been formed, are politicized, and remain relatively static over time. This is not a course about the 1994 genocide, but rather one about how such an event could have happened. This world-defining event is historically situated and culturally contextualized as a way to study Rwanda's past and the questions it raises about its future. The experience of Rwandans and consideration of how they understand themselves are analyzed. Assesses the historical and social implications of being ethnic Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa in Rwanda, whether at particular watershed moments — in for example 1894, 1931, 1959, or 1994 — or during periods of so-called 'normalcy' that the country has enjoyed in the past and is experiencing at the moment. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Surveys the varied ethno-national and religious identities and communities of Islamic North Africa, or "the Maghreb": Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, and sometimes Libya, Western Sahara, and Mauritania. Students briefly survey pre-modern Maghreb history from the 7th-century advance of Islam to 19th-century French colonialism. Students focus on the modern Maghreb from the colonial 19th century to the global 21st. Students examine the region from "the natives' point of view," i.e., from North Africans' perspectives on Islam and politics, European and American imperialism, authoritarianism and democracy, technological media, gender, and class. Central to this discussion are the recent Arab revolutions and their continuing aftermath. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None
An interdisciplinary introduction to the history, people, art and cultures of Mexico, a country of diverse ethnic, sexual, gendered, class, and political identities that shares a 2,000-mile border with the United States. How does Mexico's colonial past inform the present? On what terms has a Mexican national identity been defined and who is included or excluded from rights and citizenship? Objectives are to examine Mexico's complex history and social fabric; to study Mexican identities, politics, and cultural expressions with relation to this history; and to gain a general understanding of contemporary Mexico in the context of current events and Mexico's relationship to the United States. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Examines the fabric of California's syncretic cultures in historical, geographic, sociologic, artistic, racial, literary, political, and economic contexts. The diverse settlement patterns, environmental and economic challenge/opportunity, explosion of art forms, and continuous creation of new communities often foreshadowed trends of the entire nation. Readings explore major themes and issues of California history, while literary and personal narratives provide insight into social and political realities, including the struggles of successive waves of immigrants to interact with the established populations. Artistic and architectural expressions that document cultural phenomena offer tangible examples of the creative forces that shaped Californian intellectual and physical communities. Sociological case studies as well as economic, political, and environmental reporting assist students to understand the challenges, failures, and victories of the composite California culture. Underlying all of this is a continuous study of the variegated geography of California, which has both offered and required substantial human choices. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Surveys the culture, religion, communities, history, and socio-economic developments of Ethiopia from the ancient times to the modern period. Ethiopia is home to over 80 ethnic groups with striking cultures that are distinct from Western traditions. Major themes include peoples and languages; traditional customs and beliefs; Christianity and Islam; marriages; community service organizations; literature, novels; education; ethnic relations; traditional art and music; colonial resistance; sports; socio-economic developments; natural
A multidisciplinary engagement with the idea of wilderness and the lived experience of the people and communities that have been shaped and reshaped by the local, regional, and global forces involved in the conservation and preservation movements in the US and internationally. Students explore the lives of the, often, land-based or agrarian local peoples who, in the service of environmental protection, are excluded from places and social and economic activities that are tied to their identities and livelihoods. Reading and research topics include historical and contemporary case studies such as national parks, national forests, national monuments, wildlife refuges, and ocean preserves and the forces that have formed these places and changed the communities of practice that have access. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Provides an overview of Indigenous people in what is now North America—also known as Turtle Island. Case studies link specific Indigenous histories to broader Indigenous communities in North America. Works from community members, storytellers, educators, and elders expose students to Indigenous voices, which highlight agency, autonomy, and the interconnections between past and present. Specifically, students learn the importance of ways of knowing to Indigenous identity and decolonization. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Central Asia lies at the intersection of East and South Asian, Islamic, and European worlds. Yet Central Asia possesses a unique culture of its own, shared by nomads of the steppes and settled peoples of the oasis cities throughout the region constituted by the modern nation-states of Afghanistan, Kirghizstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan (and, to some extent, Mongolia). Students are offered an introduction to this multiethnic, multinational community through the eyes of its participants, from medieval geographers to nomad bards to pan-Turkist revolutionaries and post-Soviet autocrats. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
The topic of migration and resettlement is ubiquitous and has permeated the very ethos of many cultures around the world, sparking heated debates and numerous instances of violence. During more than three centuries of colonialism, the French Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe have witnessed the displacement of thousands of people from Europe, Africa, and Asia; the majority involuntarily, others voluntarily or due to desperate circumstances This course will explore the development of a multi-faceted, multilingual French-Creole community by examining the historical and cultural contributions of the three major ethnic groups, French, Africans, and Indians. The cultural contributions of many other smaller groups,
Provides a general analysis of contemporary Arab communities and cultures across local, national, and global contexts. It is a highly selective study of the trends and forces—geographical, economic, political, and ideological—that shaped the formation of these communities in the places that today we call the Middle East and North Africa (and their diasporas). Students encounter the rich and complex mosaic that forms the basis for Arab unity, disunity, and identity by exploring the many ways in which Arabs understand, critique, contribute to, and transmit their cultures through generational change, migration, and political participation. Topics include history, religions, politics, languages, cultures, and social dynamics. Given the wide scale and scope of the class, coursework focuses on strategies of analysis—methods for reading, seeing, questioning, and interpreting materials from and about Arabs. Students also learn to assess their assumptions about Arabs, Arab Muslims, Arab Christians and Arab Jews, and to think critically about cultural representations in media and political discourse. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
A multi-disciplinary introduction both to the region conventionally referred to as the Middle East, and also to the academic discipline of Middle Eastern Studies. In other words, it is a study of the people, religion, history, and culture of the region, and also an examination of the politics of studying that region. One of the presuppositions is that a careful, rigorous, and critical study of cultural studies can help one understand one's own assumptions, presuppositions, etc. Among the topics students examine are the multiple interpretations of religion, including sects within Islam, that exist in the region; a variety of cultural practices and various languages; and the effect of imperialism and colonialism on the area. Readings include what current native commentators are saying on cultural, economic, and social debates, as well as how they are perceived by American media.
The Danube is Europe's second largest river: from its beginnings in the German Black Forest to the Romanian and Ukrainian shores where it meets the Black Sea, the Danube flows through and/or borders ten countries, while its watershed covers four more. The river serves as a unifying artery of economic, cultural, and international exchanges in the diverse region of central and southeastern Europe. The course structures its multidisciplinary inquiry around the river to examine the region's long-standing history as a neglected, maligned, and contested multilingual, multicultural, and multinational space. Culturally mapping the region by focusing on the river's peoples, their intertwined histories, and their cultural imaginaries, students trace the turbulent history of the region from antiquity, with an emphasis on the 19th century up to the present, to explore the Danube as a quintessential site of cross-cultural engagement in the New Europe. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Required corequisite to CORE C184. Credits: 0.00 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
New York State has the third largest African American population in the U.S. While most of that population is concentrated down-state, the cities and rural areas of central Upstate New York are rich in African American history and culture. Through an interdisciplinary lens with emphasis on the arts and humanities, students explore the experiences of Black communities in Upstate New York by posing questions about Black bondage, incarceration, emancipation, politics, cultural traditions, religion, and entrepreneurship and their relationship to place. Students also approach these questions through an intimate look at the lived experiences and life histories of individual Black Upstate New Yorkers, both past and present, including those belonging to the Colgate community. Through these stories, students learn how Black people in Upstate New York have not only endured the often racialized, violent, and lethal histories of the region, but
Examines Russia, Ukraine, and Central Asia—historically parts of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union—from Peter the Great's rule through the current war in Ukraine. The course follows the legacy of Tsarism, revolution, social engineering, war, and societal transformations. We look at music, art, and literature as arenas for political pressure from the state, and conformity or rebellion on the part of artists and audiences. Examining the region's everyday life, identity, and geopolitics, we trace Russia's self-image and constituent national identities through massive social experiments and upheavals. We consider Russia's place in the world; its collective struggles, successes, and failures; and how these are understood and contested regionally and globally. This course provides a foundation for understanding what Russia is up to now and where the roots of those actions lie. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Examines the archaeology, culture, history, economics, religion, literature, arts, politics, law, and individual lives of the Haudenosaunee - Colgate's closest Native American neighbors - from the period before European contact to the present day. Students place Haudenosaunee experiences in North American Indian contexts (comparing the Haudenosaunee, e.g., to their linguistic relatives, the Cherokee), especially concerning the loss and persistence of tribal sovereignty; and investigate Haudenosaunee relations with New York State and the United States, especially in regard to competing land claims. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Covers diverse aspects of "Spanish" society, history, and culture, past and present. Tracing Spain's cultural self-image and national identities through its encounters with war, fascism, democracy, and societal transformations during our global era, students explore its place in the world, its collective struggles, its encounters and negotiations of diversity, and how these have been understood and contested by "Spaniards" themselves. Drawing on fictional works, art, music, and ethnographic texts, a significant portion of the course examines peoples' everyday lives in contexts of violence, war, and socio-cultural change. In sum, students grapple with an inherent paradox in the study of "Spain": the failure to create a homogenous national identity and a coherent, commonly shared historical memory. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Examines communities and identities in Brazil, the largest nation in Latin America. Focuses on the formation of communities under the constraints of Portuguese colonialism, within slavery, in the vast interior of the country, under conditions of extreme violence and poverty, and in the realm of Brazil's vibrant popular culture. Particular attention is paid to the role of individuals in forming and maintaining communities, and to the complex processes of regional and national identity formation. Spans the colonial period to the present, with readings drawn from history, anthropology, literature, ethnography, and journalism, as well as a range of visual sources. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None
In contrast to Western journalists' focus on Africa's underdevelopment and widespread disease, West Africa stands out as an area of remarkably vibrant culture. West Africa has always been a space of much social interaction between its various peoples, with many shared cultural practices. Students examine how the pre- colonial and colonial histories shaped social identities. Using an interdisciplinary approach, students analyze how people in West Africa express and reinvent their identities through art, music, dance, clothes, and food. Coursework draws further on film and literature to understand the specific experiences of West African peoples. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
Examines the formation of a Tibetan identity. This is largely a recent phenomenon brought about unwittingly by the ethnocentric policies imposed throughout the Tibetan Plateau by the modern Chinese state. However, earlier processes were already under way before the People's Liberation Army entered Tibet in the 1950s, which made the transition from a constellation of feudal polities to a nation possible. These included a common written language, common subsistence patterns (farming, pastoralism, and trade), Buddhism, participation in common rituals and festivals (especially religious pilgrimage), a certain respect for the authority of the Dalai Lamas, and so on. Students examine these processes as well as the consequences of China's political and economic incorporation of Tibetan areas into its nascent nation-state. Specific topics to be explored include "the Tibet Problem" (i.e. contemporary Sino-Tibetan relations and conflict), the historic colonial and religious ties between China Proper and Tibet, religious life and everyday Tibetans, "nomadism" (or pastoralism), polyandry and women in Tibet, and Tibetans' encounter with modernity and the West. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Communities
A multidisciplinary look at communities and identities in Bolivia, a country in the heart of South America that has captured transnational attention for its Andean panpipe music, its majority Indigenous population, and its social movements. Students use music, dance, film, history, memoir, political documents, policy reports, anthropology, and journalism to grasp different community articulations in Bolivia. Along with historical understandings of Bolivian communities, students take a special look at thematic issues that, while locally
Our current use of energy is unsustainable. Fossil fuels, which were deposited on Earth over hundreds of millions of years, will largely be exhausted over the course of just a few hundred years. Global climate change makes our situation even more unsustainable—we need to stop using fossil fuels long before they run out if we want to avoid catastrophic environmental change. Students takes a quantitative approach to learning about our current energy use, so that students can understand how our personal choices and lifestyles affect energy use. Discussion includes how our energy needs are met in the future through renewable resources: what technologies are available now, what are their costs, and how much energy can they provide. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
When reduced to fundamentals, virtually all of our environmental problems deal with chemicals in the wrong place: noxious and reactive gases in our atmosphere, insecticides and toxic metals in our ground and drinking water, and spilled nuclear wastes. Unfortunately, many citizens in our society do not understand the fundamentals of these environmental problems. Coursework -- designed for students without experience in other university-level science courses -- explores the chemistry behind some of our more pressing environmental dilemmas. Topics include some consequences of fossil fuel combustion (the greenhouse effect, acid rain, urban smog), the ozone hole, nuclear energy/wastes, and groundwater contamination. The emphasis is on the science behind these problems, what we know about how the problems have come about, and what we can do, if anything, to ease the problems. This course is for the student who has not taken college-level chemistry, but is concerned about our threatened environment. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Remote sensing is the art and science of obtaining information about a phenomenon through a device that is not in contact with the object. The remote sensing process involves collection and analysis of data about energy, reflected from or emitted by an object. Remote sensing is used to better understand, measure, and monitor features and human activities on Earth. After an introduction to the interplay among science, technology, and remote sensing, students examine the development of remote sensing technology. Students focus on the physical principles upon which remote sensing is based, explore the basic tools of photography and photograph interpretation, and consider the principles of acquiring and interpreting data collected by non-photographic sensors. Throughout the semester, students consider how remote sensing has improved our understanding of biophysical processes using a case-study approach to demonstrate the
CORE S105The Science and Potential Implications of Nanotechnology1.00
Imagine repairing your body without surgery and no longer burning fossil fuels. Imagine enjoying abundance with no manufacturing costs and taking an elevator to the moon. Imagine also the loss of all personal privacy and the irreversible poisoning of the environment. Such are the hopes, hype, and fears of nanotechnology — the study of materials and devices with dimensions on the nanoscale (1 x 10-9m, the realm of assemblies of molecules). This course provides an introduction to the science and potential implications of molecular nanotechnology. Scientific and sensationalist visions of nanotechnology are critically examined through a combination of readings, lectures, discussions, and presentations. The course forges an appreciation for the nanoscale, an understanding of the excitement and the challenges, and an awareness of the societal and ethical implications. Through the lens of nanotechnology, students gain insights applicable to the broad landscape of emerging technologies — and encourage curiosity towards the future. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Modern society is deeply mathematical: our financial, political, and social systems have been built on mathematical foundations and can be better understood by mathematical analysis.Students learn to think about society mathematically. They explore the role that mathematical expertise plays in the modern U.S and its relationship to inequality and discrimination tied to factors like race, class, gender, or sexuality. Topics covered include mortgage financing and risk rating; the apportionment of representatives in Congress and political polling; and cryptography and cryptocurrency. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Colors are all around and people tend to take them for granted. Throughout history, humans have employed colors in artistic and creative expression, particularly in jewelry, ceramics, textile and metal art and in paintings. Some colorants occur naturally. Other colorants are manufactured, and thus the result of scientific and industrial development. Students explore the history and material science of colorants. The interplay between artistic expression and science/technological discovery is considered with emphasis on the materials used in textile art and in paintings. In the process, students find out how science can be used to authenticate artwork. Is a work of art an original by a "famous artist," have parts been reworked by someone else, or is it a forgery? In addition to lectures and discussions, students participate in small group hands-on projects. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
CORE S109Technology, Death, and the American Civil War
How do people understand a world radically transformed by new technology? The Civil War is the first truly industrial-scale conflict in American history. As many as 750,000 Americans lost their lives due to the conflict – more soldiers died at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862 than in all previous American wars combined. The war
Examines some of the major questions that inform human understanding of the living world. Covering long- standing biological questions as well as questions emerging from the latest discoveries, students explore the great diversity of life and how organisms adapt and change. Students use this framework to tackle new and relevant issues arising from our study of biology. The approach is student-active and hands-on; students work together to explore a few of the mysteries of the natural world. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Close relationships are central to our lives; friends, parents, siblings, romantic partners, acquaintances, and coworkers have an enormous influence on one's thoughts, feelings, and behavior. The purpose of this course is to understand the processes that regulate human relationships using a scientific perspective. It will include an overview of social psychology theories of relationships research and an exploration of the current literature. Students will be exposed to a variety of research methods and will have the opportunity to design their own experiment about relationships. Topics include attraction, intimacy, attachment, friendship, interdependence, communication, dissolution and loss, love, and maintaining relationships. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course
If one were a highly developed, extraterrestrial scientist with advanced technology to engineer organisms from other planets, how would one build a human baby? What kind of brain would one design? What kinds of social, emotional, and cognitive predispositions would be included? What kind of environment would one provide? To answer these questions, one must determine what is innate and what is learned in human development. Although this "nature-nurture" question can be traced back to ancient philosophers (right here on Earth!), modern-day science has made great strides in exploring (and reformulating) this question. In this class, students first explore some pop-culture approaches to this issue. Then, they briefly trace the history of the debate to its foundations in classical and modern philosophy. Finally, students compare these philosophical and pop-culture perspectives to modern-day scientific approaches. This is accomplished through primary and secondary readings, class discussions, and group presentations. In the end, students may discover that the answers to the "nature-nurture" question are not on a planet far, far way - but rather closer to home than they have ever been. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Explores the ways in which scientific concepts, such as deep geologic time and Earth history, biological evolution and co-evolution, and ecosystem dynamics can inform humans about radical moral stances (e.g., biocentrism, deep ecology). Also investigates whether a scientific perspective, in and of itself, is sufficient to resolve pressing environmental problems, most of which are the outcome of complex social, economic, political, philosophical, and historical forces that operate on regional and global scales. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Explores how infants and adults acquire native and foreign languages. What goes on in the brains of new- born infants before they discover the meanings of words? What might be the linguistic and social consequence of acquiring an English dialectal accent, distinguishing or not distinguishing between Mary,
Outbreaks of infectious disease are an inevitable component of human existence. Ranging in severity from the common cold to the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed 2.5-5% of the human population, outbreaks have altered the course of human history and continue to exert a dramatic influence on human activity. Students examine historical pandemics, including the "Black Death" and 1918 "Spanish flu," and some more recent outbreaks, including SARS. Through lecture, discussion, and in-class exercises, these outbreaks are used as a framework for investigation into basic epidemiological principles. Students investigate different methodologies of epidemiologic data collection and analyze data sets derived from various outbreaks. Students also discuss the microbiologic, social, and environmental factors that contribute to disease pathogenesis, and examine current preparedness for future infectious outbreaks. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
CORE S122Life in the Universe: A Cosmic Perspective1.00
Examines the historical debate on the concept of whether extraterrestrial life exists. Students examine what astronomy and physics tell about the origin and evolution of the Universe, the production of elements that make up living matter on Earth, the evolution of stars like the Sun, and the formation of solar systems. Also examined are the astronomical, geological, chemical, and biological conditions that were responsible for the origin and evolution of life on Earth, and speculate about the possibility of life on other planets in our solar system or on planets around other stars. How would one detect the presence of life on other planets in the solar system; in the galaxy? The development of intelligent life and the possibility of contact between civilizations are examined. Major/Minor Restrictions: None
As the "Global Warming Summit" made clear, anthropogenic activity has the potential to dramatically alter global climate. The increased introduction of greenhouse gases, sulfate aerosols, and dust through human activities may result in a variety of regional responses, including warming and cooling, changes in precipitation and drought patterns, and rising sea level. Climate change as a force driving human history, however, is not unique to the 20th century. The primary objectives of this course are to present case studies that demonstrate the strong role of climate in driving human evolution, adaptation, and societies; and to assess the relationship between climate forcing and man, with a view toward understanding the potential consequences of modern anthropogenic impacts. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
The fusion of sperm and egg cells to form a single-celled zygote is the initial step in development in most multi-cellular organisms. In humans, repeated divisions of this single fertilized egg are responsible for the production of more than 70 trillion cells of greater than 200 different types. Students examine how a fertilized egg undergoes division, how the stem cells produced by these divisions become "determined" to form cells of particular types, and how these determined cells finally differentiate into the highly specialized cells that make up most tissues and organs. As this process is examined, students also explore the relationship between cells and developmental patterns, and investigate how genetic and environmental factors can influence (and alter) cell fate. Biological, social, and ethical aspects of the human manipulation of development are also considered, including examination of such topics as cloning by nuclear transfer, reproductive technology, fetal surgery, stem cells, and embryonic gene therapy. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Explores the ecological, cultural, economic, and conservation sides of freshwater. Students balance the scientific with the social aspects through a series of readings, field trips, experiments, discussion, and self-
CORE S127The Artful Brain: An Exploration in Neuroaesthetics1.00
Consists of an exploration in the aesthetic experience of art as it relates to the sensory and perceptual mechanisms of the brain. Many of the topics discussed are centered on the view that the function of art and the function of the visual brain are one and the same. Students thus consider that the aims of the artist in rendering a particular piece of art essentially constitute an extension of the processes of the visual brain. By taking this point of view (through an introductory understanding of the sensory and perceptual processes of the visual brain) students discuss possible outlines of a theory of aesthetics that is biologically based. Students are required to read chapters from different textbooks devoted to sensory and perceptual processes as they relate to visual art, as well as review articles from professional journals. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Our planet is currently undergoing a level of abiotic and biotic change that is unprecedented in recent history and the scientific consensus is that it is anthropogenic. This course introduces students to the recent data on climate change and inferred causes and consequences of that change. Throughout the course, the way in which humans influence these changes and also the ways in which these changes impact humans are explored. The main focus of the course is the carbon cycle, specifically on human energy consumption, food production, and water use, and how they are linked to biodiversity loss. The many sides of issues (e.g., biofuels) are explored and debated throughout the course. The immediate consequences of global change are demonstrated in a required weekend field trip to the Adirondacks in the third week of the classes to learn about the effects of pollution and climate on our local ecosystems. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
CORE S129Dangerous Earth: Science of Geologic Disasters1.00
Geologic hazards such as floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions serve as dramatic reminders of the power of nature. Disasters occur when these hazards intersect with human vulnerabilities, and can result in catastrophic economic and humanitarian impacts. Communities have a clear interest in understanding what causes these disasters and how to mitigate their impacts. Geology provides a scientific framework for understanding the potential risks, likelihood, and effects of these natural hazards. Students examine the science behind floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and meteorite impacts. Students investigate significant case studies and consider the types of data collected to study these disasters, ambiguities in the data, and how risk is determined. Students also examine potential ways to mitigate the damage caused by natural hazards and the scientific, economic, political, and societal implications of these approaches. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
CORE S130The Social Life: The Paradox of Cooperative Behavior1.0
If survival of the fittest is the law of the land, why are so many animals (including humans!) compelled to live in cooperative, complex societies? Cooperative behavior among organisms is recognized as one of the major transitions in evolutionary biology. Seemingly defying the selfish laws of natural selection, the evolution of social behavior has fascinated biologists, psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, and economists alike. Students first explore the basic foundations of sociobiology, the study of social behavior in animals, and solve the paradox of how cooperative behaviors can evolve by natural selection. Using detailed case studies from organisms as diverse as dolphins, birds, ants, and humans, students discuss the mechanisms driving social interactions and the ecological and evolutionary consequences of cooperative behavior. Students also discuss the philosophical, ethical, and political controversy that erupted with the emergence of sociobiology in the 1970s, a debate that is still smoldering today. Finally, students explore the application of social behavior principles to human behavior and the organization of human societies. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior, No Junior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Students take a close look at mathematics, mathematical communities, and the applications of mathematics throughout history. The origins of mathematical thought, and how its foundations have changed over time, are explored. Along the way, the role of mathematics within the sciences is questioned. For example, in what ways is mathematics similar or dissimilar to other sciences? Unlike many courses focused on the history of math, there is additional emphasis on how mathematics is viewed by and used by society, in both positive and negative ways. Indeed, are shown how, in many cases, the prevailing mathematical culture of the time – explicitly or implicitly – rewarded malicious and, generally, unkind behavior. Questions raised include: how much have these aspects of mathematical culture changed? How have society's attitudes
Students explore the many tasty, interesting, useful, mystical, and illegal uses of plants. Starting with basic plant biology, coursework provides a framework for understanding where plant products come from, and then rapidly shifts to human-plant interactions. Course topics include the history of agriculture and its effects on land use and the environment, the origin of common crops, historical and modern human uses of plants, as well as the chemistry, pharmacology, and history of drug use. Current botanical issues such as transgenic crops, ownership of genetic stock material, and bioprospecting are discussed. Students emerge from this course with a new appreciation for what people eat, drink, smoke, and wear. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
What are renewables? Why do we need them? Can we sustain ourselves solely on renewable energy? What impacts does the utilization of renewable energy have on the global climate and the human society? How can you contribute to the field of renewable energy sciences? These are the questions that are addressed and explored in this introductory course. Through reading, discussions, lectures, and hands-on laboratory experiences, students delve into various topics to foster a scientific understanding of renewable energy sciences, and contemplate what renewables mean to our lives and the global community. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
CORE S139Election Methods and Voting Technology1.00
How should we elect our president and other government officials? Is our method of election fair to all voters? What is the best way to cast and record our votes? Students survey different methods of conducting elections and voting. This gives tools to assess the fairness of our election methods in this country and how they might make policy decisions related to elections and voting. These policies concern both the ways of casting our votes (voting technology) and the election methods. One part of the course compares different ways of electing candidates and the mathematical theory behind these methods. Methods to be considered include plurality (candidate with the most votes wins), different run-off methods, and other methods. It also looks at the two-stage process for the US presidential elections where in the second stage, states vote using a weighted vote (the Electoral College). The second part of the course considers different ways that votes can be cast. This includes the history of different methods of voting and their vulnerability to fraud. This will lead to current debates about voting technology: How effective are different modern systems, such as electronically scanned paper ballots and direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines, for accurately and securely recording votes and protecting against voting fraud? How can people systematically compare and weigh the risks associated with different voting methods? Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
What is the relationship between language and cognition? To answer this question students explore the interrelation between verbal expression and such cognitive faculties as bodily experience, imagination, memory, categorization, and abstract thought. The study of language as a cognitive phenomenon is a relatively new discipline. It originated in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Since then, cognitive linguistics has been a rapidly growing field that has both benefited from and contributed to its allied disciplines of cognitive psychology, cognitive anthropology, and cognitive neuroscience. The course begins by examining the advantages and shortcomings of the cognitive perspective on the different levels of language (e.g., sounds, words, sentences, texts, etc.). Students explore the connections of cognitive linguistics with the related fields
CORE S142Contemporary Issues in Computer Science1.00
An introduction to contemporary concepts, models, and issues in computer science. Coursework interweaves traditional computing topics with current issues such as privacy, software reliability, information access, politics and social networks, e-commerce, electronic piracy, globalization, hacking, sustainability, copyright and patent infringement. The goal of this course is to show the broader impacts of computer science in society and to remember that technology always impacts and affects the humans who use it. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Introduces students to statistical thinking by examining data collected to solve real-world problems. A wide range of applications are considered. Topics include experimental design, descriptive statistics, the normal curve, correlation and regression, probability theory, sampling, the central limit theorem, estimation, hypothesis testing, paired observations, and the chi-square test. Particular emphasis is given to the models that underlie statistical inference. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
What is privacy? Why does privacy matter? Is privacy dead? Students examine these and other questions about privacy from social, legal, and technical perspectives. Students explore the history of privacy in the United States from the 1800s to the present, discussing how changing norms and technologies have influenced privacy across society. Then they focus on how the Internet, computing systems, and connected
CORE S146The Good Life: Perspectives from Psychological Science1.00
Throughout history, men and women have been captivated by questions of what constitutes the "good life" and how such a life can be cultivated. What is the nature of human happiness, joy, and pleasure? How can people most effectively cope with the inevitable difficulties faced in life? Are some people simply born more content than others? How are happiness and life satisfaction affected by health, relationships, material wealth, culture, habits of thought, and spiritual practice? Students focus on how contemporary psychological research can be used to answer these enduring questions. Students read original research articles on these topics and gain hands-on experience collecting and analyzing data. Throughout the course, students are helped to recognize the strengths and limitations of the scientific method for approaching questions such as these, and students are encouraged to articulate their own emerging views of what constitutes a life worth living. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
In the 21st century, global citizenship will require a comprehensive understanding of key challenges on a planetary scale, including global warming, diminishing energy resources, population pressures (adequate water and food supplies, humane living conditions), urbanization, and the impact of natural disasters. Students explore the underlying scientific concepts essential to developing a thorough understanding of the phenomenon and developing a healthy skepticism and critical analysis of complex, global-scale processes. Through the application of design-thinking project-based learning, students assess the potential global ramifications of selected global issues, develop their own interpretations, and propose creative solutions. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Willpower allows people to delay gratification, resist temptations, and reach challenging long-term goals. Coursework is devoted to the study of this unique human capacity to regulate behavior. Students explore the psychological mechanisms underlying willpower from a scientific perspective. While reading relevant theoretical and empirical works, students test the ideas under study through laboratory exercises. Discussions explore the broader implications of research findings and apply these principles to the self- regulatory challenges that one faces every day. Assignments focus on developing strong writing and scientific-reasoning skills, and gaining useful insight into one's own motivational tendencies. A final research project allows students to investigate empirically an original idea on the nature of willpower. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Drugs, used recreationally and medicinally, can have physiological and behavioral consequences that are important to both the individual and society. The processes in the brain and nervous system that mediate drug-induced effects on behavior and physiology are examined with emphasis on the strategies and methods used to evaluate, scientifically, the effects of drugs. This course is designed for students with no background in the field of neuroscience. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
How could a collection of atoms, tethered together to form molecules, have played such important roles in colonization, health, environment, lifestyle, and so forth? Students look at 13 of the most intriguing molecules in history. As they explore these interesting histories, students catalogue a few of the relevant scientific observations and molecular structures that give rise to the important characteristics of particular "world rocking" molecules. Molecular modeling, demonstrations, and lab-like exercises will illustrate the connection between structure and function. Students also suggest and research other molecules that have impacted history or might be projected to have a profound influence in the future. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Food is essential for all of us to survive but we often take food and food preparation for granted. Have you ever wondered why some food tastes as it does or how food preparation can alter the taste of consistency of a dish? What is a balanced diet and why do we strive to have one? Students explore how understanding the science of food and cooking enhances our enjoyment of it as well as our benefit from it. Students look at the history and culture of human nourishment, and explore some controversial aspects of food and food technology, such as use of additives, genetically modified organisms, and diets and weight loss programs. If you have an appetite for learning or are just food motivated, this course may appeal to your senses. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Weather and climate command our attention because they deeply affect life on Earth. Now more than ever, life on Earth also affects atmospheric conditions, with vitally important scientific, political, cultural, and ethical implications. Course readings, discussions, and lectures examine the atmosphere from microscopic and macroscopic points of view, exploring the atomic basis for atmospheric properties such as pressure, temperature, and transparency; investigating the physical processes behind weather patterns and disturbances; and examining some of the complexities of global climate change. The course emphasizes interactions between the atmosphere and humans, as well as interactions between science and other human endeavors. Students better their understanding of the atmosphere, weather phenomena, climate change, and the power and limitations of scientific inquiry. A term project allows students to study an atmospheric phenomenon of their choosing and to strengthen their knowledge through written, oral, and visual presentations. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Climate science is largely retrospective, looking at centuries to millennia of climate records to infer trends and determine how the Earth system operates, while speculative fiction, particularly Cli-Fi, is fundamentally future-oriented, and provides a vehicle for exploring a range of possible scenarios and human responses to a climate system in flux. Coursework focuses on the science of climate change, the social choices involved in adaptation to climate change, and the literary practice of using fiction writing to explore the dilemmas inherent to living in the midst of a climate crisis. Students engage with Cli-Fi and climate science data products in order to explore how they would respond to a range of climate crises, basing their preparations for fictional climate scenarios in the science of Earth system processes, emerging climate adaptation strategies, and the social and ethical "laboratory" provided by creative writing. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
CORE S168Stem Cells, Gene Therapy, and Bionics: The Making and Remaking1.00
of the Human Body Examines several topics on the cutting edge of regenerative science. Initially focuses on the body's ability to repair itself. Students examine the nature of stem cells, as well as the limitations and potential for future work with these cells. Students then explore how gene therapy techniques have the potential to repair a wide variety of genetic disorders, but may also bring about the possibility of selective improvement in normally functioning bodies. Finally, students look at how scientists are developing techniques to grow organs in the laboratory to replace damaged or injured organs, and how bionic parts are being investigated increasingly as alternatives to biological replacements. Along the way, students consider the ethical and social concerns that surround each of these approaches, and explore whether current definitions of humanity will apply well to a future where we can increasingly manipulate fundamental aspects of the human body. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Uses a social scientific approach to examine the effects that media exposure has on audience members. Students develop an understanding of how the media affects audience members' physiology, cognition, beliefs, attitudes, affective states, and behavior. Key media topics studied include violence, sex, politics, and portrayals of groups. Key types of media studied include television, music, video games, and social media.
CORE S172The Biology of Women: Sex, Gender, Reproduction, and Disease1.00
Myths regarding the female body have been circulating for centuries and still influence human behavior throughout the world. Though female and male anatomies differ, the underlying genetic material of each is very similar. This course investigates the historical and environmental construction of gender, the biological aspects of sex, the unique characteristics of female anatomy and reproduction, and the effect of sexually transmitted diseases and cancer on female health. Lectures, discussions, and in-class exercises explore the scientific methods used to acquire our current understanding of hormonal signaling, genetic inheritance, development, microbial pathogenesis, and cell biology that underlie these topics. Social and ethical issues that exist and are raised by the biological differences between males and females are also discussed, including hormonal therapy, in vitro fertilization, prenatal genetic testing, female genital mutilation, and the use of birth control to prevent AIDS transmission. This course is open to both men and women. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
CORE S176Natural Disasters: Science, Media and Movies1.00
Natural disasters are part of the normal processes that shape the Earth, but can have dramatic and tragic impacts on human populations around the globe. Many citizens, however, are only exposed to these phenomena through media coverage seeking high viewership or movies optimized for spectacular special effects. This course will introduce the science behind many natural disasters – including earthquakes, asteroid impacts, storms, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis – while also considering how media stories and films present, frame, or incorporate disaster science. Students will gain a practical understanding of natural disasters, and learn to critically analyze the representation of science in popular media. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Examines a key global health issue, such as AIDS or Cancer, from an interdisciplinary approach. Readings introduce students to the history, politics, science, and public health issues of the disease. Students examine the epidemiology of the disease, examining how geography, socioeconomic status, and other factors influence transmission and treatment, and statistical measures used to analyze data about causes, cures and spread of disease are introduced. Finally, the impacts of the disease on communities at different scales is examined. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences Formerly: CORE 116S and CORE 136S
Explores water technologies and their evolution through time, and how the technologies related to water distribution and treatment evolve with human's understanding of and interaction with water. Through the lens of science and engineering, students examine the role water plays in human health, the environment, and sustainability. Focused on history of water transportation; water quality issues, coinciding with an improved understanding of water following advances in chemistry, biology, and physics; and modern and emerging problems related to water and water technology. Students cover topics on the application and limitation of scientific knowledge, and broader impacts that technology has on past and current societies. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Social inequality affects us all. This course will explore what the science of social psychology tells us about how social inequality shapes the ways we think, live, and die. Because social inequality is about the relative status of people based on their group memberships, we will begin the course by exploring social psychological theories that help explain the centrality of our group memberships to our identity. As we will see, these group memberships can be based on many different aspects of our identity: race, gender, socioeconomic status, among many others. Next, we will explore what experimental data tell us about the sources of, and consequences of, group-based disparities. In particular, we will examine the roles of limited resources, identity, power, morality, and prejudice in perpetuating inequality. Finally, we will discuss the emerging literature on how to coexist more peacefully in an unequal world.
What is music? How do natural raw sounds become a musical phenomenon? Why are some combinations of sounds more pleasant than others? The answers to these questions are tightly related to the concepts of matter, energy, time and space. Where there is music, there is sound; and where there is sound, there is physics. Students explore the underlying principles of the musical phenomena, including acoustics of musical instruments, formation of scales and perception of sound. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Cooperation is the key to understanding many environmental problems and policies. When and how do humans cooperate with each other to solve environmental issues? What features make that cooperation easier or harder, and what can we do to encourage cooperation? This course explores the origins of cooperation from an economic, biological, psychological, and social perspective, with a particular focus on game theory. This knowledge is then applied to a variety of environmental issues, ranging from climate change to overfishing to the hole in the ozone layer. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
A first course in programming languages that uses origami as a metaphorical parallel to programming and generative art as a focus for assignments. Students learn and practice elementary programming techniques such as loops, conditionals, and functions, as well as the abstraction of objects. This course is designed for students who have no prior programming experience; interested students also need not worry about their prior proficiency in art.
CORE S183The Science Fiction Effect: Popular Science Writing and Science1.00
Fiction in Public Discourse Combines popular science writing with works of science fiction in order to interrogate the ways in which science is presented, expressed, and translated into texts intended for lay people. Students consider the role both kinds of work play in shaping public scientific literacy. Readings include essays from Best American Science Writing, recently published nonfiction in the genre of popular science, assorted recent articles, as well as seminal and contemporary works of literary science fiction. Students gain a deeper understanding of how science is practiced and written about today, as well as the ways in which fiction about scientific advances popularizes the science it addresses. Given what we learn through reading nonfiction, is fictional writing about real science a fruitful part of public scientific discourse? Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Fire is the quintessential human technology. It is also a potent symbol whose meaning has become central to our national and community discourse. Fire is at the root of countless traditions, myths, and foodways, and through controlled combustion of fossil fuels, fire has grown to be the central process at the heart of modern industrial and agricultural systems. The deliberate release of energy through different forms of combustion has changed the course of human social- and potentially, biological evolution. But where does the energy in combustion come from? How do humans harness that energy to do work? And how do storytelling and cultural perceptions of fire influence the choices individuals and societies make about what resources to burn, where to burn them, and what to do with the waste products? Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Applies rhetorical theories and methods to scientific discourse in the public and academic sphere. Students develop an understanding of the relationship between research and writing, and they practice these skills by examining historical and current scientific debates and controversies. Through looking at case studies, students will gain an increased understanding of how, where, and when scientific research is influenced by (and influencing of) different audiences and communities. Students will examine and work with qualitative research methods, genre theory, rhetorical style, and multimodal compositions. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
CORE S187The Things with Feather: Human's Passion for Birds and Scientific1
Study of Bird Intelligence Emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to explore the historic journey of scientific studies of bird behavior and nature while celebrating the triumphs of these surprising and fiercely intelligent creatures. Students examine the study of intelligence of birds from behavior, brain mechanisms, to ecological and evolutionary adaptation. Students look at the history of ornithological study in the past centuries and examine the key social-cultural events and conceptual breakthroughs that advance scientific study of birds. Students also explore how these scientific findings can shed light on human behaviors and help us to better understand ourselves. Moreover, students examine the impacts of human-created environmental changes on the behavior, reproduction, and survival of these precious creatures, and how citizen science has helped contribute to numerous bird conservation projects. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
Dogs are a fascinating study organism. From their very beginnings their evolutionary history contains unpredicted effects across all levels of biological organization. From the social construct of being a wild animal (wolf), to becoming dependent on man (domestication), and colonizing our homes and our beds (inter-species bonding). The history of this single species provides a rich learning opportunity to introductory students. Readings and discussions include a brief introduction and exploration of most branches of biology, in an interdisciplinary manner: evolution, ecology, genetics, physiology, and behavior, with the underlying theme of how dogs are unique to each of those branches in biology. Emphasis is placed on the interaction between wild animals and early humans, and tracks that interaction through time as the domestication of the dog has progressed. Further exploration occurs on physiological aspects of canine biology that are beneficial for humans, for example, cancer research. Students are challenged to formulate questions about science and how science relates to the inter-species relationship we have created with "man's best friend." Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Why do we sleep? Why do we dream? Do we really need to get 8 hours of sleep a night to perform our best? How is sleep affected by a person's neighborhood, job, family, or culture? Students will study the theories and empirical research that seek to answer these questions. The course begins examining sleep at multiple levels of analysis, including its biological underpinnings, methods of assessment, and developmental changes, as well as common sleep disorders and connections between sleep and learning, dreaming, and health. The second half of the course will address environmental influences on sleep and explore ways to improve sleep in diverse populations via intervention and policy. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Temperatures are increasing, sea levels are rising, many species are on the move, and some have gone extinct. These changes in Earth's environments profoundly shape our lives, influencing where we live, the
Human-induced climate change is a defining issue of our time. That people are dramatically altering the climate is now the consensus in the global scientific community. Potential short- and long-term impacts include biodiversity loss, sea-level rise and coastal flooding, more intense storms, threats to human health, and disruptions of freshwater supplies and food security. But while the global community increasingly understands the basic processes driving climate change, and is starting to appreciate the consequences of a warmer world, the cultures (different societies, scientists, policymakers, to name a few) grappling with the dynamics of global warming are complex and the issue remains controversial and less well addressed, globally, than needed to stem dramatic climate change over the next century. Understanding climate-society relationships requires examining both the climatic effects of human activity as well as the cultural responses to addressing climate throughout history. Students examine climate change in cultural context in order to create engaged global citizens who grapple with the science and scientific uncertainty of climate change alongside the social, political, ethical, and economic matrix of society's responses. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Restrictions: Students may not take more than 1 CORE Sciences course Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Since the early civilizations, phenomena associated with electric charges in various forms such as the lightning in the sky, static electricity, and northern lights have inspired human minds. However, it was only after the development of the modern scientific methods in the 16th and 17th century that the major discoveries related to electric charges and their flow was understood, which eventually led to the discovery of electrons in the 19th century. Those discoveries spurred humanity's quest to control the flow of electric charges for their own good. With electrons, humans created light without fire, were able to send long- distance messages, and developed computing devices. Within a span of about two hundred years after the first modern inventions associated with electrons, human civilization has completely been transformed.
CORE S195Networks: Friends, Terrorists, and Epidemics1.0
A network, in its most basic form, is a collection of interconnected people or things. A friendship network, for example, is made up of individuals and their interactions. Indeed, networks are all around us, from the human brain to the internet to your circle of friends. All networks have an underlying order and adhere to basic mathematical laws. Understanding the structure and behavior of networks allows us to identify terrorists and halt disease outbreaks before they spread. Students are provided a broad overview of network science-including both the computational techniques as well as their applications and implications in biology, sociology, technology, and other fields. Students build networks in various fields, demonstrating that social networks, the internet, and cells are more alike than they are distinct, revealing crucial new insights into the world around us. Aside from the simple structural properties of real-world networks, topics covered include dynamic network activities, including epidemics, network robustness, and communities in networks. Students discuss the societal effects and implications of network analysis. Students have the opportunity to apply what they've learned about network science to real-world data sets of their choosing. Students are presented with an exciting glimpse of the next century of science in an inherently and increasingly interconnected world. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Earth is in the midst of unprecedented climate change driven by human activity colliding with complex environmental feedback. How do we know Earth's climate system and ecosystems are changing, and how will humans be affected? Students examine the science of environmental change through hands-on investigation of global change data from across Earth's land, air, water, and ecological systems, while also exploring how storytelling techniques and narrative analysis explain how we make sense of these changes and communicate them to ourselves and others. In this workshop-model course, students work together to develop scientific analysis and storytelling skills, tackling climate change science, environmental news stories, and personal interactions with the Earth from the global scale to their own home environment.
Machine-learning algorithms and autonomous systems introduce a wide range of morally significant questions: about rights, fairness, consent, accountability, trust, transparency, exploitation, and sustainability, among others. For example, are there moral costs to the design and training processes of such algorithms? ls it acceptable for an algorithm to classify people differently on the basis of things they have no control over, even if it's very accurate? How do we tell a machine we want its outcomes to be fair? What should we do when there is entrenched disagreement about moral values? More broadly, is it a problem if a machine- learning system develops a standard that is too complex to be recognizable as a human moral concept, or even understood by humans at all? If a machine reaches a certain level of sophistication, can it acquire moral status, e.g. responsibility for its decisions? Students consider questions like these systematically and philosophically, with knowledge of the predictive reasoning underlying such systems. Special attention is paid to the difficulty of narrowing the gap between mathematical precision and human intuition. Readings come from a range of fields: computer science, contemporary philosophy, statistics, cognitive science, and law. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
Identifying and addressing environmental problems hinges critically on being able to measure them. How does environmental quality influence human well-being, and how are groups differentially exposed to environmental quality? How do different products/industries/countries contribute to environmental problems and how important are these impacts (relative to other social issues)? Students explore methods from economics and environmental science that are used to measure the environment, focusing specifically on experimental and observational data analysis, mapping, air pollution modeling, lifecycle and input-output analysis and economic valuation methods. Students use these methods to answer questions related to a range of current environmental issues such as air and water pollution, climate change, destruction of ecosystems and environmental inequities.
Computing as a Weapon uses that simile as a means for contextualizing and studying the development of modern computers for science, a history which is inextricably linked with warfare and weaponry. The development of digital computing hardware in the US was motivated largely by the need to speed up ballistic trajectory computation in World War II and for studying the feasibility of a thermonuclear weapon, among other scientific and military needs. As computers evolved from special-purpose devices to supporting general-purpose computation, they have continued to be an indispensable aid for scientific investigation and discovery like developing drugs to combat disease and simulating the environment to predict and possibly fight aspects of climate change. At the same time, the general purpose nature of computers allows them to be used as weapons of oppression, censorship, surveillance, and electronic warfare. What emerges is a view of the computer as a mostly beneficial weapon of science, including how it has shaped and continues to shape the kinds of questions that are feasible to address. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: Sciences
