Spring 2023

Throughout the history of philosophy, there have been many “renegade” thinkers that deterritorialize the ground of the canonical works and the personas of the academic tradition. Students will examine the works of several renegade thinkers, including Diogenes, Ken Kesey, Robert Anton Wilson, Aldous Huxley, Philip K. Dick, Timothy Leary, Alan Watts, and Ken Wilber. We will investigate the syncretic and interdisciplinary aspects of each philosopher, as well as their relationship with the canonical works and personas.

Over the course of the semester, we will study representative films from different eras, cultures, and genres. Through discussions of films and readings as well as written assignments, we will dig into topics including film sound theory, the history of film sound technology, and sociocultural and historical contexts for trends in film sound styles and aesthetics. The course will develop critical thinking and listening skills that are unique to film sound. Given the global ubiquity of film, these skills will benefit students as a form of cultural literacy.

The course is an elective that examines human behaviors in relation to race and gender from psychological, sociological, and technological perspectives. These perspectives will be viewed in terms of contemporary societies throughout the African diaspora. At the end of the term, students will demonstrate their knowledge by creating a presentation for an adverse audience while taking a supportive position of a social issue relating to race and/or gender.

This class draws on an exciting range of essays, fiction, film, shorter videos (and of course jokes) to explore just why, known over the centuries as the “People of the Book,” the Jews have become even better known in our own time as the “People of the Joke.” With a rich history of popular humor production dating from Yiddish modernists in the 19th century onward, Jewish humor writers and artists contributed heavily to the entertainment world in a variety of locales. The comedy industry, particularly in the United States, came to be dominated by Jewish writers, whose cultural histories frequently played a distinct role in their comedic products. We will survey the development of Jewish humor as a cultural phenomenon during the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing mainly on the history of American Jewish comedic output, but also explore Jewish material from Eastern Europe, the USSR, and Israel as well as the relation of Jewish humor to anxiety, outsider perspectives, antisemitism and oppression, including the trauma of the Holocaust. In examining the development of Jewish humor, we will gain insight into a variety of Jewish cultures and the ways in which they are affected by historical conditions, as well as the important catalysts of acculturation, assimilation, and difference in forming Jewish comic consciousness. Graded assignments include written essays and in-class writing prompts.

An introduction to technologies and their impact on our everyday lives, and how we perceive ourselves through social media use. The primary focus of this course is to explore, through a gendered lens, how technology such as the internet and social media has structured our lives. Including, but not limited to gendered technologies, it’s influence on how we categorize gender, sexuality, race, and class while examining how technology and social media has shaped our identity today.

This course is a survey of Buddhist statecraft, political theory, and governmental and religious institutions from ancient through modern times and across several South and Southeast Asian civilizations. The purpose of this exercise is to gain an understanding of how Buddhism was both shaped by and helped shape the diverse social and political environments in which it flourished.

This class draws on a range of exciting literary narratives and film documentaries (as well as a few exemplars of fictional Israeli cinema) to discuss the relationship between the Zionist dream of Homeland and the dispossession or Nakba of the Palestinians. We will consider portrayals of the marginal figure of the Arab, both as perceived external threat and as the “Other” within Israeli society as well as works written by Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel. The core question we will address concerns the writer’s empathic response to the plight of Palestinians and the Arab minority within Israel itself, including the Palestinian people’s demands for justice and liberation from Occupation. Other dynamics to be examined will include: the influence of the literary imagination on Israeli and Palestinian society; the role of dissent and protest. Whenever apt, the instructor will also create opportunities for students to participate in a lively dialogue about current news headlines and important cultural and political trends in Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East, as they develop. Graded assignments include written essays and occasional writing prompts in class.

Are Sexually Transmitted Infections signs of demonic possession? What is the correct way to enjoy sexual union with God? What does the portrayal of Jesus’ wound as vagina reveal about their gender identity? While these questions may seem blasphemous, they constitute real concerns of various groups of Orthodox Christians across the globe. As you will learn, the expression of gender and sexuality in Christianity expands well beyond our limited modern, Western understanding. Join us as we delve into gender-bending poetry, the spiritual ecstasy of divine lactation, and the resistance of non-monogamous and non-binary cultures to Protestant and Catholic colonialism. This course will explore practices, theology, and scriptural interpretation across cultures, economic groups, historical contexts, and denominational barriers. Come ready to expand your views and investigate a wealth of Christian traditions that will make you question the very categories you take for granted.

This course explores philosophical thinking about art, beauty, experience, and creation. It discusses diverse philosophical ideas and arguments on aesthetic perception, aesthetic judgment, and aesthetic authenticity, as well as social and political aesthetics. By analyzing central texts in philosophical aesthetics, as well as modern and contemporary artworks, we will examine the meaning of art, artworks, and aesthetic experience in everyday life in modern and contemporary society.

When George Lucas began making the second film in the first Star Wars trilogy, he consulted with famed myth-critic Joseph Campbell, who advised Lucas on what has become known as “the hero journey.” Heroes, in other words, are not born—they are made. They often start out as very ordinary people living very ordinary lives, and more often than not, they aren’t the kind of people who go about looking for adventures. They certainly don’t think of themselves as heroes. But as Campbell demonstrates, it’s the ordinary person who often becomes the hero in adventures ranging from fairy tales to epic literature. We can see it in some of the oldest works of ancient peoples and in modern stories such as Harry Potter, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and, of course, Star Wars. Heroes don’t have to be male or white either. Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz fits the bill perfectly, as does the life of Frederick Douglass. This course will explore a variety of hero journeys, told in literature and film. We’ll examine the stories themselves, the time of their making, along with the history and cultural context, and ask why such stories, told in so many different ways in so many different eras, can have such similar plotlines in so many important ways. If Campbell is right, the answer is that while cultures change, humans remain largely the same. Whoever we are, whenever and wherever we live, we all ask the same questions of the world around us. Stories of “the hero journey” tell who we are and lay out the road of adventure we ourselves are on. Campbell would say that college itself is part of the hero journey you’re on right now. Why not take a class that puts your own hero journey into focus?

Introductory course in Public Humanities critically exploring notions of the individual, freedom, community, and public engagement.

This course explores the representation of ancient Egypt from classical Greece to modern Hollywood.

This course is a survey of Buddhist statecraft, political theory, and governmental and religious institutions from ancient through modern times and across several South and Southeast Asian civilizations. The purpose of this exercise is to gain an understanding of how Buddhism was both shaped by and helped shape the diverse social and political environments in which it flourished.

This class draws on a range of exciting literary narratives and film documentaries (as well as a few exemplars of fictional Israeli cinema) to discuss the relationship between the Zionist dream of Homeland and the dispossession or Nakba of the Palestinians. We will consider portrayals of the marginal figure of the Arab, both as perceived external threat and as the “Other” within Israeli society as well as works written by Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel. The core question we will address concerns the writer’s empathic response to the plight of Palestinians and the Arab minority within Israel itself, including the Palestinian people’s demands for justice and liberation from Occupation. Other dynamics to be examined will include: the influence of the literary imagination on Israeli and Palestinian society; the role of dissent and protest. Whenever apt, the instructor will also create opportunities for students to participate in a lively dialogue about current news headlines and important cultural and political trends in Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East, as they develop. Graded assignments include written essays and occasional writing prompts in class.

Are Sexually Transmitted Infections signs of demonic possession? What is the correct way to enjoy sexual union with God? What does the portrayal of Jesus’ wound as vagina reveal about their gender identity? While these questions may seem blasphemous, they constitute real concerns of various groups of Orthodox Christians across the globe. As you will learn, the expression of gender and sexuality in Christianity expands well beyond our limited modern, Western understanding. Join us as we delve into gender-bending poetry, the spiritual ecstasy of divine lactation, and the resistance of non-monogamous and non-binary cultures to Protestant and Catholic colonialism. This course will explore practices, theology, and scriptural interpretation across cultures, economic groups, historical contexts, and denominational barriers. Come ready to expand your views and investigate a wealth of Christian traditions that will make you question the very categories you take for granted.

This course explores philosophical thinking about art, beauty, experience, and creation. It discusses diverse philosophical ideas and arguments on aesthetic perception, aesthetic judgment, and aesthetic authenticity, as well as social and political aesthetics. By analyzing central texts in philosophical aesthetics, as well as modern and contemporary artworks, we will examine the meaning of art, artworks, and aesthetic experience in everyday life in modern and contemporary society.

Linguistic diversity around the world is shrinking rapidly as many languages become moribund or cease to be spoken altogether. Groups around the world have begun multifaceted efforts to maintain, revive, and promote the use of many of these languages. In this course we examine the phenomena of language endangerment and language revitalization. We will evaluate the socio-historical reasons for language shift, the rationale for language revitalization and the relative degrees of success in different revitalization programs.