• Humanities (AH3)
• Race and Racism in the US (D1)

This seminar will examine the intersection of war, race, and identity in America focused around two critical sites: firstly, the racialized othering of Native America from the wars of colonial conquest to the defeat of the Plains Indians; and secondly the Civil War, viewed as war for the overthrow of slavery and as it was transformed in memory into a valorous war between brothers in which questions of race were marginalized. These sites are critical to race and race relations in America, working to define who is, and who is not included with its racialized boundaries. Based in the discipline of History, this seminar will embrace approaches drawn from gender studies, anthropology and film studies.

Section Expectations: Lively student-led discussion.

Evaluation: One book review, one movie review, and a final 15-page paper on a topic of the student's choice

Literature (AH2)

In this class, we will study how the emotions of war are represented in narratives from the Middle Ages to the 21st Century, and how the horrors of war are represented. Students will read primary sources -literary narratives, movies, episodes of TV series, comics- and secondary sources to study the emotional reaction to war

Section Expectations: Readings include: "The Song of Roland," "Johnny Got His Gun," and "All Quiet on the Western Front." Movies include "Saving Private Ryan," "Civil War," "The Deer Hunter," "Jacob's Ladder," "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," and "Edge of Tomorrow."

Evaluation: - reading responses - in-class exams - scaffolded research project.

Social Sciences (S1)

Description forthcoming

Writing and Info Literacy Tier 2 (WIL2)

This is a seminar on the United States Presidency. The seminar will focus on the powers, responsibility, and accountability of a President under Article II of the United States Constitution. As a new administration is in its first year, 2025, of its term, it is an especially important time to study and understand the remarkable transformation of the presidency from the first President, George Washington, to the current President Donald Trump. This history of the presidency will be studied through the lens of the intersection of law, politics, and history. We will study the Founders’ intentions, experiences, and understandings in writing the Constitution to establish the office of the presidency as a separate institution with “shared and dispersed powers” with Congress. Early in the seminar we will see the Founders’ clear desire to establish a constitutional republic based on the doctrine of “separation of powers” within the three branches of government, but one that was designed with Congress to predominate over the President. We will explore how the presidency has grown in power and public prominence beyond the clear intentions of the Founders, to its current status with almost unlimited immunity today for Presidents from criminal prosecution while serving as President, except for personal conduct. We will discuss in class whether over time the right balance has been struck between “sharing” of powers between the President and Congress and how and when the Supreme Court has weighed in to ultimately decide the boundaries of power, responsibility, and accountability. We will discuss the differences between the powers of the President and the responsibility to use that power wisely. We will see that with power comes much discretion and whether the power should or should not be exercised. Throughout the seminar we will discuss James Madison’s concerns in FEDERALIST 51 as he emphasized the importance of a check and balance system with “necessary constitutional means” to guard against personal motives of a President. He observed: “The American democracy must discover a middle ground between making the President a Czar and making him a puppet. The problem is to devise means of reconciling a strong and purposeful presidency with equally strong and purposeful forms of democratic control. Or, to put it succinctly, we need a strong presidency – but a strong presidency within the Constitution.” In the end, the students in this seminar will decide how fragile or not are the country’s constitutional foundations that rest on important constitutional arrangements and understandings long rooted in the principles of the “rule of law” and democratic accountability as we study the historical rise of presidential power with less accountability. Ultimately, we ask whether the Founders’ careful construction of a self-government made through a “check and balance” system of “separation of powers” has been eroded over time. Course Goals The course is designed as a learning and writing “integrative process” that involves the following: 1. Gaining new and deeper knowledge and understanding constitutional structure and the power, responsibility, and accountability inherent to the office of the presidency, 2. The selection of a writing topic, 3. A detailed annotated bibliography that reviews and summarizes the primary and secondary research material, 4. A well prepared first draft that demonstrates the writer’s critical thinking and analysis and the ability to debate issues in order to summarize and evaluate ideas with supporting evidence, 5. That integrates the writer’s clear understanding of information literacy in the use of the sources of authority regarding the reliability and usefulness of the material to the readers’ understanding and learning. 6. In addition, the student writer will show an ability and understanding to write for different audiences, and the importance of writing in different contexts and for different purposes while using credible primary and secondary sources that document and integrate essential material for a clear understanding by various readers. In sum, the research and writing goals of the course tie together the above “integrated components” through a step-by-step process that comprises parts of the following scaffolded process: a) To research specific primary and secondary materials related to the identified research topic. b) To prepare a detailed annotated bibliography with formal, proper citations that cite and summarize authoritative and credible scholarship supporting the research findings. c) To prepare, defend in class, and finalize the research paper after a close, detailed feedback process from the faculty member. d) To tie together the course goals from a knowledge-based topic selection to a well-documented and focused research paper. Integrating and connecting each step of the writing project, with appropriate and timely feedback, is key to achieving the final desired outcomes. This process will influence the students’ understanding of the importance of substantive editing, re-editing, and revising ideas and conclusions to achieve each of the course’s goals. Required Text • Sullivan and Painter, The U.S. Presidency: Power, Responsibility, and Accountability (Cambridge University Press, 2025) Assignments • The course will start with required readings that will be discussed in class. Weekly reading assignments will be listed on Brightspace. • Early in the semester we will begin to discuss “topics” for the required research paper. While the seminar continues, students will continue to work toward a selection of a paper topic. Individual meetings will be scheduled with Professor Sullivan to discuss the paper topic and a developed, detailed biography. • A draft of the paper will follow. Comments on the draft will be shared with each student that should help inform the final paper. • The final paper will be due the last day of classes.

Section Expectations: 1. Students are expected to be prepared and attend on time all regularly scheduled classes. Students should not leave the classroom once class has started except for personal emergencies or sickness. The class will apply the Socratic method and be very interactive through a “conversational style” of question and answers throughout the class. Poor attendance may result in a lower grade or dismissal. 2. In the classroom, the use of laptop computers, tablets, smartphones, cellphones, and other such devices is prohibited. Note taking can be accomplished using pen and paper. 3. Classes may not be recorded without prior permission. 4. Students are expected to show respect for faculty and other students during classroom in order to promote a positive teaching and learning environment and experience for all. 5. Academic integrity is required at all times. Plagiarism and cheating are never acceptable. The use of AI tools such as ChatGPT, Deep Seek, Google Gemini, and similar tools in research and writing the required paper will be considered plagiarism and cheating. Violations will receive serious consequences including no credit for the course, a lower or lowest grade, and suspension or dismissal from the University. 6. While in the classroom class participation is required. The quality of participation will be encouraged and will have an influence on the final grade. An attendance sheet will be passed around in each class and attendance will be recorded. 7. All assignments are to be turned on time. Late work will result in a lower grade unless permission is given for an extension. Failure to follow these requirements and expectations will affect your grade.

Evaluation: Summary and Bases for Grade Quality of Class Participation and Contribution – 10% of Final Grade Quizzes – 20% of Final Grade Draft of Paper – 25% of Final Grade In Class Presentation of Paper – 10% of Final Grade Final Paper – 35% of Final Grade Failure to follow these requirements and expectations will affect your grade.

• Writing and Info Literacy Tier 2 (WIL2)

This seminar has been approved for W1L2 credit in the Catamount Core Curriculum. A substantial portion of the final grade will come from the written assignments. (See course goals stated in the syllabus.) Students will be engaged in writing /information literacy activities that will be tied to the course outcomes. Also, students will be engaged in debate and conversation central to the field of Free Speech rights in class and within a range of audiences. This is a seminar on Free Speech and Expression under the US Constitution's First Amendment. The seminar will focus on first principles, foundational and normative values, doctrine, counter theories of broader speech protection or less protection, and current debates. The seminar will utilize a proactive, interactive teaching style that will engage students in discussion, dialogue, and debates. Free speech has become a subject of widespread debate. Today, conversations on college campuses, secondary schools, the workplace, living rooms, and the popular media touch on a vast range of Free Speech issues. Arguments about protests by athletes, whether something constitutes "hate speech", the censoring effects of "political correctness", campaign contributions, the role of media, the former President's Twitter feed - and even more esoteric issues like "revenge porn" or whether someone should have a right to burn the flag or whether making a wedding cake qualifies as "speech" - have become commonplace. This seminar seeks to promote better understanding, and therefore better discussion, of the ideas that underlie our protection of free expression. It attempts to help readers better comprehend why free speech issues that presently confront us are uniquely complex. And, it sheds light on the factors that make debates over free speech so intractable and to offer educational tools that might help us improve our discourse around this fascinating and critically important topic. We begin by discussing the foundational values that traditionally have been identified as supporting expansive protection for free speech. The formidable force of those arguments and their influence on the development of first principles and legal doctrine will be analyzed. Next, we will trace the development of first principles and the evolution of free speech doctrine in the Supreme Court. It will show how those principles and doctrines connect with the values discussed earlier in the class. The class then will explore how the Supreme Court has applied those values, principles, and doctrinal frameworks to such current issues as campaign finance, speech in public schools, hate speech, campus speech, public employee speech and digital speech. The seminar will show how debates around these challenging issues necessarily call us to a consideration - and perhaps a reconsideration - of the values and first principles considered earlier in the class. The reading assignments primarily will come from a book I have co-written entitled (with Len Niehoff), Free Speech: From Core Values to Current Debates, published in 2022 by Cambridge University Press. Students will be assigned approximately 85 pages of reading each week. Supplemental readings in the primary text will include: The Federalist Papers, U.S. Supreme Court cases, historical documents, and several leading texts and treatises on the First Amendment. Students will be required to complete an independent research paper that will require research in primary documents, scholarly publications, and cases from federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. The final grade will reflect the quality of class participation and engagement, the first draft of the seminar paper, presentation of the seminar paper in class, the final seminar paper, and several exams throughout the semester as chapters in assigned books are completed. (See course goals and expectations set out below). Goals for the seminar include building and developing knowledge, keen analytical skills, strong communication abilities (both verbal and written), and a better understanding of constitutional rights. The in-class dialogue, together with the research paper, will build critical thinking and writing skills. In addition, students will learn how to do research for writing and publishing, as well as how to prepare for teaching a segment of the class in small groups or individually. Throughout the class, we will discuss and analyze an "absolutist or libertarian" view of the Free Speech freedoms - a view now embraced fully by the U.S. Supreme Court. This common framing of the absolutist view puts aside the normative and political questions of whether such a legal principle makes any sense, whether it aligns with our various goals as a society, and whether it has outworn its welcome and should be revisited - as laws in a constitutional republic can be. Perhaps the greatest challenge for absolutists lies here: the Freedoms are not as absolute as they may at first appear. Most will agree that no one has a right to threaten another with bodily harm, or to commit blackmail, fraud, or extortion - even though speech plays a central role in each of those activities. They will acknowledge, even if grudgingly, that some exceptions have to exist, for example, conceding that no one has the right to cry "Fire!" in a crowded theater when there is no fire. We will call the competing view the "relativist" view. This view reflects a willingness to compromise free expression in light of other countervailing interests that need to be considered and balanced against other values that we think important, like protecting people against discrimination, preserving public safety, maintaining sexual decency, affording individuals a zone of privacy and safeguarding personal reputation and dignity. Proponents of the relativist view maintain that our present protection for free expression extends too far that we have lost sight of other compelling interests and have lost touch with our deeply held intuitions about what makes for a just, welcoming, and healthy society. This lack of understanding results in an unfortunate and unproductive reductionism in both camps; the absolutists think of free expression as just about everything, while the relativists think of it as just another thing. This seminar seeks to help students achieve a stronger, clearer, and more nuanced understanding of free expression. One that provides a better comprehension of what's at stake when we limit free expression - and also when we champion it. Course Goals The course is designed as a learning and writing “integrative process” that involves the following: 1. Gaining new and deeper knowledge and understanding about Free Speech Rights, 2. The selection of a writing topic, 3. A detailed annotated bibliography that reviews and summarizes the primary and secondary research material, 4. A well prepared first draft that demonstrates the writer’s critical thinking and analysis and the ability to debate issues in order to summarize and evaluate ideas with supporting evidence, 5. That integrates the writer’s clear understanding of information literacy in the use of the sources of authority regarding the reliability and usefulness of the material to the readers’ understanding and learning. 6. In addition, the student writer will show an ability and understanding to write for different audiences, and the importance of writing in different contexts and for different purposes while using credible primary and secondary sources that document and integrate essential material for a clear understanding by various readers. In sum, the research and writing goals of the course tie together the above “integrated components” through a step-by-step process that comprises parts of the following scaffolded process: a) To research specific primary and secondary materials related to the identified research topic. b) To prepare a detailed annotated bibliography with formal, proper citations that cite and summarize authoritative and credible scholarship supporting the research finding. c) To prepare, defend in class, and finalize the research paper after a close, detailed feedback process from the faculty member. d) To tie together the course goals from a knowledge-based topic selection to a well-documented focused research paper. Integrating and connecting each step of the writing project, with appropriate and timely feedback, is key to achieving the final desired outcomes. This process will influence the students’ understanding of the importance of substantive editing, re-editing, and revising ideas and conclusions to achieve each of the course’s goals.

Section Expectations: Required Text • Niehoff and Sullivan, Free Speech: From Core Values to Current Debates (Cambridge University Press, 2022) Assignments • The course will start with required readings that will be discussed in class. Weekly reading assignments will be listed on Brightspace. • Early in the semester, we will begin to discuss "topics" for the required research paper. While the seminar continues, students will continue to work toward a selection of a paper topic. Individual meetings will be scheduled with Professor Sullivan to discuss the paper topic and a developed, detailed bibliography. • A draft of the paper will follow. Comments on the draft will be shared with each student that should help inform the final paper. • The final paper will be due the last day of classes. Classroom Requirements and Expectations 1. Students are expected to be prepared and attend on time all regularly scheduled classes. Students should not leave the classroom once class has started except for personal emergencies or sickness. The class will be very proactive and interactive though a “conversational style” of questions and answers throughout the class. Poor attendance may result in a lower grade or dismissal. 2. In the classroom, the use of laptop computers, iPads, and tablets, Smartphones, cell phones, and other such devices are prohibited. Note taking can be accomplished using pen and paper. 3. Classes may not be recorded without prior permission. 4. Students are expected to show respect for faculty and other students during classroom in order to promote a positive teaching and learning environment, and experience for all. 5. Academic integrity is required at all times. (Plagiarism and cheating are never acceptable.) Use of AI Chat GBT tools in research and writing the required paper will be considered plagiarism and cheating. Violations will receive serious consequences, including no credit for the course, a lower or lowest grade, and suspension or dismissal from the University. 6. While in the classroom, class participation is required. The quality of participation will be encouraged and will have an influence on the final grade. An attendance sheet will be passed around in each class and attendance will be recorded. 7. All assignments are to be turned in on time. Late work will result in a lower grade unless permission is given to an extension. Failure to follow these requirements and expectations will affect your grade.

Evaluation: Summary of Bases for Grade Quality of Class Participation and Contribution – 10% of Final Grade Quizzes – 20% of Final Grade Draft of Paper – 25% of Final Grade In Class Presentation of Paper – 10% of Final Grade Final Paper – 35% of Final Grade Failure to follow these requirements and expectations will affect your grade.

• Quantitative and Data Literacy (QD)
• Race and Racism in the US (D1)
• Social Sciences (S1)

This course explores the economics of discrimination through theory and empirics. We will focus on discrimination in the United States based on race and ethnicity, and we will also consider discrimination along lines of gender identity, sexual orientation, citizenship status, and nation of birth. We will examine discrimination in domains, including labor markets, lending, housing, and criminal justice. In the first half of the course, we will read about and discuss basic economic models of discrimination and delve into the existing empirical evidence, with extensive discussion of how economists test these models using observational and experimental data. In the second half of the course, we will work in two to three groups to design and implement field experiments that measure discrimination using an audit study-style methodology. For example, students might measure employer call-back rates on fictional resumes that are broadly identical except on one dimension such as race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or national origin (often signaled through name or extracurricular participation). Through this process, students will conduct literature reviews, develop and refine research ideas, develop study protocols, collect and analyze data, and use this analysis to create a short paper and presentation that deliver the study findings. Course objectives include: 1. To understand and apply economic theories of discrimination and connect the predictions of these models with empirical evidence\\ 2. To interpret and synthesize academic evidence on discrimination and critically consider individual-level models of discrimination in light of broader structural patterns 3. To gain experience in applied research by developing original research questions and hypotheses informed by academic literature, conceptualizing methods to test research questions, constructing specific and implementable protocols, evaluating ethical considerations, and implementing the designed research 4. To clearly communicate research findings orally and in writing, drawing from academic literature and data analysis based on primary data collection 5. To communicate and collaborate with classmates to identify and address challenges and opportunities in designing and implementing a research study.

Section Expectations: This course combines lecture and discussion formats. Students should expect to spend 6-8 hours a week on coursework outside of class, which will include reading assigned materials and writing reading responses, collaborating in a small group to develop the research study and protocols, and analyzing results and writing a research paper to present them.

Evaluation: Grades are based on class participation, (semi-weekly) reading responses, and the research project.

Oral Communication (OC)

Since times immemorial, humans have been fascinated with the natural world, so much so that we have continuously sought ways to imitate Nature in search of solutions to our daily challenges and to expand the realm of human activities. Many ascribe the original notion that “technology imitates nature” to Aristotle, who defined mimesis as the perfection and imitation of nature. Nature’s fascinating designs and elaborate strategies for problem solving are the product of 3.8 billion years of experimentation, the process of organic evolution, sensu stricto. While the concept of imitating Nature has been around for millennia, its pursuit as a scientific discipline dates to the 1950’s when the term biomimetics was coined to describe the transfer of ideas from biology to technology. The 1990’s witnessed the birth of biomimicry, a new science that studies Nature’s models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems. But the goal of biomimicry is not simply to rob Nature of its secrets for human’s technological prowess. Biomimicry also aims to instill among its practitioners a sense of awe and respect for Nature; that Nature’s best ideas are only there for the taking if we protect and preserve our natural surroundings. Truly innovative bio-inspired solutions transform human lives and contribute to a more sustainable world. These concepts are interwoven in UVM’ official Land Acknowledgement Statement (https://www.uvm.edu/news/diversity/board-adopts-land-acknowledgment). In this course, students will become familiar with the discovery, scientific, and technological processes that turn a Nature-inspired idea into an invention, whether it is an intellectual concept, a process, a material, or a device. The course consists of a small number of lectures and emphasizes group work, imagination, ideation, project development and presentation.

• Literature (AH2)
• Race and Racism in the US (D1)

Description forthcoming

Social Sciences (S1)

Description forthcoming

Humanities (AH3)

This seminar looks at human-animal interactions from various angles — sociological, philosophical, scientific, and artistic. Topics will include: Do animals have agency independent from that which we extend to them? Are they rational? Do they possess emotions? Should we eat them? To what extent is the animal kingdom hierarchical or cooperative? What is the evolutionary origin and function of aggression? How did humans domesticate animals and why? Why do animals play such a large role in religion and feature so prominently in art? Readings will range from the instructor’s new book How to Care about Animals: An Ancient Guide to Creatures Great and Small (Princeton University Press, 2023), an anthology of classical texts that includes fables of Aesop, passages from Ovid, philosophical treatises by Porphyry and Plutarch on vegetarianism, Aristotle on why we should study animals, Pliny on animal cruelty, etc., as well as, e.g., John Berger’s famous essay “Why Look at Animals?”, Temple Grandin’s Animals Make Us Human, Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation, Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid, etc. et vel sim. Films (which are considered texts) include, e.g., “My Octopus Teacher,” Werner Herzog’s “Grizzly Man,” and “Babe.” Coursework consists of short but focused weekly discussion posts, class discussion, and final presentations.

Section Expectations: This seminar looks at human-animal interactions from various angles — sociological, philosophical, scientific, and artistic. Topics will include: Do animals have agency independent from that which we extend to them? Are they rational? Do they possess emotions? Should we eat them? To what extent is the animal kingdom hierarchical or cooperative? What is the evolutionary origin and function of aggression? How did humans domesticate animals and why? Why do animals play such a large role in religion and feature so prominently in art? Readings will range from the instructor’s new book How to Care about Animals: An Ancient Guide to Creatures Great and Small (Princeton University Press, 2023), an anthology of classical texts that includes fables of Aesop, passages from Ovid, philosophical treatises by Porphyry and Plutarch on vegetarianism, Aristotle on why we should study animals, Pliny on animal cruelty, etc., as well as, e.g., John Berger’s famous essay “Why Look at Animals?”, Temple Grandin’s Animals Make Us Human, Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation, Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid, etc. et vel sim. Films (which are considered texts) include, e.g., “My Octopus Teacher,” Werner Herzog’s “Grizzly Man,” and “Babe.” Coursework consists of short but focused weekly discussion posts, class discussion, and final presentations.

Evaluation: This seminar looks at human-animal interactions from various angles — sociological, philosophical, scientific, and artistic. Topics will include: Do animals have agency independent from that which we extend to them? Are they rational? Do they possess emotions? Should we eat them? To what extent is the animal kingdom hierarchical or cooperative? What is the evolutionary origin and function of aggression? How did humans domesticate animals and why? Why do animals play such a large role in religion and feature so prominently in art? Readings will range from the instructor’s new book How to Care about Animals: An Ancient Guide to Creatures Great and Small (Princeton University Press, 2023), an anthology of classical texts that includes fables of Aesop, passages from Ovid, philosophical treatises by Porphyry and Plutarch on vegetarianism, Aristotle on why we should study animals, Pliny on animal cruelty, etc., as well as, e.g., John Berger’s famous essay “Why Look at Animals?”, Temple Grandin’s Animals Make Us Human, Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation, Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid, etc. et vel sim. Films (which are considered texts) include, e.g., “My Octopus Teacher,” Werner Herzog’s “Grizzly Man,” and “Babe.” Coursework consists of short but focused weekly discussion posts, class discussion, and final presentations.

SU (Sustainability)

This course explores the deep entanglement between humans and honey bees across a range of perspectives and ways of knowing. Drawing on the natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, and spirituality, we will immerse ourselves in the life of honey bees to explore the animating questions of this class: What are honey bees? What are they asking of us? What can we learn alongside them about living sustainably on earth? These lines of inquiry will take us on a multidisciplinary journey through the tapestry of human/honey bee cultures. In the process, you may discover your own guiding questions to carry you forward. There are two required texts and one optional text for this class. Required: The Buzz about Bees: Biology of a Superorganism by Jürgen Tautz Song of Increase: Listening to the Wisdom of Honeybees for Kinder Beekeeping and a Better World by Jacqueline Freeman Optional: The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild by Thomas D. Seeley

Race and Racism in the US (D1)

Description forthcoming

Sustainability (SU)

The Earth is a complex coupled human-natural system that is increasingly dominated by human activities. We will examine anthropogenic climate change as part of an integrated earth system that includes impacts on and feedbacks with human systems. We will consider the challenges and interactions between climate change and human societies by considering responses of current and past societies to climate change and environmental degradation. We will place anthropogenic climate change in the broader context of limits to growth, sustainability, and societal development. The class will emphasize readings, discussions, and construction of simple simulation models to understand the scientific and social basis of contemporary climate and sustainability. Students will use the graphical computer programming language Stella to develop a simplified model of the Earth system.

• Arts (AH1)
• Diversity of the Human Experience (D2)

Trans life today is undeniably enmeshed with visual culture. This complex juncture inextricably informs the project of negotiating trans rights and social justice, and this is the intersection that this course investigates. Course topics will cover a variety of approaches to contemporary art and visual culture produced by trans creatives. As well as the ways anti-trans actors have similarly utilized visual culture toward anti-trans agendas. This course interrogates questions about the complex stakes of representation and visual culture regarding the negotiation of which trans lives are livable and who is most at risk. And how visual culture can be deployed as a tool for social justice and liberation, education, and beyond. We will study a variety of trans and visual culture methodologies. The course will include lectures, discussions, student research presentations, field trips, and guest lectures. Through lectures, class discussions, texts, guest, and student-led research projects, we will investigate artwork, methods, and shifts in practices and theories throughout contemporary trans art and visual culture. This course will also support developing students' abilities to conduct art historical and visual studies research, hone different stylistic approaches to writing and research, and relate trans visualities and trans methodologies to their research practice.

Sustainability (SU)

In a unique meditation on how landscapes shape our imagination, desires, and dreams, writer Barry Lopez wonders, “How do people imagine the landscapes they find themselves in? How does the land shape the imaginations of the people who dwell in it? How does desire itself, the desire to comprehend, shape knowledge?” But one may also ask how imaginations of austere and formidable places such as the Arctic shape scientific exploration, colonial conquests, geopolitical control, and further racial capitalism. The unfreezing Arctic environment and its changing sociocultural systems are a product of region’s colonial past. But an unstable Arctic poses threats, not only to the future of the region, but to the world itself. In this seminar we will explore a landscape that is rapidly changing, as a result of climatic and socioeconomic changes. These prospective changes will open new shipping avenues, reveal new resources, raise issues of native sovereignty, as well as prompt geo-political national security concerns. This seminar provides an interdisciplinary overview of the social, political, and environmental conflicts but also environmental sustainability and just transitions efforts in the Arctic. This is a dynamic course where each of you will co-lead the class to explore the following key themes we will discuss throughout the semester: • The histories of indigenous communities in the Arctic • Relationship between science, capitalism, and resource exploitation • Discourses and impacts of climate change in the region • Contemporary environmental conflicts • Just transitions in the Arctic. • Indigenous rights and Native sovereignty • Geopolitics of Arctic governance

Humanities (AH3)

Since the Renaissance in Western Europe, the self has become a subject of study, filling tomes of now classic literature. Today, people spill their guts on blogs and on social media. Why? One common theory is that writing is a form of therapy. It can also be a form of creative rebellion in which fiction is used as a strategic weapon. Writing one's own story furthermore prevents others from usurping that power. It allows the writer to gain the upper hand over life circumstances or even life-altering events — in other words, control the narrative. This course will explore Jewish subjects on a collision course with history — that is, the Second World War and the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. It will focus on celebrated authors, some of whom, facing death, demand to be heard and hold the French nation to account, and others, recovering from the trauma of memory, are still seeking a means of escape. Fundamentally and more broadly, these novelists will educate us about the experiences of war and persecution in a country that had once symbolized human rights and dignity for the Jews. In addition to French state policy, from the late 18th century through the 20th, we will reflect on how the themes and questions these works raise intersect with our understanding of present-day conflicts. Evaluation will be based on daily participation, six short reflection papers, two papers (6pp each), and two exams.

Section Expectations: Regular attendance and active participation in class discussion, thoughtful reading, and critical engagement with the readings in the writing assignments.

Evaluation: Evaluation will be based on daily participation (10%), classroom discussion leader (10%), short reflection papers (20%), two papers (40%), and two exams (20%).

• Diversity of the Human Experience (D2)
• Sustainability (SU)

Transnational Extractivism in Latin America In the 21st century, Latin America has experienced a commodity boom and an influx of investments from transnational corporations and governments (leftist and conservative) in mega-mining, infrastructure, gas, oil, water, and green energy projects, particularly wind and solar. While these developments have sparked optimism about the region’s future, they also have also contributed to social unrest, humanitarian crises, racial, class and gender inequalities, environmental degradation, (trans)national social movements, and conflicts over strategic natural resources such as minerals, land, water, sand, seeds, and data. Given these circumstances, this course examines the political, economic, environmental, social, and ideological dimensions of transnational extractivism in Latin America. Specifically, it explores its defining elements as a descriptive/analytical concept, a mode of capitalist accumulation, its policies and ideologies, its socio-environmental effects, and the forms of resistance and critiques it has enacted, as well as its limits, limitations, and consequences in different countries across the region. This course is conceived as a broad research seminar to diverse issues and approaches related to extractivism. As such, it introduces students to leading academics, activists, thought leaders, journals, research databases, news sources, research centers, and global institutions in diverse fields and areas of inquiry such as political economy, transnational studies, critical studies of global capitalism, social and environmental justice, political ecology, and sustainability that have conducted important work about the complex and wide-ranging effects of different forms of extractivism in Latin America. The course will be particularly useful for students from various disciplines who plan to conduct research on or in Latin America, or to those interested in understanding transnational, cross-cultural, regionally specific, and comparative perspectives about an important contemporary phenomenon related to global capitalism in this region of the world. 

Natural Science - no lab (N1)

Metagenomic analyses have established that viruses are Earth’s most abundant and diverse biological entities. Further, the sequencing of the human genome revealed that viruses and virus-like entities, together with related mobile genetic elements, make up more than half of it. These findings lead to a paradigm change: rather than being primarily perceived as pathogens, we now appreciate that viruses and related genetic elements are intertwined with the development and physiology of all known living entities – they are essential constituents of the biosphere. They are rooted in the pre-cellular world, have coevolved with cell-based biological entities, and such coexistence of cell-based organisms and viruses (and similar mobile genetic entities) has profoundly affected the evolution of presumably all cellular life forms. The overall goal of this course is to discuss this paradigm change: viruses should now be considered being overall positive genetic entities. They were not only essential for evolution, but they are also important during ontogenesis, and while some of them can temporarily act as pathogens, likely many more are either neutral or may actually help prevent diseases, for example by strengthening host physiology and immune functions. Notwithstanding the recent COVID-19 crisis and past and future more severe viral outbreaks, this course will thus focus on how securing sustainability of the human society and the biosphere requires an in-depth understanding of virus-host coexistence. Following a highly interactive approach (with group work, class discussions, etc), we will investigate why and how, rather than through inventions of ever novel and costly antiviral strategies (drugs, medical treatments, pesticides, etc), health and viability at all levels, from individual organisms to complete ecosystems, are likely best supported by preventing disequilibrium and by promoting homeostasis.

Natural Science - no lab (N1)

ave you ever wondered what would happen if you used long grain rice rather than sushi rice to make sushi? Or swapped baking soda for baking powder in a cookie recipe and found that your cookies were much browner than usual? Or tried different tactics to sooth your burning mouth after eating spicy food? Or made bread using gluten-free flour and wished it were chewier? Or wished you could replicate the milk foam that tops the coffee you order from your favorite coffee shop? Our goal will be to get a foundation in the chemical, biological, and physical principles that underly why foods behave the way they do in the kitchen, and discuss how to design effective experiments to test these principles. The course is designed to be approachable regardless of your experience with the natural sciences. Food provides a familiar and relatable context to explore scientific principles and methodology for the first time, and people majoring in the natural sciences will have the chance to expand their knowledge and apply it in new ways. We’ll also highlight the creative aspect of the scientific process by thinking about how to translate laboratory techniques to the kitchen. Assessments will help you develop your ability to design experiments that effectively test scientific principles we discuss, and to explain the science behind culinary phenomena to a general audience. Although this is not a lab-based course, we will design and carry out a few experiments as a class. Occasional hands-on activities will also allow you to see, feel, smell, and taste some of the scientific principles we discuss at work. This course fulfills the N1 Natural Science (no lab) requirement.

Section Expectations: There are no required materials for this course. Readings and associated class materials will be provided as PDFs or weblinks on Brightspace.

Evaluation: Assessments include pre-class reading questions, experimental design assignments, assignments focused on explaining the food science concepts we discuss to a general audience, final project components, and engagement