Course Description: This course will focus on one particular rite of passage: the coming of age. Through the literature of different time periods and cultures, we will examine the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Readings may include Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus, Chretien de Troyes, Perceval, Rita Mae Brown, Rubyfruit Jungle, Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Duong Thu Hong, Paradise of the Blind, Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, and the films Cinema Paradiso and Harold and Maude. (Group III - Humanities/Literature)
Course Delivery:
Course Description: In this course we will focus on the folklore of the European continent. The term "folklore" will be considered in its broadest sense to include folk narratives, rituals, customs, traditions, and beliefs. Although our central focus will be verbal lore, we will study folk art, traditional festivals, and folk costume. Special emphasis will be given to food traditions. The verbal lore read and discussed will include animal tales, fairy tales, legends, myths, riddles, jokes, and proverbs. Students will learn to prepare ancient Slavic dishes: kutia, blini, kasha, and kvas. The European fairy tale will be a centerpiece of the course. Students can expect to read and write about tales from Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, Italy, and Poland. Readings in these traditions will be extensive. In addition to the tales themselves, students will become acquainted with major theoretical approaches to studying folklore. These approaches include the works of Vladimir Propp, Claude Lèvi-Strauss , Bruno Bettelheim, Karen Rowe, Alison Lurie, Max Lüthi, Carl Jung, and others. The transposition of traditional narratives into modern poetry, film, and visual art will complement our study. (Group III)
Course Delivery- Hybrid: CMLT 110 will meet in person in physically distanced classroom and outside, weather permitting. Lecture summaries and notes will be posted on Blackboard. The semester-long interactive fiction game design project will be done in design groups of three on the Twine platform and through Google Meet.
Course Description: In this course we will focus on the folklore of the European continent. The term "folklore" will be considered in its broadest sense to include folk narratives, rituals, customs, traditions, and beliefs. Although our central focus will be verbal lore, we will study folk art, traditional festivals, and folk costume. Special emphasis will be given to food traditions. The verbal lore read and discussed will include animal tales, fairy tales, legends, myths, riddles, jokes, and proverbs. Students will learn to prepare ancient Slavic dishes: kutia, blini, kasha, and kvas. The European fairy tale will be a centerpiece of the course. Students can expect to read and write about tales from Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, Italy, and Poland. Readings in these traditions will be extensive. In addition to the tales themselves, students will become acquainted with major theoretical approaches to studying folklore. These approaches include the works of Vladimir Propp, Claude Lèvi-Strauss , Bruno Bettelheim, Karen Rowe, Alison Lurie, Max Lüthi, Carl Jung, and others. The transposition of traditional narratives into modern poetry, film, and visual art will complement our study. (Group III)
Course Delivery- Hybrid: CMLT 110 will meet in person in physically distanced classroom and outside, weather permitting. Lecture summaries and notes will be posted on Blackboard. The semester-long interactive fiction game design project will be done in design groups of three on the Twine platform and through Google Meet.
Course Description: What are the relations between love, desire, sex, and sexuality? How have these relationships shifted or been re-negotiated over time and across cultures? In this course, we will read a wide range of literature dealing broadly with the subject of love. In particular, we will be interested in examining how our authors understand the role of love in constructions of the family, the relationship between friends, and in relation to desire. We will explore how cultures of different times and places construct different varieties of love and how love comes to form such a central part to shaping individual identity in Western cultures. We will also explore how various aspects of love impinge on matters that may not immediately spring to mind when we speak of the familial, erotic, amorous, or amicable: religious belief, aesthetics, philosophy, and the law. Course materials include Plato's Symposium, medieval romances, selections from Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarch, Yorgos Lanthimos' film, The Favourite, and Alison Bechdel's Fun Home.
Course Delivery:
Course Description: The common stereotype of Japanese women is that they are demure and walk two steps behind their men. When women step out of this image, they are often labeled as "bad" or "divas". In this course, we will examine the various iterations of "bad women" in Japanese literature, film, and culture both past and present. Questions we will consider are how does "bad" get defined over time and by gender? Why is there even a need by society to have such a pejorative label used for women and not men? When men are "bad," are the standards different? How does the notion of the "bad" Japanese woman compare with such a notion in other cultures? By examining works that portray such women by both male and female writers and artists from Japan's past and present, we will try to discern if there are any universals about the definition of "bad" and how this label reflects broader ideas about gender in Japanese culture as well as in other societies.
Course Delivery- Hybrid: This is an honors seminar and so far is a small class so I am planning to teach this course in person and if necessary provide accommodations for any student who can not meet in person. I would do this by meeting with online students once a week via google meeting to go over my lecture (if any) and class discussion. I will have all students post discussion board posts (as I have done prior to COVID-19) before our class meeting. This helps with class discussion. For students not in the class, I will read their posts to those in class. All assignments will be submitted online. I will use blackboard for all communications and assignment postings. This seemed to work last semester.
Course Description: Some scholars argue that film is the new literary form of the late 20th and early 21st century. This course will focus on films that are products of one of the most populous and economically powerful parts of the world-East Asia. We will look at East Asian films (China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan) to see in what ways they are unique expressions of Asian culture and thinking and in what ways they are part of a more global world of filmmaking. We will study film theory and learn how to critically watch a film. We will also read theoretical works that specifically address the art of Asian films. While reading these theoretical works, we will look at famous Asian films that have made an historic impact in the film world. Finally, we will look at current trends in Asian films, with particular emphasis on the way Asian films have influenced Hollywood. Genres we will study include: Japanese anime, J-Horror, and Chinese martial arts films. We will also look at classics such as: The Seven Samurai, Farewell My Concubine, and Raise the Red Lantern. Previous courses in film or East Asian studies are highly recommended. (Group III) (Diversity) (Writing)
Course Delivery- Hybrid: This course is a fairly large course. 15 students are already enrolled. I am planning to teach this as a hybrid. I will post my powerpoint lectures ahead of time and record my lecture with my explanation of the slides. I will ask that students watch my lecture and the film ahead of our class meeting. I will then meet in person with students who are on campus to have a discussion about the film and my lecture. Students will post film responses on blackboard's discussion board link ahead of our class meeting. For students who are attending the class remotely, I will read their responses in the in-person class meeting. For students who are remote, I can arrange to meet with them virtually after my in-person class session to go over what points were raised in class and vice versa. All assignments, communication, and exams can be submitted online.
Course Description: Before Wikipedia, there was Diderot's massive Encyclopédie. Long before social media, there were social networks of letter writers. And before Salon.com, the salons of Madame Necker and Madame Geoffrin. "Reason and Romanticism" is a course devoted to the long 18th-century where students can inhabit the drama of enlightenment thought through digital projects in order to better understand the break in Western consciousness we call 'Romanticism.' Our approach to studying the cultural age emphasizes participation over a nomenclatural approach. In addition to reading major authors and genres, we consider the cross-cultural friendships, artistic collaborations, and political, religious, and cultural affiliations among thinkers, writers, and artists -- both the privileged and the powerless. In seminar-format class discussions, students explore the relevance of 18th century studies for understanding 21st century problems, questions, and issues. Students read Sterne, Voltaire, Goethe, and Pushkin, as they actively seek out under-represented participants and forms of participation, such as female virtuosity in the genre of letter writing. Coursework requires students to apply digital tools in the humanities of the Eighteenth-century studies. Student "Encyclopédistes" will move between the digitized 28-volume Encyclopédie and Wikipedia, as they participate in a Wiki education project, researching, writing, and editing Wikipedia entries, or stubs, relating to under- and misrepresented authors, genres, and concepts. Final project in the course is a public-facing, collaborative project mapping female participation and virtuosity in the genre of letter writing.
Course Delivery- Hybrid: Instruction will be hybrid (in person) with group projects on Wiki Education and SCALAR platforms.