English

History—both the actual physical materials that help historians establish a timeline of events of the past and the imaginings contemporaries have of those events—is a crucial part of feminist and gay rights activism. This course analyzes feminist organizing in the U.K. and gay rights organizing in the U.S. from two perspectives. First, it delves into specific historical moments that have created significant cultural and political reverberations, such the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York and the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp from 1981. Second, it examines how those events and others become parts of the storytelling used by the feminist and gay rights movements as tools to advance their demands in specific national contexts. From this dual articulation, the seminar examines the relationship between the past and the present as well as the stakes that this reciprocity has for advancing or hindering social progress. Students engage in independent and original research as they learn to engage in historical archival research and think about these issues from the perspective of apprentice scholars.

This literature course develops independent thought and the ability to communicate information effectively. Students are encouraged to work independently, to discover and synthesize information, and to select the most relevant materials from a wide range of reading. Students learn how to assess the reliability of evidence and weigh a variety of competing or conflicting arguments, to analyze complex questions, to exercise problem-solving skills, and, in the developing and organizing of arguments, students learn how to present a coherent, reasoned, and well-supported set of conclusions in clear prose. Reading list includes: Jane Austen, NORTHANGER ABBEY, Charles Dickens, HARD TIMES, Elizabeth Gaskell, NORTH AND SOUTH, Mary Shelley, FRANKENSTEIN, and Walter Scott, IVANHOE, among others.

Acting Theories surveys approaches to the art of acting, beginning with Stanislavski’s tools for the creation of psychological character. Approaches stemming from Meyerhold’s emphasis on physical expressivity are also explored, and the course continues to look at approaches which fall within two major categories of acting techniques: techniques for the creation of a psychologically truthful character and techniques for immediate expressivity or training an actor to physically respond to images. As each approach is introduced, in-class exercises demonstrate some of the techniques used by that particular acting teacher.

The Anthropocene is a proposed new geological era based on the scientific evidence that human impacts on natural environmental processes now rival geological forces in influencing the trajectory of the planetary system. This course provides insight into contaminant transport and new complex physical interactions between human activities and natural processes. Major topics include energy fundamentals and need for new energy resources, depletion and contamination of natural resources (including minerals, groundwater, air), transport processes in the multimedia environment (advection, diffusion, dispersion, interphase mass transfer, reaction kinetics), as well as introduction to man-made climate change and its ecological and societal implications.

Industry and Community Projects (ICPUs) provide the opportunity to work on authentic problems and issues set out by industry, community and government organizations. In collaboration with a major industry partner and an academic lead, students work in a group with other students from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. Together you research, analyze and present solutions to real world problems set by the external partner organization. You will then have the opportunity to engage with and learn from industry experts and present your recommendations and ideas to the industry partner.