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Your search for courses · tagged with MARS Core Course · returned 57 results
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ARBC 185 The Creation of Classical Arabic Literature 6 credits
In this course we will explore the emergence of Arabic literature in one of the most exciting and important periods in the history of Islam and the Arab world; a time in which pre-Islamic Arabian lore was combined with translated Persian wisdom literature and Greek scientific and philosophical writings to form the canon of learning of the new emerged Arab-Islamic empire. We will explore some of the different literary genres that emerged in the New Arab courts and urban centers: from wine and love poetry, historical and humorous anecdotes, to the Thousand and One Nights, and discuss the socio-historical forces and institutions that shaped them. All readings are in English. No Arabic knowledge required.
In Translation.
Not offered in 2024-25
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ARCN 246 Archaeological Methods & Lab 6 credits
As a field that is truly interdisciplinary, archaeology uses a wide range of methods to study the past. This course provides a hands-on introduction to the entire archaeological process through classroom, field, and laboratory components. Students will participate in background research concerning local places of historical or archaeological interest; landscape surveying and mapping in GIS; excavation; the recording, analysis, and interpretation of artifacts; and the publication of results. This course involves real archaeological fieldwork, and students will have an opportunity to contribute to the history of the local community while learning archaeological methods applicable all over the world.
Sophomore priority
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ARTH 100.02 Witches, Monsters and Demons 6 credits
Between 1300 and 1600 depictions of witches, monsters, and demons moved from the margins of medieval manuscripts and the nooks of church architecture to the center of altarpieces and heart of princely collections. Although this diabolical imagery was extremely diverse, it came from one place: the mind of the Renaissance artist. This course examines how images that came from within were devised and fashioned into works of art. It considers why fantastical imagery that showcased the artist’s imagination was so highly valued during the Renaissance–a period typically associated with the rebirth of classical antiquity. Finally, it explores the connection between illusions, visions, dreams, and other visual phenomena that highlighted the potential malfunction of the mind, and artistic creation. Some of the artists discussed include, but are not limited to, Hieronymus Bosch, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci.
Held for new first year students
- Fall 2024
- AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1 IS, International Studies
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Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information.
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ARTH 101 Introduction to Art History I 6 credits
An introduction to the art and architecture of various geographical areas around the world from antiquity through the “Middle Ages.” The course will provide foundational skills (tools of analysis and interpretation) as well as general, historical understanding. It will focus on a select number of major developments in a range of media and cultures, emphasizing the way that works of art function both as aesthetic and material objects and as cultural artifacts and forces. Issues include, for example, sacred spaces, images of the gods, imperial portraiture, and domestic decoration.
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ARTH 102 Introduction to Art History II 6 credits
An introduction to the art and architecture of various geographical areas around the world from the fifteenth century through the present. The course will provide foundational skills (tools of analysis and interpretation) as well as general, historical understanding. It will focus on a select number of major developments in a range of media and cultures, emphasizing the way that works of art function both as aesthetic and material objects and as cultural artifacts and forces. Issues include, for example, humanist and Reformation redefinitions of art in the Italian and Northern Renaissance, realism, modernity and tradition, the tension between self-expression and the art market, and the use of art for political purposes.
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ARTH 155 Islamic Art and Architecture 6 credits
This course surveys the art and architecture of societies where Muslims were dominant or where they formed significant minorities from the seventh through the nineteenth centuries. It examines the form and function of architecture and works of art as well as the social, historical and cultural contexts, patterns of use, and evolving meanings attributed to art by the users. The course follows a chronological order, where selected visual materials are treated along chosen themes. Themes include the creation of a distinctive visual culture in the emerging Islamic polity; cultural interconnections along trade and pilgrimage routes; and westernization.
Not offered in 2024-25
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ARTH 203 Intersectional Medieval Art 6 credits
Grounded in critical race theory, intersectionality, and queer theory, this class draws on a range of visual and textual sources to trace the histories, experiences, and representations of marginalized identities in the medieval world. We will consider gender, sexuality, and race in the context of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures during the Middle Ages. This class will examine topics including transgender saints, demonic possession, and the so-called “monstrous races.” In contrast to misconceptions of a homogenous white Christian past, the reality of medieval Europe was diverse and complex, as reflected in its visual and material culture.
Not offered in 2024-25
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ARTH 213 The Medieval Book as Art and Object 6 credits
Even more than knights, the Black Plague, or Monty Python, the Middle Ages is characterized by books, as the number of manuscripts from the period far exceed those of paintings, sculptures, mosaics, and other artworks combined. In this course, students will learn about the various forms that the book took on during its development over 1,000 years, through contextual study of patrons, creators, and redactors. Students will also develop an introductory familiarity with the tools of manuscript studies, including paleography and codicology through hands-on exercises.
Participation in Carleton OCS Art Now Program
Not offered in 2024-25
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ARTH 225 The Naked and the Nude: A History 6 credits
Why did the naked human body become a central subject of Western art? What makes the representation of an unclad body "beautiful," and what makes it "erotic"? What types of bodies been portrayed in the history of art and what types of bodies have not? Who has been succesful in censoring the nude? Who been less succesful? These questions form the basis of this course which examines the history of the nude from antiquity to the present day.
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ARTH 235 Revival, Revelation, and Re-animation: The Art of Europe’s “Renaissance” 6 credits
This course examines European artistic production in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. The aim of the course is to introduce diverse forms of artistic production, as well as to analyze the religious, social, and political role of art in the period. While attending to the specificities of workshop practices, production techniques, materials, content, and form of the objects under discussion, the course also interrogates the ways in which these objects are and, at times, are not representative of the “Renaissance.”
Not offered in 2024-25
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One Art History (ARTH) course with a grade of C- better.
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ARTH 263 Architectural Studies in Europe Program: Prehistory to Postmodernism 6 credits
This course surveys the history of European architecture while emphasizing firsthand encounters with actual structures. Students visit outstanding examples of major transnational styles–including Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Moorish, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical and Modernist buildings–along with regionally specific styles, such as Spanish Plateresque, English Tudor and Catalan Modernisme. Cultural and technological changes affecting architectural practices are emphasized along with architectural theory, ranging from Renaissance treatises to Modernist manifestos. Students also visit buildings that resist easy classification and that raise topics such as spatial appropriation, stylistic hybridity, and political symbolism.
Requires participation in OCS Program: Architectural Studies in Europe
Not offered in 2024-25
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Architectural Studies in Europe program.
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ARTH 321 Arts of the Chinese Scholar’s Studio 6 credits
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in China, unprecedented economic development and urbanization expanded the number of educated elite who used their wealth to both display their status and distinguish themselves as cultural leaders. As a result, this period experienced a boom in estate and garden building, art collecting and luxury consumption. This course will examine a wide range of objects from painting and calligraphy to furniture and ceramics within the context of domestic architecture of the late Ming dynasty. It will also examine the role of taste and social class in determining the style of art and architecture.
Not offered in 2024-25
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ARTH 324 The Sexuality of Jesus Christ 6 credits
Why did Renaissance artists produce hundreds of paintings of the Christ Child touching his genitals or presenting his genitals to someone, for instance his mother the Virgin Mary, inside the picture? Why did images of the dead Christ emphasize or exaggerate Jesus’s genitalia? And why were these phallic features of Renaissance religious painting not openly discussed and debated in art historical scholarship until 1983? These questions are at the heart of this course. In order to answer them we will examine the art critic Leo Steinberg’s groundbreaking book, The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion (1983) and the dramatic responses Steinberg’s book engendered.
Not offered in 2024-25
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CHIN 258 Classical Chinese Thought: Wisdom and Advice from Ancient Masters 6 credits
Behind the skyscrapers and the modern technology of present-day China stand the ancient Chinese philosophers, whose influence penetrates every aspect of society. This course introduces the teachings of various foundational thinkers: Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, Sunzi, Zhuangzi, and Hanfeizi, who flourished from the fifth-second centuries B.C. Topics include kinship, friendship, self-improvement, freedom, the art of war, and the relationship between human beings and nature. Aiming to bring Chinese wisdom to the context of daily life, this course opens up new possibilities to better understand the self and the world. No knowledge of Chinese is required.
In translation
Not offered in 2024-25
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CLAS 124 Roman Archaeology and Art 6 credits
The material worlds of the ancient Romans loom large in our cultural imagination. From the architecture of the state to visual narratives of propaganda, Roman influence is ubiquitous in monuments across the West. But what were the origins of these artistic trends? What makes a monument characteristically ‘Roman’? And how has this material culture been interpreted and understood over time? This course explores the art, architecture, and archaeology of the ancient Romans both in the city of Rome and across the Empire, and considers the ways in which Roman trends have also influenced modern cultures.
Not offered in 2024-25
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ENGL 114 Introduction to Medieval Narrative 6 credits
This class will focus on three of the most popular and closely connected modes of narrative enjoyed by medieval audiences: the epic, the romance, and the saint’s life. Readings, drawn primarily from the English and French traditions, will include Beowulf, The Song of Roland, the Arthurian romances of Chretien de Troyes, and legends of St. Alexis and St. Margaret. We will consider how each narrative mode influenced the other, as we encounter warriors and lovers who suffer like saints, and saints who triumph like warriors and lovers. Readings will be in translation or highly accessible modernizations.
Not offered in 2024-25
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ENGL 144 Shakespeare I 6 credits
A chronological survey of the whole of Shakespeare's career, covering all genres and periods, this course explores the nature of Shakespeare's genius and the scope of his art. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between literature and stagecraft ("page to stage"). By tackling the complexities of prosody, of textual transmission, and of Shakespeare's highly figurative and metaphorical language, the course will help you further develop your ability to think critically about literature. Declared or prospective English majors should register for ENGL 244.
Declared or prospective English majors should register for English 244.
- Winter 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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ENGL 203 Other Worlds of Medieval English Literature 6 credits
When medieval writers imagined worlds beyond their own, what did they see? This course will examine depictions of the afterlife, the East, and magical realms of the imagination. We will read romances, saints' lives, and a masterpiece of pseudo-travel literature that influenced both Shakespeare and Columbus, alongside contemporary theories of post-colonialism, gender and race. We will visit the lands of the dead and the undead, and compare gruesome punishments and heavenly rewards. We will encounter dog-headed men, Amazons, cannibals, armies devoured by hippopotami, and roasted geese that fly onto waiting dinner tables. Be prepared. Readings in Middle English and in modern translations.
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ENGL 210 From Chaucer to Milton: Early English Literature 6 credits
An introduction to some of the major genres, texts, and authors of medieval and Renaissance England. Readings may include works of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and the lyric poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Not offered in 2024-25
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ENGL 216 Milton 6 credits
Radical, heretic, and revolutionary, John Milton wrote the most influential, and perhaps the greatest, poem in the English language. We will read the major poems (Lycidas, the sonnets, Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes), a selection of the prose, and will attend to Milton’s historical context, to the critical arguments over his work, and to his impact on literature and the other arts.
Not offered in 2024-25
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ENGL 244 Shakespeare I 6 credits
A chronological survey of the whole of Shakespeare's career, covering all genres and periods, this course explores the nature of Shakespeare's genius and the scope of his art. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between literature and stagecraft ("page to stage"). By tackling the complexities of prosody, of textual transmission, and of Shakespeare's highly figurative and metaphorical language, the course will help you further develop your ability to think critically about literature. Non English majors should register for English 144.
Non English majors should register for English 144.
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ENGL 281 Living London Program 6 credits
A wide range of British writers have depicted London as a site of displacement, diaspora, community, and belonging. From the “Windrush Generation” in the 1950s to the present context of Brexit, this course will examine the depiction of multicultural London in fiction, film, and essay. Selected texts will reveal how diverse writers have been shaped by London and in turn shaped its narratives. Readings may include Samuel Selvon, Hanif Kureishi, Monica Ali, Zadie Smith, Andrea Levy, Kamala Shamsie, and Xiaolu Guo; and we will incorporate relevant museum exhibits and cultural events.
Requires participation in Carleton OCS London Program
Not offered in 2024-25
- IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Living London Program.
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ENGL 285 Textual Technologies from Parchment to Pixel 6 credits
As readers, we rarely consider the technologies, practices, and transactions that deliver us our texts. This course introduces students to the material study of writing, manuscripts, books, printing, and digital media. It attends to the processes of copying, revision, editing, and circulation; familiarizes students with the disciplines of descriptive bibliography, paleography, and textual criticism; and introduces the principles of editing, in both print and electronic media. It offers hands-on practice in most of these areas.
Not offered in 2024-25
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ENGL 381 Living London Program 6 credits
A wide range of British writers have depicted London as a site of displacement, diaspora, community, and belonging. From the “Windrush Generation” in the 1950s to the present context of Brexit, this course will examine the depiction of multicultural London in fiction, film, and essay. Selected texts will reveal how diverse writers have been shaped by London and in turn shaped its narratives. Readings may include Samuel Selvon, Hanif Kureishi, Monica Ali, Zadie Smith, Andrea Levy, Kamala Shamsie, and Xiaolu Guo; and we will incorporate relevant museum exhibits and cultural events.
Open only to students participating in OCS London Program
Not offered in 2024-25
- IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Living London Program.
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FREN 330 Bodies and Borders: Encountering the other in Medieval French 6 credits
Exploring chivalric romances, Crusades epics, fantastic tales, and the Grail legend, this course invites students to develop their knowledge of French literature in the Global Middle Ages. How do medieval texts stage encounters between social groups, between different cultures, between species? And how do we encounter these texts, and what do we encounter in them? With texts available both in the original Old French and in modern French translations, we will investigate what encountering the Other in medieval texts has to say to us regarding cultural hybridity, gender, religious conflicts, racial difference, political formation, and sharing the world with others.
Not offered in 2024-25
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HIST 131 Saints and Society in Late Antiquity 6 credits
In Late Antiquity (200-800 CE), certain men and women around the Mediterranean and beyond came to occupy a special place in the minds and lives of their contemporaries: they were known as holy men and women or saints. What led people to perceive someone as holy? What were the consequences of holiness for the persons themselves and the surrounding societies? When they intervene in their worlds, what are their sources of authority and power? How did these holy figures relate to the established institutions–secular and religious–that surrounded them? Working with a rich array of evidence, we will explore themes such as asceticism, embodied and verbal pedagogy, wealth and poverty, work, marginality, cultural difference, and protest/resistance. We will journey from the lands of Gaul, Italy, and Spain to North Africa and Egypt and the Holy Land, to Armenia and the Fertile Crescent.
Extra time
Not offered in 2024-25
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HIST 137 Early Medieval Worlds in Transformation 6 credits
In this course we will explore a variety of distinct but interconnected worlds that existed between ca.300 and ca.1050. We will interrogate primary sources, especially written and visual materials, as they bear witness to people forming and transforming political, social, religious, and cultural values, ideas and structures. We will work to understand how communities adapt to new conditions and challenges while maintaining links with and repurposing the lifeways, ideas, and material cultures of the past. We will watch as new and different groups and institutions come to power, and how the existing peoples and structures respond and change. Projects in this course will build capacity to interpret difficult primary documents, formulate research questions, and build arguments that combine rigor and humane sympathy.
Not offered in 2024-25
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HIST 139 Foundations of Modern Europe 6 credits
Witch hunts, religious reforms, economic transformation, global expansion… all of these phenomena exemplify the dynamic centuries c. 1500-1750, known as the early modern period in Europe. This course surveys the history of Western Europe from the Renaissance and Reformation through the era of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment. We compare the development of states and societies across Western Europe in the larger context of expanding global trade and exchange with the Americas, Africa, South Asia and Japan.
Not offered in 2024-25
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HIST 150 Politics of Art in Early Imperial China 6 credits
Poetry has been playing an important role in politics from early China down to the present. Members of the educated elite have used this form of artistic expression to create political allegories in times of war and diplomacy. Students will learn the multiple roles that poet-censors played in early imperial China, with thematic attention given to issues of self and ethnic/gendered identity, internal exile and nostalgia, and competing religious orientations that eventually fostered the rise of Neo-Confucianism. Students will write a short biography of a poet by sampling her/his poems and poetics (all in translation) from the common reading pool.
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HIST 159 Age of Samurai 6 credits
Japan’s age of warriors is often compared to the Middle Ages. Sandwiched between the court society and the shogunate, the warrior population in Japan is often compared to the vassals in feudalism. This course examines the evolution of the samurai from the late twelfth to the seventeenth century, with the thematic focus on the evolving dynamics between violence and competing political regimes (monasteries, estate holders, opportunistic households, regencies, cloistered government). With analyses of many different types of primary sources (chronicles, poems, letters, diaries, travelogues, thanatologues, maps) students will develop critical skills to frame key historical questions against broader historiographical contexts.
Not offered in 2024-25
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HIST 169 Colonial Latin America 6 credits
This course examines the formation of Iberian colonial societies in the Americas with a focus on the lives of “ordinary” people, and the ways scholars study their lived experience through the surviving historical record. How did indigenous people respond to the so-called Spanish conquest? How did their communities adapt to colonial pressures and demands? What roles did African slaves and their descendants play in the formation of colonial societies? How were racial identities understood, refashioned, or contested as these societies became ever more globalized and diverse? These and other questions will serve as the starting point for our study of the origins and formation of contemporary Latin America.
Not offered in 2024-25
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HIST 201 Rome Program: Building Power and Piety in Medieval Italy, CE 300-1150 6 credits
Through site visits, on-site projects, and readings, this course explores the ways in which individuals and communities attempted to give physical and visual form to their religious beliefs and political ambitions through their use of materials, iconography, topography, and architecture. We will also examine how the material legacies of imperial Rome, Byzantium, and early Christianity served as both resources for and constraints on the political, cultural, and religious evolution of the Italian peninsula and especially Rome and its environs from late antiquity through the twelfth century. Among the principal themes will be the development of the cult of saints, the development of the papal power and authority, Christianization, reform, pilgrimage, and monasticism.
Open only to participants in Carleton OCS Rome Program
- Spring 2025
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS History in Rome Program.
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HIST 206 Rome Program: The Eternal City in Time: Structure, Change, and Identity 6 credits
This course will explore the lived experience of the city of Rome in the twelfth-sixteenth centuries. Students will study buildings, urban forms, surviving artifacts, and textual and other visual evidence to understand how politics, power, and religion (both Christianity and Judaism) mapped onto city spaces. How did urban challenges and opportunities shape daily life? How did the memory of the past influence the present? How did the rural world affect the city and vice versa? Students will work on projects closely tied to the urban fabric.
OCS Rome Program
- Spring 2025
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS History in Rome Program.
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HIST 231 Mapping the World Before Mercator 6 credits
This course will explore early maps primarily in medieval and early modern Europe. After an introduction to the rhetoric of maps and world cartography, we will examine the functions and forms of medieval European and Islamic maps and then look closely at the continuities and transformations in map-making during the period of European exploration. The focus of the course will be on understanding each map within its own cultural context and how maps can be used to answer historical questions. We will work closely with the maps in Gould Library Special Collections to expand campus awareness of the collection.
Extra time is required for a one-time map show in the library which we will schedule at the beginning of term.
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HIST 233 The Byzantine World & Its Neighbors 6 credits
The Byzantine world (eighth-fifteenth centuries) was a zone of fascinating tensions, exchanges, and encounters. Through a wide variety of written and visual evidence, we will examine key features of its history and culture: the nature of government; piety and religious controversy; art and music; the evolving relations with the Latin West, Armenia, the Slavic North and West, and the Dar al-Islam (the Abbasids and Seljuk and Ottoman Turks); gender; economic life; and social relations.Extra Time for special events and a group project (ecumenical council).
Extra Time for special events and a group project (ecumenical council).
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HIST 235 Making and Breaking Institutions: Structure, Culture, Corruption, and Reform in the Middle Ages 6 credits
From churches and monasteries to universities, guilds, governmental administrations, the medieval world was full of institutions. They emerged, by accident or design, to do particular kinds of work and to benefit particular persons or groups. These institutions faced hard questions like those we ask of our institutions today: How best to structure, distribute, and control power and authority? What is the place of the institution in the wider world? How is a collective identity and ethos achieved, maintained, or transformed? Where does corruption come from and how can institutions be reformed? This course will explore these questions through discussion of case studies and primary sources from the medieval world as well as theoretical studies of these topics.
Not offered in 2024-25
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HIST 236 The Worlds of Hildegard of Bingen 6 credits
Author, composer, artist, abbess, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) used words, images and sound to share unique mystical experiences with her community and the broader world. At the same time, developments in Christian-Jewish relations, church-state relations, and the arts made the Holy Roman Empire a dynamic environment for religious, cultural, and political innovation. Through close examination of Hildegard’s works (writings, images, and music) and her contemporaries informed by current scholarship, we will investigate this period of creativity, conflict, and possibility, especially for women. Extra time relates to a collaboration with the early music ensemble Sequentia and work with Carleton Special Collections.
Extra time relates to a collaboration with the early music ensemble Sequentia and work with Carleton Special Collections
Not offered in 2024-25
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HIST 238 The Viking World 6 credits
In the popular imagination, Vikings are horn-helmeted, blood-thirsty pirates who raped and pillaged their way across medieval Europe. But the Norse did much more than loot, rape, and pillage; they cowed kings and fought for emperors, explored uncharted waters and settled the North Atlantic, and established new trade routes that revived European urban life. In this course, we will separate fact from fiction by critically examining primary source documents alongside archaeological, linguistic and place-name evidence. Students will share their insights with each other and the world through two major collaborative digital humanities projects over the course of the term.
Not offered in 2024-25
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HIST 243 The Peasants are Revolting! Society and Politics in the Making of Modern France 6 credits
Political propaganda of the French Revolutionary period tells a simple story of downtrodden peasants exploited by callous nobles, but what exactly was the relationship between the political transformations of France from the Renaissance through the French Revolution and the social, religious, and cultural tensions that characterized the era? This course explores the connections and conflicts between popular and elite culture as we survey French history from the sixteenth through early nineteenth centuries, making comparisons to social and political developments in other European countries along the way.
Not offered in 2024-25
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HIST 245 Ireland: Land, Conflict and Memory 6 credits
This course explores the history of Ireland from Medieval times through the Great Famine, ending with a look at the Partition of Ireland in 1920. We examine themes of religious and cultural conflict and explore a series of English political and military interventions. Throughout the course, we will analyze views of the Irish landscape, landholding patterns, and health and welfare issues. Finally, we explore the contested nature of history and memory as the class discusses monuments and memory production in Irish public spaces.
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HIST 278 The Aztecs and Their World 6 credits
Come explore the world of feathered serpents, smoking mirrors, flower songs, and water mountains! This course examines from multiple disciplinary perspectives the Nahuatl-speaking people of central Mexico under both Aztec and early Spanish rule (spanning approximately the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries). Students will gain experience working with a range of sources produced by Nahua authors, scribes, and artists, including ritual calendars, imperial tribute records, dynastic annals, and translated documents. The College’s rich collection of Mesoamerican codex facsimiles will play a prominent role in our investigation. No prior knowledge is required or expected.
Not offered in 2024-25
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HIST 289 Gender and Ethics in Late Medieval France 6 credits
Acknowledged by contemporaries as one of the leading intellects of her time, Christine de Pizan (ca. 1364-ca. 1431) became an author of unusual literary range, personal resilience, and perceptiveness in a time of ongoing warfare, civil strife, and intellectual ferment. In addition to composing romances, poetry, quasi-autobiographical works, royal biography, and political theory, she became an articulate critic of the patriarchy and misogyny of her world, contemporary patterns and cultures of violence, and a critical voice in defense of female capability. Using Christine’s writings together with other contemporary voices, we will examine how contemporaries confronted fundamental questions of identity, status, violence, ethics, and love in domestic and public spheres in late medieval France.
Not offered in 2024-25
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LATN 243 Medieval Latin 6 credits
This course offers students an introduction to post-classical Latin (250-1450) through readings in prose and poetry drawn from a variety of genres and periods. Students will also gain experience with medieval Latin paleography and codicology through occasional workshops in Special Collections.
Not offered in 2024-25
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis LP Language Requirement
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): LATN 204 – Intermediate Latin Prose and Poetry with a grade of C- or better or equivalent.
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LTAM 230 Ancient People of the Andes 6 credits
Who were the first settlers of South America? Was Caral the first city on earth? Who made the Nazca Lines? How did the Inka build Machu Picchu? Which societies flourished or collapsed in the Andean region of South America? This course will examine these questions using archaeology to understand the sociopolitical arrangements that existed among ancient Andean peoples prior to the arrival of the Spanish. Evidence used to explore these themes comes from a range of prehispanic societies, including the Chavin, Tiwanaku, Wari, Moche, Chimu, and Inka. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly. Students who have previously taken any 200-level LTAM social science or humanities course or a 200-level ARCN course should register for LTAM 330; students who have not should register for LTAM 230.
Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly. Students who have previously taken any 200-level LTAM social science or humanities course or a 200-level ARCN course should register for LTAM 330; students who have not should register for LTAM 230.
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LTAM 330 Ancient Peoples of the Andes 6 credits
Who were the first settlers of South America? Was Caral the first city on earth? Who made the Nazca Lines? How did the Inka build Machu Picchu? Which societies flourished or collapsed in the Andean region of South America? This course will examine these questions using archaeology to understand the sociopolitical arrangements that existed among ancient Andean peoples prior to the arrival of the Spanish. Evidence used to explore these themes comes from a range of prehispanic societies, including the Chavin, Tiwanaku, Wari, Moche, Chimu, and Inka. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly. Students who have previously taken any 200-level LTAM social science or humanities course or a 200-level ARCN course should register for LTAM 330; students who have not should register for LTAM 230.
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RELG 100.01 The Historical Jesus and the Christ of Faith 6 credits
For nearly two thousand years, Christians have considered Jesus the unique, miracle-working Son of God who came to earth to save humanity from its sins. But does this picture hold up to historical scrutiny? Who do historians think Jesus was? This seminar introduces the tools of historical inquiry that scholars use to reconstruct Jesus's original message. It also surveys how Americans in different cultural contexts have imagined Jesus, from the liberating Christ of Black theology, to the eastern sage and hippie of the 1960s, to the rabbi who never intended a non-Jewish movement.
Held for new first year students
- Fall 2024
- AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1 IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies
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Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information.
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RELG 111 Introduction to the Qur’an 6 credits
This course aims to introduce students to the Qur’an as the sacred text of Islam. It assumes no background in Islamic Studies nor does it introduce students to the religion of Islam. Rather it familiarizes students with one of the most widely read, dynamic, and influential texts in human history. Topics in the course include the history of the Qur’an and its codex, the Qur’an’s literary style and structure, its references to other religions, its commentarial tradition, and its roles and significance in Muslims’ devotional, social, and political lives.
Not offered in 2024-25
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RELG 122 Introduction to Islam 6 credits
This course is a general introduction to Islam as a prophetic religious tradition. It explores the different ways Muslims have interpreted and put into practice the prophetic message of Muhammad through analyses of varying theological, legal, political, mystical, and literary writings as well as through Muslims’ lived histories. These analyses aim for students to develop a framework for explaining the sources and vocabularies through which historically specific human experiences and understandings of the world have been signified as Islamic. The course will focus primarily on the early and modern periods of Islamic history.
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RELG 162 Jesus, the Bible, and Christian Beginnings 6 credits
Who was Jesus? What’s in the Bible? How did Christianity begin? This course is an introduction to the ancient Jewish texts that became the Christian New Testament, as well as other texts that did not make it into the Bible. We will take a historical approach, situating this literature within the Roman Empire of the first century, and we will also learn about how modern readers have interpreted it. Along the way, we will pay special attention to two topics of enduring political debate: (1) Whether the Bible supports oppression or liberation and (2) What the Bible says about gender and sexuality.
Not offered in 2024-25
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RELG 231 From Luther to Kierkegaard 6 credits
Martin Luther and the Reformation have often been understood as crucial factors in the rise of “modernity.” Yet, the Reformation was also a medieval event, and Luther was certainly a product of the late Middle Ages. This class focuses on the theology of the Protestant Reformation, and traces its legacy in the modern world. We read Luther, Calvin, and Anabaptists, exploring debates over politics, church authority, scripture, faith, and salvation. We then trace the appropriation of these ideas by modern thinkers, who draw upon the perceived individualism of the Reformers in their interpretations of religious experience, despair, freedom, and secularization.
Not offered in 2024-25
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RELG 234 Angels, Demons, and Evil 6 credits
Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do bad things happen, period? Could angels and demons have something to do with it? This course asks how cosmology—an account of how the universe is put together and the different entities that inhabit it—can be an answer to the problem of evil and injustice. We will start with a historical investigation of the demonology and angelology of ancient pagan, Jewish, and Christian texts and then move into modern practices such as exorcism and magical realist literature. Along the way, we will keep asking how these systems justify the existence of evil and provide programs for dealing with it.
X-List CHIN 234
Not offered in 2024-25
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RELG 235 Religion and Identity in the Medieval Middle East 6 credits
This course explores the emergence and formation of Islam as a faith in the medieval Middle East (sixth-eleventh centuries) and its impact on social relations and identities in the complex and evolving cultural and religious communities that populated this multifaceted region. Through close reading and discussion of primary sources (in translation) (Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Armenian, Persian, Greek, and Latin) and scholarship, we will situate the development of Islam in the context of religious and social change in this period and to understand Islam’s role in the transformation of life in the region.
Not offered in 2024-25
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RELG 278 Love of God in Islam 6 credits
As the chosen messenger of God's final revelation, Muslims consider Muhammad to be God's beloved par excellence. He is believed to have not only received God's words but to have also experienced the divine. For Muhammad's followers, love has been a central means of attaining experiential knowledge of God. The Islamic tradition, particularly in the form of Sufism, developed a highly sophisticated literature for understanding God through love. This course will trace and analyze the historical development of this literature and the practices associated with it from the Qur'an (600s) to Rumi (1200s).
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RELG 282 Samurai: Ethics of Death and Loyalty 6 credits
This course explores the history of samurai since the emergence of warrior class in medieval times, to the modern developments of samurai ethics as the icon of Japanese national identity. Focusing on its connection with Japanese religion and culture, we will investigate the origins of the purported samurai ideals of loyalty, honor, self-sacrifice, and death. In addition to regular class sessions, there will be a weekly kyudo (Japanese archery) practice on Wednesday evening (7-9 pm), which will enable students to study samurai history in context through gaining first-hand experience in the ritualized practice of kyudo.
Extra Time for weekly kyudo (Japanese archery) practice on Wednesday evening (7-9 pm)
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SPAN 247 Madrid Program: Muslim Spain 6 credits
This course examines the Islamic influence in the Iberian Peninsula between the 8th and the 16th centuries. The theoretical sessions will cover different periods (emirate, caliphate, taifa kingdoms, Almoravid, Almohad, and Nasrid) focusing on material culture, including the Mosque of Cordoba, Medina Azahara, Toledo, and the Alhambra. The course also aims to offer a more current vision of how Spaniards have integrated (or rejected) this Islamic past into their own national identity. These topics will address debates that have emerged within Spanish historiography over the past years: Was it an invasion or a conquest? Coexistence, tolerance, or confrontation?
Acceptance in Carleton Madrid OCS Program
- Fall 2024
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in the Spanish Studies in Madrid Program and student has completed the following course(s): SPAN 205 – Conversation and Composition or a higher course with a grade of C- or better.
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SPAN 318 Islamic Spain 6 credits
Muslims conquered Spain in 711 and lived in the country roughly until 1614. This course will examine the Islamic origins of Spain from a variety of disciplines, including literature, religion, history, and art history. Topics covered include:Hispano-Arabic literature, the fall of Granada, the repression of Moriscos under Philip II, aljamiado literature (literature written in Spanish with Arabic characters), the expulsion of Moriscos, and the diaspora in Tunisia. We will also devote two weeks to the study of the representation of Turks, Muslims, and Moriscos in Cervantes’ plays and novels, including several chapters of his famous Don Quixote. All texts are in Spanish, including Arab sources by Ibn Hazm, Wallada, Muhya, and other Hispano-Arabic and Morisco writers.
Not offered in 2024-25
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One SPAN course numbered 205 or higher excluding Independent Studies with a grade of C- or better.
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SPAN 330 The Invention of the Modern Novel: Cervantes’ Don Quijote 6 credits
Among other things, Don Quijote is a "remake," an adaptation of several literary models popular at the time the picaresque novel, the chivalry novel, the sentimental novel, the Byzantine novel, the Italian novella, etc. This course will examine the ways in which Cervantes transformed these models to create what is considered by many the first "modern" novel in European history.
- Fall 2024
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One SPAN course numbered 205 or higher excluding Independent Studies with a grade of C- or better.