Search Results
Your search for courses · during 2025-26 · tagged with MARS Supporting · returned 38 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.
ARBC 185 is cross listed with MEST 185.
In Translation.
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ARBC 185.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Yaron Klein 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- M, WLanguage & Dining Center 243 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLanguage & Dining Center 243 2:20pm-3:20pm
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ARBC 387 The One Thousand and One Nights 6 credits
This course is an exploration of the world of the Thousand and One Nights, the most renowned Arabic literary work of all time. The marvelous tales spun by Shahrazad have captured and excited the imagination of readers and listeners–both Arab and non-Arab–for centuries. In class, we will read in Arabic, selections from the Nights, and engage some of the scholarly debates surrounding this timeless work. We will discuss the question of its origin in folklore and popular culture and the mystery of its “authorship,” as well as the winding tale of its reception, adaptation and translation. Readings and class discussions will be in both Arabic and English.
- Spring 2026
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed the following course(s): ARBC 206 with a grade C- or better.
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ARBC 387.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Yaron Klein 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- M, WLanguage & Dining Center 202 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLanguage & Dining Center 202 2:20pm-3:20pm
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ARCN 222 Experimental Archaeology and Experiential History and Lab 6 credits
This course offers an experiential approach to crafts, technologies, and other material practices in premodern societies. Through hands-on activities and collaborations with local craftspeople, farmers, and other experts, this course will examine and test a variety of hypotheses about how people in the past lived their lives. How did prehistoric people produce stone tools, pottery, and metal? How did ancient Greeks and Romans feed and clothe themselves? How did medieval Europeans build their homes and bury their dead? Students will answer these questions and more by actively participating in a range of experimental archaeology and experiential history projects. Lab required.
During registration, students will register for both the lecture and a corresponding lab section, which will appear on the student's academic transcript in a single entry.
- Spring 2026
- LS, Science with Lab
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One Archaeology Pertinent (tagged ARCN Pertinent) course with a grade of C- or better.
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ARCN 222.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Jake Morton 🏫 👤
- M, WAnderson Hall 121 11:10am-12:20pm
- M, WAnderson Hall 122 11:10am-12:20pm
- FAnderson Hall 121 12:00pm-1:00pm
- FAnderson Hall 122 12:00pm-1:00pm
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ARCN 222.54 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Jake Morton 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- THAnderson Hall 121 1:00pm-5:00pm
- THAnderson Hall 122 1:00pm-5:00pm
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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.
During registration, students will register for both the lecture and a corresponding lab section, which will appear on the student's academic transcript in a single entry.
Sophomore priority
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ARCN 246.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Sarah Kennedy 🏫 👤
- TAnderson Hall 121 10:10am-11:55am
- TAnderson Hall 122 10:10am-11:55am
- THAnderson Hall 121 1:15pm-3:00pm
- THAnderson Hall 122 1:15pm-3:00pm
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ARCN 246.52 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Sarah Kennedy 🏫 👤
- Size:12
- TAnderson Hall 121 1:00pm-5:00pm
- TAnderson Hall 122 1:00pm-5:00pm
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ARCN 246.59 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Sarah Kennedy 🏫 👤
- Size:12
- THAnderson Hall 121 8:00am-12:00pm
- THAnderson Hall 122 8:00am-12:00pm
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ARTH 100 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 2025
- 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 100.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Jessica Keating 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- M, WBoliou 161 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FBoliou 161 1:10pm-2:10pm
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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 101.01 Winter 2026
- Faculty:Johnathan Hardy 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- M, WBoliou 161 11:10am-12:20pm
- FBoliou 161 12:00pm-1:00pm
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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 102.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Vanessa Reubendale 🏫
- Size:25
- T, THBoliou 104 1:15pm-3:00pm
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ARTH 166 Chinese Art and Culture 6 credits
This course will survey art and architecture in China from its prehistoric beginnings to the end of the nineteenth century. It will examine various types of visual art forms within their social, political and cultural contexts. Major themes that will also be explored include: the role of ritual in the production and use of art, the relationship between the court and secular elite and art, and theories about creativity and expression.
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ARTH 166.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Kathleen Ryor 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WBoliou 161 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FBoliou 161 2:20pm-3:20pm
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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.”
- Spring 2026
- 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 235.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Jessica Keating 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WBoliou 161 11:10am-12:20pm
- FBoliou 161 12:00pm-1:00pm
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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.
- Winter 2026
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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ARTH 324.01 Winter 2026
- Faculty:Jessica Keating 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- M, WBoliou 161 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FBoliou 161 2:20pm-3:20pm
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ASST 285 Mapping Japan, the Real and the Imagined 6 credits
From ancient to present times, Japan drew and redrew its borders, shape, and culture, imagining its place in this world and beyond, its From ancient times to the present, Japan drew and redrew its borders, reimagining its cultural and racial identity, and its place in this world and beyond. This course is a cartographic exploration of this complex and contested history. Cosmological mandalas, hell images, travel brochures, and military maps bring to light Japan’s religious vision, cartographic imagination, and political ambition that dictated its geopolitical expansion and the displacement of minority peoples at home, defining its real and imagined boundaries. We will explore a variety of maps, focusing on those in Carleton’s unique library collection.
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ASST 285.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Asuka Sango 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLeighton 236 1:15pm-3:00pm
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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
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CHIN 258.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Lei Yang 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLanguage & Dining Center 104 10:10am-11:55am
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CLAS 200 Greece at a Crossroads: History, Landscape, and Material Culture 6 credits
This course provides a long-term view of the history, landscape, and material culture of Greece, from prehistory to the present day. While the monuments of ancient Greece are cultural touchstones, Greece has a remarkably diverse past, occupying a borderland between continents, empires, and cultures, both ancient and modern. Classroom study and on-site learning examine the wide range of sources that inform us about the Greek past (texts, archaeology, the environment), and focus especially on the stories told by places and things. Site visits in Athens and on trips throughout Greece highlight the importance of local and regional contexts in the “big histories” of the eastern Mediterranean.
Requires participation in OCS Program: Greece at a Crossroads: History, Landscape, and Material Culture
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Greece at a Crossroads program.
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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. Offered at both the 100 and 200 levels, coursework adjusted accordingly. Declared or prospective English majors should register for ENGL 244.
Declared or prospective English majors should register for English 244.
- Winter 2026
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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ENGL 214 Revenge Tragedy 3 credits
Madness, murder, conspiracy, poison, incest, rape, ghosts, and lots of blood: the fashion for revenge tragedy in Elizabethan and Jacobean England led to the creation of some of the most brilliant, violent, funny, and deeply strange plays in the history of the language. Authors may include Cary, Chapman, Ford, Marston, Middleton, Kyd, Tourneur, and Webster.
- First Five Weeks, Spring 2026
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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ENGL 219 Global Shakespeare 3 credits
Shakespeare’s plays have been reimagined and repurposed all over the world, performed on seven continents, and translated into over 100 languages. The course explores how issues of globalization, nationalism, translation (both cultural and linguistic), and (de)colonization inform our understanding of these wonderfully varied adaptations and appropriations. We will examine the social, political, and aesthetic implications of a range of international stage, film, and literary versions as we consider how other cultures respond to the hegemonic original. No prior experience with Shakespeare is necessary.
Second 5 weeks
- Second Five Weeks, Spring 2026
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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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. Offered at both the 100 and 200 levels, coursework will be adjusted accordingly. Non English majors should register for English 144.
Non English majors should register for English 144.
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FREN 231 Paris: The Eras Tour 6 credits
American-born entertainer, civil rights activist, and spy for the French Resistance, Josephine Baker famously sang, "I have two loves, my country and Paris." What attracts people to Paris and does the reality live up to the fantasy? Explore the evolution of Paris from the Gallo-Roman period to the present through art, literature, music, and film. Learn about its visitors and residents, from individuals buried in the Catacombs to a Jewish student at the Sorbonne during the Nazi occupation, and analyze how lived experiences are shaped by the politics, culture, and infrastructure of the cities we call home. Conducted in French.
- Winter 2026
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): FREN 204 with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the French Language and Culture AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the French: Language B IB exam or received a score of 205 on the Carleton French Placement exam. .
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FREN 231.01 Winter 2026
- Faculty:Katharine Hargrave 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WHasenstab 105 11:10am-12:20pm
- FHasenstab 105 12:00pm-1:00pm
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HIST 100 The Black Death: Disease and Its Consequences in the Middle Ages 6 credits
In the 1340s, the Black Death swept through the Middle East and Europe, killing up to a third of the population in some areas. How can we understand what this catastrophe meant for the people who lived and died at the time? In this seminar, we will examine the Black Death (primarily in Europe) from a range of perspectives and disciplines and through a range of sources. We will seek to understand the biological and environmental causes of the disease, therapies, and the experience of illness, but also the effects of the mortality on economic, social, religious, and cultural life.Held for new first year students
- Fall 2025
- AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1 IS, International Studies QRE, Quantitative Reasoning
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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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HIST 100.05 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Victoria Morse 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- M, WLibrary 344 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLibrary 344 1:10pm-2:10pm
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HIST 114 Indigenous Histories, Time Immemorial to 1887 6 credits
Indigenous presence in North America pre-dates the United States by millennia and persists in spite of colonial attempts to eliminate Indigenous peoples. As Part I of the Indigenous Histories in the United States survey, we begin with Indigenous Knowledges of place, time, and identity since time immemorial. We then move through thousands of years of stories of diplomacy, captivity, colonialism, resistance, removal, and reconstitution. We conclude in the mid-1880s, a drastic period of change for lands, humans, and more-than-human relations. This course takes an ethnohistorical approach which centers Indigenous perspectives and draws on History, Indigenous Studies, and Anthropology.
Extra Time Required: If the ACE collaboration continues, students will travel to Hocokata Ti in Prior Lake, MN for a training and archives tour.
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HIST 114.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Meredith McCoy 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- T, THWillis 203 1:15pm-3:00pm
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HIST 136 The Global Middle Ages 6 credits
Encounter, interaction, and communication across space and between cultures are fundamental parts of the human story yet are often marginalized when we use national, regional, or religious frameworks to shape our study. In this course, we will center our investigation of the medieval time period (roughly 500-1500CE) on interactions among cultures and peoples across Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas. We will think comparatively about how peoples around the globe approached similar questions and problems and ask how a global approach helps improve our understanding of this dynamic and creative period. Extra time required for one field trip.
Extra time for one field trip
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HIST 136.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Victoria Morse 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 304 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLeighton 304 2:20pm-3:20pm
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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.
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HIST 137.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:William North 🏫 👤
- Size:35
- M, WLeighton 304 8:30am-9:40am
- FLeighton 304 8:30am-9:30am
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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.
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HIST 159.01 Winter 2026
- Faculty:Seungjoo Yoon 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- M, WLeighton 303 11:10am-12:20pm
- FLeighton 303 12:00pm-1:00pm
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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.
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HIST 169.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Andrew Fisher 🏫 👤
- Size:35
- M, WLeighton 236 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLeighton 236 1:10pm-2:10pm
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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.
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HIST 235.01 Winter 2026
- Faculty:William North 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WWillis 204 8:30am-9:40am
- FWillis 204 8:30am-9:30am
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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.
- Winter 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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HIST 335 Finding Ireland’s Past 6 credits
How do historians find and use evidence of Ireland's history? Starting with an exploration of archaeological methods, and ending with a unit on folklore and oral history collections from the early twentieth century, the first half of the course takes students through a series of themes and events in Irish history. During the second half of the course, students will pursue independent research topics to practice skills in historical methods, and will complete either a seminar paper or a public history project.
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HIST 335.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Susannah Ottaway 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- T, THLeighton 202 1:15pm-3:00pm
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LTAM 113 Archeology of Ancient Latin America 6 credits
This course examines ancient peoples of the large, geographically and culturally diverse region of Latin America. Focused on Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, we will examine the material culture of Indigenous peoples from c. 20,000 years ago to the time of European contact (1500 AD), including the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, Moche, Inka, Taíno, and Rapa Nui peoples. Themes include migration, the environment, settlement, long-term social change, and daily life. We will also review current debates and ethical issues, with an emphasis on Indigenous perspectives and cross-disciplinary dialogues between archaeology and related fields.
- Spring 2026
- IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
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LTAM 113.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Sarah Kennedy 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- T, THLanguage & Dining Center 302 3:10pm-4:55pm
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MEST 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.
ARBC 185 is cross listed with MEST 185.
In Translation.
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MEST 185.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Yaron Klein 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- M, WLanguage & Dining Center 243 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLanguage & Dining Center 243 2:20pm-3:20pm
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PHIL 270 Ancient Greek Philosophy 6 credits
Is there a key to a happy and successful human life? If so, how do you acquire it? Plato and Aristotle thought the key was virtue and that your chances of obtaining it depend on the sort of life you lead. We’ll read texts from these authors that became foundational for the later history of philosophy, including the Apology, Gorgias, Symposium, and the Nicomachean Ethics, while situating the ancient understanding of virtue in the context of larger questions of metaphysics (the nature of being), psychology, and ethics.
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PHIL 270.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Allison Murphy 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 330 9:50am-11:00am
- FLeighton 330 9:40am-10:40am
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PHIL 272 Early Modern Philosophy: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Philosophy 6 credits
Our inquiry into seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophy is not limited to any geographic region: it is open to Indigenous philosophical traditions as well as those of Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. We will cover selections from Anton Wilhelm Amo, Mulla Sadra, Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz, Im Yunjidang, Isaac Newton, Baruch Spinoza, Immanuel Kant, and more. The topics include, but are not limited to, the mind body distinction, divinity, love, freedom, virtue, and the good life. The final paper project for this course asks you to creatively connect philosophical concepts, themes, or problems from different units of the course.
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PHIL 272.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Hope Sample 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THWeitz Center 233 10:10am-11:55am
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POSC 250 Kings, Tyrants, Philosophers: Plato’s Republic 6 credits
In this course we will read Plato’s Republic, perhaps the greatest and surely the most important work of political philosophy ever written. What are the deepest needs and the most powerful longings of human nature? Can they be fulfilled, and, if so, how? What are the deepest needs of society, and can they be fulfilled? What is the relation between individual happiness and societal well-being? Are they compatible or in conflict with one another? And where they are in conflict, what does justice require that we do? The Republic explores these questions in an imaginative and unforgettable way.
Crosslisted with POSC 350
- Fall 2025
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry
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RELG 120 Judaism: Text, History, Practice 6 credits
What is Judaism? Who are Jewish people? What are Jewish texts, practices, ideas? What ripples have Jewish people, texts, practices, and ideas caused beyond their sphere? These questions will animate our study as we touch on specific points in over three millennia of history. We will immerse ourselves in Jewish texts, historic events, and cultural moments, trying to understand them on their own terms. At the same time, we will analyze them using key concepts such as ‘tradition,’ ‘culture,’ ‘power,’ and ‘diaspora.’ We will explore how ‘Jewishness’ has been constructed by different stakeholders, each claiming the authority to define it.
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RELG 120.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Chumie Juni 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- M, WLeighton 330 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLeighton 330 1:10pm-2:10pm
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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 122.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Kambiz GhaneaBassiri 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 301 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLeighton 301 1:10pm-2:10pm
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RELG 152 Religions in Japanese Culture 6 credits
An introduction to the major religious traditions of Japan, from earliest times to the present. Combining thematic and historical approaches, this course will scrutinize both defining characteristics of, and interactions among, various religious traditions, including worship of the kami (local deities), Buddhism, shamanistic practices, Christianity, and new religious movements. We also will discuss issues crucial in the study of religion, such as the relation between religion and violence, gender, modernity, nationalism and war.
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RELG 152.01 Winter 2026
- Faculty:Asuka Sango 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 236 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLeighton 236 1:10pm-2:10pm
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RELG 153 Introduction to Buddhism 6 credits
This course offers a survey of Buddhism from its inception in India some 2500 years ago to the present. We first address fundamental Buddhist ideas and practices, then their elaboration in the Mahayana and tantric movements, which emerged in the first millennium CE in India. We also consider the diffusion of Buddhism throughout Asia and to the West. Attention will be given to both continuity and diversity within Buddhism–to its commonalities and transformations in specific historical and cultural settings. We also will address philosophical, social, political, and ethical problems that are debated among Buddhists and scholars of Buddhism today.
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RELG 153.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Asuka Sango 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLeighton 426 1:15pm-3:00pm
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RELG 322 Apocalypse How? 6 credits
When will the world end, and how? What’s wrong with the world that makes its destruction necessary or inevitable? Are visions of “The End” a form of resistance literature, aimed at oppressive systems? Or do they come from paranoid minds disconnected from reality? This seminar explores apocalyptic thought, which in its basic form is about unmasking the deceptions of the given world by revealing the secret workings of the universe. We begin with ancient Jewish and Christian apocalypses and move into modern religious and “secular” visions of cosmic collapse, including doomsday cults, slave revolts, UFO religions, and Evangelical fantasies about armageddon in the Middle East. We will also create a giant handwritten manuscript of the book of Revelation using calligraphy pens, paint, and gold leaf.
X-List WMST 322
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RELG 322.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Sonja Anderson 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- M, WLeighton 303 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLeighton 303 2:20pm-3:20pm
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SPAN 301 Greek and Christian Tragedy 6 credits
This course is a comparative study of classical and Christian tragedy from Sophocles to Valle Inclán and from Aristotle to Nietzsche. Classes alternate between lectures and group discussions. Course requisites include a midterm exam and a final paper. All readings are in Spanish, Sophocles and Aristotle included.
Extra time
- Fall 2025
- 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.