ELT: Aug 1, 2022

In addition to meeting as many of the staff members who report to the Office of the Provost as possible, I have now had two of the four open forums for faculty with the final two next week. The conversations so far have been rich and I feel quite lucky to have such remarkable colleagues. Themes that have emerged in various discussions are generally consistent, so I am gaining a sense slowly of the projects that we will want to undertake in the coming year.  Of course, part of that is just learning how this community functions, asking questions about policies, processes, and structures that are unfamiliar to me. Still, there are issues that came out in my two previous campus visits and have emerged from these first conversations. Once I have finished the open forums, I will start laying out ideas about how we can collectively explore ways to address them. Certainly, one of those issues is addressing our challenges in recruiting and retaining faculty from minoritized or historically marginalized population groups. It will definitely be at the top of my priority list as we enter the academic year and launch a number of really important faculty searches.

I also met with the Transition Team Friday and started hearing from them about groups I should meet that are not yet on the list of appointments that Peggy Pfister and I are scheduling together. In particular, I asked them to help me identify non-faculty groups that I should seek out as well as how to create opportunities to meet students once they arrive on campus again in the fall. I believe we have a pretty healthy list in the making and I hope we’ll be reaching out to as many as possible this week.

Stay tuned to the East Laird Times for summer updates.

In this course, we examine the ways that race structures difference and inequality in non-US contexts with varying degrees of racial “diversity.” As a construct fundamentally grounded in white supremacy through encounters between Europe and its “Others,” race from its inception has been a global construct for organizing and stratifying human difference. Yet the specific ways that race is constructed varies across societies, with ethnicity and other related concepts of difference substituting for race. Foundational to this course will be how the notions of blackness and whiteness figure into the creation of racial categories, boundaries, and inequalities. Course topics include skin color stratification, “colorblindness,” ethnicity and nationhood, migration and citizenship, media representations, anti-blackness as a global phenomenon, transnational and global flows of racial ideas and categories, and social movements for racial justice. Requirements Met: NE, Writing Rich 22, International Studies

Students will work in two primary printmaking media: relief and/or silkscreen. Through printmaking techniques, layering, color mixing, and generating multiples, students will explore how to develop a narrative in their work and build upon skills established in prerequisite drawing classes. Prerequisite: Studio Art 110, 113, 114 or instructor consent.  Requirements Met: ARP

Narrative films are the product of many specialized artists working in concert toward a shared artistic vision. In this course, students will explore the essential crew roles on narrative films and choose an area in which they would like to specialize during the making of a collaborative project. Through the term, we will move through film development, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution with each student taking on a specific role in a group project. The term culminates in the exhibition of films that were made over the previous 10 weeks. Extra Time Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111. Requirements Met: Arts Practice

Science is a human endeavor. Societal context has thus shaped the questions chemists have asked, who benefits from or is harmed by the technological advancements chemists discover, and who has participated in or been excluded from the chemical enterprise. With the goal of encouraging open minded and self-critical thinking about the discipline and its practice, we will work collaboratively to explore a range of case studies, including the origin of chemical nomenclature, disparate environmental impacts, and the design of pharmaceutical clinical trials, in which chemistry intersects with, and sometimes reinforces, structural racism and other inequalities. Prerequisite: Chemistry 224 and 233

Histories of the classical world often focus on the cultures of Greece and Rome, situated on the northern shores of the Mediterranean. But what can we discover if we ‘flip’ our map of the Mediterranean, putting African perspectives on top? In this class, we will engage with the artistic, literary, and archaeological evidence left to us by the Mediterranean societies of classical Africa, as well as the ways in which these societies are depicted by Greek and Roman sources. Topics covered include ancient Egypt, the colonial “middle ground” of North Africa, and other African cultures on the Mediterranean periphery. Requirements Met: Humanistic Inquiry

Stories of gods, heroes and monsters were a pervasive part of life in ancient Greece and Rome, integrated into landscape, the built environment and cultural practice from ritual worship to informal storytelling, and they have retained their power to fascinate through subsequent eras. This seminar will investigate the roles myth played in the ancient world, drawing on literary, historical and archaeological evidence, as well as the most prominent theoretical frameworks for interpreting myths, and some examples of modern adaptations. Topics in the second half of the course will be driven by student interests as they develop their own research and present it at the department Symposium. Prerequisite: At least two courses in Classics or instructor consent. Other Tags: Classics Required

This class is a workshop in improvisation using the individual body as a site/map for exploration. Through an embodied exploration of ancestral memory, tracing and thought to increase physical range and capacity, we will engage movement within empathetic exchanges as a collaborative process.  Open to all movers.

Magic carpets, glittering pagodas, harem fantasies…Orientalism dominated Europe’s creative landscape and imagination since the 1700s, but what purpose did it serve? This class will explore over 300 years of “exotic” portrayals of “Orientals” on the Western ballet and opera stages, and geopolitics that impacted how we view Asian people and cultures to this day: from Genghis Khan, the Opium Wars, Chinese Exclusion, to Japanese Internment and #StopAsianHate. The course will also examine the creative process of shifting a Eurocentric work of art for a multiracial audience and provide practical frameworks for how to create art outside of your own cultural experience. Requirements Met: Humanistic Inquiry International Studies

This course focuses on the empirical analysis of housing prices, quantities, supply, demand, and related policy. Specific areas of study include: market trends in housing prices over time and space, hedonic analysis of local amenities like schools, parks, or pollution, differential effects of housing policy, segregation, migration, and many others depending on student interests. Class time is a mix of journal article discussion, empirical lab exercises, and other individual and small group activities aimed at helping students write an independent research prospectus. Throughout, we’ll pay special attention to issues of research integrity, the open science movement, and causal inference research methods. Prerequisite/Corequisite: Economics 329, 330, and 331, or instructor permission. Requirements Met: Social Inquiry Writing Rich 2 Quantitative Reasoning Encounter

What makes the imaginary world created by a novel feel “real”?  What aspects of narrative contribute to our sense of being immersed in a coherent and convincing universe?  From the Victorians who addressed letters to Mr. Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street, to fans of a Middle Earth that now encompasses multiple books and films, readers have always been drawn to narratives that create a place that seems capacious and vivid enough to enter.  In this course, we will look at world-building from the eighteenth century through the present, comparing novels to other contemporary media in order to develop an understanding of the way in which the impulse towards “realism” has shaped narrative in a variety of different forms. Works to be studied include books and stories by Daniel Defoe, A. Conan Doyle,  J.R.R. Tolkien, and Octavia Butler, as well as Villeneuve’s film of Dune.  

The environmental justice movement seeks greater participation by marginalized communities in environmental policy, and equity in the distribution of environmental harms and benefits. This course will examine the meaning of “environmental justice,” the history of the movement, the empirical foundation for the movement’s claims, and specific policy questions. Our focus is the United States, but students will have the opportunity to research environmental justice in other countries. Requirements met: SI, QRE, IDS

Through close readings of contemporary and classic environmental memoirs, this course explores the connections between nature and identity; race, belonging, and landscape; and memory, justice, and hope. Issues of environmental justice and injustice will serve as a key interpretive lens for approaching the texts. Authors include Robin Wall Kimmerer, Aldo Leopold, Terry Tempest Williams, and J. Drew Lanham. 

In the Francophone world comics are known as the ninth art, a popular, legitimate–albeit contested–art form. What then differentiates this art form from others? How do comics create meaning? How do they tell stories? What stories do they tell? In this class we will develop a multilayered approach to comics by analyzing the form and content of texts, but also by questioning the place of comics in French, Algerian, and Québecois societies. Readings will include iconic texts (Asterix, Tintin), alternative comics (by Fabcaro, Louerrad, Ziadé), theoretical pieces on bandes dessinées, and conversations with working artists. Prerequisite: One French course beyond French 204 or instructor permission. Requirements Met: Literary/Artistic Analysis International Studies

Feminist mobilization around reproductive rights in the US has changed in its focus and intensity over the past 50 years. Black American and other transnational feminists have argued about the necessity of distinguishing between reproductive rights and reproductive justice. How has this argument impacted the ideology and collective-change strategies of different feminist communities mobilizing for reproductive rights? What collective-change strategies have they proposed and what obstacles have they faced? This course has a major civic engagement component that requires students to work with feminist non-profit organizations in and around Northfield or in the greater Twin Cities area. Extra Time Required, Requirements Met: SI, IDS

How did China become a global player in the market economy? This course surveys Chinese business history in the recent past focusing on the origins of industrial development in China, agrarian “involution” and famine, vernacular commercialism, and arguments about China’s economic divergence from and convergence with the rest of the world. Historical examples are drawn from enterprises that produced salt, medicine, cotton textile, machine tools, electricity, automobiles, and the iPhone. Students will pick one of them and write a historical biography of a businessperson, an economic thinker, a company, or an entrepreneurial activity (e.g., operating department stores or advertising companies). Extra time. Requirements Met: Humanistic Inquiry Quantitative Reasoning Encounter International Studies Writing Rich 2

This course provides an introduction to contemporary Japan through a variety of literary works dating from the early postwar period (1945) to the present. While becoming familiar with prize-winning Japanese writers, literary genres, and various artistic conventions, we will examine how writers reacted to, shaped, and critiqued historical events and social situations in which these literary texts are written. Topics for discussion include: war memory, postwar economic success, loss of national identity, shifting concepts of families, gender roles, and lifestyles, minorities, alienation, and disaster. Through readings, lectures, and discussions, you will become familiar with major cultural and historical movements that comprise the complexity of contemporary Japan, and develop the critical skills necessary to analyze literary texts. All readings are in English, and no background knowledge of Japan is required. In translation. Requirements Met: Literary/Artistic Analysis International Studies

In this advanced Japanese language course, we will explore a wide range of concepts, social media buzzwords, and cultural phenomena that constitute the fabric of everyday life in Japan today. From “geeks” and “idols” dominating the cultural scene to the “working poor” and “hikikomori,” who represent the precarity Japan faces in the contexts of economic, political and psychological crisis, the course delves into the aspects of key phenomena surrounding contemporary Japanese society. You will develop skills to read, analyze, summarize, and critique various texts written in Japanese, including newspaper articles, scholarly essays, literary texts, and films, while becoming familiar with historical contexts in which these keywords emerged and are used. Prerequisite: Japanese 206 or equivalent. Requirements Met: Literary/Artistic Analysis International Studies

A first course in number number theory, covering properties of the integers. Topics include the Euclidean algorithm, prime factorization, Diophantine equations, congruences, divisibility, Euler’s phi function and other multiplicative functions, primitive roots, and quadratic reciprocity. Along the way we will encounter and explore several famous unsolved problems in number theory. If time permits, we may discuss further topics, including integers as sums of squares, continued fractions, distribution of primes, Mersenne primes, the RSA cryptosystem. Formerly Math 312 Prerequisite: Mathematics 236 or instructor permission. Requirements Met: Formal or Statistical Reasoning

Geometric group theory is the study of (infinite) groups using geometric tools. The underlying principle of geometric group theory is that if a group G acts “nicely” on a space, then information about that space tells us information about the group. This class will introduce tools from topology, graph theory, and geometry and use them to study groups. Topics will include groups acting on trees and (more generally) hyperbolic groups. This course counts toward the Algebra area of the math major. Prerequisite: Mathematics 342 or instructor consent. Requirements Met: Formal or Statistical Reasoning

A course designed for students with little or no music background as preparation and support for other music courses, ensemble participation and applied music study. The course covers the fundamentals of note and rhythmic reading, basic harmony, and develops proficiency in aural skills and elementary keyboard skills. This class will make regular use of the music computer lab for assignments. Requirements Met: Arts Practice

This course will consider the musical elements of Rock. The instructor will create a theme for the term focusing on a subset of rock history (girl groups, concept albums, etc.). Using guided listening and student responses, the class will focus on a single album (or other group of tracks) per week throughout the term. No theme will repeat during any four-year period, allowing students to take the course multiple times. This course may be offered as a stand-alone class or as a coordinated trailer to “History of Rock.”

Performing with Electronics is both a survey and a creative course. We will explore historical and contemporary examples of performing with live electronics that incorporate both analog and digital technologies, such as use of turntables and sampling, microphones and speakers, synthesizers, no-input mixing, digital processing, among others. Taking cue from these different approaches to working with electronics in real time, we will investigate ways of approaching a live scenario, designing hardware and software interfaces for performance. Our goal will be learning to perform with our setups, ultimately looking into the possibilities of performing as an ensemble.  Requirements Met: ARP

This course is designed to introduce participants to trail running in the Carleton Arboretum. Students will receive instruction in basic trail running techniques, training principles, proper warmup and cool down approaches and injury prevention. Weekly run outside of class time required. Class offered first six weeks of fall term.

Our lives are drenched in argument and persuasion. This course aims to teach you how to deftly and ethically manage argument and persuasion in your own life. Our goals: to develop your skill at recognizing how language can be used and misused as a tool for persuasion, by teaching techniques from formal logic, linguistics, and argument-mapping; and to show you how (and why) to construct your own arguments with honesty and logical transparency. Our hope is that you will come to see argument not primarily as a contest to be won or lost, but as something that should be “reclaimed” for a more noble purpose: building genuine understanding between people, even across profound differences of viewpoint. Requirements Met: Humanistic Inquiry

This course provides a survey of contemporary issues in feminist philosophy as well as a selection of feminist theories of gender. For the latter, we will cover intersectional theory, narrative theory, and feminist theories of embodiment, among others. For the former, we will attempt to answer the following kinds of questions in this course: How does feminism interact with nationalism? How do categories of gender, sex, sexuality, race, nationality, and class affect our willingness to attribute knowledge or epistemic authority to others? How does the application of these categories affect our awareness of the social spaces that we inhabit? How do we know our sexual orientation? What is oppression? Should gender impact custody decisions? How does the criminal justice system reinforce structures of oppression? This course will ask students to analyze feminist arguments that support diverse answers to these questions and more. Requirements Met: Humanistic Inquiry Writing Rich 2 Intercultural Domestic Studies

Intimately related in deep but philosophically mysterious ways, the paired concepts of causation and explanation structure how we think about the reality we inhabit and our place in it, as well as our self-understanding as inquirers. After all, when we investigate just about anything, we aim to know not just the where and the when, but the how and the why. This seminar will introduce you to some of the most important philosophical investigations into causation, explanation, and their relationship to one another. Along the way, we’ll pay close attention to ways in which these investigations matter — well outside the confines of academic philosophy — by looking at stubborn disputes within the social sciences about what counts as “causal” or “explanatory.” Requirements Met: Humanistic Inquiry

An introduction to research method, research design, and the analysis of political data. The course is intended to introduce students to the fundamentals of scientific inquiry as they are employed in the discipline. The course will consider the philosophy of scientific research generally, the philosophy of social science research, theory building and theory testing, the components of applied (quantitative and qualitative) research across the major sub-fields of political science, and basic methodological tools. Intended for majors only. Prerequisite/Corequisite: Statistics 120, 230, 250, (formerly Mathematics 215, 245, 275), AP Statistics (score of 4 or 5) or Psychology 200/201 or Sociology/Anthropology 239. Requirements Met: Social Inquiry Writing Rich 2 Quantitative Reasoning Encounter

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, roughly 328.2 million people live in the United States. Of that population, 63% live in one of 19,500 “incorporated places,” defined as a city, town ,village, or borough with legally-prescribed limits, powers, and functions. However, three-quarters of incorporated places have fewer than 5,000 people; 42% have fewer than 500 people. In fact, only 40% of all cities have a population of 50,000 or more in 2019, yet nearly 39% of the U.S. population live in those cities. A majority of human social, political, and economic interactions now happen in urban areas (like the Twin Cities) but a significant portion of American life is experienced in smaller towns (like Northfield). Utilizing established social theories, critical thinking skills, and common research techniques, we will learn how to bolster our understanding of both rural and urban phenomena, policies, and processes, addressing topics like political, racial, and class polarization; intolerance; health care; housing, development, and zoning, and transportation. Through field visits to and speakers from both the Twin Cities and Northfield, we will chart the urban/rural political divide to provide a richer understanding of politics and policy in all corners of the United States. Extra Time Required  Requirements Met: SI, WR2, QRE, IDS

This course covers the U.S. Intelligence Community, how intelligence supports national security policy development, and how intelligence is applied to execute strategy in pursuit of policy objectives (specifically, implementation of national security and foreign policy initiatives). Studying the structure, processes, procedures, oversight, and capabilities of the Intelligence Community will enhance understanding of how intelligence supported or failed policymakers in national security decision-making, including the areas of diplomatic and economic cooperation and engagement, and security challenges ranging from deterrence to conventional war. The course concludes with the study of asymmetric/hybrid warfare in our modern age and how intelligence might be used to better understand the changing dynamics of future global conflict. Requirements Met: SI, IS

This seminar will explore pressing legal and policy issues facing American colleges and universities. The course will address the ways core academic values (e.g., academic freedom; the creation and maintenance of a community based on shared values) fit or conflict with legal rules and political dynamics that operate beyond the academy. Likely topics include how college admissions are shaped by legal principles, with particular emphasis on debates over affirmative action; on-campus speech; faculty tenure; intellectual property; student rights and student discipline (including discipline for sexual assault); and college and university relations with the outside world. Requirements Met: Social Inquiry

Humans are a sexual animal. Not only do we engage in sexual behavior for procreation, but also at times for pleasure, intimacy, affiliation, and profit. Furthermore, we maintain sexual and gender identities that affect our behaviors and help us organize our social worlds. These identities develop over time, through our childhood and adolescence and into adulthood. We also place boundaries on sexuality and gender through norms, laws, and social conventions. Sexuality is at once commonplace and private, ubiquitous yet taboo. In this course, we will explore the many dimensions and paradoxes of human sexuality and its connection to our psychology. We will also consider these topics in the context of real-world phenomena and cross-cultural examples. Prerequisite: Psychology 110 or instructor consent. Requirements Met: Social Inquiry

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. Requirements Met: HI, WR2, IS

Sufism broadly refers to a complex of devotional, literary, ethical, theological, and mystical traditions in Islam. More specifically, it refers to the activities associated with institutionalized master-disciple relationships, which define the paths through which Muslims have sought experiential knowledge of God. In both the broad and narrow sense of Sufism, love has been a prominent means of Sufi self-representation. In this course, we will explore the ideas and practices semantically associated with love in the Sufi tradition and analyze the ways in which these ideas and practices have both shaped and been shaped by individual lives, religious institutions, and socio-cultural contexts. Requirements met: HI, WR2, IS

Beginning in the 1910’s, Russian and then the Soviet Union was home to some of the most creative and innovative animated films in the world. In this course we will examine selected animated shorts in the context of Russian history and culture. Topics to be considered include the roots of animated film in the folk tale, the role of cartoons in educating the model Soviet child, the language of Soviet colonial discourse, and the ways in which post-Soviet animated films perpetuated or subverted past traditions. Prerequisite: Russian 205 or consent of the instructor. Requirements Met: Literary/Artistic Analysis International Studies

Inequalities and identities are well understood yet too often disconnected from the context of space and place. In this class, we discuss the ways that neighborhoods and cities are sites of inequality as well as identity. Neighborhoods are linked to the amount of wealth we hold; the schools we attend; the goods, services, and resources we have access to; and who our neighbors are. Neighborhoods are also spaces where identities and community are created, claimed, and contested. They can also be sites of conflict as they change through gentrification or other processes that often reflect inequalities of power, resources, and status. In this course, special attention will be paid to how race, gender and sexuality, and immigration shape inequalities and identity in neighborhoods and cities. This course will also include an academic civic engagement component, collaborating with local communities in Minnesota. Prerequisite: The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above. Requirements Met: Social Inquiry, WR2, QRE, Intercultural Domestic Studies