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Course Catalog 2018-2019 
    
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Course Catalog 2018-2019 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

College and Conservatory Courses (2018-19 and planned future offerings)

 You may wish to consult information about using the Oberlin Catalog located here: Using the Online Catalog to My Advantage  
 
  

  • ENVS 222 - Environmental Issues Beyond Borders


    Next Offered: Spring 2020

    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, CD

    Global environmental issues often cut across national boundaries. Forging effective solutions to these problems requires consideration of the cultural, socio-economic, and political processes that influence the relationship between humans and the natural environment in different parts of the world. This course uses case studies, critical thinking exercises, and projects for the students to develop an understanding of international environmental issues and discover ways in which their personal choices can improve the environment.

    Enrollment Limit: 20
    Instructor: M. Shammin
  

  • ENVS 225 - Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change


    Next Offered: Spring 2020

    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, CD

    This course synthesizes what is currently understood about key climate change vulnerabilities for Native American/Alaska Native tribes and potential consequences to a range of tribal cultural and natural resources including traditional foods as the basis of physical and cultural well-being. In so doing, we will examine how tribes are working with others to address climate change by contributing their knowledge about the environment, their resource management experience, and their authority as natural resource trustees.

    Enrollment Limit: 22
    Instructor: C. Sakakibara

    Prerequisites & Notes: ENVS 101
  

  • ENVS 230 - Environmental Justice and Local Knowledge


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU

    This course will engage students in the theory and practice of environmental justice with a particular focus on epistemologies. Interdisciplinary readings will include primary sources like autobiography and documentary film as well as secondary sources from the humanities and social and natural sciences. Field trips required.

    Enrollment Limit: 8
    Instructor: J. Fiskio

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 231 - Environmental Economics


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, QFR

    The course is an introduction to the theory and practice of environmental economics. Emphasis is placed on understanding how the basic tools of economic analysis are used to identify sources of environmental problems, value environmental resources, and design environmental policy within the framework of a market based economic system.

    Enrollment Limit: 40
    Instructor: P. Brehm

    Prerequisites & Notes: ECON 101 or its equivalent.
    Cross List Information: This course is cross-listed with ECON 231.
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Economics
  

  • ENVS 244 - Society and Environment in Latin America and the Caribbean


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, CD

    This course covers 500 years of society-environment relations and gets students to explore the way biophysical conditions interact with social organization, belief systems, political economy, colonialism, resource extraction, race, indigeneity and ethnic rights, commodity markets, technological change, urbanism, conservation, ecotourism, globalization, and social movements.

    Enrollment Limit: 20
    Instructor: K. Offen

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 302 - American Agricultures


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    This course examines agrarian thinking and food justice movements in the United States through literature, essays, film, and field trips. We learn about the political philosophy of democratic agrarianism, particularly as articulated by the New Agrarianism movement, and the contributions of indigenous, enslaved, and immigrant peoples to American agricultural practices and foodways. Throughout the course we pay close attention to the Rust Belt as a location of contemporary work for food justice. Field trips are required.

    Enrollment Limit: 20
    Instructor: J. Fiskio

    Prerequisites & Notes: ENVS 201 or consent of the instructor
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Comparative American Studies
  

  • ENVS 316 - Systems Ecology


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4NS, QFR

    The ecosystem concept provides a framework for understanding complex interactions between life and the physical environment and the role of humans as dominant agents of biogeochemical change. We will apply systems concepts to understand the flows of energy, cycles of matter and control mechanisms that operate in ecosystems and will compare the structure and function of a variety of natural and human dominated ecosystems. Students will explore primary literature, will learn field and laboratory methods for analyzing local ecosystems, and will propose, execute and analyze group research projects.

    Enrollment Limit: 14
    Instructor: J. Petersen

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Prerequisites: BIOL 103 or BIOL 200 and either CHEM 101, 103 or 051. Note: Systems Ecology counts toward Biology and Environmental Studies major requirements
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Biology
  

  • ENVS 322 - Energy and Society


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS

    Energy issues are often characterized as problems we can ‘supply’ our way out of by changing the resources we rely on. Less frequently, energy issues are treated as a problem of consumption. This course adopts a sociotechnical perspective, regarding energy as an issue shaped by both technical factors and social patterns. The first part of this course explores physical, political, and economic aspects of energy supply through the examination of different energy sources (biomass, fossil fuels, electricity, renewables, nuclear). The second part of the course addresses social and political aspects of energy consumption in the industrial, commercial, residential and transportation sectors.

    Enrollment Limit: 16
    Instructor: M. Shammin

    Prerequisites & Notes: ENVS 101.
  

  • ENVS 323 - Seminar: Global Environmental Politics


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS

    This advanced course focuses on international treaties and negotiations pertaining to the environment at the international level. This course will involve a deep analysis of the texts of some of the major environmental treaties and agreements (or lack of there of) and analyze the socio-political processes surrounding these treaties. We will also look at the broader theoretical issues behind bargaining and negotiations in international environmental politics. Prerequisite & Notes At least Junior ENVS or Politics Major

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: S. Pathak

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 324 - Seminar: Natural Resources and Conflict


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS

    This advanced course focuses on the literature on environmental resources and wars. We will look at how natural resources can be deeply enmeshed in engendering conflicts and how natural resources are affected by conflicts. Apart from this we will also look at the methodological and epistemological concerns of how we view the relationship between societal conflicts and natural resources.

    Enrollment Limit: 12
    Instructor: S. Pathak

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: At least a Junior, ENVS or Politics Major
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Politics
  

  • ENVS 327 - Indigenous Environmentalism


    Next Offered: Fall 2019

    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 2AR,2SS, CD

    This seminar will investigate how the vitality of indigenous art is evidence of an extraordinary story of survival in the time of social, political, and environmental challenges. Through analyses of artworks and communication with indigenous artists from Japan and North America, we will explore how the visual arts have long played a critical role as carriers of cultural identity within global indigenous societies. Their artistic imaginations are among the most eloquent articulations of identities and struggles for sovereignty, resilience, and environmentalism. The course will also elucidate the problems of how these arts have been represented in museums and scholarly writings.

    Enrollment Limit: 20
    Instructor: C. Sakakibara

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 330 - Africatown Immersion


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Half Courses
    Credits: 2 credits
    Attribute: 2SS

    This module course will engage students in community-based learning and research in the historic community of Africatown, Alabama. Students will spend fall break in Africatown collaborating with grassroots community organizations. All students will contribute to presentations of research projects to local organizations. Field trip required.

    Enrollment Limit: 14
    Instructor: Fiskio

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Field trip required. Prerequisite and notes: ENVS 230.
  

  • ENVS 332 - Energy Economics


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, QFR

    This course examines energy markets and policies. It applies economic theory and uses empirical evidence to analyze oil, natural gas, and electricity markets. Understanding the structure of supply and demand in these industries is essential for designing effective energy policy. Emphasis will be placed on understanding energy?s interaction with climate change. Prerequisite and notes: ECON 253.

    Enrollment Limit: 20
    Instructor: P. Brehm

    Cross List Information: Cross-listed with ECON 332
  

  • ENVS 340 - Systems Modeling: Systems Thinking


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4NS, QFR

    Models provide powerful tools for organizing information, gaining insight into underlying dynamics, and predicting the behavior of complex systems. Students will learn to design and build conceptual models together with computer simulation models as a means of building understanding of the common principles underlying a diversity of biological, physical, social and ecological systems. Students will develop ?systems-thinking? skills by learning to identify feedback loops controlling the flows and storage of information, energy, money and materials.

    Enrollment Limit: 16
    Instructor: J. Petersen

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: BIOL 120 or BIOL 102, at least one college chemistry course, comfort using algebraic equations. Credit can be counted towards either biology or environmental studies majors.
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Biology
  

  • ENVS 342 - Political Ecology


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, CD, WADV

    Political ecology examines how political, economic, and cultural processes ? each broadly defined ? come together to shape society-nature relations and conflicting ideas about the environment, especially in places around the world where people have strong connections with their biophysical world. With firm roots in several disciplines, but especially geography and anthropology, political ecology characterizes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding environmental degradation and marginalization, conflict over resource access and control, environmental enclosure and conservation, knowledge claims about the environment, and social movements seeking environmental justice.

    Enrollment Limit: 18
    Instructor: K. Offen

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: ENVS 101
  

  • ENVS 354 - Practicum in Environmental Communication


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS

    Effective communication is essential for promoting sustainability and resilience.  It is also critical to professional development. Through projects that engage the full-diversity of communities, participants will develop skills associated with: pro-environmental and pro-community messaging, compelling visual and text delivery, proposal writing, public education, research and public presentation.   The tools of social psychology, communication theory, visual arts and environmental education will be harnessed to motivate and empower community transformation.  Projects will focus on further developing and assessing the efficacy of various components of “Environmental Dashboard” (ED) as mechanisms for promoting pro-community attitudes and behaviors. ED components are currently being implemented in Oberlin, Toledo and Cleveland through partners that include the Toledo Public School System, the Great Lakes Science Center, Cleveland Metroparks, and many governmental and community organizations in these cities.

    Enrollment Limit: 14
    Instructor: J. Petersen

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: ENVS 101 or consent of the instructor.
  

  • ENVS 390 - Sustainable Cities


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS

    Humans are now an urban species with more people living in cities than in rural areas. This course will examine the economic, social and environmental causes and implications of this transition. We will consider the opportunities and design challenges of urban sustainability, concepts and techniques of urban and regional analysis, and contemporary approaches to sustainable urban planning and design in a global and cross-cultural context.

    Enrollment Limit: 19
    Instructor: M. Shammin

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: ENVS 101 and consent.
  

  • ENVS 430 - Environmental Justice Methodologies


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS

    Students will complete advanced research projects in areas central to environmental justice work. In addition, all students will contribute as co-authors to the production of articles to be submitted for peer review and grant applications. Students in 430 will serve as TAs and mentors to new students in ENVS 230.

    Enrollment Limit: 6
    Instructor: Fiskio

    Prerequisites & Notes: ENVS 230 and 330.
  

  • ENVS 501F - Research Env St (ARHU) - Full


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, HONR

    Research in Environmental Studies (ARHU)- Full

    Instructor: C. Cottine, J. Fiskio, T. McMillin, T. Newlin, K. Offen, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, C. Sakakibara

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 501H - Research in Environmental Studies (ARHU) - Half


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Credits: 2 credits
    Research in Environmental Studies (ARHU) - Half

    Instructor: C. Cottine, J. Fiskio, T. McMillin, T. Newlin, K. Offen, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, C. Sakakibara

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 502F - Research in Environmental Studies (ARHU) - Half


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, HONR

    Research in Environmental Studies (ARHU) - Half

    Instructor: J. Fiskio, T. McMillin, T. Newlin, K. Offen, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, C. Sakakibara

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 502H - Research in Environmental Studies (ARHU) - Half


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Half Course
    Credits: 2 credits
    Attribute: 2HU, HONR

    Research in Environmental Studies (ARHU) - Half

    Instructor: J. Fiskio, T. McMillin, T. Newlin, K. Offen, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, C. Sakakibara

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 503F - Research in Environmental Studies (NSMA) - Full


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4NS, HONR

    Research in Environmental Studies (NSMA) - Full

    Instructor: M. Elrod, D. Hubbard, R. Laushman, C. McDaniel, K. Offen, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, C. Sakakibara

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 503H - Research in Environmental Studies (NSMA) - Half


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Half Course
    Credits: 2 credits
    Attribute: 2NS, HONR

    Research in Environmental Studies (NSMA) - Half

    Instructor: M. Elrod, B. Hobbs, D. Hubbard, R. Laushman, C. McDaniel, K. Offen, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, C. Sakakibara, D. Tremaine

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 504F - Research in Environmental Studies (NSMA) - Full


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4NS, HONR

    Research in Environmental Studies (NSMA) - Full

    Instructor: M. Elrod, D. Hubbard, R. Laushman, C. McDaniel, K. Offen, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, C. Sakakibara

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 504H - Research in Environmental Studies (NSMA) - Half


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Half Course
    Credits: 2 credits
    Attribute: 2NS, HONR

    Research in Environmental Studies (NSMA) - Half

    Instructor: M. Elrod, D. Hubbard, R. Laushman, C. McDaniel, K. Offen, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, C. Sakakibara

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 505F - Research in Environmental Studies (SSCI) - Full


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, HONR

    Research in Environmental Studies (SSCI) - Full

    Instructor: J. Fiskio, C. Frantz, C. McDaniel, K. Offen, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, C. Sakakibara, M. Shammin

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 505H - Research in Environmental Studies (SSCI) - Half


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Half Course
    Credits: 2 credits
    Attribute: 2SS, HONR

    Research in Environmental Studies (SSCI) - Half

    Instructor: J. Fiskio, C. Frantz, C. McDaniel, K. Offen, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, M. Riesterer, C. Sakakibara, M. Shammin

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 506F - Research in Environmental Studies (SSCI) - Full


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, HONR

    Research in Environmental Studies (SSCI) - Half

    Instructor: J. Fiskio, C. Frantz, C. McDaniel, K. Offen, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, C. Sakakibara, M. Shammin

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 506H - Research in Environmental Studies (SSCI) - Half


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Half Course
    Credits: 2 credits
    Attribute: 2SS, HONR

    Research in Environmental Studies (SSCI) - Half

    Instructor: J. Fiskio, C. Frantz, C. McDaniel, K. Offen, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, C. Sakakibara, M. Shammin

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 925 - Landscapes of Resistance


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU

    The UK has a long history of resistance to industrialization. This course will investigate the aesthetics and politics of climate justice through cultural productions including literature, film, new media, performance, protest, and social movements, placing climate activism in the UK in historical context as well as within current movements such as the Arab Spring and Occupy. Through projects and wider class discussions, we will consider the intersection of aesthetics and politics in climate justice and inquire into the potential for this convergence to generate democratic forms of engagement. Field trips required. Prerequisite: Taught in London. Prior application and acceptance to the Oberlin-in-London Program required.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: J. Fiskio

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 942A - Nature, Culture, London: In, Around, Below, Above, Before, & After the City


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD

    Through a study of a variety of texts and places ‘museums, maps, literature, parks, paintings, films, gardens, architecture, infrastructure’ we will consider the different ways in which nature is understood, ordered, and represented in London and surrounding areas. The way a culture looks at nature is organized by a variety of factors, including its geography, its history, its epistemology and ethos. We will explore various versions of nature in an urban environment, with particular attention to connections: between ideas and places, between texts and experiences, between one place and another, between different cultural perspectives, between the past and the present. Field trips required.Program required.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: J. Fiskio, T. McMillin

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Prerequisite: Taught in London. Prior application and acceptance to the Oberlin-in-London
  

  • ENVS 942B - Nature, Culture, London: In, Around, Below, Above, Before, & After the City


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD

    Through a study of a variety of texts and places ‘museums, maps, literature, parks, paintings, films, gardens, architecture, infrastructure’ we will consider the different ways in which nature is understood, ordered, and represented in London and surrounding areas. The way a culture looks at nature is organized by a variety of factors, including its geography, its history, its epistemology and ethos. We will explore various versions of nature in an urban environment, with particular attention to connections: between ideas and places, between texts and experiences, between one place and another, between different cultural perspectives, between the past and the present. Field trips required. Prerequisite: Taught in London. Prior application and acceptance to the Oberlin-in-London Program required.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: J. Fiskio, T. McMillin

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ENVS 995F - Private Reading - Full


    Semester Offered: First Semester, Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4EX

    Private readings are offered as either a half or full academic course and require the faculty member’s approval. Students who wish to pursue a topic not covered in the regular curriculum may register for a private reading. This one-to-one tutorial is normally at the advanced level in a specific field and is arranged with a member of the faculty who has agreed to supervise the student. Unlike other courses, a student cannot register for a private reading via PRESTO. To register for a private reading, obtain a card from the Registrar’s Office, complete the required information, obtain the faculty member’s approval for the reading, and return the card to the Registrar’s Office.

    Enrollment Limit: 5
    Instructor: M. Elrod, J. Fiskio, C. Frantz, D. Hubbard, R. Laushman, C. McDaniel, T. McMillin, B. Melzer, T. Newlin, K. Offen, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, C. Sakakibara, M. Shammin, Staff

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Submit Private Reading Card to the Registrar’s Office
  

  • ENVS 995H - Private Reading - Half


    Semester Offered: First Semester, Second Semester
    Half Course
    Credits: 2 credits
    Attribute: 2EX

    Private readings are offered as either a half or full academic course and require the faculty member’s approval. Students who wish to pursue a topic not covered in the regular curriculum may register for a private reading. This one-to-one tutorial is normally at the advanced level in a specific field and is arranged with a member of the faculty who has agreed to supervise the student. Unlike other courses, a student cannot register for a private reading via Banner Self Service.. To register for a private reading, obtain a card from the Registrar?s Office, complete the required information, obtain the faculty member’s approval for the reading, and return the card to the Registrar’s Office.

    Enrollment Limit: 5
    Instructor: M. Elrod, J. Fiskio, C. Frantz, D. Hubbard, R. Laushman, C. McDaniel, T. McMillin, B. Melzer, T. Newlin, K. Offen, D. Orr, S. Pathak, J. Petersen, C. Sakakibara, M. Shammin, Staff

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • ESOL 110 - ESOL Level 1 Reading, Writing, and Grammar


    Next Offered: Fall Semester

    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU

    An intensive course designed for new students who are non-native speakers of English and whose experience with the English language is limited. The four language skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) are taught simultaneously with special emphasis on the acquisition of grammar. Students must concurrently enroll in ESOL 115.

    Enrollment Limit: 10
    Instructor: L. Fekete

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Enrollment based on performance on ESOL Placement Exam. Co-Requisite: ESOL 115.
  

  • ESOL 115 - English for Speakers of Other Languages: Speaking, Listening and Culture


    Next Offered: Fall Semester

    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU

    Enrollment based on performance on ESOL Placement Exam. Co-Requisite: ESOL 110, 120, or 130. Students enrolled in ESOL 110 must concurrently enroll in ESOL 115.

    Enrollment Limit: 20
    Instructor: C. Rodriguez

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Enrollment based on performance on ESOL Placement Exam. Co-Requisite: ESOL 110, 120, or 130. Students enrolled in ESOL 110 must concurrently enroll in ESOL 115.
  

  • ESOL 120 - ESOL Level 2


    Next Offered: Fall and Spring Semesters

    Semester Offered: First Semester, Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU

    An intensive course designed to build upon skills developed in ESOL Level 1 and to increase mastery of the basic English language skills at the intermediate and upper-intermediate levels.

    Enrollment Limit: 10
    Instructor: L. Fekete

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Placement by ESOL Placement Exam or successful completion of ESOL 110.
  

  • ESOL 130 - ESOL Level 3


    Next Offered: Fall and Spring Semesters

    Semester Offered: First Semester, Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU

    An intensive course designed for students who are non-native speakers of English to increase fluency, build rich vocabulary, and practice the use and understanding of idiomatic English. This course will focus on the use of English for academic purposes, and academic writing in particular.

    Enrollment Limit: 10
    Instructor: L. Fekete

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Placement by ESOL Placement Exam or successful completion of ESOL 120.
  

  • ESOL 140 - Expository Writing for English Speakers of the Other Languages


    Next Offered: First Offered Fall 2017 & Spring 2018

    Semester Offered: First & Second Semester
    FC
    Credits: 4
    Attribute: CNDP, 4HU, W-INT

    This course is designed for English speakers of other languages and international students interested in exploring American Academic conventions by learning to observe the influence of rhetorical structures and read critically, construct and support an argument, and explore and develop research skills. Assignments are designed to involve academic reading, writing, and research that will serve them during their education at Oberlin College and Conservatory and in their professional lives. The course will also help to prepare students for writing about music in academic contexts such as history and theory. This class will meet as a writing community in which students read and discuss their work and the work of classmates.

    Enrollment Limit: 12
    Instructor: L. Fekete

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Placement by ESOL Placement Exam or successful completion of ESOL 130.
  

  • ETHN 100 - Introduction to Musics of the World


    Next Offered: Spring Semester

    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 Credits
    Attribute: CNDP, CD

    Using case studies from around the world, this course will challenge how you think about music. Through interactive performance, critical listening, and musical analysis, we examine the diverse ways people think about and structure music. We also examine music as an inherently social act, illustrating how music is informed by - and conversely informs - historical, political, cultural, and economic processes, along with what music means to the people who make and engage with it.

    Enrollment Limit: 30
    Instructor: J. Fraser

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: This course presumes considerable prior knowledge of music and the ability to read staff notation.  See CMUS 103 for a comparable course that does not presume this knowledge.
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Latin American Studies
  

  • ETHN 212 - Music and Ecology


    Next Offered: Spring Semester

    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 Credits
    Attribute: CNDP, DDHU, CD

    This course addresses the increasing global awareness about the ecological realities of human life on this planet and how these are mediated through musical or sonic expressions.  We will explore a series of case studies from the U.S. and around the world that take into account the diversity of ways in which people use music to frame their interactions, experiences, and frustrations with their local ecologies.  The course will explore topics including: soundscapes of diverse environments; the overlap between music and animal sounds; music as protest against environmental degradation; cultural and musical framing of natural and technological disasters (e.g. Hurricane Katrina, the BP oil spill, Fukushima); the concept of “place” and ways in which it is articulated in musical practice; and the connections between indigenous peoples, the environment, and healing (e.g. shamanistic practices in Tuva and the Amazon).  In short, it asks how a given environment shapes social, cultural, and musical life.  As such, the course is inherently inter-disciplinary in nature: it will draw on the work of ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, sociologists, biologists, sound recordists, and environmentalists. 

    Enrollment Limit: 20
    Instructor: J. Fraser

    Consent of the Instructor Required: No
    Prerequisites & Notes: One Course in Ethnomusicology.

     
  

  • ETHN 213 - The Anthropology of Entrepreneurship


    Next Offered: Spring 2015 (Ad Hoc)

    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    FC
    Credits: 4
    Attribute: CNDP/DDHU

    This course explores the study of music entrepreneurship and the music industry from an anthropological perspective.  The course emphasizes examining the histories and current industry trends facing working musicians, including the way working musicians build revenue models that can include diverse activities such as: session work, publishing royalties, promoter activities, performance fees, and teaching positions.  The class is organized around both historical and ethnographic themes - students will (1) explore the major forces that shape the history of the music industry in the United States, (2) engage and document ongoing dialogue with a working musician or music industry worker, and (3) consider these materials in context of their future careers by creating an auto-ethnography.  The course gives critical tools to apply to one’s own profession in order to understand the options and challenges of making a living as a musician in the contemporary world, and is designed to challenge the ways one thinks about vocational options in the music industry.

    Enrollment Limit: 20
    Instructor: F. Hadley

    Consent of the Instructor Required: No
    Prerequisites & Notes: No Pre-Requisites.
  

  • ETHN 214 - Popular Music and US Urban Identities


    Next Offered: Fall Semester (Ad Hoc)

    Semester Offered: First Semester
    FC
    Credits: 4 Credits
    Attribute: CNDP/DDHU/CD

    This course explores the role of music in shaping urban landscapes of US cities from an ethnomusicological perspective.  The course emphasizes the examination of the role of music in shaping local histories and the role of music as an economic stimulator, a political motivator, and marker of city identity.  This class is organized geographically around four US cities: Cleveland, Ohio; New York, New York; Atlanta, Georgia; and Seattle, Washington.  This course gives you the critical tools necessary to survey urban landscapes through their musical histories such that you will understand how music works to produce and affirm identities both within the city itself and in conjunction with other identities in the US.  After learning the methodologies of ethnomusicology, you will use them yourself by designing a research project on the musical history of a city of your choice.  This course is designed to challenge the ways you think about American identities and music.

    Enrollment Limit: 30
    Instructor: F. Hadley

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: No Pre-Requisite.
  

  • ETHN 215 - Pop Music and Media


    Next Offered: Fall Semester

    Semester Offered: First Semester
    FC
    Credits: 4 Credits
    Attribute: CNDP, DDHU, CD

    This class explores the impact that personal and mass media have on the development, growth, circualation, and distribution of pop music in the United States and the UK. Race, class, gender in turn effect the mediation of pop music as creation and consumption drive technological changes. From 45s and LPs to radios, car stereos to personal entertainment devices, cable television to computers, mp3s to internet streaming, various media forms have dramatically influenced access to and the content of  the most consumed music in the world.

    Enrollment Limit: 20
    Instructor: K. Metz

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Cross List Information: ETHN 215 Cross-Referenced with CAST - Comparative American Studies.
  

  • ETHN 222 - Building Community Through Music


    Next Offered: Fall Semester

    Semester Offered: First Semester
    FC
    Credits: 4 Credits
    Attribute: CNDP

    Students will assist in teaching a community-engaged musical ensemble for underserved youth in Lorain County. In the first module, you will learn about best practices of community engagement, the emerging field of “community music” and the relationship between ethnomusicology and community-based work; conduct demographic and ethnographic research to understand the local community in which the partner is based; and then turn your attention to pedagogy and designing lesson plans. In the second module you will work directly with the youth as you learn how to facilitate music-making using the Javanese Gamelan.
     

    Enrollment Limit: 10
    Instructor: J. Fraser

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Prior gamelan experience not required; musical experience is desired.
    (Previously Offered as PACE 752 Gamelan Community Engagement)
    Cross List Information: Cross-Listed with PACE 222 Building Community Through Music
  

  • ETHN 302 - Musical Thought: Analysis of World Music


    Next Offered: Fall Semester

    Semester Offered: First Semester
    FC
    Credits: 4 Credits
    Attribute: CNDP, DDHU, CD

    An advanced seminar in how people think and structure music around the world, using select case studies to look at aspects of rhythm, pitch, texture, form, and composed versus improvised elements.  It will also take into account indigenous approaches to theory, analysis, and notation. Emphasis will be on analysis and transcription, including experimentation with alternative systems sensitive to demands of the specific practice.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: J. Fraser

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Completion of Music Theory IV and Aural Skills IV and consent of the instructor. (Theory prerequisite may be waived by permission of the instructor.)
    Cross List Information: ETHN 302 Cross-Referenced with MUTH. Counts towards upper-level 300 MUTH requirement.
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    MUTH
  

  • FREN 101 - Francais elementaire I


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD

    This first semester of a year-long sequence builds proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Special emphasis is placed on meaning and the functional use of language and on understanding French-speaking cultures. Course includes extensive homework with interactive multi-media. In addition to the five hours per week of class, students are required to attend the French Table or activities at the Maison francophone on a regular basis.

    Enrollment Limit: 18
    Instructor: Staff

    Prerequisites & Notes: Prerequisites: No previous French is expected for FREN 101. FREN 101 or the equivalent is prerequisite for FREN 102. Students with previous study of French must present an SAT II score or take the departmental placement test.
  

  • FREN 102 - Francais elementaire II


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD

    This second semester of a year-long sequence builds proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Special emphasis is placed on meaning and the functional use of language and on understanding French-speaking cultures. The interactive multi-media approach requires extensive work in the language lab. In addition to the five hours per week of class, students are required to attend the French Table or activities at the Maison francophone on a regular basis.

    Enrollment Limit: 18
    Instructor: Staff

    Prerequisites & Notes: Prerequisites: FREN 101 or the equivalent. Students with previous study of French must present an SAT II score or take the departmental placement test.
  

  • FREN 205 - Francais intermediaire I


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD

    This first semester of a year-long sequence includes review of the essentials of grammar, continued development of reading skills using both literary and cultural texts, and practice in composition and speaking. In addition to the three hours per week of class, students are required to devote one hour per week of to oral practice at the French Table or Maison francophone.

    Enrollment Limit: 18
    Instructor: P. Leelah

    Prerequisites & Notes: Prerequisites: Appropriate SAT II score (550-625), appropriate score on placement test, FREN 102 or 103 or the equivalent. FREN 205 is prerequisite for FREN 206.
  

  • FREN 206 - Francais intermediaire II


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD

    This second semester of a year-long sequence includes review of the essentials of grammar, continued development of reading skills using both literary and cultural texts, and practice in composition and speaking. In addition to the three hours per week of class, students are required to participate in one hour per week of small group practice.

    Enrollment Limit: 18
    Instructor: P. Leelah, Staff

    Prerequisites & Notes: Prerequisites: FREN 205 appropriate SAT II score (550-625) or appropriate placement test score.
  

  • FREN 301 - Expression orale et ecrite


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD, WINT

    In this course students develop their skills in textual and cultural analysis while increasing their confidence and effectiveness as oral and written communicators. Students follow a process approach to writing involving peer editing, multiple revisions, and practice in effective dictionary use. Through discussions of films and readings students develop skills in expressing and supporting their ideas and engaging with the ideas of others. One hour of weekly oral expression practice also required.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: Staff

    Prerequisites & Notes: Prerequisites: Appropriate SAT II score (625-675), appropriate score on placement test, FREN 203 or FREN 206 or the equivalent.
  

  • FREN 302 - Conversation et communication


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD

    This course is devoted entirely to oral expression in French. Students will practice informal conversation, discussion, and debate, build vocabulary, refine pronunciation, and develop presentation skills. Homework will be limited to short authentic cultural materials such as film and TV clips, websites, and newspaper articles. Prerequisite: FREN 301 or above or placement test. Instructor consent required.

    Enrollment Limit: 10
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • FREN 304 - History of French Creole


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD

    An introduction to the history, development, meanings, and cultural practices associated with French creole. Case studies will include the island nations of Haiti and Mauritius and the French Overseas Departments of Martinique and Guadeloupe. Topics will include the history of French colonization, the development of creole languages, and the cultural contexts, such as music, literature, religious ritual, and food production, in which French creole is used today. In English.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: P. Leelah
  

  • FREN 309 - Plaisir de lire


    Semester Offered: First Semester, Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD

    This course is designed to help students enjoy reading comfortably in French. We will read from a wide variety of literary and non-literary texts: newspaper articles, web pages, song lyrics, poetry, and short stories. Presentations and short essays will solidify reading comprehension and vocabulary enrichment. Students will submit varier writing assignments such as–pastiches, creative writing, and personal responses.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: Staff

    Prerequisites & Notes: Prerequisite: FREN 301, SAT II socre (625-675), AP 4 or 5, or appropriate placement test score.
  

  • FREN 321 - Pratiques de l’ecrit


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD, WINT

    This course focuses on developing writing skills and personal expression in French in genres such as expository writing, close reading, creative writing, cultural studies, and film script analysis. Cultural topics will include the French lycee and univeristy, the banlieue and beaux quartiers, a recent film about the life of Marie Curie, and a 21st century fairy tale written by Amelie Nothomb. Taught in French.

    Enrollment Limit: 18
    Instructor: M. Senior

    Prerequisites & Notes: Prerequisite: Appropriate SAT II score (675-800), appropriate score on placement test, FREN 301 or FREN 309.
  

  • FREN 368 - French Joyce LxC


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Half Course
    Credits: 2 credits
    Attribute: 2HU, CD, WINT

    This course is designed to accompany CMPL 367 and enable students to read and discuss original works by the French authors who inspired, and were inspired by, James Joyce. We will begin with authors Joyce read ? Flaubert, Verlaine, Mallarme, Stendhal, Dujardin, and Bedier ? and then turn to those who read Joyce: Kristeva, Cixous, and Derrida. Finally, we will compare and contrast the two authorized French translations of Ulysses by Morel (1927) and Samoyault (2004). Taught in French. Concurrent enrollment in CMPL 367 recommended but not required. Prerequisite: 4 semesters of French or equivalent.

    Enrollment Limit: 10
    Instructor: J. Deppman
  

  • FREN 373 - Introduction a la litterature francophone


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD

    Entirely devoted to literary works by Francophone writers from North America, the Caribbean, Europe outside of France, North and Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East, this course will also study the socio-historical context that gave rise to such literature. Readings will include poetry, fiction and drama from writers that express varied cultural backgrounds as well as the impact of French culture on them. Approaches to these literatures will be linguistic, thematic, and cultural.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: Staff

    Prerequisites & Notes: Prerequisite: FREN 301 or the equivalent.
  

  • FREN 378 - Women Remembering, Remembering Women: Writing the Self in the Maghreb


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD, WADV

    Students will discover the abundant French texts from the Maghreb by focusing on the place of women in the literary tradition (as well as their role as autonomous social agents within their society). Women writers have emerged at the forefront of the movement to restore to North African women proper recognition in the study of their history, society and culture. Considering Maghrebi women autobiographical expression, students will be exposed to a variety of genres that French ?text? encompasses, including poetry, short story, music, film, cartoons, and even blogs. Students will unveil numerous themes ranging from the colonial to the postcolonial. Taught in French. Prerequisites and notes: French 301, 309, or 321.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: Staff
  

  • FREN 380 - Esclavage et liberte


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD

    This course examines the history of slavery in the French-speaking world, beginning in 1594, when the first French ship transported slaves to the New World, and concluding in 1794, when the Convention abolsihed slavery and proclaimed Liberte, Egalite, and Fraternite for all men. While philosophes such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Buffon, and Diderot condemned slavery, many of them maintained pseudoscientific, surprisingly racist views of the people they sought to liberate. Prerequisites and notes: French 301, 309, or 321.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: M. Senior
  

  • FREN 411 - L’animal et l’homme


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD, WINT

    This course examines human-animal relations and symbolism in French literature, art, and film. Starting with werewolves and other hybrid creatures in medieval literature, and continuing with the La Fontaine?s Fables and Buffon?s Histoire Naturelle, this course traces the history of the human-animal border through the nineteenth century, in Darwin and a novel by Emile Zola. The course concludes with an examination of the animal in contemporary philosophy and cinema. Taught in French.

    Enrollment Limit: 12
    Instructor: M. Senior

    Prerequisites & Notes: Prerequisite: Two 300-level courses beyond 301.
  

  • FREN 455 - Le crime au feminin


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD

    Through a vigorous examination of judicial archives, visual images, ethnographic and literary texts, students will investigate women involved in crimes throughout French history. From Catherine Montvoisin, also known as ?La Voisin?, accused of having poisoned and killed over 1000 people under Louis XIV, to the unnamed Vodou priestesses executed for witchcraft during the Haitian Revolution, students will compare popular stereotypes with authentic documents, in order to restore the voices of these women. Prerequisites and notes: Two 300-level courses beyond 301.

    Enrollment Limit: 12
    Instructor: P. Leelah
  

  • FREN 480 - L’Africain/e au miroir de son corps


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD, WADV

    This course examines the complex history of representing Africans, beginning in 1889, when Paris hosted its first colonial exhibition, and concluding with an exploration of postcolonial racism in contemporary France. Using the body as a thematic prism, we will investigate how perception of “indigènes,” “tirailleurs,” “chibanis,” and veiled Muslims, among other figures, was instrumental in shaping French identities and conceptions of difference. Class will be conducted in French.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: R. Delaville

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: FREN 301, 309, or 321.  
  

  • FREN 505F - Honors - Full


    Semester Offered: First Semester, Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, HONR

    Honors

    Instructor: G. An, E. Murphy, M. Senior

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FREN 505H - Honors - Half


    Semester Offered: First Semester, Second Semester
    Half Course
    Credits: 2 credits
    Attribute: 2HU, HONR

    Honors

    Instructor: G. An, E. Murphy, M. Senior

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FREN 995F - Private Reading - Full


    Semester Offered: First Semester, Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU

    Private readings are offered as either a half or full academic course and require the faculty member’s approval. Students who wish to pursue a topic not covered in the regular curriculum may register for a private reading. This one-to-one tutorial is normally at the advanced level in a specific field and is arranged with a member of the faculty who has agreed to supervise the student. Unlike other courses, a student cannot register for a private reading via PRESTO. To register for a private reading, obtain a card from the Registrar’s Office, complete the required information, obtain the faculty member’s approval for the reading, and return the card to the Registrar’s Office.

    Enrollment Limit: 5
    Instructor: G. An, P. Leelah, E. Murphy, M. Senior, Staff, C. Le Nen

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Submit Private Reading Card to the Registrar’s Office
  

  • FREN 995H - Private Reading - Half


    Semester Offered: First Semester, Second Semester
    Half Course
    Credits: 2 credits
    Attribute: 2HU

    Private readings are offered as either a half or full academic course and require the faculty member’s approval. Students who wish to pursue a topic not covered in the regular curriculum may register for a private reading. This one-to-one tutorial is normally at the advanced level in a specific field and is arranged with a member of the faculty who has agreed to supervise the student. Unlike other courses, a student cannot register for a private reading via Banner Self Service.. To register for a private reading, obtain a card from the Registrar’s Office, complete the required information, obtain the faculty member’s approval for the reading, and return the card to the Registrar’s Office.

    Enrollment Limit: 5
    Instructor: G. An, P. Leelah, E. Murphy, M. Senior, Staff, C. Le Nen

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Submit Private Reading Card to the Registrar’s Office
  

  • FYSP 002 - Neuroscience and Pop Culture


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4NS

    Do you want to know whether or not humans have any new neurons after age 13, or if lying changes your brain? This seminar will explore neuroscience through news, movies, books, and scientific journal articles. As you discuss interesting media, you will apply scientific reasoning and strengthen your critical analysis skills. This course will explore how a breadth of neuroscience concepts (brain anatomy, functions of neurons, learning and memory, etc.) are represented in pop culture. Additionally, we will discuss current ethical issues within the neuroscience community, including the reproducibility crisis and use of animals in research.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: M. Mariani

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 003 - Life, Death and Religion


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU

    What does it mean to live and die? What is a “good life” or a “good death”? This course will explore these questions through the religions of East Asia, or China, Korea, and Japan. It covers the life cycle in East Asia, from birth to significant life events like marriage, to death and conceptions of the afterlife. Through a variety of religions present in East Asia such as Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto, this course looks at contemporary and historical religious understandings of life and death in East Asia to explore differing perceptions of what it means to be human.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: G. Gillson

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 004 - Cleveland Scene


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    What does it really take to know a city? The word ‘scene’ conjures ideas of setting and cultural practices, and perhaps specific musics and subcultures, but these only scratch the surface. We will get to know Cleveland from the perspectives of its music scenes (and related renaissances in sports and arts), but also from perspectives that demand greater intimacy (oral history research on lifeways and musics of both integrated and ethnic/immigrant industrial neighborhoods) or, conversely, greater critical distance (Cleveland’s sonic and visual mediation, as both the butt of TV jokes and the setting of classic films like Major League). Field trip(s) required.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: I. MacMillen

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 007 - Character Wars: What is Virtue and (how) Can We Attain It?


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    We often ask ourselves, “what kind of person ought I to be?” As far back as Aristotle, developing a certain kind of virtuous character has been seen as an approach to both morality and living a flourishing life. Recent empirical work in social psychology, however, has raised doubts concerning the extent to which people are able to develop true virtues. In this course, we will (i) study historical and contemporary views of virtue, (ii) investigate empirical studies, ranging from behavioral laboratory studies to war crimes, racism, and misogyny, and (iii) engage with questions concerning responsibility, personhood, and the good life.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: C. Johnson

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 008 - Form and Formula: the Interplay Between Mathematics and the Arts


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4NS, QFR, WINT

    What makes a pattern “pleasing” to the eye or ear? In this course, we will examine aesthetically pleasing patterns in dance, music, and visual art, interpreting them through the lens of mathematics. Students will have an opportunity to fold origami, create frieze prints, analyze music scores, and try out simple choreography during class. Through solving problems on carefully scaffolded worksheets, students will discover how principles from group theory, topology, combinatorics, and geometry lie at the foundations of these artistic disciplines. Prior experience, or at least a willingness, to create art in various forms is desirable. No prior mathematical knowledge will be assumed.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: L. Thompson

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 009 - Drugs!


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4NS, QFR, WINT

    From aspirin to zantac, and oxycodone to gene editing, the development of therapeutic drugs is an interdisciplinary scientific effort that can have profound impacts on our health and our society. This course will introduce chemical and biological concepts used in the drug discovery process, as well as ethical, economic, and political considerations. In 2017, new drug approvals were at a twenty-year high, while at the same time, the opioid crisis was declared a national emergency. With both quantitative activities and writing assignments, we will consider the process of drug discovery and its intended and unintended consequences.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: J. Belitsky

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 010 - Innovation and Economic Growth


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, WINT

    Technological innovations change the economic landscape. Using both historical and contemporary case studies drawn from all over the world, we will use basic economic principles to understand both the inspiration for innovations and the process of adoption and diffusion of new technologies. The goal of the course is to understand the impact of technological change on patterns of economic development and economic growth.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: B. Craig

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 011 - American Mixed Blood


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, WINT

    From the coyote and the half-breed to the `tragic’ mulatto, people of mixed ethnic and racial heritage occupy a conflicted and controversial place in American history. This course will chart the histories of people of mixed heritage from the colonial period to the present, exploring the relationship between the historical experiences of mixed heritage and broader trends in American history including slavery, imperialism, legal transformation, and changing cultural patterns.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: P. Mitchell

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 012 - Socialism: Real and Imagined


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, WINT

    In the context of the most significant crisis of free market capitalism since the 1930s, and a revival of public intervention in the economy, the term “socialism” has undergone a renewal of interest, as both a term of abuse and as a curiosity. This course will explore the historical meanings of, experience with, and contemporary relevance of socialism to highly industrialized democracies. In other words, to societies like our own. Prerequisites and notes:

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: C. Howell

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 013 - Erotic City: Prince and a Purple Urban Imaginary


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 Credits
    Attribute: 4 SS

    Few artists have impacted the world of music and pop culture like Prince. Beyond the prolific and tuneful brilliance of his catalog, Prince’s death has sparked scholarly thought on such topics as masculinity, spirituality, politics, race, gender, sexuality, and class. We will explore Prince through critical perspectives related to musical creativity, intersections of faith and music, gender and sexuality, and the geography of the Minneapolis Sound. We will utilize a variety of materials in our exploration of His Royal Badness, including music, film and readings. 

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: A. Bautista

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 014 - Silence=Death: Rhetorics of HIV/AIDS


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    The emergence of HIV/AIDS in the late 20th century created one of the most contested intersections of science, culture, and politics of modern history.  Using cinema, activist art and academic scholarship, students in this course will explore the variety of ways of discussing HIV/AIDS that have arisen across the globe with the disorder.  Field trips required.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: J. Cooper

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Assignments will include weekly informal and formal writing assignments combined with frequent small group and one-on-one discussions.  College level reading, viewing, writing and speaking skills to develop critical thinking across disciplinary boundaries will be emphasized.  Field trips(s) required.  Required with BIOL 407 “The Biology of Infectious Diseases and their Global Impact” as part of the “Plagues, Pandemics, and Society” StudiOC learning community.
  

  • FYSP 015 - “In This Here Place, We Flesh:” Underground Railroad and Sanctuary Space


    Semester Offered: First Semeste”
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    Why is the Underground Railroad a persistent symbol of sanctuary in African American Literature, Art, and Culture? Using the novel, Beloved, by Toni Morrison and the Toni Morrison Society “Bench by Road” as the first stop, we will explore what sanctuary meant for enslaved people moving through Oberlin on the journey to freedom, for Africans who attended Oberlin since the 19th century, and present representations of the underground railroad in literature and art This course provides students with the critical historical context of 19th-century sanctuary practices for fugitive slaves the underground railroad and Oberlin’s distinct role in this history.  Field trips required.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: M. Gadsby

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Required for the “Sanctuary Practices: Race, Refuge and Immigration in America” StudiOC learning community with either CAST 210 “Sanctuary, Solidarity, and Latina/o/x Practices of Accompaniment” or HIST/CAST 256 “Immigration in U.S. History.”
  

  • FYSP 017 - From Renaissance Anatomy to Modern Medicine


    Semester Offered: First Semester, Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    This course traces the history of modern medicine from the Renaissance to the present, beginning with the anatomical discoveries of Andreas Vesalius and continuing into the present with Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), Camus’s The Plague (1947), and essays by Atul Gawande, a Harvard professor of medicine who recounts in gripping detail his journey through medical school and the ethical challenges he faces as a surgeon.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: M. Senior

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 023 - Fallen Houses and Invisible Cities: Exploring Literature and Architecture


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    In this course we ask why literary texts turn to buildings as settings for crucial narrative moments. What can buildings tell us about the characters, the environment they live in, or about the text itself? We will examine the role buildings play in literary narrative by reading stories about haunted castles, ruined cabins, seductive houses, lavish mansions, modern hotels, elevators, or the architecture of real cities such as Venice or Rome. We will also turn to visual art and explore buildings on campus and write about them.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: S. Milkova

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Field trip(s) required.
  

  • FYSP 024 - Justice in America?


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, WINT

    This seminar explores the origins and historically changing notions of justice that have been foundational to narratives of U.S. national identity. How have differing concepts of justice informed Americans’ perceptions of rights, liberty, community responsibilities, and the role of the state? We will interrogate theoretical concepts such as social justice, restorative justice, and transformative justice through historical case studies that illuminate the promises and limitations of these terms.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: W. Kozol

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 028 - Cryptography


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4NS, QFR, WINT

    This seminar will introduce students to cryptology - the science of making and breaking secret codes. Our overarching goal will be to explore some of the mathematical tools which underlie modern cryptography. In particular we will develop the ideas from number theory necessary to study the RSA cryptosystem.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: B. Linowitz

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 031 - Environmental Literature: Action, Advocacy, and Imagination


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    What is meant by the terms “nature” and “the environment”? How do we write about them and how does our writing affect how we act in the world? This course explores how what we do and what we care about shapes what we think “the environment” is. We will explore innovative sustainable practices, read environmental activist literature, and read literary works to see how the imagination can itself be a tool for advocacy and change.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: M. Wilkinson

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 038 - From Creation to Apocalypse


    Semester Offered: Second Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    This course examines how the biblical account of creation in the Book of Genesis has shaped Jewish and Christian understandings of both the world’s beginning and the end of time. What do these stories say about the human condition and divine justice? Why did utopian visions of Eden attract ancient interpreters, and why do they still attract us today? Why does the attempt to combat evil lead some to apocalyptic violence and others messianic hope?

    Enrollment Limit: 14
    Instructor: Prof. Barer
  

  • FYSP 041 - Emergence and the Unification of Knowledge


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4NS, QFR

    This course explores the concept of ‘emergence’, in which systems of simple parts produce complex behavior without a central authority controlling all the action. Can what we know about how insect colonies find resources and build structures help us figure out how brains produce consciousness? Or why financial panics still disrupt the world economy? Or how the humanities relate to the sciences? This course will raise these questions and try to answer them. It will also apply computers in the form of Javascript programs to help formalize and mechanize the ideas we come up with (no previous programming experience necessary).

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: P. Simen

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 044 - Objects and Apparitions: Poetry as Fiction and Fact


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    The word “poem” comes from the Greek for “made thing.” What do we mean when we say that a poem is a thing? What do we mean when we say that it is a made-up or fictional thing? ‘Objects and Apparitions’ is a First-Year Seminar concerned with the ways that poems as “made things” straddle the domains of factual, thingly reality on the one hand, and fictional, made-up imagination on the other. We will ask what kinds of work poems do, and what demands we face when we seek to “make sense” of them.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: D. Harrison

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 050 - Conceptions of the Self East and West


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    This course examines important, indeed classic, statements on the nature of human existence from the ancient and modern West, and from East Asia, and endeavors to sensitively compare these diverse visions of human life without capitulating to nihilism, relativism, or self-satisfied cultural chauvinism. We examine influential representatives of several traditions, including Confucianism, Daoism, Christianity, and contemporary democratic political theory.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: C. Cottine

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 059 - Perspectives on Jazz: Its Meanings Across Time and Place


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    In exploring the diverse meanings jazz has accrued over time, this course will be driven by one question: what has jazz meant to various communities at specific points in its history? We will explore jazz as history, place, technology, visual art, language, race and gender, sound, autobiography, improvisation, and social ethic. We will develop writing and listening skills while exploring the jazz collections of the Conservatory Library and the AMAM. No formal musical training is required.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: J. Smith

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 066 - Jane Austen Then and Now


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    This course approaches Austen?s work formally, historically, and culturally. It studies how Austen revolutionized the form of the novel. It engages with the thematic preoccupations of her novels: class, courtship, domesticity, manners, morality, friendship, gossip. Drawing from secondary materials, it places Austen?s work in the context of the eighteenth century. With film adaptations and reception history, it views Austen as a cultural phenomenon, spanning academic and popular imaginations.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: L. Baudot

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 069 - Astrobiology: The Scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Life


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4NS, QFR, WINT

    Astrobiology is a vibrant, interdisciplinary research effort that explores some of the most fundamental questions in science: What is life? How did life on Earth begin? Is there life beyond Earth? And how should we best search for it? To address these questions, we will draw on a range of disciplines, including planetary science, chemistry, molecular biology, evolutionary biology, and philosophy. In our survey of these different topics, students will gain an appreciation for how scientific claims are devised, tested, and supported by evidence, within and between different fields of study.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: A. Goldman

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 071 - Pirates and Piracy in Times Past


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, WINT

    From the ancient Mediterranean to the South China Seas, maritime theft is a phenomenon transcending people, place, and time. It provides a fascinating framework with which to assess historical contexts of violence, authority, economics, and law. This seminar sails in pursuit of history’s notorious and obscure piratical personalities and their watery worlds, focusing particular attention on both the socio-economic milieus from which these seafaring criminals emerged and those they subsequently fashioned in their exploits.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: M. Bahar

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 086 - Contemporary East Asian Cinema


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD, WINT

    Since the 1990s, East Asian national cinemas have been popular worldwide, with actors and directors from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan becoming household names. What defines “East Asian Cinema” and how has it become such an important phenomenon in cinema studies? We will study twelve films from across the region and pay equal attention to aesthetics, politics, and social and cultural history.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: H. Deppman

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    East Asian Studies
  

  • FYSP 092 - Foodways and Foodscapes: Cultural Knowledge Through Culinary Practices


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    Food nourishes the body and the spirit. Though food consumption is universal, what we eat, how we eat, where we eat, with whom, when, and to what end, define the politics and poetics of food in a community. Interdisciplinary readings, films and directed field projects will help explore the experiential and expressive ways in which food is imagined, yearned for, held, remembered, voiced, lived, and contested.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: A. Cara

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 093 - Disability


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    Many think of disability as something that a doctor diagnoses, a bodily deficit that requires treatment or cure. Others see disability as a social problem, casting the disabled as weak people who need the help of the strong. Some traditions find in disability the bodily reflection of moral failure or sin. Literature and the arts have long used disability as a metaphor for any number of conflicts or challenges. But how do people with disabilities see themselves? This seminar explores how stories of disability change when people with disabilities hold the pen, the paintbrush, the microphone, or the senate floor.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: E. Hamilton

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 104 - It’s Never Aliens: Understanding Astronomy In The News


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4NS, WINT

    Ever read an article on some new astronomical discovery, and come away with no sense of what to make of it? In this course, students will develop their critical reading of astronomy in the news, and learn the science behind the headlines. We will cover both current events and some common points of astronomical confusion.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: J. Scudder

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 108 - The Uses of Literature


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    An investigation of the nature of literature and its role in a liberal arts education. The seminar is organized around three questions: What is literature? How is it best ‘used’ or studied? Why should literature be studied? Students will read a variety of literary works while confronting issues in interpretation. One objective of the course is to determine how literary study might contribute to other fields of inquiry.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: T. McMillin

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 110 - Black Women and Liberation


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4SS, WINT

    Black liberation struggles in the U. S. and South Africa owe much to the brilliance of Black women’s political activism. Fighting racism, patriarchy and capitalist exploitation, women such as Angela Davis and Mamphela Ramphele employed methods of feminist leadership in community-based and national movements that ultimately claimed success. Students will evaluate their forms of activism, examine the nature of political autobiography, build library research skills and explore the bridge between community activism and intellectual life.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: P. Brooks

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Africana Studies; Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies
  

  • FYSP 112 - Music and the Body


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, WINT

    What is the impact of sound in the body? Are ‘groove,’ ‘the beat,’ and feeling music, universal experiences? Exploring the relationship between music and bodies, this course requires music listening and some guided movement experimentation. Topics considered include musical gestures, music and the senses, embodied meaning, trance, musical and dance improvisation (in Western and non-Western contexts), and the entanglements and intersections of music in the body with race and sexuality.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: M. De la Cruz

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  

  • FYSP 113 - Re-envisioning Russia


    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 credits
    Attribute: 4HU, CD, WINT

    What role have filmmakers played in reshaping Russian culture over the past two decades? How did they transform Soviet myths to shape new visions for the Yeltsin nineties and the Putin aughts? To what extent did they draw from classic Russian literature by Gogol, Tolstoy or Chekhov? The films and texts we will study focus on such topics as violence and crime, youth culture. Chechnya, the super rich, rural Russia, and the Soviet past. P/NP grading only.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: A. Forman

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Russian
 

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