Mar 29, 2024  
Course Catalog 2018-2019 
    
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  

 
  
  • RELG 236 - Japanese Thought and Religion


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

    A historical survey of the development of Shinto and Buddhism in Japan and the roles they have played in Japanese culture and society. Among the topics to be discussed are the ancient myths of Shinto, the transmission of Buddhism to Japan, the emergence of new forms of Buddhism (i.e., Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren), and the use of Shinto as a nationalistic ideology.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: Staff

    Cross List Information: This course is cross-listed with EAST 152
  
  • RELG 238 - Gender and Sexuality in East Asian Religions


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

    What do femininity and masculinity look like in East Asia? How many genders are there according to East Asian religions? This course will examine these and other related questions to explore the meaning of gender and sexuality in East Asian religions. Using stories, traditions, and testimonies of gender transformation and fluid sexuality, along with their counterpoints of gender rigidity and restrictive sexuality, it will look at both historical and contemporary expressions of gender and sexuality across East Asia to show the variety of interpretations of women, men, and everything in-between that lie at the heart of East Asian religions.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: G. Gillson

    Prerequisites & Notes:  

     
    Cross List Information: This course is cross-listed with EAST 238

  
  • RELG 241 - Literature and Ethics: British Novels


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

    What does it mean to lead an ethical life? Novelists, like religious ethicists, explore this question and related topics such as moral development, authenticity, obligations to others, and justice. While religious ethicists seek to provide conceptual clarity in their treatment of these topics related to the ethical life, novelists bring their explorations to life in the worlds of their novels. In this one module course we will study religious ethical concepts and then examine the lived complexity presented in British novels such as Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, where Dickens engages moral issues such as obligations to others and justice.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: J. Babyak

  
  • RELG 243 - Catholic Social Teaching and Ethics


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

    The Catholic Social Teaching tradition represents the church’s efforts to address and provide guidance on major social issues such as economic justice, uses of technology, warfare and nuclear weapons, and structural oppression. In the process of studying this tradition of thought spanning over one hundred years since the late nineteenth century to the present, we will see the range of the church’s social concerns and values as well as its development in response to social change. The course also provides an engagement with foundational components of catholic ethics such as views of the human person, social agency, and human limitations.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: J. Babyak

  
  • RELG 245 - Religion and Ethics


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

    This is an introductory course in religion and ethics, focusing on social responsibility and moral reasoning. We examine the basic methods and tools in ethics, after which we survey several topics including: medical ethics, environmental ethics, athletics and ethics, just war theory, and global justice. Our aim is to explore the complexity of these topics and to understand what intellectual resources various religious traditions bring to the moral discussion in American public life today.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: C. Cottine

    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Law and Society
  
  • RELG 248 - Religion, Ethics, Environment


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

    Humans understand their relationship to the larger environment and its other inhabitants in a variety of complex ways. This course examines several of the religious, philosophical, and scientific schools of thought in environmental ethics. In addition to considering the diverse array of positions one can take toward the environment, e.g. animal rights, land ethics, nature religions, and ecofeminism, this course also considers in depth topics such as environmental justice, climate change, anthropocentrism, and sustainability.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: C. Cottine

    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Environmental Studies
  
  • RELG 249 - Issues in Medical Ethics


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

    This course offers an analysis of selected issues in medical ethics and the methods of ethical reasoning used to study these issues, focusing on attendant religious, moral, and legal questions. The orientation of the course is clinical. Issues are framed and explored as issues addressed in a medical context, using case studies throughout. Topics to be addressed include such issues as death and dying, medical research and human experimentation, privacy and informed consent, public health, genetic engineering and the allocation of scarce resources.

    Enrollment Limit: 40
    Instructor: J. Babyak

    Prerequisites & Notes: :This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements): Law and Society.
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Law and Society
  
  • RELG 250 - Introduction to Judaism


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

    The field of Jewish Studies investigates a group that has been called Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews, and whose common bond has been characterized as a religion, race, nation, and culture. This course will present foundational narratives, ideas, and rituals in Judaism, along with pivotal events in Jewish history and identity formation. And yet students will also behold the immense diversity and variations of these elements across time and space. We will pay special attention to how traditional sources are reinterpreted over time, to shifting dynamics between Jewish thought and practice, and to relations between cultural memory and current events.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: S. Shonkoff

    Cross List Information: This course is cross-listed with JWST 150
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Jewish Studies
  
  • RELG 252 - Jewish Mysticism


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

    Mystical experience may transcend the bounds of traditional authority, and yet, from a historical perspective, those quests for divinity take place overwhelmingly within prescribed traditions. Such tensions between immediacy and mediation, infinity and form, transcendence and relation will be central themes of this course. Thus, as we delve into key sources of Jewish mysticism, we will consider how they interact with, and launch from, traditional texts and practices. But, paradoxically perhaps, this is how we will begin to uncover their most transcendent dimensions. Topics to be explored will include the multiple genders of God, rationalism versus mysticism, and erotic symbolism.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: S. Shonkoff

    Cross List Information: This course is cross-listed with JWST 152.
  
  • RELG 261 - Gender Theory and the Study of Religion


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

    This course will examine the various ways in which feminist scholars bring gender issues to the academic study of religion. Topics to be addressed will include: feminist critiques of androcentrism in ‘classic’ theories of religion; methods for the historical retrieval of suppressed women’s voices in historical texts; sociological and ethnographical approaches to investigating women’s marginalized ritual practices; feminist approaches to philosophy of religion and theology.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: M. Kamitsuka

    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies
  
  • RELG 263 - Roots of Religious Feminism in North America


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

    This course analyzes the religious views underpinning women?s literature, political advocacy, public speaking, and social reform work from colonial days to the 1970s, with a focus on primary sources. Students will apply the knowledge and methods acquired during the course to pursue their own research interests in women?s religious history in North America. No previous study of religion, U.S. history, or gender theory is necessary.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: M. Kamitsuka

    Cross List Information: This course is cross-listed with GSFS 263
  
  • RELG 264 - Abortion and Religion


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

    This course provides an overview of how abortion is addressed religiously in a global context. We will study current debates between prolife and prochoice representatives from Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish traditions on issues such as women’s rights, fetal personhood, and biblical teachings about human life. We will examine abortion controversies worldwide, including: anti-abortion clinic violence, one-child forced abortion laws, and incarceration for women in countries where abortion is illegal. We will also study religious practices developed for and/or by women who have had abortions, such as Buddhist mizuko kujo or Jewish mikvah rituals.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: M. Kamitsuka

    Cross List Information: Cross-listed with GSFS 264
  
  • RELG 272 - Introduction to the Qur’an


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

    Introduction to the Qur’an, the sacred scripture of the Islamic religious tradition. Topics include: approaches to the idea of revelation and the history of the written text, its overall content and themes, the style of the Qur’an, the Life of Muhammad as a source for interpreting the Qur’an, and Muhammad and the Qur’an as the foundation of law, theology, aesthetics, politics, and practices of piety such as recitation. Emphasis on reading the Qur’an in English-language interpretation.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: M. Mahallati

  
  • RELG 274 - Friendship: Perspectives from Religion, Politics, Economics, and Art


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

    This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the role of friendship in promoting peacemaking. By providing normative, philosophical, theological, political, economic and artistic analysis (in visual arts, literature and film), the course examines the potentials of friendship as a catalyst for a paradigm shift in international and interfaith relations and in peacemaking. Moving beyond cold war and cold peace, this course discusses how promoting civic friendship through interdisciplinary and inter-cultural approaches can help curb violence, political oppression, religious extremism, economic injustice and environmental destruction.

    Enrollment Limit: 20
    Instructor: M. Mahallati

  
  • RELG 323 - Globalization and East Asian Religions


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

    Why is Christianity so popular in Korea and China? Why is it an international incident when the Japanese Prime Minister visits a particular shrine? This course will explore what globalization means for the religions of East Asia. Starting with the historical transmission of religions across East Asia, it will focus on the eras of colonialization and post-colonialization, and their accompanying global economic, cultural, and religious exchange within East Asia and its diaspora. It will discuss constructive aspects of religious globalization such as the explosion in new religious movements across Asia, as well as negative aspects like religious nationalism. Field trips required.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: G. Gillson

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Cross List Information: This course is cross-listed with EAST 323
  
  • RELG 342 - Religion and Disenchantment in 20th-century Literature


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

    How is religion imagined in modern literature? In what ways has literature itself become a species of religious thought? This course explores how 20th-century literature reflects a crisis of meaning in modern religious thought, on the one hand, and how it sustains the religious through attachment to form, to loss, and to belief without meaning, on the other. We will read writers (Baldwin, Morrison, O’Connor, Endo, Camus, amongst others) with both direct and oblique relationships to religious discourses and institutions. We will examine notions of forgiveness, martyrdom, apostasy, idolatry, and love together with social themes of race, class, and gender.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: D. Schultz

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Cross List Information: Cross listed with CMPL 342
  
  • RELG 347 - Seminar: Virtue, Religion, and the Good Life


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

    What does it mean to live the virtuous or good life? Are there advantages to focusing on character and virtue rather than on rights, duties, or consequences? What is the relevance of virtue language for contemporary moral and political philosophy? We explore these and other questions as we compare classical and contemporary statements from ancient China, Christianity, and the Greeks, among others, that address issues of human nature, ethics, and tradition. Notes: Consent from instructor is required.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: C. Cottine

  
  • RELG 368 - Mothering and Religion


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

    This seminar explores motherhood and mothering in relation to religious attitudes and practices. We will analyze how religious practices and theological views in several religions have shaped notions of the normative “good mother,” and well as how mothering images have been used to rethink issues of embodiment, sexuality, sacrifice, and spirituality. A prior course in RELG is recommended. In addition to weekly readings, students should be prepared for independent reading of novels or short stories.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: M. Kamitsuka

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies
  
  • RELG 401 - Capstone Research Methods


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

    This course focuses on the skills necessary for doing research in and using the methods of the academic study of religion. Students work one-on-one with a faculty advisor and in a group peer review process to develop a literature review and first draft of their capstone project, which is completed in RELG 402.

    Instructor: C. Chapman

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Students must have completed at least one 200-level course in two of the three general approaches to the study of religion. Students are strongly encouraged to have completed an advanced 300-level seminar before taking RELG 401.
  
  • RELG 402 - Capstone Colloquium


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

    In this team-taught advanced course, students work in a colloquium setting to discuss the research process and produce an independent capstone project. Only students who have completed the RELG 401/ RELG 402 sequence may be considered for Honors.

    Instructor: C. Chapman

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Prerequisite: RELG 401
  
  • RELG 405 - Capstone Seminar in Religious Studies


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

    As an alternative to RELG 401/402, this capstone-experience course enables seniors to reflect upon, and apply in a wide variety of settings, what they have learned about the academic study of religion in light of their own coursework in the major. The seminar includes short papers, workshops and oral presentations.

    Instructor: C. Cottine

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  
  • RELG 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: E. Bachrach, C. Barnes, C. Chapman, C. Cottine, D. Kamitsuka, M. Kamitsuka, M. Mahallati, Staff

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Submit Private Reading Card to the Registrar’s Office
  
  • RELG 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: E. Bachrach, C. Barnes, C. Chapman, C. Cottine, D. Kamitsuka, M. Kamitsuka, M. Mahallati, Staff

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Submit Private Reading Card to the Registrar’s Office
  
  • RHET 099 - Approaches to College Writing for International Students


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

    Designed for international students whose first language isn’t English, this course will immerse students in the practices of writing for college. Students will learn how to better navigate the many forms and expectations they face in college writing. We will work both as a community of writers as well as through individual conferences. Please consult the instructor; consent is required for this course.

    Enrollment Limit: 10
    Instructor: L. McMillin

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  
  • RHET 100 - Academic Writing for the American Classroom


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

    This course is designed for multilingual and international students interested in exploring the writing process in English, with particular focus on American academic conventions and expectations of inquiry, argument, and attribution of sources. The class will serve as a writing community in which students read and discuss the work of classmates. Students will write often, reflect on their individual writing process, and meet regularly with the instructor to discuss progress.

    Enrollment Limit: 12
    Instructor: D. Guidry

  
  • RHET 102 - Writing for College & Beyond


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

    This course will immerse students in the practice of writing for college and beyond. Students will explore a number of forms, analyze and create arguments, work with sources, and develop greater flexibility and ease in their writing

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: H. Sundt

  
  • RHET 103 - College Writing: Motives and Methods


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

    In this course students explore their writing processes, learn how to read more critically, write in a variety of forms and develop research skills. The class serves as a writing community in which to discuss essays and writing strategies and share written work. Assignments are designed to challenge students and involve them in the kinds of reading, writing, and research that will serve them well at Oberlin and in their lives outside the college.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: D. Guidry

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  
  • RHET 110 - Speaking and Writing


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

    In this course, students will develop skills needed to construct and deliver effective speeches by recognizing the role of communication in cultivating engaged participation in public life and encouraging an audience-centered approach to speaking, persuasion, and rhetoric. While theoretical foundations of public speaking methods and techniques will be discussed, this is a practice-oriented course. As such, students will develop effective writing and speaking techniques through classroom discussions, activities, and assignments. Students will develop speeches and presentations based upon their own socio-political interests.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: C. Smith

  
  • RHET 120 - Journalism Basics


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

    This course will cover basic reporting, news and features writing, and ethics in journalism. In addition to course writing assignments, students will be encouraged to produce articles for student and local publications.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: J. Cooper

    Prerequisites & Notes: Eight places reserved for first-year students.
  
  • RHET 205 - Rhetorics of Gender Non-Conformity


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

    Meant for sophomores, juniors, and seniors who wish to continue developing academic skills stressed in First Year Seminars (critical reading, writing, and research). Course members will examine how artistic, activist, journalistic, and historiographic rhetorics are used in film and television to portray transgender and gender non-conforming people. Materials and assignments will be rooted in an intersectional approach including diverse perspectives of economic class, race, ability, nationality, regionality, and religion. Students will work on a variety of multimodal writing tasks, including essays and scripting for audio, video or public exhibition.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: J. Cooper

  
  • RHET 207 - Literary Journalism


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

    From New Journalism to the personal essay, literary techniques are reshaping the way journalists write about sports, nature, politics, science, and the arts. This course will explore the way journalists use the tools of fiction and poetry in their writing while remaining true to the standards of reporting. Students will balance the reading of literary journalism and essays with time spent crafting their own writing. Prerequisites and notes:

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: H. Sundt

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  
  • RHET 208 - American Political Rhetorics


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

    In this course we will analyze, discuss, write about, and present on how American political rhetorics work. We will focus on contemporary campaign advertising, debates, speeches and writing by presidents and candidates, and Supreme Court rulings and dissents. We will work mostly in the television and Internet eras, when visual and social media have become central to campaign messages?and to political successes and failures. As part of our discussions of all of these elements, we will engage with questions of how identity is used to attract?and alienate?political participation. Research projects will expand from our class readings to bring in additional rhetorical forms, thus expanding our understanding of what comprises American political rhetorics.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: D. Guidry

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  
  • RHET 210 - Rhetoric and Social Protest


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

    This course is dedicated to exploring the various theories, contexts, and rhetorical strategies of resistance. Through both a historical and a contemporary perspective, we delve into the limitations and possibilities of protest rhetoric. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of rhetoric to enact advocacy, students will read rhetorical theory and criticism, primary texts, and complete written and oral assignments. Students will develop an understanding of the rhetorical underpinnings of social activism and the role it plays in societal change.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: C. Smith

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  
  • RHET 219 - Communication, Culture, and New Media


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

    This course provides an overview of the field of communication with attention to structural racism, the politics of knowledge, representation, ways of seeing, and political economy of new media environments. How has communication engaged with changing concepts of culture? What have these theories invisibilized or left out? Central to this investigation will be understanding how structures of power, in particular anti-black racism, continue to frame how new media environments are built, used, and accessed, as well as how new platforms open possibilities for self-representation that nuance and challenge dominant representations of race and gender.

     

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: L. Beutin

  
  • RHET 305 - Organization Grant Proposals


    Next Offered: 2018-2019

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

    Sooner or later many professionals need to apply for grants. This course covers the basics of writing grant proposals or fellowship applications and researching funding sources. Students will learn to use the Cleveland Foundation Center’s database and work on a proposal to fund a community-based project or fellowship proposal in their area of interest. Instruction includes individual attention to fundamental college-level writing skills. Especially useful for artists, scientists, and community activists.

    Enrollment Limit: 32
    Instructor: J. Cooper

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: P/NP grading.
  
  • RHET 319 - Media Ethnography


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

    As social, political, and cultural worlds are constituted with and through media, this course asks: how can we use media and ethnography to better understand and interpret our social lives? Grounding in the history, practices, tenets, and sensibilities of ethnography, we will focus on how to use ethnography to study media representations, production, and consumption, as well as how to use scholarly media production to interpret social worlds. We will explore different types of media ethnography including performance ethnography, ethnographic discourse analysis, and hashtag ethnography. Students will have the opportunity to produce media projects, such as short films and podcasts.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: L. Beutin

    Cross List Information: Cross Listed with ANTH 319
  
  • RHET 401 - Teaching and Tutoring Writing Across the Disciplines


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

    In this course, students study composition theory and pedagogy and at the same time learn to work with their peers as writing associates. In the process of helping to educate others, students work toward a fuller understanding of their own educational experiences, particularly in writing.

    Enrollment Limit: 14
    Instructor: L. McMillin

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Experienced students of all majors who write well are encouraged to apply. Closed to first-years and to seniors in their final semester. Students must apply to take this course before early registration; applications are linked from the Writing Associates Program’s webpages.
    Cross List Information: This course is cross-listed with ENGL 399.
  
  • RHET 409 - Foundations of Modernity


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

    This advanced seminar centers on the questions: Who counts as Human? When? Why? How have these understandings changed over time? As a class, we will unpack the historical and theoretical formations of racial liberalism and racial capitalism. By engaging in close, extended readings of key theorists, we will collectively build a rubric of how the founding theories of modernity are fundamentally racialized and gendered and how they reproduce racialized exclusions. For the final projects, students will engage a “burning question” developed from their lived experiences and analyze it through self-reflexivity, theory, and research, guided by in-class workshops.

    Enrollment Limit: 10
    Instructor: L. Beutin

  
  • RHET 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: J. Cooper, D. Guidry, L. McMillin, C. Smith, H. Sundt

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Submit Private Reading Card to the Registrar’s Office
  
  • RHET 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: J. Cooper, D. Guidry, L. McMillin, C. Smith, H. Sundt

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  
  • RTCP 107 - Practicum in Journalism


    Semester Offered: First Semester, Second Semester
    Credits: 1 credits
    Attribute: CC

    Through this course students earn academic credit working for an approved journalistic publication on campus. The course does not meet as a class, but students are expected to attend all required staff meetings and fulfill the assignments made by their editors.

    Enrollment Limit: 100
    Instructor: J. Cooper

    Prerequisites & Notes: : Students can earn a maximum of four credits toward graduation (a maximum of six credits for editors). P/NP Grading only.
  
  • RTCP 308 - Fellowship Writing


    Semester Offered: Second Semester, First Module
    Credits: 1 credits
    Attribute: CC

    This course is for students interested in writing applications for awards committees. Sessions will combine discussions of successful applications, in-class tutorials, and limited lecturing. We will focus more on editing than on generating a first draft. To that end, students can expect to apply several critical methodologies to their materials including those from literary theory, theories of visual design, and logic. Those interested in Watson, Fulbright, or Major UK awards are especially encouraged to enroll.

    Enrollment Limit: 20
    Instructor: N. Petzak

  
  • RUSS 101 - Elementary Russian


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

    An introduction to contemporary Russian, providing students with basic cultural literacy and an active command of the fundamentals of the language: speaking, understanding, reading, and writing. We employ a wide variety of authentic materials (literary and web-based texts, videos, movies, cartoons, music) as a window onto the vibrant reality of modern Russia. Regular language lab work.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: A. Forman, T. Newlin

    Prerequisites & Notes: Students who cannot begin Elementary Russian in the fall may place into RUSS 102 by successfully completing Winter Term Intensive Russian.
  
  • RUSS 102 - Elementary Russian


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

    An introduction to contemporary Russian, providing students with the basic cultural literacy and an active command of the fundamentals of the language: speaking, understanding, reading, and writing. We employ a wide variety of authentic materials (literary and web-based texts, videos, movies, cartoons, music) as a window onto the vibrant reality of modern Russia. Regular language lab work.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: A. Forman, T. Newlin

    Prerequisites & Notes: RUSS 101 or equivalent is prerequisite for RUSS 102. Note: Students who cannot begin Elementary Russian in the fall may place into RUSS 102 by successfully completing Winter Term Intensive Russian.
  
  • RUSS 118 - The Cult(ure) of Putin


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

    The world knew little of Vladimir Putin when he first came to power, but almost two decades later Putin has demonstrated a savvy sense for public relations, crafting a public profile that has enjoyed considerable appeal at home even as he has consolidated power. This course will examine different screen and print representations of Putin: those promoted officially and unofficially in the media, in cinema, literature and journalism both in Russia and abroad. No knowledge of Russian required.

    Enrollment Limit: 20
    Instructor: A. Forman

  
  • RUSS 203 - Intermediate Russian


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

    Review and refinement of the essentials of grammar and vocabulary, and continued development of reading, aural/oral skills, and writing through a variety of texts that further expand cultural competence.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: T. Scholl

    Prerequisites & Notes: RUSS 102 or equivalent.
  
  • RUSS 204 - Intermediate Russian


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

    Review and refinement of the essentials of grammar and vocabulary, and continued development of reading, aural/oral skills, and writing through a variety of texts that further expand cultural competence.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: T. Scholl

    Prerequisites & Notes: RUSS 203 or equivalent.
  
  • RUSS 215 - The Meaning of Life: Dispatches from Nineteenth-Century Russia


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

    Life was grim in nineteenth-century Russia! Faced with an oppressive political system, overwhelming evidence of suffering, poverty, and appalling ignorance, the imperfectability of human nature and the messiness of personal relationships, and, finally, the specter of death, Russian writers had ample opportunity to ponder the meaning - and meaningless  - of existence. Their attempts to grapple with the ‘cursed questions’ of life gave rise to an extraordinarily rich existentialist tradition. Drawing on classic works by Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and others, the course will take a sane, upbeat, and irreverent approach to some timeless and very serious issues. In English, no prerequisites.

    Enrollment Limit: 30
    Instructor: T. Newlin

  
  • RUSS 221 - Love in a Cold Climate: Literature and Desire in Nineteenth-Century Russia


    Next Offered: 2019-2020

    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 201709=13626
    Attribute: 4HU, CD

    Newly westernized and neuroticized, educated Russians in the nineteenth century agonized in unusually creative ways over the nature of love and desire, gender roles and the position of women in society, marriage, sex, family life, adultery, etc. This course examines how these concerns were played out in rich and sometimes steamy detail in nineteenth-century Russian literature. Readings include poetry, novels (notably Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina), novellas, stories, memoirs, and letters by both women and men. Discussion format, short lectures. Taught in English.

    Enrollment Limit: 40
    Instructor: T. Newlin

  
  • RUSS 222 - Russian Foodways


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

    “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are,” Brillat-Savarin pronounced in 1826. This course examines the vital role of food and drink in Russia and its borderlands (Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Central Asia) from a historical, cultural, environmental, and culinary perspective. Topics include: the dual peasant and aristocratic (French) origins of Russian cuisine; food, drinking and national identity; food and memory; vegetarianism; foraging and hunting; feasts and famines; Russia’s kitchen- and dacha- gardening traditions; current trends (fast food, local food, farm-to- table). Sources include cookbooks, literary works, essays, films. Entails substantial kitchen time. No cooking experience required

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: A. Forman, T. Newlin

  
  • RUSS 241 - Chekhov on Stage


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

    Anton Chekhov’s dramas revitalized drama in Russia in the early 20th centuries and quickly established their place in the international stage repertory. We will read major and lesser-known works by Anton Chekhov, along with some introductory works by other playwrights to examine a particularly northern mode of theatrical naturalism that developed in and around Russia over the course of the twentieth century. In English.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: T. Scholl

    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Theater
  
  • RUSS 305 - Advanced Russian: Cross-cultural Communication I


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

    Developes a foundation for effective cross-cultural communication; refinement of writing, reading, speaking, and aural comprehension skills to facilitate interactions with Russians today. We will use art, music and literary texts to explore a distinctively Russian understanding of time, space, family, home, and history.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: M. Solovieva

    Prerequisites & Notes: RUSS 204 or equivalent or consent of the instructor.
  
  • RUSS 306 - Advanced Russian: Cross-cultural Communication II


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

    Builds on the skills and concepts developed in 305. Further refinement of writing, reading, speaking, and aural comprehension in Russian. Continued focus on the cultural and linguistic implications of everyday communication.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: M. Solovieva

    Prerequisites & Notes: RUSS 204 or equivalent.
  
  • RUSS 325 - Literature and Revolution


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

    Russia experienced a series of revolutions in the early twentieth century. The 1905 Revolution coincided with Russia’s unprecedented cultural Renaissance; the 1917 Revolutions generated radical new forms in literature and the arts; the Cultural Revolution of the late 1920s led to state control of the arts, invalidating the innovation of the earlier revolutions. This course traces the evolution of Russian literature in those years, as writers responded to these successive political, artistic, and cultural revolutions.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: T. Scholl

    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Comparative Literature
  
  • RUSS 332 - Northern Naturalism: Chekhov, Ibsen, Strindberg


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

    Three writers from northern Europe dominated and revitalized drama in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We will read major and lesser-known works by Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, and August Strindberg to examine the particularly northern mode of theatrical naturalism they developed. We will consider adaptations of their works and reactions to their writings, including the symbolist dramas that functioned as both revolt and response to these authors’ plays. Lecture and discussion format. Taught in English

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: T. Scholl

    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Comparative Literature
  
  • RUSS 411 - Narrative Forms: 20-21st Century


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

    This course explores various forms of narrative. Including 20th century short stories and  one-act plays, soviet and post-soviet anecdotes, periodicals, and non-printed media (film, television, internet).  Taught in Russian.

    Enrollment Limit: 12
    Instructor: A. Forman

    Prerequisites & Notes: Russian 306 ot the equivalent.  The course may be  repeated.
  
  • RUSS 446 - Senior Seminar:


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

    In this capstone course for Russian majors and advanced students of Russian, we will read and analyze one major Russian novel, exploring its literary and stylistic richness and its historical and cultural context. Students will design and work on independent research projects leading to a substantial final paper. The Spring seminar will be TBA.

    Enrollment Limit: 15
    Instructor: T. Scholl

    Prerequisites & Notes: Russian 411 or consent of the instructor. Note: May be repeated for credit.
  
  • RUSS 505F - Russian Honors - Full


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

    Honors Full Course

    Instructor: A. Forman, T. Newlin, T. Scholl, M. Solovieva, Staff

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  
  • RUSS 505H - Russian Honors - Half


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

    Honors Half Course

    Instructor: A. Forman, T. Newlin, T. Scholl, M. Solovieva

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  
  • RUSS 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 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: A. Forman, T. Newlin, T. Scholl, M. Solovieva

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Submit Private Reading Card to the Registrar’s Office
  
  • RUSS 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: A. Forman, T. Newlin, T. Scholl, M. Solovieva

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Submit Private Reading Card to the Registrar’s Office
  
  • SOCI 050 - Cleveland Immersion Program


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

    This module course connects students to Northeast Ohio through its community and business leaders, regional organizations, and local alumni. It is offered M-W during the mid-semester recess with evening meetings in the weeks before and after. You will learn about the history, challenges, and opportunities of Greater Cleveland in six themes: social justice, sustainability, entrepreneurship, economic development, arts and culture, and community leadership. You will practice networking skills, gain professional and academic contacts, conduct site visits, and research a project of your choice. Field trips required.

    Enrollment Limit: 20
    Instructor: G. Mattson

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Cross List Information: Cross-listed with CAST 050
  
  • SOCI 110 - Introduction to Sociology: Social Structure, Inequality, and Behavior


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

    This course will provide you with a way to think about and understand the social world and your place within it. We will examine theoretical concepts and methodologies with a wide variety of classic and contemporary empirical studies. This course addresses questions such as: How do we know which direction to face in an elevator? What are the causes and consequences of social inequality? How do some behaviors become designated ‘deviant’ and others ‘normal’?

    Enrollment Limit: 40
    Instructor: C. Parris

  
  • SOCI 112 - Introduction to Sociology: You’re Not the Boss of You


    Next Offered: 2019-2020

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

    Learn the methods and theories that sociologists use to understand our mass society that emerged out of 19th -century industrial and political revolutions. This young science?s insights will help us understand contemporary controversies around inequality, social change, gender, race and power. This course will familiarize you with the relationship between sociology and other disciplines, techniques for reading original research articles, basic sociological writing skills, and mostly importantly, the social origin of individual thought and action.

    Enrollment Limit: 40
    Instructor: G. Mattson

  
  • SOCI 125 - Introduction to Sociology: An Analysis of Society


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

    A survey course to introduce students to the sociological way of looking at our world. This examination requires an exploration of the concepts, theories and research findings related to the social organization of our world. Areas to be examined: concepts, culture, socialization, deviance and social control, social stratification, intergroup relations, the family, religion, politics, economics and social movements.

    Enrollment Limit: 45
    Instructor: C. White

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Limited to first and second-year students.
  
  • SOCI 130 - Introduction to Sociology: Social Problems


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

    This course is an introduction to the basic concepts, theoretical perspectives, and social themes in contemporary sociology. Topics of discussion and research include stratification, ascriptive processes and the social construction of public problems. We will consider what is distinctive about a sociological perspective on the world and discuss the nature of sociological description and explanation.

    Enrollment Limit: 40
    Instructor: R. Baldoz

  
  • SOCI 145 - Introduction to Sociology: Social Inquiry between Past and Present


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

    Sociology emerged as intellectuals sought to understand what Max Weber called the ?great cultural problems? of the modern era. From the development of capitalism to the expansion of European imperialism across the globe, the novel social forms and practices of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries sparked questions that approached the world in new ways. This course introduces students to the craft of social inquiry. By navigating our way through exemplary sociological accounts of capitalism, democratic politics and what Du Bois termed the ?problem of the color-line,? we will seek to craft research questions to shed new light on contemporary phenomena.

    Enrollment Limit: 40
    Instructor: J. Lee

  
  • SOCI 215 - Race, Immigration, and the Asian American Experience


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

    How do race and culture define who belongs to the nation? For instance, how can ethnic minorities at times be ‘out whiting whites? but still be denied full citizenship? We answer these questions by examining Asian Americans? efforts for belonging and social justice. Topics include generational change, the `war on terror?, media, trans-nationalism, multi-racials, pan ethnicity, identity, and much more, and will be addressed from an intersectional approach. Readings come from many disciplines, with stress on sociology.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: R. Baldoz

    Prerequisites & Notes: One course in sociology.
  
  • SOCI 222 - Social Psychology: A Sociological Approach


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

    This is a course which examines the nature of social behavior stemming from an individuals participation in social groups, interaction with others, and the effects of the culture and social structure on the individual. Primarily a sociological focus, topics include perspectives and theories in social psychology, socialization, self and identity, attitudes and attitude change, social perception, language, social communication and group processes.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: C. White

    Prerequisites & Notes: One introductory course in Sociology.
  
  • SOCI 241 - American Urbanism


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

    Explore a century of American hopes and fears about cities through the archetypes of Chicago and Los Angeles. Learn to see cities as built environments, ways of life, sources of community, and political economies. These paradigms ground our discussions of forces that shape cities and define American culture, including: race and residential segregation, technology, suburbanization, immigration, and gentrification. Central to this course are documentary films, field trips and curiosity about the cities you know.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: G. Mattson

    Prerequisites & Notes: One course in sociology.
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Environmental Studies; Comparative American Studies
  
  • SOCI 250 - Sociology of Popular Culture


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

    This course focuses on the relationship between popular culture, media, and society, and provides an overview of social structure, content, audiences and effects. Culture is discussed in relation to its institutional, economic, and social contexts. The course examines a variety of popular cultural forms (e.g., music, film, and sports) and looks closely at media production and consumption as cultural practices. We will also explore recent debates about the relationship between culture and society.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: R. Baldoz

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  
  • SOCI 255 - Bureaucrats, Classes and Democracy: Political Sociology in Three Acts


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

    If modern democratic politics is a theatrical production writ large, it typically features three sets of social actors: state officials, classes bound by their economic interests, and the diverse civic groups and parties that characterize associational life in a democracy. This course aims to introduce students to the sociological study of politics by way of this trinity of social actors as well as the historically defined institutional settings of the political stage. Students will learn and become familiar with sociological theories of bureaucracy, state autonomy and pluralism. We will also investigate the significance of law in modern politics and statecraft.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: J. Lee

    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Law and Society
  
  • SOCI 261 - Modern Iran: Seeing through the City


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

    This course aims to familiarize students with contemporary Iranian society and culture. Informed by a multidisciplinary approach, the readings are organized to offer both a historical perspective and a sociological knowledge of modern Iran. All through the course there is an emphasis on Tehran, the capital city of Iran. The city will be studied as a reflection and site of broader sociopolitical changes and cultural shifts. Some of the readings provide general context, but for the most part, urban culture and social relations are used as a lens to analyze and understand contemporary Iranian society.

    Enrollment Limit: 30
    Instructor: J. Jalili

  
  • SOCI 275 - Enacting the Law


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

    Where does law come from? Law and society studies how law is the product of cultural meanings rather than merely their cause. Using examples from sociology, political science, anthropology and history, we study how everyday understandings underpin and conflict with legal institutions when defining crime, marriage and law itself. Assignments include conducting interviews about disputes, analyzing legal changes, and observing legal proceedings: the formal and informal ways law gets enacted every day.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: G. Mattson

    Prerequisites & Notes: Introduction to Sociology recommended.
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Law and Society; Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies
  
  • SOCI 277 - Race and Ethnic Relations


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

    This course introduces and reviews the nature of relations between racial and ethnic groups. We examine concepts, perspectives, and research on these relations, including the role of racism, prejudice and discrimination. Furthermore, we explore the nature and the impact of immigration and the experiences of selected racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: C. White

    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Africana Studies
  
  • SOCI 281 - Can Corporations Do Good? On the Perils and Promises of Ideals in For- and Non-Profit Organizations


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

    Can corporations do good? Or are they the sources of social problems? This course aims to answer a dilemma that lies at the heart of organizational attempts to do good. Because of the rationalized nature of firms, non-profits and governmental agencies, their staff encounter competing imperatives: on the one hand, they are to maintain fidelity to their organization?s ideals; on the other, they are compelled to protect the interests of the organization as well as those of its incumbents. This course investigates this tension between idealism and realism through the phenomena of corporate social responsibility, ?white-collar? crime and religious activism.

    Enrollment Limit: 35
    Instructor: J. Lee

  
  • SOCI 284 - Environmental Sociology


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

    This course introduces students to the growing intellectual and pragmatic focus on the relationship between people and the environment. Throughout the semester, we will investigate the ways in which people and the environment interact with one another, examine how those interactions are influenced by socio-cultural processes such as political power and social inequality, and explore various responses to environmental issues, including individual behaviors, social movements, and policies that legislate human interactions with the natural world.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: C. Parris

  
  • SOCI 301 - Social Research Methods


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

    This course introduces students to the analytical logic and skills required for research in sociology. Emphasis is placed on teaching and executing the research process. Information literacy goals are addressed, such as evaluating the appropriateness, reliability and accuracy of different types of information; developing familiarity with sources of available data; generating new data; and interpreting empirical information within a theoretical framework. As groups, students work on research projects throughout the semester.

    Enrollment Limit: 24
    Instructor: C. Parris

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: One introductory course in Sociology. Priority given to Sociology Majors. Students must register also for SOCI 302.
  
  • SOCI 302 - Social Research Methods Lab


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

    This course introduces students to the analytical logic and skills required for research in sociology. Emphasis is placed on teaching and executing the research process. Information literacy goals are addressed, such as evaluating the appropriateness, reliability and accuracy of different types of information; developing familiarity with sources of available data; generating new data; and interpreting empirical information within a theoretical framework. As groups, students work on research projects throughout the semester.

    Enrollment Limit: 24
    Instructor: C. Parris

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: One introductory course in Sociology. Preference given to Sociology majors. Students must register also for SOCI 301.
  
  • SOCI 303 - Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory


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

    Classical sociology arose in response to social problems opened up by the advent of industrial society, from the disintegration of community and the decline of religion to class conflict and the rationalization of social life. The founding fathers of modern sociology-Durkheim, Marx, and Weber-formulated their theories in response to these problems and established three distinct traditions in sociological theory. This course explores continuities between classical and contemporary sociology in each of these three traditions.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: G. Mattson

    Prerequisites & Notes: Priority given to Sociology majors. Introduction to Sociology is strongly recommended.
  
  • SOCI 322 - Cities, Culture, and Society


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

    Cities are complex social, cultural, political, and economic entities. This course explores urban theories and empirical sociological research through readings in urban sociology, community studies, and cultural aspects of urban life. Important topics including urbanization and suburbanization, segregation, urban enclaves, gentrification, and global cities will be discussed in light of macro-level social processes such as major political upheavals, economic shifts, forces of globalization and their impacts on urban life and culture. A field trip to Cleveland is required.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: J. Jalili

  
  • SOCI 351 - Protest, Resist, Change!: Collective Behavior and Social Movements


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

    Why do people protest? What makes a social movement? Why do some people decide to join? Why do others decide not to? What makes a movement last? What is the relationship between social movements and culture, media, policing? This course is designed to explore some of these questions. Using sociological concepts we examine a variety of movements in the United States and beyond and explore the ways in which social movements are discussed and understood in sociological literature.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: J. Jalili

  
  • SOCI 361 - Law and Culture in Global Perspective


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

    This course aims to introduce students to theoretical debates about the nature of modern law, and to establish a comparative, empirical understanding of how law relates to culture in a global perspective. The course is divided into two parts. Part 1 outlines the ways that scholars from various disciplines have answered the question, ?What is law?? Building on this theoretical foundation, we will then examine how the cultural aspects of law-in-action i) shape individuals? legal consciousness, ii) structure organizational forms and practices, and iii) constitute unequal relations of power within and between societies across the globe.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: J. Lee

  
  • SOCI 378 - Sociology of African-American Community


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

    This course shifts through many of the perspectives and empirical research relating to the condition of the African-American community. This will be aided by our exploration into various cultural, religious, historical, educational, economic, and political indicators of these conditions. We will also critically examine the nature and applicability of various sociological and ?alternative? theoretical paradigms and discuss the implications of our finding for social policy. Prerequisites: One course in Sociology or African-American Studies or consent of the instructor. Cross-listed with AAST 378.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: C. White

    Cross List Information: This course is cross-listed with AAST 378
  
  • SOCI 386 - Nightlife: Place, Identity and Feeling Alive


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

    What does it mean to feel “truly alive” only at certain times and places? In this course, we consider the geographic places and cultural practices of nightlife. We will explore the ways nightlife’s risks and rewards are produced, distributed, and regulated to understand their seeming paradoxes: the same physical location can be hedonistic and someone’s daily grind, carnivalesque and tightly scripted, liminal and big business, criminal and completely quotidian. Nightlife shapes our identities and reproduces social inequalities, but these fleeting experiences also circumscribe the places we spend most of our time – work and home. Fieldtrips required.

    Enrollment Limit: 25
    Instructor: G. Mattson

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Introduction to Sociology or GSFS
  
  • SOCI 391H - Practicum - Half


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

    This course combines individual internships and private readings on a subject matter related to the internship-for example, an internship in a social service agency and readings and discussion on poverty and welfare issues.

    Instructor: R. Baldoz, D. John, G. Mattson, C. Parris, V. Vujacic, C. White

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: See individual faculty. Note: At the discretion of the instructor, grading for this course may be P/NP only Prerequisites: Two courses in Sociology
  
  • SOCI 403 - Seminar in Social Psychology: African-American Personality


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

    This seminar critically examines the theoretical and research literature on the study of African American in psychology. Specific attention is given to; the various theoretical debates on African American psychology; discussions on African American self-concept; the impact of family and education on African American psychology; and issues of minority personality assessment.

    Enrollment Limit: 12
    Instructor: C. White

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Three courses in sociology or African American Studies or consent of instructor. Preference is given to senior sociology and AAST majors.
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Africana Studies
  
  • SOCI 420 - Social Inequalities: Class, Race, and Gender


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

    This course will explore contemporary sociological approaches in the study of social inequality. The enduring structure and reproduction of inequalities along axes of class, race and gender are core problems of sociology. This seminar will examine these issues by first considering various theoretical issues utilized by scholars in the field. We will then examine how different thinkers have implemented of these theories and concepts in a variety of innovative case studies.

    Enrollment Limit: 12
    Instructor: R. Baldoz

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  
  • SOCI 438 - Seminar: Coal, Communities and Culture


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

    This seminar focuses on coal and its impact on people and the environment. Throughout the semester, we will investigate the human and environmental impact of each phase of the lifespan of coal, including extraction, processing, transport, and burning. We will also discuss alternatives to coal power. The course incorporates academic research, documentary films, guest speakers, and an examination of the ways in which Oberlin College and the surrounding community are working to reach carbon neutrality.

    Enrollment Limit: 12
    Instructor: C. Parris

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Introduction to Sociology
  
  • SOCI 451 - Imperial Control and its Transformations: the New Sociology of Empire and Colonialism


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

    The renascence of the sociology of colonialism and empire has called attention to the need to re-think the foundational concepts and institutional configurations of the contemporary world. Rather than viewing the postwar status quo of independent nation-states as a given in social analysis, sociologists have turned to question how the institutional structures of empire and colonialism were formed and to identify the consequences of these forms of domination and control for (post)colonial states and societies. By navigating through this emergent body of scholarship, students will develop research projects of their own that question the construction of modern states and societies.

    Enrollment Limit: 12
    Instructor: J. Lee

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Law and Society
  
  • SOCI 491F - Senior Honors - Full


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

    Senior Honors

    Instructor: R. Baldoz, D. John, G. Mattson, C. Parris, V. Vujacic, C. White

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  
  • SOCI 491H - Senior Honors - Half


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

    Senior Honors.

    Instructor: R. Baldoz, D. John, G. Mattson, C. Parris, V. Vujacic, C. White

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
  
  • SOCI 995H - Private Reading - Half


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

    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: R. Baldoz, D. John, G. Mattson, C. Parris, V. Vujacic, C. White

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Submit Private Reading Card to the Registrar’s Office
  
  • STAT 113 - Introduction to Statistics


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

    A standard introduction to statistics for students with a good background in mathematics. Topics covered include exploratory data analysis, descriptive statistics, probability, sampling, estimation, and statistical inference. A broad spectrum of examples is employed. Statistical software is introduced, but no prior computer experience is assumed.

    Enrollment Limit: 28
    Instructor: R. Bosch, K. Woods, J. Witmer

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Contact the instructor for consent. They will send you a link to a self-diagnostic exam to check your comfort level with algebra and numerical manipulation. If you scored a 3 or higher on the AP Statistics exam, or if you are reasonably comfortable with introductory statistics, you should instead take STAT 205. Note: The statistical content of this course is largely the same as STAT 114; the applications are different. Students may not receive credit for more than one of STAT 113 or STAT 114.
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Archeological Studies, Biology, Economics, Environmental Studies, Geology, Neuroscience, Sociology
  
  • STAT 114 - Introduction to Biostatistics


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

    A standard introduction to statistics for students with a good background in mathematics. Topics covered include exploratory data analysis, descriptive statistics, probability, sampling, estimation, and statistical inference. Biological and medical examples are emphasized. Statistical software is introduced, but no prior computer experience is assumed.

    Enrollment Limit: 28
    Instructor: J. Witmer

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Contact the instructor for consent. They will send you a link to a self-diagnostic exam to check your comfort level with algebra and numerical manipulation. If you scored a 3 or higher on the AP Statistics exam, or if you are reasonably comfortable with introductory statistics, you should instead take STAT 205. Note: The statistical content of this course is largely the same as STAT 113; the applications are different. Students may not receive credit for more than one of STAT 113 or STAT 114.
    This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
    Archeological Studies, Biology, Economics, Environmental Studies, Geology, Neuroscience, Sociology
  
  • STAT 205 - Statistics and Modeling


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

    An introduction to statistics and, in particular, linear models for students with some background in statistics and a good background in mathematics. Topics covered include exploratory data analysis, probability, sampling, estimation, statistical inference, multiple regression, one-factor and multi-factor analysis of variance, and analysis of categorical data via logistic regression. Statistical software is used heavily. Formally offered as STAT 215.

    Enrollment Limit: 32
    Instructor: J. Witmer

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
    Prerequisites & Notes: Takes the place of STAT 113, STAT 213. For students who earned a score of 3 or higher on the Statistics AP.
  
  • STAT 209 - Data Computing and Visualization


    Next Offered: 2019-2020

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

    An introduction to the principles and practice of creating informative and effective data visualizations to summarize and describe patterns in potentially large and complex datasets. In the service of effective and reproducible visualization, principles and tools for automating data manipulation (for example, scraping data from the web, merging data from multiple sources, and cleaning, filtering, and transforming data) will also be covered. Selected topics from machine learning, such as dimensionality reduction and clustering, approached from an applied perspective, may be included in this latter category.

    Instructor: C. Dawson

  
  • STAT 237 - Bayesian Computation


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

    An introduction to Bayesian statistical methods, which will be contrasted with standard, frequentist statistical inference. Conjugate prior distributions will be studied, but computational methods will be developed to allow for arbitrary prior distributions.

    Enrollment Limit: 32
    Instructor: J. Witmer

    Prerequisites & Notes: MATH 133 or consent of the instructor. Notes: Given in alternate years only.
  
  • STAT 336 - Mathematical Statistics


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

    The theory of probability is applied to problems of statistics. Topics include sampling theory, point and interval estimation, tests of statistical hypotheses, regression, and analysis of variance.

    Enrollment Limit: 32
    Instructor: J. Witmer

    Prerequisites & Notes: MATH 232 and MATH 335 335. Note: Given in alternate years only.
  
  • TECH 101 - Introduction to Electroacoustic Music


    Next Offered: Fall Semester

    Semester Offered: First Semester
    Full Course
    Credits: 4 Credita
    Attribute: CNDP

    TECH 101 offers an introduction to electroacoustic music.  Practical work includes analog and digital audio, sequencing, and sound editing on the computer.  Regular short assignments reinforce facility with the standard tools of the digital audio workstation.  Creative projects present the opportunity to demonstrate skill proficiency.  The course includes a reading and listening survey of historical and contemporary electroacoustic music practice.

    Enrollment Limit: 18
    Instructor: Con Staff

    Consent of the Instructor Required: Yes
 

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