Course Catalog 2022-2023 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Search
|
|
|
This is a comprehensive listing of all active, credit-bearing courses offered by Oberlin College and Conservatory since Fall 2016. Courses listed this online catalog may not be offered every semester; for up to date information on which courses are offered in a given semester, please see PRESTO.
For the most part, courses offered by departments are offered within the principal division of the department. Many interdisciplinary departments and programs also offer courses within more than one division.
Individual courses may be counted simultaneously toward more than one General Course Requirement providing they carry the appropriate divisional attributes and/or designations.
|
| |
Environmental Studies |
| |
-
ENVS 958A - Climate Change & Community Resilience in London FC SSCI CD
4 credits
How a community responds to climate change is a complex interplay between ecological, technological, political and social systems. This course will provide an interdisciplinary examination of how various communities in and around London are building resilience in the face of climate change.
Students will conduct group research projects using a variety of social science research methodologies to measure the concept of resilience and to evaluate the impact of efforts to increase resilience.
The course will count as credit towards the ES major, fulfilling an SS requirement as well as the methods requirement. It will also count as a 300-level Advanced Methods course for the Psychology major. ENVS 101 suggested. Field trips required.
Prerequisites & Notes: Taught in London. Prior application and acceptance to the Oberlin-in-London Program required.
Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes
This course is cross-listed with PSYC 958A
Sustainability
|
| |
-
ENVS 958B - Climate Change & Community Resilience in London FC SSCI
4 credits
How a community responds to climate change is a complex interplay between ecological, technological, political and social systems. This course will provide an interdisciplinary examination of how various communities in and around London are building resilience in the face of climate change.
Students will conduct group research projects using a variety of social science research methodologies to measure the concept of resilience and to evaluate the impact of efforts to increase resilience.
The course will count as credit towards the ES major, fulfilling an SS requirement as well as the methods requirement. It will also count as a 300-level Advanced Methods course for the Psychology major. ENVS101suggested. Field trips required
Prerequisites & Notes: Taught in London. Prior application and acceptance to the Oberlin-in-London Program required.
Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes
This course is cross-listed with PSYC 958B
Sustainability
|
| |
-
ENVS 995F - Private Reading - Full FC
4 credits
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.
|
| |
-
ENVS 995H - Private Reading - Half HC
2 credits
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.
|
Ethnomusicology |
| |
-
ETHN 100 - Introduction to Ethnomusicology FC CNDP CD
4 credits
Ethnomusicologists believe that by studying the music of elsewhere we can learn about the world, the people within it, and what matters to them. This class is designed to introduce you to a range of questions, skills, and approaches that concern ethnomusicologists, including ethnographic research practices, social analysis, and analyzing musical structures. We will consider historical precedents before considering the methodological and ethical concerns that currently shape the discipline, including emerging activists and decolonizing frameworks. By the end of the semester, you will have a sense of variety of approaches to the field.
Prerequisites & Notes: ESOL 130 required for International students enrolled in the ESOL series.
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
ETHN 103 - Music As Social Life FC CNDP, DDHU CD
4 credits
Using different case studies from around the world, this course examines the power of music in social life. We will explore the meanings and uses of music, such as the way music is used to heighten and ensure spiritual efficacy, to comment on and contribute to social movements, or to make sense of ‘natural’ disasters. Rather than diving deep into musical structures, we will explore music in its cultural, political, religious, economic, historical, and/or ecological contexts. Ultimately, the course gives you critical tools and frames to apply to your own case students.
Prerequisites & Notes: This class is designed for students without prior musical experience. See ETHN 100 for a comparable class that requires experience.
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
ETHN 190 - Black Music in the Hour of Chaos FC CNDP
4 credits
This course focuses on the production, reception, and functions of contemporary Black music. Both Black Lives Matter movement and dramatic domestic political change serve as context for exploration. Students will use an ethnomusicological approach to explore pertinent themes including: the emergence of new Black music genres and the identities they signify; how they public performance of Black music exists within the context of gentrification and protest and; the role of Black music as affirmation/resistance/catharsis. Throughout the semester students will directly engage the work of musicians, artists, and scholars. The course will culminate with a public presentation of students’ findings.
|
| |
-
ETHN 200 - Introduction to Musics of the World FC CNDP, DDHU CD
4 credits
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.
Prerequisites & Notes: Consent of the instructor.
This course is cross-listed with HISP 200
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
ETHN 201 - Doing Musical Ethnography FC CNDP, DDHU CD WINT
4 credits
Music ethnography is a key methodology in the discipline of ethnomusicology. This course introduces ethnographic research methods (i.e. fieldwork) through reading classic and contemporary ethnographies, fieldwork manuals, and direct exposure to the work of practicing ethnomusicologists who ground their own work in diverse approaches to ethnomusicological research in the 21st century. Using tools and practices from the course, students will design their own ethnographic research projects about a musical community and conduct fieldwork throughout the semester that culminates in writing a musical ethnography.
Prerequisites & Notes: ETHN 100 or CMUS 103 recommended.
|
| |
-
ETHN 202 - Epics, Puppets, and Music: From India to Indonesia FC CNDP, DDHU
4 credits
Wayang kulit is a complex art form from Indonesia incorporating music, puppetry, and literature that draws on Hindu epics, the Mahabharata, and the Ramayana. This class will involve both an academic and experiential component. We will explore the stories, the context, and trace the connections between contemporary Indonesian practices and Indian pasts. We will also interact with the puppets, watch videos, and learn to play the music of wayang using the Javanese gamelan. The semester will culminate in a co-created drama of our own where students will make puppets, write a story and/or compose the music.
Prerequisites & Notes: Must also be registered for APST 748: Javanese Gamelan. ETHN 100 or CMUS 103 is recommended.
|
| |
-
ETHN 204 - Music and Gender FC CNDP, DDHU
4 credits
We will use case studies in historical and contemporary contexts from around the world to explore the ways gendered and sexualized identities are encoded within musical practices, repertoires, and performance contexts. Conversely, we will explore how these musical practices gender social realities. The approach is an interdisciplinary one drawing on feminist ethnomusicology, musicology, and anthropology along with gender studies. The topics are broad, ranging from a genre of the West Sumatra highlands to Western art music and American feminist punk. The course gives critical tools to explore the gendering of our own musical worlds through an oral history or ethnographic project.
|
| |
-
ETHN 206 - Decolonizing Ethnomusicology: Moving from Colonial Approaches of Extraction to Community Engagement FC CNDP, DDHU CD
4 credits
What does it mean to decolonize ethnomusicology? This course moves from a consideration of colonial practices of extraction to models of community-engaged collaboration, repatriation and dissemination, while critically examining and engaging the discourse of “decolonization.” The first module employs a hands-on approach to history by engaging primary source materials from the late 19th and early 20th centuries focusing on colonial technologies (e.g. phonograph), institutions (e.g. archives, museums, educational institutions, recording industry, world’s fairs), and individuals. The second module shifts our attention to practices and methodologies necessary in any attempt to decolonize, including prioritization of BIPOC voices. The class is part intellectual history of the anthropological and ethnomusicological engagement with sound, part examination of how knowledge is produced and disseminated, and part methodology (how we could do research and disseminate it). Each student will work on personal contributions to the class Digital Humanities site in order to make knowledge publicly accessible.
Prerequisites & Notes: ETHN 100 or CMUS 103 suggested; and/or ETHN course @200 level.
|
| |
-
ETHN 212 - Music and Ecology FC CNDP, DDHU CD
4 credits
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, Fukushina); 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 ethnomusicologist, anthropologists, sociologist, biologists, sound recordists, and environmentalists.
|
| |
-
ETHN 213 - The Anthropology of Entrepreneurship FC CNDP, DDHU
4 credits
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.
|
| |
-
ETHN 214 - Popular Music and U.S. Urban Identities FC CNDP, DDHU
4 credits
This course explores the role of music in shaping urban landscapes of U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
|
| |
-
ETHN 215 - Pop Music and Media FC CNDP, DDHU CD
4 credits
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.
|
| |
-
ETHN 216 - The Public Intellectual & Arti FC CNDP, DDHU
4 credits
This course invites students to consider the role of the artist and the intellectual in public life. We will look at the scholarly work of public intellectuals and music of popular artists to consider the ways academic arguments and musical innovation are translated for public audiences. Through their work, these thinkers ignite passionate debate, introduce cutting-edge ideas, and bridge the gap between the liberal arts and the broader world in which we live. Required for the “Student as Artist and Intellectual: Gleaning for the Legacy of Shirley Graham DuBois” StudiOC learning community.
|
| |
-
ETHN 222 - Building Community Through Music FC CNDP
4 credits
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. Prerequisites and notes: Prior gamelan experience not required; musical experience is desired.
|
| |
-
ETHN 302 - Musical Thought: Analysis of World Music FC CNDP, DDHU CD
4 credits
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.
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.) This course should not affect the requirements of other departments.
|
| |
|
| |
-
ETHN 304 - Decolonizing Ethnomusicology: Moving from Colonial Approaches of Extraction to Community Engagement FC CNDP, DDHU CD
4 credits
What does it mean to decolonize ethnomusicology? This course moves from a consideration of colonial practices of extraction to models of community-engaged collaboration, repatriation and dissemination, while critically examining and engaging the discourse of “decolonization.” The first module employs a hands-on approach to history by engaging primary source materials from the late 19th and early 20th centuries focusing on colonial technologies (e.g. phonograph), institutions (e.g. archives, museums, educational institutions, recording industry, world’s fairs), and individuals. The second module shifts our attention to practices and methodologies necessary in any attempt to decolonize, including prioritization of BIPOC voices. The class is part intellectual history of the anthropological and ethnomusicological engagement with sound, part examination of how knowledge is produced and disseminated, and part methodology (how we could do research and disseminate it). Each student will work on personal contributions to the class Digital Humanities site in order to make knowledge publicly accessible.
Prerequisites & Notes: ETHN 100 or CMUS 103 suggested; and/or ETHN course @200 level.
|
| |
-
ETHN 305 - Interpreting Tom Tom: An Epic of Music and The Negro FC CNDP, DDHU CD
4 credits
This seminar will examine the groundbreaking opera of Oberlin Conservatory alumna, author, composer, and musicologist Shirley Graham Du Bois (1934). In 1932, she was commissioned to compose and direct “Tom Tom,” the first opera by a Black woman that chronicles the Negro experience across a centuries-long history from the transatlantic slave trade to the Harlem Renaissance.This course invites students to comprehensively explore the contexts in which “Tom Tom” resides through ethnomusicological and dramaturgical research methods.We will interpret the score and libretto with significant attention to Graham’s construction of Africana vernacular music, literary and performance traditions within an emergent American classical music scene, and her implementation of ritual and Pan-Africanist ideologies.Activities will include comparative readings between music, theatre, and cultural studies, stylistic and textual analysis, research papers, class presentations, and discussion.Particular emphasis will be given to developing individual research projects.
Prerequisites & Notes: Consent of the instructor required.
ETHN 305: At least one course in MHST or ETHN at the 200 level, with MHST 290/91 especially advantageous.
AAST/THEA 305: Preference will be given to students who've taken AAST/THEA 264, 268, 278, or THEA 309.
This course is cross-listed with AAST 305, THEA 305
|
| |
-
ETHN 995F - Private Reading - Full FC CNDP
4 credits
This course focuses on the production, reception, and functions of contemporary Black music. Both Black Lives Matter movement and dramatic domestic political change serve as context for exploration. Students will use an ethnomusicological approach to explore pertinent themes including: the emergence of new Black music genres and the identities they signify; how they public performance of Black music exists within the context of gentrification and protest and; the role of Black music as affirmation/resistance/catharsis. Throughout the semester students will directly engage the work of musicians, artists, and scholars. The course will culminate with a public presentation of students’ findings.
|
| |
-
ETHN 995H - Private Reading - Half HC CNDP
2 credits
This course focuses on folk and popular music of Latin America, with emphasis on theories of cosmopolitanism, appropriation, circulation, and reception. In this class students explore musical styles as they change in response to global and technological forces. Additionally, students explore the ways that Latin American musicians adapt to and challenge the dynamism of globalization, finding outlets in diasporic communities as inequitable political systems affect cultural creativity.
Prerequisites & Notes: CMUS 103, ETHN 100, or consent of the instructor.
|
First-Year Seminar Program |
| |
-
FYSP 001 - House and Home FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
Home can be a place of dwelling, a site of familiarity and comfort. It might also be a remembered or imagined place, a site of nostalgia. And for many, home is something to escape or leave behind. In this seminar, we will read imaginative or poetic representations of exile, displacement, migration, and lives lived in diaspora that will stretch our understanding of what home means, and perhaps lead us to a better sense of what else home could mean, for others as much as for ourselves.
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
FYSP 002 - Neuroscience and Pop Culture FC NSMA WINT
4 credits
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.
|
| |
-
FYSP 005 - Work and Anti-Work FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
This course will explore work in all its forms: including a consideration of the gendered division of labor; of the differentiation between physical, intellectual and creative labors; and of whose work and production gets most valued in our contemporary society, for example. Students will engage with classic labor theorists from Max Weber, Karl Marx and Hannah Arendt, through more contemporary theorists such as Kathi Weeks, David Graeber and Angela Davis. Next, we will explore the rhetoric of the antiwork movement-from Frederick Douglass’ “wage slavery” through its most popular contemporary manifestation in the subreddit r/antiwork. We will explore the ways in which we make meaning through work (or, are compelled into meaningless work), the relationship between labor and liberation, and ultimately, how to work for the most just world for all.
|
| |
-
FYSP 006 - Power, Politics, and Pastries FC SSCI WINT
4 credits
German Chocolate Cake. Just three words quickly bring to mind the dizzyingly delightful taste of thick caramel, coconut, and pecan frosting slathered in between layers of cocoa-rich sponge. But while savoring such an indulgence, have you ever wondered what it is that makes this particular combination so “German”? Is it the coconut from Southeast Asia, the pecans from North America, the cocoa from South America? In this seminar, we will trace the genealogies of some common baked goods and their ingredients to uncover the complex histories of labor, culture, and migration hidden within these recipes. As we follow the production and consumption of flour, sugar, butter, and cocoa across time, we will take a critical look at the past and current uses of sweet treats in cultivating regional and national identities and economies.
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
FYSP 014 - Silence=Death: Rhetorics of HIV/AIDS FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
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. 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 trip(s) required.
Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes
|
| |
-
FYSP 037 - The Psychology of Creativity FC SSCI WINT
4 credits
How does the mind generate creative modes of thought? How do scientists study creative processes? This course will introduce students to scientific research on creativity, and, more generally, to the use of the scientific method in the field of psychology. We will read and discuss a number of original research articles, covering topics such as the brain areas involved in creativity and how sharing ideas within a group influences creativity. Together in small groups, students will also conduct and write about their own experiments on creativity.
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
FYSP 043 - Everyday Life in Twentieth Century European Dictatorships FC SSCI WINT
4 credits
This class examines everyday life in totalitarian societies during the Twentieth Century. We will use a variety of sources to study how people experienced their lives in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Soviet Union, and Eastern European Communism. This class will also critically examine the concept of totalitarianism itself and ask if and how comparing everyday life in these regimes enables us to understand each of them better.
|
| |
-
FYSP 044 - Objects and Apparitions: Poetry as Fiction and Fact FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
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.
|
| |
-
FYSP 047 - Decolonizing Cinema: Native Americans in Film FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
In this course, students will critically examine the portrayal of Native Americans in film. Through close-analysis of various films, we investigate the rhetorical strategies used to both create and subvert various representations of Native Americans. From the Hollywood Western to Indigenous-produced films of today, this course explores the role of film in shaping dominant narratives of Native peoples, cultures, and histories. This is a discussion-based course with both informal and formal writing assignments and classroom presentations.
|
| |
-
FYSP 050 - Conceptions of the Self East and West FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
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.
|
| |
-
FYSP 063 - Research and Reasoning: The Production and Application of Knowledge in STEM FC NSMA QFR WINT
4 credits
Research in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) provides enormous contributions to our understanding of the world and offers advancements in health, technology, interactions with the environment, and many other applications. This course will examine the production and application of knowledge in STEM fields including the research process, methodology, and the ethical conduct of research in various fields. Additionally, students will improve their ability to read and critically evaluate STEM literature, analyze and interpret quantitative data, and communicate in both written and oral forms.
Prerequisites & Notes: This seminar is reserved for students participating in Oberlin College’s STRONG program.
Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes
|
| |
-
FYSP 064 - What Is Pop? German Fiction, Film and Music Since 1989 FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
What is “pop”? What characterizes pop music, literature or film? Is the popular innocuous by definition, or can it work to undermine sources of power and authority? These questions will guide our thoughts, discussions, and writing about how German pop has addressed controversial topics, such as social upheaval, immigration, sex and gender, and racism. Our aim is to deepen our understanding of pop and to examine how pop intervenes in pressing issues, in our own societies and globally. Through our investigations and class discussions, we will learn to think critically about pop and “read” it through a scholarly lens.
|
| |
-
FYSP 068 - Minds, Machines, and God FC SSCI QFR WINT
4 credits
This seminar focuses on the underlying mechanism, genesis, and impact of technologies and innovation on our everyday lives. This iteration will focus on the capacity of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to mimic human learning and the implications of this on society. Do machines behave, think, and feel? Are machines biased? Are we biased? Is bias inevitable? Readings and lectures will be drawn from multiple disciplines, including neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and economics. Students will be invited to propose and explore additional topics. We can explore CRISPER gene editing, the origin of consciousness, emotion, and even the economics and social impact of autonomous cars. Various methods will be used to engage with the topics: discussion, writing, reflection, presentations, creation of simulations, and the programming of LEGO Mindstorm robots. While the course doesn’t insist on a thorough absorption of all content, it does require a thorough commitment from you to make it valuable. Come ready to present, discuss, and engage with minds, brains, and machines!
|
| |
-
FYSP 071 - Pirates and Piracy in Times Past FC SSCI WINT
4 credits
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.
|
| |
-
FYSP 077 - Sanctuaries Medieval to Modern FC SSCI WINT
4 credits
Sanctuaries have a long history, from medieval churches providing shelter for criminals to communities helping fugitive slaves in the 19th century. Contemporary sanctuaries include wildlife centers or college campuses protecting illegal immigrants. What does it mean to provide sanctuary, in both a theoretical and practical sense? Why do people invoke it? We will examine sanctuary through history, literature, politics and spatial theory to arrive at a better understanding of the nature and limits of this powerful idea.
|
| |
-
FYSP 078 - Finding Stories in Surprising Places FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
Whether you’re an aspiring writer and journalist, or just curious to learn about a new form of writing, this course will invite you to explore how creative nonfiction writers find stories in unexpected places, from Midwest state fairs to Florida swamps and the rural heartland of Ohio. Along with studying work by Hanif Abdurraqib, Darcy Frey, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, John McPhee, Susan Orlean, and many others, students will be invited to examine Oberlin and its surrounding areas as fertile ground for creative stories. Ultimately, the course will be guided by the following question: How do we find and make meaning out of our surroundings?
|
| |
-
FYSP 079 - Agreeing to Disagree: The Mathematics and Philosophy of Cooperation FC NSMA QFR WINT
4 credits
Cooperation for the common good sounds pleasant enough, but there is often a tension lurking just under the surface: selfishness might put more food on the table. Anthropologists, biologists, economists, philosophers, and psychologists have all investigated how and why people and animals cooperate, even when doing so doesn’t seem to be in their best interests. We will use tools from these fields, plus a mathematical tool called game theory, to explore cooperation. In general, we will try to find diverse ways of attacking the question “How do you agree when you disagree?”
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
FYSP 082 - Space, Place, and Transportation Justice FC NSMA QFR WINT
4 credits
In this course, students will learn how to think spatially and apply spatial thinking to transportation problems. We will draw from readings, art objects, planning documents, and site visits to define key concepts such as: location, scale, movement, and place. Students will also learn to be critical consumers of maps and spatial data. We will then employ spatial thinking to understand transportation issues in policy and practice. Through discussion, presentation, writing, and by walking around Oberlin and the region, we work to understand how the ways we move through the world are part of building a more just future.
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
FYSP 085 - Rebellion, Revolution, Rock-‘n’-Roll: Art and Dissent in Russia FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
In this seminar, students will discuss the complex relationships between art (literature, music, film, fine arts), politics, and society, using the examples of Russian cultural movements and artworks of the 20th-21st centuries. Can art be politically independent? Was the Russian Revolution a constructive or a destructive phenomenon? What happens to a counter-culture when it becomes the mainstream? Seeking answers to these questions, we will explore the early Russian Avant-Garde, watch films by Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein, see how Soviet propaganda suppressed the musical innovations of Dmitrii Shostakovich, and discuss the role of rock music for Russian underground counter-culture. Field trips required.
Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes
|
| |
-
FYSP 088 - Numbers in the News FC SSCI QFR
4 credits
Data are reported everywhere and on every topic.From poll and survey data to data on health, economy, and the natural world, we are bombarded by “numbers” on a daily basis.This seminar will focus ondata taken from recent news and social media sources and how to critically assess the source of the data, the method of collection, and the methods of analysis and visualization used to provide interpretation of the data. Topics covered will be from a variety of disciplines. Students also will learn how to analyze, interpret, and present data in numeric and graphical formats.
|
| |
-
FYSP 096 - The Art of Social Work FC SSCI WINT
4 credits
Art and social work contribute to the betterment of society. This seminar explores making and engaging with art as an avenue of self-expression and positive social change. We will study core social work values and explore the powerful role of art in personal and social healing. Students will engage in creative and analytical projects exploring historical and literary texts as well as visual arts. On field trips and in class visits, students will meet artists, writers, and social service professionals from the Oberlin community and across our region.
Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes
|
| |
-
FYSP 099 - Food and Community FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
In his 1957 book,Mythologies , Roland Barthes describes how, although “wine is a good and fine substance, it is no less true that its production is deeply involved in French capitalism,” and that “wine cannot be an unalloyedly blissful substance, except if we wrongfully forget that it is also the product of an expropriation.”Inspired by Barthes’s critical readings of food, community, and culture, this seminar provides students an opportunity to critically examine how food means, how we relate to our food, and how our food choices impact not only our individual health but also the health, labor, and living conditions of those in our communities.
|
| |
-
FYSP 100 - The Myth of Venice FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
The city of Venice is the protagonist in a long-lasting myth of sublime beauty and architectural wonder, of moral corruption and corporeal decay. Its dream-like skyline rising precariously in the midst of the Adriatic, its infested canals and its notorious brothels and casinos have fascinated our creative imagination for centuries. To understand its unique appeal, in this course we will explore how Venice has been represented in literary texts, film, visual art, graphic novels, and tourist guidebooks. We will travel vicariously and immerse ourselves in the Venetian lagoon by reading, talking, and writing about it.
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
FYSP 101 - Telling Your Story in Performance FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
In 1909, F.T. Marinetti started a riot that destroyed a Vienna theater, the first of many events that would ultimately bring Italy into the second World War. In 1990, Holly Hughes’ tales of feminist approaches to sexuality were regarded as so obscene that the United States would forever stop issuing federal grants to individual artists. In 2014-15, Emma Sulkowicz carried a 50-lb mattress wherever they went to draw attention to their university’s failure to hold their assailant responsible. These artists shaped the world around them through the stories they told. Through collaborative writing and performance, students enrolled in this course will explore the aesthetics of avant-garde artists like the aforementioned, and turn their own life stories into meaningful performances. Your history, life experiences, abilities, and perspective of the world are patently yours; the autobiographical stories that you tell from your unique vantage are revolutionary.
|
| |
-
FYSP 103 - Yoga and the Embodied Spirit FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
How do we live in, with, and as bodies? How does body relate to mind? How do both relate to spirituality; and does spirituality innately have to do with religion? This FYS course begins with studying physical yoga poses (asana) and how they relate to the breath. As we build our practice-each person at their own comfort level-we will read central texts about yoga and meditation, learn meditation techniques, explore embodied spiritual practices from multiple religions, and write creatively and critically about our findings. No prior yoga experience is required, nor is flexibility-except in your mind.
|
| |
-
FYSP 104 - It’s Never Aliens: Understanding Astronomy In The News FC NSMA WINT
4 credits
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.
|
| |
-
FYSP 105 - Food, Health, and Culture FC SSCI
4 credits
This class will examine the connections between food and understandings of health in its cultural and social contexts. What do people mean when they call food “healthy?” Where did American ideas about body size and health come from? How does nutritional science shape popular understandings of healthy eating? What is food justice? We will read studies by anthropologists, sociologists, historians, and nutritionists that attempt to answer these questions. At the same time, students will research topics of interest to them on the subject of food and nutritional health.
|
| |
-
FYSP 107 - City as Symphony: Cinema, Music, and Modernity FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
This seminar is for anyone interested in cinema, cities, and music. How can the complex phenomenon of the modern city be artistically explored by the means of different media? What does film have in common with symphony? How do the visual and the sonic elements combine to create a portrayal of the vibrant city life? Seeking to answer these questions, we will look at a particular cinematic genre, the city symphony, which aims to represent the complexity of the urban experience. While focusing primarily on German cinema and the city of Berlin, this course will also include a few prominent examples from other cinematic traditions.
|
| |
-
FYSP 111 - The Great Divide? Cultural Encounters Between the West and the Islamic World FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
This seminar explores the relation between the West and the Islamic world as they are “represented” in the creative arts (such as literature, film, visual culture, and music). It will also explicate how this relationality is “interpreted” within the fields of literature, film studies, history, and religious studies. Through an examination of the creative arts ranging from the early modern world to the present age of globalization, students will broaden their understanding of the creative works that inform the complex web of interactions involving the Islamic world and the West. Students will also hone their critical and creative thinking skills and develop a critical appreciation of the importance of cultural understanding, as they rethink existing stereotypes about distant cultures.
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
FYSP 120 - The Holocaust in American Popular Culture FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
This seminar explores how a genocide directed primarily against European Jews became a universalized metaphor for evil and why it remains such a powerful signifier. Sources include representations of the Holocaust in music, literature, and the visual arts as well as in museum narratives. Through this framework, students reflect on the roles of news media, the arts, religion, and politics in shaping links between the past and present. Field trip(s) required.
|
| |
-
FYSP 121 - Everyday Evolution FC NSMA WINT
4 credits
Dobzhansky’s famous quote, “Nothing in biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution,” suggests that organic evolution is widely appreciated and understood. However, many think evolution happened only long ago, and others think evolution is simply “survival of the fittest.” Using non-technical books, such as Why We Get Sick and The Botany of Desire, we will explore the complexities of evolution as central to everyday natural processes.
|
| |
-
FYSP 128 - Media and Memory FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
Beyond offering different sorts of content and engagement for their audiences, various artistic forms and techniques can be understood to provide alternative models for individuals and groups to filter and process experience in general. This course will look at multiple artistic forms (e.g., painting, photography, film, literature), in light of their own technical developments and contrasts with each other across time, in order to develop a greater sense of the many ways medium matters.
|
| |
-
FYSP 131 - Let’s Talk About P.E.O.P.L.E. FC SSCI WINT
4 credits
What is privilege? What is White privilege? Why do Black lives matter? Does being gay or straight matter? This seminar focuses on how systems of oppression work, what privilege looks like in everyday life, and how to change our “beliefs” about justice and equality into “practice”. Students learn to identify ways in which the dimensions of diversity shape their inner thoughts, perceptions, beliefs, interactions, and behaviors. They will gain a better understanding of how they show up in the world. In this course, students will explore the historical background and problem of privilege via an interactive and experiential format.
|
| |
-
FYSP 138 - Art-Making as Research and Experiment FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
This seminar challenges the romantic notion of the inspired, intuitive artist by approaching art-making from a research perspective: What kinds of questions and concepts are we exploring when we make art? What is the methodology of an artistic research project? How do we connect our work to society and culture more broadly? In the liberal arts, we value the connections our artistic interests have to other fields: politics, philosophy, history, and the sciences. In this course, we explore not only how critical reading, writing, and thinking practices will make us better artists, but also how art-making makes us better thinkers, readers, and writers. Though all students in the seminar will be required to produce three creative works(2D, 3D, and 4D)over the course of the semester, students are encouraged to connect these projects beyond ‘contemporary art’ and into other fields of interest.
|
| |
-
FYSP 142 - Well-being FC NSMA QFR WINT
4 credits
“Create all the happiness you are able to create: remove all the misery you are able to remove,” wrote Jeremy Bentham in 1830; only now, however, are the ingredients of happiness and misery coming into view for scholars and policy-makers. Exploring well-being and misery through the lenses of biology and psychology, as well as art, economics, and literature, this seminar studies the determinants of happiness and a life of meaning, the bodily ways stress and conflict threaten well-being, and effective strategies by individuals, work-places, and governments to improve well-being.
|
| |
-
FYSP 144 - Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
An interpretation of the lives and thought of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the context of the civil rights movement. It will focus on the theological, political, cultural, and psycho-social views which informed their religio-moral thought and actions. The course will include films, autobiographies, biographies, collected writings and speeches, as well as interpretations of these two religious and political leaders.
|
| |
-
FYSP 148 - Moving Pictures: Immigration and Italian Cinema FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
How did Italy become a land of immigration after decades of emigration? What does it mean to be a “Second-generation Italian”? What can we learn from the past? How did immigration change Italian society, politics, history, music, and even food? In this seminar, we will explore the representation of Italian emigration-especially to the US- and immigration to Italy through cinema: How did immigration representation change in Italian movies of the past 50 years? This seminar will use films to explore topics like displacement, citizenship, bilingualism, cultural shock and rejection, but also integration, assimilation, intercultural acceptance, and personal enrichment. We will explore the Cleveland Italian-American heritage by visiting Little Italy, The Italian Cultural Garden, The Guardians towers, and the Lake View Cemetery, as well as by interviewing Italian expatriates about their experiences as immigrants. Field trips required.
Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
FYSP 156 - Jewish Identity and American Politics FC SSCI WINT
4 credits
This course explores the diversity of ways in which Jews in the United States have expressed their identities and perceived group interests in the political and civic arenas since 1776. Through both first-person accounts and secondary scholarship, we will explore major developments in American and world history as they impacted the self-understandings of Jewish citizens, including American settler colonialism and slavery, Jewish mass migration, the Holocaust, the creation of Israel, and the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. The course also engages with current hot-button issues, from debates over the Israel/Palestine conflict to the question of American Jewish “whiteness” and the place of antisemitism in “intersectional” analyses of political oppression.
|
| |
-
FYSP 157 - Plague Literature and Medicine FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
This course examines the medical and literary history of major plagues, from the Plague of Athens (431 BCE), the Black Death (1348), the Great Plague of London (1645), the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, to COVID-19. For each period, medical practices of the times will be studied alongside artistic, literary, and political responses to pandemics. Primary texts by Thucydides, Boccaccio, Defoe, and Camus. Scientific readings will includeEpidemics and Society by Frank Snowden and an in-depth study of the immune system. This interdisciplinary course will include guest lectures by scientists and medical authorities, as plagues and pandemics are viewed from multiple points of view.
|
| |
-
FYSP 158 - Dance, Dance, Revolution FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
Do not enter; do not pass go; keep a 6-foot distance. We are told to move in specific ways all the time. If we dance on buttons correctly, we win the video game Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) . But where is the revolution if you are only moving in consistent and repeated patterns? When we look at how we move, we can make critical observations even in video games. This course introduces a practice of analyzing bodies in motion and their context to form critical questions and write observations for a range of audiences and purposes.
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
FYSP 159 - Back to the Land FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
What does it mean to get back in touch with nature? Can you change the world by living simply and sustainably? In this course, we will explore the theory and practice of agrarian utopianism in the Northern Hemisphere from the 18th century to the present. Students will investigate the construction of Nature, Society, and the Self in communities populated by a wide variety of pastoralists including spiritual pilgrims, sexual exiles, craft revivalists, monkey wrench gangs, and regenerative farmers. By looking at “industrial civilization” through their eyes, we will seek a better understanding of our own condition. Field trips required.
Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes
|
| |
-
FYSP 164 - The Art of Fashion: Medieval to Modern FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
This course explores how clothing defines who people are in society, in terms of race, ethnicity, social rank, and gender. We will explore how meaning was expressed through clothing from around the globe from the Middle Ages to today. While powerful institutions in the past attempted to control what people wore, clothing also offered wearers the chance to challenge prevailing social attitudes. We will consider the clothing of many different types of people, not only elites, but of lower social rank; indigenous people; and trans people; as well as different types of garments, and techniques for making them.
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
FYSP 165 - Feeding the World FC NSMA QFR WINT
4 credits
This course examines issues of population and food production. World population structure, the history of agriculture, global impacts of the green revolution, and genetically modified foods will be discussed. The intent of the class is to raise profound issues that we will study while practicing skills associated with research including interpreting and manipulating data. The results of these projects will be presented to the class through papers and organized discussions.
|
| |
-
FYSP 167 - Writing Religion and Gender FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
This course invites students to consider the religious lives of women (including trans* women) from Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and Vodou communities in the United States and internationally. Focusing on scholarly writing and film produced by and about contemporary women from these communities we will explore how women construct their religious identities and negotiate religious authority as public leaders, ritual experts, and healers. From our vantage point at the intersection of religion, anthropology, and gender studies we will explore methodology and ethics, including how to represent the ‘other’ and the ‘self’ as researchers. Field trip required.
Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes
|
| |
-
FYSP 169 - Decolonizing Global Capitalism FC SSCI WINT
4 credits
Why is capitalist development uneven? Karl Marx argued that capitalism started with “the discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement, and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population; the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies; [and] the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black skins.” In this course, we will explore how capitalism relies on the creation of a racial “other” to be oppressed and exploited, from its beginnings through today, in Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
|
| |
-
FYSP 171 - Environment and Expression in Appalachia FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
Appalachia is foundational in the American cultural imagination, both lauded as a conceptual birthplace for folksy Americana and held as at arm’s length as a blighted internal Other. Perhaps even more significantly, it is a series of extraction sites, with coal mines and clear-cut forests spread all along the East Coast from Ohio to Georgia. In this course, we will examine how Appalachian people have engaged with the environment through artistic expression, including music, film, literature, material culture, and foodways. We will take a multimedia approach, combining relevant scholarly or secondary literature with critical media analysis.
|
| |
-
FYSP 177 - The Uncanny in Cross-Cultural Perspective FC SSCI WINT
4 credits
What is The Uncanny? It is more easily felt than explained: an eerily human automaton, a “liminal space” you could have sworn you’ve been to before, someone who looks just like you quickly disappearing around a corner. For Ernst Jentsch and Sigmund Freud, it was the unheimlich, the feeling that within the familiar and “everyday” there was something deeply buried and disturbing. Something that, if uncovered, could completely rearrange one’s understanding of the world. The Uncanny is a powerful concept in both literature and the social sciences, where it has been used by postcolonial theorists such as Dipesh Chakrabarty to unsettle the grip of Western thought on worlds of diverse and untranslatable ways of knowing. This class will explore The Uncanny as both a horror trope and an opening for cross-cultural critique.
|
| |
-
FYSP 178 - Social Justice and Professional Athlete Activism FC SSCI WINT
4 credits
How do professional athletes and other public figures use their platforms for social movements?This seminar explores past and present voices for social change, both in the United States and abroad. We will examine the ways in which athletes, musicians, and actors harness their professional positions to take a stand for what they believe in. What is the impact of their activism, and does speaking out come at a cost? Students will analyze issues from multiple perspectives and through a range of sources, honing their ability to draw their own conclusions about a range of complex social questions.Readings and discussions will focus onWe Matter: Athletes and Activism by Etan Thomas (2018), as well as news reporting, academic journals, documentary and fiction films, and social media. Students will conduct research, including through interviews, and will present their findings in presentations and in writing.
|
| |
-
FYSP 182 - Paying Attention with Tolstoy FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
Do you ever struggle to concentrate when you’re writing? So did Lev Tolstoy, and he also wrote one of the longest novels ever written and created some of the most famous details in literature. He was fascinated by how distraction and exquisitely close attention were both possible in a human life. Tolstoy will be our companion as we embark on our own adventures in writing and attention. Asking: What is attention, we will explore the ways Tolstoy investigated this question through science, literature, philosophy, and religious practice. We’ll practice writing, and we’ll practice paying attention to our experience of writing.
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
FYSP 183 - Folk Music Then and Folk Music Now FC ARHU WINT
4 credits
This seminar explores the concept of “folk music” in history and in our own lives. Using readings and interviews we will investigate how the category applies to various traditions (e.g., Scottish songs and African American spirituals), to the work of diverse musicians such as Percy Grainger, Bob Dylan, and Lil Nas, and to music making in everyday life. By examining (re-)uses of musical traditions, we will deepen our understanding of how oral transmission informs identity; the role of authorship in traditional music, how performance contexts and technology shape how we hear a folk song; and the ethical implications of repackaging traditional cultures. Field trips required.
Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes
|
| |
-
FYSP 190 - Between Tradition and Modernity: Gender and Sexuality in Chinese Language Culture FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
This course studies Chinese-language cinema, literature, and digital media since the early 20th century. In discussing the concept of gender and sexuality, this course surveys modern media culture in different Chinese-speaking regions. Introducing different analytical methods to discuss literature, film, art, comic books, and social media, it aims to cultivate students’ sensitivities to the intersection and divergence between modern Chinese culture and Euro-American culture. It also brings awareness to cultural and social differences in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. As an introductory liberal arts course, this course aims to develop students’ critical thinking and encourage students to examine assumptions, stereotypes, and social inequality. The class format includes mini-lectures, in-class presentations, group-led class discussions, and
writing workshops. It also includes a library session on information literacy.
|
| |
-
FYSP 191 - Muslim Oral Culture: Persian Poetry in Translation, Music and Calligraphy FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
This course explores classical and modern Persian poetry through the study of poems in English translation, music, calligraphy and used in day to day conversations across all realms of life and the geography of all Persian-speaking societies (primarily, Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kirgizstan). The course intends to bring out the poetic dimensions of language and memory expressed in their philosophical, social, cultural, artistic, mystical, political and romantic realms. It provides an overview of the use of poetry in specific Islamic countries and its epistemological and artistic relevance to the modern Muslim life.
|
French |
| |
-
FREN 101 - Français élémentaire I FC ARHU CD
4 credits
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.
Prerequisites & Notes: 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.
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
FREN 102 - Français élémentaire II FC ARHU CD
4 credits
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.
Prerequisites & Notes: FREN 101 or the equivalent. Students with previous study of French must present an SAT II score or take the departmental placement test.
|
| |
-
FREN 103 - Français élémentaire accéléré FC ARHU CD
4 credits
Designed for students with previous work in French not yet qualified for FREN 203 or FREN 205, this intensive course covers all basic grammatical concepts and vocabulary while building skills in listening comprehension, speaking, writing, and reading. In addition to the three hours per week of class, students are required to attend the French Table or activities at the Maison francophone on a regular basis in order to reinforce both class and individual work.
Prerequisites & Notes: Some previous French with an SAT II score under 550 or appropriate score on placement test. Successful completion of FREN 103 qualifies students for FREN 203 and FREN 205.
|
| |
-
FREN 205 - Français intermédiaire I FC ARHU CD
4 credits
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.
Prerequisites & Notes: 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 - Français intermédiaire II FC ARHU CD
4 credits
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.
Prerequisites & Notes: FREN 205 appropriate SAT II score (550-625) or appropriate placement test score.
|
| |
-
FREN 220 - Travel and the Idea of Home FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
What are the stakes of leaving home? What are the stakes of inviting a stranger into your home? What is a home, in any case? Drawing on literature, film and critical theory, this course explores travel and hospitality around the Mediterranean Sea, a region long associated with mobility, wandering, and rootlessness. Beginning in the ancient Mediterranean world with The Odyssey , we will then move to colonial and post-colonial literature and film by Albert Camus, Hélène Cixous, Jacques Derrida, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Michel Haneke, and Fatih Akin, among others. Issues addressed include cosmopolitanism, globalization, citizenship, and the contemporary Mediterranean refugee crisis.
This course is cross-listed with CMPL 220
|
| |
-
FREN 301 - Expression orale et écrite FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
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.
Prerequisites & Notes: Appropriate SAT II score (625-675), appropriate score on placement test, FREN 203 or FREN 206 or the equivalent.
|
| |
-
FREN 302 - Conversation et communication FC ARHU CD
4 credits
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.
Prerequisites & Notes: FREN 301 or above or placement test.
|
| |
-
FREN 304 - History of French Creole FC ARHU CD
4 credits
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.
|
| |
-
FREN 309 - Plaisir de lire FC ARHU CD
4 credits
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.
Prerequisites & Notes: FREN 301, SAT II socre (625-675), AP 4 or 5, or appropriate placement test score.
|
| |
-
FREN 315 - Queer Media, Activism and Thought in France: Case Studies HC ARHU CD
2 credits
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the birth of the feminist movement in France, this half-course offers case studies of queer media activism and thought from 1970 to 2020. Oberlin professors and guest speakers will present on a variety of topics, ranging from militant film collectives and militant television to queer cinema, from the Front homosexuel d?action revolutionnaire (FHAR) to the AIDS movement and French queer theorist Monique Wittig. The half-course will consist of public lectures, a film series, and small discussion groups. Taught in English.
Prerequisites & Notes: FREN 320
This course is cross-listed with CINE 315, GSFS 315
|
| |
-
FREN 320 - French Cinema, Intersectional and Feminist FC ARHU CD
4 credits
This historical survey of French cinema tells a story that has long been suppressed but rewritten by feminist scholars who did nothing less than excavate the many artistic and cultural contributions of women filmmakers from the beginning of film to its present. Students learn about the usual periods of French cinema (Surrealism, 1930s Poetic Realism, Occupation, New Wave, contemporary film), but also study film direction, stardom, acting, editing, and producing-all through its leading women. A study of the history of industrialization, cultural policy, state regulation, and colonialism helps address the conceptualization of French cinema as a ‘national cinema,’ despite its international artistic heritage and audiences. It also foucses on opportunities for intersectional and feminist approaches that value discussions of race, gender, and class.
Prerequisites & Notes: CINE 110 or another course in French is strongly recommended, but not required.
This course is cross-listed with CINE 250
This course is appropriate for new students.
|
| |
-
FREN 321 - Pratiques de l’ecrit FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
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 visual analysis. Cultural topics will include French lycee and university, the banlieue and beaux quartiers, visual analysis of artwork by francophone artists such as Paul Cezanne, Malick Sibide, Felicien Rops and the novel Genocide by Franco-Rwandan author Reverien Rurangwa. Taught in French.
|
| |
-
FREN 322 - Guest, Host, Stranger: Hospitality in the Mediterranean World FC ARHU CD WADV
4 credits
What are the stakes of welcoming (or not) a stranger into one’s home? Drawing on critical theory as well as fiction, film, and poetry, this course explores hospitality around the Mediterranean, a region long associated with travel, mobility, wandering, and rootlessness. Beginning in the ancient Mediterranean world with Homer’s The Odyssey , we will progress through colonial and post-colonial literature and film by Albert Camus, Assia Djebar, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Michel Haneke, alongside theoretical work by Kant, Simmel, and Derrida, among others. Issues addressed include cosmopolitanism, citizenship, the idea of home, and the contemporary Mediterranean refugee crisis.
Prerequisites & Notes: CMPL 200 or consent of instructor.
This course is cross-listed with CMPL 320
|
| |
-
FREN 330 - World-making in French and Francophone Literature FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
What is a world?” Pheng Cheah asks in his 2016 book. How are worlds made? What is the difference between Francophone literature and World literature? Is there more than one world? How do writers consider the global and the local? How do creators consider the divide between the global North and the global South? In this course, we will examine these questions and more as they relate to contemporary literature in French. Through our study of theatre, novels and film, we will also explore how medium impacts each work. Conducted in French (with some supplemental readings in English), students are expected to read and communicate in the target language. This course is open to all French majors and minors.
Prerequisites & Notes: Fren 205/206
|
| |
-
FREN 341 - Caribbean Women’s Fiction FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
In her 1992 essay, “Order, Disorder, Freedom and the West Indian Writer,” Maryse Condexplains that “whenever women speak out, they displease, shock, or disturb” (132). Whenever Caribbean women and non-binary authors dare to write or express their creativity, they upend or reorder the Caribbean literary landscape. Creativity means disorder; disorder means freedom; and freedom is the desire to make oneself heard even in the face of oblivion. This course will explore how women and non-binary writers with Haitian, Guadeloupian, and Martinican origins produce narratives that disturb literary, linguistic, and communal traditions to imagine a more equitable future.
Prerequisites & Notes: FREN 301, 309 or 321
|
| |
-
FREN 353 - Passions du corps et l’âme (1600-1900) FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
French literature of the 17th and 18th centuries created a lasting myth of violent, irresistible passions. A single glance, a chance encounter, or a small act of kindness are enough to plunge the legendary characters of Racine, Stendahl, and Proust into fatal spirals of desire. Corneille’s Surena sums up the logic of the passions: “Toujours aimer, toujours souffrir, toujours mourir.” In a world of doubt and half-truths, love appears to the mind as an absolute certainty, like Descartes’s Cogito ergo sum . This course will examine the history of the passions and engage Foucault’s argument that heteronormativity is of recent origin.
Prerequisites & Notes: FREN 301, 309, or 321.
|
| |
-
FREN 355 - Les îles créoles : Lutte et résistance, d’hier à aujourd’hui FC ARHU CD
4 credits
Born out of a history of resistance, Creole cultures transcend racial boundaries. Through the works of prominent authors from different Creole speaking islands such as Fanon and Césaire (Martinique), Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe), Ananda Devi (Mauritius), Jacques Roumain (Haiti), this course provides a framework for understanding how French colonization led to the creation of Creole nations in different parts of the world. The discussion will move from the past to the present as students also explore how international events such as a worldwide pandemic, social justice, racism and police brutality are currently affecting these islands.
Prerequisites & Notes: FREN 301 or the equivalent.
|
| |
|
| |
-
FREN 365 - Zombies and Spirits in the Caribbean FC ARHU CD WINT
4 credits
Before horror movies, television series, and graphic novels, zombies were part of a tradition of Caribbean folklore. The figure of the zombie finds its roots in colonial Haiti where enslaved Africans found meaning in a mythical figure who no longer possessed its own body but belonged to another, instead. Spirits, magic, and sorcery are also an indelible part of the same folk traditions to which the zombie belongs in Guadeloupe, Haiti, and Martinique. This course will expose students to the cultural history of the zombie and spiritual practice in the French Caribbean through film, literature, and contemporary Caribbean art. Taught in French.
Prerequisites & Notes: FREN 301, 309, 321 or the equivalent.
|
| |
-
FREN 373 - Introduction à la littérature francophone FC ARHU CD
4 credits
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.
Prerequisites & Notes: FREN 301 or the equivalent.
|
| |
-
FREN 375 - Franco-Arab Encounters FC ARHU CD
4 credits
This course examines the history of contact between France and the Arab world in literature, visual art, and film. Beginning in the 18th century and progressing to the postcolonial era, we will investigate such topics as Antoine Galland’s translations of 1,001 Nights , Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt, the Algerian War of Independence, and the experience of “beur” communities in contemporary France. Key to the course is Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism, which we will both unpack and complicate. Figures of study include Eugène Delacroix, Albert Camus, Kemal Daoud, Assia Djebar, Leïla Sebbar, Gillo Pontecorvo, and Riad Sattouf. Readings/discussions in English.
Prerequisites & Notes: CMPL 200 or approval of instructor.
This course is cross-listed with CMPL 375
|
| |
-
FREN 380 - Esclavage et libert FC ARHU CD
4 credits
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 abolished slavery and proclaimed LibertEgalitand Fraternitfor 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 & Notes: FREN 301, 309, or 321.
|
| |
-
FREN 387 - Bread, Wine, and Cheese: The French Art of Savoring FC ARHU CD
4 credits
Students will study the production and consumption of food and drink in France and the Francophone world from historical, social, economic, cultural, and culinary perspectives. This includes how artists and taste-makers of diverse media developed languages and frameworks for representing experiences of nourishment, pleasure and belonging (regional, national, post-colonial), and the ways in which food and drink can shape identities, lives and worlds. Theories of taste, consumption, and distinction will enhance discussions of the uneven impact of global markets and the transnational food trade on populations and communities. Taught in English; French materials presented in original and translated versions.
Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes
|
| |
Page: 1 <- Back 10 … 7
| 8
| 9
| 10
| 11
| 12
| 13
| 14
| 15
| 16
| 17
… Forward 10 -> 27 |
|
Print this Page