Mar 28, 2024  
Course Catalog 2022-2023 
    
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.

 

French

  
  • FREN 387OC - 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. This course is part of the StudiOC “Eat! Drink! Savor! Labor!” Learning Community.
    Prerequisites & Notes: This course is part of the StudiOC “Eat! Drink! Savor! Labor!” Learning Community.
    Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes

  
  • FREN 388 - À Table: la conversation et l’écriture gastronomique

    HC ARHU CD
    2 credits
    This half-course is a LxC section paired with the new course FREN 387 Bread, Wine, and Cheese: The French Art of Savoring that will be part of a food studies course cluster with SOCI 387. Unlike FREN 387, this course will be conducted completely in French. Students taking 387 will have priority in this class since we’ll be studying related and supplemental material in order to appreciate the art and pleasure of talking and writing about food and drink in the French language.
    Prerequisites & Notes: FREN 301 or equivalent.
  
  • FREN 403 - Mourning in Haitian Literature

    FC ARHU CD WINT
    4 credits
    The Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales defines a reposoir as “an altar adorned with flowers and ornate foliage erected during a funeral procession onto which a priest places the holy sacrament in a moment of rest.” In Haitian Creole, a repozwa refers to a person who provides safe harbor or it designates a resting place where the memorial remains of a person lie in repose. In this course, we will examine how Haitian literature provides safe harbor for those in mourning and how a poem, an essay, or a book might serve as a resting place.
    Prerequisites & Notes: FREN 301, 309, 321 or the equivalent.
  
  • FREN 404 - The Poetics and Politics of French Documentary and the Essay Film

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    This course addresses documentary cinema from France, from the invention of the Lumiere cinematographe in 1896 to digital filmmaking at the beginning of the 21st century. The special focus of Spring 2020 will be the ethics of care; films will address a variety of topics, from reproductive rights and health care to workplace ethics and the current refugee crisis, all addressed by French and Francophone filmmakers who have tackled documentary poetics, politics, and ethics since the invention of the Lumière cinematograph in 1895. Taught in English.
    Prerequisites & Notes: CINE 250, 290, 298, or FREN 320, or the equivalent.
    This course is cross-listed with CINE 350


  
  • FREN 406 - Discovering Champagne: The World in a Glass

    FC ARHU CD


    4 credits
    This summer immersion course on Champagne-the drink and the región-is for students who wish to study the French language through an engagement with culture and the natural world. Students will learn the history of champagne production and consumption, the relevant sense of ritual and ceremony, the cultivation and use of the region’s natural resources, and the promotion of champagne as fashion and luxury. These discussions will address experimentation, gender politics, business and legal practices, tourism, and especially climate change-not to mention the historical personnages who called attention to them in the first place (ie. Louis XIV and Napoléon). No other region in France has witnessed the same degree of bloodshed, disruption, and change as Champagne, particularly during the modern period since the French Revolution, and yet a regional identity endures. From our on-site perch among les Champenois, we will understand le terroir-France’s name for the sense of place through food and drink-that characterizes Champagne’s namesake sparkly delight. 

    Taught in the French language.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Successful completion of FREN 301 or equivalent, or by permission of the instructor.
    Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes

    Sustainability

  
  • FREN 411 - L’animal et l’homme

    FC ARHU CD WINT
    4 credits
    This course examines human-animal relations and symbolism in French literature, art, and film. Starting with werewolves and other hybrid creatures in medieval literature, and continuing with the La Fontaines Fables and Buffons Histoire Naturelle, this course traces the history of the human-animal border through the nineteenth century, in Darwin and a novel by Emile Zola. The course concludes with an examination of the animal in contemporary philosophy and cinema. Taught in French.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Two 300-Level courses beyond 301.
  
  • FREN 414 - Bardot, Seyrig, Fonda: Stardom and Activism Before #MeToo

    FC ARHU
    4 credits
    The film actress emerged as a principal figure in the 2017 #MeToo movement and helped amplify the voices of other women who grabbed the microphone in solidarity and told their lived experiences of coercion, abuse, exploitation, and silence. Drawing from media studies, stars studies, and cultural history, this course traces the relationship between film stardom and activism for three French or Francophone actresses (Fonda included) during the 1960s and 1970s, and more specifically during the feminist and anti-war movements of their time. Taught in English (although readings in French will be made available to students of French).
    Prerequisites & Notes: CINE 290 or CINE 250/FREN 320
    This course is cross-listed with CINE 314


  
  • FREN 415 - Surréalisme et francophonie

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    This course will analyze surrealism in the Francophone world. We will examine 1) the characteristics of surrealist poetics and aesthetics; 2) the relationship between surrealism and politics, specifically with regard to imperialism and colonialism; and 3) the evolutions and transformations of surrealism in the work of Francophone authors and artists.  We will ask: In what ways does surrealism resist and/or advance colonialist interests? In what ways do Black and Brown Francophone artists change surrealism to make it their own? And finally, what is surrealism? Is it a historical movement that appeared in Paris in the 1920s, or is it something else-a mode of existing in the world, even a kind of ethics? Taught in French.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Two 300-level French courses beyond 301.
    This course is cross-listed with CMPL 415


  
  • FREN 423 - L’histoire du corps, 1500-1800

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    During the Renaissance an ideal human body was celebrated in poetry, painting, and sculpture, as canons of beauty were revived from Antiquity, while in sacred art, a new emphasis was placed on the physicality of Christ and the saints. Opposed to these tendencies were counter-currents of realism and the grotesque: in medical treatises, travel narratives, comic genres, and crime literature, the body is palpable, repugnant, abject. Primary texts plus critical readings by Foucault, Bakhtin, Kristeva, and others.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Two 300-Level French courses beyond 301.
  
  • FREN 428 - La décolonisation du corps féminin

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    Through literary and visual analysis, this course explores the impacts of colonialism and gendered racism throughout French History. From political activist Olympe de Gouges publishing Le droit de la femme et de la citoyenne (1791), challenging gender inequality in France, to Mariama Ba and Ananda Devi articulating the intimate experience of violence against women in post-colonial societies, women writers have raised awareness to an ongoing struggle, while fostering visions of change.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Two 300-Level courses beyond 301.
  
  • FREN 441 - Plague Narratives: Narratology and Immunology

    FC ARHU CD WINT
    4 credits
    This interdisciplinary course examines chronicles of the Black Death, the Great Plague of 1665, and modern plagues from the perspectives of science and literature. For each period, medical and religious beliefs of the time will be examined in parallel with modern germ theory, immunology, and an understanding of infectious diseases such as cholera, bubonic plague, and COVID-19. Humans die like any other species during a pandemic, without respect for rank. Does the recording of the catastrophe preserve human dignity and distinction? At the conclusion of the course, in response to the present pandemic, students will write their own plague narratives. Taught in English.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Two 300-level courses beyond 301.
    This course is cross-listed with CMPL 441


  
  • FREN 442 - Littérature, pandémie et confinement

    HC ARHU CD WADV
    2 credits
    This half course, taught in French, allows students enrolled in CMPL/FREN 441: Plague Narratives: Narratology and Immunology, to read, discuss, and write about primary and secondary sources in French. The course may also be taken as a stand-alone course on the history and literature of plagues and pandemics, from the Black Death to the COVID-19. Meets for one hour-long discussion section per week.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Two 300-level courses beyond 301.
  
  • FREN 455 - Le crime au féminin

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    Through a vigorous examination of judicial archives, visual images, ethnographic and literary texts, students will investigate women involved in crimes throughout French history. From Catherine Montvoisin, also known as “La Voisin”, accused of having poisoned and killed over 1000 people under Louis XIV, to the unnamed Vodou priestesses executed for witchcraft during the Haitian Revolution, students will compare popular stereotypes with authentic documents, in order to restore the voices of these women.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Two 300-level courses beyond 301.
    Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes

  
  • FREN 462 - 1968: art, média, contestation

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    Many remember 1968 as a culminating or turning point for the 20th century, when the shock of youthful and leftist revolutions reverberated around the world. This interdisciplinary course provides a time capsule and vigorous examination of 1968 through reflections on history, theatre, theory, and especially cinema of that mythical year. We will focus on France, especially Paris, as a crucial site for upheaval yet cultural transformation, but also study conflict and change in Algeria, Senegal, and Vietnam.  Taught in French.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Two 300-level courses beyond 301.
  
  • FREN 471 - Medicine, Literature, Biopower LXC

    HC ARHU CD
    2 credits
    This optional half course allows students enrolled in FREN 472 Medicine, Literature, Biopower to read, discuss, and write about primary and secondary material in French. Meets for an hour and 20 minute discussion section.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Two FREN courses at the 300 level beyond 301.
  
  • FREN 472 - Medicine, Literature, Biopower

    FC ARHU CD WINT
    4 credits
    This course examines the history of medicine from the Renaissance to the present and focuses on the effects of medical discoveries and representations of the body in philosophy, politics, and art, as sovereign states became increasingly invested in fostering and controlling the health of their citizens. The course will include readings in the theory of biopower and bare life by Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and others. Taught in English, with French option. For French option, register also for FREN 471 LxC).
    Prerequisites & Notes: Two 200-Level or above courses in the Humanities or Social Sciences.
    This course is cross-listed with CMPL 472


  
  • FREN 505F - Honors - Full

    FC ARHU
    4 credits
    Honors
  
  • FREN 505H - Honors - Half

    HC ARHU
    2 credits
    Honors
  
  • FREN 995F - Private Reading - Full

    FC ARHU
    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.
  
  • FREN 995H - Private Reading - Half

    HC ARHU
    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.

Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies

  
  • GSFS 100 - Introduction to Comparative American Studies

    FC CD
    4 credits
    The course will introduce students to the complexity of American social and cultural formations, with particular emphasis on sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, and gender, and to various methodologies of comparative analysis.
  
  • GSFS 101 - Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    This course serves as an introduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. The central objective is to familiarize students with key concepts, theories, and sociopolitical contentions pertaining to intersecting forms of identity, including gender, sexuality, race, nationality, and others. Paying particular attention to how power marks our experiences of human difference, this course examines issues relating to embodiment, gender performance, violence, and oppression. In so doing, it draws from a diverse and interdisciplinary body of feminist and intersectional critiques, enabling students’ analyses of relevant social, cultural, and political debates in historical and contemporary contexts.
  
  • GSFS 108 - Introduction to Religion: Women and the Western Traditions

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    An introduction to Judaism, Christianity and Islam that focuses on women’s experiences and gender roles. This course will examine representations of women in sacred texts; primary sources by and about women from various historical periods, and contemporary feminist voices within each religious tradition. Topics to be investigated include: rabbinic teachings on biblical women, the role of women in early Christian heretical movements, discourses of the veil in Islam.
  
  • GSFS 135 - Introduction to Religion: Devotion and Performance in South Asia

    FC ARHU
    4 credits
    How does devotional literature and performance interact with and become shaped by social and historical circumstances in different South Asian traditions? In this course students think comparatively about how South Asian Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu communities express devotion through literature and performance. We will learn to read, view, listen to, and critically engage with various genres of medieval and modern literature and performing and visual arts that express passionate devotion to diverse conceptions of the divine, as well as a range of emotionsfear, longing, liberation. We will be attentive to what is shared and distinct in articulations of devotion across traditions, periods, and regions.
    This course is cross-listed with RELG 135


  
  • GSFS 201 - Latinas/os in Comparative Perspective

    FC SSCI CD
    4 credits
    This course analyzes the varied experiences of Latinas/os in the United States. Using ethnography, literature, film, and history, this course will explore questions of immigration/transnationalism; culture and political economy; racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual identities among Latinas/os; the struggle for place in American cities; as well as the intersections of gender, work and family.
    This course is cross-listed with CAST 201


  
  • GSFS 202 - Visible Bodies and the Politics of Sexuality

    FC ARHU WINT
    4 credits
    This course considers how visual culture produces and contests concepts of sexuality in American society. We will analyze how mainstream culture universalizes certain experiences of gender and sexuality, as they are inflected by race, ethnicity, class and nationalism, as well as how marginalized groups have used visual representation to contest and subvert these hegemonic ideals. Through case studies, we will explore concepts such as the gaze, spectacle, and agency.
    This course is cross-listed with CAST 202


  
  • GSFS 203 - Sociology of Sexuality

    FC SSCI CD
    4 credits
    Sociologists study the social origins of sexuality: how shared beliefs shape what we desire, what is taboo or what shames us. Historical and cross-cultural research illuminates the way modern sexuality transformed systems of dating, marriage, homosexuality, government, economics and racial classification. Following Freud, Foucault, feminist and queer theorists, learn why sociologists are skeptical of essentialist explanations that rely on biology and favor theories that recognize sexuality as a diverse, ever-changing function of cultural institutions.
    This course is cross-listed with SOCI 203


  
  • GSFS 204 - Rhetorics of Gender Non-Conformity

    FC ARHU CD WINT
    4 credits
    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.
    This course is cross-listed with WRCM 205


  
  • GSFS 207 - Introduction to Queer Studies

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    This course provides an interdisciplinary grounding in historical and theoretical foundations of queer culture and theory. We will explore LGBTQ history alongside contemporary queer cultural studies. This course will address the intersections of sexuality and gender with race, class, ability, age, nationality, and religion. We will explore how historical, social, political, and economic systems have shaped and reshaped what it means to be queer or claim queer identity in the United States and abroad. Students will engage with multiple disciplinary approaches that have both shaped queer studies and have been shaped by queer methodology.
    This course is cross-listed with CAST 207


    This course is appropriate for new students.
  
  • GSFS 208 - Queer Beginnings: 1990

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    1990 was a time of new beginnings for academics, novelists, and filmmakers who challenged the norms of heterosexuality, and who found –or invented– queer histories. After an examination of European precursors, Foucault, Fassbinder, and Almodovar, we will study Sedgwick, Butler, Crimp, and Bersani; fiction by Barnett, Winterson, and Gluck; and historical (or pseudo-historical) films from the New Queer Cinema movement, including Poison, Edward II, Orlando, Watermelon Woman Looking for Langston, and Lilies.
    This course is cross-listed with CMPL 208


  
  • GSFS 209 - American Identities and Popular Culture

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    This interdisciplinary course examines how popular cultural forms such as news media, film, and social media have historically contributed to changing notions of identity, belonging, and citizenship. Americans have long hailed innovations in media technologies as democratic spaces that expand the possibilities of inclusion even as commentators criticize popular culture for sustaining normative ideals of identity. We will address these competing trends by studying how cultural producers rely on contested concepts of gender, sexuality, race, ability and social class to navigate the politics of visibility in different media.
    This course is cross-listed with CAST 209


  
  • GSFS 214 - Friends, Foes, and Feminism: Relationships in Contemporary U.S. Novels

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    We will explore complexities of human relationships, among friends, family, lovers, colleagues, community members, and strangers as they are portrayed in contemporary U.S. novels. Of particular interest will be the ways in which these relationships (fraught? friendly?) blur lines between love and hate, respect and animosity, civility and hostility, empathy and apathy. Using feminist theory as a lens, we will also pay particular attention to characters’ identities (i.e., race, gender, class, sexuality, and more).
    This course is cross-listed with CAST 214


  
  • GSFS 217 - Transgender Literature: Transition, Narrative, and Desire

    FC ARHU
    4 credits
    There has been an efflorescence of wonderful stories, novels, and memoirs by trans authors over the last decade. As this “genre” of literature takes modern shape, we can start to interrogate the tropes of representation and narrative structure that underlie trans self and communal-understanding. The process of transition itself seems to imply a narrative structure, moving from one position to another. But there is also an expectation and demand made of trans people to tell a specific story about how they have come to understand themselves, of what kinds of pain and violence they have experienced, or even just of how they came to understand their gender and experience, in order to justify their existence. We will read a selection of texts that interrogate these narrative tropes and structures by authors who are trying to develop a trans writing that builds new possible worlds for transness. Instead of simply minority representation, we will look at trans literature as a place to understand trans desire. We will read texts by trans writers that form the backbone of this genre while also providing critiques. We will interrogate transition itself as a narrative process, and ask how literary visions of transness can both limit or unleash trans possibilities. Our approach will combine disciplines of trans studies and literary theory in order to understand what narrative has to offer transness and what transness has to offer narrative.
    This course is cross-listed with ENGL 217


    This course is appropriate for new students.
  
  • GSFS 220 - Religion and Transnational Feminism

    HC ARHU
    2 credits
    This course examines issues of gender and religion as they intersect with global political discourses about women’s rights and competing definitions of agency. The study of global religions has been transformed in important ways by encounters with postcolonial and feminist scholarship; similarly, the persistent interest in religious forms of life have shaped how scholars think about gender, sexuality, and feminism in transnational contexts. In this course, we will explore how these dialogues between feminism, postcolonial studies, and religious studies may inform and transform our understandings of categories like ‘women’ and ‘religion.’
    This course is cross-listed with RELG 220


  
  • GSFS 229 - Bodies in Japanese Literature & Culture 1945 to 2020

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    This course introduces Japan’s postwar literature and arts through images and tropes of the body. Experiences of the war and radical social change after Japan’s defeat in 1945 were often “embodied” in literary and critical texts and on screens. Japan’s changing place in the global order often became visible and tangible through the display and interpretation of bodies. Through examining tropes constructed around bodies in literary works and related media, we explore the body as the site of cultural transitions and struggles.
    This course is cross-listed with EAST 229


  
  • GSFS 232 - Religion and Culture in Indian Epics

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    The Mahabharata and the Ramayana have been crucial religious and cultural texts in South Asia for millennia. In this course, we engage with the dynamic traditions of both epicsfrom Sanskrit versions composed over 2,000 years ago to contemporary theatrical, comic book, and televised renditions. While we will become familiar with major narrative, religious, and social themes of each text, our focus will be on how ideas about gender and sexuality are negotiated historically and in the vibrant modern lives of the epics. Feminist and postcolonial theories will inform how we approach each of our primary sources. Field trips required. Visits to the Allen Memorial Art Museum and Mudd Library Special Collections play an important part in the course.
  
  • GSFS 253 - Pens and Needles: Gender and Media in Early America

    FC ARHU CD WINT
    4 credits
    This course will explore the complex relationship between gender, race, and media in the Americas before 1865. Our syllabus takes as its starting point expansive understandings of the term ‘media.’ We will read the written word alongside lives and experiences recorded through media such as quilts, samplers, Native American quill work, songs, and recipes. Examining the different authorial roles available to early Americans, we will consider how gender, race, and ethnicity structure one’s relationship to alphabetic letters, and explore the diverse ways in which people used various media to carve out identities for themselves and to enter public discourse. Pre-1800.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Students should have completed a Writing Intensive course or gained Writing Certification in any course in the humanitites. Requirements can be waived with instructor consent.
    This course is cross-listed with ENGL 253


  
  • GSFS 258 - Abortion Before and After Dobbs: The Rise of the Right and the Failures of Feminism

    HC ARHU CD
    2 credits
    The Dobbs decision, decades in preparation among the reactionary right, shows that state-afforded rights are in fact tenuous. Often, Roe v. Wade is held up as the beginning of an era where  the gender and sexual violence of controlling birth, pregnancy, and gestation was waning. Yet Roe always had feminist critics, with abortion having uneven accessibility along racialized and class-based lines. In this module, we will look at the creation of the “abortion issue” in the context of the women’s and gay liberation movement, a test case for the limits of liberal and reformist approaches to struggle against state-sponsored gender and sexual violence. The course will have two parts: first, a series of speakers who will discuss what an abortion really is outside of the distractions of mainstream political discourse; the collective organizing that has made abortion possible before, during, and after Roe; the history of racialized control over birth and death. Second, students will help organize a Spring symposium on reproductive health, forming discussion panels, workshops, selecting speakers, and planning the details of the event. 
    This course is appropriate for new students.
  
  • GSFS 261 - Gender Theory and the Study of Religion

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    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.
  
  • GSFS 270 - Queer Gestures - Dance & Performance

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    How can queerness be explored through the lens of movement and performance? In this critical inquiry course, we will examine how the intersections of creative practice, live performance, feminist, gender, and sexuality studies, and postcolonial scholarship ask us to contend with competing notions of the body, environment, and performance. Students will engage with the material through a range of embodied reflections. The class structure will also include reading, watching, analyzing, and writing about live and mediated performance.
    This course is cross-listed with DANC 270


  
  • GSFS 278 - Ideal vs. Practice of U.S. Democracy: Gender, Race, and the War on Terror

    FC SSCI CD
    4 credits
    This course examines the fundamental sociopolitical tension resulting from the discrepancy between democratic ideals and democratic practice in the U.S. Through an in-depth study of three themes-gender, race, and the War of Terror-we will closely analyze the gap between the democratic system of government we imagine ourselves to have, and the reality of historical and contemporary discrimination, exclusion, and curtailment of rights.
  
  • GSFS 301 - Feminist Theory

    FC ARHU
    4 credits
    This course examines historical and contemporary feminist theories of sex, gender, sexuality, race, class, ability, intersectionality, power, privilege, oppression, resistance, and more. First, we will work to understand influential feminist theoretical texts so that we can then analyze them in terms of both the original context of publication and the contemporary moment of feminist studies. As the semester progresses, we will consider ways in which these theories speak to and challenge each other. We will study a variety of theoretical approaches (e.g. Marxist, Black feminism, Chicana theory, feminist standpoint, queer, feminist literary critical theory, cultural feminism, ecofeminism, postcolonial, and more).
    Prerequisites & Notes: GSFS 101 or consent of the instructor.
  
  • GSFS 302 - Femmes Fatales: Narratives of Feminine Evil, Sexuality, and Perversity

    FC ARHU CD WINT
    4 credits
    This course examines representations of feminine evil, sexuality, and perversity in a range of literary, visual, and theoretical texts. We explore how the femme fatale emerges as a figure employed to demystify, regulate, and neutralize the threat posed by woman’s otherness. We consider questions of feminine creativity, desire, agency, and subjectivity, as well as representations of feminine transgression, excess, and bodily functions as modes of resistance and subversion. Visits to the Allen art museum and film screenings will accompany our readings.
    Prerequisites & Notes: A literature course in any language.
    This course is cross-listed with CMPL 302


  
  • GSFS 304 - Transnational Feminisms

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    This course examines the possibility of transnational feminist resistance to global and local matrices of oppression and domination, in the context of debates about solidarity and difference. Drawing from the works of feminist, queer, post-colonial, and critical race theorists and activists, we interrogate the gendered politics of borders, national membership, state-sponsored violence, colonialism, imperialism, and neoliberalism. We will also critically analyze how each of these elements interacts with often-divergent forms of feminist politics. Each course module will incorporate an ongoing examination of the ways in which gender, power, and politics come to bear on the production of knowledge.
  
  • GSFS 305 - Feminist Research Methodologies

    FC ARHU
    4 credits
    This course traces the historical and dialectical impact of feminist epistemologies on disciplines of the social sciences and humanities. We will explore feminist approaches to research practices including oral history, case studies, archival research, visual and literary criticism, survey/content analysis, and fieldwork. Throughout the semester, each student works on an individual research proposal that incorporates interdisciplinary methods and includes a literature review.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Priority given to GSFS majors.
  
  • GSFS 309 - Performing America

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    What does it mean to be American? How do we conceive of the geographical, political, national, and social spaces that constitute “America” or “the Americas”? This course will enter into these questions via an engagement with performance theory, adopting an expansive notion of “performance” to investigate what it means to perform and critique Americanness. Examining histories of rite and ritual, transatlantic funerary performance, protest, field performances by migrant laborers, digital media, and staged performances that engage with how gender, race, class, sexuality, and immigration status inform one’s sense of America, we will explore how performance transmits knowledge and contributes to worldmaking practices that shape identity, nation, and politics.
    This course is cross-listed with CAST 309


  
  • GSFS 312 - Music by Women

    FC ARHU
    4 credits
    This is an analysis course that focuses primarily on music created by women. Relevant means of creation include composition, sound design, arranging, production/engineering, sampling, dj-ing, improvising, and otherwise performing. Repertoire will include examples selected by the instructor and suggested by enrolled students, with no prescribed chronological or geographical limits. Interpretive analysis will apply a framework developed by the instructor, combined with specialized approaches from the bibliography. For non-music majors, no familiarity with traditional Western music theory is expected. Daily work will include readings, listenings, discussions, and written analysis. The culminating assignment will be a 3,000-word term paper.
    Prerequisites & Notes: B.M. in MUTH 202 and 232. B.A. in MUTH 201 and 231. All others: 2nd-year or later.
    This course is cross-listed with MUTH 312


  
  • GSFS 313 - Archives and Affects

    FC ARHU WINT
    4 credits
    We often think of archives as repositories, usually housed in special collections of libraries but also increasingly transferred to digital servers, that collect books, papers, and other objects to help piece together a historical record. In this class, we will ask how we might expand that conception of the archive by engaging with ephemeral archives, or the “repertoire”, alongside notions of everyday archives and the body as archive. In so doing, we will also expand our thinking about what can be done with archives and their objects through affective, or complex emotional engagement, with memory and history. This course is a study in archive theory, affect theory, and (queer) object relations. Students will keep journals on object lessons and will experiment in different writing genres that will help them approach the archive from multiple critical perspectives. We will also focus our inquiry on populations that have historically been left out of major national archives, including queer and trans people and POC.
    This course is cross-listed with CAST 313


  
  • GSFS 315 - Queer Media, Activism and Thought in Franc

    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, FREN 315


  
  • GSFS 317 - Transgender Cultural Studies

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    In the United States, we are in a “transgender moment,” or what Time magazine has called a “transgender tipping point.” In this course, we explore what this moment means for the representation of trans* experience. We will look intersectionally, historically, and globally through multiple genres to interrogate what trans culture is and how we study it. We will ask how interlocking systems of oppression dictate and drive representation and narrative and how trans artists work within or resist these systems to (re)construct their own narratives and images. Together, we will build a digital archive of trans culture.
    Prerequisites & Notes: GSFS/CAST 100, GSFS 101.
    This course is cross-listed with CAST 317


  
  • GSFS 319 - Sexual “Absences”

    FC ARHU CD WADV
    4 credits
    This course explores how the absence of sex has been uniquely constructed through American histories and politics of race and sexuality. Several scholars have charted the history of sexuality through desire, practice, and identity, which resulted in the invention of sexual categories like heterosexuality and homosexuality. But few have looked at the history of sexuality in America through the lens of absence. In this course, we will explore how abstinence, celibacy, virginity, chastity, and asexuality have been historically and rhetorically shaped by the sexual revolution, capitalism and the industrial revolution, sexology, religion, and social justice movements in the United States.
    Prerequisites & Notes: CAST/GSFS 100, GSFS 101.
    This course is cross-listed with CAST 319


  
  • GSFS 321 - Black Feminist Thought: Historical Perspective

    FC SSCI CD WINT
    4 credits
    This seminar course will explore and analyze the evolution of intellectual discourse among African-American women from slavery to the present. Particular attention will be given to the interplay of ideas about race and gender and the social and economic position of black women at various time periods. Sources will include autobiographies, novels, historical documents, sociological studies and modern feminist social critiques.
    Prerequisites & Notes: AAST 220 or consent of instructor
    This course is cross-listed with AAST 321


  
  • GSFS 330 - Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in India

    FC ARHU CD WINT
    4 credits
    How do religious ideologies influence social behaviors and norms related to gender and sexuality? And how are these norms lived out, reinforced, and subverted? This course considers how Hindu and Jain traditions negotiate the complex relationship between religion, gender, and sexuality. Topics may include: kinship and family; pregnancy and childbirth; goddess traditions; asceticism; transgender identities; masculinities; somatic nationalism; and eroticism in literary and performance traditions. Students will explore each topic through engagement with diverse primary and secondary sources, including autobiographies, oral histories, ethnographies, films, religious narratives, and theatrical performances.
    This course is cross-listed with RELG 330


  
  • GSFS 335 - Queering Prison Abolition and Transformative Justice

    FC ARHU
    4 credits
    For those who belong to marginalized communities, there is often intimate knowledge that the so-called state “justice” system is really a system of punishment grounded in injustice. We can look to movements from these communities to learn alternatives to state discipline. To combat systemic abuses of power that perpetrate wide-scale violence based on gender/sexuality, racialization, income, and education, there is a two-pronged approach: abolition, on the one hand; and transformative “justice” or transformative relations, on the other hand. In this course, we will gain a foundation in the history of abolition-from the fight against slavery and the settler colonial project of the US to the current movement to end prisons and punishment that reproduce anti-Black racism nationwide-as well as a foundation in theories and practices of transformative justice or relationships. In our survey of history, theory, and practice, we will focus in particular on gender and sexuality and how transformative justice has risen out of feminist and queer liberation movements. Transformative models of accountability are grounded in community building, developed out of the ways marginalized people have had to function outside of state apparatuses that don’t serve them. Therefore transformative justice is intimately tied to the dismantling of the power relations of cis-hetero-patriarchy and capitalism. In this course, we will read widely in the history of abolition and transformative justice, emphasizing the queer and feminist roots of these models. We will encounter the limitations and complexities of these efforts, and work together to collectively imagine a world where people are both irreplaceable and accountable.
    This course is appropriate for new students.
  
  • GSFS 339 - Prostitution and Social Control: Governing Loose Women

    FC SSCI CD WADV
    4 credits
    Prostitution is a site of easy truths and inevitable conflict because of cultural ambiguities about sexuality, gender, ethnicity and citizenship. We probe these intersecting meanings by reviewing the wide range of empirical meanings attributed to prostitution and the ways modern forces have transformed them, especially the state. Taking cues from Michel Foucault, we analyze why recent legal solutions cannot fulfill expectations and discuss how the social control of prostitution might actually cause it.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Related intermediate course in these departments. Closed to first year students.
    This course is cross-listed with SOCI 338


  
  • GSFS 340 - Gender and the Visual Arts in Europe and Colonial Latin America, 1450-1650

    FC ARHU WINT
    4 credits
    This course examines understandings of gender in early modern Europe and Latin America through the lens of art and material culture. We will consider not only how cultural conventions of gender limited experiences, but also how marginalized voices challenged conventions. We will explore how gender affected the artistic production of women artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi and Sofonisba Anguissola. And we will consider how women commissioned and collected works of art to construct an identity. We will also discuss how attitudes towards masculinity were shaped through the visual arts and bodily adornment. Field trip required.
    Prerequisites & Notes: A 100-Level Art History course or a GSFS course is recommended but not required.
    This course is cross-listed with ARTH 290


  
  • GSFS 347 - Sophistications: Queer Postwar New York-Paris Connections

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    While we correctly remember the 50s and early 60s in America as an era of Cold War, conformism, and consumption, some elements of U.S. culture in New York kept this world at bay by invoking bohemian Paris. Whether in highbrow forms like painting, auteur cinema, or experimental drama, or in the almost clandestine world of underground gay culture, Paris was a queer password. In this course we will focus on the eras libertines and gender traitors, while also critically examining the concept of sophistication, a knowingness that does not at times rule out acts and art of reckless folly.
  
  • GSFS 353 - Radical “I”: Feminisms and the First Person Voice in Performance

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    This course centers performance methods in the exploration of the feminist first person voice. As students consider the feminist first person in a variety of theoretical and literary texts including fiction, poetry, oral history, and personal narrative, our analysis will be guided by some of the following interrelated questions: how is voice shaped by cultural, social, and material “givens” such as gender, race, socio-economic class, sexuality, etc.? In turn, how does voice manifest identity, subjectivity, and “soul”? And lastly, what are the connections among gender, sexuality, voice, physicality, and embodiment? This course invites students to better understand feminist theory and literature through embodied practice, movement, and critical reflection and thus requires a strong commitment to preparation and public presentation. Authors will include Audre Lorde, Cherríe Moraga, bell hooks, Patricia Hill Collins, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Linda Martín Alcoff, among others. This course is open to all students but may also be taken to complete the capstone requirement in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies.  
  
  • GSFS 385 - Women in/and “Bollywood”

    FC ARHU CD WINT
    4 credits
    This course will examine how gender and sexuality, especially as they relate to women, are represented in “Bollywood” cinema. Focusing on individual films, it will analyze: 1) their cinematic techniques and narrative forms for representing women and addressing issues of gender and sexuality (which identities are privileged, which marginalized? what values structure the film’s diegetic world?); and (2) spectatorial address (what sort of gendered, classed, and caste-marked viewer constitutes the film’s desired audience?). Anglo-American and Indian film scholarship, some deriving from feminist and queer studies, and scholarship relevant to the films’ historical and cultural contexts will inform our discussion. Diversity, Post-1900.
  
  • GSFS 386 - Nightlife: Place, Identity, and Feeling Alive

    FC SSCI
    4 credits
    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 nightlifes risks and rewards are produced, distributed, and regulated to understand their seeming paradoxes: the same physical location can be hedonistic and someones 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 timework and home. Fieldtrips required.
    This course is cross-listed with SOCI 386


  
  • GSFS 400 - Senior Capstone


    0 credits
    This non-credit course represents the capstone requirement for the major in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. It can be fulfilled by enrolling in and passing an appropriate course in another department as articulated in the description of the major.
  
  • GSFS 403 - Queer Trauma Narratives

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    This course examines narratives of trauma in queer lives through literature, film, media, and performance in conjunction with trauma theory and psychoanalysis. We pay specific attention to questions of community, healing, violence, and affect in order to explore narration, identity, power, and oppression. We interrogate the purposes these narratives serve, whether as healing methods or as cautionary tales that provide cultural insight at the intersections of queerness and race, sex, disability, class, gender, and ethnicity. By adopting the lens of trauma studies in psychology and psychoanalysis, we look critically at the function of trauma in identity and community formation.
    Prerequisites & Notes: CAST 100, GSFS 101, or equivalent.
  
  • GSFS 406 - Gender and Geography: Literatures of Appalachia

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    This seminar explores varied experiences of people living in Appalachia by focusing on texts in which this regional location plays a prominent role. Understanding that regional boundaries are fluid and open to interpretation, we will discuss Appalachian novels, essays, poems, memoir, and films that raise questions of: what and where is Appalachia; issues of gender, class, sexuality, and race; stereotypes; and what roles Appalachia plays in relation to the United States as a national entity.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Previous coursework in CAST or GSFS is recommended but not required.
    This course is cross-listed with CAST 406


  
  • GSFS 408 - Bad Education: Female Instruction in Ibero-America

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    This course explores the history of women’s access to education in the Spanish-speaking world from the sixteenth-century to the present.  Although patriarchal and Catholic mandates of domesticity and submissiveness historically structured hegemonic female instruction, alternative models always found a way of guaranteeing female access to knowledge, orthodox and unorthodox.  We will study key figures who, through religion, politics, or culture, impacted the formal and informal education of women.  This class will benefit from visits to the Special Collection and the AMAM.  Taught in Spanish.    
    Prerequisites & Notes: 300-Level Literature or Culture course in Spanish.
    This course is cross-listed with HISP 408


  
  • GSFS 419 - Disability Studies

    FC SSCI CD WADV
    4 credits
    Advanced seminar in critical disability studies, with particular focus on developing epistemological, methodological, and theoretical fluency in interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches to the field. Discussion based with significant weekly reading load, a semester-long research project, scaffolded writing assignments, and regular written and oral peer review of assignments. Emphasis on collaborative feminist pedagogy. Topics may include: disability, ableism, access, genetic testing, cancer, anxiety, depression, health, autoimmune disorders, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, crip theory, queer of color critique, autism, neuro(a)typicality, Universal Design, and relationships between race / class / gender / sexuality / nationality / embodiment and ability / disability.
    Prerequisites & Notes: GSFS 101 or equivalent.
  
  • GSFS 426 - Latin American Literature and the Narrative of the Queer and the Perverse

    FC ARHU CD
    4 credits
    This course offers a critical look at the narratives that helped define abnormal sexuality in Latin America.  We begin with Freud, Foucault, and Manuel Puig.  Then we read about criminalized sexuality in 20th c. Mexico; narratives by F.Hernández, Pizarnik, and Peri Rossi riffing off Freudian essays on fetishism and lesbianism; and the Latin trans experience, featured prominently in essayists, novelists (Donoso, Lemebel, R.Indiana Hernández, Cabezón Cámara), graphic novelists (G.Hernandez), contemporary anthropology, and documentaries.  Taught in Spanish.
    Prerequisites & Notes: HISP 304 or the equivalent.
    This course is cross-listed with HISP 426


  
  • GSFS 428 - Virginia Woolf & Zadie Smith

    FC ARHU WADV
    4 credits
    This seminar puts into a sustained conversation two immensely innovative and hugely influential female authors: Virginia Woolf and Zadie Smith. Situating them in their literary, historical, and theoretical contexts, we will examine the ways in which both authors?one writing at the beginning of the 20 century, the other at the beginning of the 21 ?explore in their writings the relationship between literature, history, and politics. Texts might include Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and The Waves; Smith’s NW and On Beauty, as well as both authors’ diaries and essays. Written work will lead toward an extensive final research project.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Admission based on a completed application form (available at the Department office, Rice130)
    This course is cross-listed with ENGL 428


  
  • GSFS 499 - Advanced Research Methods

    FC SSCI
    4 credits
    This is a seminar for students accepted into the GSFS honors program. Students will submit IRB applications, obtain datasets, or negotiate fieldsite access as applicable.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Acceptance into GSFS Honors program.
  
  • GSFS 500 - Honors

    FC
    4 credits
    Honors open to selected majors.
  
  • GSFS 500F - Honors

    FC
    4 credits
    Honors
  
  • GSFS 500H - Honors

    HC
    2 credits
    Honors
  
  • GSFS 995F - Private Reading - Full

    FC ARHU
    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.
  
  • GSFS 995H - Private Reading - Half

    HC ARHU
    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.

Geosciences

  
  • GEOS 119 - Volcanoes and Earthquakes

    HC NSMA
    2 credits
    Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice” is a quotation often ascribed to historian Will Durant. In this course, we will explore the various ways in which Nature can partially or wholly revoke this consent. Emphasis will be placed on the geologic origin of volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunami, as well as their impacts on society and our attempts to mitigate their effects.
    This course is appropriate for new students.
  
  • GEOS 120 - Earth’s Environments

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    A survey of Earth’s internal and external features, emphasizing the unifying theory of plate tectonics as well as the study of geologic hazards and Earth resources. Labs and field trips explore Earth materials. local field sites, landforms, and interactions between humans and Earth’s surface. The course is intended for both non-majors and prospective geoscience majors. All students must enroll in the lecture section plus one lab section in the same semester. Field trip(s) are required.
    Prerequisites & Notes: High-school chemistry recommended, but not required.
    This course is appropriate for new students.
    Sustainability
  
  • GEOS 121 - Geology in our National Parks

    FC NSMA
    4 credits
    Unique landscapes lead to National Parks. We visit these parks to explore amazing scenery. Have you ever wondered why those landscapes are formed? This class will explore many National Parks, Monuments, and Seashores to understand how geologic processes have formed and impacted those landscapes. Geologic processes include natural hazards, plate tectonics, climate, and the movement of sediment. Learn about the Grand Canyon, Glacier National Park, Cuyahoga Valley and more.
    Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes

    This course is appropriate for new students.
  
  • GEOS 122 - Natural Hazards

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    This course is an introduction to geologic processes that affect people and society. We examine causes and characteristics of phenomena associated with earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, tsunamis, severe storms, floods, and several other hazards. We also investigate major historical events, evaluate regional risks, and discuss human contributions to different hazards, and potential ways to mitigate devastating consequences of future events. This course is open to non-majors.
    This course is appropriate for new students.
  
  • GEOS 123 - Geology of Natural Resources

    FC NSMA
    4 credits
    From our gas tanks to our jewelry, iPhones to sidewalks, wind turbines to bicycles, all of us use non-renewable resources from our planet on a daily basis. This course will provide an overview of where these resources come from, how they are concentrated by our planet, how we extract and refine them, and how we estimate how much is left. We will explore these issues as well as the environmental and societal impacts of resource extraction through group discussions, papers and presentations.
    Sustainability
  
  • GEOS 124 - Earth Science and Social Justice

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    This course will focus on social justice issues that are related to geologic issues and illuminated and remediated by geology-related actions such as water pollution, groundwater contamination, mining, and energy resources. Each unit will build skills and knowledge in geology, then will apply that to particular case studies such as the Flint water crisis, pipe-line issues on native lands, and chemical contamination in urban neighborhoods.
    Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes

    This course is cross-listed with AAST 124


    This course is appropriate for new students.
    Sustainability
  
  • GEOS 126 - Earth TIme

    HC NSMA
    2 credits
    Earth coalesced into a solid planet over 4.5 billion years ago and since then has undergone dramatic changes in landscape and environment. Ever wondered how earth scientists constrain the timing of tectonic, evolutionary, climatic, and human events in Earth’s history? This module introduces various (geo)chronologic methods to date events at a range of time-scales, from the Hadean to the Anthropocene, including U-Pb radiometric dating, thermochronology, cosmogenic nuclides, dendrochronology, and more.
    Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes

    This course is appropriate for new students.
  
  • GEOS 127 - Sustainability and Earth Science

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    Earth processes are continuously shaping, influencing, and affecting the environment we inhabit. This course offers an exploration of introductory Earth Science and Sustainability concepts and relationships. We examine how Earth Science processes pertain to sustainability, including natural resources, energy production, and Earth systems. We also investigate how Earth processes impact society, and how those processes are affected by human interactions.
    Prerequisites & Notes: This course is open to non-majors.
    This course is appropriate for new students.
    Sustainability
  
  • GEOS 128 - Water and Society

    FC NSMA
    4 credits
    Availability and access to clean drinking water is one of the most important social, political, and economic issues of modern times. In this class, students will examine the complex relationship that humans have with water, including their use and impact of global water stocks. Local and global case studies will be highlighted through discussions of different water availability and water access issues around the world. This course is open to non-majors.
    This course is appropriate for new students.
    Sustainability
  
  • GEOS 129 - Introduction to Hydrology

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    Fresh water is a vital natural resource, and studying its distribution and movement on earth is critical for understanding climate and earth processes. This course provides an overview of the field of physical and applied hydrology from an earth science perspective. Students will learn the fundamental components and processes of the hydrologic cycle, including precipitation, evapotranspiration, infiltration, streamflow, and groundwater. Exercises with real world examples and data will be used to explore concepts. This course is open to non-majors.
    This course is appropriate for new students.
  
  • GEOS 130H - Lessons from Life History - Half

    HC NSMA
    2 credits
    Life evolved over 3.8 billion years ago and has changed and evolved as the Earth and its climate has changed. In this course, we will learn about the origin of life, evolution, and patterns of speciation and extinction over all of the history of life. What drives organisms to extinction or to survival? What can we learn about how life will respond to present-day changes based on lessons from the past?
  
  • GEOS 152 - Soils and Society

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    Soils are the basis for the formation of our societies - we need soil to grow crops and to have land for our animals to graze. However, our activities greatly alter the soils that we rely on, reducing our ability to productively use the land we live on. Through the use of case studies from regions around the world, students will learn the basics of soil science, hillslope geomorphology, and anthropogenic effects on these systems.
  
  • GEOS 161 - Oceanography

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    The oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface. What role do they play in the earth system? This course will explore the geologic origins of the ocean basins and their physical dynamics before considering chemical and biological processes in marine systems. Topics include plate tectonics, ocean circulation, waves and tides, sea water chemistry, ecosystem productivity, climate change and societal interactions with the ocean.
    Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes

  
  • GEOS 201 - Mineralogy & Optical Crystallography

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    Most of our planet is made of minerals, the physical properties of which play important roles in geologic processes from the plate-tectonic to the nano- scales. This course examines the relationships between the structure, chemistry, physical and optical properties of minerals, their occurrence, and their relevance to the various branches of earth science. We will explore these concepts through laboratory exercises on crystal morphology and symmetry, optical mineralogy, x-ray diffraction, and electron microscopy. Field trip(s) required.
    Prerequisites & Notes: GEOS 120 (previously GEOL 120) or GEOS 124 (previously GEOL 124)
  
  • GEOS 204 - Evolution of the Earth

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    This course examines major events and processes of Earth history, including the growth of continents, mountain belts and ocean basins, terrane accretion, sea level changes, and climatic changes in the context of plate tectonics. We also explore the evolution of life as an integral part of the history of Earth. Lectures and labs emphasize principles and techniques used to reconstruct Earth history. Field trip(s) required.
    Prerequisites & Notes: GEOS 120 (previously GEOL 120) or GEOS 124 (previously GEOL 124)
  
  • GEOS 206 - Earth’s Interior: Its Character, Dynamics and Development

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    Processes operating deep inside Earth control the shape of Earth’s surface and affect the composition and dynamics of continents, oceans and atmosphere. This course examines geologic and geophysical data pertaining to the character and dynamics of Earth’s interior. We analyze evidence relating mantle convection to plate tectonics, define and interpret the character and evolution of tectonic provinces, and assess whether Earth’s interior changed over time and how it might change in the future. Field trip(s) required.
    Prerequisites & Notes: GEOS 120 (previously GEOL 120) or GEOS 124 (previously GEOL 124)
  
  • GEOS 210 - Oceans and Climate

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    We live on the Blue Planet. This course will examine ocean and climate dynamics central to the functioning of the Earth system. Using publicly available data, scientific literature and historical accounts, students will investigate both natural processes over geologic time and human interaction with the planet during the Anthropocene. Topics include feedback cycles, ocean and atmosphere circulation, sea water chemistry, heat and carbon fluxes, sea level rise, polar dynamics, and climate change. Labs will focus on data analysis and provide an introduction to coding in Python.
    Prerequisites & Notes: 100-level geoscience (previously geology) course
    Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes

  
  • GEOS 212 - Earth Surface Processes

    FC NSMA QFR WADV
    4 credits
    An examination of the evolution of Earth’s surface focusing on the processes that shape the landscape we see today. We will move through the watershed starting with weathering and soil formation, followed by hillslope processes, glaciers, and fluvial processes, including sediment transport and hydrology, in order to describe, measure, model, and interpret landscape processes. Lectures, laboratories, and field trips emphasize integrating descriptive, quantitative, and interpretative aspects of geomorphology. Field Trip(s) required.
    Prerequisites & Notes: GEOS 120 (previously GEOL 120) or GEOS 124 (previously GEOL 124), or consent of the instructor.
  
  • GEOS 319 - Topics in Geochemistry

    FC NSMA
    4 credits
    This course is about the chemical systems and processes of the planet we live on. It covers a diversity of topics in both chemistry and geology, with the goal of helping students develop skills in chemistry that are useful in the study of earth systems and applying those skills to the study of particular research questions in geology. The class will explore topics in geochemistry through reading and analyzing peer-reviewed literature. Field trip(s) required.
  
  • GEOS 320 - Paleontology

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    A comprehensive examination of the history of life, presented within the context of evolutionary theory with an emphasis on invertebrate organisms. Topics include evolutionary pattern and process, taphonomy, functional morphology, paleoecology, biostratigraphy, biogeography, and extinction. Laboratory exercises explore the morphology and systematics of the major invertebrate fossil groups and the use of paleontological data in solving paleoecologic and geologic problems. Weekend field trip required.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Any 200-level geoscience (previously geology) course or consent of instructor. Preferably GEOS 204 (previously GEOL 204).
  
  • GEOS 335 - Interdisciplinary Geographic Information Systems and Cartography

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    Geographical Information Systems are used to analyze spatial data, tackling real-world problems through the lens of mapping places and spaces. The class will use GIS software and hands-on activities to explore interdisciplinary topics such as social injustices in urban planning and development, environmental hazards and disasters, and problems related to climate change and renewable energy. Delving into art and design as it applies to map-making, students will draw on cartographic and data visualization principles to communicate effectively to a variety of audiences. This course is designed to be accessible to students from a variety of academic backgrounds (humanities, arts, natural and social sciences, etc.) and experience levels. No prior experience with GIS, geosciences or computer science is needed.
  
  • GEOS 340 - Structural Geology

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    The measurable deformation that occurs within Earth produces a variety of rock structures. Lectures examine rock structures, analyze the factors that control how rocks deform, discuss the role of rock deformation in tectonics, and discuss interpretations of the deformation patterns in the context of plate tectonics. Labs and problem sets emphasize techniques for observing, analyzing, and interpreting map patterns, outcrops, hand samples, and thin sections of deformed rocks. Field trip(s) required.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Any 200-level geoscience (previously geology) course or consent of instructor. Preferably GEOS 206 (previously GEOL 206).
  
  • GEOS 361 - Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    Petrology is the study of rocks. Emphasis will be placed on the relationships between lithology, geochemistry, and tectonic setting. Topics will include: classification of igneous and metamorphic rocks, thermodynamics and phase equilibria, the origins and differentiation of magmas, and spatial and temporal development of igneous and metamorphic terrains. Laboratory projects will focus on the use of the petrographic microscope for the determination of minerals and the interpretation of rock textures. Field trip(s) required.
    Prerequisites & Notes: GEOS 201 (previously GEOL 201)
  
  • GEOS 370 - Paleobiology Seminar

    FC NSMA
    4 credits
    This seminar will examine the history of life from the perspective of macroevolution, the larger scale view of evolutionary pattern and process. We will start with Darwin and move through readings on topics such as the role of extinction and climate change in the history of life. We will conclude by applying lessons from the past to understand possible futures.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Any 200-level geoscience (previously geology) course or consent of instructor. Preferably GEOS 204 (previously GEOL 204).
  
  • GEOS 380 - Great Lakes Limnology

    FC NSMA QFR
    4 credits
    How has the regional geologic history shaped the biogeochemistry of the Great Lakes? In what ways are humans influencing, and influenced by, the Great Lakes? This class will use primary literature to investigate these questions, in the process covering the local historical and contemporary geology, physical water column dynamics, air-water fluxes, eutrophication, public health concerns, climate change and more. Small group projects in lab will allow students to develop and quantitatively explore aquatic research questions of personal interest using publicly available buoy data, remote sensing, modeling, and class collected data from the field.
    Prerequisites & Notes: Any 200-level geoscience (previously geology) course or consent of instructor.
    Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes

  
  • GEOS 419 - Geosciences Capstone Seminar

    HC NSMA
    2 credits
    The Capstone in Geosciences is completed through enrolling in the GEOL419 seminar during their last spring semester in residence at Oberlin. Students will read and discuss primary literature focused on a particular place but covering a wide range of geosciences topics. Students will be responsible for choosing readings and running discussions in collaboration with the course instructor. As part of these discussions, students will apply ethical and societal implications of geoscience decisions using geoethics frameworks. In addition, students will reflect upon and self-assess their leaning over the course of the major and how that applies to future career goals. 
    Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes

  
  • GEOS 501F - Research in Geology - Full

    FC NSMA
    4 credits
    Independent or faculty-sponsored research. Students should select a topic and make other necessary arrangements in consultation with an individual faculty member. Consent of instructor required.
 

Page: 1 <- Back 108 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18Forward 10 -> 27