Is medicine dying as a profession? How is the professional power of physicians developed in different kinds of societies? Are the forms taken to strengthen or limit professional power different in societies with different contrasting political economies? Is state power central in the analysis of professional power? What is the relationship between the state and the medical profession and where are doctors better off? In this tutorial we will examine the changing status of the medical profession in six countries – the United States, Britain, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands and Canada. We will explore the extent to which nation states have singled out the professional guilds for control. Readings will include McKinley's and Hafferty's The Changing Medical Profession, Kruase's Death of the Guilds, and OECD's Internal Markets in the Making.
In this Honors section of the First-Year Writing Seminar, students will learn a range of techniques to create more strategically structured paragraphs and more forceful, stylish sentences. Students will read the essays of other writers regularly and will read and comment on other students' work. Through both experiences, students will develop their awareness of different writing strategies and writerly voices. The course will also provide an introduction to the specialized resources of a university library, increasing students' confidence in their ability to find & engage with the best scholarly sources for future research papers.
This course is designed to be taken the semester preceding the senior honors project (490H). In this course, students will first identify an area of inquiry and a faculty member who will serve as their honors research mentor. Students will begin to formulate a research thesis or define a creative project and learn how to conduct relevant background research in different disciplines. The seminar will culminate in an honors project proposal to be submitted to the honors program that is developed in collaboration with a student's thesis mentor. The process will include peer- review from fellow honors students in the seminar.
This course is taken in the same semester as the senior honors project (490H). Students will meet weekly to share their progress and their scholarly work with fellow honors students. This course allows students to practice their oral and written communication skills about their scholarly or creative works to a diverse audience without close knowledge of their discipline. The course also provides opportunities for students to practice scholarly discourse across disciplinary boundaries.
ASTR 201 – Are We Alone? – Kyle Pellegrin
Are we alone? For generations, humanity has wondered if there is life elsewhere in the cosmos. In this course we will learn about how scientists across disciplines are tackling this question, and discover how we may be closer to finding an answer than we ever have been before. Along the way we will also tackle the philosophical, ethical, and societal dilemmas that we'll face on this journey such as "What is life?", "Should we announce our presence in the cosmos?", and "Is humanity ready to learn if we truly are alone?".
CLAS 253 – Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World – Hank Blume
The title of this course is "Gender and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity." The phrase Classical Antiquity is daunting in that it covers a period of nearly 2000 years. For our purposes we will cover only a small portion of that time period, staying mainly in the 5th and 4th Century (B.C.E.) Greece and in the Roman Empire from the beginning of the 1st Century B.C.E - the 3rd century C.E. Most, though not all, of our sources will be literary and were written by men. Academic studies of gender and sexuality have only existed since the mid-20th century, and studies of gender and sexuality in Classical Greece and Rome for an even briefer period. The field is very much in its initial phases, consequently there is much to discover. However, the evidence is extraordinarily skewed towards one end of the spectrum, a fact that we must always remain aware. This course will be broken into two units centered around artificial categories that are then subdivided further: 1) Male/Masculine 2) Female/Feminine. The subdivisions are of gender and sexuality for each primary category, which are then further divided into the differences between Greek and Roman Culture. The units are laid out in this way for organizational and comparative reasons. While we will progress from unit 1 to 2, etc. There will be much blending of the subjects in each category. For example, a poet might challenge traditional notions of Roman masculinity by exploring what they perceive as Roman femininity. The goal of this course is to gain a better idea of what gender and sexuality might have meant for Greeks and Romans in the ancient world, and to see if the categories laid out above are as rigid as we might expect.
CLAS 313 – Classics and the American Empire – Hank Blume
This course explores the influence of classical civilizations, particularly Greece and Rome, on the development and identity of the American republic and its empire. By examining foundational texts from both the ancient and modern worlds, students will learn how classical ideas shaped America's political structures, cultural philosophies, and societal norms from the revolutionary era to the present day. The course will focus on three major themes: the impact of classical education on the framers of the American Constitution, the role of classical texts in justifying the Southern antebellum social order, and the use of Roman imperial imagery in conceptualizing the American empire.
PG 359 – Voting and Elections in the U.S. – Brianna Mack
In this course, students will learn about the American electoral process, voting behavior, and how campaigns influence said behavior. We will learn why people are turned off of politics and consider what kind of changes might be necessary to rekindle the interest of voters and maintain the legitimacy of elections in the future. Students will learn how citizens evaluate candidates, issues, parties and their political context. Students will then use the concepts learned in the class to follow and analyze the results of a major race (governor's, Senate, or House of Representatives) in the 2024 General Election.
This course encourages the development of critical thinking skills and academic skills through in-class participation, exams, and short assignments. Examinations are formatted to test students on concepts and scholarly arguments.
SPAN 350 – Artistic Expressions of the Hispanic World – Glenda Nieto Cuebas
This intermediate-advanced level course will introduce students to a variety of artistic texts (including literature, painting, and cinema) as well as other cultural materials from the Spanish-speaking world. This will allow students to gain a greater appreciation for the artistic expressions of the Hispanic world and the historical context to which they belong, while building their linguistic, communicative, critical and analytical skills. Prerequisite: SPAN 225 or placement above 225.
Time. Everyone knows what it is, but nobody can define it. We won't succeed in defining time in this tutorial either, but we will investigate many attributes and associations of time: how time has been measured throughout history, time as a fourth dimension, time dilation, the arrow of time, the history of time, the reversibility of time, time travel, time perception.
This course is designed to be taken the semester preceding the senior honors project (490H). In this course, students will first identify an area of inquiry and a faculty member who will serve as their honors research mentor. Students will begin to formulate a research thesis or define a creative project and learn how to conduct relevant background research in different disciplines. The seminar will culminate in an honors project proposal to be submitted to the honors program that is developed in collaboration with a student's thesis mentor. The process will include peer- review from fellow honors students in the seminar.
This course is taken in the same semester as the senior honors project (490H). Students will meet weekly to share their progress and their scholarly work with fellow honors students. This course allows students to practice their oral and written communication skills about their scholarly or creative works to a diverse audience without close knowledge of their discipline. The course also provides opportunities for students to practice scholarly discourse across disciplinary boundaries.
ENG 145.1 – Reading American Ghost Stories – Gabriella Friedman
It seems like America has always been haunted. From classic stories like Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" to Toni Morrison's novel of slavery Beloved to the Lore podcast, ghostly figures of various sorts populate U.S. cultural production. But what is a ghost? Why has haunting functioned as such a prominent trope in American literature and culture? How is the conceptual metaphor of the ghost useful for thinking about and addressing historical and contemporary violence—and what are the limits of this metaphor's usefulness? In this class, we will examine fiction, visual art, folklore, comics, and film that feature ghosts or other haunted/haunting figures. We will pay particular attention to what ghosts and haunting have to do with gender, race, class, and sexuality. Authors may include Washington Irving, Toni Morrison, Anna Lee Walters, and Allison Bechdel; we will also view a range of visual art and other media. Students will produce a substantial research paper, present orally to the class, and make their own ghostly creations.
This course is an introduction to the literature of classical antiquity and its later reception. Rather than surveying every genre of ancient literature, we will focus on a small number of influential works that have shaped the Western literary and intellectual tradition. Our readings will include selections from Greek and Roman literature—such as Livy's History of Rome (Books 1–5), Aeschylus' Oresteia, Plato's Republic, and Virgil's Aeneid—alongside later works from the Renaissance, the Spanish Golden Age, and the modern period that reinterpret and respond to these classical texts. The primary goal of the course is to introduce students to strategies of literary analysis while strengthening reading comprehension and analytical writing. We will examine the formal, thematic, and historical dimensions of these works, while also considering how later authors adapt and transform classical material for new audiences and new cultural contexts. Many of the texts we read engage directly with enduring ethical and political questions. Issues such as justice, authority, social conflict, and the legitimacy of power appear throughout the course—from the struggles over leadership and honor in Homeric epic, to debates about justice and political order in Plato, to the conflicts over rights and privilege described in Livy's account of early Rome. By placing these works in dialogue with later literature that reimagines them, the course will explore how classical texts continue to shape discussions of political and moral life. Assignments are designed to help students develop the analytical skills necessary to interpret complex texts from different historical periods and cultural contexts.
This course seeks to question how ethnicities are born from, shaped and destroyed by empire. The purpose is to allow students to consider the ways in which ethnicity can be thought of as a product of empire. To accomplish this we will consider several empires from the ancient world, in particular: the Persian Empire, The Athenian Empire, The Empire of Alexander, the Carthaginian Empire, and the Roman Empire. They have been chosen not only for their geographical and cultural breadth, but also for the ways in which these empires interacted with one another. These empires will be used as jumping off points to explore theoretical notions of ethnogenesis, ethnocentrism, epistemicide, and genocide. The course will draw heavily from primary source material and theoretical analysis in classical, historical, and political science scholarship. This course also has a travel learning component that students can apply for that takes them to visit Roman colonies and archaeological sites in Spain.
This course will introduce students to the wealth of 20th- and 21st-century literature from Ireland. This course will ask students to understand contemporary (and some modern) Irish literature and how it responds to, reflects, and reshapes the politics of Ireland. When they travel, they will see the places and people they have read about, visit cities and towns that formed settings for fiction and poetry, see the stages where the plays they read were first performed, and experience the ways in which Irish people on both sides of the soft border see literature as vital to their culture and self-understanding.
This course will study Early Modern Spanish literature and culture. Focus will be given to the analysis of the comedia, an innovative type of drama that gave birth to a lively and eminent theatrical tradition. Some topics to be considered are: cross-dressing, the role of women as directors, spectators, actresses and fictional characters, as well as censorship and propaganda. Other literary genres cultivated during this period will be reviewed in order to examine the socio-political issues affecting Spanish society during the 16th and 17th centuries. Contemporary adaptations and productions will be analyzed to see how 17th century theater plays have been adapted for present-day audiences. Course readings will be supplemented with secondary sources, including works of art, contemporary productions of plays, films and other forms of modern media. The course will be taught in Spanish.