HIST 497Y Senior Honors Seminar

Credit: 0.5

The honors candidates enrolled in this course will devote their time to the research and writing of their honors theses under the direct supervision of a history faculty member. Prerequisite: HIST 387 or 397 and permission of instructor. Fulfills history major senior research seminar requirement.

BIOL 321 Developmental Biology

Credit: 0.5

This course concerns the mechanisms responsible for building multicellular eukaryotic organisms, with examples from vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants. The processes of fertilization, embryonic axis formation, morphogenesis, organogenesis, and cellular differentiation will be examined at the molecular and cellular levels. Particular attention will be devoted to the experimental basis for current models of these processes. Students will read original research literature as well as standard texts. May be offered in alternating years. Prerequisites: BIOL 116 and any 200-level BIOL course.

Instructor: Hicks

SOCY 232 Sexual Harassment: Normative Expectations and Legal Questions

Credit: 0.5

This mid-level seminar provides the opportunity for students to become conversant with the wide range of experiences that may appropriately be called sexual harassment. The course is guided by the principle that sexual harassment is not, as many seem to think, simply a byproduct of sexual desire or misguided attraction. Sexual harassment is about power--gaining power or retaining power in institutional settings. We will explore this concept both as legal construction, calling for specific determinants, and as a normative concept which arises in casual conversation and lived experience. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level), LGLS 110, or permission of the instructor. This course also satisfies a requirement of the concentrations in African diaspora studies and in law and society, and it may be counted towards the majors in American studies and in women's and gender studies. Offered every two years.

Instructor: Kohlman

GERM 395 Myth of Nation: German Film from Nosferatu to Hitler and Beyond

Credit: 0.5

This course will examine the construction of national identity through the medium of film. For Germany, which historically looked to its writers to define its national identity, film became a very important medium for expressing this goal. In addition to a basic understanding of the terms and methods used in the formal description of film, this course aims to provide students with the socio-historic background to be able to understand and evaluate the role that films played in both shaping and reflecting German cultural ideals from the early twentieth century through the present. The majority of films viewed in this course will represent three distinct historical epochs: (1) the Weimar period, which produced some of the greatest silent films ever made, such as Nosferatu, The Golem, Dr. Caligari, and Dr. Mabuse; (2) the Nazi period, which resulted in the artistically unequaled propaganda film The Triumph of the Will, as well as examples of Hollywood-inspired Nazi propaganda films such as Jew Süss; (3) the post-World War II period, for which we will view films made by members of the New German Cinema, like Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun, Werner Herzog's Aguirre: the Wrath of God, and Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders. Finally, we will view a number of films that represent a reaction of sorts to New German Cinema, such as the (anti-) war film Das Boot, as well as recent works by women filmakers such as Margarete von Trotta (Rosenstraße), Dorris Dörrie (Men), and Vaness Jopp (Forget America). No prerequisites. The course will be conducted in English. The course may be taken for credit toward the German major; students should consult with the instructor regarding requirements for German credit. Normally offered every two to three years.

Instructor: Riegert

MATH 227 Combinatorics

Credit: 0.5 QR

Combinatorics is, broadly speaking, the study of finite sets and finite mathematical structures. A great many mathematical topics are included in this description, including graph theory, combinatorial designs, partially ordered sets, networks, lattices and Boolean algebras and combinatorial methods of counting, including combinations and permutations, partitions, generating functions, recurring relations, the principle of inclusion and exclusion, and the Stirling and Catalan numbers. This course will cover a selection of these topics. Combinatorial mathematics has applications in a wide variety of non-mathematical areas, including computer science (both in algorithms and in hardware design), chemistry, sociology, government, and urban planning; this course may be especially appropriate for students interested in the mathematics related to one of these fields. Prerequisite: MATH 112 or permission of instructor. Offered every other spring.