2018-2019 University Catalogue 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2018-2019 University Catalogue [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Descriptions


 

Japanese

  
  • JAPN 351 - Advanced Japanese III


    Intensive course designed to facilitate student participation in a variety of study group contexts, including individual study and research. Emphasis is on oral comprehension, honorifics, social contexts, and reading and writing skills.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JAPN 391 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JAPN 395 - Advanced-Level Japanese Lang


    Advanced-level language course taken abroad with a Colgate study group, an approved program, or in a foreign institution of higher learning.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JAPN 401 - Readings in Japanese I


    Focuses on reading in literary and non-literary modern texts and mastery of the remaining Chinese characters on the jōyō kanji list of 1,945 characters.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: JAPN 302  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JAPN 402 - Readings in Japanese II


    Focuses on reading in literary and non-literary modern texts and mastery of the remaining Chinese characters on the jōyō kanji list of 1,945 characters.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: JAPN 302  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JAPN 411 - Topics in Japanese Linguistics


    Explores linguistic issues often encountered when learning Japanese as a second language. Topics include dialectical variations and their geographic and linguistic significance in Japan, variations in the use of Japanese by different generations, foreign accent, and factors affecting success or failure for learning Japanese as a second language. Includes lectures, discussions, and hands-on exercises such as acoustic analysis of Japanese spoken by native and non-native speakers. Texts and class discussion are mostly in English but knowledge of modern standard Japanese for everyday use is assumed. Also designed for students to develop ideas for senior research projects.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: JAPN 202  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JAPN 450 - Advanced Readings in Japanese


    Focuses on readings from different fields such as anthropology, history, linguistics, and literature, depending on student interest. Class discussions are conducted entirely in Japanese.

    Credits: 1.00
    When Offered: When there is sufficient demand

    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: JAPN 402  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JAPN 451 - Readings in Japanese II (Study Group)


    Intensive course designed to facilitate student participation in a variety of study group contexts, including individual study and research. Emphasis is on oral comprehension, honorifics, social contexts, and reading and writing skills.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JAPN 455 - Advanced Grammar in Japanese


    Focuses on a systematic study of advanced grammar necessary for oral and written communication in Japanese at the native speaker level. At this level of advanced study, possibilities of one-on-one correspondences between Japanese and English are few, and simply consulting dictionaries could easily result in insufficient or misleading information. Grammar structures that appear beyond JAPN 402 are covered and extended so that students understand systematic and comprehensive usages. Students concentrate on these kinds of advanced grammar patterns through textbooks and authentic reading materials, and learn to use them actively, accurately, and systematically in context. In addition, the study of kanji characters and vocabulary accompanies the study of grammar in order to reach the native-level fluency.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: JAPN 302  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JAPN 481 - Topics in Japanese Culture (Study Group)


    Offered in a field of the study group director’s expertise. Takes advantage of museums, libraries, and historical sites in and around Kyoto, as well as guest lectures by Japanese and Western experts, to enrich classroom instruction

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JAPN 482 - Cultural Studies: The Japanese Village (Study Group)


    This study group course examines the foundations of Japanese social interaction through a series of readings, guest lectures, and discussions, followed by several weeks of intensive study and documentation of life in one or more village settings.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JAPN 491 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JAPN 499 - Special Studies for Honors


    Students pursuing honors research enroll in this course.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term



Jewish Studies

  
  • JWST 181 - The Many Faces of Israel


    Introduction to the rich tapestry of cultures and peoples who live in contemporary Israel. Looking at the experiences of immigrant communities-Jews from Poland, Morocco, India, Russia, Ethiopia, etc., this course will discuss ethnicity, acculturation, and mobility in Israel. A consideration of film, literature, and scholarly accounts from a range of disciplines will allow students to explore both those who are at the center and at the periphery of Israeli society.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 204 - Jewish Fiction since the Holocaust


    Covers representative works of fiction by Italian, French, English, Russian, Hungarian, American, Canadian, and Israeli Jewish writers. Not all nationalities are covered in the syllabus for any given year. Discussion centers on a close analysis of the novels, comparing individual and national responses to the Jewish 20th-century experience. By including fiction written across Europe, North America, and Israel, while limiting the time frame to the years following World War II, the question of whether there exists one or more approaches to fiction that are characteristically Jewish is addressed. All readings are in English translation.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 205 - Yiddish Fiction in Translation


    As European Jews began to develop a modern culture in the middle of the 19th century, an important set of writers began using Yiddish for fiction and poetry. All these writers were at least trilingual: They chose Yiddish–always the lowest status of the languages they knew–because they loved it and because it was the language their audience could really read. This course looks at Yiddish fiction and poetry written in both Eastern Europe and the United States. Students study these texts both as singular works of art and as ways of mirroring the Jewish experience for Jewish readers. Students examine both texts and the multiple contexts (historical, cultural, religious, linguistic) that give them shape.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: REST 205 
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 208 - The Hebrew Bible in America


    The Bible is not only the best-selling book in America, but is arguably the book that has most profoundly shaped the United States. This course is an introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in its American contexts, particularly American public life. In reading the Hebrew Bible, students ask themselves how these scriptures have shaped American politics, culture, history, and literature. Who has used the Bible and how? To whom does the Bible now speak, and what does it say? In what sense is the Bible understood to be an American text? This course presumes no knowledge of the Christian or Jewish Bibles.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: RELG 208 
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 213 - The Bible as/and Literature


    What role does literary art play in the shaping of biblical narrative? How does the construction of the sacred text reflect its theological meaning? The religious vision of the Bible is given depth and subtlety precisely by being conveyed literarily; thus, the primary concern in this course is with the literature and literary influence of the received text of the Bible rather than with the history of the text’s creation. As students read through the canon they establish the boundaries of the texts studied, distinguish the type(s) of literature found in them, examine their prose and poetic qualities, and identify their surface structures. Students also consider the literary legacy of the Bible and the many ways that subsequent writers have revisited its stories.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: RELG 213 
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None
    Formerly: RELG/JWST 317.


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 222 - Comparative Scripture


    Comparative scriptural analysis or what is now called “Scriptural Reasoning.” The focus will be on close readings of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Qur’an with an eye to common themes and differences. Students will engage in a comparison of interpretive traditions in Judaism, Christianity and Islam to see how particular scriptural passages are understood in the religious traditions. The course will also spend time studying the ways in which scriptural reasoning has been used as a form of religious conflict resolution and peace-building in situations of conflict in the UK and Middle East.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: RELG 222 
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 228 - Jerusalem: City of Gods


    An introduction to the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In learning about the three Abrahamic religions and their sacred spaces, students are exposed to key themes in the study of religion (scripture and interpretation, feasting and fasting, pilgrimage, sanctuary and sacred space, ritual and worship) and to the particular theme of each religion’s conceptions of Jerusalem. The course foregrounds the ways that each tradition understands the city as a symbol–as a holy city, a city of God, a centre of the cosmos. As importantly, it explores how religion is lived within the city’s sacred geography, investigating the religious practices and sacred sites of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Jerusalem.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: RELG 228 
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 251 - Faith after the Holocaust


    The death of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis in the Second World War represents a radical challenge to faith in Judaism, in Christianity, and in humanism. The course begins with a historical overview of the Holocaust and uses accounts of Holocaust survivors to articulate the challenge of the Holocaust to faith. It then reviews philosophical and theological responses to this challenge by Jewish and Christian authors. The weak as well as the heroic human figures in the Holocaust are studied. Those Jews who survived with their humanity intact and those non-Jews who helped them are the most important witnesses to the resiliency of the human spirit which we now have.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: RELG 251 
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 283 - Experiencing Judaism


    Judaism is a dynamic religious tradition that has developed many forms during a more than 3000-year history that has spanned nearly the entire globe. Students in this course consider how Jewish communities from the biblical period to the present day have shaped their practices and beliefs within their own specific historical circumstances. Students read primary sources such as the Bible, the Talmud, the Zohar, midrashim, prayers, response literature, and philosophical and theological discussions. In an effort to understand the ways in which Jews have lived their lives religiously, students explore how Jewish self-identity, textual traditions, and religious practices combine to define “Judaism.”

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: RELG 283  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 291 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 303 - Jewish Fiction before the War


    Focused on the great novels and short stories written by European Jews before the Holocaust. All of the writers–even Kafka, whose fictional world is non-Jewish–reflect a Jewish consciousness and a Jewish confrontation with modernity. Modernity in these works takes different and often conflicting forms. In some works it is revolution (the promise of communism as a solution to the Jewish question); in other work, emigration, Zionism, or radical assimilation to the surrounding culture, what that happens to be. Several books–most prominently those of Sholem Aleichem, Agnon, and Kafka–take up the question of God’s justice. Several books deal with the loss of identity. A variety of 20th-century themes (political radicalism, bourgeois desires and bourgeois impurity, a desire to uproot and a search for roots) run through the texts, always in different combinations. All readings are in English translation.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 308 - End of the World


    An examination of the origins and development of apocalyptic literature, much of which deals with the end of the world, during the Second Temple and early Christian periods. This course focuses on primary source texts in translation as well as the theoretical and methodological problems surrounding the analysis of ancient texts for the development of the worldview known as apolcalpyticism. Modern case studies are analyzed as comparative examples throughout the course.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: RELG 308 
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 339 - Modern Jewish Philosophy


    A course on European and American Jewish thought, covering a spectrum of liberal and traditional figures. The course studies the ways in which Jewish thinkers have responded to the challenges of modern philosophy, religious pluralism, and feminism. Modern reformulations of traditional Jewish ideas and religious practices are discussed as well as contemporary theological exchanges between Jews and Christians. Readings are taken from such figures as Mendelssohn, Buber, Rosenzweig, Heschel, Fackenheim, and Plaskow.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: RELG 339 
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 343 - Gender and Judaism


    Focused on the creation and conception of gender within Judaism. Students explore the ways in which gender is built into the scriptures, structures, institutions, and ideologies of Judaism, into Jewish religious, cultural and social life. According to Genesis, from the beginning there were male and female. To what degree are these two categories essential? To what degree artificial? How do religion and tradition enforce the gender divide, and in what ways can they be used to blur the distinctions between male and female?

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: RELG 343 
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 354 - On Tyranny


    Examines life under tyranny – Soviet and Nazi – as distilled through the fiction of Russian/East European and Jewish writers who experienced it firsthand. An intertwining of political and private life from the inception of a new regime, with many people exuberantly hopeful, through the various stages of acquiescence, resistance, escape, and sometimes death. Readings include Timothy Snyder’s essay On Tyranny, stories, novels, and poems by Chekhov, Mayakovsky, Babel, Vasily Grossman, Kundera, and Nabokov.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: REST 354  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 391 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • JWST 491 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term



Latin

  
  • LATN 121 - Elementary Latin I


    The first semester of an introductory study of the elements of the Latin language. A thorough and methodical approach to the basics is supplemented, as students progress, by selected readings of works by ancient authors.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 122 - Elementary Latin II


    The second semester of an introductory study of the elements of the Latin language. A thorough and methodical approach to the basics is supplemented, as students progress, by selected readings of works by ancient authors.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 121  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 123 - Intensive Elementary Latin


    Covers the material of Elementary Latin (121, 122) at an accelerated pace. Open to all students who would like to learn Latin efficiently and intensively; some background in Latin is helpful but not required.

    Credits: 1.00
    When Offered: Spring semester when there is sufficient demand

    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Restrictions: Not open to students who have completed LATN 121  or LATN 122 .
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 195 - Elementary-Level Latin Language Abroad


    Elementary-level language courses taken abroad with a Colgate study group, an approved program, or in a foreign institution of higher learning.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 201 - Intermediate Latin: Prose


    Examines the prose styles of Cicero and Sallust through readings of selections from both Cicero’s Orations and Sallust’s Bellum Catilinae. Close reading allows students to expand and develop their knowledge of Latin grammar and syntax as well as to learn the fundamentals of Latin prose style.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 122   or equivalent
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 202 - Intermediate Latin: Poetry


    Introduction to Latin poetry through close reading of selections from Vergil’s Aeneid. Students gain a wider appreciation of the technical and literary aspects of Latin poetry through their acquaintance with Rome’s great epic poet.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 122  or equivalent
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 291 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 295 - Intermediate-Level Latin Language Abroad


    Intermediate-level language courses taken abroad with a Colgate study group, an approved program, or in a foreign institution of higher learning.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 321 - Livy


    Selections from Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita are closely read and analyzed. Particular attention is paid to Livy’s historiographical method as well as to the Roman republican period that is the subject of the bulk of his work. Selections from other Roman historians may be examined for comparison.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 201   or higher
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 340 - Roman Oratory


    Examines the role and development of public speaking in the Roman republic. Readings in Latin include early rhetorical fragments (from Cato the Elder and others) and one major oration of Cicero. Several Ciceronian speeches are also read in English translation. Equal amounts of attention are given to analysis of style, scrutiny of argument, and study of historical context.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 201   or higher
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 350 - Roman Comedy


    At least one complete play from the early Roman comedians, Plautus and Terence, is closely read and analyzed in this course. The focus is on Roman social structure satirized and revealed within the comedies as well as on the unique language of the plays. This allows a glimpse at a more colloquial Latin than that of later poets and prose stylists.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 201  or higher
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 360 - Roman Elegy


    Selections from Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid, and Catullus are subjected to close reading and analysis. Particular attention is paid to the development and tradition of the genre of Roman elegy. The Roman elegists oppose their own poetical technique and thematic direction to that of the writers of more “serious” poetry. Students explore this dichotomy.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 201  or higher
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 370 - Ovid


    Close reading and analysis of one of the most influential of ancient works, the Metamorphoses. Ovid’s epic poem encompasses all of Graeco-Roman myth, poetry, and history. Students have the opportunity to master Ovid’s classic Latin style and to explore his influences and those he influenced.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 201  or higher
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 380 - Petronius


    A reading of the surviving fragments of the Satyricon of Petronius. The Cena Trimalchionis is read in its entirety. This work, considered perhaps the first novel in literary history, offers an unusual glimpse into the decadent world of southern Italy in the late 1st century A.D. Particular attention is paid to the variety of the writer’s Latin style that reflects language used by different social classes in this period.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 202  or higher
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 391 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 395 - Advanced-Level Latin Language Abroad


    Advanced-level language courses taken abroad with a Colgate study group, an approved program, or in a foreign institution of higher learning.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 410 - Tacitus


    Close reading and analysis of selections from the Annals of Tacitus and other works. Particular attention is paid to the historiographical method of Tacitus as well as to the Roman imperial period that is the subject of the bulk of his work. Selections from other Roman historians may be examined for comparison.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: One 300-level LATN course
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 420 - Lucretius


    Close reading and analysis of the poet’s sole work, the epic poem De Rerum Natura, which presents the philosophy of Epicurus on the nature of the world. Students focus on the philosophical content of the work, on Lucretius’s accomplishments in and development of the Roman epic genre, and on the debt later Latin poets owe him.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 321  or LATN 340  or LATN 350  or LATN 360  or LATN 370  or LATN 380  or higher
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 430 - Lyric Poetry


    Close reading and analysis of selections from Horace’s Odes. Students will study all aspects of the poems, including the poet’s accomplishments in metrics and poetics, his thematic concerns, and the relationship between poem and poetic book.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 321  or LATN 340  or LATN 350  or LATN 360  or LATN 370  or LATN 380  or higher
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 440 - Vergil’s Eclogues and Georgics


    Close reading and analysis of selections from Vergil’s two earlier works, the genres to which they belong (bucolic and didactic), and their relationship to his Aeneid. Students focus on questions of genre, the relationship between the poet and his Greek and Roman predecessors, and the thematic and poetic development of the author.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 321  or LATN 340  or LATN 350  or LATN 360  or LATN 370  or LATN 380   or higher
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 450 - Cicero’s Letters


    Close reading and analysis of a selection of Cicero’s correspondence (from the collection of more than 900 letters) with such figures as Marcus Brutus and Julius Caesar, as well as with close friends and family. Students not only focus on the broad variations in style evident throughout the corpus but also examine the tumultuous world of the late Republic, in which Cicero himself played a leading role and for which his letters remain one of history’s most revealing testimonies.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 321  or LATN 340  or LATN 350  or LATN 360  or LATN 370  or LATN 380   or higher
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 460 - Roman Satire


    Close reading of selected satires written by Lucilius, Horace, Persius, and Juvenal. The course examines the origins of satire (the only genre native to Rome and largely free of Greek influence), the function of satire in Roman society, and the influence of satire on later European literature and thought.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: LATN 321   or LATN 340  or LATN 350  or LATN 360  or LATN 370  or LATN 380  or higher
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 490 - Honors


    Independent study, open to candidates for honors.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LATN 491 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term



Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies

  
  • LGBT 220 - Lives, Communities, and Modes of Critical Inquiry: An Exploration into LGBTQ Studies


    The course explores the lives, experiences, and representations of LGBTQ persons, those who identify or are identified as transgressive in terms of their sexuality and/or gender expression. Particular emphases may vary, but topics typically explore LGBTQ communities and families, cultures, and subcultures; histories, institutions, and literatures; and/or economic and political lives. Selected topics serve to expose complex cultural forces that continue to shape sexuality and regulate its various expressions. The course promotes the examination of new theories and methodologies in relation to established disciplines as it underscores the generation of new knowledge within traditional fields of scholarship. By examining sexualities, students gain an understanding of and respect for other differences in human lives such as age, ability, class, ethnicity, gender, race, and religion.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LGBT 227 - Machismo & the Latin Lover


    Interrogates the intersection of sexuality and gender in Latin American and Iberian literature and film. Beginning with representations of Don Juan in 16th- through 19th-century Spain, students see how during that period of imperial expansion a particular brand of masculinity spread throughout the new world. The second part of the course focuses on writings and films from artists whose works draw on and questions myths of Hispanic masculinity by looking at non-white, female, and queer versions of the Don Juan archetype in Latin America. Lastly, students examines how the figure of the Latin Lover has been appropriated and critiqued by writers and directors in non-Hispanic contexts. These are analyzed together with critical works on masculinity, gender theory, and cultural studies.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LGBT 241 - Queering Education


    LGBTQ youth have traditionally been marginalized in schools. K-12 education offers few curricular and institutional spaces where queer identities are affirmed and queer voices are heard. From sex education to the prom, most schools and educators operate under the ahistorical guise of heteronormativity–a term used to describe ideologies and practices that organize and privilege opposite-sex gender relations and normative gender and sexual identities. Using critical lenses developed by queer and feminist theorists and critical pedagogues, this course seeks both to explore how heteronormativity operates in a variety of educational spaces and how students and educators are confronting these processes by using schools as sites of resistance.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: EDUC 241 
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: EDUC 101  or RELG 253 or SOCI 220  or SOAN 220 or LGBT 220  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LGBT 303 - Queer Identities and Global Discourses


    Queer identities are – and have long been – enmeshed within large-scale circuits of exchange engendered by the movement of people, ideologies, markets, and capital. This course considers transnational conceptualizations and circulations associated with gender or sexual nonconformity. In doing so, it emphasizes ways of interrogating queer citizenship that purposefully attend to dynamics exemplifying complex interactions on global and local scales. Rather than assuming a particular narrative, the course examines the way by which queer identities are variously constructed and contested.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year, Sophomore
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LGBT 350 - Sexuality, Gender, and the Law


    The course examines the effects of the U.S. legal system on the lives of the LGBTQ communities; the influence of religion, science, and culture on the laws affecting LGBTQ individuals; and the processes by which LGBTQ citizens may advance their legal rights. Constitutional theories such as equal protection, privacy, due process, liberty interests, and states’ rights are applied to issues such as consensual sodomy, same-sex marriage, LGBTQ parenting, employment rights, military policy, and freedoms of public school students. The power of the U.S. Supreme Court to shape laws concerning LGBTQ issues not only for the present society but for future generations is also examined. Cases studied are supplemented with secondary works. These works include writings by traditional legal scholars as well as works by feminists, race-based scholars, and queer theorists to create a fuller perspective. Through this exploration into the legal reality of a marginalized group, students see how the U.S. legal system continues to evolve in its struggle to provide equality for all of its citizens.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LGBT 355 - Partners and Crime: Queer Outlaws in Literature and Film


    An intersection of sexuality and legality in literature and film. Beginning with topics of LGBTQ activism, homosociality and homonormativity, students will analyze how certain bodies and sexualities come to be on the right or wrong side of the law and how these sexual norms are quite literally policed. Focus will shift to literary writings and films from artists whose queer protagonists choose not to seek acceptance but rather to move outside of the law. Through bank robbery, border crossing, terrorism and homicide, these figures threaten not only the sexual order but also structures of class, race, and national security. Students will inquire into the true nature of these crimes, and determine how their crimes are sexualized and their sexualities criminalized. These will be analyzed together with critical works on queer and dissident genders and sexualities. The course may vary between semesters to focus on different regions or periods.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LGBT 391 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • LGBT 491 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term



CORE: Communities and Identities

  
  • CORE 155C - Internet


    Examines the internet as a site of disparate cultures from multiple disciplines including: computing, history, psychology, and sociology. Students are introduced to the technological infrastructure of the internet and the historical context in which it was developed. Drawing on theory, this course explores the internet as a place for communities to form, individual self-presentation, social interactions online and off, as well as power and inequality. Topics may include: digital divide, echo chambers, trolling, cyberbullying, etc. Ultimately, the internet provides a context to study the concept of community and the ways in which shared identities are constructed and negotiated.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 156C - Southern Africa


    Introduces students to the history the major countries of Southern Africa. The course emphasizes that these countries are connected by patterns of culture, migration and economic exchange, political contingencies and warfare. It ranges from the precolonial period, through the time of the British, Portuguese, Belgian and German Empires, to conflicts in the region during the independence and Cold War eras. It seeks to give a picture of the cultures of these countries, and their political, social and economic conditions, today. There is a particular focus on interactions between nations, and issues of migration and trans­border initiatives. South Africa has a central place in the course but attention will particularly be given to Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia and the ‘Copperbelt’ region of northern Zambia and Katanga/Shaba.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 157C - France


    A multidisciplinary survey of the varied communities and identities of France. It focuses on France as a leading member of the European Union, as a former major colonial power, and as a leader in the arts. Using history, films, photography, literature, and journalism, the course will examine France’s efforts to come to terms with its colonial past; its self-examination through the “politics of memory”; the different “communities” within France itself–youth, religious groups (e.g., Jewish, Muslim, Catholic), the communities of refugees and immigrants and the divisions within those groups; and its vibrant culture, with a particular focus on French cinema. The course will also examine the current political landscape in France.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 158C - Puerto Rico


    Understand the cultural, political and social complexities of Puerto Rican identity, with particular attention given to the effects of Spanish and U.S. colonialism on gender and race relations in the stateless nation. Students will study how the colonial discourses that shaped the earliest modern Puerto Rican imaginary continues to inform current political discourse. Through the study of a wide-ranging body of Puerto Rican work that includes literature, cinema, history, and politics, students seek answers to how national identity is articulated in a colonial context, how migration to the mainland has altered the cultural landscape and what kinds of collective cultural and political movements have emerged in response to the island’s socio-economic and political problems. Focused on issues of gender and sexuality to understand how these, along with issues of race and class today are linked to the island’s colonial legacy, in order to develop a framework for understanding the complex relationships between nation, gender and race on the island and within Puerto Rican communities in the U.S.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 159C - Maya


    The term “Maya” typically conjures images of ancient pyramids and/or ancient civilizations that are now found in ruins. Some forms of popular media, particularly science fiction, even go as far as describing the Maya people as a civilization that mysteriously disappeared sometime around AD. 900. The Maya currently total over 7 million people in what is today Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. Furthermore, the word “Maya” serves as an umbrella term that refers to a number of diverse populations, each with distinct culture, language, and material culture. This course will focus on both the construction of the pan-Maya identity, and the numerous populations included within the concept, such as the Tzel Tal, Tzotzil, Kaqchikel, K’iche’, Chantal, and the Lacandon, just to name a few. Each of these groups has distinct histories, which often demonstrated significant clashes with colonial and modem national hegemonies. This course also highlights how tradition, language, and identity are preserved under the forces of colonial and nationalistic domination and will also delve into the subject of changing traditions, as these Maya movements of resistance have integrated social media, rock music, and hip-hop to engage younger generations. Ultimately, the Maya provide a means of deconstructing the concept of identity itself by demonstrating how shared identities are constructed, contested, and negotiated.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 160C - Latin America


    Explores how the idea of “Latin America” came to be and the various political purposes it has served from the colonial encounter to the contemporary moment. This is not a traditional survey course that gives an overview of the regional mosaic we have come to call “Latin America.” Instead, it illuminates how the very notion of Latin America as a discrete world-region has been conjured and politicized at key historical moments, emphasizing the underlying social inclusions, exclusions, and global relations fueling these multiple (re)inventions. In addition to the central themes of race, nature, and anti-imperialism, the crucial role of the United States as an interventionist foreign power also looms large in this story.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 162C - Colombia


    Introduces communities and identities of Colombia through the exploration of music, film, literature, and art. Approaches the complex history and geography that has made Colombia a quilt of Latin American cultures, and one of the most bio-diverse places on Earth. Aims to understand the rich culture created by geographical regions as diverse as the Caribbean, the Andean, the Pacific, the Orinoquia, and the Amazon regions. Further aims to reflect on the unique ways in which multiple groups have described boundaries and attached or separated themselves from an elusive central government in this part of the world.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 163C - The Caribbean


    The archipelago of islands and mainland nations called the Caribbean constitutes a complex montage of races, ethnic groups, languages, and nations. Stretching from Guyana in South America to as far north as the Bahamas, minutes from the coast of Miami, the region is joined by a common history of slavery, imperialism, and resistant self-definition. This course studies literature, film, and music of the region to trace a socio-cultural history of the Caribbean. What are the continued effects of slavery and imperialism on the Caribbean? How does African-Creole culture in particular respond to these continued effects? How do tourism, advertising, music, and film inform/construct people’s relationship to the Caribbean in the global present?

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: ALST 203 
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 164C - Argentina


    From gauchos in the Pampa, to immigrants in Buenos Aires, to oil workers in Patagonia, Argentina offers a fascinating place to examine the creation, transformation and contestation of identities and communities. This course introduces students to some of the events, institutions, people and sites that have been important for the development of Argentina, from before the land’s European colonization, to the rise of populism, dictatorship and resistance in the 20th century, to neoliberal globalization in the current moment. In the process, students gain new ways to understand identity, community, nation, and culture, which they can use wherever they encounter people different from themselves. The course is interdisciplinary and draws from anthropology, history, geography, literature, film, and related disciplines.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 165C - China


    China has the distinction of being one of the world’s oldest continuous cultures, with 5,000 years of rich, complex history. Today, it is also a rising international power with the second largest economy on the globe. CORE 165C approaches China not as a monolithic entity, but as a complicated place and people best understood through diverse perspectives, including but not limited to history, economics, geography, literature, art, politics, environment, society, ethnicity, gender, migration, and diaspora. Students also gain indispensable research skills as they develop their own projects.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 166C - India


    Offers a wide-ranging and challenging introduction to contemporary India–its famed social, political and cultural diversity, its conflicts and contradictions, its literature and history. India as it is known today, with its population of more than a billion, is a recent creation, a product of the partition of the South Asian colonies of the British Raj (Empire). How has such a diverse region come together, and been held together, as one nation? How have its conflicts and contradictions—of class, caste, ethnicity, language, religion and politics—been managed by its rulers and politicians? How have these conflicts and contradictions been captured in novels and on film? The course goal is to subject the “Idea of India” to a detailed investigation, beginning in the present, and working through a process of excavation, discovery, and critique.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 167C - Japan


    Engages in dialogue with popular discourses, scholarly literature, and primary information sources of Japan and those who live in the island nation state. Focuses on key social and cultural issues that characterize contemporary Japan while also paying attention to its historical experiences and traditions that variably shape the present. Examines such topics as changing ‘western’ views on the Japanese, diversity in Japanese society, socio-demographic challenges, literature and religion, Japanese political economy and globalization, societal response to natural disasters, and popular culture. Employs a wide range of learning methods, including lecture, class discussion, films, hands-on experiences (e.g., calligraphy), and intensive projects which require students to collect, analyze, and synthesize a wide range of scholarly and non-scholarly sources. Ultimately aims to nurture students’ ability to understand and empathize with the logic (and illogic), experiences and emotions of the Japanese people; that is to say, to understand them as you would understand yourselves.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 168C - The Arctic


    The circumpolar north spans three continents and eight countries, and encompasses numerous indigenous groups, but is unified by its distinct ecosystem. The region has held sway in the popular imagination as an isolated realm apart, but is in fact an integral part of global society that has both been influenced by outsiders and has influenced the cultures of the West for centuries. This course surveys the land and peoples of the circumpolar north, looking at both traditional cultures and the region’s current inhabitants. It is a multi-disciplinary course focused on the interactions of people and their environment which explores the region’s geography; indigenous cultures including lifeways, art, and stories; Western exploration of the circumpolar north and its impact on both indigenous people and Western cultures; and current challenges facing the region such as cultural disruption, the discovery of fossil fuels, and the impacts of climate change.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 169C - Rwanda


    A multidisciplinary examination of the ways in which community and identity have been formed, are politicized, and remain relatively static over time. This is not a course about the 1994 genocide, but rather one about how such an event could have happened. This watershed event is historically situated and culturally contextualized as a way to study Rwanda’s past and the questions it raises about its future. The experience of Rwandans and consideration of how they understand themselves are analyzed. Assesses the historical and social implications of being ethnic Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa in Rwanda, whether at particular watershed moments — in for example 1894, 1931, 1959, or 1994 — or during periods of so-called ‘normalcy’ that the country has enjoyed in the past and is experiencing at the moment.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 170C - Islamic North Africa


    Surveys the varied ethno-national and religious identities and communities of Islamic North Africa, or “the Maghreb”: Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, and sometimes Libya, Western Sahara, and Mauritania. Students briefly survey pre-modern Maghreb history from the 7th-century advance of Islam to 19th-century French colonialism. Students focus on the modern Maghreb from the colonial 19th century to the global 21st. Pursuing central CI themes, students examine the region from “the natives’ point of view,” i.e., from North Africans’ perspectives on Islam and politics, European and American imperialism, authoritarianism and democracy, technological media, gender, and class. Central to this discussion are the recent Arab revolutions and their continuing aftermath.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 171C - Mexico


    An interdisciplinary introduction to the history, people, art and cultures of Mexico, a country of diverse ethnic, sexual, gendered, class, and political identities that shares a 2,000-mile border with the United States. How does Mexico’s colonial past inform the present? On what terms has a Mexican national identity been defined and who is included or excluded from rights and citizenship? Objectives are to examine Mexico’s complex history and social fabric; to study Mexican identities, politics, and cultural expressions with relation to this history; and to gain a general understanding of contemporary Mexico in the context of current events and Mexico’s relationship to the United States.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 172C - California


    Examines the fabric of California’s syncretic cultures in historical, geographic, sociologic, artistic, racial, literary, political, and economic contexts. The diverse settlement patterns, environmental and economic challenge/opportunity, explosion of art forms, and continuous creation of new communities often foreshadowed trends of the entire nation. Readings explore major themes and issues of California history, while literary and personal narratives provide insight into social and political realities, including the struggles of successive waves of immigrants to interact with the established populations. Artistic and architectural expressions that document cultural phenomena offer tangible examples of the creative forces that shaped Californian intellectual and physical communities. Sociological case studies as well as economic, political, and environmental reporting assist students to understand the challenges, failures, and victories of the composite California culture. Underlying all of this is a continuous study of the variegated geography of California, which has both offered and required substantial human choices.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 173C - Ethiopia


    Surveys the culture, religion, communities, history, and socio-economic developments of Ethiopia from the ancient times to the modern period. Ethiopia is home to over 80 ethnic groups with striking cultures that are distinct from Western traditions. Major themes include peoples and languages; traditional customs and beliefs; Christianity and Islam; marriages; community service organizations; literature, novels; education; ethnic relations; traditional art and music; colonial resistance; sports; socio-economic developments; natural resources usage; Ethiopia and Europe; the Ethiopian revolution; Ethiopian immigrants in the United States; traditional harmful practices; and politics. Emphasis is also given to contemporary issues. Lectures are supplemented by discussions, film presentation, group activity, and coffee ceremony.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 174C - Multi-Ethnic Israel


    Examines the diverse society of Israel, and its transformation from “Melting Pot” to “Multi-Ethnic Society.” It focuses on different Jewish and non-Jewish ethnic groups, their cultural traditions, and how ethnicity itself has played a central role in shaping Israeli society. Students begin with a study of the Zionist movement and the corresponding waves of immigration of Jews to Israel. Some issues addressed along the way include: the Zionist movement’s attitudes towards the ‘negation of the Diaspora,’ the ‘melting-pot approach’ to diversity, the range and types of ‘Sephardic protests’ that arose over the years and the politics of ethnicity as it has been witnessed in and through events like the rise of the ‘Shas’ (religious-political) Party. The objective is to examine the political, sociological, and cultural implications of this demographic composition and how it manifests in contemporary Israel—in social life, music, film and popular culture.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 176C - North American Indians


    Provides an overview of North American Indians by drawing on case studies from four groupings: New England tribes; Iroquois; Cheyenne; and Pueblos. These cultures are studied in terms of their historical and political relationship to Anglo-American society and institutions, attending to Native Americans’ resistance to attempted conquest by European or American powers, the creation of reservation systems, and the use of institutions (e.g., the Bureau of Indian Affairs, schools, missions) to change Native American cultures. Students also examine the response of Native Americans to outside pressures. Students explore other issues, such as sovereignty, identity, gambling, repatriation, land claims, and education, and their impact on North American Indians. Videotapes and Native American artifacts are studied throughout the semester.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 177C - Peru


    The Latin American country Peru evokes dramatic and conflicting images of spectacular natural settings, ancient ruins, cosmopolitan cities, shantytowns, street children, poverty and more. It is a country of extremes. This course offers an interdisciplinary inquiry into this ecologically and culturally diverse land. The course begins by exploring the distinct geography and ecology of the central Andean region (rainforest, mountains, desert, and ocean) in order to understand how these features have shaped the societies that inhabit the region of present-day Peru. This involves analyzing the evolution and organization of Pre-Columbian societies, paying special attention to the Inca civilization. It also examines the ideologies, institutions and practices introduced with the Spanish conquest and era of colonialism in order to understand their impact on indigenous society and their relevance to the state of underdevelopment that characterizes contemporary Peru. Study of present-day Peru juxtaposes rural and urban life, the ties between the two spheres, and the crisis conditions that enveloped both ways of life until recently. Specific issues include the internal armed conflict, the coca culture and cocaine economy, shantytowns and land invasions, oil extraction and indigenous resistance, among other compelling issues. Throughout the term, this course emphasizes the many paradoxes of this intriguing land.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


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  • CORE 178C - Korea


    Designed for students to explore the culture of Korea/Corea. In order to engage in critical learning and dialogue, students look at a wide range of academic and non-academic materials from an interdisciplinary approach. Throughout the semester students delve into issues that have had a deep impact upon post-modern society, which include the cultural-historical and sociocultural foundations of Corea (i.e., social and political history and religious influence), international relations and influences on the economy, the social and political identities, and current cultural structures of North and South Corea. Some of the topics covered may include but are not limited to the Opening of Corea in 1882, Japanese colonial years (1910-1945), division and reunification of Corea (1945-present), the Korean War (1950-1953), North Korea’s Juche Policy, South Corea’s attempts at democracy and current governmental system, educational reform in South Corea, women’s movement in South Corea, and globalization’s impact on higher education in South Corea. The main objective is to draw the students’ interests towards understanding the world from multiple perspectives, the impacts globalization has upon these multiple systems and institutions, and their individual role in the ever changing world.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


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  • CORE 179C - Central Asia


    Central Asia lies at the intersection of East and South Asian, Islamic, and European worlds. Yet Central Asia possesses a unique culture of its own, shared by nomads of the steppes and settled peoples of the oasis cities throughout the region constituted by the modern nation-states of Afghanistan, Kirghizstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan (and, to some extent, Mongolia). This course offers an introduction to this multiethnic, multinational community through the eyes of its participants, from medieval geographers to nomad bards to pan-Turkist revolutionaries and post-Soviet autocrats.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


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  • CORE 180C - French Caribbean


    Martinique, a 400 square-mile island, is an official part of France today despite being 4200 miles away from mainland France. French is the official language but most Martinicans freely express themselves in Creole. The majority of Martinicans will declare that they are, first and foremost, citizens of the French Republic, but will also readily admit that they are Martinican by culture. What is striking about Martinique is the dizzying array of cultural signifiers that seem to coexist in a veritable braided community, in which it can be genuinely difficult to tell where one cultural identity strand ends and another begins. Martinique is thus a fabulous lens through which this process of negotiating and renegotiating of cultures, languages, and identities can be viewed, and can be considered a precursor to modern-day globalization.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


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  • CORE 183C - The Middle East


    A multi-disciplinary introduction both to the region conventionally referred to as the Middle East, and also to the academic discipline of Middle Eastern Studies. In other words, it is a study of the people, religion, history, and culture of the region, and also about the politics of studying that region. One of the presuppositions is that a careful, rigorous, and critical study of cultural studies can help one understand one’s own assumptions, presuppositions, etc. Among the topics students examine are the multiple interpretations of religion, including sects within Islam, that exist in the region; a variety of cultural practices and various languages; and the effect of imperialism and colonialism on the area. Readings include what current native commentators are saying on cultural, economic, and social debates.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 184C - The Danube


    The Danube is Europe’s second largest river: from its beginnings in the German Black Forest to the Romanian and Ukrainian shores where it meets the Black Sea, the Danube flows through and/or borders ten countries, while its watershed covers four more. The river serves as a unifying artery of economic, cultural, and international exchanges in the diverse region of central and southeastern Europe. The course structures its multidisciplinary inquiry around the river to examine the region’s longstanding history as a neglected, maligned, and contested multilingual, multicultural, and multinational space. Culturally mapping the region by focusing on the river’s peoples, their intertwined histories, and their cultural imaginaries, the course traces the turbulent history of the region from antiquity, with an emphasis on the 19th century up to the present, to explore the Danube as a quintessential site of cross-cultural engagement in the New Europe.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: CORE 184L 
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


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  • CORE 185C - The Sahara


    The Sahara has loomed large in the Western imagination yet it has rarely been understood on its own terms. The Sahara’s role in world history has been framed as a bridge or a barrier, the dividing line between Arab and African Africa. Such framings obscure the agency of the people in the Sahara and the land itself. This course explores the relationship between imagination and imperialism in the Sahara, problematizing the idea of objective and disinterested knowledge about the Other — other peoples, other places, and other histories. The central themes of this course are power, racism, and imperialism, which are examined through theories of Orientalism; neocolonialism and world systems theory; post-colonialism and subaltern studies; as well as feminist, gendered, and queer studies approaches.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


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  • CORE 187C - Russia at the Crossroads of East and West


    Examines Russian society, culture, and identity through eras of Tsarism, revolution, social engineering, war, and societal transformations. Explores Russia’s distinctiveness - its place in the world, struggles, and successes - looking at how Russians themselves understand and contest this heritage. Examining the roots of Russian identity, students consider the images of leaders from Peter the Great to Stalin and Vladimir Putin, as well as the work and legacies of artists, writers, and composers. Another major focus is peoples’ everyday lives during political and social upheavals. Students examine what life was like during the Stalinist 1930s, through the traumas of World War II (“The Great Patriotic War”), Perestroika in the 1980s, and the post-Soviet present. Students learn about the dynamic ways that culture, history, politics, and identity intertwine in any society.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


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  • CORE 188C - The Iroquois


    Examines the archaeology, culture, history, economics, religion, literature, arts, politics, law, and individual lives of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Indians - Colgate’s closest Native American neighbors - from the period before European contact to the present day. Students place Iroquois experiences in North American Indian contexts (comparing the Iroquois, e.g., to the Cherokee), especially regarding the loss and persistence of tribal sovereignty; and investigate Iroquois relations with New York State and the United States, especially in regard to competing land claims.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


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  • CORE 189C - Africa


    An introduction to the interdisciplinary study of Africa and to the African Studies major and minor at Colgate. The goal is to introduce students to a major world area with which many, even highly educated, Westerners are unfamiliar. Africa is the original home of the human species, and the intellectual contributions of the continent and its people to the concept of a common humanity are tremendous, including agricultural and industrial technologies, artistic and aesthetic principles, and religious and philosophical ideas. Due to early patterns of globalization and European colonization in the western hemisphere, the Atlantic slave trade, and ultimately colonialism on the continent itself, Africa was configured as “the Dark Continent” in European discourses of the nineteenth century.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: ALST 201 
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


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  • CORE 190C - South Africa


    Aims to provide students with an overview of the social, cultural, political, and economic dynamics that have shaped life in South Africa. Students and faculty work together to better understand the way in which the country of South Africa came into being, how that national identity has been a site of struggle and contestation, particularly in the case of the struggle to overcome Apartheid, and how South Africans are working to overcome the legacy of racism and oppression that has marked much of the social and cultural experience of South Africa. In doing so, students investigate the changing dynamics of race, gender, and culture in South Africa, with a particular focus on understanding the ways South Africans are actively reshaping and unsettling existing social identities and distinctions.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


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  • CORE 191C - Spain


    Covers diverse aspects of “Spanish” society, history, and culture, past and present. Tracing Spain’s cultural self-image and national identities through its encounters with war, fascism, democracy, and societal transformations during our global era, students explore its place in the world, its collective struggles, its encounters and negotiations of diversity, and how these have been understood and contested by “Spaniards” themselves. Drawing on fictional works, art, music, and ethnographic texts, a significant portion of the course examines peoples’ everyday lives in contexts of violence, war, and socio-cultural change. In sum, students grapple with an inherent paradox in the study of “Spain”: the failure to create a homogenous national identity and a coherent, commonly shared historical memory.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 193C - Brazil


    Examines communities and identities in Brazil, the largest nation in Latin America. Focuses on the formation of communities under the constraints of Portuguese colonialism, within slavery, in the vast interior of the country, under conditions of extreme violence and poverty, and in the realm of Brazil’s vibrant popular culture. Particular attention is paid to the role of individuals in forming and maintaining communities, and to the complex processes of regional and national identity formation. Spans the colonial period to the present, with readings drawn from history, anthropology, literature, ethnography, and journalism, as well as a range of visual sources.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 195C - West Africa


    In contrast to Western journalists’ focus on Africa’s underdevelopment and widespread disease, West Africa stands out as an area of remarkably vibrant culture. West Africa has always been a space of much social interaction between its various peoples, with many shared cultural practices. In this course, students examine how the pre-colonial and colonial histories shaped social identities. Using an interdisciplinary approach, students analyze how people in West Africa express and reinvent their identities through art, music, dance, clothes, and food. The course draws further on film and literature to understand the specific experiences of West African peoples.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 197C - Tibet


    Examines the formation of a Tibetan identity. This is largely a recent phenomenon brought about unwittingly by the ethnocentric policies imposed throughout the Tibetan Plateau by the modern Chinese state. However, earlier processes were already under way before the People’s Liberation Army entered Tibet in the 1950s, which made the transition from a constellation of feudal polities to a nation possible. These included a common written language, common subsistence patterns (farming, pastoralism, and trade), Buddhism, participation in common rituals and festival (especially religious pilgrimage), a certain respect for the authority of the Dalai Lamas, and so on. Students examine these processes as well as the consequences of China’s political and economic incorporation of Tibetan areas into its nascent nation-state. Specific topics to be explored include “the Tibet Problem” (i.e. contemporary Sino-Tibetan relations and conflict), the historic colonial and religious ties between China Proper and Tibet, religious life and everyday Tibetans, “nomadism” (or pastoralism), polyandry and women in Tibet, and Tibetans’ encounter with modernity and the West.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 198C - Cuba


    Examines the complex geographic, historic, social, racial, literary, political, and artistic fabric of Cuba. Historical readings explore major themes of Cuban history, while literary and personal narratives provide insight into social and political realities. These themes are complemented by a study of Cuban film, dance and music as agents of identity formation.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • CORE 199C - Bolivia


    A multidisciplinary look at communities and identities in Bolivia, a country in the heart of South America that has captured transnational attention for its Andean panpipe music, its majority indigenous population, and its social movements. The course uses music, dance, film, history, memoir, political documents, policy reports, anthropology, and journalism to grasp different community articulations in Bolivia. Along with historical understandings of Bolivian communities, the course takes a special look at thematic issues that, while locally grounded, have global resonances: indigenous rights, water, resource extraction, neoliberalism, coca and cocaine, and Andean music and dance.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Communities & Identities


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


 

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