Course Listings

Emily Balch Seminars Course Descriptions Fall 2026
 

Sec. 001 Sense and Nonsense
Instructor: Jen Callaghan (Writing Program)
MW 1:00-2:10

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells…” said children’s author Dr. Seuss. “It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.” In this seminar, we will think deeply about the playful illogic of absurdity, poppycock, and gibberish to tease out their whys, hows, and what-fors. What is nonsense? Is it possible to make sense of nonsense? What purposes beyond entertainment can nonsense serve? To help us critically examine nonsense, we’ll also consider some ways in which humans try to make sense of the world and what role our senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing) play in our understanding of it. Our inquiry will draw on texts from literature, philosophy, visual art, film, and science. Topics will include the literary nonsense of Lewis Carroll and Edward Gorey; InspiroBot and Buddhist koans; the avant-garde art movement Dadaism; political satire; and indigenous logics. Through frequent short writing assignments that lead to longer analytical and argumentative essays, students will learn strategies for generating and organizing ideas, drafting, and revising.
 

Sec. 002 Tastemakers
Instructor: Mary Alcaro (Literatures in English)
MW 2:40-4:00

Who moves the needle on culture? Who decides what separates popular culture from highbrow art? Who creates trends and moves culture forward—and who gets credit for making those shifts? In this seminar, we will explore film, literature, music, fashion, language, current events, and other cultural trends with an eye toward class consciousness and identity politics. We will engage with criticism from queer studies, feminist theory, and Marxist philosophies to consider topics such as: how young women’s slang shapes mainstream language; how the co-opting of Black musicians' work led to the popularization of rock and roll; why some popular movies will never be considered classic film; and how Shakespearean theater was transformed from popular to highbrow entertainment. Informal weekly journaling, short in-class presentations, and reflection papers based on close reading of multimedia sources will form the basis for longer writing assignments.
 

Sec. 003 Classical Myths in Art and in the Sky
Instructor: Astrid Lindenlauf (Archeology)
TTh 11:40-1:00

The myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome provide some of the most familiar metaphors and symbols in Western literature and art, and a significant number of star constellations were named after mythological figures. In this seminar, we discuss the ways in which ancient Greeks and Romans engaged with their myths, imagined their gods and heroes, and the contexts in which they encountered them. Adopting an archaeological and art historical approach, we will learn how to identify representations of mythological figures and myths in the visual arts, including Greek vases and Roman sarcophagi, and to study them in their socio-political contexts. Myths and legends were not only represented in art, but also projected into landmarks, such as rocks, and landscapes, including the sky. To better understand how the ancient Greeks and Romans lived in and through landscapes, we will read papers dealing with the archaeology and anthropology of landscapes. The course will include a visit to Special Collections in Old Library.
 

Sec. 004 Literature and Labor (or What It Means to Work)
Instructor: Jeremy Gallion (Writing Program)
TTh 11:40-1:00

This course explores the way American literature has defined and represented different bodies performing labor across the fields of agriculture, industrial manufacturing, food service, and cultural labor from the mid-19th century to present. An historical anchor for this course is the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which not only marks the annexation of the Southwest from Mexico but also changes in ideas and practices around different forms of labor that define the American economy today. Beginning shortly before 1848 with slave narratives to consider how the economy of slavery was integral to this annexation of territory, we will move through range of literary texts and forms of media to consider questions of labor during Reconstruction, labor at the turn of the 20th century, and finally contemporary literary representations of labor with an emphasis on the immigration experience and the kinds of labor transnational migrants provide for the nation. In our exploration of what it means to work, we will also engage with technical texts in managerial science and the digital humanities to track changes in the corporate and legal discourse around immigration, migrant labor, and categories of difference. Focusing on the art of the academic essay, this course will teach fundamental writing skills with an emphasis on drafting, revising, and peer and instructor review. You’ll learn to close read effectively, while also learning how to draw on your own embodied knowledge when it comes to analyzing this phenomenon we call work.

Sec. 005 Animal Minds
Instructor: Adrienne Prettyman (Philosophy)
TTh 11:40-1:00

Do octopuses dream? What is it like to be a bat? Can we ever really know what another creature experiences? This course explores research on animal minds while teaching you how to write compelling, college-level essays. Through recent works in neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, we'll investigate whether non-human animals can think and feel, how radically different senses create radically different realities, and how society should treat other animals. You'll learn to analyze complex interdisciplinary arguments, synthesize evidence from multiple fields, and craft your own rigorous essays on questions like: Should non-human animals have rights? What is the relationship between language and consciousness? Where do we draw the line on animal consciousness, and why did minds evolve at all? By the semester's end, you'll write with confidence across disciplines and see the world through genuinely alien eyes.

Sec. 006 Finding Purpose in Higher Education
Instructor: Kim Cassidy (Psychology)
TTh 11:40-1:00

This seminar explores the concepts of purpose and individual flourishing within the context of higher education, particularly within liberal arts colleges. Drawing on texts from psychology, sociology and philosophy, we will consider different perspectives on the meaning and value of higher education. We will examine human flourishing and explore the institutional characteristics of higher education that support wellbeing and success. Class discussion and writing assignments will engage the seminar topics at different levels, from discussions of liberal arts colleges as a sector, to Bryn Mawr-specific exploration, to students’ personal reflections and experiences. The course will also involve active engagement with the campus community and with research-supported wellbeing practices to complement course texts.

Sec. 007 Wonders of Italy: From Grand Tour to Overtourism
Instructor: Federico Sessolo (Transnational Italian Studies)
TTh 11:40-1:00

Every year, millions of people plan a trip to Italy to visit museums, stroll through ancient cities, and explore the local cuisine. They usually record their impressions with words, pictures, or social media posts, bringing home fond memories and precious souvenirs. This phenomenon has been going on for several centuries. Before the French Revolution, the German poet Wolfgang Goethe spent countless afternoons in the Sistine Chapel, lost in amazement at Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment; during the Industrial Revolution, Charles Dickens spent a few pleasing months in Genova, narrating the wonders of the city’s cuisine. Even the very Emily Balch, by whom these seminars are inspired, traveled Italy as a teenager, struck by the beauty of classical architecture. More recently, Hollywood filmmakers shared an obsession with Italian landscapes, embedding the iconic monuments of Rome and Tuscany into masterpieces such as Roman Holiday and The Gladiator. Contemporary television series, such as The White Lotus, further promote Italy as a dreamlike destination with a luxurious, healthy, and affordable lifestyle.

In this course, we will address one simple question: Why is the world so fascinated by Italy? Through close readings of literary texts and screenings of movies/TV shows, students will discuss relevant contemporary issues like overtourism, transnationalism, sustainable mobility, and cultural hegemony. All texts will be available in English or English translation; peer review and one-on-one conferences will support the student in developing writing skills and gaining a firm grasp of the writing process at the university level.

Sec. 008 The Lives of Mathematicians: The Creative Individuals Behind the Mathematics
Instructor: Peter Kasius (Math)
TTh 11:40-1:00

When we study mathematics in high school and beyond, we are taught about the mathematical concepts and methods but rarely about the mathematicians who discovered or created these ideas. Yet many of these mathematicians led lives that are as fascinating and important as are their intellectual contributions. We will explore this hidden background by reading biographies, memoirs and academic studies about the lives of some of the mathematicians who helped to develop the mathematics that we learn and practice today. We will focus especially on notable women mathematicians of the past two hundred years, some of whom spent a portion of their time as faculty here at Bryn Mawr College. We will learn how their personal lives influenced and contributed to the mathematics for which they are now remembered. We will also read about the social and historical contexts that helped to shape the directions that their mathematical careers took and consider how they in turn influenced the lives of their students and the academic and professional institutions in which they worked.  Among the texts that we will read will be excerpts from the books Women Becoming Mathematicians by Margaret A. M. Murray and Women of Mathematics: A Biobibliographic Sourcebook, edited by Louise Grinstein and Paul J. Campbell, and articles from various journals related to these topics. We will certainly read about Emmy Noether, a very important mathematician who spent several years right here at Bryn Mawr. The writing for this course will start with brief essays critiquing and discussing the biographical presentations. Assignments will get longer as the course progresses, culminating in a final paper chosen from several possible topics.

Sec. 009 The Individual and the Group in the History of Economic and Social Thought
Instructor: Andrew Nutting (Economics)
TTh 11:40-1:00

Most modern economics is oriented around the belief, usually attributed to the classical economist Adam Smith, that individuals acting in their own interest in a free market yield better outcomes for all of society. Many thinkers from the classical era of economics, though, also considered how different groups—not individuals per se—delineated by economic class or other factors affected economic outcomes by pursuing their group interests. This course will examine the role of the individual versus the role of the group in determining economic and social behavior and will also examine whether certain situations allow individualism to flourish while other situations see group identification dominate. Readings will range from classical economists like Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Karl Marx to modern economic and political writers like Milton Friedman and Glenn Loury to important cultural thinkers like Barbara Ehrenreich and Milovan Djilas.

Sec. 010 Sacred Spaces, Bryn Mawr and Beyond
Instructor: Wendy Cadge (Sociology)
TTh 11:40-1:00

What makes a space sacred? What is “sacred space”? How do people engage with spaces they consider sacred and what happens when there are conflicts in or over such spaces? This course explores the concept of sacred space with particular attention to the presence (or absence) of such spaces at Bryn Mawr College. Our explorations will take us across campus – into archives and attics – as we learn about the College historically and in the present through primary and secondary sources, and we will engage with social scientific data and scholarship on the sacred and profane. Assignments will enable students to look carefully at college space and traditions, consider how spaces and practices have evolved over time, and compare thinking across different generations of students. By the end of the semester, you will gain understanding of where and how individual and groups in the Bryn Mawr College community and in the United States experience sacred space, how this is changing, and how issues related to pluralism, difference, and multi-vocality may be addressed in sacred spaces. This course is built around course readings, ongoing discussion, on-campus field explorations, occasional films and guest speakers, and several writing assignments that ask you to bring theoretical ideas into conversation with the College’s history and lived realities.

Sec. 011 Migration and the Making of Modern Germany
Instructor: Ben Van Zee (History)
TTh 11:40am-1:00

Today, Germany is one of the world’s leading immigration destinations; nearly one in three residents claims a “migration background.” Yet whether Germany is an “immigration country,” who belongs, and who counts as “German” remain controversial. Although Germany’s present demographic makeup is novel, these questions are anything but. They have been fought over across every era of modern German history, from nineteenth-century mass emigration to the Third Reich to the refugee debates of today. How have ideas about culture, race, gender, religion, citizenship, and belonging changed as Germany went from exporting people to importing them? What happens when a nation organized around an ethnic identity grapples with becoming a multicultural society? This seminar introduces the history of modern Germany through the lens of migration. We will meet colonial settlers and colonial subjects, Jewish refugees and ethnic German expellees, Korean nurses and Turkish factory workers, Afro-German activists and Syrian asylum seekers. Our sources range from scholarly texts and memoirs to films, oral histories, and video games. This discussion-driven seminar will build students’ skills in academic writing and argumentation through a combination of analytical essays, guided revisions, one-on-one meetings, and peer feedback. No background in German or European history is expected; only curiosity about how the movement of people remakes the societies they enter and the ones they leave behind.

Sec. 012 American Gothics
Instructor: Mary Alcaro (Literatures in English)
TTh 11:40-1:00

Full of decaying buildings populated by those in socioeconomic decline, beset by tempestuous weather, and bedeviled by madness that borders on the monstrous: America’s response to Europe's Romantic Gothic movement has been broadly called the “Southern Gothic.” But how do individual regions of the United States put their own twist on the gothic genre? This seminar takes a multimedia approach to “mapping” different regional elements of Gothic narrative in America. We’ll trace the legacy of the European Gothic tradition through time, space, and medium. Course texts will include short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, Flannery O’Connor, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Shirley Jackson; music by singer songwriters like Bruce Springsteen and Ethel Cain; and movies from David Lynch and Sophia Coppola. Along the way, we will consider: How is Puritan New England like the Antebellum South? Are there more ghosts in the mountains of Appalachia or the bayous of Louisiana? And where do greater horrors lurk--in the abandoned factories of the Rust Belt, or the persistent fogs of the Oregon coast? Informal reflection papers, short in-class presentations, and close readings will form the basis for longer writing assignments.

Sec. 013 Capitalist Selves
Instructor: Sara Bryant (Writing Program)
TTh 11:40-1:00

Proponents of capitalism argue that it fosters autonomy, freedom, and possibilities for self-advancement. Yet many artists, creative writers, filmmakers, and scholars highlight capitalism's cruelties and constraints. For better and for worse (sometimes much worse), capitalism produces distinctive character types and modes of being. These figures include the sell-out, the celebrity, the assembly-line cog, the zany service-worker, the clone, the thief, and the parasite. This course will explore how we understand and inhabit notions of the self within capitalism. We will analyze and engage with creative and scholarly work that depicts, questions, and at times thinks beyond the economic systems that shape our lives. Texts and films may include Henry James's "The Real Thing," the 1952 film Singin' in the Rain, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, Sianne Ngai's scholarship on zaniness, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's short stories, and Hirokazu Koreeda's Shoplifters.

Sec. 014 Asian American Popular Culture
Instructor: Sophia J. Mao (Literatures in English)
TTh 11:40-1:00

This course gives an overview of notable Asian American cultural works (including prose, plays, graphic novels, and films) that have gained mainstream attention from the 19th through the 21st century. What is “Asian America,” a term that was coined in the late sixties? What features and themes define Asian American stories, and what makes a work “popular”? Finally, how do artists navigate longstanding issues around racial stereotype and representation? Throughout the semester, we will ask how Asian American cultural works have utilized, contested, and expanded conventions around both racial forms and artistic forms. Authors will include Thi Bui, David Henry Hwang, Hua Hsu, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Karen Tei Yamashita, among others.

As an Emily Balch seminar, class time will be discussion-based and teach the fundamentals of college-level writing through critical, close analysis of Asian American popular cultural works. Writing assignments will focus on the process of drafting, writing, and revising short analytical essays. Students will have the opportunity to engage with an Asian American popular cultural work of their own choosing by the end of the semester, with an optional field trip to the 2026 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival.
 

Sec. 015 Body Politik
Instructor: Sara Contreras (Political Science)
TTh 11:40-1:00

Why does the state seek to control our bodies? In this seminar, we will explore how the state has regulated, debated, and controlled our bodies for its own gain through predatory policies related to abortion, contraception, birth, reproduction, gender identity, and sexuality. How are these seemingly disparate laws related? How does the state manifest its desires through policy?

Through a comparative lens, we will see how the harshest policies are shaped by state desires, from China’s One-Child Policy to Romania's Decree 770 to the current era of legislation on Trans healthcare in the U.S. We will examine how states manipulate domestic policies to produce desired outcomes, from growing a population to shrinking it, and how body autonomy represents one of the greatest threats to the state. Through interdisciplinary readings from political science, sociology, and history, and deep engagement with current events, we will attempt to understand why the state is so obsessed with our bodies and our lives. Students will be expected to complete in-class reflections, engage in meaningful discussions with their peers, and develop their writing skills through analytical essays. Students will challenge themselves intellectually by questioning the world around them and, in turn, learn to translate these complexities to the page.
 

Sec. 016 What Is Photography? 
Instructor: Meg Hankel (History of Art)
TTh 11:40-1:00

What is photography? The question may seem simple, but over the medium’s nearly two-hundred-year history, numerous artists, thinkers, and scholars have spilled ink attempting to define the curious impact of the photographic image. In this course, we will consider the many themes, criticisms, debates, and open questions that have defined photography’s reception: Is photography an art or a science? What makes photography different from other visual media like painting or drawing? Is a photograph a substitute for the thing it depicts? Can photography be trusted to communicate the truth? What are the ethics of photographing others? How does photography influence our relationship with the passage of time? How does photography teach us to see differently? This course will offer a broad historical overview of photography’s technological, social, and artistic development from its invention in the nineteenth century to the contemporary moment of smartphones and digital media. We will view a wide range of photographs including examples from fine art, scientific, documentary, and moving image contexts, and will read a variety of primary, secondary, and theoretical texts that highlight photography’s history and its impact on visual culture. Throughout the semester, you will have the opportunity to explore and challenge these ideas, themes, and questions through weekly readings, in-class discussions, and writing assignments designed to prepare you for further study in the arts and humanities.

Sec. 017 Becoming Data
Instructor: Devin Daniels (Literatures in English)
TTh 11:40-1:00

Personal identity in the 21st century is intimately tied up in different forms of data: social security numbers, credit scores, social media profiles, and more. How did this come to be the case? In this seminar, we will consider how human beings experienced the phenomenon of “becoming data” across the 20th and 21st centuries, with particular attention to the ways that different historical subjects imagined, contested, or collaborated with the institutions and technologies that increasingly penetrated their personal and professional lives. Taking direction from Lisa Gitelman and Virginia Jackson’s claim that “raw data is an oxymoron,” we’ll investigate the social and historical foundations to supposedly “neutral” data, from the racialized history of statistics, to the Cold War origins of digital computing, to the gender politics of cyberspace. Towards these ends, we’ll read a variety of non-fictional and fictional material from computer scientists, novelists, sociologists, philosophers, cultural critics, poets, and digital artists, and we’ll learn how to analyze technology—and the social relations that surround it—through collaborative discussions and regular writing practice.
 

Sec. 018 5,000 Years of Scrolling: Writing and Archives from Antiquity to Today
Instructor: Martin Michalek (Classics)
TTh 11:40-1:00

Everything we know about the ancient world comes to us from what survived. But survival is rarely an accident. It depends upon writers, archivists, emperors, and ordinary people to write down and preserve what would otherwise be lost. Who were these people? How did they develop writing and book technology? How did developments in media and knowledge preservation alter the ways we think? Pursuing these questions will take our class back to the dawn of writing and libraries. Taking stock of what remains, we shall examine the systems by which the ancient world—particularly the Greeks and Romans—organized, transmitted, and preserved knowledge, with particular attention to writing practices, archives, and book culture. Along the way, we shall situate the ancient Mediterranean within a broader global context by considering earlier archival traditions in Mesopotamia and Egypt, as well as comparative perspectives in Ancient China and Heian Japan. Readings will come from ancient poets and philosophers; medieval monks and Renaissance printers; and secondary scholarship on archive theory as well as the history of the book. We will investigate how antiquity survived by tracing its excavation, interpretation, and preservation in printing presses, libraries, and museums. This hands-on writing seminar makes ample use of local resources, including the Rare Books & Manuscripts Collections housed at Bryn Mawr and the Philadelphia Museum of Art where we will study how modern archons continue to preserve the past.

Sec. 019 Creative Cities
Instructor: Colin McLaughlin-Alcock (Anthropology)
TTh 11:40-1:00

The “Creative City” is a strategy of urban planning in which civic leaders invest in the arts to achieve wider goals of urban development and governance. Since their introduction in the late 1990s and early 2000s, creative city strategies such as murals, museum districts, public concerts, and graffiti art festivals have been adopted by municipal governments around the world. From the perspective of urban planners, art improves cities: it can raise the tax base, help with municipal branding, attract tourists, reduce crime, and spur innovation. Yet for critics, creative city planning is marked by divestment from public services and growing inequalities of race and class. In this course, we will study the strategy of creative city urban planning and its implementation by municipal governments around the world. We will learn to analyze how art impacts urban life and engage with both proponents and critiques of arts-led urban planning. To observe course concepts in the real world, we’ll take at least one class trip to nearby Philadelphia. Through a combination of short writing assignments, engaged discussion, and the development of longer critical and analytical essays, students will build skills in academic writing and argumentation.

Sec. 020 Dear Reader
Instructor: Devin Lawson (Classics)
TTh 11:40-1:00

The desire to communicate with other people is strong, whether that be through physical pieces of paper carried by foot over long distances or the instant delivery of emails and text messages. Does a letter do something that other types of writing cannot? How do letters bridge physical distance and represent the absent sender? Are letters still relevant in our current post-modern world? In this course, we will examine these questions through epistolary fiction and historical letters alongside contemporary theory on communication. Epistolary fiction reading may include Ovid’s Heroides, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ Dangerous Liaisons, and Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone’s This Is How You Lose the Time War, while the historical letters may range from Heloise and Abelard to personal correspondence and love letters from Bryn Mawr’s Special Collections. Throughout this course, we will tackle the question of how people across time have used letters to communicate with and relate to each other – and what those insights might means for us now.
 

Sec. 021 Plagues, Pathogens, and People: How Pandemics Have Transformed Our Lives
Instructor: Arnav Bhattacharya (Health Studies)
TTh 11:40-1:00

Having collectively lived through the COVID-19 pandemic, we know that pandemics can be testing and transformative times for society. Pandemics are unique moments in history as social fault lines which are otherwise overlooked become starkly visible. In this course, we will examine pandemics that have proven to be consequential in the past and in contemporary times, ranging from the Justinian plague of the 6th century CE to COVID-19.

We will ask questions regarding disease, health, and well-being from the points of view of healers, patients, physicians, and caregivers, and we will explore how public health measures devised to control pandemics have been the basis for designing broader techniques to manage populations more broadly. Our inquiry will be global in scope, examining how pathogens and people have traveled across the world, having varying impacts on different societies. We will employ an interdisciplinary perspective that includes approaches from medicine and public health, along with the humanities and the social sciences. In addition, we will move beyond conventional thinking on pandemics and pay attention to the burgeoning but often ignored issues of mental health and disabilities. While pathogens are crucial agents in the outbreak of pandemics, this course will demonstrate that it is their entanglements with people and social and cultural factors that ultimately determine the trajectory of pandemics.

Assignments for this course will range from short written responses to a more substantial final project due at the end of the semester. Students will get an opportunity to work on their final project throughout the semester. Classes will be framed around brief lectures and extensive discussions. The course aims to empower students to acquire the essential skills of persuasive and impactful writing, mindful reading and critical thinking.
 

Sec. 022 Erotics, Gender, and Violence in Greek and Roman Myth
Instructor: Carman Romano (Classics)
TTh 11:40-1:00

Greek and Roman myths are very much NSFW. These compositions are saturated with sexual content and are notorious for their seemingly flippant treatment of sexual violence, particularly that deployed against women. What does it indicate about Greeks and Romans that stories about their gods and heroes lean so heavily on such themes? How can myths help us inquire into the nature of gender, sexuality, or desire? And what is a myth, anyway? In this course, you will read Greek and Roman myths in translation, and encounter scholarship and theory on the same. During discussion in class and through writing assignments, you’ll work with these readings and your peers to think through representations of sex, gender (variance), desire, and violence, and the fraught intersections between these concepts. Prepare to read, among other texts, Sapphic lyric, Senecan tragedy, Hesiodic epic, and Platonic dialogue.
 

Sec. 023 Human and Post-Human
Instructor: Stephanie Harper (Writing Program)
TTh 11:40-1:00

What is it to be human? Beginning with Ursula Le Guin’s premise that science fiction is not predictive, but descriptive, that science fiction teaches us about ourselves rather than about the future, this seminar will explore the moral complexity of varied lived experiences and trouble our conceptions of what it is to be human. Reading excerpts from a number of short fictional works, including Ursula Le Guin’s “Nine Lives,” Ted Chiang’s “Exhalation,” Octavia Butler’s “Blood Child,” and Nalo Hopkinson’s “Message in a Bottle,” we will test the boundaries of what distinguishes humans from animals, clones, aliens, or artificial intelligence. In our discussions, we will explore how fictional representations of other forms of conscious life, natural or artificial, reflect and/or critique the society they were written in. As the answer to “what is it to be human?” is so crucial to our social structure, our readings will not be limited to fiction and will also include a few select excerpts from critical theorists that can be used as lenses for the writing developed over the course of the semester. Writing will begin with informal responses to the literature, films, and works of art we examine closely in our discussions. As writing is a recursive journey, the informal responses will be developed over the course of the semester into a smaller number of polished essays.
 

Sec. 024 Poverty, Affluence, and American Culture
Instructor: Matt Ruben (Cities)
TTh 11:40-1:00

Poverty and economic inequality are among the most persistent and controversial problems in the United States. They have a wide range of political and cultural meanings in addition to their economic aspects. This seminar will explore poverty, wealth, and the American Dream from the 1700s to the present, through a critical examination of scholarly works, journalism, novels, movies, and electronic texts and videos. We will look at how poverty, poor people, and class mobility have been discussed and represented, and how these representations have shaped the meaning and perception of America. As an Emily Balch Seminar, this course involves critical reading, in-class discussion, and cogent, idea-driven academic essay writing with one-on-one meetings outside of class. Students will write and revise papers in which they actively engage the course texts to join the ongoing public conversation about this topic.
 

Sec. 025 & Sec. 026 Fantastic Fiction and the Environment
Instructor: Willow DiPasquale (Writing Program)

Sec. 025 TTh 1:10-2:30
Sec. 026 TTh 2:40-4:00

Despite dragons, spaceships, and alien encounters, fantasy and science fiction stories are “a means of understanding,” claims author Ursula K. Le Guin, and “a mirror of the real.” How, then, do we reconcile the imaginary landscapes presented in these stories with our actual and pressing environmental crises? What value does fantasy have, if not as simply “escapist” or “untrue” stories? In this seminar, we will explore current environmental concerns through the dual lens of news media coverage of environmental issues and genre fiction, specifically science fiction and fantasy literature and film. We will investigate how the alternate views of the environment presented in works of fantasy encourage us to rethink our assumptions regarding the human-made problems affecting our environment today. We will also use these works to examine our personal relationship towards the environment and consider what duty we have, if any, to help preserve and protect the world around us. Can fantastic stories spur real world action? We attempt to answer this question by applying several different eco-critical themes—deep ecology, feminist ecology, ecological utopias/dystopias, environmental racism—and reading excerpts from news media, eco-critical scholars, and fantastic fiction (The Lord of the Rings and works by Ursula K. Le Guin, Paolo Bacigalupi, and Ray Bradbury, among others). We will also watch films, including Soylent Green and Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke. Students will complete a series of analytical writing assignments, reflections on course readings, and student-led discussions.
 

Sec. 027 City Fiction
Instructor: Sara Bryant (Writing Program)
TTh 2:40-4:00

Urban life is a definitive feature of modernity. As people moved into increasingly massive cities, basic ways of life changed: how people earned a living, what kinds of communities they formed, the gendered and sexual identities that became possible and legible, and the spaces people inhabited. Urban life inevitably shaped narrative exploration in literature and film. This course will examine modern and contemporary works about metropolitan experience, by writers and filmmakers such as Charles Baudelaire, Virginia Woolf, Nella Larsen, Alfred Hitchcock, Mohsin Hamid, and N. K. Jemisin. Topics will include anonymity, flânerie, vision and surveillance, loneliness and connection, and migrations. We will develop scholarly questions and analysis through close readings, engaged discussions, short essays, and the revision process.

Enrollment for Sec. 028 "Loving Language" took place earlier in the summer. This section of ESEM is for first-year students who are participating in a new living-learning community. Students will live in the same dorm and take three courses together in the fall: ESEM, THRIVE, and EDUC B105 "Education Studies."

Sec. 028 Loving Language
Instructor: Alice Lesnick (Education)
TTh 11:40-1:00

A lullaby, an anthem, a vow, a tax return, a 5-paragraph essay: all examples of what people do with language, for love and for other reasons. To consider language diversity, language justice, and language sustenance, this seminar will listen for people’s “ways with words” (to quote a classic text by Heath, 1983) by engaging questions that connect texts with students’ own experiences of language, culture, and learning. Drawing from the fields of literacy studies, translation studies, sociolinguistics, Black studies, indigenous studies, and poetry, students will consider what language means to people, and to a people. As language is often a means of justifying structures of control and access, to explore loving language will also necessarily engage power analysis, with formal education a central site of struggle. As a community of learners, students in this course will read and write about this struggle and the possibilities and desires that give it life.