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Black Women's Studies; AFST-B300
Black Feminist Studies, which emerged in the 1970s as a corrective to both Black Studies and Women's Studies, probes the silences, erasures, distortions, and complexities surrounding the experiences of peoples of African descent wherever they live. The early scholarship was comparable to the painstaking excavation projects of an archaeologist digging for hidden treasures. A small group of mainly black feminist scholars have been responsible for reconstructing the androcentric African American literary tradition by establishing the importance of black women's literature going back to the nineteenth century. In this interdisciplinary seminar, students closely examine the historical, critical and theoretical perspectives that led to the development of Black Feminist theory/praxis. The course will draw from the 19th century to the present, but will focus on the contemporary Black feminist intellectual tradition that achieved notoriety in the 1970s and initiated a global debate on “western” and global feminisms. Central to our exploration will be the analysis of the intersectional relationship between theory and practice, and of race, to gender, class, and sexuality. We will conclude the course with the exploration of various expressions of contemporary Black feminist thought around the globe as a way of broadening our knowledge of feminist theory. PIJ; WI

Sensory Ethnography; ANTH-B326
Life engages all of our senses, but much of our sensory experience is filtered out when we put that experience into words. This course approaches the senses and sensory experience together as both an object of ethnographic study and as a means of ethnographic enquiry. Going beyond the notion of the senses as biologically hard-wired individual perception, we will explore how the senses are instead learned and shaped by culture and socialization, not static but changing and transforming over time. We will also examine how sensory knowledge and experience can be political: that is, shaped by and responding to structures of power. Throughout the semester, we will be asking both what can be learned from taking sensory experience seriously, and how sensory ethnography might go beyond traditional ethnographic approaches. Students will conduct projects that explore and engage taste, touch, vision, hearing, and smell, and then experiment with different ways of producing anthropological knowledge, in addition to writing; possibilities include photography, video, audio recording, curated collections of objects, or guided taste or smell experiences. NOAPPR; WA

Fieldwork: Methods in Archaeology; ARCH-B233
This topic course explores methods used in Archaeology. Course content varies. This course provides a detailed introduction to archaeological fieldwork methodology and practices. We will critically discuss different discovery and recording techniques and explore data mapping (e.g., aerial/satellite imagery, drone-based photography), collecting (using cloud-based smartphones and tablet apps, GPS-enabled artifacts collection, etc.), and processing (e.g., databases, 3D modeling, GIS-based maps). We will also learn how to draw to scale, take archaeological photographs, and create a precise representation of the stratigraphic sequence, using the Harris Matrix Composer software. The course will include seminars, lab training, and in-field (outdoor) practical sessions. CI

Food and Foodways in Near East; ARCH-B248
Food and foodways play essential roles in all human societies, both ancient and modern, forming fundamental components of cultural identities. The study of the acquisition, preparation, and consumption of food intersects with many aspects of life, such as agriculture and pastoralism, nutrition and diet, social relationships and culinary practices. They also involve religious practices, including sacrifices, food offerings, and feasting. Drawing on visual and material culture, texts, and bio-archaeological data, this course explores the rich and diverse food cultures of the ancient Near East, from prehistorical times to the early medieval period. The course combines lectures, discussions, museum visits, and hands-on experiments. CI; IP

Archaeology of Inequality; ARCH-B345
Archaeology offers a unique perspective to study and analyze how past inequalities developed over time, how they were maintained, negated, or transformed, and how societies responded to them or rejected them. Drawing upon different sets of data- including visual and material culture as well as bio-archaeological remains – and employing anthropological, social, and critical theory approaches, this course explores inequalities with reference to society, ethnicity, gender, and economy. We will use a wide range of case studies across the ancient Mediterranean, from Prehistory to Late Antiquity, to explore different trajectories of inequality and their manifestations in large-scale and long-term phenomena of war, economic crises, environmental transformation, and colonialism. NOAPPR

Ancient Bryn Mawr Artifacts; ARCH-B347
Centered on the question, how we can learn from and through objects, this course explores a selected corpus of artifacts from the ancient Mediterranean in the Bryn Mawr Special Collections with the aim to uncover how these objects were made and used and what they might have meant to their ancient users. Students will handle, study, and interpret a variety of artifacts made of clay, metal, stone, and glass, ranging from vessels, mirrors, and statuettes to mosaics and frescoes used originally in a variety of contexts of ancient Mediterranean daily life and spanning now their second-life as constituents of the Bryn Mawr Special Collections. Through close observation and analysis of the procurement and trade of the raw materials of these objects and their manufacturing techniques and decoration, including its themes, which extend from daily scenes and mythological tales to colorful abstract motifs and intriguing inscriptions, students will examine the use and function of these artifacts as evidence of meaningful ancient Mediterranean cultural thought, behavior, and experience. Interpretation will be based on close observation and active and experiential learning, through tactile engagement with these objects, comparing and contrasting them, studying their conservation, and inquiring, through deep critical thinking, archival work, and reflexivity, about their provenience, collecting, and digital itineraries. Prerequisites: ARCH B101 and B102. PIJ; WA

Tap: Beginning Technique; ARTD-B148
Beginning level dance technique courses focus on introducing movement vocabulary, developing skills, and gaining an understanding of the form. Students must meet the attendance requirement, and complete three short writing assignments. Offered on a pass/fail basis only. NOAPPR 

Dance Comp: Inter-Arts Making; ARTD-B360
This movement and performance based composition course is open to movers of any kind, from any performance background, who want to engage embodied making as intricately intertwined with other disciplines, especially within the arts (sound, costume, film, site, props, etc.). Further, the substance, material, or content which grounds dances will be explored. Collaboration in community and development of individual signature artistic patterns are primary objectives for the students in this course. Students will make artistic projects through engagement in artistic inquiry and embodied/performance research—developing, sketching, and structuring movement ideas in multi-dimensional works grounded in being with the body. Movement exercises, viewing of live and filmed work, discussions, and writing will help to sharpen visual analysis and kinesthetic responses. The course includes journaling, variety of text resources, and viewings but focuses primarily on weekly movement assignments. Concurrent participation in any Dance Program technique course, either for academic or PE credit, is highly recommended. This course is embodied and writing attentive.Course Prerequisite: requires a strong desire to develop a practice of making art individually and in collective. NOAPPR

Neural Coding; BIOL-B347
How do patterns of electrical activity in the brain represent information about the outside world, our movements, and our thoughts? In this course, we will discuss scientists’ attempts to decipher this “neural code,” examining current knowledge and theories of how information is represented and processed in the brain. We will consider the roles of individual neurons, small neural circuits, and larger brain areas. Topics include: tuning curves, rate and temporal codes, noise and variability, population codes, oscillations and synchrony, and neural adaptation. We will also discuss existing and emerging technologies that are enabled by our understanding of the neural code, as well as the ethical questions raised by these technologies. (This course does not involve programming.) Prerequisite: BIOL B202 or permission of instructor NOAPPR; WA

Madness in the Ancient World; CSTS-B216
How did ancient Greeks and Romans conceive of madness? Was it a deviant behavior, a contagious disease, or a divine punishment? What is the relationship between madness and music, madness and love, or madness and social control? How have understandings of madness changed from antiquity to the modern day? Our inquiries into these questions concentrate on three cultural realms: war, religion, and passion. In each section, we will read from a range of genres to unravel the complex notion of madness in Greco-Roman antiquity. At the same time, we will compare and scrutinize relevant modern phenomena, such as trauma, addiction, and deviance. All readings are in translation. CC

Education Studies; EDUC-B105
This course is designed for students interested in exploring key theories, competencies, and questions in the field of education studies in general and the Education Department at Bryn Mawr and Haverford in particular in relation to each enrolled student’s experiences and aspirations. Areas of exploration include: the significance of community-based praxis and research; skill-building in conflict resolution and restorative practice; the nature of assessment; the role of technology in education and society; the meaning and purpose of theory; and, throughout, retrospective experiential reflection in dialogue with students’ future goals. CC; PIJ

Shakespeare . . . in love?; ENGL-B135
“The course of true love never did run smooth,” wrote William Shakespeare in his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Certainly this was the case for his most famous lovers, Romeo and Juliet, but it also holds true for many of Shakespeare’s other characters, too. Love-- true and otherwise-- is one of the poet’s most tackled themes, in both his poetry and plays alike. This class will introduce first years and sophomores to the work of Shakespeare with a focus on how romantic love functions in his plots. Guided by literary criticism in feminist, queer, and trans studies, we will engage with selected Shakespearean sonnets, comedies, and tragedies. As we read, we will consider such topics as the depiction and treatment of women; the gendered language of desire; the relationship dynamics of Bard’s most infamous power couples; and more. Please note: while we will do some in-class textual comparisons to No Fear Shakespeare and modern film adaptations of the plays, students are expected to read the assigned texts in their original Early Modern English form. Course is only for Freshmen and Sophomore NOAPPR

Science Fiction; ENGL-B202
What does the future look like? Is it a time of freedom and life-changing technology? Or one of disaster and totalitarian control? How can literature and writing help us imagine, predict, or alter these possibilities? In this course, we’ll read a broad survey of science fiction, related genres, and precursors, from the medieval period to the present day. We will ask about what sort of futures these texts can imagine as well as what sort of changes or alternatives they are unable to imagine. We’ll also consider how they confront, expose, and aestheticize issues of capitalism, race, gender, colonialism, sexuality, and climate change through depictions of worlds that are not quite our own. We’ll read works by authors such as Octavia Butler, Margaret Cavendish, Ursula K. Le Guin, China Miéville, and Mary Shelley, alongside select science fiction films and works of scholarship and criticism on science fiction, utopias, the cyborg, and other topics. Students will learn to think critically and historically about science fiction texts, practice close reading and narrative analysis, and explore their own speculations about the future. CI

Medieval Friendship; ENGL-B221
What was Lancelot’s greater sin: committing adultery with Queen Guinevere, or betraying his best friend, King Arthur? While much has been said about courtly love in the middle ages, the value of medieval friendships tends to get overlooked. Medieval life was very communal, meaning individuals often formed relationships for practical, incidental, and personal reasons. In this course, we will examine friendships depicted in medieval literature, asking questions like: Was chivalry just the “Bro Code” for knights? What was the main source of drama in medieval monasteries? How many of Chaucer’s poems pass the Bechdel Test? We will read canonical texts like The Book of Margery Kempe, The Canterbury Tales, and Mallory’s Le Morte D'Arthur alongside recent literary criticism and scholarship from the emerging scholarly field of friendship studies. CI

Trans Shakespeare; ENGL-B227
Everyone knows that Shakespeare’s plays are chock-full of moments of gender trouble. Whether it is the fact of cross-dressing on stages that prohibited women actors or the episodes where already cross-dressed boy actors played men, the early modern stage reveled in the instability of gender and its performance. Less known, however, are the rich debates and theories about sex, gender, and sexuality that were going on at the time and that informed the performance of gender on Shakespeare’s stage. Indeed, three years before the publication of Shakespeare’s first folio, or collected works, a pamphlet debate between Hic Mulier (the man-woman) and Haec Vir (the womanish man) raged, bringing social anxieties about cross-dressing, sexuality, women, and masculinity to the fore of bookstall debate. This course will delve into Shakespeare’s works and put them in context in the landscape of early modern theories of gender and sexuality. Moreover, this course will engage contemporary scholarship, to re-situate our approach to gender and sexuality in Shakespeare within a trans-critical framework, moving away from gender binarism in our approach to questions of gender in early modern literature. Readings include Ben Jonson’s Epicene, Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Merchant of Venice, and Henry VI Part I, and a selection of criticism and theory. CI

Horror Film; ENGL-B231
How has cinema visualized monsters, death, spectral presences, and all that is beyond human comprehension? How (and why) has it sought to elicit fear, revulsion, and horror from its viewers? In this class, we’ll explore these and other questions through a broad survey of the horror film across cinematic history. We’ll consider a wide range of films and subgenres, including gothic silent films, “golden age” monster movies, 80s slasher films, and found footage horror. We’ll also watch contemporary examples of how filmmakers like Jordan Peele, Ana Lily Amirpour, and Matt Farley have used the horror genre to produce independent, original, and critically acclaimed movies in an era dominated by franchises and high budgets. We’ll pay particular attention to how the vampires, zombies, killers, and victims of horror are racialized, gendered, and classed, showing us how horror seeks (and often fails) to contain societal fears and anxieties within the realm of the fantastic. Likely films will include The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Night of the Living Dead, Get Out, and A Girl Walks Home at Night, among others. This course presumes no prior knowledge of film studies, and we’ll read film criticism and scholarship to learn how to think, talk, and write about movies generally and horror films specifically. CW: Given the subject of the course, we will be watching a number of films that include disturbing or frightening imagery or themes. That said, the professor will happily provide content warnings on specific topics or themes if desired. CI

The Empire Within; ENGL-B233
This course will explore the proposition that in Victorian Britain, colonization was a domestic as well as foreign policy. Not only were Britain’s Celtic peripheries (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall) made subject to English land seizures and extractivist practices, but citizens of these domestic colonies were routinely pressed into military and bureaucratic subaltern service in the empire abroad. Some Victorians also believed that colonialism should begin at home: we will trace the histories of pauper emigration, convict transportation, and the philanthropic “home colony” movement which sought to establish farm colonies to develop agricultural skills and moral character in the urban poor. The word “colonialism” finds its roots in colonnus (farmer) and colere (cultivation); we will ask how land and culture were yoked together in the imperial project, and also trace how race, class, gender and sexuality shaped and were shaped by empire. Topics will include religion, ecology, revolution, industrialization, feminism, eugenics and Anglo-Saxon Reunionism. Authors will include canonical authors such as Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker, and lesser-known Celtic, non-white, and working-class authors. CI; PIJ

Five American Women Poets; ENGL-B235
How did American women come to poetic voice under conditions that demanded their artistic, personal and political silence? And when they did come to voice, what did they say and how did they say it? Is it possible to think about an American poetic tradition through the experience of diverse people writing under the sign and conditions of womanhood? This course examines five poets writing in five very different circumstances. Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) was a white Puritan whose faith demanded silence but whose artistry demanded voice. Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) was born in West Africa and stolen as a child to Boston where she was enslaved. When she began writing poetry as a teenager it was variously hailed as the work of a prodigy and condemned as fraudulent. Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (1800-1842) was an Ojibwe woman whose white husband both solicited and crushed her poetic voice. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a white, radically innovative queer poet who almost entirely eschewed publication. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was a free Black poet, novelist and journalist who attempted to use the sentimental mode to convince white and Black readers to rise up, first against slavery and then in defense of free Black equality. This course will explore each poet in depth, while engaging the broader question of the relationship of poetry to personal and political self-realization. CI

Intro to 20C Afam Lit; ENGL-B247
This survey course is an introduction to some of the major authors, canonical texts, and defining critical debates of African American literature from 1899-1953. Selected authors include Charles Chesnutt, Angelina Grimké, Nella Larsen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Sterling Brown, Ralph Ellison, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Contending with the entanglements of socio-political and aesthetic questions the course will explore the following themes: the roots of African American literature as a “peasant” literature; the role of white funders and audiences in African American literature; racial uplift ideology and the politics of class; questions of gender and sexuality; geographical (urban vs rural) divides; and ecological elements of the tradition. The course will revolve around close-reading and (written) interpretation within (and beyond) the historical and literary context of the works in question. Readings include novels, short stories, poetry, drama, autobiography and essays from the first half of the 20th century. The course is open to all and assumes no prior knowledge of African American literature. CI; IP

Food Cultures in Philadelphia; ENGL-B287
hiladelphia has an exceptionally rich dining culture. “Jeet yet?” is a common refrain in a city that boasts African American, Italian and German communities of long standing, and more recent, culinarily impactful settlement by East Asian and Mexican populations. This course will explore the deep history of dining in Philadelphia, from Lenape foodways to the skills of Hercules Posey – George Washington’s enslaved chef – to the recent participation of Philadelphia cooks and restauranteurs in social justice movements. Topics will engage cross-cultural and cross-temporal questions such as immigration, religion and food, Philadelphia’s place at the center of local and global networks of production and extraction, social dining clubs vs home cooking, the shifting history of street markets, publishing culture and the recipe book, false abundance and food deserts. CC; CI

The Invention of the News; ENGL-B332
“The News” – the idea that things are happening and everyone should know about it through easily accessible media – defines our highly networked lives today. Our relationship to news, however, is quite fraught: anxieties about the veracity of our sources and the supposed objectivity of writers abound. But “news”, and the chief anxieties associated with the form, enjoy a long history. News is often associated with the birth of democracy, the nation, and the public sphere. “The news” has also played an often overlooked and greatly understudied role in the promulgation of theories of race, the expansion of empire, and the development of capitalism. This course offers a rethinking of the history of news beginning in the sixteenth century, revealing the genre’s debts to travel writing, literary culture, and popular print (including ballads and pamphlets). While this course aims to chronicle the history of news, it also moves to tell the histories of colonialism from the masses of popular print that document, debate, and disseminate its histories. Among the questions this course will interrogate are: what is the relationship between early news and literature? How does empire catalyze information culture? How do early debates around race and colonialism shape the emergence of what we might recognize as news culture? Readings include Thomas More’s Utopia, Bartholomew de las Casas’ Brief History, Cortez’s Five Letters, Hakluyt’s Principal Voyages, Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice and Tempest, Ben Jonson’s masques and Staple of News, Aphra Behn’s Widow Ranter, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and a selection of early modern pamphlets, ballads, and criticism. NOAPPR

Black Britain; ENGL-B356
This course explores Black British literature from 1945 to the present, focusing on how the decolonization of the British Empire and pivotal moments of mass migration such as the 1948 arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush from Jamaica to London engendered a surge of Black artistic production following the second world war. We will investigate the categories of “Blackness” and “Britishness” in relation to their transnational and transracial implications, as well as their co-construction with categories of class, gender, and sexuality. Authors may include Sam Selvon, Buchi Emecheta, Caryl Phillips, Andrea Levy, Zadie Smith, Helen Oyeyemi, and others. Prerequisite: One course in Department of Literatures in English PIJ

Contemporary Literature; ENGL-B371
What is the contemporary? And when is it? Are the critically lauded works of the first two decades of the twenty-first century still “contemporary” to us? What does reading and accessing the “contemporary” tell us about our relationship to time, history, and identity? We’ll explore possible answers to all these questions by reading a diverse array of contemporary literature, covering many of the most popular and potent genres of the last twenty years, including autofiction, speculative and climate fiction, political poetry, romance, and historical fiction. We’ll also ground our readings with cutting edge literary criticism that considers not only the content of literature but its institutional and economic contexts, asking how literature has changed in an era of multinational publishing conglomerates, digital distribution, self-publishing, an expanding list of literary prizes, and the dominance of Amazon. We’ll read primary texts by Hanif Abdurraqib, Sally Rooney, Wendy Trevino, Colson Whitehead, and others. Students will engage in close analysis of specific novels, stories, and poems, perform research on contemporary literary trends, and participate in virtual visits with contemporary scholars. Prerequisite: One 200-level course or permission of instructor.

Italian Renaissance; ITAL-B218
The period or movement commonly referred to as the Renaissance remains one of the great iconic moments of global history: a time of remarkable innovation within artistic and intellectual culture, and a period still widely regarded as the crucible of modernity. Although lacking a political unity and being constantly colonized by European Empires, Italy was the original heartland of the Renaissance, and home to some of its most powerful and enduring figures, such as Leonardo and Michelangelo in art, Petrarch and Ariosto in literature, Machiavelli in political thought. This course provides an overview of transnational Italian culture from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century by adopting a cross-cultural, intersectional, and inter-disciplinary approach. The course places otherness at the center of the picture rather than at its margins, with the main aim to look at pivotal events and phenomena (the rise of Humanism, courtly culture, the canonization of the language), not only from the point of view of its protagonists but also through the eyes of its non-male, non-white, non-Christian, and non-heterosexual witnesses. The course ultimately challenges traditional accounts of the Italian Renaissance by crossing also disciplinary boundaries, since it examines not only literary, artistic, and intellectual history, but also material culture, cartography, science, technology, and history of food and fashion.All readings and class discussion will be in English. Students will have an additional hour of class for Italian credit. CC; IP; PIJ

What is Aesthetics?; ITAL-B221
This course investigates how global thinkers, poets, and artists reflected in their works on the roles and powers of art, poetry, and human creativity. The course approaches this theme through a cross-cultural and trans-historical approach, which encompasses the Italian Humanism, which argued for the first time for the importance of aesthetic knowledge, as well as the Age of Enlightenment, which founded ‘aesthetics’ as a specific scientific discipline. Readings from these writers will show how artistic products, human imagination, and poetry are not just light-hearted activities but powerful cognitive tools which can reveal aspects of human history. If the human being is deemed to be a combination of reason and feeling – soul and body – art and poetry, which border both the rational and irrational realms, appear the most appropriate scientific tool to reveal the human essence and its destiny. The discussion will focus on pivotal global writers and philosophers such as Giambattista Vico and Giacomo Leopardi, who pioneered aesthetic, historical, literary, and anthropological ideas which are still crucial in the current theoretical debate on arts and poetry. All readings and class discussion will be in English. Students will have an additional hour of class for Italian credit. CI; IP

Intermediate Korean; KORN-B103
An intermediate course in modern spoken and written Korean. Five hours a week of lecture and oral practice. This is a year-long course; both semesters are required for credit. NOAPPR

Tragedy and the Value of Life; PHIL-B230
Tragic dramas present tales of human misery, drawing our attention to precisely those aspects of life that seem to put its value in question. What, then, do these bleak tales ultimately suggest about our prospects for happiness? Do tragic works simply condemn life, identifying its horrible features and leaving it at that? Alternatively, do they help identify places where life could be improved, or perhaps even offer a surprising celebration of life’s value? In this class, we will consider the answers to these questions offered by a variety of historical and contemporary thinkers. We will also test these thinkers’ answers against some of the tragic dramas they seek to explain. Philosophers discussed will include Schopenhauer, Hegel, Nietzsche, Camus, Weil, Williams, Nussbaum, and Murdoch. Plays read will include work by Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Shakespeare. CI; IP

Sociology of Popular Culture; SOCL-B332
“Culture” is one of those words that is used constantly by nearly everyone, but rarely is it made clear what exactly is meant by the term or what precisely it is contributing as either cause or effect. This course seeks to provide clarity and precision in what is meant by the term “culture” and how it can be a useful analytical concept, focusing explicitly on those cultural objects deemed "popular." It will explore how popular culture is produced, reproduced, received, challenged, disseminated, resisted, and transformed. Special attention will be given to how popular culture interacts with other social institutions, social movements, power relationships, and intersectional identities. NOAPPR

Social Theory - Majority World; SOCL-B333
In this course, we will explore works of sociological theory and imagination from thinkers outside the US and Europe, classic and contemporary. We will read and discuss texts from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East addressing a variety of sociological themes, including race, gender, caste, and colonialism. We will also discuss how these works can inform and inspire our own sociological research and practice. NOAPPR; PIJ