Winter 2021 Course Descriptions
HC 221H: Evolution & The Modern
Professor: Suzanne Clark
4.00 credits
• CRN 26149: Monday & Wednesday, 1615 - 1745 @ REMOTE
The Origin of Species, published by Darwin in 1859, caused an immediate sensation. It has been changing the way we talk about the relationships of humans, animals and all of life ever since. Read more
HC 221H: The Velocity of Gesture or, Intro to Air Guitar
Professor: Brian McWhorter
4.00 credits
• CRN 26150: Monday & Wednesday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
As a phenomenological exploration of nuance and gesture, this class will look at body language in casual and performative modalities. We will explore how body language reflects and even engenders the understanding of music and other temporal art forms.
HC 221H: The Literary Lives of Animals
Professor: Casey Shoop
4.00 credits
• CRN 26151: Tuesday & Thursday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
• CRN 26152: Tuesday & Thursday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
“I often ask myself, just to see, who I am—and who I am (following) at the moment when, caught naked, in silence, by the gaze of an animal, for example, the eyes of a cat, I have trouble, yes, a bad time overcoming my embarrassment. Read more
HC 221H: Playing with Poetry
Professor: Tze-Yin Teo
4.00 credits
• CRN 26153: Tuesday & Thursday, 1615-1745 @ REMOTE
"The toy,” wrote the French poet of modernity and decadence Charles Baudelaire, "is the child’s earliest initiation into art.” In this class, we approach poetry in the spirit of Baudelaire and other poets like him who worked through playful experimentation that pushed the boundaries of their time. Read more
HC 221H: Where I’m From, Who I Am: Stories of Migration in World Literature
Professor: Susanna Lim
4.00 credits
• CRN 26154: Wednesday & Friday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
• CRN 26155: Wednesday & Friday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
“Are you from South Korea?” This was the first question that Donald Trump asked Joseph Choe in 2015 when the twenty-year-old Harvard University student attempted to question the then-Republican presidential candidate’s position regarding US-South Korea relations. Read more
HC 221H: Middle Eastern American Theatre
Professor: Michael Malek Najjar
4.00 credits
• CRN 26156: Tuesday & Thursday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
Middle Eastern American Theatre deals with the history, literature, and performances of Middle Eastern American playwrights, screenwriters, directors, and performers. Read more
HC 221H: Understanding the Philosophical Framework of Contemporary AI Technology
Professor: Ramón Alvarado
4.00 credits
• CRN 26157: Tuesday & Thursday, 0815-0945 @ REMOTE
What exactly is artificial intelligence? How does it work? And, what are its implications? Read more
HC 221H: Eco Literature and the Green Imagination
Professor: Barbara Mossberg
4.00 credits
• CRN 26158: Monday & Wednesday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
Is the green imagination intrinsic to being human? Since Gilgamesh scratched it on clay in cuneiform in 2700 BCE, eco literature has been a dynamic portrait of human engagement and concern with our world. Read more
HC 221H: Satire and Society
Professor: Corinne Bayerl
4.00 credits
• CRN 27124: Tuesday & Thursday,1015 - 1145 @ REMOTE
This course will look at how writers and filmmakers have used satire as a weapon, resorting to irony and laughter in order to address serious issues their societies were facing: social inequality, changing gender roles, abuse of religious power, and participation in war. Read more
HC 222H: Literary & Cinematic Noir
Professor: Ulrick Casimir
4.00 credits
• CRN 22591: Monday & Wednesday, 1615-1745 @ REMOTE
Mystery editor Otto Penzler once described noir as something that is “virtually impossible to define, but everyone thinks they know it when they see it.” Situated at a crossroads of visual and print media—sped along by the consequences of one war, and solidified by observations made as another war ended—noir is a signifier that seems meant to avoid being pinned down. Read more
HC 222H : The Literary Gothic
Professor: Katy Brundan
4.00 credits
• CRN22594: Monday & Wednesday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
What does it mean when we say a literary text is Gothic? How does the Gothic affect us, its readers or viewers? The Gothic has often coincided with moments of great societal change or transitional time periods. Read more
HC 222H: People and Their Images
Professor: Julianne Newton
4.00 Credits
• CRN 22593: Tuesday & Thursday, 1615-1745 @ REMOTE
People and Their Images explores seeing as a way of knowing as the basis for understanding how visual information affects our everyday lives and decision making. Read more
HC 231H: Spaces of Modernity
Professor: Daniel Rosenberg
4.00 credits
• CRN 26159: Tuesday & Thursday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
• CRN 26160: Tuesday & Thursday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
It is often said that today we live in a global village in which technologies, including those of communication and transportation, have diminished the importance of geographical distance. But what does this kind of generalization actually mean? How have spatial practices changed since early modernity? Read more
HC 231H: High School in America: Adolescence, Inequality and Education
Professor: CJ Pascoe
4.00 credits
• CRN 26161: Monday & Wednesday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
This class takes an in-depth look at a social institution with which many college students are intimately familiar: high school. Through tracing the history of high school in the United States, the role high school plays in contemporary society and the relationship between youth culture and schooling, this class will examine core sociological concepts and insights.
HC 231H: Indigenous Peoples, Knowledge, and Landscapes—From the Pre-Columbian Period to the Present
Professor: Mark Carey
4.00 credits
• CRN 26163: Tuesday & Thursday, 1415 - 1545 @ REMOTE
Many people have heard about the Mayas, Incas, and Aztecs, but popular knowledge about these and many other Indigenous societies is often manipulated, inaccurate, misunderstood, or simply overlooked in world histories that frequently ignore the pre-Columbian Americas and Indigenous peoples then and now. Read more
HC 231H: Sustainability Movements Around the World
Professor: Derrick Hindery
4.00 credits
• CRN 26164: Monday & Wednesday, 1415-1545 @ REMOTE
It’s easy to get discouraged these days with daunting issues like environmental injustice, climate change, and biodiversity loss, particularly with sensationalized “negative news.” Read more
HC 231H: Data-Driven Decisions
Professor: Glen Waddell
4.00 credits
• CRN 26165: Tuesday & Thursday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
In this class, we will consider how economists and other behavioral researchers approach data... in our case, informed by economic theory, statistics, and data science. Read more
HC 231H: Peace Making in the Middle East
Professor: Farhad Malekafzali
4.00 credits
• CRN 26162: Monday & Wednesday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
This course takes a critical look at the causes and consequences of continuing conflict in the Middle East with an emphasis on conflict resolution and long-term peace building using two specific cases, Israel-Palestine and Iran-United States. Read more
HC 231H : Deportation from the United States
Professor: Tobin Hansen
4.00 credits
• CRN 26169: Tuesday & Thursday, 1615-1745 @ REMOTE
This course explores deportation from the United States in historical and contemporary social and political context. Read more
HC 231H: Mental Illness in Ancient Cultures
Professor: Shoshana Kewesky
4.00 credits
• CRN 26167: Tuesday & Thursday, 0815-0945 @ REMOTE
This course explores a range of classical civilizations’ descriptions of mental health and mental illness, their physical and supernatural/religious explanations for emotional and behavioral deviance, and how people with non-normative experiences were treated by their communities. Read more
HC 232H: How Universities Work
Professor: Ian McNeely
4.00 credits
• CRN 22608: Monday & Wednesday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
The university is one of the world’s longest-lived institutions, yet those of us who work and study in universities typically spend little time thinking about their history, and how that history affects how we work, study, live, and think today. Read more
HC 232H: African Languages: History, Making Meaning, and Social Identity
Professor: Doris Payne
4.00 credits
• CRN 22609: Monday & Wednesday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
Africa has nearly 2000 languages, distributed into six or more major language families. The legacy of colonial activity means that certain European languages and Arabic overlay all the indigenous African languages. Read more
HC 232H : Consumerism and the Environment
Professor: Galen Martin
4.00 credits
• CRN 22610: Tuesday & Thursday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
Within the current world economy, great disparities between rich and poor persist. A relatively small percentage of the human population has access to a highly disproportionate share of natural resources, capital, information, and technology. Read more
HC 232H: US Memoirs of Mental Illness
Professor: Shoshana Kerewsky
4.00 credits
• CRN 22612: Tuesday & Thursday, 1415-1545 @ REMOTE
• CRN 22615: Tuesday & Thursday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
This course primarily uses memoirs and autobiographically-informed fiction to explore the experiences of people with mental illness diagnoses from the inception of modern diagnostic categories through the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Read more
HC 232H : Oral Advocacy and Argumentation
Professor: Trond Jacobsen
4.00 credits
• CRN 22611: Monday & Wednesday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
Rhetoric and argument have been the foundation of a liberal education for more than 2000 years. Drawing on pre-modern thinkers, in particular from ancient Greece, this course helps students engage in Read more
HC 232H: Gentrification, Displacement, and the Right to the City
Professor: Lina Stepick
4.00 credits
• CRN 27102: Tuesday & Thursday, 1415-1545 @ REMOTE
In 1968, Henri Lefebvre argued that “the right to the city is like a cry and a demand... a transformed and renewed right to urban life.” Read more
HC 232H: Policing Masculinities
Professor: Tobin Hansen
4.00 credits
• CRN 22613: Tuesday & Thursday, 1415-1545 @ REMOTE
• CRN 22614: Tuesday & Thursday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
This course explores the shifting meanings; expressions; and social, cultural, and political implications of masculinities from a comparative cultural perspective. We will examine masculinities—considering gender alongside other aspects of social difference such as race, class, nationality, sexuality, language, and ability—in U.S. and transnational cross-cultural contexts. Read more
HC 241H: The Necessity for New Numbers
Professor: Chris Sinclair
4.00 credits
• CRN 26170: Monday & Wednesday, 1415-1545 @ REMOTE
The counting, or natural, numbers seem pretty fundamental to the nature of the universe. Read more
HC 241H: Mathematics of Choice
Professor: Shabnam Akhtari
4.00 credits
• CRN 26171: Tuesday & Thursday, 1615-1745 @ REMOTE
Counting lies at the heart of mathematics and combinatorics is an area primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and an end in obtaining results. Read more
HC 241H: Plants and Society
Professor: Tobias Policha
4.00 credits
• CRN 26172: Monday & Wednesday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
Plants influence every aspect of our lives whether we realize it or not. They provide the basis of our food-webs, they provide the oxygen that we breathe and they provide many of the materials that we build with and the fibers that we clothe ourselves with. Read more
HC 241H: Data Science: Surviving in a Sea of Data
Professor: Joe Sventek
4.00 credits
• CRN 26173: Monday & Wednesday, 0815-0945 @ REMOTE
Data Science is about drawing useful conclusions from large and diverse data sets through exploration, prediction, and inference. Exploration involved identifying patterns in information. Read more
HC 241H: Science of Climate Change
Professor: Jeffrey Cina
4.00 credits
• CRN 26174: Wednesday & Friday, 0815-0945 @ REMOTE
This reading and discussion-based course will delve into the science of human-caused climate change due to the widespread combustion of fossil fuels for energy, heating, and transportation. Read more
HC 241H: Nature of Sound
Professor: Lisa Munger
4.00 credits
• CRN 26175: Monday & Wednesday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
• CRN 26176: Monday & Wednesday, 1415 &1545 @ REMOTE
Sound is an essential component of natural habitats, and it is critical to the survival of many organisms. Read more
HC 241H: The Making and Unmaking of Scientific Theories; a History of Science
Professor: Amy Connolly
4.00 credits
• CRN 26177: Tuesday & Thursday, 1415-1545 @ REMOTE
You are confident that the sun sets when the earth rotates (even though the sun appears to revolve around us); you can be sure you have a bacterial or viral infection when you are sick (even though they are invisible to the naked eye); and you know that you have evolved over millions of years (even though you were not around to witness it). Explanations of the natural world are not necessarily intuitive and are frequently hidden from plain sight. So how did we arrive at these conclusions? Read more
HC 241H: Knowing and Saving our Relatives: Primate Ecology and Conservation
Professor: Lawrence Ulibarri
4.00 credits
• CRN 26179: Monday & Wednesday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
Primates are our closest relatives, and many are on the edge of extinction. Conserving primates and their habitats requires an understanding of their ecology. Read more
HC 277H: Thesis Orientation, Winter 2021 - Dudukovic
Professor: Nicole Dudukovic
2.00 credits
• CRN 26319: Wednesday, 1415-1545 @ REMOTE
• CRN 26320: Thursday, 1415-1545 @ REMOTE
Thesis Orientation is two-credit class (graded pass/no pass) that introduces CHC students to the thesis process.The CHC thesis is the culmination of work in a major—a natural outgrowth from and expression of the ideas, problems, and approaches taught in that particular discipline or field of study. Read more
HC 277H: Thesis Orientation, Winter 2021 - Balbuena
Professor: Monique Balbuena
2.00 credits
• CRN 26327: Wednesday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
• CRN 26334: Wednesday, 1615-1745 @ REMOTE
Thesis Orientation is two-credit class (graded pass/no pass) that introduces CHC students to the thesis process.The CHC thesis is the culmination of work in a major—a natural outgrowth from and expression of the ideas, problems, and approaches taught in that particular discipline or field of study. Read more
HC 277H: Thesis Orientation, Winter 2021 - Gallagher
Professor: Daphne Gallagher
2.00 credits
• CRN 26340: Tuesday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
Thesis Orientation is two-credit class (graded pass/no pass) that introduces CHC students to the thesis process.The CHC thesis is the culmination of work in a major—a natural outgrowth from and expression of the ideas, problems, and approaches taught in that particular discipline or field of study. Read more
HC 301H: Research and Writing on the Anatomy of Human Movement
Professor: Steven Chatfield
4.00 credits
• CRN 26367: Tuesday & Thursday, 0815-0945 @ REMOTE
In Anatomy of Human Movement we will examine anatomy as the foundation of kinesiology. Read more
HC 301H: Computers, Crime, and Law
Professor: Bryce Newell
4.00 credits
• CRN 26369: Tuesday & Thursday, 1415-1545 @ REMOTE
Over the past few decades, crimes conducted through the use of computers, or targeted at computers, have risen dramatically. Read more
HC 301H: Behavioral, Experimental, and Neuro approaches to Economics
Professor: William Harbaugh
4.00 credits
• CRN 26539: Monday & Wednesday, 1615-1745 @ REMOTE
This course is an introduction to three recent developments in how the field of economics models people’s decisions and the interaction of those individual decisions to produce economic outcomes in society. Read more
HC 421H: Emerson and Einstein, Interdisciplinary Artist Activists: An Inquiry into Genius
Professor: Barbara Mossberg
4.00 credits
• CRN 22629: Monday & Wednesday, 1415-1545 @ REMOTE
Poetry and science merge, converge, blur, and blend in this study of genius that rocked—and still rocks—our world. Bursting and bending disciplines, joyously defying definitions of field--Einstein the scientist playing the violin and encouraging humanities, Emerson the poet urging study of science and history. Read more
HC 421H: Hildegard of Bingen, 12th-c Female Polymath
Professor: Lisa Wolverton
4.00 credits
• CRN 22630: Tuesday & Thursday, 1415-1545 @ REMOTE
This course will examine the life and works of Hildegard of Bingen, the twelfth-century abbess and polymath. Read more
HC 421H: Color as Cultural Labor
Professor: Esther Hagenlocher
4.00 credits
• CRN 22631: Monday & Wednesday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
This course borrows its title from the invitation, by the late Felix Gonzales-Torres, to look upon all creative practices simply as 'cultural labor,' regardless of specialization, is today more relevant than ever. This notion Read more
HC 421H: Modernity Goes to School
Professor: Martin Klebes
4.00 credits
• CRN 26362: Monday & Wednesday, 0815-0945 @ REMOTE
In this Colloquium we will trace the devolution of the Bildungsroman, the novel of education, formation, and coming of age, in modernity. Read more
HC 434H/421H: Representing the Holocaust
Professor: Monique Balbuena
4.00 credits
• CRN 22632: Tuesday & Thursday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill an Arts & Letters Colloquium and a Global Perspectives (GP) area of inquiry requirement. If the student has already taken an Arts & Letters Colloquium, this class will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Elective Colloquium and a GP area of inquiry. Read more
HC 434H/431H: Biography as History: Analyzing African Political Leadership since the 1950s
Professor: A.B. Assensoh
4.00 credits
• CRN 22633: Wednesday, 1415-1645 @ REMOTE
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill a Social Science Colloquium and a Global Perspectives (GP) area of inquiry requirement. If the student has already taken a Social Science Colloquium, this class will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Elective Colloquium and a GP area of inquiry. African political leadership is one of the least understood historical-cum-political phenomena. Read more
HC 441H: Oxygen
Professor: Victoria DeRose
4.00 credits
• CRN 22637: Tuesday & Thursday, 1415-1545 @ REMOTE
Oxygen, the breath of life, once poisoned the earth. The Great Oxygenation Event of over billion years ago that began an oxygenic atmosphere is also termed the Read more
HC 441H : Who am I? A Genetic Inquiry
Professor: Amy Connolly
4.00 credits
• CRN 22638: Tuesday & Thursday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
“Who Am I?” You may have asked yourself this question repeatedly in your life and found a myriad of ways to answer it. In this class, we will be looking at how commercially available services like 23andMe answer this question by looking at your genes. Read more
HC 441H : Calderwood Seminars Public Writing: Public Science
Professor: Dare Baldwin
4.00 credits
• CRN 22639: Wednesday, 1415-1655 @ REMOTE
Scientific practices are currently undergoing radical change. Among other things, such changes alter best practice in scientific communication. One key source of changes that are afoot lies in growing recognition that many, and possibly even most, reported scientific findings are not reproducible. Read more
HC 444H/431H : Reacting to the Past: Native Nations
Professor: Kevin Hatfield
4.00 credits
• CRN 22642: Tuesday & Thursday, 1615-1745 @ REMOTE
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill a Social Science Colloquium and a US: Difference, Inequality, Agency (US) area of inquiry requirement. If the student has already taken a Social Science Colloquium, this class will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Elective Colloquium and a US area of inquiry. Read more
HC 444H/431H: Calderwood Seminars Public Writing: Writing for Social Justice
Professor: Carol Stabile
4.00 credits
• CRN 22643: Friday, 1015-1255 @ REMOTE
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill a Social Science Colloquium and a US: Difference, Inequality, Agency (US) area of inquiry requirement. If the student has already taken a Social Science Colloquium, this class will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Elective Colloquium and a US area of inquiry. Read more
HC 444H/431H: Transdisciplinary Problem-Solving in Public Health
Professor: Elizabeth Budd
4.00 credits
• CRN 22644: Monday, 1415-1650 @ REMOTE
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill a Social Science Colloquium and a US: Difference, Inequality, Agency (US) area of inquiry requirement. If the student has already taken a Social Science Colloquium, this class will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Elective Colloquium and a US area of inquiry. Read more
HC 444H/431H: Populism, Fascism, and Antifascism
Professor: Joe Lowndes
4.00 credits
• CRN 22645: Tuesday & Thursday, 1015-1145 @ REMOTE
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill a Social Science Colloquium and a US: Difference, Inequality, Agency (US) area of inquiry requirement. If the student has already taken a Social Science Colloquium, this class will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Elective Colloquium and a US area of inquiry. Read more
HC 444H/431H: Calderwood Seminars Public Writing: The Justice System Today
Professor: Michael Moffitt
4.00 credits
• CRN 26813: Friday, 1215-1450 @ REMOTE
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill a Social Science Colloquium and a US: Difference, Inequality, Agency (US) area of inquiry requirement. If the student has already taken a Social Science Colloquium, this class will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Elective Colloquium and a US area of inquiry Read more
HC 477H: Thesis Prospectus 2021 - Balbuena
Professor: Monique Balbuena
2.00 credits
• CRN 22646: Thursday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
HC 477H Thesis Prospectus requires preauthorization before each term and entails a completed online form Thesis Prospectus Application (Note: All users need to log in before using forms with electronic signature enabled. Read more
HC 477H: Thesis Prospectus 2021 - Jacobsen
Professor: Trond Jacobsen
2.00 credits
• CRN 22647: Monday, 1215-1345 @ REMOTE
• CRN 26181: Wednesday, 1415-1545 @ REMOTE
HC 477H Thesis Prospectus requires preauthorization before each term and entails a completed online form Thesis Prospectus Application (Note: All users need to log in before using forms with electronic signature enabled. Read more