Combined Degree Programs

The course offers an introduction to the history of art and visual culture from antiquity to the Renaissance. It studies painting, sculpture, architecture, and prints within their historical, social, and cultural contexts, as well as their representation in modern media (film, documentary, etc).

The course is the sequel to AHT 102 and offers an introduction to the history of art and visual culture from the High Renaissance to the present day. It studies early modern painting, sculpture, architecture, and prints within their historical, social, and cultural contexts, as well as photography and new media in the modern and contemporary world.

The course introduces students to the theories and methods of art history and visual culture. It addresses both traditional and innovative models from art history and how to apply methodologies from other disciplines to the study of the visual world. Students will conduct original research projects using a variety of critical approaches to put their theoretical knowledge in practice.

The course is taught in collaboration with the Museo delle Culture Extraeuropee of Lugano (www.mcl.lugano.ch) and takes place in the classroom and in the galleries of the museum at Villa Heleneum. It is not so much about the history of art but about the relations between artifacts and people in history. Treating topics such as the power of and in images, art and religion, art and social life, and art and communication, we will discuss how the deep structure of the human mind creates, relates to, and is reflected in artifacts of the Western world. At Villa Heleneum we will have the chance to study masks and other cult objects and their relations to the peoples from Oceania, Africa, and Asia together with museum curators. Classes will take place in front of exhibits and are structured around specific topics, including the meaning and value of the ethnical work of art, and photography and film in anthropology.

Senior or capstone project in Art History to be coordinated with the faculty advisor and the Division Chair.

Internship experience working for a business or organization related to a student's Art History major to be coordinated with the student's faculty advisor, and the Division Chair.

Thesis proposals to be coordinated with the Division Chair and faculty advisor.

This course introduces students to the fundamental concepts and theories of communication and media studies as they apply to the ever-increasing intercultural interactions of a contemporary world. In particular, students will learn the basics of intercultural/international communication processes, gaining a foundation for developing intercultural communication competence.

Media pervades our social and private lives. We make it and in turn it makes us. This course offers an introduction to media studies, a field which seeks to understand and use media in complex and intentional ways. The course explores media as content, as an industry and as a social force. In this way, media is understood as both as an artifact (constituted by many parts) and as a set of complex processes (including production, distribution, regulation and consumption). Students will learn key vocabularies and concepts in and approaches to media studies that will help them to define, describe, and critique media artifacts and processes in a variety of written and spoken formats. In addition to equipping students with the skills to understand and critique media, this course encourages and provides students with the building blocks to produce media content. Students who successfully complete this course will be prepared to take advanced courses in media studies.

This course introduces students to quantitative and qualitative research methods as they apply to communication and media studies. Students will acquire skill in examining various communication and media issues by conducting an original research project.

This course explores media from the lens of ecology, using ecological concepts and thinking to both explore media as ecosystemic and reflect upon media production and consumption in terms of sustainability. Ecology is evoked because it is one of the most useful and expressive contemporary discourses to help articulate both the dynamic interrelations and interactions that characterize all forms of community as well as the ethical and political implications of their maintenance, management and/or disruption. The ultimate goal of this course is to put media in its place; situating prominent media forms within their unique cultural, historical, and geographical places and putting media in its appropriate place in our own lives and communities.

This course examines media in the context of globalization. Most broadly, students will explore what constitutes globalization, how globalization has been facilitated and articulated by media, how media have been shaped by the processes of globalization, and perhaps most significantly, the social implications of these complex and varied processes on politics, international relations, advocacy and cultural flows. In order to map this terrain, students will survey the major theories that constitute this dynamic area of study.

This course examines the impact of emerging communication technologies on human communication. By critically examining current theories and research in the field, students will analyze present and future of technologically-mediated relationships as these pervade their everyday life.

This seminar provides students with a capstone experience in synthesizing their theoretical and methodological knowledge in the form of a high-quality research paper. Some of the major areas of research and theories in the field of communication and media studies will be reviewed and discussed in class as students work on their own research project. At the end of the semester, students will present their final research paper to an audience of students and professors. Students will also be encouraged to submit their paper to an appropriate conference venue around the world. (Prerequisite: Senior status)

This course provides students with a capstone experience in applying to professional contexts key approaches and theories of communication and media studies. The internship site can be private, public or non-profit organizations anywhere in the world. Throughout the internship period, students should ensure close in-company supervision. At the end of the internship, students will prepare a detailed report analyzing their experience and present it formally to an audience of students and professors. Both written report and presentation will be critically assessed.

Stories are everywhere. We use them, consciously or unconsciously, to make sense of identities, experiences, and desires. And, at the same time, we are shaped by the stories that we absorb and interpret. This course explores how storytelling both reflects and shapes our lives. It introduces students to keywords and terms for reading and reflecting upon stories, both in the pages of books and in everyday life. The course considers a variety of narrative forms, including short stories, novels, fairy tales, self-help manuals, comics, films, podcasts, and political discourse. The course introduces students to fundamental questions about the nature of storytelling, while developing the vocabulary and critical skills for analysing and discussing stories. This is a writing intensive course in which students read as they learn to write. Students practice applying a critical vocabulary to textual forms as well as becoming familiar with the skills of drafting and editing. The course also introduces students to some of the professional pathways open to writers and storytellers.(This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements).

This course has two primary goals: to introduce students to the history and theoretical writings of various strands of cultural studies, and to acquaint them with some of the intersecting axes - race, class and gender - that energize the field. Close attention will be paid to issues such as the shaping of identity, forms of representation, the production, consumption and distribution of cultural goods, and the construction of knowledge and power in a host of cultural practices and cultural institutions.

This course presents an introduction to creative writing through a variety of genres, including poetry, prose, fiction and non-fiction. By paying close attention both to literary models and original student writing, this class asks that participants reflect on the relationship between reading and writing, and voice and context. Students will compose short pieces in a variety of genres and present them for critique in weekly workshops.  A final portfolio of all work during the semester will act as a springboard for more advanced courses in creative writing.

This course introduces students to the language of cinema through close studies of and foundational readings on film theory, narrative/documentary structure, camera technique, lighting, sound, casting, and location. Students will be expected to demonstrate their understanding of film language through scholarly analysis of both canonical and contemporary cinema texts and two practical applications of film. Students will move beyond the passive reception of an image-based world by working towards increased intellectual adaptablity in terms of engaged film reading skills that will call into question philosophical and culture-specific notions and norms. The learning outcomes will be developed through a number of concentrated modules lasting approximately three weeks each, including analysis, contemporary criticism, audience reception, and practical applications.

This course presents an interdisciplinary introduction to key concepts in gender studies. Focusing on the way in which gender operates in different cultural domains, this class investigates the manner in which race, culture, ethnicity, and class intersect with gender. (This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements).

Deception, in all its forms, including eavesdropping, adultery, cheating, and trickery, functions as a narrative motor in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century novel and film. This class examines this notion of deception in literary and visual cultures. In particular, this class will focus on the strategies of narrative structures in the European novel and film from 1840s through the late twentieth century. We will consider eavesdropping, lying, adultery, cheating, gender switching, and their narrative consequences relating to gender and class through the course of the semester. European Realism, with its focus on the every-day and the darker side, signals a shift away from the Romantic and will introduce our study of deception in a cross-cultural context.

The construction of memory is one of the fundamental processes by which the workings of culture can be studied. Every country, every culture and every community has a specific memory culture that finds expression in a congruence of texts: of literature and film, of law and politics, of memorial rituals, and historiography. The aim of this course is to enable students to recognize different forms of the construction, representation and archiving of memory; to analyze processes of individual and collective identity formation through memory; and to understand the power differentials operant in the negotiations and performance of a national memory. The travel component of this course will focus in particular on Berlin and representations of the Holocaust.

This course covers popular music genres, generally defined as music produced for commercial purposes and transmitted through mass media to a wide audience, and their relationship with popular culture. Drawing on sociology, media studies and cultural studies, it will examine the cultural significance of popular music genres such as rock’n’roll, punk, heavy metal, hip hop, rap, techno, industrial etc., with reference to issues such as space, ethnicity, class and gender. It will further explore how and to what end the creation, circulation and consumption of popular music tend to be shaped by record companies and corporate business styles. Finally, reflecting upon how popular music is, in many ways, a direct reflection of its times, it will show how it is mediated by historical, geographical, political, economical and technological factors.

Science fiction narratives may be defined as speculative fictions, ideal allegorical vehicles eliciting theoretical reflection on the state of contemporary culture and society and motivating social reform. As such, the main objective of this course is to consider several major contemporary socio-cultural issues through the unique lens provided by writers and filmmakers of the science-fiction tradition. The issues, allowing for variances from year to year, will include questions regarding gender and Otherness, the hypothesized deterioration of a human-world bond, modern apocalyptic anxieties, genetic engineering, intersections of ideology and communication technologies. Authors and filmmakers may include: Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Ursula Le Guinn, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, William Gibson; Ridley Scott, Stanley Kubrick, Andrew Niccol, Jean-Luc Godard, Lana and Andy Wachowski

This travel course will focus on the co-existence and forced movement of populations between present-day Turkey and Greece while grappling with notions of human rights as inscribed in the ancient ideas of citizenship and polis. The travel will trace a parallel trajectory in the ancient and modern worlds: moving from Athens to Thessaloniki, students will study the histories of cultural co-existence and the moments of violent dissolution in the modern world; the class will also visit ancient sites such as Corinth and Mycenae on the Peloponnese; Delphi; the ancient city of Vergina, whose modern instantiation became the home of Greeks who were expelled from Turkey during the population exchange in 1922; and Philippi, abandoned to the Ottoman empire in the 14th century. Throughout this course, students will study notions of human rights, forced migration, and the tensions inherent in encounters between East and West. Students will read a broad array of texts, ranging from historical accounts to human rights treatises and philosophical texts, novels and plays.

The literature of Prague lies in the city's complex web of identities, a web created by social upheaval through the ages. Beginning with sixteenth-century tales of the Golem, the clay figure animated by Rabbi Loew to protect the city's Jewish community, students will investigate how Prague's writers have responded to the politics of their times by embracing the surreal and the ambiguous. In particular, this class will look at how these authors have found inspiration in the city itself. Reading includes Franz Kafka's evocation of the early twentieth-century city and a selection of works by more recent writers such as Weil, Kundera, and Hakl. Studying the way these writers repeatedly draw on each other through the idea of the city as a text, students will visit their haunts in Prague and its surroundings, and map their works onto the city's landscape and onto its history, with the surreal Kafka museum as a starting point.

Colonialism has left its traces not only very obviously on the former colonies themselves but also on the face of the cities of the colonisers. Host of the ''Congo Conference'' that carved up the continent in 1885, Germany was late into the ''scramble for Africa.'' However, it has long been implicated in colonialism through trade, scientific exploration, and Hamburg’s position as a ''hinterland'' of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Seeking to explore colonial echoes in less obvious places, namely in contemporary Berlin and Hamburg, the course asks how we can remember colonialism in the modern world, become conscious of its traces, and encourage critical thinking about the connections between colonialism, migration and globalization. As an Academic Travel, this course will include an on-site component where the class will team up with postcolonial focus groups in Berlin and Hamburg, going onto the street and into the museum to retrace the cities’ colonial connections, and to experience and engage with the colonial past through performance-based activities.

In this course, queer solo performance and theater are playfully considered ''forbidden acts'' because they commonly enact a special kind of transgression. These acts give voice to and, at once, subvert a wide range of political identities conventionally defined by race, ethnicity, HIV status, class, gender, and sexual practice. Often autobiographical at their point of departure, queer performance and theater seem intent on troubling the comfort of community even as they invest in it. This rich, albeit problematic, ambivalence stems from the fact that the term queer, itself, connotes primarily a locus of refusal, an unbinding and destabilizing term of defiance, of provocation via polysemy. As such, queer performance and theater seek to open up new vistas of multiple, shifting, polymorphous identities. What political implications might these queer texts dramatize? What may be the ramifications of instilling the notion of personal identity with collective utopian aspirations? How would the students enrolled in this class spin the term queer to encompass their own sense of individual difference and empower their own vision of creative defiance? In attempting to respond to these questions, students taking this course will be invited to share their own forbidden acts: to approach theoretical refection through performative exercises, to merge the analytical realm with the autobiographical monologue, to test the limits (if there are any) between theatrical play and ideological engagement.

This course looks at poverty as it is portrayed in contemporary literature, film, television, painting, music and street magazines. Students will explore how these representations compare to economic and social indices such as income, Living Standards Measurement surveys, welfare statistics, poverty indexes and poverty determinants. For these latter determinants the class will take Switzerland, a country in which the extremes of poverty and riches are quite subtle, as our case study. The overall goals of this course are 1) to compare different forms of representation and to recognize and be able to distinguish among the many faces and facets of poverty in a wealthy nation and 2) to critically explore the ideologies underlying mainstream representations of ''the poor'' or ''the marginalized'' and to ask how effective such representations are in triggering social change.

This course looks at sports as a cultural, social and political phenomenon and explores some of the major concepts pertinent to the cultural studies discipline through the lens of sports such as nationalism, social class, race/ethnicity, gender, celebrity culture and its fans, ethics, and concepts of power. Students will also consider the very ideas of 'sportsmanship,' 'playing the game' and the global 'mega-events' that many professional sports competitions have become. This course will involve reading theoretical essays related to sports, class discussion of the readings, regular reading responses, and presentations. Students will be encouraged to pursue their own research interests based on a particular sport, major sports event (Olympics, European Soccer Championship, World Series) or sports infrastructure (Little-League, college sports, sports clubs) and to reflect culturally on an activity that cuts across many disciplines (e.g. business, communications, ethics, health) as well as one that they themselves may be passionately involved in, either as actors and/or as spectators.

Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century French authors and artists were instrumental in shaping the imaginary of the ''Orient'', with a myriad of paintings and texts housed for public consumption in national cultural institutions. Students will use the French case to explore the politics of representation: the creation and objectification of an Oriental ''Other''. On-the-ground field study in museums, archives and galleries of Paris (the former colonial capital) and Marseille (the ''Gateway to North Africa'') will help students to investigate the ties that bind the visual arts and literature with the exercising of knowledge and power, and to read literary and artistic works as shaped by their cultural and historical circumstances. The strong Arab and Berber presence in both cities today, in particular from France's former colonies in North Africa, will provide the impetus to question how contemporary writers and artists explicitly and implicitly engage with and renegotiate these ''cultural artifacts'', and what broader significance this might have for questions of representation and identity, Self and Other, in the (not only French) present. Students will read contemporary texts by authors such as Leïla Sebbar and Assia Djébar and explore work by visual artists including Zineb Sedira and Zoulikha Bouabdellah, using their, and our own, ''encounters'' in the Louvre, the Pompidou Center, the Arab World Institute, MuCEM and smaller galleries to consider the significance of reappropriating the gaze and of the relationship between visual pleasure and politics, while questioning who art is ''for'' and where the ''representation business'' takes us. (The course may count toward the French Studies major in consultation with the coordinator of the French Studies program.)

In this course, students will explore the cultures that produce and are reproduced by our current food systems in Europe, touching upon the local, national and global dimensions. This course will examine the cultural, ecological, political, and geographic forces at work influencing the chain of production from farm to table. In particular, students will consider the contemporary food systems in Italy and Switzerland as well as their cultural and historical roots. Students will learn more about what it takes to become an active food citizen as the class considers where food comes from here in Europe and how the food we eat shapes who we are, both literally and figuratively. This course includes a travel component to Italy and Switzerland where students will study first hand some of the concepts discussed, including terroir, slow food, and local farm to table movements.

This course approaches film from an ecocritical perspective to explore how the medium of film articulates relations between the environment and human rights. In recent decades, scholars have increasingly examined how film represents ecological issues and humans' involvement with those issues, particularly with regards to environmental disaster and climate change. The course aims to make students familiar with those debates by examining a variety of film genres -- blockbuster, documentary, animation, among others -- to offer a survey in reading film ecocritically, from a human rights’ perspective. Students will gain experience in analyzing films as texts and in applying ecocritical theory to those films and the ethical issues surrounding them, from production to narrative, and distribution to reception. Screenings, theoretical readings, class discussion, video-making and writing assignments will help students develop a critical awareness of how film tells the story of our complex relation with the environment against the backdrop of contemporary human rights regimes.

This course examines gender, ethnic, class, family, age, religious relationships within contemporary Morocco. It first provides students with a historical overview of Morocco since its independence in 1956, focusing on the monarchies of Hassan II and Mohammed VI the current king. It explores the power dynamics that exist in a society that is predominantly patrilinear and where gender roles are mostly divided along a binary system; it studies the place of the individual in a society where the collective ego prevails; it considers the place of Berber identity within Moroccan society and finally it explores Sufism as a counter-power to any form of Islamic rigorism. All the themes studied are substantiated with presentations by Moroccan scholars working in the fields of sociology, gender, ethnic, religious, and music studies. (Knowledge of French recommended.)

This travel course will focus on forced migration and refugees, with a travel component that takes the class to Greece, one of the major European nodes of the current refugees crisis. The course offers an interdisciplinary approach to the political, social and cultural contexts of forced migration and is coupled with the study of a number of imaginative responses that help to shape attitudes and positions towards refugees. Throughout this course, students will study ideas of human rights as they relate to refugees, political and theoretical concepts that help to think through notions of belonging, sovereignty, welcome, and a range of cultural narratives, including films, public art, theater and literature, that bring their own critical interventions to bear on the emergent discourses surrounding refugees.

This course is designed as an introduction to the field of postcolonial studies. Readings will familiarise students with a diversity of ''world literature'' and grant an understanding of key debates in postcolonial studies. As postcolonialism is not a unified field of study, the course engages with different theoretical understandings of the term and queries what it even means to be ''postcolonial.'' When exactly does the postcolonial begin? What are the implications of using such a broad umbrella term to designate writings from around the world? Students will explore depictions of the colonial encounter and decolonisation, question the links between colonialism and globalisation, and examine constructions of East and West, Global North and Global South. Central to the course will be the themes of: power and violence; economics and class; land and nation; authenticity and development; gender and sexuality; history and memory; the politics of literature; and the politics of print culture. Students will read a diverse and broad historical selection of texts from a variety of geographical locations including, India, Kenya, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Jamaica. Literary texts will be paired with theoretical readings from such critics as Kwame Anthony Appiah, Ann McLintock, Benita Parry, Franz Fanon, and Edward Said. Although the main focus of study is literature, the course will adopt an interdisciplinary approach, understanding literary works as products of cultural, historical, social, and political circumstances. Throughout the course, students will explore how colonial power has shaped—and continues to shape—the world in which we live.

This course offers an overview of different masculinities as they have been represented in literature and film for the past couple decades. Students will first explore the recent developments in masculinity studies, particularly focusing on masculinity along intersectional lines. They will reflect upon the intricate ways of defining, theorizing and conceptualizing masculinity in an age that Zygmunt Bauman has defined as liquid. They will read novels such as Tomboy by French writer Nina Bouraoui, Salvation Army by Moroccan writer Abdellah Taïa and watch films such as Death Proof by American film director Quentin Tarentino, Facing Mirrors by Iranian film director Negar Azarbayjani, Boys Don't Cry by American film director Kimberly Peirce.

Ever since its formation in the nineteenth century the metropolis has functioned as a multivalent metaphor for the experiences of ''modern'' life. Portrayed at once as a space of disruption and of stability, of danger and of creativity, the city has as found a place in the modernist and postmodernist imagination that reflects how a people's surroundings influence thought pattern and social practices. At the same time of course the needs of ever-evolving groups of inhabitants form the shape cities take. Taking Zurich as the case study, students will ask how overlapping and interacting slices of urban culture, ranging from the material (buildings, squares, streets and bridges), to the symbolic (narratives, myths and legends), and the performative (music, theater and film) shape our urban experience.

In 1619 the first slaves reached the new colonies in what is now the United States of America, founding a history of pervasive, discriminatory, racialist ideology that reaches all the way into our present. In a first part, this course will trace the history and culture of slavery from the slave trade to the civil war and emancipation and into the era of Jim Crow, the civil rights movement and beyond. Students will read a range of historical texts, policies and legal text that shaped slavery as well as responses to slavery in the form of slave narratives. In a second part, the course investigates through films and documentaries, music, memorials, literature and economic texts how the legacy of slavery continues to shape the culture of the United States in all areas of cultural and political life. In this part, students will grapple with questions of memory and memorializations, cultural appropriations, systemic economic inequalities, cross-cultural conceptions of enslavement and the question of reparations.

Food carries social, symbolic, and political-economic meaning that differs across cultures, and hence cuisine represents a focal point for studying divergent cultural practices. In that sense, this class examines the sociological, anthropological, literary, and cultural dimensions of food. The class will explore people's relationship to food with regard to the environment, gender roles, and social hierarchy, from French haute cuisine to the fast food phenomenon.

A writing workshop that allows students to explore different forms of prose writing including the traditional novel, the epistolary novel, and the graphic novel. This course will emphasize central techniques such as character, setting, beginnings and endings. Each week students will present sketches for critique in the writing workshop, and will compose a short piece of fiction for publication in the final class journal.

Beginning with the post-colonial theory of Edward Said, this class will examine the ideas of exile and immigration in a colonial and post-colonial context. This course will explore exile vs. expatriatism, language and power, movement across cultures, narrative agency and authority, and voices in the new immigrant narrative. By approaching the topic from a comparative perspective, students will be exposed to a polyphony of voices and the variety of experiences associated with exile and the construction of identity. Students will examine, in particular, contemporary fiction as a window to the context of this experience.

This creative writing/cultural theory course focuses on the concept of haunting and related phenomena such as possession or exorcism. The course draws from recent scholarly work in hauntology, a term coined by Jacques Derrida in his SpectresdeMarx (1993). What emerges from this area of research is an unusual theoretical space in which to consider literature and culture, both philosophically (as critical thinkers) and creatively (as authors and performance artists). The class explores and creatively experiments with texts that function primarily as a medium for giving voice to those realms of human experience that are generally considered unreasonable and extrasensory; otherworldly perceptions of parallel dimensions that transcend the laws and rational orderings of the knowable physical world. Students will reflect on ghostly metaphors and manifestations as they are summoned, in various forms and to different ends, by fiction writers, performers, and filmmakers who tend to link stories of haunting to social-psychic-emotional disturbances: expressions of diasporic sensibilities and hyphenated ethnicities, stigmas of invisibility related to shadows of class and gender, spectral polyvalence and the paranormal activity emerging from recent theoretical discourse around taboo conceptual couplings such as the queer child and/or the ''unruly/child''.

The focus of postmodernity on surface phenomena and diversity, its concern with the personal, the subjective and with identity have worked to make fashion a field of studies that has gained importance in the last 15 years. Aiming at getting past the age-old belief in the essential frivolity of fashion, this course examines how fashion draws upon recurrent instabilities of men and women (masculinity vs femininity, youth vs elderliness, domesticity vs worldliness, inclusion vs exclusion etc...) to thrive and express its creativity, how its ever constant shifting nature results in the notions of gender, ethnicity and class status to be ever more fluid, how it has been redefining the body and its image, in particular with the advent of the supermodel in the eighties, and last but not least, how it relates to and signifies within so many aspects of our daily life and environment, whether it be space (work vs domesticity, urban vs non-urban), photography (static vs dynamic), music (alternative vs pop) and sexuality.

''Human Rights'' has become a key selling point for organizations, political parties and social movements. And yet what is actually meant by the term often remains vague, and it is difficult to take the critical stance necessary to judge its significance. In this class we interrogate the term with a series of questions: what counts as ''human'' in the discourses surrounding Human Rights? What sorts of rights do individuals in fact have simply by virtue of being human? Do all humans have the same rights? Who gets to decide this? How has the definition changed over the last 200 years? To what extent is the term gendered, determined by class and racialized? And finally: how do different national settings change how we think about and act on ideas of Human Rights? This course will examine these questions by tracing ideas surrounding Human Rights in treatises, literary texts, films, debates and case studies from the Enlightenment to the present. Against the backdrop of foundational texts such as The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Vindication of the Rights of Woman, declarations by the European Court of Human Rights, the African Court on Human and People's Rights, the Geneva convention and the United Nations Human Rights Commission students will consider literary and filmic works that grapple critically with the terms they lay out. Students will also consider how NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch translate the political rhetoric to apply their own interpretations of Human Rights to their field work.

In this course, the class will work to create a more critical understanding of what race is, what race does, and how contemporary racial meanings are constructed and disseminated. In order to do so, students will explore Critical Race Theory (CRT) and critical theories of race in several contexts. CRT refers to a theory that emerged among legal educators in the US in the 1980s and 1990s. In the last twenty years, a growing number of scholars in fields such as cultural studies, gender studies, history, media studies, politics, postcolonial studies and sociology have integrated and developed the work done by critical race theorists. This course will focus in particular on this interdisciplinary approach to critical race studies. The practice of race will be examined as well as the policies and institutions that shape race in a global context in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Finally, students will consider the intersection of race and other social hierarchies, including gender, sexuality and social class.

This course aims to investigate law's place in culture and culture's place in law. This focus proceeds from the realization that law does not function in a vacuum but exerts a powerful influence on all manner of cultural practice and production, even as its own operation is influenced in turn by various forms of culture. Given this increasing porosity and interpermeability of Law and different forms of culture, the focus of this course is on the mutual influence between law and other discursive practices, such as literature, TV sit-coms and film. In studying a number of prominent legal cases such as Brown v the Board of Education, we will explore the following questions: What are the mechanisms by which popular representations and cultural practices find their way into legal processes and decisions? How does law in turn bleed into and influence cultural processes? Does law act as a buffer against societal assumptions about, and constructions of, gender, age, ability, sexuality and ethnicity, or does it re-enforce and re-inscribe existing social norms?

The cultural debris that results from political and natural catastrophes is made up of narratives that contain both implosion and creation, wreckage and renewal. In that sense disasters mark pivotal turning points in the way we conceptualize and understand human phenomena and cultural processes in a number of disciplinary perspectives from psychoanalysis to literature, from environmental science to religion and from ethics to aesthetics. Students will read the narrative fallout in fiction, science, and film that emanate from distinct disaster zones ranging from the petrified texture of Pompeii to the generative force field of ground zero.

CLCS 497 is the first of two capstone courses for majors in CLCS, and will follow the trajectory of a traditional reading course. Students and the professor will choose an extensive reading list that includes fundamental, primary and theoretical texts in literature and CLCS taken largely from the courses taught in the disciplines. Students will then choose their own texts to add to the core list that represent the individual student's particular area of interest. Class sessions will be devoted to the development of the list and subsequent discussion of the chosen works. Evaluation pieces include a comprehensive exam and a proposal for the subsequent thesis (CLCS 499) or internship project (CLCS 498).

This entry-level course in economics covers the fundamentals of macroeconomics and, together with ECN 101, it provides the necessary prerequisites for any other upper-level course in economics. This course introduces students to the study of economics as a field of knowledge within the social sciences. In the first part, focus will be on the definition, the explanation, and the significance of national income, business fluctuations, the price level, and aggregate employment. In the second part, special attention is devoted to the functioning of a payment system based on currency and bank money. Finally, students will discuss the instruments and the functioning of public policy aimed to stabilize prices and maintain high levels of output and employment within the current macroeconomic context. Current economic news will be regularly scrutinized.

This is an entry-level course in economics, covering fundamentals of microeconomics and aimed at students who choose it as an elective or plan to continue their studies in economics. This course helps students develop basic analytical skills in economics and microeconomics. It provides students with a basic understanding of the market system in advanced capitalist economies. It examines the logic of constrained choice with a focus on the economic behavior of individuals and organizations. After a theoretical analysis of the determinants and the interaction of supply and demand under competitive conditions, alternative market structures will be investigated, including monopolistic and oligopolistic forms. The course examines the conditions under which markets allocate resources efficiently and identifies causes of market failure and the appropriate government response. The introduction to the role of government includes its taxing and expenditure activities as well as regulatory policies.

This intermediate-level course studies the evolution of economic ideas from the early Eighteenth century to modern times, with emphasis on the differing conceptions of economic life and the methodological underpinnings of three main strands of thought: Classical economics, Marginalism, and the Keynesian paradigm. The course is organized around four main themes: the source of wealth, the theory of value, economic growth and business cycle in the capitalist system, and the notion of equilibrium in economic analysis. The course aims at providing a systematic conceptual framework to investigate the development of economic ideas, in their intersections with philosophy and the political and historical evolution of societies, hence highlighting the nature of economics as a social science. At the same time, the course stresses the methodological features (in terms of a rigorous and formalized language) peculiar to the economic reasoning.

This intermediate-level course in macroeconomics builds upon the introductory two-semester (ECN 100 and ECN 101) sequence and, in conjunction with ECN 256, prepares students to study upper-level economics. This course is designed to provide students with an appreciation of current economic issues and questions in modern macroeconomics, through the recognition of economics as a controversial subject. In the first part, we review some important measurement issues in macroeconomics that have policy consequences. In the second part, students will explore the competing theoretical frameworks developed in the twentieth century to explain growth cycles, employment and inflation. Finally, the acquired knowledge will be applied to the current policy issues in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Recommended prerequisite: MAT 200.

This intermediate-level course in microeconomics builds upon the introductory two-semester sequence and, in conjunction with ECN 225, prepares students to upper-level economics.  This course completes the theoretical background on microeconomics and introduces students to more advanced topics, with an emphasis on the practical relevance and application of theory. The essence of the course is, in particular, the study of the interaction between rational individual decision-making (e.g. consumers, firms, the government) and the working of economic institutions like markets, regulation and social rules. Topics covered include an introduction to game theory, strategic behavior and entry deterrence; analysis of technological change; the internal organization of the firm; economic efficiency; public goods, externalities and information; government and business.

The course begins with a review of functions and their graphs, after which students are introduced to the concepts of differentiation and integration. Understanding is reinforced through extensive practical work, with a strong emphasis on applications in economics, statistics and management science.

An introduction to the biological sciences. Topics include the principles of genetics, evolutionary theory, ecology, and conservation biology. Students enrolling in this course must enroll in the parallel laboratory section BIO 101L.

The laboratory course parallels the topics in BIO 101 and provides lab-based investigations of the material covered in BIO 101. Students must register for both BIO 101 and the lab section concurrently. Students who have previously taken BIO 101 and only need the lab credit should discuss this possibility with their advisor and the class professor.

This case study based course serves as the bridge experience for students completing their introductory course requirements for the ESS major or the ENV minor and who are now moving into the upper-level courses (However it is open to all interested students meeting the prerequisite). Through detailed examination of several case studies at the local, regional, and global levels, students synthesize material from introductory level courses to explore the interdisciplinary nature of today’s environmental issues. They examine what different disciplines offer to our understanding of and attempt to solve these issues.

The research project is an opportunity for the student to pursue independent research or a professional project on a topic related to the student's course of study. Depending on the student's career path, the research can be classified either as a research project or a thesis.

This course provides an introduction to the essentials of French grammar, vocabulary, and culture. The acquisition of aural/oral skills are stressed right from the beginning, and as such, the predominant language of instruction is French. In this course, students will acquire basic knowledge of written and spoken structures so that they will be able to read and comprehend short passages in French and write simple compositions and dialogues.

This course is designed for students who have completed one semester of French Language study. This course builds on FRE 100 and provides an introduction to the essentials of French grammar, vocabulary, and culture. The acquisition of aural/oral skills are stressed, and as such, the predominant language of instruction is French. In this course, students will acquire basic knowledge of written and spoken structures so that they will be able to read and comprehend short passages in French and write simple compositions and dialogues.

This course is designed for students who have completed one year of French language study. It reviews and expands on grammar, vocabulary, and culture acquired in FRE 100 and FRE 101. The acquisition of aural/oral skills are stressed, and as such, the predominant language of instruction is French. By the end of the course, students are expected to be proficient in the written and spoken usage of intermediate linguistic structures. Further, students are introduced to short literary texts, inviting conversation and some initial literary analysis.

This course is designed for students who have completed three semesters of French language study. It reviews and expands on grammar, vocabulary, and culture acquired over the previous semesters of language study. The acquisition of aural/oral skills are stressed, and as such, the predominant language of instruction is French. By the end of the course, students are expected to be proficient in the written and spoken usage of intermediate linguistic structures. Further, students are introduced to literary texts, inviting conversation and some initial literary analysis.

For students who have completed at least two years of college-level language studies or the equivalent. This course reinforces and expands on grammar, vocabulary, and culture learnt in previous years of French language study. It introduces students to different literary and cinematic genres reflecting the contemporary scene of the Francophone world. Development of techniques of expression are accomplished through oral and written exercises.

For students who have completed at least two years of college-level language studies or the equivalent. This course reinforces and expands on grammar, vocabulary, and culture learnt in previous years of French language study. It introduces students to different literary and cinematic genres reflecting the contemporary scene of the Francophone world. Development of techniques of expression are accomplished through oral and written exercises. By the end of this course, students are expected to achieve proficiency at the B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

This survey course is an introduction to the political, economic, social, and intellectual history of the west from the Neolithic to the voyages of discovery in the sixteenth century. Our knowledge and understanding of the past is contingent and contested. The course explores areas of contestation to give students a better understanding of the forces and events which shaped the ancient and medieval worlds and continue to shape the modern world. (It is recommended that HIS 100 be taken prior to HIS 101.)

This survey course is an introduction to the political, economic, social, and intellectual history of the west from the scientific revolution to the present. Our knowledge and understanding of the past is contingent and contested. The course explores areas of contestation to give students a better understanding of the forces and events which have shaped the modern world.

This course is an introduction to themes and trends in the political, economic, cultural, and social, history of pre-modern societies in global perspective. It covers the development of civilizations in Eurasia, Africa and the Americas from the Neolithic Revolution to the ''Columbian Exchange'' with emphasis on the emergence and diffusion of religious and political institutions, the role of the environmental context, as well as the impact of encounters between human societies. Students are introduced to the historiography of empire and global history/globalization, and attention is devoted to the reading and analysis of different categories of primary sources.

This course is an introduction to themes and trends in the political, economic, cultural, and social history of modern societies in global perspective. It covers the development of societies in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas from the ''Columbian Exchange'' to the twenty-first century with emphasis on the development of institutions within their changing cultural, political, and environmental context, as well as the impact of encounters between human societies. Students are introduced to the historiography of globalization and of the modern state. Further attention is devoted to the analysis of different categories of primary sources. (It is recommended that HIS 104 be taken prior to HIS 105).

The study of history is about the role of human beings in changing times. Over the last two hundred years the idea of the role of humans in history has developed from the ‘hero’s’ perspective of agency to an understanding of the interplay between the individual and the wider environment and society. This course explores how these changing examples have been represented in biographical and autobiographical writings, and what these different perspectives mean for our interpretation of the role of human beings in history. Starting with the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and excerpts from various biographies of this Founding Father of the United States, this course also serves as an introduction to the history of historiography and life writing in a western context, and enables students to further contextualize their own experience and research.

Through the violent and chaotic twentieth century, new technologies of destruction which threatened unprecedented levels of violence and lethality were developed. These technologies; chemical and biological weapons, strategic bombing, and, most significantly, nuclear weapons, had deep and enduring impacts on the conduct of international affairs as well as on societies and cultures. This course examines these impacts and how they revolutionized warfare and diplomacy and engendered grass-roots peace, anti-nuclear, and environmental movements. In addition, students are also introduced to the fundamentals of historiography and historical methods which enable students to develop their research, critical analysis, and writing skills. (

Students in their Senior year who wish to graduate with a Major in History (stand alone or combined) need to take this capstone version of HIS 310 (see course description). Students in HIS 410 attend all meetings of HIS 310 and are responsible for additional and more in-depth work including an oral presentation and seminars with the instructor. This additional work is geared towards preparing the student for the successful completion of their Senior Thesis. (Students who have already earned credit for HIS 310 or HIS 210 may not enroll and earn credit for HIS 410.)

Students in their Senior year who wish to graduate with a Major in History (stand alone or combined) take this capstone version of HIS 330 (see course description). Students in HIS 430 attend all meetings of HIS 330 and are responsible for additional and more in-depth work including an oral presentation and seminars with the instructor. This additional work is geared towards preparing the student for the successful completion of the Senior Thesis. (Students who have already earned credit for HIS 330 may not enroll and earn credit for HIS 430.)

Students in their Senior year who wish to graduate with a major in History (stand alone or combined) need to take this capstone version of HIS 351 (see course description). Students in HIS 451 attend all meetings of HIS 351 and are responsible for additional and more in-depth work, to include an oral presentation and tutorials with the instructor. The additional work and the tutorials are geared towards preparing the student for the successful completion of their Senior Thesis. Students who have earned credit for HIS 351 in a previous year may not enroll and earn credit for HIS 451.

Students in their Senior year who wish to graduate with a Major in History (stand alone or combined) need to take this capstone version of HIS 355 (see course description). Students in HIS 455 attend all meetings of HIS 355 and are responsible for additional and more in-depth work, to include an oral presentation and tutorials with the instructor. The additional work and the tutorials are geared towards preparing the student for the successful completion of their Senior Thesis. Students who have earned credit for HIS 355 in a previous year may not enroll and earn credit for HIS 455.

Students in their Senior year who wish to graduate with a Major in History (stand alone or combined) need to take this capstone version of HIS 360 (see course description). Students in HIS 460 attend all meetings of HIS 360 and are responsible for additional and more in-depth work including an oral presentation and seminars with the instructor. This additional work is geared towards preparing the student for the successful completion of their Senior Thesis. Students who have already earned credit for SEM 372 Revolution and Russia may not enroll and earn credit for HIS 460.

Designed for students with no prior knowledge of Italian. ITA 100 employs immersive experiential learning pedagogy, providing an introduction to the essentials of Italian grammar, vocabulary, and culture. The acquisition of aural/oral communication skills will be stressed and, as such, the predominant language of instruction will be Italian. By the end of the course students will achieve proficiency at the A1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Students are expected to acquire the basic knowledge of the written and spoken structures. Students are expected to read and comprehend short passages in Italian and to draft simple compositions / dialogues. Project-based assignments will be designed to foster practical communication skills and encourage efforts towards increased student integration in the local Italian-speaking community. Whenever possible, students will be encouraged to participate actively in local initiatives, festivals, events and to apply the skills they are mastering in class to their co-curricular learning on and off campus

ITA 101 employs immersive experiential learning pedagogy, providing an introduction to the essentials of Italian grammar, vocabulary, and culture. This course is designed for students who have completed one semester of Italian language study. The course provides an introduction to the essentials of Italian grammar, vocabulary, and culture. The acquisition of aural/oral communication skills will be stressed and, as such, the predominant language of instruction will be Italian. By the end of the course students will achieve proficiency at the A2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Students will be expected to be proficient in the written and spoken usage of basic linguistic structures. Students will be expected to read and comprehend short passages in Italian and to draft simple compositions / dialogues. Project-based assignments will be designed to foster practical communication skills and encourage efforts towards increased student integration in the local Italian-speaking community. Whenever possible, students will be encouraged to participate actively in local initiatives, festivals, events and to apply the skills they are mastering in class to their co-curricular learning on and off campus.

This course is designed for students who have completed two semesters of Italian language study. The course provides a review and expansion of command of Italian grammar, vocabulary, and culture. The acquisition of aural/oral communication skills will be stressed and, as such, the predominant language of instruction will be Italian. By the end of the course students will achieve proficiency at the B1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Students will be expected to be proficient in the written and spoken usage of intermediate linguistic structures. Students will be expected to deal with most situations likely to arise in the areas where the language is spoken. They will be able to: a) produce simple connected texts on topics, which are familiar or of personal interest; b) describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions; and c) briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. Project-based assignments will be designed to foster practical communication skills and encourage efforts towards increased student integration in the local Italian-speaking community. Whenever possible, students will be encouraged to participate actively in local initiatives, festivals, events and to apply the skills they are mastering in class to their co-curricular learning on and off campus.

This course is designed for students who have completed three semesters of Italian language study. The course provides a review and expansion of command of Italian grammar, vocabulary, and culture. The acquisition of aural/oral communication skills will be stressed and, as such, the predominant language of instruction will be Italian. By the end of the course students will achieve proficiency at the B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Students will be expected to be proficient in the written and spoken usage of intermediate linguistic structures. Students will be able to interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. They will be able to: a) understand the main ideas of complex texts on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization; b) produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options. Whenever possible, the written assignments will be designed to foster practical communication skills and encourage efforts towards increased student integration in the local Italian-speaking community.

For students who have completed at least two years of college-level language studies or the equivalent. This course offers cultural readings from a variety of sources, including some literary pieces, as well as magazine and newspaper articles reflecting the contemporary scene in the countries where the language is spoken. Vocabulary expansion and development of techniques of expression are accomplished through oral and written exercises.

For students who have completed at least two years of college-level language studies or the equivalent. This course offers cultural readings from a variety of sources, including some literary pieces, as well as magazine and newspaper articles reflecting the contemporary scene in the countries where the language is spoken. Vocabulary expansion and development of techniques of expression are accomplished through oral and written exercises.

The number and variety of towns, cities, villages and castles stunned travelers to Italy in the early Middle Ages. This phenomenon became even more distinctive with the passing of time. During the Renaissance, the Italian city-states were compressed into wider, regional domains which were ruled by either a local family or a foreign state, and, much to Machiavelli’s regret, republicanism gave way to what we now know as the court civilization. Though the seats of intrinsically tyrannical powers, Italian courts and their patrons were successful in allying themselves with the most powerful of them all: the power of culture and art. In return, they were transformed into ideal, timeless places whose death was meant to be regretted. Even today, Italy retains her fairy-land beauty, and her monuments (public or private, urban, suburban or rural) still possess their unique power of inspiration notwithstanding the touristic commercialization. The course examines a number of authors and artists who took part in the shaping of both the communal and court values that formed Italy’s manifold cultural identities. Additionally, the course includes fairy-tales from the Italian folkloric tradition, where princes and princesses provide yet another perspective of Italy’s many ''kingdoms''. The travel itinerary will include visits to Ravenna, Arezzo and Florence, Urbino, Padua, Vicenza and Mantua.

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the major accomplishments of Italian cinema from ''neorealism'' through the ''commedia all'italiana'' to the present. Emphasis is placed on film as a narrative, visual, and theoretical medium for scholarly exploration of current societal issues in contemporary life. Some of Italy's major film directors will be considered, such as Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti, Antonioni, the Taviani brothers, Scola. Particular attention is dedicated to the films of Fellini. A module dedicated to Italian-American cinema (Capra, Scorsese, Coppola, Tarantino) offers a means for comparative study of two related but contrasting traditions in filmmaking. EMPHASIS IS PLACED ON FILM AS A NARRATIVE, VISUAL, AND THEORETICAL MEDIUM FOR SCHOLARLY EXPLORATION OF CURRENT SOCIIETAL ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY LIFE

While focusing on the twentieth century and its various -isms (Futurism, Decadentism, Crepuscularism, Hermeticism, Neorealism), this course also offers a broader, foundational history of Italian poetry from the poets of the scuola siciliana to Dante and Petrarch;surveying major developments in Italian poetry since the Renaissance. Among the authors we will be looking at will be Giuseppe Ungaretti, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Salvatore Quasimodo, Eugenio Montale, Maria Luisa Spaziani, Cesare Pavese, Elio Vittorini, Dino Campana, Mario Luzi, Lalla Romano, Amelia Rosselli, Andrea Zanzotto. The course will be conducted entirely in English.

This course, conducted entirely in English, is distinguished by a creative writing component that runs parallel to a topical exploration of the history of the Italian short story, from the Middle Ages to the present. While analyzing the transformation of the short story throughout the centuries, students will use their creative writing as a means to travel, figuratively, into foreign landscapes; to experiment, literally, with foreign concepts and forms. Students will discover key questions in Italian cultural history such as the Italian search for a common linguistic identity or the struggle for political unification. They will reflect on these questions as informed thinkers and interact with Italian culture as experimental authors. Special attention will be paid to thematic as well as formal issues in the stories of writers such as Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli, Giovanni Verga, Luigi Pirandello, Matilde Serao, Alberto Moravia, Natalia Ginzburg, and Italo Calvino. Local Swiss writers, and related questions of Ticinese identity, may also be introduced.

The course explores the expression of the male and female narrative ''I'' against the greater context of the historical development of the Italian novel, with an emphasis on the late 19th and 20th centuries. An experiential approach to classic texts, framed by embodied learning methodology whereby students will improvise and adapt excerpts to allow literature to come alive through focused performance exercise and spectator reflection. As the traditional Italian hero finds his narrative trajectory from Modernity into the Postmodern, the Italian heroine appears to be engaged in the pursuit of Other agendas. The ongoing affirmation of a feminine alternative to the insistently male-dominated Italian canon will be studied via readings from the following novels: Giovanni Verga's The House by the Medlar Tree and Italo Svevo's Confessions of Zeno, Luigi Pirandello's, The Late Mattia Pascal, Sibilla Aleramo's A Woman, Grazia Deledda's Cosima, Natlia Ginsburg Family Sayings, Dacia Maraini's The Silent Duchess, Anna Banti's Artemisia. The course will be conducted entirely in English.

This course offers an innovative look at Italian filmmakers, novelists, journalists, television actors, philosophers, photographers, translators, singers, contemporary internet personalities, who refuse to be defined by one category of artistry and, instead, view work across genres and media as an important means to amplifying the scope and range of their unique message, while commonly embracing the value of cross-fertilization and hybridity. Franca Rame and Dario Fo, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Federico Fellini, Dacia Maraini, Umberto Eco, Amelia Rosselli: these are just a few of the Italian cultural icons of hybridity to whom students will be introduced. There is a significant project production component to this class which asks students to venture into multimedia assignments (merging digital photography with fiction writing, for example; or exploring the concept of liminality in both music and the prose poem).

The stories told in the films and novels to be studied in this course were written by two generations of Italians typically associated in literary history with what has been called the mito americano, or American myth. Defining and contextualizing this myth will be among our first objectives. In what ways has the New World positively impacted Old World culture and, conversely, what are some of the negative perceptions of America (or apocalyptic anxieties) represented by Italian writers and filmmakers? Authors to be studied (in translation) may include Mario Soldati, Ignazio Silone, Beppe Fenoglio, Eugenio Montale, Italo Calvino, Curzio Malaparte, Elio Vittorini, Cesare Pavese, Umberto Eco, Alberto Moravia, Giorgio Bassani. Among the chief learning goals in this course is to provide students with the opportunity to consider some of the common metaphorical and allegorical terms in which America has been positively and negatively mythified through the lens of Italian film, poetry, and fiction.

This course provides an introduction to classic cinematic portrayals of the city of Rome and its inhabitants, with an emphasis on 20th-century authors and filmmakers. Landmark films, such as Roberto Rossellini's ''Open City'' and Federico Fellini's ''La Dolce Vita'' will be contextualized both historically and thematically. Subsequently, students will begin crafting their own short film design; to be pitched in the form of a multi-media presentation prior to travel. Filming and production will follow in Rome, under the guidance and supervision of the professor. During the final weeks of the semester, class time will be devoted to close the discussion of contemporary readings from Italian Cultural Studies and, parallel to this, editing and completion of the student's semester-long short film project. Students enrolling in this course should have basic knowledge of how to create and edit short films using their own digital video devices. Students should be familiar with the program Final Cut (or similar editing program).

Italy in many of its aspects can be considered to be a laboratory of Western modernity. The peninsula had a leading role in Western affairs during Antiquity and the Middle Ages, but this role was lost by the end of the fifteenth century.  During  the  modern  age,  however, Italy continued to provide a central point of reference in the European mind. This course focuses attention on the cultural, social and political developments in Italian history in their European context since the Renaissance. Themes include the struggles over national identity in the absence of a unified nation state, the differing regions and competing centers, the interplay of culture and politics, the discussions of the nature of law and of legitimacy, and the relation between religion and politics.

This course is designed to provide students with a basic knowledge of financial accounting concepts, procedures, analysis, and internal reports as an essential part of the decision-making process. The focus is on the three basic steps of the accounting process: recording, classifying, and summarizing financial transactions. Emphasis is placed on the general accounting activities leading up to the preparation of financial statements.

The course introduces the global business system in the context of the economic, political, social and technological environments, relating business to society as a whole. Topics covered include the international scope, function, and organization of firms, and other fundamental concepts of multinational business. The course also addresses functional areas such as the value chain, production, marketing, human resources, and accounting.

This course is an introduction to the tools and concepts used in the marketing process for consumer and industrial products as well as for services. The focus is on the basic marketing concepts (product, place, price, promotion) as they relate to the field of global marketing. Emphasis is placed on the increasingly important role of interdisciplinary tools to analyze economic, cultural and structural differences across international markets. Specific consideration is given to the development of integrated marketing programs for a complex, global environment.

This entry-level course in economics covers the fundamentals of macroeconomics and, together with ECN 101, it provides the necessary prerequisites for any other upper-level course in economics. This course introduces students to the study of economics as a field of knowledge within the social sciences. In the first part, focus will be on the definition, the explanation, and the significance of national income, business fluctuations, the price level, and aggregate employment. In the second part, special attention is devoted to the functioning of a payment system based on currency and bank money. Finally, students will discuss the instruments and the functioning of public policy aimed to stabilize prices and maintain high levels of output and employment within the current macroeconomic context. Current economic news will be regularly scrutinized.

This is an entry-level course in economics, covering fundamentals of microeconomics and aimed at students who choose it as an elective or plan to continue their studies in economics. This course helps students develop basic analytical skills in economics and microeconomics. It provides students with a basic understanding of the market system in advanced capitalist economies. It examines the logic of constrained choice with a focus on the economic behavior of individuals and organizations. After a theoretical analysis of the determinants and the interaction of supply and demand under competitive conditions, alternative market structures will be investigated, including monopolistic and oligopolistic forms. The course examines the conditions under which markets allocate resources efficiently and identifies causes of market failure and the appropriate government response. The introduction to the role of government includes its taxing and expenditure activities as well as regulatory policies.

This computer-based course presents the main concepts in Statistics: the concept of random variables, frequency, and probability distributions, variance and standard deviation, kurtosis and skewness, probability rules, Bayes theorem, and posterior probabilities. Important statistical methods like Contingency analysis, ANOVA, Correlation analysis and Regression Analysis are introduced and their algorithms are fully explained. The most important probability distributions are introduced: Binomial, Poisson, and Normal distribution, as well as the Chebyshev theorem for non-known distributions. Inferential statistics, sampling distributions, and confidence intervals are covered to introduce statistical model building and single linear regression. Active learning and algorithmic learning are stressed. Emphasis is put both on algorithms –methods and assumptions for their applications. Excel is used while calculators with STAT buttons are not allowed. Ultimately students are required to make a month-long research project, select the theoretical concept they want to test, perform a literature review, find real data from Internet databases or make their surveys, apply methods they studied in the class, and compare theoretical results with their findings. Research is done and presented in groups, papers are Individual. Selected SPSS or Excel Data Analysis examples are also provided.

This course examines the principles and practices of fund management in organizations. Attention is given to managerial financial decisions in a global market setting concerning such questions as how to obtain an adequate supply of capital and credit, and how to evaluate alternative sources of funds and their costs. Topics include the management of assets and liabilities, working capital management, capital budgeting, equity versus debt financing, capital structure, and financial forecasting.

In the first part of this computer-based course, students learn linear programming algorithms and how to apply them for resource allocation in production, investment selection, media selection, transportation planning, job assignments, financial planning, make or buy decision making and overtime planning contexts. In the second part of the course, students learn how to choose the best decision using expected monetary value (EMV), how to make optimum decision strategies under uncertainty by making decision trees, how to evaluate marketing research information, and how to apply project management (PERT) basic steps. Ultimately students are asked to conduct a month-long research and development project to define a real organizational decision strategy.

Strategic management is the study of firms and the political, economic, social and technological environments that affect their organization and strategic decisions. This course considers the external market environment in which firms operate, and provides theoretical foundations, focusing on economic and strategic theories of the firm and introducing key concepts of organizational theory. Practically, the course looks at the creation of competitive advantage of a firm in the global arena. The readings and class discussions include both theoretical concepts and practical case studies. (Junior status recommended)

This course studies the internal environment of firms and organizations, namely how to organize and manage people in order to implement strategic plans effectively. Topics include: organizational structures and change, human resources, leadership, group dynamics and teamwork, motivation, and multicultural management. Special attention will be given to the study of leadership, which plays a critical role in increasingly complex and multicultural organizations. The readings and class discussions include both theoretical concepts, case studies and practical exercises.(This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirement.) (Junior status recommended)

This course introduces students to the most common qualitative and quantitative techniques for conducting marketing research with an emphasis on their application. The definition of marketing research problems, the set-up of research plans, and the subsequent data collection and analysis are illustrated and applied by means of real world projects. Students are required to implement, in groups, the skills covered in class, and to prepare a final research report to discuss and present in class.

This course exposes students to an integrated, global approach of two-way communication with consumers, customers and suppliers, and other stakeholders of companies and organizations. Students explore the communications process that is essential in contemporary global business cultures. Media options are explored for a range of target audiences. Discussions on the use of advertising, public relations, sales promotions, internet promotion, direct marketing and other techniques will be included. It takes a contemporary approach to the field of integrated marketing communications, highlighting how recent changes and rapid changes in the family, business environment, technology and the world in general are forcing communications specialists and advertisers to make major changes in the way they reach their markets. The course will draw on knowledge in fields such as psychology, sociology and anthropology, as well as media studies and communications.

In the first part of this course students learn concepts in inferential statistics, its main principles and algorithms. They learn how to apply sampling distributions in the case of business random variables, how to state and test business hypotheses about population mean or proportion differences, how to calculate ANOVA table components, and how to deploy estimation methods to provide information needed to solve real business problems. In the second part of the course, students learn advanced model building methods, algorithms needed to make and test dynamic multiple regression models and time series (ARMA) models. In addition to teaching and learning methods based on the textbook, problem-based learning (PBL) and interactive engagement (IE) are used. Many internet data bases, EXCEL add-ins and EViews are used to enhance IE based learning. Selected SPSS or STATA examples are also provided.

This course considers the nature, concepts, techniques, and ethics of the managerial accounting function, the preparation of reports, and the uses of accounting data for internal decision-making in manufacturing, retail, service, government, and non-profit organizations. Topics covered include a review of financial accounting, cost definitions and measurement, job-order and process costing, models of cost behavior, break-even and cost-volume-profit-analysis, activity-based costing and management systems, flexible budgeting methods, cost variance analysis, and a consideration of output & pricing decisions throughout the entire enterprise.

This course addresses the impact of modern information technology and data management concepts at the functional levels of international business, especially in the areas of finance, marketing, accounting and resource management. The computer-based section of the course provides methodology and software tools, advanced Excel modeling, Microsoft Access, and DBMS, necessary to develop and evaluate Decision Support Systems, Management Information Systems, and Transaction Processing Systems. Case-based learning is utilized to stress how international firms can gain a competitive advantage by leveraging information technology. (Recommended BUS 326)

This course deals with financial problems of multinational business. Topics include sources of funds for foreign operations, capital budgeting and foreign investment decisions, foreign exchange losses, and evaluation of securities of multinational and foreign corporations. Particular emphasis is placed on international capital and financial markets. Recommended: BUS 306.

This course, intended as a capstone to the International Management major, should come after students have studied all basic aspects of management. The course focuses on the development and implementation of multinational corporate strategies. Using the case study method and a computer-based simulation, students are required to apply the concepts of accounting, finance, marketing, management science and organizational behavior to the development of a strategic plan. Emphasis includes the integration of strategy, organizational structure and corporate culture.(As a capstone, this writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements.) (This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirement).

Basic concepts of the discipline are discussed in this class with a focus on the evolution of the state and the role of the individual from historical, ideological, and comparative perspectives.

This course provides the basic analytic tools necessary for the understanding of international relations. After a brief introduction to the realist and liberal approaches to the study of international relations, the course covers various fundamental concepts, such as national power, foreign policy, conflict, political economy, international trade, and international organizations.

The development of the modern nation-state is analyzed from a variety of theoretical viewpoints. The approach and methods of major social theorists are examined in detail. Formerly POL 400. Students who have previously earned credit for POL 400 cannot earn credit for POL 300.

This course concentrates on the major approaches, models and theories in the study of international relations. Micro and macro theories, deductive and inductive methods are explored from historical, political and economic perspectives. The relations between the major powers in the twentieth century are examined for their relevance in the study of international politics.

This course is designed to familiarize students with the major currents of political philosophy. It covers a broad range of central thinkers from the major philosophers of ancient Greece up to the proponents of modern-day liberalism. The course situates political philosophies in their historical context of emergence and thereby provides an overview of the history of the central ideas which are at the heart of thinking about politics, society and justice. The reading of primary and secondary sources serves as the basis for in-depth class discussions and a critical engagement with the normative underpinnings of societal organization.

Political entities have always sought ways to organize economic activity, including the production and distribution of goods and services. This course introduces students to the key ideas and theories that have shaped debates on the political and social implications of economic policies. Students learn about different understandings of prosperity, welfare and development, which are connected to political questions of freedom, equality, authority and power. The course also explores different methodological standpoints; from rational choice to institutionalism, postmodernism and historical materialism. It places particular emphasis on the role of governments and political interests in shaping conflictual processes of collective decision-making. Finally, this course also looks at key political actors (states, organized labor, capital) and their interactions, thereby highlighting how strategic factors influence social, political and economic choices. (Recommended prerequisite: POL 101)

This course serves as a capstone for departmental majors. It focuses on classical and contemporary contributions in our fields and directly addresses the methodologies which students need to write their final theses. Students will be required to actively prepare and discuss class readings. They will also have the opportunity to work on their thesis projects and to discuss these in class.

Senior Thesis proposals are to be coordinated with the faculty advisor and the Division Chair.

An introduction to the biological sciences. Topics include the principles of genetics, evolutionary theory, ecology, and conservation biology. Students enrolling in this course must enroll in the parallel laboratory section BIO 101L.

The laboratory course parallels the topics in BIO 101 and provides lab-based investigations of the material covered in BIO 101. Students must register for both BIO 101 and the lab section concurrently. Students who have previously taken BIO 101 and only need the lab credit should discuss this possibility with their advisor and the class professor.

This course provides students with an introduction to the biological sciences focused on the structure and functioning of animal cells and organs. Topics include basic biochemistry, cell structure and function, cellular respiration, and animal physiology. This course will emphasize human anatomy and physiology as model systems for understanding and contrasting key principles of animal biology. Students enrolling in this course must enroll in the parallel laboratory section BIO 102L.

The laboratory course parallels the topics in BIO 102 and provides lab-based investigations of the material covered in BIO 102. Students must register for both BIO 102 and the lab section concurrently. Students who have previously taken BIO 102 and only need the lab credit should discuss this possibility with their advisor and the class professor.

Introduction to major theories and research findings of social psychology in order to provide an understanding of the roles of cognitive and motivational processes in social behavior. The focus of this course is on how people's behavior, feelings and thoughts are influenced through social environment.

This course surveys the major areas of developmental psychology - the science of individual human development. The overall aim is to introduce students to the fundamental questions, ideas and approaches in the psychology of development. The course emphasizes an understanding of the methods, terms, theories and findings in the field, traces human development across the entire lifespan, and explores the basic developmental theories including the biological influences on development, behavior and learning. To complete the study of human development, the course presents a multi-cultural perspective, examining the diversity of human adaptations to change across the lifespan, by cultures around the world.

The course addresses itself to a comprehensive in-depth study of the following question: What is personality? The major theories of personality which are prominent and important today in the field of psychology are considered individually in detail, chronologically and comparatively. These include the classical psycho-analytical theory of Freud, Jungian theory, existential/phenomenological theories, cognitive theories and behavior psychology.

Criminology deals with crimes and their authors through a multi-disciplinary lens, one that includes psychology, medicine, law and sociology. After introducing several of the fundamental theoretical frameworks upon which criminology is based, this course will focus on the analysis of single psycho-pathologies and how they relate to crime, in particular homicide, sex crimes, abuse, and white-collar crimes. The course will include lectures as well as the analysis of criminal cases and the participation of local experts in the field.

The overall aim of this course is to promote students’ understanding and knowledge of research methodology in the social sciences. The course has three main features: it addresses a wide range of perspectives, comprising both qualitative and quantitative approaches; it provides opportunities to learn and reflect from research practice in various social science fields, including clinical, developmental, social and work psychology; it encompasses both traditional/mainstream and critical research approaches, paying constant attention to real world research. An important part of the course is the ''Research Proposal'', which students will draft in stages over the course of the semester. By working on their own research proposal throughout the course, students will have the opportunity to engage in relevant research activity, ‘learning by doing’ in relation to crucial research principles and practices.

This course provides an in-depth exploration of human cognition, focusing on both classic and current issues. In this class, students will discuss how cognitive psychologists build theories (or models) of mental processes, and how these models are used to understand and predict behavior. Topics to be covered include (but may not be limited to): history of cognitive psychology, research methods in cognitive psychology, attention, perception, memory, language, and reasoning. In addition to these subjects, we will examine the research on social cognition, motivation, and emotions.

This course is intended to introduce and familiarize students with the concept of multicultural psychology. The entire field of psychology from a perspective that is mindful of the diversity in today’s society will be considered. Students will explore the ways in which psychology is socially constructed and will pay particular attention to the following factors as they influence human development: oppression, language, acculturation, economic concerns, racism and prejudice, socio-political factors, child-rearing practices, religious practices, family structure and dynamics, and cultural values and attitudes.

A study of the major patterns of abnormal behavior and their description, diagnosis, interpretation, treatment, and prevention.

This course will provide an in-depth exploration of the key concepts, theories, and research methods in Organizational Psychology. Organizations are complex networks of social relationships between individuals, within groups, and between groups. In this course, students will examine individual, interpersonal, group and cultural behaviors in organizations. Topics to be covered include: group decision-making and communication styles; managing group processes and team design; leadership and power strategies within groups; performance management and work teams; and networking and negotiation within and across groups and organizations.

This course introduces a relatively new field of study in psychology that focuses on the interaction between the environment and human beings, examining how the physical features of the environment impact cognition, behavior, and well-being, and how human actions in turn produce immediate and long-term consequences on the environment. In this course, the environment is broadly defined to include not only our physical surroundings (both natural and built) but also the larger, socio-cultural and political milieu in which people live. This course will borrow ideas and information from a variety of other areas and disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, biology, geography, urban planning, public policy, and other areas. Topics to be covered include: dysfunctional and restorative environments, the effects of environmental stressors, the nature and use of personal space, environmental risk perception, psychological impact of ecological crises, values and attitudes towards nature, and conservation psychology.

Topics in Psychology vary from year to year. They are advanced courses on specific topics not normally offered, and they may require additional pre-requisites or permission of instruction.

This seminar provides students with a capstone experience in synthesizing their theoretical and methodological knowledge in the form of a high-quality research paper. Some of the major areas of research and theories in the field of communication and media studies will be reviewed and discussed in class as students work on their own research project. At the end of the semester, students will present their final research paper to an audience of students and professors. Students will also be encouraged to submit their paper to an appropriate conference venue around the world. (Prerequisite: Senior status)

Internship project in a related field to be coordinated with the Division Chair and faculty advisor.

Thesis proposals to be coordinated with the Division Chair and faculty advisor.

The course offers an introduction to the history of art and visual culture from antiquity to the Renaissance. It studies painting, sculpture, architecture, and prints within their historical, social, and cultural contexts, as well as their representation in modern media (film, documentary, etc).

The course is the sequel to AHT 102 and offers an introduction to the history of art and visual culture from the High Renaissance to the present day. It studies early modern painting, sculpture, architecture, and prints within their historical, social, and cultural contexts, as well as photography and new media in the modern and contemporary world.

This course is based on the experimentation of basic design exercises belonging to the tradition of schools of design such as the Bauhaus, the School of Design at the IIT, the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm. The course aims at developing basic knowledge useful at different scales in the process of education of a designer: theories of color, hierarchy and design of information, symbolization, visual characterization and rhetoric. During the course, notions of history of typography and graphic design, visual semiotics, information design and printing techniques are provided. Aim of the course is to produce a series of 16 pages books and an exhibition to display the results. Teaching is practice based and follows the approach ''learning-by-doing''.

An introductory course intended to develop the students' awareness of the third dimension. The course uses the five platonic solids as a vehicle of discovery of three dimensional space. Beginning with the construction of a ''space frame'' in the form of either a tetrahedron or a cube using wood doweling, the students analyze and describe the space inside the volume without the use of curved lines, using easy manageable materials. The students then move on to consider cylinders, cones and spheres, and work with curves, both simple and complex. They study natural forms that they themselves find and select to work from, starting a new project creating one or more structures from these things, giving them a basic knowledge of working in metal, plexiglas, plaster, clay, wood and glass. (This course carries a nominal fee for art supplies)

This experimental, introductory course will explore the creative possibilities of media that have often been considered largely mechanical and reproductive processes. Comments on the history of printing will be integrated in lessons on relief and intaglio printing processes (monoprints, linoleum cuts, wood block prints, embossing, drypoint). Visits to museums, exhibits or ateliers may be organized if possible. (This course carries a fee for art supplies.)

This course course in digital photography introduces the beginner to the elements of digital photography. There will be two areas of concentration: 1. Image capture and manipulation using digital imaging technology (cameras and editing software). 2. Photograph design (crafting a photograph that reflects the photographer’s intention using composition, framing, lighting etc.). Throughout the course emphasis will be placed on the artistic value of photographs rather than the technicalities of digital imaging. Photography is one of the various artistic media available for self-expression and much emphasis will be put on precisely that. Students will synthesize these elements to create a portfolio of work that reflects not only their newly developed skills but also an appreciation and understanding of photography as an art medium. The course carries a fee for photography/art supplies.

An introductory course aimed at mastering the rudiments of drawing (light and shadow, perspective, proportions, texture, pattern and design) and investigating the discipline of drawing as a cognitive tool. A variety of media, styles and genre will be explored, such as still life, landscape, figure drawing and abstraction. Studio sessions will be integrated with slide presentations and videos, and visits to museums, exhibits or ateliers may be organized if possible. The course carries a fee for art supplies.

This introductory course explores basic painting techniques and attempts to assist the development of visual awareness through various experiments and media, thus providing a foundation for further art study. With a combination of theory and studio practice, the course investigates the properties of color, line, point, plane and texture in an effort to free students from dead convention and at the same time encourage their creative abilities. The course will incorporate structured exercises on the nature of paint and the rudiments of color theory, while encouraging students to study the painting of past and present artists to develop their own creative identity. Visits to museums, galleries or ateliers may be organized if possible. The course carries a fee for art supplies.

The course will explore various media related to drawing, like pen and ink, charcoal, colored pencils, felt tip markers, tissue paper and glue, collage, crayons, oil and watercolor pastels, watercolor, tempera, gouache, spray paint. There is virtually no limit to the media that may be employed during the semester. At the same time, the course also reinforces the rudiments of drawing, but with primary emphasis on materials and new media rather than theoretical questions. The course carries a fee for art supplies.

The human head is one of the most fascinating subjects in the history of art, and frequently perceived as one of the most difficult problems to tackle. The head is the basic unit of human proportions, and the key to human identity. This course will investigate the human head and human proportions in art - in painting and sculpture; in all periods and cultures. Through lectures and presentations, visits to museums or other places of interest and studio sessions, students will have the opportunity to study this subject in depth and to experiment with it using various techniques in the studio. Studio sessions and lectures will deal with the following topics: 1. Human proportions: fundamental concepts. 2. Ideal canons in the Western European tradition. 2.1 The head as basic unit. 2.2 Famous canons: the Golden Ratio, Polykleitos, Praxiteles, Vitruvian man, Leonardo, Le Corbusier. 2.3 Alignment of facial features: likeness. 2.4 Men, women and children; the ages of man. 2.5 Larger than life: comics and caricature. 2.6 The twentieth century. 3. Non-Western Ideals. 4. Beyond art and aesthetics: medicine, forensics and other applications. Studio assignments will be organized in the following media: drawing and related media, painting, clay modeling. Class sessions may involve trips off-campus to an exhibition or event. There is a course fee to cover materials and travel expenses.

Continued exploration of basic sculptural methods, the students choose something that has particularly caught and absorbed their interest from the information touched on in the introductory course. They select a major project and investigate this chosen area much more thoroughly, developing a more substantial awareness along with more technical proficiency regarding materials. They can choose to construct, carve, or model and cast, and either to work from a personal idea or, if they prefer, using a model, they can make a portrait head and cast it in plaster: the stage at which it could be realized in bronze by a foundry. Students will be encouraged to visit exhibitions and become aware of both historical and current tendencies in art. (This course carries a nominal fee for art supplies)

Intermediate course aimed at further developing the basic printing skills learned in STA 106. More techniques of printmaking may be explored, for example, silkscreen or collagraph. (This course carries a fee for art supplies.)

Intermediate course aimed at further developing the basic skills learned in STA 111. More emphasis will be placed on developing individual projects, exploring various media and investigating problems in drawing and perception. The course carries a fee for art supplies.

Intermediate course aimed at further developing the basic skills learned in STA 115. More emphasis will be placed on developing individual projects and exploring different media and genre as students work towards finding a personal identity through creative experience. The course carries a fee for art supplies.

A more intermediate course where students who have completed STA 107 may take their work further. The course carries a fee for photography/art supplies.

An introductory course to graphic design software and to the principles and practices of advertising graphics. Once the basics have been learned, the course covers the following aspects of graphic design: the psychology of advertising, the brief from the client and the working relationship between client and designer, font styles and typographic design, the company logo, letterhead, business cards etc., house-styling, company reports, brochures, flyers, book covers, color printing and printing processes. The course requires that initial design concepts be taken from the early stages through to finished art-work, i.e. the quality of finish required for presentation to the client.(This course carries a nominal fee for computer supplies)

The human head is one of the most fascinating subjects in the history of art, and frequently perceived as one of the most difficult problems to tackle. The head is the basic unit of human proportions, and the key to human identity. This course will investigate the human head and human proportions in art - in painting and sculpture; in all periods and cultures. Through lectures and presentations, visits to museums or other places of interest and studio sessions, students will have the opportunity to study this subject in depth and to experiment with it using various techniques in the studio. Studio sessions and lectures will deal with the following topics: 1. Human proportions: fundamental concepts. 2. Ideal canons in the Western European tradition. 2.1 The head as basic unit. 2.2 Famous canons: the Golden Ratio, Polykleitos, Praxiteles, Vitruvian man, Leonardo, Le Corbusier. 2.3 Alignment of facial features: likeness. 2.4 Men, women and children; the ages of man. 2.5 Larger than life: comics and caricature. 2.6 The twentieth century. 3. Non-Western Ideals. 4. Beyond art and aesthetics: medicine, forensics and other applications. Studio assignments will be organized in the following media: drawing and related media, painting, clay modeling. Class sessions may involve trips off-campus to an exhibition or event. There is a course fee to cover materials and travel expenses.

Over the past few decades, sustainability has become a movement in the visual arts, shifting from a purely ecological to a larger cultural context and covering a vast range of ecological, economic, political, moral and ethical concerns. Sustainable art is usually distinguished from earlier movements like environmental art in that it advocates issues in sustainability, like ecology, social justice, non-violence and grassroots democracy. This studio course will approach sustainability and artistic practice from a number of viewpoints and modes of working. After a general introduction to sustainability in the arts today through lectures, videos and discussions, students will do creative projects, presentations and papers on current social issues or environmental concerns, the use of sustainable materials, recycling materials, community outreach, local environmental and sustainability initiatives). Class sessions may involve trips off-campus to an exhibition or event. There is a course fee to cover materials and travel expenses.

This introductory ceramics course combines art history and studio work with an intensive travel period in northern and central Italy. Students will be given the opportunity to understand the complete process of producing objects in clay and terracotta, from the first planning/designing phases, through the basic modeling techniques, to the more complicated processes of firing and glazing. Studio sessions both on and off campus will incorporate lectures on artists and art movements, as well as visits to local venues, major museums and other sites of importance with regard to the use of clay and terracotta in the fine arts. The on-campus lectures aim to provide students with an understanding of the importance of northern and central Italy for the history of ceramics from the age of the Etruscans to the present day. All students will have the opportunity to do in-depth, intensive work in clay modeling, hand-built ceramics and glazing techniques. The first part of the course will focus on the functional aspects of the terracotta object, while the second will introduce terracotta as sculpture.

This experimental, introductory course will explore the creative possibilities of media which have largely been considered mechanical, reproductive processes. Brief introductory lectures will introduce and demonstrate the following techniques: simple printing methods that do not use the printing press (direct stamping, stenciling, monotype, frottage); relief printing methods using linoleum, wood blocks and other surfaces; intaglio techniques (dry point). As time permits, collograph and silkscreen printing will also be introduced. The course has the following goals: to gain knowledge of printing materials, equipment and techniques; to produce prints using the techniques introduced during the course; to understand printing techniques in an art historical perspective and acknowledge of printing as a fine art; to construct a basic art vocabulary and develop the skills necessary to critical visual analysis. The course travels alternately to Urbino in Central Italy and to Lódz, Poland, to participate in the PATA summer workshops at the Strzeminski Academy of Art.

This course is fundamentally a follow-on from STA 200, Computer Graphics in Advertising. Throughout the semester, students are expected to complete a broad variety of projects, individually and in form of group work, and bring them to a finished state. Possible areas of concentration may include digital branding, interaction design, digital formats, innovative design, campaign design and corporate promotion. (This course carries a nominal fee for computer supplies).

The level of this course presupposes that students have already acquired some knowledge of historic and current tendencies in art which they will consider in relation to their own semester’s work. The project (or projects) undertaken will be a continued exploration of sculptural methods using both additive and subtractive techniques aimed at producing well-conceived three dimensional works and experimentation with diverse materials. This course carries a fee for art supplies

A higher course aimed at further developing the basic skills learned in STA 211. More emphasis will be placed on developing individual projects, exploring various media and investigating drawing and perception. The course carries a fee for art supplies.

Continuation of the previous painting courses to more advanced levels. The course carries a fee for art supplies.

A higher course aimed at further developing the basic printing skills learned in STA 206. Emphasis will be placed on developing individual projects, and more techniques of printmaking may be explored, for example, silkscreen or collagraph. (This course carries a fee for art supplies.)

A more advanced course where students who have completed STA 207 may take their work further. The course carries a fee for photography/art supplies.

The best time to travel in Umbria is July, when everything that this distinctive territory of art and culture has to offer can be most fully appreciated: two internationally renowned music festivals, Umbria Jazz in Perugia and the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, the outdoors through an excursion in the Sibylline mountains, a hike along the Franciscan trail between Spoleto and Assisi or a bike ride through vestiges of ancient Rome around Campello di Clitunno, local festivals celebrating Italian food and local traditions, and last but not least, art from the age of the Etruscans (Perugia, Orvieto) through the contemporary era (architecture by Fuksas, the Burri Foundation, CIAC in Foligno, Arnaldo Pomodoro’s Carapace ‘living sculpture’ winery at Montefalco. All of this and much more can be experienced in the best way – by being there. Finally, students will have the opportunity to live art fully by learning basic techniques of ceramics during a stay at a sculptor’s home and studio at La Fratta Art House, near Deruta. After a week in Lugano, with introductory lectures and films on the region and its traditions, art and music, the next 2½ weeks will be spent in Umbria, alternating attendance at scheduled concerts and performances at Umbria Jazz and the Spoleto Festival with visits to nearby towns and villages to see art, architecture, museums and monuments, engage in outdoor activities or visit local industries (wine, olive oil, chocolate, ceramics). After Spoleto and Perugia, the group will move to La Fratta Art House, where they will live with an Italian artist’s family. Most of this part of the course will be dedicated to learning basic techniques of handbuilding and clay modeling. Many of the lessons will be conducted in Italian (with a translator) so the trip will have a high component of language immersion, and the stay at La Fratta Art House will be total immersion in Italian language and culture.

The region of Umbria stakes its reputation on ‘slow living’ and sustainability. Located in the center of Italy, and also known as its ‘green heart’, it has one of the highest pro capita percentages of UNESCO World Heritage sites in the world. Preserving this heritage and continuing to keep age-old traditions alive have contributed to making sustainability a way of life, as in the title of the overview of 20 years of EU research into cultural heritage, ''Preserving Our Heritage; Improving Our Environment''. This course will provide a unique opportunity for students to study the area on site, concentrating on different ways in which this challenge has or has not been met, ranging from world famous performing arts festivals to ventures in sustainable living. At the same time, the course features an intensive arts experience through visits to art cities, museums, areas of natural beauty, enological and gastronomical firms, as well as attendance at local seasonal fairs and festivals of music and the performing arts. There is a studio component of the course: STA 331T will be taken together with STA115/215/315 Painting, which will focus on projects and techniques particularly suited to sustainability themes.

Senior projects are to be coordinated with the faculty advisor and the Division Chair. The course carries a fee for studio/photography supplies.

Internships are to be coordinated in advance with the faculty advisor and the Division Chair.

VCA thesis proposals to be coordinated with the Division Chair and the faculty advisor.