Instructor: John Stauffer and Timothy McCarthy

Semester: Spring 2008

Primary Blogger: Fauxneme

This interdisciplinary course examines the rich tradition of protest literature in the US from the American Revolution to the rise of Hip Hop and globalization. Using a broad definition of “protest literature,” it focuses on the production and consumption of dissent as a site of progressive social critique, using a wide variety of print, visual, and oral forms. We examine the historical links between modes of protest and meanings of literature, and explore how various expressions of dissent function as aesthetic, performative, rhetorical, and ideological texts within specific cultural contexts. “Readings” range from novels to photographs and music.

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Instructor: Tal D. Ben-Shahar

Semester: Spring 2008

Primary Blogger: PPTime1504

The course focuses on the psychological aspects of a fulfilling and flourishing life. Topics include happiness, self-esteem, empathy, friendship, love, achievement, creativity, music, spirituality, and humor.

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Instructor: Steven Pinker

Semester: Spring 2008

Primary Blogger: Kyle Thomas

An introduction to the workings of the human psyche. The course will introduce major approaches to the study of the mind such as psychoanalysis, behaviorism, cognitive neuroscience, and evolutionary psychology; controversies such as nature-nurture, consciousness, and free will; and specific topics such as perception, reasoning, language, emotion, sexuality, cooperation, love, violence, humor, beauty, religion, and the self. Research from numerous disciplines will be discussed: primarily scientific psychology, but also neuroscience, genetics, evolution, artificial intelligence, philosophy, and the social sciences.

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Instructor: Robert Darnton

Semester: Spring 2008

Primary Blogger: kurquoise

Examines the impact of books on Western culture from the time of Gutenberg. Hands-on experience in studying the book as a physical object and theoretical reflection on the nature of printing as a means of communication. Students will consider the publishing history of great books such as Shakespeare’s First Folio and will address the problem of books as elements in the electronic media.

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Instructor: Irene Pepperberg

Semester: Spring 2008

Primary Blogger: rad1687

This course is an introduction to the study of animal cognition and thought processes. Topics include categorization, memory, number concepts, insight, and language-like behavior. The course requires reading and critiquing original journal articles.

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Instructor: Jason A. Kaufman

Semester: Spring 2008

Primary Blogger: sduque

Explores American society through the lens of its various media, including but not restricted to television, theatre, literature, and music. Topics include class and cultural consumption, the business dynamics of the art world, the co-optation and subversion of dominant art forms, the impact of information networks on social structure and social development, and the power of advertising and mass media. Designed to be both fun and informative. Appropriate for sociology concentrators and non-concentrators alike.

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Instructor: Gordon Teskey

Semester: Spring 2008

Primary Blogger: Common Readers

A course on the major lyric poets of the 17th century, Donne, Jonson, Herbert, and Marvell. What is the relation between poetry and philosophy, between lyric expression and permanent order? In the seventeenth century, medieval notions of order gave way before the rise of science and of early modern philosophy. One result of these changes was the emergence of a new individualism in poetry.

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Instructor: Robert A. Lue and Alexander F. Schier

Semester: Spring 2008

Primary Blogger: Abraham

An integrated introduction to the structure, function, and interactions of cells. Topics covered include: membrane structure and transport; receptors and channels; protein targeting; cytoskeleton; cell cycle; signal transduction; cell migration; cell growth and death; cell adhesion; cell polarity; embryogenesis, organogenesis, and stem cells.

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Instructor: Sean Gallagher

Semester: Spring 2008

Primary Blogger: madmusician

Music 1b continues the survey started in Music 1a, beginning with the transition from the Classical to the Romantic period. Explores the history of music in its stylistic and cultural contexts, including aspects of form, composition, social significance, and politics. Composers studied include Beethoven, Schubert, Robert and Clara Schumann, Liszt, Berlioz, Mahler, Wagner, Bizet, Verdi, Schoenberg, Berg, Stravinsky, Debussy, and later twentieth-century figures.

Instructor: Jon Clardy and Stuart Schreiber

Semester: Fall 2007

Primary Blogger: Jim T

This is the best lay-person's description of molecular biology that you will ever read.

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