2018-2019 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Courses
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SCRN 108 - Intro to Screenwriting
This course is centered on the art and craft of screenwriting–both the theory behind the work, and the application of that theory. Students will be expected to write consistently throughout the term, a minimum of 10 hours a week, and complete a revised, polished feature-length screenplay by the end of term. Students will also be expected to expand their film vocabulary through viewing selected films and reading the course texts. The goal of this course is to provide a full understanding of the theories and principles behind writing for the screen–and to provide a structure in which those principles and theories can be applied.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other spring
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SCRN 114 - Writing About Film: Methods of Film Analysis
Considers a variety of critical methods for the analysis and interpretation of film. The course considers several important kinds of writing about film, including journalistic film criticism and analysis based in film theory. Students actively practice all of these modes of writing to acquire the analytic skills used in upper-level courses. The major critical approaches or methodologies of film studies such as formalist criticism, genre criticism, auteur criticism and forms of ideological criticism are explored in coordination with weekly films.
Course Designation/Attribute: VE
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every spring
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SCRN 115 - Cinephilia
What is cinephilia? Is it merely love for cinema? Does it imply, like Susan Sontag argues, the death of cinema? What is the value of concepts like nostalgia, memory, loss, when applied to films? Does the shift from analog to digital represent a crisis of loss of film? How can we make sense of this love, which in its very admission, indicates a sense of loss of the medium itself? How has this particular engagement with cinema developed historically with different sets of audiences? How does it change our understanding of global and hierarchical categorizations of film industries when cinephilia plots relationships of homage and fetishization across various borders-national, industrial, and between mainstream and avant garde? This course seeks to develop an understanding of film via the concept of cinephilia-the affective engagement with cinematic media. We will study aspects of the film form in mainstream, avant-garde, and indie cinema to understand film as a medium in order to grasp the various considerations of cinephilia along with concepts like auteurism, genre, mode, and camp, amongst others. Ultimately, we will be able to understand cinephilia as a cultural phenomenon and as a spectatorial relationship to film in a global and intertextual context of cinema.
The course fulfils the Aesthetic Perspective designation, which is part of PLS.
The course is a designated FYI experience.
Course Designation/Attribute: AP
Anticipated Terms Offered: biannually
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SCRN 120 - History of U.S. Film Since 1960
The history of post-WWII American cinema is the story of an ongoing series of adjustments to (or developments within the context of) instability in postwar film business: film noir, 3-D, biblical epics, blockbusters, art film influences, “new blood” from TV and film schools, Black filmmaking, revisionist genre films, high-concept filmmaking, etc. Further complicating this process of adjustments, cinema was overlaid onto, and consequently influenced by, the political turmoil within American society in general: the “Red Scare,” the Vietnam War, the emergence of a mass counterculture, the antiwar movement, Watergate, Reaganomics, the end of the Cold War and increasingly vocal demands by women and minorities for social equality (and media representation).
Course Designation/Attribute: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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SCRN 121 - History of International Cinema Until 1960
Broad survey designed to acquaint students with major foreign movements in cinema history. Includes readings on and screenings of examples selected from Italian silent epics, French Impressionism, German Expressionist and Weimar cinema, Soviet montage school, Soviet socialist realism, British documentary school, Nazi cinema, Italian neorealism, Japanese classical cinema and French New Wave.
Course Designation/Attribute: AP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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SCRN 122 - History of American Broadcasting and Electronic Media
This course considers how broadcasting and electronic media have been developed over the past century. We will examine the technical achievements of the field as well as its social and aesthetic impacts from early electrical and wireless communication (telephone, radio) to mid-century inventions (television, satellites) and more recent innovations (cable, digital technology). We will sample a wide range of media productions, including early radio and TV shows, documentaries and current media phenomena. Students will do some of their own historical research on broadcasting to supplement the course material.
Course Designation/Attribute: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other semester
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SCRN 123 - Factual Film and Television
FALL 2016 - Focusing on the recent found-footage craze in film and television, this seminar theorizes the various tactics through which contemporary media deceive audiences precisely by telling the truth-delivering content that seduces by appearing actual, or “really real.” Beginning with a close reading of four notable found-footage films-The Blair Witch Project (1999), Paranormal Activity (2007), Cloverfield (2008) and Chronicle (2012)-we will go on to establish the historical, aesthetic, and generic contexts that have made such films possible. Special attention will be paid to media texts that are notorious for having taken liberties with the truth, such as Nanook of the North (1922), “The War of the Worlds” radio drama (1938), David Holzman’s Diary (1967), F for Fake (1973), The Thin Blue Line (1988), and Ghostwatch (1992, TV). During the last five weeks of the course, the seminar will shift into a hands-on workshop phase, in which students will conceive, write, shoot, and edit their own short found-footage pseudo-documentary-a film that is wholly fictional yet purports to be real. Students wishing to enroll should note that this is not in any sense a “film appreciation” course, but instead a serious, rigorous course in Film and Media Studies. The major workload of the seminar will comprise a series of written analyses based on weekly screenings, in which students will grapple not only with narrative (i.e. scripted plots), but also with the intricacies of film form (i.e., editing, sound, cinematography, lighting, production design, and so on).
Course Designation/Attribute: AP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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SCRN 124 - History of International Cinema Since 1960
Considers the proliferation and significance since the 1960s of new cinemas outside Europe, as well as major social, industrial, technological, and cultural changes in Western countries supporting alternatives to Hollywood entertainment. Surveys major developments in contemporary international cinema from the mid-1960s to the present, emphasizing both historical study of contexts and critical interpretation of individual films and broader film trends. Begins with politically-critical filmmaking in the Soviet bloc countries and in the developing countries of Latin America and Africa. Subsequently, the course explores aesthetic and industry trends in European and Asian cinemas, selected from the New German cinema movement, pan-European “quality” films, the Dogme 95 movement, Parallel Cinema in India, the Hong Kong New Wave, and China’s Fifth Generation filmmakers. The significant but problematic concept of national cinema is investigated throughout the course.
Prerequisites: SCRN 101 or Permission.
Course Designation/Attribute: GP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year.
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SCRN 131 - Film Noir and its Contexts
An in-depth study of this highly influential yet much debated category of American cinema. This course considers the status of film noir as a genre, European and American influences, visual and narrative techniques, cultural contexts such as existentialism, psychoanalysis, and postmodernism, and articulations of gender and race in studio-era and contemporary noir. Weekly class screenings are accompanied by out-of-class film viewing and by course readings drawn from a broad variety of historical, analytical, and theoretical studies.
Course Designation/Attribute: AP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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SCRN 140 - Film Authors and Authorship
Examines the theory and practice of film authorship through a consideration of works by major American and international film authors. Studies historical development of the idea of film directors as authors in Europe and the United States. Emphasizes the impact of such theories on the study of various American figures, which may include Hawks, Ford, Hitchcock and Coppola, as well as international figures. Also examines the formation of film authorship in emerging cultural contexts, such as women’s cinema and new national cinemas.
Course Designation/Attribute: AP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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SCRN 209 - Genre Production Workshop
This digital filmmaking course is offered as an advanced level production workshop primarily for Visual and Performing Arts students in their junior or senior years. It builds upon the foundations of cinematic analysis and practice established in the first few years of the Screen major sequence, as well as the introductory sequences of the other programs in the department: Music, Theater, Studio Art, Art History, and MCA. Enrolled students from diverse backgrounds in the arts will work collectively on a single original short film project. The project will showcase each student’s disciplinary training in areas such as directing, producing, acting, cinematography, production design, editing, original music, and sound design. With an equal emphasis placed on theory and practice, this film production workshop employs hands-on demonstrations, screenings, readings, lectures, discussions, and peer-based critiques to assist students in the creative process. Classes stress research, form, style, and technique as integral components of creative inter-media practice.
Note: The genre focus each term may vary. The topic for Spring 2018 is Film Noir. Enrollment is subject to professor approval; interested students should email the professor.
Students will be charged a V & PA lab fee upon registering for this course.
Course Designation/Attribute: POP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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SCRN 210 - Experimental Production Workshop: Glitch Aesthetics
Whether appearing in the realm of still images, sound recordings, video, or other media, Glitch Art seeks to disrupt the data behind a digital representation in such a way that its simulation of analog can no longer remain covert. Sometimes intentional and sometimes accidental, a glitch flamboyantly undoes the communications platforms that we, as subjects of digital culture, both rely on and take for granted. In this course, students will investigate, theorize, and collaboratively work to produce Glitch Art in its various evolving forms. The course will thus offer both a formal survey of the history and theory of Glitch Art (including some proto-glitch forms and movements) and a workshop for providing critique and inspiration to individual artists. Because Glitch Art typically aims to render digital files unstable-triggering a partial failure of the software that “plays back” encoded sounds and images-the nature of our artistic practice will necessarily be unruly, our output unpredictable. Disciplinary boundaries will be crossed with impunity and oftentimes entirely ignored. In this course, a musician may try her hand at glitchy photography, while a graphic designer may collaborate with a sculptor on a glitched music video. Prior experience with digital technology and software may prove useful in some students’ work, but not in others. “Glitch Aesthetics” is the fourth in a series of Creative InterMedia courses developed by faculty in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, and seeks to enroll juniors and seniors from each of the five V&PA majors: Art History, Music, Screen Studies, Studio Art, and Theater Arts. Students will be evaluated on the basis of an online portfolio of works in various media, as well as a substantial term project of the student’s own design, to be presented in a public group exhibition at end of term. Enrollment is by permission only and will be limited to 3-5 students per major; please contact the instructor prior to or during the registration period to discuss your eligibility.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Spring 2014
Placement Guidelines
This course (along with “Genre Production Workshop”) requires V&PA students to apply to the instructor for admission during the previous semester’s registration period, demonstrating through a portfolio, short interview, or transcript that they are serious and adequately prepared. Course is listed “PERM ONLY” and will be restricted to V&PA juniors and seniors.
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SCRN 217 - Cult Logics
Twin Peaks and Mystery Science Theater 3000. Punk Rock and Hello Kitty. Johnny Guitar and Eight Diagram Pole Fighter. To study cult fandom is first of all to confront a shopworn cliché about human subjectivity: there’s no accounting for tastes. The cult devotee’s pursuit is by definition a “minor” taste-at once marginal in subject and style, and hard to find as a material object. Cult objects may be passive “sleepers”-films or TV shows we don’t expect to be any good but which turn around and surprise us. More often, however, we encounter cult objects as transgressive confrontations: divisive, rude, and even boring, but above all oblivious to mainstream desires. Cultism frequently valorizes bad taste, excess, and ugliness (or hyper-cuteness, as in Japanese kawaii culture), forcing the beholder to confront their own perversions and anxieties. At the same time, in order to be a bona fide cultist, one has traditionally taken a vow of non-attainment: to pursue the esoteric beyond all reason. But what happens when the well of esoterica runs dry, as it seems to be doing today, with every outré video freely available on Netflix and Amazon? Does the wholesale commodification of cult products (think Hot Topic) paradoxically annihilate the possibility of cult pleasure? By theorizing the self perpetuating beyond-ness of cult fandom, this course will implicitly call into question why cultists desire their own marginalization, subversively refusing conventional enjoyment. One warning however: despite the garish allure of our readings and screenings, this course should not be mistaken as itself providing a “fun” or “entertaining” fan-oriented indulgence in the pleasures of cult representation. Instead, this course will insist on nothing less than your most serious scholarly engagement as we work to theorize cult pleasure, taste, and aesthetics in relation to questions of gender, race, nation, and class. So prepare to enjoy, but also prepare to work hard to understand the weirdness of your own enjoyment.
Prerequisites: SCRN 101 or COMM 101
Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically
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SCRN 225 - National Cinema
Issues in National and Regional Cinemas. Variable topics.
Spring 2019 Topic: India
This course will provide an overview of a diverse range of film production and consumption practices associated with Indian cinema. We will primarily look at Hindi films from the Bombay film industry but also examine films from regional cinemas, and ones that belong to “art cinema” mode. Through exploration of aesthetics within historical and cultural contexts, we will engage with questions like: What makes Indian cinemas different? What is the aesthetic appeal of Hindi popular cinema? Why does Hindi popular cinema have a mass appeal in a multi lingual and multi-cultural country like India, and assumes the position of national cinema, both within the subcontinent and outside of it? How do these ‘song and dance’ movies challenge our Hollywood-based perceptions of narrative forms? How do Indian films negotiate the polarities of tradition and modernity? What role do phenomenon like globalization, diaspora, neo-liberal economic policy, consumerism, and trans-nationalism play in the evolution of Hindi cinema and its genres over the decades? We will also interrogate the implications, and connotations of the transformation of Hindi popular cinema produced by the Bombay film industry into “Bollywood.” Is this linguistic change an index of social and economic transformations, such as globalization? Is it expressive of an attempt to indicate a difference internal to the dominant idiom, a variation that is related to but distinct from the globally hegemonic Hollywood?
Course Designation/Attribute: GP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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SCRN 231 - Film Theory
This seminar examines a wide range of theories regarding motion picture reception, and to a lesser extent, production. Topics will include classic arguments about the aesthetic purpose of film and the place of authorship in screen texts, as well as more contemporary concerns such as queer theory, cognitivism, and post-structuralism. The course will also take up the anti-theory movement that has arisen in recent years.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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SCRN 261 - Critical Perspectives on Television
This course explores fundamental questions about the cultural significance of television by considering a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to television criticism, including ideological analysis, semiotics, political economy, feminist criticism, narrative, genre and critical race theories. In this course, we use these analytic tools to examine the cultural, political, and economic implications of television as a form of social communication. Our goals are (1) to become familiar with the key aspects of each theoretical perspective and (2) to apply these frameworks in our own analyses of television programs. By requiring students to continuously read, view, discuss, and write about critical perspectives on television, this course cultivates a deep understanding for the ideological and structural dynamics that constitute popular culture.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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SCRN 288 - Gender and Film
This course will explore how cinema has participated in the construction, deconstruction, and reimagining of gender across its history. We will read examples of early feminist film theory, which argued that Classical Hollywood and other narrative cinemas have long constructed women as “Woman” through its myths, signs, and appeal to the male gaze. We will also study what happens when women, including queer women and women of color, return the gaze and look back. Finally, the course will investigate the films of feminist, queer, and transgender filmmakers and analyze how they have repurposed this technology of gender towards transformative ends. Readings will be primarily theoretical, and screenings will include fiction, documentary, and experimental films, such as Rebecca (1940), Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), Damned If You Don’t (1987), Paris Is Burning (1990), The Matrix (1999), Pariah (2011), and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017).
Prerequisites: SCRN 101 or MCA 101 or permission
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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SCRN 291 - Capstone Course - Variable topics
The Screen Studies capstone involves a seminar-style, intensive exploration of a single subject area relevant to moving-image media. Historical, theoretical, and practical approaches are all considered. Students engage in intensive weekly readings, discussions, and presentations, with the semester culminating in a well-researched and polished 25-page paper, or a carefully developed and refined video project. The goal is to produce work that could be worthy of submission to a graduate admissions committee, or to a writing contest or film festival. Students should expect this course to require considerably more weekly work than a standard 200-level Screen course and adjust their fall schedule accordingly. Topics vary.
Fall 2018 Topic: Transnational Remakes
Film remakes have often been denigrated as plagiarized inferior texts. This course looks at remakes as economic and textual products and takes into account questions of copyright but also goes beyond notions of originality to consider the industrial and economic contexts of remakes across several national film industries. We will explore questions like: What is the difference between adaptation and remake? What is the nature of intertextuality here? What is the difference between a remake and other categories like genres or sequels? How does a cross-cultural remake transform into a different culture and genre for a different set of audiences? To what extent does national identity factor into remakes, as is the case with Hollywood and Bollywood? How do remakes represent historical ideological transformations within the same industry (as is the case of contemporary Hollywood remakes of early Hollywood cinema)? What kinds of films get remade by a particular industry and why? What is the role of authorship? And, how do we think about transnational negotiations between film industries and cultures in the global marketplace through the remake? We will approach the topic through a variety of critical and theoretical frameworks to analyze the ideological underpinnings of remaking in international contexts.
Prerequisites: SCRN seniors or Permission.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every fall
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SCSV 1090 - The Final Chapter: A Study of Death and Dying
Students will develop an understanding of the death and dying process while exploring their own attitudes, feelings and beliefs. Topics covered include what is dying, the grieving process, children and death, suicide, violent deaths, cultural attitudes and euthanasia. Community resources will also be explored.
Course Designation/Attribute: VP (summer only)
Anticipated Terms Offered: -
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SCSV 1130 - Writing to Heal
An exploration of writing as a tool in maintaining health and well being. We will look at the medical and psychological research that supports the belief that writing boosts in the immune system, reduces emotional distress, and lessens physical pain for some people. Through hands-on practice and group sharing we will become familiar with the ways in which the literary arts are tools for personal growth.
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SCSV 1140 - Health, Culture and Illness
Examines the importance of social and cultural factors in the field of medicine. It focuses on: provider self-awareness of health, illness, familiar folk remedies, traditional health beliefs and practices. Also investigated are the relationships between health care professionals, health institutions, patients, the organization and utilization of health services; the comparative examination of health systems from the cross-cultural perspective and the exception of healthcare illness as a social and cultural phenomena.
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SCSV 1180 - Our Aging Society
In the United States today there are more older people in the population than ever before. Many issues offer new challenges as one enters middle and later life but is there a way “successful aging” can be accomplished? With all of these challenges can one truly grow old gracefully? Topics such as diet, exercise, pensions, family life, and housing will be explored. Theories of the aging process will be discussed as we review the study of aging: past, present and future.
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SCSV 1240 - Drugs and Crime in Society
The physiological, psychological and sociological effects of licit and illicit drugs in society will be studied. A law enforcement perspective into the so called “war on drugs”, the success and failures of various drug prevention and replacement therapy programs as well as the roadblock to recovery being created by the criminal justice system and insurance companies will be discussed. Contemporary topics such as whether addiction is a choice or a disease, the pros and cons of legalization and the issue of medicinal marijuana will also be debated.
Anticipated Terms Offered: varies
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SCSV 1600 - Drugs and Alcohol
Students are asked to explore drug use and abuse in American society, the socio-historical origins of drug and alcohol use from a cross-cultural perspective, the effects of formal organizational studies on the drug rehabilitation users, and independent variables such as family, work and income on chemical dependency. Students investigate societys use of legal as well as illegal drugs, and medical vs. recreational use of psychoactive substances.
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SCSV 2060 - Juvenile Delinquency
An examination of delinquency, the suspected causes of delinquent behavior, and the environmental influences of youthful misbehavior. The use of pretrial detention, shock incarceration, mandatory sentencing, and gang control efforts will be analyzed. Topics such as the role of the courts and police, status offenders, juvenile corrections, transfer of juvenile to adult courts and their impact on the Juvenile Justice system are covered.
Anticipated Terms Offered: varies
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SCSV 2080 - Children in Crisis
Explores the sensitive issues surrounding the increasing number of abused children in contemporary American culture. The biological, psychological and sociological factors affecting child abuse are used as the broad conceptual framework for prevention, identification and treatment. Focuses on the etiology of child abuse as well as treatment and the law.
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SCSV 2180 - Interpersonal Communication
This course will utilize theory and practical applications to provide participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to develop interpersonal communication competence and better understand its role in the relationship context. Specific areas of study include: relationship building and maintenance, intercultural communication, conflict management and interpersonal communications in the organization.
Anticipated Terms Offered: various
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SOC 010 - Introduction to Sociology
A broad overview of sociology, its areas of study, modes of inquiry, and context for analysis. This course operates from the premise that individual lives are not just personal but social – as humans we are shaped by the societies in which we live and the social forces at work within them. Major theoretical perspectives and concepts will be discussed, with primary emphasis on the roles that culture, dimensions of inequality, and social change play in shaping individual lives. Students will also explore the influence that social institutions such as family, religion, education, health care, government, economy, and environment have on the ways humans live and work in society. Fulfills introductory course requirement for majors.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester
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SOC 012 - Introduction to Sociology in a Global World
Sociology is a discipline that studies the ways in which society shapes our lives, our relationships, and our identities. It traces the web of influence and connection that often escapes our notice because it falls beyond our immediate vision. In other words, much of what we experience (including such diverse activities as falling in love, getting a job, or committing a crime) can be shown to find its source and meaning in broader forces. Sociologists refer to these factors collectively as culture, social structure and history.
In the past two decades, the scope and reach of these forces have broadened. We often refer to this trend as “globalization.” Time and space have compressed and the world has become increasingly interconnected and interdependent. This course is designed to broaden your analytic vision to examine the historical roots and contemporary manifestations of identity culture and community in a world transformed by globalization.
Fulfills the Global Perspective requirement
Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically
Course Designation/Attribute: GP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically
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SOC 033 - Who Rules America?
G. William Domhoff’s Who Rules America? (2014), originally published in 1967 and now in its seventh edition, uses empirical data to document its controversial assertions about the centralization of power in the hands of a “corporate community” in the United States. While enormous amounts of data are available on many of the topics that Domhoff addresses, he is only able to summarize the most basic data on any given topic. This presents us with a tremendous opportunity: the ability to incorporate empirical research projects that expand upon Domhoff’s analyses in this class. In his early chapters, Domhoff uses data to document the existence of a corporate community. Later he spends considerable time documenting a variety of ways that this elite group uses its economic power to gain political power. Specifically, he discusses (1) a policy planning network, comprised of corporate-funded foundations and think tanks, that tries to shape national policy-making to serve corporate interests; (2) the corporate funding of political action committees, designed to support the election/reelection of pro-corporate legislators; and (3) corporate lobbying expenditures, designed to encourage elected officials to support legislation of interest to the corporate community. We will do original “power structure research” on all of these aspects of Domhoff’s argument
Course Designation/Attribute: FA
Anticipated Terms Offered: annually
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SOC 107 - Classical Sociological Theory
A critical and comparative survey of the major theorists of early sociology. This course emphasizes the first generation of sociologists, who sought to understand what we have come to call modernity. Beyond this central canon – represented by selected works of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber – the course introduces key theoretical perspectives and related analytical concepts that continue to inform many aspects of social life. Fulfills the social theory requirement for majors.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester
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SOC 110 - Sociology of Gender
Focuses on sociological, historical, psychological, and economic dimensions of gender. This course examines the ways in which social institutions create, maintain, and reproduce gender. The course emphasizes the processes through which gender categories are constructed and represented, as well as the consequences of these categories for the lives of individuals.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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SOC 125 - Cities and Suburbs
Introduces urban sociology. Examines the historical structure and development of American metropolitan areas and community power, with special attention to changing functions of cities and suburbs. Examines different ways of life in cities and suburbs. Globalization and international comparative perspectives are also examined. (Formerly SOC 247)
Course Designation/Attribute: GP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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SOC 130 - Genocide
Provides students with a comparative perspective that highlights theory and concrete examples of genocide. After surveying legal and social scientific definitions of genocide, we explore four cases of genocide that took place over the course of centuries and across several continents. The course ends with discussion of the prevention of genocide.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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SOC 160 - Global Cultures and Identities
Explores the impact of local, national, and international forces in the formation of cultural identities at a time of rapid social changes. Focuses on contemporary cultures to examine local and national identities as they are globally determined. Emphasizes the elastic and the plastic nature of cultures and the importance of time, place, and space to understand the emergence of new culturally diverse settings. Examines the nature of social and cultural change in local, national, and global economic and political spaces.
Course Designation/Attribute: GP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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SOC 167 - Problems of Globalization
This course will help students to understand and evaluate the challenges of globalization at the beginning of the 21st century. Students will become familiar with the economic, social, political, and cultural dimensions of the process. They will be exposed to arguments for and against globalization and possible solutions to problems. The course is the sequel to Global Society (IDND 066 ), which lays the theoretical foundation.
Course Designation/Attribute: GP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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SOC 175 - The Sociology of Families
Examines the assumed decline of “the” American family and the recent changes in family formations. Also considers challenges to the new family, such as dual-career couples and the resulting division of labor in the home as well as divorce. Working-class, African-American and homeless families are also discussed.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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SOC 180 - Aging and Society
This course challenges stereotypes about the elderly and aging as a “problem” for society. Focuses on the diversity of the aged and the experience of aging in the United States.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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SOC 200 - Class, Status and Power
Analyzes the nature, dynamics and historical development of social inequality. The economic and political power of the upper class, social mobility, the process of deindustrialization, feminization of poverty and the intersection of race and class are studied. Required for the major.
Prerequisites: SOC 107 is a prerequisite.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester
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SOC 202 - Social Research Process
General introduction to logic, techniques, and ethics of social science inquiry. Reviews qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as sampling. Fulfills the method requirement for majors. Not open to seniors.
Course Designation/Attribute: FA
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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SOC 203 - American Jewish Life
Provides an introduction to the sociological study of American Jewry by surveying a broad range of topics such as immigration, economic mobility, religious and secular bases of Jewish identity, gender, and intermarriage. In order to identify what is Jewish and what is American about Americans Jews, we will systematically compare Jews with other ethnic groups.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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SOC 204 - Doing Qualitative Research
Provides background and experience in the systematic collection and analysis of qualitative data. Covering multiple sources of data – observations, interviews, and documents – this course provides an analytic vocabulary for critiquing qualitative inquiry and practice toward developing research skills. Fulfills one of the methods requirements for majors. (Fomerly SOC 138)
Prerequisites: At least one Sociology course
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered Every Year
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SOC 205 - Sociology of the Environment
Introduction to environmental sociology, a newly emerging area of interest. Focuses on the reciprocal relationships between society and the environment. The theoretical perspectives of human ecology and political economy are used to illuminate topics such as population, technology and environmental degradation, the environmental movement, north-south environmental conflicts, and food and hunger.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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SOC 206 - Doing Quantitative Research
Much of the research done by sociologists involves quantitative analysis. This course focuses on the design and execution of quantitative studies. While we do learn to use/interpret some complex statistics (e.g., correlation and regression analysis), this is not a statistics course. PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF STATISTICS IS NOT REQUIRED. Our primary focus will be on research design, that is, how to properly construct a study. In the process, we will develop an intuitive understanding of the sorts of data analyses conducted by sociologists. This will enable us to read, interpret, and understand the tables and graphs produced by sociologists. These skills will enable us to engage the core of the course: the use of two data sets, each of which has yielded multiple publications. Initially, we review a number of published studies with an eye to learning how to best design a quantitative study. Subsequently, we will design original research projects using each data set. Finally, we will conduct the research and analyze our findings.
Course Designation/Attribute: FA
Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically
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SOC 210 - Social Problems: Claims and Media
Why do certain problems become matters of public concern while others do not? How do advocates and activists frame issues to capture public attention and promote change? How do institutional actors, with different resources, establish claims that move their interests forward? This course addresses these questions by analyzing the process of constructing social problems in both historical and contemporary contexts. Rather than a “laundry list” of specific problems, the course provides an introduction to social problems theory. Its emphasis is the process through which problems are defined and mediated and on the cultural dynamics and media practices that contribute to the credibility of claims.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically
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SOC 225 - Religion and Society
This course introduces students to key theoretical and empirical works in the sociology of religion. We apply major theoretical perspectives to contemporary religious life. We ask how individuals find meaning in and are shaped by their experience of religion. Special consideration is given to how gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity influence religious life. We explore the rise of new religious movements (historical and contemporary), the relationship between religion and modernity, and between religious fundamentalism and conservatism.
Anticipated Terms Offered: occasionally
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SOC 226 - Sport and Society
Sport and Society will look at the world of sport as an institutional structure that operates autonomously with its own rules, regulation, and authority, yet is inextricably linked to other structures. We will study the significance of sport as a cultural product; the dynamic ways in which it challenges and reenforces our understanding of race, gender, social class, and sexuality, and the ways in which globalization has [re]shaped sport in local and global contexts.
Anticipated Terms Offered: bi-annually
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SOC 241 - Sociology of Medicine
Examines the role of health-care professionals in the United States, as well as health and illness as social phenomena. The course also addresses problems in the health-care system at the national level and reviews potential solutions to the mounting crisis in the provision of health services. Not open to first year students.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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SOC 250 - Community and Health: Non-Profit Grant Writing
Students will focus on medically underserved communities by gaining skills in grant writing and grant making that will further their understanding of strategic giving for social change. The goals of the course are: 1) to develop a community-based research experience that will strengthen students’ substantive understanding of community health and the organizations that serve their populations; 2) to offer students the opportunity to hone their social science research skills; 3) to strengthen students’ communication skills by offering them an alternative venue and audience for their writing; and 4) to foster collaboration among students on a project of consequence
Prerequisites: SOC 202 OR SOC 204 OR SOC 206 OR PERM
Course Designation/Attribute: POP
Anticipated Terms Offered: periodically
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SOC 252 - Race and American Society
Focuses on the political, economic and social lives of Native Americans, Latinos, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and whites. The course begins with an exploration of the social construction of race followed by discussion of racism, protest movements, and the intersection of race, class, and gender. A central assumption of this course is that we must turn to history to understand contemporary race relations.
Course Designation/Attribute: DI
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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SOC 255 - The Creation of Nationalism, Nationalist Cultures and Symbols
At a time of rapid global changes and globalization, nationalisms and nationalist cultures have grown dramatically. This course explores how nationalist identities and resistance are determined by culture and the cultural symbols, such as key consumer commodities, cultural symbols, gender, language, and dress codes.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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SOC 258 - Women in Jewish Culture
Uncovers the experiences of Jewish women and uses gender analysis as a means to enrich our understanding of Jewish life. The course begins with images of women in the Hebrew Bible followed by discussion of Rabbinic Judaism. A central focus will be Jewish women’s encounters with modernity in a variety of contexts: Western and Eastern Europe, United States, and Israel.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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SOC 260 - Roots and Routes: Immigrants, Diasporas and Travel
Examines immigrants and the cultures they create through movement and settlement and through the many borders they cross. Also covered are the diasporas immigrants create through the travel they undertake both voluntarily and, in some cases, through forced migration. How do borders, journeys, and migration shape the identities of individuals, groups, cultural objects, and commodities?
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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SOC 262 - Law and Society
Examines the relationship between law and other aspects of social life. Relying on case studies and other empirical studies of the legal system, particular attention is paid to the following topics: law and justice, crime and social control, law and social change, civil justice and legality, and everyday life.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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SOC 263 - Deviance
Why are some behaviors, differences, and people stigmatized and considered deviant? This course examines theories of social deviance that offer answers to this and related questions. How and why are behaviors designated as deviant? How do individuals enter and exit a deviant lifestyle? And how do various social statuses, such as race and gender, affect the incidence, type, and responses to deviant acts?
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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SOC 265 - Social Movements: Quest for Justice
Modern American movements (labor, civil rights, new left, global justice) are used as examples for discussion of social movements. Problems of framing, resources, and identity are analyzed. The form of the course depends on the number of students registering.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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SOC 266 - Law in Global and Comparative Perspective
How does the law work in the “real world”? Is there a difference between the law as it is written and the law as it is put into action? What are the social forces that shape the meaning, interpretation and implementation of legal codes across nations? This course will seek to explore these questions through a sociological lens, as it introduces you to the multi-faceted nature of law and its roles in transnational society. We will discuss dispute processing in various societies; the development of the international legal order; the impact of Western Law on non-Western/developing countries; the ways in which legal strategies can and have challenged inequality based on class, race, sex, religion, and sexuality; and the impact of international human rights treaties on the current world order.
Course Designation/Attribute: Global Perspective (GP)
Anticipated Terms Offered: periodically
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SOC 267 - Poverty and Social Policy in Comparative Perspective
The course compares the U.S., Canadian and (Western) European social policy regimes. It includes an introduction to how poverty is defined in the US and internationally, and the strengths and weaknesses of these measurements and shows students how to use online sources to find local and national data about poverty and low income. Social insurance and income supports, labor relations and health policies are among the topics explored in the relevance for the working poor.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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SOC 271 - Family Diversity
The family is considered to be one of the most private and pervasive social institutions in society. All of us have had contact with at least one family and many of us will be involved in several different families during our lifetime. Families today are more diverse, they include a complex array of household arrangements, and they are more easily fractured. Throughout the course we will look at how social structures shape and restructure the family. The course will provide an overview of the various family forms giving emphasis to working class families, gay and lesbian families, families of different racial/ethnic backgrounds, singlehood and cohabiting families in the United States. We will also explore research and public policy questions about families from a sociological perspective.
Prerequisites: SOC 200 - Class, Status and Power and SOC 175 - Sociology of Family or by permission
Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually
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SOC 272 - Punishment, Politics and Culture
In the past forty years the purposes and practices of punishment in the U.S. have changed dramatically, becoming increasingly harsh (death penalty, three strikes, supermax prisons)and retributive (abandonment of all rehabilitation efforts)and far reaching (over 2 million Americans are in prison or jail). These changes represent a near-complete and rapid reversal of fairly long-term trends in penal justice in the U.S. This course will explore what factors-political, cultural, demographic, technological - changed crime from a remote possibility in the minds of most Americans to a defining concern of Americans. Why, despite similar experiences of modernity, are European democracies characterized by such different cultures of control? In what ways, do our penal practices reflect and reinforce major social divisions - of race, ethnicity, gender, and class? What are the effects of such a transformation on the economy, the family, community, schools, and our ideals of justice? In short, what do our penal practices reveal about late twentieth century American culture, social structure and politics?
Prerequisites: (Prerequisites: SOC 262 or SOC 263 , Permission only
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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SOC 275 - Gender, Social Justice and Transnational Activism
Description
Transnational feminist activism has a long history, dating back at least to the suffrage movement. But undeniably it has taken new forms under current socioeconomic, political, and cultural processes of globalization. Robin Morgan’s famous book, “Sisterhood is Global,” (1984) envisioned a worldwide network of activists working together for women’s rights. Yet this utopian vision of global sisterhood has been consistently interrogated, examined, and reimagined. Not only has the world changed dramatically - through rampant globalization, the rise of social media and the ever present Internet, and new forms of neoliberal social control - but “Third World” feminists in both the global north and the global south still question Western conceptualizations of feminism and women’s solidarity. These feminist activists and scholars examine differences among women around race, class, sexuality, and nationality, and locate these differences in complex systems of identity, political economy, and knowledge production. This has revealed deep divisions, but also radical possibilities for sustainable social justice. Transnational feminists focus on the connections between women’s situated lives and their changing relationships with the movement of people, capital and ideas. In this course we will contend with the politics of difference, debate its challenges, and imagine possible futures for transnational gender justice.
Prerequisites: SOC 110 Sociology of Gender OR WGS 110 Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies OR SOC 160 Global Cultures and Identities OR SOC 167 Problems of Globalization OR SOC 200 - Class, Status and Power OR SOC 265 Social Movements: Quest for Justice
Anticipated Terms Offered: PERIODICALLY
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SOC 281 - Cities and Social Change
This course explores themes - economic development, inequality, social movements, inclusive and exclusive cultural formations, and social control and surveillance - that together comprise a sociological toolkit for approaching broad questions about social justice, public culture, work, housing, crime and punishment, and service provision, both in the U.S. and across the globe. Drawing on readings from not only sociology but also urban planning, geography, history, and anthropology, we will trace how cities have shaped and been shaped by the ways humans and societies answer fundamental questions about how we should live together and why. Throughout the course, students will propose and write a term paper that develops original propositions about cities and social change and tests them through primary qualitative research (i.e., nonparticipant ethnography, interviewing, and/or historical/archival research). Capstone Seminar
Prerequisites: SOC 125 - Cities and Suburbs OR SOC 265 - Social Movements: Quest for Justice OR Permission
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually
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SOC 297 - Honors
For information about honors in Sociology, please see the “Senior Honors Thesis” section in the Sociology Student Handbook.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offer every year
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SOC 298 - Internship
Academic experience taking place in the field with an opportunity to earn credit.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester
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SOC 299 - Directed Study
Readings and projects in Sociology.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester
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SOC 1010 - Introduction to Sociology
Introduces the basic concepts in the field of sociology with emphasis upon the application of these concepts to the understanding of the American institutions of politics, economics, religion, education, marriage and family.
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SOC 1140 - Health, Culture and Illness
Examines the importance of social and cultural factors in the field of medicine. It focuses on: provider self-awareness of health, illness, familiar folk remedies, traditional health beliefs and practices. Also investigated are the relationships between health care professionals, health institutions, patients, the organization and utilization of health services; the comparative examination of health systems from the cross-cultural perspective and the exception of healthcare illness as a social and cultural phenomena.
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SOC 1180 - Our Aging Society
In the United States today there are more older people in the population than ever before. Many issues offer new challenges as one enters middle and later life but is there a way “successful aging” can be accomplished? With all of these challenges can one truly grow old gracefully? Topics such as diet, exercise, pensions, family life, and housing will be explored. Theories of the aging process will be discussed as we review the study of aging: past, present and future.
Course Designation/Attribute: VP (summer only)
Anticipated Terms Offered: -
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SOC 1600 - Drugs and Alcohol
Students are asked to explore drug use and abuse in American society, the socio-historical origins of drug and alcohol use from a cross-cultural perspective, the effects of formal organizational studies on the drug rehabilitation users, and independent variables such as family, work and income on chemical dependency. Students investigate society’s use of legal as well as illegal drugs, and medical vs. recreational use of psychoactive substances.
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SOC 2630 - Deviant Behavior
What is deviance and how is it “constructed” within society? While some experts on deviance take a decidedly objective approach to deviance-the idea that all cultures recognize certain behaviors as deviant and unacceptable, this course will focus on the ways in which deviance is socially constructed-the idea that behaviors are deemed “deviant” based on societal definitions and are therefore not static but subject to change. Viewing deviance through a subjective (rather than objective) lens requires that we pay close attention to the dialogue that takes place between individuals and society over time, as it is this dialogue that will help us to determine what is and what is not acceptable within society. This course uses cultural, social, political, and even religious cues as clues to uncover deviance within society in all of its forms and functions.
Anticipated Terms Offered: varies
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SPAN 011 - Fast-Track Spanish
This course aims to provide students with the opportunity to learn the foundational skills of Spanish in reading, writing, speaking, and listening as well as knowledge of aspects of culture of the Spanish-speaking world. Students completing this intensive one-semester course will be prepared to enter the intermediate sequence, thus reaching a higher-level of Spanish more rapidly than through a year-long SPAN101-102. This will increase their opportunities to develop their linguistic skills and cultural knowledge through more advanced classes at Clark or in study-abroad programs
Course Designation/Attribute: LP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Every Year
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures for the language placement guidelines.
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SPAN 103 - Elementary Spanish: Intensive
An accelerated elementary course, intended for students who have had no more than two years of Spanish. Three hours per week, plus a discussion section.
Course Designation/Attribute: LP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures for the language placement guidelines.
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SPAN 105 - Intermediate Spanish I
An intermediate course intended for students with no more than three years of Spanish. Integrates the essential aspects of Spanish in a structured manner, while at the same time reviewing grammar and enhancing skills in reading, writing and conversation. Also develops awareness and appreciation of Hispanic cultures.
Prerequisites: Successful completion of SPAN011, SPAN 103 or the equivalent. Discussion session required.
Course Designation/Attribute: LP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester.
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures for the language placement guidelines.
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SPAN 106 - Intermediate Spanish II
Normally taken after SPAN 105 , SPAN 106 further strengthens skills in the language through grammar reviews, readings on Hispanic themes and class discussions. Emphasis is on activities in reading, writing, speaking and conversational understanding as a preparation for more advanced work. Prerequisite: successful completion of SPAN 105 or the equivalent. Discussion session required.
Course Designation/Attribute: LP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures for the language placement guidelines.
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SPAN 117 - Community Field Work
This course aims to promote and enhance Hispanic culture in the Worcester community through the HCH program (Herencia y Cultura Hispánicas). It is a multigenerational collaborative learning space where participants grow and learn from each other culturally, linguistically, and personally through an exploration of Hispanic culture. The course is a bi-directional exchange between students at Clark University and Worcester Public Schools students between 8 and 10 years old, with an emphasis on Worcester Public Schools students as leaders in the cultural exchange process and undergraduates as leaders in the facilitation process. Part of the grading components will be linked to the undergraduate’s performance during the sessions with the WSP students. The WSP students will attend two and a half hour sessions twice a month -after the school- here at Clark and that is why the only option for this course is to meet once a week in a 3 hours seminar from 2:50 to 5:50.
Prerequisites: SPAN 127 Practice in Oral and Written Spanish Seniors Only Or Perm, Native Speakers by Perm
Course Designation/Attribute: POP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered occaisionally.
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures for the language placement guidelines.
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SPAN 127 - Practice in Oral and Written Spanish
A transitional course between intermediate Spanish and the upper-level offerings for students with a strong background in Spanish (4-5 years of Spanish. Develops fluency and sophistication in spoken and written Spanish. Emphasizes practice in conversation, composition and selected grammar review. Discussion section required.
Prerequisites: SPAN 106 or the equivalent, or above
Course Designation/Attribute: LP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures for the language placement guidelines.
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SPAN 131 - Readings in Hispanic Literatures
Introduces modern Hispanic narrative, lyric, and dramatic literature. Studies authors of Spain and Latin America and their literary, social, cultural and political context. Readings illuminate such themes as genre, cultural continuity and modernity, notions of norm and deviance in the Hispanic community and national identity. Since course content is variable, students may request permission to take the class twice. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisites: SPAN 127 . Required for majors.
Course Designation/Attribute: LP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures for the language placement guidelines.
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SPAN 133 - Hispanic Cultures
Focus changes with each offering, depending on faculty interest.
Spring 2019 Topic: Hispanic Cultures: Music in Contemporary Spain
Argetine-born musician Andrés Calamaro has stated that “Para mí es importantísimo cantar canciones no mías sino de todos. Se aprende mucho (…) Haciendo eso uno aprende de música, es como ir a la facultad.” In this course we will examine the interrelation between music, culture, and society from the mid-20th century until the present. Music will be studied in relation to constructions and representations of gender, ethnicity, and the nation within Spain. We will listen to and discuss musical pieces from diverse genres such as flamenco, rock, rap, punk, and pop. In addition to the music itself, course materials will include films, documentaries, and critical texts on the cultural study of music. It will be central to the course to examine how music has been influenced by, and commented on, historical, socio-political and cultural processes and transformations. While becoming familiar with Spain’s musical culture over the past century, students will investigate the relationship between culture and society in general.
Fall 2018 Topic: Cultures of exile in the Hispanic World
In ”Cultures of exile in the Hispanic World” we will examine and discuss the effects of exile on a variety of media and genre, from short stories and films, to music and plays. Focusing on issues of national identity, migration, and representation, throughout the course we will analyze culture produced in and on exile on both sides of the Atlantic. Materials for this course include works by Cristina Peri Rossi, Max Aub, Pablo Neruda, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Luisa Valenzuela, among others.
May be repeated for credit (maximum of 3 units)
Prerequisites: SPAN 131 or permission by instructor. Recommended for majors.
Course Designation/Attribute: LP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Languages, Literatures and Culture for the language placement guidelines.
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SPAN 136 - Women in Hispanic Literature & Art
We will discuss writings, movies and paintings by artists from Spain and Latin America. Examples include Frida Kahlo, Pedro Almodóvar, Julia de Burgos, Jaime Gil de Biedma, Sor Juana Inés, Paloma Pedrero and others. Topics to be considered include: self-representation, identity formation, autobiography, motherhood, sexuality, education, and family structure.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically.
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SPAN 140 - Spanish Dramatic Expression
Acquaints students with the rhythms, intonations and gestures typical of contemporary spoken Spanish. Through study and presentation of two or more contemporary dramatic works, students gain practical experience in linguistic and cultural skills. Although some consideration is given to the texts as literature, the course is primarily a workshop in advanced oral Spanish.
Prerequisites: SPAN 127 .
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures for the language placement guidelines.
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SPAN 141 - Spanish Translation Workshop
Introduces students to issues and practices of translation including aspects of cultural differences, translation deficiencies and approaches to source texts. Students will work on projects in the community, including translation and/or interpreting. Among the translations will be prose, poetry, songs, ads, editorials, government legal, financial and health forms.
Prerequisites: SPAN 131 or permission.
Course Designation/Attribute: POP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures for the language placement guidelines.
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SPAN 155 - Contemporary Cultural Issues in Latin America: Film and Essay
SPAN155 is an analytical and creative course focusing on three expressions of creativity within media: Latin American films, essays and the films of the students. We examine essential questions within the context of the unique perspectives of the essayists and directors. The essays and films illuminate contemporary reality and make the viewer or reader confront the moral and ethical dilemmas of Latin American society.
Prerequisites: SPAN 127
Course Designation/Attribute: LP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually, Either Fall or Spring
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SPAN 202 - HCH (Herencia y Cultura Hispánicas)
HCH (Herencia y Cultura Hispánicas) (SPAN202) is meant to enable students to develop their knowledge of Hispanic Culture and Spanish Language while working with the Spanish speaking community in Worcester, MA. HCH is a multigenerational collaborative learning space where participants grow and learn from each other culturally, linguistically, and personally through an exploration of Hispanic culture. It is a bi-directional exchange between students at Clark University and Worcester Public Schools students between 8 and 10 years old, with an emphasis on Worcester Public Schools students as leaders in the cultural exchange process and undergraduates as leaders in the facilitation process. Considering the large Hispanic community in Worcester and the plurality of identities, our goal is to create a space of sharing, learning, discussion, and empowerment for Worcester Public Schools students as well as a space for increased cultural enrichment for Clark students.
(graded pass/fail)
Prerequisites: SPAN 131 or higher, native speakers of Spanish or by permission
Course Designation/Attribute: POP, DI
Anticipated Terms Offered: annually, in the fall
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SPAN 217 - Hispanic Women Filmmakers
Hispanic Women Filmmakers (SPAN217) is meant to enable students to develop their knowledge of Hispanic Cinema and Hispanic culture of the 20th and 21st century. The materials used for this course aim to offer a significative representation of films by women filmmakers of the past and present century in the context of political, artistic and social change in Spanish speaking countries. We will consider how cultural ideologies, identities and intersectionalities (such as gender or age) are depicted in the big screen.
Prerequisites: SPAN 133 or higher; or Native Speakers; Experience abroad in Spanish speaking countries
Course Designation/Attribute: DI
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually
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SPAN 237 - Advanced Oral & Written Spanish
An advanced language course offering a sophisticated review of grammar. Areas covered are: written composition, reading comprehension, vocabulary expansion, and oral skills, such as debates and interviews. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisites: By permission only. Required for majors.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures for the language placement guidelines.
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SPAN 238 - Hispanic Literature of Political Commitment
Studies the creative writer’s position amidst 20th-century revolutionary change. Writers discussed include Pablo Neruda, César Vallejo, Ernesto Cardenal, Francisco Ayala and Miguel Hernández; Cuban writers and poets in their sometimes ambiguous relationship to their country’s revolution; the writers of the Chicano movement and the dream of Aztlán; and Puerto Rican authors, both on the mainland and on their native island. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisites: SPAN 131
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures for the language placement guidelines.
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SPAN 239 - Hispanic Caribbean Cultures
Examines literature, arts and media from Spanish language countries in the Caribbean Basin. Topics include: Afro-Antillean culture, colonialism and post-colonialism, gender studies, migrant sensibility and national identity. Conducted in Spanish.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures for the language placement guidelines.
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SPAN 246 - Studies in Spanish Cinema
“Film and Society in Contemporary Spain”
Surveys principal Spanish films and filmmakers of the past 25 years in the context of political and social change in Spain. Considers formulation of cultural ideologies and identities through topics such as Immigration, LGTBQ, New Technologies and “Nacionalismos”. Topics vary each time the course is offered. Conducted in Spanish.
Course Designation/Attribute: AP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
Placement Guidelines
Please visit the Department of Language Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.
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