2020-2021 Academic Catalog 
    
    Jun 03, 2024  
2020-2021 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Courses


 
  
  • ENG 2300 - Memoir Writing: Writing from Inside Out


     

    The craft of personal writing turns the messy and elusive facts of our life experience to compelling account.  Our memories can be not merely “reduced” to writing but enlarged by it-we don’t just write what we know; we write to find out what we know.  We try to elicit and shape the vivid details of our life stories and see what coherence, resonance, and even self-discovery emerge.  Through writing assignments and selected readings, we seek in this workshop to discern what makes certain writing fresh, intimate, provocative, graceful, funny, poignant or otherwise effective.  Work is read aloud, in a congenial setting, with a focus on voice, pace, compression, metaphor, dialogue, point of entry, word choice, and other elements.  We explore what it is we like about certain work, how the work might be improved, and what challenges the author may have faced in the process of composition. Pre-requisite: A composition course.  

     

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Varied

  
  • ENG 2310 - Topics in Journalism


    Offers students an expanded look at various kinds of stories that appear in newspapers, including hard news, features, columns, analysis and reviews. Focus this semester will be on coverage of foreign policy.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: varies

  
  • ENG 2420 - Modern Monsters: The Serial Killer in Literature and Film


    The genre of serial killer fiction is a direct descendent of Gothic fiction, with the serial killers as updated models of Gothic villains. Like their Gothic predecessors, fictional serial killers are mythologized, folklorized and, in some cases, supernaturalized. Beginning with Psycho, students will critically analyze serial killer fiction novels and films of the mid-20th century to the present while investigating the following themes: American notions and expressions of individuality; the sociopolitical climate in which the serial killer is defined and the ways in which the narratives criticize this climate; changing notions of gender roles and anxieties therein; sexual anxieties; the expressions of cultural desires; and how myth informs the serial killer narratives.

    Prerequisites: VE Placement or IDND 018  

    Course Designation/Attribute: VE (Summer only)

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Varied

  
  • ENG 2510 - Beat Generation Literature


    The beat Generation’s influence on American culture is still evident today, over 50 years after a group of young men- Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and others-first met in New York City. These radical writers shook up the literary world with their disregard for traditional literary styles and themes and their blatant rejection of the cultural values of postwar America. We will focus on the following : notions of defiant individuality; alternative conceptions of religion , sexuality, and politics; the glorification of the drug culture and of criminality, and how pop culture factors into texts. Among the work studied in this class are Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and William S. Burrough’s Naked Lunch.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: varies

  
  • ENG 2520 - Modern Irish Literature


    An introduction to the major authors of Irish Literature during the early 20th century (known in part as the Irish Literary Revival.) In addition to analyzing texts  in a general context. we will focus on how texts and authors represent Ireland’s past, present, and future in relation to Ireland’s status in the period. Discussion topics will include Ireland’s relationship with England, historical events, gender, Irish mythology and folklore, and Irish nationalism. Authors to be discussed include, not not limited to: George Bernard Shaw, W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, J.M. Synge, James Joyce, and Sean O’Casey.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: varies

  
  • ENG 2590 - Voices of Protest


    “We the People” have lived up to our responsibilities per the U.S. Constitution’s Preamble to “establish Justice,…promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”  When we feel these goals are being threatened, we protest.  This course will focus on people who have protested and have helped start grassroots movements.  This study will help us understand how pertinent legal, social, and economic policies have been shaped and influenced by common people, and how current perceived injustices might be approached.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: varies

  
  • ENG 2680 - The American Dream


    What is the “American Dream”? Has it changed through the years? Whose dream is it? Is it dead or alive in 2014? How does it function in American society? Does it help individuals succeed? How is it connected with immigration? We’ll study the American Dream in literature, film, and other arts (photography, painting, music).

    Anticipated Terms Offered: varies

  
  • ENG 2770 - 21st Century Ethnic American Literature


    Our focus in this course is a study of ethnic American literature from the 21st century. Each week is broken down into a theme: Home, Heritage, Language, Crossing, and Americans. Through these lenses, students will investigate readings by Asian American, African American, Native American, and Hispanic American authors. With the weekly writing assignments, students will develop their ideas about the literature, forming critical analyses of the works. By the end of this course, students will not only be more well read in the ethnic American literature canon, but they will also be well-versed in the important political, social, and historical contexts of those works. As this is a course that will emphasize the intersections between race, gender, sexuality, and class, students will also be able to recognize and articulate trends in contemporary literature, politics, media, and society that exist in American literature.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: varies

  
  • ENG 2800 - Virginia Woolf


    Fueled by creative genius and mental instability, the writing of Virginia Woolf was cutting edge in the 1920s and ‘30s and remains stimulating to this day. Woolf’s profound influence on modernism and on literary and social criticism make her a significant force in Western literature. Woolf’s writing was devoted to the examination of women’s place in modern society and the nature of women’s desire. Focusing on individual women’s lives, her writing investigates the complexities of personal identity, the fluidity of gender and sexuality and women’s need for artistic and intellectual expression as well as psychological and financial independence. Deeply introspective, Woolf kept extensive personal diaries, which we will study in addition to her fiction and nonfiction.

    Prerequisites: Intermediate Composition.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: varies

  
  • ENT 105 - Creating a Culture of Entrepreneurship and Innovation


    This course explores the basic phases of entrepreneurship and innovation - identification, ideation and implementation.  Students will identify a problem, ideate solutions to the problem, and implement the solution, which will bring about change. Students will gain a greater understanding of, and appreciation for, entrepreneurship and innovation by the act of doing. Entrepreneurship and innovation concepts presented in this course are supportive of intrinsically motivated issues, while helping others, the understanding of ones own constraints and resources, and the importance of self-awareness.  This course is typically taught as a first-year intensive for incoming students in the fall semester, and for ENT elective credit in the spring.  This course can be used as an elective course as found in Exploring Entrepreneurship (electives). It is also approved for a Values Perspective (VP) in support of the program of liberal studies requirements.

    Course Designation/Attribute: VP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Every semster

  
  • ENT 115 - Entrepreneurship: Art of the New


    Successful entrepreneurship begins with a vision. Like an artist, the entrepreneur must be able to translate creative vision into something tangible and real. This course focuses on the foundations of entrepreneurship and is appropriate for students from any major. It is designed to introduce students to the entrepreneurial process so that they may begin to shape their own entrepreneurial vision. Course objectives include a realistic preview of the challenges of entrepreneurship, an understanding of the legal and ethical environment within which entrepreneurs operate, the skills to think critically and work toward the ability to evaluate opportunities in the business or nonprofit sectors. This is a course includes experiential entrepreneurship-related activities where students work individually to test ideas and practice entrepreneurship.  The course will also include self-assessment activities designed to help students assess their own entrepreneurial potential. This course is the prerequisite for many ENT elective courses.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Every semester

  
  • ENT 202 - Entrepreneurial Marketing and Communications


    The goal of this course is to explore the application of marketing and communication techniques in student-owned, or managed, entrepreneurial ventures, as well as collaborating with community entrepreneurs, to develop effective marketing and communication campaigns. This course practices and develops application based skills using current marketing and communication methods and platforms. Student will create and communicate a compelling vision of their entrepreneurial venture through the use of digital and traditional marketing platforms. Entrepreneurs must be able to effectively communicate their venture to a wide variety of audiences through a wide array of platforms. Through intensive classroom work, role playing, and real-world applications, students will explore and participate in sales, marketing and promotional activities as they relate to communicating entrepreneurial goals.

    Prerequisites: ENT 115  or MGMT 100  

    Course Designation/Attribute: POP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered in the spring

  
  • ENT 203 - Art of the Pitch


    Successful entrepreneurship is successful pitching.  Whether you are soliciting support of a social cause, selling yourself in a job interview, or actively searching for backing of your business venture, you are pitching. This course is designed to introduce students, from all majors and minors, to the art of effective communication and public speaking to convey passions and interests, with emphasis on elevator pitches, presentations with props, video and recording, and TedTalks.

    Course Designation/Attribute: VE, POP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: every semester

  
  • ENT 205 - Innovating in Organizations


    Organizational innovation is the implementation of a new idea, object, or practice that is created within the realm of employment for the good of self and the organization. Organizations must innovate to maintain a competitive edge in a fast-paced, technology-driven, global economy.  Innovating thinking skills are in high demand by today’s employers. This course is designed to help students expand their divergent thinking skills to apply within an organization.  

    This is a .5 unit course and is also repeatable (up to two times).

      

    Prerequisites: MGMT 100 or ENT 115. 

    Course Designation/Attribute: POP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically, Spring preferred

  
  • ENT 211 - Creating a Movement


    Successful implementation of change, whether it is entrepreneurship (as in the adoption of a new product or service), or social innovation (people coming together to make a positive impact) involves having people join and support you towards a common goal, or movement. This course is designed to develop your understanding of the decision-making process involved when people decide to buy a product or join a movement. This problem-based course allows you, the student, to bridge the theory/practice divide by developing real solutions, which are tested using the following tools; empathy mapping, customer adopting behavior, and interview guide. 

    Anticipated Terms Offered: fall

  
  • ENT 212 - Marketing to You


    This course will familiarize students with strategies and practices in the ever-changing field of marketing to young consumers from middle school to graduate school.  Some of the best known brands are laser focused on resonating and relating to this young generation. This generation influences around a quarter of all purchases in the US.  This course will utilize lectures and spirited discussions, guest lectures, group and individual presentations to the class.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Module A in spring

  
  • ENT 216 - Financial Intelligence


    This course is an introduction to financial matters that affect the individual and the entrepreneur. Students will learn the importance of making informed financial decisions when planning for the future.  Using this foundation, students will leave the course with the ability to make financially intelligent and informed decisions about personal and organizational finances through the continued development of a student identified business venture. Additional topics and skills covered - financial statements, Excel, QuickBooks, and other financial and budgeting software.

    Course Designation/Attribute: FA

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall

  
  • ENT 217 - Funding Ventures


    This course is designed for students with an entrepreneurial venture interested in learning how to fund that venture. Topics include: business valuation, financing options - bootstrapping, crowd-funding, friends and family lending, bank loans, venture capital funding, angel investing, grants, and other sources of capital investment. A review and application of financial statements as part of funding a new venture will also be included.

    This is a .50 unit (half unit) course.

    Prerequisites: ENT 115

    Course Designation/Attribute: POP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Spring

  
  • ENT 222 - Entrepreneurial Design Thinking


    Design thinking is innovating solutions to problems with empathy toward the needs of the end-user. Design thinking promotes cross-disciplinary collaborating through brainstorming sessions, prototyping and testing.  This course will actively engage students in developing tangible, innovative products and concepts through a combination of lectures, hands-on lab work, field trips and guest lectures, to meet the needs of the identified end-user.

    This course is .5 units.

    May be repeatable for credit.

    Prerequisites: ENT115

    Anticipated Terms Offered: periodically

  
  • ENT 245 - Social Entrepreneurship


    ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ explores the relationship between the social issues confronting our global community and the use of business creation to stimulate ( “creatively disrupt”) local and world change. This course challenges the student to look beyond well-established business objectives - the creation of wealth - and investigate how wealth creation can impact public good. A review of global social entrepreneurial initiatives is an important focus of the course. Students consider such diverse social issues as environmental degradation, poverty, homelessness, lack of potable water, world health and education concerns, microcredit and more.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester

  
  • ENT 250 - Entrepreneurial Mentoring


    This course is designed as a self-directed course for undergraduate students who are interested in volunteering to serve as mentors for high school students working on business plans. As a college mentor, your “classroom” will be at the designated high school. Travel to New York City and high schools in the Worcester area is necessary depending on who the partner schools are in a given semester.  This is a repeatable, quarter-unit course for a maximum of 1 unit and graded as Pass/Fail.

    Prerequisites: MGMT 100   and ENT 115  .

    Anticipated Terms Offered: periodically

    Placement Guidelines
    Students must receive permission from the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Manager to take this course.

  
  • ENT 260 - Student Run Ventures


    This course is designed for any undergraduate student interested in continuing to work on their identified student run venture under the umbrella of the Clark Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program.  The student must have a current venture in progress. The course is designed to engage students in actively practicing the development and management of their student run business with the guidance of on campus resource centers. Topics covered in this course include: product development, market and customer research, e-commerce, marketing strategies, sales and customer service, point of sale, customer engagement, basic accounting, and basic data analytics. 

    This is a .50 (half unit) course.  This course is also repeatable (up to three times).

    Prerequisites: ENT 115  

    Course Designation/Attribute: POP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Every Semester or Once a Year

  
  • ENT 262 - Global International ELab


    This course will take place during Module 2 of the fall semester, with travel to Sierra Leone & Ghana in early January. This course is designed for students with an entrepreneurial spirit and interest in understanding and examining social entrepreneurship outside of the United States. This course will prepare students to apply, compare, contrast and examine business models from a global and international perspective. This course will require students to use problem solving, creative thinking and critical inquiry to examine international entrepreneurial opportunities around topics such as markets, competition, power and political considerations, social and cultural dynamics, ethical dilemmas, resources, sustainability and feasibility.  Students will travel to another country and have direct interaction with entrepreneurs and small business owners in that country. 

    This course is offered during Module 2 of fall semester, and will continue into January with travel to Sierra Leone & Ghana. Anticipated travel dates are: January 2-11th, 2020.

    Additional fees for travel apply to this course!

    Prerequisites: ENT 115   and ENT 245  

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall Semester

  
  • ENT 264 - Community-Based Entrepreneurship


    This course provides an opportunity for students to expand their creativity and community entrepreneurship by consulting and mentoring primarily Main South , as well as, in Worcestersmall businesses.  Students will partner with local businesses or organizations to develop the venture that supports ongoing operations, by using skills gained while pursuing a minor in Entrepreneurship.  Students will collaborate over the course of the semester with their partner organization to deliver ongoing instruction and mentoring for business development.  This course is an excellent opportunity to build a stronger community by linking students with local organizations and small businesses in a collaborative process to help grow Worcester and Main South business. You will directly work with Main South small businesses. This course is offered periodically and students can receive entrepreneurship minor capstone credit upon successful completion.  

    Prerequisites: MGMT 100   and ENT 115  

    Course Designation/Attribute: POP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Spring 2016/ Periodically

  
  • ENT 265 - Entrepreneurial Experience


    Every student who elects the minor is expected to complete a culminating experience as part of their coursework. This course is designed to be an incubator or collective workspace to continue to grow and develop your business venture that you have worked on throughout your minor. This element of the program allows students to demonstrate synthesis and mastery of learning outcomes from the ENT minor program such as idea generation, collaboration, implementation, market testing, marketing, primary and secondary customer and product research, market analysis, and customer engagement. 

    Prerequisites: MGMT 100 , ENT 115  and progress in required Exploring/electives courses.

    Course Designation/Attribute: POP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall Semester or Every Semester depending enrollment projections

  
  • ENT 298 - Internship


    An Academic internship is a practical work experience with an academic component that enables a student to gain knowledge and skills within an organization, industry, or functional area that reflects the student’s academic and professional interests while earning credit.

    Maybe repeatable for credit.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: every semester

  
  • ENT 299 - Directed Study


    Undergraduates, typically juniors and seniors, construct an independent study course on a topic approved and directed by a faculty member. Students should contact faculty member directly to discuss title.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall and Spring

  
  • ES 1210 - Journey to Sustainability


    “Journey to Sustainability” is designed for people interested in learning about the concept of sustainability and why sustainability is important for human survival. Simply put, is sustainability still possible, given that seven billion people are living on the planet? While this question may seem scary, the main goal of this course is to leave you with a feeling of hope for our environmental future. We will begin with a basic background in ecology and Earth’s systems. This background will provide the tools needed in order to develop one’s own conclusions when learning about current issues in environmental science. The second part of this course will focus on current environmental issues, which are mostly a result of humans using natural resources unsustainably. Issues studied will include climate change, overfishing, pollution, and energy. The last part of this course will focus on creating individual sustainability goals and assessing the current state of the planet.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: various

  
  • ES 1240 - Our World, Our Future: THe Philosophy and Politics of Sustainabliltiy


    We live in a world that is slowly coming to terms with its own limitations. Whether in scientific journals, or in the daily news, the future looks pretty bleak.  We constantly hear about the environmental crisis, the climate crisis, the ecological apocalypse and the energy crisis. While we are plagued by crises, questions about our common future have once again gained immense political currency and popular traction. In such a time, it becomes important to ask ourselves questions about sustainability so that we can act in ways that remediate our current crises, and offer alternatives to prevent them in the future. In this course, we start to do so by first exploring the concept of sustainability as it is understood in various philosophical traditions. We then explore the politics of sustainability in the context of various environmental issues to understand why sustainability is such a pressing issue by looking at the consequences of various unsustainable practices and actions. These issues range from global climate change, mining, pollution and waste, to energy and food systems. In the final part of the course, students will develop their own toolkit for sustainable living, connecting their individual lives with larger systemic conditions.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: varies

  
  • ES 1970 - Sustainability and the Sacred


    Indigenous cultures relied on three basic concepts to live sustainably: community, exchange and relationship. In this course we will experience and explore these three concepts. The interconnectedness of all life - the sacred - is the “technology” which lay at the heart of all indigenous cultures. It is all available to each of us still. Connecting to the plants, the animal kingdom, and one another as equals bring the tools we need to embrace earth changes and all that the future holds. Through this course you will be empowered to engage with Sustainability on your own terms. Please be advised that some class meetings will take place outdoors.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: various

  
  • ES 2000 - Exploring Nature of Central Massachusetts


    In this practical, hands-on course, you will learn how to identify common animals that live in a variety of ecosystems, discover edible wild plants are more widespread than you think, and experience exciting outdoor activities such as map & compass navigation, canoeing, and fishing. Explore the natural beauty of Central Massachusetts hidden within suburbs just minutes outside of Worcester and become familiar with the plants and wildlife that call this region home.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: varies

  
  • FILM 1150 - Exploring Hispanic Culture


    The Hispanic culture is rich and vibrant and we will come to a greater appreciation and understanding of it through an examination of its literature, poetry and films. The films we will view will be both popular and famous in Latin America and Spain and our readings will be from writers, contemporary and historic, that are well known not only in their own country but around the world (Isabel Allende, Vargas llosa, Gracia Lorca, Cervantes, etc.). Through our assignments there will be an opportunity for us to participate in a more in depth study of various aspects of Hispanic culture and traditions. By the end of the semester you will have acquired a greater understanding, interpretation and response to the Hispanic culture.

  
  • FILM 1640 - Chinese Film Studies


    This class aims to familiarize students with not only the overall history of Chinese cinema but also recent significant filmmakers and their works in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The class will begin with a brief and general survey of Chinese films since the 1920s to the present. As the semester continues our main focus will include films directed by the fifth generation and other important filmmakers in Mainland China as well as award-winning filmmakers in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
     

    Anticipated Terms Offered: varies

  
  • FILM 2680 - The American Dream


    What is the “American Dream”? Has it changed through the years? Whose dream is it? Is it dead or alive in 2014? How does it function in American society? Does it help individuals succeed? How is it connected with immigration? We’ll study the American Dream in literature, film, and other arts (photography, painting, music).
     

    Anticipated Terms Offered: varies

  
  • FIN 4200 - Financial Management


    This course is an introduction to the basic concepts, principles, and analytical techniques of financial management with a goal to help the student understand financial markets and financial decisions. Topics covered in this course include the time-value of money, valuation of corporate securities, valuation of corporate investments, market efficiency, risk and return, capital structure, and corporate governance. The student will also learn how to make simple financial decisions and recognize international differences in corporate governance.

    Prerequisites: ACCT 4100  or ACCT 4101 ; Pre or Corequisite STAT 4300 .

     

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered Annually

  
  • FIN 5201 - Case Studies in Corporate Finance


    This course will expose students to corporate finance theories and the application of these theories through case studies. The course builds on the main principles of corporate finance which include financial analysis, capital budgeting, cost of capital, and capital structure. We will learn how these financial concepts are interpreted and applied by corporations. Students will gain insights on how corporations make long-term investment decisions and how different classes of investors, debt and equity, evaluate companies.

     

    Prerequisites: FIN 4200  OR FIN 5401  Non MSF student registration is available by permission only.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Varies

  
  • FIN 5203 - Investment Strategies


    This course teaches students how to build and effective investment strategy. Taught in the final semester of the MSF program, this course draws on prior coursework in Investments, Fixed Income Securities, and Cases in Derivatives. Students will learn how to design a comprehensive strategy that uses multiple asset classes and tactics. Students will also study a variety of alternative investment strategies such as hedge funds, private equity, and real estate. The emphasis will be on the type of investment strategies employed by institutional investors such as pension funds and university endowment funds.

     

    Prerequisites: FIN 5401  

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered Annually

  
  • FIN 5208 - Fixed-Income Securities


    Fixed income securities are the most traded asset class in the world. A significant portion of the institutional investors’ trading portfolio consists of fixed income securities and its derivatives. Markets for these securities have skyrocketed in the past few years, and their complexity has increased considerably (a factor contributing to the subprime crisis). Hence, it is important to understand the sources of risk for these complex securities and master the latest models and techniques to price and hedge these risks. The topics covered in the course include: the basic concepts of fixed income instruments such as yield, term structure, duration and convexity, pricing of basic instruments, interest rate risk management, recent modeling techniques to value both traditional and recent derivative instruments, Mortgage Backed Securities and Credit Derivatives, Inflation, Monetary Policy. Students will also learn how to use Bloomberg Fixed Income Analytics, the most common tool used by finance professionals.

     

    Prerequisites: FIN 5401  

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered Annually

  
  • FIN 5216 - Computational Finance


    Modern-day finance is rife with computationally intensive problems and solutions from pricing derivative instruments to complex portfolio building using optimization techniques. This course supplies students with the intuitions for the underlying mathematical concepts behind common financial applications. Furthermore, students learn the skills to develop their own solutions to variant of these applications with emphasis put on the generalizability of the results reviewed. Starting with binomial models as a stepping-stone, this course discusses the main tools applied to derivative valuation and their extension to continuous time pricing. It also considers common numerical methods utilized in financial engineering such as Monte Carlo simulation. The course ends with a review of common optimization tools and their application to portfolio building under constraints.

     

    Prerequisites: FIN 5309  

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered Annually

  
  • FIN 5309 - Financial Econometrics


    This course imparts students with the necessary knowledge and skills for understanding and running the common statistical analyses encountered in modern-day market finance. The course starts with a review of probability theory and statistics before progressing to common econometric concepts employed in financial market research. This course is intended for students with at least a semester of introductory statistics under their belt. Topics include linear regression, time-series models (ARMA, ARIMA, ARCH, and GARCH), and unit root.

     

    Prerequisites: No prerequisites for MSF Students. Other students by permission only.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall semester

  
  • FIN 5310 - Case Studies in Derivatives


    The goal of this course is to learn how corporations use derivatives to manage risk. This involves identifying and quantifying the risk, selecting appropriate tools, and implementing risk management strategies. Risk management is only partly a quantitative field. Strategy, negotiation, marketing, and basic financial management are important as well. This course focuses on several important topics- various derivative products, their structure, application, and valuation; understanding the players in the market for financial risk: the buyers and the sellers (of risk) and the intermediaries; and making risk management decisions with limited information. It uses the case method. Each week students work in small groups to analyze a real-world problem and identify possible solutions.

     

    Prerequisites: FIN 5401  

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered Annually

  
  • FIN 5401 - Investments


    This course provides an introduction to investment theory and security valuation. In addition, students will gain a strong understanding of financial markets and the major categories of financial assets/ investments. The topics covered in the course include: risk and return, portfolio theory, asset pricing models, behavioral finance, valuation of equities and bonds, option pricing models, and forward and futures markets. The lectures and examinations will focus both on quantitative and conceptual foundations.

     

     

    Prerequisites: No prerequisites for MSF students. Prerequisite for other students is FIN 4200  and is by permission only.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered Annually

  
  • FIN 5404 - Investment Fund


    The Investment Fund course offers an opportunity for students to team manage an equity portfolio on behalf of the Clark University Endowment. Students will be exposed to the institutional portfolio management process and stock selection under uncertain investment environment. Students are responsible researching investment ideas, formulate investment strategies, make investment decisions, evaluate portfolio performance, and ongoing monitoring of the Fund. Students are expected to conduct independent research in research teams and present their investment thesis to the class. Students must complete an application and be approved to take the course by the instructor prior to enrolling.

     

    Prerequisites: FIN 4200  for MBA students. FIN 5401  for MSF students. By permission only.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Varies

  
  • FIN 5405 - Mergers and Acquisitions


    Mergers & Acquisitions is a case-based examination of the factors that contribute to a successful transaction. After establishing why a corporation would entertain a merger or acquisition in the first place, emphasis will be given to candidate selection, valuation, negotiation, post-transaction integration, and satisfying the needs of the many stakeholders involved in a deal. Every class meeting will feature discussion of an assigned case, and students will also engage in team projects in which they research a recent transaction and will participate in mock negotiations. Students will have met the prerequisites prior to enrolling in the course to ensure that they are comfortable with the common tools of finance, especially discounted cash flow analysis.

    Prerequisites: ACCT 4100  OR ACCT 4101  and FIN 4200 , OR FIN 5401 .

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Varies

  
  • FIN 5408 - Risk Management


    This course will provide an understanding and application of quantitative (Financial) and qualitative (Enterprise) methods of analyzing and managing risk within organizations.  Learn to apply multiple risk management tools to make high quality decisions for balancing corporate risk and reward tradeoffs.  Financial risk topics will include the examination of derivative application uses for hedging risk, measuring Value at Risk and exploring external impacts such as market, credit and systemic risks.  Enterprise risk topics will include constructing frameworks for managing strategic, operational and other business risks. Students will examine ways to assess and measure risk along with organizing corporate governance policies. 

    Prerequisites: FIN 4200   OR FIN 5401   

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Varies

  
  • FIN 5409 - Wealth Management


    This course will focus on the philosophy and process of managing and investing institutional and high net worth individuals’ assets. It will review the process of identifying the investment objectives of investors and establishing their risk tolerance and investment horizon. The course will cover investment topics that include risk management, asset allocation, portfolio optimization, and different investment vehicles, including the growing exchange-traded funds (ETF) securities. Investment theories covered will be tax-efficient investing, the life cycle of investing, sustainability investing, and selecting and monitoring investment managers. The quantitative material will draw heavily on college-level algebra and other quantitative methods.

    This class fulfills the Experiential Learning Requirement in the MSF Program.

     

     

    Prerequisites: FIN 4200  OR FIN 5401  

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Varies

  
  • FIN 5417 - Financial Consulting Project


    The goal of this course to cultivate students’ capability to structure and present a rigorous analysis that supports a recommendation to make a capital investment. Across the sectors of the economy, investors must understand complex and evolving markets and regulations, available funding sources, and business models, to fully evaluate the risks and opportunities and make smart capital investment decisions. Student will apply corporate and project finance skills, capital budgeting and asset valuation, and risk analysis and work as interdisciplinary teams to propose, analyze, and defend a capital investment opportunity. The class project will be structured as a consulting engagement. By the end of the semester, students will understand how to model the capital structures commonly used to fund projects; apply the capital budgeting and risk analysis techniques that professionals use to make investment decisions; apply basic project management principles and tools to the completion of complex analysis; and present and defend a recommendation to make a capital investment.

    Counts as Experiential Learning Requirement II or an elective for the MSF and MBA programs.

    Prerequisites: FIN 4200   or FIN 5401  

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • FIN 5900 - Special Topics in Finance


    Each year, the School of Management offers courses under the “special topics” category. These courses are often different each semester and can be either .5 or one unit courses.

    Prerequisites: Prerequisites vary depending on the course.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Varies

  
  • FIN 5910 - Directed Research


    For a directed research course, a student and professor design a self-study course based around a common research interest shared by both. A directed research must be approved by the professor and the Associate Dean of GSOM. It can be designed as either a 0.5 unit or 1 unit course. For questions or additional information, contact your academic advisor.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Every Semester

  
  • FREN 103 - Elementary French Intensive


    An accelerated elementary course, intended for students who have had no more than one year of high school French or the equivalent. Focuses on communicative proficiency through the development of basic oral and written skills; self-expression and cultural insight are also cultivated. Course meets three days per week. Students must also register for a weekly discussion section with a French teaching assistant.

    Prerequisites: 0-1 years of French, or equivalent. Permission required.

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall semester; some Spring semesters

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 105 - Intermediate French I


    For students with 2 to 3 years of French. Consolidates basic skills for students who have completed FREN 103 or the equivalent. Emphasizes communicative proficiency: the development of oral and written skills, self-expression and cultural insight. There is a weekly discussion section with a French teaching assistant.

     

    Prerequisites: FREN 103   or equivalent, or permission.

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Every semester

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 106 - Intermediate French II


    For students with 4 to 5 years of French. Builds on skills and knowledge gained at Intermediate I level. Continued emphasis on communicative proficiency: the development of oral and written skills through study of grammar, vocabulary, short texts. Greater emphasis on self-expression, interpersonal communication, cultural competency. There is a weekly discussion section with a French teaching assistant.
     

    Prerequisites: FREN 105  or equivalent, or permission.

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Every semester

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 120 - Ways of Writing and Speaking


    This course is an introduction to advanced levels of French and exposes students to some of the areas of study they will find in the French and Francophone Studies program. The course seeks to develop students’ writing and speaking skills through readings, discussion in class, and writing assignments targeting various styles and registers. Typical theme units include poetry and song; news and the media; film and comics.



     

    Prerequisites: FREN 106    or equivalent; AP French language; or permission. 

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 124 - Popular Culture in France


    For students with 4 to 5 years of French or AP credit. An exploration of the multiple manifestations and transformation of French popular culture, from the 1940s to today, as disseminated in film, music, the media, cartoons, bande dessinée and popular literature. Examines aspects of French culture such as youth culture, slang, sports, food and humor, and the common portrayal of topics such as family, love, foreigners and other social issues in the media.
     

    Prerequisites: FREN 106    or equivalent; AP French language; or permission.

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 131 - Readings in French Literature


    Introduces analysis and understanding of French literary texts and their visions of the world and of the self. Focuses on literary structures and conventions that form the basis of different genres through history. Readings include a range of complete texts, of different genres and themes, in fiction, theater and poetry.

    Prerequisites: FREN 120  , FREN 124  or above, or permission. Fulfills the Literature Requirement for Majors

     

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 132 - Readings in Francophone Literature


    Introduces analysis and understanding of francophone literature and their visions of the world and of the self. Readings include a wide range of complete texts across the genres, with an emphasis on works from French-speaking countries outside Europe. The focus of the course may vary from year to year. We may examine a theme encountered in literature across the francophone world, or study a variety of literary works from one specific region.

     

    Prerequisites: FREN 120 , FREN 124  or above, or permission. Fulfills the Literature Requirement for majors.

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 137 - Studies in Contemporary French Culture


    Addresses questions of cultural identity and cultural differences, with particular attention to France and foreigners, Franco-American (dis)connections and issues of immigration.

     

    Prerequisites: FREN 120 FREN 124  or above, or permission. Fulfills the Culture Requirement for majors.

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 140 - Francophone Writing and Film


    Offering an overview of the French-speaking world that spans from South East Asia to the Caribbean, North and sub-Saharan Africa, and North America, this course celebrates the diversity of francophone cultures through literature and film. It also seeks to examine and interrogate the ties of these former colonies with France and Belgium, the paths they have followed since independence, and their current socio-economic and political situation.

    Prerequisites: FREN 120  , FREN 124  or above, or permission. Fulfills the Culture Requirement for majors. 

    Course Designation/Attribute: GP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 144 - French Societies Through Film


    This course analyzes Francophone societies and discusses specific social issues of contemporary Francophone countries through their representation in cinema. One of the ongoing themes will be the distinction between cinematic representation of Francophone societies and the social reality. The focus of the course may vary from year to year. The course may take a look across the Francophone world or focus on a specific country or region, it may adopt a thematic approach, it may take a historical approach outlining key historical moments that have shaped Francophone societies into what they are today, or it may examine the dominant values and institutions in the Francophone world.
     

    Prerequisites: FREN 120 , FREN 124  or above, or permission.

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 146 - Advanced Oral Expression - Lecture/Discussion


    This course is designed to help students improve their fluency in French. A variety of materials including films, newspaper articles, current events and literary texts will be used to help students perfect pronunciation and intonation, communicate opinions and engage in debate. Other topics may include phonetics, levels of discourse, public speaking, and dramatic interpretation.

    Prerequisites: FREN 120  , FREN 124  or above.

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 164 - Haiti and the French Antilles


    This course examines the societies, cultures and literatures of Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guyana. It begins by tracing the history of the area, including the consequences of the Haitian Revolution in the Caribbean. The course then goes on to explore the cultures of the region, notably the cultural links with both ancestral Africa and France, the status of the Creole language, Haitian vodun, Haitian visual arts, and French Antillean carnival practices. Other topics discussed include gender relations, emigration and diaspora, Haiti’s political trajectory since independence, and the political status of the French Caribbean territories.

     

     

    Prerequisites: FREN 131  or above, or permission.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 165 - Theater Workshop in French


    A workshop course using scene study to provide direct experience of the theatrical synthesis within which play, actor and spectator operate. Emphasizes vocal delivery through intensive work on diction, phrasing, rhythm and gesture. Explores various approaches to the play’s staging. Typically one playwright is studied and topics of theatrical practice are combined with theoretical issues concerning the social background and artistic conventions of the playwright’s period. Playwrights studied may be: Molière, Marivaux, Ionesco, Beckett.

    Prerequisites: FREN 120  or higher, or permission.

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 223 - Surrealist Literature and Art of the 1920s-1940s


    This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the literary, artistic, and social movement of Surrealism during its most productive and influential period. We will consider its precursors and the singular context in which Surrealism arose as well as its legacy and manifestations in the 21st century. Various facets of Surrealism will be examined, namely manifestoes and essays, poetry, theater, literary prose, cinema, visual art. Themes of the unconscious, the imagination, play, desire, language, transgression, love, and revolution will be of particular interest to us.

    Prerequisites:   FREN 131  , FREN 132  or above, or by permission.

     

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically

    Placement Guidelines
    Majors and non-majors welcome. Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 249 - The French-Speaking World In the 21st Century


    An interdisciplinary analysis of the effects of globalization in French-speaking countries around the world. Through literature, social texts, and fiction film and documentaries we explore such issues as the rise of religious extremism; the Algerian  civil war;  the problematic role of French language and culture in former French colonies decades after independence; the social, economic  and cultural consequences of globalization; the intersection between the local and the global; migration patterns from or within the francophone world; and other contemporary issues which the postcolonial francophone world is facing.
     

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically

    Placement Guidelines
    Majors and non-majors welcome. Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 256 - Education in 20th Century French Novel and Film.


    An exploration of literary and cinematic portrayals of youth with a focus on the role of the school and other sources of learning. Topics include gendered identity, social structures and narrative strategies. Authors may include Colette, Alain-Fournier, Gide, Sagan, Ernaux and Duras. Majors and non-majors welcome.

    Prerequisites: FREN 131  or FREN 132  or permission.

    Course Designation/Attribute: LP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 297 - Honors


    This honors program is for language, literature and culture majors only. By November 1 of the capstone semester, faculty will identify qualified senior majors (with a minimum GPA of 3.5) and invite them to submit a proposal for a semester-long honors thesis during the spring of their senior year. Other students who wish to take honors should identify an area of interest during the capstone semester, consult with the capstone professor and/or an appropriate honors adviser, and submit a proposal (by December 1) to the professor they would like to direct the project.*

    • Proposals will be approved at the discretion of the individual professor.
    • The Department Chair must also approve the project.
    • The honors candidate and adviser will decide on a work schedule, but a preliminary draft must be completed by the first week of April.
    • The final version is due one week before the last day of classes.
    • A second faculty reader will participate in the final evaluation of the honors project.
    • An honors project counts as one unit of credit.

    *Students graduating early and wishing to do an honors project should see their adviser during the fall of their junior year and get approval for the project from the thesis director and the department chair.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • FREN 298 - Internship


    An Academic internship is a practical work experience with an academic component that enables a student to gain knowledge and skills within an organization, industry, or functional area that reflects the student’s academic and professional interests while earning credit.

    Maybe repeatable for credit.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: every semester

  
  • FREN 299 - Directed Study


    Undergraduates, typically juniors and seniors, construct an independent study course on a topic approved and directed by a faculty member. Offered for variable credit. May be repeatable for credit.

     

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Every Semester

    Placement Guidelines
    Please visit the Department of Language, Literature, and Culture for the language placement guidelines.

  
  • GEOG 016 - Introduction to Economic Geography


    This course is built on the assumption that we live in a world whose societies, cultures, governments, and environmental relationships are most significantly shaped by the mechanisms and influences of global capitalism. A fuller understanding of the dynamics of the world economy requires that we not isolate them from the political, cultural, social, and ecological contexts through and within which they are situated. Deeper contextual understandings are what economic geographers seek to achieve and this course surveys these perspectives with a focus on the locations and distributions of economic activities and the flows, interconnections, and drivers of uneven development in the global economy. Fulfills the Global Comparison Perspective.

    Course Designation/Attribute: GP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 017 - Environment and Society


    Relationships between human societies and the natural environment are central to the discipline of geography. Geography 017 introduces students to these relationships and to the analysis of them, integrating perspectives from the natural and social sciences. We examine questions such as: how do environments shape societies; how do societies transform environments; are there environmental limits to economic growth; how does culture shape our relationships with our environments; and what sorts of human-environment relationships are sustainable and just? We examine these questions at many different geographic and temporal scales: from pre-history up to the present, from very local cases to the entire planet, and from pre-industrial or rural landscapes to suburban and urban ones. Cases and discussions will span the entire globe, but will include examples from the Americas, the United States, and New England in order to ground our discussions in the places we know best. One weekly discussion section. Fulfills the Global Comparison Perspective.

     

    Course Designation/Attribute: GP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 018 - Environment and Development in the Global South


    “Development” is an international mandate for addressing structural inequality between the Global North and South. However, many institutions, private entities, NGOs and governments equate development with capitalist economic growth. The equation of capitalist growth with development has deepened global inequality and helps fuel global environmental crises. With the expansion of consumerism, the globalization of trade and travel and a world-wide dependency on fossil fuels, countries in the Global South not only have to navigate their own colonial legacies within an unequal world system but also the worst effects of climate change and widespread environmental degradation. This course will address the fundamental contradictions between economy and the environment that are at the heart of the world system. It will ask if it is possible to reclaim and refigure “development” to create a new platform for addressing global economic inequality and environmental health simultaneously. In this course we will read introductory texts on development and global environmental issues from geography and the social sciences, with special focus on the interdisciplinary subfields of critical development studies and political ecology.

     

    Anticipated Terms Offered: fall & spring

  
  • GEOG 020 - American Cities: Changing Spaces, Community Places


    This course examines the history and contemporary processes of urbanization, primarily in the North American context, with particular attention to the geography of these processes, which results in the differentiation of space and the creation of distinct places. The course covers a range of topics relevant to cities, including historical development, governance, social patterns, economics, planning, contemporary problems and the linkages among all of these. We examine the geography of urbanization at several scales, ranging from the development of the North American urban system to the experiences of neighborhoods within cities. A core course in Globalization, Cities and Development in the geography major. Fulfills the Historical Perspective (HP) requirement.

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 022 - Why Global Warming Matters I


    Climate change (global warming)is the single greatest problem facing the planet today. Or is it? In this seminar students will peel away the rhetoric surrounding global climate change, so that they may be able to understand why this issue matters not only to international policy makers but also to individuals and their daily lives. Topics for exploration will focus on the causes and consequences of climate change and justification (and options) for action. The breadth of areas the climate-change issue intersects - including but not limited to politics, economy, ecology, epistemology, ethics - suggests that global warming is a crucial integrating theme for the discipline of geography and, more importantly, the intellectual foundation of a well-rounded student. Fulfills the Values Perspective (VP). Offered periodically as a first year seminar and as a lecture course.

    Course Designation/Attribute: VP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • GEOG 028 - Discover Worcester


    What is this city of Worcester? Discover it! In this class, we will explore and learn about Worcester using a variety of lenses: field trips, historical accounts and documents, contemporary statistical data, and scholarly analyses of broader US urban trends. We will visit cultural institutions such as the Art Museum, document social life via photography of streets and parks, and learn about the city from local experts. At the end of the course, you will be able to describe and critically assess Worcester in terms of US urban development, institutional and neighborhood resources, and your own experiences of its many landscapes. Fulfills the History Perspective.

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • GEOG 050 - Africa Today


    Sub-Saharan Africa is arguably one of the most poorly understood, misrepresented, and oversimplified regions of the world.  This course will apply geographic theories and ideas to the study of Africa with the broad objective of building students’ geographical literacy and their understanding of contemporary issues and circumstances influencing African peoples, communities, cultures, and environments.  Through in-depth discussions, debates, and analyses of case-studies detailing challenges and opportunities in the region, students will study Africa’s geography, explore Africans’ everyday lives and their visions for its future, and critically examine the causes for and prospective solutions to economic, political, and social challenges facing the sub-continent today.  In doing so, students will confront mainstream stereotypes about African peoples, societies, politics, and economies and will encounter some of the interconnectivities and interdependencies between their lives and those of Africans. 

    Course Designation/Attribute: GP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: occasionally

  
  • GEOG 052 - Global Change, Regional Challenges


    Applies a regional perspective to explore important questions related to our planet and its people including: What are the key challenges facing communities, environments and societies in different regions of the world today? Is the world becoming more culturally homogenous or more fragmented? Why is the global distribution of wealth so uneven and how might poorer regions “catch up” to wealthier regions? How does the physical and human context of a region influence its ability to benefit from globalization? What factors are driving regional conflicts and how might peaceful resolutions be achieved? Focuses on eight regions – Europe, Russia/Central Asia, Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, East Asia, and South/Southeast Asia. One or two significant issues will be focused on in each region such as gender equality, human rights, environmental sustainability, political change, economic development, public health, and/or human rights. Fulfills the Global Comparative Perspective.

    Course Designation/Attribute: GP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 075 - Americans and the Environment


    This first-year intensive, run as a seminar, will immerse students in the study of how Americans have interacted with their environments, ending in the present and looking to the near future. It will focus on key themes, moments, and debates, with a particular emphasis on New England and the Worcester region. Local and regional field trips to key sites will complement the readings. It will encompass aspects of environmental history; the evolution of US environmental law, policy, and social movements; and the role of both the United States as a country, and individual Americans as citizens and consumers, in contemporary environmental politics and interactions

    Course Designation/Attribute: HP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Every other year

  
  • GEOG 080 - Reading the Forested Landscape


    This First Year Intensive course will introduce students to the field of forest ecology, the process of scientific inquiry, and New England’s forest ecosystems. Understanding how ecosystems function and change in response to human activities and normal Earth system fluctuations is among the most important contemporary topics. Beyond having inherent scientific value, such knowledge has become integral to national and international policies and practices of ecosystem management. This intensive course will focus on forest ecosystems, which are one of the most important ecosystem types on Earth, and will consider fundamental ideas regarding how forests function, how they change, and how they are studied. As a First Year Intensive, this course will employ dialogical teaching, collaborative learning, and will also support students’ transition to college and the development of foundational skills necessary to succeed.



    Course Designation/Attribute: SP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: occasionally

  
  • GEOG 087 - Introduction to Environmental Information Science


    An introduction to fundamental concepts of environmental geographic information science, and a comprehensive survey of the technologies and institutions involved in producing and using geographic data. These include the global positioning system, aerial surveys and photogrammetry, topographic mapping, social surveys such as the U.S. Census, and satellite remote sensing. Overall, this class is a combined introductory class to Geographic Information Science (GISc), cartography and remote sensing. Fulfills the Science Perspective.

    Course Designation/Attribute: SP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered Periodically

  
  • GEOG 090 - Native Americans, Land and Natural Resources


    There are several reasons for the establishment of this course.  First, there are the issues of Native American histories and geographies - subjects that most “Americans” (and others) are not particularly well versed in, and - subjects that are constantly revised and reinterpreted. These histories and geographies are important for understanding the roots of the American “nation” and for considering the morality of other acts of past and present colonialism in the world, i.e. Israeli settlement of Palestine; European colonial history in India, Africa and the Middle East; Chinese colonialism in Uyghur territory in central Asia and in Tibet; the US in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Hawaii (to name just a few).  Second, studying Native American practices and attitudes toward “nature” allow us to consider other ways of being in the world besides the Euro-American way.  The concepts of “development” and “progress” must be critically examined here. Finally, the questions of who is indigenous and how cultures persist - with or without assimilation - are significant for better understanding international and intercultural relations, particularly where conflicts over land and resources occur. The course is divided into 4 modules: Introduction to Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Geographies of Colonialism, Indigenous Geographies of Justice and Indigenous Geographies of Resistance and Resurgence. We will begin by establishing a framework for our study, using the theories of settler colonialism and decolonization, and then examine various histories and geographies of indigeneity in the Americas. Our goals in the course will be to learn as much as we can about indigenous histories and geographies such as extractive industry conflicts, and projects of socio-ecological restoration. We will also examine indigenous peoples’ land claims and survival struggles elsewhere in the Americas, and through collaborative learning explore contemporary indigenous geographies in other parts of the world. In addition to the readings, we will make use of a number of films, web sources, and field trips to educate ourselves.

     

     

     

    Course Designation/Attribute: GP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Varies

  
  • GEOG 101 - Food Justice and Food Movements


    In this course we will be examining the meaning of “food justice” and the multiple movements attempting to change the highly destructive existing industrial food system in the US and elsewhere.  At the same time, we will be working on the Real Food Challenge at Clark. The Real Food Challenge is a US student-led campaign to shift institutional purchasing toward food that is more humane, worker friendly, environmental sound, and advancing of local economies.  In signing the Challenge Clark University committed to having 20% “real food” by 2020. “Real food” consists of food that has certain certifications to qualify it as local, fair, humane, or ecologically sound. This class will incorporate the practical work that goes along with the commitment, working on the real food calculator and raising campus awareness of the Challenge, with learning the intricate world of the global productive system. This means looking through the lens of the Real Food Wheel to examine all of the different facets that make the food system. This means producers, earth, consumers, customers, and earth. The Real Food Wheel will act as the vehicle for explaining the social, cultural, ecological, moral, and economic impacts of the modern food system.

    Course Designation/Attribute: VP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually

  
  • GEOG 102 - Weather and Climate


    Understanding controls of weather: insolation, evaporation, wind, and topography; the climates that result; and how they influence human activities. Students are also introduced to fundamentals of scientific inquiry and knowledge with exposure to observational methods, data analysis, and forecasting. Fulfills the Science Perspective.

    Course Designation/Attribute: SP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 104 - Earth System Science


    This course introduces the structure and function of the earth system, with a focus on how the Earth system sustains life. Topics include (1) connections among terrestrial surface, oceans, and atmosphere and (2) how these connections create and sustain climates, biomes, and ecosystem services. Fulfills the Science Perspective requirement.

    Course Designation/Attribute: SP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year.

  
  • GEOG 106 - Water and the City: A Socio-Hydrology of Worcester and its Environs


    The course offers a historical and contemporary exploration of the social relationships between our city-region and its water (as lifeline, right, cultural and ecological resource, economic engine, waste, and central to politics, regulation, management and future climate vulnerability and resilience). We draw widely from the academic literature on urban nature, urban development and change, planning, environmental justice, and climate and environmental history, as well as from popular literature and periodicals (newspapers, regional watershed-related blogs and websites, policy briefs). This scholarship is used to establish a foundational framework of urban socio-hydrology. We strongly integrate our academic work with field experiences in Worcester, the Blackstone River Valley and the Central New England region as a living laboratory, in order to witness key moments and features that have shaped regional history as well as current issues in water (and wastewater) management, conservation, and planning. We will undertake visits to sites such as the Clark campus rain garden and public parks and locations throughout Worcester, the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester Historical Museum, the Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park and the Millville Lock, regional watershed associations, the Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary, The Harvard Forest Fisher Museum and the City of Worcester Water Treatment Plant. These experiences of regional land use, watershed change and urban water management will be threaded through and complement our academic investigation of urban socio-hydrology.

    Course Designation/Attribute: VP, POP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 107 - Miracles of Asia: Economic Growth in Global Contexts


    Explores the reasons behind the rapid rise of Asian economies and their sudden crises. Discussions include the impacts of rapid industrialization on the standard of living, housing, role of the state, multinational corporations, urban problems and ethnic relations in east, southeast and south Asian countries. Examines the role of Japan and the United States in Asia’s industrialization, the impacts of colonialism in socio-economic-political transformation in the Asia-Pacific region, business-government relations in Newly Industrializing Economies, and the recent phenomenal growth of China and India. Fulfills the Global Comparison Perspective.

    Course Designation/Attribute: GP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 110 - Introduction to Quantitative Methods


     

    GEOG110 is an introductory course in applied statistical analysis with emphasis on computer skills. Students gain proficiency in using spreadsheets to organize data and to perform the most common statistical procedures such as univariate analysis, hypothesis testing, estimation of means, regression, and association. Undergraduate students receive credit for a Formal Analysis perspective. Geography majors receive credit for a skills course. Environmental Science majors receive credit for a statistics course. Graduate students receive credit by registering for GEOG311. Prerequisites are high school math such as Algebra 2 and/or pre-calculus.

     

    Prerequisites:  

    Prerequisites are high school math such as Algebra 2 and/or pre-calculus.

    Course Designation/Attribute: FA

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered at least once per year

  
  • GEOG 116 - Forest Ecology


    Understanding how ecosystems function and how they change in response to human activities and normal Earth system fluctuations are important themes in contemporary natural sciences. Beyond having inherent scientific value, such knowledge has become integral to national and international policies and practices of ecosystem management. This course provides a foundation in forest ecology by considering the function, structure, and composition of forest ecosystems. Topics include forest succession, long-term ecological variability, disturbance ecology, ecological resilience, and the influence of climate and environmental heterogeneity on forest patterns and dynamics.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 119 - The Arctic in the Anthropocene


    The Arctic is currently experiencing some of the most rapid and severe climate change on Earth. The most profound environmental changes that will occur in your lifetime are undoubtedly those resulting from climate warming in the Arctic: loss of Arctic sea ice, melting of glaciers/ice caps/ice sheets, thawing of carbon-rich permafrost, extinction of species, among numerous other impacts. However, what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic - these changes have far-reaching implications across the planet. For instance, loss of arctic snow and ice exacerbates global climate warming, thawing of arctic permafrost carbon contributes vast quantities of greenhouse gases to the global atmosphere, and the melting of land ice in the Arctic is the largest contributor to expected global sea level rise over the next century. Furthermore, climate warming in the Arctic has significant implications for native communities and subsistence hunting activities, fisheries, oil and gas exploration, and shipping routes. This course focuses on understanding the Arctic as a system, including land-atmosphere-ocean-ice-human interactions. Topics include arctic hydrology, climatology, biogeochemical cycling, permafrost, glacier/ice sheet dynamics, terrestrial and marine ecology, sea ice, physical oceanography, and human-environment interactions.

    Course Designation/Attribute: SP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 126 - Living in the Material World: The Political Geography of Resource Development


    Focuses on consumption and production systems that determine the development, allocation and use of natural resources like water, minerals, trees and animals. Emphasizes approaches used by geographers to study natural resources (e.g., commodity chains, geopolitical analysis, ecological footprints). Case studies provide an opportunity to examine differences between societies (or economies) and between specific resource issues. Oil and gas in the Middle East and the Caspian, water in the western United States, Israel or India; gold in Tanzania, the United States and South Africa; and animal use in India, Great Britain and China are some examples of typical cases. Fulfills the Global Comparison Perspective.

    Course Designation/Attribute: GP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • GEOG 127 - Political Economy of Development


    Why do some people die from too much consumption yet others at the opposite corner of the world perish from poverty and starvation? Development theories try to answer fundamental questions like this. This course critically examines these development theories, including classical, neoclassical and Keynesian economies; modernization theory; dependency, Marxist and neo-Marxist and world systems theories; post-developmentalism; feminism and feminist critiques of development; and critical modernist theories. The course quickly takes students with an initial interest in development to a high level of critical understanding. Fulfills the Global Comparison perspective.

     

     

     

    Course Designation/Attribute: GP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 136 - Gender and Environment


    Explores the gendered nature of environments we inhabit, represent, and transform through everyday practices, as well as the gendered power relations implicated in the politics of resource access, use, and control at the local and the global level. Spans a number of interrelated themes, including feminist environmentalism, ecofeminism, feminist political ecological concerns on food, water, the body, and human-animal relations, masculine environments, queer ecologies, and environmental and gender justice movements. Combines lectures, discussions, films, student presentations, and group debates.

    Course Designation/Attribute: VP, DI

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 141 - Research Design and Methods in Geography


    Focuses on ways in which empirical geographic research is conducted. Students study problems, methodological strategies and analytical techniques characteristic of current research in human and/or environmental geography and spatial science. Includes defining a research problem, research design, approaches to sampling and measurement, analysis, interpretation and writeup. As a building block of geographic and human-environment research, GEOG 141 is a required skills course in the Geography major, and strongly recommended for the GES major. All Geography majors are required to take the research methods course in the Geography department; substitution requests for GEOG 141 will be granted only in exceptional circumstances, after consultation with the major advisor, and with adequate justification.

    Must register for discussion; recommended for sophomores.

    Course Designation/Attribute: FA

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 152 - Geographies of Globalization


    An introduction to the study of globalization and geographical variations in its impacts. Examines the issues of development, income disparity across regions and nations, the emergence of multinational corporations, the impacts of government policy and the role of information technologies in globalization.

    Course Designation/Attribute: GP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall 2016

  
  • GEOG 157 - Psychogeography and Cultural Spaces


    Human are forever inscribing themselves in the landscape; whether it be particular architectural forms or certain crop formations, the result is a complex palimpsest that records social life. Cultural geographies have unpicked this record, studying how and why grandiose monuments signify social status and, conversely, why other groups have been resigned to a ghostly presence. And yet these complex and intriguing geographies too often become buried underneath daily routines and multimedia bombardment. Psychogeographers look to reignite our awareness and engagement with the human environment; as one of its founders stated, psychogeography is “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals”. This course continues on in this tradition. It does not simply look to engage with questions of how to identify and examine cultural geographies, rather it enlists students in an attempt to interact with the shaping of landscapes; recognizing how daily routines make our world and how critical understandings of cultural geographies can help effect social change. After an introduction to the psychogeographical and cultural geography literatures, students will engage in their own urban explorations and interactions; navigating Worcester via Berlin, partaking in “urban drifting” and constructing their own “detourements”. The course will therefore provide a foundation in cultural geography and connect classroom to outside world through the practice of psychogeography. Fulfills the Values Perspective (VP) requirement.


     

    Course Designation/Attribute: VP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 0170 - Environment and Society


    Relationships between human societies and the natural environment are central to the discipline of geography. Geography 017 introduces students to these relationships and to the analysis of them, integrating perspectives from the natural and social sciences. We examine questions such as: how do environments shape societies; how do societies transform environments; are there environmental limits to economic growth; how does culture shape our relationships with our environments; and what sorts of human-environment relationships are sustainable and just? We examine these questions at many different geographic and temporal scales: from pre-history up to the present, from very local cases to the entire planet, and from pre-industrial or rural landscapes to suburban and urban ones. Cases and discussions will span the entire globe, but will include examples from the Americas, the United States, and New England in order to ground our discussions in the places we know best.

    Course Designation/Attribute: GP (summer only)

    Anticipated Terms Offered: varies

  
  • GEOG 172 - City Planet: Urban Challenges in a Globalized World


    We now live on a City Planet: the majority of the world’s population are ‘urbanite’ and their numbers continue to grow. Yet this symbolic tipping point in human settlement comes with significant challenges. Most people within this urban majority live in ‘slums’, with many of the economic and cultural opportunities associated with cities in western thought being pure fantasy in the face of daily struggles for survival. Furthermore, given cities are the primary emitters of greenhouse gases, all urban dwellers are united, if not equally, in being responsible for climate change and its potential mediation. This course examines the emergence of a City Planet through: an examination of the ways in which geographers have understood cities and their relationships in an era of globalization; the tracing of global urban relations with respect to capital, labor, communications and culture; and the consideration to two of the major challenges currently faced: growing social inequalities and mounting sustainability requirements. A core course in Globalization, Cities and Development in the geography major. Fulfills the Global Comparative (GP) requirement.

    Course Designation/Attribute: GP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

  
  • GEOG 179 - Global and Local Environmental Justice


    Integrates ecology, culture and political economy from local to global scale through case studies. Starts from a view of people in environmental “hot spots,” following links to world economy and planetary ecosystems. Explores connections of international environmental, economic and social policy with everyday realities and possible futures of people from the Amazon rain forest to the streets of Worcester. Fulfills the Values Perspective (VP) requirement. Normally offered as lecture/discussion course.

     

    We will offer hands on field research to support local solutions to pollution along the Tatnuck Brook  and specifically Coes Pond, as well as a module on local/global food connections and three international case studies of local and global resistance to environmental damage and resource depletion by indigenous peoples, peasants and community organizations from forest and agrarian landscapes to urban neighborhoods.       

     

     

    Course Designation/Attribute: VP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year

  
  • GEOG 180 - The Earth Transformed by Human Action


    Traces the course of human modification and transformation of the earth since antiquity, but with particular emphasis on the last 300 years. The major causes and consequences of these changes are explored from global climate change to the sustainability of life.

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically

  
  • GEOG 186 - Special Topics:


    Devoted to a specific topic unique for each semester and instructor.  FALL 2018 TOPIC: GEOGRAPHIES OF POVERTY & INEQUALITY

    The gap between the rich and poor is growing, prompting concerns about what intensifying inequality and poverty might mean for society. This course will provide students with an opportunity to think deeply about the diverse causes, consequences and experiences of inequality and poverty. We will focus primarily on the United States, but we will also look at historical and global examples for context. Throughout the semester, we will move through a series of inquiries to explore how housing, food, transportation, health, the environment, and work and wages are related to course themes. We will use academic articles, maps, videos, short stories, reputable news sources, policy briefs, art and in-class discussion to help us identify and analyze the underlying structural causes and consequences of poverty and inequality so we might envision alternatives.

    May be repeateable for credit.

    Course Designation/Attribute: VP

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Occasionally

  
  • GEOG 190 - Introduction to Geographic Information Science


    This course introduces Geographic Information Science (GIS) as a powerful mapping and analytical tool. Topics include GISc data structure, map projections, and fundamental GISc techniques for spatial analysis. Laboratory exercises concentrate on applying concepts presented in lectures and incorporate two widely used GISc software packages - IDRISI (created by Clarklabs) and ArcGIS (created by ESRI). These exercises include examples of GISc applications in environmental modeling, socio-demographic change and site suitability analyses. Although the course is computer-intensive, no programming background is required. A formal-analysis course. Counts as skills course or core course in mapping sciences/spatial analysis in geography major.

    Course Designation/Attribute: FA

    Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester

 

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