CAS:  Humanities; Non-European Cultures
GSB:  Humanities Core
CALS:  Social Science
CEMS:  ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students consult with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult with academic advisor 

In this course we will explore India through its nineteenth and twentieth century visual culture, arguing that visual materials provide a compelling set of materials with which to investigate a culture, offering up different perspectives on the past than what is available from other sources. Whether integrating the global imagery of the 1920s Modern Girl (known for her flapper dresses and bobbed hair) in the Bollywood cinema of the era, or re-imaging the god Rama in more masculine poses in the late twentieth century to suit new, aggressive definitions of Hinduism, the visual world has provided critical tools with which to make political claims and articulate cultural identities. In this course we will explore how various visual materials have generated meanings in different historical contexts, and also how those materials are used for particular social, cultural or political ends.

Animal agriculture is a significant portion of our national agricultural economy and foods of animal origin play a significant role in our global food system. A striking but lesser known fact is that animal-derived food products have been an important factor in human evolution (e.g., eating meat has led to increases in the size of both the human body and brain). Current dietary patterns derive from the changes in food production that started with the industrial revolution and from the more recent construction of a global food economy. With increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, obesity, and food-borne diseases, animal products are coming under increasing scrutiny. Broad areas of focus reflect global patterns of consumption of meat, dairy, eggs, fish, and their products.

We will explore the connection between animal products, their nutritional attributes, and human and public perception. Particular emphasis will be placed on functional and value-added foods, biotechnology in animal agriculture, as well as animal product quality and safety issues. The course utilizes an interactive approach, involving a broad spectrum of methods including lectures to build fundamental knowledge, student forums to stimulate debate and understanding, individual and group assignments to develop key skills in writing and presenting, and the use of computer-aided learning.

Honors College Distribution
CAS:  Humanities
GSB:  Humanities Core
CALS: Humanities 
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students check with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult with academic advisor

This seminar will examine the intersection of war, race, and identity in America focused around two critical sites.  Firstly, the racialized othering of Native America from the wars of colonial conquest to the defeat of the Plains Indians; and secondly the Civil War, viewed as war for the overthrow of slavery and as it was transformed in memory into a valorous war between brothers in which questions of race were marginalized.  These sites are critical to race and race relations in America, working to define who is, and who is not included with its racialized boundaries.

Based in the discipline of History, the seminar will embrace approaches drawn from gender studies, critical race theory, anthropology and film studies. Seminar discussions will be based on academic monographs and on cultural products, particularly in film.  I also plan to organize a visit to the “Dreaming of Timbuctoo” exhibit at the John Brown Farm in Lake Placid as part of a discussion on Civil-War era Black settlement in the Adirondacks.

Honors College Distribution

CAS:  No CAS credit
GSB: Social Science OR Humanities
CALS:  Humanities, Social Science
CEMS: ENGR: Gen. Ed. Elective or Free Elective; CS/CSIS/DS/MATH/STAT students consult with your academic advisor
RSENR:  Consult with Academic Advisor
CNHS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CESS:  Consult with Academic Advisor

Students will gain a general understanding of the experience of disability through critical analysis of a broad range of socio-cultural artifacts and expression. Though not an exhaustive list, these artifacts will include literature, visual art, performance art, dance, film, television, and resources from the web. By interpreting differing points of view, concepts such as ableism, implicit bias, cultural appropriation, and intersectionality will be discussed through course assignments and in-class discussions.

This course is designed to provide you with an understanding of the key elements of civic engagement.  It will explore the following overarching questions: How is the civic engagement concept defined?  Why is it important?  What is the need that it addresses?  How is it manifested?  To what extent does it represent universal values?  What are challenges associated with it?  To address these questions the course will draw from a multi-disciplinary range of academic perspectives.  These include, inter alia, sociology, history, economics, and political science and public administration. 

Honors College Distribution
CAS:  non-lab Natural Science
GSB: Social Science
CALS:  Physical & Life Sciences
CEMS: ENGR: Gen. Ed. Elective or Free Elective; CS/CSIS/DS/MATH/STAT students consult with your academic advisor
RSENR:  Consult with Academic Advisor
CNHS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CESS:  Consult with Academic Advisor

The objective of this course is to explore the ecological, economic, and social footprints of civilization.  We will begin our explorations with the dawn of agriculture, when the cultivation of plants and rearing of animals allowed permanent settlements to replace gathering and hunting as the primary means of feeding human populations.  A key component of our examination will be to investigate similarities and differences in agricultural systems in different regions of the globe where agriculture began independently.  Furthermore, we will investigate how changing technologies have impacted the ecological footprint of cities, and how they continue to do so in an increasingly globalized world.  Our aim is to use scientific principles to evaluate in different modes the sustainability of cities, states, and nations.

Honors College Distribution

CAS: Fine Arts
GSB:  Humanities Core
CALS:  Humanities & Social Science
CEMS: Engineering Students - Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/CSIS/DS students check with your advisor and department chair
RSENR: Consult with your academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with your academic advisor
CESS: Consult with your academic advisor
Major/Minor Requirements
Elective for Dance major and minor

This course will investigate the role art and performance have as a catalyst for social change. We will examine theatrical contexts and philosophies that have influenced radical shifts in history, while also focusing on contemporary contexts, and enter into collaborative processes to create performances that are embodied with social and political conscience.
Through the lenses of practice and theory, a combination of seminar and studio-based classes, the course will examine historical precedent as well as the growing movement of contemporary artists who utilize performance as a way of activating new possibilities in the social-political realms of community, education, art, and legislation. Class content will examine pivotal figures, artists, landmarks and movements to unpack the phenomenon of activism within performance, which pulls from a variety of disciplines such as anthropology, political science, critical race theory, and choreography.

Honors College Distribution

CAS:  Social Science
GSB:  Social Science Core
CALS:  Humanities, Social Science
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students check with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with your academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with your academic advisor
CESS: Consult with your academic advisor

Major/Minor: Can be counted toward GSWS major or minor

In 2005 Larry Summers, the President of Harvard University, gave a speech at a conference on diversity in which he stated, “there is a difference in the standard deviation and variability of the male and female population.”  A finding, he went on to say, that explains why there would be more men than women at the elite levels of mathematical ability, and thus, why there are so few women represented in science and engineering. These remarks engendered a great deal of anger and debate. But what exactly was he saying?  And is there any truth behind his remarks? In this course, we will examine sex-differences in the brain and behavior. We will also examine the paradigm of western science. What exactly is the scientific method? Does sex affect the way science is done? We will also discuss the work and lives of several prominent scientists who are women. Why are there so few examples of successful women scientists? What factors, including nature and nurture, led these particular women into science? Were they stymied by their sex?  What obstacles hindered these women in their pursuit of science as a career? Do these barriers still exist?

Honors College Distribution
CAS: Social Sciences 
GSB:  Social Science
CALS:  Consult academic advisor
CEMS:  ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students consult with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult academic advisor

In this course, students will gain a greater understanding of complex issues that affect their communities by engaging in dialogic learning with classmates through organized, academic debates on social justice topics. The course uses academic debate to challenge current and future thought leaders to consider issues of justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunity, and privilege in U.S. society. The course will draw on the 2021-2022 Social Justice Debates topic and integrate in-depth learning on current social justice topics while teaching students to critically engage through the practice of debate. Past Social Justice Debates topics have included, for example, regulation of hate speech, reparations to African-Americans, and abolition of police. Making, critiquing, debating, and assessing arguments in society is required if you wish to be an engaged citizen and thoughtful critical consumer of media and communication. In this course, you will learn the introductory principles of argumentation, logic, and debate. We will survey different models of argument; learn how to research, structure, and support arguments; and practice those skills through engaging in argument drills, structured debates in class, and participate in one of the social justice debate tournaments that happen during the Fall semester, sponsored by the Lawrence Debate Union. Students will gain valuable skills in research and informational literacy, written and oral argumentation and refutation, perspective taking and stakeholder analysis, public speaking, and listening in addition to an in-depth understanding and engagement with contemporary social justice theories, perspectives, and topics. Students will also reflect on our ethical duties as citizens and how we can contribute productively to our communities.

This course examines the fates of the Jewish population in Fascist Italy (1922-1945) and in Nazi Germany (1933-45). We will start by looking at Jewish live in Italy and Germany before Mussolini and Hitler came to power. In the course of the semester, we will examine the role of antisemitism in Fascist and Nazi ideology and analyze the gradual radicalization of Nazi and Fascist anti-Jewish policy and Jewish responses in a comparative manner. We will analyze the deteriorating situation of the Jewish population in both countries and explore the reactions of the Italian and German population to the persecution and to deportation and murder of the Jews. The course will end with an examination of the situation of Holocaust survivors in Germany and Italy and Holocaust memory in postwar Italy and Germany.

Honors College Distribution
CAS: Humanities or Fine Arts
GSB:  Humanities Core
CALS: Humanities or Fine Arts
CEMS:  ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students check with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with your academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with your academic advisor
CESS: Consult with your academic advisor

Major/Minor Requirements
This course counts toward the Art History major/minor - 100-level elective
This course counts toward the European Studies major/minor
This course counts toward Italian Studies major/minor - Category B

In 2019, museums worldwide will mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death with exhibitions exploring Leonardo’s artistic and scientific insights. In this course, we will examine the relationship between art and science in the Renaissance, with special emphasis on art’s intellectual underpinnings in Italy and in the works and notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). While today we may often think of art and science as separate domains, fifteenth- and sixteenth-century artists and intellectuals appreciated their interdependence. Techniques of naturalistic representation, mastered by ‘artistscientists,’ lent authority, credibility, and a sense of ‘objectivity’ to Renaissance

representations of the natural world. In the context of rising empiricism and the study of natural history throughout Europe, the related practices of Renaissance art production and scientific illustration transformed fields such as geography, astronomy, biology, and botany.

This course is an introduction to the ways in which the practices of art and science depended on and informed one another in Renaissance Europe. We will primarily examine drawings, paintings, and prints, alongside issues pertaining to the reproduction and dissemination of visual information. Key themes will include: Renaissance conceptions of art as a form of scientia (knowledge); Renaissance naturalism; technological innovations in image production (e.g., printmaking); the role of representation in scientific investigations; and the prerogatives, practices, and patronage of artist-scientists.

New Course

Honors College Distribution

CAS:  Natural Sciences
GSB:  Natural Science
CALS:  Consult academic advisor
CEMS:  ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students consult with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult academic advisor

Honors College Distribution
CAS:  Social Science
GSB: Social Science
CALS:  Social Science
CEMS: ENGR: Gen. Ed. Elective or Free Elective; CS/CSIS/DS/MATH/STAT students consult with your academic advisor
RSENR:  Consult with Academic Advisor
CNHS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CESS:  Consult with Academic Advisor

The course will focus on the interaction of political economy, toxic waste, history, and place. In particular we will look at complex constellations of inequality and identity shaped by large-scale historical forces; the way those translate into positions within global markets; and the way those positions translate to exposure to various toxins that fit into those markets, whether for cellphones or automobiles or power plants. We will look at mining, informal waste, including dismantling and scavenging, environmental pollution, and disasters. Through this lens we will examine how worldwide formations and forces can be present in cells, homes, and personal lives. Particular toxins of interest will include coal, nickel, bauxite, copper, lead, mercury, chromium, cadmium and more. Particular critical historical sites may include West Virginia, the Marshall Islands testing grounds, Chernobyl, Bhopal, EPA superfund sites, and India's corridor of intense mineral extraction.

Honors College Distribution
CAS: No CAS credit
GSB:  Humanities Core
CALS: Humanities
CEMS:  ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students check with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with your academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with your academic advisor, Ethics requirement
CESS: Consult with your academic advisor

Evolutionary theory suggests that individuals are motivated by self-interest, a “survival instinct”, which promotes self-preservation sometimes at the cost of the interests of others.   On the other hand, it is hard to deny that many people behave altruistically, with moral regard for others, and in fact make extreme sacrifices for moral reasons to benefit others.  How then can morality be squared with the principles of evolution?  In this class, we will explore this issue in detail.  Several responses will be considered.

In doing so, we will explore a variety of cultural norms and beliefs that evolutionary anthropologist have used as evidence of a group selection model and draw on resources in the growing field of moral anthropology that survey the variety of social and cultural norms in an effort to identify common features and principles that are trans-cultural.  In considering the conflicts between various cultures moral norms, we will ask whether an objective or universal notion of morality can be sustained, and if not, what becomes of ethics in light of evolutionary theory.  We will be asking whether our ethical beliefs are attempts to describe objective features of the world we live in or whether they are merely the cultural artifacts of highly evolved and very diverse humans.

Honors College Distribution
CAS:  No CAS credit
GSB:  Gen Ed Social Science
CALS:  Life Science, Humanities & Fine Arts
CEMS:  ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students consult with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult academic advisor

This course explores the rich entanglement between humans and honey bees across a range of perspectives and ways of knowing. Drawing on the natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, and spirituality, we will immerse ourselves in the life of honey bees to explore the animating questions of this class: What are honey bees? What are they asking of us? What can we learn alongside them about living sustainably on earth? These lines of inquiry will take us on a multidisciplinary journey through the tapestry of human/honey bee cultures. In the process, you may discover your own guiding questions to carry you forward.

Honors College Distribution
CAS:  CAS elective credit
GSB: Social Science
CALS:  Social Science
CEMS: ENGR: Gen. Ed. Elective or Free Elective; CS/CSIS/DS/MATH/STAT students consult with your academic advisor
RSENR:  Consult with Academic Advisor
CNHS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CESS:  Consult with Academic Advisor

Improving the quality of communication in healthcare is a national priority, particularly in the context of suffering. Medically-related suffering happens when the experience of illness or the treatments for that illness threaten the intactness of our sense of self. Relieving suffering requires clinicians to understand how the person defines who they are, where they find meaning, what is threatening and what is not. Conversational narrative is one powerful way to share these insights with one another and listening is how we understand.

Advances in computational linguistics and machine learning offer extraordinary opportunities to systematically measure, analyze and understand clinical conversations in epidemiologic studies of sufficient sample sizes to better understand the complexity of these dynamic, relational and multidimensional phenomena. Students in this course will gain experience with conceptual, methodological and practical aspects of large-scale study of healthcare conversations.

Using our own stories, as well as those from NPR's StoryCorps, UVM's Bereavement StoryListening and Dartmouth's ICU StoryWeb, learners will explore empirical methods for studying important characteristics of listening amid different types of narratives. Students will become familiar with computational methods for describing a large corpus of conversations and gain experience generating a research question, conducting analyses, interpreting findings and communicating their scientific work in both written and oral settings. Students will develop familiarity with the JMP software package to visualize story data, but neither coding experience nor statistical knowledge is necessary prior to this course. Diverse disciplinary backgrounds are encouraged, regardless of interest in healthcare careers.

Honors College Distribution
CAS:  Literature
GSB:  Humanities Core 2016+
CALS: Humanities, Social Science
CEMS:  Engineering Students - Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/CSIS/DS students check with your advisor and department chair
RSENR: Consult with your academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with your academic advisor
CESS: Consult with your academic advisor

Major/Minor Requirements

Counts towards English major and minor as ENGS 113 - Topics in Gender

This course addresses a paradox: how truly creative work might begin in what we steal from others. In literary contexts, we call such “theft” adaptation. The course will investigate the art of adaptation in a theoretical way—what is creativity? what is adaptation?—in an analytical way—by reconstructing how specific literary artists have adapted the work of their predecessors—and through our own creative efforts—by doing our own creative adaptations. Units for the course will include: 1) an introduction to the “Theory of Adaptation”; 2) “Hamlets,” in which we will consider everything from Shakespeare’s original borrowing from his sources to modern adaptations of the play; and 3) “Film Adaptation,” in which we will consider specific examples of how filmic art emerges from source-texts. Along the way, we might also consider examples of adaption ranging from Biblical adaptation to the modern novel, and our own creative efforts will include short mash-ups and longer group efforts.