Looking outward and upward at the starry sky, artists, philosophers, and scientists have throughout history consistently sought to situate themselves within the cosmos and to comprehend its heavenly machinery. Creative efforts at understanding or harnessing the significance of the planets and the stars have resulted in architectural wonders such as Stonehenge, zodiacal floor mosaics in late antique synagogues, star pictures in medieval manuscripts, Islamic celestial globes and astrolabes, astrology, alchemical intervention, and topics ranging from Star Trek to Afrofuturism. We’ll explore stars and rulership, how to make and read horoscopes, Ptolemy’s universe, Christian reinterpretations, Arabic or Islamic study of the stars, alchemy, magic, Galileo, Chesley Bonestell, and Remedios Varo.
Satisfies elective requirements in the Global Commerce and Society track (COMM), General Business Minor (COMM), Global Environments and Sustainability (GSVS) and Environmental Thought and Practice (ETP) programs.
This class explores the intersection of nature and business by developing real-world sustainable business models rooted in the land itself. How do we balance commercial opportunities with responsible land use? Can we create profitable, sustainable ventures that restore ecosystems? What does business look like when it works with nature instead of against it?
Using the Morven estate’s forests, fields, and working landscapes as a living laboratory, this hands-on, place-based course explores regenerative business models that create value by preserving, rather than extracting, natural resources.
When most people think of reggae music, they think of lazing out on a Caribbean beach with a spliff and nodding to the music of Bob Marley. But what is the actual history of the music of which Marley is the most visible ambassador? How did the music of a small Caribbean island become a worldwide phenomenon, with the song “One Love” and the album EXODUS named among the top songs and albums of the 20th century? In this course we will trace the history of reggae music and listen closely to Marley’s entire discography to understand the literary devices, musical structures, and social contexts of reggae songs. You will learn to analyze songs, poetry, and film and craft album reviews and creative critiques to problematic songs (‘diss’ tracks). You will also engage controversial issues such as misogyny and homophobia in reggae; religion and spirituality (and yes, marijuana) in reggae; reggae’s critique of racial injustice; cultural appropriation; and the connections between reggae, dancehall, hip-hop, and reggaetón.
In Our Vampires, Ourselves, Nina Auerbach presents a compelling argument that we, as a culture assume vampires are easy to stereotype and “we all know Dracula,” they are, in fact, not marginalized figures in literature and history but, rather, inherently mutable survivors who are central to history, politics, culture and humanity itself. Her seminal text offers a history of Anglo-American 19th and 20th century culture through the lens of the literary vampire, demonstrating that “every age embraces the vampire it needs, and gets the vampire it deserves.” This course takes this thesis and tests it, using Our Vampires, Ourselves as a framing text, starting with world legend and lore as catalogued by Montague Summers in the 1920s, visiting the poetry of Goethe and the historical vampire craze of the 18th century, journeying through the literary vampires of the 19th century, from Byron to Dracula, tracing the figure’s development through the 20th century, and pushing beyond Auerbach’s work to examine if the thesis holds true in the age of post-Rice vampire figures and 21st century adaptations of older figures like Dracula and Lestat. Beyond Our Vampires, Ourselves, and relevant folklore anthologies, texts will include, Lord Byron and John Polidori’s Lord Ruthven in The Vampyre, Joseph Le Fanu’s lesbian Carmilla, Stoker’s Dracula, Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, and Smith’s The Vampire Diaries, along with film and television adaptations, where appropriate.
Despite generations of critique, the national narrative of the US as a land of and for refugees is still frequently retold. However, the history and literature of the past century and a half tells a different story. Many different stories, in fact. The history of migration and immigration turns out to be an ongoing crisis of representation itself.
This course is an introductory seminar in literary studies with no prerequisites or prior knowledge required. It will provide historical and sociological contexts for understanding the rise of mass immigration and the varied waves of political and cultural responses. If we approach 21st-century US refugee fiction as an ongoing crisis of narrative (how to tell the stories of individuals who adopt a new culture and language of consciousness), it emerges as a rich tradition of literary innovation, subtle social critique, and transracial alliance-building.
After briefly viewing the historical trajectory of US migrant fiction since the 19th century, we’ll focus on contemporary novels that complicate borders, documentation, rights, community, and language. In reading a wide range of genres, we’ll consider recent narrratives that complicate what the term refugee means, the status of undocumented and stateless people, how borders shape literary narrative, migrant time, and the perils of translation.
This course can fulfill the College’s AIP discipline and second writing requirements.The course also satisfies the English major prerequisite and counts as one course toward the major.
ENGL 3010
History of the English Language
Learn about word origins, book history, and how dictionaries are written!
***CAN BE USED TO FULFILL 2ND WRITING REQUIREMENT***
“Tasting HEL: A Language Lab History of the English Language” immerses students in the history of our language, from its origins as a dialect of Proto Indo-European, on through Old English, Middle English, and Early Modern English. This journey will help students build up cognitive endurance as we work together to acquire and hone a suite of interdisciplinary skills to become philologists (lovers of language, but also literary linguists)—by tasting each stage of the language and reading them aloud together. We will draw from modern and historical linguistics, literary criticism, book history and paleography, lexicography, and more as we dive deep into each stage of the language to see what made it tick, and what made it different from what we speak now.
This course, Writing in Popular Culture, focuses on how popular culture influences media and writing. We will look at movies, tv shows, songs, newspaper articles and more to see how events and people are discussed and influence our writing.
In today’s professional world, strong communication isn’t just a bonus—it’s a core skill. In this interactive course, you’ll work with your classmates and professor to practice writing and collaborating in the kinds of situations you’ll encounter in your future career: team updates, client proposals, job applications, and more. Along the way, you’ll learn to write clearly, revise with purpose, and adapt your message to different audiences and platforms. We’ll also explore how generative AI tools (like MS Copilot and ChatGPT) can support your writing process—when to use them, how to use them well, and where your judgment as a communicator matters most. Expect daily hands-on activities, team projects, and a final professional portfolio of your own to take with you beyond the course.
This course will explore how cultural groups develop, use, and remix stories to build and reshape their worlds. With special attention to the social concepts and discursive techniques involved in these processes - concepts and techniques that may include master narratives, rhetorical listening, identification, testimony, and counterstory - we will deepen our understanding of how rhetoric influences the worlds in which we live. Projects may include: a course presentation, a brief analysis activity, and a storywork portfolio.
This summer 2025, EVSC 3020/5020 will be online and asynchronous. Students will be required to purchase GIS Tutorial for ArcGIS Pro 3.1 (GIS Tutorials) Fourth Edition. Wilpen L. Gorr, Kristen S. Kurland. ISBN-13: 978-1589487390
Students will be given recommended timelines but will have the freedom to complete coursework within their own timeframe during this summer session.
Global Studies-Environments and Sustainability
GSVS 3559
New Course in Global Environments and Sustainability
Satisfies elective requirements in the Global Commerce and Society track (COMM), General Business Minor (COMM), Global Environments and Sustainability (GSVS) and Environmental Thought and Practice (ETP) programs.
This class explores the intersection of nature and business by developing real-world sustainable business models rooted in the land itself. How do we balance commercial opportunities with responsible land use? Can we create profitable, sustainable ventures that restore ecosystems? What does business look like when it works with nature instead of against it?
Using the Morven estate’s forests, fields, and working landscapes as a living laboratory, this hands-on, place-based course explores regenerative business models that create value by preserving, rather than extracting, natural resources.
When is violence political violence? What forms does it take, who uses it, and why? Violence remains an ever-present part of politics, used by state and non-state actors in both democracies and dictatorships. Content will focus on traditional interpretations of political violence such as state repression but also expand into new debates such as the status of policing, surveillance, incarceration and climate change as forms of political violence.
How have art and storytelling contributed to the growth and transformation of Christianity around the world? What do religious artwork and images have to do with movements towards justice and peace? Why does Christianity in the Global South matter for Christianity as a whole? This summer session course will explore these questions and others as it introduces the rich histories and theologies of Christianity in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other places of the Global South through the lens of art. The course looks at the diversity of Christian traditions around the world and asks how Christianity in the Global South has significance for Christianity as a whole – and how we, from our own geographic, religious, and cultural standpoints, might engage with these global perspectives across lines of difference and connection. In this course, students will (1) deepen their knowledge and awareness of Christianity as a diverse socio-religious movement with a global scope; (2) interpret the intellectual, practical, and aesthetic value of diverse texts; and (3) reflect on their own global positionality as they engage with perspectives across differences of culture, religion, and social location.
This course will be offered asynchronously. The textbook for the course is "The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook" by George, Rowlands, Price, and Maxey (~$11 on Amazon)
This course covers an introduction to Lean enterprise and Six Sigma, and will introduce students to various process improvement tools and techniques. These tools/techniques include (but are not limited to) DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control), value stream mapping, process mapping, gage R&R, data analysis, multivari-analysis, design of experiments, statistical process control, and process capability analysis. Through this course, students will gain enough proficiency to apply these tools, techniques, and methodologies to real-world situations.
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
• Recognize key attributes of a successful Six Sigma program
• Understand the fundamentals of DMAIC methodology
• Learn and be able to utilize Six Sigma problem-solving tools and techniques
• Learn the lean concept and utilize pertinent Lean tools
• Understand the need for advanced methodologies
Ultimately, this course should prepare students for Green Belt certification (if they choose to pursue it).
This course does not have official prereqs, but working knowledge of Statistics will be beneficial. The course will be offered asynchronously with lecture materials, assigned readings, etc. posted early so students can get ahead to better balance their schedules.
This course covers Supply Chain Management and Logistics. You will not need to purchase a textbook for this course; all readings will be provided.
This course will introduce you to the historic and modern methods and techniques for modeling and managing supply chain and logistics systems. The course covers both the managerial and technical side of supply chain management. Topics covered in this course include (but are not limited to) forecasting, inventory control/management, transportation systems, the vehicle routing problem, the bullwhip effect, risk analytics, and contemporary supply chain best practices.
This course will be offered asynchronously. The textbook for the course is "The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook" by George, Rowlands, Price, and Maxey (~$11 on Amazon)
This course covers an introduction to Lean enterprise and Six Sigma, and will introduce students to various process improvement tools and techniques. These tools/techniques include (but are not limited to) DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control), value stream mapping, process mapping, gage R&R, data analysis, multivari-analysis, design of experiments, statistical process control, and process capability analysis. Through this course, students will gain enough proficiency to apply these tools, techniques, and methodologies to real-world situations.
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
• Recognize key attributes of a successful Six Sigma program
• Understand the fundamentals of DMAIC methodology
• Learn and be able to utilize Six Sigma problem-solving tools and techniques
• Learn the lean concept and utilize pertinent Lean tools
• Understand the need for advanced methodologies
Ultimately, this course should prepare students for Green Belt certification (if they choose to pursue it).
This course does not have official prereqs, but working knowledge of Statistics will be beneficial. The course will be offered asynchronously with lecture materials, assigned readings, etc. posted early so students can get ahead to better balance their schedules.