Special Weekend Immersion Schedule: Class will meet January 19, and February 9, 10, and 23. (Makeup classes in case of snow are scheduled in advance for January 20 and/or February 24.) In this... more

This scene study course allows literature students to gain a deeper insight into Shakespeare through the actor's perspective, and students with acting experience to hone their Shakespearian... more

Key concepts in modern philosophy introduced through the analysis of creative work in the visual arts, film, and design. Psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism, structuralism, and poststructuralism will... more

This style of black-and-white calligraphic ink painting originated in China and was introduced into Japan by Zen monks around 1333. Concentrating on bamboo, chrysanthemum, orchid, and plum blossom... more

"Tonight I finished scribbling the first draft of my young girl's dreams. I'll spend another fortnight sailing on these blue lakes, after which I'll go to a ball and then spend a... more

This course offers practice in a range of prose styles, drawn from works of both fiction and nonfiction, and invites students to try short or long pieces that suit their own interests. We focus on... more

Special Weekend Immersion Schedule: Class will meet March 2, 9, 10, 23, and 24 This course will study the evolution of the Arthurian legend from its origins in 6th-century Britain to its fullest... more

We will examine the role of London in the literary imagination of 19th-century Britain. A vibrant multi-class and multi-ethnic jigsaw puzzle, London was a "world city" at the center of the empire,... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

Applied Data Analysis offers students the opportunity to develop their ability to manage and analyze data. Students who work in data-driven fields such as education, health care, nonprofits, or... more

Stem cells have an enormous potential to shape the future of medical research and treatment. Recent advancements in clinical trials and reprogramming raise many concerns over the ethical... more

Why are we here (and not on Mars)? This course will examine the workings of the Earth in the context of the solar system and how this has led to a home for humanity. Comparisons between the... more

In this psychology course, we will study social and cognitive development across the life span. Topics include life-span attachment issues (e.g., early parent-child relationships); developmental... more

Applied Data Analysis offers students the opportunity to develop their ability to manage and analyze data. Students who work in data-driven fields such as education, health care, nonprofits, or... more

Why did the Taliban forbid television? Why do Creationists reject evolution? Why did Gandhi insist that Indian nationalists spin their own thread? Throughout the last century, resistance has been... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

How did the modern market economy come into being in Europe and why did this system expand outward to bring the rest of the world into its orbit? Why did China's economy--perhaps the most... more

While globalization and international organizations have currently integrated the world into networks of peace, ethnic and regional wars have driven nations and groups further apart. This... more

This course introduces students to a uniquely American, and to some ways of thinking, an especially naive, contribution to politics: The idea that we can make political practice conform to the... more

In this psychology course, we will study social and cognitive development across the life span. Topics include life-span attachment issues (e.g., early parent-child relationships); developmental... more

Applied Data Analysis offers students the opportunity to develop their ability to manage and analyze data. Students who work in data-driven fields such as education, health care, nonprofits, or... more

We will explore the definition of landscape photography as it relates to the realities of the 21st century where wildness is contained within boundaries or otherwise controlled, developed, or... more

Miles Davis (1926-1991) and John Coltrane (1926-1967) stand out as the most influential jazz musicians of the last fifty years. Each of them had a profound influence on the evolution of the music... more

We will explore various notions of non-representational --or abstract-- imagery through the inventive use of both traditional and non-traditional drawing media. Through abstraction, one can... more

"Poems are the precious portents of our powers," said Hartford's great 20th century poet, Wallace Stevens. He meant that human beings in general have the same powers of creativity and intuitive... more

The course is an introduction to British literature and art of the 1790s. Our narrow time frame will allow us to build a rich understanding of conversations carried out among artists and between... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

This course presents a survey of the modern European novel from its origins in Cervantes' Don Quixote (1605) to its postmodern unraveling in Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a... more

This course invites you to write personal essays, short stories, journalistic pieces, local history, or even professional reports; whatever reflects your interests. Practice and experiment are... more

What is the Big Bang Theory? What evidence supports it? What are its strengths, weaknesses, and limitations? How do current observations help us to understand the structure and evolution of the... more

Special Schedule: Friday, September 21, 8:00 to 9:00pm, Saturday, September 22, 9:00am to 5:00pm, Saturday, October 6, 9:00am to 5:00pm, Saturday, October 20, 9:00am to 5:00pm, Saturday, November 3,... more

This course provides a broad overview of the major theories and practice of neuroethics. Topics that will be covered in class include: Ethics of Health Care Reform; How to Create a Living Will; and... more

This course is an introduction to major issues in the politics of today's global economy. We will cover such broad topics as globalization, trade, monetary relations, imperialism, debt, foreign... more

Social existence involves both cooperation and conflict, and social conflict often spills over into physical violence. While most societies condemn physical violence between individuals, they... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

The Enlightenment is said to have given birth to democracy, human rights, feminism, emancipation, and secularism--in short, to the characteristic strivings of Western modernity. Yet it has also at... more

Photography is a medium perfectly suited to the portrayal of one another and of one's self. We will investigate the many approaches to the photographic portrait/self-portrait ranging from the... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 6 from 6:00-9:00pm. The monotype print is a free form of printmaking more akin to painting than to the traditional woodcut... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, June 25-29 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm The Eternal City has been transformed many times since its legendary founding by Romulus and Remus. This course... more

Please note: Class will meet on July 4. Traditional Irish music and dance are important symbols of Irish cultural and national identity. The contemporary performance of the traditional arts is... more

This course is designed to help artists develop a conceptual understanding of the strategies at work in contemporary painting, photography, sculpture and design. To accomplish this, the class will... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 6-10 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Definitions for types of literature tend to fall short. And extremely short they do fall when one attempts to... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 6 from 2:00-5:00pm. This course offers a rich and varied reading list and a chance to write and experiment, with careful... more

In our study of New England, we will study works of history and literature to focus on the role this region played in the transformation of the United States from an erstwhile colony to a dominant... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 6 from 6:00-9:00pm. This course is a survey of the major developments in American literature in one of its most vibrant and... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 6 from 6:00-9:00pm. Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive... more

The first part of this course will focus on the fundamental paradigms of computing. We will take a somewhat historical approach, starting with Turing's (and others') mathematical... more

Neuroscience is a highly interdisciplinary field drawing from diverse disciplines. This course introduces key concepts for understanding the functional organization of the brain and how it develops... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 6-10 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm As we study the biology of sex in the animal world, it is apparent that there is a multitude of ways in which... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, June 25-29 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm The Connecticut River harbors a great diversity of plants and animals: bald eagles, herons, and other waterbirds;... more

Special Schedule: Weekend immersion, June 23, 24, July 14,15, 28 - 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Adolescent Psychology examines the physical, cognitive, social, and moral development of adolescents in the... more

Is there a "clash of civilizations" between Islam and the West? What distinguishes the two and why the conflict? This course, which assumes no familiarity with Islam, explores these questions and... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

In the modern world of the global village, nations can no longer use their boundaries to isolate themselves from problems in the world at large. Technology and globalization have made the planet a... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 6-10 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm What makes a photograph iconic? What photographs have been successful in influencing social and political change,... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, June 25-29 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm The Eternal City has been transformed many times since its legendary founding by Romulus and Remus. This course... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 6 from 9:00-12:00. We will study the history of Europe during a period of unprecedented conflict and nearly uninterrupted... more

Special Schedule: Weekend immersion, June 23, 24, July 14,15, 28 - 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Adolescent Psychology examines the physical, cognitive, social, and moral development of adolescents in the... more

Special Schedule: Saturday & Sunday, January 14-15; class trip to NY on Sunday, January 22; Saturday, January 28; Saturday, February 18 Since the early 20th century, downtown New York has been... more

This traditional art form, more than 1,000 years old, relies on hand-pressing techniques, watercolors, and rice paste. Quite distinct from Western printmaking traditions, it uses no oil-based inks... more

Since the very first films, of workers walking out of factories, the documentary film has continually changed in response to the time. What began as an experiment with technology has evolved into a... more

This class will explore historical and contemporary photography through the lens of the photographic genre, both through the practice of photographing and through lectures on artists practicing in... more

This writing course will be useful to writers of fiction or literary nonfiction, and also to people who may be interested in writing personal projects, professional reports, or articles for general... more

Special Schedule: Saturday & Sunday, March 10-11; Saturday & Sunday, March 17-18; Sunday, April 1 In the book-length poem One with Others, C.D. Wright investigates - by incorporating... more

The last half of the 20th century has seen the establishment of a literary canon of classics from many places in the Third World: India, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. Some authors have... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

This course offers an introduction to modern British literature and culture, with an emphasis on the ways in which literary form responds to and shapes the movements of history. We begin with the... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

A graph is a set, called a vertex set, along with a collection of unordered pairs of vertices, called edges. Because the definition of a graph is so simple, graphs can be used to model many real... more

Emotions have been described as reflecting the "wisdom of the ages" because of their biologically-rooted communicative and motivational importance. Emotions help prepare us for different courses of... more

Special Schedule: Friday to Tuesday, March 16-20 This course investigates the biology of non-marine mammals and focuses on those inhabiting northeastern North America. We examine the lives of... more

Progress in the molecular biosciences continues to accelerate at an ever-increasing pace at the same time that it touches more and more aspects of everyday life. In this course we will consider a... more

Why did the Taliban forbid television? Why do Creationists reject evolution? Why did Gandhi insist that Indian nationalists spin their own thread? Throughout the last century, resistance has been... more

Emotions have been described as reflecting the "wisdom of the ages" because of their biologically-rooted communicative and motivational importance. Emotions help prepare us for different courses of... more

Special Schedule: Saturday & Sunday, February 11-12; Saturday & Sunday, March 24-25; and Saturday, April 14. What can we learn about education in the contemporary U.S. by looking closely... more

This course introduces students to a scholarship and a method of analysis that melds the historical with the institutional, applied to understanding the evolving state/society relationship in... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

This basic foundation drawing course will focus on the still life as subject matter. All are welcome, from the most experienced; those who love to draw; to the beginners who think they never could,... more

Using film or digital still cameras, students will spend the semester making pictures at Connecticut State Parks. Students should come to class with a specific park or group of parks in mind, and... more

"To bed, to bed, to bed . . . ," Lady Macbeth whispers and later cries as she exhorts her husband to come to bed. The bed on stage, in several of Shakespeare's plays, serves as a central image... more

Stories told to children have an ancient history, dating back to orally transmitted folktales, myths, and legends. They have many different aims: they are variously intended to teach, amuse, and... more

This writing course considers traditional fiction and creative nonfiction as well as new elements such as graphics and mixed media forms. The expanding publishing world, including blogs, will also... more

This course explores major poets and themes of the Romantic period in English poetry: nature; memory, imagination, and creativity; the poetic "I"; form and prosody; responses to the French... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

In this survey of classic works of American fiction, we will focus on texts celebrated not just for their literary achievement but also for their aspiration to define the nature of American life and... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

Foundational Course: This course is considered a foundational course for students concentrating in mathematics and sciences. It is designed to help students hone the quantitative analysis and... more

The course begins with an overview of the planets, moons, comets and asteroids that comprise our Solar System. Modern issues such as why Pluto is no longer designated as a planet will be discussed.... more

Foundational Course: This course is considered a foundational course for students concentrating in mathematics and sciences. It is designed to help students hone the quantitative analysis and... more

This course introduces students to the Constitution of the United States, as interpreted and understood by the Supreme Court of the United States. It begins with a simple premise: Understanding the... more

This is a course on public policy covering a host of substantive policy areas. The course begins with an examination of Progressivism and the initial efforts to use public policy to address key... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

This course analyzes the processes that led to Hitler's rise to power, the nature of the National Socialist regime, and the origins and implementation of its policies of aggression and... more

Films from around the globe have captured our attention as compelling glimpses of other worlds. Masterworks of cinema, they are firmly anchored in their own societies and histories, yet they have a... more

What is the difference between "cool jazz" and "hot jazz" or "bebop" and "hard bop?" What does the bass player do in a jazz group and how has that changed over time? Why is Louis Armstrong so... more

Special Schedule: Three Week Course - July 4-July 21 - July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 8 from 2:00-5:00 After spending years documenting public life, photographers were... more

Special Schedule: Saturdays - July 2, July 9, July 16, July 23, July 30, August 6 Watercolor and related water-based media have long been associated in art with the ephemeral and gestural--fleeting... more

Special Schedule: Class will not meet on July 4th Holiday. Rather than holding a makeup, 20 minutes have been added to each additional class meeting. Digital technologies offer artists new tools... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 8-12 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm How much are we shaped by our historical times and places? How much power do we have to make our historical... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 8 from 2:00-5:00 This writing course focuses on the way writers can represent complex experiences of time. Writers of... more

Since the ground breaking publication of Art Spiegelman's Maus in 1993, "graphic novels" have entered the global cultural mainstream. A truly multi-cultural genre, comics created by men and... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

This course traces a tradition of English poetry that strove to capture the vitality and particularity of the natural world and the complex inner life of the poet - and to understand the... more

This course will consider the cultural and intellectual life of the Big Apple in the years during and after World War II. Our main focus will be on the fiction, poetry, and drama that contributed... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 8 from 9:00-12:00 Linear algebra is a subject with a dual nature; the central ideas are both algebraic and geometric.... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 8-12 (Monday-Friday) 7:00 am to 3:00 pm Why study birds? Part of the appeal of birds lies in their color and beauty, interesting behavior, and... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 15-19 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Personality can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 8 from 1:00-4:00 The modern natural world has become polluted with uncountable numbers of organic and inorganic compounds,... more

Think Crimes are really solved in an hour with time for commercial breaks? Did you ever wonder what really happens at a crime scene? This course will give the participants the opportunity to become... more

What does it mean to be human? This is a question critical to the study of modern human origins - the answer influences our interpretations of the fossil and archaeological records. How we define... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 15-19 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Personality can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 8 from 9:00-12:00 This study of European history from the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 to the eve of World... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 15-19 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm This course is an introduction to debates about the state of political life around the world in the post-cold... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 15-19 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 8 from 6:30pm-9:30pm No medieval events or ideas are better famous and more intriguing than the Crusades. Part piety, part... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 8 from 6:30pm-9:30pm Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive... more

In this course we will study the history and culture of rock and r&b (rhythm & blues)--broadly defined as a conglomeration of loosely related American popular musical styles--from their... more

What do we do when we tell stories? How do we make sense of the stories we hear? How do the stories we have heard determine the stories we tell? This course will pose and explore these questions... more

This course introduces students to a spectrum of plays that use heightened language, form, or setting to approach characters, issues, and relationships. These playwrights take on deeply personal or... more

We will explore various notions of non-representational --or abstract-- imagery through the inventive use of both traditional and non-traditional drawing media. Through abstraction, one can... more

This style of black-and-white calligraphic ink painting originated in China and was introduced into Japan by Zen monks around 1333. Concentrating on bamboo, chrysanthemum, orchid, and plum blossom... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, March 9-13 (Wednesday-Sunday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Forms abound in our lives - from census forms to tax returns to report cards; today, we sometimes even fill... more

Special Schedule: Saturday & Sunday, January 8-9; Saturday & Sunday, January 22-23; Saturday, January 29 A number of well-known poets have also written important prose: autobiographical... more

What do we do when we tell stories? How do we make sense of the stories we hear? How do the stories we have heard determine the stories we tell? This course will pose and explore these questions... more

Would you like practice in developing a plot or story line? in sketching character relationships or family history? This writing course invites you to explore the role of the couple (or the failed... more

We will examine the role of London in the literary imagination of 19th-century Britain. A vibrant multi-class and multi-ethnic jigsaw puzzle, London was a "world city" at the center of the empire,... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

This course uses topics from discrete mathematics to illustrate general methods of approaching and solving mathematical problems. We will develop core ideas of discrete mathematics from areas like... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, April 18-22 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm We will examine the lives of whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions, manatees, dugongs, sea otters, and... more

A few decades ago it seemed that modern medicine was winning the battle against many of the bacterial and viral diseases that afflicted mankind. But, recently we have seen the emergence, and... more

We will study cuisine as a way of understanding American popular culture. The culture of food includes such things as the social institution of the restaurant and social practices of dining, the... more

Does the public "learn" about foreign policy by watching movies? If it does, what does it learn? Research suggests that public attitudes about foreign affairs are informed by "non-news" sources... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

This course begins with an examination of the foundations of presidential power, tracing the historical development of the institution. We will then apply and evaluate various scholarly approaches... more

Special Schedule: Saturday & Sunday, March 5-6; Saturday & Sunday, March 26-27; Saturday, April 2 This seminar explores how people learn, in and out of school, at home and around the... more

This traditional art form, more than 1,000 years old, relies on hand-pressing techniques, watercolors, and rice paste. Quite distinct from Western printmaking traditions, it uses no oil-based inks... more

We will explore the definition of landscape photography as it relates to the realities of the 21st century where wildness is contained within boundaries or otherwise controlled, developed, or... more

Special Schedule: Saturdays - October 16, 23, 30, November 6, 13, 20 We will make drawings on a large scale, typically in the four by six foot range, with these objectives: To consider one's... more

There is a wealth of musical expression in Africa and its diaspora, including the Caribbean and Latin America. Students will study West African griots, mbira music from Zimbabwe, South African... more

We will steep ourselves in the craft and the art of fiction. To understand the technical underpinnings of powerful narrative fiction, we will read with a focus on characterization, point of view,... more

This writing course considers traditional fiction and creative nonfiction as well as new elements such as graphics and mixed media forms. The expanding publishing world, including blogs, will also... more

This class will analyze selected texts from each of the ten most recent winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, examining the internal cultural, intellectual, and aesthetic dynamic of each work,... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

This course will study the evolution of the Arthurian legend from its origins in 6th-century Britain to its fullest development in the 13th-century French Lancelot-Grail cycle. We will look at the... more

In this introduction to the basic ideas of probability theory, our objective is to learn how to convert informal descriptions about probabilities into mathematical statements. We then learn to use... more

What is the Big Bang Theory? What evidence supports it? What are its strengths, weaknesses, and limitations? How do current observations help us to understand the structure and evolution of the... more

Special Schedule: Saturday - Wednesday, October 16-20 This field course focuses on ecological interactions and life history events characteristic of autumn. Our study topics include acorn ecology,... more

Is there a "clash of civilizations" between Islam and the West? What distinguishes the two and why the conflict? This course, which assumes no familiarity with Islam, explores these questions and... more

Foundational course option: Students taking the course with this option will receive more extensive and detailed feedback on their work through more frequent writing assignments and individual... more

We will chart the changes in the U.S. economic policy and state-economy relations over the course of the past century, providing a broad overview of fiscal, monetary, regulatory and trade policies.... more

Using both a theoretical and a historical focus, we will analyze the principal movements and processes that have led to the rise of the modern nation-state. The theoretical focus will be oriented... more

Pianist Thelonious Monk (1917-1982) and bassist Charles Mingus (1922-1979) defined the cutting edge in jazz in the aftermath of the bebop movement in the 1940s. Both men had unique styles as players... more

Using film or digital still cameras, students will spend the semester making pictures at Connecticut State Parks. Students should come to class with a specific park or group of parks in mind, and... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 6 from 6:00-9:00pm. The monotype print is a free form of printmaking more akin to painting than to the traditional woodcut... more

This scene study course allows literature students to gain a deeper insight into Shakespeare through the actor's perspective, and students with acting experience to hone their Shakespearian... more

The short is a way for a beginning screenwriter to examine all the issues of film storytelling on a small scale before they get lost in the narrative complexity of a feature film script. It is... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 6-10 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Definitions for types of literature tend to fall short. And extremely short they do fall when one attempts to... more

In both fiction and nonfiction, the sounds of voices--talking or thinking--gives dramatic life to the work. This writing course offers students the chance to experiment with story-telling and... more

The last half of the 20th century has seen the establishment of a literary canon of classics from many places in the Third World: India, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. Some authors have... more

This course will explore myths and legends - such as Robin Hood and King Arthur - originating in the British Isles and closely related surrounding cultures. From the dry wit to be found in... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, June 21-25 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm This immersion course is designed for students who are interested in France or French literature or ideas, but... more

The natural numbers, 1, 2, 3, ... are the starting point of mathematics. They form a deceptively simple structure whose investigation has occupied mathematicians for thousands of years. This course... more

Topology, the branch of mathematics that makes possible a rigorous study of continuity and continuous distortion, is a core mathematical discipline that provides the foundation for much of advanced... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 2-6 (Monday-Friday) 8:00 am to 4:00 pm To a large extent, trees define many of Earth's nonmarine ecosystems. They dominate landscapes ranging from... more

Neuroscience is a highly interdisciplinary field drawing from diverse disciplines. This course introduces key concepts for understanding the functional organization of the brain and how it develops... more

This course will be an overview of the hydrologic cycle and will cover the basic principles of groundwater and surface water hydrology. The course will focus on case histories that illustrate... more

In this psychology course, we will study social and cognitive development across the life span. Topics include life-span attachment issues (e.g., early parent-child relationships); developmental... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 9-13 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm As the United States faces an ever-widening array of international problems in the post-9/11 world, the... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, June 14-18 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm This course examines how some religious groups in the U.S. herald the hastening of the End Times, when a Messiah... more

This course is an interpretive survey of major political, social, economic, and cultural developments from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. Our analysis will be chronological... more

This basic foundation drawing course will focus on the still life as subject matter. All are welcome, from the most experienced; those who love to draw; to the beginners who think they never could,... more

Photography is a medium perfectly suited to the portrayal of one another and of one's self. We will investigate the many approaches to the photographic portrait/self-portrait ranging from the... more

In this advanced studio arts course, students will explore the use and combination of materials from various media in which they already have training—such as drawing, painting,... more

This course is designed to provide a basic understanding of how documentary films are made. Through a series of exercises and in-class critique sessions, students will practice using composition,... more

Digital Media acts as an introduction to Digital Imaging, Flash Animation, Digital Audio, and Website Design basics. Overall, this course has three goals. The first is to provide students with an... more

Special Schedule: Saturdays, February 20 - May 1 (excluding March 27 & April 3) From his first book, Typee, a travelogue based on his own captivity by Polynesian cannibals, to his major works,... more

How are "Third World" women, both in the First World and in the Third, represented and understood by others? How do they represent and understand themselves? Analyzing images such as the... more

This course offers discussion of a range of prose styles, from fiction and nonfiction works, and invites students to try short or long pieces that suit their own interests. No previous writing... more

Special Schedule: Saturdays and Sundays, January 23, 24, and February 6, 7, and 13 This immersion course is designed for students who enjoy reading poetry and/or writing it and who want to give... more

This course offers an introduction to modern British literature and culture, with an emphasis on the ways in which literary form responds to and shapes the movements of history. We begin with the... more

The notion of "problem solving" as a subject in and of itself is not new. It has attracted attention from various points of view. The distinguished mathematician George Polya wrote several... more

A graph is a set, called a vertex set, along with a collection of unordered pairs of vertices, called edges. Because the definition of a graph is so simple, graphs can be used to model many real... more

Special Schedule: Saturday - Monday, January 16-18; Saturday & Sunday, January 30-31 Is "madness" as old as humankind? In ancient writings, we find no descriptions of an insanity that arises... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, April 19-23 (Monday-Friday) 9 am to 5 pm In this field course, we focus on ecological relationships and life history events characteristic of early spring, a... more

Earth is a system, composed of multiple components and inter-connected processes. The major components of the Earth are the geosphere (the solid earth), the hydrosphere (oceans, glaciers & ice... more

While globalization and international organizations have currently integrated the world into networks of peace, ethnic and regional wars have driven nations and groups further apart. This... more

Using a history-of-ideas approach, this course examines the major intellectual formulations defining the United States from the colonial to the progressive era. These include such ideas as... more

Films from around the globe have captured our attention as compelling glimpses of other worlds. Masterworks of cinema, they are firmly anchored in their own societies and histories, yet they have a... more

This course introduces students to a uniquely American, and to some ways of thinking, an especially naive, contribution to politics: The idea that we can make political practice conform to the... more

Special Schedule: Saturday & Sunday, January 14-15; class trip to NY on Sunday, January 22; Saturday, January 28; Saturday, February 18 Since the early 20th century, downtown New York has been... more

From its earliest days, photography was mistakenly perceived as a fundamentally objective, scientific medium concerned with truth and fact. Quite the opposite, by its very definition, the... more

This style of black-and-white calligraphic ink painting originated in China and was introduced into Japan by Zen monks around 1333. Concentrating on bamboo, chrysanthemum, orchid, and plum blossom... more

Since the very first films, of workers walking out of factories, the documentary film has continually changed in response to the time. What began as an experiment with technology has evolved into a... more

Art is often a lonely enterprise and sometimes one needs feedback. This advanced, tutorial-like course is a weekly critique session designed for serious students or artists of all disciplines in the... more

Stories told to children have an ancient history, dating back to orally transmitted folktales, myths, and legends. They have many different aims: they are variously intended to teach, amuse, and... more

"The writer has to judge himself with a stranger's eye and a stranger's severity. The prophet in him has to see the freak. No art is sunk in the self, but rather, in art the self becomes... more

This is a course for those who want to write with greater facility and with increased attention to the design of each piece. Students may choose to focus on narrative essays, memoir, or fiction.... more

This course will look at the literature and culture of the United States during the Great Depression. The emphasis will be on literature and film placed in the broader context of intellectual... more

We are what we read; the critical reader has the ability to form his/her identity consciously, while literary characters are destroyed by failing to recognize the forces and assumptions shaping... more

The roots of most modern Western ideas about courtesy, politeness, love, and good behavior are to be found in the Middle Ages and more specifically in French-speaking northern Europe in the eleventh... more

Mathematics can be viewed as a language for describing the world around us. Indeed, this is largely how mathematics developed. For instance, Calculus was invented by Newton in order to describe how... more

Scientists have been interested in understanding the mechanisms that underscore species distribution patterns across landscapes since the days of Darwin and Wallace. Landscape ecology examines the... more

Our knowledge of the solar system—the planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and meteoroids that orbit the Sun—has vastly increased during the space age. NASA planetary probes as... more

This course will meet during a condensed 6-week schedule, November 2-December 10, including afternoon field trips on November 7, 14, and 21. See description for full course schedule. A simple map... more

Special Schedule: Saturday-Monday, September 5-7; Saturday & Sunday, September 19-20 This course examines how films, like religious texts and practices, carry and shape political ideologies and... more

This course examines how anthropology helps in understanding the war along the Afghan/Pakistan border. It begins by surveying the recent history of the war. Next, the course identifies the basic... more

Developments in biotechnology and the life sciences have called into question existing legal and policy approaches with respect to reproduction, health care, informed consent, privacy, medical... more

This course is designed to introduce students to a spectrum of plays that are representative of different theatrical genres and styles. Rather than examining these texts as literature - an important... more

Frank Capra directed, produced, and wrote some of Hollywood's most celebrated and enduring films of the twentieth century. Amidst Depression, war, and corruption he triumphed the optimism,... more

Special Schedule: Three Week Course - July 4-July 21 - July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 8 from 2:00-5:00 After spending years documenting public life, photographers were... more

Miles Davis (1926-1991) and John Coltrane (1926-1967) stand out as the most influential jazz musicians of the last fifty years. Each of them had a profound influence on the evolution of the music... more

We will explore various notions of non-representational --or abstract-- imagery through the inventive use of both traditional and non-traditional drawing media. Through abstraction, one can... more

The short is a way for a beginning screenwriter to examine all the issues of film storytelling on a small scale before they get lost in the narrative complexity of a feature film script. It is... more

India has long had a love affair with the movies--it produces the largest number of movies in the world, and Indians of all classes are passionate devotees. Indian movies, conceived of as screen... more

This writing course features a number of relatively playful writing exercises that help you generate new material, along with strategies for shaping, re-shaping, and editing your work.... more

This course looks at a number of ambitious historical fictions published in the United States since the appearance of Toni Morrison's now-canonical novel, Beloved. We will consider why the... more

Travel course to Paris.This travel course held in Paris will introduce students to life in Paris during the Middle Ages. It will begin with a rapid overview of the development of Paris from the... more

This seminar is for poets and writers, as well as non-poets who seek a creative path to understanding other cultures. The focus will be on the buried treasures of classical Chinese aesthetics and... more

This is a course in the calculus of functions of several variables; but the material will be taught by combining linear algebra with multivariable calculus to emphasize the interconnectedness of... more

The concept of a group and its actions is fundamental in mathematics, and examples are found throughout the subject. Consider these examples: rearrange the vertices of a cube so that the distances... more

"People in the U.S. are living longer than ever before. Many seniors live active and healthy lives. But there's no getting around one thing: as we age, our bodies and minds change" (from... more

The Connecticut River harbors a great diversity of plants and animals: bald eagles, herons, and other waterbirds; dozens of fish species, ranging from darters and killifishes to shad and Atlantic... more

The Connecticut River harbors a great diversity of plants and animals: bald eagles, herons, and other waterbirds; dozens of fish species, ranging from darters and killifishes to shad and Atlantic... more

Special Schedule: See Course Description Follow the money. That is what we are told to do if we want to understand the dynamics of economic transactions. Since energy is the fundamental currency... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 10 - 15 9 am-5 pm (Mon, Tues, Thurs, & Fri); 9 am-1 pm (Wed & Sat) Molecular biology is a fast-moving,... more

Are you safer today than you have ever been? The post-Cold War and post-September 11 era has seen the end of some threats to international security and the rise of others. Although the central... more

"We are becoming people of the screen. The fluid and fleeting symbols on a screen pull us away from the classical notions of monumental authors and authority. On the screen, the subjective again... more

IIn the aftermath of the interpretive turn speared by Clifford Geertz in the 1970s, the blurring of different genres of writing became a feature of cultural anthropology. During the late 1980s, the... more

Which educational practices succeed, and why? Contemporary educational theories analyze the roles of culture and power in order to explore why some students stay in school and college but others,... more

Globalization is considered by many to be the most powerful transformative force in the modern world system. Modernization and technology have effectively made the world a smaller place with respect... more

Europe in 1945 was a scene of human and material devastation, after six years of relentless and merciless combat. Demoted in world affairs and faced with staggering economic costs of recovery,... more

This traditional art form, more than 1,000 years old, relies on hand-pressing techniques, watercolors, and rice paste. Quite distinct from Western printmaking traditions, it uses no oil-based inks... more

We will explore the definition of landscape photography as it relates to the realities of the 21st century where wildness is contained within boundaries or otherwise controlled, developed, or... more

This course will explore the transition of traditional photographic processes into digital formats. The students will be introduced to a variety of Photoshop techniques, while developing their own... more

For this drawing course participants will depict a well-known historical figure of their own choosing. Heroes and villains, saints and sinners, creative geniuses and scallywags, are all fair game.... more

Domestic form has always captured the cultural imagination. From Adam's house in paradise to Mohammed's house in Medina, from modernism's "machines for living" to postmodernism's... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 6 from 2:00-5:00pm. This course offers a rich and varied reading list and a chance to write and experiment, with careful... more

This course undertakes to look at the history and traditions of African American literature from its folk origins to its contemporary manifestations. We will examine the forms of folk production... more

"Poems are the precious portents of our powers," said Hartford's great 20th century poet, Wallace Stevens. He meant that human beings in general have the same powers of creativity and intuitive... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 6 from 6:00-9:00pm. This course is a survey of the major developments in American literature in one of its most vibrant and... more

Special Schedule: Saturday-Monday, January 17-19; Saturday & Sunday, January 31 & February 1 Literatures produced by the many ethnic and racial minorities of the United States ask their... more

Flannery O'Connor said, "Writing a novel is a terrible experience during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. It is a plunge into reality and it's very shocking to the... more

In the 19th century, it was discovered that the classical geometry of Euclid does not preclude other geometries of very different character. In the 20th century, it was realized that non-Euclidean... more

In 1931, 25-year-old Kurt Gödel published the first of his remarkable theorems attacking one of the central problems in the foundations of mathematics. Typically, a branch of mathematics,... more

Invasive species account for 39 percent of the known species extinctions on Earth, and they are responsible for environmental damages totaling greater than $138 billion per year. However, the... more

The world of primates provides us with a fascinating array of primate forms ranging from the prosimians with their retention of numerous traits that are deemed, "primitive," monkeys, and on up to... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion March 9 - March 13 This one-week immersion course focuses on how plants and animals deal with snow, ice, and freezing temperatures, including examples from... more

Travel course to Hawaii This travel course will focus on the observational aspects of the science of astronomy including its history, current state and future. We will focus on the tools that... more

This course is an introduction to major issues in the politics of today's global economy. We will cover such broad topics as globalization, trade, monetary relations, imperialism, debt, foreign... more

Until the 'disenchantment of the world' in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Europeans lived in a universe shot through with hidden and awesome power. God's action in the world... more

Special Schedule: Saturday & Sunday, February 11-12; Saturday & Sunday, March 24-25; and Saturday, April 14. What can we learn about education in the contemporary U.S. by looking closely... more

What is distinctive about the position of the individual, community and state in American political thought? To be certain, there are distinctive features of American political thought that have... more

One of the most interesting and important developments in social science since 1970 has been the "discovery" of a consistent economic logic underlying the great common law subjects of property,... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 15-19 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm This course is an introduction to debates about the state of political life around the world in the post-cold... more

In this course we will study the history and culture of rock and r&b (rhythm & blues)--broadly defined as a conglomeration of loosely related American popular musical styles--from their... more

The legendary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson claimed, "in photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject." In other words, it is not necessary to travel to exotic and far away places to... more

Film editing is perhaps the most mysterious part of the filmmaking process. What exactly does a film editor do? What are the creative decisions that go into editing a documentary or narrative... more

Special Schedule: Saturdays - July 2, July 9, July 16, July 23, July 30, August 6 Watercolor and related water-based media have long been associated in art with the ephemeral and gestural--fleeting... more

Modern history has framed the Middle Ages as the gap between Classical Antiquity and the Renaissance. This "time between" has unclear chronological and geographical limits, as well as a contested... more

Digital Media acts as an introduction to Digital Imaging, Flash Animation, Digital Audio, and Website Design basics. Overall, this course has three goals. The first is to provide students with an... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 8-12 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm How much are we shaped by our historical times and places? How much power do we have to make our historical... more

This writing course considers traditional fiction and creative nonfiction as well as new elements such as graphics and mixed media forms. The expanding publishing world, including blogs, will also... more

In the early decades of the 20th century, a remarkable generation of writers gave birth to a major renaissance in American literature. This course will consider the work of some of the important... more

This course provides an introduction to major poets and themes in English poetry of the Victorian period (1830s-1890s). We will focus on four writers--Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Matthew... more

During the past two centuries, Latin American writers and intellectuals have produced important works while living outside their countries of birth, whether in Latin America, Europe, or in the... more

What did the Russians learn from reading French novels? How did they respond to them in writing their own? In this course, we will examine how themes taken from one national literature are... more

This course will provide an overview of elementary statistical methods and models currently used to help answer questions in the natural and social sciences. Proper applications of statistical... more

Ecology, the study of the interactions of organisms and their environment, forms the essential foundation of the management and conservation of the world's ecosystems. This course examines... more

Over 99 percent of all diversity that has ever lived is extinct. The variety of vertebrates living today is mind-boggling, but the fossil record further expands this diversity. Can you imagine a... more

The theory of natural selection is one of the most elegantly simple, yet most profound, ideas ever conceived. With it, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace found a mechanism that could explain... more

How did the modern market economy come into being in Europe and why did this system expand outward to bring the rest of the world into its orbit? Why did China's economy--perhaps the most... more

The relationship between leaders and the public remains a core concern of democratic theorists and political observers. This course examines a range of issues associated with public opinion such as... more

This is a course on public policy covering a host of substantive policy areas. The course begins with an examination of Progressivism and the initial efforts to use public policy to address key... more

This course will run as a one-week immersion course from October 24-28. This course examines the idea of "Race" as a belief system specific to the epistemological field of Western culture. It begins... more

This course explores the judicial process in the United States. It focuses upon the nature of legal reasoning--or what I shall typically call "legal logic"--and the structure of the legal process,... more

Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays 1-5 PM [Robin Price, well-known Middletown book artist and publisher, returns to the GLSP this summer to offer this exceptional course in which students create and... more

Middletown—with its riverfront setting, bridges, rail tracks, churches, cemeteries, industrial and historic buildings, campus architecture, classic main street, mini-malls, and gas... more

In this three-week intensive course students will refine their professional black and white darkroom techniques, while developing a personal aesthetic. Students will be asked to test their technical... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 6 from 6:00-9:00pm. The monotype print is a free form of printmaking more akin to painting than to the traditional woodcut... more

The discipline of performance is essentially a collaborative one, where the intersection between text, actor, and visual setting creates a different world. How to bring this world to life and how to... more

The short is a way for a beginning screenwriter to examine all the issues of film storytelling on a small scale before they get lost in the narrative complexity of a feature film script. It is... more

In this course we will experiment with voice and tone, helping you find a range of ways to become a lively, engaging presence on the page. We begin by examining memoirs, mainly to see how the... more

This workshop examines a selection of poems from the ancient to the contemporary, noticing differences in the way they work. We will explore a number of approaches and practices for working with... more

This class will analyze selected texts from each of the ten most recent winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, examining the internal cultural, intellectual, and aesthetic dynamic of each work,... more

This course examines in depth the ways in which notions of race have been created, made standard, and expanded in mainstream pre-Hollywood and Hollywood movies. Our quest will begin with the year... more

Using death as the subject of study, this course will explore the limits or representation, that is, the practice of communicating abstract ideas, visions, or arguments through concrete or... more

Latin American writers from the early twentieth century forward have regarded the short story as a vehicle through which to make their mark and engage the great cultural issues of the day. Jorge... more

This course will cover all the topics in Differential Calculus in all their detail: limit, continuity, derivative, differentiation rules, implicit differentiation, extreme values, Mean Value... more

We will present a wide variety of topics from elementary mathematics, chosen for their striking beauty, but also for their bearing on issues of considerable importance. Some of the topics to be... more

Neuroscience is a highly interdisciplinary field drawing from diverse disciplines. This course introduces key concepts for understanding the functional organization of the brain and how it develops... more

Amphibians and reptiles are two different groups of vertebrates, as different from each other as birds are from mammals. Nevertheless, for historical and practical reasons they are often studied... more

Earth's climate is not static. Even without human intervention, the climate has changed. In this course we will study the components and interactions of the climate system today. Then we will... more

Special Schedule: Friday, September 21, 8:00 to 9:00pm, Saturday, September 22, 9:00am to 5:00pm, Saturday, October 6, 9:00am to 5:00pm, Saturday, October 20, 9:00am to 5:00pm, Saturday, November 3,... more

The Age of Discovery not only coincided with the rise of European imperialism, it was abetted by it. The development of modern science —and of modernity itself —depended in part... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 6-10 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm What makes a photograph iconic? What photographs have been successful in influencing social and political change,... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, June 25-29 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm The Eternal City has been transformed many times since its legendary founding by Romulus and Remus. This course... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 6 from 9:00-12:00. We will study the history of Europe during a period of unprecedented conflict and nearly uninterrupted... more

This course will focus on mutual attitudes and interaction between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the premodern period. We will examine how each religious tradition constructed "the Other," trying... more

Special Schedule: Saturday & Sunday, January 14-15; class trip to NY on Sunday, January 22; Saturday, January 28; Saturday, February 18 Since the early 20th century, downtown New York has been... more

This studio course is designed to help students advance their personal photographic vision and develop a focused body of work. Students will look at new techniques for making photographs, explore... more

Special Schedule: Saturdays - October 16, 23, 30, November 6, 13, 20 We will make drawings on a large scale, typically in the four by six foot range, with these objectives: To consider one's... more

This style of black-and-white calligraphic ink painting originated in China and was introduced into Japan by Zen monks around 1333. Concentrating on bamboo, chrysanthemum, orchid, and plum blossom... more

As Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez remarked in his Nobel Prize acceptance lecture, Latin America's violent history includes colonization and seventeen military coups. For economic and... more

In this course, we will focus on short narrative nonfiction, or the personal essay. Although such essays are often categorized by theme or genre--as memoir, say, or cultural criticism--those... more

Offered in conjunction with the spring 2008 Distinguished Writers series, this writing course will study--for technique and inspiration--the work of contemporary writers whom the program brings to... more

This course will study how our ideas of human nature--categories like life and death, body and soul, shame and guilt, love and sex, honor and glory--evolve while exploring the most important... more

This course will meet over two weekends: February 22-24 and March 29-30. Literature is often seen, in the First World, as separate from the public sphere of politics and knowledge. In the Third,... more

This course focuses on two groups of artists and intellectuals whose ideas about art and society were deliberately and self-consciously dissident and experimental: the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,... more

This course will primarily be concerned with examining in some detail the recent proliferation of African American fiction about slavery. After a preliminary discussion of some notable antebellum... more

In the Middle Ages, a church was a particularly effective venue for murder. Once inside a church, a victim would find escape difficult. In addition, by killing somebody in a church, particularly a... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 8 from 9:00-12:00 Linear algebra is a subject with a dual nature; the central ideas are both algebraic and geometric.... more

A classical trichotomy splits mathematics into three parts -- Algebra, Analysis, and Geometry -- and this classical view still has a certain validity. Broadly speaking most people might view Algebra... more

As we enter the 21st century, topics that fall under the heading of "forensic psychology" have attracted a great deal of popular attention. Issues such as eye witness testimony, false confession,... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 6-10 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm As we study the biology of sex in the animal world, it is apparent that there is a multitude of ways in which... more

What is the Big Bang Theory? What evidence supports it? What are its strengths, weaknesses, and limitations? How do current observations help us to understand the structure and evolution of the... more

Over the last two decades, advances in modern molecular genetics have provided insights into the underlying genetic basis for many of humankind's inherited disorders. The information associated... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, June 14-18 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm This course examines how some religious groups in the U.S. herald the hastening of the End Times, when a Messiah... more

How does one make sense of contemporary American politics? The past fifteen years have witnessed an historic shift in the control of Congress, with Republicans claiming majorities in both chambers... more

Civil Liberties is designed to introduce students to a uniquely American, and to some ways of thinking, a wonderfully naive contribution to politics: The written specification of individual... more

This course meets Monday-Saturday. For this course, students will travel to Alabama to retrace the unfolding of the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, which has increasingly come to be... more

This course analyzes the processes that led to Hitler's rise to power, the nature of the National Socialist regime, and the origins and implementation of its policies of aggression and... more

This course introduces students to the empirical study of Islam and some of the religious perspectives of Muslims. It seeks to provide familiarity with some of the basic teachings and practices of... more

Photography is a medium perfectly suited to the portrayal of one another and of one's self. We will investigate the many approaches to the photographic portrait/self-portrait ranging from the... more

The 1960s were a turbulent but stimulating time for the world of jazz. The R&B-based soul jazz movement was at its peak and often at odds with the still-developing avant-garde aesthetic.... more

This traditional art form, more than 1,000 years old, relies on hand-pressing techniques, watercolors, and rice paste. Quite distinct from Western printmaking traditions, it uses no oil-based inks... more

This course explores industrial and household design in post-war America from a variety of perspectives to frame postwar culture and examine its icons--from Tupperware to tiki bars and bachelor... more

This course is designed to provide a fundamental understanding of how documentary films are made, through technical training and practical experience in shooting and editing digital video. Through a... more

Art is often a lonely enterprise and sometimes one needs feedback. This advanced, tutorial-like course is a weekly critique session designed for serious students or artists of all disciplines in the... more

This course explores industrial and household design in post-war America from a variety of perspectives to frame postwar culture and examine its icons--from Tupperware to tiki bars and bachelor... more

Picasso stated that "art is a lie that makes us realize truth." During the course of the semester, we will explore this idea as both writers and readers of fiction. The course is designed to lead... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 6 from 2:00-5:00pm. This course offers a rich and varied reading list and a chance to write and experiment, with careful... more

This course examines the nature of Greek and Roman warfare and its impact on ancient societies from the Homeric age to Late Antiquity. In addition to studying the lives and campaigns of such dynamic... more

This course explores major poets and themes of the Romantic period in English poetry: nature; memory, imagination, and creativity; the poetic "I"; form and prosody; responses to the French... more

A seminar on some of the major developments in American literature from 1865-1910, this course will focus on the movement for a new realist novel that transformed American fiction in the late... more

This course will study the evolution of the Arthurian legend from its origins in 6th-century Britain to its fullest development in the 13th-century French Lancelot-Grail cycle. We will look at the... more

This course uses topics from discrete mathematics to illustrate general methods of approaching and solving mathematical problems. We will develop core ideas of discrete mathematics from areas like... more

This course is designed as a multidisciplinary course that introduces students to the major concepts and principles of gerontology, particularly those applicable to health and older persons.... more

Progress in the molecular biosciences continues to accelerate at an ever-increasing pace at the same time that it touches more and more aspects of everyday life. In this course we will consider a... more

This is an interdisciplinary course dealing critically with intersections of the fields of science and the visual arts including intellectual, cultural, and aesthetic perspectives. Part I will be... more

Dōgen (1200-1253), the founder of the Japanese Sōtō sect of Zen Buddhism, has been recognized not only as a key figure in Japanese Zen, but as one of the greatest thinkers... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 9-13 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm As the United States faces an ever-widening array of international problems in the post-9/11 world, the... more

This course represents a hands-on approach to decision-making and diplomacy. It is designed to allow students to take part in diplomatic and decision-making exercises in the context of international... more

The United States is, by all measures, a highly religious nation. Since 1944, the Gallup organization has asked: "Do you believe in God?" For more than sixty years, the percentage of the population... more

The Enlightenment is said to have given birth to democracy, human rights, feminism, emancipation, and secularism--in short, to the characteristic strivings of Western modernity. Yet it has also at... more

The course deals with its history, structure and topology, current transformation and the future of Eurasian space. It problematizes the idea of space as a key to understanding politics and... more

Through text analysis, monologue work, and scene study, this course will examine the works of contemporary American playwrights. Scenes drawn from the works of David Mamet, Tony Kushner, Paula... more

Throughout its history, jazz has evolved, not just through the work of innovative artists but also through the influence of other styles of music. Western classical music, R&B, blues, rock, and... more

This course explores the development of green architecture at the intersection of three areas of study: the social reforms and utopian schemes of 20th-century modernist architecture, the eco-design... more

This three-week intensive course teaches photography from the inside out, beginning with professional black and white darkroom techniques, in order to develop the vision and artistry to build a... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 6 from 6:00-9:00pm. The monotype print is a free form of printmaking more akin to painting than to the traditional woodcut... more

Special Schedule: Class will not meet on July 4th Holiday. Rather than holding a makeup, 20 minutes have been added to each additional class meeting. Digital technologies offer artists new tools... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 8-12 (Monday-Friday) 9:00 am to 5:00 pm How much are we shaped by our historical times and places? How much power do we have to make our historical... more

This course offers discussion of a range of prose styles, from fiction and nonfiction works, and invites students to try short or long pieces that suit their own interests. No previous writing... more

Israeli fiction can be taken as a test case for the possibility of a national narrative in which the actions of individuals enact and allegorize the people as an actor in history. Such narratives... more

In 1947, the German philosopher Theodor Adorno wrote that after Auschwitz, writing poetry was an act of barbarism. But in the decades since the defeat of the Nazis, German artists and writers have... more

This travel course held in Paris is designed for students who are interested in French literature, ideas, culture, and perhaps even French travel writing, but who were not necessarily French or... more

From 1580 to about 1700 Spanish-language playwrights created one of the great dramatic repertories of world literature, comparable for inventiveness, variety, and influence to the Classical Greek... more

The notion of "problem solving" as a subject in and of itself is not new. It has attracted attention from various points of view. The distinguished mathematician George Polya wrote several... more

Not every polynomial has a root in the real numbers; for example, the equation (x^2+1=0) has no solution in the real numbers. But, every polynomial has a root in the complex numbers. This indicates... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 8-12 (Monday-Friday) 7:00 am to 3:00 pm Why study birds? Part of the appeal of birds lies in their color and beauty, interesting behavior, and... more

As we enter the 21st century, topics that fall under the heading of "forensic psychology" have attracted a great deal of popular attention. Issues such as eye witness testimony, false confession,... more

The past decade has seen an explosive growth of interest in what has been called positive psychology: the study of emotions, traits, and institutions that promote adaptive and healthy psychological... more

Diet and nutrition are favorite subjects of the news media and popular literature. Both new "dietary lifestyles" such as Atkins, Pritkin, South Beach, and well-established lifestyles such as... more

We will study the occurrences, origins, and usages of Earth's principal mineral and energy resources to understand the political and socio-economic consequences of resource discovery, resource... more

Special Schedule: One-week immersion, August 10 - 15 9 am-5 pm (Mon, Tues, Thurs, & Fri); 9 am-1 pm (Wed & Sat) Molecular biology is a fast-moving,... more

Why did the Taliban forbid television? Why do Creationists reject evolution? Why did Gandhi insist that Indian nationalists spin their own thread? Throughout the last century, resistance has been... more

Social existence involves both cooperation and conflict, and social conflict often spills over into physical violence. While most societies condemn physical violence between individuals, they... more

Much of the attention in contemporary American politics is given to mainstream forms of political behavior like voting or to elite institutions such as the legislature. The goal of this course is to... more

Special Schedule: July 4th Holiday makeup class will be held Friday, July 8 from 9:00-12:00 This study of European history from the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 to the eve of World... more

Although the breach of social norms, to which we give the name crime, exists in all societies, the responses to committing crimes are always generated from each society's particular... more

Through text analysis, monologue work, and scene study, this course will examine the major works of modern and contemporary realistic playwrights. Scenes drawn from Ibsen, Chekhov, O'Neill,... more

In this course we will study the history and culture of rock and r&b (rhythm & blues)--broadly defined as a conglomeration of loosely related American popular musical styles--from their... more

Students will learn in the field the basics of both architecture and drawing by exploring various early Connecticut structures including architecture on the Wesleyan campus. Some of the most... more

We will explore various notions of non-representational --or abstract-- imagery through the inventive use of both traditional and non-traditional drawing media. Through abstraction, one can... more

This style of black-and-white calligraphic ink painting originated in China and was introduced into Japan by Zen monks around 1333. Concentrating on bamboo, chrysanthemum, orchid, and plum blossom... more

In terms of influence and creativity, Japanese cinema is generally regarded as second only to American, though it may in fact be the other way around. The Japanese film industry emerged from a rich... more

Photoshop CS2 is a very powerful and expansive application. This course will introduce students to the application and provide a comprehensive working knowledge of it. The course will allow... more

Since the very first films--of workers walking out of a factory--the documentary film has continually changed in response to the times. What began as an experiment with technology has evolved into... more

In three concerts and discussions, we will explore how three contrasting jazz groups operate. Our class sessions are organized around live concerts with three giants of jazz--Cedar Walton, John... more

Release from suffering: this is the goal of early Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. According to both, the cause of suffering is the endless cycle of rebirth. The process of achieving release is... more

This course is designed for students interested in creating strong fiction with well-structured narratives and dynamic characters. It stresses the fundamentals of a well-crafted story, including use... more

Offered in conjunction with the spring 2008 Distinguished Writers series, this writing course will study--for technique and inspiration--the work of contemporary writers whom the program brings to... more

The last half of the 20th century has seen the establishment of a literary canon of classics from many places in the Third World: India, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. Some authors have... more

This course will explore the ways in which Samuel Clemens invented and constructed "Mark Twain," his authorial persona, as both a literary master and a popular celebrity. We will examine his... more

This immersion course will attempt to demonstrate how modern literature has been profoundly shaped by Irish writers. William Butler Yeats, according to T.S. Eliot and many others, is as the... more

Faulkner is often described as a great modernist novelist and sometimes as the prototypical southern writer. In this course, we'll take a slightly different approach, considering... more

Cervantes is known chiefly for Don Quixote, often described as the first modern novel and fountainhead of one of the great modern myths of individualism. In fact, besides the chivalric novel,... more

In this introduction to the basic ideas of probability theory, our objective is to learn how to convert informal descriptions about probabilities into mathematical statements. We then learn to use... more

We will begin with a review of such properties of the integers (the whole numbers, positive, negative and zero) as the division algorithm, Euclid's theory of greatest common divisors, unique... more

Our knowledge of the solar system—the planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and meteoroids that orbit the Sun—has vastly increased during the space age. NASA planetary probes as... more

We will explore the world ocean system by studying its geology, ecosystem, and circulation patterns; by investigating how plate tectonics shape the ocean basin and where the saline water that fills... more

A few decades ago it seemed that modern medicine was winning the battle against many of the bacterial and viral diseases that afflicted mankind. But, recently we have seen the emergence, and... more

Sociologists speak of looking at the world with a "sociological imagination"; what does this mean, and how might it change the way we look at our world, from the mundane details of our everyday... more

The past decades have witnessed a conservative revolution in American politics. Republicans have gained control of the presidency for most of this period and, in the past decade, have controlled the... more

While globalization and international organizations have currently integrated the world into networks of peace, ethnic and regional wars have driven nations and groups further apart. This... more

In this course, we will explore the development of African American political activism and political theory from 1960 to 1972, with particular focus on student movements in these years. We will... more

Special Schedule: Saturday-Monday, September 5-7; Saturday & Sunday, September 19-20 This course examines how films, like religious texts and practices, carry and shape political ideologies and... more

Material culture is defined as "the study through artifacts of the beliefs—values, ideas, attitudes, and assumptions—of a particular community or society at a given time." In... more

In the Middle Ages, the Book of Nature was understood to be a text authored by God as a supplement to the scriptures, and it's purpose was to make the connection between spirituality and... more

This workshop examines a selection of poems from the ancient to the contemporary, noticing differences in the way they work. The workshop explores a number of approaches and practices for working... more

This workshop's focus is on the devices writers use to carry through their vision, and on developing and finalizing new work or work-in-progress. Participants are invited to bring new fiction... more

Is there a story you keep returning to, or a story you'd like to explore? Writers often re-visit the same subjects and themes again and again: murders of the rich and famous; fathers and... more