Wesleyan University Summer Courses for the class of 2026
AFAM189F.01 LGBTQ, or LGBT Who? (FYS) Nasta,Jesse Grading Mode: Student Option Meeting Time: .M.W... 04:00PM-05:20PM, Loc:ONLINE Beginning with the early-20th-century construction of the "homosexual" as a distinct identity, this course will explore the evolving, complex, and contested history of the queer community over the past century. The course will especially explore how race and gender frequently shaped marginalized yet resilient social movements for the lives, dignity, and rights of trans and other queer people of color, from the drag balls of a century ago through the Black Lives Matter movement. COL101F.01 Crime Writing (FYS) Barber,Charles Grading Mode: Student Option Meeting Time: ..T.R.. 01:00PM-02:30PM, Loc:ONLINE This course will explore a range of crime fiction and nonfiction, from literary classics to genre-based texts. Readings will include classic writers of the genre such as Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith, and Dennis Lehane, and nonfiction works such as "In Cold Blood," David Grann's "Killers of the Flower Moon." and Charles Barber's "Citizen Outlaw." A theme of the class will be the duplicitous and elusive nature of truth and objectivity in both the journalistic and fictional accounts. Students will have the opportunity to write a short piece of crime fiction or narrative nonfiction, in addition to analytical papers. ENGL111F.01 21st Century Amer Lit (FYS) Wood,Jennifer Piper Grading Mode: Student Option Meeting Time: .M.W... 03:30PM-05:00PM This course will explore American literature of the 21st century and in so doing, we will consider the portrayals of race, class, ethnicity, religion, trauma, citizenship, migration and sexuality. We will approach these portrayals in engaged class discussion as well as in writing, both analytical and creative. We will also discuss the ways in which these authors conceptualize and problematize American identity. GOVT157F.01 Democracy & Dictatorship (FYS) Rutland,Peter Grading Mode: Student Option Meeting Time: ..T.R.. 08:50AM-10:10AM, Loc:NO ROOM In this introduction to politics in industrialized capitalist, state socialist, and developing countries, we explore the meaning of central concepts such as democracy and socialism, the strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of political institutions (e.g., presidentialism vs. parliamentarianism in liberal democratic countries), the causes and consequences of shifts between types of political systems (e.g., transitions from authoritarian rule), and the relations among social, economic, and political changes (e.g., among social justice, economic growth, and political democracy in developing countries). MUSC119F.01 Jazz in the 1960s (FYS) Baerman,Noah Grading Mode: Student Option Meeting Time: .MT.R.. 01:00PM-03:30PM, Loc:NO ROOM 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. Certain other influences, such as those of
Brazilian and African music, were becoming widespread in jazz for the
first time. Older forms of jazz like bebop, big band music, and
traditional jazz (aka "Dixieland") were struggling to remain viable and
relevant. Rock music's surge in popularity was threatening the
commercial solvency of jazz while acting as a musical and cultural force
to which all jazz musicians had to react in some manner. Meanwhile much
of this decade's jazz is inexorably linked to the political and social
upheaval of the era, particularly those aspects relating to Black
Americans' sense of identity and struggles for equality. |