Faculty of Arts & Sciences

Great earthquakes have shaped both the Earth and history. Here we consider the causes of earthquakes, assessments of their hazard, as well as their impact on human society through an analysis of contemporary and historical ruptures. Further we discuss the future of earthquake hazards on a more populated planet and how technological approaches are allowing us to prepare for earthquakes before they happen.

Since the Universe is expanding, it must have been denser in the past. Therefore, there must have been an early time when stars like our Sun or galaxies like the Milky Way did not exist because the Universe was denser than they are. We therefore face the important question about our origins: how and when did the first stars and galaxies form? Primitive versions of this question were considered in religious and philosophical texts for thousands of years. The Seminar will summarize the fundamental principles and scientific ideas that are being used to address this question in modern cosmological studies.

Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, today supported by genetics, is often seen as antagonistic to religion. Buddhism is one of the world's major religions, yet is sometimes described as scientific. In fact, science and religion have a lot to say to each other, in particular about what can be done versus what should be done. This course explores points of contact between evolutionary genetics and Buddhism, centering on the notion of "emptiness," and building knowledge of each so that ethical questions about animals in research, genetic testing, and human genetic engineering can be discussed.

This seminar addresses fundamental evolutionary concepts while exploring the dynamic relationship between plants and their pollinators. We will use plant-pollinator interactions to understand the science of mutualism, co-evolution, speciation, convergence, animal behavior, and conservation biology. Discussions and readings on these topics will be highlighted by trips to the Arnold Arboretum, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Wellesley College greenhouses, and a local beekeeper. We will utilize living plants to explore diversity in plant morphology and reproductive strategies.

Plants and animals imitate one another and their surroundings to escape notice and avoid predators. This seminar explores the evolution of mimicry and camouflage using case studies that reveal the range of visual, behavioral, acoustical, and chemical means by which this deception is accomplished.

This seminar will review both our established knowledge of the fundamental laws of nature as well as our best guesses and attempts to understand what might lie beyond our current knowledge. The black hole information puzzle, the nature of space and time at short distances, string theory, the Higgs boson, unification of the forces, quantum gravity and the origin of the universe will be among the topics covered.

This course explores state-of-the-art research, tools and measurements used to investigate and predict climate change through ongoing studies at the Harvard Forest's 3,500 acre outdoor laboratory in Petersham, MA. The seminar consists of four weekend-long field trips (Friday evening-Sunday) to the Harvard Forest and a final on-campus meeting. Students develop skills for evaluating, discussing, and presenting the ecological evidence for climate change, including feedbacks between forests and the atmosphere and long-term impacts on forest ecosystems.

Objectivity is important in science, yet it is clear that there are elements of creativity and politics that shape the practice and communication of science. This course explores how individual creativity and political behavior influence scientific pursuits and science communication. This is done through diverse activities, including interviews with scientists, viewing and discussing films that broach scientific topics, e.g. "DNA Story" and "GATTACA", reading and discussing K. C. Cole's "Frank Oppenheimer and his astonishing Exploratorium", a visit to the Museum of Science and the preparation of a "hands on" experiment.

This seminar addresses central issues in the philosophy of healthcare, investigating how some fundamental questions in this field have been answered and exploring alternatives. Questions addressed include: What is health? What is healthcare? Does health have special moral significance? Is there a human right to health? Why do persons and communities differ in their health outcomes and when are these differences considered unjust? Are we responsible for our own health outcomes? The course focuses on questions of class, race, gender and aging in its discussion of justice in health and examines ethical questions in global health.

We will become familiar with sounds and structures of the different kinds of acoustic animals, including birds, mammals, frogs and insects, and the different kinds of habitats in which they produce their songs and calls. We will explore the evolution and biology of music in humans.

The seminar will apply scientifically quantitative methods to understanding a number of problems of general public concern, and provide insight into the roles of a scientist in public affairs by understanding diverse problems of the environment, pollution, and public health. The topics will be selected in the first two weeks from those that are topical at the time.

This course is designed to provide a working knowledge of the scientific method, thereby fostering development of fundamental skills in logic and experimental design. The various forms of reasoning (inductive, abductive, deductive) will be discussed in context of the practice of science. Through critical analysis of historical and contemporary scientific reports, students will gain an understanding of creating appropriate hypotheses, of controlled experimentation, and of the breadth and limits of conclusions drawn from experimental data.

By the latest estimates, more than half of us will meet the criteria for a diagnosable mental illness at some point in our lives. Rates of many disorders -from autism and ADHD to eating disorders and depression-have apparently been increasing substantially in recent decades. What do we know about the causes of mental illness? This seminar will explore the role of nature, nurture, and culture in our understanding of mental illness. We will draw on a broad range of disciplines-from psychology, psychiatry and anthropology to genetics and neurobiology-to examine the roots of normal and abnormal behavior.

A physician occupies a unique perch, regularly witnessing life's great mysteries; it is no wonder that narratives of illness have been of interest to both physician and non-physician writers. Examines and interrogates both literary and journalistic dimensions of medical writing from Tolstoy to Oliver Sacks as well as newspapers and periodicals. Studies not only mainstream medical journalists, but so called alternative medical writers such as Andrew Weil also. Work with different forms of medical writing.

Explores medical, legal, and ethical aspects of medical care, with particular attention to medical decision-making at the beginning and end of life, participants in research on human subjects, human reproductive technologies, mental illness, and experimentation on animals. Historical background of present-day medical practices and relevant law to be discussed.

Introduction to the critical reading of technical nutrition and medical literature; surveys current issues in public health and public policy relating to nutrition. Critical analysis of different types of medical literature: historical monographs, metabolic laboratory observations, clinical case reports, epidemiological surveys, prospective randomized controlled trials, metaanalyses, and literature reviews. Prepares science and non-science concentrators to examine critically current controversies for themselves; requires active participation and presentation by students.

Principles of modern physics are based on simple but at the same time deep concepts. Many of these concepts are naturally encountered when solving mathematical puzzles. The aim of this seminar is to illustrate the connection between physics and mathematics and use simple ideas and puzzles to shed light on this relation. We will also draw upon ideas encountered in the context of string theory and higher dimensional realizations of our universe. Recommended for students deeply interested in both physics and mathematics.

This seminar will introduce 13 key pieces of knowledge about our physical world: 1) Boltzmann factor and thermal equilibrium, 2) Turbulence, 3) Reaction rates, 4) Indistinguishable particles, 5) Quantum waves, 6) Linearity, 7) Entropy and information, 8) Discharges, ionization, 9) Relativity, 10) Nuclear binding energies, 11) Photon modes, 12) Diffraction, 13) Resonance. Each week we will discuss one of these principles and see how we might gain an understanding of our physical and technological world.

Exposes students considering careers in science or engineering to environment of a modern research laboratory. Research teams construct, perform, analyze, and report on cutting-edge experiments in physical, engineering, and biological sciences. Projects provide insight into the mathematical, mechanical, electronic, chemical, computational, and organizational tools and skills that characterize modern experimental science. Past projects focused on atomic, nuclear, and solid state physics, materials science, dynamical systems, and biophysical science. Projects highlight both team and individual effort.

In this seminar, students explore the historical foundation of modern surgical practice. They will study the medical notions of the ancients, and then see these notions overturned in The Enlightenment. Advances of the 19th century will be studied in detail. We will end with a session on combat casualty care, aided by an experienced combat surgeon. Students will write a 5 page paper on a topic in surgical history and will present their work to the class.

After a century of studying how to cure mental illness, scientists have started to explore what makes us happy. What have they discovered? In this course, we will critically examine the findings from the new science of happiness revealing how they are altering our understanding of what happiness is, the optimal ways to achieve and increase it, the role of circumstance in its occurrence, its effect on our bodies, and its place in human nature.

Reviews history of children's health care in the United States; explores the impact of geography, environment, nutrition, clean water, as well as scientific discoveries of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries and the emergence of high technology care in middle and late 20th century. Does America provide children the best possible health care available? Compares United States epidemiology with that of other developed and developing nations. Explores how child health delivery is financed.

We will read a selection of Darwin's publications, as well as his private correspondence, paying close attention to the man behind the science as revealed by his writings. We will get to know Darwin, the avid breeder of pigeons, lover of barnacles, devoted father and husband, gifted correspondent and tactician, and remarkable backyard scientist. Together, the class will reproduce ten of Darwin's classic Down House experiments and observations that were central to his case for natural selection and evolution.

This course examines the remarkable diversity of symbiotic associations on Earth, their ecology and evolution, and their roles in human health and disease, agriculture, and biotechnology. Symbioses - "living together" - with microbes are ubiquitous in nature, ranging from lichens to the human microbiome. Symbiosis drives evolution, resulting in "new organisms" and charges us to think about biodiversity on a new level. In this freshman seminar, microbial symbioses with animals (including humans), plants, fungi, protists will be discussed, complemented by microscopy and field trips to local environs including Boston Harbor Islands, the New England Aquarium, and your own microbiome.

How do we conceptualize "normal" growth and development? In this seminar, we will examine stages of child development from many vantage points: neurobiological, physical, cultural, and psychological. Readings will include classic papers on development, textbook chapters that provide overviews of specific developmental stages, recently published research articles on brain development and genetic inheritance, selected contemporary children's and young adult literature, personal memoirs, and short stories written about childhood. We will also examine clips from contemporary films. Assignments will consist of three short response papers and a longer final paper. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Autism is an increasingly common disorder, frequently found in the popular press and Hollywood movies. It affects roughly 1:100 individuals, approximately 500 times the rate of just a few decades ago. Sadly, despite the considerable financial resources devoted to the study of autism we still do not know what causes the disorder, why its severity varies so enormously from person to person and how best to treat it. This seminar will be broad in scope, focusing on the following key themes: genetic, neurological and possibly environmental causes of autism, risk factors for developing the disorder, best way to characterize the disorder, best treatment options.

What does food do to our bodies? What does a healthy diet entail? Explores and critically evaluates diet recommendations and knowledge about the role of diet in maintaining health. Discusses the obesity epidemic, with a focus on childhood obesity and the role of school lunch programs. Explores local resources including Harvard Community Gardens and Food Literacy Program and how meals are prepared at the Harvard University Dining Services. Discusses genetically modified foods and mindful cooking and eating. Will review the book "Eat, drink, and be healthy". Hands-on experience in nutrition education.

Deepens understanding of human development and how individuals cope with serious emotional or social difficulties (neglect, bipolar disorder, autism, depression). We will use multiple perspectives: medical texts that provide practical knowledge, narrative readings to understand how patients experience the meaning of illness, speaking with patients about their experiences, and portrayals of development-related mental illness in the press. Examines the fundamental need for tenderness and making meaning, the resourcefulness required for resiliency and the context of vulnerability.

Synthetic biology is an emerging multi-disciplinary field of research aimed at developing solutions to problems impacting our individual lives and ultimately our long-term survival as a species. We need to find alternative and renewable sources of energy and food, new ways to process and recycle limited resources, and tools to detect and address environmental pollutants. These and other challenges can be addressed by the development of microorganisms re-engineered to perform new functions. In this "hands-on" laboratory course students will design experiments and build and then test synthetic biological systems. Additionally, students will present and discuss selected topics in synthetic biology.

Explores wide range of environmental and man-made neurotoxic substances and effects on human and animal populations. Attention to pediatric exposure to neurotoxic agents and associated neurodevelopmental disabilities, as well as neurobehavioral and immunological changes. Examines impact of lead and mercury poisoning, PCBs. Investigates neurophysiology and neurochemistry of a number of other neurotoxins, including arsenic, tetrodotoxin, saxitoxin, botulinum, curare, cocaine, and "nerve gas." What dangers do these toxins pose? What can or should be done to prevent exposure?

Large and small, simple and complex, self-evident and confusing, emotions in all their variety are a fundamental part of life. But just what are emotions? Are they the same in all cultures? What, if any, functions do they serve? Can we control our emotions? What role do they play in development, personality, relationships and well-being? What effects can they have on physical health? And do they present special challenges to scientific study? This seminar will take up these and other fundamental questions, and will discuss methods used to study emotion and the current state of knowledge about human emotion.

Explores philosophical and legal bases of the concept of individual responsibility as applied in the criminal justice system. Examines how forensic mental health professionals assess an individual's mental state at time of an alleged criminal act, the legal standards applied, and the social and political forces that help shape the legal decision. Considers the insanity defense; examines modern concepts of the biological basis of behavioral disorders and their relationship to existing standards of criminal responsibility.

Brain function serves as the basis for how we make rational and irrational decisions, learn to read or not (dyslexia), learn and remember or not (amnesia), empathize and understand the perspective of another or not (autism). The mind is shaped by the interaction of the brain and environment. Our understanding of the brain enables us to attempt to modify the environment to enhance the mind. This course will look at these issues in individuals with normal brain function and those with neurological disorders.

This seminar on biobehavioral bases of health and disease focuses on the interaction of injurious or infectious agents and the physical and social environment in the development and maintenance of stress-related disorders. What factors are stressful for given individuals? What are the pathophysiological and/or behavioral pathways to disease? Why is a particular body organ system the target of stress? What psychological, social, and economic factors influence cognitive, affective/physiological, and behavioral responses to disease?

This course examines dreams with an emphasis on their relation to the creative process and problem solving. It draws on psychology predominantly-neurophysiology, clinical, and personality research while also including perspectives from history, religion, art, literature, and anthropology. We'll visit a sleep laboratory and a dream-artist's studio. Students will keep a dream journal, and engage in exercises to improve dream recall, influence content toward lucidity and other goals, and to interpret your dreams. Students will write a term paper on a dream-related topic of their choice.

Based loosely on book, Warped Passages, considers revolutionary developments in Physics in early 20th century: quantum mechanics and general relativity; investigates key concepts which separated these developments from the physical theories which previously existed. Topics: particle physics, supersymmetry, string theory, and theories of extra dimensions of space. We will consider the motivations underlying these theories, their current status, and how we might hope to test some of the underlying ideas in the near future.

This seminar will offer an integrated historical-neurobiological-neurological introduction to foundational and transformative ideas in the ~3,700 year history of neuroscience, brain science, and "lay" neurology - all accessible to freshmen with interests from history, art, and literature to economics, social policy, and business to neuroscience / life sciences. No background will be assumed. Rather, historical vignettes and sources will be tied to modern understanding of elements of the nervous system, their organization, function, and modes of investigation and manipulation. Some historical contexts, often including war, disease, serendipity, and technology advancement, will be highlighted as advancing knowledge in surprising ways.

We will discuss current theories on brain regeneration in a dynamic setting that combines brainstorming of the literature with hands-on experience in the laboratory. Students will learn experiments that have shaped the field of brain repair and consider the newest theories on ways to regenerate the nervous system. We will also visit the laboratory to investigate the regenerative capabilities of different organisms. Experimental results will be used to consider, contrast and evaluate how regenerative capacities have changed during evolution and to brainstorm paths forward towards new solutions for brain regeneration in species, like humans, that have not mastered this art.

Introduces students to the nature of mental illness based on recorded interviews of people suffering from a variety of psychiatric conditions. Investigates what illness and treatment are like from patient's perspective. Interviews supplemented by readings which include a variety of patient narratives. Provides background on categories of mental illness, the varieties of treatment available, and the nature of the illness experience itself.

Humans have long understood that the blood flowing in their veins was imperative to their health and well-being. This course will examine the history, attitudes and beliefs surrounding blood. We will study human beliefs about blood and its uses in cultural beliefs and ceremonies. We will examine the science associated with blood: the production and the function of blood in the body, ideas of blood regarding medicine, healing, blood-related illnesses, biotechnology, nanotechnology and stem cell research.

"Cancer" represents hundreds of different diseases with a wide variety of causative mechanisms. We will study the biology of cancer and what makes a normal cell become a cancer one, delving into acquired and inherited genetic abnormalities and effects of environmental factors, such as nutrition, radiation, and tobacco. Current approaches to cancer will be discussed from prevention and early detection to treatment of survivorship.

This seminar considers the conditions of a cell necessary to support life. The proposal is to find a definition for a living system using information and principles of biology, chemistry and physics to characterize some central properties of living cells, like energy and material uptake and use, cellular crowding, diffusion and molecular interactions, homeostasis and growth.

This interactive seminar will allow students to obtain greater understanding of global health issues through critical comparative analysis of healthcare systems of selected countries from the developed, emerging and developing world. Weekly sessions will comprise of student-led discussion that revolves around an important healthcare issue. Domain expert guest speakers will be included allowing students to network with thought leaders. Student will explore in-depth a topic of their choice and prepare a manuscript for publication in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

We will discuss the variety of approaches humans have taken to predicting their own future. Early weeks will focus on Omens, Oracles, Religion and Prophecy. Next, we will move on to the so-called Scientific Revolution, exemplified by the work of Galileo, and the Age of Exploration, enabled by John Harrison's solution to finding longitude at sea. The last several weeks of the seminar will focus on predictive work in epidemiology, finance, and climate, and ultimately on work about the Universe's future. Students will conclude with a discussion of how computer models of health/wealth/climate combine to predict our future.

Energy use underpins much of our current global society, but there is widespread agreement that our current energy use cannot continue. We will explore physical, economic, social, governmental, and spiritual aspects of our current energy consumption. We will then consider what drives people to propose change. Finally, we will consider what changes we ourselves propose should be made during the next 1 year, 5 year, and 20 year period. Students will pick at least one change and describe how that change could be made, including considering losses that will be required for that change to be realized.

Asks students to think and write critically about American higher education--its history, purpose and ongoing challenges. Considers "the uses of the university" from a variety of perspectives: historical, sociological, economic, and developmental. Addresses questions: What constitutes a liberal arts education? What are its goals? How should students be assessed? What role do extracurricular activities play in a college education? Does a bachelor's degree certify a vocational education, a cultural one, or a moral one?

In this course, we will discuss philosophical questions about death and immortality. What is death? Is there a moral difference between "brain death" and the irreversible loss of consciousness? Is the classification of a person as dead a moral judgment, or is it an entirely scientific matter? Is death a misfortune to the person who dies? How can death be a misfortune if you are no longer around to experience that misfortune? Is it possible to survive after death? What does it mean for you to survive after your death? Is there such a thing as an immaterial soul distinct from your body? Is immortality something you should want in the first place? Even if you do not live forever, is it nevertheless important that humanity continues to exist after your death? By discussing these questions about death, we will hopefully gain insight about the importance and meaning of life.

This course seeks to understand the unique historical moment of our early century through close attention to some of its most significant literary artifacts. We will examine how the novel, as a literary form, has incorporated, challenged, and built upon new communication networks, transnational social affiliations, the rise of genetic engineering, and the looming collapse of our biosphere. How does the novel, once the repository of cultural memory, relate to history-and the danger of forgetting-in a world increasingly geared toward instantaneity? And, most importantly, how does the twenty-first century novel imagine alternatives to our most serious social perils?

Taken up by many ethnic groups in America, the short story has been used to convey experiences with immigration and assimilation, discrimination and oppression, generational divides, and interactions across difference. Examination of such short stories opens up readers to a deeper understanding of America's multiethnic landscape. Together we will examine historical context for the short story's ongoing role in American culture, its relationship with publishing houses and critics, as well as its adaptability to new technologies. Reading Toni Morrison, Jhumpa Lahiri, Junot Diaz, and Sherman Alexie, among others, we will consider ties that both link and divide our multiethnic world.

Mexico over the past century experienced a prolonged violent revolutionary war and subsequent transformation, established one of the world's longest-lived authoritarian regimes, and has been building robust democratic politics. The combination of these three dramatic moments is rare worldwide. Most countries in that century had only one or two such moments. Why did Mexicans kill each other so relentlessly for so long? Why did they build, from the rulers' perspective, the world's most effective authoritarian regime? Why was democratic transition so slow-moving? Was there collective wisdom in democratic politics, steering a successful transition within the lifetimes of the Freshmen?

Beliefs about the supernatural (God, heaven) are traditionally taken to be the central feature of religion. Recently scientists and critics have attacked religious belief, reviving anti-supernatural arguments against religion and suggesting that it be overcome by rational, scientific thinking. And yet religion remains. Not only does it remain, but it continues to exert tenacious influence personally, culturally, and politically. Why is this? This seminar considers the status of religious belief and looks at alternate understandings of what religion involves and does. Readings range from "new atheists" to philosophers and theorists of religion, modernity and ritual, to evolutionary biology and neuroscience.

George Orwell is one of the great political writers of the twentieth century. The word "Orwellian" summarizes his dystopic vision of state control and concepts such as "Big Brother" and the "thought -police" have entered popular consciousness. But Orwell was also a social reformer in the tradition of the Progressives. Alongside the content of his work, Orwell professed a lifelong interest in the process of writing. His essays on the corruption of language, the politicization of literature, and the less admirable side of the art of persuasion hold enduring interest for anyone who lives by and loves the English language.

Reads classical waka, its modern descendant the tanka, and examples of linked verse (renga) and modern poems in free and prose-poem forms. (And haiku too!) Focuses on themes such as desire, renunciation, time, memory, war, death, sorrow, and receptivity. Students keep a diary of their encounters with the new poetry, practice the art of sequencing, and make their own translations based on literal renderings and explanations of Japanese originals.

What can we know; how can we know it? Can I know that I am not a brain in a vat being manipulated into thinking that I have a body? Can I know that Lincoln was assassinated, that electrons have negative charge, that Hamlet is a masterpiece, that the sun will rise tomorrow? This seminar will study skeptical arguments and responses to them to explore the nature and scope of knowledge.

Jesus has inspired great works of art, literature, and music, but Christians have not always agreed on the function of beauty. This seminar will consider Christian aesthetics, art (Italian Renaissance), and music (Bach, Messiaen, and spirituals), but the focus will be on literary works of St. Francis, Dante, Herbert, Donne, Hopkins, Hawthorne, Melville, C.S. Lewis, and O'Connor. The abiding question will be: In what ways does aesthetic form-- beauty-- enhance, qualify, complicate, or obscure the gospel?

In classical Athens, litigants represented themselves before hundreds of jurors who rendered verdicts without instruction from a judge. We will read surviving Athenian court speeches involving homicide, assault, adultery, prostitution, slander, treason, citizenship, and commerce, as well as Plato's account of Socrates' defense speech. Taught by a law professor, the focus will be on comparing ancient and modern approaches to problems faced by all legal systems and on evaluating Athens' distinctively amateur legal system. Students will be expected to write one 5-page paper, to contribute to and lead one class discussion, and to participate in a "mock trial" of an Athenian homicide case.

What do we really see when we look at a work of art? This seminar is an exercise in evaluating artistic composition as it presents itself to the viewer. Primarily devoted to looking and talking about what we think we see, what we actually see, and how it informs interpretation, but with consideration as well of what experts say we should see - in order to explore the degree to which literal looking aids or is aided by contextually informed looking. Works by Raphael, Caravaggio, Bernini, Velazquez, Turner, Renoir, Sargent, Klimt, Schiele, Kandinsky, Bacon, Richter (subject to change).

This course attempts to understand conservatism, less as a set of dogmatic political positions, and more as an attitude that allows us to rethink our fixation on the present, one that helps us to find company with the authors and traditions of the past. Our readings, drawn from thinkers such as Edmund Burke and Alexis de Tocqueville, will emphasize the remarkable intellectual fluidity of certain works that are often claimed as classics of conservatism. These authors make powerful emotional appeals to respect and preserve certain traditional ways of life in the face of relentless social change.

This course examines the last century of American dance through the lens of technologies of the stage, body and transnational exchange. Beginning with a survey of American influence on European ballet, this class explores the beginnings of American modern dance with Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis through their creative dialogue with German choreographers Rudolph von Laban and Mary Wigman. By considering the body as a site of study, conversations around feminism, identity, and innovation will place such quintessentially "American" artists as George Balanchine and William Forsythe into global context, and bring dance into a larger art-historical and technological frame.

The French have said that the history of a nation depends on what they eat. Yet in the case of Spain, it's clearly the reverse. What Spain has eaten has been a consequence of the country's vast -and often turbulent- history. Invasions, expansions, exile and immigration have created and continue to create the cuisine and culture, which will be our focus in this seminar. Likewise, we will consider the culinary exchange with Latin America, with specific reference to Argentina, Peru and the Caribbean. From don Quijote's rudimentary repas, to Almodovar's gazpacho, we'll conclude at the tables of the globalized metropolis.

People everywhere tell stories to express both the verities and contradictions found in experiences of everyday life. Based on storytelling traditions, a narrator shapes the story to reflect his or her own intentions, making it personally expressive as well as publicly meaningful to a particular audience. This seminar examines the nature of storytelling, its enduring appeal, and its ability to adapt to multiple technologies (print, film, internet). Participants engage in the storytelling process itself.

How different is an image in a museum from a religious image installed in a temple? This seminar will explore the politics of display and the history of appropriation and reappropriation of the arts of South and Southeast Asia with select historical examples and contemporary cases, including the Hollywood films such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). Local museums displaying the arts of South and Southeast Asia and diasporic community temples, such as the Thai Temple in Raynham, MA and Shri Lakshmi Temple in Ashland, MA, will provide a laboratory to experience and analyze the politics of display going beyond a binary interpretation.

This seminar explores the nature of religious belief and various ways of reasoning about God, in light of philosophical arguments and recent research in the cognitive sciences. Questions that will be subjected to a systematic analytical examination include the rational and psychological bases for belief in God, the metaphysical possibility of an afterlife, and the relation between faith and reason (including the relation between religious belief and scientific knowledge). We will also discuss various philosophical arguments for the existence of God, different conceptions of the soul, the problem of evil, and the relation of religion to morality.

Do inherited forms found in literature permit only certain variations within experience to reach lucidity? Investigates literature's limits in giving account of mind, everyday experience, thought, memory, full character, and situation in time. Studies Shakespeare's Hamlet and Joyce's Ulysses, a modern work of unusual complexity and resistance to both interpretation and to simple comfortable reading. Reading these two works suggests potential meanings for terms like complexity, resistance, openness of meaning, and experimentation within form.

The goal of representing the 3-dimensional world on a 2-dimensional surface dates back at least as far as the approximately 30,000 year old cave drawings. For all of these past centuries there were relatively few people who could create realistic 2 dimensional images of the people and things that wanted preservation. Although photography has changed this there are still significant differences between the images that most people create and the photographs of our leading photographers. In this seminar we will discuss the artistic history, the nature of vision and the fundamental physics on which modern digital photography is based.

This seminar explores a core group of Broadway musicals, fusing classroom study and hands-on creativity. Historical and musical discussions will be paired with student performances and staging of individual scenes (under the guidance of the A.R.T. Institute). The seminar touches on signal moments in the "Golden Age" of the musical, and it involves a collaboration with A.R.T.'s "Civil War" series, including a new opera by Matt Aucoin ('12).

Reconstruction - the period of economic rebuilding and philosophical reorientation that followed the American Civil War - was an unprecedented moment of historical rupture. Reconstruction sought quite simply to remake an entire society at once, from one day to the next replacing slavery with the ideals of free labor and democratic participation. In this seminar, we will consider Reconstruction as a set of historical events and as a narrative problem. In other words, while learning about this unheralded moment of change in American history, we will also ask how Reconstruction became a story to be passed down from one generation to the next - by novelists, poets, historians, political scientists, and filmmakers.

This course will explore tales of love as a window onto Korea before the 20th century (late Koryo/a7 to late Choso/a7n dynasties spanning 13th through 19th centuries), paying special attention to comparisons with related romances in China. We will combine close reading of traditional tales in English translation with study of paintings and images in old books, and compare the tales as well with more recent portrayals in photography, film and television. Secondary readings will provide the sociocultural and historical contexts.

Provides an introduction to acting by combining elements of a discussion seminar with exercises, improvisations and performance activities. Uses improvisation to improve group/ensemble dynamics, minimize habitual behaviors and to develop characters. Explores a range of acting techniques designed to give students greater access to their creativity, imagination and emotional life. In the later part of the term we will work on monologues. Students also attend and critique productions at the Loeb Drama Center and other theaters in the Boston area.

Brings together lyric poetry and photography as art forms that provide respite from plot's pull toward closure. Explores how poems and photographs engage the mind in different rhythms of contemplation by preserving tensions between movement and stillness, fragmentation and wholeness, familiarity and strangeness, presence and absence, life and death. Focuses on genres of self-portrait, still life, landscape, and elegy, suggesting how particular poems and photographs satisfy mind's desire for non-narrative expression and experience.

Was Shakespeare a misogynist, a feminist, or a product of his time? Was he homosexual? That these questions remain controversial four hundred years after Shakespeare's death testifies to the sensitive complexity with which Shakespeare handled the topics of sex and gender. This course explores how sexuality and gender function in numerous plays, sonnets, and narrative poems. Since words like "feminist" and "homosexual" did not exist in Shakespeare's lifetime, the course will introduce historically responsible methods of analyzing our subject matter. In the case of the plays, we will focus on performance, including modern films and period use of boy actors.

Deals with an innovative approach to comparative mythology by incorporating an historical approach, not by the commonly assumed archetypes or diffusion. Working backwards from our earliest written sources (Egypt, etc.), successively earlier stages are detected through repeated reconstructions. Recent developments in genetics, archaeology, linguistics support the proposed historical model that tentatively reaches back to the "African Eve." Testing the proposal offers a wide scope for students' participation and research in texts and in the sciences.

This course will explore the literature of the monstrous, with a particular focus on two extraordinary periods: the Renaissance and the Romantic era. From moral monstrosities like the overreaching Faust to physical monstrosities like Frankenstein's creature, monsters defy the order of things. Their very bodies may transgress the norm, or their ambitions seek to overthrow our entire world. What does the monster mean? And what do these figures reveal about our attitudes toward the future, toward cultural outsiders, toward the body and the boundaries between human and non-human? Authors include Montaigne, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Goethe, Byron, and Shelley.

This seminar involves defining fictional horror and also creating horror stories. As such, the course is both a discussion of horror and an introduction to creative horror writing. We will utilize literature from film theorists, literary critics, cultural psychologists, neuroscientists, and the popular press. We will also examine seminal films and written stories. The instructor is both a medical school professor and a professional horror writer. Through techniques that have been employed at writing workshops and panel discussions, we will develop our own sense of what constitutes horror and at the same time hone our creative writing skills.

What do Muslims think of acts of terrorism committed in the name of Islam, the mixing of religion with politics, the status and rights of women, the hegemony of the "West"? This seminar investigates the viewpoints of prominent Muslim writers on these and other "hot button" issues as reflected in novels, short stories and poetry from different parts of the world. Explores a range of issues facing Muslim communities in various parts of the world by examining the impact of colonialism, nationalism, globalization and politicization of Islam on the search for a modern Islamic identity. Readings of Muslim authors from the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Europe and America.

With numbers surpassing 50 million (and growing), Latinos/as in the United States are asserting their place as a powerful component of this nation. Through a discussion of the "established" conversation surrounding Latino/a culture that then shifts to more recent Latino/a driven production, this seminar examines how Latino/a culture has evolved in tandem with its population. Specifically, this will be addressed through close readings and analyses of movies, TV shows, stand-up comedy, music, and literature from the 1980s through 2013. Placed in conversation with each other, these texts illustrate the tension between stereotypes and self-definition that currently permeates Latino/a culture.

Since the earliest days of cinema, filmmakers have looked to the past for inspiration. Historians have often dismissed cinematic versions of the past for their inaccuracies and simplications. This seminar adopts a more open-minded view of historical movies to explore the potential of film as a medium for understanding and representing history and to consider some of the "big" questions of history. Movies covering a wide chronological range and drawn from a variety of sub-genres will be included. ?

Beethoven's sixteen quartets span almost his entire creative output, ranging from the classical Six Quartets, Op. 18 of 1800, to the transcendent, pioneering late quartets, the last completed in the year of his death in 1827. These works contain the full range of Beethoven's musical expression and some of his best-known music. The seminar will work from scores, selected recordings, and live performances connected to the Chiara Quartet's Harvard residency in the fall. Seminar members may play in class; individual projects and some readings.

"Dirty and Dangerous" explores the relationship between people and the material world by focusing on the "dark side" of natural and human-made environments. How have people in the US perceived and experienced dangers associated with climate, landscape, toxins, disease, and the built environment? Focusing on the late 19th century until today, the course is organized around three types of environment: wilderness, homes, and workplace. We will draw on a range of sources, including poetry, fiction, films, activist writing, historical scholarship, and a "Toxic Tour" of Boston, examining dangers, fears and anxieties about these various environments in their historical context.

Philosophers, poets, scientists, and mathematicians have meditated on the nature and power of beauty. Beauty calls on us to educate ourselves, but also calls on us to repair the injuries of the world. Readings include Plato and Sappho; Aquinas and Lady Murasaki ; Rilke and Maya Lin today. We will study aspects of beauty such as color (e.g. "The Lady and the Unicorn" tapestries depicting the five senses) and symmetry (a book on symmetry by astrophysicist Mario Livio). Topics include the beauty of earth (e.g. the writings of environmentalist Rachel Carson) and the beauty of faces (Homer on Helen, Seamus Heaney on an unnamed soldier).

From the earliest years of its "discovery" to the rise of the Machu Picchu Facebook portrait, travelers have played the most intriguing roles in Latin America: advocates of the continent's beauty, protectors of its cultures, scientists and conquerors, voyeurs, consumers and looters. How can we understand these travelers, and how have they understood themselves? In this freshman seminar we will look at a variety of accounts of historians, anthropologists, filmmakers, and travelers, in order to answer these questions. We will think about the content and form of these texts, while also contextualizing these documents historically, and considering their audiences, their genres and ideologies.

This course, designed for those with no prior art history, will examine the work of some of the outstanding painters and writers of America's "Gilded Age," the period (roughly 1870-1895) that takes its name from the title of a novel by Mark Twain. The paintings of John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, and others will be examined in comparison with the writing of Walt Whitman, Henry James, and William Dean Howells. We will make extensive use of original works at Harvard's newly reopened Fogg Museum. We will learn to "read" paintings, and will explore various methods of interpreting them as we seek to discover what the work of art can tell us about the culture that produced it, and how the history and literature of the period sheds light on the work of art. Note: Please read or refresh your memory of Twain's HUCK FINN before the first class. There will be required field trips to museums, dates TBD.

This seminar explores extreme states of mind: the feeling of fear and wonder that philosophers call the sublime. Sublime experiences are so intense that they overwhelm our senses and our ability to express ourselves, jamming the system. The rediscovery of the sublime in the late eighteenth century coincided with a cultural shift from viewing the Alps as a site of fear to a place of awe and beauty, a shift reflected in Romantic art and literature. It reappears in modernism, in forms that range from Gothic fiction to the technological sublime of skyscrapers, the Wild West, and novels on the "posthuman" sublime of life after ecological catastrophe.

Considers major ballets from The Sleeping Beauty to The Rite of Spring and beyond. Examines the art of ballet as performed today and in its historical development. Sees ballet not only as dance but as interaction between contributing arts: music, painting, and drama.

Often described as the world's most powerful court, the US Supreme Court has not always enjoyed high prestige or unquestioned authority. The Court's significance has waxed and occasionally waned, with the variations typically depending on surrounding currents in the nation's social and political history. Examines the history of the Court from the nation's founding to the present. Highlights relation between constitutional law and ordinary politics, and the ways in which they influence one another.

In this age of rapid globalization and heightened cross-cultural contacts, nations struggle to reaffirm their identities and values. In the United States, one of the most precious values is free speech, embedded in the First Amendment to the Constitution and regarded as a keystone of American democracy. But arguments over the boundaries of free speech have become intense, especially in the era of electronic communication. This seminar will examine the dialogue taking place within the United States and around the world on free speech issues - sometimes civil, but often a political or cultural confrontation that turns violent.

This seminar explores issues in the theory and practice of democracy through the lens of the twenty years of economic, political, and social turmoil across the globe between the two World Wars. By focusing intensively on a historical context in which no political value could be taken for granted and few dared say what the future might hold for the structure of human community, we will explore the depths of democratic polity and its limits for both the past and the present.

This course embraces a variety of source materials - including the city of Boston itself - in order to study the relationship between the everyday spaces of the urban environment and the structures of the global economy. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we will focus particularly on the historical development of the city in a global context, giving special attention to themes of urban modernity, political ecology, and social justice. Assignments for the course will include collaborative postings to a course blog, as well as a final research paper.

What are the goals of mathematics education at the middle and high school level, and how do these goals impact our evaluation of the success or failure of math education in America? Why does math education at these levels matter? What societal structures (historic, economic, political, cultural) impact mathematics education? How does math education in turn impact societal structures? As the world changes, how do the goals of mathematics education change, and in what ways? We will explore these issues to become more educated participants in this ongoing discussion.

This course investigates a question at the heart of democratic politics: in what sense, if any, is rhetoric a part of reasoned political argument? Is rhetoric necessarily a kind of pandering or manipulation? Or can rhetoric be a part of thoughtful deliberation on the common good? We will examine the case for and against rhetoric by turning to classical texts (Aristotle, Plato, Hobbes, Kant), contemporary political theory, and great political speeches (Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Lyndon Johnson, and others.)

This seminar will examine the experiences of those Germans defined as "Aryan" in the Third Reich, that is, those not directly persecuted by the regime. How did they adjust (or not adjust) to the changes brought to everyday life by the Nazi regime? How did their behaviors and attitudes change in ways that helped or hindered the regime and its racial agenda? How would we define the boundaries of collaboration or consent within this society? Readings will explore aspects of German society under Nazism including the experiences of young people and women, consumption, popular culture, and the question of terror.

Understanding the determinants of the wealth of nations has long motivated the study of economics and it is arguably the most important problem in the field for human welfare. This seminar will examine the problem of economic development, looking both at historical experience and at contemporary issues in developing countries. It will focus on approaches from economics, but will also draw on other disciplines, including history, political science, and sociology.

Human rights practitioners confront numerous ethical, strategic, and legal dilemmas in their struggles for social justice. This freshman seminar explores the underlying legal framework in which human rights advocates operate, and then uses specific case studies to consider the various challenges they must grapple with in their work. The seminar is designed to encourage students to critically evaluate the human rights movement while offering an introduction to some of the essential tools and strategies used by human rights advocates, including advocacy, litigation, documentation, and report writing.

This seminar focuses on the experience of the social actor in modernity, using novels and sociological literature as guides; the nature of modernity will examined, with the existential experience of the modern individual as the object of focus. The novel will be studied so as to gain leverage on such questions as "What is identity, and how is it shaped?" and "What are the implications of modernity on one's creation of the self?" The novels to be considered juxtapose the experience of women to that of men and focus on 19th and early 20th century England, France, and America.

What are museums? What exactly do they do, and why? Do they have a future? Traces the history of museums from their beginnings centuries ago to the modern institutions of today. Considers objects and their conservation, the role of museums in contemporary society, finances, dual–and sometimes conflicting–functions of scholarly research and public display, exhibit design, legal and ethical issues, and other challenges. Sessions include field trips to museums at Harvard and elsewhere in the Boston area to view public exhibits and "behind-the-scenes" collections that the public rarely sees.

Every day, leaders and policymakers are inundated with tough choices. Sometimes they make "good" decisions, sometimes not. Sometimes it isn't clear which decision is best. We will examine several ethical challenges confronting those in charge. May leaders authorize torture under some circumstances? Can citizens really be free if they are homeless and hungry? Is welfare and wealth redistribution a violation of wealthier citizens' liberty? And how should society distribute scarce resources like health care? There are no easy answers to these dilemmas. "Good" government, then, may be the government that best recognizes these murky waters and proceeds carefully.

Investigates the use of legal processes in addressing religion-based conflicts, a leading source of tension in modern societies. The seminar will explore theoretical approaches to accommodating religious diversity and examine existing models of religion-state relationships. Drawing on legal cases from the US, Turkey, India, Israel, Spain, Canada, and England, the seminar will also familiarize participants with contemporary debates involving religion: the wearing of Islamic headscarf, religion and education, the funding of religious institutions, etc.

The course surveys the national security threats and opportunities facing the primary countries of the Middle East, from their perspective. Issues discussed include the domestic sources of national security considerations, including regime change and the impact of the Arab Spring, relations with regional and international players, military doctrine, foreign policy principles. The seminar is an interactive, "real world" exercise, in which students play the role of leaders in the countries of their choosing and write practical policy recommendations on current affairs.

How do the "laws of war" regulate the conduct of the United States in the "Global War on Terrorism?" This seminar examines the historical development of two legal concepts: jus ad bellum, which determines the legitimacy of the use of armed force; and jus in bello, which defines the duties of soldiers and belligerent states. Drawing on this background, the seminar explores how these laws have influenced U.S. military and anti-terrorism operations since 9/11.

Examines the impact of books on Western culture from the time of Gutenberg. Hands-on experience in studying the book as a physical object and theoretical reflection on the nature of printing as a means of communication. Students will consider the publishing history of great books such as Shakespeare's First Folio and will address the problem of books as elements in the electronic media.

This course addresses some of the fundamental issues of the nature of the self, issues which appear at the intersection of religion and psychology: Where do we turn for ultimate meaning? What happens when individuals undergo some sort of crisis and radically change their belief system or how they engage with the world? How do we face death? The course will focus on the ways in which both individuals and cultures create frameworks of meaning. The readings explore philosophical, psychological, and literary perspectives on these issues and questions and include works by Freud, Dostoevsky, William James, Flannery O'Connor and others.

Reviews what is known about greenhouse gas emissions' possible impact on climate. Explores possible impact of climate change on social and economic conditions over the next century. Investigates possible public policy responses to these developments, including actions both to adapt to and to mitigate climate change. What would be the costs of adaptation? Would an investment in mitigating the changes be worthwhile? Are there possibilities for international cooperation in dealing with the problem?

This course explores the origins and development of human evolutionary theory in parallel with the discovery and study of our "cousins," the Neanderthals. Readings and discussions highlight breakthroughs in evolutionary theory since the 17th century, ranging from the Darwinian revolution to the field of "evo-devo." The recent history of the Neanderthals is explored in detail, which mirrors intellectual developments in biological anthropology ranging from the re-conceptualization of race to innovations in recovering ancient DNA.

The explosion of the atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945 ushered in a new era of warfare, of scientific prominence, of civic anxiety, and political challenge. Explores the interaction of science, politics, strategy, and culture in the studies of historians as well as in the literature, films, and theater from the early years of the twentieth century through the 1970s and 1980s dealing with the atom and the atom bomb.

Intimate, subjective and transitory, the sense of smell has the power to evoke memory and emotions, to mark places and persons, and give rise to both desire and disgust. Lacking a well-defined vocabulary, smell can be elusive. Yet, as evidence of disease, crime, gender, race, sexuality, the sacred and profane, scent lingers on in judgment. How does this verdict coalesce - in medicine, public health and law? We will sample various scents and use them as the occasion for writing and reflection -- shared and yet privately known, these olfactory forays will serve as our experience of an impossibly common sense.

This course will introduce students to the study of terrorism. We will cover the history and evolution of the tactic, from the Zealots to al Qaeda to the Tsarnaev Brothers. We will assess terrorists' motivations and how they market their causes to various publics. Why do terrorists do what they do? We will explore risk factors at various levels, including global, national, group, and personal. After completing this course, we expect that students will have a much more nuanced and intellectually grounded understanding of terrorism.

Studies how human rights perspective illuminates relations between state authority and individuals and defines standards of behavior that societies agree to aspire to reach. Topics include the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, rights in political and economic spheres, the rights of women, children, and refugees, international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and the state, regional, and international processes and structures that establish and monitor the regime of international human rights law.

In spring 1989, millions of Chinese took to the streets calling for political reforms. The nationwide demonstrations and the college students' hunger strike on Tiananmen Square ended with the People's Liberation Army firing on unarmed civilians. Student leaders and intellectuals were purged, imprisoned, or exiled. Discussion about "Tiananmen" remains a political taboo in China today despite the Tiananmen Mothers' struggle to keep the forbidden memory alive. This course will explore the Tiananmen Movement in history and memory. Exiled student leaders and political prisoners from the movement will be invited to share their experience and perspectives with the class.

This course adopts interdisciplinary perspectives toward understanding how health and mental health problems and well-being are manifest, if and how common patterns are changing, and how circumstances and contexts impact outcomes. We examine similarities and differences based on gender, race/ethnicity and other personal and social characteristics. Topics include everyday stress, body image, eating disorders, depression, substance abuse, sexual activity and gender-based violence. Throughout, we traverse the boundary between health and illness in order to explore the role of individuals, their social support networks, and health care professionals in developing and guiding positive strategies for coping and healing.

The course addresses timely problems and core values of contemporary democracies. The problems that we will examine include: torture, terrorism, immigration, affirmative action, and hate speech. Each of these topics poses a challenge to key values characteristic of liberal-democracies such as the rule of law, toleration, political equality, and freedom. We will examine the philosophical justification of these values as a background to the discussion of the applied cases mentioned above.

Explores the theories of political legitimacy and justified resistance to authority developed by the persecuted Protestants during the French Wars of Religion, and traces the influence of these ideas about political obligation and religious conscience on some of the major figures in modern political philosophy from Hobbes to Kant. Students should be prepared to engage in both historical detective work and philosophical reflection. All required reading will be in English.

Explores the historical context of the present crisis on the Korean peninsula and engages students in current debates about the crisis from a variety of different official, institutional, and popular perspectives, including those of North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan, Russia, and other concerned parties, such as the United Nations. Students encouraged to develop own perspectives on resolving crisis. Examines role of historical forces in shaping the crisis and its possible resolution.

Approaches Nazi persecution of European Jewry from several disciplinary perspectives. Presents background and narrative of the Holocaust, introduces the use of primary historical sources, and studies some of the major historiographical debates. Evaluates religious and theological reactions to the Holocaust -- uses literary, cinematic, and theological sources. Considers the role played by the Protestant and Catholic churches and theologies in the Holocaust. Assesses role played by the Holocaust in today's world, specifically in the United States.

Introduces the history of psychological tests, from the perspective of the psychologists using them, the people tested, and the general public. Examines the creativity within psychology in the making of such tests, as well as the drawbacks and dangers of the (mis)uses of these instruments. Explores tests in current use, as well as tests contained in various Harvard archives. Final project for this seminar involves the design of an original psychological test.