Summer Session Courses

Instructor: Richard Lehtinen
Designations: MNS
Length: 4 weeks
Schedule: MWF 11-1:30pm

This non-majors course will investigate the current scientific understanding of climate change as well as the needed policy, social and economic changes needed to avoid its worst effects. The first part of the course (‘knowledge’, two weeks) will establish the scientific basis for global climate change including coverage of essential aspects of Earth’s climate system (especially the carbon-cycle) as well as coverage of previous climate change events in Earth’s history and current and projected climate change impacts on biological and cultural systems. The second part of the course (‘action’, one week) will cover the changes needed to both collective and individual human behavior to avoid the worst effects of climate change. The third and final part of the course (‘anger’, one week) would focus on efforts by the status quo to prevent or forestall climate action (political movements, disinformation campaigns, etc.) and official and grassroots efforts worldwide to implement change (with a special focus on youth movements and activism). While some of the content can be perceived as “doom and gloom”, we will have a special and repeated focus on some of the important progress being made (at both the local, national and global levels) to meet the unprecedented challenges.

Instructor: Erzsébet Regan
Prerequisite: BIOL-20100, minimum grade of C- or instructor permission
Length: 6 weeks
Schedule: MWF 10-11:50 am

This course focuses on cellular and molecular processes leading to the initiation and progression of cancer. As we explore multiple facets of cell behavior altered by cancer, we will examine the intersection of genetic, epigenetic and environmental causes of cancer-forming cell behavior. With a strong emphasis on reading primary literature, the course will engage topics such as immunotherapy, the link between cancer and aging, the role of the microbiome, and the promise of predictive models for developing novel therapeutic approaches. Counts as an MCB elective for Biology and as BIOL305 lecture for BCMB majors.

Instructor: Mehri Yavari
Designations: HSS
Length: 4 weeks
Schedule: TTh 1-3 pm

This course examines the significance of communication in human life and introduces students to fundamental principles and processes of communication in a variety of contexts: intrapersonal, interpersonal relationships, small groups, public settings, and the mass media. Students will learn to think critically about communication and will apply the knowledge they gain through a variety of means: class exercises, a group project of limited scope, message analysis, and a public speech.

Instructor: Alex Nord
Designations: MNS, QL
Length: 6 weeks
Schedule: MTWThF 7-8 pm

The purpose of this course is to show some of the connections between computer science and other disciplines such as mathematics and the natural sciences. We will study the fundamental computer science concepts for the design and Python implementation of solutions to problems that can be solved through approximations, simulations, interpolations, and recursive formulas.

Instructor: Alicia Brazeau
Designations: W, AH
Length: 6 weeks
Schedule: WF 4-5:30 pm EDT

How do habits, spaces, beliefs, and technologies shape what it means to be a writer? Maya Angelou wrote in the mornings. Steven King assigned himself the task of completing six pages every day. Haruki Murakami committed to swimming and running before starting work. Even more recently, writers like Vauhini Vara have investigated how AI technologies could shape their process. In this course, we will explore how a range of writers and scholars have practiced and conceptualized the work of writing. We will also experiment with adopting and evaluating these habits, routines, and strategies for ourselves. Course assignments and projects will prompt students to explore their own writing process, and to consider what it means to be a writer in a changing technological context.

Instructor: Matt Mariola
Designations: AH
Length: 4 weeks
Schedule: WF 6-8 pm

How do we leverage the beauty of summer when we’re meeting online? In three ways. First, you will spend a minimum of 3 hours each week doing activities in an outdoor setting, wherever you are based. This will include sitting quietly; walking; working with natural materials; and at all times, observing. Second, you will write reflective essays about your experiences, and we will work on refining and revising your writing to make it shine. Third, we will read and unpack environmental poetry and nonfiction essays about environment and place. Class meets online twice per week for two hours each time, in the evening.

Instructor: Ahmet Atay
Designations: AH
Length: 4 weeks
Schedule: TTH 5-7 pm

This class provides an introduction to the basic tools of film analysis and introduces students to film aesthetics through the analysis of film form and style. The course aims to provide students with a fluency in and understanding of film’s unique language as it evolves technologically, historically and generically. We will examine how elements like mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing and sound work together to create meaning in a range of films. We will also examine how these elements are put together in different types of films – narratives, documentaries and experimental cinema – and how films function in society to circulate ideas and ideologies. Beyond teaching students how to recognize and describe formal choices and techniques, students will be asked to engage in close readings of films, attending to the greater aesthetic significance and stakes of formal choices and innovations evident within a particular film, directorial oeuvre, period or movement. Understanding form as an extension of content, we will look at the conventions of narrative film, the employment of formal techniques like the close-up, point of view, editing, framing and the use of sound as they function within particular filmic contexts and as they function within film’s systemic languages (like that of continuity editing and genre). Concentrating on questions evoked from early cinema to the present about film’s specificity as an art and technological ability, we will consider the changing role of the spectator in relation to the moving image, how film has evolved technologically, film’s relationship to reality including its reporting and construction of the “real,” as well as how film aesthetics have been employed to build ideology and to break with it.

Instructor: Karen Haely
Designations: AH, SJ
Length: 6 weeks
Schedule: T 10-11:50 am; Th 10-10:50 am

In this course, you will learn to identify and use major ethical theories; central moral principles of bioethics; and approaches to ethical problem-solving and decision-making. This background knowledge will be put to use in the analyses of ethical problems in the healthcare field. In the beginning, we will concentrate on the details of prominent ethical theories as well as get acquainted with the principles of bioethics. In addition, much of the course will focus specifically on the ethical issues particular to clinical healthcare. To aid us in doing this, we will use some videos, case analyses, and some medical narratives to give voice to the patient’s perspective. Throughout the semester we will review and analyze cases to develop skills in reasoning about ethical issues that inevitably occur in the clinical setting. Not open to first-year students.

Instructor: Meg Wrobel
Designations: HSS
Length: 6 weeks
Schedule: TTh 2-3:30

An introduction to the major governmental institutions and processes in the United States, and the political forces that continue to shape them.

Instructor: Michele Leiby
Designations: GE, HSS, SJ
Length: 6 weeks
Schedule: MTWTh 9-10:30am

The violation of human rights remains a grave concern around the world–extralegal detentions at Guantanamo Bay; massive displacement of Syrians; political killings in South Sudan; denationalization and deportation of Haitians in the Dominican Republic, and ongoing humanitarian crises in Gaza, Myanmar, Ukraine, and at the Mexico-U.S. border, to name a few. What motivates governments to violate the rights of their own citizens? Why do armed groups perpetrate war crimes, despite the risk of prosecution? What drives an individual to cross that line, to commit the most egregious violations against a fellow human being? This class prepares students to answer such questions and to think critically about and participate in human rights advocacy.

Instructor: Drew Pasteur
Designations: MNS, QL
Length: 6 weeks
Schedule: MTWThF 9-10am

This is a survey course that explores a broad spectrum of mathematical topics; examples include the search for good voting systems, the development of efficient routes for providing urban services, and the search for fair procedures to resolve conflict. The emphasis is on observing the many practical uses of mathematics in modern society and not on mastering advanced mathematical techniques. This course does not satisfy the prerequisites for further Mathematics courses, nor does it count toward a major or minor. Mathematics majors and minors may take the course only if they have permission of the chair.

Instructor: Grit Herzmann
Designations: HSS, MNS (optional W if enrolled in 20033)
Length: 6 weeks
Schedule: TTh 12-1:30pm

This course will introduce students to neurodiversity, the idea that neurological differences, whether arising from developmental (i.e., Dyslexia, ADHD, Autism) or mental conditions (i.e., Schizophrenia or Tourette’s) should be accepted and valued as natural variations to human brain and behavior. This course will combine synchronous and asynchronous activities including small-group discussions, large-group discussions, students presentations, and lectures with active learning components. Asynchronous activities will include reading of primary literature as well as auto- and biographical essays, watching videos, reflective writing, and experiential learning.

Instructor: Aida Diaz de Leon
Length: 6 weeks
Schedule: MTWF 9:30 – 11:00 am

Oral-aural instruction and practice with grammar, reading, and some writing. Emphasis on practical everyday language for direct communication. Instruction focuses on the cultural meaning of language.

Instructor: Osmer Balam
Length: 6 weeks
Schedule: MTWF 2 to 3:30 pm

Additional oral-aural instruction and continued practice with grammar, reading, and writing. Further emphasis on practical everyday language for communication. Instruction focuses on the cultural meaning of language.

Instructor: Matt Mariola
Length: 6 weeks
Schedule: TTh 9:00 am-noon (This course will meet in person on campus)

Sustainable agriculture is focused on implementing more natural, less environmentally harmful farming practices that build soil fertility and plant resilience while maintaining adequate production levels. The goal of this course is to introduce students to a broad suite of sustainable agriculture principles and practices and to investigate the scientific basis for those practices. Students will learn techniques by actually practicing them in the campus Learning Garden.

Instructor: Tracy Cosgriff
Designations: AH
Length: 4 weeks
Schedule: TTh 10 am-12 pm

The Renaissance is a history of cities and the societies they supported. This course surveys the cities that formed the fabric of early modern culture from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. From courts to republics, to colonial and imperial capitals, we will consider how art, architecture, and urban design supported the diverse social phenomena of the Renaissance world: domestic, political, commercial, and religious. These contexts are explored through case studies like Florence, Rome, and Venice, as well as Paris, Prague, and London; we also consider non-Western examples, including Tenochtitlan, Istanbul, and Isfahan. Using online archives and reconstructions to examine these historical environs, the class introduces a variety of digital tools and culminates in student-led projects using ArcGIS.

Instructor: Elizabeth Schiltz
Designations: AH
Length: 4 weeks
Schedule:  TF 10 – 11:30 AM

Albert Camus asserted that it was through playing soccer that he learned all that he knew “about morality and the obligations of men.” This seminar explores and critically evaluates the nature and value of bodily practices in general, and of sports in particular. What is it to play a sport? Do such practices lead to a useful kind of knowledge – and, if so, what kind, and how? What are teams, and how should we think about the roles of fans, referees, and luck? What is sportsmanship, and why should we care about it?

Instructor: Grit Herzmann
Designations: MNS
Length: 4 weeks
Schedule: MWF 12-2 PM

This course is an introduction to the mammalian nervous system, with emphasis on the structure and function of the human brain. This course will start with discussing the building blocks, the individual cells found in any nervous system. We will then consider how these cells communicate with each other before learning more about the structure of the nervous system as a whole. At the end, we will put these pieces together to learn about some systems (like taste, smell, vision, and more) that the nervous system supports.

Instructor: Terry Reeder
Designations: R/SJ
Length: 4 weeks
Schedule: MWF 7-8:30 PM

We will develop an ethical toolbox for reflection, critical thinking, and decision making on bioethical dilemmas that intersect with religious thoughts and actions. Each week will center on a case study involving religion and bioethics including abortion, scarce medical resources, assisted reproduction, alternative medicine, CRISPR, vaccinations, research with vulnerable populations (including animals), and more. Our orientation will be antiracist feminism.

Instructor: Hamed Goharipour
Designations: HSS
Length: 4 weeks
Schedule: TTh 1:00-3:00 PM

Over 80% of the U.S. population and half of the global population live in urban or suburban areas. While urbanization has driven opportunities for development, creativity, and innovation, cities worldwide face significant challenges. From economics and criminology to arts, culture, climate change, tourism, transportation, social sciences, environmental studies, design, and planning—virtually every field is shaped by the urban context. This course focuses on the issues and crises confronting urban residents, with a particular emphasis on cities and suburbs in the United States.