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This interdisciplinary course situates the study of Black lives, known interchangeably as African American Studies, Black Studies, Africana Studies, or African Diaspora Studies, within the context of ongoing struggles against anti-Black racism. We will explore the founding principles and purposes of the field, the evolution of its imperatives, its key debates, and the lives and missions of its progenitors and practitioners. In doing so we will survey, broadly and deeply, the diverse historical, political, social, cultural, religious/spiritual, and economic experiences and expressions of the African Diaspora in the Americas and beyond.

This is a topics course covering topics in advanced inorganic chemistry. Prerequisites: CHEM 231 and 242 or permission of the instructor

What makes one Jewish? Is it a matter of religion, ethnicity, race, nationality, culture, or kinship? Or, conversely, is being Jewish a symbolic, universal identity, associated with any person or collective that encounters persecution and dispossession? Must a Jew be religious? Must a Jew be a Zionist? Can a Jewish person be antisemitic? Can one choose to be Jewish, or not? In the modern world, with the emergence of both secularization and religious fundamentalism, internationalism and nation-states, capitalism and communism, the primary marker of Jew or Jewish as a member of a stateless, marginalized minority has undergone a fundamental revision. This course brings together historical and literary narratives that strive to answer these and related questions. We will engage myriad voices, Jewish and non-Jewish — including your own. Traversing three hundred years of Jewish history, we will encounter communities, individuals, and collectives across Europe, North America, the Middle East, North Africa, and Israel/Palestine. We aim to recognize not only the multiplicity of Jewish identities, but how such identities can be amalgamated, negotiated, and reformed in different historical and cultural contexts.

Philosophers have often cherished reason as the most important and illustrious human capability. This can be seen already in Aristotle's definition of the human being as the animal with a rational function but comes especially to the fore among early-modern philosophers, for whom reason is the wellspring of progress, virtue, and enlightenment. Even according to tradition, however, human beings are characterized by at least two other essential powers: we have a power of reason, but we also have distinctly human powers of feeling (i.e., sensation and emotion) and will (i.e., volition and action). In this course, we will investigate one of the most creative and exciting eras in the history of philosophy-the philosophy of 19th-century Germany-focusing on the debate concerning the hierarchy of the human faculties.

Champions of science claim that, in addition to being our best source of truth and our most effective lever for progress, science is also a crucial aid to good governance. For the past century, scientists — in the role of "experts" — have helped to shape public policy in the United States. Both early advocates for and contemporary defenders of this model argue that the objectivity of science makes it especially well-suited to democratic societies, in which it is essential that policy decisions not reflect the interests or prejudices of any one group. However, recent debates (e.g., about social equity, climate change, and vaccine safety) have surfaced questions about just how democratic science and scientific governance really are. 

This course presents an alternative vision of Russia's cultural legacy with a focus on queer writing, film, and art from the early nineteenth century to the present day. We consider key moments in this history by examining texts that explore what it has meant to be queer in Russia under different regimes with various levels of tolerance, while centering their power as works of protest art, personal expression, and creative exploration and experimentation. We’ll have a couple guest speakers coming to class + delivering public lectures/readings.

This course will explore the multiple ways trauma impacts both mind and body. Using Bessel VanderKirk's text, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma, and various other academic sources, the course will focus on trauma-informed theory, the brain-mind-body connection, and how the mind-body balance can help reduce the impact of trauma and heal from it. The course will also provide an overview of various mind-body therapeutic modalities used to treat trauma.

A sound-design focused theater workshop, this course will result in the performance of a radio play the students and instructor will create together over the course of the semester. Shannon Zura, a well-respected sound, lighting, and scenic designer who works across the Philadelphia region and beyond, will be teaching the course. Students will explore the relationship between sound and storytelling as they learn about sound design, computer-based sound creation tools, the production of Foley sound effects, voice acting and performance, and more.