Global Arc

Introduction to the amazingly varied history of premodern Hebrew book production through a hands-on collaborative project: researching, cataloguing, and curating a digital exhibit from Princeton's Judaica collections. Learn how to draw historical evidence from writing materials, bindings, scripts, layouts, illuminations, and notes left in manuscripts by their scribes, owners, and readers. Class meets in Firestone's Special Collections and includes field trips to Columbia's Butler Library and the Jewish Theological Seminary. Knowledge of Hebrew is not required.

What can the supernatural tell us about the past? Historians have often disregarded stories of the supernatural as they strive towards a positivist reading of the past. But thinking about the supernatural can reveal a lot about societies' anxieties about gender, sexuality, race, class, power. In this course, we will focus on narratives surrounding the supernatural in the Middle East, looking at astrology to genies and everything in between, from the premodern period to the present day. Together, we will consider various forms of media that reveal how ideas about the supernatural reflect historical norms, debates, and changes over time.

Brains are often compared to computers because much of their work involves making computations about the world they live in: measuring and encoding features of the environment through the senses, making predictions about the world based on those observations, and sending motor commands to behave and interact with that world and its other inhabitants. In this introductory, laboratory-based neuroscience course, you will learn about how the brain performs these computations, conduct neuroscience experiments exploring invertebrate and human physiology and behavior, and develop skills in quantitatively analyzing the data you collect.

Among the deepest mysteries in neuroscience are the questions of how brain activity results in conscious awareness and to what extent our actions are truly free. Students may be surprised to learn how much modern neuroscience has to say on these topics. We will rigorously define these phenomena and discuss results from neuroscience. We will describe recent theories about the function of major brain divisions like the neocortex, thalamus, and basal ganglia as well as relevant circuits in the hypothalamus and tegmentum. We will synthesize knowledge of these brain circuits to explore new theories of conscious awareness and volition.

The senior thesis (498-499) is a year-long project in which students complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. While a year-long thesis is due in the student's final semester of study, the work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the academic year.

The senior thesis (498-499) is a year-long project in which students complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. While a year-long thesis is due in the student's final semester of study, the work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the academic year.

This course explores the process by which the human brain and all of its cells and connections emerge and develop. Through discussion-based seminars, we traverse major developmental events of the brain, tracing development at prenatal and postnatal stages through the protracted stages of young adulthood and aging. Insights into basic mechanisms of brain development come from animal models, but recent technological advancements, from molecular tools to neuroimaging, enable studies of human brain maturation directly. We examine how brain development is related to evolution, and how typical and atypical development influences behavior.

The purpose of this seminar course is to explore brain function through the lens of food. Why do we get hungry? How do we search for food? Why do we like some tastes and not others? What is the relationship between what we eat and our cognitive function or even our cognitive evolution? We will learn about the life-essential functions of obscure neural circuits and the more obscure processes of commonly known neural circuits. Over the course of the semester, we will move from neuropeptides to cooking culture; from gut-brain interactions via microbes to the importance of teeth on our neuroanatomy.

In this course, we will walk through the brain, highlighting the intrinsic link between structure and function. At the cellular level, we will discuss how neurons generate action potentials and communicate across synapses. In the visual system, we will explore neural circuits and higher levels of processing. We will examine the other senses, and how we move through the world, and discuss more complex topics like sleep and memory. This class will implore you to learn the language of science. As we read and discuss academic papers, students will learn to interpret findings, imagine experiments, and communicate their thoughts effectively.

This course will consider how drugs affect the nervous system with a focus on cellular and molecular mechanisms. Both therapeutic and recreational drugs, as well as the intersection between the two, will be considered. The course will begin with basic pharmacological principles followed by an introduction to drug targets in the brain. Following this, each week will focus on a different class of brain signaling molecules in the context of drug effects.