Global Arc

Spanish artists created some of the most startling and seductive art of the early modern era. Their images of heroic bodies, ecstatic faces, and rotting fruits continue to shape Spanish culture today. Examined closely, they reveal the artists' subjectivity and the limits of art to represent the real. In this course, students will discover a universe of radical naturalism, intense religiosity, and sharp social criticism, and engage with debates about art and identity. Hands-on study of paintings, sculpture, prints, and drawings will be carried out in the Princeton University Art Museum.

An introduction to the rich journalistic traditions and creative non-fiction of the Spanish-speaking world. Students engage with high-quality reporting and essayistic writing from across Spain, Latin America, and the Caribbean, analyzed in their historical and cultural context, while practicing diverse genres, including news articles, event reports, letters to the editor, visual essays, and zines. As students transition from general language study to advanced academic and professional Spanish, we aim to build precision, stylistic control, and argumentative clarity, as well as strengthen research skills.

Most of us spend hours of our days talking with other people. So what makes interview and survey research different from those everyday conversations? And how do social scientists turn their conversational data into revolutionary research discoveries? This seminar will empower sophomores to find their own answers to those questions-while learning project management skills key to independent work success, expanding their networks on (and beyond!) Princeton's campus, and transforming a genuine personal passion into an intellectually and socially impactful research project.

Most of us spend hours of our days reading and learning from the written word. So what makes social scientific methods for textual analysis different from those everyday engagements? And how do scholars transform their raw research discoveries into impactful public-facing products? This seminar will empower sophomores to answer those questions while learning project management skills key to independent work success, expanding their networks on (and beyond!) Princeton's campus, and transforming a genuine personal passion into an intellectually and socially impactful research project.

Sure, the latest issue of Nature is filled with thrilling scientific discoveries - but how do researchers dream up these exciting projects? How can undergraduate students move from textbook knowledge into innovative research questions? And what can scientists at all levels do with our findings once we have them? Entry into the world of original STEM research can seem daunting: this seminar will empower sophomores with strategies to develop novel research questions big and small, design and evaluate methods for answering those questions, and make scientific discoveries more widely accessible.

Archives hold humanity's history - or at least some of it. So what is stored in archives? How do humanities scholars discover fascinating objects, learn from them, and publicize their new knowledge? This seminar demystifies research students might undertake in Firestone's Special Collections, empowering sophomores to pursue archival projects inspired by their intellectual interests. Through conducting a project in Special Collections, students discover possible pathways for future independent work, cultivate networks of mentors and collaborators, and share their research to reach communities within and beyond the orange bubble.

How often have we walked by the rejected Picasso behind Spelman or hopped on the Dinky without a second thought to its presence on campus? Research in psychology, architecture, and environmental science indicates that understanding one's surroundings leads to a happier life, yet we are so busy doing Princeton work that we miss the opportunity to analyze how campus influences our experiences or how the institutional makeup structures our learning. This seminar invites students to explore Princeton as a material archive and trains them in field-based methods for data-driven research in support of an independent project of their own design.

Over the next several decades environmental sustainability will be a major challenge for engineers and society to overcome. This course is an introduction to environmental biotechnology focusing on how the applications of biotechnologies are impacting sustainability efforts in a variety of sectors including water systems, food and chemical production, and infrastructure construction. This course will provide a broad background in biological design concepts across scales from molecules to ecosystems, how bioengineering enables the design of new biotechnologies, and the ethical implications of engineering biology for use in the environment.

The course presents the fundamentals of wave propagation in structures and materials with special emphasis on an emerging class of structural systems known as acoustic or elastic metamaterials. The course blends theory, simulations and laboratory testing to bridge between the fundamentals of wave mechanics and the creativity-driven design principles of metamaterials engineering. The theory section is presented through an intuitive, yet rigorous approach that combines physical arguments and mathematical modeling. To enhance concept retention, the concepts are visualized by numerical simulations and selected laboratory demonstrations.

Students will navigate the complexities of urban water and wastewater infrastructure design. Students will apply concepts from process engineering, energy analysis, economics, climate resilience, and life cycle assessment to problem sets and two design projects inspired by real-world scenarios. Assignments will cover the entire project lifecycle, and will explore the different constraints encountered in new ("greenfield") facilities vs. upgrading of existing facilities. Schedule permitting, it will include perspectives from public and/or private sector guest speakers and a field trip to water / wastewater treatment facility.