Global Arc

The piano is a central fixture of European classical and contemporary music, an inheritor of centuries' worth of repertory and performance practice. In the past century, the instrument has amalgamated with various genres and spread to every corner of the world, becoming part of rich and varied musical communities. The seminar will provide a comprehensive understanding of the instrument, covering its design (mechanics, acoustics, and tuning) and the cultural contexts that inspired it, the repertory from the 18th century to the present, recital culture and pedagogy, and recent innovations such as prepared pianos and synthesizers.

What do elephant ivory, pangolin scales, and baby orangutans have in common? They are all major players in the global wildlife trade. From discussions of the origins of COVID-19 to concerns about the extinction of the last white rhinos, the wildlife trade has garnered significant attention worldwide. In this this course we will explore how species have been appropriated as inputs into markets, including as wild meat, pets, medicine, and luxury goods. We will draw on diverse fields such as ecology and anthropology and will apply the tools of systems thinking to analyze the wildlife trade through the lens of conservation science.

This freshman seminar concerns itself with the laws by which fictional female lives are told: narratives by which we anticipate as well as judge--vigilant observers that we are--what is going to happen to her next. A fundamental claim of this course is that dramatic suspense problematically takes momentum from gendered laws and cues: when we see a lightly-clad woman, drenched in blood, stumbling from a highway stop we are conditioned to assume that she has been raped. But what happens when a female director 'disappoints' our narrative expectation because the presumed female victim turns out in fact to have cannibalized a truck driver?

This course overviews the science of composting by covering nutrient cycling (carbon and nitrogen, pollution), soil science (chemistry), microbial ecology, and the food/water/biodiversity/climate grand challenges. Local samples will be used. The course will enhance campus sustainability efforts through student research projects. Students will help the SCRAP lab optimize composting practices (e.g. aerobic biodigestor) to process dining-sourced bioplastics into healthy compost with low C emissions. Student findings will be an integral component of a larger NJ DEP supported project to advance campus recycling goals.

This seminar seeks enchantment in everyday experience, considering the allure and the danger of mixing up life and art. In addition to studying and writing about historical artworks, students will research current-day practice and will complete open-ended creative projects. Experience in any artistic discipline is welcome but is by no means required; more important is a spirit of curiosity and exploration. For our purposes, "art" refers not only to visual art but to a wide variety of creative undertakings that result in performances, objects, rituals, stunts, and other possibilities we will soon discover.

This literature and creative writing-based course considers the rich intersection of poetry, nonfiction, and hybrid creative writing called documentary poetry. Like documentary films, documentary poems make use of primary source materials such as interviews, news articles, diaries, letters, photographs, medical reports, and public records. These works are designed to move your understanding of public events from knowledge of the facts, however complex, to their emotional and philosophical implications. Course requirements include a final 10-page documentary poetry/hybrid project and an oral presentation of the work to the class.

In this course we will be looking at narrative structures that comprise the mechanics of textual and visual storytelling. Whether it is Aristotle's 'Poetics' or Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction', a PC adventure game, or a music video, they share the social and cultural activity of storytelling. From analyzing the art of comic strips and e-books designed for tablets, together we will be not only reading and watching the stories made by others, but also creating the stories of our own. You will try your hand at street photography, shoot a short film, conceptualize a publicity campaign together with your classmates, and much more.

Traditionally art and the sciences have been treated as separate disciplines, but both are systems of understanding and describing the world around us. By studying them together, new possibilities emerge. This course takes a holistic and renaissance view that encourages students to find a creative practice inspired by the concepts and scope of their area of concentration. The approach is interdisciplinary, experimental, and pragmatic, and will facilitate the completion of an interdisciplinary project over the course of the semester while becoming familiar with contemporary research-based work and discourse around STEAM education and practice.

What is a nation, how is it made, and how does it constantly have to be remade? How do ideas about language, race, gender, and culture shape perceptions of the past and understandings of belonging? This course takes Greece as a case study to examine the concepts and tools that go into making a nation. Each week we consider a different resource for nation making, from the use of history and the shaping of ethnicity to sports and food. We also explore the relevance of this study to understanding the U.S. today. Students work towards a final project that educates the public about how works of art contribute to making, or unmaking, the nation.

This course offers, to interested students of any background or worldview, an introduction to how centrals texts and thinkers in the Catholic intellectual tradition explore the central questions about human nature, the good life, and virtue.