Course Sections | Registrar

ASI-112 = HIS-260. Studies in Asian Culture/Topics in Asian History: The Politics of Memory: Tiananmen Square 1989. Who decides how we remember history? In spring 1989 Chinese citizens gathered in Tiananmen Square, peacefully calling for democracy and political reform. In the early hours of June 4, the People's Liberation Army stormed the square with assault rifles and tanks, massacring civilians in its wake. International media coverage produced some of the most iconic images of the twentieth century. Meanwhile, the Chinese government mobilized a decades-long campaign to suppress and censor the events of that spring, resulting in a form of collective amnesia. Thirty years later, the Tiananmen Square Massacre remains a sensitive topic. This course will reflect on how the protests and their aftermath have been remembered and forgotten within China and abroad. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the course will consider sources ranging from government documents and journalistic footage to literature and film to rock music and social media memes.

BLS-280 = HIS-244: African American History. This survey course will cover African American history in the service of illuminating the experiences of Black people in America. The intent of this course is to situate African Americans within of the American democratic experiment. This approach allows for rich discussions of the political, social and cultural production (i.e., the doings and strivings) of Black Americans.

CLA-111-01 = PSC-230-02 Leading Effectively: Ancient and American Lessons. Pericles, Alexander the Great, Cicero, Julius Caesar - these names have lived on as powerful reminders of the debt western civilization owes to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Despite shifts in historical approach, we continue to be fascinated by the "great man" and his impact on the events that have been crucial to the development of our own culture. Even popular media appreciate the attraction, with movies like Spartacus, Alexander, and multiple episodes of the History Channel. One of our chief sources of knowledge about important men of antiquity is Plutarch, a Greek writer living in the Roman Empire (A.D. 46-120). He composed a series of biographies known as the Parallel Lives, in which he pairs a Greek and Roman leader who he thinks are in some way connected. As Plutarch himself says at the beginning of his life of Alexander, his main concern is not so much historical as ethical. He wants to present to readers models of great-hearted men for imitation in their own lives, and for this reason Plutarch's biographies have had a great influence on the personal formation of the educated classes in European and American history. Ralph Waldo Emerson called Plutarch's Lives "a bible for heroes", and before him they were read by the American Founding Fathers, who discovered in these texts many ethical concepts that were to inform their ideas about the creation of a free republic. With a work of secondary scholarship, The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment by C.J. Richard, we will examine this topic in detail. 0.5 credits (half-semester; choose to take it first half or second half of semester)

CLA-111-02 = PSC-230-03 Leading Effectively: Ancient and American Lessons. Pericles, Alexander the Great, Cicero, Julius Caesar - these names have lived on as powerful reminders of the debt western civilization owes to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Despite shifts in historical approach, we continue to be fascinated by the "great man" and his impact on the events that have been crucial to the development of our own culture. Even popular media appreciate the attraction, with movies like Spartacus, Alexander, and multiple episodes of the History Channel. One of our chief sources of knowledge about important men of antiquity is Plutarch, a Greek writer living in the Roman Empire (A.D. 46-120). He composed a series of biographies known as the Parallel Lives, in which he pairs a Greek and Roman leader who he thinks are in some way connected. As Plutarch himself says at the beginning of his life of Alexander, his main concern is not so much historical as ethical. He wants to present to readers models of great-hearted men for imitation in their own lives, and for this reason Plutarch's biographies have had a great influence on the personal formation of the educated classes in European and American history. Ralph Waldo Emerson called Plutarch's Lives "a bible for heroes", and before him they were read by the American Founding Fathers, who discovered in these texts many ethical concepts that were to inform their ideas about the creation of a free republic. With a work of secondary scholarship, The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment by C.J. Richard, we will examine this topic in detail. 0.5 credits (half-semester; choose to take it first half or second half of semester)

CLA-113-02 = GHL-277-02 = HIS-210-02 From Zeus to Zika: A History of Epidemic Disease. Health is a universal concern: everyone gets sick at one time or another and we all seek healers in order to regain or maintain our health. In this way, we are much the same as the ancient Greeks and Romans. Take a journey through time to see what tools and methods the Greeks and Romans used to treat diseases that fell upon large populations (epidemic diseases), what these diseases were, and how the epidemics themselves and medical approaches to them have changed with new discoveries. Along the way, we'll study plagues in Athens and Rome, the Black Death of the Middle Ages, cholera outbreaks in nineteenth-century London, and contemporary epidemics like AIDS and Zika. Students will engage the material through discussion, presentations, short written assignments, and quizzes. This course is required for the Global Health minor.

CLA-211 = ENG 109 The Golden Ass: Apuleius and the Ancient Novel. This course is dedicated to our only complete Latin novel, a comic and sometimes quite bawdy tale originally entitled Metamorphoses, but more commonly known by the name St. Augustine uses for it, The Golden Ass. Written by Lucius Apuleius, a Neo-Platonic philosopher who was born in North Africa under Roman rule, the story recounts the experiences of a hapless man, who while experimenting with magic accidentally turns himself into a donkey. The novel traces the wild adventures of the narrator-who, like the author, is named Lucius-as he experiences the Roman Empire from a literally asinine perspective. Ultimately, things turn serious, as Lucius regains human form through initiation into the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis. The Golden Ass thus grants opportunities for reading an entertaining work of literature, but also for learning and thinking about many different realms of Roman life (religion, slavery, spectacle, etc.) as well as for thinking about genre and influence. Like epic, history, tragedy and comedy, the novel was also an ancient invention, and scholars are now renewing study on Apuleius' manipulation of genres. Moreover, embedded within The Golden Ass is a long excursus containing one of the most famous tales of antiquity, the erotic story of Cupid and Psyche, which was widely known and influential from the Renaissance to the 19th century. We can trace its influence on authors like Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Flaubert. No background in Classics is necessary, merely a willingness to dive into this curious book and the fascinating culture that produced it.

ECO-221: Economics of the European Union* The course includes a variety of topics related to current economic policy and institutional arrangements in the EU, ranging from labor markets and common monetary policy to international trade policy and challenges of growth. The goal of this class is to develop a deeper understanding of the economic structure and policies of the European Union (EU). Additionally, the class will help students to become familiar with some data sources for information about the EU. Finally, economic policy is done in the cultural, historical, and social context of individual countries; therefore, some of this context will be included in class. The regular in-class approach will be complemented with an immersion trip to visit EU institutions, such as the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, and the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany. This course requires concurrent registration for PSC 322: Politics of the European Union. Immersion trip; Registration through the instructor only. Take

EDU-330 = MAS-330: In this course students study issues related to urban education; in some years it may culminate with an immersion trip in May during the week between finals and graduation. For Spring 2019 the course will NOT include an immersion trip but will incorporate digital pedagogies, speakers, and/or field trips in our study of contemporary approaches to urban education in the U.S. In addition to considering the needs and challenges of urban communities and their schools, we will examine the growing use of alternative licensure programs such as Teach For America (TFA) to provide teachers for high-needs urban school districts across the country. Credits: 0.5

EDU-370 = HIS-300-03 = MAS-371: Colonial & Postcolonial Education. This course takes a postcolonial perspective to examine the ways in which colonial systems of education have been envisioned and implemented as tools for cultural expansion and imperialism. We will consider these broad themes in relation to the specific experiences of selected writers from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, with particular attention to the educational colonization of the indigenous peoples of North America in the "Indian Schools" of the U.S. and Canada. During the second half of the course, students will conduct independent research into a culture or region of their choice.

ENG-107 = HSP 107 - History in Drama- "Race, Resistance, and Revolt in Drama." This course will include some musical theatre and opera and will focus on Latinx drama of the circum-Caribbean. This course will consider theatre as a site of resistance and a primary space in which the nation was being (re)constructed and (re)developed often largely based around issues of race and ethnicity. We'll begin with Inkle and Yarico (1787) which tells the story of an English soldier shipwrecked with an Indian maiden, move to the continent with Beethoven's Fidelio (1805) set with the French Revolution as a backdrop. Then we'll investigate Verdi's Nabuco (1841), which makes a clear analogy between the Jews under Babylonian rule to the Italians under Austro-Hungarian rule. The course will contrast European revolutions with revolutions in the Americas to investigate ideas of nationhood, citizenship, race, belonging, and identity. Other likely plays will include Jose Marti's Abdala (Cuba, 1869), Alejandro Tapia y Rivera's La cuarterona ("The Quadroon," 1867 Spain, 1877 Puerto Rico), and Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit (U.S., 1979).

ENG-160: African-American Environmental Literature. While environmental literature is often associated with white authors like Henry David Thoreau and John Muir, this course builds upon a growing body of scholarship in Black Studies and the Environmental Humanities that sees environmental concerns as important to the experiences and culture of African Americans. In the course, we will read authors like Phillis Wheatley, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Percival Everett, and Octavia Butler to explore the unique contributions black authors have made to the development of environmental consciousness in the U.S., including their recognition of ways that social and environmental issues are often intertwined for African Americans and other minorities. We will also identify aspects of environmental thought in the work of black musicians, filmmakers, scientists, and activists.

ENG 180-01: Science and Speculative Fiction. In "Science and Speculative Fiction," we will analyze the social, historical, and political contexts for such themes as time travel, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, alien invasion, and biological interdependence. We will read fiction by H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, and others, as well as graphic novels. The movies will include Metropolis, the Matrix trilogy, and District 9.

English 180-02 = ART-210: Comics and Graphic Novels. Dismissed once as kids fare or shrugged off as sub-literate-"in the hierarchy of applied arts," Art Spiegelman once wrote, comic books surpass only "tattoo art and sign painting"-comics today are enjoying their Renaissance. In 2015, comics and graphic novel sales topped $1 billon, a 20-year high. Award-winning fiction writers now moonlight for Marvel (Roxanne Gay, Ta-Nehisi Coates) or pen essays on Peanuts (Jonathan Franzen). Superheroes dominate the big screen. In this class, we'll explore a deceptively simple medium as it develops-like a teen bit by a radioactive spider-a whole host of special abilities. We'll use Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, a critical text that is itself a comic, to become smart readers of sequential art. We'll use Hillary Chute's new book, Why Comics? From Underground to Everywhere, to ask why comics so frequently explore sex, the suburbs, disaster, and superheroes. Readings might include Moore and Gibbons's The Watchmen, Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, the Hernandez Brothers' Love and Rockets, Spiegelman's Maus, and/or works by Lynda Barry, Daniel Clowes, Phoebe Gloeckner, Harvey Pekar, R. Crumb, and Chris Ware. The course is open to all students; underclassmen are encouraged to enroll. There will be capes and tights.

English 310: Studies in Literary Genres: Autobiography, Biography and Memoir. What is the purpose of a given life story, and what are the implications of a writer's choices to omit or to include certain details? When do authors' choices cross the line between truth and deception, or tend too much toward hagiography or slander? This course will examine literary theories of "life writing"-that is, how authors choose to craft an autobiography, biography, or memoir. Our readings will sample widely from the genres of life writing, by or about subjects including Benjamin Franklin, Harriet Jacobs, Henry James, Alison Bechdel, and God.

FRE-377 = BLS-300-02 = ENG-360: Magical Realism in African Literature. This course will explore the writings of Ben Okri, Syl Cheney-Coker, Kojo Laing and Sony Labou Tansi. To these writers, the intense and rapid movement of individuals and goods experienced in Africa with globalization has challenged consciousness on the continent. While appreciative of the increased connectivity created by globalization, they also see it as a cause of disquieting excesses in modern Africa, and utilize magical realism to account for this social and cultural phenomenon. We will then be working with complex narratives that vacillate between the real and surreal, the normal and the abnormal, the ordinary and the extraordinary, the global and the local, the new and the old. Some of our main objectives will be to identify if Okri, Cheney-Coker, Laing and Tansi's works vary from the magical writings found in Latin America, if they translate the change unfolding in contemporary Africa well, and if there are precedents in African literature that might have inspired their writings. Class is open to all, and will meet on TTR from 1:10 to 2:25. Students taking it for a French credit will read, discuss and write about the texts in French. For students seeking French credit, FRE-301 and FRE-302 are prerequisites. Please contact Prof. Pouille (pouillea@wabash.edu) for any question (s).

HIS-200: Empires and Cultures of the "Middle East." This course surveys the history of the region from Morocco to Iran (and beyond), called variously the Near East, the Middle East, North Africa, the Maghreb, Al Jazeera . . . from the origins of Islamic Arabia to the modern post-colonial period. A focus on empire will take us from Persia and Byzantium to Britain, with our main focus on the Arabic and Ottoman empires of the medieval and modern period, including Muhammed and the Arabic conquests andcolonization of the region. We will consider the links between the "Middle East" that we know of today and these ancient regional empires as well as the cultural blend that comes to be called "Middle Eastern," which we'll explore via food and film as well as history. 1 Credit, No prerequisites.

His 220: Topics in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Specific title: Europe 1400-1800. This class will examine a crucial period in European history during which a relatively traditional agrarian society went "off the rails", transitioning into something susceptible to industrialization. We will look at this history from a number of different historiographical perspectives, in effect covering the period 1400-1800 as social history, then economic history, then political-military history, then cultural history.

HIS 240/340-01 = ENG 270 = MAS 244 = BLS-300-01: The History and Politics of Hip-Hop (can be taken as a 300-level History seminar with instructor approval). "You know what's gonna happen with Hip-Hop? Whatever's happening with us" If we smoked out, Hip-Hop is gonna be smoked out If we doin alright, Hip-Hop is gonna be doin' alright .So the next time you ask yourself where Hip-Hop is goin' ask yourself.. where am I goin? How am I doin? -Mos Def, "Fear Not Of Man." This course will examine hip hop as cultural, social, and political history. It will explore the political and aesthetic foundations of hip-hop cultural practices including music, dance, visual art, literature, performance, and protest. Particular attention is given to the sociopolitical and economic conditions and context from which hip-hop culture originates incorporating notions of race, class, gender, and identity. The course will pay particular attention to how hip-hop engages gender and notions of the masculine/feminine. This course is team-taught, and students will benefit from a dual approach to hip-hop that includes academic study and experiential learning. Course sources will combine primary and secondary source documents, including artistic, personal, audio and video sources, that encourage critical inquiry and engagement with defining issues of historical significance in the development of hip-hop culture. Students who elect to take the course as HIS 340 will be expected to write a seminar-length term paper in addition to other coursework.

HIS-300-01: World Medical History. In this course students will read about developments in medical history from Ancient Greece to the present. Primarily a readings course in medical history, students will begin by considering early interpretations of the human body and illness. Students will also read about the four humors (the fluids thought to control or create all dis-ease in the body), early modern "quackery" (treatments thought to cure illness, not based in a solid understanding of the body), outbreaks of diseases such as syphilis and Ebola, and the development of medical science and research. There is no prerequisite for the course. However, students should be ready for a Wabash work load that will include several short papers and one longer paper at the end of the semester. There will be no in-class exams.

HSP 107 = ENG-107 - History in Drama - "Race, Resistance, and Revolt in Drama." This course will include some musical theatre and opera and will focus on Latinx drama of the circum-Caribbean. This course will consider theatre as a site of resistance and a primary space in which the nation was being (re)constructed and (re)developed often largely based around issues of race and ethnicity. We'll begin with Inkle and Yarico (1787) which tells the story of an English soldier shipwrecked with an Indian maiden, move to the continent with Beethoven's Fidelio (1805) set with the French Revolution as a backdrop. Then we'll investigate Verdi's Nabuco (1841), which makes a clear analogy between the Jews under Babylonian rule to the Italians under Austro-Hungarian rule. The course will contrast European revolutions with revolutions in the Americas to investigate ideas of nationhood, citizenship, race, belonging, and identity. Other likely plays will include Jose Marti's Abdala (Cuba, 1869), Alejandro Tapia y Rivera's La cuarterona ("The Quadroon," 1867 Spain, 1877 Puerto Rico), and Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit (U.S., 1979).

MAT 106-01 - Topics in Contemporary Mathematics - (Fun) Modern Topics in Mathematics. How can there be infinitely many sizes of infinity? Is there an easy way to tell which knots are just twists that be undone without untying, and which are true knots? What is the math behind public key cryptography? (Can you imagine sharing publicly how to code a message, and imagine no one besides you could decode messages, even with the fastest computers?) Did you know there is still development in the theory of probability for complex situations involving partial information (such as diagnosing a disease or locating a lost airplane)? These questions have in common that they touch on some of the most profound mathematics of our day and that they reveal the depth and beauty of mathematical thinking. Fun inquiry-based learning in this course emphasizes discovery and makes these topics accessible. This course does not count toward the mathematics major or minor. It will count toward the mathematics and science distribution or the quantitative studies requirements. Prerequisites: None

MAT 106-02 - Topics in Contemporary Mathematics - Mathematics of Games and Sports. In this course, we examine applications of mathematics in games, sports, and gambling. Students will learn topics such as discrete probability, statistics, and counting arguments through analyzing dice games, card games, batting averages, and mathematical games such as Sudoku and Nim. This course does not count toward the mathematics major or minor. It will count toward the mathematics and science distribution or the quantitative studies requirements. Prerequisites: None

MAT 277-01: Spherical Trigonometry. Spherical trigonometry is an adaptation of planar trigonometry to the unique and non-Euclidean geometry of the sphere. This course will cover: the history of the subject, ranging from ancient Greek to medieval Arabic to modern European views; applications to astronomy and navigation; the relationship to Napier's work on logarithms; and computational techniques for solving problems both with and without modern electronic calculators. Students will also learn to work with slide-rules, sextants, magnetic compasses, nautical almanacs, and trigonometric tables. The course will occasionally meet at night or away from campus. Pre-requisite: C- in MAT112, MAT223 or higher placement, or permission of instructor

PHI 219-01 = PSC 230-04: Topics in Ethics & Social Philosophy: Sovereignty, Territory, Borders. The concept of sovereignty that arises in early modernity can be described as the supreme authority in a territory. In a modern nation state, sovereign authority secures the relationship between the reigning political order and a territory defined by borders. Yet in our era, the status of sovereignty as the dominant form of political community remains uncertain. On the one hand, the rise of international organizations and the transnational flow of capital, labor, refugees, and violence diminish the central importance of the nation state, leading some theorists to foresee a post-sovereign future. On the other hand, hardened borders, harsh immigration policies, and protectionist trade practices seek to reassert national sovereignty. This course will examine the ambiguous status of sovereignty from a historical and a contemporary perspective. After studying some early modern theorists of sovereignty, we will then consider what happens to political space when the relationship between political order and bounded territory begins to break down. This critical consideration of sovereign authority will then open a discussion of new ways to negotiate borders and inhabit political space. One Course Credit, No Prerequisites

PHI 249-01: Topics in History of Philosophy: Medieval Philosophy. Medieval philosophers drew on ancient philosophical arguments to systematize and offer rational support for the Abrahamic religions of Judiasm, Christianity and Islam. Drawing mainly on Aristotle and Plato and their followers, medieval philosophers apply ancient thinking to religious texts to transform both. This course will examine the central debates of medieval philosophy by contextualizing them in the religious commitments and conflicts that motivated the debates. For example, Christian thinkers were asked to explain how the Eucharistic bread on the altar could become the body of Christ during the consecration if the Body of Christ had ascended to heaven and two bodies cannot be in the same place at once. To answer this question, philosophers like Aquinas, Giles of Rome, Duns Scotus and Ockham argue over what changes - is it the substance, the accidents, or the place of the bread? Similarly, arguments about the immortality of the soul become for medieval philosophers questions about the existence of universals and the causes of individuation of particular substances. This course will examine these and similar questions with an eye to how the debates were motivated by religious concerns. Throughout the course, we will consider the relationship between reason and faith in coming to understand the world on the one hand with those who thought reason alone was sufficient for knowledge and all across the spectrum to those who thought that without faith no one could fully understand the world. Students interested in philosophy or religion should take this course. One Course Credit; No Prerequisites

PHI 319-01: Seminar in Ethics & Social Philosophy: Bioethics. Controversies in bioethics have become a regular part of contemporary life. We are in the midst of a biological and technological revolution that raises interesting and important ethical and philosophical questions: When does life begin? How do we define death? What life is worth living, who decides, and how? When is experimentation on humans justified? Should we allow a free market in human organs, tissues, genes? Should we use new technologies for human enhancement? What does it mean to suffer from disease and disability? What is a good relationship between a patient and caregivers? How can we provide a just distribution of health-care resources? We will consider these and other questions in a seminar discussion format. One Course Credit, Recommended Prerequisites: (i) some background in biology (e.g. BIO 101) AND (ii) one prior course in philosophy or completion of Enduring Questions.

PHY 278: Computational Physics ½ CR. Students in this course will learn to use Python to model physical systems. Topics to be explored will include finite difference and spectral methods to model complex systems, the origin of chaotic behavior and in physical models, and numerical solutions to linear systems.

PSC-210-01 = HIS-240-02: The Courts and Democracy. After twice electing an African American President, do we no longer need laws protecting minority voters? Is requiring photo id or eliminating expanded voter hours intended to discriminate against minority and poor voters? Or are they legitimate means to prevent voter fraud? May one party draw electoral districts to disadvantage the other party? May we limit how much corporations and wealthy individuals contribute to campaigns? Did the Supreme Court have the authority to decide the 2000 presidential election? This course will focus on who should answer these types of questions. Are unelected judges qualified to supervise elections? Can we trust those who must win elections to supervise them fairly? This course will explore that debate and examine how it has helped shape the last fifty years of American history.

Citizenship in Dystopia: Political Theory in Fiction and Film. Using short stories, science fiction, film, and political theory, the class will explore imagined dystopian futures, examining what they have to say about contemporary debates. Questions to consider include: How are governments organized to repress human action? Does ever increasing technological development, enforced equality, and eugenic selection limit individual freedom? How can the human spirit aspire to greatness in the midst of forces, whether political or social, dragging it down? This course counts toward the Film and Digital Media minor.

Political Science 314: Civil Liberties in War and Peace. This course will explore how well (or poorly) the Supreme Court has protected the civil liberties of those we fear most: those who challenge our most deeply held beliefs; those suspected of violent crime; and those accused of waging war against us. Should we protect speech even if it is racist, terrorist or otherwise offensive? For example, should we permit people to protest at military funerals? Should we exclude evidence that would convict a rapist because it was obtained without a Miranda warning? Should we extend to terrorists the due process of law they are seeking to destroy? For example, should suspected terrorists get jury trials? Can we try suspected terrorists if the evidence against them was extracted through torture? And can we detain terrorists without trial if we currently lack evidence but believe that they will attack us if we release them? Debating such questions will help us understand the nature and purpose of civil liberties and the role of courts in enforcing them. Prerequisite: Open to Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors

REL 273-01-Augustine: Philosophy and Theology. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is the most influential figure in the history of Christianity in the last sixteen hundred years. His legacy is (usually proudly) claimed by Protestant and Roman Catholics alike. This course will read his masterpiece Confessions, as well as selections of his philosophical writings. He is a major figure in the development of Platonism, so the class will also learn about Plato's philosophy as it was useful to Christianity. Course offered first half of the semester.½ course credit. No prerequisites

REL 273-02 -Thomas Aquinas: Philosophy and Theology. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) is the most important medieval theologian and philosopher. His work integrated classical Christian beliefs with the newest philosophy and science available at the time: Aristotle's recently re-discovered thought. This seminar will read excerpts from Thomas' Summa Theologicarelated to the nature and existence of God, evil, human action, sacraments and grace. Course offered second half of the semester. ½ course credit. No prerequisites.

REL-275 = MAS-275: Topics in Religion and Philosophy: "Dancing on the Bridge": Diversity, Religion, and the Liberal Arts. How, in a global-digital world, do we bridge the gap between people of widely divergent backgrounds? Between diverse religions? Cultures? Races? Ethnicities? Worldviews? Should we aim for tolerance? Acceptance? Understanding? Should we learn from them, in the manner of a humanist? Should we learn about them, in the manner of a scientist or scholar? Should we try to deconstruct hidden prejudices? How? Why? These are basic liberal-arts questions. In this course, we will build a model for negotiating diversity based on "play" and the "work of art." We will use tools drawn from "hermeneutics," or the art and theory of interpretation. Case studies will be drawn from religion, art, music, philosophy, law, history, and anthropology. Texts will include Hans-Georg Gadamer's Truth and Method, as well as selections from Kant, Voltaire, Geertz, Z.Z. Packer, Appiah, Turkle, and others. 1 course credit. Prerequisite: none.

Rel-280-01: Topics in American Religion: Sects and Cults in America. This course investigates the beliefs and practices of new, marginal, and dissenting American religious groups, which are often labeled "sects" or "cults." We will draw upon the sociology of religion to understand these terms and new religious movements and reformist groups in general. Primarily, we will focus on the history, theology, and practices of groups such as Mormons, Pentecostals, Branch Davidians, the Peoples Temple, and Scientology. One course credit. No prerequisites.

REL-296 = HUM-296: Parables in Jewish and Christian Traditions. This discussion-based course examines the parable as a distinctive literary form employed by Jews and Christians to engage moral and theological truths. Parabolic stories are imaginative word images used to deepen and disrupt conventional theological and moral perceptions. The course investigates how parables work as language and story, who employs them and for what purpose, how readers deploy and defend against them, and why religious traditions worth their salt both need and resist them. Among the ancient and modern Jewish and Christian parablers studied are Jesus and the Gospel writers, the Rabbis and Hasidim, Kierkegaard and Kafka, Wiesel, Buber, Fackenheim, and Crossan. We also examine the visual parables of Holocaust survivor and painter Samuel Bak and the film "Fight Club." The course engages in the study of literature, language, Jewish and Christian theology, art, film, and religious responses to the Holocaust.

REL-298-01 = SOC-298-01: 298 Sociology of Religion. This seminar focuses on the history and methods of sociology as applied to the study of religion. In exploring the interaction between religion and society, the course will have two main components: first, we will examine major sociological theories of religion; and second, we will apply them to an examination of religion among teenagers and emerging adults in the United States today. One course credit. No prerequisites.

REL-298-01 = SOC-298-01: Sociology of Religion. This seminar focuses on the history and methods of sociology as applied to the study of religion. In exploring the interaction between religion and society, the course will have two main components: first, we will examine major sociological theories of religion; and second, we will apply them to an examination of religion among teenagers and emerging adults in the United States today. One course credit. No prerequisites.

SPA-277: Ecuador. In his evaluation of the first Ecuadorian novel,Cumandáby Juan León Mera, Angel Porras wrote: "The importance of this first narrative model [in Ecuador] resides not only in its status as the country's inaugural novel, but also for having synthesized almost all the themes that constitute the core philosophy of Hispanic American Romanticism." These themes include history and politics. But they also include topics like biology, geography, religion, ethics, and gender. The 2019 Ecuador Program will take as its main focus the country's late colonial and independence periods. We'll use the novel as a virtual starting point to explore all the issues that constitute Hispanic American Romanticism. And then, after our .5 credit course this coming spring, we'll travel together to the country of Ecuador and its capital, Quito, which will become the actual starting point of a journey to retrace the steps of the novel, from the volcanoes above Ambato to the upper reaches of the Amazon rainforest and basin. During the last weeks of May and the first part of June, students will study Spanish at a University in Ecuador, live with host families, and then travel to the Amazon with Wabash faculty and indigenous guides. Prior approval and a completed application are required for this Immersion trip. The course is open to any student not yet in his senior year who has completed at least Spanish 202 prior to the Spring semester. However, preference will be given to applicants who have completed coursework at the 300 level. Immersion trip; Regitsration through instructor only.

THE-209 = MAS-215: DRAMATURGY. Dramaturgy is the understanding, analysis, and support of the structure and core movement in a script which makes it function to optimum effect in production. In this class, we will delve into The Pitmen Painters and The African Company Presents Richard III, Theater's spring productions. We begin with basic analysis-action, character, structure, theme, motif-and then investigate historical, socio-political, and theoretical contexts. In consultation with the directors and actors, focus will be given to applying analysis and research to performance. Pedagogical tools will include discussion, in-class projects, written assignments, and public displays of dramaturgical product.

THE-303: NEW YORK CITY ON STAGE AND SCREEN. From Lincoln Center to the Astor Place Opera House, from the Disney mega-musicals of Broadway to edgy one-person shows in the East Village, New York City has shaped American performance culture since the founding of the Republic. The objective of this course is to examine and experience the vast array of performance offerings of the City, a rich and perpetually-changing tapestry of theater, film, dance, opera, and performance art. We will also reflect on the ways in which New York City itself exists as a site of performance, both literally and symbolically. In this course, the student will study the history of New York performance, the distinctive theater and film industries and cultures of New York, and "the current season." We will also learn about the world of New York theatrical criticism, and become critics ourselves. Through research papers, short critical essays, presentations, and an immersion trip, students will engage with New York City as a center of national and global performance culture. Immersion trip; Registration through instructor only.