Course Listings

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-113-01 = GHL-277-01 = HIS-210-01 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.

PSY310-01/NSC310-01 SPECIAL TOPICS: SENSORY TRANSDUCTION. In this course we will explore how our senses translate the external world into neural signals. We will review basic neurophysiological concepts such as ion channels, pores, and G-protein coupled receptors. Then we will apply these to the basic senses of touch, hearing, smell, taste, and sight, plus extra senses including such topics as infrared detection and magnetoreception. This course will build on knowledge gained in lower-division courses, and explore these topics in greater depth. Offered first half of the semester. Pre-requisites: PSY/NSC104/204 OR PSY232 OR PSY233 OR BIO112

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.

PSY310-01 = NSC310-01: SPECIAL TOPICS: SENSORY TRANSDUCTION. In this course we will explore how our senses translate the external world into neural signals. We will review basic neurophysiological concepts such as ion channels, pores, and G-protein coupled receptors. Then we will apply these to the basic senses of touch, hearing, smell, taste, and sight, plus extra senses including such topics as infrared detection and magnetoreception. This course will build on knowledge gained in lower-division courses, and explore these topics in greater depth. Offered first half of the semester. Pre-requisites: PSY/NSC104/204 OR PSY232 OR PSY233 OR BIO112

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

SPA 313: Madness and Violence in Spanish Theatre. Spanish literature has always had a particular fascination with madness. Pablo Neruda famously said: "Hay un cierto placer en la locura, que solo el loco conoce." In fact, the first modern, European novel, Don Quijote (1615) is organized around an exploration of reality vs. psychosis in its eponymous protagonist. Modern Spanish and Latin American theater have also explored similar themes across a variety of characters and contexts. This coming semester, we'll examine the role of madness and its connection to violence in works by Lorca, Artaud, Rodolfo Usigli, Osvaldo Drag n, Griselda Gambaro, and others. We'll be particularly interested in the way that theater facilitates the representation and exploration of ideas and characters that polite society asks us to overlook. Questions of political violence and gender will be of particular concern to us. This short, ½ credit course is for students who have completed or are co-registered in SPA 302.