AA 108N:
Surviving Space
Space is dangerous. Anything we put into orbit has to survive the intense forces experienced during launch, extreme temperature changes, impacts by cosmic rays and energetic protons and electrons, as well as hits by human-made orbital debris and meteoroids. If we venture beyond Earth's sphere of influence, we must also then endure the extreme plasma environment without the protection of our magnetic field. With all of these potential hazards, it is remarkable that our space program has experienced so few catastrophic failures. In this seminar, students will learn how engineers design and test spacecraft to ensure survivability in this harsh space environment. We will explore three different space environment scenarios, including a small satellite that must survive in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), a large spacecraft headed to rendezvous with an asteroid, and a human spaceflight mission to Mars.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-AQR
AA 109Q:
Aerodynamics of Race Cars
Almost as soon as cars had been invented, races of various kinds were organized. In all its forms (open-wheel, touring car, sports car, production-car, one-make, stock car, etc.), car racing is today a very popular sport with a huge media coverage and significant commercial sponsorships. More importantly, it is a proving ground for new technologies and a battlefield for the giants of the automotive industry. While race car performance depends on elements such as engine power, chassis design, tire adhesion and of course, the driver, aerodynamics probably plays the most vital role in determining the performance and efficiency of a race car. Front and/or rear wings are visible on many of them. During this seminar, you will learn about many other critical components of a race car including diffusers and add-ons such as vortex generators and spoilers. You will also discover that due to the competitive nature of this sport and its associated short design cycles, engineering decisions about a race car must rely on combined information from track, wind tunnel, and numerical computations. It is clear that airplanes fly on wings. However, when you have completed this seminar, you will be able to understand that cars fly on their tires. You will also be able to appreciate that aerodynamics is important not only for drag reduction, but also for increasing cornering speeds and lateral stability. You will be able to correlate between a race car shape and the aerodynamics effects intended for influencing performance. And if you have been a fan of the Ferrari 458 Italia, you will be able to figure out what that black moustache in the front of the car was for.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-AQR
AA 115N:
The Global Positioning System: Where on Earth are We, and What Time is It?
Preference to freshmen. Why people want to know where they are: answers include cross-Pacific trips of Polynesians, missile guidance, and distraught callers. How people determine where they are: navigation technology from dead-reckoning, sextants, and satellite navigation (GPS). Hands-on experience. How GPS works; when it does not work; possibilities for improving performance.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-EngrAppSci, WAY-AQR
AA 118N:
How to Design a Space Mission: from Concept to Execution
Space exploration is truly fascinating. From the space race led by governments as an outgrowth of the Cold War to the new era of space commercialization led by private companies and startups, more than 50 years have passed, characterized by great leaps forward and discoveries. We will learn how space missions are designed, from concept to execution, based on the professional experience of the lecturer and numerous examples of spacecraft, including unique hardware demonstrations by startups of the Silicon Valley. We will study the essentials of systems engineering as applicable to a variety of mission types, for communication, navigation, science, commercial, and military applications. We will explore the various elements of a space mission, including the spacecraft, ground, and launch segments with their functionalities. Special emphasis will be given to the design cycle, to understand how spacecraft are born, from the stakeholders' needs, through analysis, synthesis, all the way to their integration and validation. We will compare the current designs with those employed in the early days of the space age, and show the importance of economics in the development of spacecraft. Finally, we will brainstorm startup ideas and apply the concepts learned to a notional space mission design as a team.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-AQR, WAY-SMA
AA 119N:
3D Printed Aerospace Structures
The demand for rapid prototyping of lightweight, complex, and low-cost structures has led the aerospace industry to leverage three-dimensional (3D) printing as a manufacturing technology. For example, the manufacture of aircraft engine components, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wings, CubeSat parts, and satellite sub-systems have recently been realized with 3D printing and other additive manufacturing techniques. In this freshman seminar, a survey of state-of-the-art 3D printing processes will be reviewed and the process-dependent properties of 3D-printed materials and structures will be analyzed in detail. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of this manufacturing approach will be debated during class! To give students exposure to 3D printing systems in action, tours of actual 3D printing facilities on campus (Stanford's Product Realization Laboratory), as well as in Silicon Valley (e.g., Made in Space) will be conducted.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-AQR
AA 122N:
Dawn of the Drones: How Will Unmanned Aerial Systems Change Our World?
Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) have exploded on the scene in recent years, igniting a national debate about how to use them, how to regulate them, and how to make them safe. This seminar will dive into the many engineering challenges behind the headlines: in the future, how will we engineer UASs ranging in size from simple RC toys to highly-sophisticated autonomous scientific and military data gathering systems? This seminar will examine the key elements required to conceive, implement, deploy, and operate state-of-the-art of drone systems: What variety of problems can they help us solve? How autonomous are they and how autonomous do they need to be? What are the key technical bottlenecks preventing widespread deployment? How are they different from commercial aircraft? What kinds of companies will serve the market for UAV-related products and services? What business models will be successful and why? We will emphasize aspects of design, autonomy, reliability, navigation, sensing, and perception, as well as coordination/collaboration through a series of case studies drawn from our recent experience. Examples include imaging efforts to map the changing coral reefs in the South Pacific, using and controlling swarms of unmanned systems to perform search and rescue missions over large areas, and package delivery systems over large metropolitan areas. Hands-on experience with Stanford-developed UASs will be part of the seminar.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-AQR, WAY-SMA
AFRICAAM 48Q:
South Africa: Contested Transitions (HISTORY 48Q)
Preference to sophomores. The inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president in May 1994 marked the end of an era and a way of life for South Africa. The changes have been dramatic, yet the legacies of racism and inequality persist. Focus: overlapping and sharply contested transitions. Who advocates and opposes change? Why? What are their historical and social roots and strategies? How do people reconstruct their society? Historical and current sources, including films, novels, and the Internet.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI, Writing 2
AFRICAAM 54N:
African American Women's Lives (AMSTUD 54N, CSRE 54N, FEMGEN 54N, HISTORY 54N)
This course encourages students to think critically about historical sources and to use creative and rigorous historical methods to recover African American women¿s experiences, which often have been placed on the periphery of American history and American life.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AFRICAAM 58Q:
American Landscapes of Segregation (AMSTUD 58Q, HISTORY 58Q)
This course examines various landscapes of segregation in U.S. history from 19th century reconstruction and settler expansion through the contemporary U.S. security state. Each week we consider different histories of segregation including native reservation and boarding school stories, Jim Crow and post-World War II urban/suburban segregation, school integration and bussing, and the rise of the carceral state. We will ask: How have Americans moved through space with different degrees of freedom and constraint over time, and how has that shaped what it has meant to be an American in different ways for different groups? How has access to land, property, consumer, recreational and educational spaces and resources been regulated by categories of race, gender, sexuality, colonial subjectivity, immigrant status and class? To gain a better sense of our local history, we will also consider how structures of segregation have historically mapped the Bay Area. Sources include primary and secondary historic texts, feature and documentary films, photography, and poetry.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AFRICAAM 121N:
How to Make a Racist (CSRE 21N, PSYCH 21N)
How do children, with no innate beliefs or expectations about race, grow up to be racist? To address this complex question, this seminar will introduce students to the cognitive, social, and cultural factors that contribute to the development of racial stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. We will begin by defining key concepts (e.g., 'What is race and what is racism?'), and will then take a developmental approach to examine racist thought from early childhood until adulthood. The seminar will include lectures that will provide an introduction to each topic. These lectures will be supplemented by readings and discussion. Students will engage thoughtfully and critically with the topics and readings by sharing experiences, perspectives, confusions, and insights through discussion and in writing. Students with diverse experiences and perspectives will be welcomed and encouraged to participate.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
AMSTUD 41Q:
Madwomen: The History of Women and Mental Illness in the U.S.
Explores how gender and historical context have shaped the experience and treatment of mental illness in U.S. history. Why have women been the witches and hysterics of the past, and why have there historically been more women than men among the mentally ill? Topics include the relationship between historical ideas of femininity and insanity, the ways that notions of gender influence the definition and treatment of mental disorder, and the understanding of the historically embedded nature of medical ideas, diagnoses, and treatments.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 48N:
The American Songbook and Love Poetry (ENGLISH 48N)
A study of performances (Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra etc) of songs by classic American composers (Porter, Rogers and Hart, Cohen).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
AMSTUD 51Q:
Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity (COMPLIT 51Q, CSRE 51Q)
We may "know" "who" we "are," but we are, after all, social creatures. How does our sense of self interact with those around us? How does literature provide a particular medium for not only self expression, but also for meditations on what goes into the construction of "the Self"? After all, don't we tell stories in response to the question, "who are you"? Besides a list of nouns and names and attributes, we give our lives flesh and blood in telling how we process the world. Our course focuses in particular on this question--Does this universal issue ("who am I") become skewed differently when we add a qualifier before it, like "ethnic"? Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take course for a Letter Grade.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
AMSTUD 54N:
African American Women's Lives (AFRICAAM 54N, CSRE 54N, FEMGEN 54N, HISTORY 54N)
This course encourages students to think critically about historical sources and to use creative and rigorous historical methods to recover African American women¿s experiences, which often have been placed on the periphery of American history and American life.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 57Q:
10 American Photographs (ARTHIST 57Q)
Preference to sophomores. ¿The humor, the sadness, the EVERYTHING-ness and American-ness of these pictures!¿ wrote Jack Kerouac of photographer Robert Frank¿s iconic collection, The Americans. This seminar takes Kerouac¿s enthusiasm and applies it to ten American photographs, a new one each week. Examples span the medium¿s history and were taken as art, science, commerce, journalism, or personal mementos. Close study of the photo of the week will address how it looks and why; its history, from initial responses to later reception; and its relationship to the larger American visual and cultural context. Also under discussion: What story does this set of pictures tell about Americanness? What might another set of photos convey?
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 58Q:
American Landscapes of Segregation (AFRICAAM 58Q, HISTORY 58Q)
This course examines various landscapes of segregation in U.S. history from 19th century reconstruction and settler expansion through the contemporary U.S. security state. Each week we consider different histories of segregation including native reservation and boarding school stories, Jim Crow and post-World War II urban/suburban segregation, school integration and bussing, and the rise of the carceral state. We will ask: How have Americans moved through space with different degrees of freedom and constraint over time, and how has that shaped what it has meant to be an American in different ways for different groups? How has access to land, property, consumer, recreational and educational spaces and resources been regulated by categories of race, gender, sexuality, colonial subjectivity, immigrant status and class? To gain a better sense of our local history, we will also consider how structures of segregation have historically mapped the Bay Area. Sources include primary and secondary historic texts, feature and documentary films, photography, and poetry.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 63N:
The Feminist Critique: The History and Politics of Gender Equality (CSRE 63N, FEMGEN 63N, HISTORY 63N)
This course explores the long history of ideas about gender and equality. Each week we read, dissect, compare, and critique a set of primary historical documents (political and literary) from around the world, moving from the 15th century to the present. We tease out changing arguments about education, the body, sexuality, violence, labor, politics, and the very meaning of gender, and we place feminist critics within national and global political contexts.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 68N:
Mark Twain and American Culture (ENGLISH 68N)
Preference to freshmen. Mark Twain defined the rhythms of our prose and the contours of our moral map. He recognized our extravagant promise and stunning failures, our comic foibles and tragic flaws. He is viewed as the most American of American authors--and as one of the most universal. How does his work illuminate his society's (and our society's) responses to such issues as race, gender, technology, heredity vs. environment, religion, education, art, imperialism, animal welfare, and what it means to be "American"?
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 75N:
American Short Stories (ENGLISH 75N)
How and why did the short story take root and flourish in an American context? Early works of classic American literature read alongside stories by women and minority writers, stretching from the early nineteenth century to the contemporary period.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 105Q:
Law and Popular Culture (LAWGEN 105Q)
(Same as AMSTUD 105Q) This seminar focuses on the interface between two important subjects: law and popular culture. Before class, students will see a series of films or television shows relating to law, lawyers, and the legal system. There is also a weekly homework assignment based on materials in the assigned text and the assigned film or TV show. We will discuss the pop culture treatment of subjects such as the adversary system, good and bad lawyers, female and gay lawyers, the work life of lawyers, legal education, ethical issues, the jury system, and criminal and civil justice. The seminar discussions will draw on film theory and film-making technique to deepen understanding of the interrelationship between law and popular culture. The discussions will illuminate the ways in which pop culture products both reflect and change social views about law and lawyers. The assigned text is Michael Asimow & Shannon Mader, "Law & Popular Culture: A Course Book" (Peter Lang, 2d edition, 2013).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
AMSTUD 109Q:
American Road Trips (HISTORY 69Q)
"Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road." --Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957. From Jack Kerouac's On the Road to Cheryl Strayed's Wild, this course explores epic road trips of the twentieth century. Travel is a fundamental social and cultural practice through which Americans have constructed ideas about the self, the nation, the past, and the future. The open road, as it is often called, offered excitement, great adventure, and the space for family bonding and memory making. But the footloose and fancy-free nature of travel that Jack Kerouac celebrated was available to some travelers but not to all. Engaging historical and literary texts, film, autobiography, memoir, photography, and music, we will consider the ways that travel and road trips have been represented in American culture. This course examines the following questions: How did men and women experience travel differently? How did the motivations for travel change over time? What role did race, ethnicity, class, relationships, and sexuality play in these trips? Students will work together to plan a road trip of their own which the class will take during the quarter.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 117N:
Losing My Religion: Secularism and Spirituality in American Lives (EDUC 117N, RELIGST 13N)
In this seminar you will explore theory and practice, sociological data, spiritual writing, and case studies in an effort to gain a more nuanced understanding about how religion, spirituality, and secularism attempt to make legible the constellation of concerns, commitments, and behaviors that bridge the moral and the personal, the communal and the national, the sacred, the profane, and the rational. Together we will cultivate critical perspectives on practices and politics, beliefs and belonging that we typically take for granted.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 2-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
ANES 70Q:
Critical Illness: Patients, Physicians, and Society
Examines the various factors involved in shaping the critical care illness experience for three groups of people: the clinicians, the patients, and patients' families. Medical issues, economic forces and cost concerns, cultural biases, and communication errors can all influence one's perception. Helps students understand the arc of critical illness, and how various factors contribute to the interactions between those various groups. Includes an immersion experience (students are expected to round with clinicians in the ICU and to attend Schwartz rounds, a debriefing meeting about difficult emotional situation) and a mentoring experience (with critical care fellows), in addition to routine class work.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
ANES 72Q:
The Art of Medical Diagnosis
The Art of Medical Diagnosis: Enhancing Observational Skills through the Study of Art is an interactive, multidisciplinary undergraduate course that explores various ways in which studying art increases critical observational skills vital for aspiring health care providers. Students will be introduced to the concept of `Visual Thinking Strategies¿ through classroom, art creation, and museum based activities. Students will apply these skills to both works of art and medical cases. Significant focus will be on engaging in group discussions where they will collaboratively use visual evidence to generate and defend hypothesis. Drawing and sketching from life will play a critical role in honing observational skills through weekly assignments, workshops, and a final project. The interactive nature of this course pivots students away from a typical lecture based course to a self-directed learning experience.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
ANTHRO 27N:
Ethnicity and Violence: Anthropological Perspectives
Ethnicity is one of the most compelling and most modern ways in which people - in the midst of considerable global and local uncertainty - all across the world imagine and narrate themselves. This seminar will take an anthropological look at both the modernity and the compulsions of ethnic allegiance, and, why struggles over ethnic identity are so frequently violent. Our questions will be both historical ¿ how, why and when did people come to think of themselves as possessing different ethnic identities - and contemporary ¿ how are these identities lived, understood, narrated, and transformed and what is the consequence of such ethnicisation. We follow this through anthropological perspectives which ask persistently how people themselves locally narrate and act upon their experiences and histories. Through this we will approach some of the really big and yet everyday questions that many of us around the world face: how do we relate to ourselves and to those we define as others; and how do we live through and after profound violence? The seminar will take these larger questions through a global perspective focusing on cases from Rwanda and Burundi, India, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, Guatemala, and the countries of Former Yugoslavia among others. These cases cover a broad canvas of issues from questions of historicity, racial purity, cultural holism, and relations to the state, to contests over religious community, indigeneity, minority identities, globalization, gender, and generation.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
ANTHRO 30Q:
The Big Shift (CSRE 30Q)
Is the middle class shrinking? How do people who live at the extremes of American society- the super rich, the working poor and those who live on the margins, imagine and experience "the good life"? How do we understand phenomena such as gang cultures, addiction and the realignment of white consciousness? This class uses the methods and modes of ethnographic study in an examination of American culture. Ethnographic materials range from an examination of the new American wealth boom of the last 20 years (Richistan by Robert Frank) to the extreme and deadlynworld of the invisible underclass of homeless addicts on the streets of San Francisco (Righteous Dopefiend by Phillipe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg). The experiences of Hispanic immigrants and the struggle to escape gang life in Los Angeles are highlighted in the story of Homeboy Industries a job creation program initiated by a priest working in LA's most deadly neighborhoods (G-Dog and the Homeboys by Celeste Fremon). Finally in Searching for Whitopia: an improbable journeyninto the heart of White America, Rich Benjamin explores the creation on ethnic enclaves (whitopias) as fear over immigration and the shrinking white majority redefine race consciousnessnin the 21st century. Each of these narratives provides a window into the various ways in which Americans approach the subjects of wealth and the good life, poverty and the underclass, and thenconstruction of class, race, and gender in American society. Students will not be required to have any previous knowledge, just curiosity and an open mind.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
ANTHRO 182N:
Smoke and Mirrors in Global Health
A few years ago, health experts began calling out tobacco as engendering a global health crisis, categorizing the cigarette as the world's greatest weapon of mass destruction. A "global health crisis"? What merits that title if not tobacco use? A hundred million people were killed by tobacco in the 20th century, and ten times that number ¿ a billion people ¿ are predicted to die prematurely from exposure to cigarette smoke over the next hundred years. How has tobacconcome to be labeled a global health crisis over the last decade and what has been the political response? From whence does activism and ongoing complacency regarding tobacco arise? How are they created in different cultural contexts?nnThis course aims to provide students conceptual tools to tackle two specific thought projects: (1) to understand how institutional actors compete to define a situation in the world today as a problem of global health, and (2) to understand the sociocultural means by which something highly dangerous to health such as the cigarette is made both politically contentious and inert. On both fronts, special attention will be given to the ways global health activism and complacency unfold in the U.S. and China.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
APPPHYS 77N:
Functional Materials and Devices
Preference to freshmen. Exploration via case studies how functional materials have been developed and incorporated into modern devices. Particular emphasis is on magnetic and dielectric materials and devices. Recommended: high school physics course including electricity and magnetism.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-EngrAppSci, WAY-SMA
APPPHYS 79Q:
Energy Options for the 21st Century
Preference to sophomores.. Choices for meeting the future energy needs of the U.S. and the world. Basic physics of energy sources, technologies that might be employed, and related public policy issues. Trade-offs and societal impacts of different energy sources. Policy options for making rational choices for a sustainable world energy economy.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-EngrAppSci, WAY-SMA
ARCHLGY 21Q:
Eight Great Archaeological Sites in Europe (CLASSICS 21Q)
(Formerly CLASSART 21Q.) Preference to sophomores. Focus is on excavation, features and finds, arguments over interpretation, and the place of each site in understanding the archaeological history of Europe. Goal is to introduce the latest archaeological and anthropological thought, and raise key questions about ancient society. The archaeological perspective foregrounds interdisciplinary study: geophysics articulated with art history, source criticism with analytic modeling, statistics interpretation. A web site with resources about each site, including plans, photographs, video, and publications, is the basis for exploring.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, Writing 2
ARTHIST 57Q:
10 American Photographs (AMSTUD 57Q)
Preference to sophomores. ¿The humor, the sadness, the EVERYTHING-ness and American-ness of these pictures!¿ wrote Jack Kerouac of photographer Robert Frank¿s iconic collection, The Americans. This seminar takes Kerouac¿s enthusiasm and applies it to ten American photographs, a new one each week. Examples span the medium¿s history and were taken as art, science, commerce, journalism, or personal mementos. Close study of the photo of the week will address how it looks and why; its history, from initial responses to later reception; and its relationship to the larger American visual and cultural context. Also under discussion: What story does this set of pictures tell about Americanness? What might another set of photos convey?
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 160N:
The Sisters: Poetry & Painting (ENGLISH 51N)
Poetry and painting have often been called the "sister arts". Why? Sometimes a poem or a painting stands out to us, asking that we stay with it, that we remember it, although we cannot exactly say why. Poems have a way of making pictures in the mind, and paintings turn "rhymes" amid the people, places, and things they portray. Each is a concentrated world, inviting an exhilarating closeness of response: why does this line come first? Why does the artist include that detail? Who knows but that as we write and talk about these poems and pictures we will be doing what John Keats said a painter does: that is, arriving at a "trembling delicate and snail-horn perception of Beauty." Each week explore the kinship between a different pair of painter and poet and also focuses on a particular problem or method of interpretation. Some of the artist/poet combinations we will consider: Shakespeare and Caravaggio; Jorie Graham and (the photographer) Henri Cartier-Bresson; Alexander Pope and Thomas Gainsborough; William Wordsworth and Caspar David Friedrich; Christina Rossetti and Mary Cassatt; Walt Whitman and Thomas Eakins; Thomas Hardy and Edward Hopper.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTSINST 11Q:
Art in the Metropolis (TAPS 11Q)
This seminar is offered in conjunction with the annual "Arts Immersion" trip to New York that takes place over the spring break and is organized by the Stanford Arts Institute (SAI). Participation in the trip is a requirement for taking part in the seminar (and vice versa). The trip is designed to provide a group of students with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the cultural life of New York City guided by faculty and the SAI programming director. Students will experience a broad range and variety of art forms (visual arts, theater, opera, dance, etc.) and will meet with prominent arts administrators and practitioners, some of whom are Stanford alumni. For further details and updates about the trip, see http://arts.stanford.edu.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
ARTSTUDI 150Q:
Queer Sculpture
Outlaw sensibilities, self-made kinships, chosen lineages, utopic futurity, exilic commitment, and rage at institutions that police the borders of the normal these are among the attitudes that make up queer in its contemporary usage. David J. GetsynnThis hands on studio based course explores queer as a form of art production. Artists and thinkers use queer to signal defiance to the mainstream and an embrace of difference, uniqueness and self-determination. To be intolerable is to demand that the normal, the natural and the common be challenged. To do this is not to demand inclusion, but rather to refuse to accept any operations of exclusion and erasure that make up the normal and posit compulsory sameness. Queer Sculpture is also about the strategic effort to appropriate and subvert conventional art practices and tactics that may involve everything from shifts in the content of a work and its targeted audience to the methods by which it is produced and its formal properties. The political imperatives of a queer or queered position will shape thematic investigations of practices related to utopic futurity, anti-assimilationist practices, failure, abstraction, the archive, camp, drag and alternative families. Classes will require reading, discussing, and making. Students will produce artwork for critiques and participate in discussions of the readings. The course includes guest artists and fieldtrips to local LGBTQ archives.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE, WAY-EDP
ASNAMST 31N:
Perspectives in North American Taiko (MUSIC 31N)
Preference to Freshman. Taiko, or Japanese drum, is a newcomer to the American music scene. Emergence of the first N. American taiko groups coincided with increased Japanese American activism, and to some it is symbolic of Japanese American identity. N. American taiko is associated with Japanese American Buddhism. Musical, cultural, historical, and political perspectives of taiko. Hands-on drumming. Japanese music and Japanese American history, and relations among performance, cultural expression, community, and identity.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
BIO 3N:
Views of a Changing Sea: Literature & Science
The state of a changing world ocean, particularly in the eastern Pacific, will be examined through historical and contemporary fiction, non-fiction and scientific publications. Issues will include harvest and mariculture fisheries, land-sea interactions and oceanic climate change in both surface and deep waters.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci
BIO 7N:
Introduction to Conservation Photography
Introduction to the field of conservation photography and the strategic use of visual communication in addressing issues concerning the environment and conservation. Students will be introduced to basic digital photography, digital image processing, and the theory and application of photographic techniques. Case studies of conservation issues will be examined through photographs and multimedia platforms including images, video, and audio. Lectures, tutorials, demonstrations, and optional field trips will culminate in the production of individual and group projects.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
BIO 8N:
Human Origins
A survey of the anatomical and behavioral evidence for human evolution and of the increasingly important information from molecular genetics. Emphasis on the split between the human and chimpanzee lines 6-7 million years ago, the appearance of the australopiths by 4.1 million years ago, the emergence of the genus Homo about 2.5 million years ago, the spread of Homo from Africa 1.7-1.6 million years ago, the subsequent divergence of Homo into different species on different continents, and the expansion of fully modern humans (Homo sapiens) from Africa about 50,000 years ago to replace the Neanderthals and other non-modern Eurasians.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci, WAY-SMA
BIO 12N:
Sensory Ecology of Marine Animals
Animals living in the oceans experience a highly varied range of environmental stimuli. An aquatic lifestyle requires an equally rich range of sensory adaptations, including some that are totally foreign to us. In this course we will examine sensory system in marine animals from both an environmental and behavioral perspective and from the point of view of neuroscience and information systems engineering.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
BIO 25Q:
Cystic fibrosis: from medical conundrum to precision medicine success story
Preference to sophomores. The class will explore cystic fibrosis (CF), the most prevalent fatal genetic disease in the US, as a scientific and medical whodunit. Through reading and discussion of medical and scientific literature, we will tackle questions that include: how was life expectancy with CF increased from weeks to decades without understanding the disease mechanism? Why is the disease so prevalent? Is there an advantage to being a carrier? Is CF a single disease or a continuum of physiological variation ¿or- what is a disease? How did research into CF lead to discovery of the underlying cause of most other genetic diseases as well?nnThrough critical reading of the scientific and medical literature, class discussion, field trips and meetings with genetic counselors, caregivers, patients, physicians and researchers, we will work to build a deep understanding of this disease, from the biochemical basis to the current controversies over pathogenic mechanisms, treatment strategies and the ethics and economics of genetic testing and astronomical drug costs.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci, WAY-SMA
BIO 32Q:
Neuroethology: The Neural Control of Behavior (HUMBIO 91Q)
Preference to sophomores. Animal behavior offers insights about evolutionary adaptations and this seminar will discuss the origins of the study of animal behavior and its development to the present. How does the nervous system control behavior and how is it changed by behavior? We will analyze and discuss original research papers about the neural basis of behavior. The use and misuse of parallels between animal and human behavior. Possible field trip to observe animals in their natural habitat.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci, WAY-SMA
BIO 34N:
Hunger
The biology of hunger and satiety, disease states that disrupt normal responses to hunger and satiety, starvation responses and adaptations to starvation in a variety of organisms, food production and distribution mechanisms, historic famines and their causes, the challenges of providing adequate food and energy for the Earth's growing population, local and global efforts to alleviate hunger, and hunger in fiction.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci
BIO 35N:
Climate change ecology: Is it too late?
This Introductory Seminar will explore the consequences of climate change on ecological communities, focusing on two emerging concepts: "disequilibrium," which emphasizes that it can take long time for communities to respond to climate change because of species interactions, and "historical contingency," which proposes that the order in which species invade and disappear as communities re-assemble in response to climate change will determine which species will persist. The seminar will involve lecture, discussion, writing, and visit to Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
BIOE 32Q:
Bon Appétit, Marie Curie! The Science Behind Haute Cuisine
This seminar is for anyone who loves food, cooking or science! We will focus on the science and biology behind the techniques and the taste buds. Not a single lecture will pass by without a delicious opportunity - each weekly meeting will include not only lecture, but also a lab demonstration and a chance to prepare classic dishes that illustrate that day's scientific concepts.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
BIOE 70Q:
Medical Device Innovation
BIOE 70Q invites students to apply design thinking to the creation of healthcare technologies. Students will learn about the variety of factors that shape healthcare innovation, and through hands-on design projects, invent their own solutions to clinical needs. Guest instructors will include engineers, doctors, entrepreneurs, and others who have helped bring ideas from concept to clinical use.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
CEE 31Q:
Accessing Architecture Through Drawing
Preference to sophomores. Drawing architecture provides a deeper understanding of the intricacies and subtleties that characterize contemporary buildings. How to dissect buildings and appreciate the formal elements of a building, including scale, shape, proportion, colors and materials, and the problem solving reflected in the design. Students construct conventional architectural drawings, such as plans, elevations, and perspectives. Limited enrollment.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-EngrAppSci, WAY-CE
CEE 32Q:
Place: Making Space Now
This seminar argues that architeccts are ultimately "placemakers," and questions what that means in the contemporary world. Part I investigates the meaning of the word "place." Additional background for understanding contemporary place making will include a critique of the history of modern place-making through an examination of modern form. Part II examines two traditional notions of place by scale: from "home" to "the city." What elements give these conceptions of space a sense of place? To answer this question, themes such as memory, mapping, and boundary, among others, will be investigated. part III presents challenges to the traditional notions of place discussed in Part II. Topics addressed include: What does it mean to be "out of place"? What sense of place does a nomad have, and how is this represented? What are the "non-places" and how can architects design for these spaces? Part IV addresses the need to re-conceptualize contemporary space. The role of digital and cyber technologies, the construction of locality in a global world, and the in-between places that result from a world in flux are topics discussed in this section of the seminar. nLearning goals: Specific goals include clsoe reading of texts, understanding of philosophical thinking and writing, argument under uncertainty, and developed concepts of place, space and architecture.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
CEE 70Q:
The Food, Water, and Waste Nexus
This course will explore the connections between water access, fecal waste management, and food safety and provision in low- and middle-income countries. The interconnections between food, water, and waste will be discussed as it relates to human health and well-being. Topics that will be covered in the course include 1) farm to fork contamination pathways of food 2) food hygiene practices and barriers to implementation 3) waste water reuse practices 4) management of water for multiple uses 5) potential impact climate change may have on the connections of these systems. The students in the course will undertake individual research that explores the connections between these systems and identifies potential strategies to improve human health and well-being.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
CEE 80N:
Engineering the Built Environment: An Introduction to Structural Engineering
In this seminar, students will be introduced to the history of modern bridges, buildings and other large-scale structures. Classes will include presentations on transformations in structural design inspired by the development of new materials, increased understanding of hazardous overloads and awareness of environmental impacts. Basic principles of structural engineering and how to calculate material efficiency and structural safety of structural forms will be taught using case studies. The course will include a field trip to a Bay Area large-scale structure, hands-on experience building a tower and computational modeling of bridges, and a paper and presentation on a structure or structural form of interest to the student. The goal of this course is for students to develop an understanding and appreciation of modern structures, influences that have led to new forms, and the impact of structural design on society and the environment. Students from all backgrounds are welcome.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-AQR
CHEM 25N:
Science in the News
Preference to freshmen. Possible topics include: diseases such as avian flu, HIV, and malaria; environmental issues such as climate change, atmospheric pollution, and human population; energy sources in the future; evolution; stem cell research; nanotechnology; and drug development. Focus is on the scientific basis for these topics as a basis for intelligent discussion of societal and political implications. Sources include the popular media and scientific media for the nonspecialist, especially those available on the web.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
CHEM 26N:
The What, Why, How and Wow's of Nanotechnology
Preference to freshmen. Introduction to nanotechnology with discussion of basic science at the nanoscale, its difference from molecular and macroscopic scales, and implications and applications. Developments in nanotechnology in the past two decades, from imaging and moving single atoms on surfaces to killing cancer cells with nanoscale tools and gadgets.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci
CHEM 27N:
Light and Life
Preference given to freshman. Light plays a central role in many biological processes and color affects everything in our world. This includes familiar processes such as photosynthesis and vision, but also proton pumps in the organisms that make the Bay purple, green fluorescent protein (GFP), the light from fireflies, the blue and red light receptors responsible for directing how plants grow, the molecules responsible for fall colors, and repair enzymes such as DNA photolyase. Light is also used to interrogate (e.g. super-resolution microscopy) and manipulate (optogenetics) biological systems. Light causes sunburn, but can also be used in combination with special molecules to treat diseases. We will discuss the nature of light, how it is measured, how it is generated in the laboratory, how molecules are excited, and how one measures the fate of this excitation in simple molecules and complex biological systems. Chem 31X or 31A/B preferred, but not required.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
CHEM 28N:
Science Innovation and Communication
Preference to freshmen. The course will explore evolutionary and revolutionary scientific advances; their consequences to society, biotechnology, and the economy; and mechanisms for communicating science to the public. The course will engage academic and industrial thought leaders and provide an opportunity for students to participate in communicating science to the public. This fusion of journalism and science has led to a new undergraduate organization (faSCInate), a web site and video presentations. It is an opportunity to share the fun, excitement and importance of science with others.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
CHEM 29N:
Chemistry in the Kitchen
Preference to Freshmen. This course examines the chemistry relevant to food and drink preparation, both in homes and in restaurants, which makes what we consume more pleasurable. Good cooking is more often considered an art rather than a science, but a small bit of understanding goes a long way to make the preparation and consumption of food and drink more enjoyable. The intention is to have demonstrations and tastings as a part of every class meeting. We will examine some rather familiar items in this course: eggs, dairy products, meats, breads, vegetables, pastries, and carbonated beverages. We shall playfully explore the chemistry that turns food into meals. A high-school chemistry background is assumed; bring to class a good appetite and a healthy curiosity.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
CHEMENG 31N:
When Chemistry Meets Engineering
Preference to freshmen. Chemistry and engineering are subjects that are ubiquitous around us. But what happens when the two meet? Students will explore this question by diving into experimental problems that scientists and engineers have to face on a daily basis. Many processes that are taken for granted have been developed by understanding science at a very fundamental level and then applying it to large and important industrial processes. In this seminar, students will explore some of the basic concepts that are important to address chemical engineering problems through experimental work. Students will build materials for energy and environmental applications, understand how to separate mixtures into pure compounds, produce fuels, and will learn to look at the chemical properties of molecules that are part of daily life with a different eye.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
CHEMENG 60Q:
Environmental Regulation and Policy
Preference to sophomores. How does government, politics and science affect environmental policy? We examine environmental policy including the precautionary principal, acceptable risks, mathematical models, and cost-effectiveness of regulation. You will learn how data is changing environmental regulation and how different administrations mold environmental policy in real-time. We examine the use of science and engineering, its media presentation and misrepresentation, and the effect of public scientific and technical literacy. You will learn how to participate in the process and effect change.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-EngrAppSci, WAY-AQR
CHEMENG 90Q:
Dare to Care: Compassionate Design
Imagine yourself with your abundant creativity, intellect, and passion, but your ability to move or speak is diminished. How would you face the world, how would you thrive at Stanford, how would you relay to people your ideas and creations? How would you share yourself and your ideas with the world? nThere are more than 50 million individuals in America with at least one disability, and in the current world of design, these differences are often overlooked. How do we as designers empower people of diverse physical abilities and provide them with means of self-expression?nnIn Compassionate Design, students from any prospective major are invited to explore the engineering design process by examining the needs of persons with disabilities. Through invited guests, students will have the opportunity to directly engage people with different types of disabilities as a foundation to design products that address problems of motion and mobility, vision, speech and hearing. For example, in class, students will interview people who are deaf, blind, have cerebral palsy, or other disabling conditions. Students will then be asked, using the design tools they have been exposed to as part of the seminar, to create a particular component or device that enhances the quality of life for that user or users with similar limitations.nnPresentation skills are taught and emphasized as students will convey their designs to the class and instructors. Students will complete this seminar with a compassionate view toward design for the disabled, they will acquire a set of design tools that they can use to empower themselves and others in whatever direction they choose to go, and they will have increased confidence and abilities in presenting in front of an audience.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP
CHILATST 14N:
Growing Up Bilingual (CSRE 14N, EDUC 114N)
This course is a Freshman Introductory Seminar that has as its purpose introducing students to the sociolinguistic study of bilingualism by focusing on bilingual communities in this country and on bilingual individuals who use two languages in their everyday lives. Much attention is given to the history, significance, and consequences of language contact in the United States. The course focuses on the experiences of long-term US minority populations as well as that of recent immigrants.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
CHINA 70N:
Animal Planet and the Romance of the Species (COMPLIT 70N)
Preference to freshmen.This course considers a variety of animal characters in Chinese and Western literatures as potent symbols of cultural values and dynamic sites of ethical reasoning. What does pervasive animal imagery tell us about how we relate to the world and our neighbors? How do animals define the frontiers of humanity and mediate notions of civilization and culture? How do culture, institutions, and political economy shape concepts of human rights and animal welfare? And, above all, what does it mean to be human in the pluralistic and planetary 21st century? Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take course for a Letter Grade.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
CLASSICS 15N:
Saints, Warriors, Queens, and Cows
The literature of medieval Ireland (600-1400 AD) is rich in tales about war and adventure, pagan gods, and otherworld voyages. The sagas of kings and queens sit side by side (sometimes in the same medieval manuscripts) with stories of holy men and women, and exquisite poetry in praise of nature or important persons. We will explore this largely unfamiliar but fascinating world through careful reading of the primary texts, backed up by some secondary works on history, myth, and society. In addition, the influence of early Irish literature on such later writers as W. B. Yeats and Flann O'Brien will be investigated. Readings include heroic stories of Finn and Cú Chulainn; the Cattle Raid of Cooley; the Voyage of Bran; satires; bardic praise-poems; monastic poems; and Sweeney Astray (Buile Shuibhne).
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
CLASSICS 16N:
Sappho: Erotic Poetess of Lesbos (FEMGEN 24N)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 24N.) Preference to freshmen. Sappho's surviving fragments in English; traditions referring to or fantasizing about her disputed life. How her poetry and legend inspired women authors and male poets such as Swinburne, Baudelaire, and Pound. Paintings inspired by Sappho in ancient and modern times, and composers who put her poetry to music.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-CE, WAY-EDP
CLASSICS 17N:
To Die For: Antigone and Political Dissent (TAPS 12N)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 6N.) Preference to freshmen. Tensions inherent in the democracy of ancient Athens; how the character of Antigone emerges in later drama, film, and political thought as a figure of resistance against illegitimate authority; and her relevance to contemporary struggles for women's and workers' rights and national liberation. Readings and screenings include versions of Antigone by Sophocles, Anouilh, Brecht, Fugard/Kani/Ntshona, Paulin, Glowacki, Gurney, and von Trotta.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-ER
CLASSICS 19N:
Eloquence Personified: How To Speak Like Cicero
This course is an introduction to Roman rhetoric, Cicero's Rome, and the active practice of speaking well. Participants read a short rhetorical treatise by Cicero, analyze one of his speeches as well as more recent ones by, e.g., Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Obama, and watch their oratorical performances. During the remainder of the term they practice rhetoric, prepare and deliver in class two (short) speeches, and write an essay.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
CLASSICS 21Q:
Eight Great Archaeological Sites in Europe (ARCHLGY 21Q)
(Formerly CLASSART 21Q.) Preference to sophomores. Focus is on excavation, features and finds, arguments over interpretation, and the place of each site in understanding the archaeological history of Europe. Goal is to introduce the latest archaeological and anthropological thought, and raise key questions about ancient society. The archaeological perspective foregrounds interdisciplinary study: geophysics articulated with art history, source criticism with analytic modeling, statistics interpretation. A web site with resources about each site, including plans, photographs, video, and publications, is the basis for exploring.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, Writing 2
COMM 130N:
The idea of a free press
Preference to freshmen. An examination of the meaning of freedom of the press, tied to but not bound by various Supreme Court rulings on the scope and purpose of the First Amendment's speech and press clauses. Discussions will include a look at the recent and rapid computerization of communication and what it portends for the future of a free press.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
COMM 140Q:
Bubbles, Booms, and Busts: Representing the Economy
This course examines how various cultural representations of the economy shape popular imagination and everyday life. Focusing on the US, we will look at advertising, journalism, fiction, television, film, music, and finance industry texts to explore the representation of financial risk, crisis, and inequality for lay audiences at different historical moments. Students will be introduced to a range of disciplinary and methodological approaches to finance and representation including media studies, critical finance studies, history, sociology, and anthropology as we explore media production from such periods as the Depression era, postwar middle class growth, 1980 and 1990s financialization, and the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
COMPLIT 10N:
Shakespeare and Performance in a Global Context
Preference to freshmen. The problem of performance including the performance of gender through the plays of Shakespeare. In-class performances by students of scenes from plays. The history of theatrical performance. Sources include filmed versions of plays, and readings on the history of gender, gender performance, and transvestite theater. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a Letter Grade.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 11Q:
Shakespeare, Playing, Gender
Preference to sophomores. Focus is on several of the best and lesser known plays of Shakespeare, on theatrical and other kinds of playing, and on ambiguities of both gender and playing gender. Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 37Q:
Zionism and the Novel (JEWISHST 37Q)
At the end of the nineteenth century, Zionism emerged as a political movement to establish a national homeland for the Jews, eventually leading to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. This seminar uses novels to explore the changes in Zionism, the roots of the conflict in the Middle East, and the potentials for the future. We will take a close look at novels by Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, in order to understand multiple perspectives, and we will also consider works by authors from the North America and from Europe. Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
COMPLIT 51Q:
Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity (AMSTUD 51Q, CSRE 51Q)
We may "know" "who" we "are," but we are, after all, social creatures. How does our sense of self interact with those around us? How does literature provide a particular medium for not only self expression, but also for meditations on what goes into the construction of "the Self"? After all, don't we tell stories in response to the question, "who are you"? Besides a list of nouns and names and attributes, we give our lives flesh and blood in telling how we process the world. Our course focuses in particular on this question--Does this universal issue ("who am I") become skewed differently when we add a qualifier before it, like "ethnic"? Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take course for a Letter Grade.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
COMPLIT 55N:
Batman, Hamilton, DÃaz, and Other Wondrous Lives (CSRE 55N)
This seminar concerns the design and analysis of imaginary (or constructed) worlds for narratives and media such as films, comics, and literary texts. The seminar's primary goal is to help participants understand the creation of better imaginary worlds - ultimately all our efforts should serve that higher purpose. Some of the things we will consider when taking on the analysis of a new world include: What are its primary features - spatial, cultural, biological, fantastic, cosmological? What is the world's ethos (the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize the world)? What are the precise strategies that are used by the artist to convey the world to us and us to the world? How are our characters connected to the world? And how are we - the viewer or reader or player - connected to the world? Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 70N:
Animal Planet and the Romance of the Species (CHINA 70N)
Preference to freshmen.This course considers a variety of animal characters in Chinese and Western literatures as potent symbols of cultural values and dynamic sites of ethical reasoning. What does pervasive animal imagery tell us about how we relate to the world and our neighbors? How do animals define the frontiers of humanity and mediate notions of civilization and culture? How do culture, institutions, and political economy shape concepts of human rights and animal welfare? And, above all, what does it mean to be human in the pluralistic and planetary 21st century? Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take course for a Letter Grade.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
COMPLIT 71N:
Islamic Identities
What is Islamic identity? Who decides? This course looks at four moments in time: Arabic judges and politicians in Golden Age Iraq; activists in modern Indonesia; Black Americans in the early twenty-first century; the Stanford community in Fall Quarter 2017. This course will include an introduction to Islam, questions about the Quran and violence, and some literature.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
COMPMED 80N:
Animal behavior: sex, death, and sometimes food!
Preference to freshman. Behavior is what makes animals special (thirsty plants don't walk to water), but why do animals behave the way they do? What does their behavior tell us about their inner lives, and about ourselves? What do lipstick and cuckoos and fireflies have in common? Why would nobody want to be a penguin? What do mice say to each other in their pee-mail? Learning how to think about questions like these gives us a unique perspective on the natural world. Format: Discussion and criticism of video examples, documentaries, and research papers. Topics: History and approaches to animal behavior; development of behavior, from genetics to learning; mechanisms of behavior, from neurons to motivation; function of behavior, from honest signals to selfish genes; the phylogeny of behavior, from domestication to speciation; and modern applications of behavior, from abnormal behavior, to conservation, to animal welfare, and animal consciousness.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
COMPMED 81N:
Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of Mammals
Preference to freshmen. Emphasis is on a comparative approach to anatomy and physiology of a wide range of mammals, the unique adaptations of each species in terms of its anatomical, and behavioral characteristics, and how these species interact with human beings and other animals. Dissection required. Class size is limited to 16.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci, WAY-SMA
COMPMED 84Q:
Globally Emerging Zoonotic Diseases
Preference to sophomores. Infectious diseases impacting veterinary and human health around the world today. Mechanisms of disease, epidemiology, and underlying diagnostic, treatment and control principles associated with these pathogens.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
COMPMED 85N:
Animal Use in Biomedical Research
Preference to freshmen. How and why animals are used in biomedical science. Addresses human and animal disease entities and how animal research has contributed to the treatment and cure of disease. Significantnportions of this course are devoted to documenting the humane care and treatment of laboratory animals in research, including, but not limited to such topics as laws and ethics, animal behavior, animal modeling, and the animal activist movement. Course topics will also include: What advances have been made as a result of the use of animals in research? Who conducts animal research? Predominant animal species used in biomedical research, facts and myths; the regulation of biomedical research; housing and care of laboratory animals; why new drugs must be tested; animal use in stem cell research, cancer research and genetically engineered mice; career choices in biomedical research.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
COMPMED 87Q:
Laboratory Mouse in Biomedical Research
Preference to sophomores. Focus is on the laboratory mouse, a widely used and important research model. Topics include the ethics of animal use in research; the natural history, origin and husbandry of the mouse; characteristics of key mouse strains; its anatomy and physiology; common diseases and their effects on research; coat color genetics relative to human diseases; immunodeficient mouse models; and genetic engineering of mice. The laboratory includes necropsy, handling, introduction to anesthesia and surgery, identification methods, and common research techniques using live and dead mice. Enrollment limited to 14 students.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci, WAY-SMA
COMPMED 89Q:
Ouch it Hurts! The Comparative Neurobiology of Pain
Preference to sophomores. Focus is on understanding the basic neurobiology of pain pathways. Topics include the physiology, pharmacology, and clinical aspects of effective pain management. In both humans and animals pain is part of the protective mechanisms that prevent further injury to the body. However, if the pain process continues unchecked, it can become extremely detrimental.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
CS 45N:
Computers and Photography: From Capture to Sharing
Preference to freshmen with experience in photography and use of computers. Elements of photography, such as lighting, focus, depth of field, aperture, and composition. How a photographer makes photos available for computer viewing, reliably stores them, organizes them, tags them, searches them, and distributes them online. No programming experience required. Digital SLRs and editing software will be provided to those students who do not wish to use their own.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
CS 49N:
Using Bits to Control Atoms
This is a crash course in how to use a stripped-down computer system about the size of a credit card (the rasberry pi computer) to control as many different sensors as we can implement in ten weeks, including LEDs, motion sensors, light controllers, and accelerometers. The ability to fearlessly grab a set of hardware devices, examine the data sheet to see how to use it, and stitch them together using simple code is a secret weapon that software-only people lack, and allows you to build many interesting gadgets. We will start with a "bare metal'' system --- no operating system, no support --- and teach you how to read device data sheets describing sensors and write the minimal code needed to control them (including how to debug when things go wrong, as they always do). This course differs from most in that it is deliberately mostly about what and why rather than how --- our hope is that the things you are able at the end will inspire you to follow the rest of the CS curriculum to understand better how things you've used work. Prerequisites: knowledge of the C programming language. A Linux or Mac laptop that you are comfortable coding on.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
CS 56N:
Great Discoveries and Inventions in Computing
This seminar will explore some of both the great discoveries that underlie computer science and the inventions that have produced the remarkable advances in computing technology. Key questions we will explore include: What is computable? How can information be securely communicated? How do computers fundamentally work? What makes computers fast? Our exploration will look both at the principles behind the discoveries and inventions, as well as the history and the people involved in those events. Some exposure to programming will be helpful, but it not strictly necessary.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
CS 62N:
Let There Be Computations
The class will discuss the Theory of Computing as an ambitious intellectual endeavor with impact beyond Computer Science. What are computations? How can their study capture important aspects of the evolution of species, the structure of social networks, and the working of your smart phone? What are the laws of efficiency and complexity that govern computations? We will see surprising algorithms for very familiar problems as well as simple problems no one knows how to solve efficiently. We will encounter logic paradoxes that expose the limitations of computations and explore the different worlds we may be living in, depending on the answers to some of the central problems on computations.n nThe class is intended for students with a wide range of interests. The course will not involve programming. While our class will not rely on any deep mathematics (beyond basic high-school math) we will deal with mathematical formalization of concepts and with mathematical problem-solving. Therefore, some mathematical maturity and interest would be useful.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
CSRE 14N:
Growing Up Bilingual (CHILATST 14N, EDUC 114N)
This course is a Freshman Introductory Seminar that has as its purpose introducing students to the sociolinguistic study of bilingualism by focusing on bilingual communities in this country and on bilingual individuals who use two languages in their everyday lives. Much attention is given to the history, significance, and consequences of language contact in the United States. The course focuses on the experiences of long-term US minority populations as well as that of recent immigrants.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
CSRE 20N:
What counts as "race," and why? (SOC 20N)
Preference to freshmen. Seminar discussion of how various institutions in U.S. society employ racial categories, and how race is studied and conceptualized across disciplines. Course introduces perspectives from demography, history, law, genetics, sociology, psychology, and medicine. Students will read original social science research, learn to collect and analyze data from in-depth interviews, and use library resources to conduct legal/archival case studies.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
CSRE 21N:
How to Make a Racist (AFRICAAM 121N, PSYCH 21N)
How do children, with no innate beliefs or expectations about race, grow up to be racist? To address this complex question, this seminar will introduce students to the cognitive, social, and cultural factors that contribute to the development of racial stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. We will begin by defining key concepts (e.g., 'What is race and what is racism?'), and will then take a developmental approach to examine racist thought from early childhood until adulthood. The seminar will include lectures that will provide an introduction to each topic. These lectures will be supplemented by readings and discussion. Students will engage thoughtfully and critically with the topics and readings by sharing experiences, perspectives, confusions, and insights through discussion and in writing. Students with diverse experiences and perspectives will be welcomed and encouraged to participate.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
CSRE 30N:
The Science of Diverse Communities (EDUC 30N, PSYCH 30N, SOC 179N)
This course is an exploration. Most generally, its aim is to identify distinguishing features of good diverse communities and articulate them well enough to offer principles or guidelines for how to design and manage such communities - all with a particular focus on educational communities like schools, universities, academic disciplines, etc., but with the hope that such principles might generalize to other kinds of organizations and the broader society. The readings range from those on the origins of human communities and social identities to those on intergroup trust building. They also aim to embed our discussions in the major diversity issues of the day, or example, what's in the news about campus life. nnThus the course has a practical purpose: to develop testable ideas for improving the comfort level, fairness and goodness-for-all of identity diverse communities--especially in educational settings. nnThe course also has a basic science purpose: to explore the psychological significance of community. Is there a psychological need for community? Is there something about a need for community that can't be reduced to other needs, for example, for a gender, racial or sexual-orientation identity? How strong is the need for community against other needs? What kinds of human groupings can satisfy it? In meeting this need, can membership in one community substitute for membership in others? What do people need from communities in order to thrive in them? Do strong diverse communities dampen intergroup biases? Can strong community loyalty mitigate identity tensions within communities? nnSuch questions, the hope is, will help us develop a more systematic understanding of the challenges and opportunities inherent in diverse human communities.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
CSRE 30Q:
The Big Shift (ANTHRO 30Q)
Is the middle class shrinking? How do people who live at the extremes of American society- the super rich, the working poor and those who live on the margins, imagine and experience "the good life"? How do we understand phenomena such as gang cultures, addiction and the realignment of white consciousness? This class uses the methods and modes of ethnographic study in an examination of American culture. Ethnographic materials range from an examination of the new American wealth boom of the last 20 years (Richistan by Robert Frank) to the extreme and deadlynworld of the invisible underclass of homeless addicts on the streets of San Francisco (Righteous Dopefiend by Phillipe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg). The experiences of Hispanic immigrants and the struggle to escape gang life in Los Angeles are highlighted in the story of Homeboy Industries a job creation program initiated by a priest working in LA's most deadly neighborhoods (G-Dog and the Homeboys by Celeste Fremon). Finally in Searching for Whitopia: an improbable journeyninto the heart of White America, Rich Benjamin explores the creation on ethnic enclaves (whitopias) as fear over immigration and the shrinking white majority redefine race consciousnessnin the 21st century. Each of these narratives provides a window into the various ways in which Americans approach the subjects of wealth and the good life, poverty and the underclass, and thenconstruction of class, race, and gender in American society. Students will not be required to have any previous knowledge, just curiosity and an open mind.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
CSRE 45Q:
Understanding Race and Ethnicity in American Society (SOC 45Q)
Preference to sophomores. Historical overview of race in America, race and violence, race and socioeconomic well-being, and the future of race relations in America. Enrollment limited to 16.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
CSRE 47Q:
Heartfulness: Mindfulness, Compassion, and Responsibility
We practice mindfulness as a way of enhancing well-being, interacting compassionately with others, and engaging in socially responsible actions as global citizens. Contemplation is integrated with social justice through embodied practice, experiential learning, and creative expression. Class activities and assignments include journaling, mindfulness practices, and expressive arts. We build a sense of community through appreciative intelligence, connected knowing, deep listening and storytelling.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP
CSRE 51Q:
Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity (AMSTUD 51Q, COMPLIT 51Q)
We may "know" "who" we "are," but we are, after all, social creatures. How does our sense of self interact with those around us? How does literature provide a particular medium for not only self expression, but also for meditations on what goes into the construction of "the Self"? After all, don't we tell stories in response to the question, "who are you"? Besides a list of nouns and names and attributes, we give our lives flesh and blood in telling how we process the world. Our course focuses in particular on this question--Does this universal issue ("who am I") become skewed differently when we add a qualifier before it, like "ethnic"? Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take course for a Letter Grade.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
CSRE 54N:
African American Women's Lives (AFRICAAM 54N, AMSTUD 54N, FEMGEN 54N, HISTORY 54N)
This course encourages students to think critically about historical sources and to use creative and rigorous historical methods to recover African American women¿s experiences, which often have been placed on the periphery of American history and American life.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CSRE 55N:
Batman, Hamilton, DÃaz, and Other Wondrous Lives (COMPLIT 55N)
This seminar concerns the design and analysis of imaginary (or constructed) worlds for narratives and media such as films, comics, and literary texts. The seminar's primary goal is to help participants understand the creation of better imaginary worlds - ultimately all our efforts should serve that higher purpose. Some of the things we will consider when taking on the analysis of a new world include: What are its primary features - spatial, cultural, biological, fantastic, cosmological? What is the world's ethos (the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize the world)? What are the precise strategies that are used by the artist to convey the world to us and us to the world? How are our characters connected to the world? And how are we - the viewer or reader or player - connected to the world? Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CSRE 63N:
The Feminist Critique: The History and Politics of Gender Equality (AMSTUD 63N, FEMGEN 63N, HISTORY 63N)
This course explores the long history of ideas about gender and equality. Each week we read, dissect, compare, and critique a set of primary historical documents (political and literary) from around the world, moving from the 15th century to the present. We tease out changing arguments about education, the body, sexuality, violence, labor, politics, and the very meaning of gender, and we place feminist critics within national and global political contexts.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
CSRE 188Q:
Imagining Women: Writers in Print and in Person (FEMGEN 188Q)
Gender roles, gender relations and sexual identity explored in contemporary literature and conversation with guest authors. Weekly meetings designated for book discussion and meeting with authors. Interest in writing and a curiosity about diverse women's lives would be helpful to students. Students will use such tools as close reading, research, analysis and imagination. Seminar requires strong voice of all participants. Oral presentations, discussion papers, final projects.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
DLCL 113Q:
Borges and Translation (ILAC 113Q)
Borges's creative process and practice as seen through the lens of translation. How do Borges's texts articulate the relationships between reading, writing, and translation? Topics include authorship, fidelity, irreverence, and innovation. Readings will draw on Borges's short stories, translations, and essays. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: 100-level course in Spanish or permission of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
EARTHSYS 36N:
Life at the Extremes: From the Deep Sea to Deep Space
Preference to freshmen. Microbial life is diverse and resilient on Earth; could it survive elsewhere in our solar system? This seminar will investigate the diversity of microbial life on earth, with an emphasis on extremophiles, and consider the potential for microbial life to exist and persist in extraterrestrial locales. Topics include microbial phylogenetic and physiological diversity, biochemical adaptations of extremophiles, ecology of extreme habitats, and apparent requirements and limits of life. Format includes lectures, discussions, lab-based activities and local field trips. Basics of microbiology, biochemistry, and astrobiology.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
EARTHSYS 38N:
The Worst Journey in the World: The Science, Literature, and History of Polar Exploration (ESS 38N, GS 38N)
This course examines the motivations and experiences of polar explorers under the harshest conditions on Earth, as well as the chronicles of their explorations and hardships, dating to the 1500s for the Arctic and the 1700s for the Antarctic. Materials include The Worst Journey in the World by Aspley Cherry-Garrard who in 1911 participated in a midwinter Antarctic sledging trip to recover emperor penguin eggs. Optional field trip into the high Sierra in March.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci
EARTHSYS 41N:
The Global Warming Paradox
Preference to freshman. Focus is on the complex climate challenges posed by the substantial benefits of energy consumption, including the critical tension between the enormous global demand for increased human well-being and the negative climate consequences of large-scale emissions of carbon dioxide. Topics include: Earth¿s energy balance; detection and attribution of climate change; the climate response to enhanced greenhouse forcing; impacts of climate change on natural and human systems; and proposed methods for curbing further climate change. Sources include peer-reviewed scientific papers, current research results, and portrayal of scientific findings by the mass media and social networks.
Terms: Aut, Sum
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
EARTHSYS 46N:
Exploring the Critical Interface between the Land and Monterey Bay: Elkhorn Slough (ESS 46N)
Preference to freshmen. Field trips to sites in the Elkhorn Slough, a small agriculturally impacted estuary that opens into Monterey Bay, a model ecosystem for understanding the complexity of estuaries, and one of California's last remaining coastal wetlands. Readings include Jane Caffrey's "Changes in a California Estuary: A Profile of Elkhorn Slough". Basics of biogeochemistry, microbiology, oceanography, ecology, pollution, and environmental management.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
EARTHSYS 61Q:
Food and security (ESS 61Q, INTNLREL 61Q)
The course will provide a broad overview of key policy issues concerning agricultural development and food security, and will assess how global governance is addressing the problem of food security. At the same time the course will provide an overview of the field of international security, and examine how governments and international institutions are beginning to include food in discussions of security.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
ECON 11N:
Understanding the Welfare System
Welfare-reform legislation passed by the federal government in the mid-1990s heralded a dramatic step in the movement that has been termed the devolution revolution, which is again being discussed in the context of healthcare reform. The centerpiece of devolution is the transfer of more responsibilities for antipoverty programs to the states. We will explore the effects of these reforms and the role that devolution plays in the ongoing debates over the designs of programs that make up America's social safety net. In addition to discussing conventional welfare programs (e.g., Medicaid, food stamps, TANF, SSI) and other governmental policies assisting low-income families (EITC, minimum wages), we will examine the trends in governmental spending on anti-poverty programs and how our nation defines poverty and eligibility for income support. We will apply economics principles throughout to understand the effectiveness of America's antipoverty programs and their consequences on the behavior and circumstances of families. Prerequisites: A basic understanding/knowledge of introductory economics is recommended.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
ECON 13N:
Experimental Economics
This freshman seminar is for students who are interested in economics and want to get a hands on, front row experience with research. The goal of the seminar is to come up, as a group, with a research topic and question and implement an experiment to address the question.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
ECON 15Q:
The Economics of Immigration in the US: Past and Present
The United States has long been perceived as a land of opportunity for immigrants. Yet, both in the past and today, policy makers have often expressed concerns that immigrants fail to integrate into US society and lower wages for existing workers. There is an increasingly heated debate about how strict migration policy should be. This debate is rarely based on discussion of facts about immigrants assimilation. This class will review the literature on historical and contemporary migrant flows. We will tackle three major questions in the economics of immigration: whether immigrants were positively or negatively selected from their sending countries; how immigrants assimilated into the US economy and society; and what effects that immigration may have on the economy, including the effect of immigration on native employment and wages. In each case, we will present studies covering the two main eras of US immigration history, the Age of Mass Migration from Europe (1850-1920) and the recent period of renewed mass migration from Asia and Latin America. Students will participate in a final project, which could include developing their own recommendations for how to design immigration policy in the US. Prerequisite: Econ 1
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
ECON 17N:
Energy, the Environment, and the Economy
Examines the intimate relationship between environmental quality and the production and consumption of energy. Assesses the economics efficiency and political economy implications of a number of current topics in energy and environmental economics. Topics include: the economic theory of exhaustible resources, Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) control (cap and trade mechanisms and carbon fees), GHG emissions offsets, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), the "smart" transmission grid for electricity, nuclear energy and nuclear waste, the real cost of renewable energy, natural gas and coal-fired electricity production, the global coal and natural gas markets, Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) and Low-Carbon Fuel Standards (LCFS), Energy Efficiency Investments and Demand Response, and Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS). For all topics, there will be reading to explain the economics and engineering behind the topic and class discussion to clarify and elaborate on this interaction.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
ECON 19Q:
Measuring the Performance of Governments in the U.S. (PUBLPOL 19Q)
Spending by federal, state, and local governments accounts for about one-third of U.S. GDP and governments employ more than one-in-seven workers in the U.S. For most U.S. residents, government is represented by a complicated web of federal, state, and local policies. There is an increasingly contentious debate about the proper role of the government and regarding the impact of specific government policies. This debate is rarely grounded in a common set of facts. In this seminar, we will explore how each level of government interacts with U.S. residents through government services, public programs, taxes, and regulations. We will examine financial results for different levels of government while considering the net effects of government intervention on the health and economic well-being of individuals and families. Particular attention will be paid to certain sectors (e.g. education, health care, etc.) and to certain groups (e.g. those in poverty, the elderly, etc.). Along the way we will accumulate a set of metrics to assess the performance of each level of government while highlighting the formidable challenges of such an exercise. Prerequisite: Econ 1.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
ECON 22N:
Causes and Consequences of the Rise in Inequality
In this class we will discuss the economic and institutional causes of the rise in inequality in the US and other countries over the last 40 years. We will also discuss the consequences of inequality in terms of social justice, economic welfare, aggregate economic performance, intergenerational mobility, and the possible implications of inequality for the recent global financial crisis.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
ECON 23N:
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
We will explore the evolution and current performance of capitalist and socialist economies, their interaction with democracy, and the contemporary debate about the appropriate roles of individual vs. collective rights and responsibilities.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
ECON 25N:
Public Policy and Personal Finance (PUBLPOL 55N)
The seminar will provide an introduction and discussion of the impact of public policy on personal finance. Voters regularly rate the economy as one of the most important factors shaping their political views and most of those opinions are focused on their individual bottom lines. In this course we will discuss the rationale for different public policies and how they affect personal financial situations. We will explore personal finance issues such as taxes, loans, charity, insurance, and pensions. Using the context of (hypothetical) personal finance positions, we will discuss the public policy implications of various proposals and how they affect different groups of people, for example: the implications of differential tax rates for different types of income, the promotion of home ownership in the U.S., and policies to care for our aging population. While economic policy will be the focus of much of the course, we will also examine some of the implications of social policies on personal finance as well. There will be weekly readings and several short policy-related writing assignments.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
EDUC 30N:
The Science of Diverse Communities (CSRE 30N, PSYCH 30N, SOC 179N)
This course is an exploration. Most generally, its aim is to identify distinguishing features of good diverse communities and articulate them well enough to offer principles or guidelines for how to design and manage such communities - all with a particular focus on educational communities like schools, universities, academic disciplines, etc., but with the hope that such principles might generalize to other kinds of organizations and the broader society. The readings range from those on the origins of human communities and social identities to those on intergroup trust building. They also aim to embed our discussions in the major diversity issues of the day, or example, what's in the news about campus life. nnThus the course has a practical purpose: to develop testable ideas for improving the comfort level, fairness and goodness-for-all of identity diverse communities--especially in educational settings. nnThe course also has a basic science purpose: to explore the psychological significance of community. Is there a psychological need for community? Is there something about a need for community that can't be reduced to other needs, for example, for a gender, racial or sexual-orientation identity? How strong is the need for community against other needs? What kinds of human groupings can satisfy it? In meeting this need, can membership in one community substitute for membership in others? What do people need from communities in order to thrive in them? Do strong diverse communities dampen intergroup biases? Can strong community loyalty mitigate identity tensions within communities? nnSuch questions, the hope is, will help us develop a more systematic understanding of the challenges and opportunities inherent in diverse human communities.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
EDUC 114N:
Growing Up Bilingual (CHILATST 14N, CSRE 14N)
This course is a Freshman Introductory Seminar that has as its purpose introducing students to the sociolinguistic study of bilingualism by focusing on bilingual communities in this country and on bilingual individuals who use two languages in their everyday lives. Much attention is given to the history, significance, and consequences of language contact in the United States. The course focuses on the experiences of long-term US minority populations as well as that of recent immigrants.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
EDUC 116N:
Howard Zinn and the Quest for Historical Truth (HISTORY 116N)
With more than two million copies in print, Howard Zinn¿s A People's History is a cultural icon. We will use Zinn¿s book to probe how we determine what was true in the past. A People's History will be our point of departure, but our journey will visit a variety of historical trouble spots: debates about whether the US was founded as a Christian nation, Holocaust denial, and the "Birther" controversy of President Obama.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
EDUC 117N:
Losing My Religion: Secularism and Spirituality in American Lives (AMSTUD 117N, RELIGST 13N)
In this seminar you will explore theory and practice, sociological data, spiritual writing, and case studies in an effort to gain a more nuanced understanding about how religion, spirituality, and secularism attempt to make legible the constellation of concerns, commitments, and behaviors that bridge the moral and the personal, the communal and the national, the sacred, the profane, and the rational. Together we will cultivate critical perspectives on practices and politics, beliefs and belonging that we typically take for granted.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 2-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
EDUC 122Q:
Democracy in Crisis: Learning from the Past (HISTORY 52Q, POLISCI 20Q)
This Sophomore Seminar will focus on U.S. democracy and will use a series of case studies of major events in our national history to explore what happened and why to American democracy at key pressure points. This historical exploration should shed light on how the current challenges facing American democracy might best be handled. (Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
EE 14N:
Things about Stuff
Preference to freshmen. The stories behind disruptive inventions such as the telegraph, telephone, wireless, television, transistor, and chip are as important as the inventions themselves, for they elucidate broadly applicable scientific principles. Focus is on studying consumer devices; projects include building batteries, energy conversion devices and semiconductors from pocket change. Students may propose topics and projects of interest to them. The trajectory of the course is determined in large part by the students themselves.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-EngrAppSci, WAY-SMA
EE 21N:
What is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology is an often used word and it means many things to different people. Scientists and Engineers have some notion of what nanotechnology is, societal perception may be entirely different. In this course, we start with the classic paper by Richard Feynman ("There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom"), which laid down the challenge to the nanotechnologists. Then we discuss two classic books that offer a glimpse of what nanotechnology is: Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology by Eric Drexler, and Prey by Michael Crichton. Drexler's thesis sparked the imagination of what nano machinery might do, whereas Crichton's popular novel channeled the public's attention to this subject by portraying a disastrous scenario of a technology gone astray. We will use the scientific knowledge to analyze the assumptions and predictions of these classic works. We will draw upon the latest research advances to illustrate the possibilities and impossibilities of nanotechnology.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-EngrAppSci, WAY-SMA
EE 26N:
The Wireless World, and the Data You Leak
The world is increasingly based on wireless communication. Cell phones and WiFi are the most visible examples. Others are key fobs, water meters, gas and electric meters, garage door openers, baby monitors, and the list continues to expand. All of these produce RF signals you can detect and often decode. This seminar will explore how much information you broadcast throughout your day, and how it can easily be received and decoded using inexpensive hardware and public domain software. You will be able to explain why different information services use different frequencies, why they encode the information the way they do, and what security risks they present.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
EE 60N:
Man versus Nature: Coping with Disasters Using Space Technology (GEOPHYS 60N)
Preference to freshman. Natural hazards, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, hurricanes, and fires, and how they affect people and society; great disasters such as asteroid impacts that periodically obliterate many species of life. Scientific issues, political and social consequences, costs of disaster mitigation, and how scientific knowledge affects policy. How spaceborne imaging technology makes it possible to respond quickly and mitigate consequences; how it is applied to natural disasters; and remote sensing data manipulation and analysis. GER:DB-EngrAppSci
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-EngrAppSci, WAY-SMA
ENERGY 20N:
Technology in the Greenhouse
The evidence that human activities are changing the climate is overwhelming. Energy use is woven throughout the fabric of modern societies, and energy systems are also a primary way that humans interact with the global Earth systems like climate. We know enough about the potential impacts of climate change to see that we need to transform the world¿s energy systems to a much cleaner set of technologies with much lower greenhouse gas emissions. Economies that use energy in a clean, cost-effective way will be much more competitive in the future. The clean energy transition is now underway, with reductions in coal use and rapid growth in solar and wind deployment, but there is much more to do to limit the adverse impacts of climate change. This seminar explores technology options available to make the changes needed, in the developed and developing worlds. There is no shortage of energy available for our use. Instead, the challenge is to convert those energy resources into services like electricity and transportation, and that conversion requires technology, as well as policies and markets that enable innovation. The scale of the world¿s energy systems is dauntingly large, and we will need a well-diversified set of options to meet the challenge. Wind, solar, nuclear, carbon capture and storage for fossil fuel use, modified agriculture, electric (and automated) vehicles, advanced air conditioning, and many other technology options exist. We will consider these technologies and ask what barriers will have to be addressed if they are to be deployed at a scale large enough to reduce the impact climate change. The format will be discussions of technologies and their potential with a project and student presentations toward the end of the quarter.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-AQR, WAY-SMA
ENGLISH 48N:
The American Songbook and Love Poetry (AMSTUD 48N)
A study of performances (Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra etc) of songs by classic American composers (Porter, Rogers and Hart, Cohen).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
ENGLISH 51N:
The Sisters: Poetry & Painting (ARTHIST 160N)
Poetry and painting have often been called the "sister arts". Why? Sometimes a poem or a painting stands out to us, asking that we stay with it, that we remember it, although we cannot exactly say why. Poems have a way of making pictures in the mind, and paintings turn "rhymes" amid the people, places, and things they portray. Each is a concentrated world, inviting an exhilarating closeness of response: why does this line come first? Why does the artist include that detail? Who knows but that as we write and talk about these poems and pictures we will be doing what John Keats said a painter does: that is, arriving at a "trembling delicate and snail-horn perception of Beauty." Each week explore the kinship between a different pair of painter and poet and also focuses on a particular problem or method of interpretation. Some of the artist/poet combinations we will consider: Shakespeare and Caravaggio; Jorie Graham and (the photographer) Henri Cartier-Bresson; Alexander Pope and Thomas Gainsborough; William Wordsworth and Caspar David Friedrich; Christina Rossetti and Mary Cassatt; Walt Whitman and Thomas Eakins; Thomas Hardy and Edward Hopper.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 68N:
Mark Twain and American Culture (AMSTUD 68N)
Preference to freshmen. Mark Twain defined the rhythms of our prose and the contours of our moral map. He recognized our extravagant promise and stunning failures, our comic foibles and tragic flaws. He is viewed as the most American of American authors--and as one of the most universal. How does his work illuminate his society's (and our society's) responses to such issues as race, gender, technology, heredity vs. environment, religion, education, art, imperialism, animal welfare, and what it means to be "American"?
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 70N:
Shakespeare Unbound
Unbound from classical poetics, or from any strict adherence to the conventions of comedy, tragedy, and history, Shakespeare made¿and still makes¿the stage come to life. The course will focus on some of the more unsettling productions from the hand of the bard, among them Titus Andronicus, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, and The Winter's Tale</I>.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
ENGLISH 75N:
American Short Stories (AMSTUD 75N)
How and why did the short story take root and flourish in an American context? Early works of classic American literature read alongside stories by women and minority writers, stretching from the early nineteenth century to the contemporary period.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 82N:
Thinking about Photographs
The course will begin with a short history of photography since the 19th century; followed by both a hands-on exploration of different types of photographs (possibly using the Cantor Collection) and then a more theoretical discussion of some of the acknowledged classics of photographic writing (Susan Sontag's On Photography, Roland Barthes' Camera lucida, Linfield's The Cruel Radiance.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 90Q:
Sports Writing
Study and practice of the unique narratives, tropes, images and arguments that creative writers develop when they write about popular sport. From regional fandom to individualist adventuring, boxing and baseball to mascot dancing and table tennis, exceptional creative writers mine from a diversity of leisure activity a rich vein of ¿sports writing¿ in the creative nonfiction genre. In doing so, they demonstrate the creative and formal adaptability required to write with excellence about any subject matter, and under the circumstances of any subjectivity. Discussion of the ways in which writers have framed, and even critiqued, our interest in athletic events, spectatorship, and athletic beauty. Writers include Joyce Carol Oates, Roland Barthes, David James Duncan, Arnold Rampersad, John Updike, Maxine Kumin, Susan Sterling, Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Dervla Murphy, Haruki Murakami, Don DeLillo, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Annie Dillard, John McPhee, and Laura Hillenbrand. Close readings of essays on form and sport, as well as book excerpts. Students will engage in class discussions and write short weekly papers, leading to a more comprehensive project at the end of the quarter.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
ENGLISH 93Q:
The American Road Trip
From Whitman to Kerouac, Alec Soth to Georgia O'Keeffe, the lure of travel has inspired many American artists to pack up their bags and hit the open road. In this course we will be exploring the art and literature of the great American road trip. We will be reading and writing in a variety of genres, workshopping our own personal projects, and considering a wide breadth of narrative approaches. Assignments will range from reading Cormac McCarthy's novel, 'The Road,' to listening to Bob Dylan's album, 'Highway 61 Revisited.' We will be looking at films like 'Badlands' and 'Thelma and Louise,' acquainting ourselves with contemporary photographers, going on a number of campus-wide field trips, and finishing the quarter with an actual road trip down the California coast. Anyone with a sense of adventure is welcome!
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
ENGR 159Q:
Japanese Companies and Japanese Society (MATSCI 159Q)
Preference to sophomores. The structure of a Japanese company from the point of view of Japanese society. Visiting researchers from Japanese companies give presentations on their research enterprise. The Japanese research ethic. The home campus equivalent of a Kyoto SCTI course.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
ESS 38N:
The Worst Journey in the World: The Science, Literature, and History of Polar Exploration (EARTHSYS 38N, GS 38N)
This course examines the motivations and experiences of polar explorers under the harshest conditions on Earth, as well as the chronicles of their explorations and hardships, dating to the 1500s for the Arctic and the 1700s for the Antarctic. Materials include The Worst Journey in the World by Aspley Cherry-Garrard who in 1911 participated in a midwinter Antarctic sledging trip to recover emperor penguin eggs. Optional field trip into the high Sierra in March.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci
ESS 46N:
Exploring the Critical Interface between the Land and Monterey Bay: Elkhorn Slough (EARTHSYS 46N)
Preference to freshmen. Field trips to sites in the Elkhorn Slough, a small agriculturally impacted estuary that opens into Monterey Bay, a model ecosystem for understanding the complexity of estuaries, and one of California's last remaining coastal wetlands. Readings include Jane Caffrey's "Changes in a California Estuary: A Profile of Elkhorn Slough". Basics of biogeochemistry, microbiology, oceanography, ecology, pollution, and environmental management.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
ESS 61Q:
Food and security (EARTHSYS 61Q, INTNLREL 61Q)
The course will provide a broad overview of key policy issues concerning agricultural development and food security, and will assess how global governance is addressing the problem of food security. At the same time the course will provide an overview of the field of international security, and examine how governments and international institutions are beginning to include food in discussions of security.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
FEMGEN 13N:
Women Making Music (MUSIC 14N)
Preference to freshmen. Women's musical activities across times and cultures; how ideas about gender influence the creation, performance, and perception of music.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 24N:
Sappho: Erotic Poetess of Lesbos (CLASSICS 16N)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 24N.) Preference to freshmen. Sappho's surviving fragments in English; traditions referring to or fantasizing about her disputed life. How her poetry and legend inspired women authors and male poets such as Swinburne, Baudelaire, and Pound. Paintings inspired by Sappho in ancient and modern times, and composers who put her poetry to music.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-CE, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 36N:
Gay Autobiography (HISTORY 36N)
Preference to freshmen. Gender, identity, and solidarity as represented in nine autobiographies: Isherwood, Ackerley, Duberman, Monette, Louganis, Barbin, Cammermeyer, Gingrich, and Lorde. To what degree do these writers view sexual orientation as a defining feature of their selves? Is there a difference between the way men and women view identity? What politics follow from these writers' experiences?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 54N:
African American Women's Lives (AFRICAAM 54N, AMSTUD 54N, CSRE 54N, HISTORY 54N)
This course encourages students to think critically about historical sources and to use creative and rigorous historical methods to recover African American women¿s experiences, which often have been placed on the periphery of American history and American life.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 63N:
The Feminist Critique: The History and Politics of Gender Equality (AMSTUD 63N, CSRE 63N, HISTORY 63N)
This course explores the long history of ideas about gender and equality. Each week we read, dissect, compare, and critique a set of primary historical documents (political and literary) from around the world, moving from the 15th century to the present. We tease out changing arguments about education, the body, sexuality, violence, labor, politics, and the very meaning of gender, and we place feminist critics within national and global political contexts.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
FEMGEN 86Q:
Love as a Force for Social Justice (HUMBIO 86Q)
Preference to sophomores. Biological, psychological, religious, social and cultural perspectives on the concept of agape love. How love is conceptualized across cultures; agape love as the basis of many religions; different kinds of love; the biology of love; love in action for social justice; the languages of love, including art, literature, music, and poetry. Emphasis is on blog writing, participation, and oral presentation.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
FEMGEN 188Q:
Imagining Women: Writers in Print and in Person (CSRE 188Q)
Gender roles, gender relations and sexual identity explored in contemporary literature and conversation with guest authors. Weekly meetings designated for book discussion and meeting with authors. Interest in writing and a curiosity about diverse women's lives would be helpful to students. Students will use such tools as close reading, research, analysis and imagination. Seminar requires strong voice of all participants. Oral presentations, discussion papers, final projects.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
FILMSTUD 50Q:
The Video Essay: Writing with Video about Film and Media
In this course, we will explore what it means to write with video, and we will learn to make effective and engaging video essays about historical and contemporary audiovisual media. Specifically, we will examine formal, aesthetic, and rhetorical strategies for communicating in the medium of video, and we will conduct a series of hands-on exercises utilizing digital video editing software to construct arguments, analyses, and interpretations of film and other media (including television, video games, and online media). Compared with traditional, text-based engagements, the video essay offers a remarkably direct mode of communicating critical and analytical ideas. In this medium, authors no longer struggle to describe audiovisual contents in words that can never do justice to the rich array of details that are immediately apparent to spectators eyes and ears; instead, video essayists can simply show their viewers what they want them to see. This does not mean, however, that it is any easier to write effectively with video than it is to compose an essay with pen and paper. Similar types of expository and argumentative planning are involved in both forms, while the new technology introduces its own characteristic challenges and choices, including decisions about the spatial and temporal organization and transformation of audiovisual materials, the addition of onscreen text, voiceover commentary, and visual effects. By taking a hands-on approach, we will develop our skills with editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple's Final Cut Pro while also cultivating our awareness of the formal and narrative techniques employed in films and other moving-image media. Through weekly assignments and group critique sessions, we will learn to express ourselves more effectively and creatively in audiovisual media. As a culmination of our efforts, we will assemble a group exhibition of our best video essays for public display on campus.nNo previous experience is required, but a willingness to learn new technologies (in particular, video editing software) is important.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
FRENCH 75N:
Narrative Medicine and Near-Death Experiences (ITALIAN 75N)
Even if many of us don't fully believe in an afterlife, we remain fascinated by visions of it. This course focuses on Near-Death Experiences and the stories around them, investigating them from the many perspectives pertinent to the growing field of narrative medicine: medical, neurological, cognitive, psychological, sociological, literary, and filmic. The goal is not to understand whether the stories are veridical but what they do for us, as individuals, and as a culture, and in particular how they seek to reshape the patient-doctor relationship. Materials will span the 20th century and come into the present. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
FRENCH 87N:
The New Wave: How The French Reinvented Cinema
Focus on the French New Wave's cinematic revolution of 1959-1962. In a few years, the Nouvelle Vague delivered landmark works such as Truffaut's 400 Blows, Godard's Breathless, Chabro's Le Beau Serge or Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour, and changed forever the way we make and think about movies. Why did these films look so radically fresh? What do they say about France's youth culture in the early 60s? How is the author's theory behind them still influencing us today? Focus is on cultural history, aesthetic analysis, interpretation of narrative, sound and visual forms. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
GENE 104Q:
Law and the Biosciences
Preference to sophomores. Focus is on human genetics; also assisted reproduction and neuroscience. Topics include forensic use of DNA, genetic testing, genetic discrimination, eugenics, cloning, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, neuroscientific methods of lie detection, and genetic or neuroscience enhancement. Student presentations on research paper conclusions.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER, Writing 2
GEOPHYS 20N:
Predicting Volcanic Eruptions
The physics and chemistry of volcanic processes and modern methods of volcano monitoring. Volcanoes as manifestations of the Earth's internal energy and hazards to society. How earth scientists better forecast eruptive activity by monitoring seismic activity, bulging of the ground surface, and the discharge of volcanic gases, and by studying deposits from past eruptions. Focus is on the interface between scientists and policy makers and the challenges of decision making with incomplete information. Field trip to Mt. St. Helens, site of the 1980 eruption.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci, WAY-AQR, WAY-SMA
GEOPHYS 54N:
The Space Mission to Europa
Jupiter's icy moon Europa is a leading candidate in the search for life in our solar system outside of Earth. NASA's upcoming Europa Clipper mission would investigate the habitability of the moon using a suite of nine geophysical instruments. In this course, we will use the mission as a central text around which to explore the intersection of science, engineering, management, economics, culture, and politics involved in any modern big science enterprise.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
GEOPHYS 60N:
Man versus Nature: Coping with Disasters Using Space Technology (EE 60N)
Preference to freshman. Natural hazards, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, hurricanes, and fires, and how they affect people and society; great disasters such as asteroid impacts that periodically obliterate many species of life. Scientific issues, political and social consequences, costs of disaster mitigation, and how scientific knowledge affects policy. How spaceborne imaging technology makes it possible to respond quickly and mitigate consequences; how it is applied to natural disasters; and remote sensing data manipulation and analysis. GER:DB-EngrAppSci
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-EngrAppSci, WAY-SMA
GERMAN 60N:
German Crime
Crime is as old as humanity, as old as storytelling. Cain's murder of Abel, Antigone's burial of Polynices, Robin Hood's robbing from the rich: all of these testify to the ongoing fascination with crime and criminality, and to literature's role in policing, and probing, the boundaries of social legitimacy. This is a course about murders, break-ins, betrayals, sexual infidelity and violence, and crimes against humanity, and the ways those crimes, sometimes moral, sometimes legal, and sometimes not really even exactly criminal, teach us about German and German literature in recent centuries. Course material will include modern and classical crime fiction (Friedrich Glauser, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Jakob Arjouni, Thomas Glavinic), crime in novelistic, theatrical and poetic genres (Anna Seghers, Bertolt Brecht, Heinrich von Kleist, Friedrich Schiller), and German-language television and film (Fritz Lang's "M,"Carol Reed's "The Third Man," "Tatort"). nThis course is for students with good knowledge of German. Students without German can participate in a special section with English language material.nGerman Studies Assistant Professor Lea Pao will teach this course.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
GS 38N:
The Worst Journey in the World: The Science, Literature, and History of Polar Exploration (EARTHSYS 38N, ESS 38N)
This course examines the motivations and experiences of polar explorers under the harshest conditions on Earth, as well as the chronicles of their explorations and hardships, dating to the 1500s for the Arctic and the 1700s for the Antarctic. Materials include The Worst Journey in the World by Aspley Cherry-Garrard who in 1911 participated in a midwinter Antarctic sledging trip to recover emperor penguin eggs. Optional field trip into the high Sierra in March.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci
GS 40N:
Diamonds
Preference to freshmen. Topics include the history of diamonds as gemstones, prospecting and mining, and their often tragic politics. How diamond samples provide clues for geologists to understand the Earth's deep interior and the origins of the solar system. Diamond's unique materials properties and efforts in synthesizing diamonds.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci, WAY-SMA
GS 59N:
Earthquake 9.0: The Heritage of Fukushima Daiichi 6 Years Later
We will consider the case for nuclear power as an energy source through the lens of the Fukushima disaster. Specific topics will include the cause of the earthquake and tsunami, the causes for the nuclear power plant failure, the mechanisms for the release of radioactivity at the time of the accident and today, and the ongoing human impact of this tragedy. In addition to the details of the accident and the release of radioactivity, class discussions and readings will explore the health and economic impacts of nuclear power and examine how the accident has affected the future prospects of nuclear power in Japan, the U.S., and around the world.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-AQR
GSBGEN 114Q:
Changing Hearts and Minds
Whether you are launching a start-up, leading an organization, or inspiring social action the need to communicate effectively is crucial to your success. This seminar, grounded in the work of Nancy Duarte's book Illuminate, will look at how leaders can effectively use speeches, ceremonies, stories, and symbols to lead change.n nYou will be able to apply course concepts to a change initiative within which they are already engaged and receive feedback from professor and peers to improve. Plans include field visits to Duarte's offices and other venues where change efforts are underway. You will also benefit from seeing the evolution of MBA students' presentations in the highly successful LOWkeynotes program.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
HISTORY 9N:
How to Start Your Own Country: Sovereignty and State-Formation in Modern History
What does it mean to start a country, or to acquire and possess sovereignty over a territory? This course will examine the historical evolution of fundamental concepts in our international system: state formation, statehood, and sovereignty. Each week will spotlight a case-study in which sovereignty and statehood have appeared greatly confused and hotly contested. These include: the UK-China lease for control of Hong Kong; the US Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay; the corporate state of the legendary British East India Company; and Disney World.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
HISTORY 10N:
Thinking About War
This course examines classic approaches to war as an intellectual problem, looking at how a matter of such great physical violence and passions can be subjected to understanding and used in philosophy, political theory, and art. Questions to be examined include the definition of war, its causes, its moral value, the nature of its participants, its use in the self-definition of individuals and societies, its relation to political authority, warfare and gender, and the problem of civil war.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
HISTORY 14N:
Making the Middle Ages
Through hands-on engagement with Stanford¿s diverse collections of medieval artifacts-- from grungy coins to lavish manuscripts-- this course offers an introduction to the cultures of Europe and the Mediterranean world from 400-1400 CE. In addition, the course will explore competing contemporary understandings of the "Middle Ages" and the role of the "medieval" in shaping what it means to be "modern".
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 20N:
Russia in the Early Modern European Imagination
Preference to freshmen. The contrast between the early modern image of Europe as free, civilized, democratic, rational, and clean against the notion of New World Indians, Turks, and Chinese as savage. The more difficult, contemporary problem regarding E. Europe and Russia which seemed both European and exotic. Readings concerning E. Europe and Russia from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment; how they construct a positive image of Europe and conversely a negative stereotype of E. Europe. Prerequisite: PWR 1.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-SI, Writing 2
HISTORY 23N:
The Soviet Union and the World: View from the Hoover Archives
This course seeks to explore the Soviet Union's influence on the world from 1917 to its end in 1991 from a variety of perspectives. Hoover Institution archival holdings will be the basic sources for the course.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
HISTORY 36N:
Gay Autobiography (FEMGEN 36N)
Preference to freshmen. Gender, identity, and solidarity as represented in nine autobiographies: Isherwood, Ackerley, Duberman, Monette, Louganis, Barbin, Cammermeyer, Gingrich, and Lorde. To what degree do these writers view sexual orientation as a defining feature of their selves? Is there a difference between the way men and women view identity? What politics follow from these writers' experiences?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP
HISTORY 48Q:
South Africa: Contested Transitions (AFRICAAM 48Q)
Preference to sophomores. The inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president in May 1994 marked the end of an era and a way of life for South Africa. The changes have been dramatic, yet the legacies of racism and inequality persist. Focus: overlapping and sharply contested transitions. Who advocates and opposes change? Why? What are their historical and social roots and strategies? How do people reconstruct their society? Historical and current sources, including films, novels, and the Internet.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI, Writing 2
HISTORY 52Q:
Democracy in Crisis: Learning from the Past (EDUC 122Q, POLISCI 20Q)
This Sophomore Seminar will focus on U.S. democracy and will use a series of case studies of major events in our national history to explore what happened and why to American democracy at key pressure points. This historical exploration should shed light on how the current challenges facing American democracy might best be handled. (Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
HISTORY 54N:
African American Women's Lives (AFRICAAM 54N, AMSTUD 54N, CSRE 54N, FEMGEN 54N)
This course encourages students to think critically about historical sources and to use creative and rigorous historical methods to recover African American women¿s experiences, which often have been placed on the periphery of American history and American life.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
HISTORY 58Q:
American Landscapes of Segregation (AFRICAAM 58Q, AMSTUD 58Q)
This course examines various landscapes of segregation in U.S. history from 19th century reconstruction and settler expansion through the contemporary U.S. security state. Each week we consider different histories of segregation including native reservation and boarding school stories, Jim Crow and post-World War II urban/suburban segregation, school integration and bussing, and the rise of the carceral state. We will ask: How have Americans moved through space with different degrees of freedom and constraint over time, and how has that shaped what it has meant to be an American in different ways for different groups? How has access to land, property, consumer, recreational and educational spaces and resources been regulated by categories of race, gender, sexuality, colonial subjectivity, immigrant status and class? To gain a better sense of our local history, we will also consider how structures of segregation have historically mapped the Bay Area. Sources include primary and secondary historic texts, feature and documentary films, photography, and poetry.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 61N:
The Worlds of Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson assumed many roles during his life-- Founding Father, revolutionary, and author of the Declaration of Independence; natural scientist, inventor, and political theorist; slaveholder, founder of a major political party, and President of the United States. This introductory seminar explores these many worlds of Jefferson, both to understand the multifaceted character of the man and the broader historical contexts that he inhabited and did so much to shape.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
HISTORY 63N:
The Feminist Critique: The History and Politics of Gender Equality (AMSTUD 63N, CSRE 63N, FEMGEN 63N)
This course explores the long history of ideas about gender and equality. Each week we read, dissect, compare, and critique a set of primary historical documents (political and literary) from around the world, moving from the 15th century to the present. We tease out changing arguments about education, the body, sexuality, violence, labor, politics, and the very meaning of gender, and we place feminist critics within national and global political contexts.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 69Q:
American Road Trips (AMSTUD 109Q)
"Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road." --Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957. From Jack Kerouac's On the Road to Cheryl Strayed's Wild, this course explores epic road trips of the twentieth century. Travel is a fundamental social and cultural practice through which Americans have constructed ideas about the self, the nation, the past, and the future. The open road, as it is often called, offered excitement, great adventure, and the space for family bonding and memory making. But the footloose and fancy-free nature of travel that Jack Kerouac celebrated was available to some travelers but not to all. Engaging historical and literary texts, film, autobiography, memoir, photography, and music, we will consider the ways that travel and road trips have been represented in American culture. This course examines the following questions: How did men and women experience travel differently? How did the motivations for travel change over time? What role did race, ethnicity, class, relationships, and sexuality play in these trips? Students will work together to plan a road trip of their own which the class will take during the quarter.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
HISTORY 84N:
The American Empire in the Middle East
What have been the traditional objectives of U.S. policy in the Middle East since the end of World War II? What forces shape U.S. policy towards the Middle East? Did those interests and the means employed to pursue them change substantially after the demise of the Soviet Union? What has been the impact of U.S. policy on the region itself? The three principal cases to be examined are Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel/Palestine.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-SI
HISTORY 86Q:
Blood and Money: The Origins of Antisemitism (JEWISHST 86Q)
For over two millennia, Jews and Judaism have been the object of sustained anxieties, fears, and fantasies, which have in turn underpinned repeated outbreaks of violence and persecution. This course will explore the development and impact of antisemitism from Late Antiquity to the Enlightenment, including the emergence of the Blood libel, the association between Jews and moneylending, and the place of Judaism in Christian and Islamic theology. No prior background in history or Jewish studies is necessary. Prerequisite: PWR 1.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI, Writing 2
HISTORY 95N:
Maps in the Modern World
Preference to freshmen. Focus is on cutting-edge research. Topics: the challenge of grasping the globe as a whole; geography's roots in empire; maps as propaganda and as commodities; the cultural production of scale; and the cartography of imaginery worlds.Sources include resources in the Green Library Special Collections and in the Stanford Spatial History Lab.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
HISTORY 116N:
Howard Zinn and the Quest for Historical Truth (EDUC 116N)
With more than two million copies in print, Howard Zinn¿s A People's History is a cultural icon. We will use Zinn¿s book to probe how we determine what was true in the past. A People's History will be our point of departure, but our journey will visit a variety of historical trouble spots: debates about whether the US was founded as a Christian nation, Holocaust denial, and the "Birther" controversy of President Obama.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
HRP 89Q:
Introduction to Cross Cultural Issues in Medicine
Preference to sophomores. Introduction to social factors that impact health care delivery, such as ethnicity, immigration, language barriers, and patient service expectations. Focus is on developing a framework to understand culturally unique and non-English speaking populations in the health care system.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-AmerCul
HUMBIO 79Q:
Sexuality and Society
This course will explore how sexual identity, attitudes, and behaviors are shaped by the messages sent by the various agents of society such as schools, family, peers, media, and religious, medical, and political institutions. The interaction of biology, psychology, and socio-cultural factors, such as gender roles and sexual/relationship scripts will be discussed, as will the intersection of sexuality and notions of love, romance, and commitment. Critical developmental periods, such as adolescence and emerging adulthood will be examined in depth. Students will explore their own values and feelings about sexuality and come to an understanding of how their beliefs were formed. We will discuss how information about sexuality is disseminated in our society and what we can do to help ensure that such information is used in a way that promotes healthy self-conceptions, behavior, and relationships.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-Gender, WAY-SI
HUMBIO 86Q:
Love as a Force for Social Justice (FEMGEN 86Q)
Preference to sophomores. Biological, psychological, religious, social and cultural perspectives on the concept of agape love. How love is conceptualized across cultures; agape love as the basis of many religions; different kinds of love; the biology of love; love in action for social justice; the languages of love, including art, literature, music, and poetry. Emphasis is on blog writing, participation, and oral presentation.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
HUMBIO 91Q:
Neuroethology: The Neural Control of Behavior (BIO 32Q)
Preference to sophomores. Animal behavior offers insights about evolutionary adaptations and this seminar will discuss the origins of the study of animal behavior and its development to the present. How does the nervous system control behavior and how is it changed by behavior? We will analyze and discuss original research papers about the neural basis of behavior. The use and misuse of parallels between animal and human behavior. Possible field trip to observe animals in their natural habitat.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci, WAY-SMA
HUMBIO 96Q:
Injustice, Advocacy and Courage: The Path of Everyday Heroes
This course will study the paradigms of people of courage, action and energy who have fought against injustice by advocating for causes against great odds and at personal risk. The focus will be on everyday people who have taken action, often at great personal risk, not for ambition, but because of their convictions and steadfast commitment to their beliefs.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
ILAC 110N:
Brazil: Musical Culture and Films
An audiovisual introduction to Brazilian cultural and regional diversities. Films and Music from Samba to Bossa Nova to Tropicália to Hip-Hop. Rhythms and Spirituals of Capoeira and Candomblé. Amerindian songs. Dances and Rituals. Final visual-sonorous exhibition and performance by students. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
ILAC 113Q:
Borges and Translation (DLCL 113Q)
Borges's creative process and practice as seen through the lens of translation. How do Borges's texts articulate the relationships between reading, writing, and translation? Topics include authorship, fidelity, irreverence, and innovation. Readings will draw on Borges's short stories, translations, and essays. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: 100-level course in Spanish or permission of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
INTNLREL 60Q:
United Nations Peacekeeping
Focus is on an examination of United Nations peacekeeping, from its inception in 1956 in the wake of the Suez Crisis, to its increasingly important role as an enforcer of political stability in sub-Saharan Africa. Examines the practice of "classic" peacekeeping as it developed during the Cold War, the rise and fall of "second-generation" peacekeeping, and the reemergence of a muscular form of peacekeeping in sub-Saharan Africa more recently. Topics include the basic history of the United Nations since 1945, he fundamentals of the United Nations Charter, and the historical trajectory of U.N. peaeckeeping and the evolving arguments of its proponents and critics over the years.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP
INTNLREL 61Q:
Food and security (EARTHSYS 61Q, ESS 61Q)
The course will provide a broad overview of key policy issues concerning agricultural development and food security, and will assess how global governance is addressing the problem of food security. At the same time the course will provide an overview of the field of international security, and examine how governments and international institutions are beginning to include food in discussions of security.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
INTNLREL 62Q:
Mass Atrocities and Reconciliation
This seminar considers the theory and practice of transitional justice as exemplified by diverse case studies, such as Germany, South Africa, Bosnia, and Rwanda. We will ask ourselves throughout the term whether and to what extent mass atrocities and grave human rights violations can be ameliorated and healed, and what legal, institutional, and political arrangements may be most conducive to such attempts. We will study war crimes tribunals and truth commissions, and we will ask about their effectiveness, especially in regards to their potential of fostering reconciliation in a given society. In every case we will encounter and evaluate specific shortcomings and obstacles, which will provide us with a more nuanced understanding of the complex process of coming to terms with the past.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER, WAY-SI
ITALIAN 75N:
Narrative Medicine and Near-Death Experiences (FRENCH 75N)
Even if many of us don't fully believe in an afterlife, we remain fascinated by visions of it. This course focuses on Near-Death Experiences and the stories around them, investigating them from the many perspectives pertinent to the growing field of narrative medicine: medical, neurological, cognitive, psychological, sociological, literary, and filmic. The goal is not to understand whether the stories are veridical but what they do for us, as individuals, and as a culture, and in particular how they seek to reshape the patient-doctor relationship. Materials will span the 20th century and come into the present. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
JAPAN 82N:
Joys and Pains of Growing Up and Older in Japan
What do old and young people share in common? With a focus on Japan, a country with a large long-living population, this seminar spotlights older people's lives as a reflectiion of culture and society, history, and current social and personal changes. Through discussion of multidisciplinary studies on age, analysis of narratives, and films, we will gain a closer understanding of Japanese society and the multiple meanings of growing up and older. Students will also create a short video/audio profile of an older individual, and we will explore cross-cultural comparisons. Held in Knight Bldg. Rm. 201.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
JEWISHST 37Q:
Zionism and the Novel (COMPLIT 37Q)
At the end of the nineteenth century, Zionism emerged as a political movement to establish a national homeland for the Jews, eventually leading to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. This seminar uses novels to explore the changes in Zionism, the roots of the conflict in the Middle East, and the potentials for the future. We will take a close look at novels by Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, in order to understand multiple perspectives, and we will also consider works by authors from the North America and from Europe. Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
JEWISHST 86Q:
Blood and Money: The Origins of Antisemitism (HISTORY 86Q)
For over two millennia, Jews and Judaism have been the object of sustained anxieties, fears, and fantasies, which have in turn underpinned repeated outbreaks of violence and persecution. This course will explore the development and impact of antisemitism from Late Antiquity to the Enlightenment, including the emergence of the Blood libel, the association between Jews and moneylending, and the place of Judaism in Christian and Islamic theology. No prior background in history or Jewish studies is necessary. Prerequisite: PWR 1.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI, Writing 2
KOREA 101N:
Kangnam Style: Korean Soft Power in the Global Economy
For over a decade now, South Korea has established itself as a tireless generator of soft power, the popularity of its pop-culture spreading from Asia to the rest of the world. This class will look into the economic engine that moves this "cultural contents" industry, and will examine some of its expressions in the form of K-pop. Class meets in East Asia Library (Lathrop Library), Rm 338.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
LAWGEN 105Q:
Law and Popular Culture (AMSTUD 105Q)
(Same as AMSTUD 105Q) This seminar focuses on the interface between two important subjects: law and popular culture. Before class, students will see a series of films or television shows relating to law, lawyers, and the legal system. There is also a weekly homework assignment based on materials in the assigned text and the assigned film or TV show. We will discuss the pop culture treatment of subjects such as the adversary system, good and bad lawyers, female and gay lawyers, the work life of lawyers, legal education, ethical issues, the jury system, and criminal and civil justice. The seminar discussions will draw on film theory and film-making technique to deepen understanding of the interrelationship between law and popular culture. The discussions will illuminate the ways in which pop culture products both reflect and change social views about law and lawyers. The assigned text is Michael Asimow & Shannon Mader, "Law & Popular Culture: A Course Book" (Peter Lang, 2d edition, 2013).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
LAWGEN 115N:
Human Rights Advocacy
What are the origins of the human rights movement and where is it headed? What does it mean to be a human rights activist? What are the main challenges and dilemmas facing those engaged in human rights advocacy? In the space of seven decades, human rights advocates have transformed a marginal utopian ideal into a central element of global discussion, if not practice. In this seminar we will examine the actors and organizations behind this remarkable development as well as the vast challenges faced by advocates in the recent past and today. Together, we will learn to be critical of, as well as to think, and act, like human rights advocates. This seminar will introduce you to some the main debates and dilemmas within the human rights movement. We will consider and understand the differing agendas of western international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) and their counterparts in the frequently non-western) developing world, as well as tensions between and among rights advocates along other important dimensions (civil and political vs. economic, social and cultural rights; rights promotion through engagement of powerful actors vs. challenging structures of power, etc.). The seminar seeks to develop your ability: 1) to understand human rights and social justice issues as contested political, legal and cultural phenomena; 2) to review advocacy texts, videos and other interventions critically; 3) to appreciate the political dimensions of efforts to promote human rights; 4) to understand how recent history constrains and structures options and possibilities for social intervention to promote rights and justice. During the course of the quarter you will be required to submit several short reflection papers and develop a human rights advocacy campaign.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
LINGUIST 21N:
Linguistic Diversity and Universals: The Principles of Language Structure
The human capacity for language is able to support a staggering diversity of languages. But is anything possible in a human language, and is there anything that is common to all languages? Looking past the vast surface differences, linguists have discovered deep commonalities among the languages of the world as well as strict limits on the observed variation and on what a possible human language is. In this seminar, we will seek to uncover the building blocks of language and the laws that govern their interactions. Our goal will be to reach an understanding of the ways in which languages are systematically alike and different, as well as of the nature of language in general. We will investigate a variety of topics, including crosslinguistic differences and similarities with respect to word order, the grammatical structure of questions, and how languages mark subjects and objects. We will explore the structure of both sentences and words, identifying and studying their fundamental properties. In this pursuit, we will rely on data from a range of languages, such as English, Navajo, Zulu, and many others. This seminar will teach you how to view language as an object of scientific study, introducing you to central concepts and methods of linguistics (with a particular emphasis on syntax) along the way. It will give you the tools to describe and analyze even unfamiliar languages, and will teach you to construct explicit hypotheses about how language works and to test them empirically. There are no prerequisites for this course and no experience with linguistics will be assumed; the course is Socratically taught and there will be no textbook.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
LINGUIST 55N:
Language in the City
Language communicates a great deal more than the meaning of our words. Our regional accents, for example, offer clues about where we grew up. And even though accents are usually labeled in geographical terms, their symbolic meanings extend far beyond mere coordinates on a map. When we hear a New Yorker, we not only wonder whether they¿re from Brooklyn, but also conjecture about the kind of person they are: they might prefer to walk down the street quickly over strolling, they might enjoy lively conversations where people talk over one another, and they might tend to express their opinions bluntly. This seminar explores the linguistic practices and social meaning of accents spoken in San Francisco. nClass participants will collectively choose a neighborhood in San Francisco for in-depth examination. Through a series of field trips (once every two or three weeks), students will document the varieties of English spoken by lifelong residents of the neighborhood. Field assignments will consist primarily of observation and audio-recorded interviews. Interviews will serve as data for linguistic analysis (transcription, quantitative analysis of a linguistic feature of interest) throughout the term. Linguistic patterns will be analyzed in relation to salient social issues in the community, which will be identified in both interview content and historical records.nUpon completing the seminar, students will have (a) learned how to treat language as an object of scientific analysis, (b) developed an understanding of the social ramifications of linguistic practice, (c) gained fieldwork skills in general and interviewing skills in particular, and (d) come to appreciate the diversity of experiences in an urban community near Stanford.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
LINGUIST 83N:
Translation
Preference to Freshman. What is a translation? The increased need for translations in the modern world due to factors such as tourism and terrorism, localization and globalization, diplomacy and treaties, law and religion, and literature and science. How to meet this need; different kinds of translation for different purposes; what makes one translation better than another; why some texts are more difficult to translate than others. Can some of this work be done by machines? Are there things that cannot be said in some languages?
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
MATH 80Q:
Capillary Surfaces: Explored and Unexplored Territory
Preference to sophomores. Capillary surfaces: the interfaces between fluids that are adjacent to each other and do not mix. Recently discovered phenomena, predicted mathematically and subsequently confirmed by experiments, some done in space shuttles. Interested students may participate in ongoing investigations with affinity between mathematics and physics.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-FR, WAY-SMA
MATH 87Q:
Mathematics of Knots, Braids, Links, and Tangles
Preference to sophomores. Types of knots and how knots can be distinguished from one another by means of numerical or polynomial invariants. The geometry and algebra of braids, including their relationships to knots. Topology of surfaces. Brief summary of applications to biology, chemistry, and physics.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-FR
MATSCI 81N:
Bioengineering Materials to Heal the Body
Preference to freshmen. Real-world examples of materials developed for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine therapies. How scientists and engineers design new materials for surgeons to use in replacing body parts such as damaged heart or spinal cord tissue. How cells interact with implanted materials. Students identify a clinically important disease or injury that requires a better material, proposed research approaches to the problem, and debate possible engineering solutions.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-EngrAppSci
MATSCI 82N:
Science of the Impossible
Imagine a world where cancer is cured with light, objects can be made invisible, and teleportation is allowed through space and time. The future once envisioned by science fiction writers is now becoming a reality, thanks to advances in materials science and engineering. This seminar will explore 'impossible' technologies - those that have shaped our past and those that promise to revolutionize the future. Attention will be given to both the science and the societal impact of these technologies. We will begin by investigating breakthroughs from the 20th century that seemed impossible in the early 1900s, such as the invention of integrated circuits and the discovery of chemotherapy. We will then discuss the scientific breakthroughs that enabled modern 'impossible' science, such as photodynamic cancer therapeutics, invisibility, and psychokinesis through advanced mind-machine interfaces. Lastly, we will explore technologies currently perceived as completely impossible and brainstorm the breakthroughs needed to make such science fiction a reality. The course will include introductory lectures and in-depth conversations based on readings. Students will also be given the opportunity to lead class discussions on a relevant 'impossible science' topic of their choosing.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
MATSCI 159Q:
Japanese Companies and Japanese Society (ENGR 159Q)
Preference to sophomores. The structure of a Japanese company from the point of view of Japanese society. Visiting researchers from Japanese companies give presentations on their research enterprise. The Japanese research ethic. The home campus equivalent of a Kyoto SCTI course.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
ME 18Q:
Teamology: Creative Teams and Individual Development
Preference to sophomores. Roles on a problem solving team that best suit individual creative characteristics. Two teams are formed for teaching experientially how to develop less conscious abilities from teammates creative in those roles. Reinforcement teams have members with similar personalities; problem solving teams are composed of people with maximally different personalities.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
ME 20N:
Haptics: Engineering Touch
Students in this class will learn how to build, program, and control haptic devices, which are mechatronic devices that allow users to feel virtual or remote environments. In the process, students will gain an appreciation for the capabilities and limitations of human touch, develop an intuitive connection between equations that describe physical interactions and how they feel, and gain practical interdisciplinary engineering skills related to robotics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, bioengineering, and computer science. In-class laboratories will give students hands-on experience in assembling mechanical systems, making circuits, programming Arduino microcontrollers, testing their haptic creations, and using Stanford¿s student prototyping facilities. The final project for this class will involve creating a novel haptic device that could be used to enhance human interaction with computers, mobile devices, or remote-controlled robots.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
ME 22N:
Smart Robots in our Mix: Collaborating in High Tech Environments of Tomorrow
This course invites students to explore rules of engagement in a global digitally interconnected world they will create with the robots in their society. The material will be taught in the context of ubiquitous integrated technology that will be part of their future reality. Human-robot interactions will be an integral part of future diverse teams. Students will explore what form will this interaction take as an emerging element of tomorrow's society, be it medical implanted technology or the implications of military use of robots and social media in future society. Students will learn to foster their creative confidence to explore collaboration by differences for social innovation in a digitally networked world.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
MED 10Q:
Literature, Medicine and Empathy (RELIGST 10Q)
In recent years, there has been a groundswell of interest in empathy as a key competency of the emotionally intelligent, and a primary motivator of moral behavior. But what is empathy, exactly? This seminar will seek to find out, exploring the concept through the lens of literature and medicine. nReading novels and exploring the philosophical beginnings of the term empathy, we will learn about the range of ways in which human beings have attempted to know and understand the other. Guided by research studies and our own experience, we will explore the critical question of whether empathy really does lead to altruism. We will consider why it can be so hard for human beings to walk in another's shoes and why we so often fail to do so. Through memoirs of suffering, we will learn about empathy in medicine and about what the latest studies in biology and neuroscience can teach us about how we relate to each other. Lastly, we will explore the dangers and limitations of empathy, reading scholarly circuits and discussing the role of empathy in life and society.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
MED 50N:
Translational Research: Turning Science into Medicine
Investigates how scientific research informs how physicians take care of patients and how clinical research informs how scientific experiments are conducted. Topics include how these two processes have improved health and have resulted in innovation and scientic progress; specific human disease areas in allergy and immunology that affect all ages of patients globally, including food allergy; scientific concepts of research that helped in discovery of novel diagnostics and treatment of disease; ethical roles of physicians and scientists in conducting translational research in human disease.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
MED 50Q:
Respiration
Preference to sophomores. Topics include: the biological basis for use of oxygen for aerobic metabolism in animals, human lung physiology and pathophysiology, comparative physiology of respiration in fish, birds and mammals, new insights into mammalian lung development, current challenges in human respiratory health including air pollution and lung cancer. Student presentations on specific topics based on literature research developed in consultation with the instructor. Application required.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
MED 51Q:
Compassionate presence at the bedside: A palliative practicum
This is a Community Engaged Learning course for undergraduate students at all levels. This course is designed to prepare students to critically examine values, attitudes, and contexts that govern perspectives toward and engagements of patients within the context of chronic and serious illness(es). The course prepares students to responsibly and reflectively interact with aging and seriously ill patients in a mentored setting. Using the bio-psycho-socio-spiritual-cultural framework, students learn about the history, evolution, principles and practice of palliative care, how modern medicine has altered the dying experience, and the cost implications of end-of-life care. They will be exposed to the challenges faced by the family members of dying patients, caregiver stress and bereavement. The class has a strong practicum aspect by which students will be trained to cultivate a compassionate and healing presence at the bedside of the patient. After completing hospice volunteer training, each student will be assigned a small panel of patients. Students will work with an inter-disciplinary team, conduct regular house calls on patients in their panel, and write progress notes, which will become a part of the patients' electronic medical records. Through mentored fieldwork, students will learn the basic competencies of communicating with older adults and seriously ill patients in an effective and compassionate manner. Students will be taught to discuss their panel of patients in class every week using the standard medical clinical rounds approach. Weekly assignments will help students reflect on their interactions with the patients and lessons they learned. Our goal is to train future leaders in the fields of healthcare, law, sociology, public policy, and humanities in the vital area of aging and end-of-life care for diverse Americans.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
MED 71N:
Hormones in a Performance-Enhanced Society
(Formerly 117Q) Prefersnce to freshmen. Explores how the availability of hormone therapy has affected various aspects of daily lives. Topics include the controversies concerning menopause and its treatment; use of hormones in athletics; cosmetic use of hormones to enhance growth, strength, and libido; use of hormones as anti-aging drugs; and how the hormone system has influenced our notions of gender. Includes the biochemistry and physiology of the human endocrine system; how hormones influence behavior, and how to read a scientific paper.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
MED 73N:
Scientific Method and Bias
Offers an introduction to the scientific method and common biases in science. Examines theoretical considerations and practical examples where biases have led to erroneous conclusions, as well as scientific practices that can help identify, correct or prevent such biases. Additionally focuses on appropriate methods to interweave inductive and deductive approaches. Topics covered include: Popper¿s falsification and Kuhn¿s paradigm shift, revolution vs. evolution; determinism and uncertainty; probability, hypothesis testing, and Bayesian approaches; agnostic testing and big data; team science; peer review; replication; correlation and causation; bias in design, analysis, reporting and sponsorship of research; bias in the public perception of science, mass media and research; and bias in human history and everyday life. Provides students an understanding of how scientific knowledge has been and will be generated; the causes of bias in experimental design and in analytical approaches; and the interactions between deductive and inductive approaches in the generation of knowledge.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
MED 108Q:
Human Rights and Health
Preference to sophomores. History of human-rights law. International conventions and treaties on human rights as background for social and political changes that could improve the health of groups and individuals. Topics such as: regional conflict and health, the health status of refugees and internally displaced persons; child labor; trafficking in women and children; HIV/AIDS; torture; poverty, the environment and health; access to clean water; domestic violence and sexual assault; and international availability of drugs. Possible optional opportunities to observe at community sites where human rights and health are issues. Guest speakers from national and international NGOs including Doctors Without Borders; McMaster University Institute for Peace Studies; UC Berkeley Human Rights Center; Kiva. PowerPoint presentation on topic of choice required.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
MI 70Q:
Photographing Nature
Utilizes the idiom of photography to learn about nature, enhance observation, and explore scientific concepts. Builds upon the pioneering photographic work of Eadweard J. Muybridge on human and animal locomotion. A secondary goal is to learn the grammar, syntax, composition, and style of nature photography to enhance the use of this medium as a form of scientific communication and also to explore the themes of change across time and space. Scientific themes to be explored include: taxonomy, habitat preservation, climate change; species diversity; survival and reproductive strategies; ecological niches and coevolution, carrying capacity and sustainability, population densities, predation, and predator-prey relationships, open-space management, the physics of photography. Extensive use of field trips and class critque.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
MS&E 92Q:
International Environmental Policy
Preference to sophomores. Science, economics, and politics of international environmental policy. Current negotiations on global climate change, including actors and potential solutions. Sources include briefing materials used in international negotiations and the U.S. Congress.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
MS&E 93Q:
Nuclear Weapons, Energy, Proliferation, and Terrorism
Preference to sophomores. At least 20 countries have built or considered building nuclear weapons. However, the paths these countries took in realizing their nuclear ambitions vary immensely. Why is this the case? How do the histories, cultures, national identities, and leadership of these countries affect the trajectory and success of their nuclear programs? This seminar will address these and other questions about nuclear weapons and their proliferation. Students will learn the fundamentals of nuclear technology, including nuclear weapons and nuclear energy, and be expected to use this knowledge in individual research projects on the nuclear weapons programs of individual countries. Case studies will include France, UK, China, India, Israel, Pakistan, North Korea, South Africa, Libya, Iraq, and Iran, among others. Please note any language skills in your application. Recommended: 193 or 293.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-EngrAppSci
MUSIC 14N:
Women Making Music (FEMGEN 13N)
Preference to freshmen. Women's musical activities across times and cultures; how ideas about gender influence the creation, performance, and perception of music.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
MUSIC 17N:
The Operas of Mozart
Preference to freshmen. Four of Mozart's mature operas, the earliest works in the operatic repertoire never to go out of fashion. What accounts for this extraordinary staying power? Focus on the history of their composition, performance, and reception, and their changing significance from Mozart's time to the present.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 27N:
The British Invasion
Examination of three generations of British popular music in the `60s and `70s: the Beatles (and the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Who); progressive rock (art rock) as embodied in Pink Floyd, Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer; the emergence of punk in its revolutionary (the Clash) and nihilistic (the Sex Pistols) forms. Among other issues, the manner in which marginal American culture (particularly African-American blues) is neglected by Americans and venerated by foreigners and the subsequent mainstream consumption of a transformed and repackaged American minority culture is discussed.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 31N:
Perspectives in North American Taiko (ASNAMST 31N)
Preference to Freshman. Taiko, or Japanese drum, is a newcomer to the American music scene. Emergence of the first N. American taiko groups coincided with increased Japanese American activism, and to some it is symbolic of Japanese American identity. N. American taiko is associated with Japanese American Buddhism. Musical, cultural, historical, and political perspectives of taiko. Hands-on drumming. Japanese music and Japanese American history, and relations among performance, cultural expression, community, and identity.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
MUSIC 32N:
Sculpting with Sounds, Images, and Words
Throughout history and from East to West, cultures abound in multimedia forms. Whether in Coldplay's Music Video or Fantasia, Pepsi TV adds or Wagner's opera, Miyazaki anime or traditional Noh Theater of Japan, the three modes of expression (sounds, images, and word) are interwoven in distinctive ways. What are their individual and combined powers? How can one harness them in an online context? Can Web be a stage for multimedia theater? What is unique about the poetry of intermodal metaphor? The course will be an opportunity to face these questions in creative web-based projects as well as through in-class viewing of multimedia works, analysis and debates, readings, and student presentations. The seminar will be taught at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics where students will have access to new media technologies. Prior experience in music, literature, art practice or computer programming is welcome but not required.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-CE
MUSIC 33N:
Beethoven
This seminar is designed as an in-depth introduction to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven. In addition to exploring the composer's principal works in a variety of genres (symphonies, piano sonatas, string quartets, opera, etc.), we will consider broader questions of biography and reception history. How have images of the composer and the fortunes of his music changed over time? How did his compositions come to define the paradigm of Western classical music? What impact has he had on popular culture? The class is open to all levels of musical expertise; the ability to read music is not a requirement. Come prepared to discover -- or rediscover -- some great music!
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
MUSIC 34N:
Performing America: The Broadway Musical
Musical theater as a site for the construction of American identity in the twentieth century to the present. Issues of class, race, gender, and sexuality; intersections with jazz, rock, and pop; roles of lyricist, composer, director, choreographer, producer, performers. Individual shows (Showboat, Oklahoma, West Side Story, Funny Girl, Company, Les Misérables, Wicked, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, A Strange Loop); musical theater "song types" across eras; show tunes in jazz, cabaret, and recital contexts; musicals on film, television, and social media. Opportunities for performance and attending local productions.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
NENS 67N:
Intracellular Trafficking and Neurodegeneration
Preference to freshmen. Cell structures and functions, the intracellular trafficking system that maintains exchanges of materials and information inside cells, and clinical features and pathologies of neurodegenerative diseases. Techniques for examining cellular and subcellular structures, especially cytoskeletons; functional insights generated from structural explorations. Prerequisite: high school biology.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
NSUR 70Q:
Experimental Stroke
Preference to sophomores. How stroke is studied in the laboratory; advances in stroke research over the last two decades; and future directions. Topics include: cellular and molecular mechanisms of neuronal death and survival in the brain after stroke, including necrosis, apoptosis, inflammation, and cell signaling pathways; experimental tools for stroke treatment, such as gene therapy, cell therapy, hypothermia, preconditioning, postconditioning, and other pharmacological treatments; the gap and barrier between laboratory research and clinical translation.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
OB 115N:
Games, Decisions and Negotiations
Human thinking is geared toward understanding and mastering social interactions. OB 115N explores cognitive, affective, behavioral, social and organizational processes that shape how we manage strategic interactions. The course builds on concepts and research findings from decision theory, behavioral game theory, negotiation research, and other relevant streams of investigation in the social sciences. By the end of this course, participants should have a better understanding of the structural and psychological factors that underlie competition and cooperation, bargaining, contracting, social influence, dispute resolution, and other types of social and organizational interactions. In addition to understanding how to analyze human thinking, feeling, and action in interactive contexts, participants will have opportunities to develop their behavioral skills through in-class exercises and simulations. Participants will play assigned roles in simulated interactions that will allow them to try out tactics that might feel uncomfortable trying in actual situations, get constructive feedback from other participants, and learn how they come across. The course readings, which are aimed to complement the in-class exercises, debriefs, and discussions, are aimed to further stimulate participants' interest in human cognition, emotion, and behavior in interactive contexts.To understand how decisions happen, we will use a combination of experiential exercises in class and in-depth discussions of theory and new and exciting research findings on cognitive and emotional aspects of decision making (e.g., what does "bounded-rationality" mean? how does power shape our negotiation behavior? how do our emotions influence our decisions?). We will play interactive games in our meetings to understand how various conditions, such as time pressure, power and uncertainty, influence our decisions. So, if you enjoy in-class exercises, you will enjoy our simulations. At the same time, if you enjoy analyzing human behavior and social interactions, you will like the readings and our discussions. After taking this course, you will be better able to identify and avoid common traps in strategic decision making and have a deeper understanding of other people's thinking and decision making processes.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
OBGYN 81Q:
Perspectives on the Abortion Experience in Western Fiction
Explores the role of media in delivering abortion-related messages as well as the broader questions of how abortion and related issues are fundamentally integrated into the social fabric of US and global societies .Abortion remains one of the most controversial and polarizing challenges of our time. Yet, it has been a clinical, social, political, and cultural fact in a broad swath of societies for centuries. As is common for such lightning rod issues, the topic of abortion has featured prominently in a number of novels and films. Each treatment provides a unique perspective on at least one aspect of abortion, whether it be clinical, social, political or cultural. Examination of how abortion is portrayed in novels and films provides the student of history, anthropology, and biology not only with insights into the author's or director's perspectives, but also into societal attitudes and mores.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
ORTHO 97Q:
Sport, Exercise, and Health: Exploring Sports Medicine
Preference to sophomores. Sports medicine is the practice of clinical medicine at the interface between health and performance, competition and well-being. While sports medicine had its origins in providing care to athletes, medical advances developed in care of athletes exerted a great effect on the nature and quality of care to the broader community. Topics include sports injuries, medical conditions associated with sport and exercise, ethics, coaching, women's issues, fitness and health, and sports science. Case studies.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: Writing 2
PATH 103Q:
Lymphocyte Migration
Preference to sophomores. Lymphocytes migrate from blood vessels into tissues to participate in immune surveillance and the development of inflammation. The lymphocyte and blood vessel endothelia molecules that control lymphocyte migration, and are implicated in the development of human diseases such as asthma, type 1 diabetes, and multiple sclerosis are discussed.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1
PEDS 65N:
Understanding Children's Health Disparities
The social and economic factors that affect children and their health status. The principal sources of disparities in the health of children in the U.S. are not biologic, but social and economic. Topics include ethnic, cultural, and behavioral factors that affect children's health, both directly and indirectly; lack of health insurance; and current proposals for health care reform, focusing specifically on how they will impact existing health disparities among children.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
PHIL 4N:
Knowing Nothing
Our beliefs are subject to multiple sources of error: a traveler's perception of an oasis in the desert may turn out to be a mirage; the key witness in a trial criminal may turn out to be lying; or a fluke in the data may mislead a research team into believing a false hypothesis; or a miscalculating math student may end up with the wrong answer. Philosophers often characterize knowledge as belief that is safe from error--but is knowledge possible? This course uses the philosophical arguments and thought experiments to assess the question of how much we can hope to know.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
PHIL 7N:
Philosophy and Science Fiction
What if things had been otherwise? What if things are someday, somewhere, very different than they are here and now? Science fiction and other genre fiction gives us the opportunity to explore worlds that stretch our conceptions of reality, of what it is to have a mind, to be human, and to communicate with one another. This course examines central questions in philosophy through the lens of speculative fiction. Can there be freedom in a deterministic world? How could language and communication evolve? What is a mind, and what is the nature of experience? How can we know what the world is like? We¿ll read classical and contemporary papers in philosophy alongside short stories, novels, and movies that play the role of thought experiments in illuminating philosophical issues.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
PHIL 11N:
Skepticism
Preference to freshmen. Historical and contemporary philosophical perspectives on the limits of human knowledge of a mind-independent world and causal laws of nature. The nature and possibility of a priori knowledge. Skepticism regarding religious beliefs..
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHYSICS 12N:
Black Holes: Fact and Fancy
Black Holes have been observed throughout the universe using radio waves, light, X- and gamma-rays and now with gravitational radiation. They are well-described using Einstein's theory of relativity and provide dramatic demonstrations of how physicists think about matter, energy, space, and time. They have also stimulated much science fiction. This seminar is intended primarily for non-science freshmen who should learn how some really big ideas were developed, debated, and then demonstrated to be correct. Movies and popular books will be critiqued and used to illustrate basic properties of black holes. Special attention will be paid to understanding what it takes for an interesting idea to become accepted or rejected as scientific fact. There will be visits to Stanford labs where instruments used to observe black holes were conceived, constructed and combined.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
PHYSICS 14N:
Quantum Information: Visions and Emerging Technologies
What sets quantum information apart from its classical counterpart is that it can be encoded non-locally, woven into correlations among multiple qubits in a phenomenon known as entanglement. We will discuss paradigms for harnessing entanglement to solve hitherto intractable computational problems or to push the precision of sensors to their fundamental quantum mechanical limits. We will also examine challenges that physicists and engineers are tackling in the laboratory today to enable the quantum technologies of the future.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-FR, WAY-SMA
PHYSICS 18N:
Frontiers in Theoretical Physics and Cosmology
Preference to freshmen. The course will begin with a description of the current standard models of gravitation, cosmology, and elementary particle physics. We will then focus on frontiers of current understanding including investigations of very early universe cosmology, string theory, and the physics of black holes.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci, WAY-SMA
PHYSICS 83N:
Physics in the 21st Century
Preference to freshmen. Current topics at the frontier of modern physics. This course provides an in-depth examination of two of the biggest physics discoveries of the 21st century: that of the Higgs boson and Dark Energy. Through studying these discoveries we will explore the big questions driving modern particle physics, the study of nature's most fundamental pieces, and cosmology, the study of the evolution and nature of the universe. Questions such as: What is the universe made of? What are the most fundamental particles and how do they interact with each other? What can we learn about the history of the universe and what does it tell us about it's future? We will learn about the tools scientists use to study these questions such as the Large Hadron Collider and the Hubble Space Telescope. We will also learn to convey these complex topics in engaging and diverse terms to the general public through writing and reading assignments, oral presentations, and multimedia projects. The syllabus includes a tour of SLAC, the site of many major 20th century particle discoveries, and a virtual visit of the control room of the ATLAS experiment at CERN amongst other activities. No prior knowledge of physics is necessary; all voices are welcome to contribute to the discussion about these big ideas. Learning Goals: By the end of the quarter you will be able to explain the major questions that drive particle physics and cosmology to your friends and peers. You will understand how scientists study the impossibly small and impossibly large and be able to convey this knowledge in clear and concise terms.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER: DB-NatSci, WAY-SMA
POLISCI 10N:
International Organizations and the World Order
Since the end of World War II, there has been an explosion in the number, scope, and complexity of international organizations. International organizations such as the United Nations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and World Bank now play critical roles across a wide range of policy issues. Why have international organizations proliferated and expanded since the mid-20th century? How do these organizations shape the international system? Why do states sometimes conduct foreign policy through international organizations, while other times preferring traditional means? Why do some international organizations evolve over time, while others resist change? What are some of the pathologies and problems of contemporary international organizations? We will explore these questions by carefully examining the functions and operations of major international organizations. You will also complete a research project examining an international organization of your choice and present your findings in class.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
POLISCI 20Q:
Democracy in Crisis: Learning from the Past (EDUC 122Q, HISTORY 52Q)
This Sophomore Seminar will focus on U.S. democracy and will use a series of case studies of major events in our national history to explore what happened and why to American democracy at key pressure points. This historical exploration should shed light on how the current challenges facing American democracy might best be handled. (Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
POLISCI 25N:
The US Congress in Historical and Comparative Perspective
This course traces the development of legislatures from their medieval European origins to the present, with primary emphasis on the case of the U.S. Congress. Students will learn about the early role played by assemblies in placing limits on royal power, especially via the power of the purse. About half the course will then turn to a more detailed consideration of the U.S. Congress's contemporary performance, analyzing how that performance is affected by procedural legacies from the past that affect most democratic legislatures worldwide.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
PSYC 51Q:
Culture, Psychology, and Mental Health Treatment
Focuses on a critical analysis of Western approach to psychology and psychiatric terms of understanding mental illness, psychiatric phenomena, and treatment of mental health disorders. Includes an orientation to and critique of western clinical psychology/psychiatry and an inquity as to its relevance outside Western settings. Includes guest speakers representing cross-cultural providers of mental health services as well as medical anthropologists and critics of the Western generalizations in psychiatry. Special attention place on cross-cultural psychiatry and international mental health efforts.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 2
PSYC 53Q:
Your Secret Mind: Getting to Know and Living with your Unconscious
Focuses on the motivational unconscious. Topics include the science of the unconscious mind and the techniques used to gain conscious access to these psychological process, as well as methods of exploring students' own unconscious for creative purposes and to understand personal habits, reactions, motives, emotions and thoughts. Case-based, problem-oriented format utilized to develop foundational understanding of the science of the unconscious mind. Emphasis on student study of self and own unconscious as case for the class. Student privacy will be protected.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
PSYC 54N:
Genes, Memes and Behavior
Examines how natural selection operates to shape successful genes in the gene pool, how cultural selection operates to shape successful "memes" in the pool of cultural ideas, and how selection by consequences operates to shape successful behaviors in our repertoires. Topics include cases in which selection produces undesirable consequences (e.g. genetic mutations, cultural problems, and aberrant behaviors in children). Emphasis on understanding the role of modern natural science in complex behaviors and why study of human life from an interdisciplinary perspective is important.
Terms: Aut, Sum
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
PSYC 60N:
The Psychology of Stoked
Examines the biological, psychological and social aspects of what it means to live a positive, life-affirming existence. Drawing from a wide range of sources, from psychiatry and psychology, to spirituality and philosophy, seminar informs on the latest thinking about the psychology of happiness, and questions assumptions about personal happiness. Explores the new field of positive psychology and pulls from a multidisciplinary literature, examining life satisfaction and happiness from many perspectives, and the psychiatry of stimulation including substance, human sexuality, and healthy methods of attaining happiness. Includes guest speakers from many different backgrounds and perspectives. Examines what it means to be truly mindful.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
PSYC 71N:
Eight Ages of Man
Ways in which a psychologcially-minded attitude can add to the appreciation of literature; how literature can be used to understand issues and themes of the developing personality. Using the well-known essay by psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, "The Eight Ages of Man," as a foundation, works reflecting elements of an age or ages are read. "Wisdom of the Ego" by Dr. George Valliant serves as a resouce to better understand this model, as well as offering a more contemporary theory of personality development.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
PSYC 78N:
Mental Health in Collegiate Athletes
Developmental, psychological, social, and performance issues in collegiate sports. Topics include transition to Stanford, time management, optimizing mental fitness, coping with injuries.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
PSYC 111Q:
Madness and the Womb: Medical and Artistic Approaches to Mental Illness in Women Through the Ages
Historical and current concepts of mental illness in women. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMS), postpartum depression, menopausal mood disorders, and eating disorders. Historical biopsychosocial approach. Readings include women's diaries and advice books, physicians' casebooks, and 19th- and 20th-century medical texts. Guest speakers from art and literature departments. Literary and artistic images, and the social and cultural contexts of these disorders during the last 300 years.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
PSYCH 7N:
Learn to Intervene, Wisely
Do you ever look around and see ways that the world could be a better place, especially if people behaved a little differently? Do you wonder what prevents better outcomes? nnIn this seminar, we will examine social-psychological processes that lie behind diverse social problems, especially how people make sense of themselves, other people, or important situations, sometimes in pejorative ways that undermine outcomes. Then we will examine interventions that address critical processes to promote human flourishing. You'll have the opportunity to read and discuss classic and contemporary 'wise' psychological interventions such as: how a change in the sign on a hospital soap dispenser can increase soap use; how a change in survey items can raise voter turnout; how a change in a single question can improve dating relationships; and how reading-and-writing exercises that address students' beliefs about intelligence and belonging in school can improve achievement years into the future. In learning about this research, you will discover more about psychological processes, how basic research helps clarify these processes, how they contribute in complex field settings to social problems, and how they can be altered.nnAs you learn from past research, you'll have the opportunity to design your very own 'wise intervention' and to workshop others' efforts. You will identify a social problem on campus of interest to you, say: How can you reduce waste in the cafeteria? How can you get more people to take the stairs? How can you get people to hold more inclusive attitudes? Then you will identify a psychological process you think contributes to this problem, implement an intervention in the field and track the results. nnWhen you have completed this seminar, you will more fully understand the psychological aspect of social problems and how this can be addressed through rigorous research.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
PSYCH 12N:
Self Theories
Preference to freshmen. The impact of people's belief in a growing versus fixed self on their motivation and performance in school, business, sports, and relationships. How such theories develop and can be changed.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
PSYCH 21N:
How to Make a Racist (AFRICAAM 121N, CSRE 21N)
How do children, with no innate beliefs or expectations about race, grow up to be racist? To address this complex question, this seminar will introduce students to the cognitive, social, and cultural factors that contribute to the development of racial stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. We will begin by defining key concepts (e.g., 'What is race and what is racism?'), and will then take a developmental approach to examine racist thought from early childhood until adulthood. The seminar will include lectures that will provide an introduction to each topic. These lectures will be supplemented by readings and discussion. Students will engage thoughtfully and critically with the topics and readings by sharing experiences, perspectives, confusions, and insights through discussion and in writing. Students with diverse experiences and perspectives will be welcomed and encouraged to participate.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
PSYCH 24N:
Neuroforecasting
Preference to freshmen. This course explores whether brain activity can be used not only to predict the choices of individuals, but also of separate groups of individuals in the future (e.g., in markets). Questions include how neuroforecasting is possible, whether it can add value to other forecasting tools (e.g., traditional measures like behavioral choice and subjective ratings), and when it extends to different aggregate scenarios. The course is ideal for students that would like to extend neural predictions about individual choice to group choice, and who plan to apply this knowledge in future research.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
PSYCH 30N:
The Science of Diverse Communities (CSRE 30N, EDUC 30N, SOC 179N)
This course is an exploration. Most generally, its aim is to identify distinguishing features of good diverse communities and articulate them well enough to offer principles or guidelines for how to design and manage such communities - all with a particular focus on educational communities like schools, universities, academic disciplines, etc., but with the hope that such principles might generalize to other kinds of organizations and the broader society. The readings range from those on the origins of human communities and social identities to those on intergroup trust building. They also aim to embed our discussions in the major diversity issues of the day, or example, what's in the news about campus life. nnThus the course has a practical purpose: to develop testable ideas for improving the comfort level, fairness and goodness-for-all of identity diverse communities--especially in educational settings. nnThe course also has a basic science purpose: to explore the psychological significance of community. Is there a psychological need for community? Is there something about a need for community that can't be reduced to other needs, for example, for a gender, racial or sexual-orientation identity? How strong is the need for community against other needs? What kinds of human groupings can satisfy it? In meeting this need, can membership in one community substitute for membership in others? What do people need from communities in order to thrive in them? Do strong diverse communities dampen intergroup biases? Can strong community loyalty mitigate identity tensions within communities? nnSuch questions, the hope is, will help us develop a more systematic understanding of the challenges and opportunities inherent in diverse human communities.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
PUBLPOL 19Q:
Measuring the Performance of Governments in the U.S. (ECON 19Q)
Spending by federal, state, and local governments accounts for about one-third of U.S. GDP and governments employ more than one-in-seven workers in the U.S. For most U.S. residents, government is represented by a complicated web of federal, state, and local policies. There is an increasingly contentious debate about the proper role of the government and regarding the impact of specific government policies. This debate is rarely grounded in a common set of facts. In this seminar, we will explore how each level of government interacts with U.S. residents through government services, public programs, taxes, and regulations. We will examine financial results for different levels of government while considering the net effects of government intervention on the health and economic well-being of individuals and families. Particular attention will be paid to certain sectors (e.g. education, health care, etc.) and to certain groups (e.g. those in poverty, the elderly, etc.). Along the way we will accumulate a set of metrics to assess the performance of each level of government while highlighting the formidable challenges of such an exercise. Prerequisite: Econ 1.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
PUBLPOL 55N:
Public Policy and Personal Finance (ECON 25N)
The seminar will provide an introduction and discussion of the impact of public policy on personal finance. Voters regularly rate the economy as one of the most important factors shaping their political views and most of those opinions are focused on their individual bottom lines. In this course we will discuss the rationale for different public policies and how they affect personal financial situations. We will explore personal finance issues such as taxes, loans, charity, insurance, and pensions. Using the context of (hypothetical) personal finance positions, we will discuss the public policy implications of various proposals and how they affect different groups of people, for example: the implications of differential tax rates for different types of income, the promotion of home ownership in the U.S., and policies to care for our aging population. While economic policy will be the focus of much of the course, we will also examine some of the implications of social policies on personal finance as well. There will be weekly readings and several short policy-related writing assignments.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
RAD 70N:
Surgery, Without All the Blood
What if you could do brain surgery completely noninvasively? This is possible now. There are many ways to focus energy into the body, and these can be used for surgery. We will explore methods for minimally invasive treatments of various conditions such as cancer, atrial fibrillation, and movement disorders. We will start with radiation therapy and its application to cancer. We will discuss the application of thermal energy to heat and ablate tissue. We'll discuss delivery systems including ultrasound, laser, and radiofrequency ablation systems, as well as monitoring imaging methods MRI, CT and ultrasound. Lastly, we will discuss neuromodulation and neurostimulation with deep brain simulators, transcranial magnetic stimulation, direct current stimulation, and ultrasound. We will touch on the biology of these treatments and their clinical application, but the emphasis is on the physics and engineering. High school Physics required.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
RELIGST 6N:
Religion in Anime and Manga
Religious themes and topoi are ubiquitous in Japanese anime and manga. In this course, we will examine how religions are represented in these new media and study the role of religions in contemporary Japan. By doing this, students will also learn fundamental concepts of Buddhism and Shinto.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 9N:
What Didn't Make it into the Bible
Over two billion people alive today consider the New Testament to be sacred scripture. But how did the books that made it into the bible get there in the first place? Who decided what was to be part of the bible and what wasn't? How would the history of the world's largest modern religion look differently if a given book didn't make the final cut and another one did? nHundreds of ancient Christian texts are not included in the New Testament. What Didn't Make It in the Bible focuses on these excluded writings. We will explore Gnostic gospels, hear of a five-year-old Jesus throwing temper tantrums while killing (and later resurrecting) his classmates, peruse ancient Christian romance novels, tour heaven and hell, read the garden of Eden story told from the perspective of the snake, and learn how the world will end.nnThe seminar assumes no prior knowledge of Judaism, Christianity, the bible, or ancient history. It is designed for students who are part of faith traditions that consider the bible to be sacred, as well as those who are not. The only prerequisite is an interest in exploring books, groups, and ideas that eventually lost the battles of history and to keep asking the question "why." In critically examining these ancient narratives and the communities that wrote them, you will learn about the content and history of the New Testament, better appreciate the diversity of formative Christianity, understand the historical context of the early church, and explore the politics behind what did and did not make it into the bible.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 10Q:
Literature, Medicine and Empathy (MED 10Q)
In recent years, there has been a groundswell of interest in empathy as a key competency of the emotionally intelligent, and a primary motivator of moral behavior. But what is empathy, exactly? This seminar will seek to find out, exploring the concept through the lens of literature and medicine. nReading novels and exploring the philosophical beginnings of the term empathy, we will learn about the range of ways in which human beings have attempted to know and understand the other. Guided by research studies and our own experience, we will explore the critical question of whether empathy really does lead to altruism. We will consider why it can be so hard for human beings to walk in another's shoes and why we so often fail to do so. Through memoirs of suffering, we will learn about empathy in medicine and about what the latest studies in biology and neuroscience can teach us about how we relate to each other. Lastly, we will explore the dangers and limitations of empathy, reading scholarly circuits and discussing the role of empathy in life and society.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
RELIGST 11N:
The Meaning of Life: Philosophical, Aesthetic, and Religious Perspectives
Raise ultimate questions about life. Yes, the unexamined life is not worth living, but also the unlived life is not worth examining. Students and professor examine their own lives in the light of questions that the readings and lectures bring up: 1. The big picture: Is there such a thing as "the" meaning of life? 2. What is entailed in making personal-existential sense of one's own life? 3. What constitutes the good life, lived in society? 4. How can a university education bear upon the search for a meaningful life? 5. What "methods" for or approches to life can one learn from studies in the humanities? After introductory lectures, the seminar studies a series of artworks, poems, diverse texts, and a film, all of which bear on the questions mentioned above -- works such: 1. Plato's Allegory of the Cave, from "The Republic" 2. Manet's "A bar at the Folies Bergere" 3. A comparison/contrast of Monet's early (1862) "Still Life" and van Gogh's late (1889) "Irises" 4. Lyric poetry T.S. Eliot: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "The Waste Land," and "East Coker"; Edwin Muir: "The Heart Could Never Speak"; Philip Larkin: "Days" 5. Martin Heidegger's "What Is Metaphysics?" 6. Jean-Paul Sartre's novel "Nausea" 7. Marx's Paris Manuscripts of 1844 8. Bergman's "The Seventh Seal"
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 12N:
Perspectives on the Good Life
The question is how to approach and evaluate different perspectives on the good life, especially when those perspectives are beautifully, and elusively, presented to us as texts. We will consider both classic and modern writers, from the West and from China; some are explicitly religious, some explicitly secular; some literary, some philosophical. Most of the class will revolve around our talk with each other, interpreting and questioning relatively short texts. The works we will read - by Dante, Dickenson, Zhuangzi, Shklar, and others - are not intended to be representative of traditions, of eras, or of disciplines. They do, however, present a range of viewpoint and of style that will help frame and re-frame our views on the good life. They will illustrate and question the role that great texts can play in a modern 'art of living.' Perhaps most important, they will develop and reward the skills of careful reading, attentive listening, and thoughtful discussion. (Note: preparation and participation in discussion are the primary course requirement. Enrollment at 3 units requires a short final paper; a more substantial paper is required for the 4-unit option.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 13N:
Losing My Religion: Secularism and Spirituality in American Lives (AMSTUD 117N, EDUC 117N)
In this seminar you will explore theory and practice, sociological data, spiritual writing, and case studies in an effort to gain a more nuanced understanding about how religion, spirituality, and secularism attempt to make legible the constellation of concerns, commitments, and behaviors that bridge the moral and the personal, the communal and the national, the sacred, the profane, and the rational. Together we will cultivate critical perspectives on practices and politics, beliefs and belonging that we typically take for granted.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 2-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
SLAVIC 77Q:
Russia's Weird Classic: Nikolai Gogol
Preference to sophomores. An investigation of the works and life of Nikolai Gogol, the most eccentric of Russian authors and the founder of what is dubbed Fantastic Realism. Our investigation will be based on close reading of works written in various genres and created in various stages of Gogol's literary career. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
SLAVIC 118N:
Other People's Words: Folklore and Literature
What happens when you collect and use other people's words? This class considers folklore and literature based on it, focusing on the theme of objects that come to life and threaten their makers or owners (including Russian fairy tales and Nikolai Gogol's stories, the Golem legend and Michael Chabon's Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and Ovid's and Shaw's Pygmalion). We read essays by Jacob Grimm, Sigmund Freud, Roman Jakobson, and others, to understand what folklore can mean and how the oral and the written can interact. Students collect living folklore from a group of their choosing. This course fulfills the second-level Writing and Rhetoric Requirement (Write-2) and emphasizes oral and multimedia presentation.Prerequisite: PWR 1
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, Writing 2
SOC 14N:
Inequality in American Society
An overview of the major forms of inequality in American society, their causes and consequences. Special attention will devoted to to public policy associated with inequality.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
SOC 20N:
What counts as "race," and why? (CSRE 20N)
Preference to freshmen. Seminar discussion of how various institutions in U.S. society employ racial categories, and how race is studied and conceptualized across disciplines. Course introduces perspectives from demography, history, law, genetics, sociology, psychology, and medicine. Students will read original social science research, learn to collect and analyze data from in-depth interviews, and use library resources to conduct legal/archival case studies.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
SOC 31N:
Social Networks
This Introductory Seminar reviews the history of social network studies, investigates how networks have changed over the past hundred years and asks how new technologies will impact them. We will draw from scholarly publications, popular culture and personal experience as ways to approach this central aspect of the human experience.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
SOC 45Q:
Understanding Race and Ethnicity in American Society (CSRE 45Q)
Preference to sophomores. Historical overview of race in America, race and violence, race and socioeconomic well-being, and the future of race relations in America. Enrollment limited to 16.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
SOC 179N:
The Science of Diverse Communities (CSRE 30N, EDUC 30N, PSYCH 30N)
This course is an exploration. Most generally, its aim is to identify distinguishing features of good diverse communities and articulate them well enough to offer principles or guidelines for how to design and manage such communities - all with a particular focus on educational communities like schools, universities, academic disciplines, etc., but with the hope that such principles might generalize to other kinds of organizations and the broader society. The readings range from those on the origins of human communities and social identities to those on intergroup trust building. They also aim to embed our discussions in the major diversity issues of the day, or example, what's in the news about campus life. nnThus the course has a practical purpose: to develop testable ideas for improving the comfort level, fairness and goodness-for-all of identity diverse communities--especially in educational settings. nnThe course also has a basic science purpose: to explore the psychological significance of community. Is there a psychological need for community? Is there something about a need for community that can't be reduced to other needs, for example, for a gender, racial or sexual-orientation identity? How strong is the need for community against other needs? What kinds of human groupings can satisfy it? In meeting this need, can membership in one community substitute for membership in others? What do people need from communities in order to thrive in them? Do strong diverse communities dampen intergroup biases? Can strong community loyalty mitigate identity tensions within communities? nnSuch questions, the hope is, will help us develop a more systematic understanding of the challenges and opportunities inherent in diverse human communities.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
SOMGEN 120Q:
Learning, Motivation & Addiction
How does the brain change when you remember information, pick up a skill or acquire a bad habit? How do pain, pleasure and traits like impulsivity and self-control sculpt who we are? We will example the principles of neuroplasticity and their significance for education, mood disorders, and legal and moral responsibility. Through relevant texts from the humanities, analysis of key neuroscientific experiments, and hands-on experimentation, students will build a multifaceted understanding of how the brain works.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SMA
SOMGEN 150Q:
Challenging Sex and Gender Dichotomies in Biology and Medicine
This course explores and challenges the physiological basis for distinguishing human "males" and "females", expands the concepts of "intersex" beyond reproductive anatomy/physiology (i.e. beyond the genitalia), and discusses some known consequences of "gender biases" in medical diagnoses and treatments. The influence of gender (sociocultural) "norms", i.e. gendered behaviors and relations, on human biology is juxtaposed with the role of biological traits on the construction of gender identity, roles and relationships, thereby focusing on the interactions of sex and gender on health and medical outcomes. Problems that may arise by labeling conditions that vary in incidence, prevalence and/or severity across the "male-female" spectrum as "men's" or "women's" health issues will be discussed. In addition, the importance of recognizing the spectrum of sex and gender, as well as sexual orientation, in clinical practice from pediatric to geriatric populations, will be highlighted, with consideration of varying perspectives within different race/ethnic, religious, political, and other groups.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
STRAMGT 110Q:
Making Sense of Strategy
Get the strategy right, and the chance for success is great. Nowhere is this more evident than in today's world of major challenges. Strategy is at the heart of problem solving and achieving objectives, yet few people can define strategy, much less understand how to conceptualize, design, and execute effective strategies that yield the best outcomes.This course will meet once a week to focus on interesting and engaging case studies, each of which illustrates a key ingredient of strategy. Some are well-known historical events, while others are less obvious, but all have a strategic lesson to share. They are quite diverse, from the planning of a high-risk rescue in the Colorado Rockies, to a product crisis in a Fortune 50 company, to a little-known failed military mission of WWII, to a commercial airline disaster. The ability to think through challenging and varied scenarios is both instructive and mind-stretching. There will be some pre-reading on each case study and there may be a field trip for students to put their lessons into practice. The course is designed to be highly interactive; all to enable students to unravel the mystery and power of strategic thinking. Students will also have the opportunity to select and analyze a case reflecting interests of their own. This course can help students not only prepare for a career in a range of fields, but also as they meet the challenges of their current coursework. Problem-solving skills are central in every walk of life; this seminar can help students build a stronger foundation for sound decision-making.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 3
SURG 68Q:
Current Concepts in Transplantation
Preference to sophomores. Biological aspects of cell and organ transplantation, including issues that arise in the popular media. Diseases for which transplantation is a treatment, the state of the art in human transplantation, transplantation of animal tissue into humans (xenotransplantation), development of new tissue and organs in the laboratory (tissue engineering and cloning), and development of drugs and biological strategies to promote long-term survival of the tissue or organ (tolerance). How to write a scientific abstract, critique scientific literature, and research and present topics in contemporary transplantation.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: Writing 2
SURG 70Q:
Surgical Anatomy of the Hand: From Rodin to Reconstruction
The surgical anatomy of the hand is extremely complex in terms of structure and function. Exploration of the anatomy of the hand in different contexts: its representation in art forms, the historical development of the study of hand anatomy, current operative techniques for reconstruction, advances in tissue engineering, and the future of hand transplantation.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
SURG 72Q:
Anatomy in Society
Preference to sophomores. The influence of human anatomy on the design of commercial products and performance (such as headphone and ear bud design, automobile interior design, table music performance and handicap devices design). How societal advancements have evolved to increasingly accommodate human form and function. Guest speakers are experts in the fields of audiology, design and music. Exposure to human anatomy via cadaver material, 3D digital images, the 3D dissection table and models.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 6 units total)
TAPS 11N:
Dramatic Tensions: Theater and the Marketplace
Preference to freshmen. The current state of the American theater and its artists. Conventional wisdom says that theater is a dying art, and a lost cause, especially in an age of multi-media entertainment. But there are more young playwrights, actors, and directors entering the field today than at any other time in American history. Focus is on the work of today's theater artists, with an emphasis on an emerging generation of playwrights. Students read a cross-section of plays from writers currently working in the US and UK, covering a spectrum of subjects and styles from serious to comic, from the musical to the straight play. Hits and misses from recent seasons of the New York and London stages and some of the differences of artistic taste across the Atlantic. Hands-on exploration of the arts and skills necessary to make a play succeed. Students develop their own areas of interest, in guided projects in design, direction or performance. Conversations with playwrights, designers ,and directors. Labs and master classes to solve problems posed in areas of creative production. Class meets literary managers and producers who are on the frontlines of underwriting new talent. Class trips include two plays at major Bay Area Stages.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
TAPS 11Q:
Art in the Metropolis (ARTSINST 11Q)
This seminar is offered in conjunction with the annual "Arts Immersion" trip to New York that takes place over the spring break and is organized by the Stanford Arts Institute (SAI). Participation in the trip is a requirement for taking part in the seminar (and vice versa). The trip is designed to provide a group of students with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the cultural life of New York City guided by faculty and the SAI programming director. Students will experience a broad range and variety of art forms (visual arts, theater, opera, dance, etc.) and will meet with prominent arts administrators and practitioners, some of whom are Stanford alumni. For further details and updates about the trip, see http://arts.stanford.edu.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
TAPS 12N:
To Die For: Antigone and Political Dissent (CLASSICS 17N)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 6N.) Preference to freshmen. Tensions inherent in the democracy of ancient Athens; how the character of Antigone emerges in later drama, film, and political thought as a figure of resistance against illegitimate authority; and her relevance to contemporary struggles for women's and workers' rights and national liberation. Readings and screenings include versions of Antigone by Sophocles, Anouilh, Brecht, Fugard/Kani/Ntshona, Paulin, Glowacki, Gurney, and von Trotta.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-ER
TAPS 17N:
Acting for Activists
Acting for Activists is designed for students who are interested in combining acting with activism, performance with politics. We will work with theatre that responds to specific political events and crisis such as hate crimes or war through the performance of activist texts. We will also explore works that challenge inequalities of income, race, gender and sexual orientation. By the end of the course students will cultivate a critical vocabulary for discussing and critiquing work within acting/activist contexts and develop new strategies for creating theatre in relation to issues they are passionate about. Acting for Activists encourages students to think about what they want to say and helps them craft how they want to say it.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 20N:
Prisons and Performance
Preference to Freshmen. This seminar starts with the unlikely question of what can the performing arts ¿ particularly dance and theater ¿ illuminate about the situation of mass incarceration in America. Part seminar, part immersive context building, students will read and view a cross-section of dance and theater works where the subject, performers, choreographers or authors, belong to part of the 2.4 million people currently behind bars in US prisons. Class includes conversations with formerly incarcerated youth, prison staff, juvenile justice lawyers and artists working in juvenile and adult prisons as well as those who are part of the 7.3 million people currently on parole or probation. Using performance as our lens we will investigate the unique kinds of understanding the arts make possible as well as the growing use of theater and dance to affect social change and personal transformation among prison inmates. Class trips will include visits to locked facilities and meetings with artists and inmates working behind bars.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
TAPS 21N:
The Idea of Virtual Reality
What is virtual reality and where is it heading? Was there VR before digital technology? What is the value of the real in a virtual culture? How, where, and when do we draw the line between the virtual and the real, the live and the mediated today? Concentrating on three aspects of VR simulation, immersion, and interactivity this course will examine recent experiments alongside a long history of virtual performance, from Plato's Cave to contemporary CAVEs, from baroque theatre design to Oculus Rift.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
TAPS 180Q:
Noam Chomsky: The Drama of Resistance
Preference to sophomores. Chomsky's ideas and work which challenge the political and economic paradigms governing the U.S. Topics include his model for linguistics; cold war U.S. involvements in S.E. Asia, the Middle East, Central and S. America, the Caribbean, and Indonesia and E. Timor; the media, terrorism, ideology, and culture; student and popular movements; and the role of resistance.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER, WAY-SI
URBANST 27Q:
Sophomore Seminar: Three Detectives, Three Cities
This seminar will analyze the social reality of three historic cities (London in the 1880s and 90s, San Francisco in the 1920s and 30s, and contemporary Shanghai) through the prism of popular crime fiction featuring three great literary detectives (Arthur Conan Doyle¿s Sherlock Holmes, Dashiell Hammett¿s Sam Spade, and Qiu Xiaolong¿s Chief Inspector Chen). As a student in this course, you will explore why crime fiction is so popular, why the fear of crime is so much a part of modern urban culture, and why the police detective and the private investigator have become iconic code heroes of pulp fiction, movies, TV shows, and even video games. If you take this class, you will have the opportunity to write a paper and present your research on one of the classic literary detectives or on one of today¿s related manifestations of the same impulse in mass-market tales of superheroes, vampires, and the zombie apocalypse.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
