Beloit College

Anthropology | Art & Art History | Biology | Chemistry |Education & Youth Studies |
English |Environmenal Studies |German | Heal and Society | History |
Interdisciplinary Studies |Japanese | Mathematics |Music | Museum Studies|
Philosophy | Physics|Political Science | Religious Studies | Sociology |
Spanish | Women's & Gender Studies | Writing Program

ANTH 375 01 10:15am-12:05pm MWF	Forensic Anthropology	1.00 N. Krusko
This course explores the application of anthropological theories, knowledge, and methods within the legal context. Traditionally, forensic anthropologists have been involved in the recovery and analysis of remains and associated evidence from recently deceased individuals. Their primary objectives have been to process and document the scene, reconstruct activities which took place at the scene, aid in victim identification, and to reconstruct the cause and manner of death. In addition, this course will also examine the role forensic anthropologists play in the investigation of violations of historic preservation and cultural heritage laws. Students will learn and practice these essential skills through laboratory projects that will also incorporate various professional and ethical considerations. Prerequisite: one lab science course, sophomore standing or consent of instructor.
ANTH 375 04 10-11:50am TTH	Durkheim, Weber and a Little Bit of Marx	1.00 N. McDowell
This course will examine in detail the significant contributions to anthropology made by these three founders of the social sciences. We will read extensively in the primary sources as well as secondary ones (on occasion). Class will be discussion of these materials led by students. Each student will research the influence one of these figures has had on a contemporary anthropological theorist; this research will be presented orally to the class as well as written in the form of a research paper. Prerequisite: ANTH 200 or 201 or consent of instructor.
ANTH 375 05 12-1:50pm TTH	Consumption and Culture	1.00 J. Esperanza
This course will take a critical look at contemporary consumer culture across the globe. Utilizing materials from the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and history, as well as looking at examples from popular media (magazines, newspapers, television shows, films, music), we will examine how consumption (a.k.a "shopping") has had a dramatic effect on various aspects of social and culture life. Some of the topics we will be exploring are: the distribution of power and agency via consumption; how consumer culture has altered our use of public space and public interaction; the strategies employed by advertising agencies to socialize consumer needs and the changing ways we acquire and consume goods and services. We will take a critical look at major corporations such as Wal-Mart and Starbucks, as well as examine the relevance of the Slow Foods Movement, zombie films and the "Sex and the City" television series to understand public reactions to contemporary consumer culture. Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or consent of instructor.
ANTH 375 06 1:30-2:35pm MWF	Race and Culture	1.00 L. Anderson-Levy
Anthropology has a history of colonial collusion and played a pivotal role in producing and maintaining racist ideologies that supported the "biological truths" of racial and cultural difference. Despite this,the discipline in general, and American anthropology in particular has been largely unscathed by these periods in its development. What is the nature of the relationship between culture and race? How or do they enable each other and what does this mean for how anthropologists conduct research? This course explores the internal logics of race and culture and examines how each has been shaped by and deployed in anthropology in order to understand the theoretical work each accomplishes. We will be concerned with trying to understand the points of contact between culture and race and what happens along these zones. Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or consent of instructor.
ART 270 01 1-3:50pm TTH	Introduction to Video Art	1.00 D. Roe
This course will be primarily focused on locating Video Art in a contemporary fine arts context. As such, we will discuss the medium's history alongside the larger categories of other time-based and lens-based media such as film and photography. The course will cover concepts and theories as they relate to these media and, when possible, students will have the opportunity to attend screenings and view site-specific installations. Lectures and discussions will provide students with the necessary framework to create their own video work. The studio component of the course will cover basic digital video technologies and techniques. Students will learn to use mini-DV cameras, capture footage and edit and manipulate the footage using Final Cut Pro video editing software. Course Fee: $100 Prerequisite: ART 230 or consent of instructor. CANCELLED
ART 285 01 8-9:50am TTH	The Art and Archaeology of Ancient China	1.00 J. Beckman
This course will explore China's history and culture through archaeological sites and artifacts. The class will begin with the Neolithic period (3000 BCE) and end with the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). Most of the course will focus on burial sites, which have proven to be rich sources of texts as well as artifacts. The course will also include investigations into ritually buried caches such as the Buddhist cache at Famensi and sacrificial sites such as Sanxingdui. (WL,LW) No prerequisite.
ART 285 02 12-1:50pm TTH	God, Gold, and the Gothic: Art, Religion, and Politics in France	1.00 K. Schowalter
Soaring high over the French town and countryside, the Gothic cathedral was a focal point of art, religion, and politics. This course begins with the "rediscovery" and revitalization of the Gothic cathedral in the 18th and 19th centuries in France, Germany, and England, before moving back to explore the emergence of the "Gothic" in the mid-12th century. While thoroughly exploring the material fabric of the cathedral (its architecture, sculpture, painting, and stained glass), we will also look at the broader contexts of money, conflict, and ideology around these great monuments. (WL,LW) No prerequisite.
BIOL 237 01 11:15am-12:20pm MWF Lab 1-3:50pm TH	Cell Biology	1.00 D. Gravis
This course is a comprehensive analysis of cell structure and function and the molecular mechanisms that regulate cellular physiology, with a primary focus on eukaryotic cell biology. Topics include: an introduction to cellular chemistry and thermodynamics; origin and evolution of cells; modern cell biology research techniques; cellular organelles and the endomembrane system; nuclear structure and nuclear transport; structure, synthesis, and regulation of DNA, RNA, and proteins; membrane structure and transport; the cytoskeleton; the extracellular matrix; cell motility and intracytoplasmic transport; cell adhesion and cell communication; cell signaling; cell division and cell cycle regulation; cancer; cell aging and cell death. Lectures will be interwoven with class discussions of contemporary and socially-relevant topics such as stem cell and cloning research; the cell biology of diseases; the cellular targets of biological and chemical toxins and pharmaceutical drugs; cellular stress, aging, and death. The laboratory will use cellular, molecular, and biochemical methods to examine cell biological processes.Tentative offering, APPROVED. Prerequisite: Any college-level biology course, or consent of instructor.
CHEM 115 01 2-3:50pm MWF	Environmental Chemistry	1.00 K. Braun
How can driving a car lead to climate change? What causes acid rain? How can running an air conditioner deplete stratospheric ozone? Answers to these questions can be found through the fundamental principles of chemistry. In this course, we will develop a working knowledge of chemistry through exploration of the source, fate, and reactivity of compounds in natural and polluted environments. Environmental issues to be explored include climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and acid rain. The fundamental chemical processes central to these environmental issues will be utilized to critically evaluate and develop solutions to these problems. Three two-hour class periods per week of combined lecture, laboratory, and discussion. This course is designed for students with little prior chemistry experience. Chemistry 115 can be substituted for Chemistry 117 to meet major and minor requirements but should not be taken in addition to Chemistry 117. Tentative offering, APPROVED. No prerequisite.
CHEM 127 01 10:15am-12:05pm MWF	Biochemical Issues: Nutrition	1.00 R. Ordman
Sensible nutrition is important to health. This course is designed for non-science students who wish to supplement their understanding of biochemistry, laboratory science, and the application of science to civic action. Students experience doing what many biochemists do. They seek an interesting interdisciplinary problem, acquire biochemical data, and evaluate possible solutions to find holistic ones. Cooperatively, students acquire relevant biochemical skills beyond introductory biology and chemistry. Individually, each student will complete a project using her/his own unique disciplinary background. The goal is to produce a person able to function at the interface between science and society, to interpret media reports into reliable information, and to communicate scientific ideas to an audience. (LW, WL)
CHEM 127 02 2-3:50pm MWF	Biochemical Issues: Nerve Signalling	1.00 R. Ordman
Biochemical Issues is a course for students to experience doing what many biochemists do. Knowledge about how the brain functions is growing exponentially through the use of biochemistry, genomics, tissue culture, signalling and imaging techniques. We will use interdisciplinary methods to investigate how nerves develop connections, propagate impulses and store messages at the level of atoms to cells. Scientific, political and ethical issues such as disease, embryonic stem cells, and future research will be discussed. This is a laboratory course intended for non-science majors. (WL,LW) Prerequisite: CHEM 117 or consent of instructor.
CHEM 225 B1 8-9:50am TTH Lab 1-3:50pm TH	Instrumental Analysis	0.50 R. Deng
Modern scientific instrumentation plays a critical role in science and in technological research and development in industry. This course is an introduction to the principles and practice of scientific instrumentation with emphasis on the understanding and use of microscopic and spectroscopic instruments. Laboratory experiments will provide hands-on experience using instruments to analyze samples from chemistry, physics, biology, geology and other areas. Students will also learn how to analyze and present data obtained. Selected topics include scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and x-ray diffractometry (XRD). The course is open to all majors in science and related fields. Two class periods and one laboratory period per week. Prerequisite: two natural science courses, or consent of instructor.
EDYS 276 01 8-9:50am TTH	Writing for Social Justice, Education, and Action	1.00 G.Alter
Do you have a social justice concern and want a way of developing your ideas and engaging others to help implement your vision? This course is committed to the development of writing that will be effectively utilized in the service of social justice and civic action. Various types of writing (grant writing, journal and newspaper publication, speeches and presentations), related research (libraries, online, interviews, observation) and multiple contexts (community, state, national, and international needs and issues) will be considered. You will complete an individual writing project, participate in a writing lab/seminar experience, secure and engage guest experts, and attend field trips (research libraries, Donor’s Forum, community organizations). No prerequisite.
EDYS 276 02 12:00-1:50pm TTh	Affirmative Action, Desegregation and the Meanings of Diversity	1.00 B. New
In the past five years the US Supreme Court has handed down two landmark decisions affecting admissions and school placement policies: Grutter v. Michigan (2003), which permitted the use of race as a factor in admissions to The University of Michigan Law School, and Parents v. Seattle School District & Meredith v. Jefferson County School District (2007) which struck down the use of voluntary desegregation plans in Seattle and Louisville public schools. These contradictory rulings complicate what we mean when we talk about diversity in public school settings. This course will examine the history of affirmative action and desegregation law and policy that have converged in these and other recent related rulings. Readings will include substantial primary source materials -- higher court cases -- as well as commentary, and general literature focused on affirmative action, school integration/segregation and diversity. Students will be asked to write short responses to readings, one longer brief reviewing a case related to the core set of cases we will be considering, and to participate in a "hearing" on an historical case related to affirmative action or desegregation. The class will have a seminar format. There are no strict prerequisites, but some related coursework is strongly recommended. Preference will be given to junior and senior majors/minors in EDYS, PJST and LGST. No prerequisite.
ENGL 160 01 10-11:50am TTH	The Art of Professional Lying (Intro to Rhetoric and Discourse)	1.00 T. McBride
In this course we will examine the theory, ethics and practice of rhetoric. We'll consider Plato's famous case against rhetoric as a bad way to live and a bad thing to do, along with Aristotle's insistence that rhetoric can be practiced both effectively and responsibly. We'll study details of what, in theory, makes persuasion successful. We'll examine essays, films, advertisements, the internet, political speeches--even the supermarket. The aims of the course are to help students become more persuasive in their social and intellectual lives, and to become more wary of the rhetoric being aimed, as it constantly is, at themselves. No prerequisite.
ENGL 190 01 CPLT 190 01 2-3:50pm TTH	Exiles and Infidels	1.00 M. Muthupandiyan
The exile is a prominent and critically important figure in Modern literature (1660-present). Whether exiled as a result of socio-political forces such as war or through economic motivations such as famine or unemployment, the figure of the exile as it is portrayed in various modern narratives is of interest to individuals who would like to develop a more critical appreciation of contemporary world literatures. In this course students will examine portrayals of exile in Modern Literature. We will read and discuss works from the literary genres of fiction, poetry, essay, and travel narrative, including Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Eliza Haywood’s The British Recluse, Pico Iyer's travel essays, and Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. Students will be asked to critically engage each text within both its literary and socio-historical contexts. Toward these ends, we will focus on how exile is configured both as a state of political or cultural disenfranchisement as well as the freedom taken by an infidel - one who chooses to stand at the margins of a social order. During the course of the semester students will be asked to write a research paper as well as three brief response papers; participants will be responsible for performing a critical analysis of a secondary source to the class as well. (WL-LW) No prerequisite.
ENGL 190 02 CPLT 190 02 9-9:50am MTWF	International Prose Fiction and Poetry	1.00 J. Rosenwald
In this course we will study prose fiction and poetry of the past fifty years, with special focus on international authors who write in English, including Joy Kogawa, Ngugi wa Thion'o, Li-young Lee, and Ha Jin, as well as a smattering of American authors who have international concerns, such as Carolyn Forché, Tillie Olsen, and Galway Kinnell. Students will receive extensive and particular attention to the art of writing through practice at academic essays, journal, and stylistic imitations. (WL, LW) No prerequisite.
ENGL 190 03 10-11:50am TTH	Ethical Action, Social Responsibility, and Civic Engagement Introduction to Literary Study	1.00 D. Lichtenstein
In this section of Introduction to Literary Studies, we will focus on poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction which raises questions about ethical action, social responsibility, and civic engagement. One of the assignments will be a service learning project. (WL, LW) No prerequisite.
ENGL 190 05 CPLT 190 05 10-11:05am MWF	Portrait(s) of the Artists Introduction to Literary Study	1.00 P. Barickman
English 190 introduces students to the art of college writing through literary analysis. Our overall topic will be "Portrait(s) of the Artists" and the issues include: the literary of how to tell a story; the central role of the artist or writer, including social responsibility; his or her sources of inspiration, whether in society or nature; the effect of gender on the writer; the dual allegiance to folk and written culture; and the changing, ironic status of literature and writing in our time. Beginning in the 19th century we will analyze writers like Keats, Hawthorne, Kafka, Conrad, Joyce, Stevens, and Cather. The play we will read is Shakespeare's The Tempest. Requirements: Attendance, participation, 4 essays, in-class projects. (WL, LW) No prerequisite.
ENGL 195 01 12:00-1:50pm TTH	Eros and Domesticity, Medieval to Modern British Literary Traditions	1.00 L.Wright
“Men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love.” So says Shakespeare's Rosalind in As You Like It. On the other hand, thinking of such dead lovers as those that close Tristan and Iseult (as well as Romeo and Juliet), Georges Bataille asserts that Western lovers actually seek not each other, but “infinite annihilation,” obeying what Denis de Rougemont calls “the fatal dictates of a wish for death.” In this course, we'll investigate the linkage of love and death in the evolution of literary romance, as well as various attempts to set up literary housekeeping somewhere short of the grave. We'll focus on literary love from the twelfth century to the present, following the ways our texts inform and reform one another. We'll reach back from Chaucer and Malory to such French precursors as Chrétien de Troyes, and forward into Renaissance love poetry and a drama by Shakespeare; we’ll engage eighteenth-century cultural comment and Romantic poetry (early 1800s), and we’ll explore that “baggy monster,” the novel, as it moves from the 1700s toward ourselves. The course's aim is to understand individual texts both as indebted to those that precede them and as distinctive of each artist's historical context and individual sensibility. Requirements: Class membership (preparation, attendance, participation); four brief informal essays; one formal essay; two coverage exams, and one self-constructed essay exam (WL) Prerequisite: ENGL 190.
ENGL 195 02 10-11:50am TTH	The Evolution of Love: British Literary Traditions	1.00 J. Iwen
In this course we will study and compare works that overtly examine experiences of passion and longing at different moments in British history. We will begin with the Anglo-Saxon period and progress chronologically to the Modern period, covering a variety of genres in the process. (WL) Prerequisite: ENGL 190.
ENGL 215 01 THEA 215 01 2-3:50pm TTH	Writing for Actors/Script Writing	1.00 J. Rosenwald
In this course students will practice writing for stage and screen, following models from film and the theater, and exploring both traditional and experimental paths. Recently returned from directing the theater component of the ACM London/Florence program, the instructor brings to the class a fresh view of contemporary drama. Prerequisite: ENGL 205.
ENGL 246 01 CPLT 246 01 7:10-9pm TTH	Escaping Oedipus: From Structuralism to Poststructuralism (Literary History, Theory, and Practice)	1.00 L. Wright
This course examines the processes of representation and interpretation. First, we define concepts we need to discuss assumptions and procedures that are normally unself-conscious. Next, we study the movement from structuralist to poststructuralist thought, focusing on the ways different disciplines address two specific questions: what is a human self, and how are selves positioned in the social world? We engage psychiatry and anthropology: we take Freud and Lévi-Strauss to represent structuralist thinking, and then we examine poststructuralist critiques of their work. Throughout the course, we work to see how cultural myths inform both fictive representations and the ways we interpret them, drawing our examples from folklore, popular culture, and literature. Last, we enter actively into the social process of meaning-making: we ask what a ‘canon’ is, whether/why we need one, and whether/how we might adjust the idea and its influence. Students collaborate to build an anthology of readings for their near-contemporaries, working to explain the principles that guide their choices and to identify the virtues and limitations of their selection. Requirements: class membership (attendance, preparation, and participation); five brief journal entries; one formal essay and one written exam; collaboration in a small-group project. (WL) Prerequisite: ENGL 190 and ENGL 195 or 196, or consent of instructor.
ENGL 256 01 2:45-3:50pm MWF	The Emergence of the American Novel	1.00 C. McCown
“Who reads an American book?” sneered English essayist Sydney Smith in 1820, beginning a famous diatribe on the thirty-one-year-old nation’s lack of both culture and character. His remarks incensed and distressed American men and women of letters who had long contested Europe’s cultural paternalism and insisted that the establishment of an American literature was crucial to a national identity. As history reflects, Smith was behind hand in his judgment. Writers in the United States had enlisted on the side of literary independence long before the political revolution began, and by the time Smith wrote his critique, were veterans in the “culture wars” that marked the new nation’s rebellion against Europe’s cultural hegemony. Charles Brockden Brown’s novels--American to their core-- began appearing a mere decade after Washington’s inauguration, and the 1820s saw a literary surge advanced by such notables as Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Catherine Maria Sedgwick, and Nathaniel Hawthorne--all of whom were soon being read and esteemed in England and Europe. This course will consider American fiction written in the brief 60 years between the Revolutionary and the Civil Wars, and will focus on the novel as an emergent art form and as a forum for expression of national concerns. We will explore issues of influence and originality, intention and audience, publication and popularity, and will provide answers to Sidney Smith’s rhetorical question that he could not have imagined. Prerequisite: Varies with instructor.
ENGL 258 01 1:30-2:35pm MWF	Studies in Literature, Later Twentieth Century	1.00 P. Barickman
This course will trace the changes in the American novel as it responds to the political and cultural upheaval from the Great Depression through the Reagan years. Topics include satire and absurdity, the alienation of the writer, the novel's engagement with pop culture. Authors include West, Nabokov, Pynchon, Mailer, Barth, Johnson and O'Connor. Requirements: Three tests and a research project, as well as attendance and participation. (WL) Prerequisites: 190, 195 or 196.
ENGL 301 01 CPLT 230 01 2-3:50pm TTH	Life-and-Death Sentences: Discourses of Guilt and Madness	1.00 L. Wright
This course investigates the intersections among various discourses—religious and psychiatric, for example; legal and journalistic; historical, autobiographic, and literary—that work to construct causality and negotiate accountability. It will focus particularly on social dramas—primarily capital trials—in which various discourses compete for the power to define reality and determine responsibility and on the relations between such social dramas and the artistic imagination. Our materials will engage, for example: seventeenth-century English regicide, the Salem witch trials of 1692 and the late twentieth-century panic over Satanic cults of ritual abusers, pre-Civil War slave rebellions, Freud’s case-study constructions of neurosis and psychosis, twentieth-century trials of women who murdered men, the sexualization of femicide in Weimar Germany, and post-WWII treatment of the Nazi agents of genocide. Requirements: class membership (attendance, preparation, participation), five informal response papers, one formal essay, one essay exam, and one engagement of others’ exams. (WL) Prerequisites: ENGL 190 and ENGL 195, 196, or 246, plus junior standing (or instructor's consent).
ENGL 310 01 10-11:50am TTH	The Art of Poetry	1.00 J. Rosenwald
During the first half of this course, students will learn theoretical and practical elements of poetic form through examples ranging from nursery rhymes to blank verse to concrete poetry. During the second half they will focus on individual artists, investigating how these wordsmiths craft the language of poetry and then implementing the results of their investigation in the creation of their own new work. Prerequisite: ENGL 190 and 195 or consent of instructor.
ENVS 280 01 10-11:50am TTH	Buildings as Teachers	1.00 B.Spencer and R. Greenler
Multi-disciplinary groups will complete projects using the new Center for the Sciences as a laboratory to produce models and materials relating the design, construction, operation, use, and interpretation of the building to its built and natural environment. Some projects will establish models and baselines for on-going research on the energy, water, economic, and environmental performance of the building, while others will produce training and educational materials for conveying the environmental issues exemplified by this LEED-certified building to the campus and the general public. Tentative offering, APPROVED. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing and two courses from among those listed as options for the ENVS major.
GERM 218 01 7:10-11pm T	Nationalism and Nostalgia: Germans and their "Homeland"	1.00 T. Holian
This course surveys German culture and its development from roughly 1919 to 1990, highlighting the concept of homeland (Heimat) as a key component in the German mindset of self-identity. The class will be framed by a viewing and analysis of Edgar Reitz' groundbreaking 15-hour Heimat film series (1984). Extensive focus is given to major societal movements, events, and representative thinkers that helped to shape the destiny of Germany and much of Europe during the time period. Video component in German with English subtitles; the course will be taught in English. Students with an existing knowledge of German will have the option of doing readings, written assignments, and some of the discussions in German. Students who do the course work in English have no prerequisite. Students who wish to do the course work in German should have GERM 210 or the equivalent or the consent of the instructor.
GERM 250 01 IDST 210 03 2:45-3:50am MWF	Introduction to Yiddish Language and Culture	1.00 T. Freeman
The goal of this course is to acquaint students with basic elements of the Yiddish language and introduce them to Yiddish culture portrayed in literature in English translation. Students will read Yiddish in transliteration and written in Hebrew characters. They will also use Uriel Weinreich's textbook, College Yiddish, to practice speaking, reading and writing Yiddish. The study of language and culture will draw on Yiddish feature films, Yiddish folklore and folksongs, humor and poetry. The survey of literature will range from the Jewish troubadours of the Middle Ages, when Yiddish emerged from Medieval German, to the flowering of Yiddish classics in 19th and 20th century Europe and America. The focus will be on authors such as Mendele Moicher-Sforim, Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Leib Peretz, Itzik Manger and Nobel Prize laureates Isaac Bashevis Singer and Elie Wiesel. In addition, we will examine the depiction of the Holocaust in Yitzhak Katzenelson's sweeping epic "Poem on the Annihilation of the Jewish People." No prerequisite.
HEAL 340 01 8:00-9:50am F	Health, Aging and Public Policy	0.25 C. Gray
This Health and Society Proseminar will focus on issues related to health care needs and access for older individuals, with an emphasis on evaluating local and national health care resources in the context of the cost containment practices of the current political climate. We also will discuss how changes in perceptions of the productivity of later adulthood have had an impact on presumptions of self-sufficiency and the role of government and family systems in elder care. This seminar will include sessions with local geriatric care providers, field trips, and a possible service learning component. Prerequisite: SOCI 275 and Junior standing.
HIST 150 01 10-11:05am MWF	The Construction of Race in American History	1.00 L. Sturtz
Focused primarily on North America, this course will consider how race became defined and has operated in the past four hundred years of history. We will consider how classifications emerged in the early modern period and the process by which various ethnic groups became "white," "red," or "black," among other encolurations. Most, but not all, of the course will consider the development of a Black/White binary in the United States and how that influenced ways of 'seeing' people in narratives of inclusion or exclusion. To that end, we will analyze the implications of labels such as African-American, Black, or member of the African Diaspora which might be applied at various times to the same individual. Finally, we will also consider the role of religion, law, and popular culture as forces that shaped the process of encolouration and racialization in the past and consider how categories have been reconstructed as people have sought new ways to define themselves and others. (WL,LW) No prerequisite.
HIST 150 02 ANTH 375 03 12-1:50pm TTH	Calendars and Almanacs in East Asia	1.00 R. LaFleur
This first-year history seminar begins with an examination of the Chinese almanac--a folk classic that has been published annually for the past millennium and reflects the popular Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian religious traditions that are central to an understanding of Chinese social life into the twenty-first century. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the lunar calendar, key festivals, and important life cycle rituals as they work through the text of the almanac (in translation), and will learn to "read" the Chinese calendar with the aid of supplementary materials. We will spend a significant amount of time comparing Chinese and Japanese calendars, as well as cultural practices that are linked to them in each society. Students will read a wide range of literary, historical, and ethnographic works to supplement their study of calendars and almanacs, and the instructor will make liberal use of his own field experience to give context to the readings. (WL,LW) No prerequisite.
HIST 150 03 8:45-9:50am MWF	Fascism	1.00 E. Mathieu
Fascism has been called one of the three main political ideologies of the twentieth century (the other two being communism and capitalist democracy). Fascism has its roots in the nineteenth century, flowered in the period after the First World War, and remains relevant after 1945 and to the present. 'Fascist' has been used as a catch-all epithet used to smear anything remotely smacking of authoritarianism or ideological rigidity-be it parents, presidents, or feminists. Yet what fascism really was (and is?) remains murky for many. This course will explore the complex, contradictory, and often incoherent trajectories of fascism. Our approach will be broadly comparative; we will explore various ideological paths to and national strains of fascism. We will consider fascism as opposition politics and governing system. Consideration of ideology is particularly important to understanding fascism; we will explore fascist ideologies of class, nation, race, gender, and sexuality. (WL,LW) No prerequisite.
HIST 150 04 WGST 210 02 2:45-3:50pm MWF	Women in Africa	1.00 M. Jackson
African women’s history has experienced substantial growth in the last 20 years. Both African women themselves and the scholars who have studied them, have produced works that provide us a window into their lives. This course examines women as historical actors on the continent of Africa. It uses their life histories, scholarly works, primary documents, and a novel, to explore the experiences of women in a variety of circumstances. Through our readings we will gain a better understanding of the constructions of gender within Africa and the agency of African women as educators, political leaders, workers, and social activists. Students will choose their own case studies as the focus of their research and written work. (WL,LW) No prerequisite.
HIST 190 01 10-11:50am TTH	History Workshop	1.00 B. McKenzie
By looking at primary and secondary sources in three areas: immigration, African American migration, and overseas missionary work, this course acquaints students with different approaches to writing and studying history. We will begin by reading a variety of secondary sources to tease out basic methodological principles common to historians of all periods and geographical areas and to determine the interests, broadly speaking, of students enrolled in the class. In the second part of the course we will examine sets of primary sources from the Beloit College Archives, such as letters written by former students serving in missions in Asia, and anti-immigrant newspaper articles from Beloit newspapers during the World War I period. The final activity will require students to write a primary source research paper on one of the course areas. Much of the time in this workshop course will be spent presenting and discussing student work. (WL, LW) No prerequisite.
HIST 310 01 11:15am-12:20pm MWF	Interwar Europe	1.00 E. Mathieu
In this course, students will research and write a major essay on some aspect of culture and politics in Europe between 1918 and 1939. The major part of the class will be work-shopping research and writing projects. Common readings will include the conflict of democracy, communism, and fascism; questions of economic organization particularly around perceptions and policies in regards to capitalism; passionate and often violent struggles over definitions and redefinitions of gender and sexuality; and the production and consumption of culture, both high and low. (WL,LW) Prerequisite: junior or senior standing or consent of instructor.
HIST 310 02 ANTH 375 02 7:10-11pm T	Mountains	1.00 R. LaFleur
In this advanced seminar we will examine the way that various thinkers have engaged the greatest monuments in their midsts--the mountains that dominate certain parts of the human landscape. Mountains have figured prominently in writings and oral traditions from earliest times, and the fascination with them continues in the disciplines of history and anthropology, where the study of lofty terrain has alternately framed and dominated research work. We will study the role of mountainous terrain in the opening chapters of Fernand Braudel's The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, as well as in Edmund Leach's anthropological classic Political Systems of Highland Burma. We will also examine classical statements of mountain travel and thought by Confucius, Petrarch, the Bible, and other sources. In particular, we will study the five "marchmounts" or cosmological mountains of China--Mt. Heng in the north, Mt. Tai in the east, Mt. Song in the center, Mt. Hua in the west, and another Mt. Heng in the south. Laid out in powerful "architectural" fashion, the great Chinese mountains framed political and historical discourse in early China. Since early times, the Chinese imagined heaven as round and earth as square, and their linkage played a prominent role in three thousand years of political and historical writings. To this day, the mountains remain important as cultural sites and pilgrimage centers, and we will look at their role in multiple levels of Chinese economic, cultural, and political life. (WL,LW) Prerequisite: Junior standing or consent of instructor.
IDST 210 01 8-9:50am TTH	The American Civil War CANCELLED	1.00 P. Polley
The American Civil War provides the focus for this course. The years leading up to the outbreak of hostilities are covered briefly through the lens provided by the best-selling book of that era, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. We continue with a study of the war itself from South Carolina’s secession in December 1860 to the Confederate surrender in the spring of 1865. An analysis of America’s first prolonged counterinsurgency, Reconstruction, follows. The course concludes with an examination of popular culture in order to understand the ways in which the memory of the war has changed over time. Tentative offering, pending approval. No prerequisite. CANCELLED
IDST 210 02 10-11:05am MWF	Artificial Intelligence in Fact and Fiction	1.00 R.Zebrowski
This course is an introduction to cognitive science through artificial intelligence. Readings include many of the classic science fiction stories by authors like Stanislaw Lem and Isaac Asimov, as well as interdisciplinary readings that introduce the student to the actual state of the field of artificial intelligence. This course will juxtapose the “what ifs” of science fiction with the “what is” from the field itself. We will survey the field of AI from Alan Turing’s work in the 1950s through the current theoretical explorations of philosophers, psychologists, and computer scientists. The questions we will ask involve what “intelligence” is, how it shows itself in human beings and other animals, and what it might look like in a machine. Tentative offering, pending approval. Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.
IDST 230 01 CLAS 225 01 1:30-2:35pm MWF	Landscape,Art & Myth: Painting, Poetry, & Pompeii	1.00 A. Robson
Part I. Opening a door is like throwing a pebble into a pond. What awaits us behind the door? How big or small will be the ripples we cause? We find out when consequences come home, intended or otherwise. Tracking a myth is like that. It's hard to know what a story's minor addition or deletion will yield, since it isn't "just a story." Often story-changes are public & purposeful: deliberate historical corrections. Since the story exists only in a medium, such as a painting, or poem, the changes of form are as important as the causal track of its once-upon-a-time details. For example the story of Daedalus and Icarus "explains" the early centuries of history's first tri-continental civilization: Minoan civilization as an amalgam of Asian, African and European influences. Its different versions account for new definitions of past events in Homer's Odyssey, Vergil's Aeneid, and Ovid's Metamorphoses and illustrate new directions in the history of art. Mythic All-Stars include: Bacchic celebrations, Isis, Hercules, Actaeon, Polyphemos, Achilles, and Ariadne. Part II. Once upon a time--August 24, 79 a.d. in fact--a volcanic eruption buried Pompeii and neighboring cities. While those buried residents surely don't share our gratitude toward them (feeling less lucky than us), thanks to the natural catastrophe we have a perfect record of life in ancient times. The cities' various populations have left their mark: from Etruscans, to Greek-influenced Samnites, to Augustan-era Romans. (And Pompeii is a living city, which more than two million people visit each year.) Topic 1: Pompeii, from birth to death. Organizing the systematic excavation of the vast areas has created, or paralleled, the developing science of archaeology. So to see the old world with new eyes require us to pause briefly over the four centuries of excavations. Topic 2: Urban Architecture. Butchers, Bakers, and Candlestick-Makers: where they lived, and who they loved. Most important: the changing shape of the urban home. Topic 3: Art as Interpreting Society. Sculpture, Mosaics, and Frescoes talk. They can reveal the fundamental dynamics of material culture both vibrantly and actively. Topic 4: Art as Idealizing Landscape. A very important part of "reality," any society's mythological fantasies about itself tell us more than they intend. We will crack the codes of this visual science fiction. Topic 5: Cultural crossroads: where painting, myth and history link arms. (WL) No prerequisite.
IDST 287 C1 7:10-9:00pm TH	Cities in Transition: Foundation	0.25 J.Moore
Using the city of Beloit as laboratory, this course enables students to prepare for Cities in Transition courses taught abroad by 1) experimenting with different tools for reading and understanding urban environments; 2) becoming familiar with relevant theoretical insights, particularly from geography and intercultural communication; and 3) gaining insight into the challenges and benefits of being a sojourner abroad. By the end of the course, participants should feel empowered to enter into their study abroad experience confidently and critically. No prerequisite.
JAPN 280 01 CPLT 230 02 10-11:50am TTH	Japanese Ghosts and Monsters	1.00 S. Lineberger
In this course we will examine a broad range of texts (myths, prose fiction, drama, oral history, visual materials, manga, films, and anime) that deal with the supernatural in Japan. Students will study a wide variety of supernatural beings: vengeful warrior spirits, hungry ghosts, Shint gods, hell demons, water-spirits, shape-shifting animals, and even Godzilla. We will survey these materials in chronological order and consider how the changing depictions of the supernatural relate to transformations in Japanese society, culture, and religion. As depictions of the supernatural often function as forums in which societies present and work through their deepest fears and highest hopes, this course provides an opportunity to analyze issues in Japanese culture such as: systems of defining and maintaining gender roles, the relationship between native and imported religions, as well as political and social functions of texts. No prerequisite.
MATH 104 01 2-3:50pm TTH	Finite Mathematics: Environmental Modeling	1.00 P. Campbell
This offering will concentrate on system dynamics models to understand and manage environmental systems. We will build mathematical models on the computer, concentrating on the structure of the models and interpretation of the results and leaving the numerical simulation to the computer. Topics will include conversion of scientific units, stocks and flows, exponential growth and radioactive decay, steps in mathematical modeling, cyclical systems, equilibrium, logistic growth, and causal loop diagrams, Specific applications will include some or all of: lake dynamics, flows of chemicals through the environment, fish migration, animal life cycles, population dynamics, spread of disease, global warming, pollution buildup, acid rain, exhaustion of resources, and optimal harvesting, Linear programming and game theory, mentioned in the catalog course description, will not be included. Prerequisites: Three or more years of high school mathematics, including Geometry and Algebra II.
MATH 110 03 8:00-9:50am MWF	Calculus I	1.00 B. Atwood
This special section of MATH 110 will spend extra time reviewing pre-calculus techniques as they are immediately needed in calculus. In addition, more class time will be devoted to group work on concepts and problem solving. The purpose of this section is extra help for those who feel less confident about their readiness for calculus.
MUSI 200 01 7:10-9pm TTH	History of Sound in American Media	1.00 J. Cogan
History of Sound will expose the student to the advancements and failures of audio pioneers, from Thomas Edison to Walt Disney, from John Cage to David Lynch and beyond. Most art today is integrative or "multi"-media. If, as George Lucas asserts, "sound is 51 percent of film" the student of today (and the practitioner of tomorrow) must be armed with the skills and knowledge of the development and use of audio in the Arts. Along with a survey of sound through the past one hundred years, the student will be expected to write a well researched fully annotated four thousand word paper. This will be the lion's share of the grade, along with an oral multi-media midterm report. Weekly workshops will facilitate the student's progress to a final paper worthy of submission to an industry periodical. History of Sound proceeds from the assumption that any media that incorporates sound will be more fully understood and enhanced by tracing the evolution and aesthetic considerations of sound usage. As a 200-level course, History of Sound is designed with the understanding that the coursework will feature interpretation, analysis and critical method rather than the mere assimilation and recall of factual material. Students will be presented with readings and lecture material from a variety of sources and from a range of literature on audio and its role in media.  Each student will be expected to engage actively with course materials and methods.
MUST 295 01 12-1:50pm TTH	Materials of Material Culture	1.00 J. Ketcham
This course introduces students to the history, properties, and distinguishing characteristics of a variety of physical materials found in artifacts and works of art. Methods of manufacture will be discussed, with an emphasis on pre-industrial technologies and the chronology of significant innovations. Techniques of examination and scientific analysis which can be used to characterize and identify materials will be presented, along with the unique considerations of applying these techniques to museum objects. The course consists of lectures, laboratory exercises, and intensive reading assignments. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or consent of instructor.
PHIL 380 01 2-3:50pm TTH	Philosophies of Time	1.00 H. Massey
Is there anything more familiar than time? We commonly talk about telling time, keeping time, passing time, saving time, and wasting time. We schedule our activities by the clock and we make plans according to how much time things take. But what is time? Philosophers have found it notoriously difficult to explain time to their satisfaction. In this course we will read some of the most famous accounts of the meaning of time in the history of Western philosophy and discuss the problems and solutions they pose. This will include works by Aristotle, Augustine, Kant, Bergson, Husserl, Heidegger, and others. Our task will be to articulate the differences between the ways of conceiving time proposed by these thinkers and to evaluate their merits. We will also talk about the possibility of understanding time in a non-metaphysical way. Prerequisite: Three PHIL courses.
PHYS 208 01 7:10-10pm TH	Intermediate Physics Lab	0.50 P. Polley
Intermediate Physics Laboratory covers experimental technique and data analysis beyond the level of introductory physics courses, PHYS 101 and PHYS 102. mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and optics are covered, including damped oscillators, coupled oscillators, nonlinear behavior and approaches to chaos, optical interference and diffraction, and Fourier optics. Prerequisite: PHYS 102. Co-requisite PHYS 206 or MATH 190.
PHYS 280 01 10-11:50am T	Tools for Physics and Astronomy (LW)	0.50 B. Scharringhausen
This course will equip you with skills succeed in upper level physics classes and beyond.  Learn how scientists communicate in papers and oral presentations. Use the LaTeX document preparation system to write papers with professional-looking equations, tables, and figures.  Learn how to find articles in the scientific literature, understand them quickly, and cite them correctly.  Discover how Matlab and Maple can help you visualize, explore, and solve problems.  Find out how and when to apply for summer REUs, internships, jobs, and graduate school. Prerequisite: Sophomore or junior standing.
POLS 206 01 WGST 240 01 12-1:50pm TTH	The Challenge of Gender Equality	1.00 G. Duerst-Lathi
We take up questions of gender and equality in theory and practice. After exploring tensions in the concepts of “equal treatment” and “being treated as equals,” along with other conceptual challenges offered through post-colonial critiques, we look at EU and UN Millennial projects on gender mainstreaming, considering their effects for both women and men. We also, inevitably, consider the promise and challenges of gender and development transnationally as well as inequalities found in the “south in the north” of the US. Students will undertake research projects on women’s activism or related topics. Prerequisite: any introductory course in POLS or WGST.
POLS 270 01 1:30-2:35pm MWF	Politics of West Asia	1.00 B. Dougherty
This course examines the role of West Asian states in world affairs, with a particular focus on the foreign policies of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. Topics include the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq war, the invasion of Kuwait and its aftermath, post-Saddam Iraq, Turkey’s role in the Middle East, the Kurds, Iranian foreign policy, and Afghanistan’s troubled history. The course will combine lectures, interactive techniques, including round table debates and role-play simulations, and videos. Prerequisite: POLS 160 or POLS 130 or consent of instructor.
POLS 295 01 12-1:50pm TTH	Contemporary African Politics	1.00 R. Ellett
This course is an introduction to contemporary African politics and will guide students through the struggle for democratization and economic development from the post-colonial era to the present day. We shall examine the major factors that shape African politics - the state; social groups; politics of identity (gender/ethnicity/class); international donors and financial institutions. Africa is frequently portrayed in the media as being in permanent economic and political crisis. This course seeks to deconstruct these generalizations, and uncover the significantly different political and economic outcomes between states. Why are some states moving towards stable democracy with strong developing economies while others are near collapse? Students will be asked to select one country and study it in-depth throughout the semester. Our tools and methods of discovery shall draw from the work of journalists, filmmakers, novelists, playwrights and historians in addition to political scientists. At the end of this course students will have a strong factual and historical understanding of Africa and will have garnered substantial insight into theoretical debates as they apply to comparative politics and political science more broadly. Prerequisite: POLS 160 or POLS 130 or consent of instructor.
POLS 380 01 2-3:50pm TTH	Unsettling “Us” Political Theory and Public Law: Research	1.00 A. Davies
“Foreignness” poses important questions about inclusion and exclusion, civil and civic rights and obligations, and effective public policy. The first half of this course will be dedicated to an exploration of “the foreigner” from the perspective of democratic theory, constitutional law, and enduring political controversies regarding immigration in the U.S. In the second half of the semester, students will develop, present and revise independent research related to these themes. (LW) Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing, completion of at least one 200-level law or political theory course.
RLST 200 01 10-11:05am MWF	Fundamentalisms	1.00 N. Gummer
This seminar will investigate contemporary religious movements that have come to be labeled (whether by adherents or critics) as "fundamentalist." This term, used in the early twentieth century to describe an American Protestant call for a return to "fundamental" religious principles, has come in recent decades to be applied to a large number of otherwise quite distinct religious movements within multiple traditions. Such movements define themselves with reference both to their reaffirmation of original, "fundamental" principles and to their opposition to the perceived threat or immorality of "modernity" (variously defined, but usually associated with "secularism" and often also with "capitalism"). Central goals of the course include not only understanding the assumptions underlying different "fundamentalisms," but also recognizing and critiquing our own (widely varying) assumptions through comparative study. Special attention will be paid to the convergence of fundamentalist, nationalist, and communalist agendas. (WL, LW) Prerequisite: RLST 101 or 105.
RLST 200 02 7:10-9pm TTH	Islam	1.00 D. Majeed
An investigation of the rise and expansion of Islam from the social, economic, and political milieu of seventh century Arabia to the rise of the faith as the fastest growing religion in the United States. Focus on the Prophet Muhammad, Muslim rituals, sectarian development, Sufism, women's rights and the encounter with Southeast Asia, Western Europe and Africa. (WL, LW) Prerequisite: RLST 101 or 105 or consent of instructor.
RLST 230 01 2-3:50pm TTH	Religious Diversity & Marital Practice	0.50 D. Majeed
In our religiously diverse nation, to whom marital rights should be extended is an issue of increasing debate. Whether marriage is an institution to which only heterosexual couples may enter (monogamously or polygynously), who benefits, and under what circumstances a marriage may be resolved is often set forth in religious codes that draw attention to lifestyles and traditions which contradict U.S. civil laws and, to some, the heart of the Constitution. This interdisciplinary global engagement seminar will consider case studies from the U.S., Romania, India, Afghanistan, Canada, and several African nations in its exploration of the changing nature of marriage in North America as well as the legal, economic and cultural consequences for a generation of marriageable young adults. No prerequisite.
RLST 230 02 7:10-11pm T	Mysticism in Judaism	1.00 R. Benton
Mysticism and mystical experiences have been a part of Judaism since the earliest days. The Torah contains many stories of mystical experiences, from visitations by angels to prophetic dreams and visions. The Talmud considers the existence of the soul and when it becomes attached to the body. Like most subjects of Jewish belief, the area of mysticism is wide open to personal interpretation. This seminar will examine the evolution of Jewish mystical thought, starting with the Essenes, the Merkabah (Chariot) mysticism of the Talmundic era, and the mystical school of thought that has come to be known as Kabbalah. We will also consider the ways in which neo-Platonism, Gnosticism, Christianity and other currents influenced and were in turn impacted by Jewish mysticism. Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.
SOCI 291 01 10-11:50am TTH	Juvenile Delinquency	1.00 C. Davis
Through the lens of social inequalities, this course will examine the social contexts of juvenile delinquency and the juvenile justice system. Using the Sociological Imagination (the interplay between biography and history) as a basis, this course will help you develop a thought process that makes it possible for you to look at a situation and see, not what someone has done wrong, but what that person lacks due to her/his lower position in structural hierarchies (race, class, gender) which has constrained that person from acting in a different way. The course will also provide an introduction to Ethnographic Field Research. Prerequisite: SOCI 100.
SPAN 290 01 11:15am-12:20pm MWF	19th-Century Spanish and Puerto Rican Literature	1.00 S. Lopez
This course will introduce students to various literary movements of nineteenth-century Spain and Puerto Rico. We move from romanticism to regionalism and then onto realism and naturalism. Students read works by well-known Spanish writers such as Larra, Bécquer, Espronceda, Pardo Bazán, and Perez Galdós to lesser well-know authors such as José Gautier Benítez, Pachín Marín, Lola Rodríguez deTió, and Eugenio María de Hostos, all with the goal of having a clear sense of similarities and differences between the literary production of Spain (the colonizer) and Puerto Rico (the colonized). Prerequisite: SPAN 240 or consent of instructor.
WGST 360 01 10:15am-12:05pm MWF	Academic Activism: Disciplining Social Justice	1.00 C. Orr
Academic activism has been around almost as long as academic institutions have, and its recent histories in the US include the student-labor coalitions in the 1930s, anti-nuclear proliferation organizing of the 1950s, civil rights campaigns and anti-war protests of the 1960s, women’s movement activities of the 1970s, anti-apartheid rallies of the 1980s, and anti-sweatshop campaigns of the 1990s. Specific questions raised by these movements include: How have academic pursuits reinforced/resisted imperialism? What happens to identity-based social movements when they become disciplines (e.g., African-American studies, women’s studies, queer studies)? How have tensions between “common” versus expert knowledges reflected, deflected, and/or animated activism for social justice? How is the increasing corporatization of higher education exhibited (or not) in the curriculum and pedagogy of higher education? How does “applying” academic knowledge in “the community” reinforce and/or reconfigure town-gown divides? In this “workshop” course, we will conceptualize, organize, and produce out-of-class projects about the roles of higher education in increasingly stratified and contested political contexts within and beyond Beloit College’s borders. The two hours of additional class time each week will allow for out-of-class, hands-on activities such as exploring the built environment of this and other colleges; documenting the daily “work” of being a student; curating exhibitions of academic artifacts; examining how the “politics of difference” play out in admissions, faculty searches, and curriculum; and looking into the effects of corporate relationships on the College policies and practices. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.
WRIT 100 01 9-9:50am MTWF	Hyper-Real: Reading Non-Realist Short Fiction	1.00 S. Wright
What exactly is a short story? How do writers respond to and make use of the constraints of length specified by the genre's name? Definitions of the genre often privilege "slice of life" realism--fiction that represents life as we ordinarily see it, i.e., in its press of daily events and as experienced by particular individuals whose psychology we engage in our most familiar terms. This course will focus instead on short fictions that represent something very different: not particular minds and events, but the underlying principles and tacit assumptions that shape various particulars into a socio-political system. We'll ask how such texts signal their representational mode and make it decipherable: how do we recognize that we must interpret their connection to ordinary reality, and how do they guide us to do so? Students will write, workshop, and re-write four short essays, engaging various purposes: description, analysis, and interpretation, as well as argument and persuasion. We will work to develop a self-conscious voice in writing, to identify an audience and to address it effectively, to compose logically and efficiently, and to revise for clarity, precision, and economy. Writing will focus on short stories by such artists of the genre as Porter, Oates, and Bass; Faulkner, Welty and Capote; Greene, Carter, and McEwan; schulz and Nabokov; Cortazar and Fuentes; Shepard, Millhauser, and Kauffman. (LW). No prerequisite.
WRIT 100 02 10-11:05am MWF	Commas and Community	1.00 T. McBride
This writing seminar will focus on the details of good expository writing, and we will build a writing community around study and practice of these details. The assumption of the course is that the god of good writing rests in such details, such as active verbs, emphasis on nouns and verbs as the key units of the sentence, proper use of commas and semicolons, and plain & explicit organization. We will work a lot with each other's writing, and study models of argument. A major feature of the course will be lots of attention being paid to the writing you are doing for other courses. (LW) No prerequisite.
WRIT 100 03 1:30-2:35pm MWF	The Writer as Traveler	1.00 C. Lewis
In this seminar we read and write about travel—and explore the writing process as a kind of journey. We address a variety of questions about travel—such as where and why and how and with whom we go—and to what effect. Similarly, we will address how writing can entail travel-like elements such as planning, getting lost, making adjustments, discovery, and arrival. We address critical reading strategies, effective writing process, working with sources, and the characteristics of good writing for a general academic audience. Writing assignments include original travel essays, analysis of travel writing, and multi-media work (such as the use of photographs to explore “visual rhetoric”) that are developed through a practice of in-class discussion and writing, collaborative editing, individual conferences, and extensive revision. (LW) No prerequisite or frequent-flier miles needed.
WRIT 100 04 2:45-3:50pm MWF	Reading Culture: Words and Images	1.00 P. Barickman
This course prepares students for the rigors of academic life, offering interdisciplinary texts along with a method of reading that helps students to think critically and respond in writing. Through the uniquely challenging anthology Ways of Reading, this course assumes that strong texts equal strong readers. As the basis for our critical inquiry, we will read across different disciplines: autobiography (Harriet Jacobs, Richard Rodriguez, Adrienne Rich, John Edgar Wideman), anthropology (Clifford Gertz), art criticism (John Berger, W.J.T. Mitchell), and cultural criticism (Michel Foucault, Walker Percy, Edward Said). The companion volume Words and Images helps students to analyze images critically, a necessary skill in our image-rich society. The overall goal is to sharpen the intellectual skills that inspire college-level writing, while engaging in conversations with key academic and cultural texts. Throughout the semester, students will produce four major papers and various informal writing exercises and classroom exercises on writing, style, revision and documentation. (LW) No prerequisite.
WRIT 100 05 10-11:50am TTH WRIT 100 06 12-1:50pm TTH	The World as Text: Writing Societies, Writing Selves	1.00 M. Muthupandiyan
Within this course students will read and execute culture writing — ethnographic texts — as a means of developing their critical reading, writing, and thinking skills. Together the class will read and critically engage texts, including Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone, that unveil various contemporary socio-cultural phenomena in the United States. As you negotiate your roles as writers and thinkers within an academic sphere you will gain experience in constructing arguments through analysis, reflection and exposition, and in turn will be held responsible for revising and editing your writing, as well as for researching and working with sources. Each student will produce a portfolio that will include four major papers in addition to participating in more informal writing exercises and classroom debates. This course on ethnographic writing — writing culture — will offer students an opportunity to develop their capacities to perform cultural inquiry as they become more skillful writers. Emphasizing four major types of rhetorical argumentation — inquiry, explanatory writing, analysis, and reflection — this course will help you as you become a well informed college writer who is already responsible for communicating effectively in various academic environments here at Beloit. (LW) No prerequisite.
WRIT 230 B1 12-1:50pm TTH	Tutoring Peer Writers	0.50 C. Lewis
This first module course is an introduction to the theory and practice of tutoring peer writers. Our objective is to develop your understanding of, experience with, and skills in a variety of tutorial contexts and capacities, with an emphasis on working with undergraduate writers on a collaborative basis. We will address the tutor-writer relationship generally and the dynamics of working in a writing center in particular. Most of our attention will be given to successful tutoring in relation to the entire writing process and the production of effective writing in a variety of academic contexts. Includes classroom reading, writing, and role-playing, as well as writing center observation and practice. This course is required for eligibility for work as a writing center tutor, meets the English Department Rhetoric and Discourse internship requirement, and provides good preparation for other teaching and mentoring roles. All students must be strong writers to enroll. (WL) Prerequisite: Second-year status and consent of instructor, which requires faculty recommendation.