Courses

Second Pre-Reg Deadline for Advanced Creative Writing Workshops

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Good news! If you missed the pre-registration deadline for the advanced creative writing workshops (ENGL 326, 337, thumbnailCA3L0B63and 342), please note that there is now a second deadline: January 18, 2010, the Monday before the semester begins.

To apply for these courses, please submit 5 pages of your writing (in prose or poetry, depending on the course to which you are applying) along with a cover page that includes the following information: 1) your name, email address, year in school, major (if any), some of your favorite writers and any other influences, and 2) a short biographical paragraph describing your history and/or interest in writing.

Please submit these materials electronically in a single attachment to the professor who is teaching the course (see below) by 10 a.m. on Monday, January 18, 2010. Please use either Microsoft Word or rich-text-format for your attachment.

You may take one of these workshops along with either Hilton Als’s “James Baldwin in Black and White” or Paul La Farge’s “Space and Place in Fiction”; however, you may not take two courses designated as “advanced workshops” (ENG 326, 337, or 342) concurrently. If you are applying to more than one of these courses, please include the ranking of your request on your submission.

This information will also be available on the WesMaps pages for these courses.

Barred Shakespeare — Dec. 3

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Students from THEA 205, “Activism and Outreach Through Theater,” will be presenting pieces from their time spent atthumbnailCATSS4Z1 York Correctional Institute.  The students work with women from York on Shakespearean plays, this year “The Tempest” and “The Merchant of Venice,” creating connections between the circumstances of the lives of the characters and their own.  The pieces performed by Wesleyan students have all been written by women of York.  Recently released women from York who have participated in this course in the past will be in attendance and will participate in both the performance and question and answer section of the event.  No tickets required.

This is a service learning course taught by Professor Ron Jenkins.

Thursday, Dec. 3, 7 p.m.  at the CFA Hall

New FYI for Spring Semester

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CCIV 117:  Eros the Bittersweet:  Love and Desire in Classical Antiquity   Prof. Eirene Visvardi     M &  W 1:10-2:30

eros1Eros, the god of love and desire in antiquity, was powerful, revered, and feared. The course explores the different faces of eros expressed in male and female desire in a variety of contexts. We will address questions of gender roles and sexuality in antiquity; how these are acted out in different social and religious institutions, including the symposium, female rituals, and marriage; and how the power and pleasure of eros are transformed in different poetic traditions and artistic representations from Homer to the poetry of drinking parties, tragedy, comedy, and philosophy, among others.

New NSM GenEd Course

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MBB/Dance 108

Body Languages: Choreographing Biology  Spring 2010
Tuesday/Thursday 1:10-2:30 p.m.

MB&B and Dance, 1 Credit, NSM
Instructors: Manju Hingorani, Associate Professor, MB&B
Katja Kolcio, Associate Professor, Dance

The course will present an introduction to human biology from the cellular to organismal level.  This subject will be examined through scientific and choreographic perspectives.  Students will have the opportunity to practice movement awareness and learn basic principles of choreography, and will apply these skills to exploration of human biology.  Each class will involve lecture, discussion and movement components.

Required Texts:
Alberts et al., Essential Cell Biology ,3rd Edition, Garland Science Press.
Foster, Susan, Reading Dancing: Bodies and Subjects in Contemporary Dance, Wesleyan University Press.
Select additional readings and video viewings.

thumbnailCABFMIXMInterpretation: This course requires students to develop their ability to interpret, investigate and communicate the subject of biology through physical movement study and choreographic composition.

Designing, Creating and Realizing:  This course requires students to actualize their understanding and investigation of biology through the completion and performance of a series of movement studies and dance compositions.  Their work will culminate in a final choreographic project that demonstrates thorough comprehension and analysis of course material. Students will learn various methods and paradigmatic approaches to movement invention, composition and performance as a medium for the investigation of biology.

Exams and Assignments: Short papers, movement studies, 1-2 written exams and a final performance project.

New Course!

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CHEM 180:  Writing about Science

Course Course Description:  A writing intensive course open to both science and non-science  students interested in investigating and  writing about the content,  process  and human elements of science and nature in the various genres found current newspapers, magazines, scientific journals, monographs and scientific biographies.  The structures characteristic of each these forms will be critically considered, based on examples of each from the current literature.  Both practical matters in learning the craft of science writing as well as a consideration of special topics chosen on the basis of general relevance to science literacy will be included. Students will undertake a series of six writing assignments of progressively increasing length,   leading to a term paper in the form of a full article of the type found in Omni, Discover, or Natural History.   Students will be expected to pitch their proposed writing projects, read from their work in progress and contribute short responses to class topics on a weekly basis to a class blog.  The choice of topics for writing assignments will be tailored to individual student interests.  The WAS class will function both as a source of original writing and as an editorial board for the production of a new issue of Synthesis, Wesleyan’s webzine of science and nature writing.   This course fulfills an NSM expectation in General Education.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1209726/Single-molecule-million-times-smaller-grain-sand-pictured-time.html

Instructor:  Prof. David L. Beveridge, Chemistry;  TA:  Oriana Korol ’09, Ford Fellow, Writing Center                          Course meets:  Tu & Th 2:40-4 p.m., NSM Conference Room, Science Towers

First Day of Class: Attendance & Course Level

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If you are enrolled in a course, you must attend the first class or else the instructor can give your seat to another student.  You must either confirm through your portfolio that the instructor has dropped you from the course or go through the process of dropping it from your schedule yourself through your portfolio.  This is good information for you to know, especially if you want to check out another course that meets at the same time.  You risk losing the seat that you do have.

thumbnailCAG0PBU6If you are unsure about which level of course to attend, check out the course textbooks at Broadstreets Bookstore.  That, in conjunction with reviewing the course syllabus, talking with the instructor when the course meets, and consulting again with your faculty advisor should help you make a decision.

Another FYI course

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The FYI course, ANTH165-01, All Our Relations? Kin, Kinship, and the Politics of Knowledge was mistakenly listed as carrying 0 credits. The error has been corrected (it’s a normal, 1-credit course), but you may have passed it over as a result.   If you are interested in Anthropology, check it out.  The course is taught by Professor Gillian Goslinga, Tu & Th 9-10:20 a.m., Fisk 116.

New Courses–an FYI and a Spanish

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As you think about your course schedule for today’s meeting with your faculty advisor, check out the blog posting on the side bar, “Creating Your Course Schedule,” and consider the new course described below.

COMP 134, Human and Machine Inference, is a freshman year initiative (FYI) course taught by Professor Eric thumbnailCA0H113DAaron on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:40 – 4:00 p.m. in Exley Science Center 137.  Enrollment is limited to 20 first year students.

This course will explore how people and computers perform inference–the process of reaching conclusions based on premises–with investigation of computational, philosophical, and psychological perspectives. Discussions of puzzles and brainteasers will help expose and illuminate intricacies of inference.   Gen Ed Area Dept: NSM MATH

Spanish for Heritage Speakers SPAN 203 FALL 2009

thumbnailCA7SHKPIStudents who take this course must:   1) Speak Spanish as language of heritage, but have a limited ability (and/or confidence) in their language skills in Spanish; and 2) have placed into SPAN112 or above.

Emphasis is placed on the following: development of linguistic strategies that advance students’ written and oral expression beyond the colloquial level; grammatical and orthographic norms of Spanish; critical reading (reading for understanding and analyzing what is read); and expansion of vocabulary. The linguistic work will be conducted through course materials that explore, through a variety of literary and nonliterary texts, the use of Spanish in the United States.

This is a POI course not offered every year.  Professor Ana Pérez-Gironés, MWF 11:00-11:50 a.m. in FISK414.

Creating a Course Schedule

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thumbnailCA7Z1T6RAs you think about developing your fall semester course schedule, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.  Overall, you want to think about how your courses relate (or not) to one another and to think about taking courses across divisions (H&A, SBS, NSM) and within a division rather than loading up on several courses in one department, so that you get both breadth and depth.  Your first year is a time to explore while keeping connected to areas of interest and possible majors.  Other suggestions are to: 

  • challenge yourself in a new subject area—maybe in a course unique to Wes—as well as in a subject you love;
  • choose courses with different kinds of work: analytic, creative, quantitative, experiential, written (not all thumbnailCAYAHNW0reading and writing);
  • enroll in courses with means of evaluation that differ from one another (papers, tests, labs,  performance, etc.) and that come at different points in the semester;
  • get courses that vary in size (seminar and an intro);
  • begin fulfilling General Education Expectations;
  • strengthen your Essential Capabilities;
  • distribute your courses throughout the week (not all Tues./Thurs.);
  • spread your courses throughout the day (three in a row is a killer!); and
  • make sure you schedule time for lunch!

For each of the four courses in your ideal schedule, you should identify a back-up course (in case you do not get in due to classes being full, schedule conflicts, etc.).  Then you should identify a back-up for each of your back-ups (for the same reasons), keeping in mind your overall educational goals.  This strategy will generate good course options to discuss with your faculty advisor in your individual meeting on Thurs., Sept. 3.  In this focused discussion, it is important to stay open to your advisor’s suggestions as well.  Your peer advisor will be available to work with you on Wednesday, if you would like help in your planning.   

This “back-up” strategy also will help you stay organized and on track during adjustment and drop/add.  While you may not get all four of your ideal courses, you will certainly get some of the twelve you have identified, and will continue to find new course possibilities through this process.   With the permission of your faculty advisor and the course instructor, you also may drop and add classes during the first two weeks of classes.