ARAB101 Elementary Arabic I

Arabic 101 is the first introductory course of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The course will be conducted primarily in Arabic, except at the very beginning when students are learning the alphabet (Sound and Script). The course is communicative proficiency-based but other methods such as the translation are integrated in the course. While the communicative approach stresses the importance of developing the oral skills in class, all the other skills of language learning be emphasized. Arab culture and history are systematically integrated in the course through student groups cultural presentations as well as other activities.



The class will focus on speaking as an effective way of learning (speak it to learn it). Students will be able to write and create basic words, sentences and eventually write their first essay. The latter will cover--but will not be limited to--FORTE elements (family, occupation, recreation, travel and education). Students will able to converse basic dialogues comfortably in class, and HW will be assigned on a daily basis. There is a weekly Teaching Assistant's session conducted by a native Fulbright scholar from an Arab country.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-LANG
Prereq: None

ARAB101Z Elementary Arabic I

ARAB101Z is the first introductory course of MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) designed for students who have never had any training in MSA while ARAB102 is its sequel appropriate for students who have taken ARAB101 and/or for individuals who are decent heritage speakers of an Arabic regional dialect. By taking ARAB101 & ARAB102, the student would earn 3 credits and would be able to enter ARAB201 if they choose to do so, as well as reach a low-intermediate level in MSA.



MSA is the official medium of oral and written communication in the Arab World and for religious services in the Islamic world. It has derived from Aramaic, has a close kinship to Hebrew, and it is the language spoken first by the Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. It is the language used in books, novels, newspapers, conferences, official and religious speeches, business transactions, legal and government documents, court rulings, public signs, TV and radio newscasts and many TV/cinema productions and shows. It is the language of the Holy Quran and Hadith (sayings by the prophet Mohamed (PBUH) and/or his companions), and it is understood practically by every native Arabic speaker from Morocco to Bahrain. Being the language of Islam, more than one billion Muslims use it in their religious daily rituals all around the world, namely central Asia, South East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, India & Bangladesh etc.), the Middle East, the Great Sahara & North Africa.



It is very important to note that Modern Standard Arabic is not exactly the language spoken on the streets in the Arab world. However, anyone with a solid knowledge of MSA will have little to no problem "picking up" any of the main regional Arabic dialects (North African, Egyptian/Sudanese, Gulf, Iraqi, or Levantine)



The course will be conducted primarily in Arabic, except at the very beginning stages which will require the use of English (during Sound and Script discussions). The course is communicative proficiency-based, which stresses the importance of developing the oral skills but also aims at developing the other skills of language learning (listening, reading and writing).

Arab Culture and History are systematically integrated in the course and will be referred to, whenever appropriate and possible. References will also be made to the regional dialects for comparison with Modern Standard Arabic. Student Groups in-class presentations will be an excellent tool for students to learn about different aspects of Arab & Muslim culture, society and history.



The course will be supplemented by audio and video material as well as printed handouts provided by the instructor. Students are expected to do daily homework, role-play, group work, and give regular in-class feedback/presentations, and are supposed to come prepared for class on a daily basis.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-LANG
Prereq: None

ARAB102 Elementary Arabic II

This course is a second-semester course in modern standard Arabic (MSA) that will continue to stress the basic skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The course will focus on speaking as an effective way of learning (speak it to learn it). Students will continue to learn MSA grammar, write and create paragraphs, and begin to converse comfortably in the target language. Students are expected to develop better listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Arabic and to become familiar with Arabic culture. Oral drills and speaking activities will be done in the classroom, and the class will be conducted primarily in Arabic.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-LANG
Prereq: ARAB101

ARAB102Z Elementary Arabic II

ARAB102 is its sequel appropriate for students who have taken ARAB101 and/or for individuals who are decent heritage speakers of an Arabic regional dialect. By taking ARAB101 & ARAB102, the student would earn 3 credits and would be able to enter ARAB201 if they choose to do so, as well as reach a low-intermediate level in MSA.



MSA is the official medium of oral and written communication in the Arab World and for religious services in the Islamic world. It has derived from Aramaic, has a close kinship to Hebrew, and it is the language spoken first by the Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. It is the language used in books, novels, newspapers, conferences, official and religious speeches, business transactions, legal and government documents, court rulings, public signs, TV and radio newscasts and many TV/cinema productions and shows. It is the language of the Holy Quran and Hadith (sayings by the prophet Mohamed (PBUH) and/or his companions), and it is understood practically by every native Arabic speaker from Morocco to Bahrain. Being the language of Islam, more than one billion Muslims use it in their religious daily rituals all around the world, namely central Asia, South East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, India & Bangladesh etc.), the Middle East, the Great Sahara & North Africa.



It is very important to note that Modern Standard Arabic is not exactly the language spoken on the streets in the Arab world. However, anyone with a solid knowledge of MSA will have little to no problem "picking up" any of the main regional Arabic dialects (North African, Egyptian/Sudanese, Gulf, Iraqi, or Levantine)



The course will be conducted primarily in Arabic, except at the very beginning stages which will require the use of English (during Sound and Script discussions). The course is communicative proficiency-based, which stresses the importance of developing the oral skills but also aims at developing the other skills of language learning (listening, reading and writing).



Arab Culture and History are systematically integrated in the course and will be referred to, whenever appropriate and possible. References will also be made to the regional dialects for comparison with Modern Standard Arabic. Student Groups in-class presentations will be an excellent tool for students to learn about different aspects of Arab & Muslim culture, society and history.

The course will be supplemented by audio and video material as well as printed handouts provided by the instructor. Students are expected to do daily homework, role-play, group work, and give regular in-class feedback/presentations, and are supposed to come prepared for class on a daily basis.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-LANG
Prereq: ARAB101 OR ARAB101Z

ARAB201 Intermediate Arabic I

This course is a second-year, lower intermediate course in modern standard Arabic (MSA) designed mainly for students who have completed at least two semesters of Arabic Fusha or those who already possess a basic foundation in Arabic. Students will develop more skills in writing concrete essays and narrating. They will start talking about current events and describing places and people. Narration, in fact, is the hallmark of the intermediate level, so conjugation tenses will need to be memorized. The course will primarily be conducted in Arabic, except for some cases which require the use of English. The course is communicative proficiency-based, which stresses the importance of developing the oral skills, while giving equal attention to the other skills of language learning (reading, writing and listening). The measure chart and the case system will continue to be discussed and practiced. Aspects of contemporary life and culture in the Arab world as well as Arabic regional dialects will be constantly referred to. Students are expected to do daily homework, role-play, group work, and give regular in-class feedback/presentations. The course will be supplemented by audio and video material as well as printed handouts by the instructor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.25
Gen Ed Area: HA-LANG
Prereq: ARAB101 AND ARAB102

ARAB202 Intermediate Arabic II

This course is a second-year, upper intermediate course in modern standard Arabic (MSA) that will continue to focus on the four basic skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. In this level, students will be able to speak Arabic comfortably enough to communicate with a native speaker on a variety of topics. Students should be able to write simple texts on everyday themes and read uncomplicated authentic texts on familiar or concrete topics, as well as newspaper articles and storybooks. Culture will continue to be integrated in the classroom.The class will be conducted primarily in Arabic.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.25
Gen Ed Area: HA-LANG
Prereq: ARAB101 AND (ARAB102 OR ARAB201)

ARAB301 Advanced Arabic I

Arabic 301 is the fifth semester of Arabic MSA and is designed for students who have had at least two full years of Arabic MSA or its equivalent.



This first semester of third-year Arabic will continue to emphasize the four skills in language learning mainly through readings that introduce students to more advanced topics that draw from literature, Arab Media, sciences and other disciplines. The course will be conducted entirely in Arabic, apart from cases where intricate grammar concepts necessitate English use.



The course is communicative proficiency-based, and students will continue to do role-play, pair work, write weekly reports and commentaries and give regular in-class feedback/presentations. They are expected to contribute orally to class discussions and lectures.



Arab culture and history will continue to be systematically integrated in the course through constant reference. Regional dialects will continue to be referred to, with the purpose of comparing them to Modern Standard Arabic.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-LANG
Prereq: None

ARAB311 Introduction to Colloquial Levantine Arabic I

This course offers students an introduction to the spoken Arabic of the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories). One of the difficulties facing nonnative speakers trying to master Arabic is that very few Arabs can carry on a conversation in modern standard Arabic, so students must be familiar with a colloquial dialect as well as the standard literary language to communicate effectively in Arabic. Although Levantine Arabic is not as widely spoken as is the Egyptian dialect, it provides a useful entry for English speakers into colloquial Arabic, as it is about halfway between the Egyptian dialect and that spoken in Iraq and offers a useful bridge to mastering either dialect. The text for this course uses the Arabic alphabet. Students need to have a thorough knowledge of the Arabic alphabet and writing conventions to take this course. As much of the vocabulary used by the speakers of the Levantine dialect is derived from standard Arabic, this course will help build students' knowledge of basic Arabic vocabulary.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-LANG
Prereq: ARAB201

ARAB321 Reading Classical Islamic Theology and Philosophy in Arabic (CLAC.50)

Offered alongside Classical Islamic Theology and Philosophy, this Arabic CLAC provides guided close reading of selected primary texts in their original language, including excerpts from al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes. Conducted primarily in Arabic, the course develops facility with classical philosophical vocabulary, argument structure, and transliteration, and is open to students at any level of Arabic study.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-COL
Identical With: COL356, CGST356
Prereq: None

ARAB322 Media in the Arab World: From TV and Film to Social Media (CLAC.50)

Media in the Arab world has undergone significant changes in recent times, with the emergence of new technologies, platforms, and voices across various mediums such as movies, newspapers, magazines, and social media. This course will introduce students to some of the main channels for the communication and expression of information in the Arab world today.



While television remains the most popular source of information - with channels such as Al-Jazeera even having an international audience - access to information has expanded to include online news websites and social media. Social media, in particular, has become an increasingly important source of information, especially among younger generations.



In this course, we will delve into the evolution and impact of media in the Arab world, exploring its role in shaping public opinion, identities, and narratives across different channels. We will look at movies, television series, and social media programs, as well as sources of traditional information, such as newspapers, magazines, and news broadcasts.



This course is open to students studying all levels of Arabic, but is particularly suited to students who have completed Intermediate Arabic as well as native speakers of Arabic.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: CGST325
Prereq: None

ARAB380 Arabic in Translation: Arabic-English & vice versa (CLAC.50)

This course is aimed at introducing students of Arabic, who are already advanced in the Arabic language and have a decent command of it, to the art of translation--namely, translation between Arabic and English. After an overview of translation concepts and techniques, we will study and tackle samples from news media, literature, publicity announcements, novels, and a wide range of actual translation assignments. The course will be conducted in Arabic, except for the parts where English has to be used as part of the translation processes.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: CGST380
Prereq: None

ARAB381 Arabic Calligraphy (CLAC.50)

This course caters to students with an interest in Arab culture, offering hands-on workshops to acquire basic skills in various Arabic calligraphy styles using classical materials (qalam, pen, ink, brush). In addition to practical sessions, the course provides a historical perspective on calligraphy, showcasing examples from the Middle East and North Africa. The instructor, who is experienced in creating calligraphic art, will guide students through the intricate world of Arabic calligraphy.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: CGST381
Prereq: None

ARAB401 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

ARAB402 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

ARAB492 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CGST131B Writing About Places: Africa

This course is one in a series called "writing about places" that explore the long tradition of writing about travel and places and changing attitudes toward crossing cultural borders. We will examine historical and cultural interactions/confrontations as portrayed by both insiders and outsiders, residents and visitors, colonizers and colonized--and from a variety of perspectives: fiction, literary journalism, travel accounts, and histories. Writing assignments will include critical and analytical essays as well as encouraging students to examine their own experiences with places and cultural encounters.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ENGL
Identical With: ENGL131B
Prereq: None

CGST136 Writing for Fellowships

National fellowships are prestigious, competitive awards that enable the recipient to pursue graduate study, a research project, or travel abroad. While fellowship winners experience great personal growth and gain credentials that aid future success, preparing the application itself helps students clarify their goals and learn how to present themselves to an unfamiliar audience, such as future employers. In this course students will learn about various fellowship opportunities, identify steps toward building a strong candidacy, and create a portfolio of compelling application materials. To inspire creative thinking, we will read short writings in various genres; authors may include Octavia Butler, Jose Antonio Vargas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, N.K. Jemisin, Ursula Le Guin, and Ocean Vuong. We will then craft personal statements and other fellowship materials, taking them through a rigorous writing process with multiple revisions. By completing the course students will grow as writers and gain skills that can also be used in writing grants and seeking a job.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: None

CGST141 Depicting Death in Literature

This course analyzes the theme of death primarily within French and francophone writing (in English translation), tracing the evolution of death imagery over time in literary texts. The curriculum will investigate various contexts related to the environment and language usage, offering a nuanced understanding of how the portrayal of death has changed in literature.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CGST
Identical With: CHUM141, RL&L211
Prereq: None

CGST150 Haitian Creole/Kreyòl Ayisyen (CLAC.25)

This .25 course will gather students interested in speaking Haitian Creole and discussing Haitian culture, migration, and differences and friction between first- and second-generation Haitian Americans. We will look at music, comedy, cuisine, religion, social media, and any other topics of interest to students. Students with little Creole to those fluent are welcome. We will aim to speak in Kreyòl during meetings. Students with familiarity in other French Caribbean Creoles (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Lucia, etc) are welcome to join.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: SBS-RELI
Identical With: RELI150
Prereq: None

CGST155 Portuguese (Romance Language Speakers) I

This course offers students who have a strong working knowledge of Spanish or another Romance language the opportunity to study Brazilian Portuguese in an accelerated format. This course is conducted entirely in Portuguese. Completion of both semesters is required for study abroad in Brazil.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: PORT155
Prereq: FREN112 OR ITAL112 OR SPAN112

CGST201Z Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)

This course is designed for students that are considering teaching English outside of the United States in the future. It may be particularly useful for those considering applying for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, the JET program, the Peace Corps, or continuing after Wesleyan to get a TEFL or TESOL certificate or master's degree. The course will include basic language acquisition theory, TEFL teaching techniques, readings by sojourners in various programs, and opportunities to reflect on personal reasons for choosing to teach abroad.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-WRCT
Identical With: WRCT201Z, EDST201Z
Prereq: None

CGST202 Preparing to Study Abroad: Culture and Language

This course is designed to facilitate students' preparations to study abroad during the following term. Through exploration of intercultural and language learning theories, intercultural communication strategies, and theories about culture, students will build a foundation for their learning and achieving their individual goals during the semester abroad. The course is open to those who are studying abroad in English as well as those who are studying a language. The course is graded at the end of the term, but ungraded check-ins during the study abroad experience are required for the credit to be awarded.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Prereq: None

CGST203 Returning from Study Abroad: Integrating Your Experience

This course will facilitate returning students' integration of the study abroad experience into their academic and personal lives. Through guided activities, readings, and weekly writing assignments, students will reflect on the many facets of the study abroad experience and how they relate to identity, academic interests, and future plans, including fellowship applications and career opportunities abroad.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Prereq: CGST202

CGST204 Artificial Intelligence and Other Digital Tools for Learning Another Language

This course will explore the applications of generative artificial intelligence and other technologies to enhance the language learning process. Through readings of current literature in the fields of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and language pedagogy, as well as hands-on experience, students will develop an understanding of guiding principles for implementing various technologies soundly in language learning activties. Class format will include conversations based on readings and work on projects using various technologies such as generative AI, augmented reality, and virtual reality environments; video games; and dedicated language learning software. Students will develop sample learning activities, participate in a presentation for the language teaching/learning community, and develop a project of their choice. This course is well suited to students with an interest in learning languages and understanding pedagogical approaches to the teaching of languages and cultures.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-CGST
Prereq: None

CGST205 Introduction to Global Engagement

This community-engaged seminar introduces students to the ideas and practices central to strengthening one's intercultural competence, in part through a critically informed approach to globalization. The course views "cultures" as porous, fluid, internally contested, and often overlapping -- and yet still as vital realities shaping the lived experiences of all people. Building intercultural competence requires not just acquiring new knowledge but also practicing the skills and honing the attitudes that are needed to interact effectively and appropriately on a basis of informed, mutual respect. This course is a core requirement of the Global Engagement Minor (GEM); students will begin to work with the eportfolio that they will use over their time in GEM to track, reflect on, and synthesize the various experiences making up the minor.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Prereq: None

CGST206 Global Engagement in Practice, Swahili Language and NGO Case Study in Kenya

This integrative, hands-on course is open only to Global Engagement Minors selected through the fall application process. Building on CGST 205: Introduction to Global Engagement, it combines Swahili language study, regional analysis, and an immersive spring break engagement with an educational NGO in Nairobi, Kenya. Framed within the broader East African education landscape, the course introduces key historical, cultural, and contemporary dynamics of the region, with particular attention to youth-led movements shaping present-day Nairobi and the role of the Kenya Education Fund. Students connect this context to their own interests by designing and implementing a micro-project during the trip. Through language study, fieldwork, and post-travel reflection, students critically examine their experiences, strengthening their intercultural competence and deepening their global perspective.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CGST
Prereq: CGST205

CGST208 ¿Convivencia o conflicto?: Las tres culturas de la España medieval a través del arte (CLAC.50)

For eight centuries, Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived side by side as neighbors on the Iberian Peninsula in a carefully negotiated state of coexistence known as "convivencia." While much of the written record is full of enmity, religious polemic, and mutual suspicion, the artistic record tells another version, of lives lived in close proximity giving rise to shared cultural practices, artistic tastes, and long interludes of mutual wellbeing. This Spanish-language section complements the ARHA 310 curriculum, by exploring the resonance between medieval experiences of identity, pluralism, appropriation, and exchange and our own uneasy attempts at building a multiethnic, multicultural society. This class will be conducted in Spanish. ARHA 208 is open to intermediate and advanced Spanish learners (SPAN 113 and above), bilingual students, and heritage speakers. Enrollment in ARHA 310 is optional but encouraged.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: None
Identical With: ARHA208
Prereq: None

CGST210 Language and Thought: Introduction to Linguistics

What makes human language unique? This course is an introduction to the study of human language and its underlying properties. Much of our linguistic competence lies below the level of conscious awareness, and linguists seek to uncover the subconscious principles and parameters that govern our knowledge of language. This course first explores the core theoretical areas of linguistics: phonology (sound structure), morphology (word structure), syntax (sentence structure), and semantics (meaning). Then, we will explore such topics as the workings of language use, language variation, and first- and second-language acquisition.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Prereq: None

CGST213F How Language Works: The Beliefs and Bias that Affect our Social World (FYS)

This first-year seminar takes an in-depth look at how we communicate. What do we believe about language? How does that affect our interactions on personal and societal levels? Drawing on readings from the fields of linguistics and anthropology, we will challenge common language myths and beliefs related to multilingualism, language and dialectal stereotypes, gendered language, and language learning. To synthesize those ideas, students will write reflectively and discuss their own oral and written language, conduct short research projects, and synthesize their ideas into a final paper related to a topic in the course.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-WRCT
Identical With: WRCT135F
Prereq: None

CGST214 Language Shift, Change, and Loss

South Asians (India and Pakistan) are multilinguals or at least bilinguals. Most of the world's population is at least bilingual, if not trilingual or more; nevertheless, fluent bilingualism in the United States is relatively uncommon, and biliteracy is even more rare. However, much of the research on language development and bilingualism has been conducted in the United States, even though we (USA) are a "minority world population" in these matters and we interpret the research findings in ways that most of the world's multilingual speakers would find unusual. In this course, we will study both first language and multiple language development. We will look carefully at both simultaneous bilingualism (early bilingualism, bilingualism as a first language, or "bilingualism from the crib") and sequential bilingualism (learning a second language, or more, after the first language is established). We will explore language shift (from mother tongues to majority language), and change and loss from South Asians' perspectives and how these perspectives are different from and similar to the rest of the world, and consider what should be done for language maintenance.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: GSAS214
Prereq: None

CGST215 What is (a) Language?

Scholarly inquiries into language have always faced the distinctive (though not unique) problem of how to define their object of study. What is language? Language in general, human language, a particular language, language as opposed to dialect or idiolect, etc.



This course will not answer these questions. It will, however, examine the most important and influential ways that they have been formulated and answered throughout the Western tradition of linguistic inquiry. Our survey will be organized around two main tendencies that are sometimes distinct but often complementary. First, the question of origins: Where does (a) language come from, and what does this tell us about its nature? We'll look at etymology and theories of language change alongside thought experiments and evolutionary theories that try to narrate the emergence of language from nonhuman forms of animal communication. Second, the questions of structure and function: How does (a) language work; what do we use it to do? We'll look at the medieval trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, alongside the (approximate!) modern analogues of morphosyntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Our goal will be to get a sense of the major theoretical issues that have run through scholarly inquiries into language(s) across disciplines ranging from linguistics and philosophy through anthropology, sociology, and literary theory, to cognitive studies and evolutionary biology.



While our scope is large, our method will be narrow, focusing on close readings of important primary texts in the history of Western linguistic thought. Since our emphasis will be on the coherence of theoretical positions rather the coherence of historical narratives, we'll focus especially on works that have exerted the strongest influence on contemporary understandings of language, particularly those from the 20th and 21st centuries.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-COL
Identical With: COL337
Prereq: None

CGST218 Teaching Spanish K-12: Second Language Pedagogy (CLAC 0.5)

This is a community engagement course in which students learn basic principles of language pedagogy and language acquisition to inform their teaching of Spanish to children at one of the Middletown public schools. Readings in English and Spanish; class discussion and assignments in Spanish. Students will familiarize themselves with characteristics of second language (L2) learning and teaching, a basic know-how on analyzing and preparing materials for language learning/teaching, and L2 teaching as a profession.

Language and course requirement: Students must have recently taken a SPAN course numbered 221 or above. Preference will be given to EDST and HISP majors, as well as juniors and seniors.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: SPAN204, EDST204
Prereq: None

CGST220 Italian Gaming Lab: Using Tabletop Games for Language Learning (CLAC.50)

Italian Gaming Lab is designed as a game-based Italian language laboratory that will focus on why and how tabletop games can be effective tools for language learning; examples will include board games, card games, and tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs), an increasingly popular type of game that is based on collaborative storytelling in which participants either impersonate one or more characters or create and organize entire worlds.



In this CLAC course, we will explore how a game-informed pedagogy can work in Italian language and culture classrooms and to highlight analog gaming approaches that have worked inside and outside the language classroom. We will discuss the basics of Game-Based Learning (GBL) applied to L2 acquisition, as well as play a series of games that can illustrate the gameful principles previously studies. Participants will discuss the application of gaming principles to L2 acquisition and create reports and playful presentations on their linguistic journey through play. The course offers students the opportunity to use language creatively and to develop critical knowledge within the rising and innovative field of Game-Based Learning and educational game design.



The course will be conducted in Italian, and games will be played in Italian. Both intermediate/advanced learners of Italian (second-year level or above) and native speakers are welcome. If you are unsure about whether your language background is sufficient for the course, please contact the instructor.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: ITAL220
Prereq: ITAL102

CGST221 Food in Japanese Media (CLAC.50)

This 0.50 CLAC section is conducted in Japanese and will feature Japanese-language media (documentaries, films, TV shows, anime, and some texts such as news articles and manga). It is designed to supplement CEAS 210: From Tea to Connecticut Rolls: Defining Japanese Culture Through Food. All materials and discussion will be in Japanese. There may be some writing assignments depending on ability. The section is open to students with Japanese-language ability, from intermediate level to native speakers. With the instructor's approval, this section may be taken independently of the parent course. Evaluation will be primarily based on participation, effort, and completion of assignments.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS211
Prereq: None

CGST222 Translating Modern Japanese Song Lyrics (CLAC.50)

This course offers students the opportunity to build skills and experience as translators of cultural texts by producing Japanese-to-English translations of the lyrics to select modern Japanese popular songs. Students will formulate their own individual translations of the assigned song each week, and then work together in class sessions to amend and further develop those translations, learning from each other's choices and strategies in order to arrive at the most effective rendering possible. Successful completion of JAPN 218 required; heritage learners, native speakers of Japanese, and others with advanced Japanese language skills (both spoken and written) are welcome in the course, with advance permission from the instructor.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: JAPN285
Prereq: JAPN218

CGST223 French Literary Masterpieces on Screen (CLAC 0.5)

This CLAC course is linked to the FYS RL&L 252F: French Literary Masterpieces in Translation and on Screen. In this CLAC course, conducted entirely in French, students will have the opportunity to read the texts in their original language, and to hone their French speaking, listening, and writing skills. Assignments will include written commentaries (i.e., close readings) and short presentations on the material. As for the films, students in the CLAC course will be expected to watch and discuss French-language adaptations. This CLAC course is intended for students who have at minimum an advanced intermediate level of French. Learners of French as well as native and heritage speakers of French are welcome. Credit: 0.5. Regardless of students' previous exposure to the French language, including AP and IB courses, students interested in the CLAC course must take Wesleyan's French placement test and score into at least FREN 215 (Advanced Intermediate French). Should they place into FREN 215, they must enroll in this class in order to be eligible for the CLAC course. Students who place into FREN 112 or below will not generally be eligible due to the degree of difficulty, though students may submit a petition. Moreover, all students must meet with the instructor before enrolling in the CLAC course for an oral comprehension and expression evaluation. This CLAC course, in combination with the FYS in English, will count toward the French Studies Major or Minor, as well as the Romance Studies Major.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: FREN253F
Prereq: None

CGST224 Living a Good Life: Chinese Lab (CLAC.50)

This optional "lab" class is intended for students (1) who have taken or are currently taking PHIL 210: Living a Good Life; and (2) who have little or no exposure to classical Chinese. Each weekly session will introduce students to aspects of the classical Chinese language--the written language of pre-20th-century China. Students will be able to read (in Chinese) and discuss (in English) key passages from the Confucian classics on which the Living a Good Life courses is partly based. No previous knowledge of Chinese (classical or modern) is necessary.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-PHIL
Identical With: PHIL151, CHIN151
Prereq: None

CGST225 Living a Good Life: Greek Lab (CLAC.50)

This half-credit "Greek Lab" uses a slow reading of Plato's Republic to invite students into the world of Ancient Greek. In the first three weeks of the semester, students will be introduced to the Ancient Greek alphabet and explore the meanings of two key Greek philosophical terms -- eudaimonia (often translated as "happiness" or "flourishing") and dikaiosune ("justice" or "righteousness") -- that will set the stage for our study of Plato. In subsequent weeks, we will progress through each of the ten books of the Republic, highlighting a pivotal Greek keyword in each class session and discussing how its nuances inform Plato's argument for the good life as the just life.



No prior experience with Greek (ancient or modern) is required, and all readings and discussion will be geared toward students with little to no background in classical languages. Our goal is twofold: to develop an appreciation for Attic Greek, and to discover how direct exposure to the language enhances our understanding of a core text in the history of philosophy. Through short reading assignments prior to class, followed by group work and guided discussion in class, students will gain a unique perspective on some of philosophy's most enduring questions, while also developing the tools to navigate Ancient Greek terminology with confidence. Please note: this course is part of Wesleyan's Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) initiative and is not meant to replace a full introductory course in Ancient Greek. Students seeking more in-depth language training should enroll in GRK 101.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-PHIL
Identical With: PHIL152
Prereq: None

CGST226 French and Francophone Gastronomy (CLAC .50)

This course explores the variety of French and Francophone gastronomy through texts, recipes, and other media such as films and cooking shows. Through these materials, students will reflect on the relationship between food and culture and the shape it takes in French and Francophone cultures. They will develop a deeper knowledge and appreciation for various foods and dishes. The course will include a hands-on component through which students will cook and taste foods from various areas in the Francophone world. The course will culminate in a final public event during which students will introduce and share foods from the Francophone world, which attendees will have the opportunity to taste. In addition to weekly meetings, there will be a few cooking workshops. Grade will be based on class participation, weekly reflection journals, a final presentation, and a final paper. This course is taught entirely in French. Readings, written assignments, and class discussions will be in French. Any student who has completed FREN 215 (with a minimum grade of B) or has placed out of FREN 215 through the placement test may sign up for this course. It is an advanced course intended for students who have not yet studied abroad in a French-speaking country. Students who are not admitted to the course through pre-registration are strongly encouraged to submit an enrollment request and attend the first class. This course will count as one course toward the French studies major and minor, the Romance Studies major, and the COL major. It also fulfills the language requirement for the ARHA major and GEM (Global Engagement Minor).
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: FREN233
Prereq: None

CGST227 Writing Short Fiction in Spanish

This course will be both an examination of the short story form in Latin American letters, a genre that has been crucial to the region's intellectual traditions and its ruptures, and a deep exploration of the act of writing short fiction in Spanish. By examining diverse aspects of the craft of fiction writing, and through a discussion of their own writing and that of their peers, students will search for their (multilingual) voice to explore some of their philosophical, affective and linguistic concerns, become stronger writers and storytellers and improve their skills in Spanish. They will also familiarize themselves with some of the most captivating fiction produced by Latin American and Latinx short story writers over a century.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: SPAN227, WRCT277
Prereq: SPAN221

CGST228 Deaf Communities: Facts and Perspectives

This course explores the diversity of the Deaf communities in the United States, examining Deaf cultures and the factors shaping them including history, education, technology, and institutions. We will discuss the prevalent perspectives in American society towards the Deaf experience, clinical and cultural. We will also compare American Deaf cultures and American mainstream cultures.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: ASLD160
Prereq: None

CGST229 Language and Politics: Making and Unmaking of Nations

This course explores the key topics at the intersection of language and politics, including language choice; linguistic correctness; (self-)censorship and hate speech; the performance of ethnic and national identity in language; gender politics and "powerful" language; rhetoric and propaganda; and changing conceptions of written language, driven in part by technological advances. One of the examples of such topics is Tweet politics or incivility on the web around the globe. This course consists of three modules. In the first two modules the above-mentioned topics will be discussed in general, while in the last module we will see how preferences in language policies and politics played a significant role in making and unmaking of nations in different parts of the world, from South Asia to East Asia to North America.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-GSAS
Identical With: GSAS210, CSPL212
Prereq: None

CGST230 Between Marx and Coca-Cola: European Cinema of the 1960s and 1970s

In the 1960s and early 1970s, a growing sense of alienation and social unrest spread across Europe, making their marks in both society and cinema. Borrowing the words of New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, these years led to the emergence of "the children of Marx and Coca-Cola." This course, taught in English, will introduce students to a multi-faceted portrait of Europe in the 1960s and 70s through avant-garde and popular cinema from France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Eastern Europe. We will focus on films that depict global capitalism, gender relations, and government control. Some of the themes we will discuss include the critique of consumerism and materialism, the changing role of women in society, life under socialism and dictatorship, and youth counterculture. Last but not least, students will learn how New Wave directors challenged traditional approaches to narrative cinema.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CGST
Identical With: RL&L230
Prereq: None

CGST231 Love and Suffering in Ancient Rome (CLAC.50)

In this CLAC course students with some background in ancient Latin will read selections of the extant sources on love and suffering in Roman myth, history, and thought. The sources that we will cover will be drawn from diverse genres and periods: historiography, epic poetry, lyric poetry, and comedy. This diversity will offer a unique opportunity to students to identify and analyze the intersections of age, class, status, gender, and ethnicity and the way they shaped Roman ideology on "love." We will be looking at how cultural practice shapes language, how ideology shapes law, and how literature challenged cultural norms of love and marriage, all the while unpacking and interrogating the Roman belief that love had no place in the citizen life dedicated to serving the state: love produces suffering. In turn, we will reflect on the ideological shift in the last 150 years that has come to dominate "western" beliefs on love and marriage, that is, "all you need is love," over family, friends, and society, despite the obstacles: suffering produces love.



The selections of readings will be drawn primarily from what the students read in translation in the parent course. The final selection will be based on the level of the students. This CLAC is conceived as appropriate for students on the intermediate and advanced level of ancient Latin.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-CLAS
Identical With: LAT230
Prereq: LAT102

CGST233 Introduction to ASL / English Interpretation (CLAC 0.5)

Having completed course work in Beginning ASL l, Il and Intermediate I, II, students who have demonstrated a strong interest in continuing their studies at a more sophisticated and challenging level may find this course work interesting pursuant to becoming a professional, credentialed Sign Language Interpreter.



This experience will provide students with a working knowledge of the profession of interpreting including the Code of Professional Conduct, certification criteria, the roles and responsibilities of a professional interpreter and discussions of the role of the interpreter in a variety of professional settings including educational, medical, legal, the performing arts, counseling, and rehabilitation.



Students who attend this course demonstrate that they are able to express in ASL, with some confidence, routine and everyday experiential topics within a conversational format with some elaboration. They demonstrate clear and accurate signing and fingerspelling at a moderate rate of speed.



This coursework uses a process-oriented approach for applying the essential cognitive strategies for interpretation. These strategies include organizing and manipulating visual images, analyzing message for meaning, and self-monitoring for message accuracy. This experience serves as a transition from language learning to beginning interpretation.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-LANG
Identical With: LANG233
Prereq: LANG191

CGST234 Introduction to Russian and Soviet Cinema (CLAC.50)

This course provides an introduction to the history and poetics of Soviet and Russian cinema--in Russian. From the avant-garde experimentation of Lev Kuleshov, Sergei Eisenstein, and Dziga Vertov to the masterpieces of Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Parajanov, and Kira Muratova, the course will explore the development of Russian film as artistic medium and as national tradition. The discussion and comparative analyses of different forms and genres, including silent cinema, propaganda films, blockbusters, and auteur cinema, will be situated within the cultural, political, and aesthetic contexts of the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia. Students will learn the key works, names, events, and concepts of the Russian cinematic tradition. They will develop skills in analyzing and interpreting films and will acquire the basic critical terminology of film studies in Russian and English. They will also learn how film form and aesthetics are conditioned by technology, ideology, economics, theory, tradition, and culture. The overarching goal is to see how cinema in Russia and the Soviet Union has created and contested narratives of history and identity, how cinema has served the interests of the state, and how it has defied them. This class consists of lectures and focused discussion of films. It will be taught in Russian and is open to students who have successfully completed RUSS202, as well as to heritage and native speakers. Students can expect to practice speaking Russian and honing their writing skills. Credit: 0.5
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: RUSS234, FILM234, REES234
Prereq: RUSS202

CGST235 Brazilian Culture and Identity Through Media (CLAC.50)

If asked about Brazil, chances are one may answer by invoking stereotypes that once conveyed Brazil's global image: samba and futebol (soccer). While music, carnaval, and soccer are central elements of the national identity, these aspects of Brazilian culture fail to do justice to the complexity of a country of ever-increasing global impact, with a top-ten economy, a massive, continental territory. and some 200 million inhabitants who constitute what may be the most diverse population on the planet.



In this course we will critically examine how the media has helped shape Brazilian identity and how the country is perceived from outside. We will cover topics such as social relations, race, poverty, gender, violence and human rights. Readings will draw upon theories and concepts in media studies and cultural studies. Class discussion will consider cultural texts, television shows, films, music, poetry, fashion, and social media posts. This course will be taught in English and Portuguese (introductory or intermediate level is sufficient).
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Prereq: None

CGST236 Music, Culture and Social Justice in Latin America (CLAC.50)

This course examines influential Latin American musicians and the relationship between their artistic production and the battles for human rights, democracy, and social justice in the hemisphere. The seminar will focus on the periods of dictatorial rule and transition to democracy in the Americas (mostly, from the 1960s through the late 1980s). We will study the main musical trends and leading artists in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries in those decades, assessing the role of their music in battles for free expression, democracy, and social justice in human rights. Among the artists whose work we will consider are Victor Jara (Chile), Mercedes Sosa (Argentina), Los Guraguao (Venezuela), Catano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Chico Buarque (Brazil). Students will be encouraged to analyze music through lyrics and song form, while understanding the historical, political, and social climates in which these artistic productions developed. Students will understand how music and culture can be powerful tools of resistance, assessing their impact in educating, inspiring, and creating social awareness and commitment in Latin American societies. This course will be taught in English, Portuguese, and Spanish (introductory or intermediate level is sufficient).
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Prereq: None

CGST237 The Soviet Century (CLAC.50)

This course begins and ends with two crucially important dates of the 20th century. On November 7, 1917, the Bolshevik party launched a revolution against the Russian government with the aim of overthrowing not just the state but capitalism, the economic and social system that defined modern civilization. Over the coming decades, the state they created (eventually named the USSR) embarked on an unprecedented project to remake the world. On December 26, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed into 15 countries. The Soviet project raises fundamental questions about political systems, economics, and human nature--questions that are a long way from being answered. It also shaped modern history all over the world, including in the United States, which confronted the Soviet Union as its political and ideological archenemy during the Cold War. In charting the USSR's trajectory from pariah nation after World War I to global superpower following World War II, we will explore the ways in which socialist modernity offered an alternative to its capitalist twin. In an effort to understand the contradictions of Soviet life leading up to and during the Cold War, the course will examine how the Soviets sought to rethink issues of class struggle, family structure, education, gender dynamics, race, religion, sexuality, and patriotism. We will consider key theoretical writings in addition to poetry and prose by major Russian and Russophone authors. Particular attention will be paid to underground cultures that arose in response to the repression of free speech, ethnic discrimination, and the Gulag prison system. This class consists of lectures and focused discussion of essays and films. It will be taught in Russian and is open to students who have successfully completed RUSS202, as well as to heritage and native speakers. Students can expect to practice speaking Russian and honing their writing skills. Credit: 0.5
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-REES
Identical With: REES257
Prereq: RUSS202

CGST238 Investigaciones Importantes en Psicología (CLAC.5)

This course will focus on several key empirical studies that have had an impact on the field of psychology. We will explore the big-picture question each study was examining, what the thinking in the field was then and is now on this big-picture question, how the data were gathered and analyzed, what relevant replication attempts have found, and what the implications of the findings are for the field of psychology. Lectures and conversations will be conducted in Spanish. Readings will generally be in Spanish, but some may be in English. Students should be at the intermediate level or above.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-PSYC
Identical With: PSYC281
Prereq: SPAN110 OR SPAN111 OR SPAN112 OR SPAN113

CGST240 Introduction to Tamazight: The Native Language of North Africa and Beyond (CLAC.50)

This course will introduce students to the language (sounds and script) and culture of the Amazigh people, an ethnic group (commonly known as Berbers) native to North Africa and West Africa, specifically Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, northern Mali, and Niger, with some oases in Egypt and the Canary Islands. The Tamazight language--the alphabet of which is called Tifinagh--has been a written language for almost 3000 years, although it was disrupted throughout history due to various invasions and conquests of the area. The Tuareg people of the Sahara desert in Northern Africa, and as of late Morocco and Algeria, have been using the Tifinagh alphabet (oldest dated inscription from about 200 BC) and the Tamzight language as a secondary national language. The objectives of this course are: 1. To introduce students to the sounds and script of Tifinagh; 2. To teach students basic conversation and essential elements of the Tamazight language; and 3. To familiarize students with the culture of the different Amazigh peoples.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: LANG160
Prereq: None

CGST241 Introduction to ASL in the Performing Arts (CLAC.50)

This course offers an introduction to artistic ASL interpreting. "Artistic ASL Interpreting" does not apply only to performing groups who present songs in sign language on a stage. Nor is it a term that is exclusively linked with theatrical interpreting in a "platform" setting of plays, musicals, or poetry. Artistic interpreting can be explained as a refined, more creative style of interpreting at the highest levels of the profession. For students, it presents challenges that encourage more attention to eye gaze and contact; shifts in body stance and positioning; size and style of sign production; facial expressions; gestures as communication and sign alternatives in overall concept formations and messaging. These are, in fact, some of the most important components in ASL communication and some of the most challenging aspects to encourage or teach.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-ASLD
Identical With: ASLD221
Prereq: None

CGST242 Introduction to ASL / English Interpretation (CLAC.50)

Having completed course work in Beginning ASL I, II, and Intermediate I, II, students who have demonstrated a strong interest in continuing their studies at a more sophisticated and challenging level may find this coursework interesting pursuant to becoming a professional, credentialed sign language interpreter.



This experience will provide students with a working knowledge of the profession of interpreting including the code of professional conduct, certification criteria, the roles and responsibilities of a professional interpreter, and discussions of the role of the interpreter in a variety of professional settings including educational, medical, legal, the performing arts, counseling, and rehabilitation.



Students who attend this course demonstrate that they are able to express in ASL, with some confidence, routine and everyday experiential topics within a conversational format with some elaboration. They demonstrate clear and accurate signing and fingerspelling at a moderate rate of speed.



This coursework uses a process-oriented approach for applying the essential cognitive strategies for interpretation. These strategies include organizing and manipulating visual images, analyzing message for meaning, and self-monitoring for message accuracy. This experience serves as a transition from language learning to beginning interpretation.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-LANG
Identical With: ASLD222
Prereq: ASLD102

CGST243 Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt (CLAC .5)

This CLAC will explore the practice of translating philosophical German by focusing on Wittgenstein's Tractatus, its recent translations, and its (often unnamed) sources and influences -- including writings by Gottlob Frege and Immanuel Kant as well as by various Viennese intellectuals such as Karl Kraus and Otto Weininger. The Tractatus is a particularly productive focal point because it advances a theory of language and meaning that has immediate relevance for conceptualizing what is involved in translating from one language into another. In practicing translation, students will be testing the theory that they are attempting to translate. This will provide them an additional dimension in which to wrestle with the content of the text. Enrollment in the associated seminar, PHIL389/COL386, is encouraged but not required. The course is open to students at all levels of German study. Discussions will be conducted in a mixture of English and German, since we will be discussing the nuances of words and phrases in both languages. By preparing (and discussing) their own translations of texts, students will become familiar with the sorts of challenges that arise in rendering philosophical German into English and will develop strategies for negotiating these challenges. Students will also be encouraged to consider translations into other languages in which they are competent.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-COL
Identical With: COL385, GRST385
Prereq: None

CGST245 Not Just Neorealism: Italian Cinema, its History and Politics (CLAC.50)

This 0.5-credit course is conducted in Italian and designed to supplement the English-language Italian cinema course "Not Just Neorealism: Italian Cinema, its History, and Politics" (RL&L 245). The presentations that are part of the requirements for the parent course (RL&L 245) will serve as our basis in this discussion-based section: Students will be responsible for screening films in addition to those required for 245, for presenting them, and, during the discussion sections in Italian, responsible also for linking them to the course material. Further, students enrolled in the CLAC will also make mini-presentations to the broader body of the students enrolled in the parent course only, linking the extra screenings to those that are part of the course syllabus, and enriching the discourse and knowledge base.



Students are required to be simultaneously enrolled in the parent course in order to enroll in the CLAC section. For this reason, enrollment is granted on a POI basis.



Students must have advanced competency in Italian: completed ITAL 221 or a course with a higher number, spent a semester (or more) in Wesleyan's Program in Bologna, or be linguistically proficient. For any questions about linguistic preparation, please contact the instructor.



Please note that at present this section is not acceptable as one of the nine required courses for the ITST major.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: ITAL245
Prereq: ITAL221

CGST250 Body, Soul, and Afterlife Journeys in Ancient Greece (CLAC.50)

The connection between body and soul and their journey in the afterlife were at the center of how the ancient Greeks thought not only of mortality but also of the good life itself. This CLAC course is connected to the Classical Civilization course titled "Death and Afterlife in Egypt and Greece" that will be taught in the fall by Kate Birney. The parent course explores the archaeology of death and burial in Egypt and Greece. It examines how the funerary practices and the very notions of death, the soul, the body, and the afterlife operated in these societies by drawing upon diverse evidence--archaeological, art historical, and mythological.



In this CLAC course students with some background in ancient Greek will read selections of the surviving evidence on death and the afterlife. Sources will be drawn from diverse genres and periods: historiography, Homeric poetry, Platonic philosophy, and religious tablets. This diversity will offer a unique opportunity to identify different registers and to explore how language itself reflects and in turn shapes the ideas and practices for which it is used. We will thus be looking at: how different media and performances are used to express loss, hope, and heroism in the face of death; how social class, gender, and political ideology are reflected in these media and how they influence ideas about death and the afterlife; and, last, how we are to create adequate methodologies as "readers" of such diverse evidence.



The selections of readings will be drawn primarily from what the students read in translation in the parent course. The final selection will be based on the level of the students. This CLAC is conceived as appropriate for students on the intermediate and advanced level of ancient Greek.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-CLST
Identical With: GRK250
Prereq: GRK102

CGST251 Classical Chinese Philosophy: Chinese Lab (CLAC.50)

This 0.5 credit course is conducted in Chinese and designed to supplement the standard English-language Classical Chinese Philosophy (PHIL205) course. Students must have taken PHIL205 in the past or be enrolled in it simultaneously. The course will have two main foci: introducing students to modern and contemporary Chinese-language debates about Chinese philosophy and exploring in greater depth the meaning of key passages from the classical works students are reading in translation in PHIL205.



Both advanced learners of Chinese (fourth-year level or above) and native speakers are welcome. Familiarity with classical Chinese is desirable but not required. Assignments will include presentations in Chinese and some written work in English; evaluation will be tailored to each student's language background. If you are unsure whether your language background is sufficient for the course, please contact the instructor.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CHIN351, PHIL251
Prereq: None

CGST252 Chinese Calligraphy (CLAC.25)

This 0.25 CLAC course will provide students with a brief understanding of the art of Chinese calligraphy through calligraphy practice. They will learn about the characteristics of Chinese calligraphy from the "Four Treasures of the Study," as the tools of calligraphy (writing brush, ink stick, ink stone, and paper). They will understand the development history of Chinese calligraphy from five basic scripts of Seal (zhuanshu), Clerical (lishu), Standard (kaishu), Semi-cursive (xingshu), and Cursive (caoshu). The course focuses on imitation and practice of the Standard script kaishu. Prerequisite: Current or future Chinese class students are preferred.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CHIN303
Prereq: None

CGST253 East Asian Culture Through Chinese Pop Music (CLAC .50)

Even after the meteoric rise of K-Pop in recent years, Mandarin Chinese Language pop music, also known as Mandopop, remains a highly popular musical genre that influences East Asian popular culture. This course introduces students to the literary history and cultural forces that shaped Chinese popular music. The songs featured in the syllabus serve as a soundtrack to the "Introduction to History: Foundations of East Asian Cultures," as the themes largely mirror the contents of the parent course.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CHIN305, CEAS305
Prereq: CHIN205

CGST254 Self and Other in Cross-Cultural Encounters (CLAC.50)

This course is open to students currently enrolled in ANTH101: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology or in ANTH103: Gifts and Giving. It is intended for students with an interest in improving their spoken and written Spanish through an exploration of the problems and possibilities of cultural anthropological practice. This exploration will happen via class discussion and short ethnographic research assignments. The course will be conducted in Spanish and is open to students with some level of proficiency: from intermediate to advanced and to heritage speakers of the language. Students are expected to be currently enrolled in, or to have previously taken, ANTH101 or ANTH103. Email the instructor for information about alternatives to this requirement.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ANTH
Identical With: ANTH254
Prereq: None

CGST255 Modern History and Culture of Korea: From Imperialism to Two Koreas (CLAC.50)

This course will serve as an introduction to the more recent history and culture of Korea; South Korea's rebirth from the remnants of a devastating war into a globalized country whose cultural influence has grown drastically since the 2000s. We will be discussing politics and diplomacy, economic development and industrialization, the growth of mass culture, and social changes concerning Korean women and family. Key topics will include the colonial period, the Korean War and national division, the struggle for democracy, and Korean pop culture. Course material will include films, dramas, and literature on these topics.



This course will be conducted in Korean. Students who have either completed three years of Korean or meet the language fluency equivalent are encouraged to take this course. Native speakers of Korean are also welcome.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: KREA255
Prereq: None

CGST256 Exploring Korea Through a Multifaceted Cultural Lens (CLAC .50)

This course will address a variety of aspects of traditional and modern Korean culture, ranging from traditional cuisine, music/art, religion, and the modernization of Korea in the 20th century to the Korean Wave, films, education, and the history of Korean pop music. Video clips, movies, and other multimedia materials will be utilized to better facilitate students' learning of Korean culture and heritage. This course will be conducted mostly in Korean. Students who have either completed one or two years of Korean or meet the language fluency equivalent are encouraged to take this course. Native speakers of Korean and heritage speakers are also welcome.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: KREA256
Prereq: None

CGST260 Reading Mencius in Chinese (CLAC.50)

This course offers students the opportunity for guided reading of the original, classical Chinese text of the great Confucian classic Mencius (or Mengzi). Advanced (fourth-year level or above) competence in Chinese (including native Chinese competence) is required for the class, but previous experience in classical Chinese is not. The pace of reading and language of discussion will be determined based on student enrollment.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: PHIL260
Prereq: None

CGST261 Reporting on Global Issues: International Journalism in Action

This course is designed to introduce students to various mediums of international reporting beyond the traditional print format, like video and podcasting. Visual and auditory formats have gained widespread prominence, making journalism more accessible to diverse audiences. After delving into sourcing, research, and reporting techniques, students will engage in discussions with accomplished innovative journalists, hosts, and reporters who possess extensive experience in covering international issues. Throughout the semester, students will gain valuable insights from these conversations and collaborate in teams to produce a podcast episode for a class series focused on migration.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ALLB
Identical With: CSPL268, WRCT267
Prereq: None

CGST262 Korean Music from Shamanism to Television (CLAC.50)

This course is open to intermediate learners, advanced learners, and native speakers. The discussion topics will be broadly approached, utilizing various music video examples as vehicles to deeper social, religious, and cultural understanding. These various music examples are from ancient to current Korean music practices. Historically, Korean music was integrated with dance, literature, art, song, and ceremony. Therefore, music (sound) was not separated from other elements but was essential to daily life, community activities, religious practice, artistic collaboration, costumes, food, and the very soul of the Korean people. Traditional Korean music is imbued with the history of court ritual, folk village stories, and myths, in addition to religious rituals of Confucianism, shamanism, and Buddhism. The music is central to a broad range of cultural, social, and humanitarian aspects of Korean life.



Korean traditional music has been evolving for over 2,000 years, and it is now rapidly moving in many directions with contemporary life and influence from Western culture. Historically, music was created as a group activity by village people oftentimes working with a spiritual leader shaman. Currently, the most acceptable music is created and performed by individual performers as a repertoire for TV programs. In the 21st century, as society changes, Korean music is changing also, with differing values of popular culture brought in through recordings, film, and of course the internet. Young musicians go beyond traditional music and are developing a new repertoire that mixes Western instruments or electronics with various traditional instruments. This is a new Korean identity. Newly created Korean ensembles and bands such as K-pop are successfully beginning to dominate the international music scene. In contrast to the formerly inner-looking "Hermit Kingdom," Korea has now entered into instant global communications with the production of more individual music in various styles.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-MUSC
Identical With: MUSC262, KREA262
Prereq: None

CGST264 Portuguese and the Luso-Brazilian Short Story (CLAC.50)

This course offers students a chance to read and discuss short stories written in Portuguese from around the world (Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, and Macao). It is open to students with intermediate or advanced Portuguese. Heritage learners and students with native Portuguese, both spoken and written, are also welcome. Assignments will include presentations and written work in Portuguese; assessment will be tailored to each student's language background.



All classroom discussion will be in Portuguese. Readings/films will be discussed weekly, including topics of language and content. Everyone will participate in discussions. Each class will include a short presentation (5-10 minutes) by a student on the week's assignment, including a brief introduction of the text, author, and geographical/historical context. Each student will contribute a discussion question before class on the assignment.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-CGST
Prereq: None

CGST265 History of Spanish Cinema for Spanish Speakers (CLAC.50)

Spanish 265 is designed as a discussion section for students who are enrolled simultaneously in SPAN 301 and who have advanced proficiency in Spanish. This half-credit course offers students the opportunity to master the critical vocabulary and tools of film analysis in Spanish.



Weekly student-led discussions will provide students with the unique opportunity to exercise these tools regularly and gain greater fluency in the language. Students will be responsible for the same material included on the SPAN 301 website at: https://span301.site.wesleyan.edu/. Students will submit their assignments in Spanish and contribute weekly posts to a blog set up for SPAN 265.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: SPAN265
Prereq: None

CGST266 Neotropical Acuatic Ecosystems: Their Importance, Sustainable Use, and Conservation (CLAC 1.0)

(English translation below Spanish text) El curso de Ecosistemas Acuáticos Neotropicales permitirá a los estudiantes buscar información y discusión sobre la diversidad y complejidad de los ambientes acuáticos en la América tropical. Comenzaremos a aprender definiciones, características, distribución y ejemplos de humedales, lagos, ríos y muchos otros hábitats acuáticos en todo el neotrópico. El origen del sistema hidrológico. Evolución de las principales cuencas: Amazonas, Magdalena, Orinoco y Paraná. El Paleo Orinoco-Amazonía: Importancia geológica y biótica. Dinámica geológica. Evidencia geológica y biológica. Hipótesis evolutivas de la fauna piscícola. Evolución del paisaje amazónico como parte del conocimiento para comprender los diversos procesos y patrones de riqueza y distribución de la biodiversidad. Los humedales (sabanas inundadas) de Colombia-Venezuela como ejemplo de humedales neotropicales. El Pantanal brasileño y las llanuras colombo-venezolanas como "áreas de criadero" para la biota acuática y terrestre y su importancia para el mantenimiento de la biodiversidad. Los estudiantes también leerán y buscarán información sobre el Sistema Fluvial Orinoco como ejemplo de estudio. La importancia biótica, el desarrollo sostenible y la conservación. Identificar los factores antrópicos que afectan al sistema. El desarrollo social y económico, y las contribuciones a través de los Programas de Evaluaciones Acuáticas Rápidas (RAP's) como metodología para producir información que permitió proponer áreas para la conservación de la biodiversidad. Terminamos con un análisis de los recursos y la importancia pesquera de las principales cuencas neotropicales: Amazonas, Orinoco y Paraná-Paraguay. Seguridad alimentaria. Ejemplos de ríos en riesgo.



This course will examine why the Orinoco and Amazon basins in South America harbor a biological richness much larger than other river basins around the world. About 50% of all higher plant species of the world are included in these basins. Data on vertebrates showed that about 3,000 freshwater fish species, thousands of birds (migratory and local), and hundreds of amphibians, reptiles, and mammals have been found so far in those basins geographically included in six countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. We will examine the key factors that have affected their historical-geological development, the actual richness, and the threats to sustainable development and conservation. We will ask questions about the nature and interactions of the key factors and agents that harbor and transformed the high ichthyological and other aquatic biota diversity, reflected by the wide range of landscapes and aquatic ecosystems included in those basins. We will try to identify fragile aquatic ecosystems depending upon the biological richness, endemicity, importance for local communities, and potential threats. We will examine the current trends in the fisheries, forest exploitation, and agriculture for human consumption, noting that stocks of many species of fish are in steep decline, and that current fishing practices are not sustainable. Finally, the major impacts and threats faced by the fishes and aquatic ecosystems of the Orinoco River Basin are discussed with the purpose of studying potential plans for sustainable development. The course is presented in a reading/discussion format in which all readings, writings, and discussions will be in Spanish.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: NSM-ENVS
Identical With: ENVS188, LAST260
Prereq: SPAN221

CGST267 Current Environmental Issues in Latin America (CLAC 1.0)

(English translation below Spanish text) Este curso proporcionará información histórica y actual sobre el desarrollo de temas ambientales en América Latina. La información se dividirá en la evaluación del uso del medio ambiente durante los períodos precolombino y colonial (a); y b) período moderno. Se discutirá la organización, estructura y gobernanza del medio ambiente. El desarrollo de políticas públicas, planes de gestión, factores que se deterioran y los posibles usos sostenibles del medio ambiente y sus recursos. Leeremos literatura interdisciplinaria incluyendo: académica, informes, documentos oficiales gubernamentales y proyectos de ONG dedicados al diagnóstico, desarrollo y uso o nuestros recursos en América Latina. Por último, se estudiarán casos particulares de países latinoamericanos como Argentina, Brasil, México, Costa Rica, Perú y Venezuela. El curso se presenta en un formato de lectura/discusión en el que todas las lecturas, escritos y discusiones estarán en español. This course will provide historical and current information on the development of environmental issues in Latin America. The information will be divided into assessing the use of the environment during (a) pre-Columbian and colonial periods and (b) the modern period. The organization, structure, and governance of the environment will be discussed, as will the development of public policies, management plans, factors that deteriorate, and the potential sustainable uses of the environment and its resources. We will be reading interdisciplinary literature including academic, reports, official governmental documents, and NGOs' projects dedicated to the diagnostic, development, and use of resources in Latin America. Finally, particular cases of Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, and Venezuela will be studied. The course is presented in a reading/discussion format in which all readings, writings, and discussions will be in Spanish.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: NSM-ENVS
Identical With: ENVS294, LAST290
Prereq: SPAN221

CGST268 Food Security and Environmental Conservation (CLAC 1.0)

(English translation below Spanish text) En este curso los estudiantes investigarán información y discusión sobre la seguridad alimentaria y el uso del medio ambiente en una selección de países de América Latina. Haremos preguntas sobre la base de la producción y disponibilidad de alimentos. También examinaremos la información disponible de las agencias públicas y privadas sobre los programas establecidos por los países para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria de sus habitantes y el uso sostenible y la conservación del medio ambiente. Discutiremos conceptos como: La soberanía alimentaria y la seguridad como un sistema alimentario en el que las personas que producen, distribuyen y consumen alimentos también controlan los mecanismos y políticas de producción y distribución de alimentos; La nutrición como normas mundiales y particulares de consumo de alimentos; La Justicia social relacionada con la accesibilidad de los alimentos; y el derecho humano a una alimentación adecuada y a la libertad del hambre como uno de los objetivos del milenio de las Naciones Unidas. El estudiante revisará casos particulares en América Latina. El curso se presenta en un formato de lectura/discusión en el que todas las lecturas, escritos y discusiones estarán en español. In this course students will research and discuss food security and the use of the environment in a selection of Latin American countries. We will ask questions about the basis of food production and availability. We will also examine the available information from public and private agencies about programs established by countries to ensure the food security of their inhabitants and the sustainable use and conservation of the environment. We will discuss concepts such as: food sovereignty and security as a food system in which the people who produce, distribute, and consume food also control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution; nutrition as a global and particular standard of food consumption; social justice related to the accessibility of food; and the human right to adequate food and freedom from hunger as one of the United Nations' objectives of the millennium. Students will look at particular cases in Latin America. The course is presented in a reading/discussion format in which all readings, writings, and discussions will be in Spanish.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: NSM-ENVS
Identical With: ENVS297, LAST298
Prereq: SPAN221

CGST273 Tatort - Window into Germany (CLAC.50)

Few television shows have become anchored in German cultural discourse as firmly as "Tatort," a weekly crime show produced and broadcast by public television since 1970. Watched by up to 40% of all potential viewers, new episodes are prominently reviewed in major daily newspapers and serve as a focus for discussions about German politics, culture, and society. Episodes have tackled questions of police brutality, immigration, gentrification, and the surveillance state, while also shining a light on Germany's changing conception of itself. Over the years, the show has attracted some of the major directors and actors from German-speaking regions, such as Wolfgang Petersen, Margarethe von Trotta, Dominik Graf, Sibel Kekili, and Götz George. In this course, we will watch current and canonical episodes of the show, using it as a way into discussions about Germany's past, present, and future.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-GRST
Identical With: GRST273
Prereq: GRST212

CGST281 Global Economy: Germany and the World in an Age of Extremes, 1870-1957 (CLAC.50)

This Center for Global Studies discussion course explores the experience of globalization in the German-speaking world from the war of German unification in 1870 to the emergence of the European Community in 1957. It will analyze German imperialism and overseas investment before 1914; the deglobalization of the German economy in the First World War; the problem of reparations and other economic challenges faced by the Weimar Republic; and the impact of global protectionism and the Great Depression, the economic forces allowing the rise of Hitler, the economics of war, and the Nazi "New Order." We will explore the reasons for the ultimate failure of the German war effort and the country's catastrophic destruction and defeat in 1945, as well as Germany's postwar division and occupation as well as the gradual reconstruction and reintegration of the West German economy into a European and global division of labor beginning with the Bizone Agreement and GATT (1947), the Marshall Plan (1948), and the London German External Debt Agreement (1953), culminating in the Treaty of Rome (1957) creating the European Economic Community. The course will be using select German-language historical primary sources to explore this topic, supported by short secondary source narratives in both German and English pitched to intermediate to advanced German speakers/readers. Unlike the parent History lecture class (HIST 280: The Origins of Global Capitalism, 1800-present), this is a discussion course aimed at expanding vocabulary and practicing fluent discussions in the fields of history, politics, and economics.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: HIST281, GRST350
Prereq: GRST213

CGST283 Venezuela: The Effect of Oil Discovery on People, the Environment, and on Democracy (CLAC 1.0)

(English translation follows below) Este curso examinará los factores clave que han afectado el desarrollo de Venezuela y su entorno desde el período precolonial hasta el presente. Dividiremos la historia de Venezuela en dos períodos críticos: antes y después del descubrimiento de petróleo. Haremos preguntas sobre la naturaleza y las interacciones de los factores y agentes clave que transformaron a Venezuela de una colonia a la de un país económicamente independiente. Al examinar los períodos económicos anteriores y posteriores al petróleo por separado, aprenderemos que los factores clave, como la agricultura, el uso de la tierra y la influencia colonial europea, cambiaron drásticamente, transformando así muchas instituciones sociopolíticas. Los contrastes incluirán la resiliencia y la erradicación de enfermedades, los derechos humanos y la esclavitud, la propiedad de la tierra, la salud humana, los impactos en la biodiversidad y la salud humana, y la protección de las culturas indígenas. En última instancia, examinaremos los factores que han llevado al colapso de la democracia. Leeremos una literatura interdisciplinaria que incluye antropología, religión, sociología, ciencias ambientales, derecho e historia. El curso se presenta en un formato de lectura / discusión en el que todas las lecturas, escritos y discusiones serán en español. This course will examine the key factors that have affected the development of Venezuela and its environment from the pre-colonial period to the present. We will divide the history of Venezuela into two critical periods: before and after the discovery of oil. We will ask questions about the nature and interactions of the key factors and agents that transformed Venezuela from a colony to that of an economically independent country. By examining the pre- and post-oil economic periods separately, we will learn that the key factors, such as agriculture, land use, and European colonial influence, changed dramatically, thereby transforming many sociopolitical institutions. The contrasts will include resilience to and eradication of diseases, human rights and slavery, land ownership, human health, impacts on biodiversity and human health, and protections of indigenous cultures. Ultimately we will examine the factors that have led to the collapse of democracy. We will read an interdisciplinary literature that includes anthropology, religion, sociology, environmental sciences, law, and history. The course is presented in a reading/discussion format in which all readings, writings, and discussions will be in Spanish.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ENVS
Identical With: ENVS283, LAST383
Prereq: SPAN221

CGST285 Global Hip Hop of the Non-Anglophone World (CLAC .50)

Proficiency in a language other than English is required. Each student will present to the class a single piece of their choice in a non-English language every other week (for a total of five presentations). Presenters will provide the class with written lyrics in both the original language and in English translation. In lieu of analyzing recordings by others, students have the option to compose their own non-English rap songs and record (or perform) them for in-class discussion. The final paper will tie the five presentations together in a single formal document (or website). Class discussion will be in English, but the topics will all be rap lyrics and hip hop/youth culture in the non-Anglophone world.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-MUSC
Identical With: MUSC285
Prereq: None

CGST290 Nietzsche als Versucher (CLAC.50)

The term "Versucher" combines three meanings: (i) a writer of essays, (ii) a maker of experiments and hypotheses, and (iii) a tempter who seductively tests convictions and provokes latent desires. Friedrich Nietzsche draws on all these senses when he proposes "Versucher" as "the not-undangerous name [he] dares to bestow" on the "philosophers of the future" -- a coming generation of free spirits who will (finally) be capable of appreciating and continuing his intellectual legacy (Beyond Good and Evil, §42).



This course will interrogate Nietzsche's conception of a philosophical Versucher and examine how this concept might apply to Nietzsche himself: as an experimenter with literary style and genre (including the essay form) and as a polarizing cult figure who has attracted the fascination of generations of teenagers and the most diverse (often diametrically opposed) ideological movements. How is it that Nietzsche inspires such passionate attachment in such radically different readers? What is it about his philosophical style and literary form that cultivates a feeling of intimacy and fierce allegiance while also admitting such aggressively divergent interpretations? To explore these questions, we will read and discuss excerpts from Nietzsche's writings and correspondence alongside texts by his friends and interlocutors -- such as Richard Wagner, Paul Rée, and Nietzsche's unrequited paramour, Lou Andreas-Salomé. We will also look at prominent cases of his cultural reception -- notably by the Nazi party (due to the influence of Nietzsche's sister, who was a party member) and simultaneously by opponents of totalitarianism such as Robert Musil, Karl Löwith, and Walter Kaufmann.



This course is part of the Fries Center for Global Studies' Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) initiative. It is taught in German and associated with COL290/PHIL252 "Nietzsche - Science, Psychology, Genealogy," though students can take either course independent of the other. No background in philosophy or literature is required for this course, but advanced-intermediate (B2+) reading and spoken German is a must.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-GRST
Identical With: GRST330, COL287
Prereq: None

CGST291 "Sexuality" in the Making: Gender, Law, and the Use of Pleasure in Ancient Greek Culture (CLAC.50)

The parent course (CCIV 281/FGSS 281) examines the construction of gender roles in ancient Greece and approaches gender as an organizing principle of private and public life in ancient Greek society by using literary, scientific, historical, and philosophical sources as well as material evidence. Issues addressed include: the creation of woman, conceptions of the male and female body, the legal status of men and women; what constitutes acceptable sexual practices and for whom (e.g., heterosexual relationships, homoeroticism, prostitution etc.); ideas regarding desire, masculinity and femininity, and their cultivation in social, political, and ritual contexts such as rituals of initiation, marriage, drinking parties (symposia), the law court, and the theater.



The textual sources used in the course cover a spectrum of genres: medical texts, Homer, lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, law-court speeches, and philosophy among others. In the CLAC connected to this course students with some background in ancient Greek will read selections from these genres and will be able to compare different discourses and registers in the original. In the past, even through brief lexical examples--e.g., pointing at the use of ta Aphrodisia (the things/matters related to Aphrodite) in a culture that has no one term/concept for our notion of "sexuality"--students were intrigued by how different terms and discursive media in the original may offer access to perspectives, visions, and values that differ from and can, in turn, inform our own. The CLAC will create an opportunity precisely for this kind of access and a better informed and nuanced conversation.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-CLST
Identical With: GRK291
Prereq: GRK102

CGST302 Narrating China: Chinese Lab (CLAC.50)

This 0.5 credit course is conducted in Chinese and designed to supplement the standard English-language Narrating China: Introduction to Modern Chinese Literature (CEAS 202) course. It allows students to encounter a selection of modern and contemporary Chinese literary texts in their original Chinese. As the parent course guides students through major literary movements and themes from 20th-century China, students in the CLAC tutorial will read poems, short stories, or excerpts of longer texts from the same periods in the original Chinese. In weekly meetings, students will discuss the readings in Chinese, to delve deeper into their stylistic and linguistic characteristics unobservable in translations.



Both advanced learners of Chinese (fourth-year level or above) and native speakers are welcome. Evaluation is based on students' preparedness, participation, and formal oral presentations, and will be tailored to students' language background. If you are unsure about whether your language background is sufficient for the course, please contact the instructor.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CHIN302
Prereq: None

CGST303 Ukraine and Its Environment

International perspectives on environmental issues are critical in order to address the challenges facing the world. Developing an international perspective requires more than learning from printed literature--it requires in-country experience and the desire to be able to view issues through different cultural lenses. This course will provide such experience by learning about the diversity of Ukrainian environments, people, and cultures both in the classroom at Wesleyan and by traveling to Ukraine during Spring Break. During our time in Ukraine we will receive lectures in English from noted scholars, politicians, professors and scientists on topics such as environmental law, global environmental security, urban environment, environmental policy in developing states, and sustainable development for the developing world. We will travel and learn from scientists at Chernobyl about the regeneration of forest ecosystems, learn from agronomists about agriculture on the steppes, and learn from politicians and scholars about Ukrainian environmental policy and their views of U.S. policies. We will also enter into round table discussions with university students to exchange ideas about potential international solutions and approaches to environmental problems. These are just some of the experiences that are planned for our visit. Ukraine, as a pivotal democracy of the former Soviet Bloc, is an amazing place to witness how a nation wrestles with dramatic changes in policy. At the same time Ukraine is culturally diverse, which presents interesting challenges to formulating fair and cohesive policies.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: NSM-ENVS
Identical With: ENVS303
Prereq: ENVS197 OR EES199

CGST304 Urdu Literature and Poetry (CLAC 1.0)

This course is specifically designed for the learners who want to advance their skills through reading and discussing authentic materials in poetry and prose. The syllabus includes readings which range from the classic to current traditions. Students will read Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Ghalib, Iqbal, Nasir Kazmi, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Sadat Hassan Manto, Bano Qudsia, Abdullah Hussein, and many more. The main goal of the course is to familiarize students with Urdu literary traditions before and after partition of the subcontinent. Students will also get opportunity to improve their writing and creative writing skills in Urdu scripts (Nastaliq) by completing various projects and assignments.



Medium of instruction for this course will be standard Hindi/Urdu. This course is suitable for the advanced heritage learners, advanced Hindi/Urdu and native speakers.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-GSAS
Identical With: GSAS303
Prereq: None

CGST305 Global Engagement Capstone Seminar

This is the required capstone seminar for the new global engagement minor. As part of this seminar, GEM students are expected to complete an e-portfolio that will synthesize their experiences from all requirements. The e-portfolio requires students to reflect on their intercultural development, knowledge, and skills gained throughout the GEM program and to interpret intercultural experience from the perspectives of their own and others' worldviews. GEM seniors will present their e-portfolio to other participants and to the advisors of the program.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: CGST205

CGST308Z Dealing with Difference: Intercultural and Multicultural Education

How do students learn about cultural difference in school and college? Multicultural education, intercultural education, international education, global learning, internationalizing the curriculum -- all are terms related to bringing cultural competence into teaching and learning. These different approaches are often in conflict with each other, while ostensibly teaching the same knowledge, skills, and attitudes. In this course, we will trace the histories of multicultural and international education to the present day. We will explore the purposes, theories, practices, and pedagogies associated with these two fields, as well as their intersections, convergences, and divergences. Finally, we will view these fields through a critical lens to reveal their successes and shortcomings, and formulate our own recommendations for the future direction of each -- or both.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Prereq: None

CGST312 Theory and Practice of Torture: From Middle Age to Modern Times

This course is centered around the analysis of the theory and practice of torture during wartime, in prisons, under political dictatorship, and in civil life. It includes examples from visual art, cinema, and literature around the world.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CHUM
Identical With: CHUM312
Prereq: None

CGST316 The Environmental Crisis and Nuclear Testing Narratives in Global Francophone and Arabic Cultures

This interdisciplinary course examines nuclear themes, with a particular focus on nuclear testing as depicted in novels, film documentaries, and poetry within Francophone and Arabic cultures. It emphasizes the profound impact of nuclear testing on human life and the environment. The course analyzes literature in French and English as well as visual materials (photography and films), archival materials, political writings, news articles, and websites. Students must possess reading ability in French and an interest in North African culture.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CHUM
Identical With: CHUM360, ENVS314
Prereq: None

CGST319Z Islamic Spain

Islamic Spain is a history and culture course that deals with Muslims in and in relation to the Iberian Peninsula. The course will not only be limited to the first period spanning roughly over nine centuries (711-1614 CE) but will also cover the area in question from the 17th century to present. The course will be conducted in English but will additionally draw on sources written in other languages which the instructor will translate into English and provide to students for class purposes (mainly French, Spanish, Arabic and German).
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Prereq: None

CGST320 La cultura y la historia de la España islamica (CLAC.50)

This course will be taught in Spanish, and spans a timeline between 711 and 1492, i.e., from the date of the conquest/invasion of Iberia by Muslim troops to the fall of Granada and the expulsion of Muslims and Jews from Spain. Before starting discussion of the course material, students will be introduced to Arabic sound and script, as well as some common vocabulary and lexical concepts shared between Spanish and Arabic. This makes sense because Muslim culture and the Arabic language were present in Iberia for the better part of 800 years. We will discuss not only the main events that took place during the Muslim occupation of parts of Iberia but also the cultural legacy Muslims and Jews left behind in the peninsula after they were expelled in 1492, especially in the realms of art, science, language, architecture, and le savoir-vivre. We will look at the different theories put forth by scholars about the conquest/invasion of the peninsula, in regard to the ease and speed with which the peninsula was overrun by Muslims. We will examine the hereafter and the consequences of the expulsion of Muslims and Jews on the Iberian peninsula as well as the neighboring territories. Finally, we will make a jump to the 21st century and try to connect some dots by looking at the current situation in and around the Strait of Gibraltar, particularly the influx of illegal immigrants from North Africa and sub-Saharan countries, and the ensuing issues.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Prereq: None

CGST321 Theatre for Social Change - Taught from Ecuador with Local Participants

This course is taught in Spanish. Students should have Spanish proficiency equivalent to SPAN 112 or higher. This course is designed to lead Wesleyan students and Ecuadorian community counterparts through the process of creating social change by practicing social change. Using exercises and activities that pull from the areas of Theatre of the Oppressed and Performance Activism, as well as traditional theatre tools such as movement and mask-making, we engage challenging concepts and conflicts by dialoguing via our performative work. Our exploration stretches from the theoretical foundations of structural and symbolic oppression to ongoing real-life events related to themes that are selected by the course participants (examples include cultural identity, systemic racism, privilege, power, environmental justice, and gender equality/equity). Each course participant chooses a thematic area and joins a small group with which they will apply learned methods to exploring their theme. Together, Wesleyan students with local counterparts create short virtual theatrical projects to be presented to the whole cohort. Readings cover theory and methods in Applied Theatre, community-based case studies, and articles related to the chosen themes. The readings are contextualized to the diverse lived realities of the course's participants as well as to our globalized society.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: DANC320
Prereq: None

CGST322 Storying and Re-Storying (Storytelling for Social Change) - Taught from Ecuador w Local Participants

This course is taught in Spanish. Students must have proficiency in Spanish equivalent to SPAN 112. When we consciously appropriate the power of stories to collectively reimagine our world, we turn the word story into a verb. We "story" our world. When our "storying" seeks to transform a system founded on unjust stories, we are "restorying" our world. This course begins with our human ability, and need, to tell stories, examining how we use them for communication, as well as how we become empowered or disenfranchised by them. Based on the realities present in our communities (our local community of place, college campuses, cities, neighborhoods, spiritual communities, etc.), students work with their counterparts, combining theory with practice, to create and tell stories with the goal of identifying shared conflicts and inspiring change. Since stories are told in many ways, the course engages the "telling" through various methods: writing stories and poems, Spoken Word, coloring/drawing, mapmaking, and moving our bodies. In each project, we implement the elements of storytelling, balancing distinct narrative traditions, such as myth and legend, with influences of the modern world. Readings look at a wide array of narrative theory and methods, focusing on storytelling as a form of creating and expressing knowledge. The course concludes with the interweaving of local and international stories into "our stories."
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: DANC322
Prereq: None

CGST323 Hebrew in the Media: From National Literature to International Films and TV Shows (CLAC 1.0)

This language course is offered as an enrichment opportunity to students with intermediate or advanced Hebrew skills who are interested in improving all their language skills and/or acquiring additional linguistic and cultural preparation for study abroad in Israel. Cultural activities including participating in the 24th Annual Contemporary Israeli Voices 2026 and Lunch and Learn meetings with native speakers are part of the course. In addition, special writing workshops with internationally renowned Israeli scholars will be integrated into the course curriculum. The course explores the changes in Israeli society as it moves from national ideological literature to the exploration of new multicultural media such as films and TV shows and thus gaining international fame and inspiring widespread emulation. The course may be repeated for credit. The course is part of Wesleyan's Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) initiative sponsored by the Center for Global Studies. For more information, please check http://wesleyan.edu/cgs/eventsprograms/clac/index.html.



The course counts toward the minor in Jewish and Israel Studies.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CJST
Identical With: CJST315, HEBR315
Prereq: None

CGST324 Cuban Literature and Film: Imagination, Revolt, and Melancholia

This course surveys the major aesthetic and socio-historical movements in modern and contemporary Cuba. Since the late 19th century, the island of Cuba has been at the center of a number of key epochal disputes: between colonialism and independence, racism and racial justice, neocolonialism and revolution, liberalism and socialism, isolationism and globalization. In the arts, the turn of the century launched a period of great imaginative invention. Considering the singular place of Cuba in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the globe, this course addresses some of the most representative works of Cuban literature and film since independence until the present time. Imagination, revolt, and melancholia are the three concepts that will orient our discussion. Imagination refers both to artistic creation and to the collective capacity of projecting new worlds, utopias, or impossible realities. Revolt, as opposed to revolution, is not restrained to politics as usual but relates rather to a deep experience of discontent and a return (from the Latin revolvere) to ancient psycho-social strata. Finally, melancholia serves as a point of view to understand what happens when history does not live up to emancipatory expectations. Special attention will be given to Afrocubanismo, ethnographic literature, the avant-garde aesthetics of the group Orígenes, Marvelous Realism, testimony, revolution, socialist experimental film, diaspora, the Special Period, and post-Soviet life.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: SPAN296, COL314, LAST315
Prereq: SPAN221

CGST325 Media in the Arab World: From TV and Film to Social Media (CLAC.50)

Media in the Arab world has undergone significant changes in recent times, with the emergence of new technologies, platforms, and voices across various mediums such as movies, newspapers, magazines, and social media. This course will introduce students to some of the main channels for the communication and expression of information in the Arab world today.



While television remains the most popular source of information - with channels such as Al-Jazeera even having an international audience - access to information has expanded to include online news websites and social media. Social media, in particular, has become an increasingly important source of information, especially among younger generations.



In this course, we will delve into the evolution and impact of media in the Arab world, exploring its role in shaping public opinion, identities, and narratives across different channels. We will look at movies, television series, and social media programs, as well as sources of traditional information, such as newspapers, magazines, and news broadcasts.



This course is open to students studying all levels of Arabic, but is particularly suited to students who have completed Intermediate Arabic as well as native speakers of Arabic.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: ARAB322
Prereq: None

CGST330 Reading Tolstoy in Russian (CLAC .50)

In this half-credit course, students will read excerpts from works by Lev Tolstoy in Russian. Class will be devoted both to translating the Russian texts and to discussing them in Russian. Non-native speakers should have studied Russian for at least four semesters.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: RUSS330, REES330
Prereq: None

CGST331 Love and Suffering in Ancient Rome (CLAC .50)

In this CLAC course, students with some background in ancient Latin will read selections of the extant sources on love and suffering in Roman myth, history, and thought. The sources that we will cover will be drawn from diverse genres and periods: historiography, epic poetry, lyric poetry, and comedy. This diversity will offer a unique opportunity to students to identify and analyze the intersections of age, class, status, gender, and ethnicity and the way they shaped Roman ideology on "love." We will be looking at how cultural practice shapes language, how ideology shapes law, and how literature challenged cultural norms of love and marriage, all the while unpacking and interrogating the Roman belief that love had no place in the citizen life dedicated to serving the state: love produces suffering. In turn, we will reflect on the ideological shift in the last 150 years that has come to dominate "western" beliefs on love and marriage, that is, "all you need is love," over family, friends, and society, despite the obstacles: suffering produces love.



The selections of readings will be drawn primarily from what the students read in translation in the parent course. The final selection will be based on the level of the students. This CLAC is conceived as appropriate for students on the intermediate and advanced level of ancient Latin.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-CLST
Identical With: LAT330
Prereq: LAT102

CGST333 The Cosmos of Dante's Comedy - Medieval Italian Lab (CLAC .50)

This optional lab is dedicated to students who are taking or have taken RL&L 226 (The Cosmos of Dante's Comedy) and want to read and discuss sections of Dante's masterwork in Italian. The lab is designed for upper-intermediate and advanced learners of Italian, but students with reading knowledge of Italian should contact the instructor if they feel this course may be appropriate for them.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: ITAL333
Prereq: None

CGST334 Exploring Personhood in the 20th and 21st Centuries (CLAC 1.0)

The goal of this course is to provide a thorough examination of the concept of personhood in the 20th century by studying how it has been portrayed and understood in diverse cultural contexts across Arabic, English, and Francophone cultures. Through the use of comparative analysis and an interdisciplinary approach to cultural artifacts--such as works of literature, art, and religious texts as well as current debates around AI and personhood--students will explore how different cultures have approached the question of what it means to be a person and how this has evolved over time. By the end of the course, students will have a deeper comprehension of the various ways in which personhood has been created and perceived throughout different cultural and historical contexts.



The impact of historical occurrences and cultural movements on the construction of personhood, the influence of religion and politics or the fictional writing on conceptions of personhood, the representation of personhood in literature and art, and the emergence of AI as a new frontier in the investigation of personhood are some of the major topics covered in the course. This will open up new discussion topics about posthuman beings and persona status, particularly in science fiction.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CHUM
Identical With: CHUM380, RL&L280
Prereq: None

CGST335 Politics, Revolutions and Visual Culture in the Post-Revolutionary Arab Societies

The course "Politics, Revolutions, and Visual Culture in Post-Revolutionary Arab Societies" critically investigates the interaction of politics, social revolutions, and visual culture in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. This course examines the dynamic interaction between political transformation, revolutionary movements, and the various forms of artistic expression in Arab countries.



Students will delve into the complex interplay between politics and visual culture through a combination of theoretical discussions, case studies, and visual analysis, gaining a nuanced understanding of how images, art, photography, film, and other visual media have shaped and reflected sociopolitical changes in post-revolutionary Arab contexts.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CHUM
Identical With: CHUM382, RL&L382
Prereq: None

CGST340 Identity and "Pacha" (Land-Based Knowledge and Re-imagining Community) - Taught from Ecuador

This course is taught from Ecuador by our study abroad partner, Pachaysana.



According to indigenous Andean scholars, Pacha refers to the time-space continuum, or as the "everything around and inside us." This course asks students to challenge their identities by broadening their epistemological and ontological lenses to see their individual and collective lives as they relate to Pacha. To synthesize this complicated process, we ask participants to examine who they are as related to the ever-changing ecology in which they live. For this course, ecology is approached broadly, referring to the Greek origin on the word oikos, meaning home. We take advantage of our virtual exchange and examine home as an interconnection of how we relate to "place and space," exploring our ecology as the triad of our immediate territory (llakta in Kichwa), our surrounding natural environment (allpa in Kichwa), and our global and pluriversal space (pacha). Throughout the course, we use an interdisciplinary lens to examine "who we are" as related to this diverse understanding of ecology, taking into consideration that our ever-changing environment includes an ever-changing human story. Readings are transdisciplinary, coming from the fields of anthropology, sociology, human geography, gender studies, ethnic studies, history, the arts, and development studies. Toward the end of the course, after examining certain theories and case studies, we will imagine the reconstruction of our identities contextualized to pacha, space, place, ecology, oikos, and home.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: ANTH250
Prereq: None

CGST341 Critical Interculturality and the Pedagogy of Unlearning

This course is offered by our study abroad partner, Pachaysana, online from their site in Ecuador, with local educators.



An ever-growing number of students, scholars, and activists criticize our educational institutions for upholding colonial structures, and via numerous movements are calling for "decolonization." Any effort to decolonize our education must go well beyond the content of what we teach in the classroom. In addition to what we are learning, we must explore how we learn, where we learn, and with whom we learn. We also must think about what "decolonization" means, taking into consideration the lands on which our campuses and communities are located. This course addresses decolonization through the lens of critical interculturality, referring to Catherine Walsh's critique of multiculturalism as functional or relational interculturality. Bringing in readings from Indigenous and Latin American scholars and taking part in workshops facilitated by local Ecuadorian community members, we will use interactive methods to explore some of the most challenging concepts related to decolonization, including "decolonization is not a metaphor," epistemic justice, border thinking, and embodied methodologies. Those concepts will then be examined with regards to the realities on our college campuses and our communities, and we will begin to dream about moving from the "functional" to the "critical." By the end of the course, informed by the readings and interactions with community-based educators in Ecuador, students will formulate clear questions and identify potential strategies for applying critical interculturality at their college campuses.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: ANTH241
Prereq: None

CGST350 Twentieth-Century Russian Poetry (CLAC .50)

Taught in Russian, this course is dedicated to the reading of 20th-century Russian poetry in the original (Blok, Mayakovsky, Mandesltam, Akhmatova, Brodsky, Prigov, etc.). The course is appropriate for native speakers, heritage speakers, advanced and intermediate learners (with the minimum of four semesters of Russian).
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: RUSS350, REES350
Prereq: RUSS202

CGST352 The Communist Experience in the Soviet Union (CLAC.50)

Like the parent course, HIST353: The Communist Experience in the 20th Century, this CLAC course will engage with the problem of experience through a series of themes: subjectivity; engaging in the political process of building socialism; aesthetics; travel and tourism; East and West; race and ethnicity; production and consumption; time and space; political engagement and disengagement; science and technology; and emotions. We will work with sources from oral histories, diaries, film, television, and the press. The final project would involve a close reading and paper on a theme covered in class using both primary and preapproved secondary sources in Russian. The student language background appropriate for this class is (preferably advanced) intermediate to native.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-HIST
Identical With: HIST352, REES352
Prereq: None

CGST356 Reading Classical Islamic Theology and Philosophy in Arabic (CLAC.50)

Offered alongside Classical Islamic Theology and Philosophy, this Arabic CLAC provides guided close reading of selected primary texts in their original language, including excerpts from al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes. Conducted primarily in Arabic, the course develops facility with classical philosophical vocabulary, argument structure, and transliteration, and is open to students at any level of Arabic study.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-COL
Identical With: COL356, ARAB321
Prereq: None

CGST357 Arabic Accounts of Free Will (CLAC .50)

This CLAC accompanies the course Do We Truly Choose? Free Will in Philosophy and Theology and focuses on reading classical Arabic discussions of human agency and divine predestination. Students will deepen their understanding of key philosophical and theological terms related to causation, responsibility, and choice while strengthening advanced reading skills in Arabic.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-COL
Identical With: COL357
Prereq: None

CGST358 Translating German Philosophy (CLAC .50)

The German literary tradition boasts some of the most significant philosophical texts in the Western canon. Despite its relatively recent origins, German has established itself alongside Attic Greek, Medieval Latin, Arabic, and French as one of the most productive languages in which to write philosophy and, indeed, in which to think philosophically.



In this course we will engage both theoretically and practically with German as a philosophical language. Elementary German is required, but all levels are welcome. Exercises and assignments will be adapted to each student's level of German. We will study some of the distinctive affordances of German that have been put to philosophically significant use by authors such as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger. We will practice translating from German both to deepen our understanding of the philosophy and to develop a feel for German as a distinctive medium for philosophizing.



The course is especially recommended for students enrolled in either COL 290 (Nietzsche) or COL 292 (Reason and its Limits). But anyone with an interest in German and philosophy is welcome to enroll.



This course is being proposed as part of Wesleyan's Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum [CLAC] program.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-COL
Identical With: COL358
Prereq: GRST101

CGST380 Arabic in Translation: Arabic-English & vice versa (CLAC.50)

This course is aimed at introducing students of Arabic, who are already advanced in the Arabic language and have a decent command of it, to the art of translation--namely, translation between Arabic and English. After an overview of translation concepts and techniques, we will study and tackle samples from news media, literature, publicity announcements, novels, and a wide range of actual translation assignments. The course will be conducted in Arabic, except for the parts where English has to be used as part of the translation processes.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: ARAB380
Prereq: None

CGST381 Arabic Calligraphy (CLAC.50)

This course caters to students with an interest in Arab culture, offering hands-on workshops to acquire basic skills in various Arabic calligraphy styles using classical materials (qalam, pen, ink, brush). In addition to practical sessions, the course provides a historical perspective on calligraphy, showcasing examples from the Middle East and North Africa. The instructor, who is experienced in creating calligraphic art, will guide students through the intricate world of Arabic calligraphy.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: ARAB381
Prereq: None

CGST412 Group Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CGST413 Israeli Cinema (CLAC 1.0)

This Hebrew course will be linked to the film course, taught in English, entitled CJST 250: Eyes Wide Shut: The Eternal Presence of the Absent Arab in Israeli Cinema. This course is targeted toward students with very advanced knowledge of the Hebrew language. Students will mostly view the same films as the parent class, with special attention to the Hebrew language. We will analyze, discuss, and write on each of the films. The focus of the course will be to map the cultural and social changes in Israeli society reflected in the transformation in format and themes of Israeli films. Scholar visits will be part of the course, and students will attend a few cultural enrichment activities. This course may be repeated for credit. This course is part of Wesleyan's Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) initiative; for more information, see https://www.wesleyan.edu/cgs/eventsprograms/clac/index.html.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CJST, SBS-CJST
Identical With: CJST413, HEBR413
Prereq: None

CGST414 Israeli Cinema (CLAC 1.0)

This most advanced Hebrew course can be taken either as a language enrichment course to the parent course, CJS223: Israeli Women Filmmakers and Israeli Society, or taken by itself independently as an advanced Hebrew course. The focus of the course will be studying films made by female filmmakers. Students will analyze, discuss, and write on the films with special attention to mapping the cultural and social changes in Israeli society as well as changes in films' formats and themes. Conversing in Hebrew with Israeli film directors and scholars during Lunch and Learn Meetings as well as attending the screening of films in Hebrew in the 20th Annual Ring Family Wesleyan University Israeli Film Festival and writing reflective papers on films will provide a cultural and social framework for the course. In addition, the course will include special workshops delivered by renowned Israeli filmmakers and scholars. The course may be repeated for credit. This course is part of Wesleyan's Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) initiative sponsored by the Center for Global Studies. For more information, please check http://wesleyan.edu/cgs/eventsprograms/clac/index.html.



The course counts towards the Minor in Jewish and Israel Studies.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CJST, SBS-CJST
Identical With: CJST414, HEBR414
Prereq: None

CGST419 Student Forum

Student-run group tutorial, sponsored by a faculty member and approved by the chair of a department or program.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U

CGST420 Student Forum

Student-run group tutorial, sponsored by a faculty member and approved by the chair of a department or program.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U

CGST480 Engaged Projects

Engaged Projects (EPs) are rigorous, self-designed endeavors in which a student studies a topic of their choice and completes a final project intended for a non-academic audience. Students are encouraged but not required to select a topic that is connected to another class or their major. Final projects can take the form of blogs, videos, a website, or other media; a work of art, an event, a workshop, a presentation, or panel; a policy proposal or analysis; a white paper or op-ed series; a business plan; and/or any other piece(s) thoughtfully designed for the public.



EP students will develop a self-directed research and project plan. They must enlist an EP Sponsor who will serve in an advisory/mentor role; Sponsors can be Wesleyan faculty, staff, alumni, or community partners; family members or friends; or other experts or professionals willing to play this role. Seeking and enlisting an appropriate Sponsor is a component of the EP learning experience.



In addition to conducting their own extensive research and producing a summative project by the end of the semester, students will write a series of reflections to document their progress and their learning.



For more information, visit https://www.wesleyan.edu/patricelli/engaged-projects.html.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: None
Identical With: CSPL480
Prereq: None

CGST491 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CGST492 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

CGST497A Introduction to Portuguese and the Azores (CLAC .25)

This course will be an introduction to Portuguese/Azorean history and geography. It will include an introduction to Portuguese pronunciation, greetings, basic expressions, food, weather, and vocabulary related to the geology and culture of the islands.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: NSM-EES
Identical With: E&ES497A
Prereq: E&ES497

HIUR101 Introduction to Hindi-Urdu Language and Culture I

This course is an introduction to the modern standard form of Hindi-Urdu, the most widely spoken language in South Asia, with its manifestation in deeply rooted cultural contexts. Students are introduced to both writing systems: the Devanagari script of Hindi and the Nastaliq script of Urdu. The basic grammatical structures are presented and reinforced, and students are also exposed to the cultural and historical context in which Hindi-Urdu has existed over several centuries. The course also draws from the modern medium of film (in particular recent Bollywood songs) to reinforce structures and vocabulary.



The goal of this course is to provide students with a solid foundation in Hindi-Urdu grammar and vocabulary, as well as the cultural awareness and practical experience necessary for basic, yet accurate and appropriate, communication in spoken and written Hindi-Urdu. This course is designed to develop students' ability in the four skills of language learning. Students will learn to confidently navigate a range of common social and "survival" situations in Hindi-Urdu target cultures. Upon completing this course, students will have mastered the core constructions of Hindi-Urdu grammar and a large body of vocabulary and cultural knowledge necessary for many real-world interactions with Hindi-Urdu speakers.



Core objectives include: the development of communicative and interactional abilities in Hindi-Urdu on familiar topics related to daily activities; the development of analytical competence (analysis of language, critical thinking, etc.) and learner autonomy through linguistic analysis and reflection; and the development of sociocultural/intercultural awareness governing language use according to the appropriate target cultural norms.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CGST
Identical With: GSAS101
Prereq: None

HIUR102 Introduction to Hindi-Urdu Language and Culture II

This course is a continuation of Introduction to Hindi-Urdu Language and Culture I. It offers a balanced treatment of speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing skills, and desi culture. Through scaffolding techniques, students will reach their potential zone of proximal development (ZPD), which is Novice-High, from their current ZPD, which is Novice-Mid.



At the end of the course, students will be able to communicate short, culturally appropriate messages on highly predictable, everyday topics that affect them directly. They will be able to produce lists and notes, primarily by writing words and phrases. They can provide limited formulaic information on simple forms and documents. These writers can reproduce practiced material to convey the simplest messages. In addition, they can transcribe familiar words or phrases, copy letters of the alphabet or syllables of a syllabary, or reproduce basic characters with some accuracy.



Students will get level-appropriate knowledge of the target culture, which is an essential ingredient of the course. All the material and activities will be presented through contextualized material. Students can understand key words, true aural cognates, and formulaic expressions that are highly contextualized and highly predictable, such as those found in introductions and basic courtesies. They will be able to understand words and phrases from simple questions, statements, and high-frequency commands.



Upon completing this course, students will have mastered the core constructions of Hindi-Urdu grammar and a large body of vocabulary and cultural knowledge necessary for many real-world interactions with Hindi-Urdu speakers.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CGST
Identical With: GSAS102
Prereq: None

HIUR103 Elementary Hindi I

This course is an introduction to the modern standard form of Hindi, the most widely spoken language in South Asia, with its manifestation in deeply rooted cultural contexts. Students are introduced to the Hindi writing system (the Devanagari script). The basic grammatical structures are presented and reinforced, and students are also exposed to the cultural and historical context in which Hindi has existed over several centuries. The course also draws from the modern medium of film (in particular recent Bollywood songs) to reinforce structures and vocabulary.



The goal of this course is to provide students with a solid foundation in Hindi grammar and vocabulary, as well as the cultural awareness and practical experience necessary for basic, yet accurate and appropriate, communication in spoken and written Hindi. This course is designed to develop students' ability in the four skills of language learning. Students will learn to confidently navigate a range of common social and "survival" situations in Hindi in the target cultures. Upon completing this course, students will have beginning level knowledge of the core constructions of Hindi grammar and a large body of vocabulary and cultural knowledge necessary for many real-world interactions with Hindi speakers.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-GSAS
Identical With: GSAS103
Prereq: None

HIUR104 Elementary Hindi II

This course is a continuation of Elementary Hindi I. It offers a balanced treatment of speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing skills, and desi culture.



At the end of the course, students will be able to communicate short, culturally appropriate messages on highly predictable, everyday topics that affect them directly. They will be able to produce lists and notes, primarily by writing words and phrases. They can provide limited formulaic information on simple forms and documents. These writers can reproduce practiced material to convey the simplest messages. In addition, they can transcribe familiar words or phrases, copy letters of the alphabet or syllables of a syllabary, or reproduce basic characters with some accuracy.



Students will get level-appropriate knowledge of the target culture, which is an essential ingredient of the course. All the material and activities will be presented through contextualized material. Students can understand key words, true aural cognates, and formulaic expressions that are highly contextualized and highly predictable, such as those found in introductions and basic courtesies. They will be able to understand words and phrases from simple questions, statements, and high-frequency commands.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CGST
Identical With: GSAS104
Prereq: None

HIUR201 Intermediate Hindi-Urdu Language and Culture I

This course is a continuation of Introduction to Hindi-Urdu Language and Culture II, which emphasizes written expression and texts in both Perso-Arabic and Devanagari script systems and familiarity with cultures of the South Asian diaspora. The goal of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to build upon their knowledge of the Hindi-Urdu language and culture and bring them up to the intermediate low/mid-level in all four skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking.



At the end of this course, students will be able to successfully handle a limited number of uncomplicated communicative tasks in straightforward social situations. Students will be able to produce some of the concrete exchanges and predictable topics necessary for survival in the target-language culture. These topics relate to basic personal information; for example, self and family, some daily activities and personal preferences, and some immediate needs, such as ordering food and making simple purchases. Students will also be able to ask a few appropriate questions, creating and writing statements and formulating questions based on familiar material.



As listeners, students will be able to understand simple, sentence-length speech, one utterance at a time, in a variety of basic personal and social contexts. They will develop accurate comprehension with highly familiar and predictable topics. Intermediate-mid listeners may get some meaning from oral texts typically understood by advanced-level listeners.



As readers, students will be able to understand short, noncomplex texts that convey basic information and deal with basic personal and social topics to which the reader brings personal interest or knowledge, although some misunderstandings may occur. Readers at this level may get some meaning from short connected texts featuring description and narration, dealing with familiar topics.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CGST
Identical With: GSAS201
Prereq: None

HIUR202 Intermediate Hindi-Urdu Language and Culture II

This course prepares students to achieve intermediate low-to-high level speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing skills. With a strong emphasis on achieving proficiency in spoken Hindi-Urdu, students are encouraged to speak Hindi-Urdu as much as possible, both in and outside of the classroom. Enrolled students are encouraged to form study groups that meet regularly outside of class to practice conversation in Hindi-Urdu and to learn nuances of the culture.



Students will work with a variety of web-based materials to learn songs; watch short film clips and advertisements; and read letters, dialogues, song lyrics, poems, and short stories in Hindi-Urdu. This course will introduce students to many aspects of Hindi-Urdu-speaking cultures through authentic language use, and students will also have the opportunity to participate in the Hindi-Urdu language learning community on campus.



Standard text, course materials prepared by the instructor, and authentic materials (contextualized in the target culture) available on the internet will be used with equal emphasis on spoken and written Hindi-Urdu. The structure and conversations will be prepared in a variety of authentic contexts of Hindi-Urdu. Students are also offered extensive exposure to spoken language emphasizing speaking and listening at normal speed with near-native pronunciation and intonation. By the end of this course, the students will be at the intermediate-high level of the ACTFL proficiency scale. At this level student are expected to converse comfortably in colloquial Hindi-Urdu on a wide variety of familiar subjects.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CGST
Identical With: GSAS202
Prereq: None

HIUR251 Hindi-Urdu Language and Culture for Heritage Learners

This course is specifically designed for heritage learners of Hindi and Urdu who have some proficiency in these languages. Such students may speak or merely understand the heritage language(s) and are, to some degree, bilingual in English and the heritage language.



The course can be tailored to the specific needs of learners of both Hindi and/or Urdu; the content of the course will be selected according to needs and requirements of each learner. For this purpose, a needs analysis will be conducted at the beginning of the semester to learn the students' proficiency level and interests.



As part of this class, students will not only learn the language and culture in the class but also get a chance to practice the language and familiarize themselves through language tables and a native peer from the target community. Students will visit cultural/community centers to get a feel for the language and culture in practice.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CGST
Prereq: None

HIUR261 Advanced Hindi-Urdu Language and Culture for Heritage Learners

This course is specifically designed for heritage learners of Hindi and Urdu who have good proficiency in one or both of these languages. Such students may speak or merely understand the heritage language(s) and are, to some degree, bilingual in English and the heritage language.



The course can be tailored to the specific needs of learners of both Hindi and/or Urdu; the content of the course will be selected according to needs and requirements of each learner. For this purpose, a needs analysis will be conducted at the beginning of the semester to learn the students' proficiency level and interests.



As part of this class, students will not only learn the language and culture in the class but also get a chance to practice the language and familiarize themselves through language tables and a native peer from the target community. Students will visit cultural/community centers to get a feel for the language and culture in practice.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CGST
Prereq: None

HIUR301 Advanced Hindi & Urdu Language and Culture

This course is specifically designed for the learners who want to advance their skills in Urdu and/or Hindi through reading and discussing authentic materials in poetry and prose. The main goal of the course is to improve your skills in both Urdu and Hindi languages, and you will also get opportunity to enhance your writing and creative writing skills in Urdu and/or Hindi scripts by completing various projects and assignments. The specific focus of each semester will depend on the background and interests of enrolled students.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CGST
Identical With: GSAS301
Prereq: None

HIUR302 HIUR 302: Advanced Hindi-Urdu Language & Literature II

The course is specifically designed for the learners who want to advance their skills in Urdu/Hindi through reading and discussing authentic materials including poetry and prose. Students will also get an opportunity to improve their academic writing and speaking skills. Through this course, students will read the classical and current Hindi/Urdu writers and will get an in-depth understanding of South Asian literary traditions. Material will include an anthology of various short stories, novels, selected poetry, and scholarly articles. The specific focus of each semester will be listed below under "Additional Requirements and/or Comments."
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Prereq: None

HIUR401 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

HIUR402 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

HIUR491 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

HIUR492 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

WLIT207 Autobiographical Storytelling

In Space Is the Place, jazz musician and cosmic philosopher Sun Ra states that

"the first thing to do is to consider time as officially ended. We work on the other

side of time." Afrofuturist stories unfold in this other time -- or the time that comes

"after the end of the world."



In this class, our research follows the films of Afrofuturism into the loop of Sun

Ra¿s speculative premise. This class explores cinematic depictions of hauntings,

dystopias, aliens, surrealism, and time and space travel. In doing so, we will

encounter works by Anisia Uzeyman, Ryan Coogler, CJ Obasi, Terrance Nance,

Jordan Peele, Mati Diop, Ngozi Onwurah, Sun Ra, John Akomfrah, John Sayles,

Anna Rose Holmer, Bill Gunn, Wanuri Kahui, and more.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-FILM
Identical With: FILM395
Prereq: None

WLIT208 Anticolonial/Decolonial: Literature and Film

This course examines how histories of twentieth century anti-imperialist writing and cinema are relevant for contemporary decolonizing agendas. We will compare works by colonial and postcolonial theorists, writers and filmmakers, to examine how literature and film address processes of colonization, anti-imperialist struggle, decolonization, and neo-colonization. Readings will be drawn from a range of countries in both the Global North and South and films include Ousmane Sembène's La Noire de.../Black Girl (1966), Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers (1966), Sarah Maldoror's Léon G. Damas (1994), Stephanie Black's Life & Debt (2001), and Ciro Guerra's Waiting for the Barbarians (2019).
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ENGL
Identical With: ENGL239
Prereq: None

WLIT221 Place and Space in Literary Hangzhou

The city of Hangzhou is unique in the Chinese cultural imagination. As a former dynastic capital, Hangzhou is saturated with the intrigues of China's turbulent political and social history. But the city is also famous as a literary and cultural center--a prime leisure location along the Grand Canal; the site of the famous West Lake (just as famously compared to the mythically beautiful Xi Shi); and the setting for numerous poems, short stories, and dramas. This seminar explores the literary culture situated in and around Hangzhou, considering topics such as food, folklore, and tourism, in addition to the city's depiction in poems, short stories, and dramas. Our aim is to explore how the Chinese cultural imagination about Hangzhou--part of a broader imagining of the southern region of Jiangnan ("South of the Long River")--is built through these many layers of texts, histories, and spaces. With Hangzhou as our geographical focus, we consider materials from a range of genres (poems, short stories, dramas, folktales, historical anecdotes) and time periods (Song to late Qing, with reference to the present as well). We consider how the image of Hangzhou is built up throughout time, and how the literary culture in and of Hangzhou is interwoven with the "real" experience of the city as a space/place.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS282
Prereq: None

WLIT222 Chinese Theater and Drama

This seminar examines Chinese theater and drama from their beginnings to the late 20th-century. We engage dramatic texts as well as performance practices; thus, the course draws on material from theater history, performance and acting conventions, and the literary history of drama. Readings and discussions span major genres of dramatic writing and their different modes of performance, including the dramatic genres of zaju, chuanqi, and modern/contemporary spoken drama, and performance styles of Beijing opera, Kun opera (Kunqu), and huaju (spoken drama). Play topics range from ghost stories to romances, historical/political dramas to comedy. We explore the legacies of specific actors, including the famous Mei Lanfang; consider experiments in modern Chinese drama; and compare Chinese and "Western" ideas of theater (such as those put forth by Stanislavsky and Brecht). To the greatest extent possible, we will engage materially and physically with Chinese theater and drama history through archive visits and performance workshops.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS243, THEA243
Prereq: None

WLIT223 Narrating China: Introduction to 20th- and 21st-Century Chinese Literature

This survey course introduces students to major literary movements in 20th- and 21st-century China through selective works by representative authors. It has two major aims: (1) It invites students to explore how individual authors--at different historical moments and in different social positions--have responded to historical changes that radically unsettled their senses of self and nation and also how their literary expressions may reveal the shifting subjectivity of modern China and Chineseness. (2) At the same time, it introduces students to the academic discipline of literary criticism, develops or deepens students' critical close reading and textual analysis, and invites them to discover the joy and reward of plunging into a reading experience and coming out with interpretations of their own making. While the course does attend to important historical flash points unique to Chinese history, it also explores literary themes that resonate globally, beyond the context of modern China. Varying slightly by semester, these themes could include the relation between politics and literature, revolution and revolutionary arts, alternative modernities, writerly authority and the individual self, gendered authorship, memory and trauma, ethnic governance and resistance, class divisions, ecological damages, labor migration, etc. This course assumes no prior knowledge of China or Chinese language, and all texts will be taught using English translations.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS202
Prereq: None

WLIT225 Defining Japanese Culture Through Food

This course explores Japanese food traditions as a site in which cultural values are sought, contested, and disseminated for national consumption. Through an examination of various components of Japan's culinary practices such as the tea ceremony, sushi, whaling, and fusion cuisines, we uncover the aesthetics, religious beliefs, politics, environmental issues, and intercultural exchange that characterize Japanese history.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS210
Prereq: None

WLIT226 In Search of the Good Life in Premodern Japan

This course presents works of literature from premodern Japan to consider how people conceptualized and struggled to attain the good life. How did people's evocations of their ideals and desires reflect and engage with the historical reality? How did their social status (such as a Buddhist monk, samurai, or a lady-in-waiting), occupation, and gender contribute to their aspirations as well as struggles? What were their strategies for not just survival but for fulfillment in periods of warfare or disasters? Works will encompass diary literature, essays, fiction, and poems from a variety of authors across most of Japanese premodern history. Practices such as the tea ceremony and works of art will also be discussed to fill out the cultural context.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS295
Prereq: None

WLIT228F Sex, Ghosts, and Cannibalism: The Chinese Short Story FYS

This course takes the passionate, the strange, and the peculiar--sex, ghosts, and cannibalism--as a lens through which to explore big issues in the history of Chinese literature and culture.



Focusing on short stories from the 7th to 21st centuries, we ask what fiction can tell us about the real concerns that shaped the lives of Chinese writers. How do literary depictions of sex and desire relate to social issues surrounding gender, power, and family? What do supernatural characters--hungry ghosts, lofty gods, unruly demons, seductive snakes, and fox spirits--reveal about the human world and belief systems used to make sense of unusual occurrences? What do motifs of cannibalism and related themes linked to bodies, consumption, hunger, and food tell us about the social and political changes China witnessed on its path toward becoming a modern nation-state?



As a First Year Seminar, this course is writing-intensive and is meant to equip you with the writing, reading, research, and presentation skills needed at Wesleyan. You will have numerous opportunities to write and revise your work, share your insights during class discussion, and practice the core skills of effective reading and interpretation.



All texts will be taught in English translation. No prior knowledge of China or Chinese language is required.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS156F
Prereq: None

WLIT229 Gender and Power in Chinese Literature

This course explores the intersections of gender, power, and performance in Chinese society. Drawing on literary and historical sources, theories of gender and sexuality, and with reference to media forms such as theater and film, we assess the significance of gender as an analytical framework for studying Chinese literature, culture, and society. What power dynamics drive conceptions of gender and gender ideology in Chinese literature and history? And how do discussions around gender roles and sexuality change in the modern and contemporary periods? Course topics include: Chinese feminism; depictions of women in classical literature; gender roles, family, and marriage; conceptions of the body; constructing identities; women writers; the "new woman"; themes of cross-dressing; classical romance narratives; gender performance in Chinese theater; queer narratives; and more.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS240, FGSS247
Prereq: None

WLIT230 Contemporary Korean Cinema and Society

This course offers an in-depth exploration of contemporary Korean cinema from the late 1990s to the present, emphasizing its intricate relationship with societal issues. Students will engage with a diverse array of films that not only demonstrate the artistic innovations of Korean filmmakers but also reflect the dynamic sociopolitical landscape of South Korea. Through guided analyses of film texts, we will employ various critical perspectives, including auteurism, national cinema, cultural studies, and genre theory, to enhance our understanding of cinematic narratives. A central focus of the course will be the examination of how gender, sexuality, and identity are portrayed in contemporary Korean films. Additionally, the course will investigate the impact of economic factors and transnational influences on the production and reception of Korean cinema, including the rise of genres such as "K-horror" and the rhetoric of transgressive violence. All films will have English subtitles, and all readings will be available in English; no prior knowledge of Korean film, history, or culture required. Join us on this captivating cinematic journey as we explore the intersections of films and society in contemporary Korea.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS239, FGSS230
Prereq: None

WLIT231 The Fantastic and the Nonhuman in Pre-modern Chinese Literature

What defines the human and the humane, and how have "the human" and its many "others" been imagined throughout pre-modern Chinese history? This course explores a fascinating range of Chinese literature dealing with the fantastic and supernatural, from ancient times to the late imperial period. We will delve into captivating stories of gods, ghosts, seductive creatures, and alluring objects, investigating the boundaries of humanity and the rich spectrum of subhuman, superhuman, and nonhuman beings. Key themes include the interplay between the supernatural, gender, and sexuality, and how these narratives either reinforce or challenge traditional hierarchies and social norms. Through these stories, we will discover how pre-modern Chinese literature reflects, questions, and reimagines those cultural values and beliefs.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS245
Prereq: None

WLIT232 Introduction to Premodern Chinese Literature

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to Chinese literature and culture from antiquity through the end of the imperial era. Readings span prose (philosophical, historical, and literary texts; myths and legends; anecdotes; and tales of the strange), poetry (from the Book of Songs through Tang and Song verse), drama, and vernacular fiction. We will consider how literary forms and styles evolved and how they engaged themes such as creativity, gender, literati identity, daily life, and religion. All readings and discussions are in English. No prior background is required.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS221
Prereq: None

WLIT233 Love in Chinese and Western Literature

This course offers a comparative introduction to Chinese and Western literary traditions through the theme of love. Taught in English and requiring no prior knowledge of Chinese language, literature, or history, it examines how literary texts imagine love as desire, emotional attachment, moral obligation, social transgression, and cultural ideal. Readings range from Chinese works such as The Butterfly Lovers, Tang tales, The Story of the Western Wing, The White Snake, Jin Ping Mei, and the poetry of Yu Xuanji to Western texts such as Plato's Symposium, the lyrics of Sappho, selections from Homer, medieval courtly love literature, and Romeo and Juliet. More broadly, the course introduces students to comparative literary study by encouraging them to analyze texts across cultures, genres, and historical contexts through close reading, discussion, presentations, and writing.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS258
Prereq: None

WLIT240F Russian Masterpieces: Great Short Works (FYS)

This course is designed to help students improve their writing through the close reading and analysis of short stories and novellas by Russian masters of the form. Students will be asked to bring to each class their ideas on how to construct an argument that could be developed into a written interpretation of the work being discussed. These discussions, along with work on building logical arguments and polishing grammar and style, will inform students' own writing. We will read works from the 19th century to the late 20th century that include Tolstoy's novellas of faith, adultery, and facing death; Nikolai Gogol's surreal comedies and urbanistic fantasies; Anton Chekhov's subtle psychological tales; Ivan Bunin's reflections from exile on a lost Russia; Mikhail Bulgakov's sketches of life as a country doctor; Evgeny Kharitonov's experimental narratives of queer experience in a totalitarian society; and Lyudmila Petrushevskaya's modern stories of the tortured lives of women in the late Soviet period. All readings in English translation. No knowledge of Russian is expected.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: RUSS240F, REES240F, RULE240F
Prereq: None

WLIT241 Murder and Adultery: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and the 19th-Century Russian Novel

The 19th-century novel is widely regarded as the supreme achievement of Russian literature. This course will trace its development from Pushkin's elegant, witty novel in verse, EUGENE ONEGIN, through the grotesque comedy of Gogol, to the realist masterpieces of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, with their complex depiction of human psychology and the philosophical struggles of late 19th-century society. We will consider the historical background in which the novels were produced and the tools developed by Russian critical theory, especially the Russian formalists and Mikhail Bakhtin, for understanding 19th-century Russian prose.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: RUSS205, REES205, RULE205
Prereq: None

WLIT242 Gogol and His Legacy: Witches, Con Men, and Runaway Noses

Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852), hailed as one of Russia's greatest and most distinctive writers, created a phantasmagorical world of devils and witches coexisting with the gritty details of life in Ukraine, St. Petersburg, and the Russian provinces. Gogol's satirical observations delighted socially conscious contemporary critics, while his linguistic experimentation and subversion of the rules of logic inspired later modernist writers. Roughly half of the course is devoted to major writers of the twentieth century. We will consider Gogol's interest in the demonic; his complex identity as a bilingual writer claimed by both Ukraine and Russia as one of their greatest cultural figures; the influence of his formal and linguistic experimentation on later writers such as Dostoevsky, Nabokov, and Bulgakov, with his vision of the Devil visiting Soviet Moscow; and Gogol's reception by modern Russian and Western writers and critics. The course is conducted in English.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: RUSS277, REES277, RULE277
Prereq: None

WLIT243 Speak, Memory: The Russian Memoir

Memoirs offer a chance for individuals to make sense of their relationship to larger historical forces and allow writers of fiction and poetry to reflect on the tensions between biography and the creative process. We will read memoirs of prison and of Stalinist terror by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Nadezhda Mandelstam; visions of childhood by Lev Tolstoy, Vladimir Nabokov, and poets Osip Mandelstam and Marina Tsvetaeva; and works of autobiography by Viktor Shklovsky and Sergey Gandlevsky that create their own worlds of literary experimentation. The course will also consider the theoretical problems of autobiographical writing. Students will write a memoir of childhood (3-5 pages) to better understand the technical problems faced by Tolstoy in writing about his childhood. Students may, if they wish, write a piece of memoiristic prose, or a parody or imitation of one of the writers in the course (minimum 10 pages), as one of their three papers.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: RUSS220, REES220, RULE220
Prereq: None

WLIT244 Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky is widely recognized as one of the world's greatest novelists. His career begins at the end of Russian Romanticism, is interrupted by nine years of prison and exile in Siberia, and resumes at the beginning of the age of the great realist novel. Dostoevsky's major works grapple with the themes of sin and crime, the disintegration of the family, and the difficulty of believing in God in a world full of evil.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: RUSS251, REES251, RULE251
Prereq: None

WLIT245F Otherness & Belonging (FYS)

One of the many haunting utterances of Fyodor Dostoevsky's most famous antihero, the Underground Man, is "I am alone, I thought, and they are everyone." Like him, the other protagonists of this course are outcasts, dissidents, and strangers - jaded office clerks and repressed misanthropes, queer activists and "enemies of the state" - who refuse to conform to societal norms, disrupt conventions by saying the unsayable, and write and make art from the margins, the realm of undesirables. Focusing mainly on Russia and Eastern Europe, we will analyze representations of otherness and belonging in fiction, non-fiction, and film. We will explore narratives of undesirability through the thematic prisms of exile and immigration; gender and sexuality; mental illness; prison writing; ethnic difference; religion; and unrequited love. The concept of undesirability will also be our point of entry for constructing arguments about community, privilege, and a society without outsiders.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: REES208F, RULE208F, RUSS208F
Prereq: None

WLIT246 The Soviet Century

This course begins and ends with two of the most important dates of the 20th century. On November 7, 1917, the Bolshevik party launched a revolution against the government of the Russian Empire with the aim of overthrowing not just the state but capitalism, the economic and social system that defined modern civilization. Over the coming decades, the state they created (eventually named the USSR) embarked on an unprecedented project to transform human beings and remake the world. On December 26, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed into 15 European and Asian countries. The Soviet project raises fundamental questions about political systems, economics, and human nature -- questions that are a long way from being answered. It also shaped modern history all over the world, including in the United States, which confronted the Soviet Union as its political and ideological archenemy during the Cold War. In charting the USSR's trajectory from pariah nation after World War I to global superpower following World War II, we will move beyond the cliched view of the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire. Instead, we will examine the ways in which socialist modernity offered an alternative to its capitalist twin. In an effort to understand the contradictions of Soviet life leading up to and during the Cold War, the class will examine how the Soviets sought to rethink issues of class struggle, family structure, education, gender dynamics, race, religion, sexuality, and patriotism. We will consider the theoretical writings of Marx, Lenin, and Trotsky in addition to poetry and prose by Babel, Mayakovsky, Akhmatova, Platonov, Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, Berggolts, and Nabokov, among others. Particular attention will be paid to underground cultures that arose in response to the repression of free speech, ethnic discrimination, and the Gulag prison system. All readings are in the English translation.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: REES256, RULE256, RUSS256
Prereq: None

WLIT247 Don Quixote: How to Read the Ultimate Novel

No novel is more celebrated than "Don Quixote," albeit in often contrary ways: touchstone at once of the modern and the post-modern; of prosaic and magical realism; of Romantic idealism and skepticism, relativism, or materialism; of a truth-telling folly; and of the competing claims of books and "life" or history and fiction. Sample superlatives: the one text that can challenge Shakespeare in the Western canon (Harold Bloom), all prose fiction is a variation on its theme (Lionel Trilling), one of the four great myths of modern individualism (Ian Watt). Each generation recognizes itself differently in it and every major literary tradition has made it its own. One secret of its lasting appeal is that, brilliantly improvisatory and encyclopedic, it resists being pinned down. Nothing quite prepares us for the hallucinatory thing itself. There is something for every taste: self-invention; the biology of personality; humor, pathos, and tragicomedy; high and low culture; prose, poetry, and theatrics; episodic variety in a long narrative arc; probing examination of the ambiguities of heroism with a parade of spirited and resourceful heroines who rival and often upstage the heroes; and the disruptive transformations of a new world order (the print, educational, and military revolutions; early modern globalization; incipient capitalism; the explosive growth of profit-driven entertainments). A celebration of the transformative power of imagination even as it casts a gimlet eye on how fantasies can go awry, what passes for "the real world" is often as nutty as the hero himself. We will read, discuss, and write about "Don Quixote" in English, together with key examples of the critical, philosophical, literary, and artistic responses it has inspired. The course assumes no familiarity with literature, history, or Spanish; it does call for an interest in grappling with this wonderful text closely, imaginatively, and historically.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: RL&L236, COL236, MDST236
Prereq: None

WLIT248 Not Just Neorealism: Italian Cinema, Its History and Politics (CLAC.50)

This introductory course on Italian cinema, taught in English, investigates major silent and sound films and contextualizes them, their production, and the subjects they treat within a historical, cultural, and political framework. We will trace the intersection among politics, ideology, and Italian cinema, from its Golden Age of silents through fascism and neorealism (as well as its contested legacy), from a consideration of the "exquisite" examples of the auteur directors like Fellini and Sorrentino to the ways these and other directors enter into dialogue with genre cinema (the giallo, spaghetti westerns, melodrama, etc.), and beyond. Featured filmmakers will be drawn from this list: Pastrone, Rossellini, De Sica, Fellini, Bertolucci, Antonioni, Wertmuller, Cavani, Pasolini, the Taviani Brothers, Leone, Sorrentino, Rohrwacher, Nicchiarelli, Crialese, and others. Additional material includes readings in film theory and criticism, Italian history, literary sources, screenplays, and interviews. For interested students with advanced competency in Italian, there will be a .50 credit (CLAC) discussion section, ITAL245/CGST245, at a time to be determined but very likely after our second class of the week. Italian and Romance Studies Majors, please see additional comments below.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: RL&L245, FILM302
Prereq: None

WLIT249F Love, Sex, and Marriage in Renaissance Europe (FYS)

This seminar compares literary depictions of love, sex, and marriage from the 14th to the 17th centuries by writers from England, France, Germany, Italy, the Low Countries, Spain, and Sweden. (Students will be able to study writings from other parts of Europe over the course of the semester should they so choose.) We will read texts composed by women and men in genres including poetry, theater, the short story, the essay, the maxim, the travel narrative, and the sermon. Though the seminar is focused on literature, we will also consider painting, engravings, sculpture, and the decorative arts (e.g., wedding chests). We will explore questions such as: How were love and marriage related during the Renaissance? What roles did sex, gender, race, class, and violence play in relationships between couples and within society, and how were they represented in literature and art? How do gender and genre affect the ways in which love, sex, and marriage are depicted? How did cultural differences influence writers' and artists' interpretations of love, sex, and marriage? And what about homosexual love, same-sex unions, and depictions of dissident sexualities and genders? Finally, how do contemporary (21st-century) writers reimagine Renaissance representations of love, sex, and marriage, and why do Renaissance texts and images matter today? Other topics will include virginity and celibacy, friendship, erotic literature and pornography, religion, family and class structures, and divorce. This seminar engages students with university-level research by navigating search engines and databases (beyond a Google search!), honing their analytical skills, and polishing their academic prose. Students will also have the opportunity to write creatively should they so choose.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: RL&L123F, FGSS123F, MDST125F
Prereq: None

WLIT249Z Love, Sex, and Marriage in Renaissance Europe

This seminar compares literary depictions of love, sex, and marriage from the 14th to the 17th centuries by writers from England, France, Germany, the Italian Peninsula, the Low Countries, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. (N.B. Students will be able to study writings from other parts of Europe over the course of the semester should they so choose.) We will read texts composed by women and men in genres including poetry, theater, the short story, the essay, the maxim, the travel narrative, and the sermon. Though the seminar is focused on literature, we will also consider painting, engravings, sculpture, and the decorative arts (e.g., wedding chests). We will explore questions such as: How were love and marriage related during the Renaissance? What roles did sex, gender, race, class, and violence play in relationships between couples and within society, and how were they represented in literature and art? How do gender and genre affect the ways in which love, sex, and marriage are depicted? How did cultural differences influence writers' and artists' interpretations of love, sex, and marriage? And what about "homosexual" love, same-sex unions, and depictions of dissident sexualities and genders? Finally, how have contemporary (21st-century) writers reimagined Renaissance representations of love, sex, and marriage, and why do Renaissance texts and images matter today? Other topics will include virginity and celibacy, friendship, erotic literature and pornography, religion, family and class structures, and divorce. This seminar engages students with university-level research by navigating search engines and databases (beyond a Google search!), honing their analytical skills, and polishing their academic prose. Students will also have the opportunity to write creatively should they so choose.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: RL&L123Z, COL123Z, FGSS123Z, MDST125Z
Prereq: None

WLIT250 The Cosmos of Dante's "Comedy"

In 1321, Dante Alighieri completes the final cantos of the "Comedy" and breathes his last. After 700 years, the "Comedy" has not finished saying what it has to say. This course provides an in-depth introduction to Dante's masterwork as a point of entry to the history of Western literature, philosophy, and science. The core of the course consists of an intensive study of Dante's encyclopedic poem in relation to the culture and history of Medieval Europe. We examine the poem as both a product and an interpretation of the world it describes. We also observe how the "Comedy" casts its long shadow on modern culture: in Primo Levi's description of the horror of Nazi concentration camps, or in Amiri Baraka's fragmentary representation of America's infernal racist system. We investigate the challenges that Dante's text elicits when it migrates to visual and cinematic arts (from medieval illuminations to Robert Rauschenberg to David Fincher), continuously camouflaging and adapting to different media. Major topics of this course include: representations of the otherworld; the soul's relation to the divine; Dante's concepts of governance and universal peace; mythology and theology in Dante's Christian poetics; the role of the classics in the Middle Ages; intertextuality and imitation; genres and genders in medieval literature; notions of authorship and authority during the 13th and 14th centuries; the culture and materiality of manuscripts in the Middle Ages; and the reception of Dante's work from the 14th century to the present. The course combines a close analysis of Dante's inventiveness and literary strategies with exercises in analytical writing and in multimedia translation and adaptation, aimed at prompting critical reflection on the ways in which present cultural practices are built upon the practices of the past. This course is conducted in English; no previous knowledge of Italian is required.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: RL&L226, ITAL226, RELI218, MDST226
Prereq: None

WLIT251 Good, Evil, Human: German Fairy Tales and Their Cultural Impact

The collected folk tales of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm have had a substantial impact on the cultural history of Germany and beyond. Despite our sense that we already know these texts, it is worth taking a closer look at their messages. Deceptively simple, these little tales communicate and negotiate extraordinarily important and complicated messages about what it means to be human, to behave in acceptable ways, to have and control unwelcome desires, and to (be able to) imagine a better world. We will read selected fairy tales from the Grimm collection and other texts, investigate the historical context in which the Grimms undertook their ambitious project, learn about ways in which scholarship has framed fairy tales, and discuss adaptations of the fairy-tale tradition in films and texts of the 20th century.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-GRST
Identical With: GRST279, COL279, GELT279
Prereq: None

WLIT252 Tolstoy

During the 19th century when Tolstoy wrote his novels and stories, literature was viewed in Russia as the intelligentsia's primary medium for debating its big questions (such as how to resolve the inequalities that had been institutionalized under serfdom, or how to choose between new and old values as Russia experienced modernization). Writers like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky willingly assumed the responsibility to address a broad range of political, historical, and philosophical-religious questions in their fiction, and they wrote novels with radical formulations as well as solutions to these questions. However, they also viewed literature, particularly the novel, as a medium with rich potential for innovative formal experimentation, and so they resisted the call for conventional ideological novels. Each of Tolstoy's best works is an innovative formal experiment that creates an unprecedented, new type of novel. This course will study how Tolstoy's writings both responded to and transcended their times by creating new novelistic forms and new truths within those forms.



For native speakers and learners who have studied Russian for at least four semesters, a half-credit course is available in which we will read excerpts from Tolstoy's works (CGST 330).
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: RUSS252, REES252, COL262, RULE252
Prereq: None

WLIT253 Gods, Heroes, and Chaos!: An Introduction to Greek and Roman Mythology

This class will dive into the wild and tumultuous world of ancient Greek and Roman mythology to begin to understand its impact on culture and identity in both the ancient and modern world, reading primary source literature, looking at iconography and material culture, and studying later examples of mythological reception. Primary sources span mythical stories of the creation of the universe and the gods themselves; the dramatic exploits, interrelationships, and depictions of the gods; the careers of major heroes and heroines; and the myth of the Trojan war and its long aftermath. While we read ancient works, we will discuss the impact of mythology on religious and cultural practices, history, cultural identity, art, politics, and day-to-day life. We will also discuss the enduring influence these myths have on modern culture -- for better and for worse -- in today's politics, culture and art. Students will acquire mythological literacy, to understand the language of myth itself in both the ancient and modern world, to be able to read the impact myth continues to have on the way we define the natural world, the divine, and humanity's place in the universe. This course counts towards the Literature and Performance track of the Classics major.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CLST
Identical With: CLST205, RELI235
Prereq: None

WLIT255 Introduction to Russian and Soviet Cinema

This course provides an introduction to the history and poetics of imperial Russian, Soviet, and post-Soviet Russian cinema. From the avant-garde experimentation of Lev Kuleshov, Sergei Eisenstein, and Dziga Vertov to the masterpieces of Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Parajanov, and Kira Muratova, the course will explore the development of film from the Soviet and post-Soviet periods as artistic medium and as national tradition. The discussion and comparative analyses of different forms and genres, including silent cinema, propaganda films, blockbusters, and auteur cinema, will be situated within the cultural, political, and aesthetic contexts of the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia, Ukraine, and Armenia.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: REES233, RULE233, RUSS233, FILM333
Prereq: None

WLIT255Z Introduction to Russian and Soviet Cinema

This course provides an introduction to the history and poetics of imperial Russian, Soviet, and post-Soviet Russian cinema. From the avant-garde experimentation of Lev Kuleshov, Sergei Eisenstein, and Dziga Vertov to the masterpieces of Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Parajanov, and Kira Muratova, the course will explore the development of film from the Soviet and post-Soviet periods as artistic medium and as national tradition. The discussion and comparative analyses of different forms and genres, including silent cinema, propaganda films, blockbusters, and auteur cinema, will be situated within the cultural, political, and aesthetic contexts of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and contemporary Russia and Ukraine. Students will learn the key works, names, events, and concepts of the Russian and Soviet cinematic traditions. They will develop skills in analyzing and interpreting films and will acquire the basic critical terminology of film and media studies. They will also learn how film form and aesthetics are conditioned by technology, ideology, economics, theory, tradition, and culture. The overarching goal is to see how cinema in Russia and the Soviet Union has created and contested narratives of history and identity, how cinema has served the interests of the state, and how it has defied them. No knowledge of Russian is expected or required. All films have English subtitles.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: REES233Z, FILM333Z, RULE233Z, RUSS233Z
Prereq: None

WLIT256 After Communism: Animals, Avatars, Hybrids

During the last two decades of the 20th century, a wide array of Soviet and post-Soviet writers either replaced or merged the traditional human protagonist with another: the animal. Whether featuring a penguin avatar or disillusioned insects; a human centipede or a pack of werewolves, these literary works directly and indirectly shed light on the historical context in which they were written: the last decade before and the one immediately following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Keeping in mind this historical and social context, we will analyze representations of hybridity, violence, sexuality, and (imagined) communities--all through texts that challenge us to consider what the animal represents and how it affects our expectations of narrative. The secondary readings will situate the animal in a broader philosophical and theoretical framework, and special attention will be paid to postmodernism as a movement in literature and art. Conducted in English.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-REES
Identical With: RUSS223, REES223, RULE223
Prereq: None

WLIT257 Performing Russian Culture: From Peter the Great to the Russian Revolution

This course offers a survey of Russian culture from 1700-1917 through the perspective of performance studies. Starting with the reign of Peter the Great and ending on the eve of the revolution, we read some of the seminal works of the Russian literary canon, including plays, poems, short stories, and novels. We also consider examples from visual and material culture: paintings, sculptures, and everyday objects. Alongside these primary sources, we discuss theoretical pieces from the field of performance studies in order to expose and reflect on the social and political mechanisms embedded in the shaping of various forms of "Russianness." The course will explore ever-relevant questions of belonging, display of power, and ideology, and ask how, why, and by whom cultural identities are contrived and performed. The course is conducted in English.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-REES
Identical With: RUSS224, REES224, RULE224
Prereq: None

WLIT259 Prague, Vienna, Sarajevo: 20th-Century Novels from Central and Eastern Europe

This course is a survey of 20th-century prose fiction of Central and Eastern Europe, with an emphasis on the Czech novel. The novels we will read make history come alive through the eyes of vividly individual characters. In Joseph Roth's Radetzky March, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is viewed through the lens of a single heartbroken family; in Bohumil Hrabal's I Served the King of England, the Czech experience in World War II and postwar Stalinization is embodied in the figure of a diminutive hotel waiter; Volodymyr Rafeyenko's Mondegreen is an experimental narrative told through the eyes of a refugee from the Ukrainian Donbas region in Kyiv who struggles with language and identity; Nobel Prize-winner Olga Tokarczuk's Flights provides a constellation of short narratives that attempt to capture the place of the body in the world of travel and migration; in Witold Gombrowicz's Trans-Atlantyk and Aleksandar Hemon's The Question of Bruno, the main characters find themselves in a foreign land when their home countries (Poland and Yugoslavia, respectively) are torn apart by war. All the works we will read exemplify the high level of narrative sophistication, in realist, absurdist, and experimental modes, that is a hallmark of Central and Eastern European literature.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: RUSS255, REES255, RULE255
Prereq: None

WLIT261 Cuneiform to Kindle: Fragments of a Material History of Literature

This course provides a theoretical and historical investigation of diverse media of literary expressions from clay tablets to digital texts. We will inquire into the history of writing through different technologies and modes of composition, circulation, and reception from antiquity to the present day. By engaging in such topics as the transition from scroll to codex, from manuscript to print, and from book to Kindle, we will consider the history of literacy in relation to other forms of expression (oral, visual, networked) and analyze different practices of organizing textual materials (punctuation, paragraphing, annotation). We will scrutinize paratextual elements (title, front matter, opening information, foreword) and various forms of verbal accretions (glosses, commentaries, editorial interventions). We will examine shifting notions of authorship and originality and explore different systems of storage (libraries, archives, museums). And by questioning the multifaceted, nondeterministic interplay between literary artifacts and the media by which they are formalized and materially formed, we will provide a critical and historical reflection on the nature of textuality, writing, and media.



Readings will set essays in the history of the book and media studies alongside key literary case studies from various periods and geographical areas. Projects will engage with textual materiality (including through the creation of book-objects of our own). The course will be conducted in English.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: RL&L234, MDST231
Prereq: None

WLIT262F Days and Knights of the Round Table (FYS)

This course will study the evolution of the Arthurian legend from its origins in sixth-century Britain to its fullest development in the 13th-century French Lancelot-Grail cycle. The course will look at the way the various developments of the legend were rooted in specific historical circumstances and yet contributed to the elaboration of a rich and complex narrative that has been appropriated in different ways by each succeeding period of Western European culture.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: RL&L176F
Prereq: None

WLIT263 Tolstoy: War and Peace and Other Works

Lev Tolstoy (1828-1910) lived longer than any of the other major nineteenth-century Russian writers. His career began in the 1850s, as Russian literature was moving out of the age of Romanticism, and extended into the twentieth century, as modernism was becoming the dominant mode of Russian literature. This course will deal with the first half of Tolstoy's career, beginning with his experiments in the narration of consciousness ("A History of Yesterday" and Childhood) and in the narration of the experience of war (Sevastopol Stories). The main part of the course will be devoted to his epic War and Peace, in which the Napoleonic invasion of 1812 serves as the vehicle for considering the nature of Russian nationhood, the place of the individual in large historical events, and the very essence of how history should be narrated. Each of Tolstoy's best works is an innovative formal experiment that creates an unprecedented, new type of novel. This course will study how Tolstoy's writings both responded to and transcended their times by creating new novelistic forms and new truths within those forms. The course will be conducted in English.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: REES290, COL276, RULE290, RUSS290
Prereq: None

WLIT264 Tolstoy: Anna Karenina and Other Works

Lev Tolstoy (1828-1910) lived longer than any of the other major nineteenth-century Russian writers. His career began in the 1850s, as Russian literature was moving out of the age of Romanticism, and extended into the twentieth century, as modernism was becoming the dominant mode of Russian literature. His influence in Russia went far beyond literature. By the end of his life, he was the leader of a moral movement known as Tolstoyanism, the major tenets of which were pacifism, vegetarianism, and a resistance to state power verging on anarchism. This course begins with Tolstoy's mid-career masterpiece Anna Karenina, in which Tolstoy explores the problematic nature of the Russian family through the experiences of two main characters: an adulterous wife, for whom the novel is named, and an autobiographical stand-in, Konstantin Lyovin, who is a mouthpiece for many of Tolstoy's own concerns about the post-emancipation Russian economy and the pernicious influence of the West. We will also read Tolstoy's final major novel, Resurrection, which calls into question all the bases of modern society, with the prison system as the primary embodiment of societal evil. The course will be conducted in English.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: REES291, COL277, RULE291, RUSS291
Prereq: None

WLIT265 Chekhov: Prose vs. Drama

This course explores the oeuvre of Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), one of the most influential modern dramatists¿the author of such classic plays as The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. Chekhov also wrote profound prose works, such as "Ward No. 6," "The Black Monk," "Rothschild¿s Violin," and "The Lady with a Lapdog."



As one of Chekhov¿s biographers put it, "Of all the Russian 'classics' he is, to non-Russians especially, the most approachable and the least alien, whether on the stage or the printed page. He lets his reader and spectator react as they wish, draw their own conclusions. He imposes no philosophy" (Donald Rayfield).



Poetic, dense, and elusive, Chekhov¿s writing continues to attract readers, spectators, and theater-makers of all kinds. Some of Chekhov's admirers believe that the quality of his fiction surpasses that of his most famous plays. This course approaches Chekhov by focusing on the tension between his prose and drama: what can a Chekhov short story accomplish that a Chekhov play cannot, and vice versa? After all, a concern with the purpose of human existence undergirds his short stories and plays alike. More specifically, studying Chekhov enables a fresh understanding of happiness and joy, of grief and sorrow in a relentlessly brutal world. An extraordinary storyteller capable of spotting dramatic conflict in the most mundane situations, Chekhov allows for rich discussions of the passage of time, conflict between generations, professional failure, the pressures of gender norms, and the costs of colonialism in late Russian Imperial society.



In addition to literary analysis, the course offers an opportunity to get acquainted with the basics of Chekhov's influence on contemporary performance. Expert guest lecturers will facilitate workshops on acting and directing Chekhov.



Film adaptations and recordings of stage performances will supplement readings. All readings and discussion are in English.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: REES279, RUSS279, RULE279
Prereq: None

WLIT266 Contemporary Russian Literature

The course offers a survey of contemporary Russian literature, with a focus on the post-Soviet period. We will discuss how Russian literature relates, aesthetically and anthropologically, to the dynamic historical period roughly starting in 1985: perestroika, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the liberal 1990s and the emerging market economy, ethnic conflicts, and the era of Putinism. We will read works written in different aesthetic modes: documentary genre (Svetlana Alexievich, Maria Stepanova), Russian postmodern prose (Liudmila Petrushevskaya, Viktor Pelevin, Vladimir Sorokin), realist writers (German Sadulaev), as well as the most recent popular best-sellers and movies.



The course is taught in English. No knowledge of Russian is required.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: REES276, RULE276, RUSS276
Prereq: None

WLIT268 When the Empire Strikes Back: (Post) Colonial Theory and Fiction

Throughout its history, the rulers of Russia--the tsarist Russian Empire, the USSR, and now the Russian Federation--have been focused on the expansion of Russia's territory via the conquest, subjugation, and/or assimilation of neighboring peoples. Russia's colonial condition, expressed in fiction, film, and other media, will be the focus of this course. We will discuss global postcolonial theory (Chinua Achebe, Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak) and critical works with a focus on Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (Ewa Thompson, Vitaly Chernetsky, Alexander Etkind), in order to see how Russia's colonial being can be compared to other empires. We will discuss such topics as The Empire and the Other, Culture and Imperialism, Language Politics, and strategies of resistance to imperial hegemony. Via specific cases in literature and art, we will see how Russian culture processes the colonization of Alaska, Siberia, and the Caucasus. We will pay special attention to the discourses of Chukchi, Tartar, Chechen, Khanty, and Ukrainian authors who write back to the Empire. The readings will include the writings of J.M. Coetzee, Joseph Conrad, Mikhail Lermontov, Yuri Rytkheu, Guzel Yakhina, Yeremey Aipin, and Viktor Astafiev. The course is taught in English. No knowledge of Russian is required.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: REES265, RULE265, RUSS265, COL285
Prereq: None

WLIT271 Mahabharata and Ramayana: The Sanskrit Epics and Indian Visual Culture

This course explores the complex interface between literary texts, painted illustrations, and visual performance traditions in South Asia, taking as our primary focus the two great Sanskrit epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana. Both epics will be read in abridged translation to provide familiarity with the overall narrative structure and thematic concerns of the two texts, and a number of excerpts from unabridged translations will be studied in detail to arrive at a fuller understanding of the contents of key episodes and of the style and texture of the two works. The first part of the course addresses a series of questions pertaining to the literary versions of the two epics: What is epic as a genre, and what are its social roles? Do the Mahabharata and Ramayana manifest similarities that permit us to identify a distinctive Indian epic type? What are the connections between these epics and the early history of India? Why, and how, did the written texts we have today come to be redacted from bodies of oral tradition? In the second part of the course, we will consider the visual manifestations of the Sanskrit epics in the form of painted manuscript illustrations, classical Sanskrit plays (known literally as "visual poetry"), later performance traditions such as Kutiyattam, and, finally, selected films of the Hindi- and regional-language cinemas. This course requires no prior knowledge of Indian literature, history, or art and may serve as an effective introduction to the culture and civilization of South Asia.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ART
Identical With: ARHA290, GSAS290
Prereq: None

WLIT273 Tibetan Religion

This course serves as an introduction to major themes of Buddhist thought and practice within the cultural and historical framework of Tibet and the wider Himalayan world. In doing so, it examines various approaches to the study of religion and questions traditional definitions of categories such as "religion" and "Buddhism" themselves. Beginning with a close study of Patrul Rinpoche's classic 19th-century guide to Tibetan Buddhism, the early part of the course focuses on the doctrinal foundations of the tradition. This is followed by a historical and more critical examination of Tibetan religious history, proceeding from Buddhism's Indian antecedents and its initial arrival in Tibet during the seventh century through the present day. The course will explore a wide range of Tibetan religious cultures and practices including Buddhist ethics, systems of monastic and ascetic life, ritual activities, sacred geography and pilgrimage, lay religion, as well as the status of Tibetan Buddhism under Chinese occupation and in the West. It will also examine the lesser-known communities of Tibetan Muslims and Christians inside Tibet and in exile. The majority of readings will consist of primary texts in translation, and will concentrate on Tibet's rich narrative literary tradition. These will be supplemented by secondary literature on the study of religion and Tibetan Buddhism.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-RELI
Identical With: RELI229, CEAS343, GSAS229
Prereq: None

WLIT281 Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)

The Hebrew Bible is one of the most influential texts in the world. From antiquity to the present, it has served as a source of philosophical, literary, and artistic reflection. It is a fascinating document, combining narrative, poetry, law, prophetic proclamations, and puzzling parables. What kind of book is the Hebrew Bible? Who wrote it and why? How do we approach such a text across the distance of time? Through a systematic reading from the very beginning, we will place the Bible in its historical context while giving special attention to the philosophical and literary questions it raises: Is obedience to authority always justified? Why do good people suffer unjustly? What is God's gender? In answering these and other questions, you will gain an understanding of the ways contesting interpretations make authoritative claims.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RELI
Identical With: RELI201, MDST203, CJST244
Prereq: None

WLIT282 Introduction to the New Testament

The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to those writings of the earliest Christians that came to be included in the Bible. These writings will be examined critically with respect to their social-historical origin, religious content, and place within the development of ancient Christianity. Interpreting early Christian texts constitutes the most important task in the study of the New Testament. We will therefore focus on a close reading of the New Testament in light of historical situations and social contexts in the Greco-Roman world, having as one of the chief aims of the course the acquisition of critical skills in reading and understanding the Bible. In the process we will necessarily engage secondary scholarship and wider theoretical interests, thereby providing students with a general introduction to the academic study of religion.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RELI
Identical With: RELI212, MDST214
Prereq: None

WLIT301 Global Film Auteurs

This course offers a comparative introduction to film auteurs from around the world spanning the 1930s to the present day. Our aim is threefold: to analyze the narrative and stylistic tendencies of each filmmaker while considering their work in a historical, cultural, and industrial context; to develop our film analysis skills via formal comparison; and to consider the formation, redefinition, and influence of film canons. Emphasis will be placed on describing and analyzing the functions of narrative and stylistic elements and their effects on the viewing experience. Each week will include two film screenings, a lecture, and a discussion. Screenings will include films directed by Andrea Arnold, Julie Dash, Fernando Eimbcke, Don Hertzfeldt, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Akira Kurosawa, Steve McQueen, Jafar Panahi, Satyajit Ray, Ousmane Sembène, Céline Sciamma, Wong Kar-wai, Agnès Varda, Yim Soon-rye, and Zhang Yimou, among others.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-FILM
Identical With: FILM388, CEAS388
Prereq: None

WLIT321 The Legacy of World War II in Postwar Japan

In 1956, the Japanese Economic Planning Agency famously declared, "The 'postwar' is over." Indeed, by that time, the national economy had made a remarkable recovery since the end of World War II. Others place the end of the postwar with Emperor Hirohito's death in 1989. The new Reiwa era might be another marker. Still, was the postwar truly over for Japan? This seminar aims to tackle this dilemma of the postwar and assess how the war and the American occupation are remembered by the Japanese, and how they continue to reverberate politically and culturally, nearly 70 years after Japan regained its independence.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS215
Prereq: None

WLIT322 Politics and Society in Japanese Women's Writing

How have some of modern Japan's most celebrated and insightful authors responded to key events and social conditions in contemporary Japan? What sorts of perspectives have these authors brought to issues of industrial pollution, or to youth crime and social change under capitalism, or to ongoing crises in Okinawa and Fukushima? This course seeks to hear the voices of these authors--and the social actors with whom they engage--by grappling with key modern Japanese literary texts in English translation.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS390, FGSS390
Prereq: None

WLIT324 Cinema and Moviegoing in American Chinatowns: Digital Tools and Storytelling

In the latter decades of the twentieth century, movie theaters dedicated to the screening of Chinese-language cinema dotted Chinatowns and Chinese ethnoburbs across the United States. What historical and economic forces explain the development of these unique exhibition sites, and how can we understand their social and cultural impacts? This seminar explores the production, distribution, and exhibition of Chinese-language films for overseas audiences and the moviegoing cultures that emerged around cinemas in Chinatowns and Chinese ethnoburbs. Units will explore Chinese immigration to North America, the establishment of Chinatowns, and early cinema spaces; Chinese immigrant and American-born Chinese filmmaking pioneers, the growth of "Chinese Hollywood," and challenges to Hollywood's dominant representations of Chinese characters and communities; the significance of diaspora audiences for Hong Kong movie studios and the creation of affiliated film distribution chains in the US; the expansion of Chinese-language cinemas in the 1960s and 1970s; the Mandarin and Cantonese films seen by overseas audiences and their range of appeals; and the social and cultural functions served by Chinese-language movie theaters. Students will learn qualitative and quantitative digital tools for film history research and use them to analyze original data sets, visualize research results, and create interactive GIS maps, storymaps, digital timelines, databases, web pages, oral histories, and other digital work related to cinema and moviegoing in American Chinatowns.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS306, FILM316
Prereq: None

WLIT325 Native Matters: Materiality in Indigenous Literatures Across the Pacific

This seminar contemplates the function and representation of materiality in contemporary indigenous literatures. It highlights the centrality of embodied practices in indigenous cultural lives. The primary texts for the course will be literary texts (novels, short stories, essays, and poems) from different indigenous communities, including from North America, East Asia, Austrasia, and Oceania. We may also deal with non-textual materials such as artifacts, maps, clothes, video games, etc. Readings will also include theoretical or philosophical works from indigenous and non-indigenous thinkers on the subject of materials and materiality. The course will thematize materiality in two ways: the first is to understand materiality as a way for indigenous authors to represent or construct various understandings of indigeneity, either in traditional lifeways, modern indigenous realities, or indigenous futurisms, both within and between specific indigenous communities. The second is to engage with thing theory and materiality as a method of literary analysis.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CHUM
Identical With: CHUM334, CEAS334
Prereq: None

WLIT326 Contemporary East Asian Cinema

This is a seminar on comparative narrative and stylistic analysis that focuses on contemporary films from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, South Korea, and Japan, regions that have produced some of the most exciting commercial and art cinema in the last thirty years. We will begin by examining the basic narrative and stylistic principles at work in the films, then broaden the scope of our inquiry to compare the aesthetics of individual directors. Our goals are to analyze the narrative and stylistic tendencies of filmmakers while considering their work in a historical, cultural, and industrial context, and to develop our film analysis skills via formal comparison. Films from Bong Joon-ho, Fei Mu, Hong Sang-soo, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Kitano Takeshi, Kore-eda Hirokazu, Jia Zhangke, Jeong Jae-eun, Kon Satoshi, Lee Chang-dong, Mizoguchi Kenji, Ozu Yasujiro, Suo Masayuki, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Johnnie To, Tsai Ming-liang, Tsui Hark, Wai Ka-fai, Wang Xiaoshuai, Wong Kar-wai, Yim Soon-rye, Yoon Ga-eun, Yuen Kuei, and others will be featured.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-FILM
Identical With: CEAS346, FILM346
Prereq: FILM304 OR FILM307

WLIT327 Hong Kong Cinema

This course offers an introduction to the dynamic history of Hong Kong cinema from 1960 to the present day. The course will acquaint students with Hong Kong's major films, genres, directors, and industrial trends; explore the factors that enabled the Hong Kong film industry to become a regional and global powerhouse; and consider the reasons behind the contraction of the industry since the mid-1990s and the outlook for Hong Kong cinema's future. Screenings will feature the films of Fruit Chan, Jackie Chan, Peter Chan, Chang Cheh, Mabel Cheung, Tony Ching Siu-tung, Chor Yuen, Stephen Chow, King Hu, Ann Hui, Michael Hui, Stanley Kwan, Andrew Lau & Alan Mak, Li Han-hsiang, Lo Wei, Johnnie To, Cecille Tong, Tsui Hark, Wang Tian-lin, Wong Kar-wai, John Woo, Corey Yeun Kwai, Toe Yuen Kin-to, and others.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-FILM
Identical With: CEAS372, FILM372
Prereq: None

WLIT333 Storytelling in Japan's Empire (and its Aftermaths)

This course introduces different forms of storytelling in the Japanese Empire (1868-1945), and considers how the ghosts of Empire continue to haunt storytelling in the postwar era (1945 ~ ), as well. By considering texts (in English translation) produced by different individuals navigating everyday life in disparate locations across the Empire (including Korea, Taiwan, and the "home islands" of Japan itself), the course aims to move beyond historical timelines of "big events" and introduce the material realities and struggles, the complexities and contradictions of everyday life under Empire. Although it certainly takes up literary "texts" in the traditional sense of short stories, novels, and poetry, the course understands storytelling as occurring through a range of mediums, including film, music, and manga/graphic novels. By considering a disparate selection of literary, musical, and filmic stories from this period, it strives to attend to some of the contested and competing desires of individuals and entities seeking to navigate conditions of empire, colonialism, and war.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS300
Prereq: None

WLIT340 The Mediterranean Archipelago: Literary and Cultural Representations

"Islands which have / never existed / have made their ways / onto maps nonetheless" (Nicholas Hasluck). In this course, we study Mediterranean islands as geographical, textual, and metaphorical spaces. We focus on specific islands -- both fictional and real -- as case studies for the aesthetic, political, and metaphysical implications of insularity, while also aiming to present the Mediterranean as a spatial, historical, and cultural network of relationality and conflict. Elaborating upon Predrag Matvejevitc's statement that "the Mediterranean is not only geography," we approach Mediterranean insularity not only in cartographical representations (from Greek geographers to Arab cartographers), but also as poetic topos (from Ariosto's Island of Alcina to Goethe's Capri), narrative stratagem (from Homer's Phaeacia to Boccaccio's Rhodes), literary protagonist (from Deledda's Sardinia to Murgia's Sardinia), political concept (from Plato's Atlantis to Campanella's Taprobane), and existential condition (from Cervantes's Cyprus to Cavafy's Ithaca). We engage in a diachronic and synchronic exploration of Mediterranean islands' inherent dialectic between resistance and occupation, identity and assimilation, marginality and integration, zoological extinction and speciation, inbreeding and metissage, autochthony and allogeny, linguistic conservatism and creoleness, territorial boundedness and internal division. Our approach will also be archipelagic and include methods and concepts from historical linguistics and dialectology to diplomatic history and postcolonial poetics.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CHUM
Identical With: ITAL289, MDST360
Prereq: ITAL112

WLIT341 Moscow/Berlin: Dreamworld and Catastrophe

The October Revolution of 1917 in Russia and the November Revolution of 1918 in Germany ushered in an era of imagining and building an anti-capitalist world based on the ideals of universal equality, freedom, and comradeship. Between World War I and World War II, Soviet Moscow and Weimar Berlin developed into centers of the international leftist movement that was committed to the cause of global proletarian revolution. While the revolutionary cause proved to be unattainable and costly, the period's artistic and intellectual achievements, known as the avant-garde, offer an extraordinary archive of utopian experimentation across borders.



Focusing on Moscow and Berlin, this course maps the socialist modernist aesthetic in interwar Europe and provides a comparative review of the transnational circulation of leftist and reactionary ideas registered in a variety of -isms: dadaism, expressionism, futurism, suprematism, and constructivism, as well as the New Objectivity, Bauhaus, and the practice of factography. The alignment of art and ideology will be explored through literature, art, and film and will consider the entanglements of egalitarian aspirations with nationalist agendas and emancipatory ideals with patriarchal residues. The course will also review the cultural production of Russian exiles living in Weimar Berlin and their conception of an "off-modern" path. The course will conclude with a discussion of the revolutionary avant-garde's legacy in the East Berlin underground and post-Soviet Moscow.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-REES
Identical With: REES321, RUSS321, GRST221, RULE321
Prereq: None

WLIT342 Dante in His World: Politics, Poetry, Religion

Dante Alighieri is one of the great figures of European history and culture. He has been famous since his life, especially for his poem "The Divine Comedy," including its depictions of the Inferno, Purgatory, and Heaven. It reveals his massive intellectual knowledge and his deep and complex commitments. It might be less well known that he was also an active politician and a political theorist, as well as a student of literature and style.



This course will examine the body of his work and use it to outline some of the great political, moral, and religious crises of Europe around the year 1300, a moment closely connected to the very idea of the Middle Ages. Important course themes will include the question of the political balance of church and state, the role of mysticism and philosophy in expressing ethics, and the uses of history, theory, and poetry in seeking the good life. Readings will focus on Dante's own writings, including "The Divine Comedy," "The New Life" (La Vita Nuova), and "On Monarchy."
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-HIST
Identical With: HIST236, MDST237
Prereq: None

WLIT376 Foundations of Playwriting from the Global South

Cimientos (Spanish for "foundations") is a play development program run by NYC-based Latinx theater company IATI Theater. Since 2001, this program has showcased authors from around the world. However, in most recent years, the experience of working with playwrights from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Kenia, and Uganda has opened up the possibility of addressing playwriting as a deterritorialized praxis in which political, thematical, and historical discussions intertwine with shared aesthetics and new forms to understand theater in the Global South. In this workshop-seminar, students will analyze canonical texts and unpublished plays from contemporary authors based in the Global South to participate in the discussion of decolonizing playwriting. Students will analyze critical scholarship on the Global South to trace a contemporary South-South relationship within playwriting as a literary and political device. Authors from the Cimientos program will join the class as guest speakers to prompt students to develop creative writing techniques. Students will present a draft of a short play that integrates the material covered in class.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-WRCT
Identical With: WRCT306
Prereq: None

WLIT377 Ancestral Writings: (Re)Tracing AfroCaribbean and Indigenous Frameworks for Creative Writing

Coined by Puerto Rican author Mayra Santos-Febres, "ancestral writing" elicits a reconceptualization of creative writing and its techniques from the point of view of our ancestors in Latin America, more particularly, the Afro-diasporic and indigenous. In this course, students will explore theoretical, literary, and cinematic material that encourages decentralizing creativity and writing as a political praxis. Concepts such as the ch'ixi in Aymara culture and biocultural memories from Andean indigenous nations will work as points of departure to develop decolonizing, anti-imperialist, and anti-racist writing techniques. Guest speakers, who include specialists in the Quechua language and Afro-Caribbean folklore, will encourage students to (re)formulate techniques for their creative writing. Students will analyze texts by Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Mayra Santos-Febres, Odi Gonzales, Frantz Fanon, Guaman Poma, Elicura Chihuailaf, and Solimar Otero, among others. Students will present a creative writing piece that puts into practice the material studied in class.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-WRCT
Identical With: WRCT308
Prereq: None

WLIT395 A Wesleyan Student's Guide to Fascism: The Case of Modern Japan

"Fascism" is a term that is frequently encountered in social and political discourse. But what does this term actually mean? How can we conceive productively of different fascisms across different historical moments and (geo)political contexts--including our own? This course will consider fascism in modern Japan, and address the economic, (geo)political, social, and cultural circumstances that incited what we will call "fascist desire" in Japan's imperial moment and beyond. But while the specific experiences and characteristics of historical fascisms are informed by the unique contexts within which they unfold, including Japan's, fascism as phenomenon can never be reduced to national or cultural particularities, or confined to isolated historical moments. As one possible reaction to the experiences of modernity, that is, the specter of fascism is always with us, everywhere. By engaging with primary and secondary texts--scholarship, music, literature, film--that variously analyzed, challenged, bolstered, and critiqued fascism in the context of modern Japan, students will learn to recognize the specter of fascism in their own lived, everyday contexts, and grow in their ability to confront and counter the conditions and desires that help nourish it.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS395
Prereq: None