CONN

This course examines the literature produced by and about Britain's colonial spaces during the process of decolonization, from the late nineteenth-century to the present. It explores texts from Ireland, India, the Sudan, and Trinidad, as well as other former colonies and territories. Authors studied include Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Tayeb Salih, Sam Selvon, Buchi Emecheta, Salman Rushdie, and Zadie Smith; theorists considered include Gayatri Spivak, Aijiz Ahmad, Homi Bhabha, John Boli, Benjamin Barber, and Lourdes Beneria.

This course considers the connections between literature and history in (and beyond) the American era known as the Gilded Age, 1873-1889. Reading three popular novels of the time, William Dean Howell's The Rise of Silas Lapham, Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, students gain an understanding of the American Realist tradition and will discuss how these literary texts both represent and reinvent what was 'real' about the Gilded Age.

This course addresses the question what it means to be British through historical and literary texts. Beginning with the premise that Britishness is not innate, static or in any way permanent, but 'invented' and constantly constructed and deconstructed, this course traces the development of British national identity from its origins in the eighteenth century to the present.

This course challenges students to recognize the ubiquity of probability and risk in their daily lives. The theme of stochasicity is explored through the perspectives of economists, psychologists, investors, entrepreneurs, political scientists, biologists, and of course mathematicians. Students are asked to explore critically the institutions, both formal and informal, which have developed to deal with risk and uncertainty in society. The concept of evidence in law and science is examined.

This course explores the intersection of economics and happiness. It critiques several of the key assumptions in mainstream economic theory, in particular those involving how the production and acquisition of greater material goods affect well-being. The course taps the research in the burgeoning field of the economics of happiness, much of which counters traditional economic ideas. The course also draws on recent related findings in positive psychology and to a lesser degree in neuroscience, specifically the findings in neuroscience that relate to mindfulness and meditation.

The U.S. has 2.3 million people in prison with glaring racial and class disparities. Why is this? Is there something distinctive about American culture and/or politics that produces these outcomes? Are we simply a more crime-prone people or a more punitive people who impose exceptionally harsh sanctions? This class will explore changing ideas of crime and punishment in the U.S. through philosophical, historical, religious and social scientific perspectives.

This course examines the relationship between the evolving nature of work in the US over the last 50 years and concurrent developments in educational policies. The relationship between work and public education is complex. It is one thing to argue for an education agenda that emphasizes 'higher cognitive outcomes' for everyone based on current and future trends in the nature of work in the US. Yet it may be too much to expect that even a highly successful education system alone can shape and sustain an economy.

Using gender as the primary focus, this course engages students in critical analysis of the ways in which symbol systems in their cultural contexts function to create subjective spaces (e.g. assign specific roles) for particular groups of people. Students learn how communication practices shape the ways gender is viewed, how these practices constrain or promote resistance, and how individuals and groups negotiate their subjective spaces and 'genderized' practices.

In this course, students take on the challenge of quantitative modeling of Earth's climate. This is done by employing high-level computer programming languages (such as Python) to build original computer codes, and by learning to manipulate existing codes (such as Global Climate Models). Modeling focuses on energy, winds, and carbon flows through the atmosphere, on a global scale. Students also acquire systems thinking skills that frame the nonlinear processes inherent to climate dynamics, especially feedbacks, time delays, and the notion of stocks and flows.

Designers, engineers, and artists are beginning to use biologically inspired or biologically derived materials for solving a variety of world issues--from self-cooling buildings inspired by beehives to sticky tape inspired by geckos to DNA origami. This has influenced a variety of fields such as architecture, technology, visual art and fashion design. This course provides a broad framework of such design principles in use and allows students to create their own biologically inspired designs.