This course examines visual, film, and literary representations of pairs or communities of women who commit murder in response to exploitation, discrimination, social marginalization, threat of military occupation, ethnic erasure, or sexual and gender-based violence. The case studies are drawn from biblical Bethulia, 17th century Italy, 20th century Hungary, and 21st century India, and explore female identity in patriarchal societies, and the interrelation of female violence and the forging of female communities.

Some believe that there are more Chinese restaurants in the U.S. than McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, and Wendy's combined. Many of the Chinese dishes most known to Americans, however, are not Chinese. What is Chinese food? Are Kung Pao dishes more "authentically" Chinese than chop suey? Why did this immigrant cuisine become so popular in the U.S.? This course explores American Chinese foodways as a form of cultural exchange, a chapter in American history, and a marker of Chinese-American identity, in the context of transnational interactions.

This course provides freshman students with a playground to explore their most interested topics through two gatherings per week. The course is designed for students to define their individuality in the history of civilizations through doodling, brainstorming & calligraphy, both individually and collaboratively. The entire doodling and beautiful writing process will be executed in three sections to show all participants' individual learning outcome through teamwork.

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.

The art and science of distilling alcohol dates back to the fourth century BC. Today, making hooch is something that nearly every society has in common. Moonshine from Tennessee, mescal from Oaxaca, palinka from Hungary, airag from Mongolia, feni from India, cachaça from Brazil, sopi from Indonesia, the list goes on and on. While fermentation and distillation are nearly universal in human society, every flavor of hooch has its own botanical, chemical, cultural, economic, and political story to tell.

Animals or their parts are ubiquitous - they are traded for food, companionship, clothing, research, entertainment, and sport. Animals are living beings that have the legal status of personal property. This dual status of both living being and personal property creates a paradox of thought about how animals fit within western societies and cultures. Contemporary debates concerning the question of the animal tend to become entrenched around this bifurcation, with one side emphasizing the animal state of being, and the other, emphasizing their status as property.

This interdisciplinary Connections course brings together atmospheric science and economics to explore the climate change problem. Students address this overarching question: How do science and economics inform and direct climate change policy? To answer this question, students begin the course by working with climate data to see firsthand evidence of climate change. As students gain competence with data manipulation, they apply those skills to economic models and concepts. No prerequisites are required but ECON 170 is recommended.

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of the mind that exists at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and anthropology among other fields. There are now burgeoning research programs devoted to developing accounts of the cognitive foundations of morality and religion. This is an upper level survey of some of the leading views from these fields.