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First-Year Courses

HIST 0521 Caribbean History
Examines historical roots of modern Caribbean.  Examines major historical developments from period of subjugation of indigenous population through era of slavery to rise of modern nationalism and impact of American intervention. Also analyzes related socioeconomic systems and institutions.  Selected country case studies included. Combined Section: AFRCNA 0385
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HIST 0601 United States 1865-Present
An introduction to American history from the Civil War to the present which emphasizes selected topics on changes in American society and politics as an earlier agrarian society became an industrial-urban one and as the nation took up an ever larger role in world affairs.
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HIST 0633 20th Century African American Women's History
Using both a chronological and topical format, this course will investigate the history, culture, and activism of African American women in the twentieth century through readings of historical texts and articles, autobiography, and oral testimony.  The content of the course includes an exploration of the responses of African American women to racism, sexism, and class and color consciousness within different historical periods. Combined Section: AFRCNA 0536
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HIST 0700 World History
This course is an introductory survey of world history, by which is meant an overview of major processes and interactions in the development of human society since the development of agriculture some 10,000 years ago. It is a selective overview, emphasizing large-scale patterns and connections in political, social, cultural, technological, and environmental history, yet it also provides balance among regions of the world. It encourages students to apply historical techniques to issues of their own interest.
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HIST 0712 A Global History of Terrorism
This course will acquaint students with the remarkably long, diverse and widespread use of strategies of terror to advance political, economic, religious and social agendas.  Our analysis will focus upon terror from below that is terror by non-state actors; it will range from ancient Greece to the present; and will touch upon every inhabited continent.  Using examples from many societies, we will discover that the human motivations for terrorist acts have changed little, but that their expression has changed a great deal, from the days of the Spartacus slave revolt to the calculated terror of the Algerian revolution, to the media-centered "madmen strategy" of Al-Qaeda and Isis.  Our organization will be roughly chronological and will be combined with a typology of different kinds of terrorism.  This inherently comparative approach will enable us to make this a true world history course, moving with ease from place to place, movement to movement, while still having a solid temporal and analytical framework to keep the material coherent.
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HIST 0755 Religion in Asia
This course serves as an introduction to the major religious traditions of South and East Asia. During the course of the semester, we encounter Hinduism and Jainism; the native Confucian, Daoist (Taoist), and popular traditions of China; and the Shinto, folk and new religions of Japan. Buddhism, which originated in India but later spread to East Asia, is examined in its relation to the history of both Chinese and Japanese religions. We approach these traditions through lectures and discussion based on Chinese classical and popular literature, secondary scholarship, and films, which inform us about cultural and historical context, beliefs, practices, and personal experience. In the process we expect to learn something about the ways in which non-Western religious traditions see themselves and their world on their own terms, and to see how/if they can complement our own worldviews. Combined Section:
RELGST 0505
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HIST 1757 Religion in India
An introduction to the religious traditions that have developed in the Indian subcontinent and their role in shaping the cultures of India. Combined Section:
RELGST 1500
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HIST 1765 Israel in the Biblical Age
This course explores the history and development of the people of Israel in ancient times. What do we know about the Israelites and how do we know it? Using biblical texts and archaeological remains, students will learn about everyday life in ancient Israel, the role of class and gender, life-cycle events, religious festivals, political institutions, systems of belief, and famous personages in history and lore. The trajectory of the course will begin with the Near Eastern origins of the people, continue through the rise of the Israelite and Judahite monarchies, and end with the Second Temple commonwealth of Judea in the Persian and Hellenistic periods. Combined Sections:
JS 1100
RELGST 1100
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HIST 1775 Origins of Christianity
This course presents a historical-critical investigation of Christian origins. Special attention is paid to varieties of 1st century Hellenistic and Palestinian Judaism within the Greco-Roman world. Primary readings include selected Biblical passages and apocrypha, 1st century historians and philosophers (Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Philo), the New Testament corpus (including Paul and the Pastorals), and selected readings from the Dead Sea Scrolls. In addition there will be assignments from various modern New Testament critics, historians, and theologians. Combined Sections:
CLASS 1430
RELGST 1120
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HIST 1781 Roman History
This course surveys the history of Rome from the earliest times through the late empire, with particular emphasis on political and social developments during the late republic and early empire. Combined Section:
CLASS 1220
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HPS 0437 Darwinism And Its Critics
Charles Darwin's ideas have had an enormous impact on biology and on culture generally.  These ideas have been criticized within biology, by philosophers, social theorists and religious fundamentalists.  This course studies the historical growth of Darwinism and the criticisms mentioned, and evaluates those criticisms and their impact on the theory.
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HPS 0545 Space-Time-Matter Antiqu 20THC
Are the fundamental constituents of the world static or dynamic?  Is the universe infinite or finite? Does time have a beginning or not?  Is time linear and fundamental, or is it an emergent, non-linear feature of the interactions of things?  Is matter a distributed field or localized into particles? Do things exist independently or only when they are interacting?  In this course, we will investigate various answers to these questions and others relating to the nature of the world around us that have appeared throughout history. This course is suitable for both science and non-science majors.  This is an introductory course for students with either scientific or non-scientific backgrounds.  It examines the development of the concepts of space, time and matter from the crucible of ancient Greece to the 17th century scientific revolution and foreshadows the revolutionary modifications of the 19th and 20th centuries.
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HPS 0616 Artificial Intelligence And The Philosophy Of Science
Artificial intelligence has been and still is one of the core disciplines of contemporary cognitive science. It raises fascinating questions: can robots think? Is artificial intelligence really intelligence? Could artifacts be conscious? What can we learn about the human mind from building robots? How should intelligent robots be built? We will survey the main controversies that artificial intelligence has provoked.
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HPS 0626 Development of Modern Biology
This course will consider major episodes in the history of biology in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Beginning with the Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and ending with contemporary genomics, we will place the major milestones of modern biology in their wider social, political, and cultural context.  Topics may include Darwinism and its controversial reception, eugenics and the control of heredity, experimentation as a hallmark of twentieth century biology, the impact of molecular biology, and the rise of genomics and big data in biology.
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HUN 0101 Hungarian 1
The greatest part of the first term will be devoted to the presentation and practice of the basic sound patterns of the language, its fundamental sentence patterns, and sufficient vocabulary to illustrate and practice them. An introduction to the writing system will be offered together with the opportunity to acquire elementary writing and reading skills.
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