Coasts and Shores: A Seminar in the Human Ecology of Place

This course will look closely at a small selection of plays adapted from other works. At its core this is a dramaturgical practice and methods course. Students will investigate impulses and processes for re-envisioning, re-working, re-purposing another’s text. We will read and discuss some theories of adaptation (mostly, but not exclusively, as they pertain to collaborative art making practices) as well as a sampling of contemporary criticism. A central goal of the course will be to better understand how the term adaptation is understood across disciplines and to fuel a complex discussion about what might make a theatrical adaptation feel relevant or effective in a given context. We will also look closely at moments in history that have instigated a serious 'looking back', spurring a collective creative impulse to re-visit and re-invent previously established works. One could argue that we are currently living in such a cultural moment. Please note: this course requires a significant reading load. Students will be required to close read/view all adapted texts, all original source materials and a variety of supporting texts (as described above). We will also draw from film, visual art and music for this study. Evaluation will be based on a sequence of short practical assignments and demonstrated engagement with the course materials through live discussion and a shared class blog.

This survey of African American literature from its origins in the slave narrative to the present vivid prose of some of America's best writers considers the impact of slavery and race consciousness on literary form and power. Readings include letters, essays, poems, short stories, and novels of some of the following authors: Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Pauline Hopkins, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison.

In 1903, American naturalist John Burroughs triggered a fierce public debate when he accused some of his peers of writing “sham natural history.” These other naturalists, Burroughs claimed, had given in to the major temptation lying in wait for all nature writers: “the danger of making too much of what we see and describe—of putting in too much sentiment, too much literature—in short, of valuing these things more for the literary effects we can get out of them than for themselves.” The ensuing debate over the responsible depiction of nonhuman nature went on for five years in the pages of popular magazines, drawing in dozens of writers and one U.S. president. More than a century later, we remember it as the “nature faker” controversy. But though this episode has taken its place in the history books, its unresolved tensions and questions live on, occupying nature writers and filmmakers to this day: How can writers tell stories that spark human interest in the natural world while doing justice to that world’s alterity? What does it mean to value nonhuman animals “for themselves” and not for the reasons we might project onto them? Are emotion and imagination incompatible with good nature writing?

In this writing class, students will not only get to know this longstanding conversation; they will also be asked to weigh in. Students will study the strategies that help experienced writers make their own marks on existing debates: strategies for posing rich problems, analyzing texts, representing and responding to other voices, giving and using feedback, and otherwise developing a sustainable writing practice. Students will become better navigators of writing for various contexts and audiences by studying and practicing the ways in which public and scholarly writers convey their ideas to readers. Students will be evaluated on a rhetorical analysis of a single text; an analytical essay that incorporates multiple sources and makes an original argument; a reflection that analyzes their own approach to writing; participation in in-class work; and the completion of short, low-stakes assignments preparing them for class. This course will be helpful for new college students looking to establish a base of knowledge about analytical writing, as well as for students at any point in their college careers who want to dedicate some time to working on their writing.

This is an advanced course which explores in depth the works of three major writers of the Victorian period: Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and George Eliot. The set-up of the syllabus, group meetings, and individual projects require that participants talk about connective factors between texts and the development of women writers' voices and narrative structures during this period. Emphasis will also be placed on the construction of the heroine, the use and manipulation of the marriage plot, developments in linguistic and narrative practice, and developments in each author's work- from the juvenilia to the later fiction. Historical perspectives, gender roles, and theoretical approaches will all be taken into consideration as we analyze novels such as: Lady Susan, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion (Austen); The Professor, Villette, and Shirley (Bronte); and The Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch (Eliot). Rather than prepare papers and exams, participants will prepare and ask questions of each other, develop response papers and passage analyses, and carry out a sustained independent project to be presented to the group. The outside project will involve additional research into one of the major authors, to include both the reading of another novel, biographical information, and critical analyses. Projects will give participants the opportunity to explore a particular author, question, or form in depth. The reading load for this tutorial is very heavy. Evaluation will focus on preparation, participation, insight, critical thinking, and the outside project, which will be be presented orally and developed in an analytic fashion to be determined by the class.

This course will provide students with a toolbox of techniques in statistical analysis, with a focus on the biological sciences. Students will learn how to choose and apply a variety of widely used statistical tests, how to design experiments and studies with statistical analysis in mind, and how to use a range of specialized statistical approaches for data types frequently encountered in the biological sciences. The methods we will cover include parametric and nonparametric tests; approaches designed for categorical, ordinal, and continuous data; biodiversity statistics and ordination methods; Bayesian vs. frequentist inference; and robust experimental design. The class will highlight the assumptions involved in statistical inference and the conditions that must be met in order to use statistical tests appropriately. In the lab, students will use the statistical programming language R to explore, display, and analyze data using the methods covered in class. By the end of the term, students should be able to choose appropriate analytical methods for a wide range of data types, design statistically valid experiments, and write code for basic statistical tests in R. Students will be evaluated based on daily homework assignments, weekly lab work, several take-home exams, and a final group presentation based on an original analysis of an archived data set chosen by the students. Note: each student should have a laptop for lab (PC preferred; limited support will be provided for Mac users). Contact the instructor if you do not have your own laptop.

Just three aquatic species account for most seafood consumed in the US: shrimp, tuna, and salmon. But worldwide consumption is more diverse, including an array of finfish, invertebrates, aquatic plants, algae, and other animals. These ‘blue foods’ are fished, collected, gathered, or grown in the sea or freshwater and play essential roles in supporting human health, nutrition, livelihoods, and culture. Recent studies have shown that the top 7 categories of nutrient-rich animal-source foods are all aquatic in origin. So why do food policy and science still heavily focus on terrestrially produced foods, overlooking blue foods? This course will unpack this conundrum and examine blue food systems from ‘bait to plate’ by analyzing food production, provisioning, and consumption as interlinked activities. Blue food production includes small-scale and industrial harvesting and wild capture and aquaculture systems. Provisioning activities link production and consumption: the offloading of catch, storage and transportation of highly perishable foods, transformations from raw fish to the final product, and the marketing and distribution affected to reach consumers. Finally, consumption includes how we acquire our food, cook and eat it, and dispose of waste, as well as our nutritional and health outcomes. While conventional food policy and science have focused on food production in isolation, a food systems framework sheds light on dynamics that impact the flows and distribution of foods with equity implications: which foods are made by whom, where does food go, and who benefits? This course will introduce students to key changes in the goals and means of food policy, focusing on how the emergent dialogue on food systems in fisheries is reframing how we know and govern aquatic resources. A significant portion of the course will be dedicated to examining blue food case studies, which may include: seaweed farming in Tanzania, fishing cooperatives in Mexico, tuna longliners in the Mid-Atlantic, and Lobster fishing in Maine. Students will work in teams to analyze one of these case studies in-depth, applying a food systems lens to examine each case’s sustainability and equity challenges. Students will be evaluated through their participation in class discussions and in-class activities, weekly writing reflections, and co-leading a class with your case study team. The final project will be a group policy proposal outlining how stakeholders could better govern from a ‘food systems’ perspective in your blue food case study.