Faculty: Tom Blake Description: During this January Term, we will journey to Middle Earth and revisit the Lord of the Rings franchise-Tolkien’s works as well as the films based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s famous novels-and explore what makes Tolkien’s works so endearing and timeless. We’ll look at the Lord of the Rings trilogy as well… [Read More]

Faculty: Virginia Wood Description: A creative writing course focusing on the tensions writers of color and of marginalized identities face between the stories we write and external pressures, especially as the story transitions from text to film. As students develop their creative work, they will simultaneously endeavor to develop their own lenses on these and… [Read More]

Faculty: Nate Bigelow Description: This class will examine the effects of misinformation, lies and political scandals on 1) the development of our government institutions, 2) electoral outcomes, 3) behavior of the media, 4) views of government, 5) the psychology of information processing, 6) interactions with “the truth” and 7) implications for democracy. Meeting Information: 01/04/2021-01/26/2021… [Read More]

Faculty: Mindy Landeck Description: Disembodied spirits, trickster animals that assume human shape, Godzilla and Pokemon: these are just a few of the monsters that have beguiled and enchanted the Japanese cultural imagination through the ages. Referred to as “yokai”/fantastic beings, ‘bakemono”/transforming things, or “kaiju”/mysterious beasts, these beings of the otherworld or the supernatural realm provide… [Read More]

Faculty: Vince Gregoric Description: Have you ever watched a movie and thought to yourself, “there’s no way that scene is physically possible”? Or wondered how much of the techno-babble in a TV show is actually true and how much is made up? In this class, we will be exploring how science is portrayed in different… [Read More]

Instructor: Cece O’Day Description: A liberal arts education – an education of mind, body and spirit – is benefit throughout one’s life, but finding the right balance for your own wellness can be difficult. Wellness involves many aspects of a person’s life: physical fitness, diet, stress management, and social and community involvement to name a… [Read More]

Faculty: Jack Mealy Description: A course suitable and specifically designed for non-mathematics majors/minors, but featuring broadly important mathematical content. The first part will involve a study of fundamentals of the trigonometry of the plane and some of its applications. The second part will be a detailed study of the (less familiar) trigonometry of spheres. Though quite… [Read More]

Faculty: Kirk Everist Description: Why tell a story in which the characters suddenly burst into song? Why might an otherwise photo-realistic work of drama insist on adding music to the action? This course closely examines specific works of musical theatre and melodrama, to examine how the structure and techniques in these 19th-century forms continue to develop and… [Read More]

Faculty: Andra Petrean Description: In this course you will build and program a variety of robots and electronics projects. No previous programming or electronics knowledge is required. Your instructor will teach you the basics of electronic circuit design and programming. You will build circuits that use a variety of sensors and motors, and, as your skills grow,… [Read More]

Faculty: Karann Durland Description: Some of the most intriguing movies and books invite us to explore classic philosophical problems. Whether the issue is personal identity, freedom, morality, the good life, or the limits of what we can know about the world, these works encourage us to reconsider how we think of ourselves and the place… [Read More]