Electives

WRITING
An Upper-class Elective
This course is offered to upper-class students who show a special interest in the development and critique of their own work and that of their classmates. Emphasis is placed on the importance of individual participation. Each student is expected to be a thoughtful, penetrating and cultivated reader as well as an inventive and engaged writer, motivated and willing to give as well as to receive constructive criticism. There are regular but light readings assigned, the content of which is determined by the interests of the class and by the topics at hand. As the students develop a sense of trust among themselves and become acquainted with one another as writers, more independent assignments emerge, and each student is asked to share his or her work-in-progress on a regular basis, taking advantage of the established system of peer critique. Early assignments primarily focus on character development and on the incorporation of real life observations into fictional works. There will also be a part of the term devoted to the reading and writing of various forms of poetry, as well as expository and dramatic writing. As the year progresses, students will develop an archive of writing to draw from and will select one or two (or three, depending on length) pieces to publish in a class journal. Readings may include short fiction, poetry and excerpts from longer pieces by writers including Denis Johnson, David Eggers, Lorrie Moore, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Flannery O'Connor, Sharon Olds, Sherwood Anderson, Stanley Kunitz, Zadie Smith and Mark Twain. Additionally, the class will examine journalistic and creative nonfiction writing in contemporary anthologies, popular magazines and radio.

THIRD WORLD LITERATURE (1 semester)
An Upper-class Elective
This course will explore a variety of topics concerning the Third World via a sample of literature from and about nations designated under this label. It will seek to provide perspectives that often remain untold in the West (and will ask why these perspectives do often remain untold). Through the use of novels, short stories, graphic novels, and poetry this course will investigate local traditions: the daily lives, religious rituals, political practices, etc. of those areas that specific writings address. In so doing, this course will also require students to think about broader patterns common to the Third World: colonization, poverty, cultural imperialism, and emigration, among many others.

RACE, CLASS and GENDER (1 semester)
During the fall semester we will learn to identify and better understand the social issues and the impact of prejudice and discrimination based on race, class, and gender. Does the Western thought of a privileged few dominate the experiences and values of the majority? How are race, class and gender stereotypes reinforced and maintained? Are there both challenges and benefits in diversity? What experiences have shaped your life? This course will include class discussion, films, current events and the text Experiencing Race, Class and Gender in the U.S. These questions and topics will be the foundation for lively discussion as we identify the social forces at work around us.

REBELS, RESISTERS, & REVOLUTIONARIES: A HISTORY OF DISSENT IN THE UNITED STATES (1 semester)
Disagreement and dissent from those who hold power is not simply an aspect of American culture, but is written into the nation's very Constitution. Beyond political dissent, this class will also introduce students to the rich history of cultural dissent and disobedience in America since the nation's founding. It will introduce a variety of social actors beginning with early colonists and ending with those of the present day. It will explore the ways in which various Americans have attempted to, and often succeeded in, creating social and political change by means of non-normative, unpopular, and/ or illegal speech and actions. This course will require students to think critically about primary and secondary sources written by and about communists; anarchists; tax resisters; environmental, animal, and anti-globalization activists; and those who have fought in the name of civil, women's, and workers' rights, among others.

AFRICA (1 semester)
This elective is offered for the fall term. We will study ancient African civilizations, the slave trade, the foundation of African culture, colonial rule, famine and disease, and current events, using our text Africa, A Biography of the Continent. Why is Africa called the “dark continent”? Do internal or external forces cause the difficult issues that Africa continually faces? What would modern Africa be like if the European slave trade never existed? Our text, films, and current events will shape the foundation for many interesting discussions.

CULTURAL HISTORY of the TWENTIETH CENTURY (1 semester) not offered '07-'08
This class sets out to examine the dominant movements in artistic expression in the 20th Century, with emphasis on how they reflected major historical events. Source materials include: slides of the fine arts, films, music, prose, poetry, and visits to museums. Students will be expected to write a series of two-page papers, complete at least one creative project, and make a well-researched presentation to the class concerning the socio-political context of a particular artist's work.

ADVANCED EUROPEAN STUDIES (full year)
A. E. S. treats art and architecture as primary documentary material in a survey of western European history. This course for seniors is roughly divided into three segments. The fall begins with a detailed study of Imperial patronage at San Vitale in Ravenna, northern Italy, and concludes with a discussion of Raphael's frescos for Pope Julius II at the Stanza della Segnatura at the Vatican in Rome. The winter is dedicated to a study of Reformation and Counter Reformation political cultures and their influence on painting. This is then expanded to include a more general survey of Baroque art and architecture in Spain, Holland, France, and Italy. In the spring the focus is on a study of Royal authority, revolution, and romanticism. The course concludes with a brief study of the politics and images of World War I. While there are no exams, a number of research papers are assigned. It is expected that students will become familiar with the Buxton, Williams College, and Clark Art Institute libraries as the year progresses.

GLOBALIZATION (1 semester)
Our current era is marked by new economic and social (and by implication, political, cultural, and environmental) trends that have been termed "globalization.” This class seeks to explore what these trends are, how they are related to previously existing beliefs and institutions, and what implications they have for the present and the future. We will examine the social implications (such as work, working conditions, access to information, quality of life, preservation of local cultures, and the racial and gender consequences), as well as the political and environmental effects of these trends. Instead of arguing from one point of view, this course will require students to think critically about the multiple implications of living in a globalized world. Are disparities in wealth growing or shrinking? Why? Does sending jobs to the Third World increase or decrease the wealth of developing nations? Of developed nations? Are environmental problems an inevitable consequence of human progress or are they the result of corporate greed? What are the social and cultural consequences of American and Western culture spreading at an increasingly rapid rate? What are the effects of the World Bank and IMF? The WTO, NAFTA and CAFTA? This is a sample of the questions we will be considering in this course. In order to do so, we will read and discuss a variety of arguments about the economic, political, social, and environmental causes and effects of the trends that are termed “globalization.”

SOCIAL DOCUMENTARY (full year) not offered '07-'08
Historical events and societal trends are portrayed in many different ways. Graphic novels, radio stories, oral histories and film documentaries all examine serious subjects while being both more accessible and more engaging than academic publications. The class will look at how each of these forms has been used as a type of social documentary. As well as reading, listening to or watching the documentaries, each student will learn to tell a story through a graphic novel, an audio piece, as an oral history and as a video documentary. We will discuss the history of each form and look at how different aspects of the same story are emphasized by each.

FILM HISTORY (full year) not offered '07-'08
This is an introduction to the history of film as an art form. The course will begin with film appreciation, looking at the different elements that make up film aesthetics-shot composition, lens choice, color, camera movement, editing, sound mixing and musical score. It will then present a chronological history of film from the 1890s to the 1990s. We will look at films from around the world, including (but not limited to) Hollywood, France, Japan, Germany, Russia, India, Sweden, Italy, Mexico, Czechoslovakia, Iran, China and Poland. Students will be required to see two films a week outside of class.

CALCULUS II (Full Year)
Some of the major theorems of calculus will be examined in this year-long course, along with their proofs and their significance, including Green's Theorem, Stokes' Theorem, and Gauss's Theorem. Time will be spent developing some of the tools needed for these proofs and moving deeper into mathematics, such as differentiation and integration with polar, spherical, and cylindrical coordinates. Other topics to be covered include Taylor's formula and its derivation, vector functions, and µ¥ proofs of fundamental concepts (continuity, convergence). A year of calculus is required for this class.

ADVANCED PHYSICS (full year)
This course continues what students learned in physics, building upon the fundamentals of classical and modern physics. Topics to be covered throughout the year include a unified look at forces, Newton's laws in a vector world, electricity and magnetism focused around Maxwell's laws, waves and springs, fluid dynamics, and mechanics. Along with equation-based problem solving and lab work, emphasis will be put on developing an intuition and a sense of the bigger picture, especially in areas harder to visualize, such as relativity. Co-requisite: calculus.

TOPICS IN NEUROSCIENCE (1 semester)
We will explore the human mind from the perspective of neurobiology. Equipped with colored pencils, Oliver Sacks and V.S. Ramachandran, we will examine various aspects of brain structure and function (and damage and dysfunction) and their relationship to emotions, language, thought, visual knowledge and consciousness. Some of the ideas we will take up are well agreed upon-for example, basic information about genes and evolution and brain structure-although new discoveries are continually being made. Others, like the structure of the mind, the reality of conscious will, and the nature of consciousness, remain controversial. Students should be prepared to entertain concepts that are non-intuitive and to be receptive to ideas that run counter to one's common sense. This will be a writing-intensive course.

MARINE SCIENCE (full year)
This elective is made up of two semester-long courses that can be taken independently of each other, but are designed to go together for the year. Class work for both courses centers around regular individual readings of current articles and then presentations by the students to the rest of the group on a weekly basis. This seminar style requires that everyone be extremely responsible about meeting his or her individual work expectations. There are also several papers assigned throughout the year, usually two in the fall, one in the winter, and two in the spring term. The class will involve some hands-on labs and then more extensive fieldwork is included during a trip to the coast in the spring.
       Oceanography (1 semester)
The fall semester looks at the ocean in depth as a worldwide ecosystem, and as a subject that is studied using all the various fields of science. The course starts with the physics and chemistry of the world's seas: salt water components, currents, tides, tsunamis (“tidal” waves), the Gulf Stream, and the El Niño-type weather patterns that are caused by the relationships of wind and water. Then it focuses on the structures of the ocean basins: the ocean floor, undersea volcanos and deep-sea vents, and the edges of the sea. From geology, this leads into studying the different ecosystems and environments in the ocean: the deep sea, the polar seas, rocky- and sandy- shores, coral reefs, mangrove swamps and salt marshes, and the open ocean itself.
       Marine Biology (1 semester)
In January the course moves into a survey of marine organisms, looking particularly at the adaptations that creatures make for life in the oceans. It starts with the very small-the little known viruses and bacteria in the seas-and moves on to marine plants, and invertebrate organisms. In the spring term we study the marine vertebrates-fish, sea turtles, seabirds, marine mammals-focusing on animal behavior, and ending with a special concentration on the cetaceans (whales and dolphins). Along the way many of the topics will address various environmental issues and discuss human use and development of the ocean's resources.

GEOLOGY (1 semester)
Geology is one of the newest of the “classical” sciences; this course will be a general introduction to both the structures and topics of Geology. We will start by learning to identify various minerals and rock types. Then we will move on to studying plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes and cave formations. There will be a reasonable amount of in-class lab work and field trips as well both hands-on and mapping projects. Since the class is scheduled for only four class periods each week, some time beyond the class day (afternoons or weekends) will need to be used for field trips and the like. The class will include reading geological histories and stories as well as articles and background material and will also involve writing several short papers.

ASTRONOMY (1 semester) not offered '07-'08
This is a survey of astronomy. It begins with archaeo-astronomy, looking at how ancient cultures learned about the skies. The class will be introduced to Stonehenge, the Mayan calendar, Chinese & Egyptian astronomy, the Lakota stone medicine wheel, and then move on through the historical dimensions of the Copernican controversy to study planetary and stellar astronomy. The final third of the term will focus on topics of current investigation: dark matter, space-time and gravitational waves, wormholes, and projects that attempt to confirm Einstein's theories of relativity. Lab time will include a number of evenings using our 8-inch reflector telescope. Students will have the chance to pursue topics they find interesting through short and longer papers as well as individual projects.