College Bulletin 2014-2015 
    
    Jun 26, 2024  
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College Bulletin 2014-2015 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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Ancient History
  

  • ANCH 016. First-Year Seminar: Augustus and Rome

    The great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar rose to sole power in Rome after a series of civil wars culminating in the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra. He, along with his wife Livia, transformed Rome by creating a monarchical system that hid the real power behind the traditional institutions of the Roman republic. The process was supported and explained by a unique program of literary, artistic, and architectural revival. Ancient authors to be read (in English) may include Augustus himself, Livy, Vergil, Horace, Propertius and Ovid; we will also study the artistic and architectural projects that helped to communicate the ideologies of the new regime.
    Social sciences.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/classics
    Classics 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANCH 023. Alexander and the Hellenistic World

    The conquests of Alexander the Great (332-323 BCE) as far as Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush mark one of the great turning points of ancient history. In his wake, what it meant to be Greek was radically changed, and a new world and culture emerged. In this course, we start with the life and campaigns of the Macedonian King, before turning to the Hellenistic world of his successors, following events down to the rise of Rome. Along with the political narrative, the course will consider Hellenistic poetry and historiography, archaeology and architecture, and the documentary evidence for daily life.
    Social sciences.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/classics
    Classics 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANCH 031. The Greeks and the Persian Empire

    This course studies the political and social history of Greece from the Trojan War to the Persian Wars. We will examine the connections between Greeks and non-Greeks and their perceptions of mutual differences and similarities. Readings include Homer, Hesiod, the lyric poets (including Sappho), and Herodotus and Near Eastern documents.
    Social sciences.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/classics
    Classics 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANCH 032. The Roman Republic

    This course studies Rome from its origins to the civil wars and the establishment of the principate of Augustus (753-27 B.C.E.). Topics include the legends of Rome’s foundation and of its republican constitution; the conquest of the Mediterranean world, with special attention to the causes and pretexts for imperialism; the political system of the Late Republic, and its collapse into civil war.
    Social sciences.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/classics
    Classics 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANCH 042. Democratic Athens

    Using diverse primary sources (Thucydides’ Histories, tragedy, comedy, and others), this course explores several aspects of classical Athenian culture: democratic institutions and ideology, social structure, religion, intellectual trends, and the major historical events that affected all of these and shaped the Greek world in the fifth and early fourth centuries B.C.E.
    Social sciences.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Munson.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/classics
    Classics  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  

  • ANCH 056. Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire

    This course considers the rise of Christianity and its encounters with the religious and political institutions of the Roman Empire. It examines Christianity in the second and third centuries of the Common Era and its relationship with Judaism, Hellenistic philosophies, state cults, and mystery religions and concentrates on the various pagan responses to Christianity from conversion to persecution. Ancient texts may include Apuleius, Lucian, Marcus Aurelius, Porphyry, Justin, Origen, Lactantius, Tertullian, and the Acts of the Christian Martyrs.
    No prerequisite exists, though CLAS 044 (Early Roman Empire) and RELG 004. New Testament and Early Christianity  provide useful background.
    Social sciences.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/classics
    Classics  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANCH 066. Rome and Late Antiquity

    This course will consider the history of the Roman Empire from its near collapse in the third century C.E. through the “conversion” of Constantine and the foundation of Constantinople to the sack of Rome by Alaric the Visigoth in 410 C.E. Topics will include the social, political, and military aspects of this struggle for survival as well as the religious and cultural conflicts between pagans and the Christian church and within the Church itself. Principal authors will include Eusebius, Athanasius, Julian the Apostate, Ammianus Marcellinus, Ambrose, and Augustine.
    Social sciences.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/classics
    Classics 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  

  • ANCH 098. Senior Course Study

    Independent study taken normally in the spring of senior year by course majors. Students will prepare for a graded oral exam held in the spring with department faculty. The exam will be based on any two-credit unit of study within the major (Honors seminar or course plus attachment), with students submitting their final exam and a paper, which can be revised.
    0.5 credit.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/classics
    Classics 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.

Anthropology
  

  • ANTH 001D. First-Year Seminar: Counterculture

    If culture is a battlefield, nowhere was this expressed more clearly than in the countercultural tumult that beset North American civil society during the Cold War. This First-Year Seminar will analyze the dynamics of cultural friction by bringing some of anthropology’s key concepts and comparative insights to bear on the countercultural campaigns that coalesced during the second half of the twentieth century. In so doing, our broader project will be to ask what countercultural friction can teach us about the machinations of power in the contemporary world.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Fraga.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 002D. First-Year Seminar: Culture and Gender

    The goal of this seminar is to dismantle commonplace assumptions about gender, sexuality, and sexual difference. It brings key texts in gender theory (Foucault, Butler, and others) into conversation with anthropological studies that respond to, problematize, or advance these theoretical claims. Our focus is the gendered body as the site of power and resistance, in contexts that range from past empires to present-day inequalities, and from technologies of reproduction to drag performances of femininity.
    Eligible for GSST credit.
    Theory course.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Nadkarni.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 002F. Anthropology of Childhood and the Family

    The experience of being a child would appear universal, and yet the construction of childhood varies greatly across cultures and throughout history. This course examines childhood and child-rearing in a number of ethnographic contexts, investigating children as both social actors and as the target of specific cultural ambitions and anxieties. Topics include new forms of family and reproduction, children as objects (and agents) of violence, and representations of childhood in human rights discourse, among others.
    Eligible for GSST credit.
    Theory course.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Nadkarni.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 003F. Culture and Religion in Africa

    In this course, we will explore the powerful interplay between religion, politics, and culture in Africa. Students engage in exploration of a wide range of topics designed to provide a historical and geographical overview of religious practices in different regions of sub-Saharan Africa. In our readings and in class discussions, we will pay close attention to how worldviews and systems of meaning shape actions and attitudes, and focus our anthropological eye on the practices of daily life: the material conditions and day-to-day routines of living. Throughout the course, we will consider the usefulness of the term “religion” itself, as we examine how daily practices that emerge in and through religious practices in Africa transcend Western distinctions between “religion,” “politics,” “economics,” and “society.”
    Eligible for BLST credit.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Schuetze.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 003G. First-Year Seminar: Development and its Discontents

    In this course, our goal will be to gain a new perspective on an often-unquestioned social “good”: that of international economic development, including foreign aid to countries in the global south. This course will provide students with an introduction to the origin and evolution of ideas about development, and will encourage them to examine major theories and approaches to development from classical modernization theories to world-systems theories. Students will gain insight into how ideas of development fit into larger global dynamics of power and politics and how, contrary to professed goals, the practices of international development have often perpetuated poverty and widened the gap between rich and poor. During the course, we will investigate these issues through an array of texts that address different audiences including a novel, academic books and journals, film, popular writings and ethnographic monographs.
    Eligible for BLST credit.
    Theory course and writing course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Schuetze.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 009C. Cultures of the Middle East

    Looking at ethnographic texts, films, and literature from different parts of the region, this class examines the complexity and richness of culture and life in the Middle East. The topics we will cover include orientalism, colonization, gender, ethnicity, tribalism, nationalism, migration, nomadism, and religious beliefs. We will also analyze the local, national, and global forces that are reshaping daily practices and cultural identities in various Middle Eastern countries.
    Eligible for ISLM credit.
    Writing course
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Ghannam.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  

  • ANTH 021D. Anthropology of Art and Aesthetics

    This course will familiarize students with the key debates that have shaped the anthropological study of art over the course of the 20th century. After reviewing Franz Boas’s path-breaking studies on Native American design motifs, we will go on to survey studies of indigenous artistic traditions, the controversies ignited by metropolitan exhibitions of primitivist modern art, and theoretical disputes over aesthetic paradigms in the anthropology of art, before posing the question of how anthropology can illuminate and engage contemporary art worlds.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Fraga.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 023C. Anthropological Perspectives on Conservation

    Conservation of biodiversity through the creation of national parks is an idea and a practice that began in the U.S. with the creation of Yellowstone in 1872. In this course, we will examine the ideas behind the initial creation of national parks and explore the global spread of these ideas through the historical and contemporary creation of parks in other countries. As we examine the origin of the idea for parks, we will also consider the human costs that have been associated with their creation. Ultimately, the class offers a critical exploration of theories and themes related to nature, political economy, and culture-themes that fundamentally underlie the relationship between society and environment.
    Eligible for ENVS or BLST credit.
    Theory course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 029B. Ethnography: Theory and Practice

    This class maps anthropological theories and methods through reading and critically analyzing the discipline’s flagship genre, ethnography. We work historically by reading classical texts that exemplify different approaches (such as functionalism, structuralism, symbolic anthropology, and reflexive anthropology) used to analyze culture and social structure. We address questions such as: How did Malinowski understand ethnography? How does this understanding compare to more recent views of anthropologists such as Geertz? How did the meaning of fieldwork change over time? We pay special attention to the politics of representation and the anthropologists’ continuous struggle to find new ways to write about culture.
    Theory and methods course. Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 032D. Mass Media and Anthropology

    This intermediate course explores the anthropology of modernity and the mass-mediation of modern forms of knowledge. It examines how the emergence of mass media has produced new kinds of subjects and social relations: from novel images of nationhood to mass experiences of crime, war, and violence. Along the way, the course also asks the impact of new media technologies on how anthropology itself imagines identity, community, and locality.
    Eligible for FMST and INTP credit.
    Theory course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 039B. Globalization and Culture

    What is globalization? Is globalization “cultural imperialism,” Westernization, Americanization, or McDonaldization? Our class will examine such questions and critically analyze how global flows (of goods, capital, labor, information, and people) are shaping cultural practices and identities. We will study recent theories of globalization and transnationalism and read various ethnographic studies of how global processes are articulated and resisted in various cultural settings.
    Theory course and writing course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Ghannam.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  

  • ANTH 040J. Social Movements in Latin America: Gender & Queer Perspective

    Since the 1980s, the contemporary forces of neoliberalism, re-democratization and globalization have profoundly reshaped the societies of Latin America.

    Against this backdrop of change, people who have long been politically marginalized-indigenous groups, women, peasants, gays, blacks-have struggled to assert their rights and make their voices heard. In this course we will focus on gender and queer identities in Latin America through a social movement lens.
    Eligible for LASC credit.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Machuca-Galvez.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 041B. Visions of Latin America

    This course is premised on the idea that the forms of a population’s political domination depend upon how that population is envisioned-i.e., upon the visual techniques of knowledge/power that make possible the orderly administration of society, as well as upon the cultural imaginaries that shape social desires and fears. Beginning with historical accounts of the cataclysmic encounter between the Spanish Empire and the peoples of the New World, this course will survey the visual technologies through which the Holy Roman Empire and the later Latin American republics attended to their subjects, as well as the colonial and post-colonial fantasies that have haunted Latin America over the past five hundred years.
    Eligible for LASC credit.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 041C. Visual Cultures of Mexican and Aztlan

    Surveying the visual signifiers with which creole, Mexican, and Chican@ identities have been forged, this course will track a broad sample of figures through the historical and political contexts of New Spain, modern Mexico and occupied Aztlán. We will ground our study of these icons in the social context of their production and circulation, and will critically examine the relationships between image-making and state-making, and between citizenship, national/ethnic identity, and community building. Visual materials for the semester will include a robust sample of religious and secular art, cinema, and print media.
    Eligible for LASC credit.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Fraga.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 042D. Political Anthropology

    This course examines the anthropology of rights, justice, and the state. Its focus is citizenship: as both an ideal of formal equality and a lived practice of political belonging that reflects and reproduces social inequity. The first half investigates how citizenship intersects with forms of difference such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability. Ethnographic examples include debates about the legal recognition of gay marriage, spatial struggles over the right to the city, and disability activism and the biopolitics of citizenship. The second half examines how new forms of mobility of people, ideas, and capital challenge the nation-state as the site of political membership. What is the state’s responsibility towards its “others”: from transnational entrepreneurs to illegal migrant workers, and from political refugees to the detainees at Guantanamo Bay?
    Theory course.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Nadkarni.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 043E. Culture, Health, Illness

    People in all societies encounter and manage sickness. Yet, there are diverse and unique approaches to understanding and managing health and disease. The human experience of sickness entails a complex interplay between biological, socio-economic and cultural factors. This course offers an introduction to medical anthropology, and draws upon social, cultural, biological, and linguistic anthropology to better understand those factors which influence health and well being (broadly defined), the experience and distribution of illness, the prevention and treatment of sickness, healing processes, the social relations of therapy management, and the cultural importance and use of pluralistic medical systems. Topics covered include how beliefs about health, disease and the body are constructed and transmitted, how healers are chosen and trained, social disparities in health and illness, and the importance of narrative and performance in the effectiveness of healing practices. Finally, we will consider the ways in which medical anthropology can shed light upon important contemporary medical and social concerns.
    Theory course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 043F. Culture, Power, and Religion in Africa

    eaning shape actions and attitudes, and explore how differing systems of meaning have shaped relationships of power in both historical and contemporary contexts. Throughout the course, we will consider the usefulness of the concept “religion” itself, as we examine how daily practices that emerge in and through religious practices in Africa transcend Western distinctions between “religion,” “politics,” “economics,” and “society.”
    Eligible for BLST credit.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 049B. Comparative Perspectives on the Body

    This class explores how different societies regulate, discipline, and shape the human body. In the first part, we examine theories of the body and how they have evolved over time. In the second part, we focus on in-depth ethnographic cases and compare diverse cultural practices that range from the seemingly traditional practices, such as circumcision, foot binding, and veiling to the currently fashionable, such as piercing, tattooing, dieting, and plastic surgery. By comparing body modification through space and time, we ask questions such as: Is contemporary anorexia similar to wearing the corset during the 19th century? Is female circumcision different from breast implants? Furthermore, we investigate how embodiment shapes personal and collective identities (especially gender identities) and vice versa.
    Eligible for GSST or INTP credit.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Ghannam.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 051B. Drugs and Governance in the Americas

    Psychoactive substances offer us an especially powerful prism with which to analyze the techniques of governance that have characterized the political regimes of the Americas since colonization. Hemispheric in scope, this course will trace an anthropological history of the uses and abuses of such diverse substances as chocolate and tobacco, coffee and cocaine, peyote and prescription pharmaceuticals, thereby preparing students to disentangle the multiple forces that over determine contemporary discourses of drugs, intoxication, and their respective places in social life.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Fraga.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 072C. Memory, History, Nation

    How do national communities remember-and forget? What roles do commemoration and amnesia play in constructing, maintaining, or challenging national and collective identities? This course considers memory and its pathologies as a central problematic for the nation-state. It reads theory and ethnography against each other to explore the politics and aesthetics of national memory across numerous sites and contexts, attentive to both the collectivities such commemorations inspire and their points of resistance or failure.
    Eligible for INTP credit.
    Theory course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 072D. Visual Anthropology

    This course introduces students to the history, theory, and practice of visual anthropology. Topics include the intertwined histories of colonial photography and anthropology, how anthropologists use visual ethnographic methods as tools of cultural analysis, and how indigenous groups and activists use contemporary visual technologies to gain visibility and to remake their social worlds. The course will include a series of film screenings, as well as a small production component.
    Eligible for FMST credit.
    Theory and methods course.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Nadkarni.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  
  

  • ANTH 095. Independent Study

    All students wishing to do independent work must have the advance consent of the department and of an instructor who agrees to supervise the proposed project. Two options exist for students wishing to get credit for independent work.

    Option 1 - consists of individual or group directed reading and study in fields of special interest to the students not dealt with in the regular course offerings.

    Option 2 - credit may be received for practical work in which direct experience lends itself to intellectual analysis and is likely to contribute to a student’s progress in regular course work. Students must demonstrate to the instructor and the department a basis for the work in previous academic study. Students will normally be required to examine pertinent literature and produce a written report to receive credit.
    0.5 or 1 credit.
    Fall 2014 and spring 2015. Staff.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.

Anthropology - Seminars
  

  • ANTH 112. Cities, Spaces, and Power

    This seminar explores recent interdisciplinary insights to the analysis of spatial practices, power relationships, and urban forms. In addition, we read ethnographies and novels and watch films to explore questions such as: How is space socially constructed? What is the relationship between space and power? How is this relationship embedded in urban forms under projects of modernity and postmodernity? How do the ordinary practitioners of the city resist and transform these forms? Our discussion will pay special attention to issues related to racism and segregation, ethnic enclaves, urban danger, gendered spaces, colonial urbanism, and the “global” city.
    Theory course.
    2 credits.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 116. Anthropology of Capitalism

    In the wake of the global financial system’s recent paroxysms, it is more urgent than ever that students of anthropology be equipped to understand the social and cultural dimensions of contemporary capitalism. This seminar will therefore examine the defining features of the current capitalist milieu through the lens of comparative ethnography. Combining classic theoretical readings on the structure and development of capitalism with concrete ethnographic studies, we will analyze a broad sample of the many guises under which capital travels across political, economic, and cultural borders. These analyses will then enable us to approach the more pressing question of how individual actors can and do contribute to the transformation of the global cultural economy.
    Theory course.
    2 credits.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 122. Urban Ethnographies

    As key players in the global economy, cities are becoming the focus of a growing number of studies that show how urban life is shaped by the complex interplay of global, national, and local processes. In this class, we look at urban ethnographies (texts and films) through space and examine how the representation of the city has changed over time. These ethnographies are conducted in Western cities such as New York, London, and Paris as well as cities in other parts of the world such as Cairo, Casablanca, Bombay, São Paolo, and Shanghai. We read these ethnographies to (1) discuss different techniques and approaches used to study urban cultures and identities, (2) examine how the collection of data relates to anthropological theories and methods, and (3) explore how research in cities shapes the field of cultural anthropology. In our discussions, we also explore important urban problems such as poverty, gangs, violence, and homelessness.
    2 credits.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 123. Culture, Power, Islam

    This seminar will be an interdisciplinary investigation into the shifting manners by which Islam is multiply understood as a creatively mystical force, a canonically organized religion, a political platform, a particular approach to economic investment, and a secular but powerful identity put forth in interethnic conflicts, to name only a handful of incarnations. Though wide ranging in our theoretical perspective, a deeply ethnographic approach to the lived experience of Islam in a number of cultural settings guides this study.
    Eligible for ISLM credit.
    2 credits.
    Fall 2014. Ghannam.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ANTH 133. Anthropology of Biomedicine

    In this seminar we explore biomedicine from an anthropological perspective, exploring the entanglement of bodies with history, environment, culture, and power. We begin the course with a focus on the historical emergence of biomedical technologies and their related discourses and practices and then move into contemporary contexts of their use and circulation. Throughout, we focus on the ways in which the development, use, and distribution of biomedical technologies and discourses are influenced by prevailing medical systems, political interests, and cultural norms. Topics to be covered include biomedicine as technology, medical categorization and ideas of the normal, ethics and moral boundaries, the space of the clinic, the circulation of pharmaceuticals, and health and inequality.
    2 credits.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology
    Sociology and Anthropology 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.

Arabic
  

  • ARAB 001. Intensive Elementary Modern Standard Arabic

    Students who start in the 001-002 equence must complete 002 to receive credit for 001.

    The purpose of this course is to develop students’ proficiency and communication in modern standard Arabic in the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading (both oral and for comprehension), and writing. Cultural aspects are built into the course. These courses, as well as subsequent Arabic-language courses, help students to advance rapidly in the language and prepare them for more advanced work in literary Arabic, as well for employment, travel, or study abroad. By the end of this sequence, the majority of students are expected to reach a level of intermediate low, according to the ACTFL proficiency rating.
    1.5 credits.
    Fall 2014. Smith, Muhamed.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic
    Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARAB 002. Intensive Elementary Modern Standard Arabic

    Students who start in the 001-002 equence must complete 002 to receive credit for 001.

    The purpose of this course is to develop students’ proficiency and communication in modern standard Arabic in the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading (both oral and for comprehension), and writing. Cultural aspects are built into the course. These courses, as well as subsequent Arabic-language courses, help students to advance rapidly in the language and prepare them for more advanced work in literary Arabic, as well for employment, travel, or study abroad. By the end of this sequence, the majority of students are expected to reach a level of intermediate low, according to the ACTFL proficiency rating.
    1.5 credits.
    Spring 2015. Smith, Muhamed.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic
    Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARAB 003. Intermediate Modern Standard Arabic I

    This course builds on skills in comprehension, listening, reading, writing, and speaking developed at earlier levels. Students will gain increased vocabulary and understanding of more complex grammatical structures. They will begin to approach prose, fiction, and non-fiction written in the language. Students will also increase their proficiency in the Arabic script and sound system, and widen their cultural and historic knowledge of the Arab World and the modern Middle East.
    1.5 credits.
    Fall 2014. Al-Masri, Muhamed.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic
    Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  

  • ARAB 011. Advanced Arabic I

    This course will: (1) conduct a quick review of the basic structures, grammar, and vocabulary learned in earlier courses, (2) introduce new vocabulary in a variety of contexts with strong cultural content, (3) drill students in the more advanced grammatical structures of MSA, and (4) train students reading skills that will assist them in comprehending a variety of MSA authentic reading passages of various genres from Intermediate to Intermediate High on the ACTFL scale.
    Prerequisites: Successful completion of ARAB 004  and permission of the instructor.
    Eligible for ISLM credit.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Al-Masri.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic
    Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARAB 011A. Arabic Conversation

    A conversation course concentrating on the development of intermediate skills in speaking and listening through the use of texts and multimedia materials in Modern Standard Arabic. The aim of this course is for the student to acquire well-rounded communication skills and socio-cultural competence. The selected materials seek to stimulate students’ curiosity with the goal of awakening a strong desire to express themselves in the language. Students are required to read chosen texts (including Internet materials) and prepare assignments for discussion in class. Moreover, students will write out skits or reports for oral presentation in Arabic before they present them in class. This class is conducted entirely in Arabic.
    Prerequisite: For students who have taken or are presently taking ARAB 011  or the equivalent.
    0.5 credit.
    Fall 2014. Muhamed.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic
    Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARAB 012. Advanced Arabic II

    This course is a continuation of ARAB 011  and all previous course in the sequence. This course will begin with a quick review of advanced grammatical structures and vocabulary. Students will continue to encounter a wide range of authentic texts and audiovisual materials to enhance their competency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, with a special emphasis on vocabulary building.
    Prerequisites: Successful completion of ARAB 011  and permission of the instructor.
    Eligible for ISLM credit.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Al-Masri.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic
    Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARAB 012A. Advanced Arabic Conversation

    A conversation course concentrating on the development of intermediate skills in speaking and listening through the use of texts and multimedia materials in Modern Standard Arabic. The aim of this course is for the student to acquire well-rounded communication skills and socio-cultural competence. The selected materials seek to stimulate students’ curiosity with the goal of awakening a strong desire to express themselves in the language. Students are required to read chosen texts (including Internet materials) and prepare assignments for discussion in class. This class is conducted entirely in Arabic.
    Prerequisite: For students who have taken or are presently taking ARAB 012  or the equivalent.
    0.5 credit.
    Spring 2015. Muhamed.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic
    Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARAB 021. Introduction to Modern Arab Literature

    This course surveys the major writers, trends, themes, and experiences in Arabic literature from the 19th century to the present. Beginning with the nahda (the Arab renaissance), we will explore the impact of intellectual debates and developments on the emergence of modern Arabic literature. Through the study of a variety of different texts and authors, from a range of geographies and periods, we will investigate diverse literary and cultural narratives. Common themes, such as the negotiation of modernity and tradition, social and political transformation, and the changing role of women, will provide a structure for comparison. This course is taught in Arabic.
    Eligible for ISLM credit.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Al-Masri.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic
    Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARAB 022. Discourses of Oppression in Contemporary Arabic Fiction

    Designed to meet the needs of students who have completed ARAB 021: Introduction to Modern Arabic Literature, this course provides an in-depth look at major fictional representations of the institutionalized and non-institutionalized sites and structures of oppression explored by Arab writers. Subtle and overt forms of political oppression are investigated, as well as experiences of hegemony related to gender, sexuality, class, religion, and ethnicity. This course also examines the ways in which oppression is rethought, restructured, and challenged in Arabic fiction, leading to new understandings and possibilities in reality. This course is conducted entirely in Arabic.
    Eligible for ISML credit.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic
    Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARAB 025. War in Arab Literature and Cinema

    This course will explore literary and cinematic representations of war in the Arab world, focusing on the Arab-Israeli Conflict, the Lebanese Civil War, and the Iraq wars. We will look at poetry, fiction, memoir, prison narratives, film, and experimental texts. Through the examination of a variety of experiences, genres, and perspectives, we will ask questions like: How do narratives of war contribute to the formation of national, local, and Arab identities? How has the experience of war impacted understandings of religion, masculinity, gender, and domestic violence? We will identify common themes and images and investigate how these patterns change and develop in different spatial and temporal contexts.
    Eligible for ISLM and PEAC credit.
    (Cross-listed as LITR 025A )
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic
    Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARAB 029. Arabs Write the West

    Drawing on historical, fictional, and autobiographical narratives, this course investigates Arab representations of the Occident. These texts explore cultural encounters, both at home and abroad, border crossings, hybridity, experiences of colonialism and neocolonialism, the psychology of Orientalism and Occidentalism, processes of assimilation and resistance, and the question of contact zones. Differences in geography, period, context, and positionality will provide a variety of perspectives on the theme. Works by Abd Al-Rahman Al-Jabarti, Rifa’a Al-Tahtawi, Yahya Haqqi, Sulaiman Fayyad, Tayyib Salih, Leila Ahmed, and Fadia Faqir will be discussed. This course is taught in English.
    Eligible for ISML credit.
    (Cross-listed as LITR 029A )
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Al-Masri.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic
    Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARAB 030. Literature of Resistance

    This course explores Arabic texts that take a stand against contemporary political, social, or economic realities. Fiction and non-fiction accounts as well as poetry will be investigated alongside experimental contemporary genres and blogs to uncover the different ways in which Arabs are attempting to rewrite the world around them. The theme of resistance - against colonialism, state oppression, social codes, and literary norms - will shape our discussions. New narratives inspired by the Arab uprisings will receive special focus. This course is taught in English.
    Eligible for ISLM or PEAC credit.
    (Cross-listed as LITR 030A )
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Smith.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic
    Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARAB 045. Contemporary Thought in the Arab World

    This survey course will trace some of the main themes, problems and issues that have been debated among Arab thinkers and intellectuals since the latter part of the 19th century. The course will start with the 19th century but emphasize discussions following the military defeat of 1967 and the ensuing cultural and political crisis. Discussions related to “turath” (heritage), the different strategies of its reading and interpretation, and the possibilities of using these readings to confront contemporary challenges will be the center of attention of the course. Readings will comprise three types of texts: those providing historical and social background, translations by the different thinkers under discussion, and articles and essays that interpret and critique these thinkers.
    Eligible for ISLM credit.
    (Cross-listed as LITR 045A )
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic
    Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

Art History
  

  • ARTH 001C. First-Year Seminar: Making Art History

    Are works of art direct extensions, pure reflections, or unique expressions of an individual artist’s genius, fragile by implication and susceptible to destruction from over analysis? Or are works of art (as well as the definition just offered) cultural artifacts produced under specific material and social conditions, and fully meaningful only under extended analysis? Must we choose? And are these questions themselves, and the talk they generate or suppress, yet another manifestation of the Western European and American commodification of art, its production, and its consumption? Such questions will underlie this introduction to the goals, methods, and history of art history. Focusing on works drawn from a variety of cultures and epochs, as well as on the art historical and critical attention those works have attracted, students will learn to describe, analyze, and interpret both images and their interpretations and to convey their own assessments in lucid writing and speaking.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Cothren.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 001D. First-Year Seminar: Architecture of Philadelphia

    Virtually no other city in the Western hemisphere provides a richer cross-section of architecture over the past 350 years than Philadelphia. The city’s material culture tells the story not just of this region but of our nation, from William Penn’s utopian New World, to America’s 19th-century economic and artistic flowering, to Philadelphia’s importance as a mid-20th-century crucible of city planning and post-modern design, to the city’s role in shaping the early 21st century. In this discussion-based, first-year seminar we will explore the architecture and urbanism of this wondrous city through scholarly and popular literature as well as through regular walking tours of the city, especially its neighborhoods, parks, and museums
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Morton.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 001E. First-Year Seminar: Michelangelo and Renaissance Culture

    In this discussion-based first-year seminar, we will study the sculptures, paintings, architecture, poetry, drawings, and biographies of the Renaissance artist Michelangelo. We will investigate these in light of Michelangelo’s patrons, audiences, and the larger cultural, political, and religious contexts in which these works were produced. We will also consider the ways in which these works have been analyzed over the centuries and how the biographies and myths of Michelangelo have been created and understood. In doing so, we will develop a critical understanding of the methods and terminology of the discipline of art history itself. Course projects include convening as a mock group of museum trustees to discuss whether the museum should purchase a sculpture that has recently been attributed to Michelangelo.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Reilly.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 001F. First-Year Seminar: Picasso

    This course looks at the questions and arguments art historians have developed to address the multiple facets of Picasso’s art, richly represented in the nearby Philadelphia Museum of Art and Barnes Foundation. Methods and perspectives explored include formal analysis, iconography, biography, social history, feminism, semiotics, and museum practice. Class sessions will focus on discussion of case studies and assignments will encourage critical skills and effective written and oral communication.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Hungerford.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 001L. First-Year Seminar: From Handscrolls to Comic Books: Pictorial Narratives in Japan

    Through examination of select pictorial narratives produced in Japan between the 12th century and the present, this first-year seminar introduces students to the basics of art historical research and analysis. We will look at the ways in which handscrolls, folding screens, and (comic) books employ image and text in addressing subjects such as romances, miracles, battles, and fantasies, and consider the roles and functions performed by pictorial narratives in society.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Sakomura.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 001M. First-Year Seminar: Leonardo: Artist, Engineer, Architect, and Anatomist

    Leonardo da Vinci was a great anatomist, engineer, architect and inventor whose drawings circulated around the courts of Europe. In this discussion-based course we will study the inventions, writings, paintings, drawings and biographies of this important Renaissance artist. We will consider the ways in which the works, biographies, and myths of Leonardo have been analyzed (and created) over the centuries. In doing so, we will develop a critical understanding of the methods and terminology of the discipline of art history itself.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Reilly.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 001P. First-Year Seminar: Objects of Empire: Artworks in the Early Modern Atlantic World

    For much of the early-modern period, the Spanish Viceroyalties anchored a system of maritime exchange that connected the Atlantic world (Europe and Africa) with the profitable and desirable bounty of the Far East. At regular intervals, royal Spanish galleons and European merchants (including pirates) inundated port cities and metropolitan areas, such as Mexico City, with valuable commodities, artworks, and everyday objects en route from one corner of the empire to another. This course seeks to understand what this “stuff” can tell us about the people who made it and the world they lived in. Although grounded in the field of art history, this course capitalizes upon the recent “material turn” in the humanities that has led to a proliferation of object-based inquiries and asks students to consider material culture from a variety of disciplinary perspectives (including art history, history, and anthropology). Students will not only learn to think about the “objects of empire,” but also to think with them, gaining a better understanding of important issues such the role of art in establishing colonial regimes, questions of hybridity and artistic influence, the origins of global exchange, and the politics early-modern collecting practices.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Burdette.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 002. The Western Tradition

    This course provides an introduction to Mediterranean and European art from prehistoric cave painting to the 18th century. We will consider a variety of media-from painting, sculpture, and architecture to ceramics, mosaic, metalwork, prints, and earthworks. The goal of this course is to provide a chronology of the major works in the Western tradition and to provide the vocabulary and methodologies necessary to analyze these works of art closely in light of the material, historical, religious, social, and cultural circumstances in which they were produced and received. We will give attention to the use and status of materials; the representation of social relations, gender, religion, and politics; the context in which works of art were used and displayed; and the critical response these works elicited.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Cothren.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 005. Modern Art in Europe and the United States

    This course surveys Western European and American art from the late 18th century to the 1960s. It introduces significant artists and art movements in their social and political contexts and also focuses attention on art historical approaches that have been developed to interpret this art, including socio-economic and feminist perspectives.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Hungerford.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


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  • ARTH 012. The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright

    Frank Lloyd Wright’s career straddled two centuries and changed the course of architecture. We will examine his buildings and writings, from the time of his association with Louis Sullivan to the design of the Guggenheim museum and consider Wright’s work in relation to the diverse currents of international modernism. Special attention will also be given to his houses and his influence on modern American domestic life.
    1 credit
    Fall 2014. Morton.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 013. Greek Art

    This exploration of ancient Greek art and architecture will consider issues such as mythology in daily ritual; the religious, social, and political functions of sculpture; the use of architecture as propaganda; and the invention of the ideal warrior, athlete, and maiden.
    Writing course.
    2 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Reilly.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 014. Early Medieval Art and Architecture

    In this introduction to European art and architecture from late antiquity to the 12th century, special attention will be given to the “Romanization” of Christian art under Constantine, the Celtic Christian heritage of the British Isles and its culmination in the Book of Kells, Justinianic Constantinople and Ravenna, the Carolingian Renaissance, Romanesque sculpture as ecclesiastical propaganda, and the efflorescence of monastic art under the Cluniacs and Cistercians.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Cothren.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 016. Italian Renaissance Art

    This course will provide a rich introduction to the art and architecture produced in Florence, Rome, Venice, Siena, Padua, Mantua, and other important cultural centers in Italy from the late 14th to the 16th century. In addition to learning about painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, and architecture, we will also study stage design, temporary festival decorations, banners and costumes. A full range of issues related to the production and reception of artworks will be addressed, including the representation of the individual, the state, and religion. We will also examine art and anatomy, art and gender, the critical responses these works elicited, and the theories of art developed by artists and non-artists alike.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Reilly.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


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  • ARTH 018. Digital Rome

    Working in small groups, students will create digital reconstructions (primarily in SketchUp) of select Roman cities in Africa Proconsularis, and try to answer a deceptively simple question, what determines the urban fabric of these ancient cities? By using Roman Africa as a test case, this course will examine the ‘individuality within regularity’ of Roman cities. Temporally we will commence with the end of the Roman Republic and conclude with the Late Empire. Geographically, we will primarily limit our analysis to the province of Africa Proconsularis (modern day Tunisia and parts of Algeria and Libya) and look at famous cities such as Carthage and Lepcis Magna and little known cities such as Meninx (Jerba, Tunisia).
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Morton.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 019. Contemporary Art

    This course takes a focused look at European and American art from 1945 to the present, a period during which most conventional meanings and methods of art were challenged or rejected. Beginning with the brushstrokes of abstract expressionism and continuing through to the bitmaps of today’s digital art, we consider the changing status of artists, artworks, and institutions. Emphasis will be placed on critical understanding of the theoretical and historical foundations for these shifts.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Hungerford.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 023. Art of the Ancient Americas

    This course examines the art and architecture of the ancient Americas, focusing primarily on the regions of Mesoamerica and the Andes. It covers roughly four thousand years of human creativity, beginning with the origins of complex civilization in the region and continuing into the sixteenth century and the arrival of Europeans. To better understand the cultural and social significance of the objects we study, we will look to a variety of disciplinary approaches including art history, archeology, anthropology, ethnography. We will examine how artworks from the ancient Americas reflected, supported, and actively shaped the worldview of the people who created and used them. In addition, the class will briefly examine the significance of pre-Columbian art in contemporary society, including the topics of cultural nationalism, looting, and the politics of collecting pre-Columbian art.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Burdette.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 024. Colonial Latin American Art

    This course examines the art and architecture of the Spanish Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru, covering roughly three hundred years of artistic production, beginning with the arrival of the Spanish in 1519 and concluding with the Independence period in the early 19th century. The course surveys a diverse collection of art and architecture from multiple academic perspectives in order to gain an appreciation for the material culture of the colonial Americas and to better understand colonial society and culture. The course will also highlight the importance of colonial art in contemporary society, raising issues of theft, art collecting, and the continued use and veneration of colonial artworks.

    The class is divided into three sections, moving chronologically from the conquest and colonization to the colonial baroque, before concluding with the neo-classical period and Latin American independence. In each section we will examine works from colonial Mexico and the Andean region, comparing and contrasting the artworks and cultural landscape of these two colonial centers. Within each section we will study a variety of artistic media, including painting, sculpture and architecture, as well as less- well known traditions such as featherwork and textile arts.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Burdette.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 025. Colloquium: Native American Art

    An exploration of the arts of native peoples across the North American continent from the archaeological records of prehistory to the contemporary creations of painters and sculptors working within a global “art world.” Attention will be given to the theoretical, political, and methodological challenges inherent in the study of these indigenous arts and their interactions with other cultures and cultural viewpoints, past and present. Discussions will focus on issues of identity and ritual, artists and their audiences, archaeology and recovery, colonization and tourism.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Cothren.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 032. Crafting Nature: The Arts of Japanese Tea Culture

    This course explores the rich cultural practice of chanoyu, the “Japanese tea ceremony,” which emerged around the preparation of powdered green tea. We will examine the ritual, aesthetic, and institutional history of this practice from the 12th century to the present and consider the various cultural forms-painting, calligraphy, ceramics, architecture, garden design, religious ritual, performance, food preparation, and flower arrangement-that were integrated into and developed through chanoyu. Discussions will include the place of Zen Buddhism in the history of chanoyu, the role of chanoyu in Japanese aesthetic discourse and art collecting practices, and the impact of chanoyu on contemporary productions of architecture, lacquerware, metalware, and ceramics. We will learn the formal procedures of preparing tea (temae) and visit Shofuso, the Japanese House and Garden in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.
    Eligible for ASIA credit.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Sakomura.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 033. Famous Places and Sacred Sites: The Art of Landscape in East Asia

    This course surveys the major traditions of landscape art in East Asia. We will explore the ways in which places and spaces are transformed into famous places and sacred sites and consider the critical role played by visual representation in this process. Major topics include the relationship between landscape and power, cultural memory, literature, mythology, seasonality, travel, and literati culture. We will examine the functions of landscape art in various cultural, geographical, and temporal contexts of East Asia and consider the complex processes of cultural dissemination and adaptation by looking at the reception of Chinese landscape painting tradition in Korea and Japan.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Sakomura.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


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  • ARTH 034. Colloquium: East Asian Calligraphy What’s in a script?

    This colloquium examines the major calligraphic traditions of China, Korea, and Japan from 1200 B.C.E. to the present. We will study the functions and contexts of calligraphic inscriptions among a rich range of material texts, such as animal bones, bronze vessels, stone stelae, mountain cliffs, and various paper-based formats. In addition to analyzing the development and circulation of calligraphic styles within East Asia and celebrated works of individual calligraphers, we will explore how calligraphy conveys meaning and how it has been used as a powerful tool for cultural and political commentary.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Sakomura.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


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  • ARTH 039. Contemporary Japanese Visual Culture

    This course aims to familiarize students with the visual culture of contemporary Japan and its complex relationship to the traditional arts of Japan as well as to Western culture. Topics examined will include representations of gender, nature, tradition, history, nation, city and suburbia, tourism, food, commodity, and fashion. We will closely analyze and critique works in the print medium such as advertisements, graphic design, photography, magazines, and manga. We will also consider Japanese product and character designs that have achieved global recognition, such as MUJI and Hello Kitty.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Sakomura.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 045. Gothic

    This course will examine the formation of “The Gothic” around 1140 and its development and codification in the Ile-de-France to the middle of the 13th century; monasteries, cathedrals, and chapels; neo-platonism and the new aesthetic; “court-style” and political ideology; structural technology and stylistic change; patronage and production; contextualizing liturgy and visualizing dogma.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Cothren.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 052. Renaissance Art in Europe

    This course employs a thematic approach to considering the major artistic, architectural, and cultural achievements of the Renaissance and the early modern period in Europe (1450-1750). Turning away from traditional approaches to Renaissance art, which are often defined by chronological or geographical boundaries, we will concentrate on four issues central to the artistic culture of the period: the artist as individual genius, technologies of artistic production (oil painting, printmaking), courtly art and patronage, and the arts of exploration (maps, cross-cultural influence). In each of these four sections, we will explore artworks from multiple geographies, including northern and southern Europe, couching the major artists and artworks of the Italian and Northern Renaissance within conceptual frameworks that highlight their interconnected nature and their relationship with other people, places, and movements.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Burdette.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 053. The Arts of Golden Age Spain

    The Spanish Golden Age, or “Siglo de Oro” (Golden Century), lasted roughly 150 years, from the discovery of the Americas in 1492 to the mid-seventeenth century. This period of political and cultural ascendance, which saw the Spanish empire blossom across the Atlantic and Asia, gave rise to many of Spain’s greatest cultural achievements. This course examines the artworks and artists that made this period special, as well as the patrons and political realities underpinning the period’s achievements. We will focus, in particular, on painters such as El Greco, Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Zurbarán, and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, connecting their artistic production to artistic movements throughout Europe and to the broader trends of the baroque. We will also explore the remarkable corpus of polychrome sculpture produced by sculptors such as Juan Martínez Montañes during the period, examining their role in religious rituals and processions. Lastly, we will examine the major architectural trends and monuments from the period, including the Escorial and several baroque cathedrals. This survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture from the period will help students understand the ideas and values underpinning this singular moment in artistic history, as well as the place of Spanish golden age art within a broader European and global context.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Burdette.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 065. Modern Architecture

    This course traces the development of modern architecture and the built environment from the Industrial Revolution in Europe to the global present with an emphasis on the critical debates that informed its production, practice and reception. We will study architecture as a social process and formal practice through a variety of methodologies. Important themes include, technology and materials, form and function, the identity of the architect, public and private space, housing and domesticity, monuments and informality, colonization and globalization. Field visits will be an important element to the class.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 072. History of Architecture: Prehistory-1250

    This course will provide an intensive introduction to the history of architecture, and its chronological and cultural spans are immense. We commence ca. 10,000 B.C.E. and end around 1250 C.E. and examine select works of architecture from diverse cultures around the world. In this course architecture is seen as a cultural product that can only be understood in relation to the societal complexities within which the architecture was produced, used, and received. Certain themes- such as cultural interaction and exchange, transmission of architectural knowledge, architectural patronage, the conception of space, and the role of technology and materials-will be addressed throughout the course.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Morton.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 073. History of Architecture: 1250- Present

    This course is designed to provide students with an intensive introduction to the history of architecture, and its chronological and cultural spans are immense. We commence ca. 1200 and end with the contemporary world; we address numerous cultures from medieval Cairo through Mughal India to the United States in the 21st century. In this course, architecture is seen as a cultural product, and one must understand the societal complexities in which the architecture was produced. Certain themes, such as: cultural interaction and exchange, transmission of architectural knowledge, architectural patronage, the conception of space, and the role of technology and materials will be addressed throughout the course.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Morton.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 074. History of Photography

    This course will address the history of photography, from its invention in 1826 to the present, primarily through discussion of readings about particular processes (beginning with paper and glass plate negatives), practitioners, and theoretical approaches. Central themes will include landscape, war, social documentary, and photography’s interventions in the arts, from the Victorian era through surrealism and recent conceptualists.
    1 credit.
    Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • ARTH 095. Cracking Visual Codes

    How do we understand the visual? What ways of seeing do we engage in and what kinds of questions do we ask when analyzing paintings, buildings, sculptures, ceramics, photographs, or prints? How do we crack the visual codes specific to images, objects, and structures of a given time and place? This colloquium will explore various approaches to the interpretation of the visual arts through the critical reading of important texts of the discipline and writings that propose or challenge a variety of analytic strategies. Students will directly engage in the interpretive process by researching, writing, and presenting on a work of art or architecture in the Philadelphia area, an exercise that will assist the exploration of questions central to their own interest in the study of visual culture. Through this course students will acquire the skills for interpreting images we encounter every day-such as advertisements, logos, icons, and other forms of visual culture.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2015. Sakomura.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


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Art History - Seminars
  

  • ARTH 136. Word and Image in Japanese Art

    This seminar explores the dialogue between text and image as manifested in visual representations of courtly culture in Japan from the 10th to the 18th century. Through select works of courtly narrative and poetry, such as the 11th-century classic The Tale of Genji, we will examine the complex and nuanced interactions of text, image, calligraphy, object, function, patronage, production, and consumption as shaped by the materiality of a range of media including handscrolls, folding screens, poem sheets, illustrated and printed books, lacquerware, and fans.
    Prerequisite: two courses in art history or permission of instructor.
    2 credits.
    Fall 2014. Sakomura.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art  


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  • ARTH 147. Visual Narrative in Medieval Art

    This seminar examines how and why tendentious stories are told in pictures during the European Middle Ages and the various ways art historians have sought to interpret their design and function. After introductory discussions on narratology, the class focuses on an intensive study of a few important and complex works of art that differ in date of production, geographic location, viewing context, artistic tradition, and medium. In past years, these have included the Bayeux Embroidery of ca. 1070, the stained-glass windows of the Parisian Sainte-Chapelle of ca. 1245, and Giotto’s frescos in the Arena Chapel in Padua of 1303- 1305.
    2 credits.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Cothren.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


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  • ARTH 151. Renaissance Rome

    From the 14th to the 17th century, Rome was transformed from a “dilapidated and deserted” medieval town to a center of spiritual and worldly power. This seminar will consider the defining role that images played in that transformation. In addition to studying the painting, sculpture and architecture of artists such as Fra Angelico, Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo, we will study the creation and use of objects such as banners, furniture, and temporary festival decorations. Topics will include papal reconstruction of the urban landscape; the rebirth of classical culture, art and the liturgy, private devotion and public ritual, and the construction of the artist as genius.
    2 credits.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Reilly.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


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  • ARTH 164. Modernism in Paris and New York

    This seminar focuses on “Modernism” in 19thand 20th-century art, addressing selected artists from Courbet and Manet through Degas, Gauguin, Cézanne, Picasso, Pollock, and Rothko. Artists and readings are also chosen to illuminate current scholarly approaches to “Modernism,” including socio-economic, feminist, and post-colonialist perspectives.
    Prerequisite: two courses in art history or permission of instructor.
    2 credits.
    Not offered 2014-2015. Hungerford.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/art
    Art 


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Asian Studies
  
  
  
  

Astronomy
  

  • ASTR 001. Introductory Astronomy

    The scientific investigation of the universe by observation and theory, including the basic notions of physics as needed in astronomical applications. Topics may include the appearance and motions of the sky; history of astronomy; astronomical instruments and radiation; the sun and planets; properties, structure, and evolution of stars; the galaxy and extragalactic systems; the origin and evolution of the universe; and prospects for life beyond Earth.
    Natural sciences and engineering practicum.
    Includes six evening labs.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2014. Jensen.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/physics-astronomy
    Physics and Astronomy 


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  • ASTR 006. Introductory Cosmology

    A half-semester introductory course on cosmology, with an emphasis on the basics of standard Big Bang cosmology, its theoretical framework, and its observational underpinnings. Topics covered will include a qualitative treatment of general relativity, a Newtonian derivation of the Friedmann equation and associated solutions for model universes, the expansion of the Universe, the cosmic microwave background, and big-bang nucleosynthesis. We also will explore more recent observational measurements of the properties of dark matter and dark energy as well as the growth of structure in the Universe. This course is intended for first-year students who are considering physics, astrophysics, or astronomy majors but it is suitable for other students with similar backgrounds and interests as well.
    Prerequisites: MATH 025  or equivalent being taken at least concurrently; some classical physics, at least at the high school level. No astronomy background is presumed.
    0.5 credit.
    Second half of semester.Not offered 2014-2015.
    http://www.swarthmore.edu/physics-astronomy
    Physics and Astronomy  


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