Through the analytical lenses offered by Black feminist and queer theories, this course engages works of Black speculative fiction as modes of theorizing questions of race, gender, sexuality, class, environmental justice, interpersonal politics, and more. Through course readings, seminar discussions, and creative writing projects, students will critically analyze works of speculative fiction written by Black authors and broaden their knowledge of Black speculative literature, with a particular focus on science fiction and fantasy.

Prerequisites: This course doesn't have any Pre Requisites

This first-/second-year undergraduate seminar introduces students to the practice of fieldwork observation (ethnography) as a research method to investigate how Black culture is enacted and Black communities are formed and sustained. Regular opportunities to observe and participate in Black cultural events and institutions in and around Providence will develop students' capacity to conduct research, theorize and compose short works based on their observations through field note-taking assignments, short papers, and a final creative rendering.

Prerequisites: None

This course examines the terrain of black popular culture and its enduring yet shifting relationship to forms of social and political resistance employed by African-Americans in the US. This course offers a deep dive into two complex, related questions central to the field of Black Cultural Studies: 1) what is "black popular culture" and what can we learn by studying it in a social context? 2) How do black popular cultural forms both reproduce the status quo as well as enable black people to resist the status quo?

Between 1950 and 1980, the United States witnessed a mobilization of radical social movements led by Black, Latinx, Asian American, and Native American communities. In addition to these racial movements, gender and sexuality were themselves having parallel and intersecting calls for equality. This course recounts the histories of these movements.

What makes the South “the South”? This course is designed to introduce you to the literature, culture, and history of the American South as a diverse and complex region. As suggested by the title of the course, we will examine narratives of the South, either of it as a region in decline or changing to fit a changing world, and how these narratives have played out both historically and today.

Food is a commonplace element in everyday life; however, being every day can make it unnoticed, discounted, and viewed as unimportant. Following suit, until recently, “food” was infrequently discussed in college courses. But today, “food studies” has a growing presence in the academic world. Its interdisciplinary footprint has given rise to a deepened understanding of food’s significant role in shaping our social, economic, and cultural environments.

What potential does the law hold to bring about transformative social change in today’s society? Relatedly, what strategies and approaches have social movement activists utilized to engage public interest lawyers and the broader legal system?

More and more athletes are stepping off the court, the field or the pitch to leverage their voices and platforms to push for social change. Whether you are an athlete yourself or have never picked up a ball, this course will provide an opportunity to delve into fascinating case studies of leadership and also foster a better understanding of social causes around the globe. In this course, you will have the opportunity to reflect on the issues that matter to you, develop your sense of purpose, and increase your motivation to create change.

Horror films are a wildly popular form of entertainment, however the representations of fear and terror that they traffic in can also teach us about the relations of power that structure our world. This course is designed to introduce you to critical bodies of thought by analyzing horror film as genre and medium. You will be exposed to feminist theory, psychoanalysis, black studies, semiotics, and film theory. The goal of this course is for you to emerge as more critical consumers.

Do you enjoy making meaningful art, being creative, and being part of an engaged and caring community? This course will provide an opportunity for you to cultivate a creative practice, engage in dialogue about the potential for art to be a catalyst for social change, and build a critical toolbox of resources and experiences to strengthen individual and collaborative art-making. Experienced and novice art makers, musicians, dancers, poets, and multimedia creators will find new ways to channel your creative energies into an Action Plan with community impact. Through a contemporary and historical lens, you will explore the relationship between the self and the collective to understand better the collaborative relationship between the “artist” and the “audience.” You will leave this course prepared to continue developing a socially-conscious creative practice in their community.

Anthropologists study humans and why humans do what they do. In this course, you will investigate one specific branch of anthropology, Anthropology of Religion, which analyzes the social institution of religion and why humans engage in this practice. Whether religious, agnostic, or atheist, this course is for you.

Animals are integral parts of many cultures. You yourself probably have pets, farm animals, a favorite meal with domesticated plants or animals, a book or film with animals as main characters, or a holiday connected to a certain animal or animal character. So, why do humans have such intense relations and connections with other animals? Come join this cross-cultural exploration to learn how animals have been used, honored, and memorialized!

Have you ever wondered how forensic anthropologists and scientists establish identification for a Jane/John Doe case? Who is Jane/John Doe? What did they look like? How old are they? Where did they live the majority of their life? What did they experience? How did they die? This course is an exploration into multiple methods and disciplines, including biology and anthropology, that help forensic teams answer these questions. In this course, we will become forensic anthropologists in the field assessing a Jane/John Doe case. If you are up to the task, we will establish a biological profile for the victim and help solve this case by the end of the course!

Is gender a social construct rather than a biological one? Can you explain why some feminists argue that engaging in sex work empowers women? Do you know why many queer folks in East Asian cultures consider “coming out” irresponsible and ineffective in fighting for equal rights? Why do some Muslim women think wearing hijabs is a positive expression of identity, while some westerners believe this practice is oppressive? In this class, you will have the opportunity to study thought-provoking case studies across cultures and historical periods—ones that will provide you with a solid foundation on gender, sexuality, and queer studies.

Global Health: Inequality, Culture, and Human Well-being Around the World examines human health from a global perspective. Using ideas and methods from anthropology, you will explore how inequality and culture intersect to produce the world’s predominant health problems. Further, you will look critically at efforts to address the global burden of disease, using multiple case studies to help you develop more politically and culturally constructive solutions.

Language is a site of struggle. What we say, how we say it, and to whom matters. How we hear matters. It can make the difference between life and death. When you hear the news or a teacher talking, do you feel directly addressed? Do you feel like you are a “they” in your classes and in popular discourse? We feel when we are being talked to, talked with, or talked about, and that makes a difference in how we relate to ourselves and each other.

What does food have to do with politics? In the US, politicians rarely talk about our food system, yet this weighty topic is connected to nearly every pressing and contentious issue in our society. From immigration to climate change, racial justice to corporate power, we will dissect a subject central yet rarely centered in American politics: food, from the field to your plate. Explore ways to combine a passion for food studies, current debates, and socially responsible leadership in this engaging course.

This course is a people-centered investigation of affliction and healing. It asks: How do social processes affect disease and health outcomes in individuals and communities? How do medical professionals influence individual health improvements? How do the political and historical determinants of health disparities manifest in day-to-day life? Together, we will analyze the varied approaches through the lens of anthropology, public health, and medical humanities to understand individual suffering and population health.

This course will combine action-based projects with theory to understand how activists change the world–whether they are Black women campaigning for peace in Colombia, Indigenous land rights activists on Turtle Island, caste abolitionists in India, or youth advocating for change in Rhode Island. As an introduction to visual anthropology, this course combines creative assignments with readings and screenings from the field of anthropology and social movement studies.

Formalized humanitarian institutions developed in response to mass movements of people following World War II. This course examines the history of global systems of humanitarianism and the growth of the field in response to humanitarian disasters including war, famine, disease epidemics, and climate change. We will interrogate motivations of humanitarian actors, with you conducting your own ethnographic projects, positioned with critiques of humanitarian agendas.

Do you have a story to tell but don’t know how? Do you want to learn how stories build the world around us? Ethnography is the scientific practice of describing human experiences that helps us understand people, societies, and cultures. Ethnographic writing is a method anthropologists use to generate and share knowledge. Together we will meditate on the relationship between research and writing practices to produce stories that speak to the topics that we deeply value.

Interested in the science behind the headlines? This course is designed for people who love to figure out to how things work. After mastering the key principles behind essential molecular techniques, you will engage in an exploration of the ways in which those endless variations can be used to answer questions, both pure and practical, in genetics and immunology. And, we will practice strategies for navigating primary literature so you'll learn to independently evaluate the supporting data and understand the conclusions.

Most of Earth's surface is underwater, and so is most of the life: at 30,000 species, fish make up more than half of all vertebrate diversity! Still, fish are among the most poorly understood of all animals—partly because the world they experience is so different to our own. This course will immerse you in fish biology, from laboratory experiences to groundbreaking research on sensory biology, biodiversity, and more.

Ancient DNA makes breathtaking headlines regularly. For decades DNA has added nuance to our world but now we can literally peer back into the genetic past, even to extinct species. In humans, we have way to understand our own genetic history – where did we come from? Which groups mixed? Who is pure bred? (answer: no-one). How did war/changing climate/disease affect people? Humans have been through multiple cultural/technological changes – can we see? (answer: yes). Let’s look!

Antibiotic resistance - the ability for bacteria to mutate and evolve, and thus cause antibiotics to fail - is a major global health threat. Pharmaceutical companies are less likely to fund research and development of new antibiotics due to their relatively low profitability (they don't make a significant amount of money for the pharmaceutical company). As bacteria become more resistant to the antibiotics we use today, it is critical that we have a pipeline of novel antibiotics to combat these pathogens. This is a Course-based Research Experience (CRE).

The burden of proof? Presumed innocent? Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt? Is it your desire to be a crime scene investigator (CSI), medical examiner, or an expert in any other forensic science-related field? Are you naturally curious? Can you piece together clues to solve a problem? This course will help hone your investigative skills and review a wide range of science concepts simultaneously.

Ever wonder...
Why do you do high or low repetitions of weights?
Why there are work and rest intervals? Dynamic vs. Static warm-ups?
When and what you should eat before, during, and post-exercise?
What exercise advice is based on myth and fact?
This one-week "crash" training course will give you the necessary basics for understanding how exercise programs are created based upon scientifically driven data.

Black and Brown people in the US have shorter life expectancies, live with more physical and mental illness, and have more disabilities than White people. This course will help you explore the connections between inherent health inequities with systematic racism in our society and its institutions.

Groundbreaking advancements in our understanding of human health and disease could not be accomplished without the help of some interesting creatures. In this course we will explore the usage and scientific contributions of several model organisms. You will have the opportunity to learn about both common and lesser-known model organisms and understand how they have allowed incredible discoveries in biomedical research.

Have you ever questioned why certain types of cancer are so difficult to treat or how basic science discoveries translate into clinical practice? As advances over the last decade have increased the awareness and knowledge of cancer, today's discussions about this disease have changed. This course will use a combination of lecture and laboratory exercises to teach you the fundamentals of cancer biology.

The prevalence and profound impact of cancer on society has resulted in intensive investment in research leading to numerous advances in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment over the last decades. However, cancer still poses a unique biomedical puzzle. This is a Course-based Research Experience (CRE).

This course is being transitioned from on-campus to online. It may involve attending virtual class meetings via Zoom or some other meeting tool at various points throughout the session. Your instructor will arrange those meeting times once the course has begun; otherwise, the course will be conducted wholly online. The duration, course credit, and fees associated with the course are the same as they would have been for on-campus Summer Session courses, which are the equivalent of full-semester Brown University courses, though offered in a condensed, seven-week format.

Scientists have been studying cause and effect for centuries. Performing experiments help us determine the answers to basic questions like "What happens if I water plants with salt water?" to more complicated questions like "Will drug A treat cancer better than drug B?" You will be engaged in an intensive and interactive research environment guided by expert scientists in the C. elegans field. This is a Course-based Research Experience (CRE).

Through intensive laboratory work, you will explore genetic phenomena at the molecular level. Beginning with structured experiments that reinforce key principles, you will advance to more self-directed projects and explore applications in research and medicine. Topics include analysis of the correlation between genetic variants and specific human traits, the genetic basis of drug metabolism in personalized medicine, and mechanisms by which environmental factors influence gene expression.

As a student enrolled in this course, you will become a disease investigator! How are disease outbreaks managed? Who should be involved in the day-to-day decision making for the response? You will look at all social and environmental factors that influence how we respond to outbreaks. The main objective is for you to understand the basics of infectious disease epidemiology, dissemination of critical information, and identify all potential barriers for success in containing the outbreak.

The goal of this course is to provide you with practical and accessible tools that will allow for the design, analysis, and interpretation of biological experiments. This course provides a rare opportunity for you to experience the scientific process firsthand. You will be mentored in developing a novel question and hypothesis all the way through the final stages of producing a scientific manuscript. This is a Course-based Research Experience (CRE).

What would the perfect crime look like? What makes an expert witness an expert? These are but a couple of the many questions we will explore during this course. Forensic science is an exciting field that combines scientific principles from many different science disciplines with technology and math resulting in new, sometimes surprising outcomes!

Regenerative Biology is a field of study that deals with the "process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function." Stem cells are vital to regenerative biology by providing a basis for tissue-specific precursors and unlocking the door for personalized medicine. You will uncover the molecular mechanisms behind stem cells and how they are being used to drive new discoveries and treatments.

Genetics has come a long way since the time of Mendel. This course will provide a broad overview of modern molecular genetics, including recent advances in the field. We will explore both Mendelian and non-Mendelian biological systems, and discuss the ways in which genetic systems can defy the "Central Dogma" of molecular biology (genes encode RNAs encode proteins). This course will emphasize both fundamental concepts and cutting-edge topics in genetics.

Empathy is the soul of effective communication. In this class, we will define empathy and how it relates to Health Communication and learn fundamental tools for interacting with patients and physicians and how to navigate challenging health-related conversations. We will also discuss and research the recent phenomena of medical misinformation and false data generated by social media.

America. The wealthiest country the world has ever known ranks last among peer countries in the overall healthcare system. Yet we spend a fifth of our gross domestic profit (GDP) on this same healthcare system. How can that be? In this course, we hope to help mold the future healthcare leaders of our country, providing them the requisite knowledge and tools they will use during their careers.

Addictive substances have been part of the human experience since prehistory. But why do some people develop substance use disorders, while others never become addicted? How can we reduce the harms of substance abuse? In this course, you will understand how drugs affect the brain and behavior, learn the common risk and protective factors for developing addiction, compare and contrast different treatments for addiction, and critically analyze the historical context of drug use.

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (aka the worm) is an outstanding model to study the genetics of human disease as many of the genes in the C. elegans genome have functional counterparts in humans. In this project-based lab course, you will identify wild-caught nematodes from the soil using PCR and DNA sequencing analysis. Moreover, you will be introduced to primary literature, developmental biology, genetics, microscopy, and worm maintenance.

Understanding how pathogens are transmitted, lead to illness, and how they can be controlled or cured is the cornerstone of medical science. We will explore a variety of pathogenic organisms by examining their life cycle, transmission from host to host, and why some pathogens result in epidemics. You will discover not only the treatment of epidemic disease and also the molecular mechanisms behind why each treatment works.

The answers to problems can be found in life all around us! Nature is imaginative, adaptable, and efficient – qualities that inspire today’s engineers and scientists. Biomimicry is the innovation of learning from nature’s sustainable solutions. It is a growing, exciting field of science and engineering that studies nature as a model and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems. Recognizing that species have specific adaptations and strategies to survive, we are discovering they have already found elegant answers for many human design issues.

Have you ever wondered why we have different types of cells even though they all contain the same DNA? Have you asked yourself why some of these cells develop diseases and why some of them don’t? In this course, we will learn how to answer all these questions by exploring the basics of genetics and epigenetics.

So you think you want to be a doctor? This course is designed to help you answer that question by letting you see the practice of medicine in the United States firsthand, giving you a taste of what an American medical school would be like, and helping you evaluate how well your talents and preferences match those of a career in medicine. Students who take this course are expected to have a strong foundation in biology and a willingness to explore beyond the science and truly understand the practice of medicine.

How can a fruit fly teach us about neuromuscular disease? How can the yeast we find in bread teach us about how the human body prevents cancers from starting? In this course, we will explore how model organisms are used in biomedical research. This will be done through a mix of lectures and labs that will include hands-on work with real life model organisms.

Whether you are interested in studying cancer biology, immunology, viruses, or to better understand the fundamental molecular and cellular processes of any living organisms, being familiar with laboratory techniques associated with nucleic acids and proteins is fundamental. In this course, you will gain essential laboratory skills and exposure to life in the laboratory.

This timely and compelling course will introduce you to the major opportunities and challenges associated with the field of global health. The COVID-19 global pandemic tracks the fault lines of inequality—and this is not by accident. The correlation between infections and racial and economic inequalities has played out time and time again throughout history, as TB, HIV, Ebola, and cholera have shown. Far from being an equalizer, COVID-19 has amplified pre-existing structural inequities tied to race, class, and geography which increase the risk for disease and are associated with decreased access to health care in the US and globally.

Medical science has brought enormous advantages to the 21st century: extending human life and reducing suffering. However, there are also major ethical and practical concerns arising with scientific progress. How do we frame, re-frame, and decide these controversial issues as ethicists, doctors, individuals, and as a society?

How do antacids relieve heartburn? Why do your legs hurt after sprinting on the track? How do your cake ingredients react to make it fluffy? This course will provide you with the toolbox to identify acid-base chemistry everywhere.

Are you curious as to what it is like to be in a laboratory, working to solve problems in the medical field? Have you wondered how scientists work to provide breakthrough products and technologies to improve our environment? This course will immerse you in the laboratory as you learn the basics of molecular biology research and gain experience conducting advanced laboratory techniques.

Are you fascinated with how an athlete can compete a task under stress? Do you wonder what conditions you can control or alter that will influence your body’s performance in sport? Do you have a passion for a career in Biology/Sports Science or as a Competitive athlete? You will learn the basic physiological mechanisms that start as soon as your body is in motion and your adrenaline rises and their impact on training plans and performance.

There's a lot of controversy surrounding embryonic stem cells, but did you know that there are many other types of stem cells in your body? Recent advancements in genome editing and our understanding of stem cell specification has set the stage for a revolution in how we treat disease and injury. In this course, you'll achieve a foundational knowledge of what stem cells are, what they do, their importance to research and medicine and the societal implications.

This pathobiology course investigates multiple diseases that have significantly shaped mankind. We will explore the biological basis behind why diseases occur along with exploring the genetic, environmental, and social-economic contributors of multiple diseases. As we review disease through a historical and present-day lens, you will learn to interpret data, develop an argument and collaborate on projects with your peers.

After months of specific training, you are at the starting line of your big race. Before your body is even in motion, your autonomic nervous system takes charge commanding the necessary changes. Your fuel tanks are full and triggered for use. From your warm-up, blood is already shunted to specific muscles for oxygen delivery. The race starts, the heartbeat jumps up and blood is pumped at a greater volume and speed. Blood is diverted to the skin to ward off excess heat and stabilize temperature. Respiration increases to expire excess carbon dioxide, and pH is maintained. Breathe volume increases to gain extra oxygen. Muscle fibers specific to the velocity you need are turned on. Your body provides the power for you to succeed and win.

Environmental pollution is a rapidly growing public health concern. Combating its threats requires understanding the contaminant sources, ‘at-risk’ populations, and physiological effects of exposure. In this course, we will introduce concepts of environmental health and toxicology using primary real-world examples. We will present the delicate yet reciprocal balance of human and environmental health, while providing scientific strategies researchers use to study pollution in the lab.

“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” -Dobzhansky
Evolution is the force that illuminates the amazing diversity of life on the planet today. Evolution has been extensively documented and supported by an entire field of research dedicated to uncovering its complexities. However, discourse among politicians, school boards, and the media portrays evolution as controversial and contentious. Even well-meaning media outlets perpetuate misconceptions about evolution. Why is Darwin’s famous theory so misunderstood?

What does the world look like through the eyes of a lion? How about a mouse? a fish? or a fly? All animals perceive the world differently, but share the same goal: to survive and reproduce. The main objectives of this course are to provide an introduction to neuroscience, animal behavior, and the link between them. What do the eyes of an animal tell you about how it interacts with the environment? or where it falls in the food chain? We will explore these questions by comparing the neuroanatomy, chemical signaling, and social behavior of different species.

Are you interested in medicine, research and biotech? This course will provide an example of how all these different interests can be combined into a compelling biomarker project. Biomarkers are a major foundation of modern, personalized medicine and the key for discovering new therapeutics. The course will provide an overview on how medicine, research and public health work together to positively impact human health.

The brain and its blood supply are incredibly important. A central challenge in animal biology is how protect the nervous system while meeting its energy needs. This class will explore the nervous and cardiovascular systems on an evolutionary basis to study how different species have tackled this problem. We will use these differences to understand fundamentals of the brain, neurovasculature, blood brain barrier, and how to treat human diseases that arise when things go wrong.

The study of the brain is very different from the study of any other organ in the body. Nerve cells share many of the same fundamental characteristics with other cells, yet they produce unique behaviors such as coordinated movements, visual perception, learning and memory, emotion and intelligence. We will study the human brain in health and disease to gain knowledge of its function, appreciate its fascinating complexity and develop skills essential for accurate research in a sea of information.

The human brain is one of the most complicated and mysterious systems on the planet. In recent decades, a huge push has been made to understand the brain through computer modeling and causal manipulation of brain circuits. Scientists developed these models and tools not only to advance our understanding and treatments of neurological and psychiatric illnesses, but also to help us understand what underlies daily human experiences ranging from memory to perception to decision making.

What happens in your brain when you decide to buy a lottery ticket or go on a date with someone? What about when you spend hundreds of dollars on an expensive gadget that you stop using after a few months, or when you decide to say something that you should have known would be embarrassing? Are economic decisions and decisions in general the result of a messy fight between a 'rational' part of your brain and an 'irrational' one, or is decision-making all the result of one underlying and possibly unconscious mechanism?

Our brains are the driving force of our actions, but our environment and past decisions can greatly shape our brains. In this lecture and project-based course we will examine the bidirectional link between brain and behavior. We will take advantage of innate and learned behaviors to analyze and ultimately attempt to understand how our past experiences can change our brains, leading us to different actions in the future.

The brain has an incredible ability to acquire and store information. Memories collected across our lifetime make each one of us unique. But how are these memories made and where are they stored? Why are some memories amazingly vivid and others are not? Are you sure you can trust them? In this course we will explore precisely how we are able to learn and form different memories, what parts of our brain are responsible, how they change to accommodate learning, and why we sometime get it wrong.

Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, and networks of nerve cells, or neurons, that travel throughout the body. Although the field of neuroscience is relatively new, being recognized only in recent decades as a formal discipline, it is growing and expanding at a very rapid rate. The rapid growth of neuroscience and the pace of biomedical research make understanding neuroscience valuable for any student interested in biomedical or health sciences. Moreover, because neuroscience integrates biology, chemistry, physics, physiology, and psychology, it provides various avenues of opportunities for students who come from different academic backgrounds or interests.

Have you ever wondered about the difference between recreational and medicinal usage of psychoactive drugs? How do psychoactive drugs operate in the brain? What makes some drugs legal and others illegal? In this course, you will learn about the societal implications of different legal and illicit drugs. You will also learn the basic biological mechanisms of psychoactive drugs such as cocaine, LSD, nicotine, caffeine, and more.

Ever wonder what drives animals to behave in interesting ways? Curious how we are connected to our furry friends? In this course you will learn the fundamentals of comparative cognition including an introductory look at shared mechanisms across human and non-human animals and the evolution underlying our behavior. You will investigate these questions from a scientific perspective and explore basics in experimental design, understanding literature, and demystifying animal intelligence.

Nurture or Nature? What causes mental illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorder, and neurodegenerative disorders? This course will explore this question and dive into the field of psychopathology to learn more about the brain and human behavior. A practicing mental health therapist and a Ph.D. biologist will be your instructors in this educational journey.

Have you ever wondered how an olympian can reach untold levels of physical prowess? What is movement analysis? How is optimal function achieved? This course provides a deep dive into movement, function, and injury prevention from the level of a High School Athlete to an Olympian.

What makes a lemon sour, and our coffee bitter? How do giant sinkholes appear? And how did they get that red stain out of your white shirt? Throughout the day, acid/base chemistry drives many events, affecting everything from our food to the environment. However, acids and bases can be trickier to understand than they first appear. In this course, we use tutorials, lectures, and practice problems to understand how acids and bases influence our daily lives.

How our body actually works has to be magic, right? In this course, we will unveil the chemical “magic” that dictates when and how the human body behaves, in its everyday grind to keep us alive. Every biological process in our body, from the most basic function of glucose utilization to complicated pathways of drug metabolism, depends on basic concepts of chemistry in order to function. Without understanding the chemical basis of these interactions, it is almost impossible to fathom the incredibly diverse processes that are constantly occurring in the body.

Pollution can begin from a spill, flow down a river, accumulate in fish, and then be part of a fisherman’s dinner. Solving real environmental problems requires understanding each connected piece including the chemistry, biology, and human communities that are involved. By studying environmental toxicology and chemistry as a complex multidisciplinary science, you’ll learn how to understand, study, and explain what is going on in contaminated events and environments.

Molecular biology and biochemistry are two closely related fields where the properties of key biological molecules, such as proteins and DNA, and how they interact with each other in living organisms are studied. Research in these areas has become so successful at explaining living processes that it is used in almost all areas of the life sciences from medicine to the study of plants. Researchers play an integral role in the discovery of drugs that help prevent and cure diseases. Biochemists and molecular biologists also work in forensic crime labs, agriculture, biotechnology, hospitals, scientific law, and education.

Ever hear of nanotechnology? In the field of nanotechnology, we work with materials a billion times smaller than the diameter of one strand of hair! We study the use of these materials as we build an elevator to the moon, fight cancer, make stronger bikes, clean pollution, and improve solar panel energy efficiency. That is the power of nanotechnology! In this course, you will develop your own nanomaterials to solve a problem in society of your own choosing. This is a Course-based Research Experience (CRE).

So you want to enter the medical, dental, or veterinary fields. These disciplines require an understanding of life processes. To develop this understanding requires a knowledge of organic and biochemistry. This lecture and laboratory course will take you through the basics of organic chemistry where you will learn chemical structures and structural conversions. This will extend into biochemistry where basic biochemical components are considered from the organic perspective.

Archaeology is exciting, full of adventure, and dangerous - in the movies. In real life, archaeology is exciting, but not Indiana Jones-style. In order to understand archaeology, you must understand the culture and history you are studying. This course will examine ancient Greek culture and the material remains of it archaeology has provided, and will read a text that uses some of these remains in a novel.

“What of these things goes now without disaster?” -Aeschylus, Agamemnon This online course is an introduction to Ancient Greek mythological traditions. Topics include the Olympian gods; ‘culture heroes’ (e.g. Heracles), Homer and the Trojan Cycle of myths; mythical traditions about the families of Oedipus and Agamemnon; etc. We will conclude with an investigation of ancient mythical scholarship and skeptical views of myth in antiquity.

Gods. Heroes. Beasts. Creation. Annihilation. Why did so many societies create fantastical stories about the world around them? This Mythology course will closely examine these myths to gain a better understanding of both the past and present-day societies. Digging beyond the surface of the stories themselves, we will investigate why these stories were told, how they have influenced history, and the impact they have had -and continue to have- on modern-day social constructions of self and society.

The vast majority of courses taught on ancient history and/or religion focus on the presentation of facts in a lecture style. This course will do the opposite. In focusing on the games of the ancient world, the majority of which deal with the overarching theme of the afterlife, students will learn the history and religion of these cultures in a novel way. At the conclusion of each section, you will participate in the games which have been discussed. The final class period will focus on games and religion in the modern world, showing a clear correlation with the ancient mindset and further demystifying these ancient cultures.

Study with Brown University in Rome, Italy! Practice conversational Italian as you delve into Roman history and culture in this two-week program. From your home base in the quaint Monteverde Vecchio neighborhood in Italy’s capital, you will learn Italian organically as you order cappuccino and gelato, and complete a scavenger hunt. Each day, you’ll visit a variety of historic sites—from the Colosseum to Palatine’s Hill to Saint Peter Basilica—allowing you to analyze their connections to institutions and people, and evaluate their importance in the formation of Rome’s distinctive identity.

We are accustomed to engaging the American presidency as a public office best approached through the prism of government or political science, but this course studies the ways in which the presidents in thought and action are part of a larger continuum of humanistic expression in the western tradition. It is organized around five categories: memory, language, consolation, farewell, and self-reflection. Our work involves reading and viewing/listening to various materials, including videos and original documents.

What does it mean to account for one’s life by accounting for one’s origins? Nietzsche, for one, expressed the “uniqueness” of his existence “in the form of a riddle”: “As my father I have already died, as my mother I still live and grow old.” We will study literary and philosophical attempts at catching up with one’s troubled origins, including Nietzsche’s _Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is_ (self-interpretation); Freud’s “Selbstdarstellung” (self-portraiture); Kafka’s "Letter to Father" (paternal confessions); Derrida’s _Monolingualism of the Other_ (native languages and lost origins); Eribon’s _Returning to Reims_ (“class closet”).

Artificial intelligence (AI) has deeply transformed the role machines play in people’s lives, from search engines and voice assistants to self-driving cars. Under this impact, it is crucial to understand the principles of AI, its uses, and risks. The goal of this course is to introduce AI from a computer science perspective. This includes introducing the mathematical foundations and the main areas of study within AI, as well as providing hands-on experience to program "intelligence" on a computer.

This timely, topical course offers a comprehensive examination of ethical questions in cybersecurity. These issues pervade numerous, diverse aspects of the economy and society in the Information Age, from human rights to international trade. Students will learn about these topics, beginning first with acquaintance with the dominant ethical frameworks of the 20th and 21st centuries, then employing these frameworks to understand, analyze, and develop solutions for leading ethical problems in cybersecurity.

Are you fascinated by the terms artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science? Data Science and Machine Learning will introduce you to the world of analytics, business and programming. A practical, hands-on course that uses a live project to build concepts of machine learning. You will gain access to the latest tech development and dive deep into the data-driven approaches in the industry.

If you tried to live for one day without generating any data, how would you spend it? In the Information Age, the use of data has proliferated and is pervasive. This course will tackle problems of privacy; artificial intelligence, big data, bias, and accountability; and mis/disinformation, hate speech, and objectionable content. You will come away with useful tools to understand and craft answers to some of the most pressing problems of our time.

Computational mathematics and the numerical simulations built on it are now widely used in all aspects of our lives, such as simulating atmospheric flow to forecast the weather conditions in the next few days. Combined with computational mathematics, big data visualization is an increasingly important analysis method. For example, visualization of a Hurricane's trajectory and influence range predicted in numerical simulation can tell us measures to reduce casualties and economic losses. This course is designed to introduce you, as a future STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) student to computational mathematics, parallel computing techniques commonly used in scientific computing along with large-scale 3D data analysis methods, and software for numerical simulation.

If you've ever sent an encrypted message (iMessage, Whatsapp, Signal), purchased anything online or visited a website whose url started with "https", you've used cryptography! This course will introduce you to the fascinating world of cryptography. From simple ciphers to modern encryption schemes, you will learn the underpinnings of how cryptography works and how to reason about security. We will also explore modern day privacy issues and how cryptography might be used to address them.

This course will give you a deeper appreciation for the wide-ranging applications and impacts of AI and Data Science, and will encourage you to think like a data scientist. A major focus of this class will be the data analysis process. You will learn fundamental AI concepts, brainstorm possible solutions, and formulate and present your own detailed algorithm design.

Advances in computing power have enabled scientists to amass huge amounts of data on everything from genetics to climate science, but there is a need for someone to make sense of this data. In this class, we will learn how to perform basic statistical analysis and visualize data using the statistical software R.

This course explores the fields of Game Design, Systems Thinking, and Human Cognition. You will engage in a series of three collaborative design projects through which you create, play and analyze games that function as models of real world phenomena. You will exit this course being able to 1) design playable tabletop games, 2) apply scholarly principles of Game Design and Systems Thinking across domains, and 3) identify, understand, and model complex, real world problems.

A big challenge in science is effectively communicating data to an audience. It is very easy to misinterpret information when it is presented unclearly - something as mundane as the daily weather can be confusing! This course will help you develop graphical literacy and will teach you data science, design, and programming skills. Your goal will be to leave knowing how to make polished and descriptive figures.

Game theory is the field of economics that studies strategic interaction. More concretely, it focuses on understanding how agents make decisions based on what they expect others to do. As such, game theory applies to a wide range of fields, from biology to political science. This course will teach you the fundamentals of game theory from a simple yet formal perspective and how to dissect real-world problems in light of strategic interactions.

This course introduces the tools economists use to study human interaction in the presence of strategic concerns. Traditional economic theory assumes that people always act rationally, carefully balancing costs and benefits in their decision-making process. On the other hand, behavioral economics seeks to explain why humans often act irrationally or contrary to their best interests. This thought-provoking course will provide real-world scenarios to illustrate how human behavior in all of its complexity is understood and predicted through applied economics theory.

The Brown University-Hult Business Bootcamp will teach you the skills to build an entrepreneurial venture. This course is to expand your perspectives regarding entrepreneurship and leadership, as well as give you the tools and skills to engage in entrepreneurial processes – whether within an existing organization or if they were to start a business on their own. The intent of this course will be to focus on key areas as it relates to entrepreneurship including Leadership, Creativity and Innovation, Building Strategic Partnerships, Marketing, and Sales.

Do good-looking people earn more? Are people with certain types of names more likely to get hired than others? Can cancer affect housing prices? Does living near a fast-food restaurant cause obesity? Is corruption a cultural trait? This one-week core economics course will examine select discoveries in applied microeconomics and explain them in easy-to-understand terms, introducing you to the techniques economists use to uncover causal relations from observational data.

Even though we may not realize it, we are exposed to economic data and statistical analysis wherever we go—in the supermarket through product prices, on the news when politicians present us with labor statistics, and in the mobile phone store when comparing phone plans. Econometrics uses math and statistics to measure economic data. Understanding how to use the models and tools of econometrics will empower you to accurately interpret the economic data that surrounds you daily and in all aspects of your life.

Is a college education a worthwhile investment? Should we tax junk food? Why do recessions occur? Where does money come from? Is social security running out? If you have ever wondered about these questions, this course will help you find answers to these and introduce you to the vast world of economics!

This course is an introduction to macroeconomics, the big picture economic questions. We will study the short-term price level and employment fluctuations of the business cycle and long-term growth. We will also spend a significant time studying depression economics and the linkages between financial crises and economic recessions. We will use some simple math to construct economic models that will give rigor to our more qualitative description of how the economy works.

This course is focused on giving you an introduction to the startup environment. We will look at the entrepreneurial process while continually developing the skills needed to succeed as a "thought leader" in a constantly evolving atmosphere. This class requires a large amount of self-direction and hands-on participation. We will explore different aspects of innovation, asking questions like, what makes good innovation? How do I turn an idea or innovation into a viable business or product? How can this be done in a lean, efficient way? Over the course, you will work individually on developing your own startup while simultaneously working together as a class to develop and launch a venture by the end of the session.

Have you ever made a regrettable purchase and then found yourself rationalizing your decision? Have you witnessed family members spending money in ways that don’t seem to be in their best financial interest? Behavioral finance combines behavioral and cognitive psychological theory with traditional economics to explain why people make irrational financial decisions.

Probability and statistical inference. Estimation and hypothesis testing. Simple and multiple regression analysis. Applications emphasized.

Prerequisites: ECON 0110, or AP Microeconomics 4 and AP Macroeconomics 4, or IB HL Economics 6

This fundamental course will introduce you to microeconomic theory. Microeconomics is a field within economics and studies how individuals and firms make consumption and production decisions, respectively, and how these decisions determine the allocation of scarce resources in a market. As such, it provides a formal framework to study policy-relevant questions like, Does a subsidy unambiguously increase the profit of a struggling firm? Or even questions like: Should a pizza restaurant start a price war with its competitor down the block? How does a price change in coffee alter the demand for breakfast muffins?

Social entrepreneurship/enterprise is a rapidly growing field that utilizes an entrepreneurial approach to address social needs and create positive change. Companies such as Patagonia, 4ocean, and Warby Parker epitomize strong and sustainable organizations which are creating both social and financial value.  This course will provide you with an overview of the evolving field of social entrepreneurship and explore critical aspects of justice-informed leadership

Have you thought about where you would like to be financially in 10, 20, and 30 years? Do you hope to retire at some point in your life? How will you get there? Does your home country have a robust financial plan for its future? Unfortunately, many people, governments, and organizations have not planned or adequately prepared to meet their economic goals. This course will explore the factors that will likely make it even more difficult for your generation to be as financially secure as that of your parents and grandparents. Factors such as Covid, deficit spending, lower government benefits, increased life expectancy, volatility in financial markets, changes in labor market demographics, and prolonged low-interest rates will present challenges. This course will help you understand global economic factors and lead to more informed financial decisions.

This course is being transitioned from on-campus to online. It may involve attending virtual class meetings via Zoom or some other meeting tool at various points throughout the session. Your instructor will arrange those meeting times once the course has begun; otherwise, the course will be conducted wholly online. The duration, course credit, and fees associated with the course are the same as they would have been for on-campus Summer Session courses, which are the equivalent of full-semester Brown University courses, though offered in a condensed, seven-week format.

This course is expected to run. Full details will be posted once confirmed

When your parents were young, their telephones were attached to walls, computers took up entire rooms, and they purchased consumer goods in a store. Today, with advances such as the "Internet of Things," we can forgo the store entirely and order all of our goods online using mobile apps. Technology "runs" our lives from online education to paying a friend through an app or signing up online for a vaccination appointment. We now experience services and products unimagined even a few years ago, such as mind-controlled computing or Robin the Robot. These innovations affect our everyday lives and shape our communities, businesses, and governments. This course explores innovation and incentives to create new products and services, the "winners" and "losers" of innovative activities, and the profound effects of technological advancements on businesses and economies worldwide.

Pyramids! Hieroglyphs! Cats! This is a comprehensive introduction to the fascinating world of Egyptology, a complete crash-course in the study of ancient Egypt.

What is the purpose of life? Who can claim to be wise? How can one ensure that they are remembered once they are gone? While questions of mortality, memory and meaning have risen to the forefront over the past two years, they were also prevalent in the civilizations of the ancient world. In this course, we will examine classic works of humanity’s search for permanence in the face of an impermanent world and learn how the ancients sought wisdom, hopefully finding some ourselves along the way.

The world relies on energy. This course considers the engineering application of efficiently utilizing energy sources to produce useful work. It considers advances since the start of the Industrial Revolution with wind, water, steam, electricity, internal and external combustion machines up to modern efforts with solar, nuclear, ocean, wind, and controversial approaches. Engineering tradeoffs, limitations, penalties, and projections are discussed along with a strong hands-on component of demos and device building.

Are you passionate about innovative approaches to improving human health? Biomedical engineers apply principles of biology, medicine, and science, along with problem-solving skills and critical thinking, to solve a broad spectrum of medical problems. In this course, you will specifically explore how the field of biomedical engineering uses math and science fundamentals to develop novel solutions for replacement tissues, organs, and devices.

Have you ever wondered how pacemakers are made, or how cartilage is grown for joint repair? In this course, you will learn how biomedical engineers - specialists in combining the principles of human biology and engineering - develop devices and tissue-engineered technologies that improve, rehabilitate, and even save lives!

Have you ever wondered how bridges are designed and built? Have you wondered how engineers decide which materials to use? The importance of design practice and developing hands-on approaches to solving engineering projects is an important skill in both industry and academia. This course introduces the engineering design process and the iterative prototyping method, culminating in a final design project where you have the opportunity to use and demonstrate your new knowledge.

In what has been termed "The Second Industrial Revolution", millions of "makers" from around the world are collaborating via the internet to create amazing inventions using open source hardware and software. In this course, you will be introduced to the Arduino microprocessor, C++ programming and electrical circuit theory to unleash their creative potential. Learn how to become part of this maker movement, bring your imagination and be ready to innovate during this hands-on experience.

More than 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water. But how much do you actually know about water or fluids? This course will introduce you to the world of fluid mechanics, with applications ranging from aerospace engineering to bacteria locomotion. We will focus on the physics and engineering of fluids and visualize core concepts in class. Student groups will design hovercrafts, optimized for speed and maneuverability, using knowledge discussed in the course.

Drones are everywhere, but don't you wish you could program the drone to fly itself indoors? This course will combine both hardware and software skills, teaching you not just how to build an UAV, but also how to control that UAV with the robot operating system (ROS). This knowledge will lay the foundation for controlling other robots - from vacuum cleaners to humanoid robotic arms.

Engineering has changed tremendously in the past few decades. Some of the most notable changes can be found in how computers are used by engineers to quickly develop and communicate ideas. Recent advances in the technology of computers and software have made using Computer Aided Design (CAD) central to the art of Engineering. In this course, CAD software will be used to help you create solutions for unique engineering design challenges.

Are you considering a career in engineering? Are you fascinated by what engineers do? In this course, you will be given the opportunity to experience engineering and design first hand. You will gain an understanding of the fundamentals of the engineering design process, a grasp of the various fields of engineering, and an appreciation of the far-reaching impacts of engineering.

From video game development to engineering design, computers are used to simulate complex physical systems and to gain insights into their underlying phenomena. In this course, you will be introduced to the field of numerical methods and computational science and engineering.

Matlab is a widely used computer programming system. This course will provide you with the opportunity to learn Matlab programming as applied to a 2-dimensional game that incorporates principles of Artificial Intelligence. You will study default code that simulates a robot game called Last Rover Roving (LRR). You will then try optimizing certain parameters to improve your scores in the contest and to improve the game itself. Through participation in this class, you will come to understand some of the intricacies of Artificial Intelligence.

A revolution is taking place in the laboratories of the world--new materials with fascinating properties are being discovered every day. In addition, old materials have been found to have amazing new strengths--including metals that do not rust, foam that can repair itself, and powdered bananas. Scientists at NASA are using special nitride ceramics that can be touched with our bare hands even though they could be at a searing 3000 Celsius! New titanium nanocomposite alloys are lighter than steel, but ten times as strong. In the near future, we might even be able to to build an elevator to space! In this course, you will learn the fundamentals of Materials Engineering as you uncover the properties of these materials and many others.

Materials science and engineering is all around us - it influences our everyday lives in ways that we probably never consider. It also allows scientists to observe, touch, design, and fabricate matter as small as atoms and molecules. Can you imagine working with a material that is only 1/100,000 the width of a human hair? This course will explore materials science and engineering by looking at a specific challenge: how to design a cost-effective, and structurally sound bridge component.

The demand for energy is expected to grow 30% by 2040. Today, most of the energy harvested originates from non-renewable sources. What role can engineers play in developing renewable energy technology to meet the anticipated demand? What does it take to become an engineer in this field? In this course, you will explore in detail, the increasingly innovative potential of wind and solar energy.

Solar energy is becoming more relevant and visible in our daily lives. There are increasing installations of solar farms off of highways and solar panels on our rooftops. This course will introduce solar energy from both a technical and social viewpoint through hands-on experimentation and group discussion. You will learn about ongoing scientific advancements to solar energy and how to design your own research projects.

Ever think of vacationing in space? From seeing the Earth from the upper atmosphere to feeling weightless for even just 30 seconds, space tourism has arrived! This course will cover the fundamental science and engineering concepts behind what is needed for space tourism, from Newton's law to the material properties needed in aircraft design to impacts on the human body.

She speaks in spells and incantations, cursing enemies and unlucky strangers alike. You might spot her stirring a cauldron in the shadows or riding a broomstick across the night sky. With pale white - or sometimes green - skin, she typically lives apart from society, either alone in the woods or among a coven of her own. Many know her by the name “witch.” Looking at popular media, this course will analyze how witches prompt a reevaluation of cultural norms through their very violation of them.

Have you ever wondered about how the events of the previous century shaped the perceptions of the people existing in the contemporary world?The innumerable layers of the human mind can be explored through the study of the past, in the present age, to comprehend the perplex relationship between time and the human mind. Re-live and re-visit history of the 20th century by reading the theories and movements that were born out of the wars, economic recessions, psychological and technological shifts.

How will we know when the end of the world has arrived? How do we know it hasn't already happened? And how might our racial or gender identities shape our relationship to it? In this course, we will unpack movies, short stories, and current events in order to disrupt popular notions of what an “apocalypse” looks like. We’ll also use our readings to discuss why apocalyptic predictions are so popular across time and space and theorize about what, if anything, we should do about the next one.

This course will explore the possibilities of what we can make, quite literally, from our own experience: what happens when our hand doesn’t stop moving, goes from writing to visual art, and back again? We will draw on a combination of creative nonfiction, poetry, and collage, and, working from personal experience and the world around us, make physical objects (chapbooks, hybrid essays, comics, etc.) that blend forms and themes and ask: what is “creative work”? In what ways can social media and technology contribute to the creative process, and how can they help us see alternative examples of the “book”? How can they hinder it? How can we look at the personal—our past and present experience, the ways we interact with the world, the ways we talk to ourselves and synthesize our surroundings—as a way to connect with individuals and the world at large?

Is comedy possible in the twenty-first century? Ours is an age of disappointment, plagued by unprecedented violence and crisis, and the familiar tools of satire (insult and shame chief among them) have all but lost their edge in the face of daily life. But does this necessarily mean that ours is a tragic age? This course will give us an opportunity to investigate the conditions that allow a tragic situation to become a comedic one.

Writing fiction comes from deep engagement with language, with ideas, with images and with the world. This four-week workshop provides writers with tools. In this workshop, students will encounter intensive reading, challenging writing assignments and regular feedback from colleagues and from the workshop leader. This workshop will provide opportunities for each writer to extend a sense of what fiction can do — and provide an environment where innovation is nurtured.

Writing poetry comes from deep engagement with language, with ideas, with images and with the world. This four-week workshop provides writers with tools. In this workshop, you will encounter intensive reading, challenging writing assignments and regular feedback from colleagues and from the workshop leader. This workshop will provide opportunities for you to extend a sense of what poetry can do — and provide an environment where innovation is nurtured.

Experimental Writing is an invitation for you to challenge what they have been taught about writing. The course asks: How radical can we get? & What about audience--is experimental writing by definition hostile to readers, or can we experiment toward greater inclusiveness? Perhaps counter-intuitively, Experimental Writing promotes the thoughtful consideration of all writing techniques--radical and conventional.

In the midst of climate change and environmental destruction, rising totalitarianism and deadly racism, heightened economic precarity and increased wealth inequality, why might we choose to read poetry? Does poetry make any difference? Who is poetry for? This discussion-based course will think about the ways experimental language might invite us to read differently and think anew about ourselves, each other, and the world.

This course will introduce you to the various styles and traditions of writing. We will explore new media (such as online publishing) and traditional publishing formats while also preparing students for the college writing workshop experience. Those interested in fiction, essays, screenwriting, or hybrid writing practices will gain access to some of the most cutting-edge writing techniques of the moment. The conclusion of the course will be a publication in the author's chosen medium.

Creative nonfiction considers what nonfiction means--especially in light of the complication that what is true might be entirely subjective. By reading examples *as writers*, we identify what the genre can do; we’ll explore several varieties of creative nonfiction—lyric, history, film, music & memoir. All the while, we'll write--bending rules & taking risks. That’s the license “creative” gives. Nonfiction is a ground but needn't be any more limiting than its counterpart, fiction.

We are surrounded by stories—they're like air—yet writing compelling stories requires work, craft, technique, and a hearty dose of bravery. The objectives of this course are to give you the toolkit they need to write effective and moving fictions, to be more nuanced thinkers, and to be more creatively fearless.

Why do employers refuse to hire young women who don't meet their language or image standards for women? Why are young people from urban backgrounds told to speak differently if they want to succeed in college? Why are some people so against the use of they/them pronouns? This course will address these questions by exploring how language is used to sustain systematic inequality and how language can be a tool for challenging this inequality.

This course considers how law and literature contribute jointly to our sense of justice and our understanding of injustice. Through novels, poetry, film, legal writings, and legal opinions, we examine how law and literature create interrelated narratives that shed light on issues like identity, sexuality, injury, policing, speech, and silence.

What is the relationship between law and literature? How do these supposedly separate disciplines contribute to our sense of justice and our understanding of injustice? We examine these questions through novels, legal writings, legal opinions, and film, in order to discover how law and literature create interrelated narratives that shed light on issues like identity, sexuality, injury, policing, speech, and silence. We read literary and legal narratives to see to how they inform each other, but also illuminate each other’s blind spots.

America has been described as a melting pot and a nation of immigrants, but what does it mean to be an “American” and to claim an “American” identity? This course will introduce students to the study of personal and group identity in U.S. literature and culture. Crossing multiple genres, historical periods, and cultural forms (fiction, film, TV), we will examine a diverse range of texts by African American, Asian American, Chicano/Latino, Jewish American, and Native American writers. We will ask how these writers have come to understand the United States, and how they have used literary and cultural expression to represent their own experiences and the experiences of their communities in the U.S.

What do we talk about when we talk about love? We will see how writers have addressed this question from Shakespeare's day to the present. Writers may include Shakespeare, Austen, Eliot, Flaubert, Graham Greene, Marilynne Robinson, and/or others. Students should register for ENGL 0100P S01 and may be assigned to conference sections by the instructor during the first week of class.

This course is offered fully online.

There’s a reason medicine is referred to as an art. While science is undoubtedly integral to the field of medicine, equally important are more qualitative abilities in observation, interpretation, navigating ambiguity and emotional complexity, and facing the unknown. The course will explore how such skills are essential to good doctoring and can make medical practitioners better at diagnosing, communicating with patients, and collaborating with a medical team.

Why are cultures so fascinated with monsters? What makes a monster? Is it their strange-looking body, or the unfamiliar world they represent? Monsters often represent our worst fears. But rarely do we examine those fears and ask what our anxiety about monsters tells us about our society and ourselves. In this course, we make sense of the monstrous in popular culture by seeing how “the monster” acts as social index for anxieties over the new, the unknown, the threatening, and the unimaginable.

Through a series of short assignments, we will explore how the stories we tell are affected by the use of audio, visual, and performative tools. The course cumulates in a final project where each student will pursue a long-form story of their choice of subject and medium.

Prerequisites: None

What’s love got to do with it? This course examines how the courtship plot, from meet-cute to marriage, shapes cultural understandings not only of romance, but also of gender, race, class, sexuality, and genre. In this course, you will engage critically with novels from the nineteenth century to the present, alongside films and TV shows. The course seeks to enable you to become better readers, critics, and writers.

Do you want to express your thoughts in a clearer and more compelling manner? Do you have convincing arguments and brilliant insights in your mind that just don't seem to translate into your writing? This course will help you get those great ideas onto paper and communicate them effectively to your intended audience, whether that is a high school teacher, college professor, or even your peers.

Despite our increasing reliance on screens in our 21st-century lives, reading and writing remain crucial skills in any discipline. This course is designed to prepare you to write at the university level, and the readings for this course have been chosen with the goal of stimulating critical thinking, acquainting you with the conventions of American academic writing, and providing students with models for effective writing.

Good writers open up windows with words by sharing their personal experience. This course brings together the pleasures and challenges of reading, writing, and traveling. You will write about “places,” whether it’s the main street of your hometown or a place you are just coming to know. You will develop skills to craft a personal voice and to inform your experience through research, character development, and narrative structure on an asynchronous “blog” in CANVAS.

Why is so much of the American canon founded on suspicion? This course investigates a tradition of American cultural production that finds in paranoia novel ways of imagining history as well as life today. Texts encompass a broad range of genres from the nineteenth century to the present moment, including gothic fiction, satire, speculative fiction, political thrillers, and science fiction. Authors and filmmakers include Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Henry James, Alfred Hitchcock, Philip K.

Every day, we encounter more language that can’t be page-turned away: advertisements with hidden “close” buttons, collaborative social media posts, self-driven phone notifications, and more. As this crowd of digitized texts grows thicker, mobile text becomes more legible than static text. And so it is urgent that literature, too, moves. This course teaches coding for the web, so that you can make literature built for contemporary readers.

Flash fiction is a story boiled down to its essence, one that hinges on a single word, a phrase, or a fragment. In this class, we will learn by doing. We will read the work of a variety of modern authors, learning from those who have come before us. This is a class for exploring and pushing language; it is for those who want to hone, sharpen their work, and say more by saying less.

In this course, which will be offered in both in-person and online formats (be sure to register for the one that you prefer!), we will explore the balance between self-expression and effective communication essential to writing the powerful personal narratives that are at the core of successful college admissions essays. Together, we will practice strategies for understanding ourselves as developing young scholars–and learn to translate that self-understanding into compelling admissions essays.

Have you ever wondered how expectations for college-level writing differ from those in high school, and what new approaches you might employ to meet the challenges of college writing? In this course, we'll approach essay writing as a method of inquiry, research, and self-discovery. If you're concerned about your academic preparation for college, interested in the nuances of university-level writing, or simply wish to practice writing compelling narrative and research essays, this course is for you.

This course focuses on one of the three core areas covered in Brown's popular course series for undergraduates: self-presentation and writing letters of application. You will draft, workshop, and revise their own original personal essays, while also reading and analyzing published essays in class discussions. This is a discussion-based class in which you will be expected to share your work and provide feedback to peers.

This course focuses on one of the three core areas covered in Brown's popular course for undergraduates, "Critical Reading and Writing I: The Academic Essay:” self-presentation and writing letters of application (Presenting Yourself In Words); analysis within university-level writing (Writing About Media); and utilizing argumentation and evidence in a college research paper (Composing the Academic Essay). Taking all three courses effectively exposes you to the full range of writing taught in "Critical Reading and Writing: The Academic Essay." These courses have been designed in such a way that you may take a single one, or any two, or all three of these Seminars, and may take them in any order that suits your schedule.

This course focuses on one of the three core areas covered in Brown's popular course for undergraduates, "Critical Reading and Writing I: The Academic Essay:” self-presentation and writing letters of application (Presenting Yourself In Words); analysis within university-level writing (Writing About Media); and utilizing argumentation and evidence in a college research paper (Composing the Academic Essay). Taking all three courses effectively exposes students to the full range of writing taught in "Critical Reading and Writing: The Academic Essay." These courses have been designed in such a way that students may take a single one, or any two, or all three of these Seminars, and may take them in any order that suits their schedule.

In this class, we will write. A lot. We will write every day. And by doing so, we will develop as storytellers. We will look at work from the early days of the genre to work written last week. We will look at these stories not only out of a love for sci-fi but also out of an interest in language. We will see how the great stories were crafted and use that knowledge to inform our own work. This is a class for those of you who love language, who love stories, and who love asking, "what if?"

Young leaders are rising up all over the world to express something of great importance - our planet is in turmoil and we must take immediate action to save it. The impacts of global climate change are increasing every minute and, sadly, are unequally impacting the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Brown Environmental Leadership Labs (BELL) combines concepts in environmental studies, ecology, and leadership, with a mission of developing socially responsible leaders. You will develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to create positive change on environmental issues facing your local communities and the planet as a whole.

Brown Environmental Leadership Labs (BELL) combines concepts in environmental studies, ecology, and leadership, with a mission of developing socially responsible leaders. You will develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to create positive change on environmental issues facing your local communities and the planet as a whole.

Environmental detective meets product designer: You. A single plastic bag can take up to 1000 years to decompose. Americans dispose of 365 plastic bags per person per year, on average. As of November 12, 2021 there are 331,648,943 Americans. Patented in 1965 by a Swedish company, this singular product, the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag, has become an iconic global staple for toting items and is consumed worldwide at the rate of one million a minute. Can you solve this environmental conundrum?

Climate change is shifting relationships between people, plants, animals and their shared environment causing diseases to spread where they have never been before. This course highlights how changing ecosystems influence infectious disease transmission and treatment, often with a disproportionate effect on the poor. By the final session, you will understand how climate change amplifies inequalities in infectious disease.

You will work with experts at Roger Williams Park Zoo to explore local and global conservation issues.

The great marine biologist, Sylvia Earle, says, “With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live.” With effects of global climate change on the rise, it is essential that we take action to work towards protecting the most vulnerable ecosystems on this planet. Our marine ecosystems need protection and that will take a new generation of leaders with the passion and skills to rise to the challenge.

Estuaries, where the rivers meet the sea, are the foundation of life in marine systems and are considered to be one of the most productive and biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. Throughout this two-week course taking place, each day, at the non-profit organization, Save the Bay, Narragansett Bay will serve as a living laboratory and case study where we will learn about the Bay's important functions and how it and other estuaries are impacted by real threats.

Adaptive, resilient, interdependent, fractal are all traits that describe elements and patterns found within nature, but what do these words and patterns have to teach us about shaping change within the environmental movement? Using wisdom from the book “Emergent Strategy” by scholar adrienne maree brown and the work of other visionaries, this course explores phenomena and patterns within our ecosystems to find inspiration and imagine a way forward in the face of intersectional global crises.

This course is aimed to expose you to the area of environmental health and illustrate how it is directly and indirectly incorporated into numerous elements of our life. Toxic metals, vector-borne illness, food safety, water quality, radiation, pesticides, air and climate change, hazardous waste, risk assessment, and the role of the community in environmental health are some of the topics that will be discussed.

Global ocean health is crucial to a livable planet. During this course, you will become familiar with the many habitats of Narragansett Bay, the multiple branches of marine science, current research and methods employed in the field, and scientific peer-reviewed journal articles. You will be introduced to real-world research methods utilized by marine scientists and local researchers to study biotic and abiotic aspects of marine habitats, using our bay as a model for the global ocean.

How can art not just look good, but do good? How can science not just help us know, but help us act and feel? This course combines concepts in environmental studies, ecologically-based art, and leadership, with a mission to develop socially responsible and creative leaders.

Study with Brown University in Rome, Italy!
Why learn Italian only in the classroom when you're in Italy? The city of Rome will be our classroom as this course spills outside for a unique and immersive learning experience. You will learn organically by hearing, reading, and speaking in a fun and low-pressure environment. Ordering cappuccino and gelato, as well as a scavenger hunt in the Monteverde neighborhood of Rome, will be part of the coursework. Authentic communicative activities and dynamic language exercises abound as you are encouraged to make use of elementary Italian.

Study with Brown University in Segovia, Spain!
Why Spanish? Because learning Spanish will change you. You will be able to communicate with more than 550 million new people. That is a lot of people, that is a lot of experiences to learn from, a lot of open doors to new places and new professions. Spanish matters!

Kafka’s writings take as a central concern the philosophical interpretability of what we call literature. What is one to make, for instance, of a text that begins with a protagonist awakening one morning to realize that he has been transformed into a monstrous vermin? Or another awakening protagonist unexpectedly detained by officers waiting in his apartment? For Kafka, “correct understanding of something and misunderstanding of the same thing are not entirely mutually exclusive.” We will study some of Kafka’s greatest stories alongside key attempts at interpreting Kafka philosophically, including Benjamin, Adorno, Derrida, Deleuze/Guattari, and Agamben.

This course engages students with social justice issues in the Spanish-speaking world (the US, Latin America, and Spain), analyzing recent films addressing topics such as: racial, gender, and sexual identities; socioeconomic inequality; immigration, the border, and displacement; civil conflict, dictatorship, and their aftermath; the environment and climate change; postcolonial legacies and the impact of neoliberalism and globalization.

Since the beginning, our home planet has undergone truly spectacular changes. Travel through time and explore the frozen tundras and sweltering jungles of Earth’s past, and discover the many wild and even alien-like creatures that once ruled it. Together, we will explore the rise and fall of multiple worlds on our home planet. The formation of the Earth, the origin of life, mass extinctions, plate tectonics, and how scientists have unraveled this 4.5-billion-year history will all be part of our journey through the ages.

Does life exist anywhere else in the universe, or even in our own Solar System? If you have ever looked at the sky and wondered if habitable worlds like (or unlike) ours exist elsewhere, then this is the class for you. This course explores possible habitats for life on Mars, asteroids, the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and exoplanets (planets around other stars). Along the way, you will learn about the latest NASA missions and explore unanswered questions about our universe.

What is our relationship to the past, and why is it sometimes fraught with longing and with fear? "The past is never dead. It's not even past," William Faulkner wrote, and this class explores how longing for the past has occurred in Western literature and thought. From the classical era to the modern day, this course covers literature, movies, and psychology of how we think about nostalgia, and how the past continues to haunt the present.

How did Native Americans adapt to the violence of colonization? What role have enslaved peoples, marginalized groups, and women played in the history of US wars? In this course, students will explore how US wars have shaped American society and how social forces have impacted the nation’s wars. Throughout, we will remain sensitive to how the disfranchised and marginalized survived the war—and sometimes, in these moments of existential crisis, pressed for greater freedom and equality.

"The people want the fall of the regime!" This cry has resonated across the Middle East and North Africa for over a decade, echoing from the mouths of the young and old, rich and poor, regardless of religion, gender, or ethnicity. Those in this course will interrogate the roots of these calls for change by exploring the history of popular politics across the region, discussing movements rooted in anti-colonialism, nationalism, anti-authoritarianism, and the politics of religion and class.

What is the role of power in the production of history? In this course, we’ll focus on what is remembered and celebrated in historical narratives—and what is forgotten. We’ll explore these questions by looking at archives, public monuments, and museums in the United States. We’ll discuss how activist histories are recorded, who decides where monuments go, and whether or not museums are neutral. Finally, we will collectively curate our own small scale exhibition as a response to these questions.

Study with Brown University in Segovia, Spain! Segovia’s rich history and dramatic architecture make it an ideal place for you to explore Spain’s history and culture from the Middle Ages to the present while developing your communication skills in Spanish. Once ruled by Romans, Moors, and Christians, Segovia’s architecture and layout illustrate how different cultural communities coexisted throughout history. You won’t be just sitting in a classroom, however: you’ll cook typical Spanish meals, read Antonio Machado’s poetry and visit his home, and learn to write text messages in Spanish.

Most of us today are landlubbers. Our modes of travel, sustenance, communication – all are essentially land based. But things were not always this way. For most of the colonial period, waterways, not land, were the center of life, travel, and the economy. This course explores the watery worlds of early America through a combination of in-class sessions and on-the-water experiences in a kayak, chartered sailboat, and motorboat.

This course is designed to help you more fully understand American politics, the ways in which public policy shapes and is shaped by American politics, and the different levers of social change at the local, state and national level. In this course, you will be able to learn more about the current and historical political landscape and consider the ways that movements for social change have come about. You will also learn about policy-making and the influence that organizations and individuals hold to shape and pass policy. The course will also incorporate social justice theory as a lens through which you can analyze the political landscape and consider the multitude of avenues for social change, with an emphasis on policy as one principal avenue. You will then utilize the knowledge gained from this course to critically analyze a contemporary social justice topic of their own choosing and consider the ways that they can individually and collectively work toward creating a more just, equitable society.

War: What is it good for? As for us, the people of the ancient world would answer that question in a variety of ways which shed light upon their views on the role of violence in society. This course will study warfare in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, using both archaeological and textual sources. By the end of our weeklong excursion through ancient battlefields, we will gain a better understanding of how ancient participants and observers calculated the gain and cost of warfare.

This course will introduce you to the art of Egypt, Greece, and Rome in the collections of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum. We will also discuss the history of museums, their role in society and and how they emerged as Western institutions of knowledge. Students will learn about ancient art, how to apply this knowledge to museum collections, do presentations in the RISD galleries and devise their own fictitious museum exhibit.

Fashion is one unifying element in our world - everyone gets dressed - however, how we choose to get dressed is another story entirely. Modern fashion, and the unique periods that created them, exist within the intersection of modern artists, designers, and aesthetics, impacting culture forever. From the radical and the innovative to the comfortable and the convenient, this course explores the ways fashion has come together to create the modern aesthetic and shape the clothing industry.

This course investigates the major movements of European and American painting, sculpture, printmaking, and photography from the late-19th century to the present. We will look at the rise of urbanization and industrialization as well as the origins of an “avant-garde.” Through lectures and class discussions, we will consider the ways in which modern artists subverted traditional art and experimented with new ways of seeing.

Do you want to learn about how financial decisions are made in the market? This course provides a clear mathematical lens to understand investment principals and risk management. Investment banks and hedge funds design and implement mathematical models that help them price financial assets and create portfolios of assets that balance between an investment’s risk and return characteristics. This course will provide you with an introduction to these mathematical methods.

Geometry is the branch of mathematics dealing with shape and measurement. Modern challenges in data analysis, the physical sciences, and many areas of social science require geometric tools entirely distinct from the classical geometry taught in high school. More importantly, they require a sophisticated mathematical point of view, since questions like "how similar are these two brain scans?" or "is this congressional district weirdly shaped?" do not immediately seem to be under the purview of mathematics.

This course is expected to run. Full details will be posted once confirmed.

Logic is a system of rules upon which human reasoning is based. It is a tool that we deploy routinely in our everyday lives. It pervades every academic discipline, from mathematics to the sciences to the humanities. To philosophers, however, logic is a deep and complex subject of study in its own right. A paradox is a chain of reasoning that starts from seemingly obvious premises and arrives at a conclusion we find unacceptable. This course is devoted in part to exploring this system of rules, which we will build formally from the ground up. We will eventually use our formal system both to better understand the structure of language and to model and assess real-world arguments.

Quantitative Analysts (Quants for short) are considered the rocket scientists of Wall Street. They are employed by investment banks, hedge funds, and insurance companies to create mathematical models that allow firms to price and trade securities and manage risk. This course will provide you with the basic mathematical concepts and techniques used in Finance, with an emphasis on problem-solving skills.

Number Theory is considered “The Queen of Mathematics”. It is devoted to the study of integers. This course helps you to discover the harmonious relationships that exist between integers and in particular among prime numbers, with emphasis on the distribution of primes among integers as well as discovery of large prime numbers. You will learn how to exploit these relationships to create cryptography methods that are used in securing transmission of digital messages.

How does Google Maps find routes to your destination? How likely is it that a new disease will become an epidemic, and what can be done to prevent this? How do memes spread? What about the spread of disinformation campaigns on social media? All these questions, at their core, involve networks. A network is a group of interconnected people or things. For example, a map can be understood as a collection of locations connected by roads. People spread diseases through interactions with each other. Memes travel from account to account as people share them with their friends and followers.

The premise of set theory is deceptively simple: it is the study of boxes (sets) and the things they hold inside them (elements). Axiomatic set theory is to other areas of mathematics as an operating system is to other computer programs. While it often exists in the background, only obliquely referred to, set theory supplies a solid foundation for our castles in the sky. But set theory is more than just a foundation for other fields; it opens many dazzling frontiers of thought all on its own.

We live in the age of data and thanks to the ubiquity of fast and low-cost computing, data on almost any topic are at your fingertips. This course aims to teach you the skills needed to turn data into intelligence. This course will explain how, where, and why statistics is used to solve real world issues in many fields of research. We'll examine methods of collecting, summarizing, and analyzing data, focusing on issues critical to public health, economics, human behavior, and other fields.

Our modern world is founded on mathematics. The impacts of math are all around us - we can find interesting math in daily weather forecasts, smartphone innovations, even something as simple as telling time. Are you up for the challenge of creating new math that will spur the next wave of scientific discovery? This course will introduce you to the process and challenges of mathematical research, and help you acquire the skills you need to ask and answer innovative questions in math.

In this course, you will take the positions of tourist and researcher as you travel around the world to understand the social construction of tourist spaces. From Mount Everest to tropical islands, US National Parks, and Disney World, you will analyze how these spaces and others were produced, how they are culturally represented, and the social dynamics that uphold their continued existence.

Exploring major themes in film theory, this course asks the question, why do movies matter today? What does cinema have to do with life—and with death? Screening cultural and social taboo —including sensory/sensual pleasure, material decay, social death, archival absences, labor, and killing—is the focus of this course. By investigating film form and materiality (from celluloid to digital), can we envision opportunities for subversive participatory spectatorship today?

Everyone has a story to tell and, increasingly, the modes of production and distribution to share their story with a wide audience. But how best to tell it effectively and ethically? In three weeks, students will harness their passion for digital communication to build technical skills in production and post-production as they are exposed to a wide range of non-fiction narrative approaches. Learning will culminate in an original work of non-fiction narrative in a time-based medium.

Television’s modes of content creation, distribution, and consumption are changing rapidly. Some would argue that television has usurped film as the preeminent visual medium of our age, while others would suggest that television and film are converging to the point that these very labels are becoming meaningless. Regardless, alternative modes of production and distribution allow for a plethora of diverse shows that no longer have to “play in Peoria.” Concurrently, issues of race, gender, and class on television are more prominent and pervasive than ever. But is increased representation—of minority, female, and LGBTQ characters—enough? What is “good” or “bad” representation, or should we eliminate this binary altogether? How do we define quality and/or relevant television? The purpose of this course is to collect the tools that we need in order to think critically about what we watch.

This course is designed as a general introduction to film analysis. The main objective will be to help you develop the analytic tools necessary for understanding how meaning is constructed in narrative cinema.

The rapid influx of digital technology and so-called “new media” around the new millennium has led some to suggest that cinema—conceived as an analog technology experienced in public space as a mid-twentieth-century cultural phenomenon—is dead or dying. This course uses this suggestive claim to ask what it might mean to live through a moment of media transition from the analog twentieth-century cinema to the digital twenty-first new media landscape.

With this class, an Emmy Award-winning journalist will provide you with the tools to ask and answer critical questions. Our objective is to provide a framework for defining accuracy in the media, for distinguishing between truthful and (ahem) less than truthful reporting. Democracy depends on both public trust and media truthfulness. With this class, you will be able to better assess the cultural and political impact we have seen when misinformation forges extremist views and actions.

From Serial to Hulu's Only Murders in the Building, true crime content is inescapable in our current moment. However, while the media through which we consume these stories may be new, our obsession with them is not. This class will explore how crime and the trial have remained foundational staples of our popular entertainment from colonial America to the present. This course asks how race and gender shape the very concepts of criminality and what it means to be an American in popular media.

Hands-on Medicine is a one-week course that will integrate you into the life of a medical student. Through classroom activities, anatomy lab, and clinical skills sessions, you will learn how medical students take a holistic view of the human body and discover everything there is to know about its anatomy, physiology, and disease processes.

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a medical student? In this course, you will learn about the fundamentals of the practice of medicine through two exciting weeks of immersive activities. You and your peers will explore the physiology of the human body in an online classroom setting, and experience an in-depth look at the anatomy of organs in the virtual anatomy lab. You will step inside the shoes of a doctor, learning how to conduct a medical interview and perform an extensive physical exam. Finally, you will delve into important ethical issues often encountered in the medical field.

From Beyoncé’s sold-out shows headlining festivals like Coachella to Lizzo’s promotion of body positivity, women are taking up greater space in the music industry now than ever before, using their music as a public testimony of their life experiences. In this course, you will trace the music of various artists as it relates to the evolution of women’s rights, gender politics, and empowerment through performances, social media, and video analyses.

Through examining historical and social aspects of music creation, find your musical voice and learn the technical aspects of music production. What lies behind the music that we like and what influences our preferences and musical practice? We will examine the history of music technology, the social aspects that surround it, and the resulting aesthetics. At the same time, we will work on honing practical skills from forming a musical idea to creating a final product using musical software.

“Jesus was the son of God because He said He was, and the son of God would not lie.” “Hitler believed that seizing the property of enemies of the state would be a good policy, so it must be misguided.” What, if anything, is wrong with these arguments? This course will offer an interactive, hands-on approach to analyzing and evaluating arguments. What makes good arguments good and bad arguments bad? We will try to improve at thinking critically about the world and constructing our own arguments.

Is killing animals for food morally permissible? How about abortion? Are we morally required to help those in poverty? Or to act in environmentally responsible ways? What is the morally best way to regulate immigration? How ought we allocate scarce medical resources during a pandemic? In this course, we will be evaluating arguments for different answers to these questions. By the end, you will be able to rationally engage with both sides of these and other hot-button moral issues.

What makes laws legitimate? What rights do immigrants have? How much can the government interfere in the economy? Can revolution be permissible? Is democracy really the best form of government, and if it is, why? In this course, we will consider these and similar questions as they have been addressed in anglophone political philosophy of (mostly) recent decades. We will also consider issues of philosophical methodology: how are questions in (political) philosophy best answered?

From the workplace to government policy to schools and universities to city streets throughout the country, questions surrounding the meaning and value of equality are increasingly taking center stage. In this class, you will learn the history of egalitarianism and its philosophical basis, examine how well it withstands the objections of some of its strongest critics, and discuss how these ideas are influencing urgent debates about equity and justice in our society today.

One might believe in gender equality and participate in different gender equality movements yet still exhibit gender bias in one’s behaviors without being aware of it. Similarly, one might believe in racial equality yet still experience anxiety when walking past African American people. It is very likely that the manifested gender bias and anxious reaction are due to implicit bias. How should we understand implicit bias? What’s the mechanism of it? Are we morally blameworthy for it?

Philosophy is concerned with the deepest most basic questions about the universe. We’ll concentrate on some fundamental moral and metaphysical questions: What is the right thing to do? Is morality objective? Do we have moral obligations toward people other than those we know and care about? Do we have moral obligations toward future generations? Do we have moral obligations toward animals? Is your mind identical to your brain?

Feminism is one of the leading social justice movements of our day. This course uses the tools of analytic philosophy to investigate a diverse range of feminist issues. Topics include: the metaphysics of sex and gender, sexual orientation, and systems of social oppression such as sexism and misogyny, bodily autonomy, consent, reproductive rights, and the impact of social movements aimed at gender equality and justice.

Modern science seems to have implications for many of the perennial questions of philosophy. Are sensory qualities in external objects or only in the observer? Is the world bound by deterministic laws, and if so, is there any room for freedom of the will? Could space have unseen higher dimensions? Is time travel possible? Is reality to any extent dependent on observers? In this course, we will read accessible works by both philosophers and physicists that bear on these questions.

Quantum computing is an exciting and fast-developing field which has the potential to change the nature of computation. This topic is also an approachable entry point to quantum mechanics, which allows you to learn its fundamentals. This course will teach the basics of quantum computation, while introducing the required mathematical knowledge and utilizing a hands-on approach to learning that will include using IBM's real quantum computer.

This course is being transitioned from on-campus to online. It may involve attending virtual class meetings via Zoom or some other meeting tool at various points throughout the session. Your instructor will arrange those meeting times once the course has begun; otherwise, the course will be conducted wholly online. The duration, course credit, and fees associated with the course are the same as they would have been for on-campus Summer Session courses, which are the equivalent of full-semester Brown University courses, though offered in a condensed, seven-week format.

This course is expected to run. Full details will be posted once confirmed.

Carl Sagan once said that, "The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself." The study of our solar system and origins is a journey of exploration and discovery. But how have we come to know our corner of the universe? In this course we'll voyage through our solar system, visiting planets, moons, and asteroids and examine the processes that have shaped their evolution. You will get hands-on experience with real data from various NASA missions.

You've heard of Einstein, Marie Curie, and Newton, but who really were the men and women behind physics' most famous discoveries? What's their story? Why is their work so famous, anyway? How do we use the concepts they explored today? Together we will learn and discuss the work of some great physicists and many other famous scientists. Understanding the lives of these figures allows us to discover along with them how they were able to make the groundbreaking discoveries that led us to the current day.

Nanotechnology provides a broad array of applications to solve urgent problems in wide ranging scientific fields. Introduction to Nanotechnology provides an overview of nanotechnology, discussing the fundamental science of nanotechnology and its applications to engineering, biomedical, and environmental fields. We will also discuss the interdisciplinary nature of nanotechnology and how the different basic sciences merge to create the field while leading to novel solutions of pressing issues.

Astronomy is the oldest science, with the first observations of the heavens conducted by our early human ancestors. Records of astronomical measurements date back as far as Mesopotamia nearly 5000 years ago, with later observations made by the ancient Chinese, Babylonians, and Greeks. This course is designed to give you a brief glimpse into what we've learned since then. From basic measurement skills to black holes and general relativity, all aspects of this magnificent art will be covered.

Physics is arguably the most fundamental of sciences. Understanding the Newtonian concept of Forces provides a foundational overview of Physics. In this Force-centric conceptual framework, we use modeling, progressing systematic from zero force, constant force, linear force and inverse square force to find patterns in kinematics, gravitation, springs, sound, electrostatics and atomic vibrations. The course focus is on conceptual understanding and modeling rather than mathematical calculations.

Quantum mechanical formalism suggests that the underlying mechanics of our universe is far divorced from our perception of reality. In this course, we will examine the conceptual fundamentals of quantum mechanics and explore their metaphysical implications.

Smartphones and tablets in use today have sensors that are able to measure lengths, positions, velocities, accelerations, light, and sound as well as many other physical phenomena such as vibrations and magnetic fields. We will be using smartphones or tablets as i/o devices to take measurements that will help us understand Newton's laws of physics.

Our world is composed of seemingly invisible particles. We can examine ourselves and ask, “What are we made of?” We might answer that we’re made of “molecular cells” built out of things like carbon or nitrogen. If we dig deeper, we find those elements are made of protons, neutrons and electrons, which have even more fundamental constituent particles. In this course, we will explore the historical experiments that led to the discovery of these fundamental particles.

Democracy is conventionally conceived as a tidy set of procedures and principles: elections, voting, legislation, checks and balances, majority rule. But it becomes a lot more complex when we look at the history of democratic thought, which has often been associated with revolutionary activity, large social movements, and messy conflict. In this course, we will examine the history of democratic thought, explore questions about rule and authority, and come to broaden our understanding of how democracy’s central values and ideals might reinvigorate democracy in our contemporary moment.

What is an animal? To begin, you may point to your dog or cat nearby, the bird outside the window, or perhaps a selfie — these are all particular animals. Yet humans take great effort in distinguishing themselves from other animals. And our society and politics are based on these distinctions— otherwise, we couldn’t use animals as food, scientific research, or even pets. In this course, we will explore the place of animals in western political theory: How do foundational texts establish the separation of humans from other animals? How are animals confined, included in, or excluded from our (human) political systems? Lastly, we will look at various historical, literary, philosophical, and ethnographic texts from different parts of the world that present diverse impressions of animals. This course offers a window to the complex ways that theories and practice intersect in the study of animals.

In this course, you will become familiar with some of the most prominent political thinkers of the modern period, then directly apply what you've learned to assess pressing debates about democracy in the United States today. The course is highly interactive and includes frequent class debates. You will develop and pose questions for class discussion, deliver presentations, and compose a series of short essays, drawing out connections between the authors we are studying and current events.

This course examines the complex relationship between ethics and politics in international affairs. Starting with an overview of different perspectives on the role of ethics and morality in international relations, the course then explores the ethical dimensions of issues central to foreign policy and the study of world politics, including the use of force, human rights, and global distributive justice. This course aims to foster an analytical approach that encourages students to think about applied international ethics in a rigorous and systematic manner.

Truth is absolute. Truth-finding is difficult. Some trials do not end simply with their verdict. They have a power that echoes throughout history. They have shaped and transformed the social, political, and legal landscape. These trials deserve the description “great” because they serve as enduring lessons for us all on such issues as social justice, race, abuse of power, and injustice.

Because the law affects nearly all aspects of daily life, understanding our society’s legal framework empowers students to step into leadership roles, use the law to help others, change the law, and change the world around them. Students will learn how to think and analyze issues like a lawyer, lawmaker, and judge as we explore different types of law, such as criminal law, civil rights, litigation, business law, and more.

This course is an intensive introduction to contemporary feminist political theory for students of all backgrounds. This class is motivated by concern for inequality in everyday life. You will learn how feminist political theory provides a philosophical framework to address injustice while also interrogating the essential conditions of those who identify as women, trans, or genderqueer.

This course will take a deep look at some of the issues facing modern democracies from the perspectives of the law, ethics, and political philosophy. Through the lens of classic and contemporary texts in moral and political philosophy, judicial opinion, and current events, we will examine pressing questions about justice, equity, and freedom in modern society and political life. You can expect to gain familiarity with key texts and ideas of political philosophy and ethics.

Study with Brown University in Segovia, Spain!
In a globalized and interconnected world, events taking place on one side of the planet can have important repercussions on those living on the other side. Who are the main actors in the international system? Are they adversaries or allies? Can they cooperate? In this course, you will discuss the role of different actors in international relations (states, MNCs, NGOs, the UN, the EU) in addressing global challenges that affect us all, including poverty, development and global security.

What can science fiction reveal about the enduring questions of political theory? This course will engage philosophical texts and sci-fi classics side by side to find out. Key figures and concepts in political theory will be introduced, and will inform our engagements with the works of fiction. Bridging these two realms also invites questions about the relationship between art and politics. How can narrative help us see the socio-political world more clearly, and what are its limitations here?

Where do you spend most of your waking hours nowadays? Online, of course! Glued to smartphone screens, staying safe in zoom classrooms, or relaxing in online gaming communities – a lot of our lives have become digital. Such a revolutionary change is not without consequences, least of all on how we get involved politically. From #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo to the Alt-Right and QAnon: This course explores digital media's role in transforming politics.

This course will introduce you to the basic concepts of liberal democratic theory. Through reading about principles of justice, the idea of fairness, and the meaning of equality, students in the course will consider the problem of race in America today. How should we speak of desert, merit, restorative or reparative justice, and democracy in the context of an ongoing problem of race in society? Students will discuss contemporary examples of racism and inequality, and develop an understanding of the importance of political theory to address the complexity of the possible solutions to racial justice.

The goal of this course is to examine the presidency from an institutional lens to understand how the president has circumvented constitutional power to become more influential and powerful than the other two branches of government.

Global environmental and political migrations are one of the most pressing Human Rights issues of our times. In this course, we will learn to think as human rights lawyers, as well as philosophers, to study specific cases of such migrations all around the world. We will think about the rights of refugees, the international responses to these crises, and develop arguments from the perspective of defendants of Human Rights organizations. We will do this through the study of real-world cases.

More than half of the world's population now lives in urban areas, and this proportion is expected to increase. Why do cities grow, prosper, or decay? How are cities managed and organized? How can we make our cities better? This course is an introduction to the political economy of cities, and the challenges and opportunities that we face today to build safe, inclusive, and sustainable cities.

Comic books have always reflected the politics of the day. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is currently one of the most popular iterations of comic book stories and includes many well-known movies and television shows. By examining the politics of these popular forms of media, we can better understand our own politics. The course will use a combination of MCU films and political science readings to explore topics including American exceptionalism, regulation, and representation, and will conclude with an independent research project.

This course reviews the U.S. Supreme Court’s most recent term (2021-2022) by analyzing significant decisions. Gun rights, health care, the role of God in the U.S. public sphere, and the constitutionality of abortion are all scheduled to be reconsidered in significant ways by a Court with three Trump-era appointees: how will this conservative majority influence outcomes? Has the newly configured bench held in place precedents or not? What is remarkable about the term as it relates to social justice?

Conflict is universal. We encounter it in our daily lives, in our communities, and at the global level. We have the ability to transform conflicts into constructive opportunities for growth that strengthen rather than destroy relationships and communities. This course will explore the dimensions of conflict and nonviolent strategies for managing, resolving, and transforming it. You will develop key conflict management skills, including creative problem-solving, negotiation, and mediation.

This course provides an introduction to the study of U.S. foreign policy. It focuses on the United States’ emergence as a global economic power in the late nineteenth century, its rise to global superpower status after World War II, and its unique status today as the world’s sole superpower. Combining history, theory, and analysis, this course examines some of the key decisions, themes, and debates that have defined and shaped U.S. foreign policy throughout its history, in particular the long-standing debate between the “realist” and “idealist” traditions.

Are you interested in learning about how mental health affects teens? Why is adolescence called the time of "storm and stress"? What does it really mean for an adolescent to have depression, anxiety, or a personality disorder? In this course, you will learn how psychiatric disorders manifest among adolescents, how conditions are treated, and current controversies in adolescent psychiatric diagnoses. This class will use lectures, discussions, and multimedia to present these topics in an engaging and interactive way.

Abnormal psychology involves understanding the nature, causes, and treatment of different mental disorders. We are exposed to issues related to the field of abnormal psychology every day, whether it’s hearing about a celebrity experiencing challenges with substance use or learning that your best friend is experiencing depression. Clinicians and researchers in this area seek to understand more about what causes these problems and how to treat them effectively so people can lead fulfilling lives.

This course integrates the study of management principles and practices with the study of human behavior within organizations. The focus will be upon translation of management and organizational behavior theory to practices that result in organizational effectiveness. The primary goal of this course is to prepare you for advanced leadership roles in organizations. Through experiential exercises, case studies, class debates, doing personnel application assignments, and interviewing local managers, you will learn how to become a successful and effective leader of an organization. The course will also teach you how to learn so that it helps you become a continuous learner, capable of responding to changing demands, and able to acquire new skills throughout your career.

What made you who you are? How do you see yourself changing in the future? Human development is brought to life in this course. You will raise a "virtual child" from birth to age 18 to see the effects of your parenting decisions over time. You will also create a lifespan portfolio project that ties the course material directly to your own experiences. For the final stages of life, we will read and discuss a short philosophical memoir. From infancy through elderhood, we will explore the many influences that shape who we become.

An examination of children's thinking and cognitive development from infancy to middle childhood. Considers a range of topics including memory, reasoning, categorization, perception, and children's understanding of concepts such as space, time, number, mind, and biology. Major theories of cognitive development are described and evaluated in light of the available psychological data.

Prerequisites: None

Cannabis is a widely used psychoactive substance, yet scientists are only beginning to understand its impact on human health and behavior. This course will expose you to cutting-edge biological and psychological research related to cannabis (i.e., marijuana). By completing this course, students will develop critical thinking skills and learn how cannabis use intersects with neuroscience, physical and mental health, and social policy.

This course will introduce students to methods used by psychological science to help answer common questions about the “unknown.” We will examine common ways in which human thinking leads people to believe strange things and to maintain these beliefs even in the face of contradictory information. Students will develop critical thinking skills for evaluating claims about human behavior, especially claims made in the popular media concerning “paranormal” or otherwise unusual phenomena.

How does culture influence the way we interact with each other? Does Western psychology differ from Eastern psychology? What are implicit and explicit biases, and how do we recognize them? What does it mean to be in an inter-racial relationship? There are many interesting guiding questions when you think about the cultural influences on the human psyche. This course will provide a comprehensive introduction to general theories and methods related to multicultural psychology.

Can bipolar disorder be reliably diagnosed in children? Do certain psychiatric medications increase risk of suicide? Can alternative remedies such as fish oil stabilize mood swings? These questions address only a few of the recent controversies surrounding the study of mood disorders, such as major depression and bipolar illness. Using these disorders to illustrate key concepts, this course is intended to provide you with an introduction to the study of abnormal psychology.

What is deja-vu, and how do psychologists explain it? How can understanding memory, attention, and perception help us make sense of deja-vu?

This course provides an overview of memory, how it works, and how it—along with attention and perception—plays “tricks.” What follows is an explanation of how the mind can confuse us through forgetting, misremembering, and experiences such as deja-vu. In doing so, techniques for enhancing memory, attention, and awareness are introduced.

What does it mean to know yourself? Why can love be so painful? What is the source of someone's belief in God? How does history repeat itself? Why do our dreams haunt us? What is an Oedipus complex, and do you have one? Sigmund Freud devoted his life to answering these questions. In this course, we will dive deep into the theories of psychoanalysis to explore how Freud’s work shapes our modern understanding in theory and practice.

The completion of the Human Genome Project may be the most important scientific achievement of our lifetime, but how much can genes tell us about complex human behavior? How much does the environment impact human behavior and might there be a biological signature of that influence? What research techniques can be used to identify specific genes and specific environments that influence behavior? This course addresses all these questions and more in a dynamic and interactive learning environment.

Have you ever wondered how mental illness affects children and their families? Can kids "catch" autism? Can children really suffer from schizophrenia? From autism and anxiety to pediatric bipolar and schizophrenia disorders, students will learn how psychiatric disorders manifest in children, how disorders are treated, and controversies in childhood psychiatric diagnoses. This class will use pre-recorded lectures, online discussions, and multimedia to present these topics in a fun and interactive way.

Do you want to be a psychotherapist? Have you ever wondered how we define “mental illness?” Or, perhaps you just want to know more about what it means to be a Clinical Psychologist. In this course, students will have an opportunity to learn more about the science and practice of Clinical Psychology as a career, the symptoms and clinical characteristics of many types of psychiatric disorders, as well as the scientifically validated treatments available for these conditions.

Media is a part of our daily lives. It is hard to imagine spending 24 hours away from our phone for many of us. In "Media and Mental Health," we will explore and evaluate how media intersect with mental health and well-being. You will learn about the positive and negative effects of social media. You will also develop skills for critically evaluating media and understanding how digital media can promote public health.

This course will delve into personality disorders - what they are, how they differ from normal personality traits, how they impact sufferers' quality of life and possible functional impairment, how we study them, and current treatment approaches. We will also explore current controversies regarding personality disorders. Should they be diagnosed in children and adolescents? Should they be treated at all, or should we strive for greater acceptance?

How does culture influence the way we interact with each other? Does Western psychology differ from Eastern psychology? What are implicit and explicit biases, and how do we recognize them? What does it mean to be in an inter-racial relationship? There are so many mundane questions that arise when we think about culture in psychology. This course combines concepts in different areas to better understand the effects of culture on the way people act, think, and feel.

Have you ever wondered where the terms “cold feet” or “butterflies in your stomach” originate? Have you ever wondered why zebras and other animals don’t get ulcers? This course will answer these and other questions related to the role of psychology in the development, progression, and treatment of physical health conditions. This course will provide an overview of the principles and applications of health psychology: the study of how biology, psychology, and social processes work together to impact a person’s health and illness. You will learn how a person’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors influence their physical health and appreciate the connection between our mental and physical well-being.

The field of psychology has long focused on the harmful impact of stress, adversity, and trauma, with these effects felt more than ever in recent years. Yet many show resilience in the midst of difficult, even horrible, situations. How are some resilient in the face of abuse, war, natural disaster, terrorism? What about resilience to routine life stresses like exams or moving? What have we learned about resilience from the pandemic? Is resilience a trait or is it something that can be learned?

How do we cope with war, natural disasters, global pandemics, or terrorism? What about surviving experiences with abuse? How are these experiences different or similar to routine life stresses like exams, moving, or getting divorced? How can you prevent or treat psychological problems that might arise after trauma? These are some of the overarching issues we will address in this course.

Are you a procrastinator? Do you struggle with temptation or staying motivated? If so, you’re not alone! Most people find it tough to make the “right” choice or follow through with their goals even when they know they should. When this happens, it is easy to think, “I HAVE NO WILLPOWER!” In this course, you will gain an understanding of why willpower fails and learn strategies to help stick to goals like exercising, eating healthy, or spending less time watching TikTok.

How do social attitudes develop and change? Why do good people participate in evil acts? How does prejudice develop, and how can we change it? How do our self-perceptions impact our social interactions? What is the role of social influence on behavior? This course will address those questions and more. You will gain an understanding of how social interactions, perceptions, and attitudes shape individual and group behavior.

A survey of statistical methods used in the behavioral sciences. Topics include graphical data description, probability theory, confidence intervals, principles of hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, correlation, and regression, and techniques for categorical data. Emphasizes application of statistical methods to empirical data.

By the end of the summer semester, students who successfully complete this course should: know how to collect useful and meaningful data, know methods for analyzing data using a calculator, an Excel spreadsheet, and specialized computer programs such as R and SPSS, know how to interpret statistical results reported in scientific literature, know how to present statistical results in scientific literature.

“We only use 10% of our brains.” “Virtually all people who confess to a crime are guilty.” “Always stick with your first instinct when answering multiple-choice questions.” Are these common beliefs actually true? This course will expose you to the hottest debates in psychology and shatter the biggest misconceptions in the field.

Psychology – the study of the mind, the brain, and behavior – is relevant to every aspect of your life! How does personality form? How are memories constructed and stored? How do society and culture impact an individual’s behavior? How are mental illnesses diagnosed and treated? These are just some of the questions we will attempt to answer in this course. This course will introduce a broad range of topics in psychology, including biological psychology, social psychology, personality, developmental psychology, health psychology, and psychological disorders.

Conspiracy beliefs are not new, yet in the last several years, they have turned from beliefs endorsed by the fringes of society to now widely accepted. What can we learn from psychology in order to understand conspiracy beliefs, science denial, and skepticism? You will examine the psychological dynamics behind conspiracy beliefs related to the pandemic, vaccines, climate change, Qanon, and more--dynamics that emphasize people's thoughts, emotions and behavior.

Can trauma responses be inherited from grandparents and great grandparents? The answer is "yes" according to recent discoveries in the field of behavioral genetics. This course will explore new research that explains how traumatic experiences of an individual's ancestors can create genetic alterations that are inherited by subsequent generations. Thus, making individuals predisposed to various psychiatric conditions such as Anxiety Disorders, Depressive Disorders, and PTSD.

The aim of this course is to explore why individuals engage in behaviors such as alcohol and substance use. We will cover a range of topics relevant to psychology and public health including the determinants of health-related behaviors and contemporary theories of addiction that can be applied to education, research and practice. An emphasis will be placed on how individual, interpersonal, and community factors can be used to design and implement prevention and intervention strategies.

Research writing and critical approaches towards data are essential tools for any college student, researcher, or scientist. This course provides you with the chance to propose, design, and conduct your own research projects. At each stage of the research and writing process, new tools will be learned and applied and you will take a thorough and critical look at the evidence. Ultimately, you will produce a paper near or at publication-quality that will showcase your research skills. This is a Course-based Research Experience (CRE).

Racism can play a critical role in health outcomes for marginalized groups. Racism can not only be associated with physiological processes in the body, but can also impact health at the societal level. During this course, we will look at how racism has affected health in the past and how it continues to affect health from a multi-perspective approach.

Living now amid the Covid-19 pandemic, thoughts of whether humanity can defeat the virus and, if so, what will become of the world post-pandemic greatly trouble the mind. While our anxieties at present are very real and valid, concern over humanity’s end and the end of the world is not new. The theme of the apocalypse features prominently in some of the most lucrative Hollywood movies that dramatize global catastrophes—extreme global warming, astrological forces, pandemics—that threaten humanity’s end. That concern over the world ending is at the forefront of the present-day human mind is indicated by the sheer popularity and success of these films. Such anxieties have also been revealed by recent crazed responses over the uncertainty of what would happen after Dec 21, 2012, the last day of the Mayan calendar, and when the clock struck midnight to usher in the year 2000 (Y2K). However, this kind of apocalyptic thinking is not born out of modernity. It originated over 2,000 years ago in the religions of Judaism and Christianity and has shaped human thinking and catalyzed human action ever since. What can we learn from the history of the apocalyptic mindset, and how might it better help us understand ourselves and the world we live in today? How has belief in the apocalypse shaped human behavior for better or worse? If this topic and these questions are of interest, then this is the course for you.

In this highly interactive course, you will explore how historical, social, and cultural factors impact the development of children at home and within their learning environment. Through engaging discussions, debates, interactive readings, and illustrative case studies, you will explore how structural inequalities related to race/ethnicity, gender, social class, disability, learning styles, and sexual orientation influence individual growth and learning. You will also explore some of the best practices in supporting child development and be able to apply this knowledge to current or future work with children.

Climate change causes and exacerbates floods, fires, and sea-level rise at an unprecedented rate that is straining our ability to adapt. This is the result of fossil-fuel driven growth, yet societal efforts towards a sustainable economy are halting at best. This course introduces the environmental sociological perspective on global warming and other environmental problems to help you better understand how they are a direct result of society's relationship with nature and what needs to change.

Microcredit burst onto the global stage in the 1980s and has ballooned into a $34 billion industry, becoming an important player in international development and poverty policy. However, many aspects of microcredit remain contested and controversial, in part because of the challenges of producing convincing evidence about its effects. In this course, students will gain substantive knowledge about microcredit and an understanding of the complexity of studying and solving social problems.

The course examines the complicated history of race in America through science. The course starts with an understanding of the establishment of racial groupings as a medical approach and later a social concept to classify people into social strata that facilitate differential outcomes and experiences. The basis of this educational journal is to understand how historical trespasses have helped to facilitate the current distrust of the medical industry by Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC).

The effect of globalization is uneven - while some countries benefit, others are marginalized. This course aims to understand the global political economy by using China's development over the past four decades as a case study for analysis. You will explore China's changing role in the global division of labor and how this shift is currently affecting the world, both economically and culturally.

From the development of vaccines to the first test of the atomic bomb, the social landscape of the 20th and 21st centuries has been shaped by technological, medical, and scientific advancements. In this course, you will analyze the ever-shifting relationship between science and society through readings drawn from Science, Technology, Studies (STS), Environmental Studies, Bioethics, the History of Science, and the Philosophy of Science.

Search for “Trump’s visit to the Royal family.” Hundreds of articles will appear, and very few of them will be about USA and UK relations. From punctuality to personal space and physical contact, expectations about appropriate behavior vary wildly across different cultures and can severely hinder your credibility as a leader in a globalized environment. So, how can we be culturally competent leaders with an ever-increasing range and depth of cultural differences amongst our stakeholders, communities, and teams? This course will explore what culture is, how it affects our leadership styles, and how we can facilitate the exchange of ideas between individuals from various cultural contexts.

Now more than ever, we are compelled to step into leadership roles to address the pressing issues within our communities, nations, and the world. Leadership and Social Change is a course designed to support you in developing your capacity for strong leadership through skill development and theoretical understanding.

In this course, you will reflect on your high school educational experience and use it as a lens to analyze inequities in the education system. Course topics include high school and college student activism, debates around standardized testing, college admission standards, and the relationships between race, class, and educational access. Over the two weeks of this course, you will define an education issue that is important to you and formulate a feasible project to address it.

This course will provide you with an overview of the evolving field of social entrepreneurship and help students understand how social entrepreneurs drive innovation and transformation in fields such as health, education, and the environment. Social entrepreneurship/enterprise is a rapidly growing field which utilizes an entrepreneurial approach to address social needs and create positive change. Companies such as Patagonia, 4ocean and Warby Parker epitomize strong and sustainable organizations which are creating both social and financial value. 

What is a disaster, and how do the two broadest categories—natural and human-made disasters—differ from one another? This interdisciplinary course focuses on natural and human-initiated disasters and their impact on human life. We will explore how social dynamics such as culture, inequality, and social structure influence vulnerability and shape how people face, respond, recover, or fail to recover from disasters.

Emerging effects of the climate crisis make clear the need for the critical engagement of social scientists to understand and develop solutions for the myriad social, political, and economic impacts of the climate crisis. In this course, we will consider climate change from a sociological perspective. We will focus on the social and economic factors that have contributed to climate change and critically assess the wide range of responses that have been proposed to confront this global emergency.

Despite the best efforts of Instagram and TikTok’s finest body-positive influencers, the word “fat” has garnered almost as much power and weight (no pun intended) as the other F-word, but why? How do we interpret fatness? In this course, we will investigate the controversies and discourses surrounding larger bodies through a critical, sociocultural lens, focusing on the implications of fatness for people with varying ethnic, racial, and gender identities.

There is arguably no resource more important for social life than good health. The state of a person's health determines whether they can work, go to school, and participate in family and social life. However, the risk of developing and dying from particular diseases is not equally distributed within countries, or across countries, around the globe. This course introduces concepts, theories, and methods for understanding how social factors influence the distribution of health and illness. We will examine trends in global health inequality and investigate how factors such as race, gender, occupation, and migration affect health. We will think critically about social factors as risk factors for poor health and discuss the implications for health policy and practice in both high and low-and-middle-income countries.

Despite the advancement of women in society over the past century, in recent years, local, national and global movements and activists have courageously stepped forward to expose the pervasive challenges and unique barriers women continue to face in educational, career, social and political arenas.

How does the body perform itself? And what at all is a body? These are the underlying questions to the fundamental question profoundly binding philosophy and performance: ‘What can a body do?’. From philosophical questions about the nature of the body, to issues of gender, race, sexuality, trauma, disability, artificial intelligence, and death, we will see how bodies carry, produce, and perform meanings. With different visual and performance artworks, we will examine how bodies are being represented, discuss what is being expected from bodies, and speculate on the possibility for bodies to be thought of differently.

Prerequisites: This is a reading intensive and interdisciplinary course.

Acting is about doing! Explore your unique potential. You will develop valuable acting, collaboration, and communication skills. This is a useful, challenging, and fun exploration of the art of acting. In class, students work on scenes, applying new techniques. There will be multiple presentations of scene work, the final one open to the public. Develop physical, vocal, emotional, and intellectual skills. CREATE a supportive collaborative space. Have fun exploring!

From TikTok to the New York City Ballet, anarchist art collectives to the sculptures on Brown’s campus, the American cultural sector encompasses a complex array of creative practices. How money, power, technology and the state are deployed through- or in the service of- culture is the subject of this class. With emphasis on emerging technologies and business practices, “Culture War Bootcamp” will arm you with the tools necessary to produce work in the contemporary cultural economy.

Communicating effectively is an essential professional and personal skill. This course will help you achieve greater confidence and expertise as a communicator while further developing your unique voice and style.

Provides an introduction to public speaking, and helps students develop confidence in public speaking through the presentation of persuasive speeches. Attendance is mandatory.

Prerequisites: None

This course is designed for anyone who wishes to improve their public speaking skills in a supportive and open environment. We will be learning to speak in front of an audience and to be persuasive using various modalities, including reading a manuscript, educational talks, interviews, and impromptu speeches.

An intensive workshop for students who have little or no previous experience in writing plays. Students will be introduced to a variety of technical and imaginative considerations through exercises, readings and discussions. Course is not open to those who have taken Advanced Playwriting (TAPS 1500, formerly LITR 1010C and TSDA 1500). Enrollment is limited to 14 undergraduates per section. A limited number of spaces are reserved for incoming and transfer students.

Want to make amazing presentations and influence people? Learn the tips, tricks, tactics, and tools of giving effective public presentations. This course will introduce you to fundamental methods of public speaking and designing effective graphic presentations.

Successful communication asks us to actively listen and honestly share. But speaking in front of others - whether addressing a large audience or talking with one person across the table - can make us feel vulnerable. Fear of judgement, misconceptions, projections can close us off. Through a progression of exercises and presentations, you'll practice skills to overcome these barriers, to verbally communicate with openness and genuineness.

Humans not only communicate through stories, we build our lives around them. We inherit stories, invent them through both necessity and imagination; we justify wars based on stories, we create borders based on stories, we make stories out of love and family and fear and longing and joy. The ability to focus on a story, to follow a line of curiosity, or inquiry, has powerful implications for discovery and for how we shape the future of our world. Constructing a rigorous creative practice is one of the most exciting and important things we can do. This course will provide a workshop setting in which those who are interested in storytelling, in writing, in play (playwriting, play-making), in the big ideas that shape our lives, will focus on the development of a single performance text.

Drawing Intensive introduces you to a totally immersive drawing experience. This course gives you a head start in preparing for college art classes by creating a more advanced, unique portfolio that shows a range of drawing skills. Observational, imaginative, planning, and process drawing will all be covered, while allowing students the space to nurture their own unique vision.

In the design world, women make up over half of the designers today, yet gender bias continues to alter the historical canon of female contribution within art and design. Just as Beyonce sang that a woman’s “persuasion can build a nation”, historically women have conceived and built more than they got credit for. This course expands the narrative of design history unearthing the widely influential histories of female designers pioneers not typically included in foundational art and design teachings.

Painting in acrylics for a variety of interests and aptitudes - basic instruction in media and painting procedure, emphasis on development of the image as a visual statement. Will cover basic color principles, painting techniques and concepts. Assignments cover a wide range of approaches including painting from observation, the model, individual research, and imagination. Images, related books, and articles are discussed.

This class is a wide ranging technical and conceptual introduction to photography. Through weekly projects, students will be exposed to 19th-21st century photo processes.Topics covered include cameras, lenses, software, darkroom overview, scanning, natural and artificial lighting, alternative processes as well as concepts such as selective focus, color temperature, composition. Short readings and in-class slide presentations on a diverse range of photographers will introduce students to the history of photography.

Q: What did the fool say to the trickster? A: Have you seen the shapeshifter? Foolery, trickery, and shapeshifting are embedded in queer interactions with the world. In this class, we explore the subtle, intentional, and effective ways that queer & trans people use these as active strategies, both to resist dominant hegemonies, and to find and form community in the margins.

This is an extensive study in form and structure to develop spatial understanding and the fundamentals of 3-dimensional design and construction. Students will explore the structural, compositional and conceptual implications of basic materials, such as wood, metal, plaster and found objects. Projects are designed as a means for investigating a variety of sculptural processes. Students will learn casting techniques, safe usage of power tools and welding equipment.

Covers the basics of drawing and 2D design while cultivating the capacity for visual thinking.