Brandeis faculty and staff shared information about courses offered for the first time during the spring 2023 semester with The Brandeis Hoot.
The English department has the largest number of new courses this coming semester. As professor of American Literature John Burt describes it, “The English department practically reinvents itself every year … We teach many unusual subjects and many unusual aspects of familiar subjects. The inventiveness and originality of our offerings is something of which we are extremely proud.”
Associate Professor of English David Sherman is teaching ENG 121b, or “Literature in the Age of Mass Incarceration” this semester, where students will analyze literature, formulate arguments and conduct research regarding historical and social issues involving mass incarceration in the U.S. Students will also propose a literary project and a pedagogical program in the service of incarcerated and decarcerated writers. “We’ll have exciting guest speakers, including leaders from the National Council of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, as a way to connect our literary research to other social action,” Sherman noted in an interview with The Hoot. Motivated by his work in recent years teaching literature and creative writing to incarcerated students in the Boston area, Sherman encourages any students with an interest in creative and cultural responses to political injustice to take this course.
Assistant Professor of English Jerome Tharaud is teaching AMST/ENG 116b, “American Culture Across The Disciplines.” In this course, students will read, write and discuss how different disciplines study American culture. Each week, students will study the work of a Brandeis faculty member, featured as a guest speaker in the class, who will discuss their journey as a scholar, Tharaud explained. The course is intended for students with diverse academic backgrounds who are broadly interested in American culture. Tharaud shared that this was a course he wanted to offer since he joined Brandeis in 2015; “[The course is] based on a graduate seminar that one of my mentors developed at the University of Chicago, where it’s been a great tool for building intellectual connections between students and faculty, and between different disciplines. The idea is to showcase recent books and articles by faculty members—ones produced in the last five years or so. Since Brandeis faculty are always producing exciting new work, the course will be new and different every time it’s offered.”
Lecturer in University Writing Marsha Nourse is teaching a new University Writing Seminar (UWS) course called “Music, Protest, and Social Change of The Sixties.” The learning objectives of this course mirror those of all UWS courses: to develop and fine-tune students’ writing abilities. Nourse describes the motivation for this course, saying, “Having lived through the era of The Sixties and realizing the influential voices of students nationwide to bring about social change, I wanted to return to and study the era, especially in light of the conservative decisions that have been made in the past two years.”
The remaining new English courses are: ENG 21b, “The Sex of Horror, The Horror of Sex,” EAS 120b, “Southeast Asian Literature in English,” ENG 23b, “Eating the Middle Ages,” ENG 24b, “Thinking about Civilization in an Age of Book Banning,” ENG 52b, “Vampires: Dark Fictions of Blood,” ENG/MUS 55b, “If Music and Sweet Poetry Agree” and ENG 103b, “Women in Print.” The course descriptions and instructors can be found on the Brandeis Registrar schedule of classes portal.
New humanities course offerings extend beyond the English department as well. Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities Robin Miller is offering RECS 134b, “Writer, Dramatist, Physician: Chekhov and The Healing Arts.” The course will explore Anton Checkov’s fiction writing, plays and his passion towards health. Miller explained that Chekhov’s life as a physician influenced his work as an creative writer, and conversely, his work as a writer broadened his understanding of the human body and the practice of medicine. Students will practice close-reading Chekhov’s creative work and discuss the intersection between health and storytelling.
Associate Professor of Theater Arts Dmitry Troyanovsky is offering THA 146a, “Theater and the Holocaust” where students will examine representations of the Holocaust in theater, art and music, participate in class discussions and develop their own creative responses to the material. “The Holocaust is starting to fade from memory. Living witnesses are disappearing. Antisemitism is on the rise globally. Nationalist, xenophobic, racist, and neo-Nazi movements persist.,” Troyanovsky explained. “Theater can be one of the most powerful ways to keep the memory alive and to investigate the role theater artists can play in examining atrocity and crimes and humanity.”
In addition to courses focused on Russian theater, Assistant Professor of Theater Arts Mitsu Salmon is offering the course THA 122b, “Butoh: Japanese Dance Theater.” The course emphasizes creative movement-based lessons drawn from Butoh, a Japanese contemporary dance form. The course aims for students to fine-tune their physical and emotional awareness regarding their presence and study Butoh’s history, philosophy, aesthetics and culture. This course does not require any background knowledge in theater or dancing. Salmon expressed her excitement for students to find their own voice through Butoh. “Butoh is a wonderful dance form inspired by the environment, the unconscious, and rich imagery. It originated in Japan but has expanded to become an international phenomenon. I have trained and taught Butoh for over a decade and am excited to bring this work to Brandeis,” she wrote.
Lecturer in Anthropology Emily Ibrahim will be teaching the first course at Brandeis concerning storytelling that adopts an anthropological approach: ANTH 122b, “We Are All Ears: The Power, Politics and Ethics of Storytelling.” Ibrahim shared, “This course explores the power of stories and storytelling in four overlapping ways. It starts with situating storytelling as a cultural activity that influences and interacts with ethical, political, and social contexts. The course then focuses on the violent, volatile, and/or oppressive conditions under which stories are told—or silenced. With an emphasis on the United States [DEIS-US], we will look at the wide-ranging ways dominant narratives have the power to create, sustain, or remake reality.”
Furthermore, Assistant Professor of Music Bradford Garvey is teaching MUS 183b, “Introduction to Ethnomusicology,” where students will study music through social life, learn about the field and conduct original ethnomusicology research. Garvey explained that “The target students are those that love to talk and think about music as a cultural and social practice as well as play it. If you already go to shows and write about them, this is a great course to build that portfolio.”
Additional new humanities courses include REL151a, “The Buddha: His Life and Teachings” taught by Dr. Elon Goldstein, and several language and culture courses: HISP 121b, “Sexualidades disidentes del sur” (Sexual Dissidence from the South), HISP 123b, “Supernatural Latin America: The Visual Culture of the Unknown” and KOR 105b, “Advanced Conversation and Composition II.”
Professor of French and Francophone Studies Hollie Harder is offering the course FREN 126b, “La place de la nature dans le monde culturel francophone / The place of nature in Francophone cultures.” This course will be taught in French and will emphasize French speaking, writing, reading and listening skills in order to dissect key ideas in canonical literary texts and analyze initiatives in the French-speaking world that impact present day issues in the natural world. One prerequisite for this course is successful completion of a French and Francophone studies class number 106 or above. Harder noted the timeliness of offering a course that touches upon environmental efforts in the French-speaking world given that this year is Brandeis’ Year of Climate Action. “I am hopeful that the class will lead students toward a transformative educational experience, one in which they become more aware of their own assumptions and beliefs about nature, understand how they came to have such beliefs, and are able to reassess and perhaps alter their values and perspectives with regard to nature and the environment,” she concluded.
Brandeis’ STEM departments are also offering several new courses. The math department is offering a new introductory mathematics course titled MATH 9b, “Math Puzzles and Games,” taught by Instructor in Mathematics Tariq Osman. This course will teach students how to abstract mathematical concepts from puzzles, collaborate in teams and hone critical thinking skills. The mathematics department hopes to invite a broader range of students to explore math and consider adding a minor in math. Mathematics administrator Catherine Broderick shared, “This class is an invitation to discover the joy and beauty of mathematics. The class is not centered on calculus, and there is no requirement above MATH 5a. Any student who has a solid grasp of high school math, and enjoys solving puzzles is welcome to the class.” Additionally, the department emphasized that “Although the requirements are minimal, the goal is to offer a rigorous and intellectually challenging class which gives a glimpse at what mathematics is about (it’s not calculus).”
Adjunct Lecturer in Computer Science Win Treese is offering the course COSI 107a, “Introduction to Computer Security” for the first time this semester. The course will focus on studying real-world systems and analyzing systems for threats and vulnerabilities, mechanisms of attack and methods to design and implement defenses against attack. Students will practice techniques of defense and give written and oral presentations about recent issues in computer security. The target students for the class are those with some experience programming computers who want to learn more about the challenges in securing computer systems. Treese asserted, “The demand for people who understand computer security has never been higher. Thirty years ago, barely anyone was talking about computer security. Now it is ubiquitous and essential. It is also endlessly fascinating in the intellectual challenge of building more secure systems and discovering ways in which those systems can be improved.”
Lastly, the chemistry department is offering CHEM 88b, “Chemistry Capstone” taught by Assistant Professor of Chemistry Stephanie Murray. This course is designed to give chemistry majors the opportunity to fulfill their oral communications requirement while building upon conceptual ideas from chemistry coursework by learning about research advances in chemistry. The main objective of this course is developing scientific communication skills.
There are many new social science courses from a range of departments being offered this semester. A sampling of these new courses includes CLAS156b, “Living and Dying in Roman and Byzantine Egypt,” NEJS 192a, “Islamic Ethics: Theory and Applications,” NEJS 157a, “Spinoza Now!” and ENVS 112B, “Governing the Environmental Commons.”
Several courses concern history and politics at national and international scales. Assistant Professor of Politics Emily Connolly will be teaching two courses, HIST 124B, “Universities and Colonialism” and HIST 116B, “The History and Politics of Infrastructure.” The major goals of HIST 124B are to learn about Indigenous history in New England regions, gain an understanding of major debates regarding historical memorialization and advance historical writing and researching skills. Connolly explained her motivation for this course, saying, “I had been thinking about the importance of Indigenous land acknowledgements, but also their well-documented limitations. I wanted to create a course in which students would carry out original research on Brandeis’ Indigenous history and present, as a way to start piecing together the materials for a meaningful land acknowledgment for our campus.”
In HIST 116B, students will learn about the history of U.S. politics and enduring forms of state power. Another learning goal is to analyze how state interventions in economic issues have changed over the history of the nation and develop presentation skills. “Infrastructure by definition recedes into the background, even though it is core to our health, households, mobility, survival, climate, and capitalist economy. Infrastructure is political, and it has a history, no matter how often we fail to notice it,” Connolly concluded. The prevalent debates concerning government spending on infrastructure motivated Connolly to offer this course for students.
Professor of Politics Ralph Thaxton is teaching two new courses as well: POL 146b, “Extreme Encounters with Power and Injustice: Local, National and Global Experiences,” and POL 175b, “The Clash of Empires: The United States and China in the Struggle for Global Supremacy in the 21st Century.” POL 146b is intended for students with diverse academic backgrounds and will involve creative work, qualitative analysis of film and Internet-based media and group discussions. The course explores individuals’ experiences with political and national trauma and how these stories represent the underlying political systems of their nation.
POL 175b aims to teach students about U.S.-China international politics through creative work, critical thinking and close-reading relevant media. Thaxton explained that “The relationship between the US and China is the most important relationship in world politics.” The course will dissect this relationship and how other Asian national powers influence it. Moreover, the course will explore the current struggles between these two superpowers over various technologies.
Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies and English Jonathan Schroeder will be teaching AMST 149b, “The Future as History,” which explores science fiction and fantasy texts to better understand present day narratives about future visions in regards to environmental and social justice movements. Some students who may find this course interesting are those who want to develop a new understanding of history, students who are fans of these genres and students who are interested in environmental and social justice movements, according to Schroeder. Schroeder is motivated to offer this course given constant confrontations of the future as conveyed through environmental reports, migration crises and political and social injustices. Through the exploration of these texts, the course aims to teach students about new systems of government and imagine novel future identities.
The journalism program is also offering two new courses this semester: JOUR 139b, “Reporting on Diverse Communities in Journalism” taught by Lecturer in Journalism Adriana Lacy, and JOUR 101a, “The Fundamentals of Journalism” taught by Lecturer in Journalism Hanaa’ Tameez. Professor of the Practice and Director of the journalism program Neil Swidey shared information about both courses with The Hoot. JOUR 139b will examine groups and communities who have been excluded in news discourse and how that has influenced public perceptions of those groups. Students will learn strategies to combat misrepresentation through better news coverage. The learning objective of JOUR 101a is to provide students with foundational skills in news reporting and writing to address the rapidly evolving landscape of journalism today. Both courses reflect efforts to reimagine the journalism program to equip students with necessary skills for present day journalism as well as future changes, Swidey shared. Swidey expressed his excitement for both course offerings, writing, “Both courses will be taught by dynamic, rising-star journalists who have their fingers on the pulse of innovation in the field.”
Associate Professor of African and African American Studies Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso is teaching two new courses: AAAS 128b, “Contemporary Africa” and AAAS 131b, “African Women’s and Gender Studies.” AAAS 128b will cover a broad range of current issues in contemporary Africa emphasizing critical approaches to understanding the place and future of Africa in today’s highly globalized world. AAAS 131b will examine a range of gendered experiences in Africa by applying interdisciplinary frameworks from feminist theory, history, queer studies, political science and performance studies. Students will practice critically evaluating scholarship that deconstructs static notions about women and gender in Africa by utilizing decolonial perspectives.
There are several new courses this spring centered around environmental studies. Matthew Liebman will be teaching ENVS 50b, “Environmental Monitoring,” where students will learn various techniques in monitoring and taking measurements from the environment, discuss the history of monitoring techniques and get hands-on experience with these techniques. “Monitoring is critical to the assessment of ecosystem and public health, and to making decisions to protect ecosystems and public health,” Liebman explained. “The course is aimed at giving [Environmental Studies majors and minors] some practical experience and skills so they can help non-profit, advocacy, or governmental agencies collect or interpret environmental data.”
Brandeis Data Analysis Specialist for Science Ford Fishman is teaching ENVS 110a, “Data Analysis for Environmental Studies,” which aims to teach students about practical data analysis methodologies such as finding publicly available sources of environmental data, as well as data management, preprocessing, visualization and statistics with tools including Bash, Git and Python. Students will undertake a semester-long research project where they will employ these data analysis tools towards a research question of their choice.
Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Yehudah Mirsky is teaching a course cross-listed in the Environmental Studies program: NEJS 26b, “Jewish Environmental Ethics.” Mirsky cited three aims for this course: to explore the ways in which Jewish ethics can inform contemporary discussion of environmental issues, to expose students to past texts relevant to present day discourse and introduce students to the discipline of Jewish ethics as a whole. “There’s crisis and opportunity: The world is on fire, and it’s all hands on deck, in theory and practice. Religious ideas and traditions, of who and what nature and humanity are and for, are part of the problem, and part of the solution,” Mirsky wrote, explaining the motivation for the course. “At the same time there’s an opportunity here to rethink fundamental questions–not only of life science, but of ethics, society, justice … as we work to make a better world.”
Several Brandeis faculty shared that while the courses they are teaching are not being offered for the first time this semester, they are relatively new in different aspects. Lecturer in English Paloma Valenzuela is teaching ENG 159a, “Screenwriting workshop: The Short Film and the Web Series,” which is being offered for the second time this spring semester. This course will cover the basic techniques involved in screenwriting and will feature experience from Valenzuela, who has created a popular web series called “The Pineapple Diaries.”
Furthermore, Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Guy Antebi is teaching HBRW 44b, “Advanced Intermediate Hebrew: Israeli Culture and Media,” in a new format where students engage in the radio program “Shalom Brandeis” once a week. As detailed by the WBRS staff, this is Brandeis’ only program that includes non-English dialogue and discussion and is the only radio show hosted by a professor, Antebi shared. Students will reinforce their Hebrew speaking, reading and writing skills and will discuss many facets of Israeli culture in response to the radio program.
Lastly, Associate Professor of Economics Benjamin Shiller shared that he is teaching a new course ECON 136, “The Economics of Digitization,” which will be offered next fall.
Editor’s Note: This list of new courses is a reflection of Brandeis faculty that responded to interviews with The Hoot and may not be a comprehensive list. To learn more about any other department’s new courses, contact the Brandeis Registrar or the department administrators.
