We've been informed that as graduate students in the Art School we can take almost any course within Yale College. In fact, one course outside of the Art department is required for graduation. So I've been shopping the online catalog to see if there's anything that strikes my fancy. That was a fool's errand: I've identified over 20 courses I'd absolutely looooooove to sink my teeth into. I think I'm going to take Kevin's advice and select something that will challenge me physically as well as intellectually, but I think it's a good idea to make note of the items on my wish list. Perhaps in another time/place I can explore the themes suggested by the coursework on this list further...
Introduction to the role of language in the constitution of gendered, class, ethnic, and national identities. Ethnographic and linguistic case studies are combined with theoretical and comparative approaches. Enrollment limited to 40.
Anthropology of the Body
Theoretical debates about the body as a subject of anthropological, historical, psychological, medical, and literary inquiry. The persistence of the mind-body dualism, experiences of embodiment and alienation, phenomenology of the body, Foucauldian notions of biopolitics, biopower and the ethic of the self, the medicalized body, and the gendered body.
Anthropological Approaches to Capitalism
An introduction to the anthropological study of capitalism. Focus on how markets and commodities are embedded in social, cultural, and political contexts. Discussion of the many ways people have embraced, reinterpreted, and resisted capitalism worldwide. Consideration of the implications of this diversity for theories of capitalism as a whole.
Language difference and language inequality as symbols and shapers of political dynamics and social change in plural societies. Comparative, theoretical, and ethnographic approaches to the politics of sociolinguistic difference, with case studies focused on specific issues. Topics include "problems" of substandard languages, bilingual identities, ethnic and national identity, and globalization and language shift.
Economic Anthropology
An introduction to understanding economic systems in other cultures and societies. How work and leisure are organized, who gets what and how, and how economic concerns tie into other aspects of social life. Major debates and controversies examined, and examples from different parts of the world presented.
Furniture and American Life
In-depth study and interpretation of American furniture from the past four centuries. Hands-on experience with furniture in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery to explore such topics as materials, techniques, styles, use, and meaning.
Violence and Justice in America
The problem of violence and justice in American society, history, and culture. Introduction to the disciplinary approaches in social science, history, and cultural criticism that comprise the interdisciplinary practice of American Studies.
The Colonial Period of American History
Significant themes in American life, 1607–1750: politics and imperial governance, social structure, religion, ecology, race relations, gender, popular culture, the rhythms of everyday life.
American Film Comedy
A study of the great American film comedians and an investigation into the psychology of laughter. Comedians from Chaplin and Keaton to the Marx brothers and Fields examined against a background of European comedy. Comic form and technique and their relevance to the American scene. Not a history of American film comedy.
Examination of mixed-race matters in both literary and critical writings, primarily within the black/white schema. Historical and current questions of black and interracial identity; the contemporary "mixed race movement" and the emerging rubric of "critical mixed race studies"; historical genealogy of interraciality and hybridity. Analysis of long-standing debates on race mixing in the realms of legal classification, transracial adoption, census taking, grassroots movements, the discursive, the ideological, and the popular.
Dystopic and Utopian Fictions
Attempts since the late nineteenth century to imagine, in literature, cinema, and social theory, a world different from the existing world. The merging of political critique with desire and anxiety; the nature and effects of social power; forms of authority, submission, and resistance.
Essential Heresies
Introduction to individuals and movements that have challenged the intellectual and spiritual status quo in Western civilization.
Religion in Modern America, 1865–2000
American religious expansion from the Gilded Age to the late twentieth century. Religion's response to urbanization, industrialization, and the "new immigrations"; religion and science; the challenge of pluralism; religion in America's wars (hot and cold); religion and politics from 1960s radicalism to neoconservative evangelicalism; women's rise in leadership; New Age occultism.
Gender, Race, and Genetic Testing
Overview of sociological approaches to genetics, including gene/environment interactions and the history of genetic medicine. A focus on genetic testing in Huntington's disease, pregnancy, cancer, and psychological disorders to explore how genetic information is provided to patients, and how patients experience genetic risk. Discussion of commercial firms offering direct-to-consumer genetic testing.
Gender Images: A Psychological Perspective
The nature and effects of gender images (males and females, sexual orientation, gender identities) on the construction of self-identity, stereotypes, aspirations, and interpersonal relationships. Focus on contemporary media, with attention to how, when, and why gender images change with time.
Witchcraft in Colonial America
The social, religious, economic, and gender history of British North America as manifested through witchcraft beliefs and trials.
Civil Rights and Women's Liberation
The dynamic relationship between the civil rights movement and the women's liberation movement from 1940 to the present. When and how the two movements overlapped, intersected, and diverged. The variety of ways in which African Americans and women campaigned for equal rights in the twentieth century. Topics include World War II, freedom summer, black power, the Equal Rights Amendment, feminism, abortion, affirmative action, and gay rights.
Constructing the Self: From Autobiography to Facebook
Autobiography in its evolving form as literary genre, historical archive, and individual and community narrative in a changing geographical context. Women's life stories from Afghanistan, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, India, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, and Vietnam illustrate the dialectic relationship between the global and the local. What the reading and writing of autobiographies reveal about oneself and one's place in society; how autobiography can be considered a horizontal community formation.
Women, Food, and Culture
Interdisciplinary exploration of the gendering of food production, preparation, and consumption in cross-cultural perspective. Topics include agricultural practices, cooking, pasteurization, kitchen technology, food storage, home economics, hunger, anorexia, breast-feeding, meals, and ethnic identity.
Child Development
The reading of selected material with supervised participant-observer experience in infant programs, a day-care and kindergarten center, or a family day-care program. Regularly scheduled seminar discussions emphasize both theory and practice. An assumption of the course is that it is not possible to understand children—their behavior and development—without understanding their parents and the relationship between child and parents. The focus is on infancy as well as early childhood.
Theory and Practice of Early Childhood Education
Development of curricula for preschool children—infants, toddlers, three-, four-, and five-year-olds—in light of current research and child development theory.
Sacred Harp and American Hymnody
Introduction to the unaccompanied congregational hymn-singing practice known as Sacred Harp. Origins in Puritan New England, migration to the post-Reconstruction rural South, and contemporary revival in American urban communities. Musical forms and singing styles, analysis of hymn texts, and social and religious meanings of Sacred Harp practice. Students participate in the weekly Yale–New Haven Regular Singing (YNHRS), a traditional-style Sacred Harp singing. No previous singing experience required.
The Performance of Vocal Music
A course for singers and pianists that emphasizes the analysis and musical preparation of classical solo song and operatic repertoire. Examination of structure (poetic, harmonic, motivic), discussion of style, exploration of vocal techniques, and introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet. Students are strongly encouraged to supplement the course with individual voice instruction.
Listening to Music
Development of aural skills that lead to an understanding of Western music. The musical novice is introduced to the ways in which music is put together and is taught how to listen to a wide variety of musical styles, from Bach and Mozart, to Gregorian chant, to the blues.
The Physics of Dance
Critical investigation of introductory concepts in physics through the lens of dance. Topics in physics include the normal force, friction, Newton's laws, projectile motion, potential and kinetic energy, and conservation of energy. Topics in dance include aspects of dance history, contemporary artists who engage with science, and the development of movement studies. Class meetings include movement exercises.
Musical Theater Performance I
The structure and meaning of traditional and contemporary musical theater repertoire. Focus on ways to "read" a work, decipher compositional cues for character and action, facilitate internalization of material, and elicit lucid interpretations. For singers, pianists, and directors.
The Senses in Visual and Performance Arts
Sensory aspects of the material arts, theater, musical and movement performance, ritual, and architectural space. Cultural translation and presentation; theories on the arts and the senses throughout history. Includes museum visits and theater attendance.
The History of Dance
An examination of major movements in the history of concert and social dance from the late nineteenth century to the present, including ballet, tap, jazz, modern, musical theater, and different cultural forms. Exercises are used to illuminate analysis of the body in motion.
Conceptualization of a play into a sequence of visual ideas, incorporating both text and subtext. Expression and testing of those ideas within a space large enough to bring together performers and audience.
The Director and the Text I
Basic exercises in approaching dramatic or other literary texts from the director's perspective. Particular attention to the many roles and functions of the director in production. Rehearsal and production of workshop scenes.
Performance Studies
An introduction to the field of performance studies, with attention to events in music, theater, dance, performance art, and social practice. Live performances interpreted using strategies of observer-participant analysis.
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