Do you enjoy plays, movies and comics about strong-willed characters, each with unique strengths, who must learn to work together to defeat a common enemy? Have you always wanted to better understand how our immune systems work? If so, this seminar is for you, because it will empower you to bring cells of the immune system and the parasites they fight to the stage or screen! Instruction in playwriting and immunology will be paired with discussion of readings and films. Writing assignments will help you build your plays/screenplays piece by piece, with feedback, and will culminate in a performance of class works.

This is a hands-on seminar and laboratory experience about the engineering design of motorcycles. Students will restore or repair a vintage Triumph motorcycle and will compare it to previous restorations of the same make and model of motorcycle from other years (1955, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, and 1964). No previous shop or laboratory experience is necessary, and we welcome liberal arts students as well as engineering students. The class meets twice each week, starting with a discussion session followed by laboratory work.

This course explores transnational and diasporic formations of race in the Americas. Drawing on Ethnic Studies, Latin American Studies, and anthropological and historical approaches, we explore racial formations in Latin America and its transnational communities. A central goal for this course is to understand race and racial formations as culturally contextualized and situated within the politics of difference. How are U.S. racial-ethnic categories embraced, contested, or reconfigured across the Americas, and vice versa? Topics include multiculturalism, mestizaje, border thinking, transnationalism, and racial democracy among others.

In this seminar, we will ask what revenge is and what purposes it serves, using well-known literary examples in which revenge is center-stage. The after-effects of retribution are dramatic, arresting, and often disruptive of social order and civility. But revenge may also encompass subtler acts of resistance, showing a culture's racial and gender biases, revealing who has power and who doesn't, and how or if the equilibrium of justice can be attained.

An introduction to religious studies and history of philosophy using classic works produced by imprisoned authors. Readings span the world's major religious and philosophical traditions and include works by Plato, Boethius, Marguerite Porete, Gandhi, Levinas, Martin Luther King, Jr., JP Sartre, and detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Works will be exegeted according to their contexts of origination while also asking what they have to teach us in an era of rising nationalism and mass incarceration.

Modern technology has pushed the boundaries of environmental and ecological limits to accommodate growing societal needs. Yet, it can also be a double-edged sword, posing new environmental challenges. In this Freshman Seminar students will explore how technologies have helped address challenges in water, energy, and food production, examine opposing views on environmental sustainability solutions, and discover new concerns from emerging contaminants. We will also explore how to communicate quantitative information by utilizing tools in data visualization effectively.

When, where, why and how did human language originate? There are no definite answers, but findings from many different areas of investigation (including paleontology, archeology, linguistics, animal communication, neurobiology, genetics, statistics), when considered in conjunction, shed light on these old and fascinating questions. Current research often gives rise to contrasting interpretations and hypotheses; the seminar will attempt to present a balanced picture and invite students to weigh all evidence.

This seminar looks at science in the popular media. We'll examine these from the perspective of both science and of journalism, in order to understand what compromises science writers are forced to make as they turn technical information into engaging, readable informative pieces the public will readily engage with--without "dumbing down" the science so much that it's misleading or inaccurate. In order to do so, the instructor will draw on his more than 30 years of experience as a science journalist, and also on the experiences of visiting journalists and scientists who will help us analyze case studies from a wide range of media outlets.

This course examines the nature, causes, and consequences of inequalities of income, wealth, happiness, and life expectancy within the US and across countries. US economic inequality has surged since 1980. Women earn less than men, Black Americans earn less than Whites, the bottom 50% earns less than the top 1%, and the global middle class earns less than the poor in rich countries. Why? And what can policy do to reduce economic inequality? How does inequality affect justice? Is poverty or inequality the more serious problem? Do moral obligations to reduce inequality extend beyond national borders?

What would a Marxism for the 21st century look like? Our seminar will examine the contemporary viability of Marx's fundamental concepts - such as labor, exploitation, ideology, and revolution. How must these concepts be reimagined to account for the specific shape of contemporary capitalism? What can Marxism learn from forms of critical thought that have emerged more recently, especially those concerned with race and gender? Subtopics include student-debt, social media and communicative capitalism, eco-Marxism, #Blacklivesmatter, Occupy Wall Street.

This seminar will trace the outlines of the principal nodes of American thought, culture and ideas, through an intensive encounter with American politics, religion, philosophy and music. It will direct participants' attention to the fundamental contest between Enlightenment and Puritanism in American identity, and grapple with American collegiate philosophy, the abolitionist movement, 20th-century Black intellectuals, feminism, and the contest among neo-liberalism, progressivism, and conservatism through a wide variety of readings and lively discussion.

Libraries vary widely in what they provide to communities, and how they welcome communities into their spaces. We will explore libraries on campus, in Princeton, and in Trenton. We will learn about library services, collections and people through guest speakers and in-person field trips. We will create portraits of libraries as we look at the many pressures they face today.

This seminar will explore some of the critical contributions of (mostly Allied) scientists, engineers, and mathematicians during World War II.

One way to understand the various patterns and processes in our world is to think of them as "systems" (e.g., the criminal justice system, neural systems, economic systems, etc.). There's lot of talk about these systems ("blame the system"; "you can't beat the system") and efforts to change them, but not a lot of understanding about how systems actually work. We will bridge this knowledge gap by learning about what all systems have in common, how they respond to change and why it is difficult to change them in predictable ways.

This course will focus on cross-cultural issues surrounding representation in documentary filmmaking, both in front of and behind the lens. Through film production, screenings and texts, we will explore the question of "who has the right tell whose story, and why?" Students will direct two documentaries each: one set in their own cultural sphere, the other set outside of it. Each student will direct these films while another student assists them. They will then switch roles, giving every student exposure to the construction of four different documentaries.

The Circus! While it's easy to get mesmerized by beautiful, daring and graceful performances, have you contemplated what goes into creating these acts? While routines such as aerial acrobatics, juggling, balancing acts, and magic may not at first glance seem mathematical, they in fact require a methodical composition of techniques which have a rich analytical and logical structure. We will spend the semester developing creative mathematical techniques to analyze a variety of circus arts from the perspectives of both pure and applied mathematics.

Amazonia is a planetary hotspot of biocultural diversity and a massive carbon sink on the brink. The seminar explores how Indigenous knowledges and the environment co-produce one another and considers the significance of forest-making practices for conservation science and climate change mobilization. Drawing from historical, ethnographic, and ecological studies, Planet Amazonia is a platform for alternative storytelling and future-making agendas based on new scholarly and activist alliances. Students will engage with Indigenous scholars and environmental activists and will craft alternative visions to safeguard this vital planetary nexus.

This course will equip students to analyze tales about merfolk across cultures and media (TV, movies, texts). It engages merfolk tales as transformative, focusing on how they challenge social norms. Merfolk swim across cultural and linguistic boundaries, both engendering and troubling norms of class privilege, colorism, and gender.

This course explores empathy, perspective-taking, and other forms of experiencing other minds through a philosophical lens. Insights are drawn from both cognitive psychology and contemporary philosophy. Some of the topics covered include: the nature of empathy; the role of intersubjectivity in fictional narrative art; and the value (if any) of perspective-taking, especially in light of feminist considerations.

This course examines the representation of women as outlaw in literature. It takes as its premise the quest for women to transgress their gender identities by questioning the acceptable traditional, religious, and cultural gender norms that undermine their self-potential. Through class discussions and presentations, students will explore how writers through their female characters interrogate, redefine, or fortify the boundaries of womanhood. At the end of the class, students will be able to identify and relate with some of the sociocultural, political, religious, and economic factors that lead to women's quest for self-identity.

Algorithms shape our sense of self and how we perform ourselves in person and online. In this course, students will engage with the hybrid media and performance practices through which artists consider the body in public space, onstage, and digitally. The course will explore various sites of cutting-edge art practices from scenes of political theater to experimental staged performances. Texts will include live and recorded performances, as well as historical and theoretical secondary sources. The class will host a guest artist talk series centering the ever-shifting cultural climate of live performance making.

Our way of speaking is an essential part of our identity. Our particular language variety gives information to the listeners about where we were born, how old we are, our social class and even our race or ethnicity. However, since not all dialects are equally accepted, some speakers might feel judged because of their way of talking. In this seminar, we will analyze the reasons behind the belief that some language varieties are better than the rest, and debunk that myth. We will look at several examples of dialects around the globe and especially here in the US and we will study linguistic situations like multilingualism in our society.

A hands-on seminar and laboratory experience focusing on sustainable development and the interaction of food, energy, and water. Students will partner with community- and campus-based groups to explore themes.

Qué es una frontera? How has the US-Mexico border been configured and imagined since colonial times? What does it mean to live in-between nations, languages and worldviews? This seminar will explore the concept of the border and borderland spaces from a humanistic and historical perspective. We will reflect on the border as a geographical space but also as a discursive site where authors reflect on dreams, (land) struggles, trans-nationalism, language, identity, race, gender, and human rights. Some reading knowledge of Spanish is desirable but not required.

Scholars trying to explain the human past are confronted with some major problems: To what degree can objectivity be achieved in the analysis of history? Is there anything such as 'historical truth'? What 'literary' constraints are imposed upon historiographic writings? Can narration on its own provide a real understanding of the past? Is a 'scientific' history possible? We will study how historians have approached these questions and envisioned the study of history. In addition, we will deal with a highly controversial case study - Nazi Germany- which tests the relevance of historians' debates.

"A Village is a Vast Hell" (Argentinian Proverb) "It Takes a Village" Through an exploration of the village in historical sources, we will evaluate these starkly different views, one emphasizing solidarity and caring, the other a nightmare of imprisonment. We will also explore the imaginary village through film. The course will range widely, from medieval villages to current attempts to repopulate villages in Europe. The latter have benefited from the pandemic; villages are beckoning to city dwellers as places of escape. This is just the latest iteration of the village's long-standing grip on our imagination.

War, disease, environmental collapse, and other disasters remain as relevant now as they were for ancient societies. Apocalyptic literature, which claims to reveal knowledge regarding the cosmos and history, has offered powerful accounts of the end of the world in many historical contexts. This course will trace how apocalyptic ideas and idioms forged in the ancient and medieval worlds continue to inform modern speculation about the end times. It will illuminate the flexibility of apocalyptic language, its ability to interpret changing historical situations, and its ongoing power to move people, whether to acceptance or to radical action.

This course will look at representations of the human body in literature and visual culture from the 17th century up to the present day. We will consider the ways that the body is socially constructed as a site of power, knowledge, desire, and difference.

This seminar will explore the challenges and opportunities that today's rapidly evolving media landscape presents to freedom of the press, and to the democracy that the media serve. Discussion will focus on where news comes from and how citizens can best assess the credibility of individual news reports. Students will evaluate how successful traditional mass-media outlets and emerging digital media have been at accomplishing the lofty goals embodied in the First Amendment. They will craft strategies for determining their own personal media diet and work to develop new models for serious, sustainable news ventures.

What makes hell what it is? What archetypes of the underworld helped to cement its importance in different religious systems? Why is hell so alive in secular culture today? This course explores the literary topos of the descent into the underworld in several strands of literary culture in the west. In the seminar, we will discuss underworld themes and archetypes in western and eastern antiquity, the Middle Ages, as well as modern and contemporary literature and visual art. Understanding the curious attraction of hell will help us conceptualize what the realm of the dead means for how we inhabit the world of the living.

Increasing global connectivity has brought forth multiple challenges such as such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the rise in cryptocurrency assets driven by mistrust in institutions, and informational opacity despite continuous digital connectivity. To address these challenges, we need to understand the history of the technologies that have precipitated their trajectories. In this seminar, we will explore the history of modern communications technology from a non-technical perspective. Starting with the evolution of Bell Labs and the invention of the transistor in 1949, every decade since has seen a path-breaking invention.

What does it mean to photograph yourself? Is it an act of self-exploration, narcissism, self-love, representational justice? What are the possibilities and limitations of making art in this way? What can our bodies teach us if we pay attention? Through making self-portraits students will reflect on how it is to be in their particular body. Each class will have guided warm-ups which foreground embodiment and play, out of which students will generate material for their photographic explorations. We will learn the basics of camera operation and consider how things like framing, angle of view, and distance influence meaning.

Lasers are not focused, and quantum leaps are tiny. This freshman seminar first explores the science behind quantum technologies. What makes a physical object "quantum", and what does it mean for the way it behaves? The future of quantum technologies, especially quantum computation and quantum cryptography are discussed. Besides the technical aspects, this freshman seminar also explores the use of "quantum" in popular culture, media, film, and literature. This seminar is open to all first-year students, and does not require any specialized prerequisites beyond general high school science and mathematics.

The question of the origins and stages of civilization remains a key focus for contemporary debates about society. Why is this so? Can the notion of "civilization" today still be a useful one? Or should we get rid of it entirely? Drawing on sources and evidence from diverse fields including archaeology, literature, history, and political thought, we will examine the long tradition of hypothetical narratives about the origins and future of "civilization," while also grappling with more contemporary takes on the problem, such as Graeber & Wengrow's recent and bestselling - The Dawn of Civilization.

New York's Central Park, 843 acres in the center of Manhattan Island, remains, now more than a century and a half after its construction, the most iconic urban park in the United States. Visited by 42 million people each year, Central Park has been called the most filmed location in the world. This seminar will take a deep dive into its history and cultural meanings, and will approach the park through a myriad of disciplinary lenses. The course will take up the complexity and contradictions inherent in the creation and preservation of 'nature' in the city that would become the cultural and economic capital of the United States.

Protagonists of great literary works in the tradition of the Künstlerroman (artist's novel) are typically young men--from Goethe's Wilhelm Meister to Joyce's Stephen Dedalus and beyond. Countless readers and writers have seen in those characters possible models for self-fashioning in art and life. This course focuses on works of literary fiction in which the aspiring artist is not a young man, even sometimes not a human being. Reading and discussing texts that challenge our assumptions about individuality, creativity, and humanity at large, we will explore how ideas about art can matter to how we live.

One of the most challenging questions we face during life is the question of the meaning of life. Different cultures offered different answers to this profound question; the various perspectives also created a different perception of morality and virtue. During the course, we will read masterpieces from diverse traditions that embody different concepts regarding the meaning of life and virtues. We will also try to understand the relationship between different ideals and their social realization.