Winter Study 2020 Course Offerings

To be taken by students registered for Africana Studies 491 who are candidates for honors. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Anyone can make a podcast. But is it a podcast worth listening to? Or is it just another hot take recorded poorly in a closet? This hands-on course, taught by former National Public Radio correspondent Elizabeth Arnold, will introduce you to the art of writing and producing audio through the creation of your own podcast. Audio is compelling because of the power of sound to tell a story, the expressiveness of the human voice and the intimacy of the medium. Classes will cover the basics: from how to write for the ear to multi-track mixing. Students will learn to record, edit and critique their own short audio stories and develop the first episode of a podcast for broadcast. The in-class portion of the course will focus on interviewing and production skills, along with critiques of outside-of-class audio assignments. Assignments will include listening to a range of audio stories and podcasts. With student consent, final projects may be submitted for broadcast. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Elizabeth Arnold is a former National Public Radio (NPR) White House and Congressional correspondent. For more than twenty years, she covered politics and the environment in the U.S. China and Russia. She currently teaches journalism at the University of Alaska and reports on climate change in the Arctic. [ more ]

This course will explore the educational experience of Black students as portrayed in popular culture and compare that to the K-12 and higher education literature that documents and examines the lived experiences of Black students. How accurately do we see the experience of Black students represented in popular culture? What choices or biases might be reflected in these depictions? What might the consumption of these media have on the ways in which people build narratives around the experiences of Black students throughout the American educational system? Potential topics include the experience of students at historically Black colleges and universities (A Different World, School Daze, The Quad), experiences in gifted and talented education (Smart Guy, Akeelah and the Bee, Finding Forrester), experiences at predominately White institutions (Higher Learning, Grown-ish, Dear White People), experiences as student-athletes (Love and Basketball, Coach Carter), and experiences in public and public charter schools (Lean on Mean, The Steve Harvey Show, Dangerous Minds, On My Block, Boston Public,Waiting for Superman, The Lottery). Students will be expected to choose some popular culture medium and explore how it connects to the literature in a final paper of 10 -12 pages and contribute actively to classroom discussions. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Christopher Sewell is an Associate Dean of the College at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. His scholarship focuses on studying the experiences of gifted students of color, how schooling and policies around gifted and talented education affect students of color long-term experiences, the ways in which LGBTQ+ gifted students negotiate their academic, racial and sexual identities, and the experiences of Black students at Predominantly White Institutions. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for American Studies 491 or 492. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

India is a diverse country. The ingredients and dishes cooked in the Northern part of India vary immensely from those cooked in the South and coastal regions. This course will begin with an introduction into the origin and use of spices in Indian cooking and then go into a hands-on demonstration of some popular dishes from the above regions of India. The focus will be to learn to cook healthy vegetarian food, but we will also be making the popular chicken tikka masala. The class will meet for 6 hours each week (January 7, 8, 14, 15, 28, and 29¿plus compulsory field trip). There will be assigned readings and a compulsory 3-day trip to New York (January 20-22) where we visit restaurants and spice markets in the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens to further your understanding of the diversity within the Indian cuisine. The trip will feature cooking demonstrations at various restaurants, including one with the chef from the Pierre. The course will require students to create a food blog, post photographs, and make a number of blog entries about the Indian cuisine. Final evaluation will be based on a cooking project as well as the quality of blog entries. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Ramaa Reddy Raghavan is a freelance broadcast and print journalist who is passionate about food and travel. She is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism. Her work has been published in Huffington Post, NBC, WHYY, BBC, NPR, and PRI's The World. [ more ]

Space and place are so ubiquitous in our lived experience that we often fail to take their significance into account when directing and designing scientific research. How do spatial relations (presence/absence, proximity, preference/avoidance) shape natural and cultural phenomena? How do space and place reflect cultural perceptions and practices? How are landscapes and environments engineered to shape individual and social behavior? This intensive course explores the fundamentals of spatial theory and methods, with an emphasis on technical skill, data evaluation, and research design. Through readings, lectures, discussions, and exercises you will be encouraged to think spatially and to apply spatial thinking to your areas of interest. Priority for enrolling in this course will be given to Div II students who may need GIS (mapping & spatial analysis) for an independent study or senior thesis. Students who have not taken GEOS 214 have enrollment preference in this course; this course is not a prerequisite for GEOS 214 and students who take this course may also take GEOS 214. [ more ]

The work of the late French historian and sociologist Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) suffers from nothing less than a tragic paradox. On the one side, there is arguably no one whose sociohistorical analyses have done more to explicate the relationship between technology and the most pressing issues of our day. On the other side, despite the profundity and contemporary relevance of Ellul's work, it has been widely misinterpreted, dismissed as both "pessimistic" and "technologically deterministic." This course invites students to carry out a close reading of Ellul's most (in)famous study--The Technological Society (1964). We will situate this text relative to the circumstances in which Ellul lived and worked, and in relation to his two principle influences: Karl Marx and Søren Kierkegaard. Together, we will then work our way through the text's key themes: Ellul's distinction between technology and technique and the latter's distinctly modern characteristics; technique and economy; technique and the state; and finally, human techniques (e.g. therapy, medicine, management, education, propaganda, sport). In the course of proceeding as such, students will be asked to consider, critique, and elaborate Ellul's ideas in light of contemporary technological developments. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

When you look at a photograph, what is it really saying? How can you make a photograph that says what you want to say? This course is about seeing with emotion and literacy, and making photographs that reflect your own personal voice and vision. This is not a course on technical photography--this is about breaking down the barrier between your ideas and your camera. Students will conceptualize and photograph a project of their own choosing. Whether a narrative documentary project or a more abstract exploration of form, students are expected to photograph on their own outside of class for at least five hours a week. Students must own or borrow a digital camera. Williams has a stock of excellent cameras available for loan. Mondays and Fridays we'll be looking at amazing historical and contemporary photographic work to cover a broad range of what is possible with the medium and discussing what the current conversations and controversies are within the practice. We'll be looking at slides, screens, photobooks and gallery shows to get a sense of how photographs function differently depending on how they're shown. The work we discuss is always adapted to reflect students' interests. On Wednesdays we critique each others' work--we look at students' top images for the week and try to reconcile them against the project's conceptual basis. We have a focused discussion about each student's work for 20-30 minutes, and how to make each project better. After critiques I'll be sending everyone photographic references to use for inspiration depending on your subject matter and aesthetic approach. At the end of the course the class will design and produce a campus exhibition of their photography. This event will serve as a synthesis of all the knowledge students gained while working together to make each others' projects stronger. No photography experience is necessary! Anyone is ready to start reading photographs critically, and establish a concept-driven workflow that will serve you well as long as you take pictures. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Ben Brody is an award-winning photographer working on long-form projects related to the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their aftermath. Themes of generational trauma, propaganda, and tragic comedy recur in his visual approach. His new book, Attention Servicemember, published by Red Hook Editions, will be available this fall. [ more ]

How might we think of killing animals as a form of care? How do narratives of ecological decline associated with the Anthropocene and climate change potentially exclude Indigenous perspectives? In this course, we will think critically about themes related to resource use and extraction, human-animal relations, and settler colonialism. We will unsettle dominant conceptions of conservation, call into question management models that marginalize Indigenous peoples and ways of being in the world, and explore how ways of relating to the more-than-human shape Indigenous and non-Indigenous responses to climate change and environmental degradation. Drawing upon theoretical works and ethnographic investigations within anthropology and American Indian and Indigenous Studies, as well as poetry and fiction, including the works of Indigenous and settler scholars and writers, we will examine how theorizations of and relations with animals, plants, and landscapes shape conservationist logics, resource management models, and understandings of what it means to "care" for land and the multiple beings that animate it. This course involves six hours of in-class work and an average of 20 hours of outside-of-class work weekly. The course will rely heavily on student preparation for class and student participation in small- and large-group discussions in class. This is an introductory course, and assessments will be weighted more towards students' understandings of broader themes and questions rather than proficiency in any one school of theory or ethnographic locale. Students will earn their grades as follows: with one-sentence summaries and prepared questions for twelve of the assigned readings (once for each class meeting); as co-discussants for one class meeting; with one short take-home essay exam (750-1000 words); and with a final paper (roughly 3000 words) drawing upon ideas and comparative examples encountered in the course to analyze a current episode or event. Adjunct Bio: William Voinot-Baron is a PhD candidate in cultural anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His dissertation is an ethnographic examination of the ways in which salmon are central to both understandings and practices of care in an Alaska Native (Yupiaq) village in southwest Alaska, and the consequences of State of Alaska and federal fishing regulations for tribal sovereignty and well-being. He holds an M.A. in Anthropology from Columbia University and an A.B. in Anthropology and Environmental Studies from Bowdoin College [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Anthropology 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Students enrolled in this course will learn about the history of Moroccan cuisine and its uses in activism before engaging in cooking Moroccan dishes themselves. From couscous to mint tea, Moroccan cuisine's history encompasses colonial legacies, state-building efforts, and histories of importation of spices and ingredients from exotic places. State legitimacy and social prominence required the royal court, governors, and wealthy individuals to present their guests with the most exquisite dishes to mark their status and entrench their prominence in their communities. Historically, Moroccan Sultans and governors contributed to the creation of a distinct Moroccan cuisine with its set of rituals and traditions that are still observed in the official arenas today. However, the last twenty years have witnessed the emergence of a strong civil society alongside women's organizations whose investment in revenue-generating projects as a way to empower women has transformed Moroccan cuisine. In this context, cuisine has become a site of liberation, democratization, and search of equality in the Morocco. Moreover, these transformative projects draw on culinary memory to effectuate change within continuity in a country that has been in transition for a while. The first week of the course will be dedicated to the discussion of Moroccan cuisine and the ways in which cuisine relates to state policies and civil society's activism. The second and the third weeks will be organized in the form of workshops to train students to cook Moroccan tajine, tea, lamsmen, baghrir, omelettes, couscous, cookies, soups, and other dishes. All students are required to participate actively in the culinary workshop throughout the duration of the winter study course. [ more ]

How Does Language Vary in Society? The Fascinating Case of Arabic Description: Sociolinguistics is the study of how aspects of society influence how language is used by the society members, and how the very act of language use constructs those societies and positions speakers in them. This course will provide an introduction to questions of interest to sociolinguists. These include: 1) How and why do languages change? How do different speech communities use language? 3) In what ways does language reflect a person's identity? 4) In what ways does language construct a person's identity? 5) How does language intersect with power? This course will address these questions with a focus on a unique case study: Arabic. Arabic is a classical example of a diglossic language. Two varieties with marked differences and specific functional distributions co-exist in Arabic speech communities: Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), a variety with a higher sociopolitical status as the symbol of pan-Arabism and the official language of twenty three Arab countries, and colloquial Arabic (CA), the symbol of local identities. CA itself varies widely along geographical, religious, gender, age, and socio-economic lines within and between Arab countries. Arabic speakers mix between MSA and CA and shift their language use within a mosaic of language variation that would fascinate all those interested in the study of sociolinguistics. Readings, movies, and audiovisual materials in this course will provide a glimpse of this sociolinguistic scene. Knowledge of Arabic is not required to take this course. Students are expected to actively engage in class discussions based on course materials, and will write a 10-page final paper based on a sociolinguistic project. [ more ]

Arabic Studies senior thesis. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Joan of Arc (known during her own lifetime most commonly as Jeanne "la Pucelle," or Joan "the Maid") was one of the most dynamic and yet enigmatic personalities of the European Middle Ages. Born into a peasant family in the French border province of Lorraine in 1412, she gained control of an army, won brilliant military victories, crowned a king, and was burnt at the stake as a heretic, all before her twentieth birthday. Triply marginalized by gender, age, and socio-economic status, she nonetheless managed to shake the Church and State establishments to their very core. But who was Joan of Arc? Nationalist martyr? Pioneer feminist? Champion of the people? Instrument of God's grace? Victim of post-traumatic stress disorder? Exemplary transgender warrior? Over the centuries since her death, artists--and not just politicians and scholars--have attempted to answer this question, creating myriad visions of la Pucelle under the influence of an ever-changing lens of contemporary tastes and concerns. Through readings and discussion, this course will survey the history of representations of Joan of Arc in painting, prints, sculpture, and film, from the time of her death to the present. [ more ]

Bridging art history and environmental humanities, this course will explore how the experience of landscape, a term that privileges the visual, is impacted not only by sight but by sound, touch, smell, and even taste. We will look at the way artists have translated embodied experiences of landscape into paint and other media as we ask what is lost or gained, just as we will consider what the taste of tea or oysters might tell us about the history and present environment of the places they come from. By looking at how artists and writers have theorized and experienced landscapes in the past, we will explore how those histories inform how and what we sense today. We will ask: how is the environment experienced (and narrated) through our bodies? How do human interactions with nature produce a "sense" of ownership and domination? Is something more symbiotic possible? To answer these questions, we will look at works of art in the collections of WCMA and The Clark, read work by historical and contemporary writers, and engage in experiential learning that activates all senses, including hiking, tasting, and making. Evaluation will be based on participation, including weekly journal reflections, and the completion of a 10-page written assignment that will combine creative reflection and research. Attendance and active participation in class discussions will also be required. We will typically meet three times a week for two-hour sessions, with some additional required field trips. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Elliot Krasnopoler is a Doctoral Candidate in the History of Art at Bryn Mawr College, where he is completing a dissertation about the intersections of contemporary art, landscape, and time. He holds an M.A. in Art History from Williams College, and a B.F.A. in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He lives in North Adams, MA, and is an avid hiker, tea enthusiast, and mineral collector. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for ArtH 494. For requirements of entry into the course, please see "The Degree with Honors in Art, Art History" in the catalogue or on the Art Department's webpage. [ more ]

To be taken by candidates for honors by the independent study route. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

This course will explore relief printmaking through the lens of the woodcut. Wood is sculptural--soft, hard, porous, inconsistent, it has knots and grain. Cedar cuts like butter while mahogany seems impossible to penetrate. We will learn how to capitalize on these inconsistencies by working with the material to realize unique prints. We will explore an array of cutting strategies as we apply them to various types of wood. Students will learn how to use the press, register prints, and how to make a small edition. The course will begin with translating drawing into a print with one matrix, leading students to make a color reduction print and a multi-block print. We will look at these techniques from a historical lens, its relevance to the textile industry and its applications in anti-establishment Latin American image culture. We will read texts that address the conceptual implications of mechanical production by Renee Green, Luis Camnitzer, and Franz Kafka. Through discussions and critiques, we will examine this practice from a variety of cultural, conceptual, and historical standpoints, both within the conventions of printmaking as well as in its experimental applications. The class will meet for three hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Students will be expected to complete work outside of class to present the following week. There is a $70 lab fee per student that covers materials and travel allowance. We will take one field trip to The Clark Institute, where we will look at historical woodcuts in the Manton Study Center for Works on Paper. Adjunct Instructor Bio:Chris Domenick is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Western, MA. [ more ]

This course will provide students with a foundation in the ceramic process, its history, and its evolving role in contemporary art. We will explore a variety of construction methods, hand building techniques, glazing, and firing. Through lectures, demonstrations, and group discussion, we will think critically about the role of this ancient material in both fine art and everyday life. Emphasis will be placed upon experimentation; conventions will be learned and disrupted. Students will develop a personal language in the material, exhibiting an independent project at the end of the term. Work will be evaluated both conceptually and technically during a final group critique. Regular attendance and active participation are essential. We will meet twice a week in three-hour sessions. Students are expected to spend a significant amount of time outside of class working independently. [ more ]

The jewel-like world of Indian painting is famous for its stylized naturalism and mastery of line. This course will introduce students to the technique and imagery of this art form. The course is designed as a workshop in which students will learn to use traditional materials and techniques. The class will focus on the practice of copying and taking inspiration from original masterworks of Indian art housed in the Williams College of Museum of Art (WCMA). By engaging with a non-western practice, the aim of the course is to expose students to a pluralistic engagement with art and art history. In addition to learning the basics of drawing and painting techniques, students will also learn paper and pigment preparation. The workshop will focus on the siah qalam brush and ink rendering technique, the backbone for the more advanced techniques of neemrang and gadrang, which pertain to color application. Working with original artworks will help students situate the hands-on study of Indian painting practice alongside exemplary historical examples. Students will have the opportunity to exhibit their final projects at Spencer Hall. [ more ]

This course takes a behind-the-scenes look at the WCMA art collection--its origins, contents, accessibility, and future--as a singular resource for the Williams College community and beyond. With an eye toward the coming Presidential election and ideas of resistance, protest, power, agitation, and rebellion, students will conduct both a broad survey of the collection and in depth case studies of several artworks. Fundamental questions include: How is an art collection assembled, let alone maintained and mediated? How is a collection evidence of a certain philosophy or proof of a particular position? Should collecting habits change in times of significant political disquiet? Through reading, dialogue, and hands-on learning, we develop strategies for how to dust off, contextualize, and re-contextualize complex collection artworks in public art galleries. The course further offers the chance to collaborate with WMCA staff, including representatives from various departments, including archives, curatorial, collections, and more. The course's final project includes generating a speculative exhibition proposal for the museum in the fall of 2020. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Jordan Stein is an independent curator and collaborator with an interest in expanded models and methods of exhibition making, history as medium, and the practice of research. [ more ]

Independent project to be taken by candidates for honors in Art Studio. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

This course provides a historical and political overview of socialism in Asia from the 1910s to the present. It examines the spread and influence of Marxism in Asia, the polices of socialist states and movements in relation to decolonization, the Cold War, and the Sino-Soviet split, and the marriage between market reforms and ostensibly socialist governments in the present day. In addition to looking at the socialist governments of China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia, we will examine cases of "unsuccessful" socialist parties in Japan, Indonesia, and India. Class materials include memoirs of survival by non-state actors, the writings of socialist leaders (Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, M.N. Roy, etc), and cultural constructions such as revolutionary theatre, songs, and contemporary films. Questions that will be addressed include: Why did Marxism, a Eurocentric theory of revolution intended for advanced capitalist societies, find such resonance in Asia? How was Marxism adapted for an Asian environment? Twenty-five years after the fall of communism, why have Asian socialist states remained in power? And in the scales of history, how should we judge the effects of socialism in Asia? Evaluation will be based on two in-class presentations and a final research paper. Attendance and participation will also be taken into account. We will meet three times a week for two-hour sessions. Adjunct Bio: John Knight has a Ph.D in East Asian History with a focus on Modern China. He graduated in 2017 from The Ohio State University. He has previously taught East Asian and World History at the Rhode Island School of Design, Ohio State University, Capital University, and Seton Hall. [ more ]

Movies that feature martial arts action rarely win Oscars or get much critical attention. Nevertheless, the best of these films can inspire extraordinary devotion amongst fans, spark bitter feuds regarding which martial arts star would win in a fight, and are often the reason new students arrive at the door of a martial arts school and begin a journey which changes their lives forever. A case can also be made that, by providing an experience of extraordinary and cathartic violence, they help individuals and society regulate their less civilized impulses. They are also a lot more fun to watch when you know something about martial arts--and the only legitimate way to know something about martial arts is to experience them first hand, rather than only on screen. This course blends two hours of daily training with twice-weekly screenings of some of the best martial arts films ever made. The Martial Arts training (10am-Noon each weekday morning in Currier Ballroom) will mostly be in the Japanese art of Aikido, a synthesis of the Samurai arts of Kenjutsu (swordsmanship) and Jujutsu (grappling). Training will improve each student's strength, balance, posture, and flexibility. Everyone will also learn how to throw friends twice their size across the room. 25% of training time will be devoted to sword, staff, and dagger techniques. Joining us for several sessions will be Stage Combat Instructor and fight choreographer Alexei Syssoyeva, who will oversee students choreographing their own fight sequence, using stage combat techniques (i.e. the skills required to make it look like a real fight when it isn't). Additional relevant experiences, such as meditation practice and outdoor misogi will be woven into the course as schedules and weather permit. The films: 7 Samurai, Last Samurai, Uzumasa Limelight, Enter the Dragon, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Robin Hood (Errol Flynn version), Brotherhood of the Wolf, Kill Bill (volume 1). Adjunct Instructor Bio: Robert Kent '84 spent 3 years in Kyoto, Japan earning his Sho Dan (first degree black belt), directly after majoring in both Philosophy and Religion at Williams. He currently holds a Yon Dan rank (Fourth degree black belt), having studied for 21 years at Aikido West in Redwood City under Frank Doran Shihan. He earned a Masters degree in Philosophy at Claremont Graduate School in 1993, writing his thesis on the Ethics of Authenticity. [ more ]

To be taken by all students who are candidates for honors in Asian Studies. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Less than a generation ago, we wondered, as we had for millions of years before, whether there were any other planets at all. Now, we are privileged to be in the first generation of humans to know that many of the points of light dusting our night sky are host to orbiting worlds, some of which may be like our Earth. In this course, we will explore the techniques that are being used to discover these new worlds. We will make our own contributions to this great age of discovery, by using remotely-operated telescopes in Australia to gather data on new planets. This course, meant for non-majors, will deal with the science of planet hunting, the astounding diversity of planets known to exist, the emerging science of astrobiology, and the enduring question of "are we alone?" through works of science fiction and cutting-edge research. Majors may take this course with additional reading and assignments. Adjunct Bio: Rob Wittenmyer '98 is Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. He is a veteran planet hunter with more than 20 published planet discoveries, and is the Chief Investigator of the Minerva-Australis observatory which is NASA's key Southern ground support for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. [ more ]

France was Europe's cultural avatar in the 17th century, father of the Rights of Man in the 18th century, Art Capital of the World in the 19th Century, and essential in the 20th to victory in World War I. How did it find itself subservient to the dictates of a foreign ruling power in 1940 and helpless to prevent the usurpation of its democracy? How did France fail to protect the very rights of man that it had long-struggled to establish and achieve? In this course we will examine what happened politically and socially during the Vichy regime of 1940 to 1945. And when Germany's hegemony was upended in 1945 with the victory of the Allies in World War II , how did the French explain to those allies, and to themselves, how France had achieved its salvation? To explain all this, we will examine break-through historical studies from the 1970s, novels written at the time of the occupation and popular today, films of the era and beyond, as well as examples of analyses of French and foreign thinkers following the war and continuing into this century. Classes will meet twice a week for 2-3 hours. Students will be responsible for daily reading of secondary sources in the reading packets. They will view on Glow films from the Vichy era and beyond and be asked to analyze and share their impressions. Each student will be assigned a novel set in Vichy times; they will prepare a concise report for the group and 5-page paper explaining how the novel confirmed or countered their impressions of the era. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Ms. Bowden graduated magna cum laude from Vassar College, studying European history there, and subsequently at Columbia University. She has taught history at independent schools in New York and in the Queen's College graduate Education division. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Astronomy 493, 494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

BioEYES brings tropical fish to 3rd-grade classrooms in Williamstown, North Adams, and Lanesborough Elementary schools, in a science teaching workshop. Elementary school students will breed fish at the school, then study their development and pigmentation during one week. Williams students will adapt BioEYES lesson plans to the science curriculum for the schools we visit, work with classroom teachers to introduce concepts in genetics and development, help the 3rd-grade students in the classroom, and assess elementary student learning. No zebrafish experience is necessary; during the first week, students will learn to set up fish matings and learn about embryonic development and the genetics of fish pigmentation as well as practice teaching the 3rd-grade BioEYES lesson plans with hands-on experiments using living animals. In the subsequent three weeks, students will present lessons at the schools and review assessment data. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Jennifer Swoap, Associate Director at The Center for Learning in Action, is a former third-grade teacher. She currently coordinates Williams Elementary Outreach, where Williams students teach and mentor K-6 students at area elementary schools. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Renee Schiek currently serves as the liaison between Lanesborough Elementary School and the Williams Elementary Outreach, where Williams students teach hands-on science lessons at area elementary schools. She is a frequent substitute at Lanesborough ES and holds a degree in mechanical engineering. [ more ]

This course is an introduction to the ancient art and science of animal tracking, and its use for ecological inventory. Participants will deepen their skills as naturalists, their awareness of the natural world, and discover that even the greens at Williams College are abundant with wildlife. Students will have field time in class at Hopkins Forest as well as through independent study at a convenient outdoor location of each student's choosing. Basic concepts of animal tracking, its history and use by indigenous people throughout the world will be discussed through video and slide show. Students are required to create journals and site maps of Hopkins and their personal study areas, including all major features of the landscape, flora and fauna activity. Students will be expected to visit their study spots everyday for a minimum of 1 hour of tracking journaling and data collection. The course will meet twice a week for 4-5 hour sessions, primarily in the field. One field trip to a nearby state forest is scheduled for the fourth or fifth class meeting day. This day may extend to 4:00. Students are expected to have appropriate outdoor gear for winter. Adjunct Bio: Dan Yacobellis is a local naturalist and wildlife tracker who has explored forest and field for more than 20 years. He teaches courses on wilderness skills and tracking at nature education centers in Massachusetts and New York as well as his own independent programs. [ more ]

The ethical issues faced by surgeons have never been more challenging than they are today. As patients have become more sophisticated consumers of medical care, there has been a shift from paternalism to a more participatory model in medical decision-making. We will explore the ethical aspects of the surgeon-patient relationship, as well as the impact of surgical innovations and rapid advances in medical and pharmaceutical discoveries. By examining clinical cases, we will explore the role of legal health care documents on surgical decision-making (Do Not Resuscitate orders, Advanced Treatment Directives, Living Will). We will discuss issues with informed consent, disclosure of errors, conflicts of interest, relationships with industry, experimental procedures, and rationalizing the cost of newer treatments. We will discuss the ethical issues and innovative advances in training surgeons. I will include invited speakers in person or by webchat. This course is designed for both interactive discussions and the development of critical writing skills. We will meet twice a week for 3 hours per day (Mon. and Tues. 10-11:30, 1-2:30) . Students will be expected to write a 1-page paper after the first meeting about what they hope to learn from the course and to list topics that they would like to discuss. We will discuss Dr. Atul Gawande's book Being Mortal. Students will research and write three 4-page papers (one per week),excerpts of which will be discussed in class the following week. Adjunct Bio: Robert Eyre, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Surgery (Urology) at Harvard Medical School. He has had an active academic and clinical practice in Boston for 39 years, teaching medical students and surgical residents. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous peer-reviewed scientific journals in addition to authoring many articles and book chapters in the fields of urology and surgery. [ more ]

An experimental research project will be carried out under the supervision of the Biology Department. It is expected that the student will spend 20 hours per week in the lab at a minimum, and a 10-page written report is required. This experience is intended for, but not limited to, first-year students and sophomores, and requires the permission of the instructor. [ more ]

Tropical marine ecosystems such as coral reefs and mangrove forests are biodiversity 'hotspots'; they are home to an astounding variety of marine organisms, provide critical support for the livelihoods and food sources of millions of people, but are also highly vulnerable to human impacts such as climate change and overfishing. This winter study travel course will offer a unique combination of classroom, laboratory, and hands-on experiences in the scientific study, management, and restoration of tropical marine ecosystems using the Bahamian island of Eleuthera as a case study. Eleuthera is rich in marine diversity but still in the process of implementing management policies and practices for its many fisheries. As such, it presents a unique opportunity for students to experience conservation-in-action. Students will gain an understanding of the structure, function, and major threats facing tropical marine ecosystems. They will develop practical skills in conducting field surveys of tropical marine species and in implementing management and restoration strategies on the Island. They will also engage with the local community to understand the social and economic impacts of marine conservation policy and to explore alternative sustainable development strategies for subsistence fisheries that rely on these marine ecosystems. Students are expected to participate in 2 days travel and 13 days of research on the Island. The daily schedule will include field research and independent study. Students are expected to devote time each day to researching and writing a final paper that integrates their field studies, interviews, and policy research. Students will also use this time to prepare and deliver an oral slide presentation on their research the last two days of the trip. After return to Williamstown, students will be given 5 days to finish writing their final papers. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Biology 493, 494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Are you writing a thesis? Are you planning your life after graduation? Are you learning a new skill or trying to solve a problem? All these tasks can benefit from creativity. This course is based on the premise that we are all innately creative and can access this part of ourselves by connecting to our bodies through movement and the perceptual senses. By embodying our creative nature, we also develop more confidence in facing the unknown, resiliency in handling conflict, and empowerment in our decisions. Class time will be spent primarily on experiential learning in a dance studio-setting, where we will practice individual and partner techniques geared towards cultivating mindful awareness and bodily presence. Exercises include free writing, blind contour drawing, and Authentic Movement. We will also draw from post-modern experiments from the 1960's and 70's in New York City, concepts in expressive art therapy, and principles in Eastern body-mind healing modalities to establish a framework with which to contextualize our practices. You will then take what you learn in class to support your own creative project outside of class. Required text is Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic. We will also use readings from Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit, Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, Mabel Todd's The Thinking Body, Barbara Dilley's This Very Moment, Jon Kabat-Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living, Greg Johanson and Ron Kurtz's Grace Unfolding, and selected works by Joseph Campbell. Evaluation will be based on class participation, completion of assignments, midpoint feedback, final 10-page paper or creative project/presentation that demonstrates a level of engagement with class material. We will meet 2 times per week for 3 hours. One minimum individual meeting with the instructor will be scheduled during the course to focus on each student's project. If you have any questions about this course, feel free to contact the instructor at [email protected] Adjunct Instructor Bio: Tracy Hu is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Texas Medical Branch studying to become a Family Medicine physician. After graduating from Williams in 2013, she investigated the mind-body connection through extensive training in massage, contact improvisation, and meditative practices. She is interested in how modern medicine can benefit from a multidisciplinary approach to understanding disease and promoting wellness on both an individual and community level. [ more ]

This course provides an opportunity to drastically improve your life by introducing concepts that can start making a difference in the way you feel today! We will approach nutrition, lifestyle, and happiness from a holistic perspective. Students will learn how to tune out mixed media messages and look within to find ultimate health and wellness. Topics include: Ayurveda, preventative medicine, mindfulness and meditation, food intolerance awareness, healthy eating and meal planning, deconstructing cravings and overcoming sugar addiction, and finding your happiness. Evaluation will be based on completion of assignments, class participation, reflective 5-page paper, creative project, and final presentation that demonstrates a level of personal growth. After signing up for this course please email Nicole at [email protected] with a brief statement describing your interest in the course and what you hope to achieve in it. In the event of over-subscription, these statements will be used in the selection process. We will meet twice a week for three-hour sessions as a group. The course will include two individual sessions--an initial health assessment plus an additional session designed to personalize the course and assist the student in applying the learned techniques. Books required for this class may include: Integrative Nutrition: Feed Your Hunger For Health and Happiness by Joshua Rosenthal, Food Rules: An Eaters Manual by Michael Pollan, Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself by Lissa Rankin, and The Mindful Twenty-Something by Holly Rogers. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Nicole Anagnos is health coach and director at Zen Tree Wellness in Williamstown. She is co-founder of the organic skin care company, Kl¿ Organic Beauty. She also holds a master's degree in education. [ more ]

This course provides an introduction to both a theoretical consideration of the glassy state of matter and the practical manipulation of glass. We do flameworking with hand torches for at least 12 hours per week. While no previous experience is required, students with patience, good hand-eye coordination, and creative imagination will find the course most rewarding. The class is open to both artistically and scientifically oriented students. Note: if you are required to participate in a sustaining language program during Winter Study, this course meets at the same time. [ more ]

An independent experimental project in biochemistry is carried out in collaboration with a member of the Department with expertise in biochemistry. Biochemistry is a branch of chemistry that deals with the molecular details of living systems including the interaction of biologically important molecules. In the Chemistry Department, studies are underway to investigate the structure/function relationship of proteins, the interaction between proteins and RNA and DNA, the molecular basis of bacterial gene regulation, the lipid composition of model membranes, and the molecular underpinnings of viral infection. [ more ]

An independent experimental project in organic chemistry is carried out in collaboration with a member of the Department. Representative projects include: Controlled synthesis of block copolymers as self-assembled nanocarriers. Students involved in this work will learn techniques involved in organic synthesis, including analysis by NMR, IR, and SEC. [ more ]

An independent experimental project in physical chemistry is carried out in collaboration with a member of the Department with expertise in physical chemistry. Current research projects in the Department include computer modeling of non-linear, chaotic chemical and biochemical systems, molecular modeling of water clusters, laser spectroscopy of chlorofluorocarbon substitutes, and observing the dynamics in glasses using single molecule spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Chemistry 493, 494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

The aura of the Chinese knight-errant's alternative universe (jianghu, lit. rivers and lakes) has never waned thanks to the thriving literature of Chinese martial arts. Recognized as the oldest genre of Chinese popular fiction still being written today, the martial arts novel constructs a fascinating human sociality where chivalry and altruism govern, stateless subjects wander, and heroic grace unfolds. This course will examine the literary, artistic, and social imagination of this jianghu in selected modern martial arts novels written by Jin Yong (aka Louis Cha Leung-yung) and Gu Long. It also compares Jin Yong's oeuvre, endorsed by die-hard fans, with the breathtaking yet controversial C(H)ollywood martial arts extravaganzas that have been released in the current millennium. Students will inquire into the themes of righteousness and law, self and state, martial arts and medicine, body and gender, and the martial arts world and postcolonial history; as well as traditional philosophical concepts of yin and yang, and "between the people" (minjian) and "all under heaven" (tianxia). Finally, we will explore the genre's aestheticism via literary and visual constructions in the cultural text. [ more ]

To be taken by all students who are candidates for honors in Chinese. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Ancient Greek literature displays a keen awareness of the links between performance and place. Whether referring to the locations of their own performance or conjuring up images of other sites and scenes, Greek songs and speeches demand that we pay attention to setting. This course, therefore, takes an experiential and contextual approach to the study of ancient Greek literature and performance culture. The course will include foundational reading in performance theory, as well as select readings from Greek poetry, drama, and oratory. The core work, however, will occur in Greece, as we visit sites like the Athenian Acropolis, the theater and sanctuary at Epidaurus, and the Temple of Aphaia on the island of Aegina. Each student will be responsible for introducing the class to a specific site, using primary and secondary sources to describe the layout of the space and the kinds of performance events (choral dance, athletic competition, religious ritual, forensic oratory) that took place within it. As a group, we will discuss different approaches to the reconstruction of historical performance events and consider how literary texts of various genres navigate the representation of landscape and architecture. While we will primarily focus on Classical Athens, a brief turn to Greek oratory under imperial Roman rule (the "Second Sophistic") will give us an opportunity to reflect on the ways in which the enduring cultural significance of the city of Athens in later antiquity served as a resource for writers and performers who represent themselves already as belated heirs of an earlier, classical period. This course will encourage us to consider the complex significance of studying ancient authors, performers, and audiences across an unbridgeable gap in time, even as we aim to close the gap in space, in order to explore how physical sites function as archives of memory, practice, and performance that can enrich and nuance our understanding of ancient literature and culture. [ more ]

May be taken by students registered for Classics 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Contract Major 493, 494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

May be taken by students registered for Cognitive Science 494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Comparative Literature 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

This course serves as a guided introduction to the Unix operating system and the C programming language. The course is designed for individuals who understand basic program development techniques as discussed in an introductory programming course (Computer Science 134 or equivalent), but who wish to become familiar with a broader variety of computer systems and programming languages. Students in this course will work on Unix workstations, available in the Department's laboratory. By the end of the course, students will have developed proficiency with Unix and the C programming language. The exact topics to be covered may vary depending upon the needs and desires of the students. [ more ]

Many video games from the 1970s and 1980s are still enjoyable today. However, most classics cannot be fully [appreciated] without proper historical context. For example, [Pong] (Atari, 1972) is trivial when played with modern gamepads but is very challenging with paddle controllers; [Missile Command] (Atari, 1980) fills with tension when its political backdrop is considered; [Pac-Man] (Namco, 1980) is a nimble orchestration when the AI governing each ghost is understood; [Super Mario Bros.] (Nintendo, 1985) is revolutionary only after playing previous platformers; [Mortal Kombat] (Midway, 1992) is only controversial when compared to previous fighting games. Students will immerse themselves in the first 20 years of commercial video game history through instruction, game play, and game development. We will meet three times a week for 2 hour lectures on digital art, music, culture, technology, business, law, and the people behind developments in these areas. The classes are augmented twice a week by 60-minute sessions in the new Williams College video game lab. Throughout the course, special emphasis will be placed on the constraints that shaped the design of classic video games. At the end of the term students demonstrate their newfound knowledge by developing a retro-inspired video game. Enrollment preference will be given to students who have completed CSCI 134 or have a skill related to video game development (e.g. programming, playtesting, level design, storytelling, pixel art, sound engineering. etc.) [ more ]

Geometry allows us to observe mathematical objects from different viewpoints. It may be approached both visually and algebraically. Building geometric structures in the real world allows us to view them from different angles and sometimes, gain new insights. In this class students will work together to design and build a pentagonal tiling in stained glass. There are only fifteen types of convex pentagons that can tile a two-dimensional surface, and the secret behind their assembly lies in the relationship between edges and angles. We will use Euclidian geometry, drafting by hand using only straightedge and compass, to figure out angles and dimensions. Students will then learn how to cut precise shapes in colored glass, wrap them in copper and solder together into a stained glass window. Students will also work individually or in small groups on projects of their own choosing. These may be two- or three-dimensional geometric figures, including those on non-Euclidian surfaces. In past years a student of organic chemistry modeled cyclohexane and a physics major, the spectral emissions of a star. In 2018 the class built a mirrored glass quasicrystal. Students interested in mathematical tiling patterns, networks, cellular or molecular assembly, crystallography, or simply curious about geometry would be welcome in this class. Exhibition of work on the last day of Winter Study is mandatory. All students must participate in setting up the exhibition and tidying the lab at the end of Winter Study. Please note: we will not be painting images on glass. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Debora Coombs has an MFA from the Royal College of Art in London, England. Her stained glass work is commissioned and exhibited internationally. Debora's interest in tiling patterns and mathematical projection led to a collaboration with Williams Professor of Computer Science Duane Bailey. Their sculptures are currently on exhibit in the SCHOW science library. [ more ]

Many technologically-innovative and aesthetically-beautiful products fail because they are not sensitive to the attitudes and behaviors of the people who interact with them. The field of Human Factors combines aspects of psychology with software development, education, architecture, and physiology, and other fields, to design objects that provide an easy, enjoyable, efficient and safe user experience. The course will provide students with a theoretical framework for analyzing usability, as well as practical knowledge of a variety of human factors testing methodologies. The course will examine the usability of a wide variety of designed objects, including buildings, publications, websites, software applications, and consumer electronics gadgets. Students will demonstrate their understanding of human factors theory through a short paper and participation in class discussion. Students identify a usability problem and design a solution which they will evaluate by heuristic analysis and a usability test with 8-10 human test subjects. Findings will be presented on the final day. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Rich Cohen '82 has designed communications, social networking and education applications used by over 100 million people and has conducted usability research on four continents. [ more ]

This course is about the basics of the modern Internet: how it works, and how it is used in our daily lives. We will focus on issues of security and privacy. We will try to answer two main questions in this course: How is information transmitted online? Who has access to this information, and how do they use it? Students will learn about and discuss these topics based on readings and lectures, and will do a small number of hands-on projects during class. The final assessment will be a 10-page paper on a related topic. No background in computer science or programming is required or expected. [ more ]

An independent project is completed in collaboration with a member of the Computer Science Department. The projects undertaken will either involve the exploration of a research topic related to the faculty member's work or the implementation of a software system that will extend the students design and implementation skills. It is expected that the student will spend 20 hours per week working on the project. At the completion of the project, each student will submit a 10-page written report or the software developed together with appropriate documentation of its behavior and design. In addition, students will be expected to give a short presentation or demonstration of their work. Prior to the beginning of the Winter Study registration period, any student interested in enrolling must have arranged with a faculty member in the department to serve as their supervisor for the course. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Computer Science 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

This course is for ANYONE interested in learning more about ballet, through a variety of experiences. First, of course, will be physical practice. For those who have no (or little) prior ballet training, you'll learn the fundamentals of ballet technique in a safe but challenging class; separate classes will be held for intermediate/advanced dancers. All course participants will gather together twice a week for movie/documentary viewings--a wide range of films (primarily) about ballet and ballet dancers from around the world--and once a week for lectures and group discussions, either in a seminar format or during a meal, about the films as well as the history and/or current context related to them. Reading material and other viewings will also be assigned so that all students have a grasp of the overarching history of ballet. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

An overview of the Financial Markets and the role of Investment Banks. Topics will include: Financial Asset Valuation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Securities Sales and Trading, Bonds and Bond Math, Public Equities, Private Equity/Leveraged Buy-outs, and Risk Management. The class emphasizes real-life practices and will include visiting expert guest speakers and case studies. The class begins with the basics of financial instruments, time value of money, and asset valuation. We then move on to fundamentals of corporate finance and conclude with financial markets. Course Goals: (1) to provide an understanding of how modern capital markets operate from a practical, real-life perspective (2) to help the student think critically about issues affecting the stock and bond markets, and (3) to have fun and instill a passion for future study and/or work in the financial industry. Required Readings: (1) Understanding Wall Street (Fifth Edition) by Jeffrey Little and Lucien Rhodes (2) Packet of Case Studies and Industry Notes (3) Wall Street Journal (Business & Finance section) and the "Money Stuff" blog on each day that class meets. Group Assignment (Case study): At the end of the first class, students will be divided into several groups. Each group will be assigned a case study to be presented orally to the class for further discussion (slides or other visual aids will be used to help organize the discussion). Adjunct Instructor Bio: Tim Bock '88 worked at Credit Suisse for 28 years where he ran Global Capital Markets, leading a unit of 250 Investment Bankers responsible for Credit Suisse's global financing businesses, including equity capital markets, debt capital markets, leveraged finance origination and corporate derivatives. Tim held several other leadership roles at CS, including Co-head of Global Products in the Private Bank and Head of Derivatives Origination in the Equity and Fixed Income Departments. [ more ]

This course is based on a proven methodology for turning business ideas into successful businesses and organizations. Student working in teams generate business ideas and then work to develop a business model to take the ideas to start and beyond. The course provides basic training in design thinking, business financials, and business analysis. The course uses the Lean Launchpad methodology used at major business and engineering schools throughout the world and endorsed by the National Institutes for Health and the National Science Foundation for commercializing research results. The class is appropriate to all students regardless of major who want to learn how to build a startup that succeeds. The class meets for two and a half hours three days a week for short lectures, discussions, group work, and presentations, There will also be outside guests who have created successful businesses. Outside of class, students will be required to watch online lectures and videos, read handouts, and do short papers. The primary work is to work in teams to research their business idea using the Lean Launchpad approach. Teams will develop a research plan, interview potential customers, analyze the results, and revise their business models. The teams will meet with the instructor regularly. Each team will develop weekly progress presentations as well as a final presentation. They will also develop a team video showing lessons the team learned during the course. Students will also be required to provide a three-page final paper of their experiences in the course. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Steve Fogel has worked with startup businesses for over 35 years. He has trained over 2,000 people who have started over 1,200 businesses and provided continuous support to a number of these businesses over the course of years. He has taught Winter Study nine times and is available to work with students throughout the year after the course ends. [ more ]

A house provides not only shelter and protection for its occupants, but also signals to others the characteristics of those occupants and determines the context within which we live, work and recreate. The private home and its neighborhood are clearly linked, and economic studies suggest that between 25% and 50% of the market value of residential property depends on such factors as school quality, crime and environmental quality that characterize the neighborhood. In this short course we will explore--through film, discussion and economics--the importance of and linkages between houses and communities. We will view and discuss 7-8 flms that tell stories, imagined or real, about houses, living conditions, communities, and the housing market. In addition to developing an appreciation of the economic, social and psychological importance of these ideas we will discuss associated significance for the economy. [ more ]

This course provides a broad overview of the management consulting industry from the perspective of an experienced practitioner. The objectives of the class are to provide a real world view as to what consultants do and to help prepare students who are considering joining a management consulting firm post-Williams. The class will begin with a broad discussion of the differences in the types of business consulting and how management consulting firms are utilized by corporations and private equity firms. The next section will review how management consultants structure frameworks to address strategic issues facing their clients. Students will be provided instruction on (and practice with) the tools utilized by strategy consultants to evaluate business units, analyze markets, evaluate competitive environments, and synthesize customer information in order to develop insights for strategic recommendations. Additionally, one class session will be devoted to tips for getting a job in management consulting including how to ace case interviews. The final small group project will be the development and delivery of a consulting presentation for a business with a strategic need. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Peter McKelvey '86 was with L.E.K. Consulting for 29 years including leading the Boston office and Private Equity practice and serving 6 years as President of the Americas Region. He has extensive experience in corporate and business unit strategy development and mergers and acquisitions advisory services. In addition to a BA in economics from Williams, Peter holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. [ more ]

The course will examine the venture capital industry from both a theoretical and practical perspective and will focus on the interplay of the legal, business, economic and financial issues that need to be dealt with in the formation, organization, governance and financing of new enterprises. The course is designed to provide students with a fundamental knowledge of the corporate and other laws applicable to venture capital, as well as with an appreciation of the concerns of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and early employees. Class sessions will be devoted primarily to a discussion of business cases taken from the entrepreneurial curriculum of the Harvard Business School. In addition, students will be required to participate in small groups prior to class to prepare advice for entrepreneurs or key employees in three scenarios--an early stage company negotiating with a key executive the company is seeking to hire, a company considering two competing term sheets for venture financing and a company faced with the need for additional financing in a distressed situation. An alternative to one of these scenarios would involve splitting the class into small groups designated as either founders or investors and requiring the groups to negotiate investment terms. As a capstone to the class, students will participate in an in-class business simulation game developed at Wharton that will require students to interact in assigned roles as founders, investors or key employees. In addition to reading and analyzing the assigned business cases prior to class, students will be asked to review various background materials. Classes will meet for at least six hours per week, with additional sessions scheduled for meetings with outside industry experts that accept invitations to address the class. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Mr. Schwed retired from the law firm of WilmerHale in December 2015 after a 40-year career focused on private equity and venture capital. For nine years, he was an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School teaching a course on venture capital law. He taught this course during Winter Study the last three years. Mr. Schwed graduated from Williams with a degree in Economics in 1971 and from Harvard Law School in 1974. [ more ]

According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, there are 1.5 million non-profit organizations registered in the U.S., and each of those organizations needs to actively fundraise in order to sustain their operations. Each year, hundreds of billions of dollars are contributed to charities from donors across the U.S. What is it that makes people want to give? What do donors consider when choosing what organizations to support? What type of an impact do individuals want to make through their philanthropy? This class will examine these questions and more through case studies, conversations with non-profit leaders and board members, and philanthropists. Students will gain a basic understanding of a non-profit financial model, as well as the different ways in which fundraising can actually be fun and can inform a potential career in the non-profit sector. Much of the course reading will involve actual fundraising materials and collateral, including appeals, brochures, grant applications, and stewardship reports. Final projects will give students the opportunity to try their own hand at creation of stewardship or solicitation pieces, potentially in partnership with/for the benefit of a local non-profit. In addition to regular course meetings, occasional meetings with non-profit leaders or donors may be required; whenever possible (based on the schedule of the guest speaker), these will be scheduled during the day, and any evening events would be optional. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Laura Day '04 first became involved in fundraising for non-profits in elementary school, when she would help her mother produce mailings for her employer (a community-based social service organization). After eight years working in the NYC non-profit arts scene, Laura is now director of annual giving for Williams, and co-chair of the board of Berkshire Nursing Families (BNF). [ more ]

In just the last two decades, the United States has gone from being the world's largest energy importer to being close to a net energy exporter. What accounts for this remarkable and globally disruptive transformation, and what are its long-term implications? To be sure, oil shale production technology, aka "fracking," has been a critical driver. However, alternative energy (wind, solar) and conservation have also played important parts. This course starts with a historical perspective, examining the roots of the modern energy industry via John D Rockefeller's autobiography. We then study the evolution of global supply and demand for oil, natural gas, and alternatives, including the important role of market price signals and volatility. Which technologies, including fracking in the 2000s, have been historically the most important? More broadly, we also review how geo-politics has often been a function of geology (energy's location). Course includes: 1) team debate where students pair-up, select a topic from current energy issues, and then be randomly assigned to defend one side of the issue; 2) 10-page paper. Adjunct Instructor Bio: James F. Clark '84 is a Partner and Investment Committee member at Sound Shore Management, Inc., a value investment manager. Previously, Jim was at Credit Suisse First Boston where he was Managing Director, Director of Research, and the firm's International and Domestic Oil equity research analyst. During his equity research tenure, he was selected to 14 Institutional Investor All-America research team positions, and also was a Wall Street Journal All-Star and Hall of Fame member. [ more ]

This course involves an internship, volunteer work, or a research project in a developing economy and an academic analysis of the relevant development issues. The instructors will work with interested students to help arrange a placement and to help secure funding through Williams Financial Aid or other sources. Such arrangements must be made well in advance of Winter Study. Spanish speakers are especially encouraged to apply as there will likely be a few fieldwork possibilities in coffee-growing areas of Latin America. Students will read relevant background articles distributed at the end of fall term and must agree to keep a journal, maintain contact with the instructors, and write a final paper on development issues raised by their specific internship. A group meeting of all students will occur after Winter Study to reflect on individual experiences. Students are also encouraged to attend development talks at the Center for Development Economics throughout the academic year. Requirements: 90 hours of fieldwork; satisfactory evaluation from the institutional sponsor; 10-page final paper or equivalent; participation in final meeting. Interested students should send a resume and letter of interest to Paula Consolini by November 1. Each student's internship provider should send a confirmation letter by December 1 verifying the placement and describing the nature of the work to be performed by the intern. Paula Consolini is Director of the Center for Learning in Action. [ more ]

ECON 23 is designed to provide students with a window into the world of endowment and investment management and is taught by members of the Williams College Investment Office. Students will learn about portfolio theory as well as specific asset classes such as global equities, hedge funds, venture capital, buyouts, fixed income, and impact investing. Students will gain practical skills in excel and will have the opportunity to learn from experienced investment professionals through guest lectures. Through presentations, discussions, readings, and project work, students will gain a better understanding of the various components of an institutional investment portfolio, how it is managed, and how investment managers are selected and monitored, from the perspective of an endowment. Students are expected to attend all on-campus classes (approx. 6 hours/week) and complete a set of relevant readings, a case study exercise, journal entries, and a final project (approx. 20 hours/week). Students will also be required to complete an introductory excel course. The course is open to freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. To apply, please send an email with your resume and a short personal statement discussing why you are interested in this course and what you hope to gain from it to: [email protected] by 11:59 PM ET on Sunday, October 20, 2019. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Abigail Wattley serves as a Managing Director in the Williams College Investment Office where she oversees investments in hedge funds and credit. Ms. Wattley holds a B.A. from Williams College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. [ more ]

This course provides an introduction to the economics, geography and appreciation of wine. We will be studying the economics and geography of wine production, and will also learn to identify, understand and appreciate the major wine types of the world. The course will involve lectures, outside readings, discussions, and in-class wine tastings. We will focus primarily on the Old World wine styles and regions of France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain and Portugal, but will also cover some New World wine regions including California, Oregon, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia among others. Students are invited to email the instructor with a brief description of background and interests, but are not required to do so. [ more ]

Google Glass, Blackberry Storm, and the initial Obamacare Website represent just a few of the many failures that litter the IT project graveyard: 40 to 60 percent of large technology projects fail. All too often, the cause has little to do with the quality of technical engineering. More often, companies choose the wrong problem to solve or the wrong way to solve it. Google failed to account for the Google Glass price tag and privacy concerns. Blackberry failed to fully appreciate the touchscreen revolution. The Obamacare website failed to address management issues. The underlying conflict is that engineers and IT teams like to be told what to build, but customers often do not know what they want or how to express it. Identifying the right problem, designing the right solution, communicating the correct specifications to engineers, and delivering the right product to primary stakeholders are all difficult challenges crucial for successful product development. This course will explore various frameworks that product managers use to address these challenges. In doing so, we will model interactions between market forces, corporate directives, engineering challenges, and user experiences to interrogate the resilience of our ideas. We will also analyze and critique methodologies presented in readings by technology management prophets Marty Cagan, Steve Blank, Don Norman, Steve Krug and Eric Ries. Throughout the course, students will work in small teams to develop their own product management toolkit and deploy it towards solving a technology problem of each team¿s own choosing. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Allan Wellenstein is a senior vice-president at DataArt, a global technology consulting firm and the head of their Solution Design consulting practice. Allan has over 15 years of experience helping some of the world largest companies design and implement massive technology transformations. Though technically headquartered in New York City, he lives with his wife and three children in Pittsfield, MA. [ more ]

The "Specialization Route" to the degree with Honors in Economics requires that each candidate take an Honors Winter Study Project in January of their senior year. Students who wish to begin their honors work in January should submit a detailed proposal. Decisions on admission to the Honors WSP will be made in the fall. Information on the procedures will be mailed to senior majors in economics early in the fall semester. Seniors who wish to apply for admission to the Honors WSP and thereby to the Honors Program should register for this WSP as their first choice. Some seniors will have begun honors work in the fall and wish to complete it in the WSP. They will be admitted to the WSP if they have made satisfactory progress. They should register for this WSP as their first choice. [ more ]

To be taken by students participating in year-long thesis research Economics 493-494. [ more ]

Micro-simulation modeling provides one of the most powerful tools for ex ante evidence-based analysis of economic and social policy interventions. Rooted in representative household surveys of a country's population, the models provide a picture of poverty, employment, consumption and income levels throughout the country. A micro-simulation model enables researchers to investigate the impact of existing economic and social policy interventions (such as tax and public benefit interventions) on income levels, poverty, inequality and other outcomes. In addition, researchers are able to simulate the impact and estimate the cost of new policy interventions. During this course, students will learn to apply these methods to analyze public policies and interpret the findings. The course examines measurement issues, analytical tools and their application to household survey data for a range of developing countries. The course also links the outcomes of the analysis with the challenges of policy implementation, exploring how the political environment and/or institutional setting may result in the implementation of second-best options. This is a hands-on modeling course, and students will build a micro-simulation model for a country of their choice and use this model in completing the course requirements. The course will employ Excel, Stata and advanced micro-simulation packages. The final requirement for the course is a policy paper that provides students with an opportunity to write accessible prose that communicates the methodology adopted and the key lessons of the analysis. [ more ]

This is an introduction to the empirical analysis of macro and monetary policy issues, building on the material covered in Econ 505/506 and 502/503. The goals are threefold: (1) to become familiar with some of the econometric tools used in macroeconomics, (2) to be able to understand and critique empirical macro research, and (3) to practice the writing and presentation skills used in economic research. The emphasis will be on practical issues, such as working with macro data, rather than on formal econometric methods. [ more ]

This winter study course complements the macroeconomic theory courses students took in the fall. It is designed to provide hands-on experience using macroeconomic data to assess the state of the economy. The course will augment students' skills relating to finding, downloading, displaying, graphing, and analyzing economic data. The course will focus on three aspects of the economy: the real sector, the government sector, and the external sector. Students will learn to measure and compute output gaps, expenditure contributions to growth, Taylor and inflation-targeting rules, cyclically-adjusted fiscal balances, and reserve adequacy. They will also learn how to assess the sustainability of public and external debt and identify the key economic risks. The main format of the course will be hands-on workshops, interspersed with some lectures and readings. A short research project, including a presentation to the class. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

The Black Arts "neo-hoodoo" wordsmith Ishmael Reed is credited (especially by himself) as having coined the term "multiculturalism." This WSP course will examine how writers of the Black Arts Movement explicitly used and explored "multiculturalism" in their work, not just as a concept of ethnicity but also as a deliberate incorporation of various aesthetic traditions and forms into their own work. A poem may contain or enact jazz. A theatrical scene may morph into a cartoon or a blues performance. We will examine how writers used this process and what they said about it. The class will read works by writers such as Reed, Amiri Baraka, and Ntozake Shange. We will also consider works and artists in other media who inspired these writers. Students will write 12-page final papers that compare two or more notable examples of "multiculturalism" in works by different artists or in contrasting works by the same writers. [ more ]

In this course, we will read the first book of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, a poem that seeks to tell the story of England as a Protestant nation, that seeks to instill virtue in the elite young men to whom it is addressed, and that is all the more compelling for the ways it fails to accomplish its stated goals. For example, Spenser hopes that his readers will grow in holiness by reading stories about this subject in Book I, but he writes in the mode of allegory, a kind of representation that excludes the possibility of moral transformation. We will spend a lot of time thinking about Spenser's aspirations--especially his hope that reading might make human beings better--and about how and why those aspirations falter, from almost the very beginning. If the only good this poem can do is to demonstrate its incapacity to accomplish a moral project, then does that mean that literature is itself implicated in the problems Spenser diagnoses in ourselves and in our world? We will discuss these issues in their historical context, but we will also think about how they resonate beyond sixteenth-century England, including in a contemporary moment. The course will be conducted as a reading group rather than as a formal seminar. We will spend a lot of time reading together aloud. Conversation will be relaxed, open-ended, surprising, and profound. Bring your old friends, and come to make new ones. [ more ]

This is a workshop in making short audio documentaries. Students will learn basic interview, audio recording, and editing techniques. Our focus will be in learning how to identify and capture some of the manifold stories circulating invisibly around us, through the process of interviewing strangers about their lives. Course requirements include five hours of class meetings, two or three technical workshops, and five hours of outside listening and reading per week. Investigating stories, interviewing subjects, and editing stories will also require ten to twelve hours weekly. Students will be required to participate in a final listening session in which we will share finished projects. [ more ]

In this class we'll read and discuss in depth the literary and imaginative richness of J. R. R. Tolkien's beloved fantasy novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as well as the aspects of his biography and the scholarly works he wrote while an Oxford professor that most illuminate his fantastical writings: "On Fairy-Stories," "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," and "Chaucer as a Philologist." By combining the fantastical and the academic in Tolkien, we'll get a better view of his imagined fortresses, castles, strongholds, of his elves, dragons and shires, as well as a better view of "the city of dreaming spires," his beloved Oxford nestled in the green hills of its own Oxfordshire. Students are asked to participate in all class discussions, and, at the end of the class, students will be asked to submit a ten-page paper. Class will meet four times a week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) for one hour and fifteen minutes each session, and to prepare for each class you will be asked to read about fifty pages. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Ryan Riley earned a master's degrees in literature from both Oxford and Yale, and a bachelor's in literature from Harvard, where he started a literary discussion and writing group inspired by Tolkien's Inklings. [ more ]

This course is conceived primarily as an experiential adventure in creative forms of art writing. We'll read various examples of such work to get a sense of the range of approaches, from the ekphrastic poem to the essay to the novel, and will spend considerable time in local museums and archives engaging intimately with works of art through various writing prompts. We'll meet six hours a week, but your own engagement with this class will occupy significantly more time, averaging around twenty hours a week. [ more ]

"Can I Ask You Something?" takes students on an exploration of the ways personal narrative can become fuel for making art. For their project, each student will begin by interviewing a meaningful person in their lives (this can be a family member, a mentor, a friend, or even someone you have never met and have been dying to talk to!) and recording the interview in video or audio form. The interviews will revolve around questions which are personally meaningful and urgent to each student, for example, but not limited to: identity and its relationship to the body; the politics of everyday life, family dynamics and the way they affect one's identity and worldview. These recorded interviews will then become the fuel for artworks ranging in media from video, performance and dance to sculpture, photography, drawing, and audio collage. Each student's trajectory will be completely unique and informed by their own curiosity, the art-making techniques they wish to learn, and the topics explored in their interviews. In addition, we will learn about contemporary artists who have used interviews and personal narratives as the inspiration and jumping-off point for their work. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Gabriela Vainsencher is a Brooklyn-based visual artist who makes videos, site-specific installations, drawings, and sculptures. Vainsencher was Williams College's Levitt fellow in 2009, and since then she has taught a winter study class in 2012-2018. She is also a curator and an art critic. Vainsencher's recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition at A.I.R. Gallery in New York and a two-person show at the MuMA museum in Le Havre, France. She is also a Bronx Museum AIM Fellow for 2019-20. [ more ]

Since St. Augustine's Confessions, great political thinkers have crafted personal stories as evidence of and witness to their own political times. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs told their stories to further the abolitionist movement. W.E.B. DuBois, James Baldwin, and Simone de Beauvoir ushered us through the turbulent 20th century showing how the personal is political, and the political, personal. Today, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Suki Kim, Maggie Nelson, and Claudia Rankine, among others, show us how well-crafted personal stories can bring important political ideas to the forefront of our collective imagination. Anticipating criticism of the form, Beauvoir wrote in the preface to her 1961 autobiography that "if any individual...reveals himself honestly, everyone, more or less, becomes involved. It is impossible for him to shed light on his own life without at some point illuminating the lives of others." In this workshop, you will do just that, crafting a nonfiction project-memoir, personal essay, or a hybrid form--the final draft of which will determine half of your grade. We'll meet for six hours each week, splitting our time between discussions of the published work we're reading and a workshop-setting discussion of the work you're producing. Your engagement with this class will occupy significantly more time outside of the classroom-roughly twenty hours a week-during which you'll be engaged in the writing process and reading for class. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Julia McKenzie Munemo earned a master's degree in education from Harvard and an MFA in creative nonfiction from the Stonecoast Program, and worked in educational publishing for the decades in between. She is thrilled to point out that [The Book Keeper: A Memoir of Race, Love, and Legacy]--her own political memoir--will come out on January 14, 2020, right in the middle of winter study. [ more ]

This course will give students an in-depth view of the inner workings of journalism today. It will feature the perspectives of several Williams alumni who work in a broad spectrum of today's media universe, including print, broadcast, and new media. Our guests will help students workshop their ideas for a feature-length piece of journalism they're expected to create during the month. They will discuss the reporting skills to use, as well as their own experiences. In addition to reading the work of guests, there may be required texts about issues and methods related to journalism. Students will be expected to complete several small reporting and writing exercises, as well as one feature-length news story on a topic chosen at the beginning of the course. There will be a week-long trip to New York for field work and to visit various newsrooms. In previous years, organizations visited have included CNN, the New York Times, the Columbia School of Journalism, ABC News, Bloomberg News, BuzzFeed News, ProPublica, the Wall Street Journal and APM Marketplace. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Christopher Marcisz is a freelance writer and editor based in Williamstown. He was a reporter (and later editor) at the Berkshire Eagle. Previously he worked in Washington covering national energy policy, wrote about sports in Moscow, and worked on the international desk at Newsweek. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. [ more ]

If you've never read Moby-Dick, you might still think that's a heroic adventure story about humanity's struggle against the sea-the sort of book, in other words, that we give young readers, a cracking yarn, like Treasure Island only much longer. You might wonder, then, why so many people think it's the greatest novel ever written. You might be all the more puzzled to learn that no-one liked Moby-Dick when it was first published. Almost nobody read it. Herman Melville died thinking the book had been a total failure. Moby-Dick is peculiar, to be sure: an adventure story without much adventure nor even much story, a novel that doesn't read like a novel-a funny, joking, frightened, philosophical, and extravagant kind of book, a book that pushes readers to figure out their most fundamental attitudes towards the planet. In this class, we will read Moby-Dick and only Moby-Dick, and we will do so while living in a nineteenth-century whaling port, at Williams-Mystic, the College's coastal and ocean studies campus in Mystic, CT. Students will discuss Moby-Dick in the morning and learn nineteenth-century maritime skills in the afternoon: blacksmithing, carving, chantey singing, boat building, letterpress printing, sailmaking, etc. They will have extensive access to nineteenth-century tall ships throughout. [ more ]

Required during Winter Study of all seniors admitted to candidacy for honors via the specialization route. [ more ]

Required during Winter Study of all seniors admitted to candidacy for honors via the thesis route. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Go behind the headlines to learn about the issues and advocates involved in recent drinking water crises, including lead in Flint, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Newark, New Jersey; chemicals in Hoosick Falls, New York; and crumbling infrastructure in Puerto Rico. This course will introduce students to basic drinking water science, public health data, laws and regulations, types of lawsuits, and advocacy tools involved in today's most pressing drinking water threats. We will discuss issues such as environmental justice, citizen science, corporate responsibility, grassroots organizing, and the role of government and law in addressing public health crises. The course is geared towards interested water consumers and students interested in pursuing careers in environmental or public health advocacy alike. Students will be assigned brief readings drawn from journal and popular news articles and excerpts from nonfiction books, and to view a couple films (either during evening group screenings or independently). In conjunction with this course, and in addition to attending hour-long Friday seminar discussions, students will be expected to attend Friday Log Lunches during Winter Study, which will feature drinking water advocates. Evaluation will be based on class participation and a short (3-5 page) paper and (5-10 minute) presentation on a topic of students' choice involving a drinking water threat or community that is experiencing or has confronted a drinking water threat. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Joya Sonnenfeldt '10 was Williams' first Environmental Policy major. She also holds a law degree and a masters in environmental management from Yale University. She has spent the majority of her career on the litigation team of the Natural Resources Defense Council, largely working to secure safe drinking water. Most recently, she clerked for the Honorable Patty Shwartz on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Environmental Studies 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

To be taken by candidates for honors in Global Studies. [ more ]

Global Studies senior thesis. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

A vicarious trip through a variety of the national parks of the U.S. and Canada to appreciate the geological basis of their spectacular scenery. Parks will be selected to portray a wide range of geological processes ( volcanism, desert and coastal erosion, mountain building, glaciation, etc.). We will meet most mornings during the first two weeks for highly illustrated classes supplemented by the interpretation of topographic and geologic maps and by out-of-class study of rock samples. Reading will be from a paperbound text PARKS AND PLATES and from short publications of the U.S. Geological Survey and natural history associations linked to the parks. The second part of the month will involve independent study and meetings with the instructor to prepare an oral report about the geology of a park of the student's choice. These reports during the last week will be comprehensive and well illustrated, using PowerPoint and pertinent maps and samples. A detailed outline and list of references will be provided to the group at the time of the presentation. [ more ]

Students will spend part of Winter Study doing fieldwork collecting data. Back at Williams, they will analyze the data. Each student will have responsibility for a subset of the data, and the individual sub-projects will contribute to the overall research. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Geosciences 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

This course explores the evolution of modern documentary photography. We will start with a look back to the work of Lewis Hine, August Sander, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evan and the Magnum Agency photographers. We will then jump to mid 20th century work of Robert Frank's The Americans, and how Frank's singular vision deeply shaped the next generation of photographers working the American streets and landscape. Diane Arbus, Vivian Maier, Bruce Davidson, Lee Freidlander, William Klein, Danny Lyon, Gary Winogrand are some of the photographers whose work we will get to know well. Discussions will include the new wave of independent and Magnum photojournalists (Phillip Jones Griffiths, Josef Koudleka, Susan Meiselas, Gilles Peress, James Nachtwey, Alex Webb, Ron Haviv and Tyler Hicks) and the wars from Vietnam to Bosnia to Iraq and Syria they cover as well as the personal visions they explore. Insight into the diverse currents of documentary photography will be covered through the work of Bill Burke, Larry Clark, Larry Fink, Nan Goldin, Emmet Gowin, Sally Mann, Mary Ellen Mark, Nicholas Nixon , Richard Misrach, Joel Sternfeld, Birney Imes, Regan Louie, Edward Burtynsky, Laura Letinsky and Simon Norfolk. Our last classes will be an exploration of social media and the proliferation of diverse voices emerging in documentary photography. The class will meet three mornings a week for two hours. Slide presentations will occupy half of the first meetings and give way to discussion of issues in documentary photography. Each student will be required to make a brief presentation to the class on a documentary topic of their choice. A final paper expanding on this documentary topic will be due at the end of the course. Students will be evaluated on their classroom presentation, general participation and their written work. A field trip to New York will let us see first hand works from the collections at MoMA, etc. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Kevin Bubriski's fine art photographs are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Kevin has received Guggenheim, Fulbright and NEA fellowships. Bubriski has published eleven books of photography including Nepal 1975-2011 published by Peabody Museum Press of Harvard University in 2014 and Legacy in Stone: Syria Before War in 2019 with powerhouse Books in New York. [ more ]

To be taken by honors candidates following other than the normal thesis route. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for German 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

This class focuses on North Adams--the challenges, resources and assets of Massachusetts's smallest city and our neighbor. Readings, films, field trips and meetings with people who work with or lead nonprofits and civic organizations will introduce you to local history, contemporary issues, and plans for the city's future cultural and economic development. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Annie Valk teaches U.S. history and oral history and supports faculty and students interested in public humanities projects. She has worked at Williams since 2014. [ more ]

During sixteen months in 1964-'65, the instructor worked as a civil rights organizer in rural Mississippi with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He witnessed and aided in the heroic efforts by black citizens to dismantle the pervasive structure of Jim Crow that had oppressed them for generations. He met relatively uneducated people with the stature of giants. What he encountered was an apartheid America--a vicious police state reinforced by government and vigilante violence--beyond the understanding of most Americans and certainly beyond the imagination of young people today. The course will explore this transformative moment in recent American history through documentary film, popular music of the time and discussion. Topics include nonviolence and armed self-defense, the role of the black church, women and whites, Malcolm X and Black Power and the third party politics of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Students will read and discuss three books. Evaluation will be based on class participation and a final project in any media. It is the intent of the instructor to convey the immediacy that only first person experience can invoke. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Chris Williams worked as the college architect at Williams for many years. Now retired, he lives on the back roads of Vermont with his wife and hound dog. [ more ]

With a population of nearly 1.4 billion, India is one of the fastest growing regions of Asia and the world. It is also the largest and most diverse country in South Asia. What are some of the most important social and political concerns in India today? How do Indians think of questions of culture and identity in a globally connected world? What are the interests and aspirations of India's youth? How are forces of nationalism and divisive politics defining Indian society today? In this course, we will explore these questions through the most recent non-fiction books on Indian history and society. We will also watch a number of documentaries that address some of these questions. The objective of the course is to engage students in lively discussion and debates about these issues that shape India today. [ more ]

Kurt Vonnegut, an Indiana native and former General Electric employee, rose to international prominence during the second half of the twentieth century as a cult novelist, anti-war activist, socialist, and humanist. Readers from seemingly disparate parts of a divided world--from prairie towns in the American midwest to university halls in the Soviet Union to smokey cafés in de Gaulle's Paris--developed a voracious appetite for cult classics like Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions. What explains Vonnegut's appeal both past and present? In what ways did his views on free speech, technology, war, nuclear weapons, gender, human rights, labor, the environment, and the flaws of humankind reflect or subvert the norms of the postwar and cold war worlds. This course explores Kurt Vonnegut's place in the postwar world as a novelist, thinker, and celebrity. In addition to reading works from the Kurt Vonnegut canon, we will read newspaper articles and literary criticism, watch a film and a handful of interview clips, to examine both the world that Vonnegut created and the world that created him. [ more ]

What makes a library's books and manuscripts worth saving? What should we collect, and how are those decisions made? Whose voices are missing? This course will examine the role of Special Collections in the 21st century, going behind the scenes of the Chapin Library and College Archives. We will first consider the library's existing collections, focusing on what makes these books and manuscripts valuable -- and not just in terms of their cost. We'll consider how historical events are documented in primary sources, and how those documents can support teaching and research. We'll also learn about the market for rare books and manuscripts and make a day trip to visit a bookseller and curators at a peer institution. For the final project, students will propose the acquisition of a new collection of books or manuscripts for the Chapin Library or the College Archives. We'll spend the final week of class presenting to a curatorial panel, who will assess the proposals to purchase material for our collections. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Anne Peale, Special Collections Librarian at Williams, graduated from Dartmouth College and studied Material Cultures and Book History at the University of Edinburgh; she recently completed her PhD in Historical Geography. Ajunct Instructor Bio: Lisa Conathan is Head of Special Collections at Williams College, overseeing the Chapin Library of Rare Books and the College Archives. She holds a BA in Linguistics from Dartmouth College, a PhD in Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Library Science from the University of Maryland. [ more ]

This course is designed for junior majors and sophomores who are considering pursuing a senior thesis in History. It can either provide students greater experience in independent research or allow for an in-depth exploration of a specific topic under consideration for the thesis. The course will focus on key methods of historical research, such as defining a topic, familiarizing oneself with historiography, and finding and using primary sources. Students may pursue any topic, and assignments may be modified to fit students' particular needs and interests. The majority of class time will consist of individual meetings with the professor as well as consultations with librarians and other experts in your field. Students are expected to devote considerable time outside of class to independent research. The final assignment will be a 10-page paper, which can either be a detailed prospectus for a senior thesis or a research paper. [ more ]

To be taken by all senior honors students who are registered for HIST 493 (Fall) and HIST 494 (Spring), HIST 31 allows thesis writers to complete their research and prepare a draft chapter, due at the end of Winter Study. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

To be taken by all students who are candidates for honors in Japanese. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Taught from the perspective of an experienced trial attorney, this course will examine the role environmental law plays in the United States today in light of how that role has developed during the nearly fifty years since the modern era of environmental law began. As a preface, we will consider the significantly more limited influence of environmental law in our national affairs before 1970 and some of the historical and political reasons for that situation. We will examine the reasons why the law's early application in the first half of the 20th century almost exclusively to the conservation and preservation of natural resources took on in the second half a markedly different approach, one emphasizing pollution control and all but ignoring resource conservation. The course will begin by tracing the development of an American consciousness towards the environment through an examination of our law and our literature. The term "law" includes state and federal judicial decisions and legislation, particularly during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and during the decades which followed the year 1970 when much of the legal basis for the American environmental protection movement was established. The term "literature" includes not just the written word (the first book we look at is "The Lorax" by your favorite childhood author, Dr. Seuss, but also painting, sculpture, and music. Nothing too heavy! We will examine the historical and legal choices we as Americans have made which have put our environment on trial. What has occurred in our development as a people that explains this quintessentially American phenomenon? Our journey begins with the Puritans of New England and the planters of Virginia and their predecessors in the New World and then moves swiftly to the beginning of the modern era in environmental law and to its now uncertain future. In light of this historical situation students will examine state and federal legislative and judicial attempts to address environmental problems and then try to reach informed, rational conclusions as to whether those attempts were successful. What were the political, social and economic issues involved and, ultimately, how did their context affect the legal solutions imposed. Cases decided at the appellate level will be introduced and examined through their trial court memoranda opinions in order to observe how the legal system actually works and how frequently the reasoning and conclusions behind the trial judge's decision changes as the case works its way through the appellate process. This course will be presented from a litigator's point of view, that is to say, both the practical and the theoretical, emphasizing what is possible to achieve in the litigator's real world as informed by what the academician would present from the security of the classroom. Evaluation will be based on attendance and classroom participation. Students will prepare several short papers, single-page "clerk's notes," which will present one or more sides of an issue and form the basis for classroom discussion. They will be asked to defend or reject the conclusions reached or approaches taken by our courts and legislatures and by our literature, as broadly defined, on environmental issues. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Philip R. McKnight '65 is a trial and appellate attorney. At Williams he completed the honors program for both American History and Literature and European History and then he earned his law degree from The University of Chicago Law School and practiced in the state and federal courts of New York and Connecticut, as well as in Europe. [ more ]

The objective of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the personal, theoretical, and institutional characteristics that impact the decision making process of the nation's highest court. At the beginning of the course, the students will be provided with briefs, relevant decisions and other materials for a case currently pending before the court. Where possible, cases will be selected that address constitutional issues that also have a political and/or historical significance. Past examples include the constitutionality of provisions in the Affordable Care Act, rights of prisoners held in Guantanamo, the extent of First Amendment rights of students, and the applicability of the State Secrets doctrine to the country's extraordinary rendition program. Four students (two on each side) will be assigned to prepare and present oral arguments to the "Court", which will consist of the other eight students, each playing the role of a Supreme Court Justice. An instructor will act as the Chief Justice to coordinate the student Justices and keep them on focus. After the oral argument, the "Court" will confer and prepare majority and minority opinions, which will be announced in "open court" at the conclusion of the term. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Robert Groban is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, SDNY, and current partner in Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Thomas Sweeney retired former litigator with Hogan & Hartson and Hogan Lovells. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Jewish Studies senior thesis. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Students must register for this course to complete an honors project begun in the fall or begin one to be finished in the spring. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

This course will examine issues related to effective leadership in a variety of contexts, primarily through the experience of guest lecturers. We will begin by identifying key principles of leadership with reference to several great leaders in history, moving on to consider contemporary yet timeless topics such as personal responsibility, corruption and fraud in the private sector as well as the essential role good communications skills play in exercising leadership. The majority of class sessions will feature distinguished guest speakers, many of whom are Williams alumni, who have held leadership roles in government, business, philanthropy and healthcare. Probing our guests' approaches to organizational leadership is the primary goal of this Winter Study. Each student will be asked to host a guest at dinner or breakfast before we meet, to introduce him or her to the class, and to stimulate discussion. After each lecture, we will spend time in the next class sharing impressions, surprises and lessons learned. There will be a 10-page final paper which may take a variety of forms and formats, but which should address the basic themes in our readings as well as what you have learned from our guests, both collectively and more specifically in the case of at least three individuals. [ more ]

Offered for the seventh time as a Winter Study Program, Mock Trial provides students with the opportunity for collaboration, teamwork to solve common problems, and critical analysis of facts and documents in the context of a legal dispute. Two teams are formed, and the teams work as units to review and analyze a fact pattern secured from the American Mock Trial Association. The "final exam" is the presentation of two trials with the teams switching sides for the two trials. The adjunct professors (both Williams graduates) are experienced trial attorneys. The class is limited to 16 students to form the two 8-member teams. The course has been well received as a Winter Study offering, and potential students are encouraged to review prior evaluations. As a Leadership Studies offering, this course allows students to work together to select a case strategy, determine what facts and documents will support the selected strategy, perform direct and cross examination of witnesses, and deliver opening statements and closing arguments. The course meets twice a week, usually on Mondays and Tuesdays for 3.5 hours each day. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Mr. Olson graduated from Williams in 1971 and practiced civil litigation for 40 years with the same firm in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2019 he relocated to Boston to be nearer his family but continues to practice law. The practice focuses on construction law and specifically suretyship. In 2019 he argued a suretyship case in the Federal Court of Appeals. He has taught the Mock Trial Winter Study Course in 6 prior years and has enjoyed the opportunity to work with his students. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Steve Brown graduated from Williams in 1971. After graduating from Villanova Law School where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, Steve has been a litigator and trial lawyer for 40 years concentrating his practice in white-collar criminal defense and civil rights. He was a partner at Dechert LLP from 1991 to 2016, when he retired and became Civil Rights Counsel to the firm. He has spent much of his career doing pro bono work including representing Guantanamo Bay detainees and people and prisoners whose constitutional rights have been violated. Steve has represented or supervised young lawyers at Dechert in over 150 prisoner civil rights cases, including 40 trials in federal courts [ more ]

This Winter Study course is for students who would like to participate in a 9 day, 72 hour comprehensive hands on in-depth look at the standards and skills of dealing with wilderness based medical emergencies. Topics that will be covered include, Response and Assessment, Musculoskeletal Injuries, Soft Tissue Injuries, Environmental Injuries, and Survival Skills. Additional topics, such as CPR, are also included. Students will be required to successfully complete the written and practical exams, and not miss any of the 9 classes to receive credit and WFR/CPR certification. The course runs 9 consecutive days straight from 9AM - 5PM. The instructor will be provided by SOLO (Stonehearth Open Learning Opportunities). [ more ]

This Winter Study course is for students who would like to participate in a nationally recognized outdoor skills program, in example NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) or Outward Bound program. The individual student would meet with the current Director of the Williams Outing Club to identify a program that best fits the student's needs and meets the minimum criteria of at least a 14 day instructed program. The potential student would also meet to discuss the educational goals of learning about leadership and group dynamics in a wilderness setting. [ more ]

The course will develop the technical proficiency and leadership skills required to effectively and efficiently administer emergency medical care in outdoor and wilderness environments. Successful completion of all 3 sections of the course, along with demonstrating ski/snowboard proficiency, can lead to certification as a member of the National Ski Patrol. The course is based upon: 1. National Ski Patrol's Outdoor Emergency Care (5th Edition), a curriculum containing textbook/web-based learning and hands-on, practical skill development 2. CPR for the Professional Rescuer 3. Approximately 18 hours of outdoor training in Ski Patrol rescue techniques Specifically, the course teaches how to recognize and provide emergency medical care for: - Wounds and Burns - Environmental Emergencies (e.g., frostbite, hypothermia, heat exhaustion) - Musculoskeletal Trauma (e.g., breaks, sprains, etc.) - Shock, Respiratory, Poisoning, Substance abuse emergencies - Medical emergencies (e.g., heart attack, stroke, seizures, etc.) The course will teach the use of various splints, bandages, and other rescue equipment as well as methods of extrication, use of oxygen, and how to deal with unusual emergency situations such as mass casualty incidents. On-line and textbook learning will be supplemented by classroom work that includes lectures, videos, and hands-on skill development and practice. There will be a written and practical final exam. The outdoor portion of the course includes rescue toboggan handling, organization and prioritization of rescue tasks, and practical administration of emergency care in the outdoor environment. Each week there will be ~15 hours of classroom work plus ~8 hours of practical outdoor work at Jiminy Peak ski area. Homework (online and textbook based) will be required. Attendance at all classes is mandatory. The course is limited to 12 students, chosen based on ski/snowboard interest and ability as well as prior first aid experience. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Tom Feist is an alumnus of Williams College ('85) and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering. Following a 20+ year career at General Electric, Tom taught Chemistry at Williams in 2017-18. He has been a ski patroller for over 35 years, having started patrolling at Williams. Tom is a certified Instructor and Instructor Trainer for Outdoor Emergency care and currently patrols at Sugarbush Resort in Vermont. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Maritime Studies senior thesis. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Dungeons & Dragons (5th edition) is a classic and ever-evolving tabletop role-playing game. One major component for the dungeon master is to develop and tell a story for the players to embark upon while simultaneously being willing to improvise based on player decisions. In this course, we will begin by learning the basics of the game and building a character. The students will then divide into groups and cycle through the role of dungeon master and player character to team build a narrative arc. [ more ]

This course is a modification of six previous winter studies I have done on the Mathematics of LEGO bricks. Similar to those, we will use LEGO bricks as a motivator to talk about some good mathematics (combinatorics, algorithms, efficiency). We will partner with Williamstown Elementary and teach an Adventures in Learning course (where once a week for four weeks we visit the elementary school after the day ends to work with the kids). We will also submit a Lego Ideas Challenge, to try and create a set that Lego will then market and sell. Almost surely there will be a speed build challenge (college teams vs elementary school teams). [ more ]

Is the reality of real estate the way it looks on TV? Learn about buying and selling, real estate investments, mortgages, renovation, construction, and design. Class will meet Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons. Students will learn about each of the topics above, and have the opportunity to do a final project on a real estate topic of their choice, from architecture to designing their dream home to proposing a successful real estate investment to on-site construction work. Guest lecture(s) by experts in the field. The instructor Allison Pacelli is a licensed MA real estate agent, and co-owner of a design and renovation business that renovates investment properties as well as clients' homes. [ more ]

This is an introductory course in photography, both color and black & white photography, and using the digital camera. The main themes will be people and the landscape. No previous knowledge is assumed, but students are expected to have access to a 35 mm (or equivalent) digital camera, with manual override or aperture priority. The topics covered will include composition, exposure, camera use, direction and properties of light, and digital imaging. Students will develop their eye through the study of the work of well-known photographers and the critical analysis of their own work. We will discuss the work of contemporary photographers such as Mary Ellen Mark, Joel Meyerowitz, Constantine Manos, and Eugene Richards. Students will be expected to spend a considerable amount of time practicing their own photography outside of class. There will be three required local half-day field trips. Students will also be introduced to Photoshop and Lightroom, and will work on their own images with these programs. In 2010 Adjunct Instructor Bio: Mr. Washburne joined the stable of photographic artists who are represented by the Sun to Moon gallery in Dallas. Since then he has worked exclusively as a fine art photographer concentrating on landscapes, abstracts and street shooting. He also published travel stories alongside his photography in both D Magazine and The Robb Report. [ more ]

This will be a crash course in analytic number theory. Given our time constraints, our goal will be to obtain a big-picture view of the field by understanding the outline of proofs of the most important results in the field. Among other topics we'll discuss the Riemann zeta function, the Prime Number Theorem, the Riemann Hypothesis, Dirichlet's theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions, and Roth's theorem on arithmetic progressions. There will be no written problem sets, but students will be expected to present solutions to problems in class. Each student will also be expected to write up a class summary (in LaTeX) for one of our meetings. [ more ]

This course will be centered on learning about the achievements of women and minorities who have made significant contributions to science and the scientific community. We will discuss both historical and modern challenges faced by women and under-represented minorities in the sciences. Students will conduct an independent research project on a scientist of their choosing and lead a discussion based on that individual. Additional reading for this course will include the book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, which was made into the 2016 film Hidden Figures. [ more ]

We'll study, prepare, and play in as many bridge tournaments in the area as possible, coupled with analysis, reading, and writing. Tournament play followed by analysis and the writing up of lessons learned is an essential part of the study of bridge. At this level, it is much more than a "game": it is an intense intellectual and academic activity. Tournament time (including days, nights, and weekends) averaging about 12 hours per week, other class time about 6 hours per week, homework 4 hours per week. Text: Larry Cohen https://www.larryco.com/bridge-learning-center Adjunct Instructor Bio: Frank Morgan is Atwell Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus, at Williams College and a Silver Life Master with the American Contract Bridge League. [ more ]

What is humor? The dichotomy inherent in the pursuit of comedic intent while confronting the transient nature of adversity can ratchet up the devolving psyche's penchant for explication to a catastrophic threshold, thwarting the existential impulse and pushing the natural proclivity for causative norms beyond the possibility of pre-situational adaptation. Do you know what that means? If so, this is not the course for you. No, we will write funny stuff, day in and day out. Or at the very least, we will think it's funny. Stories, essays, plays, fiction, nonfiction, we'll try a little of each. And we'll read some humor, too. Is laughter the body's attempt to eject excess phlegm? Why did Plato write dialogues instead of monologues? Who backed into my car in the Sawyer parking lot on the afternoon of March 2, 2019? These are just a few of the questions we will not explore in this course. No, we won't have time because we will be busy writing. (But if you know the answer to the third question, there's a $10 reward.) Plan to meet 6 hours a week, and to spend at least 20 hours a week on the course. No slackers need apply. Produce or become produce. We will put on a reading/performance at the end of winter study. [ more ]

To be taken by candidates for honors in Mathematics other than by thesis route. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Mathematics 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Among commercially successful filmmakers of the new millennium, Wes Anderson has cultivated one of the most strongly recognizable styles. Focusing on Anderson's films, this course will build an intimate knowledge of Anderson's personal style while also deeply exploring broader topics like filmmaking techniques and narrative structures. It will also use these films as a jumping-off point for discussions about the broad network of influences and outside references found therein, including visual art, interior design, film history, music history, political history, celebrity, philosophy, typography, and the environment. Importantly, the course will also ask questions about representation and identity in Anderson's work. Three weekly class meetings will consist of lecture, discussion, group viewing sessions, and student presentations. Outside of the classroom, students will be expected to read articles, watch videos, complete an Anderson-inspired creative project, and write a medium-length essay. No previous experience studying film or music is required. [ more ]

The Gamelan Ensemble performs classical music from Central Java, Indonesia. Javanese Gamelan is a vibrant tradition of gong-chime music that incorporates unique tuning systems, intricate melodies, lively rhythms, and flexible interaction among musicians. Students will gain valuable musicianship skills, enhanced musical memory, and have the opportunity to learn several different instruments over the course of the term. The group will play on a beautiful gamelan set crafted by Tentrem Sarwanto, a renowned Javanese gong-smith. The course culminates in a final noontime concert and a brief essay on Javanese music. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Phil Acimovic studied Javanese Gamelan in Surakarta, Indonesia with the support of two Darmasiswa scholarships. He is a student of Bp. Wakidi Dwidjomartono and Bp. Darsono Hadiraharjo, and formerly directed gamelans at UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, and the Mynah Music School. He regularly performs with gamelan groups across the northeast. Acimovic is also a composer of modern classical music. [ more ]

This course will focus on learning how to write and perform songs in classical contemporary style. Song styles that will be addressed include pop, rock, blues, country, folk and jazz. Topics addressed will include the evolution of song structure, how to create a lyric that communicates, vocal and instrument presentation, recording and performing techniques, publicity for events, and today's music industry. This class will culminate in a public performance of material written during the course. To successfully pass this course, students are required to create, edit, perform and possibly record two original songs in one of the above mentioned genres. These songs must be conceived during the course period (previously written material is not usable.) Students will be guided to create both music and lyrics. They may also be required to participate in a co-write session. One of these songs will be presented during the final performance, preferably by the student. Attendance at classes, feedback sessions, and final presentation is mandatory. Please note: this class meets every day. A short writing assignment will be passed in on the last day of class. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Singer/Songwriter Bernice Lewis has been teaching her Winter Study Course on performing and songwriting since 1995. She is also a published poet, a producer, and a sought after coach. She holds an M.Ed from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. [ more ]

This course focuses on teaching Zimbabwean music performance. Besides introducing a selection of basic songs on mbira, marimba and voice, the course explores orchestration of such music on other instruments such as brass, woodwinds, strings and additional percussion. The course content will trace both continuity and change in music from traditional song styles into African popular music. Beside the instrumental practice of the class, we will watch on YouTube and other videos the collaborative nature of this music. The class will end with an end-of-Winter Study performance by the participants. [ more ]

Through reading, film viewings, and participating in musical exercises and dance workshops, students will explore the sounds and movements of Argentine tango, while also considering its broader social and historical context both in Argentina and abroad. No prior musical or dance experience necessary. Students' grades will be based on course participation, regular journal entries, and an individual final project with a written component. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Music 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

An interactive and collaborative exploration of what neuroscience research reveals about how the brain learns and what factors can be influenced to facilitate successful learning. Topics include the neuroscience of attention, emotion, understanding, memory, and executive functions. Emphasis will be on the neuroscience itself with opportunities for students to make connections to their own learning processes and strategies. Students will engage in evaluating primary neuroscience research articles using the medical model to evaluate validity. They will develop their own evaluation systems for identifying valid research related to learning and the brain. Small groups of 2-3 students will be assigned different articles on the same topic and engage in class discussions based on their reading. These will include their interpretations of the research and potential applications to learning strategies and interventions. A final project will a paper and class presentation about topics they select based on their interests and goals for taking the course. Adjunt Instructor Bio: Judy Willis, M.D. combined her 15 years as a board-certified practicing neurologist with ten subsequent years as a classroom teacher to become a leading authority in the neuroscience of learning. Dr. Willis has written nine books and more than 100 articles for professional journals applying neuroscience research to successful teaching strategies. She is on expert consulting staff for NBC News Education Nation, Edutopia, and media liaison for American Academy of Neurology. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Neuroscience 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Chess is one of the noblest and most fascinating of human endeavors. We will examine chess in many of its facets: its history, philosophy and literature. We will look at the art of chess and the art that chess has inspired. Above all, we will work together on improving our playing skills: we will study chess openings, middle games and endgames, and engage in continual tournament play. Evaluation will be based on class participation and problem assignments. [ more ]

A prominent company recently realized the machine-learning algorithm trained on its past hiring data had learned a bias against female candidates and so was unsuitable for resume evaluation. But given competing definitions of fairness, how should we decide what it means for an algorithm to be unbiased? Machine vision algorithms are systematically less likely to recognize faces of people of color. Since many face recognition algorithms are used for surveillance, would improving these algorithms promote justice? Deep fakes may pose serious challenges to democratic discourse, as faked videos of political leaders making incendiary statements cast doubt on the provenance of real videos. Do the researchers developing these algorithms, often academics funded by National Science Foundation grants, have an obligation to desist? In a field filled with such vexing questions, the ethical issue most commonly addressed by the media is whether a self-driving car should swerve to hit one person in order to avoid hitting two. In this class, we will go beyond the headlines to explore the ethics of technology. We will discuss issues such as transparency, bias and fairness, surveillance, automation and work, the politics of artifacts, the epistemology of deep fakes, and more. Our discussion will rely on articles from the course packet, enlivened by discussions with experts in the field over Skype. Students will apply their ethical knowledge to write multiple newspaper length op-eds arguing for their views. If students choose to submit these op-eds for publication, the instructor will coach them on appropriate procedures and venues. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Kathleen Creel '10 is an advanced doctoral student in the Department of History & Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on epistemic and ethical issues in computer science and its scientific applications, such as transparency in machine learning and the ability of algorithmic decisions to provide reasons. [ more ]

We will spend around ten days in Nicaragua, chiefly in the Atlantic Coast Autonomous Regions. Almost all of the days in those regions will be spent in clinics, where student--in conjunction with optometrists who volunteer their time for the tri--will administer eye exams, write prescriptions, and distribute glasses. While in Nicaragua, the students will keep detailed journals that they will complete following their return to Williamstown. They will interact with Nicaraguans during the eye clinics, and will have opportunities for speaking with them during evenings. Students will also be required to attend organizational and training meetings and to complete a number of relevant readings prior to the trip. We will spend nine days in Nicaragua, chiefly in the Atlantic Coast Autonomous Regions. Almost all of the days in those regions will be spent in clinics, where students--in conjunction with the optometrists (usually three) who volunteer their time for the trip--will administer eye exams, write prescriptions, and distribute glasses. While in Nicaragua, the students will keep detailed journals that they will complete following their return to Williamstown. They will interact with Nicaraguans during the eye clinics, and will have opportunities for speaking with them during evenings. [ more ]

Students spend winter study in Morocco, a country at the intersection of the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Threads of Islam, Arab traditions, and the heritage of the native Berber people are woven into a distinctive cultural tapestry, while traces of French colonialism can still be seen in the political and social structure. Travel there is a powerful way to introduce intellectual themes that require and reward a subtle blend of insight from history, literature, political science, religion, and philosophy. Students spend the first 8-10 days studying at the Center for Cross Cultural Learning (CCCL) in Rabat, attending lectures by local university faculty on various aspects of Moroccan history and culture, and taking introductory lessons in Moroccan Arabic. During this period students live with Moroccan host families in the Rabat medina. In the final week of the course, students travel in the interior of Morocco, exploring contemporary urban centers such Fez, Marrakesh, and Casablanca along with remote Berber villages in the Atlas Mountains. Evaluation based on active participation in all lectures and language instruction; a 10- to 15-page research paper before the trip on some facet of Moroccan culture (e.g., politics, religion, literature, history, architecture, gender relations); a 5-page reflective addendum to the paper after returning from Morocco. [ more ]

Philosophy senior essay. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Philosophy 491 or 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

In today's health care atmosphere of physician accountability, advanced medical technology, and evidence-based diagnosis, the "human side" of medical practice is often minimized or even disregarded. Medical schools debate how or whether to emphasize this more interpersonal aspect of medicine within their curriculums. This concern with the patient/physician relationship becomes particularly relevant with today's reliance upon personal devices and with a culture promoting medicine as a big business model. Increasingly research shows that the combination of both perspectives--patient centered understanding and technical proficiency--lead to better diagnosis and treatment; to improved patient compliance and satisfaction; and to increased physician professional satisfaction. The doctor/patient relationship will be placed within the broader context of cybersecurity concerns, the opioid epidemic, and new disruptive models of health care. Original thinking, examining personal/family experiences, in-class skill practice and frequent class guest speakers will provide much of the learning experience. This seminar works well for those who have shadowed physicians or are planning to shadow, but ALL MAJORS ARE WELCOME. Lively discussion is key. Reading includes Every Patient Tells A Story (Lisa Sanders), When Breath Becomes Air (Paul Kalanthi), Black Man In A White Coat (Damon Tweedy) as well as a reading packet distributed by the instructor. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Sandra Goodbody is a clinical social worker, with a private psychotherapy practice in Washington DC. She has worked at the Institute of Medicine (National Academies) and has taught at The George Washington School of Medicine. [ more ]

This course will explore access to and reliance on public health services, NGOs, and education in a rural Indian social context. As one of the fasted growing and most populated countries in the world, India has the potential to have an enormous global impact. However, the country's future is entirely dependent upon the health of its population, specifically its most vulnerable--and most vital--members: women and children. To understand how public health and education policy can be formed and changed to address inequity and sociocultural biases, students will learn about the context of India and how local, national, and global actors currently interact with social systems. The course will begin with an orientation and introductory lectures in New Delhi. Then students will travel to rural Uttar Pradesh (UP) for 10 days for seminars with local experts and field trips to community health centers, schools, and villages. Following their trip to UP, students will travel to Rajasthan to meet NGO workers in Jaipur. The course will include an introduction to fieldwork methods and an interview project on a topic chosen by the student addressing development in India. This course will be run in partnership with the Foundation for Public Health, Education, and Development (http://fphed.org/). A UP-based organization with its own campus, FPHED's board collectively has decades of experience hosting study abroad programs, including biannual semester-long programs with the School for International Training. FPHED will assist in making all accommodations and travel arrangements, as well as making local connections with experts and translators for students. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Ms. Curtis graduated from Williams College in 2017 with a degree in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and a Concentration in Public Health. She conducted community-based participatory research on government reproductive health programs in rural India through a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship. She has spent a cumulative 17 months to-date studying and researching reproductive health in rural India. She is currently a Health Care Assistant at Planned Parenthood in Boston. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

This course will examine the art and science of holography. It will introduce modern optics at a level appropriate for a non-science major, giving the necessary theoretical background in lectures and discussions. Demonstrations will be presented and students will make several kinds of holograms in the lab. Thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation, we have 7 well-equipped holography darkrooms available for student use. At the beginning of WSP, the class will meet for lecture and discussion three mornings a week and for lab 2 afternoons a week. The later part of the month will be mainly open laboratory time during which students, working in small groups, will conduct an independent project in holography approved by the instructor. Attendance at lectures and laboratory is required. [ more ]

Representational drawing is not merely a gift of birth, but a learnable skill. If you wanted to draw, but have never had the time to learn; or you enjoy drawing and wish to deepen your understanding and abilities, then this course is for you. This intensive course utilizes traditional drawing exercises to teach representational drawing. By using simple techniques and extensive exercises you will develop your ability to accurately see and realistically represent the physical world. You will learn to draw a convincing portrait, interior, and still life. This course is designed to develop your powers of observation and teach creative problem solving abilities. Students need no previous artistic experience, just the willingness and desire to learn. Students will be expected to attend and participate in all sessions. The class will meet twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Students will also be required to keep a sketchbook for all assignments (both in class and out-of-class work) and complete a final project. There will be a final exhibition of student work on the last day of class. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Stella Ehrich is a professional painter whose work includes portraits, landscapes and still life subjects. She studied for seven years at Studio Simi in Florence, she holds an MFA in painting from Bennington College and a BFA from the Memphis Academy of Art. Stella studied for seven years in Florence, Italy in the studio of Nerina Simi and latter earned an Master's degree from Bennington College with a concentration in painting. She is a portrait painter who lives and works in Vermont. [ more ]

In this project-based course we will make rooms into resonant instruments, create topographies of sound through interference patterns, and temper our tastes through chance procedures. We will study the tradition of North American experimental music through listening, performing, composing, and reading. Students will complete audio editing assignments in the software Reaper and carry out composition/performance projects. Listening and reading will be assigned for most class meetings. For the final project students will make a piece of experimental music. "If this word 'music' is sacred and reserved for 18th- and 19th-century instruments, we can substitute a more meaningful term: organization of sound." So wrote John Cage in 1937, voicing the new attitude of the experimental music tradition. In this class we explore the expanded field of the modes of intervention into the flux of sound. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Daniel Fox is a composer and a mathematician based in New York City. His writing has appeared in Hyperallergic, Van Magazine, Perspectives of New Music, and Transactions of the American Mathematical Society. His compositions have been performed by the Jack Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Talea Ensemble, Miranda Cuckson, and Contemporaneous. His doctoral dissertation is on the role of acoustic resonance in American experimental music. His website is thoughtstoodefinite.com. [ more ]

Students will learn the basic cooking techniques needed to survive for their lives after graduation. They will learn how to make cookies, pasta, pies, protein cookery, and knife skills to better prepare themselves after their time at William's. Please when applying for the class include year of graduation and why food matters so much to you. Normally students will email me why and how food means to them. Emails will help determine who gets into the class of 10. Adjunct Instructor Bio: CJ Hazell is currently working in Williams' dining services, preparing meals for over 2000 students. Prior to coming to the college, he ran a small cafe and before that was the kitchen manager and saucier at a French Fine Dining establishment. [ more ]

How does a motor run? What do chocolate and steel have in common? How does Williams heat and power the campus? Can paper be washed? What's inside everyday appliances? How do you build a speaker? From simple machines to complex processes, in this course we'll explore the way things work! Class will meet four afternoons a week for a mixture of lecture, discussion, build time, local field trips, and lots of hands-­on exploration. Homework will primarily consist of readings and exercises relevant to the current class topics and extra tinker­time. Early in the course we'll team-engineer and build a large project as a class. In the last part of the course, students will have a chance to explore the functioning of some process, object, or technology of their choice. These will culminate in either building a final project with a short writeup or writing a 6-page paper, and a presentation to the class. [ more ]

Several members of the department will have student projects available dealing with their own research or that of current senior thesis students. Approximately 35 hours per week of study and actual research participation will be expected from each student. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Physics 493, 494. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Astrophysics 493, 494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Political Economy 493. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Intensive examination of first amendment law and policy, providing twice the time and attention to expressive rights than a survey con law or civil liberties course. The most important decisions, opinions and dissents will be covered. The tension between expressive rights (speech, religion, assembly) and other civil liberties (equality, privacy, others) will be discussed as will the rationale for permitting or restricting speech involving falsity, obscenity, "fighting words," hate speech, child pornography and depictions of violence, cruelty and sexual domination. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Lloyd Constantine has argued many constitutional law cases in SCOTUS and "inferior" federal courts. He has taught law school (Fordham) and both civil liberties and first amendment law and policy to undergraduates (SUNY). He taught this course during Williams 2019 Winter Study period. [ more ]

Beginning from modest, ad hoc efforts in the 1980s, international democracy promotion has evolved into an international norm and an influential subfield of international development assistance. Beyond rhetoric and high-level diplomacy, democracy promotion now encompasses technical advice and assistance to help build democratic institutions, support democratic actors, and encourage democratic development in other countries. The U.S. and other developed countries support ambitious programs to encourage democracy, good governance, and human rights, including efforts addressing elections, political parties, civil society, institutions of governance, and the rule of law. Funding and policy influence for these programs have grown dramatically over the past several decades. At the same time, the Trump Administration's "America First" approach has raised questions about U.S. leadership in this field. This course integrates theory with analysis of current policy and practice. Drawing on political science concepts and practical experience, we will analyze and critique the design, theory of change, and implementation of international democracy programs. We will address what democracy promotion is, how democracy programs work, and whether they are effective. We will consider current trends and new challenges, including closing political space, conflict, violent extremism, and manipulation through social media as well as the changing U.S. role in the world. The course will also familiarize students with career opportunities in human rights, international development, and foreign policy. As the basis for class discussion and presentations, we will read selected materials from recent books, journal articles, published reports, and project documents as well as review film excerpts and consult on-line sources. The class will meet twice a week for three hours. As a final paper, students will prepare project proposals in response to actual U.S. government RFPs. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Eric Bjornlund, Williams '80, is a lawyer and President of Democracy International. Over the past 30 years, he has designed, managed, evaluated and taught in democracy and governance programs in 70 countries. An adjunct professor at Georgetown University, he has also served as visiting scholar in Myanmar and guest lecturer at universities in the US and abroad. He is author of Beyond Free and Fair: Monitoring Elections and Building Democracy and holds a JD from Columbia and an MPA from Harvard. Xlist: [ more ]

Who are the greatest athletes of all time? This course will debate that question by focusing on individual female and male athletes and their greatest accomplishments from a variety of sports, including, but not limited to, baseball, basketball, golf, tennis, football, soccer, rock climbing, track and field, and swimming. Readings will consist of journalistic accounts of athletes and, if applicable, their role as teammates. We will watch video clips of the athletes in class. No additional work outside of class, beyond the assigned reading, will be required. [ more ]

This course introduces those with little or no experience in tap dance to the basic techniques and movement/rhythm vocabularies of this musical and quintessentially American style of dance. In twice-weekly studio sessions, students will gain facility with the fundamentals of tap technique, practice basic combinations, and experiment with improvisation. To develop a richer sense of the American cultural context from which tap grew--particularly its roots in African American movement and music traditions and its appropriation by Broadway and the film industry--we will discuss film and writing on the genre's past and present in once-weekly classroom sessions. Students should expect to gain balance, rhythm, improvisational freedom, and confidence in public performance through practicing tap. Evaluation will be based on effort and improvement in studio sessions, participation in discussions, weekly journal reflections, and a final group performance of the shim sham, tap's so-called national anthem. [ more ]

Whether your ideal is Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., telling Americans "I have a dream" or Ronald Reagan ordering Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!", speeches can change cultures or minds, move a nation or a single human heart. This writing-intensive course will introduce you to the history and importance of speechwriting and rhetoric, provide you with direct experience writing and delivering speeches, and introduce you to career possibilities in speechwriting and related fields. Our course materials, professional guests and class discussions will consider diverse rhetorical traditions within the U.S. and around the world. The modern profession of speechwriting involves much more than writing remarks for someone using a podium or teleprompter. It may include developing a TED Talk, producing a video, writing social media posts or ghostwriting op-eds and even memoirs (!). That's because speechwriters at their best are more than writers: They're trusted advisors on the art of persuasive communication, and of leadership more generally. Whether you want to develop your own public speaking skills or write for a politician, CEO, or cultural leader, this class will teach you about poetics, persuasion, and the pretty peculiar principles involved in writing words that another human being will be credited (or blamed) for-not to mention a sense of the career opportunities in politics, education, the arts and industry. The course will meet 3x/week for 2 hours at a time. Work outside class-including readings, film viewings, writing assignments and associated research, rehearsal of speeches, etc.-will require another 20 hours per week. During the course all students will be expected to write and deliver multiple speeches. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Jim Reisch is Chief Communications Officer at Williams College. [ more ]

Most people are familiar with the idea that the federal constitution, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court, can serve as an important (albeit controversial) tool for vindicating individual rights. Cases involving rights to same-sex marriage, abortion, and gun ownership are just a few recent examples of the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal constitution taking center stage in battles over individual rights. But there is another, equally important, source of individual rights that is sometimes overlooked and understudied: state constitutions. Each state has its own constitution, which may contain different rights and protections from those in the federal constitution, and its own courts, which interpret that constitution. In this class, we'll take a look at the role of state constitutions and courts in protecting individual rights and influencing federal constitutional interpretation. From assessing the constitutionality of compelled sterilization to protecting citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures, we'll examine the interplay between state and federal courts and constitutions. To do this, we'll read the book 51 Imperfect Solutions: States and the Making of American Constitutional Law by Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton (class of 1983). As a final project, students will choose a legal issue, evaluate its chances of success under the federal constitution and their home state constitution (or state constitution of their choosing), develop a basic litigation strategy aimed at achieving their objectives, and present that evaluation and strategy to the class. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Erin Lagesen (class of 1991) is a judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals. At Williams, she double majored in Mathematics and English. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Susan Yorke (class of 2006) is an appellate attorney in San Francisco, and she also graduated from Williams with a double major in Mathematics and English. [ more ]

Ireland and the United Kingdom advanced their century old process of reconciliation when they joined the European Community in 1972. For a millennium Celtic Ireland had tried to sustain a separate political, cultural, and religious identity from England. Recent BREXIT negotiations designed to facilitate UK's exit from the EU focused uncomfortable attention on the evolving but still painful reconciliation process begun in the early nineteenth century. Ireland is adamant about maintaining the European connection; Northern Ireland, still part of the United Kingdom, cherishes the British connection but seeks to maintain economic and cultural ties to the Republic of Ireland. The course will feature six two hour lectures on the contours of Catholic and Celtic Ireland's relationship to the United Kingdom since 1801. Northern Ireland is central to this difficult but of late constructive dialogue. Students will be asked to identify a chapter in this difficult relationship as the focus for research supporting a ten page paper and a brief class presentation. All students will meet one on one with the instructor for at least one hour each week to define a topic, assess research materials, draft a paper, share impressions on their academic experience, and prepare a fifteen minute class presentation. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Mr. Brynn holds MA and Ph.D degrees in British History (Stanford) and M.Litt and Ph.D degrees in Irish Politics (Trinity College Dublin). During thirty years in the Foreign Service he was Ambassador/Chief of Mission in five African countries and Principal Deputy Secretary for African Affairs. [ more ]

The law may be deployed to achieve social justice in different ways: through the use of the judicial system, by the enactment of legislation, and at times through the ballot. While we will see the law work positively, we also will examine its limitations and failures due to societal, economic and human obstacles. The class will read 3 books in full and one in part, all of which relate compelling stories. We begin with Devil in the Grove (winner, 2013 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction), which centers on a highly publicized 1949 Florida case involving 3 young black men who are defended against the charge of raping a white woman by Thurgood Marshall, then with the NAACP, at risk to his life. While we will encounter the brutal obstacles to obtaining justice in the deep South in 1949, the book also serves in part as a mini-biography of Marshall, and we will read about the great victories he achieves at the national level in the Supreme Ct. in cases involving voting, housing and education. Next is Gideon's Trumpet, a classic in the field of constitutional law by the renowned Anthony Lewis about winning the right of a pauper to be provided with legal counsel in all state felony cases. The book elegantly describes the structure of our Federal system, delineating the tension between the rights reserved to the states in the area of criminal law, and the umbrella of protection provided to individuals by the Bill of Rights. The third book is Winning Marriage, The Inside Story of how Same-Sex Couples Took on the Politicians and Pundits - and Won (2014) by Marc Solomon. The book narrates the incredibly successful effort by those in the LGBT community and their allies to win for same-sex couples the right to marry over a relatively short time. The book focuses on the gritty political battles at the state level, ultimately moving to the Federal stage. The class will read key segments of the book, and also will read the landmark Obergfell Supreme Ct. decision establishing the right of same-sex couples to marry. The final book is JUST MERCY by Bryan Stevenson (2014), a NYTimes Notable Book, which is a moving account of Bryan¿s experiences with the US criminal justice system. It is about his establishing the Equal Justice Initiative, which has worked to free wrongfully convicted inmates on Death Row, children who have been unjustly sentenced to life without parole, mentally disabled persons who have received excessive sentences, and children who have been unjustly thrown into adult prisons. Not an abstract book, it deals with individual wrenching cases of injustice handled by the author. Adunct Instructor Bio: Richard Pollet graduated from Williams College in 1969, cum laude, with Honors in Political Science and Columbia U. Law School J.D. in 1973. He has 40+ years practicing law, the last 26 as General Counsel of J. Walter Thompson (JWT). He retired in June 2013. Subsequently he has done some consulting for WPP, the parent company of JWT. He has taught this course several times. [ more ]

This course will introduce you to tools and techniques to solve problems for impact not in the classroom, but in the White House Situation Room, the corporate board room, and even a forward operating base. We will focus on how to define and structure policy or strategy problems, and then identify and test hypotheses for impact. We will explore the necessity of using pragmatic "mental models" to inform our analyses and decision making. Along the way, we will explore cognitive biases, implementation challenges, and techniques to manage them. The best recommendations only come to life through compelling communication. We will build these skills, therefore, through "real" life exercises. These will include drafting talking points for a "principal" (e.g., the President, Secretary of State, a CEO, or a Governor), preparing a policy or strategy memo, and developing a compelling PowerPoint briefing for a senior executive audience. Case studies will provide the foundation for many class discussions. The class will be "tri-sector"--open to examples from the private, government, and nonprofit sectors. Source material will include: Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow, The Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (2nd edition); Richard Haass, The Bureaucratic Entrepreneur: How to be Effective in Any Unruly Organization; Richard Neustadt and Ernest May, Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers; Michael Lewis, The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed Our Minds; select podcasts and journal articles; and three films "Thirteen Days," "Moneyball," and "The Big Short." Assessment: class participation; final memo (5-8 pages) and class presentation on a real world issue. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Drew Erdmann '88 is Chief Operating Officer of the State of Missouri with responsibility for managing the ~50,000 employee, $28 billion enterprise. After receiving his PhD in American History, Drew's career included government service with the State Department, Defense Department in Iraq, and White House, and over a decade with the global consultancy McKinsey & Company where his experience spanned the retail, media, energy, aerospace & defense industries, and the public and nonprofit sectors. [ more ]

This course is a participant-observation experience in which students work full-time for a governmental or nongovernmental (including voluntary, activist, and grassroots) organization or for a political campaign. Students may find placements in government and nonprofit organizations in which their work involves significant involvement with public issues. Examples include: town government offices; state or federal administrative offices (e.g., environmental agencies, housing authorities); interest groups that lobby government (e.g., ACLU, NRA); nonprofit organizations such as service providers or think tanks (e.g., Habitat for Humanity, Cato Institute); and grassroots, activist or community development organizations (e.g., Greenpeace or neighborhood associations). The instructors will work with each student to arrange a placement; such arrangements must be made in advance of the Winter Term. Students should first make their own contracts with an institution or agency. The instructors and members of the Political Science Department are available to help students find placements, if necessary. Each student's fieldwork mentor shall send a confirmation letter to the instructor verifying the placement and describing the nature of the work to be performed. During the session, students are responsible for keeping a journal of their experiences and observations. Additionally, students write final papers summarizing and reflecting upon the experience in light of assigned readings. A group meeting of all students will occur before winter study to prepare and after to discuss the experience. [ more ]

This course pairs Williams students with adolescents involved in the juvenile court system of Berkshire County. Judges assign teenagers (ages 13-17) to this program, an official Commonwealth of Massachusetts probation program. Our goal is to empower the teenagers through positive peer mentorship and allow them to take ownership of an independent project of the teen's choosing. The project and other program activities aim to cultivate initiative, creativity, focus, and skills in areas such as goal-setting and communication, which the teenagers can transfer to their school, work, and home lives. The course ends with a presentation in which each adolescent/Williams student pair formally presents its work to an audience that includes the employees of the juvenile court system, elected officials, chiefs of police, district attorneys, the teens' peers and families, and Williams faculty and community members. Williams students learn to mentor teenagers and gain insight into the juvenile justice system. Williams students are expected to attend trainings, meet with their teens three times a week, co-give a final presentation, and keep a weekly journal detailing their meetings. This is a student-led course, sponsored by Police Chief Mike Wynn and Professor Cheryl Shanks but entirely run by trained Williams students who have served as mentors in the past. Because Learning Intervention for Teens is an after-school program for the teens, this course meets Tuesday through Thursday from 306pm. In order to enroll in the course, when preregistering, all students must write a paragraph explaining why they believe they'd be a successful mentor in this program. Students should email their paragraphs to student coordinators Rebecca Tauber at [email protected] and Jamie Nichols [email protected] and cc: [email protected] [ more ]

Political Science senior essay. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Political Science 493-494. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Political Science 495 or 496. [ more ]

[ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

The greatest obstacles to creativity are distraction and stress. The goal of this course is to unplug, refresh, and reunite with your creative, productive, true self. Exploring the correlation between yoga, mindfulness and creativity, we will practice yoga, tour the wonderful museums in our area, make individual mandalas in an art workshop, and go on a 2-night/3-day stay at the renowned yoga retreat Kripalu. In this class, focused primarily on yoga, students will meet 4 - 5 hours per week to practice open-level yoga, and explore the core asanas (yoga poses), healthy alignment, asana variations and creative sequencing, as well as other techniques to cultivate mindfulness: pranayama (breath work) and meditation. Time in the yoga studio will be complemented by visits to the Clark Art Institute, the Williams College Museum of Art, and MassMoCA. In these museums, we will be guided by museum staff and learn how their philosophies and practices relate to our focus on creativity and mindfulness. We will take ample time for mindful observation, and some of our yoga practice may take place inside these museum galleries. Throughout the course, students will be expected to journal on various open-ended prompts and occasionally discuss them. After the first two weeks we will participate in a mandala making workshop led by local artist Zoe Doucette. Whether we think of ourselves as artistic or not, this workshop will encourage us to create something visually unique and personally meaningful. The highlight of the course will come at the end, when we'll spend two nights and three days at the world-renowned yoga retreat Kripalu, located in nearby Stockbridge, MA, where students will be free to explore a variety of classes and yoga styles, vegan food, meditation, and more. Back on campus, we will end the course in the same biometrics lab in which the course began, in order to assess how our yoga practice and breathing techniques have affected our heart rates. Final projects will consist of 1. Regular journal entries 2. Creative visual project (mandala or other) 3. 3-5-page research paper or 3-5-minute presentation on breathing techniques or guided meditation. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Mary Edgerton is a certified yoga instructor at Williams College. She also teaches throughout Berkshire County through her business NightSkyYoga.com. [ more ]

This course takes a psychological approach to helping you figure out what to do with your life. We start by reviewing your life story up until now and determining how it has shaped you. We discuss, for example, whether you feel pressured to go down a certain road, whether you feel torn between your head and your heart, or whether you feel directionless. Then we take stock of who you really are now, including your core interests, tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses. We try to identify life designs that play to your signature strengths, as opposed to situations that are a setup for frustration and failure. The class encourages you to let go of comparing yourself to your peers, as different people need different things. You explore your underlying values and what you find most important in life. You consider the level of meaning you need in your work, as well as how much you care about money, status, fame, independence, connection, and creativity. The class introduces you to the concept of "flow," the feeling you get when engaging in activities that provide ideal levels of challenge and mastery. By designing lives and careers that promote flow states, you will be most likely to thrive and not merely succeed. Indeed, it is important not to design a life that appears successful but feels miserable. Your choice of a romantic partner can also have huge implications for the trajectory of your life. The class helps you to identify typical traps, such as staying with someone who is a bad match, and discusses how to make constructive relationship choices. Ultimately, as there are likely multiple valid life and career paths for you to take, you identify and develop three different plans that feel authentic and inspiring to you. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Dr. Johnson received his B.A. from Williams College, his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Yale University, and is a Clinical Associate Professor at Brown University. He has taught this Winter Study for the last three years and deeply enjoys mentoring students around career issues. [ more ]

What does it mean to live a full life? How does one bring joy, creativity, play and gratitude into daily living? In this experiential course, students will explore concepts and complexities related to play, creativity, joy and gratitude across cultures and develop realistic practices for integrating these qualities into daily life. Students will participate in discussions, experiential activities, wellbeing challenges, journaling and community projects. Out of class time will emphasize practice opportunities for each of the pillars of the course. [ more ]

The majority of the time will be dedicated toward selecting the next class of Junior Advisors, an undertaking that will allow students to examine selection processes in general. This course will explore the nature of selection processes. What does an optimal selection process look like? How do our implicit biases materialize in the selection? These are just a few of the questions that we will seek to understand through guest speakers from the Davis Center, Psychology Department, Admissions, and the Career Center. Readings will cover topics such as organizational behavior and human decision processes, social networks and organizational dynamics, and gendered wording and inequality. To enroll in this course, you must apply via this form (https://forms.gle/BjWA1tTfFQweAvqc8) by 11:59 pm on October 25. Those who are not selected will be notified in time so that they can still register for another Winter Study course during the first round of registration. [ more ]

This studio course will lead the student through various piecing, appliqué and quilting styles and techniques, with some non-traditional methods included. Samples will be made of techniques learned, culminating in the completion of a sizeable project of the student's choosing (wall quilt or lap-size quilt). There will be an exhibit of all work (ephquilts), at the end of winter study. "Woven" into the classes will be discussions of the history of quilting, the controversy of "art" quilts vs. "traditional" quilts, machine vs. hand-quilting and the growing quilting market. Reading list: Pieces of the Past by Nancy J. Martin; Stitching Memories: African-American Story Quilts by Eva Ungar Grudin; Sunshine and Shadow: The Amish and Their Quilts by Phyllis Haders; A People and Their Quilts by John Rice Irwin; Treasury of American Quilts by Cyril Nelson and Carter Houck; The Quilt: New Directions for an American Tradition, Nancy Roe, Editor. Requirements: attendance of all classes (including field trip), a love of fabric, design and color, an enthusiasm for handwork, participation in exhibit. Extensive time will be spent outside of class working on assigned projects. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Debra Rogers-Gillig, one of the top quilters in New England, has been quilting for over 35 years, and teaching classes and coordinating shows and exhibits for 30 years. She has received numerous prizes and awards from quilt shows in New York and New England and been published in quilt magazines. [ more ]

Ever put yourself down when things aren't going well? Offering yourself compassion is often recommended by therapists and is a skill taught in some modes of therapy. What is the basis for this recommendation? How is self- compassion put into practice? What makes it so challenging? You will learn about the elements of self-compassion, explore and experience different ways of offering yourself compassion, and discuss your experiences. You will look at ways that self-compassion can positively impact your mental health, your work, your play, and your relationships. You will be asked to practice skills between classes, do some reading, and reflect on your experiences. [ more ]

This course pairs central test from the classical and contemporary Western philosophical tradition with recent findings in cognitive science and related fields. In addition, life-long learners from the Berkshire Osher Life-Long Learning Institute will be paired with Williams students from all years and all readings from classical and contemporary western philosophy, and recent findings in the cognitive sciences will provide a context for intergenerational participants from the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and Williams College to explore promising answers to fundamental questions like the following: What makes life most worth living?; What is happiness?; What are the components of human flourishing and how can they be best secured for as many people as possible, now and in the future?; What kinds of answers can we anticipate from philosophical reflection and empirical research? Required reading: Selections from Plato Crito, The Republic and Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics; articles from psychology journals: books available at the college bookstore: Thomas Hurka The Best Things in Life; Jonathan Haidt The Happiness Hypothesis; Martin Seligman Learned Optimism; Williams MacAskell Doing Good Better. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Virginia O'Leary recede her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Wayne State University in 1969. Her early research was on women and work. Later she focused on resilience and thriving in the face of adversity and gender in cross-cultural context. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Virginia E. O'Leary obtained her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Wayne State University in 1969. She is currently Professor Emerita at Auburn University. Her early research focused on women and work. She later turned her attention to resilience and thriving in the face of adversity and gender in cross-cultural context. [ more ]

Would you like to explore applications of psychology in the "real world?" This course gives students an opportunity to work full-time during Winter Study in a mental health, business, education, law or another setting in which psychological theories and methods are applied to solve problems. Students are responsible for locating their own potential internships whether in the local area, their hometowns, or elsewhere, and are welcome to contact the course instructor for suggestions on how to do this. In any case, all students considering this course must consult with the instructor about the suitability of the internship being considered before the Winter Study registration period. Please prepare a brief description of the proposed placement, noting its relevance to psychology, and the name and contact information of the agency supervisor. Before Thanksgiving break, the student will provide a letter from the agency supervisor which describes the agency, and the student's role and responsibilities during Winter Study. Enrolled students will meet the instructor before Winter Study to discuss matters relating to ethics and their goals for the course, and after Winter Study to discuss their experiences and reflections. [ more ]

Where, when, and how do children learn outside of school? What is STEAM education, and who has access to it? Why does creative youth development matter in our society? Creative problem solving--the flexibility, persistence, and openness to generate and apply novel solutions to problems--is essential for success in school, the workplace, and beyond. The Bay Area Discovery Museum (BADM) has developed a pedagogical framework for educators to build children's creative problem-solving skills through intentional experiences. We will use this framework to guide our exploration of informal learning environments, including museums, libraries, and other out-of-school places, investigating how children--and adults in their lives--access learning in STEAM content areas, especially the sciences and the arts. In addition to class meeting time, we plan to take two or three day-long field trips to local and regional museums and other educational sites. Alongside our research in the field and discussions in class, students will create a journal in the medium of their choice (written, visual, aural) to document and reflect on their learning. Students will also work individually or collaboratively to design a prototype for a STEAM exhibition, event, song, podcast, video, or project of their choosing that they will present at the end of the session. We welcome anyone with an interest in contributing to the field of education, making, creating, and innovating! This course is not limited to students with backgrounds in psychology, the sciences, or art. Class is scheduled for M and W afternoons with mandatory all- and partial-day field trips scheduled during Weeks 1-3. Dates of the field trips are TBD, and may fall either on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays. Helen Hadani, Director of Research at BADM, and Molly Polk, from the Center for Learning in Action, will co-teach this course. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Molly was the founding education coordinator and curator for Kidspace at MASS MoCA and has taught children of all ages in informal learning environments, including museum galleries and dance studios, ski trails and forest floors, food pantries and assisted living centers. She works with Williams students who teach and mentor K-6 students at Brayton and Greylock Schools in North Adams. Her research areas of interest include student-driven learning and equity of access in K-12 public education. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Helen Hadani is the Director of Research at the Center for Childhood Creativity (CCC)--the research and advisory division of the Bay Area Discovery Museum (BADM)-and authors publications that synthesize scientific findings on children's learning and cognition for parents and educators. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Psychology 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Would you like to learn to meditate with ease? Are you interested in texts and explanations that support a meditation practice? This course is an experiential immersion into a deep practice of meditation that works with the nature of the body and the mind. It is also an exploration and familiarization with key ideas and understandings about how meditation actually works. No particular faith or beliefs are necessary for this practice. This course is not about becoming part of any group, but rather establishing yourself in deep meditation practice that supports your life. At the beginning of the course, you receive personal instruction and learn your meditation practice. Having learned an effective practice you are not required to forcefully concentrate or wrestle with your mind. Instead the practice unfolds naturally. Understanding how this might work involves study. To anchor key understandings of yogic meditation in a larger context, we study important texts from the non-dual Shaiva Tantras. Moreover we delve into some of the roots of this particular meditation practice in the earlier Classical Yoga. In addition to written texts, you will work with audio recordings and study guides that explore both the theory and the practice of Neelakantha Meditation. This particular practice, Neelakantha Meditation as taught in Blue Throat Yoga (https://www.bluethroatyoga.com/), is specifically intended for those of us active in the world. So it is oriented to provide rest, restore well being, and also to up level our capacities for skillful, wise and compassionate activity in the world. This class meets four times a week for 1.5 hours to meditate and discuss the foundational concepts. We also learn additional practices that support meditation including chanting, breathing and light yoga asana. On your own you meditate twice a day, read and contemplate texts, listen to audio recordings, and journal. Each week you submit a 3-4 pg. journal reflecting on your practice and study. Before registering for this course, students are REQUIRED to attend an informational meeting on Sunday, November 3, 2019 at 4 p.m. (room TBA--watch for daily messages). Interested students who are not able to attend this informational meeting should contact the instructor. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Tasha Judson is director and teacher at Tasha Yoga in Williamstown. She has been teaching yoga asana for over 25 years. In 2016, she became an Authorized Teacher of Neelakantha Meditation as taught in Blue Throat Yoga after eight years of intensive study and practice. She has travelled to India multiple times to related sacred places and communities. [ more ]

What does a Bible from 1462 feel like? Smell like? In this course, students will touch, smell, and examine early and rare Bibles from the world-class collection of Bibles housed in Williams¿s own Chapin Library. Highlights of the collection include multiple significant 15th and 16th century Bibles, as well as a 1611 King James Bible. Through class readings and discussions, as well as a small project, students will learn about the history of the book, the history of the Bible as a book, and the specific histories of one or more rare Chapin Bibles of their choosing. The major project for the course will be for students to experiment with and curate an Instagram account together as an online "exhibit" of the rare and wondrous Bibles of the Chapin Library. [ more ]

For much of human history, if you wanted healing from illness, to get someone to like you, or to make your enemies fail, and you lacked money or political influence, you would turn to an amulet maker. But what were these amulets, how did they function, and how were they made? In this course, we will explore the role of amulets in popular religious cultures around the world, and we'll even take a crack at making our own. This course is recommended for students interested in religion or who want to learn how to get someone to fall in love with them. 😉 Rabbi Seth Wax is the Jewish Chaplain at Williams. [ more ]

An advanced course for senior Religion majors (who are not writing theses) to further develop their senior seminar paper into a polished 25 page research paper (which will also be the focus of a brown-bag presentation during the spring semester). The course will help the students with general research methods, workshopping, paper writing, and presentation practice. [ more ]

Religion senior thesis. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

In this course, we will revisit the boundaries between self-portraiture and portraiture. Working in pairs, students will both practice being a model and a photographer: they will pose as a model for their classmates and assist a classmate in creating a self-portrait. In addition, using as a point of departure Hippolyte Bayard's photograph Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man, one of the first self-portraits in the history of photography, students will learn how to use the view camera (a large format camera used during the invention of photography in 1839 and still in use today). We will also study the characteristics of film photography, specifically, light, chemicals, sensitive media, and negative and use them as tools to make creative portraits in the darkroom. By the end of the course, students will have learned to shoot with a 4 x 5 view camera and have practiced with manipulations in the darkroom in order to create unique portraits. Each student will exhibit their work as a triptych in an exhibition. Be aware that this class requires an average of 15 weekly lab or studio hours outside of regular classes and sometimes during the weekend. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Documentary photographer Daniel Goudrouffe, who describes himself as a photographer-author, creates compelling visual narratives about the complexity of life in the Caribbean and its diaspora. His archive of the contemporary Caribbean equally enables a public reckoning with the impact of slavery and colonialism in the region. In 2017, his images were showcased at Les Photaumnales in Beauvais, France and at the Biennale Internationale des Rencontres Photographiques de Guyane. [ more ]

To be taken by candidates for honors other than by thesis route. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for French 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

What are borderlines? How have they been created and how do they affect the lives of those who cross or are being crossed by these borders? Motivated by the attention that borders have drawn recently with the caravans of Central Americans traveling north, we propose a trip to Chiapas, Mexico to explore the realities of the communities, activists, and border entities. This trip will engage students with the visual response and the relationship with spaces created in these borderlands. The class will meet for an intensive week of class on-campus with readings and discussion followed by a 10 -12 travel to Chiapas with Borderlinks. The Borderlinks pedagogical model is based on "dynamic educational experiences that connect divided communities, raise awareness about the impact of border and immigration policies, and inspire action for social transformation." Their leaders accompany the delegation at all times. Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow at Williams 2018 - 2020. [ more ]

To be taken by candidates for honors other than by thesis route. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Spanish 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

From the beginning of the Cold War to the present, the presence of Russian intelligence operatives in the nation's capital has been the subject of fascination and speculation. In this course, we will examine the FX Channel's series The Americans, in light of both the popular imaginary about Russian spies in the United States and the actual history of intelligence wars in Washington. How does the series represent the lives of Russian political and intelligence operatives during the Reagan presidency, and how does it interpret the larger events of the Cold War in its final decade? Readings will draw from accounts on both side of the Cold War, focusing on signature developments such as Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union, the covert biological weapons programs, and Soviet attempts to build relations with progressive movements in the United States. Prior to the beginning of the course, students are expected to view the first two seasons of the series. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Alexandar Mihailovic has taught at Bennington College, Williams College, and Brown and Columbia Universities. His books include *Corporeal Words: Mikhail Bakhtin's Theology of Discourse,* *Mitki: The Art of Postmodern Protest in Russia*, and the edited volume *Tchaikovsky and His Contemporaries: A Centenary Symposium." He has also published articles about cultural relations during the Cold War, African-American studies, art history, and cinema studies. [ more ]

Williams has a unique program in the Republic of Georgia, which offers students the opportunity to engage in three-week-long internships in a wide variety of fields. Our students have helped in humanitarian relief organizations like Save the Children, interned in journalism at The Georgian Times, taught unemployed women computer skills at The Rustavi Project, documented wildlife, studied with a Georgian photographer, done rounds at the Institute of Cardiology, and learned about transitional economies at the Georgian National Bank. In addition to working in their chosen fields, students experience Georgian culture through museum visits, concerts, lectures, meetings with Georgian students, and excursions. Visit the sacred eleventh-century Cathedral of Svetitskhoveli and the twentieth-century Stalin Museum, see the birthplace of the wine grape in Kakheti, and explore the region where Jason sought the Golden Fleece. Participants are housed in pairs with English-speaking families in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital city. At the end of the course, students will write a 10-page paper assessing their overall trip experience. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Vladimir Ivantsov holds a PhD in Russian Studies from McGill University (Canada). Prior to coming to Williams, he taught at McGill University and St. Petersburg State University (Russia). His research interests cover a broad spectrum of topics, including Dostoevsky, existentialism, and rock and pop culture. He published a book on the contemporary Russian writer Vladimir Makanin. [ more ]

May be taken by candidates for honors other than by thesis route. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Russian 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

People often describe Williams College as an "intense" place--a "purple bubble" with its own peculiar micro-culture. This bubble can be stressful, exhausting, and work-obsessed, but also bursting with creative energy and a determination to change the world, not to mention creating experiences and relationships that become deeply nostalgic and lead to a lasting connection. How have these characteristic structures of feeling been built over time? In this course, we will attempt to build a picture of how the emotional cultures of Williams have evolved by excavating their histories. From the powerful emotions triggered by transitional moments in the College's history, such as feelings of inclusion and exclusion by women and people of color, to the everyday emotions of friendship, romance, and work stress, students will analyze materials from the college archives, the archive of the Record, and other sources of institutional memory to uncover the social history of emotions at Williams. Depending on enrollments, students will divide into research clusters focusing on particular topics, which might include: stress and work-obsession, turning points and change, wonder and discovery, nostalgias, staff morale, mental illness and wellness discourse, among other possible topics. Students will spend time in class discussing readings and curating a small collection of archival materials to be presented at the end of the course. Outside class, students will spend time in the archives. As a theoretical and methodological guide, we will draw primarily on scholarship from the sociology and history of emotion, including Norbert Elias, Cas Wouters, Raymond Williams, William Reddy, and Barbara Rosenswein. [ more ]

To be taken by students registered for Sociology 493-494. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Whether you want to better support your friends, be more effective as a leader, or pursue a career in the helping professions, good listening and communication skills are essential. This course will prepare you to be a better listener and a more effective, confident communicator. You will learn techniques that help put others at ease while you learn and practice active listening over a variety of topical areas that increase in intensity as we learn and build trust as a group. We will also address what is needed in more charged, personal or urgent situations, exploring our limits, values and responsibilities. You will learn to communicate skillfully about sensitive issues, support others with different experiences/identities than your own, and find your own style in a helping role. Besides improving self-awareness and interpersonal self-confidence, students have found this training applicable to subsequent leadership roles in campus life and beyond. We will meet twice a week for 3 hour sessions. This is an experiential training augmented by relevant readings and out-of-class assignments designed to deepen your understanding and practice of communication, connection and basic counseling skills. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Karen Theiling is a licensed mental health counselor at Integrative Wellbeing Services and has worked at Williams in this capacity for about 20 years. Though she loves the work of psychotherapy, she is passionate about opportunities to teach students to be more skillful in their lives through teaching, trainings, outreach, and group experiences. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Laini Sporbert is a Health Educator at Williams College, focusing on substance abuse education and counseling, mental health awareness, sexuality education, and sleep. She has been at the college since 1997, and been the Peer Health Staff Advisor since 2006. She has an M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology with a specialty in addictions. [ more ]

How do issues of climate change and equity intersect? While we've heard that climate change disproportionately affects vulnerable and marginalized communities, what does that look like, how do those inequities pile up, and what are the avenues of resistance and progress? In this course, students will explore the links between environmental justice and climate justice first in class and then in conversation with members, various communities impacted by climate change and societal inequities, and then weave these stories into compelling audio stories. Students will research climate change impacts and the related inequities in a community with which they have a personal relationship (such as their home community or the greater Northern Berkshires) and conduct interviews with people who can speak from personal experience about how climate change has affected their community and the justice implications. Students will learn interviewing, storytelling, and podcasting best practices in order to gather intriguing stories and to weave those interviews into compelling audio stories that are both rich in content and in sound. Guiding questions will include: How does one tell a story in a way that is universal or at least relevant to one's intended audience? What are the opportunities to enhance storytelling by using an audio format as the medium? How does one tell a story that honors and doesn't exploit interviewees' experiences. Informative and impressive podcast creations will be used as resources on the Williams sustainability website and will be posted to iTunes and other places where you get your music and podcasts. Assignments will involve listening to and critically analyzing podcasts, writing, editing, and giving positive and constructive feedback to peers. Our time together will be a combination of learning about climate justice, analyzing content and audio choices, practicing interview techniques, and getting feedback from peers. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Mike Evans is the Assistant Director of the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives at Williams College where he delves into issues of sustainable food, waste diversion, the built environment, and equity and justice. Prior to his time at Williams, he worked in the nonprofit world--in Boston, Austin, and Salt Lake City--at organizations focusing on food security, youth development, sustainable agriculture, urban farming, and food justice. [ more ]

First offered in 2019, this course is an introduction to the field of advertising with a special emphasis on creativity. Topics include the nature of brands; how they are created and sustained in today's consumer, media and technology environments; how brands are positioned (and repositioned); how agencies are organized; the role of big ideas in leading brands to success; what distinguishes an effective ad from an ineffective one?; and the vital and powerful importance of creativity in connecting with audiences on multiple platforms. The course will be of interest to students considering a future in advertising, marketing or journalism--but also to anyone curious about the pervasive influence of marketing communications in culture, style and politics. Classes are a combination of lecture and the presentation of short team projects in which students collaborate to research and analyze ads and other communications related to the topic of the day. Final projects include developing and presenting an original ad and a deep dive into a single brand across all media. There will be two, three-hour classes per week. Out-of-class work will include readings, a short reflective final paper and team research projects examining advertising on assigned topics. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Steve Harty '73 worked in advertising for 30 years. Along the way he served major clients like JetBlue, American Express, Ally Bank, Mercedes-Benz, Miller Lite and AT&T working for agencies such as Ogilvy, Lowe and BBH in addition to co-founding Merkley Newman Harty. He is now a strategy consultant and Executive-in-Residence at Columbia Business School. For Williams, Steve is president of his class and a trustee emeritus. [ more ]

A workshop that will involve learning and applying design thinking techniques to develop creative human-centered solutions to a significant, complex social problem, like loneliness in the community or transforming travel around small towns. The actual topic will be one of several proposed in a global competition from London's Royal Society of Arts; course projects will be submitted against students from around the world in March. Work will occur in two teams; the experience will emphasize techniques for creative confidence, learning to take risks and advance from failures, creative collaboration, and focusing problem solving on human-centered solutions-similar to how innovation is explored in design firms, start-ups, government agencies, and NGOs. The workshop will meet twice a week for 3 hours. There are few readings (mostly manuals on techniques from leading consultancies), but will involve ethnographic research in observing and exploring how real people perceive the problem and solution and team meetings between classes to brainstorm ideas. For more on design thinking, see Williams.edu/designthinking. [ more ]

Albert Einstein said "we cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them," encouraging us to rethink our assumptions and process for instigating change. But what kind of thinking and process should we use to solve our problems? This course will use the guiding principles of adrienne maree brown's Emergent Strategy to explore how to build the community and the economic, political, social, and interpersonal systems that we want to see in the world. We need not confine ourselves, in defeat, to incremental lifestyle changes because we feel we do not have the power to incite large scale change; rather we will work to embody, through a varied practice of reflection, movement work, conversation, facilitation, and peer-to-peer dialogue and mediation, the world we want to construct. How can we institutionalize justice and sustainability in the place of institutional racism, heteropatriarchy, xenophobia, exploitation etc.? We will explore how systems of oppression shape and intersect with daily habits and community structures even as we build movements to overcome these oppressive systems. For instance how can we challenge our inclination for hierarchical and majority-rules group governance, or how do we create and maintain boundaries for working relationships that effectively disrupt implicit biases and inherent power imbalances? The course will meet frequently with practitioners, educators, and researchers who are doing movement building work. Students will learn facilitation skills and use systems theory throughout course discussions in order to address challenging topics that they identify. This course relies on numerous perspectives from readings, audio stories, and in-person/video conversations with movement builders from on campus and across the Northeast. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Caroline Bruno is the Sustainability Coordinator at the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives and works to incite and connect conversations across campus about enacting social change, meaningful community involvement, environmental justice and sustainability. [ more ]

This course is the full training for students who would like to cover Call In Walk In shifts in the Peer Health Office (Paresky 212). Students should either already be a member of Peer Health, or have an interest in joining Peer Health, as those students will get priority acceptance. Topics that we will cover include alcohol and other drug use; sex, STIs and contraception; rape, sexual assault and Title IX compliance; mental health; stress and sleep; healthy and unhealthy relationships, etc. Students will meet various on- and off-campus resources for referral. Outside of class work will include readings, video viewings, information gathering, and a possible field trip to local agencies. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Laini is a Health Educator at Williams College, focusing on substance abuse education and counseling, mental health awareness, sexuality education, and sleep. She has been at the college since 1997, and been the Peer Health Staff Advisor since 2006. She has an M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology with a specialty in addictions. [ more ]

Experience of a clinical environment is essential to making the decision to enter the health professions. Through this internship, students clarify their understanding of the rewards and challenges that accompany the practice of medicine (human and animal) and dentistry. Generally, a shadowing experience focuses on provider-patient interactions within out-patient and in-patient settings. These experiences provide students with the opportunity to observe clinical interactions, as well as to learn about the systems within which health care is delivered. Students will be introduced to fundamental concepts related to patient interviewing and history taking, diagnosis and medical decision making. Students will also be introduced to core concepts of population health, providing a broad perspective on health outcomes within a geographic region and expanding their perspective on the individual clinical interactions which they observe. This course will encourage participants to reflect on their clinical experiences with a dual focus- from the perspective of the individual provider-patient relationship and within a systems-level context. Didactic sessions for (on-campus students) will focus on the challenges and experiences of healthcare professionals in the Berkshires or nationally. Students will be introduced to concepts of health and wellness, epigenetics, and environmental influences that have a demonstrable, sustained impact on individuals before and after clinical symptoms of illness emerge By the end of the course, students will demonstrate greater understanding of the fundamentals of patient-provider interactions, clinical diagnosis, patient interviewing, and factors affecting the health of individuals and communities. [ more ]

In a perfect world, we all have a fully-developed, time-proven writing process. It's the approach that you read about in well-intended books on effective writing and that professors occasionally recommend, where you start an essay well before the deadline, progressing thoughtfully and methodically toward a completed essay that as thoughtful, effective, and on time. But for most of us, the reality falls well short of that ideal. We procrastinate, stress out, glare at the empty computer screen, and ultimately rush at the last minute to crank out something that hopefully fulfills the assignment. In fact, for many, this is the only way essays get written. This course provides an opportunity for you to develop a better approach to writing assignments: one where completing an essay is less about a looming deadline and more about the meaningful exploration and masterful articulation of your ideas. Each class meeting will be a writing workshop guided by prompts that will navigate you through the cumulative process of composing a single essay. You'll leave the course with a fresh outlook on the real purpose of academic writing and new methods for approaching essay assignment in your classes. Whether you're a first-year student still getting a feel for college writing or senior finally hoping to make writing more manageable, this course will help you develop the writing process that works for you. Topics covered will include: * attending to the writing assignment * finding a meaningful topic * developing an effective argument * incorporating research * determining structure and organization * understanding voice and style * appreciating the impact of audience [ more ]

Field experience is a critical component of the decision to enter a profession. Through these field placements, students can clarify their understanding of the rewards and challenges that accompany the practice of many different aspects within a profession, and understand the psychology of the workplace. In order to participate in this course, students must apply to the winter study internships listed in this syllabus. The expectation is that each student will observe and participate in some aspect of the profession for at least 30 hours per week, 6 hours per day for 5 days each week. It is also expected that the instructor will assign a specific project to be completed within the 3-4 week duration of the course depending upon appropriateness. Participation in this winter study will require the student to quickly assess the work environment, make inferences about corporate culture, performance norms and expectations, and to take initiative not only to learn from this experience, but also to contribute where and when appropriate. Understanding the dynamics within a work environment is critical to success in any organization, and this hands-on experience will illuminate lessons learned in the classroom. Upon completion of the winter study, it is expected that the student write a thorough report evaluating and interpreting the experience. Teaching Associates: Williams College Alumni/Parents will be recruited to become teaching associates for this course. A broad range of professions will be represented as the course develops. Alumni and parents will receive individual orientations with the course instructor in person or via telephone conference. Students will be required to read one of two books selected for this course. Bibliography: a bibliography of readings would be selected from such works as: What Should I do with My Life? by Po Bronson, 2003; Working by Studs Terkel, 2004. [ more ]

Students in this course learn about the front-line challenges of urban public education by working in one of New York City's public schools. Participants will be expected to pursue a full day's program of observing, teaching, tutoring and mentoring in their choice of more than 20 different school situations from elementary through high school. Each of the participating schools will have a resident supervisor who will meet with the January interns to arrange individual schedules and provide mentoring during the month. There will be weekly seminar meetings of all the interns who are expected to participate in group discussions, keep a journal and write a 5 page paper reflecting upon their experience. The course will conduct orientation meetings with students prior to January, matching each student's interest with appropriate teaching subject areas and a host school. Dormitory-style housing will be provided along with some assistance with transportation and food costs-estimated at $400 for the term. Further assistance is available for financial aid students. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Tracy Finnegan is a master's level teacher with training and teaching experience in a variety of approaches and settings. [ more ]

Interested in Entrepreneurship and seeing first-hand what it takes to launch a venture? Visit over ten startups in the Bay area to find out! This course is designed to give students interested in Entrepreneurship in-depth insight into the Customer Discovery process, i.e. how startups figure out if their ideas are worth pursuing. We will meet with the founders of 10-15 start-ups in the Bay Area and track their professional and personal journeys. We will look at the impact of company culture, the Bay Area ecosystem and values, financing, and how a Liberal Arts background prepares students for the challenges of entrepreneurship. Student teams will have the opportunity to work on an actual project for one or more of the companies to be visited and present their findings to senior management. We will also visit the Google campus and Stanford School While many of the companies will be technology driven, no technical background is needed and we will strive to have a diverse background in the class. The course will start in Williamstown with a review of idea development tools used in today's startup environment, particularly those pioneered by Stanford d.School called the Business Model Canvas. Workshops on Design Thinking and maximizing the Williams network will round out the pre-trip coursework. Reading will include "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries, "Zero to One" by Peter Thiel and Edward deBono's "Thinking Course" as well as articles and podcasts. Then we will go see what is actually happening in the market! Meeting times: 1/6/20 - 1/14/20 Williamstown. 10am-1pm 1/15/20 travel to San Francisco 1/16/20-1/28/20 San Francisco 10am-5pm or as needed based upon project 1/29/20 Travel back to Williamstown Adjunct Instructor Bio: Tonio Palmer is the Entrepreneur in Residence at Williams. Tonio has had a long career in international business and founded a number of companies. He holds an MBA from Wharton and MA from Upenn as a graduate of the Lauder Institute. [ more ]

Interested in a great opportunity to immerse yourself in the culture of West Africa and do some service work at the same time? This course will explore the close historical ties that exist between Liberia, the US and Williams and how NGO's have succeeded and not succeeded. We'll experience rural living in the tropical environment of the interior of Liberia as we work in the River Gee county. Our project will include health care and preparing classes to be presented in the local schools. We will be directed and supported by the Honorable Francis Dopoh,ll, CDE class of 2010 who represents this county in the Liberian Congress. [ more ]

The Gyrokinesis Method is an original and unique movement practice, which has roots in Yoga, Tai Chi, gymnastics, dance and swimming. This method gently works the entire body, opening energy pathways, stimulating the nervous system, increasing range of motion and creating functional strength through rhythmic, flowing movement sequences performed with corresponding breathing patterns. We will work in a group setting. Students will learn the basic concepts of this movement system, as well as more complex sequences. They will be expected to learn and execute all sequences for Format I. They will be asked to practice between classes. Ultimately, students will be paired up to teach each other, which will increase their understanding of this unique form of exercise. Finally, students will be expected to perform all Format I sequences as a group with music. They will then be qualified to take the Gyrokinesis Pre-training Course. Each student will receive a questionnaire at the beginning of the course and, again, at the end, to understand how their experience has changed their answers and how they can apply this movement system to their everyday life, their sport and, their chosen course of study at Williams. Method of evaluation/requirements: Questionnaire at the beginning and then again at the end of this course, teaching each other, and a final performance as a group. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Patrie Sardo has been a Licensed Gyrotonic & Gyrokinesis Trainer and Pre-Trainer for over 10 years. She owns her own studio in Santa Monica, Ca and is licensed to teach all Gyrotonic Specialty equipment; Archway, Jumping Stretching Board, Leg Extension, and the Gyrotoner. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Data visualization is an important means of detecting patterns in data and communicating results to the public. However, if designed poorly, data visualizations can also be ineffective or misleading. Tools for interactive data visualization have become increasingly popular in recent years, giving viewers more autonomy in data exploration. In this course, we will learn techniques for effective data visualization and use these criteria to evaluate visualizations (both static and interactive) in academic publications and in the news. This class will meet about 8 hours per week for lecture and discussion. In addition to participating in class discussions, students will be expected to keep a daily journal, complete short R programming exercises, and create a final project using interactive data visualization tools such as R Shiny. [ more ]

Networks are everywhere in our connected world, from social networks like facebook and twitter, to information networks like citation and coauthors, from biological network like neural and ecological networks, to technological networks like internet connection or power grids. In recent years, there has been an explosion of network data. How do we learn and represent information from these data? In this course, you will see examples from different types of networks. We will learn how to organize, visualize and describe network data using proper tools. Additionally, since things are connected in networks, we will also explore statistical methods to overcome this challenge with dependent data. Tentatively course work includes 2-3 class meetings per weeks for lectures and assignments. Students are also expected to read related materials and finish a final project. [ more ]

The history of wine making in France is long, dating back to the Greeks and later the Romans. Of course, geography and climate play an essential and important role in grape growing The first areas to be planted were the areas around present day Marseille, (Massalia in Ancient Greece) in Provence, and the areas just north farther up the Rhône river valley. We will briefly survey the history of wine in France from the Romans through the middle ages, the influence of monasteries on wine production, the impact of the French revolution and the evolution of the modern classification system in the 19th century, which is still in place today. We will look at temperature data and study the relationship between temperature change and quality. We will discuss the impact of wine "scorers" such as Robert Parker as his influence on the economics of the French wine market. Finally, we will discuss the role of wine in French cuisine and the importance of wine to French culture. SELECTED REFERENCES [1] Climate, hydrology, land use, and environmental degradation in the lower Rhone Valley during the Roman period, SE Van der Leeuw - Comptes Rendu, Geosciences, 2005, Elsevier [2] The red and the white : a history of wine in France and Italy in the nineteenth century / by Leo A. Loubère ; drawings by Mark Blanton and Philip Loubère Albany : State University of New York Press, 1978 [3] Climate Change and Global Wine Quality, Jones, G. V. White, M. A. Cooper, O. R. Storchmann, K.,Climatic Change, 2005, VOL 73; NUMBER 3, pages 319-343. [4] Wine Growers' Syndicalism in the Languedoc: Continuity and Change, Jean Phillpe Martin, Sociologia Ruralis, 36,3,1996. [5] The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food, Adam Gopnik, Knopf, 2011 (Possible required book). [6] Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure, D. Kladstrup and P. Kaldstrup , Broadway Books, 2002. [ more ]

To be taken by candidates for honors in Statistics other than by thesis route. [ more ]

Statistics senior honors thesis. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

This Winter Study course will act as an incubator for one or more Theatre Department productions led by students seeking a degree with Honors in Theatre, which are being developed as "devised" works. "Devised performance" is an umbrella term for ensemble-based approaches to making art using research, improvisation, and in-progress showings in a holistic, creative process to produce new and innovative performance work. By looking beyond the traditional roles, structures, and specializations of mainstream theater, today's most compelling devised theater artists have sought out creative paradigms of shared responsibility, flattened hierarchies, and communication across disciplines. The ensemble or ensembles in question will be formed during the fall semester, begin their devising process during Winter Study and continue into the Spring Semester, with performances in the weeks following spring break. Students wishing to enroll in this Winter Study course may do so as members of the ensemble (which can involve work in acting, design, or technical and support roles) with permission of the instructor. Students may also participate in any of these various functions in the production, including acting, even if they do not choose to enroll in the Winter Study course. In addition to the normal activities associated with a devising process and the development of a new performance piece, students in the Winter Study course will participate in a work-in-progress showing, or produce a written paper or portfolio, in the last week of January documenting their work to date on the project. [ more ]

Denmark has "Hamlet." New Orleans has "A Streetcar Named Desire." Oklahoma has "Oklahoma!" But where is the play about Williams College? Where's the dramatic work that explores the history, mythology, and identity of this special place? How do we dramatize pivotal moments through which Williams became itself, and the ways in which it both changes and remains constant? Students taking this Winter Study course will help workshop an original new play about Williams College past, developed with and directed by Professor Omar Sangare, and written by Ilya Khodosh '08, who will be teaching THEA 214: Writing for Stage and Screen in the spring semester. Our work will culminate in a reading that may lead to a full production, coinciding with our campus-wide celebration of the 90th birthday of Stephen Sondheim '50. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Ilya Khodosh '08 is a writer/performer in NYC. He is a graduate of Williams College, where he was awarded the Hutchinson Fellowship for outstanding work in theater. Currently, completing his Ph.D. at Yale. [ more ]

This course involves students in every aspect of film production. The product of this workshop will be a collection of short films written, acted, designed, directed and edited by the class. In the first week we will break up into groups of four and write. The writing process will be enhanced by a master class led by a notable tv/screenwriter. Week 2 will focus on rehearsal, production design, and making a shot list; a master class in acting technique and direction for film will support the work. Then in week 3: Filming! We will shoot on location in and around campus, town and adjoining areas. Finally, the last week will be all about editing and post-production (music and sound mix). At the end of Winter Study we will hold a screening of our films with an invited audience. The class will expect 12 hours minimum of class time each week (three 4-hour classes) plus additional hours outside of schedule class time for rehearsal, costume and set assembly, foundational film viewing and related reading assignments. This is your crash class in how to make a film! Adjunct Instructor Bio: Jessica Hecht is known to television audiences as "Susan Bunch" on the iconic television series Friends and "Gretchen Schwarz" on Breaking Bad. She has also played memorable roles on Bored to Death, High Maintenance, Red Oaks, and Succession. Presently she stars in the Netflix series Special. An acclaimed stage actress, Hecht has appeared on Broadway in revivals of The Price opposite Mark Ruffalo, Fiddler on the Roof opposite Danny Burstein, The Assembled Parties opposite Judith Light, Harvey opposite Jim Parsons, After the Fall opposite Carla Gugino, The Last Night of Ballyhoo opposite Paul Rudd, Brighton Beach Memoirs opposite Laurie Metcalf, Julius Caesar opposite Denzel Washington, and A View from the Bridge opposite Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance. She recently appeared on stage at Lincoln Center Theater in Admissions for which she received an Obie Award and was also nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award. Her foundation, The Campfire Project, brings theatre and wellness into Greek refugee camps www.campfire-project.org Adjunct Instructor Bio: Adam Bernstein is an Emmy® and Peabody Award winning director whose work spans across television, film and music videos. For his directorial work on the critically-acclaimed 30 Rock, Bernstein earned an Emmy Award and a DGA® nomination in 2007. In 2014, he received an Emmy nomination for his work on the pilot for the Peabody and Golden Globe Award winning limited series, Fargo. Bernstein also directed the pilot episodes for Scrubs, Alpha House and Strangers with Candy. His additional television credits include Fosse/Verdon, Breaking Bad, Billons, Better Call Saul, Californication, Rescue Me, Bored to Death, Weeds, Shameless, Nurse Jackie, Entourage and Oz. In film, Bernstein directed Bad Apple starring Chris Noth, Elliot Gould and Robert Patrick. He also wrote and directed the 1997 feature Six Ways to Sunday starring Norman Reedus and Deborah Harry. He has directed over 70 music videos including "Love Shack" for The B-52's, "Hey Ladies" for the Beastie Boys and "Baby Got Back" for Sir Mix-a-Lot, which earned Bernstein an MTV Award nomination for "Best Rap Video." Bernstein began his career as an animator before going on to produce Nickelodeon's first original scripted live-action comedy, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, at the age of 26. In 1973, he was the recipient of the Good Citizenship Medal from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Bernstein currently lives in New York City with his wife, the actress Jessica Hecht. [ more ]

Theatre senior production. [ more ]

Theatre senior thesis. [ more ]

[ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]

See description of Degree with Honors in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies. [ more ]

Open to upperclass students. Students interested in doing an independent project (99) during Winter Study must make prior arrangements with a faculty sponsor. The student and professor then complete the independent study proposal form available online. The deadline is typically in late September. Proposals are reviewed by the pertinent department and the Winter Study Committee. Students will be notified if their proposal is approved prior to the Winter Study registration period. [ more ]