Health, Science, and Society

“The future belongs to the ghosts,” remarked the philosopher Jacques Derrida in 1996, as his interlocutor, Bernard Stiegler, phrases the main idea behind that statement: “Modern technology, contrary to appearances, increases tenfold the power of ghosts.” With the advent of the internet, various forms of social media, and the ubiquity of filmic images in our lives, Derrida’s observations have proven to be quite prophetic, such that they call for a new field of study—one that requires less an ontology of being and the real and more a “hauntology” (to invoke Derrida’s punish term) of the spectral, the virtual, the phantasmic, the imaginary, and the recurrent revenant. In this seminar, we consider ways in which the past and present are haunted by ghosts and vexed by spectrality. Topics to be covered include: specters and hauntings, figures and apparitions, history and memory, trauma and political crisis, fantasy and imagination, digital interfaces, haunted data and archives, and visual and acoustical images. We will consider a range of films and video, photography, literary texts, acoustic reverberations, internet and social media, and everyday discourses and imaginings. Through these inquiries, we will be able to further our understanding of the nature of specters and apparitions in the contemporary world in their many forms and dimensions. Students will be invited to undertake their own hauntologies and thus craft studies of the phenomenal force of specters, hauntings, and the apparitional in particular social or cultural contexts.

Javanese shadow theatre, Bedouin love poems, and American community life are but a few of the sociocultural worlds that anthropologists have effectively studied and written about. This is no easy task, given the substantial difficulties involved in understanding and portraying the concerns, activities, and lifeworlds other than one’s own. Despite these challenges, ethnographic research is generally considered one of the best ways to form a nuanced and contextually rich understanding of a particular social world. To gain an informed sense of the methods, challenges, and benefits of such an approach, students will try their hands at ethnographic research and writing. In fall, each student will be asked to undertake an ethnographic research project in order to investigate the features of a specific social world—such as a homeless shelter, a religious festival, or a neighborhood in Brooklyn. In spring, students will craft a fully realized piece of ethnographic writing that conveys something of the features and dynamics of that world in lively, accurate, and comprehensive terms. Along the way, and with the help of anthropological writings that are either exceptional or experimental in nature, we will collectively think through some of the most important features of ethnographic projects, such as interviewing others, the use of field notes, the interlacing of theory and data, the role of dialogue and the author’s voice in ethnographic prose, and the ethical and political responsibilities that come with any attempt to understand and portray the lives of others.

This interdisciplinary course will address mental health in diverse cultural contexts, drawing upon a range of case studies to illuminate the causes, symptoms, diagnosis, course, and treatment of mental illness across the globe. The course will open by exploring questions of the classification of mental illness to address whether Western psychiatric categories apply across different local contexts. We will explore the globalization of American understandings of the psyche, the exportation of Western mental disorders, and the impact of psychiatric imperialism in places like Sri Lanka, Zanzibar, Oaxaca, and Japan. Through readings of peer-reviewed articles and current research in cultural psychology, clinical psychology, psychological anthropology, psychiatric anthropology, and medical anthropology, students will explore conditions such as depression and anxiety, schizophrenia, autism, susto, and mal de ojo to understand the entanglements of psychological experience, culture, morality, sociality, and care. We will explore how diagnostic processes and psychiatric care are, at times, differentially applied in the United States according to a client’s race, ethnicity, class, or gender. Finally, we will also explore the complexities of recovery or healing, addressing puzzles such as why certain mental disorders are considered to be lifelong, chronic, and severe in some parts of the world but are interpreted as temporary, fleeting, and manageable elsewhere—and how such expectations influence people’s ability to experience wellness or (re)integration into family, work, and society. Several key authors will join us as invited guest speakers to talk about their current work. Students will conduct conference projects related to the central topics of our course.

There is no document of culture which is not at the same time a document of barbarity. —Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) is one of the most important thinkers and writers of the 20th century. His many writings and innovative concepts, which continue to be discussed and debated today, are of pressing relevance for the contemporary moment, marked as it is by themes of technological and aesthetic transformations, political violence, and histories of exile and displacement. The purpose of this intensive seminar will be to delve into the textures of Benjamin’s life—from his childhood years in Berlin to his final days in France and Spain—while considering the diverse and intricate formations of Benjamin’s thought and writing. For this inquiry, we will be drawing from a number of biographical, historiographic, political, literary, and anthropological lines of analysis to gain an incisive sense of his groundbreaking writings on film and photography, literature and translation, concepts of history, and the politics of culture. Along the way, we will connect Benjamin’s thought to other significant writers and philosophers, including Charles Baudelaire, Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Siegfried Kracauer, Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Hannah Arendt, and Jacques Derrida. We will focus on a number of key texts authored by Benjamin, including Berlin Childhood Around 1900, The Arcades Project, “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility,” “The Task of the Translator,” “The Storyteller,” and “On the Concept of History.” In engaging with these and other challenging texts and giving thought to Benjamin’s life and death more generally, students will develop a richly informed understanding of the life and thought of this singularly compelling person while coming to terms with the haunted histories of the 20th and 21st centuries.

As the frontiers of science are pushed forward, conflicts naturally emerge between new hypotheses and established ideas. Biology is no exception to this rule. Since the time of the ancient Greeks, new proposals examining the biological nature of humans and the living world have initially met with resistance and even ridicule before becoming established as modern paradigms. What appears obvious now was once regarded as revolutionary, while it is conceivable that our current ideas will be regarded someday as bordering on the absurd. Oftentimes, these conflicts arise not only due to the convergence of scientific principles but also result from personality clashes of the individuals involved in the research area. Paradigm shifts have occurred in a variety of biological fields, ranging from early ideas on heredity, sex determination, and evolution to more recent advances in prions and vaccines, animal model usage, genetic engineering, cutting-edge cancer therapies, and the interplay between genes and environment. Using these and other examples, we will examine the progress of biological thought and the persistence of the scientific method in changing our understanding of life. In fall, students will meet weekly with the instructor for individual conferences. In spring, individual conferences with the instructor may be weekly or biweekly. 

Plants are all around us and are essential to life on Earth but are often overlooked or taken for granted. Especially as climate change and habitat loss threaten global biodiversity, understanding the biology of plants is fundamental to understanding the complex web of life on Earth. This course will be an introductory survey of botany. The first half of the course will cover topics such as plant anatomy, morphology, physiology, and reproduction; the second half will explore plant genetics, diversity, ecology, and evolution. Weekly discussions and textbook readings will be complemented by lab activities and a field trip to the New York Botanical Garden.

At the biological core of all life on Earth is the gene. The unique combination of genes in each individual ultimately forms the basis for that person's physical appearance, metabolic capacity, thought processes, and behavior. Therefore, in order to understand how life develops and functions, it is critical to understand what genes are, how they work, and how they are passed on from parents to offspring. In this course, we will begin by investigating the theories of inheritance first put forth by Mendel, then progress to our current concepts of how genes are transmitted through individuals, families, and whole populations. We will also examine chromosome structure and the mechanisms and molecular functions of genes and DNA within cells, as well as how mutations in DNA can lead to physical abnormalities and diseases such as Trisomy 21, hemophilia, or others. Finally, we will discuss the role of genetics in influencing complex phenotypes such as behavior or traits such as intelligence. Classes will be supplemented with weekly lab work.

Cancer is one of the most feared and notorious of human diseases, being devastating in both its scope and its prognosis. It has been described as an alien invader inside one’s own body, characterized by its insidious spread and devious ability to resist countermeasures. Cancer’s legendary status is rightfully earned, accounting for 13% of all human deaths worldwide and killing an estimated 10 million people annually. In 1971, President Richard Nixon declared a “war on cancer” and, since then, more than $250 billion has been spent on cancer research. While clinical success has been modest, tremendous insights have been generated in understanding the cellular, molecular, and genetic mechanisms of this disease. In this course, we will explore the field of cancer biology, covering topics such as tumor viruses, cellular oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, cell immortalization, multistep tumorigenesis, cancer development and metastasis, and the treatment of cancer. In addition, we will discuss new advances in cancer research and draw from recent articles in the published literature. Readings will also include Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies.

Humans are bathing in a sea of microbes. Microbes coat our environments, live within our bodies, and perform functions both beneficial and detrimental to human well-being. This course will explore the biology of microorganisms, broadly defined as bacteria, archaea, viruses, single-celled eukaryotes, and fungi. We will study microbes at multiple scales, including the individual cell, the growing population, and populations interacting with one another or their environments. Microbial physiology, genetics, diversity, and ecology will be covered in depth. Particular emphasis will be given to the role of microbes that cause infectious disease in humans and microbes that play critical roles in ecological processes. Seminars will be supplemented by a weekly lab section to learn key microbiological techniques and methods, most notably culturing and identifying bacteria. 

With more than 350,000 known species, plants form the foundations of ecosystems and are crucial to life on Earth. This course will examine the diversity, ecology, and evolutionary history of major land plant groups—bryophytes, ferns, lycophytes, gymnosperms, and angiosperms. Through lectures, discussion of scientific literature, and hands-on investigation of live and preserved material, students will learn how to decipher botanical terminology; identify major plant families using diagnostic characters and dichotomous keys; analyze evolutionary relationships and adaptations across plant lineages; and investigate plant interactions with fungi, bacteria, animals, and their environment.

Organic chemistry is the study of chemical compounds whose molecules are based on a framework of carbon atoms, typically in combination with hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Despite this rather limited set of elements, there are more organic compounds known than there are compounds that do not contain carbon. Adding to the importance of organic chemistry is the fact that many of the chemical compounds that make modern life possible—such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, herbicides, plastics, pigments, and dyes—can be classed as organic. Organic chemistry, therefore, impacts many other scientific subjects; thus, knowledge of organic chemistry is essential for a detailed understanding of materials science, environmental science, molecular biology, and medicine. This course gives an overview of the structures, physical properties, and reactivity of organic compounds. Students will see that organic compounds can be classified into families of similar compounds, based upon certain groups of atoms that always behave in a similar manner no matter what molecule they are in. These functional groups will enable the class to rationalize the vast number of reactions that organic reagents undergo. Topics covered include: the types of bonding within organic molecules; fundamental concepts of organic reaction mechanisms (nucleophilic substitution, elimination, and electrophilic addition); the conformations and configurations of organic molecules; and the physical and chemical properties of alkanes, halogenoalkanes, alkenes, alkynes and alcohols. In the laboratory section of the course, students will develop the techniques and skills required to synthesize, separate, purify, and identify organic compounds. Organic chemistry is a key requirement for pre-med students and is strongly encouraged for all others who are interested in the biological and physical sciences.

This course will provide an introduction to basic concepts of chemistry and their application to current environmental issues. Topics will include acid rain, ozone depletion, air pollution, climate change (global warming), surface water and groundwater pollution, and plastics and polymers. Students will then consider how human activities—such as transportation, energy production, and chemical industries—influence the environment.

Nutrition is the sum of all interactions between us and the food that we consume. The study of nutrition includes the nature and general role of nutrients in forming structural material, providing energy, and helping to regulate metabolism. How do food chemists synthesize the fat that cannot be digested? Can this kind of fat satisfy our innate appetite for fats? Are there unwanted side effects, and why? What constitutes a healthy diet? What are the consequences of severely restricted food intake seen in prevalent emotional disorders such as anorexia and bulimia? These and other questions will be discussed. The course will also discuss the effect of development, pregnancy, emotional state, and disease on nutritional requirements. And students will also consider effects of food production and processing on nutrition value and food safety.

In this course, students will explore the physical and chemical properties of additional families of organic molecules. The reactivity of aromatic compounds, aldehydes and ketones, carboxylic acids and their derivatives (acid chlorides, acid anhydrides, esters, and amides), enols and enolates, and amines will be discussed. The course will also investigate the methods by which large, complicated molecules can be synthesized from simple starting materials. Modern methods of organic structural determination—such as mass spectrometry, 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and infrared spectroscopy—will also be introduced. In the lab section of this course, students will continue to develop the techniques and skills required to synthesize, separate, purify, and identify organic compounds. This course is a key requirement for pre-med students and is strongly encouraged for others interested in the biological and physical sciences.

Data are everywhere. And data contain plenty of valuable hidden information that is waiting to be uncovered. How can we use data properly to help inform policy decisions? In this research workshop, we will learn the essential skills and contemporary methods for conducting applied studies of economic, political, social, and policy issues using data. We will discuss how to properly formulate a research hypothesis, how to select and organize quantitative data, how to construct relevant variables, how to select empirical research methods, and how to present and communicate your research findings. The course will cover a range of contemporary applied research methods that emphasize causal inference, including panel data, fixed effects, difference-in-difference, matching, Regression Discontinuity Design, instrumental variables, and so on. We will start with finding correlations among variables of interest (e.g., How do X and Y relate to each other?), but will focus more on making causal inferences (e.g., Does X cause Y?). We will learn Stata, a relatively advanced statistical package used widely by the social science and science research communities. The ultimate goal of the course will be to help students write a successful applied conference project. But first, do no harm!

This course is designed for students interested in the social sciences who wish to understand the methodology and techniques involved in the estimation of structural relationships between variables (i.e., regression analysis). The course is intended for students who wish to be able to carry out empirical work in their particular field, both at Sarah Lawrence College and beyond, and critically engage with empirical work done by academic or professional social scientists. In fall, the course will cover the theoretical and applied statistical principles that underlie Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression techniques. The course will begin with a review of basic statistical and probability theory, as well as relevant mathematical techniques. We will then study the assumptions needed to obtain the Best Linear Unbiased Estimates (BLUE) conditions of a regression equation. Particular emphasis will be placed on the assumptions regarding the distribution of a model’s error term and other BLUE conditions. The course will cover hypothesis testing, sample selection, and the critical role of the t- and F-statistic in determining the statistical significance of an econometric model and its associated slope or “β” parameters. Further, we will address three main problems associated with the violation of a particular BLUE assumption: multicollinearity, serial correlation, and heteroscedasticity. We will learn how to identify, address, and remedy each of these problems. In addition, the course will take a similar approach to understanding and correcting model specification errors. In spring, the course will build on fall learning by introducing advanced econometrics topics. We will study difference-in-difference estimators, autoregressive dependent lag (ARDL) models, co-integration, and error correction models involving nonstationary time series. We will investigate simultaneous equations systems, vector error correction (VEC), and vector autoregressive (VAR) models. The final part of the course will involve the study of panel data, as well as logit and probit models. Students will receive ample exposure to concrete issues while also being encouraged to consider basic methodological questions, including the debates between John Maynard Keynes and Jan Tinbergen regarding the power and limitations of econometric analysis. Spring is particularly relevant to students who wish to pursue graduate studies in a social-science discipline but equally relevant for other types of graduate degrees that involve knowledge of intermediate-level quantitative analysis. The practical "hands-on" approach taken in this course will be useful to those students who wish to do future conference projects, internships, or enter the job market in the social (or natural) sciences with significant empirical content. The goal is for students to be able to analyze questions such as: What is the relationship between slavery and industrialization in the United States? What effects do race, gender, and educational attainment have in the determination of wages? How does the female literacy rate affect the child mortality rate? How can one model the effect of economic growth on carbon-dioxide emissions? What is the relationship among sociopolitical instability, inequality, and economic growth? How do geographic location and state spending affect average public-school teacher salaries? How does one study global inequalities in terms of access to COVID-19 vaccines?

This seminar, broadly speaking, will cover introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics from a wide range of theoretical perspectives, including neoclassical, post-Keynesian, Marxian, feminist, and institutional political economy perspectives. The course will enable students to understand the more "technical aspects" of economics (e.g., usage of supply/demand analysis within and outside neoclassical economics), as well as significant economic history and the history of economic thought. Theoretical issues will be applied to contemporary policy debates such as industrial policy, foreign trade, global warming, and inequality.

Where does the food we eat come from? Why do some people have enough food to eat and others do not? Are there too many people for the world to feed? Who controls the world’s food? Will global food prices continue their recent rapid rise and, if so, what will be the consequences? What are the environmental impacts of our food-production systems? How do answers to these questions differ by place or the person asking the question? How have they changed over time? This course will explore the following fundamental issue: the relationship between development and the environment, focusing in particular on agriculture and the production and consumption of food. The questions above often hinge on the contentious debate concerning population, natural resources, and the environment. We will begin by critically assessing the fundamental ideological positions and philosophical paradigms of “modernization,” as well as critical counterpoints that lie at the heart of this debate. Within this context of competing sets of philosophical assumptions concerning the population-resource debate, we will investigate the concept of poverty and the making of the “Third World,” access to food, hunger, grain production and food aid, agricultural productivity (e.g., the Green and Gene revolutions), biofuels, the role of transnational corporations (TNCs), the international division of labor, migration, globalization and global commodity chains, and the different strategies adopted by nation states to develop natural resources and agricultural production. Through a historical investigation of environmental change and the biogeography of plant domestication and dispersal, we will look at the creation of indigenous, subsistence, peasant, plantation, collective, and commercial forms of agriculture. We will analyze the physical environment and ecology that help shape but rarely determine the organization of resource use and agriculture rather, through the dialectical rise of various political-economic systems—such as feudalism, slavery, mercantilism, colonialism, capitalism, and socialism—we will study how humans have transformed the world’s environments. The course will follow with studies of specific issues: technological change in food production; commercialization and industrialization of agriculture and the decline of the family farm; food and public health, culture, and family; land grabbing and food security; the role of markets and transnational corporations in transforming the environment; and the global environmental changes stemming from modern agriculture, dams, deforestation, grassland destruction, desertification, biodiversity loss, and the interrelationship with climate change. Case studies of particular regions and issues will be drawn from Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the United States. The final part of the course will examine the restructuring of the global economy and its relation to emergent international laws and institutions regulating trade, the environment, agriculture, resource extraction treaties, the changing role of the state, and competing conceptualizations of territoriality and control. We will end with discussions of emergent local, regional, and transnational coalitions for food self-reliance and food sovereignty, alternative and community-supported agriculture, community-based resource-management systems, sustainable development, and grassroots movements for social and environmental justice. Films, multimedia materials, and potential distinguished guest lectures will be interspersed throughout the course. Attendance will be required for one farm/factory field trip. Regular postings of short essays will be required, as well as follow-up commentaries with classmates. There will be occasional in-class essays and a final quiz at the end of the semester. Group conferences will focus on in-depth analysis of certain course topics and will include debates, a film, workshopping, and small-group discussions. Students will prepare a poster project over the semester on a related topic presented at the end of the course in the final group conference.

This seminar will begin by examining competing paradigms and approaches to understanding “development” and the “Third World.” The course will set the stage by answering the question: What did the world look like 500 years ago? The purpose of this part of the course is to acquaint us with and to analyze the historical origins and evolution of a world political-economy of which the Third World is an intrinsic component. We will thus study the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the rise of merchant and finance capital, and the colonization of the world by European powers. We will analyze case studies of colonial "development" to understand the evolving meaning of this term. These case studies will help assess the varied legacies of colonialism apparent in the emergence of new nations through the fitful and uneven process of decolonization that followed. The next part of the course will look at the United Nations and the role some of its associated institutions have played in the post-World War II global political-economy, one marked by persistent and intensifying socioeconomic inequalities as well as frequent outbreaks of political violence across the globe. By examining the development of institutions that have emerged and evolved since 1945, the course will attempt to unravel the paradoxes of development in different eras. We will deconstruct the measures of development through a thematic exploration of population, resource use, poverty, access to food, the environment, agricultural productivity, and different development strategies adopted by Third World nation states. We will then examine globalization and its relation to emergent international institutions and their policies; for example, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization. The course will then turn to contemporary development debates and controversies; for example, the widespread land grabbing (by sovereign wealth funds, China, hedge funds, etc.), rising nationalism and anti-state populism, the contested role of international aid, and the climate-change crisis. Throughout the course, investigations of international institutions, transnational corporations, the role of the state, and civil society will provide the backdrop for the final focus of the class—the emergence of regional coalitions for self-reliance, environmental and social justice, and sustainable development. Our analysis of development in practice will draw upon case studies primarily from Africa, but also from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the United States. Conference work will be closely integrated with the themes of the course, with a two-stage substantive research project. Project presentations will incorporate a range of formats, from traditional papers to multimedia visual productions.

Depending on the level of his or her resources, a sick person in Africa potentially has access to a variety of options for treatment. How illness is perceived becomes a crucial determinant in how people seek care. Unfortunately, despite an array of treatment options, the state of public health in many African countries has become woefully inadequate. While the reasons for this decline in health status are related to questions of international political economy, they can also be traced historically. This course will study the history of health, healing, and medical practices in Africa to identify the social, historical, and economic factors that influence how therapeutic systems in Africa have changed over time. We will investigate a range of topics, including the place of traditional healers in providing care, the impact of the COVID and AIDS pandemics on overall public health, and the changing structure of healthcare delivery. Students will analyze the impact of funding cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program. We will also study how African governments have modified their public-health infrastructure to cope with the economic and political changes that are reordering health care delivery models worldwide. Some of the questions that this course will address include: How have traditional healers and biomedical professionals addressed various health-related questions in Africa? What factors contribute to health and well-being? What has been the impact of epidemic disease? How have colonial conquest and religious diversity influenced the types of treatment that people both seek and receive? How have African healing systems changed over time?

This course will examine representations of pregnancies—both planned and unplanned—in the history of the Anglophone novel. From the origins of the English novel in the 18th century through to today, pregnancies signify inheritance, adherence or deviance from gender norms, and metaphorical links between childbirth and birthing a novel. Over the course of the semester, we will consider why this is so. What can fictional pregnancies reveal about the novel as a literary form and about our changing cultural and medical understanding of sex and reproduction? This course will approach the topic of the pregnancy plot from three different perspectives: narratological, historical, and political. In terms of narrative, we will ask how the pregnancy plot emerged as a defining feature of the English novel and how representations of pregnancy have changed over time with changing ideas of gender and sexuality and new reproductive technologies. How does a pregnancy, especially an unwanted pregnancy, drive forward the plot and illuminate character, especially as it relates to gender? What role does the pregnancy plot play in relation to the more widely discussed marriage plot, and how does one narrative strand influence the other? Novels we will consider include works by Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, and Maggie Nelson. Focusing on works from the 19th through 21st centuries, we will look at historical changes in how people understood and experienced conception, gestation, termination, and labor and delivery. From a political perspective, we will examine contemporary theories of reproductive justice to consider the past from the vantage of our present moment.

What kind of work is care work? Is it a form of labor? Love? Is caretaking a social or individual responsibility? And who pays for it? This course will question the role of caretaking in modern societies through a range of literary and sociological texts. We will begin with the premise that caretaking is both fundamental to a functioning society and also grossly devalued. This devaluation is marked by the poor pay associated with caretaking professions, as well as the gendering and racializing of caretaking responsibilities. This course will draw on recent writing in disability studies, gender studies, political theory, and ethnic studies—as well as literary works including novels, poems, comics, and memoirs—to consider the experience of the men and women performing care work and those who require their care. We will discuss terms, such as “self-care,” which have become commonplace but that we often encounter as marketing concepts that have been stripped of their origins. This course will aim to situate the concept of caring into historical, political, and aesthetic contexts. Readings and assignments will encourage students to imagine the future of care work in a changing society. This course will involve community engagement with the Wartburg Adult Care Community in Mount Vernon, New York.

Our existence lies in a perpetual state of change. An apple falls from a tree, clouds move across expansive farmland, blocking out the sun for days; meanwhile, satellites zip around the Earth, transmitting and receiving signals to our cell phones. Calculus was invented to develop a language to accurately describe the motion and change happening all around us. The ancient Greeks began a detailed study of change, but they were scared to wrestle with the infinite; so it was not until the 17th century that Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, among others, tamed the infinite and gave birth to this extremely successful branch of mathematics. Though just a few hundred years old, calculus has become an indispensable research tool in both the natural and social sciences. Our study begins with the central concept of the limit and proceeds to explore the dual processes of differentiation and integration. Numerous applications of the theory will be examined. Weekly group conferences will be run in hands-on workshop mode. This course is intended for students interested in advanced study in mathematics or sciences, students preparing for careers in the health sciences or engineering, and any student wishing to broaden and enrich the life of the mind. 

Variance, correlation coefficient, regression analysis, statistical significance, and margin of error—these terms and other statistical phrases have been bantered about before and seen interspersed in news reports and research articles. But what do they mean? How are they used? And why are they so important? Serving as an introduction to the concepts, techniques, and reasoning central to the understanding of data, this course will focus on the fundamental methods of statistical analysis used to gain insight into diverse areas of human interest. The use, misuse, and abuse of statistics will be the central focus of the course; and specific topics of exploration will be drawn from experimental design theory, sampling theory, data analysis. and statistical inference. Applications will be considered in current events, business, psychology, politics, medicine, and many other areas of the natural and social sciences. Statistical software will be introduced and used extensively in this course, but no prior experience with spreadsheet technology is assumed. Group conferences, conducted in workshop mode, will serve to reinforce student understanding of the course material. This course is recommended for any student wishing to be a better-informed consumer of data, and strongly recommended for those planning to pursue advanced undergraduate or graduate research in the natural sciences or social sciences. 

Calculus is the mathematical gift that keeps on giving—thank you, Newton and company! In this course, students will expand their knowledge of limits, derivatives, and integrals with concepts and techniques that will enable them to solve many important problems in mathematics and the sciences. By the end of the course, students will be able to judge whether answers provided by engine services such as WolframAlpha or ChatGPT are correct. Topics will include differentiation review, integration review, integration with non-polynomial functions, applications of integration (finding area, volume, length, center of mass, moment of inertia, probability), advanced techniques for integration (substitution, integration-by-parts, partial fractions), infinite sequences, infinite series, convergent and divergent sums, power series, differential equations and modeling dynamical systems, and, time permitting, parametric equations of a curve and polar coordinates. Students will work on a conference project related to the mathematical topics covered in class and are free to choose technical, historical, crafty, computational, or creative projects.

One of the biggest challenges humanity currently faces is the need to revamp our energy systems to avoid the most hazardous impacts due to global warming. Unfortunately, our predominately carbon-based energy system—the largest source of greenhouse gases from human activities in the United States—has significantly contributed to climate change. One of our best chances to mitigate environmental impacts is to switch to renewable, and ideally carbon-free, energy systems. Using both theory and experiments, we will explore the physics behind current renewable energy systems—including geothermal, wind, solar, and nuclear fission—as well as investigate the future potential of the hydrogen strategy and nuclear fusion. We will look at both the practical challenges and the potential promises of decarbonizing global energy production to become more informed consumers and citizens in our rapidly changing world. While students are not expected to have taken any physics courses before this course, a basic comfort with algebra is desirable and a natural curiosity to learn is essential.

Explore the beautiful mathematics and physics of waves through both theory and experiment. This course will teach students valuable mathematical methods and basic computational skills that are necessary for more advanced physical-science classes. Lab class time will include using advanced lab equipment, analyzing data using Jupyter (IPython) notebooks, learning numerical techniques, and reporting the results using LaTeX. For conference work, students are encouraged to choose an American Journal of Physics article to replicate, analyze, and then present their findings at the semi-annual Sarah Lawrence College Science & Mathematics Poster Session.

This course will explore the topic of time from a wide variety of viewpoints—from the physical, to the metaphysical, to the practical. We will seek the answers to questions such as: What is time? How do we perceive time? Why does time appear to flow only in one direction? Is time travel possible? How is time relative? We will explore the perception of time across cultures and eras, break down the role of time in fundamental physics, and discuss popular science books and articles, along with science-inspired works of fiction, to make sense of this fascinating topic. Time stops for no one, but let us take some time to appreciate its uniqueness.

We encounter temperature on a daily basis when we check our weather apps and have undoubtedly heard discussions about the greenhouse effect and Earth’s warming climate. But what do scientists mean by warming? How can they model it? And what even is temperature? In this course, we will dig into the fascinating world of thermal physics, which is important for delving into many more advanced topics in physics, geosciences, or chemistry. Topics will include: thermodynamics, including energy, temperature, work, heat, and ideal gases; statistical mechanics, including entropy, partition functions, distributions, chemical potential, nonideal gases, bosonic gas, and fermionic gas; and applications from physics, chemistry, and engineering, such as engines, refrigerators, Bose-Einstein condensates, black holes, and climate models. For conference work, students will be encouraged to model a simple thermal system of their choice, using the mathematical and numerical methods developed throughout the course.

This community-partnership course will focus on the health of humans living within physical, social, and psychological urban spaces. We will use a constructivist, multidisciplinary, multilevel lens to examine the interrelationship between humans and the natural and built environment, to explore the impact of social-group (ethnic, racial, sexuality/gender) membership on person/environment interactions, and to explore an overview of theoretical and research issues in the psychological study of health and illness across the lifespan. We will examine theoretical perspectives in the psychology of health, health cognition, illness prevention, stress, and coping with illness. We will also highlight research, methods, and applied issues. This class is appropriate for those interested in a variety of health careers or for anyone interested in city life. The community-partnership/service-learning component is an important part of this class; for one morning or afternoon per week, students will work in local community agencies to promote health-adaptive, person/environment interactions within our community. Biweekly in fall, students will alternate between individual conferences with the instructor and group conferences that will include discussion of the nature of academic work and research, reading, writing, and editing skills. Biweekly in spring, students will meet with the instructor for individual conferences.

When is sex not a natural act? Every time a human engages in sexual activity. In sex, what is done by whom, with whom, where, when, why, and with what has very little to do with biology. Human sexuality poses a significant challenge in theory. The study of its disparate elements (biological, social, and individual/psychological) is inherently an interdisciplinary undertaking; from anthropologists to zoologists, all angles of study add something to our understanding of sexual behaviors and meanings. From an intersectional perspective, in this course, we will study sexualities in social contexts across the lifespan, from infancy to old age. Race, ethnicity, gender, and social class, among other identities, impact sexuality both individually and structurally. Within each period, we will examine biological, social, and psychological factors that inform the experience of sexuality for individuals. We will also examine broader aspects of sexuality, including sexual health and sexual abuse. Conference projects may range from empirical research to a bibliographic research project.

Care and caregiving are aspects of daily life; furthermore, each of us depends upon care and caregiving at various times throughout our lives. Yet, care remains hidden and devalued in our current sociopolitical climate, with women continuing to provide a majority of care. In this course, we will look at care both as an orientation and as an activity provided by family and friends to people with disabilities and older adults. Utilizing Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory as a framework, we will explore the multilevel experiences of family caregivers. Specifically, the course will focus on caregiving triads in all their diversity, as well as paid caregivers and care receivers living with a variety of chronic illnesses. This course will take an interdisciplinary approach and introduce students to the various literature on family caregiving. From psychology to public health, we will consider care as a reciprocal process that ebbs and flows throughout the course of life. We will read across disciplines from feminist theory, critical disabilities studies, psychology, and public health, as well as look at how care is portrayed in popular culture, film, and books. Students will learn about multilevel interventions, such as individual and policy responses geared toward supporting family caregivers, as well as organizations and social movements dedicated to creating better conditions of care for all.

We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can and guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague. —William James, 1887, Habit

We all want happy lives filled with meaning and satisfaction. Yet, for many of us, happiness can be difficult to obtain with regularity or to sustain over a long period of time. Happiness is more than a feeling; rather, it is a state of well-being that should last a lifetime. Like exercising to improve physical health, it takes sustained cognitive effort to improve our mental health and engage in practices to promote well-being. We can look to evidence from the fields of psychology and neuroscience that tells us that we are mentally unprepared to: 1) predict what will make us happy, and 2) engage in behaviors that are known to make us happier. This course will cover the psychological and brain-based factors for why happiness feels so fleeting and what we can do to build better and more effective habits that have been shown to lead to longer-term maintenance of a positive mood and well-being. Students will read foundational work in the field of positive psychology by Martin Seligman, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Edward Diener, Daniel Kahneman, and others. We will also discuss studies in neuroscience that show how behavioral interventions in positive psychology can impact the brain’s structure and function—just like building stronger muscles during exercise. Through small-group conferences, students will apply evidence-based practices, such as bringing order and organization to their daily lives, expressing gratitude, and building social bonds (i.e., “cross training” for the mind) in activities called “Rewirements.” For the final project, called “Unlearning Yourself,” students will learn to undo or replace a detrimental habit (e.g., overspending, social-media use, poor sleep hygiene, complaining, or procrastinating) by establishing a plan to cultivate evidence-based practices for sustained well-being. By the end of this course, students will have gained the ability to sift through the ever-booming literature on positive psychology and neuroscience to identify the practices that work best for them, along with an appreciation for the notion that finding and keeping happiness and well-being requires intentional practice and maintenance. Students should come prepared to engage in meaningful self-work. 

Play provides us with an amazing and informative lens for observing the development and complex inner lives of young children. Yet, play is being threatened by increasing amounts of time spent on technology and a growing societal focus on scheduled activities and academic goals. This course will offer an introduction to the many fascinating aspects of play, including the importance of unstructured free play, how play shapes the brain, sensory processing and self-regulation in play, outdoor play, cultural contexts of play, and humor development in play. Through readings, video illustrations, and discussion of student fieldwork at the Early Childhood Center, we will explore the many ways in which play contributes to the complex social, cognitive, emotional, and imaginative lives of children. This course will provide a foundation for Early Therapeutic Approaches for Young Children and Families (PSYC 7220). Fieldwork at the Early Childhood Center is required for this course.

Your heart beats faster, your palms sweat, and your pupils dilate—all at once. Is this because you are exercising? Or did someone on whom you have a crush just walk into the room? Psychophysiology is the experimental study of these bodily, or peripheral, signals, which are theorized to be important “readouts” of a person’s mood (e.g., fear, happiness, anger). In this course, students will gain a foundational understanding of the psychological concepts of emotions, the biological processes that give rise to peripheral autonomic arousal (automatic bodily activation), and how these responses are naturally regulated by the brain and body in an attempt to reach homeostasis (internal stability). In fall, we will explore major theories of emotion and conceptual aspects of the “mind-body” connection, including the James-Lange theory, Feldman Barrett's theory of constructed emotion, Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis, and Thayer and Lane's neurovisceral integration model, among others. In spring, we will read scientific articles in the field of human psychophysiology, which deals with measuring bodily functions in various contexts, as well as case studies of individuals with brain damage—specifically in brain areas such as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (from work by Antonio Damasio and others) and the insula (from work by Sahib Khalsa and others). Students will also engage in hands-on labs to collect psychophysiological data (e.g., heart rate, respiration, electrodermal activity to measure sweating, pupillary responses). For fall conference projects, students will write an in-depth literature review on a topic of their choice, relating emotions to the measurements of various bodily responses. In spring, students will propose a research study that addresses a gap in the literature that they explored in fall and present their proposed research study at the Sarah Lawrence College Science and Math Poster Symposium at the end of the semester. This course may appeal to students interested in scientific studies of emotions, clinical psychology, neuroscience, neuropsychology, physiology, and conducting hands-on lab-based work.

What does it mean to live a flourishing life? This is one of the most fundamental questions of human existence. This course will explore this fundamental question through an engagement with the universal human experiences of care, aging, and death. Together, we will dive into the centrality of caregiving to the human experience and identify and explore normative claims around care, aging, and death. Specifically, we will explore issues of avoidance, dependence, and interdependence, as we collectively think about the role of care in our lives across the lifespan—but especially leading up to the final stages of life. In dominant US culture, notions of individualism prevail—often leading to the conceptualization of caregiving as a burden. But who decided that the care of other humans is a burden? Or that an unburdened life is one most worth living? Who is to say that we would prefer or be better off to be “unburdened” from the most important relationships in our lives? Collectively, we will consider more life-affirming, meaningful, and pluralistic ideas about care, as well as consider who is most served by current mainstream normative claims. Finally, the course will look at the ways these ideas are being resisted. Guest speakers will help explore how individuals have replied to questions concerning how one lives life well.

This interdisciplinary course will address mental health in diverse cultural contexts, drawing upon a range of case studies to illuminate the causes, symptoms, diagnosis, course, and treatment of mental illness across the globe. The course will open by exploring questions of the classification of mental illness to address whether Western psychiatric categories apply across different local contexts. We will explore the globalization of American understandings of the psyche, the exportation of Western mental disorders, and the impact of psychiatric imperialism in places like Sri Lanka, Zanzibar, Oaxaca, and Japan. Through readings of peer-reviewed articles and current research in cultural psychology, clinical psychology, psychological anthropology, psychiatric anthropology, and medical anthropology, we will explore conditions such as depression and anxiety, schizophrenia, autism, susto, and mal de ojo to understand the entanglements of psychological experience, culture, morality, sociality, and care. We will explore how diagnostic processes and psychiatric care are, at times, differentially applied in the United States according to a client’s race, ethnicity, class, or gender. Finally, we will also explore the complexities of recovery or healing, addressing puzzles such as why certain mental disorders are considered to be lifelong, chronic, and severe in some parts of the world but are interpreted as temporary, fleeting, and manageable elsewhere—and how such expectations influence people’s ability to experience wellness or (re)integration into family, work, and society. Several key authors will join us as invited guest speakers to talk about their current work. Students will conduct conference projects related to the central topics of our course.

Mindfulness can be described as the awareness that arises from paying attention to the present moment in a nonjudgmental way. For thousands of years, mindfulness has been cultivated through the practice of meditation. More recently, developments in neuroimaging technologies have allowed scientists to explore the brain changes that result from the pursuit of this ancient practice, laying the foundations of the new field of contemplative neuroscience. Study of the neurology of mindfulness meditation provides a useful lens for study of the brain in general, because so many aspects of psychological functioning are affected by the practice. Topics will include: attention, perception, emotion and its regulation, mental imaging, habit, and consciousness. Students interested in the scientific study of the mind and body may be interested in this course. An important component of the course will be the personal cultivation of a mindfulness practice; to support this goal, one of the two weekly course meetings will be devoted to a mindful movement practice.

This course will explore several therapeutic approaches for young children and their families, with a particular emphasis on the theory and technique of play therapy. While this course will focus most on Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT), we will also look at the methodology of other types of approaches, such as filial therapy, cognitive behavioral play therapy, and DIR/Floortime therapy. In addition, course material will highlight cultural considerations, therapeutic work with parents and caregivers, challenges in treatment, self-reflection, self-regulation, sensory processing, interoception, and analysis of clinical case studies. Readings, class discussions, group play-based activities, and video illustrations will provide students with both a theoretical and introductory clinical basis for play-based therapeutic work with young children in early intervention approaches.

The growing recognition of Latin American comics as a subject of academic study in the 21st century has further diversified the medium in the region. This course will explore the representation of Indigenous identities and cultural narratives in contemporary Chilean comics, focusing on works published during the 2000s boom. This moment was driven by various factors, such as collaborative projects, the strengthening of distribution circuits, efforts by independent publishers, access to global comic industries, and state funding opportunities. Students will engage with frameworks from comics studies and critical theory to analyze how these graphic sources challenge hegemonic representations and contribute to broader discussions on Indigenous representation, cultural resistance, and transnational dialogues on race and ethnicity. Students will analyze comic genres ranging from historical fiction and fantasy to superheroes and horror, the course will examine how Indigenous cultures are represented within the framework of post-indigenism, as studied through Alemani's research. Rather than merely recalling pre-Hispanic myths or questioning identity in response to colonial wounds, contemporary Chilean comics position Indigenous narratives within a globalized world through complex sequential narratives and hybrid aesthetics. Among other references, Chajnantor draws on Japanese manga to depict cultural aspects of the high plateau and the Atacama desert, while the Varua saga examines historical milestones and oral traditions to reconstruct Rapa Nui cultural memory. Adventure comics shape Mapuche superhero resistance in Guardianes del Sur, and manga-inspired robots depict a Selk’nam futurist society after settler colonialism in Mecha Selk’nam. The collaborative project Mitoverso creates a universe of superheroes inspired by folk stories, while Los fantasmas del viento articulates the intersection of Indigenous groups and European descendants in the Patagonian region. Throughout this course and biweekly conference meetings, students will develop communication skills in Spanish and critical-thinking abilities. Students will further advance their research skills through a semester-long multimedia project that enhances multiliteracy and public humanities competencies. The course also contemplates one field research visit to relevant local museum exhibits and artist conventions, such as the Society of Illustrators, Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase, and The Drawing Center. All primary sources, class discussions, and assignments will be in Spanish.

Black study has been at the center of considerations surrounding kinship, gender, violence, literacy and language, revolution, property, technology, and alternative forms of thinking about the world for hundreds of years. What might we, as writers—regardless of our differing identities—learn from this tradition about how to articulate the relationships between “I” and “we,” form and freedom, aesthetics and social transformation? Many of our most influential contemporary writers draw from this tradition, from Toni Morrison to Octavia Butler, Audre Lorde to Ta-Nehisi Coates, and others. In this nonfiction writing course, we will learn to think beyond the given by studying the various innovations by Black writers with genres including, but not exclusive to, memoir, journalism, manifesto, hybrid forms, rap music, animation, and new media like digital games. Our focus will be especially strong on the 21st century, as we direct longstanding questions and writing techniques toward the many crises of our own moment. We will write across genres of nonfiction as we work to define them for ourselves, paying careful attention to rhetorical strategies and historical context in our attempts to represent reality. In fall until mid-semester, students will meet weekly with the instructor for individual conferences; thereafter through spring, individual conferences will be biweekly.