Hobart and William Smith Colleges

AMST 101 - Topics in American Studies
These introductory courses in American Studies engage questions central to the field by focusing on how questions of power and difference shape tensions and contradictions in American culture. Students will examine American paradoxes such as the "American Dream," freedom and equality, immigration and reconstruction as well as infrastructures like consumer culture, the urban built environment, and national borders through an interdisciplinary lens. The courses also introduce students to American Studies methods through a close interdisciplinary analysis of a variety of cultural artifacts such as popular fiction, leisure, music, architecture, performance, propaganda and social practices. Readings are drawn from a range of sources including politics, history, popular culture, literature, media studies, and contemporary theory. Specific topics will vary based on the instructor. Offered each semester.

• 01 LEC TR 1:10-2:40 PM; Mukherji
• 02 LEC TR 2:50-4:20 PM; Mukherji

ARCH 110 - Introduction to Architectural Studies
An introduction to architecture and design culture, this course introduces students to the aims, methods, and issues of the design and planning disciplines with architecture at the core of our studies. This course also encourages students to think, look, and read critically about designed objects, places, and spaces through drawing, although no prior experience with sketching is expected. With these tools, the student will have a basic understanding of design, and will be prepared to undertake more specialized study. (Blankenship, Piersol, offered each semester)

• 01 LEC MW 1:10-2:40 PM; Blankenship 

ARCH 313 - History of Modern Landscape Architecture 
This course presents a survey of landscape design from the 19th century to the present with an emphasis on the 20th century. Lectures, readings, and discussion will present and analyze specific parks, gardens, roads, planned communities, and other sites of invention. Works of landscape design will be physically contextualized through consideration of contemporary and allied humanities, especially philosophy, literature, painting, and architecture. The relationship of individual landscape projects to their topographic and social contexts will emerge as a central theme of the course. Students will learn to see, analyze, and appreciate works of landscape design, and also the historical trends and cultural forces that have shaped them. (Blankenship, offered annually)

• 01 LEC MW 2:50-4:20 PM; Blankenship 

ARTH 101 - Ancient to Medieval Art 
This course offers a chronological study of principal monuments and developments in paintings, sculpture, and architectures from prehistoric to medieval times in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Islamic world. (Tinkler, offered annually) 

• 01 LEC TR 1:10-2:40 PM; Tinkler

ARTH 102 - Renaissance to Modern
This course is a chronological study of principal monuments and developments in painting, sculpture, and architecture from Renaissance Italy to contemporary America. (Leopardi, Szymanek, offered annually)

• 01 LEC MW 2:50-4:20 PM; Leopardi 

ARTH 201 - Black Arts in America
Using a loosely chronological framework, this course presents a series of topics on Black American art and its crucial role in the shaping of the history and development of American visual arts and culture. Beginning with the Harlem Renaissance, we will study the discourse around so-called 'New Negro' art as it was formulated throughout the 1920s and the rise of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s through contemporary practice. Importantly, this course will simultaneously engage with questions pertaining to the very category of 'Black Arts.' In our study of arts made by artists of the African and Caribbean diaspora in the U.S., we will be careful to consider the politics of identification across race as well as class, sex, and gender difference. (Szymanek, offered occasionally)

• 01 LEC MWF 12-1 PM; Szymanek

ARTH 209 - Chinese Pictures: 1000 Years
This course will explore a thousand years of Chinese pictorial arts, from 907 to the end of imperial rule in 1911, focusing on painting, calligraphy, and printmaking. Calligraphy (which has a pictorial component) and painting are regarded as the highest art forms in the earliest Chinese histories of art, while prints are often connected to the publishing industry. Material will be presented chronologically, but broader topics will include why calligraphy is regarded as art; subject matter in Chinese pictorial arts, including figural topics and landscapes; art criticism and theories on painting; social classes of artists; and artistic patronage and collecting. No prerequisites or co-requisites. (Blanchard; offered alternate years)

• 01 LEC MWF 10:50-11:50 AM; Blanchard 

ARTH 237 - Princely Art
This course will focus on the Renaissance Court Culture of the cities of Milan, Mantua, Ferrara and Rome. The course is meant to examine art production within the strict confines of noble patronage by Italian princes. Particular attention will be paid to female patronage of Italian duchesses. All media will be taken under consideration - painting, sculpture and architecture - while paying particular attention to the ways in which artists responded to their patrons and introduced innovations eventually imitated by the merchant middle classes throughout the Italian peninsula. (Leopardi, offered alternate years)

• 01 LEC MW 1:10-2:40 PM; Leopardi 

ARTH 282 - 20th Century American Art
This course traces the history of American art as it developed throughout the first half of the 20th century. Using a loose chronological framework, the course is a study of a series of major stylistic, technological, and ideological developments within American art and visual culture including those precipitated by the shift of the Western avant-garde art world from Paris to New York City with the onset of WWI. Spanning half of the century as well as a vast array of mediums such as painting, sculpture, photography, and architecture, the aim of this course is to familiarize students with notable movements and art world figures as well as the socio-political contexts that both made their innovations possible and expanded the field of possibilities for the very definitions of art and authorship as they continue to develop into the 21st Century. (Szymanek, offered regularly)

• 01 LEC MWF 9:40-10:40 AM; Szymanek 

ARTS 105 - Color and Composition
A perceptual approach to the study of color interaction and compositional dynamics, students work through a carefully structured series of problems designed to reveal empirically the nature of color interaction and relatedness and the fundamentals of good visual composition. Projects range from narrowly focused color problems to ambitious, expressive compositional inventions. (Ruth, offered each semester)

• 01 LEC TR 8:55-11:40 AM; Ruth
• 02 LEC TR 1:25-4:20 PM; Ruth

ARTS 114 - Introduction to Sculpture
A broad introduction to sculptural processes and principles. Traditional and experimental approaches to creative artistic expression in a variety of media are investigated, including carving, clay modeling, casting and construction. Materials may include plaster, wood, clay, metal, and mixed media. The history of modern sculpture is incorporated into the course through readings and discussion, as well as image and video presentations. (Aub, offered annually) 

• 01 LEC TR 1:25-4:20 PM

ARTS 115 - Three Dimensional Design
An introduction to three-dimensional concepts, methods, and materials with an emphasis on design. Project assignments involve investigations of organization, structure, and creative problem solving. Materials generally used in the course include cardboard, wood, metals, fabric, and plexiglas. This course is offered primarily, but not exclusively, for students with an interest in the architectural studies program and they are given first priority with enrollment. (Aub, Blankenship, D'Angelo, Piersol, offered each semester)

• 01 LEC TR 8:55-11:40 AM 

ARTS 125 - Introduction to Drawing
A basic course in visual organization and visual expression, students focus on drawing from observation and the relational use of visual elements to create compositional coherence, clear spatial dynamics, and visually articulate expression. Students experiment with a range of drawing materials and subject matter. (Aub, Yi, Ruth, offered each semester)

• 01 LEC MW 9:40 AM-12:25 PM; Yi

ARTS 165 - Introduction to Imaging
In this studio-based course in photography, students will explore the camera as a medium for artistic expression while building a foundation of photographic skills. Topics covered include camera controls, natural and studio lighting, photographic composition, wet darkroom and digital darkroom techniques. As inspiration and to broaden our understanding of the medium, we will look at a wide range of photographic practices from the camera obscura to the photographs of living, working artists. Through discussion and critique of creative projects, we will discuss how a photographic image works to communicate visual and conceptual ideas. (Chin, offered each semester) 

• 01 LEC MW 9:40 AM-12:25 PM; Chin
• 02 LEC 8:55-11:40 AM; Chin

DAN 101 - Introduction to Dance: Body & Self
This introductory movement course will focus on the development of both functional movement skills and the body's expressive capacities. Course content will include: developmental movement patterning, introductory Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis, and other somatic approaches, all of which will be applied to the lived, adult, movement experience. Students can expect to move fully during class time and have reading and writing assignments in which they are asked to relate theoretical movement material to their classroom learning and experiences. No prior dance experience is required. (Davenport/Staff, offered alternate years) 

• 01 LEC TR 10:20-11:50 AM; Davenport  

DAN 110 - Introduction to Dances of the African Diaspora
This course introduces students to dances and rhythms from Guinea, West Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. Each dance practiced is presented as a language for communicating and preserving the values and traditions of each given community with respect to its lineage stemming from the African continent. In this studio-based course, students develop a theoretical framework for the dances through movement experiences, weekly reading, viewing and writing assignments, class discussion and witnessing live dance. No prior experience is required. (Johnson, offered annually) 

• 01 LEC MWF 11:20 AM-12:50 PM; Johnson 

DAN 230 - Community Arts: Activism Embodied
Taught sometimes as a service-learningcourse that takes students into the local community and to campus to embody an activist role, coursework focuses on commitment to social change. Taught also as a combined studio and theory course, the focus is on deepening understanding of privilege, stereotypes, oppression, and the inequities and injustices that surround us in the USA. Students utilize contemplative body practices as a tool for deepening empathy for self and others and explore creative expression through the arts. By the end of the course, students embody greater self-awareness and commitment to positive social change. (Davenport, offered alternate years)

• 01 LEC TR 1:10-2:40 PM; Davenport      

DAN 922 - Contemporary Ballet II
This studio-based course offers intermediate to advanced level student dancers instruction in the contemporary ballet technique, and therefore focuses on learning non-traditional ballet positions and movement sequencing, as well as performing the contemporary vocabulary with greater precision and clarity. Developing a more nuanced understanding of balance and off-balance, direction changes in center work, complex musical phrasing and meters, and the differences between contemporary and classical ballet is emphasized. Somatic and kinesiological sound approaches to learning contemporary ballet technique are prioritized. Contemporary ballet versions serve as an inspiration for barre and center combinations so that students gain deeper understanding of the aesthetic developments and artistic trends of ballet technique. A solid foundation in ballet technique is required. (Offered annually) 

• 01 LEC TR 2:50-4:50 PM 

DAN 940 - Modern Dance II: Somatic Found
This is a studio-based course designed to further students' performance and understanding of the technical, stylistic, and expressive aspects of modern dance. A consistent emphasis throughout the term will be on establishing a strong sense of alignment in both stationary and locomotor sequences, and identifying the particular strengths and weaknesses that contribute to one's personal movement capabilities. A central focus is on providing a rich array of dance experiences that support students' growth as dance artists by helping every individual discover and uncover their movement habits and patterns. Complex and diverse movement experiences will emphasize breath support, movement clarity, versatility, body connectivity, and self-expression in order to develop greater technical acuity and enhance performance artistry. Bill Evans technique, Laban/Barteneiff movement concepts, historical modern dance styles, and contemporary somatic systems are presented to serve as frameworks for physical and artistic development. ( Williams, offered annually)

• 01 LEC MWF 9:40-11:10 AM; Williams 

ENG 290 - Creative Writing
This course offers introductory techniques in the writing of both fiction and poetry. The workshop format emphasizes group discussion of the writings of class members. Readings of modern authors supplement discussions of form and technique. This course is normally required as a prerequisite for fiction and poetry workshops. Prerequisite: at least one other ENG course. Not open to students who have taken ENG 190. (Staff) 

• 01 LEC MW 8-9:30 AM; Schonning 
• 02 LEC MW 1:10-2:40 PM; Cowles  

FSCT 210 - Rebels on Screen: Women and Freedom in American Cinema 
This interdisciplinary course explores the autonomy of women by studying movement in, out, and around the home, what scholars across fields have called the “domestic sphere.” We begin this course by examining the historical nineteenth-century construction and elevation of the concept of the home in American culture. Often, literature presented the home as a moderating force set against the modernizing, market-oriented outside world. In this construction, the home was the province of women. Many of the idealized concepts of the home and women’s place in it has persisted throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Through films from the 1940s to today, including Mildred Pierce (1945), The Rain People (1969), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Daughters of the Dust (1991), Mi Vida Loca (1994), Erin Brockovich (2000), Transamerica (2005), Revolutionary Road (2008), Carol (2015), and Tangerine (2015), students will study the movement of diverse women in and out of the domestic sphere as they weigh social expectations against personal desires. This course draws on disciplinary frameworks from history, gender studies, media studies, cultural studies, and literary analysis. Assignments will consist of three film analysis essays. For the final project, students will showcase their understanding of the themes and narratives explored throughout the semester by writing a screenplay featuring a woman from American history.

• • 01 LEC MWF 10:50-11:50 AM; Rambold  

GSIJ 250 - Chicana Feminism & Visual Culture
This course lays the foundations for the study of Chicana feminism, women of color feminism, feminist visual cultural studies, and arts-based activism. This course traces the emergence of Chicana as an identity category and its challenges to Chicano and feminist activism; the radical ways Chicanas have employed visual, performance, and graphic arts as a means of educating and catalyzing social change; and the rich body of indigenous folklore that has both defined gender and sexual roles and provided the platform for defying them. Throughout the semester, we will draw from primary texts from the beginning of the Chicano movement, a rich selection of visual, performance, and graphic arts, and contemporary scholarship in women's studies, Chicana/o studies, and visual cultural studies. (Formerly WMST 150) (Martin-Baron, offered alternate fall semesters)

• 01 LEC MWF 9:40-10:40 AM; Martin-Baron 

LAT 238 - Latin Epic (Vergil Or Ovid)
This course is a careful reading in Latin of a significant portion of the Aeneid or the Metamorphoses, with the entire poem read in English, to enable students to appreciate the poetry and Vergil's or Ovid's presentation of Augustan Rome against the background of its historical and literary heritage. Suggested prerequisite: LAT 102 or the equivalent. (Offered every three years) 

• 01 LEC Himmelhoch 

MDSC 100 - Introduction to Media & Society 
This course provides an introduction to various media and their modes, methods, and themes. We will explore the role of the media in shaping social consciousness, global economies, and material culture. Examples drawn from film, television, print media, and digital environments will be contextualized, analyzed, and theorized as crucial elements of our media culture. Students will gain an appreciation for the social, cultural, economic, and political influences of global communications while performing close readings of conventional media objects. Writing assignments, exams, and projects will help to cement insights gained through close investigation of films, TV shows, advertisements, video games, music videos, and more.

• 02 LEC MW 2:50-4:20 PM; Patti 

MDSC 130 - Introduction to Global Animation
This course will introduce students to the global culture of animation. Students will learn fundamental methods and approaches to analyze animation as an object and a culture through case studies and hands-on approaches. Overall, this course will help students to understand and appreciate the circulation of animation as a global media culture.

• 01 LEC TR 10:20-11:50 AM; Zulkarnain

MUS 120 - How Music Works
How much of your day revolves around listening to music? Do you ever wonder why you can't stop singing the melodies to your favorite songs? What exactly are the reasons that one musical style sounds so different from another? Why do certain pieces of music evoke melancholy and nostalgia, while others make you want to get up and dance? This course seeks to answer these kinds of questions through a hands-on approach, showing students how music works by focusing on listening, analyzing, and playing music. Students 1) learn the basic elements of music and how they can be combined to form patterns and styles, 2) develop the theoretical knowledge and aural skills necessary to perceive musical details and concepts, 3) listen to music critically and play it musically, and 4) think artistically about musical form and content. By the end of this course, students will be actively integrating thinking, hearing, and playing, and they will be developing skills in musical notation, songwriting, keyboard proficiency, and musical analysis. (Offered each semester)

• 01 LEC MWF 10:50-11:50 AM; Lofthouse, Cricco
• 02 LEC MW 2:50-4:20 PM; Potter 

MUS 190 - History of Rock & Roll
This course provides a survey of rock and roll from its roots through contemporary times. Beginning with a study of the development of rock from earlier sources, such as mainstream popular music, rhythm and blues, and country and western, the course proceeds by considering the artists and trends that serve to define rock music through the decades. The course places a strong emphasis on hearing the music that is discussed: students receive guidance in listening to basic musical features such as form, rhythm and meter, and instrumentation. Attention is also given to content of lyrics and to the role that rock music plays as a general, sociological phenomenon. (Offered annually) 

• 01 LEC TR 2:50-4:20 PM; Cowles 

MUS 210 - Remixing Western Music History 
The word "remix" calls to mind the technological practice of altering, contorting or otherwise reconceiving a cultural artifact, appropriating and changing it to make something new. Remixes are spaces in which authorship is broadened, authority is questioned, power is redistributed, and the past is reinterpreted. If we can remix a song, why not a history? Reconceiving (or remixing) remix as an intellectual, rather than technological, practice. This course rewrites European music history with pluralistic, anti-racist! and anti-imperialist voices. Deconstructing the longstanding dichotomy between "the West and the rest," we'll examine the centrality of othering in the construction of European selfhood, as well as music's participation in that project. In the process, we will consider Western music's ambivalent relations with popular, folk, and non-Western music; its role in the formation of national and racial identities; and issues of representation and difference in jazz, blues, and world music. Remixes often claim to preserve the "aura of the original"; in this case, with reverence for the music itself, it is precisely the aura-of imperialism, patriarchy, colonialism, and slavery-that is being contested. (Offered annually) 

• 01 LEC MW 1:10-2:40 PM 

MUS 211 - Science, History & Art of Video Games 
This course engages video game music by analyzing its history and effect on players and listeners through three interlocking and integrated viewpoints: music cognition and emotion; the history of video game music and game sound design; and the art of choosing and creating music for gaming. Students will learn about the history of video game music, including its journey from beep-boops to full-orchestra scores and choose-your-own soundtrack adventures. This history provides a framework for learning how video game music works on us - tools from the science of music cognition, including music's origins in human evolution; biological and neurological accounts of musical emotion; music and game processing and multimedia environments; musical anticipation; and music theories surrounding behavior and play will allow students to explore what specific parts of our human actions, feelings, and behavior are affected by games and music. Lastly, students practice the art of video game music by composing or choosing music for a game, applying the knowledge to a real-world gaming experience. MUS 110 or 120 and/or some background in music performance is helpful but not required. (Offered annually)

• 01 LEC MWF 9:40-10:40 AM; Lofthouse, Cricco 

MUS 214 - Rock, Pop & the Written Word 
This course invites students into the professional world of music critics, journalists, agents, and publicists, who use language as a tool to characterize and promote music of all kinds. As emerging critics, students will learn to generate and articulate intellectually grounded responses to a variety of examples from the popular music canon, including commercial pop, indie, rock, hip hop, jazz, blues, and R&B, in dialog with the aesthetic principles studied over the course of the semester. As developing agents, publicists, and promoters, they will learn to harness the resources of social media, create one-sheets for record releases, gather content for crowdfunding, and draft press releases, bios, and website content. Through these combined efforts, students will deepen their appreciation and understanding of music, while enlisting that knowledge in a broader study of cultural and commercial enterprises that support it. (Offered annually)

• 01 LEC MW 2:50-4:20 PM

THTR 100 - Page to Stage
This course will teach students how to analyze and break down dramatic literature in order to create a blueprint for production choices. Students will engage in the close examination of literature in varied styles, regions, and historical periods from the points of view of theatre practitioners (actors, directors, and designers), learning diverse techniques of analysis in the process. These techniques include the study of plot structure, character analysis, internal and external actions, conflict, rhythm, and idea/theme. This course encourages students to consider the links between other periods and our own, and the ways in which detailed readings of dramatic literature inform the communicative and aesthetic power of the performed text. (May, offered annually) 

• 01 LEC MWF 10:50-11:50 AM; May 

THTR 130 - Acting I
Non-actors often ask actors "how do you learn all those lines," thinking that the memorization process is the bulk of what it is to be an actor. This course will work to demystify the acting process and to introduce the beginning student to the craft of acting through the use of improvisation, theatre games, acting exercises, monologues and scene work. Instead of simply relying on their instincts, students will learn how to craft a performance through careful analysis of the character and the script with a special emphasis placed on objective/action-based acting. Time will also be spent discussing how the techniques we learn about acting can help us in our pursuit of accomplishment in other professional settings such as job interviews, business presentations, and public speeches. This course is a prerequisite for all other courses in acting and directing.(Hatch, Woodworth, offered every semester)

• 01 LEC MW 1:10-2:40 PM; Hatch 
• 02 LEC MW 2:50-4:20 PM; Hatch 
• 03 LEC TR 10:20-11:50 AM; Woodworth 

THTR 160 - Introduction to Stagecraft 
This is a lecture/laboratory course which will provide students with a practical overview of the technical production aspects of live theater and performance. Students will work in the classroom, scene shop and off-stage developing an aptitude in set construction, props, introductory lighting and stage effects as determined by production need. The class focuses on the non-performative aspects of theatre from hands-on skill building to production budgeting. A wide breath of topics are presented through weekly readings, assignments, video and lecture/discussions. All students complete a weekly lab (and two weekend labs) in which they will work in the McDonald Theatre and scene shop working on the current faculty-directed productions (Hallborg, fall, offered alternate years)

• 01 LEC TR 1:10-2:40 PM; Hallborg 

WRRH 100 - Writer's Seminar
This course is for students in any major who want to become successful as college writers. By honing skills in critical reading and thinking, students are introduced to analysis and argumentation in order to consider their ideas within the context of academic writing and their own lives. Students develop writing techniques through composing and revising narratives, analytical essays, and guided research projects. The course focuses on writing individually and in collaboration with peers, the instructor, and other student (Writing Colleagues or CTL Writing Fellows) support through an emphasis on the process of invention, drafting, and revision. Course times and themes vary with instructor. (Repeatable, offered every semester) 

• 01 LEC MW 1:10-2:40 PM; Hess