Courses

  • KH
  • KHC AS 101: The Pluto Saga: How Do You Become a Planet and Stay a Planet?
    This course will use the controversy over Pluto's status as a planet to explore the astronomical, cultural, political and religious aspects that become linked to science and societal issues. The central theme of the seminar is how to gather and evaluate evidence through writing and quantitative methods. We will examine the broad scope of how science proceeds in quantitative ways using methods of sampling and observations. Both telescopes and museum visits will help us better understand the role that visualization plays in describing how Nature works.
  • KH
  • KH
  • KHC CM 103: Constant Flux: Media and Communication from Telegraph to Twitter
    Students will explore the media environment and analyze the impact of technology and information on their lives. Studies will highlight the development of technology over time, assessing how governments, economies and social beliefs were changed in unexpected ways. Students will perform research that uses information from their academic majors as a foundation for examining the role media play in their lives and society. Assessing how the liberal arts, sciences, business and communication have changed with inventions such as the printing press, telegraph, television and computers will encourage students to consider the widespread impact of technology on the historical development of civilization.
  • KHC EN 101: Literature and Hunger
    The course will pursue the themes of hunger, the consumption of food, the formation of community, and relation to the sacred, through a sequence of readings in the Western Tradition. By reading classic works (The Odyssey the Book of Genesis, selections from the Divine Comedy, sonnets of Shakespeare, Paradise Lost) and modern works by Kafka, Mallarme, Louise Gluck, Frank Bidart, and M.F.K. Fisher, we will see how different philosophies (Greek pantheism, Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and modern atheism) have imagined the acceptance or rejection of love, life and the sacred in terms of the symbolism of food. Class work will include close analysis of literary works, even those in translation; intensive critical writing and revision; and secondary readings in literary criticism, anthropology, theology, and psychology.
  • KHC HC 301: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Global Challenges I
    This course explores how we investigate nature, art, society and their interconnections. It does so by examining and juxtaposing the practices of three disciplines. Each section focuses on a specific problem in one of these fields while also considering the general questions of what we know, how we know it, and what knowledge means. Throughout the semester, we consider fundamental ethical, social, and aesthetic issues posed by the relationship of human beings to each other, nature, and works of art. The central concern in this class is to understand how and why people make decisions in complex circumstances; how they take or fail to take responsibility for their outcomes, and how they respond when gross mistakes are made by others or indeed by themselves. 4 cr. 1st sem.
  • KHC HC 302: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Global Challenges II
    This course explores how we investigate nature, art, society and their interconnections. It does so by examining and juxtaposing the practices of three disciplines. Each section focuses on a specific problem in one of these fields while also considering the general questions of what we know, how we know it, and what knowledge means. Throughout the semester, we consider fundamental ethical, social, and aesthetic issues posed by the relationship of human beings to each other, nature, and works of art. The central concern in this class is to understand how and why people make decisions in complex circumstances; how they take or fail to take responsibility for their outcomes, and how they respond when gross mistakes are made by others or indeed by themselves. 4 cr. 2nd sem.
  • KHC HC 401: The Process of Discovery
    This one-semester course explores the structure of the discovery process, focusing on how researchers embed imaginative questions in viable research projects and balance creative ambition with intellectual modesty. The course is designed to guide students through the challenge of designing their senior research projects through common readings of field-changing research across disciplines, individual and group project analysis, and intensive writing exercises. Together with KHC faculty and a faculty adviser of their own choosing, students will learn how to capture the explanatory power of an imaginative leap in clear language accessible to anyone outside their chosen discipline.
  • KHC HC 501: Innovation, Culture and Society I
    This course examines the impact of innovation through case studies drawn from a variety of spheres, such as aesthetic, scientific, technological, educational, political, commercial, and urban. Students turn their own Keystone Projects into case studies, an exercise that asks them to consider the broader societal implications of their research. Students register for one section of the seminar each semester of the senior year.
  • KHC HC 502: Innovation, Culture and Society II
    This course examines the impact of innovation through case studies drawn from a variety of spheres, such as aesthetic, scientific, technological, educational, political, commercial, and urban. Students turn their own Keystone Projects into case studies, an exercise that asks them to consider the broader societal implications of their research. Students register for one section of the seminar each semester of the senior year.
  • KHC HC 503: Keystone
    Keystone independent study.
  • KHC HC 504: Keystone
    Keystone independent study.
  • KHC LW 102: Marriage, Families,
    This seminar will critically examine the family, marriage, and gender by asking several basic questions: What is family? What is marriage? Why do family and marriage matter to individuals and to society? What role does or should law have in supporting and regulating families and marriage? In defining parenthood? How do ideas about gender and proper gender roles in intimate and public life feature in answering these questions? This seminar will focus on three contemporary problems: the ongoing public and legal debate over same-sex marriage and the rapidly evolving social, political, and legal landscape; the class-based divide in marriage and parenting, linked to growing economic inequality in the United States; and defining parenthood in an era in which changes in social and legal norms about family and gender along with the advent of assisted reproductive technology (ART) make new pathways to parenthood possible.
  • KHC LW 103: Freedom of Expression in the United States
    This seminar will take a multi-layered approach to the concept of freedom of expression embedded in the first amendment to the US constitution. The first amendment states that "Congress Shall Make No Law Abridging the Freedom of Speech or of the Press". What does it mean? We shall explore the theories underlying the principle that speech should be protected and the various Supreme Court cases that address this issue. We shall discuss whether the first amendment applies only to congress or also to the states, whether it addresses only political speech or may be extended to such subjects as artistic expression, obscenity, defamation or racist speech and whether it may be extended to certain activities such as flag burning. We shall also address the question of how much protection the amendment, as interpreted by the Court, extends to the press.
  • KHC LX 101: Language and Migration
    This course examines the role of language in immigration and the sociolinguistic consequences of global population movements. Considers bidirectional contact effects; historical developments such as language maintenance, death, and revitalization; and a diverse range of immigrants, including asylum seekers and international adoptees.
  • KHC MU 103: World Music in Global Culture
    This course will delve into the musical thought, cultural practices, and performance traditions of the shadow play music (gender wayang) from Bali, Indonesia, and Hindustani classical music of North India. Students will learn through a dynamic interface with performance, internalizing these interlocking musical patterns and rich, harmonic resonances. In addition, the course will introduce critical themes that have an impact on musical cultures including globalization, diaspora, transnational dissemination of culture, and appropriation in new contexts. Students will read widely in these areas of inquiry, discuss the readings together in class, and conduct original research, which they will present to the class.
  • KH
  • KH
  • KHC PO 102: How to Change the World
    Under what conditions do groups of individuals come together to effect political and social change in domestic politics? Under what conditions do groups of individuals come together to bring about political or social change in world politics? How to digital technologies alter the strategies that people use to effect political change? What strategies remain the same, even in our digital age? Drawing on classic works of political anthropology, as well as more recent examples of transnational and digital activism, this course seeks to understand deployment of power by everyday people.

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