Mar 29, 2024  
2021-2022 Catalog 
    
2021-2022 Catalog [ARCHIVED PUBLICATION] Use the dropdown above to select the current catalog.

Course Descriptions


 

Music

  
  • MUS104 HM - Music Since 1900


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Alves, Cubek, Kamm

    Description: An investigation of contemporary music through performances, analyses, recordings, and discussions of representative compositions from late Romanticism and such 20th-century styles as Neo-classicism, Serialism and Minimalism, as well as aleatoric and electronic techniques. Offered in conjunction with the Joint Music Program. Carries departmental credit when taught by Alves, Cubek, or Kamm.

    Prerequisite(s): The ability to read music
    HSA Course Area(s): Music
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • MUS118 SC - Music in the United States


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Kamm

    Description: A survey of the history and development of music in the United States, this course will examine the diverse musical cultures and traditions, including European, African, Latin American, Native American, Asian, and others that have come to this country and have influenced the works of musicians and composers in the United States. Musical examples from American popular culture (jazz, rock, country, and pop), from religious services and practices of various denominations and sects, from ethnic groups and folk cultures within the United States and from art music in the United States will be studied as expressions of important concerns and values in our society, and as influences on music in other countries as well. Carries departmental credit when taught by Kamm.

    HSA Course Area(s): Music
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • MUS132 SC - Stravinsky: His Milieu and His Music


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Kamm

    Description: A seminar studying Igor Stravinsky’s life and his ballets, other instrumental music, and vocal music. Study of Russia at the turn of the 20th century, Paris in the early 20th century, ballet, and other arts contextualizes Stravinsky’s music. The course includes frequent student presentations on topics and works. Carries departmental credit when taught by Kamm. 

    HSA Course Area(s): Music
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • MUS173 JM - Claremont Concert Choir


    Credit(s): 1

    Instructor(s): Kamm.

    Offered: Both semesters; joint offering of CMC, HMC, Pitzer, and Scripps

    Description: A study through rehearsal and performance of choral music selected from the 16th century to the present, with emphasis on larger, major works. Singers will be invited to register after a successful audition. Singers continuing from the previous semester need not reaudition. Carries departmental credit when taught by Kamm. 

    Prerequisite(s): Successful audition
    HSA Course Area(s): Music
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • MUS174 JM - Claremont Chamber Choir


    Credit(s): 1

    Instructor(s): Kamm

    Offered: Both semesters; joint offering of CMC, HMC, Pitzer, and Scripps

    Description: A study of choral music from 1300 to the present, with emphasis on those works composed for performances of a choral chamber nature. Singers will be invited to register after a successful audition. Singers continuing from the previous semester need not reaudition. Carries departmental credit when taught by Kamm. 

    Prerequisite(s): Successful audition
    HSA Course Area(s): Music
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • MUS175 JM - Concert Orchestra


    Credit(s): 1

    Instructor(s): Cubek

    Offered: Both semesters; joint offering of CMC, HMC, Pitzer, and Scripps

    Description: The study, through lecture, discussion, rehearsal, and performance, of styles and techniques appropriate for the historically accurate performance of instrumental works intended for the orchestra. Repertoire will include works from the mid-18th century to the present with special emphasis on the Classical and Romantic periods. Class enrollment permitted only after successful audition. Carries departmental credit when taught by Cubek. 

    Prerequisite(s): Successful audition
    HSA Course Area(s): Music
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • MUS176 JM - Claremont Treble Singers


    Credit(s): 1

    Instructor(s): Alves, Cubek, Kamm

    Offered: Both semesters; joint offering of CMC, HMC, Pitzer, and Scripps

    Description: A study through rehearsal and performance of choral music for soprano and alto voices selected from the 14th century to the present. Singers will be invited to register after a successful audition. Singers continuing from the previous semester need not audition. Carries departmental credit when taught by Alves, Cubek, or Kamm. 

    Prerequisite(s): Successful audition
    HSA Course Area(s): Music
    HSA Writing Intensive: No

Philosophy

  
  • PHIL108 HM - Knowledge, Self, and Value


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Wright

    Description: An introduction to philosophy covering representative issues in epistemology, the metaphysics of human nature, and theory of value. Readings are drawn from historical and contemporary sources.

    HSA Course Area(s): Philosophy
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • PHIL121 HM - Ethical Theory


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Wright

    Description: A survey of contemporary philosophical thinking about morality, emphasizing how metaethical inquiry into the nature of “goodness,” “virtue” and “moral obligation” can inform normative inquiry into what is good and how to live. Attention is given throughout the course to the application of particular normative theories to personal decision-making and to contemporary social and political questions.

    HSA Course Area(s): Philosophy
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • PHIL122 HM - Ethics: Ancient and Modern


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Wright

    Description: A comparative study of the theories of several major moral philosophers, beginning with Plato and Aristotle, and ending with Nietzsche’s critique of modern morality. Other figures studied may include Aquinas, Hobbes, Spinoza, Hume, Kant and Mill. The course emphasizes the ways in which philosophical accounts of the nature of “goodness” and “virtue” shape conceptions of the moral person and the moral life.

    HSA Course Area(s): Philosophy
    HSA Writing Intensive: Yes
  
  • PHIL124 HM - Morality and Self-Interest


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Wright

    Description: A study of historical and contemporary arguments for the harmony of morality and enlightened self-interest, along with some of the main challenges raised against such arguments by their critics. Reading assignments may include selections from Plato, Aristotle, Sidgwick, Prichard, Ayn Rand, Rosalind Hursthouse, Derek Parfit, David Gauthier, and others.

    HSA Course Area(s): Philosophy
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • PHIL125 HM - Ethical Issues in Science and Engineering


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Wright

    Description: After briefly exploring concepts and theories in normative ethics, this course examines a representative set of ethical issues confronting researchers and practitioners in the natural and formal sciences and in engineering. Issues covered will vary but may include animal experimentation, genetic engineering, internet privacy, the responsibility of engineers to foresee and prevent harm and others.

    HSA Course Area(s): Philosophy; Science, Technology, & Society
    HSA Writing Intensive: Yes
  
  • PHIL129 HM - Contemporary Moral Problems


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Wright

    Offered: Spring

    Description: After a brief introduction to some of the main theoretical approaches in moral and political philosophy, and to some key principles of argument analysis, this course will explore philosophical debates on a set of moral-political issues of current concern. Topics will include drug laws; immigration; the ethics of abortion; torture and the ethics of war; the nature of racism and sexism; and religious exemption laws. We will also spend one class period looking at how we might contribute to improving the caliber of public discourse on contentious moral-political issues. Throughout the course we will work to understand how different theoretical orientations lead to different modes of analysis on particular issues, and how the issues themselves are often linked.

    HSA Course Area(s): Philosophy
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • PHIL130 HM - Political Philosophy


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Wright

    Description: The major traditions of political thought from antiquity to the present, with emphasis on the modern era, including natural rights theory, social contract theory, political individualism and its critics, the twentieth-century transformation of political liberalism, and the underpinnings of contemporary conservatism.

    HSA Course Area(s): Philosophy
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • PHIL138 HM - Classical Liberalism and Libertarianism


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Wright

    Offered: Spring

    Description: “Libertarianism” and “classical liberalism” have become standard, if somewhat ambiguous, designations for a variety of political views that advocate a constrained role for the state, geared primarily or exclusively to protecting individuals from force and fraud (or that challenge the need for any state). Whatever their similarities, however, such views harbor important (and arguably fundamental) differences, including in the sorts of normative arguments they rely on; in their conceptions of and attitudes toward law and of the state; in the political role they assign to public justification and deliberation; and in various specific policy prescriptions. This course takes a comparative, critical look at several important statements of classical liberal and libertarian positions by philosophers and social theorists, and at the ways in which these theorists sometimes distance themselves from one another. In some semesters, the course will also consider left-libertarian views that fuse a commitment to self-ownership with egalitarian commitments. Authors may include Richard Epstein, Friedrich Hayek, Chandran Kukathas, Robert Nozick, Michael Otsuka, Ayn Rand, and/or others.

    HSA Course Area(s): Philosophy
    HSA Writing Intensive: No

Physics

  
  • PHYS019 HM - Physics on the Edge


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Sahakian

    Offered: Fall

    Description: This course is about the conceptual foundations of modern physics. It covers a wide range of examples and concepts that span many sub-disciplines while emphasizing the unity of physics and its fundamental character. It discusses general concepts from Relativity to Quantum Mechanics to Cosmology and Black holes, from superconductivity to the Standard Model of particle physics. The course relies on high school math, while visual interactive simulations replace equations wherever possible, and homework assignments help one explore explicit cases with basic computations. Near the end of the semester, the student chooses a topic from current physics news for presentation.

    Prerequisite(s): HMC first-year students only.
  
  • PHYS023 HM - Special Relativity


    Credit(s): 1.5

    Instructor(s): Arlett, Eckert, Lynn, Shuve

    Offered: Fall

    Description: Einstein’s special theory of relativity is developed from the premises that the laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames and that the speed of light is a constant. The relationship between mass and energy is explored and relativistic collisions analyzed. The families of elementary particles are described and the equivalence principle developed.

  
  • PHYS024 HM - Mechanics and Wave Motion


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Offered: Spring

    Description: Classical mechanics is introduced beginning with inertial frames and the Galilean transformation, followed by momentum and momentum conservation in collisions, Newton’s laws of motion, spring forces, gravitational forces and friction. Differential and integral calculus are used extensively throughout. Work, kinetic energy and potential energy are defined, and energy conservation is discussed in particle motion and collisions. Rotational motion is treated, including angular momentum, torque, cross-products and statics. Other topics include rotating frames, pseudoforces and central-force motion. Simple harmonic and some nonlinear oscillations are discussed, followed by waves on strings, sound and other types of waves, and wave phenomena such as standing waves, beats, two-slit interference, resonance and the Doppler effect.

  
  • PHYS024A HM - Mechanics & Wave Motion


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Saeta

    Offered: Spring

    Description: Kinematics, dynamics, linear and angular momentum, work and energy, harmonic motion, waves and sound.

  
  • PHYS031 HM - What’s the Matter?


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Gerbode

    Description: Students in this course will examine ordinary objects and discuss what aspects of their composition determine their usefulness. The class will discuss how materials are described, classi­fied, and tested, and look at them from the perspectives of physics, chemistry, materials science, geology, economics, and psychology.

  
  • PHYS032 HM - Gravitation


    Credit(s): 1.5

    Instructor(s): Connolly, Esin

    Description: The theory and applications of Newtonian gravitation and an introduction to the ideas of gravitation in general relativity. Topics covered include gravitational potentials, orbits and celestial mechanics, tidal forces, atmospheres, Einstein’s equivalence principle, black holes, and cosmology. The target audience is students with a strong interest in fundamental physics and the mathematical as well as conceptual underpinnings of gravity and its applications.

    Corequisite(s): PHYS024 HM  
  
  • PHYS050 HM - Physics Laboratory


    Credit(s): 1

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Description: This course emphasizes the evidence-based approach to understanding the physical world through hands-on experience, experimental design, and data analysis. Experiments are drawn from a broad range of physics subjects, with applications relevant to modern society and technology. 

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS024 HM  
  
  • PHYS051 HM - Electromagnetic Theory and Optics


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Breznay, Donnelly, Eckert, Gerbode, Sahakian

    Offered: Fall

    Description: An introduction to electricity and magnetism leading to Maxwell’s elec­tromagnetic equations in differential and integral form. Selected topics in classical and quantum optics.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS023 HM  and PHYS024 HM  
    Corequisite(s): MATH082 HM  
  
  • PHYS052 HM - Quantum Physics


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Offered: Spring

    Description: The development and formulation of quantum mechanics, and the application of quantum mechanics to topics in atomic, solid state, nuclear, and particle physics.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS051 HM  and MATH082 HM  
  
  • PHYS054 HM - Modern Physics Laboratory


    Credit(s): 1

    Instructor(s): Eckert, Staff

    Offered: Spring

    Description: Classical experiments of modern physics, including thermal radiation and Rutherford scattering. Nuclear physics experiments, including alpha, beta and gamma absorption, and gamma spectra by pulse height analysis. Analysis of the buildup and decay of radioactive nuclei.

    Corequisite(s): PHYS050 HM  and PHYS052 HM  
  
  • PHYS078 HM - Climate and Energy


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Donnelly

    Description: Our climate’s dominant behavior is determined by the delivery of solar energy to the Earth and the redistribution of that energy by the atmosphere and the ocean. Along the way, humans tap into this energy supply using tools such as solar collectors, wind turbines, and engines that burn fossil fuels. How humans harvest and use energy matters because the byproducts of the 500 EJ (5×10^20 J) of energy that humans use globally each year impacts the atmosphere and the ocean and thereby affects our climate. The HMC Core curriculum provides a springboard for understanding the science that governs how our climate behaves. This course will use what you’ve learned in the core to study the most important levers that drive our climate and to educate you about carbon-free energy resources. Throughout the course we will explore how human activity currently affects our climate and how we might provide energy to meet our future needs while reducing our impact on the climate.

  
  • PHYS080 HM - Topics in Physics


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Donnelly, Saeta

    Description: An area of physics is studied, together with its applications and social impact. Possible areas include energy and the environment, climate change, and sustainability. Active participation and group activities are stressed.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS051 HM  
  
  • PHYS084 HM - Quantum Information


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Lynn

    Offered: Spring, alternate years

    Description: Quantum computation and communication. Fundamentals of discrete-state quantum mechanics as appropriate for quantum information science. Possible topics include universal logic gates for quantum computing, quantum computing algorithms, quantum error correction, quantum cryptography and communication, adiabatic quantum computing, and hardware platforms for quantum computation and communication.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS051 HM , (CSCI005 HM  or CSCI005GR HM  or CSCI042 HM ), and MATH073 HM 
  
  • PHYS111 HM - Theoretical Mechanics


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Ilton

    Offered: Fall

    Description: The application of mathematical methods to the study of particles and of systems of particles; Newton, Lagrange, and Hamilton equations of motion; conservation theorems; central force motion, collisions, damped oscillators, rigid body dynamics, systems with constraints, variational methods.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS023 HM PHYS024 HM , and MATH082 HM  
  
  • PHYS116 HM - Quantum Mechanics


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Gerbode

    Offered: Spring

    Description: The elements of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. Topics include the general formalism, one-dimensional and three-dimensional problems, angular momentum states, perturbation theory and identical particles. Applications to atomic and nuclear systems.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS052 HM  
  
  • PHYS117 HM - Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Esin

    Description: Classical and quantum statistical mechanics, including their connection with thermodynamics. Kinetic theory of gases. Applications of these concepts to various physical systems.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS052 HM  
    Corequisite(s): PHYS111 HM  
  
  • PHYS133 HM - Electronics Laboratory


    Credit(s): 1

    Instructor(s): Gallicchio

    Offered: Fall

    Description: An intermediate laboratory in electronics involving the construction and analysis of rectifiers, filters, transistor and operational amplifier circuits.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS054 HM  
  
  • PHYS134 HM - Optics Laboratory


    Credit(s): 2

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Offered: Spring

    Description: A laboratory-lecture course on the techniques and theory of classical and modern optics. Topics of study include diffraction, interferometry, Fourier transform spectroscopy, grating spectroscopy, lasers, quantum mechanics and quantum optics, coherence of waves and least-squares fitting of data.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS051 HM  and PHYS054 HM  
  
  • PHYS147 HM - Material Science of Energy Conversion and Storage


    Credit(s): 2

    Instructor(s): Saeta, Van Ryswyk (Chemistry)

    Description: Materials science of energy conversion and storage, dealing with photovoltaics, fuel cells, batteries, thermoelectrics, and other devices. Seminar format. (Crosslisted as CHEM192 HM  and ENGR147 HM )

    Prerequisite(s): CHEM052 HM  or PHYS052 HM  or ENGR086 HM  
  
  • PHYS151 HM - Electromagnetic Fields


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Sahakian

    Offered: Fall

    Description: The theory of static and dynamic electromagnetic fields. Topics include multipole fields, Laplace’s equation, the propagation of electromagnetic waves, radiation phenomena and the interaction of the electromagnetic field with matter.

    Prerequisite(s): (PHYS111 HM  or PHYS116 HM ) and MATH115 HM  
  
  • PHYS154 HM - Fields and Waves


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Offered: Spring

    Description: The theory of deformable media. Field equations for elastic and fluid media and for conducting fluids in electromagnetic fields. Particular emphasis on body and surface wave solutions of the field equations.

    Prerequisite(s): MATH115 HM  
  
  • PHYS156 HM - Foundations of Field Theory


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Sahakian

    Offered: Spring

    Description: This course explores concepts, methods, and applications of the classical theory of fields. On the physics side, we will learn about cosmological inflation, superconductivity, electroweak theory, solitons, the nuclear force, and magnetic monopoles. On the mathematics side, we will learn the basics of differential geometry and Lie algebras. Throughout the course, we will emphasize the unity of physical principles and techniques across a wide range of systems and disciplines.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS111 HM  and MATH115 HM  
  
  • PHYS161 HM - Topics in Quantum Theory


    Credit(s): 2

    Instructor(s): Shuve

    Offered: Fall

    Description: Scattering, including the Born approximation and partial wave expansion. Path integrals. Time-dependent perturbation theory. Quantum theory of the electromagnetic field.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS116 HM  
  
  • PHYS162 HM - Solid State Physics


    Credit(s): 2

    Instructor(s): Breznay

    Offered: Spring

    Description: Selected topics in solid-state physics, including lattice structure, lattice excitations, and the motion and excitations of electrons in metals.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS117 HM  
  
  • PHYS164 HM - Particle Physics


    Credit(s): 2

    Instructor(s): Shuve

    Offered: Spring

    Description: A survey of the forces, particles, and structure of the Standard Model of particle physics. Topics of study include: Feynman diagrams, rates of particle interactions, and particle physics experiments; relativistic quantum mechanics of particles with spin; massive particles and the Higgs mechanism; phenomena of the strong and weak interactions.

    Corequisite(s): PHYS116 HM  
  
  • PHYS166 HM - Geophysics


    Credit(s): 2

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Offered: Spring

    Description: Special topics in geophysical methods and their application to construction of earth models.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS023 HM  and PHYS024 HM  
  
  • PHYS168 HM - Electrodynamics


    Credit(s): 2

    Instructor(s): Eckert

    Offered: Spring

    Description: Selected topics in electrodynamics including wave propagation in material media.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS151 HM  
  
  • PHYS170 HM - Computational Methods in Physics


    Credit(s): 2

    Instructor(s): Sahakian

    Offered: Spring

    Description: Typical numerical methods for solving a wide range of problems of current interest in physics. Examples are drawn from mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, solid state and chemical physics.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS052 HM  and the ability to program
  
  • PHYS172 HM - General Relativity and Cosmology


    Credit(s): 2

    Instructor(s): Sahakian, Shuve

    Offered: Spring

    Description: The principle of equivalence, Riemannian geometry, and the Schwarzschild and cosmological solutions of the field equations.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS111 HM  
  
  • PHYS174 HM - Biophysics


    Credit(s): 2

    Instructor(s): Arlett, Gerbode, Ilton

    Offered: Spring

    Description: Selected topics in biophysics focusing on active research in the field. Possible topics include: biolocomotion, membrane biophysics, imaging techniques. Seminar format. (Crosslisted as BIOL174 HM )

    Prerequisite(s): BIOL052 HM  and PHYS051 HM  
  
  • PHYS178 HM - Special Topics in Physics


    Credit(s): 1-3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Description: The study of an area in physics not covered in other courses, chosen each year at the discretion of the Department of Physics.

    Prerequisite(s): Dependent on topic
  
  • PHYS181 HM - Advanced Laboratory


    Credit(s): 2

    Instructor(s): Breznay

    Offered: Fall

    Description: Experiments are selected from the fields of nuclear and solid-state physics, biophysics, quantum mechanics and quantum optics, and atomic, molecular and optical physics. Fast-time coincidence instrumentation and photon-counting detectors are employed, as well as an X-ray machine and a UV/VIS/ NIR spectrophotometer.

    Prerequisite(s): PHYS134 HM   
  
  • PHYS183 HM - Teaching Internship


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Saeta

    Offered: Fall and Spring

    Description: An Introduction to K–12 classroom teaching and curriculum development. Internship includes supervision by an appropriate K–12 teacher and a member of the physics department and should result in a report of a laboratory experiment, teaching module, or other education innovation or investigation. Internship includes a minimum of three hours per week of classroom participation.

    Prerequisite(s): EDUC170G CG  (or as corequisite by permission of instructor)
  
  • PHYS191 HM - Research in Physics


    Credit(s): 1-3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Offered: Fall and Spring

    Description: Original experimental or theoretical investigations in physics undertaken in consultation with a faculty member. Projects may be initiated by the student or by a faculty member. Present faculty research areas include astronomy, atomic and nuclear physics, optics, solid-state and low-temperature physics, general relativity, quantum mechanics, particle physics, geophysics and biophysics.

  
  • PHYS193 HM - Physics Clinic


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Offered: Fall

    Description: Team projects in applied physics, with corporate affiliation.

    Prerequisite(s): Seniors only
  
  • PHYS194 HM - Physics Clinic


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Offered: Spring

    Description: Team projects in applied physics, with corporate affiliation.

    Prerequisite(s): Seniors only
  
  • PHYS195 HM - Physics Colloquium


    Credit(s): 0.5

    Instructor(s): Eckert

    Offered: Fall and Spring

    Description: Oral presentations and discussions of selected topics, including recent developments. Participants include physics majors, faculty members, and visiting speakers. Required for all junior and senior physics majors. No more than 2.0 credits can be earned for departmental seminars/col­loquia. 

    Grading Type: Pass/No Credit

  
  • PHYS197 HM - Readings in Physics


    Credit(s): 1-3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Offered: Fall and Spring

    Description: Directed reading in selected topics. 1-3 credit hours per semester. Signed form required.

  
  • PHYS199 HM - Senior Thesis in Physics


    Credit(s): 1-3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Offered: Fall and Spring

    Description: Original experimental or theoretical investigations in physics undertaken in consultation with a faculty member. Projects may be initiated by the student or by a faculty member. Present faculty research areas include astrophysics, biophysics, optics, solid-state and low-temperature physics, general relativity, quantum mechanics, particle physics, geophysics, and soft matter physics. Students are responsible for an oral presentation on progress and plans in the first half of the thesis research.

    Prerequisite(s): Permission of department. Senior standing.  

Political Studies

  
  • POST114 HM - Comparative Environmental Politics


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Steinberg

    Description: An examination of the political challenges faced by environmental advocates in diverse countries around the globe. Drawing on the fields of comparative politics and public policy, topics include comparative political institutions, environmental movements, corrup­tion, authoritarian regimes, democratization, lesson-learning across borders, policy reform, gender analysis, decentralization, and European unification.

    HSA Course Area(s): Environmental Analysis; Political Studies
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • POST140 HM - Global Environmental Politics


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Steinberg

    Description: Analyzes the political dynamics driving global environmental problems and current attempts to address them. Concepts from political science and public policy are applied to issues such as ozone depletion, climate change, trade in endangered species, treaty formation and effectiveness, transnational activism, and multi-level governance.

    HSA Course Area(s): Environmental Analysis; Political Studies
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • POST168 HM - Bicycle Revolution


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Steinberg

    Offered: Spring, alternate years

    Description: This course explores the challenge of creating bike-friendly cities, using bicycle transportation as a window into broader themes surrounding the politics of social change in urban/ suburban settings. The course combines community engagement with an introduction to relevant research literatures. Each week we will ride along bike routes in the surrounding cities of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, meeting with community leaders.

    HSA Course Area(s): Environmental Analysis; Political Studies
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • POST188 HM - Political Innovation


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Steinberg

    Description: Under what conditions do novel political ideas become realities? This course explores the origins and impacts of political innovations large and small—from the framing of the Constitution to the development of major social policies, the creation and reform of government agencies and non-profit organizations, and experimentation with new forms of social protest and political mobilization.

    HSA Course Area(s): Political Studies
    HSA Writing Intensive: Yes

Psychology

  
  • PSYC053 HM - Introduction to Psychology


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Description: An introduction to the field of psychology with a special emphasis on overarching themes and methodologies employed in the discipline.

    HSA Course Area(s): Psychology
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • PSYC108 HM - Introduction to Social Psychology


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Gampa

    Description: Social psychology is the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors are influenced by other people, imagined or real, and the world around them. We will begin the course by covering the basics of scientific methodology and proceed to topics such as the self-concept, stereotyping and prejudice, close relationships, aggression, persuasion, conformity and liberation psychology. In general, this course will introduce you to the theories and research methodologies of social psychology and how these are used to understand, predict, and even control social behavior, with special attention paid to connecting social psychology to liberation.

    HSA Course Area(s): Psychology
    HSA Writing Intensive: No

Religious Studies

  
  • RLST105 HM - Religions in American Culture


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Dyson

    Description: An exploration of American religious history from pre-colonial indigenous civiliza­tions through the present, focusing on three related issues: diversity, toleration, and plural­ism. The course asks how religions have shaped or been shaped by encounters between immigrants, citizens, indigenous peoples, tourists, and, occasionally, government agents. In relation to these encounters, the course considers how groups and individuals have claimed territory, negotiated meaning, understood each other and created institutions as they met one another in the American landscape. Attention is also given to questions of power, translation, and the changing definitions of religion itself.

    HSA Course Area(s): History; Religious Studies
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • RLST112 HM - Engaging Religion


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Dyson

    Description: This advanced-level seminar uses case studies to explore what counts as religion in a variety of contexts: media, law, academia, economics, politics, etc. How do people recognize religion? What consequences are there for recognizing or denying the legitimacy of religious practices or beliefs? How is that legitimacy judged? How is it narrated? By approaching a few cases studies from multiple perspectives, students gain insight into how the lenses used to assess religion can enable, deepen, or limit understanding.

    HSA Course Area(s): Religious Studies
    HSA Writing Intensive: Yes
  
  • RLST113 HM - God, Darwin, Design in America: A Historical Survey of Religion and Science


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Dyson

    Description: Course examines the relationships between science and religion in the United States from the early 19th century to the present. Starting with the Natural Theologians, who made science the “handmaid of theology” in the early Republic, we will move forward in time through the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and Andrew Dickson White’s subsequent declaration of a war between science and religion, into the 20th century with the Scopes trial and the rise of Creationism, the evolutionary synthesis, and finally the recent debates over the teaching of Intelligent Design in public schools.

    HSA Course Area(s): History; Religious Studies; Science, Technology, & Society
    HSA Writing Intensive: Yes
  
  • RLST114 HM - Prophecy, Apocalypse


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Dyson

    Description: This course looks at American configurations of the End Times, including, but not limited to, the ending of the Mayan calendar in 2012, Ghost Dance religions, Y2K predic­tions, The Church Universal and Triumphant, Heaven’s Gate, the Left Behind books and movies, and varied interpretations of the book of Revelation in the Christian Bible. Students taking this course will become familiar with various forms of American apocalyptic thinking as well as literature from “new religious movement” or “cult” scholarship in order to explore the enduring appeal of End Time scenarios and to question what makes these scenarios persuasive to individuals at varied points in American history.

    HSA Course Area(s): Religious Studies
    HSA Writing Intensive: Yes
  
  • RLST147 HM - World Religions and Transnational Religions: American and Global Movements


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Dyson

    Description: What happens to religious practices and communities when they are transplanted to new terrain? Examples include the establishment of “old world” religious enclaves in the United States, New Age adoptions of “foreign” practices, American understandings of world religions, or the exportation of American or Americanized religion to other countries through missionaries, media, or returning immigrants. Considering exchange, conflict, adaptation, and innovation as multi-directional, and always historically and politically informed, the course looks at several historic and contemporary instances of religious border crossings.

    HSA Course Area(s): Religious Studies
    HSA Writing Intensive: Yes
  
  • RLST168 HM - Activism, Vocation, Justice


    Credit(s): 1.5

    Instructor(s): Dyson

    Description: The histories of social change activism are filled with individuals who understand their call to fight injustice, to work for community rights, or to alleviate suffering as grounded in their philosophical, religious, or spiritual practices.  In this course, students will combine community engagement work with their class work; learning about diverse thinkers and reformers, who have either found religious meaning in their activist or service work, or who have interpreted philosophy, doctrine, theology, or liturgy as demanding action from them.  Each semester, readings will be grouped around a particular theme such as: Engaged Buddhism; interfaith activism; violent vs. non-violent protest; the Direct Action years of the Civil Rights Movement; education as activism; theological and philosophical theories of justice; socialisms and social change; queer and Christian communities; and Hindu environmentalism. The class will meet once a week, every other week.

    Prerequisite(s): Instructor permission
    HSA Course Area(s): Religious Studies
    HSA Writing Intensive: See your HSA advisor
  
  • RLST180 HM - Interpreting Religious Worlds


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Offered: Alternating years at CMC, HMC, Pomona, and Scripps

    Description: Examines some current theoretical and methodological approaches to the academic study of religion.

    HSA Course Area(s): Religious Studies
    HSA Writing Intensive: See your HSA advisor
  
  • RLST183 HM - Ghosts and the Machines


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Dyson

    Description: An exploration of the interrelations between occult mediumship, modern media, and technology in Europe and the United States from the nineteenth-century through the present. The aim of the course is to explore how the Enlightenment and its offspring, modern technology, in their seemingly stark material and rational promises of progress, have never rid themselves fully of the paranormal and irrational. To explore the multiple relations between ghosts and the machines, topics for the course include: ghostly visions and magic lantern phatasmagoria; American spiritualism and the telegraph; phrenology and the rise of the archive; psychical research and stage magic; radio’s disembodied voices; spirit photography and light therapies; psychic television; and magic on film.

    HSA Course Area(s): American Studies; Religious Studies; Science, Technology, & Society
    HSA Writing Intensive: Yes

Social Sciences

  
  • SOSC140 HM - Economic Behaviors


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Sullivan

    Description: This course will examine a sample of human behaviors commonly seen as economic—including gift giving, pricing, and work ethics—from the perspectives of a variety of disciplines outside of economics. We will be particularly interested in cultural, social, and historical factors that influence human economic actions and interactions and will consider works by anthropologists, historians, sociologists, psychologists, artists, literary critics, and others. This course does not require any background in economic theory and is not designed to advance students within the standard micro/macro economic sequence.

    HSA Course Area(s): Social Science
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • SOSC150 HM - Public Speaking For Science and Citizenship


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Steinberg

    Description: This course builds student speaking skills in three areas: communicating advanced topics in science and technology to non-specialists; speaking out on questions of politics and values; and engaging the intersection of the two through presentations on technically intensive social controversies.

    HSA Course Area(s): Social Science
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • SOSC180 HM - Tropical Forests: Policy and Practice


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Steinberg

    Description: This course takes stock of the past two decades of social science research on tropical forests, examining the scale of deforestation, its causes and consequences, and the track record of attempted solutions. Special emphasis is placed on the ways in which values, institu­tions, and political-economic forces shape the decisions that will determine the fate of the forests.

    HSA Course Area(s): Environmental Analysis; Social Science
    HSA Writing Intensive: No

Science, Technology, and Society

  
  • STS010 HM - Introduction to Science, Technology, and Society


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): de Laet

    Description: An introduction to the interactions among science, technology, and society. Examines the different concepts of rationality and the values that underlie scientific and technological endeavors as well as the centrality of value conflict in technological controversies.

    HSA Course Area(s): Science, Technology, & Society
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • STS114 HM - Social and Political Issues in Clinic


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): de Laet

    Description: A seminar offered to students taking Clinic. Preparation of a major paper analyzing the ethical and/or social issues of the student’s Clinic project or the product or application for which the project is a part. Reading assignments on the interaction between society and technology and case studies of specific examples.

    HSA Course Area(s): Anthropology; Science, Technology, & Society
    HSA Writing Intensive: Yes
  
  • STS115 HM - Communicating Science


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Hamilton

    Description: This course will examine the ways in which science has been written, performed and displayed for non-specialist audiences from the early 19th century to today. Looking at different modes of communication including books, museum exhibits, newspapers, documentaries and science blogs, we will ask how boundaries have been drawn around professional science. What kinds of expectations have been shaped about who gets to be a scientist and about the nature of scientific knowledge? For the final project, students will create a work of popular science in a medium of their choosing.

    HSA Course Area(s): Science, Technology, & Society
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • STS150 HM - Water, Culture, and Technology


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): de Laet

    Description: The human body is made of 60% water. But while this most essential of essentials – clean, clear water – is taken for granted by some, it is inaccessible to others; while it is life threatening by its scarcity in some places, it is dangerous by its abundance in others. While most of us give little thought to the availability, cleanliness, and flow of our drinking water, it is contested and its availability the product of politics and infrastructures. So, what’s in your water? Where does it come from? How does it get to where it is used? What happens to it after? How does it shape and depend on community? Such questions are on our agenda. Technologies and cultures form each other: dams, dykes, and “polders”; hand water pumps, canals and aqueducts, irrigation systems, and draught mitigation, all “live” in specific cultural practices. The hidden systems – material and political – that bring water, take it away, and regulate its access, are the object of this course.

    HSA Course Area(s): Science, Technology, & Society
    HSA Writing Intensive: No
  
  • STS190 HM - Senior Seminar: Science, Technology, and Society


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Description: Students read and discuss seminal and provocative works in STS. Each student conducts an independent project in an area of interest and competence. Open to seniors majoring in STS. Students with advanced preparation in STS may also enroll with instructor permission.

    HSA Course Area(s): Science, Technology, & Society
    HSA Writing Intensive: Yes

Special Topics and Independent Study

  
  • HSA179 HM - Special Topic Courses


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Description: Special topics courses—one-time or occasional course offerings—are designated with the number 179. They may be offered in any discipline within the humanities, social sciences, and the arts.

  
  • HSA197 HM - Independent Study Courses


    Credit(s): 1-3

    Instructor(s): Staff

    Description: Students may arrange for independent study with individual faculty members in the humanities, social sciences and the arts, subject to their permission, in order to pursue particular interests that are not covered by regular courses. Independent study courses, designated with the number 197, may be taken in any discipline within the humanities, social sciences, and the arts. See the discussion of “Directed Reading/Independent Study Courses” in the “Academic Policies” section of this catalogue for other restrictions.


Writing

  
  • WRIT001 HM - Introduction to Academic Writing


    Credit(s): 2

    Instructor(s): Fontaine, Menefee-Libey, Staff

    Description: A seminar devoted to effective writing strategies and conventions that apply across academic disciplines. The course emphasizes repeated revision in the service of clarity, concision, and coherence in arguments, paragraphs, and sentences.

  
  • WRIT001E HM - Academic Writing: Extended


    Credit(s): 3

    Instructor(s): Menefee-Libey, Staff

    Description: An invitation-only seminar focused on teaching effective writing strategies and conventions that apply across academic disciplines. In this course students will learn to compose clearly articulated, properly qualified, and well-motivated claims that can be supported with evidence.

 

Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4