Lower-Division

Teaches foundational concepts for intellectual exploration and personal development within an academic community: analysis, critical thinking, metacognition, engagement with others across difference, and self-efficacy. Engages Porter's intellectual tradition of investigating the contribution the arts and humanities make to a good life, a just society, and a flourishing world.

Building on the foundational skills, habits of mind, and interpretive proficiencies developed in Academic Literacy and Ethos: Arts of Reading (PRTR 1), students will explore the ways in which feature-length narrative and documentary films have approached the representation of truth.

Explores critical engagement in education in the context of a research university. Introduces first-year issues and success strategies and ways to participate in the institution's academic life. Investigates strategies for clarifying education goals and devising a plan for success. Students cannot receive credit for this course and Kresge 26 or Stevenson 26.

Mockumentaries such as Waiting for Guffman, This is Spinal Tap, and Woody Allen's Zelig grow out of the documentary tradition; but instead of claiming to represent real-world phenomena, they blatantly distort. Ten mockumentaries and their documentary correlates are studied. (Formerly course 80J.)

Design functional objects, sculpture, and other digitally inspired forms in a variety of 2D (Illustrator) and 3D applications (Cinema 4D, Ketch UP, or AutoCAD), then produce those models as physical objects with a variety of rapid-prototyping methods including laser cutting, 3D printing, and vacuum forming. (Formerly course 38C.)

Theory and practice of improvisation in the performing arts with an emphasis on acting improvisation techniques. Readings and films develop a theoretical and historical understanding of spontaneous invention on stage. Students attend area theater improvisational performances. (Formerly course 80I.)

Explores solo performance works made for the theater. While all course texts fall within the narrative tradition, some center on performers' lives, others on socio-political issues. Course participants screen video recordings of live performances in class., ultimately creating their own brief solo performances. (Formerly course 20F.)

Explores different aspects of written drama: scene and character development, plot, dialogue, monologues, soliloquies, stage direction, setting, and structure. Excerpts of late 20th-century plays serve as the basis for class discussion. (Formerly course 22H.)

Introduction to the farmers band tradition. Theory and practice of drumming are emphasized, resulting in a group performance. (Formerly course 21A.)

Several composers and performers of contemporary art music discuss the processes by which works are conceived in imagination, transcribed in notation, and realized in sound. After a brief introduction to contemporary music aesthetics, students attend a series of related presentations, seminars, and concerts. (Formerly course 28.)

A cross-cultural survey of the kunstlerroman, or artist's novel, from its origins in late 18th-century Germany to contemporary Latin America and the United States, this course explores how this genre understands artistic development and the role of artists in society. (Formerly course 32B.)

Theoretical and historical aspects of the arts from one culture or world area are explored through seminar discussion, library research, and film/video presentations. (Formerly course 33.)

This workshop teaches the history and construction of handmade books as a mode of personal and/or political expression leading to an exhibition of student work.

Considers Jewish-American filmmakers as they come to terms with their identity in autobiographical works. Students write responses to texts and create their own brief personal narratives. (Formerly course 39.)

Considers filmmakers and monologue performers as they come to terms with their identity in autobiographical works. Students write responses to texts and create their own brief personal narratives. (Formerly course 23B.)

Students learn basic techniques of interview and camera work to document on film oral histories collected from community elders. Students develop their skills in writing, theater, visual art, music, or film to reinterpret oral histories as artwork. (Formerly course 80L.)

Exploration of the arts as a way to understand and experience how queerness has been expressed, repressed, denigrated, and celebrated in visual arts, music, film, poetry, and dance. (Formerly course 32A.)

A consideration of chaos theory and fractal geometry as applied by 20th-century artists in all media. All necessary math and computer skills are covered. Students complete essays or art projects. (Formerly course 34B.)

Creativity in different disciplines is developed via different ways of knowing. Musical, visual, scientific, and spatial literacy demand understanding which is not primarily logocentric. Explores how practitioners of arts and science develop their work and conceptualize its execution. (Formerly course 80K.)

Develops the qualities of compassion and kindness toward oneself and others. Combining contemporary scientific research, mindfulness training, and traditional contemplative practices, this course supports students in the cultivation of a more discerning, thoughtful, and compassionate life. (Formerly course 60.)

Addresses questions of aesthetics and politics through a critical and practical examination of some artistic, literary, and broadly cultural developments proper to the political left during the Spanish Revolution and Civil War (1934-1939). Enrollment is restricted to first-year, Challenge Program participants from Stevenson College, Merrill College, Porter College, and Kresge College.

Addresses questions of aesthetics and politics through a critical and practical examination of some artistic, literary, and broadly cultural developments proper to the history of the Internet (1990s to the present).

Field Study

Organized in small teams, participants engage with students from public elementary classrooms to develop fully-staged group performance projects by end of term. Students are guided by instructor's models of teaching techniques, designed to stimulate the imagination, and by diverse readings.

Various topics to be arranged. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Various topics to be arranged. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.