2022–2023 Course Catalog

In this single term course, students will gain writing skills focused on grammar, organization, analysis, understanding evidence, and constructing arguments. In a once-a-week workshop, students will have the opportunity to learn to read, write, and think more critically in order to support their development as scholars. Writer’s Craft is an exercise-intensive pass/fail course.

This course is a survey of the human body systems. Students will gain an overall understanding of the systems while exploring the themes of homeostasis and “form fits function.” Significant time will be spent in the lab observing anatomy and testing physiology. Grades will be based on weekly assessments, lab write-ups, and group presentations.

This course will begin with an in-depth look at the structure and function of the immune system. We will then consider the mechanisms of different types of diseases and how our body systems can be compromised. Our investigations will include; cancer, Covid-19 and Ebola. Grades will primarily be based on assessments, group presentations and projects.

This course is an introduction to the Arabic language and culture. Students work with a variety of media to master reading and writing the Arabic alphabet and develop listening and speaking skills in both the Modern Standard Arabic that is understood by more than 300 million Arabs around the world, and the Levantine dialect used in Jordan, Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon. With an emphasis on developing communicative skills and an understanding of grammar, Students learn the basic linguistic structures of the Semitic Language family and develop an appreciation of Arabic calligraphy art. Through a blended instructional format, students use iPads to complete online homework through apps, interactive websites, videos, recordings, as well as the tried and true pen and paper. Much of the content is introduced through homework and then practiced and activated in class through collaborative activities and speaking experiences. Class is conducted mostly in Arabic with some English when needed.

This course advances students’ Arabic skills into the intermediate level of proficiency in all language skills, both in the communicative Levantine dialect as well as in the Modern Standard Arabic. This class continues the blended instructional format, students continue to build their communicative skills and expand their knowledge of grammar. In class, students are exposed to authentic material and are engaged in collaborative work that fosters a deeper understanding of the values and practices of the Arabic culture. Students in this class continue the use of iPads to submit a variety of homework assignments through apps, interactive websites, videos, recordings, as well as the tried and true pen and paper. This class is conducted mostly in Arabic.

This course builds upon students’ language skills developed in Arabic 200 or its equivalent, to advance into the Arabic 3 level of communication skills in the language. Students at this level continue to expand their knowledge of grammar as they apply their skills through collaborative real-world assignments. This continues to help students advance their language skills in the Modern Standard Arabic and the Levantine dialect. Students continue to learn through a variety of homework assignments, apps, interactive websites, videos, recordings, as well as the tried and true pen and paper. This class is conducted in Arabic.

At this level, students continue developing their language skills through authentic material in the Levantine dialect alongside literature in Modern Standard Arabic. Grammar is integrated through classroom discussions and activities. In this class, students expand their understanding of grammar and enrich their vocabulary as they engage with the material through homework assignments apps, interactive websites, and videos. This class is conducted in Arabic.

This advanced course is a combination of modern standard Arabic and the colloquial dialect of the Levant area. In this course, students explore a variety of modern readings, literature, writing styles, film, poetry, music and culture. Students are expected to be active in class discussions, as well as in communicating regularly with a native speaker of the language abroad, via Zoom. This class is conducted fully in Arabic.

Anyone can learn how to draw! This course is intended to be a first experience in the visual arts. Students will be introduced to the fundamentals of drawing ñ line, form, composition, and rendering through a variety of assignments involving linear perspective, and drawing from observation. Through a brief art history survey, artist’s presentations, and short documentaries, the students will develop a reverence and awe for the tremendous creative capacity of humans. The practice of drawing will enhance observational skills that are important to future academic and professional success, no matter what field the students decide to enter. This course prepares students for AP Studio Art.

This course offers an opportunity to investigate the formal elements of both digital and film photography, while exploring the potential for creative expression and visual narrative. Students study and experiment with the nomenclature of DSLR cameras and advanced computer software, as well as film cameras and darkroom printing. Projects take inspiration from great photographers of the past and present to foster intentionality with design and content. The course concludes with the assemblage of a digital and printed portfolio.

We will create ambitious video projects while taking inspiration from the history of filmmaking and its latest innovations. Storytelling through film will be our focus. There will be an emphasis on experimentation and originality as each student creates a series of short videos in response to specific creative challenges. No filmmaking experience is necessary.

With an examination of basic design concepts, projects in this course are focused on experiencing the creative and iterative process. Students will develop solutions to increasingly complex design problems gradually by developing and learning from multiple versions of their designs. A variety of mediums and tools will be used, including drawing and building both physical and digital models. Students will present their projects to outside critics and all projects will conclude with a verbal and written critique.

This course will introduce students to major movements and themes in architecture, significant architects and buildings throughout history, as well as contemporary architectural issues. Utilizing lectures, discussions, drawings, and field trips around campus and Old Main Street, students will develop an appreciation for architecture and become conversant with its history and vocabulary. This course is not open to students who have taken Architectural Design or Art of Architectural Drawing.

Selecting movements from prehistory to the present, works of art are examined in the context of their era’s dominant ideas, political events, economic factors, and social structure. Visual literacy and analysis through class discussions and writing assignments will enable students to discuss art, learn from it, and appreciate the extraordinary creativity of people throughout our world’s history.

This course consists of a study of the forms of cities throughout history, both built and unbuilt. Through readings, discussions, and drawings, the design of cities will be examined, with an emphasis on how current and future decisions regarding constructed environment can be influenced by this study. While architecture is certainly part of the course, the primary focus will be on urban development rather than on individual buildings. The design component of the class will involve redesigning a portion of a city and building a digital model of it.

This class consists of advanced work for students who have completed two terms of Architectural Design and/or Architectural Drawing. A spring term project of the class’s choice for the Deerfield campus is selected with emphasis on digital and physical model building. Students will refine their drawing and design skills while working collaboratively on the design development and production of a complete architectural project.

Exploring history through works of art offers an approach for understanding our global community and is an effective way to review significant events from a visual perspective. From prehistory to the present, artworks are examined in the context of their era’s dominant ideas, political events, economic factors, and social structure. Visual literacy, critical assessment, analytical reading, class discussions, and written expression will enable students to analyze art, learn from it, and appreciate the extraordinary creativity of people throughout history.

Drawing is the primary method by which architects communicate their design ideas, but the drawings themselves are frequently overlooked as works of art. Principles and elements of two-dimensional architectural representation are taught using both traditional and digital media. Projects range from drawing traditional architectural views (plan, section and elevation) by hand and with AutoCad to rendering drawings using colored pencils and watercolors.

Students receive instruction in architectural design, drafting, planning, and materials and construction methods based on the principles of classical architecture. Plan, section and elevation drawings are produced as well as study and final models. Students will design a range of buildings and spaces, including residential and civic projects. Studio work is supplemented with readings in the history and theory of architecture.

This course expands on the one-term Photography course, with continued emphasis on the history of photography, the formal elements and principles of design, and creative storytelling with the camera. Students work to build a portfolio of images with a range of subject matter, levels of abstraction, varying points of view, depth of field, color, and lighting. Digital and film cameras will be employed, along with a vast array of printing processes. The class routinely takes field trips to a myriad of locales around the northeast. The course concludes with the submission of an A.P. portfolio to the College Board in the spring.

See ART510 description.

This course involves concentrated study in drawing and follows the Advanced Placement syllabus. The fall begins with a review of fundamental technique and includes design principles, creative process, historical perspectives and contemporary trends. Students will learn how to develop and cultivate concepts through research, refinement through practice and critique.Each student is expected to do outside reading, studio work and is required to prepare an AP portfolio to submit for the AP exam. Students assume a photographic lab fee of $60 towards the preparation of their portfolio. May be taken as 6th course: ART520P-(p/f).

See ART520 description.

This course is intended for the student who desires to pursue visual arts beyond the Advanced Placement Drawing syllabus. The primary focus is on studio work: drawing and painting in the style of several contemporary artists. Students gain a broader perspective by examining renowned artists’ practices, engaging with exhibitions at the von Auersperg art gallery, field trips, and films. From Brunelleschi’s principles of linear perspective, the palette of Kehinde Wiley’s portraits, Jenny Saville’s portrayal of the human figure, to Do Ho Suh’s examination of space and memory as it pertains to exile. Through research and practice, students are inspired to find their voices for self-expression and to produce work that breaks some new ground and goes beyond repeating examples presented in the introduction to projects. It may be taken as 6th course: ART600P.

See ART600 description.

This advanced course is for students who have completed the drawing/painting curriculum including the AP level and “Topics in Contemporary Art.” Students will continue to develop drawing skills working on teacher-initiated projects and pursuing independently a theme for a sustained investigation. Students will use analysis and synthesis and ask themselves what knowledge and experience from other fields can help inform solutions to the current project. Through presentations and critiques, the students will refine the skills that will allow them to present and speak about their work in a concise and compelling manner and understand the position of their work in the long continuum of artistic tradition. In the Spring the students will collaborate with classmates in the creation of a final group project. Students who complete this class and intend to study studio art beyond Deerfield will be very well equipped to handle the rigor of the next level. May be taken as 6th course: ART700P.

See ART700 description.

This single-term course explores the origin, evolution and fate of our Universe, the rules that govern it, the methods by which we observe it and the data stored in light that tells the story of our shared origins. Course topics include the history of spaceflight, orbital/gravitational mechanics, astronomical observation, the evolution of our solar system, the life cycles of stars, black holes, special/general relativity and the evidence for a Cosmos that is far bigger than previous generations could’ve imagined. The course format incorporates extensive group work and individual projects as students develop more robust science communication skills in addition to honing observational skills during evening telescope sessions. Students will develop a strong understanding of the story and scale of the Cosmos and a better sense of our place in it here on our planet, Earth. This course does not fulfill the Science graduation requirement.

This course will explore selected biological topics including cell structure and function, genetics, biotechnology, evolution, ecology and human physiology. For each topic, students will engage in hands-on experiments in order to develop essential lab skills. Students will learn collaboratively through experimentation, discussion, observation and analysis.

Biology Accelerated is an comprehensive introductory survey course intended for students who have a high level of interest in science and have demonstrated strong study skills. The course will be organized around the eight characteristics of life and emphasis will be placed on developing laboratory skills, collaboration and critical thinking.

Honors Biology is a fast paced, demanding course for students interested in exploring the principles of biology in detail. The course will cover ecology, cellular energetics, cell division and communication, genetics, human systems, and evolution and will be taught with a particular focus on inquiry based lab and field work. In the lab, students will use molecular biology and bioinformatics tools and conduct statistical analyses of lab results, with the potential to share individual results publicly. Additional reading of articles and journal publications, like this example from Science, will support and enrich the content. Students should expect a significant amount of homework each night with a large investment in reading and writing. With some independent work, students can be well prepared for the AP Biology exam.

This course introduces to students to the fundamental properties of matter and serves as a bridge between physics and the life sciences. Throughout the course students will learn to critically evaluate data, identify patterns, and develop ways of evaluating scale and proportion, and use these skills to make predictions. We begin with the atom, dissecting models in an effort to understand matter at the point where it intersects with students’ understanding of energy. Bonding and molecular modeling allow for a deep dive into the relationship between structure and function. Finally, we address chemical equilibria and use real world examples to address issues related to chemical stability and change. Compared to Chemistry 1A, this computational aspect of this course is de-emphasized. Students are expected to have a working knowledge of pre-algebra skills, including, but not limited to, unit conversions, order of operations, solving multiple step equations, graphing skills, and fluency with elementary operations and fractions. Whereas Chemistry Honors will require a high level of independent work, most complex problem solving will take place in the classroom where students will have the support of their teacher and classmates.

The content covered in Chemistry 1 is covered in this course, although at a faster pace and greater depth. Additionally, the introduction of thermodynamics and its application in biochemistry provides a strong foundation for students taking advanced biology classes. Although advanced mathematics is not required to be successful in this course, students must have strong mathematical problem solving skills. Once a topic is introduced conceptually, it is assumed that students in this course will be able to apply mathematical tools to problems with minimal support and be able to move quickly through computational aspects of the course. This course is best suited to students who have an interest in solving challenging problems both independently and in small group settings. With some independent work, students can be well prepared for the AP Chemistry exam.

This course extends and applies concepts learned in physics and chemistry and assumes students arrive with a working knowledge of concepts learned in an introductory chemistry course as well as a strong foundation in mechanics and energy. Topics covered include periodicity, bonding, intermolecular forces, kinetics, equilibria, acid base chemistry, buffering and buffer construction, thermodynamics and electrochemistry. These topics will be introduced in the context of environmental chemistry, biological chemistry, and electrical energy production and storage. Although advanced math is not required, students must have strong mathematical problem solving skills. Students will design and carry out experiments throughout the course. This course includes topics that extend and apply concepts learned in a first year chemistry course. Many of these topics go well beyond the scope of the Advanced Placement chemistry curriculum. This course is not aligned with the Advanced Placement curriculum and does not prepare students for that exam.

Energy Research introduces students to the interface between physics, chemistry and biology. Many compounds exhibit the ability to store and release energy that humans can redirect toward useful work and we will investigate how the capture, storage and use of energy underlie all processes ranging from those that are biological to those that are mechanical in nature. This will include the construction of batteries, exploration of energy storage in phase transitioning media, awareness of the tremendous amount of energy that is embedded in the fossil fuel economy, and understanding the photonic energy capture by plants and dye sensitized solar cells. This is a year-long lab-based course.

This course is an introduction to Mandarin Chinese for students with little or no background in the language. Students learn the basic communication skills in Mandarin and explore related cultural aspects. The course begins with an introduction to the sound system and moves on to basic skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students develop their language skills and culture awareness through daily collaborative activities and practice using text, audio and video materials as well. By the end of the year, students are expected to have good pronunciation, oral and aural proficiency for basic communication, and foundational grammar for simple sentences and short paragraph building.

This course is a continuation of Chinese I skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. In addition, the course includes an in-depth study of grammar. Students strive for accuracy while focusing on the ability to communicate in varied contexts and with proper grammar. Class work is supplemented by various technology tools and online resources. Class is conducted in Chinese.

In this intermediate level course, students reinforce what they have acquired in the previous levels and expand and deepen their skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing by studying a variety of materials. Students focus on speaking and writing in a coherent, linguistically appropriate manner, using well-formed paragraphs through daily practice, storytelling and projects. Cultural content is integrated into each topic of discussion. Finishing the course, students are to be able to carry out rather fluent conversations about daily life and personal experiences and have acquired solid reading and writing skills to get ready for the next level.

This course aims to develop competency in advanced Chinese with an emphasis on fluency of spoken language, reading, and writing. A variety of authentic materials is used to give students a deeper knowledge of Chinese language, culture, history, and social issues. However, a systematic study of Chinese vocabulary and grammar will continue to be emphasized and practiced through the use of the textbook. Students in this class are introduced to the format and material of the Chinese AP Language Examination. Class is conducted in Chinese.

This course is for students who wish to pursue the study of Chinese at a more advanced level. Students will further develop overall language proficiency through studying a variety of authentic materials and audiovisual sources that cover topics including culture, values, education, art, fashion, social issues, as well as controversial issues in contemporary Chinese society. They will expand their vocabulary and enhance their grammar to handle these broad subjects in both reading and writing. They will also build fluency with confidence and competency in Chinese by engaging in discussion, collaborative work, and projects about various topics. Furthermore, students will develop a more enriched understanding of the traditions and changes in Chinese culture and society.

This advanced course is a modern Chinese literature and writing class for students who love to read and write. Students explore a variety of readings and practice a wide range of writing styles in order to analyze and develop effective skills for literary analysis and appreciation. Narrative fiction, films, poetry, and critical essays are included. Students are expected to take an active part in class discussion. In addition, culture and history will be an integral part of this course. Class is conducted in Chinese.

Advanced Tutorial may be offered to students who, in consultation with the department and with its endorsement, wish to pursue an individualized course in Chinese.

Perhaps you have studied what the Romans wrote, read, and accomplished, but have you ever wondered what they ate? This seminar course, conducted in English, will introduce students to the food and food culture of Ancient Rome and of the Mediterranean. Students will be introduced to the ancient kitchen, ingredients and condiments, cooking methods, and eating habits through primary sources and archaeological evidence. To this aim, we will consult texts such as Petronius’ Satiricon, De Re Conquinaria, and inscriptions throughout the Roman Empire (texts will be provided in both Latin and English). The course will conclude with the practical preparation of Roman food. Students with and without knowledge of Latin are encouraged to enroll.

How can you be more persuasive when speaking or writing? What are some common mistakes people make when they are arguing, and how can you avoid making them yourself? How should you respond when a debate gets heated? This class will explore questions like these as part of a study of the theory and practice of rational argument. We will engage with historical and contemporary theories, learning how our ideas about argument have evolved with developments in philosophy, science, and mathematics. Students will develop fluency with basic logical concepts, learning to construct clear and compelling arguments and to identify common errors in reasoning. Students will also develop the confidence to navigate difficult conversations with understanding and empathy, using their skills to raise the bar for rational discussion and debate. This is an interdisciplinary course, co-taught by teachers in Classics and Philosophy. May also be taken as PHI620.

In this two-term course, students with little to no computer programming experience will learn how to code. This course equips students with a basic understanding of the world of technology and fosters logical algorithmic thinking. Students will be introduced to core concepts and principles of programming, which will be applicable to different platforms and languages as students venture further into computer science. This course stresses problem decomposition with an emphasis on independent problem solving. This course does not fulfill the Science graduation requirement.

In this course students learn how to make static and dynamic web pages. Through a series of individual and team-based design projects students learn to create effective and beautiful web pages using the core principles of web design. Students will be introduced to and use HTML, CSS, and Javascript. This course does not fulfill the Science graduation requirement.

This course teaches fundamental topics of computer science including problem solving, design strategies and methodologies, data structures, and algorithms. In this course, students learn an object-oriented approach to programming to develop solutions that can scale up from small, simple problems to large, complex challenges. Students will write, test and debug solutions in the Java programming language utilizing standard Java library classes and interfaces. With some independent work, students can be well-prepared for the AP Computer Science A exam. This course does not fulfill the Science graduation requirement.

This course follows AP Computer Science and covers the analysis and design of fundamental data structures. Students learn to use these data structures to code algorithms that effectively solve complex problems. Topics covered include linked lists, trees, graphs, breadth-first and depth-first searches, hash tables, and recursion. Through extended individual and collaborative projects, students learn principles for good program design, and the use of data abstraction and modular program composition in writing clear and effective programs. This course does not fulfill the Science graduation requirement.

Digital Logic and Computer Architecture is a course for students with a strong interest in computer science. The course provides a foundation for students to understand the hardware and design of the modern stored program computer. Modularity and the art of managing complexity are core concepts that allow students to understand the conceptual stack of ideas s behind processor design. In this course students will study number systems, transistor physics, combinatorial and sequential logic, memory design, finite state machines, instruction set architectures, and assembly programming. Using these concepts, students build and program a simple processing unit. In each unit students simulate, build and test functioning computer components. This is a lab-based course and fulfills the Science graduation requirement.

This course is intended to be a first experience in dance. Elementary level boys and girls study a variety of dance forms such as contemporary, modern, jazz, ballet and hip-hop. This course also addresses the creative aspect of making dances through improvisation and choreography. There is an emphasis on injury prevention for athletes. Students who sign up for this course are encouraged to continue into Dance I winter and spring terms.

See DAN100 description.

This course is intended to be a continuation of the material covered in the introductory level dance class offered fall term. However, all elementary level students may sign up for this course either for one (winter only), or two terms (winter & spring). Students enrolled in this course may have the opportunity to perform in school dance concerts. NO PREVIOUS DANCE EXPERIENCE IS NECESSARY.

See DAN200 description.

This intermediate level course continues the study of the dance techniques and choreography covered in Dance I. Students enrolled in this course may perform in and choreograph for dance concerts each term. They also have the opportunity to work with a professional choreographer for the Spring Dance Concert. This course may be taken for the full year, or as a two term class in the fall and winter.

See DAN300 description.

This course is geared towards the serious student of dance and is designed to meet individual needs. Upper level intermediate dancers will train in a variety of techniques including contemporary, modern, jazz, ballet and hip-hop. They’ll have the opportunity to choreograph a dance collaboratively for our Student Choreography Showcase in the winter, and rehearse a dance with a professional choreographer for our Spring Dance Concert. Students can sign up either the full year, or two terms (fall and winter).

See DAN400 description.

This course is appropriate for dancers who are proficient in the techniques offered through the program. Advanced dancers explore the craft of group choreography as well as the art of the solo. Student work is showcased in all of our dance concerts, and there are also opportunities to work with guest choreographers throughout the year.

See DAN500 description.

This class is tailored to meet the individual needs of the pre-professional dancer. Students work closely with the dance faculty to hone their technique, and create solo and group choreography for our performances.

See DAN600 description.

In the first half of the year, students are introduced to microeconomic theory through the study of such concepts as supply and demand, the law of diminishing returns, marginal utility, and the theory of the firm and industry. The second half of the year focuses on macroeconomic analysis and its historic development from Keynes to Friedman. Such concepts as national income analysis and monetary and fiscal policy are covered in depth. We also focus on public policy, globalization, and current political/economic issues through the use of case studies and supplemental readings. Solid analytical and mathematical skills are required, so selection will be made by the department.

Envisioning the demands of equitable societies and developing their distinctive, expressive voices as writers and thinkers, ninth graders explore familiar and unfamiliar lives and dilemmas depicted in literary genres drawn from sources across time and the world. In formal and informal narratives and arguments, students begin to recognize their individual styles and to refine their techniques. An examination of the fundamentals of English grammar, mechanics, and punctuation complements the study of literature. All ninth graders write and deliver a literary reading and participate in a poetry contest.

Tenth-grade English emphasizes critical reading, focused discussions, and a variety of writing assignments connected to the study of literature derived from the British tradition. Close reading assignments and class discussions encourage students to analyze and to appreciate the elements of literature. Teachers choose core texts from works by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Romantic poets, nineteenth-century novelists, and post-colonial authors. Tenth-graders also select, memorize, and deliver a declamation from a literary work.

The American Dream is a familiar phrase, but what does it mean? Whose dream is it? Is there just one dream for all Americans? How has it evolved over time? Do considerations of gender, race, ethnicity or class affect the pursuit of this dream? In this course, students examine texts from different genres and time periods that focus on the pursuit of an American Dream in order to gain an understanding of how this peculiarly American idea helped to shape the culture and literature of the United States. Along with the reading of various texts, students will hone their close reading skills, critical thinking skills and formal writing skills. Students will practice the writing process: brainstorming, drafting, revising and copy-editing to help take their writing skills to the next scholarly level. Texts may include: Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Nella Larsen’s Passing, Toni Morrison’s Sula, Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers and short stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Nathanial Hawthorne, E.A. Poe, Anzia Yezierska and others as well as poetry and essays.

America is made up of a patchwork of ethnicities, races, religions, and personal experiences.  As the country has grown over the past 250 years, individuals have struggled to find their personal identities in the midst of America forming its own collective cultural and political identity on the world stage.  We will examine the experiences of a variety of both native and immigrant Americans as they come of age in the melting pot that is our country.  How are the varied journeys writers and their characters take in forming their personal identities informed by and affected by their status as citizens of the United States?  We will examine works by authors such as Nella Larsen, Jhumpa Lahriri, Leslie Marmon Silko, Toni Morrison, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Junot Diaz, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, August Wilson, Arthur Miller, Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes. 

An interdisciplinary course combining honors U.S. History and eleventh-grade English, American Studies tracks intersecting threads of history, literature, art, and culture throughout the development of the United States. By examining the works of historians, artists, filmmakers, and writers from both the past and present, students develop a nuanced understanding of the political, cultural, intellectual, and social forces that shaped the country and continue to influence the present. Close analysis of primary and secondary sources, discussion and debate, research, and reflection will form the foundation for a variety of creative and analytical assessments that ask students to advance arguments of their own about the challenges and opportunities inherent in the country’s evolution. Meeting each day under the 2021-2022 schedule, American Studies is a team-taught course that also prepares students for Advanced Placement exams in US History and English. As the course requires solid analytical skills and the ability to manage a substantial reading load, recommendation will be made by the department. To view a typical assignment students are expected to read and annotate in 70 minutes, click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MgvPdiCfwKx_VEW-7CxvSoEPV3ko_DlC/view

Carl Sagan once declared, “Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs.” What is literature, then, if not the echo of words spoken years ago? In this course we will seek to hear such echoes in the work of American authors who sought to give voice to the country they knew, the country they suffered for, the country they dreamed of. We will also attempt to discern in these writers the various ways their poems, stories, and plays speak not simply to the reader but to one another as well. In addition to core texts from F. Scott Fitzgerald and Toni Morrison, we will likely encounter novels from Twain and Chopin; poetry from Frost, Hughes, and Stevens; short stories from Poe, Walker, and London; and drama from Arthur Miller and Lorraine Hansberry.

We typically come to new understanding through our own experience. And so in this course we will explore the many ways writers across the American experience have captured particular understandings of what it means to live and work and write inside the American context, within its particular history, cultural preoccupations and assumptions. What do we see and hear in these texts? What questions do we hear these writers asking? And in what ways do the texts ask us to interrogate our own preoccupations and assumptions? Our reading will offer opportunity to consider issues of class, race, gender, power and social justice (among other forces), as we seek to situate our own experiences, arrive at our own new understandings. Students will hone their skills as close readers and seminarians, writers and editors, as we encounter works by Melville, Baldwin, Fitzgerald, Morrison, Whitehead, Lahiri, Solnit, Alexie, Dickinson, Diaz, Kushner, and Akhtar.

What does it mean to write, and to live, in the American grain? When William Carlos Williams sought to answer that question, he looked to the diverse origins of the country’s character in the innovators who defined its historical past. Similarly, most efforts to teach and study creative writing in the U.S. have begun with the premise that writing what’s new is inextricably linked to reading what’s come before. With that in mind, this three-genre creative writing workshop offers a survey of American literature focused on works that were deemed ground-breaking, or innovative, in their time. As we survey the innovations of the past, we’ll use those texts as a lens for looking closely at how to write in the present. We’ll read poets such as Whitman, Dickinson, Clifton, and a variety contemporary poets; fiction writers such as Morrison, Oates, and Baldwin; essayists such as Thoreau and Didion; as well as recent books by Layli Long Soldier and Sarah Manguso, which intertwine aspects of multiple genres. As we study each genre, students will create, present, workshop, and revise significant pieces of their own writing. Although much student writing will be creative in nature, students will also practice their critical and analytical writing skills.?

In the essay that introduces the collection The Fire This Time, writer Jesmyn Ward articulates her understanding of the American racial present with startling clarity: “Nothing is new.” This class follows Ward’s impulse to understand our current moment through engagement with the past, and pairs historical texts with the work of contemporary Black writers. Beginning with Ward’s collection and the Baldwin essays that inspired it, our studies will canvas a wide range of subjects, genres, and voices. Throughout our coursework, we will challenge and be challenged by one another to engage in open, honest, and difficult conversation about what it means to experience race in the 21st century, particularly as it pertains to our individual and shared experiences. Our writers will include, but certainly will not be limited to, Baldwin, Ward, Abdurraqib, Jacobs, Douglass, Butler, Fitzgerald, Larsen, Morrison, Bennett, and Reid.

In addition to the core texts from Fitzgerald, Hurston, and Dickinson, we will also use a wide range of American short stories, poems, and novels to sample the many voices and issues that have populated American literature. Students may encounter writers ranging from Edith Wharton and Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 19th century to Alice Walker, Arthur Miller, and Toni Morrison in the 20th. The variety of story styles and ideas helps students to understand better how literature has changed over time and to hone their analytical skills by discussing how the stories work. The purpose of the course is to provide a breadth of exposure as well as a chance to sample modern literature.

Secrets loom large in William Styron’s masterful novel, and readers will need to reserve their judgments about the choices the characters face until the stories of Sophie’s haunted past, Nathan’s frenzied present, and Stingo’s unfolding future intersect. Along with exploring the novel fully in discussions and informal responses, we’ll view and consider the award-winning film adaptation and several other artistic responses to the Holocaust.

Even a brief perusal of a local bookshop will reveal the recent rash of novels composed by modern authors but based on ancient Greek myth. Many of these new stories reimagine dusty tales from a surprising perspective. The vantage of Madeline Miller’s Circe compels readers to consider Odysseus anew; Pat Barker’s Briseis scrutinizes the events of Homer’s Iliad through her female eyes; and Lilliam Rivera’s Pheus and Eury star in a Bronx-based story whose roots are the tragic myth of the doomed lovers Orpheus and Eurydice. This course will seek to place such contemporary retellings directly alongside the best translations of the source material. Students will engage with their reading through seminar discussion, short written analyses, and a longer form comparative analysis of a contemporary text and its ancient ancestor.

The ground-breaking “dystopian” novels of the 20th Century, such as Orwell’s 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World and Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, have produced an extraordinary and growing body of literature that imagines future worlds shaped by current trends, for better and worse. What kind of societies will cyberspace, genetic engineering, emerging technologies, climate change, terrorism, population growth and resource wars produce? What will be the fate of the institutions and ideals that presently define us? What will happen to our fundamental notions of liberty, the individual, and human relationships? Will human beings flourish or fail? This course will examine these questions through several of the finest recent literary dystopias and will approach the reading in a primarily seminar-style, discussion format. Writing assignments will be predominantly creative responses to the reading, with an occasional foray into relevant essays, short stories and films. Possible texts include Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell; Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood; The Road, by Cormac McCarthy; The Dazzle of Day, by Molly Gloss; Fiskadoro, by Denis Johnson; Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban.

Writers have said of New York City that “the present is so powerful…that the past is lost,” but for anyone who has wandered through the streets or around the boroughs, the city’s stories unfold in mystery, magic, and a myriad of voices. Focusing on Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence and Colum McCann’s This Side of Brightness, students will explore the social, economic, and historical forces that have united and divided New Yorkers since the city’s founding. Related texts include a selection of poems, documentaries, films, and memoirs. Along with sharing ideas freely in discussions, participants will write poems, narratives, and critical arguments.

For more than 100 years, New Yorkers coming and going through Grand Central Station have said, “Meet me at the clock.” From that location in the center of the vaulted hall with the constellations on the ceiling calling dreamers to look up and then beyond the present, either to the past or future, the city’s allure unfolds. Focusing primarily on Mark Helprin’s epic novel Winter’s Tale, which transports readers through time, and a selection of poems, documentaries, and films, students will experience the city perhaps with a touch of the fantastic. Along with sharing ideas freely in lively discussions, participants will write critical arguments, monologues, and a personal meditation.

When food critic Anton Ego tastes Chef Remy’s ratatouille dish, his mind and body are transported back to his mother’s kitchen, and he is overcome by nostalgia. Pixar’s Ratatouille is but one excellent entry in the world of texts that take up foodóits production, preparation, presentation, and digestionóand its role in cultivating and transmitting community, culture, history, home, and belonging.This course utilizes multimodal textsófiction, non-fiction, documentaries, poetry, and visual artóto think critically and reflectively about the role food plays in our world, and how a variety of creators have used food as a medium to explore pressing issues related to the environment, culture, identity, citizenship, and power. Possible texts include novels by authors such as Monique Truong, Helena Maria Viramontes, Kwame Onwuachi; selections from TV shows such as Chef’s Table and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, films such as Gather and Jiro Dreams of Sushi, as well as scholarship on food production, food security, and the intersections between food and culture. We will write analytical and creative responses around these course themes, and hopefully move away from the traditional classroom space and into the rich surrounding community of the Pioneer Valley in order to bring these questions to life.

In this three-term poetry workshop class, students read and discuss published contemporary poetry with the aim of writing their own meaningful and powerful original poetry. During the fall term, students read broadly and deeply from contemporary poetry, discussing and presenting upon their readings, and develop in notebook form the materials that will later inform their creative work. In the winter, students draft original poems and discuss them in writing support groups and teacher conferences while continuing to read for creative sustenance. In the spring, students deliver senior meditations, engage in workshop discussions of their original poems, and prepare their work for submission to poetry journals. The course offers students a unique opportunity to develop mastery in the most pleasurable of the literary arts, and to conclude their time as high school English students in possession of a memorable and polished portfolio of poetry to share with the world.

What does it mean to live in time? What does it mean to exist at the intersection of past, present, and future? What roles do history and memory have in shaping our present and future possibilitiesóóboth individually and collectively? Utilizing works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, film, visual art, and theory, this course will explore these questions of time, space, and how creators of all different modes engage with these questions to investigate topics such as family, citizenship, race, gender, power, sexuality, and war. Primary texts might include works by: Ruth Ozeki, Kurt Vonnegut, Allison Bechdel, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Marilynn Robinson, Louise Erdrich, Paula Vogel, Jewelle Gomez, and Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone. Writing for this class will primarily focus on short analytical pieces and creative nonfiction pieces that blend close readings and analyses of the texts we are reading with personal reflections on how the course themes offer cartographies to navigate our own world.

This course starts with Jo March, the star of Little Women and the nineteenth century’s most famous literary girl, because Jo March had a problem. It was a boy problem. Or, really, it was a girl problem. “I can’t get over my disappointment in not being a boy!” Jo steamed. Jo’s frustration was the shared frustration of so many young American women before 1920. Yet Jo’s story was also a triumph. Her creator, the writer Louisa May Alcott, reached enormous critical and popular success by refashioning American girlhood in Jo’s image as a time of freedom, agency, innocence, and power. When we examine writing about American girlhood, we come to see the critical role that real and imagined young women played in helping this country understand itself as a land of breathtaking opportunities and heartbreaking constraints. In this course, we will read fiction, autobiography, and diaries by writers such as Harriet Jacobs, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Zitk·la-S·, and Alcott to see how generations of women writers revised and remembered what it means to be young.

Let’s read dead people’s mail. Now, you might be wondering, why we ought to spend a term doing something as nosy as that? It is because before smartphones, Zoom, Instagram, Snapchat, texting, TikTok, and even landlines, people wrote letters to one another, ink-stained missives that crossed oceans on ships and traversed mountains on horseback. They used these letters to document their lives, conduct their business, and even to write fantastical stories. As physical artifacts and objects of literary analysis, letters are fascinating and unruly, ripe for discussions about private selves and public performances, emotional presence and physical absence, and authorial intentions and readers’ (mis)understandings. Working with both published and unpublished letters, as well as fiction and visual art, we will think about the role letters have played in shaping the lives of their writers. Together we will be rummaging around in correspondence by Emily Dickinson, James Baldwin, Alice Munro, Helene Hanff, among many others. Finally, we will pick up the pen to write and send many letters of our own.

When Hamlet asks, “To be, or not to be? That is the question,” he utters what has become, unfortunately, a clichÈ. In the context of Shakespeare’s play, however, this question ripples with Hamlet’s anxiety, with his wondering as to how (or whether) he should move forward with his life. This course will explore works, like Hamlet, characterized by protagonists who grapple with similar “central questions,” questions like: What defines me? What does it mean to be a good daughter, son, or child? What does it mean to be a good parent? To what extent has my family, race, gender, and/or choices determined my future? To what extent do I have the power to make my own choices at all? How do people see me? Which path should I take? At the same time, the asking of big questions is not (or certainly shouldn’t be) something done only by fictional characters. To that end, students will also keep journals in which they will reflect on their own day-to-day lives and experiences. At the end of the course, as students approach the writing of their meditations, each will have his/her/their journal as an additional text to help them see and think about what questions are emerging as central in their own lives. This course exercises the skills of analysis, critical thinking, and writing, as well as the practice of regular self-reflection. Course texts may include Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, Art Spiegelman’s Maus, and Danzy Senna’s Caucasia.

This course will examine the importance of narrators to fiction. We will consider the function of the narrator as fundamental to how a reader interprets a text. What happens when an author intentionally includes an untrustworthy, unreliable and even unstable narrator? What about a narrator who only knows part of a story but tells it anyhow? How much does who is telling the story influence how the story is described or expressed? Through reading texts with different types of narrators, we will explore these and other questions to gain an understanding of how narrative form complicates the meaning of the text as a whole. The goal of the course is for every student to make the transition from talking about what a text says or what happens to making interpretive arguments about how a text works and what its meanings are. Students will also develop a vocabulary for discussing, analyzing and writing about narrative form. Students will practice the writing process: brainstorming, drafting, revising and copy-editing to help take their writing skills to the next scholarly level. Authors may include Agatha Christie, Michael Cunningham, Henry James, John Mullan, Edgar Allan Poe, Virginia Woolf and others.

Fall in the Pioneer Valley sees the dark greens of late summer transition to a rich panoply of color as temperatures shift from hot and humid to crisp and cool. Students in this place-based course will experience these changes through outdoor excursions that lead them to contemplate their relationship to the natural world. Field study will offer the opportunity to practice the close observation required to successfully write about place, while classroom study of such contemporary environmental writers as William Least Heat-Moon, Kevin Fedarko, Terry Tempest Williams, and Cheryl Savageau will animate students’ understandings of both what they see and new ways of seeing.

Winter covers the New England world with cold and quiet as creatures of all sorts scurry to hibernate until the return of the sun. Students in this place-based course will seize the opportunity to study this frozen world through short field trips to local wonders and texts that concern the intersection of the natural world and human history. Works of authors like Barry Lopez, Rebecca Solnit, and Robert MacFarlane will offer windows into other landscapes and models for students to emulate in their own writing. Throughout the term, students will practice writing personal narrative in preparation for crafting the senior meditation as their final assignment.

Spring in Deerfield thaws ice to water and paints a grey world bright. In this place-based course, students will partake of field trips to consider the renewal and rebirth that arrives between March and May. Contemporary environmental writers such as Robin Wall Kimmerer, Kathleen Moore, and Tom Wessels will offer students examples of how to examine the local landscape of the Deerfield River and the Pocumtuck Ridge, or other natural places that they call home. The term will culminate in a braided essay of personal narrative combined with nature writing, research, and critical engagement with the readings from the term.

Since the introduction of moveable type to Europe in 1450, political argument has been the common currency of public debate and democratic citizenship. Many of our most widely read public documents ó John Milton’s “Areopagitica,” Jonathon’s Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government,” Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”ó originated not as the widely admired works of literature they have since become, but as works of the moment addressing the great historical, political and cultural questions of their ages: freedom of speech and conscience, civil and human rights, the duties of citizens and the limits of democratic governance, to name but a few. This course traces the rich history of public argument across time (from the 18th to 21st centuries), genre (pamphlets, manifestos, public letters and lectures, Op-Eds, blogs and long form polemic), and media (print and digital). It seeks to introduce students to the classic ideas of conservative, liberal and radical thought, while extending the reach of student’s reading and deepening their understanding of the conventions and rhetoric of public argument. The syllabus will be shaped around heterodox bundles of texts and include work by authors such as: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, James Madison, Karl Marx, Abraham Lincoln, John Stuart Mill, Aldous Huxley, William James, George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Susan Sontag, Christopher Hitchens, Amos Oz, Martha Nussbaum, Peter Singer, Mark Danner, Michael Massing, George Packer, Mark Lilla, Ta Nehisi Coates, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Zadie Smith, Wesley Yang, Katha Pollitt, Jonathan Chait, John McWhorter, Ross Douthat and Andrew Sullivan, among others. Course may also be taken as HIS639.

This course will focus on writings by Virginia Woolf, the great 20th-century novelist and essayist. Challenging and rewarding, Woolf’s work is deeply engaged with the question of what it means to live in the world, and the related question of how to depict life in writing. In our reading we will pay particular attention to the ways in which, in that effort to represent life, she plays with the conventions of narrative form: makes use of unique syntax, weaves together multiple narratives, scrambles chronology, and blurs the lines of genre. We will also discuss key themes of gender, memory, and individuality, and students will have an opportunity to write both critically and creatively in response to the pieces they read. We will begin by reading some of Woolf’s shorter works ñ essays and short fiction ñ and we will move on to longer works, including A Room of One’s Own and Mrs. Dalloway. Our reading of these texts will also be supplemented by secondary essays on Woolf’s work, as well as by excerpts from her biography, diaries, and letters.

Starting with Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, the classic Japanese film told in multiple viewpoints, students will begin to consider the manner in which writers and artists manipulate personal, visual, and cultural perspectives. Then, with the early atomic age and the current struggles against terrorism, whether foreign or domestic, as backdrops, readers will first turn their attention to Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows, which begins with the destruction of Nagasaki and moves forward to 9/11, and later to Home Fire, a re-imagining of Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone. Along with sharing ideas freely in discussions, participants will write poems, narratives, and critical arguments.

Coming to Terms With Climate Change. This course will use non-fiction, fiction, poetry and documentary film to establish an understanding of the origins and implications of the greatest challenge ever faced by human civilization and to explore the art, the politics and the ethics of confronting Climate Change both individually and collectively. Writing will be mostly creative responses to the reading, and as far as possible, we will exchange the classroom and the seminar table for the surrounding fields and woods, where walking will be the forum and the catalyst for our discussions as we consider the ways in which Climate Change is beginning to question, transform and redefine even our most fundamental ideals of success, community, leadership, education, and what it means to be human. May be taken as PHI671.

Literature has an historical precedent of transmuting the realities of human existence into compelling narratives, thus accommodating an impulse articulated by Nietzsche when he wrote, “we have art in order not to die of truth.” This course will allow students to engage in the practice of writing creative nonfiction with a variety of forms and approaches. We will read and follow the models of Ta-Nahesi Coates, Hanif Aduriquib, John McPhee, Rebecca Solnit, Adam Gopnik, David Foster Wallace, Zadie Smith, Jia Tolentino, Rebekah Taussig and several others as we familiarize ourselves with the genre and create artistically compelling pieces of narrative truth.

The tutorial approach to learning is a very old method of education that allows students to explore ideas on their own terms. For this class, students will compose their own reading lists and syllabi on one of the following topics: Understanding Love, Wealth & Work, Ideas that Changed the World, and How Humans Use Culture. Thus, students might explore the works of Jane Austen alongside Gary Shteyngart, or perhaps compare the dystopias of Octavia Butler with those of Kazuo Ishiguro. The class will meet in groups large and small to discuss the progress of their knowledge-building on the specific topic. Students will also be asked to deliver lectures, write a variety of papers, and participate in seminar discussions. Therefore, a student exploring love might choose to read works by Duras or Marquez. Those interested in our relationship with work and wealth might examine the stories of Sparks or Cheever. In any case, students will meet in their tutor groups to reveal their interpretations of these readings. Thus the tutorial group then becomes a space where students’ own literary interests become the focus of the curriculum. Groups will coalesce along shared interests and students will collaborate to examine problems, ideas, and solutions from a plurality of perspectives.

Even the strongest friendships in Shakespeare’s histories and tragedies grow fragile within the romantic, familial, or political chaos. Without losing sight of those larger forces, students will consider the bonds between Falstaff and Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part 1, and Hamlet and Ophelia, along with the easily overlooked Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, in Hamlet. To bring the plays alive beyond the page, the ensemble will discuss performance choices, critique filmed productions, and improvise creative possibilities in staging exercises. Along with sharing ideas freely in lively discussions, participants will write critical arguments, monologues, and a personal meditation.

For people marginalized from the mainstream American imaginary, movement is deemed unruly, but artists have creatively taken up ways to resist and take flight to push back against erasure. In the closing moments of Song of Solomon, for instance, Toni Morrison writes of the radical possibilities of flight. Morrison offers, “Öif you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.” Flying, Morrison suggests, requires the possibility of falling, of risk, of surrender. This twin meaning of flight will serve as a focusing lens with which students in this class will examine a myriad of textsófiction, non-fiction, literary criticism, poetry, film, etc.óin order to think about questions of movement and mobility. Authors might include Helena Maria Viramontes, Rivers Solomon, Fred Moten, Sadiya Hartman, Mary Pat Brady, Christina Sharpe, Linda Legarde Grover, Bryan Washington, Lisa Ko, Fahtima Ashgar, and more. We will write analytical and creative responses, explore relevant film and music, reflect on our personal relationships to place and power, and work together to open spaces of possibilities for ourselves and others.

Dramatists expose the lies and illusions that can rend the social, familial, or political fabrics individuals often take for granted. Students will explore how those fault lines widen or mend in Stephen Karam’s The Humans, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Lynn Nottage’s Ruined, and Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog. In exploring the forces at work within and upon each play, students will discuss cultural contexts and performance choices, and improvise creative possibilities in staging exercises. Along with sharing ideas freely in discussions and short responses, participants will write and workshop monologues.

The modern detective story is said to have its beginnings in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841). Poe may have given the world its first detective and devised the format for a new genre of short story, but over the last 180 years, many writers have embraced detective fiction and created such well-known detectives as Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. The mysterious murder or theft, the small circle of suspects, the clues hidden in plain sightóthese are the genre’s tools that have engaged and perplexed readers for generations. This course will examine detective fiction’s beginnings and its enduring legacy. In their exploration of the course texts, students will model their own reading and thinking on the detective’s analytical processes to strengthen their own skills of close reading, note-taking, critical thinking and logical reasoning. Regular analytical writings will accompany the readings. Authors may include Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, P.D. James, Anne Perry, and Edgar Allan Poe, among others.

Sarah Resnick in The New Yorker frames the idea of racial passing in an article on Brit Bennett’s novel, The Vanishing Half: “From the antebellum period until the end of Jim Crow, countless black Americans crossed the color line to pass as whiteóto escape slavery or threats of racial violence, or to gain access to the social, political, and economic benefits conferred by whiteness.” The Vanishing Half, published in 2020, is a recent example of a robust tradition of literature engaging with the idea of racial passing, and the focus of this course is on three such texts ñ Bennett’s novel, as well as Nella Larsen’s Passing and Danzy Senna’s Caucasia. We will discuss the positioning of the novels’ characters who pass as white, as well as the effects and implications, according to these authors, of racial passing. In reading these novels in relation to one other, students will have a chance to consider the ways in which the three texts speak to each other: how they are similar, and how, in other meaningful ways, they may differ. As we read the texts, students will also be invited to consider their own positionality in the world, as well as how these narratives resonate with and inform their understanding of themselves and American society. Students will have opportunities to read closely, discuss collaboratively, and take on in writing the questions arising from the literature that most interest them.

This course focuses on the ways in which in the past two centuries Black women writers have engaged with the intersection of Blackness and femaleness and examined, in their work, the position of Black women in American society. We will read selected fiction by Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, and Jesmyn Ward, and we will frame these texts with excerpts of nonfiction, history, and social commentary by Sojourner Truth, Harriet Jacobs, Ida B. Wells, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, and Mikki Kendall. Over time, students will see some common threads emerging across the texts ñ questions of what it means to inhabit the roles of woman, mother, daughter, and sister; what it means to be beautiful, to use one’s voice, and to own one’s own sexuality; what it looks like to achieve self-actualization and empowerment in the face of structural oppression on multiple fronts; themes, too, of the power of love, family, and community, resistance and resilience, and history ñ and our work as a group will, indeed, be that of building together an understanding of how the texts, across genres, can and do exist in conversation. It will also be our goal to recognize how these texts can serve to instruct us, regardless of the identities we hold, as we move through the world. This is work that students will take on in discussion, and in regular reflective and analytical writing.

Sequential art has existed in various forms for just about as long as humans have been writing stories; the Bayeux Tapestry depicts the 1066 Norman invasion of England, hieroglyphs and frescoes immortalize the exploits of the powerful in ancient Egyptian societies, and carved friezes across the Mediterranean tell stories from Greek mythology. In the 1960s, a new and exciting mode of storytelling was born from this history of images in deliberate sequence: the graphic novel (or comix, or illustrated novel, or many other names, depending on who you ask). Neither newspaper funnies nor serialized superhero saga, graphic novels both subvert and enhance narrative traditions in ways that this class will seek to explore. Students will read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics to generate a critical framework for approaching a selection of novels from authors such as Alison Bechdel, Kyle Baker, Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, and Marjane Satrapi. Students will interact with the texts via class discussion, formal and informal written critical arguments, personal narrative, research on the burgeoning comic book scholarship, and the creation of some comics of their own.

This course will present opportunities for students to explore, interrogate, and reflect upon the experience of elite, residential learning. In the course of reading fiction and nonfiction pieces exclusively framed within American boarding school settings, students will examine questions surrounding these institutions in general as well as our own discrete roles within them. Readers will confront the works of Kendra James, John McPhee, Tobias Wolff, Lacy Crawford, Lorene Cary, Curtis Sittenfeld, and Shamus Khan. Through the course of various creative and analytical writing assignments and regular Socratic dialogue, students will synthesize their own experiences with those of the selected authors to arrive at a more nuanced and focused understanding of this idiosyncratic approach to education.

In this introductory course, students learn basic French communication skills ñ while also exploring the cultures of the Francophone world. They engage in their own learning through collaboration, investigation and practice using text, video and audio materials. Students learn to write and speak in the present, past, and future tenses and give commands. An emphasis on speaking, listening, reading and basic writing guides the course. Students leave the introductory level excited and interested in further French language acquisition.

This second level course focuses on increasing communicating skills, both in written and oral form, through the lens of grammatical acquisition. Students are exposed to, and expected to master, the past tenses, the future tenses, and the conditional that they will use in their writing and speaking. The study of negatives, and several pronoun categories will be integrated along the way. Reading a variety of Francophone texts, along with video skit performances, daily oral participation, and individual and group projects will establish the natural use of the acquired grammar.

This accelerated intermediate level course is for students with a high degree of aural-oral proficiency. In addition to an in-depth study of grammar, students develop conversation skills and read a variety of short literary works from France and the Francophone world. Various technology sites will be used to enhance both written and oral production. As with all honors classes at Deerfield, French II Honors requires a substantial and consistent work ethic in order to master the material in a satisfactory manner.

The third year of language study is pivotal. Using the skills gained in the first two levels as a springboard, the students expand and deepen their knowledge and comfort level with language use. Intensive grammar review of the items covered in the previous levels allows students to move to the study of the conditional past, if clause structures, and an introduction to the subjunctive. Naturally the student’s language production becomes more sophisticated. The reading of their first substantial novel opens them up to the diverse francophone diaspora. An end of year project puts to use all of the skills acquired in the first three levels of language study.

The honors track for level III continues exposure to advanced grammatical structures, which includes all tenses within the indicative and subjunctive moods, and a more sophisticated application of pronouns. Through the study of literary texts, students understand grammar and structure in context. Papers, skits, daily analysis, and class debates engage the students with the material. As with all honors classes at Deerfield, French III Honors requires a substantial and consistent work ethic in order to master the material in a satisfactory manner.

This course is for students who would like to pursue the study of French at a more advanced level. Students examine grammar more deeply through literature, continue to develop oral proficiency through discussion, and further hone their reading comprehension through the study of certain historical periods and their accompanying texts. A textbook is also used when grammar and structure review is necessary. Papers, skits, daily analysis, and debates help students engage with the material.

This accelerated course emphasizes oral proficiency, composition, and literary and oral analysis. Students will read a variety of genres from the Francophone world. This class will also examine French history through various films. Students are introduced to the structure of the Advanced Placement French Language and Culture Examination. As with all honors classes at Deerfield, French 4 Honors requires a substantial and consistent work ethic in order to master the material in a satisfactory manner.

This is a literature seminar that continues to emphasize grammar and composition in order to polish students’ writing skills. Students read works by a variety of authors from France and the Francophone world. Papers, oral presentations, debates and discussions are also used to continue developing oral competency. Students are introduced to the structure of the Advanced Placement French Language and Culture Examination.

This accelerated course emphasizes oral proficiency, composition, and literary and oral analysis. Students will read a variety of genres from the Francophone world. This class will also examine French history through various films. As with all honors classes at Deerfield, this course requires a substantial and consistent work ethic in order to master the material in a satisfactory manner.

This is a topics-based course for advanced speakers of French who have finished French V Honors. The course is especially designed for those students who wish to continue their French studies at the college level. Readings explore a wide variety of topics such as issues of contemporary France and the European Union. Open to students with permission of the instructor. This course may not be offered every year. As with all honors classes at Deerfield, this requires a substantial and consistent work ethic in order to master the material in a satisfactory manner.

This is a topics-based course for advanced speakers of French who have finished French V Honors. The course is especially designed for those students who wish to continue their French studies at the college level. Readings explore a wide variety of topics such as issues of contemporary France and the European Union. Open to students with permission of the instructor. This course may not be offered every year. Strong students can choose to take the AP exam. As with all honors classes at Deerfield, this course requires a substantial and consistent work ethic in order to master the material in a satisfactory manner.

Who were the ancient Greeks? What did they think? How did they express themselves? And what is their relevance today? This course provides an introduction to the Greek language, specifically the dialect of Athens during the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Precise, intricate, and beautiful, Attic Greek was a language of philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle), history (Thucydides), oratory (Demosthenes), tragedy (Sophocles, Euripides), and comedy (Aristophanes). The course introduces students to the vocabulary and grammar of Attic Greek, while exploring themes in Greek history, literature, and mythology. Offered as part of a two-year sequence. Knowledge of Latin is not required or expected. Greek 100 does not fulfill the Language graduation requirement.

The second year of ancient Greek is designed to bring students from the rudiments of grammar to authentic texts. Beginning with a comprehensive review of Attic morphology, syntax, and vocabulary, the course graduates to advanced topics in Greek grammar and relevant social and historical content. Students proceed to authentic texts in both poetry and prose during the first term; the second term of Greek 2 will be spent on Plato’s Crito, an accessible and foundational example of classical Greek prose and ancient philosophy.

Advanced Tutorial may be offered to students who, in consultation with the department and with its endorsement, wish to design an individualized course in Greek literature.

In this introductory health class students will engage in discussions that will expand their understanding of what it means to be healthy. We will embrace the motto, “healthy mind, healthy body, healthy you!” Topics covered include self-care, personal values, stress and stress management, relationships, and more.

This health course expands on the 9th grade introductory class and deepens students’ understanding of mental health, mental illness, and healthy relationships. Through classroom presentations and discussions we will explore aspects of identity, learn about various mental illnesses, better understand how to engage in and develop healthy relationships, and discuss the role of adolescent development as it pertains to these topics. Additional topics we will discuss may include human sexuality, alcohol and other drugs, and stress management. All three and four year students are required to take this course during grade 10 regardless of a previous similar course.

This course examines the development of a number of early societies spanning multiple continents and many thousands of years. Those societies may include Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and Mesoamerican cultures. Course materials include a wide array of historical and literary texts that provide insight into the ways ancient peoples organized themselves and explained the world around them. We will explore cross-cultural interactions across time and space with a focus on the ways that religious and cultural exchange shaped and continue to influence the world around us. Topics may include the literature of early Mesopotamian civilizations, the social structure of Egypt and Mesoamerica, and the political organization of classical Greece and Rome. Each 200-level history course provides students with a foundation of core skills, including source analysis, discussion and debate, inquiry-based research, and analytical writing and presentation.

Using literature and a rich variety of historical sources, this course studies the cultural, political, and economic consequences of colonialism in selected countries in Africa and Latin America. Each unit explores how the forces of conquest, colonization, and commerce have shaped the lives of individuals and communities in these countries. The interdisciplinary course materials also focus on the process of upheaval and change associated with revolution, decolonization, and independence in these regions. The course texts rely heavily upon indigenous voices and investigate a range of countries that may include Mexico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Nigeria, the Congo, and South Africa. Each 200-level history course provides students with a foundation of core skills, including source analysis, discussion and debate, inquiry-based research, and analytical writing and presentation.

This course serves both as an introduction for students who have never studied Asian history and as a means, for those with foundational background, to further explore the societies, politics, and belief systems of India, China and Japan. While students focus primarily on one of the three regional civilizations each term, they also trace the complex web of commercial and cultural exchange paths that crossed Asia and stretched to Europe, Africa, North America, and Oceania. Along the way, they inquire into the relationship between these early pathways and modern global ones. Secondary source texts provide scaffolding for the course, but we spend even more time examining philosophical texts, early historical treatises, travelogues, and manuals on ruling and warfare. We additionally pay close attention to the role of racial/social hierarchies in shaping power dynamics, both in Asia and in a globalized, modern world. Each 200-level history course provides students with a foundation of core skills, including source analysis, discussion and debate, inquiry-based research, and analytical writing and presentation.

How did the universe begin? How has the universe developed over time? How do humans fit into this evolving story? Where is the future heading? These are questions that origin stories from different cultures have addressed for thousands of years. This course explores the modern scientific origin story of how the universe and life within it has grown more complex over the last 13.8 billion years. This tale, itself thousands of years in the making, has been woven together by a wide spectrum of thinkers and scholars from numerous scientific and historical fields. Together, students will engage powerful ideas and common themes across the entire time scale of history, from the Big Bang and creation of star systems to the emergence of the Earth’s first microorganisms and the recent rise of human societies. Because Big History relies upon content, concepts and texts drawn from many disciplines, students will need to carefully weigh how scholars develop and justify their claims about the past, and how, over time, new claims serve to refute or refine earlier ones. Students will also have the opportunity to create their own narratives, explanations and arguments in response to Big History’s essential questions. Each 200-level history course provides students with a foundation of core skills, including source analysis, discussion and debate, inquiry-based research, and analytical writing and presentation.

This course in American history prioritizes depth over breadth in exploring certain critical junctures in the political, social, economic, and cultural history of the United States from pre-colonial times to the present, including its relations with other countries. We will ask how history and identity are inextricably linked, consider the ways in which history is the set of stories we choose to tell, and examine the competing values that have shaped the development of the United States as well as the forces of continuity and change. This course stresses the skills of a historian, including careful reading, critical thinking, primary-source analysis, discussion skills and analytical writing; its core assessments will extend beyond writing to activities that include debates, roundtables, simulations, and research-based projects.

In Western society, sports emerged as exclusive spaces for boys and men. One of the objectives of this class is to explore how women steadily worked to challenge notions of male dominance and forge their own place in sports, winning major gains in the twentieth century. The other objective is to move beyond the binary perspective of that history and interrogate how sport can both reinforce and challenge basic constructions of gender and sexuality. Employing methodologies from the discipline of history and the interdisciplinary fields of women, gender, and sexuality studies, students examine oppression and opportunity within a broad context of sporting activity. In class, students analyze primary source material including rhetoric in sports coverage, popular culture images, and material culture like uniforms and locker rooms. Major assignments include written source analyses and a research-based presentation on a relevant current issue and its historical context. During this one-term class, students forge a better understanding of intersectional analysis and develop skills essential to several social science fields.

In this AP Seminar course, students explore the complexity of global food and water access/delivery systems while developing their skills as critical thinkers and strong communicators. The course focuses on current local and global issues related to freshwater availability and infrastructure, agriculture and food production, and water and food insecurity. The course teaches students to develop their own strong research questions, understand and analyze arguments, evaluate multiple perspectives, synthesize ideas, collaborate effectively, build and communicate their own arguments in both written and oral formats, and reflect on their increasing ability to engage with real world issues as engaged global citizens. Throughout this interdisciplinary course, students deepen their understanding of freshwater access and food systems through debates, seminar discussions, independent research, collaborative projects, oral presentations, guest speakers, and field trips. Students research freshwater issues and the environmental, economic, cultural, and health impacts of widely differing food systems and learn to both collaboratively and independently propose solutions and work actively for positive change. Most of the second half of the year will be spent working on a team project and individual research-based essay as part of the College Board Assessments for AP Seminar.

An interdisciplinary course combining honors U.S. History and eleventh-grade English, American Studies tracks intersecting threads of history, literature, art, and culture throughout the development of the United States. By examining the works of historians, artists, filmmakers, and writers from both the past and present, students develop a nuanced understanding of the political, cultural, intellectual, and social forces that shaped the country and continue to influence the present. Close analysis of primary and secondary sources, discussion and debate, research, and reflection will form the foundation for a variety of creative and analytical assessments that ask students to advance arguments of their own about the challenges and opportunities inherent in the country’s evolution. Meeting each day under the 2021-2022 schedule, American Studies is a team-taught course that also prepares students for Advanced Placement exams in US History and English. As the course requires solid analytical skills and the ability to manage a substantial reading load, recommendation will be made by the department. To view a typical assignment students are expected to read and annotate in 70 minutes, click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MgvPdiCfwKx_VEW-7CxvSoEPV3ko_DlC/view

This course, for students who have demonstrated aptitude in prior humanities classes, is a fast-paced survey of United States history from colonial times to the late 20th century. Using a college-level textbook that is supplemented daily with excerpts of primary sources, as well as occasional secondary source readings and videos, students examine major themes and developments in social, economic, and diplomatic history within a framework of a political narrative. With an emphasis on careful reading, critical thinking, primary-source analysis, research, and analytical writing, students engage with one another and with the text to develop both a command of the substantial material, and the skills of a historian. This course prepares students for the Advanced Placement exam in US History. The course requires solid analytical skills and the ability to manage a substantial reading load. Link to a typical assignment students are expected to read and annotate in 70 minutes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16s0-MEGCWq9-M8pfNyorIeDFIoKwPJk1/view.

This course examines selected themes in the history of Europe, from the Renaissance to the recent past. Major topics include the Renaissance, the Reformation, politics, society and culture in early-modern Europe, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, the era of the French Revolution and Napoleon, the emergence of modern political ideologies, nation-building and imperialism in the nineteenth century, the world wars and the advent of the Cold War. Special attention will be given to interactions between Europe and other regions of the world and to the influence of non-European regions on the development of European civilization. The course prepares students for the Advanced Placement European History exam. The course requires solid analytical skills and the ability to manage a substantial reading load. Link to a typical assignment students are expected to read and annotate in 70 minutes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13ohzInBhfssAi7KBD5gvU1wDppZb0LeN/view.

Heroin, “Oxy,” fentanyl, carfentanil. These drug names, along with names of pharmaceutical companies set to pay billions in fines and civil liability, punctuate news stories about an opioid crisis that blossomed in the ë90s and that has continued, unabated, in the pandemic era. Why, among developed countries, does the US stand out for this problem? Whose problem is it? Our course begins just up the road in Greenfield. We then trace opioids to their sources, mapping the global web of narcotics-trafficking routes and identifying stakeholders who both benefit from and are crippled by one of the world’s most lucrative renewable commodities. To understand opium’s power, we examine its history, exploring man’s economic, political and even artistic addictions to opium through topics as varied as the 19th- century Opium Wars, 20th-century music, and 21st-century film. Students will read major portions of Sam Quinones’s award-winning Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic. They will additionally interview substance-abuse specialists and travel to a courthouse to meet with social workers and legal experts in the field. Assessments in this one-term elective include debates, student-run discussions, and a short independent research project.

The Nazi regime relied on long-standing strains of anti-Semitism as well as newer racial ideologies to gather support for their purposeful and highly systematic attempt to destroy the Jewish population in Europe. Beginning with an introduction to the roots of anti-Semitism in Europe, this course then explores the political, social and economic factors in Europe that made Adolf Hitler’s rise to power possible. It also examines the origins, development, and implementation of the Nazi Germany’s genocidal policies and their relationship to the Second World War. Using diaries, speeches, bureaucratic documents, memoirs, films, and historical scholarship, this course considers accounts by perpetrators, victims, survivors, bystanders and rescuers in order to wrestle with the motivations and suffering of the various people involved. Finally, the course investigates the aftermath of the Holocaust and its legacies today, including the historical scholarship of the last generation of Holocaust studies.

With its celebration of innovation, return on investment, and creative destruction, capitalism appears to be about the future. But it can be understood only by studying its past. Together we will explore the global origins, development, and spread of capitalism from the 18th century to the present, examining not just how it has changed the world, but how the world has changed it in return. We will pay special attention to property rights, markets, the corporation, labor movements, technology and the environment, race and gender, consumer culture, and the role of the state. Drawing on new historical scholarship, documentaries and podcasts, and a diverse array of primary sources, we will develop a critical understanding of capitalism as a system and ideology created and shaped by both social struggle and government actions. Students will have opportunities to extend their study of these themes through research on companies and parts of the world of their choice.

What motivates people to do good or evil? What is it like to live in a society that does not value truth? How do wars and scientific discoveries shape our conception of ourselves and our world? What threatens liberal democracy? These are some of the questions we will explore as we examine great upheavals of the last 100 years. Focused largely on events in Europe, and centered on the experiences of individuals, this interdisciplinary course explores how dreams of the future as well as memories of the past control the destinies of nations and people, yet are often contested or rest on myths. Topics may include the Great War and the intellectual and artistic revolution it fostered, Hitler and Stalin’s totalitarian regimes, Putin’s Russia, the United States’ war in Iraq, the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, the makings of a liberal international order, and the nationalist backlash and environmental threats facing that order. Assessments will vary from writing analytical papers to creating films or podcasts to constructing a virtual museum exhibit.

There may be nothing more important to human beings than our ability to enshrine experience and recall it. While philosophers and poets have elevated memory to an almost mystical level, psychologists and neuroscientists have struggled to demystify it. This two-term, interdisciplinary course combines history, the neuroscience of how our brains create and retain memories, and the varied ways in which societies around the world have recorded and explored the concept of memory. While the course aims to explore the theme of memory globally, the course focuses specifically on two areas: the United States of the mid-to-late 19th century, and the Middle East of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The course examines the legacy of figures such as John Brown and Yasser Arafat, asking “How should we remember important polarizing leaders?” Texts will include E.L. Doctorow’s novel Ragtime, the 2017 play Oslo, and the 2020 memoir entitled The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine; students will compare these literary texts with their own research on historiographical interpretations. In each section of the course, students will also study resistance in the face of heavy odds and debate how these conflicts over memorialization affect our contemporary world.

Since the introduction of moveable type to Europe in 1450, political argument has been the common currency of public debate and democratic citizenship. Many of our most widely read public documents ó John Milton’s “Areopagitica,” Jonathon’s Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government,” Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”ó originated not as the widely admired works of literature they have since become, but as works of the moment addressing the great historical, political and cultural questions of their ages: freedom of speech and conscience, civil and human rights, the duties of citizens and the limits of democratic governance, to name but a few. This course traces the rich history of public argument across time (from the 18th to 21st centuries), genre (pamphlets, manifestos, public letters and lectures, Op-Eds, blogs and long form polemic), and media (print and digital). It seeks to introduce students to the classic ideas of conservative, liberal and radical thought, while extending the reach of student’s reading and deepening their understanding of the conventions and rhetoric of public argument. The syllabus will be shaped around heterodox bundles of texts and include work by authors such as: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, James Madison, Karl Marx, Abraham Lincoln, John Stuart Mill, Aldous Huxley, William James, George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Susan Sontag, Christopher Hitchens, Amos Oz, Martha Nussbaum, Peter Singer, Mark Danner, Michael Massing, George Packer, Mark Lilla, Ta Nehisi Coates, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Zadie Smith, Wesley Yang, Katha Pollitt, Jonathan Chait, John McWhorter, Ross Douthat and Andrew Sullivan, among others. Course may also be taken as ENG639.

Who were the Romans? What did they say about the world? And how did they say it? Latin 100 provides beginning students, who have not previously studied Latin, with the tools they need to ask and answer these questions. The course emphasizes the vocabulary, morphology, and syntax of classical Latin, direct engagement with Roman literature, and the rudiments of Roman history, culture, and mythology. The study of etymology and the comparison of Latin with English are fundamental components of Latin 100.

Designed for students with previous exposure to Latin, whose primary goals are Latin reading comprehension, ancient history, mythology, and the legacy of Latin in English. Latin is the language of instruction; the primary textbook is Hans ÿrberg’s Lingua Latina per se illustrata, Pars Prima. Latin 200 takes a reading-based, immersive approach to the acquisition of vocabulary, morphology, and syntax. This course prepares students for Latin 300, which is likewise conducted in Latin.

Assuming a solid foundation in Latin vocabulary and morphology, Latin 203 will cover the remainder of Latin grammar during the Fall Term. English is the language of instruction. Students are also introduced to the fundamentals of Latin poetry, including metrics, scansion, and figures of speech and thought. The Winter and Spring Terms will be dedicated to reading authentic, unadapted Latin. Readings emphasize the many encounters of Roman with other ancient Mediterranean civilizations. This course prepares students for Latin 400.

A continuation of Latin 200, Latin 300 likewise takes a reading-based, immersive approach to Latin vocabulary, morphology, and syntax, using Hans ÿrberg’s Lingua Latina per se illustrata, Pars Secunda. Latin is the language of instruction. The focus is on the comprehension of authentic Latin prose and poetry, ancient history, mythology, and the legacy of Latin in English. Readings emphasize the daily life of ancient Romans. In the spring, students are introduced to the fundamentals of Latin poetry, including metrics, scansion, and figures of speech and thought. This course prepares students for Latin 400.

This is an advanced literature seminar, conducted in English, offering a rigorous study of Vergil’s Aeneid and exploring Rome’s place in the history of western Europe. Through the study of language, literature, and history, students will seek to understand Roman identity and its influence. The course assumes a thorough grounding in Latin vocabulary, grammar, and prosody. It covers the selections of the Aeneid found on the AP Latin syllabus and familiarizes students with the nature of that exam.

This two-term, advanced seminar, conducted in English, is a survey of Latin literature from the comedies of the second century BCE to the literature of the Roman empire. Readings will be selected from the texts and authors of the traditional canon, with special emphasis on an examination of canonical status and on texts by and about groups traditionally assigned to the “margins:” women, slaves, the non-elite, those identified or self-styled as “barbarians,” et al. The study of non-Romans will include a study of selections from Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico. In addition to reading, there will be a significant emphasis on prose and verse composition; attention will also be given to aspects of history that support the study of the texts in question, including inscriptions, graffiti, art history, and archeology. It covers the selections of Caesar’s Commentarii found on the AP Latin syllabus and familiarizes students with the nature of that exam.

Advanced Tutorial may be offered to students who, in consultation with the department and with its endorsement, wish to design an individualized course in Latin literature.

From the extent of our privacy to the limits on the powers of government to the meaning of equality, the United States Supreme Court is the arbiter of many critical issues in American society. This one-term course examines the Court’s efforts to balance the often conflicting rights of individuals with the broader interests of society. In doing so, the course considers the proper role of the Court itself. Topics for debate may include privacy issues, equality under the law, and freedom of speech. Assessments primarily consist of moot courts in which students assume the role of lawyers and justices to examine, argue, and rule upon recent or current issues before the Supreme Court.

This is a course in first year algebra with emphasis on such topics as the properties of the real number system, solving first degree sentences in one variable, the fundamental operations involving polynomial and rational expressions, systems of linear equations in two variables, fractions, factoring, ratio, proportion, variation, exponents, roots, quadratic equations, and problem solving. All of the material of a typical first year of algebra will be completed as well as a variety of enrichment topics.

This course is designed for a student who has already studied some or much of the material that is covered in a typical first year algebra program, but who would benefit from additional work with the topics of Algebra I. The fall term is devoted to a review of the basic skills and ideas of Real Numbers, followed by single-variable equations and inequalities which then leads to work with linear relations and their applications in the late fall and winter. Students end the winter with the study of quadratic relations and their applications, and then spend the spring term on introductions to exponential relations, probability and statistics, and the idea of functions.

This course is designed for students who would benefit from significant reinforcement of topics from Algebra I as they pertain to geometric problems. The emphasis in this course is on recognizing the geometric relationships in shapes and solids. New concepts are introduced using inductive reasoning and exploration. Students who complete this course will be prepared for a 300-level course.

This course integrates material from both plane and solid geometry. However, the development of the material requires extensive use of the skills and concepts already studied in algebra. The major emphasis is the study of the properties of two and three dimensional geometric figures from both a deductive and inductive reasoning approach. Additional topics include material from analytic geometry, exercises in logic, the graphing of functions and relations and elementary trigonometry. Students who complete this course will be prepared for a 300-level course.

This course meets the standards of a solid course in second year algebra. However, it is designed for students whose background indicates a need for a review of material from previous courses. As such it moves at a somewhat slower pace than Math 302. Students who complete this course are prepared for a 400-level mathematics course.

This course is intended for students who have achieved success in Math 102 and Math 202 or the equivalent. The material is developed with an emphasis on the functional approach and most topics include a range of applied problems. The main focus of the course is the analytical development of the linear, quadratic, polynomial, exponential and logarithmic functions. Other topics developed include an analysis of both the real and complex number systems, systems of equations in two and three variables, and an introduction to trigonometric functions. Students may take a 200-level and this 300-level course concurrently. Students who complete this course are prepared for a 400-level mathematics course.

This course is an enriched version of Math 302 and is designed for the well-qualified student. The course develops the same material as Math 302 but in greater depth. Students in this class are frequently asked to solve non-routine problems and to apply familiar concepts in new problem situations. Students may take a 200-level and this 300-level course concurrently. Successful completion of this course normally advances a student to Math 403.

This course is intended for students who have demonstrated an interest in pursuing additional mathematics courses at Deerfield but have found themselves unable to achieve their goals in their time remaining at the school. Students who have earned credits in Algebra I and Geometry only by the end of their sophomore year may be eligible for this course by teacher recommendation. In addition, some students in Algebra II may also be recommended for this course. The course is designed to move students through fundamental content from Algebra and Precalculus that will prepare them for success in the senior year in one of Deerfield’s 500 level courses. All students will complete a study of polynomials, logarithmic, exponential, and trigonometric functions before branching to additional content.

This course is intended as a follow-up to Algebra II or an equivalent course. It is designed to complete the study of the elementary functions (linear, quadratic, exponential, logarithmic, and trigonometric). Additionally, the course develops material from finite mathematics including an introduction to probability and statistics, and the normal distribution. Throughout the entire course modeling of real phenomena is emphasized.

This course is a follow up to Math 302 and as such continues the development of functions and relations. The course includes a thorough study of polynomial, rational, exponential, logarithmic and trigonometric functions, an analytical development of conic sections, polar equations and graphs, matrices, and an introduction to data analysis. Calculator based graphing technology is incorporated into the course, and the instructional approach is greatly influenced by the fact that all students have immediate access to this technology.

This course is designed as a continuation of Math 303. The topics covered in this accelerated course include all those listed under Math 402 but the pace is such that the material will be completed by the end of the winter term. Successful completion of this course normally advances a student to Math 503 (AP Calculus BC).

This course follows Math 401. It is also intended for students who have completed 402 and who do not wish to study calculus at this time. This course provides a continued emphasis on the development of functions and relations, including a thorough study of polynomial, rational, exponential, logarithmic, and power functions. Further, data analysis and difference equations are used to model real world phenomena. Calculator and computer based graphing technology are incorporated into the course.

This course offers an introduction to the derivative and the integral. The pace of this course allows for a review of precalculus topics when necessary.

This course follows the Advanced Placement AB syllabus, which incorporates an introduction to the derivative and the integral and their applications. Students in this course are required to take the AP exam in May.

This course follows the Advanced Placement BC syllabus, which incorporates an introduction to the derivative and the integral with their applications and work in infinite series. This four-term course, which begins in the spring term of the sophomore or junior year, is for students who are outstanding in mathematics. Open to students who have completed Math 403 or the equivalent, with permission of the department. Exceptional mathematics students entering Deerfield in the fall term with demonstrated excellence in precalculus may consult the mathematics chair as to placement in the fall. Students in this course are required to take the AP exam in May.

This course follows the Advanced Placement BC syllabus, which incorporates an introduction to the derivative and the integral with their applications and work in infinite series. This four-term course, which begins in the spring term of the sophomore or junior year, is for students who are outstanding in mathematics. Open to students who have completed MAT402 or the equivalent, with permission of the department. Exceptional mathematics students entering Deerfield in the fall term with demonstrated excellence in precalculus may consult the mathematics chair as to placement in the fall. Students in this course are required to take the AP exam in May.

This course follows the Advanced Placement Statistics syllabus, which introduces students to the major concepts and tools for collecting, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from data. Students are exposed to four broad conceptual themes: exploring data by observing patterns and departures from patterns, planning a study by deciding what and how to measure, anticipating patterns by producing models using probability and simulation, and studying statistical inference by confirming models. May be taken concurrently with a 400-level or higher course. Students in this course are required to take the AP exam in May.

This course continues the study of single variable calculus and introduces topics from multivariable calculus. Topics may include understanding the relation of series and convergence to calculus, work with parametric, polar, and vector forms in more than two dimensions, optimization problems, advanced integration, and a broad introduction to differential equations. An open-source textbook and Sage, an open-source software package which does symbolic manipulation and advanced graphing, is used extensively in this course.

This course covers the major topics of Multivariable Calculus, including optimization problems and vector calculus, and concludes with an introduction to ordinary differential equations. Mathematica, the symbolic mathematics software, is used extensively in the course for displaying 3D graphs, performing advanced numerical analysis, and analyzing nonlinear differential equations and systems of such equations. A licensed copy of the software is provided to all students.

Linear Algebra begins with the concept of systems of linear equations. From this foundation, Linear Algebra uses the mathematical objects and operations derived from vectors and matrices to construct a more abstract system of concepts that has broad relevance in higher mathematics as well as myriad practical applications. Topics studied include linear independence, subspaces, linear transformations, bases and dimension, orthogonality, determinants, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, and matrix diagonalization. Applications investigated include simple economic models, predator-prey ecological models, cryptography, and Markov chains. This course may be taken concurrently with MAT603.

Special Topics is aimed at students who have completed the rest of the curriculum, including LInear Algebra and Multivariable Calculus, and are looking to delve more deeply into advanced mathematics. Topics covered will depend on the interests of students and teachers, and may include Differential Equations, Number Theory, Combinatorial Algebra, or others.

How is today’s music put together? What path does music take from the time it leaves the creator until it arrives in your ear . Working in the recording studio, we will learn all aspects of production. Starting with pre-production, then recording, then editing, then mixing. Students will need to do much of the homework in the studio itself. LIMITED NUMBER OF SEATS AVAILABLE

Anyone can sing! Open to all students (no audition or experience required), and focused on performance, this course will help you become better at singing and all kinds of music. The choir will study and perform a wide range of musical styles and genres, including pop, modern, classical, folk, and much more, and will often collaborate with the Advanced Vocal Ensemble. In class, we will introduce and develop skills in interpreting musical notation, community building, breathing, and understanding of melody, harmony, intonation, rhythm, and aesthetics. Classroom activities include sight-singing, breathing and meditation, historical research, music games, and improvisation. Evaluations will be based on growth across each term, not perfection or pre-existing talent. Students are required to sing in the Deerfield Chorus (Tuesday nights) and are encouraged to take private voice lessons. Regular individual practice is expected during homework time.

See MUS300 description.

Open by audition to advanced and experienced choral singers, this course builds on previously demonstrated skill in interpreting musical notation and understanding of melody, harmony, rhythm, and aesthetics. AVE will study and perform a wide range of musical styles and genres, including pop, modern, classical, folk, and much more, and sometimes serves as an SATB a cappella ensemble. Classroom activities include sight-singing, breathing exercises, meditation, historical research, music games, improvisation, and frequent collaboration with the Academy Choir. Evaluations will be based on performances in and out of the classroom setting. Students are required to sing in the Deerfield Chorus (Tuesday nights) and take private voice lessons. Regular individual practice is expected during homework time.

See MUS303 description.

This course provides an opportunity for experienced woodwind, brass, and percussion players to collaborate in a variety of ensemble settings including concert band, woodwind chamber groups, brass ensembles, saxophone ensembles, percussion groups, and jazz/rock bands. Ensemble assignments are made by the course instructor, and additional ensemble coaches are drawn from the applied teaching staff. Students work on improving their blend, technique, intonation, musicianship, ensemble playing, and improvisational skills.

See MUS310 description.

This course offers instrumentalists the opportunity to learn and perform repertoire by the world’s greatest composers. Class time consists of rotating coaching by Mr. Bergeron and our professional staff, performance classes in the Concert Hall (including peer feedback), student-led rehearsals, and guest artist visits from renowned chamber musicians. Students explore questions of performance practice, instrumental technique, emotional expression, historical context, music theory, hearing, compositional architecture, performance psychology, and group dynamics. Each semester culminates with the Chamber Music Showcase Concert in the Concert Hall, which is open to the public and professionally recorded. Participation in the Deerfield Orchestra is required of all chamber musicians except pianists. Chamber musicians should also be taking private lessons.

This class aims to empower students to compose, produce, and share their own musical creations by unlocking the secrets of what makes music magical. To some degree, students will choose the repertoire that we analyze. Working in the recording studio, we will break down and study elements of harmony, rhythm, melody, architecture, structure, color, instrumentation/orchestration, studio production choices, and performance techniques. Students will compose multiple musical works, both large scale and small, inspired by the secrets that we unlock through our various analyses. There will be opportunities to publish and share projects, including live performances and online digital distribution services. There will be at least one film soundtrack project, and collaboration with other courses such as Digital Filmmaking will be encouraged. Industry-standard tools such as Avid Sibelius® music composition software and Logic® production software will be provided and taught. Ability to understand musical notation and basic music theory knowledge are required for this class. Students interested in preparing for the AP Music Theory can prepare for the exam during this course.

This course offers our most advanced instrumentalists the opportunity to work in small ensembles, learning and performing repertoire by the world’s greatest composers. Class time consists of rotating coaching by Mr. Bergeron and our professional staff, performance classes in the Concert Hall (including peer feedback), student-led rehearsals, and guest artist visits (masterclasses and performances) from renowned chamber musicians. Students explore questions of performance practice, instrumental technique, emotion, expression, historical context, music theory, compositional architecture, performance psychology, and group dynamics. Each semester culminates with the Chamber Music Showcase Concert in the Concert Hall, which is open to the public and professionally recorded. Daily practice is expected and participation in the Deerfield Orchestra is required of all chamber musicians except pianists. Chamber musicians should also be taking private lessons.

Global Online Academy provides an array of online courses for students to take during the academic year on a year-long or semester-long basis. Students must either sign up for a full-year course or two semester-long courses. Global Online Academy courses are a 6th, pass-fail course. Transcript will reflect “Global Online Academy,” not the specific course taken. Course catalog: https://globalonlineacademy.org/student-program/student-courses

Justice. Equality. Dignity. Freedom. Responsibility. In Ethics, students explore these and other key ethical concepts. In this class, we will practice skillful use of clear, logically structured argument to analyze and understand these ideas, applying them to real-world cases as well as personal stories. We’ll explore to what extent our ethical understandings are shaped by our identities and life experiences. The class draws on both historical and contemporary sources to help students achieve a deeper understanding of the ethical issues that shape our lives. Assessment includes argumentative writing and independent research projects. This is a one-term course.

This course will examine a range of questions about the nature of happiness. What is happiness, and why does it matter? Is it the main thing we should pursue in life, or are there other things that are more important? Is it a kind of pleasant feeling, or is it something more “objective” than that? What assumptions about happiness are implicit in the ways that psychologists, economists, and writers of popular media measure and talk about happiness? We will consider these and other questions, engaging with historical and contemporary work from philosophers, scientists, religious thinkers, and contributors to popular media. The primary aim of the course will be to introduce you to rich traditions of philosophical thinking about happiness, and to equip you to begin thinking with some degree of rigor and discipline about questions of happiness as they arise in your own life.

This course examines a wide range of philosophical questions and problems, drawing on both classical and contemporary readings. Students will be exposed to a number of historically important philosophical thinkers in the Western tradition, such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Nietzsche. We will also explore some philosophical ideas that are in some ways alien to this tradition, particularly those of Daoism and Buddhism. Possible topics of study include: the nature of reality; subjectivity and objectivity; freedom of the will; knowledge and skepticism; the existence of God and the nature of religious experience; the status of ethical norms; the nature of the self; and more. Emphasis will be placed upon both the theoretical and practical aspects of philosophical reflection. Students will learn to engage skillfully with complex philosophical arguments and to apply abstract ideas to their own lives in ways that will enrich and inspire. No background knowledge of philosophy required!

This course tackles the big questions that shape our modern lives: What is justice? What is liberty? What is equality? When is the state allowed to restrict our freedoms, and why? How should goods be distributed in a just society? We will explore these and related questions through both classical and contemporary readings. In addition, we will devote considerable time to analyzing, constructing, and critiquing arguments about political issues. The class will equip you to think carefully and critically about the difficult and often controversial topics that come up in your lives as citizens.

Self-Driving Cars, the Metaverse, Siri and AlexaÖ Roombas! Artificial Intelligence (AI) is seemingly all around us. But what is AI? How does it work now, and how might it work in the future? What are the benefits and the dangers of AI to individuals, to groups, and to human kind? What kind of moral duties (if any), might humans have to intelligent systems as they develop and “learn”? How will AIs “learn” to make moral judgements? Can they? Students will explore these questions by applying key ethical concepts to these emerging issues, practicing reasoned argument and perspective taking skills, and applying their understandings to creatively imagine what an ethical relationship between humans and AI might look like in the future.

How can you be more persuasive when speaking or writing? What are some common mistakes people make when they are arguing, and how can you avoid making them yourself? How should you respond when a debate gets heated? This class will explore questions like these as part of a study of the theory and practice of rational argument. We will engage with historical and contemporary theories, learning how our ideas about argument have evolved with developments in philosophy, science, and mathematics. Students will develop fluency with basic logical concepts, learning to construct clear and compelling arguments and to identify common errors in reasoning. Students will also develop the confidence to navigate difficult conversations with understanding and empathy, using their skills to raise the bar for rational discussion and debate. This is an interdisciplinary course, co-taught by teachers in Classics and Philosophy. May also be taken as CLA620.

“Who are we? How did we get here? Where are we headed?” When scholars ask these questions about American society, the answers can take the form of data about everything from population to housing to education to leisure activities. They can also take the form of large over-arching theories that seek to put data into a form of explanation of historical trends or predictions for the future. Both of those approaches are the work of sociologists and social philosophers. This elective is an introduction to that work and will offer students the chance to do some of it for themselves. Readings will include classic sociology from Max Weber, W.E.B. Dubois, Simone De Beauvoir, and Studs Terkel and move on to important contemporary works like Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste, Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone, Michael Sandel’s Tyranny of Merit, and Jessica Bruder’s Nomadland.Students will do a project that gathers data of the kind sociologists use and then develop a social philosophy analysis to present to the class.

Coming to Terms With Climate Change. This course will use non-fiction, fiction, poetry and documentary film to establish an understanding of the origins and implications of the greatest challenge ever faced by human civilization and to explore the art, the politics and the ethics of confronting Climate Change both individually and collectively. Writing will be mostly creative responses to the reading, and as far as possible, we will exchange the classroom and the seminar table for the surrounding fields and woods, where walking will be the forum and the catalyst for our discussions as we consider the ways in which Climate Change is beginning to question, transform and redefine even our most fundamental ideals of success, community, leadership, education, and what it means to be human. May be taken as ENG671.

This is an introductory physics course that includes the study of kinematics, forces, energy, and electricity and magnetism. Students learn to develop and apply models through guided inquiry, group discussion, and collaborative hands-on investigation. They learn to communicate their thinking through multiple visual, mathematical, and computational representations. This course focuses on the concepts, principles, and ways of thinking that will underlie students’ further study of science.

This is an introductory physics course that includes the study of kinematics, forces, energy, and electricity and magnetism; it moves at a faster pace and with greater depth than Physics 1 (w/ algebra). Students learn to develop and apply models through guided inquiry, group discussion, and collaborative hands on investigation. They learn to communicate their thinking through multiple visual, mathematical, and computational representations. This course focuses on the concepts, principles, and ways of thinking that will underlie students’ further study of science.

Students in this class will spend the year working to understand an electric vehicle’s inner workings through a hands-on process of deconstruction, design, and reconstruction. The course’s primary focus is converting a vehicle with an internal combustion engine to run on electrical power. Students are offered a unique opportunity to solve problems by testing practical designs and bring their ideas to fruition through the hands-on construction and implementation of their ideas. Students will be assessed on their ability to collaborate effectively, demonstrate independence, resilience, and time management. Additionally, students will study topics including, but not limited to, gear ratios, thermodynamics, DC motors, fuses, switches, motor controllers, variable resistors, rolling resistance, battery charging, battery management, torque, amperage draw, and energy efficiency.

In this course, students will design, build, program, and debug autonomous robots. The course is organized around increasingly complex hands-on challenges starting with “navigate the hallway while avoiding obstacles” and building up to “play sumo robots.” Students will work individually at times and in groups of up to three at others so that they may balance individual accountability and improve their group dynamics. Grading is based mostly on performance in the challenges as well as engineering notebooks with minimal testing. Programming and robotics experience is presumed to be zero, though space is made to challenge those who have it.

Introduction to Engineering is a project-based course where students solve real-world problems while learning process skills such as project management and technical skills such as 3D design and fabrication.

This is an algebra-based, introductory physics course appropriate for 11th- and 12th-grade students who have not previously taken a high school physics course. Students cultivate their understanding of physics through inquiry-based investigations as they explore topics such as: kinematics; forces; energy; momentum; electric charge and electric force; electric circuits; thermodynamics; magnetic fields; electromagnetism; optics; and quantum, atomic, and nuclear physics.

This is an advanced course for students who are interested in studying physics beyond the introductory level. The course will help students build and expand on their skills of problem-solving, experimental design, data analysis, and modeling. The course will explore mechanics, electricity & magnetism, and other topics such as nuclear physics, astrophysics, thermal physics, and optics & waves. Calculus will be used throughout the course. Work in this course can be extensive and demanding.

As the United States heads into its midterm elections, this course will put the headlines of the news cycle in historical perspective and challenge students to think critically about the mechanics of democracy. In this introduction to major topics in political science, we will explore the evolution of political parties; the role of advertising, polling, and campaign finance; and debates around suffrage, redistricting, and the Electoral College. A diverse source base will inform our study, including documentaries, podcasts, narrative nonfiction, and social media, as well as primary documents and scholarly articles. This one-term course will culminate with each student analyzing a 2022 Senate or Congressional race of their choice. In addition, class will include debates, role plays, and roundtable discussions as we consider the past, present, and future of American party politics.

This 10-topic policy course investigates US-China diplomacy in the context of China’s major domestic and international priorities from the Cold War to today. The course begins with an overview of China’s current challenges, including U.S.-China tensions, Hong Kong, the Taiwan question, Uighur Muslims, and COVID-19 response. It then steps back to the years just after WWII, when the U.S. laid groundwork for a fascinating and ever-evolving relationship with both the People’s Republic of China and the government in Taiwan. We take as our text Nina Hachigian’s Debating China: The U.S.-China Relationship in Ten Conversations, in which “China side” and “U.S. side” experts communicate in frank and open exchanges on topics such as trade, censorship, human rights, climate change and clean energy. We additionally use memoirs, documentary footage, art, and the wisdom of guest speakers to enhance our reading of high-level diplomatic exchanges. Finally, overviews of the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the Nixon visits, Deng Xiaoping’s “economic miracle,” and China’s Belt and Road Initiative help us track a relatively consistent and informed US policy towards China, even as we note important departures from that policy. Students discuss and debate their way through most of the course, and they wrap up with independent research on a present-day policy issue of their choice.

This course will examine the causes, conduct, patterns, and effects of asymmetric warfare from antiquity to ISIS. The course will draw on primary sources, historical texts, films, and case studies to reflect multiple perspectives. While case studies may range from Spartacus to Syria and from the Algerian FLN to the Colombian FARC, our common goal is to develop a framework for understanding the role of the United States in the fight against ISIS and al-Qaeda. Towards that end students will read academic theories of political violence in order to enhance their capacity to engage with social science research about topics that may include terrorism, truth and reconciliation, de-radicalization and reintegration of fighters, the role of intelligence services, and counterinsurgency tactics such as torture and assassination. Major themes of the course include the role of memory and identity in the construction of narrative and ideology; the primary skills it develops are critical thinking, writing, and discussion, assessed through policy memos, roundtables, and a major research project.

Would you rather go through life unable to remember, or unable to forget? What happens to a person if they are raised alone in a locked room, with little to no human interaction – will they ever learn to speak? Can the power of the group make you disbelieve your own eyes? In this elective you will learn about psychology’s most famous (and infamous) personalities and experiments as we analyze and interpret behavior and mental processes through activities, demonstrations, and discussion. We will read peer-reviewed journal articles, watch footage from original case studies and experiments, and think critically about the work of psychologists such as Solomon Asch, Albert Bandura, Elizabeth Loftus, Stanley Milgram, Philip Zimbardo and B.F. Skinner (to name just a few). You will leave this course with a demonstrated understanding of key topics in Social, Cognitive, Behavioral, and Abnormal Psychology, while also learning about the ethics and methods psychologists use in their science and practice. This one-term class is highly participatory in nature, and you will be asked to apply the concepts we study in class to your everyday life.

Native people inhabited the Americas well before Europeans arrived in the 10th (Norse) and 16th (Iberian) centuries. Native cultures are inextricably tied to the American story. This course begins to tell of the stories of Native peoples in the Americas through their history, their spirituality and their present lives, while attempting to highlight the Native voice in retelling these stories. Given the location of our inquiry, particular attention will be given to the Native populations that resided, and that also continue to reside, in New England states and southeastern Canadian provinces. Frequent field trips will take place to the settings of rich Native history in western MA, and a fall long weekend trip to a Native reservation may be an option.

The course explores the expression and idea of religion throughout our world and what the world’s religions attempt to explain. Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all called Abrahamic religions and all deeply connected to the historical person and idea of the Prophet Abraham, are the religions of over half of the world’s population. This class both looks at how that came to be and why. A primary consideration of this course is how the belief in a supernatural moral authority, named Yahweh, God, or Allah, respectively, informs our understanding of purpose and intervenes in lives lived through immensurable relationship with humankind. In this class we stand at a distance from personal belief, instead looking at the religious encounter of others through their worship practices, holy days, scriptures, historical figures and contemporary expressions in literature and media.

The course explores the expression and idea of religion throughout our world and what the world’s religions attempt to explain. Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, all called Dharmic religions given their emphasis on living a life of purpose by walking a particular path, secured their roots in the Indian-Asian subcontinent, and now are the religions of choice by approximately one in five persons that inhabit the Earth. This class first looks at Hiduism, arguably a monistic belief system, and then asks how Buddhism and Jainism came to flower in Indian soil from Hindu roots. In this class we stand at a distance from personal belief, instead looking at the religious encounter of others through their worship practices, holy days, scriptures, historical figures and contemporary expressions in literature and media, all the while recognizing what can be learned by viewing these traditions from our footing in the United States, a nation founded on Christian principles.

The course will examine how Earth came to be the planet we know today: a habitable but changing world, home to a diverse array of organisms, global feedback loops and interconnected biogeochemical systems. Students will explore deep geologic time starting with the early Earth, trace the evolutionary tree and examine the myriad of ways in which our planet shaped life and how life shaped our planet. The course will focus on both the biotic and abiotic dynamics that drive the interplay between the Sun and our planet’s ice, rocks, soil, atmosphere, freshwater and Ocean. Additionally, we will examine how humans have become integral drivers of planetary evolution, transforming Earth’s surface, waters and atmosphere and how humanity can harness our collective will to protect the planet for a bright future. Students will spend extensive time conducting project work outdoors and also develop an understanding of Geographic Information Systems software as a powerful tool for both science communication and geospatial data analysis. This course does not fulfill the Science graduation requirement.

The course begins with an overview of climate science, including atmospheric composition, biogeochemical cycles, principles of energy conservation and flow, the greenhouse effect, atmospheric and oceanic circulation, and natural climate variability. Students will investigate recent anthropogenic climate change, examining both causes and consequences. Students will examine agriculture systems, comparative biomes – looking at depth into freshwater and marine ecosystems, while taking advantage of the deciduous forest ecosystem in our backyard. As a means to addressing environmental justice, students will look at Environmental Law and Policy. Finally, we will study energy systems; both conventional non-renewables as well as novel renewable energy systems in addition to adaptation/mitigation efforts that will guide humanity’s future. With some independent work, students can be well-prepared for the AP Environmental Science exam. We will take frequent field trips to best take advantage of the natural splendor of the Pocumtuck Valley.

The modern world is experiencing rapid anthropogenic climatic and environmental changes that present clear and immediate challenges for humanity. This course will challenge students to build upon their previous research experience in advanced science courses to further refine their experimental and analytical skills. Conservation, restoration, adaptation and mitigation will all play important roles as we navigate changing planetary systems and this course will focus on how humanity can harness our knowledge of the natural world to guide us. The campus as well as adjoining forests, fields and rivers will serve as field sites throughout the year as students explore the natural world, develop research questions, carry out field/lab projects. Students will also use remote environmental sensing and Geographic Information Systems software to query and develop conservation/sustainability strategies at the local, landscape and global levels. Students enrolled in ES600 should be prepared to spend time outdoors conducting research throughout the year and in a range of weather conditions.

What is race? What is racism? How did the concept of race emerge and (how) has the understanding of what race means changed over time? What forces caused these changes? How do the forms and expressions of racism affect the lived experience of them? Are there circumstances or strategies that amplify, minimize or eliminate racism? Over ten weeks, we will explore these questions and others through the lenses of unique disciplines (including History, Biology, Philosophy, Art, Economics, Sociology, and more), employing the distinct methods and dispositions of each to come to a richer understanding of race and racism. Students will confront the driving forces, machinery, and consequences of racism in the United States, and across the globe. Students will have nightly readings, engage in daily seminar discussions and regular journal writing, and develop independent projects. This is a one-term course.

Sports act as a mirror that reflects who we were, who we are, and who we want to be. This class prepares students to be honest about those reflections by balancing narratives of criticism and narratives of celebration. Working with academic articles from the interdisciplinary field of sport studies and various popular culture sources that students are likely to encounter through media in their daily lives, the class uses sport as a lens through which to understand systems of power and privilege in global society. Students undertake inquiry into the role of capitalism in shaping sports industries, the relationship sports have with international politics, and the multicultural development of competitive athletic circuits throughout the world, among other topics. As they explore the historical context and implications of ongoing conversations and controversies, students practice critical analysis, engage in timely debates, and produce both reflective and analytical pieces of writing that interrogate the very category of what constitutes sport and how different conceptions of sport shape identity at personal and national levels.

Why do pollution crises like the one that struck Flint, Michigan, in 2014 happen most often in places with majority Latinx and African American populations? How did centuries of colonialism shape the toll Hurricane Maria took on Puerto Rico? How have initiatives to protect wild animals in East Africa or generate clean energy on the Yangtze River been used to subjugate people? Why has the National Park Service struggled to attract non-white visitors? As sociologists, we will ask these types of questions as we consider how every environmental problem is a social problem, too. We will investigate how communities have combatted inequities in access to land and resources and threats to the health of their people and landscapes, both in the years since and the decades before the term “environmental justice” appeared in the 1980s. Our exploration will lead us to cognate contemporary movements, such as Landback, climate justice, Black Lives Matter, and food justice. Throughout, we will ask how “the environment” is being defined, by whom, and to what ends.†Readings, audio, and films will take us across centuries and continents. Along the way, students will sharpen their research and communication skills, and learn how to script, record, and edit podcasts.

In this introductory course, students learn basic Spanish communication skills – including vocabulary and grammar – while exploring new cultures and traditions. They expand their knowledge of the Spanish-speaking world and engage in learning through collaboration, investigation and practice using text, video and audio materials. An emphasis on speaking, listening, reading and basic writing guides the course. Students complete this level excited for and interested in further Spanish language acquisition. Class is conducted primarily in Spanish. Open to all students; juniors and seniors need permission from the Academic Affairs Office.

In this course, students continue their exploration of Spanish by focusing on Spanish grammar and vocabulary, applied to “real life” situations. We work to further develop the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing, while at the same time exploring the Spanish-speaking world through a wide variety of materials, including literature, film, music, periodicals, and various web-based resources. Students develop their command of Spanish structures and vocabulary, their ability to communicate when writing and speaking, and a deeper understanding of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. Class is conducted primarily in Spanish.

Spanish 3 is an intermediate level course in which students review the grammatical structures from the beginning sequence while developing their communicative abilities. The class also studies in greater depth the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world, using articles, books, films, and other authentic materials as starting points for studying topics pertinent to Latin America and Spain. Conversational fluency is developed through daily pair and group activities, and oral exams and projects push students to express longer and more complex thoughts. The class also focuses on more extensive reading and writing practice, and students are frequently required to write reflections and essays in Spanish. Class is conducted in Spanish.

This 300 level course is designed to meet the needs of students who speak Spanish in their home environment, but who have little or no formal education in the language. Placement will be determined by the Spanish placement test and subsequent oral interview. The course aims to help students build upon the language skills they already possess while gaining a deeper understanding of their cultural heritage. Students in their course will expand their vocabulary, deepen their understanding of Spanish grammar, learn to recognize and use various language registers, and develop academic reading and writing skills. The cultural content of the course will include topics of identity, bilingualism, biculturalism, the history and usage of Spanish in the United States, and cultural production of Latinx communities. After successfully completing the Spanish for Heritage Speakers course, students will have completed their language graduation requirement. Those students who choose to continue to study Spanish will work with their teacher to determine if they should take Spanish 4 or Spanish 5 the following year.

Spanish 3 Honors is designed for students who have excelled in Spanish 2. Students review all of the major grammatical structures at a fast pace while developing their communicative abilities. The class also studies in depth the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world, using articles, books, films, and other authentic materials as starting points for studying topics pertinent to Latin America. A full term is devoted to reading a Latin American novel. Conversational fluency is developed through daily pair and group activities, and oral exams and projects push students to express longer and more complex thoughts. The class also focuses on more extensive reading and writing practice, and students are frequently required to write reflections and essays. The students who excel in Spanish 3 Honors are recommended for Spanish 5. Class is conducted in Spanish. Recommendation will be made by the department.

Which works of art reveal a moment in the history of a country? Which songs unveil the stories of its people? Which films transport us to a different place and allow us to experience another culture? Throughout the year, students are exposed to varied cultural materials and experiences that foster a deeper understanding of the values and practices of the target culture. Individual and collaborative work allows students to develop greater proficiency in the structures of the language and expand their knowledge of the diversity of voices within the Spanish-speaking world. Activities include in-class discussion, group activities, compositions and journal writing centered on the active use of language and a review of the most important aspects of Spanish grammar. Materials include extensive readings (literary and journalistic texts) and audiovisual sources (film). Class is conducted in Spanish.

This course follows most of the curriculum from the regular Spanish 4 course but adds a community service component. The Spanish 4 – CS course is open to those who have finished Spanish 3 or 3H at Deerfield and who wish to serve the community while continuing their Spanish studies. This course is a full academic year commitment. We ask that students speak with their current teacher prior to signing up for this class to express their interest in the community service component. The community service project(s) in which students participate may vary in response to local conditions, but may include teaching Spanish to young children and working with local schools and organizations. Class is conducted in Spanish. Selection will be made by the department.

In this advanced course, students continue to develop oral and written proficiency in Spanish through the study of the literatures, cultures, and politics of the contemporary Spanish speaking world. By way of fiction, film, music, and periodicals, students will explore complex topics such as national identity, political resistance, gender and politics, and migration, while deepening their understanding of Spanish structures and vocabulary. The course provides students with the critical tools necessary to engage with Spanish-speaking cultures from local, national and transnational perspectives. This class is conducted in Spanish.

In this spring term course, students will continue with their study of Spanish language and culture at the same time that they prepare for the AP exam in Spanish Language and Culture. Students in this course will be expected to take the AP exam.

This course allows our most advanced students of Spanish to delve further into the language, cultures and literatures of the Spanish-speaking world. The course readings include a broad sampling across both traditional and modern literary genres, so students might read novels, short stories, essays, poetry and theater, and they will also learn about blogs, new media, comics, film, and other visual arts. Through this development of visual literacy students will hone their analytical and critical thinking skills and deepen their appreciation of the depth and range of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. By the end of the course, the students will be able to use Spanish flexibly and effectively for both academic and intercultural purposes. This is an honors-level course.

This is a film appreciation course conducted in Spanish. It allows our most advanced students to get acquainted with the grammar of cinema and with the concepts and terminology needed to analyze movies and write film criticism. The course surveys the cinemas of several Spanish speaking countries and encourages students to make fictional movies and documentaries dialog with other artistic expressions such as novels, graphic novels, short stories, and poems. Students also make a few creative audiovisual projects to better understand the cinematic concepts under study.

This course introduces students to key principles of drama and theatrical performance in Spanish. It is an opportunity to learn about theatrical traditions of Spanish-speaking cultures by means of textual analysis, acting and staging techniques, and critical appreciation of Spanish, Latin American and Latinx theatrical productions. Class assignments include playwrights’ labs, brief translation projects, radical adaptations of monologues and short scenes from classical plays, and a final performance.

This is a topic course for advanced speakers of Spanish who have finished Spanish 6 at Deerfield Academy. It is a course especially designed for those students who have reached the top level of our curriculum and wish to continue their Spanish studies. Readings will continue beyond the Spanish 6 curriculum and delve more deeply into Latin American literature. Class is conducted in Spanish. This course is not offered every year.

This course explores the basic principles of acting including ensemble building, improvisation, voice, movement, textual analysis and theater vocabulary. Class assignments include writing and performing monologues, and presenting group scenes and projects. Additionally, students explore various plays from classical to contemporary. No previous acting experience is necessary.

See THE200 description.

Acting II is for students interested in expanding their ability to communicate through a variety of techniques that engage the individual and ensemble physically, mentally and emotionally. Through monologues, scene work, and improvisation, students explore the act of making theater of all types. No previous acting experience is necessary. May be taken as 6th course: THE300P.

See THE300 description.

Committed acting students are encouraged to progress to a more advanced study of acting and to contribute to the development of a creative ensemble. In addition to learning more complex acting techniques in preparation for the scene work to come, students delve into the world of directing for theater. Students work on a major directing assignment, which culminates in directing a scene with their peers as performers, from their chosen play. Several plays from around the world are also read and analyzed throughout the term.No previous acting experience is necessary.May be taken as 6th course: THE400P.

See THE400 description.

This course analyzes and critiques classic and contemporary cinema from around the world. We shall examine basic elements of film production, comparative filmmaking styles and various genres such as Film Noir, Surrealism and Italian Neo-realism. Additionally, students study prominent international filmmakers. Weekly screenings are mandatory.

This elective is for students who have an interest in a more in-depth study of theater. In addition to honing performance skills, students will explore a number of wide-ranging plays of different genres from around the world. There will also be several performance and directing opportunities throughout the term, culminating in a class presentation.

See THE510 description.