- Teacher: Marianne Milligan
Macalester Moodle
Search results: 2234
Course Description:
This course examines and critically analyzes various approaches to the study of how different individuals and communities in particular historical and cultural scenarios in contemporary Latin America create meanings about their past experience with political violence. The course addresses questions related to the tension between remembering and forgetting, the presence of conflicting memories and truths and how these are negotiated or not through distinct forms of representation. The cultural analysis of different means of representation: human rights and truth commissions’ reports, testimonials, film, art and memorials will be the basis for class discussions on different notions of truth and different forms of truth-telling. A close examination of these forms of representation will reveal the extent to which they can conflict with each other while at the same time feed on each other, creating “effects of truth” and leaving room for secrecy as a mode of truth-telling. Finally, the course will also compel students to think about what the consequences the politics of memory have for the future in Latin America.
The content and discussion in this course will necessarily engage with historical contexts and personal testimonies of violence that include arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, sexual violence, genocide, massacres, extrajudicial execution and disappearances. Much of the material will be emotionally and intellectually challenging to engage with. We will do our best to flag especially graphic or intense content that discusses or represents violence and will do our best to make this classroom a space where we can engage bravely, empathetically and thoughtfully with difficult content every week.
This course examines and critically analyzes various approaches to the study of how different individuals and communities in particular historical and cultural scenarios in contemporary Latin America create meanings about their past experience with political violence. The course addresses questions related to the tension between remembering and forgetting, the presence of conflicting memories and truths and how these are negotiated or not through distinct forms of representation. The cultural analysis of different means of representation: human rights and truth commissions’ reports, testimonials, film, art and memorials will be the basis for class discussions on different notions of truth and different forms of truth-telling. A close examination of these forms of representation will reveal the extent to which they can conflict with each other while at the same time feed on each other, creating “effects of truth” and leaving room for secrecy as a mode of truth-telling. Finally, the course will also compel students to think about what the consequences the politics of memory have for the future in Latin America.
The content and discussion in this course will necessarily engage with historical contexts and personal testimonies of violence that include arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, sexual violence, genocide, massacres, extrajudicial execution and disappearances. Much of the material will be emotionally and intellectually challenging to engage with. We will do our best to flag especially graphic or intense content that discusses or represents violence and will do our best to make this classroom a space where we can engage bravely, empathetically and thoughtfully with difficult content every week.
- Teacher: Olga González
- Teacher: Christina Spicher
- Teacher: Sarah West
- Teacher: Pete Ferderer
- Teacher: Colin Massoglia
- Teacher: Minh Nguyen
- Teacher: Shilad Sen
- Teacher: Yixiao Wang
Climate change is no longer a distant, hypothetical threat. Yet, though more than half of Americans are “concerned” or “alarmed” about global warming, few are taking significant personal action in response, and only a small minority are involved in civic action to address the issue.
This course will take a broad psychological perspective on the questions, “Why are we not doing enough to address global climate change?” and "What will catalyze the social movement necessary to address the issue?" The class will explore psychological theories and studies that help explain why people respond to the climate crisis in the ways they do, and what psychological research tells us about how to shift that response.
This course will take a broad psychological perspective on the questions, “Why are we not doing enough to address global climate change?” and "What will catalyze the social movement necessary to address the issue?" The class will explore psychological theories and studies that help explain why people respond to the climate crisis in the ways they do, and what psychological research tells us about how to shift that response.
- Teacher: Christie Manning

Reading Plays guides students in close readings of dramatic literature, in particular of plays that are typically left out of the traditional theatrical canon.
Students will learn about the socio-historical context of each play, and in-
class exercises will introduce them to the foundation of script analysis: they will
examine the play's given circumstances, dialogue, dramatic action, characters, and style. Students will read a new play every week; assignments include weekly in- class writing exercises and short critical papers. This course introduces students to contemporary Indigenous theatre and performance (writ large) produced and performed in what is now known as Canada and the United States, and to the theoretical frames provided by Indigenous scholars and artists to engage with these works. While in no way exhaustive, this broad survey includes theatre, dance, film, and music and begins in the 1960’s and ends with current productions.
Students will learn about the socio-historical context of each play, and in-
class exercises will introduce them to the foundation of script analysis: they will
examine the play's given circumstances, dialogue, dramatic action, characters, and style. Students will read a new play every week; assignments include weekly in- class writing exercises and short critical papers. This course introduces students to contemporary Indigenous theatre and performance (writ large) produced and performed in what is now known as Canada and the United States, and to the theoretical frames provided by Indigenous scholars and artists to engage with these works. While in no way exhaustive, this broad survey includes theatre, dance, film, and music and begins in the 1960’s and ends with current productions.
- Teacher: Sam Mitchell
Course Description
Like Latin and Greek in Europe, Sanskrit is a highly inflected language of scholarship, and revered in India as the perfect medium for discourse on everything from science and sex to philosophy and religion. (In modern Hindi, sanskriti means “culture.”) It flourished in its classical form after the age of the Buddha (5th century BC) and served as a scholarly lingua franca in India until the Islamic period and beyond. This course serves as an introduction to the grammar and script of Sanskrit, and we will advance to a point of reading simplified texts from the classical epic Ramayana. Students will be expected to attend class regularly and spend six hours a week outside class studying the grammar and vocabulary. Without this sort of effort, no progress is possible in such a complex language. In addition to the rigorous study of the language, we will consider both the role of the language in classical Indian culture and religion, and some texts from the Ramayana, looking at both English translations and Sanskrit originals.
Like Latin and Greek in Europe, Sanskrit is a highly inflected language of scholarship, and revered in India as the perfect medium for discourse on everything from science and sex to philosophy and religion. (In modern Hindi, sanskriti means “culture.”) It flourished in its classical form after the age of the Buddha (5th century BC) and served as a scholarly lingua franca in India until the Islamic period and beyond. This course serves as an introduction to the grammar and script of Sanskrit, and we will advance to a point of reading simplified texts from the classical epic Ramayana. Students will be expected to attend class regularly and spend six hours a week outside class studying the grammar and vocabulary. Without this sort of effort, no progress is possible in such a complex language. In addition to the rigorous study of the language, we will consider both the role of the language in classical Indian culture and religion, and some texts from the Ramayana, looking at both English translations and Sanskrit originals.
- Teacher: James Laine


