jpwood

Concepts of Matter: A Brief Philosophical History of the Concept of Matter
CHUM 313
Fall 2015 Section: 01
Crosslisting: PHIL 310

In this course, we will explore changing notions of matter in Western thought from classical Greek thought through the quantum revolution in physics, and philosophical debates about their implications. We will begin with views of matter in Plato, Aristotle, and the ancient atomists and how they were interrelated with views of human beings: the devaluation of matter and the body in the Platonistic and Gnostic thought, the perhaps surprisingly positive attitude taken toward death without a hope of continued existence by the materialist Lucretius, and the appropriation of Aristotle’s hylomorphic philosophy into Christian theology and Scholastic science in the late middle ages. We will then look at the emergence of a conception of “material substance” in the 17th century, examining the differences between the mathematical formulations of Galileo and Descartes and those of atomists such as Gassendi. The remainder of the section will focus on the rise of materialism and reactions against it: Descartes and Hobbes on the question of whether human beings are merely machines, the Newton-Leibniz debate about the activity of God in nature, Laplace’s demon and the deterministic interpretation of classical mechanics, and the 19th-century reactions of romanticism and spiritualism. Finally, we will examine the radical and counterintuitive changes in the notion of matter occasioned by quantum mechanics, as well as interpretations that put consciousness and subjectivity back into the collapse of the wave function. We will consider whether contemporary physics really has the kind of notion of “material substance” needed for a traditional form of materialism before concluding with readings from philosophers and physicists in the recent revivals of dualism and panpsychism.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA PHIL
Course Format: Seminar Grading Mode: Graded
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Introduction to Experimental Music (MUSC 109)
Fall 2015; Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1:10 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., RHH 003

This course is a survey of recent and historical electronic and instrumental experimental works, with emphasis on the works of American composers. Starting with early experimentalists, germinal works of John Cage and Henry Cowell, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff, and Morton Feldman will be studied; followed by electronic and minimal works of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, David Behrman, Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier Robert Ashley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Laurie Anderson, Glenn Branca, John Zorn, and including discussions of recent work by composers, performers, and sound artists such as Luke DuBois, Tristan Perich, Jacob Cooper, Lesley Flanigan, Nick Hallett, Jace Clayton (DJ /rupture), Jennifer Walshe, and Object Collection. The course includes lectures, demonstrations, and performances, occasionally by guest lecturers.

The Sexual Assault Survivors Support Group for female-identified survivors will be held on Tuesdays beginning September 22th-December 8th from 5:30-6:45PM. Meetings will follow an open support group format and participants determine group topics each week.
Contact Alysha B. Warren, LPC, Therapist/Sexual Violence Resource Coordinator (awarren[at]wesleyan[dot]edu) to sign up no later than Thursday, September 17th. Reference “Tuesday Support Group” in subject line of email.
Dates: Tuesdays, September 22nd-December 8th
Time: 5:30-6:45PM

The following Psychology classes still have many seats available for all students, including first year students. Instructors have indicated that they will waive the prerequisite as noted (and will adjust the class accordingly):

PSYC 251 Sec 01 & 02: Psychopathology (will waive Intro)
PSYC 221 Sec 01 & 02: Human Memory (will waive Intro)
PSYC 322: Psychology of Decision Making (no prereqs)
PSYC 203: Sec 01 & 02: Quantitative Methods (will waive Stats, but not Intro)

See WesMaps for course details. Please make an enrollment request and attend the next class! Also, please note that if you are/ are intending to major in Psychology, you should not miss this opportunity to take the research methods course requirement for the major while there are seats available. This newly added course is standard general methods course that will prepare you well for future research opportunities in the major.

Introduction to Experimental Music (MUSC 109)
Fall 2015; Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1:10 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., RHH 003

This course is a survey of recent and historical electronic and instrumental experimental works, with emphasis on the works of American composers. Starting with early experimentalists, germinal works of John Cage and Henry Cowell, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff, and Morton Feldman will be studied; followed by electronic and minimal works of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, David Behrman, Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier Robert Ashley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Laurie Anderson, Glenn Branca, John Zorn, and including discussions of recent work by composers, performers, and sound artists such as Luke DuBois, Tristan Perich, Jacob Cooper, Lesley Flanigan, Nick Hallett, Jace Clayton (DJ /rupture), Jennifer Walshe, and Object Collection. The course includes lectures, demonstrations, and performances, occasionally by guest lecturers.

Still looking for a fourth class? Consider taking HIST 319: Crisis, Creativity and Modernity in the Weimar Republic, 1918-1933. W, 1:10-4:00 pm, ALLB 304. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Even though this is listed as an advanced History seminar, the pace and content does not differ much from frosh and sophomore seminars that have been taught by Professor Erik Grimmer-Solem in the History Department in the past, so first and second year students shouldn’t be intimidated. This seminar on the Weimar Republic is easily one of the most interesting courses that he teaches on campus. In past years, students in this class have produced fascinating research papers on such topics as Weimar-era photography, advertising, inflation, Dadaism, expressionist painting, social democracy, early Nazism, Bauhaus architecture and design, sports and athleticism in Weimar culture, cabaret and cultural critique, nudism, the women’s movement, Berlin in film, and German-Jewish identity. The readings cover a wide range of topics, so there’s something for everyone interested in an era that produced some of the most iconic examples of modernism. As the professor will be on sabbatical after December and will have other teaching commitments when he returns, it’s quite likely that this will be the last time this course will be offered in the next 3-4 years. Professor Grimmer-Solem was the recipient of the Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2013 and the Carol A. Baker ’81 Memorial Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Research in 2005. More about him here: http://egrimmer.web.wesleyan.edu/

If you’re interested but not a junior or senior, please just put in an enrollment request and come to the first session of class on Wednesday, 1:10-4:00 pm in ALLB 304.

Full course description: https://iasext.wesleyan.edu/regprod/!wesmaps_page.html?crse=012852&term=1159

Dear ’18,
Welcome back! I hope that you’re all settled in and ready for drop/add.
Just a quick reminder about your interim class deans:

A-F: David Phillips (dphillips@wesleyan.edu)
G-O: Louise S. Brown (lsbrown@wesleyan.edu)
P-Z: Jennifer P. Wood (jpwood@wesleyan.edu)

We’re here for you, so please be in touch via email or during our drop-in hours, which are listed below.
The process of looking for your new class dean is underway.
Best,
Dean Wood

Melissa Rosario (Visiting Assistant Professor)

Resisting Racism, Extraction, and Dispossession in the Americas

ANTH 217
Fall 2015
Crosslisting: LAST 217
M.W… 11:00AM-12:20PM

In this course, we examine land based social movements as responses to the legacies of empire and colonialism. We begin with an overview of the ideologies of economic and political “progress” that justified the dispossession of indigenous and racialized groups in the Americas. Then we will turn away from the logic of imperial domination to consider alternative forms of knowledge and practice that posit new relationships between nature and society. Of special focus will be a range of ethnographies of land-based movements including the Zapatistas, Garifuna, and MST (Movimento Sem Terra) as well as feminist, indigenous, and anti-racist theories informed by the forms of resistance and decolonization that we have studied.

Sarah Newman (Visiting Assistant Professor)
Talking Trash
ANTH 112
Fall 2015
Crosslisting: ARCP 112
T.R.. 10:30AM-11:50AM

Every day, we make conscious and unconscious decisions that define what we consider clean or dirty, good or bad, valuable or expendable. As the familiar saying goes, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” At an individual and societal level, our ways of wasting affect both the world we inhabit and our place within it. This course draws on readings in archaeology, anthropology, history, psychology, material culture studies, and environmental science to explore one of humanity’s most prodigious products and greatest legacies: trash. We will study conceptions of waste from different times, places, and perspectives, as well as the impact of refuse on our everyday behavior, systems of ethics and meaning, and interactions with the environment.

The Pre-Columbian World: 100 Objects
ANTH 227
Fall 2015
Crosslisting: ARCP 227, ARHA 227
T.R.. 02:40PM-04:00PM

From cities of gold and frightful gods to apocalyptic calendars and ritual human sacrifice, the ancient Americas are both sensational and sensationalized. This course delves deeper into the Pre-Columbian world by examining 100 objects made and left behind by indigenous Americans. We will explore cultures and histories in North, Central, and South America from the peopling of the New World over 10,000 years ago to the arrival of Europeans at the end of the fifteenth century. Organizational themes include: the domestication of plants and animals, notions of rulership and authority, modes of communication, and religious ideologies.

Please look over this document to learn more:

Audition%20PDF
Best,
Dean Wood

Dear ’18,
I’m Jennifer Wood, dean for the class of 2019, and I’ll taking over the ’18 blog until your new dean is hired.
Please see below regarding new Psychology courses.
Best,
Dean Wood

The Psychology Department has added several new courses for the fall (listed below). They are all in WesMaps. To ensure that they would not completely fill over the summer, the courses were indicated to be by permission-of-instructor (POI) but most simply require the stated prerequisites (typically PSYC 105) for admission, assuming seats are available. If you are interested in one of these courses, you should make an enrollment request as soon as it is possible to do so, and plan to attend the first class (or let the professor know if you cannot attend).

Introductory Research Methods:
PSYC 203-01 Quantitative Research Methods, MF 1:10-2:30
PSYC 203-02 Quantitative Research Methods, MF 2:40-4:00

Column 1 Breadth Course:
PSYC 221-01 Human Memory, TR 10:30-11:50
PSYC 221-02 Human Memory, TR 1:10-2:30

Column 2 Breadth Course:
PSYC 251-01 Psychopathology, MWF 9:00-9:50
PSYC 251-02 Psychopathology, MWF 10:00-10:50

Specialized Courses:
PSYC 322 Psychology of Decision Making, T 1:10-4:00
PSYC 350 Seminar on Eating Disorders, MW 1:10-2:30