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Master of Liberal Arts and Science

Master of Liberal Arts and Science
  2. Course Information
  3. Current Roster

Current Roster

Summer 2025

The MLAS Summer 2025 term will run from Tuesday, June 3 through Thursday, August 7.

 

MLAS 6100:    Seminar in Humanities:  Jewish American History through Literature and Film, 1905-1975
Prof. Adam Meyer, Department of Jewish Studies
Course meets Tuesday evenings, 6:00-8:30 pm
Course Description : This course will describe the chronology of Jewish American life, particularly the experiences of Eastern European immigrants and their families, through the dual lenses of Jewish American literature and film. We will begin with the immigrant generation and move through the tumultuous years of World War II and into the time of the Civil Rights Movement. Authors to be read include Abraham Cahan, Laura Z. Hobson, Arthur Miller, Philip Roth, and Chaim Potok; films to be screened include Hester Street, The Front, The Pawnbroker, and Driving Miss Daisy.
(Fine and Creative Arts, History, Literature and Creative Writing, Social Science)

 

MLAS 6400: Seminar in Literature and Creative Writing: Playwriting and Screenwriting
Prof. Judy Klass, Department of Jewish Studies
Course meets Wednesday evenings, 6:00-8:30 pm
Course Description: These two kinds of scriptwriting are very different. Playwriting emphasizes dialogue and character development, with scenes that unfold slowly and reveal layers of people and changes in their relationships. Writing for the movies means telling a story visually, usually with much quicker scenes, some with no dialogue, and employing cinematic techniques (match-cuts, montages, inter-cutting, frames within frames) when they enhance a script. We'll read famous stage plays and screenplays, and scenes from others, and watch some works on screen in class -- and students will write monologues for the stage, scenes for two characters, then more characters ... and then short, silent screenplays, "music videos" (writing out visuals to go with a favorite song), and short screenplays with synch sound. We'll discuss Hollywood three-act structure, "road movies," "buddy movies," adapting a script originally written for the stage -- "opening it up" so that it works on screen -- and we'll look at options and choices for both kinds of writers. Ambitious students are welcome to plot and complete full-length plays and full-length screenplays along the way.
(Fine and Creative Arts, Literature and Creative Writing)