Upcoming Roster

Spring 2025

The MLAS Spring 2025 term will run from Monday, January 13 through Monday, April 21.

 

MLAS 6200: Seminar in Fine and Creative Arts: The History of Fashion: Theory and Practice
Prof. Alexandra Sargent Capps , Director, Fiber Arts Build Lab, the Wond’ry Center for Innovation
Wednesday evenings, 6:00-8:30 pm
Course Description:
Survey of fashion history, ancient to modern, with an emphasis on fashion as it relates to art and architecture, and how it reflects women's roles and lifestyle. We will explore hands-on sewing techniques to learn about the characteristics of a variety of textiles and their application to fashion design and production.
(Fine and Creative Arts, History, Social Science)

 

MLAS 6300: Seminar in History: The French and Haitian Revolutions
Prof. Paul Miller , Department of French and Italian
Thursday evenings, 6:00-8:30 pm
Course Description: What were the French and Haitian Revolutions?
The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek recounts that in 1953, that when the Chinese Premier was asked about his opinion regarding the French Revolution, his response was, “It’s too early to tell.”  Seventy years later, it’s perhaps still too early. The French Revolution (1789-1799) liberated French society from two entrenched tyrannical forces: the church and the monarchy. It also dramatically democratized French society, reformed its institutions and culminated in the execution of Louis XVI and the Terror of 1793, still one of the most misunderstood and yet emblematic phases of the French Revolution. The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), the world’s only successful slave rebellion, was an event inextricably linked to France (Saint Domingue was the world’s richest colony), and yet bizarrely this massive upheaval (Napoleon lost more troops fighting again Haitians than at Waterloo) until recently was generally overlooked by historians of the “Age of Revolution."
In this course, we will ask the question, “What were the Haitian and French Revolutions?” In an attempt to respond, we will read novels, historical and philosophical essays, watch films, listen to music, contemplate paintings; in short, we will study the representations of the French and Haitian Revolutions in an attempt not only to understand what happened but to continue gauging the meaning of these seismic events for our own time.  Students will write weekly reaction papers to the material and undertake an independent research project for a final presentation. 
(History, Social Science)

   

MLAS 6400: Seminar in Literature and Creative Writing: Don Quijote and the Development of the Novel
Prof. Andrés Zamora , Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Tuesday evenings, 6:00-8:30 pm
Course Description: The Wondrous Don Quijote and the Development of the Novel
This course will focus on a close reading and analysis of Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quijote, so prevalent in many bucket lists of those aspiring to graduate in intellectual literacy and accrue cultural capital. In Don Quijote the main character suffers from a literature-induced malady not altogether different from the current fake news affliction or some effects of the contemporary computer games pervasiveness: he is not able to distinguish between reality and fiction, he thinks that everything printed must be true, and he acts on that belief by deciding to willfully turn himself into a knight errant with all the necessary accoutrements. Don Quijote, accompanied by his somewhat reluctant squire Sancho Panza, has the best of intentions, if not the most successful results. In addition, the very act of narrating his quests, adventures, and misadventures becomes a fundamental part of the text, thus, becoming a metatext, a self-referential narrative in which ultimately the character shares the stage with the author himself, who undertakes explorations of his own. Spanish society is on display, but so are the literary forms of the day, to be acknowledged and often satirized. Don Quijote is, therefore, a novel and a theory of the novel, brilliantly comic but profound and oftentimes somber, as well. It serves as a type of template for future novels and, accordingly, for future literary experiments, as texts engage and challenge tradition. Don Quijote will be the centerpiece of the seminar, along with examples of experimental fiction from the twentieth century and a Netflix mini-series of the new millennium.
(Literature and Creative Writing, History, Social Science)

 

MLAS 7340: Interdisciplinary Selected Topics - Capstone Workshop 
Faculty Instructor, TBD. 

 

Summer 2025

The MLAS Summer 2025 term will run from Monday, June 2 through Thursday, August 7.

 

MLAS 6100:  Seminar in Humanities: Jewish American History through Literature and Film, 1905-1975
Prof. Adam S. Meyer
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.

 

MLAS 6400: Seminar in Literature and Creative Writing: Playwriting and Screenwriting
Prof. Judith A. Klass
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. 

 

10/28/24