all set to go

Monday: 4-6:20 Cultural Technologies of Memory
Tuesday: 9-10:20 Hooke's Micrographia
Wednesday: 10:30-12:30 Ecology & Evolution; 3:15-5:45 Introduction to Global Information Systems
Thurs: 9-10:20 Hooke's Micrographia; 1:30-3:50 Writing the World
Friday: 9:30-12:30 Ecology & Evolution lab

not too shabby at all. it will be great having most of monday off. means i can get away for a weekend if necessary and not have to worry about the sunday rush back to school.

a little recap of what these classes are actually about:

BIO 202 Ecology & Evolution
This core course for biology majors is an introduction to the general principles of ecology and evolution that, with genetics, form the core of biological understanding. In addition to studying foundational ideas in both ecology and evolution, we will explore modern topics at the boundary between these two areas. We will consider, for example, how genetic variation among individual organisms can influence ecological interactions, and how these interactions can influence fitness. We will focus on a mechanistic understanding of processes, using model-building to inform that understanding.

ANTH 332 Cultural Technologiesof Memory
This course is organized around several practices and technologies that produce collective and personal memory. The class will explore a distinction commonly made between 'memory' and 'history', asking on what basis this distinction is made and how it maps on to our ideas about foreign places and people. The techniques and technologies of public memory we will examine may include ancient "memory palaces," historical writing, oral narrative, ritual, myth, monuments, museums and archives. We will also explore how radio and photography are used to produce national and familial representations of the past. The focus in each section will be on how the particular medium of remembering shapes the content of what is remembered. We will address who has access to memory practices, stressing the link between the production of particular memories and their political uses. The class will give students a theoretical base to write a final research paper that situates a contemporary memory practice in its specific cultural and historical context: the recent proliferation of family genealogies, Holocaust testimonies and/or museums, the truth commissions, local histories are among a few possible examples.

HIST 164 Hooke's Micrographia
A monument of natural philosophy and scientific illustration, Robert Hooke's Micrographia (1665) was the first laboratory manual in microscopy. A great experimentalist, Hooke developed his research as a Fellow of the newly founded Royal Society of London. Hooke and his colleagues intended the work to be a manifesto of experimental method and faith in progress. They also hoped Hooke's observations would lend credence to atomism, a notorious ancient philosophy that was being rehabilitated in the seventeenth century. The work's descriptive and experimental language suggests objectivity, as does the author's recourse to geometric principles. Yet Hooke's treatise is also permeated with a theological agenda. We will read the Micrographia, examining its philosophical antecedents and experimental foundations. We will also investigate Hooke's life and work, his association with the Royal Society and contemporary savants, as well as the links between science and society during the Scientific Revolution.

ES 308 Geographic Information Systems
2 credits This course is designed to provide undergraduate students with a comprehensive review of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and remote sensing technologies as they are used in a variety of social and environmental science applications. Through a mixture of lectures, readings and hands-on exercises, students will acquire an understanding of the structure of spatial data and databases, basic cartographic principles and data visualization techniques, how to conduct spatial analysis and methods for developing sound GIS project design and management practices. Upon completing this class, students will:
* Understand the fundamental concepts of geographic information systems and their relationship with other information management systems.
* Gain familiarity with GIS software for conducting basic GIS analyses and producing cartographic products.
* Conduct studies typically carried out in GIS including site selection, analysis of spatial/temporal processes, assess environmental impacts, geocode data and conduct point pattern analysis.

LIT 124 Writing the World: Nonfiction Prose
This is a course in two skills: learning to make excellent nonfiction prose and learning to see the world around you. When it comes to the art of nonfiction prose, the emphasis nearly always falls on the personal, and especially on essay and memoir. In this course, I want to turn our gaze outward and to think about how we write from direct experience of events. Our models will be drawn from history and from the broad category of nonfiction writing often, and absurdly, called "current events." Our goal will be to become compelling witnesses and makers of acute prose—but our goal will also be art, not journalism. Students will be expected to write 4-5 pages every week.

it looks pretty, great, actually. i think it will be a really engaging semester. some bio, some practical environmental tools, some philosophy, some history, some human rights, some (lots) writing. and it ends up most of my friends are living in/very close to my dorm. excellent.

Cosmicomics so far is really great.