Courses
A year-long course designed for international students who are new to writing in English. Course objectives: teaching students the elements of formal writing, including spelling, grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure, paragraph structure, and the elements of thesis, evidence, and conclusion.
A year-long course designed for international students new to writing in English. The course introduces foundational writing practices and teaches formal writing skills. Course objectives: teaching students the elements of formal writing, including spelling, grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure, paragraph structure, and the elements of thesis, evidence, and conclusion.
Prerequisite(s): PY.260.021[C]
A year-long course to prepare students for college-level writing. This course introduces students to foundational academic writing skills in summary, citation, use of evidence, analysis, and argument. Assignments focus on sentence- and paragraph-level coherence, while reinforcing the conventions of standard American English in academic settings.
A year-long course to prepare students for college-level writing. This course introduces stu-dents to foundational academic writing skills in summary, citation, use of evidence, anal-ysis, and argument. Assignments focus on sentence- and paragraph-level coherence, while reinforcing the conventions of standard American English in academic settings.
Prerequisite(s): PY.260.023[C]
Introduction to the practice of analytical thinking and writing in the context of reading foundational historical, philosophical, and/or literary texts. Course objectives: ensuring competence in writing and critical analysis. Students will write four analytical papers (3-4 pages each).
Area: P, Y
Introduction to the basics of writing a research paper. Course objectives: ensuring competence in academic research and writing. Students will select a research topic, find source materials, and complete a formal academic research paper (10-15 pages), with appropriate references properly documented. Prerequisite: Core 1 or approved placement.
Prerequisite(s): PY.260.115[C]
Area: P, Y
An introduction to the history of art. Open to undergraduates only. Art History 1 surveys European art from the 14th through the mid-19th centuries. It surveys Renaissance painting, sculpture, and architecture in Italy and Northern Europe, its origins in Medieval art, and examines shifts in artistic concepts and forms from the 16th through the mid-18th centuries that led to the emergence of Mannerist, Baroque, and Rococo art. The course concludes with an examination of Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Realism up through the mid-19th century. Artistic movements, styles and influences relevant to the development of western art will be covered, with the inclusion of some American art traditions as time permits. Additional commentary as it relates to music history will be interwoven.
Area: P, Y
An introduction to the history of art. Open to undergraduates only. This course offers a survey of avant-garde European and American art from the mid-19th century to the present. Some of the many artistic movements covered include Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, German Expressionism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, De Stijl, early American Modernism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Conceptual Art, and Postmodernism. Additional commentary as it relates to music history will be interwoven.
Area: P, Y
An introduction to the fields and research methods of contemporary psychology, including such topics as biological and social bases of behavior, human development, perception, memory, learning theory, intelligence, and abnormal behavior. Special emphasis will be placed on subjects of importance to music education. Open to undergraduates only.
Area: P, Y
How does an artist endure? What makes one star last while another fizzles? Katharine Hepburn, 1907-2003, is ranked by the American Film Institute (AFI) as the “greatest female star in the history of American cinema.” She lived as originally as so many of the film heroines she portrayed. This humanities seminar examines the roles and movies that defined the pioneering Hepburn as an actress, a businesswoman, and progressive thinker in American history. Along the way, we will trace pivotal events and cinematic trends in the 20th century contributing to Hepburn’s legacy.
Area: P, Y
What is “evil”? How is it depicted in the arts? –In order to address these questions, our two main readings this semester will be Goethe’s drama Faust and Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita. While Goethe’s work is a tragedy, Bulgakov’s novel is a satirical dark comedy. We will pair these readings with selected philosophical essays depicting, for example, Kant’s theory of “radical evil”, and movies, such as “Hannah Arendt”. The discussion topics in this class will be challenging for their intellectual depth, but at the same time incredible fun and entertaining.
Area: P, Y
Depictions of East Asian and Asian-American characters in film and television have evolved since the earliest days of Hollywood. Alongside world events and US immigration patterns, representation shifted and a host of stereotypes emerged. Consider the wise guru, the exotic girlfriend, and the martial arts sidekick among many portrayals. This liberal arts seminar offers historical context and critical tools for analyzing and discussing these representations while gaining acquaintance with a range of films and television series.
Area: P, Y
Interesting opera is created not just by memorizing a score and mindlessly practicing and repeating it. Thoughtful research is also a form of rehearsal. Performance can be enhanced and understanding deepened by studying an opera’s literary sources, mining its historical context, viewing related artworks, and studying its production history. In other words, doing the work of a dramaturge. Every semester in which it is offered, “Research as Rehearsal” will take as its subject an opera currently being rehearsed by the Peabody Opera Theatre Program. This year we will focus on Handel’s Semele, scheduled for performance in March. We will read such texts as Ovid’s Metamorphoses (a literary source for the opera) and excerpts from Euripides’ Bacchae (since Semele is the mother of Dionysus). We will study paintings like Gustav Moreau’s Jupiter et Sémélé and Peter Paul Rubens’ Death of Semele. Since the performance will be staged in a 1920s style, we will read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby and watch film versions of the novel. We will also investigate the ways in which this opera’s origins in a pagan Greek myth affected its first London reception during the period of Lent and how that in turn affected future rewrites of the opera. Open to Graduates and Undergraduates.
Area: P, Y
Introduction to methods and practices in the humanities, social sciences, or natural sciences. Course objectives: ensuring competence in understanding critical methodol-ogies and academic debate. Students will write two critical assessments involving evidence, evaluation, synthesis, and conclusion (4-6 pages each) and pass a final exam or final project. Students must earn a C+ or better to pass the course. Prerequi-site: Core 2 or approved placement.
Prerequisite(s): PY.260.216[C]
Area: P, Y
Sustained consideration of the role of art (music, literature, fine arts, film) in all aspects of society, focusing on particular periods in history or under particular regimes and political structures. Course objectives: ensuring that students have the opportunity to think historically about the role of art and culture in political society and about the economic and cultural systems supporting the creation of art (e.g. patronage, guilds). Students will be required to write one historical “review” of a work of art in historical context (2-3 pages) and one historical research paper (6-8 pages minimum). Students must earn a C+ or better to pass the course. Prerequisite: Core III or approved placement.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of Core 2 required, PY.260.216[C]
Area: P, Y
This class looks at the history, theory, and practice of opera’s most overlooked and ridiculed element: the libretto, Italian for “little book.” Following the fortunes of the libretto from its origins to the present, we’ll see how different ideas about librettos influenced the evolution of opera. During our discussions, we’ll entertain theories about what makes a good libretto. For example, the theory that librettos can be like ugly frogs that the “kiss” of music turn into princely operas. Or that the duty of the librettist is to strip their literary source of all that makes it beautiful, so that the composer can fill all of that back in with music. Librettos come from many sources: dramas, novels, poems, historical events, and original ideas. We’ll ask how the libretto’s origins affect how it gets written. At the level of the sung word, we’ll listen to what happens when you translate a libretto from another language and how “singability” influences word choice. Finally, we’ll also apply this knowledge to writing our own librettos.
Area: P, Y