Joseph Doyle

Dance Meeting convenes all undergraduate students enrolled in a five-credit Dance Third, a three-credit dance study, or a one-credit dance study—along with all of the MFA in Dance graduate students—in meetings that occur roughly once a month. We gather for a variety of activities that enrich and inform the dance curriculum. In addition to sharing department news and information, Dance Meeting features master classes by guest artists from New York City and beyond; workshops with practitioners in dance-related health fields; panels and presentations by distinguished guests, SLC dance faculty, and alumnae; and casting sessions for departmental performances created by the Live Time-Based Art class.

Each student enrolled in a three-credit dance study, five-credit Dance Third, five-credit dance FYS, or Dance MFA program of study is REQUIRED to complete one tech/production job each semester in order to receive full credit for dance courses. In completing Dance Tech/Production, students are exposed to the "behind the scenes" operations required to put on a dance performance. All students do this work, so you may be performing on stage in one concert and working a crew position in the next. The production process is much the same here at Sarah Lawrence as in the professional world. For each concert, the technical crew works during the performances and during the “tech week” before the show. You will receive instruction for every tech job, so don’t worry if you are assigned to do something that you’ve never done before.

This course is an experimental laboratory that aims to expose students to a diverse set of current voices and approaches to contemporary dance making. Each guest artist will lead a module of three-to-seven class sessions. These mini-workshops will introduce students to that artist and his/her creative process. Guests will present both emergent and established voices and a wide range of approaches to contemporary artistic practice.

Fieldwork provides opportunities for students to be exposed to an early-childhood setting and to observe the role of the dance/movement therapist in that setting. Students will observe and interact with children ages six months to five years, with the goal of gaining a greater understanding of the physical, social, and emotional development that occurs during this period of growth. Additionally, students will participate in dance/movement therapy sessions, practice group leadership, and receive group and individual supervision of their work. For this first year of placement, students are expected to be participant observers, actively observing and engaging in the process of dance/movement therapy without the full responsibility of a leadership role. Students are required to complete 200 fieldwork hours in the first year of training. Those fieldwork hours must be completed before beginning the clinical internship.

This is the first part of a four-semester, process-oriented course that functions as a laboratory in which to study the methods and theory of dance/movement therapy. This course integrates didactic, experiential, and collaborative learning methods, both remotely and in the studio.  Elements of global, cultural, and anthropological perspectives of dance that are inherent in each student will be explored. Exploring one’s “dance identity” will help form a foundation for developing an inclusive and culturally humble approach to the therapeutic process in dance/movement therapy. Self-awareness, uncovering bias and preferences, exploring empathy, and one’s personal background will all be examined, both individually and interpersonally. 

This second course in a series of four on the methods and theory of dance/movement therapy for clinical practice is dedicated to learning about early dance/movement therapists, with a historical perspective of the beginnings of the profession of dance/movement therapy. Integrated throughout the semester will be readings and discussions about world dance, diaspora dance, and multicultural dance—all of which greatly influenced our understanding of dance as a healing and therapeutic art for both individuals and communities prior to the development of dance/movement therapy as a profession. The most salient aspect of this course will be the movement-based experiences in class that help students embody the essence of the theory and practice of dance/movement therapy. Embodying the “felt experience” of foundational body-movement principles will help students develop an understanding of how each person’s personal experience is woven into common conceptual and kinesthetic frameworks rooted in developmental and integrative movement.

We are surrounded—even bombarded—by information. And like a biological ecosystem, there are many interconnecting components and places in our information ecosystem. In this course, we will survey some of the different types of information. We’ll explore how to find, evaluate, and contextualize information, as well as how to use it in our research. We’ll interrogate the power structure of information classification systems, the practice of libraries and archives, and the privileging of some kinds of knowledge—and knowledge makers—over others. The course will combine theory and practice and will be applicable across all information types and fields of inquiry.

A while ago I went to a visual arts museum, and they had their collection displayed in an unusual fashion. Instead of grouping art in rooms according to genre, chronology, nationality or particular artists, the art was arranged by intriguing concepts. A room might contain an O’Keeffe painting, a centuries-old indigenous piece from Australia, a Rodin sculpture and a poem that were in some way connected by a fascinating idea. I want to recapitulate something like this experience. Every class will begin with some concept from mathematics, poetry, philosophy, astronomy and more, and then we’ll gradually explore different music that engages with that concept in some way. The musical examples every week will span centuries and cultures—one week might have an avant-grade piano sonata by Boulez, a 1980s art-rock song by Laurie Anderson and a Kendrick Lamar album; the next week might have an ancient Sumerian song, a piece by Debussy and a work from the Indian Carnatic tradition. Gradually, more and more connections between the seemingly disparate topics will be revealed. So, ok, it isn’t everything exactly—and it’s more like “across the course of two semesters” rather than “all at once”—but you will know a whole lot more across a wide range of disciplines by the end. And, most importantly, we’ll listen to a metric ton of fantastic music. This course may be counted as humanities credit as MUHS 2040 or music component as MUSC 5276. 

Early madrigals and motets and contemporary works especially suited to a small number of voices will form the body of this group’s repertoire. The ensemble will perform winter and spring concerts. Chamber Choir meets twice a week.

See list under Performance Ensembles.

See list above for Instruments or Composition.

Master Class is a series of concerts, instrumental and vocal seminars, and lecture demonstrations pertaining to music history, world music, improvisation, jazz, composition, and music technology. Master classes take place on Wednesdays, from 12:30-1:30 p.m., in either Reisinger Concert Hall or Marshall Field House Room 1. Master classes are taught by music faculty and guest artists. The classes are open to the College community.

See list under Music History components.

See description under Music Technology Courses.

See list under Music Theory components.

The music faculty wants students to have access to a variety of musical experiences; therefore, all Music Thirds are required to attend all Music Tuesday events and three music department-sponsored concerts on campus per semester, including concerts presented by music faculty and outside professionals that are part of the Concert Series. (The required number of concerts varies from semester to semester.). Music Tuesdays consist of various programs, including student/faculty town meetings, concert presentations, guest-artist lectures and performances, master classes, and collaborations with other departments and performing-arts programs. Meetings, which take place in Reisinger Concert Hall on selected Tuesdays from 1:30-3:00 p.m., are open to the community.

This component offers students the opportunity to share with the larger College community the results of their sustained work in performance study. During the semester of their recital, students will receive additional coachings by their principal teachers (instructor varies by instrument).

The human voice is the world’s most variable instrument—we can all make a nearly infinite array of sounds with only our throats. But what makes all of those sounds possible? And how can we access more of them with comfort and consistency? Perhaps most importantly, how can we use those sounds to communicate—not just through language but also musically and sonically? The answer begins with understanding the anatomy, physiology, and acoustics of the human voice. In this course, we’ll explore those principles through an experiential lens, connecting each aspect of the function of the voice to your awareness and perception of your own instrument. We’ll also explore how those aspects of vocal function can be manipulated to produce different timbres and styles of singing, with an eye toward making expressive, yet sustainable, vocal choices across genres. And we’ll explore how the expression of emotion intersects and interacts with vocal function, as we work to understand the full role our bodies play in an artistic performance.

This class will approach speculative fiction as a space for boundary transgression. We will read and write fiction that contains explicit movement across states of being, worlds, genres, realities, bodies, or beliefs. We will begin with the concept of “weirdness,” defined as an event or experience which does not belong to consensus reality, and consider how authors use weirdness and estrangement to subvert literary genres and conventions. In our writing practices, we will experiment with different modes of storytelling to explore the boundaries of realism and “reality” in our own work. Each class will focus on a source text in which a boundary is crossed—sleep, self, species, culture, death, sobriety, the laws of physics—and examine the mechanics of the transgression or traversal. How do you take a reader with you into the unknown? How can prose choices destabilize what is taken for granted? We will read work by writers that include Mark Fisher (normal/weird), Helen Phillips (self/other), Stanislaw Lem (human/planet) Haytham El Wardany (sleep/wake), Algernon Blackwood (animate/inanimate), Anna Kavan (sober/drugs), Jeff VanderMeer (human/alien), Julian of Norwich (mortal/divine), and more.

In this course, we will examine contemporary voices in poetry and build our own poetry-writing practice, engaging in lively questions about process and craft as we work to define and contextualize poetry in our class discussions and workshops. Students will individually produce material and submit drafts to the poetry workshop for discussion, where we will learn to offer serious and constructive criticism. The goal of the poetry workshop is generative: It propels a dynamic revision process so that, at the end of the semester, each student will submit a portfolio of revised material. This course strives to equip students with a framework to both read and relate to poetry as an artistic discipline, as well as a means to connect individual and collective expression within a broader social, historical, political, colonial, and/or transnational context.

Movement and creativity are the birthrights of every human being. This component will explore expressive and communicative movement possibilities by introducing different strategies for making dances. Problems posed run the gamut from conceptually-driven dance/theatre to structured- movement improvisations. Students will learn to access and mold kinetic vocabulaires, collaboratively or individually, and incorporate music, sound, gesture, text, and objects in pursuit of a vision. Students will be asked to create and perform studies, direct one another, and share and discuss ideas and solutions with peers. Students are not required to make finished products but, rather, to involve themselves in the challenges and joys of rigorous play.

This course will use physical embodiment as a mode of learning about and understanding various West African cultures. In addition to physical practice, supplementary study materials will be used to explore the breadth, diversity, history, and technique of dances found in West Africa. Traditional and social/contemporary dances from countries such as Guinea, Senegal, Mali, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast will be explored. Participation in end-of-semester or year-end showings will provide students with the opportunity to apply studies in a performative context.

This course is an introduction to the study of human movement/kinesiology and human anatomy. Students will gain a beginning understanding of key systems in the human body and their integral effect on functional and expressive behavior. Key anatomical landmarks and features will be highlighted in the context of both common and individual choices and characteristics. Students will explore how understanding the different body systems aids in movement observation and intervention.

This course serves as a continuation of Clinical Internship Practicum I and will use a supportive group supervision format to oversee and develop the internship experience by strengthening clinical appraisal skills and movement and observation assessment through oral presentation of cases, as well as written diagnostic evaluations that will include the student’s clinical process and interventions.

Academic content related to assessment, diagnosis, interventions and the supervision process, including the therapeutic termination process, will be fluid within the overall structure of the course and weekly classes in order to meet specific needs of each internship setting.

This course is an introduction to Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) with a primary focus on dance/movement therapy. The class is the second in a series of three on movement observation and assessment skills, and is designed to familiarize the student with the Laban concepts and principles for the observation and description of movement, integrating other relevant perspectives for understanding human movement. Students will learn to embody and observe foundational components of physical action by exploring concepts in the categories of Body, Effort, Space and Shape. LMA provides insight into one’s personal movement preferences and increases awareness of what and how movement communicates and expresses. In addition, through readings, movement experimentation and discussion, students will explore the principles of the Bartenieff Fundamentals, which involve concepts such as movement initiation and sequencing, connectivity, weight transference, spatial intent, effort intent and breath support. These fundamental ideas, when present in movement, develop dynamic alignment, coordination, strength, flexibility, mobility, kinesthetic awareness, expression, and help facilitate relationship.

Students will have the opportunity for observation, research, and practicum experience. First-semester placements are at the Early Childhood Center, the campus laboratory preschool, allowing students to study typically developing children from ages 2 through 6, or at other sites with young children. These fieldwork hours are not counted toward the clinical internship requirement of 700 hours.

This course is designed to provide students with a base of knowledge in psychopathology and to familiarize students with current conceptions and empirical findings in psychopathology research. Beginning with the question of how abnormality is defined, we will explore contemporary perspectives on psychopathology and focus more specifically on psychological disorders, their development and treatment, and controversies within the field. Additionally, this course will focus on the physiologic and motoric manifestations of illness, the role of dance/movement therapy in treatment, and challenges particular to dance/movement therapy intervention. This course will use the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-5. Reading of the current manual will include discussion of recent changes and the impact on diagnostic understanding and treatment formulation.

The art created during our own lifetimes hits us differently. In this course, we will examine plays written in the 21st century, covering work written from 2000 to 2010 in the fall semester and from 2011 to the present in the spring semester. We will read one play every week and examine it from a dramaturgical perspective—that is, how the play is constructed—as well as discuss the cultural, political, and artistic context in which it was written. Assignments will include short response papers, one creative project, and one research paper. There will be an emphasis on work by BIPOC and queer writers. Playwrights examined may include: David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage, Kristoffer Diaz, Qui Nguyen, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Paula Vogel, Martyna Majok, Michael R. Jackson, Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, and Jen Silverman.

Lighting Design I will introduce the student to the basic elements of stage lighting—including tools and equipment, color theory, reading scripts for design elements, operation of lighting consoles and construction of lighting cues—and basic elements of lighting drawings and schedules. Students will be offered hands-on experience in hanging and focusing lighting instruments and will be invited to attend technical rehearsals; they will have opportunities to design productions and assist other designers as a way of developing a greater understanding of the design process.

Lighting Design II will build on the basics introduced in Lighting Design I to help develop the students’ abilities in designing complex productions. The course will focus primarily on CAD and other computer programs related to lighting design, script analysis, advanced console operation, and communication with directors and other designers. Students will be expected to design actual productions and in-class projects for evaluation and discussion and will be offered the opportunity to increase their experience in design by assisting Mr. MacPherson and others, when possible.

The Capstone Seminars provide a strategic perspective on how the healthcare field is evolving and the skills required to successfully navigate the rapidly changing profession in a system undergoing significant reform. The seminar is designed to facilitate students' work on the Capstone projects, affording a group setting to explore ideas and refine project parameters, connect the project to broader advocacy concepts and career development opportunities, and receive regular feedback on Capstone progress. Students integrate academic learning with field experience and examine how theoretical advocacy themes are operational in workplace settings. Capstone is designed to enhance the coherence of students’ educational experiences and further develop their sense of professional identity.

This course will examine many of the major issues facing the American healthcare system from a variety of economic perspectives. A wide range of topics will be covered, from the racial and economic disparities in health outcomes to the Patient Protection Act and alternative modes of financing of the medical care delivery system. Students will learn how the tools and analytic approaches used by economists can enhance the understanding of major public health issues such as AIDS, reproductive care, and mental health, as well as crucial health care financing issues such as the rising cost of healthcare. 

Using a social justice framework, this course will provide a theoretical foundation for the exploration and application of ethical dilemmas relevant to the healthcare system in the United States.  In its various forms, the ethics of advocacy will be explored from different positions, from the patient and family level to healthcare institutions, funding mechanisms, and public policy perspectives.  In addition, as the medical model of disease has shifted to include the social-ecological model, recognizing the importance of the social on all aspects of health, wellness, and illness, ethical dilemmas have also changed. We will examine how social class, race/ethnicity, sexuality, and gender, among other social categories and identities, affect ethics. The shift away from purely medical bioethics to a more socially informed version of healthcare requires different approaches to solving new problems encountered within the current healthcare system. 

This course is not intended to teach you a moral code.  It will not teach you to act ethically, although it will likely make you think more about how you act and why.  You will be challenged to identify ethical problems and explore various outcomes and solutions, making real-world decisions within a climate of moral ambiguity and competing priorities.  

This course will examine the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of healthcare policy. It will focus on the interaction of the healthcare system with the federal, state, and local political systems. Individual pieces of health policy will be used to study the evolution of health policy and the impact of health policy on health care in the United States.

This course will introduce students to a broad range of legal and policy considerations generated by our healthcare system. The course will focus on three areas: the rights of patients as they access care; the legal and regulatory structure that governs the system; and tensions between individual rights and the interests of society. This course is designed to provide students with sufficient knowledge to identify and evaluate legal issues as they encounter them and engage what they have learned to promote an interdisciplinary practice.

From colonial times, access to health care has been less a history of access and inclusion and more one of exclusion and organizing to guarantee its access to the increasingly diverse population of a growing country. This course explores the varied understandings of health and medical care from colonial times to the late 20th century. Topics include the role that ethnicity, race, gender, and religious identity played in access to and provision of health services; the migration of health care from home and community (midwifery, homeopathy) to institutions (nursing, hospitals), and the social conditions that fueled that migration; the struggle for ascendancy among the different fields of medical education; and the creation of the field of public health, its role in defining and controlling outbreaks of disease, and its impact on addressing inequities in access to healthcare services. Students will prepare a major research paper investigating an aspect of the history of healthcare of special interest.

The experience of illness and disability is both intimately personal and reflective of larger social, political, and cultural realities. To effectively work in direct patient care or broader scholarly or organizational arenas, a health advocate must be able to interpret and understand personal, communal, and institutional narratives. This course will introduce students to written, oral and visual narratives of illness and disability, narrative and cultural theory, methods for critical analysis of illness narratives, and media studies. Students will write their own illness or disability narratives during the course session, exploring issues such as selfhood, perspective and memory, representation, identity, family dynamics in health care and decision-making, and caregiving. Through in-depth analysis of the assigned texts, online discussions, student-led facilitation, in-person group work, and student presentations. Finally, students will elicit, transcribe, and interpret the oral narrative of an individual with a chronic illness or disability.

This course introduces health advocacy. In this course, we will explore the multiple roles that health advocates assume as they create productive change on behalf of patients/consumers, families, and communities. Advocacy is practiced by improving how health care is delivered within existing systems, restructuring or reinventing healthcare system areas, and eliminating barriers to health caused by environmental destruction, poverty, and illiteracy. Throughout the course, students will consider practices in diverse arenas within this interdisciplinary field, including clinical settings, community-based organizations, advocacy organizations, the media, interest groups, governmental organizations, and policy settings. They will learn to analyze organizations and communities to understand hierarchies and decision-making within them and be exposed to frameworks for conceptualizing and promoting the right to health. The course will also explore strategies to give health advocates and consumers more power in making decisions, defining issues, designing programs, and developing policies. The experiences of individuals and communities and how systems respond to those experiences will remain a central focus as students explore concepts, models, and practices of health advocacy.

This course will focus on how health advocates can affect policy change by developing an advocacy campaign. Students will define a health policy or system problem, formulate a proposed solution, identify needed data and narratives to demonstrate the need for your proposed solution, and map the other stakeholders (allies and opponents) who must be engaged. Students will learn how to select the appropriate advocacy strategies to bring about the desired changes in health policy and systems and the range of tools and skills they can employ to pursue their chosen advocacy strategy.  Students will understand the range of factors to be considered in selecting the decision-makers who should be the target(s) of the campaign, such as local, state, or federal health officials or executives of hospitals.

It is not enough for Health Advocates to understand the physiological causes of disease.  To effectively advocate for change, the role of social determinants of health on individual and community disease risk and health outcomes and how health policies can contribute to or ameliorate illness must be known. 

This course provides first-time physiology students with an introductory survey of the major areas of human physiology.  Students will learn about the human body's organ systems by examining normal physiology and representative disease states to highlight what can go wrong.  Students will explore the range of causes of acute and chronic diseases and infirmity, as well as the barriers to an individual's ability to regain health.  Students will understand the direct causes of diseases and illness, including how genetics affect health and how bacterial and viral infectious diseases are transmitted through different vectors.  A focus will be placed on the role of social determinants in individual and community health outcomes, with specific emphasis on the environment and the effects of income, race, gender, religion, and other factors.  We will also examine the role of public policy in shaping health outcomes for communities using the ecological and health in all policies (HiAP) models.

Students gain practical experience and expertise in their chosen advocacy career paths by selecting and partnering with an organization to complete 300 hours of fieldwork and the Capstone Project. Through this approximately year-long project, students engage with the self-selected organization and gain practical work and leadership experience while demonstrating the ability to:

• work in partnership with an organization
• conduct community-based participatory research in order to assess a problem and identify potential solutions
• collaboratively develop a program proposal, including an evaluation plan
• lead the program implementation

Health advocacy issues are addressed in many different ways, typically involving some type of direct intervention. This course will provide an overview of, and a critical reflection on, the program design and evaluation process. Students will discuss and study elements of design and evaluation, the major theoretical and political orientations to evaluation research, and the practical, ethical, and methodological problems involved in applying research methods to understanding social change. Thus, this course will also review the methodologies of community-based and participatory action research and practice. We will discuss how to approach program conception and implementation, including developing and measuring program goals and objectives, from a social-justice perspective. At the end of this course, students will be able to conceptually and practically understand the contours of how to thoughtfully plan, develop, and evaluate an intervention aimed at a health advocacy issue.

This course introduces students to the research process that supports effective health advocacy in the community. Students will learn the principles of literature review, instrument construction and implementation, and issues specific to community-based work and needs assessment; they will be exposed to the process of ethical approval for research involving human subjects in the community. Students will have an opportunity to apply these research principles in the community setting, gaining an in-depth understanding of context-driven, community-based participatory research and the concept of co-production of knowledge. They will develop assessment and evaluation skills and understand the uses for qualitative and quantitative methodology while gaining practical experience and applying statistical principles. By introducing students to data-collection concepts and analysis, this course establishes foundations that will be further refined in subsequent coursework in the program.

Statistics is essential in identifying problems, advancing campaigns, and evaluating programs. Students will gain comfort with foundational statistical concepts and methods in this course, focusing on healthcare data. By evaluating research papers and statistical statements, students will understand, recognize, and manage statistics and probability statements more effectively. With this gained understanding, students will be able to craft messages using quality statistics. The course does not concentrate on teaching a statistical package, but students will participate in basic computations.

This course will provide a critical and supportive forum for the development of new works of original theatre with a focus on conducting research in a variety of ways, including historical and artistic research, workshops, improvisations, experiments, and conversation. Each student will focus on creating one original project— a solo—over the course of the full year. During the class, students will show works in progress. During advising, student and faculty will meet to discuss these showings and any relevant artistic and practical problems that may arise. This class meets once a week and is required for all second-year Theatre graduate students.

Studio is a required first year graduate self-directed component with 2 hours in-studio and 1 hour in research/documentation. Students develop a schedule of in-studio experimentation and out-of-studio research that is reflected in a weekly process journal and discussed with the students' grad thesis advisors monthly. During this component, the student will develop a dynamic artistic practice of constructive experimentation, research, and discursive reflection. This class does not meet as a group. Your studio practice and documentation will be discussed in advising once a month.

This class meets once a week and is required for all second-year Theatre graduate students.

This seminar in contemporary human genetics spans several levels of biological organization: the genetics of cells, individuals, families, and populations. Topics include pedigree analysis, cytogenetics, molecular biology of DNA/RNA synthesis and expression, epigenetic regulation of genetic loci, mitochondrial inheritance, complications and exceptions in pedigree analysis, diagnostic techniques of molecular genetics, mutations and polymorphisms, linkage and gene discovery, multifactorial inheritance, risk estimation, Hardy-Weinberg equilibria, Bayesian calculations, population genetics, lod scores, malformation/deformation syndromes and sequences, and cancer genetics.

This course is a continuation of Advanced Human Genetics I

This course examines the chemistry and metabolism of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids. Biochemical abnormalities seen in certain genetic diseases are discussed and correlated with the disease phenotype. Emphasis is placed on DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis, using selected genetic diseases as models. The risks, benefits, and limitations of state newborn screening programs and heterozygote carrier testing are detailed.

The Clinical Genomics course builds upon topics covered in Advanced Human Genetics. Early, current, and future uses of genomic technologies are covered, especially as they apply to clinical care. Students develop critical thinking skills related to testing strategies and genomic data interpretation, with a focus on whole exome sequencing variant interpretation. The course also explores the psychosocial, ethical, and legal factors associated with genomic testing. Students apply their learning to various case examples.

Clinical Pediatric Genetics provides students with an introduction to the basic vocabulary, case scenarios, and genetic counseling issues encountered in a pediatric genetics session. Emphasis is on understanding the previous medical records, symptoms, and physical signs needed to construct the targeted questioning and differential diagnosis. The course structure includes readings, lectures, and group discussions.

This yearlong seminar is taught by 20 clinical and molecular geneticists drawn from medical schools in the greater New York area. Seminar topics include: cytogenetics, cytogenetic techniques, sex chromosome abnormalities and disorders of sex differentiation, autosomal and X-linked abnormalities, population genetics, genetically lethal conditions, biochemical genetics and inborn errors of metabolism, developmental genetics, environmental teratogens, neurogenetics, immunogenetics, genetic polymorphisms, multifactorial inheritance, infertility and assisted reproductive technologies, cancer genetics, genetics of craniosynostoses, advanced topics in linkage and lod scores, detection and counseling for detection of prenatal anomalies based on ultrasonography and fetal echocardiography, and genetic disorders of special organ systems. Molecular diagnosis of genetic diseases is emphasized. Genetic counselors supplement the genetics seminars with discussion of the psychosocial issues and counseling techniques for many of the topics. The course requires the writing of a master’s thesis.

The Medical Genetics Seminar courses introduce students to topics relevant to clinical genetic counseling. Experts in the field lecture on topics ranging from significant genetic conditions and syndromes to current testing options. Students learn from and interact with authorities in their respective fields, gaining an in-depth understanding of the genetic conditions covered in the course and related issues they will encounter in their careers.

The Research Methods course serves as an introduction to the research process, with multiple connections to the development of thesis projects. Students are encouraged to become better consumers of the scientific literature—including the use of search engines, a reference program, and critical reading skills—in the construction of a literature review as a first step toward study design and publication. The course includes a review of qualitative and quantitative research models; development of surveys, focus groups, and questionnaires; and the basics of data analysis and working in SPSS.

Students are offered the opportunity to explore an area of personal interest through this elective course. Content varies each year; previous topics included medical Spanish, advanced psychological counseling techniques, health humanities, multifaceted examination of direct-to-consumer genetic testing, and multicultural contexts of health.

Each session of this multidisciplinary series of weekly craft talks and generative writing sessions will be taught by a different member of our writing faculty. For example, April Mosolino will talk about “How to Tell a Lie”; Marie Howe, about “The Art of the Sentence”; and Marek Fuchs, about “How to Get a Bead on Your Lead.” (See the complete list of talks in the syllabus, available on MySLC.) This series is meant to familiarize you with various aspects of craft in our different disciplines of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, as well as to stimulate your own writing. Each writer will assign readings and exercises for his/her week. There will be a class board on MySLC to post your assignments and for you to read and respond to each other’s writing.

Students in this course undertake independent projects in close consultation with the instructor.  These projects range widely, from primary research and explorations of historiography to fieldwork and internships at agencies engaged in advocacy, policymaking, public history, or other initiatives of interest to women’s historians.  While students pursue individual goals and meet one to one with the instructor, the whole class convenes several times each term for dinner, presentations on independent projects, and discussion of common concerns.

Students of this course will meet monthly to learn about primary and secondary source analysis and archival collection access practices, as well as historical research and interpretation. The class trains students to advance arguments grounded in historical evidence, using analytical and critical thinking skills. Participants will develop an effective research methodology crafted for their learning styles and preferences and become prepared for thesis work, assessing historiography, interpretive models, and theories of history.

This seminar surveys path-breaking studies in the history of women, gender, and related subjects. Course readings, which include both theory and historiography, exemplify major trends in feminist scholarship since the 1960s—from early challenges to androcentric worldviews and the current stress on differences among women and multiple systems of dominance and subordination. Class discussions range from fundamental questions (e.g., What is feminism? Is “women” a meaningful category?) to theoretical, interpretive, and methodological debates among women’s historians. The course is designed to help advanced students of women’s history clarify research interests by assessing the work of their predecessors. MA candidates will also use the course to define thesis projects.