Class Registration is next week! So the HC team compiled our favorite list of classes. Enjoy!
Logic
If you need to fulfill the mode of inquiry, Quantitative and Formal Reasoning, but do not want to take a formal mathematics class, I would highly recommend Logic with Professor Turner. Located under the philosophy department at Connecticut College, this course introduces students to the system of formal logic. The course covers logical definitions, truth tables, and proofs. If you enjoy translating between languages, this course is for you as you are essentially translating English to the logical language of symbolic logic. The coursework is very manageable and Professor Turner is a fabulous professor – no other professor could teach this class at 9 AM.
English 250: Theory/Practice of Literary Study
Although this course is a requirement for the English major or minor, I would recommend this course to anyone who enjoys reading and writing analytically and critically and desires to greatly improve their essay writing. English 150: Essentials of Literary Study is a requirement for this course. Students learn various schools of thought from Marxism to Feminism and apply these complex theories to works of literature in two-page critical responses and a final essay at the end of the semester. This course can also fulfill the writing class requirement for all Conn students.
GWS 103: Sex, Power and Culture
I took this class my first semester at Conn with Professor Baldwin, and it changed my life! It’s not just a class about the US Feminist Movement, as one might assume by the name. Instead, the class takes a truly intersectional approach, bringing gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic standing, and other social factors into conversation with each other.
Besides being an fun and fascinating course, I recommend taking GWS 103 because it will change your perspective on all of your future classes. Now, when a professor mentions a fact about women (or people in general), I realize that I need to think critically about what they’re saying. Does this information apply to everyone equally, or is it different for women of color, of a lower socioeconomic status, non-binary people, etc.? Far too often, people (intentionally or not) cite statistics that are only accurate for white, upper-middle class, straight, cis women. This can only be remedied if we first learn to think critically about the information we receive in class!
SPA 312: Spanish Phonetics and Phonology
I took this class with Professor Kuder to fulfill my language requirement, but I ended up absolutely loving it! Learning linguistics in the context of a non-native language gave me an understanding of the makeup of the Spanish language that I had not received in any other Spanish class and it made me think about the language in a new way. For instance, learning how sounds are categorized by factors that affect their pronunciation improved my Spanish pronunciation abilities. The course also discusses how sounds are pronounced differently in different Spanish-speaking countries and across different demographics. This sociocultural component was fascinating to me, and I appreciated this interdisciplinary lense to phonetics and phonology. Although a 300-level class, this class is definitely doable even for someone who is not confident in their Spanish speaking and writing abilities because Professor Kuder gave us a wide variety of assignments that tested different skills, some of which were not entirely in Spanish. From quizzes, to pronunciation assignments, to transcription worksheets, and writing assignments that analyzed and synthesized prior Spanish linguistic research.