Compass Course Archive
Spring 2022
Indigenous Arts in the Americas: Old and New Media
This class investigates recent Indigenous creative practices—including poetry, film, dance, photography, and textiles—from across the Americas to think about how these forms of making and expression are not discrete but rather intimately woven together. Course catalog link.
Instructors and Bios:
Prof. Julia Bryan-Wilson, History of Art
Prof. Natalia Brizuela, Film & Media; Spanish and Portuguese
Prof. Beth Piatote, Native American Studies; Comparative Literature
Spring 2022
What is Asia?
This course approaches this question from three perspectives: the construction of Asia as a cultural space by Europeans from Greek antiquity to modern times; Asia’s own exploration of its identity as a cultural and political sphere; and the imagining of Asia by Americans in the age of Asia’s global economic rise. Course catalog link.
Instructors and Bios:
Prof. Alan Tansman, East Asian Languages and Cultures
Spring 2021
Borders and Belonging: Reading Refugees through Law, Literature, and Film
In this course, we will read and discuss legal and political texts on refugees and their rights, and we will closely analyze literature, photography, and cinema representing refugee experience. Course catalog link.
Instructors and Bios:
Prof. Karl Britto, French; Comparative Literature
Fall 2020
World Cities: Shanghai - St. Petersburg - Berlin
This course explores three world cities, located across the breadth of Asia and Europe, retracing the stories, myths, symbols and fantasies which Shanghai, St. Petersburg and Berlin have inspired. Course catalog link.
Instructors and Bios:
Prof. Weihong Bao, Film & Media; East Asian Languages & Cultures
Prof. Harsha Ram, Slavic Languages & Literatures; Comparative Literature
Fall 2019
Histories of the Self: Inventing Identity
This course explores many forms of self-representation as they’ve changed over time, and ask how different forms of humanistic expression – language, image, and media – have shaped what we’ve come to think of as identity. Course catalog link.
Instructors and Bios:
Prof. Kathleen Donegan, English