Do you like listening to or making music? Would you enjoy exploring new ways to imagine sound and in different spaces? Open to all students, regardless of background or experience with music, this course provides a place for students to develop skills in music theory alongside a conceptual investigation of sound and music. Developed through interactive discussions and collaborative lab sections, skills include basic experience with notations, rhythm, chords, performance, silence, forms, and timbres. Class activities take us beyond either the notes on the page or tracks from a playlist as we study how musical experiences are shaped by intersecting social, political, economic, and historical influences. Topics include the exploration of listening, performance, movement/dance, improvisation, sound design, notation, psychoacoustics, temporality, and music’s intersection with the body, race, gender, and class. (1S, C)

Course Code: PART 170

Instructor: Daniel Barolsky

How does popular film address questions such as: What is human’s role in nature? Or, How do they impact the natural environment? In this course, we will explore these questions through the films of Japanese director Miyazaki Hayao. Using films such as My Neighbor Totoro or Castle in the Sky, we will look at how the intersections of culture, folklore, and physical landscapes influence concepts of nature and environmental sustainability. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we will investigate the relationship between Miyazaki’s work and the challenges of cultural and environmental sustainability in Japan and discuss the ways popular culture has been used to promote environmental sustainability and preserve biodiversity. Students interested in Japan, media studies, and/or sustainability should find this course particularly interesting.

Course Code: ENVS 296

Instructor: Susan Furukawa

This course incorporates a variety of activities geared toward first-year students interested in Environmental and Earth Sciences. You will learn the scientific tools and techniques used to understand the response of our environment to natural and anthropogenic forces. Natural resources (water, soils, climate, and energy) and natural hazards (flooding, volcanic activity, and earthquakes) are among the topics considered, with emphasis on current events. You will also get the opportunity to learn about and explore the minerals, rocks, fossils, and natural and human history of southern Wisconsin through frequent field trips during the semester. One-on-one and group advising activities are integrated throughout the course to highlight campus resources that will ensure academic success. (4U)

Course Code: GEOL 110

Instructor: Jay Zambito

Our investigation of sex, race, and power introduces concepts to navigate structures of power, experience, and knowledge at the intersection of different identity categories, including gender, race, sexuality, class, dis/ability, and nation. We’ll use evidence from our home communities, campus, and social media in combination with texts, theories, and ideas that draw from feminism led by women of color, anthropology, sociology, religious studies, history, environmental studies, and Greek, Latin, and Ancient Mediterranean studies. Our work helps us to “lead fulfilling lives marked by high achievement, personal responsibility, and public contribution in a diverse society,” beginning at Beloit College! Students in this class focus on building real-time skills to create brave social spaces together on campus and beyond. Topics we discuss in this class connect well with the different types of learning experiences that you will have across campus and within your chosen career path after Beloit.

Course Code: CRIS 101 

Instructor: Sonya Maria Johnson

Artists often talk about drawing not as a manual skill, but as a way of seeing. This studio course introduces the basic concepts, techniques, and processes of design and drawing, with an emphasis on close observation and reflection on how we visually experience the natural world. Pencil, ink, collage, charcoal, and other media are used to foster a comprehensive understanding of the descriptive, formal, and expressive possibilities of drawing and design. Through presentations and group discussions, students will begin to develop a language for talking about visual experiences. Hands-on assignments will build observation and drawing skills, and allow students to find their voice as visual artists. (2A) Course fee: $150. 

Course Code: ART 115

Instructor: Scott Espeseth

This course offers an introduction to both microeconomics and macroeconomics, with a primary focus on microeconomic principles. Students will explore the fundamental concepts and theories underlying economic behavior at both the individual and aggregate levels. In the microeconomic segment of the course, students will delve into the mechanisms of market operations, examining ideal market conditions as well as instances of market failures. Topics covered include the dynamics of supply and demand, consumer and producer behavior, the impacts of price controls and quotas, taxation, international trade, externalities, consumer theory, producer theory, and various market structures such as perfect competition and monopoly. Transitioning to macroeconomics, students will explore the broader economic landscape, analyzing the long-term performance of economies and the factors influencing growth and development. Discussions will encompass the disparities in wealth among nations, the determinants of economic growth, and the nature of economic fluctuations in the short run. Key macroeconomic indicators such as GDP, CPI, unemployment, and inflation will be examined to understand their implications for economic stability and prosperity. Throughout the course, economic theories will be applied to real-world scenarios, enabling students to analyze personal, business, and societal issues through an economic lens. (3B)

Course Code: ECON 199

Instructor: Disha Shende 

This course introduces students to “the economic way of thinking” and to the City (and economy) of Beloit, relying on examples from our own backyard to reinforce our classroom learning. John Maynard Keynes has stated, “The Theory of Economics does not furnish a body of settled conclusions immediately applicable to policy. It is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of mind, a technique of thinking which helps its possessor to draw correct conclusions.” In this course we’ll cover both microeconomic theory (⅔) and macroeconomic theory (⅓). Topics include trade and comparative advantage, supply and demand, consumer theory, producer theory, market structures, and fiscal and monetary policy. (3B)

Course Code: ECON 199

Instructor: Laura Grube

We’re reasoning creatures. All the time, we’re in the business of offering and considering reasons why we should take some idea, some claim, some suggestion, to be so. Who should I vote for? Is that theory I learned about in my Sociology class true? What should I have for dinner tonight? Should I select Logic as my AMP course? Logic is a course about the fundamental patterns of reasoning that make reasoning itself work. It explores the principles that connect reasons (“premises”) to conclusions, which in turn make it possible for us to convince others, and be convinced, that something is so. Understanding these fundamental patterns of reasoning makes us better at reasoning, and this makes us better problem-solvers and communicators. So the answer to that last question above is “yes,” if you want to understand how reasoning works, be better at reasoning, and have some good logical fun, all while earning a unit of credit and satisfying the 1S domain requirement along the way. (1S)

Course Code: PHIL 100

Instructor: Matt Tedesco

This course provides an overview of the field of international relations (IR.) It examines the workings of the international political and economic systems from both a practical perspective and a theoretical perspective. The first part of the course reviews the main theoretical approaches in international relations and discusses the subfield of security. The second section introduces students to international law and international organization. The course then explores the subfield of international political economy, with an emphasis on sustainable development. The course will also teach the students research methods specific to the field of international relations. The course ends with a United Nations Security Council simulation. (3B, W, C, Q)

Course Code: POLS 160

Instructor: Pablo Toral

In Sociology, we look at the relationships between individuals and social institutions. How do things such as race, gender, level of education, socioeconomic status, and neighborhood influence people’s ability to make choices and shape their life outcomes? We will explore several social institutions in this course. For example, we will study the education system, the criminal justice system, the health care system, and the family. The main goal of the course is for students to develop a sociological imagination, which is an analytical perspective that examines the interplay between social structure and individual agency. (3B)

Course Code: SOCI 100

Instructor: Charles Westerberg

The idea of the Quest has captivated writers, readers, filmmakers, and moviegoers for millennia. What is that we seek in these quests? Why does this idea of finding oneself and meaning resonate across literary fiction, fanfiction, and film? At first glance these texts seem to be about finding oneself, and yet that self is always in a particular cultural and social context. In this course students explore the different ways that the Quest helps them understand who they are, who they want to be, and to re-think how the Quest can be used to foster inclusion and/or exclusion. Students analyse the origins of these stories and explore the consequences of them being used to imagine who is — and is not — part of our communities. In a final creative project, students imagine their own quest. (5W, T)

Course Code: FREN 190

Instructor: Joseph Derosier

In this introductory-level workshop we focus on the craft of creative writing in a range of genres: fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, writing for performance, and multi-modal work (such as combining image and text). We read published work by an extensive range of authors for models and inspiration, engage in informal writing exercises throughout the semester, and discuss our more finished works-in-progress. As a part of a liberal arts curriculum, in this class we also address the creative process more generally within and beyond the arts, such as the relationship between creative and critical thinking and collaborative problem-solving. (2A, W)

Course Code: ENGL 205

Instructor: Chuck Lewis

This course introduces students to psychological science, the empirical study of mind, brain, and behavior. A wide range of representative topics acquaints students with the methods and content of the field. This course is organized around the five “pillars” of psychology: biopsychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, social/personality psychology, and clinical psychology. This particular section of Introduction to Psychology will explore several key topics in relation to individuals’ transition to young adulthood and college life. (3B)

Course Code: PSYC 100 

Instructor: Isaac Young

Are you Spanish curious but you have not started studying the language formally? Have you studied Spanish before and want to continue? Are you already planning on taking a Spanish-language course and want to know even more? Are you curious about how Spanish-speaking countries express themselves through stories? Do you love learning about other cultures and peoples through shows? If those questions pique your interest, join this class to learn more about the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures through the art of storytelling by studying Spanish-language series on Netflix. In this class, alongside cultural practices, students will learn basic Spanish expressions, vocabulary, and grammar. No previous knowledge of Spanish is necessary. This course is taught in English. (5T, C)

Course Code: SPAN 180

Instructor: Amy Tibbitts