Whether you’re an overwhelmed first-year wading through endless seas of class options on Courses@Brown or a senior panicking about what your final courses at Brown will be, it’s safe to say everyone could use a bit of guidance during shopping period. To help, The Herald went straight to the specialists: Here are the recommended courses of professors across 10 departments.
Comparative Literature:
Elias Muhanna, professor and director of undergraduate studies for comparative literature, enthusiastically recommended Associate Professor Michelle Clayton’s class, COLT 1421V: “Modernisms North and South,” and Visiting Associate Professor of Classics Vangelis Calotychos’s COLT 1422M: “Reading the Short Story.”
COLT 1431J: “Anti-Poetry,” taught by Maru Pabon ’15, the department’s newest hire, also made Muhanna’s list.
Muhanna shared that his favorite class to teach is COLT 0510K: “The 1001 Nights,” which will be available in the spring.
“The amazing thing about comp lit — and I’m really selling it here — is that any literature course taught at Brown will count towards our concentration,” he said.
Anthropology:
Katherine Mason, associate professor of anthropology, currently teaches an introductory medical anthropology class, ANTH 0300: “Culture and Health.”
Mason highlighted ANTH 1301: “Anthropology of Homelessness” and ANTH 1300: “Anthropology of Addictions” — both taught by Adjunct Lecturer Irene Glasser — as classes rooted on community engagement, she said.
She also recommended courses taught by Michael Berman, a postdoctoral fellow at the University. This semester, he is teaching ANTH 0350: “Suffering and Compassion.”
But if Mason could take one class at Brown, she said she’d pick the first year seminar ANTH 0066J: “So You Want to Change the World?” by Professor Daniel Jordan Smith.
“Anthropology is so fun to try out if you’re looking for just a fun and interesting class. We’re a very fun and interesting bunch,” she said.
English:
Stuart Burrows, an associate professor of English teaching ENGL 0101F: “American Realism” this fall, highlighted Professor James Kuzner’s ENGL 0100P: “‘Love Stories” due to his “charismatic lecturing.”
To anyone looking to try out an English class, Burrows emphasized the dramatic impact reading had on his own development, recalling his experience reading authors like Toni Morrison and Salman Rushdie for the first time one summer.
“I grew up where there weren’t many books. My parents didn’t read,” he said. “When I started to read it just opened up a whole series of different worlds and ways of being in the world. There are just lots of things that you don’t know that you don’t know about. So it’s exhilarating.”
If he could take one class at Brown, Burrows said he would take the seminar ENGL 1762P: “Lucille Clifton,” by Professor Kevin Quashie.
Quashie “is really adored by his students,” he said. “He’s just such a good close reader — he’s got a real following.”
Philosophy:
Professor and Chair of Philosophy Joshua Schechter said that his favorite topic to teach is the philosophy of mathematics, which poses questions relating to “whether numbers exist outside of our minds” and “what mathematics is about.”
He recommended the popular introductory course PHIL 0640: “Logic,” describing it as “almost like a show.” Were he a student looking to try out philosophy, he would start with PHIL 0010: “The Place of Persons” and PHIL 0110: “Ancient Greek Philosophy.”
“One of the best things about philosophy,” he said, “is that we do many different things, from moral theory to the nature of thought and consciousness, to language, to history, to technical work in logic and physics. It’s great for people with many different interests.”
Mathematics:
Professor of Mathematics Joseph Silverman — who is currently teaching MATH 1540: “Topics in Abstract Algebra” — said that the department’s most popular classes are the calculus and linear algebra courses and that he thinks it is useful for students that aren’t in the STEM field to take math classes.
“Being an undergraduate is a time to explore all kinds of different things,” he said, using the class MATH 0420: “Introduction to Number Theory” as an example of a course “for anyone who wants to see some really cool math with no prerequisites.”
He then added that MATH 750: “Introduction to Higher Mathematics” also has no prerequisites and was intended for students that “hopefully think math is kind of cool … or want to be convinced that math is cool.” The course will be taught by three different faculty members in collaboration.
Institute at Brown for Environment and Society:
Professor of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Studies Kim Cobb is the director of “the best kept secret at Brown” — what she calls the IBES department.
Cobb explained that IBES is a 10-year-old institute comprising the Environmental Studies and Sciences concentration and a research program that she described as the hub of all of Brown's interdisciplinary scholarship in climate, sustainability and the environment.”
If Cobb were a student, she said she would be excited to take ENVS 1911: “Narrating the Anthropocene” and ENVS 0717: “Ocean Resilience: Ecology, Management, and Politics.”
Classics:
Professor of Classics John Bodel is currently teaching CLAS 1320: “Roman History II: The Roman Empire and Its Impact,” which is part of a three-course survey on Roman history open to all undergraduates. His personal favorite course to teach, though, is “Death in the West.”
Bodel also noted that Professor Joseph Pucci’s course CLAS 1120G: “The Idea of Self” is an extremely popular class that he would love to take.
“If you want to appreciate Western literature and culture, classics are the reference point for everything,” Bodel said. “From the names of planets to the way zodiac signs are named — we’re not modest in our scope.”
History:
Associate Professor of History Jennifer Lambe ’06 is currently teaching an undergraduate lecture course on the history of Cuba, HIST 1967C: “Making Revolutionary Cuba.” It’s her favorite class to teach — she recalled the excitement of taking a course about Cuban history while she was an undergraduate at Brown “many moons ago.”
She said that the department’s most popular classes are the 150-level classes which are designed to be “gateways” for any student curious about history.
Lambe highlighted HIST 0150G: “History of Law: Great Trials” and HIST 0150A: “History of Capitalism” as sought-after classes to shop.
To students new to history, Professor Lambe explained that the subject at the college level “is very different from just memorization and much more about interpretation, analysis and writing (as well as) reading a lot of primary sources, including film and literature.”
Political Science:
This semester, Senior Lecturer in Political Science Nina Tannenwald is teaching POLS 0400: “Introduction to International Politics.”
“More than 50% of the class are first-years, and they come in as eager beavers, not cynical seniors,” she said, “which makes it a really fun class to teach.”
She highlighted Professor Peter Andreas’s course, POLS 1020: “Politics of the Illicit Global Economy” as an extremely popular course that she would recommend taking.
To students unsure about what falls under the bracket of political science — rather than other similar concentrations like international and political affairs — Tannenwald clarified that the department focuses more on “big enduring questions about power (and) institutions.”
Art History:
Professor of Modern Art Douglas Nickel, who is teaching the introductory class HIAA 0089: “Contemporary Photography,” said that it would be “impossible” to pick his favorite class to teach.
“They’re all my children,” he said. “They all do different things.”
Yet, “Professor (Dietrich) Neumann’s course on Modern Architecture will always be a very popular class because he’s a great lecturer and it’s a really fun class,” Nickel advised.
When asked about the importance of studying art history, Nickel said, “Everything the humanities does is based upon a desire for human empathy and connection. That’s never been more important than right now.”
Rose Farman-Farma is a Freshman Comparative Literature concentrator from England who loves writing and music.
