{"id":124704,"date":"2025-01-31T05:51:39","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T05:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/new-spring-courses-bring-specialized-fresh-perspectives-on-understanding-todays-world-the-daily-princetonian\/"},"modified":"2025-01-31T05:51:39","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T05:51:39","slug":"new-spring-courses-bring-specialized-fresh-perspectives-on-understanding-todays-world-the-daily-princetonian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/new-spring-courses-bring-specialized-fresh-perspectives-on-understanding-todays-world-the-daily-princetonian\/","title":{"rendered":"New spring courses bring specialized, fresh perspectives on understanding today\u2019s world – The Daily Princetonian"},"content":{"rendered":"

This spring semester, the University introduced<\/a> 186 new undergraduate courses, many of which delve deeply into highly-specialized subjects, from observational astronomy to African mythology to psychedelics and plant intelligence. The number of new courses offered this spring has increased<\/a> compared to the fall semester, which saw fewer than 140 new classes.
The Department of English has the most new courses with 20 new offerings, followed by Freshman Seminars (FRS), African American Studies (AAS), and Latin American Studies (LAS), which have introduced 16, 15, and 15 new courses respectively.
\u201cI was honestly kind of shocked to see just how many classes there were, and slightly disheartened because I won\u2019t be able to take all these classes,\u201d Arnav Ratna \u201928 said. Ratna chose to enroll in his freshman seminar, despite five other class options for the same time. 
Professors that teach the new classes emphasized their relevance and significance in light of today\u2019s environmental and political challenges. 
\u201cAs wildfires decimate a major American city, and the impacts of climate accelerate around the globe, it\u2019s increasingly unclear how we\u2019ll outlive fossil fuels,\u201d Visiting Professor Bethany Wiggin wrote. This semester, Wiggin is teaching ENV 476\/URB 476: (Out)living Fossil Fuels: Histories and Futures of Energy Transitions, which focuses on energy history and fossil fuel use in the mid-Atlantic region.  
\u201cI think teaching and learning about the challenges and successes of past energy transitions or intensifications is now more timely than ever,\u201d Wiggin explained.
Andrea Bernstein, professor of journalism, is teaching JRN 445: Investigative Journalism: Uncovering Corruption in the 2020s for the first time this semester. On Wednesday, the first day of the class, Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) received an 11-year prison sentence<\/a> for accepting bribes and influencing criminal cases. 
\u201cCorruption is swirling around us; our job in this class is to learn how to understand it, document it, and bring it to light,\u201d Bernstein wrote to The Daily Princetonian. \u201cThere\u2019s a real opportunity, now, [at] this moment in time, to use carefully-documented, fact-based investigative journalism to shine a light on wrongdoing.\u201d  
While some new courses may not explicitly relate to or work directly with current events, students and professors highlighted the fresh perspectives they provide for understanding the modern world.
Visiting Professor Gauri Viswanathan is teaching the new course ENG 327: Aldous Huxley: Major Works, which offers a chronological study of Huxley\u2019s works. 
\u201cI proposed teaching this course because I think Huxley speaks with great urgency to some of the most pressing issues of our time: social engineering and technological control; behavioral conditioning in planned societies of the future; the challenges of overcoming divisions and forging world unity in times of war,\u201d Viswanathan wrote to the \u2018Prince.\u2019 
Twyla Colburn \u201927, who is taking the new Huxley course, was \u201cexcited\u201d to explore the underpinning ideas of Huxley\u2019s novels with Viswanathan.  
Colburn is an associate Podcast editor for the \u2018Prince.\u2019
\u201cI think it\u2019s interesting to be able to engage with this sort of full spectrum of perspectives that [Huxley] has and be able to engage critically with these points of view that he has \u2014 some of which are a little outlandish,\u201d Colburn said. 
Professor of English Jeff Nunokawa, who teaches ENG 452: Capitalism, Character, and Community in Four Victorian Novels, examines in his class how notions of gender, sex, and anxieties about foreigners influence perceptions of wealth. 
Nunokawa described 19th-century Victorian literature as emerging during the \u201cage of capital,\u201d a time marked by rapid economic transformation and an intense drive to produce, consume, and monetize \u2014 what he referred to as \u201cthe price tagging of the world.\u201d
\u201cMuch of [the literature] gives us incredibly important insight into the ways that money, the need for money, the hunger for money, and the capitalist economy more generally infiltrates and defines zones of our human interest quite above and beyond the economy,\u201d Nunokawa told the \u2018Prince.\u2019 
\u201cIt is an incredibly important topic that can\u2019t be overstudied,\u201d he continued. 
In Assistant Professor Rachel Saunders\u2019 course, ART 327\/EAS 327: Handscroll to Anime: Visual Storytelling in Japanese Art, students unravel traditional Japanese narratives both figuratively and literally, engaging in discussions about text and imagery while working hands-on with paper scrolls.
Saunders expressed that \u201cone of the motivations for doing the class is to provide a space where we have an hour and 20 minutes twice a week where we\u2019re creating a space to experience narrative time on its own without that kind of anxiety \u2014 and we can put all our attention into these objects.\u201d 
Saunders also highlighted the course\u2019s relevance in deconstructing a media environment abundant with images. 
\u201cPictures are everywhere, and they\u2019re flooding our consciousness and our experience all the time, every day, and yet, we don\u2019t have much rigorous training in dealing with them,\u201d she told the \u2018Prince\u2019 in an interview. 
A number of new classes this spring semester also incorporate hands-on, experiential learning elements, such as field trips, local partnerships, or direct engagement with primary sources.
Professors Branka Arsic-Wills and Sarah Rivett teach AMS 325: Pacific Archives and Indigenous Cosmologies, which includes a spring break trip to Alaska, while students enrolled in Wiggin\u2019s course will visit energy-intensive neighborhoods across New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Saunders\u2019 class on Japanese literature recently examined 12th-century scrolls housed in Firestone Library\u2019s special collections. 
\u201cWhen I was scrolling through the seminars, I was impressed with them,\u201d Ratna said. \u201cThere was a very nice variety of courses to choose from.\u201d 
Sena Chang is a staff News writer for the \u2018Prince\u2019 from Tokyo, Japan. She typically covers campus and community activism, the state of higher education, and alumni news.<\/i>
Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.<\/i>
An executive order signed by President Donald Trump and released on Wednesday, Jan. 29 calls for universities to monitor and report the engagement of international students and staff for actions that constitute antisemitism. This follows a national protest movement last spring against the war in Gaza, including a sustained sit-in at Princeton. <\/a>
An executive order signed by President Donald Trump and released on Wednesday, Jan. 29 calls for universities to monitor and report the engagement of international students and staff for actions that constitute antisemitism. This follows a national protest movement last spring against the war in Gaza, including a sustained sit-in at Princeton. <\/a>
Life experiences, social media, and the way to approach politics \u2014 much about presidential elections has changed for alumni who voted on campus in 2008 versus in 2024. The \u2018Prince\u2019 spoke to a range of alumni to understand the political atmosphere back then and how the alumni\u2019s different paths led them to the same ticket this past November. <\/a>
Life experiences, social media, and the way to approach politics \u2014 much about presidential elections has changed for alumni who voted on campus in 2008 versus in 2024. The \u2018Prince\u2019 spoke to a range of alumni to understand the political atmosphere back then and how the alumni\u2019s different paths led them to the same ticket this past November. <\/a>
The University\u2019s health care services opened at the new Frist Health Center on Jan. 13, offering more convenience to students. <\/a>
The University\u2019s health care services opened at Frist Health Center on Jan. 13, offering more convenience to students. <\/a> <\/p>\n

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