SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE

2019-20 UNDERGRADUATE COURSE CATALOGUE ADDENDUM

BIOLOGY
Introduction to Genetics (BIOL-3617-R) – Richard Bruce Patterson
Fall open seminar: Wednesdays 11:05am-12:30pm and Fridays 9:30am-10:55am, Science 201
Lab: Tuesdays 2:00pm-5:00pm, Science 206
This description replaces the one listed in the catalogue. This course will be taught by Richard Bruce Patterson.

Everybody “knows” that DNA is the “genetic code”… but what renders a specific arrangement of C, H, O, and N atoms
“copyable” and enables them to act as a recipe for every living thing? In this course, you’ll discover the mechanisms behind
specific partnering, wrestle with the constraints behind DNA copying at both micro (individual basepair) and macro
(complete instructions for an organism) levels. You will experimentally engage with the rules of passing instructions to
offspring, walk in the footsteps of Gregor Mendel, and discover and characterize many of the “exceptions to Mendel” and
think about how they arise. You’ll dissect how genetic change occurs at the nucleotide level, its consequences for some
specific machines of the body (sickle cell anemia and other genetic diseases), and progress to exploring how genetic
change drives the evolution of traits and the movement of traits in populations. Finally, we’ll examine how we have co-opted
bacterial immune systems, first to invent genetic engineering and more recently to develop precision gene engineering.
You’ll explore not only what we can do…but whether or not we should. Classes will be supplemented with laboratory work.

Richard Bruce Patterson: BSc Ohio University. PhD, University of California San Francisco. Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford
University. Currently focused on teaching and development of undergraduate learning materials, interactive online and
laboratory exercises. Previously taught at University of Arizona, Princeton University, Stockton University. SLC, 2019-
CHEMISTRY
Transition Metal Chemistry – Colin Abernethy
This course has been canceled.

Biochemistry (CHEM-4064-A) – Colin Abernethy

Spring advanced 3-credit small seminar: Mondays Wednesdays and Thursdays 12:45pm-1:45pm, Science 103
New spring course.

This course is concerned with the chemical basis of biology. We will begin by examining the structure and function of the
main classes of biologically important molecules: amino acids, peptides, and proteins; carbohydrates; and lipids. We will
then look at enzyme activity, including the mechanisms, kinetics, and regulation of enzyme-mediated reactions. This will be
followed by an overview of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and their role within eukaryotic cells. The study of biological
membranes will then lead to an investigation of bioenergetics and metabolic processes within cells. In place of individual
conference work, the class will work as a group through representative MCAT questions relating to the topics covered in the
course. This is a 3-credit small seminar. Prerequisite: Two semesters of Organic Chemistry.

Organic Chemistry III: An Introduction to Organic Synthesis (CHEM-4121-A) – Colin Abernethy

Spring advanced small seminar: Mondays and Thursdays 2:00pm-3:25pm, Science 101
New spring course.

This advanced course is a continuation of the study of Organic Chemistry beyond the topics studied in Organic Chemistry I
& II. We will commence the semester by investigating the exceptional stability of aromatic molecules and their main modes
of reaction: electrophilic aromatic substitution and nucleophilic aromatic substitution. We will then look at the ways in which
organic molecules can rearrange and fragment during reactions. Once those topics have been mastered, we will be able to
learn the principles of retrosynthetic analysis: the method used to devise efficient strategies for the synthesis of complex
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organic molecules. Conference work for this course will be the development of a synthetic route to prepare an important
pharmaceutical compound. Prerequisite: Two semesters of Organic Chemistry.

DANCE
African Diasporic Dance (DNCE-5574-U) – Darian Marcel Parker
Yearlong component: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:00am-10:45am, PAC Bessi
This component will be taught by Darian Marcel Parker.

Darian Marcel Parker: PhD, MPhil, MA, Yale University. BA (College of Honors), UCLA. A choreographer, specializing in
West African dance forms from Guinea and Mali, Dr. Parker's work has received support from the Jerome Foundation,
Harlem Stage Fund for New Work, and New Haven Arts Council. His performance credits include Step-Up 3D, the
G’Bassikolo Mexican Tour, and the Fats Waller US tour. He has also performed with artists such as Meshell N’Degeocello,
Jason Moran, and Maija Garcia and has been a member of companies such as Kouman Kele, Kouffin Keneke, Sewee
African Dance Company, and Harambee Dance Company. Dr. Parker completed teaching residencies at SUNY Purchase
and currently serves on the faculty of Cumbe Center for African and Diaspora Dance in Brooklyn, NY. Among his many
teachers are Nzingha Camara, Aly Tatchol Camara, Mouminatou Camara, and Ibrahim Doumbia. Dr. Parker is the author of
Sartre and No Child Left Behind: An Existential Psychoanalytic Anthropology of Urban Schooling (Rowman & Littlefield
Press, 2015) and “The Haze,” which appears in Pedagogies in the Flesh (Palgrave MacMillan, 2018). He is also the founder
and CEO of Parker Academics (www.parkeracademics.com), a test prep and tutoring company based in Manhattan. SLC,
2019-
Dance on Frame (DNCE-5588-U) – Andrea Lerner
Spring component: Fridays 1:45pm-3:25pm, PAC Bessi
This course title replaces the one listed in the catalogue. This component will be taught by Andrea Lerner.

Andrea Lerner: A choreographer and videomaker, Lerner—together with Rosane Chamecki—has been the co-artist director
of chameckilerner. During the 25-year collaboration, chameckilerner has created a body of work that includes dance
performances, video, and installation pieces; chameckilerner started experimenting with film in 2008. Their first short
video, Flying Lesson, won the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center. Other videos include The Collection,
commissioned by Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center; Conversation with Boxing Gloves between Chamecki and
Lerner, commissioned by PERFORMA 09; Samba#2 and Eskasizer (a four-channel installation) through a residency at
EMPAC, Troy, NY; among others. Their video work won a series of prizes at international film and dance festivals around
the world. Lerner is the recipient of various fellowships and grants, including the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, The
Foundation for Contemporary Arts, NYFA, NYSCA, NEFA, Jerome Foundation, Rockefeller MAP Fund, among
others. Most recently, she was a 2019 artist in residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, a Gibney DiP Residency
Artist, and finished a commission to Barnard College students in spring 2019. SLC, 2019-

FILM HISTORY
German Cinema and Cultural Memory 1947-2018 – Sally Shafto
This course has been canceled.

Women Make Movies, or Why Gender Representation Really Matters Behind and In Front of the Camera (FLMH-
3202-R) – Sally Shafto
Spring open seminar: Wednesdays 1:00pm-4:00pm, PAC 1
Film Screening: Tuesdays 7:00pm-10:00pm, Heimbold 202
New spring course.

Today women directors still have a hard time breaking through to receive recognition and steady funding. In fact, according
to the Celluloid Ceiling Report, in 2016 women comprised just seven percent of directors of the top grossing 250 films in the

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United States—a two percent decrease from the previous year. This seminar will offer a historical, international survey of
women filmmakers up to the present. In conjunction with certain feminist readings, we will consider the historical reasons for
the slow emergence of women as creators, beginning with Linda Nochlin’s influential essay, “Why Have There Been No
Great Women Artists?” (1971). And beginning with Alice Guy-Blaché, the class will survey some of the best films by women
directors. We will also consider the success rate for women directors in other countries, notably Morocco, where women
directors have won four times the top award in 17 editions. Germaine Dulac, Dorothy Arzner, Maya Deren, Leni Riefenstahl,
Agnès Varda, Claire Denis, Chantal Akerman, Ava DuVernay, Mahassine El Hachadi, Margarethe von Trotta, Andrea
Arnold, Sally Potter, Marjane Satrapi, Jane Campion, Célina Sciamma, Isabelle Adjani, Patty Jenkins, Anne-Marie Miéville,
Gurinda Chada, Mélanie Laurent, Kathryn Bigelow, Sofia Coppola, Mira Nair, Julie Dash, Diane Kurys, Lina Wertmüller,
Margarethe von Trotta, Lynne Ramsay, Simone Bitton, Farida Benlyazid, and Agnieszka Holland are some of the
filmmakers whom we’ll consider both in class and for individual conference projects. Students should have some prior
background in film history or in women's studies to take this seminar.

HISTORY
Making Latin America – Margarita Fajardo
This course has been canceled.

The Problem of Empire: A History of Latin America – Margarita Fajardo

This course has been canceled.

Drugs, History and Politics in Latin America and Beyond (HIST-3339-R) – Margarita Fajardo
Fall open seminar: Mondays 1:00pm-3:25pm, Heimbold 210
New fall course.

The “War on Drugs,” shootings in favelas, colgados in US-Mexican border states, and (in)famous drug lords (or ”narcos”)
dominate contemporary images of, and conversations about, drugs in Latin America. From the narconovelas and
narcocorridos to even narco-tourism, narcoviolence has created a myriad of cultural and social artifacts that cultivate both
fascination and repulsion over a phenomenon that has profound economic, social, and political ramifications for the region
and for the world. This course seeks to understand the multiplicity of historical causes and effects of narcoviolence in the
most conspicuous cases in Latin America during the 20th century: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Central America. To do so,
the course will situate the current narcoviolence within a longer history of psychoactive drugs as goods, linking producers
and consumers through global capitalism since the early modern period. From coffee to cocaine, we will discuss the origins
of both fascination with and prohibition of psychoactive drugs. We will examine the social, political, and economic functions
of drugs in different historical contexts, their transformation from luxury to mass commodities, and even their fetishization. In
addition, the course explores the economics, politics, and culture of drugs in the long era of narcoviolence and globalization.
Using primary and secondary sources, history and social science perspectives, the course seeks to foster deep and serious
engagement with the history of Latin America and its complex relation to psychoactive drugs.

LITERATURE
Getting Real: Reality, Representation and the Rise of Everyday Life (LITR-3190-R) – Sonia Werner
Fall open seminar: Mondays 11:05am-1:00pm, Heimbold 211
New fall course.

At a moment when popular culture is obsessed with reality television and new technology permits “real-time” access to
current events, this course examines the concept of reality as it relates to literature and philosophy. What is reality, and how
can we know it? How can we grasp the metaphysical, political, and aesthetic dimensions of the “real”? We will begin the
course by examining philosophical works by Plato, G. H. Hegel, and Karl Marx before evaluating a range of literature from
the 19th century by authors including Nikolai Gogol, Herman Melville, Vissarion Belinsky, Charles Baudelaire, Gustave
Flaubert, Charles Dickens, and Edgar Allen Poe. We will explore how those works engage concepts of realism, modernity,
the city, and the rise of visual culture. We will then discuss their relation to more contemporary theoretical and literary texts
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by authors such as Walter Benjamin, Maurice Blanchot, Frantz Fanon, Henri Lefebvre, Teju Cole, Susan Sontag, Guys
Debord, and Claudia Rankine to probe deeply into the category of everyday life and explore questions concerning race,
gender, and the experience of modern life. Lastly, we will consider the force of the photographic image in the 19th century,
as well as within our own contemporary moment. This is an active learning course that sets out to make sense of our lived
experience.

Genre Trouble: The Novel, Modernity, and the Global Nineteenth Century (LITR-3196-R) – Sonia Werner
Spring open seminar: Mondays 11:05am, 1:00pm, PAC 1
New spring course.

Marked by the rise of industrial capitalism, the expansion of empire, and the development of new technologies of
transportation, communication, and reproduction, the 19th century might also be understood as the veritable age of the
novel. But what is the novel? And what is “novel” about it? How does the novel challenge and elude established definitions
of genre and narrative? How does it relate to the concepts of modernity and originality? What is its relationship to gender,
sexuality, and the rise of the bourgeoisie? What, if any, are the novel’s formal elements? How does it fulfill its oft-made
promise to represent the world around us? In this course, we will attempt to answer these questions by reading a range of
literary works by authors including Friedrich Schlegel, Mary Shelley, George Sand, Honoré de Balzac, Leo Tolstoy, Joaquim
Machado de Assis, N. G. Chernyshevsky, Jeremias Gotthelf, Charlotte Brontë, and Jean Rhys. In addition to questioning
the novel’s “origins,” we will examine its aesthetic and political dimensions by reading key theoretical texts by authors such
as Erich Auerbach, Georg Lukács, Roland Barthes, Naomi Schor, Mikhail Bakhtin, Ian Watt, Benedict Anderson, Edward
Said, Homi Bhabha, Partha Chatterjee, Gayatri Spivak, and Sara Ahmed.

Sonia Werner: PhD, New York University. Interests include comparative literature; world literature, philosophy and critical
theory, aesthetics and politics, realism and representation, nationalism and internationalism, theories and practices of
performance, the global 19th century; and the novel. Werner is a visiting assistant professor at New York University’s
master’s program in experimental humanities and social engagement and also teaches at the Gallatin School of
Individualized Study. Her current book project, Fringe Realisms: Belated Nations and the Invention of a Useable Present,
examines realism’s relationship to nation formation in regions characterized by national and industrial belatedness. Her
research has been published in Novel: A Forum on Fiction and is forthcoming in Diacritics. SLC, 2019-

PHILOSOPHY
Greek Tragedies: Electras – Michael Davis
This course has been canceled.

POLITICS
Intervention and Justice – Elke Zuern
This course has been canceled.

International Organization: The Politics of Global Governance (POLI-3829-R) – Janet Reilly

Spring open seminar: Wednesdays 11:05am-1:15pm, Sheffield 01
New spring course.

The most pressing issues of our time—climate change, global pandemics such as AIDS and SARS, world hunger and
poverty, terrorism, refugee crises, human trafficking, global arms trade, and drug smuggling—are what former UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan referred to as “problems without passports,” because they transcend national boundaries and
cannot be solved by states acting unilaterally. Rather, Annan argued, such challenges require “blueprints without borders.”
International organization may be the most, if not the only, appropriate forum for tackling transnational issues. This course
examines international organizations per se, but its main focus is the broader concept of how the international community
organizes to address collective problems. Increasingly, states choose to pool sovereignty in supranational institutions like
the European Union and to cede authority in certain issue areas to intergovernmental organizations—both global, such as
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the United Nations, and regional, such as NATO—that then take on a life of their own. At the same time, nongovernmental
actors, including nonprofit human-rights organizations as well as multinational corporations, are interacting—both
challenging and collaborating—with states in the international arena. What collective problems exist at the international
level? What solutions are states and other actors pursuing? Why do some international organization efforts succeed and
many fail? We will investigate these questions through a discussion of international organization’s role in the areas of global
migration, international security and justice, and the prevention and punishment of genocide.

PRACTICUM
Foundations in Workplace Culture and Wellbeing (PRAC-3100-R) – Meghan Jablonski
Fall sophomores and above practicum: Wednesdays 5:30pm-8:30pm, Titsworth Lecture Hall
New fall practicum.

Participation in this course provides faculty sponsorship of students' internship or externship placements across a variety of
fields. In collaboration with Career Services, the aim of this course is to provide an academic base of support for students
on internship or externship placements. Grounded on relevant psychology theory and research, the course will focus on
topics relevant to a wide range of placement settings. Topics will include organizational psychology, diversity and inclusion;
workplace wellness; productivity; time management; and work/life balance. All students will be required to attend one
weekly class session and complete related course work, in addition to regularly attending their placement. Students
completing the course for five credits will be required to complete an additional conference project. All grades will be
Pass/Fail. All students must be actively engaged in an internship or externship placement during the Fall 2019 semester to
be eligible for this course. Sophomore, Junior, and Senior students on internship or externship placements are invited to join
this course for 3 or 5 credits.

PSYCHOLOGY
Developmental Forensic Psychology (PSYC-3116-R) – Latoya Conner
Fall open seminar: Mondays 11:05am-1:30pm, Heimbold 111
New fall course.

Forensic psychology is the professional and scientific study of psychology in the context of issues pertaining to the law or
legal questions. Forensic developmental psychology as a field focuses on “children's actions and reactions in a forensic
context" and "children's reports that they were victims or witnesses of a crime.” Contemporary incidents of violence often
leave us bewildered, rendering the undeniable importance of forensics. Forensic psychologists have proven that this
practice is an irreplaceable asset to our community safety and system of justice. Appropriate for anyone interested in the
intersection of psychology and the law, this course includes: an integrative and historical overview of forensic psychology; a
review of current developmental forensic issues pertaining to children, adolescents and young adults in civil and criminal
court cases; exploration of how psychosocial reference groups—such as race, culture, social class, sexual orientation,
gender, age, and ability—impact the clinical presentation and case conceptualizations of individuals involved in the criminal
justice system; biological, cognitive, social/emotional, behavioral, and environmental components of risk and vulnerability;
and a discussion of the role of trauma, neglect, and abuse as precursors to legal involvement and consequences of the
revolving door of incarceration. We will explore the role of an expert witness and elements of forensic evaluations in child
abuse, neglect, and juvenile delinquency cases. A review of landmark and controversial cases and the use of documentary
films are pedagogical elements of the course. Conference work may include literature reviews, empirical research, meta-
analysis, and observations of court proceedings.

Adverse Childhood Experiences: Post-Traumatic Growth in Urban America (PSYC-3211-R) – Latoya Conner
Spring open seminar: Mondays 11:05am-1:30pm, Library, E1 Classroom
New spring course.

This course will elucidate the insidious nature of developmental risk and resilience in the face of adversity. The incidence
and prevalence of grief and trauma across the lifespan will be examined in the context of adverse childhood experiences
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(ACEs) and an ecological view of trauma and trauma recovery. We will explore ACEs as a common pathway to social,
emotional, and cognitive impairments that lead to a greater risk for physical illness and mental health disorders, health risk
behaviors, violence, re-victimization, obesity, disease, disability, and premature mortality. Individual differences in post-
traumatic response and recovery are the result of interactions involving the person, the person’s environment, and the
traumatic event. This complex relationship can promote social, cognitive, spiritual, and emotional health or impede growth
and recovery. Clinical, community, and systemic-level interventions that promote resilience and post-traumatic growth will
be discussed. Experiential learning and practical exercises to increase well-being will be implemented from a positive
psychology theoretical and empirical framework. Conference work may include any of the pedagogical elements of the
course: literature review, empirical research review, and/or an autobiographical personal reflection paper.

Latoya Conner: BA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. PhD, MPhil, EdM, MA, Teachers College, Columbia
University. APA-Accredited Internship, Yale University School of Medicine. A clinician, researcher, distinguished professor,
and forensic psychologist with special interests in health disparities, grief, trauma, and cultural coping across the
developmental lifespan; integrating compassion cultivation and yoga into practice; and psychodynamic and cognitive-
behavioral approaches to treatment. Author of scholarly publications and recipient of Spencer Foundation and NIH grants.
SLC, 2019–

Psychology Advanced Research Seminar – Meghan Jablonski, Elizabeth Johnston, Linwood Lewis
This course has been canceled.

SPANISH
Intermediate Spanish II: Songs from the Hispanic Worlds (SPAN-3755-R) – Carmen Valenzuela-Cervantes
Fall intermediate seminar: Tuesdays and Thursdays 7:00pm-8:25pm, Science 301
New fall course.

This course is intended for students who have had at least one year of college-level Spanish or the equivalent and who wish
to review and expand the fundamentals of the Spanish language. After reviewing the basics of Spanish grammar, we will
study more complex structures as we refresh, consolidate, and grow our Spanish vocabulary. The aim is to improve both
oral and written Spanish communicative skills and to gain some knowledge of the different Hispanic cultures. Focusing on
music, we will listen to songs from the different Hispanic countries and from diverse genres, such as tango, flamenco, and
Cuban hip-hop and pop music. The music will serve as both listening and reading material for the class. We will study it in a
cultural context, identify and discuss the poetic devices, observe the relationship between the lyrics and the music, reflect
on the messages and learn about their reception, among other tasks. As part of the work for the course, students will write a
cultural project on the Hispanic song, song artist, or song genre of their choice. Students will meet with a language assistant
once a week in order to support their speaking and oral comprehension and their Hispanic cultural knowledge. The course
will be taught entirely in Spanish. Eligibility is based on placement test and on an interview with the instructor.

Carmen Valenzuela-Cervantes: BA, Universidad de Navarra (Pamplona, Spain). Certificate of Research Qualification,
Universidad de Jaén (Jaén, Spain). Ph.D., The Graduate Center (CUNY). Studied emotional education at CMPS (Center for
Modern Psychoanalytic Studies). Taught at Hunter College, Baruch College, and Instituto Cervantes in New York City.
Interest areas include Hispanic poetry and songs from Spain and Latin America, Hispanic culture in general, and the role of
emotional intelligence in the study of culture and in language teaching. SLC, 2019-

WRITING
Nature Writing: A Nonfiction Workshop (WRIT-3744-R) – William Logan
Fall open seminar: Wednesdays 9:00am-10:55am, Westlands 104
New fall course.

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We live in a world that has been picked apart. The work of the nature writer is to put the world back together again. Our job
is to write not as rulers, observers, or managers but as creatures among all the other creatures. We become native to a
place not because we were born there but because we inhabit it fully, give thanks for it, celebrate it, defend it, understand it,
sing it. This is perhaps the most important work that a writer can do today, because our separation from the world around us
may well lead to the death of our species. Nature writing embraces narrative, reporting, poetry, history, science, memoir,
dramaturgy, ecology, garden and farm writing, celebration. Nature writing has been spoken, written, or sung since the
Mesolithic, at least. The caves of Lascaux represent it. So do the Zuni Kiva dramas. Gilgamesh and Enkidu spoke of it. The
classical tradition of Japanese poetry embodied it. It has been written by Hesiod, by Virgil and Columella, by Hildegard von
Bingen, by Thomas Traherne, by John Clare, by Walt Whitman, by Meridel LeSeur and John Muir, by Rita Dove, by Terry
Tempest Williams and Robin Wall Kimmerer, by Mary Oliver and Thomas Merton, by Celia Thaxter and Gary Snyder, by
Janisse Ray and Robert Macfarlane. We will spend about half the semester reading examples from past and current
writers, focusing each week on another genre of expression. We will practice writing in the different modes. We will read
and share the work in class. For the second half of the semester, each student will focus on a personal project that we will
work out in tutorials. The class is for writers at all levels and also for those who have not done much writing before. A variety
of backgrounds and intentions will enliven the class.

William Bryant Logan: BA, Columbia University. Writer in residence, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1980-1990.
Contributing editor, House & Garden, House Beautiful, Garden Design. Teacher of poetry in public schools, Teachers and
Writers Collaborative. Founder and president, Urban Arborists. Faculty, New York Botanical Garden. Author of Sprout
Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees; Air: The Restless Shaper of the World; Oak: The Frame of Civilization; and Dirt:
The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, which was the basis of Dirt! The Movie, shown at Sundance Film Festival. Translator of
Federico Garcia Lorca, Pedro Calderon de la Barca, and other Spanish-language writers. SLC, 2019-

What's the Story? An Audio Journalism Class (WRIT-3735-R) – Ann Heppermann

Fall open seminar: Tuesdays 11:05-1:00pm, Heimbold 208 and Heimbold 209A
The instructor of this course has changed to Ann Hepppermann.