Sign up for Summer 2024 Classes on Pregnancy Loss, Black Literature and Culture, the Jewish Experience, and More
Content
Registration is now open for for summer 2024 online classes, including a course on Black literature and culture and, for the first time, a course on pregnancy loss.
Literature and Culture
Literature is a critical site for Black cultural work and reparative action. In this course, we will reach to a transnational and multigenre network to explore these dimensions of Black literary production. In Literature & Culture - AFROAM 151, we will consider the ways that literature shapes contemporary Black cultures, knitting members in (and beyond) the Black diaspora closely together-culturally, imaginatively, politically, and otherwise. This course carries four credits and fulfills two General Education requirements:
Literature ('AL') and United States: Diversity ('DU').
Register for the course by visiting umass.edu/uww and direct all abiding questions to the course's instructor, Elise Barnett, at barnett [at] umass [dot] edu (barnett[at]umass[dot]edu).
Confronting Pregnancy Loss
Taught by Associate Professor Kirsten Leng, WGSS 393M: Everything to Expect While You're Expecting - Confronting Pregnancy Loss is available during Summer II Session. The asynchronous course tackles pregnancy loss and the stigma surrounding it.
The class examines pregnancy loss as part of the spectrum of human reproductive experiences. Grounded in an approach informed by reproductive justice, this course draws upon interdisciplinary scholarship to historicize experiences and understandings of pregnancy losses; interrogate how (and why) federal and state laws criminalize pregnancy losses; and analyze how pregnancy loss experiences vary based on race, class, gender, and sexuality.
Register to enroll through University Without Walls.
The Jewish Experience
Assistant Professor Jordan Katz will teach JUDAIC 102: The Jewish Experience II - Medieval to Modern. The four-credit course will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10-11:15 a.m. via Zoom.
Students in the class will explore the life and history of the Jews in the medieval and modern worlds. Topics include Jewish-Christian relations; development of Jewish philosophy and mysticism; Jewish life in Eastern Europe; the Holocaust; State of Israel; Jews and Judaism in North America; and more.
Register to enroll through University Without Walls.
Global History, Queer History, and History of Baseball
The UMass History Department is offering 12 online classes this summer, each of which fulfills one or more UMass general education requirements, including Historical Studies (HS), United States Diversity (DU), and Global Diversity (DG) requirements.
History 265: U.S. LGBT and Queer History, taught by Alison Russell, explores how queer individuals and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities have influenced the social, cultural, economic, and political landscape in United States history. With a focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the course covers topics such as the criminalization of same-sex acts, cross-dressing, industrialization and urbanization, feminism, the construction of the homo/heterosexual binary, transsexuality and the "lavender scare" during the Cold War, the homophile, gay liberation, and gay rights movements, HIV/AIDS, and (im)migration. We will often look to examples from the present to better explore change over time and the modes and influences that shape both current and past understandings of gender and sexual difference.
All classes are open to UMass students and the general public.
Courses include:
- History 110: World to 1500
- History 154: Social Change in the 1960s
- History 281: Global History of Soccer
- History 283: American Gridiron Football
- History 387: The Holocaust
- History 389: U.S. Women's History since 1890
- History 111: World Since 1500
- History 131: Middle East II
- History 161: History of Africa since 1500
- History 264: History of Health Care and Medicine
- History 265: U.S. LGBT and Queer History
- History 280: History of Baseball
Explore available history classes here.
For questions about course content, contact the faculty member teaching the course. For general questions about the UMass History Department's online classes, contact outreach [at] history [dot] umass [dot] edu (outreach[at]history[dot]umass[dot]edu). For all other questions, including registration and records, contact U+.
African Film, Psycho Thrillers, and Writing for the Screen
The Film Studies program is offering several online classes throughout summer session I and summer session II, including FILM-ST 353: African Film, taught by Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies and African Film and Culture Patrick Mensah.
The course offers an introduction to African film as an aesthetic and cultural practice. Students should expect to be familiarized with the key ideas and objectives that have inspired and driven that practice since the early 1960s, and be furnished with the technical tools and methodological skills that would permit them to understand, analyze, and think critically about the artistic and thematic aspects of the films that are screened. They should also expect the course to provide them with a critical peek into several cardinal issues of social and cultural relevance in contemporary Africa and its history.
Additional courses include:
- FILM-ST 170: Introduction to Film Analysis: Cinematic Time Travel
- FILM-ST 385: Psycho Thrillers
- FILM-ST 390M: Video Editing & Film Montage
- FILM-ST 284: The Undead Souths: Southern Gothic and Francophone Mythologies in Film & Television
- FILM-ST 311: Film Production: How the Craft Works
- FILM-ST 330: Film Auteurs
- African Film
Explore available film studies courses here.
German Language
Asynchronous German language course offerings may be of interest to students who have a language requirement or want to earn some credits over the summer. What makes these courses especially appealing is their asynchronous nature, allowing for a flexible schedule to accommodate various commitments.
Registration is open for the following courses:
- German 110/120: Elementary German
- German 230/240: Intermediate German
Arts Management Courses
In our current landscape, tackling the challenges that arts and cultural organizations are facing takes creative and innovative thinking. Lead the change in the field by building your expertise through the Arts Extension Service’s classes in Arts Management this summer with our 100% online courses. Our highly relevant and instructive courses with renowned faculty who have extensive backgrounds in the field will bridge the gap of the experiential to the practical for aspiring and practicing arts managers, non-profit leaders, and creative practitioners.
Summer courses include:
- ARTS-EXT 500: Introduction to Arts Management
- ARTS-EXT 511: Grantwriting for the Arts
- ARTS-EXT 505: Strategic Planning