2022-2023 High School Course Catalog by Saint Ann's School

HIGH COURSESCHOOLCATALOG2022–2023

Cover Artwork by: Marley M., 12th grade Dear High Schoolers,

As the weather gets nicer and we look towards a brighter spring than we’ve experienced in some time, the following quote is rattling around in my mind:

Thankfully, here at this school, we do love each other, and we also make space to love art and words and games and everything else that makes life beautiful. As you devour this book, please take the time to contemplate which lovable things within it will make every day feel like ChloeWith...love...spring.

—Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“If people did not love one another, I really don’t see what use there would be in having any spring.”

Rec Arts One course or the equivalent, or one interscholastic sport, per year Science Three years including one year of biology and one year of physical science

Computer Science No requirement, but students must gain the skills to use computers and other devices competently and navigate digital spaces ethically and responsibly

REQUIREMENTSGRADUATIONMINIMUM

Arts Four courses in the arts, preferably at least one in art, one in music, and one in theater

English Four years History Four years Language Four years of language study Math Four years, including Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2

HIGH COURSESCHOOLCATALOG2022–2023 TABLE OF CONTENTS Art .................................................................................................................................... 5 Computer Science ........................................................................................................... 11 English .............................................................................................................................. 15 Health ............................................................................................................................... 22 History ............................................................................................................................. 24 Interdisciplinary Studies .................................................................................................. 30 Languages Chinese ............................................................................................. 33 Japanese ............................................................................................. 35 Greek 36 Latin 39 French 45 Spanish ............................................................................................. 47 Mathematics .................................................................................................................... 50 Music ................................................................................................................................ 55 Recreational Arts ............................................................................................................. 63 Science ............................................................................................................................. 67 Seminar ............................................................................................................................ 73 Theater ............................................................................................................................. 80

Art and Inquiry (Collins) Should art-making focus on aesthetic pleasures? Can artists produce knowledge? Get you somebody who can do both. In this course, we’ll consider research as a legitimate and critical foundation for artistic output. There are two main aspects of the course: first, throughout the year we’ll study artists that have worked in this mode. We’ll look at the way artists have studied psychoanalysis, history, sociology, and other disciplines to add conceptual depth to their artworks. We’ll read some of these foundational works, speak to practicing artists directly, and–public health conditions permitting–visit their studios to understand their Second,processes.students will create their own works of art. The impetus for these works can come from any number of drives: a personal or political cause, an interest, an impulse. Students will study all aspects of the thing they’ve chosen, and begin to make artworks in response to this study. This artistic output can take any number of forms, from the concrete (drawings, photographs, objects) to more ephemeral works (short videos, websites, memes). In the end, we hope to produce both knowledge and art through circuitous study. We look at art, we read books, and then we make things afterwards. That’s the idea.

Animation (Tokmakova)

5 ART

All classes meet one double period per week unless otherwise noted. Note: Although the descriptions for many of the art electives are general, it is the teachers’ prerogative to be more specialized in their individual approaches. For instance, the Painting and Painting/Drawing courses have several sections taught by different teachers in the department, and each teacher guides the curriculum through personal aesthetic passions and interests, while taking into consideration the experiential and technical abilities of individual students in the class.

Over the course of the year, each student will conceive, design, and produce an animated film, creating sets and characters with clay, paper cutouts, drawings, mixed media, or found materials. We will, for the most part, employ traditional stop-motion techniques to shoot our films frame-by-frame, using Dragon Animation software. Students who prefer to work digitally from start to finish will, of course, be able to do so. Everything comes together during the editing stage: the images can be layered or manipulated, and the soundtrack— including dialogue, music, sound effects, or narration—is added. No previous experience necessary.

Art, Science, and Nature (Arnold/Zayas) (See Interdisciplinary Studies) Clay, Plaster, Paper, Wax: The Elements of Sculpture (Greenwood)

Introduction to Architecture & Design 1 (Rumage) This course introduces and explores some of the basic drawing systems used to communicate three-dimensional architectural ideas within two-dimensional formats (elevations, floor plans, isometric and axonometric projections and perspective). Students progress from representing simple three-dimensional forms to drawing self-designed architectural structures and translating their architectural ideas into representative scale models.

Introduction to Architecture & Design 2 (Rumage) This course is an extension of Introduction to Architecture and Design 1. The course will broaden the exploration of architectural concepts and model-making, allowing students to gain greater confidence and fluency while applying the various projection and mechanical drawing systems to specific design problems. This is an excellent course to prepare for the more rigorous Advanced Architecture and Design seminar. Prerequisite(s): Introduction to Architecture & Design 1 Digital Photography (Venable) This course will focus on the basics of making and understanding photographs utilizing digital processes. We will explore technical tools, concepts and philosophies essential to photography in a variety of projects with a focus on digital capture, scanning, Photoshop and digital printing. Throughout the year we will look at photographers and other artists whose work is especially relevant to the processes and topics we explore.

This course will explore some of the most ancient and fundamental of sculptural techniques and materials. Through select assignments and extensive independent projects we will delve into both additive and reductive processes. We will also use moldmaking to experiment with reproducing works and the potential of translating between media. In addition we will make use of different decorative techniques including polychromy, glazing, pâte-sur-pâte, and perhaps fresco.

Figure Drawing with Extensive Study of the Head and Facial Expression (Arnold) (4x per week)

This course will explore the techniques and expressive potential of drawing the human body. Working directly from live models and, using a wide range of media, we will investigate the skeletal and muscle structures, considering form, proportion, movement, and ways of translating onto the page both what we know and how we see. Individual attention will be prioritized, so that every student may achieve a greater familiarity with the human form, and expand their personal visual vocabulary.

Figure Drawing (Hillis, Tokmakova)

Drawing (Greenwood, Sassoon) In this class we focus on the fundamentals of drawing. Observation, perception, composition, and the language of mark-making are stressed. Students will work primarily from observation, including: still life, works of the Old Masters, and models, in addition to other sources. Using materials such as pencil, charcoal, pastel, ink, watercolor, and colored pencils, we will explore line, tonality, volume, and texture as we gain rendering skills and develop personal artistic expression.

In this course students will learn to draw the human figure from a live model, both dressed and nude. From short movement sketches to longer studies of a still model, students will explore the figure, including special studies of its hands and feet, using china ink, graphite, charcoal, oil sticks, etc. We will pay particular attention to the head. Students will learn to depict the head proportionally, from different angles, and in three dimensions. Drawing from

This course will dive further into the topics covered in an analog or digital photography class with a focus on printing with UV light based processes such as cyanotypes and van dyke brown. We will also experiment with other processes such as pinhole photography, emulsion lifts, transfers and photograms. A solid understanding of how to use an SLR or DSLR camera and basic understanding of Photoshop is required. Prerequisite(s): Digital Photography, Darkroom Photography 1/2/3 or equivalent experience as determined by the instructor.

Ceramic Sculpture (Bellfatto) Not a pottery course. We explore basic clay building techniques such as coil, slab, and pinch-pot to generate functional and non-functional sculpture. Various surface treatments are investigated: stain, slip, paint, and glazes. Students develop a body of work reflecting an eclectic variety of sources and themes: personal, historical, geometric and organic form, human and animal figure, narrative relief, and architecture.

Experimental & Alternative Photographic Processes (Venable)

Note: This class will meet two double periods per week.

Multimedia Explorations in Fabric and Video (G. Smith)

The class will start by exploring the fundamentals of both media. We’ll learn the basics of old but reliable Singer sewing machines, and consider the colors, textures, and patterns of various fabrics. On a parallel track, we’ll learn about basic video editing techniques as we stitch together found footage or videos downloaded from our phones. Rapidly we’ll move toward projects that combine the media. As the year progresses, students will increasingly take the reins and follow their own interests. Through considering both the work of other artists and readings from a range of authors, students will also gain an appreciation for the medium’s individually, and the ways in which fabric and video have been used together. No previous artistic experience is necessary.

Oil Painting: Style and Technique (Arnold) This course covers basic painting techniques for working on primed canvas with a brush and palette knife. Students will learn the rules of composition and color contrast, the creation of texture, and varnishing. We will explore various styles from the mid-19th century to today, including Realism, Impressionism, Cubism, Primitivism, Surrealism, and Pop Art, and study paintings by Van Gogh, Cézanne, Rousseau, Matisse, Picasso, Magritte, Hockney, Freud, and others. This will help students learn to recognize a particular style and also use it in their own painting. Students will be free to paint from imagination or observation, making still-lifes, portraits, and landscapes. Field trips to museums and student presentations on assigned artists will take place throughout the course.

a live model as well as from classical sculptures, they will learn to depict individual facial characteristics, creating a portrait. During the second semester, students will be ready to make stylized portraits (e.g. caricatures, cartoons, and anthropomorphized animals) as well as various realistic expressions. We will also explore drawing groups of interacting figures. This course will be demanding, requiring stamina, dedication, and a desire to learn how to draw realistically. Previous drawing experience is desirable but not necessary.

Painting (Hillis, Lee, Tokmakova) This course is an exploration, through a variety of painting media, of pictorial construction, color, composition, and conception.

This class explores the connections between video and fabric. After all, through outfits, backgrounds, or the very screen a video is projected upon, isn’t fabric always in the frame? And doesn’t the everyday informality of fabric align with the spontaneous phone videos we make when the mood strikes us? Finally, don’t the stitches laid down by a sewing machine match the mechanical repetition of one frame after another in a moving image?

Painting & Drawing (The Department)

Learn to capture and share your view of the world through the lens of traditional black and white photography. In addition to class discussions and critiques, students will study the basics of composition and visual communication through slide show presentations of wellknown and lesser-known photographers, assignments to be completed outside of class, and in-class exercises in the analog photographic process. Taking our inspiration from the history of photography and other visual arts, we will explore a variety of processes—from those used to produce the very first photographs up through the emergence of 35mm.

Photography 1: Basic Camera and Darkroom Techniques (Giraldo, Venable)

Photography 2/3: Personal Style and Advanced Darkroom Techniques (Giraldo) Already equipped with the basics of the analog photographic process, students will learn techniques in documentary photography, portraiture, and explore methods to develop personal style. Darkroom practice will include the use of new materials such as Fiber-based Silver Gelatin and Medium Format Negatives. Prerequisite(s): Introduction to Photography, or equivalent experience in black and white photography and darkroom developing, as determined by the instructor.

Printmaking (Lee) This is a broad course that examines various printmaking techniques, from relief printing (linoleum and woodcut) to intaglio (drypoint, etching, and aquatint). We will develop an understanding of these various processes by looking at printmakers throughout history and through hands-on experimentation.

Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor

Painting Intensive (Bellfatto) (4x per week) See “Painting.” Offered in an intensive format of two double periods per week.

An exploration of pictorial life—how drawing begins, its development, manifestation, and transmutation. An alchemical approach to picture making: experimentation with content in a variety of styles and media toward the development of a personal vision.

Printmaking: Posters (Lee)

This course is devoted to silkscreen design and production. We will survey poster designs ranging from 19th century Japanese playbills, Ghanian movie posters, protest posters (including the work of Sister Corita Kent), and the Pop screenwork of Warhol and Yokoo. In addition to creating our own silkscreens, including prints on t-shirts and fabric, this course works closely with the Theater Department to produce the posters for all school productions throughout the year.

In this mixed media course, students will maneuver between photography, painting, printmaking, and drawing. We will rely heavily on alternative processes—such as tape transfer, solvent transfer, cyanotype, painting and drawing, collage, paper and book arts—to deconstruct and reconstruct imagery as we move into exploring abstraction. Process is a significant part of this course, as we will take pleasure in the journey of moving one idea through different iterations and arriving at multiple solutions, then choosing the best option to work with. This way of working will create new possibilities through both experimentation and trial and error.

Seeing Anew: All About Process (Adili)

COMPUTER SCIENCE

We are surrounded by science fiction—portable computers, social media, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, electronic games, online journals, instant reference books, genetic sequencing, nanotech, increasingly massive datasets—built by people who know how to design, dream, and code. With computer science we can make art, crunch numbers, translate languages, and solve many human problems. Our courses show students how to be more than just consumers or users: they will be independent creators on computers, able to control and shape the tools of today and tomorrow. Using software that runs similarly on Mac, Windows, Unix/Linux, and tablet computers, our courses teach a range of topics including programming, graphics, circuitry, web, spreadsheet analysis, logic, and other skills that are useful for doing everything from analysis to artwork to running social movements. Classes are full year and meet twice a week unless otherwise noted. Visit tinyurl.com/sacc2022classes for more information about any of the courses below.

3D Modeling and Printing (The Department) There is an engineer and an artist in all of us, and learning to design and print in 3D unites them both. Careful planning and measuring are used in the service of creative visions, and the process of printing failures is a way to get comfortable with the iterative design process and cultivate patience, problem-solving, and grit. Different software and approaches will be covered over the year, leaving students with a toolbox of skills. Students are also challenged to think critically about design, asking how the world can be improved for more people by coming up with better solutions to problems. Prerequisite(s): none

Learn about computer-aided methods of animation with frame-by-frame animation including the traditional walk-cycle and bird flap projects. Use more advanced techniques including digital puppets within a 3D space, and explore special effects such as lightning and explosions. Additional projects may include stop motion, green screen projects, 3D movie title sequences (like the iconic Star Wars titles), music videos, and a final animated movie using techniques of the student’s choosing. No prior experience is required, but attention to detail and perseverance are a must! Prerequisite(s): none

Programming 1 or equivalent or permission of the instructor.

Cryptocurrency (G. Smith) (See Interdisciplinary Studies)

Computer Animation (Caccamise)

They are faster and able to store and process more information than ever before. In fact, we are surrounded by computer learning already! We are used to computers filtering spam, recommending books and videos, translating languages, and recognizing your voice. Drivers are experimenting with semi-autonomous cars. How do computers accomplish this? Machine Learning, a branch of computer science, is rapidly developing to use data to mimic human learning with implications across a wide range of fields from transportation to medicine to social justice. This course will introduce students to the foundations of machine learning and neural networks. They will become familiar with the trends driving the rise of machine learning; we will use pre-trained models to explore classifying images and feature extraction. We will also build and train our own models and neural networks. Through this course, students will better understand the capabilities and limitations, challenges and consequences of Machine Learning while opening up possibilities for further studies. Prerequisite(s):

AI Machine Learning (Verdi)

What if computers could be told to learn for themselves, slurping up data like a vacuum?

Prerequisite(s): none

Designed for Disaster (Caccamise)

This class allows students to follow one of two possible tracks. The first is an applied design course in which students will use engineering, 3D printing, and computer aided drafting skills to deal with potential shifts due to climate change, extreme weather, and rising sea levels. Students will dream up, design, and build renewable energy sources and other inventions that may help to avoid the worst effects of climate change. The second element of this class is a critical examination of media literacy, misinformation and political polarization and their roles in our understanding of climate change. No experience needed.

Explore the science and art of computer programming. For students who want to create and modify their own computer software, this course uses JavaScript (the language of the web) and web technologies to introduce the basics of computer control and interactive web sites. We use loops, variables, procedures, input, output, and branching decisions (with Boolean logic) to control graphics, sounds, and information. Expect to work with JavaScript and the “P5.js” tools to create animated color graphics that respond to key and mouse movement.

Move beyond the idea that a computer is a box or a system of information retrieval and processing, and learn how to interact physically with a computer without using the mouse, keyboard, or monitor. Using a microcontroller (a single-chip computer that can fit in your hand), write and execute interactive computer programs that convert movement into digital information. Work with components such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, and transistors as well as integrated circuits. Through lab exercises and longer creative assignments, learn how to program, prototype, and use components effectively. Control motors and interpret sensor data, as well as explore advanced concepts in interface, motion, and display. Prerequisite(s): some programming experience or permission of the department chair

Students combine theory and practice to interface microcontrollers and transducers. We learn how to make devices respond to a wide range of human physical actions. Building on knowledge acquired in Physical Computing 1, we build projects from schematics, make programs based on class examples, and make interfaces talk to each other. Topics may include: networking protocols and network topologies, mobile objects and wireless networks of various sorts, digital logic building blocks, and digital numbering systems. Students are involved in short production assignments and final projects, and create a digital portfolio to document their work and research. Creating interactive work relies on building a relationship between the object and the viewer. By gathering information in the form of input, processing that into meaningful data, and outputting that contextually, new forms of engagement and interaction with an audience can be established. This class is for students who have prior experience with Physical Computing and would like the opportunity to develop their own project and spend time researching, testing, prototyping and documenting it. Prerequisite(s): Physical Computing 1 or permission of the instructor

Programming 1 (The Department)

Physical Computing 1 (The Department)

Prerequisite(s): none

Physical Computing 2 (The Department)

Programming continuation of Programming 1, for students who are becoming more confident in their ability to combine data types and complex computer routines. We look more deeply at object-oriented programming: class definitions, inheritance, methods, fields, arrays, and collections. projects include writing an interactive, animated project with control windows and graphics. Programming 1 or permission of the department chair

Prerequisite(s):

Large

2 (The Department) A

Junior/Senior Electives Black Literature: A Survey of the Strange and the Marvelous (Patterson) The course examines work that alchemizes normal realities of Black existence into magicalrealist texts and transcendental narratives. The through line connects dots among the sticky traditions of the (Southern) Gothic, the diasporic flowering of Afrosurrealism, and the vivid speculations of Afrofuturism; the curve of it arcs from the tricksy folklore inked in Zora Hurston’s ethnology to the pop art of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Black Panther comics. The class is keen to explore the idea, formulated by the essayist Suzanne Césaire, that Surrealism, not simply an aesthetic theory or an ideological creed, is about twisting one’s antennae to pick up on the fantastic, the uncanny, and the sublime: “Be in permanent readiness for the WeMarvelous.”willread as many novels as time permits; likely delights include Beloved, The Intuitionist, Invisible Man, Linden Hills, Mumbo Jumbo, Slumberland , and The Wig. We are keen on the short fiction of Henry Dumas, Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany, and Victor Lavalle, and we are eager to explore the poetry of Jayne Cortez, Harryette Mullen, and Tracy K. Smith.

Sophomores encounter increasing demands on the quality of their thinking, writing, and close reading skills while they grapple with texts ranging from Elizabethan drama to Harlem Renaissance poetry to contemporary American fiction of the immigrant experience. Authors often include Shakespeare, Morrison, Fitzgerald, Akhtar, and Baldwin. In an additional class period each week, small groups of six to ten sophomores practice their analytic craft and work on individual writing skills.

15 ENGLISH Global Perspectives (9th Grade) (The Department)

The first year of high school English is a voyage around the world, exploring novels, stories, plays, and poems from as many countries and cultures as the year will allow. A variety of narrative perspectives, content subjects, and literary styles helps expand the reader’s sense of what’s possible on the page. Ninth graders vigorously air their responses to literature, hone their essay craft, and experiment creatively throughout the year. Grammar and vocabulary exercises reinforce their reading and writing skills.

Poetry, Drama & The Novel (10th Grade) (The Department)

We will size up a sheaf of lively manifestos, and we will familiarize ourselves with the ideas and legacies of W.E.B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Alain Locke, Ishmael Reed, George Schuyler, and Greg Tate. If we take an interest in drama, then we will look up Adrienne Kennedy and Suzan-Lori Parks. The course will have regular occasion to reference music and the visual arts, where our interests include Basquiat, Bearden, Beyoncé, André Breton, Bootsy Collins, Alice Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Frida Kahlo, Janelle Monáe, Prince Rogers Nelson, Jordan Peele, DJ Spooky, and Kara Walker. If this class were a late-night talk show, it would aspire to attract Sun Ra as the leader of its house band.

Fiction and Politics in Pre-Revolutionary Russia (Donohue)

Ghost Stories (Rutter) Horror is proudly lowbrow, and yet prizewinning fiction is “positively ectoplasmic these days,” as the critic Parul Sehgal puts it, a literature “crawling with hauntings, haints and wraiths.” Why does horror matter? Ghosts are mirrors of the present. (“Tell me what you fear,” she writes, “and I’ll tell you who you are.”) And they are eruptions of the past. In recent work, Sehgal notes, it is history that haunts the house: “America has become the ghost.” We will follow her lead, asking how horror might be read as social critique. Carmen Maria Machado’s queer fiction, which rewires the conventions of the genre, will show us how to do

Many are surprised to learn that in literary matters, Russia was a late bloomer. Its seventeenth century had no Shakespeare, Molière, or Cervantes; its eighteenth no Swift, Voltaire, or Goethe. In 1840, Thomas Carlyle—a Scotsman—called Russia “a great dumb monster” that had given the world not a single “voice of genius.” Pushkin fans might have protested, but Carlyle was basically right: nobody west of St. Petersburg was reading Russian literature. By 1890 Carlyle’s view would have been unthinkable, for five simple reasons: Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov. Works by these writers form the core of this elective. We read Gogol’s The Overcoat and The Government Inspector, Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons and some of his Sketches from a Hunter’s Album , Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina , and a large selection of Chekhov stories. We situate these works against a background of Russian political and cultural history. This was an era of discord and uncertainty, from the failed Decembrist uprising of 1825 to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. New ideas—liberalism, socialism, anarchism—swept the Russian intelligentsia, even as the Tsars, terrified by the revolutions in Europe, cracked down on dissent. The idealism of the 1840s gave way to the so-called nihilism of the 1860s and the Populist terrorism of the 1880s. For insight into these years, we read Belinsky, Herzen, and Annenkov; we also read large selections from Isaiah Berlin’s Russian Thinkers, Orlando Figes’s Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia, and Olga Semyonova Tian-Shanskaya’s Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia .

Marilynne Robinson

Screw

Toni Morrison Beloved

Beloved

Her Body and Other Parties

Housekeeping

Annihilation

The idea of “The Great American Novel” can be traced back to an 1868 article by that title, in which a writer named John DeForest does some hand-wringing about the literary status of the young nation, casting an envious eye at the most accomplished authors of England and France. “Have we as yet,” he asks, “the literary culture to educate Thackerays and Balzacs?” What was needed, according to DeForest, was not just a great novel by an American or set in America, but one that makes the country itself its real subject. Such a book would “perform a national service,” he explains, by holding up a mirror to the country: “The American people will say, ‘That is my picture.’”

We’ll read about five of the following books (some of which are also great in length, so please be prepared for the occasional thirty-page night):

Ralph Ellison Invisible Man

The the

Turn of

Henry James

Toni Morrison

The God of Small Things

In the century and a half that followed, the hubris of this idea has sometimes made it the subject of mockery. In 1923, William Carlos Williams became the first author to go ahead and make The Great American Novel his book’s actual title. Five more writers have since made the same Apparentlyjoke.this phenomenon doesn’t exist in other countries. There aren’t heated debates and essays about “the” great Russian, or Indian, or Japanese novel. But DeForest’s quest, for the book that captures and expresses “the American soul,” persists in earnest here, with regular surveys of the top contenders for the heavyweight belt, several of which will feature on our syllabus. What makes these books great will of course be one of our subjects, but we’ll also have to figure out what makes them “American.” What has that adjective come to mean? What tends to be associated with it, and what tends to be excluded? And why is it always “The” rather than “A” Great American Novel? Our answers have something to tell us not only about our books, but about our country, too.

Arundhati Roy Jeff Vandermeer Great American Novels (Khoury)

Carmen Maria Machado

17 this. We then revisit the Victorian origins of the tradition in Poe and James before turning to our real task: a trio of powerhouse novels haunted by ghosts figurative and real, by crimes both intimate and genocidal. There will be time for contemporary short fiction (Kelly Link, George Saunders, Angela Carter, Lauren Groff, Octavia Butler) and hopefully for Jeff Vandermeer’s dark eco-allegory. But we will not watch scary movies; I can’t handle them.

A few authors of longer works being considered include Atwood, Baldwin, Ishiguro, Larsen, Lori-Parks, McCullers, Morrison, NDiaye, Robinson, Shakespeare, Shanley, Spark, West, Woolf, and Yu. We will also read plenty of shorter works: poems, stories, articles, and literary excerpts.

Charles Yu

Once upon a time, marriage was merely a loveless contract based on wealth or status or even safety (if you were Chief Argh’s son, you married Chief Bargh’s daughter so the two clans would stop raiding and stomping on each other). Later, in the nineteenth century, love starts to come into play, but money and status are still essential qualities. People gossip about you and your betrothed, speculating on the size of your house, acreage and noses.

Marilynne Robinson

Macabre Marriages/Mates (Avrich)

Marriage is very public. But marriage is very private too. What happens when, little by little, you discover that your new husband or wife has a hidden secret or three? He sneaks out at night. She foams at the mouth. He is cruel with his fists. She drinks. He gambles. She is your sister. You have married a deviant! This course is about books with rotten relationships at their core. We will meet men and women who are haunted and tormented by their morally and socially reprehensible spouses, creatures who are better suited to storage spaces and wax museums than connubial bedrooms. At the same time, these messed-up mates make us question the moral and social belief systems they flout; they blur the boundaries between the public and the private, between the civilized self and the dark double. We will read Pride and Prejudice, a searing, hilarious and romantic comedy of manners. We will also examine The Taming of the Shrew, a problem play that turns the institution of courtship on its head. In Giovanni’s Room we

Interior Chinatown

Baldwin Giovanni’s Room Tony Kushner Angels in America

Literature of Disorientation (Darrow)

It’s a vast, messy, hard-to-read world out there, people. We are always trying to orient ourselves. We develop a sense of self, find points of view, embrace identities, and affiliate with family, friends, partners, schools, jobs, neighborhoods, even nations. For better or worse, though, these identifiers—or what they mean to us—don’t always last. We will examine how a variety of authors have captured life’s continual disorientations. We’ll unpack the interior, social, political, and other tensions that can frustrate our sense of clarity, order, or direction. We’ll read about all kinds of people who get all kinds of lost—and some who get found.

James

Housekeeping

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Open City Teju Cole Sag Harbor Colson Whitehead

Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and James Weldon Johnson, among others, will show us the “birth of cool” in New York: the Harlem Renaissance and this new music on the streets, on the radio, and in the bars that provided the soundtrack for New York and slavery’s first descendants to drag America into the age of social integration that was barely hinted at in The Great Gatsby. (Wait - you thought all those jazz musicians at Gatsby’s parties were white guys?) Meanwhile, Willa Cather, Joan Didion, Danielle Evans, and Vivian Gornick, to name a few, will tell us what it’s like being a teenage girl and a woman in New York. Along the way, we may stop in and hear what James Baldwin, Teju Cole, John Guare, Edwidge Danticat, Jay McInerney, Colson Whitehead, and Tom Wolfe have to say about race, class, and coming of age in New York. Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Well, there are allegedly 8 million stories in the big city, and in New York, everybody’s got something to say.

The Fire Next Time

James Baldwin Wonderful Town David Remnick, Editor

Bright Lights, Big City Jay McInerney Writing New York Phillip Lopate, Editor

Some of the following we’ll read cover to cover; others, we’ll excerpt:

When the Dutch first settled in what they called “New Amsterdam,” did they know that this tiny foothold in the New World would eventually expand and claim to be “the greatest city in the world”? New York has certainly come a long way from the days of Peter Stuyvesant, peg legs, and draft riots. Looking at “the city so nice they named it twice” through the lens of what E.B. White called “the transplant, the commuter, and the native,” this course will explore the “Noo Yawk” attitude and our city’s evolution into the city that never sleeps – and always writes. Poe, Melville, Twain, and Whitman will be our tour guides for 19th century New York and Brooklyn. They’ll bear witness to the beginnings of “city” and “outer borough” culture as Manhattan becomes “elite” and the early “bridge and tunnel” crowd is looked down upon.

As well as essays and lots of creative writing, we will illustrate the books and embark on multimedia projects. We will dress up and act out scenes. As always, our method is close reading. Language is what we love.

Jazz Toni Morrison Going to Meet The Man James Baldwin

New York City in Literature (Smith)

Here is New York E.B.White Krik! Krak! Edwidge Danticat

Six Degrees of Separation John Guare The Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe

19 will probe the fraught relationship between two men in Paris, one a gregarious bartender, the other a self-loathing homosexual. On Beauty, a contemporary novel, will bring up questions about marriage, love, race, art, identity and the beauty myth. We may also study Their Eyes Were Watching God , Jane Eyre and/or The Woman in White.

—Virginia Woolf

In this course, we will read works featuring intimate relationships in which power operates in slippery and surprising ways. We will also read non-fiction that examines the power structures within which these relationships exist. Texts will include as many of the following

—Gabriel García Márquez

“All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret.”

We know the public realm is organized by oppressive hierarchies, but how does that impact what happens in our most private moments? It seems obvious that capitalism, white supremacy, anti-semitism, homophobia and patriarchy do not cease to exist simply because two people are intimately connected. But surely love, friendships and family dissolve oppressive power dynamics. Or do they? What if it isn’t either/or—what if it’s yes/and…

Texts and authors may include, but are not limited to, James Baldwin (Giovanni’s Room , Short Stories, and Essays), Marilynne Robinson (Housekeeping ), Herman Melville (“Bartleby the Scrivener”), Toni Morrison (Jazz), Virginia Woolf (To the Lighthouse), Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things), Gwendolyn Brooks (Maud Martha), Rawi Hage (Cockroach) and Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day).

There will be frequent writing assignments, both expository and creative.

Oddballs and Square Pegs: The Literature of Outsiders (Fodaski)

The Personal is Political: Power Dynamics in Friendship, Love, and Family (Kantor)“Thepublic and private worlds are inseparably connected ... the tyrannies and servilities of one are the tyrannies and servilities of the other.”

Some of us define ourselves through adherence to a group; others understand themselves in and through opposition. Some realize their “true” selves through affiliation and allegiance, while others can never feel “free” within the bounds of a rigid order. In this class, we will side with the misfit and the loner, in an effort to understand a world that, to some extent, gets us has plenty of nonconformists, and we will read some of them closely. We will also consider the role of the writer, at once insider and outsider, skirting the boundaries— perhaps collapsing them—but always, to some extent, on the fringe. As James Baldwin said, “Perhaps the primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.” The role of the artist, that lone traveler, then, is, according to Baldwin, “to conquer the great wilderness of himself…to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.” Through close, deep reading and frequent writing, we will attempt to make at least our classroom a vibrant, human dwelling place.

Literaturewrong.

This class will meet as a double period four times a week during C and D periods and will count for both English and History credit.

‘

The World Between the Wars (Aronson, Mellon)

Possible historical and literary sources include: Orlando Figes, Richard Evans, Susan Grayzell, Rana Mitter, Niall Ferguson, Anne Applebaum, Timothy Snyder, Adam Tooze, Robert Gerwarth, Eric Maria Remarque, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Arthur Koestler, George Orwell, Mikhael Kuzmin, Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, T.S Eliot, Ezra Pound, W.B. Yeats, William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Arqueles Vela, Martin Adan, Pablo Palacio, Robert Arlt, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka, Pablo Neruda, and Fernando Pessoa.

The story goes that the guns of the First World War fell silent on November 11th , 1918 and then did not start up again until September of 1939. In this course, we will examine what took place around the world in the years between the wars from the historical and literary points of view. Our goal is to understand the combination of various events, people and trends that led the world from one conflict to another without a period of real peace in-between—and to think about the fundamental psychological and philosophical paradigm shifts that took place during this relatively short but hugely tumultuous period of time (just 21 years). We will investigate the civil wars in Russia, Ireland, China and Spain, the worldwide depression, the rise of fascism and totalitarianism, and the anti-colonial movements in Africa and India—to name just a few areas that we will focus on. As we are doing so, we will consider how the world was both reflected in and transfigured by a spectrum of writers and literary movements, including the “Lost Generation,” the Harlem Renaissance, American and British modernism, and the avant-garde of the 20’s and 30’s in Latin America.

21 as possible: Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid; Homeland Elegies, Ayad Akhtar; The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson; Topdog/Underdog, Suzan-Lori Parks; People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present, Dara Horn (excerpts); Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert; Just Us, Claudia Rankine (excerpts); The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx (excerpts); Xala , Ousmane Sembene; The Ghost Writer, Philip Roth; Dry Land , Ruby Rae Spiegel; “The Culture of Affluence: Psychological Costs of Material Wealth,” Suniya Luther; Women, Race and Class, Angela Davis (excerpts).

10th Grade Health (The Department) (Spring semester)

9th grade health focuses on substance use, sexuality, consent, body image, eating disorders, and adjusting to the high school experience. We explore how we make health-related decisions, discuss prevention as a cornerstone to wellness, and examine contemporary issues in health.

11th Grade Health (The Department) (Fall semester)

Reproductive and Sexual Politics (Friedrichs) (Spring semester)

In 2021 alone, well over 100 abortion restrictions were passed in what the Guttmacher Institute called “a year that has been marked by unprecedented threats to U.S. abortion rights and access.”

9th Grade Health (The Department) (Fall semester)

This single-semester spring elective class will dive into the ideology driving such legislation in order to explore the history and current state of sexual and reproductive politics in the United States. Using an intersectional lens we will aim to answer questions including: What rights, exactly, did Roe provide? What have been the differences and similarities in the fight for sexual and reproductive rights between Women of Color and white women, and how have LGBTQIA+ folks been impacted by these struggles? And, how has the United States seen fit to legislate sexuality?

This class looks at health as both a personal and social issue. Weaving in current events, media, and recent research, 11th grade health does a deep dive into mental health and tries to help students navigate their increasing independence as they prepare for adulthood. We look at bystander intervention and the creation of safer communities. This class also explores controversies in public health and covers the wide range of viewpoints proffered on hot button issues while asking students to think critically about these issues themselves.

10th grade health is interdisciplinary in focus and weaves in voices from around our school community in order to closely address issues of physical and reproductive health and wellness, identity, relationships, and adolescent development, among other topics. The class focuses on the practical application of health knowledge.

22 HEALTH

We will draw from both popular and scholarly works. These will include Loretta Ross’ Reproductive Justice, Adam Cohen’s, Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck, and Charlie Jeffries’, Teenage Dreams: Girlhood Sexualities in the U.S. Culture Wars. We will also watch documentaries such as 62 Days, which explores the impact of fetal harm laws and Aftershock, a film addressing America’s incredibly high, and racially skewed, maternal mortality rate.

High

(The Department) (Please see Seminars)

Note: This is a single-semester double period class which meets once a week. It is open to 10th, 11th and 12th grade students. The class may be taken in the place of either 10th or 11th grade health, with permission of the department. School Mentoring

Starting with a brief study of the Red Scare in America and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, we will look at the tensions that exploded after the end of WWII. In developing an understanding of the Cold War–beyond the polarization between the United States and the Soviet Union–we will examine the global impact of the war via the lens of these conflicts in Southeast Asia. After a look at the region’s own indigenous history, we will examine the

The objective of this course is for students to develop a comprehensive understanding of the nation’s past through inclusive narratives with the specific goal of decentering whiteness. Students will learn about Indigenous Peoples, European-Americans, African-Americans, women of all races and classes, workers, immigrants, and other groups who are usually marginalized in the U.S. historical narrative. In their final year before entering into the elective program, students continue to hone their skills as critical thinkers, readers, and writers with a greater emphasis on historiography.

This course entails an in-depth study of Southeast Asia within the framework of the Cold War. We will pay particular attention to the conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. After a close examination of the ideologies contributing to the Cold War, we will study a variety of other factors and events that influenced the new world order in the twentieth century.

U.S. History (10th Grade) (The Department)

This course explores the period from the 18th century through the 20th century. From revolution to globalization, from industrialization to decolonization, we explore these and other themes in a global context with the specific goals of complicating the Eurocentric narrative and emphasizing the experiences of marginalized peoples and cultures. We emphasize intellectual histories along with political and social changes. Throughout the year, students learn to think critically and work with diverse primary and secondary sources to create both analytical and research-based essays.

Black AF (Mackall) (See Interdisciplinary Studies) The Cold War and Southeast Asia (Kang)

World History (9th Grade) (The Department)

HISTORY

Man is the measure of all things. —Protagoras From Homer to the Hellenistic era, we will examine the history and culture of ancient Greece. Special emphasis will be placed on political, philosophical, and social thought. Using the lens of race and ethnography in many cases, we will read Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle with an eye to their relativistic and radical questioning of their own culture’s values and assumptions. We will also deal extensively with Greek art and its meaning in western and world history, as well as the appropriation of Greek culture (or imagined Greek culture) by Romans, medieval Muslims, and Europeans. Students will be assigned very frequent informal writing based on the primary sources; there will also be in-class writing and at least one research paper.

Greek History and Thought (Deimling)

Medieval Buddhism and Christianity in Practice (Higa) This course explores the richness and diversity of Buddhism and Christianity during the thousand years from ca. 400 to ca. 1400 CE. We will focus on religious practice: prayer, meditation, pilgrimage, and ritual, as well as creative expressions like art and song and unimaginable acts like wandering the deserts completely nude or throwing oneself into the sea to drown. Religious practice will be the heart of our course, but we will always place it in its social, cultural, political, and intellectual contexts: for example, the conversion of nonBuddhist and non-Christian societies, the political entrenchment of religious institutions, and the way practice intersected with issues of gender and class. Discussion, writing, creative projects, and experiments in practice will be required, most of them in response to a variety of primary sources. Medieval people viewed images and read texts carefully, slowly, reverently. In this class, we will do something similar, retreating from the hectic pace of the modern world to spend time with medieval sources and allow them to unfold organically before us. We will spend time with two foundational texts: Augustine’s Confessions and the Lotus Sutra. In addition to these, we will examine scriptures, poetry, miracle stories, mystical visions, saints’ lives, theology and philosophy, painting, sculpture, and architecture.

25 foreign powers that moved into the region starting in the mid-19th century and pay close attention to the independence movements that were buoyed after the Pacific War. In addition to the political and economic decisions that played into our military involvement in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, we will take a close look at the cultural and social impact that these decisions had on the American public. Expect to write and complete regular essays and projects. Also be prepared to read and analyze a number of primary and secondary source documents, as well as viewing and analyzing feature and documentary films.

One reason that cats are happier than people is that they have no newspapers. —Gwendolyn Brooks

Students should expect regular reading and writing assignments and will also be required to complete a mid-term paper and final paper or project.

The Middle East in the Twentieth Century (Pesaran)

Beyond election politics and policy debates, we will also consider how social media has given new life to public activism and protest movements. Young activists have taken the world by storm, using the media as a megaphone. These technologies and platforms are creating new opportunities and new risks. Our goal is to understand their ideas, tactics, and challenges by examining them against the backdrop of past protest movements that might include the Black Power, Gay Liberation, and Feminist movements.

Politics and the Media in Modern America (Kapp)

Readings for this course will be rich and varied. Beyond the media itself (from traditional news and political blogs to comedy programing and advertising), our readings will include media theory, specific histories, and arguments by media critics. We will use these to deepen our understanding of the complex role of digital media in our lives, culture, and political

This course is a history of the Middle East over the course of a “long Twentieth Century” —from the end of the nineteenth century until the first decades of the current century. The goal of the course is to introduce students to the major historical events, movements, and ideas that have shaped the region in the last century and continue to shape present realities. We will discuss pressing issues and topics, including but not limited to: colonization and decolonization of the region, debates about Islam and democracy, the role of women, US foreign policy and the ‘war on terror’, the economic and political effects of oil, and environmental change. We will do so by examining a variety of primary and secondary sources, including scholarly studies, essays, literature in translation, film, and artistic works.

We live in a media-driven society, a world practically unthinkable without the media, and yet many Americans distrust, even hate the media. Instead of creating a global sphere, digital media seems to splinter public discourse into countless echo chambers. How did we get here? Would we be happier without newspapers and mass media? Would we be more democratic or less? Would there be more social justice, or would we be even further behind in our movements for equality? In this course we will seek answers to these questions through a historical study of mass media and its effect on the dynamics of political campaigns and social movements. In our approach to specific case studies—congressional campaigns, war reporting, media coverage of the climate crisis, for example–-we will seek a crucial historical perspective by examining the changing role of the media, and revolutionary changes in the media itself, across American history from the 18th century to the present day.

27 discourse, and to tackle any number of vexing questions: Is the internet killing democracy? Is it possible to have an authentic self online? Can journalism be objective? You can count on becoming a smarter consumer of the news, a better decoder of media forms, and a creator of original content. Alongside conventional writing assignments, there will be projects challenging you to express your ideas in the very media being considered (blogs, DIY print media, podcasts, film).

School and Society in the U.S. (Goldberg) What are schools for? Who should go to school and at what age? Are public schools vehicles for democracy and equal opportunity, or are they tools of state indoctrination? Are private schools anathema to democratic values, or natural outgrowths of the national ethos of liberty and choice? What is the goal of a university education? Should everyone attend college? How are schools products of the society we live in, and how is our society a product of our schools? What characterizes a “good” school? Do we need school at all?! This course on the history and philosophy of education in the U.S. explores the wide range of answers Americans have given to these sorts of questions over the past two hundred fifty years. Generations of Americans have placed extraordinary faith in the school as a vehicle for

Postwar America: From Rosie the Riveter to the Age of Reagan and Beyond (Schragger) This course examines the political, economic, social, cultural, and intellectual history of the United States from World War II to the present. Topics covered include political milestones such as Watergate, the shifting constituencies within political parties, and the election of 2000; social developments such as suburbanization, the Civil Rights Movement, the New Left, feminism and women’s rights (including the examination of groups including NOW, Bread and Roses, Radicalesbians, the Combahee River Collective, and the Chicana Movement), the gay rights movements and the AIDS crisis, and the rise of the New Right/ neo-conservatism; economic issues such as the War on Poverty and Reaganomics; cultural and intellectual trends such as the Counterculture, the “me” generation, and other relevant topics through the present day. This course will cover foreign policy issues such as the atomic bomb and the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf War, but it will have more of a focus on domestic events and trends.

The course uses both primary and secondary sources, such as Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974 (Kruse & Zelizer), Major Problems in American History Since 1945 (Zaretsky & Lawrence), Promises to Keep: The United States Since 1945 (Boyer), excerpts from books such as My Own Country (Verghese), Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (Ehrenreich), and articles such as “Jane Crow and the Law.” In addition, the course includes films and documentaries that relate to this time period, including The Atomic Café, Eyes on the Prize, and excerpts from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s The Vietnam War. There is also a substantial independent research component, and students will complete several research projects during the year.

progress and a panacea for all that ails society. Yet diverse diagnoses of what’s actually wrong during any given era have inspired equally diverse schooling solutions. As a result, schools have been an endless source and site of social conflict over pressing questions of race, war, gender, sexuality, national identity, and the relation between individual rights and federal authority. The kinds of schools we build say a lot about what kind of society we want to Topicscreate.

“Still I Rise:” Black Activism in the 20th–21st Centuries (Johnson)

This course will focus on African-Americans and people of African descent who have lived in the United States, and their activism over the last century. We will cover a variety of movements where Black activists fought for different forms of justice and equity. Topics will include issues such as environmental racism, education activism and the building of schools to ensure quality education for black children, reproductive justice, Black socialism, Black writers who use books and other media to expose injustice, and the current-day Black Lives Matter movement. This course will be reading and writing intensive.

include the early history of public schools; the long African American struggle for educational equality from HBCUs to the Freedom Schools; the radical educational uprisings of the 1920s and 1960s; the history of campaigns by Latinx and Asian American students to make curriculum inclusive; the impact of the disability rights struggle; the evolution of women’s colleges; culture wars over religion in the schools; alternative education such as private schools, charters, and homeschooling. Most of the readings will be taken from original sources, with weekly response papers and several research-based assignments. Local field trips to analyze unusual schools in action will round out our source material.

20th and 21st Century American Art & Culture (Kohn)

This course seeks to investigate the past century of American history and identity through art, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, architecture, film, music, plays, and you name it. Using both a chronological and a thematic approach, we will grapple with how modern American art represented and contributed to the formation of a national identity and we will trace America’s social movements such as Civil Rights, Women’s Liberation, and Gay Rights through their visual expressions. Students will be expected to write two research papers and give many presentations on individual artworks.

The expectation is that students will develop their research into a significant formal historical essay, to be presented at the end of the school year in a symposium. Papers may be accompanied by a supplementary presentation of research in another medium. To be considered for Independent Study in History, students need to submit a substantial research proposal to be considered for approval by the department. This proposal should be submitted to the History Department by June 1. Note: Preference will be given to juniors and seniors.

This class will meet as a double period four times a week during C and D periods and will count for both English and History credit.

The Independent Research in History program enables students to explore a historical topic in depth over the course of the school year. Working with a mentor from the department, students will identify the significant historical questions raised by their chosen topic, and pursue them by employing various research techniques and examining a variety of sources and documents. Students will meet one period a week in class, and with their individual mentors throughout the year. Each research project may be the work of up to two students.

Independent Research in History (The Department) (1x per week)

The story goes that the guns of the First World War fell silent on November 11th, 1918 and then did not start up again until September of 1939. In this course, we will examine what took place around the world in the years between the wars from the historical and literary points of view. Our goal is to understand the combination of various events, people and trends that led the world from one conflict to another without a period of real peace in-between—and to think about the fundamental psychological and philosophical paradigm shifts that took place during this relatively short but hugely tumultuous period of time (just 21 years). We will investigate the civil wars in Russia, Ireland, China and Spain, the worldwide depression, the rise of fascism and totalitarianism, and the anti-colonial movements in Africa and India—to name just a few areas that we will have to focus on. As we are doing so, we will consider how the world was both reflected in and transfigured by a spectrum of writers and literary movements, including the “Lost Generation,” the Harlem Renaissance, American and British modernism, and the avant-garde of the ’20s and ’30s in Latin America.

The maximum enrollment for this program is 16 students.

The World Between the Wars (Mellon/Aronson)

Art, Science, and Nature (Arnold/Zayas) What do frogs and mushrooms have in common? What connections can be made between an amoeba and a lobster? What transformative processes occur as grain becomes bread or caterpillar becomes butterfly? And. . .what are the scientific foundations of these commonalities, connections, and transformations. In this course, art, science, and anthropology will intersect as students investigate the natural world through experience and theory. Following in the steps of famed naturalists Carolus Linnaeus and Charles Darwin, students will use the intense focus and concentration required in art to make detailed observations of the structures of living things in an effort to understand the functions of these structures. Students will draw and paint mushrooms, protists, flowers, and plants, as well as various animals using several different techniques—watercolor and oil paint, pen and ink. They will simultaneously learn about the evolutionary histories, phylogenetic relationships, reproductive strategies, and embryological development of these organisms as they investigate their functional adaptations. Laboratory assignments will require active participation in the observation and dissection of various specimens in order to help students further understand the functions and origins of biological structures. Lab assignments will also allow students to practice and improve their microscope techniques and behavioral observation methods. On the anthropological side, students will explore the roles these organisms have played throughout human history, for example by cooking root vegetables, extracting ink from squid and walnuts, and planting seedlings—all while being introduced to great artworks about nature by da Vinci, Durer, Audubon, Rubens, Van Gogh, O’Keefe and others, and while considering the ways in which these artists viewed nature. This course may be taken for Science, Art, or Interdisciplinary Studies credit.

INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES

Blackness as Freedom through the exploration of African American people’s creation of and participation in liberatory movements from the 19th century to the present. Blackness as Feminism through the study of foundational Black Feminist writings, which provide a theoretical framework shaping contemporary discourse on race, gender, sexuality, healthcare and more. Blackness as Future by exploring Afrofuturism as a cultural movement and site for social and political visioning. Students will be expected to read independently and respond to the course materials in class discussions, regular short response essays and a substantial culminating project that might include written research, oral presentation, performance or other creative expression.

Black AF (Mackall) In Black AF we will consider:

This course is open to 9th–12th grade students and may be taken for Interdisciplinary Studies credit (by anyone) or History credit (by 11th and 12th grade students only).

We will endeavor to center the work, voices and scholarship of people of African descent in our course materials. Possible texts include works by David Walker, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Pauli Murray, Audre Lorde, Octavia Butler, Jenna Wortham, bell hooks, June Jordan, Saidiya Hartman, Henry Louis Gates, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Fred Moten, Robin D. G Kelley, Christina Sharpe, adrienne maree brown, and Ibram Kendi.

Armed in the late spring with our class-defined formula for successfully adapting a literary work, the course will culminate in individual short-form adaptation projects based upon source material of each student’s choosing. These projects can take the form of a screenplay, a detailed storyboard, or another creative interpretation of a text. Works to be read/screened may include the following: If Beale Street Could Talk (novel: James Baldwin; film: dir. Barry Jenkins), Mrs. Dalloway/The Hours (novel: Virginia Woolf, film: dir. Stephen Daldry), In a Grove/Rashomon (short story: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa; film: dir. Akira Kurosawa), “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”/Shawshank Redemption (short story: Stephen King; film: dir. Frank Darabont), Emma/Clueless (novel: Jane Austen; film: dir. Amy Heckerling). Note: This course will meet for one double period per week and will require additional screening time outside of class meetings.

This course will meet for one double period per week and grant ¼ Interdisciplinary Studies credit and ¼ English credit.

Cinematic Adaptations of Literature: From Page to Screen (C. Smith) The word “derivative” gets a bad rap. It has come to mean “trite” or “contrived” or “unoriginal”—but what if we were to flip this idea on its head? What if we approached the derivative as a unique opportunity to translate and even transform a story across media? In this course, we will destigmatize the derivative and explore the challenges inherent in creating films and televisual productions that are based upon literary works. In reading source materials and viewing their cinematic counterparts, we will work towards defining what makes an adaptation a success or a failure. We’ll need to be somewhat vicious in this pursuit, as any true adaptation is comprised of both what ends up on the screen and the cutting room floor. We will examine adaptations of short stories, novels, and plays, producing both analytical essays and creative responses throughout our explorations.

Note: This course will meet for two periods per week and can be taken for Interdisciplinary Studies or Computer Science credit.

Cryptocurrency (G. Smith)

Over the past few years, cryptocurrency has exploded into public awareness. Very strong and wildly divergent opinions about it abound, but they are not always well informed. This is a challenging environment for understanding a developing field. Cryptocurrency is indeed a novel technology that relies on cutting edge cryptography, mathematics, and computer science. However, much of it can feel like a flea market run by a nation of charlatans. In an effort to do an end run around all the noise, this class aims to learn about cryptocurrency simply by using it and by building things with it. Simultaneously, the class will explore cryptocurrency’s rapidly evolving relationships with elements of our larger society and culture, such as banking, art, social media, the environment, personal privacy, and governance. We will also explore the relationship with—and access to—cryptocurrency among women and financially marginalized racial groups

Classes will cycle through a range of activities, including lectures about how Ethereum works, labs where students work through exercises or develop their own programs, and discussions motivated by readings about larger issues related to blockchain technology.

The class will focus on the Ethereum blockchain. Students will become proficient in using the various testnets associated with Ethereum, including programming using Solidity, a Javascript-like coding language. No previous programming experience is assumed or needed, but students should be interested in exploring Ethereum at a technical, applied level. The premise here is that a real understanding of how Ethereum works will enable students to better grasp the promise and perils of cryptocurrency in general. With technical knowledge in hand, students might branch off in different directions according to their interests. One student might build a decentralized autonomous organization; another might do a deep dive into the cryptography underlying blockchains; a third might research how cryptocurrency is used in governments around the world; others might collaborate on an NFT collection.

ChineseChineseclasses at all levels are aimed at developing communication skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Our goal is to lay solid foundations in language form and accuracy for students, which can help them use Chinese to exchange information and to communicate their ideas. We first start to introduce Pin Yin , the four tones, characters, and basic sentence structures. Gradually, we more intensively study grammar, vocabulary, and different topics while reading more authentic materials. In addition to developing language skills, the courses endeavor to increase students’ awareness and understanding of Chinesespeaking cultures. The integration of language learning and culture is strongly emphasized. Both traditional and simplified characters are introduced according to the interest of the students. We use Chinese Made Easy Book 1 for the first year of Chinese, and continue with the four volumes of Integrated Chinese. A connected storyline in Integrated Chinese about a diverse group of students strings together all of the dialogues and narratives throughout each volume.

Chinese 2 (The Department)

ASIAN LANGUAGES

CLASSICAL AND LANGUAGESASIAN

Chinese 1 (The Department) This course is an introduction to the Chinese language, with an emphasis on pronunciation Pin Yin and four tones. At the same time, students study radicals, stroke orders, characters, and basic sentence structures. Chinese songs, poems, and rhymes are introduced.

The review of Pin Yin and tones continues throughout the year with an emphasis on the use of Chinese to discuss related topics both orally and in writing. Students study more grammar, sentence structures and vocabulary. The topics include school life and class subjects, shopping, making an appointment, and transportation. Students are encouraged to initiate and carry on conversations to exchange information and express opinions about related topics.

Chinese 6 (The Department) Students continue to study more probing texts that reflect the many facets of contemporary Chinese society, family values, and Chinese literature. China’s strengths and challenges are revealed through analysis, explanation, and debate. Some lessons deal with crucial social and intellectual concerns in current China. Students continue to hone their overall abilities in speaking, reading, and writing in Chinese.

In addition to introducing more vocabulary and grammatical points, Chinese 4 concentrates on more complex sentence structures and paragraphs. Intensive study increases the students’ command of linguistic structures and functions and gives them a firmer grounding in speaking and writing more idiomatic Chinese. Students learn to discuss and write more fluently and at greater length on the geography of China, the relationships between parents and their children, and the differences and similarities between Chinese medicine and Western medicine.

Chinese 3 (The Department)

Chinese Conversation (The Department) (2x per week) Through the use of various practical scenarios, this course offers an opportunity to gain confidence and facility in speaking more idiomatic and spontaneous Chinese. By enlarging vocabulary and improving oral/aural skills, students gain fluency in discussions about daily life, education, politics, food, travel, and so on.

Chinese 4 (The Department)

Students learn to express their personal views and exchange opinions about the social issues introduced in Chinese 4 in more complex language. They complete exercises like responding to emails and writing personal letters, and reading complicated signs, public announcements, and newspaper clippings, as well as giving presentations and conducting interviews in more fluent and accurate Chinese.

Chinese 3 is designed to help students solidify their grasp of grammar and vocabulary. The emphasis is on increased ease and accuracy in speaking Chinese and on reading comprehension. Students are expected to give oral presentations about topics such as schools and places in China. The topics include weather, dining, asking for directions, school life, etc...

Chinese 5 (The Department)

Japanese 2 (Otsue)

The second year continues from the first with grammar including distinctive topics such as measurement words for various objects, equipment, animals, machines, etc., but adds emphasis on composition—students begin writing fictional stories. Students continue to learn to function in various social situations while they learn to become a culturally competent speaker of Japanese. Kanji is introduced.

The fifth year continues with an emphasis on reading, but features texts with more complex syntax and advanced kanji vocabulary in both the formal and the informal styles. Readings cover a wide range of topics including Japanese inventions, social hierarchy, traditional arts and Zen, etc. Students will further their understanding of Japanese society and culture

The first year of Japanese focuses on building students’ foundations in the language. While students take in the two phonetic systems, hiragana and katakana , they learn basic grammar including distinctive aspects of the language such as the use of markers. Numerous expressions and patterns that are needed to construct sentences to function in various social situations are also introduced. Additionally, students continuously explore Japanese culture and traditions from ancient periods to the current “pop” trends. Each year, students have face-to-face exposure to various Japanese artists.

Japanese Japanese 1 (Otsue)

Japanese 4 (Otsue)

The fourth year builds on the foundation laid in the third, but explores reading more extensively. The reading materials include news articles, stories, cultural episodes, etc., and include a number of new and old kanji. Students continue to build their vocabulary.

Japanese 5 (Otsue)

Japanese 3 (Otsue)

The third year continues the emphasis on students developing all four skills of speaking, listening, writing, and reading, and building on what they have learned in the previous years. In the second half of the year, a number of complex sentence patterns and formulaic expressions, including keigo, are introduced. Students are provided with extensive training to enhance their communication skills, putting emphasis on spontaneity and accuracy. Creative writing exercises are embedded in grammar exercises. The listening comprehension materials include real life dialogues. New kanji and kanji vocabulary are introduced on a daily basis.

Prerequisite: Japanese 3

CLASSICAL LANGUAGES

Greek Greek 1 (The Department)

Intensive Ancient Greek (The Department) This is a fast-paced course that introduces the essential morphology and syntax of Ancient Greek. The systematic acquisition of forms and vocabulary complement the learning of simple and complex syntax. By the end of this rather ambitious year students will be able to read Ancient Greek texts in the original.

Japanese Conversation/Composition (Otsue) (2x per week) Students further develop their abilities to express themselves effectively, and also explore the culture via various mediums. Students are given ample time to discuss topics like crosscultural issues, cultural and current events, etc.. On a regular basis, students are asked to conduct research and give oral presentations on a topic of their choice. As they develop their presentation skills, students learn to construct cohesive paragraphs when working on both spoken and written tasks.

This course introduces students to the rudiments of Ancient Greek. Memorization of forms, vocabulary and syntax are stressed in order to facilitate the reading of unadapted Greek texts as quickly as possible. By the year’s end, students will have a strong command of basic syntax and will be prepared to learn complex syntax in Intermediate Greek.

Prerequisite(s): Greek 1

36 through discussions of history and current social issues through news articles. In addition, students will learn to express their opinions and thoughts in the formal style of writing with a stronger command of the language. In order to facilitate students’ fluency, more sentence patterns, formulaic expressions, idioms, and the use of onomatopoeia are introduced.

Greek 2 (The Department) This course features review of material from Greek 1 and continues to round out the students’ knowledge of Greek forms and syntax. In the second semester, students will refine their skills through translation of selections from a variety of authors, including Herodotus, Plato, and Aristophanes, and will explore the different styles and expressions employed by each. The course is intended to provide students with the skills and confidence to move on to more intensive exploration of specific Greek texts.

The Amazons make their appearance at numerous points in Greek mythology and yet sit uncomfortably with the Greek tradition and with the gender norms of that society: they are fierce female warriors who crash in upon the Greek world, terrifying and unsettling. They are the stuff of fantasy and nightmare. Yet in recent times an increasing body of archaeological and interdisciplinary work has begun to reveal that such women existed: mounted warriors ranging the Eurasian steppes from the Black Sea to China. Were these warrior women the mythical Amazons? We will contemplate the Greek representation of the Amazons and their encounters with Greek heroes. We will read the earliest mythological accounts of these women and will consider their presence in Greek historical and literary sources, all the while reflecting on how the Amazons of these texts compare to the warriors of the Steppes. We will unpack the complexities of the Greek tradition and attempt to draw close to the reality of these female

This course emphasizes facility in reading and translating unadapted Greek authors— studying the literary forms they work in and using textual evidence to gain insight into the ancient world, while also consolidating the grammar and vocabulary acquired in earlier courses. Texts vary across region and genre, depending on the interests of participants, but the Attic dialect of the 5th–4th century BCE predominates.

Greek 3 Greek 5: Students who have completed Greek 4 may rank their preferences for Greek 5. Enrollments will depend on registration and scheduling.

Greek 5: Amazons (Connaghan)

37 Greek 3 (The Department)

Prerequisite(s): Greek 2 or Intensive Ancient Greek Greek 4: Homer, The Odyssey (The Department)

The Odyssey, from one perspective, is a poem about coming home—not only from war, but also from wandering—but it is a story that contains within it many different, overlapping stories. As we seek to develop command of Homeric Greek, we will explore a selection of these stories. Some of these will be from Odysseus’s own crafty story-telling—like the Lotus Eaters, the Sirens, and the island of the witch Circe. Others will belong to other heroic arcs like the coming of age of Telemachus, the loyalty of Penelope, the aftermath of the Iliad, the return of Helen, and Achilles in the Underworld. Still other stories will take us beyond the world of heroes to explore broader questions about the nature of justice (in peace and war), the roles of women in the poem (human, divine, and in-between; almighty, enslaved, and inbetween), the ends of violence, group identity and exclusion, the place of storytelling, and, of course, what it means to come home. In the spirit of the text itself, we will take each episode as it comes, and let the lessons from one lead us on to the next. And the next. And the next.

Prerequisite(s):

Tagged as “The Father of History,” Herodotus of Halicarnassus never let facts stand in the way of a good story. Not ever intending to be a historian in the modern sense, Herodotus titled his work ἱστορίαι, translated most accurately as “inquiries.” His exploration of the peoples and cultures that surrounded the Eastern Mediterranean was meant to help the reader understand the incomprehensible victory of the Greeks over the Persians, but it also invites us to wonder about how this writer’s cultural hybridities affected his reports (his bilingual Greek/Carian homeland in Asia Minor was, after all, on the Persian side). In our class, we will follow his lead, gleaning salient details from the various facts and fictions he presents in order to understand his unique worldview. We will read selections of his text that delve into myth and hearsay, speculation and wild guess, all the while hoping to find the relevance that forced their inclusion into the work. We will not hide from the problematic nature of assumptions and inaccuracies being asserted as fact, but we will also speculate on his reasons for doing so. The wide world awaits! Prerequisite(s):

In the 5th century of the common era, a girl-child of a Greek pagan philosopher became a Roman Christian Empress. This woman also wrote the longest recorded Homeric centos—a form requiring a poet to stitch lines or half-lines of another writer’s verse into a functional whole for their own purpose. In a time of turbulent cultural intolerance and religious persecution, this woman refashioned lines of legend from the Iliad and the Odyssey into an expression of the Christian experience in all its “greatness, pain, truthfulness, deceit, beauty, suffering, mourning, recognition, understanding, fear, or astonishment” (Usher). She was Saint Eudocia.

Prerequisite(s): Greek 4 Greek 5: Herodotus (Henneman)

Greek 4

Greek 6: Poems of Empress Eudocia - Paganism, Empire and the Cult of Saints (Sahu) Theano, when putting on her cloak, exposed her arm. A man said ‘your arm is beautiful’. She said, ‘But it is private’. Not just her arm, but also a virtuous woman’s speech should be private; she should be modest and careful about saying anything in the hearing of people who aren’t family, since this would be exposing herself. For in her speech, her feelings, character and temperament are revealed —Plutarch, Moralia 142c-d I only know she came and went, (Lowell) Like troutlets in a pool; (Hood) She was a phantom of delight, (Wordsworth) And I was like a fool. (Eastman) –Dave Morice, The Dictionary of Wordplay

38 hunters and fighters who vigorously asserted their independence and freedom. In doing so we will witness the reality for the female in ancient Greece and will attempt to grasp just why women such as the Amazons were the enemy par excellence of the mythological Greek hero.

Latin Latin 1 (The Department) This course introduces students to the basic linguistic forms and syntax of the language of the Romans and their peoples. Memorization is stressed in order to facilitate the reading of Latin literature as quickly as possible. Readings are selected from Cicero, Caesar, Martial, and others. The course also touches on the mythology, history, and social realities on the ground as we understand them.

The Aeneid is a poem with everything in it. A distinctively Roman contribution to the tradition of epic poetry inaugurated in the ancient Mediterranean by the Iliad and the Odyssey, but that is only the beginning. And this course is the end of the beginning. Whereas in our introductory Latin courses (including PPDN) we focus on developing the linguistic skills required to read Latin texts in the original, in this course, these skills become the foundation for a broader, deeper, and grander journey—learning not only to translate, but to truly read. Reading, naturally, requires us to pay attention to contexts. This includes the social and political context of Vergil’s own day—the world of the early Roman Empire. It includes formal contexts like meter and rhetorical technique, and it also includes the literary context that infuses Vergil’s text with allusions ranging from Homer, to Hellenistic poetry, to early Latin verse, and even to Greek Tragedy. Arguably, however, the most important context

Designed as a bridge between the introductory Latin course and specialized electives, this course emphasizes facility in reading and translating Latin authors, studying the literary forms we encounter, and using textual evidence to gain insight into life in the ancient world. Authors include Cicero, Ovid, Plautus, Sallust, Livy, Catullus, Horace, Caesar, Vergil, and others. The course also intensively reviews Latin grammar and syntax.

How often in texts, historical or literary, do we receive women through the viewpoint of the nearest male? It is a common misconception that few women writers were active in the ancient world and still more common that nothing survives of these writers. It is a fact that the female voice was repressed and marginalized in the ancient world. This marginalization persists today—works untranslated, unedited, undercirculated. In this course, we will consider the rewards and repercussions for a woman leading a public life in the early Byzantine Empire. We will address, and assess, the ideas of exposure, modesty, and virtue, supplementing the reading of Eudocia’s centos with relative texts from both Homer and the Septuagint—the earliest extant Greek translation of the Old Testament. We will also take regular occasion to try our hand at constructing centos of our own. Prerequisite(s): Greek 5

Latin Poetry, Prose, Drama & The Novel (The Department)

The Aeneid: Vergil and The Latin Epic (The Department)

Latin: To Hell and Back: Katabases and Underworlds in Latin Literature (Siebengartner)

An essential element of epic literature as far back as Gilgamesh, katabases —descents to the underworld—appear in one form or another in every extant Latin epic poem, from Vergil’s Aeneid (1st c. BCE) all the way to Claudian’s De raptu Proserpinae (5th c. CE). While working within a tradition and in all cases looking back to Homer’s nekyia (necromancy) in Odyssey 11, each of these poets is also at pains to innovate and adapt, to create their own unique katabases and underworlds. This class will consist of the close reading and translation of all these epic katabases as well as a selection of other, non-epic depictions of the underworld and adaptations of the epic katabasis to other genres.

40 to consider in this course is the context of the individual reader. You. The reason for this is simple: throughout its two-thousand year history The Aeneid has hung precariously balanced, at times even ambiguously, between the competing claims of different contexts. We have a tendency to think of the “canon” as a place of fixed meaning, but in fact it is always a place of dispute and change. Indeed, what perhaps began as a work of imperial poetry in the court of Augustus became, in the hands of St. Augustine, an object of devotion second only to the Bible. In the hands of Servius, it then became a philological treasury, while at the same time it became, in hands of early Christian poets, the raw material for hexameter “remixes”, chronicling the heroism of the risen Christ. In the Middle Ages Vergil becomes Dante’s guide in Hell. In early Modern England, Aeneas sings opera. For the Romantics Vergil is an icon of the heroically isolated poet. The story continues. Even into the 20th- century Vergil’s layered text continued to unfold, and not always in ways that are easy for us to celebrate. On the one hand, The Aeneid’s influence on T.S. Eliot’s probing, grief-stricken reflections on the global tragedy of worldwide war may move us to reverent appreciation, but then how do we make sense of the fact that, on the other hand, Vergil’s text was—and has always been—in the hands of others, an affirmation of empire at all costs? How can we connect the disturbingly decontextualized use of The Aeneid on the great stone wall of the 9/11 Memorial to the private experience of Helen Keller (who read the poem in early SinceBraille)?atleastthe time of Hadrian, The Aeneid has been imbued with the power to predict the future (the so-called sortes vergilianae). Its incredible history, however, reminds us that the future is always being written in the present moment. This is the context, and the spirit, in which we present it to you. At the heart of The Aeneid are not only the gates of war, but also the bells of change, waiting upon the next set of readers to be rung. Prerequisite(s): Latin Poetry, Prose, Drama & The Novel Latin Electives Students who have completed Vergil’s Aeneid may rank their preferences for electives. Enrollments will depend on registration and scheduling.

Quintus Horatius Flaccus published his first three books of Odes in 23 BCE, followed by a fourth in 13 BCE. Writing under Augustus, Rome’s first emperor, and living through the major social and political upheavals that accompanied Rome’s complicated, often violent, shift from republic to empire, Horace covers a vast range of themes in his Odes, including, among many others, love, friendship, ethics, morality, and politics. These carmina , “songs,” as he called them, which include the famous carpe diem poem, hold a privileged place in

Beginning with Aeneas’s famous visit with his recently deceased father in Aeneid 6, we will move chronologically to the several katabases (by Juno, Ceres, Orpheus, and, again, Aeneas) of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Our next stop will be Lucan’s Civil War, whose own stunning katabatic twist has the haunting witch Erichtho reanimate an unexpecting battlefield corpse and demand he prophesy the outcome of the ongoing civil war. At the close of the first book of Valerius Flaccus’s Argonautica , roughly contemporaneous with Lucan, we find echoes of Erichtho in the necromancy performed by Jason’s mother Alcimede, who summons her father-in-law Cretheus from the underworld in the hope of learning whether Jason will survive his journey to retrieve the golden fleece. In Statius’s Thebaid (also late 1st c. BCE, like Lucan and Valerius Flaccus), we will see the prophet Amphiaraus, as he rages in battle, be swallowed up, still living, into the underworld, where Pluto indignantly objects to this unexpected visitor. Silius Italicus, in his lengthy epic account of the Second Punic War, the Punica, written shortly after the Thebaid , will show us the great general Scipio Africanus make his own katabasis to hear the Sibyl’s prophecy of Hannibal’s ultimate defeat. Finally, jumping several centuries forward to the late antique poet Claudian, we will read excerpts of his unfinished epic on Hades and Proserpina. In addition to these traditional epic katabases and the question of why breaking the boundary to hell is so essential both to the characterization of the Greco-Roman epic hero and the architecture of epic poetry, we will consider several other representations of the underworld and descents to it in Latin literature. Among these will be Lucretius’s forceful Epicurean rejection of the underworld and its myths, Ovid’s elegiac adaptation of the story of Pluto and Proserpina in his Fasti, Vergil’s epyllion on Orpheus and Eurydice in his Georgics, Seneca’s account of Hercules’s retrieval of Theseus from the underworld in his tragedy Hercules Furens, Apuleius’s tale of Psyche’s descent to the underworld in the Cupid and Psyche section of his novel The Golden Ass, and the sixth book of Cicero’s De Republica , also known as the Somnium Scipionis, in which the general and statesman Scipio Aemilianus is visited by his dead grandfather Scipio Africanus. Even the comedies of Plautus will make an appearance, in a few of which characters’ visits to brothels are cast as a sort of underworld visit.

While focusing on the form and function of katabases and depictions of hell in Latin literature, we will also set these texts in context by looking back at their Greek models and forward to their reception by later authors like Dante, Milton, Melville, and Joyce, as well as the Christian tradition of Jesus’s descent to earth, itself a form of katabasis Prerequisite(s): Vergil Latin: Horace’s Odes (Siebengartner)

In this course, we will read all the Odes, considering Horace’s deft adaptation of Greek lyric poetry to a purely literary lyric form, learning to scan the wide range of metrical patterns Horace deploys, getting to know Horace’s Epicurean-inflected idea of the “Golden Mean,” and, above all else, simply enjoying and discussing the beauty of these poems. We will set the Odes in the context of Horace’s broader oeuvre, grapple with Horace’s complex poetic persona, address the difficult question of how the miscellany of forms and themes in these poems hang together as a coherent whole, and read a selection of the fantastic literary criticism of this poetry, including recent arguments that the Odes might in fact have been performed, like Greek lyric, to musical accompaniment. The impact of Horace’s Odes on subsequent poetry has been enormous, so time will also be devoted to their reception, which includes both poetry influenced by Horace and modern translations of his poems. I hope that by the end it will be clear why Horace’s claim, at the start of the final poem of his first three books, that he had built “a monument more lasting than bronze” (exegi monumentum aere perennius) was justified. Prerequisite(s): Vergil Latin: Reading Between the Lines: Plautus’s Captivi (Henneman) Titus Maccius Plautus (c.254–184 BCE) created some of the oldest Latin works available in their entirety today. Elements of his comedy can be found in theater ranging from Shakespeare to modern day sit-coms, and productions of his plays elicit the same laughter from modern audiences that they received during his own lifetime. And while everyone needs a good laugh every now and then, one can’t help but wonder what reading comedy can tell us about the Romans who produced it. Plautus never wrote scripts from scratch. Instead he used Greek New Comedy as a jumping off point, making not just literary but cultural translation and adaptation his methods. Roman society seemed to embrace a less confrontational theater, so in “Romanizing” source materials Plautus eschewed biting commentary for situational humor. In this class, we will attempt to look past the action and ferret out social/cultural truths from the text. Is Plautus making the people laugh to forget about their problems, or does he use comedy to obscure harder realities about life in Rome? We will spend the bulk of this class reading through Captivi, a romp that plays with mistaken identity, uses outrageous plot and characters, and along the way invites interrogations on the humanity within versus the contingency of social roles. Who one is, seems, and is seen to be are not indistinguishable. Part of our goal will necessarily study how POW’s, family structures, and the institution of slavery were handled in Rome—and how differently from later manifestations of them. Plautus does not flinch in his writing, and his script casts vivid and probing light on these and other aspects of his broader social contexts. We will use this text and its genre to practice reading older linguistic forms, to gain a bit of understanding about the Romans, and to laugh along the way. Prerequisite(s): Vergil

Latin literary history, long considered some of the most beautiful, carefully crafted poetry to have survived from ancient Rome, verses Tennyson called “jewels five-words long, that on the stretched forefinger of Time / Sparkle for ever.”

Latin: Witches (Connaghan)

Witches appear in the earliest literature in the ancient Mediterranean. Circe and Medea tread the margins of the ancient world, foreign and threatening to the male order. In this class we will look to the witch in the Latin tradition and to those associated with them: ghosts, werewolves, vampires, the undead. We will read from a wide range of poetry and prose, also delving into curse tablets, magic cookbooks and charms. We will read stunning Latin literature and encounter characters and situations that are by turns gruesome and grotesque, fascinating and beautiful. We will encounter their presence as it lurks on the boundaries, real and imagined, of the ancient Mediterranean world.

Additional Courses

In this course we will spend our time in the active use of the language in composition, both written and oral. The year will begin with the creation of simple sentences and short paragraphs focused on the use of particular grammatical constructions like, say, indirect statements or purpose clauses, and will—hopefully!—serve in part as helpful review. As the year progresses and students hone their skills, more complexity will be introduced as we study and attempt to mimic in our own compositions a variety of prose styles. We will approach oral composition at first through in-class games and gradually build up the ability

Latin Prose Composition (Siebengartner) (2x per week)

Introduction to Linguistics (The Department) (2x per week)

Central to our task will be to reflect on the liminal nature of these extraordinary women, their defining otherness, and their godlike control over fertility, life, death and rebirth: the world both natural and supernatural. We will attempt to discover who the witch was in Roman culture, how this relates to the traditions of other ancient cultures such as Greece, Egypt, and Babylonia, and how the representation of the witch and the supernatural in Roman society was received and transmitted into the Middle Ages and from there to the modern world. Prerequisite(s): Vergil

This class will introduce students to the study of human languages. We will ask big questions—what is language, how does language work in the brain, the body, and society, and what, if anything, can we learn about humanity by considering human languages? We will explore topics in linguistics, from grammar (phonetics, morphology, syntax, etc.) to sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, lexicography, second language acquisition, and computational linguistics. Our focus will in part be determined by student interest. This class will be conducted mostly as a workshop and homework will be limited. That said, students will be invited to give presentations on topics that particularly compel them. No knowledge of Greek or Latin is necessary.

44 to engage in simple conversations.

The goal is to make this course as helpful and rewarding to those who feel their Latin could use some help as to those feeling especially confident in their Latin and looking to push their skills to new heights. As challenging and daunting as the idea of composing one’s own Latin can be, students should know that we will move at whatever pace is necessary and can rest assured that the payoffs of shifting one’s perspective on this language from passive to active are huge. Prerequisite(s): P.P.D.N.

ROMANCE LANGUAGES

French 2 (The Department) Students entering this level already possess fundamental skills of grammar and expression (as described in French 1). This course is designed to foster continued development in each of the four language skills: speaking, writing, reading, and aural comprehension. A variety of materials are used: a textbook and workbook to reinforce grammar and vocabulary, and short readings to encourage class discussion and serve as samples of written text. Audio materials are used in class to improve listening comprehension skills. Accurate pronunciation is stressed.

French Accelerated French (The Department) This course is offered to students who have successfully completed at least two years of another Romance language, and whose experience with language learning enables them to proceed at a faster pace in assimilating the usages of French. This course emphasizes aural/ oral proficiency as well as written skills.

French 1 (The Department)

This course is for students who are new at learning a Romance language, and for those who need one more year to solidify their knowledge and usage of the fundamentals. Emphasis is placed on sentence structure and oral expression. Students acquire elementary conversational skills, and vocabulary is learned through texts and review exercises. Web-based interactive exercises and activities help students practice and retain the material. Special attention is given to accurate pronunciation.

French 3 (The Department) In French 3 the objectives are to reinforce the students’ command of basic grammatical concepts and to stress the idiomatic use of French. We place an emphasis on the assimilation of all major grammatical structures. Readings such as Saint Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince are used to expand vocabulary and provide topics of discussion. We consider questions of content and form. Topics of class discussion serve as the basis for composition writing. At the end of this course, students should be able to write coherently in French, and speak and understand the language with relative ease.

French 4: French Language & Composition (The Department)

This course exposes the students to a variety of materials, textual as well as audio-visual, and emphasizes communicative skills through conversation, short writing assignments, and hands-on activities. Cultural themes pertaining to life in the French-speaking world are presented through French-language films, short readings, songs, and other appropriate material. After a careful elucidation and practice of the linguistic elements necessary for exploring these themes, students are able to express themselves on the various topics introduced.

Designed for students who have completed French 4, this course will focus on cultural and political topics in the contemporary French-speaking world through the study of film, literature, art, music, news sources, and other media. Class discussions, reading, writing, and individual and group projects (including, potentially, plays or musical performances) will develop students’ skills in every area of expression in French while expanding their knowledge of the diverse cultures of Francophone countries in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and North America. Special attention will be paid to idiomatic expressions and the way French is used in everyday life. Possible topics to be considered are protest movements, racism, integration and exclusion, language politics, sexual and cultural identities, religion, education, food, and fashion. Prerequisite(s): French 4 Modern and Contemporary Literature in French (The Department)

Cultural Topics in the French-Speaking World (The Department)

This course is designed to consolidate previously-acquired language skills and enable students to enjoy increasingly complex literature. While emphasis is given to class discussion and writing to improve active command of the language, it is through reading texts of various literary genres that the students will review grammar and start producing critical and creative writing. The authors studied may include, but are not limited to: Sebbar, Bouraoui, Deharme, Camus, Sartre, Lahens, and Miano.

“L’alphabet est quelque chose de magique, c’est un code, on peut mettre ces lettres ensemble, qui littéralement nous indiquent la fenêtre par laquelle on passe pour entrer dans un monde nouveau.”

French 4: French Language & Culture (The Department)

—Dany Laferrière, interview on France Culture, 2016 “Qu’est-ce que la littérature?” “Qu’est-ce qu’écrire?” “Pour qui écrit-on?” These were some of the questions asked by Jean-Paul Sartre in a celebrated essay of 1947. While Sartre was not the first to ask these questions, such questions took on particular urgency for writers in French in the colonial and post-colonial contexts. From romanticism, realism and surrealism through to Negritude, existentialism, oulipian experimentalism, and the diverse

For students who have completed all other French electives. Works are selected based on students’ interests and literary background.

Advanced Readings in French Literature (The Department)

Offered to juniors and seniors, and to sophomores with permission of the department chair, this class helps students use their acquired vocabulary and expand it to express themselves more fluently. Students build their oral/aural skills through a variety of activities—verbal games, oral reports and informal conversation on topics such as politics, education, culture, everyday life, or other subjects of interest to the group.

French Conversation (The Department) (2x per week)

This course is offered to students who have successfully completed at least two years of another Romance language, and whose experience with language learning enables them to proceed at a faster pace in assimilating the usages of Spanish. This course emphasizes aural/ oral proficiency as well as written skills.

47 contemporary scene, literature in French has assumed many forms over the last two centuries. The purpose of this course is to dig deeply into a wide variety of modern and contemporary writers in French from Europe, Africa, and the Americas. We will sample many genres— poetry, short stories, novels, plays, and autobiographical writing. In addition to reading, discussion, and oral reports, students will be invited to try their hand at creative writing, essays, and group projects. Possible authors include Nau, Flaubert, Baudelaire, DesbordesValmore, Proust, Césaire, Duras, Condé, Camus, Beauvoir, NDiaye, and Laferrière, among others. We will complement our readings with occasional forays into the world of painting and cinema. Open to students who have successfully completed French 4.

Spanish Accelerated Spanish (The Department)

Spanish 1 (The Department)

Spanish 3 (The Department)

Spanish 4: Language & Culture (The Department)

Cultural Topics in the Spanish-Speaking World (The Department)

Spanish 2 (The Department)

This course exposes students to a variety of materials, textual as well as audio-visual, and emphasizes communication skills through conversation, short writing assignments, and hands-on activities. Cultural themes pertaining to life in the Spanish-speaking world are presented through Spanish language films, short readings, songs, and other appropriate materials. After a careful elucidation and practice of the linguistic elements necessary for exploring these themes, students are able to express themselves on the various topics introduced.

Spanish 4: Language & Composition (The Department)

Designed for students who have completed Spanish 4, this course will focus on cultural and political topics in the contemporary Spanish-speaking world through the study of film, literature, art, music, news sources and other media. Class discussions, reading, writing, and individual and group projects (including, potentially, plays or musical performances) will develop students’ skills in every area of expression in Spanish while expanding their knowledge of the diverse cultures of hispanophone countries in Latin America, Europe, and the Caribbean. Special attention will be paid to idiomatic expressions and the way Spanish is used in everyday life. Possible topics to be considered are protest movements, racism, integration and exclusion, language politics, sexual and cultural identities, religion, education, food, and fashion. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 4

This course is designed to consolidate previously-acquired language skills and enable students to enjoy increasingly complex literature. While emphasis is given to class discussion and writing to improve active command of the language, it is through reading texts of various literary genres that the students will review grammar and start producing critical and creative writing. The authors studied may include, but are not limited to: Allende, Bolaño, Borges, García Márquez, García Lorca, Martín Gaite, and Neruda.

Grammatical concepts are further reviewed and reinforced at this level. Students are introduced to more literary texts, poetry, and to articles on culture and current events in Latin America and Spain.

Continuing the study of grammar and building vocabulary, students read and discuss short stories relevant to Spanish culture and begin to express more sophisticated ideas in writing.

—Alejandro Zambra, Formas de volver a casa

Short novels by contemporary authors such as Zambra and Quintana introduce students to the present literary trends in a Latin America that lived through dictatorships, economic crises, and drug wars. Excerpts from movies that explore said conflicts are also watched and discussed.

For juniors and seniors who have completed at least Spanish 3, this course develops communicative proficiency. Placing special emphasis on practical vocabulary and enhancing interactional use of the language, we try to build each student’s self-confidence and facility in speaking Spanish.

Designed for students who have completed Spanish 4, this course will operate like a writing workshop and thus requires a commitment to writing frequently in Spanish. Students will prepare a piece of writing in Spanish for every class, which they will share with their fellow students. Commenting upon each other’s work in Spanish will be an essential component of the class. Students will get grammatical and literary input from both teacher and peers. They will read and discuss short fiction and poetry and then “try on” the different narrative voices in their own writing. We will take inspiration from recognized contemporary and classical writers in Spanish such as Roberto Bolaño, Valeria Luiselli, Gabriel García Marquez, Cristina Fernandez Cubas, and Luis Sepúlveda, among others. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 4

Prerequisite(s): Spanish 4 Creative Writing in Spanish (The Department) (2x perLeerweek)escubrirse la cara y escribir es mostrarla. (To read is to cover one’s face. And to write is to show it.)

Spanish Conversation (The Department) (2x per week)

The prose and poetry studied in this course provide a comprehensive view of 20th and 21st century Hispanic letters. Through the works of Unamuno, Martín Gaite, Matute, and García Lorca (Spain), and of Fuentes, Borges, Bolaño, Restrepo and García Márquez (Latin America), and poetry from both regions, the course aims to stimulate the students’ interest in contemporary Hispanic literature and expand their knowledge of language and culture.

For students who have completed all other Spanish electives. Works are selected based on students’ interests and literary background.

20th and 21st Century Literature in Spanish (The Department)

Advanced Readings in Spanish (The Department)

Required Courses

The Cartesian plane provides a setting for examining transformations such as reflection, translation, and scaling. Parallel and perpendicular lines are analyzed using the concept of slope. Functions are examined both algebraically and graphically, as are systems of equations and inequalities. Students also work in a purely algebraic setting, solving equations, manipulating algebraic expressions, working with higher-degree polynomials, expanding binomial powers, and examining rational expressions. The challenge of solving quadratic equations leads to such techniques as factoring, completing the square, the quadratic formula, and the discovery of the complex numbers. Note: This course is open to sophomores and above. Freshmen may take it with the permission of their grade dean and the department chair.

In Algebra 1, students learn to generalize the laws of arithmetic and perform the four operations on variable expressions. They develop their ability to model and solve word problems by assigning variables to unknown quantities and determining the precise relationship between constant and variable terms. Students apply the laws of equality in order to solve a wide variety of equations and proportions. In the process of graphing the solution sets of linear equations on the Cartesian plane, students gain familiarity with the concepts of slope and intercept. They find simultaneous solutions to systems of equations and apply factoring in order to find the roots of quadratic equations. All of these activities promote both arithmetic and algebraic fluency.

In Geometry, we study the world of points, lines, and planes. We cover topics that include the analysis of congruent and similar triangles, the Pythagorean Theorem, angle sum and area formulas, and theorems concerning the relationship between chords, secants, and tangents of a circle. We solve problems and explore geometric situations intuitively; we also investigate geometry as a formal system, where we begin with a small set of postulates and then build up a Euclidean geometric system by deductively proving further results. With this balance, we uncover mathematics the way it often plays out historically, where bursts of intuition drive knowledge forward, and then formalization solidifies known results into a cohesive whole. Algebra 2 (The Department)

MATHEMATICS

Geometry (9th Grade) (The Department)

Algebra 1 (8th Grade) (The Department)

Beginning with trigonometric functions and triangle solutions, we move on to identities, equations, angle formulae, and the practical applications thereof. Last, we cover the graphs of all the trigonometric functions including inverses and period, amplitude, and phase shifts.

—Bill James \In this class, we will design and perform experiments, analyze and visualize data, build models, play and study card games, run simulations, summarize data, and write chunks of code (absolutely no prior programming experience is expected). We’ll see how probability underlies our understanding of science, grapple with uncertainty, and become fledgling data scientists. This class will be partially project-based, including a substantial (individual) endof-the-year project of your choosing. Prerequisite(s): Algebra 2 Advanced Statistics (The Department)

This course will delve deeper into the world of statistics. Students will refine the techniques learned in the first year of Statistics and will continue to discuss the derivations and ramifications of the formulas used. Students will formally explore the realm of regression, touching upon various types of non-linear regression analysis. Throughout the year, students will be analyzing large data sets, often as parts of independent projects. Other topics can include: hypothesis testing, various types of sampling distributions, Bayes’ theorem, probabilistic analysis, the central limit theorem and confidence intervals. Prerequisite(s): Statistics

Prerequisite(s): Trigonometry Statistics (The Department) They use statistics to decorate their articles. They use statistics as a club in the battle for what they believe intuitively to be correct. That is why [they] often believe that you can prove anything with statistics, an obscene and ludicrous position, but one which is the natural out- growth of the way that they themselves use statistics. What I wanted to do was teach people instead to use statistics as a sword to cut toward the truth.

This course is a rigorous approach to polynomial and exponential functions; sequences and series; vectors; and some analytic geometry. Emphasis is on the mastery of proofs and creative applications to practical problems. This course is a prerequisite for Calculus. In conjunction with the fall semester course Trigonometry, this course is a prerequisite for Calculus.

Sequential Electives Trigonometry (The Department) (Fall semester)

In conjunction with the spring semester course Analysis, this course is a prerequisite for Calculus. Prerequisite(s): Algebra 2 Analysis (The Department) (Spring semester)

Additional Electives

Further Explorations in Calculus (The Department) In this class, we will continue the exploration of calculus with advanced integration techniques, such as integration by parts, partial fractions, and trigonometric substitution. We will study applications such as arc length, perimeter, measurement of surfaces, areas of regions on polar coordinates, and differential equations. We will reexamine integration with a more rigorous treatment than we took in Calculus. In addition, we will take ideas from calculus and use them as stepping stones towards extensions and explorations in more advanced areas. For example, we will delve deeper into the convergence and divergence of sequences and series, leading us to a discussion of the Taylor and Maclaurin Series. We will study how the concept of infinitesimals leads to exciting results in physics and harmonic analysis, as well as offer insight into the local behavior of various curves that we may have taken for granted. We may examine special functions and number sets, such as the Weierstrass function, the Bernoulli numbers, and the Cantor set. We may use the idea of volumes of rotation as a way to begin talking about repeated integration and multivariable calculus.

This course is designed for students who love solving math problems, and it is especially appropriate for students intending to take part in the school’s math team. We focus on mathematical topics not typically covered in the standard curriculum. Topics such as number theory and modular arithmetic, polynomials, geometric loci, probability, functional equations, algebraic and trigonometric identities, geometric inequalities, divisibility, three dimensional geometry, complex numbers, recursions, infinite series, quadratic forms, and abstract algebra are explored through a series of problems, often selected from various mathematical contests. The problems in Advanced Problem Solving tend to focus on clever tricks and creative thinking beyond what is typically required in a classroom. Through problems, the objective of the course is both to be more familiar with said clever tricks and also to have wider exposure to mathematics beyond our standard curriculum. We meet twice a week, once to work on problems and a second time to go over the problems together as a class. This schedule is occasionally altered when we tackle a math contest as a class. Prerequisite(s): none

Prerequisite(s): Trigonometry and Analysis

Calculus (The Department)

This is a rigorous calculus course with heavy emphasis on proofs, derivations, and creative applications. Limits, derivatives, integrals, and their technical applications are covered. This course will include an early use of transcendental functions and will require a working knowledge of trigonometric, exponential, logarithmic, and rational functions.

Advanced Problem Solving (The Department) (2x per week)

Prerequisite(s): Calculus 1

Geometry II: Advanced Euclidean Geometry (Totten) (One semester only, fall/spring TBD)

Since the Renaissance, and especially in the last two centuries, there has been great development and expansion of the work of Euclid and the ancient Greeks. Our study will begin with the many figures associated with the triangle: orthic and medial triangles, the Euler line, the Fermat and Gergonne points, the Feuerbach circle, excircles and Simson lines. Special topics regarding circles—the power of a point, the radical axis, harmonic division and Apollonian circles—will be covered, and will lead into an introduction of transformational geometry with an emphasis on Steiner’s inversion. Throughout the course there is considerable use of compass and straightedge constructions, which invites our hands to help see what the mind at first may not. Prerequisite(s): Geometry Logic (Aronson) (One semester only, fall/spring TBD)

Formal logic, a discipline created by Aristotle, has applications in a variety of disciplines including philosophy, mathematics, physics, computer science, and linguistics. One might, in fact, argue that logic is relevant to any endeavor that involves reasoning. This course begins with a consideration of arguments of English and the question: What constitutes a good argument? We then focus on the symbolic system known as sentential logic and the more powerful symbolic system known as predicate logic. In both cases, students learn to translate arguments of English into symbolic arguments and to evaluate such arguments using the aforementioned systems. This is a proof intensive class. Prerequisite(s): Geometry Number Theory (N. Fiori) (One semester only, fall/spring TBD) What did Leopold Kronecker mean when he famously said, “God made the natural numbers; all else is the work of man?” Even those who take the more humanistic stance that “math is created” rather than “math is discovered,” sometimes admit that the counting numbers seem to transcend humankind. How could earthlings have invented the idea of “1, 2, 3, 4, 5...?” Even more compelling, and somewhat surprising, is that this seemingly simple set of numbers provides mathematicians with some of the deepest problems. Many of these questions are so basic to state that they can be understood by a five year old, yet they remain unsolved by anyone on Earth. In this course, we will take a deep dive into this set of numbers. We look for attractive properties and patterns, attempt to describe them, ask questions, venture answers, and, when we can, prove our conjectures. We will explore questions that range from the elementary, “Which combinations of integers make Pythagorean triples?” to the more difficult, “Which numbers are the sum of two squares?” to the unsolved, “Are all even numbers the sum of two primes?” and we will see that the most elementary set of numbers provides enough depth to leave us inspired, puzzled, bemused, and humbled. Prerequisite(s): None—Number Theory is about elementary arithmetic, after all. But it gets deep and difficult quickly! Only those who won’t balk at conceptually mindbending arguments and technically demanding swamplands should take this course.

(Hanisch) (2x per week)

Advanced Topics in Mathematics

Independent Study in Mathematics (The Department)

Among the various branches of higher mathematics are analysis and algebra. Too often in advanced coursework, perhaps as a result of the natural tendency towards specialization, sharp yet artificial boundaries are placed between them. Indeed, prominent mathematician John Stilwell lamented, “Algebraists do not discuss the fundamental theorem of algebra because ‘that’s analysis’ and analysts do not discuss Riemann surfaces because ‘that’s topology’ ....” This course aims to remedy this by providing a unifying study of the deeper aspects of both analysis and algebra. The topics we cover will be influenced by the students, and may include the foundations of our number system, leading into ring and group theory, some set theory and logic, probability theory, and the foundations of calculus. This latter topic should appeal to students who have taken or are currently taking calculus, as well as those who will take calculus in the future. Prerequisite(s): none. Although first year calculus is not strictly a requirement, students should have some familiarity with the fundamental ideas of calculus, or at least be willing to learn a good deal on their own concurrently.

Students work one-on-one with a mentor on a focused research project. Topics are to be determined by interest and inclination of the student. Note: Students must submit a research proposal to the department chair by June 1 to be considered for Independent Study in Mathematics. Proposal guidelines can be picked up in the High School Office or in the Mathematics Department.

The Music Department is committed to helping students thrive in our ensembles. Students enrolled in any ensemble are required to practice regularly outside of class. The Music Department provides additional support to individual students by offering a Music Resource Room where students can practice with the help of a teacher during the school day, and we offer a wide-ranging list of private lesson options for those students who wish to support the ensemble experience by studying privately.

Asbury Jazz Performance Elliott/Coe Wind Ensemble (bassoon, clarinet, flute, horns, oboe, saxophone, trumpets)

Pickering Symphonic Ensemble (string, winds, brass, percussion)

55 MUSIC

This class builds skills required to play in a percussion section of the larger Saint Ann’s ensembles. Advanced study of timpani, bass drum, crash cymbals, snare drum, triangle and various other percussion instruments is emphasized. Later in each term, students are invited to play in the percussion section of any number of the larger ensembles like the Brass Choir or Symphonic Ensemble. Percussion ensemble music compliments percussion section work.

Large Ensembles

The Music Department will offer the following large ensembles based on student needs and interests. It is recommended that students interested in large ensembles choose two. Please consult with your current instrumental teacher if you need to know more about any group.

All music courses meet two periods per week unless otherwise noted.

Brass Choir* (horns, trombones, trumpets)

Cao/Clark/Gilbert/Kwon/ Henderson High School Chorus

Performance Study and Ensembles

Advanced Percussion Techniques (The Percussion Section) (Lazzara/Bollinger)

Henderson *requires audition/approval of director

We will work on many aspects of Baroque interpretation, performance practice, style, ornamentation, tempi, the relationship and interdependence of words and music, and any other topics that come up in the rehearsal and preparation of repertoire. We will explore Bach and his contemporaries from the bottom up, paying close attention to the power and influence of the bass line in these great musical works. Keyboard players will learn how to interpret and realize a figured bass and will learn how to play the portative organ. Limited to advanced vocalists and instrumentalists. Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor Brass Choir (Pickering) (3x per week)

High School Chorus (Asbury) High School Chorus is open to anyone who loves to sing. The chorus sings repertoire from a variety of genres and styles, spanning 500 years of Western music. Chorus will also be combining and collaborating with Symphonic Ensemble and Brass Choir to perform major orchestral works. No previous singing experience is required.

This class is for students interested in the challenges and rewards of playing chamber music. Chamber Players groups are organized based upon enrollment, and duos, trios, and quartets will be coached once a week. Because of the skills required to perform chamber music, students are strongly encouraged to take private lessons/seek outside practice assistance. The refined musical skills cultivated in chamber study will be put to wonderful use in the large groups as well. Students enrolled in the Chamber Players program will also play in one of the large ensembles (i.e. Symphonic Ensemble, Brass Choir, Jazz Performance, HS Chorus).

Bach Ensemble: The Study of the Vocal and Instrumental Chamber and Solo Music of J.S. Bach and His Contemporaries (Gilbert/Department)

The Brass Choir is an ensemble for advanced brass players. Musical and technical skills are cultivated through the study and performance of major brass ensemble compositions representing a wide variety of styles. The Brass Choir will perform in multiple settings during the year including assemblies, choral/instrumental concerts, and graduation. Brass Choir will also be combining and collaborating with Symphonic Ensemble and Chorus to perform major orchestral works. Ensemble members are encouraged to take private lessons/seek outside practice assistance. Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor Chamber Players (The Department) (1x per week)

Note: Chamber Players students will meet once a week as a group with their coach and also attend either the Symphonic Ensemble double-period or another appropriate large ensemble. An audition is required for all students who will be participating in the chamber music program for the first time; students currently participating will be placed at an appropriate level.

A class in jazz improvisation and ensemble playing. Instruction in basic scales and chords provides a vocabulary for improvisation. Students are introduced to the jazz repertoire. All instrumentalists and vocalists are welcome. Note: Interested students should prepare an audition demonstrating a grasp of major and minor scales and chords. Students in this class are encouraged to take private lessons/seek outside practice assistance. Songwriter’s Toolbox (Eagen/Hathaway)

This ensemble performs a variety of music arranged for guitars and percussion. The repertoire includes jazz standards, modern jazz compositions, and original music. Ensemble members improve their reading, composing, accompanying, and rhythmic skills. Members should be very comfortable reading music and charts. Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor Jazz Performance (Coe, Elliott) (3x per week)

Students will perform compositions from the huge jazz repertoire, spanning the major styles of jazz from swing to post-bop. Each combo will consist of a rhythm section and front line. All instrumentalists are welcome. There will be opportunities for large group arrangements as well. We will explore approaches to jazz improvisation through the study of harmony, scales, instrumental technique, and arrangement. Combos will have opportunities to perform in our jazz concerts and more informally in assemblies throughout the year. Students should demonstrate an ongoing engagement with their instruments, willingness to improvise, and good reading ability. Prerequisite(s): Jazz Techniques (or the equivalent, as determined by the instructors). Students in this class are encouraged to take private lessons/seek outside practice assistance. Jazz Techniques (Coe, Elliott)

This class will give you the tools you need to pen and perform that song you’ve had on a loop in your head for years but never shared with the world. Throughout the year we will concentrate on the art of lyric and melody writing, as well as introduce the students to harmony, rhythm and arranging. You’ll gain many practical tools for your toolbox, including the fundamentals of music notation and the ability to play a few essential chords and chord progressions on piano and guitar. As we listen to and analyze the structure of songs we love, we’ll explore the role of songwriters in history from Blues to Tin Pan Alley to MTV and beyond. Throughout the year, you’ll have informal chances to workshop and share your songs, and at the end of the course, you’ll record your original songs and direct your own live performance or music video. If you are an experienced songwriter you will spend the year deepening your craft; however, no formal musical training or experience is required to take this class. All students who are eager to write, sing, play and perform their own songs and those of their classmates are welcome.

57 Jazz Guitar Ensemble (Coe)

Wind Ensemble (Henderson)

Symphonic Ensemble is an ensemble which combines all of the orchestral instruments (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion) to perform symphonic repertoire in various styles. We will perform in the winter and spring choral/instrumental concerts. High school musicians (and advanced middle school players) will meet for one double period. Repertoire will be chosen to the level of the players (some pieces may be just for winds), and will give everyone the unique experience of playing larger scale orchestral music in a community of dedicated musicians.

The Wind Ensemble combines woodwind and brass instruments. We develop musical and technical skills by studying compositions from a wide variety of styles, composers, and time periods. Students are encouraged to take private lessons/seek outside practice assistance.

Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor

Vocal Study and Ensembles (Clark/Eagen) (3x per week)

Symphonic Ensemble (Cao, Clark, Gilbert, Kwon Henderson) (one double period)

The solo singing voice is one of the most personal and powerful expressions available to each individual. Everyone has a voice, but HOW do you want to use it and WHAT do you want to say? In this class we strive to uncover the beauty of the unamplified ‘natural’ voice and to cultivate our unique singing sounds to express our deepest feelings. The classes are kept small and are geared towards everyone becoming comfortable singing as a soloist. We will become attentive to the use of breath, vowel production, diction and use of the body and support as an instrument. The repertoire we use to discover our voices is multi-faceted, including American Art Song, English, Italian, German, and French Song, American Musical Theatre and operatic arias. Listening to great artists from the past and present is a regular part of class, and we will be working towards cultivating our own solo performances and creating solo recordings. In respect to the pursuit of developing what we call vocal technique the class may be taken for all four years of high school. Additionally, singers will join together to explore the rich and broad canon of world choral music in various voice combinations. Note: There is no audition required. Students in Vocal Study and Ensembles will also participate in High School Chorus.

Instrument Instruction Advanced Guitar (Coe)

This course is designed to enhance performing skills on the guitar through the study of popular, jazz, and classical pieces. Prerequisite(s): Guitar 1 or permission of the instructor

The bassoon is a relatively rare instrument that can play music from the Renaissance to the present. It is most commonly heard in orchestra, chamber music, and new music. In this course students will learn the fundamentals of playing the bassoon with the goal of creating a beautiful sound and building solid technique that can be used in any musical setting.

Double Bass (Langol)

Percussion: The Drum Set (Lazzara)

This class explores the role of the drummer in popular music. We study and execute techniques that helped define this music, and we listen to recordings of the classic drummers.

Bassoon (Henderson)

Composers-Performers Workshop (Elliott) Calling all those with open ears and an eagerness to explore creating with sound! In this studio-based workshop all participants will act as both composer and performer. We welcome all instrumentalists/vocalists/musicians who are willing to be challenged, who wish to find new ways of structuring sound into formal shapes with open-mindedness to form and language, and distrust of genre and category. Some familiarity with music theory—scales, basic chords, and so on—will be helpful but is not required. Open your ears and your mind and explore musical creativity from new vantage points. All instruments and vocalists welcome.

Theory, Composition, and Music Technology

This course is designed for the beginning and intermediate double bass player. The course work focuses on developing performing skills and good double bass playing technique through the study of recognized method books, classical pieces, popular music, and jazz. The students are provided an opportunity to focus on skills and repertoire specific to their instrument through the study of solo and ensemble literature with the goal of playing in an ensemble setting. Tone production, technique development, basic bowing technique, and maximally effective practice strategies are the focus of class assignments. Prior string playing experience is a plus. Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor

This class is recommended for the composer who is able to conceive of individual creative projects–from inception to performance–thus notation skill is required. Familiarity with composing software, including both notation/sequencing and production software, is recommended. Student work will be performed as the ultimate goal of the composition process. The class will meet as a group twice a week, with additional individual meetings scheduled as needed.

Composition Studio (Elliott)

Music & Computers 2 (Langol) This advanced class continues to explore ideas and solidify skills established through previous music and computers lab experience. Each semester different sets of plug-ins and a variety of sound design techniques are used to facilitate a deeper understanding of sound design and synthesis. An understanding of how sound works is established while discussing basic recording techniques and effects processing. The foundational knowledge and skills needed to understand current music production techniques are covered through the year.

Music & Computers 1 (Langol)

This class will thoroughly explore the basic elements and fundamentals of all music. Through this exploration we train our ears, improve music notation skills, explore instrumental and vocal practice, and learn how pitch and rhythm work in music of all kinds. This is a class for those students who are eager to learn an instrument, sing, or write songs or instrumental music but want to build understanding and skill in the basics.

This class explores the use of electronic keyboards, computers, and software in making music reflective of various musical idioms. Our focus is on understanding the bigger concepts around recording and making music with current music technology in contemporary musical idioms. Students are introduced to MIDI editing and sequencing using industry standard music production tools. An overview in the music production skills such as sampling audio and drum programming is provided along with opportunities to apply these ideas to individual music making projects. This class is for the student with no experience or a beginning knowledge of using music technology. In addition to advancing skills as music technologists, students will be exposed to fundamentals of music theory and various compositional methods as required. Music making is examined through various styles and through the lens of popular musical idioms spanning Hip Hop, EDM, Rock and Pop. Project work will apply these ideas, as will the musical desires of each student. Previous experience with composition is desirable, though not necessary.

Musicianship (Elliott)

Understanding the history of musical language is infinitely valuable for any musician, music lover, or musical scholar. We will examine the origins of musical cultures throughout the world with a goal of understanding how musical languages and traditions have evolved, intertwined, and transformed over the centuries. We will consider western art music and jazz, as well as the classical traditions of Asian cultures, Africa, and South America. We will consider how music communicates, how it represents belief systems, and how it expresses cultural commonalities.

Sampling techniques going back to Musique concrète–spanning the beginnings of hiphop to J. Dilla up to the present–are studied and applied to musical projects. A number of approaches to using drum machines and drum programming are further developed in an effort to open up creative options. Contemporary musical genres from Hip hop to EDM are pulled apart structurally and technologically in order to see what makes this music work while providing a framework for students to examine their own creative process. All of this may be looked at through the exposure to the history of electronic music making in all musical idioms up to the present day.

Time for the pursuit of individual personal musical goals is provided in a guided learning environment. Avenues for strengthening harmonic knowledge, keyboarding skills and ear training are provided and encouraged throughout the course. Prerequisite(s): Music & Computers 1 or adequate middle school Music Lab experience, and permission of the instructor Music Scoring for Multimedia (Langol) This class targets the ideas around electronic music composition specifically for film, dance, puppetry, theater, and animation. Open to students with advanced skills, an interest in performance/composition, and a facility with music making software, this workshop/class allows students with experience in MIDI and sound processing to realize their creative ideas using the myriad tools of the music lab. Software technology enables composers to achieve unprecedented variety and richness in manipulating recorded sound to create original compositions in support of other art forms that include film and dance. Exploring various compositional approaches and various electronic music making methods opens a door to endless musical and sonic possibilities. The development of listening skills and musical analysis are employed in the course work and these become an important part of utilizing compositional methods and style. Prerequisite(s): Music lab experience, facility on an instrument, and permission of the instructor Music Literature Music History (Elliott)

Opera (Clark) Opera,“the extravagant art”, traditionally involves forces larger than any other form of theatre, We will engage with opera from the ground up, from the earliest works of Monteverdi through contemporary pieces. Class work involves reading from key opera scholars, as well libretto reading, audio listening, and video watching. (We will also take occasional peeks into the scandalous lives of the great composers and opera stars.) Class participation has traditionally involved some opera field trips, so, “outings TBA.” There has never been a better time to dive into this fascinating art form!

Challenge Course (The Department)

Flag Football (P. Zerneck) This course introduces the rules and fundamentals of flag football. Emphasis is placed on proper techniques of throwing, catching, offensive and defensive concepts, and teamwork. Students will work through skill drills and play games during the class period.

Floor Hockey (P. Zerneck) This is an enjoyable and exciting class for all skill levels. Students improve hand-eye coordination and knowledge of the game through drills and games. All hockey fans will enjoy this course.

63 REC ARTS

Basketball (The Department) This course will prepare the students for both the physical and mental aspects of basketball, and is open to all skill levels. Students will learn basketball vocabulary, explore strategies, and raise their overall basketball IQ. Students will have a chance to implement their skills in half and full court games during class time.

Fencing 1 (Balboa) This class, covering the fundamentals of fencing, is open to beginners and those with a limited background in fencing. Students learn basic fencing movements and strategies.

Fencing 2 (Balboa) This course introduces the rules and fundamentals of flag football. Emphasis is placed on proper techniques of throwing, catching, offensive and defensive concepts, and teamwork. Students will work through skill drills and learn strategies for playing in game situations.

Students are faced with challenges through group activities and will set individual as well as collective goals. Team work, leadership, and trust building are major components of this class. We will explore horizontal and vertical climbs on our climbing wall and learn various climbing and belaying techniques. The course may include a multi-day camping trip which includes rock climbing and a ropes course.

Physioball Fitness (The Department) Using large physioballs, this class teaches different exercises designed to increase flexibility, enhance coordination, develop strength and improve cardiovascular fitness. The emphasis is on core (abdominal and back) strengthening and conditioning.

Racquet Games (Stevenson) Racquet games is a course for all skill levels. The units will include badminton, pickleball, and table tennis, depending on gym availability. Beginners learn the games by working on fundamental stroke technique; more advanced players polish their skills while improving game strategy. All students participate in exciting singles and doubles matches.

Pilates Conditioning (Lattimer)

The Pilates method of body conditioning is a unique system of stretching and strengthening exercises developed over ninety years ago by Joseph Pilates. It strengthens and tones muscles, improves posture, enhances flexibility and balance, and unites body and mind.

Karate 1 (Magnes) Students learn the basic punches, kicks and blocks of traditional karate, combining these techniques in the practice of forms and freestyle sparring. Some self defense applications are covered, although the primary emphasis of the course is on karate as a sport and martial art. A gi (karate uniform) is supplied by the school.

Karate 2/3 (Magnes) In this class we cover material for the color belt ranks, with increased emphasis on free fighting and street defense. Prerequisite(s): a minimum of one year’s training in the Saint Ann’s martial arts program Parkour Fitness (Benney, Bolton) This class will incorporate both the technical aspects and the physical rigor of Parkour to create a challenging and adventurous workout. Perfect for students interested in gymnastics, dance, and athletics, this “boot-camp” style of exercise class will focus on upper body strengthening, cardiovascular endurance, balance, and agility. It will take place in the 10th floor apparatus room and gym, and at various outdoor locations depending upon the weather.

Note: All bikes must have hand brakes.

65 Running (The Department)

Table Tennis (Carr, Stevenson) Table tennis is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States. Join this class to speed up your hand-eye coordination and to learn how to play this enjoyable game.

Ultimate Frisbee (Benney) Ultimate offers a fun, exciting alternative to traditional sports. Students incorporate throwing, catching, and teamwork into a framework of speed and finesse.

Urban Cycling (Benney, Carr) Get outside. Ride a bike. See Brooklyn from a new vantage point. This full-year class will emphasize safe cycling and group riding procedures. Students will learn basic bike maintenance in addition to building cardiovascular endurance. Students should already feel comfortable riding a bike. Bikes and helmets will be provided, or students may provide their own equipment.

Total Body Conditioning (P. Zerneck) Whether you want to stay in-shape during your sport’s off-season, or don’t play a sport and just want to be fit, it’s important to set aside some time from your busy schedules to let your minds rest, and exercise your bodies. In this elective, you will learn a variety of ways to get in a total body workout (cardio, along with muscle and core strengthening) in a short period of time. Through compound exercises, you will not only learn to maximize your exercise time, but learn the importance of varying your workouts in order to achieve optimum results as well.

Sports and Games (The Department)

A course to help people with little or no running experience; experienced runners are also welcome. Upper body, core strengthening, warm down, and stretching exercises are taught, along with techniques to improve form and increase speed. Weekly runs vary in distance and intensity. Running routes change from week to week.

If you enjoyed your MS “Gym/Park” class, then this class is for you. A variety of sports and physical activities will be offered. Based on the availability of indoor and outdoor facilities, you will play games like Capture the Flag, Dodge ball, Ultimate Frisbee, soccer, whiffle ball, basketball, and volleyball. Individual fitness activities may be offered in the fitness room as well.

Workout of the Day (W.O.D.) (Lattimer, J. Zerneck)

Yoga 1 (Desince, Scheele, J. Zerneck)

Yoga 2 (J. Zerneck) In this class we begin to explore more vigorous yoga sequences, breathing techniques, and styles of meditation. Different styles of yoga will be introduced including Ashtanga, Bikram, Vinyasa, and Anusara. Note: This course will be either a single or double period depending upon student schedules. Prerequisite(s): one year of Yoga or permission of the instructor

(Yamond)

The recreational arts requirement may be fulfilled through full-season participation as a player on a junior varsity or varsity team. Emphasis is placed on developing and fostering athletic standards of excellence through participation and competition. All team sports require a significant commitment to practice and game schedules. Saint Ann’s is a member of the Athletic Conference of Independent Schools (ACIS), and the girls’ teams also belong to the Athletic Association of Independent Schools (AAIS). Our cross country and track teams are members of the Private Schools Athletic Association (PSAA). The fencing team is a member of the Independent School Fencing League (ISFL). Teams include baseball, basketball, fencing, gymnastics, soccer, softball, squash, track, and volleyball.

This course introduces the student to the merits of weight and fitness training. Workouts will include free-weight, body weight, and cardiovascular exercises. Other areas to be explored include flexibility (through stretching) and the value of aerobic training.

This course introduces the ancient discipline of personal development that balances body, mind, and spirit. Students learn a series of physical postures and proper breathing as well as meditation and other practical methods for relaxation that promote health, alleviate stress, improve skeletal alignment, and increase muscular strength and flexibility.

Interscholastic Sports (The Department)

Weight & Fitness Training

This class is a group exercise class which incorporates a variety of workouts. Each class will be unique and will make use of different equipment including, but not limited to, dumbbells, suspension trainers, physioballs, BOSUs, and resistance bands.

All courses meet for a full year unless otherwise noted.

Advanced Physiology and Medical Ethics (Levin) Do you want to learn how to read an EKG? How a bone marrow transplant works? What makes carbon monoxide gas so dangerous? How human T cells can be reprogrammed to fight cancer? Or about surgeries that can be performed on a fetus before birth? We will explore all this and more in Advanced Physiology as we work our way through the biological mechanisms of the human body, including the cardiovascular, respiratory, immune, and reproductive systems. Along the way, we will examine what happens when our human machinery fails and learn about medical therapies such as defibrillators, ventilators, antibiotics, organ transplantation, cancer immunotherapy, gene therapy, and CRISPR. We will also tackle mystery cases in which you will become a doctor and researcher, diagnosing a “patient” through a series of medical clues, explaining the pathophysiology of each disease,

Prerequisite(s): none Advanced Biology (Kaplan) This is an intense and rigorous immersion in a comprehensive study of biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, botany, evolution, and anatomy and physiology. Lectures and discussions are supplemented with occasional in-depth labs and articles from journals such as Nature, Science, and Scientific American. The only way to cross the ocean of information, enjoying the fast pace and laboratory work, is to be a bonafide biophile! Note: Students are expected to have a thorough grasp of ninth grade biology topics. The class meets one seminar period each week in addition to regular class time. Prerequisite(s): Biology and Chemistry

67 SCIENCE

Biology Courses Biology (The Department) (required) Biology is the scientific extension of the human tendency to feel connected to and curious about all forms of life. It takes us to the wet, wild world inside a cell, and nudges us to take a close look at the stripes of a zebra or to plunge down to the dark regions at the bottom of the sea where albino crabs move with unhurried pace over the soft, cold mud. This course covers vital topics in this field such as cytology, genetics, biochemistry, taxonomy, evolution, botany, and ecology. This is a dense, grand tour of the most definitive aspect of this planet.

68 and pro- posing possible treatments. This course will involve readings from journals like Science and Nature, along with articles from popular magazines like The New Yorker and other literary works related to health and disease. Delving deeply into these varied readings, we will build skills in critical analysis of the scientific literature, and will also challenge ourselves to grapple with some of the most complex ethical dilemmas in modern medicine.

Neuroscience (The Department) Santiago Ramón y Cajal, a founding neuroscientist from the turn of the 20th century once said, “As long as our brain is a mystery, the universe, the reflection of the structure of the brain, will also be a mystery.” Cajal was one of the first scientists to discover the cellular structure of neurons and synapses, the fundamental unit of the nervous system. In this course, we will cover the progress that has been made in the last 120 years toward understanding the structure and function of these amazing cells that control and define us. In addition to cellular neurobiology, we will learn about the organization and development of the nervous system as a whole, the nervous systems of other animals, and neuropathologies.

Prerequisite(s): Biology and Chemistry

Prerequisite(s): Biology Evolution and Human Origins (Harbison) As humans, we have nearly 99% of our DNA in common with our closest living relatives, Chimpanzees and Bonobos. The events that led to the evolution of Homo sapiens have fascinated scientists and anthropologists from Charles Darwin to Mary Leakey, yet many mysteries remain. This class will explore the foundations of evolution, speciation, and genetics as the basis for discussing what we know about the transition from great apes to modern humans. We will read from Darwin’s Descent of Man, and texts by Stephen J Gould, and geneticist Adam Rutherford, among others, as we explore the following questions: Who were our ancestor species? What makes Homo sapiens unique? How have improved genetic techniques changed our understanding of the human story? How have different ideas related to human evolution influenced modern society (e.g.. racism and eugenics)? Prerequisite(s): Chemistrynone

Courses Chemistry (The Department)

This is a broad, sweeping, fast-paced survey course introducing students to the fundamental principles of chemistry, and to the basic techniques a chemist uses. Topics include stoichiometry, atomic and molecular theory, basic atomic and molecular structure, and gas laws, and may also include thermodynamics, chemical equilibrium, and acid-base chemistry. Students develop facility working with calculators and become intimate with the Periodic Table.

Prerequisite(s): none

The Chemistry of Food and Cooking (Velikonja) Have you ever tried to make homemade whipped cream and wound up with butter, or wondered why egg whites turn white when heated? This course is about the chemicals in foods and the processes that take place in the kitchen. We experiment with many chemical processes such as crystallization (a.k.a. candy making) and emulsification (mayonnaise). We explore food spoilage and learn how humans have exploited it to produce yogurt, cheese, bread and beer. We also investigate some of the unusual chemicals in food, from beneficial elements (selenium in Brazil nuts) to harmful compounds (cyanogens in apple seeds), and learn about trends in food such as gluten-free and vegan cooking. This course includes many topics not covered in Chemistry while exploring the applications of some Chemistry concepts. The class consists of lectures and labs (many of which will produce edible results!).

Prerequisite(s): none Organic Chemistry (K. Fiori) Organic molecules are everywhere. They make up our bodies, our clothing, the medicine we take, and the food we eat. This course is an introduction to the astounding complexity of these molecules and the diverse chemistry they participate in. We will focus primarily on the basic principles necessary to understand the structure and reactivity of these ubiquitous organic molecules. Students will learn to think like organic chemists. We will explore how differences in electronegativity, the presence of lone electron pairs, and resonance structures influence reactivity. We will analyze the symmetry of molecules and learn how to see molecules in three dimensions. Students will use chemical techniques and spectroscopy to

Advanced Chemistry (Velikonja) Advanced Chemistry is designed to give students the experience of an intensive collegelevel course in which they will hone their ability to think critically about chemical phenomena. We will discover why some chemical reactions happen while others don’t, how quickly reactions happen and how far they will proceed (thermodynamics, kinetics, and equilibrium). We will also revisit, and explore in greater depth, some of the topics from first year Chemistry including stoichiometry, gas laws, and bonding. Additionally, we will discuss applications of chemistry such as electrochemistry, buffer systems and solubility. The rapid pace of the course requires independent learning and preparation on the part of the students and weekly labs add to the time commitment. Advanced Chemistry is for those who seek a deeper understanding of matter, relish wrestling with equations, and who find chemical reactions exocharmic.

Prerequisite(s): Chemistry

Laboratory work is an integral part of the course, both in illustrating principles presented in lectures and in providing experience conducting qualitative analysis. Note: This course is open to sophomores and above. Freshmen may take it with the permission of their Grade Dean and a science department Chair.

Prerequisite(s): Chemistry

Physics Courses Physics (The Department) This course provides a systematic introduction to the main principles of classical physics such as motion, forces, fields, electricity, and magnetism. We emphasize the development of conceptual understanding and problem solving abilities using algebra and trigonometry. Familiarity with trigonometry is highly helpful, but not required. The class includes a laboratory component. Note: open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors, or freshmen with permission of Grade Dean and instructor. Astronomy (The Department) This course will provide a rigorous tour of the objects and events that comprise the Universe. We will study the formation of stars and planetary systems, the interaction between galaxies and supermassive black holes, and the cataclysmic physics of the first few moments following the Big Bang. We will dabble in xenoscience, the study of extraterrestrials; we’ll discuss necessary and sufficient conditions for life, and means of detecting—and eventually exploring— exosolar habitats. We will peruse theories of the size, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe, and discuss multiverse theories that spring from quantum mechanics, inflation theory, and even more exotic philosophical riffs. “Hard” sci-fi (science fiction that relies on plausible science) will be utilized to vivify concepts and catalyze debates. Students will emerge with knowledge of the mind-boggling diversity of the contents of the Universe, as well as familiarity with the underlying laws of physics, and a sense of how science progresses in the face of seemingly intractable problems. For example, we may study the red supergiant, Betelgeuse, tracing its evolution—and eventual explosion and collapse—while noting the methodological breakthroughs that allow us to tell such a bizarre (and true!) story.

Prerequisite(s): none Physics: Mechanics and Relativity (Kandel) Mechanics and Relativity is a physics course that emphasizes deep problem solving, along with the philosophical and historical dimensions of the subject. Because we focus our efforts on mechanics (though we briefly discuss thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and optics), we can go into far greater depth. Students strive for a sturdy grasp of physical theories,

70 determine the structure of unknown organic molecules. Additionally, we will learn to use our chemical knowledge to design routes to make complex molecules from simple starting materials. Throughout this course, we will draw on examples from daily life to illustrate the important chemical concepts we are studying. Weekly labs will introduce common laboratory separation and purification techniques and allow students to have first-hand experience performing the reactions they study in class.

Prerequisite(s): none Analytical Physics (Pelzer) This second-year physics course builds on the material from a first-year Physics course with an emphasis on deeper, more complex problems, and covers new topics such as fluid dynamics, optics, electricity and magnetism, and particle physics. The course focuses on problem solving and mathematical methods. This class will serve as a prerequisite for Electricity and Magnetism. Prerequisite(s): Physics Electricity and Magnetism (The Department) This course is an in-depth, calculus-based, proof-driven study of oscillations, waves, electric fields, magnetic fields, and radiation. Purpose: Derive the speed of information.

Prerequisite(s): Analytical Physics. Note: Calculus is recommended as a prerequisite and second-year Calculus is recommended as a corequisite.

utilizing diverse modes of thinking: qualitative reasoning, pure intuition, rigorous analysis. We consider the big questions: Where is the Earth in relation to the cosmos, how is it moving, and do its local laws generalize to the Universe? There are wonderful stories behind all of these, in which theories rise and fall, and human beings struggle to overthrow the mental constraints of their forebears. We study the astronomers of the Ancient Greeks, the Copernican Revolution, and the beautiful contributions of Galileo, Newton, and Einstein. In all of these realms, we not only tackle daunting problems, but we bring attention to the problem-solving process itself, to gain insight into our own learning processes; and we consider the wider philosophical implications. For example, does the unprecedented accuracy of Newtonian predictions threaten our belief in free will? Does the very concept of Laplace’s demon imply that the future is predetermined? We employ mathematical methods to describe trajectories, orbits, and the strange physics within a spinning spaceship. By the end of the year, we are forced to question many of our deepest assumptions as we tackle the paradoxes of Special Relativity and the implications of the Big Bang model!

Independent Science Research (The Department) (1x per week)

Additional Courses Art, Science, and Nature (Arnold/Zayas) (See Interdisciplinary Studies)

The Independent Science Research Program grants students the opportunity to design experimental strategies to explore personally perplexing questions of science: What would happen if...? Why is it that...? How does...? Research objectives are as unique and varied as the investigator. Topics are multidisciplinary, ranging from biology and chemistry to the physical Independentfields.Science Research is a cooperative endeavor between a student or several students and their chosen mentor. Saint Ann’s science teachers, as well as auxiliary research investigators, serve as advisers. Students will be matched with potential mentors based on mutual research interests and expertise. Research work proceeds at a pace stipulated by the project as well as the ambition of the research team. Research groups are expected to meet regularly, i.e. every week. After completing a year of exploration, students summarize their projects in a formal research paper. In the spring, discoveries are made public though a poster session and oral symposium. Note: This course bears one half credit. Prerequisite(s): Students MUST submit a research proposal to the Science Department by June 1 to be considered for approval by the department. Proposal guidelines are available in the Science Office and High School Office.

Environmental Science (Javens)

While environmental analysis has only recently gained traction, a truer history shows us that attunement to the land has been among the most important cultural and political forces through time. This ecological sensibility has been lost in modern articulations of the relationship between land and people that emphasize hierarchy and domination. Through interactions between industry, governance, and ideas of progress, violent systems of relation have become visible to varying degrees across landscapes and the people that live on them. To reclaim our future, we must start with the past. We will explore four main intersecting topics: environmental science (climate change, earthquakes, tsunamis); Environmental Justice (history, resistance, liberation); environmental politics (capitalism, dark money, popular environmentalisms); environmental arts (imagination, solidarity, process). Scientists, artists, philosophers, historians, musicians, authors… Come all! Prerequisite(s): None

Acting is a craft, and just like any artistic discipline, changing the medium often requires one to adjust their approach. We will explore various acting techniques on-camera and explore how our performances change and shift depending on the various elements unique to this medium. We will also dive into script analysis and learn how to break down scenes from films and television shows that are currently on air. Depending on students’ interest, we may also touch on other aspects of film production including lighting, sound, script development and editing.

73 SEMINAR

The Art Journal is a yearly publication celebrating the vigor and creativity of our school’s artistic community. A team of editors and associate editors will meet weekly to collaborate on production of the journal—which will publish work created that year by high school students, faculty, and staff, in any genre or medium. Anyone with a passion for visual art, photography, or book design and layout is welcome. Note: Because the work is heaviest in March and April, students should expect to give several extra hours a week during this period.

The seminar will be taught by Visiting Scholar Craig Townsend, former Saint Ann’s English teacher, Episcopal priest, and holder of a Ph.D. in the study of religion.

The Bible, in both its Jewish and Christian versions, is composed of some of the most famous stories of shenanigans in human culture (Adam and Eve and the original forbidden fruit, Joseph and his fancy coat, Moses and the exodus, David and his deeply messedup family, Jesus and those Pharisees), along with a vast array of obscurities (apocalypses, letters, histories, legends, etc.). Our object will be to get a sense of how to grasp the literary importance of the Bible while both enjoying its wilder side and taking a serious look at the various ways its wide range of adherents have understood it. To that end, we will read significant passages in all of the categories above, while also exploring how the Bible has been subjected to shenanigans in various historical periods and settings including our own (e.g., Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited”).

Bible Shenanigans (Townsend)

Art Journal (Adili) (Spring Semester)

Acting for the Camera (Goodhart, Leibowitz-Nowak)

BIRDS!

(Velikonja) In this seminar we will learn all about birds, from behaviors to morphology and from peregrines to house sparrows. We will spend as much time as reasonable outside watching birds(especially in the early fall and late spring)—there’s a lot to see in Brooklyn Bridge Park! When it’s too dark and cold to go out we will learn about bird bodies and habits, about migrations and invasive species. The class will include talks by bird experts as well as possible field trips beyond Brooklyn Heights. Join me to learn to look and listen anytime, anywhere—your journey on planet earth will never be the same.

4) For personal perspectives, we will hear from people who have been incarcerated and learn about their circumstances and experiences serving time in places like Riker’s Island. The question of what to do about crime is a practical problem with momentous consequences. This seminar hopes to give students a wide array of perspectives that can help them critically examine the costs and benefits of our approach to crime and punishment.

This seminar will examine criminal punishment: whether, how, and why we—as a society— punish someone who has broken the law. We will explore these questions through several different lenses:

Comedy 401/402 (Kandel) Learn valuable skills for today’s workplace! That’s right, at no extra charge! Move beyond the ordinary! Embrace the unknown! Be unbearably annoying in a safe environment! Move beyond the place beyond the ordinary—and then beyond even THAT! Learn to manipulate people without threats, using merely your own facial expressions! Talk the talk AND walk the walk! Master neuro-social signalling and impress your parents’ friends!

2) In terms of the law, we will learn about the criminal legal system—its procedures, frameworks, and challenges. Students will have the opportunity to visit criminal court and speak with public defenders, prosecutors, and judges about the work they do.

Crime and Punishment (Nguyen)

3) With regard to government, we will look at the role legislators play and the merits of the criminal justice reform bills currently up for consideration in New York State.

1) From a philosophical perspective, we will explore what constitutes a morally appropriate punishment and the circumstances under which the state can justifiably deprive someone of their life or liberty.

High School Mentoring

“Grammatical sentence structure sets a false linear construction on the experience of life. Humanity is far more sophisticated than grammar. We can act, react, think, and experience all at once and I’m keen to find ways of making language replicate that,” —Eimear McBride

Experimental Literature (Liu)

In this seminar we will analyze and discuss works of fiction that break from conventional form and syntax as a response to the epistemological issues concerning the inability of language to capture experience itself. We will read books and passages from authors such as James Joyce, Eimear McBride, Toni Morrison, Lucy Ellmann, Samuel Beckett and more. We will discuss the rise of literary modernism as well as its legacy in contemporary fiction. To guide our discussions we will look at critics such as Roland Barthes and his conception of the “writerly text,” Joseph Frank and his theory of “Spatial Form,” Eric Auerbach and his analyses of modern fiction, and Gertrude Stein with her idea of a “Continuous Present.” We will try and understand how these authors attempted to break past the natural limitations of the novel form and create works of art that reflect the chaos of life. As a final project, students will create an individual prose piece with the purposeful intent of failing fabulously at depicting their own unique way of experiencing life.

The High School Literary Magazine is created by a board of students and faculty advisers whose goal is to find and publish excellent high school writing. The Board (about eighteen students selected by the English Department and the Head of the High School) meets once a week during a seminar period to discuss and select poetry and prose. In addition, board members prepare all selections for layout and, in April, help compose the magazine. Because the work is heaviest in February, March, and April, students should expect to give several extra hours a week during this period.

(Friedrichs/Garber-Browne)

High school mentoring is a program for juniors and seniors interested in working with middle school students. Interested students complete a letter of interest and attend a series of trainings and check-ins throughout the year in order to participate. The mentors then meet regularly in small groups, along with a health teacher, to plan monthly sessions for 8th graders. These sessions occur in the 8th graders’ regular health classes and offer an opportunity for the younger students to hear from a fellow teen who is not so far removed from their own experiences. During the sessions, mentors cover everything from their memories of middle school to navigating social situations and friendships, and dealing with social media. They provide an ear for the middle schoolers who may have questions and concerns they don’t want to share

High School Literary Magazine (The English Department)

The Mock Trial Seminar is designed to teach students about the legal trial process and the skills needed to be effective courtroom advocates. The seminar operates on a “learn by doing” principle, in which students actively practice techniques of effective argument and advocacy. The skills of thinking on one’s feet, preparing arguments and analyzing fact patterns are emphasized. The first semester is devoted to learning and perfecting courtroom rules of evidence and procedure in order to prepare the students for the New York State Bar Association Mock Trial Competition against other NYC schools in the spring. Students work on practice cases to gain facility with preparing direct and cross examinations, making objections, introducing evidence, and learning trial procedure. Attendance and engagement are critical to forming a cohesive team for going to trial. Although the seminar is listed as first semester only, extra meeting times during February and early March will be required as the competition approaches.

Model UN (Anderson)

Students will also get the opportunity to take on a large role organizing the Saint Ann’s Model UN conference. Our time will be dedicated to planning committees and crises,

This seminar will encourage students to engage with many of the UN’s inherent contradictions (how do you enforce international law while respecting state sovereignty) without losing the idealism that made it such an appealing post-war prospect. We will spend much of our time in class representing large and small state actors in lively, parliamentary debate on topical global issues. Some research will be expected of the students in the class in order to best imitate the real challenges facing UN delegates.

Interested students should contact Meli Garber-Browne prior to registering.

The United Nations was established in the aftermath of World War II, when the world lay at the nadir of destruction, to prevent future tragedies. It’s singular goal (essentially, to save humanity from itself ) is so broad as to make the organization laughable in the eyes of many of the world’s more jaded cynics. And yet, in the last 75 years, the organization has been able to boast of a few notable successes. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been a guidepost that has increased worldwide quality of life through application of soft power and economic pressure. The Security Council defused the Cold War. UN Peacekeepers, while known for several tremendous failures, have also ushered in the state of South Sudan and keep a close watch on the simmering conflicts between India and Pakistan; Israel, Syria, and Lebanon; and within Libya. The UN has a track record of doing the most good that it is politically capable of and even its most shocking moments of impotence are only that: the UN has never committed an atrocity.

Mock Trial (Hill/Oppenheim) (Fall semester)

76 with a teacher, and they make an effort to engage with the younger students around school. After each session the mentors debrief with a health teacher about the class.

77 writing background guides, and organizing non-debate, periphery events (including dances, lunches, fundraisers, and opening and closing ceremonies). By the end of the year you will be able to say that during your time in high school you helped to organize a full-fledged conference for hundreds of middle school attendees!

My Twentieth Century: Classic Films Directed by Women (Greenwood)

Taking its title from the masterful 1989 Hungarian film by Ildiko Enyedi, this class will explore the amazing and frequently neglected films made by female directors between the 1930s-1980s. This will be a screening course: we will truly just watch and discuss movies. There will be an emphasis on films produced all over the world and those made by women of color. We will watch many rare and hard to access works, including movies by Sarah Maldoror, Agnes Varda, Margot Benaceraf, Larisa Shepitko, Safi Faye, Kinuyo Tanaka, Ana Mariscal, Ida Lupino, Việt Linh, and Elaine May. There will also be a trip to see special 35mm prints at MoMA’s film study center. What we see will be dynamic, incisive, and watchable: everything that makes a film a “classic.” Note: some films may include depictions of emotionally or visually troubling content. Such content will always be discussed prior to screenings.

From its beginnings in Ancient Greece, Western philosophy has attempted to ask and answer the big questions that underlie our lives and our relationship to the world—questions that from the philosophical point of view are always with us, even if we are not always conscious of them. For instance: What is knowledge and how do we obtain it? What is the nature of reality? What is truth? Do we live in a deterministic world or is there free will? Does God exist? Is there, in fact, something that we can call mind or soul as distinguishable from brain or body? What is art? This course considers how, in each of the above cases (as well as others), a variety of philosophers—some ancient, some modern, some still alive—have dealt with these inherently thorny issues. There are no prerequisites other than a desire to think hard.

Poetry Writing Workshop (Skoble) Poetry is a craft as well as an art. Poems don’t happen, they are made. In this workshop we learn how to use the tools of poets. We take poems apart to see how they work, and we put things together to see if they work. Construction and experimentation, exploration and imitation are the processes we use to help us create poems. The poetry workshop is open to all, including dancers, thespians, musicians, athletes and astrophysicists. We meet one double period each week to share our efforts, to read and discuss, and, of course, to write. Come and join in to trail the steps of these “giants” as they follow their individual quest for freedom and personal expression.

Philosophical Problems (Aronson)

This seminar will focus on mixed media exploration of the human form, both figurative and as an abstraction. Different media may include printmaking, sculpture, drawing, painting, ceramics, photography, and metal–maybe even performance! Class work will be partially directed by the interests of the group. During the second semester, each student will continue exploring one concept to produce a fully realized piece.

The quiet hunt. Surrounding you in the forest are fungi in their many forms. The deliciously potent porcini. The ling chih, a mushroom that makes a tea so soothing it is a common leitmotif in Chinese art. The ancient hallucinogen soma, known now to be quite toxic, but appearing with its speckled red cap in thousands of years of painting and literature. The deadly amanitas, which are responsible for more deaths than any other mushroom family. These, along with about 100,000 other species of mushroom-forming fungi, lay before you, presenting a world of exploration so vast that you could devote your life to it and still be a humble beginner. This is partly a biology course, but mostly an ode to a fungal form. It is about foraging— the seeking of a hidden treasure that surrounds you—as much as it is about mushrooms themselves. And foraging we will do! To take full advantage of the fall season, we will start

Student Internship in Technology @ Saint Ann’s (The Department)

An introduction and overview of the practice, science and rich literary history surrounding fly fishing. Readings will range from Sir Isaac Walton to Hemingway, with an emphasis on 20th Century artists and practitioners. The biology of aquatic life, in particular, the lifecycle of the mayfly complements the technical instruction of casting and presentation. The seminar will include travel upstate for a tour of the Catskill Museum of Flyfishing and to fish upon the legendary waters of the Beaverkill Stream and Delaware River.

The Art and Practice of Fly Fishing (Rumage) (Spring Semester)

The Lore of Mushrooms (K.Fiori/N. Fiori) (Fall Semester)

This elective will allow students to explore the realm of Information Technology in an educational environment. While the primary focus is on technical support, students will also learn how to manipulate and work with large datasets in database and spreadsheet applications, become familiar with network and wireless protocols and architecture, and work towards eventually being able to perform certain technical support tasks, under the supervision of the Technology Department staff. Students will gain a practical skill set acquired in a hands-on learning process, and will aid their peers and instructors in the use of technology at Saint Ann’s. This will require one to two periods per week, scheduled in periods where the student and their mentor are mutually available.

Somatic Abstraction (Klein/Medina)

For more than twenty-five years, student journalists at The Ram have sought answers to interesting questions. What are those weird frescoes on the wall in the library? What was the best movie of last year? Which teacher briefly dated Senator Mitt Romney, back in high school in the sixties? What makes the volleyball team so good? What has the English department done to make its curriculum more inclusive? What’s the deal with that ram sculpture by the red stairs? Join us next year, as we return to printing a hard paper copy of each issue. Mandatory staff meetings, for all editors and staff writers, will take place once a week during a seminar period. Staff size will be capped at 15. Expect to make a serious time commitment, as all staff writers will write for every issue, about once a month.

79 the semester with several field trips to nearby parks where we will look for, examine, and identify mushrooms. When the cold weather keeps us indoors, we will study the science of mushrooms, investigate the role of fungus in culture and literature, and learn how mushrooms can be used for environmental rehabilitation and for creating renewable building materials. We will cultivate reishi, oyster and shitake mushrooms from spore cultures in media that range from coffee grounds to fallen tree limbs to recycled books.

Yearbook: Send the Story of Your High School Life to Your Future Self (Venable) Calling all photographers, illustrators, designers and bookmakers! Come be a part of a wonderfully collaborative process that weaves together the images and memories of a year in the life at Saint Ann’s. Bring your artistry and dedication and help make a book that will be cherished by the whole community. Open to Juniors and Seniors. Prerequisite(s): two years of photography or portfolio review.

The Ram Seminar: Creating Your Student Newspaper (Donohue/Patterson)

THEATER

All classes meet one double period per week unless otherwise noted.

Acting (The Department)

Actors learn how to break down scripts and understand beats and actions. Ibsen, Shaw, Stoppard, Wilson, Brecht, Mamet, Nottage, Genet, Churchill, Williams, Shepard, Howe, Lorca, Kushner, Hall, Wilder, Jacobs-Jenkins, Fornes, Ionesco, Ruhl, Wilde, Shakespeare, Washburn, and many more fascinating friends await you. Experience the joy of playing great roles! With ingenuity, artistry, authenticity, and the use of technology, we will imagine, invent and innovate in order to share our work with our community. Come and participate in the extraordinary!

Acting Intensive (Lamazor) (4x per week)

This class is open to committed and advanced students of acting. We will create an ensemble that works on collaborative playwriting/performance and musical/movement and film projects or full-length plays in addition to scenes, monologues, and poetry. Students may direct their fellow actors in scenes or creative projects on occasion. Imagination, empathy, humor and love will be our guiding forces. In this time period, in which technology is so heavily relied upon as the means of communication and self-expression, we will focus on specific, crucial acting techniques and vocal skills for film and stage—and creating innovative, authentic work for a new theatrical and digital horizon. Playwrights and poets that we explore may include: Tina Howe, Derek Walcott, Suzan Lori-Parks, Eugene Ionesco, Tennessee Williams, August Wilson, Caryl Churchill, Rita Dove, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Walt Whitman, Lynn Nottage, Pablo Neruda, E.E.Cummings, William Shakespeare, Ross Gay, Ann Washburn, Nikki Giovanni, Federico Garcia Lorca, Emily Dickinson, Anna Deavere Smith, and Annie Baker. This class functions as a true and joyful company of actors. Bring your focus, verve, dreams, and goodness to your art.

Time is devoted to a wide array of imagination exercises, poetry, sense memory, and to improvisation, games and storytelling. We will explore and read plays aloud together in class and ensemble work is encouraged and developed. Scenes and monologues focus on discovering the individual actor’s personal relationship to the role and to the text.

This acting class emphasizes character study, acting technique, and relaxation exercises.

African Dance (Mackall)

81 Actor’s Voice (Osborn) (1x per week)

African Dance is an exciting survey of the techniques and traditions of dances from the African Diaspora with a special emphasis on the dances of West Africa. Classes are accompanied by live drumming. Note: Participation in the High School Dance Concert is an essential element of this class and requires attendance at weekend and after school rehearsals.

Character, Song, and Story (Lamazor/The Music Department)

We will find authentic and fun ways to share what we create with our community using technology and our collective ingenuity! Open to all grades and no prior musical experience is necessary. We “have magic to do” in “seasons of love”—and our “corner of the sky” will be a fun, meaningful place—“Children will listen”...

The wonderful world of dialects, speech, and vocal production awaits you. Funny voices, accents, and more are explored in this class in which the vocal side of acting is stressed. Poetry and contemporary and classical texts are used, and we work on several class projects including improvisation and scene and monologue work. Past years’ material included The Importance of Being Earnest, Riders to the Sea, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Harry Potter, and The Enchanted. We incorporate relaxation techniques, voice building, and breathing to help actors deal with the demands of auditions and performance. This dynamic and practical class is tailored to the specific needs of its students.

Enjoy: VANILLA ICE CREAM, HOT PIES, A GLIMPSE OF STOCKING, A RING OF KEYS, THRILLING COMBINATIONS, COFFEE BREAKS, MIRACLE OF MIRACLES AND SYMPATHY AND TRUST ABOUNDING. “Who tells your story?” So, “come hear the music play,” “join us” in exploring/acting in great musicals and in creating authentic new musical theater works. Connecting-the-dots or totally dotty, your life and passions, your comedy and drama can be transformed into a collaborative musical. The class will explore an array of musical theater characters, scenes and songs. And time will also be dedicated to song creation exercises, improvisations, games, character building and storytelling. You and your fellow ensemble members will sort/sift, share, and perform material that will become your own devised, “singular, sensation[al]” musical theater opus! We will make use of the world around us from the lyrical to the political to the everyday: objects, visual art, poems, dreams, daily life, plays, stories, primary sources, periodicals, people, places, favorite books, world history, memories, and different forms and genres of music and dance/movement. Sondheim, Miranda, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Russell/Willis/ Bray, Porter, Wolfe, Tesori, Larson, Weill, and others will become “a part of your world.”

The class focuses on developing students’ individual choreographic voices through improvisation and the creation of short movement studies. Class begins with a warm-up that integrates different techniques from ballet to African dance to yoga. Students are exposed to different choreographic approaches through studying video and attending performances live or virtually. In addition, they have the opportunity to work with professional choreographers, learning pieces, and taking direction. Dances created both individually and collaboratively are performed in class throughout the year. Dances developed in association with the instructor are eligible for performance in the student dance concert, for which original costumes may be designed or assembled by students. Both new and experienced dancers are welcome. Note: Participation in the High School Dance Concert is an essential element of this class and requires attendance at weekend and after school rehearsals.

Costume Production (Bevans, Shand)

Come explore costume design and construction as you create personal projects and help build the costumes for our productions. All experience levels are welcome as assignments will offer a range of technical difficulties. In addition to focusing on construction techniques, such as hand and machine sewing, patternmaking, and draping, students will have the chance to explore fashion design and the intersection of art and costume and costume history. Through videos, articles, and podcasts, students will see and hear about the wideranging world of textile crafts—from the history of New York City’s costume shops and the Garment district, to the rich traditions of cloth, construction, and its many makers around the world. Participation on a costume crew for one of the mainstage productions will give each student an opportunity to dig deeper into their construction practice, while working together to help run all aspects of wardrobe, hair and makeup for the show. Welcome to the world of costume at Saint Ann’s! Note: All costume students are required to work on one costume crew for a production which will require time outside of class.

Dance/Choreography 1 (The Department)

Dance/Choreography

This class studies dance technique, improvisation, and composition to create original and expressive dance pieces, exploring movement and drama through solo, duet, and group forms. Modern dance technique leads to improvisational work and short studies to explore movement textures and qualities. We work with directing multiple bodies in space, using partnering techniques and weight exchange to convey emotional meaning, and studying formal compositional elements such as symmetry, tension, dynamic use of space, costume, and environments.

4 (Jackson) We continue our study of dance technique, improvisation, and composition. Emphasis is placed on the development of the individual artistic voice through complex, expressive dances incorporating solo and group aspects, examination of multimedia techniques, and the use of juxtaposition and collage to expand dramatic possibilities. Each student undertakes a research project supporting the creation of his/her/their own dances. The Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts provides a resource for our study of diverse music and the integration of costuming, language, and props or sets into our dances. Students have the opportunity to learn pieces and take direction from professional choreographers. Dances developed in association with the instructor are eligible for performance in the student dance concert, for which original costumes may be designed or assembled by students. There is a potential for field trips to notable performances. Prerequisite(s): Dance 1, Dance/ Choreography 2/3, and permission of the instructor. Note: Participation in the High School Dance Concert is an essential element of this class and requires attendance at weekend and after school rehearsals.

Building materials may include up-cycled objects, paper mache, clay, fabric, hardware, and any number of decorative additions. We develop hands-on crafting skills through safe

High School Puppetry (The Department) (1x per week) Puppetry class is the celebration and practice of the philosophy that “anything can be a puppet, and puppetry can be anything.” We explore a wide variety of puppet forms including object puppets, tabletop puppets, marionettes, rod puppets, and large-scale parade puppets, among others. The course cultivates individual building skills and techniques as well as embracing the joy of working collaboratively on large-scale projects and puppet productions.

Diverse dance styles, uses of rhythm, and music from many traditions are investigated, and students have the opportunity to learn pieces and take direction from professional choreographers. Dances developed in association with the instructor are eligible for performance in the student dance concert, for which original costumes may be designed or assembled by students. There is a potential for field trips to notable performances. Prerequisite(s): Dance 1 or permission of the instructor. Note: Participation in the High School Dance Concert is an essential element of this class and requires attendance at weekend and after school rehearsals.

2/3 (The Department)

Dance/Choreography

Moving Image 3 (The Department)

Students will study all aspects of filmmaking and videography including camera direction, directing the actor, lighting, screenwriting, editing, and sound design. In the second semester each student will write, cast, shoot and edit a color short film, on their own or in groups. In this burgeoning age of technological advancement, digital filmmaking has emerged as one of our era’s principal forms of expression, storytelling, and broadcast. The goal of this course is to give students the skills to tell their own stories. Note: This class is open to freshmen only.

Ninth Grade Videography (The Department)

This is a course in advanced 16mm film production and color cinematography. Students shoot 16mm color negative, transfer the images to high-definition digital, then edit with computer software, producing a short final project with a non-synchronous soundtrack, including an original score. Prerequisite(s): Moving Image 1 and 2 and permission of the instructor

84 practice with a variety of hand tools and hand-held power tools. The course culminates with participation in our highly anticipated annual Puppet Parade.

Moving Image 1 (The Department)

This class concentrates on the study of silent filmmaking, focusing on the dynamics of screen space and the language of visual storytelling. Working with 16mm film and equipment, the class emphasizes the basics of film emulsions, lenses, light readings, and editing. Students develop their ideas into well-structured screen narratives and write a treatment for a silent film. Working individually, students storyboard, produce, direct and edit their treatment into a 16mm black & white short film. This course requires constant participation and out-ofclass work. Note: This class is open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

Moving Image 2 (The Department)

This workshop is an advanced auteur filmmaking course that covers all aspects of directing, cinematography, screenwriting, editing and sound design. Students write, direct, and shoot one sync-sound color digital short that is entirely their own, unique vision that they will edit and screen at the end of the year. We delve deeply into directing the camera, narrative structure, camera technology, editing and directing actors for the screen. The class is introduced to inspiring clips and films from classic and contemporary cinema from around the world. Prerequisite(s): Moving Image 1 and permission of the instructor

Performance Art (Barnett)

In this class, students cultivate an improvisational technique that encourages personal storytelling, spontaneity, and abstract thinking. Students work on individual and collaborative projects. There is a focus on interactive site-specific theater (performances, ‘happenings,’ or installations set outside the traditional stage). Past work has taken place in parks, street corners, storefront windows, in the lobby of school, and the lobby of a hotel. Projects have taken the form of scavenger hunts, dance parties, and games. Given the role of technology in art (and life!) today, this class also offers an opportunity to experiment and explore formats other than live performance. Through trips, screenings—both virtual and inperson—as well as lively discussion, the class learns about the role of performance in history and contemporary culture. This is a course for students with or without previous experience in theater. It is a class for visual artists and dancers interested in working with text, and writers wanting to transform their ideas into physical life. The class also benefits those who feel nervous when speaking in public.

Play Production (Kaluza/Wyron)

Each member of a production staff, from the director to the stagehand, has specific duties and skills. Students in this class learn techniques for running a smooth and professional show, taking on the responsibilities for our theatrical projects and productions. Topics covered are construction, maintenance and set-up of props, reading and taping-out scale ground plans, writing cues, calling light and sound cues, and more. This is a course for advanced tech students committed to our theater and productions. Students with an interest in stage management, props mastering, as well as light, set, and sound design are encouraged to enroll and to deepen their experience of backstage work; the vital, unseen, component of the theater. Note: All students are required to work on at least one production which will require time outside of class. Prerequisite(s): One year of Technical Theater, or permission of the instructors

Playwriting (The Department)

This course explores the elements of playwriting that make it a three-dimensional living art form. Through weekly exercises and assignments, we approach the playscript as a blueprint. The course culminates in a festival of readings of the students’ plays. In addition, students explore the work of contemporary playwrights by analyzing and discussing their texts, ultimately compiling a list of “fellow travelers”—playwrights whose work each student feels drawn to in content and form.

Playwriting Intensive (The Department)

Get ready for Will the Bard in all his glory...from sonnet to soaring soliloquy. The workshop begins with learning and performing a sonnet, then proceeds to monologues, on to scenes, and finally—at year’s end—we bring it all together in a performance at school called “Will and Friends from Brooklyn.” Those friends may include revenge tragedians like Marlowe and Middleton and the later Restoration writers and even modern authors who write their own takes on Shakespeare’s plays like Stoppard and Rudd, but it is mostly Shakespeare. In this workshop, you will experience the joy of playing Shakespeare and gain a trust and ease of performing the playwright’s blank verse as if it were your native tongue. You will also use all your other talents from singing to magic to skills with musical instruments both modern and old fashioned. And in our scene studies, everyone plays a leading role.

Student-Directed Plays (Lamazor/ Victorson)

We will begin the year by exploring fascinating texts while wearing a director’s hat! Deep discussions, fun and focused on-the-spot directing and acting exercises, creative assignments and prompts using a wide variety of plays, scenes, poems and visual and audio material from film and recorded theater will bring insight and experience as directors, devisers and daring dreamers of dramatic art! You will collaborate with each other, pitch ideas to one another and, often, coach and direct each other. You will become comfortable and confident putting your storytelling ideas into play with empathy, artistry and energy. Readings may include seminal works such as Peter Brooks’ “The Empty Space,” Toby Cole’s “Directors on Directing,” Anne Bogart’s “A Director Prepares,” Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Elements of Style,” Constantin Stanislavski’s “An Actor Prepares,” Maria Irene Fornes’ “Conducting a Life,” Uta Hagen’s “Respect for Acting” and “Hitchcock on Hitchcock.” As we dream and dive deeper, you will pick a one act or short play that inspires you to conceptualize, cast, direct, rehearse, and produce to share with our community in a creative, innovative mode, using technology, ingenuity, and authenticity. At the year’s end, you will have a wide-ranging set of

Shakespeare Workshop (Reardon)

Playwriting intensive is an investigation into playwriting strategies, movements, and motivations. Plays will be approached from all angles. Students should have experience writing plays, and an eagerness to sharpen their commitment to the craft. In addition to exercises, there will be an emphasis on reading and discussion. From the study of contemporary plays, to theoretical texts, from tragedy to comedy, this intensive workshop encourages students to challenge their preconceptions, and grapple with wide-ranging theatrical concepts. The workshop culminates in a festival of new work that will offer students opportunities to collaborate and experiment with content, form, and presentation. The festival requires a major commitment of time and energy during the final three weeks of school. Prerequisite(s): At least one year of High School Playwriting and permission of the instructors.

Technical Theater is both a practical and a theoretical course that serves as an introduction to the behind-the-scenes work that goes into creating theatrical productions. With particular focus on scenery, lighting, audio, and props, students practice creating and experimenting with technical elements as a way to tell stories. This practice ranges from the design process (working out ideas and translating them into something that can be shared with others) to the implementation—with hands-on experience with power tools, lighting gear, sound equipment, and software for programming lighting and sound effects and cue sequences. Students work side-by-side with their teachers, developing basic stage construction skills, building flats and platforms, creating props, and painting. We welcome and encourage students who wish to further develop their technical skills to apply for a position running a production. Theater Games for Big Kids...or The Actor’s Playground (Victorson) (1x week)

Part clown, part creative dance, part improv, part theater games—all together in a room/open space/rooftop/gym or street. We will PLAY and play fiercely with hoops and balls and funny hats as we find characters, stories, dances, and songs that engage the energy between and around us. Bring your vulnerability, your willingness, your fear and your feistiness as we seek our fun and our funny as an ensemble. Field trips to local playgrounds, sandboxes, puddles, and climbing trees will be an essential part of this class. We may decide to share our clown-y world with an audience later in the year. No previous theater experience needed. Knee pads will be provided and water bottles encouraged!

87 notes and blueprints for many original, future directorial devised pieces, directing projects, and plays that matter to you. We will engage with directing as a process and practice in the past, in the present and in the future. Storytelling as a director of theater and film is not to be underestimated or undervalued, ever. We will reveal why the practice and art of the director is vital/essential, for (and as) humans and artists.

Technical Theater (Kaluza/Wyron)

Knitting (Kwon) Love to knit or want to learn how? Let’s explore this wonderful craft together! Knitting is an activity that takes simple things—sticks and yarn—and turns it into something magical. It is often endorsed as a meditative, therapeutic craft, and gathering to knit can also provide a deep sense of community. This seminar will cover the basics of knitting: stitch types and patterns, cast-on and cast-off techniques, flat vs. in-the-round knitting, etc. We will explore the rich history of this ancient craft, its various techniques and styles, and the fascinating intersections of knitting throughout history: Mathematics; psychotherapy; the Black experience (knitting as resistance/activism); sustainability/environmental impact; and much more!

“Millions are already attuning their lives to the rhythms of tomorrow. Others, terrified of the future, are engaged in a desperate, futile flight into the past and are trying to restore the dying world that gave them birth. The dawn of this new civilization is the single most explosive fact of our lifetimes.”

– Juan Atkins

Yes, a broad look at a big place. We will strive to take in a lot, which of course can only be a fraction: the great and ancient religious traditions, and how they figure in India’s modern identity and politics. India’s iconic struggle to overcome British colonialism, and South Asia intellectuals’ central role in establishing the literature and theory of colonial resistance and the post colonial state. We will take a deep dive into the profound visual and musical culture through India’s long history, with a big look at the 20th century glories of Satyajit Ray, Bollywood, and Bhangra. And throughout the year we will engage in the complex politics of current day South Asia, and the incredible economic, intellectual, and tech dynamism emerging from India every day. Our city’s amazing—and increasingly varied—Indian cuisine will certainly not be ignored. My past travels to South Asia - and my aspirations to get back—will inform the class. Maybe your travels, past or future, will as well. No assignments beyond showing up with energy and engagement. Come on board.

Black Technologic (Brown)

Oral Storytelling (G. Giraldo) (Spring Semester)

– Alvin Toffler

Human consciousness is a collection of events that form who we are. We are a story that we tell ourselves. Learn to share a part of the tale with others in your community and the world at large. This class will focus on practice in the art of shaping and telling stories aloud, culminating in public performance of our stories in their final form.

“You gotta look at it like, techno is technological. It’s an attitude to making music that sounds futuristic: something that hasn’t been done before.”

In today’s social memory, techno is considered an international phenomenon and globalized product of the leisure class, promoting the liberation of mind, body, and soul through continuous electronic music, ecstatic dance, and transcendent experience. Yet the initial ingredients of techno were assembled conversationally in Detroit in the early 1980s by Juan Atkins and Rik Davis, the imaginative bedroom-studio producers who formed the group Cybotron. These sounds were shared with and expanded upon by Derrick May, Eddie Fowlkes, James Pennington, Anthony “Shake” Shakir, Blake Baxter, Kevin Saunderson, Underground Resistance, Drexciya and more over the course of the decade. In the mid 1980s, the reel-to-reel and turntable-based underground “house” music coming out of

INDIA! (Flaherty)

Chicago from Farley “Jackmaster” Funk, Ron Hardy, Frankie Knuckles, and Jesse Saunders, and out of New York from Larry Levan, crossed over with Detroit techno’s technological sonic fictions once the pre-owned, often discontinued electronic equipment being used to concoct and transmit a shared alternate reality became more accessible to consumers.

Throughout this course, students will engage with a general history of techno and adjacent electronic music with a focus on Black experiences in industrialized labor systems, and explores the development of on-the-ground culture in relation to a unique American art form. A critical reconsideration of the nature and mechanics of electronic music will be explored from a Black theoretical perspective with references to Theodore Roszak’s Making of a Counter Culture, writings by African-American autoworker and political activist James Boggs, and the “techno rebels” of Alvin Toffler’s The Third Wave. Each class will involve readings, screenings, and listening sessions about the music industry and practice of music production, distribution, and criticism that will be followed with in-class discussions and written assignments that will trace parallels between movements in Black electronic music and afrofuturism.

89 SCIENCE COURSE PERIODS Period A AdvancedAdvancedAdvancedPhysicsChemistryBiologyBiologyChemistryPhysiology & Biomedical Ethics EnvironmentalAstronomy Science Period B AnalyticalPhysicsChemistryBiology Physics Evolution & Human Origins Mechanics & Relativity OrganicNeuroscienceChemistry Non A/B Art, Science, & Nature; Chemistry of Cooking; Electricity and Magnetism

HUMANITIES COURSE PERIODS Period C (English) Ghost Stories (Rutter) Literature of Disorientation (Darrow) Macabre Marriages (Avrich) The Personal Is Political (Kantor) The World Between The Wars (Aronson) Period C (History) Cold War & Southeast Asia (Kang) Media & Politics (Kapp) Greek History and Thought (Deimling) Postwar America (Schragger) “Still I Rise:” Black Activism in the 20th–21st Centuries (Johnson) Period D (English) Black Literature (Patterson) Fiction & Politics in Pre-Revolutionary Russia (Donohue) Great American Novels (Khoury) Literature of Outsiders (Fodaski) NYC in Literature (Smith) Period D (History) 20th C. American Art & Culture (Kohn) Ancient & Medieval Christianity & Buddhism (Higa) Modern Middle East (Pesaran) School and Society (Goldberg) The World Between The Wars (Mellon) Non C/D: Black AF (Mackall)

91 HUMANITIES RANKING WORKSHEET FOR RISING JUNIORS AND SENIORS Section 1: Period C Period D 1st Section3rd2ndChoiceChoiceChoice2:Humanities Ranking 1 4 2 5 3 6 Helpful Hints: Each line of section 1 must include an English and History class; one that meets in C period, and one that meets in D. NO REPEATS (i.e. you may not list the same class twice) Every class you choose must be a class that you are prepared to take, it is possible that you will receive any course you list. In section 2 rank all courses listed above in order of overall preference. Don’t worry about what period it meets or which department it is in.

92 NOTES

Saint Ann’s School 129 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201-2705 T 718-522-1660 | www.saintannsny.org