Among more than 120 courses offered at Knox this spring are eight that are new to the curriculum. Some are special topics that will be offered just once, while others are experiments, designed to explore new directions for faculty and departments. All reflect the varied and evolving interests of Knox faculty and students. And all have had to go through a rigorous review process, including approval by a joint faculty-student committee.

• "History of Sports in America," taught by Matthew Raffety, assistant professor of history. "It grows out of my speciality -- violent crime at sea before the Civil War -- which, believe it or not, is connected to the history of sport, because bare-knuckle fighting between sailors is one of the origins of prize-fighting. We're looking at the ways that sports have reinforced social hierarchies and gender roles. We'll actually play two sports by their early rules -- a predecessor of baseball known as town ball, and basketball as first intended by James Naismith -- to demonstrate how much these games have changed."
• History Program
• Matthew Raffety

• "Behavior Modification," a psychology course taught by Judy Thorn, assistant professor of biology. A developmental biologist, Thorn is also a professional dog trainer. "We'll be doing three projects in conditioned learning -- an animal project with one of the organisms available on campus, such as rats or frogs; a project with another person, with that person's permission, of course, such as getting a messy roommate to change; and one project with yourself as the subject."
• Psychology Program
• Judy Thorn

• "Women Writers of French Expression," taught by Carol Chase, professor of modern languages. "The course will cover French women authors from across the centuries -- 12th century to modern, and around the world -- from France, Guadeloupe, Algeria, Egypt and Canada. We're also studying women as readers, and an art historian will give guest lecture about images of women reading. In medieval depictions of the Annunciation, for example, the Virgin Mary is always shown reading a book."
• French Program
• Carol Chase

• "Life, Death and Meaning," a course in English and philosophy taught by Martin Roth, assistant professor of philosophy. "Our goal is two-fold -- to be sensitive to interpretations of literature, and to extract and evaluate the philosophical arguments that are embodied in the texts -- Goethe, Kurt Vonnegut, Kate Chopin, C.S. Lewis, Arthur Schopenhauer and others."
• Philosophy Program
• Literature Program
• Martin Roth

• "Sketches of Italy," taught by professor of classics Steve Fineberg. "We're reading from the ancient Greeks through the Etruscans, Romans, the Renaissance, the Romantics, the fascists and finally the modern era. It draws on my experiences in Italy, and I'm working with Beth Marzoni, a 2004 Knox grad who lived in Italy, and with Nick Regiacorte from the English department, who's teaching us some Italian. Italy is interesting because it's the source of a lot of our Western culture, but there are so many contradictions between Italy and the rest of Western culture."
• Classics Program
• Stephen Fineberg

• "Stage Comedy," taught by Neil Blackadder, associate professor of theatre. "It's not a course about how to be funny, though we're interested in why a play is funny. It's also an experiment. We're re-examining the theatre curriculum -- whether survey courses should be chronological or topical. Currently we use predominantly a chronological approach, where different historical periods are covered in separate courses. A topical approach allows us to examine the historical development of a given theme -- in this case, comedy -- in a single course."
• Theatre Program
• Neil Blackadder

• "Visual Culture Theory," taught by Greg Gilbert, associate professor of art history. "This is fundamentally an interdisciplinary course. Of course, it draws on art and art history, but we also look at basic philosophical and epistemological concepts. I want students to bring in their ideas and interests from other disciplines -- like philosophy, anthropology and literature."
• Art History Program
• Greg Gilbert

• "How to Be a Roman," taught by Nathan Bethell, instructor in classics and a Knox graduate, currently on leave from graduate study at the University of Michigan. "We're looking at both prescriptive works -- authors that specify what a 'good Roman' should do; and descriptive materials -- so we can ask whether the Romans lived consistent with their ideals. The course is taught in English, and the students have been incredibly engaged with the material. It really shows why you'd want to be a student at Knox, and why you'd want to be a teacher at Knox."
• Classics Program
• Nathan Bethell

• Other new spring term courses include "German Society and Film," taught by assistant professor Karl-Heinz Maurer; and "Advanced Electronic Publications - Magazines," taught by Rob and Lori Reed, lecturers in journalism.

Martin Roth

Greg Gilbert

Judy Thorn

Steve Fineberg

Neil Blackadder