POMONA OFFERS MORE than 600 classes in 47 majors, and each year new courses are born. Here’s a look at the origins of seven of the newest:
1) Behaviorial Economics (Professor of Economics John Clithero ’05) was added by popular student demand. It explores a growing subfield that attempts to incorporate more psychologically plausible assumptions into the traditional economic model of “unbounded rationality.”
2) Laughing Matters (Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Jose Cartagena-Calderón) grew out of the professor’s research into the meaning and value of humor in Hispanic literature and art.
3) Anthropology of Food (Professor of Anthropology Drew Gladney) explores food and culture with special attention to food taboos and security issues. The course was born out of a discussion of California’s ban on foie gras in an Introduction to Anthropology class.
4) Genes and Behavior (Professor of Neuroscience Elizabeth Glater) originated in a conference the professor attended that focused on the gap between what the public believes and what studies have shown about the dominant influence of genes on behavior. The class examines the science behind the fundamental question of “nature vs. nurture.”
5) The Science of Empire (Professor Pey-Yi Chu) explores the history of science in connection with the expansion of European empires. The class grew out of a book Chu is writing on the history of frozen earth and permafrost research in Russia and the Soviet Union.
6) Surveillance and the Media (Professor of Media Studies Mark Andrejevic) was created in the wake of recent revelations about the NSA and increasingly intrusive technologies of surveillance. Originating in the professor’s writings, it examines “how the media in which we are immersed double as tools for monitoring and surveillance.”
7) Disability Studies (Hentyle Yapp, Mellon Chau Post-Doctoral Fellow in Gender and Women’s Studies) was formed to examine the changing definitions and approaches to the concept of disability and related areas of activism as part of Pomona’s emphasis on Dynamics of Difference and Power.
