COML0361 - First Year Seminar: Collecting and Collectors (SNF Paideia Program Course)

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
First Year Seminar: Collecting and Collectors (SNF Paideia Program Course)
Term
2025C
Subject area
COML
Section number only
401
Section ID
COML0361401
Course number integer
361
Meeting times
M 10:15 AM-1:14 PM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Emily R Steiner
Description
This first-year seminar examines theories and histories about the art, religion, psychology, ethics, economics, and politics of collecting. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.
Course number only
0361
Cross listings
ENGL0361401, RELS0361401
Fulfills
Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
Humanties & Social Science Sector
Use local description
No

COML0103 - Doctors' Notes

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
301
Title (text only)
Doctors' Notes
Term
2025C
Subject area
COML
Section number only
301
Section ID
COML0103301
Course number integer
103
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Carolyn Urena
Description
Internist. Surgeon. Essayist. Poet. When we go to the doctor, we hope to meet someone whose medical expertise will allow them to remain objective as they assess our symptoms, and, like a good detective, get to the bottom of things quickly and efficiently. What we may not expect is that the person wearing the white coat is also a staff writer for The New Yorker. In this course students will explore critical and creative writing by physicians deeply interested in reflecting on the medical encounter alongside intersectional and multi-ethnic narratives of illness and disability. Together, we will ask: what role does the “literary” play in medicine? How do representations of health and healing differ or change as we consider genres such as fiction writing, film, graphic novels, and autobiography from U.S., Caribbean, and Latin American perspectives? Reading these unconventional “doctors’ notes” alongside patients’ writing about their lived experiences of health and healing, we will reflect on how the turn to narrative reveals new facets of the doctor-patient relationship not contained by the traditional genres of medicine.
Course number only
0103
Fulfills
Cross Cultural Analysis
Humanties & Social Science Sector
Use local description
No

Sukaina Hirji

I work in Ancient Greek philosophy, and in contemporary moral and feminist philosophy. Some of my work is at the intersection of these two areas. You can find more about my work on my website: www.sukaina-hirji.com.

Research Interests

Ancient Philosophy, Normative Ethics, Feminist Philosophy

 

 

COML0482 - Nabokov: Art, Otherworldliness, and Morality

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Nabokov: Art, Otherworldliness, and Morality
Term
2025C
Subject area
COML
Section number only
401
Section ID
COML0482401
Course number integer
482
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Molly Peeney
Description
This course bridges the gap between the “Russian Nabokov” and the “American Nabokov.” All of the readings in this course are in English and no knowledge of Russian is required, but the majority of the readings are translations of Nabokov’s Russian-language works. Your study of Nabokov as a celebrated émigré novelist writing in Russian in the 1920s and 30s will contextualize his second career as an American author and enrich your further study of his English-language novels. Starting with the small yet significant task of learning to pronounce his name correctly (alas, The Police got it wrong in their 1980 hit “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”), your knowledge and reading of Nabokov will grow in increasing depth and complexity over the course of the semester. The climactic novel of the semester is Nabokov’s final Russian novel, The Gift, which is arguably his greatest novel ever (yes, even better than Lolita or Pale Fire). The final text for study, his American Pnin, written in tandem with Lolita, serves as our example of Nabokov’s prose after his transition to English. The central themes for this course are derived from the arc of inquiry in Nabokov scholarship, concerning Art (and artifice), Otherworldliness (termed, in Russian, “potustoronnost”), and Morality (an area of interest after years of claims that Nabokov’s works are amoral and/or immoral). These trends in scholarship occurred, more or less, successively, but we will consider all the themes simultaneously in each text. In addition to becoming a proficient reader of Nabokov’s challenging and fascinating fiction, you will develop and hone your critical reading skills, as well as gain competency in major areas of inquiry in literary studies, especially narrative strategies, inter-textuality, and metafiction.
Course number only
0482
Cross listings
REES0482401
Use local description
No

Eva Del Soldato, FIGS chair, has been awarded prestigious Rome Prize

 Eva Del Soldato,  Associate Professor of Italian Studies, Graduate Chair of FIGS and Interim Director for the Center for Italian Studies was among the 35 recipients of the Rome Prize 2025-2026 awarded by the American Academy in Rome. 

 The Rome Prize supports innovative fellows in the arts, humanities, and sciences. The scholars and artists explore and create while residing at the Academy’s 11-acre grounds in Rome for five to 10 months.