An introduction to the study of law, its structure, and legal institutions from a cross-cultural and historical perspective. This interdisciplinary course examines the origins of legal systems and their impact on society. Included is an analysis of the diverse historical, political, economic, and cultural conditions under which law arises and functions within society.

The course analyzes the visual media representation of the Mafia in North America. It focuses on the manner in which North American visual culture often glorifies the Italian Mafiosi's lifestyle. As this characterization of both the Mafia and the Mafiosi began with the archetypal figures of the bosses, special attention will be given to the visual practices of the 1930s, to Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" trilogy, as well as to the television series "The Sopranos." The goal is to deconstruct the romanticized portrayal of the Italian and Italian-American gangster lifestyle created on visual media and television by analyzing the atrocities committed by organized crime.

An intensive study of the fundamentals of grammar and conversation. The language laboratory will be used.

What is the relationship between thinking and action? Do they pull us in different directions? Can they be integrated? This course investigates how our own dialogue with core texts, from antiquity (e.g., Homer, Plato, Christian Scriptures) to the present (e.g., Joyce, Arendt), offers ways of understanding the dilemmas and issues raised by these texts and present in our culture.