Explore the development of medications used to treat mental health disorders and how they interact with the brain to help restore balance in mood and thinking. Learn from a research scientist how new treatments are tested and refined through discoveries in neuroscience and genetics, and delve into the research behind the growing interest in “magic mushrooms” and other psychedelics for therapeutic use. No scientific background is required—just curiosity about how modern medicine supports mental well-being.

Paul remains one of the most complex, controversial, and influential figures in Christian history. His letters are our earliest written sources about Jesus and have profoundly shaped Christian belief and practice, yet they are also among the most challenging texts in the New Testament to interpret. In recent decades, historians have reexamined nearly every aspect of the traditional understanding of Paul, suggesting that his message was not simply misunderstood but turned upside down. We’ll place Paul in his historical, literary, and surprisingly complicated social and religious contexts and work toward reading his letters as they would have been understood by their original audiences.

Explore the folklore, history, and hidden currents behind belief in magic. Travel through narratives of early modern life in the Alps and uncover the practices of witchcraft and folk magic from four centuries ago. Learn about spells used for protection, healing, and influencing fate—and why such practices often led to trial and persecution. Discover what these spells reveal about Renaissance society and the cultural forces that continue to influence modern witchcraft and healing traditions today.

Analyze our current tortured cultural and political moment through the lenses of history, psychoanalytic theory, and literature. We’ll explore the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison, along with excerpts from the writings of 21st-century novelist Jesmyn Ward and the work of 21st-century psychoanalyst Dionne Powell. Their insights will help us better understand both the forces behind the current wave of book banning and censorship—and the dangers these impulses pose if they remain unexamined. The title inverts psychoanalyst Hans Loewald’s phrase “When Ghosts Become Ancestors,” asking you to consider not the growth that comes with recognition and acknowledgment, but the damage done when painful history is refused or denied. Beloved is the required text; additional readings will be excerpted in class.