Looking for an academic activity for the January break?
Interested in earning 4-credits in three weeks or 2-credits in two weeks?
If so, JanTerm is for you!
REGISTER NOW!
2013 JanTerm Dates
Three week, 4-credit classes: January 7 – 25
Two week, 2-credit classes: January 14 – 24
No classes on Monday, January 21 in observance of the Martin Luther King holiday
Cost
The 2013 tuition cost for CLA JanTerm classes is $622 per credit, making the total tuition cost for a two-credit course $1244, and the total tuition cost for a four-credit course $2488. Please note that Drew financial assistance is not available for JanTerm courses.
Orientation and Classroom Information
Learn more about paying your bill, getting a parking pass, finding your classroom, navigating Campus Web, and requesting a transcript.
Inclement Weather Policy
Course Descriptions
ART 270 Special Topics in Studio Art: Monotype Intensive (BA) – Canceled 12/17/12
2 Credits. Combine the freedom and immediacy of painting with the layering capabilities of printmaking to create a series of one-of-a-kind works on paper. Develop and improve your understanding of color, form, and line as you work with oil-based transparent inks and a variety of techniques to produce rich, dynamic imagery. For art majors, working intensively in a different medium can energize your practice–for other majors, a burst of creative productivity can infuse your studies with new ways of thinking.
Instructor: Ahni Kruger
Dates: January 14 – 24, 2013 (No classes on Monday, January 21)
Times: 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.; M – TH
Course Fee: $50
ENGL 201 001 Selected Topics in Literature: Detective Fiction and Film (BH)
2 Credits. In this course students will study the history and development of detective fiction in its early forms and the changing representations of the detective. Students will read and analyze works of detective fiction from a variety of historical periods with particular attention to American hard-boiled fiction, as well as viewing some of the genre’s most pivotal films. Texts will include the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Cristie, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, as well as others. The course will focus on the socio-cultural and historical contexts in which these narratives are produced and consumed. A significant issue the course will address is the scholarly value of popular forms of literature, like detective fiction, and what that study can reveal about contemporary cultural anxieties, gender and race relations, and political dynamics.
Instructor: Marc Evans
Dates: January 14 – 24, 2013 (No classes on Monday, January 21)
Times: 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.; M – TH
Location: Brothers College #18
ENGL 201 002 Blood America: Reading Cormac McCarthy (BH) – Canceled 12/17/12
2 Credits. Harold Bloom calls Cormac McCarthy the author of the “authentic American apocalyptic novel.” In a reading of five of McCarthy’s works, this course examines the novelist’s unsettling representation of agonistic American experience with violence, extreme individualism, human connectedness, the natural world and “cosmocentrism,” and the will redemptive or infernal. In a simple sense, the course follows the procession of McCarthy’s work from Ishmael’s dual vision: “Though in many of its aspects this visible world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright” (Moby-Dick, chapter 42). In doing so, the course situates McCarthy in the tradition of American mythic writers who expand the boundaries of our national fictions. This is a reading-, writing-, and participation-intensive seminar that includes viewing scenes from films based on three of the novels.
Instructor: Robert Ready
Dates: January 14 – 24, 2013 (No classes on Monday, January 21)
Times: 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.; M – TH
ENGL 213 Special Topics Creative Writing Workshop: Poetry
4 Credits. This course is a unique immersive and hands-on literary experience offered in conjunction with Drew University’s MFA in Poetry residency. Students will attend multiple evening readings by established poets participating in the MFA Reading Series, and then discuss the specific author’s work. In addition, students will generate their own original poetry, practicing in elements of the poet’s craft, focusing particularly on the language of emotion and the uses of metaphor. The course will encourage the development of one’s own imaginative perception and style. Graded Pass/Unsatisfactory. At the discretion of the department, may be taken twice for credit.
Instructor: Jason Schneiderman
Dates: January 7 – 25, 2013 (No classes on Monday, January 21)
Times: 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.; M – F
Location: Brothers College #102
PE 205 Components of Fitness – Canceled 12/17/12
2 Credits. This course will broadly cover issues in physical education and its application to wellness, exercise, nutrition, and athletic competition. Specific offerings may include the study of the components of fitness which includes cardio respiratory endurance, muscular strength and endurance, balance and flexibility. Additional topics may include event specific training, and the exploration of current trends in exercise.
Instructor: Christopher Ryan
Dates: January 14 – 24, 2013 (No classes on Monday, January 21)
Times: 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.; M – TH
PHIL 345 The Meaning of Life (BH)
4 Credits. Of the many perennial questions in philosophy the question of the meaning of life is often regarded as the most urgent not only for philosophers but for all human beings. Our beliefs about what benefit and fulfill us often stem from the assumptions we have implicitly made about what is truly meaningful in life. In philosophy the goal is not merely to enumerate people’s opinions and beliefs, but, through a careful and rigorous analysis, to determine whether any of the assumptions can be shown to count as instances of knowledge as opposed to of mere belief. To this end, we shall bring to bear in our analysis such topics as science, morality, religion, language, personal experience, and art. The course focuses on the views that fall under three broad categories: the religious, the secular, and the skeptical. Readings include writings by Aristotle, Epicurus, Schopenhauer, Tolstoy, Bertrand Russell, Albert Camus, A. J. Ayer, and Richard Taylor. Epicurus on Happiness, The Seventh Seal, Waking Life, My Dinner with Andre and other films relevant to the topic will supplement class discussion.
Instructor: Seung-Kee Lee
Dates: January 7 – 25, 2013 (No classes on Monday, January 21)
Times: 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.; M – F
Location: Brothers College #102
PHYS 201 Robotics Engineering (BI, Q) – Canceled 12/17/12
4 Credits. This course is designed for students interested in engineering. It is a hands-on, project-based course, where teams of 3-5 students will build and test robots to perform a pre-defined task (e.g., navigating through obstacles, picking-up and carrying specified objects to a destination, etc.). The robots will compete against each other at the end of the course. The lectures will cover the basics of how certain sensors and motors work, and basic programming techniques for processing the sensor inputs and for generating motor outputs. Graded Pass/Unsatisfactory. Repeatable as topic varies. Limited spaces available. Instructor permission required.
Instructor: Minjoon Kouh
Dates: January 7 – 25, 2013 (No classes on Monday, January 21)
Times: 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.; M – F
Prerequisites: PHYS 150 (or PHYS111) and CSCI 115
SPAN 250 Special Topics: A History of Food from 1492 to Present (BH, DIT) – Canceled 12/17/12
2 Credits. This course explores the cultural, economic, and geopolitical roles of food and drink in world history from 1492 to the present. Topics include: how the introduction of new foods (including sugar, coffee, chocolate, and corn) transformed empires and global trading networks; food as a site of cultural exchange and interaction; food practices as expressions and markers of identities based on race, class, gender, nationality, religion and community, sexuality and body image; and how industrialization and other political upheavals transformed food production and consumption. Required Readings: Sidney Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History; Jeffrey Pilcher, Que Viven Los Tamales!: Food and the Making of Mexican Identity; Some other readings will be available in Moodle. Taught in English. Course may be repeated for credit as topic changes
Instructor: Nancy Noguera
Dates: January 14 – January 24 (No classes on Monday, January 21)
Times: 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.; M – TH
THEA 365 Selected Topics in Dramatic Literature: “Weird” Theatre in New York City (BA) – Canceled 12/17/12
2 Credits. In this course, we will analyze the processes and performances of contemporary experimental theatre groups in New York City. Taking as our examples NYC-based companies such as Elevator Repair Service, Radiohole, Half Straddle, Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, the TEAM, Anonymous Ensemble, and the Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf, we will investigate the aesthetics and the politics of their work, asking how “weird” theatre makes meaning differently than more traditional theatrical forms. Among the questions we will consider are: What are the politics that undergird its “weirdness”? To whom is this theatre accessible? Who are its audiences? How do we critique “weird” theatre? To help address these questions, we will also look to the historical antecedents of today’s performances, examining, for example, the work of Artaud, Schechner, Mabou Mines, the Wooster Group, the Ridiculous Theatre, and Split Britches. In addition to viewing performances in class, students will attend 3-4 productions in New York City to enrich their understanding of today’s experimental theatre scene. This course can be used to satisfy Dramatic Lit requirement or as an upper level elective.
Instructor: Jessica Del Vecchio
Dates: January 14 – 24, 2013 (No classes on Monday, January 21)
Times: 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.; M – TH
THEA 375 Special Topics in Theatre: Falling Girls, A Theatre for Young Audiences Production for the Very Young (BA) – Canceled 12/17/12
4 Credits. Under the direction of Andy Wiginton, The Drew Theatre Department will mount a theatre for young audience’s production of Falling Girls by Dutch playwright Moniek Merkx, for local area schools and preschools, including Drew’s Acorn Academy. Drawing on the play production seminar model, students will engage in an intense month of theatrical creation. In this model, enrolled students take responsibility for many on and off-stage production roles. Production decisions are grounded in group dramaturgical conversations about the educational and aesthetic goals of the play which serves to reinforce the interdisciplinarity of the theatrical art form while simultaneously challenging students to try new production roles (acting, design, and production management) that they may not have attempted otherwise in a safe, reaffirming atmosphere. While the professor serves ultimately as the director of the production, all significant directorial decisions are discussed by the ensemble and made based on findings found in the ensemble’s dramaturgical research. Given that this is a play for very-young audiences, students will also collaborate to create a “study guide” for classroom teachers and parents who attend the production as well as lead school audiences in an interactive talkback after the show.
JanTerm is an ideal time to mount such a production for many reasons. Chief among them being that the everyday class schedule emulates professional theatrical lead times for production. Falling Girls runs about forty minutes, making it a manageable size for a 30-hour rehearsal schedule (as long the show is cast before Winter break and student actors had time to familiarize themselves with their lines). Secondarily, based on a few cursory phone calls to area principals and preschool directors, it seems that this would be an ideal time in the school year to “sell” such a production.
Falling Girls is a wonderful piece to begin this foray into theatre for young audiences production. As co-director of the U.S. premiere of the play in Madison, Wisconsin in 2009, Andy Wiginton is already quite familiar with the playwright, the show’s translators and translation, as well as the unique staging challenges that the dramatic text poses. Trying to summarize the plot of Falling Girls is both misleading and beside the point; however most agree that the show is “about” friendship, the power of imagination, and the creative play. This is production does not have a clear moral derived from Aristotelian storytelling; instead, it works on a more intuitive level that parallels early childhood play. The play will give Drew students the opportunity to work intensely on a piece of theatre for young audiences that draws on international modes of production that have only recently found their way into the United States that employ cutting edge, research driven dramaturgical methods that in many ways challenge customary theatre for young audience practice. Furthermore, this course will afford Drew students the opportunity to study and practice a piece of theatre for the very young (theatre for children under seven years old). While very common internationally, theatre for the very young is still quite rare in the United States, even for youth theatre companies. This kind of theatre presents obvious and “not-so-obvious” challenges for Drew students in terms of production, thinking about the role of theatre and drama in education and culture, and the role of theatre and drama in child development. Ultimately it is our goal that Falling Girls will serve as a vehicle to introduce the world of theatre for young audiences to Drew students in a way that challenges the genre, encourages professional and intellectual development, while showcasing and sharing our findings with the community. Signature of instructor required for registration.
Instructor: J. Andrew “Andy” Wiginton
Dates: January 7 – 25, 2013 (No classes on Monday, January 21)
Times: 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.; M – F
Instructor signature required. NO PRIOR THEATRE EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!
Independent Study
1- 4 credits. Independent study opportunities are available in most academic departments and programs, but require that students first discuss their topics for independent study with their instructors and obtain both instructor and advisor approval as part of the registration process.
Registration
Priority registration begins November 12, 2012. Drew students can register for JanTerm credit-bearing classes through TreeHouse Self Service. Please note: no pin is required for JanTerm registration. Visiting students from other schools who are interested in registering for a JanTerm class should contact the Office of Continuing Education at 973.408.3400 or owl@drew.edu.
Students can register for a maximum of one JanTerm 4-credit course or two JanTerm 2-credit courses. Students are permitted to take a JanTerm course in conjunction with a January internship or independent study.
All changes in registration for credit-bearing courses must be submitted to the Office of the Registrar in one of the following ways: 1) through TreeHouse Self Service; 2) in writing and delivered in person at the Office of the Registrar; or 3) via email (regist@drew.edu). Non-attendance does not constitute an official withdrawal. Please note that there is no formal audit of record for JanTerm courses; all courses must be taken for credit.
Housing
On-campus housing is available for Drew students who are registered for a JanTerm course. Campus housing is not open to non-Drew students.
For a JanTerm housing application and the per-week cost for room and board, please contact Bob Meade in the Housing office: rmeade@drew.edu or 973.408.3681.
Student Life
When you’re not in class, you can attend a home basketball game or swim meet, hear world-renowned poets give readings at the DoYo or work out at the Simon Forum.
Other January Learning Opportunities
January at Drew is an opportunity for students to engage in experiential learning programs or to conduct research projects. Students can participate in an academic internship, undertake independent study, do research for honors, be part of a Drew International Seminar, or join other students in volunteer activities. Learn more about these other January opportunities.