The Tutorial Program offers Williams students a distinctive opportunity to take a heightened form of responsibility for their own intellectual development. No student is required to take a tutorial course, but any student with the appropriate qualifications and interests is invited to do so.
Tutorials at the 100/200 level are designed primarily for first-year students and sophomores; they are usually given enrollment preference for such courses, though interested juniors and seniors are often welcome. Tutorials at the 300/400 level are designed primarily for juniors and seniors (and, often, for majors in the discipline); first-year students and sophomores are welcome to apply, but are urged to consult the instructor before registering.
Tutorials place much greater weight than do regular courses-or even small seminars-on student participation. They aim to teach students how to develop and present arguments; listen carefully, and then refine their positions in the context of a challenging discussion; and respond quickly and cogently to critiques of their work. Tutorials place particular emphasis on developing analytical skills, writing abilities, and the talents of engaging in rigorous conversation and oral debate.
The ways in which particular tutorials are conducted vary across the disciplines, but here is a description of how most tutorials at Williams are organized. Tutorials are usually limited to ten students. At the start of term, the instructor divides the students into pairs. Each pair meets weekly with the instructor for roughly one hour. Many tutorial courses begin and end the term with a group seminar, and in a few departments, instructors hold weekly group meetings of all tutorial members to provide background information designed to facilitate the students' independent work. But the heart of every tutorial course is the weekly meeting of the two students with the instructor.
At these weekly meetings, one student delivers a prepared essay or presentation (e.g., an analysis of a text or work of art, a discussion of a problem set, a report on laboratory exercises, etc.) pertaining to the assignment for that week, while the other student-and then the instructor-offer a critique. In the following week, students switch roles. Typically, students write five or six essays (usually in the range of 4-7 pages) during the term, and offer five or six critiques of their partners' work.
Since the program's inception in 1988, students have ranked tutorials among the most demanding-and rewarding-courses they have taken at Williams. While not designed to be more difficult than other courses, tutorials are nonetheless challenging, with frequent writing assignments and the expectation that students will be well prepared to participate actively and effectively in weekly discussions. At the same time, students have consistently placed tutorials among the most enriching and consequential courses they have taken. They have appreciated the close attention to their writing and argumentation skills; the opportunity to be held accountable, in a detailed way, for the extended implications of their ideas; the chance to develop their oral abilities as they engage in debate; and the close intellectual bonds tutorials build between teachers and students, and students with each other. Many students have formed important advising and mentoring relationships with their tutorial teachers.
Registration information: Students register for tutorials as they would for any other course (but should first check the description for prerequisites and to see if permission of the instructor is required). Because of limited enrollments and the special arrangements involved in organizing tutorials, students are encouraged to determine, as early as possible, their interest in and commitment to the course. Students may not drop or add a tutorial after the first week of class. Tutorials may not be taken on a pass/fail basis.
Students may obtain detailed information about particular tutorials from the course descriptions and the instructors. (All tutorials have a "T" after the course number.) For general information, advice, or suggestions about the program, please contact Professor Stephen Fix, Tutorial Program Director for 2008-2009, in Stetson.
Tutorials offered in 2008-2009:
American Studies
AMST 465T(F)/ENGL 465T(F) Two American Public Intellectuals: Noam Chomsky and Edward Said (W) D. WANG
Anthropology and Sociology
ANTH 328T(S) Emotions and the Self (W) JUST
SOC 214T(F) Exploring the American Culture Wars (W) NOLAN
Art
ARTH 300T(F) Rembrandt Tutorial: Case Studies of Individual Works and Controversial Issues (W) FILIPCZAK
ARTH 305T(S) Art, Life, Death: Studies in the Italian Renaissance (W) SOLUM
ARTH 461T(F)/INTR 465T(F)/WGST 461T(F) Writing about Bodies (W) OCKMAN
ARTS 300T(F) Narrative Spaces JACKSON
ARTS 310T(S) Appearance/Disappearance EPPING
Asian Studies
CHIN 251T(S)/COMP 256T(S)/HIST 215T(S) Crises and Critiques: The Literature and Intellectual History of Early 20th Century China (W) (D) NUGENT
Astronomy
ASTR 207T(F) Extraterrestrial Life in the Galaxy: A Sure Thing, or a Snowball's Chance? (W) KWITTER
Biology
BIOL 206T(S) Genomes, Transcriptomes, and Proteomes (W) RAYMOND
BIOL 209T(F) Animal Communication (W) H. WILLIAMS
BIOL 218T(S) DNA, Life, and Everything (W) ALTSCHULER
BIOL 425T(S) Coevolution (W) MORALES
Comparative Literature
COMP 231T(S)/ENGL 266T(S) Postmodernism (W) (D) C. BOLTON
COMP 259T(F)/ENGL 261T(F)/WGST 259T(F) Adultery in the Nineteenth-Century Novel (W) CASSIDAY
Computer Science
CSCI 336T(F) Computer Networks (Q) MURTAGH
CSCI 356T(S) Advanced Algorithms (Q) HEERINGA
Economics
ECON 219T(F) Global Economic History (W) NAFZIGER
ECON 357T(F) The Strange Economics of College (W) SCHAPIRO
ECON 371T(S) Economic Justice ZIMMERMAN
ECON 467T(S)/ECON 518T(S) Development Successes (W) MONTIEL
English
ENGL 207T(F) Hollywood Directors: Hawks, Lubitsch, and Sturges (W) TIFFT
ENGL 208T(F) Poetry (W) R. BELL
ENGL 320T(S) Marlowe and Shakespeare (W) KLEINER
ENGL 322T(S) Novel Arguments (W) T. DAVIS
ENGL 325T(S) Thinking Through Middlemarch (W) CASE
ENGL 326T(S) Inscrutable Evil, or the Transformative Horror Film (W) J. SHEPARD
ENGL 343T(F) Whitman and Dickinson in Context (W) KENT
ENGL 355T(F) Fanaticism (W) SOKOLSKY
Geosciences
GEOS 110T(S) Galapagos Islands Field Geology and Biology (W) M. JOHNSON and KARABINOS
GEOS 218T(F)/ENVI 218T(F) The Carbon Cycle and Climate (W) STOLL
German
GERM 301T(S) German Studies, 1770-1830 (W) NEWMAN
GERM 303T(F) German Studies, 1900-1938 (W) DRUXES
History
HIST 128T(S) Conquistadors in the New World (W) WOOD
HIST 481T(S) The American Revolution, 1763-1798: Meanings and Interpretations (W) AUBERT
HIST 482T(S) Fictions of African-American History (W) LONG
HIST 487T(F) The Second World War: Origins, Course, Outcomes, and Meaning (W) WOOD
HIST 489T(F) The Rise and Fall of the Ottomans and the Emergence of Modern Turkey (W) REPP
HIST 491T(S) Political Islam: Past, Present, Future (D) (W) BERNHARDSSON
HIST 492T(S) Revolutionary Thought in Latin America (W) (D) KITTLESON
Interdisciplinary Studies
INTR 309T(F)/WGST 309T(F) Racial-Sexual Politics and Cultural Memory (W) JAMES
INTR 313T(S)/PHIL 313T(S)/PSCI 313T(S) The Origins of Totalitarianism (W) JAMES
Maritime Studies
MAST 231T(F,S)
/ENGL 231T(F,S) Literature of the Sea (W) (Offered only at Mystic Seaport.) First Semester: BERCAW EDWARDS Second Semester: KING
Mathematics/Statistics
MATH 101T(F) Mathematical Analysis with Descriptive Statistics S. JOHNSON
MATH 324T(S) Topology (Q) MORGAN
MATH 370T(F) Mathematics and Politics: Social Choice and Fair Division (Q) PACELLI
Music
MUS 203T(F),
204T(S) Composition I and II Fall: KECHLEYSpring: PEREZ VELAZQUEZ
MUS 245T(S) Music Analysis: Music with Text (W) E. GOLLIN
Philosophy
PHIL 213T(S) Biomedical Ethics (W) J. PEDRONI
PHIL 220T(S)/REL 282T(S) Immortality and the Soul in Ancient and Medieval Thought (W) MCPARTLAND
PHIL 235T(F) Morality and Partiality: Loyalty, Friendship, Patriotism (W) MLADENOVIC
PHIL 272T(F) Free Will and Responsibility (W) BARRY
PHIL 304T(F) Authenticity: From Rousseau to Poststructuralism (W) SAWICKI
PHIL 350T(S) Beauty (W) WHITE
Physics
PHYS 402T(S) Applications of Quantum Mechanics (Q) JONES
PHYS 411T(F) Classical Mechanics (Q) STRAUCH
Political Science
PSCI 248T(F) The USA in Comparative Perspective (W) MAHON
PSCI 323T(F) Henry Kissinger and the American Century (W) MCALLISTER
PSCI 331T(S)/AFR 331T(S) Non-Profit Organization and Community Change (W) WILLINGHAM
PSCI 352T(S) Comparative Political Economy (W) MUNEMO
Psychology
PSYC 324T(S) Great Debates in Cognition ZAKI
PSYC 331T(F) Risk and Resilience in Early Development HANE
Religion
REL 289T(S)/COMP 309T(S)/JWST 491T(S) Exile, Homecoming and the Promised Land (W) (D) HAMMERSCHLAG
REL 290T(F) Explorations of the Afterlife (W) JOSEPHSON
Romance Languages
RLSP 230T(F)/COMP 230T(F) Violent States, Violent Subjects: Nation-Building and Atrocity in 19th-Century Latin America (W) (D) FRENCH
Theatre
THEA 250T(F)/ENGL 253T(F)/WGST 250T(F) Women and Theatre: Gender, Sexuality and the Stage (W) HOLZAPFEL
Williams in New York
WNY 307T(F,S) Work/Ethics: Framewoorks for Observing People at Work (W) L. JOHNSON
The Center for Development Economics is offering two graduate-level courses (ECON 516T and 520T) in the tutorial format. Interested undergraduates should consult the course description and the instructor for eligibility.
The College acknowledges with deepest gratitude those classes and individuals who have created generous endowments to support tutorials at Williams:
The Class of 1953
The Class of 1954
The Class of 1979
Hugh Germanetti 1954
David A. Gray 1954
Robert L. Guyett 1958
John D. Mabie 1954
John H. Simpson 1979
Tutorial Honoring Williams Health Center Nurses