Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• GRS AN 902: Directed Study in Anthropology
  
• GRS AR 701: The Intellectual History of Archaeology
  The historical development of archaeological methods and theory from the Renaissance to the present day, including comparison of major developments in Western Europe and the Americas with developments in other regions. Basic concepts in archaeological record and society.
• GRS AR 703: Seminar: Materials in Ancient Society
  Topic to be announced. Offered through the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology. (MIT Materials in Ancient Societies: course #3.984)
• GRS AR 704: Seminar: Materials in Ancient Society
  Topic to be announced. Offered through the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology. (MIT Materials in Ancient Societies: course #3.989)
• GRS AR 790: The Archaeology of Southeast Asia
  Examines the prehistoric and historic cultures of Southeast Asia, including the first arrival of humans, regional Neolithic and Bronze Age communities, early states, maritime trading networks, as well as political motivations in archaeology and the illicit antiquities trade.
• GRS AR 795: The Politics of the Past: Archaeology, Museums, and Identity
  Historical exploration of the interplay among political/nationalistic pressures and the design, implementation, and interpretation of archaeological research and its public presentation through publications, museum exhibitions, and international expositions. Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Ethical Reasoning, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Digital/Multimedia Expression
• GRS AR 901: Directed Research in Classical Archaeology
  Graduate-level directed research in classical archaeology.
• GRS AR 903: Directed Research in New World Historical Archaeology
  Graduate-level directed research in New World Archaeology.
• GRS AR 905: Directed Research in Old World Prehistoric Archaeology
  Graduate-level directed research in Old World prehistoric archaeology.
• GRS AR 907: Directed Research in New World Prehistoric Archaeology
  Graduate-level directed research in New World prehistoric archaeology.
• GRS AS 701: Introduction to Astrophysics
  Introduction to astronomical and astrophysical nomenclature and concepts. Coordinate systems, celestial orbits, radiation, stars, stellar structure, stellar evolution, clusters of stars, galactic components, galactic structure, galaxy types, active galaxies, cosmology.
• GRS AS 703: Introduction to Space Physics
  Survey of physical phenomena in the sun, solar wind, magnetospheres, ionospheres, and upper atmospheres of objects in the solar system. Introduction to the physical processes governing space plasmas, solar-terrestrial interactions, and ionized and neutral media surrounding the Earth and other solar system bodies.
• GRS AS 704: Cosmic Gas Dynamics
  Gas dynamics as applied to astrophysical settings. Basic fluid mechanics. Ideal gases. One-dimensional gas flow. Supersonic flows and shock waves. Quasar jets and stellar winds. Fluid instabilities, turbulence, and convection.
• GRS AS 706: Radiative Processes and Spectroscopy
  Generation, propagation, and transfer of electromagnetic radiation. Spectral energy distributions, continuum radiation, atomic and molecular spectral lines. Energy levels in atoms and molecules. Interaction of radiation with matter, transfer of radiation through astrophysical media. Thermal and nonthermal radiative processes.
• GRS AS 708: Cosmic Plasma Physics
  Physics of space and astrophysical plasmas. Individual particle drifts in fields, electrostatic and electromagnetic waves and instabilities, magnetohydrodynamics, kinetic theory of waves, instabilities, and Landau damping.
• GRS AS 709: Observational Techniques
  Telescopes, light detection, and analysis tools and techniques of experimental astronomy. Signal-to-noise calculations. Photometric and spectroscopic instrumentation and applications. Use of the observatory, CCD light detectors, modern software analysis tools, image processing. Proposal writing and science writing.
• GRS AS 720: Graduate Research and Scholarship
  An introduction to the methods of research and scholarship required for successful graduate study and the associated ethical issues. Topics include choosing a research advisor, the research topic, the research record, scholarly writing and publishing, intellectual property, and research funding.
• GRS AS 753: Normal Galaxies and the Milky Way
  Normal galaxies and the Milky Way as systems. Stellar components and clusters, elliptical and disk galaxies. Luminosity functions, radial distributions, distance indicators, triaxial spheroids, and central bars. Motions near the sun, asymmetric drift, velocity ellipsoid, galactic rotation, Oort formulae, gas distributions, galactic center.
• GRS AS 757: High-Energy Astrophysics
  Physics of interactions between high-energy particles and photons. Compton scattering; nuclear collisions; acceleration and energy losses of high-energy particles; neutrino production; physics of cosmic rays; pulsars; accretion onto compact objects; active galactic nuclei and other high-energy phenomena.
• GRS AS 759: Cosmology
  Modern physical cosmology. The Friedmann equation, expansion of the universe and the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. Determination of fundamental cosmological parameters. Large-scale structure, galaxy formation, active galaxies, and quasars. Dark matter and dark energy in the universe. The inflation era.

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