Splash Biography

Oh my god particle- the Higgs boson is the most important recent discovery in particle physics, hailed as the culmination of how we understand all normal matter. But beyond the hype, what is it mathematically, and how did we find it? This course aims to take you from the most basic classical physics- i. e. the energy of a roller coaster- to understanding what vacuum expectation values, gauge groups, and off shell Z decay are- and how all of that relates to your ability to not spontaneously combust into subatomic particles.

Whenever people are frustrated about social welfare, government inaction, and American society and culture, they tend to point to Scandinavia. Often ranked the best in the world in health, happiness, democracy, wealth, and all the other good stuff, it's easy to see why people idealize these countries. So, after a semester living in Sweden and formally studying Scandinavian society, I wanted to share how I think the myth compares to reality- the good, bad, and ugly of life there, and what we can learn about ourselves and our values from that.

It was done with the grandest and most terrible ideologies, with gentle pushes and violent reprisals, and its legacy is one of mixed emotions and uncertainty. This course offers a broad tour of US imperialism, from Manifest destiny to the colonization of Hawaii and the Philippines to interventions in Latin America and beyond.