The Faculty of Arts and Sciences officially unveiled its 1996-97 guide to courses last week, with a cover that is the first of the decade to prominently feature human subjects.

While the register has been available on the World Wide Web for several months, the published version is, with a few minor exceptions, the final draft of the undergraduate course guide.

The new catalog lists 14 new classes in the Core Curriculum. Eight of these will actually be offered next year, while six have been bracketed for the future.

The only new Science A course to be offered next year will also be the first Core course ever to include major units on engineering, according to McKay Professor of Applied Physics Frans A. Spaepen, the course instructor.

The class, Science A-33: "The Architecture of Condensed Matter," will explore the physics and chemistry of various substances, including liquids, crystalline solids and polymers.

"This course will have something for people of a very different interest," Spaepen said. "It will emphasize the scientific aspect of materials--how they're built--and [also] how they're used in specific industrial applications: airplanes, computers etc."

Spaepen said he co-taught a similar Core course in the past with Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics David R. Nelson, but said the new course will scale back some of the science from the original in order to incorporate the engineering.

He said he expects between 15 and 70 students to enroll.

One new Core course that should draw even more is Historical Study A-17: "Modern Political Ideologies," which is being co-taught by Assistant Professor of Government and of Social Studies Pratap Mehta and Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France Stanley Hoffmann.

Mehta said yesterday that Hoffmann used to co-teach the course with the late Cowles Professor of Government Judith N. Shklar and decided to revive it for the coming year after a four-year hiatus.

He said the course covers major political philosophy concepts in a historical context, with an emphasis on the concrete effects of those ideas on political movements.

The course will feature an updated syllabus with a renewed emphasis on nationalism, Mehta said.

With Shklar and Hoffmann, the course regularly drew more than 250 students, but Mehta said he couldn't guess how many would show up this year.

Reading loads for the course will be heavy--up to 300 pages per week. But the course will provide a good introduction to the time period for potential history, government and social studies concentrators, Mehta said.

A third new Core taught by high-profile professors will be Social Analysis 54: "American Society and Public Policy."

Professor of Government and of Sociology Theda Skocpol, who has advised President Clinton, will teach the course along with Professor of Sociology Mary C. Waters.

The new course is an adaptation of a course the two professors taught last year, Sociology 143: "American Society and Public Policy."

"We thought it was a good overview of current social problems in the U.S., so we decided to [bring it to the Core]," Waters said yesterday.

She added that the course will not be watered down because it is in the Core.

Harvard's biggest departments will have new pickings this year.

The Anthropology Department is listing an unusually high number of new courses this year--16, including seminars.

Meanwhile, the English Department will boast 44 new courses, including seminars. The new courses will include a seminar on Walt Whitman by Porter University Professor Helen Vendler. She will also teach a new course on five modern American poets.

Also debuting on the course list is a seminar by 1995 Nobel laureate and Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory Seamus Heaney.

Three other new courses signal the curricular shifts of the department. English 11a, 11b and 11c will be introductory courses on American fiction, American poetry and American literature and culture, reflecting a renewed emphasis on American literature.

Some of Harvard's top new faculty members will be offering classes right away for undergraduates.

Weiner Professor of Public Policy William Julius Wilson, Harvard's most prized recruit, will teach two seminars offered jointly through the Kennedy School and the Department of Afro-American Studies. In the fall, Wilson will lead a class on sociological perspectives on racial inequality in America; in the spring, he'll teach a seminar on race, class and poverty in urban America.

And the Kennedy School's Jane Mansbridge, recently hired from Northwestern University, will teach the seminar Government 90gc: "Representing Gender, Race and Class."

The New Look

The cover of the new course book is a picture of first-year students dining in the new Annenberg Hall.

Last year's picture featured construction in Annenberg; this year's cover was designed as "part of the restoration--it's the same kind of renewal theme," according to Hollis M. Lilly, a staff assistant in the Registrar's Office.

Changes to the structure and overall look of the catalog were minimal, Lilly said. He said the table of contents is easier to read, and the font size is also smaller in the new catalog.

Lilly said the catalogs are being sent this week to undergraduates, who should expect them in the mail within two weeks.

Those who can't wait that long can check out the newly-updated course guide on the World Wide Web at http://www.harvard.edu/FAScatalog. Students can also pick up a catalog at the Registrar's Office at 20 Garden St