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Home > Curriculum > Course Descriptions > Fall 2008 Newsletter
Fall 2008 Newsletter
Fall 2008 Course Descriptions | Literature | History | Science | Special Studies FALL 2008 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS back to topLITERATURE back to top
“Sacred Texts: the Bible and the Koran in Literature” This course focuses on two texts that have been central to the development of ancient civilization: the Bible and the Koran. Taking these two works as starting points, we will explore how the ideas, characters, images, and narrative elements of these holy texts have shaped important literary works from the medieval period to our modern age. We will discuss the relationship between the old and the new, the ancient and the modern, the sacred and the secular, religion and literature, morality and beauty.
Our tentative reading list will include passages from the Old and New Testaments (Genesis, Job, Psalms, the Gospels, the Pauline epistles), "Inferno" from Dante's Divine Comedy, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, passages from the Koran, and Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses. While approaching the texts through close reading, we will also discuss the works in their historical and cultural contexts. Any changes in the reading list will be announced in the first meeting.
This course will be a combination of lecture and discussion. Its goals are to help first and second year students develop critical reading and interpretation skills, as well as to polish academic writing skills and engage with the opinions of literary scholars. Students will be evaluated on the basis of two papers (3-4 pages), one final examination, and active participation in class.
“The Suppressed Voice Gets a Voice” The texts are The Odyssey, Sophocles I, The Aeneid, Hildegard's "The Order of the Virtues" and Dante's Divine Comedy. Through these, we will study changing models of heroes, such as Odysseus, Penelope, Oedipus, Antigone, Aeneas, Hildegard's Soul, Dante the Wanderer. We will give attention to reading the poetic or prose texts closely, to some of the larger controversies raised by these great works, as well as to the continuing conflict between political and private commitments - as dramatized by the epics, plays, dialogues and stories. We will also look at some current literary criticism, particularly with regard to the theme of male/female roles, and the way the traditionally suppressed voice of marginalized people becomes recognized. The major emphasis of the class will be on discussion - the more debate the better. There will be three short papers and a journal (a chance to explore your responses to the literature in a more informal context).
“Critical Transformations” "My intention is to tell of bodies / Changed to different forms," declares Ovid. What does it mean to tell stories of transformation? What different literary, cultural, and philosophical ideas shape our notions of form and transformation? In this course, we will examine mutations of voice, gender, and form. Texts will be drawn from such authors as Ovid, Homer, Sappho. Formal and informal writing assignments, oral presentations, and active contribution to class discussion will be required.
“Classical & Medieval Literature” This course will cover a selection of ancient and early medieval texts. We will explore literary genres, use of literary language, ethical and moral issues, and social, cultural, and religious questions. Readings to include: Virgil's Aeneid, Homer's Odyssey, Sophocles' Oedipus the King, Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis. Films to include: Michael Cacoyannis' Iphigenia in Aulis.
Students will be required to write three short papers (3-5 pages) and take a final exam. There will also be other in-class writing assignments. Class will consist of some lecture, large and small discussion groups, with an emphasis on close textual analysis.
“Heroes, Heroines, and Virtue” What makes a hero or heroine these days? Do we have a clear idea of heroic behavior or action today—or the idea a mixed mishmash of comic book super beings, cancer victims who have survived, civil rights leaders, soldiers, and sports figure? Where does virtue fit in with heroism? Is it a necessary ingredient? What model of virtue should we emulate and why? Do women represent the same heroic code? Do they have their own? If so, in what sense?
The classical and medieval periods were much clearer about the nature of heroism than we are today and clearer still about the virtue their heroes were expected to exhibit. Do we still admire many of the characteristics classically considered heroic? Can we discern something truly admirable in a Hektor, a Beowulf, an El Cid, a Roland, a Sir Gawain or Sir Lancelot? Are there Eastern heroic models of similar virtues and dimensions? Where should we fit the Monkey King or Tripitaka, for example, in our pantheon of heroes? What should we recognize as virtue in the medieval Persian Rubáiyyát?
Fall term will try to answer these questions while studying primarily poetic form (narrative, dramatic, lyric) by both men and a woman (Sappho), from Greece, from China, from England (Anglo-Saxon), from Spain and Persia.
The period covered will stretch from Homer to 16th century China, from the Romans to 11th century Persia. Possible texts for the term include: Homer's Iliad, Lyric Poetry by Sappho, The Trojan Women by Euripides, La Poema de Mio Cid, The Aeneid by Virgil, Beowulf, and the female chivalric heroine, Silence, lyric carpe diem poetry by Omar Khyyám, and the Chinese classic, Journey to the West.
The course will require 3 literary critical papers of medium or short length (3-5 pages, 2-4 pgs), for which a literary response journal, kept all term, can substitute for paper three.
HISTORY back to top
“The Breadth of Human Experience" How did humans move from hunter-gatherers to city-states to empires? What assumptions and beliefs did they develop in an attempt to organize the society they lived in? How did they understand the world around them? How did they react to strangers, as cultures crossed paths? Are there fundamental commonalities within human history?
This first installment of the core sequence in honors history will investigate these and related questions. There are no single answers to any of these questions—rather we will examine how human responses varied from continent to continent and changed over the centuries. Our search will take us around half the globe, drawing on episodes of Asian, African, and European history, from prehistory to roughly the year 1400.
Work inside and outside class will be designed to encourage students to develop analytical eye for both individual complexity and the grand patterns of world history. We will also consider the different ways in which historians have chosen to write the history of the pre-modern world, and why the telling of such stories matters. Assignments will focus on building students' writing skills, through an emphasis on close reading of primary sources.
Among other texts, we will certainly use Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond. Peter Stearns, World History in Brief, serves as a general textbook for the HC231-232-233 sequence, including this course.
“An Introduction to the Global Past: Understanding the Ancient and Medieval Worlds” This course is the first installment of the year-long global history sequence. In this class, we will cover the emergence of human societies with particular attention in the early period to the environmental context that allowed settled existence, social stratification and cultural production. Our primary focus, however, will be on the emergence of social structures and cultural forms. We will be looking closely at the creation of social organization, gender roles and the emergence of belief systems in the ancient Middle East, Europe, and Asia. We will also examine how the imprint of ancient ideas and social systems impacted emerging and growing societies in these regions during the classical and post-classical periods. Throughout the course, we will focus on gaining the analytical and writing skills used by historians in their craft. And we will consider how historians have examined the ancient past and the questions they have raised about studying history in a global and comparative framework. The basic context for the course will be provided through Peter Stearn’s World History in Brief, but our emphasis will be on reading and analyzing primary documents. We will be looking at the classic texts alongside sources produced by ordinary people. This course will be writing intensive, and students will be asked to respond weekly in writing to assignments.
“Introduction to Ancient and Medieval History” This course introduces problems in ancient and medieval history through the study of Europe and the Mediterranean. The course takes a topical approach, focusing especially on the social functions of narrative, body and sexuality, and religion as a cultural form. Texts include: Hesiod, Theogony; Plato, Symposium; Suetonius, Twelve Caesars; Augustine, Confessions.
“Building Civilizations: Ideas, Cultures, and Societies from the Birth of Civilization to 1400” This course explores the origins of civilizations and their development through the fourteenth century. In particular, we will examine the ways in which groups have defined themselves by creating religions, assembling cultures, establishing laws, building governments, and writing history. We will identify both shared qualities and distinct attributes of civilizations, striving to understand what unifies communities and what brings groups into conflict with one another. The course embraces multiple approaches to history by studying intellectual, social, cultural, political, and military trends through the period. Readings will include historical works from then and now plus additional primary sources that uncover the voices of individuals whose lives we are studying.
“Early Civilizations: Social, Cultural, and Political Comparisons” This course is the first of a three-quarter sequence designed as an "Introduction to Historical Thinking in a Global Framework." We will look at the origins and development of civilizations in three major geographic areas: the Mediterranean, Europe, and China. Chronologically we will move from the beginnings of civilizations roughly to the fourteenth century. Western and eastern Eurasia developed in virtual isolation from each other and encompassed enormous zones of human diversity and cultural exchange. We will, therefore, explore several distinct, rich sagas of the development of social, political, and cultural traditions. Our goal will be a) to understand these traditions, and the interconnections between these traditions, within each civilization; and b) to understand how and why these traditions change over time. In order to explore these civilizations in a cohesive manner, we will consider religion and literature, cultural and commercial exchange, art and warfare, political ideology and the ingredients of social status.
As means of investigation, we will study scholarly texts as well as the literature, art, and architecture of ancient cultures. We will investigate these societies, therefore, through historical studies as well as learning to interpret, for example, Babylonian law, Chinese technology, Greek theater, Roman architecture, Islamic poetry, and Christian art. Through using these sources we will explore the distinct creative forces within each culture, develop skills of critical thinking and interpretation, learn to ask analytical questions of our sources, and recognize the broad patterns that mark global history. SCIENCE back to top
“Evolution” A great deal of recent controversy has centered on the teaching of evolution. Why is this topic so controversial? What is the evidence for evolution? How does it work? Does a belief in evolution necessitate an a religious outlook? We will address these questions and more, focusing on the science of evolution and how it informs us about the scientific process in general. We will consider evolution from the perspectives of molecular biology, ecology, paleontology, microbiology, and geology. Along the way, we’ll learn something about the role of controversy in advancing scientific knowledge and the role politics plays in the advance of science, and that science plays in public life.
Assignments will include readings historical, popular and scientific, as well as several lab exercises. Students will be graded on the basis of exams, in class discussions, lab assignments, and a short term paper. SPECIAL STUDIES back to top
"Forensics" Clark Honors College hosts the nationally ranked University of Oregon Forensics Program. The program is designed to teach rhetorical habits of mind and speech through intercollegiate debate and individual events. The program travels to about thirteen tournaments, hosts two on-campus tournaments, and engages in some on-campus speaking activities. Two graduate teaching fellows are assigned to the program.
Debate students will be paired with partners and will be expected to conduct extensive research on the debate topics selected by the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) and the Parliamentary Debate Association. Novice and experienced student debaters are welcome, and students do not need to be Clark Honors College students to enroll.
Individual events students select from among ten to fifteen public speaking and oral interpretation events and, in addition, work to prepare and perfect speeches designed to persuade, entertain and move. Students are graded on their performances. COLLOQUIA back to top
“Virginia Woolf” This course will cover a selection of novels, short stories and non-fiction by English modernist writer Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). Woolf’s life and work will be discussed in the context of her engagement with contemporary writers of the period, via discussion of the Bloomsbury Group and of the Hogarth Press, the publishing operation she ran between 1917-1941 with her husband Leonard Woolf.
“Evolution and the Modern” The class will focus on the turn of the century (19th/20th) when the impact of evolution appeared not only in the tensions between religion and science, but also in a literary and artistic revolution – and debate – that overturned the old order of narrative (species within a grand design) and introduced new variety in literature. We’ll read, of course, from Darwin and from many of the responses to Darwin, both favorable and antagonistic. We’ll read about the case of Thomas Condon, a geologist at the UO and a minister, and how he negotiated the tension between religion and science (his collection of fossils and specimens still appear at the UO). We’ll read William James (The Variety of Religious Experience), who treated religion in terms of “variety,”; and turn to the way that Darwin impacted the depiction of race, religion and community as well as poetic language in literary works, including Eugene O’Neill’s Emperor Jones, Freud’s Totem and Taboo, Gertrude Stein’s “Melanctha,” Cather’s Death Comes to the Archbishop, Hurston’s Jonah’s Gourd Vine, and LeGuin’s The Dispossessed.
See RL 407 under Special Course Offerings HONORS COLLEGE ARTS & LETTERS COLLOQUIUM
“Madness in Society: the History of Mental Illness and Psychiatry in Europe and America” What is madness? A socially constructed category meant to exclude? A genetic defect or neurological disease that can be treated with chemicals? How have religious groups, medical professionals, pharmaceutical companies, legislators, and judges sought to treat, profit from, protect, and control the mentally ill? How has the experience of the mentally ill changed over history? This course explores the history of madness in Europe and America. We will examine the changing conceptions of insanity in society, the development of psychiatry as a profession, the establishment of psychiatric institutions, the emergence of psychoactive drugs, the implementation (and implications) of diagnostic categories, and the interactions between psychiatry and politics.
Readings will include texts from historians, journalists, philosophers, scientists, legislators, and the mentally disturbed. We will read, for example, Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization; Pat Barker, Regeneration; Susan Sheehan, Is There No Place on Earth for Me?; Janet Malcolm, Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession; Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar; Peter Kramer, Listening to Prozac.; and Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation. Documentary films will supplement readings.
“Revolutions in the Modern World: Sociology of Large-Scale Transformations in the 20th Century” This course will explore some of the most important social transformations of the 20th century. We will begin with a classical comparison of the French, Russian and Chinese cases in an effort to identify the commonalities of the violent transformations that took place in more than 20 countries in the period around the World Wars. Other revolutions that we will consider include Bolshevism in Russia, the Maoist revolution in China, the Sandinista Party in Nicaragua, and Khomeini’s Islamic revolution in Iran. The course will include a methodological component, one which has often presented a puzzle to social scientists: how to explain historically significant events that have either only one instance or a few exemplars. We will end with a mini-conference during exam week in which students will present a research paper.
“Disaster and Society” Recent and highly devastating natural disasters in Southeast Asia and the U.S. Gulf South have shown that while environmental hazards such as tsunamis and hurricanes may be natural events, disasters are not. Instead, they represent the “actualization of social vulnerability.” Central to this socialized understanding of disasters is the realization that they do not result from hazardous forces external to society but from the intersection of these forces with social systems that render some populations more vulnerable than others. The underlying point is that natural disasters do not “strike” but rather unfold through social and historical processes that stratify local capacities to anticipate, weather, and recover from environmental hazards when they occur, which they are doing with increased frequency and intensity around the globe.
In this course we will engage this dynamic field of study, learning about the different theories and methods used to understand disasters as social phenomena. Readings will draw from case studies of disaster in rural and urban contexts, including the instructor’s own research experiences in New Orleans before, during and after Hurricane Katrina. Although we will study actual events, analytical emphasis will be on social patterns and processes that influence vulnerability and resilience generally among and within communities over time.
See HIST 410 under Special Course Offerings HONORS COLLEGE SOCIAL SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM
Prerequisite: HC 221-223 or 231-233
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Arts & Letters Colloquium and an IC Multicultural class. If the student has already taken an Arts & Letters Colloquium, this class will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Elective Colloquium and an IC Multicultural class.
HC INTERNATIONAL CULTURES COLLOQUIUM [HC ARTS & LETTERS COLLOQUIUM] “Selections from Russian Literature (19C-21C)” This course will serve both as an introductory survey, as well as an in-depth analysis, of Russian prose fiction from the mid-nineteenth century to the twenty-first century. We will read works representative of key experiences in Russian culture and history, beginning from the nineteenth-century “Golden Age” of the Russian novel to the Soviet period and up to our contemporary, post-Cold War, era.
Our tentative reading list includes Alexander Pushkin’s The Bronze Horseman, short stories by Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Leo Tolstoy’s Hadji Murad, Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, and Gary Shteyngart’s Absurdistan. We will also view film adaptations of the works. Any changes in the reading list will be announced in the first meeting. Students will be evaluated on the basis of one mid-term exam, a paper (8-10 pages), and in-class discussions and presentations.
Prerequisite: HC 221-223 or 231-233
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill both of the following requirements: a Science Colloquium and an IC Multicultural class. If the student has already taken a Science Colloquium, this class will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Elective Colloquium and an IC Multicultural class.
HC INTERNATIONAL CULTURES COLLOQUIUM [HC SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM] “The Physics and Politics of Global Energy Generation” A description for this course has not been submitted. Please contact the professor.
“Cosmology” Cosmology, the study of the formation and evolution of the Universe, has progressed from its origins in early man's ideas of Nature, to Chinese and Greek worldviews, to Dante's vision of Heaven and Hell, to Newton's Clockwork Universe. Today, cosmology has entered a Golden Age with the launch of numerous space telescopes and development of technology that allows us to study the echo of the Big Bang. In addition to exploring the processes behind the origin of spacetime and matter, the science of cosmology has also expanded to resolve a number of philosophical and theological issues, such as Creation (i.e. Genesis 1:1) and the anthropic principle.
This course is a historical and philosophical review of our cosmological worldview from mythical times to modern science. We will explore topics in the geometry of the Universe, expanding spacetime and the Big Bang, dark matter, black holes and wormholes, quarks and mesons, galaxies and quantum physics. Our goal is to provide the student with a summary of our current understanding of astrophysics as it relates to the structure of the Universe and what topics remain to be explored in the 21st century. The material is presented without complex mathematics, but an understanding of algebra is required.
Graduation Requirement: Students should decide in advance if they want to register for this class as a Science Colloquium (HC 441H) or a Physics elective (PHYS 410). Either way, the course will fulfill a Science Colloquium requirement. PHYS 410 is open to non-CHC students.
HC SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM [PHYSICS EXPERIMENTAL COURSE] “Chance and Determinism in the Physical World” This course for non-science or science majors will explore the questions: Is the physical world controlled by random events, or does it behave like clockwork? If the physical world evolves by random events, what is the source of this randomness? If randomness is intrinsic to events, what does this say about the ultimate nature of physical reality? What are the meanings of "probability" and "information?" The modern answers to these questions can be found in the quantum theory and in the theory of deterministic chaos and fractals. We will explore some of the possible sources of randomness, the writings of some of history's great thinkers on the subject, and recent physics experiments that have addressed these questions. We will study Laplace, Poincaré, Einstein, Bohr, B. Mandelbrot, J.S. Bell, C.E. Shannon, T. Bayes, and E.T. Jaynes, among others.
The course is recommended for students with good ability in high-school-level math and science, with an interest in fundamental questions. Reading, writing, and elementary mathematical exercises, plus oral presentations and classroom discussions will improve students' understanding and communication skills. SPECIAL COURSE OFFERINGS back to top
Graduation Requirement: This course does not satisfy any Clark Honors College graduation requirement, but features a CHC professor. HC 199H is open to non-CHC students. FRESHMAN SEMINAR “You Be the Judge: Presidential Debates 2008” Are speeches just words? This course will feature the careful study of three presidential debates scheduled by the Commission on Presidential Debates. You will learn well-tested principles of reason and effective oral advocacy, and use your new knowledge to judge arguments made by presidential and vice presidential candidates. You will also learn how to utilize streaming video, text transcripts, and nonpartisan public policy websites to analyze oral arguments. In the second half of the course, you will participate in two debates in which you will be required to effectively argue both sides of an important issue.
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill the following requirement: a Social Science Colloquium If the student has already taken a Social Science Colloquium, this class will fulfill the following requirement: an Elective Colloquium. This course is open to non-CHC students. Registration is restricted to majors within the College of Arts and Sciences May 19-29.
HISTORY EXPERIMENTAL COURSE [HC SOCIAL SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM] “Slavery and Emancipation in the Atlantic World” Between 1519 and 1867, some 11 million captive Africans were sent across the Atlantic ocean to the New World—North America, South America, and the Caribbean. 2008 marks the bicentennial of the abolition of the British and American transatlantic slave trades, the first major step in ending the trade, and an appropriate moment to look back at an institution that helped shape the modern world.
This class will examine the many forms of black chattel slavery in the Americas and the systems built around that slavery. Our focus will be on the people, with heavy use of primary sources, as we attempt to recover the experiences of being bought and sold,plantation slavery, domestic slavery, and grand and small resistances to slavery. We will also study the broad outline of the economic and imperial systems founded upon the transatlantic slave trade. Enslaved Africans and their descendants produced sugar, cotton, cocoa, tobacco, and other profitable luxury goods. The buying and selling of these plantation products drove colonization of the Americas, transformed both Europe and Africa, and planted the seed of modern financial systems in a first age of globalization. The effect of the transatlantic slave trade was not only political and economic, however—slavery also contributed to a complex of social and philosophical ideas that simultaneously fueled the development of both racism and democracy.
We will also investigate emancipation, a long and evolving process that lasted from 1767 to 1888. Some enslaved people emancipated themselves, most notably in the Haitian Revolution, the only successful slave revolt in modern history, which will receive special attention. Slaves in British territories benefited from Christian movements against slavery and a growing fear of violent slave resistance. Those in Latin America and the United States gained their freedom through war, although in different ways.
The course will be a mix of lecture and discussion and all students will be expected to contribute to discussion. Probable assignments: two medium-length essays, plus small focused writing assignments (possibly a take-home exam or a third essay). Among other texts, we will use The Diligent, by Robert Harms.
Graduation Requirement: Students should decide in advance if they want to register for this class as a Science Colloquium (HC 441H) or a Physics elective (PHYS 410). Either way, the course will fulfill a Science Colloquium requirement. PHYS 410 is open to non-CHC students.
HC SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM [PHYSICS EXPERIMENTAL COURSE] “Chance and Determinism in the Physical World” This course for non-science or science majors will explore the questions: Is the physical world controlled by random events, or does it behave like clockwork? If the physical world evolves by random events, what is the source of this randomness? If randomness is intrinsic to events, what does this say about the ultimate nature of physical reality? What are the meanings of "probability" and "information?" The modern answers to these questions can be found in the quantum theory and in the theory of deterministic chaos and fractals. We will explore some of the possible sources of randomness, the writings of some of history's great thinkers on the subject, and recent physics experiments that have addressed these questions. We will study Laplace, Poincaré, Einstein, Bohr, B. Mandelbrot, J.S. Bell, C.E. Shannon, T. Bayes, and E.T. Jaynes, among others.
The course is recommended for students with good ability in high-school-level math and science, with an interest in fundamental questions. Reading, writing, and elementary mathematical exercises, plus oral presentations and classroom discussions will improve students' understanding and communication skills.
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill the following requirement: an Arts & Letters Colloquium If the student has already taken an Arts & Letters Colloquium, this class will fulfill the following requirement: an Elective Colloquium. This course is open to non-CHC students.
ROMANCE LANGUAGES SEMINAR [HC ARTS & LETTERS COLLOQUIUM] “Contemporary Jewish Writers” We will read the fiction of contemporary Jewish writers writing in French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, and issued from France, Canada, the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), Latin America (both Luso-Brazilian and Spanish-American) and Italy. Reading the works in English translation, we will discuss different responses offered by Jewish authors to their perceived need of entry into the modern world, and their complex negotiations of belonging with the different surrounding cultures. We will explore the role of memory—both collective and individual— and come to grips with how a Jewish memory affects the discourse of the minority writer. We will observe how identity—personal, cultural, historical—is constructed and thematized in these works. We will be exposed to a range of immigrant and post-immigrant experiences and to the psychological, social and literary effects of exile. The course will also introduce students to a selection of Jewish women writers, prompting specific questions about gender and minority writing.
Required Texts: Moacyr Scliar, The Centaur in the Garden Ana Maria Shua, The Book of Memories Marcel Bénabou, Jacob, Menahem, and Mimoun: A Family Epic Eva Martin Sartori and Madeleine Cottenet-Hage (eds.), Daughters of Sarah: Anthology of Jewish Women Writing in French Marjorie Agosín (ed.), The House of Memories: Stories by Jewish Women Writers of Latin America A course-packet with other primary texts and secondary, critical readings.
Graduation Requirement: This course does not satisfy any Clark Honors College graduation requirement, but features a CHC professor. This course is open to non-CHC students.
SPANISH SEMINAR “Tango: Capitalizing on Passion” This course is an overarching introduction to Argentine tango, seen as an important locus of definition of national identity, cultural production, and literary creation. We will observe how tango functions as a privileged site where the forces of power, nationalism, colonialism, exoticism, decolonization, class struggle, race and gender meet and battle each other. By examining the history of tango we will review not only the history of Argentina, with its past of slavery and intense migratory waves, and its efforts at creating a specific cultural and national identity, but also some patterns of colonization and post-colonialism in post-independence Latin American nations. In this course we will read and listen to the poetry of tango, with close reading of relevant lyrics, read contemporary poetic works which dialogue with or rewrite tango songs, learn about the main styles, composers and orchestras of tango music, and observe the appropriation of tango by the film industry as well as its use as vehicle for discussion of alterity or minority status. Required texts: Salas, Horacio. El Tango: Una Guía Definitiva. Buenos Aires: Aguilar, 2004. Savigliano, Marta E.. Tango and the Political Economy of Passion. San Francisco: Westview Press, 1995. THESIS ORIENTATION back to top
PASS / NO PASS ATTENDANCE MANDATORY THESIS ORIENTATION This short workshop class introduces Clark Honors College students to the thesis project required of all our students. The workshop will meet for one day, plus one additional conference with the instructor. We will discuss what makes a successful thesis, what the student can hope to get out of the project, how to identify possible areas of interest, how to find appropriate faculty sponsors, how to identify courses which will provide necessary background, and how to plan the project so that it is manageable and rewarding, rather than burdensome. Other subjects include the difference between research-oriented and creative theses and how to incorporate plans for study abroad into their thesis plans. This workshop is NOT a substitute for HC 477H Thesis Prospectus (see below). This workshop aims to assist students in the earlier and preliminary work of how to approach the thesis. Consider taking this course when you begin seriously exploring your research possibilities, but no later than the term before you take HC 477H Thesis Prospectus. Thesis Orientation is not required for graduation, but CHC students who have taken it found that it relieved their anxiety about the thesis process. THESIS PROSPECTUS back to top
PASS / NO PASS THESIS PROSPECTUS Students will spend the majority of their time in this class polishing their prospectuses and then participating in mock oral examinations. Course requirements include submitting a Thesis Prospectus and completing the Graduation Audit. Seniors should also have a graduation audit done in their major department(s).
Enrollment is based on a first-come, first-served basis. Space is limited! Students who do not file applications in a timely manner will be asked to take Thesis Prospectus the following term. Before enrolling in this class, a student should
1. select a primary thesis advisor from their major department or school,
2. complete and print a Thesis Prospectus Application,
3. have the Thesis Prospectus Application signed by the primary thesis advisor,
4. submit it to CHC Academic Coordinator Kris Kirkeby one to two weeks before registration for the next term begins, and
5. register for the class.
Students who are studying abroad and need to register for Thesis Prospectus should contact Kris Kirkeby for a way to do this from afar! Individualized Study back to top
Individualized study credits should be taken within your major department. If you must take an individualized study course with CHC faculty, please follow these steps.
Please note that the individualized study courses are subject to the same deadlines as all other courses. Winter 2009 Proposed Courses back to top
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