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Home > Curriculum > Course Descriptions > Fall 2009 Course Descriptions
Fall 2009 Course Descriptions
Fall 2009 Course Descriptions | CHIP | Literature | History | Special Studies | Colloquia FALL 2009 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS back to topCHIP back to top
This class is open to freshmen and new students only.
CLARK HONORS INTRODUCTORY PROGRAM Culinary Arts: "The Food Group" To explore your University of Oregon culinary options, we will discuss the multitude of wonderful restaurants in Eugene. Along with learning about campus resources, we will have an experimentation night when everyone will bring a dorm food and we will attempt to make a meal out of the items. Exploring the fertile Willamette Valley, we will tour a nearby orchard to find out about how seeds become cherry trees and apple trees. With our combined enthusiasm for food, we will learn, we will cook, and we will eat.
This class is open to freshmen and new students only.
CLARK HONORS INTRODUCTORY PROGRAM Pre-Med: “Pre-Med? Schmee-Med” Want to be introduced to the workings of the pre-med environment at the U of O? Then this is the group for you. While 'pre-med' is not considered a major, those who wish to go on to medical school are required to take specific classes and expected to participate in a wide variety of activities. The pre-med track is often rigorous and time-consuming; this CHIP will teach you the rules of the road (when it comes to pre-med issues) and all the while ensuring your growth as a well-rounded student. We will visit science labs on campus, hold group study sessions, witness a surgery, and possibly travel to OHSU, in addition to the multiple activities available to all CHIP groups like Saturday market, Spencer's Butte Hiking, and a movie night. This CHIP has been created to keep you level headed on your journey to medical school.
This class is open to freshmen and new students only.
CLARK HONORS INTRODUCTORY PROGRAM Community Service: “The Dedicated Duck: Community Service and Leadership at the UO!” This is a great opportunity to jump into hands-on leadership and service opportunities within the University of Oregon, Clark Honors College, and the city of Eugene! This is a fun way for students to gain a better understanding of how they can be productively involved both on campus and in their community. We will meet with leaders on campus, volunteer at “Grassroots Gardens,” and learn about how to get paid to be a leader!
This class is open to freshmen and new students only.
CLARK HONORS INTRODUCTORY PROGRAM Making History Go beyond history in the classroom and discuss the past in a fun and engaging atmosphere! We will examine the history of the University of Oregon, as well as the history of the state of Oregon during its year-long 150th birthday celebration. This term we will journey to Portland for an outing, discovering the exciting exhibits of the Oregon Historical Society in Portland.
This class is open to freshmen and new students only.
CLARK HONORS INTRODUCTORY PROGRAM Art Scene: “Getting Keen on Eugene’s Arts Scene” Students who are interested in theater, writing, and art: this is the group for you! We will be visiting craft stores, going to the theaters for shows, and attending author readings, as well as making art and crafts throughout the term. This is an awesome opportunity to gain an understanding of the artsy side of Eugene and find way to express your creativity around campus!
This class is open to freshmen and new students only.
CLARK HONORS INTRODUCTORY PROGRAM Sports: “Honorable Mentions: The Sports Group” The CHIP group will not only introduce you to the Clark Honors College and the University of Oregon in general, but will introduce you to another important aspect of the University: sports! We will show you ways to participate in Club Sports, intramural teams, and even pick-up games. On top of that, we will cheer on the Ducks at Autzen and Mac Court and attend other events around Oregon. Pick up a ball, dust off your cleats, wear yellow, and join the Honorable Mentions!
This class is open to freshmen and new students only.
CLARK HONORS INTRODUCTORY PROGRAM Outdoor Skills: “Outdoor Pursuits” This Outdoor Pursuits Initiatory Course will introduce students to on-campus resources for outdoor pursuits, familiarize students with the native plant and animal life, natural history, and ecology of Oregon's incredible outdoors, and venture on several class outings, including hiking, backpacking, and possibly tree/rock climbing. Students will share their knowledge and passion for the outdoors with one another and gain knowledge and skills to thoroughly enjoy outdoor pursuits in and around Eugene. Plant identification will most likely be an academic portion of this course, and several creative assignments will also be required.
This class is open to freshmen and new students only.
CLARK HONORS INTRODUCTORY PROGRAM Journalism: “Living the Write Way” Our university is a journalism student's heaven, with dozens of independent and institutional publications. Our CHIP will be touring the offices of, or having guest student journalists from, the Oregon Daily Emerald, the Oregon Commentator, our campus radio station KWVA, and the satirical publication The Comic Press. The Journalism CHIP will also be tailored to what YOU want to learn and experience! Do you like photography, art, concerts, sports, student politics, or free food? This CHIP guarantees to expose burgeoning writers to awesome campus programs and events!
This class is open to freshmen and new students only.
CLARK HONORS INTRODUCTORY PROGRAM Outdoor Recreation: “Outdoor Escapades” In this CHIP of exploration, we will engage in numerous activities to introduce you to the great outdoors of Eugene. In addition to hikes and strolls in many of Eugene’s lovely parks, prepare for a visit to Saturday Market, s’more making over a roaring fire, kite flying on the campus green, and an expedition to the Pacific coast–anything to enjoy Eugene’s gorgeous autumn! The possibilities are endless!
This class is open to freshmen and new students only.
CLARK HONORS INTRODUCTORY PROGRAM Activisim: “Activism in the Brave New World” Politicians aren't deaf to our voices, but they aren't psychic either. This CHIP will explore all of the ways to get our voices heard and bring about real change through the government. We will meet personally with political movers and shakers from every corner of the political world–from lobbyists and campaigners to legislators and activists. Throughout the term we will experiment with both radical and mainstream tactics for enacting change and, at the end of the term, make some change of our own.
This class is open to freshmen and new students only.
CLARK HONORS INTRODUCTORY PROGRAM Musical Arts: “Tuned In: The Music CHIP” If one of the reasons that you came to Eugene was because you heard there was an awesome music scene, then this is the CHIP for you! We are going to be visiting venues around town, finding local artists and sharing our own musical interests and backgrounds. You don't have to be a musician or a music major to be in this CHIP. This is for those who are interested in music and want to explore the world of music Eugene has to offer.
This class is open to freshmen and new students only.
CLARK HONORS INTRODUCTORY PROGRAM Biodiversity: “A Passion for Life” For students with an interest in biology, Eugene is one of the best places to study. Throughout the term, this CHIP will explore the abundant biodiversity in the area—from river life, to forests to the Pacific ocean—and give students a chance to experience firsthand what it’s like to be a biologist. Students will also have a rare chance to meet with professional scientists and learn what it’s like to work in a lab on campus. At the end of the term we will take a field trip to an entirely new eco-system—the Oregon coast—to gain a new perspective on the great variety of life in the region. LITERATURE back to top
"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 Homer, Ovid, Kafka. Formal and informal writing assignments, oral presentations, and active contribution to class discussion will be required.
"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 is the idea a mishmash of comic book super heroes, 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? Can 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 poetry (narrative, dramatic, lyric) by both men and a woman (Sappho), from Greece, from China, from England (Anglo-Saxon), from France 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, Le Chanson de Roland, 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.
Course will be run as a mixture of punctuated lecture and discussion, including small group work, as well as large group discussion. Students will be expected to have the reading done before coming to class so that meaningful discussion is possible. There will be a final in-class exam (with study sheet one week in advance), but no midterm.
"The Romance of Travel" Modernity depends on opposing fact and fiction: 21st-century globalism would be nowhere without an understanding of scientific fact. Pre-modern societies like Rome, on the other hand, differentiated knowledge (scientia) from wisdom (sapientia). Stories were thought to carry knowledge in its many forms, and a recent theory contends that narrative – story -- is the foundation of language itself (see Mark Turner, The Literary Mind, Oxford UP, 1996).
Since the western Enlightenment, however, story has been “mere story” -- so Francis Bacon called it in 1626. Modernity makes history story’s opposite: history gives us fact rather than fiction, story gives us imagination rather than reality. Aren’t facts more important than fiction?
Reading pre-modern texts with attention to discovery, interpretation, and use can help us understand the value of narrative and our own positions within a sea of story. We’ll use travellers’ tales (a tale is also a “mere story,” according to the OED) and their “translations” (meaning “to carry, to transfer”) to grapple with representations of self and other, and with the value of imagination and emotion. We’ll let the root of education – educare, to lead forth – lead us to new sorts of intellectual and emotional understandings as we consider the ways a reader’s necessary empathy can shade into appropriation. Your literary journey starts here.
Possible choices for texts include The Odyssey, The Romance of Alexander, Journey to the West, The Inferno, Ibn Battuta, Mandeville’s Travels, The Book of Margery Kempe, The Narrow to the Interior, The Tempest.
Close reading is vital; interpretive muscle grows from it. Written work for the class will include ungraded response papers, two five-page formal papers, class presentations, and a comprehensive final examination. Some special events related to the class, such as films or readings, will be arranged during the term.
"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).
"Desire, Deviance, and Transformation: The Rhetoric of Metamorphosis" This class introduces students to the rhetoric of metamorphosis in Western literature. We will investigate the enduring fascination with human transformations in Western literary tradition, theorizing why common human experiences such as love, creativity, and death are so often represented in literature as monstrous. More specifically, we will focus on metamorphoses caused by desire and deviance, exploring the intricate relationship between transformation and justice for those who flaunt the rules or are seen as outside the law. How can desire, and desiring the wrong things, and desiring too much, get you in trouble? And why do so many metamorphoses seem unjust and funny at the same time?
HISTORY back to top
"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.
“Time in the Ancient Mediterranean World” "What, then, is time?" wrote the fourth-century Christian theologian Augustine. "If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks, I know not." Augustine was not the only ancient who was fascinated by the phenomenon of lived time, the problems of perception and memory, and the power of history as an explanatory tool. For many centuries, philosophers, theologians, scientists, engineers, philologists, historians, and others have explored and worried questions of time. And because the problem of time is central to every aspect of lived historical experience, these explorations give us an important window into how people from other eras and places saw and experienced their world. In this course, we will examine the history of time in its many forms, technical, phenomenological, and narrative-- from clocks and calendars to histories and philosophical inquiries. Our goal is three-fold: first, we seek to understand the ancient world as it was. We will focus especially on the worlds of Greece and Rome while examining their meaning in a broader cultural context. Second, we seek to understand the ancient world as it is--how it exists for us, how it matters still, and how it has mattered differently over the years. Third, we seek to understand the power and purpose of the study of history by examining its own development and life. This class focuses on techniques of close reading, analytic writing, and the development of tools of historical interpretation; and it offers a framework for understanding the interrelationship among social, cultural, and intellectual forces in the premodern world.
“Contact and Exchange in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds” This course is the first of a sequence of an “Introduction to Historical Thinking in a Global Framework.” We will examine societies in the ancient and medieval worlds, focusing on Africa, Asia, and Europe. We will consider the origins and development of these societies, their unique characteristics, and on moments of interaction between cultures. We will especially focus on the movement and exchange of ideas, peoples, and goods, ranging from the spread of world religions to the emergence of commercial networks that connected these regions.
Students will engage with these topics through reading both primary and secondary sources. We will read many different types of texts and consider multiple types of evidence, from works of literature to sources that invoke cross-cultural contact (i.e. the accounts of diplomats, merchants, and other travelers). We will also consider different ways to approach these sources, through various types of historical analysis and analytical writing. Essentially, students will learn ways to both ask and answer questions about the past.
"Crossroads of the World: The Making of World History in South/East Asia" This is the first of three courses designed to introduce students to the nature of historical reasoning through the field of world history. Our first course focuses on the dissemination of people and ideas through the vehicle of long-distance trade before the modern era. We seek to know the following: why did certain beliefs acquire global dimensions? How were established religions challenged as a result of the spread of writing technologies? Why and how did systems of belief change as they circulated through world regions? Under what conditions did people accept these beliefs willingly and under what conditions were they compelled to do so?
Chronologically, we will begin at the dawn of civilization and end with Magellan’s voyage around the world. Geographically, our focus is threefold. First, we seek to understand the intersection of governance, society, and intellectual production in ancient civilizations. Our home base will be the plural societies of South Asia and East Asia and their major belief systems. Second, we want to grasp how regions receptive to these systems of belief appropriated and disseminated them throughout their societies. Our regional home base will be Southeast Asia, the only area in world history up to this time to accept all major world religions: Buddhism (Mahayana and Theravada), Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity, plus their own animist beliefs. Third, we wish to understand how areas untouched for millennia by these systems responded to the intrusion of the first truly world empires in the 15th century. Our home base will be one micro-society of the Pacific world.
Given our emphasis on historical analysis, the class will stress the close reading of primary sources and exercises designed to craft research questions and formulate research topics. Grade will be based on attendance and participation, writing exercises, a mid-term, and a final paper.
“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. 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
"Art in Evolutionary Perspective" Why do humans care about beauty and creativity? To answer this question, we have to understand the conditions under which art emerged. Humans were producing art by 40,000 years ago, and probably much earlier. This means that art behavior emerged in response to a hunting-and-gathering lifestyle. Forager life is dangerous, difficult, and rigorous: why would our ancestors have “wasted” their time and energy on what appear to be non-utilitarian objects and activities? This course explores this question by considering the possibility that art behavior is adaptive—that is, by considering the challenges of forager life that art behaviors might have evolved to address. To this end, students will be familiarized with the basic tenets of evolutionary psychology, key developments in human evolution, and art prehistory. We will then proceed to recent scholarship regarding selection pressures that might have driven the development of various art behaviors, and the role that these behaviors played in ancestral human life. We will then see how these theories hold up against the realities of day-to-day hunter-gatherer existence, reconstructed through ethnographic and archaeological data. Course requirements will include one short oral report, discussion questions, a take-home midterm, and a final.
"Little Magazines" In this class we’ll be exploring a selection of little magazines from the Modernist period (approximately 1900-1940). A vehicle for innovative and experimental work in a broad range of disciplines (art, literature, society and politics etc.), the story of the little magazine constitutes an important chapter in the history of modernism. Topics for discussion will include print culture and the public sphere of modernity, avant-garde movements, the tight relationship between modernism and socio-political and cultural issues of the period and the promotional culture of the early twentieth century. We will use University of Oregon library holdings and several online resources, including the Modernist Journals Project, which provide sometimes hard-to-find full text versions of many important magazines.
Students interested in the class are urged to begin exploring the MJP resource: http://dl.lib.brown.edu:8081/exist/mjp/index.xml.
See also http://dl.lib.brown.edu:8081/exist/mjp/teaching/MJPstaff/PoetryProjects.pdf for the kinds of exercises we’ll be undertaking.
Prerequisite: HC 221-223 or 231-233
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Arts & Letters Colloquium and an IP 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 IP Multicultural class.
HC IDENTITIES COLLOQUIUM / [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, the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), Latin America (both Spanish-American and Luso-Brazilian) 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.
Texts: Joann Sfar, The Rabbi's Cat, Moacyr Scliar, The Centaur in the Garden, Ana María Shua, The Book of Memories, Marcel Bénabou, Jacob, Menahem and Mimoun: A Family Epic, Primo Levi, The Periodic Table.
"News in Civil Society" News is a powerful force in human affairs. “The function of news is to orient man and society in an actual world,” said scholar Robert E. Park[1] One example: European emigrants establishing colonial America in an alien land reoriented themselves by quizzing arriving ship passengers for tidings of events back home. Media sociologist Pamela Shoemaker theorizes that humans are “hard-wired” biologically to consume news as a function of perpetual surveillance, scanning their environments to detect hazards.[2] Today many millions around the globe follow the news for many reasons: to glimpse the lives of others, to equip themselves for survival or success, or to understand—and, in democracies, possibly influence--governance and political trends. Because media present other news as well across an almost infinite range of topics, they can build general knowledge, can catalyze change, or simply can amuse, intrigue, or shock their consumers. Critics often charge that U.S. media companies too often choose the latter course, fashioning news that attracts broader revenue-generating audiences, downgrading the crucial work of scrutinizing government.
A consumer swing to interactive digital media now drains profits from traditional print and electronic media, and stands to shift much control over news production to the grass roots. Is news produced by the masses, rather than delivered to them by an old-line media establishment, likely to fulfill journalism’s “watchdog” mission? Is that mission still crucial? If not, should news—will news—lose its special status in our civil society? Or is news in general an increasingly important force in maintaining the coherence, self-image, and international perceptions of many societies, circulating information that in effect helps them to exist?
This colloquium will examine and raise questions about the uses, forms, societal value, and future of news in civil society, edging toward some answers. All points of view will be welcomed; readings, video presentations, and guest speakers will inform and stimulate our work. As a class member, you will contribute critical thinking that will add to the richness of this inquiry, to be reflected in summaries of readings and discussions, a midterm examination, and a final research paper.
"Pioneers of Sustainability" Sustainability has become a dominant buzz-word in today’s society. In a wide range of fields including economics, technology, philosophy, literature, and public policy it is presented as a new, innovative direction for charting the course out of present-day environmental and social challenges and toward a better society.
Yet, how new is the idea of sustainability? Many of the questions we face today about energy sources, species loss, pollution, the role of technology, and the meaning of nature were just as urgent in the last quarter of the 20th century as they are today. During the 1970s the combined impact of the oil embargos, uncertainty about the widespread introduction of nuclear power, the rise of the contemporary environmental movement, crisis in the federal government and a general questioning of modernity gave rise to an outpouring of critical and creative work exploring possible new directions for society.
This course reviews works from these pioneers in the field of sustainability. Covering writings about technology, energy, economics, philosophy, and literature the course seeks to both critically examine this work as well as gain an appreciation for the building blocks of what later would become the global sustainability movement. Through this approach Pioneers of Sustainability provides an opportunity for students to learn about the foundations of one of the world’s most influential movements while expanding their ability to go beyond this early thinking to new horizons in social reform.
Some themes and questions we will explore in this course are:
- How can we plan for a sustainable society?
- Is there an appropriate scale for humane technological development?
- What is the role of energy sources in shaping society?
- What could an ecological society look like?
- What is the relationship between humanity and nature in a sustainable society?
- How would a sustainable economy be organized?
Students will be introduced to course themes through assigned readings from primary sources. Through readings, guest speakers, field trips, written assignments, and other activities, students will study the interplay of social, political, and economic factors that defined these early conceptions of sustainability. Practical application of these ideas will be explored through written assignments, conversations with guest speakers, and class discussions.
"Mental Illness in Literature" Literature and lunacy often go hand-in-hand. Representations of psychological disorders in literature are pervasive and vary widely in their diagnostic accuracy. This course will pair literary depictions of common clinical disorders with psychological research. Books, plays, memoirs, and poetry will all serve as case studies, with authors as diverse as William Shakespeare, Eugene O’Neill, Sylvia Plath, William Styron, Ernest Hemingway, John Updike, and Chang-Rae Lee. By examining mental illness through the lens of popular writing, we will explore the shifting cultural understanding and interpretations for disorders. We will also explore how writers’ accounts of disorders adhere (purposely or not) to DSM diagnostic criteria and empirically validated research.
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] "Literature and Human Rights" Where in the world do human rights pertain? Are there limits to the rhetoric of rights? Are all humans to be understood as rights-bearing individuals? Our class will examine conflicting ways in which human rights have been understood across a range of literary, legal and cultural texts. Beginning with the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), we will reflect on how certain literary forms?-testimonials, novels, films or poetry?-construct the category of the human, and we will consider the role literature plays in how human rights come to be felt, by whom and toward what ends. Readings will include works by J.M. Coetzee, Joe Sacco, Maguerite Duras, Hannah Arendt, Joseph Slaughter, Giorgio Agamben, and Judith Butler. Our regular class sessions will be conducted primarily in a seminar format, so active participation in discussion is absolutely necessary.
Prerequisite: HC 221-223 or 231-233 Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill both of the following requirements: a Social Science Colloquium and an IC Multicultural class. If the student has already taken a Social Science Colloquium, this class will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Elective Colloquium and an IC Multicultural class. HC INTERNATIONAL CULTURES COLLOQUIUM / [HC SOCIAL SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM] “Birth of the Modern State: Comparative Patterns of State Formation and Evolution” The state is the most important political institution in modern time. It emerged and developed gradually in Europe over several centuries before spreading to the Americas in the 18th century. By the mid-20th century, states had become the universal political units under which human societies are organized. As a form of political organization, states have defeated empires, trading city-states, and tribes which dominated the world five hundred years ago. In this colloquium, students read historical, sociological, anthropological, and political accounts of state formation in various contexts, guided by a number of questions, including: How were modern states formed in Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa? What explains the success of states over other forms of political units? What explains variations in the patterns of modern state formation across continents? Why have some states been more cohesive and successful than others? What is the future of states?
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] "Topics in Global Energy Policy" The window of the world's energy economy being driven by the rampant use of fossil fuels is beginning to close. Awareness of is this window closing, however, is slow in coming to both the general public and to elected officials, whom generally assume the world is infinite thus allowing the oil to flow forever. However, June 2008 will go down in history as the moment when the price of gas rose to the point that TV commercials about our need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil first appeared. So, yes, awareness has been raised but that doesn't necessarily translate into sensible actions and implementation of new infrastructure
Moreover, in the last century it was primarily the US and Western Europe that impacted the world's resources - now that impact has dramatically shifted and the emerging energy footprints of India and especially China, are of global concern. In particular, the growth rate of China since 2002 is so staggering that China is now on pace to surpass US Greenhouse gas emissions in the Summer of 2008! (3 years ago the projection was 2016). Guess What - they did!
Reasonable estimates suggest that fossil fuel production will dwindle to 10% of its current values in the next 40 years. Accelerated fossil fuel dependence in India and China will only serve to shorten, perhaps dramatically, this depletion timescale. Currently, 89% of the world's energy generating capacity is fossil fuel dependent. Thus, optimistically, we have about 40 years left to move from a fossil fuel based energy economy to a sustainable energy economy. Forty years is not a long time - you will still be alive in 40 years! . Emerging technologies such as improved solar photovoltaic cells, concentrated solar power, improved wind turbines, clever ocean wave energy devices, advanced gas turbines, hydrogen fuel cells, efficient biomass co-generation facilities, improved energy storage capacity in batteries, ocean thermal electric conversion heat engines, and various alternative fuel pathways for vehicles offer us a wide array of choices for alternative means to derive energy. That is, we can exercise options now - so why the hell aren't we?
In addition, individual transportation of human beings by fossil fuel powered vehicles is increasing at an alarmingly rapid pace. In turn, this provides an accelerated input to climate change (a companion or follow up to this course - The Physics and Politics of Climate Change will be offered as an HC 434/441 course this spring ). Emerging technologies such as plug-in hybrid vehicles, zinc-air batteries, cellulose based biofuels, hydrogen cars, etc offer promising alternatives to the traditional fill 'er up at the pump status quo.
However, each of these new forms of energy generation has a different environmental and ecological impact and thus this array of choices needs to be evaluated objectively and fairly. In addition, each needs new kinds of infrastructure and distribution systems, so the choice matrix is large. However, the main point is that CHOICES EXIST.
The focus of this course, therefore, will be to examine competing alternative energy technologies from the physical, social, economic and humanistic point of view. This course will also focus on the societal/cultural barriers to energy conservation, since clearly, our energy future also depends on our ability to act more conscientiously and cooperatively. In other words, we will pay some attention to the non-rhetorical question Why do Humans treat nature as a consumable?
Currently each form of alternative energy has a passionate set of advocates that insist their form is the "solution". The reality is that regional combinations of different technologies are the only real solution - there is no one answer. The problem is complex at all levels. There are engineering challenges, infrastructure challenges, political challenges, economic consequence, and cultural impediments.
This course will deal with the issues of alternative energy sources and sustainable energy sources both for the purposes of electricity generation and for transportation. The intent is to perform an objective cost-benefit analysis on each form of alternative energy in order to determine what is feasible on a large scale. Full consideration will be given of the ecological footprint of various forms of energy generation since that is what the NIMBY public will react most viscerally to.
The course website will be located on the Blackboard server.
The main themes of this class are:
· To critically analyze various aspects of our national energy policy and to construct reasonable future trajectories.
· To gain an understanding of the cost-benefit ratio of various alternative energy sources to see what is feasible on the large scale and what is not. This involves an understanding of both the land and material use of a given technology,
· To understand some of the various obstacles associated with actual implementation of production line alternative energy facilities.
· To do simple calculations regarding the cost of energy usage and the required infrastructure to deliver a certain amount of power.
· To gain an understanding of how difficult it is to overcome culture barriers, knee-jerk reactions and the prevalent NIMBY attitude to actually come up with a working solution.
· To critically examine alternative modes of transportation and their scalablity and/or required infrastructure for fuel production and delivery.
To further examine the energy problem in a more global context. |
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