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Home > Curriculum > Course Descriptions > Winter 2006 Newsletter
Winter 2006 Newsletter
Important Dates | Thesis Q&A Session | Creative Arts Journal | Annual Advising WINTER 2006 - IMPORTANT DATES back to topNovember 14-23 November 15 & 16 November 23 - Wednesday November 24-25 November 29 - Tuesday December 2 - Friday December 5-9 December 8 - Thursday January 9 - Monday January 16 - Monday February 27 - March 10 March 17 - Friday March 23 - Thursday March 20-24 March 27-31 THESIS Q & A SESSION back to topThis is your time for questions. If you absolutely can't make one of these sessions and need some conversation about the thesis process, please contact CHC Academic Coordinator .
Who must attend:
Exceptions:
CREATIVE ARTS JOURNAL back to topAll types of works are accepted for consideration. To ensure an unbiased selection process, include the title on your work, but not your name. Whenever possible, please submit copies, scans, or some other facsimile rather than original works. Also include a Creative Arts Journal Submission Form with each work so that we have your contact information as well as your permission to include your work in the printed Journal, and/or on the CHC website. Works may be submitted any time until the deadline (TBA) which is usually early in the winter term. For more information, contact or Faculty Advisor Prof. Helen Southworth. Previous issues can be viewed on the web. Submissions accepted now! ANNUAL ADVISING back to topStudents are strongly encouraged to see their advisers at least once a year to make sure that they are fulfilling all of the CHC core requirements. One of the most important aspects of the Clark Honors College experience is the close faculty advising available to our students. If you don't know who your advisor is, please come to the CHC Office or you may approach any of the CHC faculty and ask if they will advise you. RESEARCH ASSISTANCE back to topNeed help with research? Visit or contact Eliz Breakstone, the Clark Honors College Librarian. She can help you with any kind of research at any stage in the research process. Chapman Hall office hours: Tuesdays 11am-1pm. NEW INSTANT MESSAGE ADDRESSES: 2005 WINNERS back to topThese 2005 Winners received monetary awards, scholarships, or gift certificates to the University of Oregon Bookstore. The Commencement Award Winners were honored at the Spring 2005 Commencement ceremony. IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR SENIORS back to topWhen completing forms online, please fill in as much information as possible before printing. 1. Thesis Prospectus 2. Graduation Audit 3. Scheduling Oral Defense Once the oral defense has been scheduled, the student must submit a Thesis Evaluation to Kris Kirkeby no later than three weeks before the defense. No Oral Defenses will be scheduled during or after the final two weeks of the term (Week 10 and finals) nor during Holidays, the vacation breaks, or summer term. 4. Fellowships In order to receive fellowship support, students must submit receipts and a Senior Thesis Reimbursement Application to the CHC office after the final two copies of the thesis have been turned in. Emergency requests for funds in advance of completion of the thesis may be submitted for special review anytime after the thesis prospectus, signed by the faculty advisor, has been submitted to CHC. 5. Final Thesis Copies WINTER 2006 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS back to topLITERATURE back to top
"A Sense of Discovery: Travel and the Construction of Identity" This course explores the theme of travel as found in texts written during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. By reading works such as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's "Turkish Embassy Letters," Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (excerpts), and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, we will interrogate the ways in which geographic and imaginative travel contributed to a sense of individual and national identity. Classes will include lecture, group projects, and discussion. There will be two papers and a comprehensive final exam.
"The Good Life II" Ancient European views of the good life were foundational for some, a source of rebellion for others, and an alternative not available to many. Here we explore the question, "How should we live and what should we value?" as posed by inheritors of ancient Western traditions in dialogue with key texts from the Arabic tradition. How does the question get reshaped, and what do we learn today from these efforts? How do the very forms created to express the most significant Medieval, Renaissance, and Neoclassical concerns come to buckle under the weight they bear? Readings will include excerpts from The Thousand and One Nights, the "Prologue" to the Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath's "Prologue" and "Tale," "The Pardoner's Tale," and "The Nun's Priest's Tale," in Middle English, The Rover (Aphra Behn), excerpts from the Koran, Paradise Lost (John Milton), and Gulliver's Travels, Book IV (Jonathan Swift). Class time will focus on discussion based on careful reading. There will be three short papers (2-6 pages), ungraded exercises, both in and out of class, a midterm and a final exam.
"In Exile: Dislocation, Identity, Multilingualism" In this course we will discuss the theme of exile, trying to observe how the trope of exile appears in different literatures. I am interested in the process of identity formation through displacement, and how languages and cultures are intertwined and negotiated in this process. In a broader sense, we will observe how issues of estrangement and language affect the very possibility of writing. Considering that in different times and places the notion and experience of exile means something different to each writer, we will examine the possibility of textual production in an exilic condition. How does a writer react and create a text in exile? How does a writer live his or her experience of exile and how does this particular perception find its way into his or her creative work? How does one redefine or renegotiate identity in exile:? How does one choose a language to write when in exile? During the semester we will read authors who write in different languages (Portuguese, French, Hebrew, Arabic, Italian, Spanish and English) and come from very different literary traditions, such as Dante, Yehuda Halevi, King Al-Mu'tamid of Sevilla, San Juan de la Cruz, Santa Teresa de $Aacute;vila, Milton, Yehuda Amichai, Juan Gelman, Gloria Anzaldúa, and bell hooks. Among the issues to be considered in this course are textual and cultural translation and the hybridization of genres. Required texts:
"Emerging Voices in the Renaissance and the Neoclassic Age" The texts are Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare's King Lear, Behn's The Rover, Milton's Paradise Lost, Pope's "Essay on Man," Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Kurosawa's Ran. The course will explore major debatable literary topics, as proposed by classic texts. We will look at the gain and loss of ideal worlds proposed by the Renaissance and Restoration (Aphra Behn, Shakespeare, Milton), and the subsequent equilibrium attained by the 18th century (Pope and Austen). The class will also study the forms of tragedy (King Lear, Ran), comedy (The Rover, Pride and Prejudice), and epic (Paradise Lost). We will be particularly interested in how previously marginalized voices - in women, in political rebels, in people in underprivileged classes, in artists, in unacknowleged non-Western writers - actually acquire a voice in these texts. Class will consist of discussion, lecture, and semi-formal debate. In lecture, particular emphasis will be given to recent scholarship, which calls for a new focus on great women authors, such as Aphra Behn, as well as a revision of how we view such classic writers as Milton, Austen, and Shakespeare. We will also be looking at a film script and film, Ran, a Samurai version of King Lear created by the great Japanese director, Kuro-sawa. Writing assignments will emphasize close readings to the texts. There will be papers, plus a journal. The course will be a balance of lecture and discussion.
"Order: Moral and Otherwise" By what do you order your life? What is the guiding interest or principle around which you organize everything else? Different centuries have come up with different answers. Passionate love for a woman is one center or order; the code of Honor is another; religious beliefs and heroism are yet more. We will be studying primarily drama, but the texts will cover from the Middle Ages to the mid 18th century. The works we study will include: Tirso, Burlador de Sevilla (Spain); Aphra Behn, The Rover (Part 1); Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1; Marlowe, Dr. Faustus; Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer (all from England); Corneille, Le Cid; Molière, Tartuffe (both from France). Other non-dramatic texts include Malory's Mort D'Arthur and (from China) The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (includes a play-ette in the middle of the novel) and poetry from the Renaissance by Petrarch, Wyatt, Sidney, Queen Elizabeth I, Katherine Philipps, Louise Labé, (and modern) sonneteer Edna St. Vincent Millay. Class will require two medium length critical papers, for one of which a literary journal kept all term will substitute. No midterm but an essay final in class. Play scenes by volunteering members of the class will be part of the instruction and will gain extra credit, as well the same sort of "Adventurous topics" which require outside research. The class will also feature lecture broken up by questions, as well as small and large group discussion. HISTORY back to top
"Introduction to Historical Thinking in a Global Framework: 1350-1789" In the beginning of the century near whose end Columbus crossed the Atlantic, the Chinese admiral Zheng He made seven major voyages throughout the South Pacific and across Indian Ocean to the thriving trade centers on Africa's east coast. His fleet consisted of 62 ships, most of which were so large that Columbus's entire fleet of three ships could easily fit on their decks. Compared to the great cities of China, the Indian Ocean rim, and the Eastern Mediterranean, Europe was a rural and provincial backwater. By the end of the period covered in this course, Europe was about to complete its conquest of the world and the tiny kingdom of England had acquired an empire "on which the sun never set." This astonishing transformation and its consequences will be the topics of this course, which will be divided into three parts. In the first part we will take stock of the state of the world in 1350. Through comparative socio-cultural analyses we will glimpse the similarities and differences in how people lived and thought in China, in the Islamic World, in Africa and the Americas. We will analyze social forms in order to reconstruct modes of behavior and the tone of daily life; and we will interpret works of art and literature, religion and philosophy in order to understand how contemporaries perceived their world. In the second part of the course, we will focus specifically on the profound process of transformation effected in Europe by the advent of capitalism. We will focus on the motives behind European expansion and the sources of its success. In the third part of the course we will examine the global consequences of Europe's newfound economic and military power. Our major concerns will be: how European conquest and colonialization produced "third worlds," that is, economic underdevelopment, in much of the world; the consequences of the slave trade for Africa, the Americas, and Europe; the cultural contacts and conflicts that took place in the context of colonial domination. Since so many current conflicts, both within the West and around the world have their origins in this period, an understanding of Europe's rise to dominance and the origins and nature of its relations with the rest of the world is crucial to understanding the present. Assignments include: a bibliography, two papers (5-6 pages), and a final exam.
"Empire, Religion, and Discovery: Global Contact and Change, 1400-1750" This course will explore the rapid changes that affected the globe during 1400-1750. We will focus on three imperial systems: Western Europe and her colonies in North and South America, China, and the Ottoman (the Islamic empire that came to control all of North Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Europe). We will consider the culture, politics, economics, and religion of each region, as well as the interactions between these empires. Our investigation will examine such questions as: How did Europe change the Americas, and how did the Americas change Europe? How did Europe, which began as an insubstantial backwater, come to international prominence by the end of this period? How did the Ottomans manage an empire that contained such a tremendous area and diversity of peoples? How did Muslims and Christians compete and cooperate with each other throughout the Mediterranean? How did the Chinese respond to Manchu domination and contact with the Europeans? Why did the Chinese, who in the fifteenth century launched the most powerful program of maritime exploration in the world, become so disinterested in foreign contact? What led to, and what were the effects of, the European Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, which propelled Europe to world domination in the modern era? How did religion, philosophy, and technology affect the fortunes of these empires and their policies? We will approach these questions through examining primary written resources, art, technology, and architecture. 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.
"Worlds Old and New: The Early Modern Period" In this second segment of our year-long course, we examine the beginnings of modernity and the confrontation of the cultures and polities of Europe with those of the world. We will focus especially on changing conceptions of scientific, ethnographic, and philosophical evidence and changing structures of epistemology. We will continue to work on analytic and compositional strategies and begin to look forward to the research paper next term. Readings include: Miguel Leon-Portilla, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico; Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre; Margaret Cavendish, Paper Bodies; René Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, First and Second Discourses. Please purchase the editions of these works available in the UO Bookstore.
"South Asia and Atlantic World: Contact Zones in the Early Modern Era, 1400-1800" This course examines problems in historical inquiry by focusing on areas of contact in the Atlantic and Asian zones of cross and intra/societal exchange. Our topics include the significance of the shift from overland routes to sea routes across the Indian and Atlantic Oceans in the 15th century. We will look at maritime activities before and after this transition to explore ways in which commercial, military, social, and political relations took shape in the early modern era. We will also examine the processes of modern state-building in relationship to the movement of commodities and technologies across different political environments. Our readings include Chinese and Portuguese accounts of Calicut on the Indian Ocean, reports on the voyages of Zheng He, Vasco da Gama, and Columbus, as well as readings in the scientific and religious traditions of Ibn al-Shatin and Copernicus. SCIENCE back to top
"Introduction to Astronomy" This course will be a comprehensive survey of the field of astronomy and astrophysics. The material will be divided into three sections; 1) the origin and properties of the Solar System (terrestrial worlds, jovian worlds, planetary evolution, comets and asteriods), 2) the formation and evolution of stars (stellar types, fusion, novae, neutron stars, black holes) and 3) cosmology (galaxies, lookback time, expanding spacetime, dark matter, dark energy, the early Universe). The topics discussed will focus primarily on the recent results from deep space planetary probes and orbiting telescopes. The class will consist of lectures plus discussion, lab assignments and problem sets. SPECIAL STUDIES back to top
SPECIAL STUDIES "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
"Amadeus: Mozart and Myth" Using as a starting point the play and film, "Amadeus," we will examine how our culture—and those of the past—makes up myths about creative artists. We will look at both the facts and the creative fictions of Mozart's life and become well acquainted with the music used to illustrate it. What does the music of Mozart have to do with the myths about him? How do our views of Mozart influence our sense of his music? And how have these questions changed over time? Two short and one longer paper (2-4 pages; 5-10 pages) and an oral presentation (stemming from one of the papers) are required. Extensive reading and listening are required, but no previous knowledge of music is necessary. The course will be lecture and discussion-based, with attendance at several live performances suggested.
Substitution: This topic may be taken as a substitute for HC 421. Please ask your CHC Advisor to authorize this substitution in your student file. HC IDENTITIES COLLOQUIUM "Pens and Needles: Seven Centuries of Women Writing Science" Scientia is Latin for knowledge. In this course we will examine the texts of four women writers to assess their attachment to, interest in, and use of science as a body of knowledge, a rigorous discipline, and a framework for sapientia, wisdom. Our first writer, Hildegard of Bingen, wrote her medico-scientific treatises during the first half of the twelfth century. Both her Physica, a "natural history," and Causes and Cures, a compendium of medicine some argue derives from Hildegard's own experience, reveal her immersion in the learned texts of her day as well as her unique additions to a received corpus. Trota, author of the Trotula and a teacher at the first medical school in Europe, wrote a medical treatise roughly contemporary with Hildegard's. In true medieval fashion, the Trotula acquired other medical texts while retaining Trota's name and her gender in its title. The Trotula was widely disseminated throughout Europe, in both Latin and vernacular languages, into the seventeenth century. Margaret Cavendish, Countess of Newcastle, authored a "science travelogue" in the mid-seventeenth century, using atomic theory and mathematics, literally and metaphorically, for understanding the "natural philosophy" of human existence. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Jane Marcet wrote a chemistry book that was widely used in schools but also "picked up" by interested parties like Michael Faraday. Marcet's "textbook" teaches chemistry through dialogue between "Mrs. B" and her two female charges. The book lets us consider "science" at the advent of its modern definition. These four authors provide a wide-ranging journey through women writing science in the past. Besides our primary texts, we will read critical articles about the gendered framework of scientific language and the role of "nature" in scientific discourse. The culmination of the class will be oral presentations on a "woman writing science" each student chooses. Students may also choose to work collaboratively on particular figures. Among the candidates for such research are Sophie Germain, Rosalind Franklin, Marie Curie, Ada Byron, and Rachel Carson, but students are not in any way limited to this particular list. Students are encouraged to treat science broadly - medicine, "natural philosophy," and mathematics all reside under the "science" umbrella - and to wrestle with social and literary meanings of women writing science. Students will write short reaction papers for each of our four shared authors; at midterm they will provide a thesis question and an annotated bibliography for their chosen woman writing science; they will present their research to the class, either in groups or singly; and they will write a term paper on their writer, taking into account some of the "pre-history" of women writing science.
"The New Science of Networks" The study of networks has become a topic of increasing interest across a range of academic disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, economics, physics, biology, mathematics, and computer science. With new tools provided by powerful but affordable computers and computing software, researchers have made impressive gains in modeling and theorizing the nature of networks as complex, large-scale, interactive systems. One of the results of this research has been the greater appreciation of the way that networks and their properties provide a bridge between formerly separate disciplines and areas of study. The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to and overview of this newly emerging science of networks. More specifically, the course will focus on: (1) the current state of knowledge and debate concerning the general properties of networks as complex, interactive systems; (2) representative examples of substantive research on networks from a range of academic fields; and (3) training in the methods of empirical network analysis using real-world data and cutting-edge computer software. The main texts for the course are Albert-Lázló Barabási, Linked: The New Science of Networks and John Scott, Social Network Analysis: A Handbook. The software program Ucinet 6 will be used to teach the basic methods of network analysis. Weekly topics include: social, political, and organizational networks; markets and financial networks, the Internet and peer-to-peer networks; scientific collaboration networks; ecological, metabolic, and neural networks; industrial and transportation networks.
"Evolution, Cooperation and Ethics" What is the relevance of modern evolutionary psychology for the roots of human political and social behavior in particular, cooperative and ethically-bound behaviors? Classic and modern political and ethical theories (e.g., Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Rawls, as well as Modern Political Economy and much Feminist theory) are, characteristically, founded on assumptions about human behavior. Evolutionary psychology lets us evaluate those assumptions and, therefore, provides a basis from which such theories can be reassessed---at the same time providing a bridge between the life sciences and the social sciences. There are major but often isolated literatures relevant to this issue in Decision Theory, Biology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Economics, Anthropology, Sociology, Ethics and Political Science. We will look at some literature from all of those fields.
"Environment, Science, and Empire" We tend to think of empire as a question of wars and kings, of armies and weapons, but the truth is that in attempting to conquer half the world, Europeans found that they also had to conquer nature itself, and frequently the battle was harder fought than any against humans. Disease in the tropics barred the conquest of Haiti and West Africa. At other times, environmental and technological factors served as the handmaiden to empire, as smallpox depopulated the Americas and the telegraph helped prevent the overthrow of the British empire in India. The ecological impact of European expansion is still being felt today. This course is not a survey, but merely an introduction to the principles and approaches of environmental history and an investigation of some interesting case studies. The case studies we will read in class are mostly drawn from European expansion in Africa and the Americas, and tilt heavily toward the British empire. However, students will also write their own case studies on a question, episode, or place that especially interests them, and for these research papers, they may work within any imperial framework from 1400 to 2000 to examine how a particular environmental, scientific, or technological factor helped set the pattern for the interaction between colonized and colonizer and influenced the course of world history. Students will write a research paper of 15-20 pages, which may draw on original primary sources, secondary sources by historians, or possibly even scientific research in conjunction with historical texts. The topic will be developed in close consultation with the instructor. For the first several weeks of the semester, students should expect to read a book each week (200-250 pages), and will write short response essays in some of the weeks. Reading will lighten substantially in the latter part of the semester as students work on their research papers, but students may still be asked to submit summaries of the reading - we will divide up some longer works and exchange information in class. Students will also make a presentation of their research at the end of term, so that the entire class will gain a larger understanding beyond the limits of what can be assigned in 10 weeks. Books ordered for this course: Crosby, Columbian Exchange (the biological, demographic, and botanical effects of European arrival in the Americas, and a founding text of environmental history); Cronon, Changes in the Land (the disjunction between Native American and English understanding of the land in colonial New England); Carney, Black Rice (how Africans taught colonial South Carolina to grow rice). I'll probably add at least another book or two to those, as well as some articles. Other books we might read: Mills, Cannabis Britannica (the British empire and the regulation of marijuana); Curtin, Death by Migration (disease and European soldiers in Africa, the Caribbean, and India); Edney, Mapping an Empire (how Britain claimed possession of India by mapping it).
"Visions of Freedom IV: Utopian Thinking and Thinking Utopia" Utopia - no place. Not yet? Not ever? Now? Why have so many (non-fiction) writers given so much effort to describe, often in astonishing detail, a place that doesn't exist? Is it a silent belief in the "not yet", the unspoken hope of utopian thinkers that if a blueprint of an ideal society could be developed, then it might be possible to realize it? Or convinced of the "not ever," did they developed their vision of an ideal society in order to make visible the ills of their own? Or both? Or now? Have we now in our own present reached a point where utopian thinking is no longer utopian. Herbert Marcuse thinks so: he argued that we now have the technological capacity to satisfy the material needs of all while maximizing human freedom to an extent almost undreamed of - quite a statement in view of the history of utopian dreaming. But Marcuse insisted that utopian thinking is not at all utopian, but necessary both to shake us out of our complacent illusion that we are free and to help us realize how polymorphous freedom really could be. Whatever the answers to these questions, all utopian thinkers have had to try to resolve the problem of the relation between individual and society. And the diverse attempts to resolve this problem vary according to the author's views of human nature and corresponding definition of freedom. Through the writings of several utopian thinkers and through course participants' construction of their own utopias, this course will pursue the question "why think utopia?" In so doing it will address the related issues of how (and whether) to define human nature, how to structure the relation between individual and society, and visions of freedom. In the first two weeks we will look at two distinctly non-utopian works (Kafka, The Trial, Wallace Shawn, The Fever) that force us to confront what we consider to be our own freedom. In the next four weeks, we will consider several examples of 19th and 20th century utopian thinking (these will be chosen during the first week in consultation with the class participants). In the last four weeks class participants, organized in small groups and working on a particular utopian thinker or theme, will present the topic and their utopian vision to, and then discuss it with, the rest of the class. In addition to the reading, assignments are: a utopian journal, the oral presentation, a final paper that develops a blueprint of your own utopia.
"Colonialism and Anthropology" Anthropology is generally defined as the study of human diversity. A more radical definition of anthropology is how the west encounters the rest through a relationship of power. This course takes the latter as the point of departure. Anthropology as a discipline emerged as a mode of understanding the subjects of European colonialism and its goal was to "scientifically" comprehend human "difference," and to aid in the governance of colonized people. This course analyzes the formations of anthropological knowledge through an interdisciplinary approach that draws on a variety of philosophical, anthropological, historical, literary and visual texts on the colonizers and the colonized. Some of the questions we examine in this course are: What are the ideologies that inform this grammar of knowledge? What are the ways in which we can examine the hegemonic discourse/representations in anthropological/cultural texts? How are activist anthropologists decolonizing knowledge and practice? This is a reading intensive course. Students are expected to write two papers of 10-12 pages each on a topic to be handed out. Advanced students can instead write a research paper of approximately 20-22 pages. Students will also make oral presentations on the texts, which will be 20 percent of the grade. The following texts will be supplemented by readings: Alloula's The Colonial Harem, Djebar's Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade, Nandy's The intimate enemy: loss and recovery of self under colonialism, Orwell's Burmese Days, Sinha's Mother India: Selections from the Controversial 1927 Text, Starn's Ishi's Brain, Levi-Strauss's Tristes Tropiques, Wa'Thiongo's Decolonizing the Mind.
"Forest Disease" Important policy decisions are being made in the name of ecosystem health. President Bush's Healthy Forest Initiative will have lasting impacts on landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. Who could be opposed to forest health? But good definitions of forest health are hard to find. One prominent ecologist claims that a healthy forest is one with disease present. How is this possible? To understand some of these ideas, we will explore some basic concepts of ecosystem ecology including species interactions, energy flow, nutrient dynamics, long-term ecosystem change patterns and processes, and the role of disturbances, such as fires, floods, and cutting. We will focus on forests of the Pacific Northwest, but will also consider other forests (tropical, boreal) as well as other ecosystems (e.g. tall grass prairie). We will read non-technical articles written by leading ecosystem ecologists and learn about several important diseases common in the Pacific Northwest: Swiss needle cast, Port-Orford-cedar disease, laminated root rot of Douglas-fir, and sudden oak death. There will be two one-day field trips: one to Fall Creek to familiarize students with some of the most important organisms in the forest (in addition to plants) including lichens, nematodes, microarthropods, and fungi. The second field trip will be to the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest near Blue River, Oregon. We will visit study sites and learn about research that is shaping policy decisions around the world.
"The Ecological Footprint of Energy Generation" This course will deal with the issues of alternative energy sources and sustainable energy sources. 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. We will pay particular attention to the efficiency of each alternative energy source as well as what limitations exist in terms of extracting usable energy. We will critique in detail the published Bush energy plan as a template for our energy future. 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. Students will be organized into small teams to investigate and report/write on various issues and will also seek out solutions that hypothetically would provide sustainable power to the City of Eugene for the next 50 years. The main goals of this class are:
"Mysteries of the Brain: Neuroscience and Society" This course will provide science and non-science HC students with a basic understanding of neuroscience, the study of the brain. Students will acquire an understanding of the complexities underlying brain function, learn about the methods and fundamental processes underlying scientific research, gain an appreciation of the role and limitations of basic biomedical research in our society, and explore ethical dilemmas in neuroscience research. Students will also improve critical thinking and communication skills through oral presentations and written work. The course will begin with a brief discussion of the scientific method and the role of science in today's society. This will be followed by an overview of nervous system structure and function. The remainder of the course will focus on a sequential in-depth study of 3-4 diseases of the nervous system, e.g. Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's chorea, amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS), depression, bipolar disorder and/or others. Each section will consist of several lectures and 1-2 student-led presentations. Some sections will include demonstrations, lab exercises and/or field trips. Students will be expected to give one oral presentation, learn to read the scientific literature, write several papers and participate in classroom discussions. SPECIAL COURSE OFFERINGS back to topThese courses may feature CHC professors teaching in other departments or schools, or may reserve spaces for CHC students. Some may satisfy CHC requirements. Read the course descriptions or check with your CHC advisor regarding substitutions.
"Middle English Mystics" The late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries witnessed a flourishing of mystical texts, by both men and women, including works by Richard Rolle, Julian of Norwich, and Margery Kempe. Rolle wrote in Latin, but his work was translated into Middle English; both Julian's and Margery's works appear in Middle English. In this course we will read these mystical writers and contextualize their writings historically. Besides our primary texts, readings will include background in Middle English language, the Christian mystical tradition, mystical texts in other languages and traditions, and major literary critical statements on Middle English mystics. Course requirements include short papers, an annotated bibliography, a group presentation, a term paper, and periodic quizzes.
"Central Asia: Cultural Politics of Eurasia, 1200-1900" The area we today call Central Asia has played a crucial role in the politics and culture of world history. At the heart of the Eurasian continent, the terrain of Central Asia has provided a stage on which nomads, empires, and city-states have interacted with political formations on the region's shifting boundaries, spinning competitions and alliances for control of ideologies and resources. This course takes as its focus patterns of social and commercial interaction from the Mongol Empire of the 13th century to the "Great Game" of 19th century nation-states. Our attention is to both the lived experience of diverse peoples of Central Asia as well as to the construction and reconstruction of "Central Asia" as a concept in changing diplomatic, economic, and military relations.
JUDAIC STUDIES "The Jewish Diaspora in Latin America" The coupling of the terms "Jew" and "Latino," or "Jewish" and "Latin American" still elicits surprise and disbelief, especially among those who grew accustomed to identifying "Jewish" with "Eastern European." However, a growing corpus of Jewish and Latin American literature increasingly demands that we acknowledge and confront both the Jewish contribution to the make-up of the Latin American cultural fabric, and the relevance of Latin American realities in shaping a distinctive Jewish identity. This course will study the presence of Jews in Latin America, the construction and representation of Jewish identity, as well as the relationships established between Jews and non-Jews in different Latin American countries. We will read literature written by Latin American Jews, watch movies that present their realities and conflicts in a very diverse region, and observe some of the Jewish contribution to the plastic arts. We will also listen to music by Jews in established Latin American genres, such as the tango, and traditional Jewish Sephardic genres which are now being recovered by contemporary singers. Among the authors we will read are Moacyr Scliar, Clarice Lispector, Samuel Rawet, Nora Glickman, Angelina Muñiz-Huberman, Marcos Aguinis, Juan Gelman, Ricardo Feierstein, Margo Glantz, Marjorie Agosín, Reina Roffé and Victor Perera. CHC students taking this course as a substitute for HC 421 will be required to write one additional 4-5 page paper. Required Texts
THESIS ORIENTATION back to top
PASS/NO PASS ATTENDANCE MANDATORY This short 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 477 Thesis Prospectus (see below). This new workshop aims to assist students in the earlier and preliminary work of how to approach the thesis.
THESIS PROSPECTUS back to top
PASS/NO PASS ATTENDANCE MANDATORY Students will spend the majority of their time in this class polishing their prospectuses and then participating in a mock oral examination. Before enrolling in this class, students should have...
INDIVIDUALIZED STUDY back to top
SPRING TERM 2006 back to topPlease bear in mind that course offerings for the spring term are subject to change.LITERATURE HISTORY SCIENCE THESIS COLLOQUIA HC 431H Topic TBA (Fracchia) HC 431H Foucault and His Interlocutors (Rosenberg) Science HC 441H Re-vision of the Earth (Cashman/Rossi) International Cultures (IC) HC 434H Conquest and Cultural Representation in the New World (Sayre) HC 434H African Masks & Meaning (Wooten) |
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