Art History |
|
Hour: 10A Instructor: Jane Carroll |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: ART |
Course Title: Knight, Death and the Devil: Art, Religion and Politics in Renaissance Nuremberg |
Description: |
Knight, Death and the Devil: Art, Religion and Politics in Renaissance Nuremberg
During the Renaissance, Nuremberg was a city in transition. As a free Imperial City, it always had been at the heart of politics, commerce and religion in the Holy Roman Empire. Now, however, two interrelated events, Humanism and the Reformation, were about to transform Nuremberg and its image. We will study this city's history and art, especially those works by its most outstanding son, Albrecht Dürer, to discover the issues debated during this time of momentous change and how those ideas were translated into the art of that period. Extensive use will be made of works housed in Rauner Library and the Hood Museum of Art. Four small writing assignments and one larger research paper will be assigned.
|
Textbook(s)Required: |
The Essential Durer
Authors: Larry Silver (editor) et al.
ISBN-10: 0-8122-2178-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-8122-2178-7
Format: Paperback
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Publication Date: Jul 2011
Price: USA $29.95
Dürer
Authors: Norbert Wolf
ISBN-10: 3-8365-1348-X
ISBN-13: 978-3-8365-1348-7
Format: Hardback
Publisher: TASCHEN
Publication Date: Mar 2010
Price: USA $14.99 |
Biology |
|
Hour: 9L Instructor: Oliver Baettig |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: SCI |
Description: |
Serendipity in Molecular and Medical Biology
Throughout the history of science, serendipity has played a pivotal role in many revolutionary discoveries. However, the scientific literature seldom reflects upon the fortuitous impact of chance. In this course, students will learn the roles luck, accident, or error have played in key major discoveries in biological sciences. Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs is one of many books that describe such events, for example those which lead Alexander Fleming to the discovery of penicillin. By researching and writing one major paper, students will compare these anecdotes with the primary scientific literature to assess how researchers not only realized the significance of their discovery but also how they unraveled the mystery of their findings using scientific reasoning and experimentation. Upon completing the course, students will have achieved a better understanding of the scientific thought process and its guiding principles and will have gained a new appreciation for discovery in the biological sciences.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
No text is required. Readings will be placed on reserve. |
Classical Studies |
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Hour: 10 Instructor: Margaret Williamson |
Requirements Met: WCult: W; Distrib: LIT |
Course Title: The Idea of Rome |
Description: |
The Idea of Rome
Sigmund Freud once famously likened the human mind to the city of Rome, because it is made up of layer upon layer of history and experience. In this course we explore some of those layers, examining not only Rome's image of itself at key moments but also how later ages looked back at it. We will focus particularly on the political models Rome seemed to offer to observers such as French leaders in the revolutionary period, Napoleon and Mussolini. We will also trace the attitude to 'Roman' values invoked in the writings of the Founding Fathers, the literature of imperial Britain, nineteenth-century travelers to Rome, mid-20th century Hollywood and the Asterix cartoonists. Assignments include class presentations, two short papers, one annotated bibliography and a research paper.
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No required textbooks available |
Comparative Literature |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Klaus Milich |
Requirements Met: WCult: CI; Distrib: LIT |
Course Title: Some Might Call It Pla(y)giarism: Intertextuality in Literature, Film, and the Arts |
Description: |
Some Might Call It Pla(y)giarism: Intertextuality in Literature, Film, and the Arts
How does Franz Kafka's novel The Trial relate to Orson Welles' film version, or Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to Francis Ford Coppola's movie Apocalypse Now? Is Aimá Cásaire's A Tempest mere plagiarism or a postcolonial response to Shakespeare play? How does Oscar Wilde's representation of Salome differ from Richard Strauss's opera, Gustave Flaubert's short story, or Rubens's painting of the biblical figure by the same name? Those and other examples will help us understand intertextuality as an indispensable concept of comparative literature. Breaking with traditional notions of "original" "copy" or "influence" intertextuality assumes meaning to be based on a network of concurrent discourses in which every work of art is considered "a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centers of culture" (Roland Barthes), a mosaic of references to other "texts" an intersection of various genres, that undermine traditional notions of authorship and text as fixed entities. By way of discerning references and relations between novels, plays, operas, movies, paintings, and historical texts, we will familiarize ourselves with the basic theories of intertextuality.
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No required textbooks available |
Computer Science |
|
Hour: 2A Instructor: Mary Flanagan |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: ART |
Course Title: Interactive Storytelling |
Description: |
Interactive Storytelling
Interactive narrative is a field in which storytelling, visual imagery and audience participation meet. Even though its roots can be traced back hundreds of years, interactive storytelling is still being developed as an art form; great venues for developing interactive stories are computational systems such as computer games. Dynamic storytelling is a foundational element in computer and video games, the internet, interface design and artificial intelligence applications. This course examine such systems, posing questions as to whether these are truly storytelling methods, and critiquing each method's effectiveness. Interactive story structures will be examined in how they differ from traditional (linear) narrative structure. Classroom exercises help develop a set of tools that are effective for interactivity. Students will also play and communicate throughout the quarter in various digital spaces.
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No required textbooks available |
Engineering Sciences |
|
Hour: 12 Instructor: Keith Paulsen |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: TAS |
Course Title: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives on Medical Imaging |
Description: |
Contemporary and Historical Perspectives on Medical Imaging
Medical imaging has evolved significantly over the last 100 years and has transformed modern medical practice to the extent that very few clinical decisions are made without relying on information obtained with contemporary imaging modalities. The future of medical imaging may be even more promising as new technologies are being developed to observe the structural, functional and molecular characteristics of tissues at finer and finer spatial scales. This first year seminar will review the historical development of modern radiographic imaging and discuss the basic physical principles behind common approaches such as CT, Ultrasound and MRI. Contemporary issues surrounding the use of imaging to screen for disease, the costs to the health care system of routine application of advanced imaging technology and the benefits of the information provided by medical imaging in terms of evidence-based outcomes assessment will be explored. Students will be required to read, present and discuss materials in class and write position papers articulating and/or defending particular perspectives on the historical development of medical imaging and its contemporary and/or future uses and benefits.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
Should I Be Tested for Cancer? Maybe Not and Here's Why, HG. Welch, UC Press Berkeley: U. of California Press, Paperback.
ISBN 0520248368
$18.95
Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health, Welch, Schwartz and Woloshin, ISBN 978-0-8070-2199-6 $15.00 |
English |
|
Hour: 10A Instructor: Nancy Crumbine |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: LIT |
Description: |
Religion and Literature: Revisioning the Invisible
Physicists write about God, clergy draw metaphors from nature; playwrights, poets and philosophers continue to weave, meld, clash, and intertwine the two, revisioning the invisible. In the search for meaning, nothing finally suffices but the company of those who seek to express the inexpressible. Readings include: Sophocles's Antigone along with Anouilh's retake, Dillard's Holy the Firm, Miller's The Crucible, and Morrison's Beloved; selected poems of Auden, Blake, Dickinson, Eliot, Kabir, Kenyon, Rilke, Roethke, and Rumi; and selections from the writings of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures.
|
Textbook(s)Required: |
Williams; Style 0205830765
Morrison; Beloved 1400033411
Dillard; Holy the Firm 0060915439
Mitchell; Enlightened Heart 006092053X
Sophocles; Antigone 0199537178
Anouilh; Five Plays 0374522294
Miller; Crucible 0140481389 |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Aden Evens |
Requirements Met: WCult: W; Distrib: LIT |
Description: |
Literature of the Machine
Using (mostly) twentieth-century novels that engage with machines, this course gives students the opportunity to practice writing the academic essay. In addition to two substantial essays, mini-essay assignments will each week provide the occasion for group writing critique in class, while alternate classes will be devoted to open discussion of the readings. We will certainly cover the mechanics of good sentence construction, but the primary emphasis in this class is on finding and developing ideas worth writing about. Whether critiquing student writing or discussing a novel, students will bear the responsibility for advancing productive conversation in class.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
H.G. Wells, The Time Machine
Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
J.G. Ballard, Crash
Angela Carter, The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
Mark Leyner, The Tetherballs of Bougainville
Short stories to be distributed electronically.
|
|
Hour: 2 Instructor: D Zachary Finch |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: LIT |
Description: |
Little Magazines: Modernist Poetry In Circulation, 1910-1925
This course examines how American poetry developed by leaps and bounds during the 1910's and 1920's. In addition to reading some of the breakthrough works of this exciting period, we will also pay special attention to how "little magazines" and literary journals helped to structure communities of poets and to support literary experimentation. Some of the key writers to be encountered along the way may include: Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, Mina Loy, William Carlos Williams, Yone Noguchi, T.S. Eliot, James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes and Hart Crane. Students write four papers for this course including a research paper due at the end of the term.
|
Textbook(s)Required: |
American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Volume One. The Library of America, 2000. ISBN-10: 1883011779 |
|
Hour: 10A Instructor: Thomas O'Malley |
Requirements Met: WCult: CI; Distrib: LIT |
Course Title: The Irish Short Story, since 1960 |
Description: |
The Irish Short Story, since 1960
Contemporary Irish fiction has moved to reflect the changes in the society that produces it. In the last century, Ireland has changed from a conservative, agricultural country to a modern, technologically aware one, from a colony of Great Britain to a free, democratic republic, and from one of the poorest nations in the world to one of its most prosperous. Many of the dramatic transformations that have taken place within the culture have occurred most recently and have altered the way Ireland presently perceives itself.
Since the 1960s a storm of new writing has arisen in Ireland, most notable in the short story form, that illustrates the diversity and dynamism of the contemporary Irish experience.
In this course we will explore fiction that reveals, illuminates, questions and considers these various transformations of cultural identity, through the Troubles, the great Diaspora of the late Seventies and early Eighties, to the nineties, the rise of the Celtic Tiger, and into the 21st century with the shift from the rural to the urban, and, of particular interest, the emergence of woman's voices in the culture.
We will also consider some historical context in order for us to understand the complexity of Ireland and help ground the unique and varied voices of the writers we will read. Writers will include Mary Lavin, Edna O'Brien, Julia O'Faolain, Ann Enright, Rita Kelly, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Patrick McCabe, Colum McCann, William Trevor, John Banville, John McGahern, Neil Jordan, and Colm Tóibin.
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No required textbooks available |
|
Hour: 10A Instructor: Julia Rabig |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: LIT |
Description: |
Reading and Writing the City: Urban Experience in Fiction, History, and Criticism
This course explores how writing about the costs, pleasures, and perils of urban life came to shape U.S. literature, and what literature reveals about the experience of urbanization. Why have generations of writers been obsessed with urbanization and at the same time conveyed deep ambivalence about urban life? Cities have served as sites of artistic inspiration and catalysts for both individual mobility and major social movements. They've also been portrayed as dystopian nightmares, blamed for moral ruin, social inequality, and ecological disaster. They have drawn together artists, writers, and intellectuals who have articulated enduring themes in U.S. cultural history, even as the complexity of urban life has also fuelled intellectuals' struggle with identity and modernity. Students will approach these themes through fiction, history, film, criticism, and memoir.
Writing assignments will include a first-person essay examining the significance of place in your own life, a review essay of two or more texts, an annotated bibliography on a topic of your choice, and a 7-10-page research paper that includes the research you completed for the bibliography. A class presentation on a work of urban documentary and revisions of assignments will also be required.
|
Textbook(s)Required: |
• Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein and Russel Durst, “They Say / I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing with Readings (Second Edition) (Norton, 2011) ISBN-13: 978-0393912753
• Paule Marshall, Brown girl/Brownstones (The Feminist Press CUNY, 1996) ISBN- 13: 978-1558611498
• Sharon Zukin, Naked City: The Life and Death of Authentic Urban Places (Oxford University Press, 2011) ISBN-13: 978-0195382853
|
Environmental Studies |
|
Hour: 2A Instructor: Michael Dorsey |
Requirements Met: WCult: CI; Distrib: SOC |
Course Title: Environmental Justice: Issues of Culture, Class, & Space |
Description: |
Environmental Justice: Issues of Culture, Class, & Space
This course engages environmental problems, community responses, and policy debates regarding "environmental justice" (EJ) issues — or the intersection of how culture, class, place and social justice give rise to environmental problems, as well as social movement and regulatory responses. The course presents empirical evidence on distributions of environmental quality and health, enforcement of regulations, access to resources to respond to environmental problems, and the broader political economy of decision-making around environmental and health issues. The course explores and critically analyzes philosophies, frameworks, and strategies underlying environmental justice movements domestically and globally.
|
Textbook(s)Required: |
No textbook required. |
|
Hour: 10A Instructor: Terry Osborne |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: TMV |
Course Title: Ecopsychology |
Description: |
Ecopsychology
Reliable reports of global environmental degradation have been loud and clear for at least a generation. The key role humans have played in that degradation has been increasingly evident and quantifiable over that time as well. Yet we (especially those of us living in post-industrial societies) continue to carry out our day-to-day activities with a reckless unsustainability. That leads to an obvious question, one Paul Shepard poses in the introduction to his book, Nature and Madness:
"Why do men persist in destroying their habitat? . . . Either I and the other 'pessimists' and 'doomsayers' were wrong about the need for other species, and the decline of the planet as a life-support system, or our species is intent on suicide—or there is something we overlooked."
This course will explore something that we may have overlooked: human psychology as a variable in the environmental crisis, an area of study known as "ecopsychology." Ecopsychology posits a fundamental connection between the human psyche and the more-than-human world, and examines both the role our psyche plays in affecting the health of the planet, and the effect the degradation of natural world has in return on our psyche. Some human societies (Western societies in particular), for instance, show characteristics of various defense mechanisms and psychological disorders that allow us to continue degrading our habitat and endangering ourselves and other organisms without any apparent awareness of, or responsibility for, our behavior. By investigating the interactions between our psychological processes and the natural world, ecopsychology may offer new avenues toward a healthier and more sustainable life.
Students will be introduced to psychological and ecopsychological theories and will explore the most recent research in the journal Ecopsychology. They will assess the older theories and newer research not only in the context of their own lives, but also in texts written by Daniel Quinn, Terry Tempest Williams, Derrick Jensen and others. They will spend some time outside of the classroom, discovering what ecopsychological topics might look like in the local community. And for their final research project, students will apply an ecopsychological lens to their own lives and to an environmental topic on the Dartmouth campus or in the Upper Valley.
|
Textbook(s)Required: |
Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind
Theodore Roszak, Mary E. Gomes, Allen D. Kanner (Eds.)
ISBN-13: 978-0871564061
$21.68
Ishmael
by Daniel Quinn
ISBN-13 978-0553375404
$12.24
Refuge
by Terry Tempest Williams
ISBN-13: 978-0679740247
$10.20
|
Film Studies |
|
Hour: 2A Instructor: Mary Desjardins |
Requirements Met: WCult: CI; Distrib: None |
Description: |
Film and Fashion Cultures
This course examines the interrelations between film and fashion cultures. We will look at theories of fashion and the "fashioned body," reading them against trends in fashionable dress, fashion subcultures, and a number of films from different historical periods that influenced, reflected, or transformed contemporary fashion. Special attention will be paid to films that suggest relations between the "fashioned body" and individual or social subjectivity. Films might include Funny Face, Annie Hall, Blade Runner, and The Devil Wears Prada.
|
Textbook(s)Required: |
0-205-23639-1, $39.84, A Short Guide to Writing about Film 8th ed.
1-56836-101-7, out of print - used copy price varies, $3.98-23.00, Sex and Suits pbk
|
Geography |
|
Hour: 2A Instructor: |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: SOC |
Course Title: Women, Gender, and Science |
Description: |
Women, Gender, and Science
Whether we are openly taught the "scientific method" or not, we all have ideas of how science is supposed to be practiced. What we don't often know is that there is an increasing appreciation of "other ways of knowing," which allows us to challenge much of how science is practiced in our society. For instance, women and minorities have traditionally played a small role in western science, and their gradual inclusion may have impacts on what we know and how we know it. In this seminar we will explore what science practice is, and how "what we know" has been affected by societal and cultural ideas, throughout history and even today. Our work will include evaluation of data concerning women's participation in science, visits with feminists and scientists, discussion of at least one film, and a field trip to a science museum. Four short written pieces plus a longer independent research paper will make up the requirements, along with enthusiastic classroom participation.
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No required textbooks available |
Government |
|
Hour: 10A Instructor: Dale Turner |
Requirements Met: WCult: W; Distrib: TMV |
Course Title: Aboriginal Rights in Canada |
Description: |
Aboriginal Rights in Canada
The purpose of this seminar is to explore the field of Aboriginal rights in Canada and gain a greater understanding of the complex nature of the Aboriginal-Canadian state legal and political relationship.
The seminar is divided into two parts. In the first part, we explore the social and political relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state since the federal government's release of the controversial White Paper of 1969. The White Paper proposed to radically restructure the political relationship by dissolving the special legal and political status of Aboriginal peoples in Canadian society. We then examine several pivotal Supreme Court cases and the Final Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.
In the second part of the seminar, we examine Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent Apology to Aboriginal peoples (2008) for the mistreatment of Aboriginal schoolchildren in government-instituted Residential Schools. Finally, we examine the federal government's mandated Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which represents an important step towards healing the relationship.
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No required textbooks available |
History |
|
Hour: 10A Instructor: Leslie Butler |
Requirements Met: WCult: W; Distrib: TMV |
Description: |
Debating Woman Suffrage in Nineteenth-Century America
This course uses the early woman suffrage movement (1840s-1860s) as a topic to introduce students to historical research and writing. Through close attention to primary sources (e.g. speeches, newspapers, published transcripts of conventions, and correspondence) and careful reading of secondary sources (journal articles and scholarly monographs), students will develop crucial academic skills as they acquire a deep understanding of an important episode in the history of nineteenth-century American democracy. The seminar will help students learn to read different kinds of texts critically, to evaluate evidence, to marshal that evidence in the service of a nuanced argument, and to express complex ideas in clear, lively prose. Students will develop these skills through different kinds of assignments, including preparing memos for discussion, drafting and revising formal papers, and engaging in peer critiques.
|
Textbook(s)Required: |
Alexander Keyssar, RIGHT TO VOTE: A CONTESTED HISTORY OF DEMOCRACY IN THE UNITED STATES (Basic Books, 2009), ISBN #978-0-465-01014-1.
Kathryn Kish Sklar, WOMEN'S RIGHTS EMERGES WITHIN THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT, 1830-1870: A BRIEF HISTORY WITH DOCUMENTS (Bedford/St. Martins, 2000), ISBN #978-0-312-10144-2.
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|
Hour: 10A Instructor: Zeynep Turkyilmaz |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: INT or SOC |
Description: |
Harem: European Imaginations and Ottoman Realities
The Oriental Harem has long occupied the imagination of Europeans writers and painters. Many have imagined harems as secluded and mysterious pleasure houses where women are forced to perform acts of entertainment for the insatiable appetites of their licentious Oriental masters. The tales and illustrations of the harem, produced, circulated and consumed by Europeans—many of whom had never seen a harem, let alone traveled to the Middle East—depicted and came to stand for an exotic, uncivilized, and culturally inferior Orient. These images that “acquainted” European societies with the distant lands of the East not only reinforced a dichotomy of “us” (Europe/Western civilization) and “them” (the Orient/Muslim societies), but ultimately legitimized the social, political, and cultural dominance of Western powers over the Ottoman/Muslim/Arab societies since the eighteenth century.
This seminar will investigate the facts, narratives, and stereotypes of the Harem, from the 7th century to the present, in order to understand its spatial, institutional, and fantastical aspects. To do so, we will study a wide range of primary and secondary texts, paintings, photographs, and films from different socio-cultural and historical contexts.
Reading materials will include selections from Charles S. Montesquieu, Persian Letters, (2008 edition); Tales from the Thousand and One Nights (1973 edition); Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, The Turkish Embassy Letters, (1994 edition). Visual materials will include Ottoman miniatures and European paintings of Harem; photographs taken on and from Harem by Roger Fenton, Pascal Sébah, Jean Sébah, Policarpe Joaillier (known as Sébah & Joaillier), Ali Sami, and Guillaume Berggren; and finally a critical documentary by Tania Kamal-Eldin, Hollywood Harems, (1999).
|
Textbook(s)Required: |
N. J. Dawood and William Harvey, TALES FROM THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS (Penguin, 2003), ISBN #978-0-14-009023-9.
Sarah Graham-Brown, IMAGES OF WOMEN: PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE EAST 1860-1950 (Columbia University Press, 1992), ISBN #978-0-231-06827-7.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, THE TURKISH EMBASSY LETTERS (Little, Brown Group Ltd., 1994), ISBN #978-1-85381-679-6.
Fatima Mernissi, DREAMS OF A TRESPASS: TALES OF A HAREM GIRLHOOD (Reading, 1994), ISBN #978-0-201-48937-8
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Italian |
|
Hour: 10A Instructor: Tristan Kay |
Requirements Met: WCult: CI; Distrib: LIT |
Course Title: Primo Levi and the Holocaust |
Description: |
Primo Levi and the Holocaust
Primo Levi was one of the most important and distinctive writers of the twentieth century, whose works provide a powerful, moving and profound examination of the Holocaust and its impact. Levi, who as an Italian Jew was confined at Auschwitz during the Second World War, reflected upon this experience and its psychological repercussions in various forms of writing, from the famous testimonial work If This is a Man to poetry, essays and fiction.
In this seminar we will explore in translation a selection of Levi's most important works. These will prompt us to reflect upon a series of questions—the legacy of the Holocaust, the Jewish identity, the relationship between history and literature, the role of the writer in society—which remain vital in our world today.
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No required textbooks available |
Linguistics |
|
Hour: 2A Instructor: David Peterson |
Requirements Met: WCult: CI; Distrib: SOC |
Description: |
Conversational Style in Contemporary American Society
Do women talk a lot compared to men? Do men interrupt women all the time and not listen to them? Do southerners talk slow? Do New Yorkers sound pushy? These and countless other pervasive perceptions in American society stem in no small part from our individual and group conversational styles. Discourse analysts, who investigate how conversation works, have found that there can be subtle but significant differences in our use of language and our understanding of how others are using it — where and how long we pause, what seemingly unambiguous words mean, what topics we think are acceptable for which situations, how we view conflict, and so on.
In this seminar, we will consider aspects of conversational style and its consequences for interaction in American society. The key readings for the course will be three bestsellers by sociolinguist and discourse expert Deborah Tannen, arguably one of the most influential linguists of the last few decades: That's Not What I Meant (about regional, ethnic, and gender-based aspects of conversational style), You Just Don't Understand (specifically about gender differences), and The Argument Culture (a commentary on society-level discourse trends). A fourth book, in the tradition of Tannen, examining issues in American-Japanese cross cultural misunderstanding (Different Games, Different Rules, by Haru Yamada) will round out the reading list, putting American conversational style(s) in perspective. These basic readings will be supplemented with related academic papers by Tannen and others influenced by her work. The course will serve as a basic introduction to sociolinguistics and discourse analysis, and writing assignments (three five-seven page papers) will mostly be grounded in students' analyses of currently relevant popular media, such as political debates, talk show interviews, YouTube videos, and the like.
|
Textbook(s)Required: |
(Note: any edition of these books should be fine. What is listed here is the latest information available from Amazon. If in doubt, contact the instructor.)
Tannen, Deborah. That's not what I meant! How conversational style makes or breaks relationships
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Rei Rep edition (July 5, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0062062999
ISBN-13: 978-0062062994
Tannen, Deborah. You just don't understand: Women and men in conversation
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; 1 edition (July 24, 2001)
ISBN-10: 0060959622
ISBN-13: 978-0060959623
Tannen, Deborah. The argument culture: stopping America's war of words
Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 9, 1999)
ISBN-10: 0345407512
ISBN-13: 978-0345407511
Yamada, Haru. Different games, different rules: why Americans and Japanese misunderstand each other
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 11, 2002)
ISBN-10: 0195154851
ISBN-13: 978-0195154856 |
Mathematics |
|
Hour: 12 Instructor: Marcia Groszek |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: TMV |
Course Title: How Many Angels? Mathematics, Philosophy, and the Infinite |
Description: |
How Many Angels? Mathematics, Philosophy, and the Infinite
"I see it," said Cantor, "but I don't believe it." Throughout history people have felt this sense of wonder and disbelief as they tried to comprehend the nature of infinity, and for all our modern understanding the same is true today. Our study of the infinite will explore mathematical and philosophical speculations on infinity and the intimate connections between the two. We will consider historical developments from Zeno's paradoxes to Cantor's set theory. Through discussion and writing, students will develop their own mathematical and philosophical perspectives. Readings will include excerpts from Rucker, Infinity and the Mind, LeBlanc, "Infinity in Theology and Mathematics," Salmon, A Contemporary Look at Zeno's Paradoxes and Newton, The Mathematical Works of Sir Isaac Newton as well as other works.
|
Textbook(s)Required: |
REQUIRED COURSE READER "HOW MANY ANGELS? PHILOSOPHY, MATHEMATICS AND THE INFINITE" WILL BE AVAILABLE AT WHEELOCK BOOKS. PRICE UNKNOWN. |
Music |
|
Hour: 10 Instructor: Steve Swayne |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: TMV |
Description: |
Music and the Modern World: Addiction, Obesity, Pollution, Thievery, and Other Music-related Topics
Music in most of our lives is both ubiquitous and invisible: ubiquitous, in that it surrounds us in nearly every environment in which we find ourselves (provided, of course, we unplug ourselves from our mp3 players); and invisible, in that few people talk about the musical hypersaturation we experience. In this seminar, we will explore how music operates in our everyday lives and ask questions about whether its ubiquity and invisibility has a dark side.
We will begin by looking at what ancient Greek and Roman writers had to say about music. Next we'll turn to research that looks at the neurobiological aspects of our musical lives and then explore the questions that a neurobiological understanding of music naturally presents. Can music become an addictive substance? Is it possible to "consume" too much music? How does music change our bodies and our environments?
We will also explore the ongoing controversies surrounding Supreme Court rulings that attempt to limit music downloading. To what degree are lawmakers and music industry spokespeople out of step with the digital music revolution? Can there be such a thing as "free music"? And how do we view ourselves in light of current definitions of illegal downloading?
Readings will include newspaper stories, legal decisions, Plato, Aristotle, Quintilian, and other texts. Students will write of their own experiences with music as well as interact with the various readings and compose a term paper around an area of personal interest.
|
Textbook(s)Required: |
Daniel Levitin, This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (Plume/Penguin) |
Native American Studies |
|
Hour: 10 Instructor: Melanie Benson Taylor |
Requirements Met: WCult: CI; Distrib: LIT |
Description: |
America's Indian: Native American Representations in U.S. Literature and Culture
When non-Native artists represent the American Indian, what are they revealing about national values, needs, and anxieties? More than simply reflecting a perceived reality, do these representations actually help construct and maintain potent ideas about American exceptionalism, nationalism, and racial hierarchy? These questions will guides us as we explore the modes, motives, and consequences of Native American depictions in literature, film, art, and culture from the colonial period to contemporary times. We will examine paintings and photographs by artists such as George Catlin and Edward Curtis; films by John Ford, D.W. Griffith, and Chris Eyre; and literary works by influential writers such as William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and Willa Cather. Readings and assignments will ask students to interrogate and deconstruct the expression of national values and identity as they are filtered through these Native screens and foils. And finally, we will explore more recent efforts by American Indian writers and filmmakers such as Sherman Alexie, Chris Eyre, and Thomas King to represent themselves apart from the stereotypes and expectations that have captured and transformed Native culture itself.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
Willa Cather, The Professor's House (Wilder; ISBN: 1604595124)
Philip Deloria, Playing Indian (Yale UP; ISBN: 0300080670)
William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses (Vintage; ISBN: 0679732179)
Toni Morrison, A Mercy (Vintage; ISBN: 0307276767)
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Physics |
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Hour: 10A Instructor: James LaBelle |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: TAS |
Course Title: Critique of Futurisms |
Description: |
Critique of Futurisms
In this course, we will explore a few of the many schools of thought that comprise futures studies. We will start by learning about the scientific approach to thinking about the future. We will then focus on four aspects of futurism: technology, space exploration/colonization, limits to growth, and climate change. Each of these has a significant natural science component. We will learn through lectures, guest speakers, reading, discussion, and activities such as worksheets and running computer models. Since the freshman seminar is primarily a writing course, student compositions will be an important aspect of the course and the primary basis for evaluation of the students.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
"Abundance"
Kolter & Diamandis
ISBN: 978-1451614213
Amazon: $17.45/NA
"Powering the Future: How We Will (Evenually) Solve the Energy Crisis and Fuel the Civilization of Tomorrow"
Laughlin
ISBN: 978-0465022199
Amazon: 15.98/$8.00
"World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse"
Brown
ISBN: 978-0393339499
Amazon: $10.85/$6.06
"The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology"
Kurweil
ISBN: 978-0143037880
Amazon: $12.78/$7.25
"Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives b the Year 2100"
Kaku
ISBN: 978-0307473332
Amazon: $10.85/NA |
Psychological & Brain Sciences |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Richard Granger |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: SCI |
Course Title: Brain Evolution |
Description: |
Brain Evolution
What's in a human brain, and how did it get there? How are brains built via genetic and developmental mechanisms? What makes one brain different from another, between species and within species? What makes populations different from each other? Who are our ancestors, and what was their evolutionary path to us? How did human brains get to their enormous size? How do brains differ from other organs? What mechanisms are at play over evolutionary time?
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Textbook(s)Required: |
Principles of Brain Evolution, Sinauer Press
G. Striedter
ISBN-10: 0878938206
ISBN-13: 978-0878938209
Approximate Price: $81.95 (hardcover)
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Sociology |
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Hour: 2A Instructor: Misagh Parsa |
Requirements Met: WCult: NW; Distrib: INT or SOC |
Description: |
Twentieth Century Revolutions
This course presents a comparative analysis of critical political developments of Iran, Nicaragua, and the Philippines during the last few decades. Before the breakdown of these authoritarian states, each of these three countries generated impressive economic growth and development. We will examine the factors that led to the rise of social conflicts and the eventual collapse of these regimes. Finally, the course will analyze the causes of the alternative outcomes that emerged: Islamic fundamentalism in Iran, revolutionary socialism and its subsequent collapse in Nicaragua, and the restoration of liberal democracy in the Philippines.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
States, Ideologies and Social Revolutions: A comparative analysis of Iran, Nicaragua and the Philippines by Misagh Parsa
9780521774307
$37.38 |
Theater |
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Hour: 11 Instructor: Mara Sabinson |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: ART |
Course Title: Theater for Social Change |
Description: |
Theater for Social Change
This course will trace particular developments in American and Western European Theater from the First World War through the present. Artists and theater groups under consideration will be those whose work has focused on contemporary social conditions and the potential of performance to effect social change. In addition, students will experiment with developing scripts and performances based on current events. Readings will include selections from the writings of Erwin Piscator, Bertolt Brecht, The Federal Theatre Project, Harold Pinter, Augusto Boal, August Wilson, etc. as well as newspapers, news magazines, and other media sources. In addition to creative and critical writing, students will be assigned one major research project. Emphasis will be on class participation.
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No required textbooks available |
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Hour: 2 Instructor: Mara Sabinson |
Requirements Met: WCult: None; Distrib: ART |
Course Title: Theater for Social Change |
Description: |
Theater for Social Change
This course will trace particular developments in American and Western European Theater from the First World War through the present. Artists and theater groups under consideration will be those whose work has focused on contemporary social conditions and the potential of performance to effect social change. In addition, students will experiment with developing scripts and performances based on current events. Readings will include selections from the writings of Erwin Piscator, Bertolt Brecht, The Federal Theatre Project, Harold Pinter, Augusto Boal, August Wilson, etc. as well as newspapers, news magazines, and other media sources. In addition to creative and critical writing, students will be assigned one major research project. Emphasis will be on class participation.
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No required textbooks available |
Women's and Gender Studies |
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Hour: 2 Instructor: Michelle Clarke |
Requirements Met: WCult: W; Distrib: TMV |
Description: |
Womanhood and Democratic Citizenship
The philosophical canon may have been written by dead white men, but it has not ignored women. The roles and attributes associated with women have long been used to distinguish political and non-political forms of life and various types of political communities from one another. This course examines how the relationship between women and politics has been theorized in classic texts of political philosophy, paying special attention to how claims about the nature of democratic citizenship made reference to gender and sexuality. Readings include Aristophanes, Plato, Montesquieu, Burke, Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Tocqueville.
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Textbook(s)Required: |
Note: Book prices shown are list prices; books can be less expensive if purchased used or marked down by retailers, especially online.
Aristophanes, Lysistrata (Focus Classical Library, 0941051021) $9.95.
Aristophanes, Assembly of Women (Prometheus Books, 1573921335) $16.98.
Montesquieu, Persian Letters (Penguin Classics, 0140442812) $14.00.
Rousseau, Politics and the Arts: Letter to D'Alembert (Cornell University Press, 0801490715) $15.95.
Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas about the Sublime and Beautiful (Oxford Classics, 0199537887) $15.95.
Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Oxford Classics, 0199539022) $12.95.
Wollestonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (Oxford Classics, 019955546X) $10.95.
Mill, On Liberty and On the Subjection of Women (Penguin Classics, 014144147X) $11.00.
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