First-Year Program Course Descriptions

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The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien

This course will explore J. R. R. Tolkien’s imagined world of Middle Earth through The Lord of the Rings and other writings, while also placing Tolkien’s creative work within the context of the real world in which Tolkien lived. Through historical investigation of twentieth-century Britain and Europe, literary analysis of Tolkien’s novels, and exploration of Tolkien’s linguistic scholarship, religious beliefs, and personal life, we will gain a rich understanding of Tolkien and his work.

Ways of Knowing: Paranormal China

In the Middle Ages, authorities knew that darkness in daytime was a sign of divine wrath; today, we know such events are solar eclipses. Early modern cartographers knew that if you sailed too far east or west, you would encounter sea monsters. Today's explorers know better, thanks to GPS and Google Earth. And yet we continue to test and to revise our knowledge whenever we encounter phenomena that cannot be explained by existing methodologies, philosophies, or spiritual systems.

Made by Hand: Computers, Craft, and the Construction of Human Experience

For the bulk of American history people left a physical legacy: the house they built, the clothes they made, the books they owned, the letters they wrote. However, most Americans (the instructors for this course included) now buy much of the material of daily life made-to-serve, and within your lifetime, personal correspondence has morphed from paper to digital (as books perhaps have begun to morph into Kindles). In this course, we will consider the consequences of technology-infused living.

War and Society

Folksinger and activist Pete Seeger set these words from the Bible to music in 1959:

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven.

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing.

At the end of the song Seeger added his own line: "A time for peace, I swear it's not too late." The folk-rock band the Byrds made it into a hit song in 1965, as the U.S. government escalated its war in Vietnam.

Permanent War, Permanent Trauma?

This course will use the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and the launch of the “global war on terrorism” as an opportunity to examine a set of broader questions concerning war and trauma. War has always had a profound impact on individuals, nations, and cultures. But what happens when war ceases to be a temporary occurrence and instead becomes a permanent reality, a built-in and borderless part of the social landscape? How does a “cultural trauma” like 9/11 morph into something else within such a context?

Coldest Cold War Flicks: Cold War History, Cold War Film

This course will examine the earliest and coldest days of the Cold War, a period extending from the end of World War II in 1945 to the signing of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963, through a sampling of historical texts and American movies made during that time. Movies are often more than just mindless escapism: the stories and texts continually recast by our culture not only entertain but also can provide a window into who we are, and were.

Human Rights in China

This course traces seminal events in the history of the People's Republic of China related to the issue of human rights. These events will include the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident, protests by the religious group, Falungong, and the building of the Three Gorges Dam, and the recent strikes and suicides in factories. In examining the human condition in China over the last six decades, we will attempt to understand the major debates among those who look at human rights conceptually and those who struggle for their realization.

Political Economy and Identity in the Age of Globalization

As people, capital, images and ideas move around the globe in ways unimaginable even a decade ago, scholars debate the effects of an increasingly interdependent global culture. “Globalization” is not one phenomenon but many, a set of interlinked social, economic and political trends with complex causes and uncertain implications for the future. This course seeks to define “globalization,” and examines the political, economic and ethical debates that swirl around the term.

Connecting the Global and Local in the 21st Century

The world in which we live in the 21st century is one of increasing connections between events near home and in distant parts of the world. The ways in which we understand the scale and scope of our communities and who we are as individuals, has changed dramatically in recent decades and will continue to evolve in the years ahead. At the same time, to navigate the world of the 21st century will increasingly require an awareness of the connections between the global and local and an ability to learn about and within other cultures.

Identity and Belonging in the St. Lawrence Valley

What does it mean to live on or near an international border, specifically one created by the natural landscape, such as the St. Lawrence River? How do these political and geographical borders shape the identities of people living there? Your university sits in the St. Lawrence River Valley, which has occupied an important place in the history of North America since the pre-contact period between First Peoples and Europeans. It has served simultaneously as a place of residence, transportation route, conduit of commerce, and sometimes national symbol. French explorer Jacques Cartier christened it the “River of Canada”.

American Soil: Agricultural Politics and Agrarian Philosophy (CBL)

Taking a page from the disputes of Jefferson and Hamilton, some of the past two century’s most intense political battles take place over the proper scope of farming and the overall shape of American agriculture. In this class we will trace the movements that have shaped our food-production system as it exists today. We’ll listen to proponents of the “Green Revolution” and industrial agriculture and their critics in the agrarian movement.

Mind and Body in Flux

What exactly is our mind, and just what does it have to do with our brains and the bodies of which they form a part? Historically, we have vacillated between seeing the mind and body as separate substances and seeing them as inextricably connected. In this course, we will investigate various understandings of mind and body in the philosophical perspectives of the West and East and delve into contemporary philosophical and psychological explorations of the mind-body connection.

Individual and Social Wellness

Mental and physical well-being are, in part, determined by individual behavior, personal choice and circumstances. Stress, body image, alcohol abuse, fertility control and AIDS represent a small sample of health issues that face all generations in our society, particularly college students. This course will begin with an examination of personal mental and physical health values, and then move to an exploration of how well-being may be influenced by gender, race, class, genetic make-up and the environment.

Monsters in the Mainstream

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." — Friedrich Nietzsche

The Meaning of Life

What makes life meaningful, valuable, and purposeful? How do people invest their lives with significance? What does it mean to be a person, and more importantly, what do we know when we think we know ourselves? There is a great deal to be learned from our social and cultural surroundings, but in the end, this sense of meaning is not automatically provided to each of us – we’re each stuck with the task of figuring out for ourselves who we are, where we’ve been, and where we go from here.

Finding a Voice: Creativity, Community and Performance

Each of us is moved in a unique, individual way by the beauty of the artistic expression that we see, hear or produce, but the meaning we draw from art is shaped as well by the experiences and ideals that we share within communities. This college will both investigate, and be invigorated by, the power of the social act of performance. We will learn, in part by regularly becoming performers ourselves, ways in which an artist, whether poet, dancer, actor or musician, can clearly communicate with an audience.

Having an Impact: Leadership, Teamwork and Motivation (CBL)

We will explore the themes of leadership, teamwork and motivation from a variety of different perspectives. What makes an effective leader or follower? What does history teach us about leadership? What does science teach us about motivation? What do economic theories teach us about teamwork and group dynamics? Today’s world is highly dynamic and diverse in nature, requiring adaptive thinking and individuals with the ability to lead amidst change. Today’s world is also highly collaborative, requiring individuals who can work effectively in a wide range of different groups.

Making a Difference: The Role of Active Citizenship in a Democracy (CBL)

What should a thriving democracy look like? In an era of economic crisis, perhaps now more than ever we should be reflecting upon how well our democratic institutions meet the needs of a diverse citizenry and what role citizens should play in ensuring the health of these institutions. What does it mean to be a member of a society that proclaims a “government of the people, by the people, for the people?” As we wrestle with these questions, we’ll examine America’s founding principles and the fundamental debates over our core values as a nation.