FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
SPRING 2005
All FYS courses have their
syllabi reviewed by other FYS faculty, and all must meet the following
commonality guidelines in order to be approved as an FYS course.A First-Year Seminar will be approved if students:
a)
are given diverse and repeated opportunities to write and
speak, including opportunities to benefit from detailed formative feedback from
instructors and peers
b)
are asked to assess adequately the research requirements of
a particular assignment and to seek out efficiently the means of meeting those
requirements
c)
are given diverse opportunities to incorporate appropriate
illustrative or persuasive detail in oral and written communication
d)
are required to complete at least one and no more than two
projects comprising some combination of formal and informal oral, written, and
research activities that demonstrate a satisfactory grasp of the program's
communication goals
e)
are instructed in and held responsible for the ethical use
of sources
f)
are required to assemble all their work in a portfolio that
includes a written assessment of that work, and to submit the completed
portfolio to their faculty for review
FYS in France
FYS in France:U.S.-European Politics in Historical and Contemporary Perspective (html)
Karl Schonberg
Rouen, France
Political relations between
the United States and Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries will be examined in
this course, with focus on economic and security issues. US-European
diplomacy before and during the two world wars and cold war will be considered,
along with the US-European relationship in the contemporary era. Conflict
and cooperation between the US and European powers in the Balkans, Afghanistan,
and Iraq will be among the contemporary issues examined. Current trade
disputes, the future of the European Union and its implications for American
foreign policy, and the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will
also be considered. In keeping with the goals of the FYS, we will use a
variety of written and oral assignments and work through the stages of writing
and revising a substantial research paper.
Global Issues
Institutions
of the
Global Economy (1)
Michael Jenkins
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and W 1:40-3:10 p.m.
Recently the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) have been the
subject of much debate, scrutiny, scorn and protest.In this seminar we will explore these
institutions.We will address such
issues as the decision making processes within these institutions, with
emphasis on comparing the roles of developed countries, like the U.S,to that of the poorer countries of the
world.We then examine the impacts of
IMF and WTO decisions and actions on both developed and developing
countries.In doing so we will consider
why these institutions have generated so much recent controversy.
Confronting
Islamist
Terror (2)
J. Jockel
T-H 8:30-10:00 a.m. and T 7:30-9:00 p.m.
This seminar will examine how
the United States, its allies, and its friends are confronting Islamist terror.
The instructor will himself pick the first two books to be read and then will
select a number of other books and readings in consultation with the students.
Health
Care Systems
Around the World (3)
Patrice LeClerc
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and T 2:20-3:50 p.m.
This seminar will examine a variety of health
care systems, ideologies, and philosophies from a number of cultures and
countries. We will read, discuss, and consider a range of examples from
the highly bureaucratic and expensive system in the United States to barefoot
doctors in China. We will learn how to examine and compare social
policies in differing societies, and discuss differential impacts of health
care systems. In addition, we will understand how public policies reflect the
governmental structure, culture, and values of each society.
Peacemakers
and
Peacemaking (4)
Laura Rediehs
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and T 12:40-2:10 p.m.
We learn a lot about the major wars of the past
and present, and can easily draw the conclusion that most of human history has
been dominated by violent conflict. Yet there have been many remarkable
episodes of peacemaking. In this seminar, each student will engage in two
related research projects: researching an important peacemaker, and an
important historical episode of peacemaking. Students will share these
findings in oral presentations in class, and reflect on the implications of
this reconsidered history in discussion and writing.
Doomsters vs.
Cornucopians: The Debate over the State of the World (5)
Jeffrey Young
M-W 1:40-3:10 p.m. and H 8:30-10:00 a.m.
Images of environmental
catastrophe whether from overpopulation, global warming, or nuclear accidents
have haunted the news and been standard fare in Hollywood movies for several
decades.Environmentalists and
scientists have warned us that we could run out of resources, face population
collapse, or pollute ourselves and other species to near extinction.Yet many
economists believe that the overall welfare of the world's people has been
improving.We are not and never will run out of
resources as long as basic institutions, such as the rule of law, remain in
place.In short, an intense debate has
raged in recent years between the "Doomsters" who prophesy disaster and the "Cornucopians"
who believe in the human imagination as the "Ultimate Resource".In this seminar
we will examine the nature of this debate.We will read important
source material from each side, and we will investigate the evidence that each
presents, and the way that it is used to persuade.We will attempt to see the
debate as a
scientific, an economic, and a political one.
Spaces and Places
Japanese
Culture in
the World Scene (6)
Yoko Chiba
M-W 1:40-3:10 p.m. and H 2:20-3:50 p.m.
Japan is a culturally diverse
country with a great variety of interests, ancient and modern, and its
millennium-old traditions in the arts and religion are still vibrant today in
many parts of the country.Japanese
culture has been steadily Westernized ever since the coming of Commodore Perry,
who opened its doors to the outside world exactly 150 years ago.In this course,
students will learn many different aspects of Japanese culture throughout
its history up to the present,
from art, theater, literature, music, dance, film, anime, to tea
ceremony, gardening, architecture, calligraphy, flower arrangement, cuisine,
martial arts, and life style itself. Anime
(Animation) is, of course, an important part of our study as a great
contemporary international cultural phenomenon that Japan is leading.Now recognized
by many as a "cultural
superpower," in place of its image of a generation ago, as an "economic
superpower," Japan is reinventing itself for the new global age, in which anime
is playing a central role.You
will find many keys to this transformation, while studying the traditions and
characteristics of Japanese culture.
The History of
Cyberspace: Place, Space, and Metaphor (7)
Paul Doty
T-H 8:30-10:00 a.m. and W 1:40-3:10 p.m.
The purpose of this course is to consider what the
Internet is, and how the Internet may or may not be a social space. To do this,
we will examine the historical development of the Internet, with particular
emphasis on what it meant to be a "hacker" in the earliest days of the
Internet.The course will survey the
promise and reality of online communities, with emphasis on the development of
the Linux community.Students will be
asked to write several short essays, keep a journal, prepare a PowerPoint
presentation, and publish their final project as a web page.
Music
and Place (8)
Michael Farley
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m.
and T 2:20-3:50 p.m.
Music-making is always
influenced by the environment in which it is situated.As an illustration, "Grunge" was an outgrowth
of a number of conditions that existed in Seattle in the late 1980s.As a result of a depressed local economy, a
large number of abandoned warehouses were available as performance venues.Even the climate contributed to the development
of a focused style of music-making.In
the words of a local producer, "When the weather's crappy you don't feel like
going outside; you go into a basement and make a lot of noise to take out your
frustration."We explore the
relationship between music and place in a number of locations and periods in
history.Students pursue two major
projects: a case study of the relationship between a particular musical genre
and its place; an original, artistic work that explores aspects (e.g., sound,
visual, geologic) of a particular, local place.
Northern
Ireland's
"Troubles":Depictions in Music, Art,
Literature, and Film (9)
Karen O'Neil
T-H 8:30-10:00 a.m. and W 12:00-1:30 p.m.
In 1921, following centuries
of conflict, Ireland was divided and the new state of Northern Ireland
created.This new state was created out
of six of the nine counties of Ulster and remained part of the United Kingdom,
while the rest of Ireland gained independence from British rule.Conflict and violence -- between Catholic and
Protestant, between Republicans and those loyal to the Crown -- have continued
to characterize life in Northern Ireland.The most intense and prolonged conflict, euphemistically known as the
"Troubles", began in the late 1960s and to date has claimed over 3000 lives.We will explore the conflict in Northern
Ireland and its expression in music, art, literature, and film. We engage these
in the context of issues of nationalism, identity, community, and
ideology.
Hong Kong Film
Culture and Chinese National Identity (10)
Sid Sondergard
M-W-F 8:30-9:30 a.m. and T 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
This course will give students a chance to
discover the workings and products of the inventive and immensely popular
contemporary Hong Kong film industry and will provide research opportunities
to
study the connections between popular culture, national identity, and the
commercial realities of filmmaking. We will contrast some Mainland Chinese film
work with Hong Kong films to understand the complexities of the Mainland's view
of itself and of Hong Kong--and vice versa. We will also pursue research on the
increasing interface between the Hollywood and Hong Kong film industries,
identifying and analyzing new trends in both (e.g., the increasing use of CGI
in HK; the application of HK production methods to film series like The Matrix
and Lord of the Rings trilogies), and
will also study HK's approach to reinventing traditional popular film genres.
Reality, Myth, and/or Fiction?
Fairy
Tales (11)
Caroline Breashears
MWF 12:00-1:30 p.m.
"Once upon a time": this
phrase often evokes the familiar world of fairy tales, a world of danger and
magic and "happily ever after."Cinderella gets her prince; Beauty marries her Beast.This course seeks to defamiliarize the fairy
tale in order to illuminate its complexity and cultural significance.Together and then in individual research
projects, we will analyze several classic fairy tales to determine the cultural
assumptions and critiques embedded in them.These analyses will lead to our own revisions of fairy tales, which we
will collect in a small volume.Writing
assignments will include a five-page essay, a research paper, and a fairy
tale.Oral communication assignments
will include a group project and an individual presentation.
Robert Thacker
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and T 2:20-3:50 p.m.
Founded in 1925 (midway
through the "Roaring Twenties," the same year F. Scott Fitzgerald's The
Great Gatsby reached print), the New Yorker sought an audience that
was urban and urbane. It still does, but that audience is found in the boroughs
of New York City, all over this country, and throughout the world. Almost
weekly for almost eighty years, the New Yorker has published as broad
a
range of comment, humor, essay, politics, analysis, cartoon, fiction, poetry,
oddity, and silliness as might be imagined. It still does. For a writer, to be
in the New Yorker is to be.This
course will ask each student to discover her or his favorite aspect of a
remarkable magazine, perhaps the best magazine ever published in America. Each
week we will discuss this week in the New Yorker (each student will have
a personal copy). In addition, we will read together Ben Yagoda's About
Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made (2000). Drawing upon the
back run of the magazine available in the ODY Library, each student's oral presentations
and research project will be rooted in the New Yorker.
Elun Gabriel
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and W 12:00-1:30 p.m.
From Plato's Republic to The Beach, imagining ideal societies (utopias) has been an integral
part of the Western literary, philosophical, and historical tradition.In this
course, we will briefly survey classic literary utopias before turning to
an extended study of modern utopian
fiction, as well as the place of utopian themes in social and political
thought.We will consider the changing
nature of what people have considered the good life, and how they have imagined
its realization.We will also cover the
rise of dystopian fiction in the twentieth century and its relationship to the
ongoing utopian tradition.Students will
choose a real or fictional utopia as the subject for a research project.This
course will have a community-based
learning component.
Jonathan Gottschall
M-W 1:40-3:10 p.m. and H 10:10-11:40 a.m.
According to recent polls
most Americans believe the following:angels and aliens regularly visit the earth,
Darwinian evolution cannot explain the origin and development of species,
magnetic therapy has healing
power, and "psychics" like John Edwards are not charlatans.Many others
believe in ghosts, cryptozoological entities (e.g., Bigfoot and the Loch Ness
Monster), astrology, "the bible code," creation science, and in
conspiracy theories alleging that huge numbers of Israeli nationals living in
New York had foreknowledge of the 9-11 attacks, that Churchill and Roosevelt
knew the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor, and that the moon landing
was a brazen hoax.This course is about
cultivating critical thinking skills and a skeptical orientation toward all knowledge
claims.As a seminar, we will set out to
examine, and debunk if appropriate, a wide variety of popular notions that are
based on shaky evidence.Each student
will be responsible for thoroughly researching and skeptically analyzing one
specific set of controversial claims.
Global
Science
Fiction(web
page) (15)
Daniel W. Koon
M-W-F 9:40 - 10:40 a.m. and T 2:20 - 3:50 p.m.
Science
fiction is as American a genre as the Western, right? Wrong. From Jules Verne
to Cuban cyberpunk to Japanese anime,
the world of SF is as international as, well, the crew of the Starship
Enterprise. In this course we will sample the non-English-language science
fiction literature and explore the extent to which science fiction, that
literature which strives "to boldly go" beyond the limits of its earth-bound,
human writer, is still tied to the planet, the species, the culture and the era
of that writer. Or perhaps we will decide that it is not. Each student will
write both a short science fiction story and a full-length research paper for
this course, as well as leading discussion of at least one literary work,
author, or country. For more information on this course, please check the
instructor's homepage.
Layne Little
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and W 1:40-3:10 p.m.
This course will initially
function as an exercise in reflecting on how the imagination mediates in our
relationship to narrative.Students will
keep a journal recording their own reaction to different motifs encountered
while reading a variety of myths and folktales from around the world.Next they
will be asked to examine and critique a number of different theories on myth
and folklore and to reflect on
how these may or may not apply to their own subjective readings of these
stories.We will explore questions
like:Do the myths we cherish change how
we interpret our own life-stories?Is
identifying with mythic heroes just a kind of narrative narcissism?What is the
relationship of comic books and other popular media to the storytellers of
bygone eras? Student projects will be centered on
examining how myth and folk motifs adapt in the face of modernity, technology's
place in the changing face of narrative production, new motifs in Science Fiction,
applying contemporary theories of myth and folklore in new narrative contexts,
or field-based folkloristic collection projects in the local community
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and H 2:20-3:50 p.m.
What power should the state have within the private
realm of the family?What rights do
parents have to decide how they will raise their children?Does the right to marry
apply to opposite sex couples only?In this course, we will
examine the controversies that arise when constitutional rights collide with
state laws governing the family.We will
do so in light of the contributions of social science to our understanding of
families.Issues we will explore include
child abuse and neglect, multiple-parent families - i.e., families that might
be
created through adoption, divorce, remarriage or reproductive technologies -
and
same-sex marriage.Students will conduct
a semester-long research project on a family-relevant legal or public policy
issue that will require that they become
conversant with a variety of social science and legal literature on their topic and produce a paper reporting on what
they have found.
Growing Up Victorian (18)
Robert DeGraaff
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and W 12:00-1:30 p.m.
Some social historians claim
that the notion of "childhood" as a special period distinct from adulthood has
its roots in Rousseau and developed fully during the 19th
Century.In this course we will be
exploring this idea through literature and social history, looking at many
kinds of texts that focus on children and the raising of children during the
Victorian period.We will be reading two
Victorian children's novels (Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island and
Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess) and two novels written for
adults whose tales are centered on a child growing up in the midst of the
Victorian world (Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Charles Dickens's Great
Expectations).To understand the
context of these stories, we will conduct and share research projects in
various aspects of Victorian culture. Much of this historical research will
bring into focus the history of child development as a field of study that had
its
beginnings during this time.
Public
Policy and the
Family (19)
Steven Horwitz
T-H 8:30-10:00 a.m. and W 1:40-3:10 p.m.
This course will explore the
ways in which various public policies affect the form and function of the
American family, drawing from various fields such as economics, psychology,
sociology, political theory, and the law.Although the last third of the course
will involve you learning from each other's research, the first two-thirds
of the course will focus on three
policy areas.After creating a framework
for analysis, we will look in some detail at the policies surrounding the
issues of multi-parent families, same-sex marriage, and female labor force
participation.You will also conduct a semester-long
research project on a family-relevant public policy issue that will enable you
to become conversant with a variety of empirical evidence and policy literature
on your topic and produce a paper offering a clear and supported argument about
what you have found
Hillory Oakes
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and W 12:00-1:30 p.m.
Family histories are full of
fact and fiction: some names and dates are recorded on official documents, but
details are lost and gaps remain. In this class, you will examine primary
and secondary sources in order to construct your family tree and reconstruct
your family's story. Bringing genealogical research and academic research
together, you will not only investigate your own family's background but will
also make an extensive inquiry into larger questions of history, place, and
culture. Whether sifting through family photos or looking for sources in
the library, you will encounter similar challenges (dead ends, false leads) and
similar thrills (undiscovered connections, sudden insights) as you work to
place your personal history in the context of public issues.
Democracism (21)
Luc Walhain
W-F 8:00-9:30 a.m. and H 2:20-3:50 p.m.
Democracy is a form of government that has the
advantage of carrying an enormous amount of legitimacy, and has therefore been
placed at the forefront of the neoliberal offensive around the world. In
the West, democracy generally implies "reasonably" free elections and
a string of political freedoms and civil liberties. To most Americans, it
offers a sense of choice and freedom for the people. But which people are
we talking about? How much choice and how much freedom do the people
really have? In this course, we will examine four "-ism"
concepts - capitalism, communism, orientalism, nationalism - which have
contributed to the emergence of democracism, an ideology that
legitimizes racial, socio-political, and economic hierarchy. The research
project will require students to investigate one prominent figure/group who has
challenged democracism since 1945. Students will share their
findings in oral presentations in class, and revisit their understanding of
democracy in light of their research in a written essay.
From One Document to
the Wide World:The Experience of
Self-Guided Research (22)
Robert Strong
M-W 1:40-3:10 p.m. and T 10:10-11:40 a.m.
W.H. Auden's poem "September
1, 1939" starts in a bar in New York City and ends with a prayer; along the way
the poet writes that "Accurate scholarship can / Unearth the whole
offence."Titled for the day the Germans
invaded Poland, beginning WW II, Auden's piece includes references to history,
politics, the classics, sociology, economics, business, war, and art.This matrix
of references, and the human condition it tried to explain, was deep enough to
give the poem a rebirth after
September 11, 2001, when the it was spread to millions of people in an email
chain.
The students in this class
will conduct a course of research which moves from our first document,
"September 1, 1939," outward, into any and every possible field.There are no pre-assigned texts: with
intensive library and research time, this class will construct its own reading
list during the first three weeks of class.Students will then follow their own concerns and curiosity to develop individual
research projects.
Performance, Film, and the Arts
(Some of these seminars have
a performance component to them, whether musical, artistic, or dramatic.If you are interested, you might wish to talk
to the instructor about what will be expected of you.)
The
Roots of American
Popular Music (23)
Larry Boyette
T-H 9:00-10:00 a.m. and W 7:00-9:30 p.m.
This seminar will combine
research and performance to explore the musical traditions that have shaped the
development of American popular music. We will examine the styles and
aesthetic values of the African and European musics whose interaction produced
blues, jazz, country, gospel, bluegrass, rock and roll, soul, hip hop, and
beyond. All seminar members will contribute to weekly performances that
allow us to participate in the music that we study. Though
instrumentalists, singers, songwriters, dancers and other performers are
encouraged to apply, no prior artistic training or musical expertise is
required. The only prerequisite is a willingness to participate in some
thoughtful and creative way in performances that deepen our understanding and
appreciation of American music.
Roy Caldwell
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and W 1:40-3:10 p.m.
Why do we laugh, and why do
we frequently fail to laugh at what our parents and grandparents found
funny?This course will survey American
screen comedy from the silent masters (Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd), through the
talking comedies of Hollywood's golden age (Marx Bros., Lubitsch, Capra, Cukor,
Wilder), to the films of today (Kubrick, Altman, Allen, Coen Brothers).Students
will read critical studies of the genre, as well as texts which treat general
theories of laughter (Bergson,
Baudelaire, Bakhtin).
Performing
Diversity (25)
Rebecca Daniels
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and W 12:00-1:30 p.m.
Using research, creative
writing, and personal experiences, this seminar will explore various issues of
multiculturalism and diversity on the St. Lawrence campus and in America today.
We will engage a variety of texts to investigate the links between identity and
oppression by race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. In
addition to a significant research project, the class will create performance
texts about their research topic areas (combining video presentations and live
performance work) and will present a selected group of these projects to the
campus community. To be a part of this seminar, students do not need prior
experience in video production or acting/performance, but they must have a
willingness to get involved with exploring both as part of the work of this
class.
Sacred Cinema (26)
Mark MacWilliams
T-H 12:40-2:10 p.m. and H 2:20-3:50 p.m.
The premise of this course is that popular
American films wrestle with profound religious issues and questions: What does
it mean to be religious? What is life all about? Is there a God? Who is my God,
or what is the sacred for me? Is there a way that I can find some way to live
that is ultimately real, true, and meaningful? Students will learn three
classic interpretations of spirituality that have influenced American pop
culture (Sigmund Freud, John Dewey, and Joseph Campbell), using their theories
of religion to analyze films in a number of cinematic genres (Science fiction, Star Wars, Horror, Alien, Comedy, Leap of Faith,
Drama, Field of Dreams, The Doctor, and the Hollywood Jesus -
versions of the gospel stories - The
Last
Temptation of Christ and Mel Gibson's The
Passion of the Christ).
The Groundlings:
Shakespeare and Popular Culture (27)
Joel Morton
M 1:15-4:15 p.m. and H 2:20-3:50 p.m.
Thus Hamlet to the Players:
"Speak the speech, I pray you ... trippingly on the tongue"!In this FYS we will
take seriously the notion that the plays of Shakespeare are meant to be performed.To
enroll in this course, neither acting
experience nor familiarity with the bard is necessary.But as a Groundling you
must commit yourself to lending your talent, skill, and energy to our goal of
publicly staging either
selected scenes from Shakespeare's works or one full-length Shakespeare
comedy.Along the way, we will study
several plays, view film versions of several plays, and carry out semester-long
research projects on Shakespeare and contemporary popular culture.It is also
possible that the Groundlings will get to take a trip to see a professional production
of a Shakespeare play.(Historical tip: the "groundlings" were those
who could not afford to purchase a seat in the Globe Theater of Shakespeare's
day.Instead, they paid a mere pittance
to be allowed to stand on the ground in front of the stage and watch the
performances, hooting and hollering as they pleased.)
Film Noir: The Dark Side of American
Culture (28)
Ginny Schwartz
T-H 10:10-11:55
a.m. and T 7:30 - 8:30 p.m.
The emphasis of this course will be the
film noir genre as it is expressed visually and thematically, and in particular
the ways in which film noir represents and reflects the cultural conditions of
the time in which it is produced.Unlike
the upbeat movies that are more typical of the classic Hollywood style, noir is
often described as portraying a more realistic view of life; perhaps more
accurately, film noir reflects a gritty realism about the darker aspects of the
human experience.This seminar will use
fiction, essays, and films to examine the noir sensibility, including its
literary, cultural, and cinematic origins.The classic film noir era, which occurred between 1944 and 1958 will be
studied using films from the classic era.Additionally, the recent reemergence of noir films will be examined, as
well as the themes and issues that are emphasized in these recent films.Why has a genre that appeared for the first
time during the period of post World War II disillusionment, suddenly become so
prevalent in the last decade or so?Students will explore topics such as the origins of film noir including
its literary, artistic, and political roots; the noir narrative and visual
style; the cultural, historical, psychological, sociological, and gender issues
that are typically reflected in noir narratives.Subsequently, students will research a
particular topic related to film noir and write a research paper based on their
findings.
Writing
Art /
Painting Poetry (29)
Robert Strong
M-W 12:00-1:30 p.m. and T 10:10-11:40 a.m.
How do students interested
in
the creative arts translate their impulses into scholarly research
projects?Ekphrasis is the art of
describing works of art, the verbal representation of visual
representations.The term can encompass
writing which describes art, writing which imitates art, and the writing of art
criticism.Beginning with a study of the
extensive poetic tradition of ekphrasis, this class will move outward to
investigate prose - both as art and as criticism.We will also discuss the contested
relationship of the written word and visual representation in oral traditions.We
will make extensive use of the university's many arts
resources - including visits to gallery shows, readings, and performances.
Animals, Nature, and Human Nature
Birds of Northern New York (30)
Michael Greenwald
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and T 8:30-10:00 a.m.
A study of the birds of
northern New York based almost entirely on field observations.Emphasis will be on bird identification, both
by sight and sound, on bird behavior, and on the relationship between bird
populations and habitat.We will also
pay attention to basic bird biology.Anticipate weekly field trips (weather permitting), some (2-4) of which
will be on Sundays (replacing Tuesday classes).The research project will be a life history of an early nesting species
breeding in Northern New York that will involve both a library and field
component.You should also anticipate
that after spring break, one class per week will begin at 6:30 AM.
Re-Designing Life? (31)
Carolyn Johns
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and W 1:40-3:10 p.m.
In this seminar we will
explore aspects of biotechnology, specifically genetic engineering and possibly
nanotechnology.From Flavr-Savr tomato
to terminator-technology to bio-pharming, we will emphasis use of genetic
engineering in agriculture and environmental clean-up, investigating the
science, applications, social and ethical implications of changing nature at
the molecular level.The use of genetic
engineering to alleviate various human medical conditions is another possible
avenue, depending on student interests.Readings will include, but not be limited
to, Brian Tokar's Re-Designing
Life, Bill McKibben's Enough, and Bailey and Lappe's Engineering
the Farm.Students will engage in
research into aspects of genetic engineering or nanotechnology as applied to
plants, animals or humans, culminating in a written research report, and oral
presentation to seminar participants.
Meat
or Murder?: Animal
Rights, Food, and Vegetarianism in Contemporary America (pdf file) (32)
Robert Torres
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and T 12:40-2:10 p.m.
Where some people see tasty, succulent meat, others see bloody murder.The question is, how can two people raised in the same culture see the same thing in such disparate terms?In this class, we will examine ethical theories of animal rights, with an emphasis on understanding the politics of meat, animal experimentation, animal agriculture, and factory farming.We will work to situate these theories within their social and cultural contexts, drawing connections between global food systems, hunger, fast food, and factory farming.We will also consider contemporary vegetarian/vegan movements, their philosophical and cultural roots, and their political implications.
Nature
Narratives (33)
Bruce Weiner
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and F 1:40-3:10 p.m.
This course will examine a
variety of fictional and non-fictional accounts of survival, exploration,
extraordinary encounter, and quest in nature.We will focus on the ways in which writers represent unknown and
"extreme" natural environments and the exploits of human beings in them.What do these narratives reveal about the
natural world and human nature? Are accounts of adventure in nature bound to be
anthropocentric, concerned largely with our ambitions and desires, or are
writers able to find compelling ways to let nature speak?Students will write a research paper about
the impacts of human exploration and adventure in the environments they read
about.They will also write and report
about the philosophical, ethical, and social implications of narrative
representations of human encounters with nature.The reading will reflect a variety of
cultural points of view and will be drawn from the works of Thoreau, Jack
London, Ernest Shackleton, Hemingway, Isak Dinesen, Farley Mowatt, Jon
Krakauer, Bill Bryson, Bruce Chatwin, N. Scott Momaday, and Leslie Marmon
Silko.
The
Nature of Human
Nature (34)
Jonathan Gottschall
T-H 2:20-3:50 p.m. and F 12:00-1:30 p.m.
What is the nature of human nature?What behavioral and psychological
characteristics do all humans share, regardless of race, ethnicity, or cultural
legacy?Are these tendencies at all
different in men and women?How much
power does culture have to mold and manipulate biological raw material?This seminar provides an opportunity to
examine a variety of responses, old and new, to ancient and fundamental
questions about what we are and how we got that way.We will follow the development of these
debates in religion, philosophy, fiction, social science, biology, neurology,
genetics and more.Students will be
responsible for completing a research paper and oral presentation based on one
aspect of these usually raucous debates.In addition, we will engage in a large-scale group research project
intended to cast some light on these questions, with the goal of presenting our
results in a conference presentation and in a collaboratively written scholarly
article.
Carol Budd
T-Th 10:10-11:40amand Th 12:40 - 2:10pm
A quick look through current magazines raises a number of questions related to student health issues, including: "How do brains repair themselves after chronic drinking?", "Is testicular cancer really a disease of aging?", "Does marijuana decrease sexual desire?", "What is the long-term risk of antidepressant use?", "Is race a factor in drug risk?" and "What factors contribute to breast cancer?". This seminar is designed for students enrolled in Chemistry 104 and/or Biology 102 this spring, or for those who plan to take Chemistry 103 and/or Biology 101 in the fall.It will be conducted in a problem-based learning format, utilizing teams of students to critically examine basic science methodology, social constructs imposed on the science, and the ethics of the science done.As we research these health-related questions, we will apply standards of scientific thinking to the elements of scientific thought that underlie these issues, with the goal of developing the skill of critical scientific thinking.Topics for student exploration will be chosen by participants from the following sub-categories: disabilities, diseases and disorders, fitness and nutrition, and sexuality and reproduction.
Ref: s/FYP/spring2005/FYS Spring 2005 Course Descriptions.doc