SPRING 2007

The FYS strives to continue the communication skills, critical thinking, ethical reflection, and liberal learning goals of the FYP, but with a specific focus on critical inquiry and research. Each of you will engage in a research project of significant depth over the course of the semester. Our learning goals for that research project include that you:

• Be introduced to ways of conducting productive and imaginative inquiry and research in order to become a part of the various conversations surrounding issues.

• Learn to differentiate among the various ways that information is produced and presented, between popular and scholarly journals and books, between mainstream and alternative publications, between primary and secondary sources.

• Learn how to evaluate and synthesize information, whether gathered from traditional sources, such as books and journals, or from websites or electronic media.

• Begin to develop the skills of critical analysis in the interpretation and use of information gathered from any source.

• Be introduced to the ethical obligations that scholars have to both responsibly represent their sources and inform their readers of the sources of their information, as well as learning, and being held responsible for the proper use of, the conventions of scholarly citation and attribution.

• Present the results of your research through writing, speaking, visual elements, or other multimedia forms in such a way that you demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively using the rhetorical conventions of the chosen form.

FYS in France

French Connections
Bruce Weiner
Rouen, France and beyond

The FYS in Rouen, France, actually includes study and travel in Quebec, Rouen, and Senegal. We begin in Quebec with introductory study of French language and Quebecois culture. (You need only one-to-two years of high school French to apply). In Rouen you will live with French families and be immersed in the language and culture of France. Your FYS and the course that prepares you for a ten-day excursion to Senegal are taught in English. We also spend a week of study in Paris and make shorter trips to other places of historical and cultural interest in France. This is a unique opportunity to challenge yourself intellectually and to broaden your perspective on the world. It is intended not only for language majors or minors but those interested in international relations, cultural studies, European Studies, Global Studies, literature, art, history, and sociology; even science majors with interests in these other areas should consider this program. In the FYS we will examine issues of French and American identity and cultural connection from a variety of perspectives. We will also pay some attention to what recent theories in the field of “cultural studies” suggest about the possibilities and pitfalls of tracing cultural connections and differences. Students will apply the theories in researching and writing comparatively about particular aspects of French and American culture. 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 short research paper.

Rhetoric, Language, and the Visual

Terror Alert! Understanding Collateral Language (1)
John Collins
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and M 12:00-1:30 p.m.

It is often said that “the first casualty of war is the truth,” but what happens to the truth when the war is a global war with no end in sight? What happens is the creation and proliferation of collateral language. If “collateral damage” refers to death and destruction that take place in addition to the intended results of a military action, then “collateral language” refers to those new terms and new meanings that war adds to our collective lexicon. In this course we will focus on one important function of collateral language: its power to create popular consent and deflect attention from war’s most objectionable aspects. We will research the history and the (mis)usage of particular terms that have emerged since 9/11 (e.g., “homeland security,” “war on terrorism”) and the war in Iraq (e.g., “shock and awe,” “weapons of mass destruction”). You will learn basic skills in discourse analysis and ideology critique, contribute research and commentary to a collective website, and engage in other creative projects designed to imagine a world without collateral language.

Deconstructing Spectacles (2)
Steve Papson
T-H 8:30-10:00 a.m. and W 2:50-4:20 p.m.

Guy Debord, a French social theorist, characterizes contemporary society as “an immense accumulation of spectacles.” The spectacle is a social logic which blends the logics of the cinema, the circus, and capital. It permeates a wide range of social cultural and political formations such as advertising and marketing discourses, architecture (Times Square, The Mall of America, Las Vegas), events (SuperBowl, Columbine, 9/11), celebrities (Dr. Phil, Oprah), theme parks and zoos (Disney World, Sea World, The San Diego Zoo), video games, TV news, reality television, etc. Using special effects, architectural facades, and fast paced music the bland and dull appear exciting and worth watching or buying. In this sense the spectacle is the cultural compliment to capital both producing value and stimulating consumption. In this course we shall both analyze and theoretically engage with the underlying logic of events, spaces, media formations which might be called spectacles. The course is a research-oriented course. Students will map and analyze a site, event, or formation determined by the logic of the spectacle

Visual Culture (3)
Kasarian Dane
T-H 10:10 a.m.-12:25 p.m.

This seminar is an introduction to the critical study of visual culture, including aspects of popular, artistic, academic and underground culture. Students will develop an awareness of fundamental concerns of seeing and constructing meaning. A variety of visual practices such as architecture, advertising, television, and video as well as more traditional mediums of painting, drawing, and photography will be analyzed critically. Emphasis will be placed developing a critical awareness of the multifaceted means of visual persuasion and manipulation that fill the viewing landscape (both actual and virtual) of our culture. This seminar will be a mixture of theory and practice. Students will be asked to respond to concepts in both written AND visual form. Studio projects will be a part of the course.

How Do You Know? The Art of Persuasion (4)
Maegan Bos
T-H 8:30-10:00 a.m. and W 1:40-3:10 p.m.

There are many ways of “knowing,” such as the scientific, the mathematical, the legal, the cultural, and the religious. Each perspective tries to persuade us. Arguments are constructed based on scientific experiments, religious beliefs, mathematical proofs, legal briefs, or cultural mores. How does our socialization affect the way we structure these arguments, and how persuasive are they? What other tools are used to sway us? In addition to discussing ways of knowing, we will analyze and evaluate various types of persuasion to answer these questions and to generate others. In research projects, we will either deploy our newly-learned skills in persuasive techniques in arguing for a particular proposition, or use them to analyze the arguments others have made around controversial issues.

Manifestos and Movements (5)
Ganesh Trichur
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and W 12:00-1:30 p.m.

The turbulence of the new millennium presents unique spaces for the writing of manifestos (written statements that publicly declare the intentions and motives of its issuers) as the contemporary global movements for social justice are increasingly converging in their claims that “another world is possible.” In this seminar, you will research different historical manifestos and the social movements on which they are based. We investigate the combinations of historical events and circumstances that have facilitated the emergence of short visionary manifestos that attempt to capture the spirit of the times. In addition to reading manifestos written since the sixteenth century, we will read contemporary newspapers to see what possibilities our times offer to those who wish to create that “other world.” In attempting to understand the history and ideas of a particular manifesto, your research project will address questions such as: What calls for action do manifestos make? What are their universalizing claims? For whom are they written? What generates their wide appeal?

Nature and Resources

People and Place: Environmental Autobiography (6)
Mary Hussmann
M 1:40-3:10 p.m. and T-H 12:40-2:10 p.m.

To paraphrase Wendell Berry, in order to know who we are we must know where we are. And writer Patricia Hampl claims that “geography is the first self.” This seminar will focus on the construction of identity through the lens of place. We’ll read books and essay collections in order to examine critically the connection between landscape and identity and the meaning of “bioregionalism”. Students will start to think about how their identities have been formed and influenced by where they have lived. We’ll look at how particular landscapes influence larger “identifiers” such as race and class. Students will write two papers: an autobiographical memoir focusing on place and identity and a cultural and/or natural history of the place they call home. Additionally, each student will be required to design an oral presentation focusing on the cultural, natural, or personal history of his or her particular place.

Birds of Northern New York (7)
Michael Greenwald
T 10:10-11:40 a.m. and H 8:30-10:00 a.m. and 10:10-11:40 a.m.

This course is 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 to 4) of which will be on Sunday mornings (replacing Tuesday classes). The research project will be either a life history of an early nesting species breeding in Northern New York or a history of the research on our understanding of the taxonomy of a species from Northern New York whose taxonomy has changed in the last 40 years. The first project will involve both a library and field component; the second, a library component only. You should also anticipate that after spring break, one class per week will begin at 6:30 AM.

Doomsters vs. Cornucopians: The Debate over the State of the World (8)
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 currently running out of resources, nor will we ever, 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.

Pollution Spectacular, Management Monster: Global Warming and the End of Oil (9)
John Rosales
T 1:15-4:15 p.m. and H 12:40-2:10 p.m.

Two major processes, global warming and the end of oil, are converging in extraordinary ways. Global warming--a spectacular pollution problem of a magnitude humanity has never faced--is predominantly caused by burning oil and other fossil fuels. Yet diminishing our use of oil is an exceedingly difficult challenge-- a management monster--because in industrialized civilizations we are overly dependent on its use for energy and as a component of innumerable products. We are faced with a dilemma, or possibly a paradox: To combat global warming, the oil cannot be combusted, but without combusting oil we cannot live as we do currently. With global oil production at or near its peak, the end of oil is posing an interesting twist to this situation. With roughly half of the planet’s recoverable oil still remaining in the ground, what is the best way forward? This course delves into this dilemma, including the power of large oil companies and oil wars, and explores our options for the future.

Earth Resources (10)
Diane Burns
W 1:15-4:15 p.m. and H 10:10-11:40 a.m.

This seminar will focus on the resources of the earth - how we get them, do we need them (and in what quantities) and examination of the differing viewpoints regarding both of those stances. We will explore questions such as: What takes precedence, demand or stewardship? If a community objects to having a production facility located there, should they be ignored or obeyed? Why are prices for petroleum products anywhere from $0.15 a gallon in Venezuela to $8 gallon in Europe? What constitutes a “need” for a resource? Through classroom lecture, in-depth research and several field excursions to companies extracting minerals/materials, we will explore all sides of the issues involved. Research will be done on alternative energy resources to explore whether they are really viable or not, as well as looking at the personal/community issues related to exploitation of these alternative sources.

Children and the Family

The State of the Family: Constitutional Law and the American Family (11)
Cathy Crosby-Currie
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and T 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 and federal laws governing the family. We will begin with an exploration of the basic concept of liberty and the foundational U.S. Supreme Court cases that established the constitutional right to parent and to marry. We will then explore some specific issues including child abuse and neglect, termination of parental rights and same-sex marriage. One purpose of this course is to challenge and expand students’ critical thinking skills by requiring them to grapple with the texts of actual U.S. Supreme Court cases. Students will also conduct a semester-long research project on a family-relevant legal issue (e.g., adolescent abortion, rights of public school students, divorce and custody, artificial reproduction) that will require that they become conversant with a variety of legal and social science literature on their topic and produce a paper reporting on what they have found.

Not In Front of the Children! Childhood in Contemporary Culture (12)
R. Danielle Egan
T 12:40-2:10 p.m. and H 1:15-4:15 p.m.

Cultural definitions of “childhood” are slippery at best. Those definitions are complex and contradictory, as shown in how we proclaim children are innocent and little angels, and simultaneously television shows such as Nanny 911 or Super Nanny illuminate the spectacle of something far more insidious. In this first year seminar, we will explore the cultural and political implications of the ways we socially construct childhood. Employing film as well as historical, literary, philosophical and sociological texts, we will critically deconstruct childhood in our postmodern culture. We will see that in some cultural contexts childhood ends at the onset of adolescence and in others seems to extend (particularly with regard to sexuality) into university. Our cultural definitions of childhood both inform and validate social and educational policies (welfare, legal accountability, sex education, freedom of expression or parental rights) as well as social control mechanisms (drinking age, legal curfews and prison sentencing). Students in this seminar will conduct semester long projects exploring the complex and contradictory ways in which childhood functions in our contemporary culture. Research topics may vary widely, but might include how children are portrayed in popular culture or the ways in which race, class and gender figure into the issues of childhood obesity. Students will present their work at an undergraduate conference in Buffalo, NY in late April.

Public Policy and the Family (13)
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 fields such as economics, psychology, sociology, political theory, and the law. Although the last third of the course will involve your learning from each other’s research, the first two-thirds of the course will focus on three specific policy areas. After creating a framework for analysis by exploring how public policy is made and the relationship between the state and the individual, we will look in some detail at the policies surrounding the issues of multi-parent families, same-sex marriage, and the gender division of labor in and out of the household. You will also conduct a semester-long research project on a family-relevant public policy issue that will enable you to become both conversant with a variety of empirical evidence and policy literature on your topic and appreciative of the complexity of these issues and the difficulties we face in developing policies to address them.

Native American Children and Youth (14)
Ronald J.O. Flores

Two sections:

(14a) M 12:00-3:00 p.m. class, 3:00-6:00 p.m. community-based learning, and F 12:00-1:30 p.m.

(14b) W 12:00-3:00 p.m. class, 3:00-6:00 p.m. community-based learning, and F 12:00-1:30p.m.

National research finds that Native American youth are at greater risk of dropping out of high school, drug, alcohol and tobacco use, mental illness and both considering and attempting suicide relative to their non-Native counterparts. Further, the likelihood of such behaviors is higher among Native children and youth who live on reservations. The causes of these child and youth experiences are deeply connected to centuries of genocide, oppression, exploitation and discrimination at the hands of Europeans and Americans. In this seminar, we will learn about Native American children by having our class sessions, as well as volunteering, at the Akwesasne Reservation. During our time on the reservation, we will work closely with Mohawk children in programs that attempt to counter the devastating effects of poverty and scarce resources on the well being of children. Thus, we will not only learn about and experience the conditions native children face, but also how native communities, against considerable odds, actively work to promote the welfare of their children. As part of our research activities, we will work on securing funds for the creation of a recreation/athletic center for the children and youth of Akwesasne.

Moods, ‘Tudes, and Feuds: Adolescent Turbulence from Middle School to College (15)
Jenny MacGregor
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and T 12:40-2:10 p.m.

Parents sometimes construe adolescence as a black hole of rebellion and sullen silence. But what is really going on inside the teenager’s mind? Drawing on current theories from social, neurophysiological and developmental psychology, we will explore the enormous changes that teens undergo, both internally (e.g., changing self-concept and body image) and externally (e.g., changing social demands and goals). Then, working as a group, we will design a simple study to look at research questions that intrigue the class. Possible questions include: How are masculinity and femininity conceived and enacted throughout the adolescent years, and how do media images of violent manliness and sexy-but-girlish womanhood affect teens? How do internet culture and psychological development interact to produce alternate forms of identity as seen in screen names and myspace.com profiles? How has the internet changed the social dynamics of adolescence? Who becomes popular and why? A significant component of this class will be conducting theory-driven research: deriving hypotheses, operationalizing variables, collecting data in area schools (via surveys and interviews), and analyzing results.

Science and Medicine

Medical Ecology (16)
Carol Budd
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and W 1:40-3:10 p.m.

Everything is connected to everything else. In this course, we will explore the connections between changing environments and the distribution of disease organisms over time, as well as the co-evolution of disease organisms with their human host. To understand the issues, we will use several primary examples of environmental and evolutionary changes with profound medical impacts. These include severe inbreeding depression in Florida panthers as a function of habitat isolation; the evolutionary success story of the four species responsible for malaria; why a vaccine for HIV is an unlikely event in the near future; the resurgence of tuberculosis; and the influenza pandemic of 1918. We will also learn several simple bioinformatics techniques to determine if DNA samples from simulated patients contain normally occurring or pathogenic organisms and how scientists study toxic chemicals using gas chromatography, flow cytometry, and microarrays to assess environmental health issues. Students who take this FYP must also co-enroll in at least one Natural Science distribution lab science.

Medical Ethics (17)
David E. Hornung
T-H 10:10-11:55 a.m. and W 7:00-8:00 p.m.

In this seminar we will examine topics such as the physician/patient relationship, medical assisted suicide, cloning, genetic engineering, transplants, informed consent, elective surgery and reproductive ethics. We will also consider alternative approaches to healing, approaches that for many people in the world are, in fact, traditional. The goal will be to examine the principals that guide individuals as they struggle with these increasingly complex issues. Research projects will focus on some aspect of medical ethics (broadly defined). Six of the T/Th meetings will be with the SOAR (Stimulating Opportunities for Retired People) group which will allow us to interact around the common theme of medical ethics with a group of adults from the Canton area.

The Science of How and Why We Sleep (18)
Pamela Thacher
T-H 8:30-10:00 a.m. and H 2:20-3:50 p.m.

Students will learn about the biological, psychological, and cultural foundations of sleep and dreaming. In examining these topics, we will first learn about the brain structures and their inter-connections with respect to sleep, and the psychological issues relevant to sleep, such as the differences between long sleepers and short sleepers, or between early risers and night owls. We will also talk about sleep disorders and their relevance to our lives and culture, and about the various choices that different cultures make with respect to sleep. For example, in some cultures, “co-sleeping” (infant or child sleeping with one or more parents during the night) is the norm, while in other cultures, co-sleeping is considered all but taboo. We will examine how this fascinating and complex biological and psychological behavior manifests itself in various settings, and how these processes and choices can go wrong. We will learn about the various techniques used to collect information about sleep, including sleep diary data, “actigraph” data, hormonal profiles, and dream reports, to better understand the phenomenology of sleep, starting with students’ own sleep patterns and choices.

Re-Designing Life? (19)
Carrie Johns
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and T 2:20-3:50 p.m.

The development of technologies to decipher, decode, and manipulate genetic materials at the cellular and molecular level have given rise to diverse applications in medicine, agriculture and clean-up of pollution. This seminar will explore the scientific, ecological, social, and ethical issues surrounding applications of genetic engineering – broadly defined as deliberate human transfer or manipulation of genetic materials amongst organisms either within or between species. We will examine applications and impacts of genetic engineering in agriculture, e.g. crops devised with built-in herbicide resistance or that make their own pesticides, use of recombinant bovine growth hormone to increase milk production, crops that produce only sterile seed unless genes are “turned off” by application of specific chemicals. We will also look at possibilities of genetic engineering applied to humans – gene therapy, manipulation of human embryos, gene doping of athletes. Further, we will examine use of designer microbes to break down environmental pollutants, e.g. oil spills. What are social and ethical consequences of widespread use of these technologies? Who benefits? Who loses? Who is making these decisions? Who should be making these decisions?

The 'Magic' of Healing (20)
Alice Pomponio
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and W 1:40-3:10 p.m.

What causes people to fall ill? How are they cured? What are the premises on which non-Western medical traditions are based? Since the Enlightenment, Westerners have tended to assume a distinction between mind and body that people in other cultures do not assume; hence, the West has created a tradition of different practitioners for “physical” and “mental” disorders, while in other cultural traditions, one’s “body” is not separated from “mind,” nor from the social fabric of daily life that connects an individual to other members of society. This course will study medicine as a “cultural system”--that is, as a system of meaning that is based on and similar to other systems of meaning (such as religion). Specifically, we will explore the role religion, magic, witchcraft, and sorcery beliefs play in defining “illness,” and the roles that ritual, community action, and specialist practitioners (diviners, shamans, herbalists, etc.) have in managing “cures.” In addition to exploring common case studies from around the world, we will pursue independent projects on the comparative study of health issues of native populations in several regions (for example, alcoholism, diabetes, high blood pressure, nutrition, water-borne diseases, and HIV-AIDS).

Film and Cinema

Film Noir: The Dark Side of American Culture (21)
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 visual imagery and themes of the film noir genre, 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. We will study the classic film noir era, which occurred between 1944 and 1958, and examine the recent reemergence of noir 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? We will explore topics such as film noir’s literary, artistic, and political origins; the noir narrative and visual style; the cultural, historical, psychological, sociological, and gender issues that are typically reflected in noir narratives.

Hong Kong Film Culture and Chinese National Identity (22)
Sid Sondergard
MWF 8:30-9:30 a.m. and T 7:00-9:00 p.m.

This course will give you 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 Chinese popular culture, national identity, and the commercial realities of filmmaking in Hong Kong. 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 Hong Kong; the application of Hong Kong production methods in film series like the Matrix and Lord of the Rings trilogies), and will also study Hong Kong's approach to reinventing traditionally popular film genres.

Rebels and Outcasts: the American Identity in Film (23)
Kathleen Stein
T-H 12:40-2:10 p.m. and H 2:20-3:50 p.m.

Film is a medium dependent on mass appeal for commercial success, yet from its inception American film has been fascinated with rebellious loners and social outcasts. We will explore what these figures can tell us about the American self-image and about the state of American society at the times when they appeared. We will consider film as an artistic, emotional medium, but also as a barometer of reaction to economic upheaval, social change, gender tensions, and wars (hot and cold). Research topics could include specific film genres, particular character types, individual actors or directors. Sources for projects will involve a variety of print materials, from historical and sociological studies of film to contemporary reviews, and the close study of films of particular relevance to each topic as well.

Sacred Cinema (24)
Mark MacWilliams
M-W 12:00-1:30 p.m. and W 1:40-3:10 p.m.

The premise of this course is that popular American films wrestle with some profound religious questions: What is life all about? Is there a God? Who is my God, or what is sacred for me? Is there a way that I ought to live that is ultimately real, true, and meaningful? These “ultimate questions” still trouble us in a time when science has become, for many, the “conventional wisdom” through which we know the world and ourselves. However, we still seek answers to our “ultimate questions” that science finds difficult to answer. While going to the movie theater is not the same as going to church, in the cave-like darkness with images flickering mysteriously on the wall, we experience what Christian Smith calls “living narratives” that speak to our contemporary spiritual search for meaning and purpose in life. Using classics on the nature of religion as our guide (Freud, Borg, Smith, etc.), we will study the sacred in movies such as The Passion, The Village, and Field of Dreams.

Culture and Communities

The History of Cyberspace: Place, Space, and Metaphor (25)
Paul Doty
T-H 8:30-10:00 a.m. and W 1:40-3:10 p.m.

What happened to hackers? At one point in American history prominent faculty at well respected universities happily referred to themselves as hackers, but now the word drips with criminal connotations. Tracing what has happened to the word hacker will help us understand the Internet on a technical and social level, and in this course we will study the technology and cultures that bundled together make cyberspace. Students will read widely across the primary literature of the Internet, and will also work with different software as they create written and oral projects. Students will keep a journal on their reading and online experience, work on projects that involve PowerPoint, Refworks, and Dreamweaver, and publish their final project on the World Wide Web. While the course will not call upon students to do any programming, students will engage technical language and we will delve into the concepts underlying Linux and other computer codes.

Northern Ireland’s Troubles: Depictions in Music, Art, Literature, and Film (26)
Karen Dillon O’Neil
M 12:00-1:30 p.m. and T-H 8:30-10:00 a.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 3,000 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.

Popular Buddhism: Fact or Fiction? (27)
Erin McCarthy
M 1:40-3:10 p.m. and T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m.

In this seminar we will critically examine the upsurge of popular culture’s interest in all things Buddhist. A quick search on the web reveals dozens of links ranging from monasteries and online Buddhist texts to spas and home decorating. We will engage in close readings of original Buddhist texts and scholarly work on Buddhism alongside what often get defined as “popular” texts, as well as films as a way of exploring the relationship between “popular” Buddhism and the Buddhism of the original texts and the scholarly world. This critical investigation requires you to complete a research project that will address, among others, the following questions in relation to one particular school of Buddhism: How is Buddhism being used in popular culture? What is its relation to the philosophy? Why has Buddhism become so popular (again) right now?

Japanese Culture in the World Scene (28)
Yoko Chiba
M-W 1:40-3:10 p.m. and H 2:20-3:50 p.m.

Japan is a country diverse in culture and rich in history, and its millennium-old traditions in the arts and religion are still vibrant today throughout the country. Under influences from China in the ancient times and from the West after Commodore Perry opened its doors in 1854, Japan created its own unique civilization, a unity of East and West as it is today. Such Japanese art forms as Haiku, martial arts, flower arrangement, and sushi have been widely known and practiced throughout the world for decades. More distinct today internationally is Animé, Japanese animation, which is a model of this “cultural superpower” reinventing itself for the new global age. In this course, students will learn many different aspects of Japanese culture (from the aristocratic and samurai ages up to the present high-tech society) in art, literature, music, dance, theater, and film. While studying the traditions and characteristics of Japanese culture—such as the Tea Ceremony, the Zen Garden, and calligraphy--we will look for clues to the country’s recent transformation.

Literature and Music

The Dickens Phenomenon (29)
Bob DeGraaff
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and M 12:00-1:30 p.m.

Charles Dickens was, in his own time, the most popular novelist writing in English, and he remains so today. During the publication, in monthly parts, of his first novel, Pickwick Papers, sales soared from 400 to 40,000 copies. Later novels and Christmas stories, as well as his weekly journal, usually sold between 50,000 and 100,000 copies, and all before a “mass market” existed.
The course will examine Dickens’s life and work within the Victorian cultural/historical context, in order to try to understand this enormous popularity. Student projects will use that context to illuminate features of the Dickens texts: Pickwick Papers, A Christmas Carol, and David Copperfield.

Music and Place (30)
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. You will pursue two major projects: a case study of the relationship between a particular musical genre and its place and an original, artistic work that explores various aspects (e.g., sound, imagery, geology) of a particular place.

The Roots of American Popular Music (31)
Larry Boyette
T-H 10:10-11:25 a.m. and W 7:00-9:00 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 values of the African and European musics whose extraordinarily fruitful interaction produced the many branches of our music: blues, jazz, country, gospel, bluegrass, rock and roll, soul, rap 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.

Fairy Tales (32)
Caroline Breashears
M 1:40-3:10 p.m. and T-H 8:30-10:00 a.m.

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, / Who’s the fairest one of all?” As anyone who has read the Brothers Grimm knows, the answer is “Snow White.” With skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony, she surpasses her wicked stepmother in beauty and therefore seals her death warrant. But why does the stepmother sit around talking to a mirror? Why does Snow White have to escape from her stepmother by moving in with seven dwarfs? And why must she die before she can meet her prince? What’s really going on in fairy tales? We will answer such questions by reading a series of tales, including “Snow White,” “Cinderella,” and “Beauty and the Beast.” These readings will also help us explore more broadly what a fairy tale is, how fairy tales affect children, and how fairy tales vary by time and place to meet different needs. Assignments will include a team-led discussion, a research project, an individual presentation, and the creation of our own book of fairy tales.

American History

The Shock Of The Sixties (33)
William Hunt
M 1:15-4:15 p.m. and W 1:40-3:10 p.m.

America is still divided along the cultural and political fault-lines that first emerged in the conflicts of the 1960s: the decade that shaped the outlook of the (now middle-aged) “baby boom” generation The virtually even split between supporters of Bush and Gore in 2000 pretty neatly reflects the division between those who support and those who oppose (or at least mistrust) the legacy of the so-called “New Left” the 1960s—anti-militarism, affirmative action, gender equality and sexual freedom, environmentalism, and so on. The purpose of this seminar is to enable students to explore, through collective inquiry and individual research, the sometimes paradoxical ways in which the decade of the1960s continues to shape our world.

Confronting Islamist Terror (34)
JJ 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.

World War II in Europe: American Perspectives (35)
Joan Dargan
M-W 12:00-1:30 p.m. and T 7:00-8:30 p.m.

Current fascination with the American role in World War II in Europe has been fueled largely by popular films and television series and best-selling works by well-known commentators and historians. But what about works from the wartime era itself and its immediate aftermath: journalism, films and newsreels, official documents and histories, memoirs, oral histories, biographies, literature? This seminar will examine works old and new in different genres and with a variety of intended audiences in an effort to better understand this era and our relation to it. And in order to gain a sense of the limitations of these American perspectives, we will need to consider a sampling of works by civilians, allied and enemy soldiers, and authors from the countries most directly touched by the war. Primary emphasis will be given to written works and films addressing the American experience of the war in France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Extensive reading will be required, including works by Cornelius Ryan, Bill Mauldin, George S. Patton, and others. If there is sufficient student interest, a field trip in May to battle sites in Normandy might be offered.

The American Experience in Vietnam in Film and Culture (36)
Karl Schonberg
M 12:00-3:00 p.m. and W 12:00-1:30 p.m.

The Vietnam War profoundly affected Americans' view of themselves and the world, and continues to shape political discourse about war and peace today. Frequent comparisons of the war in Iraq to Vietnam are just one example of the powerful effect that memories of this era continue to have in American society. This course will consider the nature and extent of this influence, asking both what Americans have learned from the war in Vietnam and what they should have learned, as well as the broader theoretical question of how individuals and societies use history to understand the world of the present. The diplomatic, military, economic, and cultural history of the conflict from the late 1940s through the mid-1970s will be examined, along with its diverse effects on American society in the decades that followed. Much of the work for this course will involve criticism and discussion of a series of films dating from the 1940s to the present, which will be considered as historical texts illustrating the evolution of American culture in the years during and after the war.

Living with the Bomb (37)
Donna Alvah
T-H 10:10-11:40 a.m. and T 12:40-2:10 p.m.

In this seminar we will examine how the creation, use, and proliferation of nuclear weapons have influenced aspects of American society and culture between the 1940s and the present. This period includes the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, the Cold War arms race and opposition to this, and current concerns about the threat of nuclear terrorism as well as the United States’ own maintenance of a substantial nuclear arsenal and its goal of creating a “missile shield.” The texts we’ll analyze include historical scholarship, literature, music, and film. Possible topics for seminar projects include (but certainly are not limited to) music about nuclear weapons, 1950s experiences of childhood and/or adolescence in a nuclear world, activism opposing nuclear testing and proliferation, communities’ responses to the disposal of nuclear waste, and representations of nuclear disaster in films; other projects might examine cultural and social responses to nuclear weapons in other countries.