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Semester Specific Course
Descriptions
SPTP Courses and Departmental Seminars that change topics each semester.
Fall 2013
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ACC 347 A: SPTP-Corporate Finance
Corporate finance explores the financial world from the perspective of a Chief Financial Officer seeking to maximize financial return to the corporate ownership. The course will cover financial markets, the time value of money, asset valuation and capital financing strategies. The course will introduce corporate financial management practices including working capital management, budgeting, and performance measurement through ratio analysis. Financial management within non-profit institutions will be covered as well. A prerequisite class in financial accounting would be helpful but not required.
AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
AFRICAN
STUDIES
AFS 247 A/ FR 247 A: SPTP-Writing the Civil War and the Rwanda Genocide
The 1990s saw the emergence of postcolonial wars in Darfur, Congo, and Sierra Leone, wars which challenged the concept of the Nation-state concept as inherited from colonization. As a result of these wars, states have collapsed, divisive politics have destroyed communities, neighbors have taken up arms against each other, and the small soldier has emerged as an icon of an embattled society. This course will examine testimony, fiction and essays written by Kourouma, Dongala, Diop, Monenembo, Tadjo, Gourevitch, etc. Students wishing to count the course for the Francophone Studies major will read works in the original French where appropriate and write all papers in French.
AFS 426 A/ FR 425 A: SPTP-Identity and Exile in the African Novel ( course in French )
This course will explore the themes of identity and exile in writings by African writers such as Kane, Mabanckou, Tadjo, Ken Bugul, etc. We will ask, what is the role of race, of traditional culture, and of nationality in the construction of identity? How do exile and the influence of a foreign culture change the way that identity is imagined and constructed?
AANTH 247 A: SPTP- Talking Politics
How is political power created, exercised and challenged using language? How does politically powerful speech vary from one society or historical period to another? This course will address these questions by examining diverse forms of political speech, from Yemeni poetry to Samoan oratory; from Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg to attack ads and “robocalling” in the current U.S. Presidential election. Through a cross-cultural exploration of the broad spectrum of political discourse, we will seek to understand the complex ways in which language and power are intertwined.
ANTH 447: SPTP-Writing Culture
How can we uncover the meanings that lie beneath human behavior? How do we convey something of these fragile meanings to a wider audience? This course addresses these core methodological questions by immersing students in a practical workshop on ethnographic research and writing. During the course, students will gain hands-on experience in major aspects of research design: identifying a research question, devising a methodology, negotiating the IRB, conducting interviews, doing participant observation, making field notes, and revising field notes into polished ethnographic descriptions. Students will use their pilot research projects as the basis for an ethnographic essay and a grant proposal for a larger research project.
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
ART AND ART HISTORY (Fine Arts)
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
ASIA 290 A/GOVT 290 A: SEM-China’s Rise
On August 16, 2010, the New York Times reported that China had passed Japan to become the second largest economy behind the United States. This news was expected. In addition to holding almost a trillion dollars in U.S. treasury bonds (1/10 of American debt), China, with its population of 1.3 billion, replaced the U.S. as the world’s largest Internet user (2008) and surpassed the U.S. with the largest auto market (2009). Through an interdisciplinary approach borrowing from the fields of comparative politics, economics, global studies, and international relations, this course evaluates the significance (and insignificance!) of China’s rise. An equally important aim is to provide the conceptual and organizational tools necessary for students to appreciate good research and to begin practicing the craft themselves.
BIOCHEMISTY
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
BIOL 147 A: SPTP-World of Plants w/Lab (Biology Course for Non Majors)
Lecture content in this course will introduce students to the amazing diversity of plants and their cultural and economic importance as sources of foods, fibers, dyes, medicines, poisons and intoxicants.During the laboratory component, students will experiment with growing live plants in a greenhouse and will also learn to identify some common species of trees, shrubs and herbs through field visits to local forest areas.
BIOL 247 A/GS 247 A: SPTP-Environmental Security
Environmental factors are becoming increasingly more important in analyses of human conflict, development and peace. Around the world, we are witnessing the outcomes of human-induced ecological damage and environmental stress on individual livelihoods, health and fulfillment of basic needs as we continue degrading the sustainability and resilience of natural systems. Environmental degradation is intensifying conflict and competition over natural resources, aggravating social tensions, and in certain volatile situations, provoking or escalating violence and conflict. In this seminar course, we will explore examples of conflict situations that stemmed from misuse or abuse of natural resources, at levels varying from regional, to national, to a global perspective. We will focus on the links between poverty and environmental security, and discuss pertinent issues including: fresh water scarcity and quality; land degradation, desertification and deforestation; and food security. Throughout the course, we will examine and discuss top-down and bottom-up solutions, governance reform and other appropriate measures to strengthen environmental security at various scales.
BIOL 347 D: SPTP: Bryology w/Lab
A study of the ecology, anatomy, taxonomy and systematics of mosses. Liverworts will also be introduced and hornworts as well, if we find any. Tuesdays will include reviews of current scientific papers and discussion of thoughtful literature related to mosses and life. Thursdays will be spent in the field and lab studying ecology and systematics. Serious bryology requires microscopic examination of leaves- an activity as well as an enjoyable puzzle that will constitute a good amount of homework. Purchasing a high quality hand lens will be encouraged
CANADIAN STUDIES
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
CARIBBEAN LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
CLAS 347 B/ HIST 347 B: SPTP-City and Empire in the Spanish Atlantic
In this seminar, we will metaphorically travel the Spanish Empire exploring its more important towns and cities in both sides of the Atlantic. In every stop of our journey, we will spend our time analyzing one important aspect in the life of that city and its citizens, as well as their importance to understand the complex world of the Spanish Empire from the 16th to the 18th century. For example, we will visit Seville at the height of the trade with the Spanish colonies, Cartagena and its buoyant slave trade, Potosi and its silver mines, Lima and the life of the nuns in its convents, Mexico City and the court of the Viceroy, or Havana as the center of the Spanish Transatlantic trade.
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
CHINESE
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
COMMUNITY BASED
LEARNING
CBL 247 B/HIST 247 B/: Public History, 1.5 credits with CBL component
History is an active process and much of historians’ research takes place in archives and libraries. In this course we will explore the field of public history, which includes the collection, cataloguing and dissemination of histories that takes place through public sites such as libraries, historical societies and museums. We will also practice in the field through the area of local history with an examination of the histories of Canton, St. Lawrence County and the North Country. We will introduce and utilize the various tools of the discipline of history, such as document analysis, critical reviews, and particularly the understanding of historiography as we research and write local history. Part of the research into this second element of the course will take place through a placement at a local institution such as a historical society or museum in cooperation with the Community-Based Learning Program. The work for this part of the course will earn an additional .5 credit.
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
ECONOMICS
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
EDUCATION
EEDUC 247A / ODST247 A: SPTP- Environmental Education
Do you love the outdoors? Do you think you may have a knack for teaching? Do you have fond memories of your own experiences learning outside and hope to encourage the same appreciation of nature with others? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then this course may be for you! SLU recently embarked on a new project, Nature Up North (www.natureupnorth.org), the goals of which include providing place-based, environmental education in Northern New York. With this course, team-taught by Mary Hussmann and Erika Barthelmess, we hope to train you in the
knowledge and skills needed to be effective environmental educators. The course will cover topics such as the foundations (goals, theory, practice and history) of environmental education, professional responsibilities of environmental educators, ways to foster EE learning and how to plan and implement EE lessons. The course will involve lecture, discussion, outdoor study, classroom visits, and hands-on practice. Students who are successful and interested may then have the opportunity to work with us implementing environmental education programming in the local community during Spring and/or Summer 2014. This course will likely include a required “pretrip” in the Adirondacks during which students will receive training to become certified interpretive guides (CIG’s) through the National Association for Interpretation. Enrollment is limited to 12, and is by permission of the instructor for all students. If you have questions, please contact either of the instructors by e-mail.
ENG 247 A: SPTP-Ethnic Literature and the Making of the United States
From Native American removal and slavery in the early part of the nineteenth century to immigration restrictions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, racial and ethnic difference have shaped American life and politics. This course will cover the development of US ethnic literature through the early twentieth century and will focus on how writers of various ethnicities envision and describe the US in its formative years. In doing so, we will examine topics such as the rise of “race” as a category of classification, the interaction of ethnicity with other identity categories such as class and gender, how ethnic experience is shaped by both forced and voluntary migration, and how the writers under consideration adapted popular literary forms to suit their particular purposes. We will read texts by authors from a variety of ethnicities such as African American, Asian American, Native American, Jewish American, and Latino/a. Possible authors include (among others) Olaudah Equiano, Harriet Wilson, Harriet Jacobs, S. Alice Callahan, William Apess, Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, and Sui Sin Far.
ENG 247 B: SPTP-Feminist Science Fiction
Since its inception (which some would place at the doorstep of Mary Shelley and her gothic novel Frankenstein), science fiction has been a place for writers to reimagine society and its constructs. During the twentieth century, a seemingly unending parade of new technologies prompted a boom in this genre that coincided with multiple waves of feminisms and literary theories. This class will focus on works of sci-fi and speculative fiction whose re-visionings at the intersections of gender, race, religion, class, the family, and the body make this sub-genre a potent and energetic site of social critique. Authors may include Gilman, Hossain, Butler, Hopkinson, Atwood, LeGuin, Lessing, Haraway, Tiptree, and Delany.
ENG 347 A: SPTP-GS We’re All Dysfunctional—The Family Memoir
"A dysfunctional family is any family with more than one person in it,” writes Mary Karr in her memoir, The Liar’s Club. This course will examine the (dysfunctional) family memoir, including classic works such as Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life, and Mary Karr’s The Liar’s Club, as well as more recent memoirs, such as Jeannette Wall’s The Glass Castle, Edwidge Danticat’s Brother, I’m Dying, Andre Dubus III’s Townie, Bernard Cooper’s The Bill from My Father, and Cheryl Strayed’s Wild.
ENG 347 B SPTP: AT- Food Literature
This course surveys the long tradition of food writing, particularly literary essay and fiction, with an emphasis on applying analysis techniques to better understand how literature on what we eat expresses explicit and implicit beliefs about gender, culture, and class. The reading covers a wide variety of authors, forms, and time periods, and traces the development of major themes in food literature up through contemporary writers.
ENG 450 A: SYE: Jane Austen, Our Contemporary
Clueless, Bridget Jones’s Diary, From Prada to Nada: these are only a few of the films inspired by Jane Austen’s novels. What is it about Austen and her works that intrigues us? How is it that a woman who died in 1817 continues to influence our culture? And to what extent are we actually reading—or misreading—her novels? In this senior seminar, we will explore these questions first by returning to Austen’s novels and situating them in their historical context. We will then consider recent films and novels inspired by Austen and her works, trying to determine what they mean for us.
ENG 450 B: SYE: Felons—African-Americans in The Black Panther Party CANCELLED
We will read the autobiographical narratives of prominent members of the Black Panther Party of the 1960s and 70s in conjunction with the "official" accounts of the felonies the authors committed during a turbulent period in American history. In addition to our reading, our investigative research will include "official" news footage of events, "docudramas" and documentaries in an effort to determine how the public imagination was shaped by the many different narrative versions of events that were being created. We’ll be reading writers such as Angela Davis, Eldridge Cleaver, Elaine Brown, Huey Newton, George Jackson, and Tupac Shakur.
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
ESTUDIOS HISPANICOS (Spanish Studies )
SPAN 447 A: SPTP- Afro-Hispanic Culture and Literature
This course explores the African Legacy in the culture of the Hispanic Caribbean: Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. While examining a variety of texts we will engage in conversation around topics that include slavery and resistance, cultural racism, class, identity construction and representation. It also incorporates cuisine, music, dance and other sources as the basis for work that may bring in creative, disciplinary or career interests. Crosslisted with Caribbean and Latin American Studies. Taught in Spanish, and permission of the instructor is required.
FILM 247 C: SPTP-Cinema and Society
Blending a discussion of cinema and sociology this course will look at how the human condition is represented in both filmmaking and film criticism. It will look at how film depicts human suffering, alienation, and exploitation, and the social conditions that produce them, as well as the possibilities for transcendence. The course will focus on transnational cinema that explores the lives of disaffected persons. We shall look at films by Allen, Anderson, Scorsese, Campion, Godard, Herzog, Lee, Lynch, Ki-duk Kim, Coen brothers and others or films such as Taxi Driver, Fight Club, American Beauty, Hurt Locker, Fargo, Donny Darko, etc.
FILM 347 A: SPTP- Postmodernism: Cinema, Literature and Theory CANCELLED
Using films, literature and theoretical texts, this course will define and outline the characteristics of a postmodern society, explore the relationship between postmodern social theory and aesthetics and analyze the consequences of postmodernity on both the social and the self. Theoretically, the course will be organized around the work of Baudrillard, Lyotard, Jameson, and Kellner. The course will explore theoretical issues such as the breakdown of grand narratives, the transformation of meaning to fascination, the primacy of the sign, the rise of simulacra and the spectacle, the death of affect and the attraction to cynicism and nihilism, and schizophrenia as metaphor for selfhood. The course texts will blend literature (Delillo, Acker, Ballard, Wallace, Palahniuk, I. Banks, and Leyner) and films (Anderson, Allen, Lynch, Jeunet, Coen Brothers, Harron, Morris, Chow, Tarantino,)
FILM 347 B: SPTP-Cinema and the Avant-garde: History, Theory and Practice
This course explores the history of Avant-Garde cinema--from Dali to Warhol, from Burroughs to Lynch. We will watch the films, read the artist manifestos and critical responses, and then create films of our own--films that begin as homage and quickly become creative expressions of our own.
FINE ARTS
see Art and Art History
FR 425 A/AFS 426 A: Identity and Exile in the African Novel ( course in French )
This course will explore the themes of identity and exile in writings by African writers such as Kane, Mabanckou, Tadjo, Ken Bugul, etc. We will ask, what is the role of race, of traditional culture, and of nationality in the construction of identity? How do exile and the influence of a foreign culture change the way that identity is imagined and constructed?
FR 247 A: SPTP-France in Miniature: French Literature Through Short Fiction
From the fable to the maxime to the conte fantastique, France’s short fiction has encapsulated its rich history and literary ethos. In this course, students will deepen their analytical skills, improve their spoken and written French, and learn about French history and culture while reading short stories and related sub-genres from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. Course work will include textual analysis, writing assignments (explication de texte, reaction papers, and essays), and at least one oral presentation. Authors will include La Fontaine, Voltaire, Maupassant, and Le Clézio, among others.
FR 247 B/ AFS 247 B: SPTP-Writing the Civil War and the Rwanda Genocide
The 1990s saw the emergence of postcolonial wars in Darfur, Congo, and Sierra Leone, wars which challenged the concept of the Nation-state concept as inherited from colonization. As a result of these wars, states have collapsed, divisive politics have destroyed communities, neighbors have taken up arms against each other, and the small soldier has emerged as an icon of an embattled society. This course will examine testimony, fiction and essays written by Kourouma, Dongala, Diop, Monenembo, Tadjo, Gourevitch, etc. Students wishing to count the course for the Francophone Studies major will read works in the original French where appropriate and write all papers in French.
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
no SPTP course descriptions this semester
GS 247 A/PEAC 247 A: SPTP: Intergroup Dialogue 8/28-10/16
This half unit course will run for the first half of the semester. Modeled on a highly successful program at the University of Michigan, it provides a space for students to delve deeply into their own and others’ identities, whether those are based on gender, race, religion, sexuality, social class or others. The first half of each three-hour seminar is spent going over readings but the second consists of workshops during which students sustain a dialogue on issues of difference and identity. Permission of the instructor required. Please contact Professor Eve Stoddard by email at estoddard@stlawu.edu.
GS 247 B/ PEAC 247 B SPTP: Intergroup Dialogue International Identities 10/21-12/12
This half unit course will run for the second half of the semester. Modeled on a highly successful program at the University of Michigan, it provides a space for students to delve deeply into their own and others’ identities, whether those are based on gender, race, religion, sexuality, social class, or in this case with a special focus on identities across national borders. The first half of each three-hour seminar is spent going over readings but the second consists of workshops during which students sustain a dialogue on issues of difference and identity. Permission of the instructor required. Please contact Professor Karl Schonberg, Associate Dean of CIIS at kschonberg@stlawu.edu.
GOVT 290 A/ ASIA 290 A: SEM-China’s Rise
On August 16, 2010, the New York Times reported that China had passed Japan to become the second largest economy behind the United States. This news was expected. In addition to holding almost a trillion dollars in U.S. treasury bonds (1/10 of American debt), China, with its population of 1.3 billion, replaced the U.S. as the world’s largest Internet user (2008) and surpassed the U.S. with the largest auto market (2009). Through an interdisciplinary approach borrowing from the fields of comparative politics, economics, global studies, and international relations, this course evaluates the significance (and insignificance!) of China’s rise. An equally important aim is to provide the conceptual and organizational tools necessary for students to appreciate good research and to begin practicing the craft themselves.
This course focuses on exploring consequences of current military modernization processes and its implications on the future of global conflict and war. Technological innovation of military hardware, information processes and artificial intelligence have created revolutionary weaponization capabilities. These technological innovations are leading a cutting edge shift in global political priorities and security regimes, with states’ altering their foreign policy and security strategies accordingly. The example of ‘Drone technology’, is a manifestation of this change. This course explores the impact, such changes are having on foreign policy/national security discourses, projection of political power among nations and impact on communities that are experiencing life under multiple surveillance mechanisms. The course also will focus on intense global political rivalries that are emerging between the United States, China and India. These states are identified promoting rapid military modernizing projects, thus these processes will be confronted in the course to understand the questions of future conflict and war.
HIST 148 A: SPTP-Debating Muslims: Examining Islamic Responses to Modernity
This course considers the development of debates within Muslim societies regarding such basic issues as democracy, science, and the rights of women from the 19th Century to the present, with a particular emphasis on contemporary issues and various iterations of "political Islam." Much of this course will be conducted as seminars, with a focus on close reading and discussion of case studies or primary source documents. Issues to be addressed will include veiling, the Danish "cartoon controversy," the role of women in the public sphere, jihadism and the "clash of civilizations," and "the Arab Uprisings."
HIST 247 A: SPTP- The Cold War
The United States and the Soviet Union were the rival superpowers in the Cold War, but European, African, Asian, and Latin American and Caribbean nations also were enmeshed in the conflict, sometimes in "hot" wars that killed hundreds of thousands of people and devastated natural environments. In class lectures, discussions, and research-based presentations, we will explore answers to such questions as: What caused the Cold War, and could it have been avoided? How did the Cold War affect international and domestic politics, everyday life, and culture in various nations? Why did it finally end (or did it)? And, what are the legacies of the Cold War?
HIST 247 B/ CBL 247 B: Public History, 1.5 credits with CBL component
History is an active process and much of historians’ research takes place in archives and libraries. In this course we will explore the field of public history, which includes the collection, cataloguing and dissemination of histories that takes place through public sites such as libraries, historical societies and museums. We will also practice in the field through the area of local history with an examination of the histories of Canton, St. Lawrence County and the North Country. We will introduce and utilize the various tools of the discipline of history, such as document analysis, critical reviews, and particularly the understanding of historiography as we research and write local history. Part of the research into this second element of the course will take place through a placement at a local institution such as a historical society or museum in cooperation with the Community-Based Learning Program. The work for this part of the course will earn an additional .5 credit.
HIST 247 C: SPTP-Modern Middle East
This course examines the history of the Middle East from the end of World War I to the Present. It will address such issues as the development of national states, the rise of political Islam, changing understandings of gender and sexuality, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, oil, growing U.S. involvement in the Middle East, and the Arab uprisings of 2011 – 2013.
HIST 247 D: SEM-World War II
This new seminar is designed to introduce sophomores to the study of history. As historians do, we will scrutinize a variety of types of primary sources—e.g., oral histories, literature, poetry, film, music—and consider scholarly interpretations of people and events in World War II, in multiple countries. Students will find that studying history cultivates all kinds of analytical and communication skills, and broadens understanding of the present as well as the past.
HIST299 A: SEM- War of 1812
This course is a sophomore seminar designed for students interested in majoring in history, although the subject matter may be of interest to others. In this course, you will hone the research, analytical and interpretive skills required in writing history.Our area of discourse will be the War of 1812. We will examine not only the facets of this war for independence, but the different and changing ways historians have interpreted them. With a focus on the diversity of class, race, ethnicity and gender, we will concern ourselves with the motivations and actions of Americans, Canadians, Indians, French and Britons. The final product of this course will be a paper analyzing how and why the interpretations of a single facet of the experiences surrounding the War of 1812 (1809-1815) has changed over time.
HIST 299 B: SEM- World War I
This seminar offers students an opportunity to learn about and practice the tools of the historian’s craft. It is geared toward history majors and minors, for whom it is a requirement, though the subject matter may also interest non-historians. Through an in-depth investigation of historical scholarship, we will explore the Great War’s causes, its course, and its effects on soldiers and civilians, men and women, workers, intellectuals, and artists. This cataclysmic war shattered the European political, social, and cultural systems of the nineteenth century, giving birth to the tumult and upheaval that defined the twentieth century. In learning about the war, we will focus on areas of scholarly debate, concerning such issues as responsibility for the war’s outbreak, its role in transforming gender norms and relations, its influence on modernist art, and its relation to the growth of anti-colonial movements. Students’ work over the semester will culminate in a paper that engages with historians’ understandings of one specific facet of the war.
HIST 347 A: SPTP- Lincoln, Douglass, and the Civil War
In the age of its sesquicentennial, the American Civil War is all around us. If we are truly to understand the impact of the war on American society, we must carefully consider the roles that Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass played in shaping the events of the day and how people understood them. This course will examine the era of the Civil War from the perspectives of the president and commander-in-chief as well as the former slave who capture the world’s attention as an ardent abolitionist and civil rights advocate. To better understand the era and the Civil War itself, we will look at letters, speeches, and writings of both men and explore the roles they played in their extraordinary times.
HIST 347 B/CLAS 347 B: SPTP-City and Empire in the Spanish Atlantic
In this seminar, we will metaphorically travel the Spanish Empire exploring its more important towns and cities in both sides of the Atlantic. In every stop of our journey, we will spend our time analyzing one important aspect in the life of that city and its citizens, as well as their importance to understand the complex world of the Spanish Empire from the 16th to the 18th century. For example, we will visit Seville at the height of the trade with the Spanish colonies, Cartagena and its buoyant slave trade, Potosi and its silver mines, Lima and the life of the nuns in its convents, Mexico City and the court of the Viceroy, or Havana as the center of the Spanish Transatlantic trade.
HIST 471 A: SYE- Revolutionary Europe, 1815-1917
This senior research seminar will explore the ideas, actors and events that made the long nineteenth century the most revolutionary in history. Beginning with the influence of the French Revolution and including consideration of developments that contributed to the Russian Revolution of 1917, the course will focus less on the ‘bookends’ to the period than on the century in between. While we will examine common themes through common texts in the first half of the course, the primary project will be the development and completion of a major research paper based on primary as well as secondary courses. Topics such as socialism, feminism, anarchism, trade unionism and the European-wide revolutionary outbreaks in 1848 are all possible subjects for research.
HIST 473: SYE: The United States in World War II
In this advanced and intense reading and research seminar for senior history majors and minors, we will examine social, cultural, political, and military aspects of the United States in World War II. The ultimate goal of this seminar is for each student to produce a substantial original research paper, using a combination of primary and scholarly secondary sources, on a specific aspect of the history of U.S. involvement in World War II. Toward this end, students will complete a number of assignments. We will spend the first few weeks of the course reading (rather extensively) and discussing the assigned course texts. This will give everyone a common grounding in the basic history of the United States in the war. You’ll spend the remainder of the semester developing your own focused project. You also will give attention to the projects of other students in this course.
HIST 475 A: SYE-The Familiar Stranger: CANCELLED
This senior research seminar examines the history and historiography of the West’s interaction with the Islamic Middle East in the modern era. Of particular interest will be the questions raised by Edward Said’s Orientalism and his critics, along with the implications of these debates on later historiography. The core of this class, however, is the development of individual research projects, culminating in a original research paper of between twenty and thirty pages. This project will be both grounded in the historiography and based
JAPANESE STUDIES
JAPN 101A: Self Study: Elementary Japanese
LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
MUS 247 A: SPTP-Women in Music/Women Composers
This course is designed for students who seek the opportunity to study women’s activities in music composition, performance, and teaching from the early years of the twentieth century to the present. There will be an emphasis on art music composers in North America and Asia through surveying and evaluating modern women’s expanding roles in music and revolutionizing views of women in music. We will be analyzing and listening to music through postmodern aesthetics as they relate to music, which suggests contrasting approaches of music making by men and women. Prerequisite: Music 100/101.
MUS 347 A SPTP-Michelangelo’s Music Lessons–How Renaissance Musicians Learned Their Craft
Through study and performance we’ll explore what music education was like in the pre-keyboard and pre-score era. How did musicians learn their notes? How did composers compose? We’ll look at primary sources (manuscripts and early prints), learn their notation (“Where are the bar lines?!”), read what 16th century music theorists had to say, learn to sing and maybe how to play a crumhorn (a what?!) REALLY in tune and time, explore the principles of classical rhetoric as they applied to composition and performance, and listen to some of the most glorious music ever written. This and more were expected of the well-trained musician. And it was all done without the help of pianos or iPods, i.e. you had to hear it. Prerequisite: MUS 200/2
NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
ND147 B: SPTP-Career Connections Internship
Students undertake a significant experiential learning opportunity, typically with a company, non-profit, governmental, or community-based organization. The internship represents an educational strategy that links classroom learning and student interest with the acquisition of knowledge in an applied work setting. Through direct observation, reflection and evaluation, students gain an understanding of the internship site’s work, mission, and audience, how these potentially relate to their academic study, as well as the organization’s position in the broader industry or field. Students will produce a critical reflection on their internship experience demonstrating how they have addressed specific learning goals.
Students are responsible for securing their own internships, but should contact the Career Services Office for assistance and resources to identify and apply for opportunities of interest. Students will participate in an internship for at least six weeks and no less than 50 hours of supervised work. Course must be taken under the pass/fail grading option only. Students may undertake two .25 credit internship options for a total of .5 credits during their undergraduate career at St. Lawrence. This course does not meet distribution requirements, nor does it replace existing CBL, departmental internship, or internship independent study options or requirements, but serves as a supplemental internship option for undergraduates
OUTDOOR STUDIES
ODST247 A/ EDUC 247A:SPTP- Environmental Education
Do you love the outdoors? Do you think you may have a knack for teaching? Do you have fond memories of your own experiences learning outside and hope to encourage the same appreciation of nature with others? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then this course may be for you! SLU recently embarked on a new project, Nature Up North (www.natureupnorth.org), the goals of which include providing place-based, environmental education in Northern New York. With this course, team-taught by Mary Hussmann and Erika Barthelmess, we hope to train you in the knowledge and skills needed to be effective environmental educators. The course will cover topics such as the foundations (goals, theory, practice and history) of environmental education, professional responsibilities of environmental educators, ways to foster EE learning and how to plan and implement EE lessons. The course will involve lecture, discussion, outdoor study, classroom visits, and hands-on practice. Students who are successful and interested may then have the opportunity to work with us implementing environmental education programming in the local community during Spring and/or Summer 2014. This course will likely include a required “pretrip” in the Adirondacks during which students will receive training to become certified interpretive guides (CIG’s) through the National Association for Interpretation. Enrollment is limited to 12, and is by permission of the instructor for all students. If you have questions, please contact either of the instructors by e-mail.
PEAC 247 A/ GS 247 A: SPTP: Intergroup Dialogue 8/28-10/16
This half unit course will run for the first half of the semester. Modeled on a highly successful program at the University of Michigan, it provides a space for students to delve deeply into their own and others’ identities, whether those are based on gender, race, religion, sexuality, social class or others. The first half of each three-hour seminar is spent going over readings but the second consists of workshops during which students sustain a dialogue on issues of difference and identity. Permission of the instructor required. Please contact Professor Eve Stoddard by email at estoddard@stlawu.edu.
PEAC 247 B/ GS 247 B SPTP: Intergroup Dialogue International Identities 10/21-12/12
This half unit course will run for the second half of the semester. Modeled on a highly successful program at the University of Michigan, it provides a space for students to delve deeply into their own and others’ identities, whether those are based on gender, race, religion, sexuality, social class, or in this case with a special focus on identities across national borders. The first half of each three-hour seminar is spent going over readings but the second consists of workshops during which students sustain a dialogue on issues of difference and identity. Permission of the instructor required. Please contact Professor Karl Schonberg, Associate Dean of CIIS at kschonberg@stlawu.edu.
PCA 213 A: SPTP- Middle Eastern Dance
This course is an introduction to Middle Eastern dance (also referred to as belly dance.) Students will learn the basic foundations of Egyptian oriental and folkloric style. There will be time spent on theory, as well as movement. In the process of learning how dance fits in Middle Eastern life, students will also learn about customs, history, geography and common misconceptions.
PCA 312A/PCA313A: SPTP-Performances of Living
This course seeks driven and self-motivated students who want to push the boundaries of traditional learning to focus on life experience as an educational tool. Much of the specific content of the course will be designed collaboratively with the course community, as both faculty and students consider what is needed to explore questions of identity, positionality, and performance. Throughout the course students will be pushed to (1) discover, own, communicate, and hone their opinions, beliefs, and positions, (2) identify the consistent self, (3) diversify and express life experiences, and (4) interrogate the boundaries of performance.
PCA 312 B/PCA 313 B: SPTP-Performance Ethnography
Through lecture, discussion, and field research, this course will explore both the performance and writing of ethnography. Ethnography is an empathetic act; it is the study of a particular culture from within said culture and is meant to build understanding and foster communication and critical, reflective thinking. Grounded in the belief that performance can be defined as embodied cultural expression, this course involves the study of the capacities and capabilities of the human body as raw communicative material. Students will explore the critical, theoretical, and ethical issues located at the intersection of ethnography and performance, as well as methods for creating and critiquing ethnographic performances and ethnographic writings. Students will also explore performative writing, a method in which the body and the word, the performative and the theoretical, and the personal and the political coalesce. This course – focused on interaction and collaboration – will involve intensive amounts of reading, writing and – especially – fieldwork in the community (interviews, etc.). The course will culminate in a polished (solo) ethnographic performance which should be delivered via innovative means live, on film, an integration of the two, or an alternative practical or digital technique appropriate to the project. This is a performance course, but previous performance experience is not required.
PCA 312 C: SPTP- Methods in Rhetoric and Communication
How did gender play a role in the 2012 presidential candidate’s convention speeches? Why did Andrew Zimmerman make an appearance on Man vs. Food? Or what does your own family’s holiday rituals say about your particular culture? This course will ask students to explore questions such as this by introducing them to a variety of qualitative research methods used by scholars of rhetoric and communication. The course will engage studies the use various methods and ask students to experiment with these approaches to eventually develop individual research projects that use qualitative analysis of communication to answer questions about a particular communicative text or act.
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
no SPTP course descriptions this semester
PSYC 247 A: SPTP-Stereotypes and Prejudice
This course examines the issues of stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination based on race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and other group memberships. Topics include (a) measuring stereotypes and prejudice, (b) the cognitive, motivational, and historical origins and maintenance of stereotypes and prejudice, (c) how individual differences (i.e., personality types) are related to prejudice, (d) the impact of prejudice on academics and health, (e) prejudice and the criminal justice system, and (f) prejudice reduction strategies. Course material will be drawn from classic and contemporary works in psychology as well as depictions of prejudice in literature and film. Prerequisite: Psychology 100 or 101.
REL 247A SPTP: Nordic religion
This course is an introduction to the pre-Christian religion of Scandinavia. Beginning with an introduction to pagan sources outside of Scandinavia, the course surveys the major sources for Norse mythology. Possible Christian influences are considered and the ongoing expression of myth in a Christian context is also discussed. The course ends with some consideration of the continuing reinterpretations and adaptations of Norse mythology in cultural expressions such as Wagner’s Ring cycle and Marvel’s Thor.
SOC 247 A: SPTP-Women’s Health and Aging
This course will examine current issues related to the health and aging experiences of women in America and around the world. Special emphasis will be placed on the challenges women face as they experience various life transitions. The social, historical, cultural, economic, political, and health factors related to women’s aging will be discussed. Topics include the perceptions of women’s aging, menstruation, childbirth, menopause, body image and ageism, employment and retirement, caretaking and social support, housing and long term care, widowhood, and death. The implications of changing demographic characteristics of the aging population in the United States will be considered especially with regard to the consequences for women.
SOC 247 B: SPTP- Sustainable Development
Defined as “development that meets the needs of current generations without diminishing the possibility of future generations to meet their own needs”, sustainable development has become a ubiquitous yet controversial catch phrase employed by the Word Bank, the IMF, the United Nations and other international development agencies. Critics claim the term is merely a cover for continued neo-colonialism while its proponents argue that it allows space for a genuine consideration of the environmental and social good. This course develops students’ capacity to understand these competing claims and develop their own definition of what sustainable development might look like in the United States.
SOC 247 D: SPTP-Rural Sociology
In this course we will look at a variety of issues that concern rural life and livelihood within the United States, and between rural people in the US and those in other nations as a result of trade policies by such organizations as the IMF and WTO. Topics include the use of land, water, and resources; issues pertaining to rural populations including gender, racial and ethnic discrimination; employment opportunities and barriers; movement between the country and the city within families; and food production. We will gain a better understanding of rural areas/populations/issues from a sociological perspective.
SOC 247C SPTP- Contemporary Environmental Issues
This course will employ insights from sociology to explore how contemporary environmental issues like fracking and climate change are understood, debated and either acted upon or not. Through case studies of ongoing challenges we will explore how societies understand risk, how social stratification affects action on environmental issues and how attitudes can change about those issues.
SOC 347 A: SPTP- Issues in Social Justice
In a world where some segments of the population enjoy a disproportionately larger share of rewards (material, ideological, psychological, and status), resources, power, and control over the means of violence, and a majority of the population endures a dearth of these assets and a greater proportion of harm, why do so many never question the legitimacy of this unequal distribution? And how do we determine what is a fair and just distribution? We begin by engaging the arguments and perspectives surrounding the fairness of this unequal distribution and examine case studies that illustrate both social injustice and strategies for social change. Students then have the opportunity to define the remaining course content according to their particular interests in issues of social justice and social change.
SPTP 347 B: SPTP: Obesogenic Society
Do we live in an obesogenic society? This seminar explores societal patterns of food consumption, marketing, and nutritional information. In addition, we will analyze environmental facilitators and barriers to physical activity. The course will focus on community and policy implications impacting individual choices regarding levels of consumption and physical activity.
SPANISH
See Estudios Hispanicos
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