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Semester Specific Course
Descriptions
Fall 2012
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
AFRICAN
STUDIES
AFS 247 A/FR 247 A: SPTP-21st Century Africa in novels and films
This course focuses on works of literature and film by African artists in the twenty-first century. This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to well-known authors and filmmakers from francophone Africa, as well as to gain critical insight into specific social, political, historical, and cultural contexts which inform the works of these artists. Through reading and viewing these works students will get a greater sense of contemporary African societies and cultures as portrayed by African writers and filmmakers from countries in sub-Saharan West and Central Africa.
ANTH 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 347 A: SPTP-Language in Religion
Our communication with God, gods, spirits, and ancestors raises a number of practical linguistic questions: How do you speak to beings that you cannot directly see? How can you know their responses? People have approached these questions in a variety of ways, from the fleeting sound-streams of speaking in tongues to the enduring formalities of Qur’anic Arabic. In this course we will explore this diversity using ethnographic case studies that address people's ways of speaking of and to the divine. Our goal will be not only to study religious languages, but also to learn more generally about language's place in social life.
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
FA 247 A: SPTP-Book Arts
Artist’s books are works of art that are made real in the form of a book. This course will examine the interplay between words and images as well as the sequential movement from page to page that this form offers. Students will explore how both original and appropriated texts and images are juxtaposed to create meaning. A variety of binding techniques and formats will be presented. Creative writing and image development will be emphasized in the course with revision and multiple drafts required for projects.
FA 248 A/FILM 248 A: SPTP-Exp. & Narrative Video
This course is an introduction to the theory and processes of creating short experimental films and video art. Students will create digital films individually and in small groups, utilizing techniques such as pre-production, camera language, lighting, sound and non-linear editing. Emphasis is on art-making, conceptual development and experimentation.
FA 347 A: SPTP -Architecture: Magic, Metaphor, Microcosm
A social-historical and symbolic exploration of architecture, gardens, and other aspects of built environments in Europe and the U.S . The course has two focal points: the late Renaissance to Rococo in Europe and Russia, and the 20th century (Vienna c. 1900, the Bauhaus, and the International Style).Themes include architecture and mysticism; buildings and gardens as metaphors of power, and as microcosms and sacred realms; the technological revolution; utopian worlds in modern architecture; and topics in current architectural theory. Movies and documentaries on architects and architecture will be included. This course fulfills the 300-level requirement of the new major with a concentration in Art History, and the upper-level elective requirement for majors concentrating in Studio Art. FA117 is recommended but not required. Open to students in other majors.
Restricted to senior Art and Art History majors, this seminar considers photography (including film and digital imagery) not primarily as an art form, but as an aspect of visual culture. We will be exploring such questions as how photography can be understood as caught up in fields of power and desire; how it functions rhetorically within these fields; and how it helps to shape our understanding of the world and our specific positions in it. Readings include provocative texts from such authors as Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, Michel de Certeau, Rosalind Krauss, Douglas Crimp, Laura Mulvey, and Stuart Hall.
ASIA 347A/HIST 347 A SPTP: East Meets West
This course explores European and Asian interactions in the early imperial centuries (1500-1800). We will look at the experiences and writings of European explorers, missionaries, traders and mercenaries in India, China, and Japan, and the Asians they encountered. The course is reading intensive. Class sessions will be primarily discussion-based. Students will complete a research project in stages, including an oral presentation of their research results. There will be a variety of short writing assignments including précis, reading response papers, and primary document analysis
ASIA 347 B/REL 347 A: SPTP- “Ways of the Gods”: Shinto In Modern Japanese Religion
Shinto or “Way of the Gods” has long been viewed as the “archaic indigenous religion” of Japan. However, “Shinto,” as the Japanese sociologist of religion Inoue Nobutakea has recently noted, is “notoriously vague and difficult to define.” This course explores how Shinto has evolved throughout Modern Japanese history, from a state religion to its modern guise today independent religious organization. Shinto remains a powerful force even after the demise of State Shinto after World War 2 and even in secularized Japan of today. Topics include: Shinto mythology, emperor and the imperial system, Shinto in new religious movements, the Way of the kami militarism and ultra-nationalism, the Yasukuni problem, Japanese national identity (Nihonjinron), Shinto in popular culture, the role of contemporary shrines and festivals, and kami worship and ecology.
BIOCHEMISTY
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
BIOL 247 A/ENVS 247 A: SPTP-Fundamentals of Animal Biodiversity w/Lab
Many conservation efforts focus on preservation and restoration of animal populations. To do this effectively, scientists need to understand how the animals feed, reproduce, and interact with the other species (especially humans) and their environment. This course will cover these and other issues for the vast majority of animal phyla (mostly invertebrates), which are especially important to the natural function of coral reefs, rainforests, etc., and which influence human agriculture, fisheries, and medical issues.
BIOL 247 C: SPTP-Comparative Animal Physiology
The Weddell seal can dive for TWO HOURS without breathing! Oryxes cansurvive scorching East African deserts without drinking ANY water! The Wood frog freezes SOLID over winter, and resumes a normal life after the spring thaw! Antarctic ice fish tolerate sub-freezing temperatures WITHOUT freezing solid! The Bar-headed Goose flies at an altitude of 30,000 feet during annual migrations OVER Mt. Everest! The Sherpa people of eastern Nepal can climb Mt. Everest WITHOUT any supplementary oxygen! How do these and other organisms adapt physiologically to their sometimes 'extreme' environments? This course compares molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms that diverse organisms use to regulate salt and water balance, body temperature, blood oxygen levels, and many other homeostatic parameters that are necessary to sustain life as we know it in diverse aquatic, aerial, terrestrial, and extraterrestrial environments.
BIOL 343 A: Evolution.
In this course we examine life on earth from a historical perspec¬tive and evaluate the fundamental evolutionary processes that have produced the diversity of life that we see today. Study topics include the origin of life on earth, mutation as the creator of genetic variation, natural selection, adaptation, population genetics, speciation and extinction. Laboratory projects are designed to develop technical skills in molecular biology and phylogenetic analysis. Three hours of lecture and three hours of laboratory per week. Prerequisites: Biology 101,102. Recommended: Biology 245 or 246.
BIOL 347 A: SPTP-Communities, Populations, and Ecosystems
This seminar course examines the deep connections among this triad of critical levels in the ecological hierarchy. Emphasis is on a strong conceptual framework (including the consideration of ecological theory) in conjunction with empirical studies (and the study of ecology in practice). Major topics will include advanced community ecology and how ecological communities are assembled, the connections to population biology, how communities and populations fit into ecosystems, and how all of these levels affect global-scale ecology and implications for conservation. The course will include lecture and discussion of the primary literature. Pre-requisite: Biology 221.
BIOL 347 D: SPTP- Comparative Physiology Research Methods
Comparative physiologists study molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms that diverse classes of organisms use to regulate salt and water balance, body temperature, blood oxygen levels, and many other homeostatic parameters that adapt organisms to their unique environments. This course specifically addresses laboratory approaches to studying comparative animal physiology. The coursework emphasizes three aspects of research: 1) an understanding of good experimental design and analyses (including approaches to statistics, graphing, and interpretation of the primary literature), 2) techniques for effective writing (this is a very writing-intensive course, and students will generate four full length manuscripts in a format suitable for submission to a professional journal), and 3) oral communication in the forms of “Journal Club” presentations (student-led discussions of primary literature articles) and presentations of student-generated findings from original research projects. An affinity for biochemical approaches to biology and the successful completion of BIOL 250 (Cell Biology) and/or BIOL 247 (Comparative Animal Physiology) are strongly recommended, but not required.
CANADIAN STUDIES
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
CARIBBEAN LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
CLAS 247 B/HIST 247 B: SPTP-The Caribbean: History, Environment, and Development
This course will explore the Caribbean with special attention to the role of climate and environment in the region’s history and development. We will focus on three themes (among others) both historically and in the present: agriculture, tourism as a development strategy (benefits and costs), and related to both of the former themes, the Caribbean climate and environment as a factor in regional life, culture, and development. We will devote a significant portion of our attention to Cuba in comparative perspective. This course will be a prerequisite for a .5 credit course in January 2013 with a 10-day travel component in Cuba.
CLAS 447 A/SPAN 447A: SPTP:-Creative Expression - Taller Literario: Escribiendo las historias de la vida
Mediante este taller (workshop) podrás desarrollar tu creatividad personal, produciendo poemas y cuentos que hablen de tus vivencias, incluso en países de habla hispana. Esta clase se ofrece en idioma español y va dirigido a los estudiantes con un buen dominio de esta lengua. Leeremos algunos textos modelos para guiarnos y juntos formaremos un ambiente participativo al compartir opiniones estéticas sobre nuestras creaciones escritas. La instructora es la reconocida poeta y novelista de Nicaragua Esthela Calderón. Al final del semestre se hará actividad cultural para dar a conocer los resultados.
CHEMISTRY
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
CHINESE
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
COMMUNITY BASED
LEARNING
CBL 100 A: Community Based Learning ( .5 unit-meets every two weeks , permission only )
Despite its designation as an introduction to community based learning, will be an opportunity for students at all levels of familiarity with and participation in CBL projects to refine their understanding of experiential learning. Specifically, this course is set up around the goal of improving student sensitivity in each of the following areas as they apply to community based learning: relationships, responsibility, resiliency, and reflection and to advance new theories about research as an academic underpinning of Community Based Learning. CBL 100 demands that students use the broad academic skills of critical thinking and reading, sound written communication, and discussion to accomplish deeper ethical and affective engagement with their out-of-the-classroom experiences.
CBL 101 A: Leadership Skills Development (.5 unit-meets every two weeks , permission only )
Leadership Skills Development will focus on discourse surrounding current models of leadership that include but are not limited to emotional intelligence and social change. We will explore a brief survey of leadership history and develop a vocabulary of leadership that can be applied to a wide variety of projects as well as create a self-guided, interest specific leadership literature review.
Since experience, even that outside of a specific leadership role, is key to the effectiveness of discussing the course topic you will be required to participate in a Community Based Learning placement in the St. Lawrence County community. Your work in the community will provide grounds for observation and reflection regarding leadership theory and practice. The course will culminate in an individual or small group presentation for the Festival of CBL at the end of the semester.
COMPUTER SCIENCE
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
ECONOMICS
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
EDUCATION
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
ENG 247A: SPTP- Experiential Writing
An introduction to the world of experiential writing, this course will cover immersion journalism, travel writing, and quest memoir. Students not only will read and write extensively, but also will venture out and explore the unknown, utilizing techniques both memoiristic and journalistic while maintaining the highest possible ethical standards (which we as a class will determine). Major writers include James Agee, Nelly Bly, Hunter S. Thompson, Pico Iyer, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, and Ted Conover.
ENG 247 B: SPTP- Metafiction and the Postmodern
This course explores metafiction, fiction that self-consciously reflects upon itself—addressing the devices of fiction and the fictional illusion—exposing how fiction is crafted. Primarily associated with Postmodernist literature, we will examine what makes something metafictional and how writers use techniques to draw attention to their works as work of created art. The course considers why metafiction has become so important in contemporary writing. Representative authors are Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino,Ishmael Reed, Robert Coover, John Barth, Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, Kathy Acker, George Saunders, Paul Auster, David Foster Wallace, and Aimee Bender.
ENG 347A/ PCA 313 A: SPTP-AT: Musical Theatre
A concentrated study of the development of American musical theatre. Students will explore several diverse musicals that are important to the development of the genre. The course engages students in the analysis of libretti and the function of music in musical theatre. Coursework includes research and performance of scenes and songs.
ENG 347 B/FILM 347 B: SPTP- GS: Literary Adaptations for Film
How does the shape of a literary short story or novel shift when it is transformed into a screenplay, and then into a film? When and how does the pressure get exerted by a film studio to alter the story or novel’s conclusion in hopes of appealing to a popular audience? This course will concentrate on the transformations that happen between page, screenplay, and production, seeking to discover what changes are dictated by the translation from one medium to another, and what changes are the consequence of less aesthetic, more fiduciary purposes.Writers include James Joyce, Thomas Mann, William Faulkner, Graham Greene, Julio Cortazar, Joyce Carol Oates, Raymond Carver, and Russell Banks; screenwriter/filmmakers include John Huston, Vittorio DeSica, Horton Foote/Joseph Anthony, Greene/Carol Reed, Michelangelo Antonioni, Joyce Chopra, Robert Altman, Atom Egoyan.
ENG 347C/PCA 312 A: SPTP- AT: History and Theories of Journalism
It was Thomas Jefferson who in 1787 famously stated that “were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” For Jefferson, the press was an indispensable ingredient of a democracy. But later in life he bitterly criticized its quality, admitting that the “man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them.” This course will examine the ways in which journalism historically shaped the principal social and cultural values of our society. We will cover basic theories which focus on the way the news is produced, distributed, and consumed. Ultimately, we will try to answer Jefferson’s dilemma whether our democratic system is better off with the news media or without them.
ENG 347 D: SPTP- LT: Reading the American West
In 1893, Historian Frederick J. Turner identified the frontier as a force that shapes the American character, a restless, nervous energy championing dominant individualism. Even though the geographical frontier is gone, the wanderlust and adventure within Americans will always remain, yet there is also the notion of a psychological west, an internal destination sought by characters in works about the region. Readings in both fiction and nonfiction will be included in this course, with authors including but not limited to Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Joan Didion, Raymond Chandler, Timothy Egan, Sherman Alexie, Annie Proulx, Gretel Ehrlich, Bret Easton Ellis, and Jonathan Krakauer.
ENG 450A: SYE: Jane Austen, Our Contemporary
Clueless, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Becoming Jane: these are only a few of the films inspired by Jane Austen’s life and 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: Alice Munro—Writing Her Lives
An examination of the work and career of the leading contemporary practitioner of the short story in English. Beginning with Munro’s most-recent collection, Dear Life (2012), we will examine her methods, techniques, continuities, and effects. Special attention will be paid to Munro’s fiction in the New Yorker. This seminar is designed for students pursuing each track of the English major: those focused on creative writing will study stories from manuscript (in the instructor’s possession) to periodical version to final form—that is, Munro’s methods and accomplishment as she shapes her stories. Those pursuing literary studies will do some of the same work, but will raise questions regarding such matters as autobiography, biography, theory, critical reputation, and effect.
ENVS 247 A/BIOL 247 A: SPTP-Fundamentals of Animal Biodiversity w/Lab
Many conservation efforts focus on preservation and restoration of animal populations. To do this effectively, scientists need to understand how the animals feed, reproduce, and interact with the other species (especially humans) and their environment. This course will cover these and other issues for the vast majority of animal phyla (mostly invertebrates), which are especially important to the natural function of coral reefs, rainforests, etc., and which influence human agriculture, fisheries, and medical issues.
ENVS 347A SPTP: ESP North Country Energy and the Environment
This course focuses on the energy production and use patterns of the North Country region. Emphasis is placed on how difference in perspectives (economic, environmental, social etc.) force trade-offs and translate into energy-related decisions and policy. A life cycle approach is taken, wherein the production, use, and impacts of energy sources are considered throughout the different stages of systems that supply energy in usable forms to the North Country region. An overview of historical energy transitions leads into a look at current energy use practices and trends for Upstate New York, ultimately focusing on deveopment throughout the next 20-50 years. Both "traditional" and "alternative" energy supply systems will be addressed. Special emphasis is placed on hydroelectric power, alternatvie sources including biomass and wind, and conservation and efficiency strategies for reducing energy consumption and the associated benefits. A regionally-based research project will comprise a large segment of the course.
ESTUDIOS HISPANICOS (Spanish Studies )
SPAN 447A/CLAS 447 A: SPTP:-Creative Expression - Taller Literario: Escribiendo las historias de la vida
Mediante este taller (workshop) podrás desarrollar tu creatividad personal, produciendo poemas y cuentos que hablen de tus vivencias, incluso en países de habla hispana. Esta clase se ofrece en idioma español y va dirigido a los estudiantes con un buen dominio de esta lengua. Leeremos algunos textos modelos para guiarnos y juntos formaremos un ambiente participativo al compartir opiniones estéticas sobre nuestras creaciones escritas. La instructora es la reconocida poeta y novelista de Nicaragua Esthela Calderón. Al final del semestre se hará actividad cultural para dar a conocer los resultados.
FILM 247 A/MUS247 A/: SPTP- Picturing Sound
This course is an exploration of the visual representation of the audible. The focus will be primarily on music and its conversion into print. However, we will also consider other kinds of sonic material, such as speech and noise, as well as other visual media, such as film and video. The course cuts across history and geography, and also provides students with opportunities to try out different ways of picturing sound themselves
FILM 247 B: SPTP-FILM NOIR ( .5 unit , 10/22-12/13)
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 1941 and 1958 will be studied. 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 more recent films? 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.
FILM 248 A/FA 248 A: SPTP-Exp. & Narrative Video
This course is an introduction to the theory and processes of creating short experimental films and video art. Students will create digital films individually and in small groups, utilizing techniques such as pre-production, camera language, lighting, sound and non-linear editing. Emphasis is on art-making, conceptual development and experimentation.
FILM 347A: SPTP- Postmodern Cinema, Literature and Theory
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/ENG 347 B: SPTP- Literary Adaptations for Film
How does the shape of a literary short story or novel shift when it is transformed into a screenplay, and then into a film? When and how does the pressure get exerted by a film studio to alter the story or novel’s conclusion in hopes of appealing to a popular audience? This course will concentrate on the transformations that happen between page, screenplay, and production, seeking to discover what changes are dictated by the translation from one medium to another, and what changes are the consequence of less aesthetic, more fiduciary purposes.Writers include James Joyce, Thomas Mann, William Faulkner, Graham Greene, Julio Cortazar, Joyce Carol Oates, Raymond Carver, and Russell Banks; screenwriter/filmmakers include John Huston, Vittorio DeSica, Horton Foote/Joseph Anthony, Greene/Carol Reed, Michelangelo Antonioni, Joyce Chopra, Robert Altman, Atom Egoyan.
FINE ARTS
see Art and Art History
FR 247 A/AFS 247 A: SPTP-21st Century Africa in novels and films
This course focuses on works of literature and film by African artists in the twenty-first century. This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to well-known authors and filmmakers from francophone Africa, as well as to gain critical insight into specific social, political, historical, and cultural contexts which inform the works of these artists. Through reading and viewing these works students will get a greater sense of contemporary African societies and cultures as portrayed by African writers and filmmakers from countries in sub-Saharan West and Central Africa.
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
GEOL 247 A : SPTP-Extinction and Evolution w/Lab
How many kinds of living things are there on Earth and how has this number changed through deep time? Are there common traits among survivors of extinction events? These are important questions at a time when Earth’s biota is likely entering a period of mass extinction. In this class we will explore whether we can discern a reliable record of biodiversity in the fossil record; various measures of biodiversity; biasing factors of the fossil record; the histories of diversification and extinction of marine and terrestrial animals and plants; causes of mass extinction; the cyclicity of mass extinction; survivorship and recovery from mass extinction; and dramatic diversification events. The course will be structured around the discussion of readings from the primary literature, lectures, and a specimen-based research project.
GERMAN STUDIES
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
GS 347 B: SPTP- Global Population Issues
This course addresses population issues and challenges facing an increasingly interdependent world. The aims of this course is to provide students with a grounded understanding of the historical and contemporary evolution of various population issues and patterns – including population growth, ageing, the AIDS epidemic, immigration and human trafficking, urban development, and population implications of environmental change. In particular, the course exposes students to major theoretical and analytical critiques of dominant narratives shaping population discourses and representations. Students will be exposed to, among others, Marxist, Feminists, critical theory and post-structural critiques of broader global processes that shape population patterns, experiences and policies in different places and across multiple scales (local to global). Through specific case studies, the course also explores existing and alternative critiques of population policies around family planning and health reforms, environment and conservation, development, and migration.
GOVT 290 C: SEM- Comparative Environmental Politics
The environmental challenges of the 21st century are global in nature, but the political responses to these challenges still occur within a system of nation-states. In this research seminar we will engage in a comparative analysis of the environmental politics of a wide range of countries as well as supranational institutions such as the European Union. Topics covered will include the process of environmental policy formulation, the relationship between environmental movements and the state, the role of Green parties in Europe, and environmentalism in the global South.
GOVT 376 A: Cyber Politics and Global Assemblages
The course will locate the emergence of the concept of cyber politics ‘Internet Politics’ and look at the contemporary debates, events and theoretical framings of influence of cyber politics on global politics. The course will discuss matters of main stream politics, political activism, global debates of democracy, security and conflict. This course is designed to open student perspectives in an ongoing and expanding debate on technology and politics and not as a problem solving process. The current debates on cyber war, Arab spring, Hacktivism and national security will be taken as topics for thematic engagement.
GOVT 373 A: Ethnic Politics And Conflict In A Comparative Perspective
The seminar discusses theory and research on relations between ethnic, national and racial groups worldwide. A comparative approach is applied to the analysis of questions concerning conflict, accommodation and stability in ethnically divided societies. Issues we cover include perspectives on ethnicity and nationalism, types of conflict and modes of conflict-management, how different types of democracy (liberal, consociational, ethnic) cope with ethnic and national conflicts, assimilation and multiculturalism, national identities, internal security and minorities. Case studies of ethno–national divisions and conflicts are examined in the United States, Switzerland, Estonia, but special emphasis is placed on the Israeli case study.
HIST 147A: SPTP-Introduction to European Studies
This course is an introduction to the histories and cultures of what we now call Europe, with particular focus on the different ways inhabitants of the region have defined their identities, especially in relation to other groups (from the Greco-Roman idea of “civilization” and “barbarians” to the medieval vision of “Christendom” to the Cold War division between Eastern and Western Europe to the current European Union). We will explore the geographical, social, and cultural worlds of Europeans in several historical moments and in the present, but will not survey the history of “western civilization.”
HIST 247 A: SPTP-Civil War and Reconstruction.
This course addresses the social, political and cultural issues surroundingthe Civil War and the efforts to resolve them before, during and after the war. While attention is paid to the military nature of
the conflict, special emphasis is on social and political developments that shaped the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Topics of study include the road to disunion; the dismantling of slavery; race relations before, during and after the conflict; amendments to the constitution; and the construction of citizenship in the post-war era.
HIST 247 B/ CLAS 247 B: SPTP-The Caribbean: History, Environment, and Development
This course will explore the Caribbean with special attention to the role of climate and environment in the region’s history and development. We will focus on three themes (among others) both historically and in the present: agriculture, tourism as a development strategy (benefits and costs), and related to both of the former themes, the Caribbean climate and environment as a factor in regional life, culture, and development. We will devote a significant portion of our attention to Cuba in comparative perspective. This course will be a prerequisite for a .5 credit course in January 2013 with a 10-day travel component in Cuba.
HIST 247 C: SPTP-The Cold War
The Cold War (1945-1991, though one could argue for different start and end dates) involved numerous countries worldwide. The United States and the Soviet Union were the rival superpowers, 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, was it all worth it? To go beyond political and military aspects of the Cold War, our course texts will include scholarship, literature, film, and music.
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 299 C: SEM-American Slavery
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 history of slavery in America from the colonial era through the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. Most students are surprised to learn about the complexity and variety of American slavery across time and place. In learning about slavery, we will focus on several areas of scholarly debate, addressing such issues as work, family, culture, community, as well as broader questions about how slavery shaped various institutions and events in American history. Students’ work over the semester will culminate in a paper that engages with historians’ understandings of one specific aspect of slavery’s history.
HIST 347 A/ASIA 347A SPTP: East Meets West
This course explores European and Asian interactions in the early imperial centuries (1500-1800). We will look at the experiences and writings of European explorers, missionaries, traders and mercenaries in India, China, and Japan, and the Asians they encountered. The course is reading intensive. Class sessions will be primarily discussion-based. Students will complete a research project in stages, including an oral presentation of their research results. There will be a variety of short writing assignments including précis, reading response papers, and primary document analysis
HIST 471 A: SYE: Revolutionary Europe, 1815-1914
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 of 1789 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 sources. Topics such as socialism, feminism, anarchism, trade unionism, and the European-wide revolutionary outbreaks in 1848 are all possible subject for research.
HIST473 A: Native Americans in US History
This is an advanced and intensive research seminar for senior history majors and minors. The ultimate goal of this 400-level senior research seminar is for each student to draw on primary and secondary (scholarly) sources to produce a substantive (25-30 page), high-quality and original research paper on a specific aspect of the history of Native Americans in the (geographic boundary of the present-day) United States. The general focus and theme of the course is Native American history from the 11th century (the formation of the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace) to the twentieth century. The first several weeks of the course will be spent becoming familiar with some of the theoretical and methodological issues that frame current research in Native American history. Our objective will be to design and execute research projects that reveal the historical agency of indigenous nations within the narrative of American history.
JAPANESE STUDIES
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SPTP course descriptions this semester.
LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
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SPTP course descriptions this semest
MUS247 A/FILM 247 A: SPTP- Picturing Sound
This course is an exploration of the visual representation of the audible. The focus will be primarily on music and its conversion into print. However, we will also consider other kinds of sonic material, such as speech and noise, as well as other visual media, such as film and video. The course cuts across history and geography, and also provides students with opportunities to try out different ways of picturing sound themselves
NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES
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SPTP course descriptions this semest
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SPTP course descriptions this semest
NON DEPARTMENTAL
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
OUTDOOR STUDIES
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
ENG 347A/ PCA 313 A: SPTP-AT: Musical Theatre
A concentrated study of the development of American musical theatre. Students will explore several diverse musicals that are important to the development of the genre. The course engages students in the analysis of libretti and the function of music in musical theatre. Coursework includes research and performance of scenes and songs.
PCA 312 A/ENG 347C: SPTP- AT: History and Theories of Journalism
It was Thomas Jefferson who in 1787 famously stated that “were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” For Jefferson, the press was an indispensable ingredient of a democracy. But later in life he bitterly criticized its quality, admitting that the “man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them.” This course will examine the ways in which journalism historically shaped the principal social and cultural values of our society. We will cover basic theories which focus on the way the news is produced, distributed, and consumed. Ultimately, we will try to answer Jefferson’s dilemma whether our democratic system is better off with the news media or without them.
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
REL 247 A: SPTP-Saints, Grails, and Mystics
Approximately half the history of Christianity is medieval, from the fall of Rome to the Reformation. This uses the grail of Arthurian Romance, the saint, and the mystic to present some of the most important religious discourses and practices of medieval Christianity. In addition, the course considers changes in medieval church and society that are the backdrop to these three topics and their development. While intellectual history is an important part of the course, popular culture and the issue of its difference from and connection to high culture are also given ample attention.
REL 347 A/ASIA 347 B: SPTP- “Ways of the Gods”: Shinto In Modern Japanese Religion
Shinto or “Way of the Gods” has long been viewed as the “archaic indigenous religion” of Japan. However, “Shinto,” as the Japanese sociologist of religion Inoue Nobutakea has recently noted, is “notoriously vague and difficult to define.” This course explores how Shinto has evolved throughout Modern Japanese history, from a state religion to its modern guise today independent religious organization. Shinto remains a powerful force even after the demise of State Shinto after World War 2 and even in secularized Japan of today. Topics include: Shinto mythology, emperor and the imperial system, Shinto in new religious movements, the Way of the kami militarism and ultra-nationalism, the Yasukuni problem, Japanese national identity (Nihonjinron), Shinto in popular culture, the role of contemporary shrines and festivals, and kami worship and ecology.
SOC 247 A: SPTP-Consuming Food
Food is often seen as human beings’ biological needs. However, food is also how we relate to others as social beings. How we eat, cook, and share food and what we consider to be food are bound with social and cultural meanings, as taste and preferences are socially constructed and often related to class, gender, age, and ethnicity. This course will explore how industrialized agriculture and the food processing industry has changed our relationship to food and how people in alternative food communities are trying to rebuild local food systems in ways that are healthier for themselves and others. It will also look at how the global capitalist food system has commoditized food and transformed cultures in developing countries like China as well as the political and social implications of various dietary guidelines.
SOC 302 A: Visual Sociology
This course is about “looking” and “seeing” and about the power of visual representations. The seminar examines the use of the visual and visual representations to reveal aspects of society operating on both the micro and macro level – representations that define, persuade, and shape our understanding of the world. Special consideration is given to types of visual information, techniques used in analysis, and aesthetic issues related to form and style of representation. Substantive questions are explored through hands-on projects. This course meets the Capstone requirement for majors but is also open to non-majors.
SOC 373 A: Health Care Systems around the World
This seminar will examine a variety of health care systems, ideologies, and philosophies from a number of countries and cultures. We will read about, discuss and consider a range of examples from the highly bureaucratic and expensive ones in the United States to the mixed systems if China to indigenous Aboriginal care. We will learn how to examine and compare social policies in different countries and discuss differential impacts of such systems. As well as considering the specific health care systems of particular countries, we will address health and wellness issues in specific areas of the world, and health issues, organizations and approaches which are more global in scope. This course meets the Capstone requirement for majors but is also open to non-majors.
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SPTP course descriptions this semester
SPANISH
See Estudios Hispanicos
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