Semester Specific Course Descriptions
Fall 2008
AFS 106 A/
ARAB 101 A: Elementary Arabic w/Lab
This
course is designed to develop students’ proficiency and communication in Modern
Standard Arabic in the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and
writing. The instructor will teach modern
standard Arabic needed in any Arabic-speaking community to read books,
newspapers, street signs and other official documents as well as listen to
radio, TV and public speaking.
Activities will include reading and writing Arabic letters, joining letters
into words and identifying letters in words, very basic Arabic grammar and
culture lessons about the Arab world, traditions and cultures. After each unit, students will have a quiz
and there will be 2 exams (midterm and final).
AFS 247 A/HIST 247 A: SPTP-
Conflict in
Conflict
is a word that often comes to mind in contemporary discussions about the
African continent. But what do we mean by conflict in
AFS 347 A/HIST 347 A: SPTP
-The City in
While
many African cities are relatively recent products, other areas of the
continent have urban histories far into the distant past. In this seminar we
will explore the diverse nature of urban life over nearly half a millennium of
African history. Topics include environment and the historic growth of cities,
trade and cultural interaction, colonialism, popular culture and contemporary
socio-economic issues.
ANTHROPOLOGY
ANTH 247 A: SPTP-Human
Osteology
This
course provides students advanced and in-depth training in human skeletal
anatomy. Each bone in the body will be examined in great detail with emphasis
on bone biology, comparative anatomy, biomechanics, evolution, growth and
development, health and disease, demography, and secular change. Special
emphasis is placed on the basic methodology utilized in skeletal identification
for bioarchaeological and forensic investigations. Students will learn to
identify and reconstruct skeletal material by utilizing basic laboratory
protocols. This course is intended for students who are serious about pursuing
a career in forensic science, law/law enforcement, anthropology, and health
related fields.
ANTH 247 B: SPTP-Human
Variation
This
course provides a broad survey of the study of human variation from a
biocultural perspective. The diversity, distribution, and adaptive significance
of genetic, physiological, anatomical, and behavioral differences between and
within populations will provide the foundation for studying the evolutionary
basis of human variation. Topics to be covered in class include simple and
complex genetic traits, human adaptation to disease and extreme climates, the
"race” concept, sexual dimorphism, growth and development, and human
ecology. This course is intended for students who are serious about pursuing a
career in anthropology, biomedical science, and other related fields.
ARAB 101 A/AFS 106 A: Elementary Arabic w/Lab
This
course is designed to develop students’ proficiency and communication in Modern
Standard Arabic in the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and
writing. The instructor will teach
modern standard Arabic needed in any Arabic-speaking community to read books,
newspapers, street signs and other official documents as well as listen to
radio, TV and public speaking.
Activities will include reading and writing Arabic letters, joining
letters into words and identifying letters in words, very basic Arabic grammar
and culture lessons about the Arab world, traditions and cultures. After each unit, students will have a quiz
and there will be 2 exams (midterm and final).
ASIAN STUDIES
This
course will examine a variety of source materials, from accounts of traditional
secret societies to modern crime reports, to provide contexts for study of the
Triad phenomenon as it has evolved in
Through
reading and examining masterpieces of modern Chinese fiction and
internationally acclaimed Chinese films against the historical context, this
course seeks to improve students’ understanding of Chinese culture and society
since 1911. It also tries to enhance students’ interests and skills in reading
and analysis of Chinese fiction and film.
BIOCH 107 A: Science of
Food
Microwave
dinners, potato chips and cookie dough mixes bear little resemblance to the
food humans ate during most of our evolution.
In this course, students will learn how our bodies use the food we eat,
and why we need particular nutrients.
They will then examine several modern agricultural and industrial
practices related to our food including transgenic crops/animals, cloning
livestock and sugar and fat substitutes.
They will learn how scientists evaluate these new products/techniques, and the
impact they have on our food, our ecosystem, and on us. Students will gain the skills and confidence
to read popular scientific literature and use it as a starting point to become
informed enough to make an educated assessment of issues related to science.
BIOLOGY
BIOL 101 A: General Biology
The
three semester exams for this course will be administered in the evening. Dates for the exams will be announced on the
first day of class and students who take this course will be expected to
arrange their schedules so as to be available for these examination periods
outside of normally scheduled class time.
BIOL 227 A/B: Mammalogy
Mammalogy
is a fun and field intensive course.
Mammals tend not to be very active between
BIOL 347 D/GEOL 347 B: SPTP-
Insect Origins
This
course will use modern understandings of insect morphology, behavior and
ecology to consider evolution of insect Orders from the Devonian to the
Holocene. Insects are arguably the
invertebrate group that most seriously affects terrestrial life today, including
our own. This has been true for 250
million years, a fact which has many implications for the direction of
terrestrial evolution. This will be a hands-on investigation course. Insect diversity will be emphasized by study
of the living fauna. Data from the geologic record of the Insecta, including
interpretations of feeding styles made from feeding traces on fossil leaves,
will provide a means for relating modern and ancient forms and their probable
ecologies. Co-evolution between insects
and plants and vertebrates and insects will provide a theme for
discussion.
BIOL 247 G/PHYS 247 A:
SPTP-Biophysics
Biophysics
is the study of physical processes in biological systems, and the use of
physical techniques to study biological problems.This course will introduce
biophysics from both directions. After
World War II, many physicists applied their battery of techniques to structural
problems in biology. In the first half of the course, we will study some of
their successes, including the structures of DNA, viruses and cell membranes,
and the sliding filament model of muscle contraction. In each of these examples there is an
apparent relationship between molecular structure and biological function. In the second half of the course we will
study more recent structural and physiological techniques and the biophysics of
systems such as molecular machines and biological self-assembly.
BIOL 347
A/NRSCI 347 A/C: SPTP-Drugs and the
Brain w/ Lab or without Lab
Psychoactive
drugs have historically been used for recreational as well as therapeutic
purposes. This course will focus on how
such drugs modify nervous system function and human behavior. The neurochemical
and behavioral techniques used to study drug action will be addressed. In
addition, students will learn how drugs are metabolized by the body
(pharmacokinetics), how drugs act (pharmacodynamics) and how they affect
behavior (psychopharmacology). They will gain a comprehensive understanding of
the neurotransmitter systems of the brain and how different drugs affect these
systems. We will cover all the major
drug classes including stimulants (such as cocaine, amphetamines and caffeine),
opiates and alcohol. We will also
discuss topics such as drug addiction, drug abuse and the clinical use of drugs
for the treatment of mood disorders, anxiety and schizophrenia. The laboratory
component will utilize the nematode C. elegans as a model system to explore
drug action. Students will learn basic nematode research techniques and will
then carry out independent research projects for a great portion of the
semester.
BIO 347E/F: SPTP-
Immunology
The
immune system boasts powerful mechanisms that protect the body from invading
pathogens. We will explore the
development and function of a diverse repertoire of T and B lymphocytes, the
range of powerful antibody-mediated responses, and the pre-programmed responses
of phagocytic cells and natural killer cells.
These basic concepts will then be integrated to analyze the immune system’s
function in disease states including cancer, organ transplant, autoimmunity,
infectious disease, and immunodeficiency.
BIOL 447 A: SPTP-
Pharmacology
Pharmacology
is a survey course that introduces the student to the physiology and treatment
of the leading causes of death globally. It is my goal that the student’s take
away a detailed understanding of the pathophysiology and the mechanisms of drug
action at the systemic, cellular and molecular levels. Moreover, the student's
will gain insight into the policy and process of drug discovery and
development. The course requires the integration of multiple disciplines
including chemistry, cell biology and physiology.
no descriptions this semester.
no descriptions this semester.
CHINESE
CHIN 347A: SPTP-
Advanced Mandarin Chinese
This course will offer advanced instruction in speaking, reading, writing and
listening in Mandarin Chinese. Appropriate for any student with two years of
Chinese or the equivalent.
COMMUNITY BASED
LEARNING
no descriptions this semester.
CS
348 A: SPTP- Database Systems
This course will cover the logical and physical structure of databases
including a thorough development of the relational model and SQL (Structured
Query Language). Topics include relational algebra, database design, object
oriented databases, XML, concurrency control, and security. Course assignments
and projects will use a real database management system such as mySQL.
ECONOMICS
ECON 108 A/ENVS 108 A:
Economics for Environmentalists.
An introduction to the basic concepts, tools and
theories of microeconomics that are applied to problems typically associated
with the use of the environment. The course begins with basic microeconomic principles,
advances to important economics theories that are commonly used to describe
environmental resource allocation problems and concludes with an examination of
case studies. Case studies include air pollution and acid rain, destruction of
rainforests, climate change, alternative sources of energy and waste disposal.
This course does not count toward the major or minor in economics or
economics-environmental studies and is not open to declared economics majors or
first-year students. If you have received credit for ECON 100, you can not take
this course. Prerequisite ENVS 101 or permission of the instructor. Also
offered as ENVS 108.
ECON 247 A: SPTP- Investment Essentials 10/20-12/12 (0.5 units)
Essentials of Security Markets – Covers the basics
of equity and credit instruments, including the Efficient Market Hypothesis,
The structure of security markets, and the fundamentals of long term
investing. Daily discussions emphasize
current economic conditions and market activity.
ECON 148 A:SPTP-Ecnonomics and the Presidency 10/20-12/12 (.5 unit)
Analyzes the major economic issues raised in the
2008 presidential campaign. Likely
topics include interest rates and the Federal Reserve, budget deficits and the
national debt, free trade versus protectionism, immigration, health care reform
and social security
ECON 248 A and B: Sophomore
Seminar-Two Great Books (.5 unit)
This
course will meet for 90 minutes each week and will be a semester-long
discussion of two great books by economists chosen because the authors disagree
significantly on some of the most fundamental issues in social thought. This
fall we will read books by F.A. Hayek and John Kenneth Galbraith, two of the
most prolific and wide-ranging economists and social thinkers of the 20th
century. Our collective project in this class will be to understand what each
author is trying to argue, examine how and why they disagree with each other,
and to explore the relationships between their views and social issues of
contemporary concern. In addition, this
course will ask you to write and speak with each other as part of the learning
process and will focus on improving those skills as you begin to articulate
your own perspective on the issues under discussion. In particular, we will pay
attention to what it means to talk with, and learn from, people who disagree with you, and how such
situations can lead to real learning rather than frustration or anger. Finally,
you will be asked to be consciously reflective about the ways in which the
experience of confronting serious thinkers, including your peers, who disagree
in good faith, speaks to the learning goals of St. Lawrence and liberal
education more generally. Prerequisite:
ECON 100 or Permission of the Instructor. Open only to Sophomores.
EDUCATION
no
descriptions this semester.
ENG 190 A: Introduction to Fiction
This
course seeks to develop a general critical approach that can be used to examine
stories of all kinds. It uses as its framework
narrative Homer’s The Odyssey, the epic narrative of the ancient Greek world
which for nearly three thousand years has been teaching the art of inventing
interesting stories. Plato and Aristotle provide basic theoretical principles
for analyzing fiction; these principles are applied to two dozen short stories
by Chekhov, Hemingway, O’Connor, Welty,
ENG 190 B: Adaptations
As
a way of beginning to understand the novel’s unique characteristics, we will
examine what happens to the form when it is translated into another
medium. What can be retained and what
must be transformed when a novel is made into a film? We will look at adaptations that attempt a
more or less faithful imitation of the original text (the Merchant/Ivory version
of Remains of the Day, for example) as well as those that completely
re-contextualize the source material (Apocalypse Now as a reading of Joseph
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness), paying attention to ways in which novelistic
techniques such as narrative and point of view are rendered in visual form.
ENG 190 C: Fairy Tales
“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, / Who’s the
fairest one of all?” As anyone who has
read the Brothers Grimm knows, the answer is “Snow White.” With skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood,
and hair as black as ebony, she surpasses her wicked stepmother in beauty and
therefore seals her death warrant. But
why does the stepmother sit around talking to a mirror? Why does Snow White have to escape from her
stepmother by moving in with seven dwarfs?
And why must she die before she can meet her prince? What’s really going on in fairy tales? We will answer such questions by reading a
series of tales, including “Snow White,” “Cinderella,” and “Beauty and the
Beast.” These readings will also help us
explore more broadly what a fairy tale is and how fairy tales vary by time and
place to meet different needs. Students
will deliver oral presentations, write critical essays, and create their own
fairy tales.
ENG 243 D: Techniques of
Creative Nonfiction- w/CBL (COMMUNITY BASED LEARNING COMPONENT)
This
course focuses on the elements of creative nonfiction writing outlined in the
University Catalog, but with an important addition: a Community Based Learning
(CBL) component in which students will complete 1-2 hours of work per week
outside of class with a community partner. Experiences in these placements will
provide essential material for writing assignments, especially literary
journalism and personal essay, as well as ongoing discussions of what it means
to be a writer in the community, and the convergence of literature and social
justice.
ENG 247 A: SPTP-WorldLit-Love,War,Self
When
was love invented? What existed before it, and what is the nature of its continuing
hold in thought and culture? Why is hatred regarded as a bad, while war is
often seen as a good? Why do we have something called a self? Why do we define
this self as different from other selves, instead of similar to them? These
questions form the first step in understanding our life and thought in the
present as a cultural inheritance rooted in the past. ENG 247C explores this
inheritance of thought and literature on love, war, and self through a reading
of Western literary masterpieces from Homer to Milton, surveying the genre of
lyric, epic, drama, essay, and the short tale. The course will regularly draw
from our contemporary attitudes toward love, war, and selfhood in our
explorations of these classic texts.
ENG 247 C:
SPTP-Contemporary Issues ( 0.5)
This half-unit course seeks to strengthen the
ability of students to be good leaders and good citizens by asking them to
develop a fuller understanding of some of the critical issues facing the nation
as we approach the November, 2008 presidential election. The wars in
ENG 247 C: SPTP-Research
As Personal Narrative ( 0.5)
This
half unit course will consider research in the personal understanding of
academic disciplines, and will consider research in how disciplines form an
academic community. We will examine research in an academic context, in a
social context, in a technological context, and how all of this intersects in
the work done at a library at a liberal arts college.
ENG 247 E: SPTP- Sophomore Seminar: What’s Important to Me? Reading Willa Cather’s The
Professor’s House ( .5 unit)
Set
in the middle of the “Jazz Age” of the 1920s made famous by F. Scott
Fitzgerald’s writing generally and his The Great Gatsby particularly, Willa
Cather’s The Professor’s House is a detailed meditation on personal values,
social values, and the meaning of each person’s life. How should I best spend
my time?, it asks. What questions, issues, and things are most important to me?
Should I be altruistic or narcissistic? What are the ultimate meanings I find
in work, in family, in friends? Cather accomplishes this interplay of issues by
creating a unique form for her story: there is an inset short story that might
stand alone but it is set within the bookends of two other narrative section
that render the professor’s personal and family life story, a place which
complicates its meanings and foregrounds the conflicting values between and
among characters. Our seminar’s purpose will be to read the novel carefully and
completely, to contextualize it within Cather’s career and within the history
it delimits, and to wonder over and debate the questions of values it raises as
they apply to each of us in our lives today. Enrollment limited to Sophomores.
ENG 247 G: SophSEM: Writing Right: A Short Course on Basic English Grammar
This
is a seminar for students who want to learn basic English grammar. Like it or not, we are often judged on our
ability to write and speak according to the rules of the English grammar. We'll
find all kinds of creative ways to learn English grammar. We'll read, write, speak and compete. We'll witness dramatic improvement in our
written work IF we learn the rules. Imagine life without comma splices! Awesome!
ENG 250 A: Critical
Analysis: (Graphic Novels and Postmodernist Critique)
For
the past twenty years, the graphic novel has proven to be an active site for experimentation
with literary theories and for commentary on shifting social values. In
particular, the writers and artists of graphic novels have drawn upon the
aesthetics and techniques of postmodernist fiction to create political
critiques, social allegories, and assessments of popular culture. We’ll be
examining texts from Warren Ellis’s /Transmetropolitan/, featuring radical
journalist Spider Jerusalem, to Frank Miller’s /Give Me
ENG 309 A: Feature Writing
Through
classroom instruction, guest lecturers and actual reporting assignments,
students will learn how to produce high-quality enterprise news stories which
are characterized by a careful marshaling of the facts, putting information in
context, an obsession for accuracy and writing with authority. Students will be
asked to step outside the college environment and be energetic reporters who
cover topics that matter to people in
ENG 347 A: SPTP-Conspiracy
Theory
The
threat of conspiracy has haunted American culture since colonial times. The
flip side of American idealism often seems to be the fear that these ideals
will be subverted by an ominous collective Other—whether occult, as in
ENG
347B: Writing About History Creatively
This course will offer students who have a passion
for history theopportunity to write about it in a way they haven't before: for a rapidly-growing popular audience. Short and long published pieces inthe genre
of popular history will be read and analyzed for such elements as subject,
narrative voice and structure, while exerciseswill help students find and
develop story ideas that will beinteresting and relevant to both them and
potential readers.Ultimately, they will conceive, research, write, revise and
edit their own historical articles and essays, and workshop them with the rest
of the class.
ENG 365 A/PCA 355 A: World Drama: Case Studies in Intercultural
Performance
This course explores
performances that exist at the intersection of cultures. Rather than a survey or overview of any one
country’s dramatic literature or performance traditions, this course takes as
case studies artworks that reach across geographic and temporal borders to
convey meaning to audiences. For
instance, we may investigate French director Ariane Mnouchkine’s use of Indian
dance to stage Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or look at how the Takarazuka
Revue,
ENVS 108 A/ECON 108 A:
Economics for Environmentalists.
An introduction to the basic concepts, tools and
theories of microeconomics that are applied to problems typically associated
with the use of the environment. The course begins with basic microeconomic
principles,
advances to important economics theories that are commonly used to describe
environmental resource allocation problems and concludes with an examination of
case studies. Case studies
include air pollution and acid rain, destruction of
rainforests, climate change, alternative sources of energy and waste disposal.
This course does not count toward the major or minor in economics or
economics-environmental studies and is not open to
declared economics majors or first-year students. Prerequisite ENVS 101 or permission
of the instructor. Also offered as ECON 108.
FILM STUDIES
FILM 247 A/
This course will examine a
variety of source materials, from accounts of traditional secret societies to modern
crime reports, to provide contexts for study of the Triad phenomenon as it has
evolved in
FILM 247 B/ASIA 247 B/LTRN 247 B: SPTP-Chinese Culture through
Fiction and Film
Through reading and
examining masterpieces of modern Chinese fiction and internationally acclaimed
Chinese films against the historical context, this course seeks to improve
students’ understanding of Chinese culture and society since 1911. It also
tries to enhance students’ interests and skills in reading and analysis of
Chinese fiction and film.
FILM 347 A: SPTP-The Cinema of Disaffection
The processes of
globalization leave disrupted lives in their wake—refugees, downsized workers,
immigrants, homeless people, victims of violence or what we might call the
peoples of the margins and peripheries. Bauman refers to these persons as
“human waste of modernity.” Alienation here appears in many spheres—cultural,
social, economic, and political and is expressed in a range of psychological
responses—disaffection, resentment, rage, and resignation. The course will
focus on transnational cinema which explores the lives of disaffected persons
produced by the ebbs and flows of globalization. We will view film against the reading
of theoretical literature on globalization and modernization in order to
connect the narrative construction of transnational filmmakers to the distant
and abstract social forces identified by social theorists with structure,
limit, and perhaps determine the quality
of human lives.
FINE ARTS
FA 247A: SPTP--African-American Art and Visual
Culture
This
course will examine the history of artworks produced by and about African
Americans, while at the same time analyzing issues of the construction and contestation
of racial and cultural identities through visual discourse. How do images create (or help to create)
identities, and to what extent can they be used to combat as well as reinforce
stereotypes? We will cover a wide
variety of works by such artists as Robert Duncanson, Edmonia Lewis, Henry
Ossawa Tanner, Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Betye Saar, David
Hammons, Adrian Piper, Fred Wilson, Lorna Simpson, and Carrie Mae Weems. Prerequisite: FA 116 or 117.
FA 247 E: 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. The content of
certain book projects will be determined by students in the class. Creative writing and image development will
be emphasized in the course with revision and multiple drafts required for
projects. Permission of the instructor
is required for this class. The course
is limited to 12 students.
GNDR 247 A/ GOVT 276 A: SPTP-Women and Politics
In this course, students
will be active participants in exploring the many dimensions of politics in the
GNDR 317 A: Sexual Citizenship.
Gay/lesbian/bisexual/trangendered
(GLBT) people in the
GNDR 347 A: SPTP:GenderMvmnts&EmbodiedRes
In this course we will
explore how dance/movement perform, revise or reinscribe notions of cultural
identity, including representations of gender, race, and sexuality. This course
will provide an analysis of the relationship between how individuals experience
their bodies and cultural interpretation of the meanings produced by the body.
The body is both a tool for learning and a way of knowing. We will use
dance/movement and choreography as forms of inquiry as we explore the body as a
site for knowledge. Students will learn: how embodied experience is gendered,
raced, and sexualized; to design, implement, and critique creative movement and
performance; to choreograph creative enthnographic movement phrases; to improve
their movement quality and body mechanics and establish a positive body
language; and to understand the process of choreography as a moment of
discovery, while learning to represent what is discovered through performance.
GEOL 347 B/BIOL 347
D:SPTP: Insect Origins
This course will use modern
understandings of insect morphology, behavior and ecology to consider evolution
of insect Orders from the Devonian to the Holocene. Insects are arguably the invertebrate group
that most seriously affects terrestrial life today, including our own. This has been true for 250 million years, a
fact which has many implications for the direction of terrestrial evolution.
This will be a hands-on investigation course.
Insect diversity will be emphasized by study of the living fauna. Data
from the geologic record of the Insecta, including interpretations of feeding
styles made from feeding traces on fossil leaves, will provide a means for
relating modern and ancient forms and their probable ecologies. Co-evolution between insects and plants and
vertebrates and insects will provide a theme for discussion.
GOVT 247 A: SPTP-SophSEM: Reading
Dewey’s Democracy and Education
The
idea that education is critical for the development of citizens has a long
history in political theory. In the early 1900s, John Dewey contributed to this
tradition in hopes of articulating visions of democracy, education, and
citizenship based on the recognition that people are both socially defined and
individuals, and that we need to learn in ways that are meaningful in themselves,
rather than simply preparation for the future. His vision of education is very
different from that dominating current education policy, and his vision of
democracy is one that demands more from citizens than currently dominant models
of citizenship. In this course, we will carefully read Democracy and Education,
in order to consider how Dewey’s perspective might be helpful us to consider
what an ideal education might look like, what experiences at St. Lawrence might
best contribute to this kind of education, and how this education might
influence future citizenship.
GOVT 276 A/GNDR 247 A: SPTP-Women and Politics
In this course, students
will be active participants in exploring the many dimensions of politics in the
GOVT 290 A:SEM- Issues in the Study of Public Policy
This course will ask students
to explore some of the basic public policy controversies shaping contemporary
American politics. We will examine a range of issues, including the
welfare state, poverty, race, crime, terrorism, biotechnology, changing family
structures, and environmental protection. Each student will be asked to
select a particular issue, argue a policy position in response to that issue in
a thesis based research paper, and report his/her findings to the class.
While the course is designed as a research seminar in Government, students from
all disciplines who have a general interest in American public policy are
welcome.
GOVT 290 B: SEM – International Conflict
This seminar will acquaint students
with research problems, strategies, and techniques relevant to the study of
international conflict. We will employ different analytical paradigms to reach
a deeper understanding of causes, processes, and outcomes of conflicts.
Students will be exposed to various methodological approaches within political
science and will learn to use these tools to understand international conflict.
The focus is on conflicts within the 20th and 21st centuries, from World War I
to the current “war on terror”. Appropriate emphasis will be placed on the
connections between political, military, social, and economic dimensions of
international conflicts.
GOVT 290 C: SEM-Working Class Politics in the United States
This course will examine
the history and politics of the American labor movement. We will
especially examine the pressures that globalization and the transition to a
post-industrial economy have placed upon American workers, as well as how they
have responded to these challenges. We will also try to glimpse into your
future. Students have delayed entering the workforce for as long as they
can but their day of reckoning draws closer. This course will help
prepare them for what they are likely to encounter at work and how it got that
way.
GOVT 376 A: Terrorism and Human
Rights
The
aim of this course is to provide a unique, if unpopular perspective, on the
balance between freedom and security. This issue is of particular concern to
democracies because such states are limited in their responses to terrorism due
to their adherence to certain values and standards. We will examine how states balance freedom
and security from an interdisciplinary perspective as we come to grips with
law, policy and the psychology of fear.
For example, we will examine what is terrorism, should torture be used
in interrogating terrorists, what is the standard for torture, and how did 9/11
change the premises of these questions?
In essence, the course will examine whether democracies can protect
themselves from terrorism without losing their soul.
GS 247 A: SPTP-Global Population Issues
This course addresses
population issues and challenges facing an increasingly interdependent
world. The aim 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
environmental implications of population change. In particular, the
course will examine how these patterns are both shaped by, and engender
economic, political, cultural, social and environmental change across multiple
scales (local to global). Through specific case studies, the course will
also explore existing and alternative population policies around family
planning and health reforms, environment and development, and migration.
An important objective of this course is to encourage students to actively
engage in critical analyses of the social and spatial interrelatedness o f
population dynamics through student-led class discussions and debates, and
cooperation on assignments and projects.
GS 247 B: SPTP-Comparative
Nationalisms
Nationalisms appear somewhat out of place in the context of discussions of
globalization. Is there a relationship between globalization, nationalism, and
nationalist movements? This 200-level seminar looks at some twenty first
century nationalisms during a time of globalization. Although processes
of globalization appear to imply a diminished role for the national state, the
new millennium offers many different cases of resurgent nationalisms - in the
United States, in India, in China, in Russia, and elsewhere. We examine some
comparatives case studies of different nationalisms to understand what is
common to them, how they differ, and the ways in which they are shaping the
twenty-first century global conjuncture.
GS 247 C: SPTP-Neoliberalism and its
Aftermath
The late twentieth century was widely associated with the global neoliberal
turn and the different financial crises associated with the rise of
neoliberalism. Yet the new millennium appears to suggest that the neoliberal
turn has reached an impasse. If so what are the different futures that lie
ahead? The seminar look at the growth of a new world of regions; as well
as at the new social movements that claim that another different world is
possible.
HIST 247 A/AFS 247 A: SPTP- Conflict in
Conflict is a word that
often comes to mind in contemporary discussions about the African continent.
But what do we mean by conflict in
HIST 299 A: SEM- Americans and the
World
This
seminar explores connections between Americans and the rest of the world in various
eras, from colonial times to the early twenty-first century. We will study primary sources as well as
innovative and interesting scholarship to answer the following questions:
—Why
should the study of “U.S. History” situate the
—How
have Americans, as missionaries, tourists, writers, soldiers, et al. interacted
with and depicted peoples they encountered, and what is the significance of
such encounters and representations?
—How
have people in other countries responded to American individuals, society,
cultural and material products,
—How
have Americans, as well as other peoples of the world, envisioned the
—How
have Americans’ views of other nations and peoples influenced their
self-identities and reflected their perceptions of themselves?
In
addition to participating in discussions of assigned readings, students will
develop and do presentations on their own research projects.
HIST 299 B: SEM - 20s and 30s
This
course is a pro-seminar designed to introduce students to the discipline of
History. The Scopes Trial, Black Tuesday, FDR’s Hundred Days, the Dust Bowl:
this seminar will examine these and other key historical issues in the boom and
bust decades of the 1920s and the 1930s. We will seek to understand how
different sources, methods, and perspectives have yielded very different interpretations
of the history and meaning of these tumultuous decades. Course projects will
include work with primary documents from the period and a historiographical
essay on *a *topic from the 1920s or 30s that you select.
HIST 299C: SEM-The South in History
and Memory
This
course is a pro-seminar designed to introduce students to the discipline of
History. In this course we will explore
how the United States South has been depicted in history, film, and literature. We will examine images deeply associated with
the South in the American imagination:
(such as) plantation ladies and gentlemen, fundamentalist evangelicals,
poverty stricken sharecroppers, and newly created sunbelt suburbanites. Course requirements (include but are not
limited to) active participation in discussion of assigned readings each class
period, completion of a historiographical essay on a topic of the student’s
choice, and class presentations on the student’s research topic.
HIST347 A/AFS 347 A: SPTP -The City in
While many African cities
are relatively recent products, other areas of the continent have urban
histories far into the distant past. In this seminar we will explore the
diverse nature of urban life over nearly half a millennium of African history.
Topics include environment and the historic growth of cities, trade and
cultural interaction, colonialism, popular culture and contemporary
socio-economic issues.
HIST 473 A: SEM - Reading the Nadir
The period
between 1877 and 1917 was once labeled "the nadir" of African
American history. In the wake of the promise of emancipation and
Reconstruction, this period represents a steady loss of political and social
rights for the majority of African Americans as well as a steady increase in
the levels of discursive and physical violence against blacks. At the
same time, however, the years between 1877 and World War I witnessed the
formation of such important black political and social organizations as the
National Association of Colored Women's Clubs and the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People and with them, the rise of such intellectual
and political leaders as W.E.B. Dubois and Anna Julia Cooper. This period
also witnessed the beginnings of the flood of black migration out of the South,
thereby setting the stage for a national confrontation with race in