Spring 2012 Section Descriptions

Spring 2012 Preference Form

The Preference Form is now closed.  If you did not get your preference in, please email explore@lclark.edu immediately.

 

Hear what students thought about their 2010 spring E&D courses.

(listed alphabetically by last name of faculty member)

Nora Beck
 Ph.D., Musicology

Core 107-01  MWF 9:10-10:10am

Mostly Mozart                                                                                                             This section of E&D examines the life and music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most influential of all classical composers.  Mozart’s life and art reveal much about the great age in which he lived, and help us to appreciate the enormous impact his music has had on western civilization, beyond the symphony hall.  Mozart’s life and art challenge us to consider the nature (and culture) of genius, the foundations for art, and the role tradition and collaboration play in composition.   Each week we will study one of his masterpieces in its relation to historical events.  Students will read Mozart biographies, letters, and diaries, examine musical works that influenced him. Students will complete three research papers.

________________________________________

Kim Brodkin
 Ph.D., US and Women’s History

Core 107-07  MWF 1:50-2:50pm

The State of the Family                                                                                           What makes a family? Who decides what constitutes a family? Using sources from different disciplinary, cultural, and ideological perspectives, we will consider how families have been imagined, defined, represented, invoked, and experienced. We will look at changing ideas about marriage, adoption, reproductive technology, childrearing, and family rituals, and at the role families are expected to play in the proper functioning of society as reinforced by laws and public policies. Along the way, students will grapple with their own ideas about and experiences with family, in part by placing concepts of family in a larger historical and cultural context.

_______________________________________

Kim Cameron-Dominguez
 M.A. (ABD), Cultural Anthropology

Core 107-08  MWF 1:50-2:50pm

Looking Black: Racial and National Identity Formation in Latin America           This semester we will explore race and blackness as categories critical to the making of the Latin American nation.  We will survey key social critiques, political landscapes, and historical events that gave form and function to a “negro problem”, as well as those that sought a solution in assimilation, insurrection, and/or revolution.  We will begin with an investigation of Latin American nationalism, among other projects of appropriation, which sought to map the face of nation as homogenous and unified.  We will overlap the literature on nationalism with an exploration of how ideas about race, blackness, and black culture contributed to a polemic of Latin American social “exceptionalism.”  The third focus will be on politicized black identity and the multiple strategies employed to demand and/or negotiate for rights of inclusion.  This course will pull from various disciplines (anthropology, history, literature), sources (primary and secondary), and periods (colonial, postcolonial, and contemporaneous) in order to trace the relations and discourses that have given materiality to blackness as a complex component of the Latin America landscape.

_________________________________________

Cari Coe
 Ph.D., Political Science

Core 107-09   MWF 1:50-2:50pm

The Vietnam War through Popular Culture
This course surveys representations of the Vietnam War as seen through popular culture, considering both Vietnamese and American perspectives.  The class will explore how popular culture such as film, music, literature and art both influenced and reflected the views of the generation experiencing the war, and how it has framed our remembrance since.  We will also examine how American involvement in Vietnam has been explained through historical metaphor to previous conflicts, such as the Spanish-American War and Chinese and French imperialist aggression.  The course will cover a history of the conflict and the major contentious social issues that arose in America and Vietnam in reaction to the war by analyzing these popular culture representations of the conflict.  There will be weekly film screenings on Thursday evenings on campus (exact time and location TBA) and attendance at these film screenings is mandatory.  You should not take this section if your schedule generally conflicts with these screenings.

_______________________________________________

Rachel Cole
 Ph.D., English

Core 107-10   MWF 1:50-2:50pm

The West and the Western                                                                                         This course explores the American West as a place not only actual but imaginary: a place where real people live and die and a geographic metonym for a set of ideas that in turn seem to stand for America as a whole.

We will begin by discussing the relationship between history and fiction in recent academic accounts of the West, and then turn our attention to the portrayal of the West in cinematic Westerns. Topics for discussion may include the discrepancies between life in the West and life in the Western, the cultural significance of the American frontier, the dynamics (actual and imagined) between the West’s various peoples, classic Western figures (the cowboy, the Indian, the outlaw, John Wayne), immigration, “Western” attitudes towards nature and the land, how ideas about the West have changed over time, and how the Western has been adopted and adapted in Europe and Asia. Throughout the semester we will ask what it means to be a Westerner, and to what extent all Americans are of or from the West.

Mandatory out-of-class film screenings are required for this section.  Films are generally screened on Sundays at 3:30 and again at 6:30, but two are screened on Thursdays (same times) and one on a Tuesday (same times).  All screenings are on campus.  You should not take this section if your schedule generally conflicts with these screenings. 

Note: This course offers intensive writing instruction and is limited to 14 rather than 19 students. We will spend time in class each week on expository writing skills and I will work with each student individually to identify and implement strategies for improvement. Reading and other preparatory assignments will be lighter than in other sections of E&D. Written assignments will be heavier: two 4-6 page papers, a 7-10 page paper, and a full revision of each. Writers of all skill levels are welcome.

_______________________________________________

Eddie Cushman
 Ph.D., Philosophy

Core 107-11  MWF 1:50-2:50pm

Freedom, Necessity, and Morality
 This section examines a cluster of issues surrounding freedom of the will, moral responsibility, agency, and character. Moral luck: Under what conditions are we morally responsible for our actions or choices? Are we in any way culpable for harms we inflict unknowingly, or which we are powerless to prevent? Are we accountable for who we are, or what we become? Metaphysical freedom: Can freedom of the will be reconciled with determinism, fate, or divine foreknowledge? Would acceptance of determinism undermine moral emotions like shame, pride, respect, and contempt? Would it be corrosive of mature interpersonal relationships like friendship and love? The problem of evil: What are the sources of evil? In what ways does it issue from the misuse of our wills? Can the existence of evil be reconciled with an omniscient, omnipotent, and morally perfect God? Moral motivation: What are the appropriate roles of reason and sentiment in genuine moral conduct? Can sentiment compel? Is reason motivationally inert?                                                                                                 A central aim is to understand, and perhaps reconcile, important tensions between our reflective and situated moral selves. When we engage in detached moral reflection, it seems obvious that we bear no moral responsibility for things we are powerless to control. Yet, moral emotions like shame, pride, respect, and guilt seem indifferent to this condition of control. We explore this tension by tracing its historical roots. Ancient conceptions of freedom and responsibility are examined in Greek epic and tragedy. Modern and early modern conceptions are developed though a close reading of Milton’s Paradise Lost, the sentimentalist moral theory of Hume, and Kant’s moral rationalism. Contemporary moral theory is measured against the theory and practice implicit in work from other genres, including existentialist literature, the postmodern novel, and German expressionist film.

_______________________________________________

Janet Davidson
 Ph.D., Psychology

Core 107-12   MWF 1:50-2:50pm

The Faces of Identity                                                                                                 The concept of identity is at the heart of being human. Who are you?  Where do you come from?  Where are you going?  What stories do you tell yourself and other people about who you are? In order fully to address these significant questions, our section of Exploration and Discovery is loosely divided into three segments. The first focuses on historical and contemporary views of what it means to have a personal identity and why people need one. The second explores how individuals form their identities and modify them across their lifespan. In this segment we will also consider how age, ethnicity, and gender shape one’s personal identity. Finally, we will cover how “in-group” and “out-group” identities relate to personal identity. Do we need a ‘them’ to feel like an ‘us’? 

_______________________________________________

Brian Detwiler-Bedell
 Ph.D., Psychology

Core 107-13   MWF 1:50-2:50pm

The Nature of Deception                                                                                  Deceiving others and self-deception are fundamental to our condition as highly intelligent social animals. We are built to persuade and deceive both others and ourselves, just as we are built to believe these half-truths and illusions. In this course, we will explore a wide range of issues, including the mechanics of persuasion and belief, the role of deception in some of history’s greatest works, the indispensable function of deception, and the tension this topic produces for the nature and meaningfulness of ‘Truth.’ Our path to discovery will wind its way through philosophy (including readings from Plato and Descartes) and great literature (including readings from Dostoevsky and Borges) as it leads us to contemporary treatments of deception in the social sciences.

_______________________________________________

Ralph Drayton
Ph.D., History of Science

Core 107-33  MWF 8:00-9:00am
Core 107-31  MWF 1:50-2:50pm 

Mind, Body, and Society
This section examines the intersections of mind, body, and society.  We will ask such questions as, how have the mind and body been conceptualized in the Western medical tradition?  How does political power become inscribed in bodies and minds?  What cultural meanings are attached to bodily difference – often expressed in terms of “race,” “intelligence,” and “gender” – and why?  To explore these scientific, ethical, political, and cultural questions, we will examine such topics as ancient and early modern medical and scientific views about the human body and the “passions”; the eugenics movement and forced sterilization of “degenerates” in 19^th and 20^th century America; and the problem of sex assignment to American children by doctors in cases of hermaphroditism.  We will also read works of imagination that grapple with the theme of power, the political body, and the human body, including H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s dystopian novel We.

__________________________________________________

John Fritzman
 Ph.D., Philosophy

Core 107-14   MWF 1:50-2:50pm

Bollywood’s ImagiNation and ImpersoNation: The Construction of Indian Identity in Hindi Cinema                                                                                            This section will focus on the changing ways in which India’s national identity, as well as that of the Indian citizen, are constructed and contested in Hindi cinema (Bollywood) through its representations of self and other. Our section will involve significant reading and writing. Without exception, all students in this section must be able to attend film screenings at 6:00pm on Wednesday evenings.

NOTE: This section will require substantially more work than a typical section of Exploration and Discovery. Mandatory out-of-class screenings and discussion are required for this section.  Screenings will take place at 6pm on Wednesdays on campus.  You should not take this section if your schedule conflicts with this time. The screenings will not count toward the minimum six hours per week of study outside the classroom as prescribed by Lewis and Clark. Course time and study time will be devoted to discussion, reading, and writing.

_______________________________________________

David Galaty
 Ph.D., History of Science

Core 107-05  MWF 11:30am-12:30pm
Core 107-15  MWF 1:50-2:50pm 

Understanding How We Understand the Maya                                               Americans have been fascinated by the sophisticated architecture of the ancient Maya since the beginning of the nineteenth century.  In the twentieth century every academic discipline that could possibly be employed has been focused on the study of the Maya.  As a result we have a growing set of images and descriptions of the Maya – each set of pictures taken from a different perspective. We will examine the ways in which westerners have endeavored to understand the Maya, starting with The Maya’s own view of themselves at the point of European contact. Those Europeans in turn had their own very different views of the Maya, as have subsequent American adventurers, historians, archeologists, anthropologists, paleo-astronomers, and others. As we gradually uncover the fascinating story of these attempts to understand Mayan culture, we will also begin to understand the methods used by different disciplines to explore, discover, and create new knowledge. Will we ultimately discover the real Maya?

__________________________________________________

Jerry Harp
 Ph.D., English

Core 107-16   MWF 1:50-2:50pm

At Play in Plato’s House: Tradition and Constant Revision                                 This course will pick up on the fall semester’s study of Hebrew religious tradition (as represented by Genesis and Exodus) and Greek philosophical tradition (as represented by Plato).  Scholars have noted a variety of differences between the ways in which these two traditions, broadly speaking, conceive of and articulate knowledge and wisdom.  For example, many have pointed out that whereas the Hebrew tradition tends to articulate its wisdom in largely narrative terms that are, as one writer puts it, “close to the human lifeworld,” the Greek tradition as represented by Plato finds its wisdom in essences abstracted from human experience.  One complication of this distinction is that Plato’s writings in pursuit of essences are often cast in terms of dialogues within dramatic situations that are close to the human world; further, many Hebrew texts also include the articulation of laws and ideals—such as those inscribed on the Tablets that Moses delivers to his people—that are cast in general terms that tend to carry outside of their narrative context.  Even within these complications, however, it may remains a fair statement that whereas each of these traditions can function in a variety of ways, each also has, as noted above, its specializations.  The course will explore some of the ways that these already complex traditions combine in ways that create even further complications.  Texts for the course will include Plato’s Symposium, the Gospel of John, Dante’s Purgatorio, Martin Buber’s I & Thou, and John Haught’s God after Darwin.

_______________________________________________

Andrea Hibbard
 Ph.D., English

Core 107-17   MWF 1:50-2:50pm

Exploration and Discovery: Scandal, Sensation, and Fraud                              What happens to sin, the Socratic dialogue, and the tragic flaw once skepticism begins to prevail over religious faith, the celebrity replaces the hero, and novels and newspapers supplant the tragedy and the epic?  This course will focus on literary representations and historical case studies of scandal, sensation, and fraud.  We will consider how the novel as a form emerges out of and contributes to scandal. We will explore the gender, class, and racial politics of sensation. We will also ask ourselves how different cultures rely on episodes of fraud to achieve self-definition.  Along the way, we will study theories of the carnivalesque, moral panic, melodrama, and taboo.  Students will write a final paper on the literary or historical scandal of their choosing.

_______________________________________________

Curtis Johnson
 Ph.D., Political Science

Core 107-19 MWF 1:50-2:50pm 

Darwin: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow                                                               This section takes a close study of the main contributions of Charles Darwin to intellectual history, and attempts to situate his thought within the broader context of the European Enlightenment, 19th-century natural science, and ongoing discussions about the place of evolutionary thinking in the contemporary world. Themes to be examined include: the war in nature among natural organisms, the struggle for survival, the survival of the fittest, the place of humans in the natural order, and the role of free will and human intelligence in meliorating the human condition.

___________________________________________________

Loretta Johnson
 Ph.D., English

Core 107-03  MWF 10:20-11:20am
Core 107-18  MWF 1:50-2:50pm

Brooks in Books: Exploring the Environment                                                        The title of this section modifies Shakespeare’s phrase “books in brooks” so that we explore brooks, rivers, and water in books, scholarship, art, and other media. These “brooks” tell us much about how we perceive the environment—past, present, and future. Hesse’s novel, Siddhartha, which narrates the changing currents of a Brahmin’s life during the time of Buddha, is our first read and sets our theme. We explore the meaning of water and the lack of it in T. S. Eliot’s, “The Waste Land.” The many references in this poem lead us to the Upanishads, Plato’s Phaedo, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Virgil’s Aeneid, Dante’s Inferno and Emerson’s “Nature.” We explore how rivers, streams, and water figure as symbols and settings in diverse genres. We read poems and excerpts from other nature texts such those written by Aldo Leopold, William Stafford, and more. Students often choose contemporary issues for their research papers, such as the psychology of water pollution, water shortages, ecotourism, environmental justice, etc. Come dive with us.

__________________________________________________

Bob Mandel
Ph.D., Political Science

Core 107-21  MWF 1:50-2:50pm

The Art of War                                                                                                           This section covers the historical, strategic, and moral dimensions of war to give entering students an understanding of the most important challenge faced by humankind. The central questions revolve around the nature, purpose, and limits of warfare. The approach has students learn conceptual insights largely through reading about the actual experience of warfare, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary readings interpreting patterns across cultures and time periods. Using a mix of lecture and discussion, students will ponder and analyze the fundamental controversies surrounding organized armed international violence.

___________________________________________________

Michael Mirabile
Ph.D., Comparative Literature

Core 107-34  MWF 8:00-9:00am
Core 107-22  MWF 1:50-2:50pm

Imagining Empire
Our course on “Imagining Empire” examines the global role played by empire and imperial expansion in shaping cultures, establishing borders, and constructing identities.  Drawing upon literary, historical, anthropological, and post-colonial studies, we will read texts from the time of the Roman Empire to that of contemporary globalization, with special concentration on modern, twentieth-century novels that address the complex relation between imperialism and the rise of the nation state.  Throughout the semester we will discuss the complexities of cross-cultural exchanges and different aspects of ongoing debates concerning modernity, nationalism, and globalization.  We will also consider in detail the cultural and aesthetic changes involved in the historical shift from modernism to postmodernism.   __________________________________________________

Kate Muth
Ph.D., English and American Literature

Core 107-28 MWF 1:50-2:50pm

Planetary Ecologies                                                                                                  This course will examine the systems—social, ecological, symbolic—that bind life on our planet, asking how humans shape and are shaped by forces that exceed any one person’s powers of intervention. Thinking globally, transnationally, and transhistorically, we will interrogate some of the ways people have thought about ethical responsibility in the context of vast networks and timeframes, focusing specifically (but not exclusively) on the environmental impact of human life. How, for example, have people conceptualized landscapes and animal life vis-à-vis human social organization? How do ecological systems shape our world and worldviews? What ethical responsibility do we bear toward future life on the planet? And how can we understand and carry out that responsibility in the face of timeframes that might exceed that of the human species? Readings will include excerpts from the Hebrew Bible and the Upanishads as well as selections by Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Hermann Hesse, Leslie Marmon Silko, Rebecca Solnit, Alan Weisman, and Lydia Millet.

______________________________________________________

Dawn Odell                                                                                                             Ph.D., Art History

Core 107-04  MWF 10:20-11:20am

Art and War
This course investigates relationships between art and war by studying a number of “case studies” chosen from the histories of Northern European and East Asian art.  Our class explores art as a personal response to war (often created in opposition to war) but also considers art as a political tool to incite or justify war — art as propaganda and art as the spoils of war — and art as a document of war.  Among other materials, we will consider the visual culture of the Samurai, woodblock prints produced in Shanghai and Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s, the British looting of a Chinese imperial palace during the nineteenth-century Opium wars, Nazi aesthetics during World War II, the poetry of Kamikaze pilots, newspaper photographs of World War II, and the removal of the national art collection from Beijing to Taipei in 1948. 

_______________________________________

Kira Petersen
Ph.D., Political Science

Core 107-24 MWF 1:50-2:50pm

Justice in a Shared World                                                                                                This course explores some of the perennial questions of justice in the one world that we as humans share. We will consider the ethical dimen­sions of issues like inequality, the use of force, human rights, social and distributive justice, and environmental ethics. Drawing on readings from philosophy, history, political thought, international studies, and economics we will ponder the possibility and justification for morality within and across communities, and generations. Among the questions we will address are these: How should we think about questions of justice in light of significant differences of cultures, identities, and beliefs? Is the problem of distributive justice one that arises only within communities? What might a cosmopolitan theory of justice look like? What, if anything, do the richer owe to the poor? What is the impact of globalization on questions of justice? Is the use of force and violence ever justifiable? Under what conditions should we consider humanitarian interventions? Do we ever have a duty to intervene? Do we have duties towards animals and the environment?

Some weeks we will focus on the work of particular scholars, other weeks we will focus on a specific question and discuss a variety of different scholarly opinions. We will draw on current and historical examples and watch several films that provide a dramatic illustration and background for the discussions.  No prior knowledge of the subject is expected.  Students must be willing attend 5-7 film screenings.  Mandatory out-of-class screenings and discussion are required for this section.  Screenings will take place on Tuesday evenings on campus (exact time, dates and location TBA). You should not take this section if your schedule conflicts with this time.
__________________________________________________

Maureen Reed                                                                                                        Ph.D., American Studies

Core 107-06  MWF 11:30-12:30pm                                                                          Core 107-26  MWF 1:50-2:50pm 

American Voices                                                                                                        How do personal narratives both convey and challenge ideas about what makes an American?  Autobiographical texts—whether they describe captivity, immigration, education, or self-realization, and whether they are written with artistry or simply to get a story down on paper—create windows into both diversity and patterns in American life.  Students in this course will write, workshop, and revise their own pieces of autobiographical writing, learning through practice about the writing process and identity. We will read extensively, including selections from texts such as a captivity narrative, Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, Frederick Douglass’s slave narrative, women’s diaries of westward migration, Mary Antin’s immigration memoir, Jade Snow Wong’s family history, Malcolm X’s search for himself, and Richard Rodriguez’s meditation on identity.  We will also delve into texts representing the roots and the flowering of the recent “memoir craze,” including selections by authors such as Elizabeth Gilbert, Mary Karr, Frank McCourt, Alice Sebold, Jeanette Walls, and Tobias Wolff.  Students will conduct, write about and present interpretive research on course texts, engaging in cultural and literary analysis about the voices we encounter, the forces that have produced them, and the concerns, ambitions, and tensions we find within them.

______________________________________________________

Marianna Ritchey
Ph.D., Musicology

Core 107-23  MWF 1:50-2:50pm

ROMANTIC RESONANCES                                                                                         This class will explore the lingering traces of the Romantic Era in modern Western culture, focusing on its ghostly presence in American and British pop music of the 20^th century. We will begin by examining the ways the French Revolution and Reign of Terror radiated throughout Europe and America, setting the stage for the gloomy Romanticism of the epoch to follow. We will then turn to an exploration of nineteenth-century Romanticism as a broad cultural movement, defining Romantic archetypes and value systems in an effort to provide a foundation for intellectual inquiries into future historical periods. We will study Beethoven and Berlioz, the Byronic Hero, the Gothic novel and Gautier, Richard Wagner, and Shelleys both Percy and Mary. Then we will dig into modern popular culture by way of early Hollywood cinema, which relied heavily, and intentionally, on themes of the Romantic Era. We will then explore the progressive rock and “lone genius” styles of Great Britain and America in the 1970’s, ending with artists who are just now reaching the first heights of their fame and abilities.

This course involves a lot of reading, but also a lot of at-home listening and watching. For each class meeting, you are expected to have not only read the required texts, but to have listened to the assigned music and/or watched the assigned films. There are no required screenings for this class—the movies will be on reserve at the library and you will watch them on your own (or in study groups!).

________________________________________________________ 

Chris Roberts
Ph.D., Religious Studies

Core 107-29  MWF 1:50-2:50pm

The Anatomy of Moral Panics
 Wherever one looks in history or across the globe, communities seem unable to establish immunity against what sociologists have called moral panics. A moral panic involves an exaggerated response to a perceived threat, often leading to a suspension of community norms in hope of purifying the social body of the source of moral pollution. But it is an oversimplification to construe this as a simple eruption of irrationality into a community that is otherwise rationally legislated and ably administered, for there are always social elements poised to benefit from moral panics, and there is always a price to be paid by stigmatized others. How do the exceptional events that we will theorize under the rubric of moral panics reveal some of the implicit premises and practices that structure “normal” social life? What do they suggest about the nature of being human? Locales stricken by moral panics that we will examine include ancient Athens, Jerusalem, and Rome, Reformation Germany and pre-modern France, war-time Zurich, pre-Thatcher London and, of course, contemporary America. Authors whom we will read include Aristophanes, Tacitus, Josephus, Michel de Certeau, Georges Bataille, Greil Marcus and Jeannette Winterson.

________________________________________________________ 

Molly Robinson Kelly
Ph.D., Romance Languages and Literature

Core 107-25  MWF 1:50-2:50pm

A Good Life: Exploring What It Means to Live Well

In this course, we will look closely at how people in different times and cultures have conceptualized the idea of living well. Do people’s various concepts of what constitutes a good life share common elements over time and place? What tensions and contradictions might be contained in these concepts? How do different facets of the good life (spiritual, physical, social, and artistic, for example) interact with each other? We will read texts from diverse genres, times and places with the goal of creating a broad foundation for understanding what makes up a good life, including the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Plato’s Phaedo, the Gospel of John, Augustine’s Confessions, Chrétien de Troyes’ The Knight of the Cart (Lancelot), the poetry of Rumi, Montaigne’s Essays, and Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild.

________________________________________________________

Thomas Schestag
Ph.D., Comparative Literature

Core 107-30 MWF 1:50-2:50pm

Literature and Politics                                                                                             Near the end of his Republic Plato mentions an “ancient quarrel” between philosophy and poetry. It justifies the exclusion of poetry and poets from the ideal state. At stake in this discord is nothing less than the essence of language, in other words, the essence of what is called human, insofar as human beings are considered distinct from all other living beings due to their hold on language. But there are different ways to consider language, to have a hold on language, and thus to define the essence of being human. According to Socrates the threat of poetry for human beings as political animals is the mimetic use of language: to speak in such a way that the identity of the speaking I cannot be fixed. This threat introduces dissimulation, irresponsibility and corruption into politics as a sphere of argumentation, dissent and common sense, transforming the polis into a theater and finally into a linguistic battleground. A slightly different but similar reproach is known from Pericles’ funeral speech as reported by Thucydides, in the Peloponnesian War. Words, according to Pericles, have to prepare for (wordless) deeds, but poets tend to undermine this task: “We have no need of a Homer to sing our praises, or of any encomiast whose poetic version may have immediate appeal but then fall foul of the actual truth.” This seminar will be dedicated to the manifold tensions between political and poetical considerations of language. How can poetry be a threat for the polis? Why can politics become a threat for poets? Where do political and poetical uses of language overlap? What about the intersection between aesthetics, politics and poetry? There are certainly political poems, but what about a politics of language that would take into account poetological reflections on language and society?  We will read and discuss philosophical dialogues, theater plays, letters, political manifestoes, linguistic treatises, pedagogical and poetological essays, fables and funeral speeches from Greek antiquity to modern times in order to unfold these and related questions.

________________________________________________________ 

Bryan Sebok
Ph.D., Media Studies

Core 107-02  MWF 9:10-10:10am

Hard Boiled:  Cynicism, Style, and Noir                                                                         The tradition of noir fiction and film are uniquely American.  Stemming from cynicism in American social life during the Great Depression, writers and, some years later, filmmakers explored themes of crime, sexuality, and disillusionment.  Our approach will be largely through a media studies/textual analysis lens, as we examine key works in literature and film.  Authors will include Chandler, Hammett, and Cain; filmmakers will include Welles, Wilder, and Hitchcock.  We will look at the key features of the form, including character, theme, style, mood, and narrative structure.  We will track artistic movements incorporating chiaroscuro style back to Caravaggio’s paintings in the early 1600s, as well as the development of noir style, narrative, and form through genre analysis of films noir, from classic noir, modernist noir cinema from New Hollywood in the 1970s, to postmodernist iterations including contemporary films such as Brick and Winter’s Bone.  In so doing, analysis will reveal a uniquely American form that endures across history.  This course will NOT be about the contemporary state of noir.  Additionally, conversation and analysis will deal with difficult subjects, including moral turpitude, sexual drives and motivations, murder, and corruption.

Students will be required to write short response papers to films, in addition to two 4-page papers and a 10-page academic research paper related to the course theme.  MANDATORY film screenings and discussion will be required. The screenings will be on Wednesday evenings on campus (exact dates, time and location TBA). You should not take this section if your schedule generally conflicts with these screenings.

_______________________________________

Joel Sweek
Ph.D., Religious Studies

Core 107-20  MWF 1:50-2:50pm

The Ancient City                                                                                                      Freud observed the implacable ambivalence modern people feel toward urban life, but once upon a time people turned toward the city on purpose. When did this happen, where, and why? In what ways did we express our joy or dismay at this movement from foraging — or from herding or from familial farmsteads — to the densely-packed confines of the city and a life among strangers? The answers to these questions will undoubtedly tell us much about human association and the material realities of living in the world, about how we got to this place. This is a seminar in the demographic, material, and cultural features of the ancient city. Taking as our starting point five ancient sites of note — neolithic Çatalhöyük, proto-literate Mesopotamia’s Uruk, New Kingdom Egypt’s utopian city of Amarna, classical Athens, and republican and imperial Rome — and familiarizing ourselves with the archaeological record and with the ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman literature of cities, each participant in the seminar will study the origins, emergence, and flourishing of the ancient city and craft an individual research project on a site and topic in the study of the ancient city.

________________________________________________________

Chris Wendt
Ph.D., Political Science

Core 107-27  MWF 1:50-2:50pm

Inventing Ethnicity                                                                                                    There is a growing scholarly consensus that ethnic ties (race, but also nationality, tribe, region and religion) are socially constructed, yet ethnicity continues to have concrete effects on political, economic, and social behavior.  Using readings from anthropology, biology, economics, and political science, we will explore different perspectives on ethnic group formation, why particular ethnic differences are emphasized (and under what conditions), and how those categories shape everyday life.  We will trace the evolution and impact of these “imagined communities” on the United States, the former Yugoslavia, India, and Nigeria.

________________________________________________________

Blair Woodard
Ph.D., Latin American History

Core 107-32  MWF 10:20-11:20am

U.S. and THEM: United States National identity in a Global Age                            In this seminar we will examine what Benedict Anderson referred to as an “imagined community”—the nation. What does it mean to belong to a nation? How do nations and states differ? Why do some nations ally with each other while others are maligned as enemies? In an age of increased globalization, is the nation still a viable form of identity and/or study? How has popular culture been used to create or “imagine” a sense of national identity? The class will explore these and other questions about the national identity of the United States as part of a larger global community of nations. We will examine specific historical points of conflict—the Spanish American War, WWII, the Cold War, the War on Terror—and how U.S. national identity has been formed and challenged during these often violent encounters. We look at why the United States has traditionally allied with some nations and formed enemy relationships with others. We also explore the internal dynamics of our nation to see where the points of conflict and cohesion lay within our own community.

_______________________________________________________